Bhagavad Gita Ch18 part 17 on 12 February 2022

Full Transcript(Not Corrected)

Om Jananem Sharadam Devim Ramakrishnam Jagadgurum Pada Padme Tayo Shritva Pranamami Mohur Mohu Om Vasudevasutam Devam Kamsa Chanuram Ardhanam Devaki Paramanandam Krishnam Vande Jagadgurum Sarvopanishadogaho Dogdha Gopalanandana Partho Vatsah Sudhir Bhokta Dogdham Geetam Ritam Mahat Mokam Karoti Vachalam Pangum Langhayate Girim Yat Kripatamaham Vande Paramanandamadham We have been studying the 18th chapter of the Bhagavad Gita especially during our last class we have studied three types of Dhriti. Dhriti means will power. The problem with most of us why we do not make any progress is of this will power. Intentions are there and opportunity is there and also the favor of other spiritual aspirants or in any field company is there but somehow that will power is lacking only in the Tamasika person. In the Rajasika person tremendous will power enthusiasm is there but unfortunately it is all directed towards temporary very ephemeral worldly goals. Whereas the Sattvika person in spite of adamantine walls obstructing his progress he will never give up as I quoted the Buddha's determination. S.I. Ramakrishna's determination and that's why Bhagavan Krishna says so beautifully that Nobody can transcend. Nobody can neglect or do Lankhya. Go against the will of God. But people think that I am doing by my own will. Sattvika person's will leads to Sattvika result which is self knowledge. Rajasika person's will leads him to Rajasika ends at the beginning but by gradually purifying him will slowly make him progress into Sattvika Dhriti. So also we have to understand nobody is ever going to remain as a person of Tamas in all respects sooner or later. Probably this is the way of every Jeeva. We do not know because we cannot look into the past lives. Even the most Sattvika person perhaps like a baby who has to grow up has perhaps I think he has gone through this Tamasika state outgrown after several experiences and then outgrown into Sattvika Dhriti. So that is the natural progression. Another point we have to understand is we are not talking merely about the Dhriti or Buddhi or Gnanam or Action or Sukham etc. We are talking overall results. There are only three Gunas and a Guna influences a person in every respect. So it is not that a person can have Sattvika Buddhi but a Tamasika Dhriti or a person can be having Tamasika Intelligence but at the same time Sattvika Dhriti. That is not going to happen. Everything happens parallelly. We have been or Bhagawan Krishna has been outlining seven topics beginning with Sanyasa and the sixth topic is what we call Dhriti or Willpower and in that order it's a beautiful order if you can go through the verses delineating, explaining these six manifestations of Sattva, Rajas and Tamas we can understand. We can rarely change the order but it doesn't mean it follows only a particular order but each manifestation helps and influences the other. Now we have been dealing in our last class what is called Tamasika Dhriti. We will enter into it. This is beautifully outlined in the 35th verse. Hey Partha, this person who is endowed with Tamasika Guna therefore Tamasika Understanding therefore Tamasika Knowledge and therefore Tamasika Willpower he is called Durmedha means a dull fellow an idiot a person who understands everything just in the completely opposite way and what is the proof for that? So this person even though certain experiences certain characteristics go on giving him blow after blow he is not prepared to give them up. What are they? Here the Lord is outlining five things Swapna, Bhaya, Shoka, Vishada and Mada they are endowed or the Tamo Guna manifesting as the lowest type of willpower that means practically there is only one willpower that is with tremendous tenacity he says I have no willpower by outlining and saying I have no willpower in that statement he has a tremendous willpower somebody says no no anybody can progress you can also progress start doing exercise from today but little by little do it for two minutes then you progress into three minutes take your own time he says no no I have given up all hopes I am not going to get it so five manifestations of this Tamasika Dhruti willpower, power of resolution which characterizes the difference between one man and the other man are being outlined by Bhagavan Krishna explicitly very clearly there is no doubt about it what are they? the first thing is Swapna Swapna means what? that dream but there are two types of dreams are there or rather more types of dreams are there what are the dreams? day dreaming and night dreaming he this person endowed with this Tamoguna he sleeps a long time not only he sleeps even when he wakes up he is extremely sleepy he is never awake therefore with a sleepy mind an awakened mind whatever he understands is bound to be detrimental is bound to land him in this even modern people may be Rajasika people so what happens when they are driving for example sometimes people drink sometimes they are drunk with worries sometimes they are drunk with expectations and thinking something else and they forget that they are driving and many accidents happen because of it I have even seen people I travelled myself where the driver was completely asleep for a few seconds because of my good fortune no an accident has taken place really an accident did take place in some instances but major accident hasn't taken place how do you know? because I am here today holding glasses that is the proof that it was not really any major this thing but that is all aside this Tamoguna overpowers these people either because previous night they had not slept well or their mind is forcibly pulled to think of something else or they are drunk or they are worried whatever be the reason the final reason is that they are overpowered by Tamoguna and it takes just a fraction of a second to commit any type of accident, sometimes people are lucky, sometimes most many times lot of damage is done, sometimes even death comes everyday accidents are happening all over the world now what is the point? Swapna means daydreams so what is a daydream? a person doesn't acknowledge the reality he always dreams about other people about his job, about his friends about his wealth about his power, about his position about his entire happiness, everything as if he is only living in a dream world daydream means he lives in the world of unreality that is the most important characteristic, unreality that means whatever this fellow is thinking as real doesn't correspond to the fact in life and if somebody is kind enough to point out also he will be the least and the last person to listen to that and naturally as a result of it his life is encompassed only with fear because he has met so many accidents, I don't mean only physical accidents mental accidents, misfortunes and losing jobs, etc, etc it develops, oh some devil is controlling my life these people usually likely to become fatalists we will talk about it little later on, so no, no, whatever you have experienced in his past, now you can turn over a new leaf you can become definitely a better person because each soul is potentially divine this person is not ready to give up and to listen to this person so because of this daydreaming because of the resultant what is called bhaya fear, fear of the past, fear of the past means what, there are some people who are so much thinking about the events that had happened long back as if they are happening right in front of their eyes and then they become frightened how many such people I have come across and you know psychologists say, you name it there is a phobia for it there is a phobia even including swami phobia they are frightened maybe this swami has got a power, he can look into my dirty chambers, the unconscious and he may speak out hey you fellow, you are cherishing this type of dirty thoughts impure thoughts, no no any swami who has got that kind of power will never misuse those powers he will become more compassionate, wants to help the person and these people are afraid to visit psychologists because psychologists, they have a method, how to ferret out whatever it is, but more likely they go to psychologist because they are paid and a psychologist is never permitted to speak about his patients or her patients to anybody else so this is, that's why especially in the hospitals they have developed an ethic a person's health condition should never be disclosed to anybody else sometimes even his own near and dear family members is a purely private affair so nothing could be worse fate than this let everybody come to know what does it matter, we see in the Shri Ramakrishna's life Swami Yogananda, a young man and he was not an exception there were so many other people they went straight to Shri Ramakrishna and said sir, we are suffering from insatiable lust we have tried many methods but we cannot overcome them and Shri Ramakrishna never ever cherished a condemnatory attitude towards them oh, you are such a lowly person I never knew about it even if they know their past lives future lives and then they will say, my son now, this is how you can come out of it slowly never, never ever get depressed or anything like that now forget about it I forgive you, etc just because we are all devotees of Shri Ramakrishna I am going to outline very short, the story is big but I will tell you very small there was a woman, she was born in a high class family but for some reason she fell into the clutches of a low caste person and she surrendered herself and then she started living with him then she realized, where were the samskaras the pure impressions that she gained in her family from the childhood and what is she doing now, living with this third class fellow and there was no end to her regret now it so happened, she heard about the Ramakrishna Mishra and Swami Sivanandaji was the president and one day she took courage in both her hands she came and she arrived just after all the monks had finished taking their food after lunch so Mahaprusha Maharaj who was in a first floor room, so he also finished his food and then he called his attendant and said go and see whether anybody is waiting for me, so this attendant came down and he was surprised there was a young woman and very sad looking young woman and he asked and then the attendant said, this is the rest time for the monks, Mahaprusha Maharaj is not keeping well so you better come some other time she said, I may not have any opportunity to come I want to see him, meanwhile the attendant is thinking that why should we disturb our Guru our president, this kind of woman everyday many people come, he just with this thought he was, he came to the room and Mahaprusha Maharaj did not allow him even to open his mouth and said bring that lady to me I want to speak with her right now how he came to know that is the divine power of grace of the Ram Krishna so the attendant didn't like it but what can he do so he brought this woman as soon as she saw him, she broke down completely, fell at his feet clutched his feet and confessed this is Baba, Father this is what I have done Mahaprusha Maharaj said, my daughter you have nothing to fear I am giving you initiation from now onwards as soon as you receive initiation you will become one of the beloved children of Sri Ram Krishna he has forgiven you all his sins now live a pure life you forget about the past and on the spot sitting on the bed, he initiated her into the holy mantra of Sri Ram Krishna and her whole life was transformed same thing happened to holy mother also one lady came and she did not mother was calling her come inside my child but she said I have committed so many sins I have no courage to enter into your pure presence mother understood went outside, embraced her brought her, pulled her inside and made her sit near her and initiated that lady and said forget about the past this is the time, anyway what am I telling, these people Tamasika people, even if somebody is to tell past is dead, you can turn over a leaf any time, even just before death also one can do that, but unfortunately these people, most of these people are not ready to give up, but a few people because of their good fortune, good deeds done in the past certainly even from the state of depression, they will come up and it is a great lesson for us, even if we are suffering with these characteristics we can also improve, there is no doubt about it so fear will be felt by every person who is endowed with this Tamasika resolution or Tamasika will power and as a result of it fear is always unhappy thing, nobody says I am very happy with my fear fear is always brings tremendous amount of unhappiness so this is the what you call Shokam and then Vishadham this person his whole life, what is the difference between, Shokam means unhappiness, Vishadham also means depression what is the difference between these two, Shoka is temporary, Vishadha is more or less long lasting emotion, so these people even though there is every opportunity and it is not that there is something we have to recognize here however unhappy a person is no man can be unhappy all the time in fact most of the time we are neither happy nor unhappy, for example when we are sleeping for 8 hours in a day we are never unhappy in fact that is a great quality of happiness, that is why it is called Anandamaya Kosha and then even during the waking hours our mind is so absorbed in so many things we forget so much of the time, only occasionally very little time we remember our present state, we become aware of the conditions and then we feel the sadness or unhappiness so there is hope for everybody, Shoka is a result of the reaction of certain experience but Vishadha after experiencing probably many number of such unhappiness this person concludes which person? a person whose understanding becomes covered, ruled by Tamoguna I am a wretched fellow, I am an unfortunate fellow and he puts on a long face and he will not give it up even when there was no need so this is very interesting fact, even if this person has an opportunity to enjoy, even then he puts a long face and is not capable of deriving the fullest happiness that is possible, suppose this person is invited to a marvellous feast may be a marriage feast, may be some relatives, friends or whatever reason or Prasada because of some festival that is observed in the some of our ashramas or temples etc here there is no cause for this fellow to continue but he will put on a long face, he could say very easily, now Vishadha is there with me all the time but this feast is wonderful I will put this cloak of Vishadha aside and I will enjoy it, afterwards anyway when I return, I will put on my old cloak but no, he will not give up so he must, I joke sometimes, this person is not able to give up will not want to give up and if you ask him, no I don't want because this is my natural condition, no man can ever try to be unhappy this is a law of life we cannot bear even one millisecond of unhappiness, just try even a mosquito is singing beautiful song at night, you will immediately wake up and thanks to the mosquito this is called Anahata Dhwani sometimes I joke and it will make you, keep you awake till past midnight because it is not easy to find and kill a mosquito so it is your greatest friend, so you can go on thinking, this is the lord coming to me in this form even though I have to kill like Arjuna has to kill all his enemies but you can convert into a spiritual practice but no, this fellow will not do it, so this fellow continues to be in that so called depressed long face and my life is full of sadness but what I am trying to convey to you, he must be deriving some great happiness because nobody wants to give up happiness and everybody automatically and mechanically wants to give up unhappiness so why is this person carrying on, because he gets some kind of negative perverted happiness which is called Tamasika happiness so these are the things, that Medha that Dhruti, that understanding, that Buddhi, that Karma, which is overpowered by Tamasikti, Tamoguna, so he will be daydreaming why don't you become a bit more realistic, no he will not give it up, so either he is sleeping or he is fast as whole day, half asleep half awake, if at all and then as a result of it because of bad reactions will come, the results will be appropriate for this kind of life, so his life will be full of fears and then as a result he will be experiencing unhappiness and then he develops a kind of attitude I am a wretched fellow and my life is a very sad life now the difference between Shoka is most often the result of some event which happens in the external world but our habitual way of looking at things with a dark cover, that is called Vishada or that is called Sadness, but at the same time, this fellow is one of the, what's called most a person with tremendous amount of pride, like demons Madham and then you say what for, oh I am like this, I will not listen to anybody, this is what we call in common sense language, stubbornness stubbornness is not a good quality, but he holds on to all this daydreaming, fear and unhappy experiences and then sadness and depression with tremendous pride I am like this this is love, I am not going to change, if you want, you change Eva and he is not able to give up, he can give up, but he doesn't want to give up, so such a person who is not even attempting to give up, he is when we see these qualities, five qualities then we have to conclude conclusively that this person's dhruti or will power is completely guided by Tamoguna, this is a very wonderful thing we have to understand so six topics are over after stating the threefold division of action as well as intelligence, as well as knowledge, as well as the way of doing and as well as the this what is called will power, six topics have been covered Bhagwan Krishna now entering into the last seventh topic which is the manifestation of sattva rajas and tamas which is all about happiness describes the threefold division of happiness which is the goal of every action this is a very often repeated statement all our life, all life whatever creature has life, every living creature it has only one goal, I want to be happy, I never want to be unhappy and to be happy and to avoid unhappiness of course one has to live and then if one lives also one must have some type of knowledge to discriminate this is the way to my continued happiness continued security and sense of security is part of that goal of human life, purushartha so that is what is said dharma, dharma means what that which gives complete security by following a particular lifestyle as given in the scriptures by wise teachers that is the goal of life and everybody is striving for this happiness and actually it is only for happiness and as I said it requires sat means living and we require chit means awareness I am living, I should be aware, if I am not aware if I am asleep, if I am in coma if I am unconscious I will never know I am living, therefore I will not have any knowledge, therefore I will not, the question of whether I am happy or unhappy doesn't arise at all, so to be happy the two conditions must be fulfilled one is we have to live and fulfilling all the positive characteristics that is physically happy and mentally happy etc then we must have right knowledge to discriminate what can give me more happiness and what can reduce the unhappiness and I have to with will power pursue pursuit of happiness so now these three qualities again dictate what type of happiness we get what is the logic, same logic that I explained earlier our knowledge is dependent upon any one of these three qualities and as the result our desires will be also according to sattvika desire rajasika desire or tamasika desire and appropriately our action will be either righteous or a mixture of righteousness and unrighteousness or just the opposite unrighteousness naturally every action results in what we call punya or papa so punya means merit papa means demerit naturally punya gives happiness and papa gives unhappiness let us remember any number of times my definition of what is punya and what is papa punya is that ability to squeeze happiness from any circumstance even a person who is about to be hanged he can also be very happy we know that somehow for some reason there are criminals who know they are going to be hanged but there is a governmental law before getting hanged their last wish has to be fulfilled and I have read actual accounts of people who are about to be taken either to the electric chair most likely electric chair or to be hanged or to be shot dead excepting in what is called perverted armies but every government will grant one what is your last wish I want to eat spaghetti I want to eat Kentucky fried chicken I want to drink this drink and invariably the government will provide that one, I admire sometimes forgetting they are not worried because I have seen, I was astonished I was even shocked that they know crystal clearly after an hour or two or next day morning they will not be alive anymore but I do not see any trace of unhappiness on their faces which astonishes me do they lack feeling or is it a kind of ignorance, I don't know but I can see that everybody is craving for happiness but this is not the case of everybody even the very news that we have to do some biopsy can send the blood pressure heart rate soaring in so many of so called devotees which is not good at all anyway a devotee is one who claims I am dependent totally upon God but really speaking if somebody is reacting so badly even good news or even the what is called speculative news because nobody knows whether the biopsy will turn out positively or negatively and afterwards you have to say but the person who claims I believe in God and I believe in all this so much of fear so much of selfishness so much of they sacrifice everybody else's happiness for their own happiness I do not understand that doesn't somehow enter into my head how can they claim to be devotees of God and at the same time they remain so ignorant of their own selfishness etc. so here in this 36th verse the Lord is again going to outline, explain three types of happiness, He calls it Sukham, Sat, Satvika Sukha, Rajasika Sukha and Tamasika Sukha let us remember Vedanta, ultimately we are of the nature of happiness Sat, Chit, Ananda Swaroopa, Brahmananda we are Brahmans, Brahman means he who has no fear of death he who never remains even slightly ignorant that is called Chit and who is of the very nature of bliss by getting a droplet of which people become so happy in this world, so these three types of happiness are there and we have to understand two things first of all our goal is not an object but our goal is happiness so why am I mentioning this because this is in Advaita Vedantic language there is a particular technical word we use, it is called Adhyasa, Adhyasa means superimposition, superimposition means kidding ourselves covering our intelligence with nasty things undesirable things, mistaking one thing for the other thing and this is called Shobhana Adhyasa, Ashobhana Adhyasa, Shobhana means a false superimposition, if I have this, I will be happy forever, so every fellow who loves a man or a woman, that girl or that woman, if only I can get this hero or this heroine, whole life I will be happy, I think many times I made fun, all cinemas end with this wedding and then they say Shobhana we wish you all the best but now you have to experience personally what you have sought, your own Karmapala will come back to you nothing in this world can give us happiness that is the wisdom we have to draw, what is it? No object and everything is an object excepting I pure consciousness, my body is an object, my mind is an object, every object that I think is external is also an object, body, mind and whatever is experienced by body, mind is also an object and we think that there are different objects some objects give less happiness, some give a little more happiness, some give most happiness, some give temporary happiness, some objects give permanent happiness this is called Shobhana Adhyasa, if I have money I will be happy forever no, even if you have money you will never be happy money and happiness have no relationship at all but how a person uses that money and what knowledge he has got and what is the nature of the money what are the positive sides and negative sides of money etc. if he really thinks about it then he will become a little more intelligent person, so our goal, first goal is no object can give me happiness but how does it give happiness then because 99.9999 percent of the people are running only after objective happiness what happens when we get an object which we 100 percent believe gives us happiness when our sense organs come into contact with that object for a short time our mind becomes what is called restful, restlessness will be stopped for a moment and it becomes like a pure mirror that is reflecting our own inner happiness and that inner happiness comes percolates from within us to outside and unfortunately we ascribe that happiness as if it is coming from outside Sriram Krishna is beautiful examples, one good example is that a camel chewing a thorny bush and the thorns prick the gums of the camel and blood comes out and the camel mistakes that this beautiful tasty liquid is coming from the thorns not from my own self, this is a beautiful analogy and every object saps our intelligence, our happiness our power of the sense organs, everything and this we can appreciate more as we go on aging, so that is the first point objects are there, they reflect happiness but they don't have happiness, the one of the reasons why we should understand is if any object has its nature as happiness or happiness as its nature then it should first of all give happiness for anybody at all times for everybody but the same object doesn't give happiness for everybody what a person likes other person can hate terribly that is first, second is will it give happiness even for the same person try to eat 3-4 what is called ice cream cones, first ice cream will give you some amount of pleasure but the second will diminish it, this is called diminishing returns and the second one, third one it is more likely to create abhorrence to a kind of hatred and I don't want even to see it in my whole life like that this is our common experience, that is why so much of reaction is there what is beloved sometimes is considered as soon as that experience is over same object becomes abhorrable object until again we fall into the same trap and that is what is called our hunger our desire creates a kind of hunger that is the first point second point is that you don't need to search for happiness because all happiness is you you are the happiness but how hard it is to believe but this is what the scripture is telling and this is what the deep sleep is proving to us in deep sleep one of the most marvelous understandings is there is no object and yet tremendous amount of happiness, continued happiness, unbroken happiness making us forget time, space and causation for number of hours what more can anybody want whether it is coma whether it is unhappiness it all falls into the same category and that is why the greatest pleasure or happiness comes only from the deep sleep and that is why every creature in this world longs how soon I am going to get out of this subject object dichotomy and become one with it and then become free and understand the limitations of time, space and causation that is why the study of deep sleep has never been undertaken by anybody excepting the sages of the rishis and especially the Mandukya Upanishad is tremendous study of this third state and it is a proof that you are happiness because even though there is no outside object but you are very happy where from that happiness is coming from within yourself but as soon as we wake up we fall into the same trap that this happiness is coming from another object called deep sleep happiness comes from good dreams, happiness comes from coming into contact with certain type of objects in the waking state or in the dream state and so even the deep sleep state is a kind of object this is the great mistake we commit but the study of this deep sleep state conclusively proves to us that happiness is my nature and even if I don't have any object in fact only when I don't have any object, when I remove the duality of the subject object of the experiencer and the experienced then only true happiness which defies any description and beyond all expression and only those who experience they know it that is conclusive proof that I am of the nature of happiness with this background let us dwell into the verse 36, Bhagawan Krishna is telling us first of all what is the happiness of a sattvika person a person whose buddhi, whose understanding whose knowledge, whose intelligence whose activity, whose motivation, everything is dominated by sattva guna, assisted of course by rajo guna and also tamo guna because when a person is endowed with sattva guna rajo guna and tamo guna become the greatest friends they become instead of enemies, greatest helpers in pursuit so for example will power belongs to rajo guna in a way of speaking so this will power is very much enthused and it goes in the right direction and it pushes the man from a lower state of sattva to the highest state of sattva and finally beyond the sattva guna like a rocket taking jumping out of the its nodule ok so that is what is being told what did I say just now I hope you remember that sattvika happiness is the highest happiness, highest worldly happiness that's why in Hindu mythologies say brahma loka what is brahma loka where pure sattva guna is there pure light, the whole world of brahma is lighted up by light of knowledge, there there is no chance to mistake anything and that is why it is called parama sattvika endowed loka and as we come down less sattva, more rajas less rajas, more tamo guna that's how we have to understand it so Krishna is telling oh Arjuna so he is telling so now listen now listen from me, three types of happiness I am going to outline I am going to explain beautifully Bharatarshava because you are a one of the best of the race of Bharata, Yatra in which state that means endowed with this sattvika guna, sattva guna abhyasat ramatecha, dukkhan tancha negachati what type of happiness a sattvika person really gets and what is the result of that happiness, not only what type of happiness we get but what is the result of experiencing that happiness this is very important point we have to keep in mind because every type of experience brings a result either in the form of happiness or unhappiness and sometimes we get even a tamoguni also gets kind of happiness but what is the result of experiencing that tamoguna happiness what is the result of experiencing rajoguna happiness what is the result of experiencing sattva guna sukha this is being outlined here so two points are very beautifully being explained by Krishna to us what is it, abhyasat ramate, ramate means a sattvika, a person a person endowed with sattva guna he really revels he enjoys this but abhyasat he has to constantly practice even the sattva guna has to be practiced until it becomes one's own nature for example when a person sits for meditation on a particular chosen deity in the beginning the mind is very restless but he will never give up going on practicing day after day month after month, year after year, life after life that is why the lord says bahunam janmanam ante jnanavan mam prapadyate at the end of the practice of so many lives, we don't know how many lives may be hundreds, may be thousands but it doesn't matter and you may ask why does it matter it looks as though your statement is very depressing, a person I have to spend thousands of life practically, even though theoretically it is a piece of knowledge, practically it doesn't affect us even though we all say, especially Hindus, Buddhists, we all say that this present life is the result of last birth, how many people really believe in it how many people are going on looking backwards what have I done in the past, what I have done in the past, really speaking even though we say even if I have to think about last birth I will not extend my vision beyond the last birth but even last birth also I am not going to dwell upon it because the present life impinges upon relentlessly and will not allow us to think about it continuously going through the experiences of Jagrat Swapna and Sushupti the present life has become full there is accepting for an occasional philosophical backward look at what we have done and especially when we experience something unhappiness this gives us tremendous consolation, I must have deserved it because of what I did in the past that is really very helpful thing but very few people think that last birth I did sadhana and the birth before that I did sadhana, oh my god I am going to be reborn thousands of times, that thought is simply not going to come, it's not practical and I have not seen anybody and Puranas do not mention accepting as a philosophical reality or truth so we have to understand that even after many many birth, a person becomes a man of knowledge, what does he do? He attains to that state of sattvika happiness and then every time he progresses in sattva guna his happiness goes on increasing, his absorption his going beyond time, space and causation increases the duration increases and it percolates into the waking state, dream state, dreamless state, a sattvika person is happy in every state, so is there any difference qualitatively and quantitatively between a sattvika rajasika and tamasika persons, yes absolutely there is a big difference there, that is what Shri Ram Krishna says that a person enjoying the objective happiness and a person reveling in Brahma, Brahman's happiness what are you talking about, can you ever compare them, you should never compare, you can never compare qualitative happiness and quantitative happiness are miles apart or heaven and hell apart, that is what Shri Ram Krishna used to say that when a person is completely merged in the worldliness he is deriving vishayananda happiness being derived from the objects but they can give not only happiness but along with later on comes unhappiness and then later on come many other undesirable things like undesirable relatives because happiness has got so many relatives in this world by Ashoka, Vishada etc. now not only but a sadhaka who had complete faith in God and striving his best he will get bhajanananda bhajana means sadhana a person not singing devotional songs because worldly people also sing devotional songs many times some people everyday they sing but their minds are completely tied only to the lower objective happiness but a person who sincerely believes my goal is to manifest my potential divinity and life after life day after day and moment after moment he goes on striving to remember God and not to fall into temptations and to progress in spiritual life as much as possible learning lessons from each event that takes place in his or her life and then his happiness slowly is increasing because from tamoguna he is progressing into rajoguna from rajoguna he is progressing into satvaguna as the satvaguna slowly increases may be bit by bit but his happiness also correspondingly will be increasing and that is called bhajanananda and the more the person becomes addicted to this bhajanananda then that bhajanananda itself puts a rope around his neck and slowly pulls him out of all worldly happiness so this is called abhyasaat ramate yatra a sattvika person is not free of ignorance the bond of maya but he has become sufficiently purified so he goes on practicing meditation japa and then discrimination, dispassion mind and body control shama, dama titiksha etc of the six qualities and correspondingly his yearning for atmananda or atmajnana goes on increasing and it is not that the happiness comes at the end of all this but the happiness starts with the sadhana it gradually progresses through sadhana and finally it gives that highest happiness or it is called bliss actually which is permanent, it is infinite, it is eternal and it is unbreakable it is indescribable only a person who experiences he knows what it is so abhyasat through repeated practice yatra in that state of trying to increase sattva guna this sadhaka ramate he revels in it and gradually day by day and month after month his happiness increases but where does it end that is being said this by practicing like that what happens sadhan tancha nigachati you get up from the tamo happiness to rejo happiness and the happiness of sattva and ultimate goal is to go beyond the limit because a guna is a limitation in fact guna is called bondage that which binds is called guna and another meaning of guna is a rope just like a rope it binds us but sattva guna it releases from the rope and it like a projectile it throws us above itself and that is called brahma karvrutti we will talk about it when the occasion comes but this is how one has to progress in life so what is the lord telling oh arjuna i am going to explain to you indeed quite a details it is very essential all the what type of happiness a person endowed with tamo guna what type of happiness endowed with rejo guna what type of happiness a person gets when endowed with sattva guna in reality but he says the goal of life should be abhyasa abhyasa means continuous unlimiting practice until one knows i am brahman i am atman i am beyond the three gunas i am the unborn i am the eternal i am the infinite i am beyond the ken of the five sense organs etc beautiful descriptions we have seen in the second chapter itself in this so abhyasa and then finally this sattvika sukha it throws the person out like a table tennis bat it just the ball goes beyond that net and even sometimes goes out also here in this analogy the person goes out of the game because there is no need for him to play any game this is being said that you train your mind to enjoy any type of pleasure but train your mind so that it will be positive and it slowly transcends the moguna and obtains rajoguna and transcends rajoguna and obtains sattvaguna and that sattvaguna finally throws a person out i am going to outline these three i have taken time to enumerate this 36th verse because for these two reasons i have already briefly mentioned the goal of all of us whether we are worldly we claim that we are worldly people we don't believe in god or we claim we believe in god believers, non-believers human or non-human life is happiness only either obtaining happiness or trying to get rid of what is called the causes of unhappiness and ultimate goal is to be happiness not to obtain happiness, not to own not to possess happiness but to become happiness once happiness becomes our nature then it is never going to be separated from us that is what being beautifully described, i am sat i am pure existence therefore the question of non-existence doesn't arise, i am chit the question of ignorance the question of small knowledge is out of question i am full knowledge and i am of the very nature of bliss so we will discuss about these three types of happiness in our next class may Ram Krishna, Holy Mother and Swami Vivekananda bless us all with bhakti may Ram Krishna permit you tomorrow