Patanjali Yoga Sutras Lecture 015

Full Transcript(Not Corrected)

I bow to the eminent sage Patanjali who removed the impurities of the mind through yoga, of speech through grammar and of the body through medicine. Last week we had discussed about the third condition in order to become a real yogi. There are four conditions, one is abhyasa and second is vairagya. Abhyasa is of two types, temporary and that which is well established, permanent. Similarly about vairagya, dispassion, again they are of two types, dispassion towards the objects, dispassion towards the highest nature. Now this needs a little bit of explanation and I will try my best. The next four aphorisms are going to be the most difficult and also the most controversial type of aphorisms. I have been thinking for a long time and even I cannot, I do not seem to crack the nut. We will try. We know the essence, that is very easy to understand the essence. The essence is we have to become yogis. According to this particular school of philosophy called yoga, to be a yogi is not to obtain something new but to get to separate. You know our traditional understanding of yoga, you know what yoga is? To unite, to unite with God but according to Sankhya that is not the correct meaning. Yoga is vyoga, it means exactly the opposite. What does it mean? You are mixed up. Now get separated, what you call get lost. You tell to prakriti or that which has mixed up with our true nature, now my friend you have given me enough torment, get lost. At last we say get lost. If we can truly say that then we become really yogis. Separation of the non-eternal from the eternal and remain established in the eternal which is our true nature is the goal of yoga. For this a long time is needed. In our last class that's what we discussed. This abhyasa, practice. What is practice? Dhirgha Kala, Nairantarya, Satkara, Aasevito, Dhridha, Bhumihe. For a long time. What was the meaning I have given? Many lives. Then Nairantarya, there should be no break, no spiritual holiday even for a single millisecond. Third, we should do it with the greatest love. Love and respect are exactly one and the same. So if we want to become ourselves we must need the greatest love. This is a very interesting angle of understanding things. If any one of us are asked, don't you love yourself? Say absolutely, we are selfish. Selfish means loving one's own self. But you know in my last class I did say something. Due to ignorance we always love our neighbors. Who are our neighbors? Who is my neighbor? My mind and my body. They don't belong to me because the body accompanies me only until the cremation ground. What about the mind? In the end the mind also deserts us. In fact it is wrong to say that they desert us at the end of a long time. This very minute, five minutes before my body was different. If I give you graphic illustrations then we will be able to understand it better. Suppose there is a person very healthy, pink of health what they call, suddenly is going and he meets an accident or he has a cardiac arrest, an attack. Is the body same what that which was five minutes before or even five seconds before? Totally changed. What about the mind? How long does the mind stay exactly in the same condition? I do not expect any answer to that. Because it is changing every bilisecond. Every bilisecond it is changing. That which changes cannot be our true self. The definition of self, our true nature is that which never ever changes. It is beyond time and that's what the scripture is telling. That's what our experience every second of the time in spite of all the changes. We go on saying I am, I am, I am then something else. So that practice should be for a long time and it should be done without break and it should be done with the greatest love. If we can love ourselves then only it is possible. Now, love God. Ask Sri Ramakrishna, what is the goal of life? To love God, to realize God, same terms. But if you ask a Vedantic, what does he say? To love yourself, love thyself, love thyself. That is the first condition. Jesus Christ was a great Vedantic. He said love thy neighbor as thyself. If you don't know how to love yourself, you will never ever be able to love anybody, anything else. So loving God is loving our own self. These are two words used. That's all. The meaning is the same. Now, if we do not love ourselves, if we are not interested in ourselves, then our effort will never be wholehearted effort. But how do we develop that love? It takes time. That is why it is said that we are distracted. Since how long? Since our very beginning of our existence, we are distracted. As in Indian languages we say, you know, Churasi Lak Janma. 84 lakhs of births means 84 lakhs means 84 billions from the inorganic state until we came here. All this evolution is going on. So it takes a long time to reverse the process. What is yoga? Reversing the process. Reversing the process. What do you mean by reversing the process? When I say reverse yourself, you know, you are going somewhere and you took a wrong path and after some time you say, you ask someone, am I traveling in the right direction? Then some good soul will tell, no, you have committed a mistake, go in the reverse way. Going in the reverse way can accomplish many things. Swami Vivekananda has clarified this so beautifully. We have come from God. All the Upanishads are teaching, from Atman came the space, from space came the air, from air the fire, from the fire the water, from the water the earth, from the earth that is what is called devolution or involution. He used the word involution and we have remembered this is not my home. I have to go back my home because there is no further down you can go. The only way left for you is to go up. That is called evolution. We are evolving. Where to? Evolving into our own true nature. We have diverted ourselves a long way off from our home. We are going back. This process of going back to our true nature, original nature is called yoga. That which takes us to our home that is called yoga. So what do you need to do? You just give up everything with which you have identified so long and identified. Then you do not need to identify yourself with your own self. You just give up false identification. The real identification will come by itself. That process by which we try to disassociate, detach ourselves from false identifications and their consequent results is called vairagya or dispassion. But I also mentioned a very important point in my last class. If someone were to say, oh lord give me dispassion, he will not give you. He will not give unless you fulfill a particular condition. You must have intense passion. This is a very a statement of profound significance. That if you do not have passion that means if you do not have attachment you are never going to be detached. Because it is the nature of our mind it has to cling to something. If you do not cling to this you will be clinging to something else. And if you want not to cling to something else you must find something to which you have to cling yourself. This is a very important point. Let us remember it. Let me give an example. Supposing you have to climb staircase. Then what do you do? Your both feet are on the lower step. Then what do you do? You remove one foot or two feet. One foot you remove. Put it on a higher step and until we do that we cannot remove. If we remove what would be the result? There will be an accident. There will be a fall. This is a wonderful example. That's why we have to identify with something passionately. Then we will have the strength. I have something here and there is another law accompanying this law. If we want this passion as the first condition we must have intense passion. But there is also a second condition to that attachment. And that second condition is that with which we desire to attach ourselves by removing from the old one must be greater or better than the previous one. To give simplest example, suppose you have a car and you get a little bit tired about this car. You want to change the car. But suppose every other car is like your car only. Then you will not take the trouble because every car is absolutely. But if you find something better, at least looks better, if not better, then only you will have the impulse that certainly looks better. This is the law. That means if we want to give up the lower we must find out something higher. Again climbing the staircase. The upper step must be found if we are to remove ourselves from the lower step. Let us keep this in mind. What is this passion then? Intense passion towards something which is higher. Why this is so important? Because intellectually we understand that we should not be so much attached to worldly things. But have you found out something which is higher? Higher means, here also let me tell you something. Higher means always that which we can understand easily, that which gives more happiness, higher happiness. Unless we get higher happiness then we are never going to give up what we are because no one will make any effort unless we find something better than what we already have. This works in every field of life. You are in a house. You want to move to a new house, let us say. Something must be better. Either the house is bigger, better, better neighbourhood or it is better view, whatever it is. Something must be there, something higher. This is a very important thing. Simply you cannot pray to God. Oh Lord, I believe in you. Please grant me, Viveka. Our devotees are so good in remembering these things. Viveka, Vairagya, Bhakti, Jnana, they mugged up some words and go on praying. And God also says, ditto, ditto, ditto. Our prayer also is ditto and the answer is also ditto. Why he is not fulfilling? He is not listening to our prayers? He certainly listens. But he says, my friend, do you really feel that you get more happiness in this? And moving process is always a painful process. This is the third point you have to remember. Moving even to a higher thing from a lower thing always involves a better effort. And every effort is painful. This is something very wonderful. Supposing we have a bad habit. We understand it is a bad habit. What is the remedy for a bad habit? I will give up this bad habit. It never works. What is the remedy? Let me have a new habit, a better habit. For example, you know, I want to get up an hour earlier, half an hour earlier. It's a better habit. But to get up earlier, there must be some motivation should be there. What motivation? Something I will get higher happiness in some way. Either I meditate or read a good book or do something else. I must have a higher motive. But to transit from this old habit to a new habit, is it a very pleasant thing? Or is it accompanied by hard labor, painful labor sometimes? Any habit. That's why it is called a habit. You know, habit means it has become so natural, so easy, so mechanical. New habit means actually to call it a new habit is a misnomer. Because a thing becomes a habit only after a long time. Learning to drive is a difficult thing. But once you have learned, they say, you know, learning is far easier than unlearning. You learn something wrong and you understand it's causing a problem. Now to unlearn that thing is much more hard than carrying on with the world, is it not? So this is the third point. What is the first point? First point, unless there is passion, you cannot have dispassion. What is the second point? If we want to have dispassion, that means we must direct our old passion, always something which is higher and better. What is the third point? This change between the old habit and the new habit always involves in the beginning a lot of pain, effort, any new effort. But that is the only way, what Patanjali calls it Pratipaksha Bhavana. Now this is what we are discussing now. What is the first condition we said? We will have to practice a long, long time. And a time will come when we become firmly established. How do we know that we are firmly established? First of all, it becomes very natural. Secondly, if by chance, for any reason, if we do not do what we are accustomed to do, it brings intense pain. You know, I gave you many times this example. Children never want to brush their teeth. But now we are accustomed to brush our teeth, isn't it? And any day if we do not brush our teeth, would you enjoy your food? You might have to do it, I mean, occasionally in aeroplanes or whatever it is. But it is only very few occasions. And also it is not very pleasant. Have you noticed it? Soon as you come home, you will have to brush the extra. Even those who have artificial teeth also, they have to brush even more than people who have natural teeth. Okay. But the second thing that we are discussing about, Vairagya, dispassion. And this is what we discussed in our last class. What is it? Whatever things we have experienced or we can experience through our five sense organs in this life, even your future, you know, a young man working in an office is, I am expecting a promotion. This falls under the category of seen because it is going to happen in this life. But there are certain things of which there is no proof. We have to come to know about these things only through scriptural statements like going to heaven, like going to, there is a place called heaven. It is a better place to live. We can enjoy there for a long time. Also, Hindus believe in the law of karma. That means if I am born in this way, then this must be the result of what I had done in the past. But I don't see anything. If I am born in a rich family with a silver spoon, what, what, who has seen me doing anything good? I am just born. How is it possible? Then we have to take the teaching of the scriptures and say, I must have done something definitely good. Similarly, if someone is born as an unfortunate child, maybe physically disabled or mentally retarded, whatever it is, then also we have to find an explanation. Only the scripture can. This is called Anushravika, heard or obtained through the scriptural evidence. We also must remember, knowledge comes from three sources. If you still remember what we discussed a few weeks back, Pratyaksha, Anumana and Agama. Direct perception, inference of what we have seen and Agama. Agama means scriptural teaching. So this is Anushravika, what we have seen, what we see, what we are going to see in this life and that which we can never see. That means about heaven, about hell, about afterlife, etc. Now, so many of us, so many people who have faith, you know, all over the world, they do a lot of austerity. They go to extra trouble. Not only they do not enjoy things, they give up things as a penance, as a form of austerity. I can give you some few examples. There are some people who stand whole night in a cold river up to the neck and go on doing japa. You ask them, what do you wish to accomplish through this? It is only trouble. You could as well go home and snuggle under a warm blanket and then enjoy yourself. They say, no, either it is for my children or next birth. This birth I have not enjoyed life. I want to enjoy life next. There are quite a number of people. In fact, how many? How many? Billions. We fall under that category. You know, why are you hearing to my blah blah? Tell me, why are you hearing? That, you know, by coming here, you get some punya and through this Ramakrishna is pleased and then if Ramakrishna is pleased, where are you expecting to go? Is it not evident? Hindus, they say we want to go to Vaishnavas, they would like to go to Vaikuntha. And the devotees of Shiva like to go to Kailasa. And the devotees of Krishna, they don't like Vishnu. They would like to go to Goloka. And the devotees of Ramakrishna, I have asked quite a number of people, would you like to go to Vaikuntha? No. You know why? Because Ramakrishna will not be there. Where do you want to go? Ramakrishna Loka, the world of Sri Ramakrishna. Where Sri Ramakrishna is there, Holy Mother is there and other direct disciples, devotees, all will be there. I mean, it doesn't stand to reason. What I am saying is our faith, much of our faith doesn't stand to reason. If you are a devotee of Ramakrishna, you would like to see Ramakrishna wherever you go. Because you love Ramakrishna, you love Holy Mother. It is their shame. There is nothing wrong. So what I am talking about is, we are all hoping by His grace, by Mother's grace, somehow we overcome our weaknesses, our defects. And we have this, all of us I am sure, have this firm faith that I can by myself never be able to go to a higher world. Can any one of you lift your hands and say, I have that confidence without their grace, all by myself, I will be able to go? I do not think any one of us is there to do that. So we want to go. Now this is the belief I am talking about. We all believe in a bright future and nothing to do with this world. That is called Anushravika. And there are examples like that. Two examples I will give you. Throughout my talks, I will be giving examples of which you will be more or less familiar. One day Holy Mother said, one day my mind has soared to the highest realm. It is a most beautiful place. I saw Sri Ramakrishna sitting with all the devotees and they made me sit by his side. And it was the most pleasant thing that had ever happened. And after some time, something happened and I needed to come down. And I said, I looked at this filthy body and I did not feel like entering into it. This is one example. Second example, I remember, you know, when the Belur Mutt temple, Swami Vekananda made the plan and he could not accomplish it. He died in 1902. Then he gave the responsibility and naturally fell on the shoulders of Swami Brahmananda. And he could not complete it. And next to the responsibility fell on Swami Shivananda. He could not accomplish it. Then the responsibility fell on Swami Akhanananda. He could not complete it. Then finally the responsibility fell on Swami Vignanananda. Now what happened? Swami Vignanananda was a civil engineer and Swamiji called, made the plans himself and called Swami Vignanananda and said, you will accomplish this job. Involuntarily the words came out of Swami Vignanananda's mouth, but Swamiji, means you may not be there. Then Swami Vekananda, he understood and then he said, patient, I will not see this accomplishment. But you will do it. But my Thakur, Ma, myself, we will all be watching when you have completed it. What happened in 1938, that was the year when Swami Vignanananda left his body. That year somehow he completed the temple. The time came for opening ceremony of the temple and he went and then the puja had to be done and Thakur had to be put, he had to do some special ceremony. Swami Vignanananda remembered, always remembered Swamiji's words. He looked up and said, Swamiji, you promised that you will look up from there. Are you there? Immediately he saw Sri Ramakrishna, Holy Mother and all the other direct disciples who passed away. In fact, only two were left out, Swami Vignanananda and Swami Abhedananda. All the 14 direct disciples had already passed away by that time. He looked all of them and what were they doing, they were throwing flowers on the ceremony. Of course, other people could not see that. Only Swami Vignanananda saw the flowers. What did the other people experience? Rain, raindrops. You know, when any auspicious ceremony takes place, if the rain falls, then it is considered the Gods are blessing it. So many, Sri Ramakrishna's life, Holy Mother's life, Swamiji, from where did Swamiji come? From the realm of the seven Rishis. Without having faith in these things, you can never become a devotee of Sri Ramakrishna. In fact, Sri Ramakrishna himself again and again he used to say, he who was Rama, he who was Krishna, in this age he is reborn as Sri Ramakrishna. This is our firm faith, we live in faith. So, in the billions of Christians, billions of Muslims, many of them I am sure are experiencing very hard life, but still they say that they have firm faith that if they lead life according to the scriptural direction or according to their priests, whatever interpretation, after death they will attain to that state. We are all believers in the future life and a person who doesn't have belief in future, he will be more dead than alive. That is why, psychologically, faith in God means faith in the future. Faith that I will be a better person, I will be in a better position, I will be a happier person in future. That is called really faith. Coming back to our subject, so what is dispassion? You have tremendous love, tremendous clinging, tremendous attachment, tremendous passion for something higher, which could be higher than God. So, unless we develop that love, we will never be able to detach ourselves. So, let us remember that point well. If we want to attain to dispassion, it doesn't mean we are becoming cold, indifferent, detached. It means we are going to become even more passionately attached, but to something which is higher, which is divine, which is much more welcoming, a much more higher happier state. In this respect also, one simple thought I want to add this, until we have that faith that through spirituality, I am going to attain to higher state, through spiritual life never begins, until we have this firm faith that through this spiritual life, I am going to become a happier, a better person. Now, what happens, you know, in our lives? In the beginning, we are enthusiastic, then we take initiation, then we sit and do japa, dhyana, meditation and other things, and then after some time, it becomes a kind of mechanical habit. So, why is it? Because we do not fulfil the conditions. What are those two conditions? First, we need practice. We have more or less the practice. Many of our devotees have wonderful practice. But what is lacking? Dispassion. And dispassion is always painful. Why is it painful? Just now we discussed. Any new movement, because you have left the old, are trying to leave the old, and you have not yet reached the new, in between that state of transition is always painful. That is when our faith comes to our aid. That is why a strong faith is necessary, and faith is the result of the grace of God, and the grace of God comes only through one and one method only. Not through prayer, not through meditation. It comes only through one method. What is that method? Put into practice what God wants us to do. What pleases the Lord, that alone I want to do. What displeases the Lord, I would never like to do it. Right or wrong, that is not the point. The point is, does it please God? If it doesn't please God, cut off. That is the only way. And tremendous faith, He is going to save me. Goptrutva varna, I have faith. I choose you. God doesn't choose me. I choose God. And I place all my responsibilities on His head, and thereafter karpanye, great humility. O Lord, this is all made possible only through Your grace. I could never accomplish this self-surrender. Self-surrender is never possible through the self. It is only possible through the grace of God. But how do we get the grace of God? Not through prayer, I said. Not through meditation, I said. It is through daily practicing what God asks us to do. And how does God ask us to do? Does He come to you and say, I want you to do this? Suppose you had the good fortune somehow of meeting Sri Ramakrishna. He says, O Lord, I have some questions to ask of you. Sri Ramakrishna says, wait, wait, I am very busy man. Sir, but don't you want to tell me something? Yes, yes, I will tell you. There is a book of mine published, and it is a very wonderful book, though even though I am saying it myself. Go and read it. What is that book? The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna. Imaginary conversation. Read, go and read the Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna. Go and read the Gospel of the Holy Mother. Though I am putting it humorously, you read that book, it is available. Don't go and trouble Sri Ramakrishna for this. And first you understand simple things. He spoke such simple language. You don't need dictionaries to understand that. Are you doing what I have asked you to do? Do them. To some extent. I do not expect perfection of you. But do it to some extent. And then come back to me. This is what is called one part of dispassion. What is dispassion? Towards every object in this world made up of nature, and then only all the attachments that we have, they can be withdrawn. Another way of understanding dispassion is that you withdraw your passion from different objects. In this connection also, it is very interesting to know. Have we really intense passion towards anything? We have the potentiality. We have the passion. How much passion? Enough. More than enough passion to realize God. Do I have? Yes, you have. But I do not see it. Yes, you do not see it because it is manifesting through a little bit of passion towards breakfast, a little bit of passion towards BBC channel, a little bit of passion towards cricket, watching cricket match, you know, something else, something else, something else. It is all scattered. Kshitra. Now what do we need to do? Slowly withdraw. Once we withdraw, tremendous amount of passion means, do you know what is passion? Love intensified and directed towards one particular object is called passion. And we already have it. But it is this capacity for our passion is, as I said, it is scattered. Ramakrishna gives the example. When does a man realize God? When he withdraws the intense attachments. And there are only three. What beautiful analysis, you know. The intense love a mother has towards her only child, the intense love a chaste wife has towards her husband, the intense love a worldly miser has towards his wealth or worldly objects. Now this is what happens. A little bit of our attachment towards wealth, a little bit of attachment towards husband, wife, etc. And a little bit of the attachment towards children. Tell me, can you tell me, is there anything else? All other loves are only accompaniments to these three main loves. If we can withdraw, then automatically it is available. How much it will have, a beautiful example is given. You know, suppose you want to cook food, rice. Put it in water, take it outside, the sun is shining and put it there. Will the rice be cooked? Can you cook by putting this rice pot in the sunlight? Take a big magnifying glass. That's what they are doing in India. If you understand what I'm talking about. In Rajasthan and other places, it's an umbrella like they made with very ordinary materials. And they have this, you know, cooking pot over that. So the plenty of sunlight, it falls on that foil. It's just a foil and you put it in a particular way. And what happens then? Just like, you know, you put a magnifying glass, you put a paper. Have you noticed it? Immediately it catches fire. What is the special thing you have done? The potentiality of fire or burning is already there in the light. But we did not have the proper instrument. This is a beautiful example. The potentiality of having the tremendous attachment towards God, that is called dispassion, is already there within us. But it is now scattered in different directions. Now it's like that, you withdraw them and focus them. This is what Ramakrishna is telling. Automatically that will give us the required light. What is the required? I love myself. When I love myself to the utmost, that is called loving God. And when I can love God, God becomes realized. God realization means God becomes real. Realized means what? He becomes the only reality. Everything else becomes unreal. Now there is a law. What is that law? There cannot be two realities. Either God is real or non-God is real. What is non-God? Another name for non-God? World. Either world is real or God is real. If world is real, God remains unreal. If God is real, world becomes unreal. Something I will tell you, very very wonderful. In fact there are no two types of realities. We unnecessarily divide reality into two, real and unreal. When you are looking at the world and thinking that this is the world, actually whom are you looking at? You know, a very beautiful example we give. There is a table. You know that this is a table. This table is made out of wood. If I ask any one of you, what are you looking at? You say, I am looking at a table. But you never give me the reply. You are looking at a piece of wood. But all the time what are you looking at? Then why don't I call it wood? Because to call this piece of wood, suppose I say, you bring the table, bring the chair. What do you see? I see wood. What do you see? I see wood. Then I cannot ask you specifically, bring piece of wood. Then you bring any piece of wood. No, I want only that piece of wood in that particular form and shape. That is what I need. For that I give a name. Bring the chair, bring the table. But actually I am only asking you to bring a piece of wood, nothing else. Isn't it? So what is this world? God with name and form is called world. Many times I told you, it is worth repeating 100 times more in Sanskrit. We call it prapancha. You know what is prapancha? Pancha means five. Prapancha means that which is perceived through the five sense organs. And if we see a thing that is in front of us, without the aid of these five sense organs, what do you see? You see only none other than God. So this is the point. All the time we are seeing God through the sense organs. Then we call it the world. Nothing else. Because there are no two objects. One object is God, another object is called world. Like rope and snake. When you see the snake, what are you really looking at? Snake only. And when you are looking at the snake, what are you looking at? At the rope. Are there two things? At some point you are looking at it as a snake. At some other point you are looking at the same thing as a rope. That illustration has become a very classical illustration. To say no dvaita, no duality, no two things. Whatever is there, only reality alone is there. Unreality, there is no existence. But that reality is divided into two parts. Perceiving reality as reality is called God realization. Perceiving the reality as something else, like perceiving a rope as a snake, that is called the world. It is only removing the misperception, wrong perception, that is called yoga. As I said, spiritual practice. Now, coming back to our subject. What is dispassion? Intense passion. What does that mean? Another way of defining it is, you remove your misconceptions. When you are loving, when a wife is loving her husband, a chaste wife is loving her husband, whom actually is she loving? Is she loving her husband? Who is actually loving? God only. Advaita is a very interesting thing. Who is the wife then? So who is loving whom? God is loving God only. In the same way, supposing one person is murdering the other person, who is murdering whom? Our brain has to be rewired. How do you get rewired? Your next question, how do I get rewired? Very simple. Attend my classes. And slowly, slowly, this rewiring is going to take place. My classes means scriptural teachings. Could be Sri Ramakrishna or Bible, Koran, anything. So the first part we already discussed. Whatever we heard, whatever we are seeing, we must say that this is not full reality. This is reality, but not full reality. Why? Because it is temporary reality. Everything in this world is not unreality, but temporary reality. The next, it is beautiful. Can we ever accomplish, can we ever attain that intense passion towards God? When can it happen? That is what the next verse is going to tell, so, these are so beautiful thoughts, you know. Let me read it out for you. Tadparam purushakhyate guna-vaitrishnyam. That is extreme non-attachment which gives up even the qualities and comes from the knowledge of the real nature of the purusha. Please do not worry about the Sanskrit words or what is called English translations. In simple what it means is, when can we really get true dispassion towards everything in this world? When can we get? Let me put it, rephrase it this way. When can we get rid of unreality? When can we get rid of unreality? Only when we come to know about the reality. What is the example? Beautiful examples. You know, we go to dream and we see so many things, sometimes good, sometimes bad. At the time of dreaming, do we ever dream or think that this is a dream? At the time of dreaming, it is 100% real, as real as this, not one bit less. Supposing you have won a billion pound lottery ticket in your dream. I always like to give very positive and nice examples, you know. Say you won and you wake up, what would be your reaction to that dream? Will you be running after that dream? Why? Why? Because you know that this is reality that was totally an imagination. It is never a reality. Now that is the psychological principle. When can we get the highest type of dispassion? Until we see God in our theological language, only when we have the vision of God, only that experience of the vision of God alone can bring about renunciation. Because once you see God, nothing else attracts you. Do you know why? Seeing God, we will discuss this point in our future classes. Seeing God is like waking up from a dream. Until that time, you know, in the dream, suppose in dream also you are a devotee. In dream also, you see a Ramakrishna photo, you bow down. You see an ashrama, you enter there in the temple. In dream also, because of our habits. So when you went inside, came out and then you found out that you won a million dollar. How much you will be thanking God? Ramakrishna was wondering that this man never thanked me in his whole life in this way. It is because of winning the lottery ticket. You are in a highly excited state of mind. Then you come out, come out to the waking state. What would be your reaction towards your dream? Would you even like, you might wistfully think, but you will never wish that to happen in the dream state. You would always like to happen in the waking state. Do you follow what I am trying to tell you? You may wish to have a million dollars, but never as a dream winning, but in the real winning. So that is the point. What is the point? When we once have the experience of reality, then alone unreality will disappear. What is the point here? The point is at any given time, we are in a state of reality. At any given point, even the state of dream also, we never think it is a state of unreality. We always think it is a state of reality only. We are moving from one state of reality to another state of reality. Then what is this we are talking about unreality? From the state of the reality we are experiencing at this moment, compared to that, the other states become unreal. Let me very briefly conclude this. When we are in dream state, then waking state and deep sleep state become unreal. When we are in the waking state, dream as well as deep sleep state become unreal. When we are in the deep sleep state, both the waking and dream state become unreal. But at no time we ever think I am in a state of unreality. We never think like that. So what we mean by unreality is changing these states. Can we achieve that state which never changes? That means can we go beyond and all changes take place only in time, space and causation? Is there such a state which is beyond time, which is beyond space, which is beyond causation? If it is there and that is our real state and that is called God Realization, Samadhi, whatever name you give. So what is the main point we would like to conclude with today is until we see the real reality, we can never get rid of our attachment to the seeming reality. This point and the next verse is even more difficult. As I said three verses, three aphorisms are really very confusing aphorisms. But I will try my best to put it in the most accessible, understandable language. Om Shanti Shanti Shanti