Bhagavad Gita Ch16 part 01 on 15 August 2021

Full Transcript(Not Corrected)

OM VASUDEVASUTAM DEVAM KAMSACHANURAMARDHANAM DEVAKI PARAMANANDAM KRISHNAM VANDE JAGADGURUM SARVO PANISHADHO GAVO DOGDHA GOPALANANDANAH PARTHO VATSAT SUDHIR BHOKTA DUGDHAM GEETAM RITAM MAHA MOOKAM KARUTI VACHALAM PANGUM LANGAYATHE GIRIM YAD KRIPATAMAHAM VANDE PARAMANANDAMADHAVAM By the grace of God, we have been able to complete 15 chapters of Bhagavad Gita out of 18 chapters. Only 3 chapters are remaining. 16th and 17th are smaller chapters. 16th has got only 24 verses. But the 18th verse has the maximum number of verses. It is the summation. In a way of speaking, Bhagavad Gita is over. With the most marvelous chapter, just yesterday we completed the 15th chapter, very aptly called PURUSHOTTAMA YOGONAMA PANCHADASHO ADHYAYAHA. And whatever has been said earlier, there certain spiritual qualities have to be developed by every aspiring spiritual practitioner. And in this 16th chapter, the Lord mostly enumerates what are those characteristics which we should try to develop if we do not have and then get rid of certain unspiritual qualities. And that is the essence of these 24 verses. And so this chapter having 24 shlokas, verses is very aptly called DAIVA ASURA SAMPAT VIBHAGA YOGAHA. Yoga. Yoga means that which takes us to God, unites us with God, gives us self-realization. But for that, Bhagavan Krishna is going to divide the entire humanity into two kinds. DAIVI, divide, those who are endowed with great spiritual qualities, divine qualities. ASURA means demonic. And there are people and majority of them, they are endowed with pure selfishness. They are not only selfish, they are evil. Selfish people are also of two types. Those who are selfish but their policy is, their philosophy is live and let live. And I think many people belong to this category. But there are a few and the world is full of them. Whenever you open some news, you can see how stupid, how selfish, how cruel people want to control. Even those people who are supporting these selfish people in every way, they want to take out only on those people. It is mind-boggling how much of cruelty is being practiced today. May not be physically in a gross way but in a subtle way. I'll give you just one or two examples. Every company is becoming bigger and bigger. Smaller companies are thrown aside. But at the same time, the bigger companies are reaping tremendous amount of incalculable amount of profits and yet they want to squeeze the last bit not only money-wise but time-wise, energy-wise, mental-wise, in every wise. They wanted to take everything, squeeze. Not from those who oppose them but from the very people because of whose existence, whose loyalty and whose relationships these big companies are thriving. It's mind-boggling. So here, why is this so much necessary? First of all, we have to throw the torch light inside our own mind because no man can say with impunity, I am free from all evil qualities. Many evil qualities are there. Maybe we do not recognize them but we need to recognize. Although we do not overcome them, the question of progressing in spiritual life does not arise at all. So the Lord has started here. In creation, I am going to give a brief bird's eye view of what is going to come. Bhagavan Krishna says, Bhagavan Krishna means God himself, not an individual. In creation, there are two character types. The demonic and then the daivik. Asurik means demonic. Daivik means endowed with spiritual qualities, positive qualities, very unselfish qualities called divine qualities. The former, the demonic, is hostile to all spiritual values while the latter is fully receptive to them. This demonic type makes no distinction between the righteous and the unrighteous, the pure and the impure, truth and untruth. In their worldview, everybody has a worldview but in the worldview of these demonic people, there is no place for God, for righteousness, for avoiding spiritual background and for this world of change. Pursuit of lust and lucre is their supreme quest in life and success in this, the only criteria of respectability. And then what do they think? Who is equal to me? They may not say it out of politeness but the same idea comes out irrepressibly in what, how they speak and their facial expression, everything. There is nobody equal to me, I am the greatest, is their watchword. And to amass wealth, to destroy the enemies, to satisfy their lust, to acquire name and fame by any means, fair or foul, is their sole object in life. With such an outlook, they exploit and oppress all their fellow beings. There is also the Lord who is immanent in all. Here is a most marvelous fact, if somebody is oppressing somebody, he will never think, I am oppressing God. But the fact is, who is inside the oppressed people is none other than the Lord and the Lord is going to give it back to him with compound interest. This is the greatest contribution of especially Hinduism to other religions who do not believe in past life, future rebirth and who do not of course then believe in what we call we are what we are as a result of what we did in the past. But Hinduism categorically without the least bit of doubt tells that the Lord is immanent in all, not only in the living but in the non-living. Such persons go down in the spiritual scale, not forever of course, because Vedanta, Hinduism never says that somebody is outside God. Everyone has a spark of God, sooner or later everybody will turn, if happiness doesn't bring them to God, suffering, misery, that will definitely bring them to God. And as distinguished from these demonic evil type of people, there is another type of people, call them divine, call them spiritual, call them they are pure, fearless, full of spiritual aspiration, self-controlled, generous, loving, truthful, patient, benevolent and free from pride and vanity. Then the Lord specifically points out there are three doorways to go down and to become more and more demonic, those who go to hell, those who want to rise spiritually should follow these divine ideals and shun the asuric traits, desire, anger and greed and of the desires sexuality, irrepressible sexuality. Everywhere we see whether it is reported or not, expressed or not, this sex seem to be ruling the entire world now. So desire, many other desires but sex especially, sexuality, anger and greed are the factors that make man more and more asuric. They are the gateways to hell. Let all the right thinking men avoid them assiduously. So this desire when thwarted becomes anger, anger when thwarted it ends up in insatiable greed, accumulation, billions and billions. So many billionaires are there, millionaires are there, how big is the stomach, how big is their body, how many cars they need, how much food they need, they are not thinking but just accumulate. Not only accumulate, they also want to deposit, cheating their own government, cheating legitimate taxes and so many people are taking refuge. There are so many countries where these people, these greedy accumulating people are most welcome to deposit their money. There are many many such heavens to satisfy this greed, guaranteeing the principle and then most people die forgetting the password and neither they get the benefit or the others get benefit. Such people suffer a lot in future lives, there is no doubt about it, there is justice in this world and the divine Lord is watching not with one eye but Sahasra Aksha with millions, billions of eyes, our own inner ruler Antaryami. He knows everything and if anybody is suffering, know for certain they have done this unwanted thing, they led an irreligious, unrighteous life and if any person is suffering today, the others are only instruments. This is a peculiar theory, I have gone through it earlier. So this is how we have to be cautious, regulating their minds, controlling their minds, overcoming all the wrong impulses, following the roads of morality which is the gateway to spirituality. These divine people try to be unselfish, pure, loving, caring and sharing but what to follow, what to avoid? For that we definitely need a great help, the help of scriptures. What is a scripture? The experiences of people who have trodden this path many times and for our sake they come down like a mountaineer guide. So many times the guide has climbed to the highest peak and yet he comes down to help the beginners, the somewhat experienced people. So the divine Lord keeps some people, not only their experience, they know what they are speaking and they know that it is the most beneficial thing in the world and they are not tired of repeating it and that is what is called Shastra. The experiences of a realized soul recorded, preserved, rightly interpreted and passed on to the other generations. That is called a scripture. So left to his own unguided intelligence. Man's tendency will be only to yield to the evil in him and not to master his own mind. So man requires an external authority prescribing what to do and what to avoid. That authority is called a scripture and that person, a Guru is most necessary. A Guru's function is mainly to make the disciples, the students understand the real meaning of the scriptures. Many times we might misinterpret, taking our own pet views. So a Guru comes. That's not right. This is the right way of understanding and if we are earnest, the divine Lord is sure to send us such guides. So by an objective authority to whom sanctity is attached, man in his ignorant state will progress slowly and without the help of the scripture and as interpreted by a competent Guru will degenerate into a slave of passions. This is very important because even before any incarnation comes, for example, before Shri Ramakrishna came, scriptures were there. But so many conflicting type of opinions, each conflicting with the other, crying and downgrading the other, asserting that my own is the greatest. So this is how some people, they know how to talk, how to control the other people's mind. Nowadays it is the talk. There are some people, beautiful voices and whatever they talk seems to be the truth and often man is deceived. Of course, I can tell you only an insincere person deserves to be deceived but a sincere person is always watched by the divine Lord and he will never allow a sincere aspirant to fall into the hands of a wrong Guru. Even the wrong Gurus have the role to play in the overall spiritual economy of this world. So while many other chapters of the Gita are of great metaphysical and devotional significance and deserve close study, this particular 16th chapter specially calls for the attention of every man. The demonic tendency is thoroughly analysed and criticised and so has a home in the hearts of most people and to be aware of this fact is the first step to master these demonic qualities so that just like a physician first diagnoses and then only that person is given that tremendous task of what is the right prescription. That's why diagnosis is a most wonderful thing and a Guru is one, a real Guru, Sadguru is an expert physician. Even by a look he knows each individual's individual tendencies and guides them accordingly. There is nothing called mass guidance. Everything is one-to-one, person-to-person, individual-to-individual so that is how a sincere devotee slowly inch by inch cuts off the bondage, progresses towards the Divine Lord and one day he understands what it is. So to prepare this mind for spiritual progresses both those spiritual qualities which are most helpful and demonic qualities which degrade, which pull a person back into the mores of this transmigratory hell both are in considerable detail have been analysed, formulated and presented very beautifully in this chapter. In fact I can tell you because I have written brief commentaries on this while I was in UK and that has come out also as a booklet which is available on the internet, Be Divine Here and Now. It's all based upon this 16th chapter. So let us now just see what is the essence of this one, the topics. What are the divine qualities a person needs in order to progress? This is outlined in the first, second and third verses, in three verses and in the second verse very briefly the demonic qualities are outlined and then again in the fourth and again from 7th to 18th and 20th. Just see 1, then 12, 13, 14 verses are devoted, 3 verses for enumerating the divine qualities and 14 or 15 verses are devoted to explaining the demonic qualities. So what happens to these demonic people? That's described in the 19th verse which is nothing but a Lord cannot condemn them to eternal hell. There is no eternal hell. In fact there is no hell. Everything is for the good of all of us. Just like a teacher punishes a child only for his good, parents correct their child if necessary by mild punishment. The child may think I am being punished but parents love does not permit them to correct them in a harsh, injurious way. Whatever they do is for the good. This is in the human beings what to speak of the divine Lord. It's a correction that's all. So what does he do? He leads them through a long path slowly training them. That is beautifully described in the 19th. Then all the qualities are squeezed into three gateways to hell. How we can go down through this demonic pathway into hell? So Jyotsna said there is no hell but many times we have to be reborn. That is called hell and we have to suffer more than anybody else. What are the three doorways? Desires, especially sexual desire and money. That's why Shri Ramakrishna summarized it. Kama and Kanchana. These dominate all of the desires. Somebody has a desire for a little bit of sweet, a little bit of dress, wants to have a beautiful car, nice house. Nothing wrong if he can fulfill it through righteous means but that which really binds a person and extremely difficult to get out of that bondage and this bondage becomes again and again reinforced. These are the two. Lust or what is called attachment to flesh as well as money. This is what people think a person who has these two is happy most. Not knowing these are the things which make a person suffer most. Then how to overcome these three and what is the result? That's outlined in the 22nd verse and lastly it is importance of a scripture. Importance especially indirectly hinted it, inferred it, the right person to rightly interpret the scriptures because there is something called general interpretation. There is something called individual interpretation which is very very important. This is outlined in the 23rd and 24th verses. In brief this is what. So let me summarize again. There are two types of people. Divine, those who are endowed with divine qualities, very sincere spiritual aspirants and even from a worldly point of view, very unselfish, pure, loving, loving and caring and sharing people and rest of them asuric people, very selfish, very impure, not at all loving accepting their own body, bodily pleasures and most cruel at heart. What is the difference? The spiritual people quickly progress and then become liberated. The demonic people take some time because the divine Lord will not want his children to suffer for too long but everybody without exception will attain to that divinity because let us remember each soul is potentially divine. That's with this brief introduction. Let us delve into the 16th chapter. As I said it has got 24 verses. So 1st to 3rd verse, 1st, 2nd and 3rd verse, 26 spiritual qualities have been beautifully outlined and we will take a little time to expound them. So Sri Bhagawan Obachan, the Lord said to whom? To all of us. The Lord is addressing Arjuna was merely a Vatsaha, Partho Vatsaha and who are they? Enjoyers, Sudhihi Bhokta, wise people, sincere people, pure people, not absolutely pure but aspiring to be very pure. Already they are on the way. Even to come across this teaching one requires some amount of purity and these 3 qualities, 3 verses, 26 qualities and you may think 26 qualities. My God, even to get one quality it may take many lives but for acquiring 26 qualities how many lives it may take? Two factors have to be kept in mind. We have to remind ourselves. 1st fact is that as I mentioned a little bit jokely whether they are good qualities or evil qualities they only come in gangs. All the good qualities gang together. All the evil qualities gang together and this is the ever recurring theme of the fight between the gods and the demons. Demons means same human beings who are having what is called demonic qualities. There are no such physical formations. There will be 10 heads. 10 heads, you know what they represent? 10 sense organs, that's all. There will not be teeth like werewolves. No, no, these are all feral imaginations. Not like Godzilla, not like that. These are qualities. A selfish person is a demonic person. A cruel person is a demonic person. And a person who only cares for his own pleasure torturing everybody else, kicking everybody out he is a demonic person. But a person who has just the exact opposite qualities he is called a divine person. Not a god in fact. This is a beautiful understanding we have to have. Everything depends upon the mind personality. So the Lord is enumerating, how many did I say? 26 qualities. Some people make it 27. What is called dividing some words into something extra. But most people have agreed upon 26 qualities. So they all come together. And the demonic qualities also gang together. That is the constantly recurring theme in our mythologies that gods and demons fight each other like that. Then the gods become weak, then the demons take over. Then they become gods and they become weak. And then these gods who became weak, they become demons. And then they again fight back and recapture. So this drama is going on all the time. Sometimes A wins, sometimes B wins or sometimes what is called D wins. Sometimes A wins. D means demonic quality or divine quality. A means asavika quality or demonic quality. So this Kurukshetra fight between the Pandavas and the Kauravas they are only just symbols of righteous and unrighteous thought. That means it is the fight within each one of us between the spiritual struggle and the worldly pull. We have to and we will be in the end slowly but albeit very surely we will be going towards our destination. It's inevitable because that's our true nature. Nobody can stop the true nature. With this background, what are those 26? So the Lord is saying... All these 26... They all called divine qualities, spiritual qualities and those qualities which hasten our spiritual progress which hasten our approach to God and then whoever is born with these qualities O Arjuna, he will be progressing quickly. First let us deal with this last word. There are some people, they seem to be seeking spirituality, God from the very beginning but we should never say I was not born. So this person is very very lucky. No, nothing happens by accident. Just as even in ordinary fields a sportsman, a good sportsman is not made. He is born first. Training makes him a little more perfect later on. Hinduism doesn't believe some people are accidentally born with wonderful musical voices, musical talents, higher intellect very sharp type of reasoning power, great scientists, great musicians great artists, great statesmen, great heroes. No. These are the qualities slowly developed over many a number of births. Nothing comes just like that. We have to earn and these people who seem to have been born with these wonderful qualities they have been developing them for a long time and in this birth they are manifesting them that means they have progressed to a great extent. Let us very briefly give the translation of that. Abhayam means fearlessness. This is the very first thing that a spiritual person should never fear. Sattva samshuddhi. Mind must become pure. Sattva guna must occupy the mind. Then Gnana yoga vyavasthithi. Gnana, the power of knowledge. Always that knowledge is foremost. My time is short. My opportunity is very limited and if this human life goes away in vain then it will take a long long time. I do not want. I am not sure whether next birth also I will be assured of this human birth. At least now I have. I remember a beautiful incident from the life of Sri Ramakrishna and also from Ramana Maharshi. Though I mentioned it beforehand it is appropriate for us to remember them as many times as necessary. There was a young man called Niranjan and he heard of Sri Ramakrishna. In fact he wanted to play what you call a kind of planchette that is invoking dead spirits with Sri Ramakrishna. But Sri Ramakrishna could recognize here is a person who is born to help me. He was considered one of the intimate companions who accompanies an incarnation every time God takes a human form. But he found out this boy seems to be, young man seems to be a little bit indifferent to that. So either on his second or third visit Sri Ramakrishna, this young man went to meet Sri Ramakrishna. He was very much attracted to Sri Ramakrishna. As soon as the boy approached, Sri Ramakrishna was standing strangely outside his room and as soon as he saw, he ran forward, embraced him and said, Boy, time is passing. When are you going to devote your life exclusively to God and realize Him? And later on this Swami, he became Swami Niranjanananda. His name was Niranjan and Sri Ramakrishna used to tell about him. My Niranjan doesn't have any anjan. Anjana means stain. Completely a pure stainless mind. And this Niranjanananda was later on reminiscing and he said, I don't have any headache. I am not eager to realize God. Why is this man so anxious that I should realize God? That is the grace of a Sadguru. So Sadguru always says this human life is very precious. There is no telling next birth whether you will become a mosquito, an earthworm or a dog, anybody like that. Another incident, Ramana Maharshi, he became very famous after some years and many people used to visit. A hall was constructed with the help of devotees. Maharshi used to lie down. That was his bed. That was his chair. That was where he used to meet and talk to people. There was nothing called privacy. Everything used to be conducted there. Now he observed. He was a very keen observer. And one day he was telling, why do people come here? Here is for example a person. He came three days back and with great humility he stood at the very back as if he was an incarnation of humility. Next day he came in the middle of the assembly. There also some amount of humility was being exhibited. Then he came to the front and he was still looking at me and exhibiting much less humility. Fourth day he turned towards the people who were filling up the hall and he took upon himself self-appointed manager. You, don't sit there. You have no right. You sit in that place, pointing his finger. You, you get up. You move to the back. You, come to the front. And Bhagawan doesn't say usually to such people. He teaches them indirectly. He said, why did these people come? Obviously, they are seeking spirituality. Instead of going about what they want to do, they are dissipating all their energies. Who asked this fellow to assume what we call the managership. He appointed himself, forgot his spiritual quest and he is quite happy. I am also somebody. I am doing, rendering a lot of service. This is called self-satisfaction. To his own satisfaction, he started doing and Maharshi scolded him thoroughly. He never leaves anybody like that. Even his own brother who assumed this managership, he is scolded many times. Many times he said, if you behave like this, I will go away. I will not stay here. I am not here to be ordered about under your thumb. Then the person perhaps learned some lessons. You see, these suppressed tendencies, even when we go to monasteries or holy temples, holy places, they just burst out waiting for a right opportunity to manifest themselves. We have to be extremely aware of these things. So anyway, what is the first thing? Fearlessness. What is the second thing? Purity. Develop more sattva guna. Spiritual progress is nothing but a journey from a lower state of consciousness to a higher state of consciousness. From a lower state of joy to a higher state of joy. What does it mean? From tamas to rajas to sattva guna and then go beyond the sattva guna. This is called sattva samshuddhi. Sattva means purity. Samshuddhi means cleansing, removing obstructions, keeping only the pure thoughts. Jnana yoga vyavasthiti. That discriminating power. What is it? I have come for this purpose. Let me not waste my time. I have to remember God. I don't know when death is going to come. So I have to keep this my goal and my path and what this mind is doing always in view and strive to the best of my ability. This is called jnana yoga vyavasthiti. Then dhanam, charity, philanthropy. Either physically if we have things, if we don't have things, speak gently, sweetly, give consolation. Even if we cannot do that, pray for them wholeheartedly. So pray for them and nothing is lost. We are not losing anything. So it will do tremendous amount of good to ourselves without dhana, without charity, without caring and sharing. If anybody foolishly thinks that I am making progress and quite a number of devotees, they do not have this tendency. Everything they want to keep for their own family but they want to progress because they do a little more japam, a little more meditation and rituals. They are highly satisfied that the Divine Lord laughs in front of them and says that you be happy with your things. Ramakrishna has passed remarks. In fact, Swami Shardananda reminds us in his great master. What does he say? He says a person's spirituality, a person's devotion to God is to be measured by the amount of detachment from money, how much he spends for religious, spiritual and helping other people's purpose. This is the only one. Whatever else he does, this is the right testament. It is the right type of test whether a person has acquired true spirituality or not. That's why dhanam. Dhamaha is well known. Dhamaha means shama dhamaha, external control of our physical body, control of our external circumstances, reacting to them in the right way. That is called dhamaha. And controlling of our inner organs, meaning mind, our desires, our tendencies, etc. That is called shama. But here we are dhanam dhamaha. Yagnaha. Transform the whole life as we discussed in the 4th chapter, especially more than 12 yagnas. The whole life must be converted somehow or other into a sacrifice. What is the sacrifice? That nothing belongs to me, everything belongs to God and I must recognize that everything belongs to God and behave as if everything belongs to God including my own self. This is called yagna. Swadhyaya. The word swadhyaya has two meanings. Swadhyaya means study of the scriptures in the right way with the right light. What is the right light? The teachings of, for example, the life and teachings of Sri Ramakrishna, Holy Mother and Swami Vivekananda. This is the light through which we have to study any scripture and understand those teachings of the scripture in the light of these lives of these holy people. Or there would be a guru, a teacher, his life and his interpretation. Religions often become fanatical, decline, not only they do not produce saints but they produce demons all in the name of God, all in the name of religion, all in the name of scripture. You open your eyes, you will see that so many religions are fanatical accepting my religion, my book, my prophet, my Jesus, my Rama, my Krishna, my Devi, my Shakti. There is no salvation. Before Sri Ramakrishna's advent, Hinduism was fighting a numberless sects, each claiming his own sect to be the supreme and fighting with each other. He came and showed the right way. You follow your own faith but do not disturb anybody else because sincerely followed, every sect, every faith leads to the same goal. So the scriptures have to be studied. Any person who doesn't study the scriptures, he is likely to lead a go wrong. But then how long? Well, a time will come, our own mind acts like an unfailing guide. Until that time, we require first of all the guidance of a living human being. After some time, the scriptures which by then we have understood because we have heard this teacher for a long time, after practicing, our own mind develops an intuitive power and it will never allow to go as wrong. So this is the study of the scriptures which at the end of this chapter, the Lord enumerates beautifully, emphasizes he who giving up scriptures tries to live his life in accordance with his own understanding he neither attains the other world and loses also this world. He will be neither happy in this world much less in the other world. So very important, that is what is called Swadhyaya. That is the first meaning. The second meaning is Swadhyaya, study, constantly observe. Am I doing the right thing? Am I doing anything bad? Every spiritual aspirant should become an objective observer of himself or herself. If he doesn't do it most of us are likely to go wrong and we end up into the chair of a psychologist or psychiatrist and then spend lot of money. What does he do? He acts, he observes us and he points out. If we only have tried to observe ourselves we would have avoided lot of inconvenience and we would have saved quite a pretty amount of money. That's why my saying is very important. No genuine spiritual aspirant will ever become a mental case and a person with a mental illness is never a spiritual aspirant. Take it for granted. There is no controversy about it. This is a given fact, axiomatic truth. Okay. Swadhyaya. Tapa. Some amount of austerity. Tapa means austerity. Some amount of austerity. So there are two types of austerities. If it is cold, if it is hot, noisy, disturbing, gonda type of neighbors or the other countries disturbing some other country and all these things, everywhere we get according to our prarabdha karma or our karma actions done in the very past. So these are, we will be wiser people to accept them as inescapable facts of life and develop a mentality to live with them in harmony and try to do our best. That is one type. Second type of austerity is voluntarily, even though I don't need to do, voluntarily refrain from certain types of foods or too much eating, too less eating, too much activity, too less of activity, too much of study, too less of study, too much of talk, too less of talk, etc. Golden mean has to be evolved and that is what is called tapah. Tapah means accepting life, taking advantage of it and moving forward. Then arjavam. Arjavam means straightforwardness. Never go on giving misunderstanding through words, etc. to expressions. Always we do it. Sometimes I also think it is the right thing to do. Supposing somebody comes to meet us or meet you, then you don't like that person. You can't straightaway to the face say, I don't like you. A person need not be a stranger. It could be persons whom you know very well, you have to live all the time and you have developed some dislike for whatever reason. You can't go on straight say that I hate you, you are a bad person, etc. But you must evolve certain ways how you can avoid that person without hurting him. Slowly, slowly, if you think about it, then slowly your own intuition will tell you and after sometime that person also understands that I don't, I think I am not wanted and I also don't like that person. Definitely, they will drop off such one. So, straightforwardness without deceiving others, without making others think something other than what we intend to convey. But at the same time, not encouraging them, not avoiding them wherever, whenever, for whatever time length is needed, trying to avoid them. That is an art and God gives us that intelligence for us to develop or develop solitude. In the beginning, there is a very good chance that such people, they misunderstand, they criticize us, they think we are heartless, they think we are black gods, they think that we are arrogant, we are unspiritual, full of pride, doesn't matter. That is somehow, we must bring about a balance. Later on, the Divine Lord Himself will create these situations which are favorable for us. So, straightforwardness means what? Do not think crookedly. Do not deceive other people. Do not tell lies, etc. So, that also we will see soon. Straightforwardness, what you think, what you feel and you should try to express it in some way without hurting others. Ahimsa. Ahimsa means injury. Ahimsa means we must in our thought, in our words, speech and through deeds, we should try to be as harmless as anybody else. Then, Sathyam. Sathyam means truthfulness. Truth speaking in the end leads us to truth seeking. This is the greatest virtue. Where there is truth, everything is there. There is God. Because truth is another name for God. Instead of saying God is truth, we have to tell truth is God. That's what Mahatma Gandhi used to say. But at the same time, what is truth? Sathyam bruhyat. Speak truth. Na bruhyat sathyam apriyam. Power speak a truth which is unfavorable, which is harmful to other people. Not only, sometimes we translate it as unpleasant. If I speak straightforward, many people take offense. But that is not bigger harm. A true meaning is whatever is beneficial for the other person. Even if it is a so called lie, harmless lie, a fib, that's good. So this is what we have to develop. Sathyam. Akrodhaha. Not getting angry, not becoming temperamental, not to be short tempered, but slowly absorbing everything with serenity, with equanimity. Because krodha is one of the three doorways if you remember. Thyagaha. Anyway things leave us. We have to develop the art. Whatever is not necessary, slowly give it up. Thyagaha. Shantihi. Keep the mind peaceful, unruffled whatever be the circumstances. They may be favorable, they may bring in joy. Don't get up, up and down. Let not your blood pleasure go up. If things are not favorable, let not the blood pleasure build up. Both, you enjoy them. Nobody can escape suffering also. But through mental attitude, right mental attitude, we can only be going up and down. Very small amount, predictable amount, not uncontrollable amount. Controlled anger, controlled equanimity, that is Shantihi. Apayushunam. Vishunathwa means demonic qualities. That if somebody offends me or sometimes they don't even know that they have offended because if somebody doesn't speak to us, if somebody doesn't give what we are expecting them to give us or whether they intend it or not, we take offense. We become demons. We try to pull them and the worst of such thing is criticizing people behind their backs. This is the worst demonic quality. There are other demonic qualities but this is the worst. Especially to speak something behind other people when they are not there to defend or to justify or to explain. Apayushunam. Vishunathwa. This is the animalness. Do not, let us not degenerate, become animals even though we are having the human dress. Then Bhuteshu. Apayushunam Bhuteshu. We should not be cruel to any creature on that world. Then Bhuteshu Daya. Towards everybody we should have compassion. Daya means compassion. Aloluptam. We should not be greedy for anything in this world. Mardavam means sweetness, softness. Speak softly. Think sweetly. Behave softly. Then people like it. We all like a person who is very sweet even if he cannot help us. Harihi. Sufficient modesty. Hari means modesty. What is modesty? We may be having tremendous qualities. Some tremendous manifestation of extraordinary qualities. It may be scholarship. It may be the ability to solve problems scientifically or religiously, spiritually or in any way. May be great artist but let us remember it all comes from God and God is manifesting. Nothing of that belongs. Our body doesn't belong to us. Mind doesn't belong. Nothing belongs to us. So we should always be modest. What is the modesty? Humility. What is humility? All this is possible only by God's grace. That is called humility. Achayapalam. Achayapalam means restlessness. Achayapalam means behaving like a monkey. Swami Vivekananda used to say every human being's mind is like a monkey. Normally a monkey is very restless. If you observe it, it cannot sit quiet for a long time. Then this monkey is stung by a scorpion. Imagine, what is its condition? And added to that, it is drunk. It is a drunk wine. You imagine now, what is its restlessness? And finally it is possessed by a demon. Who can describe such a monkey's state of mind? And this is what every human mind is. By nature, mind is restless. It is stung by the scorpion of jealousy. It is drunk with full of desires. And finally it is possessed by the demon of pride, ahankara, egotism. Even a child also sometimes gets what we call offended even many times. But it passes quickly. In us, we can keep this offense lifelong. Somebody has not spoken to us. Somebody has spoken not well. Somebody did not look at us. Somebody did not smile. Somebody did not welcome. I know personally a case where a friend came and the hostess was busy with a religious event and so she did not welcome. And thereafterwards, lifelong enmity, that lady, I was not received. I was not welcomed. I was not told. I am so happy to see you. I am so glad he should have told like that. And that lady expressed it. Anyway, these are the things. Achayapuram. Tejaha. One must have tremendous amount of power. Others should not take advantage of us. Kshama. Many people offend us. But we should have the capacity to forgive and forget. Forgetting is very important. We forgive but we don't forget. That's very bad. Dhrithi. Tremendous willpower. Whatever we set ourselves as our goal until we reach. Stop not till the goal is reached. Arise, awake and stop not till the goal is reached. Shavacham. Internal and external purity. Adroha. Never betray the trust of other people. Na atimanitha. Too much of arrogance to Arjuna. He who is humble. Who has all these nearly 26 qualities and such a person. When you see these qualities you will have to understand that he is born of divine nature. Very soon he will attain me and very soon he will become liberated but others have to strive for them. Only one note I want to insert here. As I said earlier all these qualities may not be manifesting but they all come together and they all go together. I will speak about it in my next class in little bit details. May Ramakrishna, Holy Mother and Swami Vekananda bless us all with Bhakti. May Ramakrishna.