Patanjali Yoga Sutras Lecture 013

Full Transcript(Not Corrected)

Oṁ sa nāvavatu, sa ha nāubhūnaktu, sa ha vīryam karavāvaye tejasvi nāvadhītamastu mā vidviṣāvaye Oṁ śāntiḥ śāntiḥ śāntiḥ Oṁ yogena cittasya padena vācāṁ malam śarīrasya ca vaidhyakena upākarottam pravaram munīnām patanjaliṁ prāñjali rāna toṣme 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. Aum, peace, peace, peace be unto all. We are discussing the yoga aphorisms of Patanjali. In our last class we briefly discussed what is the way to attain to the mastery of yoga. Yoga means perfect mastery over our own mind. Yoga by implication also means that we have a crystal clear knowledge of the self, not merely intellectual knowledge but identification. Just as naturally we feel I am this, so naturally we feel that I am the ātman, I am the divine, I am not the body and mind, we feel crystal clear. That is called real yoga. So how to attain to that state? Intellectually we know many many things but in practice we are extremely deficient. So how to get to that state? If a teaching is given by an eminent sage, that teaching must be somehow put into practice. So how did that sage attain to that state? He must have practiced it and what he practiced through that practice he proved that this is a right way and he continues. In fact what we say is that what we are taught is nothing new, it has been coming down the ages, proved again and again and again by so many people. But the ultimate proof is not others but we ourselves. The ultimate proof is we ourselves. This is the greatness of Vedanta or yoga or any system of Indian philosophy. They never ask us merely to believe for the sake of believing. They always ask us, we must have some belief even to follow, you see, but that much only is the practical usefulness of faith. After that it has to be proved, is it right? Do what they say, is it true? Does it tally? What does my own experience really mean? See, yoga means perfect mastery of the mind and in that order when the mind is completely mastered, that means we think, we speak and we do according to our desire, not driven even unconsciously by something which is called the mind, conscious mind or unconscious mind. When we attain to that state, naturally the question comes, detachment comes. Knowledge always means detachment. If I know this table then along with the knowledge of the table two things come. What is it? This is a table and I know this is a table. That means whatever I know is not me. Whatever I know is not me. Then what about myself? Do I have knowledge of myself? Yes, but that's a totally different type of knowledge. That's not knowing myself, that is being myself. That's why I never say I want to know about myself. I always know about myself. I don't need to know about myself. Even to say that I want to know, first I have to be. Only then the first proposition. Let me illustrate. Midnight, pitch dark, there is no other light. Can you see anything? Now if you want to see, what is the first thing that is necessary? Bring some light, throw the light. Without throwing light, we are unable to see anything, is it not? Conventionally speaking, that's the right answer, but that's not really the right answer. The right answer, what is the first requirement? Me. I have to be there and I have to be totally alert, awake, not half drunk. Only then it is possible, because I am the light. It is only everything depends upon me. This is a wonderful philosophy. The whole universe, whether God exists or not, even that depends upon whom? Upon me. First I come and then even God comes. Anything else comes. What is the point here? What is mastery? First the moment we come to know, this is something I know, that knowledge itself brings the separation. I am totally different from what I know. So I know my body. If you know your body, you are not your body. I know my mind. We use this expression very often. I know myself or my doctor knows me better than me. What does the doctor know better than me? He knows only what is not me. He doesn't know what is me. And when I say I know myself better, who is this I who knows? And what is it that it knows? It is not the Atman. It is the body and mind. Language betrays this idea. That is why we are so totally confused. Who are you? I am so and so. So how are you? I am not well. What is the matter? My stomach, tummy is aching. You said you are not well. Now next you say my tummy is aching. What is the relationship between you and your tummy? If you say my, I and my are totally opposed to things. This is such a simple thing and yet so difficult to understand. My house, do you ever say I am the house? Do you ever say this is my book? Do you ever say that I am this book? If you and what is yours is one and the same, then it is a very dangerous proposition, very foolish proposition. Always I and my are totally opposed like light and darkness and yet we get so much confused. What is matter? I am not well. My tummy is aching. I am not well. My mind is worried. That means we are identifying ourselves with what is not ours and claiming what is their property as my property. This is called ignorance. It is so clear and yet so hard. Anyway, what is yoga? To feel I am the Atman. I am the Purusha or I am divine and everything else is a curious thing happens, you know. If I know I am divine, do you know what happens then? Then I see everything as divine. Let me dwell a moment upon this subject. If I am identified with my body, then I see everything in the perspective of a body. If I am conscious of my body, I see everything else in perspective of a body. Oh! It is a beautiful body, ugly body, small body, big body. I can thrash. No, that fellow will thrash me etc. etc. If I think myself as mind, then I also judge everything as in terms of a mind. We always judge the world in terms of what we ourselves are. Let me give some examples. If I am miser, how do you think I judge the whole world? From the viewpoint of miser. Whoever gives me is a slightly generous fellow. Not as generous as me but not bad. If I am a critic, then is there anybody in whom I will find anything noble, elevating, good? So, if I am frightened person, if I am a coward, then I see the whole world only in that respect. You see, if someone is very courageous, then I admire that fellow. Whenever you admire something, you try to find out why am I admiring this person. Let me give a spiritual illustration also. Of all the devotees, why do you come to this Vedanta Center? Why do you listen to the talks? Because you have an idea about spiritual life. I am not saying that you are perfect but you want to be spiritual. You want to know what is spirituality. That is why you are coming to the Vedanta Center. Other people do not come because they say what is this blah blah business. We can go to cinema, we can go to you know chit chat. They can do anything excepting coming here and spending. This is not my experience. This is Ramakrishna's experience. Some devotees bring worldly people with them. They are so eager to meet Ramakrishna. After a few minutes, those people whom those devotees had, but they are not devotees, they say when shall we go from here. They are becoming restless and then the devotees say, no, no, let us wait a little. He is talking nice things. Let us hear. And then after some time, they say, no, what we will do? We will go and wait for you on the boat. Instead of what are you going to do on the boat? We will go on looking at the sky, at the birds, at the things floating on the river, etc., etc. But they are not, why? They are not interested and we are what we are interested in. We are exactly what we are interested. What does that indicate? Whatever we are interested in for the moment will be identified. There is a deep spiritual truth in this statement. We have to be very careful to understand this. Why? Because our whole personality depends upon what we are interested in. Everything we see from our perspective only. This is one of the first points we have to understand. We look at the world from our own particular perspective and what is that perspective depends upon what I am interested in. A cook is interested in things cookery. A person interested in the body is interested in, he judges the whole world only, beautiful, ugly. A person, you know, a cricket fan, for him everything, even his memory. I told you many times, young people come and say, Swami, my memory is gone. I study so hard, I enter into the examination hall and everything goes, remains outside. Then I enter into the examination hall, all my knowledge, that means what I read, studied, remains outside and when I go out, then they fall upon me and I know everything. But in the examination hall, everything is blank. But then how to improve that, my memory? Then I go on diverting, talking this and that and say, you know that 10 years back that cricket match, yes Swami, I know, he recites this from his grandfather, great-grandfather, how many runs he had made, perfect memory. How come? Because that person was deeply interested in that particular game. We are also guided by our impressions, our samskaras and those samskaras make us, make up our personality and according to our personality, we look at the world only in the light of our personality. That's why we use these words, worldly person, spiritual person. Very important to understand this, who is a worldly person? Is a worldly person who is in the world? Where does the spiritual person live? Does he live in a special world? Somewhere outside this world? Where did Shri Ram Krishna live? Where did Jesus Christ live? Where did Buddha live? Where did any saint live in this very world? And for them, the winter, the autumn and the summer season, the rainy season, are they different? Exactly as we have. There were sages, you know, when the wars were going on, there were sages, saints. Everything was going on exactly, it will go on exactly like this, it won't change. Who is a worldly person then and who is a spiritual person? What do you mean by worldly person? A married person, even a married, there are married persons who are great saints like Nag Mahasaya, M, Ramchandra Datta, you know, we may not give so much importance to them, but they were such great spiritual people. Whereas, literally hundreds of thousands of monks and nuns living in monasteries, worthless fellows, they are actually deceiving themselves, they are also deceiving the world because they put a special dress, but they don't lead, they don't have any interest in spiritual life. There are thousands of people, hardly you see in a thousand maybe one or two who are mildly interested in spiritual life. You live with them, you see what they are doing. Observe for one day, two days, you will understand the truth. What is the point? Whatever we are interested in, that's our personality and we always look at this world from that personality, personal viewpoint only. So, we have to understand who is a worldly person, not one who lives in the world, not who does, discharges all the duties of the world, but a person who looks at the world in a spiritual way. He is a spiritual person and a person may be pretending to be a spiritual person, but looks at everything in a worldly way, attached to worldly objects. He is a worldly person. Otherwise, you know, you see a person dressing in an ochre cloth and doing japa, prayer, meditation and you can mistake he's a spiritual person. Whereas another person, you don't see him doing all those things, but he is kind, he is compassionate, he is loving and he looks upon everything as divine dispensation. Who is spiritual then? Can we judge? This is another point also. To judge somebody else, we must have, we must be in the same shoes as we say. If you are not spiritual, you cannot find out who is spiritual. That's why there is an interesting thing, you know, if you want to catch a thief, there is a saying, you know, set a thief to catch another thief, because only one thief can recognize another thief. You see, what am I talking about? Spirituality or worldliness are not how we dress and what we do, but how we live, what attitude we have. That is called spiritual life. A person who is a spiritual person called yogi and through yoga is that path which helps him to become a yogi. Yoga means these two points. What are those two points? First of all, he has a thorough knowledge of the mind and he is a master of the mind. Second, he knows I am not the mind, I am master of the mind means I am totally separate from the mind. That is our goal. How to become yogis? How to master the mind and how to attain to self-knowledge, to know who we really are. What is the path? The path is in four aphorisms. Yogi Patanjali said in our last class, we started with this. How to first of all attain mastery over the mind? Says, Abhyasa Vairagyabhyam Tan Nirodhaha. The control of the thought waves is by practice and non-attachment, repeated practice and non-attachment. Now he goes on defining what is this practice and what is called dispassion or detachment. Abhyasa and Vairagyam. Abhyasa means go on doing it. In this connection we have to remember the Indian context. You know Indians believe that we are not this. This is not our only life. This is not our first life. This is one of the series of millions of lives we had in the past. We are what we are by what we did in our past. That is why our bodies are different, our environments are different, our circumstances are different, our fortunes are different, everything is different. None, not two of us are the same. Even if they are twins, even they could be diametrically opposed like Ramanasura and Vibhishana. So this is Hindu belief we have to keep in mind. When we say, when anyone asks, when am I going to become a yogi? The answer is or how am I going to be a yogi? Abhyasa and Vairagyam, repeated practice. How long? The next question is how long? One hour? Ten years? Hundred years? He says the answer is never given in terms of particular number. He says until you reach. How long should I practice? Until you reach the goal. And when am I going to reach the goal? And when you do this repetition coupled with dispassion then you are going to reach that goal. It may take hundreds of thousands of lives. Oh my god! Your one class itself is taking one hour and now I have to attend. Again in next life also I have to attend. If necessary yes, you will have to attend. You see, how long should you have tuition? How long do you need to have tuition? Until you develop intuition, you need to have tuition. Until we reach the goal. Once we reach the goal, end of the matter. We dealt in our last class in look more details about this. So I'm just recollecting what we have already done. But through repeated practice there is no other way and coupled with dispassion. There may be practice but there is no dispassion. You are not going anywhere. In that there is a beautiful story worth recalling. Once a few drunkards got into a boat at night after nicely drinking and they wanted to have a good time. So they started rowing. Whole night they rowed. Early morning both the light also had come. Intoxication also became less. And where did they find themselves? Exactly in the same place and whole night they were doing Abhyasa. But then what happened? They have not become detached. They did not detach the boat. The boat was still moved to the Ghat. So these both are necessary. You may be having dispassion but you do not practice. It is a great mistake we commit again and again. Let me just dwell a moment upon this. You know there are times even if we are not that deeply spiritual, there are times when we feel an inner urge to pray, to meditate, to read good things. This urge comes to all of us. Even to the most worldly person because he is also divine really speaking. But somehow because of habit, because of the pressure of the society, he neglects those things. Okay I will do it. I feel like doing it. I will do when I get time. And especially in young people you know they say now I am young let me work hard and let me earn some nice amount of tidy amount some of money then let me retire and after that day and night I will only think about God. See such a thing is never going to happen. It is like trying to take a bath in the sea and all the waves have subsided. And there is no guarantee we are going to live that long. The next moment may be end of our life. So one of these cardinal golden rules is when you feel the urge put it into practice as soon as possible. So you may be having dispassion but if you do not have practice that won't work. Our greatest bugbear is practice. We take so much resolution. The greatest example would be, best example would be New Year's Resolution. Year is going to come. So one man was asked what is your New Year's Resolution this time? He said this time my New Year's Resolution is to put into practice my last New Year's Resolution. How many times we fail. We have that I want to do it but we fail. Why we fail? Because of many reasons. One reason is we expect immediate results. I am sincere and I want to think of God and I seek all sincerity but I do not have that common sense to understand that it needs a long time practice to really steady the mind. The moment mind becomes restless, my mind is restless. I cannot control it. What is the point of sitting and wasting my time? Better go and read some newspaper or chit-chat to somebody. This is how devil tempts us. Devil tempts us. This looks like reasonable thoughts. You are simply wasting your time here my friend. We tell to ourselves. You are not able to control your mind. Why are you wasting your time? Go and read some nice book. It will give inspiration. But the point is the moment you start reading a good book that bores you. So I am getting bored. Let me read something interesting. Do you know what is interesting? Do you know what is interesting? That which changes fast is interesting. Whatever doesn't change is very boring unless we have tremendous interest in a particular subject. So practice without dispassion or detachment will not help and having dispassion without practice also will not help. Last class I gave the example if you remember. What was the example? A blind man and a lame man. You remember? Blind man cannot walk but cannot see. A lame man cannot walk but can see. But both of them want to go to the same place. What is the best way? Let the lame man guide the blind man. Let the blind man help the lame man. This is two wings of the bird. That is why we say Abhyasa and Vairagya. This was the answer given also by Ramakrishna. He gives lot of examples. You know a woman in the circus running on a horse. One foot. That is so many examples are there. Holy mother used to give an example. Somebody asked how can I progress in spiritual life? Somebody presented her an alarm clock, table clock and it was ticking. You know nowadays not electronic, digital. Tick, tick, tick. How long does this tick? Every day 24 hours it is going on ticking. If you also remember God exactly in the same way then Japa Siddhi. You will attain perfection. So Abhyasa, Vairagya, Abhyam, Tannirodhaha. Control of the mind or thoughts can be obtained through repeated practice and coupled with dispassion. Then Tatrasthito Yatna Abhyasaha. What is practice? Definition of practice. What is it? When we sit to practice something so many obstacles would arise. The mind becomes restless. We start scratching. But the moment I ask someone to sit quietly all sorts of itching starts all over the body. Have you noticed? Including the bottom of the foot. I don't know it's very peculiar. Why does it start? There is no discernible reason why it should start because you are perfectly all right for one hour. As long as I have been talking this and that and joking you had no problem absolutely. The moment you are asked to sit on your own all these aches and itches and everything starts. Is it psychosomatic or is it merely physical? What is it? I take a vow. I will not get up until I realize the truth. Buddha was an example. Swami Vivekananda very often used to say. He tried so many methods. He was not attaining illumination. You know what he did then? He sat down under a tree. That tree later on came to be called Bodhi tree. He did not attain illumination. Bodhi means illumination. The tree of illumination. The tree of illumination. He did not attain illumination because he sat under the tree called illumination. The tree is called illumination tree because Buddha attained illumination under that particular tree. So he got disgusted. Why am I not attaining this illumination? He said I will sit down here. I will not get up. In fact the the thing that he said was very very interesting. You know what he said? He said, let this body become completely dried up on this body. This skin, the bones, the sinews etc. Let them turn into dust. He says, without getting illumination Naivasanat Kaayam Atah Chalishyate. This body is not going to get up from this seat until I attain illumination. And it is at that very night he attained illumination. This is this kind of determination should be there. In our case what is it? He also mentioned very important. When we take initiation from a Guru we are actually, we are promising to the Guru that I surrender myself to you and whatever you instruct me to do I will do it. It is taking a vow in front of God to my Guru that I will do what you instructed me to do. That is the meaning of initiation. Simply take initiation and run away. What is the point in it? You do when you feel like doing it. That is no good at all. Nobody is ever going to attain any success in anything with this kind of mind. So Tatrasthito Yatna Abhyasa. What is it? You become firm like a rock and say I will do come whatever. Let it be rain, let it be heat, let it be anything I will not deviate from my path. What about restlessness? Let the mind be restless. What does it matter? Anyway it is restless. By getting up it is not going to be less restless. In fact it is going to be more restless. Simply say I am a man and I can do what I like and we see so many brilliant examples before us. Some people they have met accidents. They lost their limbs. In the beginning maybe they were a little bit depressed. You know so many people after that they think why should I be a slave to this depression? I will use my life in some way. Then so many people are doing so many good things because of these accidents that happen. It is wonderful to you just open your eyes and see how many good things are happening everywhere. There are so many British and USA people. They are good people. They go to Iraq, they go to Iran, they go to Afghanistan. In spite of the fear of losing their lives they want to do some service to the needy people there and many times they are killed also. But does that discourage other people? So spiritual life needs tremendous amount of grit. That's very necessary. Then Tremendous effort to sit and do the practice that is called Abhyasa. There is one definition of Abhyasa. And then last class I have come to this aphorism and I stopped it. This practice becomes firm. When does the practice become firm? When it becomes automatic. You don't need to say oh I have to do it. When you get up early in the morning, a simple example is what is the first thing that you do? Brush the teeth. Why do you brush the teeth? Were you born with the teeth? You did not have even teeth when you were born. And how did you learn this habit? Because from the very beginning our parents went on telling us it's good to brush the teeth and etc. So when does this practice become firm? How do we know? Because when we don't need to put any effort. Like you are driving. How long do you put attention due to your driving, learning driving until it becomes automatic. Sometimes it doesn't become automatic. That's why accidents happen. So Dhrida Bhumihi means absolutely firm habit. Until practice becomes such a habit, if we do not do it, we feel unhappy about it. When do we attain to that state? That's where it is written. Dheergha Kaala, long time. What do you mean by long time? How long time is a long time? How long is a long time? Just I mentioned few minutes before, it could be lives together. Sri Ramakrishna illustrates these aphorisms in his own unique way without directly referring to it. Once two practitioners were sitting and the sage Narada was going to Vaikuntha. It was an Indian tale. One sage was going to meet God. So these two people know Narada has always what is called a hot line to God. So where are you going? I'm going to God. And can you, we have a request for you. What is it? Can you ask God when is he going to reveal himself to us? He said yes, I will ask him and bring back the answer. And after some time he was returning by the same way and these two people saw. Immediately the first one asked, Narada did you ask my question? Yes. What did God reply? God said you have to be born once more and practice all these spiritual disciplines. At the end of the next life you will have the vision of God. This man immediately fell down on the earth and started sobbing. Oh my God! Already I have wasted so much of my time taking God's name. One more life. You see one more life has become so much for him. Anyway Narada said I don't know. I'm sorry. This is what God's reply. And he passed to the next man. The next man asked exactly the same question. Then Narada replied. He said you are sitting under a tamarind tree. As many leaves are there on this tree so many times you have to be reborn. Only then God will reveal himself to you. As soon as the man heard he jumped up in joy and said so soon. So soon I will have the mercy of God. Oh my God! How merciful you are. It's a wonderful what is called parable. These are not mere stories. They are meant to contain deep truths to tell us something very deep. For the first man spiritual practice as you can understand is a painful affair. So somehow finish this duty like drinking Kashaya. You know in Indian Ayurvedic medication is called Kashaya. Kashaya means very very bitter drink. That is the cure according to Ayurvedic system. Mostly it is like that. Whereas homeopathic is very good. First of all it's small pill and it's sugar coated. What is the point? For this second man spiritual practice is the greatest joy. So I will have an opportunity to be enjoying the name of God for another you know million million times. The more opportunity the better for me because his whole attitude is I love God and when I love God I derive the greatest joy out of taking God's name. In fact spiritual life only starts when we start enjoying spiritual practice which is God or anything it doesn't matter what name you give. Enjoy. This second person he was told like that and he started jumping up in joy and dancing and immediately God came and said I am pleased with your devotion to me. Devotion means love with your love for me. This is a wonderful story we have to meditate upon. Whenever you are inclined to think how long am I going to meditate always remember this story. So long time and long time means what? Every day. Every day means what? Morning five minutes and evening five minutes. So how long every day? Five minutes? Ten minutes? 24 hours? Nairantarya. There should not be one millisecond gap. That is the meaning of Nairantarya. Nirantara. Antara means gap. Nirantara means no gap at all. Is it possible? Yes it is possible and in fact we are all doing it. 24 hours a day we are meditating. Do you know upon what we are meditating? When did you, when do you ever lose the idea that I am not the body? When do you lose? Even during sleep also there is that idea. How do we know? Autonomous nervous system. If a mosquito bites you, suppose we are sleeping side by, you and me side by side. Mosquito bites you. Will I slap your body? But if the same mosquito bites me then I slap my body. Instinctively, autonomously I do it. What does that show? That shows I am identified with my body even unconsciously. That is the truth. So Nairantarya. No gap should be there. We already have that we are perfect Samadhi people. We are already in a state of Samadhi but our Samadhi is wrong identification. I am so and so. This idea never leaves us but that is a wrong identification. Now we have to turn to the right identification. How do we know that our identification is wrong? We know because we experience grief, misery, imperfection, dissatisfaction, unhappiness. Whenever we experience unhappiness we have to remind ourselves that is because of our wrong identification. Again the same reasoning. If you are suffering, do I suffer? Why? Because I am not identified with you. I do not say I am you. Only if I am identified with this particular body and mind I say I am this and anything that happens and it happens, it will happen. Why? Because it is the nature of change. The body will change. The mind also. 24 hours. It's an interesting thought. When is the body not changing? Does it change once a year on birthday? You know everybody happy birthday. How old are you? You should not ask how old are you. 35, 36. So because of our identity we are constantly identified ourselves. Is it not? How did we come to have this identification? Tell me. How did we come to have this identification? Has it fallen from the sky? Because we have practiced it. I'll give simple examples. Who are you? I am the child of swans. Who are your parents? These are my parents. How did you know they are your parents? This is the point. From the birth you are saying this is my mother, this is my mother, this is my mother, this is my father etc. etc. etc. Is it not? So how did you know that you are the body? Because from Anadi Kaala, from long since birth we have been identifying this is me, this is me. When I was a mosquito, was I a mosquito? Yes, I was. Were you mosquitoes? Yes, you were mosquitoes. This is the truth. We have been practicing I am this body. Whichever body comes, I am this body. We have been practicing. It has become. I am male, I am male, I am male, I am female, I am female. This idea is there on and on. We know that the power of repeated practice. This is what we are. A worried person. How does a person become worried? Just one whole life he was cheerful and one day suddenly he finds himself worried. Does it happen? Goes on. Oh I am worried, I am worried, I am worried and after some time it becomes a habit. We are all creatures of habits. In Sanskrit this is called samskara. We are all creatures of samskaras, bundles of samskaras, bundles of habits. The way we look at, the food we eat, the way we talk to people. You know I'll give funny examples. They're wonderful thoughts these are. You know when I came to this country, let me give an example. You know I used to go to Germany after Swami Bhavyananda's passing away. I used to go every year to conduct retreat in Germany in a beautiful place Badenheim. So at that time I was not very much trained in this western etiquette. So they arranged some cooks to supply the food. Cook and serve. So once this lady came and said give me a little curry. Immediately she corrected me. Give me a little curry please. I accepted it because that is how did, I don't have that habit but how did that habit come? Thank you habit. You know Indians never thank you. They say thank you. In India you don't see this idea. You know a mother has taken up to clean the plate of the child. The child doesn't say thank you mom. The mom also doesn't say thank you to the child. This is, we take it for granted. These are all local you know habits. But the moment you come here the child, what do you say? What do I give a chocolate? And the mother immediately, what do you say? What do you say? Should I say I want another chocolate? Or should I say thank you? They have to say, say thank you, say thank you. After some time it becomes a habit. Then now it comes to me, thank you, thank you. What is the point we are discussing? And Hindus have this theory, it's better to know. We are the result of what we did in the past. We deliberately did certain actions. Actions means thoughts and words, speech and also actions. All these things combined, they produce what we call a particular type of samskara or impression in the mind. And that impression carries on in the next birth, producing the appropriate body. Let me explain. Suppose there is a person who is not a musician, wants to become a musician. So he goes on practicing music. But his voice is not at all good. What happens in the next birth? His desire and his practice. Now it has become a impression, strong impression. That very impression creates the body. Not only that, where is he going to be born? If somebody has a strong desire to be a musician, where do you think he'll be born? He will be born in such a family where there is an opportunity for his desire to flower, to manifest. And there he will be born. Maybe in that life also he has to go on, he or she has to go on practicing. Then constantly thus going on making stronger and stronger impression and better and better instrument. Ultimately a life will come where that person's body, his lungs, his or her lungs, the sound, voice and the opportunity, everything comes. I am deviating a lot from my subject but these are very important things for us to understand. You know in India for example, here also, everywhere, there are so many wonderful musicians. We know some musicians who are very famous, very popular. But there are other musicians who are probably even better than these musicians. But they are not recognized in this life. Somehow recognition comes only to these few. It's called what we call luck. Luck here, not lottery ticket, you know. Every month lottery ticket. What is lottery ticket? Accident. Something you know, you buy something, there is a chance and you will get that chance. Vedanta doesn't believe it. If you deserve it, it will come. You must have done some meritorious actions in the previous birth and as a result of that, God, there is God who is keeping your accounts and because of those accounts, this is what we call, you know, Thakore Richa, we call it. The will of God. What do you mean by will of God? He is a capricious person. An interesting incident, you know. Capricious. Swami Vignanananda was one of the direct disciples of Sri Ramakrishna. He used to live in a place called Allahabad and there was a homeopathic dispensary and one day he employed one homeopathic doctor and one day the servant came running and said, Swami, today the doctor has not turned up. Swami said, no matter. Are there patients? Yes, there are 40-50 patients are there. He said, I am coming in few minutes. He went there. You know, in those days, one small room, all the small homeopathic bottles and there is a window, like your train ticket window, like that window will be there. So he stood behind it, called the fellows, come here. The fellow came, opened his mouth to describe his symptoms. He said, keep quiet. Simply Jai Ramakrishna. He closed his eyes, put his hand. Wherever his hand touched whichever bottle, he gave that bottle. In five minutes, all 50 people is cleared. Next day, all of them propagated by one dose of Swami's that we are all cured of our disease and they advised a lot of people, by word of mouth, you know, you also go to the Swami. But by that time the old doctor had come back. What was the point? Was it capriciousness? No. The patients that day must have been done, must have done a lot of meritorious act to be able to come on that particular day when the doctor was absent. So they must have deserved. It is nothing happens by accident. We all believe in it. That's why one of the fundamental doctrines of Vedanta is everything happens by the will of God. You surrender yourself to the will of God. Then what happens? A new way of thinking. What happens? God is not a capricious person, just he likes to do whatever he likes. No. He does exactly according to our the karma, the action we had performed in the past. He gives exactly, he goes, he never breaks those rules. Rarely he breaks. But he does it in such a way, if without God the result comes, it may be happiness, it may be unhappiness, it may be good, it may be bad. But if you surrender yourself to God, then the same karmaphala will come. But it will, all the end result will always be good. You will be happy in this world, you will also be happy in the other world. But this we will understand only later on. That is why surrendering to God is one of the last disciplines. After expounding the whole of the Bhagavad Gita, when did Lord Krishna advise Arjuna to surrender himself? At the very end Sarvadharman Parityajya, the great Shankara is commenting on that verse. The verse says that surrender yourself to God. Do not depend upon anything else, whether your japa, your prayer, your meditation, all those yield result only depending upon the grace of God. So you don't depend upon them at all. Just because you are doing japa doesn't mean that you will attain what you have to attain. It is only the grace of God behind that really works. So this is the great Shankara comments. What is the meaning of giving up? Dharma means action because there is no dharma unassociated with action. There is no adharma unassociated with action. Suppose you think a good thought and you don't put it into practice. Does it give any result? Suppose you think a bad thought, you murder somebody but you don't really do it. Do police put you in the goal? You will not do it. Only when it is translated through an action, it yields the result. So virtue and vice. He says sarva dharma means, dharma means only righteous action. No. He says you give up dependency upon both punya and papa, both merit and demerit. Why? Because supposing you give, nobody depends upon vice, demerit because demerit always brings unhappiness as a result. And you say I keep merit for myself. What happens? To experience the result of that merit, you will have to be reborn again. And if you are reborn, there is every likelihood again you can revert back to adharma or demerit. Always there is a temptation is there. That's why he says give up totally. Doesn't mean you don't do anything. It means now whatever you have to do, you say oh lord you make me an instrument and you do what you have got to do through me. I surrender myself. What is that surrender? I give up the feeling I am the doer. That is what I give up. Not anything else. I simply fold my hands and say you do everything. No. I do everything but I do not feel I am doing it. This is called surrendering oneself to god. You will be exactly if you are an officer, you will be an officer. If you are a doctor, you will be a doctor. If you are a housewife, you will be a housewife. Everything you will be exactly as you are. But a housewife, a fisherwoman or a person who is a doctor or a scientist whatever, inside they all become spiritual, spiritually one. There will be no difference inside because they all surrendered themselves to god. Outside they go on doing it. Example you know all the direct disciples of Sri Ramakrishna. Swami Vivekananda preached. Just imagine a puzzle. If suppose Swami Subodhananda is sent to Chicago Parliament of Religions, what would have happened? Do you know what would have happened? There could have been another earthquake. Yeah this happened. Do you know this happened? So what happened? Swami Vivekananda, he introduced, he wanted to make all his brother disciples good speakers. So he made a rule. Every week one one Swami would give a speech and there was one whom we call Kokamala, Swami Subodhananda. He was a very timid type of person. Hearing that he has to give a talk, his niece started knocking down, not on the platform, after hearing the news and everybody knew his nature like a baby. So they were all more eagerly waiting for his speech. What can he do? He can't escape. Rule is a rule. So after dinner all of them gathered in a small room. They all gathered. They were all waiting with anticipation. How will be the speech? And you must understand the mental condition of Swami Subodhananda at that time. And then what happened suddenly, the biggest earthquake in 1898 or something like that had taken place. The moment he opened his mouth the whole earth started shaking. Naturally there was the whole event was closed and they all ran out and all that and Swami Vivekananda named it the earth shaking speech of Swami Subodhananda. Afterwards of course they never insisted that he should speak. So if Swami Subodhananda is sent to parliament of religion, would he have been effective? No. Suppose Swami Vivekananda, if he had been the president of the Ramakrishna order, would it have been effective? Equally it would not be effective. Why? Because his nature is different. He can command, he can rule and he can deliver what is called electrifying speeches. But you ask him to sit down and look at the day-to-day administrative jobs, he would be, he will go mad. Each one has got his own specialization, his own nature and nothing is bad. That's why in the Karma Yoga of Swami Vivekananda says each is great in his own place. A king is great on his throne. A sweeper is great as a sweeper. Ask the king to sweep then he will not be able to do a good job and ask the sweeper to sit on the throne equally it would not be good thing at all. So the greatest thing we have to understand is nothing outside changes. You surrender yourself. What do you surrender? Only that feeling I am the doer. That feeling, oh lord you are the doer, I am just an instrument and if that feeling comes God himself will do, everything will be all right. Nothing outside changes but everything will lead to that self-knowledge. So, dergha kala, long time, nairantarya, without break and satkara, with great reverence. We will talk about this subject next year. Om shanti shanti shanti