Bhagavad Gita Ch18 part 18 on 13 February 2022

Full Transcript(Not Corrected)

Om Jananim Sharadam Devim Ramakrishnam Jagadgurum Pada Padme Tayo Sritva Pranamami Mohur Mohur Om Vasudevasutam Devam Kamsachanuram Ardhanam Devaki Paramanandam Krishnam Vande Jagadgurum Sarvopanishadokavo Dugdha Gopalanandana Partho Vatsasudeer Bhokta Dugdham Geetamritam Mahat Mokam Karodhi Vachalam Pangam Langhayate Girim Yathkripathamam Vande Paramanandamadham In our last class, we have been talking about how Bhagawan Krishna had introduced a beautiful subject, the ultimate seeking, which every human being is seeking. What is it? We want to be happy, unlimited and unbroken happiness. Infinite, eternal happiness. Yes, we all want it. But do we know, that do we really desire it? And do we understand that what we are seeking is eternal and infinite happiness? And what is our attitude? What is our particular type of desire? It depends upon our understanding. It depends upon our Purva Janma Samskara habit. It depends upon what attitude we bear. All these factors we have considered and the lowest type of person, that is a person who is completely endowed with Tamo Shakti, the slightest obstruction, he will stop immediately because he doesn't feel comfortable with the type of life that he has to change. Whatever he has been accustomed to, that seems to be the sweetest type of life. Spiritual life is all about turning our attention from outside to inside. Find out our faults, either by our own selves, which is very rare, but taking the help of a teacher or a well-wisher who knows what he or she is talking about and having faith in that person and slowly trying to pull ourselves up. This is called progress and anybody who resists, he or she is sure not to progress. But according to Vedanta, there is nobody who is going to stop for a long time. Everybody is forced to evolve towards his or her own real nature, which is divine. So having introduced that, what is it? The Lord says here that three types of Sukha are there. What type of Sukha? Satvika Sukha, Rajasika Sukha and Tamasika Sukha. Sukha is not of three types. There is only one Sukha and that is called Brahmananda, Atmananda, Paramananda, whatever name we give. But depending upon the receiving instrument, how much we can receive, there is a huge difference, both in the quality as well as in the quantity. That buddhi, that mind, that body, which is made up of Tamoguna and there are not one Tamoguna but one billion degrees of Tamoguna, depending upon what degree, etc., the person's ability to enjoy or to become one with that happiness determines what type of happiness, whether it is just for a moment or as Ramakrishna used to say, it is just like a drop of water when a pan is red hot. It just stays there for a moment and evaporates immediately. This is the type of Tamasika Ananda. This is an important point we have to keep in mind. Sukha is not of different types but different ways, both quantitatively and qualitatively, of experiencing the same one Sukha depending upon the type of instruments we use. That's why I give the illustration. Many people do that. When different people go to the ocean with different types of vessels, the ocean cannot be accused. You are giving some more, some less. But depending upon how much we can carry, it is our fault. So our minds are like that vessels. If it is endowed with Tamoguna, our capacity is very small quantitatively as well as qualitatively. Similarly, if it is Rajoguna, it is much, much more. And if it is Satvaguna, it is incomparable really speaking. But the idea is not to bring something from the ocean but to become one with the ocean of Ananda, Satchitananda Sagara. That is what we need to understand. Interestingly, Ramakrishna gives a beautiful analogy. Once Ramakrishna was telling, I asked Narendra, supposing there is a pot of nectar and you are a fly and how would you drink? And he said, I will sit on the edge, stretch my tongue and then slowly, slowly absorb as much nectar as possible. And Ramakrishna immediately countered and said, No, my child, this is not ordinary nectar. This is Satchitananda Sagara. If a fly falls into some honey or water or any substance, there is danger that it will be drowned and killed. But here, the fly means Jivatma, has no such danger because this is the nectar of immortality. That is, becomes one, becomes immortal, not death but eternal life. That is what is meant. So, this is a point where to remember Sukha, happiness is only one. Actually, we don't call it Sukha, we call it Ananda. Because Sukha, by definition, is always having the other side. Like a coin having two sides. Sukha and Dukha are two sides of the same coin. But Ananda doesn't have both sides and that is the difference and that is what we experience a little bit, a glimpse into the futuristic Brahmananda when we are in the Sushruti state, deep sleep state. Now, let us go into this. He said, Bhagavan Krishna is telling Arjuna, listen from me that there are three ways of experiencing Ananda and when we experience Ananda, that Ananda becomes Sukha. That means Sukha, Dukha. Both will come following one another sequentially. There is no way that I can have only one side. So, listen from me in a beautiful way. But, what is the way? The goal is Dukhaantanchanigachchati, slowly, gradually. Go on reducing the suffering. Go on increasing the enjoyment. How? Not by obtaining, not by having but by becoming. Being, by being, not by becoming, not by having but by being. That is the title of a book, To Be or To Have by Eric Fromm. One of the most insightful books upon an exposition of who is a happy person and who is not a happy person. Indirectly, he is only expounding a person has many things but that doesn't guarantee happiness. But a person has practically nothing but he could be one of the most happy persons on earth because he is a happy person, a person who is having, he is having everything and in that he will be lost and all the consequences of identifying with many things will very heavily upon that person. So, what should one do gradually to reduce the suffering and to be more and more happy, to be more and more happy? For that he says, Abhyasat, so go on practicing, go on practice. Practice what? What has been delineated by the teacher, by the scriptures and if we go on moulding our life according to the teachings of the wise people and it is not easy but through practice, first it doesn't appeal to us, it even, rebellion will come, it looks like poison which we will talk immediately but in course of time, we understand, the buddhi understands, the intellect, the intelligence understands that this is the way to highest quality happiness and that which lasts for a very long time. Abhyasat ramate yatra and ultimately there would be no unhappiness because there is no duality, there is nothing to have, there is nothing to possess, I become everything. So, that is what he is telling and we have to develop it. Now, having done that one, we move to the next verse, 37th verse. This is graphically describing sattvika sukha, that means a sattvika mind, it envelops brahmananda and obtains the highest type of happiness where suffering or unhappiness, grief is the lowest and happiness is the proportionately highest like 99% light and 1% darkness, like a dimmer switch put to the highest level. 37th verse. And now, hear from me, Oh Arjuna, Bharata Prince, the three kinds of happiness, that in which a man comes to rejoice by practice and in which he reaches the end of pain and that which is like poison at first but like nectar in the end. That happiness which would be like poison at first but turns out to be nectar. What nectar are we talking about? Not the nectar we get in the flowers, not the honey that we get, not any happiness that we get. We are talking about atma buddhi, the self-knowledge where we know we are of the nature of sat, chit and ananda. That is the nectar. And this is the symbolism of that beautiful story, so celebrated, so highly praised, so graphically described called samudra manthana, churning of the milky ocean that we get in the Bhagavatam. At the end, the devas, means the people who are endowed with satvika quality, they will get the nectar and thereby become immortal. And we have to understand the symbolism, not merely trying to identify here are demons, here are gods. Gods can be as ignorant. There is not much difference between these so-called gods and these so-called demons. We are not talking about them. Here we are talking about satvika people are the gods, tamasika people are the asuras and of course there would be any amount of admixture will be there, any amount of percentage difference will be there. We will discuss about it slowly. Now, satvika sukha is being graphically described. What is its nature? So, two. First of all, two characteristics, agre, visham, eva. As soon as we try to come into contact with objects of senses, we don't say they are objects of happiness or objects of unhappiness. In fact, there is no such division called this object gives pure happiness and this object gives pure poison. Every object to different persons under different changing circumstances to the same person appears to be either likeable or dislikeable, either gives happiness or unhappiness, either does good or evil and it goes on changing, sometimes giving good, sometimes not giving so good and in different proportions also. So, that is the first characteristic. But in the beginning, it creates tremendous amount of dislike, like almost poison. That's why the Lord uses a very special word. Two words He uses. We will come to that. Agre, visham, eva. Eva means as though, as if. It is not really because a real poison really kills. But there is something which is not very tasty but which may be the best medicine to cure any particular disease. That is eva, visham, eva. It appears to us. Pariname, but the end result, amrutopamam, it makes one immortal. It turns out to be immortal nectar. A nectar giving immortality. And what is true immortality? Atma buddhi prasadajam. As a result of experiencing an object which at the beginning will be like this and when we say experiencing an object, it doesn't mean always coming into contact with objects only. It means our ways of thinking have to be changed, our habits have to be changed, our modes of looking have to be changed. All those things that we have been discussing until now, that is three types of sanyasa. Three types of knowledge. Three types of actor, doer. Three types of the end result, knowledge. And three types of desires. And three types of acting, karma. And three types of will power. And three types of what is called utsaha, etc. Enthusiasm, etc. But all of them together were dominated, can be classified by the either sattva dominated, rajas dominated or tamas dominated. So here the Lord is telling two characteristics of a sattvika person's derivation of happiness will inevitably have these two characteristics. At the beginning of spiritual sadhana, we have to bring about a root change in our whole life. That is in our motivation, in our understanding, in our thinking, in our acting and reacting and in our way of coping with all the inevitable things that happen in our life and it all determined by sattva, rajas and tamas, etc. But what is the end result? Man becomes liberated. He obtains atmajnanam. He knows I am what I am. Brahman is a beautiful word. I am what I am. When Moses asked the burning bush, knowing that it is God manifesting, said who are you? I am that I am. I am what I am. How can I describe? So are you Moses? Yes. Are you Jesus? Yes. Are you all the rabbis who crucified? Yes. Are you all the Roman emperors? Yes. Are you the pilot? Yes. Then who is not you? Everything is me. But I also transcend everything because there is no everything. I am everything. Everything is me and there is nothing that is in me and there is nothing. I am not everything. I am not talking in mysterious terms. In the ninth chapter of the Bhagavad Gita we have seen that all these beings are in me and behold, I am not in them. One line. The next line he says, look, no beings are in me. I am not in any other beings. This is one of the most wonderful verses in the whole of the Bhagavad Gita from two points. One is from the effect point of view. We must always remember and today I will not go into that because you have to refer back. From the effect point of view everything is nothing but cause and the cause is nothing but Atman, Brahman. Therefore, everything is manifestation of Brahman. Because it is an effect, it is a manifestation in the form of name, form and qualities. But truly if we look from the viewpoint of the cause, the cause just like a pot is not a pot excepting it is clay. What is then a pot? No such object as pot exists. Pot exists, only the object is clay. But the clay appearing with some form, with some name, with some qualities. So is the clay in the pot? Yes. Are all the pots in the clay? Yes. Are really all the pots are in the clay? No. What is this mysterious thing we are talking about? From the viewpoint of the pot everything is, the root cause is clay and all pots are visible but they are clay with names, forms and utilities. But if we look purely from the viewpoint of clay there is no pot and there is not even cause because cause and effect, they go together. If you remove effect there would be no cause and if you remove the cause there would be no effect. Therefore to remove the effect first and automatically the cause also will be removed and that is what Bhagawan is giving in that most marvellous statements that we get in the 9th chapter of the Bhagavad Gita. The whole creation is in me but I am also in them as the cause but really speaking when you look from my point of view there is no creation and there is no creator. This is the secret how to understand that particular shloka there. Now here we are getting, he is a person and through practice and he will never give it up even if it is the most poisonous thing he will go on practicing and in the end what happens it leads inevitably to self-knowledge Atma Jnana Brahma Jnana and with that he becomes one and what is Brahman? That is Sat, Chit and Ananda and it cannot be described. This is being described here that Sukha, remember Sukha is only one Ananda is only one where for another example has come to my mind so every living creature goes through three types of experiences waking, dream and dreamless. What is the speciality of waking and dream? There is duality the subject and the object the experiencer and everything that he experiences both in the waking as well as in dream exactly the same thing is there but as soon as the prani comes to the deep sleep state there is only one experience the subject and object the witness and the witnessed the seer and the seen the knower and the known the experiencer and the experiencer become absolutely one as if unified not really but for the time being this is called a pale shadow of Advaita Anubhuti pure non-dualistic nearest non-dualistic experience that's why some people prefer to call it poor man's Samadhi and in that there is no difference between king and pauper scholar and illiterate or powerful and non-powerful rich and poor and absolutely male female, living, non-living no differentiation is there and such a long time in comparison with waking and dream state hours and hours together we are in that type of bliss it is to indicate accepting for the dominance of ignorance that is almost like Nirvikalpa Samadhi, it is not Nirvikalpa really, there is in seed form there is everything is there the waking is there, the dream is there but in a seed form but that's an example that comes to my mind when a person sadhaka becomes a sattvika person by controlling food by doing all the things that are prescribed by having that sattvika understanding sattvika determination sattvika desire sattvika striving sattvika attitude of mind and finally he will get the resultant of all the other things that we discussed in the 14th chapter in the 16th chapter in the 17th chapter remember ahara yagna, tapas and dhanam and all those things ultimately culminate in happiness but again I am emphasizing, repeating sukha is only one that is brahmananda and you put a very thick glass in front of you and you can see very little light but you put a medium type of tinted glass you can see much more clearly and you remove completely all filters then what you see is pure, then what you see is there is no I there is no you and that would be the culmination which is spiritual practice will take place but spiritual practice is not that easy, why is it not yathat agre vishamiva, in the beginning it works like poison what is poison but remember, pariname vishamiva as if it is most undesirable thing in the world, why for several reasons first reason is, here is a spiritual person, what was he before worldly person a worldly person who is accustomed to like and to dislike and who prefers particular type of food, dress, worship activity, everything and here spiritual guidance comes, says you have to give up all those things you have to become completely discriminate between what is temporary and what is eternal and you will have to give up and that is where habits come to change a habit the old habit will not go so easily that old habit resist with all its force and that is called poison not only that see here is a person, he said you control your food, you eat only this kind of food until that time, this man is accustomed to eat whatever his fancy took to but now suddenly, no not only you have to eat what is sattvika food that means what is healthy food but you have to eat not one day not every day until the body dies falls, you have to eat this one, this is only illustration I am giving but in every way our way of thinking our way of receiving the outside events a new science is very rapidly developing psychological science, it is called CBT Cognitive Behavioural Therapy, the essence of that therapy is nobody has control over what happens outside in the world, even the biggest person, nobody had control in the past, nobody has control in the present and nobody will have control in future, that is the very nature of this srishti creation, therefore don't expect one day everybody will be spiritual and everything, on the contrary very few people will be spiritual, that means very few people will be rational, that means very few people will be good, righteous, healthy thinking and etc. So, here is a person who is determined and who has complete faith that I have to attain to that state, however much poison I am going to eat that poison now, there are people who eat poison also for various reasons, frustrated in life, unavoidable circumstances and depression and unable to bear this mental agonies, many people have put their lives to an end and are going to do that even now, many people do not put their lives to an end, but they wish that they are more dead than alive, that is not the kind of poison we are talking about because there the worldly happiness is being obstructed, they want to regain their worldly happiness, their favourite way of living and comfortable way of living but here the person says I don't want life itself, life means bondage, I want to be myself, now life means I am not myself, I am anything other than myself, I may be my house, I may be my sense organs, I may be my body, I may be my prana, I may be my ideals, I may be my decisions, I may be finally my what is called happiness, way of obtaining happiness, these become so strongly embedded in our unconscious that ordinary people cannot do it, but how three types of people end out with three, these qualities called sattva, rajas and tamas, how do they react? Here is a person and he is a sattvika person, his mind is full of bright lights, he wants to become spiritual and he has crystal clear understanding, he has the adamantine will and he has got the grace of God in the form of a great teacher, he has tremendous right understanding of the scripture but without practice all this will be totally useless, transformation of character is the very essence of spiritual life, so he has to get up early in the morning, who wants to get up? Ok, summer season may be, but winter season when it is so cold, who wants to get up early in the morning and then you will have to sit for japa, for prayer, for the studies, these are all very difficult, that is why the Arjuna categorically asks, I know you are talking about mind control, this is what we get in the 6th chapter that this mind chanchalam hi manah krishna pramadi balavat dhridam vasyaham nigraham manye vayoriva sudhushkaram, I know how difficult it is to control the mind and then Bhagavan Krishna, just like here he gives the same advice he says, it is yes, what you said is right, but it can be brought under control however turbulent the mind is, it can be brought under control how? he says abhyasa and vairagya abhyasa vairagya bhyam tan nirodhaha Patanjali Rishi also echoes the same teaching of Bhagavan Krishna so abhyasa repeated practice until how long? until the mind comes under control, it may take billions of births, it doesn't really matter, but mere mechanical practice is not going to help vairagya is necessary and that vairagya is what is called poison here so I love my parents and my family members love me, my children love me, I love my colleagues, I love my country I love my religion, know my son, all these belong to anatma, non-atma, you will have to give them up completely, but do not worry, you will get much more than that after you realise this all and that is why it becomes like a poisonous, that which appears to be like a poison but this poison if we go on drinking, then what happens, this very poison will give us completely, lead us to oneness with Shiva that is the meaning of this churning of the milky ocean, so what is the first thing that came a grey halahala visha has come and then all the devatas became completely hesitated and people seemingly dying then what to do, Vishnu gives the advice, approach Shiva and offer it poison to him and then he graciously accepted it drank that poison, this is the pawaranic story, but we have to interpret every pawaranic story, mythological story in a spiritual sense, that is what some great souls have done, Adhyatma Ramayana, Yoga Vasishta Ramayana, etc so some people have attempted to study Mahabharata and also Bhagavatam, Antarartha Bhagavatam, Antarartha Ramayanam Antarartha Mahabharatam, that's what we have to understand, who is Shiva in this story, that ultimate knowledge, I am Atman and then if I want to be my own self, manifest by knowing that I am pure divinity, all this so called poison, it is poison because it is not really poison but previously what I considered to be nectar that was the real poison but because I am changing the old sanskaras will not allow me to think in a spiritual light, they will present this as poison and that is poison, Eva but this very poison kills, as they say venom destroys venom, the spiritual venom, spiritual practical venom, destroys all the worldly venom and what remains is neti neti, pure Atman, pure Brahman that is what being said that which is like poison at first but turns out to be true immortal nectar in the end, that happiness what does it do, that happiness where from it comes, born of the crystal clear knowledge of the self, is said to be of the nature of sattva, in simple words a sattvika person never gives up his practice, however unhappiness it produces at the beginning but as he goes on practicing, he will be enjoying it, not immediately but more and more and more and once the tide turns once the person really starts enjoying from, he has not yet realized God, is far from God, far from the self-knowledge but already the being away from the sorrow unhappiness producing worldly experiences here is a person who becomes totally relaxed totally happy by the mere absence of this worldly poison and his joy goes on increasing, goes on increasing until he removes the last curtain, last separation from God which is called Brahma Karavrutti and he knows, I am not thinking I am Brahman but I am he doesn't even say, I am Brahman because there is no mind to say but there is a self-experience called Aham, Aham, Aham and then that Sachidananda, I am happiness, I am existence so I have no fear of non-existence I am chit knowledge I have no fear of ignorance that I am this, that or the other thing and I don't need any happiness because I am happiness in fact it is my happiness which is percolating in different degrees different ways, qualitatively and quantitatively in all other people and what are we talking about, a sattvic person completely goes on practicing whatever be the obstacles and there will come a turning point, he goes on enjoying more and more until it ends with Brahmananda by becoming identified with Brahman, I am Brahman and that knowledge I am Brahman is productive of this happiness which is infinite, which is eternal, that is the simple one, now I remember a beautiful incident from the life of Swami Brahmananda with regard to the control of the mind so Swami Brahmananda is telling because some people complained that we have been practicing but we don't get any happiness this is the reply without tormenting yourself that means what, thinking pros and cons, oh already 10 years passed, I have been doing japam tapam, I have not progressed and God is not gracious or God is deaf or whatever reason, the spiritual life has become intolerable monotonous, very tiring, bored with God, when a person gets up from meditation what is he telling, without saying I am bored, oh God with you, I want to think of something which is much more interesting than you, so without tormenting with all these thoughts work hard my boy then you will find joy, in the beginning you have to dredge as if you are learning the alphabet, do not worry, do not complain gradually peace will come, do you know how I behave with those who always complain that they are not finding peace or joy for the first 2 or 3 years after their initiation I give no reply nor do I pay heed to them even when they complain, after that, that means after 2 or 3 years they meet me they tell me themselves that they are making some progress and they are also finding some joy and peace a man must try steadily for some time before he can expect a peaceful state of mind, therefore I ask you to struggle for a period of at least 3 years without any break, then you can have a claim to joy and not earlier this is what I was trying to convey to you, so a sattvika person is not going to get happiness from spiritual practice from the very beginning that's why the lord who is the master psychologist and psychiatrist he knows that this person, sattvika person finds it poison but he knows this is like poison but ultimately this poison alone will destroy all my worldly bondage and gladly he drinks and that is what Krishna is telling so what is this ananda it comes from vidya vidya means any type of knowledge is called vidya and with this with regard to this special power of knowledge, we are not talking about spiritual knowledge, we are talking about any type of knowledge, here is a person here you are and you know how to cook a particular dish, here is a person, he knows how to make beautiful dress, here is another person, he knows how to sing beautifully, here is another person you can add any number of examples and these people are able to do that because they have a particular type of knowledge, that knowledge is called vidya, there is something very very special about knowledge what is that knowledge and here is something that comes this dhanam means wealth called knowledge is the most valuable type of wealth in this whole world, why no thief can steal it if you have any external object houses, cars, anything then it can be lost especially nowadays what you call internet hacking they can do no king or no what is called government official can ever take, I am taxing you, I will reduce your knowledge by so much, no such thing is there and then your brothers your sisters, they don't come and quarrel, let us divide this property in so many ways no and it doesn't impose any weight upon you on the contrary it makes you all the more lighter not only that the more you spend, that means the more you spread it it goes on ever increasing, ever increasing one light, how many lights it is ready to light one, million, billion, it all depends upon you, you have oil and you have a wig, you want to be lighted, come and take from me not only that, somebody takes from me and you take from that person and another person can take from that person and it can spread throughout the world and the original person like digital recording the quality will never be lost, it will be there so, yaya kruthe varthataya vanathyam and there are so many other qualities are there, vidhya dadhati vinayam, true knowledge, always makes a person very humble the moment a person acquires some knowledge true knowledge, he understands there is so much more and what I gained is absolutely nothing and that will make him really really humble and he wants to acquire more and more so that is why sarva dhana dhaneshu among all the other wealth vidhya pradhanam dhanam the most valuable the most important the eternal, not only in this life, see if somebody knows how to sing well how to write well and if he is born a billion times his knowledge will go on increasing but it will never decrease, this is the beautiful and then what is the peculiarity suppose a person is very knowledgeable how many people want to steal, how many people want to beg, sir you have got so much of knowledge and I am desirous of, will you give me people will beg money will beg power beg position, beg everything in this world but very few people run after true wealth of knowledge and even if when people ask even if we give it away as I said just now it is not going to come to an end, this is called the joy that comes out of spiritual practice and it goes on increasing day by day as we go on progressing and the more we progress the faster we progress and ultimately it gives us, what does it give atma buddhi prasadhan, it gives us prasada, what prasada like our prasada, something we offer to the divine lord and after offering to him after praying to him when it is brought down, we all take part of it joyously and enjoy it because now god has blessed, means god himself has entered, so this atisukha is atma buddhi prasadhan the prasada that as if this self knowledge presents to us atma buddhi means knowledge of the atma in the bhagavad gita itself the lord defines what is called prasada now we know prasada, whatever is offered in the temple or in a shrine room or even a respectable person if he gives that is called prasada, but what is real prasada by divine grace comes the peace in which first thing all sorrows end and if sorrows do not end that is not prasada and the intellect of such a person becomes very tranquil very soon and his mind becomes completely under control and it becomes firmly rooted, established in god when these characteristics mind comes under control and the mind is filled with peace and when we are able to face any number of difficulties with the great most joyous smile and embrace anything and even enjoy them but that which ultimately makes make god firmly sit in our hearts and that is real prasada not simply eating some nice dish, oh this prasada is beautiful whoever has prepared or offered it thanks to him and then go on running forget god and going on running after any things that's not prasada, so atma burudhi prasada means the tranquility of mind born out of self knowledge and that gives beautiful experience called amrita now shankaracharya beautiful words he uses yath sukham that happiness agre means when we start practicing spiritual disciplines we have to get up early, we have to wash ourselves, we have to sit we should not allow our mind to go here and there, we should pray and we should try to focus our mind you know concentration is the most difficult thing in this whole world so all these activities spiritual activities look like that even we have to study what we call scriptures and one swami is remarking so beautifully I liked it so much so a new person comes I want to become spiritual and the teacher tells him you are brahman and he comes next day he tells you are brahman, after 15 days he tells you are brahman after 15 years he says you are brahman, after 8 years he says you are brahman and life after life if that's what hinduism tells you will get the same guru and he will repeat it what is this boring thing, first day itself he told second day he should have told something else, what will you say, what will the guru say, first day he says you are brahman, second day he says you are a dog, third day he says you are a donkey, is it is he supposed to tell you all these things, because truth is one, you are the truth, you are the truth you are the truth, until you know that you are the truth everything else is untruth get rid of the untruth so this brings monotony, that's why people go to sleep hearing these religious lectures etc especially I tell them, don't close your eyes, not only that don't go on staring, you go on moving your eyes all over the all round so that at least it keeps you awake for some time agre porvam prathama sannipate when we begin our spiritual practices what are the spiritual practices shankracharya, gnana vairagya, dhyana samadhi, arambe when we start to obtain gnana, that is true knowledge vairagya, true dispassion, dhyana true meditation, samadhi and not to think of anything, but merge ourselves in the divinity when we start trying to do it, atyanta ahayasa purvaka, these are obtainable only with the greatest difficulty, after the longest struggle vishamiva, like poison dukkhaatmakam bhavati do not bring any happiness, not only that first of all, we are not able we have stopped experiencing all those worldly happinesses as poison now this appears to be poison because the mind is looking back again and again and again, it would be nice why not I just have a just a quick sip and everything starts only with the first sip which turns into second third, and in no time we become drunken, so dukkhaatmakam bhavati, that is in the beginning, but as I mentioned, after some time, what does it mean that we are not going to get highest happiness, only after we realize we are brahman it is going to start to give us as we climb the mountain, when we reach certain height, the whole scenario that we were accustomed before changes beautiful sceneries will be unfolding at every step, we start enjoying it, but we don't need to wait until we reach the top but at the same time we should not stop also oh this is very beautiful much better than what I have ever experienced, don't stop there, that is why even the godfather says first the mind will go to sleep and if you can overcome it becomes very distracted very restless and if you can overcome then it becomes bitter like an ayurvedic kashaya, and if you persist, ananda will come so higher happiness will come but that is the last and the greatest obstacle in spiritual progress you will have to get down and say this is ok for now, but now I will give it up, I go to higher and higher and still higher happiness, this beautiful process has been outlined in the second valli, second chapter of the Taittiriya Upanishad which is such a marvelous subject, it is called anandam imamsa brahmanandam imamsa ananda valli, brahmananda valli, every higher happiness is incomparably thousands of times more quantitatively and qualitatively happiness increases but don't stop even with brahmaloka ananda go to brahman, not brahmaloka so but what is the end result tremendous amount of vairagya becomes so natural that the person need not think, automatically he says this is a worthless thing like when a person is walking there is some, what is called droppings of the bat, droppings of the bird, droppings of the pigs, droppings of the human beings, does anybody look at it and say it looks very interesting maybe I should experience it no, the very sight you will instinctively turn away your head and try to run away as far as possible from that, so from all possible worldly happinesses and it is not only from the sub objects that appear to us, more important from our imaginations it is the imagination which is the root cause of ruin in most of us but this imagination brings us to reality and reality gives us terrible shock and thereafter the whole life is only an attempt to get out of it so when this dispassion reaches its highest level, then correspondingly the happiness that comes is marvelous, so this is what as a result of all this practice the man attains to the highest type of happiness which is the result of Brahma Gnanam and then that is why all the sages and saints, they all they all say we are all sinners why do especially Christian saints use that word sin whereas if you come to the Indian saints they don't call it papa, sin but they call it impurity or agnana or avidya or maya etc if this even usage of these words make a lot of difference in meaning but anyway they mean both the same thing but the happiness starts after some progress is made and it goes on increasing and once Swami described it that a train has entered into a long tunnel and it is complete darkness, several minutes, even 20 minutes or as you say if you board a train in London to go to Paris it may take more than an hour to come out of the tunnel underground but there comes a point faint light seeps in and as the train moves forward more light more light like that after a long time some happiness glimmering some happiness more happiness, still more happiness still more happiness until at the very end the person is able to become one with ananda not experiencing ananda but by being happiness and that is the end of it so every person has to go through this rigmarole of this appearing as a poison but do not worry it is not actually poison but it is a poison which destroys, which kills all the worldly attachments and ultimately turns itself into the ultimate immortality nectar and a sattvika person is one who will continue his spiritual practice in spite of being this terrible bitter poison for as long as it takes that is the message we have to receive and so what is the message develop sattva guna with this the happiness of the sattva guna description is over, I have taken time because these are the things that very practical things we have to understand, if anybody says I start spiritual life with happiness, I progress in happiness and I end in happiness is living in a deluded world, in a dream world, that is not the fact it is to caution us, it is to make us awake and start our practices with the faith this visha at the beginning will bring us to the complete self knowledge and we will discuss the other two types of happiness in our next class. Om Vasudeva Sutam Devam Kamsa Chanura Martanam Deva Ki Paramanandham Krishnam Vande Jagad Guru May Ram Krishna, Holy Mother and Swami Vivekananda bless us all with Bhakti. Jai Ram Krishna