Bhagavad Gita Ch18 part 20 on 20 February 2022

Full Transcript(Not Corrected)

Om Jananem Sharadam Devem Ramakrishnam Jagadgurum Pada Padmetayo Sritva Pranamami Muhur Muhur Om Vasudevasutam Devam Kamsa Chanuram Ardhanam Devaki Paramanandam Krishnam Vande Jagadgurum Sarvopanishadho Gavo Dogdha Gopalanandana Partho Vatsa Sudhir Bhokta Dugdham Geetha Mritam Mahat Mukham Karuthi Vachalam Pangum Langayate Girim Yath Pripathamaham Vande Paramanandamadham We are studying the last 18th chapter of the Bhagavad Gita which is a summary of the entire Bhagavad Gita. In our yesterday's class we have concluded the three types of happiness Sattvika Sukham, Rajasika Sukham and Tamasika Sukham. With that the seven topics how sattva, rajas and tamas affects each prani especially human beings is beautifully described and concluded. So what is the purpose of this beautiful exposition? It is to make us understand life is a journey and it is an evolutionary journey and it is a journey from the lower state of consciousness which means lower state of happiness to a higher state of happiness higher state of consciousness. This is what Swami Vivekananda has to say life is a journey not from untruth to truth not from non-existence to existence but from lower truth to a higher truth to the highest truth from the lower state of consciousness to a higher state of consciousness. So now the Lord is going to tell us in the next verse that creation has come out of Prakruti Prakruti, Maya, Avidya, Shakti all these are synonymous terms Ishwara etc. Now Prakruti what is its nature? Sattva, Rajas and Tamas. Prakruti is nothing but consisting of these three gunas therefore it binds everything one meaning of guna is a quality but another meaning of guna is that which binds so all the gunas bind a person there is absolutely no doubt about it and that is going to be enumerated in the very next verse if the whole creation is made up of only three gunas we should see only three varieties but why do we see infinite varieties? it is because all the three gunas exactly do not divide themselves into only three infinite variations take a simple example a man wants a cup of coffee primarily consists of coffee powder, sugar, milk and water and these can be in infinite proportions with fat, without fat, with sugar, without sugar and what proportion of bitterness, coffee etc. so the three gunas, sattva, rajas and tamas are mixed in almost infinite number of proportions and accordingly we see all these things so Bhagavan Krishna is telling all the differences are caused by the proportion, percentage of three gunas mixing with each other now when we are talking about that the whole creation is nothing but a manifestation of prakriti and prakriti is constituting of sattva, rajas and tamas are we talking only about the living creatures or non-living creatures too? yes, the whole creation there is no such thing as only living beings of course in living beings it is much more discernible but I would say that even in the non-living everything is completely discernible that is why the Lord is telling that everything is even a rock a piece of wood, a piece of paper, a carpet everything can be divided into three categories so let us first explore the verse number 40 and then we will expand a little bit and it is not difficult to understand in this verse number 40 of the 18th chapter of the Bhagavad Gita the Lord says nathadasthi prathivyam va divi deveshu va punaha sattvam prakriti jaihi muktam yat ebhisiyaat trivir gunaihi there is no object in this on earth living or non-living neither among the gods in heaven who is free from the three gunas born of prakriti Bhagavan says everything in creation is born or consisting of three gunas sattva means an entity living as well as non-living sentient or insentient with life, without life here and everywhere so the word sattvam here we have to understand as an object, an entity no entity in this creation is free from three gunas what does it mean? it means every entity has got three gunas but not exactly in the same proportion it could be infinite variations is there and what about all these non-living things? so I will give you an example we have to extend this truth that everything is consisting of three gunas it has to be extended to everything that exists here is something exists and if we say it is consisting of three gunas not only that another fact is every object all the time does not manifest only one particular guna depending upon the circumstances it manifests any variation of the three gunas let me give a small example a piece of stone that is there at the bottom of a river the constant movement of the water slowly smooths all the edges of it to such an extent Hindus find a great symbol of Lord Shiva especially in a river called Narmada and that Shiva Linga they call it not only that many people find Spatika a kind of special material which if two objects made up of Spatika I don't know what they call it in English if they are rubbed together sparks will come out that is how some people want to cheat by creating purely things made out of glass how to know? so if a seller is honest he will tell you you just take these two Shiva Lingas and just rub against each other a bit harder and if you see the sparks that means both of them are genuine see what happens if it is without polish then its value is nil it is consisting of Thamoguna and if it acquires a kind of smoothness then you can use it to various usages you can put it but the same thing when it becomes in the course of the movement of the water that very thing becomes one of the most valuable adorable representation of God manifesting Satvaguna it is another example here is an ordinary piece of mountain and this mountain is an ordinary mountain and it can be broken into small chips and can be used in construction of buildings but the same thing imagine what happens if it is granite if it is marble just imagine what happens and the same thing if it is flowing under a particular river it might even become one of what we call invaluable diamonds it looks like any ordinary piece of rock but those who are connoisseurs experts they can find out so same thing under the varying circumstances can manifest Thamoguna which is of very less value or Prajoguna which is of much more value or Satvaguna absolute value take a carpet three varieties of some carpets very ordinary carpets they do not evoke any response Thamoguna carpet but there are some which are so beautifully woven immediately it reminds us something very nicely and it is an object of beauty but there are some carpets which are so smooth so soothing so cool that you don't feel like lying even on water bed so we all use these things under our feet and some of them have the quality in summer season hot season they will give us coolness and in other seasons winter season it will give us warmth softness beauty you just feel like lying there and sleeping so take any object take a book for example here is a book which provokes what is called Thamoguna here is another book and that makes you Prajoguna what you call sometimes inspiration and then there are books which will change the whole life and the person will become highly idealistic may be a great artist may be a great spiritual person so take anything finally I want to give you the example of a food here is a food we have already discussed about it earlier in the 17th chapter that promotes Thamoguna food that promotes Prajoguna food that promotes Sattvaguna and then take a house and you know people think we want to we just go we like it it is not mere liking some houses vibrate they invite oh you come and you stay in our house and somehow depending upon the person's constitution some houses become an absolute abodes of heaven peace etc and some houses of course the moment you enter for example where the casinos or night clubs they provoke all sorts of demonic qualities but there are some houses the very very appearance or anywhere if you go near they will make you feel that you have attained the lowest bottom most this one take three types of dogs some dogs are so faithful so protective so much good use can be done some are ferocious vicious they can even kill their own owners some are of course it is absolutely useless they are no good at all take three trees some trees beautiful fruits some give bitterest fruits some completely poisonous fruits some they provoke tremendous amount of prajoguna that is what when we are talking about food we are talking about plants we are talking about trees we are talking about fruits vegetables leaves roots everything so these are examples what to speak of human beings so lord Krishna wants to say that there is no being on earth or above the earth or anywhere which is free from the three gunas why is it not free? because the effect can never differ from the cause what is the cause? Prakruti what is its nature? made up of three gunas therefore everything in this world is like that only even just a thought came I will share it with you even human beings dressing some kind of dress they put a person's whole nature will change and that person's even his influence his or her influence upon the other people also will change some kind of dress provokes tremendous amount of what we call Prajoguna worldliness and some are there which will provoke absolute disgust so everything in this world has its own manifestation of three gunas this is what the lord wants to convey to us what is the purpose? so that we have this knowledge and then we can do something about it and that something is taking advantage because our bodies our minds also fall under the category of Prakruti therefore consisting of Sattva Prajoguna Tamaha by studying what type of karmas we do what type of attitudes we have which we have seen already that everything can be changed the purpose of life is Purushartha is to change and if anybody refuses to understand this and strives does not strive to improve himself or herself it is a piteous life but there is no choice if a person neglects it in this life he will have to come back to it in the next life so the lord is telling Punaha again Pratibhya on this earth or Devi or in the heavens that means in hells also or Deveshu all the higher beings most of the people believe in angels in gods in goddesses we are not talking about manifestation of the powers of god we are talking about the power of god manifested in higher lokas for example Indra Loka Brihaspati Loka Gandharva Loka Purna Loka Prajapati Loka Brahma Loka etc according to Hinduism all the creation can be subdivided into 14 lokas upper beginning from the earth there are 7 and below the earth there are 7 are there so that is what we need to understand so Punaha Pratibhya Amva Devi Deveshu Tat Sattvam Naasti Evihi Prakruti Jaihi Trivihi Gunaihi Muktam Siyat there is no object here on earth nor among the gods nor in heaven who is free from the 3 Gunas born of Prakruti that means everything in creation is born of consisting of this one I have given some examples also now the whole purpose is to facilitate evolution if we can understand the secret of the 3 Gunas this knowledge is useful for spiritual sadhana also so we can guide our life appropriately how? everything is evolving slowly and that is what the scientists have found out the theory of evolution beginning with Charles Darwin all are evolving inorganic into organic organic into from one cell to multi-cell etc. etc. and this theory of evolution applies not only biologically but intellectually aesthetically morally of course spiritually so everything in this creation is evolving in consciousness and finally goes back to its original state called pure Chaitanya Swaroopa as Sat, Chit and Ananda Swami Vekananda proposed this because in his time especially in the west the theory of Charles Darwin has gained a lot of popularity everybody is talking about only evolution Swamiji said how will you know that we are evolving? how will you know towards what we are evolving? how will you know whether the evolution has reached its end? to understand that he proposed that another opposite theory we have to first understand what is called involution what is involution? coming down from our original state coming down from God now we have come to the very bottom which is called inorganic state now we are going back again to our home this is beautifully expressed in the form of this beautiful theory of evolution that from the lowest to the highest now there was a Sufi great Sufi saint as well as a poet his name was Jalaluddin Rumi perhaps some of you have heard it so he has put it so beautifully in a most enchanting poem here is it I died as mineral and became a plant I died as plant and rose to animal I died as animal and I was human why should I fear? when was I less by dying? yet once more I shall die human to soar with angels blessed above and then when I sacrifice my angel soul I shall become what no mind can ever conceive as a human I will die once more reborn I will with the angels soar and when I let my angel body go I shall be more than any mortal mind can know what a beautiful way of putting the theory of evolution that we have been discussing now this discussion is an introduction for what we are going to talk about what is the subject in the first forty forty one verse that we are not much bothered about other objects non-humans we are bothered about humans all human beings based upon this division of sattva prajas and tamas can be roughly divided into four categories in fact philosophers everywhere have divided human beings that way so all human beings they are constituted of sattva prajas or tamas but depending upon what guna is dominant and what guna is a little lower subservient and which other guna is still subservient to the second guna depending upon us roughly we have four basic possibilities and among these four basic possibilities we can have millions of shades of differences as I mentioned earlier these three gunas can be mixed in any proportion that we want so from the standpoint of the gunas and the man's understanding man's knowledge man's attitude man's way of performing man's way of expecting the results and depending upon it the man's evolution also depends so this division based on the gunas is almost universal while division system conceived by the Vedas for one's growth something extra is added karma this is the division that is going to be told now let me first let us go through this first of all first 41st verse and then we will discuss about it something most interesting 41st verse the duties of Brahmins Kshatriyas Vaishyas and Shudras have been assigned according to the gunas born of nature so this is the most important verse this is the answer to the challenge posed by many as well as western non-Indian that the root cause of the ruin of India is because of the caste system and they have a lot of good reasons to support their view and we have no quarrel with that but the real cause of the caste system unfortunately is evolution but then what Bhagavan Krishna wants to say the gunas are always fluctuating evolution means it is a travel from the always from the lower to the higher if it is evolution it is a travel from the lowest to the higher if it is evolution it is evolution if it is evolution model and this could be aesthetic and this could be also moral and this finally of course it would be spiritual Vishwara Krishna mentions, the one and only goal of nature is to tell each one of us, my beloved child, you think I am your mother, you are mistaken, I am your stepmother, not real mother, but I am a loving stepmother, I will take you to your real mother who is the universal divine mother and that is called attaining liberation and Prakruti, our stepmother, more than like a loving mother, will not allow us to deviate even once a millimetre from our chosen path or from its chosen intention and this is called evolution. Evolution always as a basis, as a teleological urge to, the tendency is to take us to our home. Go mind, go back to your own home and that's what Prakruti does it whether we are conscious of it or not and if we can consciously lend a hand then definitely we can make progress. It is for this purpose how we can become conscious, how we can recognize where we are according to the guna and then we will be performing according to guna activities, karmas and if we can change the karmas we can slowly bring about a change in the guna. The karma is the outer expression and guna is the inner constitution of both our body and mind and if we can make it to the peak Everest, Mount Everest, what is that? Parama Sattva, the ultimate Sattva guna. Then there would be the nature will return back and then we will be merging in our own true nature. That is the purpose for which we are studying the entire Bhagavad Gita is meant only for those to lead first towards what we call prayers, worldly enjoyment but in a systematically secure way, guided way and then later on purifying our heart, taking us into direct spiritual path. So these are the three stages. First purify the heart then develop the powers of the mind in the form of upasana and finally bring about a complete detachment from prakruti which is called sanyasa or giving up the longing for the fruits of whatever we do in this world. That is the real goal of prakruti because this prakruti also called maya belongs to God. So if maya belongs to God, maya is divine. If maya is divine, the only purpose of maya is not to delude us but to take us from wherever we are and step by step guide us unto our ultimate destination. So all human beings especially because conscious spiritual, moral or aesthetic development, manifestation can be made only by human beings who have developed powers of thinking and also an appropriate, very malleable, flexible body. For example, if a painter wants to paint then he must have a most flexible, not only the ideas but a most flexible hands and body etc and eyes etc to bring about the desired effect. So the duties of brahmins, kshatriyas, vaisyas and sudras have been assigned according to the gunas born of nature. Why? The vision of the entire Gita scripture, Shankaracharya tells it is the essence of all the Vedas and Upanishads and it has to be pursued by people who are interested in the highest values of human life called purushartha. What are they? Dharma, artha, kama at the beginning and perfecting in them, using them as a pole vault and then go beyond this and that is called the final purushartha, human goal which is called liberation or being oneself, whatever name we say, become God realization, Brahman realization, self-knowledge, satori, samadhi, whatever name you want to put. For this purpose all human beings depending upon the proportion of the gunas are divided into four categories. So because all have got sattva, all have got rajas, all have got tamas but which is dominant, which is next best and which is the last. So there are differences will be there. Not only Bhagavad Gita tells about it, dispelling the idea that caste is solely dependent upon birth. In fact, birth has nothing to do with caste system but indirectly of course it is, which I will explain shortly. Even Plato, Plato by the way is the greatest western philosopher and he was not mere a speculative philosopher. He had wonderful visions of the afterlife. That's why the first thing that we notice in him, he was fearless of speaking of truth, not only that he was a seeker of truth. That's why he defined only a man who seeks truth is fit to be called a human being and not anybody else. So he divided men into three categories which roughly correspond to what Vedanta, its division of human beings. He says first of all the classical translation will be he divided people into guardians, military people and workers or for our equation philosophers means people who are wise, who know what they want and who are unselfish, who want the welfare of the society and who have the motive, the ideal, simple, simple living and high thinking, high idealism. These are called philosophers and they equate to Brahmanas and then warriors because there must be people to protect ordinary people in every society. These have got natural leadership, valor, courage and the desire to protect people and they are called Kshatriyas and then rest of them workers and these workers can be divided both business people called Vaishyas and manual laborers called Shudras. Now do not mistake that the caste system is not by birth. Plato also divided these people observing the type of physical as well as mental qualities these people have been exhibiting. So there again we have to understand that even though Hinduism, so-called Hinduism divides all people into these categories, there are again two subdivisions are there. For example, let us take a Brahmana. A Brahmana can be a Brahmana only because of certain guna, certain qualities, certain ways of ideals, certain outlook and the way he controls himself etc. And also his mental constitution which is dominantly controlled by sattva guna, his activities also must correspond. Then only he will be called a Brahmana. High preaching and rotten living do not go together. So this is how we have to apply them both to Kshatriya, to Vaishya, to Shudra, to philosophers, to warriors and to the working class. So this is how we will have to understand it. So misunderstanding about caste system. First of all caste and in India it is called caste but in the west it is called class. Even today there is what is called doctors consider themselves as belonging to the first class society. Philosophers are there, they take a second place. Scientists, they take a second place. So then there are CEOs of different companies etc. So rich people, middle class people and low class people. Lower class, middle class, higher class and upper higher class. That is how this is inevitable because the division among the human beings are so apparent, so visible, there is no way we can categorize them or put them all into one category. So not to speak of human beings, even animals also. Simple example, this David Attenborough had studied Japanese monkeys and in Japan sometimes it can be freezingly cold and there are some natural hot springs and this man he went and studied. Some Japanese monkeys were living there and then he was shocked to find that there was a royal family called alpha family and also worker family or third class family like Hindus used to treat the so-called Shodras and now the whole country is paying the highest price. Anyway, so this royal family always they will be there. Only when they are hungry, they go out, quickly grab some food but this is like exclusive club. If any non-alpha class of monkeys come nearby just because they are also feeling cold, they want to get some comfort, these fellows rather kill them, not admit, not give like millionaire's club, they will not allow them and this behavior is there. Of course, since we are also evolutions of the monkeys, all these things are there. This is just to show whichever company, whichever animal, whichever insect, whichever plant has more strength, more endurance, more capacity to survival, naturally it will be considered as the most valuable thing in this world. So it is inevitable. So is there any way to keep the caste system and at the same time see that its deleterious poisonous effects are removed and Shri Ramakrishna has advocated this method. So one day this topic of conversation turned to caste system and Shri Ramakrishna knows better than anybody. Then he gave the remedy. The caste system can be removed by one means only, not two means, only one means and what is that? A love of God. Lovers of God means spiritual people do not belong to any caste. The mind, body and soul of a man becomes purified through divine love. Chaitanya and Nithyananda scattered the name of Hari to everyone including the paraya and embraced them all. A brahmin without this divine love is no longer a brahmin and a paraya with the love of God is no longer a paraya. A paraya if is endowed with love of God becomes a brahmana exhibiting all the qualities we are going to study and a brahmana who is manifesting the qualities of a paraya completes pure manifested selfishness, cruel and what is called avaricious enough. Such a person he should be considered belonging to the not to brahmin caste but to the lowest caste. That was what Jesus Christ had observed. You have turned my father's shrine temple into a shop and I will not allow it. See Ramakrishna was not simply talking. What did he do? He went and cleaned at midnight because daytime nobody will allow, no low caste person will allow. Such was the teaching of Hinduism that if you allow a higher caste person to touch you then you will go to hell not the higher person. Such is the perverted understanding of the Vedanta and rigorously for their own selfishness treated everybody like so many nations have treated slaves. They hunted people, normal human beings and now they are paying the price and even now that superiority complex has not left them but in course of time nature will take revenge and then it will be possible. So this is Sri Ramakrishna's way. He cleaned the lavatory of Rashik, the lowest of such peoples, praying with tears in eyes, oh mother let me never think that I am born of a high caste family and he is proving only spiritual people are real real high caste people and accordingly less spiritual, less caste people and those who are pure materialists, cruel, selfish, they belong to the lowest class. So with this beautiful enumeration, description of who is a real Brahmana and who is a real Kshatriya, who is a real Vaishya and who is a real Shudra in three beautiful verses Bhagavan Krishna is enumerating and we have to sit up and take notice because this is real caste. Before proceeding I want to tell you something. Hindus especially, the fourth pillar of Hinduism is the law of karma. Every Hindu, true Hindu believes that we had many lives in the past and we are going to have many lives in the future. Why? Because until we reach the peak of the evolution Mount Everest which is called to truly to realize who we are and then only we become free. This rebirth is another chance. Every rebirth is another chance. Every day we get up from sleep, another chance to make another attempt with happiness, with enthusiasm, with willpower to better ourselves. So this is what the purpose. Now, so many people believe here is a person who is born in a Brahmin family. Why is this person born? Because he did something very wonderful. So this is because of the karma. But having been born, if this person does not use that opportunity to develop, to manifest more of the Brahminic qualities, such a person as Ramakrishna just now said is worse than a pariah. But striving to the extent that is possible for us is in our hands. Of course God's grace will be appropriate to our striving. And then, so what happens? Here is a person and his outlook is noble, his goal in life is noble and his activity is noble. Therefore, he deliberately chooses his karma and then that karma will be noble karma. In other words, sattvika karma and therefore this sattvika karma goes to reinforce the sattvika quality. So what am I trying to tell you? Sattvika guna reinforces sattvika karma and sattvika karma reinforces the sattvika guna. Thus helping each other, one is the cause, another is the effect. The cause influences the effect and the effect also influences the cause. Thus every birth a person becomes hopefully better and better and soon he will reach the goal which is to know that he is divine. Not potentially divine anymore but truly divine. This is the real purpose. So everybody, even the lowest so-called person, by changing, karma is outer expression, guna is the inner root cause. Therefore, it is easier to tackle the external expression called karma. Therefore, start with that karma. If we know what karma is, what type of karma is going to take us more and more inward and into higher and higher guna, then that would be an easier path. So as we change our karma, pursue our karma, that karma becomes a nature and nature will change the quality and quality will again in its turn encourage that particular karma to be done even better in the next life. This is how karma helps guna, guna helps karma. I hope this would be very very useful for us to understand. Now Bhagavan Krishna is telling us what are the qualities of a brahmana, a true brahmana. Anybody who is born just in a brahmin family is not a brahmana. Many times in the past I quoted a beautiful verse what is everybody born, every baby born is a shudra. Janmana jayate shudra. By birth everybody is in the lowest category of caste. Then through what we call samskara by from the parents, from the environment, by seeing other great people, through good right education, if this person develops some wonderful samskaras means qualities, mental qualities, spiritual qualities etc. Then he will be called dvija. The purpose of baptizing in Christianity, the purpose of endowing a person, investing a person with sacred thread in Hinduism is to encourage this inner development through both external as well as internal control and that is going to be described here. So who is a brahmana? So by birth every baby is a shudra by their but by through samskara, through good activities and doing living righteously. He will be entitled to be called dvija, twice born but if he can study the scriptures and develop intense faith in God though by studying the right scriptures and believing in them and praying to God and living a spiritual life, striving to one's ability then he will be called a vipra. But a true brahmana is entitled to be called a brahmana is only brahma janati iti brahmana. Only when he realizes I am brahman, he alone deserves to be called a brahmana. Rest of them are on the way to becoming brahmana but not really true. We have in our past thursday classes dealt with manisha panchakam where shankaracharya comes across a low caste man had to teach him that that you get out of my path shankara shouted instinctively and then that chandala he was a pure naira brahman and he told whom are you addressing if you are addressing my body physical body there is absolutely no difference between your body and my body your flesh your bones etc but if you are talking about the atman then there is no difference between your pure atman my pure there is no impure atma then whom are you addressing to get out what a marvelous lesson shankaracharya and everybody who thinks i proud that i am a brahmana should learn it this is what so beautifully put forward a person who has nine characteristics he alone is fit to be called a brahmana in the 42nd verse we are going to study that what is that so here is a person and it is very naturally he exhibits the nine qualities nine characteristics and such a person alone is such activities belong to the brahmanas activity and only a person who manifests these nine characteristics and his activities will be completely in accord with those nine characteristics he alone deserves to be called a brahmana so bhagwan krishna is giving a loud warning it is not enough to be born it's a marvelous opportunity it is god's grace that you are born in such a favorable circumstances but if you do not develop these qualities then you will not be called a brahmana let us see what is it shamaha first dhamaha second third tapaha fourth shaucham fifth kshanti sixth arjavam seven gnanam eight vignanam ninth astikyam this is svabhavajam brahma karma every true brahmana for him is the most natural tendency to exhibit these characteristics like a fragrant rose it is the most natural thing for a fragrant rose to be beautiful to be soft and to give that beautiful fragrance and without any discrimination to everybody let us briefly discuss because the 16th chapter we have discussed these things with slightly different connotations but meaning exactly the same thing first thing shama shama means mind control a yogi a brahmana is a yogi a yogi is what chitta vritti nirodha who he who has got perfect mind control is called a yogi that is called shama shama means peace peace means by controlling the mind what does a man get peace then correspondingly the body cannot be left to do whatever it likes whether it is food whether it is worship whether it is austerity whether it is dana caring and sharing this external life should be completely in in tune with this mind control that is called dhamaha external control of the body sense organs enjoyment of the sense objects action and interaction with the external world all these fall under this classification of dhamma and what happens as a result of this inside the mind to control it completely not that means perfect emotional maturity and to use every experience only to progress towards god and that is known as shama then the tapah a brahmana naturally he lives a simple life and when difficulties come which are naturally to come whether it is heat whether it is cold whether it is evil people striving to harm this person or whether good people striving to praise or to serve that person this person's mind is absolutely in that same condition that condition tapaha means to be able to keep the mind even under the most trying circumstances very positive very cheerful very happy this is the greatest tapasya it is far easier to go into forest or to be without food for or standing on one foot or always keeping standing only never lying down this is much easier than keeping the mind almost in the same immovable condition but only thinking about god that is called austerity shoucham inner and outer purity every brahmana because he lives a simple life his outer dress or words or food or conduct will be clean and pure similarly his inside he will never entertain any evil harmful or untruthful thought this is called shoucham inner and outer cleanliness why because everything in this world is contaminated by three gunas so to the extent to keep the outer and inner circumstances pure and clean inside pure outside clean this is called shoucham then shanti means many times because of nature because of purva janma karma everybody has to go through trying circumstances difficult circumstances but to forbear all those things with the greatest blessings upon the whole humankind that is called shanti then arjavam arjavam is straightforwardness sri ramakrishna used to say particularly about one of his monastic disciples swami niranjanananda my niranjan doesn't have any engine sri ramakrishna could never bear hypocritical people hypocrisy means thinking one thing speaking something else and doing some something completely different but here is a person his thinking is pure his speech is pure and his action is pure and by seeing his action we can see we can infer that his thought also his inner emotion everything is pure we can take the example of a baby until they grow up until they learn hypocrisy from the parents every baby lives what modern psychologists call an authentic life what is an authentic life a person thinks like this a person feels like that and he expresses with his whole body and mind what he feels and that is called authentic life have you seen a baby when he wants to cry he will smile to beguile you and when he wants to smile he will be crying out you will never come across a single baby like that that's why baby's bodies are so pure baby's minds are so pure that's why anybody who doesn't love a baby he is a what is called nararupa rakshasa a demon in the guise of a man so everybody loves that is why jesus christ said like so many others unless you become you are reborn and be a child you cannot enter into the kingdom of heaven he is not talking about rebirth he is talking spiritual rebirth how by acquiring this particular quality called purity it's so thinking is straight speaking is straight doing is straight by seeing actions somehow we have that intuitive power that this person is speaking from his heart of hearts is what we call a sincere person but sincerity to the utmost level then gnanam a person who has got right knowledge we have talked about it sattvic gnanam the goal is to acquire sattvic gnanam what is that sattvic gnanam human life the greatest blessing of god the only goal of human life is to know who i am really and to mould every thought every talk every word every activity to fall into that how all these three can help us to move forward and know that what is called knowledge of brahman and to know aham brahmasmi and to become brahman and or to know that i am brahman and to remain as brahman that is called gnanam but the gnanam means that the person's knowledge doesn't remain intellectual merely but is convinced of it but at the same time he will strive his level best that striving is called visesha gnanam means practical what swami vekananda term says practical vedanta and above all he has got faith in the scriptures and the scriptures say the word that tattvamasi and he knows it he believes it he believes in purva janma he believes in future janma reincarnation and he knows the only goal of human life is to become brahman and one who exhibits all these nine characteristics and strives at least to develop them even if they are one person two percent five percent ten percent such a person is called a brahmana so all this knowledge is for us so what to do in our lives this is the goal of everybody why should it be the goal of everybody the short answer is the more we develop brahmana qualities the higher will be the joy that we get the higher will be the ananda we get that's exactly what we want we will talk about this further about kshatriya vaisya in our next class may ramakrishna holy mother and swami vekananda bless us all with bhakti ramakrishna