Patanjali Yoga Sutras Lecture 084

Full Transcript(Not Corrected)

Om Sahanaavavatu Sahanaubhunaktu Saaveeryam Karavavahai Tejasvinavaditamastumavidvishavahai Om Shanti Shanti Shanti Hari Om Om Yogena Chittasya Padena Vacham Malam Sharirasya Javaidhyakeena Yopakarottam Pravaram Muninam Patanjalim Praanjali Rana Tosmi 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. We have entered into a very profoundly understanding stage of these yoga sutras. We have been comparing the eight steps that Patanjali had outlined in the life of Sri Ramakrishna Parvahamsa. We have seen how Yama, Niyama, Asana, Pranayama, Pratyahara, Dharana, Dhyana and Samadhi. Perfect approximation of how he had practiced all these steps. Now only one step is remaining before we go further into this. What is life? It's a continuous change. That's why the biologists, the scientists say continuous improvement, what people call evolution. This is an irresistible process that's going on, what the Hindus call Churasi Lak Janam, 84 lakhs of lives before we came to the human life. What is the point here? That no one can stand still. Continuous learning of the lessons through ups and downs, it's going on. There is a technical name given to this process in Vedanta as well as in yoga sutras. It is called Parinama. Parinama means a change and in our practical life, we think that change is not always for the better. Sometimes it could be also for the worse, which is absolutely not right. It's always for the better. So Prakruti in Vedantic language is also called Janani, a mother. Very loving, compassionate mother. What does she do? Even if we make a billion mistakes, she never leaves us. She takes our hand and slowly leads us towards God. That's why our devotees can recollect Swami Brahmanandaji's teachings. One of the most marvelous teachings is, he says to either a devotee or a disciple, you may not believe me now, but God is taking everyone, even what we call the most wicked people, by hand towards himself. He only knows through what pathways he takes us. We see so many evil things happening in this world. So many atrocities happening in this world every time. Even few days back, what happened in France and other places. There are two ways of looking at this event. There are two ways of looking at any event. A worldly view and a spiritual view. What is the worldly view? Whatever benefits us, whatever helps us become more selfish. That's what we call good event, beneficial event. But often that is not true. From a spiritual point of view, both good as well as evil events, their role is to teach us a lesson and take us to God. If we can understand this, it will give us so much of peace of mind. In this context, all Hindus, Buddhists and Jains are believers in what we call Karma Siddhanta, the doctrine of Karma. If you really believe in God, you have to believe in the law of Karma. If you believe in God, you must have faith in the doctrine of Karma. Because if you believe in God, then He is guiding, directing, it is His will. And how can His will be anything other than the very best? So if some event happened in which either we or someone else, it doesn't matter, suffer, then God permits that suffering. That means it must be really good. But this subject is also really connected with our Patanjali Yoga Sutras. Because according to him, each one of us go through life and we have three different experiences. These are called Aayu, Jati and Bhoga. Aayu, Jati and Bhoga. What does that mean? Aayu means how long, what is our shelf life. Aayu means our shelf life, manufacturing date, expiry date. In between these two dates, dash, that's what we call shelf life. So shelf life, when are we born and when do we die? Exact time is fixed. Who fixes? God fixes. How does He fix? In the form of Kala, time. That's what in Bhagavad Gita it says. I am time, kaloham, lokakshayakrit pravruddhoham, ritepitvam, na bhavishyanti sarve. Even, oh Arjuna, even if you are not there, events will take place. Birth, death, everything takes place. How? Because I am time. I am the all-consuming time. This is called Aayu. What is the next one? Where are we born? Where do we live? Many of us are born in India or some other place and we have come here. Did we know when we were born? Did our parents know? We have come here. Why? Because of our purva janma karma phala. That's why we have come and why these people were born in Paris, are born somewhere, at least living in Paris because there is a destiny awaiting them. This is called jati, in which species, where and in which type of families, rich families, poor families, middle class families, powerful families, helpless families, whatever it is. This is called jati. Third is called bhoga. Bhoga means in Sanskrit language, he is enjoying. That's not the correct word. His experience is the correct word. It could be happiness, it could be unhappiness, it could be suffering, it could be enjoyment, any experience. This is called bhoga. How much do we enjoy depends upon our past karma, karma phala. 150%, not one iota will not be changed unless it is by God's grace. That's why Holy Mother says, even if a person has to suffer very much, but if there is God's grace, he can escape. It's a big subject. Again, I will not discuss it at this stage. What I wanted to mention, ayu, jati and bhoga totally depend upon our karma phala and each one of us have got our own karma phala. According to Patanjali, he calls this karma or impressions, samskaras, they lie in a particular place that is called karma asaya, the abode of karma and karma lives in this particular abode in the form of memory, in the form of samskaras. We also discussed vasanas, samskaras, vrittis and pratyayas. For reference, you have to go back. What is the point here? Any event we have a choice to view either spiritually or worldly. From a worldly point of view, it should not have happened. Something should not have happened. Something should happen. Unfortunately, neither should happen doesn't happen, should not happen doesn't stop happening. I just gave a specific example, this Paris because the incident in Paris. Why these people happened to be at that time? Who is responsible for their fate? From a worldly point of view, there were evil people and that's what they have done. From a spiritual point of view, it is our own karma phala. Hard to swallow, even harder to understand and accept. But if we don't, then our spiritual life is not going to go forward because the whole thing depends upon our faith in God. Faith in karma, faith in God, faith in humanity, everything is one thing. They are not separate things. You cannot take a knife and say my faith in God is intact but I don't like these events. Such a thing is not going to happen. Now, why did I bring up all these subjects? Because of one point. What is that point? Life is a continuous change. And second point I made is this change is not always necessarily a happy change. It could be both sukha as well as dukha. That is why in the Bhagavad Gita, the Lord again and again, umpteen number of times, he goes on saying, what does he say? You must keep your mind open in both happiness and suffering, in gain and loss, in victory and defeat, in every situation. What does that mean? It means, why is this happening to me? We are not bothered about others. This is a very important point. It is for each one of us to learn the lesson. We cannot teach anybody. Swami Vivekananda was so emphatic about it. Nobody can teach. Even God cannot teach anybody. All that he can do is, he can facilitate and it is up to the recipient how much he is able to do it. How much are we able to do it? Just open your mind and say we know so many things. But we are like that moral professors. A professor of morality and he was not very moral. So one of his students asked him, Sir, you teach morality and you misbehave. What is the matter with you? He smiled and said, have you seen a signboard walk this way? Yes, plenty. Have you ever seen the signboard walking? I am like that signboard. I am only a passer of knowledge. Unless change comes within us, we remain as signboards. Whether I am teaching or you are listening, it does not really matter. So continuously change is taking place. Life is nothing but a change. That is the first point. What is the second point? Every change that takes place is for good. Whether we understand it now or we understand it later, it does not really matter. But that is the truth. And the third point we have to understand is these are tailor-made. Every event that we go through is tailor-made. Keep that particular word in mind, tailor-made. For each one of us, there is a purpose. Who designed that? Our own karma. Why did it design? For our further progress. So what is our duty? Our duty is to be aware and say what can I learn from this event. Simple example I will give you. Hiram Krishna's teaching. Very interesting teaching is there, you know. One of the teachings. It says there are householders who are going on producing children after children. And they are dying. The children are dying. He does not have the money either to feed them or cloth them or look after them. And yet year after year, he is producing the children. This was his observation. So if somebody dies, a child dies, what should be that person's immediate questioning himself? What can I learn from this event? What can I learn from this event? He says, see if I get married, this is what is going to come. If I have children, they may be good. I may be very happy or they may be bad, in which case I may be very unhappy. Or they may die or they may live. We do not know. What is it? It's a big worry in the mind. And when a householder learns that lesson, both happiness is there, also worry is there, responsibility is there, obligations are there. When a householder learns, then he decides to withdraw. That is called a promotion. And that is the third stage of life according to Hinduism. What is it called? Vanaprastha Ashrama. And even Vanaprastha Ashrama is only one of the stages. Then there is another stage. What is that stage called? Sannyasa Ashrama. Even Sannyasa Ashrama is a stage. Do not forget it. It is not the ultimate. That is also a stage. Learn your lessons. What is the lesson? Sannyasa means what? Give up all attachment. Give up all sense of possession. Nyasa means give up the possession. That is called Nyasa. Samyak Nyasa completely. Give up completely all sense of possession. We are not talking about detachment. We are talking about giving up possession. What is the difference? Detachment means I have something and I should not be attached. What is the idea of non-possession? I don't possess it at all. Everything belongs to God. And I am thinking that it is mine that the first stage and second stage is I am attached to it. Third stage is I want to be detached from it and last stage is I don't possess it at all. It doesn't belong to me at all. If something doesn't belong to me, where is the question of being non-attached at all? That is called Yajna. These are profound ideas. Yajna. Yajna means what? We light up a fire and then offer something and then at the end of the offering. It is very interesting. Homa. The remnants of that Yajna. These days it is called Homa. Hari Homa. That is the meaning of Hari Homa. Where is our home? So this Homa, what happens? What is it? We offer as a representative something of which we are very fond. Not only clarified butter but anything of which we are fond. Oh Lord! This gives to you. Now what is interesting point here? Usually it is clarified butter. There is a huge vessel and with a spoon we take that clarified butter. The fire is burning and then we put Agnaya Swaha. In our case, when we do, when I do, when our Swamis do, what do we say? Sri Ramakrishnaaya Sarva Devi Devi Swaroopaya Sri Ramakrishnaaya Swaha. Now listen to me carefully. Swaha. There is a spoon. Put it there. You know there will be a little bit of remnant. A few drops because everything doesn't fall. It's not dry. That thing should not be again put in the original ghee pot. They will keep a small cup and there is a mantra for that. Nama Namaaha Namaaha. And then you put those few drops there before you dip that spoon again in the original and second time you offer. Now from that Namaaha has come this, you know, Sri Ramakrishnaaya Namaaha, Ganeshaaya Namaaha, Namaaha means salutation. No. It is Na Mama. Not mine. This ghee I am offering is not mine. It is yours and offering it to you. What a wonderful concept, you know. If the person has sincerely done that one, then ultimately he says why only the ghee? It's a representation. That means what? Everything that I call. Tano, Mana, Dhana. Everything. You know, you heard the expression Tano, Mana, Dhana. Tano means body. Mana means mind. Dhana means everything belongs to this. Not only money. Everything. Everything. Everything is Dhana, you know. You know, small bachcha, baby is born. Amar dhaan. Money. Money bole, you know. No money. Dhana means what? I and Tano and Mana means I. Dhana means mine. I and mine both belong to God. Wonderful thing is, secret is, if I belong to God, whatever belongs to me also automatically belongs to God. You know, if you buy a cow which has given birth recently, the calf also belongs to you. Now this idea is transformed into the modern puja and that puja here. Special days, here we don't do regular puja. It's very simplified, short and concise puja. But in India, everywhere, they do evening time Arathrikam. Arathrikam means Vesper service. In the Vesper service, you know, we offer five items and in a particular order. First, the lights, lamps and then second, water and third, a piece of cloth and fourth, a flower and lastly, we fan. Five items. What are these five items? What are those five items? All these five items are representations of five elements, Panchabhuta. You can go home and do homework, which item belongs to which Buddha? Akasha, Vayu, Agni, Jal, Water and Prithvi, Bhoomi. The whole universe consists of these five and these five items represent these five elements. What is the idea? The idea is, O Lord, the earth belongs to you, water belongs to you, the fire belongs to you, the air belongs to you and the space also belongs to you. And what am I made up of? These five elements. And if I am made up of five elements and all these five elements belong to you, to whom do I belong? To God. Then what have I got to offer? Nothing. There is nothing. In this whole world, there is nothing. Then what is it I am doing? I am gratefully acknowledging. You gave me this opportunity so that I can come to you, I can love you, I can establish a relationship with you and that is called, that is the ultimate expression of bhakti, devotion or knowledge, whatever you call it. This is the Sampragnata Samadhi. This idea, everything belongs to you is called Sampragnata Samadhi. Then there is next, there is nothing accepting you. Not that, there is something besides you and it belongs to you. You see the difference? The division between I and mine. The division between God and whatever belongs to God. That is called Dvaita. No duality. Everything is one. That is the highest, Sampragnata Samadhi. What is it? Everything belongs. Everything is you. Everything belongs to you. That is the lower step to the highest Samadhi. What is the ultimate state? There are no two. Everything is nothing but you, Tattvamasi, Mahavakya. That is what we are talking about. Tattvamasi. Aham Brahmasmi. What profound ideas are related to what we are talking about? Sampragnata Samadhi. What is Sampragnata Samadhi? Aham Brahmasmi. Here Aham, here is Brahma. Brahma means Brahman. Aham means what? If I am body and mind and God is not body and mind, how can we be one? Unity cannot come. Oneness cannot come. I must be the same thing. You know there is a law. That law is every single thing in this world is pure and it cannot be mixed with something else. Everything, every single thing in this world is pure and it cannot be mixed. But it may appear to be mixed. Simple example I will give you. Say salt water, sweet water, dirty water. Water is pure. You put salt. What does it become? Salty water. You put some sugar. What does it become? Sweet water. You put some mud. What does it become? Dirty water. That's why we use two words. You see the wonderful thing about language. We don't say water. We say salt water, sweet water, dirty water. What does that mean? Sir, there are two elements there. One is dirt. Another is water. One is sweet. One is water. One is salt. One is water. Is it a fact? Yes, it's a fact. How do we know? Because there are methods by which we can separate both of them by boiling etc. See the point. What is it I am driving at? If I is understood in that sense. If I am the body, I will be the body, pure. But if I am not the body, somehow I and the body and the mind have become one. That's what in our present state we say I am the body and mind. How can this be Brahman? It cannot be Brahman. So what is this yoga or what is this spiritual practice? It's the process of distilling the pure I, separating the pure I consciousness with everything that doesn't belong to it. What is the cause of this samsara? Ignorance. Ignorance. What is the ignorance and consciousness mixing together? Chit, jada, granthi. It is called granthi. Chit, jada, granthi. The coming together of something conscious, something consciousness and which is non-consciousness, what is called inert, coming together and somehow getting mixed up and each is saying I am the other. I am a mixture of both. Each saying I am the mixture of both. The body says I am consciousness. The consciousness says I am body and mind. This process of separation is called yoga. That's why it is called yogaha, vyogaha. Yoga is really the process of separating. What are we talking about? When we are able to separate and say I am the pure consciousness, then relationship is possible between this aham and this brahman. So when a person through many, many lives of spiritual practice had come to the state where he feels I am not the body and mind, I am still aware of the body-mind but I am not the body and mind, this is equivalent to sampragnatha samadhi. Sampragnatha samadhi. But that's not the end because according to Advaita Vedanta, it is not liberation. You are still in a lower state. You have not become because there is still that division, that duality. I am separate, God is separate. That relationship, that is called sampragnatha samadhi and the next stage should be there is no sampragnatha, there is no asampragnatha because even to say, a person doesn't say I am now in asampragnatha samadhi, I am now in nirvikalpa samadhi. Did you have very good nirvikalpa samadhi? What time did you enter into nirvikalpa samadhi? Ask the question and he says, you know, three hours before I was in nirvikalpa samadhi. I entered into, before that where were you? In savikalpa samadhi. How did you enter? Well, you see, I was sitting and thinking about God and my wife got angry with me and she took a big stick and gave me a big blow on my head. Instantaneously, I attained into nirvikalpa samadhi. What time? Yesterday morning, I had a vision of God. These are all human imaginations. There is a vision of God but there is no need, there is no time because God's grace is beyond time, space and causation. What does it mean? I did so much japa, so God appeared to me. No, there is no causal relationship between what you do and what God does. It comes beyond time, space and causation. Anyway, coming back to our subject, what is it? If we compare all these beautiful ideas, how Sri Ramakrishna had gone through each one of them and had attained to that sampragnata samadhi in Patanjali's system of yoga. That is the technical word, sampragnata. In Vedantic language, we don't call it sampragnata samadhi. What do we call it? Savikalpa samadhi. What is that Savikalpa samadhi? It is also called brahma akara vritti. Vritti means it is a modification of the mind. It is still in the realm of the mind, highest type of mind but still the whole mind as it were becomes. This is all background for what we are about to discuss the coming few aphorisms which are so profound. That's what I wanted to tell you. So spiritual life, let me put it in yogic language, we call it three types of parinamas. I discussed in a general way what you call evolution. What is evolution? It is a change from a lower state to a higher state. This is what scientists call evolution. Only thing is they don't know what is involution. I mentioned in one of my classes very briefly what it means is if you are talking about evolution, you have to talk about involution. What is involution? See it is very simple idea. Your home is somewhere, you went far away and you realized that I am not very comfortable here, I reach home. By the way, do you know what is the meaning of the word home? What is home you know? There is a house and that's what I call my home. No, home is where you feel most comfortable and if you don't feel comfortable at home, is it a home or is it a prison house? You know there is an atmosphere at home. The moment you come home, psychological samskaras will come, responsibilities, what you need to do, what you don't need. Even the most convenient relationships between family members, that's mine. This is a blessing in a way but let us not forget the amount of what we call obligations, responsibilities. All of us know and we don't want to talk about it. We have to talk about it, compare it and say. When I was in Bangalore, somebody once told me, Swamiji, I would like to be in your shoes. I said there are certain problems here. The first problem is my shoes are too big for your feet. You won't be comfortable. Second is, you know there is a saying, if you want to criticize somebody, you walk in his shoes for at least one mile because after you criticize, if he wants to take it out on you, at least the distance between you is one mile. That's why definitely practice it. Is it so easy that you just say, this was a householder saying, I wish I were in your shoes. You will be. There will come a time, even if you don't want, nature will push you there. That is called evolution. It will come. But right now, if you step into my shoes, then you will be most uncomfortable because my shoes will not fit. Either they are small for you or rather too big for you. You have to make your feet exactly fitting to step into my shoes. What am I talking about? Any stage, you can't simply enter there just because you choose it. When you are ready, you enter there automatically. Naturally, you will enter there. That is the idea. These three points I told, life is a continuous change and the change is always good and if we can aid that change in a systematic way, that will be most wonderful. Now, we are talking about spiritual life is a continuous change of oppression and acquisition, a higher samskara replacing a lower samskara. Let us dwell upon this idea for a minute. What is spiritual progress? You see, you take perhaps a chosen ideal, a chosen deity, a mantra, a type of puja, a type of sadhana. It doesn't matter whatever it is. Now, what do you do? What is your continuous? I was like that and now I would like to be like this. So, what do you do? Continuously practice so that the spiritual samskara replaces the so-called worldly samskara. Caution! You don't need to change the circumstances very often. You need to change only one thing. What is it? Change the outlook, how we view things. That is all we need to change. Simple example, as we know, Ramakrishna was asked, Brahma woman, I am bringing up my nephew. I want to develop love for Krishna, Gopala. You know, there is a distinction. Gopala doesn't mean Krishna. Gopala means child Krishna. You have to understand it. There are, if you go to supermarket, you get this Hindu supermarket, then you will get these distinctions. There is a Gopala department. There is a Gopi Krishna department and there is a Gita Krishna department. There is one what is called ambassador department. Krishna is an ambassador. So, different types of departments are there. Here Gopala means child Krishna. This lady wanted. She says, I want to think about Gopala, but I am not able to do it. See, Ramakrishna, he did not change the circumstances. That is the point. He did not say, you just finish quickly, bathing him, feeding him, put him to sleep, if necessary, give him some sleeping tablet. He did not say that. What did he say? Whatever you are doing, continue doing it, but do not think he is your nephew. Think him as your Gopala and within six months, she had a vision of Gopala. You see, attitude, change of attitude, that is what is needed. Whether you are a student or a married person or a retired person or a monk, what changes is not the circumstance, but changes the outlook, the motivation. That is why Ramakrishna has told a beautiful story, if you recall. Each one of Ramakrishna's teachings is a precious gem to be meditated upon. Which is the story I am referring to? In a village, there was a monk and a prostitute and the monk was highly revered and they were, unfortunately, they were staying opposite to each other. What happened? This monk, day and night, he was thinking about the sin being committed by the prostitute and he was counting how many customers this lady is having every day and whenever a customer visits, Ramakrishna's fertile imagination, you know, one small stone, he will put today and five customers visited her. Day after day, it started growing that heap of stones, it is a small hillock and every day he will meet her and say, see how your sin is growing and she used to quake with fear and pray to the Lord. Then, you know the story, same day, same time they passed away and the villagers came and took the body of the sannyasi and lit a sandalwood fire and then with all the honour, they cremated him. Whereas, they just dragged this lady's body in the crematory to be eaten by animals, dogs, etc. Now, the souls of this has risen up from the body and the messengers of Lord Vishnu came and claimed the soul of the prostitute and you can understand now, the messengers of Naraka, death came to possess the soul of the monk, so-called monk and he cried out, what is this injustice? Then the messengers of Vishnu replied, there is no injustice in my realm. While you led an outwardly pure life, constantly your mind was dwelling on what this lady was doing. Whereas, this lady was always remembering God, quaking in fear for all the so-called misdeeds she was doing and she knows nothing except to me, that's why I am gathering her unto me and you will go to there. What she should have experienced, you will experience. What you should have experienced, she will experience. All the time, changes are taking place in our bodies as well as in our minds, most importantly the mind. We are talking about spiritual life. In the spiritual life, if we are sincere and practice in spiritual disciplines, three types of changes are taking place. Three types of changes, they are called Nirodha Parinama. Parinama is a Sanskrit word for change, Parinama. Prakruti Parinama, we call it, what scientists call, you know, evolution. Parinama means evolution, change. And then, Samadhi Parinama and Ekagrata Parinama, three types of Parinama take place. And when we study the life of Shri Ramakrishna, we see all these three things are happening. Let me talk a little bit about what happened. This change, Parinama, is of two types again. Each Parinama is of two types. One is, before one attains Sampragnata Samadhi or Brahmakaro Rithi and second is, after one attains Sampragnata Samadhi. Now, the event that happened in Shri Ramakrishna's life, we all, the devotees know and I also have spoken about it so many times, but let us think about it. Shri Ramakrishna said, one day I sat for meditation and I suddenly had a vision of a Paramahamsa, a young monk, exactly resembling me with a trident and telling me, if your mind strays from the lotus feet of the Divine Mother, I will pierce you with this Trishula. And naturally, my mind stopped thinking about anything else. In fact, Shri Ramakrishna's mind is a unique mind. He said, the Gati, he said, you know, the momentum of my mind is always towards the impersonal, from the very birth towards the impersonal. These are called Urdhva Retas. In Puranas, these are called Urdhva Retas, means their mind is always pointed upwards. He also gives the example of Homa bird. Even if they come down, the moment they realize, they go up. Now, the point here is, Shri Ramakrishna saw this Sannyasi. What was the point? Exactly resembling me. That means what? Who kept that? He himself employed his own mind as we employ our mind occasionally. You know, suppose one day at five o'clock, you have to reach the airport. So what time do you think you will get up? So you put the alarm clock, maybe at two o'clock, because you have to get up, wash and then get ready and then reach the airport by five o'clock. So what time you put the alarm for? At what time? Two o'clock. And you went to bed at, say, eleven o'clock. When do you get up? Twelve o'clock. You have so much control over your mind. You know, every few minutes we are getting up. Is it time? Is it time? Am I going to miss? Now, why does that happen? Because you have kept the mind and said, I have to get up. That's what Shri Ramakrishna did. I have to think only about the lotus feet of the mother. In his case, the struggle was not much. You know why? Because you see, his mind is a right mind. His mind knew that all these things are insubstantial, whereas we don't know. That's why our problem is, we have not come to that understanding. Everything that is in this world, including our body and mind, we think they are most precious, very, very precious. Whereas Shri Ramakrishna's mind, accepting God, everything is trash. That is the point. So Shri Ramakrishna's mind naturally thinks about God. Even then, he kept his mind and said, oh mind, keep a watch, in case, even without my knowledge, if I happen to think of anything else other than God, my mother, then you come and then give me pain. There are so many wonderful things to talk about. Narada Bhakti Sutras. There is one particular sutra and he says that one minute's separation from God, one kshana, means one, you know what is a kshana? You close your eyelid. That is one kshana. And one kshana, forgetting God, looks like one yuga. We can very easily understand because you understand the opposite thing. One minute of thinking about God appears to us as though how much time passed? One yuga has passed. Even when our mind is concentrated, we are not talking about concentration here. We are talking about conviction. Conviction and concentration are two separate issues. A scientist can have concentration. A devotee of God also, so-called devotee of God also can have concentration. How do we know? Because even though he will have concentration, but the moment that moment is passed, his mind comes down. That is why? Because he is not convinced of the reality. That is why the discrimination between Nitya and Anitya, in English language, sometimes we do a great injustice by translating these words indiscriminately. Discrimination means the discrimination between the real and unreal. Now, there are four stages of discrimination. What are the four stages? What are the first stage? The first discrimination is Sukha and Dukha. It is a wonderful subject by itself. Today, I will just dwell upon it and then we will take it up. Sukha and Dukha Viveka. What is Sukha, Dukha, Viveka? If you ask anybody, what do you want? Everybody will say, I want to be happy. But are they happy or they are not happy? Most of the time, they are not happy. Why are they not happy? Because not being happy is a result, is an effect. So, they have produced causes for not being happy. That means, it's telling by mouth that I want to be happy. I don't want to be unhappy, automatically goes with that. But he is not striving to find out what should be done, how it should be done. That is why the first Viveka is to be very sure and say, I want to be happy and I will devote my life to be happiness. This is how the first stage of discrimination starts. And most of us have, I am sorry to say, have not reached that stage. Second stage is called Karya, Akarya, Viveka. If I want to be happy, I have to do certain things and I have to avoid certain things. Vidhi and Nishadha have to be done. Third stage of discrimination is, what is temporary and what is permanent. What is temporary, what is called permanent. We are talking about what is temporarily something is real, but permanently something is real. And those people who are not able to sacrifice the temporary for the sake of the permanent, they are not going to reach. This is what Shri Ramakrishna tells in his fourth commandment. What is the fourth commandment? Always discriminate. And then he defines what is discrimination. He says this third point, what is this third point? That God alone is permanent. Everything else is temporary. Life is temporary. For this, you do not need a scripture. We know every day of our life, we are witnessing it. Life is very temporary. Everything is very temporary. What is the third stage? The discrimination between what is temporary and what is relatively permanent. According to Vedanta, relatively permanent has a different meaning. It means not only in this life. A person who has faith, he will think, I will go to heaven. And according to Nachiketa, Kathopanishad, Yamadhar Maharaj offered him that you can live as long as I live. His boon is that so long as I live. Sir, what happens as soon as you die? Mrityu means time. Time means temporary. It may be long comparatively. A human life is supposed to be comparatively longer than a mosquito's life. That is what we think. No, that is not true. From a mosquito's point of view, it is 100 years. And if some mosquito is unhappy mosquito, oh God, why did you give me such a long time? It will be going on saying that. But we do not know fortunately about it. Yamadhar Maharaj says, so long as I live. Nachiketa, very short, he was practicing this third type of discrimination and says that even a long time is not a long time. A long time is a very short time. Do you know? A short time is a very long time. A long time is a very short time. Whose discovery is that? Einstein's theory of relativity. What is relativity? If a person is happy, then even a long time passes in a short time. Holidays pass very quickly. Saturdays and Sundays pass very quickly. How this Monday to Friday, you go on looking at your watch and this damned watch, something wrong, it is not moving at all. Whereas the same watch, Saturdays and Sundays, it moves very fast. But when a person is unhappy, even a short time appears to be a very long time. Simple example is when you are having real good deep sleep, is it a long time or short time? Even five hours, just now I went to sleep and then I woke up, so quickly time passes. Happiness means time passes very quickly. Now what is it? Even if Naciketa was offered heavenly joys, Yama Dharmaraja's words is as long as I live. But by the time I thought that I started, already the end has come. Whereas if it is Naraka, then you know every second you go on counting about it. Anyway, it is interesting. This is the third stage of discrimination. Naciketa was practicing with regard to Yama Dharmaraja's offer. This is the third stage. What is the fourth stage? Means what is real and what is not real. Fourth stage is what is real and what is Vastu and what is Avasthu. So you see Sukha, Dukha, Viveka, Karya, Akarya, Viveka, Nitya, Anitya, Viveka and Vastu, Avasthu, Viveka. Vastu means Brahman, reality. Avasthu means anything other than that, this discrimination. And we are talking about whenever we say, oh discriminate, what discrimination? We have not even started in the first stage of the discrimination. Shri Ramakrishna's mind has reached that highest stage of discrimination and that is why his mind will never deviate from God because he was convinced other than God, everything else is trash, Nitya, that is what is called Nitya. Even then he kept this Nirodha, we are talking about Nirodha, Nirodha means control. He kept his own mind as a control. To conclude, what did we discuss? Life is full of changes, spiritual life is also full of changes. Changes take place in three stages, Nirodha Parinama, Samadhi Parinama and Ekagrata Parinama and Shri Ramakrishna's life. I also discussed two types of changes, before Sampragnath Samadhi and after Sampragnath Samadhi. What is before Sampragnath Samadhi? He had all these things but that is not enough. He attained Sampragnath Samadhi. Means what? He was able to, his mind will not think anything excepting the Divine Mother but that is not enough. According to Vedanta, that is still a stage of duality, it is a vritti, Kalika Akara Vritti, just to go beyond that. At that time, Duttapuri Maharaj came, initiated him into Sannyasa and then we know that he helped Shri Ramakrishna transcend, that change from Kalika Akara Vritti to becoming I am Brahman. We are saying, he won't say that, he is not there to say that. That stage is called Asampragnath Samadhi. We will discuss these finer points in our next class. Om Shanti Shanti Shanti