Channeling our emotions on the path of yoga – Gita 06.20-23
I am very grateful to be here amongst all of you at the Lotus Feet Oshichi Panchakartua. Thank you to Karam for inviting me here and inviting me to share something in the Bhagavad Gita.
I will speak on the topic of channelling our emotions on the path of yoga. Channelling our emotions. I will speak from 6.20 to 6.23 in the Bhagavad Gita.
These are four verses that describe the state of Samadhi, the state of spiritual perfection. So, 6.20 to 6.23. Chanting the Bhagavad Gita. So, here Krishna is describing the state of yogic perfection.
And he says yatra, in this stage, uparamate chittam chitta, consciousness, chitta actually means a specific kind of consciousness, which I will come to later, but uparamate, uparamate means to cease, to stop moving, so when the consciousness stops moving at the material level, how, yatra uparamate chittam niruddham yoga sevaya, yoga sevaya, by the practise of yoga, niruddham, actually in Patanjali's Yogasutra, there are five states of mind control described, the highest is samadhi, below that the state is niruddham, means the mind is controlled, so we come to the penultimate state of yogic perfection, how, yoga sevaya, by the steady practise of yoga, yatra, in that state, chaivaatmanatmanam, in that stage, the mind turns inwards, the self looks at the self, self perceives the self, aatmanatmanam, and what happens when you perceive the self, pashyam aatmanitushyati, on seeing this, one becomes satisfied, and satisfaction is at one level of positive emotion, higher than that is joy, I am satisfied, I am delighted, it's higher, so here it says, tushyati, but the next verse says, sukham aatyan tikam yathad, ultimate happiness one experiences, how is this experience, buddhigrahayam atindriyam, it is beyond the senses, atindriyam, it is not experience to the senses, but it is buddhigrahayam, it is appreciated through the intelligence, and when we experience this happiness, menti yathrina chaivayam, having known this happiness, having known this state of consciousness, sthitashchalati tattvataha, one never goes away from this truth, and then further this point is elaborated, why does one not go away from this truth, now we achieve something in life, and we feel, yes, now I have got this, this is the perfection of my life, sometimes we want a particular dream job, or a dream career, or a dream partner, and when we get that, now we think, now my life is successful, now I have got what I want, but after that dream gets fulfilled, after sometime we start finding, this job is not all that great, this particular house I got, it has some problems, this partner I have got, but they are not as great as I thought they would be, so in all the things that we dream about, it turns out, ok, it is not all that great, and I want something more, maybe there is something better, but this state of yogic perfection is such that, yam labdha, on having attained this, chaparam labham, some other gain, manyate nadhikam tattvaha, one never thinks that there is anything greater to be attained than this, this is the greatest gain, so normally when we have got something, we give it up for two reasons, one is that we feel that I might get something better, the other is that by holding on to it, I get too much misery, better let me give it up, so I got a very high paying job, but in that high paying job, there is too much tension, and I feel there is, I got stress, I get hypertension, I get blood pressure, better let me give up this job, so what is said over here, the other thing is, that we don't feel that there can be anything better than this, and at the same time, when we get this, yam labdha chaparam labham manyate nadhikam tattvaha, yasmin sthitona dukhena, gurunapi vichayate, having attained this, one will not give it up, even if one gets great misery, gurunapi dukhana, when there is great misery, one will not give it up, and this state, tam vidyad, know this state oh Arjuna, what is this, dukha sanyoga viyoga, so the Bhagavad Gita is actually a work of poetry, it's a philosophical poetry, and here we see the poetic quality of the Bhagavad Gita, the same word yoga is repeated three times, tam vidyad dukha sanyoga viyoga yoga sanyitam, so dukha sanyoga, dukha sanyoga is the contact with misery, and viyoga, viyoga means disconnection, so Krishna is using here a double negative to emphasise the positive, that means disconnection from the connection with misery, dukha sanyoga viyoga, so disconnection from the connection with misery, that is yoga sanyitam, so what is that is called as yoga, that state of disconnection from the connection with misery, that is called as yoga, so now the word yoga in the Bhagavad Gita is multivalent, it has different meanings and different places, so yoga at one level refers to the process by which we become spiritually elevated, but here Krishna uses the word yoga to refer to the perfection of that process, and yoga essentially means connection, yoga is connection, connection of what, connection of our present, ourselves, our soul, we who are at our core spiritually, connection of our consciousness with the supreme consciousness, that essentially is yoga, so here Krishna tells that this perfection when we attain we will never give it up, we all want to achieve something worthwhile, something wonderful in life, but Krishna gives us the characteristics here of the supreme achievement, the supreme achievement is that way after having achieved that I feel there is nothing more to achieve, and after having achieved that no misery is so great as to be intolerable, that he says is the supreme achievement of life, now we all have various goals in our life, and we can evaluate, if I get this, I want a big house, I want a big car, I want this, I want that, will there be anything that we are seeking to achieve, by achieving which we will feel, now I don't want to achieve anything more, and if I gain this no problem will ever trouble me, no achievement of this world can actually guarantee us these two things, complete freedom from hankering for something more, and complete capacity to tolerate misery, any kind of misery that we get, this Krishna says we get when we attain the perfection of yoga, now the word yoga as I said it means connection, and the purpose, normally today the word yoga is associated with yogic postures, we do various asanas, sit in various postures for health, for fitness, for making the body more supple and shapely, and that is also a valid part of yoga, but these postures are meant for a purpose, just like if in baseball, when the batter is batting, at that time the batter may have different postures, some batters may stand with the bat held high up, some batters may stand with the bat horizontal, some batters may stand with the bat on the ground, some batters may stand with their legs little stretched apart, some batters may stand with their legs tightly close to each other, now the purpose of the posture is not just to look stylish, the purpose of the posture is when the ball comes, you can hit the ball forcefully, with most force one is able to hit the ball, that is the best posture, so postures cannot be separated from purposes, the posture is for a particular purpose, similarly in yoga, the posture is meant for a purpose, just like in the baseball, the posture is meant to propel the ball into the high trajectory, similarly in yoga, the posture is meant to propel our consciousness upwards, it is meant to propel our consciousness upwards from the material level to the spiritual level, and usually on the path of yoga, for raising one's consciousness upwards, the path entails the adoption of dispassion, dispassion means detachment, freedom from emotions, the idea is that emotions are what entangle us, now when we see something good looking, when we find something which tastes good, we look at so many attractive things in this world, and we get emotions, desires, cravings for them, and then we start pursuing them, and we get entangled, so our consciousness gets caught at the material level because of our emotions, and so yoga says, the path of yoga says, we want to go from the material level to the spiritual level, then we give up emotions, yoga chitta vritti nirodha, so yoga is defined in the Patanjali Yoga Sutra as chitta vritti, the moment of consciousness, nirodha, stops, so when we become unemotional, at that time we will no longer be allured by material things, and that is when we will rise in yoga, that is the understanding of the path of yoga, just like say somebody has become an alcohol addict, and somebody else who is sober, who is not attracted to alcohol, now both of them see an alcoholic bottler, now one of them, the person is an addict, immediately the desires start coming with them, then they become cravings, a person is pulled towards them, so the passion, the desire, the emotion, the craving drags the person towards them, on the other hand if another person does not have any emotion associated with that, that person will not get attracted, so the way to not be captivated by say the alcohol is to have dispassion, so expand from that alcohol to the world of matter in general, so by dispassion yoga says, we can become detached from the world, now the process of bhakti, bhakti is also a yoga, so yoga as I said means connection, so you want to be disconnected from this, Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare, Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare, Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare, Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare, Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare, Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare, Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare, Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare, Yatro parmate chittam niruddham yoga sevaya, Yat sa chaivatmanatmanam vasyannatman tushyati, Sukhamatyam vartikamyakta, Sukhamatyam vartikamyakta, Buddhi graham yamati indriyam, maybe you can speak without it, if you can come a little closer, ok, ok, I will speak louder, yeah sure, sure, ok fine, yeah, am I audible behind, ok, maybe you can come a little ahead in case I am not audible, So, on the path of yoga, by dispassion one moves to, one can become free from matter and move towards spirit, now the path of bhakti yoga, says that the emotions, which attract us to this world, which bind us to this world, those same emotions, can be used to approach the absolute truth, to approach spiritual reality, so rather than rejecting or suppressing emotions, the idea is redirect emotions, so this also, this, ok, so now when we want to approach the absolute truth, at that time, when we want to approach the absolute truth, so, there are two attitudes to the absolute truth, there is the analytical attitude, and there is the aesthetic attitude, so for example, if I look at a beautiful rose flower, if I want to appreciate the beauty, of that rose flower, I have to approach it, from an aesthetic perspective, how artistic it is, how beautiful its colour is, how sweet its fragrance is, Hare Krishna, so, when I approach the rose, and see it from an aesthetic perspective, then I can appreciate its beauty, the same rose, I can also approach from an analytical perspective, where I can see, ok, this is, this is the petal, this is the stamen, this is the carpel, this is the andrushium, this is the gynushium, I can approach from an analytical, botanical perspective, and that can also help me to learn some things, about the rose, if I want to relish the beauty of the rose, at that time, I have to approach it from a, not an analytical perspective, but from an aesthetic perspective, so, both perspectives, of looking at the rose are valid, but both will give me different, understandings of the rose, one will help me to see it as a specimen of nature, of the biology, and the intricacy of the biological structure, another, will help me to see it, as a specimen of art, and help me to see its artistic beauty, so, similarly, when we approach the absolute truth, we can approach it from a purely analytical perspective, or we can approach it from an aesthetic perspective, so, when we approach the absolute truth, from an analytical perspective, that perspective requires, that perspective is centred on, freedom from emotions, be unemotional, and then, we see the absolute truth, in its impersonal aspect, as the non-differentiated, oneness, as the non-differentiated, stream of consciousness, which is called as Brahman, which pervades all of reality, when we, approach the absolute truth, with an aesthetic perspective, then, that same absolute truth, is revealed as a person, as the all attractive, form of Shri Krishna, these two, are features of the same absolute truth, to understand, how the same absolute truth, can have different features, let's consider, say, the example, of, a sweet ball, a gulab jamun, so, now, suppose, after this programme, we come to know, that there is, a feast, where some gulab, sweet balls are being served, and, from the, from the kitchen, the fragrance comes out, now, we are experiencing, the sweet ball, through its fragrance, but, when we go to the kitchen, get the food, and eat it, we experience the same, same sweet ball, but we experience it, not just as a smell, we also experience it, as a, experience it, as the taste, that the experience of, it has a, at the level of the fragrance, there is experience at the level of, taste, so, now, both are, actually, the experience of the sweet ball itself, but there are different, levels of intimacy, so, by giving up emotions, we can experience, the absolute truth, at one level, that is the level of, the non-differentiated, oneness of Brahman, by bringing emotions, into our approach, at the absolute truth, we can experience, the absolute truth, as the all attractive, supreme person, Krishna, so, bhakti yoga, it, redirects our emotions, and makes the emotions, the means by which, we can approach Krishna, approach the absolute truth, that's why in the same verse, if we see, first Krishna is telling, uparamate chittam, niruddham yogasevaya, he says that, by, the chitta becomes motionless, the chitta becomes, the consciousness becomes, free from movement, niruddham, but then, if the consciousness is, completely free from movement, it's like inactive, it's passive, and there should be, no experience, but Krishna says, what is it after that day, next verse he says, sukham, artyam, dekham, there is a ultimate happiness, that is experienced, so what does it mean, the ultimate happiness, is experienced, that means, there is emotion over there, and that emotion, is the reciprocation of love, so, normally, when we talk about consciousness, say I am looking at you, so I am, so there are three components, in any conscious experience, there is the subject of consciousness, so I am the subject of consciousness, if I am looking at you, then you are the, object of consciousness, or if you take it from your perspective, then you are the subject of consciousness, I am the object of consciousness, and in between the two of us, linking us is the, stream of consciousness, so there is the subject of consciousness, there is the object of consciousness, and there is the stream of consciousness, these three comprise, any conscious experience, so on the impersonal path, the idea is, that, actually, when there is conscious experience in this world, you know, we see something, we see someone, we become attracted to them, and then quite often, we become materially entangled, so their idea is, that, in conscious experience, the subject and the object, their interaction causes bondage, going back to the example of alcohol addict, the alcoholic is the subject of consciousness, the alcohol bottle is the, object of consciousness, and there is a stream of consciousness that links the two, and when that link happens, then the desire grows, then the person drinks alcohol, and then has a relapse, suppose the alcoholic was trying to give up alcohol, they have relapse, so the idea is, that, the subject and the object of consciousness, when they are linked, through the stream of consciousness, that causes bondage, so yoga, holds that, the way to freedom from bondage, is to do away, with the subject, and the object, that means, the idea of this whole world, is actually an illusion, my sense of I-ness, is also an illusion, and, therefore, what remains, is neither the subject, nor the object, only the stream of consciousness, so that is the conception, of perfection in yoga, this is, about yoga, one conception of perfection, where, in order to remove emotions, because emotions cause entanglement, the idea is, that the locus of emotions, that which causes emotions, that which experiences emotions, both of them, are rejected as illusion, and all that remains is the stream of consciousness, now bhakti, purposes of bhakti yoga tells us, that actually, we don't have to reject the subject and the object, they are all real, so I am real, you are real, but our relationship, at present, is not based on reality, because, I identify myself as a material being, you identify yourself as a material being, and the relationship that we form, is based on a misidentification, so, the problem, is not, the, the, existence of the subject and the object, the problem is the conception, of who I am, so what yoga tells us is, what bhakti yoga tells us is, the subject is real, I as a soul am real, and the object, ultimate object of consciousness is Krishna, is also real, and the stream of consciousness, that connects us with Krishna, that is pure consciousness, because that consciousness, brings happiness, the more we become conscious of things in this world, often that causes attachment, that causes craving, that causes dissatisfaction, but when we become conscious of Krishna, Krishna is the source, is the reservoir of, the supreme happiness, so when the stream of consciousness, which is moving from us, it moves towards Krishna, at that time, that is the perfection of consciousness, that brings supreme happiness, so, the process of yoga, what it tells us is, the process of bhakti yoga, rather than rejecting emotions, we redirect emotions, we are conscious, we cannot avoid being conscious, but we strive to become conscious, of the object, that will give us the supreme happiness, so, there are many forms of shortage in this world, some people may not have enough food, some people may not have enough drinking water, some people may not have shelter, there are different kinds of shortages, but the greatest shortage, is actually, Panchatatra Bhagwan, the greatest shortage, the greatest shortage, is the shortage, of a satisfying object of thought, we all the time are thinking of something or the other, but quite often, the things that we think of, they agitate us, they trouble us, if we have a satisfying object of thought, we can be satisfied anywhere and everywhere, and that supremely satisfying object of thought, is Krishna, so, that's why when we talk about Krishna consciousness, Prabhupada started the international society, for Krishna consciousness, what this means is we are always conscious, but he started a movement, which would enable our consciousness to rise towards Krishna, and to the extent we become conscious of Krishna, to the extent we become satisfied, to the extent we become joyful, so, now how is it that when we become conscious of Krishna, we become joyful, because Krishna himself is the reservoir of all joy, suppose outside it is extremely cold, and we are shivering, and then we come to a room, which has comfortably cosy room temperature, as soon as we enter there, we immediately feel freedom from the chill, we feel warm, we feel comfortable, so, what has happened, the temperature outside has not changed, but we have come to a place, where we don't feel the chill, similarly, yoga tells us, that actually our consciousness can go in various directions, and wherever it goes in this world, there is agitation, I read this news, oh, there is a bomb blast here, oh, there is a terrorist attack there, oh, there is a stock market crash there, oh, there is a political scandal here, oh, there is an election going on with these two candidates, and both candidates are terrible, don't know what to do, so, whatever we think about, it causes agitation, and that's like, we being out in the cold, feeling chilled, but then we bring our thoughts towards Krishna, we fix our consciousness on Krishna, that's like, coming into a warm, cosy, comfortable room, immediately get removed, machittah sarva-durgani mat-prasadah darshasmi, 18.58 in the Bhagavad Gita, Krishna says, if you become conscious of me, you will pass over all obstacles by my grace, so, the process of bhakti tells us, that we can become conscious of Krishna, and we can use our emotions for becoming conscious of Krishna, rather than rejecting our emotions, we redirect our emotions towards Krishna, so, normally, we talk of, we normally think of responding to emotions in two ways, one is to express them, and the other is to repress them, you know, if somebody does something, which makes us angry, then we just go and blast out at them, how could you do this, you know, I have done so much for you, you are so ungrateful, you are this, you are that, we just blast out, and then, quite often, in the force of anger, when we express our emotions, we often speak things, which we really didn't mean, but they hurt us, sometimes if, you know, somebody recorded what we speak when we got angry, and then played the recording back to us, we say, was that me, how could I have spoken that, so, unrestricted expression of emotions, that actually is unhealing, that can make us a stranger to ourselves, who is this person, who spoke like this, you feel like that, but the other extreme is, we repress emotions, now, I am feeling angry, but I will not speak it, we may repress for various reasons, now we may be afraid that this person will go away, if I express my emotions, or this person will retaliate against me, and that will make things worse, but repressing emotions is also unhealthy, because when those emotions are inside us, they choke us, they choke us, and eventually, they come out in ugly forms, sometimes, if we cannot get angry at one particular person, but that anger is there, it comes out at someone else, that person says, what did I do, they wonder, just blast, that comes out elsewhere, so, actually, the process of yoga, offers us a third alternative, beyond, expressing emotions, and repressing emotions, to, processing emotions, we process the emotions, process means, that we analyse, okay, what caused this emotion, and what is a warranted response to it, what is a unwarranted response to it, now, this can happen, when we, are in charge of our emotions, not that our emotions are in charge of us, and that, capacity, to process our emotions, comes, when we, experience, something, some level of reality, higher than, what is offered by our emotions, there is physical reality, there is mental reality, there is spiritual reality, there is the body, there is the mind, and there is the soul, so, when we practise yoga, our consciousness rises, from the physical level, through the mental level, to the spiritual level, we could envision this, as a three-story building, in a three-story building, there is the physical level in the ground floor, the, mental level is the first floor, the spiritual level is the second floor, so now, when we are at, the ground floor, then whatever happens, at the, if say there is a, flood over there, if there is a fire over there, we get immediately affected by it, but if we rise to the, first floor, then what is happening at the ground floor, it doesn't trouble us so much, if we rise to the second floor, then what happens at the first floor, it's not that we are unconcerned, if there is something wrong at the first level of my house, I am concerned about it, but, it's not an immediate threat to me, if I am at the second level, I can observe, okay this has gone wrong, there is a fire over here, I will immediately call the fire brigade, but if the fire is at the same level where I am, then I get panicky, so we feel immediately threatened, so if we rise to the spiritual level, then we rise, above our emotions, then we rise above our emotions, when we rise above our emotions, then we can, analyse those emotions, evaluate those emotions, and respond to them appropriately, so when we, now there are various ways in which, we can rise to the physical level, to the mental level, to the spiritual level, the different yogas, are all meant to help us rise, now bhakti yoga, and especially, the mantra yoga, the mantras that we chant, they act like a elevator of consciousness, the various different yogas, are like staircase, which help us, by which we can go up, step by step by step, but, when we go up by staircase, it is by our own effort, that we are going up, but if we get into an elevator, there is the elevator's power, that automatically takes us up, so like that, when we practise, chanting of the mantra, Hare Krishna Mahamantra, that is like, entering into an elevator, when we enter into the elevator, the elevator just takes us up, and we can experience, that sometimes we will be agitated, sometimes we will be frustrated, discouraged, if we just come, and start chanting the mantra, hearing the mantra, then, we find ourselves experiencing peace, we find ourselves experiencing joy, how does it happen, it is not the problem has gone away, but rather, we have risen above the problem, or more specifically, the mantra has raised our consciousness, above the problem, and when our consciousness is raised, above the problem, then, we can, it is not that the problem disappears, or we run away from the problem, but that we respond, properly to the problem, ok, this is what, this is what I can do, and then, that is how, we can deal with the situations, so when we, practise the process of Bhakti Yoga, it uses, it actually raises, our consciousness up, upwards, to the spiritual level, when our consciousness rises to the spiritual level, how does it rise, it rises, not just by our own effort, it rises, by the grace of Krishna, it is like an elevator, I may say, I press the button and the elevator went up, so my pressing the button, is it the cause of the elevator going up, well, yes, if I had not pressed the button, elevator would not have gone up, but, if there is no power, I can keep pressing the button again and again, nothing will happen, so actually, my pressing the button, for the, is the, secondary cause for the elevator going up, the primary cause is, that there is power, which is running the elevator, and that power raises the elevator up, so like that, now our efforts, in chanting the mantra, that effort is important, but that effort is like pressing the button, it is secondary, what raises our consciousness up, is Krishna's mercy, it is when Krishna manifests the holy name, as the mantra, and that mantra raises our consciousness upwards, and as our consciousness rises upwards, the more we come to the spiritual level of reality, the more we experience the state, sukham atyantikam yathad, buddhi graham atindriyam, viddhi yatra chaivayam, siddhas chandigarham, we experience this sublime happiness, that nothing can disturb, that sublime happiness, which frees us from all cravings, and this, is the perfection of yoga, so when we are practising bhakti, bhakti yoga, actually, we are meant to use our emotions, to rise above our emotions, so earlier I said that, if we rise from the ground floor to the second floor, and what happens at the ground floor, or the first floor, doesn't trouble us so much, so the emotions that come to us, because of worldly ups and downs, Krishna talks repeatedly, in the Bhagavad Gita, be equal, in happiness and distress, in gain and loss, in victory and defeat, in honour and dishonour, be equal, be equal, Krishna says, so now, is Krishna telling us, to become completely stone like, utterly unemotional, no, that same Krishna, actually tells us, that by this process, you become joyful, so he is talking about, not letting ourselves, be consumed by small emotions, so that we can experience big emotions, so what does it mean, small emotions and big emotions, suppose, say you are going to office, and you have an important meeting in the office, and you can make a successful presentation over there, then you can get a big project, and a big victory for you, and you are going along the road, and when going along the road, somebody just cuts in front of you, and completely disrupts you, you can get angry, you can get angry, and you can have attack of road rage, you start blasting at that person, how dare you do this, how dare you do that, and now, we get consumed by that anger, and we shout at that person, I will book you, call the police, do this, do that, but by that time, we are so consumed by that emotion, that when we reach the office, we are so agitated, that we can't make any presentation over there, and then we lose the contract, so what has happened, because of a small emotion, we lost the big emotion, so if I could have stayed cool at that time, then I move forward, and I am able to do something more productive, so in the process of yoga, when Krishna tells Arjuna, be equipoised, he is not telling him to be absolutely unemotional forever, Krishna is telling Arjuna, recognise what is the small thing, and what is the big thing, and don't let small things consume your emotions, then your emotion will be available for the big things, and then you can experience the biggest emotional fulfilment, and for withdrawing our emotions from small things, all of us have some irritants in our life, somebody speaks something, and that irritates, somebody does something, if we look at our loved ones, we can immediately think of some behavioural quirks that they have, actually if we think of it objectively, it's not a very big thing, but somehow that irritates us, now somebody doesn't keep their things orderly, or somebody doesn't do a particular thing in a particular way, and then we become irritated by that, so it's a small thing, but we make it big, and because of that small thing, now there can be actually a very satisfying relationship possible, but we let that small thing just define the relationship with us, and then the bigger fulfilment that can come in the relationship, we just lose that, so small things, you can let them stay small, and then you can experience bigger emotions, so Krishna says that, when we practise the process of bhakti, be equal points about small things, don't get too worked up about those small things, then you can experience the biggest emotional fulfilment, that comes by directing our consciousness towards Krishna, I'll give one last example, that suppose, there is a person who is a beggar, and there is some big, very charitable person who has come, and that charitable person wants to give this beggar, a million dollars, and they are approaching, this beggar is approaching that person, and then as they are approaching, a beggar sees, there is a one dollar note, and this person is calling him, just doesn't look at that person, just looks at this one dollar note, runs after the one dollar note, and loses the one million dollar chance, or for that matter, has the opportunity to get that one million dollars, and the beggar has one dollar note in his pocket, and some thief comes and threatens to steal away that one million dollar, sorry one dollar, and he runs after that one, you can't steal this, you can't steal this, and he runs after that thief, that thief is pulling, he is pulling, and this person again misses the one million dollars, so spiritual enrichment is like that one million dollar, and material gain is like the one dollar gain, material loss is like the one dollar loss, so now material emotions, material things, they are important for us, but when we compare them with spiritual growth, the fulfilment that can come from spiritual growth, that is far greater, so when Krishna says don't become emotional, about ups and downs in the world, that is like Krishna is saying basically, don't get so worked about a one dollar gain or a one dollar loss, don't get so worked up about it, that you miss the one million dollar enrichment, so when we focus on Krishna, when we direct our consciousness towards Krishna, we are progressing towards getting that one million dollar enrichment, and the more we focus on that, the more we become full fit, and it is not that we will lose that one dollar also, it is that actually if we are internally calm, we are internally satisfied, we are internally clear, we can deal with our problems also better, so the problem that is there, it is not that just problems are solved, simply by giving more and more time to the problems, yes sometimes we need to pay attention, and give time to solving a problem, but sometimes more than the time we give for solving a problem, more than that is the clarity of our thinking, that can help in solving the problem, so sometimes you may feel, I have so many problems, I don't have time to practise yoga, I don't have time to practise spirituality, it is true we may be hard pressed for time, but quite often the time that we invest in practising spirituality, in raising our consciousness, that brings us clarity, and after that we can solve the problems more effectively, so that's how the material and the spiritual can be integrated together, we put the spiritual first, we focus on that one million dollar enrichment, that is such an enrichment, that it actually helps us to deal with life's ups and downs also better, and thus we can process our emotions, so when we experience some reality higher than our emotions, then we can look at the situation, hey I got so agitated about this, what should I do about this, this is the problem, this is how I can deal with it, if I deal with it this will happen, if I deal with it this will happen, let me work on this way, so we can calmly analyse, so it is said that life determines our problems, but we determine their size, life determines the problems, but we determine the size of the problems, now if somebody insults me, if I come to a room and somebody snubs me, I greet them but they just completely ignore me, no, I'm sitting in that room, maybe it's a class room, I'm sitting in the class for one hour, but the next one hour I'm seething with anger, no, how dare they snub me like this, next time in public in front of everyone I'll snub them, for that one hour our mind is churning with revenge fantasies, and all that is happening we just got so agitated, yes, if they snubbed us, it could be possible that first they might not have noticed us also, they might be lost in some thoughts, or even if they snubbed us we can clarify, it's not such a big issue that I have to get worked up and lose so much time, so life determines the problems and I got the snub, but I determine the size, so if we have spiritual reality to be conscious of, if we direct our consciousness towards spiritual reality, then we can deal with material ups and downs more maturely, we don't let the problem become bigger than what it needs to be, and for directing our emotions towards spirituality, we all need to take our own spiritual inventory, spiritual inventory means I should find out, what is it that helps me spiritualise my emotions the best, so for example some of us may find that, oh, if I just sing the holy names, I just recite kirtan, I just recite songs, I sing kirtans, I get completely absorbed in it, somebody else may feel, oh, the deities are so beautiful, I just look at the picture of the deities, I feel very spiritual, somebody else may feel, oh, I like to recite verses, I like to sing songs, somebody else may find that I like to read scriptures, when I get absorbed in that, then I feel enriched, so what will enrich us spiritually, that can vary from individual to individual, and it is for us to find out what it is that enriches us the most, and focus on doing that more, and that way whenever emotions start getting agitated by small small things, we immediately direct our consciousness towards that, let me sing the holy names, let me recite some verses, let me look at the picture of the deities, and then when our consciousness is directed towards spirituality, towards Krishna, then it doesn't get so agitated by worldly things, when our consciousness is calmer, then we can respond to that thing much more maturely, and thus we can move forward towards life, without letting our problems bigger than what they need to be, but as processes emotions, we can move towards the ultimate emotional fulfilment, that comes when we become absorbed in Krishna, so I will summarise, and we can have some questions after that, I started by speaking about, how this verse describes the perfection of yoga, where there is supreme achievement, supreme achievement is, achievement after achieving which we feel there is nothing more to achieve, and after achieving which no misery troubles us, this achievement is the achievement, that is the disconnection from the connection with misery, Dukkha Sanyoga Yoga, and in that connection I discussed about, how the process of yoga, starts by telling us, that we have to cultivate dispassion, detachment, become unemotional, because emotions are what entangles in this world, and that is fair enough, because quite often, when we perceive the objects of the world, we become attached to them, so yoga tells us that there is, the subject of consciousness, I, there is the object of consciousness, out there, there is stream of consciousness, so how do we get dispassion, it is not just by, become, by just not feeling any emotions, but yoga says actually both of these are unreal, subject is real and object is real, however Bhakti Yoga tells us, it is an alternative understanding of reality, that the reality is not just a stream of consciousness, but just as there is a bulb, from the bulb a stream of light comes out, but at the source of that stream of light, there is a circular object, like that around the stream of consciousness, there is absolute truth, is a person, that is Krishna, so the analytical perspective, I see the rose the way a botanist sees it, from the aesthetic perspective, I see the rose the way an artist sees it, so like that from the analytical dispassionate perspective, the absolute truth is seen as the non-differentiated light of Brahman, but from the aesthetic perspective, the absolute truth is seen as the all attractive supreme person, and when we approach the absolute truth as a person, we can channel our emotions, rather than repressing the emotions, we redirect those emotions, at the material level, we sometimes express our emotions, or we repress our emotions, and both are unhealthy, we need to process our emotions, and for processing the emotions, we need to be situated to the reality, higher than the emotions, if there is fire in my house at the first floor, I am at the second floor, I don't feel immediately threatened, so like that if you rise from physical reality, to mental reality, to spiritual reality, our consciousness rises upwards, then we don't feel agitated by physical or mental things, we can observe and respond maturely, and yoga is a process, that raises our consciousness to the spiritual level, and different yogas are like the staircase, bhakti yoga is like the elevator, in bhakti yoga, it is the grace of Krishna, that elevates us up, our endeavour is simply like pressing the button of the elevator, Krishna's grace is what lifts us up, and when we chant the mantra of the holy name, or Hare Krishna, Mahamantra are the names of Krishna, that acts like the elevator which raises us up, and that's how we experience peace, we experience joy, by chanting the holy names, and then when we are situated at a higher level, we can process our emotions maturely, discussed about how, bhagavata is not telling us to become utterly unemotional, when it says, stay equipoised, it is simply telling us, don't let small emotions consume you, so that you are available for bigger emotions, just as a person shouldn't get so worked up, by somebody's improper driving on the road, that they are too agitated to present effectively in a big meeting, so like that don't get caught by, or another example, don't get caught with a $1 gain or a $1 loss, and lose out on the $1 million enrichment, so material gain and material loss, are like that $1 gain or $1 loss, and the spiritual enrichment, that comes by directing our consciousness towards Krishna, that is like a $1 million gain, and this $1 million gain is inclusive, in the sense that, when we become absorbed in Krishna, it is not that we reject the material, but we respond maturely to the material, so life determines our problems, but we determine their size, when we are absorbed in Krishna, we don't get unduly worked up with problems, but we maturely respond to them, and thus are able to deal with them better, and by becoming absorbed increasingly in Krishna, we can experience the ultimate emotional fulfilment, and for raising our consciousness towards Krishna, we can find out, what is our personal spiritual stimulus, what is it that can redirect our emotions towards Krishna, most efficaciously, and through that, it can be Kirtan, it can be Shlokas, it can be the Vedic scriptures, it can be scriptural study, through that, we channel our emotions towards Krishna, and thus, our emotions, which often in this material world, take us away from reality, those same emotions, can take us towards the supreme reality. Thank you very much. Are there any questions or comments? Yes, sir.
Thank you for that answer. So when you spoke about how the one, you should not worry about the material, one dollar, and focus on the spiritual picture, but it also says, that one way to get that million dollars, is to use those modern things, like you can dovetail the material design, dovetail whatever your nature is, your ambition is. My question is, where do you draw the line, where you say that this is too much, you can always justify, that I am doing this for Krishna, I am doing this for Krishna.
So where do you draw the line, where you say that this is your, where you don't need to do this for Krishna. How do you draw the line? Yeah. So how do we, when we are using the material in Krishna's service, how do we draw the line, because we can get into the material also a lot, in the name of doing it for Krishna.
Yes. This is like weight lifting. You know, when I lift a weight, the purpose of lifting the weight, is that my muscles should grow.
So if I lift a half kg weight, it's so small, that probably nothing will happen to my muscles. So if my capacity is that I can lift 10 kg weights, then I need to lift at least 10 kg, or maybe little more than 10 kg, 11 kg. But if I lift 25 kg weight, and my capacity is 10 kg, then I will break down.
So like that, when we are dealing with matter, and doing material things, we ourselves need to observe, how much is our capacity, and accordingly engage in matter, engage in material things. Now, all of us have different levels of capacity, even in our own field of interest or excellence, whatever it is, and according to our capacities, we engage ourselves. So if, if we do too little, we feel, I should be doing more.
But sometimes, so sometimes we go to the one extreme, and do too little, and feel unfulfilled. And sometimes we go to the other extreme, and get too stressed. I have to do this, I have to do that, I have to do that, I have to do that.
Sometimes, you know, when people are travelling, sometimes they want to take their whole house in their suitcase. Now, that looks impossible, because it is impossible. So similarly, sometimes we just try to squeeze in too many things in 24 hours.
Like we try to put our whole house in a suitcase. It just doesn't work. Then we start feeling too stressed, too burdened.
You know, I can't do this. I have to cut some things off. So it's by experience we learn what is too little, and what is too much.
And in general, when we are trying to balance the material and the spiritual, it is best to first decide how much time I need for my spirituality. And give that due priority. And if we do that, then we will have greater clarity in how much to engage in the material.
And how much material things can we do. So, if we try to do the material first and then fill in the spiritual in between, then we will not be able to have enough focus on the spiritual. It will not purify us, it will not elevate us adequately, because we are not focussing on it.
And then everything will get obfuscated. We will get too much involved in the material. We will not adequately focus on the spiritual.
And there will be imbalance. So, if we start with the spiritual, and give due time to the spiritual, then how much material we can engage, that we will be able to learn. Krishna said in the Bhagavad Gita, बदामि बुद्धी ओगल्तम् येने माम पयां तिते.
That I will give you the intelligence by which you can come to me. And we also can consult senior devotees who know us well about, you know, I got this job, and if I take up this promotion, I take up this job, you know, I might be able to get this, this is the future that I have. But then these are the things that are going to happen.
What should I do? You can consult them, and with their guidance also, we can arrive at a mature decision. So, usually, when something is a major decision, it's best not to do anything hastily. We observe ourselves for some time, and then learn from that self-observation.
Then we can make a decision. Answer your question? Thank you. Would you like to comment something more? You got anything? I have a question.
Thank you. Is that you? I have a question. I want to appreciate it.
I appreciate the idea that you could flow in these verses that why wouldn't you be moved? Because you feel that you couldn't achieve what you had in the beginning. And they sink. I saw you having to create the kind of flow that you need to have.
You can't let it mix. So, I want to know, I never thought of it that way. And so, after you said that, it inspired me a lot.
I really appreciate it. Thank you for that. Oh, thank you.
Happy to answer this. It's quite a technical question, but I want to know if you've given any more thoughts to these verses, how they flow together. You've got this enough.
You're not showing me where you are. You've just shown up and stuff like that. And you've got that you know, you've got this day of moving after you've chugged it.
You have this kind of a repetition of this dotting, chug, and you move. So, I just want to know whether it's about that or anything else in this flow that you're seeing in these verses. Is there anything else you care to comment on? Okay.
Yeah. So, this was Siddhas Chaluti in the fourth half. This is Chaluti comes twice and we don't move from the truth and then later he says because of dukkhena na vichalyate again chala comes we're not disturbed by the by misery so my understanding is that the first gives the principle that from the truth we will not depart and then it gives two possible reasons why we may devolve why we may depart from the truth like krishna says later in 18.54 so usually whatever situation we are in we go away from that situation because we either feel that some other situation is better or this situation is too troublesome so krishna is talking about those two possibilities in the next verse the first possibility is that you don't feel that anything is better so i'll go away from it and then even if there's great misery one feels that no i will not move from here so basically that principle of non-movement from the truth that is pointed out in the first verse and the two normal factors which cause us to move away from particular situation they are analysed in the next verse that's my understanding isn't it beautiful thank you anything else on this about the flow yeah i did not go too much into technicality that when the previous verses says that so i always had this question that this chitta this consciousness what is it actually so in the govinda bhashya of baldevindra purushani there's a slight differentiation between chitta and chitta chitta is a feature of the soul the soul is sat chitananda eternal conscious and blissful whereas chitta is the embodied consciousness of the soul now the words have different meanings but this is one frame of analysis by which i tried to make sense of these verses so chitta is embodied consciousness whereas chitta is original consciousness so one way to substantiate this is that later in the third in the 13th chapter when krishna talks sankhya that he says so there he's talking about chetana consciousness as a kshetravika as a transformation of matter the consciousness is not a product of matter so how can it be a transformation of matter so that chetana krishna is talking about is a conditioned consciousness that is so all the emotions the desires the happiness the stuff that we experience in the conditioned stage that is a result of kshetravika so prabhupada gives the example that you know you know we say humans are repelled by their own waste products but a hog is attracted to the waste product so why is there attraction in one species and repulsion in other species that the body is functioning body is designed in a particular way so there is original consciousness and there is embodied consciousness so now it's an example which can be given for this is say a person is sitting in a comfortable room but that person is watching a horror movie and by watching the horror movie this is getting scared you know hair is hair is rising and they're trembling and they're screaming also actually maybe if a child is watching a horror movie a child may be in the home and the mother is also nearby but a child is scared so what has happened the consciousness of the child is caught in the tv so the original consciousness of the soul of the child is like the chit where the consciousness that is caught in the tv that is the chit so as long as the consciousness is caught in the tv the child experiences all varieties of emotions which actually have no basis in the reality of the situation of the child so when you say yatra uparamate chittam niruddham yogasevaya with the practise of yoga the consciousness that is invested in matter the child is watching the tv child stops watching the tv so actually i'm safe i'm here itself there's no danger so like that when our consciousness stops getting caught in matter then we become free from this niruddham yogasevaya this happens of yoga so by the self one sees the self that's what literally the words means and by seeing thus one actually becomes joyful one becomes satisfied so now this chitta is actually a um chitta is uh you could say that it it functions at multiple ways so at one level the chitta can function as a window like say i'm looking at you so my consciousness is focussing on you but another level the chitta can perform as a function of tv screen so although i am here but and you are here i have been thinking oh i have to go back to my room and i have to do this so i'm not really conscious of this thing so the chitta can sometimes perform as a window when it makes us aware of the reality around us or it can act as a tv screen when it takes us away to somewhere else only but when we are purified the chitta becomes like a mirror that's cheto darbana as a mirror so when there's a mirror i can see myself so that's what that's what uh yatra chaiva atmanatmanam pashyanatmaitushyati so when the consciousness becomes like a mirror then the self perceives the self and then one becomes satisfied oh i am eternal i am a part of krishna i am a soul just that makes us satisfied and uh this is the ultimate happiness so this is beyond the senses and it's interesting it is said that it is this happiness is appreciated through buddhi so the here it is if you see krishna also said in the bhagavad gita earlier in 3.43 that we need to situate ourselves on the spiritual platform with that with our intelligence we understand spiritual reality so jiva goswami says in the sandarbha is when one is siddha when one is perfected spiritually at that time it is priti that keeps us on the spiritual platform you know we love krishna that's why we are spiritual but in the sadhaka stage it is the buddhi that keeps us on the spiritual platform we need our intelligence to stay spiritual so here by the by the intelligence one appreciates spiritual reality it is not appreciated with the senses the intelligence is directed towards spiritual reality and then one relishes that spiritual reality and then becomes situated in this reality once one with one's intelligence not only understands but experiences oneself in spiritual then one does not crave for anything else and depart from that and when we're situated that way then so arjuna know this to be this this means that state where one has become supremely satisfied and does not give up anything else one does not give it up for either pleasure or because of pain that is the state of liberation that is state of disconnection from the connection with misery that is that is basically the state of disconnection from matter so there is a state of liberation and that krishna is calling as yoga so in that sense krishna is talking from the cessation of the material movement of consciousness that is the 20th verse to the absorption of consciousness in spiritual reality and that process that ultimately frees one from misery that's my understanding okay thank you any other questions or comments it is okay so if negative emotions like say envy or anger overwhelm us and we're not able to resist them although we try even when we practise in bhakti so what should we do yeah see firstly negative emotions don't make us a negative person it is negative actions that make us a negative person see our emotions they can come from various sources the emotions come it's only when we act on them it becomes a problem so in one lecture in one letter he says that what is intelligence this is intelligence means to kill the thought before it becomes an action it's very practical definition that is thought first we think about something then we as you think about it we get emotions about it the thought grows into emotion then emotion grows into intention and then intention grows into action i think about something i want it how can i'm going to get it this way and then i get it and i do it so if before that thought transforms into an action before we can kill it that is intelligence so that means that just the presence of negative emotions is not the problem it is only when we dwell on them and we act on them that it becomes a problem when i say it's not a problem that means that they can just be present within us even a pure devotee like yamunacharya he's saying that when i get material desire at that time my lips curl in distaste and i spit into thought that is a response to sensual desires but the fact is he's saying when i get sensual desire that means even he may get sensual desires even a great saint can sometimes get sensual desire but the response is that they don't get captivated by it they don't give into it so now in our case if you consider our negative emotions also they come to us in spikes if i'm feeling envious of someone if i'm feeling angry towards someone there might be some little anger that is there in the background constantly but it surges up at certain times and then it surges up like a peak or a spike at that time it becomes very difficult to deal with it but this spike doesn't stay all the time so what we do in between these spikes is what defines our spiritual growth so unfortunately the mind is like a very cunning trickster so first the mind induces us with this negative emotion we feel envy towards someone we feel anger towards someone and then under this this is like the surge coming up the spike going up when the spike goes up we do something undesirable you know we speak harshly we speak behind the back of some people about something like that and then a spike it goes up during that time we do something wrong but after the spike goes down in the same mind which made us do wrong then that same mind now becomes a judge and starts beating us up you are such a fool you are such a rascal you're such a fallen person there is no hope for you and now what is happening the same mind is playing a dangerous double role first it makes us do wrong and then it makes us beats us for doing wrong and beats us up for doing wrong and this way in both cases we are simply mind conscious mind says do it do it okay i'll do it and mine is why did i do it why did i do it why did i do it why did i do it neither way i'm not krishna conscious so what we should do is when the spikes come we may not be able to deal with them but at least when the spikes are not there we should focus on being krishna conscious okay i was envious i was angry i spoke something bad it was not good but it's over now let me focus on krishna right now and that way if in between the spikes we focus on krishna that connection with krishna purifies us and as we become purified more and more then we get the capacity to deal with the spikes also we become stronger and then we can resist the spikes so that's why rather than worrying too much about when the spikes will come and how we will respond can focus on what we can do when our emotions are relatively in control at that time focus wholeheartedly on practising bhakti and with respect to the spikes themselves we can try to observe which are the situations in which we get provoked and try to minimise exposure to them or if not minimise at least prepare if i know that say if i'm going on the road and on that road there is a pothole there is some then if i'm going in my car i anticipate that and then swerve around i go around the pothole so like that if we know situations when we tend to get envious when we tend to get short-tempered then we anticipate that okay this is when i want to happen how can i deal with it so that way we can minimise the trouble that may come because of the spikes but essentially rather than worrying too much about the spikes we can focus on doing doing on being krishna conscious in between the spikes and eventually the spikes will become more manageable does that answer your question thank you so any other questions shall we stop thank you very much we made some prasad so you can just sit in a row on the top of the temple we'll take.