Gita Study Mumbai 2012 06.15-21 Taking the mind through the five stages of mind control

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
शुक्र तो पाधी जाय वरूद वरूद वरूद वरूद वरूद वरूद We have a discussion of the sixth chapter. We are right now getting into the heart of this chapter.
And Krishna is going to talk about the details of the process of sadhana. So till now, Krishna has talked about the Arunakrishna and Aruna stage. And then in the previous verses he has described about how when a person comes to the Aruna stage, or nearly the Aruna stage, the person has acquired some basic level of control over the mind, not basic, advanced level of control over the mind, where one can see with equal vision towards things and people.
This person can renounce the world, go to the jungle, and then he is to remain in the support of the cosmos. He awaits himself in the jungle. And the physical and mental aspects which were described in 11-12, again in 13-14.
So now, this verse will describe the perfection at one level. Yunjan means to be engaged. Evam in this way.
This way is what was described in the previous verses. If one keeps being engaged in this way, Siddha Atman, constantly, then what will happen? The yogi, the one who is in control of the mind, he possibly attains perfection. One level of perfection.
Shantin. Shantin. Nirvana Paramaham.
So this is the word Nirvana. Krishna always chooses with some qualifier. Earlier it was Brahman, Nirvana.
Now it is Paramaham, Nirvana. Nirvana Paramaham. So, one attains the supreme cessation of material existence.
That means the Nirvana level. But there is a higher level of existence. Paramaham.
Supreme liberation. Mat Samstham Adhigachyate. So Mat Samstham, under my shelter, in my abode, in my kingdom.
Adhigachyate. You know what it is? So, Mat Samstham. The place where I am situated.
Bhagavata translated as the kingdom of God. And he attains that by cessation of material existence. So now in the flow of the Gita, this is referring to Brahman realisation.
So Mat Samstham will refer to the spiritual sky basically. In the spiritual sky, there is the Brahmajyoti, there are the Vaikuntha planets, there is the earth plane, there is the sky, there is the sky. So, in the spiritual sky also there is variety and some level of hierarchy also.
So now, by fixing the mind of Krishna as described in the previous verse, if the person develops pure devotion, then the person can go to the spiritual world with a visual realisation of Krishna. Yukta Siddha Mantra. How was it studied in the previous verse? Yukta.
It was in Siddha Mantra, right? Yukta Siddha Mantra. On the other hand, if one approaches Krishna as an object for meditation, not as the ultimate goal of meditation, then one will go to the spiritual sky. One may attain Brahman realisation.
So, you remember we discussed that the yogis are meditating on Paramatma. Thinking either about the Bhagavan, they understand that Paramatma is the eternal master. Or they can go to Brahman if they think that I am Paramatma or ultimately one.
So, both are possible. So, depending on what is the consciousness or what is the understanding, the conception of Krishna, when the meditation is happening, they can attain either destination. Now, let’s look at these processes a little bit more, what we described in the previous verses.
Before we do that, let’s just think about more verses, then we will come back because in the topic we will be connected with the verses also. So, yesterday we didn’t get time to discuss a little bit about Yama, Yama, Siddha and Ananya. So, that we will discuss when we come to these next two verses.
So, next two verses, now again 50 verses per one level of perfection. Now, again 60 starts from Sathana. Let’s see how, what Sathana does not reflect.
So, that from the end of the game, it plays them. na apy ashnata sthuyogosti na apy ashnata sthuyogosti na chalikantam anashnata na chalikantam anashnata na chati swabhna shrinasya na chati swabhna shrinasya jagrthonain na charyunam jagrthonain na charyunam na apy ashnata sthuyogosti Ashnata is late, one who waits too much. if he eats too much he cannot be a yogi na chai kaatam alashmata if he does not eat at all alashmata na chaati sakunasheen when he eats too much he is too much and jaagrata ho jai when he is too much awake so Krishna is talking about a balanced form of living so it’s interesting that Krishna is talking about balance even for a yogi so this can refer to the yogi when he is in the householder order it can also refer to the yogi when he is in the jungle even the yogi in the jungle the yogi has to practise yoga sadhana for a sustained period of time then he has to do it according to his adhika that means yogi has to do austerities according to the level that he can practise to sustain living if a yogi does more austerities than what he is capable of doing then even in the jungle his health can get spoiled and he can die prematurely so regulation is required even in advanced levels because ultimately the body is material we see Shatrughna although he was so transcendently elevated in his consciousness still he used much regulated food although he used to eat very less but whatever he would sleep was regulated when his daytime was regulated he would take medicine, he would have a massage he would go for morning walks so the body is a vehicle and the body has to be dealt with accordingly so he is talking about yugdhata that we will talk about next class but here he is talking about avoiding extremes so that is required at all levels so let’s look at the next verse then we discuss this yugdha-svapna-bhavodarsya yogo bhavati-yugdha yogo bhavati-yugdha so like eating should be regulated now vihaar, vihaar is recreation is entertainment so these verses now what is the vihaar for a yogi in the jungle what is the entertainment he will not give the entertainment also he will do it regularly what is the entertainment for them, we have the example of marat maharaj when his vihaar became a yuga he was meditating, he saw a deer and he got attached to the deer and he got completely distracted so for a yogi in the jungle he has to appreciate the scenery that is there in the jungle, the beauty of nature that is not known a yogi may go for walks apart from his meditation he is not a yogi who is 24 hours absorbed in meditation meditation is sadhana just as you do sadhana for 2 hours so the yogi has prescribed time as you will be advancing more and more the yogi in the jungle will do more and more sadhana so its not that from the first day the yogi can completely absorb himself in in samadhi and become oblivious to these things that happens after a long period of time so there are sattvic recreations in the forest sattvic recreations means absorbing the beauty of nature and things like that but even in them he has to be regulated yukta-jeshtha-siddha so whatever karma one does, whatever endeavouring one does, that has to be regulated yukta is not now, yukta is here sleeping and dreaming that also has to be regulated so Shatrughna applies this to us as devotees in our serious spiritual life so regulation is what actually makes the mind negative free from thinking of higher things if we are not regulated particularly then we are always caught up in thinking of other things if my eating time is not fixed then what happens the mind is always dwelling, when should i take me when should i take me when eating time is fixed then that is not a problem, sleeping time is fixed then what happens is the extent of what is regulated in that extent the mind doesn’t get preoccupied in what is regulated, too much but if there is no regulation in our material life then every single mental activity that we have to do, we have to put a lot of thought at the mental level for a simple example i’ll start with for us as gurumacharis our dress is fixed, only one colour dress and practically all of them are identical so right from the day when they start their day, they have wardrobe of 10-12 dresses which dress should i wear in this part does it match with that i am going for this, i am going for that so what happens is that at the material level itself the mind gets so caught up so it can start from dress and say if we stay, if a person is staying in a house, then what should i be putting, like this like that this person like this, this person like that and a thought of cooking we want to cook and itself takes so much time and mental energy so like that, every single activity if it is not regulated it can keep quiet to the extent it is regulated so for example sometimes we like it sometimes we don’t like it but whether we like it or don’t like it, we take it at that time and then the issue gets over so what happens is the mind doesn’t get caught up in material things when there is a regulation of our mental activities so for example we did not have a morning programme structure then if we wish to chant, we chant in the morning if we chant in the afternoon maybe in the morning i can study better and then i sit down to study to study i should be fresh so if i am not fresh right now, let me take a little rest and that little rest doesn’t say little rest, it is a lot of rest so basically if we did not have a regulation like that Krishna sadhana then our sadhana would become quite dimmer especially those who are not having a regulated morning programme often chanting still becomes a big struggle if they don’t allocate a slot of time in the morning itself and to the extent our activity, now chanting is not a virtual activity chanting is a spiritual activity but it also has to be incorporated with the regulation of our life so if there is no regulation then doing that activity itself takes a lot of mental energy and then that mental energy keeps us caught in the mental loop therefore regulation frees us for thinking of higher things so that’s how regulation is quite helpful from a spiritual point of view so the vadyuttha can be regulated the vadyuttha can also be connected so we connect all these activities krishna ahara ahara vidhi prasad now karma that we do every day karma of krishna, even we take rest we pray to krishna putting rest so it is krishna’s vehicle that is there for him he gets some rest so all these when we connect and this is interesting, krishna says that when there is regulation then yoga becomes yoga then the process of yoga will have its effect so the process of yoga is meant to to end our miseries but when this process of yoga brings about the end of miseries if there is no regulation to the yoga process there is no platform our regulation creates a foundation of goodness but if there is no foundation of goodness suddenly we can practise yoga but the effect will not be so much that’s why shloka prabhupada also talks about regulation and of course shloka prabhupada gives examples of siddha Goswamis they would not waste any time out there on the car, no shloka prabhupada writes anytime spent extra is considered to be a great waste of time it is considered a great loss is considered a great loss great loss is kept to a minimum and the idea is that whose idea is shloka prabhupada goswami and shloka prabhupada gives a different understanding to this also at our level again he says that because he is regulated there is no material misery for him so if you are regulated to a large extent at the material level the misery is decreased because if our food is regulated then the problem that comes arises also becomes decreased overall the health stays stable so at that level also and it takes us beyond so this is about regulation now let us look back at some of the limbs of a shloka and what Patanjali says about it so now often we use this word Dhyana Yoga, Krishna Yoga and Patanjali Yoga but there is a difference Krishna Yoga the initial stages the physical aspects they are called as Hatha Yoga and the advanced aspects where one is studying Hinduism they are called Dhyana Samadhi they are called as Dhyana Yoga now sometimes Hatha Yoga may be used for all the eight processes but Dhyana Yoga can also be used to describe the eight movements but this is technically the understanding Bhaktivinoda Thakura has written a book called Prema Pratih in which he describes the discussion between a Yogi a Vaishnav Yogi and a Vaishnavi it’s a very interesting book and there he describes how a Vaishnavi can also practise Yoga but that is Yoga is not a primary practise Yoga may lead to some basic level of control of the mind which can lead to the practise which can enable one to practise chanting better but it is not essential and it can make one dependent on something other than Krishna on the Yoga Samadhi or a controlled method used by Yoga so he says that it is ok it is harmonisable with Bhakti practise of Yoga is harmonisable but it is not essential that’s what he talks about so now of course there is in our present day the fact is there that Yoga is practised widely for health so what is Bhaktivinoda Thakura saying Prema Pratih Yoga is harmonisable with but not essential so there is what is that there is Yogiraj Babaji and there is Mangshidas Babaji and there is there are many Apaches over there for having this conversation so this I mean I don’t know if it is but what this Yogic equation actually practising Yoga is very good but then when the when you have the elaborate discussion that you understand that actually Yoga can actually make one’s heart heart heart because one starts feeling that one is not dependent on Krishna it’s because our mind is calm because our mind is calm so then what happens is that calling out to Krishna the dependence on Krishna may decrease of course the underlying principle so sometimes the power might be very disturbed by the chanting you might just fall and take a few deep breaths and calm yourself down and then again start chanting so what is the mechanism but ultimately it is not that by our slowing of our breathing we will be able to catch Krishna that is Krishna’s mercy and we are able to catch we are able to connect with Krishna so now now in the stage of Yoga Patanjali described that the mind goes in five stages Yama and Niyama so Yama has five limbs these are five limbs of Yama so these are rooms these are rooms Yama means rooms and Niyama means rooms so what is being described in the Patanjali sayings that every one of these limits rooms so now Yama, Niyama, Asantara Niyama means rooms Asantara, Niyama means rooms so if we don’t commit violence, what will happen others will give up their limits, this is the truth of all the teachings so when we become non-violent then others stop becoming violent to us then one starts becoming Satyak then what happens one’s words become Satyak the extent I speak the truth and eventually divine power gets infused and then whatever I speak becomes the truth Ramayana says by the grace of the Supreme Lord the instruction that I am speaking will come true in the Santhi Pani Puri news Krishna had the blessing after the education that whatever you speak will come true so when one stops stealing the result of that is that true wealth will come to that person even in the Richmond, ultimate wealth will come to Richmond means not stealing Asteya is to steal in the third chapter the person is caught in the thief Asteya means to not steal so if a person doesn’t steal then still others will and the fruit of Brahmacharya is electricity, is power so what is that power then the power of concentration the power of remembering Vichara Shakti then Dharana Shakti Vichara Shakti is the power of analysis Dharana Shakti is the power of assimilation Smriti Shakti is the power of recollection so the all these we get by Brahmacharya basically talks essentially about intellectual power and in Aparigraha when one stops being possessive what is the result of that result is that one gets inside Aparigraha means not stealing Asteya means I don’t steal Aparigraha means I don’t try to hold on to what is mine I am not attached to what I am Aparigraha so when one doesn’t hold on what happens, the mind becomes free from thoughtful repositions and when the mind is free from thoughtful repositions, higher wisdom can rise in the mind and all the higher wisdom that rises start understanding how I am suffering my own karmic consequences right now and one also starts clearly seeing that whatever I am doing right now will also have its consequences in the future therefore it will decay it will decay so in this way it is said that each of these limbs will have its use so if you look at this chapter of Purohitam we can discuss 11-12 verses Krishna uses the word Aparigraha but he is Brahmachari Vrati so the Bhagavad Gita is not giving a systematic description of any particular path because Arjuna knows all the paths Arjuna knows Karma Yoga, Arjuna knows Dhyana Yoga, Arjuna knows Bhakti Yoga even the Bhagavad Gita will not give an elaborate systematic description of Bhakti Yoga also for example the Bhagavad Gita doesn’t contain a description of 9 limbs of Arjuna because it is not that Arjuna doesn’t know these processes what Arjuna doesn’t know is which process should I follow right now and what are the what are the karmic consequences destination of each of these processes that is what Arjuna is confused that’s why Krishna’s description of Krishna Lakshana Yoga is not one these are the 5 limbs of Yama which is not going that way Krishna is giving a sort of exalted description where he is focussing on the broad principles so Patanjali Yoga Sutra is the standard book for talking about Yoga and Patanjali himself according to some sources is considered to be Vaishnava although in the Yoga Sutra, Yoga Sutra is a very small book 300-350 verses are there in it and in that he also assumes that there is a Ishwara and who that Ishwara is he doesn’t talk about but there are other references to some other work that Patanjali has written which seem to quite clearly demonstrate that Patanjali was a Vaishnava but in the Yoga Sutra itself there is no description of the perfection the stage of perfection very explicitly so in the we need to talk about this in the fruits of Yama Yama is Tapasvadna where the 5 limbs should stay clean so what will happen when one has to stay clean actually there are repeated elements of cleanliness for example we respond to nature, we take a bath so what does it mean we take a bath every time but what happens when this is repeated in the systems of cleanliness one starts realising how unclean this body is and one becomes detached the sloucher brings about detachment and one starts realising my body is so unclean, other people’s body is also so unclean so what is there to detract from other people’s sloucher so it’s interesting if one is satisfied with what one has then one can turn inwards now Krishnadevaraya explains that then one can turn inwards and experience for the highest because if one is unsatisfied materially then one’s consciousness can’t be experienced so if we are caught on a material level we can’t go inwards to the spiritual level Tapas is austerity so what happens when one is in austerity in the Hinduism I would say that just as gold gets purified and all the impurities will go away similarly by the practise of Tapas all the impurities go away and the perfection of the body is ensitherized focus on sloucher Swadhyaya Swadhyaya is study what does Swadhyaya do? it brings about a connection with God focus on understanding how we own whatever phenomena that I see in this world is the ultimate dominion is the ultimate superior in this world and that is the philosophy of Swadhyaya and interestingly the last limb of Ashtaniyoga is Samadhi and Parthajan says that just by one of the limbs one of the sub-limbs of one of the limbs one of the sub-limbs is Ishwara Pranidhan Ishwara Pranidhan Pranidhan means to surrender so by surrendering to Ishwara one will attain Samadhi so in that sense how he is there in Yoga now it’s the ultimate model of Yoga that will depend on the previous conception of the person Parthajan doesn’t go to the description of Ishwara doesn’t go to the description of the abode of Ishwara or anything like that he focusses primarily on the process therefore what has happened in modern times is that even from the Ashtaniyoga process and this classics have been taken and they have been used as health tools it’s ok in its own way but we need to mistake that this is a distribution and then it becomes a health so now let’s move in this process Krishna is sort of defining Yoga earlier in 6.7 he described so when is it consciousness is fixed it’s regulated and how is it regulated Atmanyeva Vishnu this word Sarvakaam this is the described mistake of Tyahar Tyahar means south-eastern and person is Yoga Krishna will give an example in the next class Prabhupada talks about second time he is quoting the same set of verses in the same book he quoted this earlier in 2.61 so instead of devoting instead of withdrawing the senses in words he focusses the senses outward on Krishna that is also one way of doing Krishna Chittasya Yudhya Tau Yoga Madhmana Nivartas Vata means Vata means wind or air so river is a land so in a place that is windless Nivartas so what will happen till there is no wind people will stay steady like that Nivartas this is a analogy Krishna is saying for what? it is given by past Chittasya Yudhya Tau Yoga Madhmana so what is the wind? the wind is material desires so when there are no material desires the mind will become fixed Krishna is telling over here that he is giving the stage he is giving the stage as well as the presentation for the stage next was described in detail the principle of meditation so what is he saying over here? Chitta we will discuss a little bit more about Chitta Chitta is like a flame and material desires are like the wind so study the focus of Chitta Mahatma that is like the study flame basically Krishna is describing through Upama how we need to focus ourselves we will also see that when we are trying to chant Hare Krishna, at that time if we disturb the material desires the whole name is there, the lips are there, the mind we are here, but then the mind is only everywhere in the universe especially wherever the sense objects which we are attracted to are there so the mind gets distracted but the whole process of Pratyahara is for the Papara Vrindavan Divahara, the soul when we get out of the sense objects then what happens is there is no material desire that can come in and then one can focus now there is a long set of verses in which Krishna will describe this to you Yathro Paramate Chittam Nirutham Yogasevaya Yathrajaivatmanatmanam Ashanatmani Tushyati Svamantikam Yatha Buddhikrayamatipriyam Prithvi Yathrana Sharipayam Prithvashchalati Tattvataha Yamlapachaparam Lavam Manyatena Adhikam Tatha Yasminsthito Nadukhena Gurunabhivicharyate Kamvidyadukkhasriyogam Yogam Yogashankitam So this is again three and a half verses Krishna Prabhupada cuts over here because the thought is ending over here it’s a very beautiful ending Kamvidyadukkhasriyogam The contact with misery ends Dukkhasriyogam is contact with misery Yoga is separation So what is yoga Arjuna? When your contact with misery ends do that to yoga So here Krishnaji finds yoga in terms of it’s perfection and when the contact with misery ends that stage is called as yoga And what are the characteristics of that? Yatra Uparamate Jittham Uparamate means cessation like we have viraam viraam means full stop Raman is action, it is delight Yatra Uparamate Uparamate means no more action so minimum Jittham so what becomes steady is not just the body what becomes inactive is not just the body what is the Jittham? The Consciousness Uparamate Jittham Virudhram Yogasya By the practise of yoga Consciousness attains the stage called Virudhram So let us look at this stage So The five stages of yoga I have talked about Five stages in mind control I talked about in Mata Nidhi Yoga Sutra So Krishna is talking about Virudhram Stage of the fifth, the most evolved stage of it So Moola is the lowest stage that is the stage which is a person which is personism which is mode of ignorance Moola means the person is sleepy lazy dull that is Moola stage that is the Moola Shivta Shivta is when a person is agitated so that is the mode of passion when a person is stressed or has a mania this, this, this I have to do this, I have to do that I am agitated sometimes you can get mania hyperactivity so I get mania, this mania, that mania so Shivta and beyond that when one comes to Vikshita Vikshita is the beginning of goodness Patanjali says that Moola and Shivta stages are useless for the practising yoga the mind and Moola and Shivta there is no use in trying yoga also it is not going to be successful because one cannot connect because one is so either so passive or so hyperactive in the mental development that one can’t do anything Vikshita means actually one is distracted in fact, Vikshet I can remember in Bhaktivinoda Thakur’s analysis on that problem he was saying that Vikshet is one of the it is distraction that’s true but he is saying that is also one stage it is good when in fact distraction means there is an effort for attention for example, if I say that hey, this sound is distracting us and that means we are trying to concentrate but the sound is distracting us rather than somebody likes that sound instead of this this monotonous machine sound if there is some some sweet chitterling then that is not that’s what you want to concentrate I want to hear that I want to hear something and I say that I am attracted to it I don’t say I am distracted by it when I say distracted means I want to do something else but something takes me away so Vikshita so at this stage one is trying to concentrate but one is not able to so one is trying to give a lecture in a noisy environment and what is happening? one has to concentrate at this distraction that distraction and after that is ekarthata ekarthata means concentrated so when one is concentrated at that time one has to be able to put aside the distractions put aside the distractions so the example is when you see this student and he is studying way before the exams or revising and at that time all the students all of us have the experience that the whole world ceases to exist just enter into the studies so absorb ekarthata and beyond that is viruddhata viruddhata means not just concentration concentration also indicates that there is some effort but then there is control or complete focus so it is like when a devotee is in trance of love in samadhi at that time it is not just an effort spontaneous connection so now of course here viruddhata means actually no activity at the material level so the conscious is completely reliant on the spiritual level and there is no activity at the material level so upalamate chittam viruddham yogasena so when I practise yoga when I attain this stage of viruddh what happens upalamate chittam chitta becomes inactive so you may remember that I talked about the difference between chitt chitt and chitt you remember that I talked about it in the kishore teacher course so what is chitt do you remember chitt is chitt is internal innate feature of the soul chitta is contaminated consciousness expressed in the material realm so that means that chitt is there correct so is it a comment or a question or what yeah chitt is a feature let me explain this you remember I talked earlier about how it exists compared to virtual reality or a person watching a television so if a person has an original consciousness he can look here, he can look there he can look in different directions but if he gets glued to it so when he gets glued to the television at that time his consciousness gets in the television and when he is glued to the television the cricket match is going on so his consciousness is transported from here to say wherever a cricket match is going on may be in Australia or wherever and his consciousness so he is here but his consciousness is rooted over there like that so if we consider this analogy then the original consciousness of the person is like chitt c-i-t but when the consciousness is rooted through matter to a different level of existence to a different level that is chitt so the soul always has knowledge the soul always has consciousness but where is it rooted? that is the issue so in the pure stage the person is not watching the television so he is in the reality talking with other people interacting with them television is there but it doesn’t matter to him he is not absorbed in that so like that right now we are the soul is here the super soul is right next to us but it’s like a friend right next to us but we are so absorbed in television that we don’t even notice the presence the friend’s presence over there so when the soul’s consciousness gets rooted in matter that consciousness that is rooted in almost trapped in matter that is called as chitt so the soul’s consciousness which is originally there is chitt so now when we talk about chitt given yatra uparama te that means one stops perceiving at the material level that means one no longer is watching the television one is withdrawing the consciousness from the material level so chitta becomes uparama te it is a cessation of activity not just at the physical level but even at the mental level that doesn’t mean that the person has become unconscious but the person is conscious so down with the material level consciousness is spiritually chitt uparama te chittam so when this happens the person is said to experience higher realms of existence what happens so if a person is too caught up in watching the TV he may not even know what kind of chair I am sitting on what posture I am in how I am breathing the person is not at all aware of anything but when the person is no longer caught in the television he is shut off the television then what happens, he is aware oh I am sitting like this, I am not very comfortable let me sit more relaxed similarly yatra chaiva atmanatmana pashyam atmanikashyate so when there is nirudham when there is stopping of activity and consciousness at the material level form, mental activity at the mental level then one can proceed with this yatra chaiva atmanatmana Prabhupada explains with a purified mind, with a pure consciousness aware, one sees, oh it’s aware, I am atman chaiva atmanatmana pashyam atmanikashyate when one sees in this way atmanikashyate one can be satisfied with himself so here in these verses Krishna is not introduced to himself he is not talking about bhakti he is talking about atman realisation so atman, of course atman can refer to god also we will look at that later but one perceives the spiritual world that’s what we can say is a common ground clearly and ambiguously and just perceiving oneself as a spiritual entity as satchitananda also is kushyami then what happens sukham atyantikam yatra one experiences the ultimate happiness buddhi virabhayu buddhi virabhayu so how does one experience happiness? buddhi virabhayu one experiences it with one’s intelligence so here what is being referred to is that this experience is not in the sense buddhi virabhayu it is beyond the senses it is experienced with buddhi so in the 7th canto of shloka this 4 states of consciousness which are the 4 states? diagnostic states of the samadhi now these are 4 states of consciousness earlier what we discussed was 5 states in which the mind can be there are 2 different different typologies there are 2 different taxonomies different systems of classification with different focusses so in this from Udhra to Virudhra the idea is a progressive increase of mastery over the mind that is the focus in this taxonomy whereas in the taxonomy system of classification in the taxonomy of jagat, sattva, shakti and samadhi it is how much is the consciousness expressed elsewhere you remember the diagram I had shown you the consciousness is rooted at the matri-prasvat level it is jagat in sattva level it is sattva when it is rooted only it is withdrawn within itself it is shukti when it is redirected to spiritual level it is samadhi so this is basically how the consciousness is withdrawn or expressed so when it is expressed to the gross body and beyond it is jagat, in sattva body it is shakti, when it is withdrawn within itself it is shukti, when it is redirected to spiritual level it is turya or samadhi so this is the way the consciousness is expressed so it is like continuing the television example so it is like a channel say there are channels so I switch to one channel and I see one programme I switch to a second channel I see a second programme so now what is happening actually I am the same the TV is also the same but the channel which is being connected is different that is the perception of the TV so like that, jagruti is one channel so apna is another channel so so when I am in jagruti I perceive a particular level of reality but then the paramatma sees all the channels channel gets switched off suddenly actually in all our dreams we are there we don’t think of ourselves as ok I may see myself as a prince I may see myself as somebody else but I am I I am I actually to understand that I am not the body is very easy just go to sleep why? because when I go to sleep I experience so many emotions, I experience myself having so many emotions but the body is not experiencing anything isn’t it so I am experiencing but the body is not experiencing therefore I am not the body so to understand that I am not the body I just simply have to go to sleep but to understand that I am the soul I have to wake up at January Krishna so just understanding I am not the body is ok, that is all enough but what am I? if I am just sleeping and dreaming oh I may think I am a prince, I may think I am not this I am that, I am that I will never get a clear understanding of what I am for that I have to cut to the spiritual possible sadhana so this is the difference so now here Krishna is talking about how uparamate consciousness is withdrawn completely inwards consciousness is withdrawn inwards the whole thing is redirected towards the spiritual so there is a cessation of mental consciousness there is a redirection of the conscious energy towards the spiritual and then there is joy and the spiritual is experienced so in this when this whole process is happening when we are talking about those five levels of mind control, that is even when a person is say on the channel of chagruti at that time, is the person distracted or is the person focused so those are in one sense levels within levels of mind control which are progressive and then one comes to ekagraha then one is sort of focused on one object so ok, I am in chagruti but I am focused on one object and gradually that object becomes transcendental then one redirects one’s consciousness towards the spiritual I will come to that a little later now let’s look at what is being said by Krishna so I was talking about buddhi grahi why does he talk about buddhi grahi because if the atma is here the different channels are like the different outlets that are offered to the consciousness of the soul through which the soul perceives so on the tv is one, tv screen is one but on the switch of the channel I can connect to a different reality, different show on the tv similarly the subtle body is the link between the gross body soul and the gross body so now on the subtle body either the patterns from the gross body from the gross level are displayed for example if I am awake in the subtle body the patterns from the from the world are displayed or if I am unconscious, if I am asleep then what is happening from its own past rendering, from its imagination from its fanciful drives some other patterns are displayed so in one sense the tv screen is like the subtle body now what will be played on it will be either what is displayed on the gross body or what is played from the past programme so when it is played out from the gross level, then it is jagadish when it is played out from the past memory or some random product of the mind then there is a softness stage but essentially so these are four states of consciousness but they can also be called as four states of buddhi because it is on buddhi that they are being played on, on the subtle body that they are being played on so bhagavatam sometimes refers to subtle body by one gender sometimes it refers to the whole subtle body as manas, sometimes it refers to the whole subtle body as buddhi if you see that way the sukshma sharira or linga sharira this word bhagavatam is not used very often bhagavatam is primarily used towards mana or buddhi so we have to look at the context to understand whether mana is referring to specific to the mind or generally to the whole subtle body sometimes it refers to like that so the point here is that so it is interesting that among these four channels samadhi is either in the perception or the spiritual but samadhi can be attained even through perception using our senses that means there are two kinds of samadhis a sampragya samadhi and asampragya samadhi so if this becomes too technical I can go slower and I can revise also these are interesting concepts for us to understand how they correlate with bhakti so Prabhupada talks about these two in his bhargav so sampragya samadhi means mind is focused or sampragya samadhi means the mind is stopped the mind is stopped stopped means stopped at the material level, exactly at the spiritual level at the material level it is stopped and sampragya samadhi is ekagatha krishna ekagatha krishna is the word in the earlier literature ekagra da vinyadhana krishna atmanyeva this goes to 10.11 10.13 6.3 2.14 12.14 12.14 ekagra ekag ekagatha means one fixes the mind so it’s like if you want to continue this TV analogy further within the material realm also there are objects which give three directors to a spiritual so spiritual for example there are deities there are scriptures there are mantras although they are manifested in the material realm they can redirect us towards the spiritual they can redirect our consciousness towards the spiritual just like you may tell people you don’t have TV at your home you don’t know I want to have TV then on TV you watch atmanyeva you watch spiritual programme on TV so like that the idea is the consciousness is active but the consciousness in ekagatha krishna is focused on the spiritual stimulant so now within this Amparagya Samadhi when the mind is focused on a particular thing there are two levels there is Savitarka Samadhi and there is Savichara Samadhi Savitarka means when there is an external object who knows and Savichara means when there is an internal concept ever using so in the traditional yogic hierarchy the dependence on the external object is considered to be a lower level once mind is more fixed then one does not require external object so many traditions we could feel that Manasik chanting is higher than Vachika chanting and that is true in a particular way of analysing so if the yoga principles are applied to bhakti then it is true but the need of all chanting probably has a different logic he says that other people are benefited by chanting so devotees are not so much concerned about his poor deliverance devotees are concerned about delivering others so the important focus here is what? the principle remains the same the principle is that we have to observe ourselves in spiritual time we have to have others observe themselves in spiritual time so Savitaraka means when there is an external object who knows that means it’s like the person is watching a television he is watching only spiritual channels so may be it’s the yogis Guru Maharaj has told that you meditate on you make a dhiti Narada gives a elaborate description of the form of Krishna in very beautiful verses that I have given and then he says you make a dhiti like this and you chant Aum Namo Bhagavate Vasudev practise yoga and meditate on that dhiti and as you are chanting chanting chanting what happened? from that Savitaraka Samadhi you went to a Savitra Samadhi you went inwards and then inside you saw the form of Krishna and suddenly the form of Krishna disappeared you looked out you saw the Lord was there so the idea is first there is an external object which knows then there is an external concept which knows so what does that mean? sometimes we close our eyes and collectively recollect how is Gopinath looking today try to recollect so this recollection is mental, it is not spiritual because I am using my mind I can recollect maybe how some sports star looks also how some police star looks also similarly I am trying to recollect how Krishna looks so this is mental this is not spiritual at a spiritual level directly Krishna manifests directly Krishna manifests so initially ok I have interpreted externally afterwards I focus, I can see that it is internal, that is the focus of my meditation but beyond that my thoughts at the multiple level stop there is connection, perception there is recognition that person correctly answers there is no perception in the mental level it is describing that level of consciousness so we will continue discussing this tomorrow this was Krishna says that you explain the greatest happiness which he explains through viddhi grahyam he experienced with the purified consciousness so it is like viddhi grahyam the channel is focused on the devotional stimuli spiritual stimuli and gradually one doesn’t need the external stimuli one gets the internal stimuli by one’s own conception and beyond that one doesn’t need external stimuli one has internal connection so we will discuss the later part of this verse tomorrow thank you very much