Transcript
[0:03] Okay. [sighs]
[0:25] Om Shanti Shanti
[0:29] Shanti
[0:31] hi.
[0:34] Om.
[0:36] Very good. Welcome to all. Welcome also
[0:39] to
[0:40] those of you attending our satsang
[0:42] online. We have lots of great questions.
[0:45] So
[0:46] we will
[0:48] proceed.
[0:52] Uh I want to begin of course by wishing
[0:55] all of you a happy Diwali.
[0:57] Yeah so very nice
[0:59] we meet today on Diwali. Blessings to
[1:02] you and your families.
[1:06] First question
[1:09] from
[1:10] regular student Prashanto who's in
[1:12] Bangladesh.
[1:14] Question about accepting
[1:17] anything unpleasant without resistance
[1:21] as a gift of God.
[1:25] That's karma yoga, right?
[1:27] You didn't you didn't need to use the
[1:29] term karma yoga. You've all understood.
[1:32] This is karma yoga
[1:34] to be able to accept unpleasant
[1:37] things [snorts] as a gift of God.
[1:42] Like when we have a disease, our loved
[1:43] ones suffer, how do we take it while
[1:45] dealing with pain? I know that you have
[1:47] chronic vertigo.
[1:50] In your case, how to deal with it?
[1:52] And it turns out that the vertigo is
[1:53] doing very nicely today. [snorts]
[1:58] How how to deal with it.
[2:01] And
[2:02] you know and at a pragmatic level, you
[2:05] know, we deal with difficulties in our
[2:07] lives the best we can. I deal with
[2:10] chronic vertigo the best I can. But of
[2:13] course,
[2:14] Prashanto's question is not about the
[2:17] mechanics of how we deal with things,
[2:19] but rather it's about the attitude. He
[2:23] says, how do we accept it as a gift of
[2:27] without without resistance.
[2:30] Well,
[2:33] gifts are interesting.
[2:35] I've given this example before.
[2:38] When somebody gives you a totally
[2:41] useless gift.
[2:44] I think Diwali is a time of gift giving,
[2:46] right?
[2:47] So suppose someone gives you
[2:49] a totally useless gift
[2:52] on Diwali.
[2:54] You look at it. You throw it back at
[2:56] them.
[2:58] It's totally useless.
[3:01] No.
[3:02] You accept the gift not
[3:05] because of its contents,
[3:08] but because of the one who gave it and
[3:12] the attitude with which it's given. Can
[3:15] I request you to put down your
[3:16] telephone, please?
[3:19] Miss,
[3:21] can you get her attention, please?
[3:25] Yeah. Yeah, I'm addressing you. Um it's
[3:31] I request not to use your telephone
[3:33] while we're on
[3:37] I'm sorry.
[3:40] >> Translator.
[3:41] >> Oh, it's translating.
[3:43] Does it really?
[3:45] How how cool is that?
[3:48] I I understand and you're you're
[3:50] absolutely welcome. I I didn't
[3:52] understand. I thought it was a
[3:55] Yeah, yes and and you are hard of
[3:57] hearing as well. I understand and it's
[3:59] absolutely okay. Okay. What nice use of
[4:04] of technology.
[4:07] Speaking of which, I just just share
[4:10] with you what it what I think is an
[4:12] excellent example of of use of
[4:14] technology.
[4:15] They've just brought out a brand new
[4:17] Ramayana movie
[4:19] in India. And if you've seen the
[4:22] trailers for it, it's it's pretty
[4:24] impressive.
[4:25] And all the actors are there. And
[4:27] [snorts] of course you can have a
[4:29] version in Hindi, in English, in Telugu,
[4:32] in Tamil, Marathi, I suppose all all of
[4:35] this.
[4:36] And it's not dubbed.
[4:41] Not dubbed.
[4:43] Now, does it mean that these actors had
[4:45] to do it do each scene over and over
[4:47] again in half a dozen languages?
[4:49] Obviously not.
[4:52] So AI technology has come well enough
[4:57] that they actually
[4:59] replace the lips
[5:04] during the dialogue.
[5:06] So they they record
[5:09] obviously yeah they they use AI to
[5:12] create the the various languages in the
[5:16] actor's own voice
[5:19] that is not not somebody else's voice.
[5:21] It's the actor's own voice. I think the
[5:23] main the main actor the actor I don't
[5:26] freaking you might know his name anyway.
[5:28] [snorts] Uh the actor who plays Shri Ram
[5:32] speaks Hindi.
[5:33] And he recorded everything in Hindi. But
[5:36] when you when you listen to the English
[5:38] version, you hear his voice speaking in
[5:42] English.
[5:44] And
[5:46] because AI is replacing the lip
[5:49] movements, it's perfectly synchronized.
[5:52] You can't tell.
[5:54] So this is really very
[5:57] this is how AI should be used. There are
[6:00] many ways in which it shouldn't
[6:03] [snorts] be used, but we can see some
[6:05] good applications. Anyway, sorry for the
[6:07] um for the detour here. [snorts] How to
[6:09] how to have the attitude of receiving
[6:13] unpleasant things like illness in your
[6:15] life as a gift of Ishvara. As I said,
[6:18] it's not what you get, it's from whom
[6:22] you receive. We in
[6:25] following the teachings of Sri Krishna
[6:27] in the Bhagavad Gita, we understand Sri
[6:30] Sri Krishna. We understand Ishvara to be
[6:33] karma phala data, the giver of the
[6:36] fruits of our deeds.
[6:38] So, if we get some illness or some
[6:40] problem in life, first of all
[6:45] first of all, we can't blame anyone.
[6:49] If you understand the doctrine of karma
[6:52] at all,
[6:54] you understand the inevitability
[6:59] of undeserved
[7:01] suffering. This is step one.
[7:04] When something unpleasant happens to
[7:06] you,
[7:07] step one is to understand that according
[7:11] to the doctrine of karma,
[7:13] undeserved
[7:15] suffering in life
[7:17] is guaranteed absolutely by the by the
[7:21] way karma works. Then, secondly, the
[7:25] results that you're getting according
[7:28] based on the doctrine of karma are
[7:30] coming from whom?
[7:33] From Ishvara.
[7:35] So, it's not that Ishvara is punishing
[7:38] be very careful about this. Ishvara does
[7:42] not punish you
[7:44] or reward you.
[7:47] This idea of punishment and reward is
[7:50] actually a very biblical concept.
[7:53] The Hindu concept of Ishvara is not a
[7:57] god who rewards and punishes in the same
[8:00] way as a biblical god does, but rather
[8:04] the one who metes out
[8:07] m e t e, the who gives measures out
[8:11] our our our karmas. And he does so
[8:15] fairly without without an agenda.
[8:19] So
[8:20] it In other words, it's just
[8:23] what it is.
[8:25] How to handle it? Well, before
[8:28] enlightenment, you understand that the
[8:31] inevitability of suffering. You
[8:34] understand that according to Ishvara's
[8:37] cosmic order, this is what's happening
[8:40] now, and you accept it as gracefully as
[8:43] you can.
[8:44] After you're enlightened, then it's no
[8:46] problem at all because the difficulty
[8:48] won't affect you.
[8:50] It may affect your body, it may affect
[8:52] your mind, but it doesn't affect you in
[8:55] an essential way. Okay.
[8:58] Question from Arun who lives in
[9:01] Bangalore.
[9:03] Arun asks, how is the concept of
[9:05] avatara? We just talked about Sri Ram.
[9:08] How is the concept of avatara
[9:10] accommodated
[9:12] within the framework of Advaita Vedanta?
[9:16] And I like his
[9:17] uh Arun's language here. How is it
[9:20] accommodated within the framework
[9:23] of Advaita Vedanta because Advaita
[9:26] Vedanta doesn't teach avataravara,
[9:31] the teaching about these various
[9:32] avatars.
[9:34] Advaita Vedanta teaches that your true
[9:36] nature is unchanging consciousness.
[9:41] Avatars are part of the larger religious
[9:45] Hindu background
[9:47] in which the teachings of Advaita are
[9:49] found. Just like the doctrine of karma
[9:52] is part of the larger Hindu background
[9:56] from which the in which the teachings of
[9:58] Advaita are are found,
[10:01] same goes for avataravara.
[10:04] So how does Advaita Vedanta accommodate
[10:07] it?
[10:09] Where is the need to accommodate it?
[10:13] It's just
[10:16] it's just
[10:17] an ancient religious teaching.
[10:22] It's taught
[10:24] in scripture
[10:25] and is presented in scripture in
[10:28] wonderful ways, in helpful ways, in ways
[10:31] that invoke
[10:33] great devotion.
[10:37] So what is there to accommodate? I I
[10:40] don't understand that. If if you ask
[10:44] now if we
[10:45] if we kind of shift Arun's question, the
[10:48] Advaita Vedanta doesn't have to
[10:50] accommodate anything.
[10:52] Everything is
[10:53] is accommodated effortlessly in Advaita
[10:57] Vedanta. Now if you change Arun's
[11:00] question, how do we understand avatar
[11:02] avada from the doctrine of karma? We can
[11:05] talk about that for hours.
[11:07] According to the doctrine of karma,
[11:09] there is a solid basis
[11:12] for Ishvara taking a particular
[11:15] human or other kind of form, taking
[11:18] incarnation in this worldly plane and
[11:23] acting in certain ways. There's a karmic
[11:26] basis for that taught very elaborately
[11:29] in many scriptures, but that's
[11:32] that's the role of the doctrine of
[11:34] karma.
[11:36] Advaita Vedanta doesn't need to
[11:38] accommodate it. It's just it's already
[11:40] accommodated as I said. Okay.
[11:44] More questions here.
[11:46] Um
[11:52] Yeah, let me take
[11:57] this question from another regular
[11:59] student, Vidyasagar, who lives in
[12:02] Vancouver.
[12:03] While studying Bhagavad Gita, I came
[12:05] across a verse
[12:11] probably the most famous verse
[12:14] in the entire Bhagavad Gita comes at
[12:16] towards the end of chapter 18. I think
[12:20] it's verse 66
[12:23] where Sri Krishna is concluding his
[12:25] teachings to Arjuna and he tells Arjuna
[12:34] you should completely give up
[12:38] all dharmas.
[12:42] me alone.
[12:45] You should
[12:46] you should seek
[12:50] me alone as your
[12:56] Having given up all others.
[13:00] What what does that mean?
[13:05] You need to understand it in context.
[13:09] Does it first of all does it mean you
[13:10] should have to give up dharma
[13:12] in the sense of ahimsa? That's a wrong
[13:15] interpretation of the word dharma.
[13:19] So dharma means
[13:21] dharma also means religion. Give up all
[13:24] other religions.
[13:27] Follow me alone. That sounds like our
[13:29] Christian friends. [laughter]
[13:35] [gasps]
[13:35] [snorts]
[13:37] That's not the meaning either.
[13:39] So it it's very nuanced.
[13:43] So if you want to understand the meaning
[13:46] in a very nuanced way, you need to study
[13:50] very deeply. If you're just reading the
[13:53] Bhagavad Gita,
[13:54] I think the point I'd like to make here
[13:56] is if you're just studying the the
[13:58] Bhagavad Gita and you come across that
[14:00] verse, naturally you're not going to
[14:02] understand it. Are you an expert in
[14:04] interpretation of the Bhagavad Gita? If
[14:07] you are you might be.
[14:09] If you are you if you are you won't ask
[14:11] this question.
[14:15] If you're not,
[14:17] it shows the limitations of self-study.
[14:21] The Bhagavad Gita, like all other
[14:24] scriptures,
[14:25] need to be studied
[14:28] with the guidance of someone who has
[14:31] already studied all of those scriptures
[14:34] and gone very deeply into it. You need a
[14:36] teacher, just very very very simply.
[14:40] To answer Arun's
[14:43] Vidya Sagar's question,
[14:45] what is the right interpretation of this
[14:47] of this verse
[14:49] for those
[14:52] it'll take an hour to explain.
[14:54] So the best way to understand the verse
[14:58] not I won't say the best way,
[15:00] a suggestion
[15:02] for how to understand that verse or any
[15:04] other verse,
[15:05] go find my my videos on YouTube,
[15:10] find the find the video on chapter 18
[15:14] where I explain the meaning of verse 66.
[15:18] I probably spend half an hour to an hour
[15:20] explaining it there.
[15:23] So
[15:24] the the real point here is if you are
[15:27] reading a scripture independently
[15:30] without without the guidance of of a
[15:33] teacher,
[15:34] how can you be expected
[15:37] to interpret it properly?
[15:39] And then if you're using a translation,
[15:42] how can a translation possibly capture
[15:47] how can
[15:48] to to replace the word Dharma by any one
[15:52] English word in that verse,
[15:56] will that one English word really give
[15:58] you the full idea
[16:01] of what that Shri Krishna means to
[16:03] convey? No.
[16:05] So
[16:06] the concept of Dharma itself is so
[16:09] complex, how can it be reduced into one
[16:12] English word? And then if you're reading
[16:16] the reading a commentary
[16:19] on the Bhagavad Gita,
[16:21] you might be in oddly enough, you might
[16:24] be even even more trouble
[16:27] depending on who wrote that particular
[16:30] commentary.
[16:33] A good example is if you're reading the
[16:35] famous commentary, the one that says
[16:38] Bhagavad Gita as it is,
[16:42] what you're actually reading is one of
[16:43] the most sectarian readings of the
[16:45] Bhagavad Gita you can find. It's
[16:48] interpreted from a very narrowly
[16:51] Gaudiya Vaishnava stand standpoint. Of
[16:55] course, if you're a follower of Gaudiya
[16:56] Vaishnavism, that's the best Bhagavad
[16:59] Gita in the world for you.
[17:02] But if you're not,
[17:04] then
[17:06] it'll end up being an extremely
[17:08] sectarian interpretation for you. Okay,
[17:11] enough.
[17:13] Let me take a couple of these.
[17:16] Getting lots of
[17:19] Lots of
[17:21] here.
[17:25] This is Shravanti from Switzerland.
[17:28] Nice.
[17:30] Switzerland what time? Evening in
[17:31] Switzerland. Good. [snorts]
[17:34] Please explain about
[17:36] It's contents, how they were built up,
[17:38] manifestation, what happens to it when
[17:41] the transmigration.
[17:43] We make it so complicated by forgetting
[17:47] the fact that or
[17:49] not knowing the fact that
[17:52] is only figuratively
[17:56] a
[17:58] It's not a
[18:00] It's not a body.
[18:02] It's called
[18:03] figuratively.
[18:05] It is, however,
[18:07] it is the cause. And what is the cause?
[18:10] And the cause for the
[18:13] cause for your birth with a body and
[18:16] mind. The cause for your birth with a
[18:19] with a
[18:20] physical body and a
[18:23] mind, etc. The cause for those is
[18:26] figuratively called
[18:30] but what it is is
[18:33] cause. And the cause
[18:36] is simply
[18:37] ignorance.
[18:39] A proper understanding of the teachings
[18:42] of Advaita Vedanta will make it very
[18:44] clear to you that
[18:47] is simply a figurative expression that
[18:50] describes ignorance.
[18:53] And with that explanation, then all of
[18:56] the all of the other questions
[18:59] go away.
[19:04] All right.
[19:06] This is a question from Manoj in Atlanta
[19:11] on on the
[19:14] gaining the necessary degree of
[19:17] preparation
[19:20] for
[19:21] the study of Advaita Vedanta. I'm I'm
[19:24] paraphrasing this. We talk about a
[19:26] number of qualities
[19:28] in our
[19:29] class. We've been talking about this
[19:33] this collection of five
[19:35] qualities that make you a prepared
[19:37] student.
[19:39] And he asks, can you suggest any
[19:42] nice modern English?
[19:45] Can you suggest any hacks to
[19:48] turbocharge?
[19:49] [laughter]
[19:52] That's nice language. I like that.
[19:55] [laughter]
[19:56] [cough]
[19:57] [clears throat]
[19:59] Um
[20:00] and he asked about
[20:02] in particular, but but I think this
[20:04] would apply to all
[20:06] all of all qualities.
[20:09] The best
[20:11] hack
[20:13] to turbocharge
[20:15] your preparedness
[20:17] for Advaita Vedanta
[20:19] in Sanskrit is called
[20:24] What we're doing right now is
[20:27] satsang.
[20:30] And satsang the the in this context the
[20:34] meaning of satsang is sangha association
[20:38] with sat
[20:40] with good either good people or with
[20:42] truth both meanings are there.
[20:44] So and that's what
[20:47] we're doing right now you by by sitting
[20:50] here by watching this
[20:54] this satsang you are participating in
[20:59] satsang.
[21:00] And that is the best way to
[21:03] the best hack to turbo charge your
[21:07] preparedness. I like that language.
[21:09] [laughter]
[21:13] Okay.
[21:15] Um
[21:16] this question from
[21:20] uh this question from Chaitanya who
[21:23] lives in California.
[21:28] Is Sakshi Bhava? Sakshi Bhava means
[21:32] Sakshi Bhava is a meditation technique
[21:36] in which you observe your mind with
[21:40] detachment.
[21:42] I'll say that again. Sakshi Bhava is a
[21:45] meditative technique in which you detach
[21:48] from your mind
[21:50] and you watch it
[21:52] with with objectivity. You observe
[21:56] the activities of your mind without
[21:58] comment without judgment.
[22:00] So
[22:02] Chaitanya's question is is Sakshi Bhava
[22:05] only to be used as far part of the
[22:07] formal practice
[22:10] formal spiritual practice in fact
[22:12] meditation it's a formal spiritual
[22:14] practice of
[22:16] meditation or can it be integrated into
[22:20] daily life like karma yoga is integrated
[22:25] into daily life.
[22:27] The interesting contrast contrast, karma
[22:30] yoga by definition
[22:32] hm
[22:36] As karma yoga can be integrated into
[22:39] mundane
[22:41] life activities. Wait a minute.
[22:43] Is there any other way to practice karma
[22:45] yoga except integrated into your daily
[22:50] experience by definition
[22:53] karma yoga is a practice you do while
[22:57] engaged in karmas.
[23:00] That's part of the definition of karma
[23:02] yoga.
[23:03] Unlike sakshi bhava, the very term bhava
[23:08] here describes a condition of mind, in
[23:11] particular a meditative
[23:15] condition of mind.
[23:18] Can it be integrated into your daily
[23:20] activities?
[23:22] If you've
[23:25] if you've watched my videos on sakshi
[23:28] bhava, I've often I always make the
[23:31] warning no
[23:33] you cannot and should not incorporate
[23:37] sakshi bhava into your daily activities.
[23:41] And and in fact
[23:45] Chaitanya seems to seems to anticipate
[23:48] my answer. Sakshi bhava sounds similar
[23:51] to psychological self-distancing.
[23:56] In fact, to at an extreme it's a
[23:59] disorder.
[24:01] Depersonalization or depersonalization
[24:04] disorders are found in the found in the
[24:08] manuals on psychology.
[24:11] So if if for example right now
[24:17] suppose you're talking with a friend
[24:20] and you are practicing sakshi bhava.
[24:25] So you're distancing yourself from your
[24:27] mind
[24:28] what to speak of distancing yourself
[24:30] from your friend?
[24:33] You're making the whole thing
[24:35] artificial.
[24:37] You're you are
[24:39] the psychological term for the use that
[24:41] is
[24:41] they use these two terms,
[24:43] depersonalization
[24:45] and derealization.
[24:47] These are psychological disorders if if
[24:51] you if they
[24:53] if they just happen to you.
[24:56] They're psychological disorders. When
[24:59] you do them deliberately
[25:01] while you're talking to your Can you
[25:03] imagine being with a loved one
[25:06] and observing yourself,
[25:08] talking to your loved one?
[25:12] How unnatural
[25:14] that is.
[25:17] And if if you if it happens to you, it's
[25:20] on it's a sign of mental illness. If
[25:23] [snorts] you do it deliberately thinking
[25:26] that you're practicing Advaita Vedanta,
[25:29] you're making a mistake.
[25:32] When you're talking to people, connect
[25:33] with them. Be natural. Be real.
[25:38] When you're talking to people, that's
[25:40] the time for practicing karma yoga.
[25:44] Karma yoga is meant to be practiced
[25:46] while you're engaged in karma.
[25:49] Sakshi bhava is meant to be practiced
[25:51] while you're meditating. So let's be be
[25:54] very clear about that.
[25:56] One more question here then we'll see if
[25:58] any questions here in our
[26:00] local students.
[26:02] Uh
[26:05] this question from Raj who lives in
[26:08] Toronto.
[26:12] Um
[26:15] um about the practice of Nitya Dhyasana
[26:18] he wants to know. So Nitya Dhyasana we
[26:21] said is vedantic contemplation.
[26:25] Nitya Dhyasana is a practice that's done
[26:29] after
[26:30] before we can see his question,
[26:33] Nitya Dhyasana is a practice that
[26:35] follows your discovery of your true
[26:39] nature as Sachidananda Atma.
[26:42] I'll say that again because people we
[26:44] lose sight of that.
[26:46] This is there are certain
[26:48] practices you do before the discovery.
[26:54] Before you discover your true nature as
[26:56] Sachidananda Atma, there are many
[26:58] practices that you need to do.
[27:01] After
[27:02] you discover your true nature as
[27:05] Sachidananda Atma, there's one practice
[27:07] you must do.
[27:09] That practice is
[27:12] and it's for the sake of removing
[27:14] habitual identification
[27:16] with your body and mind.
[27:19] So that being said,
[27:20] my understanding is that meditation is
[27:23] done
[27:24] to drill deep into the definition of the
[27:27] true self as taught in the Upanishads.
[27:30] It's nothing I've ever said.
[27:33] Um
[27:35] meditation is a preparatory
[27:38] practice.
[27:40] Let's let's presume that we're talking
[27:42] about
[27:43] here.
[27:44] is
[27:45] not done to drill deep into a
[27:48] definition.
[27:51] is done to examine your own ongoing
[27:56] identification with your body and mind
[28:00] and to address that.
[28:02] So it's not drilling deep into the
[28:04] definition of the true self.
[28:07] That word definition stands out
[28:10] because it's conceptual. It's abstract.
[28:13] It's philosophical.
[28:15] We are not drilling deep into abstract
[28:19] philosophy in any in in the practice.
[28:22] [snorts]
[28:24] It is rather to address our own
[28:29] experience. In particular,
[28:32] is to address your experience of being
[28:36] so intensely identified with your body
[28:39] and mind.
[28:41] Then now he's back on track. The
[28:44] is to break that
[28:46] is to consciously break the body mind
[28:49] intellect association
[28:52] and cultivate
[28:56] Yeah, I
[28:57] Okay.
[28:58] I have to apologize to Raj.
[29:01] It looks to me like Raj hasn't really
[29:05] listened to my teachings before on
[29:09] I made the assumption that that Raj has
[29:12] and that's an unfair assumption.
[29:15] So Raj here apparently is kind of coming
[29:17] at
[29:19] from his own perspective. I would
[29:21] suggest Raj
[29:23] go watch and any of you who have
[29:26] difficulty understanding what this
[29:28] practice is
[29:31] instead of getting into a long
[29:33] discussion about it here,
[29:35] go find my my videos that address
[29:39] especially in the course on meditation.
[29:42] Uh you'll find several
[29:44] several videos that address it there.
[29:47] Okay.
[29:48] Let me pause and see do we have any
[29:50] questions from our students here? You're
[29:52] okay?
[29:53] All right. We have plenty
[29:55] of questions here to continue with.
[29:58] Next question is from Patrick.
[30:01] Patrick lives in Kentucky.
[30:06] During the practice of
[30:09] self inquiry
[30:13] Oh, he has a question recently
[30:15] Interesting.
[30:16] Recently after waking up in the recovery
[30:19] room
[30:20] following a minor medical procedure that
[30:23] was done under general
[30:26] anesthesia,
[30:27] I vividly felt that I had ceased to
[30:30] exist for the previous hour
[30:33] like jumping through time.
[30:35] I think
[30:36] most of us
[30:37] have had that experience of anesthesia,
[30:40] and it does. You just
[30:42] gone and then back.
[30:45] It's different than at night when you at
[30:47] night when you go to bed, you have
[30:49] moments of of dreamless sleep, but
[30:51] there's a lot of dreaming going on in
[30:54] deep sleep. In general anesthesia, no
[30:56] dream. You just you fall asleep
[30:59] and then
[31:00] the operation's over. You're waking up.
[31:03] Just like that. No experience of the
[31:06] lapsing of time. Notice at night you
[31:10] experience time because you dream.
[31:17] Do you experience time during the
[31:20] moments of dreamless sleep?
[31:24] It's the same as anesthesia.
[31:28] During the dreamless sleep portions at
[31:31] night, you don't experience passage of
[31:33] time. You do experience time during
[31:37] during a dream. Okay. So I vividly felt
[31:40] like I had ceased to exist for the
[31:42] previous hour, like I jumped through
[31:44] time.
[31:45] Um I understand
[31:48] that uh this was unlike the familiar
[31:51] feeling that I slept like a rock that is
[31:55] present after waking from deep sleep.
[31:59] When you
[32:01] if it's just deep sleep,
[32:04] it's the same as anesthesia.
[32:06] Exactly the same. You wake you when you
[32:09] wake up in the morning,
[32:12] you you did you at night
[32:15] you did ex you did undergo
[32:19] deep sleep.
[32:23] But that's not the experience
[32:26] of sleeping like a rock.
[32:30] The experience of sleeping like a rock
[32:34] is when you have a good night's sleep,
[32:36] which includes a lot of dreams.
[32:45] Suppose you had
[32:48] just to understand deep sleep,
[32:50] and then we we have to his question goes
[32:52] on. There's a more important part of the
[32:54] question, but just to set the context.
[32:56] This, by the way, happens to be a really
[32:58] important topic in Advaita Vedanta, so
[33:01] it's worth
[33:02] spending some time
[33:04] going into it in some depth.
[33:06] Let's try this.
[33:09] At night, suppose you had a night
[33:14] in which the moment your head hit the
[33:17] pillow,
[33:18] you went into a condition of deep sleep.
[33:23] You experienced no dreams whatsoever,
[33:27] and you woke up 8 hours later.
[33:32] What would be your When you wake up,
[33:36] would you say
[33:38] I slept like a rock,
[33:41] or would you say
[33:44] I
[33:46] felt like I didn't exist?
[33:52] You lay down, the clock say say the
[33:54] clock says says midnight,
[33:57] and and then you open your eyes and the
[34:00] clock says 8:00.
[34:03] What would you think?
[34:05] What happened?
[34:09] What happened? Now, oh, I was asleep,
[34:12] right?
[34:13] The point I'm making is that
[34:16] there is
[34:19] to say that you have the experience
[34:22] of deep sleep
[34:26] is a misnomer,
[34:28] because to have an experience of
[34:31] something
[34:33] means there has to be something that
[34:34] you're experiencing.
[34:38] What is present in your mind during
[34:41] sleep?
[34:42] Nothing.
[34:45] How can you have an experience of
[34:46] nothing?
[34:49] Experience requires as a minimum
[34:52] experiencer and experienced.
[34:57] If there's no experienced,
[35:01] there's no experience.
[35:03] So just to understand deep sleep
[35:05] properly, so when you wake up feeling
[35:08] like a slept on slept like a rock, you
[35:11] wake up feeling rested.
[35:15] And that rest period included
[35:18] many dreams in which you experienced the
[35:22] passage of time.
[35:24] You do not experience the passage of
[35:27] time in dreamless sleep, just like
[35:31] anesthesia. They're indistinguishable.
[35:35] You can imagine
[35:36] laying down
[35:38] Nice image. I've never used this before.
[35:41] You see the you see the clock next to
[35:43] your bed, says midnight.
[35:45] And then a moment later, you open your
[35:48] eyes and it says 8:00.
[35:51] That's deep sleep.
[35:54] Ex No it's you can't it's you can't call
[35:58] it the experience of
[36:00] deep sleep. Be better to call it the
[36:03] absence of a particular experience.
[36:09] Okay. Now that's By the way, that leads
[36:12] up to his question.
[36:14] His question now is I understand that
[36:16] consciousness is non-negatable
[36:20] during deep sleep.
[36:23] And
[36:25] leaving nothing for consciousness to
[36:27] witness, correct?
[36:29] Yet I still feel as though Now here's
[36:32] the Here it is. I still
[36:35] He understands
[36:36] that
[36:37] that consciousness remains present in
[36:41] deep sleep.
[36:42] But
[36:43] I still feel as though I pass in and out
[36:48] of existence in these in deep sleep and
[36:52] in in anesthesia, which is illogical.
[36:56] Correct. It's illogical. What is the
[36:59] best way to bridge the gap between my
[37:01] personal experience and the teachings of
[37:03] Advaita Vedanta here?
[37:06] So first of all,
[37:07] you you says I feel like I pass in and
[37:12] out of existence.
[37:17] What what is that feeling exactly?
[37:21] What does it feel like to not exist?
[37:27] That's a interesting question.
[37:31] Can you answer that? We just
[37:33] talked about it.
[37:35] What does it feel like to not exist?
[37:39] We just said that in order to have By
[37:41] the way, feeling means an experience,
[37:43] right?
[37:45] You say what is it feel like to not
[37:47] exist? What is it to have the experience
[37:50] of being non-existent, to paraphrase the
[37:53] question?
[37:55] What is it like to have the experience
[37:58] of non-existence?
[38:00] [snorts]
[38:01] Can you see the problem here?
[38:04] If you don't exist, how can you have
[38:06] [laughter] how can you have any
[38:08] experience?
[38:11] So
[38:12] when you say
[38:15] in after anesthesia, you felt like you
[38:19] didn't exist for 1 hour,
[38:22] is that really a feeling?
[38:26] It's a feeling
[38:28] that you have when you wake up.
[38:32] It's not a feeling you have during
[38:34] anesthesia.
[38:36] During anesthesia, there's no
[38:38] experience.
[38:39] When you wake up, you have this
[38:43] startling thing that time has elapsed
[38:47] without your awareness,
[38:50] that's unsettling,
[38:53] that unsettling
[38:56] experience
[38:57] leads you to conclude incorrectly
[39:01] that I didn't exist for that one hour.
[39:04] That to say that I didn't ex to say that
[39:09] last night in deep sleep I ceased to
[39:12] exist
[39:14] is a wrong conclusion
[39:18] based on
[39:20] your
[39:23] knowledge that you lost time.
[39:27] Let me that's that's a little compact.
[39:29] Let me try to explain that.
[39:35] To lose time they commonly they call it
[39:37] blocking out,
[39:39] right?
[39:40] To block out
[39:42] is a common expression
[39:45] to describe what happens when you lose
[39:49] time, so to speak, which happens in deep
[39:52] sleep, happens in
[39:55] And for obvious reasons it's unsettling
[39:59] to lose time.
[40:03] When we have that
[40:05] unsettling
[40:08] recognition I lost time, then we try to
[40:12] explain it to ourselves
[40:16] what happened. We want to understand
[40:17] what happened to me.
[40:19] And we sometimes
[40:21] make up wrong explanations.
[40:24] I ceased to exist
[40:27] in deep sleep. So
[40:30] the the difficulty here
[40:33] is improperly understanding
[40:36] our experience.
[40:38] The experience I slept like a rock
[40:42] is not an experience you had during deep
[40:45] It's not that during deep sleep
[40:47] you felt like a rock
[40:49] and then you woke up and you remembered
[40:52] that you felt like a rock. [laughter]
[40:55] You got it?
[40:57] I slept like a rock means what?
[41:00] During sleep you felt like a rock
[41:04] and then you woke up and you remembered
[41:06] oh I remember feeling like a rock in
[41:09] deep sleep.
[41:11] That's
[41:11] that's silly. That is absolutely not an
[41:15] accurate depiction of the of your
[41:18] experience of deep sleep. Have to to
[41:21] finish this up. In deep sleep you didn't
[41:23] experience anything.
[41:27] So that feeling I slept like a rock is a
[41:30] feeling that emerges when you wake up.
[41:35] And it
[41:36] it emerges because you slept well and it
[41:40] may emerge if you feel like you lost
[41:43] time. Okay, enough said.
[41:47] Let's take a couple more questions here
[41:49] and wrap up.
[41:51] Let's see here.
[41:57] Uh
[42:00] several questions on the upcoming
[42:03] two-year course. So I've I this satsang
[42:08] is not the right place to discuss
[42:10] the two-year course. When it starts
[42:12] we'll be discussing it with the
[42:14] students.
[42:15] Um
[42:18] this question comes from Aman.
[42:22] How can you tell if you made the
[42:24] discovery of your true nature or just in
[42:27] a more subtle conceptual trap of the
[42:30] mind?
[42:34] How can you tell?
[42:38] When you look in the mirror
[42:40] how can you tell if that you are not?
[42:46] Is it an imposter?
[42:51] It it's like
[42:53] it's
[42:54] because it's so personal
[42:59] it's obvious [snorts]
[43:01] that it's your image.
[43:06] Notice that in the mirror in the when
[43:09] you're looking into a mirror there's
[43:10] some distance involved. You're standing
[43:12] two feet away from the distance from the
[43:14] mirror.
[43:16] From a distance of two feet do you have
[43:19] any doubt
[43:20] whether or not that's you?
[43:23] Okay.
[43:26] When your attention is turned within
[43:30] and you have the discovery
[43:33] my true nature is such it on and dot my
[43:37] pure consciousness.
[43:40] What is the distance between you and
[43:42] that which you discover?
[43:47] Zero.
[43:49] And the point I'm making is if you have
[43:51] no doubt at a distance of two feet
[43:54] when you're looking in the mirror
[43:56] look at this
[43:57] distance equals zero.
[44:02] How can you know for sure?
[44:06] At two feet you don't have any doubt.
[44:08] [laughter]
[44:09] How can you have any doubt at a distance
[44:12] of zero? So it's it's
[44:15] it's not a conceptual thing at all. It's
[44:19] too intimate. It's too personal. It's
[44:21] too much
[44:23] it's it it's
[44:25] absolutely fully present in your
[44:28] experience without any [snorts]
[44:30] any interference.
[44:33] Okay.
[44:35] Next question here from um
[44:41] this question comes from Joachim who
[44:44] lives in London.
[44:47] Um we are taught to lose our attachment
[44:51] to finite
[44:53] attachments. [snorts]
[44:57] Let Let me paraphrase the question.
[44:58] We're not taught to lose our
[45:00] attachments. We're taught that
[45:01] attachments make you suffer
[45:04] and the teachings of Advaita Vedanta
[45:06] help you come out of suffering. Anyway,
[45:08] that's
[45:10] that's leading up to his question. His
[45:13] question is can religion become an
[45:15] attachment in an unhelpful
[45:19] way?
[45:21] So
[45:22] first of all, attach Let's Let's be very
[45:25] clear. What do we mean by attachment?
[45:28] Many times you've probably heard me give
[45:30] this definition.
[45:33] Best way to understand attachment in a
[45:35] Vedantic sense is emotional dependence.
[45:41] To have the sense and
[45:45] even better better definition takes more
[45:47] words and it's this.
[45:51] When your sense of well-being
[45:56] is dependent on something,
[46:01] that's what we call attachment.
[46:04] Your dependence on anything at all
[46:09] for your sense of well-being
[46:12] is what we call attachment.
[46:15] Now,
[46:16] you can be attached to to
[46:20] Before we proceed, let's understand you
[46:22] can have healthy attachments and
[46:25] unhealthy attachments.
[46:28] You probably feel like your sense of
[46:31] well-being is dependent on
[46:35] eating food and drinking water.
[46:40] So would you not say that's an
[46:42] attachment, right?
[46:44] It is.
[46:46] But that's a pretty healthy attachment
[46:50] to be attached to loved ones. [snorts]
[46:53] In most situations, not all,
[46:56] in most situations, to be attached to
[46:59] loved ones, family members in
[47:01] particular, would be considered a
[47:03] healthy attachment.
[47:09] How about being attached to
[47:13] How about being
[47:14] addicted to drugs or alcohol?
[47:17] That's an attachment.
[47:19] My well-being
[47:21] depends on drugs or alcohol.
[47:25] That's attachment.
[47:26] Obviously, that's an unhealthy
[47:29] attachment.
[47:31] Now, ultimately, in Advaita Vedanta, we
[47:34] come out of all attachments, healthy and
[47:37] unhealthy. But that's not the topic
[47:40] here. The topic here is here is
[47:42] attachment to religion.
[47:44] Is attachment
[47:47] to
[47:48] religious practices and teachings is it
[47:51] healthy or unhealthy?
[47:55] 99% of the Well, the answer, of course,
[47:58] is it depends on what is a particular
[48:00] religion you're attached to. If
[48:03] you can argue that people who are in
[48:05] cults
[48:08] are have religious attachment,
[48:11] which is in most cases really unhealthy.
[48:17] But by and large,
[48:19] people engaged in mainstream religious
[48:23] practices
[48:25] who develop an attachment And I I guess
[48:29] a good example of this
[48:31] Um,
[48:32] many pious Hindus
[48:36] begin their day
[48:39] by doing puja,
[48:41] and if something comes up
[48:44] to prevent them from doing that morning
[48:47] puja, they get upset.
[48:51] That's an attachment.
[48:54] They are attached to doing that morning
[48:57] practice of puja.
[48:59] And
[49:01] that's why when they are prevented from
[49:04] doing the puja, they get upset. They get
[49:06] upset.
[49:07] In general, religious practice is a good
[49:11] thing.
[49:12] Attachment to religious practice as a as
[49:15] at least it's attachment to a healthy
[49:19] it at least it's a healthy attachment,
[49:22] but it is attachment,
[49:25] which means if you can't do the puja and
[49:28] you get upset, that's a sign of
[49:30] emotional dependence.
[49:33] What is the solution?
[49:36] Give up doing puja?
[49:39] Silly, right? That's throwing the baby
[49:41] out with the bath water, so to speak.
[49:44] No. You do keep doing puja
[49:48] simultaneously do lots and lots of atma
[49:51] vichara
[49:52] to discover your true nature as such a
[49:55] ananda atma, which doesn't need puja.
[49:59] Your emotional well-being isn't
[50:02] dependent on doing the puja or anything
[50:05] else.
[50:07] We'll take just one more question
[50:09] uh for today.
[50:11] This question comes from uh
[50:15] Suhag.
[50:17] Uh Suhag lives in Haryana,
[50:20] uh North India.
[50:22] Um
[50:24] and question is
[50:25] um
[50:27] Oh,
[50:28] is a 17 year old.
[50:32] At 17, no kidding.
[50:36] I'm impressed.
[50:39] [snorts] Generally, 17 year olds are
[50:41] more interested in many other things
[50:44] [laughter]
[50:45] than Advaita Vedanta. Excellent.
[50:47] Okay.
[50:49] So Suhag's question um whenever I am
[50:52] doing a good deed,
[50:54] I feel like I'm not doing it just for
[50:58] the goodness of it,
[51:00] but for people and God to think that I
[51:04] am a good human being.
[51:09] I do a good deed
[51:11] not for the goodness of the deed,
[51:14] but so that you will think highly of me
[51:18] and God will think highly
[51:21] of me.
[51:25] Sometimes I don't feel like it like it,
[51:29] but sometimes there is this thought in
[51:30] me. So
[51:32] it makes me think that I am it makes me
[51:34] wonder whether I am selfish or not.
[51:39] Am I just doing it for God to think I'm
[51:41] a good person or am I doing it for
[51:43] people to to think that I'm good?
[51:49] What's good
[51:51] is that you're thinking about this.
[51:54] To have that level
[51:59] of self awareness,
[52:03] to be so insightful,
[52:08] to see
[52:10] that below
[52:12] that your motive
[52:14] for doing good
[52:18] is based partially
[52:21] on your desire to be seen as a good
[52:26] person in the eyes of others,
[52:29] to be seen as a good person in in the
[52:31] vision of God, so to speak.
[52:34] To have that insight
[52:37] at the age of 17,
[52:39] I think is wonderful.
[52:43] The insight shows a great deal of inner
[52:47] maturity
[52:49] and clear insight.
[52:53] That being said,
[52:57] is it a bad thing
[53:00] that you're partially motived by
[53:02] selfishness?
[53:03] Absolutely not. [laughter]
[53:06] It's absolutely normal.
[53:10] All human behavior
[53:14] is driven
[53:16] by self interest.
[53:21] I rarely use the word all,
[53:25] but here we can use it.
[53:27] All human behavior
[53:31] is driven by self interest.
[53:33] That's normal.
[53:37] So
[53:38] when when
[53:40] when you do something good,
[53:44] it's at least in part driven by self
[53:48] interest. Does it make the good deed
[53:50] bad? Obviously not.
[53:53] And what then you say and then uh
[53:55] Suhaga is asking about what about my
[53:57] selfishness? It's not selfishness first
[54:00] of all, it's self interest. By the way,
[54:02] can we differentiate the two?
[54:05] What how to differentiate selfishness
[54:09] from self interestedness?
[54:12] Selfishness is I count and you don't.
[54:19] Self interestedness means
[54:22] I count and so do you.
[54:26] That's it.
[54:28] So self selfishness
[54:31] is where we ignore the needs of others,
[54:35] ignore the realities of others where
[54:38] where we are exclusively focused on our
[54:41] own needs
[54:43] on our own interests, which is certainly
[54:45] not what Suhaga is is referring to here.
[54:48] So
[54:50] to be aware of the fact
[54:54] that your motivation to do good deeds
[54:58] has at least some self interest involved
[55:04] is is a
[55:06] tremendous insight.
[55:09] And it shows great maturity.
[55:12] Just continue. And then
[55:14] with regard to the issue here,
[55:16] self-interest is absolutely natural.
[55:22] I just end with this image. Think of a
[55:25] mother with an infant that she just gave
[55:28] birth to.
[55:31] The mother is taking care of her infant
[55:32] child.
[55:36] Would you say there's no self-interest?
[55:41] There is.
[55:43] There is abso- Thank goodness that
[55:46] mother feels good
[55:48] [laughter]
[55:49] by holding and taking care of her child.
[55:52] If mother didn't, if mother were not
[55:54] biologically programmed
[55:57] to feel good,
[55:59] then mother after giving birth her here.
[56:04] And then that would that would be
[56:05] damaging to the child. We are all
[56:08] biologically programmed to have this
[56:12] self-interest. It's normal. It's
[56:15] natural. It's not an enemy. It's not
[56:19] selfishness.
[56:20] [snorts] It's normal. Okay, enough said.
[56:23] Great questions. We'll see more
[56:24] questions next week.
[56:27] End with a prayer.
[56:31] Om
[57:08] Shantihi
[57:10] Om
[57:13] See you next time.
