00:00The Gita talks about Nishkama Karma.
00:02So while I see currently whatever actions I take in life comes from some desire.
00:07Going to the gym to stay fit, working to be financially independent.
00:10How does one discern what right desire is?
00:12You cannot begin by asking what the right desire is.
00:16You have to start with asking where your bondages are.
00:21You already have the right desire.
00:23The right desire is a desire to be free, to be at ease,
00:28to be able to flow, to be without fear.
00:32It does not disappear.
00:33It gets aligned.
00:35Sir, there is a desire, but this desire is aligned with a purpose beyond my little self.
00:42No action is right or wrong.
00:45Actions can be very deceptive.
00:47You have to look at the actor.
00:49Where is that action coming from?
00:51The questioner is Anjali.
01:00She is asking, Acharya ji, the Gita talks about Nishkama Karma.
01:06You've also mentioned it briefly today.
01:10So while I see currently whatever actions I take in life comes from some desire.
01:15For example, going to the gym to stay fit, working to be financially independent,
01:20studying because one loves the subject and want to achieve greater heights and so forth.
01:25So how do we really understand this in spirituality?
01:31How does one discern what right desire is in daily context?
01:37You cannot begin by asking what the right desire is.
01:44You have to start with asking where your bondages are.
01:52So it starts with self-observation, Anjali.
01:56You look at yourself and you find yourself in all kinds of chains and traps.
02:04And then you know what the right desire is.
02:06Once you know where you are chained, you already have the right desire.
02:13The right desire is to break the chain.
02:19But I cannot talk of the right desire without knowing where you are in bondage,
02:28you are in bondage, in domination, in greed, in fear.
02:38It begins with an observation and admission of your own state.
02:47The right desire is a desire to be free, to be at ease,
02:56to be able to flow, to be without fear.
03:01That is the right desire.
03:04But when we say the right desire is about being fearless,
03:09first of all, you have to figure out where your fears are.
03:16So figure them out and then fight them with all that you have.
03:27That is the right desire.
03:29See, in the right desire, it is not as if the person or the personal motive
03:44disappears.
03:47This is very important to understand.
03:50It does not disappear.
03:52It gets aligned.
03:56It does not disappear.
03:58It gets aligned with something beyond you.
04:06The desire of the person gets aligned with a purpose beyond the person.
04:16Think of a vast battlefield, right?
04:20And you have a large number of soldiers fighting the enemy and I am calling it,
04:28let's say, the dharma yudh, the right battle.
04:33Now, you might be one of those soldiers.
04:38That soldier is probably engaged with just one or two of the enemy soldiers.
04:44How many enemy soldiers are you seeing and engaging?
04:49Maybe just one or two.
04:51And these one or two are right now your personal battle, your personal adversaries.
04:58Are they not?
05:01It's a personal thing.
05:02There is this fellow in front of me and I have to knock him down.
05:06It's a personal thing.
05:07There is this fellow in front of me and I have to knock him down.
05:14But this personal objective is aligned with a battle beyond the person.
05:29Are you getting?
05:30So, while you are fighting a personal battle, seemingly, yet that battle is not really personal
05:41because the war has a larger purpose.
05:48Otherwise, you can look at any particular soldier and say, well, you ought to be desireless
05:53You ought to be desireless because dharma yudh is also about being nishkaam.
06:04So, why are you so charged up about beating your adversary?
06:13You should be desireless.
06:14Why do you have the desire to defeat your enemy?
06:17So, there is a desire but this desire is aligned with a purpose beyond my little self
06:26and this is called surrender.
06:29I have surrendered my desire to a larger objective
06:34which does not mean that I no more have any desire.
06:37I have a desire but it is an aligned desire.
06:41Like a part of a large machine, the part does have its individuality, no?
06:51But the movement of the part is submitted to the overall functioning of the machine.
07:00There is an alignment.
07:01Are you getting it?
07:03And that's the way to live.
07:09Your will gets aligned with a larger will.
07:17Not that you do not want to keep yourself fit.
07:19Anjali said, well, I go to the gym.
07:21I do not want to keep myself fit.
07:23I do not want to keep myself fit.
07:24I do not want to keep myself fit.
07:26Not that you do not want to keep yourself fit.
07:29Anjali said, well, I go to the gym.
07:31I do this.
07:32Yes, you do go to the gym and that makes you fitter as a body, as a person.
07:38But what do you go to the gym for?
07:41Why do you want to be fitter?
07:45What do you need a fitter and stronger body for?
07:49If you need a fitter and a stronger body for the right purpose,
07:53then these two things have now become aligned.
07:56Yes, I'm going to the gym and that is benefiting my body.
08:00But then my body is not for my sake.
08:04My body is aligned to something beyond myself.
08:08So even as it may appear that I am benefiting my own little body by going to the gym,
08:15the fact is that my fitness or strength are in service of a larger purpose.
08:26And that makes me be at a very nice position, you see.
08:36I don't have to drop the body.
08:39In fact, I have all the incentive to keep the body strong, fit, agile, but not for myself.
08:56Not for myself.
08:57So you can have a Nishkama Karma Yogi in the gym and you can also have a random commoner in the gym.
09:07And they both might appear to be working out with the same intensity.
09:15But never go by actions.
09:16Actions.
09:21Actions.
09:25Delude.
09:26Hmm.
09:28You have to look at what that action is for.
09:31You have to look at the state of the actor.
09:33One of them is building his body so that he looks sexier and attracts attention.
09:44And the other one is building the body so that the body can be used
09:49as a better weapon in the right battle.
09:53And they both are training side by side.
10:00Outwardly, when you look at them, you may actually not find much of a difference.
10:04And you will say, look at this one, look at this one.
10:06They are doing much the same thing.
10:08They're doing the same thing outwardly, outwardly.
10:15Inwardly, they are very different.
10:17Inwardly, they are very different.
10:22One is building the body for her own sake.
10:25The other is building the body to surrender the body to a larger battle.
10:32This alignment.
10:33This alignment is surrender.
10:35Surrender does not mean that you go and dump the body somewhere.
10:40And say, I know I have surrendered my body.
10:41Why should I feed the body?
10:42Why should I clean the body?
10:43Why should I exercise the body?
10:45No.
10:47The body is there.
10:48But now the body does not exist to serve my pretty purposes and my little desires.
10:58I kind of become a trustee of the body.
11:03There is this body.
11:05And this body is a surrendered thing.
11:10This body is in the service of something far bigger than my ego.
11:15Are you getting it?
11:22No action is right or wrong.
11:24Which means no action is recommended or prohibited.
11:34Prescribed or proscribed.
11:40Actions can be very deceptive.
11:43Mind you, you have to look at the actor.
11:49Where is that action coming from?
11:53Human history is replete with instances where great people were ostracized and calumnized
12:06just because we looked at their deeds.
12:09And we didn't have the eyes to look into the doer.
12:13And equally history is full of instances where very ordinary people, nay, evil people
12:23were felicitated, fitted and even worshipped because they demonstrated the right kind of actions.
12:38A man with a lot of money can be a selfless one if that money is for a purpose.
12:51And even a beggar can be evil if he is begging just for his own sake.
13:03Tomorrow I'll beg again and feed the stomach and that's all.
