- 4 months ago
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00:00:00If that pizza or Rasgulla or whatever is indeed so charming that it captures your entire mind,
00:00:07devote yourself fully to it and then you will be liberated.
00:00:09If money is something that you think will redeem you, go.
00:00:1424 hours, eat, drink, think, sleep money.
00:00:18You find that man or woman so fascinating.
00:00:22Go spend 24 hours.
00:00:24I mean not only 24 hours.
00:00:25I mean all 24 hours.
00:00:27Today's 24 hours as well as tomorrow's.
00:00:29Distance from the object of desire maintains the charm.
00:00:34It's a very dirty trick.
00:00:36We never allow ourselves to know the object of desire fully.
00:00:40We at least postpone the knowledge.
00:00:42The one thing that will again and again strike you about the Vedas is honesty.
00:00:47They don't pretend.
00:00:48And they give two hoots to what you will think about them.
00:00:51Like a naked child.
00:00:52Totally naked.
00:00:53You feel scandalized looking at what he's doing.
00:00:55But he is least worried.
00:00:57Looks at you and say, yeah, yeah.
00:00:58What?
00:00:59Yeah, you too have it hanging there.
00:01:02What are you gaping at?
00:01:03The nature of the process of liberation is peculiar.
00:01:23You feel a certain angst within.
00:01:34You feel a certain angst within.
00:01:34A silent hollowness.
00:01:47A silent hollowness.
00:01:53And to begin with, you venture out in search of something.
00:02:01And to begin with, you venture out in search of something.
00:02:01What?
00:02:04that can plug the hollow.
00:02:19The beginning will always be towards the external.
00:02:31That is inevitable, it is a rule.
00:02:37Because that's how we are made, the eyes, all the senses, including the mind, they are
00:02:53by birth, biologically programmed, to look outside at the world.
00:03:05When you are in need or in trouble, you wave towards the world and the throat cries out,
00:03:19help, help, again towards the world.
00:03:27If something troubles you at one place, you do not run inwards, you do not run to your
00:03:36insides, you run towards another external place.
00:03:48Whatsoever has attracted you has always been a subject of the senses.
00:03:56So that's how we are configured.
00:04:01Hence it is inevitable, we said, that the beginning will be in the outward direction.
00:04:14That's also how the Vedas begin.
00:04:21They look outwards.
00:04:25And that will always happen.
00:04:27That is not really a weakness.
00:04:35That is not a fault, not something to be ashamed of.
00:04:48That's a constitutional compulsion, the way we are constituted.
00:05:02So that's how we said the Vedas also begin.
00:05:09They look at the world.
00:05:11If you look at the oldest of the Vedas, I have been revisiting it these days.
00:05:20Every few years or so, I return to the Vedas.
00:05:28This would be my sixth or eighth or tenth, I don't know, some return to the Vedas.
00:05:34I was in Mumbai and this time, I purchased fresh copies of all the Vedas, even though I already
00:05:43have two or three copies.
00:05:46That's my way to make a fresh beginning.
00:05:52And I am revisiting the Rigweb.
00:05:54And every time you go to them, there are fresh insights.
00:06:05What happens is that we look at the whole road from the point of view of the destination.
00:06:24We look at the climb, standing at the summit.
00:06:34And then the climb will always look a little inferior, a little useless, a little abhorrible, lowly
00:06:48climb.
00:06:51What we forget is that without the climb, all the ups and downs, all the meandering, the
00:07:03summit wouldn't have been possible.
00:07:06So, those who are exposed to Vedanta, when they look at Karmakant, it is a bit prakritic,
00:07:19that the approach sometimes is of condensation.
00:07:29With the condescending eye, we look at Karmakant part, which is both understandable and also childish.
00:07:45It's understandable because, indeed, Vedanta is the summit.
00:07:52The philosophical rigour of Vedanta cannot be matched by the Sankhita or the Brahman part.
00:08:04In that sense, it's understandable.
00:08:06But what is also to be understood is that the Vedas are an organic growth.
00:08:16When you look at Prakriti, you look at all its elements and whenever you initiate the journey
00:08:23with Prakriti, the approach is of desire.
00:08:25So, you look at Prakriti with desire.
00:08:32The various forces and forms and effects of Prakriti, you give very different, very interesting names.
00:08:52And you associate charming stories with them.
00:09:00That's what the initial part of the Vedas is about.
00:09:03And because the whole thing will come from desire, man is a creature of desire, is he not?
00:09:09So, therefore, to each of these names, forms, forces, you go and you ask for things.
00:09:20What things?
00:09:21The same things that we today ask for.
00:09:26Everything has changed and that's why spiritual literature from ancient times remains relevant
00:09:34even today.
00:09:35So, the things that you ask for today are the same things that are being asked for in the
00:09:43Mantras of Prakriti, 10,000 Mantras there.
00:09:52In more than a thousand Suktas, 10 Mandals and more than 95% of them are about desire.
00:10:08Some natural force you pick up, Indra, Vayu, Agni.
00:10:21Even the famous Gayatri Mantra is addressed to Surya, Savita.
00:10:33You have some natural force and then what do you ask is more crops, please, you know, longer
00:10:47life and disease-free bodies for me and my family and my clan, please break destruction on
00:11:04that other tribe, destroy them fully.
00:11:07Agni, can you do that for me?
00:11:14These things.
00:11:17And these things, once you go deeper into them, the depth itself enables you to surpass them.
00:11:29Because when you initiated the journey, the purpose was very clear.
00:11:34We said there was an internal angst and Indra or Vayu or Varuna or Agni or Surya, they are incapable
00:11:48of healing the angst.
00:11:55And then, only then you are forced to turn inwards.
00:12:00That's what happens in the Vedas and that's also what happens in the life of every seeker.
00:12:08The initial movement is always towards the outside, right?
00:12:15And your life can become like the Vedas, can mirror the Vedas, it can resemble the Vedas.
00:12:25If you can do what the Upanishads do, the Upanishads take a very courageous flight.
00:12:36While the Karmakan part is busy with nature worship, offering sacrifices and asking for favours.
00:12:50The Upanishads suddenly then, it's not really sudden, but in the text it does appear a bit abrupt.
00:13:01The Upanishads suddenly declare nothing doing.
00:13:07If I keep asking for fulfilment of desires from Trakrati, I am never going to have it.
00:13:19I'll forever remain dissatisfied and I don't want to just end up discontented.
00:13:28I'll have to look inwards, I'll have to ask myself, who is the one who is always begging?
00:13:36No, that's a tremendous change.
00:13:41From the initial plane, where you are continuously saying, oh please Deity you come over, here is the Yajna Sacrifice, can you come over and sit here and accept my offering?
00:13:58Here is the Sombras for you, I know you love it.
00:14:01Please take this, please take that and bless me in return.
00:14:07The Upanishads just move beyond all that.
00:14:11No nature worship there.
00:14:16No effort to extract any kind of favour from Prakritic forces.
00:14:26I should say I have understood who am I and why do I relate to Prakriti in such and such ways.
00:14:35You get it.
00:14:37Now both these parts are very very important.
00:14:40I cannot even say one is more important than the other.
00:14:49Boarding is important and so is deboarding.
00:14:53Checking in is important and so is.
00:14:56How do I declare that checking out is more important than checking in?
00:14:59How will you check out if you never?
00:15:01Checked in.
00:15:02Checked in.
00:15:03You can take it.
00:15:08Though when you are checking out or deboarding, it appears that this is the higher act.
00:15:14Because this is the final thing.
00:15:16This is what completes and culminates.
00:15:22But that's not so.
00:15:29It's like taking a ferry to the other shore.
00:15:36A boat ride.
00:15:39Obviously when you reach there.
00:15:43Then you leave the boat.
00:15:47And it will appear that leaving the boat is the final thing.
00:15:52That helps you land at the destination.
00:15:54And that's true.
00:15:57If someone were to take a snapshot, he will say see this is the final thing.
00:16:04This man is stepping out from the ferry.
00:16:11Right?
00:16:12You got into the boat and then you got out of the boat.
00:16:15Getting out of the boat is the moment when you land on the destination.
00:16:19So it appears great.
00:16:20But what is also true is that you needed to get on.
00:16:25You also needed to cover the entire distance across the river.
00:16:32Are you getting it?
00:16:44But the problem occurs when one gets so enamoured with the boat ride that he refuses to leave
00:16:59the boat.
00:17:00Obviously I am assuming that first of all you took the boat.
00:17:06The vast majority of people are so satisfied at their own shore that they will just refuse
00:17:19to accept any boat or the overtures of any boatman.
00:17:32It would be sensible, logical, we can only guess but probably factual to say that it would have been difficult
00:17:49to reach the Upanishads without the nature worship part.
00:18:02You need to be disillusioned before you get disentangled.
00:18:09Remember Nirasha, Nirashindramamuga.
00:18:19How will you, how will you get disillusioned free of hope?
00:18:30If first of all there is no hope, now we all do remain hopeful since birth itself, that's
00:18:40right.
00:18:41But the, but the beauty, the courage of the Vedas lies in the fact that they said fine,
00:18:48if Prakrate is where we are to get our satisfaction from, let's go the whole distance.
00:18:55If Prakrate is what gives us what we want, then let's accept the forces of nature as gods
00:19:02and goddesses.
00:19:04No, no hypocrisy.
00:19:09If I live for the sake of my desires, then let me turn the objects of my desires into gods
00:19:16and goddesses.
00:19:17Now this is a very honest approach and a bold one.
00:19:29We all do want stuff but we never have the rigour and the courage to simply accept that the object that we want is indeed our God.
00:19:44Right?
00:19:45You might be dying after something.
00:19:47But will you ever openly accept that the stuff that you are dying after is your de facto God?
00:19:53You will not accept, right?
00:19:56Inwardly, yes, that thing is indeed your God and is ruling you, commanding you.
00:20:03But you will never accept it.
00:20:06Not to others, not to yourself.
00:20:09That the thing is your God.
00:20:12The Vedas just honestly accept.
00:20:16They say, okay, fire is so important.
00:20:19It gives us protection.
00:20:20Think of those times.
00:20:22Think of those times.
00:20:23Fire used to be so important.
00:20:25Fire used to be the vehicle for fulfilment of so many desires.
00:20:32Food, protection, illumination, come on, everything.
00:20:38Plus, man was not entirely savage by the time we came to the Rig Veda.
00:20:44There was a fair degree of civilisation.
00:20:49We had started dealing with metals.
00:20:52We had started getting into construction.
00:20:55And in all of that, fire played an important role.
00:20:59Even medicines.
00:21:01Fire was needed for all of that.
00:21:05So, fire fulfills so many desires.
00:21:10So, what do I do?
00:21:11I will say, fire is God.
00:21:14Fire is God.
00:21:17That's very, very innocently honest.
00:21:21Is it not?
00:21:23Cute.
00:21:24I wish we had the honesty to simply say, Mother Pizza.
00:21:30Because that's how it is for many of us.
00:21:34No?
00:21:35Is it not?
00:21:37In the dead of the night, you are worshipping her.
00:21:44Invoking her.
00:21:47Dialing her up.
00:21:53And then that Parishta from, yes, comes with the word of the Goddess.
00:22:03And whispers in your ears, Margarita.
00:22:10And that's the mantra.
00:22:16We are not honest enough to accept that these things are our Gods and Goddesses.
00:22:22No?
00:22:23Look at someone, I mean, if he were honest, he should be found worshipping the pillow.
00:22:34The pillow should be hoisted, hung from the roof or something, ceiling.
00:22:43An offering should be made.
00:22:46Please.
00:22:47Because the pillow is where this fellow's desires are most fulfilled.
00:22:58We are hypocrites in that sense.
00:23:00There we said, there is a certain innocence.
00:23:03They said, if we get our sustenance from Son, we will worship Son.
00:23:10And that's so fair.
00:23:12No?
00:23:13They could see that everything is coming from the Son.
00:23:16So, why not worship the Son?
00:23:21And then when you honestly devote yourself to whatever you think is fulfilling your desire.
00:23:32That's and only then is when disillusionment can set in.
00:23:42Why do we not get disappointed fully?
00:23:45Why are our hopes not and never dashed fully?
00:23:50Because we never commit ourselves fully to the object of our desire.
00:23:55We are smart people.
00:23:59We will chase something and yet not admit to ourselves that we are chasing that thing.
00:24:04In comparison, the Vedic Seers are extremely innocent and very honest.
00:24:18So, they say, the cow is giving us so much.
00:24:20We will worship the cow.
00:24:22Simple.
00:24:24You also extract so much from the cow, but you don't really worship the cow.
00:24:27Do you?
00:24:31Some plant is giving them something.
00:24:33There is the Somras, which is most probably a drink of intoxication.
00:24:41But it used to give them pleasure.
00:24:43The same kind of dopamine rush that you also rush for.
00:24:48And they said, no, it's a wonderful thing.
00:24:51There are so many mantras praising just the Somras.
00:24:57You know, you prepare it this way and then you offer it to Indra.
00:25:01And Indra would be just delighted.
00:25:04And after Indra is delighted, you can have it.
00:25:10You get it?
00:25:12We hide.
00:25:14We pretend.
00:25:15They don't hide.
00:25:16They don't pretend.
00:25:17And that is also the reason why some of the mantras, they have been used by detractors to present the Vedas as abominable.
00:25:30They say, you see, what kind of stuff is being talked of here?
00:25:45Because there are references even to sexual activity in a very innocent way, in a very childlike way.
00:25:51So, people come and say, you see, these are the Hindu's religious scriptures and they are talking of sex in this way.
00:25:59No.
00:26:01They are talking of everything that is there in the Prakritic Universe.
00:26:06So, they are talking of sex also.
00:26:08Because when you think of fulfillment, one of the directions you rush towards is sex.
00:26:17So, they are talking of sex as well.
00:26:21They are talking of crops, they are talking of the soil, they are talking of the clouds.
00:26:24And animals, forests, of course rivers.
00:26:35I am principally referring to the Rig Ved here.
00:26:38Maybe because of recency effect.
00:26:40I am with the Rig Ved these days.
00:26:46Are you getting it?
00:26:49So, that is a wonderful thing.
00:26:51A thing of honesty.
00:26:54You find yourself drawn to something.
00:26:57Don't be a hypocrite.
00:26:58Just declare, I am drawn towards this thing and I am moving towards this thing.
00:27:02Only then will you meet disappointment.
00:27:08And without that disappointment, there can be no liberation.
00:27:11The reason why we are never liberated is because we double deal.
00:27:19Are you getting it?
00:27:24You binge and then you fast.
00:27:25You binge and then you fast.
00:27:30And that is why you will never stop eating the nonsense that invites you to binge.
00:27:38If that pizza or Rasgulla or whatever is indeed so charming that it captures your entire mind.
00:27:54Devote yourself fully to it and then you will be liberated.
00:27:59And then you will be liberated.
00:28:09If money is something that you think will redeem you, go.
00:28:1624 hours eat, drink, think, sleep money.
00:28:19Sleep money.
00:28:24And then you will be liberated.
00:28:26Liberated not because you will earn enough of it.
00:28:29Because you will realize this is not that.
00:28:32And that kind of liberation seems to have happened in the process of the Vedas.
00:28:48You find that man or woman so fascinating.
00:28:51Go spend 24 hours.
00:28:55I mean not only 24 hours.
00:28:57I mean all 24 hours.
00:29:00Today is 24 hours as well as tomorrow's.
00:29:04Go spend 24 hours.
00:29:07And you will run.
00:29:10I mean run away.
00:29:11Distance from the object of desire maintains the charm.
00:29:26It's a very dirty trick.
00:29:29We never allow ourselves to know the object of desire fully.
00:29:37We at least postpone the knowledge.
00:29:39Sooner than later that knowledge will come to you.
00:29:51Uninvited.
00:29:52Unwanted.
00:29:56But we want to postpone it.
00:29:59And we postpone it to such a point.
00:30:01That even when the knowledge comes, it's already too late.
00:30:04It's not that you will never learn the reality of that man or woman.
00:30:14But by that time you will already have 3 kids.
00:30:17Now what can you do?
00:30:19It's too late to learn.
00:30:24And this thing that you are learning after 30 years, you could have learnt in 3 days.
00:30:28Had you allowed yourself to ask the right questions.
00:30:30It could have learnt, been learnt, very simple.
00:30:36But those simple questions that can be asked over just an ordinary evening.
00:30:46It takes maybe 2 hours, 3 hours of a discussion.
00:30:48We do not let those questions be asked even over 3 decades.
00:30:58However, reality has a way of catching up with our nonsense.
00:31:03Facts will show up.
00:31:04But as we said, by that time it's too late.
00:31:10The Rishis didn't allow it to get too late.
00:31:15They got into it fully.
00:31:18They said, we are doing it.
00:31:20As you say, I am into it these days.
00:31:23So they were totally into Prakriti.
00:31:29I am into Prakriti.
00:31:30And that's why they were redeemed.
00:31:33And even then it didn't happen over a fortnight or a month.
00:31:37The Rig Veda is understood to contain mantras that span many centuries.
00:31:47Minimum of 300 to 400 years.
00:31:51It could be longer.
00:31:55That's the kind of time disillusionment takes to come.
00:32:00Even to a person with honesty, innocence and courage.
00:32:11And one lifetime is just maximum.
00:32:15100 years.
00:32:17How much time do you have?
00:32:19But we find enough time to deceive ourselves.
00:32:21There is not enough time even to honestly explore.
00:32:28How do you manage to have time?
00:32:31To deceive yourself.
00:32:33Even if you get into honest inquiry.
00:32:35You might find even 100 years is a little too less.
00:32:38Even the fastest ones take several decades.
00:32:43How do you manage to just keep telling lies to yourself?
00:32:52And that includes everyone.
00:32:55Me, you, we all stand at the same plane.
00:33:03Getting it?
00:33:07So the Vedas move on.
00:33:12They start with nature worship and then they move on.
00:33:16And it's such a tremendous moving on.
00:33:20The world has never seen anything like it.
00:33:28In fact, some people say that the Upanishads are against the Vedas.
00:33:35That magnitude of dissonance.
00:33:42They do not understand that the Upanishads would have been difficult to come to.
00:33:48Since the Vedas.
00:33:50But indeed, to be charitable to them.
00:33:57If you just read the mantras pertaining to nature worship.
00:34:04And then you go to some of the most philosophical,
00:34:10philosophically acute verses of the Upanishads.
00:34:16You find no similarity.
00:34:17And therefore, one could be forgiven for thinking that the Upanishads actually oppose the Vedas.
00:34:23They really do not.
00:34:24There is an organic linkage.
00:34:29But the difference is similar to the difference that a newbie would find.
00:34:37Between, let's say, a piece of the root of a mango tree.
00:34:43Let's say, there is someone who does not know the process of the mango tree.
00:34:54He does not know how the seed yields the whole tree.
00:34:57And to that person, you show a part of the root.
00:35:04Or a part of the gutli, the seed.
00:35:08And then you also show a full, luscious, ripe, juicy fruit.
00:35:17And you say, you look at this and look at this.
00:35:21He will say, this is totally opposite of this.
00:35:24The root looks dry and dark.
00:35:27And this is full of bright colors.
00:35:34And there is such juice and aroma and flavor and all that can attract you.
00:35:39And the root is so lifeless.
00:35:44That's a matter of appearance.
00:35:46The fact is that the fruit could not have come without the root.
00:35:50The root.
00:35:52That's the relationship.
00:35:56Are you getting it?
00:35:58The one thing that will again and again strike you about the Vedas is honesty.
00:36:04They don't pretend.
00:36:07And they give two hoots to what you will think about them.
00:36:11Like a naked child.
00:36:13Totally naked.
00:36:14You feel scandalized looking at what he is doing.
00:36:20But he is least worried.
00:36:25Looks at you and says, yeah, yeah.
00:36:28What?
00:36:30Yeah, you two have it hanging there.
00:36:33What are you gaping at?
00:36:35Get lost.
00:36:41I get it.
00:36:44Hypocrisy.
00:36:49Self-deception.
00:36:51They nip the process right in the bud.
00:36:55You don't even get to start.
00:36:58If you will not acknowledge your desires, how will you ever know your desires?
00:37:04And that's why I rate psychoanalysis so highly.
00:37:09Unearthing the content of the unconscious mind, where all your primitive and suppressed desires are lying.
00:37:21If you will not know that you have been desirous since ages, if you will not face, acknowledge, encounter your desires, there is no way of getting liberated from them.
00:37:35But social sanctions and religious morality, they prevent us from acknowledging that we desire so much and so many objects.
00:37:52What has morality taught you?
00:37:58Desire is evil.
00:38:01But that's not so in the case of the Rig Veda.
00:38:04Here you see the very dance of desire.
00:38:06Mother River, can I ask for one more thing?
00:38:14I will worship you more.
00:38:16But please give me this thing.
00:38:17As I said, like a naked child.
00:38:19Unafraid to ask.
00:38:23Constantly inviting the Gods.
00:38:24You please come.
00:38:25The feast is ready.
00:38:29And this time, we have some special butter for you.
00:38:33Gods, please come.
00:38:35And they really believe that the Gods are coming and enjoying the meals.
00:38:39And now that the Gods are satisfied, they will say,
00:38:44Can I have one more wife?
00:38:46.
00:38:54Not that.
00:38:55It's just about asking for desires.
00:38:57There is philosophical content as well.
00:39:00The philosophy of the Upanishads wouldn't have just suddenly exploded.
00:39:06You find the germs, the genesis of that philosophy in the earlier parts as well.
00:39:17But predominantly, it's about desire fulfillment.
00:39:21As Sri Krishna says in the Gita.
00:39:25.
00:39:30So, the first part is about exploring desire.
00:39:35.
00:39:38And then you come to the Upanishads.
00:39:40And that's about seeing desire and getting free of desire.
00:39:47That's Nishkaam.
00:39:49So, that's the journey.
00:39:51You begin from Sakamta and you come to Nishkaamta.
00:40:03Now, this does not mean that you have to run after your desires.
00:40:05Why?
00:40:06Because you are already at the peak of your desires.
00:40:13Is there anybody here whose mind is not full of desires?
00:40:17So, you don't need to add to the list of your desires.
00:40:21Because there have been teachers in the past who have advanced this argument.
00:40:25They have said, you know, unless your desires get huge and big.
00:40:31And they reach a critical mass and they explode.
00:40:35You will never be liberated.
00:40:37No sir, you don't need that.
00:40:38Why?
00:40:39Because your desires have already reached a critical mass.
00:40:42You don't need to add to the mass that you have.
00:40:46We are already slaves of desire.
00:40:48But we like to hear when somebody says, you know, you must pursue your desires.
00:40:55And at the peak of your desires, you will get desirelessness.
00:40:59You say fine.
00:41:00That's a good kind of sanction.
00:41:03Very liberative license.
00:41:05Let me consume more and more.
00:41:12And now even Guru Ji has allowed.
00:41:14Not Guru Ji, Baba Ji.
00:41:17I have him here.
00:41:18Getting it?
00:41:32I am so sure that, at least a few of you must have been wondering, that right, this session is telling me why I am not advancing in my spirituality.
00:41:47In my spiritual way.
00:41:50Because I have not been running after, running fully after my desires.
00:41:54No, you are already running fully after desires.
00:41:56You are just in a, in a hypocritical way, not acknowledging.
00:42:02The difference between you and the seers of Rig Veda is not that they were desirous and you are less desirous.
00:42:09The difference is that they were innocent and you are not.
00:42:13They were innocent, honest and they just acknowledged that yes.
00:42:18I do want protection.
00:42:20I do want a long life.
00:42:22I do want a disease free body.
00:42:24I do want my clan, my tribe to expand.
00:42:28I do want victory over my adversaries.
00:42:30They acknowledged it, that they said, you know, this is what I want.
00:42:38Interestingly, the initial parts of the Vedas do not talk of liberation.
00:42:43They do not say that I want.
00:42:45They said, these are the things that I want.
00:42:47Good life, healthy body, I must live very long.
00:42:55I must have lots of milk and butter to consume and also meat.
00:43:03There are places where the Vedas talk very liberally of meat of all kinds.
00:43:09They say, you know, I want all these things like the common man.
00:43:17They don't say that I want liberation.
00:43:23The difference is not that there is desire over there and there is lesser desire over here.
00:43:31The difference is that we are hypocrites.
00:43:35We desire and yet we pretend that we do not because we are afraid.
00:43:39They are not afraid.
00:43:40They are real dudes.
00:43:42They said, if I want something, I'll go out on an ounce.
00:43:45Yes, I want it. Fine.
00:43:48And that's the reason why ultimately they saw their wants getting dissolved.
00:43:57Whereas most of us inwardly, there are just so many desires boiling, boiling, boiling.
00:44:09A melting pot of desires.
00:44:10That's what our being is.
00:44:13Desires coming from all kinds.
00:44:16Melting, fusing into one.
00:44:19But outwardly, we pretend that we are religious, spiritual, moral, what not.
00:44:29And that has happened with all the Indic religions.
00:44:31That's the case with in fact religions in general.
00:44:36Everywhere is the same case.
00:44:40It's difficult to find a bigger hypocrite than the religious man.
00:44:47He wants all the things that the irreligious man or the atheist does.
00:44:53But he pretends that he does not.
00:44:56So what does he create?
00:44:57He creates back doors and underground tunnels.
00:45:02To fulfill his desires in the dark of the night.
00:45:12Takhand.
00:45:13Wanting the same thing, but not having the guts to acknowledge.
00:45:25Self-observation, Atma Vidya, is about having guts to see what lies within.
00:45:33It's not difficult to see, it's difficult to acknowledge.
00:45:39Do you understand this?
00:45:41It's not difficult to see.
00:45:44How is it difficult to see?
00:45:45These are your own insides.
00:45:47How can it be difficult to see?
00:45:49You are the experiencer of all your desires, are you not?
00:45:52If you do not know, who does?
00:45:58Nobody knows better than you, the kind of desires that keep swarming within.
00:46:07You are not blind, we are just dishonest.
00:46:10We know, we do not acknowledge.
00:46:15That acknowledgement is everything.
00:46:16And that's why I ask you to post your reflections on the community.
00:46:23And that's why you dread posting reflections.
00:46:27Because you know that your fact is too terrible to be posted.
00:46:37Do you understand why there is such a low rate of your posts on the community?
00:46:42And several of you are so smart that they have found ingenious shortcuts.
00:46:52They take my words and post there.
00:46:54That's their reflection.
00:46:57Some of them don't even bother to take my words.
00:46:59They simply take my posters and put there.
00:47:01And they say, now we are unblocked.
00:47:04You might be unblocked on the community.
00:47:06You will not be unblocked in life.
00:47:07Some say, sheer genius.
00:47:17The fellow says, posting for unblocking.
00:47:25Genius.
00:47:26That's where you are stuck.
00:47:39You know the hell hole that your insides are.
00:47:45I just want you, I request you to be bold enough to accept that.
00:47:57You will not accept that you are stuck in hell.
00:48:02There is no way you can move out.
00:48:07It's not at all coincidental that you do not want to reflect.
00:48:10It's not just about, you know, members of the community, the general members, even people within the foundation.
00:48:19Rarely do they post anything of any consequence.
00:48:25On the other extreme are people who appear like pouring their hearts out.
00:48:35But that too is a way of deception.
00:48:38Because you are writing so much.
00:48:40Just so that the writing substitutes for being.
00:48:46I have written so much and that is enough.
00:48:48Now I don't need to change.
00:48:49See, I have done so much.
00:48:50What have you done?
00:48:51Written.
00:48:53And that suffices.
00:48:56There are those who block change by not writing at all.
00:49:00And there are those who substitute change with writing too much.
00:49:13Now what do I do?
00:49:14I am helpless in this regard.
00:49:15Sometimes I just chuck it all away and say fine.
00:49:21Let me just thrash someone and have a good time and go to sleep.
00:49:25How much can one waste oneself on people who just are determined to stay where they are?
00:49:44Getting it?
00:49:45The more you are inwardly conscious of your internal rot.
00:50:01The more you will be afraid of opening up to life.
00:50:12The more you will remain guarded.
00:50:17It is not that you are an introvert.
00:50:20The bigger reason is that you have secrets to hide.
00:50:28And the society has said, you know, if you tell the others about your weaknesses and the rot and all the disease and everything.
00:50:47Then that person will look unfavorably at you.
00:50:50So, your social standing, your self worth is gone.
00:50:55And that is the problem.
00:50:57The Lok Dharam, the Lok Sanskriti, the culture we are brought up in.
00:51:03It places too much value on the way people look at us.
00:51:08The reason why we become dishonest.
00:51:18Not that we are liars.
00:51:20An environment is created in which lying becomes necessary.
00:51:29If the fellow in front of you is someone who cannot stand the facts.
00:51:35What is he incentivizing you to do?
00:51:41He is incentivizing you to lie.
00:51:44And that is the kind of environment that exists in the society.
00:51:51If you just expose the facts,
00:51:54there will be disdain and discarding and disapproval.
00:51:59Whereas you are considered respectable and acceptable.
00:52:10If you just keep presenting pleasant lies.
00:52:17Is that not what most youngsters do to their parents?
00:52:22I mean, come on.
00:52:26When you speak to your parents on the phone.
00:52:29Do you disclose facts, really?
00:52:36Not that you really want to lie.
00:52:38It is just that the fact would be unacceptable there.
00:52:41Even though it is such a harmless fact.
00:52:43Nothing.
00:52:45I am there in the shopping mall.
00:52:48The fact is this.
00:52:50But it is 10 PM.
00:52:54And mama coming from a Vaishnav background thinks that you know,
00:52:58the girl should be back maximum by 4 PM.
00:53:0310 PM is Armageddon.
00:53:20Worse than World War 3.
00:53:23So, she will ask.
00:53:25What is this loud music blaring in the background?
00:53:28No, no mama, it's my roommate.
00:53:31Nothing.
00:53:33Nothing.
00:53:36She is sitting at an eatery.
00:53:37That's all.
00:53:39Now, what's so scandalous about an eatery?
00:53:43But mama cannot accept it.
00:53:45We are forced to lie.
00:53:48And continuously lying to others, others, others, others.
00:53:54It becomes a habit to lie to yourself.
00:53:56And that's why I become so angry at parents.
00:54:03The ones who do not know life and yet try to bring one more life to this world.
00:54:09They teach you to lie.
00:54:10Though they will ostensibly tell you, always speak the truth.
00:54:12But through their sanctions and beliefs and rigid opinions, they are the ones who train you into all kinds of lies.
00:54:27And you become a habitual liar.
00:54:28And then that habit of lying turns inwards also.
00:54:41You just forget.
00:54:42Continuously you are telling others.
00:54:44Continuously.
00:54:46You didn't take the shower in the morning.
00:54:50But since the morning, 40 times you have told 40 respectable persons that you have taken a bath.
00:54:56By the time you reach evening, you would have forgotten that you have not taken a bath.
00:55:08And you will start believing, actually within yourself, that you did take the shower in the morning.
00:55:16That's how it happens.
00:55:18One of the markers of good company is, you don't have to lie there.
00:55:29Good company is where even your worst part is not frowned upon.
00:55:41If anything is frowned upon, it is dishonesty.
00:55:45If you lie about something that you did, then the other might frown.
00:55:58And that is okay.
00:56:00But he will not frown upon what you did.
00:56:03He will frown upon the fact that you hid what you did.
00:56:06These are two very different things, right?
00:56:08One is doing something, what you can call as bad, and the other is hiding it.
00:56:20A good relationship is where you are not supposed to hide things.
00:56:26The articles of association of the partnership, do not include a clause that says,
00:56:37We will present agreeable faces to each other.
00:56:42You can present your most disagreeable self to the other.
00:56:46And all that the other would say is, I will help you in overcoming it.
00:56:53He will not say, no, no, no. If it exists, hide it.
00:56:57I am not strong enough to accept that you have a face like that.
00:57:02The fellow says, I am strong enough to accept whatever follies you carry.
00:57:11And then I am also strong enough to lend you a hand to overcome all that.
00:57:21I am not saying that the fellow should say, okay, fine, I have seen your ugly and evil face.
00:57:25And let it remain that way.
00:57:28He is not saying this. What is he saying?
00:57:30He is saying, first of all, yes.
00:57:32Like a doctor, I am alright with you exposing the disease to me.
00:57:37Right?
00:57:39You go to a doctor, and you expose some rotten part of your body to the doctor.
00:57:45And the doctor says, what? Nonsense, rascal, bastard, get lost.
00:57:48What kind of doctor is that?
00:57:52And anything can be there, you know.
00:57:53We are very colourful people.
00:57:56You go to a gynaecologist, and the gynaecologist just explodes.
00:58:02He says, what have you done?
00:58:04Where have you done?
00:58:06I am not a doctor, I am a priest.
00:58:12Doctor, first of all, is fine with looking at your reports, your body, whatever it is.
00:58:18Even if your numbers are way off the mark, something should be within some three units of something.
00:58:26And your report says, instead of three units, it is 3000 units.
00:58:29The doctor will not run away.
00:58:31Nor will the doctor shoot you in the head.
00:58:33Nor will he call the police.
00:58:35The doctor will say, fine, I have seen this, now I will treat you.
00:58:39Treat you.
00:58:40That is the marker of a good relationship.
00:58:45You can come and be naked in front of me.
00:58:50You do not need to hide or pretend.
00:58:54And after that, it is not that I will say, remain this way.
00:58:59Now that I have known your weakness, your suffering, I will assist you in overcoming it.
00:59:08Are you getting it?
00:59:12The right relationship with desire.
00:59:16And it is because of this right relationship, that the Vedas finally climax into the Upanishads.
00:59:31Had they not had the right relationship, the Upanishads would have been difficult to come.
00:59:37It is possible that posterity will remember only the Upanishads.
00:59:49It is very much possible.
00:59:51That the Vedas will be remembered only through the Vedanta and as Vedanta.
00:59:58It is possible.
00:59:59But still, we must remember that the credit belongs to the entire process, not just the fruit.
01:00:08The credit belongs to the entire tree, not just the fruit.
01:00:12Though obviously, no one brings the entire tree home.
01:00:15What do you bring home?
01:00:17Just the fruit.
01:00:18That's fine.
01:00:19That's fine.
01:00:20Bring home the Upanishads.
01:00:22But also maintain a certain gratitude to the Vedas.
01:00:29That's fine.
01:00:30Now, that's the context in which the current verse reveals itself.
01:00:39See Krishna is saying that the knower, the Jnani, the Brahma Jnani, the Brahma Jnani, who is being represented as the Brahman here.
01:00:54Brahma not as a particular Varna or caste, but as Brahma Jnani, the knower of Brahma.
01:01:06He does not have much to do with the Vedas.
01:01:10That's what this verse is saying today.
01:01:11In a poetic flourish, Shri Krishna puts it this way.
01:01:20He says, you know, if the entire surface of the whole planet were covered with water, how much would a sane person have to do with a limited pool of water?
01:01:34If there is an infinite supply of water on this planet, how much would a sane person or a Jnani have to do with a small pool or pond?
01:01:48How much?
01:01:50Not much.
01:01:51He says, that's how much the knower must have to do with the Vedas.
01:01:58But this is addressed to the knower, the Jnani.
01:02:07The Jnani.
01:02:09The Jnani.
01:02:11You getting it?
01:02:13I'll get it allowed.
01:02:14If the Earth is completely drowned in water, obviously, then the kind of use one has of small wells, lakes, pools, etc.
01:02:31The self-aware, Dātma Jnani, has only that much concern with the Vedas.
01:02:44Now, this verse is set at the point of debolding.
01:02:55It applies only to those who boarded, completed and now they must debold.
01:03:04It does not apply to those who have not even reached the airport.
01:03:08Who are still snoring in their beds.
01:03:12This does not apply to those.
01:03:15He said, once you have totally taken in the Upanishads, so much so that the Upanishads have gone in and reduced you, dissolved you, you have become the Upanishads.
01:03:29Then, things that deal with fulfilment of desire and all these gods and goddesses and Prakriti, you are left with not much to do with them.
01:03:43You get this?
01:03:47You are beyond that now.
01:03:53That's the whole thing about the path of knowledge.
01:04:02Knowledge meaning self-knowledge.
01:04:03Once you know what lies within, then what lies outside does not remain as significant, as important, as compelling, as charming and as overpowering and overwhelming anymore.
01:04:22And that is freedom.
01:04:23Who wants to be overpowered?
01:04:26Desire is actually when an object overpowers you.
01:04:33It takes control of you.
01:04:38It starts deciding, dictating your steps, your moves and maneuvers.
01:04:45That's desire.
01:04:47An object getting totally on top of you.
01:04:50So, you have your life.
01:04:54You have your life that is full of desires.
01:04:56Right?
01:05:00Now, your purpose is to go to the Upanishads.
01:05:09The Karmakan part won't teach you much why, because what you find there is something that you already have.
01:05:18What do you find there?
01:05:20Poetic play of desires.
01:05:25Can I get this?
01:05:27Can I get that?
01:05:29But that is something that you already have.
01:05:31That's the point you already are at.
01:05:34Are you not doing the same things?
01:05:38Are you already not doing the same things?
01:05:41What kind of spiritual progress can you get by repeating what you are already doing?
01:05:47The Upanishads stand at a point that's higher than you.
01:05:58They will be of help.
01:06:00No kind of nature worship is going to help you.
01:06:03No kind of ideation, mentation, image worship is going to help you.
01:06:16Because that is something that you are already doing.
01:06:18Already doing.
01:06:19Are you not worshipping images?
01:06:20Come on.
01:06:22One day I will be the CEO.
01:06:24What are you worshipping?
01:06:25Think the image of the CEO.
01:06:28Because you are not the CEO right now.
01:06:30But what do you have?
01:06:32An image of the CEO.
01:06:33So image worship is something you are already doing.
01:06:36What can you gain by worshipping a few more images?
01:06:43Nature worship is something you are already doing.
01:06:45Are you not?
01:06:47Everything is Prakriti.
01:06:50So even that palace of your dreams is Prakriti.
01:06:55So that's nature worship.
01:06:56And for young people everything is Prakriti.
01:07:02So the body of your beloved again is Prakriti.
01:07:11And that's what you worship right?
01:07:13In the name of love, the body.
01:07:15So we are already nature worshippers.
01:07:18Be it money, be it prestige or be it sex.
01:07:22What are we worshipping?
01:07:23Prakriti.
01:07:24If you are already doing that.
01:07:27No point repeating that.
01:07:31So that cannot be religion then.
01:07:34Because religion is supposed to take you from a point where you are to a point where you are not.
01:07:40Religion is not about circumambulating your own current place.
01:07:47If you are here.
01:07:49And your Lokdharmic processes are about.
01:07:54Babaji is nodding again and getting offended.
01:07:59You are here.
01:08:01Right?
01:08:02And if your Lokdharm is about.
01:08:04How will it help you?
01:08:05You are already here.
01:08:06So the religion that you need is of the Upanishads, not of Karmakant.
01:08:16That's what Shri Krishna is teaching Arjun here.
01:08:20Arjun, what will you do with the Vedas?
01:08:23And when Shri Krishna says Vedas, what does he mean here?
01:08:27Karmakant.
01:08:28In fact, you know,
01:08:30still there is a school of thought that does not include the Upanishads in the Vedas.
01:08:36They say only the Mantras are the Vedas.
01:08:42In fact, chances are if you go and if you buy a copy of the Vedas, it may not include the Upanishads.
01:08:51Because in the popular mind, the Upanishads are separate.
01:08:57If you go and if you say, oh fine, Rig Veda, they will give you Rig Veda without the Upanishads.
01:09:04So when Shri Krishna is saying, how much can you have to do with the Vedas?
01:09:10He is discarding the Karmakant part.
01:09:13Because that is what is typically called the Ved.
01:09:22Are you getting it?
01:09:24Ved to you should mean Vedanta, Upanishad.
01:09:32And that is coming from no lower source than Krishna himself.
01:09:40Krishna himself is saying, and you have seen this being addressed earlier as well, where he was saying,
01:09:50if your mind is full of all the verses of the Vedas that deal with desire fulfillment,
01:10:00you will never come to understand what I am telling you, Arjun.
01:10:02Remember that verse?
01:10:05Who are the people who never understand Krishna?
01:10:10The ones whose minds are full of Karmakant.
01:10:15If your mind is full of Karmakant, Shri Krishna himself has very clearly said, you will never understand the Gita.
01:10:21Because Karmakant deals with desire.
01:10:23Whatever you do, you do for the sake of desire.
01:10:28So you are going.
01:10:30Right?
01:10:32And circumambulating a tree, Parikrama.
01:10:39Is that Nishkam ever?
01:10:41Let us say all those women, women who are doing it.
01:10:44Why are you doing it?
01:10:45And they will tell you, the reason is, this will give me something.
01:10:49My husband will get some long life from this.
01:10:50There is desire.
01:10:55There is no ritual, not a single ritual that is not associated with desire.
01:11:01And the central message of Gita is desirelessness.
01:11:05And that's why Lok Dharam and Gita do not go together.
01:11:08Because Lok Dharam is all about desire fulfillment.
01:11:12You create gods who are supposed to fulfill desires.
01:11:16Full stop.
01:11:20Think of a single God who does not fulfill desires.
01:11:23God or Goddess.
01:11:28Therefore, Gita does not talk of Gods and Goddesses.
01:11:31Gita talks of yourself, Aham.
01:11:34And says, the Aham has to look into itself.
01:11:38And be gone.
01:11:47You can take this as a community exercise.
01:11:51Ten rituals that you know of.
01:11:53And the desires they are supposed to fulfill.
01:11:59Ten rituals that are practiced at your place or region,
01:12:03house, locality, religion, whatever.
01:12:05Take ten rituals and in front of each write the desire that they are supposed to fulfill.
01:12:13And you will be amazed.
01:12:15Not a single ritual is about desirelessness.
01:12:17The next verse is one of the juiciest we can get in the Gita.
01:12:27Where I resisted my temptation to come too early to it.
01:12:32Though the current verse we had taken up in some way in the previous session also.
01:12:36Next verse is special.
01:12:37We will come to it in the next session.
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