Sivaratri Talk -Upasana Yoga (10/03/2013)

In our tradition, our scriptures have given us several spiritual and religious sadhanas for daily practice. Among all these practices there is one practice that is very important, useful, and very efficacious. And that is upasanam or upasana. It is so important and presented in the Vedas as upasana kandam. And one ashrama, the vanaprastha ashrama, is specially designed for practice of Upasana.

            The word “Upasana” literally means “staying or sitting near”. It says staying near or in proximity but does not say staying near what? We are supposed to fill up properly. We should not interpret it as staying near television or staying near Naivedyam; it should be understood as staying near God. Ishwarm Upa Asanam (Asnam means staying or sitting, Up means near, and Ishwaram is God). This Upasana is also known as “Upa vasah” (Vasah means staying). So if the devotee wants to stay near with the Lord on special occasions like Sivaratri day, Vaikunda Ekadasi etc the entire day, he/she will not have time even for eating food.  Therefore by the implied meaning of “Upa vasah” began to mean “not eating food.” Upa vasah means staying near the Lord that we don’t have time for cooking food, or eating, or visiting New Woodlands hotel! We want to spend the whole time with the Lord. This proximity (of staying near the Lord) has two dimensions; one is physical proximity and the other is mental proximity. Physical proximity is doing puja or visiting temples; but more important is mental proximity, by which I mean, the mind dwells on the thoughts of the Lord. Mentally dwelling on the thoughts of the Lord is mental Upvasah Between physical proximity to the Lord and mental proximity to the lord, which is important? Mental proximity is considered more important and efficacious. I could be in the temple and mind may be dwelling on the tasty “panjamritham” mentally! Therefore manasa upavasah is more efficacious than just physical. Even the scriptures declare that among Kaeeka, Vachika, and Manasa activities, mental one is the most powerful. Even in Japa they talk of three types; one is vocal and loud repetition of the mantra (Vachika Japa), the second is whispering repetition (Upanshu Japa), and the third is mental repetition (Manasa Japa). We may consider loud chanting as spending more energy but Sastra says that “Manasa Japa” is Uthamam. What I want to emphasize here is “mental proximity to the Lord” is very important aspect of Upasanam.

            This Upasana, our elders, prescribe as a regular activity. Not just for one day in a year like Sivaratri but a daily Nitya Karma. The daily practice of Sandhya Vandanam is considered to be the most important Upasana. Therefore Ishwara Upasanam is considered to be Nitya Karma where I enjoy the presence of the lord or thoughts of the Lord in my mind. There is this story of a Nayanmar that Swami Dayananda loves; among the 63 Nayanmar there was a Nayanmar who was a great Siva Bhakta by name Pushalar or someone. He built a temple for Siva mentally. The Nayanmar built a temple in the mind while parallelly a local king was building a most expensive temple. The King fixed the time of Kumbhabisekham; Lord Siva appeared in the dream of the king and said his appointment on that day was already booked. The Lord also has a dairy and HE also has bookings and appointments; My bhakta is doing a Kumbhabisekham and that is very important for ME and therefore you change the date. The King’s ego was hurt: I have spent so much money and how can the Lord give importance to someone else. Then the king asked,” Where is this temple?” and the Lord gave him the address, somewhere in the outskirts of Chennai. The king visited that place and found nothing. He found the Nayanar and when the king queried about the temple, the Nayanmar said,” I have built the whole temple in my heart and I have fixed the Kumbhabisekham.” That is when the king realized that Manasam is more powerful and efficacious than Vachikam and Kaeekam. Therefore this manasa upasanam is one of our Nitya Karma. But unfortunately Sandhya Vandanam is now an endangered species; many people who are supposed to do don’t even know the mantras. Sandhya Vandanam can be replaced by Ishwara Upasanam like manasa puja. What is the daily Upasanam that is prescribed by the scriptures? The purpose of Upasanam is to refine ourselves both externally and internally, which is called a samskara karma. There are 41 samskarams in the scriptures and one of them is the Upasanam. The word “samskara: is defined as “dosha appanayanaka purvah guna adharam” – removing the impurities both externally and internally and adding more virtues. As the 16^th chapter of the Bhagawad Gita “Asureem Sampath elimination” “Daiveem Sampath acquisition” is “Samskarah”. According to the scripture “Samskaras” are required and the ultimate stage of spiritual and religious life is “offering ourselves unto the Lord”. Initially we offer various things to the Lord in the form of naivedyam, bananas etc but the ultimate stage (which is the ninth stage of Bhakti) is “Atma Nivedhana Roopa Bhakti”. You would have heard the sloka: sravanam kirtanam visnoh smaranam pada-sevanam arcanam vandanam dasyam sakhyam atma-nivedanam; varieties of expressions of Bhakti and the ultimate stage is the bhakta does not exist separate from Bhagawan. As we saw in Taittiriya Upanishad, Bhagawan-Bhakta division must be removed. Dwitha Bhaki must culminate in Advaitha Bhakti in which the devotee offers himself to the Lord. And if I have to offer myself, I must purify. Like if we are offering flowers in a puja we must clean all the flowers. Not only physical cleaning but also spiritual cleaning like sprinkling “Bhur Bhu Sua Om”. If I am to offer myself to the Lord, I must likewise refine myself. Nitya Upasanam is self-refinement to make myself fit to offer myself to the Lord. Ishwara Sayukyam Ikyam.

            The next question is “How do I know I getting refined or not?” What are the indications of spiritual, religious refinements? In our dharma sastra the indications are given. These Nitya Upsana must refine me and confer me with Asta Atma guna; by following Upasana one will get eight fold virtues. The practice of Upsana is called “Upasana Yoga”. When I do upasanam for worldly benefits it is called “Sakamam” but with objective is to refine myself and offer myself to the lord it is “Nishkama Upasana yoga”. What are the eight virtues we have to develop?

            Daya is the first virtue – consideration for other people or being aware of other’s difficulties. That sensitivity for others is first guna. The second is Skhesma; patience. Whenever I want things done, I can use violent method also. Or by non-violence also. By shouting at people and threatening people, I can get things done. That Sastra says violence is not good; always try to get things done in a pleasant non-violent method. Violent method should only be the last resort. That means I should have lot of patience. You can point a gun at someone, and they will immediately comply. But non-violent methods require patience. Therefore to have daya you must have skhesma. The third is “anasuya” – not having jealousy on seeing the prosperity and progress of others. The fourth is “Shaucham” that is having purity at thought, word, and deed level. My motives are always noble. Then the fifth is “Anaayasah” – enjoying a disposition always which is calm and quiet at physical, mental and vocal levels. The sign of a calm disposition in the mind is a relaxed body language; my words at the vocal level reflects calmness and gentleness. You can request someone to stay away in a calm manner or you can get agitated and yell, “Get away.” Anything we can say gently or rudely. So if I can be gentle in my body language, in my verbal language, and even at thought level; it is called “Anaayasah” or “Calm Disposition” (Ayasa Hinah) and chief benefit is freedom from stress and tension. The sixth virtue is “Karpanyam which is freedom from self-pity. All the time complaining “I am miserable, I am miserable”. Self-pity or low self-image is called “Karpanyam” which is what Arjuna felt in the first chapter of Gita. “I have one qualification and which makes me proud is that I am a bhakta of the Lord.” So freedom from self-pity or “Karpanyam” The seventh one is “Aspruhah” – freedom from greed and attachment. And the eighth and last one is “Mangalam”. The word”mangalam” means a pleasant and cheerful and endearing personality. People enjoy coming near me; just seeing me they will not run away. As I have always said: Some people give happiness wherever they go, some people give happiness when they go away. Meditate on this! So having a pleasant, cheerful, and endearing personality in spite of having problems! Everyone has problems and it does not mean that I have to distribute my misery to everyone around. This is called “mangalam” These eight virtues are called “Astau Atma Gunah” which makes me fit for “Atma rupa nivedhana bhakti”. These eight qualities must be developed through nitya ishwara upasana. Shivaratri day is an auspicious day to take a vow that “I will spend some time daily for Ishwara Upasana”. Not only will it refine, it will also give me physical and mental health. In fact your BP will come down, you can test. Without medicines you can eliminate blood pressure.

            Then the next question is “how do I practice upasana”. Several methods are mentioned in the scriptures. And one method is “manasa puja” which is a beautiful and convenient form of upasana which does not involve the physical body. Doing a puja requires a lot of physical fitness. And for most of us sitting itself is a project! Somehow they sit; most of them say,” Swamiji we don’t want to sit in front of you; so we don’t need a chair.” Then I will tell them,” Please sit in the chair. If you sit on the floor then I will have to lift you up.” …..(laughs) “So at least for my sake, take the chair.” So even a ritualistic puja many of us are not able to do; Sandhya Vandanam is a beautiful daily ritual and if you can do them, it is fine. But if cannot, then you can sit in any posture including an easy chair, we can do a “manasa puja” if you don’t doze off. And many of our Acharyas have written several “manasa puja slokams” on several deities. There is “devi manasa puja” and “Dakshinamurthy manasa puja” but the simplest and most beautiful one is “Shiva Manasa Puja” which is only five slokas.  Rathnai Kalpitham asanam, Himajalai snanam cha divyambaram Naana rathna vibhooshitham mruga madha modhanvitham Chandanam, today being Sivaratri, I wanted to quote this. Jathi champaka bilwa pathra rachitham, pushpamcha deepam Thada Deepam deva dayanithe pasupathe, hrud kalpyatham gruhyatham ll

You can mentally chant this sloka and visualize the Lord taking an asanam and the asanam made up of all precious stones. And you can do that because it is a mind thing!.......(laughs). You visualize the most expensive jewelry and mentally offer each one of them. Souvarne nava rathna Ganda Rachithe, pathre Grutham Payasam Bakshyam pancha vidam Payo dadhiyutham, rambha phalam panakam Saaka namayutham jalam ruchikaram, karpoora gandojwalam Thamboolam manasa maya virachitham Bhakthyo prabho sweekuru ll Chathram Chamarayoryugam vyajanagam, chaa darshakam nirmalam. All these are offered to you by devotion; may you kindly receive. Careful, you should not say: I am offering and may you accept them with devotion…..(laughs) because in Sanskrit the word “bhaktya” comes in the wrong place. We have a booklet and may you learn this simple sloka and then you can do a beautiful manasa puja which is equal to daily sandhya vandanam. Those of you who have taken “sanyasam” from Sandhya Vandanam can replace it with this beautiful manasa puja. After the third sloka the puja is over. The fourth sloka Aathma thwam Girija Mathi sahacharaa, prana sarreram gruham lPooja theey vishayopa bhoga rachana, nidhra samadhi sthithi l Sanchara padayo pradakshina vidhi, , sthothrani sarva giraa lYadyath karma karomi thathad akhilam, shambho thavaradhanam. At the end of the sloka we have to do “etha sthanam prateshtta payami” which means you have to send back the Lord to his original place. Then the question will crop up as to what is the original place of Bhagawan? You may think it is “Kailasa” but what the Sastra says would shock you,” the original place of Shiva is your very own heart only.” Yo veda nihitam guhayam parame vyoman so'snute sarvan kaman saha brahmana vipascita. So after the puja I install the Lord in my own heart. That means my body becomes a temple. I am carrying the Lord with me always. This bhavana is wonderful for throughout life, we have this sense of insecurity. Insecurity is one universal problem. It grows more and more when we are growing old. We want all the relations to be around us all the time. Paka Balam….(laughter) Unfortunately our present day lifestyle is such that all our relatives are scattered all over. Children are everywhere except near me! They are in America, Russia, Japan, Australia and only we oldies are left behind in India. You cannot even summon them for an emergency for flight itself takes 19 hours. By which time I will reach Kailasa itself…(laughter). We don’t have any support and Sastras says,” don’t rely on any local support”. They themselves are not sure of their lives. Therefore what is the best support? HAVE THE LORD IN YOUR HEART. Therefore I am always with Ishwara. Thereafter Kara charana krutham vaak kayajam karmajam vaa l Sravana nayanajam vaa maanasam vaa aparadham l Vihithamavihitham vaa sarva methath Kshamaswa l Jaya Jaya katunabdhe sri Mahadeva Shambho ll For the sake of our survival we often compromise with ethical and moral values. All the values are going away. Even those who wish to follow values complain to me,” O Swamiji, It is easy for you to preach. How does it matter to you?” …(laughter). We are regularly violating and we are regularly doing himsa (everyone has a mosquito bat at home and daily centuries!) All these are pappams and what Prayachitams we are doing? Sandhya Vandanam is a Prayachitam and that also we have renounced. We commit so many pappas and we don’t do Prayachitam it will take me more and more away from God. Therefore daily prayachitam is daily Upasanam, and very important. According to Sastra, Sandhya Vandanam must be done thrice a day. Even if you do once in the early morning, it is a very good practice. If anyone is not doing, you can start from tomorrow itself. Sandhya Vandanam is a wonderful spiritual and religious practice. It is called manasa puja.

            The second method of Upasanam is manasa parayanam. If we cannot do a puja, we can chant any slokam we know. But the chanting is also done mentally. What will happen if we chant vocally? The mouth will be chanting while the mind will be worrying. Because we know it by heart Jagath prabhum deva devam antham purushothamam I Sthuvan nãma sahasréna purusha saththo thithaha and we will be racing at the speed of a train. I know so many people do Bharatanatyam also while chanting! They even keep talking,” When did you come?” We will have conversations all over while chanting! So “manasa puja” is much more efficacious.

            The third one is “manasa japah”. Japa is taking any nama like “Om Namo Shivaya” or “Om Namo Narayanaya” or any word like “Maha Deviya Namah” and any mantra we can choose. We need not wait for initiation. People nowadays have different excuses. And one excuse is,” I have not been initiated.” Bhagawan HIMSELF is the best guru. We can get initiated by Bhagawan and take any nama and mentally chant. This is called Manasa Japah.

            And the fourth one is a very, very important Upasana which is vishwa rupa bhavanam. This is an integral part of all upasanam. In manasa puja parayanam etc we have a deity in front of us in the form of Siva linga or Saligrama or any moorties. But we should remember that these moorties only represent Bhagawan and that Bhagawan is in the form of the entire creation. According to Sastra the first avataram of Bhagawan is in the form of the world itself. This is the most beautiful and wonderful avatara because it is available throughout. If you read the translation of Sri Rudram, it says Lord, you are in the form of Akasha in Chidambaram, you are in the form of Vayu in Kalahasthi, you are in the form of Agni in Tiruvanammalai, you in the form of Jala Lingam in Tirivanni Kaval, you are in the form of Prithivi lingam in Kanchipuram” which means the Lord is the manifestation of five elements, panja bhootas. This Vishwa Rupa Ishwara Dyanam is the most important part of Upasanam. In Vishnu Sarashanam there is sloka is boo padam asura wilayah and in Sri Rudram we have the slokam “Jala Dara Kalasam Lingam Akasha Murthim” indicating the dome of the lingam is the sky. “Nakshtram Puspamalyam” what a beautiful description that all the stars are nothing but flowers on the Shiva Linga. graha ganda kusuma chandra vani arka natram, Kukshit Samudram Hima giri sayanam sapta pathala, vedam vaktram dasa dishi vadanam divya lingam navami. The ultimate lingam is vishwa rupa Ishwara. In the Vishnu Sahasranama the first name of Vishnu is “Vishwam” – the whole universe.  

This meditation is extremely important to eliminate two problems faced by all human beings. Those are “Ahamkara” and “Mamakara”. Ahamkara is claiming ownership of body and mind. And claiming a few things around is Mamakara, my car, my house, my new chapels. One of the worries in any function is “my new chapel should be there when I leave”. Nowadays people do “Chappel Dyanam” for it is very, very costly. That is why I chose “wooden” shoes….(laughter) but nowadays wooden shoes are becoming a fashion. Now I am worried whether I will lose my chapels. So Ahamkara and Mamakara is claiming Bhagawan;s property as mine. According to Sastras Ahamkara and Mamakara is trespassing in God’s territory. And Bhagawan’s is clear: trespassers will be prosecuted. Whoever claims “I” or “mine” is subject to prosecution. And this prosecution is samsara in the form of fear, worry, attachment and most of the negative emotions are born out of Ahamkara and Mamakara. Whenever you are anxious, ask yourself “about what”? Not the auto rickshaw of some person. Because in that auto rickshaw, I don’t have ahamkara and Mamakara. I only get anxious when “I” and “mine” are involved. Those can be weakened only by the Vishwa Rupa Ishwara dhyanam. That is why in the “arathi” there is Hindi prayer tan-man-dhan sub kuch tere. I am not the owner of anything. I am only the user of Bhagawan;s property. The Lord has given me everything for my temporary use. And Bhagawan can take away anything including the closest body without advance notice, not even a sms …..laughter. A person may go to sleep and never wake up. Therefore I have to replace “ownership” idea with “usership.” As Bhagawan is the owner of everything he is the controller of everything. I don’t have control over anything including my body; I don’t know whether my body will be in ICU or You See Me. We don’t know. But I do have a freewill and I can play an “influencing” part. I don’t have a controlling freewill except an influencing freewill. Bhagawan can give me any experience according to HIS will or HIS law of karma. Therefore future is a continuous experience of favourable and unfavourable situations. If at all I can ask Bhagawan, I can only ask,” O God, give me the courage to go through any blessed experience that you want me to go through.” If I am engaged in various projects, I cannot ask for success all the time. Because Bhagawan will not give what I ask but what I deserve according to the law of Karma. I tell Bhagawan that I prefer success but I immediately add; give me the courage to receive any experience that you want me to go through. I use Vishwa Rupa Ishwara Upasana to gain courage and strength. The most important resource we need is life is COURAGE and STRENGTH because life is a mixture of opposites. Sukha Dukha, Labha, labou etc.

      So Manasa puja, manasa parayanam, manasa japa and Vishwa Rupa Dyanam is to get courage and strength to face the day. I will take a sankalpa that I will follow the karma yoga way of life. I have talked about Karma Yoga in 2013 New Year speech,” Pancha Angani”. Mayi sarvani karmani sannyasa adhyatma cetasa nirasih nirmamo bhutva yudhyasva vigata jvarah. I will recapitulate: a)   Keep moksha as primary goal b)      Dedicate every action to the Lord as an offering. Every Karmaphallam comes from the Lord and everything is fair. There is no unfair karmaphallam in the world. Therefore I accept any karmaphallam as Ishwara Prasadam. c)      Keep OFF all the expectation from the mind. Replace expectations with seeking courage and strength to deal with any situation whether it is tallying me or not. d)  Always remember I am not the owner or controller, I am only the user and influencer. e)   Learn to say from your heart, you are willing and confident of going through every experience, any karmaphallam. That is, be equanimous. As given by Lord Krishna, I chant this verse and take a vow that I will follow. Krishna when says it means “you chant” and when we say it will become “Krishna you chant” so we will make a slight change mayi sarvani karmani ,  sannyasyadhyatma-cetasa, nirasir nirmamo bhutva,  yudhyasva vigata-jvarah. Mayi will change to Dwayi and Yudhyasva to Yudheya. I take a resolution that I will follow Karma yoga. If I practice this upasanam regularly, I will have peace of mind, I will have spiritual growth, and at the time of death I will not have puner janma but I will merge with Ishwara. This is very beautiful Nitya Karma and this Ishwara Upasanam every one of us should do. And my request is please follow Upasanam daily and preferably at the time of Sandhya on waking up. Let us have the grace of Lord Shiva for implementing this Upasana Yoga in our daily life.

New Year – 2014: Astanga Yoga

First of all I wish all of you a happy, healthy, and prosperous year 2014. Last year I talked about “yoga” and how different meanings are there for the word. From Veda’s viewpoint the word “yoga” is ikyam or union between Jivatma and Paramatma. According to scriptures both Jivatma and Paramatma are one only and because of ignorance we have created a division between them. Through knowledge when we remove this notational division, it is called Jivatma-Paramatma ikyam which is nothing but “Jnanam”. Therefore the primary meaning of the word yoga is jnanam and this is the goal of every jiva. Therefore we call it Sadhya yogah and yoga the destination.  

To reach his goal the scriptures prescribe several disciplines and all those disciplines are also called yogah (more specifically, Sadhana yoga). There are many yogas talked about and we have seen karma yoga which is one type of sadhana yoga, then upasana yoga and then finally jnana yoga which is systematic and consistent study of scriptures like the Gita for a length of time under the guidance of a competent an Acharya. Following these yogas an aspirant will reach the destination, Sadhya yoga, which is jivatma-paramatma ikyam and this is moksha. There is also one more yoga which is very important called “Astanga yoga” as a Sadhana yoga.

Today I want to briefly dwell on this topic of Astanga yoga and otherwise also called Patanjali yoga. Patanjali Maharishi presented Astanga yoga in his well known work “Patanjali Sutra.” This Astanga yoga has two darshanams, the theoretical part, the yoga darsham and the disciplines called yoga sadhanam. Of the two, we don’t take the yoga darshanam in our tradition because it deviates from the Vedic teaching. Therefore the darshanam part is rejected. Vysya while presenting the Vedic darshanam sets aside the yoga darshanam propounded by Patanjali Maharishi. Though we reject the yoga darshanam part of Yoga sutra we accept the other part, yoga sadhana, which is called Astanga yoga. Astanga yoga is accepted as a sadhana by both Vysacharya and Sankaracharya. This Astanga yoga is very useful and beautiful for all the people. I propose to briefly present the principles of Astanga yoga in today’s lecture.

            Patanjali Maharishi present yoga sutra and defines yoga is “Chitta Vritti Nirodah”. Chitta means mind, vritti means function meaning thoughts proliferation or mental function and Nirodha means disciplining or regulating. Therefore Astanga yoga means a scheme for disciplining mental function. Or in simple language yoga means “mental discipline”. We will know the importance of mental discipline if we know two things regarding the mind. We must know the greatness and powerfulness of an internal organ the mind that we are given. Mind is very important and powerful internal organ. We must know the problems faced by the mind also. Mind is the most powerful instrument we have with which we can accomplish all the goals of life; artha, kama, dharma and moksha. Mind is so powerful that we have to use it in all our activities. We have different sense organs for different activities; to see form we have “eyes” and to hear we don’t use “eyes” rather another sense organ the “ears”. Therefore each sense organ is used for a particular area and not always but the mind has to be employed in all the area. Mind is so primary and powerful. Mind has a unique capacity to convert heaven into hell and hell into heaven. A person with every convenience can feel miserable and a person weighed by so many negative things can feel so wonderful. The quality of our life is dependent on the most powerful organ, the mind. All these are the glories of the mind and you can do an archana which in Veda is hiranyagarba upasana.  

The powerful mind also has another dimension; it has a serious problem in its nature. The mind has the nature of producing/generating continuous thoughts without taking permission from us. Without our will, without our permission, without our involvement the mind which is supposed to be our instrument – we are the owner but the mind acts on its own. The mind must produce thoughts of our choosing but its nature is to produce thoughts continuously. The involuntary thoughts is happening even now….(laughter). I have no way of knowing all the involuntary thoughts that are going in the audience and who all are listening to me now. This generation of “continuous involuntary thoughts” is a very serious problem. And because of which several adverse consequences takes place. When there are involuntary thoughts, the thoughts kidnap the mind. And this means the mind is not available for my use. Even though Bhagawan has given me a wonderful mind, I am deprived of the benefit. Like I buy a car for my use and all the family enjoys it. I want to come to the morning class and the car is not there! The most powerful gift god has given us but these involuntary thoughts encroach upon it. There is a property dispute which we are not even aware of. The dispute is who the owner of the mind? Involuntary thoughts are the encroachers that kidnap the mind and the biggest problem is “I don’t have the mind for my use most of the time.” I do all the actions as an absent minded person as a mindless person or “living in absentia.” I go through the entire life because the mind is not available, as a kartha I am inefficient. In all the actions many mistakes are committed as forgetfulness is a problem. I misplace something and waste hours searching for it – always searching for a pen or book or anything. As a Bogtha I cannot even enjoy a beautiful concert in Marghazi season. I am in the auditorium and “I am here but I do not hear” – such absented mindedness and all due to the involuntary thoughts that the mind produces without my permission. As a kartha I fail, as a bogtha I fail, as a pramatha the learner I fail because I don’t listen. I don’t listen because the mind is not behind it. It is engaged elsewhere and robs me of my efficiency. I experience is often: I announce a class in the morning while one or two will come in the evening and find the hall empty. They will call me saying,” Swamiji there is no one.” Case of announcements not registered…..(laughter).

Involuntary thoughts are the greatest enemies we have not recognized. The second problem when these involuntary thoughts are constantly moving in the mind, several times they produce disturbing emotions also. These involuntary thoughts produce toxic emotions like worry, anxiety, fear, depression, regret, hurt, guilt – all these are generated in the mind by the involuntary thought without my invitation. These come and encroach my mind. Even when I ask them to go, they don’t go away. The problem of emotional disturbance is a serious one. When these toxic emotions stay for a long time, I even lose my health. Loss of efficiency is first problem, loss of health is second adverse effect of involuntary thoughts in the mind. In fact many of our modern diseases are caused by a stressful mind. Stress means involuntary thoughts continuously running in my mind and running very very fast. And in the old age when I retire from most activities I own a mind that I don’t really own. I am stuck with a mind I cannot set away, it comes with me wherever I go. Owned by whom actually? Involuntary thoughts! Thoughts keep piling upon one another and all kinds of problems flare up. I call them “FEDEREL” problem. Fe means fear, De for depression, Re is regret and L is loneliness. I am here and the children are away. Even here L stands alone! I am stuck with a mind with FEDEREL problem in old age. My life becomes miserable because of what? I did not realize the problem and seriousness of “involuntary thoughts”.

Astanga yoga is a scheme by which I learn to be aware of this serious problem and take measures to tackling it. As the very word shows, Astanga yoga consists of eight steps. Yama, Niyama, Asana, Pranayama, Pratyahara, Dharana, Dhyana and Samadhi. The first two are general disciplines and this we have seen in my lecture “The ten commandments of Hindusim”. We will now see the later six disciplines called the yogic meditation. Only when I am aware of this problem of “involuntary thoughts” only then I will be serious to tackling them. These six yogas will let me see whether these involuntary thoughts are the owner of my mind or I am the owner of my mind and capable of giving a job to the mind. Who is the boss? I or the Mind? What are the “Shadaga Yoga”?

The first is “Asanam” in which I sit in a posture deliberately. I sit in a physical posture and am intensely and totally aware of my entire body from top to bottom. I am conscious of the body, I am conscious of the posture, and I consciously relax the body. If I consciously do that it means that my mind is available for that job I have set for it. Incidentally it will help in relaxing also. This is asanam or consciously being seated. The whole principle of Astanga Yoga is deliberate and conscious action.

The second step is “Pranayama” – consciously and slowing breathing and being intensely aware of the breathing process. Conscious and slow inhalation and exhalation and making sure my mind is aware doing this job deliberately. If I do both “Asanam” and “Pranayama” I have used my mind and the “flow of involuntary thoughts” would go away. Because I have taken possession of my mind doing them deliberately; I have snatched my mind from wandering and for a moment free from the terrible and powerful involuntary thoughts. By consciously doing “asanam” and consciously doing “pranayama” I am exerting my ownership of my own mind. And if have succeeded in snatching my mind from involuntary thoughts I have come to “Pratyahara”.

Pratyahara means retrieving, bringing back from the clutches of involuntary thoughts; indicating I am the original owner of the mind but unfortunately the mind had been owned by involuntary thoughts. We try retrieving the mind for 15 minutes by being aware of this serious problems and deciding to take steps.

Having retrieved the mind in the third step, I continue to make sure I own the mind. If I don’t take any step then the involuntary thoughts are waiting there. You will retrieve your mind for a minute and these thoughts would swamp you under. These are most powerful internal enemies. So after retrieving the mind in the third step, I continue to give a job to the mind. I suggest whatever prayer you know in any language by-heart; say it mentally with a lot of deliberation. That you chant mentally with total awareness. It may be a guru strotram, it maybe Gita dhyanam or Shiva manasa puja by being aware of every word; like you are hearing yourself or the words appearing in your mind screen. You don’t have to think of the meaning for this a shabda pradhana manasa parayanam. I should be aware of every word for 5 minutes only. When I am doing that I am only extending my attention; dharanam is attention in a particular area and then I go to the next step “Dhyanam”.

            “Dyanam” is remaining in that thought for a length of time, maybe 5 or 10 minutes. Dharana is attention while Dhyanam is attention span. Many people have attention but they don’t have attention span. In any lecture they will be attentive for ten minutes and after that OUT. They will then look around, exclaim that there is a good crowd and start looking for the face of your friend in the audience! And all this happens without your permission – involuntary thoughts can take your attention away at will.  If one can listen to a 60 minute lecture with attention then that mind has a converging power. Dyanam is these thoughts must continue in the same field.

If Dyanam determines the length of attention the last part is “Samadhi”; which is the depth of attention. How deep and total my attention is? Samadhi means “absorption” and if I can have my mind absorbed in the field I have provided. We are not talking about one hour now; we are only seeing if we can remain aware in one thought for five minutes. What is the yardstick that you are absorbed totally? In that case you will forget the surroundings; I don’t hear anything, I don’t smell anything (in the neighborhood they may be preparing masala vada!). In Samadhi I am ignorant of the world; it is called Savi Kalpaka Samadhi. Not only do I forget surroundings, I forget myself also. This total self-absorption is called Nirvilpaka Samadhi. These six steps put together is called Shadaga Yoga Abyasa. When we practice them we will know whether we are the owners of our mind or the involuntary thoughts own our mind. If we don’t practice this yoga we will never know the seriousness of this problem. And if we don’t diagnose the problem how can we attempt a solution?  

Therefore we go through Asana, Pranayama, Pratyahara, Dharana, Dhyana and Samadhi for ten or fifteen minutes and by that time we will know where we stand; whether I am yogi or a rogi (manasa roga). Manasa roga is called samsara roga. Once you discover this problem then you will need a sankalpa – “Acknowledge I have this problem of involuntary thoughts” and these become masters of my mind. Now I have to get back my property back by defeating these involuntary thoughts. When my war becomes with my involuntary thoughts then I am called an “Astanga Yogi”. This war is not with my family members or any external actor but with my own involuntary thoughts. I take a strong sankalpa that I will live an alert and conscious life. I will watch involuntary thoughts and gradually reduce them and slowly they become weaker. They may not be totally removed but I can achieve an FIR reduction – frequency and intensity of reaction. How frequent are the involuntary thoughts that snatch away the mind and the intensity of these involuntary thoughts that rob my mind and how long these involuntary thoughts lasts; I will be alert and vigilant. My goal would be reduce involuntary thoughts and they must become weaker while I must become stronger and owner of my own mind.

And what are the steps to lead an alert life? The shadaga yoga will help me become a master of my own mind and it is called “Karma Yoga”. Karma yoga not only includes doing the duty, not only includes Ishwara Arpanam, and Prasada Bhavana; Karma yoga includes according to Sankara’s Bashyam Samadhi or Shadaga yoga. This Astanga yoga is integral part of Karma yoga which is spending some time to find out where my mind is and try to lead an alert life. As Krishna says: traigunya-visaya veda, nistraigunyo bhavarjuna, nirdvandvo nitya-sattva-stho, niryoga-ksema atmavan by leading a mindful life. Even in Buddhism they talk about “Right Mindfulness”. Which means whenever you are doing an action, do them consciously. When we do actions consciously we have two-fold advantages: when I am deliberate my efficiency improves (if you place your pen or book consciously then you will not have to search for them), as opposed to doing actions mechanically where involuntary thoughts proliferate. So one method of defeating involuntary thoughts is by being deliberate in one’s actions; before we start the class we chant guru strotram. Now see whether you can chant deliberately, or mouth chants and the mind rants! So the first benefit of deliberate action is we become efficacious and we make fewer and fewer mistakes. Even in giving cheques you will put the year properly or you will still be used to 2013 even this year. Why? When I put the date my mind is not there. I am telling this so that you write your cheques from today on….(laughs). Conscious actions will make me efficient, the second benefit is we win our war against the most powerful enemy which is “involuntary thoughts”. Krishna calls all the conscious actions as “Sattvic” actions. Mechanical chanting or mechanical puja is “Rajasic” karma; so increase your Sattva guna.

For regular chores like walking you don’t have to be deliberately conscious whether it is right or left leg. But in India, you better be conscious you don’t where there is a gutter! Therefore walking must be yoga in India! Especially if you are old, or you will land up in a hospital with a fracture. Because of what? Actions are mechanical. You place your feet after purifying them with your Dhristi, then even walking becomes a yoga. But if you are doing a regular chore and acting mechanically then have a programme for your mind otherwise involuntary thoughts will take over. Learn some slokas and repeat. The sloka which have to chant consciously, recently learnt sloka. If you know Vishnu Shastra Namam then you don’t chant that; then it becomes mechanical and involuntary thoughts will be generated. So have some conscious action by learning new slokas. By repeating them constantly and with alertness, you will learn them by-heart. Once they also become mechanical, learn a new set of slokas. You must have some conscious action ready for utilization to defeat the involuntary thoughts. Ultimately a successful person is one who is the owner of this own mind. So what is Astanga Yoga? It is winning the property dispute after several years; it is the longest war more than 30 years in a land dispute and involving Indian courts. My property is my own mind. And I can accomplish all the goals like Artha, Kama, Dharma and Moksha with such a mind.

Once I reduce involuntary thoughts I gain freedom from worrying habits. New Year starts and it is called Janworry …..(laughs). Freedom from habitual worry, habitual anxiety, habitual depression; all these problems are because of mechanical life. And we try to solve these problems by prayers and these prayers are done mechanically! The problem is mechanical and we add to the problem by Temple visit, mechanical. Puja, mechanical. Vedantic meditation, mechanical. Break mechanicalness and own your mind. This is a fantastic scheme presented by Patanjali Maharishi through the Shadaga yogah. Which I consider very important during the New Year by waging war with involuntary thoughts

I will briefly mention the first two steps Yama and Niyama which is a set of rules given in the form of Ten Commandments. I have dealt with them earlier; I will briefly list out the ten values that have to be observed if you are a serious spiritual seeker. For success both shadaga yoga and these two together is extremely important. Yama is observance of five values: Ahimsa (non-violence), Satyam (truthfulness), Asteyam (not owning any illegitimate property), Brahmacharyam (following the sexual morality), and Aparigraha (not possessing too much, which is a simple life). The five Niyamas are: Shoucham (cleanliness in word and deed), Santosha (contentment), Tapas (moderation), Svadhyaya (Scriptural Study), and Ishwarapranidanam (Surrender to the Lord). These ten values along with Shadaga yoga will give spiritual success. With this I conclude and wish you success in your war against involuntary thoughts in 2014.

New Year: 2013 – What is yoga?

Now a days I see a Sanskrit word used widely and that word is “yoga”. This word is getting popular not only in India but all over the world. The newspapers and magazines carry a lot of articles on “yoga”. So I thought of talking about yoga as discussed in our traditional scriptures. The word yoga is taken from the Sanskrit root ‘yuj” which means to unite, to combine, to come together etc therefore the word “yoga” means union, merger. So the question arises: union between what and what? The scriptures point out it is the union between the jivatma, the individual self and paramatma, the universal self. So it means jivatma-paramatma ikyam. The scripture point out that this union between the individual self and universal self is the goal of a human life – parama purushartha or mokshah. The scripture elaborate on this union but strangely it points out in the end that this union is not possible. Having presenting this union as the goal initially, the scripture then negates that the union is never possible. Why it is not possible? Because jivatma and paramatma are not two different things, only two different things can be joined when they are away (different and away things can be joined). The scriptures later reveal that jivatma and paramatma are two words and not two different things that are away from each other. Jivatma is paramatma and paramatma is jivatma. Then the question will naturally come: If jivatma and paramatma are one at the same and union is not possible then why should scriptures introduce “yoga” as a goal? Then the scriptures themselves reveal the yoga is in fact a “veyogah”. What we really require is not yoga but “veyogah” or separation. Separation from the our delusion or mohah. What delusion? The misconception that jivatma and paramatma are different. This is our misconception: J is here and P is there, J is weak and P is omnipotent and that we have to travel and travel and ultimately merge with the Lord. This is pucca delusion and what is required is to remove this delusion. I gain knowledge to remove this delusion; I come to realize that J and P are one and the same. Therefore yoga is bheda-brahma veyogah. As Lord Krishna is the sixth chapter says that yogah means separation from our delusion.

Words over a period of time suffer from their original meaning. Brihaspathi in Sanskrit means a very intelligent person, sadly it is now reduced to mean a fool. Similarly the word “yoga” means moksha, ikyam and veyogah. It means the essence of the microcosm is the same as the macrocosm, the essence of god is the same as the individual, the jivatma and paramatma are essentially the same. Yoga therefore means the removal of this delusion that we are different from the supreme. The scripture points out that every human being must discover this moksha. Only then the fundamental and universal quest, and urge of every human being will end. Every human being has three fundamental quests which is natural to every thinking human: Who am I? Why am I here? And What am I here for? – what is the meaning of life? Often arises in the mind especially when we confront problems. But if you are having New Year parties then these questions will be suppressed. But there is no escaping this question in one’s life. As we grow older and older and our external activities come down this feeble question – what is the meaning of life?- becomes bigger and bigger. Much like the ticking of the clock; in the day you don’t hear it but in the night if you are not able to sleep then ticks get louder and louder. This question is the subtlest form of samsara. This quest will come to an end only when I discover the truth through “yogah”. This is the primary goal of every human being which in Sanskrit is called “Sadhya yogah” (the ultimate goal). Of course there are other goals in life but they are subservient to this primary quest.

The scriptures themselves talk of accomplishing this ultimate goal, Sadhya yogah. Since we have a short life and so many distractions, how to design life in such a way that before death I will hit at the bull’s eye. The scripture prescribe three designs as a means, as a method, as path to attain that path: the three sadhana (means to attain to the sadhya, the end), karma yoga, Upasana yoga, and jnana yoga. These three are called “gaunya yoga” or secondary yoga for they lead one to the primary yoga of sadhya yoga (removing the delusion). Of the three, Karma yoga is the most important for it lays the foundation for the other two. In the Bhagavat Gita Lord Krishna talks about all three yoga – karma, upasan, and jnana elaborately. In fact Karma yoga is so important that Krishna devotes one chapter (3^rd chapter) to its teaching. After elaborately it in one chapter HE condenses it in one beautiful cryptic verse, 30 verse chp. 3: Mayi sarvani karmani sannyasa adhyatma cetasa nirasih nirmamo bhutva yudhyasva vigata jvarah. This is a very important sloka of the entire Bhagavat Gita in which Krishna presents five parts of yoga. It is nice to remember this exhortation of Krishna on the New Year day so that we can benefit by implementing it throughout the year.

This is instruction given by Krishna on New Year day. May you keep moksha as your primary goal of life. You may have any number of family, corporate goals but may you keep moksha as your primary and ultimate goal or destination. Which is Jivatma- Paramatma Ikyam or bheda-brahma veyogah or freedom from delusion. This is the stage when a human being becomes a spiritual being. Don’t be a materialistic person then life becomes a greater and greater burden. The old age will be a greater burden and so may you balance material goals with spiritual by having moksha as your primary goal. Then one becomes a spiritual seeker. Spiritual as many meaning and don’t confuse it with New Year spirits! People attend so many parties and so many spirit and so take it in the right spirit. Adyatma cetesa bhava, instruction number one.

Instruction two is Mayi sarvani karmani sannyasa. May you dedicate all your actions as an offering to the Lord. Whether it is small or big action, sacred or secular action, dedicate all your actions throughout the day and throughout life, convert it into worship by dedicating all your actions as an offering to the Lord. Ishara Arpanam Karma Karu. How do you dedicate your actions?  This is my invoking the relationship between you and god in the context of every karma. This we will understand if we understand the concept of God in our scriptures. In our scriptures God is not a person sitting beyond the clouds, God is defined as invisible, all pervading intelligent principle of the entire universe, it is the intelligent complex set of laws that maintain the creation and maintenance of the universe in rhythm and harmony. This infinite number of laws works both at the macrocosm and the microcosm. This works perfectly due to which the universe functions as one organism. This law that works at the cosmic level also works at the action-reaction levels of the microcosm – the law of karma. Karma includes both the physical laws and moral laws which are called dharma. These special laws govern the actions of the individual, both the karma and karmaphallam at the physical and moral level. The scientists study only the physical laws and not the moral laws. The cosmic laws and special law of karma, who is Bhagawan, who is invisible and all pervading. So each time I do a action (karma) it will produce a result karmaphallam which is determined by the laws of karma. When we say laws of karma gives the result, we change the laws to “Lord”. For every action the Lord presiding over the laws of karma will give the result. The Bhagawan is karmaphalla datta. I am a karma kartha while God is karmaphalla datta. Shorten it I am kartha and God is Datta and so my relation to God is kartha-Datta sambandamah. Doer-giver relationship. This relation is activated is when I am involved in action. I keep on doing actions and God keeps on giving results. Generally we ignore this fact caught in karma but a karma yogi is one who remembers this kartha-datta sambandam. I am constantly aware of the doer-giver relationship and the invocation or dedication of my actions is called Ishwara Arpanam Bhavana. This is instruction two: invoke the relation between you and god.

The third instruction is nirasih nirmamo. Asih means expectation with regard to future, expectation to karmaphallam. Expectation is natural to every human being. Expectation is useful when you are planning an action. Suppose if you plan today’s programme, puja to begin at 6:30 and my talk to end at 8:15 (I keep a clock) and you expect to leave this place. All our planning are based on expectation, it is useful at the planning stage. Krishna says but when the action happens set aside as your expectation, nirasih. Never keep any expectation or don’t dwell on the expectation. Dwelling has many disadvantages and adverse fallout. The first disadvantage is that the mind gets preoccupied with the expectation and not available in the present for the task at hand. If you keep on watching your watch, maybe that is why it is called watch, you don’t listen. And therefore dwelling on expectation makes the pre-occupied mind lose its efficiency, a recipe for the wrong result. Therefore expectations are obstacles during the implementation of plans, not at the planning stage. Don’t think of the result. The second disadvantage of keeping the expectation in the mind all the time, we are looking at the world, people, event and we are looking with spectacles. Most of the people and event will not measure up to our expectation. So if I look at the world, event, people through the goggles of expectation I will develop a negative attitude to creation. A pessimistic and cynical attitude and we will conclude that everyone is selfish. Our judgment will be everyone is ungrateful. We make a list of what we give to others and then complain that they don’t reciprocate. Later we will extend it to Bhagawan also. We have divided the world into good or bad, I am good always (laughter) and therefore I should never suffer. We have our own expectation and we find that god is not doing it. Even God comes down in face of our expectation. We conclude that God is unfair and unjust and so even question whether god really exists. The way our politicians and scamsters thrive, we will become negative about everything – cynical and pessimistic and our lives will become miserable. Therefore Krishna says don’t have expectation to the result for it is jiva shristi, you are living in private world. Remove the expectation and Learn to live without labeling is God shristi.

The forth instruction is nirmamo. Each instruction is profound worth mediating for the rest of the life. It means “without claiming ownership with regard to anything in creation.” Our scriptures says that everything belongs to Bhagawan (remember not someone sitting above the clouds but an intelligent all pervading invisible principle) and I as an individual does not own anything. Legally for the sake of convenience we can own a flat, first they have ownership then they become flat! At the end of the class you can claim your chappal; ownership is only for convenience of transaction. It is very superficial for Vedanta says that don’t take ownership seriously.  May you remember that you don’t own anything but use them temporarily as gifts from the Lord.  I am a user of few things gifted by the Lord according to the law of karma. I must use these gifts in the pursuance of my primary goal, I should never try to cling to anything for it can be snatched anytime including our closest and most valuable possession, our body. The god does not ask our permission before snuffing out life. He takes it without giving advance notice or appointment. He gives and He takes, not on a whim or fancy but the law of karma. Remember this and only then you will have detachment. Ownership and attachment are synonymous and these will create a lot of problems. Because I don’t own anything I don’t have control over anything – ownership and controllership are two sides of the same coin. Therefore “nirmamo” means I don’t own anything and hence no control over anything including my own body. It should not make us fatalistic, that everything is decided by god and what should I do? We do have “freewill” – we don’t have controlling freewill but we have contributing freewill. We contribute our share to the totality. I am humble that outcome or result is something I cannot control. Remembering this fact is nirmamo (my freewill is only contributory). You go to gym every day and that’s your contribution. How it will be or will it be there after five years is Bhagawan’s edict. So keep on contributing keeping expectations out.

The fifth instruction is the most powerful and most difficult is vigata jvarah. Jvarah literally means fever. Here Krishna talks about mental fever. Mental fever is the anxiety over the result of the action that I am undertaking or going to undertake. The anxiety is jvarah and it is very very natural. Krishna advises: may you neutralize this anxiety for it reduces one’s efficiency. Actually if you follow the first four instructions properly anxiety will be less only. And we can neutralize this further by an appropriate prayer. Most people pray but the prayers are inappropriate. General prayer is: O, God give me success. This is an inappropriate prayer for I will not get what I pray for, I will only get what I deserve from the law of Karma. So praying for success is a wrong kind of prayer. Secondly in the vision of the Lord, there is no success but only karmaphallam. In creation only karmaphallam exists, success and failure are our private, our own judgement. It is our subjective interpretation, objectively there is nothing called success or failure. In God’s dictionary there is nothing called success or failure, and if you pray for success HE will not understand for these are jiva shristi. Then one may ask: Can I ask for karmaphallam? I don’t ask for success but how about asking for karmaphallam? It is also an inappropriate prayer for it is HIS job to give karmaphallam. If He keeps karmaphallam to himself HE will not have place to keep. The entire Vaikundam will be stacked. Therefoe HE will distribute and HE will disburse karmaphallam. So asking for success or karmaphallam is an inappropriate prayer, the only proper prayer is: give me courage. It is important to make these two important statements and mean them. First is, I am willing to undergo any karmaphallam that you want me to go through cheerfully according to the law of karma. Second, I am confident to go through any karmaphallam that you made me to go through. I must mean these statement not at the level of lip service but from the innermost heart. This requires a lot of courage especially in duress circumstances. I pray for that courage and according to scripture having that courage is success. That I am willing to go through and I am confident of facing any situation in front of me. How long? As long as I am tossed around by karmaphallam. And when I build this courage in the mind, my anxiety will come down. Anxiety is inversely proportional to courage – lesser the courage greater the anxiety and greater the courage lesser the anxiety. Therefore I develop courage in the mind before the result comes. Once karmaphallam comes then this courage will be converted into mental strength to face the result. It is courage before result and mental strength after the result comes in. A karma yogi does not have anxiety, there is always samatvam and no anxiety. There is no labeling of the creation. I don’t say life is terrible, I have a wonderful smile or a neutral attitude. This is equanimity or poise.

So summarize these are the five principles:

a)      Keep moksha as primary goal

b)      Dedicate every action to the Lord by invoking doer-giver relationship

c)      Keep OFF all the expectation from the mind

d)     I am not the owner or controller, I am only the user and contributor

e)      Learn to say from your heart, you are willing and confident of going through every experience, any karmaphallam.

If these five injuctions are followed that one is called a karma yogi. Upasana yoga is mental rehearsal of karma yoga. Upasana means mentally being in the presence of the Lord, lord in any form we like. In the prayer I recollect all the five principles and resolve that I will implement them throughout the day. O, God I seek your grace to follow. Above all I seek courage from you so that I am ready to face any blessed thing. This courageous life I invoke in upasana (remaining mentally near the lord).  If I practice karma yoga and upasana yoga then I am ready for jnana yoga which is nothing but a spiritual education programme under the guidance of a guru. Then my delusion goes away, jivatma-paramatma delusion goes away. J-P ikayam. Sadhana yoga will lead to sadhya yoga which is the ultimate success of life. It is this success we seek on this auspicious New Year day. With this I conclude my talk and wish you all a happy, healthy, prosperous, yogic new year 2013. 

Gurupurnima Talk - 2012 (03/07/12)

Sometime back a person approached me for an interview. He is a senior and retired person having associations with many spiritual organizations. He is widely read and interacts with a lot of Mahatmas. He is writing a book on spirituality and as part of that book interviewed me. One of the topics he was dealing was “nature and process of spiritual enlightenment”. I had a brief conversation and this thought occupied my mind for a long time. I consider the topic very significant and important. I have been exploring this topic and will be the theme of today’s talk. This topic has been thoroughly analyzed and studied in our scriptures: Nature and process of spiritual enlightenment. I shall deal with it as I have studied and understood from the study of scriptures as taught by my guru Swami Dayananda. This topic can be approached by different people in different ways. I am presenting this based on my guru’s teaching.

            Swami Dayananda would warn his students against using mystic words. Swamiji would say that the field of spirituality is full of mystic words that are mysterious in nature. The words are vague in meaning besides being subjective. The meaning would differ from people to people. This has helped me a lot and hence I am sharing.

            Mystic words cannot be used to communicate ideas clearly. No doubt such words are often attractive, awe-inspiring, reverential generating, and hallow creating – but mystic words certainly cannot communicate. There it is in the interest of a teacher and student of spirituality to avoid mystic words. That’s the first lesson of spirituality: change your vocabulary. Shed all the mystic words and replace them with words a common man can understand. This is very important and beneficial as we shall see.

            Bearing this mind let us examine the title of today’s talk: Nature and process of spiritual enlightenment. The first point is the words “spiritual enlightenment” are mystic words. There is problem starting itself! If we spoke on this topic for 20 minutes or 25 years even then we will not know what this blessed “spiritual enlightenment” is. So we must change these two words and replace something that gives clarity. In the context of spirituality our scriptures clearly says that ignorance is our problem and knowledge is the solution. They use the word “Ajnanam” and “Jnanam” and let us use their English counterparts “Ignorance” and “Knowledge”. So we replace “enlightenment” which is a mystic word with “knowledge”. 50% of our problem is solved! Avoid using words like “realization” or “awakening” (perhaps it has got a meaning from people sleeping in spiritual classes!).

            How can we replace the word “spiritual”? It may also have different meanings. Good if you don’t understand because there are varieties of spirits. In our tradition the word “spiritual” is used to convey the message of Vedanta. “Spiritual” therefore refers to the teaching of Vedanta or Upanishads. Therefore “spiritual enlightenment” is nothing but “knowledge of Vedanta teaching”.

            This leads us to the central message of the Vedanta. During Gurupurnima I am mostly addressing my students. Therefore I am taking a lot of things for granted. The message of Vedanta is “Brahma Satyam, Jagat Mithya (BSJM) ” and “Jivah aham Brahmiva (JAB).” Brahman is the absolute reality and world is conditional reality. Jiva, which is me, is none other than Brahman. The clear knowledge of this teaching and clear understanding of the teaching is called “spiritual enlightenment”. So we have made a frightening and intimidating word more clear.

            The understanding of “BSJM” is paroksha jnanam. And the knowledge of “JAB” is aparoksha jnanam. Both are nothing but jnanam only. Both lead to knowledge only. But if you ascribe “knowledge” to paroksha jnanam and realization to aparoksha jnanam, we will get into a knot. Why? The moment we use “realization” we have entered into vagueness, confusion, and subjectivity.

            Paroksha Jnanam (PJ) is the knowledge of the teaching, while Aparoksha Jnanam (AP) is the knowledge that Brahman is myself. If both are jnanam, why divide them? In PJ I am not talking where I stand. When we refer to ourselves that we say ‘aparokha’. Even scriptures have a word for self-confusion as “aparoksha brahma”. Therefore PJ and AJ differentiates the inclusion or exclusion of myself. Take for an instance a person going to Kailas Mano Sarovar. The group has reached the place and the leader says: I am going to divide the group in two – group A and group B. Group A will do Kailasa Parikrama today and group- B will do Mano Sarovar Parikrama today. Tomorrow it will be reverse. After listening to the leader every member knows that group –A will do Kailasa Parikrama and Group – B Mano Sarovar Parikrama. I ask one member,” What Parikrama will you do today?” The member will most likely answer,” Because the leader has not yet divided the group, I don’t know to which group I will belong. But I have a clear paroksha jnanam that group-A will do Kailasa Parikrama today and Group – B Mano Sarovar Parikrama. But once the leader divides the group and if the members belongs to Group –A he will say,” I am doing Kailasa Parikrama today.”  The second situation in which my status is very clear is called “Aparoksha Jnanam”

            There “Brahma Satyam, Jagat Mithya” is Paroksha Jnanam and “Jivah Aham Brahmiva” is Aparoksha Jnanam which is liberating knowledge. Clearing understanding of PJ and AJ is “spiritual enlightenment”. We have analyzed a bombastic mystic word “spiritual enlightenment” to the ground. So there is a lot more clarity. This Knowledge – both PJ and AJ – is the nature of spiritual enlightenment.

            The next aspect is “what is the process of spiritual enlightenment”? The process can be clearly understood if you avoid mystic words. First we will replace the world “spiritual enlightenment” with simpler word “knowledge”. So the question becomes,” What is the process of knowledge?” We are now on the ground and not floating in the air because “knowledge (k)” we all understand.

            Vedas have exhaustively studied how “k” takes place. Be it spiritual knowledge or knowledge of any subject in the world, the process is the same. Knowledge takes place when pramatha (the knower), premeyam (the object to be known) and pramanam (the instrument through which we know) come together, Then knowledge takes place and that is called “prema”.

            So pramatha, premeyam, pramanam alightment leads to the rise of knowledge which is nothing but a thought modification in the mind (anthakaranam vritti parinama). When I look at the wall, I am the pramatha, my eyes are the pramanam, wall is the premeyam and then what happens? A relevant thought modification takes place and I know that there is a “wall” there. Similarly if we want to know the sound, the pramanam is the ears. Therefore the law of knowledge is pramatha (subject)+ premeyam (object)+ pramanam (instrument) alignment generates thought modification for knowledge to take place. The Sastas declare that depending on what you want to know, you must use appropriate and relevant pramanam. To see a “wall” you need eyes, to listen to this lecture you need ears. To summarize, knowledge takes place when pramatha, premeyam, and pramanam together. This same principle holds true in spiritual field also.

            In other field you are studying worldly objects, here we are dealing with Brahman or Athma. And fortunately where is Brahman or Atman? It is everywhere. “I” am the pramatha (spiritual seeker), Brahman is the premeyam (object of my pursuit) and I should use a relevant pramanam. The Sastras talk about a varieties of pramanams for varieties of premeyam. The scriptures what pramanam to use to gain Vedanta knowledge as Mundakopanishad says: Go to a guru. Swami Dayananda even avoids the word guru and instead uses “teacher”. In “guru” the problem people may think that he is someone who will touch my head or base of my spine or place a feet on my chest and I will get liberated. Sadly “guru” has become a mystic word. Instead “teacher” makes it clear. Therefore,” I am a teacher and you are all my students. The word “teacher” indicates what is my role. I teach. As Mundakopanishad observes: A guru is one who will systematically, properly, verbally communicate the teaching. Verbal communication is one of the pramanams is called “Shabda Pramanam” (Vedanta Vakya Pramanam). Hence in spiritual knowledge the relevant pramanam is “guru-prayukta, vedavita vakyam pramanam” – the words coming out of the mouth of an Acharya is the pramnam, the instrument or medium for knowledge to take place. This systematic teaching – where the pramatha, premeyam, and verbal communication come together – results in Paroksha Jnanam and Aparoksha Jnanam. This same idea is conveyed in the Katho Upanishad. Yama Dharmaraja tells Nachiketas how “spiritual enlightenment” takes place. It takes place when it is properly and verbally communicated by a teacher avoiding mystic words. The guru communicates, total knowledge will take place.

            The next question is: Can we get both Paroksha Jnanam (PJ) and Aparoksha Jnanam (AJ) though teaching? Vidyaranya says in Pachadesi: Parosksha Jnanam will come from a desika (guru or teacher). Aparoksha Jnanam will also come from a desika. Both will come to a spiritual aspirant with teaching as prama and thought modifications where pramatha, premeyam, and pramanam come together. Pramanam is nothing but systematic teaching, verbal communication. Then liberating knowledge will come. To summarize, what then is “spiritual enlightenment”? According to us it is the clear understanding of PJ and AJ from a guru’s verbal communication on “Brahma Satyam, Jagat Mithya” and “Jivah Aham Brahmiva”.

            If this teaching gives liberation, what then is the role of meditation is the next question. If the teaching gives PJ and AJ why is meditation required. All these ideas are analyzed in the scriptures and none of these ideas are mine. I am only borrowing them. In scriptures, meditation is not a pramanam, therefore it cannot produce any knowledge. We can see from this example: Suppose I want to attend the Sarada puja of Sringeri Acharya (who is incidentally staying in Chennai now) and he does not know where the puja is taking place. He has “address” ignorance and he wants “address knowledge”. If meditation is a pramanam, he will close his eyes and says “Sringeri, sringeri; Acharya, acharya…..Chaturmasya, chatuurmasya, puja, puja” for 45 minutes. He will not get any knowledge but some punyam as all these are sanctified words. Sringeri is a thirta sthanam and Acharya is a Mahaan. The point is meditation cannot give knowledge and therefore not a pramanam.

            The next question is what is the purpose of meditation if it does not give knowledge? There are two-fold purposes. Before Vedanta teaching “meditation” is practiced for refining the mind. It is used for mind purification. In Bhagawat Gita, chapter six we have seen. After gaining knowledge from a guru (both PJ and AJ) again “meditation” is useful. It is important to mention to avoid using mystic words like Deeksha or Upadesha (instead it is simply a teacher’s teaching or a guru). Based on the teaching the disciple has to change his/her worldview. Before knowledge I was ignorant and I had one narrow worldview. After in the light of a guru’s teaching my worldview becomes as broad as said in the scriptures. This “transformation” in worldview is a paradigm shift to be affected. It is here meditation plays an important role. It is nothing but dwelling on the teaching continuously. How do you know “transformation” in worldview is taking place? Previously I would say,” I have only knowledge and I am not yet liberated.” And when the worldview is shifted, I declare: I have knowledge and therefore I am ever liberated. It is small change of dropping “only” before knowledge for it is insulting to knowledge but in terms of worldview I realize I am Brahman. This takes time and meditation is required for changing one’s perspectives.

            I will clarify it with an example. Suppose I want to talk about Madras summer. Temperature can be measured in two ways, either Celsius or Fahrenheit. We also know how to convert from one scale to the other: divide by 9/5 and add 32 from C to F.  100 C is 212 F. But if I am used to only one scale (I have to use only one scale) then my mind has an idea. Say, I am used to Celsius case. I know from experience how 37 degrees would be, 38 would be miserable, 39 intolerable, and at 40 I am saying ‘shu shu” all the time. The other scale I know but I don’t use. Suppose if someone says,” Swamiji it went to 105 Fahrenheit nothing registers in my mind.” Because my mind is not used to Fahrenheit scale. I have to mentally convert it to Celsius and then my mind understands. Same thing with dollars. $2 does not convey anything to me but if you say Rs.110 I understand. Similarly thing happens in Vedanta learning. Between pre-teaching and post-teaching there is a huge paradigm shift. Meditation will not give either Paroksha Jnanam or Aparoksha Jnanam.  Even as I receive the teaching I must change my worldview for “I have only knowledge but I am not yet liberated” to “I have a clear understanding the teaching (Brahma Satyam, Jagat Mithya and Aham Brahmiva Na Parah) and I am ever liberated.”

            So my answer to the person who interviewed me and he only gave me ten minutes! I said something and managed. Then I thought I must dwell on the topic: The nature and process of spiritual enlightenment. I realized that of proper communication of the teaching the guru must avoid mystic words. He makes Paroksha Jnanam and Aparoksha Jnanam as clear understanding such that when the disciple dwells on the teaching they will change their limited worldview to Vedantic worldview. With this I conclude my talk.

            On this auspicious Gurupurnima day let us pray to all the non-mystic guru parampara who make the teaching down to earth and bring it to the level of a lay person to grasp.  

New Year: 2002 – How to handle sorrow?

A Sanskrit verse says, “May I enjoy happiness all the time, May I not face unhappiness at any time.” These two desires – seeking happiness and avoiding unhappiness – are basic and universal and are common to all human beings.

            How can we fulfill these desires? The verse itself provides the answer – through jnanam or knowledge. This may come as a surprise to us because we are unlikely to think that knowledge is the method to gain happiness and avoid sorrow. To add to our surprise, the verse further says that these two desires can be fulfilled only through jnanam.

            What is the knowledge gaining by which we can be happy all the time? First we must understand clearly what is happiness and unhappiness. Happiness can be defined as going through any experience that we would like to go through. In other words a wanted experience is happiness. Sorrow is going through experience you want to avoid in life; an unwanted experience.

            It follows that all pleasant experiences are wanted experiences since we want to go through them and therefore happiness. All unwanted or unpleasant or painful experiences are those we wish to avoid and therefore sorrow. Or so we think. Let us pause and analyze a little. Can there be a painful experience that we would like to go through? If we think a little, we will find that there are innumerable examples to show that people love to go through painful experiences and it is happiness for them. Take for instance, mountain climbing. Can there be anything more painful than wearing layers of clothing, carrying a heavy oxygen cylinder and other equipment and trudging through miles of snow in freezing weather for days and living on canned food? Ask any mountaineer and he will tell you that there cannot be a better definition of happiness. Mountain climbers are not content with scaling small hillocks. They seek to conquer the tallest of the mountains. Setting foot on the Everest is a mountaineer’s dream. Not only the tallest they aspire to scale the toughest peaks. Mountain climbing is full of pain and tension. It is highly risky. Human error like a misstep or an avalanche can cause death to the mountaineer. Notwithstanding all the hardships, pitfalls, and risks, mountaineers enjoy the suffering. It is a wanted experience and so becomes happiness.

            Motherhood is a painful experience involving discomfort during pregnancy, intense pain in the form of delivery and numerous hardships in bringing up a child. Yet most women want to become wives and mothers because it is a wanted experience. Similarly men want to become husbands and fathers whatever be the hassles involved. Thus an experience that we want to go through, even if it be painful, comes under the category of happiness.

            Similarly an experience that we do not wish to go through, be it pleasant or painful, is sorrow. The question arises – Can there be a pleasant experience that we wish to avoid? A householder facing financial difficulties had to sell his car and other possessions. His affluent father-in-law offers to help but the householder refused. The situation gets worse, the father-in-law persists and after a lot of persuasion, the help is taken. The householder regains all the comforts including his car. This is a pleasant experience as he has got back all this once pledged possessions. But he is unhappy as he feels it is improper to accept help from in-laws.

            Therefore in our lives, we are all the time struggling to get wanted experiences (pleasant or painful) and avoid unwanted experiences (pleasant or painful). In spite of all our struggles using effort and even taking recourse to astrology, palmistry, vaastu; we miserably fail. Even though we put in our best efforts, many unwanted experiences impinge upon us and however hard we try, wanted experiences continue to elude us.

            When we are so frustrated and ready to throw up our hands in despair, the scriptures come to our rescue. The scriptures ask us to do some introspection. We must first realize that we are not in a position to control our experiences because they depend on many factors over which we have little or no control. The scriptures pose a question to us – who has classified the experiences we undergo as wanted or unwanted? Does this classification come along with the experience or is it our classification? The truth is only the experience comes – labeling it as wanted or unwanted is purely our creation and therefore within our control. So the scriptures advise us: the experience we face may not be under our control; so why can’t we better handle which is entirely within our control. All our miseries would vanish if we avoid wanted-unwanted classification!

            How can we better handle the wanted-unwanted classification? This is an extremely important issue since this classification that decides whether we are happy or unhappy. Again the scriptures come to our rescue. When we look at the universe, we will definitely note one aspect if we are intelligent. The entire universe is an orderly and harmonious creation meaning everything happens perfectly according to universal laws. Nothing is odd or chaotic. Even a giant meteor crashing into earth and leaving a huge crater is part of this universal order. Everything in this universe, from the smallest microbe to the gigantic sun, has its role to play to make this marvelous creation.

            Consider the most experience of childbirth. When the baby is in the mother’s womb, it gets exactly the food it needs from the mother through a beautiful, naturally well-designed connection called the umbilical cord. After the baby emerges from the mother’s womb, the umbilical cord is snapped. The baby has delicate health to regular food, food that adults consume. At that time the mother secretes milk – at the right time and right temperature containing the right nutrition and all the antibodies the baby needs to fight the diseases. It is a biochemical marvel and this happens naturally without human intervention.

            Once we realize this truth and recognize that the entire universe is orderly and well-designed by an omniscient and omnipotent Lord, we have to extend this understanding a little further. All experiences of all people at all times are an integral part of the universe. There are no exceptions. After a good spell of rain, we may be walking down the road when a passing vehicle going over a puddle of water may splash water over us making our clothes wet and dirty. No experiences, not even the unpleasant experience of a splash is redundant because it is part of wonderfully designed universe. Every experience in the world is perfectly in order. If we consider and classify any experience as redundant or unwanted, then it only shows our emotional immaturity and intellectual arrogance. With our puny intellects we are challenging the omnipotence and omniscience of the Lord by questioning the validity and necessity of an experience.

            Once we are established in the knowledge of the orderliness of the creation, we should take a vow: ‘I will never classify any experience as unwanted. I will remove the ‘unwanted’ label from my mind and dictionary. I will consider every experience as a wanted experience especially designed by the Lord for me just like mother’s milk designed by me when I was an infant. It is the same Lord who takes care of my growth.” Every experience that we go through is a wanted experience designed by the universal mother called God. It is needed for our spiritual nourishment and growth. When a child is born, the father has to take the child to the mother and request her to feed the baby. When the mother gives milk; the father chants a prayer (Brihadaranyaka Upanishad): O Lord, you are the universal mother, Saraswati. Feed and nourish the spiritual personality of the child through the milk of experiences. Let the child learn through every experience without labeling it as wanted or unwanted. Let the child grow with your blessings.” When the child grows up it must learn to appreciate every experience as coming from the Lord for its spiritual growth and dished out by the mother, Saraswati. During Sandhya Vandanam, we chant a mantra that says,” O Lord, you are the universal mother. Just as my mother nourished me with the appropriate food at the appropriate time, you should also nourish me through the food of experience.”

            With this understanding, we will learn not to label painful experiences as unwanted, we will instead start to appreciate them as a spiritual sadhana. Krishna says in the Bhagavad Gita (13.8) that we have to necessarily go through ‘old age, sickness, and pain’. These are not unwanted experiences. Brihadaranyaka Upanishad devotes an entire section of a chapter (5.11) encouraging us to look upon diseases as sadhana or tapas (meaning a wanted experience). When we go through a wanted experience, what is the state of our mind? It is happiness only. There is immediate acceptance.

            Fasting (on ekadasi) and remaining without sleep (on Sivaratri) are wanted experience that we are happy to undergo. Sometimes we may find ourselves without food (as in a train journey caught in a flood) or unable to get sleep (from a noisy neighbor). How do we react? If we are not spiritually evolved, we will label these experiences as unwanted and plunge into sorrow. The situation is the same – whether lack of food on a train or fasting on ekadasi or lack of sleep during Mahasivaratri or noisy neighbor – but our attitudes differ. We label one as wanted and so be happy; another as unwanted and remain sad. The difference is just perspective. But if we are spiritual seekers, we will consider every experience as a wanted experience. And no experience will upset our tranquility. The benefit is there are no regrets, no resistance, or frustration. So change your perspective to any experience and be happy all the time is the message of our scriptures.

            Once we accept every experience as wanted for our growth, we will be contented and our attitude towards the Lord will improve. We will never crib when a painful situation visits us and cry,” Lord, do you have eyes?” and begin to curse God. Instead to remain humble and thankful and grateful to the Lord for the experiences HE provides us for the moment. There is an unmistakable faith that HE is our benefactor and will never wish us ill-evil. Such an attitude will help us grow.

            Therefore on this New Year’s Day let us pray: “O Lord, I am thankful to you. Let any experience come. It is wanted and therefore I welcome it whole heartedly.” This is the jnanam required for a happy life as well as spiritual growth.