Discourse on Yoga Vasishtha
Day 28, August 13
Jaya Guru Datta
Sri Ganesaya Namaha
Sri Saraswatyai Namaha
Sripada Vallabha
Narasimha Saraswati
Sri Guru Dattatreyaya Namaha
Sri Ganapati Sachchidananda Sadgurubhyo Namaha
Yesterday we learned how the mind veers us away from Self-Knowledge. From the Patala to the ground we keep going down and up. Chitta the mind becomes weak and debilitated. Ignorance is its nature. It will pull us away from spiritual knowledge. Heart and devotion will lead us to God. The mind takes us in the opposite direction. It is like a serpent that will do us great harm. Chittam kaaranam arthaanaam. It leads to the greatest misfortune and trouble. If it is there all the 3 worlds exist. If the mind can be removed, the world will become non-existent. All bad people have left; it means only good people are left. Entire world is filled only with Sadguru/Paramatma. When all bad water from the mind is removed, and Sadguru as good water fills it, that is the ultimate blessing. Mind that is diseased requires strong remedies. If there is a serious illness, it leads to amputation later if it is neglected. It has to be cured at once. The treatment is spiritual sadhana. If sickness of the mind is allowed to grow, for many lifetimes it will drown us in grief. Tat chikitsam prayatnatah. All that gives us sorrow must be treated with Vedanta Sravanam/listening to Vedanta lessons. Ordinary doctors will give us only cough medicine. An specialist doctor will diagnose correctly and will remove the root cause of the illness, like Sadguru.
Countless sorrows come following a few joys because of the mind. At Ugadi/New Year’s Day the priest makes predictions looking at the new almanac – as profit/loss/fame etc., as in proportions of OOO – O13 and so on. If the joys are in lakhs, the sorrow will follow in millions. Only with spiritual knowledge this enemy can be defeated. The intention to serve Guru is itself Jnana. Our charitable acts and good deed also nourish spiritual knowledge. Using discretion and service we gain knowledge. But if ego builds up that we are doing the service, it will lead again to downfall. That Sadguru is making you do is one step better; but to realize that it is He, the Sadguru who is doing it all, is the best understanding and realization.
One lamp will swallow up all the darkness. Like that, discretion has the power to swallow up all ignorance. It is important to triumph over all wicked ways of the mind right here and now. While you are living now, you should gain the knowledge of Truth. There is no guarantee that your next birth will be as a human being. You may be born as a bird, an animal, or an insect. No guarantee that in your next birth even as an animal or a bird you will follow a spiritual path. You may have to begin afresh from the beginning.
We must make our Sadguru happy. If He is happy with our service, He may find us eligible to receive some spiritual knowledge. You may think that your service will help to satisfy your worldly desires. After satisfying your worldly desires, Sadguru may save 10% of your merit to grant you some bit of knowledge. Sadguru will be happy that you are putting in some effort. He merely advices us to do service. He always saves some of our merit to convert it into our spiritual knowledge. Sadguru will somehow manage to turn us towards the spiritual path.
Sometimes we wish our names to be announced in public as donors. Later, you do not care about publicity. If Sadguru knows, it is enough, we feel. Even if offered darshan, many say they would prefer to remain as anonymous donors.
Charity, sacrifice, and service – all these lead to the attainment of Jnana.
Sri Rama says, here and now itself I wish to attain Jnana.
Chitta/Mind and Vittam/Wealth are the two enemies of man.
17th Sarga – Thrshnaa bhanga .. Sri Rama is giving us upadesha in the form of questions that he poses to Vasishtha and Viswamitra.
He explains how thirst (desire) destroys us and lands us in trouble.
In the sky called Mind, darkness envelops that destroys all good thoughts and feelings. This pitch dark night appears never ending. Like a row of owls these destructive desires are gathered. It is a defect in an owl that it cannot see during the day but can only see in the night when it is dark.
We must nourish the good thoughts and starve the bad.
This subject takes time to understand. We have to go into much detail to grasp the concepts clearly.
We cannot see in this darkness. We are blind to Truth. It is as if we have placed an owl upon our own heads to our greatest detriment. Self-Knowledge is completely driven away by this owl. Desire resides in the mind. Mind gets destroyed by desire.
The word thirst is used here, not desire, wish, hope, or intention. Thirst is the grandmother of all the others mentioned above.
Mother Goddess gives the energy of intention. Ichhaa Sakti. Without Ichcha/intention we would not even feel like doing meritorious deeds. It does not cause harm. When it goes beyond a limit it may cause harm. Wish is something that comes and goes. It may make us do a good deed and may leave us after that. When ichcha Sakti turns to Kriya sakti and Jnana Sakti, it will help us. Krishna worked so hard because his intention turned to Jnana and hence, whether he did Kriya or not, it did not matter. With complete Jnana, you are happy to do Kriya. You are not bound to the actions. Krishna did his duty of establishing Dharma and left.
Vaancha/greed, is wanting to have this, and that also along with it. Eehaa is forgetting what you have come to this existence for. Asha is totally forgetting and becoming supine, biting dirt. The next stage is Thrishna. Even when not thirsty to be hoarding water is thrishna. The desire to possess the entire ocean is thirst. That is the total ruin, downfall. Trivikrama, Vamana pressed down Bali who ended up in Patala/Netherworld. Bali was a great donor, no doubt, but he did his charity with arrogance and pride that he owned whatever he gave; he did not understand that everything is God’s property.
Ravana – do not be like that. Rama – be like that.
The surprising thing is that with thirst, even when you are really not thirsty, you want to drink. When there is no contentment in the mind, with a good wife, house, transport, fame, wealth, still there is no happiness.
What gives strength to man is contentment to mind and body. Some eat well but remain skinny by constitution. That is different. But some have no satisfaction no matter what they have. Courage will be lacking in their mind. There is no mental strength.
When desires are uncontrolled, they turn into the owl that gets stationed on the head to make us topple.
Asha, desire in man is like shackles that bind him tight. Such a man tries to run. One who is contented sits calmly.
Unless desire is discarded no spiritual progress will occur. Desires are endless, one leading to another.
Recently in the news they showed a man who kept in his home 15 crores of cash. How can he have any peace? How can he even sleep? Tension will be there constantly that termites, rats, or fire, may destroy it. The desire is too much. One, who is not thirsty, still hoards water and does not share with those who are really thirsty.
While doing a prolonged yajna, you are asked to save for a year’s worth of grain, just for the duration of the ritual.
Many do not leave any inheritance to the children. They do not hoard for the children.
The man with thirst will not part with a glass of water to a man who is dying of thirst, even when he has 200 bottles of water. You do not enjoy and you do not share with others. Finally this man with such thirst will die of thirst.
In the dark, other creatures cannot see but the owl can see clearly. While others are asleep, it is active. Desire makes us stay awake when it is dark. Kausika means owl and also it is another name for Viswamitra. He did not mind the pun. His life began with an uncontrolled desire. But by his power of intention he turned that desire around and made it help him to become a Brahmarshi.
Like by the Sun in the hot summer, the juice of gentleness, compassion, and devotion are all dried up in me by this thirst. If my work is done, that is what matters, even if the rest of the world perishes. Such is the attitude of the man with thirst.
They know that it is good to be generous but are most unwilling to be generous.
An orphan in China stood before a bakery waiting to get some food. No one paid him attention all day. Finally he stole one loaf of bread thinking that no one was watching, and ran away. He was caught by one woman who took out of his pocket some medicines also that he stole from the pharmacy belonging to that woman. She brought the boy to the bakery to show that he had stolen the bread also. The bakery owner asked why he stole. He said his mother was sick and he had no money for purchasing food or medicines. The bakery owner gave him money, paid off the pharmacist and gave him some bread.
After 30 years the bakery owner had cancer. He was going to die without treatment which required $30,000. His daughter was upset that the money was not available. A letter came with 30,000 dollars to pay for the surgery to save this man’s life. The letter explained that the bakery man had given the writer of the letter some bread and cash when he was a young boy. Now he wished to pay it back with interest. This is a true story. The boy grew up to become a doctor who came to know of this man’s predicament and remembered the past favor and decided to give timely help.
Guru says, always help others. Pharmacist had no Jnana. The bakery man had Jnana.
Thirst prevents us from helping others. It makes us hoard beyond a limit. It scorches a person. It is not real thirst. When real thirst occurs no one will give him water. This thirst gives absolutely no happiness. I have become all dried up and parched with this thirst, says Sri Rama.
In the wild forest called Mind, atrocities occur. Those who murder brahmins, women, children, fetuses, and the sick, or stab a warrior in the back (as happened to Abhimanyu – these are the most heinous crimes), will be reborn as a tree in a jungle inhabited by ghosts and ghouls. In Sri Swamiji’s Life History, an episode is given of Vijayendra Bhaskara Sarma who sacrificed a human being to gain a kingdom and endured untold suffering as a result, as a wretched ghost parched with thirst. No one will help such creatures ever. Those who attempt to help them will also suffer.
It is deserted of people and discretion – such a mind, where the ghost called desire will do its devilish dance. Only Sadguru can release a person from its clutches.
Anxiety and sorrow begin when a desire is unfulfilled. These are like siblings – frustration, anger, anxiety, and so on. Like a shrub of peanuts, by listening to all bad words of advice, such a thirst keeps increasing and growing. Like frost that helps the growth of peanuts, or the poisonous Datura plant that makes the peanuts grow better, this peanut shrub called Mind also proliferates and becomes harmful for us. It should be destroyed.
Bhangaha means to break or destroy. We pray that we all should succeed in destroying this thrishna/limitless thirst within us before it destroys us.
August 15th is Indian Independence Day and on Aug. 16th is Sri Venkateswara Kalyanam. Everyone please participate.
Jaya Guru Datta
Sri Guru Datta