Discourse on Yoga Vasishtha
Day 80, November 30
Jaya Guru Datta
Sri Ganesaya Namaha
Sri Saraswatyai Namaha
Sripada Vallabha
Narasimha Saraswati
Sri Guru Dattatreyaya Namaha
Sri Ganapati Sachchidananda Sadgurubhyo Namaha
asato ma sadgamaya
tamaso ma jyotirgamaya
mrityor ma amrtam gamaya
Om Santissantissantihi
Please lead me from untruth to Truth, from darkness to light, from death to immortality. May there be peace.
Yoga Vasishtha Dhyana Slokas:
yatassarvāṇi bhūtāni pratibhānti sthitāni ca
yatraivōpaśamaṁ yānti tasmai satyātmanē namaḥ || 1
jñātā jñānaṁ tathā jñēyaṁ draṣṭādarśana dr̥śyabhūḥ
kartā hētuḥ kriyā yasmāt tasmai jñaptyātmanē namaḥ || 2
sphuranti sīkarā yasmāt ānanandasyāṁbarē vanau
sarvēṣām jīvanam tasmai brahmānandātmanē namaḥ || 3
Om santissantissantihi
We spoke about the beggar becoming a king miraculously. Due to a past bad karma a good person might have become a beggar temporarily. When that karma got exhausted, he regained his glory.
Many people wrongly try to disclaim ownership of all their actions claiming to be mere puppets in the hands of God. How can one say that a higher power is not directing all of our actions? God, at one point has declared that He merely is a witness and He does not prompt any actions, either good or bad.
One sees a running wooden elephant in a dream. Is it wood or an elephant that is running? When you perceive it as an elephant, the elephant is running. If you merely see it as wood, the piece of wood is running. When you wake up from the dream, there is neither wood nor elephant. Neither is real. They are both non-existent. Neither dream nor wakeful state are in fact real.
Some have to be taught that God is guiding all our actions. Bhagavad Gita, and other scriptures do teach us that God prompts our thoughts and actions sitting inside our hearts. Hriddeserjuna tishthati.
Man is described both as an independent entity and as a dependent entity. The two theories are mutually contradictory.
As per the level of understanding of the student, the different perspectives are presented. Those who can grasp the subtle concept of karma are taught that man is responsible for his own karma. Therefore, man is urged to put in effort to attain Self-realization. Sage Vasishtha presents to us various different perspectives.
Sat is a very important word in spirituality, in Vedanta and also in the path of devotion. Satsanga, Sat-Sastra, Sat-achara, Sat-guru are all important.
Perform sadhana following Sadguru’s instructions, the rules stipulated in the scripture, and established tradition. Do not act on your own, randomly as per your whim and wish. It is a huge mountain which we have to climb. If we have no strength or ability to climb on our own, we take help from a carriage (dolie carried by men) or we ride on a mule.
Sadguru knows the technique to help you overcome your past bad karma. He knows how you should act now to compensate for past sins.
When a beggar becomes a king and a king becomes a beggar, we ascribe it to good luck or bad luck. But we do not know what went on in the past lives of the individuals. Due to the sins committed a good person suffered poverty.
When that bad karma got exhausted, he became king again. King was temporarily blessed with kingship due to past good deeds. When that karma got exhausted, he becomes a pauper.
The combined resolve and decision of the people prompted the elephant to choose the king. That effort on their part is a result of their past karma.
Some people are rich and some are their servants. It happens due to each one’s past karma. If you do Satkarma (good deeds) now, your future will be good.
Some people become great scholars and scientists and leaders. Others may try very hard but may never succeed in excceeding them in their talents. A person might have had great musical training in the past life and might have died without fulfilling the strong desire to perform on stage. He is reborn with the memory of the past life in the subconscious. Therefore we see children born with extraordinary talents. That is why you see child prodigies who are born with incredible knowledge in a field, like music.
Tendencies from past lives are stored in the subconscious. They express themselves in this lifetime. The person with such super talents should be given proper training from childhood to preserve and promote that knowledge. If neglected, as he grows up, he will forget. Gurukula experience is very important. A child has to experience the challenges of schooling to progress. Similarly, bad tendencies from the past have to be curbed and kept under control since childhood, to prevent them from growing more severe.
bhootaanaam ..
We see one person as very accomplished. Then another comes along who is even more accomplished. Each excels the other. What is the reason? It is not luck as many believe. Time is more accomplished than all of us. We must avoid making futile attempts. One cannot swim against the tide called Time and nature. One cannot attempt to live for ten thousand years, arguing that the guru said anything can be attained with effort.
bhiksha..
The beggar becoming a king is certainly a result of strong positive karma of the past. The effort of the citizens of the kingdom supported it, when they prompted the elephant to choose the future king.
aihika, the present karma defeats past karma sometimes and sometimes the reverse happens. It depends on the mutual strength. If one remains inactive, there is no strength given to present karma.
A man caught in a whirlpool loses and gives up everything, his spouse, children, possessions and so on, or a man caught in fire or extreme danger, tries fiercely and feverishly to save himself. Such intense effort is required to attain Self-realization. Overreaction should be avoided in circumstances. Over excitement and depression are out of place. The inert state of waking up from sleep without any deliberate effort will not produce any result.
Even those who make a great effort, sometimes fail. We see such situation in the lives of farmers who suffer when the weather does not cooperate. The power of the presiding deity of the clouds is stronger. But the loss suffered by the farmer is still a result of his past karma. Krishna calls himself a Karshaka. one who attracts our flaws and removes them from us as a farmer weeds a field. We have to plough the field of our intellect and clean it by removing all bad qualities.
Anuvu kaani chota adhikulamanaraadu is a saying in Telugu – When it is not your place, do not claim to be great. A blade of grass bends to the breeze or the flow of a river in flood, and survives. A tree that stands tall and proud gets uprooted and washed away. Weeping at one’s failure is futile.
When Vasishtha and Viswamitra in the past were engaged in a furious conflict, they lost all their sons. Loss of children gives grief that is unbearable. Vasishtha had experienced such deep sorrow. When you are helpless in a situation, there is no purpose served in continuing to weep for a departed soul. In fact, it pulls back and hinders the progress of the departed soul.
During the grieving period it is okay to express grief. In the remembrance of the lost soul do some good deeds. One must not neglect one’s own duties to indulge in misplaced and excessive grief. In the Ayodhya Kanda in the Ramayana, Sumitra gives Upadesha to Kausalya who grieves at the departure of Rama into the forest on exile.
Sometimes Guru consoles childless couples that their destiny would have given them the grief of losing a child and in fact now they are spared from experiencing such an unbearable grief.
Doctors, when they feel helpless in saving a life, tell the family to pray for strength. At such times it is best to pray rather than weep or blame God.
Death and difficulties are natural. We must accept these as unavoidable in life. If one can stop death in its tracks one can do it. But when one has gone, there is no point in dwelling on death and fearing one’s own death and keep crying daily.
Vasishtha seems to be recollecting his own miserable loss when he lost all his sons. With his spiritual strength he gained inner vigor and withstood the challenge and moved ahead in life. That is how he became a Sadguru.
verse …
All the incidents in this world are ever changing. One should act as appropriate to time, place, country, weather, and situation. When you are engaged in an action, do it as per your capacity. Manage with whatever materials are available. Use the resources that are available. Don’t wring your hands and regret that something is not available or suitable.
Viswamitra did penance facing the three different directions. He did not succeed. Then he proceeded to the North to the Himalayas where his sister, the river Kausiki was situated. Just as sister Venkamma gave strength and support to Narasimha Sastry when he suffered bereavement and loss, Viswamitra’s sister strengthened his resolve. When he changed his direction, technique, and place, his spiritual progress improved. He went without food for a thousand years. If you also continue your intense efforts, adjusting to your circumstances, you will succeed.
verse..
This verse summarizes the upadesha given earlier. In Satsanga, in the company of good souls, under the guidance of Sadguru, by following the stipulated rules given in the scriptures, abiding by tradition, you will achieve purity of mind and will attain liberation.
Praaptanam – past karma and present karma are both trees growing side by side in the forest called man. Which of them will gain the upper hand will depend on man’s effort.
The Banyan tree at the corner of Nada Mantapa actually came afterwards as a sapling growing on its own next to a fully grown tree. It overpowered the existing tree belonging to another species and now there is no trace at all of the original tree. All you see now in only the huge Banyan tree. It obliterated the existence of the other full grown strong tree. This shows that what is stronger of the two karmas, will survive and override.
Past sinful deeds must be erased by present virtuous deeds. Those who fail to do so are unintelligent, foolish, and ignorant. They neglects to use their independent capability. They simply speak of their helplessness and remain idle. It is not devotion. It is escapism and leads to great harm in the future.
True devotion is self surrender with spiritual wisdom, done in a positive way.
A beast which is accustomed to being always tied to a post, is not tied to a pillar or post one day. Still, it does not try to walk away. It assumes that it is not free to move. Such is the mindset of those who fail to make an effort to free themselves from bondage.
In the path of devotion, the devotee with Jnana, spiritual wisdom surrenders to Pasupati, Siva, or to Gopala, Lord Krishna. These descriptive names of God indicate that their compassion unties the knots that bind us to worldly life.
Those who remain ignorant and idle harm themselves. They blame the inner soul which, they claim is prompting their bad actions. Duryodhana performed many good deeds while the Pandavas were in exile. The spies had told him that he was suffering from a bad reputation. To earn a good name, he did great service to society.
When a well-wisher asked Duryodhana why he was not following the path of Dharma in his dealings with the Pandavas, while he was conducting so many virtuous acts now, like a wise person, Duryodhana said: I know what is Dharma. But I am unable to act according to Dharma. There is God within me, who is prompting me to act in wicked ways.
Is it right to act sinfully and blame the actions on God?
When people say that God makes us do good deeds, does it follow that God will also make us do bad deeds? No. One cannot attribute even the tiniest flaw to God. We have to take the responsibility for our own bad karma.
It is good to feel that God is within and to pray to Him to guide in the righteous manner.
Today is the final day of the Bhagavata Saptaha. They will be reading the Synopsis of the entire Bhagavata during the Sri Chakra Puja. Listening to it will give the benefit of listening to all the 12 chapters of the great epic. I pray for Sadguru’s blessing upon Sri Keshava Deekshitar and party who are conducting the Saptaha and Sri Raman’s family who are sponsoring this noble activity. May they be blessed with more and better opportunities to serve Sadgurudeva.
Today there is a Veda Conference with Vedic scholars from different universities attending and giving lectures. Please attend. Do not waste your free time. Put your time to good use. Offer cleaning services wherever required.
Jaya Guru Datta
Sri Guru Datta
Om santissantissantihi