Q & A session with HH Sri Ganapathy Sachchidananda Swamiji – Datta Kriya Yoga class in the morning – March 4, 2016 – Mysore
Compiled by Smt Hira Duvvuri
note compiler: First part of the speech containing the question asked, is on a separate video which is not playing in yogasangeeta archives
We must avoid illness and the possibility of burdening others with our care. We should live self-sufficiently and die without getting served by others. That is true yoga, to die peacefully, with no pain whatsoever to oneself or to others. Others should not wait and wish for us to die. We should simply keep chanting Jaya Guru Datta and drop off. There is no better fortune than that. No matter how rich or famous one may be, no one remains forever. Even the greatest yogis who lived long lives are also no more. The body has to perish. Because of all the abuses the body is subjected to, knowingly or unknowingly, it deteriorates. Life gets expended. Complete longevity requires good habits, Satvic food, and Satvic behavior which means not hurting others by speech or actions. No one should be criticized or scolded out of a feeling of authority. Even a mistake should be pointed out very gently. No one should be hurt by our words.
Merely consuming Satvic food is not sufficient. Even the attitude must become Satvic/gentle and noble. Otherwise, penance is useless. The intellect, speech, and all bodily actions must be kept under control. That is being really Satvic. You must control the quantity and quality of food. You must live by eating only enough to protect the body.
Taste is not important. Do not allow the tongue to feel the taste. Whether there is salt, spice, or sour taste, the tongue should not notice. Neelakantha and Kusuma sometimes comment, “Oh, there is no salt in the items. We don’t know how Appaji ate the food.” Swamiji does not complain even if the food is inedible because it has no taste.
Sometimes there may be too much or too little salt in the food. Swamiji does not notice. That is how the tongue should be given training. The way the intellect is trained, the tongue also should be trained. Even if the body suffers a burn, it should not be felt. The feeling – this is my body, these are my taste buds, I am tasting the food, and all such thoughts must be removed from the mind.
Desire, anger, etc. (Kama, Krodha, etc. the inner enemies) and a possessive feeling towards home, wife, and children show that you are not a Satvic person. You are a Tamasic person. You are not on the path of Satva Guna. You are immersed in Tamo Guna. You have not even applied for admission into Satva Guna. This you must understand.
What it means is that your attention should not be on your body. Some people sing bhajans forgetting themselves, unaware of their presence in the body. They get immersed in their singing. They do not even notice if the clothes fall off from their bodies. The worldly people around them watch them with amusement and ridicule. Devotional ecstasy is such. Similarly, once you are absorbed internally, you are not aware of what you are eating, or what you are saying. The bodily activities go on without your being aware of them. When you practice this, then you will begin to live a Satvic life. Now, when someone says something, at once you fly into a rage. How can you call yourself a Satvic person?
Your short-temperedness reaches such high levels that even someone sitting next to you asks you to move a little bit, you snap at them wildly. For trivial things people get extremely angry. They get so full of their own self-importance and bandy it about proudly. If someone obstructs your view by sitting in front of you, you get mad. You are a rakshasa, a demon. You have not even entered the path of Satva Guna. Every single action and attitude, every single movement must be controlled. You think about yourself, examine yourself carefully, and find out where you are going wrong. You are your own teacher, you are your own guru. You become your own watchman, who watches your every action critically.
Once you become Satvic, there isn’t even a need to do Pranayama anymore. One who has become Satvic will always remain in meditation, whether he is walking, talking, eating, or doing anything.
Yasya brahmani ramate chittam nandati nandati nandatyeva
(The second line of a verse in the Bhaja Govinda Stotram)
The mind is always established in the bliss of Brahman. He feels no sense of wakefulness, sleep or anything else.
Dattatreya is Unmatta, Bala, Paishachaka – mad, child-like, and spirit-like.
Yogaratova bhogaratova sangaratova sangaviheenaha
(the first line of the above verse)
Wherever you may be, you are in ecstasy. You are not even aware whether you are in luxury or in deprivation, whether you are in Bhoga or Yoga, with people, or in solitude. To reach that state, you must practice this and go through this training. Control the taste buds, the mind, and the sense organs. Only then the intellect will remain steady. Otherwise, it will not.
The Sutras show us the way. If you do this, you will attain that.
But you do not want to do this. But you want the reward. You ask: is there any mantra, any shortcut, and any guru who gives any tricks or any key? I cannot do this practice, I do not want to do this, I have no time for this. I want promotion to that level of Enlightenment/Brahma Jnana. My body will not permit. My health is not good. My circumstance is not good. So, I have no time to practice. I have no strong belief in Sadguru. What can I do? Pleeeaase, I want to jump to that height.
THERE IS NO SHORTCUT.
You must experience all this. You say very cleverly: If Sadguru touches on the head, you will get enlightened – Hastamastaka Prayoga.
Guru will not touch your head until you earn the eligibility. When you are qualified, you will get the blessing. But if you forcibly grab guru’s hand and place it on your head, nothing will happen. Your hair’s oil, dandruff scum, and lice will stick to his hand. That is all. He gets infection. You gain nothing. It does not happen like that.
There is no shortcut for Brahma Jnana. You must pass through all these levels. You gain eligibility to come to the final class. That is a big examination. Only if you pass through all these stages, and go through these practices, you will reach that level to take the final examination.
You must climb each single step if you wish to reach the top of the mountain. You cannot claim: My meditation is always of the peak, my mind is set on the peak. With my body I want to go to the peak without climbing all these steps.
You must climb all the steps.
You say: Why not? I will just sit and do meditation. My mind is gone. My sense organs are gone.
But when I open my eyes, my body is still here.
The physical body does not go there. It cannot reach there. You cannot take the physical body there.
The gross body is only an instrument in your Sadhana. You utilize it for this purpose. That is all. This body is given for that purpose. The body is like the ladle that stirs the sweet pudding. The ladle can never taste the sweetness of the pudding, of Brahma Jnana. Only the intellect experiences it. No matter for how long you use the body, it cannot taste it. You wash and scrub it, and it wears out. Not even once can the ladle eat the sweet pudding. Only to do the Sadhana, this body is used as a utensil. You cook using this vessel.
We are experiencing bliss.
That is what we wish to obtain. For that purpose, we use this body. You use the gas stove, you add ingredients like sugar, milk, and so on. All these are sadhanas, spiritual pursuits. Only if you add the ingredients. cook and stir, the pudding gets prepared. If you simply gather the ingredients and wish for the pudding to be ready, it will not happen. You must do the process, step by step. Then in the end, the most delicious dessert gets ready. Like that, use this body as a suitable vessel for the preparation, only of the sweet dessert. You should not use this vessel to cook meat instead. You should use it to gain happiness.
Good practice is required for obtaining eternal bliss. If you cling to the body, you will keep remaining in this world only. After the body drops off, if your attention is on whether the body has been cremated, if you are concerned whether or not it has been swept off, whether it is fully burned and turned to ashes or not, you will never get liberation. You will keep hovering over the body like a ghost. Just to avoid that situation, we are going through all this processes.
But what are we doing? We do Sadhana for a long time. But in the end, we slip. We miss for one day and we fall back, we slide backwards. We give up our effort before the final stage is reached. Till the life force leaves the body, the effort must continue without fail.
You must practice till the stage where you feel:
I am immersed in bliss. I am enjoying the sweetness of the pudding. I have no more need of this ladle and this vessel.
Only then, you will become free. Otherwise, you will still be stuck to this vessel and the ladle. You will be like a ghost or a ghoul, an unhappy spirit. You will be concerned about your children, and those who speak ill of you. You will starve for food. You will be looking for sources of food, of whom you may torment to obtain food. You will be in the section of ghosts, a different group altogether. That should not happen. From that stage we are trying to rescue ourselves. We are already in poison. We are trying to extricate ourselves from it and fall into nectar.
By God’s grace, we have the aspect of nectar within us now, in the form of an urge for following Guru, and a yearning for learning Yoga. We want to attend Yoga class, we want to learn of a way to get out of this.
That idea is pestering you inside. It is a good pest that troubles you, making you learn more and understand more. You feel that by attending this class, you will have an understanding, that by reading this particular book, you will know the process, and by the last words spoken by Sadguru you will have an inkling of the path to follow. You are doing Sadhana with that faith.
You are floating in poison. But right now you are untouched by the poison. But should you entertain any doubts about yourself and your ability to follow this path, you will once again get dissolved in that poison. You do not need to do anything else. That easily it happens.
Only when stubbornly you believe that you will succeed, you will obtain the sweet pudding called nectar.
If some small particle falls into the sweet pudding, you merely remove it, and use the rest of it. But if what falls into the pudding gets spread all over it, you cannot salvage the pudding. It is up to you then, whether you wish to consume it or not.
You get an apple. You find a small part that is not good. You simply cut around it neatly and throw the rotten part and eat the rest. You do not discard the entire apple. Why? That is how it is. You just remove the bad part.
But here the entire pudding is poison. But a drop of nectar has fallen into it. You are all the drops of nectar fallen into poison. The compassionate Guru will pick up the drops and will put them outside, removing your connection with the poison. He says: Now you enjoy!
Sadguru, after putting you outside, will not come after you. It is now your turn to preserve your status. Such is Creation. That is Sadguru’s job. He just picks out the drops of nectar and puts them out of the dish of poison. You must all earn the qualification to be picked up and kept out like that, by Sadguru.
You cannot just sit at home and attain this qualification. You must join the class. You must do Sadhana. You must experience all the stages. Only then Sadguru will recognize your presence and will rescue you.
You cannot say: Swamiji knows everything. I will sit at home and do Sadhana my own way.
You are free to do that. You just won’t get the result. The complete result will not be achieved by you. To obtain fully the reward, you must become a true Sadhaka and follow Sadguru. That is the only way. When you do that, he will cook you. He will place you on fire. He will add ingredients, not one or two, but numerous. He will stir you up and subject you to all kinds of processing. Why does he put in so much effort? It is to get the perfect taste of the sweet pudding.
But in spite of all his efforts, the drops of nectar, when they are almost done, still go away and fall back into the dish of poison.
We are now born. All the children, relatives, and all the temptations that we are surrounded by, will trap us, in spite of all the dispassion that we have developed by our sadhana.
One small kitten can spoil your mind. And you will begin to explain at length, quoting Vedanta, that even in the kitten there is Brahma. You will go to extremes to justify your case. It is because that puppy or kitten will appear so cute and adorable to you that you want to pet it and play with it. It is the work of Maya which desperately is trying to throw you into delusion. The puppy does not care whether you pick it up and cuddle it or not. It is not selfish. It will simply go to someone else if it does not get your attention.
Your intellect is trying to topple you into Maya. You have every right to ignore the puppy and go your way. No one will blame you for it. But you stop and look at the puppy. You linger and are drawn towards it. You want to kiss it and give it food. You have fallen victim to the attraction. That is the end. You keep following it.
Jada Bharatha was such a great yogi. He fell into an infatuation towards a newborn deer. The mother died and got washed away in the stream. Bharatha could have simply set the baby deer on the ground and left. But he felt compelled to take care of it. He felt pity for the baby deer. He wanted to keep it warm. He kept it inside his own hermitage, inside his own living quarters. He personally cooked its meals and fed it. He became so involved in taking care of the deer that he left all his regular religious duties and spiritual practices. At least when the deer started to walk freely on its feet, he could have left it. But he became too attached to it. The deer grew up, found its mate and went its way. It never felt any loyalty towards Jada Bharata, that he took care of it like a father. Bharatha got worried about its whereabouts and died eventually. That is why he took his next birth as a deer since he died worrying about the deer.
Kriya Yoga students also fall into the same trap. They fall victims to attachments. Without being touched by attachment, do things as mere duty. Remain untouched by what goes on around you. Then no harm is done. The mind should be kept free. It is not the circumstances or the people who cause you harm. It is your own mind that causes you harm.
(30 min. into the video, audio is distorted – missing some important points here, sorry)
Eat even Satvic food only moderately, only enough to survive. Too much food makes one feel sleepy. Maintain a limited quantity of intake. Only take what you want. Do not criticize others. If you visit someone’s home, the old man living there is said not to eat unless onions are used. You take out the onions out of your plate and eat the rest. The hosts will notice your discomfiture and will cook in a different way the next time. Or you may just eat a fruit.
Do not concentrate on the discomforts suffered due to available clothing and available foods. Just pay attention to the fact that what you use are only Satvic items. Undue importance paid to how others live, works against you. You make your wise choices for yourself. Of all the cooked items offered, take only what is Satvic for your own consumption.
There is no time limit or ending time for doing Sadhana. Do as much as you possibly can, utilizing every minute, till the very end. It is not as if you can do for such and such a duration, and the rest of the time you may behave as you like, indulging in desires, anger, speaking falsehoods, and so on. Is this a business?
You chant “Panduranga Vitthala” for one hour as scheduled, and once the chanting is over, at the end of the hour, you shout, “Beat to pulp that wretched son of mine!” How will this work? Devotion-duty of chanting is done. Then you revert to your violent moods and cruel speech, calling your own son a beast and wishing to stab him with a dagger. You wish to make a dish out of him and gobble him up. Afterwards, when it is the stipulated time again, you chant, “Panduranga Vitthala”. Is that devotion?
Your actions must display a Satvic attitude. Devotion leads to dispassion. When you attend a good Satsang, that good association will carry you towards detachment. Detachment will then take you to liberation.
Just the Bhaja Govinda Stotram alone is enough to guide the spiritual aspirants towards Liberation. Swamiji’s wish is to explain the full Vedantic meaning of the Bhaja Govinda Stotram. Each verse is beautifully linked to the next.
You are all the time concerned with extraneous details such as: where did this sound emerge from? What caused this sound? If you are preoccupied with unnecessary details, you will never reach your destination. You fail to progress. You ask questions like: Instead of, where does this bus go? Which factory produced this bus? Where did the tires come from? Does the driver have a proper license? Is his seat proper? Are the wheels properly placed? If you spend all your time examining all these details, the bus will depart, leaving you behind.
You demand: tell me the details, what type of air fills the tires? I need to travel ten miles by this bus. I have to ensure my safety. The bus is long gone. The passenger is stranded with no transportation.
You discuss at length: Swamiji said this at that time. Now He said this. This is a doubt I have. That is a problem I face. If you obsess with such issues, you will not make any progress. Your path will get deviated. Therefore, the mental aberrations must be removed. Otherwise, Sadhana will not succeed.
If Swamiji says: sit down and meditate, you instead, begin examining the flooring and wonder whether something will happen to it if you sit on it. Then, how can you meditate? Will the stone break if you sit on it? You cannot do Sadhana.
No time limit for doing Sadhana. There should be moderation and control in eating.
This is the long answer given to the question asked by Agastya. I have taken this long to give a detailed explanation.
Jaya Guru Datta