Experience Actual Fearlessness!

i know guru a [Music] um namaste everyone welcome to all of you and i am very happy to be here with you for our latest live stream satsangha for those of you who have been here before as you know this is something very special that we do every monday and it is certainly a live stream but traditionally it is what in sanatana dharma is also called a satsangha that is a spiritual gathering of individuals who come together to learn more about as well as to experience sanatana dharma so again i welcome all of you who are here both those who have been here before as well as anyone who is new before we begin with what we're about to do and that is i'm going to be giving a specific talk first i just want to mention a few things that i tend to mention so please bear with me for just a minute or two first of all if you are not subscribed to this channel please feel free to do so as you will see or have seen already this is a very special channel it's unlike any other channel that's out there we present this ancient tradition of sanatana dharma in a way that is as authentic as it can be presented in this day and age so please subscribe please like this channel as well if you can because that then helps with other people having the ability to potentially see this video as well the other thing i want to mention is when you have a chance please visit our website which is dharmacentral.com and when you go there you'll see that we have quite a few resources on this ancient tradition of sanatana dharma you'll see that we have an email list that you are more than welcome to join we have our books that are available there also if you would like to become a member of the isds that is the international sanatana dharma society you can also do so by looking on the menu there and seeing where you can do that etc and with all that out of the way again we're going to be speaking about a very interesting topic today and that is experiencing actual fearlessness this is the title of the topic today and the reason why that's the title is because as you will see in a moment that is taken directly from the vedic verse that we're going to be speaking about today so as you will see when i read this verse to all of you again this is actually found in this verse and the idea is indeed that we can achieve a state of fearlessness not bravado not false courage etc etc but actual fearlessness based upon spiritual certitude and spiritual experience etc but again before i go any deeper into my actual talk first i want to read this verse to everyone and this is a very long verse in fact i was uh thinking earlier this might be the longest verse that we've actually ever commented on on a live stream uh i could be wrong but to my memory i think this is the longest verse we've ever done and this is of course from one of my favorite scriptures srimad-bhagavatam and this is from canto 11 chapter 2 verse 38 so i will first read this to you and then i'll be commenting on this and i will try my best to leave some ample time for questions and answers toward the end but please as i always say don't ask questions now because if you do i'm not going to see them i don't look at the chat really until after my talk is over please wait and i'll let you know when you can ask questions and then i'll try to get to as many as i can so first let me read this very very nice verse beautiful verse and it proceeds thusly although the duality of the material world does not ultimately exist the conditioned soul experiences it as real under the influence of his own conditioned intelligence this imaginary experience of a world separate separate from lord narayana can be compared to the acts of dreaming and desiring when the conditioned soul dreams at night of something desirable or horrible or when he daydreams of what he would like to have or avoid he creates a reality that has no existence beyond his own imagination the tendency of the mind is to accept and reject various activities based on sense gratification therefore an intelligent person should control the mind restricting it from the illusion of seeing things separate from lord narayana and when the mind is thus controlled he will experience actual fearlessness so again as you can see those last three words this is where we got the title for today's talk and again very long verse and there is a lot that's here actually philosophically but also very practically this is actually a very inspirational verse and we'll go through this but first let me start with this before i even dive into this verse and discuss just a little bit why i even decided to talk about this verse today the idea of fear this this existential phenomenon of fear is something that all living beings experience within this material world and all living beings not just human beings this is something certainly that humans experience but it's something that animals experience insects etc indeed sometimes even the gods will experience some fear if they know that their life is imperiled etc so fear is a universal constant very sadly very unfortunately for individuals who find themselves in illusion and in this material world now the question of course is why why is this the case well what fear is as this verse is trying to explain and again we will dive into this verse in just a moment the reason why individuals fear is because of illusion because they have this idea that they are separated from god in other words more than anything it is the false idea that we are alone in this universe that we were just kind of thrown into this universe by ourselves without anyone else without god without anything and it's that loneliness more than anything that causes fear this idea that we are separated from god and that in turn is caused by illusion well in a nutshell i just gave the commentary to this verse but truthfully we're going to dive into this verse because the verse itself is actually fascinating there are a lot of things in here so again let's just go through this sentence by sentence section by section so beginning with the very first sentence although the duality of the material world does not ultimately exist now let's stop there this is a very important philosophical concept this idea of duality the idea of duality you will find in many spiritual let's say traditions but also let's say spiritual fads even you know this idea of duality indeed unfortunately among more new age sort of people individuals who are somewhat dabbling with spirituality you'll hear a lot of people talk about duality without quite understanding what is the full meaning of this word and this is why it's very very important to actually try to unpack exactly what is meant by this so it's very interesting this verse is saying that although the duality of this world does not ultimately exist so thus the idea of duality is something that indeed pertains to the material world as this verse is saying ultimately it doesn't really exist in the spiritual context but yet why is this verse this sentence even beginning in this way by speaking about it well because of course according to our perception we perceive duality so thus indeed duality is an illusion but it's an illusion that affects us it is an illusion that has a very strong psychological effect and indeed that keeps us bound indeed we know that it is the case that when dealing with duality how do we deal with duality how do we approach the topic of duality in this world in a very practical way well every living being tends to try to avoid those things that it does not want and then it tries to embrace those things that it does want very simple in a nutshell that is duality now this is indeed an empirical existential fact that is the idea of duality but what this verse is trying to allude to and it will go a little bit deeper in a little while is that while duality indeed does have an empirical existence that is we can recognize duality the truth of the matter is duality in the ultimate sense of speaking spiritually about duality duality does not exist in actuality we are beings who transcend the material duality that we find in this material world so before i go even deeper let's continue with this so although the duality of the material world does not ultimately exist the conditioned soul experiences it as real under the influence of his own conditioned intelligence so thus explaining what i just explained and that is that duality has a perceptual a perceptual and even a conceptual existence but as far as the duality itself it's not rooted in the real and why because it's not rooted in the eternal it's not rooted in the transcendent so we know that this is the case with many many different phenomena that we can observe and indeed i'm again i'm kind of jumping ahead but this verse will explain just like with dreams for example it is the case that we can have a dream a dream perceptually is real that is when we're having the dream we are convinced that it's real but in actuality there's nothing that's actually happening we are safe we could be let's say being chased by monsters in some dream but in actuality we're safe so does the dream have its own reality well perceptually it does we're perceiving something but is it actually real on the higher level in the highest sense no it's not so this is what is being said here is that duality itself arises from the perceptions of the conditioned being and by conditioned what is understood by that is again a being who is in any illusion so this is what this sentence is saying so now let's go on a little bit and the rest of this unpacks what was just said even a little bit more this imaginary experience of a world separate from lord narayana can be compared to the acts of dreaming and desiring now this next sentence this sentence that we just read while it is on the one hand confirming what we were just talking about it says something in addition to that that is of extreme importance let's look at this actually almost in reverse order dealing with first again the confirmation of what we were talking about but then this new item that is introduced here first of all again this idea of experiencing the duality of the material world it is indeed compared to dreaming desiring etc in other words it does indeed arise from illusion so again this is what we've been talking about so again this is further confirmation of that but now going to the beginning part of this sentence this is the part that is especially of great philosophical importance and that is this imaginary exp experience of a world separate from lord narayana so this is what is very interesting and this really in a way you could say is even more so than the idea of duality it is the most important theme that we're going to see in this verse and that is the idea that we have this illusion that we are separate from god that there is a separation in other words that again we are alone in this world and that is what causes the fear that is what causes the fear that again later in this verse will be spoken about but in actuality what this verse is telling us is that that is an imaginary experience that idea that we are living in a world that is separate from god that is separate from lord nadiana or that we ourselves are separate from lord not ayana the truth of the matter is we are never separated from god we have the illusion of being separated from god but in actuality god is always with us and we are always with god though again we're not always aware of this fact so this in this lies the very foundation of our problem of our suffering of our illusion again this idea of separation you know i've spoken about this so many times how god is omnipresent there is no place where god is not present and that means quite literally everywhere it doesn't matter where we find ourselves in what conditions we find ourselves where historically or any other factor that we can bring in the truth of the matter is wherever we are god is there and more god is there not just being there not just kind of hanging out it's not that god is like hanging out in every atom but god's very being itself upholds all of reality so this with this understanding the truth of the matter is now we can begin to understand what this one sentence is saying that this world is an actuality never separated from god it is different from god in that it is one of the energies of god very specifically it is prakriti shakti it is the material energy of god so in that case it's not that you can look at the things of this world and say oh all these things are god you can't say oh this this book is god this this cup is god etc no there is a separation that is there in that these are all subservient to god as manifestations of god's energy but at the same time they are not separate from god in that you cannot say that god is not present in all these things god is present and more importantly it's nice to know that god is in the book that god is in the cup more importantly for us however god is within us god is there within us within our very hearts and it is as a result of forgetting this absolute fact that we suffer because we think we're alone because we think we've been abandoned etc and again it is from this false idea that fear arises but let's go on a little bit more because now again getting back to the idea of dreaming that in a way being an illusion it's similar to indeed being in a dream state where we think we're perceiving a certain reality but in actuality it's not it's not a full reality now as we continue this verse we'll talk a little bit deeper about that specifically so let's continue when the conditioned soul dreams at night of something either desirable or horrible or when he daydreams of what he would like to have or to avoid he creates a reality that has no existence beyond his own imagination so again this is the nature of illusion that when we are dealing with duality and duality as a result of our own illusion this simply deepens our illusion so thus what we find is that we indeed kind of create our own reality as a result of surrendering to illusions surrendering to duality so it's it's a self-sustaining sort of nescient state that we find ourselves in where we are in illusion thus we perceive everything as duality as a result of that duality we surrender to the idea that some things are good some things are bad and that they affect me as soul so thus deepening our illusion and we see how it's just kind of a cycle like this so that's what this specific sentence is saying now let's go on a little bit a little bit more the tendency of the mind is to accept and reject various activities based upon sense gratification so again based upon illusion but more based upon faulty desire sense gratification you know this is prabhupad's no actually i'm sorry this is not prabhupada's translation but it's is khan's translation that is inspired by prabhupada's previous translations so as a result you'll see this term that's here sense gratification which is indeed a term that prabhupada himself used quite a bit actually what we find is that being in the material world the vast majority of living beings indeed wish to gratify their senses now there's nothing wrong with in a healthy way in a spiritual way enjoying our senses indeed in a way that's satwik where we are eating pure healthy delicious wonderful natural foods etc we are smelling flowers from nature etc there's absolutely no nothing wrong with enjoying our senses in a very natural sort of way like this but that is not what's being discussed right here by sense gratification to enjoy our senses in a natural way is perfectly fine but to live to gratify the senses well this is something that indeed again leads to illusion that is the idea that my reason for being is simply to follow my senses wherever they lead for for such individuals again this is what this verse is saying the tendency of the mind is to accept or reject various activities based upon sense gratification so indeed when we allow ourselves to simply be dragged along by the senses what then happens is the mind itself will then make faulty decisions based upon the senses so now let's go on just a little bit more therefore an intelligent person should control the mind restricting it from the illusion of seeing things separate from lord narayana and when the mind is thus controlled he will and again experience actual fearlessness so this last sentence even though there there was a lot in the previous sentences many interesting philosophical things this last sentence really gives us the formula by which indeed we can transcend this fear that all of us experience as living beings in the material world in illusion so let's go through this with a little bit more more time actually because this is quite important first of all let me just say what this last sentence is talking about is indeed the yogi that is practicing sadhana practicing spirituality in such a way that indeed we now have control over ourselves inwardly and thus have the ability to transcend illusion that's the nutshell version of what this sentence is saying but let's go through it actually therefore an intelligent person let's stop there let's stop there the reason why it's important to stop there and why these words are so important an intelligent person so this verse is speaking not just to anyone but indeed a person who is intelligent and what's meant by intelligence not merely academically of course not meaning oh this verse only applies to people with phd's no that's not what it's saying by an intelligent person what is meant is an an individual who is wise who strives to know truth a person who wants to have self-realization to know god etc in other words for a person who knows what is truly of importance in life so thus a person who wishes to be a yogi a sage a spiritual seeker etc so this is number one who this verse is aimed at so therefore an intelligent person should control the mind it's so interesting how again the vedic scriptures speak with one united voice you know you'll remember that the last time we looked at a verse from the yoga sutras as well as the srimad-bhagavatam that were very similar in content and now here we're finding this same idea that is controlling the mind this is what patanjali says this is what so many rishis and yogis in the vedic scriptures talk about that this is the center of yoga this is what it means to meditate why do we meditate indeed to control the modifications of mind substance so this is the idea an intelligent person will do this they should control the mind in other words they should practice meditation they should practice yoga etc so this is exactly what this verse is saying and now it goes a little bit deeper explaining well what does that mean to control the mind how do you do that restricting it from the illusion of seeing things as separate from lord narayana now this one little clause here is extremely important because a it's giving the actual process by which indeed we control the mind but also it's bringing together many many different threads in just one little clause and just a few a few verses here so first of all it's explaining that how do we control the mind you know so again it's one thing to say that oh we should we should transcend duality how do you do that by controlling the mind well how do you do that by restricting it from illusion but not just any illusion you see this is how this verse is especially interesting specifically the illusion of seeing things as separate from god so again more than anything if we were to analyze if we were to almost pick apart what is the nature of illusion itself it's many things it's ego it's desire based upon a faulty idea of what is of importance in life and we can go on and on but more than anything illusion is based upon this idea that indeed we are separated from god this idea that god is not the center of my existence and of all existence in other words forgetfulness that we quite literally forget god so this is one could say the very foundation of why we are in illusion we are trying to live our lives on a day-to-day basis as if god is not there as if indeed we are radically separated from god to the point where today in 2021 in modernity in the modern world in the materialistic world that we find ourselves in very few people actually do think about god indeed many people try to live their life the totality of their life if they can as if god does not exist so thus radical separation from god well what it means to be a spiritual person is indeed the opposite flow the opposite sort of motion spiritually speaking and that is rather than seeing ourselves as separated from god to the point where for many of us people are atheists now oh god doesn't even exist that's the ultimate separation we wish to do the opposite we wish to have union with god again not become god not union in this sense of merging with god but in the sense of yoga yoga means union in the sense of being united with god in that we have god consciousness krishna consciousness where we have god in the very center of our being we have our awareness upon god as much as we can and indeed this is the yoga system this is meditation this is sadhana this is the path of sanatana dharma this is the goal brahmavidya having god consciousness having god in the center of our awareness so thus again when i say that this little clause here is of great importance it truly is of great importance because it is showing what is the essence of illusion and what is the essence of transcending the illusion the illusion is based on the idea that yeah god is not not of importance to us god is not in the center of our lives i'm going to just live my life as if i'm all that matters and maybe those few people who i like in my life that's our illusion how do we liberate ourselves from that illusion by realizing that the opposite is the reality i am not separate from god god is here i can choose to not acknowledge god but god is here nonetheless and that is god's mercy that is god's grace that even for those individuals who purposefully choose to be separated from god who choose to not acknowledge god's existence indeed even for atheists let's say god is still there god is still there regardless of anything whether the person even acknowledges it or not we are never separated from god and this is the key to our happiness this is what it means to be a spiritual person this is the ultimate goal in life is to again re-realize our union with the divine our union with god very nice so let's finish up this one last sentence therefore an intelligent person should control the mind restricting it from the illusion of seeing things separate from lord narayana and when the mind is thus controlled he will experience actual fearlessness so very nice so then when an individual has indeed achieved the perfection the goal of meditation of the entire yoga process sadhana etc of the spiritual path and thus has a controlled mind which again is the goal of yoga then at that point what happens that fear is gone it's no longer here it's no longer present and why because spiritually speaking the very foundation of that fear is now gone again you remember how i began this entire talk by explaining that the primary reason why living beings have fear is indeed because we are forgetful of god we think we're alone we think we are abandoned we think that everything that our very survival that our happiness that everything is dependent upon me and let's say by extension maybe fate what we call fate in this very impersonal sort of way but as far as the idea of there being a god of there being a being who is our best friend who is with me right now no we don't tend to think that way and that is the basis of why we fear when you think about it if we really believed that that we are alone in this universe that when we peer into the universe into the darkness of the sky that i am literally alone how could you not fear when you think about it in those terms how could you not fear and again this is why every living being has this unnatural fear but again it is very specifically when again according to this beautiful verse from srimad-bhagavatam when the mind is thus controlled and again in the way that was explained in the previous sentences of this verse that is through meditation through yoga through realizing what is the basis of our illusion and through realizing indeed that we are not alone that we are not separate from lord not ayana when we understand all this then we experience actual fearlessness let me talk about those two words for a moment because one of the reasons there are several reasons why i decided to comment on this verse one of them was this very phrase itself which i found fascinating not just fearlessness but actual fearlessness so this is a very interesting term that's here why was not just the word fearlessness used that should have been good enough but instead we will experience actual fearlessness what this verse is trying to do by using this specific terminology is to explain again as i was saying earlier in this talk we're not talking about bravado we're not talking about a false courage in the face of annihilation we're not talking about a just pretending to be fearless we're not talking about an illusory sort of fearlessness we're not talking about a sort of nihilistic sort of mindset such that well i don't care if i live or die anyway so therefore i might as well pretend i'm fearless no this verse is trying to make this very clear that it's not talking about any of those sorts of fake fearlessness rather he will experience actual fearlessness and what this means is a fearlessness that is indeed based upon a grasp of reality and that is knowing that indeed again we are never alone it doesn't matter what challenge we're facing it doesn't matter if things are going good or going bad on a specific day a specific week a specific month it doesn't matter what is happening to us what challenges we are having at that particular moment when we have this actual fearlessness that's based upon knowing that whatever happens to me god is here with me right here right now my very best friend is with me and that very best friend is not just someone who i grew up in my old neighborhood with this very best friend who was with me here and now is the source of all reality when we have this realization then we have actual fearlessness a fearlessness that is based upon an eternal existential fact that none of us are ever separated from god that god is with us at all times so this is why this verse ends in this way that he that person will experience actual fearlessness so let me just end by saying this that everyone has experienced fear of one thing or another to greater or lesser extents i'm sure all of you who are out there listening right now for one reason or another in your life you've experienced fear and again fear is a horrible state it's a state of aloneness you see for those of you who have experienced fear that is the number one undercurrent that you are feeling in the experience of fear itself is the idea of loneliness aloneness and therefore helplessness you see if you didn't have those foundations of the fear you wouldn't have the fear and again this is why we fear when you realize you are not alone that you are not helpless that god is with us then you have the ability to overcome any fear so this is what i would ask of you if indeed this is something that you experience and especially if it's something you experience on a day-to-day basis turn to this verse again and again you know we're going through this verse somewhat quickly but i would ask that you hold on to this verse you know if you look at the description of this video the verse is there so you can even feel free to copy it and then paste it somewhere so you can hold on to it for some time read this verse on your own meditate upon contemplate this verse and indeed do what this verse asks you to do and that is to contemplate upon the fact that you are not separated from god god is with you and in this way not necessarily overnight but in time that fear will leave and you will experience actual fearlessness very good wonderful so with that i thank you very much for listening to my discourse and let me tell everyone we have a little bit of time a nice amount of time so right now if you would like to ask any questions now is the time and it will be my pleasure to try my best to certainly answer any questions that i can very good i'll give give everyone a few seconds because i know there's a little bit of a delay um very good here's a very nice question jai shri guru between fear and envy which is the source of our illusion and does one beget the other or do they arise independently of each other excellent excellent question envy is the primary factor actually and fear arises from that but again mostly also due to the fact that indeed we feel separated from god but indeed how do you ask this again which is the primary source of our illusion it's envy because the truth of the matter is see it's a matter of causality so fear is caused by the idea that we are separated from god why do we have this illusion of separation from god to begin with it's because in our own mind we attempt to separate ourselves from god as a result of envy so again it is envy that is primary and then again from that envy is the illusion of separation from god because we think we're separated from god therefore we have fear so that is the causal chain what one could say so indeed this is the this is the goal is to realize that all of these are faulty concepts the idea that we even have anything to fear which is caused by another faulty concept the idea that indeed god doesn't exist god is a far away being if he even does exist in other words that we have separation from god and why did we come even to that state to begin with because we envied we envy god rather than wanting to serve we want it to be served this is what it comes down to rather than exploring our true self we wanted to create an artificial self so that is ahankara that is ego and this is all the result of again envy so i hope that answers the question very nice thank you very much for your comment nick i appreciate it very good there are two two questions really from siddharth uh maini and they are namaste chatterjee would you like to comment on the fear being generated by our leaders also please enlighten us on uh uh the praksha season and why how to best honor our ancestors very nice yes well these are definitely two very separate questions and as far as the fear generated by our leaders yes fear is generated by many many things and indeed today in 2021 in the world that we find around us today very sadly of course and i've spoken about this quite a few times the srimad-bhagavatam talks about this about how in the kali yuga and today specifically unfortunately we are surrounded by corrupt leaders by corrupt political leaders but also religious leaders etc and as a result indeed rather than doing what leaders should do and that is to eradicate the fear from the minds of their people the people who are under them indeed what we see is that today our leaders are very much doing the opposite and i don't want to go into detail you know as far as how they're doing that i'm sure all of you know at least many of you know the ones of you who are wise understand how this is the case but indeed our leaders many of them today are fostering mass fear on the part of the people and this is a demonic thing this is a terrible thing they should be doing the opposite a true leader inspires fearlessness on the part of the people but leaders today are doing the opposite so let me just say that indeed yes i agree with what you've said as far as the best way to honor our ancestors well indeed there are several ways first of all certainly it's not just on one particular day that we should honor the ancestors certainly as we know in sanatana dharma there's one specific day specifically that is put aside for the ancestors but the truth of the matter is honoring the ancestors is something that is crucial and should be done all year round every single day so thus as a result many many traditional peoples and what i'm talking about when i say traditional peoples are pre-abrahamic let's say individuals people who follow pre-abrahamic spiritual traditions what many such people do is they will have a nice little altar in their home where it will be an ancestor altar and they will set up for example photos of ancestors and by ancestors this could be somebody as recent as grandparents and it can be individuals who go back many many generations but as much as possible you try to have images of as many of these people as you can and each day if you can as part of your spiritual practice indeed you offer your respects to your ancestors and what this means on the day-to-day basis is that is offering puja offering a worship ceremony to your ancestors and indeed like with all puja this can be done in a very elaborate way or it can be done in a a very simple way and truthfully it's perfectly fine to have this be simple again having established an altar and this should be actually separate from your main altar in which you worship god so really your should have two altars uh on this altar in which you have images of your ancestors very simply each day you do a simple puja where if you have a proper puja bell you ring that and then you offer some incense so that's a very simple way in which you can honor your ancestors also by contemplating the ancestors this actually is also another very important aspect that interestingly is spoken about in the vedic scriptures because the ancestors the shades of the ancestors that is that which is left over from their earthly their earthly activities they are they are nourished in several ways first by puja second even by thinking about them it actually says this in the vedic scriptures by contemplating the ancestors in your mind even talking to them a little bit this is something that was quite common in the past and by doing this indeed you give nutrition you almost feed your ancestors and then finally interestingly there is something you can actually offer to your ancestors it's known as pinda pinda p-i-n-d-a and i'm not going to go deeply into that these are interesting little food balls that you can make very easily and indeed you offer them to your ancestors and that then is considered to be prasada so indeed there are many ways of of honoring the ancestors and this is indeed something that was universally recognized the importance of which was universally recognized at one time today again in 2021 many people have lost sight of the idea of honoring our ancestors but it needs to be revived as a very important aspect of dharmic culture for more information we do have several videos actually that talk about the importance of honoring the ancestors so when you have a chance please look at the previous videos and you'll find those so i hope that answers the question very good at this point please give me a moment because it's getting to that point where i need to start looking for the best of the best of these questions i know i can't answer them all so if you see that i'm i'm skipping your question please don't take it personally it's not necessarily that wasn't good but again there are many good ones i want to be a little bit selective now with the time that we have very good sriram thank you very much for your very supportive comment i truly appreciate very good all right here is an interesting very technical question and i'm going to answer this only because uh no one's ever asked this before so i'm i am going to answer it just because it's an interesting question and hopefully the answer will be interesting and this is from krsna's flute namaste srya chatterjee can we rely on lord brahma's sampradaya if he is not liberated yet thank you very good excellent question actually that is a very very good question and the truth of the matter is it it is indeed a very tricky question you see there are four some pradayas that are recognized in the vedic scriptures four legitimate sampradayas there's a difference between a sampradaya versus a parampara and sadly some people will call something a sampradaya when it's not sampradaya means means basically a an eternal school an eternal vedic path versus a parampara which is a specific guru lineage that's how i would translate both of those words and again they're they're pointing to two separate things as far as some pradayas specifically there are four sampradayas that are discussed in the piranhas and indeed the brahma-sampradaya the brahma sampradaya is indeed one of them well the brahma sampradaya was indeed founded one could say unofficially by brahma that is he is considered to be the first being who established this specific sampradaya from him it went on to people he taught and then on and on to the very to this very day actually the brahma sampradaya still very much exists the brahmas sampradaya is considered to be legitimate because at the time of its founding brahma was a much purer being than he is now so for that reason it's considered to be indeed a legitimate sampradaya and more what makes it legitimate is not brahma himself interestingly even though it's called the brahma sampradaya what actually empowers this sampradaya and keeps it pure regardless of who brahma himself may be and what his current state may be what keeps it empowered is the fact that brahma himself derived his knowledge directly from narayana and having received it from narayana brahma then purely passed it down at a time when he was still a very advanced very advanced being so that is actually what makes the brahmas sampradaya still a legitimate sampradaya is the fact not so much even of brahma but the fact that the knowledge was revealed to him by srimad narayana so again technical question but i hope that that answers the question [Music] very good i will answer this actually it's it's a uh quote-unquote controversial question not really but some people see this as um uh venturing into some controversial territory but i've been asked this question many times i and others have answered it many times actually and that is namaste chatterjee please explain why animal sacrifice is described in the vedas and it is indeed described in the vedas that's that is quite true uh was it was it sanctioned in past yugas but not anymore very good well you've kind of answered your own question there indeed animal sacrifice is indeed described in the vedas and it is sad that i am one of the soul gurus upon the face of the earth who will answer this question in an honest way and that is in fact let me give a little bit of background as people know we are strict vegetarians we do not believe in killing animals we do not believe in eating animals on the contrary again we are vegetarian not vegan vegan is anti-vedic we are not vegan we are vegetarian and that being the case it sometimes is confusing to people when again in the vedic scriptures it does indeed describe several different kinds of sacrifice in which you indeed sacrifice an animal so this being the case again other gurus will sometimes kind of stumble on this question and they'll they have no idea how to answer it and they won't really answer it honestly even if they knew what the answer was well this is what the answer is first of all the idea of animal sacrifice is indeed interestingly something that is universal and ins and including in the ancient world in indeed this is something that you find among among almost every single ancient culture upon the face of the earth with only a few exceptions indeed some people will make the mistake i've actually had someone say this to me that well you know in in the abrahamic tradition we don't sacrifice animals oh no that's not true actually among ancient judaism when they had their temple they actually had a regular animal sacrifice so indeed this is something that is considered to be universal now all that being said as far as the animal sacrifice that is found in the vedic scriptures several things to be said number one these sacrifices were done for very lowly and earthly pursuits these were not considered to be done for truly spiritual reasons and indeed we have seen that in the upanishads and other places such sacrifices were indeed denounced even thousands of years ago by rishis who explained to people that no if you wish to actually know god if you wish to actually attain the highest attainment spiritually then you avoid violence you avoid animal sacrifices so this is the first thing to understand is that such animal sacrifice was not done to appease god it was done again for material pursuits a person wanted wealth or something in this material world and they would engage in such things that's the first thing the second thing is that with quite a few of these sacrifices not all of them but with quite a few interestingly it also describes in the vedic literature how once the animal was sacrificed if the priests did this quickly enough they had the ability via mantra to bring back the jiva the life force of that animal and the animal would rise again and be alive again see this is one aspect of the animal sacrifice that when people ask such questions they usually don't hear about they hear about the sacrifice but not the fact that so for for example with the ashwamedha yagya with various of these sacrifices not in all cases but many cases the animal was brought back to life the third aspect is even if the animal were not brought back to life it was described in the vedic literature that when an animal was sacrificed in such a way their destiny karmically then because they were part of an auspicious event like this they would have a very high birth in their next life they would be born as human or even greater than human now finally this leads to what you yourself actually said here the vedic scriptures including the puranas there are several well-known verses that explain that even when it comes to these rituals these rituals were meant for a different yuga and specifically for the drapara yuga interestingly not just all yugas but the previous yuga the devapara yuga they are not meant to be performed in the kali yuga i have read these verses myself that make this very clear so that's when it comes to such animal sacrifice any individuals who try to engage in such rituals today are going against the vedic scriptures and why because we don't have the ability to do all the things that i said if a priest is powerful enough spiritually that they have the force within them this prana within them such that having sacrificed an animal they can now say a mantra over the animal and the animal comes back to life well feel free to do a sacrifice if you don't have that ability you cannot do animal sacrifices in this day and age i hope that answers the question conclusively all right here's a very simple question actually but still i'm going to answer it namaste chatterjee what is the difference between srimad-bhagavatam and srimad-bhagavata yes there are two completely different books actually completely different books bhagavad-gita is a much shorter work it is 700 verses it is a section of a much bigger book known as mahabharata and the bhagavad-gita is a specific discussion between krishna and arjuna it's considered by many people including myself to be the most important the greatest philosophical dialogue ever written in the history of humanity and i can talk a lot more about bhagavad-gita but that's bhagavad-gita srimad-bhagavatam on the other hand also known as bhagavata purana is a much bigger work much much bigger thousands upon thousands of verses versus 700 it is one of the puranas purana there are 18 major puranas and 18 minor puranas and the srimad-bhagavatam is also known as bhagavata purana and it is one of these puranas and contained within the shrimad bhagavatam is much more than just one dialogue it consists of dozens of dialogues it consists of prayers of mantras of poetry of history of details about about cosmology cosmogony etc etc cetera so the srimad-bhagavatam is almost encyclopedic in nature and in the in the information that it has so again two very different books but both extremely important and in fact i would recommend if you have read neither that you first read bhagavad-gita and then after that absolutely i would read srimad bhagavatam and specifically the translation by prabhupada is by the best by far so i hope that answers that question very nice very good and this person says not a question just a comment but every time i have a disturbing dream after i wake up i chant om namo nadainaya in my mind and i always fall back to sleep pleasantly very nice i just had to read that comment that is absolutely wonderful so again keeping with keeping with the theme of what we're talking about today and that is becoming fearless having actual fearlessness by having dependence upon god by turning to god so very nice comment thank you and we have about two minutes left i'll see if maybe i can answer one more question so please just give me a moment hmm good here is a very nice question actually this this is a question that will most likely be the last question that i'll answer and that is namaste chatterjee thank you for the teaching absolutely my pleasure in sanatana dharma can one receive individual guidance from narayana through prayer and meditation or is guidance primarily through shastra and guru excellent question actually and the truth of the matter is yes necessarily it's both necessarily it's both you know we receive guidance directly from god from within when it comes to especially personal items or states that we wish to overcome so again like fear for example if we have fear or doubt or any sort of negative state like this it is it is very very nice to appeal directly to god by meditation by prayer to god etc and god will often give us guidance in the form of inspiration but then of course when it comes to very practical philosophical questions that we might have or even questions about practice well then certainly we want answers that are as immediate as quick and as clear as possible so for that we turn to the guru so the truth of the matter is when it comes to guidance yes we turn to the guru we turn to god indeed we turn to any beings who we know are authoritative because in one way or another spiritually they are higher than we are so it's good to look for guidance from yes multiple sources so i hope that answers the question very nice and with that sadly i think we're going to have to stop there because i'm looking at the time it's exactly the top of the hour and uh recently i've been going a little bit over time but i want to be a little bit stricter today and just kind of end exactly on time after an hour and um we did very good we answered quite a few questions and as i always have to say for those of you who did ask questions that i did not have a chance to either see or answer i apologize very very much we can only answer so many questions in the a lot of the time that we have but with that i thank you again very much for being here please join us again next monday as we will have our next live stream next satsangha next monday and continue with our exploration of sanatana dharma and again just to say very quickly please subscribe to this channel if you haven't done so already please feel free to like this video as well if you can please visit dharmacentral.com and you will find that dharma central is exactly as the name indicates it is dharma central it has a lot of resources that are wonderful it has books that are available it has other videos that are up there etc so please visit dharmacentral when you can join our email list as well and in that case once in a while we will send out announcements about various things going on new books as they come out etc so with that again i thank you all for being here and namaste jai i victory to sanatana dharma the eternal natural way victory to the dharma nation may it be so and with that everyone i ask you to please take very good care of yourselves until the next time that we meet

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Length: 60min 55sec (3655 seconds)

Published: Mon Sep 27 2021