Knowledge and Action in Vedanta Swami Sarvapriyananda

[Music] [Music] he om lead us from the unreal to the real lead us from darkness unto light lead us from death to immortality home peace peace peace good morning everybody um today's subject is i think the most comprehensive question then what can ask in spiritual life subject of knowledge and action what i mean by this is that in spiritual life there are these two aspects one is god realization enlightenment whatever you call it that's one side of it and the other side of it is our lives uh quite apart from our spiritual life we seem to have another secular life should i say people have careers and families personal lives all of that so the question is how do i realize god how do i become enlightened and how and having become enlightened um or during the pursuit of enlightenment how do i live my life the so-called rest of my life so there seems to be this division between a spiritual life and a secular life which is what i call knowledge and action and what is the relationship between them specifically this question comes from a question that arjuna asked krishna in the bhagavad-gita at the beginning of the third chapter arjuna asks krishna jayasi karma nasty mata buddhism what does that mean o lord o krishna if in your opinion in your understanding knowledge that is ghana yoga the knowledge of the self is superior to action then why are you instigating me pushing me into this terrible action the war why do you keep insisting on this the context is of course the second chapter of the bhagavad-gita where krishna starts teaching arjuna arjuna had asked a question about action should i do this or should i not do this this what i'm going to engage in this terrible war it seems horrible should i do it or not and then in answer krishna says that you are not the body and mind you are this infinite spiritual being realization that you are this infinite spiritual being will take you beyond the sufferings of of mortal life you realize you are immortal you are not subject to the changes of the body changes of the mind you are ever at peace ever perfect and this is to be realized so obviously arjuna would say well that's great i'd love to do that but what about this thing oh krishna's response is oh you have to fight this war why it seems to me that what you have said that that's really worthwhile if that's true then what else is uh equal to it enlightenment is the thing one thing that we should all try to do so that seems that i should withdraw from all these worldly activities and maybe become a monk and go to the himalayas and meditate and study and become enlightened that seems to be what your teaching implies that self-knowledge is supreme but then you are saying you have to fight this war why if knowledge enlightenment is superior to action why are you forcing me why are you insisting on this action and the most terrible of actions is this horrible engagement in in war and destruction so there is krishna's answer so it this is analogous to maybe not as dramatic in our lives we don't have to fight wars and do all that but we do have our little battlefields everybody whether it's in our professional lives in in our our relationships or uh you know at office or at home or even in our personal lives it could be a battle of health uh physical mental issues and all of these things so these are all our little battlefields which which we all have how much should we engage in these things to what end to per what purpose if the message of religion or spirituality is true if god exists if i am an immortal soul then what is the importance of this little life so that is the big question and krishna's answer is of vital importance to us for practical religion i mean quite apart from metaphysics quite apart from vedanta and the infinite being and brahman and atman what is the importance for our personal lives for the way we put spirituality into practice in our lives so krishna's answer to that question is he says to arjuna loki yasmin there is this two-fold path which i have taught from ancient times spirituality from its very beginning has these two aspects what are these two aspects sort of cryptically he says for the sankhyas it is the path of gyana knowledge and for the yogis it is the path of action gyani yoga for sankhyas and karma yoga for the yogis now what does that mean what does that mean we'll deliberate upon that for some time and this interpretation remember is according to classical advaita vedanta based on the uh commentaries of shankaracharya on these verses so what is this karma yoga what is this gyani yoga what is the path of knowledge what is the path of action in a sense gyani yoga tells us that we are already that perfect spiritual being that existence awareness bliss infinite is-ness awareness i would like to put it that way this infinite is this awareness this term i use sometimes is actually a direct translation of the upanishadic definition of brahman satyam gyana manantam brahma satyam means isness gyanam means awareness anantam means infinite so brahman the ultimate reality is infinite is-ness awareness one might say well good for the ultimate reality what about me you are that that is the essence of the upanishadic teaching that you are actually not what you think you are you are this infinite is-ness awareness well good but our first reaction is i do not know this i i hear this i i read about it but it's not evident to me even after i listen to it and then swami you provide me with many arguments in its favor well it sounds interesting but it seems so far from my lived experience this life so my uh reply to this my you know come back to this this claim that you are infinite being awareness is that it sounds cool but it's not me i don't get it so the problem is ignorance and ignorance of a particular kind ignorance of our real nature as far as vedanta has claimed it if ignorance is the problem then always the solution is knowledge what kind of knowledge what we are ignorant of there must be knowledge of that so we are ignorant of the true nature of the self at least according to advaita vedanta then the knowledge must be of the true nature of ourselves and what is the method for this the method suggested by krishna is gyana yoga gyani yoga literally comprises of um so this vedantam this body of knowledge is there one must systematically sravana means literally hearing but one must systematically study this preferably under a competent teacher one must systematically study this and when you study it you have doubts you have questions i hear what you are saying but here are the here are my questions my doubts and those things have to be clarified so there's a process of reasoning often it is question answer between teacher and student or between the text and the reader or between different students people who are studying it together so this process of inquiry at this level it goes on until we have clarity until we can confidently claim that yes i understand i know the teaching and i understand it now but even after that there remains a feeling i understand it but it's not a living reality for me now it i still my life is still going on the way it was i don't feel significantly different so to it to make it a living reality this understanding has to be deepened and i'm choosing my words carefully here you are not looking for another new mystical experience the problem with mystical experiences is that um you know i was just listening to this talk by christoph koch who is the chief scientist of the paul allen brain institute he's written a new book the feeling of life itself and he was giving a talk at the harvard bookstore just earlier this week's online webinar nowadays by the way it's not just us who have internet difficulties you know i it's not just who have intern internet difficulties it's uh the harvard bookstore when they started the webinar the speaker had disappeared they couldn't find the speaker he was offline so they had to call the speaker get hold of him he was having internet difficulties of his own so this went on for quite some time so he was saying in that talk he was quite open about having um having mystical experiences he had this experience where he was aware but there was no sense of self that he felt he had transcended time and space all those experiences you might say that's wonderful here's a scientist saying that but ah there's a catch he's saying all that i experienced but that does not mean that i have actually transcended time and space it's just it's possible for the brain to generate such such experiences um you feel that way a mystic experience provides you with that so he's taking a mystic experience seriously but within the confines of physical science that the brain by itself can produce such experiences but that's not the not the uh understanding that spirituality wants to take from it when spirituality says that you are this um that unlimited awareness pervading and transcending time and space they literally mean it they're not saying that you feel like that what's the good of feeling like that if you're not if you're ultimately just a mass of flesh and blood after some time you're going to die and that's the end of it no matter what your mystical experiences and if that's all that there is to it then then there's not much points to all these discussions so the problem with mystical experiences is it could be treated as something being produced by your brain and you don't have to go to the latest consciousness studies for that all throughout history mystics have been criticized and dismissed as being mad or subject to hallucinations so that so that is the problem with mystic experiences it might be wonderful for the person who is having it but not necessarily convincing either for the person and certainly not for others also vedanta is not even asking you to believe in it rather the understanding which you have got through that is deepened and a clarity dawns on you through meditating through that needed vedantic meditation that i am brahman just as we feel or even more so then we feel that i am this body and mind much more so that i am this infinite being it becomes clear to you i am beyond death beyond disease and so on now this sounds wonderful so we have a method now for realizing it but the problem here is that we may be trying it we may claim that we have attended many many talks and we have many many notebooks full of notes taken during vedanta talks sincerely i remember when i was a novice we used to sit with this wonderful teacher this swami on the roof of the monastery in dyoghar after breakfast and study the vedantic texts for an hour every day and there was this other novice who was senior to me who was leaving for the the balloon monastery for his training center and he had a pile of notebooks which had taken notes as seriously they're not only notes they're also doodles and cartoons and stuff like that when he got bored and this treasure house he said i want to give you this gift and i knew what was coming i said no i don't have any space for her all of that we may have and we may we feel that we have not really become enlightened it is not not working this whole shavana madana this inquiry vedanta it's just adding to my stored house of knowledge but not really very enlightening for me not life transformative so what is the problem so there is the first level of problem ignorance but there's a more basic level of problem called scattered mind not just ignorant mind but scattered mind in sanskrit big shape and for the shape of our scattered mind as we know today it's a huge problem in this world today especially due to social media which um shankaracharya did not have to face so the remedy for that of course is focus the remedy for distraction is focus and daniel goldman who wrote this book called focus he says i wrote this book because i kept hearing of this serious new problem distraction has always been a problem the vedantes of upanishads 5000 years ago recorded as a big obstacle distraction distraction but today in the 21st century daniel goldman writes that parents and teachers even in corporations people are talking about this new generation of youngsters bought up from babyhood with these devices and tremendously they're very intelligent but tremendously distracted minds they can't focus or hold on to the focus for more than a few minutes we have all had that problem but this has just exacerbated the modern technology seems to have exacerbated the lifestyle we have so distraction he wrote this book called focus and thousands of years before daniel goldman in vedanta in buddhism and all in yoga they said focus is essential for spiritual life [Music] i was reading one of the texts that we had for christian contemplative studies at the divinity school was simone wales book i think waiting for god so there there's a chapter on concentration on the utility of school studies for spiritual life very interesting i think it's something that every student should read especially spiritual spiritual seekers students who are spiritual seekers who are interested in spirituality there she writes that seriously studying in school by school she means of course school and college and university seriously studying in school develops the faculty of concentration which is vital for spiritual life so she says every subject even the subjects you don't like the subjects you don't like and feel bored by especially those ones if you can develop the ability to focus on that that is of inestimable value in your spiritual life she goes on to say that she equates distraction lack of concentration lack of focus with sin with being unspiritual and concentration and focus with being spiritual how do you do that in the upanishad vedantic scheme of things the method for focus is called upasana upasana literally means worship now it has two components worship has two components one is of course devotion when you are worshiping something and there is also the concept the component of meditation so focus devotion and meditation bhakti yoga and raja yoga both are implied in the vedic term upasana in fact the term upasana is a common indian word in just about every indian language it means worship now there's no time to dilate on this subject but no two interesting things these two components the devotion part of it the bhakti part of it deals primarily with emotions one the major source of distraction for us in this world is desire this outward movement of the psychic being towards things in the world in fact freud defines libido of them as the movement of the subject towards the object anything in the world outside towards which we flow internally from from within to outward so that is caused by desire it's of the nature i want i want the world what bhakti does what devotion to god does is it replaces the world with god the same i want i want the world that's replaced god same i want now flows towards god that i want xyz which was scattered in the world in 100 different desires krishna says in the bhagavad-gita for worldly persons they they are scattered in a hundred different ways so in a hundred different ways that i want was broken up and was flowing towards the world now the whole thing is pulled back and it's directed towards god it's concentrated and directed towards god that itself solves i would say 80 percent of the problem of uh distraction but 20 more you need actually a practice of meditation so to actually consciously deliberately collect the powers of the mind and direct attention towards an object of meditation that is necessary so this this upasana has two aspects there's an emotional aspect dealt with by bhakti and there is a psychic control aspect mental control aspect dealt with by raja yoga patanjali yoga both are necessary at this point a critic a skeptic would say yeah that's true but you know i have been trying to meditate for most of my life and it is not working let me tell you i either feel sleepy or i feel um you know restless and distracted so it's not working why is meditation not working why is upasana not working there is an even more basic level of of problems and obstacles and i assure you this the last one and this we're not going to go on and on uh i'm reminded of this funny anecdote i'm sure it didn't happen but somebody it's in england when i think bertrand russell was talking about science and philosophy about the nature of the world and the planet earth you know hanging in empty space one little old lady comes up to him and says young man you are very clever but everybody knows that the earth rests on a tortoise on a giant tortoise and so either it was russell or some scientist he said yes ma'am but what does the tortoise rest on and she smiled oh don't try to be so clever everybody knows it's tortoise is all the way down so i'm not going to say they're going to be problems all the way down this is the rock bottom the the ground level problem is uh impurity of mind in sanskrit chitta mala impurity of mind so see three levels of problems impure mind scattered mind ignorant mind so in pure mind the obvious remedy for this is pure mind so it's a no-brainer how do you achieve that so this is where karma yoga is very useful where our the actions of our life are spiritualized instead of being self-directed doing things for oneself one does it either as welfare of of everybody else i'm doing it as service to humanity or as service to god that could be easier for many people i am doing all the actions of my life as a worship of the lord here something has to be noted last night i was asked to give a talk to one of our ashrams in india and that was in hindi i haven't spoken in hindi for i think five or six years but it went well one in the q a one a young man asked so the discussion was on karma yoga so these are all close devotees of the ashram who are engaged in a lot of activity work so he says well swami when i work for others i do service for others that i understand is karma yoga but then there are so many things that i do for myself so there are for example something so i'm eating that's obviously for myself there is no element of karma yoga there there is something in between like when i'm doing things for my family for my parents or family when i'm doing a job and getting a salary that's in between that's not quite just myself but not quite very openly for the welfare of this there's still a me and mine involved there how do i make everything into karma yoga and the answer was don't have separate philosophies don't have a philosophy for social work and the philosophy for office work and a philosophy for dealing with your you know interacting with your family and a philosophy for yourself no have one philosophy that covers everything and that's the philosophy of karma yoga all of it is karma yoga whether you are feeding the poor in the in the vedanta society or i mean in the ashram there or you're teaching children for free as a service or you're working in the office and getting a salary or you're taking care of your parents and your family or you're feeding this body all of it belongs to the lord the mistake is to think that so when i'm doing it something for this body i'm doing it for myself look at the insidious thought in that that i am the body i am this thing and the ones connected to this body father mother husband wife children they are mine that all comes from the body idea whereas karma yoga says the entire thing belongs to the lord and truly does it not i i said to him that even take the most the thing which you identify with the most the body and when i do something for the body i feel i am doing it for myself it seems obvious to me but really how much of the body do you have control over possession over you know when sadhu in uttarakhand said um is this body yours yours you show me the papers for the body if the cop pulls you over here and says show the paper not for the car license and registration for the body how do i know this is your body how do i know you have not stolen this body who gave you this body a gift did somebody give it to you as a gift do you remember being given this body from now on it's yours no did anybody tell you it's your body no you just assumed that's not something that will fly in the local precinct that i just assumed it's my car no do you own the materials out of which this body is made and the earth and the fire and the water and all the so many elements no they are made by god you don't own them they're god's elements did you make this body even your parents did not make this body nature makes this body nature is the power of god does this body do you have control over this body no and thank god that we do not have control over the body within a minute we would be in the icu under rama's care that we do not the almost all the processes especially the vital processes are run automatically by nature they are on autopilot if we try to run it we would make a mess of it within seconds so even this body as a matter of fact not as a matter of belief as a matter of belief in fact it you think it's yours as a matter of fact it's not yours if somebody protests that's a very religious way of thinking all right bhagavad-gita see how impersonal it can be it says prakriti eva karmani kriyamanani sarvasha yapashiyati mana makartharam in the 13th chapter i think in the bhagavad-gita it says everything here body and mind also everything is being done by nature no god is not introduced here at all everything is being done by nature this much is true whether it's nature or god it's not you the one who understands this understands that the self is not a doer not an agent of action it's not doing anything here at all it's just illuminating it it's a very sunken concept so even for the body i told that young man that you must have the same philosophy it all belongs to the lord even when i'm taking care of the body i am serving the lord so one philosophy whether you are eating food or you are putting food into the mouths of hungry orphans at the ashram it is all service of the lord so karma yoga produces purity of mind purity of mind this cleansing of the heart cleansing of the mind you know in the beatitudes when jesus christ says blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see god this is the precondition of illumination of of god realization blessed are the pure in heart this is the groundwork the unglamorous uh what do you call in america the grunt work of spiritual life um what swami vivekananda insisted on again and again that a moral ethical life character building first of all before ecstasies and you know high philosophy so this character building the basis of spiritual life impure mind overcome by pure mind pure mind generated by karma yoga then you go to the next level distracted mind overcome by focused mind focused mind generated by upasana with two aspects bhakti and dhyana meditation then with this purified and concentrated mind you go to the third level where the problem is ignorant mind ignorant mind overcome by knowledge knowledge generated by gyani yoga this is the structure of spiritual practice again of course this is a classical advaita interpretation the three kinds of obstructions what i said all this time in the himalayas if you ask a monk you will just use half a sentence it's a malawik shape that's it mala means impurity of mind big shaper means scattered mind awareness means veiled mind veiled mind these three things have to be tackled all of spiritual practice is a kind of negative practice it removes obstacles you cannot catch hold of god by spiritual practice you cannot realize who you are the enlightenment it cannot be done by spiritual practice that is the great conclusion of shankaracharya what does spiritual practice do it has a negative impact that means it removes the obstacles it doesn't catch hold of god it doesn't make you into brahman god is you are already brahman whether self knowledge or god realization whichever way you put it neither are under are not neither are amenable to our efforts it's an established fact in self-knowledge you will say it shines forth by itself not because we did something in god realization you will say by the grace of the lord i realize the lord not because of our effort that we put in is the effort that we put in action is it useless i'm tying it back to arjuna's question is it useless not at all it is most useful but it is useful in removing the dirt the complications that we have set up over lifetimes it's the mess that we have made that we have to clean up otherwise it's all right so the removal of impurity the focusing removal of impurity removal of distraction removal of ignorance that we can do so that is within our the range of our effort and at each level the method changes so karma yoga denupasana and then gyana yoga first unselfish action moral and ethical action and selfish action leading to devotion to god and focused mind leading to enquiry philosophical inquiry into the self so this is the structure of spiritual practice this is what krishna meant when he said to arjuna about the question of action and knowledge if knowledge is superior spiritual enlightenment is superior why are you asking me to do things in this world especially terrible things krishna's answer was it will not work spiritual knowledge will arise through see when i tell you that you are the atman you will immediately give the first of the objections that i don't know veiled mind and if you try to tackle it you will get the second objection you bring forth you will yourself realize we ourselves realize that we have that other level of problems distracted mind and when we try to meditate and overcome that we will ourselves realize we have that ground level of problems in pure mind so these three have to be tackled by us and therefore krishna says i am teaching you action also what kind of action that unselfish action which clears up the ground level of problems that is the impure mind impure mind must be purified then the purified mind must be concentrated later on sixth chapter krishna will teach meditation and then comes the cultivation the inquiry into the self the gyani yoga which is the level of knowledge or enlightenment which will lead directly to enlightenment this is the structure so action is prescribed because it will generate fitness for enlightenment and this is what advaita says again and again advaita does not discard action in fact from advaithic perspective action is most important in spiritual life without that the fitness for enlightenment will not be generated the fitness for gyani yoga it depends on doing karma yoga this is shankaracharya's own words this may sound contradictory because shankaraki keeps on saying action and knowledge are contradictory this is we'll see why so but this is from shankaracharya's own commentary that the fitness for gyani yoga is generated by karma yoga and upasana fitness for enlightenment is generated by unselfish action and devotion so once you are fit for um enlightenment so do you give up action not there too sri krishna says that every moment the body is acting either you do so through in through ignorance when you are identified with body and mind or you do so through enlightenment after being enlightened even then action continues um aurobindo the great modern indian philosopher has severely criticized shankara because he says shankara put forth an ideal of the inactive monk that is the highest ideal and that is not what the gita or the upanishads teach shankara taught renunciation of action but i think that is not a good reading of shankara it's very telling that arubindo in his long life after an initial period of political activism actually gave up all action himself and the rest of his life was completely withdrawn and inactive more than any other monk as far as external world was concerned of course he was very active on in an internal you know like on an intellectual and spiritual plane but practically speaking he was directly almost inaccessible to people for most of the his later life in contrast it's it's ironic in contrast shankaracharya is accuses of praising inaction shankaracharya was active throughout his short life of 32 years intense activity whether it's composing the bhashyas whether it is spreading the word of vedanta establishing the monastic orders reorganizing hinduism the effects of his actions can be felt down centuries till today 1400 years i am a monk of an order started by shankaracharya so here is this person you are accusing him of of abandoning action and praising inaction most active person intensely active person and the person who accuses him is the most inactive person in a in a in a gross sense that in a sense external sense of course internally he was a great yogi anyway polemics apart we'll dive a little deeper into this question of action and knowledge before we resurface again hopefully we they say there are gems and the depth of the ocean so we'll have to take a hold our breath and dive deep into the ocean of a very subtle way of thinking so um what is the enlightened person's perspective on action krishna says even an enlightened person does action for the welfare of the world but what is the enlightened person's perspective on action how is it different from ours in the fourth chapter krishna says to arjuna that there is a mystery about action what is that mystery he says the mystery is something like this karmanya karmaya the one who sees no work who sees work in no work and the first one is so um in in so when there is work he sees no work and when there is no work he sees work there such a person is wise and such a person is is truly established in yoga and such a person is the doer of all works now what a strange statement you see that when there is work you are seeing it as no work and when there is no work you say that it is work and such a person is supposed to be intelligent who is intelligent the one who sees things as they are if there is work by work and no work means the way we normally would understand it person sitting quietly no work person running around doing all sorts of things you know busy a city that never sleeps so that is work in manhattan people are always working so when you're active physically mentally that is work and when you're physically you see that you're sitting quietly maybe a yogi in the himalayas that is no work and according to krishna the one who sees when a person is running around and doing all sorts of activities who sees truly that it's not it's not work and when a person is sitting quietly apparently not doing anything the person will say no that's work and that's supposed to be intelligent buddhiman that is an intelligent person the knower among all all people so that is supposed to be a person who is a true yogi established in yoga and there is a person mysterious term the doer of all works what does this mean the enlightened person sees that apparently for the enlightened person when the enlightened person is doing a lot of work like krishna like shankaracharya or vivekananda if you ask that person he will say truly speaking i'm not doing anything how is that possible what is the nature of enlightenment that's what is being shown here the relation of knowledge and action at a deep level is being shown here to illustrate this shankaracharya in his commentary on this verse he says that imagine a boat you're in a river in a boat and suddenly you get his shock you see that you feel you are stationary and the bank is moving the trees on the bank are moving the buildings on the bank are moving i had this experience i was so thrilled to see this commentary because in belur mutt in our monastery there which is on the on the ganga when you cross the ganga and you go to the other side where is calcutta so you come from calcutta to bellure motor you're going from belurama to calcutta in the middle of the river as the little boats are there so as you go on those little boats suddenly you feel that you are stationary in the river but the trees and the temples and all on the bank they are moving obviously it's just an illusion you know you get this feeling sometimes you're sitting on a train and so you suddenly feel the other the platform is moving and it's actually you are moving but your the nature of the movement of the boat is actually superimposed on the bank the unmoving bank seems to be moving and the moving board does not seem to be moving so exactly like that shankaracharya says in our case you the witness consciousness you are never changing you are always the illuminate of all action but the action of the body and mind the movement of the body speech thinking of the mind all that is imposed upon you and you get the feeling i walk i talk i think i am happy i am unhappy these are all movements of the mind these are all movements of the body these are all changes taking place in the world in the body in the mind not in you you are like the bank of the river you're like the temple on the bank which is not moving not like the boat it's the movement of the boat which is suddenly put illusorally it appears on the bank the movement of the body and mind the activities of the organs it appears imposed upon you the witness consciousness and you feel you are in action the enlightened person knows though it looks like that actually i the witness consciousness i the atman that infinite is-ness awareness i do not do anything this all the doing is happening on in the body mind at the level of appearance the screen in the movie and suppose there is a car chase going on in the movie and the cops are chasing the rubbers the screen is neither driving a car nor chasing robbers the screen is not a crop nor a robber nothing but it enables the entire movie to happen without the screen nothing would happen you the in infinite is-ness awareness in you the movie of life is playing and because you cover yourself up you're veiled you know veiled mind and then the game begins you we have become totally identified we think we are this body and mind and then whatever is happening in the movie we think this is real and this is what i am the enlightened person sees the movie and also knows nothing is actually happening so the enlightened person would say in the midst of all actions in the midst of all activities who say who sees there is no activity going on at the level of the self i am the witness consciousness ever free of karma and in the case of the unenlightened person who says i will not engage in any kind of karma and i sit quietly and meditate on god the enlightened person will say that's also karma that's also a kind of karma not doing anything whether for an unenlightened person whether that person does something or does not do anything both are karma but an enlightened person whether that person does something through the body and mind or does not do something for the body and mind none of it is karma so when the unenlightened person sits runs away from society i will not be part of this world i will withdraw from all worldly activities still it's an activity it's still karma it's like when we say that i will fast now fasting is not a positive action you're just stopping yourself from eating but isn't it a kind of action because you are doing something it takes quite a bit of effort probably more effort than eating so i will fast that's a kind of action so the enlightened person sees even when apparently there is no action there is action going on for the unenlightened person so such a person is intelligent buddhism this person truly sees the enlightened person so now we understand this person is a true yogi and the doer of all actions kritsna karmakrit means the doer of all actions what does it mean ultimately the purpose of all action is to lead you to enlightenment so this person has attained the purpose of all action we normally think what is the purpose of action it is to earn money it is to maintain my body it is to get me a nice apartment to live in it is to help people in the world that's all at the level of identification with body and mind all of this action will ultimately lead to enlightenment when you realize you are this unchanging business awareness unlimited unchanging business awareness so this is the secret of action from the enlightened person's perspective the enlightened person can engage in dynamic action for the welfare of others why welfare of others why not his own welfare because he does not need any welfare from the world you're in immortal spirit spirit is-ness awareness what do you need from whom do you need anything what can add to you what can take away from you nothing can affect you all your needs are permanently satisfied so with the body and mind still appearing to the enlightened being that body and mind that natural reaction will be to sacrifice it to let it go in the welfare of the world [Music] in the song of the sannyasin when he talks about enlightenment that that let the body go he says let karma float it down its task is done go thou from place to place and enlighten people bring them out from maya's veil swan will become the says so their actions will be now for the welfare of the world not just spiritual welfare swami vivekananda said it is an insult to a starving man to teach in metaphysics so we'll be like oh all around welfare spiritual welfare educational you know physical in all ways the enlightened person will try to bring about the welfare of others that's one kind of enlightened person there may be other kinds see for an enlightened person there is no prescription that they have to be like this that's where i think uh arubanda is mistaken again that they have to be like this they have to engage in action no not necessarily swami gambhiranji speaks of three kinds of jivan mukta three kinds of enlightened persons one might be completely absorbed in brahman in samadhi barely aware of the external world or not at all aware and such persons have attained to the peak of spiritual attainment they have realized what the truth is and they are absorbed in it that's what vivekananda wanted from sudama krishna sudama krishna scolded that's why we are sitting here today but what he wanted was not a mean thing that is in traditional spiritual path that is regarded as the final the highest so that's one kind of enlightened person aren't they enlightened yes like dhota puri for example enlightened of course someone like ramana maharshi for example perfectly enlightened note he was always absorbed but a great amount of good was done through man is still being done just because he was absorbed in god even sway vivekananda says these rare souls who may sit in a mountain cave and be absorbed in god and pass away there they will take a few thoughts for the welfare of of the world and those thoughts will live on they will penetrate through the stone walls of the caves and permeate the thought universe of the world and will work out their effect so one kind of enlightened person remains absorbed in brahman in in the and not at all active at least from our perspective the second kind of enlightened person is aware of this world enlightened but aware of the appearance of the world the world appearance and considers it as fun as magic as something something crazy i'm reminded of that sadhu in dakshineshwar who would come out who would meditate all day long in the cave and come out once in a while look at the temple and the river and the sky and say wow how wonderful wonderful wonderful what what is the play of maya and go back into the hut and meditate again they look up upon it as play they are often the crazy people of god suryam krishna says enlightened persons may sometimes live like little children or like mad people yeah that that man who came just like a like you know what you might call a hobo into the dakshineshwar temple dirty matted hair people thought he was crazy and sriram krishna pointed him out to ride look that's an enlightened person he's a jeevan mukhtar liberated while living people thought he was mad i think children laughed at him and chased him or something like that but when he came he came into the temple of kali and recited a hymn they said the very tablets as if the entire temple was shaking and when he walked away sorry there i thought maybe i can catch hold of him and get enlightenment or at least some spiritual advice he started chasing him and this crazy man threw stones at him to dissuade him finally he would not listen and came close and asked him give me some spiritual advice and the man just said look at this ditch water dirty water of the drain and the water of the ganga when the two you see them they are the same then you have attained enlightenment and then you walked on so such people are there they are also enlightened but they are not engaged in action like deliberate action for the welfare of the world as we might think it the third category is those who feel for the sufferings of everybody else and they want to help everybody their hearts melt with compassion so those are the enlightened ones who are the great teachers of the world they spend the rest of their lives like the buddha like vivekananda like shankara in uplifting humanity for the welfare of the world the third kind of action is what sri ramakrishna what swami vivekananda they that is what distressed as karma yoga from an uh the action performed by an enlightened being for the welfare of the world um one might ask well what good is that let me first attain enlightenment and then i will do that kind of action for the welfare of the world no shankaracharya himself says in the bhagavad-gita in the second chapter when arjuna asks krishna what are the characteristics of an enlightened person srita pragasiya kaabhash what are the characteristics of an enlightened person very beautiful sequence of verses at the end of the second chapter um there shankaracharya comments you know what's the point of knowing the characteristics of enlightened person that might be nice to know but what relevance does it have for us now he says no it has great relevance that's a line from his commentary whatever are the characteristics of enlightened persons the characteristics of saints those are practices for the rest of us that's natural for them the unselfishness the fearlessness the complete serenity the ability to withstand suffering and not be moved all of that those are practices for the rest of us they it comes naturally to them we must consciously practice them so that's the thing that we have to live we have to try to live like that why because he says by practicing that we will become enlightened that's where the virtues which are taught on the path of spirituality they come from the lives of the enlightened beings we see how they are and then we try to inculcate them there's an element of artificiality involved there because we are not yet there but there's no other way of progressing we have to do that so all the great spiritual traditions of the world from the beginning they have taught both knowledge and action and we now realize these are not two separate things they are essential action is essential for enlightenment in a deeper level the two are the same the action is an expression of enlightenment the third kind of enlightened being the actual action is an expression of enlightenment so when bhagavad-gita krishna says look at how there is a continuity of thought geeta krishna says to arjuna some and substance of my teaching is keep your mind on me and fight the battle of life look knowledge and action you might say devotion and action fine but it's a connection with god spirituality and a connection with the world do fight your battle of life wherever you are you have to do this and keep your mind on god not one of the two often monks we have a debate on this why not just keep your mind on god and the other monks who would say why not just do good to humanity why bring in all that metaphysics but both are necessary and both are necessary because the deeper uh understanding is it's not both it's the same thing if we try to say one and not the other there is some lack of understanding there only the world not god it's a lack of understanding there what is this world you're trying to serve only god not the world what is this world you're trying to avoid it's god with eyes closed and eyes open as soon as krishna would say jesus christ when he was asked what should we do of all the commandments in the judaic religion what is the important one jesus says love the lord thy god with all thy heart and all thy might what a beautiful statement and one more love thy neighbor there are not two things this is the same thing action and knowledge and then vivekananda when he gave a motto for us for the liberation of the self i hear the self means the individual self the the one identified with body and mind not the uh ultimate self of business awareness because that's already liberated always so the one where we find ourselves right now for our liberation atmano mokshatham for the welfare of the world means and so knowledge and action why both because the deeper understanding is the preliminary understanding as shankaracharya says without that action you will not attain to that knowledge that action makes us ready for that knowledge you remember um impure mind distracted mind ignorant availed mind and for that you need karma yoga upasana and ghana yoga so all of that is necessary for enlightenment but the deeper understanding is this one's own enlightenment and the welfare of the world are part of the same spiritual philosophy they are not two different things so whether it is krishna in the bhagavad-gita or jesus christ or today swami vivekananda this synthesis of knowledge and action it is a more holistic spiritual philosophy a more comprehensive spiritual philosophy which covers the entirety of our life like sister nivedita said henceforth no division between the secular and the spiritual secular and the sacred division between secular and sacred not in the sense of our secular world where even the sacred is secularized so sacred is secularized means yoga which is a spiritual path what is it for well it prevents wrinkles and it keeps you limber and it boosts your immune system all of that is true but those are the secular benefits you have made it into a secular practice a little bit of calisthenics this um you know physical exercise no um even the secular world is spiritualized all of it is for enlightenment all of it is for god realization whether you are on the path of bhakti devotion all of it is for as a worship of my beloved lord what i do in my heart and what i do in the world outside or in the path of self-realization all of it is an expression that i am brahman the gita verse where sri krishna integrates both brahma panam ramahabi brahma pranam brahma habibi brahmagno brahmana favorite verse because it's followed immediately by delicious food but it is not a verse for eating it means imagine the ancient vedic worship the fire sacrifice there is a ladle the urpan by which the hobby the sacrificial the the clarified butter is offered into the fire by the priest accompanied by the chanting of mantras all of it is said all of this is brahman the ladle with which you are making the offering is brahman the offering is brahman the fire is brahman the priest is brahman the one who sees brahman in all activities in all action brahma-karma-samadhi the one who sees brahman in all action which means action is being performed that one attains to brahman who realizes i am brahman see what a beautiful synthesis of knowledge and action i pray to srirama krishna the holy mother swami vivekananda and this is the month of the worship of the divine mother the navaratri so i pray to the divine mother durga to protect all of us at this difficult and troubled time to bless all of us [Music] [Music] namaste [Music] you

Channel: Vedanta Video

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Keywords: Vedanta, religion, god, karma, meditation, ramakrishna, vivekananda, brahman, hindu

Id: VT0OHPuQ7gE

Length: 59min 51sec (3591 seconds)

Published: Thu Aug 05 2021