Swami Vivekananda's Vedanta Teachings | Swami Sarvapriyananda

[Music] um [Music] um we are celebrating swami vivekananda's birthday today it was a few days ago by the lunar calendar this is always confusing uh somebody said yesterday oh my friend's birthday coincides with swan vivekananda's birthday then i said only once this this time not next year where the english calendar it is the 12th of january because you calculate by the lunar uh calendar that the the date of the birth date keeps changing from year to year in the english calendar a gentleman who's very close to us who works at the united nations he said uh to me that yes yes i understand the lunar calendar because my wife is south korean and she calculates her birthday by the lunar calendar it drives me crazy because her birthday is different every day every year it's very important for us here in the vedanta society of new york swami vivekananda established this vedanta society of new york in 1894 so we have this remarkable legacy it was established in fact five years before bellurmart itself swami vivekananda did a great deal of his uh of his work here in new york in the vedanta society of new york and you know the raj yoga publication of the raja yoga translation and publication of the raja yoga the first edition of the gyani yoga the karma yoga the great arthur salinger jd salinger said these are two delightful classics these are two classics two little classics karma yoga and raja yoga which our american youth would do well to carry around in their pockets so these books were actually first written here and they published from here i think even the first edition of bhakti yoga also was published from from the vedanta society of new york the logo of the ramakrishna mission which is very familiar it was designed here in fact once they're going to print a pamphlet in those days swami vivekananda's lectures here in new york were printed and distributed in pamphlets and the printer who was a devotee he came to swami vivekananda one morning where swami vivekananda was at the breakfast table and said uh swamiji we need a logo to go with this can you design something and on the back of an envelope swami vivekananda there and then he sketched out this thing and he said and he then he says the description is he tossed it across the table and he said draw it to scale and print it so that was that's what we use today in fact it's right here i think the logo of the ramakrishna order and so on so what is the subject today what are we going to talk about this morning subject as you said it's very general so i'm vivekananda's teachings vedanta teachings what i'm going to talk about is the old and the new in vedanta in vedanta and in vivekananda why this subject it's because i've noticed that here in the west in fact why only west now in the modern world everywhere it is the same in academia the fashion is that um unless you say something new you can't make your mark you you get published only by claiming that what you are saying and writing is new nobody got it right earlier you are the first person who's saying this for the first time everybody who has talked about it in this area is a fool and they all got it wrong and you're setting it right for the first time and so on maybe i'm exaggerating but by not by much there's a reason why there is this is so in fact i remember professor jayan mahanti who is a very well known philosopher master of both indian and western philosophy who taught here in the united states for many decades he said once that he had met hannah aaron and hannah arendt maybe here in new york itself hannah aaron told him that this great difference between the ancient greek and ancient indian outlook is the ancient greek outlook was that something comes out of nothing so there's always the possibility of new things coming and the new is always new and better whereas the ancient indian outlook was something comes out of something so whatever is coming its roots are there the source is behind it the reality is behind it it's emerging from something which was the already existing maybe that's the philosophy why today new new publication new idea that is important before i go into this just by the way knowledge is by definition new even in vedanta one of the terms used to define knowledge is brahma valid knowledge is um anardigata that which has not been known earlier is now known so knowledge is always new whether it's in the east or the west but what is meant there is different from what we are talking about what is meant in the vedantic sense of knowledge being new is for me when i read vedanta when i study and when i practice spiritual disciplines i get this new realization but it doesn't mean it's new for for vedanta it's not new for the civilization it's not new for the vedas it's been there i learn it just like it's new knowledge for me only when i go to school and study the textbooks and attend the classes that doesn't mean it's new for the professor or for the discipline itself it's it's established and well known so in that sense whereas the indian tradition has always been and i'm talking not about all kinds of knowledge i'm talking about spiritual knowledge here spiritual and maybe philosophical knowledge the indian tradition has been that whatever you say to be valid it has to be based on an authentic spiritual tradition it must be the expression of an established spiritual tradition shankaracharya goes so far as to say that's sanskrit for it's polite sanskrit for the person who is not learned in the tradition who does not know the tradition even if this person has read all the books in the library should this person should be disregarded as a fool doesn't know anything in fact these days it is uh people do not know sometimes spiritual teachers modern spiritual teachers i've seen in india too they make radical claims like oh it is my realization i'm talking about i'm not talking about somebody else's whatever they said in the books i don't read books i am i discovered this for myself it is new i'm giving you something absolutely new and they find followers that's why i'm saying this is a trend all over the world that the latest and the newest must be somehow the best so um what i'm telling you is new it is entirely my own they don't realize how utterly stupid how utterly they discredit themselves in the eyes of traditional learning i remember this monk this is a story which i read so some some enthusiasts went and said to a monk in the himalayas that you know my teacher my guru has said these things which are not there in the sastras in the traditional teaching and the monk said i'll tell you in hindi and translate why are you cursing insulting your own guru it's an insult to say that people don't realize today they take it as a matter of great credit absolutely original absolutely stupid that's from the indian perspective so from the indian perspective what happens see both sides have their advantages and disadvantages the advantage of this modern approach i would not say again western approach because it's all over the world now and it's also not western in that sense because the if you go back a couple of hundred years ago the entire tradition in judaism and in christianity was a commentarial tradition that it comes from down a lineage of prophets and teachers and we are commenting on it and so on but it's a modern tradition uh or a modern approach that the new must be necessarily better and it must be more authentic maybe it's the model of progress in scientific knowledge where newer things are discovered and so the old things are just undiscarded but that's not necessarily true or valid about spiritual uh knowledge both sides have their advantages and disadvantages what is the advantage of this modern approach is that there's always the possibility of new discovery there's always the possibility of a new and better approach there's always the possibility of of uh adapting something to modern circumstances things change and so knowledge must change accordingly that's the advantage the disadvantage is that often and i know this from personal experience you read you know i enthusiastically read the latest articles on areas of my interest and philosophy in vedanta especially indian philosophy especially new articles often they are not worth the paper they are written on only by claiming to be new to get it published they make huge claims and then it's when you see what is there it's either a rehash of what is all what is already there or it is superficial or it is just plain wrong in just in the eagerness to be published as something new and original often it's not worthwhile endeavor itself is not worth but it's a waste of time that's the disadvantage the traditional approach again has its strengths and disadvantages the traditional approach of there is this truth i find in the upanishads now i'm commenting writing commentaries upon it and sub commentaries upon it and sub sub commentaries upon it the great disadvantage of that approach of course one is one can clearly see it might simply become uncreative and unoriginal after some time just ornamental it might rob us of the power of thinking thinking or original thoughts i remember one great pundit from whom i studied nyaya and i was very you know impressed to see the capacity of these traditional pundits to you know memorize entire texts and they were so well grounded in their area of study i was talking specifically of nyaya philosophy compared to what i saw the products of our modern school college university system so i was telling this pandit i'm so this traditional learning is is very impressive but that pandit told me it is true but at the same time we lack critical thinking so we tend to you know master the texts really do it really really well but then to think for oneself once again about it that capacity sometimes disappears why i'm bringing all this up is last year uh in a class at harvard when swamp when a professor parimal patil was introducing his class on classical indian buddhist philosophy so imagine all the students where no other indian student except myself and they're all graduates in philosophy and especially trained in modern western philosophy so he started by saying that this distinction we are making between the traditional commentarial approach the old text and you write commentaries and subcommittees and subcommittees upon it and this new approach of telling saying that i'm saying something new for the first time and so he sort of scolded the students saying that don't be dismissive of the commentarial approach don't think that's all useless because oh you're just writing newer and newer commentaries on this it's the same what old wine in new bottles the same thing you're saying all over again it's not worth looking at no no no don't do that he said that this distinction between old and new is not correct what i said till now that professor patil said this is not a valid distinction why often why he said that when you look at the the old masters in um buddhist philosophy or in vedanta in indian philosophy they had their way of saying new things so you give an example so this person is writing a commentary on another master who lived centuries ago who wrote a commentary on the buddha's teachings and now he wants to disagree with this master so what does he say the great sanghapa in all his omniscient wisdom has come up with this out of his creative genius meaning thereby he's not saying anything good he's saying that he invented it it's not something that the buddha said now i want to give you this new idea so he is saying something new he is being critical and he is making a change it's just that the format is of a subcommentary on another commentary on the other hand he said look at western thinkers western philosophers who claim originality but if you look deeply they are always all the time even by criticizing their predecessors they are building on their predecessors if you look at sarth or heidegger you will find behind them nietzsche if you look at nietzsche you will find behind nietzsche is hegel and schopenhauer and behind that is kant and behind that are the scholastics of you know the catholic theologians and behind that are the greek philosophers it is presented as if entirely new but it is built upon the like the shoulders of giants so that is also a kind of commentary fine all this was by the way of introduction so what we will do now is bring this to bear upon swami vivekananda's presentation of vedanta the old and the new what is old what is new in swami vivekananda this presentation of vedanta swami vivekananda himself said that my mission in life can be put in a few words it is to preach unto humanity their inner divinity and how to make it manifest in every movement of life look at the words to preach unto humanity their inner divinity and how to make it manifest in every movement of life every word is important another place very well known definition of religion each soul is potentially divine and the goal is to manifest this divinity already within us and then you do it by you know by work or worship or philosophy or devotion one or more or all of these and be free that is the whole of religion books temples doctrines churches our secondary details and so on but notice the words the key words are the manifestation of the divinity already within us so this is the first thing which swami vivekananda says that there is a divinity within us this is how he presents vedanta what is he saying here in traditional advaita vedanta which we have studied and enquired into ourselves the claim is that we are one with the absolute reality the ultimate reality of the universe there is an ultimate reality and that ultimate reality is you tattoo that is the traditional formulation in the upanishads you find that thou art now if i am that ultimate reality my first reaction is that i don't know about it and then we all know we have talked about it for you know forever this that has been the theme of not only my talks here but the whole vedanta society for the last 126 27 years we've been talking about this divinity within ourselves it is you have to engage in a process of inquiry and what i know about myself we start off by yes obviously there's this body and then uh not just the body we the mind is there the personality and vedanta teaches us in various ways to inquire within ourselves enquire means to take a look they will give us the instructions the upanishads and the vedanta texts tell us how to do it you listen to that and carefully track it follow it in our own experience when we attend to our own experience there's a philosophical fancy word for it it's called a phenomenological approach phenomenological approach means how reality appears to us right now you just attend to that quite distinct from believing in something later after that somewhere or somewhere else like heaven that's a different kind of approach that's a dualistic devotional faith-based approach there's also a mystical approach when you sit and meditate and you get extraordinary experiences but the way of advaita vedanta was to attend to experience right now what experience we have talked about it drigrishya the experience of subject and object i am the experiencer and here is the world of experience and you follow this and go inwards the i am the seer and what i see is an object so i look at the world that's an object look at the body that's an object look at the mind itself is an object these are amazing new revolutions to us because we always thought i am the mind i am the mind in a body that's it we never examine that but then the mind itself is an object or a series of subtle objects yeah and so in badrik viveka we come to this idea that there is an awareness at my core core of my existence is an awareness that awareness is my real nature but we can just say that my my deeper nature is that awareness it's easier to grasp than immediately to abandon that i am not the body not the mind i'm that awareness that's a little difficult but let's say i am i i first of all discover that such an awareness is there it has always been there the same thing you discover in thai terri upanishad by the traditional method of the five sheets the five layers of the human personality here is the physical layer the annamaya kosha and we notice inside that there is a layer of prana of life pranamaya kosha you notice then there is a layer of thoughts deeper more subtle inwards inwards to the body is the life processes inwards to the life processes the layer of thoughts emotions memories which we identified with ourselves what we see they are also objects just like this body is an object those thoughts are also objects subject to continuous change look inwards you find the layer of the sheets of intellect which we are using right now to understand all these things that's also something it's also a subtle thing push inwards further inwards and the openish it says there is the anandamaya kosha the bliss the bliss sheath which is a clue which we get in deep sleep for example and as a as the knower the observer the illumina the experiencer of these five sheets and through these five sheets we experience the world is it same awareness which i talked about same thing we find in the mandu kyopanisha just attend to your experience of waking dreaming deep sleep and notice that when we go from waking to dreaming to deep sleep huge change is there the whole world goes away and there's a world of dreams that goes away there is blankness not only the world even more stunning my physical body goes away you see in the other methods of viveka the bodies are constant it's still there but when you look at our waking dreaming and deep sleep i continue as a knowing subject as an experiencer and i lose experience of my physical body what a remarkable thing that it is there on the on the bed something that i hold on to so closely in a moment it's gone entirely from my consciousness if you say that i become unconscious i have no experience and therefore i do not experience the body that is something i can accept that but imagine the remarkable nature of dreams where i continue as an experiencer as a knowing subject and yet i have no idea of my body no experience of my body lying on the bed so that the world disappears before my eyes the body disappears before my experience and then it's replaced by dreams that also disappears my whole way of looking at the world as i am a subject and i know an object this world or the world of dreams this whole subject objecting also disappears in in deep sleep and i come back again by this method i discover the same awareness the same awareness which is experiencing all of this this awareness is free of the world is free of the body is free of the thoughts feelings memories emotions personality this immortal awareness problems are in the world problems are in body problems are in emotions in mind in intellect also there are problems and the seed of all problems seed of all dukkha is in the mind in the in the causal state deep sleep because it comes back again but the consciousness which transcends all of them there's no problem there death is of the body that is not of the consciousness this immortal problem-free consciousness this consciousness in itself what does it want suppose you try something like this right now that imagine the world outside has disappeared it's all covered with snow and buried gone and then close your eyes and you see the room also disappears there's nobody else around and then you think that the body itself has disappeared no physical body just a mass of thoughts no perceptions you don't see anything here smell taste touch anything now imagine all memories have disappeared no memories now imagine all thoughts ideas disappeared and you are aware will be aware of what will be like nothing now drop that nothing also suppose and just awareness the light of awareness which is always there that awareness what does it want what does it need what demands does it have nothing it's perfectly fulfilled it's always there all problems and all demands and desires and lack of fulfillment they come when the mind starts working and then when the mind attends to itself and then to the body and to the world then these things start up now that consciousness in itself ever free immortal um ever pure impurity and purity they come with the body mind ever satisfied ever beyond sorrow this is called the divinity of the soul this is what swami vivekananda means he used the word divinity within us so we already have it and the whole point is to discover this reality not only this thing the second big thing which swami vivekananda taught about vedanta was how many such divinities are there our first reaction would be that all right so i am such an awareness and there are many such awarenesses plurality of awarenesses in all living beings in each body mind there will be one such awareness that would be the sankhya point of view but swami vivekananda talked about the oneness of all existence it is one awareness in the bhagavad-gita vedanta says in bhagavad-gita krishna says imam know me alone to be the one awareness in all beings now look god is saying that this awareness which you we discover within yourself it is the same awareness in all beings and this one awareness in all beings in and through all beings shining in in and through all minds is god and it is one one of the hymns by which we are when we sing to sudama krishna the witness of the mind the witness of the intellect where in all living beings who knows all whom nobody knows that we salute as sri dharma krishna but what is that srinama krishna it is you your own inner reality and there the entire universe is one and the external physical world and the so many bodies they're all like waves in an ocean they're all appearances in one reality this is what swami vivekananda calls the oneness of all existence he is vedanta which he taught with the lions are over here in the west and in india is this two is built on two planks one is the divinity within us and the second one is the oneness of all existence the divinity within each one of us already there already perfect waiting to be discovered or as he said manifested and the oneness of all existence this is vedant according to swami vivekananda just one little observation so this reality i am brahman discovering this so this is what is vedanta this is traditional vedanta swami vivekananda adds a little wrinkle on this a little ornamentation little little change in this he does not say knowing the divinity within yourself he says manifesting the divinity within yourself my ideal is to preach unto humanity their inner divinity and how to make it manifest in every movement of their life in every movement of life how to make it manifest that means in our thinking in our speaking and in our daily activities see this is where you can see the clear connection srinama whenever he practiced any kind of spirituality he would bring it down practice it to the most basic bodily level also renunciation of wealth through coins into the river this clay and coins takamati matitaka so some jokester said oh he knew how valuable property is going to be that's why he said clay is money money is clay he knew that land is going to be valuable no so he practiced it when he wanted to erase every consciousness of caste superiority um or any kind of superiority over others he went and wiped the lettering of a sweeper physically he did it wiping it with his long matted hair now this is what's why vivekananda means by the manifestation of divinity manifestation of divinity does not only include realizing oh i am not the body not the mind and the rupa hashivoham i am pure consciousness i am the nature of shiva that's one part of it the other part of it is fearlessness love for everybody unselfishness you know unconditional love unselfishness um discipline self-control natural self-control all of the qualities of a saint they should come into our lives that is the manifestation of the divinity this is the full meaning of the word manifestation i always thought why did swami vivekananda use the word manifestation of the divinity already within us why not knowledge of the divinity already within us so it must be expressed it must bear fruit in our lives above all swami vivekananda was a practical spiritualist he was a practical vedantist it must have practical benefits right now in our lives i must be able to solve my problems and the problems of others he said otherwise he said i have no interest in such a religion you know which cannot wipe the widow's tears in this life and promises heaven after death i cannot give a loaf of bread to the hungry now and promises heaven after death i do not believe in such a religion so i am very kind very strong why manifestation the nature of enlightenment is a paper i read last year you wouldn't think that professors in harvard are interested in enlightenment but there's a discussion one interesting paper that really struck me two models of enlightenment this professor was writing about it's a paper on enlightenment in buddhism in tibetan buddhism two models of enlightenment one is called the paradigm shift model the other one is called the ethical manifestation model what is the paradigm shift model uh i in the buddhist paradigm that i realize the emptiness of the world i i get pragya the wisdom which enables me to reach nirvana realize my true nature in vedanta it would be i realize myself as brahman ahambram has me i am infinite existence consciousness place this is the paradigm shift i am not body not mind and this is not a material universe i realize the divinity within myself and the oneness of this divinity this is paradigm shift but what is ethical manifestation ethical manifestation is love for others the complete scientific on this language self abnegation complete unselfishness expressed in service complete removal of fear fearlessness so the manifestation of the qualities of a buddha in our life that is called the ethical manifestation model now i was just thinking the word manifestation used by swami vivekananda has both of these the paradigm shift and the ethical manifestation both of these are are there inside vivekananda's model of spirituality as we go on the path of vedanta we must gather more and more of this realization that i am not the body and mind i am the witness consciousness i am free of problems actually not as a slogan to actually see that yes there is at least there is a spiritual depth in me which is free of the problems that i must admit then next is at this as we go along these qualities of unselfishness of strength of fearlessness of love for others of the control of the senses these must manifest even before realization must go start manifesting and after realization also a perfect manifestation of these qualities so this is called uh manifestation of the divinity full manifestation of divinity means knowledge of the divinity and also the qualities the qualities which go along with it what is old and what is new so sister nivedita in her masterful introduction to the complete works of swami vivekananda says all these things which i've just now till now i've said all these things would have been true even if vivekananda had never lived all these gita upanishads everything would have been there as much valid and she says the word she uses as much authentic even if vivekan did not come then what is new in vivekananda and she says of course the ease of access and the presentation how we vikanda presents it that is a very wonderful thing which he has done but there is something unique which he has given here now we are going from old to new we must see what is the new thing and sister niverita puts it so powerfully that instead of paraphrasing her words i would like to quote the original the word her original words are powerful accurate and sort of breathtaking in the vista she opens up before us so what she says it must never be forgotten that it was the swami vivekananda who while proclaiming the sovereignty of the advaita philosophy which we just talked about now as including the experience in which all is one without a second also added to hinduism here the doctrine that dwayta vishishta dwight and advaita are but three phases or stages in a single development in which the last named advaita in which the last name constitutes the goal this is part and parcel of this trill before i go on so here is already a big contribution without vivekananda without sriram krishna if you look at the philosophical scene in india a thousand years of conflict from shankaracharya's time down to about 18 in one sense still continuing that is advaita superior is advaita right or dwaytha right or vishishta dwighta right there are wonderful masters who have written enormous and sophisticated and deep dialectical texts attacking and defending for a thousand years so that is wonderful i could be that as it may because it has led to the development of philosophy that's great but ultimately at the end of it where do we stand here is the beautiful insight that this is a series of developments and we remember here what suramar krishna proved of you know hanuman saying that as body i am the servant and you rama are my lord as the jiva sentient being you are the whole i am thy part and as pure consciousness you and i are one reality and these three are my firm conviction so this is this is one great the significance of this cannot be overruled till now it is not fully accepted this and that's the sign of something new it takes time to be accepted but you the truth of this actually strikes you directly when you think about it yes it must be so then she goes on much more remarkable this is part and parcel of the still greater and more simple doctrine that the many and the one are the same reality perceived by the mind at different times and in different attitudes or as sri ramakrishna expressed the same thing god is both with form and without form and he is that which includes both form and formlessness as you dig deeper into vivekananda you begin to see he is it is ramakrishna and ramakrishna throughout only from the surface scholars will see sriram krishna said something vivekananda made these changes we dig deeper you will just see this is almost like vivekananda is a shell through which ramakrishna is shining forth and sister nivedita says that this thing which she just said i'm quoting again it is this which adds its crowning significance to our master's life here out by our master she means vivekananda for here why is this so important what she says is breathtaking for here he becomes the meeting point not only of east and west but also past and future if the one and the many be indeed the same reality then it is not only all modes of worship alone but equally all modes of work all modes of struggle all modes of creation which are paths of realization no distinction henceforth between sacred and secular to labor is to pray to conquer is to renounce life is itself religion to have and to hold is as stern a trust as to quit and to avoid this is the realization which makes vivekananda the great preacher of karma not as divorced from but as expressing gyara and bhakti it's the old conflict between knowledge devotion and action it is all synthesized into one one vision to him vivekananda the workshop the study the farmyard and the field are as true and fit scenes for the meeting of god with man as the cell of the monk or the door of the temple to him there is no difference between service of man and worship of god between manliness and faith between true righteousness and spirituality all these all his all his words from one point of view can be read as a commentary upon this central conviction this is sister nivedita to be taken very seriously she says all that vivekananda taught very difficult to reconcile because it seems contradictory at times this is all that vivekander taught can be read as commentary on this central conviction which which is what he what she just said he said vivekande said art science and religion are but three different ways of expressing a single truth but in order to understand this we must have the theory of advaita see that last part is also important otherwise we may run into a superficial facile we are saying well whatever we do is religion whatever we do spiritually no no no it is not yeah it can be spiritualized for this this you need this vision this is actually what ayan maharaj is driving at when he talks talks about the vigna vedanta sri ramakrishna it's a breathtaking vision i just i'm it's thrilling to think about how east and west ideals of both have come together in vivekananda how the entirety of tradition 5 000 years of spiritual tradition in india i'm not just saying vedanta also other traditions including buddhism i say all of it have come together in vivekananda but he's not about the past he's about bringing the light of that past to bear on the present and on centuries to come the vision of society of religion and spirituality which he has got is is we still have not understood it it is too vast for us to begin i think it is a program for the future it's a program for the future of not only religion not only philosophy ethics but of civilization itself i remember last year i met this young vietnamese researcher very intelligent young man very articulate deep thinker he was doing research in management theory on work he's doing his phd and he was working in boston college and i was at harvard at that time he called me and he said that i want i want to talk to you about vivekananda and we had set up a meeting and he said to me that he didn't know anything about vivekananda he had no particular interest in hinduism or india or anything like that he said while studying some of the greatest and noblest ideas in management theory work human relationships goal of human life what will motivate a person in this modern age the role of money the role of inspiration all of these things he's studying he says everywhere the highest and noblest ideas he found at work in modern society is they all are traced back to one name kept coming up again and again and again in the late 19th century swami vivekananda he said who is this person we started studying and he was very impressed so he wanted to talk to me and he's doing work i hope he will publish books soon i felt that behind the creation of our modern age this may sound like like a too big an assertion but i am convinced behind the foundation of our modern age and the age that is to come is vivekananda and behind him of course is sri ramakrishna a great force has been unleashed it's not that all of it has come from vivekananda these forces are floating around in human thought they coalesce into a force once in a while expressed in society are some of the implications quickly i'll touch on time remaining to me a few areas the area of spiritual practice the area of ethics area of the religion so how do you realize all these things what we're talking about the way to realize all these things is called yoga yoga is a spiritual path and here i want to touch upon another aspect of what is old and what is new once again we are asking what is old and what is new in swami vivekananda's teaching of vedanta so we come to the area of spiritual practice of the yogas what is the question here where if you look at spiritual practices there's a wide range of spiritual practices in hinduism and in other religions also you can meditate meditation is so popular now that also to a great extent is due to vivekananda meditation is so popular there is devotion very common worship prayer there is much less known spiritual investigation it's a philosophical investigation to spirituality the path of ghyana i remember a monk people are confused about it a monk a senior monk in belure much one day saying what are you studying philosophy i said yes oh what is the use of studying philosophy this is you know you have to forgot realization what is the use of studying philosophy i quoted vivekananda back to him i said do it by work or psychic control or philosophy he uses the word philosophy for gyani yoga that is the truest sense of philosophy you see why this wrong idea is there and it's understandable even when we studied philosophy in when we were novices in bellurmat i remember the gentleman who is to come and teach us he was a retired professor of philosophy uh nirot babu he was a disciple of swami aveda that little man fiery with the huge eyes and the booming voice and he would walk based back and forth on the platform and yell at us we were we were brahmacaris and he'd say please be careful maharaj be careful this philosophy in western philosophy philosophy is teaching us western philosophy philosophy is philosophy a love of wisdom it is thinking about philosophical subjects it is not darshana darshan is the seeing or the realization of the ultimate reality which you thought which you read in you know vedanta sankhya the indian traditions so making in our minds that is a clear distinction between the indian approach and the western approach i always felt uncomfortable with it but anyway he is a great authority so he's saying it must be true and it's true the word philosophy and if you look at the textbooks they are thinking the thinking intellectually thinking about philosophical topics until last year i came across this little book the history of thought by luke ferry who is a french philosopher and he was the minister of education in france i think only in france philosophers are elevated to high positions i asked a philosopher once last year he was he was french french canadian what accounts for the importance of philosophy in france he one reason he said that it start from school days it's it's a subject in india it's disappearing even in college and university everybody wants to be computer engineer or doctor or something like that nobody wants to be a philosopher so it's disappearing from colleges and universities in india in france it is taught in school and of course university anyway look fairy wrote this book full of insights wonderful if you read it you will get the feeling that nobody no english speaking person has ever done philosophy there's an absolute contempt for english-speaking philosophers you know contempt instead he doesn't criticize he simply ignores if you look at the bibliography the books to be read not a single english american australian philosophers there all the books are french or german writers greek and then french or german that's it anyway but what insight did i get one of the insights i got was this is not philosophy that's not the right word theory theory is the right word for what we do so what is theory he says the root of theory is theon or rao seeing of divinity exact meaning of darshana anyway that's just an aside i wanted to share with you so um philosophy is to realize god so yoga bhakti yoga karma yoga raja yoga these are the different yogas on different spiritual paths that swami vivekananda spoke about what is old and what is new what design will become to do in this field here is the old the traditional approach which is perfectly all right and which by the way because i'm going to go beyond it i'm now making myself my position secure by saying i believe in it entirely and i'm entirely grounded in it if you ask me questions i'll give you answers from this traditional perspective but still we must see what vivekananda did the traditional perspective is from advaita vedanta you are brahmana and our reaction is that's cool but i don't know it i don't feel it what's the point of saying such things i have no idea what you're talking about that is called ignorance so in advaita vedanta they say the purpose of spiritual practice what is the purpose of spiritual practice to remove the misconception the the wrong idea that you are not brahmana it is not to make you brahman you are already brahman to remove the ignorance about your yourself i do not know that i am brahman it doesn't make any sense to me good you're on the right path this is called ignorance and we have the medicine for it we have already displayed the correct symptom now here is the vaccine for it so the vaccine is what knowledge for ignorance the vaccine is knowledge and ignorance of the self knowledge about the self and now we are on sure ground here are the upanishads here are the other vedanta texts which tell you about you know you can now we will tell you about the rig rishi viveka and panchako shavik and the analysis of the three states the five sheets the seer and the scene so on and there's a method to it there's the course of treatment which is hearing uh reflecting and meditating shavana mananandhasana this is called gyana yoga but then we complain i have been attending classes somebody said i've been attending classes before you are born swami and i'm still not enlightened all right vedanta says that there is another layer of problems what is the second layer of problem first layer of problem ignorant mind second layer of problem restless mind mind is unable to grasp the teachings this is in sanskrit it is called big shape and the solution for the restless mind is focus concentration in sanskrit and there is a method for it and that method is called upasana upasana in it's basically literally it means worship but you can see it includes elements of yoga and bhakti devotion and meditation well there also we have we have an objection i have taken mantra diksha and i do meditation morning and evening no good no concentration of mind mind is is either sleepy or it's restless third layer of problem vedanta says you're still on the course no problem third layer of spiritual problem what is that in pure mind ignorant mind restless mind impure mind in sanskrit and the solution for impurity of mind is of course purity of mind it's one word that we keep hearing in vedanta purification of the mind all spiritual practices first of all they must accomplish purification of the mind and here one powerful way of accomplishing purification of the mind is karma yoga all work we do for selfish purposes he just rivets one more link of ignorance upon ourselves but when we work for you know altruistically for the service of others for the welfare of others you can add bhakti to it as a worship of god by serving others then mind is purified now you have a nice matrix three by three matrix impure mind solution purity comes by karma yoga um restless mind solution concentration comes by upasana which is ghana yoga which bhakti yoga and raja yoga together and then ignorant mind solution is knowledge and that comes by gyani yoga note it is yoga the path of knowledge which removes ignorance and gives you liberation you will realize i am brahman the others have supporting roles bhakti devotion is a supporting role karma definitely has a supporting role not the main actor not the main player what am i talking about traditional approach to the four yogas in advaita vedanta this is the advaita vedanta paradigm notice what vivekananda says buy one or more or all of these and be free would the traditional advaitan agree no i've heard very good masters of advaita criticizing vivekananda's approach he says that by one or more of course not not by one or more only by path of knowledge only by ghana we are not dismissing the importance of meditation we are not displacing the importance of bhakti we are not dismissing the importance of karma but they are all preliminary they prepare the mind and the prepared mind will become enlightened through vedanta this is the traditional approach now what is the problem here the problem here is this only this nothing absolutely wrong with this is perfect it'll work if you take this and you'll become enlightened certainly and notice it does not dismiss the yogas it gives primacy to one but puts all includes all the others they are absolutely necessary but they will not take you to the goal finally the problem here is this this is entirely built upon one philosophy the philosophy is you are brahmana and you are ignorant of it ignorance is the problem and knowledge is the solution he said yes of course what else not what else there are many many other traditions of the same upanishad same bhagavad-gita there is the dwight vedanta and vishishta dwight avedanta and sudhat deutsche more than a thousand years after shankaracharya of thousands and thousands of practitioners they have produced great saints men of women of enlightenment and realization who have motivated and inspired entire civilizations what do they say is knowledge the final goal no they say devotion is the final goal by the path of bhakti yes what will ramanujacharya say he say first of all karma will purify the mind correct we agree then comes knowledge i am not the body and not the mind i am a spark of consciousness then comes devotion you are a spark of consciousness and god is the whole mass of consciousness is the bonfire of which you are a spark is the whole of which you are apart you see how the metaphysical assumptions make the all the difference in practice advaita vedanta will put gyan at the top vishishtadvaita and they're in the majority they will put devotion at the top and to hold on to this that ghyana itself is the only way to god realization what do you have to do you have the unwelcome alternative unwelcome implication of saying all those others are wrong all those others are wrong that makes one a little uneasy all these traditions of devout men and women for thousands of years and such wonderful saints century after you just read their writing and you'll feel inspired immediately when you read the vedanta i'm i'm an advaithin i'm saying read that advice the classics you'll fall asleep immediately so can they be wrong can they be lesser can they be unenlightened meera by the great devotee was he an agyani a person of ignorance of course not mirabai had the same realization as adi shankaracharya had adi shankaracharya had the same bhakti as mirabai had so if you want to take a step back and see the big picture you can't insist on one paradigm one structure if this works but that also works why it works why different structures work we will see later but it works mahaprabhu comes and says only bhakti will take you to the goal you don't have to worry so much about doing unselfish work and sitting and controlling the breath and meditating deep devotion love for god will give you purity of mind will concentrate your mind and will bring bring about the grace of the lord by which you will be free so it works that is why swami vivekananda he says by one or more or all of these if you insist on holding on to one particular paradigm perfectly welcome to do so and it's swag has given a hundred percent stamp of approval but saying that this is the only way and the others are not at all true no the justification for this swamiji will give later why this all these things work why not only one so so then what does he recommend he recommends a harmony of yogas he says by seeing the life of sri ramakrishna i can see a person who is as liberal as the sky and as deep as the ocean to be staunch you don't have to be a fanatic to be liberal you don't have to be superficial you can be profound and deep and be liberal also a person who is who manifests karma action who manifests devotion who manifests knowledge and who manifests meditation to the highest possible extent in one life it is possible that's what's wrong with this says by seeing srila i have seen one such of course if we look at swami vivekananda's life we see one such he is himself a manifestation of knowledge and devotion and meditation and work we may not attain to that perfection in all of those but swami vivekananda's great insight was it is actually easier if we practice all together and if if it is satisfying for you as it is for me to have a particular structure that knowledge alone will liberate me at the end fine he has at no point does he object to it you have that so the harmony of the four yogas and again two more points one thing is that if you look at the texts themselves if you look at a bhakti text like the naradiya bhakti sutra here we shall teach bhakti as a support the second level of the problem of advaita vedanta no this is we teach bhakti as a way to liberation to attain god if you take our yoga text patanjali's yoga sutra anywhere does it say sutras that this is just you know like a auxiliary kind of do you take this as a as an audit course it's not a credit course ultimately you have to go to the upanishad after this finish this course and then go to the upanishads and attend vedanta classes no patanjali is very clear by this method you will attain kaivalya liberation this little book alone will give you the highest so nobody ever says that we are part of a bigger scheme which is your scheme no you may include us as part of your scheme fine another thing this fascination we have for meditation or philosophy or even devotion it's often a misappraisal of ourselves we hardly know the structure of our own minds our own personalities and what seems to us on the surface may not be the truth about us guru sometimes knows much better about us than we know about ourselves swami vivekananda himself says that you think i am agani i am gana on the outside but inside i am all bhakti he says i am as soft i have a soft heart as a woman's heart i have insight i am all bhakti inside. then he says and but the old man he was bhakti outside inside he was all guyana it's quite possible i have seen closely and lives of monks whom i met advanced spiritual seekers they seem one thing on the outside and they have a private a very deep private inner spiritual life so outside might seem very austere and for forbidding and very severely philosophical and inside full of devotion and love not expressed so harmony of the four yogas there's more to be said so many of these things which i'm saying here i claim no originality to this analysis i'm firmly basing myself and i'm just like a commentary on the works of older masters so what i'm saying here mostly comes from the writings of swami bhajanandaji who is a very senior monk of our order a very luminous mind very deep thinker right now what i was talking about he wrote an article called the yogas and their synthesis is in prabhu bharata and he talks about why it is necessary to harmonize the four yogas why is it how do you harmonize the four yogas and he for example i'll give you a quickly within a couple of sentences what he says he talks about vertical synthesis now what is this vertical synthesis vertical synthesis is one above the other just like we said shankaracharya or advaita vedanta says first karma then bhakti and yoga and then ghyana this vertical synthesis ramanujan says first karma then gyana then then bhakti vertical synthesis or it could be a horizontal synthesis he says this is that's what most people do and if you look at the life of a devotee or a ramakrishna mission monk so you get up early in the morning and meditate and then you go and study and then you go to work and serve humanity and come back in the evening and attend arathi and worship and spend some time in meditation throughout the day there are some meditative activities there are some philosophical study activities there is a there is something that you do to serve humanity and there is devotion and ritual the only problem with this is it's not integrated and you will always feel a kind of a conflict of time and energy too much work i can't meditate too much meditation you're selfish not doing enough for others this problem may be there he talks about collective synthesis this is based on swine vivekananda weak may not be perfect in each method in each way but in an ashram in a household in a community there may be different mentalities different personalities some may be meditative more and some may be devoted to service some may be very studious and you know philosophical in their approach some may be ritualistic worshippers this is literally true of what i saw in biluramat great pujari day and night chanting hymns and even when he's year after year worshipping in the temple of sri ramakrishna even when he's given a break go and relax the old monk he goes on a pilgrimage in the railway in a train and in sitting in the train he starts the worship he's got his own little image and little worship toolkit and he spreads it out before his it becomes natural for him i have seen swami's day and night working for the welfare of the poor day and night hard work i have seen swamis who are so austere and engaged in vedantic study one swami i remember swami shikshananda our teachers when we were novices they told secretary literally means delight in in siksha means educational knowledge on teaching of course for vedic scholars immediately object because here the word shiksha comes from a vedic usage which means the art of pronouncing vedic mantras anyway so this swami he was always engaged in vedantic study so our teachers at the training center when we were brahmacaris they said go and see the swami what does it mean by studying you you only flip pages you're flipping pages you say you're reading books no go and see the swami and so whenever we visited him all the time without fail he'd be sitting in his easy like an armchair and he would have the commentary of shankaracharya open before him which he had studied for 75 years or more it's not that he did not know every word in the in that book but it's not that he's reading it to read new things and finish off books one after another now it's to keep his mind there in that that knowledge he'd always be studying reading like this and if you bow down to him he'll note and then back so collective synthesis in the same it can be in an ashram it can be in a household where a father mother children they can have their own different approaches to spiritual life so these are the different ways in which one can harmonize the four yogas swami vivekananda himself has asked how shall we harmonize the four yogas and swami vivekananda's answer was live with one who has harmonized the four yogas i guess that's the right exact answer if you see such a person in action it's not an artificial way of you know planning out the routine this is my gyan yoga time this is my bhakti yoga time this is not that way it is a natural synthesis will be very difficult to distinguish is this person being a devotee or a gyani or a karmi if you look closely at a great spiritual master they seem to be all the harmony of four yoga so this is one place where swami vivekananda says something has something new to give i've run out of time i'll quickly mention two more areas and then conclude another area is swami vivekananda's theory of ethics of morality the question here is what is right and what is wrong what should we do and what should we not do this is the classic question of ethics and the deeper question is why should we be good first of all what is good and what is bad and even deeper than this why should we be good what is good and what is bad is the realm of ethics or what they call normative ethics and the technical term for the second question why should i be good at all is called meta ethics you ask a question about ethics itself big big area there are volumes and volumes being written even till today there are you know oxford handbooks and recollege handbooks and all on ethics it's a huge huge issue i was lucky and privileged to be allowed to attend a class by professor ramatta senin at harvard university he was so he is a professor of both philosophy and economics at harvard so he was teaching a course on ethics so i was able to attend that that class and all these classic questions they come up and see how much effort is being put into it by the finest minds of our civilization trying to come to an answer about this what is so difficult the difficulties the difficult thing is how do you decide what is right and wrong not only for a person but for a community for a country for a government for the international community one way could be by consequence utilitarian ethics that that which maximizes happiness is good that which reduces happiness or increases sorrow is bad immediately one might say no but by maximizing my happiness i might contribute to sorrow all around me so that can be modified maximizes the happiness of the entire community that which maximizes the happiness and satisfaction of the entire community and reduces misery that is good and these are not just theoretical things these are absolutely important for public policy taxation why do you why does every country tax the rich more than the poor because for the for a rich person to give up a thousand dollars the amount by giving up that money that person loses some amount of happiness but the amount of happiness that a multi-millionaire a billionaire loses by giving up a thousand dollars in tax money that thousand dollars spent for very poor people the the amount of happiness they get from it by getting the essentials of life through government action is much more than the loss of one billionaire in a little bit of happiness in the person loses so it makes sense to tax the rich more than the poor so these are issues which are of great public uh consequence economic consequence utilitarian well that seems fine then why at all bother you just follow this we're not so easy not so easy so one classic question that would would be asked in class would be that so maximizing happiness is the goal yes suppose you have a a terrorist you've caught a terrorist who has planted a bomb and you want him to say where is the bomb uh the terrorist is a hardened fellow he refuses to confess would you torture him [Music] said so many people they raise their hands here because it will save the life see if he confesses he'll save the lives of 50 people or 100 people yes yes maybe we have to talk some people many people are not and many people are unsure then the professor will say he will tighten the screw he will say even after torturing the person does not confess he's very hardened he has a little five-year-old daughter will you torture that daughter in front of the father to make the father confess many people who had raised their hands put their hands down 50 people will die 100 people will die will you torture one little child logically yes but it doesn't seem right at all it seems awful yes they used to war game this interrupt you know war game this nuclear warfare computers and human beings there would be like committees to decide whether to launch nuclear strike you know usa should literally launch a nuclear strike on the earth while soviet union and they found at that the verge of the decision making about to launch a nuclear strike which will wipe out all of humanity human decision makers always hesitated computers never hesitated they did exactly what was rational next step wipe out humanity go ahead because utilitarian ethics something will serve that if you can make the logic so you have to follow it then no that does not seem right then what is the alternative deontological ethics and deontological ethics is fancy name it just means law or my religion says so my religion says you will not fight in a war so right wrong whatever it is i will not fight my religion says this so the problem with that will be suppose i don't believe in that religion then each religion has different things which is prescribes or the law of the land says it the law of the land says you must do this you must not do that it's not a question of what is the consequence it's the law is that so it depends on the kind of person it will be crossing the road the light is not changed yet but there's nobody around so in india you'll just walk across and i've heard i've not been there in germany never why there's no no no problem at all it is the rule you stay stand there until the light changes even in this heavy snow you'll stand there and cross that is a deontological ethics this is utilitarian ethics what is the effect of it what is swami vivekananda's answer to this whole quandary this vedantic ethics why we nancy has written a beautiful 20 page article on this i gave a talk about um 14 15 years ago at the university of calcutta to a group of professors the last talk of the day and i gave a talk on this article by swami bhajananji on the ethics theory of ethics of swami vivekananda they liked it so much they wanted photocopies of that article i still remember the photocopier section was closed and the guy wanted to go home it was five o'clock but they held him up there and until everybody got a copy of that article it's called swami vivekananda's ontological ethics so what is ontological on top is the word for being existence reality based on the reality of the atman ethics so i'm vivekananda says why be ethical question why should i be ethical is because we are one reality by hurting the other person you are hurting yourself follows from the divinity of the of the soul the divinity within us and the oneness of all existence ethics follows from that not because of consequence not because somebody imposed it not because this book says so not because the law of the land says so it is your very nature to be ethical being ethical being moral is an expression of your deepest nature it is an expression of the nature of the atman of yourself theory of evil why is there suffering and evil in the in the world this is part of ethics did satan do it is another power evil power or in indian religions it was karma it's our accumulated karma which is the which is causing all this evil in the world in christian theology it is the wrong use of free will god has given us for evil and we misuse it and therefore there's evil in the world swami vivekananda says from a vedantic perspective it is ignorance which is the cause of evil it is not sin another theory is its original sin is the cause of evil swami vivekananda said no it is not sin not even karma ultimately the cause of evil is the ignorance of the real nature of the self this theory of ethics what does it lead to this is from freedom ethics comes from freedom we are free of the lower self we are the uh existence consciousness bliss right now the so-called body mind self is an appearance so this evil this this lack of ethics is because of holding on to what is an appearance it's not true we are free of it an expression of our freedom is ethics it's not something imposed from outside how do we know the question what is right what is wrong how will we find out vivekananda gives wonderful methods to determine he says that which is unselfish is moral that which is selfish is immoral one way of testing that which unifies his moral that which divides this immoral another way of testing and notice how it is all connected to the oneness of all existence why unselfishness because we are one why unity because we are all one ultimately and this unity itself unity of all existence itself is manifested as love ethics is grounded in love another consequence of swami vivekananda's ethics is service love must be expressed in service to others how do you express ethics in service to others those who need it another consequence equality we are all equal not because of this revolution not that for political philosopher not because of the brotherhood or sisterhood deeper than brotherhood and sisterhood deeper than communism and capitalism deeper than even physics and biology is the oneness of all existence is that one existence consciousness place in all beings is says from the nazarene to the worm to yonder worm is one divinity shining through all and therefore we are all equal all this fight for racial equality gender equality you know it it comes because we are struggling at the level of the body to establish equality at the deepest level there already is equality there is oneness and yet swami vivekananda does not erase difference he enjoys difference there is difference the differences of gender their differences of of uh religion and of um race and it's all wonderful then how do what if oneness is the reality then all these differences and appearance what do you do at the level of appearance you cannot erase difference here and you should not so the answer is harmony harmony a very big word in swami vivekananda's lexicon harmony of religions harmony of philosophies harmony between science and religion harmony between the nations harmony between the genders today we'll see how many between the races harmony another consequence of suivakanda's ethics is strength something you come across again and again and again anybody who came in contact with the vikrant the first effect was they were uplifted josephine mcleod writes that when i met the tsar of russia i felt how great he is and how insignificant i am but when i met vivekananda i felt how great he is and how great i am that was the effect like a tonic he would uplift even the most crushed spirits so strength physical strength moral strength emotional strength intellectual strength spiritual strength above all he says so in vivekananda he connects weakness to evil unethical life evil unhappiness misery is connected to weakness because we are too weak to put our ideals into practice so we must strengthen ourselves to live spirituality and finally ethics is the basis the foundation of spirituality ethics itself is not the end of life ethics moral good life is the basis for spiritual life to ultimate you know the prize at the end of the road is infinity your own nature that is there only if we lead an ethical moral life so this is why vivekananda's contribution to the field of ethics huge huge thing and still not uh appreciated i can i was one take away from that course which i attended professor saint's course how many of those questions which were raised and wrestled over by some of the smartest minds it's not just professor amateusen but i saw a professor of mathematics whose books i have in my library is sitting next to me is there attending the class i thought he looks familiar who is he i seen him in the back of back cover of a book which i possess they're sitting there and and wrestling with these these questions i'm not saying that there's ultimate solution which is given by vivekananda and everything is done but it is really a path-breaking fundamental contribution to the field of ethics which we can't say i'm sure in time it will become more developed and finally the harmony of religions i will not speak more about it but just touch upon the essentials it's all comes directly from swami from sri ramakrishna from his guru how is all these these yogas multiple structures possible by ghana will get freedom by bhakti you will get freedom how is it possible by all these paths you will reach the same goal how is it possible we are here right here truth is one the sages speak about it differently comes this is from the rigveda how is it possible to speak about it differently the truth is one why not speak about it the same way why do different religions say different things here is what swami vivekananda brings from sri ramakrishnam that the ultimate reality is infinite one so srinamar krishna is beautiful example of the ant which went to eat sugar and he found a mountain of sugar and dragged a little bit of the sugar and looked back and saying i'm going to take the whole mountain with me he cannot and he need not that little bit of sugar is enough so the infinite reality you take you express every religion philosophy enlightened person expresses just a little bit of it second it cannot be expressed in language but it must be expressed in language so when you try to express the inexpressible in language you do not give a complete account of it it's an imperfect grasp on that reality beyond conception beyond language salam krishna used to say brahman is the only thing in bengali so ito is very difficult to translate into english which has not been defiled by the tongue so because it cannot be expressed in language and because it is infinite therefore multiple expressions are possible it seems very simple but it's a very big insight that's the that's where harmony of religions can be established it makes it possible to have many religions without saying one must be true others must be false no then what happens suppose you have this infinite god beyond language the purpose of human life is god realization and the purpose of religion is to be a path to god realization it's very kind of made it very clear that these religions are like different paths of the mountainside paths are different one path is different from the other doesn't mean they are wrong if both take you to the same goal both are correct again from sri ramakrishna sri ramakrishna says in different ways you can reach the roof of the house the brahmo devotees have come see ramakrishna says look some of you came by coach some of you came by boat some of you walked but ultimately you all got here in the same way people are following different faiths will all reach the same divinity this is how harmony is is realized so ramakrishna's beautiful example of people going to the same la the pond and calling it water and pani and jal but they're talking about the same reality forms and formlessness which sister nivedita said beautiful example ice and water by the coolness of the devotion the water freezes the water formless brahman freezes as it were into the eyes of different forms of gods and goddesses when the sun of knowledge rises it melts back into the same water but whether you don't have to melt melt it back whether you're worshiping in a form or whether washing formless is the same reality one and the many are the same reality what follows from this that at the same time one must have uh dedication to one's own path this is called ishta nishta sri ramakrishna is to say bhabha nostra do not disturb anybody's spiritual attitude somebody is built up i have devotion to krishna now don't come to this person and say oh but it is just a form and ultimately it is formlessness and you must shift from krishna to the formlessness no you don't have to do that respect the spiritual attitude of everybody and have your own spiritual attitude but know all the time these are all different paths to the same real realization therefore so vivekananda added there's no need to convert the big drive to convert from one religion to another unnecessary and we can this is the religions of the world are not contradictory they are complementary to each other because they are complementary to each other we can all learn from each other just yesterday we had a wonderful talk by professor clooney from harvard and he has studied the hindu classics and the christian classics he is a practicing jesuit priest hindu classics and the christian class catholic classics he's reading together and he is his own spiritual life is benefited by this and he shares it with others and whatever anybody might say the world that swami vivekananda envisaged is already here you may agree or disagree neither god cares nor vivekananda cares the work has already been done people are more or less like this now large numbers of people especially ordinary people across the world i'm not talking about theologians and professors um ordinary people they do agree that there are multiple paths to realization they do agree that spirituality is a serious important goal of life they do agree that we can learn from different paths professor clooney yesterday was saying that students at the divinity school come and say i really don't know who i am i am born christian but i'm a little bit buddhist also and i'm a little bit this and a little bit that also and definitely i'm a humanist also and that is what vivekananda envisaged that is what has happened so i've gone well over time but the theme here was just an exploration of what is old and what is new in swami vivekananda i hope by this time we have seen that these categories of old and new are interesting ways of looking at it but they are not at all contradictory whatever swami vivekananda has done is firmly rooted in advaita vedanta and yet there are implications new ways of presentation and new insights and a new vision which has come through swami vivekananda i pray to sri ramakrishna masha'allah and swami vivekananda to bless us to bless us all this beautiful city this country the whole world and the civilization to come yet [Music] is [Music] [Music] foreign

Channel: Vedanta New York

Views: 74,226

Rating: 4.892704 out of 5

Keywords: vedantany, vedanta society of new york, sarvapriyananda, swami sarvapriyananda, sarvapriyananda lectures, swami vivekananda, vivekananda, vivekananda teachings, vedanta ny, vedanta, vedanta lectures, belur math, jnana yoga, hinduism, spirituality, enlightenment, higher consciousness, meditation, mindfulness, realization, consciousness, moksha, nirvana

Id: Qw6mZ-0gVes

Length: 86min 49sec (5209 seconds)

Published: Wed Feb 17 2021