Youth Convention ll Swami Sarvapriyananda || 2022

namaskar you're all requested to kindly keep your mobile phones either on silent mode or you can put it off on the switch off mode for any assistance you may please we are related to gather here today at the ramakrishna mission delhi in the blessed presence of the holy trinity revered swami shantatman and maharaji another revered monks of the ramakrishna order our humble pranams to all of you respected saket bahugunaji our dear devotees our dear young friends and our volunteers a very good morning to one and all i saw i'm honored to welcome you all to the youth convention 2022. today the topic of our talk is rebuilding india as envisioned by swami vivekananda so without any further ado i would like to request revered swami shantath secretary of ramakrishna mission delhi to kindly commence the day with his blessings swamishantman is a senior monk of the ramakrishna order he is a well-known administrator and a spiritual mentor he has been closely associated with the development of number of insightful value education programs based on the ideas of man making and character building ideas of swami vivekananda it was under his leadership only ramakrishna mission delhi launched the awakened citizen program in 2014 which is currently being implemented in more than 5400 schools around the whole country maharaji with your blessings we would like to start today's event other monks of this ashrama and two youth representatives are going to address all of you briefly and also the last number of youth you have gathered today for this wonderful thought-provoking session on rebuilding india now before we attempt any task maybe an artist before he creates any drawing that way or an engineer is about to build a building all such persons definitely they think about the theme they have an idea what they are going to create how would it look like so you know before attempting the task of rebuilding india we should also think about what is the type of india we want to create how it would look like how would be represented and so on and so forth because we have a writer we have we have chosen a very specific idea of rebuilding india that is according to the vision of swami awakan this cell might be challenged why should we rebuild india according to swami vikana probably other models can be attempted but where he really qualifies as a person whose vision is so important is because particularly from the time he started his bharat parikrama in 1886 he laid down his life in mahasamadhi in 1902 the one dominating thought was india for him india india india nothing else and this was palpably felt by many people many people mahatma gandhi he visited beluramat in 1921 and at the end of his visit wrote in the visit his book i have thoroughly gone through his works and after reading them my love for my country has grown thousandfold a statement by no less than mahatma gandhi the great rabindranath wrote that if you want to understand know india read vivekananda even his western disciples how he could influence someone like sister nivedita she was a virtual tiger she had her own mindset her own ways of thinking as an extremely independent person simply she came and died in an attempt to serve her motherland because we don't remember her much amongst our freedom fighters but here is a person who contributed with her life for our nation and one of his western disciples wrote our love for india gave birth in our hearts when we first heard the five letter india word india from him miss mcleod probably she writes that it's impossible to describe how much he could convey by the way he would pronounce that word the great glorious past of india's culture its heritage its present degradation its future glory everything you could convey by the way he would pronounce that single word so i don't think that we need to go beyond we can and that not only that we'll critically because uh during the discussions our maharaji will definitely put forth all these views and you'll have enough occasion to debate and question and ask him and so forth so particularly you know after he came back in the year 1897 day and night the one thought in his mind was our motherland or motherland our motherland because in 1886 when he went on a bharat parikrama he was appalled by the poverty illiteracy and the superstition in a country which was once hailed as one of the outstanding nations of the world so obviously he was very deeply hurt he could not bear it so he has talked elaborately about rebuilding india because all those ideas will definitely come for discussion today but some of the things which he said then and which are really really relevant even now is that the neglect of the masses the condition of the masses the poor the laboring class completely left out of everything mired in poverty and illiteracy and so on for centuries even now it continues of course all of you might know also during this pandemic the super rich category become enormously more rich richer the amassed wealth during pandemic whereas millions lost their jobs lacks lost their lives his only goals to increase the rich poor divide in our country if we think about rebuilding india probably this is something we should remember how this can be reduced what can be done to address this issue which is so important the rich poor divide all your gdp etc will make no sense they will not convey anything unless the benefits percolate down to the level of the masses so you see what he thought about the laboring class the persons the farmers these the the sweepers all others who were in such condition then now also they are same there's hardly any improvement in there what is the per capita income in india we can't even mention so low and you know he also said again and again the neglect of shakti the women power that was one of the greatest reasons for our degradation the country going down because the punishers we also talk about the god gaze and maitreya's of the vedic times and also the subsequent period how women were treated now what is happening today we talk about liberation women's liberation movement in the cities it's different but you go down the india the real india is in the rural parts the rural india is a real india what is the condition millions are not even allowed to go to school and so on often say when women talk about their rights and they should be allowed to go at night one o'clock or two o'clock and even go and eat in restaurants and come back safe and all that yes they're all fine but why don't you take up the cases why don't you work for those who are in villages in several states haryana bihar uttar pradesh madhya pradesh everywhere millions don't have even the right to go to school pursue education even up to school level or even a little higher so even now the condition of women largely remains same neglected is one area which he really said again again emphasize that we should attend and we should focus upon because he was again again saying that each nation has specialities and india it's religion spirituality without that no progress no advancement is possible because manas can give probably a series of lectures on that because he's so well grounded in advaith only that what can remove all our differences all our inequalities all everything there will always be rich poor more capable more wealthy greater achievers and so on these kind of distinctions would always remain in the society but what would it really give that the sense of equality the sense of empowerment when we even realize our extraordinary glorious nature which the punishers talk about the atman the brahman our nature is immortal maharaj is talked so elaborately about satyam ganavanantham brahma etc yesterday evening so somewhere all that if you keep all that apart and only take up the absolutely worthless western model which has failed miserably all over the world only that external niceties some comforts and some convenience and all that if you think this is all that we mean by way of growth or development and all that again we will continue to suffer for eternity so and then of course even then he said the real solution the only solution is education education education education the peninsula for all evils again again he emphasized how education is being denied how it is in the hands of a limited few and millions and millions are left without that even now how many who come out of class 12 can pursue higher education of course you know it's not only the academic he talked about something totally a new idea of education he talked about man making character building education first of all we need to spread this idea of education that should be our services beyond etc some more schemes are there the government of india but really you know it's still not reaching the levels or the reaching out to the poorest to the poor or the masses and so on because constantly most ramaji's are split to the masses give them education that will empower them so you know when you talk of education is not only just academic it's also beyond that the idea that it will produce children of tremendous character personality man-making character building education and essentially said education should instill in the students a tremendous sense of or self-belief because you know what's happening today so many schemes are coming up that before that one should believe that i'll be able to do it schemes are available but if i don't have belief in myself at all will i be able to avail up the schemes that are being talked about or that are being promoted every day announced every day so you know first and foremost the development of the tremendous self-belief that i am no less than anybody because the educational system the methods etc are totally skewed towards the brighter the academic lawyer into students can we bring about nuances because we are it's not the occasion to talk about that we are already trying a new thing we have initiated launched a program called the vacant citizen program which has just today 5800 schools and it has 1 million students have been touched through this program so our idea is can you beyond system beyond what is available by way of syllabus syllables and all that can we introduce anything in our system whereby this tremendous self belief in the students is generated because for 12 years from class 1 to 12 you keep on hearing that you are no good you are no good you are less than the toppers you can't compete with the computer talented students or computer toppers or language shoppers or science staffers and all that how do you think they will fair once they come out of school at the end of class 12 somewhere can we give through our system anything this idea you know you need not be academically great yes it's necessary to have some minimum formal education but you can do wonders even without being great academic family that idea because you know india lacks nothing enough water enough natural resources plenty of land plenty of labor what we need is citizens with the belief that we can do instead of everyone trying to gun for a few jobs that are available everyone can become an entrepreneur in so many ways all that would have only would contribute to the growth and development of the nation so education is extremely important um idea dimension a demand which must talk about we talk of regenerating our nation our country of course at the at the root of all the most fundamental swamiji again again said one hundred thousand men and women fired with the zeal of patriotism ready to lay down their lives because you see samji again again said the national ideals of india are renunciation and service intensify them along those channels and the rest will take care of themselves because you know all these no system can give you no system can bring about all these changes we need soldiers as mavi fired with the love for the motherland ready to sacrifice our lives is it possible is it a to begin ask because unless we can generate unless we can create such a huge army of youngsters ramji said my workers would come from the youngsters they will work out my ideas like lions there's so much faith in them can we create such an army because all these ideas uplift to the masses all that would require you know the participation of the youth parties from the youngsters who are really up to it who own that idea who want to do it of course in the process they would also grow definitely they will not be left behind but then are they ready to take the initial step because you know we need is a vast country the population is bursting at the seams we have crossed 130 crores already we cannot wait anymore it is time we are talking about the amritsma 75 years of independence what have we got go and see down in the rural areas villages what's happening even today the time for youngsters to come forward to raise to the occasion let's create an army it's not ideas are there but we need men swamiji again again said we need people we need youngsters fired with the zeal of patriotism we're ready to do anything probably you know in if you can work like that for some say 10 to 15 years a totally new india would emerge in india of swami awaken this dream where you know no one would starve no one would have you know the the bearest needs necessities of life for everyone would be met and beyond that you would see a lot of peace prosperity happiness in our country so let's hear maharaji and also letters you know taken this task in right earnest then only it's possible to do something thank you [Applause] thank you maharaji we are really grateful to you for energizing us every moment with your words and actions we are graceful by the presence of our esteemed guest shri saket bahagunaji who is currently acting as a consultant at ncert and has been working towards the effective implementation of national educational policy 2020. so we would like you to address us please [Applause] foreign uh the keynote speaker and the chief guest of today respected swami sarpriyanandji minister in charge of the vedan society of new york secretary of the ram krishna mission in delhi respected swami shatman and first of all i would like to extend my hearties gratitude to this esteemed organization ram krishna for inviting me to speak here and address you all and for organizing this convention of youth it's indeed an honor to be at the stage of an organization that was established by swami vivekananda himself and an organization that has been working all over the world to spread the message of ram krishna paramhansa mata shardaji and swami vivekananda so i'm elated to be here and also very nervous to be speaking in front of such gurus so the topic of today's convention is rebuilding india as envisioned by swami vivekananda the topic itself as you would notice says rebuilding why does it say rebuilding and not you know a lot of people couple of years back a lot of people used to say nation building only but here is a word which says rebuilding because we innately believe and this was the belief of swami vivekananda as well that india was great india had a rich past and in order to build the india of our dreams in order to realize the true potential of india we need to look back that doesn't mean that we want to copy everything from the past but we need to take inspiration from the past and then move ahead because that also gives us a lot of confidence to move ahead and we also need to realize spiritual foreign foreign m foreign foreign foreign foreign whatever field of life whatever walk of life we are working in whatever vista of life we are working in we should think about the country and we should keep the nation first and keep doing our duties in the way that we do in the best possible manner inspired by the vision and ideas of swami vivekananda that can lead this country to prosper because when everyone starts everyone start doing their work of course this country will progress uh in in a in great measure swami vivekananda command foreign foreign we um foreign [Applause] i now call upon our next imminent guest jyoti chatterjee to share a few words with us jyotiji is a former joint secretary of the delhi university students union dusu and a very prominent representative of the community of youth inspired by swami vivekananda please [Applause] i offer my pranams to swamiji's i would like to thank ram krishna mission for inviting me here and giving my views in front of allah so [Music] [Music] [Applause] foreign [Music] a [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] foreign [Applause] foreign [Applause] ready [Applause] foreign foreign foreign for [Applause] so future if you think you will be weak then definitely you will present yourself weak if you are if you believe that you are strong then definitely you will present yourself this is very simple quote but it's very powerful it is giving a very powerful message you [Applause] [Music] foreign [Applause] um thank you so much thank you very much mom now for the much awaited moment i am privileged to invite our keynote key speaker of the convention revered swami sarva priyan and maharaji swami sarva priyan maharaj is a current resident swami and ahead of the vedanta society of new york a position that he has been serving since 2017. he was an acharya for the monastic probationaries training at bellurmut and served in various capacities in different educational institutions under ram krishna mission in india prior to new york he was the assistant minister of the vedanta society of southern california he was also an inaugural fellow for the year 2019 and 20 at harvard divinity school his discourses on vedanta in a much simplified manner has benefited many of us in many various ways and we are fortunate today to hear from maharaja welcome maharaja [Applause] name my pronouns to revere swami shantatman maharaj other revered monks namaskars to the brahmachary brothers here teachers and of course the audience today which is the youth of india i'm going to speak to you in a mixture of english and hindi is there anybody here who doesn't understand hindi if if there's somebody who doesn't understand india i'll stick only to english but let's see how it goes swami vivekananda his birthday is national youth day 12 january and swami vivekananda is really it embodies the spirit of the youth just consider his life he whatever he did in his life ten years it's an enormous contribution ten years in 1893 he went to the world parliament of religions in chicago and then he spread the message of vedanta across the length and breadth of the united states and partly in europe also he opened the doors of this accumulated spiritual wisdom heritage of india five thousand years of spiritual wisdom and heritage he opened the doors of the west to this not only swami vivekananda but after that the other monks of the ramakrishna mission who went after him and many other teachers of different traditions of hinduism and other indian traditions they all went to the west swami vivekananda had built a bridge between the east and the west between india and the west where i come from the vedanta society of new york that's the first indian ashram in the west so vivekananda built it he founded it in 1894 after swamiji you know if you look at how indian wisdom has spread all over the united states you have people like paramahamsa yogananda who went and self-realization fellowship then you have the maharishi mahesh yogi transcendental meditation which become popular all over the world you have um you have srila prabhupada who went there and this is khan movement we it's known all over the world but you know where was it founded new york by srila prabhupada so the entire vaishnava tradition goes there when the buddhism which is so popular a whole procession of bhikkhus and llamas especially now tibetan buddhism is very popular it is a wisdom of india his holiness dalai lama again i think he is spoken here right dalai lama spoken here he says again and again it is the wisdom of nalanda nalanda tradition is our tradition in tibet so all of this plus yoga yoga is is widespread i think it was more widespread in the united states than in india thanks to ramdev babaji now it is more widespread in india but until that time we did not value it it was very popular in the united states in canada in europe that's why when the indian government took the initiative to in the united nations to declare i think june 22nd or 21st international 21st june 21st international day of yoga it was it found ready acceptance across all the nations in the united nations no resolution has been passed with so much unanimity as this resolution that let it be the international day of yoga but how why did it suddenly happen no it has been spreading in the united states starting from vivekananda onwards in fact there was a an article in the wall street journal few years ago about swami vivekananda it said the the man who bought yoga to the west of course he did not bring just hatha yoga but he bought bhakti yoga yoga raja yoga and karma yoga but then there were these other great hatha yogis from all of them were for mike from for some reason from mysore krishnamacharya bks anger but they spread yoga across the west so all of these traditions swami vivekananda built the bridge and across this bridge so much of knowledge and you know spiritual traditions from india have flowed to the west he came back this was not enough he came back to india and then he proceeded the second part of his plan to awaken his motherland you just heard from rivet maharaji mahatma gandhi whole generation of leaders of the national freedom struggle were inspired by vewe kananda jawala nehru here in new delhi ramakrishna mission he said in my generation we all read vivekananda you are not reading enough in this that time he's saying 1950s so he said i want the youth of today to read vivekananda we are all inspired by vivekananda whole generations of national freedom struggle leaders awakening the nation to a sense of its own glory first a sense of its own spiritual glory he spoke from lectures from colombo to elmora he addressed he sent this power coursing through the veins he realized that india is not dead india is just sleeping needs to be awakened so this is what he did for the next few years of his life and having done this 4th july 1902 at the age of 39 he used to say i will not live to to see 40 at the age of 39 he passed he gave up the party this is the spirit of youth in ten years building this bridge between the india and the west top five thousands of years of spiritual development transmitted across the world to the west and across the world and coming back to his motherland awakening his motherland again and putting it on the track too again to growth and prosperity and independence finally in 10 years done finished this is the spirit of youth this is the spirit we must imbibe today and what i propose to do in the time that is there for us instead of giving a talk and then taking questions what i'm going to do now is i will divide this talk into three parts into three sessions one session there will be some interaction some questions interaction with you about that session then the second session and then the third session so instead of listening to a long boring talk and you can happily switch off and go to sleep we will be a little more active closing and opening the door it should be like the aerospaces in uh you know in the aeroplane like exit you should show so keep one there you want to leave pizza center so anybody who wants to go out and come back just use the door at the back so the three sessions which i'm going to talk about three words if you want to take away something from today's program three words are they all words from swami vivekananda three words these are the three parts of the presentation which you're going to go through now the first is shraddha as all the speakers before us have said confidence in yourself faith in yourself self-esteem self-confidence these are all the meanings of the word many more meanings are there this is one quality that swami vivekananda wanted to evoke in all of us to develop this power of shraddha he says the difference between an ordinary person and a great person is this shakdha those who have it they become great those who do not have it they did degenerate in life somebody quoted here yes you quoted that swami vivekananda says that i learned from my master that means from a krishna those who think themselves weak will become weak and the converse is true also those who think themselves strong will become strong the strength and weakness this difference is in shraddha is in faith in yourself question may arise we are always taught by religion have faith in god but what is the relationship between faith in yourself and faith in god what is the relationship i found the answer in mahatma gandhi's letter he writes only those who have faith in themselves can have faith in god very interesting insight simple but interesting insight this was when the challenge comes when difficulty comes they i can't believe on my i believe myself i don't have faith in myself i can't believe in god also i may say i believe in god but when trouble comes i will lose faith in god also faith in yourself first and foremost that this idea that never have this word i cannot in your dictionary always say i can that i'm able to do whatever is in front of me there's this psychologist in in the united states albert bandura he developed this idea of self-efficacy self-efficacy positive psychology um the term is i think people are finding it difficult to see if you stand there right right somebody behind you will find it difficult so it's better to stand on the side yeah self-efficacy he says that this feeling of capability of dealing with situations in life when a bad coach declares this kind of feeling i have dealt with different difficult situations in my life till now and there'll be whatever will come up in future i will deal with it i'll be able to deal with it this feeling is self-efficacy and albert bandura says that those students he observed it in students those students who have this feeling of self-efficacy they are able to do better in school they keep trying it they feel that if i try i can do it i have tried many things in many cases i've been successful so who has the greater chance of success the first sign of difficulty and abundance the effort or those who keep trying obviously those who keep trying will have some better chance of success definitely those who let go at the first sign of difficulty there's no no chance of success so this faith in oneself is deeply connected to um success in life what or how do we gain this faith in oneself this actually does i would say three components most important first of all faith in yourself when there is faith in others and then faith in your nation and your culture society i'll speak a little bit about each of them but first most important how can we have faith in ourselves how can we develop that how can we develop shraddha in ourselves swami vivekananda considered this the most important quality yeah it will come one after another you will sabotage yourself self support sabotage or something like that and if the driver is pressing the accelerator and the brakes together with the reason is you're self-sabotaging yourself equality here you are pressing the breaks in your own life so i will draw a little bit from positive psychology here a few ideas i'll share with you these are very important in our lives and you'll find every one of these ideas though i'm drawing from positive psychology it has come directly from swami vivekananda before i go into it let me tell you something many of the great ideas which have gone to build our thoughts especially western thought in the 20th century and now have actually come from vivekananda somebody will say about to study at harvard university for one year two years back uh when i was at harvard i met this young vietnamese researcher or phd karata vietnam not at harvard but in boston college he was doing phd in management science on work he called me kyot harvard mayhem can i meet you i want to talk about something so i met him and he said he was working on the key ideas in work in management in the 20th century the important conceptual developments in management science in the 20th century and he was trying to trace out where did these ideas come from and he said he said i found one indian visitor in late 19th century swami vivekananda um i'd never heard about him then i started reading about vedic and i became so impressed quite credit and of course vivekananda never wanted credit he said i will be a voice without the form inspiring men everywhere until the universe knows it is one with god i'm quite credited i'll just i'll be the message only and we unfortunately we also don't give credit but now this um this researcher i hope he writes so well read in vivekananda and how nicely has traced out different ideas which are current in modern management thought in the philosophy of work in the west has traced it back to vivekananda and is going to write a book and articles also you'll publish anyway some ideas let me give about self-esteem about self-confidence pelibart we must live with self-awareness first point living with living consciously living with self-awareness swami vivekananda said that power will come glory will come goodness will come all that is great and noble will come in your life when the sleeping soul is aroused to self-conscious activity self-consciousness without any awareness so i will start my assignments i work in the in the college in the university but then there is a lot of messages on my phone a lot of uh let me see my social media status spend my day like this tell me one thing at the end of the day do you feel proud of yourself abnormal i can't spend my day like this tomorrow i will i will try to do better it's a feeling if i do not live live consciously if i do not live with self-awareness i will never have faith in myself so live with self-awareness what am i doing why am i doing this what will i gain out of it so we have come here for a really good purpose so also i must be aware consciously be be fully present here so that i can take something away when i leave the hall i should be able to say to myself so living with self-awareness living consciously this is point one without that nothing is possible your sleep walking there is no possibility of development there second self acceptance the practice of self acceptance is [Music] what am i what are my weaknesses what are my problems and what are my strengths self acceptance these are my problems self improvement is possible only when i have self acceptance strengths and weaknesses i can't go forward self-acceptance this practicing self-responsibility self-responsibility means swami vivekananda says take the entire blame upon ourselves there is a tendency to blame others foreign i've been abused by my parents my parents they have not taken care of me and it's it's seen as i give excuses for my own problems there are problems in society there are problems in government there are problems with parents no doubt about it but it will not help me to keep on blaming others the moment i blame others i shift responsibility from self-responsibility to other responsibility then i have made space excuses for my weaknesses let there be problems thousand problems outside a 100 know it for sure whenever there are problems in my life the majority of the problem has been created by myself no doubt so so this third thing is the practice of self-responsibility swami vivekananda says take the entire responsibility upon yourself and lead a responsible life you are responsible for your health you are responsible for the state of your mind and then i react with sorrow anger bitterness 50 or more than that responsibility is mine so accept practice self-responsibility and then practice self-assertiveness you thought a western concept but it's useful for us what is self-assertiveness assert yourself self-confidence stuff before foreign is really great so you have your sense of your own power your own greatness you have a right in this world to exist because self-assertiveness it is it's you have a right to say what you think is right you have a right to ask what you want from your parents from your teachers from the community from your friends honestly of course they have a right to say no also you have to be honest and respect this is opposite that to this spectrum one end of the spectrum is this is aggression aggressive by force by shouting by scolding they try to get what they want both are not good in between what is good is self-assertiveness mba assertiveness training so it is a little bit needed especially for our indian boys and girls one thing i've noticed highly qualified self-assertiveness is a good practice practice of self-assertiveness always there's a kind of weakness which will stay tell your professor what you think tell your manager what you think culturally but cultural differences are there but assertiveness is good for everybody [Music] but they have a certain strength in them that self-assertiveness is there living purposefully you will never say that you will say i want to go to that particular locality this roots will make sure so when a taxi we are so so there must be a purpose in life foreign one must have one's own standards i will tell the truth i will have discipline in my own life i will try to help others i've or choreographed so i should ask myself am i living up to my own standards if i don't live up to my own standards then i can never have faith in myself one great way to have faith in yourself is to have your own standards honesty discipline and to stick to them as much as possible there must be a struggle that's not important what are you struggling for now that's important i've said six things very nice book by a psychologist nathalian brandon six pillars of self-esteem six pillars of self-esteem let me go through the six quickly this practice of living consciously one and then the practice of accepting self-acceptance practice of self-acceptance but i should be honest to myself i was improvement hoga then third one practice of self-responsibility my strength my weakness then i will develop and third one practice of self-assertiveness be honest and be courageous go ahead then fifth one practice of this purposeful living practice of purposeful living a goal honor your life there must be a goal for the life there must be a goal for this year there must be a goal for this month there must be a goal for this week this will goal for this day and for the next one hour in general and then finally honesty integrity practice of personal integrity sixth six pillars her cheese you can see how directly it comes from swamiji the basic idea fundamental ideas then the next one it's two more points then i will stop and we'll discuss it little bit do so you must have respect for others you know if i don't respect myself i am a friend of vivekananda and she helped vivekananda throughout her life till her death india so told her she asked what can i do for you and he said love india and she did it for the rest of her life anyway she said when i met vivekananda what was my feeling she said i have met many great people in my life she was a very high society lady i have met the tsar of and i felt when i met the tsar of russia i felt how great he is and how small how insignificant i am but when i met vivekananda i felt how great he is how great i am this is what vivekananda could do for you you could see he is a great person but he would arouse the sense of greatness in you he had faith in us he has a very interesting definition of humility he said humility does not consist in being a doormat you are great but you also see greatness in others so in others second thing firsthand oneself third i want to stress this little bit s by indian students against something in indian government could see a nrc could be there in harvard university so many students say bad care i spoke to them you see have you ever noticed this student say at harvard university [Music] the real mayhem the real reason i am protesting against my country my government some policy is friends and white skinned boys and girls in my class again i'm also very cool i can criticize my country right now you know forward thinking home i never saw that same thing in any other student group unfortunate very unfortunate it comes from a sense of inferiority look at the difference in what swami vivekananda did more than 100 years ago one of the speakers pointed out going there at that time when this country was colonized when this country was was desperately poor people were starving illiterate did he ever once criticize india not only that at every time when india was attacked he defended india fully he did not give one inch of ground and when he came back to india he did not spare us her lecture back against castism against the operation of women against superstition he hit us very hard to criticize till my this death the spirit of vivekananda in contrast to that i am sorry to say there are students ki bhatnik around they are young there are any number of professors in american universities positions so students will be confused so this is something that it comes from lack of shantha i don't have shaddha and myself i cannot have shaddha in my culture new york mayor had told them every day at 6 30 pm at that time kovite infection was at its maximum in the world in new york her din every day number of at the peak number of deaths in one city in new york was more than 1 000. there are foreign why do we feel that because i have low self-esteem i don't have faith in myself so anything connected to me also must be bad that must be good new york must be good new delhi can't be good so this shaddha in your own culture i'll tell you one more thing choti si cheese i was just finishing the course in harvard university kovid attacked belly and harvard was one of the first to shut down so they called me one of them from the harvard divinity school called me and said do you have any prayer in hinduism or to you know against disease prayer so i said one sent one picture you know what they did harvard divinity school council summer magazine if you see even now back covered by full cover they gave mohammed tundra mantra original sanskrit english translation and they put my picture also culture aspect because you have shut down yourself even if they criticize something at harvard or yale or princeton they do it with respect seriousness so i'm i'm actually quoting swami vivekananda says faith in oneself manifestation it says this terrible tendency to ridicule everything it's there in the language terrible tendency to ridicule everything this tendency to make fun of everything this terrible loss of seriousness wow i have noticed in the universities full freedom and full seriousness nobody is going to tell you anything in those universities but full of freedom and everything is maintained perfectly so this comes from respect respect for myself respect for the other person respect for society culture and nation so yes they will take a microphone to you tell us your question tell us your name and your question in brief yes my name is you told us that we should choose our goal and our belief and if it doesn't exist my question is if it doesn't align with the 100 people around you and they they keep claiming that it is bound to fail you also have doubts in your mind that 10 years down the line i might regret my questions so how to find a solution to that it's very easy i remember microphone let's here how to find a solution to that the answer is pretty easy if it is something that you want you know if it's something that you want you have tried it for 10 years suppose it fails suppose it fails you will not regret it because you did what you wanted now suppose you give it up from now now on and do what others have are telling you to do you will surely regret it because 10 years later you will feel 20 years later i should have been brave i should have done what i wanted to do think of think well about it and then don't be rash i remember when i was a student i wanted to become a sannyasi such a big thing and i was a young student college student but one thing i knew i wanted so badly if i don't become a monk if i don't become a sannyasi at the end of my life i will regret it one reason for becoming a monk is if i don't become a mug i want it so much but don't become a monk i will feel sorry at the end of my life that i did not try it and of course intelligently trying to listen to everybody what are the pros and cons possibility of success and failure do something which you really want and which is again within some capacity which is sort of at least a little bit reasonable not totally crazy okay then somebody from this side uh this gentleman here and then we will go to the lady you after after him tell us your name and ask the question [Music] about yes that's a very important thing self acceptance it's a very good question that he has asked but here just books in my code an italian nathaniel brandon if you're interested just look it up six pillars of self-esteem he has actually mentioned that self-acceptance he says don't ever compare with other people this what will stop you from self acceptance is trying to compare yourself with others that's absolute nonsense there is no way to win this game nobody can win this game this is a trick of the mind to keep on comparing to others and making yourself miserable no i accept myself as i am then only i can become better self acceptance strictly don't compare notice one more thing the language in which these six point six pillars have been stated they call it language practice practice practice self acceptance i will not think about others i'll think about myself this is a practice all of these are practices living consciously self-acceptance self-responsibility self-assertiveness living purposefully and with living with personal integrity all of them are practice practice practice practice they are action words not quality name do it the lady who raised him please stand up tell us your name and ask the question um [Music] and part of what i've seen is indian students have like indian india in general as this idea of modernity which is very much looking towards the west so how would you say that we shift that perspective and integrate our own yoga psychology into how we are educated in our country right where are you studying in california um good so you have a perspective on what i have just said you you see the truth of that yeah thank you for that question we think that the west is modern therefore it is good what i noticed there is that whatever starts there is quickly nowadays in the age of internet is quickly within 15 days one month is copied here many of those things are good many of those things are really good [Music] foreign because that's your original contribution you have got that to give therefore people that are accepting abhi why don't we get we don't we have something which we can give others because we are not thinking originally we are trying to copy them to your second read copy it must be original we are immediately copying the best because as she said we have this tendency that if it's coming from there it somehow must be superior somehow must be good even if it is good and superior we should take it in our own way um i've got many such examples to show how we have wrongly adopted things just blindly copied but i'll tell you i saw in youtube so nice very funny i also watch it but i noticed one thing jokes stage body language or audience kajo whoa so this shows casey vatacharya was a great philosopher in the 20th century in calcutta he talked about the shadow mind shadow mind he said at that time independence appellate he has got this lecture swaraj in ideas the interesting concept swaraj in ideas is political swaraj me swaraj in ideas he says it will be that the colonizing power will leave these shores in no time british challenge anger but they will remain in our minds because our minds have been colonized so this is an effect of colonization colonization why in many cases those original cultures have been wiped out in south america in parts of africa we have not been wiped out because our culture is very deep and strong like it has been distorted and then he said to answer your question what ajarya said what is the sign of a colonized mind it is lack of creativity because everything is copied so it's lack of creativity and he gave an example university university example he said when an oxford [Music] [Music] i have learned this but i don't see that i have to teach these things to these boys so it's because it's a shadow mind a copy from there no originality how do you get originality first double down it's sorry that i have to speak in english to you yeah this is the situation we are in but let's also learn our mother tongues let's also bring in as much indian input into our into into our syllabus into our work culture into our stand-up committee also as much indian input as possible it will be it will be appreciated across the world already it is happening 30 30 just i'll give you one more example you might be surprised bollywood it is appreciated more and more across the world even films you may consider silly or sensationalized looking it's highly appreciated i attended a talk by fatima bhutto she is the niece of benazir bhutto harvard university she came to give a talk at harvard bookstore she's launching a new book on how south asian uh third world entertainment industries is defeating hollywood bollywood cinema bollywood third world countries in africa means south america indian community then she said turkey many muslim countries it's very popular more than hollywood cinema hollywood uh tv serial jo it's because there's more originality now it's more attractive now and people across the world they feel more identified with india with asian culture indian culture rather than with hollywood culture this is one sign okay one more question then we'll go into the next part bots are now let me go from someone from that side that gentleman there yeah with uh yes you mike mike there it's on your left tell us your name and ask the question hello [Music] [Music] yeah should it be allowed aligned with people correct i'll just take that much of a question we don't have much time good question yes the answer in one word is yes sri ramakrishna used to say that if you collect lot of zeros what will you get total zero but if you have one more zeros you add to it more value it will increase and if you don't add any zeros to it one will still have value that one is spirituality and spirituality in most broadest sense i nowadays i tell people that i stayed in three interesting places in the last few years one was in california where she is studying i was i was in hollywood for one year then last few years i have been in manhattan just close to wall street and then i spent one year at harvard university in boston three places three ideas of success three the three shining goals in american life aka hollywood glamour film industry acreage wall street billionaire and the whole row of buildings you'll see there's billionaires billionaires money harvard university is learning intellectual life are you a best-selling author of a textbook are you a nobel prize winner i noticed one thing in all these places that there's a great deal of unhappiness dissatisfaction is nobody happy there are people who are happy and satisfied only those people who have that one some type of spirituality many bulldog could be christianity could be buddhist mindfulness meditation could be service to others some form of spirituality is there then only whether hollywood glamour or wall street money or harvard university learning a nobel prize all of those are zeros which you add and you will get satisfaction depth my goal is earning money tickets spirituality and it's a long path and full of suffering why will you suffer so keep spirituality from the very beginning have meditation in your life have study of upanishads in gita in your life have some kind of devotion whatever your religion your belief is devotion faith and have some selfless service in your life the four yogas you will see very soon that this is the one lucky sub zero n let the zero be there value addition zero ticket at one time that will not matter all right now let me go on to the second part of the presentation which is the second word just as swami vivekananda has spoken about the importance of of faith in yourself you have spoken about the power of concentration as he said difference between a great person an ordinary person lies in difference of shaddha difference between great person and ordinary person lies in the power of concentration power of focus he has said that also the key to all knowledge lies in concentration so i'm vivekananda said this one thing i noticed that wherever there is success in academics in in the in work sphere there is the power of concentration there's a power of focus to give talks and wherever i go i like to go to the library and meet students and watch students studying i'd like to watch scholars at work much of harvard maybe i used to do not only study there but more than study i would go and attend different classes wherever i heard they were good teachers you know how they are teaching what they are teaching is interesting plus how they are teaching and also i would watch these very smart young men and women the students at harvard university how they studied i watched it in iot kanpur i watched it in other institutes in india in the united states and of course at harvard also one thing i noticed common to all of them all these good students scholars professors they have this enormous power of focus of concentration of paying attention iit may but i still remember i was so impressed that uh i i went to the iit khan for my library subasu to sat down to study i watched some a group of students studying subhead art and nobody i studied for some time then i went to my room took a bath went to lunch came back took a little rest then came back to the library in the afternoon that group of students was exactly there unmoving until the evening i started i saw them working eight nine ten hours straight when you perverted me with so much focus continuous focus i once went to another engineering college which is not well known i was taken on a tour and i was shown the very nice computer department but empty and i asked to her students but then you don't know don't you allow students here and the professor said oh it's open if students want they can come and work in this lab [Applause] then when i met the students i told them see i saw iit kanpur and i'm seeing you the difference is [Music] it's not even that they're brilliant and you're not brilliant they have a power which you have they're using that power you're not using that power that's all i saw them studying like that and then i asked some of the students i'm so impressed to see your classmates they're studying exam time you will see 24 literally 24 hours 24 hours in one library at one step but one stretch and then i told those students this is the only difference have seen some swamiji's who have that part i don't have that much power but that some swamiji's have that power of concentration one of the most brilliant students i've met he's a monk a friend of mine all india second thing but everybody recognizes here how rare that is and he was a topper of iit kanpur he's a monk very brilliant brilliant person one of the most brilliant person i've met but one characteristic i have seen tremendous power of concentration or brilliance to technique but tremendous power of concentration and i walked past him i still remember him he cannot feel me touching his body imagine and then i went and picked up the book to see the book of chanka now imagine that kind of concentration he has got it everywhere i have seen another monk also iit kanpur product um he is one of india's leading mathematicians bhatnagar about milan infosys about milan i have seen him working for a mathematical problem i got a shot because i went into the office to see him you're sleeping on the floor knee jump to jail you'll get up and start working again the people who are critics knowledge does not come from that science knowledge i say experiments hypothesis team buildings it's a team effort project you know ultimately some knowledge comes out i read juan neumann one of the most brilliant physicists of the 20th century biographical the author has written von neumann john von neumann he was he was convinced he could crack any problem in physics with the sheer power of his concentration princeton princeton university institute institute of advanced studies there's some of the collection of the best brains in the world they stay there viper einstein thing till the end of his life goodell the greatest mathematician of that time he was there one neumann was there oppenheimer was there adam but one thing i i noticed there in that institute about simple substituting but your disco pin drop silence caffeine amazing whole institute all the time still up there why still just because the scientists mathematicians are working they should not be disturbed security guards they will tell us you can go at the maximum up to the corridor don't go upstairs scientists are working don't go there there must be no disturbance ever your focus should not be disturbed so these are some examples of focus a second focus is there any way to do it all of us so what happened that same power of concentration is there but it's not under our control although i thought i know this is important i have to do it but i can't do it because that power of concentration is not at my command swami vivekananda said if i had to do my education all over again i would develop the power of attachment and detachment fully how i can throw into one subject yeah carrying and then pull out from there completely and throw into another one that power that is the power of concentration that power we have one of the richest people in america warren buffett is the head of this investment company everybody wants to be rich in america so how did you become so rich and he said i have a secret and i can tell you you can also do it but also you can do it i know you can do it but i also know that you will not do it okay secret he says i read 500 pages a day so focus on on one thing how do you do that swami vivekananda says do whatever you are doing with the fullest possible attention this is a formula for focus do whatever you are doing with the fullest possible attention in life do it with the fullest possible attention attention was okay do that hold it there you might think why do everything with the fullest possible attention because if i want to study do my assignments do my work in the company yes full attention internet browsing subscribe we have one mind what does it mean if you let it lose throughout the day ice cream palace ice cream internet now what has happened the mind which is left to relax throughout the day do whatever it wants when you the mind will rebel will not do it it's not trained to pay attention up if you make it a habit to pay attention in doing whatever you are doing or just [Music] attention is not boring concentration is not boring attractive options then it will become boring you cut out all options and concentrate on the material only fullest possible attention to whatever you are doing swami vivekananda you can see that that is the logo of the ramakrishnan mission it was designed by swami vivekananda and where i am now in the vedanta society of new york [Music] a printer he just sketched out something and he threw it across he tossed it across the table and said draw it to scale and it became the logo of the ramakrishna mission then he explained it's that the sun represents knowledge the water represents work karma the blooming lotus represents bhakti devotion and that swan in the middle is concentration when it becomes yoga meaning concentration when it becomes yoked to knowledge devotion and service it leads to realization of god so how do you do that what does that snake mean and i got the answer from a psychologist a book like many fred gallagher it's called wrapped rapt racked up ign absorbed she says the best example best symbol of concentration is a cobra situation cobra has this piercing fierce laser-like focus on its prey unwavering laser-like focus step one unwavering laser-like focus on the object step one step two hold it just second concentrate so hold it bring it back hold it just like the cobra holds that case third your hood of the cobra that's meaning of that actually biological meaning kudos try the cobra become intimidating but they are symbolically meaning cutting off the rest of the world in order to concentrate on one thing you must cut off everything else this positive psychologist lot of people have worked on concentration they say this is most important one must cut out everything else is foreign the same thing applies for studies same thing applies for your work incorporates article so let me complete the thought fullest possible attention because you have one mind only ahmadi satyarupanji maharaja who just passed away recently he was the head of our center in raipur and he used to inspire the youth like anything i remember one talk he gave in below much for the youth italy bought priceless thing he told i still remember that was like 15 years ago loose throughout the day concentration so make it a habit after relaxation may be concentration film with full concentration storybook with full concentration then after 15 days make it 7 30 after 15 days make it 7 15 make it 7 o'clock you will get to 6 o'clock 5 30 5 very easily noontam says a japanese kaizen kapoor philosophy those who study management the incremental improvement other jumping todas are changed but daily thoughts have changed daily little bit of change daily week is there so this person had come to do pronounce but he's a well-known management consultant so we asked him and he had no time he was going to the railway station and what he said was so amazing till today more than 20 years have passed i remember kabat ivo he went to the students class 10 students he said ups up you can do it also see rabbit here ramsay [Music] he did this do it with me he said please raise your hands raise your hands when the first time you raised your hands you did not raise it to the maximum possible height this is the secret of human effort to and spiritual practices we are always doing a little less we know honestly if you ask yourself we can do little better little better we can do this is our psychology and then he told the students head heart and hand every day tell yourself i can study think analyze a little better today analyze memorize everything little better today i can feel a little more for my classmates my teachers my parents the workers in the school little more feeling for them and hence i can work a little better i can play a little better today little better continuously but thinking feeling and work no limit you can become better and better throughout your life i still remember 20 25 years later i think you will also not forget this is the same thing don't start with something very difficult don't bite more than you can chew so this is pay as complete attention to whatever you're doing at all the time make a habit of it this is this is focus and that meaning of that cobra intense focus hold it cut off everything else and one more thing i can add something i read in modern positive psychology work related they say work in intense bursts of 25 to 30 minutes minute relax if you feel like then come back for 25 to 30 minutes instead of one hour i say dila this bursts of concentrated activity all right i think we will go and take a few more questions i've said whatever i wanted to in this what was the word you remember all right let's take some from the back we have not taken anything from the back dark shirt who's raised his hand is you i'm talking to you i'm talking to you yes yes give him the microphone tell us your name and ask the question huh um [Music] [Music] [Music] very good question doing something for yourself and doing something for others and has he nicely put it up slogan the the the motto of the ramakrishna mission that also swami vivekananda foreign and i was thinking but what are you doing with the rest of your life so ancient times what should i do 18 chapters foreign your tendencies are there in the mind so you have to work it out whatever it may be in the family it may be in kurukshetra it might be in your office recording foreign he was very nice he allowed me to sit in his class bought the cheeklist ethics a vast range of knowledge but anyway i don't know how mahatma gandhi got his doctrine of non non-violence from a book like the bhagavad-gita which is a book um foreign [Applause] how much it is about what very little class so harvard kennedy schools government international relations [Music] you look at all the traditional commentaries of the bhagavad-gita shankaracharya commentary ramanuja commentary madhwacharika committed so many classical commentaries for a period of more than one thousand years um your spirituality can be practiced in the worst circumstance which is then it's for everybody our situation is not more difficult than that more or worse than that it's a worse situation so jesus says love the lord thy god with all thy heart and all thy might and is that yes both have to be done at the same time more i'm spending time as a monk the more i'm beginning to realize you have to keep both so that monk said to me i said huh as time went by i realized unless i do spiritual practice unless i'm spiritual i really cannot do any good to others for okay one more question here okay the the young lady here it's a joke please stand up they'll give you the mic tell us your name and you can ask the questions [Music] my name for is so i have two questions uh the first question is on karma yoga in one of your videos you had mentioned that the key to do karma was disinterested or uninterested i am still trying to wrap my head around it i i don't understand where else you can get your motivation from if not for the result or the cause so if you could um kind of like right and i have one more question yes um you had mentioned about the four-fold qualifications uh to gain uh to realize your through nature and you'd mentioned something about vyakulata and my question is um when you have that yearning and when the idea seems so far-fetched and so high how do you deal with the conflict that goes on and the distance this even distance between where you are and where you would like to be correct two very good questions what's your subject i'm currently doing liberal arts very good combination so engineer liberal arts there's a philosophy component to it also yeah is professor arandam chakravarti also teaching you yeah right i know he takes he gives classes there very good you could not say here when one should cultivate i i'm seeing a lot more of this in india now paranaitha there was this girl in our class at harvard an indian girl she was studying so no this is not good one should cultivate this knowledge so basically sana has asked um two questions one is about the second one is about the ideal and the distance ideal is very far and i want to attain it big distance how do you motivate yourself how do you face the the you know the cognitive dissonance the distance you see and the first one was where do you get motivation for karma yoga for money i can work for a degree i can work even for social uplift of other people i can work but without any motive how can i do work so that thing she quoted was disinterested action not uninterested action i'm smiling because i know where it was said to me here in delhi swami ananya energy who was there in mayavathi and then in hyderabad i think yes he was visiting and he had a knee problem so i i was a new brahmacharya a very senior wonderful swami so i would hold him and what he would as a heavy-built big man walk with hold my hand and walk to the temple after aarothi again i would take him back to his room so one day i thought i will ask a question i asked what sana asked i asked him swamiji how can one work without any motive at all he was about to enter his room he just looked at me and he said remember disinterested action my boy not i have no particular personal motive for it others will gain and i will do that action with the best possible attention with the best possible care like in kasi yoga philby what shana is asking no personal goal is there then how can or why should one do that action no it's wrong to think that no personal goal is there there is a goal but it's not a worldly goal the goal is spirituality by this worst work shiva knowing ji was to be god to be shiva i am worshiping them i'm worshiping god through all the jivas it is my spiritual practice by serving in this way the lord will be pleased with me this is bhakti approach then there is the approach that brahman exists in all beings and through my action i am worshiping god or i am being connected to brahman i see god in all beings in all actions verses there in classical advaita vedanta all this work is done for purification of the mind with that without that purification of mind one cannot realize brahman you asked a question about fourfold qualification after that you see they say four-fold qualification these four-fold qualifications are necessary for a student of vedanta and at a high level the necessary how will you get these qualifications by purity of mind how will you get purity of mind by karma yoga karma yoga leads to chittashdi and in purification of mind leads to these fourfold qualifications so to be qualified for vedanta to become ready for brahma gyana one needs purification of mind that comes from karma yoga then there is a motive fire is saying no motive this motive is not to be counted among other motives this desire is not to be counted among worldly desires sram krishna would say in a very humorous way in bengali chinese okay what is called sugar candy misery mithri sweets they generate acidity acid reflux you have to be bengali to understand that mystique so and then but if you make sharabat out of mystery that destroys just like an antacid it actually destroys your acidity similarly desire for god desire for spirituality is not a worldly desire it destroys all our worldly desires foreign part of your question was brahma gyan moksha nirvan these are very far how many have attained and i think i cannot attain then how will i remain motivated to do this it seems part of goal actually this question was asked one professor at harvard university he teaches philosophy there indian philosophy and he asked just as a sort of discussion swamiji moksha nirvana these are very far very few people attaining so why should one be spiritual success so i gave him two answers he gave me a third answer all three are very good answers there are answers to your question why should we pursue spirituality if the goal is very far or very difficult the two answers i gave him was mohs sub name is not true first answer subcommittee everybody will get more nirvana enlightenment freedom everybody will get it's your real nature who can prevent you from getting it that's the question i don't i have an answer to you and then maybe this life maybe the next life maybe the life after that who knows but success is guaranteed on this path everybody will get moksha sudama krishna says he gave a very nice example in kashi there's somebody from banaras yes in bananas he says the place of maanapurna she who gives food nobody goes hungry in the land of maarnapurna everybody will be fed but some will get in the morning some in the afternoon some in afternoons or some in the afternoon some before sunset morning sunset does not make much of a difference he means sunset means pralia of the universe how many lifetimes later they can subco everybody will be fed everybody will become spiritual become enlightened so this is the first answer it is guaranteed 100 guarantee money back second once you have entered this path you have tasted spirituality in some form nothing else will seem as good as it is this everything will seem less than this you know spiritual life will seem the best life possible you will never be able to give it up so but look devotees sometimes say i remember myself when i became a monk after one week in a riskless thing but one week i was telling another brahmacharis senior brahmacharya then he said see you have been in that house for 23 years of your life i have to go back to that life come progress so i was convinced but yeah so this is the second answer there's nothing compared as wonderful as spiritual life we must all start it and hold on to it third i told that professor the professor said these are good answers swamiji but they are little theoretical i will give you practical reason why people stick why they come into spiritual life and why they stay there and the answer he gave was beautiful he said moksh nirvan ramayana but day to day the benefit people get from spiritual life the peace they get the purposefulness of this purpose this meaningfulness this peace this strength they get that is why they keep coming they keep going to ashram to meditation they keep they stick to spiritual life just last year i was hearing this doctor she comes to the vedanta society indian doctor she works in the emergency room in in new york in manhattan she said swamiji you cannot imagine at the peak of kovind thousand deaths per day in new york only it was like a war zone and we had to fight and so many nurses and doctors were dying also what are the protections it's the only thing that saved me one doctor american lady she committed suicide she she said only thing that saved me swamiji was your mantra who did that i prayed to srila krishna that is the only thing that saved me mankind strength so these are the three answers to your question the goal is so far no it is not it may be far but it is guaranteed number answer number one second this is the best best thing in life highest thing in life third you will continuously get benefit day to day benefit okay let me take one more question um someone from the very back last year [Music] [Music] is to keep fighting for it like i have tried my best to succeed in whatever style i'm saying this is going on being a student at that time but that inspiration keeps you unique constant inspiration i tried i did not get through see i am also not an iit student or i am student also but somebody was saying an analyst here the one problem with indian society is because of tremendous competition hamar is competition it's much more now it's really difficult being a young person in india today it's quite difficult at least two three nations have seen usa canada or australia same category of youngster boy or girl has a much easier time study job everything is much easier because competition is much less so another thing i've seen is that population but you see the is of purple indian population when you go outside india har jaga there is a wonderful indian community highly successful model minority everywhere indians are liked and loved so population has an advantage also if you go to these other countries you see the the power of indian population but this analyst told me india is a very unforgiving society for young people success [Music] you have lost one year last two years after life no this i appreciate in those countries usm vedic failure is not punished eggs are drop out kargya no problem you start all over again you have every chance of succeeding and the people will completely forget your past nobody cares so here this attitude we should have in life uh his question is how do you keep uh inspired the fight for focus for concentration answer is very simple answer is the joy that concentration gives if i mega so inspiration it is something i like and i enjoy it good things can also be very enjoyable concentration is very enjoyable focus is very enjoyable that i told the students in that engineering college if you don't distract yourself you have no other choice cobra cut off everything else and focus on that one thing you will get satisfaction concentration satisfaction you study a book seriously for one or two or three hours at the end of it you will feel satisfied for one or two or three hours you browse internet here and there at the end of it you will feel disgusted with yourself why focus you have constructively engaged your attention in something to especially the joy you get that leads to uh you will keep on doing it it will become a habit it's flow me high it's a big name me high chicks but the name of the book is flow try to read it it's one of the classics of modern uh modern positive psychology there it says the best time of our life optimal experiences in life come when the mind is concentrated flow experience that's how he got the name flow from musicians and one characteristic of flow is total engagement of mind total attention is engaged there there's a lot of tr to learn there i'm not going to talk about that book but basically my point is focus concentration when you are doing it right is an enjoyable state and that enjoyment the joy in focus that higher satwik joy that will be the motivation for remaining focused swami smaranji maharaj who is the president of our order now many years ago when he used to teach us we were brahmacaris he would again and again say not in not only the goal is ananda the means also must be anand good but the means it must be blissful to work for others it must be blissful to worship god and sing and pray to god it must be blissful to meditate calmly it must be blissful to realize and inquiring psychologist when i went here already left side i thought i would meet him and you know attend his course subscribe happiness happiness he wrote a book about it also talban shah his basic idea is this khana food four types like matrix when i have four types of food one is it is very tasty but unhealthy another one just opposite very healthy but tasteless somebody said to me the more healthy the food is more tasteless it not good full of preservatives and tasteless and also unhealthy the last one tasty and healthy and he says what we should aim for is tasty and healthy food healthy so it's good for us and tasty because you like to take it it will be effortless similarly he said in life try to it's not always possible but try to make your activities relationships work practices spiritual practice academic studying exercise all of that should be tasty and healthy should be enjoyable and beneficial very good idea simple idea how popular his class was i'll tell you normally graduate level classes are what 20 people 15 20 people sit there most classes were like that his class was 500 people body auditor ordinary class per lecture ordinary classes you have to have a for biggest auditorium there so i think his class was tasty and healthy also one more question we've got time let's take it from a relayed lady there yeah oh two ladies okay you will get your chance next you you tell us your name and ask the question [Music] so my question is as we see here we have lots of people who are attending this convention and after this they would go home and be very much [Music] attracted towards what happened here only so the thing is that we see their life should be changed for days maybe years whole life could be changed here we see one convention can change one's life how about introducing this spirituality into the course that we have in our education system and in universities or colleges so that we can pursue it every day or even regularly because this can change one's life in one day so how about introducing it in you know once education forever i think that that calls for applause this is only answer is this this is what is required you heard this thank you very much for that and people are trying for most among them revered swami shantatman and his team here in delhi ram krishna mission did you hear about that 5 000 plus schools 1 million plus students see this is you know there is a saying in management in communication theory it as important as getting an idea is to get it from point a to point b you may get an idea but you should communicating that idea is equally important and it should be scalable not just one teacher with few students sitting in the himalaya but scalable 1 million students 5 million 10 million students and as she said from kg to pg dr sarvapali radhakrishnan i'm sorry to say 1948 he had thought about it and he had one chapter in his university education commission what set of syllables should be there in university of free india one whole chapter was on religious and moral education there he argues it is not against secular constitution to teach the highest values of all religions to the students we are not teaching religion we are teaching values and spirituality this is a different matter altogether he gave syllabus college syllabus first year second year third year syllabus the government in its wisdom at that time dropped that chapter completely they did not implement any of that who accepts radha krishna who respects radha krishna i was surprised in harvard divinity school at harvard university there is a center for study of world religions when i entered that big picture of dr radhakrishnan he was president of india visiting harvard university at that time they inaugurated the center for study of world religions was inaugurated by dr sarvapali radhakrishnan his recommendation was what she has just said 1948 recommendation of dr radhakrishnan there should be full syllabus for what we call today value education spiritual education moral education for all students at all levels the other lady yes no this lady who stood up she gave her the microphone [Music] and [Music] [Music] right how do you deal with negative thoughts this is a weakness of the mind the mind always playing tricks so one is it will become pull up negative thoughts hateful thoughts bitter thoughts unhappy thoughts past memories mind is an instrument you are not the mind instrument is like microphone like computer that's the mind you are different from it don't let the mind misbehave mind is a good servant it's a terrible master if you let mind take charge of you it will ruin your life you should be in charge of the mind in qatar punishat very nice analogy is given of chariot so you so there is the chariot the horses are the five senses five horses are there five senses seeing hearing smelling tasting touching the roads the five lanes are the five sense objects what you see what you hear what you smell what you taste what you touch the rain by which the horses are controlled that is mind the charioteer driver is intellect buddhi who are you you are the passenger you have a goal to attain god realization enlightenment brahmagyana liberation that chariot will take you to that goal where the senses are controlled and trained the mind is focused clearly said samanaska mindful now mindful meditation is a big thing in the world in usa at that time qatar panishan masamanaska controlled senses focused mind concentrated mind an intellect pragyanawan vidyana one intellect should be fully informed by vedanta yoga spiritual knowledge should be there in the intellect intellect knows driver knows where he has to go jp is well programmed and steering tight focused steering dealer mario kardini gumrah then very difficult and horses are the wheels of the car they are um perfectly aligned crash will be there so this is the model which is given in cut openation you are not the um driver you are not the the reins of the horse you are not the horse also you are not the chariot you are the passenger atma consciousness sakshi so that model you keep practically mind is getting disturbed all right get up from that work engage yourself physically do some other work maybe go and talk to somebody maybe listen to some music divert yourself don't sit there with that churning mind break that pattern immediately all right now i will make a cup a point in two minutes and then wrap up the third point bulge i have not forgotten seva we have had two so far first then second concentration third one is seva a very great philosophy of life service as spirituality swami ranganathan and was the 13th president of our order used to say what is spirituality when i close my eyes in meditation i get peace within when i open my eyes my attitude is what can i do for you close my eyes i get peace within open my eyes what can i do for you a philosophy of seva we are so disturbed because when we close our advice meditation maharaja all sorts of thoughts are there in my mind i know peace within open my eyes not what i can do for you what can i get from you just the opposite therefore we don't have peace that is not spiritual that is worldly disturbed mind and asking for things from the world in an in an old christian classic which swami vivekananda liked a lot imitation of christ written by a christian monk nearly a thousand years ago there that person was written is as imagined that jesus christ is teaching the disciple so this disciple asks lord how will i get peace of mind monkey shanti kaise and jesus says four things it's in the imagination of the writer four things if you want peace practice four things you see these four things we will realize why we don't get peace we do opposite of that first always seek to have less rather than more we do the opposite more more more swami vivekananda said the west is trying to show how much a person can accumulate india shows how a person can be live happily with the minimum things although if you want peace always seek to have less rather than more second always seek to be last rather than first all parents we are telling students we first be first first means you do well in your studies and your new work but do it for let others uh enjoy the privilege first i will take the last part of it we used to serve roti in uh for the sadhus in in the punggat you know foreign she does not feel her sacrifice she gets joy and the children eat you will get joy if you give to others be last rather than first third one very difficult to obey the will of another rather than your own will i know better this is what i want this is what should happen is in all most of these cases let other persons will be done in family in job to some extent then finally last one in all things recognize and accept the will of god hurt jesus recognize and accept the will of god so four things to get peace of mind this is the the the philosophy of seva that i will do things for others it is the that i have a power to do something for others if i've got time and energy i can work for others the skill i can help others with it if nothing else a smile a little bit of encouragement a few nice words for others not glum face dark face swami vivekananda said if you have sorrowful face gloomy face don't go outside the door it's a disease like kovid don't spread it mask panel he says stay inside the room so this philosophy of service that i should it's a great power i should do something for others um instead of spending my life trying to get from society get from others transform it into a sense of giving now when will i do that no no no it's an attitude i have seen it in little students and i have not seen it in some rich accomplished person at the point of retirement still trying to get so this is an attitude we can have whoever you are wherever you are no matter how terrible your circumstance be you are in the position of a giver never in the position of asking philosophy of service seva as a great philosophy in your life as the ideal of life this much i wanted to say these three things see even with faith in yourself even with tremendous power of cons of concentration at full faith in himself rawan had tremendous concentration but third one was not there everything for myself so the power of selfless service then you miraculously what you would have got by trying to get something for yourself but you get 1000 times 10 000 times more than that you will get by having the philosophy of service surely there is no doubt nobody has ever suffered today till today in life by having the philosophy of service in life philosophy engineering not necessary but you must be by nature the person who is available to others relaxed and happy in yourself and attitude is what can i do for you family me job community nation good i think we'll wrap up now thank you very much it was a pleasure and an honor and privilege to speak to you i think we are absolutely left spellbound and speechless uh just i will not take much of the times already we are late just two three very important observations one is see the whole concept of rebuilding india he he handled from a totally different perspective it's not so much the objective india the subjective if the individuals the citizens become extraordinary the country is going to be transformed automatically so he did not address any particular issues which are normally discussed when india is to be improved or something is to be brought about so completely from the from the individual subjective point of if all these people from all of our youngsters all of our countrymen become like that obviously india itself will be an extraordinary nation so we are very deeply indebted to him for spending so much of time he has spent so much of effort and even he has another program so please or if you stay in your seats by the time we leave then because if you want again you can come for the evening without the class and again you will get a chance to ask questions and tomorrow you will get a chance to do pranam also at the end of the program now we see two other things what what maharaj has told you you know is always the concept of lap to land whatever he told you we have two wonderful opportunities to practice and develop one is what he told about our flagship program it's called the awakened citizen program so we need to create a vacancies in this country so those of you are really ready i find many brilliant youngsters have come we just need you can take it two years we have a beautiful awakened fellowship you must be prepared to work in any part of the country it is a very exciting offer for that through that you can really contribute to the regeneration of your motherland because that program is directly addressing that issue and all the components maharash talked about in various ways they are there in that program it's all literally it's all there focus shaddha it's all seva everything is part of that program really completely part of it and then another thing is you know in delhi we run a youth forum youth forum and there we take a lot of youth issues and discuss every week every sunday it's from three to four four fifteen didn't copy it we are doing it online now we would switch to offline mode as many of you possible should come so that you know we can plan we can take many activities now straight away we have also taken an activity under that our suraj mishra who beautifully coordinated this whole program yes of course so many contributed but he was kind of central figure so that you can get up you can give a warm hand because he did it so beautifully not only that it's a of course he's a very vibrant emotional youngster but is really unselfish i can tell you that much now you know we have uh initiated a program called vivek vidya now how do we really practice this save on selfishness this is awake with no of course he will he will inform all of you because we have all your emails ideas we are saying that throughout india now so much students are being completely you know robbed like anything you know so many coaching institutions come up now they say right from birth you in enroll your institutions they were saying first after class 12 then after class 10 then class 6 now they say right from birth you can join so that you know your entire money they can take away from you what we thought was you know supposing we we initiate a group a big group of resource persons who can teach the students free it can be one hour two hours three hours one day two days three days all options he has developed a form whereby you can fill in so let us create a huge community of teachers because you are all coming with that kind of an ideology of you know it will be a wonderful thing for those students to get in touch with you so he will inform you about the details so let us create a huge community of wonderful teachers young teachers all over india you'll be part of this vivek vidya initiative through that we are trying to reach a huge student community across the nation i mean it's just in a seed form it's just not been given you know it has given birth just now so we have to take it a long way forward but then it's a very good initiative i thought one way where you know without other commitments but really everybody's busy every day someone another is happening this lot of student unions lot of other activities people don't have time so i thought this is one we can develop without any expenditure on your part only you have to keep your time so these are some of the initiatives once again let us give a warm applause to swami sarah priyanji for an amazing for an amazingly enriching session and we'll hear more and more from him of course we have two more classes in the evening all are welcome thank you [Applause] so please be seated in a few minutes thank you thank you maharaji for sharing your knowledge experience and wisdom and guiding us on this path of progress i'm sure we will all go home today with heads full of ideas to dwell on and thoughts to act upon and we look forward to hearing more from maharaji on several other occasions thank you all for your enthusiastic participation you may write to us on our email if you have any queries we have also arranged a small refreshment for all of you kindly collected while exiting the auditorium

Channel: Ramakrishna Mission, New Delhi

Views: 87,961

Keywords: Swami Sarvapriyananda

Id: TeQBuojLa9A

Length: 187min 50sec (11270 seconds)

Published: Sat Mar 26 2022