SIRD Malaysia

SIRD Malaysia

Video-satsang: Sunday 11th October 2009

Topic: Understanding vairaagya ( Dispassion)

Moderators: Sreedarji at the Ashram and Ravi Menon at SIRD Malaysia.

Poojya Swamiji: Okay, your Swamiji is here.

Ravi Menon: Pranaams from all of us, Swamiji. Pranaams to Nutan Swamiji and Ma. There are 36 of us assembled here today, Swamiji.

Poojya Swamiji: I greet you all with a lot of fondness and benediction.  I am reminded of the vedic ceremonies and rituals which were performed ages ago in this great land of Bharath.  And during the intervals they had what was called bhramasadas. A sadas means an assembly in which the supreme reality would be discussed. Actually the occasion is a ritualistic occasion. Though they were in the midst of ceremonies they always use to have some beautiful enlightening discussions. These discussions belong to the wisdom section of the vedas. They were in the midst of karmakhanda, the karmic section. Even then during intervals they used to discuss wisdom because all karmas, whether they were rituals, ceremonies or secular activities, all of them have their fulfillment only by spiritual wisdom which seeks to fill you all with inner abundance, fullness, enrichment and ecstasy. So I am reminded of such an assembly. Go ahead, let me hear your questions.

Ravi Menon: The first question: Can Swamiji highlight the 2 or 3 major obstacles or barriers to developing vairaagya and your advice to us on the steps that we can take to overcome it.

Poojya Swamiji: Vairaagya is literally translated as dispassion. There is a beautiful statement in Vivekachoodamani, the last composition of Sankaracharya in which he speaks in this manner:

Vairaagya-bodhau purusasya paksivat

Paksau vijanihi vicakasana tvam;

Vimukti-saudh’ agratal ‘adhirohanam

Tabhyam vina n’anyatarena siddhyati    verse 374

Renunciation and discrimination are the two wings of a bird.

Know this, O expert, that rising to the top of the house of

liberation cannot be accomplished without these two.

All of you are revolving around self knowledge, self realization and attainment of that, are you not? Answer me. If you understand that much, viveka means discrimination or discretion you can say. Vairaagya means dispassion. These are the two wings of the seeker. Viveka and vairaagya go together. They are just like the two wings of a bird. Consider you are a bird and you want to get to the top of the mansion or palace of liberation. You can fly and reach the top only with two wings not with one wing. Viveka, the quality and habit of trying to discriminate matters, trying to know what is good, what is bad; particularly  what is ephemeral, transitory, fleeting and what is eternal, everlasting, real. Vairagya  means the dispassion toward things that are fleeting, evanescent, transitory.

So the viveka and vairaagya go together, they are like the two wings of a bird. Now, I would like you to tell me very clearly, would you like to have, if you are a bird, only one wing or two wings? So, vairaagya is one and  viveka is another. So is there any alternate to vairaagya? No. Then, this is the first way you should understand. Vairaagya is such a quality, it is not something like despair, disgust, disappointment. Not at all, not at all, not at all.  (Swamiji repeats). It is actually a very vibrant quality. When you look around the world and find everything is changing, transitory. When you look at your own body, mind is transforming, intelligence is transforming, ego also has got its undulations.

So in our personality, as well as in the world around, there are objects like the mountain, the sea, the air, so many things are there. All of them are undergoing change. Everything is subject to aging. Understanding that it is so, there naturally arises a quest and urge for what is the real, what is the real, what is the real. (Swamiji repeats).  When you have such a quest towards unreal things, the natural response would be one of dispassion. Would you like to drink poison? No. It is something like that. Transitoriness  is poison, changefulness is poison. You already have a changeful personality, by all these changeful products you will only be multiplying, squaring, making it a cube to the power of 4, 5, etc., etc. By association with ephemeral things, it is natural for you to have  dispassion towards these things. Now you are asking “What are the obstacles to dispassion?” First of all, not trying to evaluate the quality of dispassion.

Now any value gives you strength, gives you beauty, gives you stability, makes you charming, makes you charming, makes you excellent. Any quality worthy of its name will make you charming.

So dispassion is an inevitable, indispensable quality. When you understand that dispassion is an indispensable quality, there will be no difficulty at all in growing it. Dispassion does not come to you  when somebody dies, or you have a disappointment in your love episode, you have lost some money or your close relatives misbehave or deceive you. Seeing such instances, posthumous dispassion  -  I don’t like it.  Dispassion is always a quality which you develop beforehand, not after the event, but events can also contribute to the development of dispassion. But actually speaking, you study the scriptures, listen to many episodes, understand how world and life have been evaluated by our forefathers. Listening to all these things, looking into the open world, broad world, thinking about what is going on there, automatically dispassion is the only natural response towards  it. Am I clear or not? Is there any doubt?  And do you want me to point out any obstacles now? Understand that it gives you strength, it gives you ability That alone will give you ability, ability, ability to evolve.

Some soldiers happen to talk to me sometime during my life of wandering. One soldier was telling me, whenever we have to confront the enemy, especially when we are going to meet death or administer death, mutual fighting, the ultimate thought that comes to them is – that dispassion. Hare, there is death sometime or another. “Here, to fight for the country, let me fight, let me not think I will lose or gain”. And sometimes they face bullets only after developing dispassion. After all how long are you going to live in this world? Sixty years, seventy years, eighty years? Draw a line indicating the infinite length of time. If you make it a graph, then can you tell me how much your life of eighty years in that line will be? Not even a point!  And we are magnifying it! 

What does it matter, I don’t know, whether you live a little longer or a little shorter.  I would like all of you, including myself, to live long with health, certainly. But suppose something happens, in what way are we affected? The world will go on, time will go, god will go on. So I think dispassion alone gives you the required strength, required ability, to go forward, to get involved in anything. If you have to march forward to meet the soldier, either kill him or get killed, dispassion alone will help you, nothing else.

If you have to run your family, dispassion is necessary. Suppose in the family, some troublesome children are born, husband or wife – they themselves become incompatible with each other. Sometimes there is some invalid condition growing, accidents are there. You know in Seremban, there is a young boy apparently still  lying in coma. What is the reason and can you imagine the plight of the parents? They are looking after the child. Just like they would have looked after him when he was two or three, now in his twenties, they are still looking after him; poor boy is in a state of coma, the scene comes to my mind.

You know I am somebody… (Swamiji begins a new sentence). Please listen to me with many ears, not with two ears. I would like you to have thousand ears now. See your Swamiji has got the hobby and habit of thinking about the evils, imbalances and conflicts of the world. You know the situation in Kerala now. Newspaper is full of news, what is the news? Somebody is walking on the street, another man comes in a two-wheeler, he snatches the chain and goes away. Sometimes they beat women, rob 75 sovereigns, 50 sovereigns, 10 sovereigns; sometimes beat them, kill them, pull them. The ashrams also are not exempted, everywhere this is going on. And we have got a paid police force. We also have military with us.  And these police forces are paid with the tax-payer’s money, you pay it in one form or another; sales tax, income tax and so many other taxes.  Now you and I, as citizens, will not be able to contend the situation. What is the police doing? What is this, I am not able to understand! Anybody can do anything! There should be some exemplary punishment administered to them or there must be ample safeguards against this. For both, the administration is failing and you are living in such a world.  Tell me whether anything other than dispassion  will fortify your mind? In this situation, it is a very terrific situation.

We are under the grip of terrorists also. We got intelligence report in India saying that there is going to be a lot of terrorism throughout India and it is happening also. Can you imagine Maoists in India, they have beheaded a police officer. You know what I would say? I don’t know whether I should tell you. I feel that the people are not yet awakened, they don’t stand up to the situation. Here I don’t want dispassion, I want the timely awareness. But in spite of all this, what sustains this Swami Bhoomananda Tirtha’s mind and heart is the dispassion, the Himalayan and the spatial dispassion that he has. Let anything happen in this world, I will never lose my heart, I will never lose my heart. God may lose his heart but this Swamiji will not. I will crawl, I will crawl and still continue to live.

So this strength comes to me from dispassion. How do I grow it? By understanding the evils of the world, by understanding the conflicts of the world, by understanding the tragic situations, tragic plights which are encountering us, directly or indirectly.  We are living in a world of terrorism. What more do you want? And nobody is able to do anything though something is being done. So the terrorists will have their first success. It will take some time to organize right defences. And after sometime you will find the terrorists will lose their potential because nobody will mind, nobody will mind, nobody will mind. (Swamiji repeats). There the feeling of adventure automatically subsides in their heart, that is what I am envisaging. Meanwhile defence forces also will become strong. So one thing I can tell you is: Constantly dwell upon the evils of the world, the disharmonies and conflicts of the world. That will enable you to grow dispassion. It is always bringing inner fullness, inner fullness. You want me to tell you what are the obstacles for developing vairaagya. Why should you ask me obstacles? The obstacle is your lack of understanding of dispassion.

Suppose you don’t want to possess gold. What is the reason? You don’t know the value of gold. If you don’t want to be educated, what is the reason? Because you don’t know the value of education. Suppose you don’t want to be healthy, what is the reason? You don’t know the value and benefit of health. So here is what I can tell you: Understand, understand, understand (Swamiji repeats) the benefits and the majesty of dispassion. The obstacles are desire, greed, possessiveness, competition, etc, etc. These are the obstacles. Why should you have so much of possessiveness? Administer everything to the insight of viveka, everything will be alright. I don’t think I have to count the number of obstacles now. You yourself count because you are finding it difficult to cultivate dispassion. You tell me what are the obstacles because you are suffering, is it not? I have enough of dispassion and I have no obstacle at all. So I will have to borrow the obstacles from somewhere, so I will borrow it from you. You tell me in the next meeting what are the obstacles. Conduct a meeting on it. (Swamiji laughs).

Ravi Menon: The second question: Many on the spiritual path reach a very exalted state by attaining dispassion. However, we also notice that they also fall suddenly as in the case of Sita when she saw the golden deer. Why does this take place?

Poojya Swamiji: (Swamiji laughs lightly). I am happy that you people have become critical enough to cull such instances. Normally from Ramayana, this Swami is the only person who cites Sita for this kind of a failure. Now you have copied it from me apparently. (Swamiji laughs). So in that way you are good, I compliment you. But please copy me on the other aspects also. I said copy me on the other aspects also. (Participants reply “Yes, yes Swamiji”.) Okay.

Now see, however much you may be experienced, after two or three years or so, we have been walking on our two legs, walking on our two legs, and the feet are the point of contact with the earth and we have been walking for years. Even now if you are inattentive and careless, will you not trip and fall? (Participants reply “Yes, Swamiji”). In the same manner, however much a seeker is dispassionate, there is every possibility that he may slip. Sita had such a slip that’s all, and what is the reason? You can very clearly say what is the reason. This is the Sita who said “My dear Lord Rama, in your absence the palace is a cremation ground for me, but in your presence the forest will be a  palace for me.”  So Rama was very dear to her and she was living with Rama very beautifully in the forest. And in the last year, fourteenth year, Rama said “I will have a period of austerity and enrichment before returning to the palace, and they were living there.  At that time a golden deer came. Actually it is very clear there can be gold, there can be deer also. But there cannot be a golden deer. What is there in the deer more than in the gold? If she wanted to have gold, she has enough gold in the palace waiting for her. If she wanted to have a deer, so many deer were there. Why should she want to have a ‘golden deer’? So this is an extended desire which is disharmonious with the human mind and with the world.

Now there can be moments where our attention can fail, our sense of caution will fail, our presence of mind will fail. This is a constant challenge, challenge, challenge (Swamiji repeats). And this challenge is what makes us alive and active. No knower of truth can say ‘I am a full knower, and nothing can happen to me.’ Human is not given to assert beyond a certain level. One has to be very humble, very cautious and very careful and attentive, so there will be such moments. Don’t say that the exalted people fail. Now this particular instance is projected or described by sage Valmiki only to tell you that in the matter of being dispassionate, in the matter of being self knowledgeable, there cannot be any inattention at all. We call it pramada. Pramada means inattention, carelessness; there is no provision for it and you have to very watchful.

We are running Vicharasetu here. There are three or four people going through the proof. I hastily read it when it is published when a copy is given to me. Even then it is not unusual that I find some mistakes like wrong usage of a word, it should be singular or plural or the other way, or some word here or some word there, very rarely. How do you explain it? About three or four people are going through it, nevertheless it happens. Proof reading is the greatest challenge for man. In every field, we don’t want to be told about the mistakes. But in proof reading, we reward the people who find mistakes in the proof. Can you hear me? (Participants reply “Yes Swamiji”).

So pramada means inattention, this is always possible and we have to be careful. So these instances like that of Sita should be a caution for us and we should be careful. At the same time, Sita for having fallen does not deserve any kind of a condemnation at all. We are only to understand that this is possible for us and learn ourselves, that’s all.

Ravi Menon: The third question: Is it necessary to practice any austerities, e.g. fasting, to achieve vairaagya?

Poojya Swamiji: In order to achieve vairaagya, the best method will be to reflect upon the ephemerality of the world and the evils which constitute the world along with good. So dispassion is a quality that adorns your intelligence and mind. So that practice, that will directly involve the intelligence, is the best.

Now if you think your intelligence is not sharp enough, friendly enough, sensitive enough, you can supplement it by physical and sensory practices like fasting, like pilgrimages and so many other things. But actually it has to adorn your intelligence and mind. Now as a subsidiary or helpful measure, you can resort to physical, oral and other instances. Is it okay?

Ravi Menon The fourth question: Vairaagya is dispassion, living without attachment. However, there are times we unconsciously fail to practice. Is this a natural human tendency? How do we overcome this situation?

Poojya Swamiji: I cannot call it a natural human tendency but it is a habitual tendency. The human is supposed to be naturally very nice and beautiful. You know we must develop a child’s mind. We were a child and we had a childly mind and we are supposed to have such an innocence when we grow. But gradually when we interact with the world outside and the objects, places, persons, etc., they influence us, it is very natural, habitually it is so.  So, fall in the matter of dispassion and failure, you cannot say it is unusual, unusual.  (Swamiji repeats). I would go to the extent of saying, what? I would go to the extent of saying that complete, complete fulfillment perhaps is not given to man. Swamiji, so is it a wild goose chase? No. I shall tell you something more about it.

In Bhagavad Geeta Krishna says martaha smirtihi  jnana apohanam ca. It is from me that memory as well as forgetfulness has arisen. So there is a place for forgetfulness also. Just like memory and forgetfulness both coexist, you will find active and vibrant dispassion, sometimes getting dimmed, both are possible. But the second one should be rarer and the first should be more prominent. So, the right situation is one where you don’t aspire for success or failure, rise or fall, and try to remain even.  If there are instances where you have become inattentive and dispassion has declined, don’t mind it. That should give you a greater awareness and motives to be all the more careful thereafter.

See, our pilots sometimes become inattentive on the aircraft, in spite of very severe training, etc. It happens, there is no justification for it, but human is supposed to err. So it can only be an error, an exception; it cannot be a regularity, that you should understand. So let us not be worrying about …some losses or pitfalls will only strengthen your dispassion all the more from thereafter. Otherwise you will lose the charm and compulsion of life. Am I clear? (Participants reply “Yes Swamiji”).

Ravi Menon: The last question Swamiji: Sraddham is practiced by many people yearly. This appears to be conflicting with vairagyam. As such, is it necessary to practice sraddham?

Poojya Swamiji: This is a very significant question and I cannot explain in a short while like this. You know the sraddha presupposes death of a man. But in reality the soul is birthless and deathless. So if you perform sraddha, what does it mean? The person has not died, he is actually a soul. So when you understand and look at people as the soul, as the soul, as the soul (Swamiji repeats), as the manifestation of the soul, you belong to the jnanakhanda of the Vedas. The Vedas have two sections. One is the ritualistic section called the karmakhanda, the other is knowledge section called jnanakhanda. Mostly people are living in the karmakhanda, so they perform rituals and ceremonies. When you have got into the jnanakhanda, you should be governed by that. In jnanakhanda, performance of sraddha is not there.

You know there is an Upanishad called Kathopanisad; it is supposed to be recited and explained during the performance of sraddha. Why? Normally people perform sraddha, making the people die and live after death in the form of ghosts. Kathopanisad tells them, no such death has taken place and there are no ghosts at all. So we are trying to perform illumination to the sraddha performers, lifting them from the karmakhanda to the jnanakhanda.

So once you have this kind of a thinking, automatically the performance of sraddha will stop and something else will take over.  What will take over? Greater spiritual intensity and pursuit, and whatever you propose to do will be after the new insight. Am I clear? (Participants reply “Yes Swamiji”).

At the same you cannot say ‘My dear people, don’t perform any sraddha at all because they are all in the ritualistic sections.’ So you should not give them an advice contrary to where they stand. So let them perform. If you have elevated yourself to the wisdom section, you need not perform, that’s all. That is how we take up sanyasa. We take up sanyasa means all the rituals we leave. And I have removed my sacred thread. I did not have shika though I had half-shaven head. So we have removed the sacred thread and we have stopped everything. I don’t know the date on which my purvasrama father died , purvasrama mother died, etc., so we are not performing. Now as long as you are householders, you have to look at the community at large and also the other members of the house. So if they want to perform, don’t interfere; you need not if you don’t like. But you certainly must have the greater level of life and practice. That is important. Okay?

Ravi Menon: Thank you Swamiji. We are quite enlightened with the answer to this particular question. A lot of people had doubts about it. The next question is: Whether an austere life is necessary to cultivate vairaagya?

Poojya Swamiji: I don’t know whether an austere life is necessary to cultivate vairaagya, what do you mean by an austere life? But vairaagya leads to an austere life. Dispassion leads to an austere life. By austerity what do you mean, I don’t know. Austerity is a word which has a religious and a spiritual connotation. What is the spiritual and religious connotation? Austerity aims to purify  the mind, purify the intelligence. It always takes you from the body and the outside world into your own inner domain; that is called austerity. You understand that contentment belongs to the mind.  And the mind can generate contentment all by itself. I don’t want so many things of the world in order to make my mind delightful.

So any austerity is developing the mind, developing the intelligence and looking for and generating inner delight, inner fulfillment, inner ecstasy, inner contentment. That is called austerity. So such austerity if you are able to do and get benefited, automatically vairaagya will get strengthened. But generally, dispassion leads to austerity and austerity leads to greater and greater dispassion. You know, this Swamiji of yours…., am I not yours? (Participants reply loudly “Yes, Swamiji!”). This Swamiji of yours has been, during the past 53 or 54 years, thundering this dispassion and this wisdom from so many platforms. After having been speaking, speaking, speaking, speaking, speaking (Swamiji repeats) you know, I can tell you openly in a very child-like manner, I have become an embodiment of dispassion, an embodiment of wisdom. I think my whole life is an austerity.

Austerity and dispassion go together because I understand that when I look at anything, I am looking at and the resultant sight is mine. So I can clearly tell you that there is no external world at all in reality. This external world and its impression is actually an internal phenomena. It is my mind that gives me the notion of the external world. So I don’t find any externality dissociated from internality. If there is no externality and no world phenomenon, gross and external and solid, then what is it that I am going to be passionate about? I am looking for something for which I can be passionate; I can be desireful. I don’t find any object  worthy of any desire from myself. The only possible vibrant vibration in me is that I speak about these truths.  Even now I have not lost my delight in exposing these truths. You have asked a question, I feel very inspired, enthusiastic to answer you. That getting inspired to answer you, getting enthusiastic in doing so – that has not subsided in me. If that also subsides, this Bhoomananda Swamiji will stop talking, will almost be like a stone idol. So much of dispassion I have. My dear children, are all questions answered now, are things clear?  ((Participants reply “Yes Swamiji, we are very happy with them.”)

I wanted to tell you something. See, a gentleman, Raphi by name, a Christian, approached me a few weeks back saying that he wants me to speak on Krishna’s last message to Uddhava called Uddhava Geeta. It belong to the eleventh skanda of Srimad Bhagavatam consisting of twelve skandas. If I start getting shot for this, they will have to shoot a number a number of episodes. These episodes lasting for about half an hour, will be something like 350 to 500 episodes. It will be telecast everyday except Saturday and Sunday; and he is planning it for Asianet.  It will take some time for the recording, for the shooting and the pilot piece to be shown to them and getting approval and etcetera.

So I am full of this Uddhava Geeta now.  Before leaving for Delhi, I would like a few sessions of recording or shooting. For the first time, I will have to talk to nobody. So the idea came to me and I composed a poem day before yesterday or so. Whenever these poems come to my mind, I have got a very vibrant mind, a very irresistible vibration in the mind and I would like to record the poem, etc. and I have recorded it, I am embellishing it. The message of the poem is this: The thoughts of speaking on your last message for the benefit of the world so that they will be able to get rid of afflictions and have their own inner ecstasy, the thoughts are full in my mind. This is a program which will continue for a number of days, number of weeks, months, perhaps years also. Now in order to fulfill without any obstacle, without any trouble, my dear Krishna, I have nobody else, you alone will have to be with me and do the thinking as well as the speaking. This is the message of the poem, this is what I have written. 

So this is a development that has taken place in this ashram. Maybe within the next few days I will sit with the shooting people, and maybe a few episodes I would like to complete before going. It will be in Malayalam, not in English. So Asianet is the target for the man. He wants to have about 30 episodes before approaching them.

Cost-wise it is a very involving one. He is expecting that after the telecast begins, the viewers will call for CD and other things and maybe some people come foreward to say “We are prepared to offer as an offering, just like you go to the temple and offer at the alter of the lord, we would like to sponsor and offer one days’, two days’ or one months’ telecast”. That kind of an offering generally comes. And this man says people have generally not heard anything like the Uddhava Geeta or spirituo-philosophical dissertation on Hindu dharma. What he told me was that “Swamiji, you should understand, hundreds of thousands of people will be viewing you; and you talk to them, I want this message to be heard.“ I don’t know what fascination he had for your Swamiji and what makes him. He is simply interested in the venture. He says ‘I am not approaching you for any profit or anything. I will myself have to scrape through to get telecast by Asianet. Asianet will invite the program but they will have to be paid for the time, but they will not charge very much because it will be the unpopular times: 5.30 in the morning’. But in Malaysia you have very good time, you  may be able to listen to it at 8.00 o’clock in the morning. But Gulf countries will be finding it a disadvantage, but it cannot be altered, they have only 5.30 time in the morning, Indian time.

So this is the point I wanted to tell you. We asked him, do you want us to do any kind of a help? Would you like some finance to begin with?  Let us know. He said I would not like to raise the point of finance because I have not come here to discuss anything like that. But if at all you give me, I will only treat it as a loan, etc. he said. But my mind says we have to be very graceful. The object, if at all, is to spread the message of the lord so that the human hearts will be able to overcome and rub-off, obliterate their afflictions and torments and they will be able to have some joy, peace and retreat in their mind. 

So any effort on our part will not be an excess. So it is going to be a very Herculean program. Your Swamiji should have the health to do it. The willingness of course he has. And so many other programs are there in between; all these will have to go on and somehow I think we shall be able to make it. I just thought of sharing this news with you. The first time  I am speaking to anybody like you, a devoted group. Have you heard me? (Participants reply “Yes Swamiji “). And what is your response? (Participants reply “Very good Swamiji “). This Uddhava Geeta is the last message. The eleventh skanda of Srimad Bhagavatam, where it appears, is called the muktis skanda. We are thinking of naming it something like ‘Mukti-sudhakaram or muktisuddha’. That will be the name of the program in my mind. We may alter it and modify it, but this is what comes to my mind.

Okay, I have to go for a Srimad Bhagavata Tatva Sameeksha Satram committee meeting. I have to go 25 km away, they are waiting for me to join them at 10.30. I will have to reach there within 45 minutes. So shall I get up and proceed? (Participants reply “Yes Swamiji “).

Poojya Swamiji: Okay, asirvaad, asirvaad to every one of you.

Ravi Menon: Pranaams Swamiji.

Poojya Swamiji: Ma will conclude the session.

Maa Guru Priya: I think we are meeting all of you after a long time after the three-day session we had the last time. I was thinking myself it was quite some time that we had met you. Very happy to see  all of you. Swamiji is asking what is the after-effect of the 3-day session that we had. Can you tell?

Ravi Menon: It was very nice. We had all benefited from the sessions.

Ma Guru Priya: Today as Swamiji told you, Swamiji has to leave just now and it is a very, very busy day for Swamiji today. Soon after this Swamiji will be going to Vyasa Tapovanam for the meeting for the Bhagavatha Satram which will be held in December.  This will be the eighth one, eighth year.  It is a very special one because Sri Krishna was also the eighth child. So it will be observed in a very special manner. By the time Swamiji comes back it will be 2.30pm. And from 3.30 onwards the Sunday Vivekachoodamani classes will start. For the first, second and third Sunday we are having Vivekachoodamani classes from 3.30 to 4.45 every Sunday.  We had sent out letters to all our Vicharanasarani readers and other people. About 70 people come, expecting more.  It is a very good session. Swamiji will have to take a rest and take the class at 3.30.

Today additionally there is one more meeting soon after the class commencing at 5 o’clock, involving the villagers here around our ashram who have shown an interest to participate and give some support, maybe physically also, to the Bhagavatha Satram. This is the first meeting Swamiji will be having with the village people today, that will commence from 5 o’clock  and after that as usual the night satsang will be there with the devotees of the ashram. There are quite a few visitors here now staying.  From morning till night he is quite busy today. Swamiji is ever enthusiastic, he never says I am tired. We sometimes feel that with age advancing, he should take some rest.

Now another news is that the Poona people cancelled the trip to Poona. The Jnana Yagna which was to be held from 27th October. We were supposed to go to Poona from 25th October. There also the swine flu (H1N1 virus)  is quite rampant and so they had to cancel the program. They have postponed but I don’t think it will be held soon.

So we are now booked to go to Delhi on 29^th of October and return maybe by 25^th of November. There are quite a few programs in Delhi. So this is the news. Once again we are very happy to see you. We are not able to see you clearly at all but anyway we know that you are there.

 I shall chant the concluding verse. (Ma chants Prabuddham Vimukhtam …)

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End of Telesatsang, 11th October, 2009.

Skype set-up and recording by Rames and Rema. Satsang coordination by Unnikrishnan.  Hand-out sheet  to participants prepared Management Committee, Society for Inner Resources Development Malaysia. Bhojan & Annakshetra team supervised by Shanti & Sotheeswari and Uncle Ramaswamy Iyer. Transcription by Swaminathan; transcript emailed to Ashram  on  15th October 2009.

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APPENDIX 1: Handout sheet to participants for discussion before the videosatsang.

In Bhartrihari’s  Vairaagya-satakam , verse 91:

Kaupinam satakhandajarataram kantha punastadrsi

Naiscintyam nirapeksabhaiksamasanam nidra smasane vane I

Svatantrayena nirankusam viharanam svantam prasantam sada

Stairyam yohamahotsave’pi ca yadi trailokyarajyena kim II

Poojya Swamiji  explained that the sloka refers to the intensity of vairaagya, graced by which, the mind of a yogi will be drenched in bliss and freedom:

“If the mind is carefree and contented with a ragged piece of loin-cloth and a similar ragged wrapper, with food obtained unconditionally as bhikshaa; if by sleeping in the cremation ground or in a forest and wandering freely without any restrictions, the mind is always tranquil and steady enjoying the festive bliss of Yoga; then of what worth is the ownership of even all three worlds?”

Bhartrihari highlights how the mind can remain detached to external environments and yet derive its joy and freedom. One may not have proper food and clothing. He may find only a cremation ground or forest to lie and sleep. Even then, what? A mind zealously given to dispassion, can still revel in its freedom and joy. The mind has the capacity to be indifferent to external situations and find its internal delight.”

Swamiji explained the mystery of the real pursuit of dispassion: “Understand that the mind and body are absolutely different from each other. It is like two bulls yoked to a cart.  The cart and the bulls are quite independent. But while yoked, the bulls have a connection with the cart. The balance or imbalance of the cart will affect the bulls and vice versa. It is so with regard to the mind and body. Mind is linked to the body and therefore it will generally get affected by the body or bodily situations. Nevertheless, the mind is distinct from the body, and hence can have its fate independently.  Dispassion is something that appeals to the mind and can have its magical effect on it. Bhartrihari portrays how dispassion, when zealously cultivated by the mind, can lead to supreme ecstasy, despite what the body does or is subjected to.

This susceptibility of the mind and the resultant sublimity do not in any way depend on external situations at all. It is not necessary for you to wear a torn piece of cloth, or go to the cremation ground or forest for sleeping, in order to learn the lessons of vairaagya. It is enough if the mind is fed with these truths and contemplations, and thereby made to imbibe the sublimity and readiness.

This is the secret. You do not have to practically undertake the hazardous steps or strange life, which the poet describes. On the other hand, it is sufficient, and it is indispensable too, that the mind gets absorbed in full identity with the ideas and the values conveyed. You have to accept that this level of sublimity and dispassion is possible. To achieve anything for the mind, in the mind, the process is to make the mind think of it constantly. Thus the verse on dispassion constantly chanted will steep the mind in dispassion. When dispassion fills the mind, the passion and greed will instantly fall. And then surges the freedom, bringing all the delight and lightness.

Mental transformation results from the mind’s mentation alone, not by physical acts or efforts. Be sure.

(Passage from front cover of Vichārasetu): Vairaagya or dispassion is a great virtue that should enrich the mind of any one, especially a seeker. Real vairaagya grows from an earnest rational evaluation of our life in the world, and it instills into the mind unfailing strength and loftiness.  Only in the presence of vairaagya, all possessions become truly enjoyable.  Bereft of vairaagya, even the family life turns out to be a burden.

Extract  from Vichārasetu, January 2000, pages 14-17; In Gurusannidhi– 4.

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Questions for the GROUP MEMBERS participating in the discussion.

1. What is vairaagya?

2. What are some of the obstacles and barriers that you have that prevent you from thinking of vairaagya constantly?

3. How can you take some steps to resolve this?

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AFTER the discussion, list  one or two questions your group wishes to put forward to Poojya Swamiji.

1.

2. 

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End.