SIRD Malaysia

Video-satsang: Sunday 9^th May 2010

Topic: From Suffering to Happiness

Namrata: I shall hand over the mic to Maa.

Maa: We had a three day lecture which Swamiji conducted in Thrissur town. All along, this is Swamiji’s disseminational life of over 50 years, Swamiji has never spoken in English in Thrissur, he has always been talking in Malayalam. The lectures went off very well. The topic was ‘Personal Fulfillment and Professional Excellence’.  And invitations were sent to the professionals like doctors, engineers, lawyers, chartered accountants, educationists and all that. Many youngsters had come and people were making notes also. So I think it was a different crowd that we got for this lecture. I just wanted to share this with you because every one of us was very happy and I think you are happy to hear this.

Shanti: Thanks for sharing Maa. I will hand over the mic to Swamiji.

Poojya Swamiji: Hari Om Tat Sat, Jai Guru,

Shanti: Pranaams, Swamiji.

Poojya Swamiji: Asirvaad, Asirvaad,

Shanti: I am Shanti. There are 37 of us here, Swamiji.  Swamiji can we go to the questions?

Poojya Swamiji: Yes.

Shanti: The first question: How can a highly sensitive and attachment oriented person handle suffering?

Poojya Swamiji: See the question is whether suffering is acceptable to you or not? If it is not acceptable, it has to be handled. If you decide that it has to be handled, why go into the question how, whether the person is sensitive and attachment oriented and all that? There are two options before him. Whether he suffers or he learns to withstand them or forebear them. Tell me what is going to be his choice? He wants to suffer or he would like to handle it? Tell me.

Shanti: Handle it, Swamiji.

Poojya Swamiji: If he likes to handle it, he has to proceed to handle and there will be effect. What is the way to proceed? You cannot imagine a worst situation than a great valorous fighter like Arjuna, coming to the battle field after about 13 years of special preparation. And when he looked at the army he was so overpowered by weakness and sympathy that he started crying, laid down his weapons, and he said “I am going to retreat”. Can you imagine a more sensitive and suffering person than Arjuna? Then what happened? Krishna started exhorting him. First of all he gave him a short comment. The short comment consists of 64 letters in two Sanskrit verses. These two verses worked a magic on Arjuna’s mind and the tears stopped.  His intelligence was activated and he began to think, “My dear Krishna tells me that what I am doing is not right. Naturally I must bear heed to him”. Immediately he started thinking, the tears stopped and the intelligence became active and he was asking “I am to fight, but how,  I am not able to?”. The same thing your suffering person will be able to say. I have a lot sensitiveness, I have a lot of attachment in spite of it, I want to handle the suffering. See, if you don’t like suffering, don’t stand it, get ready to handle it. If you will not get ready, good, suffer more and more, I will also give you a little more suffering. What? What are you saying?

Shanti: We don’t want suffering.

Poojya Swamiji: What is this?  I don’t understand! Whether you have attachment or you have something else, think very clearly, we have not merely a mind, we also have an intelligence. This intelligence is what makes you qualified, what makes you fit for employment and you are paid for your intelligence and work. The same intelligence can work on the mind. How many times shall I repeat the sentence? That intelligence which works on the exterior sphere, and makes you earn money, conduct a business and all that; it is the same intelligence that has to work on the problems and needs of the mind. Intelligence is the only agency which can improve. You know, I will tell you, in my young days we had to walk about 5 to 6 km. The other day I saw a boy, he had been promoted to fifth class, looking only this much. So I said “My dear boy, was in your age I started to walk to Wadakancheri from Parlikad, about 10 km a day, I could never imagine. People were saying how are you going to walk, there are two hilly terrains also on the road? So I started going to Wadakancheri. Can you imagine, so sometimes it so happened that I was about to late by 5 minutes. I used to cry and weep, on the road, because I was late.  So I was crying and weeping for everything. Now even if I want to cry and weep, tears don’t come. Not only for me, also for quite a number of people. So was I not emotional and sensitive? Even now I am. I have a lot of emotion. But as important and as active as my emotions, so also is the knowledge or wisdom. You know, the moment, by listening to me, the sensitive man, attachment-oriented man should become at least 60% less, by merely hearing me. Is that person there, that attachment-oriented person?

Shanti: Yes, Swamiji.

Poojya Swamiji: Who is that? Let me see him!

Shanti: (Shanti laughs). Most of us here Swamiji.

Poojya Swamiji: See, your attachment is very good. You tell me one thing. Suppose a mother is there, the child has become sick, should she go on crying or give the child the necessary medical attention and rush him to a hospital? What will work?

Shanti: Give the necessary attention, Swamiji.

Poojya Swamiji: If your tears will help, then shed tears a lot. I shall also give you extra tears. If the tears will not help, just attend to him, this is what every time is needed. So don’t speak about a sentimental man. Sentimentalism is not good at all, but having healthy and noble emotions always is good and attachment-oriented. We want you to become detachment-oriented so that you can live better in your house as a mother, as a wife, as a husband, as everybody.

Just now somebody came to the room and said “Swamiji, I have a problem.”   What is that problem? “One of my family members does not like me.”   I said there must be some reason for it. So let us find out if possible, why he doesn’t like. All people need not like everybody, so I won’t be liked by all people, some people will dislike me also. When I hear about the dislike, I am not going to cry and weep if possible. What is the reason for that person to dislike you, if at all. What is the reason? Some problems were mentioned, I heard them. So it will become part of my knowledge, part of my stock, there areas to start working upon. In society there are people who have different outlooks and different standards, etc., so we will think about it. You know when we decided to reconstruct the ashram here, there was a divided opinion. I knew that if I drop my body after the reconstruction is thought of, there will be more vehement opposition saying that it should not be done, etc. So I thought let it be reconstructed right now while I am living. And the new building also will have hosted me for a fairly good length of time, so the people will have a new memory after this building, this was my idea. But we published in Vicharasetu, if you go through you can find, that there was a very important letter where a very old devotee of mine, as old as I am physically, he clearly said that it should not be constructed. So I acknowledged and appreciated whatever he said. He happened to come here in the ashram, so I was asking him, “Mr. So and So, you are not in favour of reconstructing this building, naturally I would not like to show you this reconstructed building because you may not like it. That is why I come and see you at the lower land level, ground floor. He said, “No! No! No! It is not like that.” Another devotee was there who had some opinion, etc.  So one day I said, “See if you have this kind of a reserved opinion on reconstructing the ashram, it becomes very difficult for us to accept anything that you give. After all when you give something, we must feel a sense of acceptance towards it. So if you have some misgivings and difficulties about what we do or what we want, especially in these matters, then how shall I accept whatever offering you give? Is it possible for me to accept? I discussed the subject with him. You know that one discussion took away all the walls from his heart. And he is quite obedient and open with us now. So should we be overpowered by sentiments and emotions or should we still have some kind of a higher sense in us whereby despite these demotions or sentiments, cross-emotions, we will be able to function well.

Yearly, I will tell you something, that Sampathan, he used to give some offering  in the form of money, but this person is not coming here. So once or twice we accepted it, and the third time when I was told that, “X my boss has asked me to hand over to you X sum of money.”  I said please do not send the money, keep it with you, I would like to talk to you. Then I did not talk, the money was not accepted. It seems he later on said, “ I want to send some money to the Ashram, Swamiji did not accept it”; so the person reported to me. So another time there was some accident in his family, so I called him and spoke to him. And during the conversation, I also said, “The other day, you sent some money, wanted to, I did not accept. Don’t you think, my dear X, your Swamiji has done something very good, what is the wrong in it?.” I only said that as long as you are not keep a good relationship, you come here, etc; simple sending the money through a messenger, I don’t  feel like accepting it. Suppose you had’nt  or done something else, it would have been all right. So I really don’t know why this offer  is being made. So unless we have a warm relationship with you, it will not be proper. Is it not something good? I did not ask you for money or take something? I only said “No!”. Don’t you think you must have Swamijis who say “No?” and not always “Yes”? Then he also laughed, I also laughed.

(Skype disconnection, then an abrupt reconnection)

….the constituents in our body, other than the body, not matter and energy, one is the emotional mind, another is the reasoning intelligence, enlightening intelligence, let me call it. A person if he doesn’t have emotion, it is not at all spiritually good. If he does not have reason, that also is not good. So people who are sensitive and attachment oriented, that means in your life, your mind-emotions are very strong, I complement you for that. So you not only have to harness your intelligence but make it also a healthy co-ordinate,  that you should do. That is what we want. So you must have an healthy emotion and also a healthy intelligence and reason. So this is not bad but it has to be complemented and sublimated by a very prudent intelligence. We should act upon the emotions and make them more healthy and functional. Okay, we shall go to the next question.

Shanti: Question no. 2. We know the way to strengthen the mind but we are unable to do it, why?

Poojya Swamiji: Please don’t strengthen your mind and go to sleep. If you don’t want to strengthen your mind and you are unable to do so, who can help you? If you have a mind, it can also be strengthened. Just like our body, we identify the ingredients or nutrients that are lacking; sometimes you lack sodium, sometimes you lack potassium, sometimes you lack haemoglobin. All these things are identified and you are supplying them or providing them because all of them are material, objective and sensory. So far as the mind is concerned, it is not a visible product but the mind can certainly be treated. Any quality of the mind if bad can be dispensed with and any quality good can be imbibed. Understand that the mind is open to changes, open to changes, open to changes (Swamiji repeats). If you come up with a philosophy that ‘you cannot,  you cannot’, I cannot accept it at all. So there is nothing in the mental sphere which cannot be achieved. So you can strengthen your mind, we are unable to do so only because you don’t make effort. Give me a promise that every day you will try at least for one hour to strengthen your mind. If you spend one hour to strengthen your mind, after one month you let me know whether the mind has become stronger or not. If by listening to my talk, the other a mother was coming, she said “My daughter has heard your talk. The first day of your English talk, after having heard it, I find a gulf of change in her, an ocean of change”.

So a proper exposure will instantly change the mind. Arjuna’s mind was changed just by 64 letters. Why are you ruling this out? Our mind is supposed to change, will change, does change, there is no doubt about it. You try, try. You go on saying “I have to change my mind. My mind will change, my mind will change, my mind will change”. (Swamiji repeats). Go on chanting it like a mantra. You will find by the time you complete about 10 lakhs, your mind will have changed considerably. As you think, so you become. As you think, so you become (Swamiji repeats). Okay, to the next question.

Shanti: Question 3. How do we handle a situation when we are confronted with multiple misfortunes day after day despite our best efforts to face them using Swamiji’s spiritual formula?

Poojya Swamiji: Swamiji’s spiritual formula is not to avoid misfortunes but to assimilate misfortunes. We have no method of avoiding or stopping misfortunes. See, global melt-down was there, could it be avoided? Tsunami was there, could it be avoided? There are so many things in this world which are beyond human orbit, within the human orbit also.  Can you tell me in India, every year 50 lakhs of people are killed on the roads. 50 lakhs of people, in a greatly religious country, India. And these are killed by vehicles which man has manufactured, roads which he has made, tracks too which he has evolved and implemented. Is it not a misfortune that we are deliberately causing as a part of our civilization, and science and technology, progress that we are having? So whenever we meet a misfortune, you have to understand  that it is a part of life.  What kind of misfortune, you have, you have to say. It may be an individual misfortune, a family misfortune or a societal misfortune. Did not Malaysia have a misfortune, as a result of which we stopped coming to Malaysia last year?

Shanti: Yes Swamiji.

Poojya Swamiji: There are many other misfortunes. So many flights have been cancelled simply because of volcanic eruptions and the resulting smoke filling the atmosphere. We are living in a world which is not under our control. Even on the roads, the traffic which we have made, 50 lakhs of people are dying in India. Then what do you say, is there a greater misfortune than this?  Now, we are to bring down these accidents to zero level, that is our effort, we will try. So if one after the other if misfortunes come, allow them to come, simply keep quiet, have an air of indifference towards them.

You know when I was going to Kadrinath, in the Tehri Garhwal district of Uttar Pradesh then, now it has become Uttarkhand. Some of the people were talking to us, I don’t know of a place in Haridhwar district, there was an epidemic many, many years back. People started dying, initially they brought two or three bodies and cremated them. After some time, they found it was in tens, they cremated them also. Thereafter they found the number of bodies was increasing, increasing. So they started bringing them in cart-loads and simply pushing them to Ganga, because they could not muster resources to cremate. What do you say? Are you living in a world which you can order?

Shanti: No Swamiji.

Poojya Swamiji: Are you living in a world which can move according to your expectations. So let us understand the facts and compulsions of life. One misfortune after the other misfortune is coming. There is a proverb in Malayalam, if I say that will you understand? .  ‘Aakey mungiyaal kulir  illyam’. Suppose you take a bath, and you initially get into cold waters, there will be cold. Suppose suddenly you make a dip, then there is no further cold. So let misfortunes be allowed by your mind. If you cannot deal with them, contend them and stop them. Simply keep an open mind. Let anything come.

So my formula is this, my formula is this, my formula is this (Swamiji repeats). Shall I say this?

Shanti: Please Swamiji.

Poojya Swamiji: My dear world, I am yours and you are mine. You throw any kind of an impact or an input into me, I welcome them, assimilate them and I will get enriched. I will never show  a resenting face. I am yours and you are mine. Throw me any kind of an impact you like, I will assimilate it by the glory of my birth. By the glory of my human birth, I will assimilate whatever comes. Why are you looking for fortunes? You should look for ‘no fortune and no misfortune’ and allow the entire core to beautifully follow you like a shadow.   Never prefer fortune and never be afraid of misfortune, transcend both and live a life of beauty, harmony and fullness,  allowing the best things to follow you just like a shadow. This is the right wholesome attitude I would like you to develop.

Why should we fear misfortune, I don’t understand. Sri Rama went to the forest. The moment Kaikeyi said, “You have to go to the forest for 14 years... “.  Sri Rama on hearing from Kaikeyi that he has to go to the forest for 14 years and her son should be crowned…. I don’t know what all of you will do.  You will immediately take a petition to the high court or supreme court, is it not?

Shanti: Yes Swamiji.

Poojya Swamiji: Ah! That is the difference between you and the others. Don’t  belittle the importance of the mind that you have. Every action is done by the mind through the body. Sri Rama said, “Only this much mother? Only this much?”   “Before the sun sets

today Rama will have left Ayodya ” he said. He went to Kausalya, his mother, spoke to her.  She started crying and weeping, crying and weeping, crying and weeping (Swamiji repeats). Rama and the mother had some talk for about 15 to 20 minutes. Are you hearing?

Shanti: Yes Swamiji.

Poojya Swamiji: You are not at all Kausalya, mind you.  But I am speaking about Kausalya, the mother of Rama, who decided to go to the forest and Rama was to be separated from her for 14 years. She started crying. After listening to Rama, you know what she said, the great mother? “I am very sorry I shed tears so much. I don’t expect anything other than this resolve from you, a very dear and noble son, so please go with my blessings. Let 14 years pass like 14 months. I will be here to welcome you and greet you when you come back” she said. Is there a greater misfortune than what Kausalya faced? That misfortune handled by her in about 15 to 20 minutes. Dasaratha, the moment Rama left Ayodya, cried and cried and cried, called “Rama, Rama, Rama-a-a-a….” and died. Kausalya lived there. What business did Dasaratha have, dying in this manner?  Now I am asking you a question. Are you going to be like Dasaratha or would you like to be like Kausalya?

Shanti: Kausalya,  Swamiji.

Poojya Swamiji: Understand the Kausalya potential and possibility in you and don’t follow or be victim to the other potentials. That is all what I have to say. Is it an option that you have to exercise. From now on I have heard Swamiji, I am a true follower of Truth. I am fond of him. Swamiji said, “There is a Kausalya potential in every human mind”. So I will shed my, outlive my Dasaratha potential and I will become a Kausalya. The decision is yours and the potential follows after that. Let us go to the next question.

Shanti: Yes Swamiji. Question 4: We can deal with mental suffering with the help of Swamiji’s teachings, however when we are in constant physical pain as a result of ill health, what approach can one take to deal with it?

Poojya Swamiji: I don’t know what answer I shall give you. Our country, India, had developed Ayurveda along with spiritual Vedas. We use the word veda, a very sanctifying word, when we describe the science of ayur. This ayurveda sastra was made here. The other day, very near our ashram, there is an ayurvedic college where the children are being taught, most of the teachers are PhDs in ayurveda. So one teacher has come here. I was asking, you know in Ayurveda, our people were conducting surgeries. How did they conduct?  Obviously they had to make the patient unconscious before cutting and removing and all that. You know what he said? With a lot of stunning surprise I heard it. “Swamiji, there are 2 medicines”. He named the medicines. The medicinal names we know, but the medicines we don’t know. The people  who used to identify the medicines, they are all gone and we don’t know what these herbs are. One herb, if you show it in front of the nose, the person becomes unconscious for the operation. After the operation you show another herb to the nose, he becomes conscious. This is what he told me. PhD, not an ordinary man. I can get you details of the drug, it is only the name I did not mark, write on a paper.

Why I am telling you this? Ayurveda has been discussing this subject very well. And our spiritual science also has been discussing. You are in Malaysia, I can speak anything in India. But I don’t know whether my message will be alright or not. But I will only report to you in Sreemad Bhagavada, there are instances where the body is suffering from an incurable disease. And the incurable disease is incurable, it cannot be cured.  When we come to that level, we have got freedom to abandon the body. Why should we live with a body which cannot live at all? So our sastra permits this. How it can be done is only a question.

Even now, the world is discussing whether euthanasia is permitted or not. In some countries perhaps it is permitted and there is a very hot debate going on whether it is permissible or not. If it is permitted by law, it will be used in a number of instances to dispose-off people. That is the adverse of it. Why I am telling you this is, there are instances, specific instances of diseases where we continuously are in pain. I shall tell you one instance. One Mr. R.K. Vajpayee, came to me in Calcutta when I was there for a series of lectures. He and his wife, Someshwari, came. And he was telling me, he was a little elderly person, maybe 60 years. He told me, “Swamiji, I have a question in my heart I will like to tell you.” What is the question? “You see I have suffered from a disease called Paget’s disease. This is a very, very uncommon disease, but it is there. Now the Paget’s disease is one where the bone starts disintegrating with excruciating pain. There is no cure for Paget’s disease. So he was admitted to the hospital and finally the doctors started giving him morphine. When he came to know he was being administered morphine and the disease had no cure, he went to England, he had a house there and in England he was admitted to the hospital. There also they started giving morphine. Are you hearing me?

Shanti: Yes Swamiji.

Poojya Swamiji: Then he said, “I was given morphine in India and now also you are giving morphine”.   So there is no treatment. “If this is going to be the situation, then I am going to treat my disease myself. I am going to forget my pain”  he said. “Forget my pain.”  So our mind has got a power whereby it can neutralize or nullify the pain sensation. So he accepted it in his mind and nullified or nulled so to say, all the pain receptors and he came away. He said the disease is still entrenched in my body and I go periodically to London to remove the disintegrated bones and set right my legs but I have no pain. Now what is your problem? The problem is the doctors tell me that I am abnormal. Any disease can thrive in your body because there will be no pain and you will not understand. The trouble with internal cancer is that at inception, it will not cause any pain. Three or four years pass, the disease has progressed and entrenched itself in the body, then slightly some discomfort and pain is felt, by that time it is advanced and you cannot cure.  On the other hand external conditions like cysts, abscesses, etc. can be identified and there is no problem. So I told him that,  “I don’t think you should worry about it. You are suffering from an incurable condition  and painful condition and there is no medicine for it.  So you have neutralized your pain reflexes, that is quite alright, be a little careful, carry on as much as possible”. “You need not consider a spiritual or a moral conflict in this”, I said.

Why I told you this is that we have even the subjective power of nullifying pain when necessary, nullifying pain when necessary (Swamiji repeats). If you think that the disease is incurable and we cannot suffer the pain throughout, then we also have the freedom to abandon our body. These freedoms are allowed and they are necessary also. Our sastras also discuss these possibilities.

Whenever we speak of the mental suffering, mental suffering by itself is not a pain, this you should understand. Whenever we refer to mental suffering as suffering, mental suffering by itself is not a pain. But pain is a physical sensation, it is physical. Suffering, mental suffering is not physical at all, this you should understand. Pain may be a cause of suffering. Otherwise pain is pain in the physical sense. Pain and suffering are like seta and ushna, cold and heat in the body. So what I mean by saying this is that, if there is a constant pain in your body, if the pain is constant, rather than complaining about it, “I have constant pain”, let the mind reconcile with the constant pain. Ask mind to reconcile with it, so that suffering part within the mind will not be there. Are you clear?

Shanti: Yes, Swamiji.

Poojya Swamiji: Or am I clear?

Shanti: Yes, we are clear Swamiji.

Poojya Swamiji: Physical pain is there for the disease and in the mind level you are not able to bear it. So let the mind start reconciling and many things may happen. You may become unconscious, you may rise above the sense of pain. So these are instances of areas which can be explained and with veda actualized. See against constant pain in the body, I don’t think we can survive the lot.  See, our Swamiji’s hand, he was showing the finger here for operation, so I once asked him, “Whenever you are waving and walking, why are you not waving your left hand?”.   I asked him and left him at that. He was not waving, just like he was waving the right hand. Gradually what was happening was, his sensation in the hand, he was almost losing. But somehow, doctors were consulted and it was timely identified. Otherwise, after some time, the whole left hand would have lost its sensation.  The nerve would have become ineffective. So these are some problematic and sensitive issues about the body where we will require a lot of consultation and understanding.

But let me tell you, if there is a constant physical pain, our mind should be taught and trained to reconcile. That is a spiritual effort, it has nothing to do with pain or the cause of pain.  It is a mental exercise  which you can do very effectively. Is it okay, shall we go to the next question?

Shanti: Yes Swamiji. Question 5. Swamiji uses the term ‘sublimate’ as a means of overcoming sufferings. Can Swamiji elaborate this process of sublimation?

Poojya Swamiji: You tell me what are these sufferings. Suffering can be in many ways. A married couple, they don’t have a child. In a family, poverty continues to be for a long time. May be one or two children are there, one is  ill-behaved. There is some act of recognition or disrepute. There are so many instances of suffering. What suffering are you referring  to, you should tell me.

Now when there is a suffering in the mind, that suffering is called unpleasantness. The mind is always coursing through pleasantness and unpleasantness. And mind has to be told that, “Never look for pleasantness, never look for unpleasantness, try  to rise above both and have a sense of harmony with both”.  This kind of a harmony, both over suffering and non-suffering, pleasantness and unpleasantness, this can be achieved. And every day will be an opportunity like swimming in water. The water drowns you, only in the drowning water you can learn swimming.  After you have learnt, you can be floating in the water by waving your hands and feet. In the same manner, if you live and interact with the world, in the physical level, pleasantness and unpleasantness will be repeatedly occurring. And when you understand that both are equally occurring, one is complement to the other, then both of them need not be defeated or should not be struggled against.  So the only exercise that you have to do saadhana way is reconcile yourself with both and remain above them. I think this is very simple and easy. The constant suffering and also the opposite should always force you, help you, facilitate your saadhana.

So sublimation means not being worried about the suffering and not being enamoured of the pleasantness. Develop an even attitude towards both and learn to rise above both. That is what you should do. And it is 100% possible. Not only that, this alone is possible. To avoid suffering is not possible, to avoid pleasantness also is not possible. So pleasantness and unpleasantness will by their very nature come and go. What you have to train yourself for, is to remain above both and to be equal towards both, thereby have the joy of harmony, integration and sublimation.  Is it clear?

Shanti: Yes Swamiji.

Poojya Swamiji: That is something very good. If it has become clear, before the next skype, tell me how much of sublimation you will have achieved. If it is 100, how much of sublimation will everyone of you have achieved before the next skype?

Shanti: 95 Swamiji.

Poojya Swamiji: And will you say that after one more skype we will have attained 100, so no more skype conferences are necessary, will you say that?

Shanti: Swamiji, I have got a question. To be able to rise above all these problems like pain and unpleasantness and all that, you said we can sublimate. What about someone who does not have money? Someone who is poor? How do you reconcile with the fact that you can’t get the next day’s meal or you can’t pay for your kid’s education? How do you reconcile with all those facts?  Thank you Swamiji.

Poojya Swamiji: See, you are asking me a philosophical question, an ascetic or a spiritual question to an ascetic. So my answer will be from the ascetic background, this you will understand.  In our ashram, a number of travellers come and they belong to different categories. There are commoners, some of them are intelligent, some of them are very dedicated, some of them are very devotional.  There was a boy, a 30-year-old boy who came here, I was talking to him. He was telling me that, “My guru has sent me on a travel life. We started travelling and there are people from the north….”. You know in the north there is a lot of recognition and respect for sanyaasins but as you come towards the south it becomes less and less. In Kerala it is perhaps the minimum. So they are not finding things very happy here. So he was telling me, vaak guru, he said, “My guru has asked me to undergo this journey, so I am undergoing. Initially I had some difficulty” . What is the difficulty? “Whether we will get a meal, how we will we go, etc., etc.  So there was some trouble. Then, I found that there was no expectation in my mind at all. So sometimes we are fed lavishly, sumptuously; sometimes we don’t get anything at all; both we are equally happy about, there is no problem at all”.

Now this is what a young boy, an ascetic boy of 30 years is saying. Please remember them. Put in your own angle and hang it in your wall so that your grandchildren can see it because it is a physical history that I am reporting to you. Now, you know that India is a developing country. There are still more under-developed countries in the world and the European countries are welfare states. So poverty and the impact of poverty is still there in the world. India was much more poor, earlier in the few years back. You know in Kerala, we don’t have any beggar at all. But when I came here, many beggars used to come. Now nobody from Kerala comes to the ashram as a beggar, many, many years now. Beggars from the adjacent states also are not coming now. So we are progressing quite well, this is what I wanted to tell you. So in instances of poverty, if it is made by oneself, it is a cause for great suffering. See, poverty is a kind of a national or state-wide situation. Our attitude will have to be different.

So spiritually and religiously what I have to tell you is: if you have the means to look after the children, look after them. If you can send them to good schools, education, then send them. If you are unable to send them, I think you have no occasion or cause for worrying about. By any standard let me tell you, I am one person in the globe who is going to raise his voice, will raise and is raising…. I am born in this country. The entire country and the lands are under the government. I have nothing belonging to me. Everything is administered by the law of the country, by the government. It is the duty of the government to feed everybody. If they are not feeding everybody, the government is  at fault, the individual is at fault. Otherwise they will have to leave their controls and give controls to the people; they are not going to do it. So it is a duty under democracy of the state to feed every citizen born in the land.

See we were born in a simple and humble family, we were never given to luxuries. We were in a village, no market-place was there. We used to live on vegetables grown in our own land, things like that. And I can count the number of vegetables we used to use, not all the English vegetables and the others. There were no markets at all. So I have known what it is to live in a simple manner in a village area where there are no resources, communication, newspaper, transport, nothing like that was there. So if he is not able to look after the children, he has to recognize that there is a limit, I can do only this much, not beyond, then keep quiet. If there is a way, do it, otherwise simply reconcile with that.

As we recognize our abilities, we also have to recognize our disabilities. If we are unable to live in a certain situation, we have to recognize it. You know there are instances when people flee a particular land. Sreemad Bhagavada says Kamsa’s rule was very bad and so many people fled from the place, many remained there. So there are such instances where refugees, they start going, fleeing; it can happen. Don’t think the earth on which you live is a paradise; it can become non-paradise also sometimes.  So what I have to tell everybody is  that: you are expected to do only that much which is within your power to do. Beyond that, open your hands, look at the sky, accept your inability and keep quiet. Even the children will recognize it, what can be done?

There are children who grow with malnutrition, under-nutrition, etc. There are parents, they are explaining the matters; and the children grow there also.  So God has made our psychological systems so intricate and so subtle that our psychology can withstand quite a number of misfortunes and insufficiencies, etc.  But I have a message, what is the message? If without saddling unnecessary prestige, expectation, etc., if you are prepared to strive sincerely, nobody will suffer in this world, nobody will suffer.

Shanti: Very true Swamiji.

Poojya Swamiji: Can we stop?

Shanti: Yes Swamiji.

Poojya Swamiji: I have to ask you something. See, you are asking questions and I am giving you answers. Are these answers enlightening and satisfactory to you? Do they help you?

Shanti: Yes Swamiji. Very, very satisfactory, and very, very enlightening.

Poojya Swamiji: Okay, very good. We have a proverb in our language. What is that?

A frog lying in deep water of a well, if it wants to fly like a bird, that is very wrong.

So your desire should be moderate and regulated. So let us have …. There will always be differences in the world. The rich people will have rich children and rich standards, the poor people will have only their standards but their hearts need not be poor. And the rich people’s hearts need not be unnecessarily victimizing the needy also. So in the mental level, in heart level, we are all extremely equal and we are all equal heirs of full contentment and abundance. Please understand this. Okay, we shall stop.

Maa: We have to go to the place where our Sunday school children are waiting. Every year we give them school uniforms, those who have attendance more than 65% throughout the year. And along with the school uniform, we give them note books which are necessary for the whole year. All these have been arranged and the function is going  to start; they must be waiting eagerly for Swamiji to come there and distribute these gifts to them.

There were so many devotees who have come here, especially for Poojya Swamiji’s birthday. Our Leelawathy from Malaysia, she is here, please stand up,. And Venkad, from Singapore, he also  is here, are you able to see him?

Shanti: Yes, Maa.

Maa: We can conclude?

Shanti: Yes, Maa.

Maa: Okay. (Maa chants “Prabuddham Vimuktam Vikaradihinam….) Jai Guru.

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Satsang, 9th May, 2010. Duration 47 minutes.

Skype set-up and recording by Rames & Rema. Satsang coordination by Namrataji (Ashram) and  Unnikrishnan (SIRD Malaysia).  Bhojan Annakshetra team supervised by Shanti &  Ramaswamy. Hand-out sheet for group discussion prepared by Management Committee, Society for Inner Resources Development Malaysia. Transcription by Swaminathan.  Transcript emailed to Ashram  28th May, 2010.

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Handout sheet for group discussion prior to videosatsang

SIRD Malaysia

Video-satsang: Sunday 9^th May 2010

Topic: From Suffering to Happiness

On 20^th Nov,1997 Poojya Swamiji addressed  a gathering at the Professors’ colony in Vaishali, Peetampura, New Delhi.

You want me to discuss with you as to how one can move from suffering to happiness! For any kind of outcome that you want to achieve – whether the outcome is external, mental, non-material, supra material – it will necessarily require some prior effort. Without an effort there can never be a fruition  or an outcome. The effort can be designed, thought of, properly shaped, structured  depending on the outcome to be achieved and if you undergo the effort systematically and properly, the outcome will certainly be achieved.

So far as external efforts or material efforts are concerned, all these efforts are necessarily coupled with what we call a two-fold possibility. One is the loss of whatever effort you have made (e.g. farmer’s crop destroyed by flood, draught or pest), the second possibility is adverse or opposite result (e.g. patients dying because prescriptions are wrongly read and wrong medicines prescribed).

Any external or material effort is associated with these two possibilities.  But when it comes to a question of an effort in removing suffering and achieving happiness, I can assure you that there is no loss of effort and there cannot be an adverse outcome.

Why is it that in removing suffering and gaining happiness, there is no loss of effort? Well, it is because the whole process, the whole pursuit totally depends on your mind and does not depend on any external parameter. Suffering, in whichever way you can think about, is causally in the mind. Suffering also affects only the mind. When I say, I have pain in my body, the pain is an external cause. But where do you experience the suffering? Is it not in the mind? Suppose you are sleeping; will you experience the pain? The pain apparently is there in the body, but since you are not conscious of the body, you are unconscious of the suffering too!

Our body is physiological, biological in nature. In the physiological, biological aggregate called the body there is no part called the mind.  The entire physical body is made up of material substances. Mind is non of the material substances! It is supra-material, or what we call spiritual.

What is the definition of a spiritual component? That which does not belong to the material kind is called spiritual. You have to understand it as a substance.  It is a spiritual substance. Is there any matter or any energy known to be thinking, knowing, feeling and sensing?  No! but the mind feels, it senses, it knows, it thinks. No matter ever known to man has the function or the properties that the mind has.  Naturally the mind is a totally different substance, if you call it a substance. Being different from the entire ken of matter and materiality, we give it the name spirit;  that is all.  It is a kind of an evolved product. Just like the body is a product of evolution, the mind also is an evolute of non-material or supra-material consciousness. In the human personality, other than material components, there is only one component which is consciousness. But the mind is not the entire consciousness.  What you call mind is an off-shoot, an expression of this consciousness. It is only the surface expression.

When you compare and contrast the magnitude of the wave with the depth of the sea – which is greater? In the same manner, my dear souls, compare the mind at least with the sea dimension and what you call suffering is no other the impact which the waves bring about on the surface. When you say ‘my suffering’, the suffering is different from you. Many times you were happy and many times you were unhappy also. Does it not mean that you have the capacity to outlive both happiness and unhappiness? So whenever you report suffering, it is implied that before that you were not suffering. And present suffering will necessarily vacate and again give rise to new happiness. So what is wrong in suffering?

It is just like recurrence of hunger or thirst and its appeasement.  Suppose you never get hungry – what will you do in this world, then? And suppose you have taken meals, and afterwards  you no more feel hunger again! Is that good? So, we must be hungry as well as appeased. You must be healthy as well as unhealthy.  We must be working hard and also we must get tired. Otherwise how will we sleep? So, is there not a harmony here, an essential mutual complementariness in everything that takes place in our life?

You must learn to sublimate yourselves using that very suffering which you now abhor. In having created suffering for the mind,  and in having given us the ability to sublimate, elevate and harmonize ourselves with the suffering, I think Nature has enriched our lives greatly.

(Extract from Vicharasetu, March 1998, pages 15 to 17).

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Questions for the GROUP MEMBERS participating in the discussion.

1. In Vedanta, we are told that sukha and dukha are alternating. But in the case of people suffering chronic pain for which there is no cure (e.g. rheumatoid arthritis, terminal cancer, etc.), how can this teaching be relevant or be accommodated?

2. “You must learn to sublimate yourselves using that very suffering which you now abhor.” Discuss.

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

1.

2.