ViBha Class Notes: December 4, 2022

“God is one who unites us with our Guru and Guru unites us with God”, Swami Tejomayananda has said. Between God and Guru, there is another facet called Grantha, also known as scripture or map. As a community, what we are doing in this course is we are uniting ourselves with our Guru, who is uniting us with our Grantha, which is uniting us with our God. And what is incredible about all of this is that none of this is outside. All of this is within. The more pure our mind, the quieter one’s inner world becomes, and then we can start to listen to our intellect more. It is the intellect that makes a human unique. It is the intellect that can hold an ideal, and it is the intellect that helps us inquire. The intellect is that transition from mind to Divinity. Just like between the Guru and God is the Grantha, similarly the intellect is between the mind (which we feel so heavily right now) and Divinity. This relationship between a quiet mind listening to an ideal intellect is being depicted as visualizations in the form of dialogues or samvadas.

Rshi Uddhava is asking Bhagavan Krshna what people will follow to keep in line with Dharma when His name and form dissolve. Bhagavan Krshna then gives him another dialogue between Raja Yadu and Rshi Dattatreya. Raja Yadu is asking Rshi Dattatreya how he is happy when he had nothing outside while Raja Yadu had everything outside. Yet he had everything inside while Raja Yadu did not. How is he Happy? And Rshi Dattatreya begins to share with Raja Yadu how to be Happy.This is exactly what Bhagavan Krshna is teaching Rshi Uddhava as well. This dialogue between Raja Yadu and Rshi Dattatreya is in Section 11, Chapter 7, Verse 32. 

The most recent teachers that Rshi Dattatreya has learned from are those who are living by having a rich body and a poor mind. A personality with a rich body and a poor mind doesn’t know how to say or follow NO. Vivekji has observed that in parenting, it is much harder to say No and implement No, than it is to say Yes. We should reflect on this. Deepening this thought flow, if we don’t learn how to say or follow NO, then we never learn how to let go. And if we go to an extreme, not letting go is essentially a form of addiction. If one can’t let go of taking this intoxicant, then one is addicted to it.

Who are these teachers? 

Teacher 11 – The Moth is lusty and doesn’t know NO. It can’t let go of its sense of sight. A way we can practice not being like a moth is to appreciate what we see, instead of trying to possess what we see, indulge in what we see, particularly other bodies,  beautiful and handsome people. We should appreciate that they are beautiful and handsome. Vivekji remembers Bhagavan’s Vibhooti when he sees a beautiful or a handsome person, that all humans are great, but some are better looking. However, that source is not that person, that the genesis of that beautiful, handsome creature is Bhagavan. So Appreciate.   

Teacher 12 – The honeybee which is lusty towards the sense of smell. That is the negative aspect, but the one positive aspect is that a honeybee only takes the essence of flowers. It never takes too much, and is very gentle with flowers. How we can practice not being the honeybee in the negative sense is to Learn. Everyone of us is born with a vasana. The more we learn, we change that vasana from being stinky to being fragrant,  from the anatma vasana that we are just this body to the Atma vasana that we are the Spirit.

Teacher 13 – The Elephant is lusty towards touch. The way we can practice not being like the elephant, is to Move. When we are lusty towards touch, we are stuck on touching this or that, but if we keep moving, then we are not stuck. If we have to sleep on a soft bed, it’s fine, but keep moving. If we have to move to the hard ground, keep moving. When we keep moving, we become more light footed. They are softer with everything that they touch. Vivekji said that he reflects that everything he is touching is Existence, is Brahman, so he should be soft with everything he touches. 

Teacher 14 – The honey gatherer doesn’t fit into this sequence of rich body, poor mind, but the honey gatherer is an icon of greed. That honeybee is hoarding, and the honey gatherer comes and takes what is being hoarded. The way we can practice dissolving greed is to Commit. We should commit our resources to further Dharma, and we should commit this in advance. 

Teacher 15 – The deer is lusty towards sound. Our practice is to Inquire. As long as we are listening to something, we stop inquiring. But as seekers, when we stop listening, our default is to inquire into what all of this is. Who am I? What am I doing? So in terms of sound, we must invest in silence.

Teacher 16 –  The fish is lusty towards taste. Many in our community are like fish as their focus is always on food. Our practice is to Exercise. When we are disciplined with exercise, we automatically become disciplined with eating. 

These practices are not in Bhagavata, but are from Vivekji’s reflections and practices. We now continue with three more teachers. Teacher 17 is a famous one, and is about a courtesan or vaishya or prostitute. Her name is Pingala. 

Skanda 11:8:31 – Alas, giving up the delight giving in bounteous lovers seated closest to me in the heart, I, an ignorant human, have been running after petty creatures who cannot fulfill my wants, but only give me sorrow, fear, worry and delusion.

Pingala was a famous courtesan whose clientele was richer than her. One day, she dressed up, made herself very attractive, and stood in the doorway of her small home trying to attract clients. Someone would walk by, but feeling she would find a richer customer, she would go back inside, and then come outside again. And with this restlessness and greater expectation, it became midnight, and she received nothing from anyone. Upon her ambition being denied, she became deeply reflective, and she started to share “Pingala Gita”. This Gita is from Skanda 11, Chapter 8, Verses 30-42. Here are some high level points. Pingala shares –

• She is an ignorant human because she is selling her opportunity to be divine. Only a human can be divine, and what is she doing with this opportunity? She is becoming more body identified, hers and others. She is actually prostituting this opportunity. She is especially sharing this since she is living in Videha. Videha is where Devi Sita was born, and Raja Janaka lived. It is a place filled with Satsanga, and still she is wasting this opportunity; it is worse. For a human who doesn’t know that their purpose is to be enlightened, and is not pursuing that, it is almost justifiable. But for someone who knows that they can be enlightened, and to not invest in that, it is worse. 

• She shares that she keeps stretching her hands out like a beggar to other beggars when all they can give her is sorrow. Does it make sense to beg for sorrow? 

• In line one of the 44th Verse, she shares, “Ambition leads to sorrow. Non-Ambition leads to the highest Joy”. We should change Ambition (being passionate for that which is lower) to Aspiration (being passionate for that which is higher). If we are passionate about that which is lower, obviously that will lead to sorrow, and if we are passionate about that which is higher, obviously we will be led to Peace. 

• With these revelations, Pingala feels that instead of begging from beggars, she starts to understand that Bhagavan can fulfill all of her wants and needs, that He loves her the most. So instead of using her body for others, she starts to use her body to serve, and she sleeps peacefully at night. She was so restless during the day, but with these insights, she sleeps peacefully at night. Our practice is to Associate. As we associate, so we think, and as we think, so we develop. If we associate with those who are dependent, we will become more dependent. 

Some commentators have shared why she had these amazing reflections in one day. It’s midnight and one would feel restless and sleepy, but she is having all of these reflections. Rshi Dattatreya was a wanderer and traveled lots, and he was watching her as she was watching others. And the breeze passed from his body to her body, and the independence with which he lived affected her. For those who are more faithful, the impossible is possible. It may make no sense as it is not logical, but we should reflect on this in a faithful way.

Teacher 18 – The osprey is like a small eagle and is the 18th teacher. In Sanskrtam, it is called a kurrara. This osprey finds a carcass, and takes a sizable portion of that flesh and is flying away. Bigger ospreys and eagles see this osprey, and they peck at this osprey instead of at the meat. Finally, the osprey has this reflection, “I should let go”, and as soon as this osprey lets go of the flesh, the other ospreys stop harming this osprey. The implication for us is that this pecking is coming from Death. Death is always pecking at us. So we should let go of death before death holds on to us. And Raja Parikshita fulfilled this eventually. When his body dies, he knows he is not his body. Our practice is to Simplify. If we have a simple lifestyle, no one is jealous of us. Not being jealous of others is a great strength, but not inciting others to be jealous is a greater, much subtler strength. The flashier we are, everyone is going to look, and everyone is going to peck. 

Skanda 11:9:10 – If too many people live together, quarrel will be the result. If there are two only, even then time will be taken with mutual conversations, and not contemplation on the Atma. So I would travel alone, like the single bangle on the girl’s arm, conversing with none. 

Teacher 19 – Kumari or teenager. The background to this reflection is a teenager who is part of a poor family. The sign of this poverty is that her bangles, that she made herself, are made of conch or shell. People come to her home, and she is trying to be hospitable to them. She is trying to make fresh food by banging the wheat, kneading the dough, and her conch bangles are making a lot of noise. So in her rush, she starts to break her bangles, and it becomes quieter. But even with two bangles on each arm, they are still banging. So she breaks off two more, and is left with only one bangle on each arm. Finally ,there is silence, and that is what Rshi Dattatreya is trying to point out. When we have this sense of aloneness, not loneliness, we take fuller responsibility for our life. Aloneness is this sense of inner security.  

There is a sharing in our culture – Where there are three, there is Bhranti or politics. Where there are two, there is Kranthi or anger, and where there is one, there is Shanti, or Quietude or Peace. Our practice is to Seclude. Everyday, we must try to find time to be in solitude with ourselves, tuned into Shanti. Our three practices are Associate, Simplify and Seclude. We have five more teachers to reflect on.

Discussion: What are practices for us to become more decisive?  

Vivekji shared that one of the best practices is to quieten our minds. The nature of our intellect is to decide, but the mind has to be quiet enough to listen to the intellect, as they are both speaking to each other.