April 6, 2013 Class Notes by Bhamin Chhatrapati

Introduction
Suppose you are given the responsibility of facilitating diversity training for a department of your city in reference to Hinduism. It could be the marketing department, it could be the police department or it could be the teaching staff. How many of you would be comfortable doing so by show of hands? If someone on the street came to you today and said, I heard Twitter told me it’s Hanuman Jayanti. So what is Hanuman Jayanti? What would you say to that person on the street? How many of you are comfortable answering what is Hanumanjayanti? I recently had a one with one with a young seeker and he was sharing with me that one of his closest friends had asked him a question about Hinduism. And he was taken back by the question, more so he didn’t know how to answer. What came out of his mouth was you should ask my mom. Now this is approximately a 30 year old seeker. And his response to one of his closest friends is you should go ask my mom. This really leveled him and made him a more sincere seeker. I think he came to appreciate it and I hope you too to know about your religion, your culture. 

Knowing and practicing your religion is a responsibility to yourself. It is your responsibility to everyone who also identifies with your religion, your culture. This course is a comprehensive approach to understanding and appreciating Sanatana Dharma. This course is not just about five verses and 40 practices. There’s so much more that is shared in terms of absolute perspectives, and cultural perspectives. Sanatana Dharma has survived and succeeded, not because of any institution. It is not because of a certain mandir or a certain organization. The reason for this proliferation is a parampara or a tradition of teachers that kept this Dharma sanatana and one example of that is Acharya Shankara! What’s lovely about our tradition of teachers, is that nobody’s forcing you to respect and love and revere this tradition. That’s your choice. These relationships are faith based. I have the faith that Acharya Shankara is one who is perfect. And now when I say perfect, don’t think externally. His body got old too. When he spoke he made mistakes too. The perfection I’m referring to is an inner one, a perfect happiness. And because I have this faith that I know many of you do, too, since Acharya Shankara is perfect, he can teach us how to be perfect too. If someone has found the treasure, then they can write a map for us to find that treasure also. Sadhana Panchakam is divided into five verses, each with a different focus. 

Overview
Verse One, the focus is shastra. In English shastra means scripture. The word shastra comes from another word which is shashana. Shashana means discipline; being ready to learn. It is like the word Sikh or Sikhism. This comes from the one who’s ready for shiksha, the one who’s ready to be taught or a disciple. What Acharya Shankara shares right from the start is that we are already Joy. We have to unlearn that we are not joy. We have to unlearn that the most impractical way to live is to live unhappily. And one way that we normalize this is we think we can create happiness- this has to be unlearned, you cannot create happiness. And this is very difficult for us. Unlearning is more difficult than learning and that’s why in our culture there’s an emphasis on tapa. Tapa means to burn down your comfort zone. There  are so many people who have registered for this course. And month by month, less have come. Sadhana Panchakam hasn’t changed and Zoom hasn’t changed. What’s changed is people are too uncomfortable with this notion that they can’t create happiness. It means everything about them has to change really and they don’t like that burning feeling. 

Verse Two, the focus is svadhyaya. Svadhyaya, in a simple English expression, means self-love. When one loves that which is external or lower, that’s called sneha and when one loves that which is internal or higher, that’s called prema.  So loving that which is within that is how one practices svadhyaya. When you love yourself, then you start to live by viraga.

Viraga means without likes. It means you live in a way where you don’t need to be liked. You’re not seeking external validation. You don’t need external security because you love who you are. And if you love who you are, you start to love all that you do. When one lives by svadhyaya and viraga, living becomes easier. Can you visualize that? Where you’re living without being concerned about people liking or disliking you? One would feel so light than

Verse Three focuses on svanubhuti. When this is broken up, it’s sva & anubhuti or experiencing the self, self-experience. Whenever it comes to matters that you don’t have, let’s say a college degree that requires jnana and karma. It requires you knowing and doing but when it comes to that which you already have, this is called prapta (You already have this). All one needs is Jnana, karma is not needed. You just have to know. How come we don’t feel Joy when we know our nature is Joy? It’s because we’re not prepared to know. It’s like me having these glasses, but my glasses are dirty. Even though I have the equipment to see. It’s not prepared to function well or function the way it’s supposed to. So in this verse, Achrya Shankara shares a lot about preparing oneself, to feel oneself. 

How much time did you spend today preparing your body versus preparing your mind?  See if you don’t bathe for a week what will happen? We know this answer very well as we have studied from home and worked from home for two years. What happens to your body? Bad stuff happens. Now what if you don’t bathe your mind for a week? For a year or a decade? Us preparing to know is really performing one’s own abhiseka. We do a lot of external abhiseka, More important than that is one’s own abhiseka. 

Verse Four focuses on sadachara which means living in a way that’s oriented towards sat, living in a noble way; living in an ideal way. One common sentiment that comes out in verse four is that our sadachara should be nurturing focus. In Sanskrit that’s called ekagrata. When one focuses, everything they do is interesting and when one doesn’t focus, nothing they do is interesting. If everything you do is interesting, then naturally what you’re doing, you’re going to be more efficient at it. You will be more effective with it. You will enjoy that. I’ve observed the more bored one is, the more one touches themselves. There’s a finer chance that you’ll get a pedicure or a manicure or take a longer shower or eat more. But if you have lots to do, then you don’t identify with your body as much. You don’t need to eat as much, you don’t need to sleep as much. So if you find that you’re living so much in terms of pampering, maybe you’re bored; that’s not sadachara.

Review

Verse 4, Practice 31: audasinyamabhipsyatam 

In Sanskrit, udasina means to be indifferent. When we act, that triggers results. The problem with our results though is that we label them, we label them as this is what I wanted and this is not what I wanted or this is what I like and this is what I dislike or that person got that and I got this. It’s the labeling that affects us in the negative. So how can one be indifferent? Simply by not labeling the results. Labeling doesn’t help. For example, when picking teams for playing soccer, if you have team captains, what happens to the people? What happens to those teams? The people are chosen at the beginning, they become more arrogant than the people chosen at the end. People chosen at the end feel more sad. So don’t use systems where there’s personalization. A better method is flipping a coin to pick teams. So if it’s heads, you’re on this team. If it’s tails, you’re on that team. This is a way to nurture being indifferent.

Practice 31: Flip Coin 

Verse 4, Practice 32: janakrpanaisthuryamutsrjyatam which means save yourself from other people’s kindness. How? The answer is be a donor. Donor means to be generous and to offer charity. And whenever we think of that, we always think about the recipient rather than the donor. When one practices donation, this is actually an experiment or a test in adaptation. Can you be just as cheerful with less? If I have seven pairs of shoes, and I give a pair away to any thoughtful person like you, you will be forced to adapt to be equally cheerful with six pairs of shoes as compared to seven. So donation is not so much for the recipient, but more so for the donor. And that’s why Acharya Shankara is saying, don’t be that recipient. Rather be that donor, the one who’s challenging themselves to adapt.
Hence, our practice is to give percentages of our income & percentages of our time.
Practice 32: Give percentages (of your time, resources and effort)

Discourse
Verse 5, Practice 33 ekante sukhamasyatam: 

Ek is one & antam is the ends or purpose. So akante is one’s end or one’s purpose. Sukhastayam is joyously. So, ekante sukhamasyatam is to live for one’s ends or purpose joyously! We are studying Vedanta. Veda means to know and anta means insight. So Vedanta is the science of insight or the science of the spirit or the science of happiness. Another word for what’s inside is aika or oneness or advaita. So in Vedanta, we will come to understand and appreciate this eika. Acharya Shankara is sharing that one can only feel this Joy when living exclusively for Joy.

One can not experience Joy through listening to discourses only. The point is that you have to love Joy and live exclusively for Joy. You have to choose Joy for Joy to love you back. In Meaningful Mornings, we are in Chapter 12 that describes Shri Krishna’s dear ones. It is those who live virtues. He shares that if you live virtuously you are very dear to Me, which really means you are Me. For one to be successful in any field, one has to love what they do. That’s  for a limited field like accounting or medicine or being on a sports team not for one to rediscover Infinity. If you want Infinity and the finite you’re only going to get the finite but if you love Infinity only, you will rediscover that you are infinite.  Acharya Shankara has already found the treasure. He’s sharing this map with us.


Discussion Subject:
What causes loneliness? 

Acharya Vivekji’s Perspective: What causes loneliness is when you don’t love yourself. When you don’t love yourself and if it requires you to be extrovert then you are already starting at a loss and any other relationship you make will not change loneliness.  But, if you like yourself in a deep way then everyone will be winning in all relationships because it’s all about giving. 

This week’s RAW

Date your own mind.