Introduction

Your RAW from last week was to come up with a Faith test. One way that you know you’re growing with faith — as you become engaged (greater responsibilities, more to think about, more places to move) that you’re less distracted. When there is an opportunity to be quiet, you’re more appreciative and immerse yourself in that more. You feel more grateful to that. That’s one way you know you have faith. Or if you’re more distracted, sleepy, thinking about past or future, then that faith isn’t growing.

Vivekji and Sheela Didi are teaching Vyasa to chant Brahmarpanam (Chapter 4 Shloka 24 of the Bhagavad Gita) before he eats. If one has analyzed this shloka — it is a shloka focused on yagna (dedication and sacrifice). In particular, there are four factors in every yagna. The furthest factor as-is is the 4. Purpose. 3. Offered (to) 2. Offering and 1. Offerer. The offerer is offering offered to for a purpose. For example, Vivek offers a mixture of wood to a fire to please the creator.

In this shloka, what is taught is what is the purpose? (Happiness). What is the offered to? Happiness. What is the offering? Happiness. Who is the offerer? Happiness. This is what the shloka should be like. This is the same vision that our course is trying to develop. To be contemplative in every facet of your life. This unfragmented, consistent vision of happiness. If one isn’t working towards happiness — that isn’t yagna that is selfishness. This is that shloka in action.

Last week we were focusing on our thoughts. In this review what Swami Chinmayananda shared with us: As your insight, so your identification. IF you have that insight that thoughts are dependent — you don’t identify with them as much. IF you don’t have that knowledge, then every thought that flows in to the mind is you. You’ll go up and down — perpetual noise. As your insight: the more you know about the equipment, the less you identify with them. Having a thought and being a thought are quite different. Having anger and being anger are quite different.

Chapter 30

The more perceive, the more we identify, the less we observe. If there is lots of reception around you, you identify with that and can’t observe that. For example, at the local cinema when you get to choose your seats. ¾ back are the best seats! In the front you perceive more, and identify more. You’re overstimulated. On the other hand, when we sit ¾ of the way back in a movie theater, then we are able to filter more and observe the movie compared to when we sit up front. This very much relates to something else we discussed in past classes. The less you touch, the less you think.

Our perception pulls us to the past and future. How the past? When we remember pleasures, those remembrances deepen our vasanas. Think about the last time you had Vada Pav in Mumbai 🙂 Even when we remember someone who is no longer alive,

The best way to live for them is to not live in the past but move forward. The best way to lighten vasanas is to be careful of what we’re remembering.

We tend to dream of pleasures. We’re dreaming about Memorial Day weekend or Easter weekend. When you dream about pleasure, you become irrational. You forget your responsibilities. Remembering pleasure and dreaming about pleasure takes us away from the present moment.

The antakarana (mind, memory, intellect, ego): all our memories, all our past is just an imagination. All that has happened to us, prior to right now, is an imagination. This context it’s good to Dora (short-term memory). We’ve only experienced the present… it’s impossible otherwise. What is the past? How is this so real when you’ve only experienced the present? For those who are serious about this — the imagination turns from imagination to visualization.

For those who think long and hard: Ramayana is history. The evolution of visualization is that you start to feel that you’ve never had a past. In that case, you live right here, right now. NO emotional baggage. No regrets about the past, arrogance about the past, and no vices. One is light and free! Like going to the airport for a day trip — no bag except what is on your back. YOU’RE FREE. This is the potency of the present.

We will die in the present also. We were born in the present also. This is why in Srimad Bhagvatam — time is known as Bhagwan. The present is still an ideation of time. In Sanatana Dharma, our scriptures teach us that time is Bhagwan. The present deepens to Presence. The “present” is relative and once experienced it becomes the past.

Bhagwan Narayan’s Chakra is time. If you follow time to the present — if you go deeper where is that chakra? It is on Lord Narayana, it is Lord Narayana. This Presence is beyond the Triputi (Experienced, Experiencing, Experiencer). In Presence there is no Triputi or being. Tattva Bodha described is as that which was, is, and will always be. We use references because we are hooked on time.

In presence there is no time. The takeaway: we can be enlightened at any moment. Because that presence is in this moment, it IS this moment. Don’t postpone. IF someone waits, then it shows they’re focusing on the present instead of going deeper. Don’t live in the present, live in the Presence.

Q&A

Q: Fetch water before Enlightenment, fetch water after Enlightenment. It is to bring as many moments because you can go in and out of it right?

A: You shouldn’t wait for that moment of enlightenment. Keep on bringing the momentum to bring it. When one has Enlightenment or tuned in to Presence, they are tuned in to Narayana and everything above it. That is why those who are enlightened, their memories are astounding. There is no distraction, self-doubt, and they can leverage that presence.

Q: In this chapter, Gurudev says the “ego is a mere bundle of memories of dead moments” — a very different definition of the ego. Please help us understand.

A: You have to remember that he is like Acharya Shankara — a poet. He is highlighting the memories as being the Ego while I’ve shared that the whole Antakarana (mind, memory, intellect, ego) is the package. This is a less relative relativity. You being a seeker is relative. You thinking about the school you went to or when you moved, is more relative. Even 1% away is still relative, but less relative. The Ego pulls us deeper in to Samsara or that which is relative. We get lost in anxieties of the future. We justify anxieties such as anxiety for the environment, which is ‘more sattwic’, but still anxiety.

Q: Presence vs. Present: What is the difference?

A: Every time you share your experience in the present it becomes the past. An experience is within that Triputi (Experienced, Experiencing, Experiencer). It is still in Dvaita. This idea of present is time-related. It is measurement, a feeling. That present depends on the Presence. The present is dependent while the Presence doesn’t depend on the present. Bhagwan is (Anadhi and Ananta) — never born or end. The present depends on the presence, which means we can go deeper. The presence doesn’t depend on anything. If the way you’re defining present IS presence, then it’s just language. Time is an equipment of Bhagwan (25th factor in Srimad Bhagvatham).

Q: Would you be able to explain more about how everything that happens to us is imagination?

A: If you are the director of the play, and you come on stage to show how actors/ actresses act. In it you’re the hero, the villain, and forget about that. Either way, you’ve forgotten that you’re the director. That is an imagination or hallucination. It’s tough to grasp because by denying our past, I’m denying myself. Only when the denying is so absolute, do you tune in to the Absolute. It may start off as an imagination. If sincere, it will turn in to a visualization or feeling. In Chapter 9 of Bhagavad Gita Lord Krishna talks about Ananya Bhakti — only love for Bhagwan, that’s when Bhagwan manifests.

RAW: This is one of the most fulfilling RAWs that you all have completed. Vivekji was moved by how seriously and sincerely the class took the RAW about creating a test for faith. You made up for your pariksha! You have made it up for everyone! RAW for this upcoming week is to take every one of these Shraddha parikshas shared on Medium.

Final Announcement: Happy Camp is May 23rd — May 25th. Happy hour students, their families, and this class is also welcome! Focus on happiness. Come to Milwaukee! There will be the Happiness Series for adults, so it will be three days of immersion. More details on the CM Milwaukee site.