ViBha Class Notes – January 15, 2023

When Bhagavan Rama was preparing to leave Ayodhya, His parents were encouraging Bhagavati Sita to stay in Ayodhya. She then shared with them that she would experience more sukha being with Bhagavan Rama than staying in Ayodhya. The implication of this is that in Ayodhya, there is the right context – it is a kingdom, there are palaces and she is a Queen. In the Aranya, there will be mosquitoes, it will be hot, rainy and the hard ground, but then Bhagavan Rama will be there! So she is tuned into the content. For all of us, it is the content that makes the context manageable, and not the other way around. 

This relates to Shrimad Bhagavata also – When Raja Parikshita found out that he had one week to live, he went to the Aranya. Most of us would go to palliative care, a place where we would be comfortable as we are dying. Where did Raja Parikshita go? He went to the Aranya instead, seeking Satsanga. He was not eating, nor sleeping, but just seeking Satsanga. We can also relate to this. When we are in Satsanga, we are most at ease as we are tuned into the content. Satsanga is the power of content over context. 

In a recent Satsanga that Vivekji facilitated about Ambition versus Aspiration, Ambition teaches us more about context, while Aspiration helps us learn more about content. When we are ambitious, it makes us more worldly. When we are aspirational, we become more reflective. To know more about our content or Spirit requires an inspiring personality or relationship. That which is inspiring makes us want to know more about our content, our Self. How this relationship develops is first through the life of that person. Once we have faith in how their life is, we shift to their teachings.

Vivekji shared about his time living in the ashram with his Master, Swami Tejomayananda. He said he was the first person he saw who was living with integrity, nobility and whose purpose was freedom. Once that faith was locked in, Vivekji shared that he tuned into the teachings of his Guru. Bhagavan Krshna is endorsing the same to Rshi Uddhava. Throughout Shrimad Bhagavata, it has been about Bhagavan Krshna’s life. But now, Bhagavan Krshna’s life is ending or His form is going to dissolve, so now He is focusing on the teachings. 

The eleventh section is potent with regard to teachings. When it comes to a subjective science, which is about one’s inner evolution, more important than what, is Who. Once the Who is clear, the what can work. 

Reviewing briefly the previous nine chapters of Skanda 11 covered so far –

Chapter 1: The main teaching is – Children do not listen. This is taken in a very extreme way where Bhagavan Krshna’s own lineage didn’t listen to Him. Not listening to Him is the cause of the destruction of His lineage. An implication for us is to try our best when it comes to caring for people, but built into that must be acceptance, that everyone of us, especially our children, has come with our own vasanas. We cannot control those vasanas and that when we accept them, we become better caregivers. 

Chapters 2-5: We experienced Upadesha, guidance or advice from the Navayogis, and the main thought that was shared was – Love Bhagavan. Vivekji was reflecting over his fifteen years of studying and serving within Sanatana Dharma since leaving the ashram, and he has come to realize that the only true love is when we love Bhagavan. All other love is traced with ego. There is always the element of what will I get, even with one’s Guide. But with Bhagavan, it is pure Love. Until we love Bhagavan, we will keep journeying, keep pursuing. But once we experience this true love, it is the most relieving experience. Even Bhagavan Krshna’s parents asked how they could stop loving Bhagavan as their child and love Him as Bhagavan. After these teachings, Shri Vasudeva and Devi Devaki did start loving Bhagavan Krshna as Bhagavan, and they became free. 

Chapter 6: The Devas and Devis, as in the Semi-Gods, came to Bhagavan Krshna sharing that He had completed what they had needed Him to complete, and that now He should come back to Vaikunta, to Swarga. Rshi Uddhava sensing that Bhagavan was leaving, went and asked Bhagavan Krshna – When Bhagavan is not present, where will Dharma live? How will Dharma continue when Bhagavan is not present? – a question that we had explored way back in Shrimad Bhagavata. And that is what Bhagavan Krshna is massaging into all of us, that Dharma is facilitated by Shrimad Bhagavata and our Shastras. It is our scriptures like the Bhagavad Gita, the Upanishads, the Ramayana that we study and follow Dharma. 

Chapter 7: Bhagavan Krshna zooms into – What is our problem with not following Dharma? He shares that it is Maya, and then specifies that it is the mind. The mind is always externalizing or living in an extroverted way. Those who externalize feel that they will find completion outside of who they are. Who did not do that? Bhagavati Sita. She knew that there is no completion in Ayodhya, and that is why she chose the Aranya. 

Chapters 7-9: What to do with Maya, mind, externalization? Bhagavan encourages Self Development, not societal development. When we engage in self development, when we try to be more patient or more vulnerable, all that we need, we get from the inside, and not the outside. Anyone who has truly served their community, their society, the trueness is that they do not want their name to be propagated. What are some of the ways we can engage in self development? Rshi Dattatreya, the Avaduta, shared that his first Guru was the Earth, and our practice from this is to forgive. All we do is destroy the Earth, and yet we have plenty of water, plenty of food, plenty of air. And the last teacher, number 24, was the Body. Our practice from this is to sacrifice. The right relationship with the body is the sacrificing of the body. We must treat this body in a most minimalistic way, as little food, sleep etc, as is needed. 

This is where we completed Vedanta in Bhagavata in 2022, and now we continue. 

Chapter 10: Bhagavan Krshna shares with Rshi Uddhava – When we have become more virtuous, simultaneously we have to become less vicious. If we have more virtues, then naturally we must have less vices. So the first part of this Chapter is Bhagavan Krshna sharing – How to have less vices? Some insights –

• Pleasure is the vice that often makes us extroverted. Bhagavan shares that the pleasure we experience in a dream, even in day dreaming, while we are awake,  is the same. The pleasure comes and goes. Is there any pleasure that we experienced in the waking state that came and stayed? Nothing comes and stays other than Light, Life, Truth. 

• Another way to have less vices is when we realize that the Atma in us is the same Atma in us and all. If we realize that we and others are one, what vice will go away? Bhagavan Krshna points out that possessiveness will go away. If all of us have the same Spirit, what do we really own? All is for all. Imagine if we all were less possessive, then there would be no war. 
• Another way to have less vices is to realize that there is a difference between fire and fuel. For us, it is to realize that if Fire or Consciousness is the Seer, then all else is the seen. The Seer is different from the seen. If we are able to observe our thoughts, we cannot be our thoughts as we know our thoughts. 
• Bhagavan Krshna says that whatever gain we can get in heaven, the negativity that is in heaven is the same that there is in this world, particularly jealousy.

So we shouldn’t try to escape as there is no perfect context. Thinking that I will be happy tomorrow, this thinking is like agriculture. We cannot control what grows or what doesn’t grow. It is so uncertain.

• The last way we can have less vices – This is Bhagavan Krshna speaking to Rshi Uddhava, “So long as there is absence of freedom resulting from the perception of dvaita (separation), Ishwara will be perceived as time, the One who consumes all, and will be a terror to the Jiva. So the followers of the philosophy of ritualistic actions who emphasize the separation of people, are bound to be obsessed with sorrow and the fear of death.” Here, a synonym to ritualistic is robotic. We may not all engage in a lot of rituals, but if we hate going to work everyday, and go to all these parties that we do not even want to be at, we are actually living robotically. So Bhagavan is saying that such people will experience God as time and will always be afraid of death. Therefore, we must live more meaningfully. 

The next part of this chapter that Vivekji will share is on how to have more Virtues. And there is only one way to do that and that is to deserve, to earn a Guide, to be such a sincere seeker that a sincere teacher comes into our life. 

Discussion:

Q. How to become more forgiving? 

• Detach from the moment, realize that all are imperfect and that there is a Oneness among all.

Q. How to become more self reflective?

• When we review disturbances, we realize that we allowed it to happen and so we should not blame the context. The more we understand vices, the more inspired we will be towards virtues.