ViBha Class Notes: November 20, 2022
Relax the body, enjoy the breath and quieten the mind. Aham Brahmasmi – I Infinity Am – This is the fundamentals of Sanatana Dharma, and for many this is elusive – I Infinity Am. To help us relate to this, to personalize this, Shrimad Bhagavata is guiding us to the same. We are exploring this science to train ourselves to contemplate – the mind becomes quiet, the intellect becomes still, the ego becomes silent. And the fulfillment of all of this is – Aashaya Sthitah – the One who is established in our heart is Bhagavan Krshna. He always was, He always is, and He always will be. Shrimad Bhagavata is a training to feel this.
The past two months have been special and engaging for our course as Vivekji was traveling to various Centers.
- This began during Navaratri on October 2nd, especially when we were worshiping Devi Saraswati. We commenced the dialogue between Rshi Dattatreya and Raja Yadu. This dialogue is about learning to learn. We commenced this while worshiping Devi Saraswati. The first direction that Rshi Dattatreya shares is Earth and our learning is to forgive.The alignment is so beautiful since October 2nd is Gandhiji’s Jayanti, and he is an icon of forgiveness.
- On October 9th, we were in our Devi Retreat, and the theme was Finding our Faith. We explored the Original Bhagavata, the main teaching being Infinity is Real.
- On October 16h, we explored other directions to learn from – Air – to purity, Space – to absorb, Water – to refresh.
- On October 23rd, we explored the Moon – to observe, the Sun – to share, Fire – to accept.
- On October 30th, we reviewed the various teachers, and we explored the Dove as a teacher.
Skanda 11:7:74 – The doors of liberation are open wide to the one who has attained human life. But if a human being simply devotes himself to family life like the foolish bird in this story, then he has to be considered as one who has climbed to a high place only to trip and fall down.
For us, it is to serve. Those who do not serve, their personalities are complacent. Their default is attachment then. But to those who serve, it is like going through a refinery, a distillery. One becomes more balanced, focused and reflective.
When we were exploring the Dove, Vivekji had also shared that every relationship of ours is relative. He had emphasized that all of the relationships in our lives have come into our lives because of the Grace and guidance of Bhagavan, and the 5 Cs were highlighted to remember with every relationship. These 5 Cs are – Bhagavan is:
- The Creator
- The Controller
- The Consumer
- The Corrector
- The Conserver
If we personalize these 5 Cs or remember these, then we will treat every relationship as relative. When we forget the involvement of Bhagavan in our relationships, then we become like the Dove Family. When we remember the involvement of Bhagavan, that Bhagavan is the one who conserves from start to finish, then our relationships become about Bhagavan rather than a relationship. Our biggest weakness is attachment. From Raga comes Bhaya or anxiety. From Bhaya comes Krodha or anger. So if we can impede the attachment, we would become less anxious, less angry. All of us need and want that.
On November 6th, we were celebrating Deepavali and we explored the direction of the Python – to quieten. Vivekji is traveling to Trindad for a Yatra and what he will be sharing during commencement is that if we practice contentment, then we will stop practicing complaining, criticizing and crying. If we find that we complain, criticize, and cry too much, then it is a sign of lack of contentment. What is the stepping stone to contentment – quieten the mind. One feels the Atma more, and the nature of Atma is Ananda.
Skanda 11:8:6 – We also explored the Ocean. During the rainy season, the swollen rivers rush into the ocean and during the dry summer, the rivers, now shallow, …have water. Yet, the ocean does not swell up in the rainy season, nor does it dry up in the hot summer.
For us, the practice is to deepen. Pujya Swami Tejomayananda shared that the one who is deep, it makes no difference if enjoyment comes into their life or not.
Then, on Nov 13th, we had a special class with Swami Prakashananda. We covered ten teachers in the past six weeks.
Now we will cover six more teachers and these six teachers are very similar. The general guidance that Rshi Dattatreya is offering to Raja Yadu is to let go of Sakti – attachment. In the cases we are about to explore, this attachment is not to a being, but rather to an article or a sense object. It is one who is lusty, and this is expressed through their sense organs. What Pujya Swami Tejomayananda shared – we know we are not practicing Sakti or this lust or indulgence, if we are able to stop if we are told to stop. If we can’t stop eating a certain food, or can’t stop watching a certain show, then there is Sakti there, there is an attachment, a lust there. Swami Tejomayananda is teaching us to let go of what we want. If we don’t, we will have rich bodies and poor minds. A rich body, we can eat whatever we want as we can afford it, but with a poor mind, if the food doesn’t come to our liking, we are completely agitated by that.
Our eleventh teacher is the Moth. The moth is attracted to light and is lusty towards the sense of seeing. The sense object that is highlighted here is form. A moth is attracted to a hot light and it gets burnt. The comparison is that humans are the same way. Attraction is natural. It helps our species to procreate and helps our species to go on, but when that attraction is minus Viveka (discrimination or parameters), then that becomes lust. Attraction is not a problem; it is the lust. It is the attachment to the lust that burns us.
Skanda 11:8:10 – The Honeybee is our twelfth teacher and it is lusty towards the sense of smelling. – Just as the honeybee takes nectar from all flowers, big and small, an intelligent human being should take the essence from all religious scriptures.
When we come across a honeybee, what do we do? Freak out! But if we observe a honeybee, particularly on a flower, it practices such Ahimsa. It is so gentle with that flower. It is never greedy; it doesn’t take more to harm the flower. So the message for us is – Every article, being and circumstance that we interact with, our interaction with these should be gentle. We should only take what the other article, being or circumstance can handle. Vivekji shared that the biggest challenge with relationships (living, working with someone) is mis-expectation. We expect more than what the other can actually provide. The more sensitive we are with practicing ahimsa, our expectation becomes more aligned with what the other can provide.
Our thirteenth teacher is the Elephant, and it is lusty towards the sense of touch. Hunters trap elephants during mating season by placing a trap (a hole) under a fake elephant. When another elephant comes to touch this elephant, it gets trapped in that hole. For us, Swami Tejomayananda shared that touch is the most dangerous of the sense organs as it not only traps us, but others as well. In Shrimad Bhagavata, it is shared that we should not even touch our own bodies unnecessarily. We should be alert about touching ourselves unless necessary. Back in the day, bathing was in public with clothes on, so that we didn’t even touch our body in ways that we didn’t need to. .
The fourteenth teacher is the Honey gatherer, and it is out of place in terms of teachers related to our senses. But what is being celebrated this coming week? Thanksgiving. And what we do for Thanksgiving is hoard. We buy things we want instead of what we need. We have Black Friday and Cyber Monday, and then Thanksgiving is over. But we should remember that there is Giving Tuesday as well!
Skanda 11:8:15 – A greedy person accumulates a large quantity of money even in pain. But the person who has struggled so much to acquire this wealth is not always allowed to enjoy it himself or give it in charity to others.
The visual is that the honeybee is the one who gathers all the honey, and what happens to all that honey? The honey gatherer comes and takes it away. So what Rshi Dattatreya has learned from this is to not be a Kripanah – Miser. A miser is one who doesn’t know how to enjoy, and doesn’t allow others to enjoy either. That is what a hoarder is. Once they get what they want, they are still dissatisfied. So when they get what they want, they keep living for more of what they want, instead of appreciating what they have. If we don’t share our resources, this will be taken from us.
In our culture, during Navaratri, we put Bhagavati Lakshmi’s footprints coming into our home, but we should also put her footprints leaving our home. If we don’t, she will take more than what she came with when she leaves. Her Presence is what graces us, but she cannot stay in our home only. The word Dhananjaya is Prince Arjuna traveling through Bharatvarsha freeing up resources hoarded by Kings, but he himself did not depend on it. So that is why he is called Dhananjaya. So much of our culture is like this. We should be giving 20 percent of our resources to Dharma. If not 20 percent, at least 10 percent of our resources should be given. We flirt with 1 or 2 percent, and so are like the honeybee and get stung then. We become anxious about what if.
The fifteenth teacher is the Deer and it relates to the sense of sound. Rshi Dattatreya observed that hunters in the jungle used an instrument that sounded like a deer. The deer then came towards the hunter and got trapped. Some implication for us is – To be careful about what we input through our ears because the subtlest sense organ we have is the sense of sound. It is most connected with the mind. That is why our Vedas are called Shruti – that which is to be listened to. The first inner discipline is Shravana, to listen. So if we are not careful, like if we listen to the news too much or to gossip too much, or we hear music that has unpleasant lyrics, that will trigger the mind to be rajasik or tamasik. We start to feel more aggressive then. There are so many concerts where once the music starts, people rush to the stage and get trampled. So we should be careful about what we are hearing and listening to.
Summarizing, the moth is lusty towards seeing, the honeybee towards smelling, the elephant towards touch and the deer towards hearing. Now the sixteenth teacher is the Fish and it is lusty towards taste, our last sense organ. It is lusty towards food. So even though it can see the hook, it goes straight for the food.
It is shared that taste is the sense organ that feeds the other sense organs. If we don’t hear for some time, it doesn’t affect how much we eat. If we don’t touch for some time, it doesn’t affect how much we see. If we don’t see for some time, it doesn’t affect our smell. If we don’t smell for sometime, it doesn’t affect how we see or hear. But if we don’t taste or eat for some time, it affects all our other senses. We see less well, we hear less well, we think less well. So this is the sense organ that feeds all the other sense organs.
In our culture, we feel that feeding is so important that we put in so much effort towards taste, while more Viveka is needed so that we appreciate that food is needed in our lives, that we are attracted towards it in the need sense, but we shouldn’t have the lust that it has to be tasty food or lots of food.
Next month, we will review our next teacher, Pingala who is described as a dancer, but in actuality is a prostitute.
Discussion:
Q: Should we be less materialistic, and why?
Those who are materialistic, they externalize more, and reflect less. Materialistic people are thinking about materials more, whereas reflective people are thinking about themselves more, they are inquiring more. So there is a danger in being materialists.
Q: How does one nurture Vairagya or dispassion?
Through satsanga, to shift our raga to Bhagavan, to be persistent.
We will learn more from Pingala next week.
Last week’s RAW: The Dove is attached and the way to counter that is to serve. In terms of service, most of us are linked with Chinmaya Mission in our city. Serving starts with participating. The transition is then from a participator to a facilitator. Next in line is to go from being a facilitator to an initiator. Then you are leading that initiative and have more ownership. We should analyze ourselves to see which category we fall into. Are we just a participator, facilitator or initiator?
RAW: We come up with the 6 verbs or 6 practices for these 6 teachers we have studied today. So far, the practices we have learned are: Earth – forgive, Air – purify, Fire – absorb, Water – refresh, Space – accept, Moon – observe, Sun – share, Dove – serve, Python – quieten, Ocean – deepen.