Subodha Vedanta Class Notes – April 21, 2024

These are three things that Vivekji shared with a vanaprastha seeker, three practices that would help them stay cheerful in life, especially if they are physically and spatially confined, and which is applicable to all of us as well:

1. Be in Nature more

2. Practice being grateful – reflect over reasons you have to smile

3. Listen to Katha more

When we reflect over reasons that make us feel grateful in life, some of us are extremely grateful for a simple thing like glasses that have changed our lives drastically. The clarity they provide us has led to conviction about everything we do, making us more confident as individuals. If we can imagine the physical impact of correcting lenses, then imagine how exponentially significant is intellectual clarity – about our purpose, about who we are, about what we are. This is what Sanatana Dharma, Advaita Vedanta facilitates for us through Subodha Vedanta – provides us clarity. 

We are now going to review all ten chapters of Subodha Vedanta, starting with the summary of Chapters 1-5 – 

Chapter 1: Prarthana or Invocation – Invocation should feel in our heart as quietude. If our prayer is not making us quieter, then we are not praying. The quieter we are, we nurture intuition or understanding. We come to understand others then, another community, and finally the Creator. A very practical way we can live by this chapter is to pray for others by name. Typically we tend to pray for ourselves. 

Chapter 2: Shishya or Disciple – We reviewed nine qualities that help us evolve from being a seeker to a shishya or disciple. The key difference between a seeker and disciple is discipline. The nine qualities are – 

1. Vairagya and Viveka 

2. Dama and Shama 

3. Uparama and Samadhana 

4. Titiksha and Shradha

5. Mumukshutva. 

These nine qualities help us to cultivate ekagrata, which means we know our purpose and we will follow our purpose. The way to practice this is to unitask. When we eat – eat, when we drive – drive.

Chapter 3: Guru or Guide – The Guru has the nine qualities of a shishya and an additional seven qualities. A Guide is really a distinguished student. The seven qualities exclusive to a Guide are – educated, experienced, elevated, empathetic, engaging, effective and encouraging. The most valuable quality is experienced – Nishta. 

Here is a short story – Once a person shopping for vegetables saw Picasso in the market. She noticed him and asked if he would draw her a portrait. He had a small sheet of paper and quickly drew her a portrait. She smiled and was happy and he said that it would be 1 million dollars. She said – But it took you 30 seconds! And he said that it took him a lifetime to do it in 30 seconds. 

It was the experience that allowed him to do that in 30 seconds. That we never acknowledge. So Vivekji is zooming us into experienced.. 

Making this more practical for us – Any Guide in our life, we may not revere them or love them, but our minimum emotion towards them should be respect. The more we respect someone, the more we receive from them. They have lots and lots to give and the least we can do is offer them respect. A way to show this respect is to be with them. We must make time and invest in the resources to be with them. 

Chapter 4: Atma or Spirit – The teaching from this chapter is Sat-Chit- Ananda-Asti – I Am Existence, Awareness, Joy, and the more robust word is Asti – IS. Existence-Awareness-Joy IS and there is no separation of I. When we are born and raised with this sense of individuality, it is so hard to feel that I am this family or community. So how can we begin to register that Existence- Awareness-Joy is my nature? – It is by knowing ourselves which is possible by loving ourselves. Whatever we love, we tend to know more about it. So we need to engage in real selfcare to really love ourselves. Not vacations or weekends off, but selfcare where I’m reading more, writing more. A practical way to do this is to listen more. First, we must start to listen to the people around us more, then we can start listening to what is happening in our inner world. If we can’t listen to others, how can we listen to our own mind then? How can we then listen to Bhagavan actually speaking to us? Listen more!

Chapter 6: Shradha or Faith – To be able to know what we are, five Faiths are needed – 

Step 1 – Faith in discipline – Sadhana. We need to have faith in something to do it, like if we do not have faith in seva, we will never serve.

Step 2 – Faith in the disciple – Sadhaka. If we have faith in discipline, we will follow through with it. That helps us to have faith in ourselves. When we lack confidence or self-esteem, the starting point is to be disciplined. One feels better about themselves then. 

Step 3 – Faith in the disciplined, the Guide or the Sadguru – When we see our Guide or Sadguru who is disciplined, who has faith in the discipline, we want to be like them as well

Step 4 – Faith in the discipliner – That is our Maps. The Bhagavad Gita teaches us to live by Yajna-Tapa-Dana. The Ramayana is teaching for our senses to be inward. 

Step 5 – Faith in Divinity – to have faith in God. 

A practical way is to challenge ourselves relating to our religious or spiritual practices, to check if they are helping us to rise in our faith through these five steps. If our religious or spiritual practices are not increasing our faith, then we are not engaged in these practices. In Sanatana Dharma, we tend to have a passive relationship with our religious and spiritual practices. But are our practices making us more faithful? 

Chapter 5 – Isha or God – The main thought is – God is Existence. Existence is uniform, ego is separate. Water is uniform, waves are separate. It is simply a matter of our identification. If we identify with the waves, there is a lot of separation. If we identify with the water, there is no separation. So what should our relationship with God be? Surrender that separation. And what does surreneder feel like? It is to feel less and less separate. The less separate we feel, the less insecure we feel. In Chapter 6, Vivekji had encouraged us to challenge ourselves whether our religious and spiritual practices are nurturing our faith. In Chapter 5, Vivekji is challenging us whether our seva is burning our separation. If our seva is not making us feel more united, then our seva has stagnated. A lot of seva is performed based on comfort or based on what is known to them. One doesn’t challenge themselves or engage in tapa to serve in an uncomfortable way, to serve that which is not known. We have to ask ourselves if we are burning that separation as it is that seva which will lead us to surrender. 

This summary of Chapters 1-6 is to help us have intellectual clarity. Intellectual clarity creates a very prasada mentality. It is choiceless cheer, wanting us to immerse ourelves in this. 

Discussion: Share 3 universal habits that will cultivate intellectual clarity. 

• Vivekji shared that self analysis enables intellectual clarity. Am I angry right now? Why did I get angry? If there is dessert in front of me, how come I can’t stop myself from eating? Self-analysis is a universal habit that can enable us to determine if our practices are nurturing faith. Are our seva engagements leading to burning separation? 

Last week’s RAW: To feel our body is a house. 

Vivekji’s thoughts: If we did this, we would live less by comfort and more by practice. We will use the body more practically, and not try to make it more comfortable. 

RAW: Whatever 3 universal habits we came up with to increase intellectual clarity, follow them. 

​