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Video Information:

Context:
~ For what mind is constantly longing/wanting ?
~ What is Bhakti ?
~ What is Yog ?
~ What is my current state & what is my loved State ?


Music Credits: Milind Date
~~~~~

#acharyaprashant #bhakti #gyan #mind #knowledge
Transcript
00:00 The outcome of the conversation would decide actively the fate of many million residents
00:21 of the kingdom.
00:22 Not just figuratively, literally life and death depend on this discourse.
00:27 Therefore this discourse has so much potency.
00:29 Arjun is the real life student, not the ideal disciple.
00:35 Therefore Krishna's persuasion has the cutting edge mastery.
00:40 That's what happened with Arjun as well.
00:43 So the Bhagavad Gita is such a real and captivating story.
00:47 Good evening sir.
00:48 My name is Utkarsh Shukla.
00:50 I am second year student of NIT Jamshedpur.
00:53 And my question to you, what is the true essence of Bhakti Yoga and Karma Yoga in the spirituality
00:59 for the student?
01:00 And how can a student ensure that we will not be influenced by any false interpretation
01:07 of the spirituality?
01:12 See there are three popular paths in spirituality.
01:25 There are many, but these three are the most popularly accepted ones.
01:33 So Bhakti, Karma and Gyan.
01:37 It has to be understood that these three are not isolated or exclusive.
01:49 They are one.
01:53 How?
01:57 The mind is a restless entity.
02:03 The mind is constantly in a state of discontentment.
02:08 Do you experience that?
02:11 Yes.
02:12 It does not matter what the situation is, whether you have won, whether you have lost,
02:21 whether you are young or old, rich or poor.
02:26 The mind is never fully satisfied.
02:32 There always remains something missing.
02:37 If there always remains something missing, what does that tell about the state of the
02:44 mind if there always remains something missing?
02:49 It means that the mind wants satisfaction.
02:55 Aren't these two statements equivalent?
02:58 I say I am constantly dissatisfied and I say I am constantly in want of satisfaction.
03:10 Aren't these two statements the same?
03:14 So the mind is constantly looking for someone, longing for something, is being attracted
03:26 to something.
03:30 What is that something?
03:33 In different contexts that something has been called as realization, peace, fulfillment,
03:46 rest, health, security.
03:55 So people have known that.
03:58 Sometimes they say the mind is constantly wanting peace.
04:02 Why?
04:04 Because the mind is in a state of general disquiet, peacelessness.
04:10 There is an inner violence, an inner strife, a constant inner struggle and churning.
04:18 So the mind wants peace.
04:22 That can also be said as that the mind is in love with peace.
04:29 Similarly you could say that the mind is in love with realization or freedom.
04:41 So those who have known have told us that the mind is a constant lover.
04:49 The mind is eternally in love.
04:54 In love with what?
04:57 You could call that peace or understanding or realization or freedom or joy.
05:04 Whatever suits you in your context.
05:06 But what is certain is that the mind is always and very deeply wanting something.
05:14 So that comes first.
05:17 The deep urge of mind to know, to be blissful, to dissolve, to come to rest.
05:26 The mind has that deep urge.
05:29 That deep urge we are saying can also be called as a deep love.
05:34 That deep love is bhakti.
05:37 Bhakti is love.
05:40 I am not yet there but I desperately want to be there.
05:44 That is love.
05:46 So yoga which is final union always has to begin with bhakti.
05:56 And bhakti is not something that you do.
06:03 Bhakti is your fundamental state of disquiet.
06:10 The very word bhakti refers to someone who is fragmented, who is separated, comes from
06:24 the root bhaj.
06:27 The same root that gives rise to the word vibhajan.
06:31 What does vibhajan mean?
06:33 Division.
06:34 Two separate entities.
06:37 So here I am but my utterly desired state is somewhere else.
06:48 My current state is of lovelessness.
06:50 My desired state is of absolute love.
06:54 My current state is of illusion and ignorance.
07:00 My deeply desired state is of realization and understanding.
07:04 My current state is of suffering.
07:07 My loved state is of joy and bliss.
07:14 So that's the division we are born with.
07:20 So I am calling that as the fundamental state in that sense.
07:23 We are all born lovers and we are separated from our beloved.
07:29 So bhakti definitely comes first.
07:31 Bhakti is the most fundamental thing.
07:33 Bhakti is not something that you need to practice.
07:36 It is something that you need to realize.
07:38 You need to realize that you are separated.
07:41 This realization itself is bhakti.
07:44 Bhakti is not about following certain rituals or practices or doing certain things in a
07:50 certain way.
07:51 It is about realizing that you are not yet inwardly complete.
07:58 You see that?
08:01 The state that I must have is not the state I currently am in.
08:06 This is bhakti.
08:09 And I have a deep deep longing to reach that beloved state.
08:18 And that beloved state, when you see it a little more closely, is not even a state at
08:26 all.
08:27 It is just a dissolution but that can be kept aside for the while.
08:32 So there is a state.
08:33 Let's just stick to that.
08:35 There is a state that I must reach and there is a state that I currently am in.
08:41 And the state I am in gives me sorrow and frustration and just so much inner restlessness.
08:49 Do I like this state?
08:50 I don't like this state.
08:52 I want to be there.
08:53 So that I call as my beloved.
08:56 That which I want to be, that which I must be.
09:00 And if I don't be that, then I will be condemned to a life of suffering.
09:07 That's my beloved.
09:11 That's where I need to reach.
09:12 This is bhakti.
09:14 This is bhakti.
09:16 Do you understand this?
09:18 Now just experiencing that separation is not enough.
09:24 Because we all do experience that separation.
09:27 What is the proof of that separation?
09:29 Of that experience?
09:32 The proof of that experience is that we are restless, we are anxious, we feel insecure,
09:42 we feel jealous, we feel jittery in front of several kinds of fears.
09:53 So we know that there is a separation.
09:56 We experience it.
09:57 But do we totally realize the nature of that separation?
10:00 If we do not realize that, then we will be like a patient who will experience the symptoms
10:06 of the disease but will never know what the disease actually is.
10:14 Is experiencing the same as understanding?
10:19 Please tell me.
10:23 Is experiencing the same as understanding?
10:25 You can experience something for 100 years of your life without understanding it even
10:30 one bit.
10:32 Is that not true?
10:34 You make a cat sit in front of a laptop and she can sit there for 10 years and experience
10:41 what is going on without understanding any bit of what's really going on.
10:46 So we experience the separation but merely experiencing the separation will not end the
10:53 separation.
10:56 How do you end the separation?
10:57 By knowing the nature of the separation.
11:00 By knowing the nature of the separated ones.
11:04 Who am I?
11:05 Now this is Gyan Yoga.
11:08 So after Bhakti comes Gyan.
11:12 After Bhakti comes Gyan.
11:14 You see that Gyan is a very obvious follower of Bhakti.
11:24 You see you cannot have Gyan without Bhakti and you cannot have Bhakti that doesn't lead
11:30 to Gyan.
11:36 And then once you realize what the nature of that separation is, how come you have landed
11:45 in your present state?
11:47 Where does all the turmoil and the strife come from once you have seen that?
11:55 Then your actions change.
12:01 You stop chasing your animal instincts and your egoistic desires.
12:10 You start seeing that all the desires that you have will keep you basically separated
12:19 from your beloved.
12:24 You need just one desire which is to unite with the beloved.
12:28 All other desires are just distractions that will continue your state of sorrow and separation.
12:38 And so you invest all your energy in just one fundamental desire and you keep the other
12:44 desires away.
12:45 You say I am young and I have energy and I have time and that has to be very rightly
12:50 invested.
12:51 I will invest all my time in just one desire.
12:54 Because my fundamental sorrow is separation from that one.
13:02 Therefore all my desires must be targeted towards just that one.
13:07 Hence I must have how many desires?
13:10 Just one.
13:11 So all the other desires must be kept aside.
13:14 This is called Karma Yoga or Nishkama Karma Yoga.
13:17 So do you see that Karma Yoga will always follow from Gyan Yoga?
13:24 You see this.
13:26 So Bhakti is your very current state.
13:30 Bhakti is to experience separation.
13:34 Gyan is to realize the nature of separation.
13:40 And Karma is to act in a way that ends the separation.
13:48 These three are one.
13:49 These three can never be disjoint.
13:52 So to say that there are three separate paths is to not understand the very nature of our
14:00 hollowness, our disquiet and our inner essence.
14:05 People talk of these three as if these are three different streams leading to the same
14:11 ocean and that is how it has been variously depicted as well.
14:15 So there is one stream called the stream of Bhakti, then another stream of Gyan, then
14:20 another stream of Karma Yoga.
14:25 It's not that way at all.
14:27 These three are one.
14:31 The Bhakt will have to be a Karma Yogi.
14:38 The Gyan Yogi will never truly know himself if he does not have a burning desire to know.
14:48 Atma Gyan, Gyan basically means knowing your own nature.
14:54 Why am I separated from that beloved state?
14:58 Gyan Yog is knowing yourself, your own nature.
15:01 Why will you bother to know yourself if the deep desire to have that knowledge is not
15:10 incinerating you from within?
15:13 Souls do not know themselves nor do they want to know themselves.
15:17 There is no need.
15:18 Why will a human being invest himself in knowing himself?
15:25 Because there is love.
15:27 So it all begins with love.
15:29 It begins with love, moves to attention and then becomes action.
15:37 Love, attention, action.
15:41 Is that not how it operates even in your daily life?
15:45 The baby is crying.
15:47 The baby is crying.
15:48 Why do you rush to the baby?
15:50 Love.
15:52 Once you go to the baby, what do you do?
15:55 You pay attention.
15:57 You pay attention.
15:58 Why is the baby crying?
16:00 You realize that the nappy needs to be changed.
16:05 And then there is action.
16:08 Love, attention, action.
16:12 Bhakti Yog, Gyan Yog, Karma Yog.
16:15 And these three are one.
16:19 What kind of mother would be that who would rush to the baby and then find the baby crying
16:26 and then stand there and clap?
16:29 Obviously if there is bhakti, there has to be action.
16:33 What kind of bhakt would not be a Karma Yogi?
16:37 Obviously some fraudulent kind of bhakt.
16:41 And what kind of a Karma Yogi would not be a bhakt?
16:48 How can you be a desireless actor?
16:53 Karma Yog does not mean to act in any haphazard random way.
16:57 Karma Yog is Nishkama Karma Yog.
17:00 Acting not for the sake of various random desires.
17:07 That is Nishkama Karma Yog.
17:09 How can you say you are a Karma Yogi without first of all having that fire of love burning
17:14 within you?
17:18 That would be some kind of pretense.
17:26 These three are one and it always starts with the experience of separation which we all
17:34 anyway do experience.
17:39 Who does not experience that separation?
17:41 Look at any person, it's writ large on his or her face.
17:45 Yes, the fellow is separated.
17:47 It's right there in our eyes.
17:49 Is it not?
17:51 So the experience of suffering is everywhere.
17:56 This what do we start with?
17:58 We start with trying to know the nature of suffering.
18:02 So typically I start with my people with Gyan Yog.
18:10 Not because Gyan is superior to Bhakti, but because the experience of separation is anyway
18:18 there.
18:20 It is already there.
18:21 Hence, I try to start with Gyan Yog, but not always.
18:25 There are times when people are not experiencing that separation at all.
18:33 They say no, there is no problem, no conflict in life.
18:36 We are just happy.
18:39 And then the task of the teacher is to first awaken them to their own sorrow.
18:51 You have to awaken them to their own sorrow.
18:54 Unless there is a realization that you are in trouble, why will you try to act to pull
19:07 yourself out of trouble?
19:10 And there are a lot of people around who will say no, we are not in trouble at all.
19:13 Life is wonderful.
19:14 Life is beautiful.
19:15 Everything is hunky-dory.
19:19 First of all, there has to be a realization of trouble.
19:22 That is the basis of Bhakti Yog.
19:24 I am separated.
19:25 That's called Viraah or Veeog.
19:26 I am separated.
19:28 I am separated and I would love to be united.
19:33 I am separated and I would love to be united.
19:35 That's Bhakti.
19:36 I am separated and I would love to be united.
19:39 From Bhakti follows Gyan.
19:42 I want to be united, but how do I be united?
19:45 What caused the separation in the first place?
19:47 That's Gyan Yog, knowing yourself.
19:51 And once I see that what causes the separation is something petty called ego within me, then
19:59 I stop listening to the ego.
20:02 And what does the ego always talk of?
20:05 Demands and desires, wants, nothing else.
20:07 That's all that the ego has.
20:09 The ego is an incomplete entity and is always therefore talking of desires and demands.
20:14 Give me this, give me that.
20:17 And when I look closely at myself, I realize that the separation has been caused by the
20:21 ego.
20:22 The ego itself is the separation from the beloved.
20:25 So I stop listening to the ego and I start acting in ways that are very different from
20:31 the ways of the ego.
20:32 That is the yoga of action, Karma Yoga.
20:35 These three are just the same thing.
20:39 And in a true seeker, you will find these three together.
20:43 If the person is genuine, it will be impossible for you to tell whether he is Bhakti Margi
20:48 or Gyan Margi or Karma Yogi.
20:51 You cannot tell that.
20:52 And if you can very clearly say, oh, this fellow belongs to Bhakti, then that fellow
20:57 is a fraud.
20:58 If you can very clearly say, oh, he is a Gyan Margi, I do not see any Bhakti in him, then
21:02 that fellow is an equal fraud.
21:05 The right person would have all these three concurrently in him or her.
21:12 Bhakti, Gyan, Karma.
21:18 When you look at him in a moment of action, you will feel like saying he is a Karma Yogi.
21:23 When you will look at him in a moment of meditation, you will feel like saying, oh, he is a Gyan
21:29 Yogi.
21:30 And when you will look at the depth of his love, you will be convinced that he is a Bhakti
21:36 Margi.
21:37 The fact is he will always be all three depending on the situation.
21:43 Some part of his personality will come to the fore.
21:48 So sometimes you will think he is a man of action.
21:51 When I say he, it includes she, all mankind, just old habit, nothing else.
21:57 In the moment of action, you will feel like saying, oh, he is a Karma Yogi.
22:01 See all the time he is just acting, acting, working, doing.
22:07 When you will maybe speak to him to understand something, you will say, oh, he is a Gyan
22:12 Margi.
22:13 Look at the depth of his realization.
22:14 Look at his eyes and his mind.
22:17 He just scans through all the nonsense.
22:19 He can see through us and through himself.
22:22 So he is a Gyan Margi.
22:24 And when you will look at the underlying foundation of his life, you will only find love.
22:31 Only find love.
22:32 And then you will say, oh, no, no, no, we were mistaken.
22:35 He is a Bhakt.
22:36 He is a devotee.
22:40 Any of these conclusions is just partial and incomplete.
22:45 The complete fact is that the genuine individual has to be the three at once.
22:54 All three together at once.
22:58 A devotee, a seeker of truth.
23:09 And an actor.
23:13 In action, he will be unstoppable.
23:17 In realization, he will be ruthless.
23:21 He will not spare the ego.
23:22 The ego will say, no, no, do not know me because when you throw some light on me, I suffer.
23:27 The ego revels in darkness.
23:31 So Gyan is something that the ego hates.
23:34 The moment you throw light on ego, the ego starts to vaporize like the vampires you have
23:39 in the movies.
23:40 And when you will try to understand why he is acting the way he does, why he wants to
23:51 look deeply at life, at people, at himself, at environment, at animals, at everything,
24:00 then you will realize, oh, maybe the love is not visible on the surface, but this chap
24:05 is acting surely only from love.
24:09 So he is definitely a devotee.
24:13 These three have to go hand in hand.
24:15 Never try to compartmentalize spirituality.
24:20 You see, the mind anyway lives in this kind of division and compartmentalization, does
24:26 it not?
24:28 Do you want to extend the same kind of division to spirituality as well?
24:35 Will that be a spiritual thing?
24:39 In everything in life, there are divisions.
24:42 Now if in spirituality too you create divisions, is that spirituality or just good old worldiness?
24:49 No, that's just worldiness.
24:53 So do not fall for these things that there are three separate paths.
24:57 Sometimes they say there are four separate paths.
24:59 The fourth path they say is of Ashtanga Yoga or Raja Yoga or such things.
25:04 Nothing, nothing.
25:05 There is just one thing.
25:07 The mind is here and the mind is deeply in love with something, something that it does
25:13 not even know of.
25:15 And why does the mind not know what it's deeply in love with?
25:18 Because the mind does not know itself.
25:21 The mind does not know itself.
25:23 So spirituality has to begin with first of all a realization that you are suffering,
25:27 which is Bhakti and then an inquiry into who the sufferer is.
25:34 That is Gyan.
25:37 And once Gyan is there, action naturally follows.
25:44 Have I made myself clear?
25:54 I have one follow up question.
25:56 Like many organizations in the Marga of Bhakti, they just promote the singing, dancing, these
26:04 type of things.
26:05 So can you say like it's a way of Bhakti?
26:10 Aren't we singing right now?
26:14 Why does singing have to be a particular pre-decided pattern of movement of body?
26:23 Please tell me.
26:25 Or dancing.
26:26 Why can't we say that right now it's a big song and dance going on here?
26:40 And if in the dance, steps have to be taught, is that not just a repetition of patterns?
26:48 I am asking you.
26:49 One, two, three, four.
26:54 And then you practice that so much.
26:57 And when five people do that in unison, it looks nice to the eye.
27:05 What is dance?
27:06 What is song?
27:09 Please realize that.
27:10 Obviously, life has to be a song and your movements have to be dance-like.
27:18 Then you have to ask yourself what is the difference between normal movement and dance.
27:22 Normal movement is conditioned.
27:25 You move usually so that you can benefit from some direction.
27:31 If a man is moving towards a particular place, chances are that he is going there to benefit
27:38 from that place.
27:40 Correct?
27:41 So intentional movement, desirous movement is the normal regular thing.
27:54 And if you can move without caring for rewards, can we call that as dance?
28:02 Will that be alright?
28:06 If dance is to be defined as the stuff that dancers do on stage, then an 85 year old can
28:14 never dance.
28:15 Why are you excluding that fellow from dancing?
28:20 If dance is a repetition of a particular pattern of bodily steps, then can an 85 year old dance?
28:30 Very difficult.
28:32 So dance has to be defined in a deeper way.
28:36 If you can move without bothering for who is looking at you and what you will get from
28:42 the movement, let's call that as dance.
28:47 If you can speak without bothering for rhyme, rhythm, sense and what the listeners will
29:02 think of you, whether your speech will fetch you any honors, let's call that singing.
29:12 Let's call that singing.
29:14 Or singing about just crooning something with melody.
29:21 That would be a very elementary, very basal definition of song or singing.
29:34 Do you get this?
29:37 So yes, in love you do sing and dance.
29:42 But let's not have very definite, very rigid images or definitions of these two words.
29:51 Singing and dancing.
29:55 Dancing if it is of any value, must happen all the time.
30:01 Singing if it is of any value, must happen all the time.
30:05 But if dancing is a synchronized movement of the body, then how do I dance when I am
30:10 answering your questions?
30:13 But I would like to insist that I am dancing even now.
30:19 So dancing needs to have a deeper definition.
30:25 And singing too needs to have a deeper definition.
30:29 And yes, the person in love indeed does sing and dance all the time.
30:39 A great saint, a very blissful one to listen to, had something to say in this regard.
30:53 What did he say?
30:54 "Jistan lagiya ishq kamal, naache besur te betal".
31:03 That does not mean that he is constantly moving about the body in rhythmic patterns of dancing.
31:13 If he does that, he will be soon exhausted and fall down.
31:16 Nobody can do that all the day.
31:20 What is dance?
31:22 It is your expression when there is love in the heart.
31:28 "Jistan lagiya ishq kamal".
31:31 When there is love in the heart and what is love?
31:34 That is devotion.
31:36 Love itself is bhakti.
31:38 Devotion towards what?
31:40 That which you are not but must be.
31:44 Bhakti is not about being devoted to some image that you have cultivated as per your
31:50 ego.
31:51 No, no, no.
31:53 If you are devoted to some image arising from your own mind, can we call that as bhakti?
31:58 No, not at all.
32:01 You are already living in a world of images.
32:04 So bhakti is the urge to gain freedom from your inner world of images and thoughts and
32:10 concepts and ideas and prejudices etc.
32:16 In the name of devotion, if you start acting as if you are devoted to a particular story
32:26 or to a particular concept or to a particular name or form, can that really be called as
32:31 devotion?
32:32 No.
32:33 Because all that is coming from your own mind.
32:36 If you are devoted to all that, then de facto you are devoted to your own mind.
32:41 And if the mind is devoted to itself, will that lead it anywhere?
32:48 No.
32:49 It's like a man falling in love with his own image or shadow.
32:53 Will he gain any satisfaction?
32:57 So those who worship stories and names and forms in the name of bhakti are just worshipping
33:03 their own shadows.
33:05 They will not get anything from that.
33:07 It is at best an illusion or entertainment for some time.
33:13 You are looking at your own inflated image in some special kind of mirror and falling
33:20 in love with it and making a big deal of it.
33:25 Think of it.
33:26 There are mirrors who can transform your image.
33:30 Don't you have mirrors of that kind?
33:33 So it's yourself you are looking at, but the mirror has totally changed your name and form
33:37 and shape.
33:38 And you say, no, no, no, that is my God.
33:40 That's not your God.
33:41 That's who you are.
33:43 You're looking at your own shape, your own prejudices, your own self and worshipping
33:51 it.
33:52 So that kind of thing is just ego worship, ego worshipping itself.
33:56 That does not take the ego anywhere.
34:00 Are you getting it?
34:05 So jistan lagiya ishq kamal.
34:10 That love is everything.
34:11 That's where everything begins from.
34:14 And that's why devotion is the most fundamental thing.
34:17 It is more fundamental than even gyaan or realization.
34:23 I often ask my audiences when they say, no, we are not understanding what you are saying.
34:30 Then my question is, niyat hai kya?
34:34 Chahate bhi ho?
34:36 Do you even want it?
34:40 Do you even desire it?
34:42 Is there an intent to understand?
34:44 If in spite of all that has been said and heard, you are still not understanding, then
34:50 I have to question whether the preliminary condition has been fulfilled and before gyaan
34:57 there must be bhakti.
34:59 So then I ask them, do you have bhakti?
35:02 Do you have bhakti?
35:03 If you do not have bhakti, then gyaan will fail on you.
35:09 So if I am saying so much to you and yet you are not able to come to be united with it,
35:19 then it means chahate nahi ho.
35:21 There is no desire.
35:22 There is no love, which means bhakti is missing.
35:26 If bhakti is missing, gyaan will fail.
35:30 For my words to really transform into your inner understanding, first of all you must
35:39 have a deep desire to understand.
35:43 That deep desire to understand is itself bhakti.
35:47 All else that you see in the name of bhakti is nonsense, entertainment, people trying
35:52 to fool themselves and we have done that.
35:55 We have fooled ourselves no end and we have called ourselves bhakts and devotees.
36:01 Bhakti is a most secret thing.
36:04 It is more fundamental than even gyaan.
36:09 But bhakti is a thing of inner honesty.
36:12 You have to acknowledge by yourself that you are suffering.
36:17 One characteristic of bhakt is that he acknowledges his suffering.
36:23 He very honestly, unabashedly admits, I am not alright.
36:32 The one who can admit I am not alright, but I want to be alright.
36:37 These two things have to be said at once.
36:39 I am not alright but I want to be alright.
36:43 That's the mark of bhakti.
36:45 I am not there but I want to be there.
36:48 I am separated but I want to be united.
36:52 That's the mark of devotion.
36:55 When that acknowledgement is there, when that admission is there, then knowledge can be
37:03 of benefit.
37:05 Only then a teacher can really mean something to you.
37:11 If you look at the Upanishads, they do not really begin with bhakti.
37:17 They begin straight away with gyaan.
37:20 How do they manage to begin straight away with gyaan?
37:27 Because the seeker already had bhakti.
37:29 The Upanishads rarely use the term 'prem'.
37:34 See there are more than 250 Upanishads.
37:36 I do not claim I have read every single one of them or that even if I have read all of
37:41 them, I remember every word of them.
37:42 But right now in my memory, I do not recall the Upanishads using the word 'prem' too
37:47 much.
37:50 At least the principal Upanishads don't.
37:54 How is it that the Upanishads have managed to bypass bhakti?
37:59 Because they have taken it for granted.
38:00 They are saying if this fellow has come to me, the seer is there, the rishi and the rishi
38:09 is saying if this fellow has come to me, obviously he already has devotion.
38:14 So there is no need to teach devotion to him or to kindle devotion in him.
38:19 He already has it, otherwise why would he come to me?
38:22 He can go to any other place of his desire.
38:25 Instead of going to places that fulfil his normal desires, he has come to this old man
38:30 in this god forsaken Janna Ganga, sitting here and all the insects might be biting him.
38:36 So surely already has devotion.
38:38 Therefore the Upanishads manage to bypass bhakti.
38:40 They say bhakti is already there.
38:42 Now let's move to gyaan.
38:47 But in case there are people who do not have the acknowledgement of their suffering, then
38:55 gyaan will go waste on them.
38:58 And then the teacher should not immediately begin with gyaan.
39:04 Then the teacher should first of all sensitize them to their suffering.
39:09 Are you getting it?
39:12 Because even if you shower a lot of gyaan, it will go waste.
39:18 So first of all tell them, "Son, you are in a bad shape.
39:22 Daughter, see how badly you suffer.
39:26 Please realize that.
39:28 The problem is when you make somebody realize that he or she is suffering, often that fellow
39:35 thinks that you are causing her or him to suffer.
39:40 No, you are not causing that person to suffer.
39:43 You are only exposing to him, revealing to him that he is already suffering.
39:50 So that is the tricky part and that is often a very difficult part.
39:54 To make someone realize, "I am not good.
39:57 I am not alright.
39:58 But I must be alright.
40:00 I am not alright and I must not give up.
40:04 Being alright is my birthright.
40:06 That's what I have come to this life for.
40:11 This alrightness, what do you call it in classical terms?
40:18 Liberation.
40:20 This alrightness, I have been born to be alright.
40:26 I am not alright, but I must be alright.
40:30 I must be alright.
40:31 That is called liberation.
40:32 But that acknowledgement must be there.
40:35 Often that acknowledgement is not there because we console ourselves with a lot of superficial
40:41 happiness.
40:42 We say, "I have money" or "I am young", "My body is disease free", "I am well educated",
40:47 "I have a nice job", "I have a nice family", "I have this and that".
40:51 So there is nothing missing in life.
40:53 Why should I go to someone and acknowledge that I am suffering?
40:57 The thing is suffering does not always come in the name of the word suffering.
41:02 Suffering comes by many other names.
41:05 Ambition is another name for suffering.
41:07 Now many people will cringe at this.
41:08 They will say, "No, ambition is the fuel for improvement and progress".
41:12 How are you calling ambition as suffering?
41:13 Please sir, pay attention.
41:15 If you look at where ambition, your ambition really comes from, you will realize it is
41:19 coming from your inner knowing sense of incompleteness.
41:24 Ambition is definitely suffering.
41:25 And progress does not necessarily have to come from ambition.
41:30 Progress can come from desireless exploration as well.
41:36 Progress does not really have to come from self-centered desirous action.
41:42 Great progress can come from desireless effort as well.
41:47 And suffering can come in the garb of many other names.
41:52 For example, the urge for security.
41:55 The fellow is a sucker for security.
41:57 All the time he is saying, "How do I make my future secure?"
42:00 You are suffering.
42:01 That's why you have such a deep urge for security.
42:04 But you will not acknowledge that.
42:07 So we all suffer.
42:08 It's just that suffering has taken on more respectable names in current times.
42:16 It therefore often has to be exposed that you are suffering.
42:19 It all begins from there.
42:21 It all begins with an acknowledgement that I am not alright.
42:25 If you are not alright, then you must be alright and you must have a love towards all rightness.
42:31 That is bhakti.
42:32 And if you have a love towards all rightness, then you want to see what is it that prevents
42:37 you from being alright.
42:39 That's gyan.
42:42 And once you have seen what prevents you from alright, can you continue to act in the same
42:46 old ways?
42:47 No.
42:48 Your actions totally change.
42:49 Your actions become ego-free and that's Nishkama Karma Yoga.
42:53 So these three are just one.
42:58 [Music]

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