Allow one bondage, and you allow a hundred || Acharya Prashant, on Bhagavad Gita (2020)

Acharya Prashant

‍♂️ Want to meet Acharya Prashant? Be a part of the Live Sessions: https://acharyaprashant.org/hi/enquir...  ⚡ Want Acharya Prashant’s regular updates? Join WhatsApp Channel: https://whatsapp.com/channel/0029Va6Z...   Want to read Acharya Prashant's Books? Get Free Delivery: https://acharyaprashant.org/en/books?...   Want to accelerate Acharya Prashant’s work? Contribute: https://acharyaprashant.org/en/contri...   Want to work with Acharya Prashant? Apply to the Foundation here: https://acharyaprashant.org/en/hiring...  ~~~~~~~~~~~~~   Video Information: Month of Awakening, 9.2.20, Rishikesh, Uttarakhand, India  Context:  कर्मेन्द्रियाणि संयम्य य आस्ते मनसा स्मरन्। इन्द्रियार्थान्विमूढात्मा मिथ्याचारः स उच्यते।। One, who after withdrawing the organs of action, sits mentally recollecting the objects of the senses, that one, of deluded mind, is called a hypocrite.Question: Shri Krishna is saying a man who abstained from the action yet keeps on thinking about the objects of the senses is a hypocrite.  ~ Shrimad Bhagwad Geeta, Chapter 3, Verse 6.  ~ How we get into bondage? ~ How to shun the desires? ~ How the ego get dissolved?  Music Credits: Milind Date   ~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Transcript

00:00Śrīmad Bhagavad Gītā, Chapter 3, Verse 6.

00:17One who, after withdrawing the organs of action, sits mentally recollecting the objects of

00:25the senses, that one of deluded mind, is called a hypocrite.

00:36The questioner says, Śrī Kṛṣṇa is saying that a man who abstains from action, yet keeps

00:48on thinking about the objects of the senses, is a hypocrite, whereas to me, the mental

01:01contemplation of the desired object is more pleasure-giving than actually enjoying that

01:09object via gross senses.

01:13If we then focus our desires only on one mental object or image, won't the desires for the

01:25world lessen considerably?

01:29Won't such an approach be beneficial in reducing attachment to the world?

01:39Once our mind is considerably or fully attached to that one mental object or image, will

01:45it not eventually lead to the dissolution of the ego and elimination of attachment for

01:53that one mental image as well?

01:56Isn't the goal of all spiritual actions the dissolution of ego?

02:01So is this particular approach or method valid or am I misguided?

02:10We are not probably quite clear about the constitution of this world and its various

02:23objects and the relationship between the world and any or all of its objects.

02:33First of all, let us understand the particular approach that the questioner is interested

02:42in.

02:43Now, Krishna is saying in this verse that a person who outwardly shuns objects and desires

03:01but inwardly keeps thinking and fascinating about them is indeed a hypocrite.

03:21But the questioner here is doubting this.

03:24He says, what if I focus all my attention on one particular image or object and in being

03:36concentrated on one image or object, I ignore the rest of the world, won't such an approach

03:45be useful?

03:48After all, I am indeed ignoring so much.

03:59Millions of objects are there and I am totally discarding all of them, not giving them any

04:09value or attention.

04:13My mind is fully concentrated on just one thing, object, image.

04:20I am totally invested in that one thing.

04:24He says, won't it lead to the dissolution of the ego?

04:29And he says, once the rest of the world has fallen away from my mind, won't that single

04:34thing that I was keenly attending to, to fall away on its own, won't this approach

04:44work?

04:45No, this approach won't work.

04:50Why won't it work?

04:52Let's understand.

04:58Take the example of a piece of sweet, some sweet meat.

05:15It could be a pastry, a piece of cake, laddu, anything.

05:28When you say that I am focusing exclusively on this piece of sweet and I am disregarding

05:42everything else, all my attention, even all my devotion is indeed on this piece of sweet.

05:57Alright, so you are giving a lot of value to that sweet and you are saying you are not

06:08giving value to anything else, right?

06:11Let's investigate.

06:13What does that sweet contain?

06:20That sweet contains some oil, let's say, as sweets do.

06:31So in giving value to that sweet, you will have to give value to oil.

06:35Now where does oil come from?

06:40Where does oil come from?

06:43Seeds and seeds come from plants.

06:45So in giving value to oil, you will have to give value to seeds and plants and then

06:53the soil that nourishes those plants and then the farmer who cultivates those plants and

07:03then the entire market, the whole economic system that helps the market, that helps the

07:11farmer draw the oil, package it, sell it and help it reach the sweet manufacturer.

07:30In valuing one thing, you do not see that you will have to value everything.

07:38Just keep extending this example and you will realize that if you are attached to one

07:44thing, that one thing will cause you to be invariably and helplessly attached to everything.

08:02Such an approach therefore is quite alluring and equally deceptive, misleading and useless.

08:26We find it quite fascinating.

08:29I am prepared to give up on everything else.

08:33Can I have just one thing please?

08:36And that's a usual tendency of the mind.

08:39When it is fascinated or obsessed with one thing, it is quite likely that for the sake

08:45of that one thing, it might feel prepared to give up everything else.

08:52That does not indicate any kind of dispassion or detachment.

09:03That only indicates fierce attachment towards one thing and mind you that one thing contains

09:13the entire universe within itself.

09:19Show me any one thing under the sky that is independent of everything else.

09:26Show me.

09:29That's why I said that we need to better understand the relationship between the world,

09:36which is an aggregate concept and its infinite and various constituents.

09:47Every grain of sand contains within it the entire universe.

09:58And this is not merely rhetorical or poetic.

10:08This is a scientific actuality.

10:15There is nothing in the universe that does not contain the entire story of the universe.

10:25There is nothing here that is not dependent on everything else.

10:33So how can you be tied to one thing and yet remain free of all other things?

10:40Is it possible?

10:43Not possible at all, not possible.

10:49Give up everything else and get centered on a loaf of bread and see how your dependence

11:08on a mere piece of bread can lead to your dependence on the entire world.

11:18And that's how all dependencies arise, don't they?

11:22There is one keen desire that you have and that one keen desire will make you a servant

11:30of a thousand masters.

11:35And it's not that you had really set out to be enslaved to a thousand masters.

11:44All that you wanted was probably the fulfillment of a solitary desire.

11:50One single thing you wanted.

11:52I want this particular woman in my life, let's say.

11:56That kind of a desire.

11:57I want to keep her happy.

11:59Nothing else matters to me.

12:00I have nobody else.

12:02I have only this one woman in my life, I want to keep her happy.

12:07Everything else has been dropped.

12:08Now there is just one object in your life, but to keep her happy, you'll find that you'll

12:15have to sell yourself to a hundred people at a hundred places on a daily basis.

12:28So kindly do not cultivate this fantastic idea.

12:34This will lead to a lot of problems.

12:39Similarly, an image.

12:42There is no image that is independent of all images.

12:49Every image contains within itself all possible images.

12:56Therefore those who say that they do not care for anything, all that they have is one

13:02divine image in their mind and they remain devoted to that image are just fooling themselves.

13:09If you are devoted to one image, then you are actually devoted to all forms and images

13:18because they are all dependent.

13:22All one and the same.

13:25Are you getting it?

13:30There is nothing called partial freedom.

13:36In other words, what you call as partial freedom is nothing but slavery.

13:44Partial freedom is either absolute or not at all.

13:50When you say, I am free of everything but this one thing, then you probably do not even

13:57know that you are just declaring your slavery.

14:06And we need to be careful because that's how we all get caught and snared.

14:13Nobody wants to be full of vices.

14:18Nobody wants to be chained at all possible places in his system, in his being.

14:27We are moderate people.

14:28We do not cultivate too many vices.

14:31We just keep a few vices hidden within ourselves, don't we?

14:38So we say, you see, 90% I am a good man, a pious man, 9 out of 10 times.

14:50I am a proper fellow, morally upright being.

14:55You know, just that one little thing I have, you know, that shows up in the dark corners

15:04of my being, that one little thing.

15:09And we feel that the nine things that are all right about us entitle us somehow to retain

15:24that one vice.

15:28Isn't that the common apology we offer to ourselves?

15:33You see, after all, nine out of the 10 times, I do the right thing.

15:38Nine out of 10 people I do not get attached to.

15:42So I must get some, you know, little reward, a teeny weeny kind of attachment.

15:48So having ignored 10 allurements, now I allow myself to fall to this 10th allurement.

15:59And I do that with some kind of a feeling of entitlement.

16:04See, I left so much, can't I take even this little thing?

16:14We tell ourselves, you know, a fellow should not be too harsh upon himself.

16:20So that one little thing we allow ourselves, and that one little thing leads to our utter

16:26ruin and total devastation.

16:29And we do not realize that.

16:30Then we complain against fate.

16:32Then we say, you see, I was such a good man.

16:36I did everything all right.

16:38And yet look at my life.

16:39It is full of all rubbish and sorrow.

16:43Why did this happen to me?

16:45Nine out of 10 times.

16:50I was just the right and proper man.

16:53Not doing anything disorderly.

16:58It's almost like saying, you know, nine out of 10 days, I take food.

17:06Just one odd day, the 10th day, I take some poison.

17:14Now, why should I fall ill?

17:17This is injustice.

17:21That nine days of proper diet entitle me to one day of poison, don't they?

17:28There has to be some equilibrium, some justice, some compensation, shouldn't there be?

17:37So only one day, only 10% of the time, I take some poison.

17:45Why do I suffer so much?

17:48This is the story of the common man.

17:53Just once a month, he takes poison.

17:57Most of his decisions are not horribly wrong.

18:05Just a few.

18:07But he doesn't even realize that those few decisions, as I said, lead to his total devastation.

18:23You have to be, I'm sorry to say, absolutely right.

18:35There is no allowance for derailment here.

18:44This is not a path in which you can somehow get away with deviations.

18:57It's a tightrope walk.

19:01If you are walking on a rope, how much deviation is permissible, tell me, how much?

19:10How much?

19:13But we allow ourselves, we say, you see, it's a tightrope walk.

19:18But for the last 50 meters, I have been walking with zero deviation, have I not?

19:30And today is Sunday.

19:32So I'll reward myself, having had zero deviations, tonight I will deviate just a little, you

19:42see.

19:43How much?

19:44Just a little.

19:45Five degrees.

19:46Five degrees.

19:47Just five degrees.

19:48Tonight.

19:49Only tonight, you know.

19:50Because the rest of the time, I am a proper fellow, you see.

19:57And then what happens?

20:03Humpty Dumpty had a great fall.

20:11And now Humpty Dumpty are very sore against life itself.

20:17You know, God is probably wicked.

20:23Life is designed to torture man.

20:29Life is not designed to torture man.

20:30You do not understand the nature of existence.

20:37There have been entire cults who advise their devotees to focus on only one image.

20:46They say you focus on this image and drop everything else.

20:50They do not understand this basic fact that every image contains within itself all possible

20:57images.

20:58Get attached to one thing and you get attached to everything.

21:04This method cannot work and this method never works.

21:09But there is more bad news.

21:12Though we fully well know that this method never works, yet we have some inspiring cases

21:20where people come up and say, you know, this method worked for me.

21:23And that misleads.

21:24That misleads hundreds and thousands of people.

21:27We fail to see, we do not have the insight to see that such advertisements are false.

21:39The fellow who is parading himself, displaying himself as an example of someone who achieved

21:47salvation by focusing on one particular image is not only deluded, he is actually deceptive.

22:00Let me simply say he is a fraudster.

22:04He fully well knows that he did not get anything following this approach.

22:09But instead of honestly accepting that he did not get anything, instead of honestly

22:15changing his own approach, he sets out to fool and mislead others as well.

22:30Are you getting it?

22:35You must have heard that little story.

22:43In fact, I have already narrated it half a dozen times in my sessions.

22:53The story of the little cat, the Rishi and the cat.

22:58No?

22:59Not heard it?

23:02I know the message.

23:04You have heard it, but you want me to come up again, right?

23:11So, there was this Rishi, this sage.

23:16And he would live alone somewhere in the woods and go about with his sadhana, his penance,

23:25whatsoever he was doing, simple lifestyle.

23:31There was some kind of a rudimentary hut he used to live in.

23:35He did not need much more than that.

23:38Contented fellow.

23:42Then one day a little kitten was found in his hut.

23:51And now the fellow is a sage.

23:53He looks at the kitten.

23:57And the kitten is small and weak, hungry.

24:03And he feels for the little thing, so he keeps it.

24:12But he is a sage, he has nothing to feed the kitten.

24:19So, from somewhere, somehow he arranges something and keeps the little thing alive.

24:28The next day, some fellow comes to meet him, maybe seek some spiritual guidance, something.

24:37And the sage had never before asked any visitor or devotee anything for himself.

24:49But today he has to ask.

24:51He says, you see, you have come here.

24:56Can you give me some milk?

24:59The visitor is surprised.

25:00He says, this fellow is not known for asking anything, but today he is asking for milk, alright.

25:05So, he says, fine, I will go back to the village and fetch some milk.

25:11But then that milk soon gets exhausted and he does not have a refrigerator, obviously.

25:17This is India, so temperatures can rise.

25:22A few other fellows come and he regularly starts asking for milk.

25:30The little kitten does not take anything else, it keeps asking for milk.

25:38Finally, the villagers come to know that, you know, there is a companion there.

25:46The sage has a secret.

25:52So, they come to the sage collectively and they say, Babaji, why are you taking so much trouble?

26:00You give this thing to us, we will take care of it.

26:04But by this time, the sage has developed attachment to the kitten.

26:11He says, no, you see, actually there is no need to take it away.

26:15I think it can stay here.

26:16Additionally, you see, it has got acclimatized to this hut and it's alright, I mean, okay, fine.

26:23The villagers understand, they say, Babaji does not want to give this thing up.

26:28They say, alright, we will give you a cow.

26:31You keep the cow so that you really don't have to ask visitors for milk.

26:35Babaji says, no, I don't need the cow, but okay, if you are, you know, insisting so much,

26:42you can bring the cow here and tie it to that tree.

26:47So, now, Babaji has two companions.

26:50The cow has come.

26:55Now, the cow, through its milk, takes care of the kitten.

27:01But now somebody has to take care of the cow.

27:07Babaji was asking only for milk till now.

27:11Now he has to ask for hay and fodder, food and fodder and, you know,

27:16maybe even some medicines and all the things that cows require.

27:24Probably a shed has to be raised so that the cow can be saved from heat and rain and such things.

27:31And it becomes quite a hassle.

27:34Even his daily routine starts getting disturbed.

27:41Now, no time for meditation, no time for contemplation.

27:46Babaji doesn't read these days. What is happening?

27:50What is happening?

27:52So much of his time is going towards just maintaining the cow and then the kitten.

27:59And the kitten is mischievous as kittens are, so the kitten sometimes runs away.

28:05And till the time the kitten isn't seen again, Babaji remains worried.

28:16So, the villagers come again and say,

28:21Babaji, you have to spend so much time looking after the cow,

28:25cleaning the rubbish and, you know, arranging the food and such things.

28:32So, we are deploying this woman.

28:36She will come daily and do all the cleaning and the maintenance work.

28:41Babaji says, no, no, it's not quite needed.

28:44I mean, I can take care of everything.

28:46But if you insist so much, fine, she can come.

28:52Woman starts coming twice a day.

28:57Now, as things go, things go.

29:03The woman was to take care of the cow and the kitten.

29:05She also starts taking care of Babaji.

29:10And now Babaji has absolutely no time for anything.

29:14And the villagers, well, they are experienced people in worldly matters.

29:19Babaji is a beginner, a novice in these things.

29:24The villagers come to know of everything.

29:28So, they politely go to Babaji and say, Babaji, you better marry that woman now.

29:33Things have gone beyond the sanctioned boundaries.

29:42We will arrange a simple ceremony. You just marry her.

29:45You know, there is actually no need, but if you insist so much.

29:53So, now there is the wedding.

30:00There used to be an old disciple of Babaji.

30:05Babaji had sent him away and said, you go and you spread light wherever you go

30:10and you return to me only after five years.

30:15Once you have really proved your worth and taken my mission forward,

30:19then you can come back and give me the news.

30:22Now, this was some really sincere disciple.

30:25After five years, he comes back.

30:28When he comes back to the same old place in the jungle,

30:33he does not find the hut anywhere.

30:36Nobody finds a proper house.

30:40This is a proper house and three kids are fighting among themselves.

30:46The eldest one is beating the youngest one and the middle one is shouting at the top of her voice.

30:54And there is an entire cow shed in which there are 42 cows.

30:59And some half a dozen women are roaming here and there,

31:04gossiping, quarreling, doing what they usually do.

31:11And one clean shaven man is busy cooking food

31:24and he is addressing the women folk, well, food is ready.

31:32Now you can come and serve it to the kids.

31:37And then I am going out to take care of the fields.

31:41When I am returning from the fields, I will also bring some wood for tomorrow.

31:45These things are happening, the kid, the disciple is quite puzzled.

31:50So he goes to that man and he says, there used to be a Babaji here.

31:55Where is he?

31:59Babaji is all red faced now.

32:07He is in tears, moved and ashamed.

32:15He says, I am your Babaji.

32:19Disciple receives the shock of his life.

32:22Five years of world tour had not given him any such surprise as this day.

32:30He says, but what happened?

32:32He says, all I can say is just one thing.

32:40Don't keep a cat.

32:55One small kitten you keep as pet.

32:58And that can lead to an entire world of consequences.

33:05That's the advice.

33:08Don't keep a cat.

33:13Don't keep pets.

33:17One little thing will lead to everything.

33:25And this must be especially kept in mind by those

33:30who seek to disregard what Shri Krishna is saying in this particular verse.

33:37This exactly is what he is saying here.

33:57No part of this recording may be reproduced

33:59without Mooji Media Ltd.'s express consent.

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