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Video Information: 29.10.2020, Bhakti Sharma Talk, Greater Noida, U.P

Context:
~ How to get financial freedom?
~ What is meant by ultimate freedom?
~ Is there any final freedom or salvation?
~ Why methods of meditation are called bondage?
~ What is meditation?

Music Credits: Milind Date
~~~~~~~~~~~~~ .

Category

📚
Learning
Transcript
00:00Namaste, I am Bhakti Sharma, an open water swimmer from India, the youngest swimmer in
00:14the world and first swimmer from Asia to swim in four different oceans including eight different
00:20seas.
00:22My mother and I also hold the world record of being the first mother-daughter duo in
00:27the world to swim across the English Channel.
00:31The President of India has honoured me with Tenzing Norgay National Adventure Award for
00:36my accomplishments in the field of water adventure.
00:58Companionship in this journey, satsang or a community, it's very very difficult to find
01:07people who you can talk to about your experiences when you seek out on this journey.
01:16So it becomes a very lonely conquest.
01:19It is a lonely conquest because eventually it is a conquest of the self but I feel in
01:26the beginning that kind of community is very important or the more you continue, the more
01:37your friends actually also start becoming fewer because they don't understand the things
01:43that you are saying.
01:44So if you could talk a little bit about that.
01:47It's a lonely conquest and if you have to carry on the conquest then you have to conquer
01:53loneliness itself.
01:57It's not as if it's a lonely conquest.
02:00Loneliness is to be conquested.
02:04Because if the feeling of loneliness persists then it will drive you towards the company
02:13of undeserving people.
02:18And that is exactly opposite to the purpose of spirituality.
02:23When we say that the mind is polluted, corrupted, conditioned and that's why we need to be spiritual
02:30to come to the pure mind.
02:33It becomes pertinent to ask what corrupted the mind in the first place.
02:40The fundamental thing is of course the physical body that took birth.
02:44But then after that it is the companionship of others that corrupted us, is it not?
02:50It is the others, others meaning the entire world, the world is the other.
02:56It is the others who corrupted us.
02:59So the problem itself is the others, the others, the otherness that we are carrying within.
03:06That itself is the problem.
03:08Now if that otherness is the problem and to solve the problem we still depend on others.
03:19Then hardly solves the problem.
03:22In fact we are just then continuing the problem in another name.
03:28Therefore I think one has to be cautious when it comes to companionship in the spiritual journey.
03:39To begin with, yes, probably you require a mate or two because there would be new things,
03:47new experiences and one requires both affirmation and support.
03:56So maybe yes, you require a person or two around you.
04:01But you know what happens, as you move on, you slowly find that the very presence of
04:08a support group is the hindrance in the movement.
04:18So it goes on dropping.
04:21That however does not mean that one keeps on becoming more and more of a loner.
04:27What that means is that the compulsive need for companionship is no more.
04:32In fact, now you are more open to companionship because now your relationship with others
04:40is not need-based.
04:41When we say that we need someone around us, then it's a thing of need, right?
04:50I require him, the motive is selfish.
04:53When that selfish motive is no more, then you can freely and selflessly connect to the
05:00other and that allows you probably to connect with a vast number of people in a very very
05:07healthy way.
05:09So it's not as if the spiritual person becomes a loner.
05:12The spiritual person is an outrightly community person.
05:18Think of a Rishi who is teaching his students and also meeting people who come to visit
05:30him or think of a Buddha who has established an entire organization, the Sangh.
05:42Think of the number of people who are associated with the Sangh and the entire movement that
05:46is taking place, thousands of monks and those monks have all to be managed and they are
05:52all corresponding with Buddha and then there are the general people who are coming to meet
05:58him and seek guidance.
06:00So you are living in company and community all the time in a very very healthy way as
06:05a spiritual person, right?
06:10So while it is alright to probably have one or two good friends with whom you share these
06:16things, progressively since as the self changes, so does the need for company or community
06:27and so does the nature of relationships.
06:30When we say Vasudha have Kutumbakam and such things, ultimately that is not valid for the
06:42common worldly man.
06:45The common worldly man does not have the Vasudha as his Kutumb.
06:49Vasudha is the earth, Kutumb is the family.
06:52The common man has a very small and limited family.
06:55The entire Vasudha is Kutumb only for the spiritual person.
07:01His family is large, very large.
07:07It's a very common refrain against the spiritual pursuit that if you go the spiritual way then
07:17you will be left totally lonely.
07:23I believe that comes because like you said, as the self changes, the nature of relationships
07:29also change.
07:30So personally I felt that the love I experience when I am a little bit more aware is very
07:39different from the love that I experienced before that.
07:45The aware love does not need me to bind another in a relationship or to have expectations.
07:53It flows very freely and a lot of times it's very difficult to communicate that kind of
07:59love towards the other and even more difficult to make the other person understand why the
08:05confines of a normal relationship cannot encapsulate this love.
08:11I cannot give you a label of a friend, a boyfriend, a husband, a mother, a father because
08:18I am not feeling that towards you.
08:21The love is completely different.
08:24And you know, that's the dilemma, the burden or the pain that the spiritual person has
08:32to willingly bear because as you advance in your spiritual dimension, you will find
08:42that the ones you love, the ones you relate to, they have to be taken along.
08:52At least that would be the intention from your side.
08:55That might not be the intention from their side.
08:57You will want that because you now know that this journey is something really important,
09:04worthy.
09:05You want others too to undertake this journey.
09:09But as you will relate to them with this objective, you will meet a lot of resistance, a lot of
09:16misunderstanding, a lot of things will happen and those things have to be taken in a stride.
09:28So it's quite a colorful journey.
09:29It's not devoid of the entire spectrum, the entire rainbow, all the colors that relationships
09:37come with.
09:38So all those things are present to a spiritual person as well, but in a much more sublime
09:45form, in a much more life-giving form.
09:48Those things happen.
09:50It's a very naive kind of misperception that the life of the spiritual person is just pristine
10:02white, like a white sari or something.
10:08No colors, no blemishes.
10:11One experiences every single color that is available in the spectrum.
10:18In fact, the life of the common householder is probably about living in just two or three
10:25colors.
10:26The spiritual person actually lives in an unbelievable diversity of colors.
10:35The colors are much brighter.
10:43The colors are much brighter and several of those colors are abhorrent to the social person.
10:54So the social person really does not dare venture into those colors.
11:01Some of those colors are like divine gifts.
11:05They come only to those who really deserve them.
11:09Otherwise, it's very easy to live your life within a very narrow spectrum and then just
11:15pass away.
11:1660 years, 80 years is not too long a time.
11:19You can easily just while it away.
11:32My questions have started dropping.
11:36Good, fine.
11:38Nice conversation.
11:43And I wish you all the inner help that you might need in the way that is right for you.
12:01I recently read about your pursuits and some of your accomplishments.
12:11So, in fact, just yesterday, so felt good.
12:17And those pursuits are the things that led me towards the spiritual journey.
12:26They created so much dissatisfaction that I had to seek peace somewhere else.
12:35Wonderful.
12:36As a seeker, as a person, and as an Indian woman, I like, I admire the way you have taken
12:49and the distance you have covered.
12:53Good.
12:56Thank you so much.

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