Video Information: 09.09.2020, Shastra Kaumudi, Greater Noida, U.P.
Context:
What is the importance of knowledge?
Does Understanding come from knowledge?
Is faith more important than knowledge?
What is knowledge?
What is devotion?
Which path is better: Knowledge or devotion?
Music Credits: Milind Date
~~~~~~~~~~~~~ .
Context:
What is the importance of knowledge?
Does Understanding come from knowledge?
Is faith more important than knowledge?
What is knowledge?
What is devotion?
Which path is better: Knowledge or devotion?
Music Credits: Milind Date
~~~~~~~~~~~~~ .
Category
📚
LearningTranscript
00:00The best thing would have been a non-dual state in which no association holds any meaning.
00:27There exists nobody else to associate with, there is nobody else at all.
00:40And that state is blissful beyond all imaginations of the best of heavens.
00:57Even heaven is confined by the depiction and definition of what heaven means.
01:13Therefore, liberation is a place higher and better than heaven.
01:23Heaven has a depiction and definition and therefore, heaven has its boundaries.
01:32And where there are boundaries, there is sorrow.
01:36Liberation has neither depiction nor definition and liberation is freedom from all boundaries
01:46and therefore, all sorrow.
01:50Similarly, it is possible to be liberated even from hell but difficult.
01:58Therefore, this is a graded approach.
02:04Heaven and above heaven is and below heaven is hell.
02:12We live in hell.
02:16We are being told how to graduate to heaven and if you make good use of heaven, then you
02:27will be liberated even from heaven.
02:31What is heaven?
02:33The company of holiness is heaven.
02:42Company of holiness is be with someone who will not solve your problem but will demonstrate
02:57your problem to be false.
02:59That is heaven.
03:04Heaven is a place where you get no sympathies for being problemed.
03:13Hell is a place where your problemed self is ratified.
03:25Do not think of hell as a place where you would be cruelly dealt with.
03:37All the usual comic book depictions of hell are exactly that.
03:45A kid's fantasy or nightmare, immense cauldrons full of boiling oil and slaves being dealt
04:11with whiplashes, monsters out to suck your blood.
04:31That is what we think hell is.
04:33Hell is not that.
04:34Hell is a place where you get a lot of sympathy, consolation, condolence, commiseration.
05:02You are told that we agree that you are in a miserable state.
05:18Your neighbor comes to you, puts his hand on your shoulder and with a grave face tells
05:30you that you are indeed in deep trouble.
05:38That's hell.
05:41What has been done?
05:44Your belief in your problemed existence has been deepened.
05:57Your problem is not that you have problems.
06:03Your problem is that you think you are the one who can have problems.
06:10And these are two very different things, very different things.
06:30It is one thing to have problems.
06:33It is another thing to mistake your identity so much that you start imagining yourself
06:53as being problemed.
07:00In hell, your belief in your problemed identity is reinforced.
07:24Hell is full of people ready to offer you a shoulder to sob on.
07:41You go to someone and tell him, you know, I am so weak and I am a victim of circumstances.
07:58And I am ignorant and sick, luckless and weightless.
08:09And the other fellow would be very quick to not only accept what you are saying, but
08:22actually return to you, reflect back to you an exaggerated version of what you are saying.
08:40You tell him, I am feverish, I am 101, he will put his palm on your face and say, no,
09:01you have 103.
09:03That's hell.
09:07The fact is you have 98.4.
09:17Are you kidding me?
09:28Heaven is where your problems are not solved.
09:34Heaven is where your problems are dismissed.
09:43To solve a problem is to honor a problem.
10:04Heaven is a place where problems are not admitted.
10:28Hell is the place where you are not admitted if you don't have problems.
10:54Also, heaven is the company of people who will not pay attention to what you have because
11:10all that you have is problems.
11:15Heaven is the company of people who will pay attention to what you are because when you
11:22pay attention to what you are, then you have very little respect left for what you have.
11:32And the more attention you pay to what you have, the easier it becomes for you to turn
11:40oblivious to what you are.
11:45Hell focuses on what you have.
11:50Heaven reminds you of what you are.
11:55And once you clearly remember who you are, then you don't even need heaven.
12:03Then what you have is liberation.
12:11These are three ways of living.
12:17The most common way of living is, what do I have?
12:28Nine ninety of thousand people live constantly worrying and wondering, what do I have?
12:38How much do I have?
12:40How long will it last?
12:42How can I have more?
12:48Then some nine people may be, they bother to look at what they are.
12:59What is the quality of my mind, thought, consciousness, life?
13:06Quality that is not measured through possessions because all possessions are ultimately sources
13:13of problems.
13:14Either they are explicitly problems or they are problems waiting to manifest.
13:19They are lying late and dormant.
13:24I am not so much concerned about what I have.
13:30The more concern I pay to what I have, the more I am empowering my problems.
13:40I am rather much more concerned about what I am.
13:46And if you pay sufficient and honest attention to who you are, then you are liberated of
13:57even the need to ask who you are.
14:04That is the fruit of constantly inquiring and wondering about your fundamental existence.
14:19You could either worry about all the miscellaneous things, which most people do, or you could
14:30keep aside all the miscellaneous worries and focus your mind on this one question or
14:41concern or worry, which is, how am I doing?
14:45What is the quality of my existence?
14:52Who am I to be worrying so much?
15:10Needless to say, all the three are meaningful only with respect to one's mortal existence.
15:27Hell, heaven and liberation.
15:33None of these relate to any kind of afterlife or places that one reaches after death.
15:44Hell is a way of living.
15:50Heaven is another way of living.
15:56Liberation is royal life itself.
16:15You are not consigned to hell.
16:22You are not rewarded a heaven.
16:32Hell and heaven are both choices, your own sovereign choices.
16:43No angel, no record keeper, no God outside of you decides whether you would be in heaven
16:59or hell.
17:06Give up that excuse.
17:11You decide whether you want to be in heaven or hell.
17:27Heaven gives you one kind of happiness.
17:38Hell too offers you a particular kind of happiness.
17:47And what liberation gives you is the ultimate happiness.
18:00If it's not about foregoing happiness, unfortunately, the lowest kind of hellish happiness prevails
18:18and dominates so much that hellish happiness has become synonymous with happiness itself.
18:33There is a funny repercussion therefore.
18:39The repercussion is that those who are not in hell often start wondering whether they
18:49are happy at all.
18:54You might actually be blissful.
18:57That you can easily admit, yeah, I have a silent, gentle bliss about me.
19:08But if you are asked, are you happy?
19:12You will have a problem quickly and conclusively asserting yourself.
19:23Because happiness has been monopolized by the citizen of hell.
19:33Laughing, shrieking, yelling, loud, glitzy, blingy happiness.
19:49Are you getting it?
19:55So it's important to realize that when you rise from hell, you don't give up happiness.
20:06You just rise to a higher level of happiness.
20:10Similarly, liberation is not liberation from happiness really.
20:18Liberation is the ultimate level of happiness.
20:21Why am I talking about this?
20:26I am talking about this because if you are not convinced that you are graduating to a
20:33higher level of happiness, then heaven can feel like a place with no happiness.
20:48Because heaven does not have happiness of the kind that is found in hell.
20:54And if your very definition of happiness gets dictated by the citizens of hell, if
21:10you start buying into and believing in the definitions they create, then hell will become
21:20very attractive and heaven will look very dull to you.
21:28And that will pose a danger.
21:31Even if you are offered hell, even if you gain admission to hell, even if you wisely
21:38choose heaven, even if you do gain admission to heaven, you will have an unfortunate inclination
21:59to slip back to hell.
22:03Why?
22:05Because heaven will appear quite an unhappy place.
22:18Therefore, the one who graduates to heaven, the one who elevates himself to liberation
22:38must be very clear that he is not forsaking happiness, he is reclaiming happiness.
22:51And reclaiming happiness is very very important.
22:54You cannot allow happiness to be monopolized by the inhabitants of hell.
23:08The ones who are in heaven, they are the ones who really really deserve to be happy.
23:17The ones who are liberated must be infinitely happy.
23:31But you see what we have done.
23:35We have abandoned the word happy to be used by the worldly folk and for the liberated
23:49state we have felt obligated to coin another word, bliss or joy.
24:06What are you saying?
24:07You are saying, we have bliss, we have joy and what the hell, who has happiness?
24:19Exactly that, hell.
24:23You have bliss, you have joy, who has happiness?
24:30Hell has happiness.
24:32Indirectly you have declared that you are not happy.
24:37Indirectly you have declared that you have joy and bliss and all that but you don't have.
24:47It's a very Puritan way of putting things but it is also harmful.
24:55It is not harmful when you are already liberated.
24:59But when you are in hell, it's a very very harmful way of putting things, you have to
25:06understand this.
25:10You are in hell.
25:13So what does your ego really crave for?
25:19Happiness.
25:22Your ego wants happiness and you are telling the ego, happiness is found in hell.
25:29In liberation you can have bliss.
25:31The ego says, who wants bliss?
25:33I want happiness.
25:35So I will very happily stay put in hell and that's what happens.
25:42That's what happens.
25:46In the hell state of its existence, the ego has very little respect for bliss or Anand.
25:56All that it cares for is Sukh or happiness and you are telling the ego that you cannot
26:02have happiness if you graduate beyond hell.
26:06So the ego refuses to graduate beyond hell, the ego says, I will stay here, I am happy
26:12because this is where, this is the only place rather where you find happiness.
26:17So I will not go to heaven or liberation.
26:25You have to tell yourself that which is found in hell is the lowest and the most polluted,
26:35the most diluted, most corrupted kind of happiness.
26:39It is no happiness at all.
26:42I really want to be happy, therefore I am giving up this place, therefore I am venturing
26:49out, therefore I am rising high.
26:52Are you getting it?
26:58So those on the spiritual path must take special care to be happy.
27:08As we said, the spiritual seeker must reclaim happiness, otherwise you are letting happiness
27:16go to the dogs, literally.
27:22You are allowing such people to monopolize and misuse the word happy as have no right
27:32to be happy.
27:33Do they have a right to be happy?
27:36No, but they are the ones who are always found happy.
27:39Heaven is a very happy, hell is a very happy place.
27:43See I need to correct myself.
27:48Heaven should be a happy place, instead all the happy ones are found in, all hours in
27:56hell are happy hours and heaven is such a dry place.
28:04Why have we allowed that?
28:07Why have we allowed that?
28:10All the people who are laughing, giggling, they are all found in hell.
28:18Somebody said all the interesting people are found in hell.
28:20No, they are not interesting people, they are sick people.
28:28It's just that the very definition of the word interesting has become distorted to their advantage.
28:38People in hell are as interesting as a stinking pile of trash is.
28:47It is indeed interesting, to whom?
28:50To crows, to dogs, to various kinds of bacteria and such things.
28:55They find it very interesting.
28:59Are you a crow to accept that definition?
29:03Why must you accept that definition?
29:05Therefore, it is important to reclaim these words interesting, happy, smart.
29:13Why must you call all the nonsensical beefcakes as smart?
29:21I have never heard somebody calling a Buddha or a Mahavira as smart.
29:29Why not?
29:33Why have you abandoned all the interesting words to the creatures of hell?
29:47Why?
29:53By doing that, you have raised trouble for yourself.
30:02We have come to a point where if you find a spiritual person really pleased and radiant
30:14and actually happy, then you start doubting whether he is really spiritual.
30:23Because the only ones who have a right to be happy are the people of hell.
30:32You say you are spiritual, how are you happy?
30:34You are not supposed to be happy.
30:36Then what am I supposed to be?
30:39You are supposed to be gloomy, dull, de facto dead.
30:45You are supposed to be a corpse somehow in motion.
30:52Not supposed to dance, you are not supposed to sing.
30:57You are supposed to be just regretting the fact that you are breathing.
31:05You are supposed to be wishing that you dropped dead this moment or next.
31:11Then you are a spiritual person.
31:14All the merrymaking is reserved for the inhabitants of hell.
31:21No wonder that place is jam-packed.
31:26If all the merrymaking is supposed to happen in hell, where would you find most of the
31:33people?
31:35In hell.
31:36And that's what we have done.
31:38All that which makes life worth living has been allotted to hell.
31:46Now how is it surprising that everybody is attracted to hell?
31:55If you are a lover of truth, if you are in the spiritual pursuit, then it becomes a double
32:11responsibility upon you to remain highly happy.
32:20And when I say highly happy, I do not mean the degree of happiness.
32:30I am not referring to the degree of happiness.
32:34I am referring to the quality of happiness.
32:37Do you get the difference?
32:39I am saying you have to be highly happy.
32:42That does not mean that you have to raise the decibels doubly as you guff out.
32:59Highly happy means your happiness has to be of a high order.
33:05It is your responsibility.
33:08Do not starve yourself of happiness.
33:12If you are giving up on lower happiness, make sure that you provide yourself with higher
33:20happiness.
33:21That's your privilege.
33:25More than privilege, that's your dharma, that's your responsibility.
33:29It would sound strange to you.
33:31Is it my dharma to be really happy?
33:33Yes, it is your dharma to be really happy.
33:37Because if you are not really happy, then you will seek happiness.
33:40And if you will seek happiness, sooner than later you will find yourself in hell.
33:45The only way to avoid hell-like happiness is to create heaven-like happiness for yourself.
33:58If you are living in a heaven devoid of happiness, then that heaven will not be able to hold
34:07you for long.
34:10Your patience will run thin and you will find yourself attracted to hell.
34:17Because all of a sudden, hell offers happiness.
34:28Getting it?
34:37Elevating life is one thing.
34:46Giving up on life is a totally different thing.
34:57Choosing the right road compared to the wrong road is one thing.
35:05And not travelling at all is a totally different thing.
35:15The resident of hell who claims that he is happy, he will be terribly afraid of facing
35:26someone who is really happy.
35:31That's his nightmare.
35:36So he is always cautious.
35:39He will not want to come across a really happy person.
35:45Therefore, he will be very choosy, very selective due to fear in terms of the ones he speaks
35:59to, the ones he chooses to make claims in front of.
36:10You are saying there are so many residents of hell who go about bragging that they are
36:16happy and satisfied.
36:18They cannot make these claims in front of everybody.
36:22They make these claims in front of only those who would not dispute or disprove these claims.
36:34Are you getting it?
36:37So if they are able to successfully make these claims in front of you, then it merely means
36:47that right now you are not in a place where your very being or presence or voice reflects
37:00back to them their miserable state of existence.
37:08They think that you are a soiled mirror.
37:15Standing in front of a soiled mirror, you can deceive yourself, can you not?
37:25Once they know that you reflect honestly and accurately, they will be very afraid of making
37:37dishonest claims in front of you.
37:43The fact that they avoid reality, the fact that they avoid truth and spirituality itself
37:53demonstrates that they are afraid, are they not?
37:58If you say that you are indeed happy and satisfied, would you be reluctant to test the depth of
38:09your satisfaction, the depth of your life?
38:12No.
38:13But you would see that these people are very very reluctant.
38:16They are reluctant because they know that they will be exposed.
38:20Getting it?
38:24So it's not as if it's a tremendously difficult problem that some people are putting up an act.
38:33Those who are putting up an act are more conscious of the act, the deception than anybody else.
38:45It's just that if you are still not very evolved, then they are able to pull a fast one and
39:04fool you or so they think.
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