Video Information: ShabdYoga Session, 16.7.17, Advait BodhSthal, Noida, Uttar Pradesh, India
Context:
~ Who is the man of God?
~ How to live godly?
~ What is godliness?
~ What is the meaning of oneness?
~ What is the meaning of forms changing?
Verily all things move within your being in constant half embrace,
the desired and the dreaded,
the repugnant and the cherished,
the pursued and that which you would escape.
~ Khalil Gibran
Music Credits: Milind Date
~~~~~~~~~~~~~ .
Context:
~ Who is the man of God?
~ How to live godly?
~ What is godliness?
~ What is the meaning of oneness?
~ What is the meaning of forms changing?
Verily all things move within your being in constant half embrace,
the desired and the dreaded,
the repugnant and the cherished,
the pursued and that which you would escape.
~ Khalil Gibran
Music Credits: Milind Date
~~~~~~~~~~~~~ .
Category
📚
LearningTranscript
00:00Kahlil Gibran says, Verily, all things move within your being in constant half-embrace.
00:22The desired and the dreaded, the repugnant and the cherished, the pursued and that which
00:28you would escape.
00:30What is full embrace?
00:32How is it different from half-embrace?
00:34If half-embrace creates a movement of thoughts, won't full embrace create an even greater
00:40restlessness?
00:42Man is caught in a very peculiar situation.
00:53Neither can he accept what he truly is, nor can he ever run away from what he truly is.
01:09He swings.
01:16He oscillates.
01:24When he wants to come to his essence, then that which is sub-essential or non-essential
01:45beckons him.
01:55He feels that the juice of living is being lost, all the sensory pleasures, all the colors
02:04of the world, the music, the attractions, the emotions, the meetings and the goodbyes,
02:22all the games of time, he feels they are being lost.
02:33And when he tries to move totally into thoughts, into emotions, into the world of senses, into
02:49that which is space, time and material, he soon starts feeling nauseatic, beyond a point
03:10he cannot take the world in anymore.
03:18He feels like throwing up, as if one has over-eaten a favorite dish.
03:46So man remains swinging, vacillating.
03:58That is what Kharil Gibran is calling a half-embrace.
04:10One belongs neither here nor there.
04:15To put it straight, one simply does not belong.
04:20One is homeless.
04:27Actually there is nothing called a half-embrace.
04:29A half-embrace means that you are embracing two at a time.
04:41You are divided into two halves.
04:44One half of you is embracing this, the other half of you is embracing that.
04:54And in trying to perform this antic, you have found that you have been split wide open.
05:04Now there is no firmness, no integrity, no oneness.
05:12It is as if your soul keeps changing.
05:20One has heard of forms changing, but man performs the impossible.
05:26His very soul keeps changing.
05:37You know what is the mistake that one makes here?
05:39The mistake that one makes here is putting the essential and the inessential on the same
05:52platform.
05:53When you put two things on the same platform, then you have given them comparable status.
06:06Then you have said that one is exclusive of the other.
06:10There is this thing and where this thing ends, the other starts.
06:14So both are mutually exclusive.
06:22And you cannot be blamed too much for this is what you have seen in the world of men and material.
06:28One thing can start only where the other thing ends.
06:35That is the tyranny of space.
06:38Two things cannot coexist at the same point in space, can they?
06:47That has been our experience.
06:50So we apply that experience even to the essential.
06:57We are applying that experience to something to which that experience is simply inapplicable.
07:13We are thinking that if we move into the world, into the material, into the mind, into
07:21the apparent, then the essential would be lost.
07:24If we get that thing, then this thing would be lost because the two are exclusive.
07:36And we suppose that if we move into this thing, then that thing would be lost.
07:48We are mistaken.
07:52One need not choose.
07:58You move into this or you move into that.
08:07Your free will, depending on your constitution, depending on your upbringing and conditioning,
08:15whatever suits you, move into that, but for your own sake belong, move fully into whatever
08:25you move into.
08:30If you move fully into God, what do you think?
08:33The world will forsake you?
08:37If you move fully into the world, what do you think?
08:40You can avoid God?
08:41You will find God right in the middle of the world.
08:56And if you move into God, you will find that all worlds are contained there.
09:07If you are a lover of God, you cannot be a world renouncer, it is impossible.
09:17And if you have moved into the world, you have moved into God.
09:22But only when there is a full embrace of this, that, whatever, not when there is a half embrace.
09:33A half embrace means you are homeless, a half embrace means neither here nor there.
09:45Trying to embrace both, you get none.
09:50And embracing one of them, you get both.
10:04But we are timid creatures, we are hesitant, shy, inhibited people.
10:18We simply don't have the urge, the fire, the fearlessness to give ourselves up to anything.
10:47We want to preserve a little, we want to save something back.
10:57Just as a middle-class family saves something for a rainy day.
11:05How can I put all the eggs in one basket?
11:10That's conventional wisdom, is it not?
11:12How can I belong fully to any one side?
11:15I must hedge my bets.
11:19So you hedge, you avoid risks.
11:29What if something goes bad on this side?
11:32Then I must have a fallback option.
11:38The moment you say, what if something goes bad on this side?
11:41You ensure that not something, but everything will go bad on that side.
11:46How can I belong fully to my business, to my work?
11:51Isn't it a sin to be consumed into the material?
12:02So let me remember God.
12:08So every few hours you ensure out of some kind of unfathomable guilt that you must interrupt
12:13your business and get into prayers.
12:19For you, business and prayers are exclusive and the same thing happens when you are praying.
12:32You cannot be prayerful for too long, even if by chance you happen to get deep into meditation,
12:44you will find that your business is calling you.
12:54Before you can reach the depths, you will be pulled out.
13:07I'll again say we are not to be blamed for, that is the kind of world we have seen.
13:20Those are the kind of examples we have seen.
13:26Whenever we have been told of saints, we have been told of saints
13:39and how forgetful they were of the world.
13:47We have been told of the saints and we have been told how forgetful they were of the world.
13:56Now that scares us and that sets an example in front of us.
14:02If sainthood germinates within you, you will miss the world.
14:15And whenever role models of beautiful and successful living in the world have been presented to you.
14:29They have been shown as target chasers, as material worshippers.
14:37Their heart has never really been exposed, talked off, two different and totally disconnected
14:51worlds have been created.
14:57One is the world of the heart, the other is the world of the mind and you have been given
15:02an impossible choice.
15:03You have been told if you belong here, you cannot go here, if you belong here, you cannot have this.
15:19One of the reasons out of the innumerable, why I love Kabir is because he was a worker.
15:33But nobody talks of that.
15:38Markets have always been competitive.
15:40Have they not been?
15:43If your product is substandard, would it sell in the market?
15:49And Kabir was weaving throughout the day and in the evening, he would go to that competitive
15:56market and manage to sell his stuff and get money and run his livelihood.
16:08Why doesn't anybody talk of that?
16:11Isn't it a matter of great worldly skill to produce literature of the finest quality and
16:19parallelly cloth of the finest quality, at least quality fine enough to sell.
16:36Why doesn't anybody talk of that?
16:40And people won't just buy from Kabir because he was Kabir.
16:48That cannot last for too long.
16:52That would be charity, donations.
16:57If Kabir were to survive on donations, why would he take the pains of, and you know what
17:05it means to weave, you must have a loom and the loom demands maintenance, management.
17:15And before you weave, you must get the yarn and yarn not of one kind.
17:24There are many colors, many thicknesses, many twists.
17:34Weaving is a specialized profession, it's a technical thing and Kabir was at it all
17:56the day and singing and composing, creativity of the highest order.
18:13But we delight in stories that talk of Kabir's poverty, we delight in stories that say that
18:21there was a day when Kabir couldn't manage enough to feed his guests.
18:27So he had to go and firstly beg and then steal.
18:33Why is it not possible that Kabir was already making enough?
18:37And I tell you, Kabir was actually making enough, otherwise he wouldn't have had the
18:42peace of mind to compose and sing and he was a prolific creator.
18:51If you look at Kabir's literature, it is almost endless.
18:58He was composing daily.
19:01If you are hard-pressed for your daily survival, then you cannot be such a natural, authentic
19:09and free-flowing composer.
19:19Did Kabir embrace one or did Kabir embrace both?
19:23Do you see what he is singing of, Chadariya jeeni re jeeni?
19:31I am seeing that fine cloth in front of him and he is looking at it and he is looking
19:41at the chadar, he is looking at the cloth and what is he seeing?
19:49What is he seeing?
19:53He is seeing the human form, he is seeing the human mind and he is singing of it.
19:59Kabir makes liberal, prolific use of all that which is associated with his profession.
20:17Everything related to spinning, weaving, selling, wearing became a symbol of God for Kabir.
20:33Such was his immersion into his profession.
20:44The profession is not important, the immersion is important.
20:50That immersion saga is the full embrace.
20:54Are you immersed?
20:58Are you immersed?
21:10We need a new kind of literature.
21:13We need more research.
21:19If Jesus was a shepherd, if he was tending to cattle, I would like to know what kind
21:26of shepherd he was.
21:29About Krishna we know that he was a top-rated cowherd.
21:37Was he not?
21:41He was such a master of his trade that he only had to indicate and all the cows would
21:48keep running to him.
21:51Now is this only about spirituality?
21:54I also take it as excellence in one's profession.
21:58If your profession is to take care of cows, then see how deft is our Lord in taking care
22:07of the cows.
22:11Even through music he is able to attract the cows.
22:18And he was sent to the fields and to the jungle right in the morning with the cows.
22:25You take these cows, they will graze and what will you do?
22:29You look after them.
22:32He need not look after them.
22:39Such is his expertise.
22:41He sits under a tree and he is playing the flute and the cows are grazing wherever they
22:49are and the entire day he has such subtle mastery that he doesn't even bother to look
22:59at the cows.
23:01In the evening when the sun is setting, he just calls the cows and all of them come.
23:14And never did it happen that Krishna took the cows out and even the smallest calf was lost.
23:29The numbers would tally exactly every morning and every evening.
23:34This is six sigma performance.
23:39Never a mistake.
23:49Why is nobody talking of it?
23:55Even Nanak, Guru Nanak was a good trader as well, but nobody talks of his proficiency
24:09in the worldly matters.
24:10He used to undertake very long journeys, one direction at a time.
24:20One year he would move to the south, one year he would move to the east, once to the
24:25west, once to the north.
24:31In those days, it was not easy undertaking such long journeys from Punjab to Arab, from
24:41Punjab to Assam, from Punjab to the deep south.
24:50And when he would return to his village, he would again take care of his fields, of the
24:59accounts, of the business, of the money, he would settle everything, rest for a while.
25:08One or two would want some rest and then he would again undertake a journey.
25:16Isn't this worldly proficiency of the highest order?
25:21Is it or is it not?
25:27And what to talk of Krishna?
25:31Even if we did not or had not obtained the Gita from him, still his mastery in state
25:45craft is something to be cherished, even emulated.
25:56A master politician, he knows the pulse of the world.
26:06He knows how to tackle Duryodhana, he knows how to tackle Bhishma, he knows how to tackle
26:11even Shakuni and of course he knows how to tackle all the women.
26:20Can there be a greater proof of one's worldliness?
26:23The man is handling hundreds and thousands of women at a time.
26:28You cannot handle even one.
26:38But all you talk of is the Bhagavad Gita and you talk of the different worlds that the
26:43Gita mentions.
26:48You do not see what a practical man Krishna really is and how successful he is as a mere
26:57mortal, as a living man of flesh and blood, as a prince, as a politician, as a lover,
27:05as a king.
27:07Here you don't look at his deftness, his expertise, his command and control.
27:19Do you see his excellent management and leadership skills?
27:24You don't want to look at that.
27:26You would rather believe that those were paranormal traits invested in him because he was an incarnation
27:40of the holy God himself.
27:46The Gita can come only from someone who understands the world and if you understand the world,
27:53you cannot keep failing in the world.
27:58If you are proven an idiot every morning, every evening, how will the Gita come from you?
28:04How will you even understand the Gita?
28:08Look at your life, if you are a joker, a clown, an idiot, a loser in this world, what business
28:17do you have touching the Gita?
28:24Do you see what is half embrace?
28:34You prove to be insufficient everywhere.
28:38You are a loser everywhere.
28:42In your relationships you are a loser.
28:45In the school you are a loser, in the college you are a loser, at your work station you
28:51are a loser, on the sports field you are a loser and you want to touch the Upanishads,
29:03the Upanishads that are coming from winners of the highest order.
29:08Is there any oneness between you and the text that you are trying to touch?
29:18Do you have anything in common with Krishna?
29:21How then will you understand the Gita?
29:33Krishna was the one who brought victory when defeat looked so probable and you are the
29:47one who will snatch defeat when victory is all yours.
29:57When it is a certain that you are now going to win, you will still manage to somehow be
30:03defeated and then you say, you know what, I am not very interested in the world.
30:20Krishna calls my heart.
30:23You are not interested in the world.
30:27You are marginalized in the world.
30:31You are the rubbish of the world and if we listen to Darwin, then you and your ilk won't
30:41survive for long because you are unfit.
31:00Even physically, have you noticed how fit, because we have come to this world, so I am
31:04taking it up, have you seen how fit most of them are?
31:21And most of us are groaning, complaining.
31:33Somebody has nose pain, somebody has head ache, somebody has heartache, somebody's back
31:43has been stolen, somebody's stomach is exploding with gas.
32:09Then look at them, that is full embrace and half embrace is no embrace.
32:27The man of God is a winner in the world as well, that is full embrace.
32:38If you are a loser in the world, you do not know God.
32:43God and the world are one.
32:47It's not just the world, it's God world.
32:53It's God world.
32:59Have you seen that every living being is excellent, the epitome in its particular field?
33:19Can you beat the song of a cuckoo or even a sparrow?
33:25Can you beat the flight of a vulture, an eagle?
33:37Do you see the agility with which fish swim?
33:41They are all experts in their respective fields.
33:45I am asking you, what is your expertise?
33:53When the ant is an expert, when it carries a load, then the load to body weight ratio
34:04is unmatched compared to its own body weight.
34:10The load that a little ant can carry is unmatched.
34:16What is your expertise?
34:23Is there anything that you are a master of?
34:30I am asking you, is there anything that you are a master of?
34:36How do you then manage to live?
34:50Even the smallest insect as a master in its own field, what are you proficient in?
35:07The Atma, the self, the heart, the God within you is the climax of perfection, is he not?
35:18Look at perfection, show me even excellence, where is excellence?
35:24If God is perfection, you must have at least excellence and if you have not even excellence,
35:33What is your proximity to God?
35:54All these people, they were not bumbling idiots in the world.
36:02They knew their trade.
36:06Do you know your trade?
36:32That is non-duality.
36:36Embrace one and you have embraced all, for there is only one, to see two is the first
36:45mistake from which you can never really recover.