Class Recording:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1UB6uY3mWN0
Class Notes:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1L7XT94pOhVL9S7CqGdupkGkhGSc-Gwiw61ZjcZ5z16M/edit?usp=sharing
Mantra: Yajur Veda 40.2
kurvanEhEva karmaaNi jijiivishEt shatam samaaH
By accepting and doing our duties, we should live here for long (100+ years).
Synopsis:
kurvanEhEva karmaaNi jijiivishEt shatam samaaH
samaaH= years
shatam samaaH = 100 years
jijiivisha = wish to live
jijiivishEt shatam samaaH = will to live for 100 years.
We should all will to live for long. This is positive living.
Is it just living? No. It is….
kurvanEhEva
iha = here
kurvan Eva = by doing / accepting our duties
By accepting and doing our duties, we should live here for long (100+ years).
What is the benefit of doing our duty?
Our whole focus is on performing and discharging our duties. What is the benefit? Don’t worry about it. Do your duty and the benefits are assured. The system created by sacchidaananda is such that if you do your duties, the benefits are ready for you. When you do wrong, the punishment are also ready.
Proof that this is the system is said in another Mantra
Another Mantra: kRutam mE dakshiNE hastE jayO mE savvya aahitaH
Do your duty with your right hand and stretch your left hand and you can see your results readily.
Why positively?
Results are assured whatever you do. So, do your duty positively.
Another Mantra: pattaaram pakvaH punaraavishaadi
pakvaH punaraavishaadi = food will will come in search of ..
pattaaram = one who cooks the pudding
When you do an action the result will come in search of you and make you eat it. So cook properly. I.e. do right action. Don’t worry about the result at all. Don’t worry about from, where, how. Etc.
We think this is one life. As far as the system is concerned this is one big chain. Please focus your resources on performing and discharging your duty. Don’t run away.
Don’t run away
Another Mantra: maa chittaa asmaan lOkaat
Don’t severe yourself from this world (do your duty)
What are my duties?
Animals live only through instincts.
nidraa aahaara bhaya and maituna.
Animals don’t have any duties. THey live mechanically.
Humans have these 4 instincts. In addition to it, the human being has the special capacity to think and analyze. Exercise it. Use it. Employ it. THen you are a human being.
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Duty: Use the thinking power?
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Don’t do things mechanically: We (human beings) are thinking animals. We can think, analyze, visualize, imagine. So do it. Don’t do anything without weighing the pros and cons of what you are thinking and doing. Do it with consciousness and awareness.
How to do this?
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Ask questions.
What is this? Why is this? Where is this? Etc. Find answers. Then proceed. Capacity to question and expanding knowledge is a special feature of human beings. Don’t be mechanical and follow others blindly. You think and ask questions and ask and then analyze and do.
Another Mantra: manurbhava = Be a human (think, analyze and do)
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Find Truth (Reality)
How do you say something is truth? Truth is always objective. It doesn’t depend on the opinion of an individual. My experience tells me something. Others will tell something. But all that is not truth. Truth has to be free form an individual’s experience, opinion and prejudice. Truth should also be that which holds good at all times, in all places and for all people. No discrimination whatsoever. That is truth.
Example: Sun gives light and heat. If I lock myself in a room and close all the windows and say there is no sun, is that truth? No. The problem is with me. The truth is beyond my experience. Say I am blind by birth and say there is no sun. Is that truth? No. My malfunctioning of my organs does not mean that truth has changed. Individual experience cannot change truth. Truth is that the sun is burning and causing a temperature of 32 degree celsius. We can’t even say it is too hot or too cold. That is not truth. My experience is hot/cold. Truth is that it is burning at 32 degrees.
This realization of truth is possible only by human being. That is our duty. Karma.
Yajna mode
To expand my knowledge, I have to observe and learn. To expand my horizon of knowledge, I always have to think if I can do something in a better way. I did something. Can I improvise it? This should be the approach to what I do.
This is being ina yajna mode. Doing things in the best way possible.
Generally Yajna means performing a fire sacrifice. That is also Yajna. But the real Yajna means doing things in the best way possible. I.e. do it better and better every day. Whatever you do.
2. Duty: Compassionate
Application of capacity to be human
This is called compassion. Only a human being can be compassion. No other creature can be compassionate. Only a human can think, analyze and be merciful.
Definition of compassion
I can be another person, imagine their condition and feel and understand what they are feeling. Understanding another’s feeling without being in their shoes is called compassion. Actually I am not in their position.
Common Proverb: The wearer knows where the shoe pinches.
But for a human being, even though he is not wearing the shoe, he can think, analyze, feel/understand the pain of another and the cause. This is compassion.
Animal = pashu
Pashu = pashyati iti pashu.
That which sees. Cannot do any more than that. Can only see/hear etc. Cannot perceive, understand, act based on it.
Another Mantra: Yajur 36.18
DrutE drimha ma
One who is capable of giving us progress, please give us that progress.
mitrasya chakshushA samIkshAmahe
Let us look at each other in a friendly manner (including animals)
(This is how you progress)
A person who is a real human being cannot be a meat eater. Meat eating comes only with violence. I will not butcher any creature to fill my belly.
Be a vegetarian. In fact today there are vegans who don’t even eat honey (because it is manufactured by animals.
Don’t be a burden on any creature. Don’t be a butcher to fill your belly. This is your duty.
Don’t kill for any purposes. Not for food. Not for fur. Not for honey. Etc. We have other humane alternatives. Gofor them.
If we continue to practice violence, we are unfit to be called human beings.
Example:
We are all like elder brothers to other creatures. What is the duty of elder brother? To take care of the younger (all animals). So do it. This is the product of compassion.
3. Duty: Live a balanced life
Eg: Maintaining my shariira indriya manas
I am bound in this physical body. I have to maintain my tool. I have to use it properly and for a long time.
Example: Being lazy and oversleeping is wrong. Being hyperactive is also wrong. We need a balance.
Example: Eating is good. But if I go on eating, my digestive system will collapse. If I starve, it will collapse my system. So find the balance between the two.
Bhagavad Gita: samatvam yOga ucchyatE
Live a balanced life
Example: Live as though you are riding a bicycle. Live a balanced life. Don’t tilt in either direction or you will fall down.
4. Duty: As a relative (brother, son, father, sister, etc.)
Every role is attached with certain responsibilities. Do them.
Three debts
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As a son, I am indebted to my parents. Those who have brought me up when I was in no position to fend for myself. Take care of them.
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As a student, I am indebted to my teachers who have given me knowledge. He has showered on me a lot of knowledge and experience. Shared all his studies and discoveries so I will be able to lead a better life. Spread the knowledge. My teacher has been a link to spread the knowledge from the previous generation to mine. Let me be a link to spread it to the future. So I clear my debt to my Acharya that way. Paying fees is NOT nearly enough to discharge my debt to a Guru.
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As a human, I am indebted to all the nature around me. I have been using the sun, trees, fruits, vegetables, air, water, etc. They don’t claim any fee for it. Nature doesn’t claim a benefit. Even though there is no one to ask, I am indebted. Protect the nature. Don’t pollute it.
How to remember duties?
upanaya samskaara = yajnyOpaviitam = sacred thread
The three strands remind us of the three ways in which we are indebted.
We are taught all this on the Brahmacharya Ashrama.
Getting knowledge, compassion, balanced way of doing things and clearing our indebtedness.
For doing all this, everyday is invaluable. If I get one more day, I can clear my debt a little more. If my days are short, I don’t have enough time to clear the debt. Every day is important for me. Every moment is important for me. I can’t waste any moment.
jijiivisha
jijiivishEt shatam samaaH
I will will to live for a 100 years (a long time). Why? So I can perform my duties. I look at my life and longevity as a responsibility to clear my debts. At no circumstance am I ready to lose a single day or moment. This is jijiivisha
Don’t imagine of dying early. So suicide is totally out of question.
Another Mantra: Atharva Veda 5.30.17:
Maa pura jarasO mRutaaH = Don’t be in a hurry to die.
Purpose of life is not to avoid death. But to live purposefully when you are alive.
However well you use the tool, it is going to get separated from you one day. But let the tool not get separated untimely. I.e. Let me not die untimely. This Mantra is a challenge for me to live as long as possible.
I shall live for 100 years. I shall listen to right things for 100 years. I shall do right action for 100 years. I have to will this wholeheartedly. THen it is possible for me to gain so many years. If I get fed up in the middle for any reason, I cannot live properly.
mumuursha = To wish to die. This is the opposite of jijiivisha
Don’t give up. Whatever be the condition, live with purpose. Live with the goal. Live in the right way. Then the life becomes purposeful, useful. Mere living is useless. We should wish for living and live well.
Human Life is an Opportunity
In this life I am a human being, i can do all this. Once I die, I may get a human life or any other life. If I get a non human life, I cannot do any of this. If I get another human life, great. But it is not assured. I have a human life now. It is an opportunity. Make the best use of it and help yourself. If I live my life like that,the probability of getting another human life is very high.
Mantra: Yajur Veda 40.2
na karma lipyatE narE
O Human! Don’t get detached (hooked) to any work (to anything) - Practice living like this.
Synopsis:
lipyatE = getting hooked / attached
Opposite of lipyatE is mukti (mOksha)
Our goal is not to get entangled in this cycle of birth and death. It is to get out. In that state of mOksha, we will experience only pure peace and bliss. This is the definition of mOksha. It is a state of peace and bliss.
Happiness is only for shariira indriya manas
Aananda = peace and bliss
mOksha
This is what we are all searching for. But we are no clear about it. If we are not clear about it, we will get entangled in this birth and death cycle.
We have to practice while in this human world. How? Perform your duties. Don’t expect anything. You will get what you deserve. Don’t get attached. Still be here. Still perform your duties.
How to be detached?
We have a lot of relationships in this world. My family. My house. My car. I am this. I am that. All this will end one day at one stroke. Whether I know it or not. Whether I like it or not. Whether I want it or not. When death comes, all that is mine is gone in one stroke. However strong the bind is, the binding will be cut in one stroke. This is the ultimate truth. It is not my wish. But it will happen.
Anyhow death is going to come. More and more I hook myself with mundane things, the separation (death) will be very painful. Because the bindings are too much.
If I am aware of this reality, I will be in it,but not be attached to it. So, separation will be easy. Until the day of separation I have to discharge my duties. Ok. But without attachment. This is the real stance that I have to take in this life.
My house. My kith and kin. Fine. For how long? Until the soul gets out of this body. Once it gets out of the body who are my kith and kin? No one. What is their relationship with my dead body? Nothing. It will decay. They will throw it out.
Another Mantra: ayasmayaan
I bind myself to this world by 100s of shackles of iron. When death comes everything will be cut in one stroke.
Bind yourself for sustenance and discharging your duties. But don’t be under the impression that it will last forever.
Example: Mahabharata Yakshaprashna
Pandava brothers will go to get water. The Yaksha will say, “answer my questions for before getting water”. They don’t listen and they die. Finally Dharma comes. The Yaksha asks questions.
One Question: What is the most peculiar thing in the world?
We have been seeing people around us dying day in and day out. But yet we behave as though we are eternal.
We see death everywhere. We forget that we are also in the queue. We indulge ourselves in such activities that appear to be eternal. Reality is not that. Reality is that one day it is all going to end. But don’t run away from your duties. Be here. Perform your duties. Don’t be attached.
padma patra iva ambhasi
Live like a drop of water on the leaf of a lotus. The drop of water is on the leaf but it won’t get stuck to it. It will easily drop off it. It is on the leaf. But not attached. Live like that.
Practice
Saying all this is easy. We will not be able to do it unless we practice it. Practice it in the little things. One by one. Then it will become our lifestyle.