Meditate Better | Swami Sarvapriyananda

Om Asato Ma Sadgamaya; Tamaso Ma Jyotirgamaya; Mrityur Ma Amritam Gamaya! Om Shanti, Shanti, Shantihi! Om, Lead us from the unreal to the real; Lead us from darkness unto light; Lead us from death to immortality! Om Peace, Peace, Peace! Whenever we have spiritual gatherings like this, especially in India, after a spiritual retreat there is always a question answer session. And in the question answer session, there will always be one question which will be most common. And that is, I can't meditate, my mind doesn't settle down, my mind is distracted. So that question will always be there,

in every Q&A session on spiritual matters. And that is the Subject for today's talk, Meditate Better. It actually comes out of something that Arjuna asks Krishna in the Bhagavad Gita. In the sixth chapter of the Bhagavad Gita, Arjuna asks this very question to Krishna. The sixth chapter of the Bhagavad Gita is about meditation, Dhyana Yoga, the yoga of meditation. And after Krishna teaches this, in pretty good detail, actually. Arjuna pops this question. He says that whatever you have taught, O Krishna, I don't think it's practical. He's a practical man. He's a warrior. And he's about

to be engaged in some very nasty business of war. And philosophy, no matter how subtle, spiritual sentiments, no matter how noble, techniques, no Matter how sophisticated, unless they work. Unless they give Results; he's very American that way, very pragmatic. He is not all that interested. He says that, O Krishna, this yoga that you have taught me, I don't see it working. Because the mind is fickle, the mind is subject to continuous change, ups and downs. So, he asks this question, how do you settle the mind down? Otherwise, whatever you're teaching is not practical. By the

way, what did he teach? The word yoga, just a little side note here, in America and most of the Western world, and now in India also, Yogaa. There is no such word in Sanskrit or in any Indian language. There is no yogaa. It is, the original Sanskrit word is yogaha. And you Don't have to go that far. People will look at you weirdly if you say yogaha. But the correct pronunciation would be would be Yoga - a, not aa. In Hindi you would say Yog, in Bengali Yog, but never Yoga. So, what is this Yoga

which, the spiritual path, Yoga is a spiritual path. What exactly did Krishna teach Arjuna? Before we dive into the subject, it's good to get some perspective of what Krishna was teaching. And this is of course, I am speaking entirely from the perspective of Advaita Vedanta, non-dual Vedanta. Krishna was not teaching the Yoga of devotion to Arjuna. You see, these schools, meditation, devotion, of action, the schools Of, the ancient schools of Nyaya, Vaisheshika, Sankhya, Yoga, Purva Mimamsa. These are not Vedanta, these are not Advaita. In fact, these are what are called Purva Paksha for Advaita. A

lot of effort is spent by the Advaita masters in cutting down the conclusions of these schools. The Nyaya school, it teaches devotion and surrender to God. That is not Advaita. Somebody trained in Indian philosophy might object at this point and say, where do you get that from the ancient school of Nyaya? We know the metaphysics and logic of Nyaya. Well, it is a devotional school because if you see the later dualistic Vedanta schools, Dvaita Vedanta, Shuddha Advaita Vedanta and others, which are devotional. If you open Up the box and see how the workings inside, the

machinery inside, the metaphysics and logic, they are all entirely borrowed from Nyaya. See the dualistic schools, theistic schools are basically the metaphysics and logic of Nyaya, Vaisheshika, with an overlay of theism, of devotion. So the Nyaya Vaisheshika school which says God exists and ultimately by surrender to God, by devotion to God, you will attain freedom. Not Advaita. We do not agree. The ancient school of Yoga, by which I mean Patanjali Yoga, it says that by the restraint of the modifications of the mind. Hold the mind back. Tie down the mind. So, by the calmness of

the mind, Absolute cessation of the movements of the mind, the separation of the self from material nature, you will see that. In Asamprajnata Samadhi, the deepest possible Samadhi. What's wrong with that? Not Advaita Vedanta. No. Brahmasutras, Shankaracharya clearly explains. Etena Yoga Pratyuktaha. By these arguments are set aside. The ancient school of Yoga taught by Patanjali. Don't be disturbed by all this I am saying. I am going to take it all back very soon. But right now, let's see. Even Sankhya, the ancient school of Sankhya, which seems closest to Advaita Vedanta, what does it say? This

vast world which you see, the material world, the mass of Change, it's an object. And you are the witness thereof. You are pure consciousness, without limit. And you are unchanging. And this entire world is a material world, an object and apart from you. Consciousness and matter are different. Purusha and Prakriti are different. This distinction, this discernment is the key to your liberation. Self-not self. I often talk about Drg Drishya Viveka, the discernment, the separation of the seer from the seen. You will say, yeah that seems like Advaita Vedanta. No. It isn't. Advaita Vedanta, in fact,

they spend more time in cutting down the school of Sankhya rather than any other school. Because in some sense, it is the closest to Advaita. It's not Sankhya. It is not Purva mimamsa. Advaita Vedanta is entirely based on the Vedas, on the Upanishadic portion of the Vedas. And yet the previous portion of the Vedas, the ritualistic portion. Where you perform good actions in this world and devout actions and by the merit gained by these actions, we hope to gain a good life in this world and in the next world and in the next birth. Purva

mimamsa, the way of sacred action. Not Advaita. None of these are Advaita. These are what constitute the Purva Paksha. The opponent, those schools which are different from Advaita in their ultimate conclusions. And Advaita Vedanta sets them aside firmly. Then what is it? What is the Yoga taught by Krishna To Arjuna? What does it say then? What is Advaita? Just before the question asked by Arjuna, Krishna had taught the climax of this path he is teaching Arjuna. And he says, sarva bhutas tamatmanam sarva bhutani chaatmani eekshate yogayuktaatma sarvatra samadarshanah. You see the Self in all beings.

Everything in the world, you see Yourself. And all things in this world, the entire universe you see in Yourself. You in everything else and everything else in you. And the one who is centered in Yoga, the one who is established in Yoga sees this same radiant divinity everywhere. Sarvatra samadarshanah. Not as a sentiment, that everything is God. No. Sees. Eekshate. Sees. Sees with the Eye of wisdom. Not with these eyes. These eyes reveal difference. You are all different from me. Different from each other. You are all sentient beings and sitting on the chair which is

different from you. Sentient, insentient. And there are millions of entities around the world. The differences are revealed by these eyes. The eye of wisdom. The eye of non-dual wisdom reveals one radiant divinity, as a matter of, I can say, roughly experience. This is deeper than experience. And Sri Ramakrishna said to the young Naren, Vivekananda, you know who came to him, Do you see God? And he says, yes, as I see you. Only more clearly. What is that only more clear? Does Sri Ramakrishna need glasses? No. By the eye of wisdom you see something deeper. Which

makes all experience possible. Consciousness. It is more evident than anything revealed by consciousness. If that makes sense. You are that awareness which makes possible the entire experience of what you call life. And that awareness, that being, that presence by which everything is possible, that is more evident, more direct let us say, than everything else. That's what I mean. So, you see that same radiance, same divinity everywhere. This oneness of existence. Vivekananda called it the divinity within and the oneness of all existence. This is the Teaching. This is the yoga. This is Advaita Vedanta, which Krishna

is teaching Arjuna. This is the core message. Not the restraint of the mind. Not that there is a separate divinity which has to be worshipped and appeased and loved and surrendered to. Not that you have to engage in ceaseless actions to generate good karma and go from life to life and birth to birth and death to death. No. Not even the separation of the witness consciousness from the external world. Not even that. Not Nyaya, Vaisheshika, not Sankhya, not Yoga, not Purva Mimamsa, but Advaita Vedanta. This is the yoga which Krishna teaches Arjuna. Now let me

take it all back, whatever I've said just now. Because all this can Be shocking and disturbing. Swami, this is all that we are trying to do in our lives and you're saying this is not the teaching of Vedanta, that's what we have been trying to do for so many years. All of it is there. You see, if it's not the teaching of Krishna to Arjuna, but clearly in the Bhagavad Gita, Krishna teaches devotion, Krishna teaches meditation, Krishna teaches the discernment of the self and the not-self. Atma-anatma-viveka, all of that is taught. Krishna teaches a moral

and ethical life above all. All of those are helpful, are indeed essential as the foundation for the Advaitic insight of the one divinity everywhere. These are the components in a grand Structure built up by Krishna pointing to the divinity. That one radiant divinity everywhere, the oneness of all existence. Without these, that insight is not possible. These are preparatory, these are preliminary, these are foundational. One must have an ethical life without that Enlightenment, spirituality is not possible, without morality. One must have meditation. Without the calmness of mind, this will not work. One must, of course, discern

the witness consciousness from everything else. Unless you disentangle, we disentangle consciousness in our own understanding from all that it is mixed up with. Unless we do that, nothing else will work. That one divinity Everywhere will remain like a slogan, will remain rhetoric, will remain a nice sentiment. So, all of it. Karma, Bhakti, Yoga; by yoga I mean meditation. Raja Yoga. All the yogas are all part of the path shown by Krishna. They are all components of the structure, the technology being built up by Krishna. But the teaching is to see the same divinity everywhere. In

all beings. Living and non-living. That which is within, is also outside. That which you discover with eyes Closed, in the deepest meditation, is also what you see, exactly what you see, with eyes open and engaged with the world. That which you see in the waking world, here, the same reality which shines forth in your world of dreams; the same Reality which shines forth but unmanifest in the world of deep sleep. In the physical, in the subtle, in the causal, all are appearances of the same underlying reality. Vivekananda put it very well. He said, one only

exists. It appears as nature and soul. Nature means universe. Soul, you. But it's one. Underlying, there's one underlying reality. Meister Eckart's beautiful, not Eckart Tolle. Meister Eckart. 500 years ago. His wonderful statement. The ground of my soul and the ground of God are the same ground. It's the same meaning as that thou art, tat tvam asi. So that is the yoga that is being taught by Krishna. Arjuna, at this point would have given a dry smile and would have said, Thank you for the philosophy lecture but I'm still not convinced. It doesn't work. That's my

object, my objection. It's all wonderful, as wonderful sentiment, the oneness of all existence. It is wonderful philosophy. Fine. It doesn't work. Why not? He says, chanchalatva sthithi sthiram. Because of the wavering, the fickle, the restless nature of the mind. My problem is not with your philosophy. Let it be devotion, let it be non-duality, let it be Sankhya, whatever it is. Duality, non-duality, devotion, knowledge. But the mind is the problem. Arjuna is very practical. He narrows it down to the problematic component in this whole scheme. The mind is the problem. What is the problem with The

mind? Listen, Arjuna has understood this whole teaching. Because he uses the key word, Krishna, this yoga you have taught. Samyena Madhusudana. O Krishna, O Madhusudana. The yoga you have taught as Samyena. The one, same vision of divinity everywhere. So, he has understood what is being taught here. He did not say, O Krishna, the meditation you taught as being the calmness of the mind or the cessation of the modifications of the mind like Patanjali said. He didn't say that. He didn't say, O the yoga you have taught as devotion to you, the Supreme Lord. No, he

didn't say that. He says the vision of oneness everywhere which you are teaching. Great. But doesn't work. Why? The mind is fickle. So, he points to the core problem here. Why is the mind fickle? What is the problem with the mind? Could you explain a little further? And Arjuna does that in the next verse. Chanchalam hi manah Krishna, pramathi balavad dridham etasyaham nigraham manye vayorivasudushkaram. What does that mean? The mind is fickle, restless, O Krishna. Turbulent and strong and set in its ways. Trying to control the mind is like as difficult as trying to control

the wind. Notice what he has said. Each of these terms he uses has a certain meaning. He is describing the problem. One is it's fickle. Thoughts, feelings, emotions, perceptions, a continuous flow going through the mind. What we call stream of consciousness. In Vedanta, you will immediately object and say consciousness is not a stream. The mind is a stream. Consciousness is the underlying reality, the witness of that. But, it is understood, continuous modifications running through the mind. One after another, after another. The mind is like this restless monkey. It's been compared to a monkey which is

restless by nature. Then somebody has made it drink wine. And then a scorpion has stung it. So imagine how the monkey is jumping around from everywhere. Exactly like the mind. Restless. But restless in itself need not be such a problem. You know, I will give you a nice example. Suppose you visit somebody's house in New York, in the little Apartments everybody has a dog. And it might be a cute dog. Running around restless, shooting around here and there. And your host says, I am sorry the dog is so restless. You say, no it's cute. I

like watching it play. Let it run around. Let it play. It is it's nature. And it's fun to watch. But if it's restless, maybe fun, maybe cute. But then your host tells you, That's not the only problem. It's turbulent. Turbulent means, problematic. It chews the socks and the slippers. And it knocks over furniture. And it smashes cups and plates and glasses. So it's turbulent. Pramathi. It's not so easy. It's not as cute as it looks. Well, why don't you restrain it? Or maybe you can't restrain it. It's very strong. It's not a Pomeranian or a

Shih Tzu or something. It's a Pit Bull or a Rottweiler. You can't restrain. Maybe it's so strong and so aggressive, You might have to call animal control or 911. Call the cops. It's so strong. Balavad. It's powerful. The moment you try to restrain the mind in meditation, you see how powerful it is. In the Sermon on the Mount, In the Bible, Jesus Christ says that, Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. Somebody asks how, Not to Jesus Christ, But somebody asked

later on, How do you know that? How do I know whether I am pure in heart or not? He says, One way, Swami Prabhavanandaji writes in his book, Sermon on the Mount according to Vedanta. He says, One way, sit down and try to meditate. Try to think of God. Try to pray. Try to think of God. For the next two minutes, I will think of God and nothing else. Try to do that. Very soon you will find, In 20 seconds, in 30 seconds, Other thoughts will start arising in the mind. They will bubble up. The

very fact that I cannot hold on to one thought, for any length of time, for a minute or two minutes or five minutes, it shows that the mind has impurities. It is restless. It keeps on generating. What is the nature of these impurities? We will see later. So, it is strong. It cannot be controlled. Even if you want to control It, it cannot be controlled. Well, maybe it will settle down. Maybe its attention will be diverted. Maybe it will become nice later on. No. He says, it is dridham, It is set in its ways. The

mind runs in patterns. And those patterns are not easily changed. Unless you work at it, it will remain the same. It will trouble you. It will trouble you continuously. In fact, if you take an extreme example That of mental illness, it might be easier to understand our condition. Not that we are all mentally ill, but little bit all of us are. So, if you take the case of people who are actually suffering from mental illness, they will always tell you after, I understand the mind is An object. I am the witness of that. But when

the storm arises in the mind, it is impossible to control. And also it is impossible to remain at peace. I understand with all the Vedanta and Sankhya and the witnessing and the mindfulness meditation, all of that is fine. But when the mind kicks up a storm, difficult to remain the witness. And difficult not to suffer. Some people have OCD. Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. They cannot help doing a set pattern of activities again and again and again. Even after knowing, That this is something set in my brain, in my behavior patterns. I am the unconcerned witness. I

am the vast blue sky in which these clouds are floating past. Fine. Still, Disturbing. So it is set in its path. In its ways. Very difficult to control. Hence, Your teaching, I understand the philosophy. But it does not become practical. It does not solve my problems. Because the mind is playing truant in between. What do I do with this? He has already taught meditation. That meditation is failing to control the mind. So, what is Krishna's answer? And here we must pay attention. Why we must pay attention? A wonderful old Swami, Long before my time, Swami

Bhaskarishwarananda, who established our ashram in Nagpur in India. I met some senior Swamijis, Who were trained by this wonderful old Swami. And it seems his classes, His Vedanta classes were Amazing. Each of them was a spiritual experience. You sit there and your mind is immediately elevated. He was such a wonderful teacher. He was an enlightened soul, obviously. Once, somebody complained, I think to, Swami Shankarananda, probably. If I remember the story. This is very old times, 1950s. Oh, the level of spirituality in our monasteries is going down. We don't find the same level of spirituality as

it was during the direct disciples of Sri Ramakrishna. Some senior monk complained. And the president of the order said, Why are you saying that? Go to Nagpur, where Swami Bhaskarishwaranandaji, That Swami, they used to call him Vipradash Maharaj. When he gives a class, I find the whole Ashram vibrating spiritually. So, this Swami would teach. Now why am I bringing him here? Is that I had access to some of the notes taken down during his teachings. And just one example will show you, how unique his approach was. So here he is telling young novices, Monastic novices,

Brahmacharis, How to study the Gita. And he says, Remember who is teaching. Sri Krishna is teaching. Not a Pandit. Not a Scholar, a professor. Not even an ordinary monk. Not even an enlightened being. It is the incarnation of God who is teaching. And he has been asked this question, Which is uppermost in our minds. Let us hear what God has to say to us. That kind of value we must give to the words of Sri Krishna. Again, he would say, whenever you study the Gita, and that is true for any spiritual text. Keep your Prayojanam

vibrating within you all the time. The Sanskrit word Prayojanam means, your need, your purpose. Why am I here? What am I going to gain out of this? What do I want out of it? I have come here with a purpose. If you keep that vibrating in your mind, I have come here to go beyond sorrow. I have come here to attain enlightenment. God Realization. Then imagine the reverence, the focus, with which we will take the teachings. So, he would teach in this way. When you study a text, you do it like this. So, let us

listen to Krishna that way. Who is teaching? Sri Krishna. What is our Prayojanam? Our need, our goal here? And nothing short of enlightenment. What does he say? Sri Bhagawan Uvacha, the blessed Lord said, Asham shayam maha baho mano dur nigraham chalam abhyase na tukaunteya vaira gyena chagrehyate First he agrees entirely with Arjuna. He says, no doubt you are right. The mind is very difficult to control. So that gives us some peace of mind. So it is not a small problem. The Lord agrees. It is a problem. It is something that is a major problem. The

mind is difficult to control. But then he uses the word maha baho, O mighty armed one, indicating to Arjuna, You have defeated so many enemies in your time. Now you are surrendering before your own mind. Without a fight. I am reminded of about 16 years ago, I was in the high Himalayas. And we used to go to this wonderful old monk, a traditional monk, who was living at that time. In an ashram, small ashram. But he spent most of his time in a cave in the high mountains. And he could point out the cave actually

from the ashram. Little higher up in the mountain, you could see there was the cave. And this old monk, He was a Punjabi. He was in his 80s at that time. Complete non-dualist. So, a man after my own heart. So, I used to go and study the Ashtavakra Gita, which is a text of radical non-dualism, with him. And there were a motley group of monks who would sit around him. Monks and yogis and, Who Knows. They were, we were an odd bunch. Some dressed like me. Some with beards and, you know, long hair. Some with

shaven heads. Some stayed in huts. Some stayed in caves. Some stayed, one at least I know, Stayed in a hole in the ground. So, we would gather around him, and we would study this text of non-dual Vedanta. And this monk, he was quite a character. He has passed in the last few years, I think. Yeah, I know he has passed. He was quite a character. He is, he used to say, Oh monks, I have committed only one sin in my life. You say, what? It is to start this ashram. Starting this ashram was my only

sin. I was fine in that cave. And then we would say, of course not, we are getting so much Benefit from this. You know, because you are here in this ashram. Anyway, so once, He was teaching the Ashtavakra Gita. He closed the book and he looked at us, sort of, In a pensive mood. And he said, you have weapons in your hand. And the enemy comes and gives you a couple of slaps. And you come back weeping. Where is the fun in that, Oh monks? In Hindi, haath mein shastra hain, Astra-shastra hain. Aur dushman se

do thappad khaake, rotay rotay wapas aagaye, kya maja hai maatma ji? So, what is the fun in that, Oh monks? What are the weapons? These are the weapons. This understanding, this philosophy, These techniques which are being taught in these, these are the weapons. What is the Enemy? The enemy is the mind. The mind which is uncontrolled. The mind which is stopping you from, realizing God. And you are giving up. You are coming back weeping, It's no good. I can't do it. So, there is a way of, of controlling the mind. It has to be learnt!

Notice a very simple thing. For everything else in the world, we know it has to be learnt. And we know it takes time and effort and capacity. You go to enrol in Columbia University for, a Mathematics or Physics degree. The moment you enrol, The next day you don't say, where is my degree? Why haven't I got it yet? I have to give up. It's no good. You don't say that. You know you are going to spend years And years, and work hard, attend classes, turn in assignments, go through exams, and finally write thesis, and finally

get your degree. And that's not the end of the road. There are higher degrees to be attained. You start a business, invest in Wall Street, and why aren't I a millionaire yet? Nobody says that. That's ridiculous. So, in spiritual life we do that. You know. I started meditating. I have been initiated. I have got the mantra. I have started meditating. But the mind is fickle. It doesn't calm down. So, it's no good. No, it takes time. This is the subtlest of all tasks, and the greatest of all adventures. So, it will take time. It will

take effort. And every bit of it is worth it In the end, Success is guaranteed. You are the Atman. You will realize it. What can stop you? And, once having started this, what could be better than this? This is the highest endeavour, In life. This should become the central task of our life. Everything else will be there. This is the central task of our life. And, moment to moment, you get benefits from it. Sitting down in meditation, sometimes I say, to people who express frustration at not being able to progress in spiritual life, I say,

give it up. When I say means, senior monks would take this approach. Alright, Fine. Doesn't work. Give it up. Stop coming to the ashram. Stop meditating. Stop reading sacred texts or lives of the Saints. Stop listening to devotional music. No, no, no. I can't do that. Ah, you can't do that. Which means, there is something there that you like. Something there that you are getting some benefit from, some peace of mind, some strength from. Already. Already. Most people, when they stop and think, yes, I am not an enlightened, I am not an enlightened being like

the Buddha or Vivekananda. But whatever I have got, is already valuable to me. This is what makes you turn up on a Sunday morning, on a cold Sunday morning in Manhattan. So, it is worth learning. It is worth taking the time to do this. Not getting impatient about it. We have to learn everything. Everything that civilization Gives us is not given directly by nature. Every word that we read, every letter that we read, had to be taught to us by our primary school, kindergarten teachers. To eat properly, to get up and walk on our feet.

That had to be taught, by our parents. At least we have to be helped along by our parents. So all of that has to be taught. And Brahmavidya, enlightenment about Brahman, doesn't it have to be learnt? Of course it has to be learnt. Of course it will take time. But it takes less time than one might imagine. So what is the advice that Krishna gives? Abhyase na tukaunteya vaira gyena chagrehyate. He says, the first thing is, Abhyaas, literally it can be translated as practice, but literally it means repetition. Abhyaas means repetition. What's so great about

that? I thought he would give us, he's God, he should give us some more glamorous, profound technique. All he's saying is repeat. Do it, do it again and do it once more. Is that all? There is something very important to learn here. There's a very ancient saying in Indian philosophy. Sankhya samam jnanam nasti, yoga samam balam nasti. There is no knowledge like Sankhya and there is no power like yoga. What does Sankhya mean here? The knowledge of the Self. Who am I? What am I? That knowledge is the greatest of all knowledge because that Really

takes us beyond Samsara, settles all our needs, takes us beyond suffering. That's a knowledge. But there's something else added to that. Yoga here means this practice, which develops the mind and enables us to live that knowledge, enables us to manifest that knowledge, act upon it in our day-to-day life, respond to the ups and downs of life from that knowledge. Otherwise, what happens is, we might feel, I know, but it's a kind of intellectual knowledge, it doesn't help me to face the problems of life. When somebody says something nasty to me, I know it's one undivided

divinity, but still it hurts. So, that power, inability to manifest or live that knowledge in day-to-day Life, that inability comes from the lack of that power, and that power is built up by yoga. Alright, what is the essential nature of one word, of that knowledge, and what is the essential nature of this yoga, this power? The essential nature of that knowledge is insight, enlightenment. It is a breakthrough. It is a clear paradigm shift. It's a clear before and after. One sees the world in an entirely new way. It's not so much that one sees new

things, but one sees the same things in new ways, with new eyes. You see old things with new eyes. I'm quoting Ulysses here, you know, to set sail in new lands and new things. But, after all those adventures in the high seas, in Foreign lands, to come back once again, to see old things with new eyes. Old things, old people, the same places with new eyes. That's wisdom. So, this is a new, complete paradigm shift. I thought this was a fractured world of people and places, time and space, limited lives, birth and aging and death.

Now I see, there is clearly this one underlying divinity. This, all beings and all beings are in that. And that divinity is beyond sorrow, beyond old age and disease and death. And that is the oneness, the reality of this entire universe. In which the entire universe is an appearance. Like a movie on a screen, right! Reflections in water. And I am that limitless radiance, that divinity. So, This is the nature of the shift. It actually happens! It's not as difficult as one might think. One is blessed when that happens. But it's the nature of an

insight. Of a breakthrough. And for that, there is a whole process in Vedanta. Fine. But that's a different topic. Now, our topic today is the second one. It is, what is the essence of yoga, if the essence of Sankhya, of knowledge, is that insight, that breakthrough, that paradigm shift. What is the essence of yoga? One word, repetition. Repetition. Training. The difference between these two, let me tell you. Swami Atmapriyanandaji. He, some of you have seen him. And some of you see him on YouTube. He is a senior monk of our order. He was the vice-chancellor

of our university in India. So, he told us this story, anecdote about when he became a monk. After ten years of being a novice, we are initiated into the vows of sannyasa. The president of the order, the head of the order, gives us, the vows of monasticism. So, during his time, which was when he became a monk, was early 80s. Long time ago, 40 years now. So, after that night, when you are conferred early in the morning, just at sunrise you are conferred. Whole night there is a ceremony and then you are conferred the vows

of monasticism. Next morning, you can go, the newly minted monks can go to the Guru. The president of the order. And if They have any questions, they can ask. We did that too. And in his time, they also did that. So, they went. At that time, the president of the order was Swami Gambhiranandaji. He was the 11th president of our order. Extraordinary Swami. I mean, his output, literary output is amazing. The translations of the Upanishads which we use, and I have seen it being used across the world. Translations of the commentaries of Shankara. Of Madhusudana,

on the Bhagavad Gita. Two years back, I was at Harvard. It was his book which was being used. Gambhiranandaji's book. But he was a person who was very grave. In fact, his name, Gambhirananda, means who delights in graveness. So, he was Never actually known to smile. If you look at his picture, he is the most unsmiling picture. Very inward. And he would sit with eyes closed. So, these newly minted monks went, and their spokesperson was none other than our Swami Atmapriyanandaji, and he asked, Swami was sitting there and he said, any questions? Atmapriyanandaji said, we,

the brothers, we want to know that this Mahavakya, this statement which we received from you last night, Aham Brahmasmi, I am Brahman. So, how many times should we repeat it? Because that's what we know. A mantra is to be repeated. You get a mantra from a guru, it should be repeated. Swami Gambhiranandaji answered, It is Not for repetition, it is for realization. Any other question? No? You can go. But it's a very important, very profound point. The difference between Jnana and Yoga. Jnana, knowledge, enlightenment. You have to realize, I am Brahman. Not repeat it, I

am Brahman, I am Brahman, I am Brahman. You can do that, but that's not the point. Whereas, there are mantras which are for repetition. Suppose your guru tells you to repeat the mantra of Shiva, Om Namah Shivaya. So, what do you do with that? You repeat it. Thousand times in the morning, thousand times in the evening, ten thousand times a day. Somebody asked the holy mother, holy mother herself, she said, people keep asking me, I have no Peace of mind. I have taken the mantra initiation, but I have no peace of mind yet. And she

said, they won't do anything and they keep on complaining. Let them repeat the mantra ten thousand times a day. Then I will see where there is no peace of mind. Let me see. So, repetition. Manana trayate, definition of mantra. That by which you dwell on it, it saves you. It takes you across samsara. The power of a mantra comes from repetition. But a Mahavakya like, Aham Brahmasmi, I am Brahman, Tat Tvam Asi, that thou art. That comes from the enlightenment. That comes from the awakening into that. Into that reality. And both are necessary. From an

Advaitic perspective, of course, the Highest thing is the realization, I am Brahman. But the other part of it, as I said, all the other components, meditation, devotion, moral life, all go towards establishing a foundation. With a restless mind, with an impure mind, with a selfish attitude, one cannot become, I am Brahman. No. Won't work. Such a person, even if they work hard at Vedanta and trying to understand, you know what will happen in the end. They will say, I got it. I have read all the books. I understand all the arguments. But it's sort of,

if they are honest, they will say it's sort of intellectual, speculative. It's some idea that I have got. It's a cool philosophy I have learnt. I am still the same person. So, The ability to manifest this knowledge, it comes from the repetition. Jonathan Haidt, who is right here. He is a psychologist in the Stern School of Business here. He is, I was seeing his biography, he is recognized as one of the 25 most influential psychologists today in the world. So, his masterpiece, long ago he wrote this book, The Happiness Hypothesis. I read it long ago.

I was very impressed. There he makes a very important point. He asks the question, why is it so difficult to change? We have so much knowledge now. And if you go to Barnes and Nobles, he mentions that. All these self-help books, personality development, all these self-help books. Go to Barnes and Nobles, you will see Racks and racks full of self-help books. How to develop a great personality, how to communicate more effectively, how to impress people, how to lose weight, how to b What else? How to meditate better, what we are talking about today. All these

things and many more things, are all there. But, and people go and buy loads of them. But he asks the question, do they deliver? Are our lives significantly changed? Almost always the answer is no. All it changes is our bank balance. It changes, goes down a little bit and we run out of racks to put books in. So, it keeps on increasing and overflowing. But really, are we changing? Are we developing all those wonderful capacities talked about in Those self-help books? And by the way, the self-help books, some of them are a little way out

there. But many of them are pretty reasonable. They are pretty good actually. They are not lying to you. Some of it is anecdotal, but increasingly with the development of positive psychology. It's pretty rigorous academics also, now. When Dale Carnegie and others wrote, it was anecdotal. Inspirational. But now it's a matter of academic psychology. So, it's not wrong. But why doesn't it work? Jonathan Haidt asked that question. Why doesn't it work? Why doesn't it change our lives? Why is it so difficult to change? He says it's because what it does not address is the structure of

the mind. Our mind has the Structure. He uses a very beautiful Indian analogy. He says it's like a... Elephant with a mahout. You understand what a mahout is? The one who sits on the top of the elephant and controls the elephant. It's an elephant with a mahout. The mahout is the intellect. And the intellect, the mahout, knows where to go and can tell the elephant where to go. And just like the intellect, it understands. But the problem with that is as long as the elephant obeys, it's fine. But if the elephant does not obey, the

mahout wants to go this way and then there. The elephant wants to go this way and then there, Then, there's nothing that the mahout can do to the elephant because the elephant is much, much stronger than the mahout. If the elephant Wants to go there and raid a shop and eat the bananas there or attack a banana plant or something and eat the bananas there, the mahout can't do anything because the elephant is much more stronger, physically. It's just like that. Our intellect, which buys all those... We buy all those books from Barnes and Nobles

and listen to TED talks. And then we decide, these are great ideas. I am going to revolutionize my life. I have taken the Tony Robbins seminar. I don't know how many hundred dollars it is. Several hundred dollars, I think. I am going to revolutionize my life. And by the way, I am not criticizing any of that. All of that is right. They are correct. They are not lying to you. But, it doesn't work. Why? Because I am sold on it. But who is the I who loves these ideas, who is inspired by them, who has

this wow moment? It's the intellect. But underneath the intellect is the lower mind. The emotions and the, more than the emotions, the set patterns of a lifetime, of many lifetimes. And then there is the body, the physiology. I decide. I realize one of the keys to success and happiness in life is getting up early in the morning. I have to rise with the sun. Monks in the Himalayas are very clear about these things. They have sayings like, the one who does not greet the rising sun, knowledge of Brahman will not rise in his life. You

sleep. There are funny stories like, oh, I get up With the first ray of sunlight in my room. Oh, really? That's pretty good. So, when do you get up? Five o'clock or 5.30? He says, no, My room faces the west. Not that way. I'm determined to get up early in the morning. Early in the morning, I get up, I have the alarm rings. I wake up. But then what happens? It's cold. It's so comfy under the blanket. And I want to get up. But then the body says, I didn't sign up for this. You, the

intellect, you thought it was a great idea. Did you ask me? You go and get up and do your meditation and yoga, I'm going to sleep inside the blanket. Can the intellect do anything by itself? No. It cannot force the Body also. It gives in. And that's why every kind of practice which leads to difficulties, it comes from our lower nature. Which has not signed up for that. Which does not respond to knowledge and insights and lectures and seminars and books and philosophy. No! What does the elephant respond to? What does the mahout do for

the elephant? It trains the elephant. The mahout doesn't persuade the elephant. The mahout doesn't give a TED talk to the elephant. The mahout doesn't sign up the elephant for a Tony Robbins seminar. No. Doesn't send it to HR programs. No. It trains the elephant. And training is mostly systematic repetition. The body-mind responds to repetition. So, repetition, abhyasa. Somebody asked Sri Ramakrishna the same question. My mind doesn't settle down. Sri Ramakrishna seems startled. He said, ‘Shay kee? Abhyasa joga koro’ what are you saying? Why don't you practice the yoga of abhyasa? Thats nothing more than the

yoga of repetition. So, repetition, regular meditation, it will work. Over time, it is learnt. And it clearly changes the nature of the mind. You will see it becoming more obedient, more subdued, more... It begins to flow. A new pattern is set. A time comes when it becomes natural. Sri Ramakrishna gives a beautiful example. He lived on the bank of the Ganges, the Ganga river. You see these little boats plying. And you would see how the boatman would Take a long bamboo pole and work hard at pushing the boat away from the bank into the midstream.

But once it reaches the bank, he catches the midstream and catches the current. He says the boatman would sit down, just hold on the rudder and would take out a hubble-bubble and smoke tobacco and merrily sail along on the current. But until it catches the current, he has to work hard to push the boat into it. So, the current of spiritual life means when it becomes natural to us. When the mind is now set in the new pattern. Then you don't have to work so hard all the time. But initially, yes. That is Abhyasa. It

will work. But not by itself. Here is another part of it. Vairagya nigrihyate. The mind comes Under control by Vairagya. Vairagya means dispassion. And I must stress this. You see, it is a problem, a symptom of our secular, rather materialistic age, where, here in the United States, for example, meditation is quite popular. But the dispassion side of it is never taught. The dispassion for worldliness, going beyond worldly desires, that is essential to meditation. That part is not emphasized at all. Perhaps it's not popular. Perhaps it's not palatable. All sorts of meditation techniques have been popularized.

Mindfulness is very big now. But notice, whether it's mindfulness, vipassana, whether it's Tibetan Buddhist meditation techniques, whether it is yoga, kundalini yoga, non -dualistic meditation, whatever kind of meditation, if you look back upon the origins of all of them, they came from the high spiritual traditions, all of which emphasized a dispassion for worldliness, a detachment from the world. Not just Buddhism or Advaita Vedanta. Every religion does that. If you are honest about it. Maybe not the modern versions of those religions. If you go back to the original texts, absolutely. What teaches more dispassion than the

New Testament, the Gospel of Jesus? Dispassion for the world. So, dispassion, it's called vairagyam. Viraga, raga means likes and dislikes. Raga, dvesha, both are meant. Likes and dislikes. They color the mind. Any kind of strong pull Towards the world, that is raga. I was amazed to read Freud, the wise old atheist. But he is pretty wise. I remember many years ago, it was nearly 20 years ago, in our teacher training college, teacher education college in India, near our monastery, where school teachers were trained. So, there was a department of psychology, educational psychology. And we had

pictures of Freud and Jung and other well known, John Dewey, our American, father of modern American education, William James and others. So, Freud has this little beard like this. Now, in that room, we had the annual Saraswati Puja, the worship of the Divine Mother Saraswati, Goddess of Learning. So, the image was there. And People from the locality would come and bow down to the image. So, this little old lady comes to bow down to the image of Saraswati. And there are these pictures of the psychologists. She is standing before Freud like this. And I went

and she asked me, I was walking past her. I will tell you in Bengali and translate. She said, Baba, Ae kon Rishi? My boy, who, I was a young novice. He said, who, who, which Rishi, which sage is this? She would have been shocked at what Freud taught. But it's true. He is a Rishi in a certain way. The people who have insights, deep insights into human nature are Rishis. So his insight, when you talk about Freud talking about libido, we think about, you know, the Baser passions of human nature. But look at the definition

of libido. He says, any movement of the subject to the object is libido. Any movement from here to outside, anything outside, is a manifestation of that same energy. This is raga, which will not allow you to remain centered. It can start as a mild attraction, something nice and pleasant. It can develop into a desire, I want it. It can go into the level of an obsession, an addiction. It will not allow you to remain centered. Raga. Swami Ashokanandaji, in a very nice essay, he says about monks, he says, when are you ready to renounce the

world? When can you become a monk? He says something interesting. He says that, if you stay in the midst of the world and people and objects of the senses of things of the world, your mind may be attracted, disturbed by that. But if you stay away from them, in a monastery, in an ashram, in a retreat, then your mind is at peace. You don't hanker about it, you don't think about those things at all. Then you are ready to be a monk. If you stay away from the world and things and stay in an ashram

and yet think about those things, then you are not ready to be a monk. It will fail. It won't work. And those whose minds are steady and serene in the midst of the world, and in an ashram, they don't need any monasticism. They are Above it already. There are very few. But there are such people. There are very few such people. So, you have to be in that middle category. Same thing is true of meditation. When can you meditate effectively? It is when the raga, the attractions, the pulls of the world, the things of the

world, don't continuously pull your mind outwards. If you sit quietly in a meditation hall, in your little personal, chapel or shrine, in a holy place, quietly sit there, if your mind is more or less stable, more or less, it may be restless, but more or less, then you can meditate. If it is continuously pulled out, you cannot. There is raga, the things of the world which pull us, the obsessions, the Attractions, the thing that this is nice, I must have this. And equally true, the dvesha, the repulsions. It is a whole range, just as raga

is a range, the different kinds of raga. I want more and more money and property, that is greed. I want pleasures of the senses, from eating good food to all kinds of sense pleasures, that is kaama. There are various kinds of raga, attraction for the world. Dvesha, repulsion for the world, for people and things. It can be a whole range. It can be a minor irritation, a minor dislike, to a general dislike of a place, a person, a food, an activity, a job, all of these. But general, a clear dislike, I don't like this. You

might say, what's wrong with that? It is Based on a false notion of the world. If it is true, that it is the one divinity underlying everything, you can see the good and the bad, but underlying, you must have serenity, because ultimately it is the one divinity. Notice, when you are watching a movie, you root for the success of the hero, you hate the villain, and yet at the same time you are serene, because you know there is no hero and villain there. It is fiction. It is an appearance of one reality. Couple of years

back at Harvard, a student, divinity student said, I don't like your Vedanta philosophy. It tells me that Mother Teresa and Adolf Hitler are the same. How can Adolf Hitler and Mother Teresa be the same? I said, it doesn't, First of all, it doesn't tell you that Adolf Hitler and Mother Teresa are the same. It doesn't. It is much better to be a saint than to be a monster. But, consider, are they really all that different? When they were little babies, two or three years old, was Mother Teresa, Mother Teresa? Was Adolf Hitler, Adolf Hitler? No.

Every night when they fall asleep, deep sleep, even the personalities are erased for the time being, that being who is in deep sleep at that moment, is this being evil and this being good, saintly? No. There is a layer in which goodness and badness are there. The layer is the mind, the personality. If you take the mind and personality to be the ultimate reality, then yes, this Is ultimately a saint, that is ultimately a monster. But no, that is not the ultimate reality. Anything that has developed over time, that is conditioned by causes and effects,

that is subject to change, cannot be the ultimate reality. Neither saintliness, nor, what, monsterliness, or monstrosity, they are (not) the ultimate reality. But yes, at that level they are not the same. You have to move from adharma to dharma and beyond that. From evil to morality and ethics, and rise to spirituality. So they are not equivalent, but beyond that there is a, the reality lies beyond all of these. That's what a Adwaita Vedanta says. So dvesha, dvesha also disturbs the mind. Some people make a Habit of enmity, of dislike of others, and holding on to

anger and resentment. You cannot meditate if it's like that. And it's unwise. I am quite sure your indignation is justified. I am quite sure, people have treated you badly. But, it is unwise to cultivate these fires. When you set a fire, you burn your own house before you burn somebody else. What is, what is resentment? What is anger? It is here. I am the person who is resentful of others who may have misbehaved with you, you know, mistreated you. Quite correct. But first I make myself unhappy. So, that kind of mind cannot meditate. Raga and

Dvesha, neither can meditate. Sri Ramakrishna told the story of the Boatmen, who were rowing a boat. The three, not boatmen, they were three friends who were drunkards. At night they stumbled around and they wanted to go home across the river. They found a boat, jumped into it and started rowing. As the day broke early morning, they found they were still in the same place, rowing hard all night long they had rowed. What happened? They had forgotten to untie the boat. That forgetting to untie the boat, that is Raga and Dvesha. Vairagya, dispassion for the world,

is untying the boat. It's letting go. Doesn't mean that you won't do your duties in the world, you won't take care of people. You will. You will. But your motto will be, neither seek nor avoid. Seeking and avoiding comes from Raga and Dvesha, attraction and repulsion. Neither seek nor avoid, as far as the world is concerned. Why? Because there is some higher thing that you are about to do. You are on the journey to enlightenment, self-realization, God-realization, whatever you call it. So, vairagya is important. Complete dispassion for the world and its events. At this point,

let me just give some practical points. So far I have said what Krishna said. Meditation is possible if you have a regular program of repetition, abhyasa, and dispassion for the world. Untie your boat. Don't be like those drunkards. Untie your boat. But before that, just one More point. You know, when they say that all this giving up the world, sitting quietly, meditating, it's repression. And it can lead to mental instability. It does sometimes. Why does it? Why does that happen? It's because Vairagya is not there. When does it lead to mental problems? Firmly cutting away

the world, sitting quietly and meditating, trying to meditate for long hours. It's only when there is a strong outward movement and I am denying that, and I am shutting it down and trying to hold it down within myself, then it leads to a reaction in the mind. My tendency is to want things and chase after things and to achieve things in the world. I am stopping myself from doing That in the name of spirituality and that leads to a revolt in the mind. Krishna has already said that. In the Gita, he says, mithyachara sa uchyate

The one who sits, withdrawing from action, sitting quietly in a meditative posture, closing the eyes, shutting out the contact with the world, and thinking of the world in the mind, that one, he says, mithyachara sa uchyate that one is called a hypocrite. Then what is the way out? If I am, then don't give so much emphasis on meditation. Do your regular meditation, but engage in karma yoga. I will tell you what is to be done practically, to purify the mind. One monk in Uttarakhand said nicely, he said, samadhi toh asaan hai mahatmaji, sharth hai Ki

chitta shudha hona chahiye, aapko ek minute mein samadhi laga denge. What does it mean? Samadhi, the highest state of meditative absorption is very easy, mahatmaji, oh monk, I will give you samadhi in one minute. How? The condition is, your mind must be purified. Purified of raga and dvesha. This continuous embroilment in the world, in the mental level. Alright. Now, some practical advice. This I have taken from Swami Ashokanandaji. Very beautiful. Before you sit in meditation, I mentioned it at other times, but I will quickly run through this practical advice. For good meditation, what do you

do? One, you do it regularly. You see abhyaasa, repetition again. Do it Regularly. Not when the mood seizes you, not when you feel very spiritual, not when you are on a meditation retreat, only. Do it every day. Second, have a fixed time. So, sometime in the early morning, sometime in the evening or night, if you are too busy. Some do it three times a day. Early morning, afternoon and night. Fixed time. The mind is a creature of habit. Remember the elephant. The elephant is a creature of habit, not of intellect. It responds to training, it

responds to rhythm. So, time! Have a fixed place. That's why we have meditation halls and temples and churches and shrines and chapels. That's why we have a particular seat for meditation. An asana. That's why we Have, even in India, you have a special set of clothes which you wear before meditation. You are one set. A clean, same kind of clothes, but a clean separate set, set aside for meditation. Why? All of that helps the mind. Again, a creature of habit and repetition. It immediately tells the mind, this is the time when you must be calm

and turn inwards. When you must follow the mantra, follow the breath, visualize the deity, whatever your technique. These things will work for any technique of meditation, in any tradition. Fixed time, fixed place. Which the mind immediately associates with meditation. You see, half your work is done there. Do not dwell on thoughts which Are disturbing. I cannot emphasize this enough. Do not dwell on what you might call bad thoughts. It could be thoughts of, you know which, old thoughts of guilt, anger, resentment, negativity, sensuousness, anxieties, all kinds of negativities. The mind has a habit of dwelling

on these things. Try not to do that. Replace it immediately. There's a very good thing, a way of handling the mind. The secret of the mind is it can dwell on only one thing at a time. So, you might think, what's important about this? It's a very important thing to know in order to handle the mind. If the mind can handle only one thing at a time, it does so very quickly. That's why we think the mind is doing many things. It does very quickly one thing at a time. In that case, if you want

to handle the mind very effectively, immediately, try this. Give it something practical to do. It's even good if you do it something physical, you know. Get up. Clean the room. Do a chore. Something. Go for a walk. So, if you do that, the mind will stop. It has to be engaged. Listen to a song. Or go and meet somebody in conversation so that you can't, mind cannot run elsewhere. It can do only one thing at a time. So, do not dwell on thoughts which are negative, the whole range of negative thoughts. Negative company, bad company,

There are people and places, which arouse, likes This raga and dvesha, obsessions and hatred which are worldly in nature. So donb t mix with them. Sri Ramakrishna would say that a little plant, seedling that you have planted on the road side, it needs to be protected by a little fence. Otherwise, he said the goats and cows, in India, on the roads you will see goats and cows walking around so they'll come and eat it up, so you need to fence it. Once it grows and becomes a huge big tree he says you can tie an

elephant to it; we're having a lot of elephants in today's talk; he says, you can tie an elephant to it nothing will happen, but initially you must fence it around. So, bad company, be clear about whose company you want To keep. It has an effect on our mind, then the next thing is to practice some amount of asceticism by that I don't mean become a monk. A simple life, few possessions, few activities; as I said, neither seek nor avoid. Few activities, few possessions, a minimalistic life. Possessions, for example, the more we have; cluttered room, cluttered

possessions, in lifetimes accumulation of things our mind is on those things also. Normally we don't realize it. You sit for meditation, you will realize. Half of your mind is scattered in things. So, an ascetic lifestyle. And then, the next thing Swami Ashokanandaji says is, have this sense of vastness. This entire, you see, the immensity of space, vast mountains and oceans, lands beyond the horizon and beyond that the universe, so vast. And yet it is all appearing to you and playing around in you, the consciousness. You are vaster than space itself. Eternity, the vast periods of

time, millions of years, billions of years. Think about one lifetime, 80, 90 years, seems to be very long. It's like gone in a twinkling of an eye. In our own experience, if you are 20 years old or like Bill, you are 97 years old, I'm sure if you ask him, if you sit for a moment, he can recall his whole life in general in a twinkle of an, in an instant. It has passed. 97 years have passed. As 97 years is A twinkle to you, twinkling in an instant to you, the consciousness, so is a

million years, so is a billion years. You are vaster than the eternities of time, vaster than the immensities of space. Have this feeling within you. What Vedanta is telling me, that is my real nature. I am vast, not this limited creature only. This will give stability to the mind. Have a yearning for enlightenment. Here, devotion or bhakti is very useful. Yearning for limitless existence, consciousness, bliss is a bit dry, philosophical, But yearning, though it can happen. Some natures have that. Yearning for freedom, spiritual freedom. But yearning for a personal God is easy to cultivate. My

Rama, my Krishna, my Jesus, my Ramakrishna, that love, so have a yearning, yearning also stabilizes the mind. Just as, thinking of the things in the world outside can pull our mind outside, similarly thinking of God and loving God can pull the mind towards God so yearning is very important for meditation, good meditation the next the activities in the world let us spiritualize it as much as Possible, your job, the family, the chores in the house, my own personal affairs like health and everything can be offered as a worship of God not just the flowers which

we put in the Shrine the incense but also our daily activities can be offered. As we spiritualize our daily activities a little bit of ritualism can be useful here, it elevates, you know if you do a pooja, mindfully, a short pooja, it actually spiritualizes the mind. It develops the quality known as sattva. I have run out of time but I must say this I mentioned Jonathan Haidt, his book happiness hypothesis, one reason I remember it was, he did this experiment, do rituals work, religious rituals do they actually do anything to the mind and he mentions

it, he says that he went to Orissa Bhubaneswar which is on the eastern coast of India and I liked that very much because that's where I grew up so he Says he went there, and he went to the; there are very ancient temples there, I mean temple older than a thousand years are the commonality there, in that town in that city, it's in fact known as the city of temples. So, the famous temples of Linga Raj which is the temple of Shiva there are sacred pools of water outside, bindu sagar. So the priests in the

temple before they going in for worshipping the deities they take a dip in those pools and they recite mantras and they come out. Now what he did was, he conducted psychological tests like a questionnaire, a battery of questions he gave those tests to the priests before the Rituals and after they had performed the rituals, general questions about life and personality and all of that and he says there was a significant difference, the after the rituals the thought patterns change at least for a while and feelings about themselves the world and others. So clearly those rituals

have an immediate effect, on the mind, may not last very long. But if you do it repeatedly, throughout your lifetime, they have an effect, they elevate the mind. So little bit of ritualism, whatever your tradition allows you, whatever you do in your free time. Donb t do it too much, ritualism is like weeds, tends to overcome and cover metaphysics and meditation and devotion and all of it becomes, specially for the hindu mind, we are very ritualistic So, it tends to overgrow everything else the garden just becomes a garden of rituals, of weeds. So rituals, little

bit of rituals very helpful and finally holy company and the company of people who are meditators who are genuinely devotional spiritual their company. What did I say let me run through it quickly I hope I remember the list. Ten things, Ashokanandji has mentioned so I've summarized a long essay in these ten Points. 1. Meditate regularly; 2. Have a fixed time; 3. Have a fixed place; 4. Avoid bad thoughts; 5. Avoid bad company; 6. Practice a little bit of asceticism; 7. Cultivate vastness, infinity, eternity; 8. Yearning for God, not desire for the world, yearning for God.

9. Spiritualize Daily activities and little bit of ritualism also and ten seek holy company. Good. I'm patting myself on the back I remembered all ten, the thing is to do them with this kind of a preparation, meditation becomes deep. So, this section is very beautiful where Arjuna being ever being the practical warrior, he's a kshatriya, the warrior and he has a very practical question, all these wonderful philosophies, belief in God, devotion, non dualism all those are wonderful, but they all depend on the mind, how do I make the mind amenable to all of that, do

all of that. And Krishna answers: practice, repetition, vairagya, dispassion for the world; abhyaas, vairagya. Om Shanti, Shanti, Shantihi. Harihi Om, Tat Sat, Shri Ramakrishna Ruparnamastu