Good evening, everyone! This is our third session, right? It is, thus, our 5th class.
No: it's the first session of the third class. That's it! First session of the third class.
Last class, we discussed what the Vedas are, the Vedas as a mean of knowledge that shows us things we can't see through our very own eyes, be it rituals, astrologic information, positions of planets, connection between the stars and people's lives, rituals which offset the position of the stars, which links the ritualistic part to the astrologic part. And there is also Ayurveda: "Ayuh" means "life", and "veda" means knowledge, "knowledge about life": drugs, plants, their relationship with diseases and body humors. We also talked about Yoga as the foundation of the lifestyle for people connected to the Vedas, we talked a little about that, and, at the end, Vedanta, as a form of knowledge granted to a person so that one can find peace within oneself, find a way to live in harmony with one's own.
We got to the point in which we asked: "why is this teaching relevant? " Because, in general, on one's own, we don't get to live in self-harmony, unbelievably, as if we had a manufacturing defect! There is no defect: we must only read the instruction manual, and ours are the Vedas.
There, you'll find what to do. And, amazingly, as we listen to what is contained in the Vedas, we don't see it as something separate from us: it's as if it had always been there, a truth we've always carried. The only reason why that wasn't real for me was because I never had thought about it or studied it.
This is where we left off last class. We talked about the mantras as being a way to connect to all this, to bring this sacred, special attitude to our study, as they were not created by anyone: they are blessings like life itself is, like our children and all magnificent things. They came about free from our control.
As it happened with the Vedas, too: they presented themselves to mankind. Once, I was asked one thing, and it's amazing how we conceptualize things: "Why do I need to go to India to study? Why can't I study in Brazil?
Why is this knowledge only available there, and not here? " There's an interesting concept, there. If, for instance, you want to eat good Italian food - and I'm not advertising for profit!
- in India, you'll have to go to Little Italy. It's a restaurant there. In Rio de Janeiro, you may go to Mamma Rosa.
That's fine, but. . .
one may ask: "Why should I go to Mamma Rosa for good food? Can't I go to another nearby restaurant? " Well, of course you can!
Why go to India to study Vedanta? You may study Vedanta anywhere a teacher is, but if he's in India, you'll have to go to India! If he's in Brazil, that's where you'll go.
There is not such a connection between knowledge and a place, but to a teacher, yes. Wherever the teacher is, you may study. If the teacher isn't in your city, as maybe that good restaurant also isn't, and what do you do?
You go all the way there. There is no discrepancy in the world when it comes to things being available in different places. There is no uniformity agreement: when we were born, there was no guarantee of universal coverage in Vedanta, as there is for cell phone signal!
No: certain things can only be found in certain places, and India, Hindu tradition and the Vedas have done a good job in preserving that knowledge. So, if you go there, you'll still find teachers: not everywhere, but in some places. Masters such as swamis Dayananda and Chinmayananda had, as their life goal, the dissemination of this knowledge: forming world-wandering teachers, creating many ashrams in India, all of this aiming at making this knowledge available.
This has a good side, but also a down side: a late swami, to whom I was close, was a kundalini master. You've probably heard of kundalini, already, energies inside the body that a person may use. He was also a Vedanta and Yoga master: he had completed consistent training on those three fields and used to teach them.
He was an amazing person, very persuasive: if he looked into your eyes and recited a mantra, as he did with me: once, he came to me and said "shri", no, "hrim", sorry, and, once I left him, I spent the day thinking, "hrim, hrim"! He had such a strength that it even looked like hypnosis! And he used to say: "Visvanatha", my name, there, "once the students come, you can't be too flexible.
In our times, especially with internet and instant communication, it's very easy for one to reach a teacher. So, unless you impose a minimum of structure for people to start studying, people won't value it: they'll study without enough esteem for it to work, and they'll say Vedanta doesn't work. " I replied: "what do you mean by 'current communication means'?
There have always been teachers! " "You don't get it", he said. "When I started studying, I was married.
I used to live in Mumbai. " Or Delhi, I guess. No, Chennai.
"I lived in Chennai and decided to study this knowledge, find peace, know the truth about the Vedas and Yoga. I had been practicing Yoga for long, and what did I do? I asked my wife for permission to leave home, which is a great thing, so that I could leave home and go seek knowledge".
See? There was no teacher nearby to teach him. Back then, where were teachers based?
On the Himalayas. So, he put together a small suitcase with money, clothes, books for the trip, a diary, a bottle of water, and wears a suitcase! Because, back then, he's deceased, now, but this was long ago, so, he wore a suit and shoes to the Himalayas!
Wow, right? When he got to Rishikesh, at the base, he was still carrying the money and the clothes, but he had given away the books, which were dead weight, and was already worried about where to stay and what to do. But on he journeyed.
When he got to Rishikesh, he was told: "Vedanta masters are not based here. They're up in the Himalayas, studying. They are swamis and have schools up there.
" -"Where are those? " -"There's no address. Just climb and may God guide your steps!
" And, so, on he went, following the margins of the river and carrying his suitcase while making his way up there. He, then, noticed he was running out of money, so he held to a certain amount in order to give the teacher, as an attempt to say: "I value this study, so, keep this money for your use". However, when he reached a certain point in his climb, he realized money would be useless, since there were no stores!
There is nothing. Either you take things with you, or you'll have nothing. So, he bought all he could in the little villages he crossed and carried it all with him, food and stuff.
When he got up there, he wondered where the teacher was. He had been following the direction pointed to him, the source of the Ganges. At a certain point, there was no more pathway.
No more. And on he went. Can you imagine doing all that just to study Vedanta?
Now, we can study anywhere, all week long, through recordings. Back then, one had to climb. Then, well, the Himalayas are not Atlantic forest: the vegetation is harsh, since it's very cold, so it is full of thorns, and, shortly, his suit was all thorn up, his pants had been reduced to shorts, his jacket was practically a vest and his shirt was ruined.
He thought: "Why carry this bag? There's no more cash or clothes! " He, then, took his clothes, left it there and climbed on, only with the clothes on his back.
At a certain point, he saw smoke. "Good! ", he thought.
"I'm arriving! " No. The Himalayas are not like most other cities: if you see smoke, there's a barbecue!
No. In the Himalayas, there are cannibal tribes. You can't go near smoke.
So, he climbed on a tree, he told us, and waited to see who would come. Had it been a cannibal, he'd change his course. But, at a certain point, a brahmachari came, a student, dressed in white.
He said: "Ah! It's an ashram, a place of study", and came down. The brahmachari welcomed him and took him to the study site, and, there, at this retreat and study center, for six months, he had one single assignment: to wake up at 3AM and light a fire to prepare the teacher's bath, who woke up at 5AM to meditate with the other students.
And, full with shradda, trust, he did it. Indians think differently from us, see? We'd be: "What?
I climbed for days so as to warm water for baths? " One day, suddenly, the teacher turned to him and said: How's his name, again? Suvijñananda.
But, at the time, he still used his civil name. "As of tomorrow, you may attend class. Classes start at 7AM.
You no longer have to prepare my bath. "But who will do it? !
" "I've been living in the Himalayas for years, without warm baths. You started preparing them for me. Don't you think I can drop them?
" Then, he straightened himself up and was very happy, also for having accomplishing that task, as hard as it may have been, since it clashes against the ego, it goes against our personality, our desire to be special, doing things for the comfort of others, but he managed to do it, got accepted, studied and became a great teacher. Such a story doesn't compare to any of our own time, right? What has one been through?
But so are things, and there is a reason behind the path each one took. All of you told me your stories and there are different backgrounds: you've studied with many teachers, took your own steps: no one gets here empty-handed, it's very rare. And, if one does, it's also very special.
Most people have journeyed around until they meet a Vedanta teacher: it's usually so. Once you study Vedanta, the study demands objectivity from you. An objectivity which differs from what you see in other spiritual groups.
Why is that? Because the topic within Vedanta is knowledge. The topic isn't "meditation", for instance, or experiences of unforgettable places, or special people, or experiences in meditation, telling stories about the Vedic tradition, none of that is the topic of Vedanta.
The topic of Vedanta is knowledge, knowledge about yourself. And, for any knowledge to work, a certain degree of preparation is needed. Let's say you are trying to understand Einstein's theory of relativity.
It will take you more than opening the book: you must study mathematics, calculus, fundamental physics, mechanics, and much more! Electricity, complex numbers, and, having all this in mind, you'll take a PhD, and, after four years, you'll think you understood it! This is how we do it.
It takes preparation to understand a formula. Anyone can say: "E=MC²". Repeating doesn't require understanding.
Now, understanding the formula without having to say: "according to Einstein", but, instead, "Let me show you: 2 plus 2 equals four, one, two, three, four", this requires preparation and study. The message of Vedanta, which is often abridged to: "you are already the happiness you seek, we are all one", is easy to be repeated. It's very easy.
If this were the sole purpose of the study, we wouldn't have to study. No swami would climb the Himalayas, no lives would be devoted to it. Now, between saying that I am the happy, simple person I've been looking for, I am happiness, and saying that with propriety, is like saying, on a rainy day: imagine you're home and it's raining, so, you go outside, open your arms and say: "I'm free!
", see? Don't you feel touched in your heart by imagining it? Could you, now, open your arms and say: "It's over, I'm free.
Free from all this universe"? When you think of that, you also feel in your heart: "Well, I'm not THAT free". This is what we want to eliminate through studying.
We want the study to be strong enough so that this sentence can invade your heart and remove all your doubts. So, this very ancient Vedanta text called Mundaka Upanishad says that the purpose of Vedanta is to destroy the hrdaya granthi: the knot of the heart. Everyone has the experience of having a knot in the heart, sometimes due to anxiety, due to fear, due to excessive energy, and then it's tough to live in society because we stomp on people due to excessive energy, sometimes due to shyness, but this knot is shared among all people.
It's a know that makes me see myself as inadequate. To a point in which my life project becomes changing who I am. Changing my emotions, my ways, and this type of project is not spiritually.
. . mature, see?
It's a spiritual project, yes, but not an entirely mature one. On the onset of a spiritual project, there's always the intent of becoming a better person, and it must be so, because we come in very heavy. That's why I was saying that everybody comes with baggage, everybody arrives with a background.
This background makes it possible for you to study Vedanta. However, from now on, we must redirect our minds, because, for instance, if I think I must stop feeling angry in order to be a spiritual person, I'm in a pickle, yes, since I have no control over anger, right? I have no control, and yet I must guarantee I won't feel angry, so there's already fear: what will happen?
Furthermore, it's not possible for a person to stop feeling angry. Why? Because anger is a natural emotion in the human mind, and, once anger-fostering conditions arise, so will anger!
What you'll do with it is a different issue: will you victimize everyone because you are angry? Will you break everything? Those are different matters.
But feeling anger is not a problem. Initially, we do think it is, since we see ourselves victimizing everyone, we wish we had no fear, no feelings, we wish we were Tutankhamen's mummy! We project this upon ourselves: a spiritually-balanced person is one devoid of emotions, entirely free: she walks and one tells her: "Your car broke down".
"Oh, did it? Fine. " "You got into college!
" "Fine. " "If you don't hand in that report, I'll fire you". "Feel free to.
It's all good". This is not a balanced person, this is a mummy! This person is not spiritually healthy at all!
A healthy person feels angry when anger is due, feels hungry when hunger is due, feels afraid when fear is due. "Facing a tiger, I sat and pondered. " No, you're supposed to feel afraid, not to ponder!
Not to contemplate! "I saw the tiger and thought of the mantra to Narasimha and chanted it" - No, this person has a mental problem! If a tiger is there, you must run.
The tiger won't ask if you are a vegetarian! "Vegetarian? You're off the hook, then!
" No, a tiger is a tiger, and so is life. So, I need to redirect my mind, since I start my inquiry with fixed ideas about spirituality. If such ideas remain, Vedanta won't make any sense and the inquiry will have no end.
Let's keep in mind that Vedanta, even though it is a subject associated to the end of the Vedas, is a subject, a subject that may be presented under any name, no matter if one will call it Vedanta or something else. Anything, any spiritual group that tells you that you are already what you seek, that the happiness that you seek externally is the meaning of "I" and proposes you clear knowledge of all that, it's Vedanta. There is no difference.
And many will speak this way. Many provide such indications, and many who come to me say: "I study here, I go there, and the same is said, that we already are what we need so as to be happy", but I don't know of any other place with a method of teaching which is structured and makes people learn. This is very heavy criticism, especially to those who claim to study this so-called "neo-vedanta".
It's Vedanta within another perspective. Which one? "Let me tell you what Vedanta says: it says you are not your mind, right?
" So, now, a question: "Teacher, I don't get why I'm not my mind. " -"You don't get it? " -"No.
" "Who doesn't get it? You or your mind? " -"My mind, I guess.
" -"So, you're not your mind". How is that knowledge? !
You are annoyed. "You are not annoyed", they say. "You're different from your mind, and you're not annoyed.
Annoyance belongs to the mind. You are free. " It may even sound right, but one can't learn without some structure.
Saying that I'm free from my mind and hence I shouldn't care about doubts doesn't clarify them! Right? See, how interesting: if the doubts belong to the mind, as thoughts, I can only get rid of them with other thoughts, as they'll share the same level of reality.
It doesn't matter if it belongs to the mind or not: what matters is that there is an issue with my mind, and I need a mental solution! The mental solution will certainly be in the form of a thought, and that's why we can talk about it. Others will say: "No, I have no master.
" It's important for us to hear to this, since we need to refine such concepts so that the study of Vedanta makes sense. "I have no master, I've learned it all by myself. " "Right, and what are you doing?
" "A weekend retreat, just to have an experience. " "Experience of what? Didn't you learn by yourself?
Why are you trying to teach me, then? You've learned by yourself. So, the method must be for me to learn by myself.
Tell me what you did to learn by yourself and I'll do it, too. " This is called tradition. It is unreasonable for one to ask others to learn what he's learned through a different method!
I'm interested in carrying out a systematic study within a working system! If it works, don't mess with it: there's nothing for me to add. So, whenever we hear people saying: "Let me share with you my opinion on Vedanta, my insight.
I'll contribute with my own experience. " Stop it right there. A traditional teacher knows that anything he adds to a study will be an obstacle to the student.
Because the study already works on its own. If I make changes and things go awry, who'll be to blame? Me.
Of course! If I add components to a working system, right? Why add them at all?
It makes no sense. One must have some detachment to join a teaching tradition, since, within a teaching tradition, no one cares what the teacher name is. For example: "This was said by swami XYZ, so, it is true!
" Imagine you're talking to someone and he tells you: -"3x7 = 21". -"Oh, but why? " "When I was in fourth grade, the teacher told me so.
" -"Did she? " -"She did! " This isn't right.
If "3x7" is a knowledge, it must be treated as one. If one doesn't understand it, you must explain, regardless of its source. If Einstein says: "3x7=22", it will still be wrong!
My attitude in the face of information stops being "where it came from", and starts being: "is it true or not? " And, to determine if anything is or isn't true, there are two factors: a method, to show me things: if there's a mathematic problem, there's a method to follow, and my own mind fitting into that process and analyzing whether, through the process, I can see the truth behind what's said. See?
It will always be so. Knowledge always works this way. Someone tries to teach me how to skateboard: "Climb on it", and on I climb.
There will be two things: a method and myself. Once both things meet, who will say if knowledge took place or not? The person, only: the one who says: "I got it.
It's understood. " No one other than oneself can attest to understanding. Also, this knowledge can't be passed on in any other way than to making a person learn.
If it's knowledge, I can't say: "I'll give you a blessing, and, through it, you'll understand the formula of relativity. " Crazy, right? Such blessing could only come as money to pay for college!
Other than that, what can one say? Nothing. Blessings grant good karmas, inspire people, blessings do a lot, but they don't grant knowledge.
For this purpose, there must be a means of knowledge: a method and a mind which is ready to study. The pathways that brought us here may not have been of pure knowledge. Knowledge may often have been mixed up with other practices, energetic, therapeutic, psychological practices, yoga and exercise practices, which is fine, even because, as individuals, we are an ensemble.
We have our physical bodies, minds, pranas, and one can't ignore all that and say: "I'll study Vedanta. I study the Vedas. " Imagine the following, so as to see how it echoes within yourselves: You get to India: "This is the great Vedanta master with whom you'll study.
He'll teach you self-knowledge. " So, he says: "Sit". Then, he opens a big package of doughnuts and starts speaking: "Well, Vedanta has many aspects.
You have many bodies: a physical body. . .
", and continues to eat. How do you feel? You'll feel like something is off.
Yes, because the knowledge you seek requires certain physical and mental balance, energetic balance. Same situation: someone is a Yoga teacher: "He is a teacher, but he has very serious problems on his back, knee and neck. " Will you attend his classes?
No! You're going there so that he'll heal your back and neck, and he needs healing, himself! That can't work.
A certain harmony is required between mind and body. It's impossible to study Vedanta while caught in big emotional trauma. Such traumas must be handled.
All such work is not opposed to Vedanta and self-knowledge, even though they don't focus on self-knowledge itself. It's synchronized work operating in people's lives. I do physical, energetic and mental work and I also study, I make use of a mean of knowledge.
In this first part, the idea is to show you how a mean of knowledge works. A mean of knowledge works as any other in this universe, that we know of. One must be somewhat prepared, a method must be available, one must have the attitude of a student and be willing to study up until understanding happens.
There is nothing to be believed. You can ask whatever you want: Imagine I'll teach you skateboarding, but you can't ask questions". No!
This is not studying. You may ask anything, provided that the right attitude is there, as well as reasonability, of course. Through this attitude, knowledge will work.
Remember: knowledge is not opposed to any spiritual practice. It adds to all practices. We must only keep an open heart so as to see what each activity can grant me.
By understanding what knowledge can grant me, it becomes a "plus" to whatever I'm doing. By not understanding, it may become even a threat. Yes, a threat!
"He's saying that happiness doesn't depend on any of that, so, what's the point in doing Yoga? " No! Why will you brush your teeth, then, since happiness.
. . ?
Well, do it so your mouth will be clean, do yoga so as to have a healthy body. This is all part of life as a human being. We'll take a short break, now, and we'll be back for part two.
All of you who are enrolled in the course received an e-mail with the mantras, which I'll be chanting on the second part of our class, besides explaining a few other well-known ones. If you didn't receive this e-mail, because you were not enrolled, there will be a link down there for direct download of the file for our next class. That's it!
