Balancing life through Vedanta -4: Summary of Swami Ishwarananda's lecture

[Guest guest]

Namaste

 

[The following is my brief summary -- errors of fact,

slips of content and faults of logic are all mine -- of

the fourth lecture of a series of five lectures by Swami

Ishwarananda. The fourth lecture (20th April) was titled:

Surfing above Sorrows. I have omitted some of his quotations

from Upanishats and other Vedantic works.]

___________

 

Surfing above Sorrows

 

We saw that the power that empowers all of us to succeed is our own

emotion, like the love of our teacher, the care of our friends or

the compassion of strangers. It is necessary to pause and evaluate

in order to find what we can do to others. To really give a meaning

to this, we need to rise above our imperfections. That is the ascent

in spirituality. Our attempt to perfection should not turn out to be

a persecution of others by demanding something from them. We need to

understand our own personality and slowly and sincerely we should be

able to overcome our own imperfections. It is actually a silent

evolution, not revolution. There is joy in this journey upward,

though it is uphill.

 

Certainly every one of us wants peace of mind. Peace of mind will

not be in our reach so long as our mind is in pieces. We have to

rise above our sorrows. And Bhagavad Gita is precisely our guide to

this end. Mahatma Gandhi rightly calls it Ashoka-upanishat. Ashoka

means a-shoka, devoid of sorrows. Recall that the very first words

the Lord speaks in his teaching of the Gita are *ashochyAn-

anvashochas-tvaM* (You are sorrowing for what need not be sorrowed

about : II - 11) and recall also that the very last word in his long

teaching is *mA shuchaH* (Do not grieve : XVIII – 66). The whole

teaching is about how not to worry, or in other words, how to surf

above sorrows.

 

In what way does the Gita want you to surf above sorrows? When we

meet with sorrows usually we look for a way out. Instead we should

look for a way to face the sorrow or the problem. Vedanta is not for

the escapist. Find out where the problem arises. Vedanta cures the

person and not the problem. Right in the beginning Krishna starts by

changing our perception. Instead of finding an escape from the

problem, he makes you rise above the problem. How does a child learn

to walk? Not by escaping the attempt to walk but by rising after

every fall. If we do not face the problem it means we are afraid of

it. As Ramakrishna said, we cannot direct the wind in our favour but

we can adjust the sails. By running away from the problem we only

create new problems. Recall the folklore story of the renunciate who

ran away in frustration from family, household and everything in

the neighbourhood, only to find that finally he ended up acquiring a

cat to protect his loin-cloth from rats, a cow to feed his cat, a

milk-maid to serve them both, and thus, by one thing leading to

another, a whole new family!

 

Overcome your own imperfections. That is the only way to rise above

sorrows. Ships docked in the port are of course safe. But that is

not what ships are built for! Sorrows are unavoidable in life; but

suffering is optional – that is the finding of the Buddha. It all

depends on how much and how far you identify with the sorrows. He is

the all-time renunciate who neither hates nor desires (*j~neyas-sa

nitya-sannyAsI .. * -- B.G. V – 3). SannyAsa is the stage when you

have to make every one happy. You have to rise above likes and

dislikes. Every moment there has to be a renunciation. Your

thoughts, your past, your memories – everything has to be discarded.

It is not escapism. Escapism is not a solution to the sorrows of the

world. It is easy to go downhill than up. Escapism is going

downhill. But the view is from the top of the hill.

 

The external enemy to this process of overcoming imperfections can

be identified easily. But it is the internal enemy that is most

difficult to identify and to overcome. The internal enemy is the

mind. This internal enemy has to be conquered, vanquished. It is not

enough to have what is called a `smashAna-vairAgyaM' – meaning the

dispassion that arises in the context of a funeral. We see death day

by day but still we feed the greed in us, as if we are going to be

permanent. (Recall Yudhishtira's answer to the question by yaksha on

this).It is a continued and constant positive thinking that is

required. To grow old requires no effort. But to grow spiritually

old we have to put in the necessary effort. (B.G. XIV – 18 *UrdhvaM

gacchanti sattvasthA ... *).

 

Some one who had reached the pinnacle of richness was asked by a

journalist:

`How did you reach to this level?'

His answer : `I took the right decisions at the right time'.

Q: `How did you know it was the right decision'?

A: `Experience'.

Q: `How did you get the experience?'

A: `By taking wrong decisions'!

 

Every moment we have a choice between what is good (*shreyas*) and

what is pleasurable (*preyas*). When the door to happiness closes,

another door opens. We often look at the closed door and lament. We

don't see the door that has already opened. We have to give up the

past. Think of what will happen if you look behind and drive!

Instead you have to look at the rearview mirror and learn. Learn

from the past; don't live there. Brooding over what has happened

will not erase the happening. I have heard many say: `If I don't

worry for my family who will worry?'. This is only looking at the

closed door. By only talking and wailing about your past, you will

not enjoy the present. You may not be able to do everything. But

don't refuse to do the something which you can.

 

With all this background let us now learn how to surf above sorrows.

 

Sorrows are of two types: Sympathy and Self-pity. The latter was the

case with Arjuna at the beginning of the Gita. *kArpaNya-doshha* as

it is called. *kRRipaNatA* is self-pity. Overcome this weakness of

the heart. *klaibyaM mA'sma gamaH*, says Krishna(II – 3w). The

means to overcome self-pity is a three-fold recipe:

• Face or accept uncertainties of life.

• Dissolve desires.

• Perform all actions with detachment.

 

Face uncertainties :

 

The only thing that is certain is that nothing is certain. Do not

worry about what appears and disappears. *gatAsUn agatAsUmshcha

nAnushochanti paNditaH* (II – 11). Do not worry about what is

impermanent, including your thoughts. We are renouncing every day

happily in sleep. Thoughts have to be renounced, knowing the fact

that no thought is real; neither the previous one nor the next one.

The mantra should be `Even this will pass away'. Vedanta says:

Falsify all that is false. Everything that falls is false.

Everything has only a momentary existence.

 

Accept the changes in life cheerfully. *dehino'smin yatha dehe ...*

(II – 13). Just like we change clothes we change this body and go

into another body (II -13 and 22). Ramana's experience of `dwelling

in the body', even as early as his teen age should be recalled.

When the first time he asked questions about death, the replies he

got from his elders did not satisfy him. And he made the experiment

himself. By God's Grace, he could even see his own body lie still

and he was himself outside it. We cannot deny this experience of

his; because he lived it thereafter.

 

Our Pujya Gurudev used to say: "Grow old cheerfully". Know that

death is inevitable for every one *jAtasya hi dhruvo ..*(II – 27) .

So when somebody dies, whom are you crying for, except yourself.

Because by crying the dead is not going to return. You are crying

for yourself only; for you are missing the company, presence, help

of the deceased. All of us sorrow for ourselves. *Atmanastu

kAmAya ..* says the Upanishat. I love somebody because, he gives me

joy. In other words, I love somebody because I love myself. All of

us love ourselves. That is what makes us love others. We love our

finger-nails, our hair, so long as they belong to us. The moment

they are out of our body, we don't even want to acknolwedge that it

came from our body. Whatever comes out of you, is not you. So long

as it is you, it is loveable.

 

*avyaktAdIni bhUtAni ... * (II -28). Know the world as that which is

moving from unmanifest to manifest to unmanifest. It is all a play

of time and space. Shankaracharya recognised this over a millenium

ago (*bIjasyAntar-ivAnkuroH ...mAyA-kalpita-desha-kAla-kalanA ... * -

- Dakshinamurti ashtakam).

 

Death is certain. Only when it will come is uncertain. Recall

Yudhishtira's answer to the Yaksha:

*ahanyahani bhUtAni sarve yAnti yamAlayaM;

sheshhAs-sthAvaram-icchanti kimAshcharyam-ataH-paraM *

Constant death is the nature of matter. But it is not so of the one

who resides in the body. *dehi nityaM ...* (II -30).

 

Dissolve desires.

 

Fanciful thinking is the root of all desires. *sankalpa* is fanciful

thinking. Desire is born of this sankalpa and sankalpa is born out

of rAjasic attitude. And so long as desire is there, sorrows cannot

be ended. Thus Ignorance to sankalpa to desire to sorrow is an

inevitable chain. Desire is like fire (*anala*). *anala* is na

alam , meaning, never enough. The demands of fire are never

satisfied. Fire never satiates with its fuel.

 

BMI is the abode of all desires. *indriyANi mano buddhiH ....* (III –

40). Desire stays with us in two forms: Bodily demands; Thoughts.

Vedanta says: Overcome your desire. Start with sense-control

*tasmAt tvamindriyANyAdau ...*(III – 41).Controlling senses does not

mean you deny them. Just educate them. Understand the power of mind

over senses. *indriyAni parAnyAhuH ... buddheH paratastu saH *

(III -42). So change the goal of life. Then you can overcome the

intellect. It is intellect that has to overcome mind-oriented

desires. Intellect itself must be overcome by changing the goal of

life.

 

Performance of Actions with Detachment

 

Ego is the enemy at the root of all our actions and thoughts. The

thought that `I am the doer' is the Ego. *prakRRiteH

kriyamANAni ... * (III – 27). Wise man knows he is not the doer

*tattvavittu mahAbaho ...* (III – 28). Perform your actions with

detachment, by transferring your doership to the divine.

*brahmaNyAdhAya karmANi ...* (V – 10). Perform actions only to

purify your mind. *kAyena manasA buddhyA ... *(V – 11). Perfection

and purification of mind is a subjective action. Subjective results

are not taboo; only objective results are. It is not the experience

of events that gives us joy or sorrow; the joys and sorrows are

already determined by us by the attitude we keep in doing the

action.

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PraNAms to all advaitins on this list and to Swami Ishwarananda.

profvk