Look Within – Talks on the Bhagavad Gita by Swami Venkatesananda.

[Guest guest]

In `Yoga Vasishta', Vasishta asks a very simple question –

" Do you think that the world is eternal and that your husband and

your children are going to be with you forever – that they are real,

and the relationship is real? "

 

Obviously, there are only two answers – yes or no.

 

Either you think that the world is real, you are real, and your

relationship with your wife and family are all real – if that is

what you believe, what are you worried about?

 

Or, if you think that the whole thing is unreal, an illusion, a jugglery

of the mind and so on, then again there is no worry.

 

When does one worry? Only when one does not know.

 

When there is knowledge of truth, one must be immediately and instantly

freed from delusion, fear, grief, sorrow and attachment – because

all these things are born of ignorance.

 

The moment ignorance goes away – it's finished once and for all.

 

You don't get it back again, unless you again fall into the trap of

ignorance.

 

What is life? What is the truth concerning life?

 

I know that this body has an origin and therefore it will have an end. I

know that it is made up of material substances, and just as material

substances are subjected to decay, this will also decay.

 

When you see labels `unbreakable glass' or `perennial'

flower, remember, these things just don't exist.

 

Nothing is immortal here; if a thing has had an origin, it must have an

end.

 

You and I live for 70, 80 or 100 years; a tortoise can live for 200 or

300 years; some of those trees in your country have probably lived there

for hundreds of years and we saw a stone dog in Albany which has

probably been there for twenty thousand years.

 

But, everything that has a beginning must have an end and everything

that has been put together must fall apart – today, tomorrow, fifty

years, one hundred years and hence – that is totally immaterial.

To be continued..