AvadhootaDatta Peetham

Discourse on Yoga Vasishtha

Day 73, November 9

Jaya Guru Datta

Sri Ganesaya Namaha
Sri Saraswatyai Namaha
Sripada Vallabha
Narasimha Saraswati
Sri Guru Dattatreyaya Namaha

Sri Ganapati Sachchidananda Sadgurubhyo Namaha

asato ma sadgamaya
tamaso ma jyotirgamaya
mrityor ma amrtam gamaya
Om Santissantissantihi

Please lead me from untruth to Truth, from darkness to light, from death to immortality. May there be peace.

Yoga Vasishtha Dhyana Slokas:
yatassarvāṇi bhūtāni pratibhānti sthitāni ca
yatraivōpaśamaṁ yānti tasmai satyātmanē namaḥ || 1
jñātā jñānaṁ tathā jñēyaṁ draṣṭādarśana dr̥śyabhūḥ
kartā hētuḥ kriyā yasmāt tasmai jñaptyātmanē namaḥ || 2
sphuranti sīkarā yasmāt ānanandasyāṁbarē vanau
sarvēṣām jīvanam tasmai brahmānandātmanē namaḥ || 3

Om santissantissantihi

This week we have received a question from Malaysia: Is it important to keep our minds quiet and our thoughts empty?

The answer is: Yes. It is very important to keep the thoughts pure and the mind peaceful.
The next question is: How can we do that?

For everything there is a gradual process. The first step is to keep out bad thoughts. It is very difficult to do so. Sadguru also agrees. We have to go step by step. First practice getting good thoughts. Think about good things. That is very important. To get out of evil thoughts is very difficult. Therefore, you should invite good thoughts. That is easy. Invite Sadguru. When he comes, all your enemies will go out. We have to practice inviting good thoughts. Good thoughts are divine. The Supreme Soul is in the form of good thoughts. When good thoughts come, the evil thoughts will go. The second step is to fill the mind only with good thoughts. This is the sadhana taught by the scriptures and our Sadguru. As the volume of good thoughts in the mind increases, the volume of bad thoughts will automatically decrease. The strange thing is that bad thoughts readily come. Good thoughts have to be deliberately brought in by effort.

We have to examine the mind to see the proportion of good thoughts versus bad thoughts at any given time.
How to get rid of bad thoughts is the next question. Bad thoughts are very powerful. The force of bad thoughts is very strong compared to the strength of good thoughts. They can conquer our minds. The world around us is conducive for us to get bad thoughts. No one wishes for evil thoughts. We try to get rid of them. But it is not easily possible to get rid of evil thought.

Just as we keep some weapon or tool to deter a thief or an unwanted animal from entering the house or to drive them away when they enter, to drive away bad thoughts, the effective weapon is the chanting of God’s names, and the yoga practice that you engage in. If you hit the enemy with your weapon, you will succeed in driving him away.

Suddha Satva is superior to Satva Guna. That is what fills the hearts of sages. That stage we must achieve. Thereafter bad thoughts will not enter the mind.

Remember Sadguru and keep on remembering your Sadguru’s words. It may be just like a tiny drop. But if you hold on to it, it will grow into a mighty ocean. Keep remembering and chanting the mantra given by Sadguru. That is the best method to keep out bad thoughts. This is the sadhana taught by the scriptures and our Sadguru.

If you do not have a mantra given by Sadguru, then what do you do? You have Hanuman Chalisa, Kavacha Manjari, Bhajans, and so many good things to do. Do annadana/feed the hungry, do vidyadana/educate the poor. Both good thoughts and good deeds will help you in overcoming evil thoughts.

Chittha Suddhi/cleansing of the heart, is today’s topic. The fruit it grants is peace of mind.

Hanuman was able to effortlessly cross the ocean. But all the others required a bridge to cross the ocean. Hence, we have to utilize the bridge that has been constructed for us. That bridge is the spiritual sadhana/practice.
This is the answer to the question as per my knowledge. Jaya Guru Datta.

Today we are going to listen to the teachings given by Sage Vasishtha in the Mumukshu Vyavahara Prakarana. Many people have many questions based on the discourses given in the past two days. Analysis must generate questions which must be expressed and doubts should get cleared. Vasishtha urges a disciple to ask questions without feeling bashful, hesitant, or disinterested.

Sadguru leads us all the way and gives us everything including pouring the water into our mouths when we are thirsty (for knowledge). We must at least swallow. That effort we must put in. Prasnopanishat consists of 6 most important questions. The answers to those six questions will answer every single question that can possibly be asked. Please read that work. Translations are available. At least read the commentary on it. You will learn how to ask questions. I felt happy that people have asked questions. It gives pleasure to a speaker when questions are asked. It tells him that the audience is paying attention.

The soul remains where he is, it is said. It is a concept that is difficult for us to grasp. We have developed a strong bond with the physical body. Therefore, subtle concepts are tough to understand. Liberation is nothing but acquisition knowledge.

Vasishtha has confirmed that Vyasa is liberated. Those who are liberated and are freed from the body as well are Muktas. Those who are liberated and still remain in the body are Jeevanmuktas. They are our only refuge. If they don’t show us the path, we would be completely lost for direction. Sadguru is a Jeevanmukta. There is no need for any doubt in this matter, says Vasishtha.

He further explains the qualities of a Jeevanmukta. Vyasa is free from sorrow, fear, and anger.
Vyasa was also troubled when Draupadi was humiliated in public. In his innermost heart he knew that everything is an illusion. There is no court, there is no Duryodhana, and there is no Draupadi. All that exists is the Paramatman. Still, to protect Dharma in the world, he had to express displeasure at what had happened. The sun, the earth, the rivers and the oceans abide by their dharma to maintain the wellbeing of Creation. When on occasion the ocean crosses its boundaries, it creates calamity. Vyasa is free from delusion and exists only in Truth. He has conquered his mind.

This creation is very strange. Our birth and death are extraordinary occurrences. The wealth, the characteristics, the nature that is in the present birth of a soul may repeat exactly in the same manner or they may all be different in the next birth. The created beings may remain just as they are, or they may become totally transformed. This entire phenomenon is nothing but a delusion.

Vasishtha gives a good example. The crops have been harvested. The husk and other extraneous materials are removed through a process where the grains are sifted in a certain traditional manner where large woven trays made with straw are used for making the lightweight debris fly away in the breeze.

Twice a year we celebrate the harvest festival, at Sankranti and at Ganesh Chaturthi. Three harvests a year indicate that a country is flourishing. Now even to get one proper harvest is becoming difficult. A heap of grains is worshiped. The heap appears like Ganesha’s big belly. The large trays appear like his elephant’s ears. We also offer worship with 21 important leaves from 21 different species of trees. We also offer worship with important fruits and herbs. It denotes reverence for Nature and a commitment to preserve its treasures.

The grains, after the debris has been removed, are placed into gunny (jute) bags for storage. When the grains are thus transferred from the heap to the bags, the grains that were at the top of the heap will now go to the bottom of the sack. Later these whole grains are de-husked in a mill. Once again the location of the grains gets switched and shuffled and all the grains change their positions.

Similarly, in Creation, where all the living creatures are like the millions of grains just harvested, which creature gets where, when, and how, cannot be explained. After the husk is removed, if it is a rice grain, it gets cooked, consumed, gets digested, transforms into energy and eventually strengthens the soul. When it does that, the purpose of its existence is fulfilled.

In future births, the grandchild may be born first and much later followed by the grandfather. The sequence of births may become all mixed and go topsy-turvy. It is all based on each one’s karma. The grandson may resemble his grandfather. It can happen. This is a secret in Creation. The names and forms may get switched or may remain the same. There is no need for grieving that one has given up his form. He may well assume the exact same form again at another time.

It is important to worship God with name and form for this reason. The way our bodies change, Paramatma’s body does not change. In our physical world, we know nothing else except form and name. If the name is forgotten, a description of the form is given to identify a person or an object. Since name and form are so crucial for us in our lives, we have to attribute a name and a form to God and worship Him with those, so that eventually we can graduate to a subtler form of worship minus the name and form.

Therefore, we give a name to God and we attribute a form to Him. That is the only way we can imagine or visualize Him and identify Him. We know nothing else. Afterwards we can proceed to visualizing God as a form of light. To begin with, if one is told that God is Light, it is not possible to grasp that idea or to maintain focus. We need something more concrete. We should remember the name and understand why such a descriptive name has been given.

We must understand why such physical attributes have been assigned to God to describe His powers and capabilities. Only through the ritual worship of idols we can proceed to the next stage.

Those who criticize our methods of worship also use name and form in their worship. Those who listen to detractors, whose intention is only to throw us into confusion, and give up traditional practices of worship, lose on both ends. The interest and faith in our rituals is rejected and no proper substitute for it is found. What happens if one keeps travelling in two boats at the same time, keeping one foot in each? Each boat will go its different way and the person will drown. That should not happen. Our practices have been taught to us for our benefit. We must strictly adhere to our practices and methods and eventually the fruit of Jnana will be obtained with certainty.

If we give up our true and tested methods, we are neither making progress in the traditional way, nor are we jumping straight to grasp the Truth directly, which is the toughest thing to do and is next to impossible.
Keep doing your practice with steady determination. Do not begin enthusiastically and then drop it midway. Be it an austerity, a ritual, a japa, you must keep at it. If you declare that you are already enlightened and you do not require any of these procedures, and you go off at a tangent not following any discipline, what will be your fate? You say that there is no need to brush your teeth. You will emanate a bad odor where no one can approach you. But you consume your meals regularly. Your focus is only on food. That is what you worship. You have no ritual, no virtuous practices, no prescribed karma, and no spiritual knowledge. You gain nothing by living like that. Simply to eat, grow, and live is what even animals and birds do. Even birds are chanting the names of God these days and we are not doing it. That is the strange thing now.

Vasishtha compares Creation to a heap of grains. This Creation in macrocosm and microcosm occurs like this. Our individual worlds are our small creations. Before understanding our small creations, if we attempt to understand the larger aspect of Creation, it will not yield any benefit. All the individual creations are like waves in an ocean, which are impossible to count. Our time calculations of days, months, years, eons, Yugas, Manvataras, and so on will keep continuing endlessly. No one can estimate or comprehend the magnitude of Time.
Waves come and go. We are stuck amidst those waves in the ocean called Time. We need to get out of the waves and merge into the Paramatman on the seashore, so that we can fearlessly and joyously just view the ocean from a distance.

Verse

The mind is then at peace when it is enlightened. Ignorance is removed. Self is realized and identified with. It comes from incessant contemplation. Without contentment life becomes miserable and unbearable. Discontent is the cause of all our troubles. To give us some forced rest every day, God makes us sleep for at least a short time. If we do not sleep at all, what will be our condition in the morning? If there is no contentment, there is no peace of mind, without which there is no sleep. Without sleep, health deteriorates.

Sadguru or Vyasa, the Jeevanmukta is totally at peace and unperturbed. We must practice this through sacrifice and renunciation. We must learn to give. The open hand that gives symbolizes the heart that is opened like a flower. If you are tight ***, the mind also remains closed up.

In an instant, Swamiji gave away a crore of rupees. He simply distributed it. What is the virtue in hoarding? In our country it is highly prevalent, this obsession for earning and hoarding. Millions are stashed away in Swiss banks. It is benefiting that country and depriving our nation. If all that money could be brought back, it has been calculated, it is said that a highway paved with gold can be laid from Kashmir to Kanyakumari. In other countries, the policy is for parents to give a good education to the children so that by their talent they can support themselves. In India, people save obsessively to give an inheritance to the children, who treat them with disrespect in the end. I see this happening.

Ignorance is removed gradually as a person removes the layers surrounding him, into which he has enclosed himself. Man has to make every effort to free himself from the enclosures into which he has confined himself. Man must share the joys and sorrows of others. He must expand his consciousness to include the whole world as himself. One cannot carefully preserve one’s ego and still hope for enlightenment. Reading books and gaining spiritual wisdom is ineffective. It remains as mere bookish knowledge. The heart should be cleansed step by step.

We must have done great sadhana in many of our previous lifetimes to earn the eligibility in this lifetime to find a Sadguru, to come to the ashram and to study the Yoga Vasishtha.

It is being dinned into our ears by the seers that this human body has come to us at a very great cost and that we should not waste this opportunity but utilize this human birth properly. It is very wrong to complain that God has not given us anything but this body. This human body is most precious. We must not misuse it. The sages out of great compassion tell us this.

In the fields, when they whack to separate the grains from the stalks, they are supposed to leave the grains which fall at a distance. After the heap of grains is taken away, the farmer does not return to the field for some time. The ascetics and those who live on alms come by the fields at such times to collect the discarded grains. They survive on those grains.

The farmer who grows the grains has a fondness for the grains and he is reluctant to let any grains be wasted. So he picks and collects everything that falls within a certain radius on the concrete floor, just as a Sadguru fondly collects disciples, whom he wishes to rescue from ignorance.

The grain turning into rice and getting consumed is its fulfilment. Similarly, those who are born must earn spiritual knowledge and elevate themselves. That is their proper fulfilment. Not realizing the purpose of our existence and wasting away a lifetime is like a heap of grains becoming rotten and unfit for consumption.
The rotten grains turn to manure and dirt. Whether they will again take the form of grains and rice and get consumed is uncertain.

Therefore, we must get rid of the husk that covers us in the form of ego. Rice that is de-husked gets cooked, eaten and it sustains life. Our life also fulfils its purpose if we get rid of the ego and get enlightened. Those who are enlightened while still in the body are the Jeevanmuktas. Thus, Vasishtha gives a definitive answer to Rama’s question. This concludes this sarga.

The fourth sarga is called Paurusha Prakarana. I like this sarga very much. It teaches that there is nothing that cannot be attained by human effort. It says that even enlightenment can be attained by a proper effort.

Vasishtha, who normally is very soft-spoken, thunders in this sarga making this very powerful pronouncement. He urges everyone to make a sincere and determined effort. With the performance of good karma, the heart gets cleansed. Thereafter, knowledge has to be gained. Liberation is nothing but the removal of ignorance.

Soumyaam ..

It is possible to enjoy the state of liberation while still living in this body. In some places the ocean is very calm and at some other places it is turbulent. At both places it is still the same water. It is the same case between a Jeevanmukta and a Videhamukta (one who is liberated and has left the physical body). With or without a body, one can be liberated. The state of liberation is the same in both of them.

Anaasvadita ..

A Jeevanmukta is untouched by karma.

Karma does not bind us. We bind ourselves with karma. We must develop a neutral attitude. Even for a moment if we can experience it, it is sufficient. We have no tolerance. If someone with justifiable reasons jumps the line or requests us whether they may go ahead of us, we show great irritation. We do not wish to accommodate. When will we learn to be unperturbed? It will come if we practice being helpful. We should enthusiastically jump in to be the first ones to help. If we see ten rupees on the street, we will of course jump to be the first ones to grab it.

As we offer services while at the ashram, we should also offer services outside. We must practice being compassionate and helpful. It will earn us Guru’s grace. This will develop in us the ability to remain neutral in all situations.

The Jeevanmuktas are always aware of their identification with the Paramatman. They appear as if they are experiencing comforts. But their minds are not involved in the comforts. They transcend likes and dislikes.

Vyasa is a Jeevanmukta. He appears to us like an object, like a ***. But you cannot know his mind or his intention. He engages only in good deeds. Whether he is performing as a karma yogi, or as one who has renounced all the fruits of karma is not known to us. His speech is superb. Today we live on what he has left behind for us as prasadam. His left over food is what we are consuming today. We have total trust and faith in his words.
What his mental state is, we do not know.

How to do sadhana is what will be explained next.

Today after Sri Chakra Puja, we will be going to Chamundi Hill to perform Abhishekam to the huge monolith Nandi as per the invitation extended to us by the temple authorities. After that there will be Tailabhishekam, since it is Sunday. In the evening we will witness the Deepotsavam celebration taking place in Hyderabad. Sri Swamiji will be attending it. We will watch the live telecast here in the Universal Prayer Hall.

Jaya Guru Datta
Sri Guru Datta

Om santissantissantihi