Ritam - Being in Balance. A Podcast on Wellbeing
Mental wellbeing is an escalating global challenge having serious impact on the quality of life, productivity in workplace etc. Our approach to wellbeing fundamentally depends on our perspective of ourselves. Are we just human beings, not much different from animals or something more? Over thousands of years the Vedic spiritual seekers dived deep within themselves to explore the inner space and they repeatedly verified that we all, without exception, are in essence really spiritual beings having human experiences. Their discoveries form Vedanta philosophy - the 'science of human excellences" - which explain in detail and with much clarity how we have multidimensional physical, mental, emotional and ethical layers of personality covering the fundamental Pure and eternal spiritual being. Along with this, the Vedic seekers developed systematic Yoga techniques to purify our minds and "dis-cover" our true Self.
The Vedantic conception of ourselves and Yogic mind-management techniques offer an alternative approach to address the mental wellbeing challenges. Ramakrishna Vedanta Centre, Auckland has taken up a project to make available these Vedanta-Yoga teachings to empower individuals with the knowledge and skill-sets to better manage their minds, emotions, values etc. to live meaningful, peaceful and productive lives.
Ritam is the Vedic principle responsible for maintaining order, harmony and rhythm both in the macrocosm and the microcosm. Stress, tension, dis-ease etc arise when we lose this balance at different levels of our being and around us. We have limited capacity to influence change outside us but we can definitely integrate our mind to our inner Self to gain greater poise, balance and rhythm in life. Meditation is the art of turning the mind inwards and anchoring it to our eternal, omniscient, blissful and pure Self. The more we are integrated with our inner Self, the greater will be the influence we can cast around us. This is the spiritual way to freedom from the slavery to the eternal world and internal body, senses and mind.
Ritam - Being in Balance is our series of conversations with Swami Tadananda wherein we explore the Vedanta-Yoga teachings and practices to promote our wellbeing.
Ritam - Being in Balance. A Podcast on Wellbeing
23.Wellbeing - Navigating the Tapestry of Human Perspectives
Ever wondered how your background, culture, and experiences color the lens through which you view the world? This episode unveils the multifaceted nature of perspectives, inviting you to consider the ways in which our own 'location' shapes our understanding of reality. As we navigate through a conversation about the perils of narrow-mindedness, the value of a comprehensive outlook becomes strikingly clear.
Listen closely and discover how embracing multiple truths can coexist harmoniously, enhancing our collective wisdom. Swami Tadannanda and I delve into the art of listening with humility, an essential skill that enables us to appreciate the richness of diverse experiences. By integrating various points of view within an organization, we uncover the potential to foster a workplace that thrives on mutual respect and continuous learning. This approach not only fortifies decision-making processes but also cultivates a dynamic environment where every voice is acknowledged and can significantly contribute to the overall success.
As we wrap up, the conversation shifts to the nuanced realm of conflict resolution and the role of mental conditioning in our perception of reality. Swami Tadannanda shares insights from the philosophy of Vedanta and yoga, advocating for self-reflection as a pathway to purifying our minds and achieving a clearer vision of the world. In illuminating the impact of our upbringing and experiences on behavior, we propose a transformative approach to justice that focuses on reformation and prevention.
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Namaste to them listeners. My name is Sunil. I'm with Swami Tadannanda from the Ramakrishna Vedanta Center of Auckland, new Zealand. How are you, swamiji? I'm very good, sunil, thank you. How are you? I'm very good as well, thank you. In the last episode, we finished it off by talking about perspectives, and perspectives is a very large topic. How should we start this topic of Swamiji? From what angle, from what perspective should we start this off?
Speaker 2:Well, let us just explore the idea of perspectives from a very simple physical framework. Imagine there's a house and you've got four people and you send them in four directions, each one facing the wall, four walls, each one facing one wall, and you ask them to report. What do they see? What they will see depends where they're standing. Okay, and they'll describe, and so each one will come with their own report. There will be four descriptions and all will be different. Yet they're talking about the same building.
Speaker 2:So reality, ultimate reality or an ordinary thing there, is captured by the mind of the viewer with reference to where they're standing. What is the point of view? Yes, so in English we have this phrase point of view. Say, what's the point of view? Actually, we don't tell the point of view, we tell the view only. The question is asking what is your point of view? Where are you standing? Tell me that first, and then you tell me next what you are seeing. But if you ask somebody, hey, what's your point of view? He's not telling you where he's standing, he's telling what he's seeing. He's not answering the question.
Speaker 2:And if you don't find an anchor, the location, the locus where you're standing, then you don't have a framework to relate with one another. So if people always start, this is my point, where I come from, this is my upbringing, this is my culture, this is my training, this is my whatever is there, and from that location I'm seeing this subject matter, whatever is being discussed. Yes, so both things should be told. And another person says, for example, let us say a problem, the society and somebody says I'm a social scientist, you know, this is my education, training, my experience, and I see this issue in this way.
Speaker 2:Another says you know, I know I'm a spiritual, religious person, this is my training. Another one is an educator or whoever is there. So, just like all the viewpoints are different depending how many observers are there here there are four, but if you put more people, eight people again, all eight will have different descriptions. If you gave somebody a drone, he went to the top of the building, he'll have a totally different view of the building. And you let somebody go inside and explore, he said I'm seeing things from inside. All of them will be telling something about that building, about the same house, but from their point of view.
Speaker 2:And so the important is anyone telling the total picture? No, so the first important thing to realize is that our perspectives are our view and it is not the total view and it's not the only view. Yes, all right, just recognizing all those things are so practical in everyday life. So, but if somebody were allowed to go around the house he traveled around and he went above and he went below and he says I live in this house, this is my house, I built it, you know, I saw how it came up from the foundations that person will have a much deeper what you call better view than understanding of the house what it is, than any one particular person. So everything in this world is known according to our perspective, and there are some very minimalisticistic, microscopic perspectives where we just see one small part of it and that's it. And others are there who have lived that life, walked around to say, thought deeply, explored it from different point of view, will have a more macroscopic point of view and such people will be more accommodating. So when you have a conversation with them and say, yeah, that's right, but the other guy is telling something different, he is also right, it's not that one is right and the other is wrong.
Speaker 2:When we have that right and wrong type of understanding, then conflicts come, because each one then tries to hold on to the perspective and be adamant I'm right. And not only that, they can be a bit more aggressive and try to force their view onto another one, and then that's what you have. Initially it could be a nice gentle discussion. You want to test that other guy out and say maybe this is our thing, but it could be a bit aggressive, you know. So when people who are very firm in their point of view and want to force the view on others or say I'm right, you might say that they opinionated people, judgmental people, you know, you know, so I'm right, he's wrong, you know, type of thing. You have this around all the all the time, yes, and then some people can be very aggressive where they will try to force their views on others. You know, you are wrong, my right.
Speaker 2:If the other person succumbs and accepts it, then he thinks that he has been successful in converting that person or aligning him. He has done a great service to that person. The other person might accept it because this person is so aggressive and powerful and, you know, intimidating that he succumbs and say, okay, rather, not me, so, but it's not that you have really changed the perspective that person you just forced it out of out of fear. Yes, it could be because I'm the boss and I'm telling and you're so using your authority to force it on the other person. Okay, it could be that there are vested interests. You know you have some control over that. You are the financier, you're the person you're giving money into. The other person is dependent on you, so his circumstances are better. Listen, because otherwise these things will be cut off my way, highway type of thing. You have to go on your own way.
Speaker 2:So you see, why can't we do a better job? And so that's why we felt have a more enlightened understanding because if you have very narrow perspectives, fixed, fixated perspectives, not appreciating the idea of others, perspectives can be different yet still be right, good, practical, useful for them, and that you can all exist and coexist in harmony by learning from each other, by appreciating with each other, by being inclusive yet being different, and it's perfectly all right. So this series of podcast we'd like to explore that, because there are a lot of conflicts that come in life, you know, between two friends in a family, in an organization, that we rub each other the wrong way, that we are like billiard balls, colliding with each other and bouncing back and not accommodating and adjusting and learning from each other, that we become more disruptive, corrosive you know all those type of things that happen and we become a source of a lot of conflicts, misery, suffering on others because we are don't understand that others can have their views, which are right, and I can learn from them and I can enrich myself from them. So I think that was the idea behind having these perspectives. We'll discuss this and then we'll talk about the applications of it, and so we hope that this will become a tool in the hands of people or listeners where, when there are conflict situations and obviously there would be where one can step back and say you know, and normally it happens when there's differences with people, conflicts, differences in views and all those things that we say, how can I approach it in a more enlightened way, knowledgeable way, not in a very ignorant way of of looking things and making them worse. So this example of looking at the building from different perspectives a couple of underlying principles are there. The reality is one, which is the building.
Speaker 2:Each one has their perspective, which is dependent on where they are standing point of view. Each point of view is only a partial knowledge, not the whole. So no one should be arrogant and say I know all of it and therefore you know I can be judgmental on others and everything. See only person. The more we know, the more accommodating would be, for example, the owner of the house. He says yeah, all of you guys are welcome, you're all right, I don't have any issue with you because I know that you're all telling the truth, but partial truth, not the whole truth.
Speaker 2:It is that story in the gospel of shri ramakrishna about some people. A person goes and reports that on that particular tree they found this animal, some particular animal lives, and it's a green. And another says why do you say green? I saw it was yellow. Another says it was red, this is brown. And so they are now fighting over, thinking that each one's what they saw was right, and so they had an argument, conflict of perspectives. Each one thinks because that's what the experience was there. Partial truth, not the whole truth, okay, and so partial truth creates confusion, arguments, you know, dissension. So they went to the tree and say let's go and check it out. They all went there and they found somebody sitting there and said why have you come? He said no, this, we saw this animal and all of us think, say that's a different color. The man says all of you are right, I know the animal. It's a chameleon. Sometimes it's red, sometimes yellow, sometimes blue, sometimes it's colorless. Okay, so the man who was living there, who had observed that animal in and out, season, in season out, had seen that same animal in different views, and he says so, no one was wrong, but none was 100 right.
Speaker 2:Yes, to have this humility and understanding in any conversation that I don't have the whole truth, that I have only a partial truth, and that I should be respectful to the other person who also has got his own truth, and that I can enrich myself by listening to that person, by being open to it. Hey, tell me, I know I have a different view, but rather than creating noise about and trying to force my view, I'm more interested in improving myself. Tell me so by the end of the conversation. I want to be more of the listener. I want to be the one who has gained out of that conversation and worked away richer if you.
Speaker 2:That could be one goal of the conversation, or the other one could be I'm going to force my view onto that person by logic or this or that, and strut away and say, and I did a good job and I turned him around, I convinced him or, you know, made him see my point of view, but he didn't gain anything else, just boosted one's own ego and maybe made that feel person feel inferior, down, you know, not respected. He didn't do any good to yourself, he hurt the other person. But if you did the other way and you said, okay, that's very nice, tell me about it. How do you see this? Please explain sincerely. You will do two things. One you walk away richer, better, more knowledgeable, and you have lifted and respected the other person. The other person's view of you has changed also, yes, and he says, oh, that was so nice, he was so nice, he was listening. You know he listened. Nowadays people don't listen, that's the thing you know. And his perspective of you goes up.
Speaker 2:Yes, you see, that's right you have enriched yourself, built a better relationship, and they'll be more open to you and they have some new idea. They'll come and say, boss of my friend, hey, how about this? You know, maybe he will ask you, so how did you think? And gives you an opportunity to share your experience. And that's a wonderful, beautiful relationship is nurtured, maintained, honest. So when you don't do it right, in ignorance, thinking, the ego comes and says I alone am right.
Speaker 2:This is the final, and people will try to sometimes force their views on others. There are many ways to do it, you know, and the organizations have systems and structures where the higher level people have more authority or have more say. You know, they might ask the people at the grassroots level hey, how do you do this? That person has got a perspective view. He's the actual man who's doing the groundwork out in the field. He knows better. But there's some high level graduate in the office sitting there at the top level who is going to, without much experience, maybe, have a view which he says this is the policy hereafter, this is how things are going to happen. And because he has the power, people will follow.
Speaker 2:Some might just walk out and say I'm not going to work here. Others might come and tell boss, that's not how it works on the ground. You know it's not very practical. If they feel the boss is going to listen, okay, but why can't the upper level executive none is going to be coming to the organizations call all the people and say hey guys, this is a problem or challenge. Can you advise out of your experience how we can do this better? Just open yourself to them and you'll find some very high quality, good ideas will come, because while they were doing that work they would have thought about it. Maybe we can do this in this way. That way, maybe it's not asking yeah, no one was asking but you open yourself to that.
Speaker 2:Then maybe I can go and tell the boss he's open to ideas yes and and willing to listen, willing to listen, willing to listen, and the boss says, well, that makes sense, it's a better result, cheaper, faster, why not? But the guy who's doing the work feels appreciated, valued, and if he has got new ideas he will come to you. And I think that's how the richness of the organization, the efficiency, the productivity and the binding we are all in there together, respecting each one and everyone I think so in an organization how this culture can be promoted anywhere. It could be family husband and wife, mother and father. They're open to each other's understanding. If you can do that, you'll find a lot of family husband and wife, mother and father. They're open to each other's understanding. If you can do that, you'll find a lot of family disputes and things will not spiral out of control and you respect your children and you know they feel that my parents are listening to me you know, many times we find that parents don't really respect the views of children.
Speaker 2:Parents don't really respect the views of children and one of the things I ask the kids you know, do your parents know you well?
Speaker 2:And many times they say majority of the times they say they roll their eyes and say no, you know Because. But the parents? If you ask the parents, they think oh, these are the kids of this modern day, you know the modern age, they know everything, you know. But we know everything you know. We know the traditions, where it came from, this and that, and so each one is smug and not trying to communicate and that's why the communications break down. Yes, and the child should be best understood by the parent, because they have seen them grow from kids and they. Yet the kid doesn't feel that way. And if that understanding is not there, then when there are issues and challenges, they will not come to the parent, because underlying idea is he doesn't understand me. What's the point going talking to him? You know he's out fashioned or he doesn't listen or whatever is there. So they'll go to somebody else, they'll go to their friends, they'll go to internet, and that's where many accidents happen, because the best person is not part of the consultation or seeking help that they need.
Speaker 2:So, going back to the perspectives, yes, in life we have a lot of conflicts. We all seek peace. Peace gets disturbed, it becomes restless. Yes, in life we have a lot of conflicts. We all seek peace. Peace gets disturbed. It becomes restless. Yes, and that is because in our interaction we have conflicting perspectives and we are not able to resolve them. We have these subjects of conflict resolutions. Are they than families, individuals? You know husband and wife at work, colleagues within the main management and board, you'll find people are. They're not always aligned to the same idea, or so conflicts come and it takes its toll you know it takes its toll in people's lives.
Speaker 2:It takes a lot of energy.
Speaker 1:Conflicts take and it takes its toll. It takes its toll in people's lives. It takes a lot of energy. Conflicts take a lot of energy.
Speaker 2:Dissipation of useful energy wastes a lot of energy.
Speaker 2:Put it in that way, because you are grinding away. It exhausts people and you're thinking about something that should not be there. It disrupts your peace of mind, it takes your attention from some more important things aren't there. So conflicts are not good, and the sooner and the better we can resolve them, the better, quicker we regain our peace of mind. So I think, to understand this and have tools to apply and nip them in the bud, so to say, when we say a beginning of a conflict is beginning to happen, some disagreements are beginning to happen, if we let it foster for some time, it will spiral out of control and then sometimes it's difficult to put the genie in the bottle back into the bottle. So, but many people say I can feel it, the tension is brewing up. You know this. This tension is there, that we are not talking anymore, we are feeling separated, you know, drifting apart, but they do not know what to do until it becomes maybe too far. Then they probably seek some help, counselors or whatever. Is there why?
Speaker 2:can't we empower people with this knowledge that, even before they engage into any relationship or any partnership or join a company, that they should have these tools beforehand and not let the situations arise in the first place, but manage them to promote a more harmonious existence. You see, it's not only about managing crisis, it's about the positive side of things. So I think so. This is. We're talking about just the, this everyday world, the world that we live in, the world of interacting with people, that who are very near and dear to us. Sometimes conflicts happen and we lose those people and we drift apart. Family members, people don't talk. For a long time, for years, they don't talk.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you know people leave an organization because you know the views changed and they didn't find that they were a fit in that particular place. They just leave, you know, just because you know they didn't feel comfortable there anymore. Like they say why did he move?
Speaker 2:on everything was good, but just the management changed and those people are different now and I don't feel part of that anyway, moving out type of things. So I think understanding this perspective, so let's go back to the root cause of it. What is? Why do we have different perspectives? Psychologically? We talked about the building and that was because we are standing in different places. But two people, when they have different perspectives, where do they stand? What does it mean psychologically? So any observation two people can be seeing the same thing, are seeing the same thing, but their perspectives are different. So the world is presenting things itself to both of them in the same way, but how they are responding to it is different. That's a different perspective okay yeah, it's what colors?
Speaker 2:their perspective of things. So who provides the color? The individual? Yes, all right. Yeah, okay. And so the next thing then we say is that our minds are colored differently? Yes, all right. Why does this coloring of the mind happen? So we say it's your upbringing. Yes, your family, your culture, your traditions, your values, your education All these are the influences color the mind of an individual. And we all have got a colored mind. Okay, so the mind is what that imparts color to something. All these impressions, this knowledge and everything lost in our mind is the colored mind.
Speaker 2:So when I see something I don't see as it is, swami Vivekananda, in Swami's lectures, talks about the world is, say, x, unknown. When I perceive it as Y, it is X plus the mind. Y is the representation of it. That is a perspective. It is not X as it is, it is X plus my mind. My mind has contributed its own color to it and now I am seeing it as such. So the mind is like a colored glass. Let us say you have a blue glass, I have got a red glass and you're looking at some object out there. That object will be colored by your blueness of your mind. It will be colored by the redness of my mind.
Speaker 1:How would we do this? Put a practical example. So let's say you know earlier on, many times in a year there's protests outside the Beehive, the government in Wellington.
Speaker 2:There's protests happening right.
Speaker 1:And, as you say, there's different people looking at the protest. Some would say they're justified for the protest. The other one would say why are they protesting? They're taking up so much time? So, unless you really understand their background, where they're coming from, there's going to be a conflict between the two. So, for example, a person that's got a shop and because the protest is, he's not being able to open the shop, he's obviously, regardless of what the protest is about, he's not making money, he's losing money because the shop is closed, right, so he's just against the protest. Whereas a protest, someone else that's just looking at the protest and the and the you know the reason for the protest might be more sympathetic, saying ah, they've got fighting for good cause, so that's not bad, right.
Speaker 2:so those, those are different perspectives, right based on different, how people are being affected by it. Yes, you know how people are and it's good to have a perspective, but when it comes in, affects your personally, like the business of the shopkeeper, like you say, or so everyone has got a perspective and everyone is trying to walk around that sometimes it's just a idea in your head. You have a distance perspective, an opinion view. It doesn't have any consequences, like somebody staying out far away. It's happening. I like this is good or bad, but others are there, who there, who are getting affected by it, and those people who actually took the action came from so far. We're trying to get a message wanting to be heard, because they were not getting heard in any other way and they had went to this extreme step and the response should be be okay, we should listen to them at least and calm them down.
Speaker 2:And at least they should say we came all the way, made the noise and somebody sat down with us, assured us that we'll look at at least having the conversation. Yes, and many things could be quietened down, yes, there. And then it's only things escalate out of control when those initial levels of engagements are not happening. You know people are trying to talk. You'll find that people are not take that extreme step, but it tends to escalate when we don't, we're not successful in our earlier attempts. You know, okay. So if somebody came and said, okay, sit down, listen to you, put everything on paper, we'll get somebody to come back, you know we'll take it seriously. Maybe that would have been diffused there and then they went away happily. But when you don't have that, then it can become aggressive. So this aggressiveness, where it can become violent and in all those type of things, is when we are failing in those communications, earlier steps, because we are stuck. You know we're not going to talk to them or whatever is there isn't. We're talking about a political thing.
Speaker 2:But in everyday life, in every situation, you'll find that in an organization, suppose, the management comes with a new idea and saying let's talk about an organization and say this is how we are going to do things now. If they didn't do any consultation, then the people on the ground were going to execute the idea, feel it imposed on them. They did not have an opportunity to share their perspective and contribute to an idea. A smart organization will probably say invite consultation, come feel free to talk. Everyone felt that they were heard. Whatever decision was made. The management says, after listening to everyone, okay, that I respected your view and things, and seeing what is the majority point of view type of thing and in the best interest of the organization, that yeah, everyone won't be happy, but the majority, this is the majority view. So you have to please, you know, accept it for the good of the organization type of thing. This is the conclusion or the line of action. At least people will not feel so hurt that they were just, you know, written over, you know brushed aside, type of thing at least, maybe respect I think people feel everyone needs to be respected for that. So these are like management things.
Speaker 2:Many organizations do that, but sometimes you find that they don't, you know, and that's where the seeds of conflicts are sown and sometimes a lot of energy goes in that maybe you know there might be some dissension. Somebody might write to the management, you know protesting. You know. Next thing there might be a sit-in where they have abundant work and trying to hammer that idea to the management we are not going to do. Sometimes there might be some physical clashes. You know Now how much energy is wasted, resources are wasted because things have spiraled out internally.
Speaker 2:And then you spend time, money and all those things resolving those things. Sometimes it might get resolved, it might not. Things might break apart. It happens in different levels.
Speaker 2:Nowadays, at the core level is the families, husband and wife. You know you intend to partnership, to live your happy life forever, but at some point they might be. You know they are beginning to fall out of sync. The couple begins to decouple. Okay, you know, and so if you're not able to work together and to resolve things, then you separate it type of things. And who suffers? Well, both parties suffer, but then the children and everyone else suffers there. These are like practical things. You know how do we pick those early signs of seeing that things are not beginning to go and how to resolve those things early stages? So, going back to a little earlier where we are talking about this. What is that that colors the mind? That's right. Why do we differ? Yes, okay, so it's not about worrying about others. What can I do to my own understanding? How I perceive? Because the change has to come internally. It's only when we don't want to change we try to change others.
Speaker 1:That's where the problem begins to come so this is when you have your blue lens on yes, but you try and understand what the red lens on guy is saying yes, and you?
Speaker 2:you then ask so how did you? Why are you seeing it from their perspective? You try to put yourself in the position in their shoes. That's the secret of it and you'll find most of the time things will work out okay. So suppose, okay, let us say, say, a good example is somebody has done a crime, it's taken to court, the judge is there, he did this, this, these things, and you say, yes, sir, and I did that. It's wrong. But before you sentence me, I would like to say something. I would like to share my perspective of who I am and why I am like this, and this is my background.
Speaker 2:I was born in this particular community, in this particular places. This was my family. It was not like your wonderful family, you know. I didn't have that warmth and care and share. The family was not the best, you know, maybe single parents, father was not there, mother was not there, the conflicts didn't have all that guidance and support and nurturing and all those type of things. I was on the street, you know, living with relatives, so here and there.
Speaker 2:So when he's beginning to share how his mind has been conditioned through all those experiences, it wasn't the best, you know, and as a result, I fell in this company of people, wrong people, I didn't choose, it just happened, you know it. But he says tells all the things. And he says to the judge would you have been any different if you were in my shoes? And the judge would say, wow, I never thought it from that point of view. You know, you know I had the privilege and the you know good fortune of this upbringing and education and all those type of things there. And I'm trying to judge that person based only one, on one action, which might be some stealing or something he did. But I'm not looking where he came from and if he was provided all that right support, so who let him down? Well, the parents who brought him into this world. They failed their duties, you know, as parents. Uh, the teachers who taught, maybe they didn't. You know, the values didn't come, the support extended, family, the community, so so many people were responsible for the end result.
Speaker 2:That person is there and if there should be punishment, there should be for all of them. Well, truly honestly, think about it. But he says it's not about punishing. I understand, I empathize. The idea is not to punish what he has done, but the idea is if I can help that person reform, that he does not do that again. Okay, it's more about reformation and how I can support that. What is done is done and I appreciate and I feel sorry for you, but I want to be more helpful than to be a punisher. I want to have that empathy and make you try to help you be a better person. Even if he does that, even the person who is getting punished will not have that grudge. I was understood, I was listened and here's trying, somebody trying to help me. I'm going to try to respond to that, even if I have to go to the prison or something like that. But it's not just locking you in and bringing you out. There's a place for change. There's a place for change. It is for correction, it's a reformation and they will provide me with tools to make adjust myself so I'm again fit for society and I don't repeat those offenses again.
Speaker 2:So it's all about understanding the coloring of the mind. I would like to really go into that because then we are really going to the core of the issues. Otherwise we are skirting on the surface of it. Shall we take that up again? Because that subjective part, what we experience, what is our perspective, which is Y letter. Y is the mind plus X, and each one's mind is different, yes, and therefore each one's perception is different.
Speaker 2:We're seeing the same reality, x. We're contributing our own color to it, and that's how we are constituted, that's how we've been brought up. We can't say my mind is red, now let me make it blue, just like that. Hey, you can't just uncondition, decondition, like that. That's how we are constituted. We are caught into that. But can we do something to that mind that can remove that coloration out of it? So so that we can see y is equal to x, making the mind zero, okay, or to that extent, reduce the effect, impact imparted by the mind, okay. So the mind, the interpreter, the translator is the problem. Well, it varies, different people. So the subjective attitude of Vedanta would be to work on that mind, these thoughts and ideas and impressions, and samskaras we call in the mind, the coloration of the mind, conditioning of the mind that imparts that color to things. That is something we can internally work on and to the extent we can reduce that coloration, to that extent we will be closer to the truth of what is X.
Speaker 1:So the coloration is not going from blue to red, but more going from blue to a more neutral space.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so if you remove all the coloration, then With the higher space. So it's like becoming white.
Speaker 2:Yeah, becoming white and colorless, transparent, and then everything can be perceived as it is, without the glass, the mind imparting its own coloration, and that is the definition of yoga. Yoga means chitta vritti, nirodha. All chitta vrittis are the impressions in the mind, the thought waves which are contributed by the mind. When all the thoughts, ideas, are removed, then the reality is experienced as it is, and that's ultimately meditation is about. That's why it's called purification of the mind, deconditioning of the mind, but understanding where the problem is. The problem is not with other people, the problem is within us, and we have inherited this mind from our childhood and some impressions from our previous lifetime. The place to work is in the mind itself and there are processes by which this deconditioning can happen.
Speaker 2:But we have to first understand that. I have to heal myself within, okay, and and then the world becomes transformed around me. So what we are according to the coloration of that mind, that's what we see. Yatha drishti, tatha srishti Drishti is how we see and the world appears to us in that. So Vedanta here and yoga here talks about that dimension of it, and I think we need to explore that because that's the root cause of the problem, isn't it? Everything is a consequence out of it. Let's take that up again.
Speaker 1:Thank you. Samiji, we will continue talking about this in our next episode. Thank you, sunil.
