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.
What if you could transform your daily tasks into profound spiritual practices? Join us as we sit down with Swamiji to unlock the secrets of converting karma into karma yoga. You'll gain invaluable insights into working without attachment to results and the essential role of detachment in maintaining life's balance. Inspired by the Bhagavad Gita, Swamiji shares timeless wisdom on viewing ourselves as instruments of a higher power, thereby transcending the ego and aligning with a greater cosmic purpose.
Our discussion promises to leave you with practical tips for turning mundane actions into avenues for spiritual growth. And don’t miss our exciting conclusion, where we give you a sneak peek into our next episode focused on Jnana Yoga, continuing the ever-evolving quest for enlightenment.
Namaste Ritam listeners and welcome once again Namaste Swamiji.
Speaker 2:
Namaste Sunil, how are you?
Speaker 1:
I'm good, swamiji, good to have you on the show again. In the last episode, swamiji, we started talking about, we continued our discussions on karma, and we talked about a few things. I'll just quickly summarize them. We talked about the basics of converting karma to karma yoga, and that is, to work without attachment to the results of the work. We also talked about the necessity of detachment to maintain poise and balance in our lives. But we also said that in our everyday lives, we do get caught and, before we know, the world pulls us in. So, swamiji, we still have to learn how to detach ourselves. Can we please pick up from there today?
Speaker 2:
Okay, the solutions are given in the Bhagavad Gita itself. Sunil Sri Krishna says look, everyone has got the right to work, but you don't have the right to claim the results of the work. Results will come, but don't take the right to claim the results of the work.
Speaker 1:
Results will come, but don't take ownership of that, okay.
Speaker 2:
So what do you do with that?
Speaker 1:
Who's owning the results?
Speaker 2:
You might say the boss has given me the reward and all those type of things and I take the credit on those things. Okay, that's where you get caught. Yeah, all right. So what does Sri Krishna say? He says work as an instrument. Okay, so if somebody has taken a nice pen and he's writing, ink flows and he writes beautifully, and then does the pen feel so proud that, hey, look, I have written so beautifully. And he says all I did was just let the ink flow. Somebody else was using me as an instrument. I am an instrument in the hands of somebody, so and the result belongs to that writer, so I offer the results to that person.
Speaker 2:
So in this, in this understanding, to have this approach, we have to understand that we are not the writer, we are the pen. Somebody else is using us. That free will that I feel inside me is not absolutely free. Inside me is not absolutely free. This body, this mind, this ego, this doership, this enjoyership, that I feel is not an independent entity. I'm a wave, but I'm not floating on my own. There's an ocean and that impetus, the direction, the energy, the flow, whatever is there, is provided by the ocean.
Speaker 2:
So that's where, if somebody is a spiritual person and says I realize that a cosmic being, cosmic power, cosmic consciousness, that is the substratum of this whole universe and I am only a manifestation. It is that being that is using this body, mind, as an instrument for whatever its purpose is, whatever role it is playing good, bad, ugly, we are all players and he is the director. He calls a shot. We are puppets in the hands of that being or power. That is there, all right. So when we have that understanding of that relationship of ourselves with something bigger behind us and that we are subservient to that power, in the sense we are just a pen that is subservient to the will of the writer. All he can do is let the ink flow, but how beautifully it writes, the credit belongs to the writer. So I am not the doer, I'm only an instrument in the hands of some higher power, right, okay?
Speaker 1:
So you have that mindset.
Speaker 2:
With that understanding, not mindset, that understanding it might take a lot of time. Those who are devotional people, religious people, who believe in God, for them it's very easy. They understand in deep understanding that they can transfer that ownership, doership to that being easily. But those who don't believe in an entity like that it's not that they don't believe. Any smart person with some good intelligence would be able to reason deeply they will chuck out, throw out such ideas of God as a being sitting in the clouds and in heaven and will meet him after life, and all that Remotely. He's controlling our actions and the affairs of the world and not doing a very good job at it. Also, he might think so I don't want to have that type of God, those our actions and the affairs of the world and not doing a very good job at it. Also, you might think so I don't want to have that type of god. That kindergarten idea of god can be dispensed with. Everyone has to do that sooner or later. But if that idea, a higher idea, comes, that that being, that cosmic consciousness, is not out there. It provides anything and everything. It's working through you and me and every one of us. It's like the, the I've got a hand with five fingers, you know, and each finger thinks is an individual, but you know there's somebody behind who's controlling them all. So if the finger acknowledges, then it's not fighting with the other fingers. They all coordinate and ultimately, whatever the hand does belongs to the person behind it. That next level of understanding must come. That knowledge must come. Okay, without that knowledge, you're left high and dry. I'm away, the snow ocean behind me.
Speaker 2:
Unfortunately, in spite of all our boasted education, so many university degrees in this, and that that people have more and more nowadays, the percentage of people who do not believe in some spiritual higher power keeps on increasing every year by 1%, almost In 2013, according to New Zealand census, the percentage of people who said I don't believe in God was. We talked about it in the last class was like. But how much? 41 then became 48. Now it probably has gone over 50.
Speaker 2:
It's not that they don't believe, they don't believe in the definition of god, but you reason and sit down and talk, they said do you believe in a all-pervasive substratum that connects us all, which is motivating us, working through us? They say you know that's not a bad idea, but the God that was sitting in the cloud has now become part of everything within us. So we acknowledge that level and say we as individuals, as persons, are only a channel through which that higher, deeper dimension of consciousness operates. And they want to say I want to get acquainted with that consciousness because it is far superior to this limited doership that I am doing. Actually, this doership I am a free being is called I am the doer, and it is a result of ignorance that I am the doer Really.
Speaker 2:
The more enlightened understanding is I am an instrument in the hands of the doer, and that doer is not some other person like the boss sitting in the office and controlling me. That is my own higher self. Like the finger is saying I'm not the doer, but the person who's operating the hand is my own higher self. Okay, it's my part of my greater being in that I am more fulfilled in knowledge and in my existence. So so this wave says I want to give that credit to the ocean. The results belong to that ocean.
Speaker 2:
What happens then? Then that channel through which that energy which was flowing from the ocean into the wave, which perpetuated the existence of the wave, becomes lessened. You know, you have disengaged the gear, the car is rolling, the wave will flow for a while, but ultimately, what will happen to the? So it ceases, right, yeah, so the wave will subside into the ocean. Car will come to a stop, yes, and what happens to the wave? It has disappeared, but it has now become identified with the ocean.
Speaker 2:
Right, I am that infinite being, and that is a far superior level of existence compared to the wave and the karma. Yogi. Now he says okay, this human existence as an individual, as a separate wave, is a very minuscule, minor and it's constantly being tossed up and down in this. That's the nature of the wave, that it will go up and down. But deep inside the ocean is absolutely calm and perfect and serene and peaceful and beautiful.
Speaker 2:
I want to be in there, deep inside us, beyond the body, beyond the mind, be the ego, is that consciousness, where that perfect poise is there. That's where the point where the pendulum doesn't swing, and it's present in behind every wave, in every one of us. So the person who goes out, apparently, into the world, engaging with people at work and all those things. He wants to be anchored in that center and he says I'll be like that ant who's not going down, where the swinging will become more violent. I'm going to be the smart ant going inwards and I'm going to use this work as the tool to take me towards my center. Okay, so what is that? He always maintains this poise that I'm only an instrument. Everything comes, I pass it to the boss. Okay, that type of understanding is like a shock absorber in a car.
Speaker 1:
All right.
Speaker 2:
So you're driving and there's a big pothole and your car falls in that. You know, if you don't have a shock absorber, the whole car rattles jars in it. You know. But if you have a shock absorber you pass that Shock. You give that the result of that work to the divine Sri Ramakrishna Rapanamastu. I offer the results of this work to the divine Sri Ramakrishna Rapanamastu.
Speaker 2:
I offer the results of this work, mentally Okay, and you'll find the moment you can truly offer. Your pendulum did not swing, you did not become excited, you did not become upset. You let it flow through.
Speaker 1:
Or the pendulum is still swinging because you climbed up. You're not feeling that.
Speaker 2:
Yes, the world is still swinging. The world is swinging and everyone is experiencing it in their own different way. So what we have introduced here today is this Vedantic understanding that behind the individual is the real individual. We are not the real individual. We are parts of the whole thing so many ways, but behind us is that ocean and I want to integrate myself with the ocean and let that ocean work through me. And I'm going to go out and utilize this work, duty, responsibility, whatever comes in my way, as an opportunity to strengthen that understanding and that practice. And it could be all little little things, but that's how we build up that capacity. So when the bigger things, challenges, come, we are able to maintain that balance. That's a secret.
Speaker 2:
Sukh Dukh, samay Kritva, labha, labha, jaya. Bhagavad Gita says Sukh and Dukh, happiness and misery, samay Kritva Treat both of them alike. Labha, alabha, gain and loss, jaya and ajaya, victory and defeat, samatvam maintaining that peace. So he is a young man who goes out in this world and he says I am not just going to work, I am going to train myself to be a karma yogi, and that means, in all situations, maintain that balance. But I have a philosophy of life, a deeper understanding of how karma operates in me, around me, and I have a way to get out of that.
Speaker 2:
Abhimanyu Chakra Vihara, because this non-attachment is what takes out the, the binding force of karma. Karma binds, but you can burn that karma in the fire of knowledge. Gyan agni, it's called so. A rope binds, but if you set fire to that rope and you look at the ash, it looks like a rope the way it's lying on the floor, but it has lost its binding power. Apparently you'll be working to outside people, everyone saying he's a wonderful worker, he's so productive, he's very calm and churning out so much work. But that person is doing all the work, but he is maintaining that attitude. I'm only an instrument. Everything flows through me. All that previous karma is getting exhausted. That has to be, you know, as I had shown. So now reaping is happening. Good comes, bad comes, pleasant, unpleasant. I'm just working those things out. But I'm very, very care, not careful, not to add new, fresh karma into it and that detachment comes.
Speaker 2:
So in the bhagavad Gita, sri Krishna says you know, ishwara, the divine consciousness resides in the heart of all beings. All beings are like machines mounted on it. Okay, from within he turns this, you know, like the clock, he winds the energy in the spring, and then the tick-tock, tickck, tick, tock and all the wheels are moving around, giving you the time. So you take that energy out. Once it's exhausted itself, the clock stops moving. Freedom mukti means dissipating all that energy. The whirlpool loses all its momentum, ok. The wave loses all its power that sustains it. Yeah, yeah, and so that would be, as a practical way to go out and work and not be bound by the nature, the binding effect of karma.
Speaker 1:
Does it make sense? That does make sense, so that's quite useful, quite practical as well for someone that's out there working, going out and living every day and then having that different understanding.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, so you'll see. This is called karma yoga. But there are other yogas also. You know Meditation. We talked about that's dhyana yoga, the path of knowledge, that understanding the spiritual and where you have the insight into these things. So you approach work is not just a work running for results, of you know money and this, and that it's a.
Speaker 2:
This world is a gymnasium, like Swami Vivekananda says. This world is a gymnasium, like Swami Vivekananda says. This world is a gymnasium where we come to do exercises to make ourselves spiritually strong. That is the purpose of my coming into this world. At the end of the day, what do I take? I have grown spiritually, I have become stronger, I have progressed in my spiritual knowledge of who I am, type of thing. That's the result I'm going to take, as well as the karma, karma phala, okay, the knowledge and the karma, yatha, karma, yatha shrutam. Whatever we learn and do, that goes with us, with the transmigrating soul and whatever is the karma that's prarabdha is the one that starts in the beginning of life. Not everything is exhausted in one life also, so sometimes it takes a few lifetimes to work out, but the important thing is not to add more fuel to the fire. Let it burn out.
Speaker 1:
And in that, ultimately, is where the freedom or mukti of peace that we are seeking is, there within ourselves. That's very good, swamiji, that's very enlightening for all our readers, listeners.
Speaker 2:
So what does the life of a person look like then? Okay, so do you simply say I'm going to just go and do karma yoga, or does it need to be supported with a few other disciplines to be able to maintain that balance? Okay, so the ideal person is one who can harmonize all these faculties that are within us. Doing action is one part of what we are Our hands and feet and speech is what we engage with.
Speaker 2:
But there is this other dimension where we can think, we can reason. You know, rationalize, that's a capacity for human being, power of discrimination with which this six-foot, five-foot, six-foot being rules this planet yeah.
Speaker 2:
Okay, because we are endowed with this intelligence. Most of it goes out into, you know, being successful in life and all those things. But it's a sword, how you use it. So that is called Gyan Yoga. When sharpened and properly trained, it is able to discriminate between two things what is permanent and what is transitory. Okay, everything in this world is transient. Permanent is that central point within. Outside is constantly changing. Inside is the reality. So when we train ourselves internally to be mentally alert in the midst of all those activities, okay, if success comes, you say, yes, it has come, but it's impermanent. Tomorrow is another day. You see, I shouldn't get too excited and carry about it. This will pass and bad time comes, that too will pass. I should not get carried away with, make a big deal about it.
Speaker 1:
Don't make a big deal about it.
Speaker 2:
Just let that go. It's good, whatever is there. My purpose is something higher Like that Maintaining so that jnana, I am a spiritual being. I am far superior to anything this world can give to me. Okay, my own nature is that I am that eternally mortal being. What can this world give me? And make me happy with some reward and make me miserable? Okay, that doesn't befit me type of thing. That is called jnana yogna. So I'm using that intelligence, thinking power that is given to all of us. Why don't we utilize this for spiritual progress also? And the third one is devotion, bhakti, emotion, emotionotion, emotion. We have Love, affection, kindness, compassion. It's a very powerful force, more powerful force than even action. Actually, that's what guides and regulates our behavior and thinking in a more powerful way than even our rationalizing and thinking. You might rationalize and think this is your line of action, but what you'll do mostly is going to be decided by what you like. Emotion, I like this, I like the type of thing from the heart.
Speaker 2:
So whatever comes from the heart, yes, and very few people understand the, the, the mechanics of it. It's very interesting science. It's all about energy and how the energy flows around. That okay, what you resonate with. I like that person, I like that job, I like that particular dish you know, mc McDonald's or something.
Speaker 2:
Hey, this is not good food, it's all junk food. But still you end up, you know, driving down there and eating that. Okay, why? Because emotion has overruled your intellect. Yes, so this emotion is given to the world in so many ways. You love your cat, you love your children, your wife, your job, your house, your car and all those things. Your cat, you love your children, your wife, your job, your house, your car and all those things and such. The mind gets tied to all these type of things. Initially it looks very good, but through each of that attachment you forfeit a degree of your freedom because you now become enslaved by that. It can control you now.
Speaker 2:
Okay, so okay, for example, you know, let us say some attachment to, let's say what, the cat. Okay, you love the cat, the cat is playing nicely and everything. You're happy. The cat falls sick or something. You're feeling miserable. Why should your happiness and misery depend on the health of the cat? Because of your attachment to it? Or your wife, or money, or whatever you say.
Speaker 2:
So that's a very powerful force that binds us. How we can utilize that force to free ourselves? By directing that attachment to something higher. What is that higher Open? So what is that higher Within us Open? So what is that force? That is our own spiritual self within us, and for devotees, they personify that as some divine form, incarnation of God or some divine being, and direct that emotion to the divine. It's called devotion. Okay, so that is called Bhakti Yoga. We've talked about Karma Yoga, gyan Yoga, Bhakti Yoga and meditation. We have already talked about Dhyan Yoga. These are the four royal paths which we are all utilizing, but we can use them for spiritual progress rather than for only our worldly success. It's about giving a direction, a new, direct spiritual direction to these forces already operating, because we know the laws that given operate within us. And now we are going to navigate the flow of that energy, to free ourselves rather than bind ourselves. That's actually the art of living or the art of working.
Speaker 1:
So, swamiji, we've talked about meditation a lot, so Dhyanogas completed, not fully completed but to a level. We've talked about karma yoga. Now we still, I think, need to do gyana yoga and then bhakti yoga.
Speaker 2:
Okay, let's talk about those two other yogas, and then the ideal is to how to beautifully harmonize them, synthesize them so that they're not like water-type compartments. We are all integrated beings. For the sake of discussion, we say this, this, but they're not like what a type of compartments. We are all integrated being. For the sake of discussion, we say this, this, but they're not like some line of demarcation, saying this is where emotion ends, where the knowledge starts. Like that we are one being, but they're all aspects of our being. How we can beautifully synthesize that? That ideal is what is represented in the logo of the Ramakrishna mission. In there you have this swan. That is the inner self, okay, the Atman. The rising sun is the knowledge. When sun rises, all the darkness disappears. Light dispels all ignorance type of thing. The water is represented by karma, incessantly, it's always in waves. The lotus represents bhakti. Something potential is there in the bud that opens up and flowers and manifests itself. So that's path of devotion. And the encircling serpent is symbolic of the awakened kundalini that awakens through meditation and the goal is to realize that divine within ourselves.
Speaker 2:
With one or more or all of these yogas, to use only one, that will be a bit lopsided, so you'll find sometimes people are very dry intellectually. So you'll find sometimes people are very dry intellectually. Or some people are very, very emotional in devotion, overwhelming emotional. Or some people who just want to work, work, work, work, give me something to work, type of thing, not knowing why you're working and, of course, very few are able to sit quietly. Why can't we harmonize this beautifully? If the knowledge is there and a desire to put into practice, then every day is an opportunity to go. Start with a little bit of meditation, have some devotional music and all those things. Go out in the battlefield of work and work, karma, yoga. Come back and try to follow the yogas and then every day is a wonderful opportunity to take one step towards the freedom that we all are seeking.
Speaker 1:
That's right that's very good, swamiji.
Speaker 2:
Thank you, and we'll definitely discuss about these other yogas let's take up Jnana Yoga in the next episode. Thank you, swamiji.
