To move towards Sattva, keep a mirror with you || Acharya Prashant, on Bhagavad Gita (2020)
Video Information: Shastra Kaumudi Live, 10.05.2020, Greater Noida, Uttar Pradesh, India
Context:
6. Of these Sattva, because of its stainlessness, luminous and free from evil, binds, O sinless one, by attachment to happiness, and by attachment to knowledge.
7. Know Rajas to be of the nature of passion, giving rise to thirst and attachment; it binds fast, O son of Kunti, the embodied one, by attachment to action.
8. And know Tamas to be born of ignorance, stupefying all embodied beings; it binds fast, O descendant of Bharata, by miscomprehension, indolence, and sleep.
~Shrimad Bhagwad Gita (Chapter-14, Verse-6,7,8)
~ What is meant by Sattvic Guna?
~ How to go beyond the Gunas?
~ What are the three Gunas?
Music Credits: Milind Date
~~~~~
Context:
6. Of these Sattva, because of its stainlessness, luminous and free from evil, binds, O sinless one, by attachment to happiness, and by attachment to knowledge.
7. Know Rajas to be of the nature of passion, giving rise to thirst and attachment; it binds fast, O son of Kunti, the embodied one, by attachment to action.
8. And know Tamas to be born of ignorance, stupefying all embodied beings; it binds fast, O descendant of Bharata, by miscomprehension, indolence, and sleep.
~Shrimad Bhagwad Gita (Chapter-14, Verse-6,7,8)
~ What is meant by Sattvic Guna?
~ How to go beyond the Gunas?
~ What are the three Gunas?
Music Credits: Milind Date
~~~~~
Category
🛠️
LifestyleTranscript
00:00 (music)
00:07 Srimad Bhagavad Gita, chapter 14, verses 6, 7 and 8.
00:18 "Sattva, because of its stainlessness, luminous and free from evil, binds by attachment to happiness and by attachment to knowledge."
00:40 "Sattva, because of its stainlessness, luminosity and being free from evil, binds by attachment to happiness and attachment to knowledge."
00:52 "No rages to be of the nature of passion, giving rise to thirst and attachment, it binds fast by attachment to action."
01:09 "Sattva-guna binds by attachment to happiness and knowledge. Rajo-guna binds by attachment to action and achievement."
01:22 "Then, no tamas to be born of ignorance, stupefying all embodied beings, binds fast by miscomprehension, indolence and sleep."
01:37 So, how does tamas bind fast?
01:42 Miscomprehension?
01:45 You'd be in a hazy state.
01:53 Bit less.
01:59 Unable to comprehend what's really going on.
02:05 Then, indolence. What is indolence? Laziness.
02:09 And sleep. Sleep of both kinds. Physical and mental.
02:16 The mark of the Tamsik individual is that, one, sleep dominates him a lot.
02:30 Secondly, sleep dominates him at all the wrong times.
02:36 Thirdly, even when he is physically awake, he is still inwardly in a stupor.
02:46 So that's tamas.
02:50 Another question. "On reading the lines above, I see that I have rajas and tamas qualities in me, like ambition, ignorance, procrastination and laziness. If sattva leads to wisdom, how does one move towards it?"
03:11 That's the first question. Then, "To what degree does having a sattvic diet, doing physical exercise and other material changes help in developing a sattvic disposition?"
03:23 How does one move towards sattvicta or sattva-guna on knowing that one is predominantly rajasic or tamasic or both?
03:40 The result of rajasic or tamasic is dukkha. That's the defining outcome of rajasic or tamasic.
03:53 One runs, one runs hard, one has ambition, one acts, one wants to achieve, one feels a certain restlessness.
04:07 And then there is defeat upon not achieving and despair upon achievement.
04:25 Similarly, the result of tamo-guna is a loss of consciousness.
04:37 One keeps sinking deeper and deeper into an inner abyss of unconsciousness.
04:54 All kinds of laziness, all kinds of inabilities overwhelm the individual.
05:14 Even when he sees that there is a need for action, he finds himself incapable to act.
05:28 So, the very presence of these two as the dominant traits in an individual is sufficient to make him rebel against these two and move towards sattva-guna.
05:49 The questioner is saying, "I am dominated by rajas and tamas. How do I move towards sattva?"
05:59 The answer is, "Because you are dominated by rajas and tamas, therefore you will have to move towards sattva.
06:08 These two will not let you live or die in peace. These two will keep unsettling you.
06:19 And since it is obvious that you have at least some kind of a desire to break free of these two,
06:27 you are advised to be with people or be at places where your defeats and despairs will be exposed and called out ruthlessly.
06:46 You should allow yourself to feel the utter pain and helplessness inherent in your situation.
06:59 That will accelerate the process of your freedom.
07:08 I am just suggesting you what would assist you in your own intention.
07:16 If your intention is to be free of rajas and tamas, then allow yourself to feel the pain of being dominated by these two very frequently.
07:38 Forty times a day.
07:39 So that you are continuously reminded that you cannot sleep peacefully.
07:46 At least one of these two traits, tamas, will want to keep you captive by just comforting you into a drunken sleep.
08:03 Right when you would be about to energetically break away from your chains, you will find that you are under a pall of sleep.
08:15 Here you were about to just explode away and here you are, snoring away on your bed.
08:32 Gone are the hopes of any kind of liberation.
08:39 So make sure that by your bedside is somebody who is not very happy seeing you asleep.
08:57 Make sure that you are kept a little uncomfortable all the while.
09:04 Make sure you are reminded frequently.
09:09 Probably it was in this very context that the knowers had said, "Nindak neere rakhiye".
09:18 Keep your critic by your side.
09:26 Let him remind you again and again how deep and how pervasive your follies are.
09:35 Otherwise you will simply comfort and console yourself and certify yourself that you are almost alright.
09:51 That would be just a way to grant yourself a little more sleep.
10:00 Don't allow yourself that leverage.
10:06 You have been playing this game with yourself for way too long now.
10:18 Sometimes you have been running after things, hungry as hell, wanting to be a super achiever.
10:35 And sometimes, usually after repeated failures, you have sunk into a drunken state,
10:44 saying that you do not want to have much with the world's achievement,
10:50 that you are alright within your limited, dirty, stinking self,
10:56 that you don't want to go out of your room.
11:01 What you need is a small room with ample supply of liquor, a nice bed,
11:14 some food to drown your senses down.
11:25 And stuff to keep you sleep, cozy, an air conditioner maybe.
11:38 That's how most people have been spending their lives.
11:43 When in hope, they run.
11:50 When their hopes are smashed, they drink.
11:55 There is a lot of pain contained in this situation, in the continuation of this cycle.
12:07 That pain itself is the only reason one would move away from and beyond these states.
12:21 And if that pain is not sufficient to make you rise up and away from your present rut,
12:35 then nothing else would work on you.
12:38 It's impossible.
12:40 What kind of revelation, what kind of motivation can really spur someone
12:51 who is insensitive to his own inner decline?
13:04 So what you really need is a mirror.
13:08 Keep mirrors all around you.
13:14 Knowing fully well that what would be reflected back to you would not really be pretty.
13:22 Knowing that fully well.
13:27 And being resolved that you would not put on some makeup.
13:40 Things are ugly, let them show up as ugly.
13:52 Neither would I decorate myself, paint my face, wear a pretty mask,
14:05 nor would I refuse to look at the mirror.
14:09 Remaining what I am, I would carry the courage to not only look into a mirror,
14:20 but actually deliberately surround myself with mirrors everywhere I go.
14:25 I'll keep a mirror.
14:32 I'll request mirrors to provide me company.
14:37 If I know I am failing somewhere,
14:47 I'll be doubly brutal with myself and beg for assessments.
14:58 I'll specially focus on those parts of my being that I know to be ugly.
15:12 Beauty is your nature.
15:20 If ugliness manages to stay with you, it is because you hide it, tolerate it, defend it.
15:31 Do not squarely look at it in the eye.
15:36 If you confront ugliness every day, every moment,
15:42 then your beautiful nature within will not allow that ugliness to stay for long.
15:50 Similarly, weakness. Strength is your nature.
15:57 If you have managed to remain so weak, so fragile, so brittle for so long,
16:06 it is only because you have been defending your weaknesses,
16:11 you have been arguing in favor of your weaknesses,
16:13 you have been reasoning out your weaknesses.
16:16 You have simply not been ruthless enough with yourself.
16:25 You have been giving yourself all kinds of excuses.
16:32 And that's why the weaknesses remain till date.
16:38 And they'll continue to remain because you are quite accommodative.
16:45 You have no disdain for your own weak self.
16:51 Your own weaknesses do not disgust you.
16:56 You are alright.
16:59 Yes, I am a spineless fool.
17:03 And I am okay with that.
17:06 And that's only on the rare occasions when you are indeed demonstrated to be a spineless fool.
17:16 Mostly you will not allow such occasions to arise where the reality of your current condition is exposed.
17:27 9 out of 10 times, you will deliberately and deceptively put yourself in situations where there is no one to expose you.
17:39 So 9 out of 10 times, there is anyway no chance of you being called out as weak.
17:48 Once in 10 times, when despite your arrangements, your weaknesses are still exposed,
18:08 then you just thwart the danger by acting a bit shameless.
18:20 Shamelessness comes to your rescue.
18:24 You say, "Yes, I have a few problems, but that's okay. You see, everybody has problems, everybody has weaknesses, so have I."
18:32 It's great that you have acknowledged here that Tamas and Rajas dominate you.
18:44 Now let that acknowledgement become a continuous inner resonance.
18:52 This acknowledgement should keep echoing within you.
18:58 The sound must not die down.
19:02 Even in your sleep, there must be a restlessness.
19:10 You must have an active dislike towards yourself.
19:20 And when I say, I know that this goes against the grain of a lot of current spiritual beliefs.
19:31 We have been taught to accept ourselves and be nice to ourselves,
19:37 and be happy with things as they are, and be happy with ourselves as we are.
19:44 So I know fully well that this that I am saying right now, militates against all of that.
19:54 Here we are with Shri Krishna.
20:01 And if that does not suffice, listen to Jesus as well.
20:10 He says very clearly, "Unless you are full of hatred towards yourself, of what use can I be to you?"
20:22 If you are full of confidence and if you are someone who knows already what is good for you,
20:30 then no Krishna and no Christ can help you.
20:39 If you are someone who is habituated in self-deception,
20:50 then you cannot be helped.
20:56 Ask yourself, last time your follies or weaknesses were exposed, how did you react?
21:10 Ask.
21:13 It's easy to assess your reaction.
21:23 Let's say a situation, a force comes and exposes your ugliness.
21:32 There are only two ways to react.
21:36 Figure out which one is yours.
21:39 One is you get full of anger towards the one who exposed you.
21:44 First way is you start feeling angry at the one who exposed your weakness.
21:51 Start feeling angry at your weakness.
21:55 What's your reaction?
22:02 What's your reaction?
22:04 That will tell you how honest you are and that will tell you what your fate in life is.
22:15 Mirrors too are delicate things.
22:21 You can keep a mirror with you and if the mirror reflects your ugliness,
22:29 it's easy to smash the mirror.
22:31 The mirror will not come back to you.
22:33 The mirror will not come again to tell you how ugly you are.
22:41 It's difficult to improve oneself, it's easy to smash the mirror.
22:47 How easy is it to change yourself?
22:52 Not easy.
22:54 How easy is it to shatter the mirror?
22:58 Very easy.
23:00 Ask yourself, what did you do the last time the mirror said ugly, ugly?
23:10 What did you do?
23:11 Did you curse yourself or did you find yourself full of bitterness towards the mirror?
23:21 You do not need a method.
23:32 You just need a mirror.
23:34 Can there be an easier method?
23:40 Then, to what degree does having a sattvic diet, doing physical exercise and other material changes help in developing a sattvic disposition?
24:07 Of course, these things help.
24:09 No doubt about that.
24:13 So, if you find that you are bulky, indolent,
24:21 then physical exercises are obviously something you must go for.
24:31 Similarly, change in diet, obviously yes.
24:36 We fully well know that certain types of foods cause you to feel drowsy, heavy, sleepy.
24:53 Why go for them?
24:56 It's a chemical thing.
25:00 If a food material is acting almost like a sleeping pill, why do you want to pop in the pill?
25:10 You have work to do, you have distance to cover.
25:20 Why are you taking in the wrong kind of chemical and that too in the wrong quantity?
25:31 So, if you are someone who has realized that you have a long distance to go,
25:42 then you must ensure that you make as much time available to the journey as possible.
25:51 If you have 24 hours and a long distance to cover, you do not want to be sleeping 10 hours, right?
26:00 So, you don't want to take food that would turn you sleepy.
26:08 That's life. We have only 24 hours and there's much to do.
26:13 So, try not to take in stuff that would make you one heavy, second sleepy.
26:21 Physical fitness is very important. Physical strength is very important.
26:33 Sometimes I wonder whether physical fitness and physical strength are any less important than mental fitness and strength.
26:43 Yes, obviously, in the final assessment, mental strength accounts for far more than physical strength.
27:01 Still, give respect to your physicality.
27:07 Make sure you are in shape.
27:12 Make sure that your body does not let you down.
27:19 Thank you.
27:22 [Music]
27:26 [MUSIC PLAYING]