To move towards Sattva, keep a mirror with you || Acharya Prashant, on Bhagavad Gita (2020)

Acharya Prashant

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Transcript

00:00Shreemad Bhagavad Gita, chapter 14, verses 6, 7 and 8.

00:18Sattva, because of its stainlessness, luminous and free from evil, binds by

00:34attachment to happiness and by attachment to knowledge. Sattva because

00:42of its stainlessness, luminosity and being free from evil, binds by

00:48attachment to happiness and attachment to knowledge. Then, no rages to be of the

00:57nature of passion, giving rise to thirst and attachment, it binds fast by

01:05attachment to action. Sattva-guṇa binds by attachment to happiness and knowledge.

01:16Rajo-guṇa binds by attachment to action, action and achievement. Then, no tamas to

01:27be born of ignorance, stupefying all embodied beings, binds fast by

01:33miscomprehension, indolence and sleep. So, how does tamas bind fast?

01:44By miscomprehension, you'd be in a hazy state,

01:55bit less, unable to comprehend what's really going on. Then, indolence. What is

02:07indolence? Laziness and sleep. Sleep of both kinds, physical and mental. The mark

02:18of the Tamsik individual is that, one, sleep dominates him a lot. Secondly,

02:31sleep dominates him at all the wrong times. Thirdly, even when he is physically

02:40awake, he is still inwardly in a stupor. So, that's tamas. Now the question, I'm

02:53reading the lines above, I see that I have rajas and tamas qualities in me,

03:00like ambition, ignorance, procrastination and laziness. If sattva leads to wisdom,

03:07how does one move towards it? That's the first question. Then, to what degree does

03:14having a sattvic diet, doing physical exercise and other material changes help

03:21in developing a sattvic disposition? How does one move towards sattvicta or

03:31sattva guna on knowing that one is predominantly rajasik or tamasik or both?

03:40The result of rajoguna is dukkha. That's the defining outcome of rajoguna.

03:54One runs, one runs hard, one has ambition, one acts, one wants to achieve, one feels

04:02a certain restlessness and then there is defeat upon not achieving and despair

04:19upon achievement. Similarly, the result of tamoguna is a loss of consciousness.

04:39One keeps sinking deeper and deeper into an inner abyss of unconsciousness.

04:56All kinds of laziness, all kinds of inabilities

05:09overwhelm the individual. Even when he sees that there is a need for action,

05:20he finds himself incapable to act. So, the very presence of these two as the dominant

05:36traits in an individual is sufficient to make him rebel against these two and

05:45move towards sattva guna. The questioner is saying, I am dominated by rajas and tamas.

05:56How do I move towards sattva? The answer is, because you are dominated by rajas

06:05and tamas, therefore you'll have to move towards sattva. These two will not let you

06:12live or die in peace. These two will keep unsettling you and since it is obvious

06:22that you have at least some kind of a desire to break free of these two, you

06:29are advised to be with people or be at places where your defeats and despairs

06:42will be exposed and called out ruthlessly. You should allow yourself to

06:52feel the utter pain and helplessness inherent in your situation that will

07:01accelerate the process of your freedom. I'm just suggesting you what would

07:13assist you in your own intention. If your intention is to be free of rajas and

07:22tamas, then allow yourself to feel the pain of being dominated by these two

07:35very frequently, 40 times a day, so that you are continuously reminded that you

07:45cannot sleep peacefully. At least one of these two traits, tamas, will want to keep

07:53you captive by just comforting you into a drunken sleep. Right when you would be

08:05about to energetically break away from your chains, you'll find that you are

08:13under a pall of sleep. Here you were about to just explode away and here you

08:26are snoring away on your bed. Gone are the hopes of any kind of liberation. So

08:43make sure that by your bedside is somebody who's not very happy seeing

08:53you asleep. Make sure that you are kept a little uncomfortable all the while. Make

09:06sure you are reminded frequently. Probably it was in this very context

09:14that the knowers had said, keep your critic by your side. Let him remind you

09:27again and again how deep and how pervasive your follies are. Otherwise you

09:38will simply comfort and console yourself and certify yourself that you are almost

09:47alright. That would be just a way to grant yourself a little more sleep. Don't

10:03allow yourself that leverage. You have been playing this game with yourself for

10:13way too long now. Sometimes you have been running after things, hungry as hell,

10:29wanting to be a super achiever and sometimes usually after repeated

10:37failures you have sunk into a drunken state saying that you do not want to

10:48have much with the world's achievement, that you're alright within your limited

10:54dirty stinking self, that you don't want to go out of your room. All that you need

11:01is a small room with ample supply of liquor, a nice bed, some food to drown your

11:24senses down and stuff to keep you sleep cozy, an air conditioner maybe. That's

11:40how most people have been spending their lives. When in hope, they run. When their

11:51hopes are smashed, they drink. There is a lot of pain contained in this situation,

12:04in the continuation of this cycle. That pain itself is the only reason one would

12:16move away from and beyond these states and if that pain is not sufficient to

12:28make you rise up and away from your present rut, then nothing else would work

12:37on you. It's impossible. What kind of revelation, what kind of motivation can

12:48really spur someone who is insensitive to his own inner decline. So what you

13:05really need is a mirror. Keep mirrors all around you, knowing fully well that

13:17what would be reflected back to you would not really be pretty. Knowing that

13:25fully well and being resolved that you would not put on some makeup. Things are

13:45ugly, let them show up as ugly. Neither would I decorate myself, paint my face, wear a

14:04pretty mask nor would I refuse to look at the mirror. Remaining what I am, I would

14:15carry the courage to not only look into a mirror but actually deliberately

14:21surround myself with mirrors. Everywhere I go, I'll keep a mirror. I'll request

14:34mirrors to provide me company. If I know I am failing somewhere, I'll be doubly

14:51brutal with myself and beg for assessments. I'll specially focus on those parts of my

15:10being that I know to be ugly. Beauty is your nature. If ugliness manages to stay

15:26with you, it is because you hide it, tolerate it, defend it. Do not squarely

15:34look at it in the eye. If you confront ugliness every day, every moment, then

15:42your beautiful nature within will not allow that ugliness to stay for long.

15:53Similarly, weakness. Strength is your nature. If you have managed to remain so

16:01weak, so fragile, so brittle for so long, it is only because you have been

16:09defending your weaknesses, you have been arguing in favor of your weaknesses, you

16:13have been reasoning out your weaknesses. You have simply not been ruthless enough

16:22with yourself. You have been giving yourself all kinds of excuses and that's

16:34why the weaknesses remain till date and they'll continue to remain because you

16:42are quite accommodative. You have no disdain for your own weak self. Your own

16:53weaknesses do not disgust you. You're alright. Yes, I am a spineless fool and I'm

17:04okay with that and that's only on the rare occasions when you are indeed

17:13demonstrated to be a spineless fool. Mostly you will not allow such

17:21occasions to arise where the reality of your current condition is exposed. Nine

17:29out of ten times you will deliberately and deceptively put yourself in

17:35situations where there is no one to expose you. So nine out of ten times

17:42there is anyway no chance of you being called out as weak. Once in ten times

17:57when despite your

18:02arrangements, your weaknesses are still exposed, then you just thwart the danger

18:18by acting a bit shameless. Shamelessness comes to your rescue. You say yes, I have

18:26a few problems but that's okay. You see, everybody has problems. Everybody has

18:30weaknesses. So have I. It's great that you have acknowledged here that Tamas and

18:43Rajas dominate you. Now let that acknowledgement become a continuous

18:50inner resonance. This acknowledgement should keep echoing within you. The sound

19:00must not die down. Even in your sleep, there must be a restlessness. You must

19:12have an active dislike towards yourself. And when I say, I know that this goes

19:25against the grain of a lot of current spiritual beliefs. We have been taught to

19:34accept ourselves and be nice to ourselves and be happy with things as

19:39they are and be happy with ourselves as we are. So I know fully well that this

19:46that I am saying right now, militates against all of that. Here we are with

19:56Sri Krishna. And if that does not suffice, listen to Jesus as well. He says very

20:10clearly, unless you are full of hatred towards yourself, of what use can I be to

20:16you? If you are full of confidence and if you are someone who knows already what

20:27is good for you, then no Krishna and no Christ can help you. If you are someone

20:41who is habituated in self-deception, then you cannot be helped. Just ask yourself,

20:56last time your follies or weaknesses were exposed, how did you react? Ask.

21:11It's easy to assess your reaction. Let's say a situation, a force comes and

21:29exposes your ugliness. There are only two ways to react. Figure out which one is

21:37yours. One is, you get full of anger towards the one who exposed you. First way is, you

21:47start feeling angry at the one who exposed your weakness. Second is, you start

21:51feeling angry at your weakness. What's your reaction? That will tell you how

22:05honest you are and that will tell you what your fate in life is. You know

22:16mirrors too are delicate things. You can keep a mirror with you and if the mirror

22:26reflects your ugliness, it's easy to smash the mirror. The mirror will not

22:32come back to you. The mirror will not come again to tell you how ugly you are.

22:42It's difficult to improve oneself. It's easy to smash the mirror. How easy is it

22:51to change yourself? Not easy. How easy is it to shatter the mirror? Very easy. Ask

23:00yourself, what did you do the last time the mirror said ugly, ugly? What did you

23:10do? Did you curse yourself or did you find yourself full of bitterness towards

23:21the mirror?

23:30You do not need a method. You just need a mirror. Can there be an easier method?

23:51Then, to what degree does having a sattvic diet, doing physical exercise and

23:59other material changes help in developing a sattvic disposition? Of

24:08course, these things help. No doubt about that. So, if you find that you are bulky

24:20indolent, then physical exercises are obviously something you must go for.

24:33Similarly, change in diet, obviously yes. We fully well know that certain types of

24:41foods cause you to feel drowsy, heavy, sleepy. Why go for them? It's a chemical

24:58thing. If a food material is acting almost like a sleeping pill, why do you

25:08want to pop in the pill? You have work to do. You have distance to cover. Why are

25:21you taking in the wrong kind of chemical and that too in the wrong quantity? So, if

25:35you are someone who has realized that you have a long distance to go, then you

25:42must ensure that you make as much time available to the journey as possible. If

25:53you have 24 hours and a long distance to cover, you do not want to be sleeping 10

26:00hours, right? So, you don't want to take food that would turn you sleepy. That's

26:08life. We have only 24 hours and there's much to do. So, try not to take in stuff

26:17that would make you one heavy, second sleepy. Physical fitness is very

26:27important. Physical strength is very important. Sometimes I wonder whether

26:35physical fitness and physical strength are any less important than mental

26:40fitness and strength. Yes, obviously, in the final assessment, mental

26:54strength accounts for far more than physical strength. Still, give respect to

27:06your physicality. Make sure you are in shape. Make sure that your body does not

27:19let you down.

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