Video Information: ShabdYoga Session, 16.7.17, Advait BodhSthal, Noida, Uttar Pradesh, India
Context:
~ Who is the man of God?
~ How to live godly?
~ What is godliness?
~ What is the meaning of oneness?
~ What is the meaning of forms changing?
Music Credits: Milind Date
~~~~~~~~~~~~~ .
Context:
~ Who is the man of God?
~ How to live godly?
~ What is godliness?
~ What is the meaning of oneness?
~ What is the meaning of forms changing?
Music Credits: Milind Date
~~~~~~~~~~~~~ .
Category
📚
LearningTranscript
00:00Kahlil Gibran says, Verily, all things move within your being in constant half-embrace.
00:22The desired and the dreaded, the repugnant and the cherished, the pursued and that which
00:28you would escape.
00:30What is full embrace?
00:32How is it different from half-embrace?
00:34If half-embrace creates a movement of thoughts, won't full embrace create an even greater
00:40restlessness?
00:42Man is caught in a very peculiar situation.
00:53Neither can he accept what he truly is, nor can he ever run away from what he truly is.
01:09He swings, he oscillates.
01:24When he wants to come to his essence, then that which is sub-essential or non-essential
01:45beckons him.
01:55He feels that the juice of living is being lost, all the sensory pleasures, all the colors
02:04of the world, the music, the attractions, the emotions, the meetings and the goodbyes,
02:22all the games of time, he feels they are being lost.
02:33And when he tries to move totally into thoughts, into emotions, into the world of senses, into
02:49that which is space, time and material, he soon starts feeling nauseatic, beyond a point
03:10he cannot take the world in anymore.
03:18He feels like throwing up, as if one has over-eaten a favorite dish.
03:47So man remains swinging, vacillating.
03:58That is what Kharilji Brahm is calling a half-embrace.
04:10One belongs neither here nor there.
04:15To put it straight, one simply does not belong.
04:20One is homeless.
04:27Actually there is nothing called a half-embrace.
04:29A half-embrace means that you are embracing two at a time.
04:41You are divided into two halves.
04:44One half of you is embracing this, the other half of you is embracing that.
04:54And in trying to perform this antic, you have found that you have been split wide open.
05:04Now there is no firmness, no integrity, no oneness.
05:12It is as if your soul keeps changing.
05:20One has heard of forms changing, but man performs the impossible.
05:26His very soul keeps changing.
05:37You know what is the mistake that one makes here?
05:39The mistake that one makes here is putting the essential and the inessential on the same
05:52platform.
05:53When you put two things on the same platform, then you have given them comparable status.
06:06Then you have said that one is exclusive of the other.
06:10There is this thing and where this thing ends, the other starts.
06:14So both are mutually exclusive.
06:22And you cannot be blamed too much for this is what you have seen in the world of men and material.
06:28One thing can start only where the other thing ends.
06:35That is the tyranny of space.
06:38Two things cannot coexist at the same point in space, can they?
06:46That has been our experience.
06:50So we apply that experience even to the essential.
06:57We are applying that experience to something to which that experience is simply inapplicable.
07:13We are thinking that if we move into the world, into the material, into the mind, into
07:21the apparent, then the essential would be lost.
07:24If we get that thing, then this thing would be lost because the two are exclusive.
07:36And we suppose that if we move into this thing, then that thing would be lost.
07:48We are mistaken.
07:52One need not choose.
07:58You move into this or you move into that.
08:07Your free will, depending on your constitution, depending on your upbringing and conditioning,
08:15whatever suits you, move into that, but for your own sake, belong, move fully into whatever
08:25you move into.
08:30If you move fully into God, what do you think?
08:33The world will forsake you?
08:37If you move fully into the world, what do you think?
08:40You can avoid God?
08:41You will find God right in the middle of the world.
08:56And if you move into God, you will find that all worlds are contained there.
09:07If you are a lover of God, you cannot be a world renouncer.
09:10It is impossible.
09:17And if you have moved into the world, you have moved into God.
09:22But only when there is a full embrace of this, that, whatever, not when there is a half embrace.
09:33A half embrace means you are homeless.
09:35A half embrace means neither here nor there.
09:40Trying to embrace both, you get none.
09:50And embracing one of them, you get both.
10:04But we are timid creatures.
10:09We are hesitant, shy, inhibited people.
10:18We simply don't have the urge, the fire, the fearlessness to give ourselves up to anything.
10:47We want to preserve a little.
10:49We want to save something back.
10:57Just as a middle class family saves something for a rainy day.
11:05How can I put all the eggs in one basket?
11:10That's conventional wisdom, is it not?
11:12How can I belong fully to any one side?
11:15I must hedge my bets.
11:19So you hedge.
11:22You avoid risks.
11:29What if something goes bad on this side, then I must have a fallback option.
11:37The moment you say, what if something goes bad on this side, you ensure that not something,
11:43not everything will go bad on that side.
11:46How can I belong fully to my business, to my work?
11:51Isn't it a sin to be consumed into the material?
12:02So let me remember God.
12:08So every few hours you ensure out of some kind of unfathomable guilt that you must interrupt
12:13your business and get into prayers.
12:18For you, business and prayers are exclusive.
12:28And the same thing happens when you are praying.
12:32You cannot be prayerful for too long, even if by chance you happen to get deep into meditation,
12:44you will find that your business is calling you.
12:54Before you can reach the depths, you will be pulled out.
13:07I will again say we are not to be blamed for, that is the kind of world we have seen.
13:20Those are the kind of examples we have seen.
13:26Whenever we have been told of saints, we have been told of saints
13:39and how forgetful they were of the world.
13:47We have been told of the saints and we have been told how forgetful they were of the world.
13:55Now that scares us and that sets an example in front of us.
14:02If sainthood germinates within you, you will miss the world.
14:15And whenever role models of beautiful and successful living in the world have been presented
14:25to you, they have been shown as target chasers, as material worshippers, their heart has never
14:39really been exposed, talked of, two different and totally disconnected worlds have been created.
14:57One is the world of the heart, the other is the world of the mind and you have been given
15:02an impossible choice.
15:03You have been told if you belong here, you cannot go here, if you belong here, you cannot
15:07have this.
15:19One of the reasons out of the innumerable, why I love Kabir is because he was a worker.
15:33But nobody talks of that.
15:38Markets have always been competitive, have they not been?
15:43If your product is substandard, would it sell in the market?
15:49And Kabir was weaving throughout the day and in the evening, he would go to that competitive
15:56market and manage to sell his stuff and get money and run his livelihood.
16:08Why doesn't anybody talk of that?
16:11Isn't it a matter of great worldly skill to produce literature of the finest quality and
16:19parallelly cloth of the finest quality, at least quality fine enough to sell.
16:36Why doesn't anybody talk of that?
16:40And people won't just buy from Kabir because he was Kabir.
16:48That cannot last for too long.
16:52That would be charity, donations.
16:57If Kabir were to survive on donations, why would he take the pains of, and you know what
17:05it means to weave.
17:06You must have a loom and the loom demands maintenance, management and before you weave,
17:16you must get the yarn and yarn not of one kind.
17:24There are many colours, many thicknesses, many twists.
17:33Weaving is a specialised profession, it's a technical thing
17:52and Kabir was at it all the day and singing and composing, creativity of the highest order.
18:13But we delight in stories that talk of Kabir's poverty.
18:19We delight in stories that say that there was a day when Kabir couldn't manage enough
18:23to feed his guests.
18:26So he had to go and firstly beg and then steal.
18:33Why is it not possible that Kabir was already making enough?
18:37And I tell you, Kabir was actually making enough otherwise he wouldn't have had the
18:42peace of mind to compose and sing and he was a prolific creator.
18:51If you look at Kabir's literature, it is almost endless.
18:58He was composing daily.
19:01If you are hard pressed for your daily survival, then you cannot be such a natural, authentic
19:09and free-flowing composer.
19:19Did Kabir embrace one or did Kabir embrace both?
19:22Do you see what he is singing of, Chadariya jeeni re jeeni?
19:31I am seeing that fine cloth in front of him and he is looking at it and he is looking
19:41at the chadar, he is looking at the cloth and what is he seeing?
19:49What is he seeing?
19:53He is seeing the human form, he is seeing the human mind and he is singing of it.
19:59Kabir makes liberal, prolific use of all that which is associated with his profession.
20:16Anything related to spinning, weaving, selling, wearing became a symbol of God for Kabir.
20:33Such was his immersion into his profession.
20:44The profession is not important, the immersion is important.
20:50That immersion saga is the full embrace.
20:54Are you immersed?
21:01Are you immersed?
21:10We need a new kind of literature.
21:13We need more research.
21:19If Jesus was a shepherd, if he was tending to cattle, I would like to know what kind
21:26of shepherd he was.
21:29About Krishna we know that he was a top-rated cowherd.
21:37Was he not?
21:41He was such a master of his trade that he only had to indicate and all the cows would
21:48keep running to him.
21:51Now is this only about spirituality?
21:54I also take it as excellence in one's profession.
21:58If your profession is to take care of cows, then see how deft is our Lord in taking care
22:07of the cows.
22:11Even through music he is able to attract the cows.
22:18And he was sent to the fields and to the jungle, right in the morning with the cows.
22:25You take these cows, they will graze and what will you do?
22:29You look after them.
22:32He need not look after them.
22:39Such is his expertise.
22:41He sits under a tree and he is playing the flute and the cows are grazing wherever they
22:49are and the entire day he has such subtle mastery that he doesn't even bother to look
22:59at the cows.
23:01In the evening, when the sun is setting, he just calls the cows and all of them come.
23:14And never did it happen that Krishna took the cows out and even the smallest calf was lost.
23:28The numbers would tally exactly every morning and every evening.
23:34This is Six Sigma performance.
23:38Never a mistake.
23:48Why is nobody talking of it?
23:55Even Nanak, Guru Nanak was a good trader as well but nobody talks of his proficiency
24:09in the worldly matters.
24:10He used to undertake very long journeys, one direction at a time.
24:20One year he would move to the south, one year he would move to the east, once to the west
24:26once to the north.
24:31In those days, it was not easy undertaking such long journeys from Punjab to Arab, from
24:41Punjab to Assam, from Punjab to the deep south and when he would return to his village, he
24:55would again take care of his fields, of the accounts, of the business, of the money.
25:03He would settle everything, rest for a while, Mardana too would want some rest and then
25:12he would again undertake a journey.
25:16Isn't this worldly proficiency of the highest order?
25:21Is it or is it not?
25:27And what to talk of Krishna?
25:29Even if we did not or had not obtained the Gita from him, still his mastery in statecraft
25:48is something to be cherished, even emulated.
25:56A master politician, he knows the pulse of the world.
26:06He knows how to tackle Duryodhana, he knows how to tackle Bhishma, he knows how to tackle
26:11even Shakuni and of course he knows how to tackle all the women.
26:20Can there be a greater proof of one's worldliness?
26:23The man is handling hundreds and thousands of women at a time.
26:28You cannot handle even one.
26:38But all you talk of is the Bhagavad Gita and you talk of the different worlds that the Gita mentions.
26:48You do not see what a practical man Krishna really is and how successful he is as a mere
26:57mortal, as a living man of flesh and blood, as a prince, as a politician, as a lover,
27:05as a king.
27:08Here you don't look at his deftness, his expertise, his command and control.
27:19Do you see his excellent management and leadership skills?
27:24You don't want to look at that.
27:26You would rather believe that those were paranormal traits invested in him because he was an incarnation
27:40of the holy God himself.
27:46The Gita can come only from someone who understands the world and if you understand the world,
27:53you cannot keep failing in the world.
27:58If you are proven an idiot every morning, every evening, how will the Gita come from you?
28:04How will you even understand the Gita?
28:08Look at your life, if you are a joker, a clown, an idiot, a loser in this world, what business
28:17do you have touching the Gita?
28:24Do you see what is half embrace?
28:34You prove to be insufficient everywhere.
28:38You are a loser everywhere.
28:42In your relationships you are a loser.
28:45In the school you are a loser, in the college you are a loser, at your work station you
28:51are a loser, on the sports field you are a loser and you want to touch the Upanishads,
29:03the Upanishads that are coming from winners of the highest order.
29:08Is there any oneness between you and the text that you are trying to touch?
29:18Do you have anything in common with Krishna?
29:21How then will you understand the Gita?
29:33Krishna was the one who brought victory when defeat looked so probable and you are the
29:47one who will snatch defeat when victory is all yours.
29:57When it is a certain that you are now going to win, you will still manage to somehow be
30:03defeated and then you say, you know what, I am not very interested in the world.
30:20Krishna calls my heart.
30:23You are not interested in the world.
30:27You are marginalized in the world.
30:31You are the rubbish of the world and if we listen to Darwin, then you and your ilk won't
30:41survive for long because you are unfit.
31:00Even physically, have you noticed how fit, because we have come to this world, so I am
31:04taking it up, have you seen how fit most of them are?
31:21Even most of us are groaning, complaining.
31:33Somebody has nose pain, somebody has head ache, somebody has heartache, somebody's back
31:43has been stolen, somebody's stomach is exploding with gas.
32:09Even look at them, that is full embrace and half embrace is no embrace.
32:27The man of God is a winner in the world as well, that is full embrace.
32:38If you are a loser in the world, you do not know God.
32:43God and the world are one.
32:47It's not just the world, it's God world.
32:53It's God world.
32:59Have you seen that every living being is excellent, the epitome in its particular field?
33:19Can you beat the song of a cuckoo or even a sparrow?
33:25Can you beat the flight of a vulture, an eagle?
33:37Do you see the agility with which fish swim?
33:41They are all experts in their respective fields.
33:45I am asking you, what is your expertise?
33:53Even the ant is an expert, when it carries a load, then the load to body weight ratio
34:04is unmatched, compared to its own body weight, the load that a little ant can carry is unmatched.
34:16What is your expertise?
34:23Is there anything that you are a master of?
34:30I am asking you, is there anything that you are a master of?
34:36How do you then manage to live?
34:50Even the smallest insect as a master in its own field, what are you proficient in?
35:07The Atma, the self, the heart, the God within you is the climax of perfection, is he not?
35:19Show me even excellence, where is excellence?
35:24If God is perfection, you must have at least excellence and if you have not even excellence,
35:33What is your proximity to God?
35:54All these people, they were not bumbling idiots in the world.
36:02They knew their trade.
36:06Do you know your trade?
36:32That is non-duality.
36:36Embrace one and you have embraced all, for there is only one, to see two is the first
36:45mistake from which you can never really recover.