Video Information: 22.11.21, Shastra Kaumudi, Rishikesh, Uttar Pradesh
Context:
~ How to break our comfort zone?
~ What gives power to change life?
~ What is love?
~ Who dare to take risk in life?
Music Credits: Milind Date
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Context:
~ How to break our comfort zone?
~ What gives power to change life?
~ What is love?
~ Who dare to take risk in life?
Music Credits: Milind Date
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Category
📚
LearningTranscript
00:00Jaya ji, the next question comes from a software programmer.
00:07He has also been listening to you for a very long time now.
00:11He says that, is penance a mandatory step in spiritual process?
00:18If the mind is such that there is no attachment or suffering involved in relating with objects,
00:25then should it still practice austerity or abstinence?
00:31Austerity is needed because you are suffering in company of your objects.
00:46If you are not suffering at all, then let alone austerity, even spirituality is not
00:54needed.
00:56If you are not suffering at all, even Vedanta is not needed.
01:00Vedanta begins with suffering.
01:06If there is no suffering, congratulations, you do not need Vedanta.
01:13And if you are indeed suffering, then austerity is needed because suffering is nothing but
01:19the company and attachment involving wrong objects.
01:36Austerity always involves going against oneself.
01:47It is never pleasant because objects are not merely present in your life.
01:55Objects become a part of our being.
01:59So when you want to drop the objects, it's not merely like, it's like tearing away a
02:13part of your flesh, not just opening a fist.
02:25Dropping appears such a convenient word.
02:28Drop it.
02:29It's not like dropping it.
02:33It's about tearing it away.
02:38An object is really not present in your life if it has not become a part of your personality.
02:46When an object is present in our life, kindly see that it gains a certain permanence.
02:59When an object enters our life, it's almost like a seed dropping on earth.
03:13We have just established company.
03:18There is still no relationship there.
03:23The seed is sitting on the surface of earth.
03:29Therefore, if the two are to be pulled apart, there would be no suffering because till this
03:39point there is no attachment.
03:44What happens after two months?
03:50The roots have gone deep into the soil.
03:57Now there is attachment.
04:03Now the plant and the soil are one.
04:09Now the plant is a part of soil.
04:12Now the soil is a part of plant.
04:20So the separation would always involve pain.
04:29This is austerity.
04:36To not to be in company of things that would become a part of you.
04:47If you are to remain the pure self, nothing should become a part of you.
04:56Nothing at all.
05:01Anything becoming a part of you is something alien becoming a part of you.
05:16It's like the stone in your kidney becoming a part of you.
05:26Don't you carry the stone in your kidney?
05:31Don't you?
05:36You stand on the weighing scale and it says let's say 68 kg and you say my weight is 68
05:49kg.
05:50What does that 68 kg include?
05:53The weight of the stone.
05:54The stone has now become a part of you but it's an alien part of you.
06:01Something foreign.
06:06Something that's non-self has become self.
06:10I'm not saying that the body is self.
06:13I'm just using a metaphor.
06:20Just deal with the example, any example in a way that makes it useful.
06:36No example can be perfect.
06:50That's the thing with attachments.
06:53They grow upon you.
06:54They become a part of you.
06:57But it's a bad meeting.
07:01It's a bad wedding.
07:09It's a bad union.
07:13Two things that can never be united enter a strange union and that is suffering.
07:32Just as you suffer when you have a stone in your kidney.
07:37Remember you never opted to have a stone as such.
07:46You just ate something delicious.
07:53You never ate a stone, did you?
07:57You ate something delicious.
08:11So austerity will always be needed and if you find that no austerity is needed then
08:18either you are liberated or not even close to being liberated.