Video Information: 25.01.2025, Vedanta Basics to Classics
Description:
In this video, Acharya Ji discusses the concept of "Nishkam Karma" from the Bhagavad Gita, emphasizing the importance of understanding one's desires and motivations behind actions. Acharya Ji explains that instead of starting with what the "right desire" is, one should first identify their bondages—areas where they feel trapped or limited. The "right desire" is fundamentally the desire for freedom, ease, and fearlessness, which aligns with a purpose greater than oneself.
Acharya Ji illustrates that personal desires do not disappear but rather become aligned with a larger objective. Using the metaphor of soldiers in a battlefield, Acharya Ji explains that while individuals may engage in personal battles, these battles serve a larger purpose. The alignment of personal desires with a greater cause is described as surrender, where one's actions contribute to something beyond personal gain.
Acharya Ji also highlights that actions can be deceptive, and it is essential to understand the state of the actor behind the action. Two individuals may perform the same action, such as working out, but their motivations can differ significantly. One may work out for personal vanity, while the other may do so to serve a larger purpose. Ultimately, the video encourages viewers to reflect on their desires and align them with a higher purpose, emphasizing that true fulfillment comes from serving something greater than oneself.
🎧 Listen to Acharya Prashant on Spotify:
https://open.spotify.com/show/2QmVEAAnsNE7Xs0MW0Li8Y?si=09fbcbc7c99c469b
~~~
Music Credits: Milind Date
~~~
Description:
In this video, Acharya Ji discusses the concept of "Nishkam Karma" from the Bhagavad Gita, emphasizing the importance of understanding one's desires and motivations behind actions. Acharya Ji explains that instead of starting with what the "right desire" is, one should first identify their bondages—areas where they feel trapped or limited. The "right desire" is fundamentally the desire for freedom, ease, and fearlessness, which aligns with a purpose greater than oneself.
Acharya Ji illustrates that personal desires do not disappear but rather become aligned with a larger objective. Using the metaphor of soldiers in a battlefield, Acharya Ji explains that while individuals may engage in personal battles, these battles serve a larger purpose. The alignment of personal desires with a greater cause is described as surrender, where one's actions contribute to something beyond personal gain.
Acharya Ji also highlights that actions can be deceptive, and it is essential to understand the state of the actor behind the action. Two individuals may perform the same action, such as working out, but their motivations can differ significantly. One may work out for personal vanity, while the other may do so to serve a larger purpose. Ultimately, the video encourages viewers to reflect on their desires and align them with a higher purpose, emphasizing that true fulfillment comes from serving something greater than oneself.
🎧 Listen to Acharya Prashant on Spotify:
https://open.spotify.com/show/2QmVEAAnsNE7Xs0MW0Li8Y?si=09fbcbc7c99c469b
~~~
Music Credits: Milind Date
~~~
Category
📚
LearningTranscript
00:00The Gita talks about Nishkama Karma.
00:02So while I see currently whatever actions I take in life comes from some desire.
00:07Going to the gym to stay fit, working to be financially independent.
00:10How does one discern what right desire is?
00:12You cannot begin by asking what the right desire is.
00:16You have to start with asking where your bondages are.
00:21You already have the right desire.
00:23The right desire is a desire to be free, to be at ease,
00:28to be able to flow, to be without fear.
00:32It does not disappear.
00:33It gets aligned.
00:35Sir, there is a desire, but this desire is aligned with a purpose beyond my little self.
00:42No action is right or wrong.
00:45Actions can be very deceptive.
00:47You have to look at the actor.
00:49Where is that action coming from?
00:51The questioner is Anjali.
01:00She is asking, Acharya ji, the Gita talks about Nishkama Karma.
01:06You've also mentioned it briefly today.
01:10So while I see currently whatever actions I take in life comes from some desire.
01:15For example, going to the gym to stay fit, working to be financially independent,
01:20studying because one loves the subject and want to achieve greater heights and so forth.
01:25So how do we really understand this in spirituality?
01:31How does one discern what right desire is in daily context?
01:37You cannot begin by asking what the right desire is.
01:44You have to start with asking where your bondages are.
01:52So it starts with self-observation, Anjali.
01:56You look at yourself and you find yourself in all kinds of chains and traps.
02:04And then you know what the right desire is.
02:06Once you know where you are chained, you already have the right desire.
02:13The right desire is to break the chain.
02:19But I cannot talk of the right desire without knowing where you are in bondage,
02:28you are in bondage, in domination, in greed, in fear.
02:38It begins with an observation and admission of your own state.
02:47The right desire is a desire to be free, to be at ease,
02:56to be able to flow, to be without fear.
03:01That is the right desire.
03:04But when we say the right desire is about being fearless,
03:09first of all, you have to figure out where your fears are.
03:16So figure them out and then fight them with all that you have.
03:27That is the right desire.
03:29See, in the right desire, it is not as if the person or the personal motive
03:44disappears.
03:47This is very important to understand.
03:50It does not disappear.
03:52It gets aligned.
03:56It does not disappear.
03:58It gets aligned with something beyond you.
04:06The desire of the person gets aligned with a purpose beyond the person.
04:16Think of a vast battlefield, right?
04:20And you have a large number of soldiers fighting the enemy and I am calling it,
04:28let's say, the dharma yudh, the right battle.
04:33Now, you might be one of those soldiers.
04:38That soldier is probably engaged with just one or two of the enemy soldiers.
04:44How many enemy soldiers are you seeing and engaging?
04:49Maybe just one or two.
04:51And these one or two are right now your personal battle, your personal adversaries.
04:58Are they not?
05:01It's a personal thing.
05:02There is this fellow in front of me and I have to knock him down.
05:06It's a personal thing.
05:07There is this fellow in front of me and I have to knock him down.
05:14But this personal objective is aligned with a battle beyond the person.
05:29Are you getting?
05:30So, while you are fighting a personal battle, seemingly, yet that battle is not really personal
05:41because the war has a larger purpose.
05:48Otherwise, you can look at any particular soldier and say, well, you ought to be desireless
05:53You ought to be desireless because dharma yudh is also about being nishkaam.
06:04So, why are you so charged up about beating your adversary?
06:13You should be desireless.
06:14Why do you have the desire to defeat your enemy?
06:17So, there is a desire but this desire is aligned with a purpose beyond my little self
06:26and this is called surrender.
06:29I have surrendered my desire to a larger objective
06:34which does not mean that I no more have any desire.
06:37I have a desire but it is an aligned desire.
06:41Like a part of a large machine, the part does have its individuality, no?
06:51But the movement of the part is submitted to the overall functioning of the machine.
07:00There is an alignment.
07:01Are you getting it?
07:03And that's the way to live.
07:09Your will gets aligned with a larger will.
07:17Not that you do not want to keep yourself fit.
07:19Anjali said, well, I go to the gym.
07:21I do not want to keep myself fit.
07:23I do not want to keep myself fit.
07:24I do not want to keep myself fit.
07:26Not that you do not want to keep yourself fit.
07:29Anjali said, well, I go to the gym.
07:31I do this.
07:32Yes, you do go to the gym and that makes you fitter as a body, as a person.
07:38But what do you go to the gym for?
07:41Why do you want to be fitter?
07:45What do you need a fitter and stronger body for?
07:49If you need a fitter and a stronger body for the right purpose,
07:53then these two things have now become aligned.
07:56Yes, I'm going to the gym and that is benefiting my body.
08:00But then my body is not for my sake.
08:04My body is aligned to something beyond myself.
08:08So even as it may appear that I am benefiting my own little body by going to the gym,
08:15the fact is that my fitness or strength are in service of a larger purpose.
08:26And that makes me be at a very nice position, you see.
08:36I don't have to drop the body.
08:39In fact, I have all the incentive to keep the body strong, fit, agile, but not for myself.
08:56Not for myself.
08:57So you can have a Nishkama Karma Yogi in the gym and you can also have a random commoner in the gym.
09:07And they both might appear to be working out with the same intensity.
09:15But never go by actions.
09:16Actions.
09:21Actions.
09:25Delude.
09:26Hmm.
09:28You have to look at what that action is for.
09:31You have to look at the state of the actor.
09:33One of them is building his body so that he looks sexier and attracts attention.
09:44And the other one is building the body so that the body can be used
09:49as a better weapon in the right battle.
09:53And they both are training side by side.
10:00Outwardly, when you look at them, you may actually not find much of a difference.
10:04And you will say, look at this one, look at this one.
10:06They are doing much the same thing.
10:08They're doing the same thing outwardly, outwardly.
10:15Inwardly, they are very different.
10:17Inwardly, they are very different.
10:22One is building the body for her own sake.
10:25The other is building the body to surrender the body to a larger battle.
10:32This alignment.
10:33This alignment is surrender.
10:35Surrender does not mean that you go and dump the body somewhere.
10:40And say, I know I have surrendered my body.
10:41Why should I feed the body?
10:42Why should I clean the body?
10:43Why should I exercise the body?
10:45No.
10:47The body is there.
10:48But now the body does not exist to serve my pretty purposes and my little desires.
10:58I kind of become a trustee of the body.
11:03There is this body.
11:05And this body is a surrendered thing.
11:10This body is in the service of something far bigger than my ego.
11:15Are you getting it?
11:22No action is right or wrong.
11:24Which means no action is recommended or prohibited.
11:34Prescribed or proscribed.
11:40Actions can be very deceptive.
11:43Mind you, you have to look at the actor.
11:49Where is that action coming from?
11:53Human history is replete with instances where great people were ostracized and calumnized
12:06just because we looked at their deeds.
12:09And we didn't have the eyes to look into the doer.
12:13And equally history is full of instances where very ordinary people, nay, evil people
12:23were felicitated, fitted and even worshipped because they demonstrated the right kind of actions.
12:38A man with a lot of money can be a selfless one if that money is for a purpose.
12:51And even a beggar can be evil if he is begging just for his own sake.
13:03Tomorrow I'll beg again and feed the stomach and that's all.