What Are You Really Seeking? | Essence of the Geeta | Episode 90

You are listening to the essence of the Gita. In this episode, Swamiji explores what we are truly seeking through all our pursuits, lasting happiness. He explains why the finite cannot offer complete satisfaction and how love arises from recognizing the oneness that connects us all. What is it that we all are striving for? Happiness. What is it that is called as enlightenment, realization? We all want happiness. And what do you want to realize? Happiness. Is it not? All the actions we do is for happiness. Everything we are doing is for happiness. But what is happiness? Happiness is experience when there is a sense of satisfaction and satisfaction is gained when there is completeness. And completeness can be there only in the infinite, not in the finite. Our intelligence should be able to take us to this understanding, which the Upanishad says, yo vai bhooma tath sukham na alpe sukham asti. Lifetimes after lifetimes in different, different forms, in different, different shapes, with different, different objects, with different, different people, we have tried to gain happiness. Past life we may not know, but even till now, we have tried to acquire wealth, we have interacted with people, we have created for ourselves a society or a family, we have certain joys in life, but are we content and happy? Is our happiness such that there is no sorrow in it? Life experiences are of pairs of opposites. But because of our likes and dislikes, we experience it as joy and sorrow. The same object, the same situation, one finds great joy in it and the other finds sorrow in it. Thus joy and sorrow also is according to our own likes and dislikes. And where we run after joy and try to run away from sorrow, no object, person or situation gives us joy or sorrow. It is our likes and dislikes that creates in us this distinctions that one thing will give me joy, I have the illusion and the other thing is bound to give me sorrow. And constantly between these two, there is a tug of war. You are now moved here or you are moved there. After all this is an eternal issue, it's an eternal problem. Is there a solution to it or not? And our Rishi has realized that until and unless we give up our likes and dislikes, the world will affect us. And secondly, that in the finite, in the changing, in the perishing, in the limited, there can be no complete satisfaction and therefore no happiness. Pleasures are there but no happiness, no sense of satisfaction. And satisfaction is gained only with the infinite. Anybody with a little amount of intelligence should understand this, is it not? And yet look at this wonder of wonders. We are expecting permanent happiness from impermanent things and beings and situations. That's why they say common sense is very rare. So what are we actually seeking? We are seeking that which is infinite because only in infinite can there be total happiness. So what is realization? What is enlightenment? What is knowledge? Who should we be dedicated and devoted to? We are already dedicated and devoted to it, happiness, isn't it? And what is happiness? Infinitude. If after study of the scriptures, if after meditation, if after so much amount of self-control, the gain is something finite, limited, temporary, then why put in all the effort? Maybe it's a little longer but is it worth it? So what really is realization? What do we realize with meditation? The infinite. Now when we use the word infinite, it appears to be an object, a thing. We cannot say he or she, so we say it. And it gives the impression mind it's something inert, an object. But when you personalize it as God, then it's a person. But God sitting somewhere in heaven is limited in space. How can that God be everywhere? But he's got cameras everywhere. See TV everywhere. Even if you've got see TV everywhere, even the human beings are now almost 7 billion. 7 billion, you can understand the figures. More than that, only in these three acres of, or four acres of land, or five acres of land, the insects themselves will be, and pathogens would be in trillions. So how many cameras has he got? Think about it. Infinite cannot be somewhere in space. Infinite cannot be somewhere in time. And infinite is not gained by producing something infinite. Infinite is that which is present here and now. And from it only everything has emerged and therefore is there in everything. And everyone, when you say God is all-pervading, which God? You can't see a big pot pervades all the small pots. You can put some small pots in the big pot. But that big pot has to contain all the pots. Yet even the biggest pot cannot contain all the pots in the world. But mud can. Because without mud no pot. I am saying mud pot can be made. Now, is the mud in the pot or the pot is in the mud? This quandary. Is the pot in the mud or the mud in the pot? There's no in and out. Mud is the pot, the pot is the mud. Is it not? So when I say the pot is in the mud and the mud is in the pot. You may say there is mud separate from the pot and a pot separate from mud. And one is in each other. Cannot be. The meaning is that the mud itself is the pot. And pot is nothing but the mud. The infinite alone is all the beings. And all the beings are the infinite only. Therefore one who realizes all the beings in the self, you can contain a whole universe in your body of billions of cells, billions of germs, bacterias. Yet in this body you cannot contain the whole universe. Obviously the self being infinite, just like mud is there in all the pots, so is the atma, the self in all the things and beings. Just like mud is the essence of all the pots. Essence means without it it cannot exist. So is the atma, the very essence of every form. Form without mud is not there, you know. Without the essence there can be no form. Remove the essence there is no form. So one who realizes that the whole universe is in me and I am in the universe. Not as a body but as the essence, the atma. And Bhagawan says, at this moment our present experience is, I am the creature, this is the creation. And obviously you were born in creation. And who was born? Everybody is born and everybody will die. Introduction of the Gita. When Krishna starts off, but nobody ever is born, nobody ever dies. Don't forget, see the duty of studying the Gita together is that you can very easily remember what has been taught. And that is the atma which does not die that Krishna started revealing to Arjuna. And Krishna started off by saying that nor do you die, nor do I die, nor do any of these people, therefore the atma, the self in each one is eternal. So you might think there are many eternal atmas. But that which is, at least now with our Einsteinian knowledge, that which is not conditioned by time is also not conditioned by space. So that atma is everywhere. And that also Krishna has explained in the beginning of the second chapter. Avinashitutadvidhi yenasarvam idam tadam Understand that to be eternal, which is also unlimited by space. See, people don't know, they pick up little things here and there. How systematically Krishna has unfolded it. So that which is all-pervading, just like mud pervades all the pots. Water pervades all the waves. Same way, the atma is not many eternal atmas, your atma, my atma. The sun is only one, reflections are many. Reflections are not without the sun. The forms of mud are many. But mud is only one. The purpose of all teaching is to point out to you the one. If you point out the two, then where there is two, there is limitation. So one who recognizes the self in me is the self in everyone, which means the self alone is. Atma means the self. But Bhagawan, I thought I was the creature. But you suddenly told me, no, I am infinite. And if I am infinite, the whole creation, just like the many pots, exists only in mud. Just as all the waves exist only in the water. If everything exists in me and I support everything, then who is the creator? Therefore Bhagawan says, you will also see all in me and me in all. Whom you thought was your friend or your enemy. Whom you thought was your Guru or your disciple. Whom you thought was the creator, all have become one. Because there is only one. Whether God says, I alone am, Ishwara says, I alone am. And if I alone am, where are you separate from me? And if you are one with me, you are me only and I am, you, what is the difference? So in this language, because we see the world as separate from me, all the beings as separate from me. We see the creation and there must be a creator. And we see all this as separate. Wherever there is this separation, there is no infinitude possible. And if there is no infinitude, then there is no such thing as permanent everlasting happiness. You are wasting your time. You are wasting your time living, period. Because all the time you live with the hope for happiness and happiness can never be gained from anything finite or limited. Think about it. So now when Bhagawan is giving us this vision of oneness, Bhagawan says, then such a person who comes to realize this one, this infinite as himself, as the very essence of the universe, the Truth or God, and all have become one, then I cannot be separated from him or her. He or she who thinks himself to be an individual cannot be separate from me. It is to elaborate this is a complete remaining chapters of the Gita. And therefore that person never again falls from bliss or happiness. Now having said that, you still know this oneness and all that, you know we don't understand the significance of it. But one who sees this oneness, what is the glory of that? Bhagawan points at the next verse. See Krishna, if you and I are one only, then why did you say you see the whole world in you and then see the whole world in me? Krishna, you are never straight, you know. He says because you see you and me, do you see Bussi? You see you and me, you and me, you and me, they and they, I and Maya. This is Maya. You see all the differences in the part, but in essence what is it? Mud only, no? But you don't see the mud. So Bhagawan says, what I meant to say is, Sarvabhuta stitam yah mam bhajati ekatvam astitaha See Bhagawan himself is very clear. Whosoever bhajati, bhajati, this word in Sanskrit, today we understand only bhajan means singing some hymn. That's called as bhajan. But bhaja means to know. Bhaja means to love. Bhaja means to serve. Bhaja means to unite. All this meaning is of bhaja. In Sanskrit now we don't want to go to the etymology of it. And therefore in different places, this word bhaja has been used. Therefore Shankaracharya uses it three times. Bhaja govindam, bhaja govindam, govindam bhaja mudamate. There meaning, with your body you serve govindam. With your mind you love govinda. And with your intellect you know govinda. And with your soul be one with govinda. See. So yah mam bhajati, one who thus serves me, seeks me, loves me, knows me, knows me how, loves me how, serves me how. Bhagawan says, ekatvam astitam, established in ekatvam, in unity, in oneness. And knows me, how do you know me as one? Because sarva-bhutasthitam mam, knows me, who is the same in all the beings, equally there in every being. And such a person sarvata-vartamanopiva, such a person even though, at any time working in this world, transacting with this world, going anywhere in this world, sa yogi mai vartate, know that such a yogi. And this is not the practitioner, this is not the meditator. This is the one who in meditation has seen that there is only one. And seen how? There is no seer seeing the seen. Sees only one. That person lives in me only. Cannot be separated from me. Actually never anybody, time with anybody. Because I am only the very essence in everyone, but such a person remains in me. Why? This is a commentary on the previous words. He says, I do not fall away from that person, nor that person gets separated from me. If they are too different and who come together, they will also separate. But when something is there only, but you think is not there, it is only out of ignorance. And when ignorance goes, you find that that thing was always with you. And once that knowledge takes place, there is never a time you can be separate from you. And what is love? When two people stick to each other because they are dependent on each other and want something of each other, it is attachment, not love. When two feel as one, that is called as love. So, sarvatha vartamanopi sayogi mai vartate. That person is always in me. Even the suggestiveness is here that one who comes to know me as only one and one in everybody, then whether that person is acting in the world or whether the person is sitting in a cave, whether he is serving the world knowing that it is me alone, such a person is always in me. Now I am going to explain this in two different levels so that you can understand. What is this vision of unity? Because only when you see everyone as yourself, can there be love, is it not? There is a wonderful story that in a seminary, a monastery, very few monks were living. The abbot, the chief monk, seeing only these five, six monks in this huge seminary, felt sad and found out that in the hill yonder was a great mystic, a great saint, a holy man. Whenever we feel sad, we feel low. We have got no answers. We have no solution. We need to go back to our mother, father, someone we need to get so laced from. This old monk went to this sage, sat there for hours till he opened his eyes and said, once this monastery was buzzing with aconites, means young, buzzing students that came to learn, came to practice, it was buzzing with young students. But now my whole monastery is like a haunted den. There are just five monks roaming about and all of us, like almost dead carcasses, there is no longer any laughter, no longer any cheer, no longer that enthusiasm the young aconites brought to the monastery. The Messiah just looked at the monk and said, the saint just looked at the monk and said, the monastery has been abandoned because there is a Messiah, the prophet in your seminary. Because they only believe, not in an avatar, but a prophet. So there is a prophet in your, a Messiah in your seminary and the Messiah has been treated badly. Therefore your monastery is abandoned. He said, who is the Messiah? But the great sage has said it. He came on the way also, he is thinking, Tom cannot be the Messiah. He is so dirty and filthy, lazy. Jack cannot be the Messiah because he is always so bitter and angry. Timothy cannot be the Messiah because he doesn't get along with people, would it be Thomas? He cannot be a Messiah. He is always doubting, who could have been the Messiah? He knows he is not. Anyway, the great mystic sage has said it. So he comes back and he calls all these monks and he said, listen, the great sage has said, there is a Messiah in midst of all of us. And because we have not treated him well, we have been cursed. From that time onwards, the Messiah is in midst of us. And we do not know who. Within a short time, people started flocking to that monastery. Why? Because the Messiah was respected. But who was the Messiah? No one knows. So they started respecting and being nice to each other. The atmosphere became loving. Wherever the atmosphere is loving, there is progress. That's why from childhood we are taught, be good to everyone. Najani kisroop me narayan miljai. But the truth is that that narayan is in everyone. In you, in me, in everyone. We sing these songs also with devotion. tuj meram uj meram sab meram samaya What does that mean? sab se karlo pyar jagat me koi nahi paraya jitne hai sanshar me prani sab me ek hai joti ek baag ke phool hai saare ek maala ke moti pyaichano kis upyaar se prabu hai ham sab ko hai racha ya sab se karlo pyar jagat me koi nahi paraya But to understand this simple truth, buddhu, so much explanations we need. Because what to do? This maya is such. Our mind turned extroverted out of its likes and dislikes only sees the world of enjoyment and hatred, not the world of essence.