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Harih Om Tat Sat. Jai Guru. Jai Guru.
I am continuing the talk on the twenty virtues or excellences which together constitute true spiritual wisdom. The idea in explaining these is to drive home to all of you, that the pursuit of self-realization and fulfillment in it, are not a concentric or single-point affair. It is actually a process of expansion, refinement, elevation, and various kinds of embellishment, majesty. One is in the character, another is in the behavior, and the third is in the interaction. Unless we consider all these as a composite development, I don’t think self-realization will become a meaningful pursuit for us.
Asaktir-anabhiṣvaṁgaḥ putra-dāra-gṛhādiṣu - Who said this? Krishna. To whom? Arjuna. Both of them were not ascetics. Both of them were warriors, fighters, Kings, and the instruction was given right in the battlefield where 45 lakhs, 4.5 million warriors were going to die. What does it mean?
Asaktiḥ anabhiṣvaṁgaḥ. We are human beings, and there is all possibility for us to misunderstand and get confused with regard to matters. So, misunderstanding is the first item to occur and you have to remove it and arrive at right understanding. Sakti means delusional clinging to. This is what all of us are suffering from. You are born in this world, you live accepting all the facets or faces of human life and at the end of it, you go. You have not brought anything, you will not take anything also. Whatever you are fit for, whatever you are competent for, do it!
Asaktiḥ - means free from delusional clinging to anything whatsoever, including your own body, relations, and all that.
Anabhiṣvaṁgaḥ is a very typical expression. We may have quite a number of relatives around us. Depending upon the intimacy of the relationship, when the other party suffers, instantly we feel we also suffer. It is considered to be a good quality in ordinary parlance, but when you come to the spiritual field, it should not be so.
Somebody is suffering. You can be considerate to him, sympathetic to him, helpful to him. Now, in order to be doing so, you cannot become weak-hearted by virtue of your sympathy towards him. Arjuna sat on the chariot, unable to stand. He was completely crumbled. Seeing that, if Krishna also crumbled, what benefit could have been there? That is why Bhagavad Gita says Tam uvāca hṛṣīkeśaḥ prahasann iva bhārata (Bhagavad Gita 2.10). When Arjuna was crying and weeping, sobbing, Krishna was smilingly talking.
Suppose you cry, and the person who comes to help you also cries, then he cannot obviously help you at all! He must be able to smile at. Then only he conveys something he has, by virtue of which you will be able to overcome your suffering and grief. This is generally said of doctors. A patient suffers from acute pain, distress. The doctor, on seeing him, should not feel so sympathetic that he becomes enfeebled, weak. He must have the presence of mind to think “What is he suffering from? How can I relieve him?” So, the doctor, in the name of sympathy, cannot become weak-hearted. On the other hand, it should evoke the right response from him so that co-suffering or co-lateral suffering is not at all called for. On the other hand, we must be able to hold on to ourselves.
There are children who are retarded. Some others have physical disabilities. How should the parents look after them? What should be their attitude? Initially we are all sympathetic, we are moved, we are afflicted, but the right attitude is not so. Whatever is the condition, and whatever is the redress, try to administer it or get hold of it. Do not get affected and become weak on that account. This is something very important. Putra-dāra-gṛhādiṣu – This is towards children, wife - the married partner, house and so many other belongings.
Suppose you have lost something. “Oh I have lost, lost, lost, lost!" Arey, what you have lost? See, whether it can be retrieved. If it cannot be, then try to see how the crisis can be mended. That is all what you should think and act. So, you must have a presence of mind and an unaffected inside, so that you will be able to meet the crisis effectively.
This is a very practical, universal, and repeatedly applicable formula. What is that? Nityam - constantly and incessantly.
Ca samacittatvam - The mind should be adorned with the quality of being evenly disposed to.
Iṣṭāniṣṭopapattiṣu - Whenever in your life, either in the domestic front, or in the professional front, or in the societal front, even in the religious and spiritual front, when you encounter iṣṭa and aniṣṭa, either a person or a development or an outcome or something else – circumstances, whether they are endearing or they are displeasing, iṣṭāniṣṭopapattiṣu nityam samacittatvam, cultivate the quality of being evenly disposed to.
Today it will be favourable, tomorrow it will be unfavourable, the day after tomorrow it may be again favourable. The whole life is undulating between pleasantness and unpleasantness, favour and disfavour. It is the nature of life. There cannot be a motion in a straight line. There cannot be motion without friction. Every form of existence seemingly is the resultant of two opposing forces. So, we should understand that the entire world consists of innumerable pairs of opposites. Without these, the world cannot exist at all. We breathe in and breathe out. The heart beats and stops. The blood circulates, goes up, comes down, goes down, comes up. This is how everything goes on.
The whole world is like a wheel revolving. When a wheel revolves, you will find the spokes go up, become horizontal, go down, again become horizontal, come up. It is from vertical position to horizontal position. This is very very natural. So, develop the quality of evenness towards every kind of an experience and development. Once this formula is applied, you will find, every time every time it becomes a sādhanā. Because right from the morning when you wake up till you go to sleep, you will find iṣṭāniṣṭās encircle you in a smaller way, personal way, residential way, official way, and societal way. In various circles, these iṣṭāniṣṭās will be there. Nityaṁ ca samacittatvam iṣṭāniṣṭopapattiṣu. He continues and I shall speak about it tomorrow.
Harih Om Tat Sat. Jai Guru. Jai Guru.