~~OM~~

Q&A from the Class

Question: In verse 46, Lord Krishna is saying, “the man of union has a superior attainment than all these other categories like tapasvis and jnanis.” How are they different? If you really do tapasya won’t you become a man of union?

Swamiji: Yes. And that’s just what He is saying. That the man of union, the yogi, has achieved the perfection of Gyan, has achieved the perfection of tapasya. He dwells in tapasya as his svabhav, as his intrinsic nature. It’s his intrinsic nature to dwell in union rather than only to think about union or talk about union or practice or strive to attain union. The yogi has achieved union and remains there.

Question: So the other people are striving to achieve union and the yogi is superior because he has reached the destination?

Swamiji: Correct.

Question: Can Swamiji please define soul?

Swamiji: No. Absolutely not. But we can talk about it. Because in the Vedas, and from Vedic times, it came down to “neti neti.” It’s not this and it’s not that. Now, would you want me, little old me, to try to define what it is not or what it is? It’s impossible. But we can talk about it.

We have two sets of causes for any object to come into creation, into existence. There must be a material cause and an efficient cause. The material cause we call Prakriti - nature; and the efficient cause we call Purusha – consciousness. Now, what we are calling soul is the consciousness within an individual.

The soul of a man or woman, the soul of creation, the soul of existence, the soul of the earth, they are all one soul. They have the same characteristics. Consciousness means to be aware of, to mean cognized, to be endowed with the capacity of recognition.

We can give many synonyms. We are not talking about the conscience, or being conscientious. We are calling it consciousness, the capacity of awareness, the capacity of paying attention, the capacity of recognition. And these will be the closest we can come to an identification of the soul.

Now when the soul is encumbered by the nature, an ego is born which identifies this soul, ‘i’, with this form, the body of nature, the limitations, the maya, the measurement, the seema, the boundaries placed by nature on this soul. So “I” am the soul and this is one of my forms.

The soul within thee is a river, its sacred bathing place is contemplation, its banks are holiness, its waters are truth, its waves are love. Go to that river for purification. Merely bathing in water will not make you clean.

Question: Does the soul have a physical location?

Swamiji: No.

Question: But isn’t the soul inside the body?

Swamiji: It’s inside, it’s outside, it’s everywhere. When we look at the container, the space outside is the same quality as the space inside. There is no distinction between what is inside the pot and what is outside the pot. The space is called akash. The space inside is called ghat akash, contained space. And the space outside is called maha akash.

There is not difference except the definition of the container. The soul is within and the soul is outside. When we say he is within we call him atma and when he is outside, we call him Paramatma. But he is the same quality. So he is in and out, at the same time.

Question: Swamiji, earlier we had said that the soul is a witness. But in this chapter the soul is becoming a happy, a friend, sometimes the soul is becoming an enemy in verses 5 and 6?

Swamiji: We regard the soul as a friend or we regard the soul as an enemy because those are attitudes or thoughts born of the mind, those are produced from nature. The intrinsic nature of the soul is sat-chid-ananda. And if I dwell in sat-chi-ananda, I’ve made friends with my soul. And if I don’t dwell in sat-chid-ananda, I am thinking that my soul is an enemy to me, he is not my friend.

Sometimes he is happy, sometimes he is sad, sometimes he is clear, sometimes he’s got confusion. Now its not really the nature of the soul, it’s the nature of the mind.

But this is a poetic description of how do I regard my soul. When I am in the bliss of union, the soul is the greatest friend that I could seek. When I am in disharmony and unbalanced, the soul is tortured and he is an enemy to me. He appears to me, to my soul, to be an enemy to my soul because he is not in harmony, in balance. So its an appearance, its not the intrinsic nature.

Question: How to change a tamasic nature?

Swamiji: First you take an inspiration. And take that inspiration and cultivate the knowledge, take that knowledge and put it into practice and take that practice and refine it to perfection until it becomes second nature to us.

Again and again every time I feel the tamasic tendencies, do I want to surrender to tamas or do I want to use the strength of my knowledge and the fortitude of my sankalpa to say, “No! I wont allow the tamasic tendency. I’m going to strive for the highest.” And then I wake up from that slumber and catch myself and go back to work. And train my attitudes to follow my sankalpa rather than allow my sankalpa to follow my attitudes.

Because the attitudes of the mind will change. The pleasures and the pains of the mind will change, the likes and the dislikes of the mind will change. And now I’m going to over here and now I’m going go over there. And now I’m going to try this and now I’m going to try that. And the devil with your sankalpa! I don’t need a sankalpa. I’m going to play. I’m going skiing. I’m going to enjoy - that’s my sankalpa. And forget the rest of what I promised God.

Question: When the mind is quiet in meditation, what makes it suddenly active again? How can one prolong the quiet mind? At this point, should one make an effort or just start chanting.

Swamiji: Chanting is an effort. So now what we are going to do is to produce effective action. Remember in our Chandi Path example that the mind, the ego, got the boon that we can’t control him, only Divine Mother can.

So every time we get quiet for a while the ego says, “Hey, they’re ignoring me. Let’s go make them active and restless and cause movement. And let’s take their mind away into reverie, and thoughts, and movies, and their history. And look what you did when you were five years old, and when you were twenty-five years old, and look at this history of you”.

Now, self-conceit and self-deprecation will come and judge and critique the movie: “I only I hadn’t. I’m sure glad I did.” And suddenly the mind is off in never-never land. And we lose our meditation.

Now every time we wake up and remember. If we could remember our mantra, which is a prayer for You, who are the energy of all, in everything. “Please take your energy away from the movie, please give your energy back to the divine longing that I’m sincerely trying to maintain. Please, Energy of all, in everything. Come back from those thoughts, come back from the movies, come back to me.”

And when She is satisfied with sincerity of our prayer, she comes as Usha, the dawn and She brings illumination to our darkness. And that’s the only way I know of. The sincerity of our prayer will make the dawn to shine.

Question: Is realization of self in one’s self as well as everywhere the same as perfect union in meditation?

Swamiji: When we achieve perfect union in meditation then we see that everything is part of me. And all are within me and I am within all and I am in the heart of God. So they are synonymous. Yes, I agree with that.

Question: How do we overcome the passing arrows of previous lifetime’s karma?

Swamiji: By sitting still. There is only way to overcome our prarabdha karma and that is to not react to it when the arrows land. No matter where they land, sit still. And as still as we can sit, so effectively do we deplete and diminish the prarabdha karma, all that past karma that’ s coming to fruition now. It just depletes itself.

Question: In verse 5, we talk about two souls. Soul is mentioned two times. You had explained to us about the atman and Paratman. Is this the Paratman helping the atman? Or does it not matter?

It does not matter. At this point there is no distinction between the space inside and the space outside. If the soul is one with God and the soul is raising us up because of our capacity of recognizing the purity and the clarity of our sankalpa.

And that’s what makes it incumbent upon us to pursue a dharmic life. It becomes incumbent. It’s not a decision we make, it is the natural propensity of the soul. It’s more than a decision, it’s a necessity. When I fall in love with you, my heart knows. I can’t say, “Oh well heart, let’s logically decide.”

When I first met my Guru, my feet knew the way to His ashram. I could never tell you in a million years. I was in Vrindavan, in the galis of Vrindavan. And those galis are like a labyrinth. I could never tell you his address. I went there in the morning, I came back in the night, I didn’t see anything .There was no address, there were no street maps, there’s no guide to the city. You can’t google it. My feet knew the way. It was incumbent upon me to go again and again and again until I didn’t leave.

When I first met Shree Maa, I had no address. Shree Maa, the respected Holy Mother! Go around India and try to find Shree Maa. I knew She was from Bengal, or Assam, or Orissa, or somewhere in the North-east. Could be Shillong or Manipur, it could be anywhere. But my heart knew the way and I found Her. It wasn’t an intellectual decision.

Dharma becomes incumbent upon us. Let the soul be raised by the soul. And once that happens, when that starts taking place, the love affair commences. It quickens. And sometimes it gets really fast. We just have to go.

Dharma is the decision of our lives. It is the way of our lives. It is completely compulsory behavior. And that’s what happens when the soul is raised by the soul.