guruji was invited for a satsang by shri ajay piramal on 2nd september 2007 at their nicholas piramal office complex to commemorate the completion of 5 years of their study class which is conducted by br. sattvikaji.
guruji addressed the audience of almost 250+ people (click here to read the synopsis) which was then followed by a very interesting question and answer session. here is a synopsis of the QnA session.
Q1. is 'samata' a zero-sum game? it almost sounds like we have to keep adjusting and accepting whatever happens with respect to people, objects and experiences. this could mean that we lose in many of the interactions. can it ever be a win-win deal?
guruji's answer - no. samata is not possible without fullness. when there is fullness then there is no sense of loss even when we are giving.
Q2. how do we translate this knowledge into practical application? why is there a gap between our understanding and our actions?
guruji - our knowledge is like the sugar that has been added to a cup of tea. the tea still tastes bitter because we have not stirred the sugar. similarly the knowledge that we acquire has to be assimilated within us and then it will automatically reflect in our actions. and the way to get the knowledge assimilated in us is through regular 'satsang'.
Q3. when should i strive to achieve and when should i accept things as they are? how do i know the difference and find the balance.
guruji - 'strive to accept'!
in everything we do there are two aspects :
1. we have to put in effort and do certain things
2. we have to just let it happen.
eg. eating food. we have to put in effort to eat the food. and then we just allow the digestion to happen. or when gardening or farming we put in effort with respect to preparing the soil, sowing the seeds, etc. but finally we have to just let the plants grow. there is nothing we can do at this stage.
we have to use our 'vivek' to know what i can and must do and when to step aside and let it happen. as gurudev used to say, 'do the best, and leave the rest'.
Q4. we expect and do things for others and then we get disappointed. how do we handle this?
guruji - don't expect. but then you might think this is very impractical.
1. our expectations have to be right. eg. we should not expect sweetness from salt. then there will be no disappointment.
2. we should expect according to the ability of the person. be reasonable in our expectations.
do not insist on fulfilment of our expectations. in fact we should always remember that we are not able to fulfil our expectations from ourselves. we have so many unfulfilled expectations from ourselves. so then how can we get disappointed when others cannot fulfil our expectations from them.
Q5. why can't other people accept me as i am?
guruji - if we truly accept others as they are, then there is a good chance that they will also accept us as we are!
Q6. what if others have unrealistic expectations from us? how do we cope?
guruji - we should make our limitations clear upfront. if we can satisfy the expectation, then do it immediately. and if we cannot, then make it clear. be truthful and honest. let people know, 'if you have expectations from me, then please tell me clearly'.
Sunday, September 9, 2007
Wednesday, September 5, 2007
basking in the light - IX
guruji was invited for a satsang by shri ajay piramal on 2nd september 2007 at their nicholas piramal office complex to commemorate the completion of 5 years of their study class which is conducted by br. sattvikaji.
the program started with bhajans by the chinmaya swaranjali and by one of the study class members.
shri ajay piramal then spoke about his association with the mission, the study class and how the study of the geeta had made a significant difference in his personal and professional life. he thanked guruji for sending sattvikaji to conduct the study class at their office.
guruji then addressed the audience of more than 200 people. the following is a brief synopsis of the same.
the title of the talk was 'practical application of the bhagwad geeta in daily life'. guruji started off by saying that the topic can be divided into 3 parts - 1. practical application, 2. the bhagwad geeta and 3. daily life.
starting with daily life, he said that our daily life is typically a routine of waking up, freshening up, going about our daily chores or work and then retiring at the end of the day to rest.
but if we were to analyse our daily life we then realise that we are essentially dealing with people, material things and situations or events. so life can be defined as perceptions from these 3 sources and our response to them. and everybody has to respond, there is not escaping that.
now our responses to these perceptions tend to be different at different points of time. and different people tend to respond differently to the same situation.
and most of the time we realise that there is a gap between our knowledge and our response. though we know what we should or should not do, we are not able to act upon this knowledge. and this is because the knowledge has not been assimilated into us.
imagine we were given a glass of milk and as we are about to drink it, if someone were to tell us that there is poison mixed in the milk we would immediately refrain from drinking the milk. here the knowledge is there, it has been assimilated and there is understanding and therefore immediate application of the knowledge.
but this is not the case with us in all other aspects. eg. when we learn that happiness is not in objects, we are not completely convinced. therefore there is no application in life.
ramtirthji used to narrate a story of a mad man who announced to all the children that the landlord is having some celebrations in his house with lights and crackers and he would be distributing sweets at a particular time. the children all rush to the landlord's house, only to find that there is nothing happening there. but they are surprised to find the mad man also waiting there. so they confront him and ask him whether he knew that there would be no celebration, the mad said he knew. so the children enquire why then was waiting at the landlord's house to which the mad man replies that he did not want to miss the celebration just in case there happened to be one!
we are like the mad man; though we have the knowledge it has not been assimilated within us. but once this assimilation takes place, then there would automatically be application of the knowledge. so the point is, once we understand what the scriptures say, we must bring it into our life and use it.
now the point is, 'why do we suffer?'. one obvious reason is 'thoughtless action'. this is also the reason why transformation does not take place in our lives. but another equally important problem is 'actionless thought'. and when we do not act for some time then even out thoughts will change. eg. we might resolve to wake up everyday at 5 am. but we keep making excuses till we are intellectually convinced that we do not need to wake up at 5 am. our karma should be according to our buddhi and not the other way around!
now one watchword in the gita is 'samata' or equanimity. now equanimity has different connotations with respect to objects, people and experiences.
1. with respect to objects - these are all material objects like house, car, jewellery, etc. now all these objects have a place in the scheme of things in our life and they have their value. we should give due value to them , but not undue value.
(here guruji quoted one of rahim's dohas which says that when there is a need for a needle there is no point in using a sword.)
we usually confuse the objects with its value and give it more importance than the person. here guruji narrated a story of a very rich man who had a poor sister. this man was not kind to his sister and was very rude to her and would never invite her to any of the functions or celebrations in his house. after some time the sister becomes very rich. the brother then invites her for a party. she arrives at his decked with a lot of jewellery. when the food is served she takes off her jewellery and starts feeding it separately. the brother is annoyed and irritated and asks her what she is doing. she explains that she realises that it is her jewellery which was invited for the party and not her, and that is why she is feeding the jewellery.
2. with respect to experiences - experiences are pairs of opposites - heat & cold at body level, joy and sorrow at mental level and honor and dishonor at intellectual level. these experiences affect everyone. equanimity in experiences would mean freedom from our personal likes and dislikes.
if we accept one experience then we should learn to accept the opposite also. or we should reject both. if something comes our way we should welcome it; and when it goes away we shouldn't stop it.
we can look at this in different ways - a devotee says it is god's will; another says it is the result of my karma; and another says that these are only appearances and not the truth. we can adopt whichever option we prefer, else we only keep swinging from one extreme to another.
3. with respect to people - people can be of any of the following categories - well-wisher, friend, enemy, neutral, mediator (well-wisher of both), someone we dislike for no reason, relation, one who helps everyone, unrighteous.
guruji said that when he read about jesus christ saying 'love thy neighbor' his first reaction was that this is a limited, narrow vision. he then later realised that this is very apt. we are able to love people all over, but it is living with our near and dear one which is difficult.
when someone far away criticises us it doesn't bother us. but when its someone near to us then we feel upset.
about equanimity in relation to people, shankaracharya says we should learn to accept them as they are. eg. we accept fruits and flowers as they are; we enjoy all animals in a safari and accept them as they are. similarly fire is hot and we accept it. we don't complain about it, instead we use it. in the same way we should accept people and adjust ourselves accordingly.
there is no point in constantly complaining. here guruji gave an example of socrates whose wife was a nag and who once berated him when he was with people and then poured a bucket of water over him in anger. his friends asked him how he could accept this. he responded by saying that there is usually a shower after a thunderstorm.
so we should first learn to accept people and then, only if authorised, can we advise them.
so 'samata' is the constant in all the 3 - objects, experiences and people.
we have to keep reflecting on this.
---------------------
there was also a wonderful question & answer session after this. that would be put up in a separate post.
the program started with bhajans by the chinmaya swaranjali and by one of the study class members.
shri ajay piramal then spoke about his association with the mission, the study class and how the study of the geeta had made a significant difference in his personal and professional life. he thanked guruji for sending sattvikaji to conduct the study class at their office.
guruji then addressed the audience of more than 200 people. the following is a brief synopsis of the same.
the title of the talk was 'practical application of the bhagwad geeta in daily life'. guruji started off by saying that the topic can be divided into 3 parts - 1. practical application, 2. the bhagwad geeta and 3. daily life.
starting with daily life, he said that our daily life is typically a routine of waking up, freshening up, going about our daily chores or work and then retiring at the end of the day to rest.
but if we were to analyse our daily life we then realise that we are essentially dealing with people, material things and situations or events. so life can be defined as perceptions from these 3 sources and our response to them. and everybody has to respond, there is not escaping that.
now our responses to these perceptions tend to be different at different points of time. and different people tend to respond differently to the same situation.
and most of the time we realise that there is a gap between our knowledge and our response. though we know what we should or should not do, we are not able to act upon this knowledge. and this is because the knowledge has not been assimilated into us.
imagine we were given a glass of milk and as we are about to drink it, if someone were to tell us that there is poison mixed in the milk we would immediately refrain from drinking the milk. here the knowledge is there, it has been assimilated and there is understanding and therefore immediate application of the knowledge.
but this is not the case with us in all other aspects. eg. when we learn that happiness is not in objects, we are not completely convinced. therefore there is no application in life.
ramtirthji used to narrate a story of a mad man who announced to all the children that the landlord is having some celebrations in his house with lights and crackers and he would be distributing sweets at a particular time. the children all rush to the landlord's house, only to find that there is nothing happening there. but they are surprised to find the mad man also waiting there. so they confront him and ask him whether he knew that there would be no celebration, the mad said he knew. so the children enquire why then was waiting at the landlord's house to which the mad man replies that he did not want to miss the celebration just in case there happened to be one!
we are like the mad man; though we have the knowledge it has not been assimilated within us. but once this assimilation takes place, then there would automatically be application of the knowledge. so the point is, once we understand what the scriptures say, we must bring it into our life and use it.
now the point is, 'why do we suffer?'. one obvious reason is 'thoughtless action'. this is also the reason why transformation does not take place in our lives. but another equally important problem is 'actionless thought'. and when we do not act for some time then even out thoughts will change. eg. we might resolve to wake up everyday at 5 am. but we keep making excuses till we are intellectually convinced that we do not need to wake up at 5 am. our karma should be according to our buddhi and not the other way around!
now one watchword in the gita is 'samata' or equanimity. now equanimity has different connotations with respect to objects, people and experiences.
1. with respect to objects - these are all material objects like house, car, jewellery, etc. now all these objects have a place in the scheme of things in our life and they have their value. we should give due value to them , but not undue value.
(here guruji quoted one of rahim's dohas which says that when there is a need for a needle there is no point in using a sword.)
we usually confuse the objects with its value and give it more importance than the person. here guruji narrated a story of a very rich man who had a poor sister. this man was not kind to his sister and was very rude to her and would never invite her to any of the functions or celebrations in his house. after some time the sister becomes very rich. the brother then invites her for a party. she arrives at his decked with a lot of jewellery. when the food is served she takes off her jewellery and starts feeding it separately. the brother is annoyed and irritated and asks her what she is doing. she explains that she realises that it is her jewellery which was invited for the party and not her, and that is why she is feeding the jewellery.
2. with respect to experiences - experiences are pairs of opposites - heat & cold at body level, joy and sorrow at mental level and honor and dishonor at intellectual level. these experiences affect everyone. equanimity in experiences would mean freedom from our personal likes and dislikes.
if we accept one experience then we should learn to accept the opposite also. or we should reject both. if something comes our way we should welcome it; and when it goes away we shouldn't stop it.
we can look at this in different ways - a devotee says it is god's will; another says it is the result of my karma; and another says that these are only appearances and not the truth. we can adopt whichever option we prefer, else we only keep swinging from one extreme to another.
3. with respect to people - people can be of any of the following categories - well-wisher, friend, enemy, neutral, mediator (well-wisher of both), someone we dislike for no reason, relation, one who helps everyone, unrighteous.
guruji said that when he read about jesus christ saying 'love thy neighbor' his first reaction was that this is a limited, narrow vision. he then later realised that this is very apt. we are able to love people all over, but it is living with our near and dear one which is difficult.
when someone far away criticises us it doesn't bother us. but when its someone near to us then we feel upset.
about equanimity in relation to people, shankaracharya says we should learn to accept them as they are. eg. we accept fruits and flowers as they are; we enjoy all animals in a safari and accept them as they are. similarly fire is hot and we accept it. we don't complain about it, instead we use it. in the same way we should accept people and adjust ourselves accordingly.
there is no point in constantly complaining. here guruji gave an example of socrates whose wife was a nag and who once berated him when he was with people and then poured a bucket of water over him in anger. his friends asked him how he could accept this. he responded by saying that there is usually a shower after a thunderstorm.
so we should first learn to accept people and then, only if authorised, can we advise them.
so 'samata' is the constant in all the 3 - objects, experiences and people.
we have to keep reflecting on this.
---------------------
there was also a wonderful question & answer session after this. that would be put up in a separate post.
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