Lecture 2 (Verses 3 to 9)

Audio playlist: here

We will be using the first verse of this text as the invocation at the start of the class.
So in this introduction to Vedanta series we have successfully completed one introductory text: Drig-Drishya Viveka. And now we have started this new introductory text: Aparokshanubhuti. This is an introductory text, prakarana grantha in Sanskrit written by Shankaracharya himself. We have done the first two verses and we shall go on to the third verse now.

This verse means that the 4 preliminary qualifications such as Vairagya and the like are acquired by men by propitiating Hari, the Lord! Through austerities and performance of duties pertaining to their social order and stage in life.

Now what does this mean?
Vedanta when properly understood is extraordinarily simple. It seems obvious! and it seems so easy to attain. But it is not all that simple and there is a catch and the catch is at the very beginning. Each of these Vedanta texts talks about the preliminaries: the 4 fold preliminary. So they set the entry bar pretty high. This is called the Sadhana Chatusthaya.
1. Viveka — discrimination between the real and the unreal.
2. Vairagya — dispassion for the unreal; eagerness to attain the real.
3. Shat-sampatti — the 6 fold treasures basically discipline.
4. Mumukshutva—an intense eagerness for liberation.

These are the 4 and will be discussed in some detail. Every Vedanta book will begin with this so that we know what we are getting into.
Now a question might arise. It is pretty steep Swami! I am already disqualified! There is no reason to feel disqualified. Infact as we shall see, we do have these qualifications in some measure. The whole effort is to strengthen them. We have enough gas to start going with and undertake the journey but we have to fill it up occasionally. Another question might be: “How do I strengthen these four fold qualification?” and this verse, verse number three tells us something important for that.

It tells us, the person who wants to pursue Vedanta will get the 4 fold qualifications in this way:
Swavarnashrama-dharmena: By fulfilling one’s obligations and duties. Traditionally the Indian society was divided into caste and into different stages of life. Traditionally there were four casts —
1. the Brahmanas — the priestly class
2. the Kshatriya — the warrior or the administrative class
3. the Vaishyas — the business and trading class
4. the shudras — the labor class.
These were casts and over time they became hereditary and each caste had certain duties and obligations allotted to them. This cast system long ago became became corrupted and perverted and today it is more or less gone. Although the feelings are still there but practically it is not very useful now. But there is a message there. The obligations that we face in life has a role to play in our spiritual life. Often newcomers in Vedanta become very enthusiastic sometimes. They say: “I am off to India.” or “I am off to Himalayas to sit and meditate in a cave”. Well usually that’s just asking for trouble. It is much better to prepare oneself, to prepare the ground as it were before making any big changes. The real changes are to be internal changes. If without preparation we make sudden external changes we find that our life gets so disturbed that the little spiritual practice that we were capable of doing earlier we are not capable of doing that anymore. So it is not a good idea to disturb the existing structure of life.
Also it is a good idea to finish what one has started.
I remember during my stay in the monastery in India , young monks would want to join, and they do join the monastery, and we noticed a curious phenomena. Just before the examinations lots of young people wanted to become monks! I think they were prompted more by the fear of the examinations rather than the fear of God or love of God. And inevitably the senior swamis would counsel caution. They would say that: “Finish your examinations, get your degree. We are there. We will be here waiting for you. You are undertaking lifetime of spiritual practice. It is not a matter of one or two or three years. It is lifetime’s commitment. So you are undertaking something which takes lifetime’s of patience and you cannot wait two or three months more!”. So it is good to complete what one has started. That way the structure life imposes upon us — many people say “Oh Swami we don’t have time for meditation and spiritual practice. We have a job and family and these obligations.” — True to some extent but on the other hand, what happens is if one may think that I will give up all of that and I will get a nice cave in Himalayas and I am going to meditate and realize God so quick. Well that doesn’t happen. If we give up all that and go to a secluded place like a aashrama or a cave, it may be nice for the first two or three days but then one sees that one cannot really make any progress. The real problems are not outside but are inside. They say that wherever you go, there, you are! You might leave all the troublesome people behind, all that troublesome job and boss. But the thing is one person has accompanied you to the meditation cave and that is you. And that’s when it is realized that the biggest obstacle is not the boss or the wife or the husband or the kids or the obligations or the taxes or whatever. Biggest obstacle is within us. So it is good sometimes to stick to social obligations and then cultivate Vedanta.
Remember Arjuna wanted to give up the fight and become a monk. Krishna says: “Wonderful! You want to pursue a spiritual life but first you have to do the duty that you have undertaken, the battle of life and of-course you can do that in a spiritual way which can help your spiritual life.”
So in Swavarnashrama-dharmena, ashrama-dharmena also means stages of life.

1. There was bhramacharya ashrama corresponding to studentship and youth.
2. Then there was grihasta ashrama, the householder life where one would get married and settle down and hold a job and raise a family.
3. There was vanaprastha ashrama, when one would retire into seclusion and cultivate religion and spirituality more intensely.
4. And then there would be sanyasa ashrama, where one would become a monk.

And this was the general structure laid down for life. Each stage of life has certain duties and obligations and they are not obligations to spirituality. On the contrary they are helpful to spirituality, as if designed to help spirituality. In fact Shankaracharya on his commentary on the Taitirya Upanishad at one place had said: The entire structure of varna and ashrama i.e the social structure setup in Vedic India has one purpose — the realization of Brahman. The ultimate goal of all of this — of studying, of having a job, of raising a family, of retiring into seclusion or becoming a monk, all of it taken together the ultimate goal is always the realization of Brahman.
Tapasa — Austerities. You see the Buddha, when he decided to become the Buddha, the spiritual seeker, what was the first thing that he did? He took an intense course on austerities. That is to discipline the body and the mind. So austerities and haritoshanat, devotion to God i.e if you can please God via devotion. In-fact it is said “It is by grace alone that one gets desire to attain non-dual realization, advaita”. Desire, the interest in non-duality comes from the great grace of God. So conventional religion is not against non-dualism or against spirituality. Conventional religion in the right spirit can provide and does provide a solid foundation for spirituality. Often you will find the great spiritual masters in ancient India were very observant Hindus. They followed all the duties of the varna and ashrama meticulously and of-course went ahead into non-dual philosophy, i.e advaita. So these are some pointers that don’t disturb the external life unnecessarily. Cultivate spirituality internally. A disciplined and simple life — tapas or austerities is very helpful for this philosophy of Advaita, for realizing non-dualism in once life. And devotion to God is also very helpful.

With this background, let us go into the four fold qualifications. The four fold qualifications are, as mentioned: Viveka, Vairagya, 6-fold discipline and Mumukshutva. Discrimination between the real and the unreal, between the eternal and the temporary. Then, a dispassion or a disregard for the temporary, what is transient and a desire to attain what is eternal. Then, a set of six disciplines and last is the intense yearning for liberation.

Shankaracharya in his magnificent commentary to the Brahma-Sutras at the very beginning says: “When these four fold qualifications are present, one can genuinely enquire into Brahman. Then one can be a genuine spiritual seeker also and can realize Brahman and become an enlightened person. But not in the contrary.” If these four fold qualifications are not there then one can, let alone becoming enlightened, even the spiritual seeking might not be a genuine seeking. It might be a kind of superficial curiosity.

You see these days it is very easy to go to a book shop and get lots of books and read them also. But if the qualifications are not there then depending on what level a person is, one may get all the books and there they will remain, nicely arranged in the shelf with maybe a resolve that someday I would read those books. Or one may read them and get bored really soon, “what are they talking about?”. Or one may read them and begin to get what they are talking about, but that’s it and does nothing after that. So the four fold qualifications is necessary to convert Vedanta from the study of a very interesting philosophy to something that can give fulfillment in life. To solve our problems.
Now lets take the four fold qualifications one by one:

1. Vairagya. Very interestingly in this book, Shankaracharya starts with Vairagya. Usually the list starts with Viveka and then dispassion.

Indifference with which one treats the excreta of a crow; okay I know it is gross but it is meant to be so you feel disgust; such an indifference to all objects of enjoyment from the realm of Brahma to this world in view of their perishable nature is called pure Vairagya.

Now don’t be discouraged! One might say “I don’t have so much dispassion that I treat chocolate cake as excreta of crow!”. Just remember, he is speaking about the final stage of Vairagya. The best kind of Vairagya. We all have Vairagya to some extent otherwise wouldn’t have braved to come and listen to talk on a 1500 years old text. So we have certainly enough Vairagya to begin with.

Now he says, complete disregard for all kinds of enjoyments provided by this world. In one of the classic texts of Advaita Vedanta, Vedantasara, it is said: “Dispassion for all kinds of enjoyment in this world and the next”. What people are pursuing, when we look to become happy we look for avenues of happiness open to us in this world — various kinds of entertainments, relationships, various kinds of sense pleasures, various activities and we try them out one after another. We all come to the understanding that none of them provide permanent satisfaction. Once one comes to a mature understanding, you may still have that cookie or that chocolate cake but one should not look at it as a source of satisfaction, an aim in life. Eat to live not live to eat. So the enjoyments of the world are there and they may come to your life but they are no longer the purpose of living. You see how much our time and energy is consumed in providing various kinds of avenues of pleasure. Look at all the fancy restaurants out there. Just food. And the monks in the Himalayas say, “Food ought to be treated as a medicine. Hunger is a disease, take your medicine”. That’s the attitude towards food. You don’t want a fancy restaurant where you pay hundreds of dollars to take your tablets. No! Why should you!
So the things of the world are still there and they are important for living but they should not be the aim in life. And one should not spend time and energy to pursue these in life.
And there are higher worlds. There are heavens. Different religions speak about the heaven concept. The heaven concept is: Where I can get happiness unmixed with unhappiness. Here right now happiness is mixed with unhappiness. It comes to an end, it is expensive, it is troublesome and so many other problems. Someone said very interestingly: “Some kind of tasty food is two minutes on the lips and 20 years on the hips”. But in heaven you can do that. There you can eat a lot without getting fat. So that is the heaven concept where you can have lots of pleasures without any problems. But that too comes to an end. The heavens in Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism or Sikhism — they all come to an end. They are no permanent heavens. Searching for heaven is not Vedanta, it is not spirituality! Heaven is, when I remain a individual but go to a better place. This place is good but that place is better hence I want to go there. I am enjoying life here and I want to enjoy life after death — that is the heaven concept. And Vedanta says that also comes to an end and one should not pursue that if one wants Vedanta or spirituality.

When Swami Vivekananda came here more than 100 years ago, he shocked many people by saying that — “I have not come here to teach you how to go to heaven. I have come here to teach you how to stop going to heaven”. So a disregard for the enjoyments promised by this world and the enjoyments promised by the next world. One of the senior swami who taught us in the Belur Math, he said “You are very quick to dismiss the next world! That’s because you don’t believe in it”. Modern man doesn’t believe in heaven and might be skeptical about it. If one cannot give up the pleasures promised in this world, he/she can be sure that they are not going to give up the pleasures promised in heaven. Just because we don’t believe in it, we are quick to say that we don’t want that.
Just as an aside, how would you pursue pleasures in heaven if you are interested. Don’t be, but let’s say if you were, there is a whole ritualistic portion in the Vedas called the Karmakanda, where you accumulate lots of merit by performing various kinds of rituals. And this assures that after death your soul will go to some heaven and according to the amount of merit you have accumulated you will have a very pleasant time for thousands of years. But you have to come back again. Swami Nishreshanandji, senior Swami of our order who started the Vedanta movement in South Africa, he had a very nice way with words and would explain things quite beautifully. So this heaven concept he explains in this way: He says “ when I came from Durban to Bombay I came by Air India. I got a ticket by paying some money and when I come to the airplane there is this air-hostess standing and saying come-come, this is your seat”. This is almost a literal translation of a Vedic sentence — “There are heavenly hosts who say aehi aehi”, this is the world you have earned from your merits. Just like that air-hostess says “come this is the seat that you have purchased”. Then that swami continues — “Then when I go and sit down there, and the plane takes off and goes to 40 thousand feet high. And it is air-conditioned and it is so nice. And then they put on a movie and it is so nice. And then the air-hostesses come with food and drinks”. In heaven you are supposed to have an endless round of partying but they have only once choice of drink there, the nectar or amrita. “But then finally the plane lands in Mumbai and they announce that Thank you for flying in Air India. The temperature outside is 45 degrees Celsius and humidity is 100%”. You can’t say, no I don’t want to go out there. You have to go out and if you want to fly again then you have to purchase another ticket.
So the people in Southwest airlines are humorous. When we landed in a particular airport and the pilot thanked us for flying with Southwest and then he said: “Remember we love you and we love your money more. So do fly with us.”. In the same way you, the jeevatman or the individual comes back from heaven and if you want to go back into heaven then you will have to again perform those rites and rituals and be a very very religious person.

All that is temporary! All that is temporary! Beyond that lies the real spirituality. So that is Vairagya. Next is Viveka.

2. Viveka:

The Atman — the Self is the seer and is in itself alone that is permanent. What is seen in oppose is transient. Such a settled conviction is truly known as discrimination or Viveka. What does this mean?

Viveka means analysis or discrimination. Literally the word means to separate two things which are mixed up. Viveka comes from the Sanskrit Vivich — to separate. A confusion is there and two things are mixed up. To separate them not in a physical sense but in our understanding. Sri Ramakrishna used to say: sand and sugar are mixed up and an ant can separate them. Milk and water are mixed up and apparently the swan can filter out the water and take the milk only. So in the same way life presents us with a mixture of the divine and the temporal. The eternal and the temporal. We have to select the eternal and turn away the temporal. Nitya-anitya-vastu-viveka: The ability to discern what is passing in life. The ability to discern what is possibly eternal and turn away from the transient. When do we have to do this? All the time!

The Upanishads say the pleasant and the good — preya and shreya are presented to us all the time and all the time we have to select the good not the pleasant. Often unfortunately pleasant is not always good for us. So that which is good, good means that which takes us to our goals, has to be chosen. The Upanishands are very clear on this. In Katho Upanishands it is very clear that those who select the pleasant, they fall away from their goal. Spiritual goal definitely but even secular goals. One who keeps on taking the shorter way out will never attain anything greater in life. And those who select that which is good and which is in harmony with their goal, they will attain the goal in life. If it is God-realization or Enlightenment, they will reach there. So this is Viveka, the ability to discern.

A question may come here:”The ability to discern between the eternal and temporal, only an enlightened soul could do that?”. To know what is eternal and what is temporary, only an enlightened person can do that since we don’t know Brahman, we haven’t realized God yet. So what is meant here is not in the final sense but to begin with. To begin with an understanding, a kind of feeling that there is something to this spirituality business. Here is something which they are speaking about which can be of help to me. All the religions of this world, all the spiritual traditions of this world are speaking about something Moksha, Nirvana, Kaivalya, Salvation.. whatever they speak about, they speak about something eternal which is supposed to solve all the problems of my life. So the kind of feeling that this may be true, this possibly is true and that nothing else in this world can really solve all my problems. This feeling, this discernment in the mind is Viveka. This ability to separate the two is Viveka.

This firm conviction and clarity in the mind is called Viveka, discernment. God alone is my aim, nothing in the world. Sri Ramakrishna was once asked — “Can you explain religion and spirituality in one sentence?” Swami Brahmananda records this and Sri Ramakrishan to this question replied— “God alone is real. The world is unreal.” and then he says: “assimilate this truth”. Swami Brahmananda considered it important to add that after this Sri Ramakrisha kept quiet meaning thereby that this is the whole of religion! Brahman alone is real and the world around it is false. This is Viveka. We have not realized it yet and having this feeling that there is something in the spiritual life, that is Viveka.

Then we have the six fold disciplines or treasures:

1. Shama: Control of the mind.
2. Dama: Control of the sense organs.
3. Uparati: Withdrawal from external enjoyments.
4. Titiksha: A kind of spiritual fortitude to put up with the troubles that life has been throwing at us and will keep on throwing at us even when we become highly spiritual. The ability to withstand that.
5. Samadhana: The settling down, a deep focus and concentration on spiritual pursuits.
6. Shraddha: Faith, not a blind faith but a working hypothesis, a working faith that what these scriptures are telling has some truth in that. I may not understand it now, I may not get all of it now but there is something to it. Let me take it up in earnest. It is just like one goes to a university course and one listens to a professor with some kind of faith. The faith is that, this guy in front of me is not speaking non-sense. These books are not full of lies. What the teacher is telling us has got some truth in that. I may not get it now. I may get it only partially but there is the hope of understanding it. The goal is to understand that. In blind faith there is no promise of understanding but this is not blind faith. This is just enough faith to go on with your spiritual practice and investigation till you understand it very clearly for yourself, till it becomes your own.

Now let us take up each of them:

Giving up various kinds of desires consistently is called shama. Quietening the mind is shama. Quietening the mind is not possible if I have filled the mind with hundreds of desires. Hundred little desires — I want this, I want that, I shall enjoy this, I shall go there, I want to see this, that…No. If I fill it up with all these desires the mind is continually agitated and there goes Vedanta out of the window. It will not stick.

And Dama is the control of the activities of the sense organs and motor organs. External activity specifically. Let’s take two stories from the life of Swami Turyananda.

In Belur Math, in the summer when it is very hot there is a tradition of making a cool drink out of yogurt. And it is sweet and it is cool and it is offered to the Lord in the main temple. Then the monks by turn, each day one monk, gets it as offered food or prasada. And it is very nice, I can say that since I have had it. It is a very old tradition. It is specially nice when it is 105 in the shade. So this person will come to you and say: “It is your turn swami, have this”. And it is really nice. Now I read, many many years ago when the tradition was still there, Swami Turyanandaji, a direct disciple of Sri Ramakrishna, who was then at the Belur Math and this young novice came up with that refreshing glass of yogurt and said: “This was offered to Sri Ramakrishna today. Swami so this is prasada and it is your turn”. Swami took one sip and turned it away. The novice now thought that something must be wrong. He asks “Swami don’t you like it?”. And the Swami said: “I like it and that is why!”. Immediately the mind said, it is nice and Swami said stop! That is a pretty steep curve to follow actually.
There is another incident in Kashi, Benares. Once a young swami has gone out in the evening at the meditation time and when this was reported to Swami Turyananda, he scolded that swami so hard that he ran away from the ashrama. What he said was: “In the evening when the sun has set after that why should a sadhu, a monk leave his meditation seat”. He should be in his meditation seat and if someone asks how long? He would say: “until the sun rises of-course!”. And it is not exaggeration. Swami Turyananda himself used to do that. From the reminisces of him when he was doing tapasya in Rishikesh, throughout the day he would study and think about Vedanta. He would go out for one hour to beg for food. He said: “A monk for one hour in a day is a fakir, a beggar and for twenty-three hours he is an emperor”. Because only one hour he had to go out and ask for something and for the rest of twenty-three hours the person is completely free. So as the evening would fall and of-course no light or electricity was there, he would go to his little hut which was made from leaves and branches. He would sit for meditation there and he couldn’t sleep. He said: “ A week went by without sleeping”. He had no need of sleep. The yogis say that those who have attained samadhi, they don’t need sleep. So he would remain immersed in samadhi throughout the night. Now this complete lack of external pravritti that I should see that, I should go there, I shall do this — pulling these things away and concentrate on Vedanta, that is what is called as Dama. Again don’t be discouraged. We have enough of that. If you are going to come here and sit here for one hour patiently and would listen to Vedanta, so some amount of shama and dama definitely we have got.

Then the next one is uparati.

Turning away completely from all sense objects is the height of uparati. Uparati is just the opposite of rati. Rati means enjoyment in objects of the world. Form — I want to see nice things. Sound — I want to hear nice music or sometime even more musical is someone praising me. Touch, smell, taste of-course. With five different mouths we are tasting the world it seems. Sometimes having company of people, that I can’t stay by-myself. This form of flowing out towards the world is called Rati and reversing that, not seeking the engagement and pleasure outside but seeking peace and joy within in my own spiritual practices is called Uparati.

I know one very senior Swami in our order. A very important person had made an appointment with him but did not stick to it, which was in the afternoon and turned up only in the evening. He said, I want to meet the Swami. Swami sent back the word: “Morning is for you, evening is for me”. That means at this time I am ready and open to see visitors. After the sun has set, I shall retire completely cut-off from the world. This is Uparati. One time we must step back from the world. If we look at the lives of all great spiritual masters, we will see there is an engagement with the world and the society and then there is a disengagement. If you look at the life of Buddha, after his enlightenment as he was teaching thousands of people, the monks of his Buddhist order and the lay persons, and yet it was twice or thrice in the day when he would completely withdraw from the society and sit and meditate. So this pattern of withdrawal and engagement, withdrawal is called Uparati.

Sri Ramakrisha when asked, “How does one attain spirituality?”, He would say that sadhu sanga, prayer to God and staying in a solitary place. Staying in a solitary place doesn’t mean running to a cave. It means cutting one self off from society. Even the people whom you love, who are very dear to you, you should cut yourself off from the society once in a while. And even from those whom you dislike, we entertain them all the time in our minds. Stay away from them externally and internally. So this is Uparati.

Titiksha: Spiritual endurance. World is going to hassle you. It has been hassling you and it will only continue to do so. And no, I don’t wish it upon you or nobody wishes it upon you. It is our karma, whatever we get good or bad in life, is a product of our past karma. So it is going to come. Now am I going to let it distract me from my spiritual goal. No! When I say I am not going to let it distract from my spiritual goal — troublesome events, maybe it is too hot or too cold, maybe there are mosquitoes, maybe there are troublesome people, maybe I have ill health — I am not feeling too good today. All of this has one effect of making me swerve away from my spiritual goal. If I don’t allow them to do that, that is titiksha or spiritual fortitude. To stick on to what I am doing, after-all people put on so much trouble to earn money — I have a job and to hold onto the job so much trouble one has to go through — the morning traffic, you disregard minor illnesses so that one can turn up for the job. If one can do that to earn money, how much more so must we do to find God.

In Vivekchudamani, and Shankaracharya has quoted here from there, this is called titiksha or spiritual fortitude where I put up with all kinds of miseries and troubles. How do I put up with it? Without unduly running around to remedy the situation. See, here one must use common-sense. I have so much pain in my knee that if I don’t do something about it, I cannot meditate. Well I must practice titiksha. I will put up with it and try to meditate. Well we cannot do meditation with that. You must take care of it. What requires medicine, give it medicine, what requires a mosquito net give it that. Don’t put up with mosquito bites and try to meditate. Well you can meditate alright but you will end up meditating on the mosquitoes not on God. Common-sense measure we must take, that much of-course is necessary but even more than that. One senior swami told me about a young monk he had seen in the Himalayas. He looked like a very promising young person such that if he were to sit and meditate, he might actually attain something. And what is this person doing — constructing a cave! which will be suitable for him to meditate. That will take 2 or 3 years to complete. Daily from morning to evening he is working hard , removing the rocks and so. The effort that he is putting into that, that effort could have put into meditation and prayer. So titiksha is putting up with little bit of difficulties in life but focusing on spiritual practice.
Without internal reactions, if a person insulted me, okay I keep silent but I am boiling internally. That won’t. It should be as if absolutely no-one has said anything to me without any kind of reaction.

Then shraddha: the next discipline to be practiced.

Shraddha and Samadhana: the fifth and sixth disciplines.

A faith in the words of the scriptures and the teachers. A faith as I said, not a blind faith, nobody is asking for that, but enough like a working hypothesis. What they are saying is quite possibly true, maybe I don’t get it now, maybe I don’t experience it now but it seems to be true. It has been verified by many many people and so let me follow this, let me take it into consideration that it is quite possible. This kind of respect to the scripture and the instructor is called Shraddha and shraddha is extremely important in the spiritual life. And then samadhana, focus and concentration of the mind. On what? Existence or Brahman. Focus on the goal to be attained. It should not be — “I want enlightenment but it is number 3 in my 10 point todo list”. Oh no! that would not do.
I met this person in our Mayavati Advaita Aashram, a young man. He was sitting and reading the Astavakra Gita. I don’t know why the people who take to spiritual life directly go to Astavakra, the highest and the most radical Vedantic text. He was sitting under a tree and reading that. He said “Swami, I am worried”. I said: “why are you worried?”. He said, “well I have been read it for 1.5 months and I haven’t attained Enlightenment yet”. I said, “Give it time” to which he replied, “I don’t have time! I got 2 months off from my job in New York and I have to attain Enlightenment and get back and join my job”. Well what could I say. It is good that he is enthusiastic but focus — This is what I want in my life”. Sri Ramakrishna had incredible focus. When he was weeping for a vision of the Divine Mother Kali, people would see this young priest crying aloud to mother and falling on the ground and rubbing his face in distress on the rough ground — “Another day has passed Mother, the sun sinks in the horizon and I have not been able to see you!”. People thought that he is a village boy and he is missing his mum. Final time when Buddha sat down for meditation, he got Nirvana or bodhi. He said at that time, “Let my body dry up and wither in this meditation seat and I shall not rise without getting enlightenment”. So that kind of focus on God. Many people are focused. People who are successful in life, they have the ability to focus. They have been focused on their jobs, their career. A musician can be very focused in the music, an artist can be very focused in his painting, a writer will be very focused in his writing. Hence they are very capable of focusing but they are only focused in one area. Tell them to come and meditate on Brahman and you will hear him slightly snoring after some time. It is all not that easy. So focus on Brahman, on the absolute.

Again all of these things are spectrum. They are capable of being graded. We must have enough to start the journey but one must keep looking at them just like in a journey you keep looking at the dials on the dashboard like the gas, and the temperature etc. Like that one must keep an eye on how is my Viveka, my Vairagya, my Shama and my Dama and then my uparati.

Then finally an intense desire for liberation, i.e Mumukshutva.

When and how shall I, O Lord, be free from the bonds of this world. This burning desire is called Mumukshutva. Sri Ramakrisha used to say, imagine a thief who is after gold who knows that there is gold in the next room and there is only a thin partition that separates him with gold. Imagine the eagerness of him to get that gold! That tremendous eagerness, that God exists, that it is true that I am Brahman. How do I realize this! I have the possibility of that! The doors of heaven are open to me. How should I walk through. This kind of intense desire. I am suffering in this world, how do I get out of this suffering? Here is a way, a way which has been trodden by the great spiritual masters of the yore and they have attained what is promised here. So how can I attain that! That kind of intense burning desire for spiritual illumination is called Mumukshutva — or Moksha Ichaa the desire for Moksha!

One more point, a little secret here. These four, or rather nine are all causally connected! Causally connected means — one leads to the other. The initial Viveka that there is some ultimate spiritual reality and this world is transient and full of sorrow. This difference, this clarity gives rise to a dispassion for the world and a desire to realize that, Vairagya. Viveka and Vairagya together strengthen the spiritual discipline in our lives. Then we work to get our life in shape for this great spiritual adventure. When we have that discipline with Viveka and Vairagya, then it strengthens the intense desire. Then it becomes a burning desire!

Sri Ramakrishna used to say, If you have love for God then you don’t need anything else. But the question we hesitate to ask is, how do I get love for God? Well this is how it is connected. Intense desire or love of God, it is connected in this way. How does it work?
If there is Viveka, there will be Vairagya. If Viveka and Vairagya are there, the six-fold disciplines will be strong in our lives. And if all of them are there, then that intense yearning for liberation will come. And one can see, one can simulate it mentally. If one has that much Viveka and Vairagya, how would one feel! How would I think! How would I react to certain circumstances in life! How would I speak!. So they are causally connected.

Now how should one use them? If I have a problem with one of them, one should go a step back and strengthen the preceding step. What I mean with this is: If I am attracted to things in the world and I cannot overcome desires. Instead of struggling with those desires, which most of us do, the technique is not to struggle there but step back and look to the cause and fight the battle there. If my Vairagya is not strong, instead of struggling there let me strengthen the Viveka! If the cause if strengthened, the effect is sure to come. If I am unable to maintain spiritual disciplines in my life, instead of struggling there, let me step back to Viveka and Vairagya and let me strengthen them. When Viveka is strong and the dispassion for the world that is Vairagya is strong, then disciplines of the world will come by itself. What else will you do? What else will you think about and what else will you do if you donot want anything in this world and you want only God! Then shama, dama will automatically come. Here is the little secret of the four fold qualifications — that they are causally connected, that one leads to another, the earlier ones strengthen the next ones. And when we fight the spiritual battle, it is important to know what is cause and what is effect. If I want an effect, drill deeper for the cause and strengthen them and the effect will come.

With these words, let me end the class today. We have run out of time also. This is the foundation of what is to follow. And let me tell you, what is to follow is very exciting and it is going to be a thrilling ride and it is going to start from the very next verse.