KY Chp 6 – Work for Self-Purification - VUSG

KY Chp 6 – Work for Self-Purification - VUSG

Class material covered in Vedanta US Study Group on Sept 24, 2018

What is meant by ideal happiness is the cessation of this struggle. But then life will cease, for the struggle can only cease when life itself has ceased. We have seen already that in helping the world we help ourselves. The main effect of work done for others is to purify ourselves. By means of the constant effort to do good to others we are trying to forget ourselves; this forgetfulness of self is the one great lesson we have to learn in life. Man thinks foolishly that he can make himself happy, and after years of struggle finds out at last that true happiness consists in killing selfishness and that no one can make him happy except himself. Every act of charity, every thought of sympathy, every action of help, every good deed, is taking so much of self-importance away from our little selves and making us think of ourselves as the lowest and the least, and, therefore, it is all good. Here we find that Jnana, Bhakti, and Karma — all come to one point. The highest ideal is eternal and entire self-abnegation, where there is no "I," but all is "Thou"; and whether he is conscious or unconscious of it, Karma-Yoga leads man to that end. A religious preacher may become horrified at the idea of an Impersonal God; he may insist on a Personal God and wish to keep up his own identity and individuality, whatever he may mean by that. But his ideas of ethics, if they are really good, cannot but be based on the highest self-abnegation. It is the basis of all morality; you may extend it to men, or animals, or angels, it is the one basic idea, the one fundamental principle running through all ethical systems.

You will find various classes of men in this world. First, there are the God-men, whose self-abnegation is complete, and who do only good to others even at the sacrifice of their own lives. These are the highest of men. If there are a hundred of such in any country, that country need never despair. But they are unfortunately too few. Then there are the good men who do good to others so long as it does not injure themselves. And there is a third class who, to do good to themselves, injure others. It is said by a Sanskrit poet that there is a fourth unnamable class of people who injure others merely for injury's sake. Just as there are at one pole of existence the highest good men, who do good for the sake of doing good, so, at the other pole, there are others who injure others just for the sake of the injury. They do not gain anything thereby, but it is their nature to do evil.

Points of Discussion:

1.     Effect of work – Chitta shuddhi (removing ignorance from the mind). Ignorance is the do-ership.

2.     Bhagavad Gita (BG) – karmanyevadhiraste, ma phaleshu kadachana. We have the responsibility and right to work but not to their results thereof.

a.      As a Bhakta (devotee) ,

                                                                         i.      we can always accept everything, good or bad, as the “prasad” (blessing) of the Lord, His will.

                                                                       ii.      Everything is beloved because everything is created/manifested by his beloved God

                                                                    iii.      Ex: Dara Shikhoh’s guru – on his execution by Aurangzeb, he considered it a party and called out to his beloved, God to come and watch the show where his beloved is being set free from this cage of body and flesh.

                                                                     iv.      Ex: Joan of Arc – even when she was put on sake to be burnt alive she called out to her beloved Lord and never fought against it.

b.     As a Karma Yogi, one accepts all results of any karma as “karma phala” (results of karma). Thus, the karma yogi accepts any negative result as the result of previous karma done by himself/herself now bearing the fruits. Same for the positive karmas; must have done something right and good. 

c.      The Jnana Yogi is completely indifferent as the results of any action pertains to body and mind and he/she disidentifies the self from the body-mind complex. 

3.     Charity/ unselfishness cannot be practiced without love, compassion. Love is considering someone else or something else as my own. Love breaks the barrier of what we consider “mine”. Examples discussed:

a.      Mother loves her own child not other’s child whom she does not consider her own.

b.     Mahapurush Maharaj (Swami Shivananda) was his mother’s only biological child. However, his parents had adopted 30 orphan boys. His mother treated everyone the same and never showed special affection to Mahapurushji. Upon asked (complain) by the neighbors, she replied that she considers every one of the 31 children her own and cannot make a distinction.

4.     Terrorists – I think they are the 4th class of people that Swamiji is talking about. Those who inflict pain mercilessly cannot be categorized as humans, can they? No religion on earth can EVER preach cruelty to any other living creature; because that one God created this entire universe and hence we are all related; brothers and sisters, just as Swamiji addressed everybody in the parliament of Religions, Chicago in 1893. Yet, these misguided creatures do exist.  However, we can learn something from even the misguided and the vilest of creatures. Extremely sincere in their belief and completely focussed. What can we learn from them and their action?

a.      According to Karma Yogi:

                                                                         i.      If any work, whose result is harmful and causes pain to others cannot be a good work.

                                                                       ii.      As we sow, so shall we reap. If the work is good then good results will follow. Peace and prosperity will reign; people will be happy and contented. Do we see any peace from their work? NO.

                                                                    iii.      Do unto others as you would like others to do unto you – If they were at the receiving end how would they react?

                                                                     iv.      According to karma theory, which stretches over the entire length of time; these people were once subjugated in the same way and now in this life its their payback time. However, no bad (selfish) karma goes unpunished hence payback time is as sure as the Sun rising everyday. Longer the justice takes to be dispensed, the harder and intense will be the punishment metered out. But a Karmi should not retaliate.

b.     According to a Bhakta;

                                                                         i.      It’s all Lord’s wish, play of Divine Mother. Entire creation belongs to Mother and everything happens as She wills.

                                                                       ii.      Good or bad is a mere individual’s perspective. 

                                                                    iii.      Just like any other religion, Hinduism believes in One God. All names and forms are attributes according to devotee’s nature. Since there is nothing but One God, hence everything is considered a manifestation of God. Hence, even negative things are created by God for two reasons. (a) Lesson to be learnt – what not to do or to stay away from. (b) Practice forbearance; accept as payback for bad karma. Forgive and forget. 
                                                                    iv.      Have faith that if what they are doing is wrong, the Divine dispenser of Justice will catch up with them no matter what and longer it takes for the punishment to come, the harder it will be (with compound interest). But Bhaktas must have faith and the belief in many births.
                                   v.      Learn faith and one pointed devotion from them (where even life can be sacrificed for the ideal) and turn it towards spiritual life and instructions given by guru!
                                   vi.  Infliction of pain and suffering to others is NEVER TRUE RELIGION. We WISH to be bhaktas. We become when when we meltdown in love even for the smallest worm by seeing God in them.

5.     Fanatics – Extremely diligent and fully convinced with 100% faith in their ideal. However, very narrow minded. True Spirituality should broaden the heart and cause all-inclusiveness. If any religion is not all-inclusive then there is something seriously wrong in the fundamental understanding of the religion. No religion is bad or wrong. It’s the followers’ incorrect understanding of the inherent philosophy that causes all the mischief and exclusiveness.

a.      Happens when

                                                                         i.      I think I am correct and others are wrong. I have nothing to learn from others.

                                                                       ii.      One doesn’t have any other higher knowledge.

                                                                    iii.      One thinks it is his duty – didn’t know it was wrong.

                                                                     iv.      Complete lack of open-mindedness.

b.     Things to learn from them:

                                                                         i.      100% Conviction – own spiritual path to follow as guided by one’s guru (Bhakta) or unselfish work that is currently undertaken for one’s own spiritual growth.

                                                                       ii.      Diligence – How not to get deterred even in the face of adversity.

6.     Fault Finding – We tend to find faults when:

a.      We have the same faults in us. Ex: a child does not know what is robbery.

b.     Self – glorification.

7.     Gossiping –

a.      We have no control.

b.     We don’t think of them as our own.

c.      We are not directly related.

8.      Bhakta’s attitude – No need to despair because Lord is looking after us. But need to despair that we are not progressing spiritually.

ATTENDEES: Nandini, Neelam, Priti, Tara, Bhama, Chandra

© Nandini Mitra Banerjee Sept 24, 2018