Transcript
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Hello, and welcome to another episode of The Bearded Mystic Podcast and I'm your host, Rahul N.
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Singh.
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Thank you for taking out the time today to either watch or listen to this podcast episode.
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Before we begin this episode.
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Today, we will be continuing on with my thoughts on the Bhagavad Gita and today we will be looking at chapter nine, verses 30 to 34.
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Verse 30.
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Even if a person purposely causes harm to others, and their actions are still flawed, but they're trying to be devoted to me in bhakti yoga, I consider them to be on the right path in spite of their imperfections.
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This is quite interesting because it can be debated quite a bit.
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What does Sri Krishna really mean here?
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Because are you telling me that someone could do bad deeds and then get away with it?
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That's not what Sri Krishna is saying.
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He's definitely not saying that.
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He's saying that they may be still on the right path, but let's go into this a little bit deeper.
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We're gonna look at the verse as a whole, and I would like to know what you think about this verse after I've shared my thoughts about it.
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So let me know if you agree with me, if you disagree with me.
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What other points did you think of that I didn't think of?
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Do you have a different interpretation?
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I'll be really interested to know what you think.
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Here Sri Krishna is saying that anyone that deliberately harms others, purposefully harms others, causes harm.
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Yeah.
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Whose actions still have flaws.
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You can't say they're pure, you can't say they are righteous in any way.
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They have one thing going for them.
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And what is that one thing that's going for them?
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Is that they are devoted to their isht-devta and or Nirguna Brahman and in this union of devotion, in this unity, they are on the right path.
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This is what Sri Krishna is saying, and I actually agree with Sri Krishna on this.
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It's weird, but I see the bigger picture here, I see the longer game being played.
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If you think about it from Sri Krishna's point of view, right now, Arjuna thinks that he's gonna cause harm.
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He's gonna be killing the people that he loves.
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Think about Arjuna's mental state right now.
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If you think about it, he is still probably feeling distraught.
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The tendencies, the the feelings of angst are still there.
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It's not completely disappeared.
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So he knows that, and he says, maybe if you think your actions are flawed.
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Yeah.
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Even for Duryodhana this is, this applies to him too.
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If one tries to be devoted to Sri Krishna, to Brahman, in bhakti yoga, only in bhakti yoga don't do it as, oh, I remember Formless Awareness, or I read about Formless Awareness.
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Or I've had the Brahm Gyana, so you know, I, I have all the tools.
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No, no, no, no, no, no.
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Calm down.
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And it is, it's not that way at all.
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You have to have bhakti yoga.
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There has to be love and devotion because it is love and devotion, which takes things forward.
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Ultimately, what Sri Krishna is trying to make sure is that whatever their devotion they have right now, that devotion may transform their behavior now, or at least in the next life, because he's not said they're going to achieve mukti.
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He's not said they're going to come to him.
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He's not said this.
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He's made that very clear.
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He's not said, oh yeah, they're gonna come to me.
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They are now jivan-mukt.
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They are liberated.
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They are free.
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They are, they have got outta the cycle of suffering.
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He has not said this.
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He has not said this.
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He's giving people an opportunity.
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He's saying right now, you may have done this in the past, but there may be an opportunity where you may stop doing this.
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Let's explore that opportunity.
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Literally, that's what he's doing.
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He's waking that person up.
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At the same time Sri Krishna doesn't want somebody to lose hope, especially if they're doing bad actions, and they may do, they may be doing bad actions based on somebody's bad actions, so it may be something that they have no control over because their intellect isn't strong enough right.
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Now, on the Ultimate Level, you have to look at things on many different levels.
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You can't just see things from one way.
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You have to see everything.
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Now, if that person does a bad act, purposefully knows I'm doing the wrong thing.
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I have no other choice if they feel that right?
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If they feel they have no other choice, but their devotion towards Brahman, towards Sri Krishna, towards an isht-devta is fully intact, fully there.
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He wants to ensure Sri Krishna is saying this.
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He wants to ensure that these people know that their devotion will have positive results.
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It will have a positive effect.
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Do not think that anything done in devotion is lost, is what he's trying to say.
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And on the other hand, we have to acknowledge the imperfections of others and ourselves before we judge anybody at all.
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We do not know what circumstances they're in.
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We do not know what situation they're in.
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Similarly, like with Arjuna, we do not know what situation he's in.
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We can only kind of feel it, but he went through it.
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He knows what it's like to stand on the opposite side.
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Look at the people you love and adore for so many years and be like, I'm gonna have to kill you.
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I'm gonna have to do that one act, which I do not want to do.
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Do you know the massive toll that will have on his mental health?
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Can you even imagine?
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In that light Sri Krishna's absolutely correct that if anybody, you know, despite what they do in their life, if they are devoted to Me, in their bhakti then I know they're on the right path because they will get the results of that too.
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And the other nuance point is even if you think somebody's bad, there are good qualities too.
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And you must always acknowledge that there are good qualities.
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Even if you dislike somebody.
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There are people I dislike, right?
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But I know that for some people there's gonna be good qualities too, and I have to acknowledge them even if I don't agree.
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Yeah.
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We must see in that way.
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But let me know, what are your views?
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Do you think what Sri Krishna is saying is fair or do you think it's unfair and we have to consult him in some manner?
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Verse 31.
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You should know for certain Arjuna, that any atma who is dedicated to my loving service quickly becomes steady in dharmic living and soon achieves the balanced state of Shanti.
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No bhakta of lime is ever lost for long, and none is ultimately lost or destroyed.
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If you feel love and compassion from Sri Krishna or if you felt this from your Guru , or you feel it from this Formless and you feel that It's speaking to you right now in that verse, don't think that it's said to Arjuna.
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Think that it's for you.
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You feel hope.
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You feel you can get there.
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You feel that everything is possible.
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You feel that there is a way out to the way you've been living.
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That's the power of Sri Krishna his words.
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That's why the Bhagavad Gita is still remembered today, this very reason.
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It gives hope when every other place will try to say there's no hope for you.
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This is giving you hope.
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When every door closes, Sri Krishna's will be open.
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This is the guarantee, and this verse shows it.
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Read it again.
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Chapter nine, verse 31.
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You should know for certain Arjuna that any Atma, who is dedicated to my loving service quickly becomes steady in dharmic living, and soon achieves a balanced state of Shanti.
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No bhakta of mine is ever lost for long, and none is ultimately lost or destroyed.
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Don't think of Arjuna.
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Replace Arjuna's name with yours and feel it with that love and devotion and you will feel that Shanti.
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A lot of people just read, they read the verse and that's it.
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Feel.
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Feel the verse.
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What is it telling you?
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People will go into the grammar?
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The words, the pronunciation, this, that, feel what Sri Krishna is saying.
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So let's look at the first part of the verse.
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You should know for certain Arjuna that any atma, who is dedicated to my loving service quickly becomes steady in darmic living and soon achieves the balanced state of Shanti when we have this oneness, Formless Awareness and who serves a whole of existence, who transcends any doership and renounces the fruits of their actions, they become steady in dharmic living.
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If you do any of those things, you are that Atma who is dedicated to Sri Krishna, or Brahman's loving service, and you'll find that you become steady in dharmic living.
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We're gonna go into dharmic living is in a minute, but you become steady.
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It doesn't shake.
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It's not turbulent.
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If your spirituality is turbulent, then you've not found peace yet.
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In fact, I would even go to the point to say, you've not worked on your intellect enough, and that may be the missing piece.
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I meet two types of people.
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Either they're completely in the intellect or they're completely in bhakti, in loving devotion, but their loving devotion has turned blind.
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They're blind faith.
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So I see both and normally the response that I have to those people is, if you have too much blind faith, you need to use your intellect.
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If somebody has too much intellect, I say you need to have bhakti and they normally laugh at what I say, they mock it actually, but I'm giving you what worked for me.
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It may not work for you, but you've not tried it, you just mocked it and then left.
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When that happens, when we mock things like that, then how is our dharmic living going to be steady?
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Let's look into what dharmic living is.
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dharmic living, is living in oneness with Formless Awareness.
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First, number one most important thing that we must not let go of is living in the oneness with Formless Awareness.
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That is the number one in dharmic living.
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That is the number one way of life to have.
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We serve our loved ones and our society with loving kindness.
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We are always kind to others, compassionate to others.
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We love them completely.
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Unconditionally.
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As we love Sri Krishna, we must love the world.
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Simple as that.
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We serve others, but without any expectation.
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We don't want a single thing back.
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Not even appreciation.
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What's the point of doing some good, uh, um, how, how can we say we are doing seva, if we are doing selfless service and we're saying, oh, he didn't even acknowledge me.
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He didn't even say thank you, or she didn't even look at me.
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She didn't even acknowledge my presence.
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Serve others but don't expect anything, and if that person didn't thank you, then it's more silly to expect anything from them anyway.
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Think about it.
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Why would you want anything from them anyway?
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If they can't even say thank you to you, even acknowledge you, why would you want their appreciation?
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Let them be.
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We don't need them.
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Then what else is dharmic living?
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Our mind is always steady, whether we gain something or we lose something, it doesn't matter.
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Life is all about losing something and gaining something.
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Life is always in the ups and downs.
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We make certain decisions we think we've made a gain, we end up losing and sometimes we let go of something, we think we've lost something, and then we gain so much months later.
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Therefore be steady.
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Treat everything the same.
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Don't become turbulent because life isn't going your way.
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Really just flow.
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Be at ease.
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Don't resist.
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That's the way of being spiritual.
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That's dharmic living.
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Devote every action you have to the divine, every action.
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Brushing your teeth, washing your face, you are cleaning the house, feeding a loved one.
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It can be an elderly parent, it can be a little child.
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Serve others as if you're serving the divine.
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One thing, if you want strong relationships, serve your spouse, your partner with seeing them as the divine.
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If you do this, you'll have a happy marriage.
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You will be happy.
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The next one is, we try to live every moment in loving devotion to Formless Awareness.
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Or at the very least, towards our isht-devta whatever our isht-devta wants.
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We offer everything.
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We live every moment in that awareness, in devotion towards the Formless oneness, and we will always utilize our viveka, our discernment of the Real and unreal.
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Whenever we think that life is getting too heavy for us and we are losing sight of Reality, then go back to discernment, go back to understanding what is real and unreal.
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That which changes is unreal.
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That which is changeless, which is permanent, is Real.
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Simple as that.
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And we will always measure our actions and thoughts and see if it matches with the life of saints and sages, this is an important point.
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These saints and sages aren't merely there for our enjoyment or our entertainment.
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Their life should be inspired from . Whenever you hear someone say, I cannot be like such and such, or that person is such and such, I'm not.
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That person will never achieve anything in spirituality.
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Nothing.
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Not even a single thing.
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They can act spiritual all they want, but that is the strongest sense of duality.
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The Saints and Sages didn't live their lives just so you praise them and then do your own thing and do the exact opposite of what they did, then what's the point?
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They live their lives.
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Even the ones that are alive today, our gurus that are alive today.
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We have to become like them.
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That's the whole point.
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Otherwise, why have them in their life, why waste their time?
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Why waste their time?
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And why waste our time pretending to be spiritual?
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So let go of the spiritual pretence, be inspired by these saints and sages, and live that life.
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See if your life matches with them.
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See how they lived and be inspired.
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Measure your life, your words, and your actions, your thoughts, and see does it match the thoughts of Guru Nanak Dev ji, of Kabir ji, of your Guru?
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Of the mystics we've looked at in wisdom of the mystics, does it match their words?
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Does it match the way they live their life?
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This is what we need to do.
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Now if somebody now turns around and says, isn't dharmic living reading the scriptures, saying you are Hindu?
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No.
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That is just cultural identity.
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I do puja.
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I'm a Hindu.
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No.
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Dharmic living is a lot more important and more refined and more honorable than simple things like that.
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People just say all these words, No.
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If we do all of these things, Then this type of life brings in a balanced state of peace naturally, and one is always in contentment.
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What more do we want if we are living dharmic living, what more do you want?
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Completely fulfilled.
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This is what life is all about and one's peace of mind is never disturbed, never.
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You'll always be in peace of mind.
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And that's the number one thing people want.
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You know, they say the mental health crisis is like a pandemic.
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It is a pandemic, actually.
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And the reason for that is because there are many phony advice about how to have peace of mind.
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Oh, do this meditation, you'll be fine.
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Do this Reiki, you'll be fine.
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Do this and you'll be fine.
00:22:48.769 --> 00:22:53.269
When nothing is addressing the intellect when nothing is addressing the heart.
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When all we want to measure spirituality is by law of attraction and all this type of stuff, of crystals and all that.
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Don't expect much.
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Then the next part of the verse is, no bhakta of mine is ever lost for long and none is ultimately lost or destroyed.
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This would make, I mean, it makes my heart melt, but it makes your heart melt.
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When you hear these words feel that Sri Krishna is saying these words to you.
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Feel that your Guru is saying these words to you.
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If you don't follow Sri Krishna, you may love the Bhagavad Gita, you may have a Guru, someone that you really love, a role model, someone that inspires you, a spiritual friend, think that they're saying this to you.
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You, you feel it.
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Now, think about it.
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No devotee of this Nirguna Brahman, of this Formless Awareness is lost in this world for long.
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No, because they're already living in that balanced state.
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And remember, nothing is lost.
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Nothing is forgotten.