Summary:
The talk explores the nature of human experience and the Vedic vision of Ishvara (the Lord). It emphasizes that life brings a mixture of pleasure (sukha) and pain (dukha), and the goal is to develop composure and equanimity in facing these experiences. Ishvara is impersonal, impartial laws, understanding which helps achieve this equanimity. Ishvara is not a personal God who punishes or rewards, but rather the manifestation of universal laws that deliver results based on our actions. Examples from the Mahabharata are used to illustrate this concept, showing how even Krishna (as Ishvara) doesn't interfere with free will or violate the laws of nature.
The talk discusses the purpose of challenges in life, stating that difficulties keep us alert and encourage self-reflection. They provide opportunities for personal growth, reevaluation of our goals, and deeper understanding of ourselves. The speaker emphasizes the importance of changing our attitude towards difficulties, moving away from a fatalistic approach of victimhood and blame, and instead seeing challenges as opportunities to redefine ourselves.
The discourse then moves to an ontological inquiry into the nature of reality, introducing the concepts of satyam (unchanging reality) and mithya (changing, dependent reality). Using the example of a clay pot, we illustrated how forms (mithya) depend on substance (satyam) for their existence. This relationship is described as satya-mithya or a relationship of independent-dependent. The talk emphasizes that while forms change, the underlying substance remains constant, pervading the form while remaining free of its attributes. This understanding is presented as a way to collapse the apparent duality of the world into a single, underlying reality.
BHAGAVAD GITA, CHAPTER 2, VERSE 15:
यम् हि न व्यथयन्ति एते पुरुषम् पुरुष-ऋषभ ।
सम-दुःख-सुखम् धीरम् सः अमृतत्वाय कल्पते ॥ २-१५॥
yam hi na vyathayanti ete puruṣam puruṣa-ṛṣabha ।
sama-duḥkha-sukham dhīram saḥ amṛtatvāya kalpate ॥ 2-15॥
Arjuna, the prominent among men! The person whom these (sukha and duḥkha) do not affect, who is the same in pleasure and pain, and who is discriminative, is indeed fit for gaining liberation.
- Seems like wise person is totally unaffected by pleasure/pain. How am I supposed to be same in pleasure and pain?
- Vedic vision of Ishvara is that there’s no God sitting somewhere and judging you and giving you “lessons to learn”. Rather Ishvara is impartial causes operating in this world.
- What are “impartial causes”? Suppose you drop a crystal which you have much emotional attachment, upon it’s fall, will you call the world “unfair” because crystal broke? No. Because law of gravity is working. Ishvara (in form of gravity) has no bad intentions for you. Noone is punishing me; the world isn’t being unfair to me. Else you’ll ask “Why did Ishvara do this to me? Life is cruel to me!”. But if understand Isvara is impersonal laws, then understand laws won’t change to suit me, as they have to work to maintain the entire universe.
- Examples throughout Mahabharata showing Ishvara's impartiality:
- Yudhishthira was worried before war took place, stating to Krishna, he is only one who can stop it. Krishna (Ishvara) says he can't stop war. He can only make an offer to Duryodhana, which Duryodhana (through he's free will) has to accept or not. And whatever Duryodhana accepts, will also impact the good guys (Pandavas). Ishvara isn't going to interfere and force/coerce Duryodhana into doing the right thing, as Ishvara can't violate it's own laws of free will.
- If you rub against a tree an hurt yourself, can you blame Ishvara-in-form-of-a-tree for hurting you? Did Ishvara punish you, or you punished yourself through misuse of the tree/laws?
- Both Arjuna and Duryodhana came to Krishna asking for help. Krishna (Ishvara) didn't deny Duryodhana an army, even if Krishna knew the army will be used to propagate adharma. Once again, showing us, Ishvara has no power to stop bad things from happening. This is an idea of how humans think of Ishvara. Ishvara is not only impersonal laws that deliver results based on the type of actions we put into the field, but also the very forms and beings participating within the laws.
- Summary: Because things don’t go my way, doesn’t mean life is unfair. Learn to work with laws, rather then being dissatisfied they didn’t work as we wanted them. Knowing this, gives you “sukha duhkha samatvam”.
- 2 Ways to Change Attitude Towards Difficulties/Challenges:
- ENABLES YOU TO QUESTION LIFE AND LIVE RESPONSIBLY: Sukha-dukha mixture keeps you alert. If always gotten what wanted, you’d be blissfully blunt. When things don’t go my way, it’s opportunity to re-understand life differently and evolve.
- ENABLES YOU TO BEGIN EXISTENTIAL QUESTIONS: Unless you’re shaken a little with pain, you’ll never start inquiry into Arjuna’s fundamental question.
- CONCLUSION: Have to change fatalistic approach of victim, blame, and “it’s my karma”, but every challenge gives opportunity to redefine yourself and establish yourself deeper into your real nature.
- NEXT VERSE: Krishna expounds further on sat-cit atma [using satya-mithya]…
BHAGAVAD GITA, CHAPTER 2, VERSE 16:
न असतः विद्यते भावः न अभावः विद्यते सतः ।
उभयोः अपि दृष्टः अन्तः तु अनयोः तत्त्व-दर्शिभिः ॥ २-१६॥
na asataḥ vidyate bhāvaḥ na abhāvaḥ vidyate sataḥ ।
ubhayoḥ api dṛṣṭaḥ antaḥ tu anayoḥ tattva-darśibhiḥ ॥ 2-16॥
For the unreal (mithyā), there is never any being. For the real, there is never any non-being. The ultimate truth of both (the real and the unreal) is seen by the knowers of the truth.
- So far we’ve made one thing intrinsic (sat-cit; unchanging), and another incidental (changing). At this point, if we leave it at that, it creates two realities. Verse 16 is about showing how the entire incidental world of forms, collapses into one Sat-cit Reality.
- Krishna calls the changing/incidental world asat (or mithya, which means the object's existence is incidental or depends on something else for it's existence). And non-changing reality atma (which is sat-cit), is called satyam.
- In short: Satyam = sat-cit. And Mithya = your 3 bodies, time-space, and all elements in universe.
- Therefore, in this session, we've begun performing an ontological analysis into forms to help us see how is it possible that we can have infinite forms, but only One substance (satyam).
- Let's begin the ontological inquiry…
- You say this is pot. I say this is clay. Who is right? Can only say “both are right” if pot/clay are synonyms. But they’re not synonyms, so both can’t be right. Therefore one has to be MORE RIGHT. Which is MORE REAL? Clay because it’s the substance. If take clay out, can’t have pot.
- Meaning we have 2 words for one object. Can’t say “both are right”, nor “both are wrong”. Rather “There’s a relationship. Form has a reality, but it can’t exist without the substance”. This relationship is satya-mithya, in other words, relationship is of independent-dependent.
- Mithya doesn’t mean illusion (tuccham), because pot has a reality. But there’s something fundamental to the pot, which is clay.
- Pot is mithya (dependent reality; can’t exist without it’s substance), and clay is satyam (independent reality; doesn’t depend on pot for it’s existence).
- While clay is appearing in pot form, has it become pot? No. Because you can reshape it to something else. If pot became intrinsic to clay, you couldn’t give further forms to clay. If shape/size/tallness of a wave became intrinsic to H2O, then water couldn't appear as other wave sizes/shapes.
- Where is the substance? Wherever form is, that’s exactly where substance is. Before form came to being, substance is. While form is, substance is. When form is destroyed, substance remains. Clay pervades whole pot, and same time remains free of pot-attributes.
- How does satyam-mithya help me in discovering my nature? CONTINUED IN NEXT SESSION…
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Course was based on Neema Majmudar's Bhagavad Gita & Swami Dayananda (Arsha Vidya) home study course.
Recorded 1 Sept, 2024