Practical Vedanta

Session: 05-29-2005
Moderator: Raghav Kapoor
Participants: Sumeet Kaur Bhatti, Abhishek Bapna, Pratik Biswas, Somik Raha
Source: Practical Vedanta

Key Messages

• Religion must be intensely practicable.
• Differentiation between religion and life of he world must vanish.
• Intense activity, but in the midst of it, eternal calmness is the secret of work - which is the goal of Vedanta - Inactivity, in the sense of passivity is not!
• The less passion there is, the better we work (Here, Abhishek described passion as detachment from the outcome)
  
• There are two tendencies in humans - one to harmonize the ideal with actual, and the other to elevate the life to the ideal.
  
• Vedanta, though it is intensely practical, is always so in the sense of the ideal.
  
• It does not preach an impossible idea, however high it be, and it is high enough for an ideal.
  
• "Thou art That"
• The Vedanta teaches men to have faith in themselves first.
• Not believing in the glory of our own soul is what Vedanta calls atheism.
• The Vedanta recognizes no sin, it only recognizes error.
• In Vedanta, there is no attempt at reconciling the present life - with the ideal; but this false life must go and the real which is always existing must manifest itself.
  
• Most of us here have more time that we think we have, if we really want to use it for good.

And for the special benefit of Ajay here is an excerpt on animals from this lecture:

"For you must always remember that the one central ideal of Vedanta is this oneness. There are no two in anything, no two lives, nor even two different kinds of life for the two worlds. You will find the Vedas speaking of heavens and things like that at first; but later on, when they come to the highest ideals of their philosophy, they brush away all these things. There is but one life, one world, one existence. Everything is that One, the difference is in degree and not in kind. The difference between our lives is not in kind. The Vedanta entirely denies such ideas as that animals are separate from men, and that they were made and created by God to be used for our food. Some people have been kind enough to start an antivivisection society. I asked a member, "Why do you think, my friend, that it is quite lawful to kill animals for food, and not to kill one or two for scientific experiments?" He replied, "Vivisection is most horrible, but animals have been given to us for food." Oneness includes all animals. If man's life is immortal, so also is the animal's. The difference is only in degree and not in kind. The amoeba and I are the same, the difference is only in degree; and from the standpoint of the highest life, all these differences vanish. A man may see a great deal of difference between grass and a little tree, but if you mount very high, the grass and the biggest tree will appear much the same.
So, from the standpoint of the highest ideal, the lowest animal and the highest man are the same. If you believe there is a God, the animals and the highest creatures must be the same. A God who is partial to his children called men, and cruel to his children called brute beasts, is worse than a demon. I would rather die a
hundred times than worship such a God. My whole life would be a fight with such a God But there is no difference, and those who say there is, are irresponsible, heartless people who do not know. Here is a case of the word practical used in a wrong sense. I myself may not be a very strict vegetarian, but I understand the ideal. When I eat meat I know it is wrong. Even if I am bound to eat it under certain circumstances, I know it is cruel. I must not drag my ideal down to the actual and apologise for my weak conduct in this way. The ideal is not to eat flesh, not to injure any being, for all animals are my brothers. If you can think of them as your brothers, you have made a little headway towards the brotherhood of all souls, not to speak of the brotherhood of man! That is child's play. You generally find that this is not very acceptable to many, because it teaches them to give up the actual, and go higher up to the ideal. But if you bring out a theory which is reconciled with their present conduct, they regard it as entirely practical. "

• All differences in this world are of degree, and not of kind, because oneness is the secret of everything. All is One, which manifests Itself, either as thought, or life,or soul, or body, and the difference is only in degree.
• Condemn none; if you can stretch out a helping hand, do so. If you cannot, fold your hands, bless your brothers, and let them go their own way. Dragging down and condemning is not the way to work.
• Most of our differences are merely differences of expression.
• The remedy for weakness is not brooding over weakness, but thinking of strength. Teach men of the strength that is already within them. Instead of telling them they are sinners, the Vedanta takes the opposite position, and says, "You are pure and perfect, and what you call sin does not belong to you." Sins are very low degrees of Self-manifestation; manifest your Self in a high degree. That is the one thing to remember; all of us can do that. Never say, "No", never say, "I cannot", for you are infinite. Even time and space are asnothing compared with your nature. You can do anything and everything, you are almighty. This passage also captures the essence of Pygmalion Effect.
  
• If a religion cannot help man wherever he may be, wherever he stands, it is
  not of much use; it will remain only a theory for the chosen few. Religion, to help mankind, must be ready and able to help him in whatever condition he is, in servitude or in freedom, in the depths of degradation or on the heights of purity; everywhere, equally, it should be able to come to his aid.
• What scientist has known all that is in man? Millions of years have passed since man first
  came here, and yet but one infinitesimal part of his powers has been manifested. Therefore, you must not say that you are weak. How do you know what possibilities lie behind that degradation on the surface? You know but little of that which is within you. For behind you is the ocean of infinite power and blessedness.
• Everything that makes for oneness is truth. Love is truth, and hatred is false, because hatred makes for multiplicity.
• It is through the Self that you know anything. I see the chair; but to see the chair, I have
  first to perceive myself and then the chair. It is in and through the Self that the chair is perceived. It is in and through the Self that you are known to me, that the whole world is known to me; and therefore to say this Self is unknown is sheer nonsense. Take off the Self and the whole universe vanishes. In and through the Self all knowledge comes. Therefore it is the best known of all.
• But what is the use of our standing on higher steps if we cannot give the truth to
  others coming afterwards?
• Those of you who have read Thomas a Kempis know how in every page he insists on this, and almost every holy man in the world has insisted on it. Intellect is necessary, for without it we fall into crude errors and make all sorts of mistakes. Intellect checks these; but beyond that, do not try to build anything upon it. It is an inactive, secondary help; the real help is feeling, love. Do you feel for others? If you do, you are growing in oneness. If you do not feel for others, you may be the most intellectual giant ever born, but you will benothing; you are but dry intellect, and you will remain so.
• Feel like Christ and you will be a Christ; feel like Buddha and you will be a Buddha. It is feeling that is the life, the strength, the vitality, without which no amount ofintellectual activity can reach God. Intellect is like limbs without the power of locomotion.
• If there is sin, this is the only sin — to say that you are weak, or others are weak.
• The theme of Vedanta is to see the Lord in everything, to see things in their real nature not as they appear to be.
  

Questions raised:

1. Sumeet: Love has been described as the ultimate feeling, yet as far as passion is concerned - the lesser, the ebtter. How are the two reconciled?
   
2. Praik: Why work.

Final Takeaways:
A list of practical things we can do to make our religion part of our everyday lives:

1. Have positive auto-suggestions to create self-fulfilling prophecies.
   
2. Passion needs to be controlled - having a peaceful, balanced mind is ideal.
   
3. Plurality in acceptance is reconciled by accepting the overall oneness.
4. There is no sin, other than the sin to acknowledge weakness of self or others.
   
5. much the same. So, from the standpoint of the highest ideal, the lowest animal and the highest man are the same. If you believe there is a God, the animals and the highest creatures must be the same.

Hinduism

Session: 05-22-2005
Moderator: Somik Raha
Participants: Ajay Kshatriya, Rashmi Raghu, Raghav Kapoor, Sumeet Kaur Bhatti

(Link to Essay)

Ajay: Can we synthesize materialism with spirituality? Is one better than the other? What is the point of this essay?

Raghav: Vagabonds vs. spiritual masters. Swamiji compares so-called "vagabonds" with the priestly class, criticizes the latter and credits the former for preserving true religion. These "vagabonds" are people who have given up their lives to uphold religion.

He also reconciled dvaita and advaita. In both, knowing God is a goal. In advaita, knowing God is like being God.

Rashmi: The one idea that ... is that man must realize God even in this life.

Sumeet: In this essay, Swamiji points out hippocrisy within religion.
Raghav: And he does so, in a positive, non-cynical mnner.
Rashmi: The fact that moksha is not restricted to Brahmins or even humans was striking.
Ajay: Animal culture...
Rashmi: Animals connected better than we are. In the Tsunami disaster, very few animals died. Innate response.

Social regulations bar people from going deep toward moksha. What is passed down is rituals and not spiritual enquiry. Gives Sri Yukteshwar's example. (Rashmi, can you expand?)

Somik: There was an interesting discussion on why the world is so, why are we here. The discussion seemed to end with Ajay concluding that this was beyond the realm of reason. What struck me in this essay is Swamiji's comparison between Punjab and Bengal. He mentioned how the peasant girls in Punjab would chant "Soham, Soham" while spinning their wheel. I am hoping someone can tell us what Soham means - I think it means "I am that." While, in Bengal, there was a lot of pretention around religion in those days, and Swamiji did not hesitate to criticize it. He strongly supports the babajis who are often termed vagabonds for their itinerant lifestyle.

This essay maps out several aspects of Hinduism and finally asks what is in common to all. He mentions that the Sutras of Vyasa are what they all derive from, which deal with spirituality. Rituals come in from the Tantras and the Brahmanas.

Swamiji also mentions the importance of a sadguru.