Thoughts on the Bhagavad Gita: (Chapter 13: Verses 8 - 12)

Rahul N Singh: 0:02

Hello and welcome to the Bearded Mystic Podcast, and I'm your host, Rahul N Singh. Thank you for taking out the time today to either watch or listen to this podcast episode. If you are really interested in supporting The Bearded Mystic Podcast, and you've found great benefit in listening or watching these episodes, then please do support this podcast on Patreon where you can get ad free and bonus episodes along with other benefits depending on the tier that you select. Your support means everything, and it really does help the podcast keep running efficiently and smoothly, and also widens the audience that this message can reach to. If you would like to know more about it, the details are in the show notes and video description below. On Saturdays at 11:00 AM Eastern Standard Time there is a free virtual meditation session along with discussion and Q&A. If you're interested in meditating with us as a community, then you can find out the details in the show notes and video description below. Please do like, comment, and subscribe if you're watching this on YouTube and if you're listening to this on your favorite podcast streaming app, then please do give this podcast a five star rating. It helps the podcast get up in the charts and allows the algorithm to bring this podcast to new listeners and also do review the podcast if you can and make sure you do follow or subscribe to keep getting future episodes. Today, we will be continuing on with my thoughts on the Bhagavad Gita and we will be continuing on With chapter 13, looking at verses eight to 12 today. So there's a lot to go through, a lot to discover, a lot to take in in terms of the messages that Sri Krishna is going to be blessing us with today. We're going to start off with verse eight. Sri Krishna next describes the virtues, habits, behaviors and attitudes that purifies one's life and illuminates it with the light of true knowledge. So you have humility, the absence of pride and arrogance or seeking for honor. Straightforward, unpretentious and without duplicity. Causing the least amount of violence or harm while still adhering to one's dharma. Patience, tolerance, forbearance and forgiveness of offences given by another. Simplicity, lack of guile and honesty. Serving and honoring a guru whose life and actions embody the Vedic ideals. Living a sattvic lifestyle, while paying careful attention to cleansing and purifying all aspects of one's being and staying steady, firm, and unwavering in one's practices and lifestyle. And acting as the Atma by controlling the Manas and Indriyas. A lot to go through. So first of all, we know that Sri Krishna is describing to us the virtues, the habits, the behaviors, and attitudes that purify someone in order to be ready, to shine this beautiful light of the true knowledge. So what needs to happen? This is what our life should look like prior to realization so we can understand it. And if we apply this, it will make the Brahm Gyan, this knowledge of Brahman a lot easier to take in and understand and implement and experience in our life. What this can be considered is a work in progress rather than seeing it as Oh, I can never achieve these virtues. Let's have a look at what these habits, virtues and behaviours are, and attitudes, and see how they apply to us in our day to day life. So one is... Having humility, the absence of pride and arrogance or seeking for honor, and then being straightforward, unpretentious and without duplicity. So let's look into those two qualities together. In my opinion, humility is an important attribute to have and it's the first one that Sri Krishna utilizes. So think about the importance here of humility. One, in order to even allow oneself to have knowledge, humility is definitely needed. If you say you know something, you are not being humble enough to learn more and you've closed your mind to more knowledge, a true devotee, a true bhakta, a true jnani, It's always seeking more knowledge and never feel satisfied that, well they are satisfied within, but they know that there's a lot more to know and there's a continuous refinement that occurs. So they're humble enough to accept that, humble enough to allow that to happen. And most importantly, when nothing belongs to us, how can we have this false sense of pride, right, how can we be like, oh yeah, this is all mine and, and, and I have this and this is my possession. This is false. I have this much knowledge. That's falseness. That is not going to help us develop spiritually or allow us to be broad minded enough. And then if we are arrogant about what we possess with our life, it's really ridiculous. When you think about it, if we look at the field in general, the field is not just our human body, but also this whole massive universe. And we are nothing, not even a blip, not even a speck of dust in this universe. So it's really important for us to understand That there's no need for us to have this sense of arrogance and, and having this false sense of pride. Our actions must be done with humility and not for seeking honor or power over others. We don't want to be there to overpower others or to show that we're better than others. No, we look at the teachings of the saints and the sages of India. They've called themselves Daas, servants of the devotees. Can you imagine someone who's a knower of Brahman is saying this and we in our false pride will be like well I know this. I am a Brahm Gyani. I am a knower of Brahman. There's no need for that. Yeah, first of all, if our actions are speaking, we don't need to say and if we say it, our actions better match up. So in my opinion, it's always best to be humble, be sweet, bow to others, see this Brahman in all. If you see Brahman in everyone, Because Brahman is the only reality, you can't have pride, you can't be arrogant, you can only be humble. So humility is a very important attribute to have. Then, one needs to be straightforward, unpretentious and without duplicity. For example, we need to be straightforward with others. Speak clearly and respectfully express what we feel. If we disagree with someone, we say it, don't, don't pretend to agree with someone when you disagree. This is what brings up fights in the future. If we're honest with people and We had the humility to accept the honesty of others, this world would be a better place, we would have more productive discussions, more productive knowledge, more productive understanding, but instead what happens is, we know that there's certain things in society we can't say, and because of that, we can't be straightforward, and whoever is straightforward, we say that person's crazy. When really the crazy person is the one that is not able to take in the truth. That is not able to allow others to be straightforward. Who's not humble enough to be humbled. A saint or a sage or a rishi, they'd be like, you know, criticize me. It doesn't matter. Maybe I need to know more. But a person who's an egoist who's full of ahankar, full of ego and arrogance, they will never see in that way. Nobody should feel that we are fake or false, like if someone comes across me in real life, like for example in person, they shouldn't be like, well you know what, this guy's different, he's one thing on the podcast, but one thing when you meet him in person. He talks about humility here, but when we met in person, he didn't even bow, he didn't even smile at me. Like, those are the things that people look for. And I'm sorry, but damn right should people look at this because if you are not presenting or if I'm not presenting what I say I do or should do, it becomes problematic. And the number one thing that's happened in spirituality these days is that a lot of people are masquerading as spiritual people but have zero spiritual attitude, zero spiritual virtues, attributes, behaviors, you just don't see any of it, and this is something we have to avoid and we can avoid this if we keep logic and rationality at the forefront, you know, that's the number one thing too, and we're not to deceive others in life, in business, and we're not meant to cheat in our exams or be dishonest in any way. This is really important, just be honest, be straightforward, be real, that's all, that's all that's expected. It may not make, well the funny thing is, you may not make many friends this way, but you'll have real good friends. Either you want quality or quantity, yeah, and trust me, no matter what happens, even if you only have a few friends, but people who know you, the one thing they will always do is say that your straightforwardness is a great quality. Even though they may not like you, but they will recognise the quality. But that's why Sri Krishna mentioned humility before, because if one is humble, it's an easier pill to swallow and someone who's humble gives you straightforward. advice or a straightforward talk, right? So it's a lot more palatable. Then Sri Krishna talks about Ahimsa, which is causing the least amount of violence or harm while still adhering to one's dharma, and then having patience, tolerance, forbearance and forgiveness of offenses given by another. Ahimsa is big, even in the Mahabharata, even though it's you know, all about gearing up for a massive war that's about to take place. There is a whole kind of monologue about ahimsa about causing the least amount of harm. This is true Dharma. Dharma is always ahimsa and don't think ahimsa is about just picking up a sword or picking up a gun and, and, and hurting someone. That's not just what Ahimsa means. Ahimsa is also within thought. If you are there thinking you're better than somebody due to religion, due to caste, due to color, due to creed, whatever, then You're, you're being violent and the reason why you are causing harm is because you believe in dualistic thinking, you believe in dualism. If you feel you're better than someone, or you feel that you have the right God and they don't, you know, that type of thing is still violence. One thing we need to understand also is that Ahimsa just doesn't mean non violence. I know that it's sometimes translated as being non violent. Yes, it's not violent in the terms of to cause terror or to cause pain and suffering. But it's just a path of least harm and I think that's a better explanation and it's more appropriate and more logical and rational.. Most of all, the actions we take that causes the least amount of harm has to be linked with our dharma, which is liberation. Dharma is not religion or some spiritual beliefs, it's a lot more than that. It's your personal path towards liberation. However you may do it, whatever path you take in order to get there, the thing is, your path needs to at least be one of least amount of harm to others and yourself most of all. Just remember that the pain that you cause to others will eventually be inflicted back upon you. Not necessarily that others will do it, but the guilt will play on in your mind eventually. You know, sometimes we find that people do so many bad things to others and it's only towards the last few moments of their life, all that pain and suffering they gave to others comes rushing to them. And you see them depressed and upset. Some don't, obviously. Some may have to experience it in their next life. But nobody escapes when they create intentionally more harm to others. One should also be patient, they should never rush into thinking something, or... rush into action. They need to take their time, uh, and also give people enough time to do their things that they need to do. So one isn't rushing others to do things for them or rushing themselves to do something. They're patient, they're able to be calm and be able to wait for the right moment. For example, I see this all the time, if we don't get something we want, something as simple as getting a cup of tea or a glass of water or getting coffee straight away, there's no need to get mad. Even if you're at a restaurant and you paid for it, or a cafe and you paid for it, be calm. You don't know what that person is going through, you don't know how many orders they have to complete, and out of courtesy, they took your order, or at home, your parents may be making you a cup of tea or some dinner, or your wife, or your husband, or your partner. Be patient, and wait, maybe they're doing, they're cooking breakfast too, and you're expecting them to make a cup of tea too. What are you doing? If you're just sitting down, doing nothing, and then you expect everything to come to you. You're lacking patience, and not only lacking patience, but also lacking the decency to help others, and that is not also a good quality to have. Have tolerance towards others, accept what they believe in, or do, or the way they act. There's no need to be so intolerant of other people's beliefs. If someone believes in a god, let them be. I don't believe in a god. And I'm fine with that and whoever believes in God, that's up to them. I believe in non duality completely. There are people who believe in duality. That's fine. I can't change that. But what needs to happen is one should be clear on their philosophy in general, but be tolerant. Just because somebody says something intolerant about your religion or your beliefs. You don't have to react with more intolerance, have the tolerance to understand that what they're saying, maybe they're not aware of. And if you're fighting someone who's blind, just be careful that you don't get blind also by your own beliefs that are meant to illuminate the truth for you and then have forbearance. You know, it's okay to endure a little pain or suffering, especially if someone doesn't mean it. Like, for example, a child steps on your toe. They don't mean to hurt you. So instead of like getting angry at them. Just understand that they didn't mean it and it wasn't intentional or if you're in the heat for a bit, be able to take in a bit of heat or if it's too cold, be able to have tolerance for that cold for a bit. Yeah, just having that endurance is very important and endurance brings strength, not only for the body, but also for the mind. So it's really, really good. And then forgive others. You know, why keep grudges? Be smart and be straightforward. Forgive, but don't completely forget, because we do need to be alert. A lot of people just forgive, sometimes they wear their heart on their sleeves and they just forgive others, and they forget about what that person did. No, you should always remember what that person did. You can continue to forgive them, you can love them, but you don't necessarily have to be around them, and you can make that choice and you can also gauge whether that person who did that thing wrong to you, or did a mistake towards you, if they're feeling bad, genuinely, and you can then assess whether that person should still remain in your life or not, and if they are very genuine in their apology and they feel really, really regretful. I think it's the best thing to do is to accept their apology and move on. And also, if you make a mistake, be humble enough to say, sorry. Yeah. Just be honest enough to say, sorry that you made a mistake and you want to correct your mistake. If you make the same mistake again and again and again and again, then something has to, then I don't believe that other person should forgive you. Even in my own case, if I keep making the same mistake again and again, I shouldn't expect that my loved ones should forgive me. Right? It should be that now I should learn. If I say I'm sorry and I'm going to learn, I have to then learn from my mistakes. Then, in the next part of the verse, Sri Krishna talks about simplicity and honesty, and then he talks about serving and honouring a Guru whose life and actions embody the Vedic ideals. First of all, be simple as much as possible, don't be clever to fool others or to outsmart others, we're not there to be cunning or trying to cheat other people. We need to be honest to others and mostly be honest with ourselves. Being simple means having a simple lifestyle, there's no need to be extravagant, or if you live extravagantly, it doesn't mean that you have to have the maximum amount of stuff, simplicity also is being okay with wearing the same clothes now and then, it's not about wearing new clothes all the time. Now we have people who can't even wear the same thing again. This, this is not only wasteful of the Earth's resources, but it's also a sign of not having the ability to calm down and... observe one's behavior. And then this sixth kind of quality, which is acharya upasana, which is about serving and honoring a guru whose life and actions embody the vedic ideals. This is really, really important. And I feel that in today's day and age, maybe it's the fact that the gurus aren't the same as they used to be back in the Vedic times, but it's really important that we respect them. We serve them, we give them gifts and honor them because of the knowledge that they give. It's very important to understand that the knowledge that they give, you know, talking about Vedanta is not easy. It's not easy to understand first of all. It's not easy to embody. And even more difficult for that to be transmitted to you as a person and they have been large hearted enough to allow you into their fold so you can learn from them. So it's always important to give back, whoever you learn from, very, very important to give back. But... Observe their behaviour, are they nice to others, are they caring towards others, are they honest to others, do they understand and still be straight forward? These are the things, check, have they read the scriptures, do they lead a noble life, are their ideals based on Vedanta? Do they have the correct understanding of Vedanta, do they love philosophy, do they do good service towards others? Those are the things, and as I always say that, a true Guru, a true honest Guru will always have a noble life, they will embody the very knowledge that they share and if you do have a Guru or a friend or anyone like that in your life, don't let go of them. They are the best, they will be the best part, best aspects of your life, that's for sure. Sri Krishna talks about staying steady, firm, and unwavering in one's practices and lifestyle and acting as the Atma by controlling the Manas and Indriyas. First of all, staying steady and consistent with your practices and lifestyle is actually generally quite important. Obviously, you have a simple lifestyle. Maintain this. Keep this going. If you practice certain ideals or qualities, remain firm that you will continue, like, being simple, being honest, being... caring, being compassionate, being forgiving, those qualities and behaviors continue to embody them. If you live a certain lifestyle and others dislike it, but you know it's based on Vedic principles, then be unwavering towards it. Do not waver at all, do not move from it at all. Be consistent. And again, be humble to know that your life is being based on the Vedic ideals, and if people aren't ready for this, or they do not want to embrace it, be humble enough to be like, okay, it's fine, they're not there yet. And look to compromise in some aspects, if it can be compromised. Most of the time we can meet a middle ground, and that's ahimsa, the path of least harm. Again, even if you disagree with someone's lifestyle, be open to let people live as they wish. Just focus on yourself. This is a very important lesson. A lot of us want to change the world but do not want to change ourselves. We want to reform others but we don't want to reform our own self. This seems to be the nature of us human beings and we need to kind of stop doing that. What's really important is we need to just let people live. And let them live as they wish and move on. What is the Atma? This Atma is this changeless witness consciousness that is usually in the background of all of our experiences or our objective experiences. The way to act as this Atma is to control your mind by controlling the senses. Your senses will continuously run after things and your mind will have to keep processing what the senses are running after. And... Then it gives thoughts and ideas and concepts for you to chase, but guess what? You can go back to the Atma and remain as the observer, the watcher of all this that's going on, and you can keep doing this game of the observer and the observed, you know, it's a consistent practice, and you can be unwavering in it too, continue doing that. Sri Krishna continues with those virtues and behaviours and attitudes that he was talking about earlier. 10. Not being addicted to material pleasures or compelled by material desires that arise while engaging in life's activities. 11. Freedom from misidentification of one's atma with the various energetic states and actions of matter. And then 12 is Remaining aware of problems caused by birth, death, the ageing process and disease. First of all, not being addicted to material pleasures or compelled by material desires that arise while engaging in life's activities. Do not be attached to any material pleasure. These material pleasures are very, very fleeting. They don't last for long. And you know this from your day to day experience. The car that gave you joy when you first got it doesn't remain today. The grade that you got in your exams that you really looked forward to, in the next exam if you fail... you forget about that pleasure. So do not be attached to any material pleasure. Experience it, but let go of it. That's all you need to do. And very simply, you enjoy something, enjoy it completely, and then forget it, move on. If you have a desire to get something material, and if you can't do it through honest means, then don't go for them. It's really important to live a life of justice and honesty. And when you're performing activities in your life, don't do it for any material desire. Remember, for spirituality we only care about mukti, about freedom. So do it for, or just do it for the happiness of action itself. Just do it because it causes happiness for others. Just be as selfless as you can when you're performing your activities in life. Actions don't really need a purpose. Sometimes you think that actions require some sort of purpose. You know, if you're not doing anything with purpose, what's gonna happen? Just act for the sake of action. And we know about this because Sri Krishna has taught us before that we are not allowed to think of the fruits of our actions. So when we do this, our default is always happiness because we don't care whether we get what we want or we don't get we want or whether the fruits is gonna be positive or negative. We can just remain as we are and don't think that if I do this in life then I will get this, this will be the result, this is what I want. Then we're just going to remain stuck in desires for as long as we can possibly think of. Then you have freedom from misidentification of one's Atma with the various energetic states and actions of matter. So simply we have to go beyond the five gaushas that we mentioned in the previous episode. We have to go beyond the three states of nature, which is sattva, rajas and tamas. And we have to go beyond this body and all of its elements. This is very very important as we progress spiritually and understand what Sri Krishna is guiding us towards. We have to move from the identification from the body to the atma, so we have to start. Going back to this witness consciousness, going back to this background of awareness and remaining fixed there. So, the more we can go to formless awareness, the better. Remember, nirguna brahman is our true self, it's the only one that exists. We have to keep identifying our Atma with that and breaking free from that binding force that says that we are just this body and mind. We have to become free of that misidentification. We are to be free from the actions of the world too, meaning just rest in the Atma and let the body and mind deal with the actions. Let prakriti deal with prakriti. Just be Brahman. Simple as that. And then remaining aware of problems caused by janma, which is birth, mrityu, which is Death, jara, which is the aging process, and vyadhi, which is disease. First of all, always be alert that problems are caused by basically many things that are related to the body. Because we have a body, there's going to be birth, hence we're here. There's going to be death because we were born. There's going to be an aging process because there's that journey between birth and death. And what's natural is disease. There's not one person who's never faced some form of illness in their life. Even if it's a headache or a stomach ache, indigestion, cancer, depression, heart disease, neurodegenerative diseases, you know, there's so much that we go through and if you're born, just consider that problems are going to arise. You're gonna be hungry, a baby needs to have their diaper changed, you're gonna get older, you're gonna face the difficulties of life, life is not going to be easy, life is not going to be simple, it's gonna pull you in all sorts of directions, desires are gonna take you somewhere, your vrittis, modifications from previous lives, that's gonna play it's part in your existing life. These things we cannot avoid. If you're born, then you're gonna die also, and not only are you gonna die, but your loved ones, your close friends and family. They're also going to die and that's going to create grief. And this is the one thing that people tend to dissuade themselves from understanding. Like, death is very natural. It is something that we have to embrace. There's no such thing as someone dying young or dying old. Death just happens to the body. Yeah, death does not look at age. It does not look at how healthy you are or not healthy you are. Death is very, very untouched by the situations of the body. Yeah, in itself, the event of death. Now, obviously, causes of death is something else, but if you know that this is a reality of life, the quicker you can accept death, the better. And, once we understand mortality, we can get ready for understanding immortality. So, understanding death is very, very important, very essential to spiritual practice, and it should not be ignored. And, like I said, If there's going to be birth, death, then in between the body will age, it's going to slow down, it's going to get all sorts of diseases, it's going to go through all sorts of suffering, but remember this happens to the body, not to the entity that is aware of all this happening to the body, yeah? The Atma remains untouched. Yet the body goes through all of these changes and the reason why we know this is that the awareness does not get diseased, it's the body that gets diseased. It's the mind that gets diseased, the brain that gets diseased, but not the awareness. And this, it appears to be dualistic, there appears to be two things, but what you realise is that actually even the body is not experiencing pain. Neither is the awareness experiencing pain, neither is the awareness feeling pain, nor is the body feeling pain. You go beyond both of these things. Like I mentioned, the simplest way to keep this understood is the nature of the body is to age, die, have disease. Yeah, that's, that's the natural process, the hukam of the body. And... The Atma is the one that is aware of all of this happening, simple as that, and that does not die, that just is aware of the problems, not necessarily feels the problems that go on. Then verse 10, a lack of attachment to all possessions and material objects, not attached or bound by children, life partner, the house and anything else material and balance and equanimity in the face of desirable and undesirable circumstances of events. That 15th one is what makes the Bhagavad Gita quite an interesting text and just Vedanta interesting in general. But let's go back to the 13th quality, which is a lack of attachment to all possessions and material objects. So we are to be detached from our possessions and material objects. When we die, they're not going to go with us. And most of all, they change with times. Our feelings towards them, either we get really more, we get more sentimental about it or we lack sentiment about it. We fluctuate a lot and all these material possessions and objects belong to the earth. And to a larger extent, they belong to this universe or to the field. And nothing is mine, not even this body is mine. This body belongs to nature too. This body belongs to Prakriti and that's why one, that's why Sri Krishna talks about the next quality, which is really important. You may possess things and that's fine, but be balanced if you gain or lose something and this is what the next two qualities discuss. The 14th one, which is not attached or bound by children, life, partner, house, and anything else material. This is very challenging to like practice. It's very, very difficult, but if we're able to do it, it's very, very rewarding. It really serves a great purpose. If we can be detached, this is a quality of love, which is unmatched. Trust me, being detached increases love so much more, makes it so much more potent, makes it so much more intimate, that we just cannot anticipate. We think attachment is love, but true love is detachment. Now, for example, being detached with your children. Understand that your children have their own life, their own journey. And all you can do is be there for them. Be that trusting mat that if they fall, they will fall onto your supportive behaviours. And not only that, but they are made from nature too. They are made from prakriti. And therefore, they are subject to change. They are also subject to decay. They may also die while you're a parent. As much as it's difficult to lose children, and I know what it's like because my parents have lost a child. But, the more you're detached, the better the grieving process is, the easier it gets. That doesn't mean that you don't love them, and you're not there for them. Of course, you love them and you always are there for them. But you let them live the life that they should. Even the same thing with your life partner, a lot of times we see that when some people lose their life partner, they lose, they just get into deep depression, they, they go silent, and not in a good way, they go silent in the sense of, they stop interacting, we should Even though we love our life partners, we need to be detached too. For example, if they get ill, we need to be detached enough to take care of them. And if we are detached, then we can take better care of them. Yeah, and the same thing with a house or property in general. Anything material, be detached. None of this lasts. No wealth lasts. No property lasts. Everything can decay in a moment. An asteroid can hit the earth and things are destroyed. Don't be so attached when there is no guarantee about them, even in the next second. Just remember that anything that you're attached to that is of prakriti is born, is created, is going to get destroyed one day, is going to get disease or illness, it's going to decay. So the quicker you can get detached, the better. And just mark my words, when you start becoming more detached, watch how vast your love becomes. Attachment is even though it's very singular, it lacks true intimacy. When you are detached, there's real intimacy and it's vast. it's an unending supply of love, an unconditional sense of love. So that's something I can, I can vouch for that happens when we are detached. If you're detached, then you can be more honest, more straightforward. As well as more forgiving and patient with people. It makes it easier to practice these values and virtues and behaviors and attitudes that Sri Krishna's been talking about. Then one should be in balance, equanimity in the face of desirable and undesirable circumstances or events. One has to be balanced when it comes to responding to events in life. Nothing goes our way, and sometimes everything goes our way, or it's the middle of both. If there are desirable events, like you get the car you want, or you get the house you want, the job you want, the results you want, the grades you want, don't get overexcited. Just be grateful and move on. And if an undesirable circumstance or event happens, someone dies, you lose your house, you lose your job, you don't get the grade you want, you don't get into the college you want, don't get depressed and drown in that problem. Be balanced enough to know that there's something beyond this and that you can transcend and get better. What I would say is just look at every event and circumstance as natural consequences of that action or of nature and that they're not happening to your true self, to your Atma. So the more we act from that sense, the more we understand that our actions are based on prakriti and that the awareness within is just a watcher and is not affected by any of the actions that are done, the more balanced our approach is. Then verse 11. Unswerving connection with Me in the joyful bond of bhakti yoga, then dedication to Me that never fluctuates. Avoidance of the masses of chaotic and unevolved human beings and then residing in a sacred and secluded place. So 16th quality is about unswerving connection with Me in the joyful bond of bhakti yoga. So one thing we want that connection to Brahman to never take a turn, to never go here or there, is to remain fixed and in place. We are to remain as connected as much as possible. where it doesn't change at all and we do that when we are in that joyful bond of bhakti yoga, when we are able to surrender to the higher that's within us, that's what brings absolute joy to our heart and through love we are able to be devoted to that higher aspect of ourselves and this is what the Atma is and if we And that's what Sri Krishna is talking about. Think of the unswerving connection within Me. So that me is the Atma that's within us. The knower of the field. That knower is Sri Krishna, is Brahman, the Atma. Be connected to that and you're all good. Then the 17th one is dedication to Me that never fluctuates. Remember, first of all, we dedicate everything to Brahman, we don't take anything for ourselves. Or to name and form, we say, everything is Brahman, that's the true Atma. No matter what situations we face, we still remain dedicated to Brahman. We don't fluctuate at all. Brahman is our everything. Yeah, so it doesn't change. It doesn't go up and down. It doesn't get higher or lower. It remains the same. And then avoidance of the masses of chaotic and uninvolved human beings. One thing is we don't have to follow society in everything. You know, if there's mass hysteria, we don't need to involve ourselves in that mass hysteria, and the next quality that he talks about is related to this. People that cause chaos, we just avoid them. If we see that their actions are causing more harm, avoid them, don't be friends with them, like, just let them be. And if they are there to cause havoc or keep you away from living the best version of your life, again, avoid them. There's no need to entertain them in your life. There's no need to be in the crowd all the time. There's no need to get the approval of the crowd. There's no need to be liked by them. Let them be. You don't need to lower yourself for them. Simple as that. And main thing is we only seek the company of the wise. And the thing about the wise is... They're part of that 19th quality which is residing in a sacred and secluded place. Important thing to note is that the most sacred and secluded place is being in your own heart, being in your own Atma, being in your own self. That Brahman within which is ever present, that is the sacred and secluded place. That's the true residence of our whole life. And it's very important to be alone. I... I often talk about how it's really important to understand that being alone is fine, it's nice. It's very important to have alone time where you can just be one with your thoughts, think about what's been going on. It's not that when you go travelling in the car that you have to listen to music or you have to listen to a podcast. Take your time to just analyse your own self, your own thoughts. That's why meditation is so important because you get to know who you are, what you really are. This is key. Aloneness is not a bad thing. Even kids need alone time. You know, you see them and they say, just leave me alone. The reason why they say that, and I remember as a kid, I used to say the same thing and it wasn't really understood, but I love just, I actually genuinely love being alone. I love being around people as well, but when I'm alone, I'm able to think about my philosophy of life. How I view life. I analyze my behavior, the day, all those things are important. I get to do my reading when I'm alone. We don't have to always be in a crowd. We don't have to always be around people. And those people that can't spend time with themselves, they don't know themselves. They will never get to know themselves. You cannot know yourself through the crowd. You have to know yourself by just being one with yourself, being alone. Even to the point of, it's not even about going to a forest and being with the trees, you're still being with something, just actually just being with yourself, that's what I'm talking about, it's very important that we, we do that. Then verse 12, which is the last one of today's episode is: 20. Realizing the knowledge of the Supreme and Ultimate Atma. 21. Realizing that this knowledge is immortal and always true. And then Sri Krishna says, and I declare that all this Knowledge is Truth and anything other than this is ignorance. First of all, 20 realizing the knowledge of the supreme and ultimate Atma, this is very important. In every spare moment that you get throughout the day, remind yourself of the supreme and ultimate Atma, remember the supreme and ultimate Atma is not up there, it's not somewhere distant, it's right here within you, yeah, the knower is within the field, and you can remain in the awareness of formless awareness all the time, like there's no reason why it has to be broken up in time, but say you can't do it all the time, but any spare moment, just take that time to be in awareness, rest in awareness for a bit. And if you can, when you're in the midst of activity, note that which is not changed by the very activity, by the very actions that you're doing, and you'll see it. When you become so observant of yourself, you'll see it. Remember, whatever does not change or fluctuate, be in devotion towards That, which is the supreme and ultimate Atma. Remember that the knowledge of the Atma is the Witness Consciousness that does not change and it is the only thing real. It's the only Sat. Also another thing is realizing the knowledge of the supreme and ultimate Atma is the purpose of life. It's the reason why we live life. It's the reason why we've come back onto this earth. And why you're listening to this right now is because you have that desire to better yourself, you have that desire to go further in your spiritual journey, so you want to evolve, and this is human nature to evolve even further, our whole nature is to evolve, yeah, that's the survival of the fittest. Number 21, Realising that this Knowledge is Immortal and True, as we mentioned just previously that this knowledge does not change at all, this knowledge has remained the same, it's the Vedic knowledge, the knowledge of the Upanishads, it's ancient, it's immortal, it's the Infinite. It's constantly being here, present. It's beyond existence and non existence. It's beyond when this universe came into existence and beyond when this universe goes into non existence. This remains the same. It's realisation is liberation, it's realisation is one's freedom from the clutches of time and this knowledge is always true because we can always access it. There is not one single moment of time, even in moments of extreme despair and distress, it is still present, still very very present. We just have to be alert enough to... enter into it and connect to it. And then, Sri Krishna ends with, And I declare that all this knowledge is Truth, and anything other than this is ignorance. Remember, he doesn't say untruth, he just says ignorance. So everything that Sri Krishna has talked about right now, is the knowledge of the Gyan, and it's practical application. How can we put it into our lives? How can we relate to other people with this? This is what he's been doing. And whatever differs from this is ignorance. So anything that does not talk about these truths is ignorance. Anything that brings you to duality is ignorance. Anything that tells you that the truth is many is ignorance. The truth is one. So whatever belief moves you away from this eternal path of Sanatana Dharma is worth dropping. You don't need to keep it. You only stay with that belief that takes you towards the eternal truth. In Vedanta, this knowledge is talked about a lot and the knowledge And the literature relating to all this is so vast that one lifetime will never be enough. So whatever you can do in this lifetime, study Vedanta as much as you can, better yourself and be a true dharmic individual by following that which is sanatan, which is eternal. Don't follow that which is changing, which is related to the body. It's not about being a Hindu, or being a Sikh, or being a Buddhist, or a Christian, or a Muslim, or belonging to a caste, or belonging to a race, or belonging to a certain gender, or belonging to a sexual orientation. That is all related to the body, related to the field, but the one that is aware of This(One) is the true religion. That is the true religion and that is what Vedanta talks about. That is Sanatana. Nothing else. Everything else is merely culture because it's related to the field and to the body. So that is the end of the episode. Thank you very much for listening. If you liked what you heard and liked what you watched, please do share this podcast with your friends and family who may enjoy this content. Do follow me on social media to keep getting updates. Join the Bearded Mystic Podcast WhatsApp community group to continue the podcast discussion, details are in the show notes and video description below. If you would like to support the Bearded Mystic Podcast as we discussed earlier, do check out the podcast Patreon page. Your support means everything, and it helps this podcast keep running. Details are in the show notes and video description below. Please do rate this podcast five stars and do give a review either on your favorite podcast, streaming app or on our website. Details are in the show notes and video description below. Please do like and comment on this video and subscribe to this YouTube channel. Do follow or subscribe to this podcast on your favorite podcast streaming app. Thank you very much for listening to this episode. Let's end with the Shanti mantra and the Soham mantra. Soham Soham. I am That. I am That. Aum Shanti Shanti Shanti Aum Peace Peace Peace Namaste