https://anchor.fm/thinksathya

#173

This is my best in a long while. Recording 15-20 min on each chapter of the Bhagavad-Gita (https://anchor.fm/thinksathya) I realized many things here:

a)     When I am passionate on a subject, I spare no effort. I was listening to Swami Paramarthananda’s weekend lectures when I was 29 to 34. There were times when I would attend 3-4 classes a week. Slowly my rough notes turned into transcriptions and now I have over 75 talks on SPIRITUALSATHYA. It would take me 3 hours of effort to transcribe a 60 min talk but it is something I am mighty proud to leave behind for the present and the next generation. My role here is that of a student, not one word is mine. Mine is limited to transcriptions and posting on a site for any reader to access the “dazzling brilliance of a great teacher.” When I first heard Swamiji in 1998, I thought: he is the best in the world, my search for a teacher ends here. Later on, I also transcribed MINDFULNESS masters. So if I am ever in need of motivation or a revision, I just have to visit my own writings.

b)     Doing these GITA talks I realized one thing – we get inspired from a talk, we make notes but the knowledge does not stay in the mind despite a transcription where you are mentally involved as to hear each line twice before keying in. Knowledge is like a flow of water; we are attracted by its life-sustaining role but we don’t know how store. For me recording these talks are like “knowledge stored in pots”. They never get stale, never lose their freshness, they retain the ability to inspire. Doing this recording my knowledge kept getting reinforced. I thought: even my sisters have a place in God’s scheme of things. It is my job to learn from their negligence; wise are those who learn from fools. There is a place for both goodness and evil to co-exist. They serve to reinforce my wisdom deeper. Any antagonism or bad blood here, I dig my own bondage.  

c)      There are so many learnings this Gita recordings afforded me – reduce world dependence, increase god dependence before you gain the knowledge that essential quality of the Lord and you yourself is the same. I learnt to appreciate the bounties of nature, the sun rise, the sea breeze, the trees, the birds around my residence. The universe is so vast yet my mind is hijacked by emotional starvation – my mind hankers for human bonding or the loan process to be expedited or feeling stiff over my unwieldly knees.  Our everyday living is myopic, it draws us away from the wonders and vastness of life. There is an inexhaustible precision in the way the universe is run. It is the same wise principle that runs our petty lives. The chaos and confusion of the mind has a cosmic purpose  – it affords all of us to toughen and purify our minds. There is a bigger picture beyond the narrow and immediate confines of my mind’s hunger list of wants. Life demands inordinate patience and self-efforts, you don't have the luxury of throwing in the towel. 

              I learnt one thing – I am the laziest soul on earth. But when I dig a well, I dig deep. These recordings and notes of Swamiji’s teachings and Mindfulness convinced me - a perennial self-doubter - I am a beaver when it comes to toil. I have the patience of an elephant carrying logs for a transport company or an ant that carries a ball of manure on a grass field. Now it’s time to grow in silence and tranquility. I have been blessed with the best teacher in Vedanta and the best Vipassana guru in the universe. Though my life looks vacuous on the surface, I am doubly blessed. Fools are those who make stories of their lives, wise are the ones who grow in mental strength and peace. In millimetres, in centimetres and inches, for wisdom is gathering one drop of water in the vessel at a time.