November 4th 2025
One person’s opportunity is another person’s obstacle. The period of COVID was very difficult for many people but it was also a time of slowing down and family bonding for some others. A 100 years ago we went through the Industrial Revolution and everyone feels proud of that time. However, our environment was harmed because of this and ended up creating a point of no return. The damage was exceeding the healing We started to depend on yantras (machine) more than mantras (not just a verse but using the mind to navigate life)!
This course is an investment in our mind as the mind is everything. We live in the mental world. The potency of this course is to provide us with a system on unlearning (of bad habits of thinking).
Recap of last eight classes:
Class 1: “Insight”. The teaching in this class was based on divinity is metaphysical. In time, we will be able to see divinity with physical eyes.
Class 2: “Lost”. All that we know is that which is physical and so we live at the physical level too.
Class 3: “Contradiction”. We are so oriented towards creating, but when it comes to completion, you can’t create completion. You can only rediscover it.
Class 4: “Disintegration”. A strong term that is used in this verse is “tathāpi” (even though). I am learning I am happiness BUT comes in the way. This BUT is indicative of impurity of the mind. The impurities block us from following.
Class 5: “Likes”. 3 “L”s that becomes worse are “Labels” which devolves into “Likes” which again devolves into “Limits”.
Class 6: “Dislikes”. When we have labels, likes and limits, we live by such limits. These inhibit us from following this force within us that wants to be free. We have this natural longing from freedom that gets diverted. Dislikes prevent us from following that which is natural. Everyone of us knows there is more to life but we lack the courage to actually go and find that. We get stuck in our professions and relations.
Class 7: “Floating”. Through blessings and rightness, we have become seekers. If one understands this verse, then one realizes what an opportunity they have as a seeker. We are all in this course only because of blessings. If we realize this, we make use of this opportunity.
Class 8: “Confusing”. We are the best students when we are in satsanga. When we are in Satsanga (right space, time and energy) we have the Sampatti (sam=well, patti= wealth). It is an independent wealth and comes out in six expressions. These are the qualities that are needed to utilize the opportunity of being a seeker.
These are (from Least important to most important):
- Shama: quietude of mind and we can develop this by not planning all the time
- Dama: calmness of body and we can develop this by being still
- Uparama: stillness of intellect and we can develop this by learning to say “no” (to socializing, to vacationing, to indulging)
- Samādhāna: To focus/absorb and the way to cultivate this is to say “yes” (to that which is important)
- Tithiksha: To absorb. When the world punches and kicks you, you absorb it because you are focused on what you are saying yes to (like self development, satsanga)
- Shraddha: To allow, allow the multiverse the way it is supposed to. You put in your best and allow the rest to happen. There is great freedom and acceptance in allowing. “Hari Iccha”
By actively and consciously cultivating these “well-wealth”s, it helps us to push past just listening to reflecting. You cannot get established just by listening, one has to burn their comfort zone more into reflecting, contemplating and when we cultivate these qualities there will be a natural evolution to reflecting.
This Class: Theme is “Absolute”
Verse 5:
nishthā bhāvāt parānandah, jeevanmuktasya yoginah;
sādhakaih na anubhooyeta, viphalam tarhi sādhanam.
Quarter 1:
Nishtha= to be established
Abhavat= not established
Paranandah= independent joy
When one is not experiencing their nature, they don’t experience a joy that is natural.
Jeevan= living
Muktasya= one who has gone from living to life
Yoginah= such a person is yogi, they have gone from uniting to united
Purity is synonymous with clarity. A pure diamond is one that is clearer. In the first quarter, it is said that the more pure we become, there is the absolute and the non-absolute. There is no big relative, that equals the absolute.
In the second quarter it is said, if we can visualize not having the limits (that came from labels and likes), that would be freedom. Acharya Sankara describes this as “Na muktihi, na bandaha”, there is no created freedom because you are actually not bound. For example: when we sleep, there are no limits and that is why we love sleep.
In the second line, Swamiji shares that we tend to intellectualize discipline, divinity and until we perfectly understand it, we don’t try it. Just like we don’t always know 100% that our significant other is THE perfect person for us, but we still try and go ahead with the relationship as long we are 80%. We can try to make up that remaining 20%. Similarly, we have to try japa, contemplation, waking up in the morning. For those who intellectualize and don’t try, there is viphalam. We don’t change and there is no feeling towards divinity.
Pujya Swami Tejomayananda ji shared this reflection in a very powerful way. He shared that we don’t reflect on consequences. Let’s imagine a situation where, next time we got angry, we die. Next time we got jealous, we got cancer. If such were the case, would we get angry or jealous? We freely becomes angry and jealous because we don’t understand the consequences of how this takes us away from what we are.