April 12, 2026

One of the attendees during a workshop asked Vivek ji to share some tips on practical Vedanta. Vivek ji smiled, then Vivek ji was angry. Vivek ji shared ”I take offense to the question because the implication is that Vedanta is not practical. The implication, it’s almost like an unconscious bias is that Vedanta is not practical.” Vivek ji said “Anything we don’t practice is impractical. Teach me practical dance, but I’m never going to do it. Then that dance becomes impractical. Teach me practical cooking. But if I never cook, then it’s going to be impractical.” Zooming into this more. On Sundays, we invest a lot of time and effort into understanding Bhakti. That way, this is not mechanical. If we live in a mechanical way, then we always want to know practical this, practical that. But with understanding, we practice them. If we don’t understand a language, we don’t practice it. Understanding is a thread that runs through this course.

Vivek ji is going to share a very brief review. For dynamics, everyone is going to need a sheet of paper.  Vivek ji’s preference is to write on paper. When we write it out, we remember it more. In our last class, we were tuning into service of bhaktas. The science behind this message is, for those who are serving, there should be two erasing’s happening. When you have written in a dark way on a sheet of paper, and you have to erase it, I feel like you have to do it twice. You start at once, but there’s still some gaps. You can still see some marks. So, you go over it again. When we serve, the first erasing that’s supposed to happen in our personality is the erasing of deserver-ship. One subtle way of deserver-ship that we don’t realize we long for is inclusion. Vivek ji was speaking to a college student who was having a tough time in college. Vivek ji shared with her that every college student is to make their own college experience. Create your own experience by being more inclusive and being more independent. That means you include yourself. You don’t need other people to include you; that’s the first erasing.

The second is deeper, to erase doer-ship. We are alive right now because of our parents, military etc. But really that military or your parents are alive for the same reason, which is the divine, that divine spark. Even our digestive system, all of these involuntary functions are because of the divine. So, this sentiment of I’m the doer is a second degree of erasing. Last week, Vivek ji shared about the service of bhaktas. We know that we are actually serving because we are erasing deserver-ship first, then doer-ship.

Scripture was Bhagavad Gita, verse 34 from chapter four, the presence of an authority comes into our lives, an authority. An authority is someone who’s already worked on the erasing. Only such a person can help us to erase as well. Vivek ji has no orientation towards cooking. So, we would not go to a cooking class if Vivek ji teaches. But for someone who knows how to cook, for example Sheila ji knows how to cook, she becomes that authority to actually help.

Science backed by scripture, backed by story. Vivek ji shared about Shri Bharata. The way that Shri Bharata lived is he was comprehensively forgetting about himself. Forgetfulness can work against for us. Forgetfulness can harm us for Vivek ji, it’s not knowing where Vivek ji is going. Overall, Vivek ji is okay with directions. But if you forget where you’re going, it’s unpleasant drive then. We are always kind of struggling about looking at this or finding a map. Forgetfulness can help us by making space for new things. The best forgetfulness is where you forget that we are an individual. If we are an individual, we only have individual power. But if we forget we are the individual, we start to feel you’re the total. Then we have total power then. Shri Bharata was always forgetting about himself by remembering Shri Rama. This is the design of service. If you’re remembering yourself, service is corrupted. If you’re forgetting yourself, service is being enacted. Vivek ji shared personal example of this.

One month from now, Vivek ji has to go to Haridwar on Vivek ji’s way to Rishikesh. The very first time Vivek ji completed the Char Dham, it’s called the Uttar Char Dham Yatra along with a friend when Vivek ji was 18 years old.  They came back to Uttar-Kashi. As Vivek ji saw a mirror after a very long time. When Vivek ji saw in the mirror, there was actually that thought of, oh, this is how Vivek ji looks not in a good or bad way. Vivek ji has forgotten about Vivek ji’s face for this deep way which was very, very, very liberating. Imagine just not having to care about social media or what people think. Vivek ji is going to deepen that to not even be affected by our own thoughts. Service can facilitate this.

Dynamics: Vivek ji is slowly transitioning into the finality of this course as we are coming to the end. That’s why we’re going to start with the dynamics now. On the top of your page, write Dharma Health. Now let’s zoom into the first word. Let’s go with word responsibility as English definition for Dharma, the noun. Vivek ji asked everyone to close their eyes. Vivek ji wanted all to reflect on the major responsibilities everyone has in their life. Scan your years, scan your personality. Now open eyes Vivek ji wanted everyone to draw circles and inside that circle, write what that responsibility is. As an example, Vivek ji would write, for our reference, Draw the circle, in the circle, write down what that responsibility is. What are these major responsibilities in your life? Your minimum should be three. What are the responsibilities that, take your time, take your thoughts.

Vivek ji goes through Vivek ji’s dharma health every season. Vivek ji did it first day of winter, first day of spring, now we’ll do it the first day of summer. Vivek ji organizes Vivek ji’s responsibilities chronologically.

That way Vivek ji is not giving any circle more or less importance. For Vivek ji the first circle is individuality. Vivek ji’s second is family, immediate family means parents, wife, kids. Number three, is Chinmay Mission Niagara. Number four is Chinmay Mission Cleveland. Number five is our virtual community. Number six is United Consciousness. Number seven is Life Gurukula. These are Vivek ji’s seven circles of responsibility. Now I want you to go over to the word, health. Vivek ji asked us to close eyes. Vivek ji wants us to reflect on if we were to come up with a gauge of our health in terms of our heart rate, it’s a very specific gauge. If Vivek ji were to ask us to assess the health of our finances, that’s a very specific ratio. But we’re in a self-development program and a solid gauge of self-development is doing our best.

Now open the eyes. What is the gauge of your health when it comes to dharma? Doing our best. Here’s the numbers now. 60% is garbage. Are you doing your best? No, it’s equivalent to garbage. 70% going. It’s happening, but there’s no passion behind it. It’s going. 80% is good. You are being intentional in what you do. 90% is great. You are being quite careful, a lot of passion behind what you do. And 100% is God. God came and did that for you. Complete forgetfulness, complete remembrance. Vivek ji again, want to repeat, especially for those who are analyzing this towards school. Is Vivek ji is not talking about marks. Vivek ji talking about, are you trying your best when it comes to these responsibilities? Now within that same circle, give yourself a mark. When it comes to your individuality, how much of your best are you giving? Go through your responsibilities. How much are you trying? As you’re trying to gauge, if in doubt, Vivek ji’s suggestion is give a lower mark. If in doubt, don’t round up, round down. An example would be if Vivek ji shares, “I may be being egotistical right now.” As soon as we sense we may be egotistical, the answer is yes, we are being egotistical. First focus on your average. Give yourself an average score when it comes to doing your best. Vivek ji’s score was at 81. Now, what has surprised you about your dharma health? This is like you’re meeting with your spiritual physician and you’re having this one-hour consultation. There is room for improvement. One seeker shared that the more aligned the purpose is with that responsibility, your score is probably higher. That’s how amazing purpose is. If we do the six months later, it will be more of healing for me than opportunity.  Another seeker shared that if we keep doing this, then we’ll have a better overall sample size. That’s why Vivek ji shared that companies forecast every quarter, for us to do the same in this important way. This should take you at least an hour, everything we’ve done, but we’re only taking 15 minutes because of the context we’re in.

Seekers shared about their reflections. To get better Do fewer things, but do them well. Get better at saying no. Write physical letters to express care to people like you, may be for family circle. No one becomes poorer by expressing appreciation. Prioritize early sleep time so that the days are more productive. Give it more time and allow time as well. Vivek ji shared message to High school students who are graduating, this is applicable for all of us

• Vision is to Be Happy. How do we get there?
• Prioritization. Everything is not as important as everything. Specially in college with so many new things they have to have hard Yeses and hard Nos.  
• Action message for these high school graduates was be a morning person. Being a morning person helps you to prioritize which helps you to be happy.

Discussion Subject: How can you make what you do more meaningful? The orientation is we are already doing it; how can we make this more meaningful?

Vivek ji: Vivek ji shared framework of vision, mission and action. The vision, I.E. intention, if start off with the intention this will translate into mission which is ideation. If my intention is Sattvic or noble I become better innovator. I become more creative, more purposeful, more passionate. Then action is implementation. We all want to get to the implementation level which is the utility in life.  Follow the path. If implementation comes from ideation, ideation comes from intention if I want this, I should start with this. In Ramayana it is shared that instead of watering each leaf water the roots. Hold yourself accountable, help other people hold you accountable then what you are doing is less mechanical, another person is involved.

RAW: Whatever you have planned making it more meaningful practice it.