Bhargavi Rao, Oct 13 2026
What better way to celebrate Navarathri than learn how to transcend our gunas. Vivekji shared that he was listening to a podcast on how AI can easily solve most difficult math problems that humans have been struggling with. The point of the podcast was to highlight that the mathematicians are losing their purpose. If enlightenment is not our purpose, we will feel lost and incomplete. Profession, family, environment when becomes our purpose, we WILL feel lost. Only knowing ourselves/being ourselves in our purpose! This can never be taken away from us. This course helps us personalize Vedanta so we can internalize it.
Recap:
Lesson 1 part 4: The theme of this part was “Joy of Living”. Happiness equation was shared in this lesson.
desires enjoyed/desires entertained= happiness
Easy strategy is to increase the numerator but teachers share that decreasing the denominator is the best way to happiness. Then the value increases exponentially. The goal is to bring the denominator to zero! Then the result becomes “Infinity”, meaning contentment. When Prince Arjuna asks Sri Krishna how a wise person thinks, speaks, sits, walks, etc. Bhagavan answers that a wise person is one who is content.
Lesson 2 part 1: The main message is “Inevitability of action”. Action is insignia of life. Vivekji read a beautiful passage from the text that emphasized that “profit motivated work needs to be erased from the mind and substituted by philosophy of work. The earlier this is imbibed and applied in life, the sooner the human beings will grow into a contented, efficient society.”
This message intensifies Karma Yoga. A karma yogi cannot have a relationship with the result. They can only have a relationship with the action, which is that of a giver.
Lesson 2 part 2: The main message is “Secret of success”. What is the ladder by which I go from being a laborer to worker. Try to feel that Swamiji can read your head and heart. We are being asked what is our ideal. Vivek ji shared that our ideal should be like a mountain, that is not result or people or mind dependent. We tend to live our life based on likes and dislikes but this is not mountain like. When one lives by an ideal to become an achiever, they generate peace and prosperity. Examples: Sri Krishna’s ideal was peace. He lived a disciplined life and therefore there was much prosperity that he created around himself. Mahatma Gandhi was another example resulting in “setting of the English sun” due to Gandhi ji’s ideals. Spirituality is the system to train us in an ideal making/building/following. This is why Gurudev shares that we don’t worship idols, we worship ideals.
This Class:
Lesson 2 part 3: This lesson is entitled “The sacred and secular”. This lesson begins with describing the world crisis. The crisis we are experiencing right now, as per our teachers, is “we have all but don’t feel all”. In other words, we have riches, but don’t feel rich. The way to convert what we have outside to feeling inside is described as “rehabilitation” (unlearning). Unlearning is difficult, yet required. The structure that is shared by our teachers, is difference of standard of living (what you have) and standard of life (what you are). One way we can relate to this is by looking at tall building. Higher the building, deeper its foundation has to be. For us, the standard of living is the height we have in life and standard of life is the depth. Whenever you want to go high in life, you first have to go deep. Vivekji reminded us that we cannot theorize this, we have to do it. This has to be our experience.
One more analysis given in the text is the difference between objective and subjective scientists. Objective scientists keep increasing the numerator whereas the subjective scientists keep decreasing the denominator in the happiness equation. When it comes to our schooling and working, learning of objective science happens naturally but we have to make a conscious decision to give more time and effort to learn subjective sciences.
Lesson 2 part 4: This lesson is entitled “Dual path”. For anyone who wants to practice rehabilitation, discipline is a requirement. Discipline in simplistic way includes “donts” (yama) and “dos” (niyama). If we don’t understand why we should not do something, we will develop disenthusiasm. And if we do it anyway, we will start feeling suppression (explosion or implosion). We therefore need Shastras to help us understand the donts and dos. Our scriptures offer the comprehensive understanding of why and how to be disciplined.
Preyas is easy in the beginning and hard in the end and Shreya is hard in the beginning and easy in the end. With Shreya, you are following the intellect and not the mind.
Lesson 3 part 1: This lesson is entitled “Where is peace”. For every experience that we have ever had or going to have, there are three factors (triputi or triad), the experiencer, experienced and the act of experiencing. If any one of these factors is defective, the whole experience becomes defective. There is defectiveness all around, so how can I find permanence? Our rishis are sharing with us that we should stop modifying the triputi, instead try to find that which is beyond this. Try to find that is permanent. When we do, self development leads to societal development which in turn leads to national development.
