Creation can be classified into stones, plants, animals, humans, and semi-gods. The stones, Plants, animals, and semi-gods are described as bhoga yonis, wherein they live by instinct only. Comparatively, it is only humans that are classified as yoga yogis. We are expressions of creation, where we don’t just experience, but we choose our experience, and that means we are designed not for instinct, but rather for intention. For example, a cow will always be an herbivore, a tiger will always be a carnivore. They’re wired to be like that. For us, we were all carnivores back in the day. Now it’s our choice on what to eat. Now we’ve added more categories like fast food, fast fast food, fast fast junk food, fast fast junk processed food, and it is all by our intention.
When one lives in a busy way, then what happens is that intention devolves into instinct. For the forthcoming year, let us try to make the foundation of Vedanta course our sadhana. When we are busy, intention devolves to instinct, and one clear sign of that is where we trick ourselves into thinking pleasure is actually peace.
The foundation of Vedanta course is a training for those who are already intentional to be established in this, where you can never be shaken from, and for those who are in between, you’re intentional and instinctive to train to become intentional, and for those who are instinctive to unlearn that. This training is the vision of our community. It is necessary to be in a community where this is what the reason for relationships are. In our community, the spine of it is our study groups. Our Tuesday evening study group has a focus on jnana, and the word that Vivekji prefers is vidya. Vidya means to remember.
Vivek ji shared that he recently completed listening to Pujaswami Tejamayananda’s Guru Paduka Stotra. Every time he is about to write to him he always completes a course because he wants him to know what he’s doing while not seeing him-that Vivekji is his student. This is not a casual relationship, Guruji, in the completion of the Guru paduka Stotram shares, that our only deficiency is forgetting, and so our only remedy is remembering.
In our community, we have a study group. This study group’s focus is on remembering, and the foundation Vedanta course specifically is to help us with clarity, because clarity pulls conviction, and conviction pulls confidence. And sign of confidence is thinking, speaking and acting intentionally, One who is not confident is always self-conscious. They say things that they don’t actually mean. They act in ways that they’re not aware of. We should try to practice the teachings from this course like a freedom walk. One of the teachers in the Vedanta course had shared, after a knowledge session, if you don’t reflect on that within the first five-ish minutes, 95% of what you experienced is forgotten. We should try to transform that shravana into manana. So here in the Foundation Vedanta course, our goal is to deepen that shravana, and more so to transform the shravana into manana.
Pujya Swami Chinmayananda lived by making the inaccessible accessible. He lived by this. One way he did this: self-reflection, self-development, self-realization, tended to only be available in the mountains, but he made this accessible in the cities, He tried to facilitate this from the cities to homes. The foundation Vedanta was the very first course that the Chinmay International Foundation developed, and this used to be a postal course. Vivek ji wanted us to pause and try to feel the magnitude of his effort towards those that he doesn’t know. He put in all of this effort as a “volunteer”. He had sacrificed his body, mind, and intellect for us.
Specifically, the foundation Vedanta course is four parts. Each part is around six lessons. so 24 lessons in total. Our plan, as of today, is to complete one-ish lesson per class. This course will be less theoretical and more experiential.
Lesson one: there are four sections. Section one is entitled “Freedom and License”. This section begins by really accurately highlighting, for all of us, year after year, the quality of our context is increasing. We live in a context that is more developed than ever but our content is less than ever. Our contentment is less than ever, and maybe not for all of you because you are seekers. But in society, people are more insecure than ever. People have more FOMO than ever. People are more instinctive than ever. Teaching high school students, it’s so evident what the condition of society is. The lack of enthusiasm was startling. They were all stating how school was hard. So we have more context than ever, but less content than ever, and a rationale for that is where society is investing. We have a propensity to say, “Yeah, society’s like this”, but we exclude ourselves. Who do you think society is? It’s us at work. It’s us on the bus. It’s us on social media. Society’s investment is into the object, which means society’s investment is not in the subject. As I hold up this really awesome pen, is this pen the object or the subject? The object, and that’s why I’m saying it’s a really awesome pen. But am I awesome? Do I feel awesome? Do I think awesomely about this? Society keeps investing more and more and more into the object, and less and less and less into the subject. Conversely, back in the day during Satya Yoga, in a period of integrity, the main decision makers were rishis. What did the rishis study? The subject, and whatever happened with objects happened. It doesn’t matter because the subject was solid.
Religion is a guide for us to come back to the subject, come back to content. Religion is a way of life. Religion is a path. Religion is a guide. Religion is a means for us to restabilize, to reintegrate. “re” because this is how we were once upon a time. And a phrase that Pujya Swami Chinmayananda used a lot to describe this: it is to live in the world, but not of the world. For all of us, we do live in the world, but not everyone is worldly. Like fast boats, when they’re on the water, nothing grows onto them, they’re called barnacles. Barnacles can grow onto that boat, and a fast boat is one that’s in the water but not of the water. A slow boat is in the water and of the water, and one way religion guides us to return is through restraint. Nobody wants to be told what to do. But for those who are intentional, you’re okay with restraint. Restraint is needed to return. If you’re going the wrong way, you can’t just jerk the wheel and turn. One has to slow down and turn.
The final insight from the first lesson, the first section on freedom and license. Religion comes to us in the form of scripture, and scripture is described as a user’s manual. Now, when we were born and as we’re living, what’s our user’s manual? It is scripture. Follow the script to return to contentment to the subject, and our scriptures are really clear. For those who are not returning to contentment to the subject, there is no one to blame but themselves. That is a strong sign of a strong seeker, is they just don’t blame the context. They don’t blame object. They don’t blame society. They simply do not blame. They have an appreciation. A strong seeker has an appreciation of the need of scripture of religion, with the rationale that this is time tested.
We continue into lesson one, section two, and this is on the Art of right contact. Pujya Swami Chinmayananda has described the world as a college of knowledge. This world is not to be used. By, in the sense that I’m not supposed to be used by the world. This world is a school, this world is a training, and that’s up to you to relate to or to ignore. Distinctly, this world is made up of mishra. Mishra is mixed. Mishra means this world has so many good facets to it, like fall, and so many rough facets to it, like winter. So many smooth facets to it, like alternative rock music, and so many rough facets to it, like pop music. Something that is mixed, is conducive to Viveka.
The world is the way it is to train us to discern and prioritize. Whatever we feel the world is, that feeling is ours. Lesson one is unrelenting in its claim that “you are responsible for you”! One way to change our feeling is to be extremely grateful.
If there is one message we can take from this class, is to be grateful and writing extreme gratitude
Section three is titled, Human Heritage. Our senses are trained to go externally. Being able to not engage the senses externally, is what makes us special. Our religion helps us to dam our energy through a map, and specifically a guide. A guide is one who is living the teachings by directing their senses. They are not controlled by their senses. In Atma Bodha, Acharya Shankara shares, that a master is like the wind. They simply follow the wind. We should interdepend on the senses but not depend on them.
