October 14th 2025

Vivekji shared how in the Chief of Polices Inclusion council (Niagara Falls) which Vivekji is a part of, how they sometimes discuss the subject of  immigrants who are stopped by the police service. The protocol in Canada is that one waits in the car when stopped by police, and the police will come to the person who is stopped to let them know why they were pulled over. However in some countries, when pulled over, people get out of the car and they go to the police to find out the reason for being pulled over. So there is a misalignment in terms of what one is used to and what one is supposed to do. This can cause a lot of fear and conflict. Shifting this to how it applies to the Sunday class which is Bhakti time:  

The difference between ‘kama’, ‘sneha’ and ‘prema’ is as follows –

‘Kama’ is a desire at a physical level. So it is a desire for articles, beings and circumstances. 

‘Sneha’ is a desire at a mental level.  It is not a dependency on articles, beings and circumstances (A,B,Cs)  but it is a dependency on one’s mood. We feel cheerful when our mood is positive and feel cranky when our mood is negative. 

‘Prema’ is a desire at the intellectual level. It is not based on ABCs or mood, but it is based on understanding. It is through understanding that one comes to desire and know that what is deeper than ABCs is moods, and what is deeper than moods is insights and what is deeper than insights in awareness. 

So in the Sunday class there is a tremendous investment into understanding. We have had our minds forever and we have been our mind more than we have been our body.  In our Tuesday night class, which is the Jnana class,  this is a magnification mirror for our own minds. 

The way the sincere police services are trying to create understanding about protocols, the way the Bhakti time is trying to create understanding about Bhakti, similarly we are trying to understand our mind like we have never understood before! We are doing this slowly and systematically. 

Using Manah Shodhanam by Pujya Swami Tejomayananda, in our last class (Verse 3) the theme was ‘likes’ (raga). ‘Likes’ could be equated to being in quicksand. When you are in quicksand, the more you move, the more you sink. When you are in quick sand you cannot help yourself and someone else is needed to help you out. That is the precarious nature of having likes and dislikes. If we act on a ‘like’, we sink more! If we act on a ‘dislike’, another one develops. So one has to be very careful with likes and dislikes. But this messaging does not come from the world, the messaging from the world is that the likes and dislikes make up who we are! They do make up who we are, but at a very individualistic level. What Acharya Shankara shares in terms of Raga and Dvesha is stated in Tattva Bodha – one requires ‘titiksha’ to be able to inquire. Titiksha means we don’t succumb to our likes and dislikes. We step away from them and rise above them. It is only when we have such forbearance/endurance that we are not pushed and pulled and we are able to inquire into that which is important. Titiksha is also required for anyone who is passionate about a certain field or art in life. For example, a typical football player has to endure a lot – physically they are to be fit, they are away from family and friends a whole lot due to travel, but if they are really passionate, then all this matters less and affects them less. Likes and dislikes are at the mind level, and for someone who is learning or understanding how the mind works, they rise above these likes and dislikes by surrendering the mind to the intellect. This is a sequence stated in the Bhagavad Gita and Kathopanishad, that the body is to surrender to the mind and the mind is to surrender to the intellect. We think of surrender in terms of weakness but it is actually a strength. It is very practical for the mind (which is the manager) to follow what the intellect (which is the supervisor) shares.

Last week, Vivekji shared that if we are able to forget our individuality we automatically forget the likes and dislikes associated with that individuality. As seekers, we should normalize forgetting ourselves! Pujya Swami Tejomayananda has shared that the greatest use of our free will is to surrender our free will. 

This Class:

Second half of Verse 3: 

tāvanna tattva-jignāsā, jāyate mānushe hridi

In the first line the word yaavat is used which means ‘if’, in the second line ‘taavat’ is used which means then.  This is an ‘if-then’ model. As long as the impurities in the mind are not exhausted/substituted/disidentified, we are going to succumb to raga-dvesha. 

Jignaasa is a flow towards knowing/understanding tattva (fundamental and that which can actually make us fulfilled). When someone has very strong likes and dislikes, then the real tragedy is they are unable to be deep enough to inquire into the fundamentals. 

In Srimad Bhagavatam, Bhagavan Narayana shares with Bhagavan Brahma that the one that He blesses, He blesses them by removing their support. If we reflect on the life of Raja Bali, he was first blessed with everything and then he was blessed more by everything becoming nothing. Raja Bali’s grandfather is Rishi Prahlada, and he is looking to his grandson and saying now he was really blessed! 

Pujya Swami Tejomayananda said that the lowest blessing is acquisition (new car, new job etc). The moderate blessing is dispassion (i have these but don’t depend on it for that which is foundational)  and the highest blessing is investigation (feeling that there is more to life and follow through with investigation, that is dhanya!). 

As long as the mind is impure with likes and dislikes that keep us at a shallow level, we will never get to the deep blessing of being able to inquire. This is why one of the poetic teachings of Swami Tejomayananda is ‘Simple living is the catalyst for High thinking’. Simple living is when we prioritize in the right way. We outgrow everything in life, simple living when we outgrow that which is not helping us to evolve. 

‘Jaayate’ means to be born. ‘Manushe’ means human, and ‘hridi’ means heart. When someone is disloyal, it hurts in the heart. Similarly this longing is felt in the heart as well. 

Rituals are what Rishis designed for us to reflect. Reflection is when we think personally and how this applies to us. Similarly karma yoga will make us inquire and bring us to jnana yoga. In terms of rituals supposed to be reflected, In Chapter 12 of Bhagavad Gita verse 12, Bhagavan Krishna shares ‘shreya hi jnana abhyasa’ – what is superior to living mechanically is jnana (bringing intention to that which is mechanical, being reflective in a ritual). In terms of karma yoga leading to jnana yoga, in Bhagavad Gita’s chapter 7 verse 16, Bhagavan Krishna shares that the lowest type of bhakta is the one who is praying to get out of adversity, more advanced than that is the one who wants prosperity and more advanced than that is jignasu (one who wants to rise above this). The most evolved bhakta is the jnani. Jignasa leads one to jnana. So here in the second line, it is stated that for one to have jignasa to long for tattva or jnana, one’s mind has to change.