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What Can We Each Do to Support the Evolution of Consciousness? · Sri Aurobindo Studies

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Information, but it's starting OK.
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So it's eleven O 1 Pacific Time. Why don't we begin the session
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just to avoid feedback and muting people?
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So namaste everyone, welcome to the Cultural Integration
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Fellowship and thank you for joining us.
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We were founded in 1951 by Doctor Haidas and Veena
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Choudhury at the centre of universal religion and spiritual
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practice. And in keeping with the spirit
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of unity and diversity, we honour the spiritual traditions
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of diverse cultures and religions.
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Today's talk is by Santosh Krinsky, titled What can we each
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do to support the evolution of Consciousness?
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Santosh has been studying Sharevindo's writings since 1971
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and has a daily blog at sharevindostudies.wordpress.com
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and podcast located at Anchor dot FM slash Santosh Dash
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Prinsky. He is the author of 20 books and
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is editor in chief at Lotus Press.
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He is the president of the Institute for Holistic
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Education, a nonprofit focused on integrating spirituality into
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daily life. Videos, presentations,
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interviews and podcast episodes are all available on the YouTube
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channel. The URL is youtube.com at
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Santosh Krinsky 871. More information about
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Sharebindo can be found at arbindo.net.
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The US editions and links to ebook editions of Sharebindo's
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writings can be found at Lotus Press with the with the URL
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lotuspress.com. So before I formally invite
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Santosh to make his presentation, I have something
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from Doctor Haydash Choudhury from this book, The Prophet of
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Live Divine. Instead of reading from his
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writings, I'm going to read a paragraph.
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There's a very interesting story behind this book.
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In 1998, even before I had gone to San Francisco, this book was
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presented to me by my aunt, who is a resident of the ashram.
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I pulled this book out from the shelves and I thought that I
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should read something from the book.
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It's from the section Individuality and Activity
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conceived as compatible with spiritual Illumination, Doctor
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Anita Sabri writes. But is it not active cooperation
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with the creative impetus incompatible with the attainment
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of the highest state of spiritual illumination?
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Is not all action but blind movement of the ignorance?
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Or in other words, do not all works proceed from non
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discriminating self identification of the spirit
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with nature? That indeed is what the time
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honoured tradition of ascetic mysticism would affirm.
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Moreover, perfect union with the Supreme is affirmed to be
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destructive not only of activity but of individuality itself.
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On the attainment of complete liberation, Nirvana and Moksha,
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there is supposed to be a total secession of all being in
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absolute not, or a static absorption of the individual
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self in the supra individual spirit.
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This removes even the remotest possibility of all action.
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Dissolution of individuality not only renders action impossible,
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but makes all talk of it meaningless.
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The philosophy of integral non dualism, however, exposes the
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untenability of this whole line of thinking.
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It sheds a new light upon the concept of individuality and
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activity. It shows that they are perfectly
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compatible with the highest form of liberation or spiritual
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illumination. There is no reason why
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individuality should be dissolved at the drawing of the
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sun of pure knowledge. Individuality is emphatically
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not a product of ignorance or Maya.
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What depends upon the action of ignorance is the
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individualization of the lower nature, the ego, the limited and
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unsatisfactory character of the surface being.
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This is a beautiful section. You know from this chapter the
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philosophical basis of Integral Yoga, and I already gave you the
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section from which these lines have been taken.
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Let's meditate on these words for a couple of minutes, and
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then I formally invite Santosh to make his presentation.
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And that you could begin. Namaste, welcome all of our
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friends and Guru by here on this auspicious occasion of being
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able to join with the Kundan and the Cultural Integration
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Fellowship and the spirit of Doctor Choudhury and Bina
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Choudhury, whom we very much love and respect for their
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efforts. Kundan made a little bit of a
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mistake this time and inviting me to talk and that is he said
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speak about whatever you like. And so we're going to cover a
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lot of ground today because I don't often get that
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opportunity. And for anybody who has any
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thoughts, questions or whatever, I'm leaving some time at the end
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of the presentation for us to share and to raise questions, to
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share your own ideas and experience.
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And I encourage you, if you know something comes up along the
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way, make a little note so we don't lose it.
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And let's dive right in here. The question today is what can
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each of us do to support the evolution of consciousness?
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And the texture and background of that is that we start out as
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ego personalities. We feel we experience the world,
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we grow up and get indoctrinated, if you will, into
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the idea that we are separate from the rest of the creation
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and that somehow we have to survive and thrive at the
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expense of other aspects of the creation.
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This is a dualistic perspective. It also permeates spiritual
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practice of the past, which Doctor Chowdhury and his
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paragraph so clearly illustrated.
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The idea that my meditation, my spiritual development is
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something I do separate from my life in the world and that I
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have to abandon the one in order to achieve the other.
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And that is a again, a form of dualism.
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And it remains rooted in ego, the idea that I am separate and
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I can be saved while the rest of creation can do whatever it
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pleases. That creates for us a lot of
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confusion as we become awake and aware of spiritual development.
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We say, well, we want to meditate, we want to go on
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retreats, we want to do these things.
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And we create a duality in our own lives.
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We say, well, I don't have time to do the meditation right now
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because I have to go to work. We separate things into little
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compartments and that basically keeps us small, weak and
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helpless. When we face the world, we come
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out and we see all the problems of the world.
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And we've gone over this in past talks about the existential
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crisis of humanity, all of the the myriad things that are vital
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and mental consciousness have created that are threatening to
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destroy our very existence and the need for an evolution of
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consciousness in order to save that.
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But we haven't yet understood the oneness, the non dual
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nature, as Doctor Choudhury points out of our existence.
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We are not separate from each other and we are not separate
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from the world as a whole. We are those things that we see,
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we participate in them, whether we live isolated as hermits
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somewhere in a cave or a forest or a mountain retreat or a
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monastery, or we participate fully in the life of the world.
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And so the question then comes up, OK, we've tried political
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solutions. We've tried economic solutions,
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We've tried religious solutions, we've tried uniformity, trying
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to make everybody fit into the same bed of Procrustes that is
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somehow going to unify humanity. And every one of these choices
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that we've made in the past, over thousands of years have
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failed. We are still faced with the same
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problems and the crisis has grown because we haven't yet
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addressed the core issue. One of the things that always
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impressed me about the philosophy and spirituality of
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India was the focus on the core conception of finding out that
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being known, what gives? In other words, knowing what
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being known tells us everything about creation, that core
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principle. And that principle is that with
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the unity of our consciousness and our psychology and our
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relationship to the world, we have to find a way to make, as
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Sri Aurobindo points out, all life into yoga.
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And what does that mean from the grand perspective of the
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evolution of consciousness? Trior Obindo points out that
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nature is undertaking an evolution of consciousness, what
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he calls the yoga of nature, and it can take millennia.
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Human beings, as they awaken to their spiritual capacities, have
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the ability to consciously participate and help speed up
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the yoga of nature. That does not necessarily mean
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that some individual is going to be able to escape the rest of
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humanity and somehow become enlightened and everyone else is
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still left behind. It really means that through
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individual practice and through our relationship to the external
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world that we experienced through our relationships with
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family, friends, acquaintances, work colleagues and our work in
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the world, that there is an interactive process that creates
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first of all, the texture of consciousness within humanity
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that textures our vital nature, our physical nature and our
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mental nature so that progress beyond into a new level of
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consciousness becomes possible. And secondly, that through our
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evolutionary development, we vibrate back into that
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collectivity, that progress, and thereby help all of humanity
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gain the platform, if you will, of developing that next phase of
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consciousness. We are not separate.
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We require a change of human consciousness.
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People say it's impossible. You can't straighten out a dog's
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tail. They say, well, if we look at
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things, if we look at the history of humanity, we see that
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actually a change of consciousness is possible.
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It may be hard, it may take a long time.
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In the context of an individual human life, our 80 or 90 or 100
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or 130 years, I think someone just died at the age of 117.
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The longest living person has now died, so 117 is where she
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was. We don't see the change
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necessarily because the time frame of change is slower than
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the speed of our lives. There is a a difference in you
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can say time dilation as they would talk about in physics and
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astronomy nowadays so that the human life doesn't see the
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impact over time. But we can look back at history
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and we can see that huge changes in fact are taking place that
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represent a new level of consciousness.
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Look back 100 years and look to today.
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We see things that could not be imagined 100 years ago.
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I mean, think about it, 100 years ago, more or less women
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couldn't vote. We didn't treat them as equal
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people in our society. They had to follow the dictates
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of the male direction. And nowadays we take the vote of
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women and the power of women for granted, actually, in many parts
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of the world. Is the change complete?
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Not yet, but we can see the change.
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Europe has changed, United States has changed, other parts
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of the world have changed. There's still change taking
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place, and there's still. A resistance to it from those
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forces that want to maintain the status quo ante.
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That doesn't mean that a change of consciousness hasn't taken
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place. It means that it's still in
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process. We see a new awareness of people
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all over the globe. We see the Internet.
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We are able to join together in meetings like this.
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We're able to watch television and news cycles from all over
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the world, and suddenly we understand the issues, the
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sufferings, the opportunities, the cultural developments from
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all other places in the world. When an earthquake occurs in
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Turkey and people are dying and rushed there, the world responds
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and sends aid. This is a new consciousness of
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unity of humanity that is slowly starting to permeate.
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We see the development of things like the United Nations as
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imperfect as it was formed because the powers that were
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wanted to maintain the powers that were.
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And so they set up things like, you know, the Security Council
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veto, etcetera, which has been a tremendous hindrance on the real
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power of the United Nations. But nevertheless, the concept,
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the idea that humanity could work together to solve problems
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together, to avoid wars, to address worldwide issues became
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real. It used to be that one Kingdom
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would fight another Kingdom and one would become the emperor and
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one would become the vassal state and the emperor would tell
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everyone what to do, collect tribute, and that was it.
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Well, that time is changing. We see a new awareness of the
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environment. Go back to the 1950s only, which
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is 75 years. Nobody really was talking about
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the issues of the toxic pollution caused by our
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industrial revolution, the issues of the chemicals that
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were going into the air, the land and the water.
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No one was talking really about the issues of climate change
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that we were greatly responsible for.
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And yet, Fast forward 70 years and the world is now recognizing
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these things as serious and real issues and working on it.
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We have the issue of increased interest in spiritual practice.
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This used to be something that was done by an individual who
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somehow in his local life and community woke up, became
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dissatisfied with what he saw as the goals in front of him, and
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he went and tried to find out what his spiritual purpose was,
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took up yoga or some kind of meditation practice or Buddhism
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or whatever it might be. This used to be an individual
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phenomenon. Now it's a worldwide phenomenon,
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and we see people everywhere in the world wanting to understand
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who they are, what they are, why they're here, and take up some
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form of spiritual practice. We see new ideas about how we
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treat children. We see the abolition of slavery
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in many parts of the world. We see very, very serious issues
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of how we want to relate to each other, the sensitivity, the idea
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that there are new ways to relate rather than the former
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win lose psychology that has controlled humanity for how many
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millennia. So these are all signs of a new
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consciousness, but there is actually another sign of a new
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consciousness that people don't always acknowledge, and that is
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the strength and the aggressiveness of the resistance
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to it. We see today an enormous
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resistance coming up, the idea of authoritarianism, the idea of
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dictatorial control, the idea of trying to roll back all these
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changes. And these resistances actually
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are a sign that this new consciousness is active.
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And those forces of the past, those forces of the status quo,
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feel it, understand it intuitively and reject it.
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And they feel like their existence is threatened.
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And as they say, a cornered beast is the most dangerous.
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And so instead of becoming concerned about, well, where is
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the change, we see all these retrogressive forces highly
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active in our world. We can appreciate that they
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actually are a sign of the new consciousness.
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So once we recognize that a new evolutionary consciousness is
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possible, we have to look at, first of all, how does it come
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about? What do we, what do we do and
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how does that impact the situation of that texturing of
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consciousness of the whole world that needs to be coincident with
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our own individual action. The first thing is each
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individual, whoever you are, wherever you are, has the
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opportunity to work on the spiritual underpinnings of your
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life, change who I am, who you are, and then through the
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radiation principle of that energy, everyone else around us
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takes on some of that energy and over time we create change.
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I have an interesting example. Back in 1973, I was residing at
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Trior Bindo Ashram in Pondicherry and for a short time
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I was working in the dishwashing section and I had the
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opportunity to meet and observe a man there by the name of Ram
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Krishna Das. Many of you have met him or
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heard of him. He was in his own right ahead of
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an ashram guru from Orissa, and he had come to the ashram and he
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was in the dishwashing section. He was drying plates and he had
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such a peaceful and radiant demeanor.
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And people would come to him and they would touch his feet and
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they would ask for his blessings.
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And he was washing dishes. And yet he had an impact on
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many, many thousands of people, including people I know today,
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50 years later in the United States.
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The impact radiates. We can't see it in our short
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human lives, but over time and over space, that change
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radiates. Now, we've all heard about the
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butterfly effect, OK? And sometimes we laugh about the
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butterfly effect. Oh, the butterfly in Indonesia
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is going to flap its wings and the whole world's going to
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change. And we joke about that.
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OK, fine. Let's move beyond the butterfly
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effect for a moment and let's talk about the tsunami effect.
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You have an earthquake somewhere in Japan or Alaska or wherever
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it might be, and it starts at tsunami.
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And the tsunami starts out as maybe a one inch wave in the
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ocean. And by the time it hits a land
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mass on the other side of the world, it can be 10 or 20 or 30
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feet high. The impact at the point of
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meeting another part of the world is far greater than the
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observed starting point. We talked about the avalanche
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effect, how a small snowball or a boulder at the top of a
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mountain can roll down a mountain and create an avalanche
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that buries villages. Small starting point, large
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impact. We look at throwing a rock into
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a pond. Virtually everyone has done
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that. They've watched throwing a rock
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into a pond and you see ripples out and that's all great.
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That rock is very small. The ripples are relatively
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small, but we don't internalize the impact of that.
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But go ask a dinosaur about the impact of a rock rippling in a
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pond. A rock that was .08% of the mass
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of the earth, came with sufficient concentration and
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force into one spot on the earth and wiped out most of the life
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on the planet, including the dinosaurs that had lived here
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for how many years? How many hundreds of thousands
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or millions of years a rock .08%?
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Not even 1% of the mass of the earth had such an impact.
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Granted, it came with concentrated force, it came with
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momentum when it hit, but that is the type of work that each
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one of us can do in our own lives.
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As we develop in our spiritual practice and concentrate that
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force, we can have an outsized effect.
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I speak to people sometimes about what I call the 1%
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solution. If you have a straight line of
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where humanity is going and you're able to change the
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trajectory in your time, even by 1% / 400 years, you're going to
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be this far different in terms of where you wind up.
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And so people say, well OK, there's 8 billion people on the
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planet, what can I do? Well, everyone contributes to
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that texturing of consciousness, but people who are awake and
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aware and focused have an out sized influence.
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You don't have 88 billion equally influencing people on
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the planet. We look at.
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We have an example here in the United States of someone by the
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name of Johnny Appleseed. OK, now he was a a pastor and he
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ran a nursery and he went around a number of States and arranged
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to have thousands of apple trees planted.
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And even today people are eating apples in this country because
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Johnny Appleseed went out and did what he did.
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So we say, OK, well, we see many, many such examples.
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Obviously, names percolate to the top.
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When we think about it, Da Vinci and Beethoven and Shrioro Bindo
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and who knows who else is out there there.
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There's so many names, Doctor Chowdhury, who have outsized
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influence. We see people that you may never
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have heard of. There was Catherine Long and the
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Lady Doubting in the United Kingdom, and back in 1963 they
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decided that they wanted to address the issue of animal
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testing of cosmetics, the torturing of animals so that we
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could have cosmetics. So they started a movement
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called Beauty Without Cruelty in 1963.
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And who's ever heard of these people?
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But everybody today knows about the cruelty free pledge of
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cosmetics all over the planet. And most people have started to
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hear that there are countries all over the world who are
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banning the testing of cosmetics on animals.
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Who thought back at that time that these people starting a
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small concept company could have that effect?
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Now I'm a I'm a Direct Line of descendant from them because I
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wound up buying the Beauty Without Cruelty brand here in
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the United States some years ago.
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And I carry on their legacy in that sense.
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But other than that, who else has heard of them?
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So when we think about it, instead of feeling like I'm just
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so small and insignificant, what can I do?
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Instead of getting depressed about how big the problems are
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and how small I am, I suggest that everybody do whatever you
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can do. And you will have an outsize
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influence compared to billions of other people on the planet
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just by being who you are and doing what you do and being
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awake and carrying that consciousness into your
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relationships, into your work, into your educational practice,
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into your retirement. Now I hear many people, you
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know, it's like I've worked my whole life and, and now I'm
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retired and I just want to enjoy myself.
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OK. When you really talk to these
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people, you find out that they feel like their lives are empty
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in many cases. And the mother has said an
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aimless life is a meaningless life.
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So take your retirement and turn it into something beneficial,
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whether it's creating beauty in the world, whether it's raising
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beautiful plants, whether it's volunteering and doing
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something, whether it's just being a good influence and a
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peaceful, happy person relating to the people around you.
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It has an influence. We've heard about the 100th
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monkey phenomenon, and let's talk about that for a moment
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because that's really very interesting.
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Some people were studying a tribe of monkeys, I think it was
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in Southeast Asia or Indonesia somewhere, and they found that
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one monkey was washing its fruit before eating.
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And as they continued observing, they found that other monkeys
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began to adopt that practice. And then eventually virtually
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the whole tribe of monkeys there started washing their fruit.
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What they didn't expect was that at a certain point, when all the
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monkeys in that tribe were washing their fruit, monkeys the
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world over began to wash their fruit.
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Now they didn't have the benefit of telephones, Internet, and all
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those other things. They had the benefit of what TR
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Deschardins calls the nuosphere, the the sphere of mental energy,
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just as we have a biosphere, the sphere of vital energy that
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permeates the world. And when enough monkeys focused
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on the same issue, other monkeys who became receptive to that
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vibration somewhere else in the world were able to pick it up.
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And we see the same thing happening in humanity.
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So the challenge for each of us, when we think about how small
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and insignificant we are, is which one of us may actually be
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the 100th monkey for humanity. How do we know?
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We won't know, but that is one of the challenges in front of us
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that we have an opportunity for. So what are the qualities we
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should inculcate? Because not all of us can do
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deep meditation and not all of us can do big works of some
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sort. You know, if you have the
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capability to do things that impact climate change or green
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energy or helpful food production or whatever also,
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then do it, please. But if you're living your life
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and that's all you can do, whatever work you take up, try
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to do it with the right spirit, that yogic presence.
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Radiate the qualities of peace, harmony, balance, light,
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goodwill, compassion, reduce egoism, respect for all beings
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and appreciate the power of truth.
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If we do that, we begin to see changes in the way other people
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relate to us. And we see changes, in many
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cases slowly, albeit because people are dealing with their
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own issues in the people around us.
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And eventually we can build a culture of consciousness.
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So then we come to, OK, you can't deal with maybe climate
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change is too big for you, or stopping the Arab Israeli war is
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too big a thing for you to take on yourself.
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That's OK. If you've done what you can do,
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at least support those projects that represent the change you
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want to see happen. If you can volunteer, volunteer.
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If you can support them with your goodwill and your
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encouragement, and that's all you can do, do it.
40:49
If you happen to have money and you can give money to them, give
40:53
money to them because they need money to operate energy in order
40:57
to operate. That brings us even to the
41:01
project of Oroville, which we've talked about before.
41:07
Oroville is a mother's project to create a laboratory to tackle
41:13
the human issues and the human issues of clean water, clean
41:20
energy, the food issues because we see the collapse of the
41:27
ocean, fisheries which are going to impact a billion people on
41:32
this planet for their very survival.
41:37
These type of issues are being taken up with various programs
41:42
in Oroville, the dealing with how we can waste less doing
41:47
things so that we're not creating so much toxic pollution
41:53
in production and masses of toxic materials on the back end
41:58
that we don't know what to do with.
42:02
They're working on Desalina Tion, they're working on solar
42:07
energy mini grid, they're working on a high protein hemp
42:13
and algae foods. There's many, many projects
42:16
there, but beyond the projects, they also have the opportunity
42:22
to face the one thing that humanity has never, ever solved
42:26
in all of our thousands of years, and that is to address
42:30
the issue of human unity in a way that isn't purely
42:35
uniformity. It's highly audacious to say
42:40
let's tackle human unity and bring people from all different
42:44
backgrounds, cultures, countries, languages, mindsets,
42:48
educational interests, etcetera, and let's bring them into one
42:53
place together and let them figure out how to do governance
42:56
of 1 and of of one community together.
43:01
What do you think the odds of success of that are first time
43:04
out? You know, we have an apocryphal
43:07
story of our The Invention of the Light bulb by Thomas Edison.
43:13
And when I was a young child, I lived in a place called Menlo
43:18
Park Terrace, which was right next to Menlo Park, NJ, where
43:23
Thomas Edison did his work. So I got to hear all these
43:28
stories, and they may or may not be true, but he once said that
43:34
in order to invent the light bulb, he failed 1000 times.
43:40
He tried one thing, it didn't work.
43:42
He tried another thing, it didn't work.
43:43
He didn't give up. And eventually we can flip a
43:48
switch and we can have light. And so that's a symbol for us of
43:54
what Oroville has to do to succeed at figuring out how
44:00
humanity is going to learn to live together in peace and
44:03
harmony on this planet and solve its big issues.
44:07
Take up the issues but also deal with the governance issues.
44:12
And they are trying and have tried many, many of the
44:15
different solutions that humanity has failed at in the
44:18
past. And they failed equally as much
44:22
because those are not the solutions.
44:25
But what's interesting is they go back and they say, OK, let's
44:29
see if we can find another way. And so they set up a group
44:32
called Dream Weavers or Heart Weavers, and they bring people
44:36
together and they look at their failures and they try to find a
44:41
way forward. They haven't yet succeeded, but
44:46
the good thing is they haven't yet given up.
44:49
And so to me, that's really one of the most important things, if
44:55
you will, is we've got an opportunity there to contribute
45:03
to the solving of this problem. Now people see that communities
45:09
unify based on an external threat.
45:14
And so now the popular literature is filled with alien
45:17
invasions, and that's supposed to be something that everyone is
45:23
afraid of, and that's going to bring us together somehow.
45:29
We're going to all fight the aliens or whatever it might be
45:32
that that they think it is. But actually, I think the threat
45:37
is closer to home. I think the threat is our own
45:43
existential crisis, the 6th planetary die off that we are
45:47
facing right now, right here, right now.
45:50
We don't need aliens to wipe us out.
45:53
We're prepared to do it to ourselves.
45:57
And so this need to be addressed.
46:00
And as we wake up to this, we have the unifying factor that
46:08
can bring humanity together, the appreciation at some point that
46:14
all of the wars, all the mass migrations, all of the toxic
46:18
chemicals are things that really we have to face and confront and
46:27
solve. And So what can we do?
46:33
OK, I mean, we've got address climate change, we've talked
46:39
about, OK, what can you do about that?
46:41
Well, you might be able to do solar vehicles, reduce your
46:45
energy waste, etcetera. One of the big things that that
46:50
people don't realize is one of the greatest causes of climate
46:55
change, global warming, happens to be the raising and eating of
47:00
animal foods. And OK, not everybody is
47:05
prepared at this moment to go vegan, but just think, if you
47:10
cut your use of animal foods by 10% or 15% and start to
47:15
substitute in your diet, that has its impact, a positive
47:21
impact on climate change, possibly also on your health.
47:29
And reduce all those pains and sufferings that people have
47:33
because of the animal food production, the deforestation
47:37
that goes with that conservation of water.
47:42
We have a huge water crisis in this world because fresh water
47:45
is being squandered, lost and misused.
47:53
And with the rise of the Seas and the melting of the glaciers,
47:57
we're actually accentuating the freshwater crisis.
48:02
We have a similar issue with virtually everything you see in
48:07
the world. You can do something about it
48:10
whatever interests you. This is not a one-size-fits-all
48:16
solution. Everybody finds their own things
48:19
that they can do to fix something, to work on something
48:25
to create beauty and harmony in the world.
48:28
Mainly to focus your time, energy, and attention on being a
48:36
benefit to yourself and others on the planet.
48:44
So with that, let's open it up for conversation.
49:00
I'm sure people will agree with me that I did not err in giving
49:06
you the topic that you chose. We should speak on anything that
49:11
you want. Thank you very much.
49:14
That was absolutely, particularly from the
49:18
perspective of participating in the creation of new
49:23
consciousness, which is the central pursuit of integrity.
49:29
Yorker I see Margaret's hand up. So Margaret is a nature self and
49:38
come in. Thank you so much, Santosh.
49:45
I, I think it's always good to mention what's impactful for the
49:53
person. And for me, the fact that you
49:58
mentioned the timeline upfront that well, first of all, that
50:06
the actions are not always seen and that the timeline is such
50:12
that it may occur after your lifetime.
50:16
I think that helping people take that in at a deeper level, you
50:23
know, we're so our egos are so much into I want to see my
50:31
impact, right? So along with the shift in
50:35
consciousness that you're advocating, that shift in
50:39
consciousness will help us with that timeline issue, right?
50:47
Also, I just wanted to mention that I think for myself and many
50:52
others, we've had a real sort of in your face version of this in
51:05
the United States of the outer looking bleak, put it this way
51:13
or can't not not being able to face or handle what looks like
51:20
what's coming. And I really want to emphasize
51:25
that working with force and mother and Triara Bendo's force
51:34
helped Get Me Out of that orientation so that I could be
51:39
functional. And so it's like a, a, a preview
51:47
of whatever we are going to face that looks dire.
51:53
If we've had an experience of making that shift, then it can
51:59
become our way of being for the next crisis, right.
52:04
So anyway, I wanted to thank you for your how you orientated us
52:09
to these very important shifts. Thank you.
52:13
Well, thank you. And you know, Johnny Appleseed
52:16
didn't get to eat all those apples.
52:18
That's right. So there was just a big
52:34
convention in Chicago, and I'm reminded that what we heard from
52:39
many speakers was the same thing.
52:42
They said do something. They didn't tell you what to do
52:47
and they said do something and don't delay too long about it,
52:53
Do something bow. So it just reminded me.
53:03
Thank you. Well, it's not often that we
53:14
basically talk people into silence here, so it's
53:19
interesting, but anybody else want to add any points to our
53:26
discussion here, Something that you found valuable or beneficial
53:32
in your life to move things forward?
53:40
I can fill in till people think about this question.
53:44
What I really appreciated was at the beginning of your talk.
53:51
How? You're talking about the shifts
53:53
in consciousness that have happened in the last few
53:57
decades, things that we have started taking for granted, but
54:03
they didn't really exist that particular way.
54:07
So, you know, that sort of trajectory put us on a positive
54:15
note, which I really appreciate. And then, of course, you know,
54:21
you start talking about different problems that exist
54:25
that we collectively face as humanity and then coming to how
54:32
we can think about the changes. And what was very important was
54:39
that we don't really have to think big.
54:41
You know, we can make small changes and these small changes
54:48
will have and impact in the future.
54:53
And if we are really concerned about the 'cause if we are
54:56
really concerned about the nature of transformation, the
55:02
way I interpreted it was that it doesn't really matter whether we
55:07
are alive in this body to see the change or not, but the fact
55:14
that the change will happen, the change itself is going to take
55:18
its new course. That was something which was
55:23
very good. Yes, and that's also something
55:27
that Sri Krishna mentions to Arjuna and the Bhagwad Gita,
55:30
that whether you participate or not, all these warriors on the
55:35
other side are already destined to die because change is
55:40
happening. But you are a protagonist in
55:44
your time, in your circumstance to help that along.
55:49
Don't take it personally, just deal with it.
56:01
Yes, Sean, thank you, Santosh for your enlightening talk.
56:09
I'm wondering whether you could share maybe about your own
56:13
experience on maybe the difference of the contribution
56:18
we can make at different stages of our lives.
56:21
Because when we're, let's say in our 20s or in our 30s, we
56:25
probably don't have the same kind of contribution to the
56:29
evolution of consciousness as later stages in life.
56:32
And also finding this balance between being sometimes just
56:36
being here with consciousness as a witness is sufficient to, you
56:40
know, provoke change or provoke, you know, whatever.
56:43
And sometimes we need to to do more the karma yoga.
56:46
So could you, I don't know, maybe share on, on your
56:50
experience or your point of view on these, on these aspects?
56:53
Well, sure. You know, when I was in high
56:56
school, I took jobs, whatever jobs I could get at that time
57:02
because I needed to earn some money.
57:04
I wasn't involved in any yogic practice or anything.
57:07
But one thing I did take away from it and also in my schooling
57:11
was I tried to give it 100% and I tried to do it cheerfully.
57:17
I didn't go to work grumbling and saying, oh, what a rotten
57:20
job. This is why I just have to go
57:22
make money. I went there and said I've been
57:25
granted the opportunity to participate and earn some money
57:29
here, let me do it with full energy, full enjoyment, full
57:33
concentration, full involvement. And I got through school that
57:37
way. And when I got to college, I got
57:39
a little lost and dropped out of college after something of a,
57:47
what you might call a near death experience.
57:51
And after seeing the futility of a lot of the political and other
57:55
actions that were taking place to try and stop the war in
57:59
Vietnam and went to Europe and started studying and practicing
58:04
yoga. And that's actually where I came
58:07
in touch with Sri Aurobindo. But the attitude that I took as
58:12
a young person is something I encourage young people to
58:17
undertake, that I encourage the children of my family to do and
58:23
they encourage their children to do.
58:26
And that is do whatever you do with a goodwill, with the best
58:31
effort you can make, concentrate on it and and really try to make
58:35
that work as you go into careers.
58:39
It's the same thing. It may not be the ideal job of,
58:44
you know, changing the planet, but do it with a goodwill and
58:48
relate to people in a way that's respectful and honest and
58:55
compassionate. And that will automatically
58:59
change the texture of your community of people that are
59:04
around you and how maybe they react to things.
59:09
If you become affluent through your work and you have extra
59:16
money. Well, I always felt like trust
59:23
fund babies tend to have bad outcomes.
59:28
It's just a history. It's one thing to let your
59:33
children have a certain amount of resources to to carry out
59:37
their lives with. It's another thing to make them
59:40
mega millionaires. We see how that's turned out on
59:44
our political stages. Michael might point out to us
59:49
having just gone through a convention illustrating what
59:54
disasters a trust fund baby has created in this country.
1:00:01
They just don't have a perspective.
1:00:05
And so if you've got extra wealth.
1:00:08
Take some of it and dedicate it to the work that your children
1:00:13
are doing. That's fine.
1:00:15
And take some of it and apply it to whatever projects or
1:00:19
opportunities or groups you find are doing a good work.
1:00:24
And, you know, create a legacy that outlives you by forwarding
1:00:31
the projects. If you're a retired person, make
1:00:37
your life valuable to yourself and others.
1:00:41
Don't just vegetate and think, I work my whole life and so now I
1:00:46
just get to knock off. And if you're in a field that
1:00:50
can do something, invent a new energy or find a way to be more
1:00:57
economical of energy or help with fresh water, whatever it
1:01:01
might be, then of course you're already doing something concrete
1:01:06
at the inflection point. So I think I've covered all the
1:01:13
different gamuts of life. If you're, if you've got health
1:01:16
issues and you're, you know, you're bound to a bed and you're
1:01:21
struggling and suffering and you feel like you can't do anything.
1:01:24
Well, my wife actually tells a story.
1:01:28
She was doing Hospice for a while and there was a lady in
1:01:31
Hospice and she was always extremely cheerful.
1:01:38
And then she decided she was getting close to her time of
1:01:42
death. And now she wasn't practicing
1:01:46
yoga or doing any of these things.
1:01:47
She was just there in Hospice struggling with her declining
1:01:52
health. And so she said, I need a little
1:01:56
help. I want to get some notes
1:01:58
written. I want to give this to this
1:02:00
person who can use it and this to that person who can use it.
1:02:03
And she started distributing all the little things she had in her
1:02:06
life to people who would find a benefit from it.
1:02:09
And when she was done, she smiled and she said, I've
1:02:14
completed everything now I can die peacefully.
1:02:17
So even people in Hospice, even people suffering health issues
1:02:24
that are preventing them from doing anything else, have the
1:02:30
opportunity to contribute to the evolution of consciousness.
1:02:39
Thank you, Santosh. Thank you very much and thank
1:02:41
you, Quinton. Wayne, please unmute yourself
1:02:57
and come in. OK, well thanks for letting me
1:03:01
speak. Just wanted to before I forget,
1:03:04
I want to thank Condon for for his book.
1:03:08
It fits so well in my spiritual practice.
1:03:10
It's my framework now. It explained a lot of things to
1:03:13
me. So thank you so much for the
1:03:14
book. And Santosh, I want to thank you
1:03:17
so much for that Sri Aravendo study that you publish.
1:03:25
I, I'm, I'm, I'm there every day.
1:03:27
So it's great. So let me get to the point here.
1:03:32
When I retired six years ago and I'm all, I'm 70 now, something
1:03:39
ringing my I've traveled a bit and I was in a Peace Corps in
1:03:42
Ukraine. I've done a lot of weird things.
1:03:44
And, but after I retired, traveling and doing something
1:03:48
for myself didn't seem to be very productive, except one
1:03:51
thing I could do was make myself the best I could be in body,
1:03:55
mind and spirit. Now I don't know where that came
1:03:57
from. I did practice yoga, but it's
1:03:59
hatha yoga off and on for about 40 years.
1:04:02
But that's what I decided to do best, best I could be in, in
1:04:06
body, mind and spirit. And so that that's, that's what
1:04:11
I did. And rather than travel or try to
1:04:14
do things for myself and I put my faith in, in, in God and, or
1:04:20
supreme being or whatever you want to call.
1:04:21
And since then, of course, I've, I've discovered arrobendo and,
1:04:27
and I've found some other western philosophers, but not
1:04:32
putting myself first above everything, realizing there's
1:04:35
other things more important than me and that I can.
1:04:38
And I'm, I'm the happiest I've ever been in my entire life.
1:04:41
And my life has not been very happy.
1:04:43
So I'm very blessed to be a member of this group and it's
1:04:49
been a life changer for me. I've, I've, I've, I've really,
1:04:53
but basically starting with yourself is the best place to
1:04:57
begin if you want to find something, start with yourself
1:05:01
and make all the changes you possibly can that will make the
1:05:05
world a better place. And, and then, then you can
1:05:07
branch out into other things because like I say, I'm kind of
1:05:11
a professional volunteer. I can tell you lots of stories
1:05:13
about that. Sometimes rewarding and
1:05:16
sometimes not so rewarding and you really don't even want to do
1:05:19
it for the reward. You want to do it for just the
1:05:22
cause and forget about reward, but that's kind of my my $0.02
1:05:27
worth. And this is incredible stuff to
1:05:30
talk about. I love it and hope we can all
1:05:33
change the world. Thank you.
1:05:34
Well. Thank you.
1:05:35
Thank you. Yes, I went mute yourself.
1:05:51
OK. Hi Santosh.
1:05:53
First of all, I want to thank you for a very relevant and
1:05:57
wonderful talk. I think the question that you've
1:05:59
got is what 1 can do in different phases of life as
1:06:03
somebody asked. It bothers everybody and one,
1:06:06
everybody has to deal with it. I think you explain it very
1:06:09
nicely that whatever we do, it will have an impact.
1:06:15
We may not be able to see that in the short run.
1:06:19
Thinking of that aspect, I think in the current world,
1:06:24
information and data is a big power.
1:06:27
We even if you're not doing anything, we always share
1:06:29
information that different, different ways and different
1:06:33
modes. So that itself is a poor.
1:06:35
I think one point while sharing that, I think if if we can use a
1:06:41
lot of judgement and make sure that we share the data and
1:06:45
information which is only constructive and positive, that
1:06:49
goes a long way in bringing about small changes.
1:06:52
I feel that personally. Well, when interacting with
1:06:55
people and also sharing the information, that reminds me of
1:07:00
one of the quotation from Lao Tzu, a very beautiful quotation.
1:07:05
Remember. So one man sits at his home and
1:07:09
there's noble thoughts, beautiful thoughts and the
1:07:12
reverberations are heard thousands of miles.
1:07:15
There is so much true in the present world that we all share
1:07:19
information and talk about it. So one big thing I think we all
1:07:27
the way of doing whatever we learn is keep spreading it and
1:07:32
share it with joy. That it said will create a field
1:07:35
and domain. I feel that personally.
1:07:39
Thank you for a very wonderful talk.
1:07:40
Well, thank you. Yeah.
1:07:47
Thank you. OK, it seems that we are
1:07:59
naturally coming to an end of this wonderful gathering.
1:08:08
Thank you once again. Thank you so much.
1:08:11
We really enjoyed it. It was absolutely.
1:08:14
Thank you, Santosh. Thank you.
1:08:17
Thank you. Thank you very much.
1:08:22
Take care. Everyone stayed at night for me.
1:08:27
It's time to say goodnight. Take care.
1:08:30
Goodnight. Thank you.
1:08:31
Thank you.