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

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