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Moving Past Unpleasant Thoughts and Experiences · Inspiration and Transformation

• 0:05
  Speaker 1: Welcome to Inspiration and Transformation from the Banks of the
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: Ganga with Sadhvi Bhagwati Saraswati, an American Sanyasi living at
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: the Parmarth Niketan Ashram in Rishikesh, India. Sadhvi is president
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: of the Divine Shakti Foundation, a charitable organization bringing education,
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: vocational training, upliftment, and empowerment programs to women and children.
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: Sadhvi is also Secretary General of the Global Interfaith Wash
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: Alliance and Director of the world-famous International Yoga Festival. Join
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: the musings of an American sannyasi as Sadhvi shares the
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: wisdom and teachings of her guru, His Holiness, Pujya Swami
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: Chidnath Saraswataji.
• 0:49
  Speaker 2: Welcome, everyone, to Inspiration and Transformation from the Holy Banks.
• 0:58
  Speaker 2: of the sacred Ganga River in the land of Rishikesh, India.
• 1:05
  Speaker 2: What can we learn from the story of Bhagavan Ram's
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  Speaker 2: exile into the jungle in the Ramayana about the importance
• 1:18
  Speaker 2: of humility and sacrifice? So, In the Hindu tradition, in
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  Speaker 2: the tradition that we call Sanatana Dharma, tradition based on
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  Speaker 2: the Vedas or the Vedic tradition, we have many sources
• 1:45
  Speaker 2: of knowledge. We have the Vedas. We have the Upanishads.
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  Speaker 2: We have the Bhagavad Gita. And we have many, many stories.
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  Speaker 2: Some of the stories are in the Puranas. And we
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  Speaker 2: have two main epics, the epic of the Mahabharata and
• 2:11
  Speaker 2: the epic of the Ramayana. The Bhagavad Gita is a
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  Speaker 2: part of the epic of the Mahabharata, telling the story
• 2:21
  Speaker 2: of Bhagavan Krishna. His message, his life. Then we have
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  Speaker 2: the Ramayana. The message of Bhagavan Ram. The story of
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  Speaker 2: his life and his message. It's an incredibly powerful story
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  Speaker 2: and there's many ways to look at these stories. One way,
• 2:48
  Speaker 2: of course, is historical. We know history. That Bhagavan Ram
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  Speaker 2: is not just people talk about a mythological figure or
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  Speaker 2: our mythology. This is not mythology. This is history. Now,
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  Speaker 2: it's also spiritually inspiring. So it takes the place of
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  Speaker 2: what you could consider in other traditions to be mythology,
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  Speaker 2: as in stories that are meant to teach us something.
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  Speaker 2: But we know, actually, that this is history as well.
• 3:27
  Speaker 2: There's a lot of archaeological evidence that verifies many, many
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  Speaker 2: of the aspects of the Ramayana, of the War of Lanka.
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  Speaker 2: Several years ago, NASA actually found underwater the bridge between
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  Speaker 2: India and Sri Lanka. Images came out of NASA showing
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  Speaker 2: this underwater bridge that literally dated back to the times
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  Speaker 2: of the Ramayana. So one way of looking at these
• 4:02
  Speaker 2: things is historical. What's the archaeological evidence that we have?
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  Speaker 2: Who was this historical figure of Ram? But more frequently,
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  Speaker 2: we look at it as scripture. Because even though there
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  Speaker 2: was a historical being, and he actually did quite a
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  Speaker 2: bit of that which we are told in the Ramayana
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  Speaker 2: because we have the evidence showing it, more importantly than
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  Speaker 2: that is the relevance of his life and his teachings today.
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  Speaker 2: So the scriptural aspect rather than just the historical aspect.
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  Speaker 2: And in the Ramayana, one of the aspects, the part
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  Speaker 2: that leads up to, you know, the turbulence, the conflict
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  Speaker 2: that every great epic has, is this young man who,
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  Speaker 2: even if we don't look at as the embodiment of God,
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  Speaker 2: and we look at just as a historical figure, well,
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  Speaker 2: he was the embodiment of righteousness. of dharma, of goodness.
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  Speaker 2: He embodied a perfect son, a perfect husband, a perfect brother,
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  Speaker 2: later on a perfect father, and a perfect king. Where
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  Speaker 2: Bhagavan Krishna in his youth tends to be depicted much
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  Speaker 2: more mischievously, playfully, Bhagwan Ram in his youth is depicted
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  Speaker 2: as just this ideal being on every level. His father,
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  Speaker 2: King Dashrath, decides as he's advancing in years that it's
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  Speaker 2: really time to coronate his son as the next king.
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  Speaker 2: And of course, Ram is the unanimous accepted choice. And
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  Speaker 2: on the day that Ram was supposed to be coronated,
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  Speaker 2: instead of being coronated, he gets told by his father
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  Speaker 2: that not only is he not going to be coronated,
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  Speaker 2: and his brother, Badit, is going to be coronated in
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  Speaker 2: his place. But actually, he is going to be sent
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  Speaker 2: into exile, into the jungles for the next 14 years.
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  Speaker 2: There's a whole karmic tapestry behind that. I won't go
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  Speaker 2: into all of it now. It's a story of karmic
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  Speaker 2: threads interweaving. We'll talk about that maybe a different night
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  Speaker 2: when we talk about karma, destiny. But here, as we
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  Speaker 2: talk about Bhagwan Ram, Being told that he has to
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  Speaker 2: go off into exile. Now you imagine, how many times
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  Speaker 2: in your life have you received something that you felt
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  Speaker 2: like you didn't really deserve? Meaning you'd been as nice
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  Speaker 2: as you could, as loving as you could, as helpful
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  Speaker 2: as you could, but you get treated like you're a
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  Speaker 2: piece of junk. You do everything you possibly can to
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  Speaker 2: help others, to be a good person, to show love.
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  Speaker 2: But so frequently, in exchange, instead of getting appreciation and
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  Speaker 2: love back, we get people treating us not quite as
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  Speaker 2: nicely as we'd like them to. This happens all the time.
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  Speaker 2: It happens in families. It happens in workplaces. It happens
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  Speaker 2: in schools. It happens in communities. Every day people come
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  Speaker 2: and say, I don't know what to do. I was
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  Speaker 2: so nice. I was so loving. I'm doing everything I can,
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  Speaker 2: and this one just treats me like a piece of trash.
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  Speaker 2: I'm doing everything I can to be nice, but they're
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  Speaker 2: so mean to me. This is tragically part of human society.
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  Speaker 2: And when it happens to most of us, our reaction is,
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  Speaker 2: this isn't fair. Like, why me? I do everything right.
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  Speaker 2: And what do I get? There was a very famous
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  Speaker 2: book published decades ago called When Bad Things Happen to
• 9:08
  Speaker 2: Good People. Famous book, famous teaching, this is the perennial question.
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  Speaker 2: If it doesn't get asked as in, I was so nice,
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  Speaker 2: why do they treat me like junk? Then it gets
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  Speaker 2: asked as in, this person was so good, or I
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  Speaker 2: was so good. Why do these bad things keep happening?
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  Speaker 2: Losing my job, losing my family, losing my money, losing this.
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  Speaker 2: I try to be so good. Why is God punishing me?
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  Speaker 2: Why is the world punishing me? These are perennial questions
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  Speaker 2: that we have. And in the Ramayana, we're given this
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  Speaker 2: beautiful example of someone who behaves lives far better than
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  Speaker 2: any of us could possibly even imagine. Someone who literally
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  Speaker 2: never makes mistakes, doesn't lose his temper, doesn't give in
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  Speaker 2: to lust or greed or ego or ignorance or jealousy.
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  Speaker 2: Who really is every minute of every moment of every day.
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  Speaker 2: This epitome of goodness. And what does he get? 14
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  Speaker 2: years in exile? Not only not the kingdom, but he
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  Speaker 2: loses everything he has. Because he can't take with him anything.
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  Speaker 2: He has to just go and live like a tribal person.
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  Speaker 2: Foraging for food. But he doesn't say, this isn't fair.
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  Speaker 2: He doesn't say, no way. You're the one who made
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  Speaker 2: this promise. You deal with it, not me. Because it
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  Speaker 2: wasn't his story. It was his father who owed two boons,
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  Speaker 2: two promises to one of his wives who was the
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  Speaker 2: one who had made him send Ram into exile. He
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  Speaker 2: could have easily said, if he was a kid of today,
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  Speaker 2: he would have said, no way. That's your stuff. You
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  Speaker 2: did that. That's your mistake. You deal with it. Don't
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  Speaker 2: ruin my life over it. Forget it. Not fair. No way.
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  Speaker 2: Fight your own battles. But what Ram showed us was
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  Speaker 2: this beautiful teaching of how to take everything that comes
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  Speaker 2: as that which is meant to happen, as that which
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  Speaker 2: we actually are meant to go through for our own lives.
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  Speaker 2: He didn't take it as a punishment. He wasn't resentful.
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  Speaker 2: He bowed to his father and he said, absolutely. I
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  Speaker 2: will leave immediately. With gladness. With humility. And, you know,
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  Speaker 2: the question asks about sacrifice. But I don't think he
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  Speaker 2: took it as a sacrifice. When we sacrifice, there's always
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  Speaker 2: an element of kind of I'm giving up something that
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  Speaker 2: I want that's valuable to me for you. So, you know,
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  Speaker 2: I'm really, really, really thirsty. I really want this glass
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  Speaker 2: of water. But, oh, all right, you've asked me for it. Okay,
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  Speaker 2: I can sacrifice it and give.
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  Speaker 3: It to you.
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  Speaker 2: That's sacrifice. I really want it. I'm really thirsty. But,
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  Speaker 2: all right, I'll give it to you. That's sacrifice. That's
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  Speaker 2: not how he did it. It was not, oh, I
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  Speaker 2: really wanted the kingdom. Oh, I'm really attached to this
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  Speaker 2: life of luxury. Oh, I was so comfortable. But oh,
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  Speaker 2: all right, I'll do it for you. Wasn't that? There
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  Speaker 2: was gladness in his heart, not sacrifice. He stood up
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  Speaker 2: to this moment knowing this was the opportunity for his dharma.
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  Speaker 2: Not that he just had to deal with it because
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  Speaker 2: of his father's mistake or moment of promising these things
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  Speaker 2: to a wife. But he took it as a spiritual opportunity.
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  Speaker 2: And that's the lesson, is how can we live our lives,
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  Speaker 2: whatever comes, Not begrudgingly, not complaining, not grumbling, not feeling like, oh,
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  Speaker 2: we deserve something so much better. I mean, how easy
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  Speaker 2: for him to say, how dare you? Right? So many people,
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  Speaker 2: how dare you? Don't you know who I am?
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  Speaker 4: But no.
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  Speaker 2: He took this as a sacred opportunity. Not just to
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  Speaker 2: kill demons, not just to be a warrior hero, but
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  Speaker 2: actually to fulfill this sacred karma, this sacred dharma. And
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  Speaker 2: that's the message for us. How to take everything that
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  Speaker 2: comes in our life, not begrudgingly, Not like, oh, well,
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  Speaker 2: I guess I've got to go through it. Not thinking
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  Speaker 2: it's beneath us. I mean, imagine that you are the
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  Speaker 2: one deemed to be king. Now you've got to forage
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  Speaker 2: for berries, hunt for food. How easy to think that's
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  Speaker 2: so beneath me. I'm on earth for something so much
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  Speaker 2: bigger and better. My purpose is bigger. My purpose is higher.
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  Speaker 5: No.
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  Speaker 2: He knew this is my purpose right here, right now
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  Speaker 2: to fulfill this. And so it's about surrender more than sacrifice.
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  Speaker 2: But not surrender in a negative way. Surrender to the
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  Speaker 2: divine plan that always knows Something so much deeper, so
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  Speaker 2: much bigger, so much fuller. There's so many kings in
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  Speaker 2: the world. So many people have been king. We don't
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  Speaker 2: even remember their names. But Ram, Bhagwan Ram, who went
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  Speaker 2: into the forest, who vanquished the demons, who finally vanquished Ravan,
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  Speaker 2: the 10-headed demon king, came back. His name is chanted
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  Speaker 2: in every corner of the world. Every day, God knows
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  Speaker 2: how many hundreds of millions of people chant Ram, Ram, Ram, Ram.
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  Speaker 2: His dharma was more. Than just getting his rightful place
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  Speaker 2: as king. And that's the teaching for us. Is that
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  Speaker 2: which arises in our life. That which comes for whatever reason.
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  Speaker 2: Whether it seems to be the highest use of our
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  Speaker 2: potential or not. Whether it seems to be worthy of
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  Speaker 2: us or not. To surrender to a divine plan. that knows,
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  Speaker 2: that knows the way that we will be used here
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  Speaker 2: on planet Earth, that knows the way that we will
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  Speaker 2: ripple across the world with that impact. And that's the message,
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  Speaker 2: is how can we fold our hands with gladness in
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  Speaker 2: our heart and surrender to the divine plan fully stepping
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  Speaker 2: up to it as our dharma, as our purpose. Nothing
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  Speaker 2: is beneath us. Knowing that there is a plan that
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  Speaker 2: is unfolding for not only our highest good, but for
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  Speaker 2: the highest good of the universe in which our life
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  Speaker 2: will spread and impact and ripple.
• 18:50
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  Speaker 2: Welcome back to Inspiration and Transformation. I'm so glad to
• 20:42
  Speaker 2: have you all back here with me. What does the
• 20:47
  Speaker 2: Bhagavad Gita teach us about karma yoga? So the word
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  Speaker 2: karma means action. Karma yoga means yoga in action or
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  Speaker 2: action as yoga. Yoga is unity. Union. You know, in
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  Speaker 2: the Hindu temples, they always have a bell outside. And
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  Speaker 2: a lot of people think, I've heard a lot of
• 21:32
  Speaker 2: people say, oh yeah, the bell is to, you know,
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  Speaker 2: alert God we're coming. Wake up God on the way in. Like,
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  Speaker 2: as though when someone comes to your home, they ring
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  Speaker 2: the doorbell, and you get all, yeah, yeah, okay, somebody's here.
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  Speaker 2: But that's not what the bell in the temple's about.
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  Speaker 2: God doesn't need to be woken up. God doesn't need
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  Speaker 2: to get ready. Oh, visitors. We ring the bell to
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  Speaker 2: wake ourselves up, that we are going into this sacred place.
• 22:09
  Speaker 2: into this sacred area. It's a wake-up call. It's the alarm,
• 22:17
  Speaker 2: like that which wakes us up every morning. These days
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  Speaker 2: with our phones, most of us wake up to tunes
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  Speaker 2: that are much less pleasant than that. But that's the
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  Speaker 2: meaning of the bell, is the bell is that which
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  Speaker 2: wakes us up. before we enter temple, when we're doing pujas.
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  Speaker 2: It's not, wake up, God, I'm going to do your puja.
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  Speaker 2: It's wake up to our own mind that might be
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  Speaker 2: doing the puja with our hands, but the mind is
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  Speaker 2: somewhere else. And as we ring the bell, it wakes
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  Speaker 2: up our mind. Hey, come here. Come right here. Be
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  Speaker 2: right here, right now. It's like if you think of
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  Speaker 2: a child trying to get your attention, right? They're going
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  Speaker 2: to keep pulling on your clothes and keep until you
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  Speaker 2: pay attention. And the bell is that, that we keep
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  Speaker 2: ringing it until we are there, fully paying attention. So
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  Speaker 2: I always love when Their puja coincides with the beginning
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  Speaker 2: of satsang. It's a beautiful way of reawakening us. But
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  Speaker 2: going back to karma yoga. So karma is action. Yoga
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  Speaker 2: is union. Karma yoga is that which, those actions which,
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  Speaker 2: arise out of an awareness of oneness. So actions that
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  Speaker 2: are not rooted in a myth of separation, me separate
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  Speaker 2: from you, me separate from Mother Earth, me separate from God,
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  Speaker 2: but rather actions that are rooted in an awareness of unity, oneness,
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  Speaker 2: me as one with God. Me as one with all.
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  Speaker 2: When we say so hum. Or aham brahmasmi. I am that.
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  Speaker 2: I am one with the divine. I am the divine.
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  Speaker 2: That awareness. And the action that arises out of it.
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  Speaker 2: That's karma yoga. Or yoga, that union that blossoms out
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  Speaker 2: of action. So it's either action that arises out of
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  Speaker 2: an awareness of union or union that arises out of action.
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  Speaker 2: So action that is leading us toward greater union, greater oneness.
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  Speaker 2: That's karma yoga. And in the Bhagavad Gita, Lord Krishna
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  Speaker 2: emphasizes this. I mean, he emphasizes all of the different
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  Speaker 2: forms of yoga, primarily bhakti yoga, jnana yoga, and karma yoga.
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  Speaker 2: But with the karma yoga aspect, he makes it really
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  Speaker 2: clear that we can't help but act. Our whole lives
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  Speaker 2: are action. Whatever you do, it's action. Even you sit here,
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  Speaker 2: you close your eyes, sit on your hands, plug up
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  Speaker 2: your ears, you're still acting. It's still action. That there's
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  Speaker 2: no way to avoid action. So what then is the
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  Speaker 2: way to avoid the karmic repercussions of our action that
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  Speaker 2: make us stuck in this cycle, this cycle of birth
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  Speaker 2: and rebirth and death This wheel of samsara, as they say.
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  Speaker 2: And the only way is surrender. Just total surrender. It's
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  Speaker 2: the only way. Bhagavan Krishna says, And it means offer.
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  Speaker 2: Just offer, just surrender everything you do. Everything you do,
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  Speaker 2: offer it to me. Whatever you do, including, interestingly, your sadhana,
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  Speaker 2: your yoga, your yagnas, your tapas, your all of the
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  Speaker 2: things that you would consider even your spiritual practices. Offer
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  Speaker 2: that also. Offer everything to me. Surrender everything to me.
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  Speaker 2: It's the only way out of this stuckness is to
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  Speaker 2: just surrender. So we do our actions. We do them
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  Speaker 2: in alignment with yoga, an awareness of oneness and union.
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  Speaker 2: We do them in alignment with our Dharma. And we
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  Speaker 2: do them fully surrendered to the divine without any sense
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  Speaker 2: of doership. Most of us do something and either we think,
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  Speaker 2: oh my God, that was so stupid. I can't believe
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  Speaker 2: you did that. Oh my God, you're such an idiot.
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  Speaker 2: Or we think that was so great. I'm so good.
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  Speaker 2: I'm so smart, I'm the best. I'm the one who
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  Speaker 2: makes everything happen. So either I'm so stupid or I'm
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  Speaker 2: so great, but either way is false. In that surrendering,
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  Speaker 2: it's an awareness of I'm not the doer. I'm not
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  Speaker 2: the doer. God is the doer. You, you are the doer.
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  Speaker 2: I'm just that through which your doing happens. I have
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  Speaker 2: offered myself as just this vehicle, this instrument. And that's
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  Speaker 2: when our doing becomes being. And that's when even no
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  Speaker 2: matter how much we do, because of course the point
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  Speaker 2: is to keep doing, to keep... serving, to keep acting,
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  Speaker 2: but no matter how much we do, it doesn't make
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  Speaker 2: us stuck. Because we are just the instrument.
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  Speaker 7: More than 24 million Americans have an autoimmune disorder and
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  Speaker 7: that number continues to grow. I'm Sharon Saylor and I'm
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  Speaker 7: one of those 24 million. To put that number in perspective,
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  Speaker 7: 22 million. That's why I've brought together top experts and
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  Speaker 7: Eastern for the Autoimmune Hour on Life Interrupted Radio to
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  Speaker 7: find out how to live your life uninterrupted.
• 30:53
  Speaker 2: You came across someone struggling with hunger.
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  Speaker 4: How would you recognize them?
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  Speaker 5: Would you notice an eight-year-old girl who's not excited for
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  Speaker 5: summer break because she may not be having lunch again
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  Speaker 5: until September?
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  Speaker 7: Or a war veteran who's having a hard time landing
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  Speaker 7: a job and getting back on his feet?
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  Speaker 5: I am the one in eight Americans who struggle with hunger.
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  Speaker 7: Hunger can be hard to recognize.
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  Speaker 2: Welcome back. This is Sadhvi Bhagavati Saraswati with inspiration and transformation.
• 31:34
  Speaker 2: It's always a little tricky when we work with English
• 31:40
  Speaker 2: translations of Sanskrit terms. Because whoever came up with the
• 31:47
  Speaker 2: first pairing of these Sanskrit terms to already existing English words.
• 31:55
  Speaker 2: They certainly did the best that they could, but the
• 31:58
  Speaker 2: English language isn't really nearly as equipped as the Sanskrit languages,
• 32:06
  Speaker 2: as other Indian languages are, for the different nuances. For example,
• 32:12
  Speaker 2: when you speak about consciousness, Well, the word consciousness can
• 32:19
  Speaker 2: be used as in, are you conscious or unconscious? You
• 32:24
  Speaker 2: got hit on the head with a baseball. He's unconscious. Now,
• 32:29
  Speaker 2: that's a purely physical neurological situation. He got knocked unconscious.
• 32:38
  Speaker 2: Nothing to do spiritually. Just a baseball hit him in
• 32:42
  Speaker 2: the head. Now he's unconscious. He's unconscious. goes to the hospital,
• 32:45
  Speaker 2: they pump him full of some kind of adrenaline or
• 32:48
  Speaker 2: do something, ah, he's conscious again. Now, he hasn't attained
• 32:54
  Speaker 2: any kind of spiritual experience, but what it means is
• 32:59
  Speaker 2: essentially his brain, we're not even talking mind, we're talking
• 33:04
  Speaker 2: brain has essentially come back online. Brain has gone offline,
• 33:11
  Speaker 2: brain has come back online. We also speak about consciousness
• 33:18
  Speaker 2: sometimes as kind of a synonym to awareness. Be conscious.
• 33:26
  Speaker 2: Essentially means be aware. When you meditate, be conscious, be aware,
• 33:33
  Speaker 2: be mindful. These are words that are used kind of synonymously.
• 33:40
  Speaker 2: And I'm pointing all of this out in advance because
• 33:43
  Speaker 2: it's important to differentiate, because I know when you're talking consciousness,
• 33:49
  Speaker 2: you don't mean the first situation, you don't mean the
• 33:51
  Speaker 2: second situation. You're not talking about brain being online, and
• 33:58
  Speaker 2: you're not talking about focused attention. When you speak about
• 34:05
  Speaker 2: that level of consciousness, that is, in a sense, That
• 34:17
  Speaker 2: truth of who we are, which you could almost use
• 34:22
  Speaker 2: synonymously with spirit or soul, it's independent of the body.
• 34:31
  Speaker 2: I might lose consciousness from a baseball hitting me, but
• 34:38
  Speaker 2: my consciousness has not actually gone anywhere. when we look
• 34:45
  Speaker 2: at that deeper meaning of the word. Brain is offline.
• 34:51
  Speaker 2: Mind is still there only in terms of its sanskadas.
• 34:57
  Speaker 2: So if I end up dying, for example, from being
• 35:01
  Speaker 2: hit by the baseball, the doctors would say she never
• 35:05
  Speaker 2: regained consciousness. And yet, As I leave that body and
• 35:15
  Speaker 2: take a new body, the truth of both incarnations is
• 35:24
  Speaker 2: that I am consciousness. Like I am spirit or I
• 35:30
  Speaker 2: am soul or I am divinity. So consciousness in that
• 35:37
  Speaker 2: way of using the word is that which is vast
• 35:42
  Speaker 2: and expansive. It isn't dependent upon the functioning of the brain.
• 35:53
  Speaker 2: But it is that which we can access. It is
• 35:59
  Speaker 2: an aspect of or a way of thinking of soul, spirit,
• 36:05
  Speaker 2: divinity that we actually can access much more easily So
• 36:12
  Speaker 2: for example, as you meditate, you can go through different layers,
• 36:18
  Speaker 2: these different layers of consciousness. The first layer is just
• 36:25
  Speaker 2: bring your consciousness here, means arrive, come here, be present,
• 36:32
  Speaker 2: stop being distracted, be mindful. I am conscious. But then
• 36:42
  Speaker 2: I can go a step back and I can notice
• 36:50
  Speaker 2: that I am aware or conscious of the fact that
• 36:59
  Speaker 2: I am here, conscious, mindful. Then I can take another step.
• 37:11
  Speaker 2: and anchor myself as the one, the awareness that is
• 37:21
  Speaker 2: aware that I am aware, that is aware that I
• 37:27
  Speaker 2: am conscious. And as you meditate, you can actually keep
• 37:35
  Speaker 2: going back, anchoring into Vaster and vaster experiences of consciousness.
• 37:45
  Speaker 2: So the first is literally the neurons of my brain,
• 37:49
  Speaker 2: my attention, my focus. And then as we go back,
• 37:56
  Speaker 2: it gets a bit softer and less contained. Now I
• 38:00
  Speaker 2: am aware that I'm conscious, but I'm also aware that
• 38:06
  Speaker 2: there's a breeze that's blowing. I'm aware that there's a
• 38:12
  Speaker 2: sound coming from over here. Then I take a step
• 38:17
  Speaker 2: even farther back. And I'm just awareness. And then I
• 38:29
  Speaker 2: take a step even farther back. And there no longer
• 38:37
  Speaker 2: is a verb of being aware. It's no longer an
• 38:42
  Speaker 2: action that is happening. It's much more just an is-ness.
• 38:53
  Speaker 2: Consciousness just.
• 38:57
  Speaker 3: Is.
• 38:59
  Speaker 2: It's just a state rather than a doing. where the
• 39:06
  Speaker 2: first layers are much more directed doing, we end up
• 39:12
  Speaker 2: being able to pull back into just that spacious experience,
• 39:23
  Speaker 2: what you would call pure consciousness. And we can access that.
• 39:32
  Speaker 2: As you practice meditation, allow yourself just slowly to keep
• 39:39
  Speaker 2: taking these steps farther back. How much more vastness can
• 39:48
  Speaker 2: you experience? How freer can you be of just the brain?
• 39:58
  Speaker 2: So consciousness is that which isn't boxed in by anything.
• 40:08
  Speaker 2: The mind, the mind is that which is impacted by
• 40:20
  Speaker 2: experiences I have. So the mind is the place in
• 40:26
  Speaker 2: which we speak about sanskaras or the psyche. And the mind,
• 40:33
  Speaker 2: that aspect of the mind, man, buddhi, and ahankard, that
• 40:38
  Speaker 2: forms what we call the subtle body, sukshma shriyard, that
• 40:43
  Speaker 2: travels with us from birth to birth. So the impressions
• 40:51
  Speaker 2: upon my mind, uniquely mine, I have a different mind
• 41:04
  Speaker 2: than you. But consciousness, consciousness is something that in a
• 41:14
  Speaker 2: way we are both simply accessing. like spirit, like soul,
• 41:23
  Speaker 2: that there's an infinite presence. And through the use of
• 41:30
  Speaker 2: my mental faculties, through the use of my mind, through
• 41:37
  Speaker 2: the use of my individual consciousness, being conscious, being aware,
• 41:44
  Speaker 2: focusing my consciousness, I can tap into that greater sense
• 41:55
  Speaker 2: of consciousness. So mind is distinctly mine. Now, of course,
• 42:03
  Speaker 2: you say, whose? Because it travels with my soul even
• 42:06
  Speaker 2: after I lose the body. So mind is not of
• 42:09
  Speaker 2: the body. But mind belongs, you could say, to my
• 42:15
  Speaker 2: soul's journey. the journey of my jivatma, that's taking birth
• 42:22
  Speaker 2: and reincarnation, so does the mind travel with that. It
• 42:28
  Speaker 2: is hooked into that. But the full expanded sense of
• 42:34
  Speaker 2: consciousness is not. My individual consciousness is. But the highest
• 42:42
  Speaker 2: form of consciousness, divine consciousness, Supreme consciousness. That's something we
• 42:50
  Speaker 2: tap into rather than something that we carry with us.
• 42:58
  Speaker 2: Does that make sense?
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  Speaker 5: Every two minutes, an American is sexually assaulted. The majority
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  Speaker 5: of victims know their attacker. It could be your friend,
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• 44:35
  Speaker 2: Welcome back. This is Sadhvi Bhagavati Saraswati with inspiration and transformation.
• 44:45
  Speaker 2: How do we remove the negative emotions? Don't think of
• 44:50
  Speaker 2: your emotions like they're tumors that have to be removed.
• 45:01
  Speaker 2: Emotions are... quite literally, a pattern of energy, of electrical
• 45:13
  Speaker 2: energy and chemical energy. That's all it is. Certain centers
• 45:19
  Speaker 2: of our brain get stimulated in a certain way. Electricity
• 45:24
  Speaker 2: gets passed along certain groups of neurons. They release certain
• 45:28
  Speaker 2: chemicals into synapses. It causes another reaction along another neuron.
• 45:34
  Speaker 2: That may trigger One of our glands, like the adrenal gland,
• 45:39
  Speaker 2: for example, to reduce chemicals we call adrenaline. But an
• 45:43
  Speaker 2: emotion is a moving fluid pattern of energy. It's not
• 45:50
  Speaker 2: something literally that you could go in with a surgeon's
• 45:53
  Speaker 2: knife and remove. Which is great news because they actually
• 45:59
  Speaker 2: last a very, very short period of time. Until and
• 46:04
  Speaker 2: unless we keep bringing them back. And so the question
• 46:08
  Speaker 2: with emotions becomes not so much how do I actively
• 46:13
  Speaker 2: remove it, but how do I stop the habit? How
• 46:20
  Speaker 2: do I prevent myself from again starting the cycle of
• 46:29
  Speaker 2: the thought and the emotion? Now, it always begins or
• 46:36
  Speaker 2: almost always begins, with a thought. We see something, and
• 46:42
  Speaker 2: it triggers in us an emotion. It may be an
• 46:45
  Speaker 2: email we get. It may be a text message. It
• 46:48
  Speaker 2: may be something we see in the literal world. It
• 46:52
  Speaker 2: may be something we see in our mind as a memory,
• 46:57
  Speaker 2: something we see in our mind in the future of
• 47:00
  Speaker 2: how we envision something is going to happen. But it's
• 47:04
  Speaker 2: always we see something and then there is an emotion
• 47:10
  Speaker 2: that results from it. And this is why it's so
• 47:16
  Speaker 2: important to pay attention to what we're seeing and how
• 47:22
  Speaker 2: we're seeing it in the world around us and also
• 47:27
  Speaker 2: in ourselves. So if I'm seeing the world, I see
• 47:33
  Speaker 2: myself as an object. And of course, when I see
• 47:38
  Speaker 2: myself as an object, I never feel like I've got
• 47:40
  Speaker 2: quite enough. I'm not beautiful enough. I'm not successful enough.
• 47:48
  Speaker 2: I'm not wealthy enough. I'm not smart enough. I'm not
• 47:52
  Speaker 2: popular enough. I'm not happy enough. I'm not in good
• 47:57
  Speaker 2: enough shape. Whatever way I look and judge myself, it's
• 48:05
  Speaker 2: very rare that we judge it and we say, oh yeah,
• 48:10
  Speaker 2: I'm there. Most of us look at it and we
• 48:13
  Speaker 2: see something that isn't enough. When we look at the
• 48:20
  Speaker 2: world then, we see the world also as objects that
• 48:24
  Speaker 2: are interacting with my not enoughness. So either you are
• 48:30
  Speaker 2: an object who can make me feel like I am more.
• 48:37
  Speaker 2: So maybe you're somebody who tells me I'm beautiful, who's
• 48:41
  Speaker 2: really nice to me and really flattering to me. And
• 48:47
  Speaker 2: so when you are like that, I have an emotion
• 48:50
  Speaker 2: of happiness. You tell me you're so beautiful, you're so smart,
• 48:56
  Speaker 2: you're so funny, you are the best. And suddenly, I
• 49:00
  Speaker 2: have an emotion of happiness. Maybe you are my boss
• 49:09
  Speaker 2: and you tell me you have been doing such great work,
• 49:13
  Speaker 2: I'm going to give you a promotion. Again, emotion of happiness.
• 49:24
  Speaker 2: but then when you don't do what I want you
• 49:29
  Speaker 2: don't tell me I'm beautiful and wonderful and funny you
• 49:32
  Speaker 2: don't give me the raise I have an emotion of
• 49:37
  Speaker 2: sadness or anger resentment, frustration. I mean, there's a whole
• 49:45
  Speaker 2: garden of possibilities. But the point is that these emotions
• 49:49
  Speaker 2: arise based on my objectification of myself that says that
• 49:56
  Speaker 2: I am an object that is not enough and my
• 49:59
  Speaker 2: objectification of the world in which everyone is an object
• 50:05
  Speaker 2: who's either going to make me feel more full in
• 50:09
  Speaker 2: some way contribute to my sense of fullness? Or who's
• 50:13
  Speaker 2: going to threaten that? You're way too beautiful for me
• 50:18
  Speaker 2: to stand next to you because then I feel even
• 50:21
  Speaker 2: worse about myself. Or you're way too funny and smart
• 50:27
  Speaker 2: and so I hate going to parties with you because
• 50:29
  Speaker 2: then I feel awful about myself. So everyone becomes an object.
• 50:39
  Speaker 2: either that makes me feel more full or that has
• 50:43
  Speaker 2: the possibility to make me feel less full. One brings
• 50:48
  Speaker 2: about the bouquet of, you could call them the happiness
• 50:54
  Speaker 2: umbrella emotions, and the other is the not happy umbrella
• 51:01
  Speaker 2: of emotions. And again, whether it's in the moment or
• 51:03
  Speaker 2: whether it's in the past, we have memories of ways
• 51:07
  Speaker 2: that people hurt us in the past They were objects.
• 51:10
  Speaker 2: They stole from us. They stole something from us. Our happiness,
• 51:17
  Speaker 2: our peace, our safety. Our money. Our love, our loyalty.
• 51:26
  Speaker 2: They stole something from us. And so every time I
• 51:31
  Speaker 2: see that in my mind's eye, I have the emotion.
• 51:37
  Speaker 2: Or in the future, I see... I'm never going to
• 51:40
  Speaker 2: get that promotion. I know my boss is going to
• 51:42
  Speaker 2: promote somebody instead of me. There's anxiety. The way to
• 51:49
  Speaker 2: prevent this constant flooding of emotion is to pay attention
• 51:55
  Speaker 2: to what you're looking at and how you're looking. And
• 51:59
  Speaker 2: if we could just stop seeing ourselves as objects who
• 52:04
  Speaker 2: need something, from those around us today, yesterday, tomorrow, who
• 52:13
  Speaker 2: need things to be in a certain way for me
• 52:17
  Speaker 2: to feel full enough, complete enough, if I can stop
• 52:25
  Speaker 2: seeing myself like that, then I'm going to stop having
• 52:29
  Speaker 2: these negative emotions. Because if you look at your pattern
• 52:36
  Speaker 2: of thinking, Remember, we began with thoughts lead to emotions. Well,
• 52:41
  Speaker 2: pretend that you have a tape recorder in your mind
• 52:46
  Speaker 2: and really notice what are the thoughts in your own mind,
• 52:50
  Speaker 2: especially about yourself. For most of us, our thoughts, well
• 52:55
  Speaker 2: over 50% about ourselves are very negative. Oh my God,
• 53:00
  Speaker 2: I can't believe you said that. You are so stupid.
• 53:03
  Speaker 2: What are people going to think about you? That was
• 53:06
  Speaker 2: such a stupid thing to say. We talk to ourselves
• 53:11
  Speaker 2: like that all the time. We don't even realize it. God,
• 53:16
  Speaker 2: look at you. You look like such an idiot. Say something.
• 53:20
  Speaker 2: And then we say something and the mind says, oh,
• 53:24
  Speaker 2: why did you say that? That was so stupid. Better
• 53:29
  Speaker 2: just stayed quiet. It's lose-lose. If you had a roommate,
• 53:38
  Speaker 2: a housemate, who spoke to you the way you speak
• 53:42
  Speaker 2: to yourself, you would have evicted them long ago. I mean,
• 53:47
  Speaker 2: could you imagine having a housemate who, wherever you go,
• 53:50
  Speaker 2: you're on your way to the bathroom, on your way
• 53:52
  Speaker 2: to the kitchen, into the living room, constantly stupid, stupid, stupid, ugly, ugly, ugly, failure, failure, failure.
• 54:00
  Speaker 2: Who do you think you are? What do you think
• 54:03
  Speaker 2: you are? I mean, you'd either kill them or kill yourself.
• 54:10
  Speaker 2: But we tolerate it from this voice inside of our
• 54:16
  Speaker 2: head year after year after year. And this is why
• 54:22
  Speaker 2: spiritual practices begin with mindfulness. We have to be aware
• 54:32
  Speaker 2: of what is the problem. And the problem begins with
• 54:38
  Speaker 2: the thoughts in our own mind. And this is where
• 54:44
  Speaker 2: in our meditative practices we focus on experiences, mantras that
• 54:55
  Speaker 2: remind us, that help us see, that help us know,
• 55:00
  Speaker 2: that help us experience the fullness, the completeness. The oneness
• 55:08
  Speaker 2: of ourselves with the divine. It's why we do swadhyay,
• 55:14
  Speaker 2: spiritual scriptural study. We read scriptures. We read inspiring books.
• 55:20
  Speaker 2: We read commentary on scriptures. We listen to spiritual discourses
• 55:26
  Speaker 2: or katha.
• 55:27
  Speaker 7: Why?
• 55:28
  Speaker 2: To keep reminding us. You are divine.
• 55:38
  Speaker 5: You are divine.
• 55:40
  Speaker 2: So when we really start to have thoughts, awarenesses, experiences
• 55:49
  Speaker 2: that are true, those negative emotions just stop arising. There's
• 55:55
  Speaker 2: no longer a place for them because there's no one
• 55:59
  Speaker 2: inside listening. If you try then to come inside with
• 56:05
  Speaker 2: you are stupid, The internal experience is just going to
• 56:08
  Speaker 2: be like, okay. And this too. And goes on. Unimpacted
• 56:19
  Speaker 2: by it. Just like it's a cloud blowing across a
• 56:22
  Speaker 2: blue sky on a windy day. So automatically the negative
• 56:28
  Speaker 2: emotions start to dissipate. And you become free of that.
• 56:34
  Speaker 2: This brings to a close this hour of inspiration and transformation.
• 56:42
  Speaker 2: Thank you so much for joining me. I'm so glad
• 56:47
  Speaker 2: to be together with you all each week. And I
• 56:50
  Speaker 2: look forward to being together again next Thursday, same time,
• 56:57
  Speaker 2: on OM Times Radio.