-7th chapter: verses 14, 15, 16-The lecture was given by Swami Tattwamayananda on February 12, 2020.-Absolute Reality is the only sat. Vedanta defines something as sat (real) if (1) it remains without change in the past, present and future (2) It is beyond time, space and causation and (3) it remains without change in waking, dream and deep sleep states.-One can look at the river in two ways. One way is to look at the momentary changes – waves, high tides, and low tides. Another is to look upon the waves and tides as constituted by the same water that constitutes the river – they emerge, exist and dissolve in the river. The river is the only reality.-Similarly, behind all everyday challenges, which come and go, there is one Absolute Reality. Every right-thinking person can experience it. Once we become aware of it, we begin to understand the mystery of life, and can remain calm in the midst of life’s challenges.-Maya is the mystery that we experience in daily life, that defies human logic and has no satisfactory answers. For example, we assign permanence to something that we know is inherently impermanent. Maya deludes us into thinking that we are this body, nothing else.-All of us experience Maya in our everyday life. It is beyond logical comprehension, cannot be explained in words or cognized with the mind, and is a great mystery. We understand the relativity of maya only when we come out of it. Describing maya within it is impossible.-Even those who read many scriptures, who teach these scriptures, who expound the highest philosophy – even such people are sometimes bound by Maya. Transcending Maya is a matter of our own evolution, when our scriptural study also defines our actions.-Even an intellectual understanding of Maya and the unreality of sense pleasures, helps us develop a unique spiritual common sense, maturity of outlook and sense of modesty.-14th verse: “Those who devote themselves to me, they transcend Maya.”-Prapatti is the highest state of a devotee of God. Prapatti means complete surrender and is composed of the following characteristics. (1) Always having a positive outlook in life, full of sattvic qualities such as serenity, wisdom, compassion, and broad mindedness. (2) Rejecting all the opposing qualities such as skepticism and self-doubt. (3) Strong faith that God will protect me. (4) Total self-surrender.-Once we transcend Maya, it cannot come back. A spiritually enlightened person, who has transcended Maya, understands momentariness of empirical situations, and won’t be affected by them.-When a magician performs magic, only the magician is real. The magic is delusion. If one concentrates on the magician, he will not be deluded by the magic. Similarly, God is the magician and real. By concentrating on Him, we won’t be deluded.-When we focus on a higher transcendental ideal, our thoughts get a spiritual orientation. It is called Vidya-maya. It liberates us. Avidya-maya binds us. The purpose of spiritual practices is to turn Avidya-maya into Vidya maya. Swami Vivekananda said: “The world is a gymnasium for us to work out our karmas”.-How our mind responds to situations depends on its constitution based on the three gunas. Sattva guna manifests itself as wisdom and serenity. Rajo guna manifests itself as dynamism and ambition. Tamo guna manifests itself as laziness and jealousy.-Sri Ramakrishna gives the example of three thieves to explain the three gunas. A person is caught by three thieves. The thief representing tamo-guna wants to kill him. The thief representing rajo-guna wants to bind him. The thief representing sattva-guna takes him to the main road and shows him the way to his home. He refrains from joining him though. Reaching home is like reaching the highest state, which is beyond all three gunas – sattva-guna can only help.-15th verse: “Those who do not devote themselves to Me, they are deluded,...
