21 - Achieving Inner Contentment Through Yoga | Swami Tattwamayananda

Chapter 2 Verses 71-72. The lecture was given by Swami Tattwamayananda on September 27, 2019.
-55th through 72nd verses of 2nd chapter of Gita discuss the characteristics of an enlightened person, how he deals with this world and how he is different from someone who is not enlightened.
-72nd verse: In the midst of being engaged in daily activities, he is able to connect with something higher than the mind (“yoga”), and attain “Shanti” (inner contentment), which is the positive, spontaneous and natural state of the mind.
-The mind of an enlightened person is like an ocean, always undisturbed in the midst of daily duties and obligations.
-The ocean neither rejects the rivers pouring waters into it nor goes out of the way to welcome them.
-If our mind is like a small stream, then even a tiny stream can cause it to overflow.
-True nature of the mind is one with Atman. Anxiety is alien to the mind. Mind connects with external objects through the senses – when it cannot attain what it desires, it becomes agitated.
-To identify its true nature, the mind should be linked to Atman (“yoga”), which is all-pervading, immanent, nature of bliss and always in a state of equilibrium. Then mind becomes peaceful.
-Psychological problems do not have permanent solutions at psychological level. The solution lies beyond the mind, at a spiritual level.
-The spiritually enlightened person is detached. He realizes that his true identity is beyond the body and mind and that “his real I” won’t be the enjoyer of empirical comforts. He as the “real I” is present everywhere and in everything.
-Hindu metaphysics approach existence from three angles. (1) Absolute reality or Paramarthika-sat, which is Atman (2) Empirical reality or Vyavaharika-sat, which is the changing world and (3) Conceptual reality, which we create in dreams.
-One of the causes of anxiety is that we expect permanence from things that are inherently impermanent. What we experience in everyday life is vyavaharika-sat. We need to understand that there is a transcendental reality beyond the empirical and approach pleasant and unpleasant situations in the empirical world without being affected by them. We should have a transcendental link to paramarthika-sat.
-Once we become aware of the Absolute Reality, we become established in the state of lasting contentment and peace. When the body comes to an end, we become one with the Absolute Reality and attain absolute liberation.
-This lasting peace can also be attained while living in this world. Buddha and Christ are examples of enlightened humans, who were active after enlightenment. They just looked at the world from a different perspective.
-Per Shankaracharya, one does not have to wait till the end. The divine truth can be attained by anyone who follows spiritual disciplines such as (1) Discrimination between unreal and the Real (2) Renunciation of what is unreal (3) Self-control: shama, dama, uparati, titiksha, shraddha and samadhana (4) Mumukshutam (5) Shravanam (6) Mananam (7) Nidishyasana.
-One should look upon all their duties and actions as “swadharma”. Do your duties with sanctity and sacredness - not for results, but for spiritual evolution. Then every action becomes a tool to achieve inner contentment. One feels: “I have done what I ought to have done” and “I have attained what I have ought to have attained”.
-Swadharma goes beyond Kant’s concept of duty and Categorical Imperative. It adds a sense of sanctity, sacredness and provides a path to inner contentment.
-Gita prescribes three paths for people with different temperaments. Karma Yoga, Bhakti Yoga and Jnana Yoga.
-Karma Yoga: Our active tendencies can be given a spiritual upliftment. “Karma” means action and “Yoga” means a spiritual link. By giving every action a spiritual link, our karma becomes karma-yoga. Detachment in karma-yoga means that mind is linked to a higher ideal and not enslaved by the results.
-Bhakti Yoga: Our natural faith and religious practices are given a higher spiritual direction. As we evolve, we go beyond rituals and experience the presence of God both inside and outside the place of worship.
-True religion can be practiced every minute, in every action and in every thought. As we evolve, the line of demarcation between secular and spiritual vanishes. We see the whole humanity as one spiritual family.
-Who is the highest devotee of God? “One who feels the presence of God in everything, everywhere, in every action and in every word” AND “one who feels the presence of whole humanity and creation in God.”
-Jnana Yoga is the third path and is suited for those who may be agnostics and opposed to creationism. They can use this path to realize that there is one divine reality present everywhere and in everything.
-God is only an approximation of the highest non-dualistic experience. A sincere seeker will go beyond the conventional God idea and realize that the divine r...