Talk On The Five Senses

In this talk, Ektaji explains the tendency of the mind to get stuck in the five senses and its sense objects. Through knowledge and meditation, one can withdraw the mind and go inwards. This requires constant self-effort.

Transcript

How many of you did after a very very long time?

You don't feel like talking,

No?

You see the effect of meditation?

The mind just wants to be silent.

This rest you get only in meditation.

You can never get this rest even in sleep.

Right?

How many awake?

Everybody come closer.

I'll give you a break,

Don't worry,

Come closer.

How is the mind safe?

By this difference,

How is your mind before you came here in the morning?

Rushing to get this done,

Rushing to get that done,

To get here on time.

Do you remember the state of your mind?

Is it the same right now?

100% sure?

Everybody?

How this change happened?

What is the mechanics behind this?

We are all educated people here.

We went to school,

We did physics,

We did biology.

Tell me,

What happens when you meditate?

What is the normal tendency of the mind?

Fickleness.

Fickleness means what?

Let's elaborate this a little more.

Lot of thoughts.

From where do these thoughts come?

Origination?

Past and future.

Past and future,

Okay.

But why do I go in past and future?

That's the thing.

Yeah,

Why am I stuck in that?

Because of human nature.

The mind has a tendency to get stuck in the five senses.

Come on,

You've done all 33 Ashtavakras with me.

We need to do this.

The mind is stuck in the five senses.

What are the five senses?

One.

Sight.

Sense of sight.

Two.

Smell.

Sense of smell.

Three.

Sense of taste.

Four.

Touch.

Touch and?

Hearing.

Sound.

Hearing.

How am I stuck in this?

I see something.

What happens with just seeing it?

Oh,

I like it or I dislike it.

Do I stop at like and dislike?

Then what happens?

Like,

I want.

What I dislike,

I don't want.

Are you seeing this?

Does it stop just at want and not want?

This I want to possess now.

You be with me.

If it's a person I like,

Now you give attention to me.

You be with me.

You don't look at another person.

Your little like has moved to a craving.

That craving has moved to a sense of possessiveness.

Are you seeing this?

And when you cross that line of possessiveness and go on to obsession,

You never know.

Have you noticed?

Now I just gave you an example of a person.

It could be a thing,

No?

What is the latest thing in the market?

IPhone 6.

IPhone 6.

I want it.

Whatever.

Android people might have.

What is the new thing in the market?

Samsung?

Galaxy.

Galaxy Note.

I want it.

Have you seen that?

That craving starts developing and that increases and that keeps increasing.

And my friend got it.

Oh,

He got it.

What happens to me?

Now I want it even more.

Are you seeing this?

Sense of sight.

I'm giving you very simple examples right now.

But you relate it.

These,

Whatever you are stuck in,

These things or these people or these situations that you are stuck in,

The origination is where?

Sense of sight.

Clear so far?

Clear so far?

Sense of sight?

Clear?

Second,

Sense of sound.

Now you give me an example.

He said,

She said.

Ah,

Somebody's words.

I'm stuck on to.

He said good things to me.

I'm feeling so good.

Oh,

I like Srinivas.

He said all good things to me.

But Rishi said,

You know,

This thing you didn't do right.

What happens to me?

I forget two good words that Srinivas said.

And 24 hours I am chewing on the thing that Rishi said.

Oh,

This is not good.

This you didn't do right.

This you should have done like this.

Are you seeing this?

What is this?

What am I stuck in?

Sense of sound.

Clear?

How we get stuck?

What is it?

Words?

Sound?

Meaningless sound.

Two,

Three letters,

Four alphabets put together make that sound.

That's all it is.

You give so much importance to it.

The importance is not so much in those two words.

You have attached importance to it.

Are you seeing this?

Yeah?

I told you this story before.

I was sitting with my great grandmother.

She is no more now at the dining table.

And she is reading the newspaper.

She is very very old.

Great grandmother,

So just imagine.

She was somewhere in her 90s at that time.

What do people at that age read first thing in the newspaper?

Obituary.

Obituary.

Yeah?

Who died?

She still loved to read that first thing in the morning.

So she was just reading,

Sitting there quietly doing my thing.

And she started screaming,

Annie Thomas is dead!

Annie Thomas is dead!

What?

How can you say that?

She is like,

You don't know anything even before you were born.

1962,

14 December,

She stood there and she said this,

This,

This,

This to me.

Today she is dead.

My God!

1962.

40 years,

50 years back,

Somebody said something to you.

40-50 years,

You are carrying that garbage in your head.

Annie Thomas does not even remember she said that to you.

Right?

Happens to all of us,

No?

That person has forgotten.

But we are carrying the garbage here with us.

How do we stop that?

Recognising I am carrying this.

We are not even aware.

We are so lost in the emotion.

That's exactly what I am explaining now.

The mind gets lost in the five senses.

So it's stuck in the sense of sound.

Yeah?

Withdrawing this mind again and again from something it is used to.

It is used to being lost in this external world,

No?

Withdrawing again and again.

Withdrawing means meditation,

Going within.

I shut off this world.

This world is a world of five senses.

It's outside.

Yeah?

Every day,

Just 10-15 minutes,

Sit down and meditate.

Go within.

Read some knowledge.

It's going to be a practice,

Huh?

For lifetimes you have been lost in the five senses.

Not just this lifetime.

So many lifetimes you have been lost in these five senses.

How suddenly you are with one knowledge talk it's going to go away?

It requires a little amount of effort from your side.

Yeah?

Meditating every day.

It is for me only.

I am not doing it for the other people.

My mind is caught outside.

I withdraw my mind and I relax.

Every day come what may.

Everybody knows how to do Shat Kriya?

Hands up.

I forgot.

You forgot?

Okay.

We will revise.

We will revise the Shat Kriya.

You must do the Shat Kriya every day.

And whenever you get a chance,

Go to Bloomington and do Long Kriya.

It happens in Bloomington,

No?

Yeah.

Every?

Monday.

Monday.

Every Monday.

Bloomington is not Faga,

Is it?

You must go and do Long Kriya at least once a week.

The rest of the six days you can do Shat Kriya at home.

Withdrawing the mind from these five senses going within.

Sense of sound and sense of sight are the biggest culprits.

They create Raga and Dvesha and me.

What is Raga and Dvesha?

Like and dislike.

Raga is like.

Dvesha is dislike.

Raga is I want.

Dvesha is I don't want.

Not just these two sentences.

Understand what it means.

I want to do this.

I don't want to do this.

I want to be with this person.

I don't want to be with this person.

Life should be this way.

Life should not be this way.

All your should and shouldn'ts,

Could and couldn'ts,

Want and don't want.

All these is Raga and Dvesha.

And it is created by sense of sound,

Sense of sight.

And third.

Taste.

Taste.

Indians.

Right now I bring Gulab Jam.

How many will you eat?

Ten.

Yeah.

Your stomach will say stop.

But the mind says one more.

One more.

Have you noticed?

And then you say I don't know how I am putting on so much.

You know extra.

God is being very kind with me.

He is giving me extra.

Yeah.

So.

Recognise this if you are stuck in sense of taste.

Where are your notebooks?

You know now when I come you have to have your notebook and pen.

Quickly.

Homework number one.

Are you stuck in any of these five senses?

Those who don't have paper and pen please borrow.

Borrow from people around you.

You have your phones.

You can type in your phone.

Good.

She has an iPad.

Homework number one.

Out of the five senses which is your biggest weakness?

It could be one,

It could be two,

It could be all five.

Yeah.

Sense of touch.

Could be a very big weakness.

Lost in sex.

You are continuously thinking about it.

Continuously thinking about it.

You do it.

After doing it are you done?

Again if you are thinking about it,

Even after doing it that means you are stuck.

Sense of touch.

Are you getting this?

Some people are stuck in sense of smell.

Perfumes and D.

O.

S and whatever.

But some people don't like perfumes and D.

O.

S.

You are still stuck.

Whether you like it or you dislike it,

You are in the same boat.

Phone?

I didn't mean phone.

That's a good one.

Can somebody give him a page?

Just give him a paper and pen.

This is because I told you to go on to your phone doesn't mean you start reading your email now.

How many of you started reading your email and messages?

Stop.

Come back to notes and start writing your homework.

Are you lost in these five senses?

Which is your biggest weakness?

It could be one or all five.

Some people have food as a weakness.

Some people have a close relationship.

Sex as a weakness.

Some people have love as a weakness or hatred as a weakness.

If you hate somebody,

I'm telling you,

This is the biggest disaster you could do for yourself.

You can slap somebody but you are not allowed to hate anybody.

Why?

What happens when I hate somebody?

I think about the person I hate more than I think about the person I like.

Have you noticed?

You are always thinking about that person.

He said this to me.

I don't like what he did,

What she did,

What he did.

You are stuck on the person you hate.

What happens then if I keep thinking about him or her?

More anger and anxiety.

It destroys us.

How?

What happens?

He is a piece of mind.

You become the person you hate.

Beautiful.

You become like that person.

You become exactly what you hate.

Thought is the seed of action.

Whatever I think,

I do.

And whatever I do,

I become.

So if I keep thinking bad or about a person or hatred or whatever negativity,

That's what I nurture and that's what I become.

Are you getting this?

So from today,

Drop hatred completely.

Yes,

Otherwise that impression of that person you hate will become so strong,

You will be born to that.

Do you want that?

So this moment,

Drop hatred.

Homework number two.

Whoever that person is who you hate,

This moment let go.

Can you do that?

Everybody,

Today you will go back home and hug that person.

You don't have to say anything.

I let go of my hatred.

I got this homework.

There's no need to do anything of all that.

Just go hug the person.

From within this bitterness that you're carrying,

Drop that.

Have you noticed you have that khatta pan,

That bitterness inside for him or her?

That doesn't let you feel good.

Just thinking about that person,

Your smiles went away.

Before this,

You were smiling when I was just explaining raga and dvesha and the five senses and when I told you gulabja.

The moment I brought up this person,

All your smiles vanished.

What an effect.

That person is probably sleeping,

Enjoying his Saturday morning and you,

Just thinking about him,

Took your smile away.

Kitna control diya ya rusko.

You're giving the control of your life into that person's hand.

This moment,

This moment let go.

Drop.

Let go of that bitterness.

Can we do that?

So your homework number two is you will hug that person today.

If the person is in India or far away,

Not in this city,

Pick up the phone,

Call him or her.

Say hi,

How are you?

How are things?

If there are two people,

You will call two people.

If there are ten,

You will call ten.

Don't try to get away with one.

You decide.

Do you want to be born to him or her in the next lifetime?

No na.

We better do this homework.

Yes?

Easy no?

Disliking a person or I mean like hate is something which is extreme level,

Extreme to that.

Well if I see a person,

A certain qualities within him,

I dislike it.

But I don't dislike that person but I mean.

That's fine.

But if you have generated a lot of hatred and bitterness inside you for that person,

That he is not even doing anything but I see him and I am like oh I hate him or her.

You are caught in hatred.

If he is doing something and we hate that person.

Hate the action,

Not the person.

Drop that action.

But you are not allowed to hate anybody.

Do you want to be born to him or her?

One question.

This is regarding my son.

He is just ten years old and certain times he presses my buttons and all the time.

To me most of the time I don't have any other person in that category of hate and all that.

But that always holds me.

I mean he is my son.

I mean like I don't think in that respect of hating and all that.

I want him to be better.

I mean like certain things which I made certain mistakes in my life.

I don't want him to do that.

Whether it is in his education or whatever it is in certain things.

That holds me.

I mean I feel the constriction that whatever do that.

This is called attachment.

It is an attachment.

Almost everybody has this problem with their kids.

You want them to run according to you.

Take your memory ten,

Twenty,

Thirty years back.

Your parents did the same thing to you.

You are repeating history guys.

Recognize this thing.

Oh this is what I am doing.

My mom or my dad did this to me.

Did I like it at that point?

No,

We hated that.

How is your kid going to like it?

But one thing like I mean… Start with this realization.

I am coming there.

I am coming there.

I know what your question is.

Let's get there.

First thing recognize when I hated it.

This is also a human mind.

He is going to hate it.

So this is the wrong way.

This is completely the wrong way.

Let me not do that.

Second thing you have to realize is he has his own karma.

Each one of us has our own karma.

It doesn't matter whether it is your husband,

Your wife,

Your child,

Your mother,

Your father.

Whether you are living in the same house.

Every individual in that house has his or her own karma.

Can you change somebody's karma?

Forget another person's karma.

Can you change your own karma?

It's not in your hands.

The best you can do is advice.

As a parent you advice,

This is what I think is right.

This is what I think you should do.

After that,

Drop.

That's the toughest part.

That is the only part that you have to do.

That is the toughest part.

Let it go.

The thing is like,

I mean as you mentioned in the beginning,

Even my parents were also the same.

But at a later point of time,

I mean I was in the same boots as what you mentioned.

I didn't used to like that but now I have a highest regard for them.

I mean I see whatever they took me in that path or whatever it is,

Being strict at so and so times.

I really feel that they did a big favor to me.

That's good.

But right now your son cannot see it.

And for you guys,

Your kids cannot see it right now.

So whose pressure is boiling?

Your own.

Recognize this.

And why is your pressure boiling?

You are expecting.

Exactly.

Because I am attached to that expectation.

I have already given my kid this or this way or advice,

Whatever or solution,

Whatever action I have taken.

I am stuck to the fruit of action.

I have to drop this.

Are you getting it?

Drop this expectation that he or she should listen to me.

When you drop the expectation,

That change in you,

Your kid will notice.

And then your kid will want to do what you are saying.

Right now he is rebelling because you are pushing.

Have you noticed?

A small kid you say,

Don't play,

He will play.

If you say,

Okay go play,

Get lost.

Then he just wants to come and sit.

Have you noticed?

Natural human tendency.

You had it,

Your kid also has it.

Recognize it,

No?

Psychology this is,

Nothing else.

So advice.

And after that,

Drop your attachment to the karma phalam.

Karma phalam you understand,

No?

Karma is action,

Karma phalam is the fruit of action.

And my fruit of action is what?

I am expecting him or her to listen to me.

Drop that.

I have a question.

The people that you love the most in anybody's life,

They are the ones who have the most impact on you,

Good and bad.

How do you moderate that expectation?

Because you expect something from your husband or even your mother.

And when that doesn't happen,

That I feel is even harder than letting go of hatred.

There is some friend who said something five years ago,

I find it easier to let that go than the people who really matter to you.

And I don't have the right to expect even from my husband because he is an individual of his own.

But that expectation is the hardest to let it go.

Slowly,

Slowly with knowledge.

That is why I say knowledge every day.

At least once a week,

Meet together and watch some knowledge.

And then we discuss this discussion,

What we are doing right now is discussion.

This opens up.

Like he asked a question,

It related to ten other people in the room.

Then you start thinking and then you start applying it in life.

This is what helps.

Slowly,

Slowly,

Step by step you grow to a level where expectation drops off.

It's only the maturing of intelligence on this path.

It's like something you didn't know as a kid but today you look back and say,

Oh I was so silly.

Now I am more mature.

Everybody has some instance,

You look back on and smile.

Just like that.

It's just maturing of the intellect.

Spirituality is nothing but maturing of the intellect.

There is no religion here,

Especially in the art of living knowledge that we talk about or videos that Guruji has.

You've watched some,

Right?

They are all about this intellect and how to mature it.

It's like free psychologist or psychiatrist you have.

Somebody who is doing counselling but you are the one who is not sincere.

The water is flowing,

You are not drinking it.

Just be in this knowledge,

Keep meditating.

Slowly,

Slowly you will rise to a point where expectations just drop off.

Because you start seeing the futility of it.

It's useless.

I have a question.

Suppose my husband or my parents,

They don't want to do what I want.

Sometimes I keep telling them,

Maybe for exercise or something.

Maybe it's for their good but they don't listen and then you get frustrated.

Same thing,

You also are stuck on the expectation.

You give your advice,

After that drop,

It's their karma.

Why don't you recognize this?

Everybody has their own path.

It's called karma.

He or she has done certain things in the past.

He will go through that.

How much ever you try to protect your son or daughter,

If there is something that he needs to go through,

He will experience it.

From your side,

Do the best as a father,

Do the best as a mother.

But after that,

Drop,

Let go.

Do the best as a daughter-in-law,

As a daughter,

As a wife.

After that,

Drop that expectation.

When we think that way,

Sometimes I wonder if you can't change anybody's destiny or karma,

Then why do anything?

Why tell your husband to go work out?

If he is destined to do it,

He will do it.

In his destiny,

There could be two workouts but he needed that first push.

God is not going to come and push.

So we are the enablers.

Yes,

You are the enablers for somebody else's karma.

Do that,

No?

Your job was to enable.

You got stuck onto it.

Now you are holding onto it.

Boss,

Your job was just to enable and let go.

Are you getting this?

God is not going to come and there is really no God.

I hope you have matured from thinking there is a heaven and hell and there is a God up there and a devil up there who is making all your list of sins.

I hope you don't believe all those things.

They were nice mythological stories.

It's not true.

There is no God sitting up there in the clouds who is like,

Okay,

Now I am going to do this to Murali,

I am going to do this to this one.

No.

It is your karma.

Your life is propelled by your own vasanas and impressions from your past life or past of this life.

Are you getting it?

Have you all done a karma session?

Tomorrow it will become more and more clear why everybody's karma is different and how it gets propelled and how is karma created and how you can stop creating new karmas because these karmas are what really drives your life.

You are responsible for the way your life is today.

So if you see dialogues like,

Oh,

I don't know why God is doing this to me.

God sitting up there who has a khatta of your debit and credit of whatever you are doing.

No.

Yeah?

Do you get what I am saying?

Understanding how karma works will really help you in the day to day actions of life.

Understanding why my mind gets stuck in this and what I can do about it.

Yeah?

So we are meeting at Poornima's house tomorrow at 5 pm for the karma session.

Yeah?

Can you also go on the basis of the day at home?

We will do it right now in some time.

One question concerning the prayers,

Like if anybody is sick or if anybody… There is a lot of happenings which are going on in the world.

I mean when you feel disturbed about it,

When you start praying it,

In what way the prayers that you… I mean like do we need to go and do the prayers for others?

Like say my mom is sick and I am here and I want to say something.

I mean is going and asking the consciousness to take care of her in a better way or something,

Is it really when we talk about karma and all that,

You being at a separate place,

You start doing it.

Say there is a tsunami going on.

So many people in J and K,

Floods are there.

I mean you just start praying for them,

Okay?

In what way that will reach them if they are bound by their own karma?

Do I really need to do all that?

See,

It is finally the same consciousness.

We all are nothing but consciousness.

Big word I know.

But consciousness is nothing but that energy which is running this body.

This body at the end of life what happens?

It just drops.

Consciousness leaves this body.

So that means it is consciousness that is I,

No?

Is this body I?

The word I.

Who is I?

The consciousness,

That energy that is driving this body is I.

That same energy is this,

This,

This,

This,

This.

The people in tsunami,

Mommy,

Daddy,

Everybody in the world,

Every plant,

Every animal,

Everything has energy.

Even this non-living object has energy.

It may be at a very feeble current but it is there.

So same consciousness,

No?

In a pool of water,

If I throw a pebble,

There is a ripple,

The ripple is strong at that local area but it reaches far and wide,

The vibration goes far and wide.

The same thing is the effect of a prayer or a blessing.

When done from the bottom of your heart with sincerity,

With love for the other person,

It reaches there.

The ripple effect will reach there.

Of course that person will go through his or her karma but probably the effect will be a little softer,

Will help that person.

You don't know.

Gahana karma lo gati.

Unfathomable are the ways of karma.

So you cannot decipher,

Intellectually understand every aspect of karma.

Some basics we can understand so that we move in the right direction in life.

So,

From the bottom of your heart you feel like praying for your mother,

Please do that.

It is a ripple effect because we are the same consciousness.

You have a question?

In the same grounds,

Let's say somebody crosses a curse and you make somebody else obsessed,

Does that also have a ripple effect?

No,

It doesn't.

That is the best part.

The consciousness,

It has love as its quality.

Love is not what you feel for your husband,

Wife and kid.

That is just a little shadow.

It's nothing,

It's just a little reflection.

Love is the stuff we are made up of.

The consciousness is love.

As we go deeper and deeper into knowledge,

You will understand this love,

What it is.

That is why people called it a different name,

They called it bhakti or devotion.

They wanted to call it a different name because we get confused.

Oh,

The love I have for my husband,

Are you talking about that love?

No,

It is at a very high level.

This consciousness is a positive vibration called love.

Understand that.

When the entire ocean is full of love,

You throw one little speck of sand.

Is that sand going to have any effect on an ocean of love?

It's nothing.

A grain of salt,

It will just dissolve into it.

It doesn't have any identity of its own remaining.

It dissolves in that ocean of love.

So when somebody really curses you,

It does not really reach you.

It affects that person negatively.

That is why I told you,

Drop hatred because your hatred is affecting you.

It's not affecting the other person.

The other person is not even aware of your hatred or your anger or whatever bad things you are saying.

It's affecting me only because I am saying the bad things.

I am creating impressions in my own head like my great grandmother.

She had impressions in her head about Annie Thomas.

And for how long?

I am sure next lifetime they must be born together.

Recognize this.

Wake up.

My mind is stuck in the five senses.

The five senses are the culprit.

Again and again withdraw the mind.

Go with it.

Meditate.

Very important.

Do your short career and do knowledge session.

Every week one knowledge session.

Yes?

Promise?

So you will meet every week here?

Yeah?

Let's do Ashtavakra Gita.

How many of you don't know anything about it?

Okay.

So Ashtavakra.

Ashtavakra.

Ashta.

Ashta means?

Eight.

Bakra means?

Curves.

Bend.

A bend.

The body bends here?

Yeah?

Ashtavakra means eight bends.

He was a saint who was crippled in such a way that he had eight bends in the body.

He could not even stand up straight.

Yes?

But he was enlightened at a very young age.

At the age of twelve he gives knowledge,

The spiritual knowledge to Rajajanak.

Who is Rajajanak?

The father of Sita's father.

Sita's father.

Yes?

And the spiritual dialogue between the two,

Rajajanak and Ashtavakra is the Ashtavakra Gita.

Yeah?

It's thirty-three videos which we can watch in one every week and then we can discuss.

Do you understand?

This discussion helps so much open up the mind right now.

You know?

Yeah?

You've heard all this before but it didn't really register when you were just listening to a DVD.

What happens?

Your mind is suddenly lost,

Gone somewhere,

Went to office.

Ten minutes after ten minutes it came back.

So you've lost what Guruji has said.

Right?

Happens to you,

Na?

Yeah?

That is where we do this discussion.

So if you've lost something,

You get it back.

And then we do homeworks and I'm very strict about homework.

I sit with a danda.

Yeah?

So you are all fourth standard kids and if I give you homework you have to do it.

So tomorrow evening when we meet I'm going to give you homework.

Yes?

Up for it?

Everybody?

Yes?

Up to be my students?

You're all in fourth standard now.

Yeah?

So you will buy new notebooks,

Not a notepad.

Notebook.

Yes?

Label it Ashtavakra Gita and that's all it is for.

Not for writing people's phone numbers and notes and grocery list and to-do list.

No.

Yes?

So you will get a new Ashtavakra notebook today.

Before you reach home you will get a new notebook and a nice new pen.

Yeah?

And we will make notes as we go.

Yes?

Yeah?

And we will meet once every week.