Video Information: Shabdyog session, 29.07.2018, Advait Bodhsthal, Noida, India
Context:
~ How to understand Rumi?
~ To Him we shall return, what is the meaning of it?
~ How shall we return to Him?
~ What is consciousness?
~ What is Dharm?
~ What is the deepest pleasure?
~ How to Act rightly?
~~~~~~~~~~~
I died as a mineral and became a plant,
I died as plant and rose to animal,
I died as animal and I was Man.
Why should I fear? When was I less by dying?
Yet once more I shall die as Man, to soar With angels blest;
but even from angelhood All except God death perish.
When I have sacrificed my angel-soul,
I shall become what no mind ever conceived.
Oh, let me not exist! for Non-existence Proclaims in organ tones,
'To Him we shall return.'
~ RUMI
Music Credits: Milind Date
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ .
Context:
~ How to understand Rumi?
~ To Him we shall return, what is the meaning of it?
~ How shall we return to Him?
~ What is consciousness?
~ What is Dharm?
~ What is the deepest pleasure?
~ How to Act rightly?
~~~~~~~~~~~
I died as a mineral and became a plant,
I died as plant and rose to animal,
I died as animal and I was Man.
Why should I fear? When was I less by dying?
Yet once more I shall die as Man, to soar With angels blest;
but even from angelhood All except God death perish.
When I have sacrificed my angel-soul,
I shall become what no mind ever conceived.
Oh, let me not exist! for Non-existence Proclaims in organ tones,
'To Him we shall return.'
~ RUMI
Music Credits: Milind Date
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ .
Category
📚
LearningTranscript
00:00I died as a mineral and became a plant.
00:21I died as a plant and rose to animal.
00:24I died as animal and I was man.
00:27Why should I fear?
00:29When was I less by dying?
00:31Yet once more I shall die as man to soar with angels blessed.
00:39But even from angelhood I must pass on.
00:42All except God doth perish.
00:48When I have sacrificed my angel soul, I shall become what no mind ever conceived.
00:54Oh, let me not exist for non-existence proclaims in organ tones, to him we shall return.
01:04Dear Acharyaji Pranam, can you please help me understand more deeply what Rumi is saying
01:10in this beautiful poem?
01:13What does it mean when Rumi says, when I have sacrificed my angel soul?
01:19Love and gratitude.
01:20Namaskar.
01:24It is the journey of consciousness that Rumi is talking of in the shloka.
01:52There is the mineral, the soil with no consciousness of its own, at least no consciousness as the
02:11soil appears in our consciousness.
02:16The soil that we are talking of as per our consciousness, that soil has no consciousness.
02:24But from that soil grows a plant and the plant is conscious.
02:34The plant responds to touch.
02:42The plant has fear.
02:47The plants have been shown to respond even to music.
02:57It has been demonstrated that plants grow faster and fruit better when they are with
03:12loving caretakers.
03:22So the plant has a certain consciousness but the plant has no intention of liberation.
03:42The plant's consciousness is very very rudimentary, extremely primitive.
03:54The plant is almost like a fetus, a fetus in the first week, next to nothing.
04:12And then the plant is eaten by the animal and we know that the animal has a higher level of consciousness.
04:26The animal emotes.
04:31Animals go through a whole spectrum of feelings.
04:40Animals experience happiness and animals also suffer from depression.
04:51And animals do not like being chained.
05:02Animals have a certain desire for freedom.
05:07Animals even have a certain basic concept of dharma.
05:20You go to a tree and beneath the tree you can keep slaughtering human beings or animals.
05:27It makes no difference to the tree or very little difference.
05:35In fact, using the bones, the blood, the carcass of the slaughtered animal, the tree's roots will get even more nourishment.
05:48So if you slaughter animals under a tree, it is possible that the tree may grow even bigger and healthier.
05:58But animals have a certain sense of justice.
06:08You may sit on a chair with a plate in your hand.
06:20And the plate has sandwiches.
06:28Conduct this experiment.
06:34A dog comes near to you and the dog will hungrily sniff at your plate.
06:49And he knows that the sandwiches are lying on the plate and the plate is on your lap.
06:58The plate is exactly at the same vertical level as the dog's snout.
07:10As the dog's mouth.
07:14The dog can reach out and grab a sandwich from a plate.
07:20But the dog would just wait by your side.
07:29Well, exceptions might be there.
07:33This is what the experiment would most likely reveal to you.
07:37The dog would wait by your side.
07:42And the moment you drop a piece of the sandwich, the dog would leap at it.
07:53The dog may even grab that piece mid-air as you drop it.
08:01So the dog is so very eager to have the sandwich, but the dog would not pick the sandwich from your plate.
08:11Because the dog knows that it is not orderly.
08:15It is not just.
08:18This is the beginning of the realization of dharm.
08:24The dog knows that it is not dharmic.
08:32In some sense, not religious to take stuff from somebody's plate.
08:40But the moment the stuff falls down on the ground, the dog grabs it.
08:46Because now it does not belong to you.
08:52Now that piece of bread belongs to existence and whatsoever is there in the existence is available to all.
09:03But what is there in your hand is yours.
09:06It must not be snatched away.
09:08That much the dog realizes, that much order the dog has respect for.
09:21Well, there are certain and other animals that do not respect this order.
09:26For example, monkeys.
09:29If you are carrying edibles in your hand, you may find some mysterious monkeys trying to take the stuff away even from your hand.
09:46But even if you have a few exceptions to totally self-centric behavior, those few exemptions, exceptions are proof that animals show some regard for dharm.
10:07And that means their consciousness is developing.
10:15Then comes man.
10:19Man is at a junction, a bi-junction.
10:26Two possibilities are always there.
10:30There is a possibility that he may totally follow dharm.
10:41The dog, even if he tries to, cannot be totally dharmic because he does not understand dharm.
10:51Man has the option to be totally dharmic.
10:56That choice is available.
11:01But it is not necessary that man makes the right choice.
11:06Man also has a choice to give more importance to his body or to his desires than to truth.
11:17Dharma is to give prime importance to truth.
11:21So man, on one hand, has the potential to be totally dharmic.
11:28On the other hand, has the choice to not to do the right thing.
11:37The ones who act rightly are rewarded rightly.
11:57The ones who act rightly are rewarded rightly.
12:08That is the law of karma.
12:12Joy is the deepest pleasure possible.
12:20Deepest and continuous.
12:23Man may choose religion.
12:43And when man is religious, then he acts as per the sanctified codes of religion.
13:02He does the right things and therefore he reaps the rewards.
13:08The reward is a certain bliss.
13:10The reward is a certain freedom.
13:13The one who is continuously experiencing this reward, this bliss, is the angel soul, Nimisha.
13:30What Rumi calls as the angel soul here is what we call as a devata.
13:39Man lives on earth and on earth there is both pleasure and pain.
13:50The devata lives in swarg or heaven and in heaven there is continuous pleasure.
14:01Death doesn't come there.
14:04Sickness doesn't come there.
14:06One is just enjoying the rewards of abiding by the truth.
14:19That is heaven.
14:27But remember that the angel soul or the devata is not yet fully liberated.
14:37He has become attached to bliss.
14:45And that is why in the Indian myth, devatas had to frequently rush to Shiva because their bliss would be threatened.
15:06They haven't yet fully arrived.
15:16Devata was the one who could have been fully liberated but he got entangled in heaven.
15:26Heaven stopped the devata from gaining full liberation.
15:36Heaven is a very tempting place you see.
15:46If you live rightly then you will be rewarded.
15:53Do not accept that reward.
15:58That reward will be your prison.
16:02Live rightly and when the reward of right living comes to you, discard that reward.
16:13Discard that reward.
16:14That is liberation.
16:15Who is an angel soul?
16:19Who lives rightly and when the reward of right living comes to it, the angel accepts it.
16:27The angel accepts the reward of right living and therefore remains confined to the reward.
16:38Oh, it's a very pleasant reward.
16:41But nevertheless, it still is a confinement.
16:46The devata is not fully liberated.
16:49Indra is not Shiva.
16:52Or is he?
16:56So many times you have seen Indra running helter skelter to save his skin.
17:05Both his skin and his skin.
17:11But Shiva is never found running anywhere.
17:14He is already everywhere.
17:21Indra, Marut, Agni, Varun.
17:25They all get beaten up.
17:27Sometimes at least.
17:32But Shiva is invincible.
17:44Are you kidding?
17:48So man is the one who can make a right choice and a wrong choice.
17:58Man can either follow dharm or reject dharm.
18:03If man follows dharm, then he is rewarded.
18:11If man accepts the reward of following dharm, then he is an angel.
18:22But if man follows dharm and discards the rewards of following dharm, then he is liberated.
18:31Then he is totally liberated.
18:34Because now he is following dharm totally motivelessly.
18:38Totally without greed.
18:40He is not expecting rewards.
18:43He says I am just doing what I must.
18:47And if praise comes to me for doing what I must, I am not the one who would accept that praise.
18:56Doing what I must is in itself a full reward.
19:02If I accept any additional reward, then I am creating trouble for myself.
19:09I have done the right thing and that's all.
19:16This is also called as motiveless action.
19:22Selfless action or nishkama karma.
19:26Not only must you do the right thing.
19:36You must also do the right thing without expectation of a reward.
19:46If you do the right thing in expectation of a reward and also accept the reward, then your reward is not yet full.
19:56Then you are not being fully rewarded.
20:01The best reward is when you are so fully rewarded that you don't want any rewards.
20:17The angel is a consumer of bliss.
20:22And therefore the angel is just an angel.
20:26Therefore the angel has still not met God.
20:32Therefore the angel is still a step away.
20:41See what he is saying.
20:46Closing lines.
20:49At all except God, death perish.
20:59Remember Kabir is singing.
21:10Kabir is saying your innumerable gods are all going to perish.
21:16Because they are still not fully liberated.
21:21That which is not liberated is going to meet an end.
21:24Definitely.
21:31When I have sacrificed my angel soul, I shall become what no mind ever conceived.
21:39Sacrificing your angel soul means sacrificing the rewards that come with being an angel.
21:50Be an angel but don't accept gratification.
21:56Are you getting it?
22:05The angel must be transcended.
22:17Oh let me not exist.
22:21Even being an angel is a kind of existence and all existence is ephemeral.
22:32That's what Kabir says in the verse that I just quoted.
22:37He says this will die, that will die.
22:42The suns and the moons will die.
22:44Obviously all humans will die.
22:47Even the gods will die.
22:51Because they all exist.
22:53They all exist in a dualistic way.
22:55And whatsoever exists in a dualistic way, whatsoever is perceived by man to exist is prone to disappearance.
23:06When you say something exists, it is always dualistic.
23:09Because it is you who is certifying the existence of that thing.
23:14Two are there.
23:16The thing and the perceiver of the thing.
23:20Such existence is never quite believable.
23:26Such existence has no authenticity.
23:32Non-existence proclaims in organ tones, to him we shall return.
23:37The angel will be compelled to return to God.
23:42Because the angel soon discovers that the things that troubled and beset man are troubling the angel as well.
23:59What troubled the man?
24:06Death.
24:08Captivity.
24:10Loss.
24:12Longing.
24:14And these are things that trouble the angel as well.
24:16Because the angel too has an existence.
24:19Wherever there is existence, there is the looming threat of non-existence.
24:28We have seen that, right?
24:31How the asuras and the danavas trouble the devatas.
24:43So, there is no option but to return to truth, return to God.
24:51And as Rumi says in the end, to him we shall return.
25:01No kind of existence will save you.
25:05Only non-existence is the solution.
25:11Flipping from existence to existence is just like turning coats.
25:21Don't be a turncoat.
25:25Don't keep hopping from personality to personality.
25:30Ask yourself, do you really require the person?
25:42Is the person really so important?
25:47When you start seeing the person as a casual joke, then it's okay.
25:54Then you can keep being with the person.
25:57Because now you don't need the person.
26:00Now the person is just a thing by your side.
26:17An ordinary handkerchief.
26:20Even if you lose it, you haven't lost much.
26:28Hmm.
26:41Don't try to improve yourself.
26:43Don't try to exist better.
26:46Any kind of existence that you prefer, profess or wear will be a potential source of trouble.
27:01A present source of trouble.
27:02A definite source of trouble.
27:04In the realm of existence, there is only suffering.
27:20You will not find any place to hide.
27:23You will have to go to your home realm.
27:26You will have to go to your pet domain.
27:31The domain of existence is not your pet domain.
27:35It is not your home ground.
27:43To him we shall return.