God's Biggest Blessing to you is this - Conquering the 5 Defects of the Mindby by Swami Mukundanand
https://youtu.be/8CbzdrOYwTY 00:00 God's Biggest Blessing to a soul 00:40 How to Surrender to the Guru? 03:10 How to develop Faith in Guru? 05:09 The Power of Faith in Guru 07:49 Why we need a Guru? 10:45 The 5 Defects of the Mind 12:47 Why Surrender to the Guru? Main Points: 1 God's Biggest Blessing to a soul is finding a guru and getting connected with that guru through shradha, faith but we receive benefit from the guru only by submitting our intellect before his higher understanding https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8CbzdrOYwTY&t=0 2 How to Surrender to the Guru? the vedas relate the story of Rishi Gautam and his exemplary disciple Satyakama. Gurudev called his students over and explained the problem that the cows of the ashram were in distress and they needed to be tended to by taking them to a far away grass land. Only Satyakama was willing for this arduous and challenging guru seva. Gautam said, my child, take good care of them as your service to your guru & when you find that their number has grown from 400 to 1,000, bring them back here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8CbzdrOYwTY&t=40 3 Satyakama did his seva dutifully and he tended to the cows with so much of love as a devotional offering at the feet of his guru, the number of the cows kept on increasing until it reached a thousand but he was so immersed in his seva he didn't even realize that the number of 1,000 had been reached. The king of the celestials Indra came over and said Satyakama do you know that your guru's instruction has been fulfilled by you https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8CbzdrOYwTY&t=89 4 on Lord Indra’s inspiration they started returning to the guru ashram, it was a 4 day journey, involving four night halts and at each halt, Indra instructed knowledge of one of the Vedas to Satyakama https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8CbzdrOYwTY&t=131 5 when the disciple reached his guru, he said Maharaj I have fulfilled your instruction. Sage Gautam, his face beaming said, my child, I can see the glow on your face, you have become a knower of Vedic knowledge, this is a prime example of the benefit of surrendering your intellect before the guru https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8CbzdrOYwTY&t=151 6 How to develop Faith in Guru? let's read about it from my latest book, Spiritual Secrets from Hinduism. Once we find a God realized guru, we must then diligently (doing it thoroughly and well) adhere to his instructions, this is just as when we are sick we go to a doctor, we explain our symptoms to the doctor, beyond that we do not use our intellect, we trust his expertise, the doctor diagnoses our problem and tells us the remedy, take this medicine two tablespoons three times a day for one month and you will be cured, we follow the doctor's instructions and get well. Now suppose we used our intellect, the doctor has told me to take a little medicine every day for one month let me take it all today so that I will get cured in one day itself, if we were to do this the doctor would not be able to treat us. Similarly the guru can only cure us from the disease of ignorance if we follow his instructions https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8CbzdrOYwTY&t=182 7 The Shvetashvatara Upanishad states that for those who have implicit and complete faith in God and their guru, the purpose of all the Vedic scriptures gets revealed in their heart by divine grace https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8CbzdrOYwTY&t=275 8 The Power of Faith in Guru. The inspiring story of Shankaracharya's disciple is very relishable amongst his legendary Students, Hastamalak, Totakacharya,Mandan Mishra who was Sureshwaracharya. There has also been one illiterate disciple, called Sananda. He could not understand any of the scriptural teachings but had implicit faith in Guru Shankaracharya and he would dutifully engage in seva. When gurudev taught Brahma-Vidya, he would sit and just keep staring at his guru's face without understanding a syllable https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8CbzdrOYwTY&t=308 9 one day it was time for the class, the other disciples said to Shankaracharya, please begin gurudev, he said Sananda is not here as yet, let's wait. They said, guru, he doesn't even understand, so what difference will it make. Shankaracharya said he listens with great faith, so guru called out Sananda & Sananda, his disciple, was on the other side of the river washing gurudev's clothes. When Sananda heard Shankaracharya calling his Name, immediately with all his devotion he felt the need to come over to him. Without thinking, he started walking on the water and the story goes that wherever he placed his feet, lotus flowers bloomed from below, making it possible for him to walk across water. He reached & did the prostrate obeisance and the stuti praises for gurudev that emanated from his mouth were in sophisticated Sanskrit, amazing all the other disciples. Since then, he became known as “Padmapad” the one under whose pada (feet) the padma (lotuses) had blossomed and he became one of the four major disciples of Adi Shankaracharya https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8CbzdrOYwTY&t=362 10 Why we need a Guru? the takeaway for all of us is the need to surrender the intellect to guru and why so https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8CbzdrOYwTY&t=467 11 our intellect is affected since eternity by a disease known as Avidya or ignorance Quoting a verse, “Because a person who has been covered by ignorance since time immemorial is not capable of effecting his own self-realization, there must be some other personality who is in factual knowledge of the Absolute Truth and can impart this knowledge to him”. > (Bhagavatam 11.22.10) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8CbzdrOYwTY&t=476 12 Why we need a Guru? Vedvyas says that avidya is “Anadi”, i.e., since eternity. You cannot remove it by the power of your own intellect because the intellect is the one affected by the ignorance, just like if you wish to lift yourself up from the ground by holding your boot straps, it will not be possible https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8CbzdrOYwTY&t=499 13 the interesting story is told of one cowherd boy, Gopal, who would every day milk his cow which was the Gujarati Gir cow having long horns and this particular cow's horns were inclined towards each other. The cowherd boy would eye the gap between the two horns on the top of the cow's head and ponder (think) if can my head fit into the in the gap between two horns ? One year went by, finally the curiosity got the better of him, he said let me try it out, he held the cow's horns and managed to push his head in but it startled the bovine who lifted her head thereby raising his feet above the ground and he now felt threatened that this was a situation of death by hanging. The villagers came running, grabbed the cow extracted the poor fellow and said my dear Man, “Aviveka paramapadam”, i.e., before doing anything, you must think otherwise it can invite the biggest calamity. Did you not think before putting your head there ? He said who says, I did not think, I thought for one year and then did it but the thinking itself had its faults because it was an activity of the defective intellect https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8CbzdrOYwTY&t=529 14 The 5 Defects of the Mind likewise the Vedas say that no matter how intelligent you may feel, your intellect suffers from five defects, Maharishi Patanjali calls them Panchaklesh what are these avidya, asmita, rag, dvesh, abhinivesh. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8CbzdrOYwTY&t=644 15 Avidya is the Ignorance by virtue of which we have forgotten that we are the soul and we are thinking that I am the body, mind & intellect https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8CbzdrOYwTY&t=666 16 “Asmita” is the pride, whether we realize it or not, the defect of the false ego exists in the material condition state in all of us https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8CbzdrOYwTY&t=676 17 and Rag, attachment to the worldly things. Dvesh, means hatred, resentment for something that has hurt our self-interest https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8CbzdrOYwTY&t=693 18 Abhinivesh, the fear of death, even though we know that we (our soul) are eternal, an old man man who has been badly injured and is terribly sick in the hospital, he cannot visit the restroom, has a bed pan on the bed, cannot eat, has a tube going in the mouth the leg is suspended from the ceiling, such a man also says doctor, I hope, I will not die, please save me. Arey Baba do take care of your body but why so much of anxiety ? The whole body machinery is spoiled, if you were to go, God would send you back with a new machine but the clinging to the body results in the fear of death https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8CbzdrOYwTY&t=707 19 Why Surrender to the Guru? Another defect of the intellect the Vedas say is that the idea of making a guru is goes beyond our intellect. Just like in case you need to fight a case in court, you get an advocate because you are unfamiliar with law. The Advocate understands the matter and instructs you accordingly. Likewise in the spiritual realm as Well, there are so many things our intellect cannot comprehend at present https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8CbzdrOYwTY&t=760 20 one maverick (a person who does not behave or think like everyone else, but who has independent, unusual opinions) disciple used to be often disobedient. His Guru had grown old, the disciple said gurudev, you will attain maha samadhi any day, what will happen to me ? Gurudev said, my child, do your sadhna daily, my Grace will be upon You. Gurudev, the singhasan will come from Golok for you, can I latch onto it and accompany you ? what loss will there be of yours ? Gurudev said “Kya Jata Hai” (what is there to lose ?) Now the singhasan came, the guru sat on it to go to the abode of God and enter the nitya leela, the disciple also held on. They were crossing the lokas Bhu, Bhuvar, Swarga, Mahar, Jana, Tapa, Satya, but in between the disciples intellect started getting better of him, he said Gurudev this place we are going to, Golok - are there cows there ? yes beta. Gurudev, are the cows black or white in color? beta they are both. Gurudev, how big are these cows ? when you reach there you'll find out maybe they are this big, now he released the Singhasan and back he returned to the earth plane https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8CbzdrOYwTY&t=826 21 so the scriptures are telling us mayyarpita-mano-buddhir (BG 8-7), mayi — unto Me; arpita — surrendering; manah — mind; buddhih — intellect; mam — unto Me; “Therefore, Arjuna, you should always think of Me in the form of Krsna and at the same time carry out your prescribed duty of fighting. With your activities dedicated to Me and your mind and intelligence fixed on Me, you will attain Me without doubt”. https://vedabase.io/en/library/bg/8/7/ mayi buddhim niveshaya (BG 12-8) mayi — upon Me; buddhim — intelligence; nivesaya — apply “Just fix your mind upon Me, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, and engage all your intelligence in Me. Thus you will live in Me always, without a doubt”. https://vedabase.io/en/library/bg/12/8/ Surrender your intellect to the guru, learn the sadhna, follow the instructions and progress on the spiritual path. Having understood Guru-tattva in our journey, thus far we shall now enter into Bhakti and final topic will be meditation & personal sadhna https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8CbzdrOYwTY&t=918 Transcript: God's Biggest Blessing to a soul 0:01 one of the biggest of the Divine 0:04 blessings is finding a guru and getting 0:08 connected with that Guru through shradha, 0:11 faith but we receive benefit from the 0:15 guru only by submitting our intellect 0:20 before his higher understanding How to Surrender to the Guru? 0:40 the Vedas relate the story of Rishi Gautam 0:44 and his exemplary disciple 0:48 Satyakama gurudev called his students over 0:52 and explained the problem the cows of 0:55 the ashram were in distress and they 0:58 needed to be tended to by taking them to 1:01 a far away grass land only Satyakama was 1:07 willing for this arduous and challenging 1:11 Guru 1:12 seva Gautam said my 1:16 child take good care of them as your 1:20 service to your Guru when you find that 1:24 their number has grown from 400 to 1,000 1:29 bring them back Satyakama did his seva 1:34 dutifully and he tended to the cows with 1:38 so much of love as a devotional offering 1:42 at the feet of his 1:44 Guru the number of the cows kept on 1:47 increasing until it reached a thousand 1:51 but he was so immersed in his seva he 1:54 didn't even realize the number had been 1:58 reached the king of the celestials Indra 2:02 came over and said Satyakama do you know 2:06 that your guru's instruction has been 2:10 fulfilled by 2:11 you on his inspiration they started 2:15 returning to the guru ashram it was a 4 2:19 day Journey involving four night halts 2:24 and at each halt Indra instructed 2:28 knowledge of one of the Vedas 2:30 to 2:31 Satyakama when the disciple reached his Guru 2:35 he said Maharaj I have fulfilled your 2:39 instruction sage Gautam his face beaming said 2:45 my child I can see the glow on your face 2:49 you have become a knower of vedic 2:54 knowledge this is a prime example of the 2:58 benefit of surrendering your intellect 3:02 before the guru let's read about it from 3:05 my latest book spiritual secrets from 3:09 Hinduism once we find a god realized How to develop Faith in Guru? 3:13 Guru we must then diligently adhere to 3:17 his 3:18 instructions this is just as when we are 3:21 sick we go to a doctor we explain our 3:25 symptoms to the doctor beyond that we do 3:29 not use our intellect We Trust his 3:36 expertise the doctor diagnoses our 3:39 problem and tells us the 3:43 remedy take this medicine two 3:47 tablespoons three times a day for one 3:49 month and you will be 3:51 cured we follow the doctor's 3:54 instructions and get well now suppose we 3:58 used our 4:01 intellect the doctor has told me to take 4:04 a little medicine every day for one 4:09 month let me take it all today so that I 4:12 will get cured in one day 4:15 itself if we were to do this the doctor 4:19 would not be able to treat us similarly 4:24 the guru can only cure us from the 4:27 disease of ignorance 4:30 if we follow his 4:33 Instructions 4:35 The Shvetashvatara Upanishad 4:49 states for those who have implicit and 4:53 complete faith in God and their guru the 4:59 purpose of all the Vedic scriptures gets 5:03 revealed in the Heart by divine 5:08 grace the inspiring story of The Power of Faith in Guru 5:12 Shankaracharya's disciple is very 5:16 relishable amongst his legendary 5:20 students 5:22 Hastāmalak, Tōtakāchārya,Mandan Mishra who was Sureshwaracharya 5:28 there has also been one illiterate 5:32 disciple called Sananda 5:34 he could not understand any of the 5:38 scriptural teachings but had implicit 5:42 faith in Guru Shankaracharya 5:44 and he would dutifully engage in seva 5:49 when gurudev taught BrahmaVidya he 5:53 would sit and just keep staring at his 5:57 guru's face without 6:00 understanding a 6:02 syllable one day it was time for the 6:05 class the other disciples said to 6:08 Shankaracharya please begin 6:11 gurudev he said Sananda is not here as yet 6:16 let's wait they said guru he doesn't even 6:21 understand what difference will it make 6:24 Shankaracharya said he listens with great 6:28 faith 6:30 he called out 6:32 Sananda his disciple was on the other side of 6:36 the river washing gurudev's clothes when 6:40 Sananda heard Shankaracharya calling his 6:43 name immediately with all his devotion 6:47 he felt the need to come over to him 6:52 without thinking he started walking on 6:55 the water and The Story Goes wherever he 6:59 placed his feet lotus flowers bloomed 7:03 From Below making it possible for him to 7:07 walk across he reached & did the prostrate obeisance 7:12 and the stuti Praises for gurudev 7:17 that emanated from his mouth were in 7:21 sophisticated 7:24 Sanskrit amazing all the other disciples 7:28 since then he became known as 7:32 Padmapad the one under whose pada (feet) the Padma 7:37 lotuses had blossomed and he became one 7:42 of the four major Disciples of Adi 7:46 Shankaracharya 7:47 the takeaway for all of us is the Why we need a Guru? 7:51 need to surrender the 7:54 intellect and why 7:56 so our intellect is affected since 8:01 eternity by a 8:03 disease what is that Avidya or 8:19 ignorance Because a person who has been covered by ignorance since time immemorial is not capable of effecting his own self-realization, there must be some other personality who is in factual knowledge of the Absolute Truth and can impart this knowledge to him. > (Bhagavatam 11.22.10) Why we need a Guru? Vedvyas says that avidya is anadi since 8:26 eternity you cannot remove it 8:29 by the power of your own 8:33 intellect because the intellect is the 8:36 one affected by the 8:39 ignorance just like if you wish to lift 8:42 yourself up from the ground by holding 8:45 your boot straps it will not be 8:49 possible the interesting story is told 8:52 of one cowherd boy a 8:55 gopal who would every day milk his cow 8:59 which was the Gujarati Gir cow having 9:02 long horns and this particular cow's 9:05 horns were inclined towards each other 9:09 the cowherd boy would eye the gap 9:12 between the two horns on the top of the 9:14 cow's head and Ponder can my head fit 9:19 into the 9:21 Gap one year went by finally the 9:25 Curiosity got the better of him he said 9:28 let me try it out 9:30 he held the cow's horns and managed to 9:34 push his head in but it startled the 9:38 bovine who lifted her head thereby raising 9:43 his feet above the ground and he now 9:46 felt threatened that this was a 9:49 situation of death by hanging to reduce 9:52 the pressure on his neck he grabbed the 9:55 cow's neck which startled the creature 9:57 further and it started lifting its back 10:00 feet moving in alarm the villagers came 10:05 running grabbed the cow extracted the 10:09 poor fellow and said my dear 10:16 Man Aviveka paramāpadam before doing anything you must 10:19 think otherwise it can invite the 10:22 biggest Calamity did you not think 10:25 before putting your head there He said 10:28 who says I did not think I thought for 10:32 one year and then did it but the 10:36 thinking itself had its faults because 10:40 it was an activity of the defective 10:44 intellect likewise the vedas say that no The 5 Defects of the Mind 10:48 matter how intelligent you may feel 10:51 your intellect suffers from five 10:55 defects Maharishi Patanjali calls them 11:00 Panchaklesh what are these Avidyā, asmitā, rāg, dvesh, abhinivesh. 11:06 Avidya is the Ignorance by virtue of 11:10 which we have forgotten that we are the 11:12 soul and we are thinking that I am the body, 11:14 Mind & 11:16 intellect asmita is the 11:20 pride whether we realize it or not the 11:24 defect of the false ego exists in the 11:29 material condition state in all of us 11:33 and then Rag, attachment to the worldly 11:37 things 11:39 Dvesh, means hatred, resentment for something 11:43 that has hurt our self-interest and 11:47 Abhinivesh, the fear of 11:51 death even though we know that we are 11:56 Eternal an old man 11:59 man has been badly 12:03 injured and is terribly sick in the 12:06 hospital cannot visit the restroom has a 12:09 bed pan on the bed cannot eat has a tube 12:12 going in the mouth the leg is suspended 12:15 from the ceiling such a man also says 12:18 Doctor I hope I will not die please save 12:22 me Arey Baba do take care of your body 12:27 but why so much of anxiety 12:29 the whole Machinery is spoiled if you 12:32 were to go God would send you back with 12:35 a new 12:36 machine but the clinging to the body 12:40 results in the fear of death another 12:44 defect of the intellect the vedas Why Surrender to the Guru? 12:48 say the idea of making a guru is going 12:53 beyond your 12:55 intellect just like in case you need to 12:58 fight a case in court you get an 13:02 advocate because you are unfamiliar with 13:05 law The Advocate understands the matter 13:09 and instructs you accordingly if you 13:13 need to go for a testimonial in the 13:15 witness box you stand up and do as The 13:19 Advocate 13:20 does the other Side’s Advocate tries his 13:25 best to get some statement out of you to 13:29 exploit but you stick to the 13:32 instructions and get the edge in the 13:36 case likewise in the spiritual realm as 13:40 well there are so many things our 13:42 intellect cannot comprehend at 13:46 present one maverick (a person who does not behave or think like everyone else, but who has independent, unusual opinions) 13:50 disciple used to be often 13:53 disobedient his Guru had grown old the 13:57 disciple said Gurudev 13:59 you will attain Maha samadhi any day what 14:03 will happen to 14:04 me gurudev said my child do your sadhna daily 14:09 my Grace will be upon 14:11 you 14:13 Gurudev, the singhasan will come from Golok for 14:17 you can I latch onto it and accompany 14:21 you what loss Will there be of 14:24 yours 14:27 Gurudev said “Kya Jata Hai” (what is there to lose ?) now the singhasan came the guru 14:30 sat on it to go to the abode of God and 14:33 enter the nitya leela the disciple also held on 14:39 they were crossing the 14:43 Lokas Bhu, Bhuvar, Swarga, Mahar, Jana, Tapa, Satya, but in between the disciples 14:47 intellect started getting better of him he 14:50 said 14:51 Gurudev this place we are going to, Golok - are 14:55 there cows there yes beta, Gurudev are the 15:01 cows black or white in color Beta they 15:05 are both Gurudev how big are these 15:09 cows when you reach there you'll find 15:12 out 15:14 maybe they are this big, now he released the Singhasan and 15:18 back he returned to the Earth plane so the 15:21 scriptures are telling 15:27 us mayyarpita-mano-buddhir (BG 8-7), mayi buddhiṁ niveśhaya (BG 12-8) 15:32 Surrender Your intellect to the guru 15:36 learn the sadhna follow the 15:39 instructions and progress on the 15:42 spiritual path having understood Guru-tattva in 15:48 our journey thus far we shall now enter 15:53 into Bhakti and final topic will be 15:59 meditation personal sadhna Standby link (in case youtube link does not work): God's Biggest Blessing to you is this - Conquering the 5 Defects of the Mind Swami Mukundananda.mp4
