A Sunday with Swami Parthasarthy

Last Sunday, I had a privilege of attending a lecture by Swami Parthasarthy in kamani auditorium where he demystified the chapter 12 of the sacred ‘bhagwat gita’. Its very rare to come face to face with a living legend. 

At 85 this guy is fitter than a lot of my age athletes I know. There is an eminent glow on his face and he is very candid about answering when asked about its secret.

“ I do not sweat about the past and I don’t worry about the future”. 

When u live in the now for long, it starts showing on your body.  Past and future is all we think. In fact that is the only function mind is used for. Think about it, I can count on my finger tips the rare occasions where my mind was away from both these acts. Otherwise this is ALL I use it 4.

During the 02 hour period he spoke eloquently on the subject he has spent his life ON.  

35 qualities of a spiritual person

In his own peculiar sense of humor, he mocked people who go to temples, cram the mantras, sleep a particular way, build houses in accordance with vaastu, follow parrot, tarot, cards, ganesha and other shit.

All these are excuses of an escapist.  'Jiddu' said the same thing in his days, ‘Going to a brothel, movie, temple, guru, meditation, bar, smoking weed. Well they are all the same thing, different excuses to fool the mind. Just because the shape is different doesn’t mean shit would taste any different.

He emphasized on age old ‘Geeta’ adage to be a person who is unaffected by pleasure and pain, since they are the two sides of the same coin, he advised the seer to be a witness. Who does work for work’s sake!

One of the lessons I derived out of the lecture was this beautiful maxim that never once should you think that you are doing something. Who are you to do anything, cosmos is using you as a medium to play the game which was there before you and will be there once you leave this body.

You call your baby your own, what have you done to say that. The semen that produced the baby came from eating food and fruits which were originated elsewhere, the process of life and death is longer than your intermediate existence here.  You are just a medium, an actor. Just because you dipped your kamandal in Ganges twice does not mean you inaugurated it. Ganges was there before you, it will be there after you. You are just a brick in the wall in the overall scheme of things. Why would you ever get possessive about your family after knowing this?

Difference between animals and humans is that animals are intelligent enough to let go off their children after the first year. Humans get attached to their kids, moms, dads, moms in laws, grand children, friends and almost anybody that walks.

This insecurity leading to attachment is the root cause of all misery in the world.

“Marriage is like pillars of a temple, For the pillars of the temple stand apart, if they don’t the temple would collapse”. Khalil Gibran

He beautifully describes as to who is Poor and who is Rich. Think about this question in your mind.

Rich and poor can never be calculated as a matter of quantum. You can never give a figure to it. It is impossible to say if you have 100 crores you are rich, else you are poor.  The rich line is a relative paradigm.

Then how do you calculate it. By following a simple maxim that ‘If your desires exceed your limits (savings), you are poor and if your desires are within your limits, you are a rich man’

Going by this definition, many an affluent people are poor and many a paupers are rich. As Charlie Munger says, it is all about where you set your anchor.

An acid test to this is if you find yourself or anybody saying, 'if ever I just had this, I would feel I have reached my goal and achieved it'. Consider yourself/that person as poor coz that desire is ad-infinitum. It will never be quenched, it will manifest itself in a new form every-time you fulfill the previous one.

Poverty or richness is a mentality and not a matter of quantity. Of course he urges the youth to work hard and earn money, but not get owned by it.

Its like saying, live in a palace for all I care, but reverse mortgage it so you don’t get overtly possessive.