In this fourth part of his enlightening discourse on the Bhagavad Gita, Swami Prakashanand Saraswati delves deeper into the profound wisdom imparted by Shri Krishn. He explains how true devotion transcends intellectual reasoning and how the Gita emphasizes surrendering to the divine love form of Shree Krishn with complete faith. Through scriptural references and practical insights, Swami Prakashanand Saraswati guides seekers on aligning their hearts and minds with Krishn’s teachings to foster an unshakable connection with the divine.
Speech 4 by Swami Prakashanand Saraswati:
The Divine souls: In the previous speech we learned that there are many sampradayas, or religions, in the world. There are mainly seven religions in the Western world, and seven categories of religions in India. Seven categories means just like, suppose we take the first category, the religions Jain and Bauddh (Buddhism). They do not believe in God, so we take them first.
Read Part 1 Here:- Swami Prakashanand Saraswati’s Speech on the Gita Series 4 – Part 1
We take Bauddh the first, very big religion. It started about 2,500 years ago in India, and it became so popular that it spread beyond India to China, to Japan. In this religion Siddharth Gautam was called Buddha afterwards. Buddha means the enlightened one, Buddha. They call it buddhi shakti the power of enlightenment, buddhi shakti. So he was enlightened, so he was called Buddha. So Buddha word is very famous, Gautam Buddha. In his philosophy there are mainly four philosophies: Madhyamic, Yogachar, Sautrantik, Vaibhashik. And the scriptures are also quite many, Maya sutras, Theravada, many more.
Read Part 2 Here:- Swami Prakashanand Saraswati’s Speech on the Gita Series 4 – Part 2
They have their own detailed philosophy. In their detailed philosophy, they look for Nirvan. Nirvana. Nirvan actually literally means to put out. Nirvan is like some flame is there, put out the flame. So what is Nirvan? It’s a kind of absolute nothingness, complete void, no God, just complete void, total nothingness. Entering into total nothingness; when total nothingness, then no pain. So their whole philosophy runs after pain. That’s it. Pain and desire.
For instance, the first truth of suffering. Suffering. You see, when you are born, you suffer – eight kinds of suffering. When you are born, child is born, he suffers pain. When a person dies, he suffers pain. While he is living, he suffers pain always because he has to maintain his physical body. To maintain the physical body, he has to earn some money, and earning money is always suffering. So living is also suffering. Living, death, suffering, birth, suffering, living – suffering throughout. All on top of that you have sickness, you have old age. When you are old, you suffer. So when you are young, healthy, got flu, toothache, (something) wrong in the spine, you fell from somewhere, any disease – lots of kinds of sufferings. Means disease, pain, old age. So there’s nothing but suffering in this human life or any kind of life. Nothing but suffering. They go into great detail. These are all physical sufferings. Physical.
Read Part 3 Here:- Swami Prakashanand Saraswati’s Speech on the Gita Series 4 – Part 3
Then more are mental sufferings. Two kinds of sufferings and eight classes; five kinds of physical sufferings I just explained, and three kinds of mental sufferings. What is a mental suffering? You are desiring something. Your desire is not fulfilled, you suffer. All the unfulfilled desires are sufferings. All unfulfilled desires. And you have every day hundreds of desires unfulfilled. Every day, hundreds. You want a cold water, your wife gave you warm water. “Oh, ‘frig is not working, you have to drink this water”. You wanted some kind of food to eat, you were served some other kind of food. Means every day, every moment you suffer something. So what it means, you want something. You don’t have that thing. So if you go in detail, every day you suffer hundreds of times. They are minor sufferings, but you suffer. You want something, and you don’t get that thing – suffering.
So unfulfilled desires, they give you suffering every day, hundreds of times throughout your life. And then again there are two more kinds. You love someone, you love something, you hate something, you hate someone. Love and hate. So the one you love, the thing you love, when it departs from you, you suffer. When your loving thing, loving person departs from you, separation. Separation of loving object and people – suffering. And meeting with hated objects and people you dislike, meeting with those – suffering. So when you meet the undesirable and when you depart with the desirable, again suffering, mental suffering. So in this human life, there is only suffering, suffering, suffering, suffering, physical, mental, physical, mental. That’s the main philosophy of Bauddh. And it’s fact; it’s not wrong. It’s all fact. Facts of life.
OK so suffering is there; there’s eight kinds of suffering. Now what is the cause of suffering? I’m telling their philosophy. What is the cause? The cause of suffering is that you desire something. Desire. And desiring that, you have passion, delight, fulfillment of your desire, you want fulfillment of your desires. So desires are the only cause of suffering. Desires are the only cause. Nothing else. OK, then how to avoid the suffering? How to get rid of the suffering? Buddha gives a simple answer, very simple answer. Just kill all the desires. Kill all the desires. Kill – a simple answer. But that simple answer is very complicated. Complicated means very difficult or impossible sometimes to do it. So kill all the desires. Have no desire, and have no suffering. If you have the desire, then cause is there. The effect is suffering; suffering will be there.
OK, so how to kill that desire? I’m telling you step by step. How to kill that desire? What is the path? What is the procedure? What is the process? Bauddh philosophy says, also goes in great detail, I’m giving you gist of that. He says right belief, right thinking, right behavior, right meditation. Four (are) important: then there are branches of those. Right belief and right thinking and right behavior in all aspects. Anyway, right thinking means to think rightly. Don’t think of harming anyone, don’t think of cheating anyone, don’t be skeptical – all right thinking. Right behavior means you do good to yourself and good to others. Don’t harm any creature of the world, big or small. Do your rituals. And meditation.
So what is meditation? It has 3 steps. Means just like beginning, end, and midway. Dhyan, samatha and samadhi. Three words. Dhyan means meditation, and samatha means going deeper into meditation, and samadhi means to be established in total unconscious meditation. A step by step. Then you proceed towards nirvan. Nirvan means moksh, liberation from pains. Then nirvan means liberation from all pains. Means, they also say the cycle of life and death is also a bondage. You create attachment and karmas. They are also bondage. You have desire, that is a bondage. So bondage of desires, bondage of karmas, bondage of cycle of life and death. To be free from all of these bondages because they all create suffering. To be free from all of that is liberation. Means moksh or nirvan, total elimination of pain. So from dhyan to samatha to samadhi, they are step by step going deeper, deeper, deeper, deeper and fully eliminate your all desires. Just like you have desire in your mind, conscious mind. When you are sleeping, again your desires come. So first suppress your desires from the conscious mind. Then suppress your desires from subconscious mind, samatha. Then suppress your desires totally from the subconscious mind. then enter into samadhi. So after samadhi, your desires are totally eliminated. Totally. Then you are in nirvan. No desires, then peace; total peace. And total peace means total peace. So what is up there? Shoonya. They are called shoonya vad. Means nothing, void, absolute nothingness. No pain. That’s the Bauddh philosophy.
We see in our Gita the whole thing is described into two verses (Sanskrit verse). I’ll give you simple meaning (Sanskrit). First you like something, you desire it. Beginning. “I like that thing.” You begin to think of receiving, getting that thing. If you receive that thing you are happy and become greedy to receive more. If you fail to receive, then you are angry, and anger burns your heart. So both ways, your heart is burning either from anger or from greed. And how they started? From desire. The whole Buddha philosophy is in this verse. So, what to do? (Sanskrit verse). Leave all the desires. (Sanskrit) The person who has no desires is (Sanskrit) – no desire (Sanskrit). He has no attachment. (Sanskrit) He has no vanity. So, such person (Sanskrit) enters into peaceful state of mind; second verse of the Gita. So in these two verses, the whole of Bauddh philosophy is there. Whole of Bauddh philosophy. (Sanskrit) He has no desire, no attachment, no vanity. Because desires are the cause of pain, Buddha says, so no desire, no vanity, no attachment. So (Sanskrit) he enters into peacefulness. So total Bauddh philosophy in two verses of the Gita. It is there exactly the same.
But Gita says, because Gita is a total philosophy, not a part, Gita says (Sanskrit), fine; if you have no desire, you are peaceful. You see in your life, sometime you had your good meal sitting in your living room peacefully, nothing bothering your head. Then you are happy. Some thought came. You began to think. Nothing bothering your head, then you are happy, you are peaceful. So you get that peacefulness every day many times. (Sanskrit) You are peaceful. So this kind of peacefulness, when there is no desire, nothing to bother your mind, you are at peace. But Gita says if you stretch this peacefulness to such a limit that you don’t desire even in dream about anything, OK, this peacefulness is stretched further. But again, it is not absolute peacefulness. Not absolute peacefulness. Why? Because (Sanskrit) Gita says, you have eliminated the desire of your mind, so mind is resting in peace completely. That’s fine, but something is beyond mind (Sanskrit). Means, from your discriminating mind, emotional mind, your subtle mind is more powerful; is beyond. And from total mind, He is beyond (Sanskrit). So how could your mind be in peace forever? So that peacefulness is not everlasting. May be long lasting, may not be transitory, may be long lasting, but not everlasting.
So how could you get everlasting peace? (Sanskrit) extended peacefulness and absolute peacefulness – two states. Extended peacefulness and absolute peacefulness. So extended peacefulness you attain by eliminating your desires, by practicing various forms of meditation and desire-eliminating ideas, instructing your mind not to have any desires. You may open that state, but still absolute peace will come only if you surrender to the Absolute. So, who is absolute? Only God. (Sanskrit) “Oh, Arjun, oh souls of the world, you have to reach Him. When you reach Him with full faith and confidence and dedication, with His grace, you will enter into absolute peace. With His grace.” And with your effort, you can have extended peacefulness. That’s it.
So we see that Bauddh religion is not something entirely different. It is in our Gita, but Bauddh religion takes you to a certain part of heart purification. A certain stage, that’s it. Beyond that, Gita says there is something more, and that Gita teaches. Just like primary school, then high school, then college, then university. So Bauddh teachings are not wrong. They are right, but they take a person to a certain limit of peacefulness, not to absolute limit of peacefulness. Then beyond, Gita says “Come to Krishn and have absolute peace.”
So that’s Bauddh religion. Tomorrow I’ll explain Jain religion. That’s all for today.
In Summary: Swami Prakashanand Saraswati emphasizes that the teachings of Bauddh are covered in the Gita. They can take a seeker to a certain level of heart purification, but not beyond. Prakashanand shares how those seeking to further the teachings of Buddhism to achieve the absolute peacefulness need to seek Krishn’s divine love, and that true devotion is not just about rituals but about surrendering the heart and mind completely to Krishn. By understanding and applying these teachings, seekers can deepen their spiritual connection and experience everlasting divine love.
Stay tuned for Part 5, coming tomorrow.