The topic for the English Satsang on Sunday, 23rd March, 2014 was ‘Yamas.’ (Restraints)
Following is the transcript of the Q & A between the audience and Smt. Hansaji J. Yogendra.
|
Listen to the audio:
Q. May we say the truth even if our truth might hurt others?
Smt. H: Truth is something which is seeing things as they are and conveying them as they are. If things are like this, it can never hurt others. But if we bring emotion into it, it hurts others. Suppose my mother has cancer and I have to tell her and if I speak truth, it may hurt her. But if I say blankly, that they say it is a cancer, still more tests are going on and whatever it is, we will do the needful. Then it may not disturb her. But if I start crying and get disturbed and say ‘What will happen to me after you go’ and all that, then that would hurt too much. So unfortunately, these emotions create the whole problem. Truth as it is, is very clinical, very simple, straight forward and we should be speaking truth.
Q. Sometimes it takes a long time for the truth to uphold. How to keep patience till then?
Smt. H: God has given us such a wonderful brain that you can forget many things. So if you want to keep that truth permanently with you, write it down and keep it in the locker, but keep your mind free of all that burden, just remove that from your system.
Q. How to successfully live in the present and enjoy every moment?
Smt. H: Don’t allow your mind to remain free. A free mind is the devil’s workshop. Keep your mind occupied all the time. If you tell your mind to sit quietly, it should become quiet. Tell your mind to think about a particular topic and it should do so. Your mind is like your servant. You need to direct it or it will make or break. So you have to master your mind. The best policy is to live in the present. The moment past thoughts come, you have to tell your mind that I have no time, right now I have lots of work to do. Bring some work and start doing it. Best thing to do is memorize something, bring new memory into your system rather than living on past old memories. And in new memories there would be something good, some good sayings, stories, jokes, something which you have learnt; that would work wonders. Learn Sanskrit, different languages, or anything, singing, dancing, and you will notice that your mind will live in the present, not in past because it is busy in the present.
Q. Bhagwad Gita does not elaborate on love, romance and relationships. What are your views about the same?
Smt. H: Bhagwad Gita is a whole book on relationships, family where all varieties are there, youngsters and the oldest man and how you are supposed to deal with relationships. Love is the basis of a relationship. It could be husband and wife, mother and child, father and son, great-grandfather, etc. Love is visible only through respect, care and so they should be given. And whenever respect and care were not shown, there was a fight, you will notice in the Bhagwad Gita. Whenever you are laughing at somebody, you are making a mistake as you are putting someone down, he gets angry and fights against you. So we should be sincere and caring and not expect from others. If I love you, I don’t expect you to love me back. Love is always unconditional. It is like a river flowing. It doesn’t get stagnated on one or two. If a person is a loving personality, he would be loving towards everyone. The love would be more visible with whom he has a duty. But it is still the same.
Q. How should I react when someone hurts me?
Smt. H: Why should you get hurt? If someone is trying to hurt you, enjoy his words, his gestures, vocabulary and appreciate. But show him that you are not disturbed. How can someone bring happiness or hurt in our mind? Let him behave in his way, it is his problem. So try and see things with Vairagya, detachment. You will be able to do a better job.
Q. I am having so many problems, not able to settle down. What to do?
Smt. H: Your sentence itself says you have a list of problems but you don’t have a list of the many things which are good in your life. Start making that list. Let me tell you, when God gives you any problems, the solution is there itself, nowhere else. If the problem is in my body, the solution is in my body only – somewhere there is stress or I am not sleeping well, eating at the right time, routines are wrong, somewhere something is missing and so problems are there. So we have to work on ourselves, the solution is there itself. So don’t talk about problems, talk about all good things which you can do in life and how you can do it and problems will disappear. I always tell people that if you want to think about problems, then God will give you problems, because this is what you want in life. What you want, you get. That is a spiritual formula. If you want worry, you will get worries and problems. But if you want to bring out some solution and get happiness, if you choose to be happy, you will get happiness. Just try it, I guarantee, you will be happy.
Satsang is an open meeting held every Sunday from 9:30 to 10:30 am at The Yoga Institute, Santacruz East, Mumbai. It involves an interesting presentation to the public, made by the students of the Teacher Training Course. Each week, a new presentation of a Yogic concept is made in a simple way through skits and decoration for the general public, followed by a short speech from our Gurus, Dr. Jayadeva and Smt. Hansaji Yogendra.