Subtitles

[Music] 00:00:00

[Music] all life goes grinding around this wheel 00:00:03

and if you go up and you succeed and you 00:00:12

get to the top you have to come down 00:00:12

they don't see success in other words in the world as a method of liberation 00:00:20

because it implies failure so the idea 00:00:27

of liberation which is called moksha is 00:00:32

the ideal of hindu life wake up it's 00:00:36

agreed 00:00:36

and in time there is no hope in time everything is going to get worse in time 00:00:44

because as you know it does we all fall 00:00:48

apart in the end everything falls apart 00:00:52

institutions buildings Nations it all 00:00:55

crumbles and people say well that's an 00:00:59

awfully pessimistic philosophy well is 00:01:03

it I would rather say that the people 00:01:06

who have opened the filter of a 00:01:07

miserable people because they are like 00:01:10

donkeys chasing carrots that are dangled 00:01:13

before their noses from sticks attached 00:01:15

to their color and they pursue and they 00:01:18

pursue in vain always hoping that 00:01:21

tomorrow will be the great thing and 00:01:23

therefore incapable of enjoying 00:01:25

themselves today people who live for the 00:01:31

future never get there they're the sort 00:01:35

of people who spend their lives saving 00:01:37

for their old age and trying to teach 00:01:40

their children to do the same thing so 00:01:43

that when they retire at 65 00:01:46

you know they have false teeth and 00:01:48

wrinkles and prostate trouble and all 00:01:50

that sort of thing where were you going 00:01:52

what did you think it was all about 00:01:55

furthermore the fact that life is 00:01:58

transient is part of its liveliness the 00:02:03

poets in speaking of the transience of 00:02:06

the world always other their best poetry 00:02:08

our revels now are ended these are 00:02:12

actors as I foretold you are all spirits 00:02:14

and are melted into air and finding and 00:02:19

like the baseless fabric of this vision 00:02:21

the cloud-capped towers the gorgeous 00:02:23

palaces the solemn temples the great 00:02:26

earth itself I or witched inherited 00:02:28

resolved like this insubstantial pageant 00:02:31

faded leave not a rack behind we are 00:02:36

such stuff as dreams and later now that 00:02:39

we live with now Middle asleep 00:02:39

and said so well it doesn't seem so bad after all of it you see there's always 00:02:45

in the poetry of Evanescence a kind of 00:02:54

funny nostalgia moralists will say those 00:03:00

lovely lips which you so delight to kiss 00:03:02

today will in a few years rot and 00:03:05

disclose the grinning teeth of the skull 00:03:07

so what the skull says lying in the 00:03:15

grass chattering bins and water fly are 00:03:18

not merrier than I here among the 00:03:20

flowers I lie 00:03:22

laughing everlasting no I may not tell 00:03:26

the best surely friends I could have 00:03:28

guessed death was but the good Kings 00:03:31

jest 00:03:31

it was hid so careful and monks used to 00:03:36

keep skulls on their desks people 00:03:40

nowadays think that was very morbid I 00:03:43

went and visited a chapel in the Via 00:03:46

Veneto in Rome 00:03:47

where there's a crypt where all the 00:03:52

altar furnishings are made out of human 00:03:53

bones the altars of piles of skulls 00:03:57

there are rib bones arranged across the 00:04:01

ceiling like floral patterns with 00:04:03

vertebrae representing flowers and 00:04:07

they're all dead capuchin monks and 00:04:11

there's a funny little monk collecting 00:04:13

the admissions up at the top and he has 00:04:16

one of the funniest grins on his face I 00:04:18

see a long time I sit in you know on the 00:04:24

day of resurrection there's going to be 00:04:25

an awful lot of scuttling up this narrow 00:04:27

staircase people try to reassemble their 00:04:33

bones hope your father isn't that life 00:04:36

if metatarsals 00:04:37

[Laughter] 00:04:41

the whole idea you see is that 00:04:45

everything's falling apart 00:04:47

so don't try and stop it when you're 00:04:51

falling off a precipice it doesn't do 00:04:52

you any good to hang on hang on to a 00:04:54

rope what's falling with you see but 00:04:56

everything is doing that and so again 00:04:58

this is another case of our completely 00:05:00

wasting our energy in trying to prevent 00:05:03

the world from falling apart don't do it 00:05:07

then you'll be able to do something 00:05:08

interesting with the free energy so 00:05:12

that's moksha cuz when the Hindu says 00:05:17

everything is unreal the Westerner 00:05:20

reacts and says no no we can't treat 00:05:22

life as a dream it's serious it's real 00:05:25

it's for real I really wanted to move 00:05:25

this is in other words everything insofar as it's falling apart everything 00:05:36

is changing it is like smoke and we all 00:05:42

feel that smoke has a lesser degree of 00:05:44

reality than wood it's an image of the 00:05:48

evanescent of the ghostly so this idea 00:05:52

the whole world is this Mirage that 00:05:54

doesn't mean it's a bad thing it's only 00:05:57

bad if you cling to it if you try to 00:05:59

lean on it but if you don't lean on it 00:06:02

it's a grand illusion so the word Maya 00:06:04

and that means not only illusion but it 00:06:07

means art it means magic and it means 00:06:11

creative power so this is the big act 00:06:17

it's perhaps easier to feel the world in 00:06:21

that way in a tropical country where 00:06:26

death is very common and where you've 00:06:30

just watched things dissolve before your 00:06:32

eyes 00:06:32

and yet first start and grow again the 00:06:36

whole world is changing maybe easier to 00:06:40

think that way than in our environment 00:06:42

although when you're out in California 00:06:43

the human landscape changes so fast that 00:06:47

no no town is the same for two years any 00:06:53

mailing lists that you have changes one 00:06:57

third addresses for an 00:06:57

nothing stays quickly the hills are shadows and they flow from form to form 00:07:05

and nothing stands now this you see is 00:07:12

not a pessimistic attitude therefore at 00:07:13

all to be able to realize that this 00:07:15

world is simply a dream 00:07:17

a dancing play of smoke fastening yes 00:07:22

but don't lean on life is a bridge says 00:07:25

one of the Hindu sayings pass over it 00:07:27

but build no house at home and so 00:07:33

immediately you see that this is a thing 00:07:37

that often puzzles Westerners they 00:07:41

expected that anybody who's an ascetic 00:07:42

or a sage or something be rather 00:07:44

miserable in a glum face but on the 00:07:49

country you take this character who's 00:07:53

going around these days at Maharshi 00:07:54

Mahesh he's always laughing because he's 00:07:59

into it he looks on every side and there 00:08:02

is the face of the log of the divinity 00:08:05

in everybody in every direction and 00:08:06

everything playing at being new and you 00:08:12

can look down into a person's eyes way 00:08:14

way in and you see the self the eternal 00:08:19

divine and what is so funny when it puts 00:08:21

on an expression saying what me and the 00:08:28

Guru the teacher when people go to a 00:08:33

guru they get all sorts of funny ideas 00:08:35

oh he's looking right through he sees me 00:08:40

through and through he knows how awful I 00:08:42

am reads my most secret thoughts cause 00:08:45

he has a funny looking mister he isn't 00:08:50

even interested in secret for hots he's 00:08:53

looking straight at the Godhead in you 00:08:54

with a funny expression on his face with 00:08:57

his saying why you trying to kid me 00:08:57

come off it Shiva I know you are and therefore you see his role is to gently 00:09:09

humor you into waking up as to your true 00:09:19

nature now of course as i intimated 00:09:24

earlier the hindu is therefore saying 00:09:28

everybody is god and this is why when a 00:09:32

Hindu greets you he does this that is 00:09:37

the act of puja or worship to the 00:09:39

Godhead in you and our theologians get 00:09:46

rather worried about that because you 00:09:49

see the two conceptions of God are 00:09:51

different our conception is of the boss 00:09:55

man the king 00:09:57

theirs is of the cosmic centipede 00:10:00

through the many ARMs who does not have 00:10:03

to think how to make the world or rather 00:10:06

to act the world that would be an 00:10:10

insufferable nuisance you may think it 00:10:14

rather wonderful when some Thomas tries 00:10:16

to explain that God is fully aware of 00:10:19

everything that happens and in every 00:10:21

detail is willing each single vibration 00:10:24

of any mosquitoes wing but when you 00:10:29

really begin to think about it that 00:10:32

approaches intellectual elephantiasis 00:10:36

imagine the law of being aware of all 00:10:39

the prayers and having to listen to the 00:10:43

sort of prayers that go on overnight 00:10:43

[Laughter] 00:10:47

God heard the embattled nation shout God Strava England and god save the king god 00:10:54

this God that and God the other thing 00:10:59

but God said God I've got my work cut 00:11:00

out 00:11:01

[Laughter] 00:11:06

so therefore when somebody in India 00:11:09

suddenly announces that he's Bobby 00:11:12

nobody accuses in the blasphemy or being 00:11:15

insane 00:11:16

they say simply congratulations at last 00:11:18

we found out and they don't immediately 00:11:24

request a miracle as you see if we get 00:11:29

across someone who says I'm God or I'm 00:11:31

Jesus Christ they say what they said to 00:11:33

Jesus Christ in the first place 00:11:34

come on that these stones be made bread 00:11:37

there is not this idea of God the 00:11:40

technician but rather power of 00:11:44

omnipotence is not to be able to do 00:11:47

anything but to be doing all things 00:11:50

whatever it is that's going on and 00:11:55

spontaneously without having to think 00:11:57

about and the holy man is of course 00:12:02

called a salmon a shaman is a realized 00:12:10

man a man who knows the inner secret and 00:12:15

seen through the gate and he finds it by 00:12:18

going away alone into the forest and 00:12:18

cutting himself off from the tribe that is to say from social conditioning and 00:12:28

he goes maybe for a long period into the 00:12:32

forest he comes back he's found out 00:12:35

through years and he sure isn't who he 00:12:37

was told he was when you are born you 00:12:43

are born into a caste and your duty as a 00:12:47

green hostile or householder is to 00:12:49

fulfill your caste function and to bring 00:12:51

up a family when you've done that you go 00:12:56

back to the forest 00:12:59

back to the hunting couch and you drop 00:13:02

your roll and you become nobody a shaman 00:13:08

again 00:13:09

so if hindu calls one who does this a 00:13:12

shramana which is across the same word 00:13:15

as shaman a shaman is an immortal why 00:13:21

immortal because it's only the role 00:13:23

that's modeled the big front the persona 00:13:26

the one who you really are 00:13:28

the common man that is to say the man 00:13:31

who is common to us all which you could 00:13:34

call the son of man that's the real self 00:13:38

that's the guy who's putting on the big 00:13:40

air and of course he has no name nobody 00:13:47

can put the finger on because you can't 00:13:51

perhaps the tip of the finger with the 00:13:52

tip of the finger 00:13:52

so that means in practice then that when you hand over your vocation in life 00:14:01

which is called your swadharma that 00:14:06

means slark that's the same as the latin 00:14:08

sewers one's own parma means functioned 00:14:12

your own function or we would call your 00:14:15

vocation when you've completed it you 00:14:20

drop out and become nobody because 00:14:24

you're going to find out now who you 00:14:25

ridden off and you take on one of the 00:14:30

names of God Swami Ramananda Swami 00:14:33

this is Brahma who may go quite naked 00:14:37

like the she bite polina no clothes and 00:14:42

they just just go out and wander and 00:14:46

don't make any provision for anything 00:14:47

they literally take no thought for 00:14:49

tomorrow 00:14:50

what you shall eat what you feel drink 00:14:52

or wherewithal they shall be clothed but 00:14:55

you see people respect them they say 00:14:59

yeah we got to have those people up 00:15:00

there thought they are doing what human 00:15:03

being is ultimately supposed to do and 00:15:04

we shall do it in our time and so give 00:15:07

them some food but we can look at it all 00:15:14

and say what a mess why don't you do 00:15:19

something to yourself why don't you kill 00:15:22

the sacred cows that eat why don't you 00:15:24

clean up why do you permit all this 00:15:27

disease just try and see something from 00:15:31

another point of view for a friend just 00:15:35

look at it from another point of view 00:15:37

and they would smile at us and say you 00:15:41

really think it's as real as all right 00:15:41

have you never experienced what's on the inside of this game so trouble with you 00:15:48

Westerners is you never experience those 00:15:54

you will never got down for dilute of 00:15:57

reality and you don't know that the 00:15:59

state of pompous ease and so you're 00:16:02

frantically trying to patch everything 00:16:04

up and pin it all together and screw the 00:16:06

universe up so it's fixing you can never 00:16:08

do it 00:16:09

all it is it got wildly rushing around 00:16:12

and creating trouble 00:16:13

[Music] 00:16:13

you 00:16:31