Shivakumar Viswanathan, Thursday, July 30, 2015 10:54 am

Sat Sanga With Swami Paramarthananda

Swami Paramarthananda is currently in Bangalore for his annual discourse series here. I had the ocassion to witness his guidance to a student a couple of afternoons ago. The previous evening Swamiji had spoken about how a karma yogi operates as part of his discourse. He used a formula called ‘R.I.D.E.’ (‘R’ stands for reduction of adhArmic activities. ‘I’ stands for increase in dhArmic activities. ‘D’ stands for dedicating all actions to God and ‘E’ for experiencing all events in life as one’s own karma phala – fruits of one’s own actions.) The student expressed difficulty in practicing this since her mind was in conflict with regard to the ‘E’ � experiencing events in a calm manner as fruits of her own actions. Swamiji explained to her in a very systematic way and here is the gist:

Events are of two kinds: those that cannot be altered and those that can be. One has to work hard in situations that can be improved and do the best one can. In situations that cannot be improved upon, one should be smart to minimize the negative impact. Let us assume that we have 2 units of unhappiness due to the unfavorable situation. By resisting the event and struggling against it we may increase it to 4 units. Alternatively we can accept the situation as blessing from God and agree to go through with it without kicking and screaming reducing the force to 1 unit. ‘Do the best and leave the rest (to God).’

So how does one accomplish this? Typically our response is one of these three when faced with an unfavorable event: We remain actionless. Or we react. Or we act. Swamiji went on to explain the differences among the three. The actionless part signifies a defeated attitude and a victim mindset. This should be eschewed. The reaction to events should also be avoided since it is accompanied by blame and complaints. The reactive mind is an emotional and confused mind. The best approach is to logically and clearly think through the situation, decide upon the best course of action and do it � leaving the rest to God. And for this, he adviced that one should slowly but steadily free oneself from the tyranny of negative emotions.

Here in Bangalore, Swamiji’s lectures start at 6:45 pm and goes on till 8:00 pm. By 5:45 pm half the auditorium is filled up. By 6:00 pm the volunteers start directing ‘late comers’ to the odd single seats available in the middle rows. Thats right, if you want to sit on a chair in his lectures and don’t come an hour before, you are a late comer! By 6:15 pm the volunteers start asking people to move to the balcony seats upstairs and in another 10 minutes or so they are filled up too. We then have one of the organizers of the program walking up to the stage and telling people that they are arranging additional chairs outside the auditorium � with electric fans to boot! And a few minutes later they are filled up too. Did I mention that people are already sitting on the floor in front of the dias and on the aisles?

Swamiji is a teacher in the traditional way. His sense of humor is well known. However behind all the humor is a remarkable focus on the teaching. He is first and foremost a teacher who sits on the stage, behind the mic, with the singular purpose of expounding the vedAnta teachings. People will find during their interactions with him that he is either teaching vedAnta or preparing one for getting into vedAnta. Most of Swamiji’s lectures are available in recording. For those who are interested, I give below a couple of resources where people can experience his teachings first hand and derive immense benefit.

Some of Swamiji’s lectures can be listened to at this link online:

http://www.vedantavidyarthisangha.org/

This a site dedicated to host some of his selected classes in Chennai, India. For a catalog of Swamiji’s lectures (in mp3 CD format) see the contact below:

Sastraprakasika Trust,
Chandra Vilas Apartments,
A-3, No.19, 8th street, Dr. Radhakrishna Salai,
Mylapore, Chennai 600 004
Phone: 91 44 2847 0311 or 91 44 2847 5009