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A satsang discourse on the spiritual practice of Svādhyāya (self-study) and the transformation of destiny.

"As much as you read, that many vṛttis you will have in your brain waves. If you do not read, you will have no thoughts to develop your spiritual progress."

"Thoughts lead us there. What you think, like that you are. And how you imagine, like that you will be."

A spiritual teacher leads the session, beginning with chants and defining Svādhyāya as the study of scriptures for spiritual aims. He distinguishes between Parāvidyā (spiritual knowledge) and Aparāvidyā (worldly knowledge), emphasizing the supremacy of practice over mere theory. Using parables like Sudāmā and Kṛṣṇa and an old couple in a forest, he explains how blessings, meditation, and vigilant study can purify past karmas and alter one's destiny, advising careful selection of spiritual reading to avoid doubt.

Filming location: Jadan, Rajasthan, India

Chant Oṁ three times. Sit straight, take a deep breath, and chant Oṁ three times. Sit straight, take deep breaths two or three times, and exhale. Now, take a deep inhale. Take a deep breath. Oṁ. Deep inhale. Oṁ. Nārāyaṇa Bhagavān kī. Śrī Śrī Dev Puruṣa Mahādeva Kī Dharm Samrāṭ Satguru Svāmī Madhavānandajī Bhagavān Kī Satya Sanātana Dharma Kī Oṁ Namaḥ Śrī Prabhu Dīpa Nārāyaṇam... Oṁ Namaḥ Śrī Prabhu Dīpa Nārāyaṇam. Ham Sab Bhakt Prabhu Śaraṇ Parāyaṇam... Ham Sab Dās Prabhu Śaraṇ Parāyaṇam. Om Namah Śrī Prabhu Dīpa Nārāyaṇam. Śrī Dīpa Nārāyaṇ Bhagavān kī blessings to all of you, here and there, everywhere. Meditation, the practice of Dharma, and the study of spiritual scriptures all have one aim: God-realization or ātmā-jñāna, ātmā-anubhūti. How to realize this? As much as you read, that many vṛttis you will have in your brain waves. If you do not read, you will have no thoughts to develop your spiritual progress. Therefore, it is said in the Patañjali Yoga Sūtra, as well as in Jñāna Yoga: svādhyāya. Svādhyāya has two meanings: the studying of scriptures. For a particular aim—one who would like to become a doctor studies for a doctorate—that is svādhyāya. Those who would like to become other professionals have to study that particular subject. Similarly, what you would like to achieve in your life on the spiritual path, you have to study those spiritual scriptures. That is especially meant for students. A student, whether a school student or a yoga student, even one who is old—100 years old and studying something—is a student. In Hindi or Sanskrit, study has a very beautiful name. We call it Svādhyāya or Vidyā Adhyayana. Vidyā Adhyayan. Vidyā means knowledge. Vidyā adhyayan se vidvān bantā hai. Jab tak vidyā adhyayan nahīṁ kiyā, vo vidvān nahīṁ ban saktā hai. As long as you do not study, you cannot become a scholar, wise person, or philosopher. This is Svādhyāya. In Svādhyāya, there are two kinds of Vidyā, knowledge: Parāvidyā and Aparāvidyā. Parāvidyā is learned from a spiritual master about the knowledge of the universe, meaning spiritualities. That is also endless. Aparāvidyā is what we get from our schools, books, and from our teachers or professors. Aparāvidyā helps us to survive, to live, and to do something good. This is Aparāvidyā. Any kind of profession, it does not matter what it is. You see, in our Aum Ashram, which has been continuing for the last 30 years, there are great professors working. 300 professors are working now. Thousands of professors have been working to build this Aum Āśram. Title does not mean anything. Intellectual knowledge, theory, has not much meaning. Practice tons. Theory is nothing compared with a grain of practice. We have an artist now. You see, there was an artist yesterday. He was making some sounds out of his vocal cords. Similarly, we have many professors, highly educated. And you can see their work: within one day or two, a beautiful statue is carved with only two tools. No computers, no measurements all the time, no research, not this, not that, no complications. Yogījī says, "Make a statue of Śiva." That is all. The next day, Śiva is standing there. And how? That is art. And who has studied the art? The professor. And we ask, "Who has theoretical knowledge?" He can make also, but it will take a long time. And at the end, one eye will be big and the other will be smaller. So that has to go to our... All this, the one who is carving the statues, their profession, that is knowledge, svādhyāya. Practice, practice. Abhyāsa, abhyāsa. I would say that the government of India should give acknowledgement for this artist, and we should work to make a union or some committees and give them diplomas, no? So we shall work in this way. No, doctor? Many doctors are very good, but they do not practice, and when they give an injection, the patient says, "Oh, Doctor Saab, there is a matter, thoda dardh hoga." And the nurse who gives hundreds of injections every day, gives it so nicely you do not feel it. No? So the children say, "I want to go to the nurse, not to Dr. Saab." You know what I mean? Yes? So that person who is perfect in creation is connecting to the parāvidyā. And those who are just theoretically designing on the computers, that is okay. Yes, now the computer lasts two decades in everyone’s hands. But before, it was only counting with the fingers. How big should it be? How many meters should the turban be? How many hands are there? So they count eight hands. Eight hands means from elbow to fingers. Exactly. Exactly. Measurement God has given in our body and in all our limbs. Your face is beautiful. Maybe your face is round, or your face is long, but the size of your face is only your palm. How long is your face? How beautiful your face is. It is different, but how long is that from the beginning of the palm to the tip of the middle finger? So this is a measurement. Therefore, in these hands, if you make a mistake in that measurement or something happens, you say, "Oh, God." No? "Oh, my God." Why do you touch your forehead, and why don’t you say, "Oh, God"? This is also a fact, is it not? Why? Because our past karmas, our destinies, our kismat, our bhagya is written here. There is a book of all our karma, all our bhagya, our kismat, our destiny, dharma... dharma becomes a destiny. And destiny begins from the present, leads to the future, but we do not know where the future is, how the future is. You want to drive to Jaipur, but you have to be alert on that spot. You are thinking of Jaipur, but you are still on the road near the garden. You have to start your car on that spot where you are. So think on the present. So all imprints, or the waves, the layers of our kismat, are here. So you know how long the computer goes chug, chug, chug? The moment it presents is MRI. When you want to have exactly, nowadays, the x-rays, then you have to go to one big machine, go in. It takes 10 minutes, 15 minutes, half an hour, depending on which part of the body and how many times the machine is going, imprinting. So all our past lives’ karmas are imprinted here. Sudāmā goes to Kṛṣṇa. Sudāmā’s wife told him, "Go. We are very poor and Kṛṣṇa is very rich. He is in Dvārikā. Go and see him. He will give something." You know this story very well. Bhagavān Kṛṣṇa dekhte hai. Kṛṣṇa sees that Sudāmā has many, many bad karmas. Tulsīdhārajī said in the Rāmāyaṇa, one asked Tulsīdhārajī, "What is the most horrible life, terrible life, painful life? Dukha." Dukhi jeevan, udāśī jeevan, aur har prakar kā dukh hai dukh. Tulsīdharjī said, daridrasam nai dukh aur. Dālidāra jīvan kā dukh jo hai, aisā dukh aur koī nahīṁ hai. Or satsaṅg nai aur sukh. Dalidara, dalidara, the word, I do not know in English, but I can tell, in every aspect, it is down. No correctness, no thoughts, no money, no principles, no disciplines, nothing, nothing. That is called Dalīdhara. Painful life, very troublesome life. That is the most troublesome life, Dalīdharī. And sant samāgam nahī sukh koī. And there is no higher joy, happiness, and bliss than in the satsaṅg of the saints. That is a statement, Dalīdhara. Vichārose dalitrā ho jātā hai, to vo vaikthī har vichārose, har prakār se gir jātā hai, vichār. One said, "I am very poor, very poor, very poor." So he went to one mahārāj, yogī, or to a master. "Master, I am so poor. Master, I am so poor." The master said, "How do you know?" He said, "I know, I know I am very poor." So he said, "Okay. From now on, you will think, 'I am very rich, I am very rich. All banks are mine, all supermarkets are mine. I am very rich, very rich.'" While thinking rich, rich, he became very rich. Thoughts lead us there. What you think, like that you are. And how you imagine, like that you will be. Bhagavān Kṛṣṇa thinks and says, "Sudāmā is like a dāridra." Bhagavān Kṛṣṇa said, "I will change your future." And Bhagavān Kṛṣṇa makes the tilak. Tilak, and then puts the rice on the forehead. Sudāmā is asking Kṛṣṇa, "What is this?" Bhagavān Kṛṣṇa said, "Dālidhara, this karma, such a karma, can only be removed by blessing." There is no kind of tool. There is no other way to change the little karma of blessing. It does not matter who is giving you blessing. Blessing is blessing. So, for example, in India, there was a tradition, and now it is day by day getting lost. It is a pity. When you go to school, mother or father or brother or sister, parents tell the children, "My son or daughter, go carefully, cross the road carefully. I bless you, bless you, go and be aware." Parents bless, or anyone will say, "Bless you, go." And now children say bye-bye, and parents say jai-jai. Goodbye, to jai, kaha jai? Good boy, there is nothing, no feelings. If you touch the feet of your parents, your teacher, your guru, or any elderly or young person, no problem. They will say, "Bless you." That time, the hand goes like this. And the light, the energy, the positive energy flows through this mudrā. Mudra is called blessing. But now, say, shake hand. That is it. Shaking hands has no spiritual effect on the students or anyone. But blessings, in every culture, is a blessing existing. But now they went above this all, and it means below everything. Spirituality is lost, and again we became like fools. In European countries, when we learn, they say, "Bless you." No? Yes or no? Say it loudly. You did not eat today? What do you say? No, no. Bless you. They are lost ones. Yes, they are lost ones. They do not know what to say. But they are parents, and they all say it because they belong to that generation. So when we are sneezing, what do they say? Bless you. My God. They go, "Va bhai va." Even they say, "God bless you." So do not think that blessings are business, it is all in India. This is not a business. This is a tradition, a very high tradition. And it is not only in India, but throughout the whole world, people have lost this. They have lost faith in God because they have only aparāvidyā. Unfortunately, unfortunately, it is sad. Indians think, "When my children go to an English school, they will have a high position and this and that." And where the divine teaching is—Sanskrit, Vedas, and this—you see, I have to work. I have to study English. English media. A medium, a general media. Those are the parents; they think of the children’s future, not for the present, but for the future, for development and spiritual education. And now is the time again to bring spiritual education into the human, ethical, and spiritual education. So Bhagavān Kṛṣṇa said to Sudāmā, "I change your karma from Dāridra to the Bhāgyavān." Bhagya. Bhagya means destiny. So the tradition of Tilak, it was long before Kṛṣṇa too. Bhagavān Rāma, Bhagavān Śiva, all the times. Bhagyasālī, the lucky, fortunate are they who can get the Tilak and blessings. Rice is called akṣa, meaning everlasting, the most ancient grains, everlasting. So they put this as, "This blessing should be everlasting for you." So these two kinds of studies, parā and aparāvidyā, lakṣyārthī and vācyārthī. Vācārthī means reading the scriptures; then you get—be careful to read the book. Otherwise, one book, only two sentences, can create such a conflict in your thoughts that you will give up everything. One word, one sentence can destroy your whole belief. Therefore, be careful what you read and what you hear. But the study which you do within thyself, that is something divine. You have to take the examples, the words, the Guruvākyas, the Śāstras, what they spoke, understand properly, and then take the support of that. Svādhyāya. Svā means the self. Self. Khud. Svayam. Svādhyāya. Adhyāya kis ko karte, beta? Lesson, lesson, subject lesson, badiyā lasan ke piyāj lesson. So svādhyāya, study, adhyāya, svādhyāya, that has divided into the subject svādhyāya, adhyāya. Now look here in your four eyes, in the ājñā cakra, how many lessons you had from your birth till today, and how many? Chapters of your life, not a schoolboy’s listen, but how many chapters? Intellectual, emotional, social, political, spiritual. How many chapters you began: relations, friendships. How many chapters began and then... were stopped, either by you or the other side. That chapter is not completed. When the chapter is not completed in your conscious and is not known to your awareness, it is imprinted under the level of the unconscious or subconscious. Conscious. Now, as long as you do not complete that svādhyāya, you cannot go further. Sooner or later, you will come back there again, but it is impossible to complete that. Somehow, it is not possible. Then you have to use your vivekā, your knowledge, to delete that subject forever from your book of destiny. And how to do this is a meditation. That time in meditation, we have to take the help of those great saints’ words, called Guru Vākya. The Vedas are Brahma Vākya. The Vedas are the words of Brahman, the Supreme Self. All the knowledge, all the languages, all the religions, all the spirituality, everything is rooted in the Vedas. And those who understood and gave further, that is called Guru Vākya. And who is listening is a student. So there are many different things. But now you know what you need. You will go and pick up the things that you need. Prayer, prayer... prayer. Through the prayers and through the meditation, you can delete that uncompleted matter, subject, in your inner book of destiny. It is not easy to delete. It is not easy. Aneek janam dhoye man ko chithai ho to aisi ho. Many, many lives you clean your mind, but still the dirty spot is there. Wash and wash and wash, but if you can go and believe in that and follow the principle, the path of the Gurudev, which thoughts, which actions, which feelings either can destroy or can build up and let you go to your path. It is your karma. It is your destiny. It is your bhāgya. Ye bhāgya mein likhā huā hai ki tumhārī vicār badal jāyegā. Nazdīk āge, vicār badal gayā, ye rāstā ṭhīk nahī̃, ham udhar chale jāte haĩ. How do you change the chapter when it comes in front of you? Budhe, do budhe the pati patni, aur unki umar ho gayi thi sattar baras, assi baras. Gareeb, they were one couple, about 80 years old, very poor. They were going to the forest, collecting a little wood, and bringing it to the village to sell. They would go to the jungle, bring some heavy wood, and sell it in the market to fill their stomachs. One day, one lady said, or the wife said to her husband, "Dear, how do blind people go and walk? We are still not blind; we see. But if it happens when we are blind, how will we find the wood and the path?" So the woman said to her husband, "When blind people become blind, how will they find wood, how will they see the road, how will they walk?" Husband said, "Well, dear, we can try now and practice how to walk as a blind." So we can begin now the practice. We will have techniques and practice on how to find wood and how to walk on the path as a blind one. Both of them had wood on their head, about 15 kilos each or 20 kilos. And the husband said, "Now you will hold my shoulder. And I will walk, and you will walk with closed eyes. Chalo, aaj dono ye andhe ban jate hain, tu mere kande pe aad rakhna. Aur dono chalte, aankh tu bhi mat kholna, main bhi nahi kholunga. Andhe ho kar ke chale." So they said, "Let’s practice how the blind one goes." That time, Bhagavān Śiva and Pārvatījī were passing through that forest. Pārvatījī said to Bhagavān Śiva, "Lord, look, these poor people, they are your bhaktas. They have nothing, no money, nothing. They have to collect the wood." And bring and sell, sometimes nobody buys. They have nothing to eat, and not only this, Lord, they are blind. Why can’t you give something to them? Bhagwan Śiva said, "I will give, but they will not take." So Pārvatījī and Śiva were going from that jungle. Parvati jī saw them, so Parvati jī said, "O Lord, they are your devotees, old and blind, poor. Give them something so that in this situation the poor blind people do not get hurt." Bhagwan says that I want to give, but I do not want to take. Always, Pārvatījī has a big argument with God, Śiva. And Śiva is a Bholenāth. He said, "Okay, I will give. I will give. Best is to tell your wife, okay, we will do it. Okay, well. No argument." If you have arguments, then you have a hard life. So Bhagavān Rāma, Bhagavān Śiva, about 100 meters far on the path, put the golden coins, about 10 kilos or 20 kilos, in the little heap of the hill of the gold. Rasne me śona ragdi yā bhagwā ne śone. Daghli kardi, but do not know, pati and patni, husband and wife, they were very loyal. "Do not open your eyes, does not matter what happened." Husband said to wife, she said, "I will not open my eyes till you will not open and order me." They came near the gold, and they stuck on that. They hit their feet. The old couple said, "Who is such a stupid man, bloody, that put such a stone on the way? Does he know that some blind people can walk here?" Parvati is holding like this. You see, I want to give, but they do not want to take. Won’t get black karmas. Always, when you come on the right place, such a thought, the spiritual path, is broken, gone forever. Again, Naraka, then again hope that you will come again out. That karma. If you understand this, then you will not have any, does not matter what happens, your doubt on it. But the instruction of their husband or wife, with the blindness of their ignorance, we will do, and we will do. We will not open eyes anymore. Bhagvān Śiva, sonā kī ḍhaḡlī karke, chale khaḍe hai udhar. Aur vo aṇḍe aṇḍī dono jā rahe the, to ṭhokar lag gayī. Thokar lagāyī to budhā andā akṣ bandh kyā huā? Kaitā kī ārāī harāmī khor pāpī ko kun aḍe bhaṭam e liyā? Thāne thākonī koī bachār andā log bhī eto unḍā jāve? Karma hīn kun heto thun āḍo. So we can walk and we can do. But suddenly, before we come to our aim, the curtain of the ignorance of the negative karmas is lifted, and something will happen, and even you do not realize it, but still you have the doubt. Therefore, be careful. Whatever you study, whatever you read, and whatever you hear, be careful. Do not create that golden heap and the black curtain in front of the eyes. The Bhagavān tilak, when you put it, when the vibration comes and destiny purifying black goes far and spiritual light goes up. Whenever we put a light, the flame goes up. Have you ever seen a light going down? It does not go down. It happens all the time. So light always goes up. We can light a candle and hold it. The flame will not go down; it will always go up. Similarly, spiritual thoughts, bhakti, jñāna, they will always uplift our consciousness. And as soon as you will hold down, it will go off, blow off. Therefore, meditation, but meditation can also lead you to the wrong way, the wrong thoughts, the dualities, the doubts, conflicts, many, many things. Anek janam dhoye man ko chithai ho to aise ho. Therefore, do not study hand to mouth, but from here to there. Uch vichār, higher thoughts. Simple life and higher thinking. So let’s see tomorrow where we go further. What kind of chapter did you not complete in your life? It is irritating your heart, irritating your consciousness, and when it comes to awareness, you are suffering. If you have not finished this, you cannot finish the second. So in the past there were many, but at least in this birth, whatever chapter you had, whatever part you had, whatever you were writing, you could not complete it. Now, how to start it again, or how to remove it? You cannot remove it. Evidence will never die. Evidence will never die. So, how are you going to delete all this bhakti, śakti, and accept? Phool tujhe chāḍhanā thā, vo phool maiṁ ḍhūṁḍan payā. That flower which I want to offer my Lord, I could not find. I walked country to country, forest, mountains, desert, shore to shore, door to door, but I did not find that flower which I wanted to give to you, my Lord. It is not that the flower is not there. It must have been my mistake that I missed it, or I could not see it. Therefore, Shrī Dheepanirāmañjana Prabhudeepanirāmañjana Isi Mantrasī Mañjana Isi Mantrasī Hovemana Mañjana Shrī Dheepanirāmañjana Sabadokap Prabhudeepanirāmañjana Shrī Dheepanārāyaṇa Bhagavānakī Devādhi Deva, Deveśvara, Mahādevakī Dharma Saṁbhārata, Satguru Svāmī, Madhavānandajī Bhagavānakī Satya Sanātana Dharma Kī Oṁ Śānti, Śānti, Śānti.

This text is transcribed and grammar corrected by AI. If in doubt what was actually said in the recording, use the transcript to double click the desired cue. This will position the recording in most cases just before the sentence is uttered.

The text contains hyperlinks in bold to three authoritative books on yoga, written by humans, to clarify the context of the lecture:

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