Podcast details
About elephant
Your discrimination is a mighty elephant, unmoved by external influence. Brainwashing does not exist for one who knows reality. You must respect the multiplicity within unity, like the many limbs of one body. You exist as a physical being and cannot neglect it, just as the universe is maintained by many forces. You must become aware of all to maintain harmony. The Purāṇas can be misunderstood; everyone describes God differently, like an elephant.
A story tells of men selling an elephant. A man examined it, claiming to find a mistake, and was paid to stay silent. He finally confessed his confusion: he could not tell its front from its back. The sellers took his money and gave a trivial answer: the side it walks toward is the front. This illustrates our confusion about God. We ask which religious path to take, but you will not understand God that way. God is different. Understand through your mind and discrimination. Train the mind to have knowledge, choice, and argument.
"Your discrimination, your Viveka, is like a mighty elephant in its decisions. No one can move you."
"God is like an elephant; everyone has a different explanation."
Filming location: Strilky, Czech Republic
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:
- Yoga in Daily Life - The System
Paramhans Swami Maheshwarananda. Ibera Verlag, Vienna, 2000. ISBN 978-3-85052-000-3 - The Hidden Power in Humans - Chakras and Kundalini
Paramhans Swami Maheshwarananda. Ibera Verlag, Vienna, 2004. ISBN 978-3-85052-197-0 - Lila Amrit - The Divine Life of Sri Mahaprabhuji
Paramhans Swami Madhavananda. Int. Sri Deep Madhavananda Ashram Fellowship, Vienna, 1998. ISBN 3-85052-104-4
