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Learn to endure

An evening discourse on enduring worldly life while seeking spiritual truth.

"Brahma satya, jagat mithyā. Brahman is the truth, and the world is unreality."

"Titikṣā means to be above everything. It means to endure all situations and circumstances in life while practicing ātma-cintan—reflecting on the self."

A speaker contemplates the day's theme, presenting the Vedantic teaching of the world's unreality against the palpable reality of human suffering and desire. He discusses the practice of endurance (titikṣā) and self-inquiry while living in the physical body, acknowledging the universal human complications and the longing for liberation (mokṣa kī icchā) from worldly troubles.

Recording location: Czech Republic, Strilky, Summer seminar

I can tell you only one thing, which I have been contemplating the entire day: what I will share with you this evening. We learn: "Brahma satya, jagat mithyā." Brahman is the truth, and the world is unreality. Yet, we still live in this physical world; we live with this physical body. This body has its own nature, composed of the five tattvas. It experiences hunger, thirst, sensations of cold and heat, anger, jealousy, desires, likes, and dislikes. These are present, so we are tested by this world. As long as we live in a physical body, we can, with strong viveka (discernment) and a strong intellect, choose yes or no. We can train ourselves in titikṣā. Titikṣā means to be above everything. It means to endure all situations and circumstances in life while practicing ātma-cintan—reflecting on the self, contemplating, "Who am I?" Not this body, not this mind, not these desires or senses, but I am the ātmā. Yet, even thinking this way, you cannot run away from your body. In Jñāna Yoga, among its last four principles, the fourth practice is to have mokṣa kī icchā—a longing, a desire for liberation. It is the desire for freedom. "Kab hove jag dukh chhūṭkārā?" O Lord, when will I be free from the suffering of this world? "Kab hove jag dukh chhūṭkārā?" Whether you are at home or in the forest, whether living a household life or a holy monastic life, you are not free from these duḥkhas. Troubles are there. But ātma-cintan means that here and now, we try to direct all our concentration and all our energy toward liberation. There are certain points in life, moments when we feel happy, and times when we feel unhappy. Many people long to get married, and many, after marriage, become very unhappy. Why did they marry? The world situation has changed a lot throughout the entire world. This is saṃsāra; this is where everything is mixed. What you do not want to happen will happen, and what you would like to happen may not. Everything has its time; everything comes and goes. But a person, after passing through all those 8 million, 400 thousand milestones, is on the best path to exit that circle. It is not so easy. Therefore, to learn to endure is not easy. And human nature is this: when we have something, we do not know its value, and when we do not have it, we cry for it. That is the nature of human complication. --- Recording location: Czech Republic, Strilky, Summer seminar

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.

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