Class at Ilya State University

Introduction to the systematic framework

0:00Some introductions of humanism but rather than repeating

0:06some platitudes or some common beliefs which are floating all over the internet about Hinduism, I will try to give a unified conceptual framework which is not so common when people study Hinduism, sometimes they don't understand the system.

0:31So I will try to provide a systematic approach to what Hinduism is.

0:38I will in the beginning very briefly I will list the core beliefs of Hinduism very logical and rational and then explain how these core beliefs are interwoven into the real tradition, the tradition of worship, tradition of spiritual

1:05practices so that will be uh uh the topic of my discussion today so as you know Hinduism is the third largest religion of the world and the most ancient one.

1:25You know, among of course the Abrahamic traditions like Muslim faith and Christianity and Judaism they constitute the majority of religions. But nevertheless Hindus are quite a significant number of people.

1:50It's 1.2 billion people all over the world. Before they were mostly concentrated in India, but nowadays they are spread all over the world, and as you see even here in Tbilisi, there are some.

2:10And it's the most ancient tradition according to the conservative estimation, it's at least 8,000 years old in the most ancient book of Hinduism, Rigveda, Saraswati River is frequently mentioned. Around 4,000 years back.

2:38So during the time of Rig Bed, the Saraswati River was the most prominent river in Indian subcontinent. It was around 8 kilometers wide. It was a huge river.

2:52So, you know, it took some time for it to dry up. Therefore, they say that it's at least 8 to 10,000 years old. But according to Hindu tradition itself, it has no beginning. And therefore it's called Sanātana dharma.

Etymology of the word Hindu

3:11The word Sanatana means eternal and Dharma means religion, dharma means duty, dharma means something which upholds the truths.

3:25So from the very beginning I should mention that the very word Hinduism is actually not the proper denomination for this tradition.

3:38Because Hinduism appeared the word Hindu appeared from the Muslim invaders who were staying outside of the river Sindhu, and they called the river Sindhu Hindu, and all the people who were on the other side of River Sindh they called them Hindu.

4:02Therefore, it's in one sense Hinduism an artificial construct. Artificial in the sense that there was never such unified religion as such in India.

4:21But nevertheless, it has some merits to call people Hindus, even though there are so many different denominations, different varieties of beliefs and traditions and practices. Nevertheless, there is a lot in common.

4:44We can see, you know, this is Kumbhamela, the most famous religious festival in India where uh literally 10 to 20 million people gather at one point in the confluence of Ganga and Yamuna.

5:04And there basically it's a market, it's a fair, spiritual fair, where different Hindus, quote unquote, demonstrate their different traditions, which are of course quite strikingly different.

5:22You can see all kinds of strange people, strangely looking people, and with their strange expressions of face. But as I say, nevertheless, Hindus or Hindu tradition can be succinctly expressed

5:45through some core beliefs and uh I count here uh eight main tenets of uh Hindu faith which is shared, which are shared by all the Hindus, so to speak.

6:05The first and most important common point among different denominations in India is the belief in Vedas. Vedas as holy scriptures.

6:18And of course, not only Vedas, Vedas are huge, Vedas themselves are huge, but there is a huge scriptural tradition which is grown up on the basis of the Vedas itself. Puranas, Itihasas, Agamas, Smriti Shastras.

6:36It's an ocean of books, ancient books which contain the ancient wisdom. So the first common belief is that Vedas reveal the truth.

6:52The truth is contained in the scriptures, and of course, one has to find a way to discover this truth.

All-pervading spirit and individual soul

7:02But the belief in Vedas is most fundamental for all people of Indian subcontinent. I mean who belong to quote unquote Hinduism.

7:14The next very important tenet of Hinduism is that there is an all-pervading spirit, the origin and the source of everything that exists, and it's called differently. But this spirit is one.

7:33It can be, oh, it can be called God, it can be called differently, Brahman, Atman, Paramātmā, Bhagavan, Ishvara.

7:39Īśvara means controller, Bhagavān means the personal God, Paramātmā means the super soul or the soul, supreme soul of the universe. So that's the second core belief.

7:54The third core belief is that there is an individual soul. We all are spiritual beings. This individual soul is called ātmā, and literally if we translate the word ātmā from Sanskrit, it means something dynamic.

8:12According to, uh, Hindu philosophy, uh, matter is dull, but the spirit is dynamic, spirit is developing, and we can

8:23see or we can recognize the presence of the spirit by the fact that something is developing, something in the matter. Like human beings, we are growing, we produce some byproducts, some uh children and so on so forth.

8:38So ātmā means, uh, uh, the living force which is dynamic, jīva means something which is living, which lives and which develops. So it's a very important tenet that the soul is different from the matter.

8:58It's distinct and it's the source of consciousness. Consciousness is not a byproduct or not an emergent quality of matter. It's a very distinct property of the soul.

9:13So whatever we see around us is the combination of matter and soul which have opposing qualities. So the presence of the soul enlivens the material body, and most importantly, the soul is not created.

9:32That's the difference between Christianity and Hindu tradition. They don't say that at one point the soul was created. It has never been created, it's eternal, it's coexistent with God, it's a manifestation of divinity.

9:51So the fourth most important uh belief is of course uh transmigration of the soul or incarnation. It's a very common nowadays. And, uh, in the Vedas it is said that there are 8,400,000 species of life.

10:10And the soul, the eternal particle of consciousness, can go through this evolutionary cycle till it reaches the certain stage and then it may get liberated.

10:25But otherwise it can rotate in this cycle of birth and death among this eight million species of life. So that's the symbolic description of reincarnation.

10:43The soul is the same, the same soul is the is in the body of small child, and the same soul is in the body of dying man. But then when the soul dies, it is born again.

11:01And then the fifth most fundamental core belief of Hinduism is that the transmigration of the soul, reincarnation of the soul is governed by the law of karma. The law of karma is the universal law of cause and effect.

11:21And basically, it's uh the uh if we speak in the uh language of the Bible uh what you you sow you will reap, you will reap what you sow.

Cyclic time and universe creation

11:35So it's the cause and effect uh law which governs the transmigration of the soul. The sixth uh important belief is that the material universe is also eternal.

11:52It was created at one point, but it undergoes the endless cycle of creation, preservation, and dissolution.

12:02Again, it's a striking difference between Abrahamic tradition which state that the material universe or the planet which we live in was created at one point and nothing was there before and God knows what will be there after.

12:24But again according to Hindu belief the matter is eternal, it's the energy of God, but it undergoes the cycles of creation, preservation, and dissolution, and it's a long cycles, long enough for us to not understand that it's cyclic.

12:48Uh because when the you know when we imagine a circle of a very big diameter. We will not be able to see that it's a circle. We only will see the linear portion in front of us.

13:07Therefore, this linear belief in linear time is understandable from our limited point of view, but according to the uh scriptures of ancient India, the time is eternal and time is cyclic, and therefore, there is a rotation of this cycle in the universe in general.

13:28And then the seventh most important belief, and uh yeah, that's the one before last, there is uh 8 altogether. There is a way to counteract karma.

13:42Even though uh this rotation in this circle of birth Even though uh this rotation in this circle of birth and death is eternal, there is a way to counteract karma, and the way to counteract karma is called dharma. or obligations which we have to fulfill or religious duties which we have to do. Certain ethical principles which we have to follow.

14:14And the final the final common belief for all people who consider themselves Hindus, is that the success of human life is achieved by attaining moksha or liberation, salvation from this circle of uh or cycle of births and deaths.

14:41So, this more or less endless cycle can be broken by certain spiritual discipline, and this liberation uh implies re-establishment very specific relationship with the soul or between the soul and divinity or God and individual soul.

Combination of soul and matter

15:08So that's the the introduction to the core beliefs.

15:14And now uh I'm coming to the most important part of this little presentation of Hinduism: how to make sense of uh different varieties of faiths, how how they are unified together, and is there any sense in it?

15:34Because again, externally people are quite bewildered when they see this display of different traditions, beliefs, rituals, so on so forth.

15:49So, a very important uh philosophical point which we have to understand before we understand the system of the elevation of spirit according to Hinduism.

16:08As I said, the living entity in this material world, specifically the human beings, but not only human beings, is the combination of soul and matter, spirit and matter.

16:20And matter is dead, matter is unconscious, uh, it's uh becoming conscious only because of the presence of the soul. Uh but when the soul is in the body, it identifies with the body.

16:37Psychologically, we completely identify with the body.

16:42If somebody will ask us who we are, we will start to designate ourselves according to uh the uh characteristics of our body. I am such and such, I have uh you know I lived uh so many years here, I belong to this country.

17:01So it's not all the characteristics of the soul. This identification with the body is extremely strong and deep.

17:10And therefore, every human being, all of us included, has two main tendencies, which are quite opposing to each other.

17:23One tendency is material tendency and this material tendency is according to the uh demands of our body. Our body needs to eat, our body needs to sleep, our body needs to have sex, uh defend itself and all these tendencies of material enjoyment, or as Christianity say, the urges of the flesh is the tendency of the matter.

17:55We want to enjoy and we want to lord it over. We have to have some power. That's a very important point of our uh you know of our uh understanding of what life is all about.

18:11And then there is a quite opposing tendency, spiritual tendency, and every one of us has some sort of devotion, some sort of uh you know worshipable object. Uh people are worshipers.

18:29And in Bhagavad-gītā Krishna says that we are made, the soul is made of faith. Śraddhāmayāḥ puruṣāḥ. Puruṣa, the soul is made of faith, we do believe that there is a higher power. We do believe that there is God.

18:48And we do believe that there is an inner need for us to surrender to Him, to enter into some kind of relationship with him or to feel the protection of this supreme power.

19:03So these two tendencies uh uh they constitute the problem of the human being. We all know that uh we want to serve as uh it is said in uh uh in the Bible again uh we want to serve two lords.

19:23We want to serve this matter and we want to serve God. So how to combine this and how to uh to use the friction between these two tendencies for the development of the soul.

19:40How to uh not to negate the problem of material needs which we have, and at the same time, how to ensure and facilitate the development and evolution of the spirit.

Panchopasana framework for spiritual evolution

19:54So this is what Hinduism is all about, and the system which I want to present, the conceptual system, which is very interesting and which can be used when we classify different religions of the world, uh, is called in Sanskrit pañcopāsanā, or the five stages of development of consciousness, and the five corresponding forms of divinity or the five conceptions of divinity which people naturally develop when they are situated in a certain stage of spiritual development. So that's what I'm going to talk now.

20:43What is this pañcopāsanā or five kinds of worship? And if you understand this, we will very clearly understand uh the varieties of different denominations in India and how they are actually one phase uh in gradual stages of development from lower stages to the most elevated development of spirit.

21:12So this is explained in this quote, I will not probably read this quote.

21:19The pañcopāsanā, according to this quote, is the five mental attitudes which is natural to people uh on uh certain stages of their spiritual development and basically oh I guess. Okay. Anyway, uh so uh we can classify people according to the six stages of development.

21:52Of course there are so many different ways to classify different people, but according to their identification with matter, according to the extent how they identify with the matter, we can classify them as materialists.

22:14Those people who completely identify with the material body, they tend not to follow any moral principles. They just want to gratify their senses and they tend to be atheistic.

22:29So then on a certain level, people don't know what is the divinity, they have some intuition that there is a higher force, but they don't really understand what it is and they call themselves agnostics.

22:44They say I don't know whether God is there or not, maybe it's not clear to me. These people they less identify with the matter, and they are more moral, absolutely more moral.

23:01The most famous agnostic of the world is Emmanuel Kant, who was famous for his morality. They may not believe in God, but they do believe that we should live clean and moral life.

23:17The third stage of development of spirit or when the degree of identification with the matter lessens, people understand that consciousness is different from the matter. That the consciousness which I have is different and it's governed by different set of laws and they try to follow certain religious principles.

23:46For them, morality is not a relative concept. Morality is the manifestation of the eternal moral law which is there, which is instituted by God Himself.

24:04And then there is people on the fourth stage of development, people who just want salvation, who want to be saved, who want liberation, if we use Hindu nomenclature, salvationism.

24:21And then there's people who want to practice devotion, to express devotion, like in Christianity or Muslim faith. That's the fifth stage of development.

24:33And then the most spontaneous expression of devotion, which is called love of God, is the highest stage according to this classification.

24:44Please don't take me wrong, I don't want to denigrate some people on the lower stages of development. This is just a natural classification of people according to the extent they identify themselves as the body.

24:59The soul identified with the body. So oh yeah so that's what was missing okay so immoral at least, moral at least moral peace salvationists practitioners of devotion and then lovers of God.

25:22So, as I said, you know, the difference in the extent of the identification with the body on the first stage, this complete identification on the second stage, they identify themselves more with the living energy, more with the mental processes, but also with the living energy within themselves, then on the third level, the identification is more with the mind, with the moral principles and the social interactions.

26:03On the fourth stage, they distinguish quite clearly the consciousness from the matter, so they identify themselves with the spirit and therefore they realize that the spirit can exist without matter.

26:20It doesn't have to be connected with the matter to exist. They believe firmly in the eternity of the soul and the possibility of the soul to exist outside of the body.

26:35So on the fifth stage, when the identification with the body lessens even more, then there is clear understanding that there is God and I belong to God. I do not belong to this material world. This material world is not my eternal place of existence.

26:55And then finally, on the sixth stage of development, God becomes the object of pure love. The connection between the soul and God becomes very strong and very emotional.

27:12And we know that the saints of different traditions they achieve this very elevated state of the development of spirit, which is different from the body.

Four primary goals of human life

27:27So that's basically The system according to which we will be able to make sense of different Hindu traditions.

27:39According to Vedic scriptures, the Hindu scriptures themselves, all human beings have four basic goals in life: everyone wants some enjoyment.

27:54We want to have a nice life, uh, good life, we want to have some good food, uh, sex, and so on and so forth. Uh then everyone has also some tendency to express themselves through morality.

28:13We all understand that morality is a very important part of our life. That's the second goal. Kama is enjoyment. The second goal is dharma, morality.

28:26Uh third goal is prosperity, artha. We want to be prosperous, we want to have some economic development, we want to have nice a apartment, nice business, so on and so forth.

28:39And then ultimately we want liberation because in this material world, no matter how happy we are, we still have to die. We still have to have disease. Our body becomes crippled at one point.

28:55And some people develop very strong desire for some eternal life. That's the fourth goal of human life. Kama, Dharma, Artha, and Moksha. According to Vedic tradition, the highest goal of human life is liberation.

29:15But uh liberation has two kinds. One is impersonal liberation when खाल soul is just merges into divinity, it loses its individual existence and becomes you know unified spirit, so to speak.

29:33And then there is personal liberation when we uh retain our personal identity but this identity is not material identity, this identity is spiritual identity.

29:45And then the most elevated state is when we are not completely totally spiritual, not when we reestablished our spiritual identity, but we defined ourselves in relationship with God. That's the fifth stage of development.

30:07And according to this ladder of development of spirit, there are this five kinds of worship, Panchuvasana. And there is the fifth kind of worship.

30:22And all different denominations in India can very neatly fit into this system of five kinds of worship and as I said, this Panchivasana is the classical understanding of Vedic scriptures.

30:38It's the worship of Devi or Shakta Dharma, Shakti, material energy. Then the worship of Sun God. And again, it's not Sun God proper, it's the manifestation of divinity in the form of the Sun.

30:59It's completely incorrect understanding that Hindus believe in many gods. Yes, there are many different forms of God, but God is one.

31:09And these different forms of God is nothing but different conceptions of divinity which people naturally develop on certain stage of their spiritual evolution.

31:24So then Gaṇeśa, all those people who superficially familiar with Hinduism, they identify Hindus as the worshippers of some elephant-like god and they find it very peculiar and humorous

31:48uh then there is Śiva and then there is uh Viṣṇu, vaiṣṇava dharma and then uh there is uh conception of god in the form of uh krishna or rather than Krishna.

Gradual elevation through integrated practices

32:00And I will explain these five forms very briefly for our understanding.

32:08So why it is necessary, what I want to explain here, this is the most important point of the whole presentation, is that we have these two tendencies.

32:22And in some religious beliefs, people and they tend to reject our material identity completely.

32:32They say body is bad, body is dirty, it's sinful, there is nothing good about body, and they try to go somewhere in a secluded place and they condemn the flesh and the urges of the flesh.

32:50The approach of Hinduism is completely different and very ingenious.

32:56It takes into consideration our material identity and material needs and says that if we marry these two tendencies, tendency to gratify the body and a tendency to worship the higher force.

33:14And if we do it properly, then the spirit, the soul, will gradually gradually come from stage to stage and ultimately will come to the desirable stage of complete des identification with the body.

33:34The desirable stage is the same. If we take Christianity, Christianity, the ideal of Christianity, I'm not this body, I am spirit soul, I'm spirit. I'm I want to be with God.

33:48But Hinduism is teaching people how to gradually elevate yourself through this system of worship.

33:57So Hinduism is nothing but the evolutionary ladder of different traditions or different practices which help oneself to achieve completely spiritual goal.

34:11And of course, it all very much based on the understanding that we are not living once. We live many times and we have many opportunities to develop ourselves.

34:22And in fact, this whole material creation is created by God, even though it was not well, it was created, uh is created by God for our spiritual development. It's the ultimate purpose of the creation.

34:40So when we take this material tendency for sense enjoyment, which is the characteristic of immoralities. People who completely identify with the flesh, with the body.

34:54And if we marry it with the tendency to worship some higher force, uh for them the understanding of divinity is this material energy.

35:08The matter, the material energy, the vast material energy with its powers is the maximum how they can imagine God. So all these worshipers of uh yeah, this is okay.

35:27So we're dealing with this lower stage of spiritual development when people completely identify with the body, when the needs for sense gratification is very strong, and for them it's kind of uh natural to understand uh that the divinity is this matter.

35:48There are so many philosophers like you know, Spinoza philosophy, that the matter is God, that ultimate this pantheism. So we're starting our spiritual journey from this understanding that matter is God, material energy is God.

36:09And by worshipping matter through different methods, this method is called tantra, through some tantric worship, we can fulfill our desires. The main goal of worship is material enjoyment.

36:24We just want to enjoy, and you know, there are so many people even in Christianity. Why do they worship God? Because they want to fulfill their desires. My dear God, I'm such and such. Here's a candle for you.

36:40Please fulfill my desires. So, uh, this is a very low kind of worship, and sometimes people see these forms of worship in Hinduism and they kind of look down at it. What kind of religion it is, completely material.

36:56But that's in natural stage of development. Somewhere you have to develop your spiritual journey. You have to start your spiritual journey. And yes, there are some very obnoxious forms of worship on this point.

37:12In sometimes in the temples of Durga Devi, who is the Devi, the goddess of the material nature, they do animal sacrifice. You can go there and there is some bloodshed, and there are some goats and they you cut their head.

37:33So, but again, this is the lowest possible kind of worship. Not to stay on this stage but to go further. So, these people they say that there are nine forms of material energy.

37:53These nine forms come from the understanding there are three modes of material nature, sattva, which is uh very pure mode of material nature, rajas, which is uh passion, uh and the rest tamas very uh you know ignorant form of matter.

38:18So matter has uh nine manifestations. Uh three degrees of the manifestation of tamas, three degrees of manifestation of Rajas and three degrees of manifestation of sattva.

38:34So therefore they worship nine forms of Durga according to their desires. Shall I continue? So if they have very low kind of desires, they worship uh you know this ignorant tamastic forms of material energy.

38:57If they have more uh passionate desires, they worship this uh three forms of uh Durga which is uh which uh which are capable of fulfilling their desires. They want to be prosperous, they want uh money and so on and so forth.

39:14Or sometimes they worship Durga for knowledge. You know, sometimes students come and they do some puja, some worship of uh goddess to ensure that they have good exams. So it's all quite materialistic worship.

39:34And you know there are two kinds of worship, as I said: very pure Durga worship and uh quite tamasic Durga worship. Uh one should not be bewildered by this.

39:49And uh the very important understanding is that we should start somewhere and that's the point where we should start to weaken

40:01or slacken our identification with the body because when our material desires are very strong and if they're not fulfilled, it's not helpful for our spiritual development.

40:15To happily develop our spirit, we have to be basically satisfied, our basic needs and desires should be satisfied.

40:26And you know, very often people start worshiping God, even though it may be monotheistic religion, Abrahamic religion, but they still worship God just to fulfill their material desires.

Sun worship and Surya Namaskar practice

40:41And therefore, this is a necessary initial stage. So then when the spirit develops further, we understand that it's not enough just to satisfy my senses, to be happy in this world.

40:59I have to also take care, take into consideration other people who are around me. And therefore, we have to establish some rules. You know, I satisfy my senses here, and you satisfy my senses there and we don't clash.

41:18People understand that it's not enough just to roughly satisfy their senses, but it's important to establish some moral rules, uh, please don't do to me something which I don't like, and I promise to you that I will not do something which you don't like.

41:37You know, within my sphere of existence, I will gratify my senses, but I will not encroach on your right.

41:45You know, it's a very modern idea, like you know, Western democratic idea that you know, as long as we are not uh interfering with the gratification of other people, it's fine.

41:59Uh it's not a very high uh concept, but it's definitely better than the lower stage when people are completely unregulated.

42:11So that's as I said, that's understanding of divinity has the understanding of some God as the source of energy.

42:22Basically on the second stage of development you understand that it's much more important to develop the energy in the body rather than grossly gratify the senses of the body.

42:38People on this stage they want to live a healthy life, they're jogging, they're doing all kinds of exercises because they value more than the you know enjoyment of the flesh, the enjoyment of the energy, the usage of the energy.

42:58So they want to live a long life, healthy life, peaceful life, and they definitely want to fulfill one's desire and enjoyment as a result. So in this case, yeah.

43:14Uh yeah in this case uh the Vedas say that you worship sun god. You worship God as Sun God. It's the same God, but for you, the acceptable form or understandable form of divinity is Sun God.

43:35And you know there, are so many different forms of worship within Hinduism. I don't know. I I Hinduism, I'm not going to get into it.

43:44But one perhaps very important form of worship, you know, is this famous yoga exercise which is called Surya Namaskar? It's a very famous yogic tradition, but actually, it's the form of worship Surya. Surya means Sun God.

44:03And uh while doing this uh yogic exercise, you're supposed to chant uh in each uh posture a certain mantra uh which expresses certain aspect of God or divinity as sun.

44:22Like uh Om Basharai Namaha, I worship you who is full of energy, who is full of uh light. Or on Pushnana Maha, the sixth posture, Pushnana Maha. It's different mantras according to this worship.

44:44And you know, even though now people are doing it just as a physical exercise, initially, it was designed as spiritual practice to achieve the goal.

44:57And the goal of this stage of spiritual development is health, healthy long life, yogic powers, and happy social interactions. So that's the next stage of development with this Surya Namaskar.

45:18And also, Surya, it's also very interesting because Surya according to Vedic beliefs is the father of Yamaraja who is the Lord of death.

45:32Så surya is the father avinity or the aspect of divinity which judges our moral behaviour. Like also, this is a very common concept for Abrahamic beliefs as well that God is judge, He is judging our sins and our piety.

45:59So that's this level when we believe in morality, but we may or may not believe in God.

46:08It's interesting, I was in Israel and somebody told me in Israel that one rabbi who is of course you know the follower of Judaism, he says, Judaism is the best religion. Why? Because you don't have to believe in God to be a Jew.

46:31But you have to follow strict rules.

Ganesha worship and economic prosperity

46:34So there is a certain aspect of every religion which more or less stresses the following of the rules without stressing too much the nature of God Himself. You may not believe in God, but you still have to believe in the rules and the following of rules and morality.

46:58The next third stage, you're not too tired, are you? Shall I continue? Okay. So we are in the middle, but I think I will finish quickly.

47:13So the third stage of development of the spirit uh, and again uh, I want to remind you that development of spirit uh is measured uh by uh the degree of identification with the matter.

47:30The less the identification, the more developed spirit is. The next stage is when we identify more or less with the mind, not so much with the body.

47:45We are more or less living on the level of the mind, and we believe in God, we believe in morality. In the previous stage, we only believe in moral principles.

47:59And in the next stage we believe that there is God and it's important. But our understanding of God is the one who fulfills the desires of our mind.

48:12This is again very common and identifiable, easily identifiable stage of human development. When people are mostly concentrated in their mind, their mental constructs.

48:29So this is the third stage of development, yes, it's what is. Yeah. And it's called Tanapatya Dharma, and that's the level of the worship of Ganesh.

48:42And uh the corresponding goal of this worship is economic development, prosperity, wealth. And we know that ancient India was a very wealthy country, the most affluent and prosperous country of the world.

49:03So you know Ganesh has even more forms.

49:07Durga has nine forms, Surya has 12 aspects, 12 different uh manifestations according to the signs of zodiac and according to different you know manifestations of this energy of the sun. Ganesh has 32 forms.

49:27It basically means that our mind has many different forms. That's what it means.

49:35And he has two wives, the wives of Hindu gods, they're their energy, and these two wives, it's basically two main beliefs why people worship Ganesh. Sidi means success and Ridi means wealth.

49:56People on a certain stage they are ready to worship God, but their main focus is to achieve success in life and to achieve wealth, prosperity.

50:11And yeah, prosperity, material, and social well-being, not only material well-being but social well-being, all the nice interactions with other people in the society are important.

50:25And that's how they explain that Ganesh is the manifestation of God. This is the Om sign, and Om is the symbolic representation of one God. And they say that this one God manifests himself as the elephant god.

50:46And uh but this is a very symbolic figure. Uh it doesn't mean that uh Ganesh doesn't exist. Hindu firmly believe that he exists.

50:57But his whole you know this uh icons of Ganesh, they very importantly explain different features of human mind which is capable to achieve success in this world.

Symbolism of the elephant god

51:17What kind of mind you have to have to be successful in this world. You know, and this slide elaborately describes this. I will not go into details.

51:30I will say that the big ears of Ganesh means that you have to listen very carefully. You have to develop these listening skills.

51:41You know, and by interacting with this form of God, you develop certain kind of mentality which is conducive for your success.

51:59But it's very interesting why this form of God is half-man, half animal, according to the sages, ancient sages of India. They say this is the stage of development where our understanding is not completely human.

52:19We still identify quite strongly with the material elements of our body, but at the same time we do develop some certain more spiritual inclinations.

52:33So, yeah, another feature of this is large stomach of this elephant God.

52:41And large stomach basically means that Ganesh can digest good and bad in life. He has very strong digestive powers and it means that through going through these experiences, bad and good one can one is able to deal with these experiences.

53:04He is not completely frustrated by some bad occurrences in his life and not very enamored by the good occurrences, he's digesting them and he's firm in his uh determination.

53:19Anyway, this is uh the symbolic explanation of this uh figure of God and this is different uh different features of God and different names according to the different desires of people.

53:36And then the fourth stage of spiritual development is that uh stage when the human being clearly understands I'm not this body. But he doesn't have a very clear understanding of what his soul is.

53:56He has rather vague understanding of spirit. It's something impersonal, something vague. And this is the stage of shiva worship or Shiva puja.

54:11You know when we uh conceive God as somebody impersonal as some impersonal spirit which doesn't have any shape, any form, so on so forth.

54:28So this Shiva Dharma and the Shaiva Dharma, Dharma of Lord Shiva, I'm sure you you've seen uh these icons or these statues of Lord Shiva, especially in Hrishikesh.

54:43The whole Himalayas are full of uh people who worship Shiva, their understanding is that you know I'm spirit, but I'm not quite clear what kind of spirit I am, and therefore they completely identify themselves with God.

55:02And therefore, when they worship Shiva, they worship him in abstract form. Shiva Lingam is nothing but the abstract disk of divinity.

55:18Because at this stage of development, we don't yet see the divine spirit very clearly, we only see vague understanding and therefore the worship is also quite vague.

55:35Anyway, so the most famous slogans of this stage of development: Aham Brahmasmi. I am Spirit, I am the soul, Shiva Ham, I am Shiva, Soham, I am He.

55:49Tat asi, you are that, you are thou. So this is all the stages of this impersonal, and most often

55:57So this is all the stages of this impersonal, and most often people they identify the whole Hinduism with this understanding. They think that all the Hindus they uh think that uh God is some something impersonal. But it's not.

56:17It's a certain stage of development where people want some liberation. And ultimately spiritual suicide, because they do want to finish their individual existence.

56:29They think that individual existence is the source of miseries and therefore they want to merge into the spirit. This is a quote from Mahopanishad, Shaiva Upanishad, which explains this kind of religion, so to speak, or this kind of branch of religion, of Hindu religion.

56:55By meditating on the Supreme Lord Shiva with three eyes and blue throat, accompanied by his consort Uma, who is inconceivable, invisible, peaceful, with countless form, eternal, without beginning, middle or end, the one powerful entity composed of knowledge and bliss, the astonishing person with no form, the sage attains the original source beyond the material realm.

57:26He is all beings who have appeared in the past and who will appear in the future. Knowing him once surpasses this, there is no other path for liberation. So that's a very clear concept of divinity.

57:42When uh you know we all want, we ultimately want to finish our individual existence and merge into this original divinity which has no form and which has so many forms and uh so on so forth as explained here.

Vishnu worship and personal liberation

57:59So it's a spiritual understanding, purely spiritual understanding, but quite indistinct. And then the fifth stage of development I only have two more to go uh before I finish my presentation.

58:19Uh it's just a couple of minutes more.

58:24So, when we understand that the soul is different from God, that the soul is eternally a little spark of spirit, atom of spirit, we develop this mode of surrender and service, and that's the mode of monotheistic religions.

58:47If we take Christianity, Christianity speaks about this service to God and service to uh you know to others.

58:57So this is the concept when God is all-powerful, all-knowing, and all-pervading, and that's the God which rules this material world. That's not the ultimate aspect of God, but it's a very elevated concept

59:13of God: God who is the ruler of this world. He's not God for Himself, but He is God for us. He has created this world and He is ruling this world, and we have to surrender to Him.

59:27And that's the level of devotional service and that's the level of Vaishnava Dharma or Vishnu worship. So we had Devi worship, had Surya worship, Sun God, Ganesh worship, Shiva worship, and ultimately Shiva worship.

59:44Oh sorry, Vishnu worship, who is the sattvic worship. So basically, very clear understanding that I'm consciousness and I'm eternally individual. I will never be able to completely destroy my individuality.

1:00:04I remain as I am and God will remain as He is. The question is not to destroy my uh identity, the question is to restore my spiritual identity. That's the uh The level of this development, the fifth level of development.

1:00:26So the concept of divinity is all-pervading, all-knowing, all-powerful, personal God who is called Vishnu, the very word Vishnu means all-pervading. And it means that He is all-knowing because He is in everyone's heart.

1:00:41So Vishnu is not a sectarian name, it's the name of God which manifests these aspects of divinity: all-pervading, all-knowing, all-powerful, creator, maintainer, and destroyer of this universe.

1:00:57And very important mode of worship here is of course worship in the temple. There are so many Hindu temples, hearing devotional discourses like Mahābhārata, Rāmāyaṇa and chanting of the names of God.

1:01:13And the goal of this worship is personal liberation in the spiritual world. When I completely reestablish my spiritual identity and go to the spiritual realm of existence.

1:01:27And this is the form of God because He is not only all powerful and all-knowing, but He is all merciful, He comes periodically to this world. And therefore, there is concept of avatāras.

1:01:41Avatāra means when God comes here and manifests some of his pastimes, some of his līlās uh as they say uh for the salvation of human being uh that's why he is uh most powerful and most merciful at the same time.

1:02:02He comes here personally. And that's Lakshmi Narayan form of God, of this kind of understanding or concept of divinity.

Pure divine love and Krishna worship

1:02:14Or this aspect of God as all-powerful, all-knowing and all-merciful.

1:02:20And then the sixth and last stage of human development or spiritual development when we're completely uh done with the identification with this with the matter.

1:02:37Even in the fifth stage of uh development, uh people understand God as somebody who is only related to this world. They don't explain really what is going on in the spiritual realm, what it means to be God for Himself.

1:02:59They know what it means to be God for this world, how to judge people, how to you know rule this world.

1:03:08But they don't understand what is the spiritual realm, which is according to Vedic scriptures constitutes three fours of creation. Only one fourth is the material realm. And three fourths the spiritual realm.

1:03:25And in this form, God is only beautiful, blissful God.

1:03:33And He's called Krishna. Krishna means all attractive, very beautiful, and blissful God. He is bliss personified. He is bliss for himself and he is giving bliss to others, therefore he is love personified.

1:03:50That's the conception of God as love. He is enjoying his love, he is giving his love, and he is accepting love of all the souls.

1:04:00And the main worship uh to this uh uh kind of divinity is chanting of the names of God and service uh service of God in particular mood.

1:04:11And prayojana the goal of this worship is one-pointed love of God, complete self-dedication to this God.

1:04:21And we see that the saintly people in all religious traditions that strive to achieve this stage of spiritual development. That's the description of God for Himself.

1:04:33He is playing flute and he is surrounded by those who love him.

1:04:39And according to again Hindu scriptures, this is the essence of God: His beauty, His kindness, His mercy is the most importante feature of God: not his power, not his all-pervasiveness, but his beauty.

1:05:01That's the essence of God, and therefore this form of God's worship is considered according to Hindu tradition the highest form of worship.

1:05:12The sweetness is the quintessence of God's qualities, the essence of all qualities. And very important, I'm practically done with this presentation. Very important conclusion which can be derived from this.

1:05:30So So, you know, we can see that different people are on different levels of their spiritual development. We cannot really expect that all people will believe in the same God.

1:05:45Or we cannot expect that all people will believe in the same God in the same way as others. We cannot really demand from them because there is an objective or subjective need for certain relationship with this divinity.

1:06:02And Hinduism just recognizes this fact and facilitates the worship of people on different stages of the development to help them to go further. That's what Hinduism is all about.

1:06:16Hinduism is about the spiritual development, the evolution of the soul and the concept of God also evolve according to our level of understanding.

1:06:30And the most important quote in this regard from Rigveda, Ekam sat Viprah Pahudava Danti. Truth is one. The wise people describe it in various ways.

1:06:43This verse from Rigveda, the complete version of this verse they say that they call him Indra, King of Heavens, Mitra, Sun God, Varuna, the water god, the ocean god, Agni, fire God. And he is the beautiful heavenly Garuda. He's the truth, uh but different people, different wise people describe him differently. They call him Agni God of Fire, Yama God of Death, and Matarishwan the god of air.

1:07:22But actually they are talking about one god, one divinity manifested in different ways according to the desires of different worshipers and different people.

1:07:33And therefore, it's a very common feature of Hinduism is that religious tolerance is ingrained into the spirit of people who are uh it's embedded in uh Hindu people, people who are following Hindu religion.

1:07:52I'm just giving this is the last quote in my presentation. I'm giving quote of one quite modern teacher of our tradition who says: if somebody. The people are worshipping my Lord but in a different way.

1:08:18Because of my different training, I cannot quite comprehend this system of worship. However, through this experience, I can deepen my appreciation of my own system of worship. The Lord is one, not two.

1:08:34I offer respect to the form I see here and pray to the Lord in this new form that He increase my love for the Lord in his accustomed form.

1:08:49And the quote goes on it says that those people who denigrate other faiths who become fanatical worship who say that other people they're just ignorant, only my way is correct. They only create disturbances and they don't achieve the final goal, love of God, because they don't develop proper relationship with other people.

1:09:14So this kind of understanding gives you the framework by which you will be able to respect, worship of other people, respect other religions and live in peace with other people as Hindu people showed through the many thousands of years of their history.

Questions on Christianity and rational spirituality

1:09:35So that's basically the presentation which I wanted to share with you in general about the core beliefs of Hindus and how the different denominations within Hinduism can be reconciled by this understanding of the evolution of the spirit. Thank you very much.

1:10:10First of all, thank you very much for such divine lecture because for me it's incredible how you manage uh to put in one hour so much information. That's why I have a question.

1:10:22Uh maybe do I have uh YouTube channel where uh I can re-listen uh this lecture sure if uh maybe I do have yes some somebody share it uh yeah for everybody for those who's the second question.

1:10:42Sankaro, Georgia is a Christian country and how this knowledge um you said uh sarana uh can be useful for Christian people and uh I understand that it's uh not a problem to uh get more information and use it in uh self uh for for self to increase and See, Hinduism is a very philosophical and very scientific tradition with a lot of um you know insights into the nature of reality and spiritual reality and material reality, like yoga, astrology, different disciplines are very useful.

1:11:37So it's you know, as I try to explain, uh Christianity fits into the scheme. It's a monotheistic belief in God, which is natural for people on a certain level of spiritual development.

1:11:56If you understand the scientific principles behind the spiritual science, it will be helpful.

1:12:03I know many people who said I read the Bible and then I read Bhagavad-gītā, and after reading Bhagavad-gītā, I understand uh what they say in the Bible much more clearly.

1:12:14Because uh the scientific or rational system, this is actually what made me quote unquote Hindu. I never imagined that I would become Hindu. I just read Bhagavad-gītā and I thought it's very rational.

1:12:28I'm a scientist by my background, and I would not be satisfied with some religious superstitions or some beliefs which say, you know, just believe or otherwise you will go to hell.

1:12:45So I was very happy to understand that spirituality can be described in a very rational way.

1:12:54And this rational approach to spirituality is helpful because actually, if we understand the principles of this approach, we can understand how other religions also basically talking about the same principles.

1:13:13But But maybe in a less clear way. Not so clearly identifying these principles. Thank you.

Questions on atheism morality and empathy

1:13:30Yes, sir. Uh I have I have a question. What would it be if I'm a F-H not agnostic atheists, as you mentioned.

1:13:43But I'm just saying so that we believe in God does not believe that God is something spiritual. How do you see me? Who I am and how do I live? What is the way of living for me?

1:13:57You mentioned that atheists have no morals, but I framed that at least as moral, inner moral, how they live. No, no.

1:14:05Yeah, there are different atheists. And there are some atheists who have morals. As I said, there are immoral atheists who only believe in gratification of their flesh. They're very selfish.

1:14:19But some of them are not selfish. Yeah, those people who are not selfish, they're moral.

1:14:29It's uh personally No no this was just an example. Yeah yeah, yeah I was standard. Yeah I just don't believe in but see most of that is they're moral people.

1:14:42Especially living in the uh in the cities, you know, civilized people. Um when I'm talking about immoral at least I'm talking about very specific kind of uh species of life which is not very common.

1:14:58The majority of people they belong to the second stage of development. They believe in morals. They believe that we should live moral life.

1:15:08But uh the understanding of morality is relative. That's the only problem which I see with this. You know, it's very good. Uh we can live a nice clean life, you know, being moral ateists. We don't have to believe in God.

1:15:27But unfortunately, because of this relative concept of morality, since there is no morality is not absolute, it's more or less human cons conventions.

1:15:41We more or less, you know, agree that this is what the moral is and, uh what is moral now may not be moral, you know, in 20 years. Our moral principles m may be different at that time.

1:15:59So, with this understanding of relative morality, the tendency will be to lower and lower and lower the standard of morality. We can see how it goes on unfortunately.

1:16:15We uh by lowering this uh level of morality, uh we say, yeah, this is okay, this is fine. You know, and uh by lowering the level of morality, we deprive ourselves.

1:16:28The main as I said, actually we do have every one of us, no matter whether we believe on God or not, in God or not, uh, we do have some spiritual aspirations. We do want.

1:16:45We may not believe in God, but we want we believe in some higher purpose, we want to sacrifice ourselves.

1:16:53You know, the relative concept of morality will inevitably bring the tendency to low this and to lower the standard of morality and therefore the expression of our spiritual side will also be less prominent.

1:17:12Like for example, if we take anyway, you know we can take any good literature. Georgian literature or whatever, Milton uh Lost Paradise or whatever good poem.

1:17:30We see a very clear expression of spirituality even within the framework of uh material life. You know, even people again they don't have to believe in God, but they will express their spiritual side.

1:17:49But the extent to which they will be able to express their spirituality within the material life very much depends on the level of morality which they follow.

1:18:02If the moral principles are very high, they will live more fulfilling life.

1:18:08And ultimately, this more fulfilling in pure life uh will bring some intuition that there is some some sort of power and will bring them to the next stage. Yes, soon soon.

1:18:24Um what about uh how do you see it is the kind of effort for the jump? Again, effort? I think I'm very good. Um by empathy. Do you think or you do it by well, as I try to explain in case of Ganesha, that the form of Ganesha.

1:19:11Definitely.

1:19:12As I uh I try to explain this that on a certain level of our spiritual development, which according to this system corresponds to Ganesha worship, you will try your emphasis will be to develop certain good qualities.

1:19:30And empathy is definitely one of the most beautiful qualities which we have, and therefore Ganesh has big ears because empathy starts with the ability to hear.

1:19:41When we hear somebody and try to really understand what is behind what people say. So empathy is a natural stage of spiritual development.

1:19:53Those people who are grossly identifying with the body, they're not very, you know it's very difficult for them to develop empathy because their consciousness is engrossed in the matter.

1:20:07To develop empathy, you have to be somewhat distant from the body, and therefore you will be able to hear what others can say, and therefore you will be able to help them.

Questions on soul evolution across lifetimes

1:20:20So it's definitely it's a quality on a third stage of spiritual development which is there which I explained. First of all, thank you so much. First, I have two different uh questions.

1:20:41Um first um I want you to ask about these six pages.

1:20:48I don't I'm not sure that I understand completely. Do you mean that these stages are like transitional stages, like the goal with the six term and it's super curve and you should start or I don't know someone may start from the search stage I don't know why it's he or she on the third state at the beginning and the aim then the go aim is to like reach the last one or someone needs to start from first and thank you.

1:21:26As I said, there is a concept of transmigration of the soul. We're not living for the first time in this world. We came with certain qualities.

1:21:39And we know some people are born with you know very elevated, very exalted qualities.

1:21:47Some people are born with less. It's according to their karma, what they were doing, how you know how pious life they led in the previous life.

1:21:58They are born in a certain condition, in a certain country, in a certain circumstances.

1:22:06And ultimately I gave this conceptual framework to understand that according to the core Hindu belief, we are not the body, we are the soul, but we strongly identify with the body.

1:22:26You know it's a nice theoretical concept for us, uh, but uh to apply it in practice, you know, it's not so easy.

1:22:37Uh so the spiritual development is described here in this presentation as the lessening degree of identification with the body and more identification with the qualities of the spirit.

1:22:53As I said, what is the quality of the spirit? The spirit is dynamic, spirit is alive, spirit is conscious, matter is dull, matter is uh ignorant, uh, and uh matter is not really conscious.

1:23:08So uh the uh you know being the spirit uh and there is a conflict and we all know this conflict sometimes when our spiritual aspiration, the spiritual aspiration says, do this and it will be good for you. You know, don't go for this lower stuff.

1:23:28And uh some others think within us saying no, no, just don't go too high, you know, be normal, so to speak. So there is a conflict. Every religion talks about this conflict.

1:23:43That there is some good aspiration which literally brings us up, and there is a bad aspiration which drag us down.

1:23:54So, and we are on a certain stage, you're born already in a certain stage of development because you already went through some development in your previous life. And if you understand that my goal is evolution.

1:24:11I don't want to degrade. It's so natural, we don't want to degrade, right? When we see people who completely degrade their consciousness due to alcohol or drug addiction.

1:24:24They completely, you know, that their consciousness becomes less and less and less developed. Their mind is less developed, intelligence is less developed, emotions are less developed.

1:24:35We see them, we don't want to go there, right? We want to develop. So this system just explains what development really means.

1:24:44Development means the less identification with the body and the more identification with the spirit which is blissful by nature, which is eternal by nature, and which by nature has the consciousness as its constitution.

1:25:02So the human soul has three basic qualities. It's eternal, it's not dying. When body is dying, the soul is not dying. It has consciousness and it has knowledge.

1:25:18It has consciousness as the nature and it has consciousness as the content of our understanding. And it's blissful by nature. And in this world, we are actually striving for this.

1:25:31We want eternity, we want knowledge, and we want bliss. So the complete realization of these natural goals of every human being is when we are not identified ourselves with the body.

1:25:53And therefore, this development, uh, this ladder is described in this way. Yes, instinctively we want to go up, and to go up means ultimately to re-establish our complete spiritual identity.

1:26:18When you I had the feeling that you were talking about some kind of philosophical system or science or something like that, when you spoke and then you say yourself that you uh couldn't imagine yourself into a religion, but you found Hinduism, variation um personally i um associate religion with faith but I don't feel or see any faith

1:26:53in your attitude towards Hinduism. Um, this is just my, uh, I'm just personal. So it's because I was trying to be very impartial. It's a camouflage. I was not supposed to be too religious here.

1:27:20If you want I can display my religious side as well but I was addressing a specific audience and that's why I was I was kind of hiding it. But I do have quite strong spiritual uh you know identity.

1:27:49For sharing your results, which was very interesting. So, uh, I'm welcome to the first question.

1:27:57Um, will you, uh, uh, when you speak about these steps of physical development and you know that there is a lower step and a higher step, how to define in which steps we are? We are modified, or someone gets us.

1:28:22Because um yeah I I think that this condition of these steps I I understand the culture. Maybe one day you are like steps, but in one day maybe you are in this. See, it's a scheme.

1:28:42And as any scheme, it doesn't reflect the reality. The reality is very complex. But we need schemes to understand the pattern of reality because you know we cannot deal with the complexity of reality all the time.

1:29:06We need clear kind of guidelines or clear understanding, clear map. It's a map. Like if you consider it if you compare the map with the real territory, it's a very big difference, right? Map is very schematic. It's a scheme.

1:29:26In reality, there are so many different things. But you need map to guide yourself through the territory right

1:29:35so in the same way this uh uh scheme uh which is, you know, not completely sufficiently reflects the reality, but it helps to identify the tendencies.

1:29:54It would be gross, how to say this gross misunderstanding or exaggeration to say that you know somebody is only on this stage and somebody on this stage, and then all of a sudden he jumps on this stage.

1:30:12As you said, uh, you know, we're complex beings, and some part of us here, some part of us here. Uh, and sometimes in the very bright moments of our life, we are somewhere. It's a feeling. It's a feeling, yeah.

1:30:29Yeah, it's a feeling. But why this scheme is necessary? Because if we clearly understand the whole uh development, how the spirit develops, uh it will be easy for us to control the lower tendencies.

1:30:50As I said, there are some tendencies for us to degrade, to go lower, and there is a strong tendency for us to elevate. So if we clearly understand where do we go ultimately if we go this way or that way?

1:31:08It will help us on the way up. Because as we know, it's easy to go down, it's difficult to climb up, you know. And it's uh when we go up, it's slow, when we go down, it's quite quick.

1:31:25So therefore, uh this tendency is there, it's quite dangerous. But if I understand that ultimately I have to go up, this is the nature of spirit, then it will help us to control our tendencies.

1:31:43And then also, you know, in average, our consciousness is on a certain stage. In average.

1:31:51It's not that we're completely there uh but on a certain you know certain kind of understanding of divinity is um more un understandable to us more relevant to us you know, for certain people health is more relevant relevant.

1:32:11For certain people, fulfilling their desires is more relevant. For them, you know, love of God is some abstract concept, not very relevant to my life.

1:32:24But if I understand that there is a uh progression, I I can be happy to be on the level where I am and at the same time to make sure that I'm going up.

1:32:36And one point I will understand, you know, that this is uh the complete fulfillment of the potential, human potential, is actually saintliness, saintliness of saintly people.

1:32:56Yeah, in the again, in reality, in reality, we see the combination and permutations of this. It's a fusion.

1:33:05When we take the real religions of this world, we will see that they are all combined. There is a fusion, and sometimes it's very difficult to deal with them. What is the beauty of Hinduism?

1:33:21Is that again it rationally describes spirituality as the science with the scientific principle and therefore it's easy it's easier to understand it through the lens of Hinduism.

1:33:39Every religion speaks about the same things. In every religion, people deal with the same problems which I described.

Questions on cosmology and extraterrestrial life

1:33:47But if we see it through the lens of Hinduism we can identify uh this problem so the stages uh in an easy way, easier way. As Bhagavad-gītā says every planet in the solar system has its own living creatures, right?

1:34:10Correct me if I'm wrong. That's on the spiritual side, and I think that your scientific background is my question will be relevant to you.

1:34:22If we look at the scientific side, scientists are trying to connect to other living creatures that might be living in our universe, and also they are trying to turn mankind into a multi-planetary species.

1:34:41I have a few questions about that.

1:34:44Do you think this it's possible for humans to connect to those living creatures that may be living in our universe and is it possible to um turn into a multiplanetary species and will God let that happen?

1:35:05It's definitely possible. Moreover, in Hindu scriptures there is a description of this interplanetary travels and visits of higher beings to the earth.

1:35:21It's possible, it's less frequent now, even though there There is this UFOs still coming. It's possible. Uh, it's just for that we also have to grow the level of our understanding of life.

1:35:40Uh you know, unfortunately people think that life can only be uh the way we see it here on the earth. You know the life which mostly consists of water and earth,

1:35:54whereas you know according to Vedic scriptures, there is life on Sun. But the bodies of living entities in the sun they're completely different than the bodies of us here. So it's a completely different mechanism.

1:36:13If we understand this, it will be easy for us to to try to connect. We should not be too you know too narrow-minded and to see that there is only one way of life.

1:36:27Do you think that this will change one kind of spiritual life? Possible, possible. I'm an optimistic by nature, even though there's not much reason to be optimistic, but you

1:36:56talk about the morality and the angel on the land. The morality is the thing which can be achieved by everyone, no matter which stage of human, for example, religious or not. Yeah.

1:37:21Because, um, yeah, one can be not so spiritual, but that's all the rules. Yes. Yes. But you also mentioned a very important point, individuality.

1:37:46individuality, and I understand as the real individuality into spiritual realization. Yes. Not in the material.

1:38:02But the result is that most people identify the individuality and so it is so that I understand that everybody can be a moral person. But can everybody be individual? Yes.

1:38:28Artist person can be real individual in this way, as you described, if your individuality lies into spiritual existence and person passes, for example, really individual.

1:38:47Uh and if it's like then why see there's no question of can he is individual by nature because the soul is individual, but his expressions of individual of individuality may be stronger or less developed.

1:39:16Like if we take for example, you know, lower creatures. Let's not talk about uh human beings for the time being. Uh if we take cats, they're individual.

1:39:31But the difference between one cat and another cat, you know, there are some differences, but they're not so strong.

1:39:38You know, if you go to dogs, dogs are much more developed creatures and their individuality is also more developed.

1:39:51You enter into some personal relationship with different dogs, and you know, some dog likes you, another dog will not like you, and this and that.

1:40:00In the same way, the more developed we are spiritually, the more distinctly we are individual. The less developed we are spiritually, this individuality is somewhat suppressed because our material tendency is the same.

1:40:22We all want to eat, we all want to sleep, we all want to have sex, we all want to defend ourselves.

1:40:28And um yeah, we can express our individuality in these activities, but still, you know, the real individuality is expressed in in more higher activities.

1:40:43So the we are individual, we remain individual all the time, but the expression of this individuality will be different according to what? profe... ...bord, we're also doing

1:41:24It's it's a very correct understanding that our freedom is free will is very limited. And it's mostly limited by our karma.

1:42:16Every time we do some action, by expecting some results of this action, we limit our choices for the future. We can very clearly understand it an example of people who take drugs.

1:42:34They think they are completely free by taking drugs, but once they took drugs, they're less free because they will be forced to take drugs again and again and again until they completely lose their freedom.

1:42:50This is just a very stark and vivid example, but actually every hour action limits our freedom for the next action. We're more or less programming ourselves by acting in a certain way.

1:43:10And we can see that sometimes people in uh in their old age they become completely like a machine. They're doing the same thing which they used to do in their life because of this lessening of this freedom.

1:43:27But we do have little freedom. Even though there is a lot of limitation upon our freedom of free will from our previous actions, still some freedom is there.

1:43:40And my understanding we still have freedom because we have developed consciousness. And by this developed consciousness, we can choose what is better.

1:43:53Sometimes we know what is better, but we cannot follow this way because we are conditioned by our previous choices. But nevertheless, by our uh intelligence we can understand this is better.

1:44:11Uh by reading the scriptures, uh we can understand this is the way to go.

1:44:18And that gives us more freedom and ultimately the ultimata expression of our freedom is the choice how we choose our association. If we want to become free, we should associate with people who are free themselves, or more free themselves, who are more spiritually developed, who are more pure in their intentions and their emotions.

1:44:49So this is within our choice. Instinctively, we will be drawn towards people who are similar to us.

1:44:59But uh we can choose and nevertheless uh associate and find pleasure in associating with people who are more elevated and that will help us to increase the range of our freedom. But yes, our freedom is very limited.

1:45:18Very limited. But nevertheless it's there and actually this is the mission of human soul of human life is to find this freedom within ourselves and to act according to this freedom.

1:45:34But to find it we should associate with certain people.