2 - Tapah: Going Deeper through Austerity | Swami Tattwamayananda

Verses: I.1, III.1, III.2, III.3. This discourse was given on July 28, 2019 at the Lake Tahoe Retreat run by the Vedanta Society of Northern California by Swami Tattwamayananda.-God is the one all-pervading spiritual reality.-The five stages of the evolution of Godhead: pantheism, panentheism, polytheism, monotheism, monism.-After inquiry, Bhrigu the young boy is instructed by his father Varuna: seek to know that from which all things are born, by which they remain alive, and into which, by departing, they enter.-Varuna’s approach to teaching is indirect. He begins by teaching what is in front of us: food, air, sight, hearing, mind, and speech and asking the disciple to inquire deeper through tapah.-Shankaracharya explains that tapah, austerity, means withdrawing from external senses and focusing on one ideal. Buddha’s example is given. All other great achievements are a result of this tapah.-Yudisthara’s said that the greatest wonder is that even though living beings are dying every moment, we forget and think we will live forever.-Bhrigu’s first discovers that matter seems to be Brahman. This is the conclusion of material scientists. But he himself realizes that this can’t be correct. Sri Ramakrishna’s parable of the woodcutter explains the importance of going deeper into spiritual inquiry. Sincere inquiry and tapa naturally led to Bhrigu’s realization of the need to go further. This doubt, parinama duhkha in Patanjal’s Yoga Sutras, is a force that propels you forward in spiritual life.-At the next stage Bhrigu realizes that prana, life force, is Brahman. He again asks his father for instruction. When the mind is pure, the mind becomes your spiritual teacher.-Both prana and matter are changing so they are still not the ultimate principle.-In Bhakti, this tapah can be understood as self-surrender, prapatti.-Tapah without a spiritual ideal can be lead to aberrations. A spiritual ideal, and ethical disciplines such as yamas and niyamas, close negative channels and help us to evolve an inner filter mechanism that protects us.