147 - What is Shastram? | Swami Tattwamayananda

21st verse: “There are three gates to a hellish life – hellish conditions created from our own actions. These three gates are lust, anger and greed (kamah, krodhah, lobhah). These three should be abandoned.”

Every wrong action has desire or lust as its source. Once we have a desire, we direct our senses and energy to fulfill that desire. Not all desires are fulfilled. When the desire remains unfulfilled, we become angry. And then there is endless greed.

22nd verse: “The genuine spiritual seeker, who has gone beyond these three gates, who is free from lust, anger and greed, he does things that are good for himself and others. He does not see distinction between himself and others. What is good for him will naturally be good for others.”

23rd verse: “Those who act under the impulse of desire and ignore the fundamental principle – to act in accordance with shastram – they will not attain perfection, they will not attain happiness, and they will not reach their spiritual destination.”

The literal, dictionary meaning of shastram may be science and theological scriptures. The true spiritual meaning of shastram is that which helps us conduct our life without desire, greed and anger. Shastram is that which helps us conduct our life in such a way that it becomes a blessing for ourselves and others.
24th verse: “Therefore this shastram should be your pramanam (authority) in ascertaining what ought to be done and what ought not to be done.”

Shastram also means spiritual heritage, accumulated spiritual wisdom, and teachings of great men and women who helped humanity preserve its values. Shastram is the totality of the best elements of human civilization.
Civilization was able to preserve those best elements, that sanctity, that tradition because the exponents of these values had no selfish desire, no anger, and no greed.

Bhagavata Purana has the following verse: “When honey bees go from one flower to another, whether it is a tiny or big flower, they only collect and imbibe its essence, the honey. They ignore everything else. Similarly, we should only imbibe the highest and most universal spiritual teachings. A wise person should only collect the essence and practice it in his own life – only then it becomes effective.”

To emphasize the importance of spiritual practice and realization, Sri Ramakrishna used to give the example of almanac. The almanac has forecasts on rain, but if one takes the almanac and squeezes it, there won’t be a drop of rain. It is true that many teachings are recorded in the scriptures. But they are useless without the effort to practice and imbibe these teachings and realize God.

Shraddha refers to a sense of sanctity and sacredness that helps us preserve higher values. It can also mean faith in scriptures, oneself, God, teacher, and inner consciousness. Shraddha can also mean concentration.

Arjuna had shraddha but did not understand shastram. The 17th chapter starts with this doubt in Arjuna. He asks the question: “Those who have a high degree of shraddha but do not know how to follow shastram, what happens to them?” The 17th chapter deals with three levels of shraddha.

The essence of Arjuna’s question is: “Do spirituals directly talk to us?” For a true spiritual seeker, if his mind is pure and sincere, the whole nature becomes an open book, an open university, an open education institution – he learns from everything.

Bhagavata Purana has the legend of Avadhuta who learns spiritual lessons from birds, honey bees, elephants, fish and others from nature. His own mind helps him become a good student and learn from everything in nature. If the mind is pure, it captures the essence of spirituality from everything in this world. Otherwise, there is no end to doubts.

Spiritual questions go through a process of self-destruction. They cease to be questions as we spiritually evolve. There are no shortcuts in spiritual evolution – it is a gradual process of evolution.

Dogmatic approach does not allow one to evolve to a level of spiritual fitness to make use of what one learns – a dogmatic approach expects the student to just accept it. This is the opposite of shraddha. In Vedanta lineage, the teacher first elevates the student to a higher level where the student is naturally fit to accept the higher truth. For example, Sri Ramakrishna taught Advaita to Swami Vivekananda because he was spiritually ready. Other disciples wanted to learn Advaita, but Sri Ramakrishna did not teach them.

In the 63rd verse of the 18th chapter, Lord Krishna says: “I have taught you this great spiritual truth. You analyze what I have taught you, use your own reasoning and do what you want.” This verse emphasizes the importance of spiritual freedom and encourages one to think for oneself. It also indicates that we can only learn from a book or teacher what we deserve to learn, what our mind is ready to learn.

Our temperaments are determined by a combination of the three gunas – sattva guna, rajo guna and tamo guna. Sattva guna is the highest and most sublime. It manifests itself as wisdom and serenity. Rajo guna manifests itself as dynamism and ambition. Tamo guna manifests itself as laziness and delusion.

One has to understand where he stands and start climbing the ladder from tamo guna to rajo guna to sattva guna. Highest spiritual evolution happens when we transcend the three gunas. Such a person is called Guṇātita – he is active but remains serene and detached. Swami Trigunatitananda demonstrated this in his life’s work.