In a recent trip to Africa, we saw animals in their natural habitats, zebras in the grasslands of Masai Mara, Impala, Thomson's Gazelles, Lions, Cheetah, Leopard, and so on.

A key concept that stood out was the way the herbivores listened. They had designated "Lookouts", who stood guard while the herd grazed on grass and did what they do on a regular basis. The "lookouts" had to do a good job of watching, smelling and listening. In fact, given that the predators could easily camouflage themselves in the tall grass, they had to be very good at catching the scents and hearing the sounds.

That type of listening, such that one's life (or many lives) depend on it, is a rare art form for humans today. Most people don't listen that way. We tend to focus on the sounds that we are most familiar with (at least that is the way it is for me) and listening for other types of sounds is actually quite hard. For instance, when we listen to a piece of music, if there are vocals, we normally latch on to the vocals. There might be an instrument playing what is known as a "hook", the kind of tune that gets into your head and keeps playing long after the music has stopped -- we pick up on those types of sounds. How many of us actually pick up on every different piece, every subtle layer of music that might be involved in a piece of music?

Yes, we hear all the sounds, but only listen for stuff that is most familiar to us. The same could be said about spiritual teachings too. We might listen to a lecture on a spiritual topic, but nine times out of ten, we would likely pick up on parts of the lecture that resonate with us at a personal level. Maybe we were taught some of that in our formative years. Or perhaps we have picked these up specifically during our studies. Yet, mostly we don't \really\ pick up on all the subtleties of the teachings in one listening. We sometimes might have to listen over and over again, until we come to terms with all the constituent parts of the teaching.

Spiritual teachings are the inheritance of all sentient beings. It is the birthright of every sentient being to listen to spiritual truths, and the result of the proper application of these teachings is the ultimate goal. At least that is the perspective I garner from the teachings of Vedanta.

However, how we listen is very important. In the video shared below, Swami Sarvapriyananda beautifully articulates the different "ways" of listening, and then explains the right way of listening. I will summarize these below for the benefit of the readers. As I was listening to Swamiji's lecture, I found myself observing the similarities of how I see people react to such topics in various other media. It is not unlikely that you, dear reader have encountered individuals on some internet forum, who seemed to be interested in what you had to share, only with the purpose of "tearing it down" or "proving him/herself right" (and you wrong).

Vedanta's process of spiritual practice begins with listening

  • shravana. Then it proceeds to contemplation
  • manana, and finally meditation
  • nidhidhyasana.

Given that listening (could be considered reading or watching a youtube video too) is the most important crucial step, when the knowledge is transmitted by the teacher, it is very important to have the right attitude thereof.

The three wrong types of listening are as follows --

  • Listening like an upturned pot

    • just like a pot that is upturned (bottom up), cannot be filled, a listener who does not pay attention to the teaching, will be unable to grasp and retain what is being taught.

  • Listening like a dirty pot

    • just like when you pour clean water into a dirty pot, the water gets contaminated, similarly, when a listener is colored by their pre-judgements, they will hear the most pristine of teachings and corrupt it. We see this with skeptics, who are waiting to find something that is contrary to their preconceptions, which then they proceed to attempt to tear down. Such skeptical listening results in wasted opportunities.

  • Listening like a pot with a hole in the bottom -- just like when you fill a broken pot with water it keeps leaking, a listener can be "leaking" if they are preoccupied with many other activities and are unable to retain any of the teachings. Such individuals might take copious amounts of notes, but don't "listen" very well.

The right way to listen then is with the attitude that "I trust the teacher when he/she says something. Let me try to find out what he/she really means". There needs to be a sincerity in the approach.  This type of attitude is called "adhikāra". There is a strong thirst for this knowledge and a humility to acknowledge that one might not have all the answers, and therefore keep an open mind while listening.

> Formally, there are four characteristics of an adhikāri (or someone who is deserving of the jñāna (knowledge) of Vedanta.

> Viveka

  • The ability to distinguish between real and unreal.

> Vairāgya

  • Detachment from the samsāra. This results in an inward flow of the mind...away from sense objects and worldly sensuality towards the source and stillness, leading to the development of the six virtues or shad-sampat.

> Shad-sampat

> Mumukshutva

  • A burning thirst for liberation from the cycle of birth and rebirth.

To quote Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev (inexact quote) --

> "the problem with approaching spirituality with too much intellect and being too dependent on the intellect is akin to wanting to stitch clothes with only a sharp knife or a sharp pair of scissors".

The job of the intellect is to dissect and analyze. There are necessary conditions for that. But there is also a point at which the intellect needs to be suspended for the essence of the teaching to bloom. To all my skeptical and incredibly smart and cerebral skeptic friends out there, heed this teaching (below). It can be a beautiful life-changing  event for you, or it could just be another source of casual intellectual stimulation and entertainment.

While I shared the video of Swamiji below to have you listen to this topic specifically, the entire talk is a beautiful exposition of Advaita Vedanta. It is worth listening to, over and over again.

[embed]https://youtu.be/linp33m9rIk?t=465[/embed]