Video 16

Ask Swami with Swami Sarvapriyananda | October 11th, 2020

[Music] [Music] from the unreal to the real lead us from darkness unto light lead us from death to immortality om peace peace peace good morning everybody namaste to everybody i hope everybody here and our virtual audience worldwide you're all keeping safe in these troubled times so welcome once again to this new edition of ask swami i must say i was looking at the selection of questions that i must say that i am so amazed and happy to see the depth and the subtlety of the questions that we are receiving that's really wonderful we are receiving so many questions that it's impossible to answer more than a fraction of the questions that we have got we try to make as good a selection as we can remember when i'm talking about especially about advaita vedanta advaita vedanta is simple it's about one thing only that your own true nature so whenever i'm answering questions whatever the question is whoever has asked basically i'm trying to point to one truth about ourselves so it's good to listen to the answer even if it's not the question you asked it could well be the question that helps you so without any further delay let me let us get to today's questions diane yes swamiji the first question comes from hasharaj b and he asked in one of the lectures by swami atma priyananda ji he mentions that when the kundalini reaches anahata the spiritual heart one sees the uncreated light and hears uncreated sound and one recognizes his or her actual nature as the spirit separate from the body-mind is this the same as aparok shano bhuti is the experience of the awakening of the kundalini and the experience at the anahata the heart center of the uncreated light what is the uncreated light um so is it the same as apparatus yes and no so in what sense um yes and in what sense no in the sense that kundalini this is an entirely different approach the kundalini yoga and the approach of advaita vedanta advaita vedanta is the approach of vichaar investigation inquiry into the self so our experience of ourselves by which i mean nothing more than what we all do subject and object waking dreaming and deep sleep are the layers of the physical the personality which we have and exp an inquiry into that in order to arrive at the witness consciousness which is not an object and in kundalini yoga what is done is a series of meditative practices which are both yogic and tantric which lead to the awakening of the mystical force called kundalini and which is then visualized as traveling up the the sushumna the central nerve channel within the spine uh up to the different centers the seven uh center psychic centers in the body to the heart center where the first spiritual experience takes place suramar krishna says one one is struck with a wondrous experience you one and the spiritual seeker says what is this what is this in bengali so it's a it's an extraordinary breakthrough when one for the first time appreciates what is meant by the spirit by consciousness not body not even mind not um experiences like seeing hearing smelling tasting touching none of that not even like thinking feeling not even the most extraordinary intellectual understanding beyond all of that i suddenly perceive at the core of my being is this immortal light light why it's called uncreated light this is created light even the sun sunlight created light it's part of the material world and one take one is taken to a subtler level there is a light which is the eyes and and the ears and the senses are kind of light because they reveal certain things to us your eyes reveal forms to you ears reveal sound to you and so on so senses can be seen as a kind of light light years within coats now not a physical light subtler than that all the senses are known by the mind so the mind is a higher kind of light and the mind is itself known by what or revealed by what that is the uncreated light and that's at the core of our being that's what we truly are so that's that's realized there the uncreated light the ana the unstruck sound and then there was that phrase he used after that uncreated light unstruck sound and then uh uncreate uh he has uncreated sound and one recognizes his or her actual nature yes then one recognizes his her her actual nature as the spirit this is the result of that experience spirit means consciousness i am that light so that is the uh the entire the sum total the sum and substance of that experience is that i am not this body and mind i am that that light which i experience not as an object it is experienced as the subject as i am that so it's not an objective experience it is rather experienced as the very nature of the experience here language fails here so this is um kundalini yoga and in the path of advaita vedanta where the term apparatus comes from we know we enquire into our experience of the self we inquire into what we are so the first answer is am i the body and then we see why we are not the body these are not just arguments they seem to be like philosophical arguments the body is changing and i experience myself as unchanging the body is an object i experience myself as the subject the body is insentient i experience myself as sentient sentient incentive means that i am aware of the body body is not aware of me that's what it means by all these so-called arguments these are not just philosophical arguments they are they are meant to convince us intellectually that i am not the body but deeper than that they are meant to show us this is something that most people don't uh understand once you appreciate this the true magic of the advaita path becomes evident it is not just convincing us intellectually it's actually showing us as a matter of fact when i show you here is a piece of cloth is it an argument no i'm showing i'm giving you an experience that i am not the body i'm not the mind it's actually a always available experience just the path of showing us is through a philosophical inquiry once we see that then we we automatically become aware of ourselves as the light or the consciousness which experiences all of this body and mind so this is the production of buddhipath you come to the same realization as this one what is the difference two major differences one methodological and one in the ultimate conclusion the methodological difference is this in the kundalini yoga path you await certain mystical experiences very powerful and they're genuine but they are mystical experience why why i'm saying why am i saying mystical experiences mystical experiences which are extraordinary they come and go that uncreated light in the heart is everybody seeing it all the time no no no it depends on a series of a practice which ultimately culminates in that kind of a mystical experience whereas in the path of enquiry one inquires into what already is one is not looking for a new kind of experience so an er of a kind of philosophical inquiry into what what already is and that it reveals itself as that that consciousness which is there one is the path of mystical experience seeking a mystical experience the other is the path of uh what might call a direct path of enquiring into what already is that mystical experience comes and goes but if it is successful it will show you the same realization that i am this witness consciousness so that's one big difference it's called it's a methodological difference difference in approach the second big difference is in the ultimate realization apparatus does not stop at realizing i am the witness consciousness it just begins there then one is invited to inquire into the what you have discovered that i am the witness consciousness is this witness consciousness limited by limited i mean is it one here and another there and the third one there and one witness consciousness in each body and mind is that so or is it one witness consciousness in all bodies and minds is it limited that it is here and not there is it limited in space is it limited in time yeah so and one discovers it is not limited that it is one existence consciousness bliss in which the entire universe all beings they appear and are experienced in that one consciousness this unlimited consciousness is called brahman so the ultimate realization in this upper okay with the path of gyana yoga or advaita vedante is i am brahman the ground of this entire universe the one reality of this entire universe that is not so in the path of kundalini yoga okay second question comes from dimitri s if i understood correctly my real nature is brahman and liberation is for the jiva the yearning to attain liberation is also at the level of the jiva in time by the grace of brahman in this life or in the next after the jiva is educated and struggles it eventually realizes its real nature and dissolves its borrowed identity in brahman what is the purpose of these cycles does such a question only exist in the mind in the causal world of maya and brahman and therefore there is no answer to this question until one returns to the true unattached self yes so if one listens to advaita vedanta carefully thinks about it one has to everybody has to come to this question if you're already brahmana if you're already the absolute then what is the purpose of appearing as a sentient being and going through all these struggles the suffering of life and then the gradual awakening and following the spiritual path and coming to an enlightenment and realizing that your brahman which you already wear so what was the purpose of the whole thing the answer is contained in the question itself mentions causality there swami vivekananda would often say this question itself is wrong we can ask why is this question wrong you see when we ask this question it leads us to a deeper question about questioning itself what is the question what are we asking for here we are asking for an explanation and what is an explanation it's asking for a cause we see an effect and we we want a cause of that so the grass is wet and i want to know why what would satisfy me maybe an answer like it rained and therefore the grass grasses weighed a bit or the sprinkler was at work and therefore the grass in the lawn is uh is wet and that answer satisfies me why i have got a cause i was looking for a cause and i've got a cause now this seems fine so why should we not ask why is there this entire cycle the whole game of life why is it there we can ask for a cause of that it won't work why because see when i am asking and talking like this notice my language why because it's all about causality and yet the answer given in advaita vedanta is this entire cycle of life this game of life it appears because of maya so how does that help what is maya one way of understanding maya is space time and causation it's like when you have a theatrical performance you need a state so in the theatrical performance of this universe the stage is space-time and causation and this stage is provided by maya so when you have causation as part of the stage you can't ask for a cause of maya because it's like asking for a cause of causation and to make that more clear it's like so space and time if you ask what is outside space what is before time notice when i ask before time or outside space before time means i'm already assuming time before and after a time words before and after a tense past tense future tense so these are time words which means you have already accepted time only within time does it make sense to ask before and after past present and future only when you have accepted the concept of space it makes sense to ask inside and outside so this universe is space so what if a child may ask what's outside the universe nothing you can't answer that because outside also already means space so when there is no concept of space there's no concept of outside inside just like that before maya without assuming maya without assuming um causality one cannot ask for a cause the moment you ask for a cause you're already asking for a cause within within maya one can ask for a cause but about maya itself one cannot ask for a cause it's just as as meaningless as to ask what is outside space what is before time similarly what is the cause of cause cause of causality it doesn't work so that's a logical answer why one cannot meaningfully answer this question but one should be able to understand logically why it is not possible to answer it now the question was is there no answer until one is enlightened that is true that is true i like this one of our senior swami said it's on on our side there is only the question and no answer on the side of those who are enlightened they don't seem to ask this question they don't they have the answer but not the question the question is gone and dissolved it it's not a problem to them after enlightenment it's not a problem that's why um in the himalayas they the monks have a saying that when you if somebody asks a question about maya they would say don't try to establish maya or monk try to go beyond maya try to negate maya so when you are asking why this happens one wants a reasonable logical answer but there's no reasonable logical answer because this world from an advaithic perspective never was it's like a riddle it's like a mystery so it never was it's an appearance there is no reasonable logical answer within the dream for a dream i give the example of being chased by a lion in a dream like i ask where did this lion come from the real answer is there is no lie and wake up but if i won't accept that answer no no no i see a line you must give me an answer then you have to say the lion came from the jungle but where in the jungle well from its daddy lion and the mummy lion and where did they come from or they came came from their parents and where did that come from there's no end to this you can see and none of it is actually true so that is the answer or non answer if you will what is what is to be done see this is a path it is it is to be worked upon accept that advaita vedanta is telling me you are brahman our immediate reaction is i don't know i don't know that i may hear it i can listen to it but i don't feel it i don't realize it that is maya what is maya that i don't know it's not real for me yet that is maya that's all the proof that we need of maya now the thing is how to overcome it how to go beyond that and realize who am i this question comes from ann b in england intellectually i follow completely the logic that all objects are in my awareness for example my hand my body my mind my senses my thoughts everything i see in the world exists only in my awareness and that ultimately there is the witness to this just as the dream world is only in my awareness so is the waking world only in my awareness i think the next step must be faith without faith how can i know that this witness is sachitananda slash brahman how can i know that this is not just a method to block suffering all right i see two questions there one is it's very good that one at least has a clear perception of what is meant by saying all this is in my awareness this itself is a very big step forward because our common sense view of things is this world is out there and this body is real it is here solid perceptible and in this there is some vague stuff called mind or awareness whatever you call it that's it so i am a body with uh awareness just as like i'm a body with a cap on my head there's awareness inside the head this is the common sense perception but as we investigate deeper you come to this realization actually all of this is experienced in awareness without the awareness what would be even the most solid world would not be experienced the experience of this world clearly depends on awareness does the existence of this world depend on awareness that's a big question now the question is i now realize that i am awareness and in media awareness is the mind is the senses is even the sense of ego these and whatever is revealed by the senses the things i see hear smell taste touch all that is taking place within awareness is is appearing and disappearing within awareness now how do i know that this awareness is brahman or sachidananda those are terms what do you mean by brahmana successively meant is this even the word brahman the literal root meaning of the word brahman is uh the infinite literally it means to to expand the sanskrit root meaning is to expand so to expand without limit means the infinite so brahman is the infinite how do i know that this awareness which i am is the infinite this is what the question is sachidananda means being awareness bliss basically the question is that this awareness which i am how do i know that it is the ultimate reality of the universe which the upanishads tell me that you are brahmana if i claim i the awareness am brahman is it not making a leap of faith that's the question it's actually a subtle question at this point many people have seen many um scholarly persons also who are well read in vedanta they make a mistake here they say the argument is this i am not the body not the mind i am awareness this kind of insight one can reach with reasoning and experience by reasoning upon our own experience by the arguments that you have provided i can come to an at least an understanding and appreciation of what is meant by saying i am awareness not body mind although the body mind is experienced but i am not these things i am the awareness which is experiencing these things this can be achieved without any kind of belief one can actually investigate and find it for oneself but then to take the next jump that this is the one awareness which is in all beings in those bodies and minds this is the one awareness in the entire universe is in this awareness it is not outside this awareness the existence of the world not only the experience of the world but the existence of the world also depends on this awareness isn't that a leap of faith the upanishads are telling me i am this this very awareness is the ultimate reality of the universe that thou art and thou the witness consciousness in this body and mind are that the reality of the universe i the witness consciousness or the awareness i am brahman aham brahmasmi is this not a leap of faith many learned people would say at this point the upanishads tell us this that i am brahman and i have to believe it because i accept the upanishads as revelation as scripture not bad that is true but one here i would like to make a an a subtle but a very very very important distinction it's not appreciated by many people many scholarly people who stop at this point it is not belief which is being pointed out here which is not belief which is required here what is required here is when it is being said this witness consciousness in sanskrit sakshi chaitanya is the ultimate reality of the universe in which the universe exists appears and disappears in which the universe appears and disappears and it appears to exist also that ultimate ground of the universe is this witness consciousness what is being said here is the upanishads act as a pointer and they they are inviting us to explore this witness consciousness we have already found explore it with the question what is the limit to this witness consciousness is it limited by space no it cannot be because space appears in this witness consciousness without are you conscious of space or is kind of space conscious of you very obvious very simple question obviously i'm conscious of space space appears in this consciousness time appears in this consciousness it's not that the consciousness exists in time time appears to you in the consciousness and everything appears to you in consciousness and everything is not conscious of you you are conscious of everything you are conscious of time you are conscious of space they are not conscious of you so you are not limited by space time and everything everything is in sanskrit server nothing in this universe limits you no space in this universe limits you no time in this universe limits you you are the unlimited which is basically what is called brahman in vedanta upanishads then what role do the upanishads play they play the role of pointing this out to you without that we would not know that's why they are called a pramana they reveal this to you not in the sense of believing in it if at the ultimate level it would simply boil down to believing in it then one might just as well you know believe in anything might believe that god exists and everything is the will of god and that's it why go through all the rigmarole of i am not the body mind and discover the witness consciousness first you discover the witness consciousness of this body and mind and then you realize what you have discovered is without limits that being without limits is brahman being without limits is brahman consciousness without limits is brahman and bliss without limits is brahman this is what we are and what we discover so this is my answer to anne that it is not a matter of faith you've already taken the most important step to discover that i'm not body and mind it's not that i am a body with consciousness rather i'm a consciousness or an awareness in which the body is appearing and the world is appearing and this awareness is unlimited unlimited in space unlimited in time unlimited by object this description consciousness is brahman is this just a way of blocking suffering no it's not a painkiller painkiller a painkiller blocks suffering there's a problem and the nerve impulses are inhibited by the painkiller and you don't feel it for a time being it's not like that if you want to experience suffering it's continuously available to you go ahead and suffer but what this does to you is is that it gives you a freedom a dimension of your being very deep very profound which is beyond suffering so in like sri ramakrishna at this terminal stage of throat cancer one can say truly two things there is so much pain here i cannot eat true absolutely true like every other cancer patient and one can also say truly that i am in bliss how are you in bliss as the witness consciousness not affected by the body and its pain i am in place it is true at a deeper level it is true that these are appearances they do not affect me no more than a screen in a movie the movie screen is affected by a disaster unfolding in the movie nothing happening in the movie can affect the movie scream ashankaracharya says even a grain of sand cannot be made wet by the all the water in a mirage and oasis which is appearing in the mirage in the middle of the desert none of it can wet even a grain of the sand of the desert because it's not real it's not at the same level it's an appearance so the appearance of pain in the appearance of the body cannot actually affect the reality which you are so it does not block out anything you continue to experience the world just because you realize it's a movie just because you realize it's a screen in a movie a light and sound does not mean that you cannot enjoy the movie you can you can follow everything that's happening in the movie but you are safe from the horrors which may come on the movie because you know it's a movie yes this question is from ramya m a phd student from iit kanpur my question is ontological how do we have duality in experience when the ultimate reality is non-dual i know the usual answer is avidya where is avidya what is avidya in which level of shankara's ontological hierarchy should one put this if brahman is neutral in the sense that is that it is neither physical or non-physical how does it constitute the physical and the mental how does one understand this manifestation relationship or are you of the opinion this is closed for science all right phd student that's that's why that's why now we need to take these are difficult questions we need to take them one by one um as she has said it's an ontological question or a set of ontological questions ontological comes from the root ontos which means to exist so one way of understanding philosophy one way of classifying philosophy is ontology epistemology and axiology ontology asks the question what exists what is real so advaita vedanta would when you say brahman is real the world is an appearance and we are nothing other than brahman jiva brahman opera it's an ontological statement but if you ask how do you know that's an epistemological question and what's the point of it what's the point of all of this what's the value of it that's an axiological question which asks questions about value beauty aesthetics good and evil what is right and wrong all of that is at the level of axiology so what used to be called metaphysics is now ontology what used to be called ethics is part of axiology now so the questions she had asked are all ontological we have to take them one by one what was the first one how do we have duality in experience when the ultimate reality is non-dual all right careful here how do we have duality and experience when the ultimate reality is non-dual the question has to be followed carefully experience when you say experience what is the structure of experience how do we have duality and experience what is the structure of experience all experience is subject object there is an experiencer there is something that is experienced and there is a an instrument of experience so i am the experiencer what i am seeing here is the experience and my eyes are the instrument of experience in sanskrit pramaya things to be experienced pramatta the experiencer and pramana this the the instrument of knowledge so the three are there notice to have experience one must have duality the moment you say how uh is duality experience experience demands duality all right now the question is but if non-duality is the reality where did this duality come from careful here to experience something what you are experiencing need not be real what advaita vedanta does is this makes a division between what we experience and what is real dualism which says ultimately god and the world and us we are all separate individuals that it as it appears to us that is real what ex what we experience is taken as real more or less we are experiencing ourselves as different um and so we are different this is dualism modern materialistic science is also based on this but advaita vedanta makes an inroad here makes a difference between what is real and what is experienced what is experience need not be real see one cannot deny one experience is duality one is experiencing duality clearly here is something here is something else duality here is a world of millions of entities duality dualism means pluralism basically multiple entities i am experiencing it but advaita vedanta cannot deny that nobody can deny that because we are experiencing it but advaita vedanta can ask the question is this the ultimate truth about it or is there an underlying oneness when you look out into the atlantic ocean 10 000 waves so are there 10 000 entities or is there one entity called water if you look at it as water the answer will be there is one entity one mass of water where is the limit between one wave and the other if you look at waves there's a limit it seems to be one wave is here another wave is here and it's propagating together but if you look at water where is the limit between one wave another each the limit itself is water the whole thing is one undivided mass of water there's one reality what advaita vedanta wants to say is granted that you experience duality but underlying that at the source of that fundamentally is non-duality non-duality exists and when you experience because experience demands duality it is experienced as duality it requires a subject and object which means the subject and the object which are components of your experience they are ultimately nothing other than that one one non-dual reality what does advaita vedanta say brahma-satyam that means the non-dual reality is the is the truth jagat mithya the experienced duality is false in the language of her question non-duality is the truth brahma satyam jagat mithya literally means the world is an appearance the experience duality is an appearance jiva brahman opera and you ramya are nothing other than that non-dual reality you seem to be in this world of experience the experiencer and everything else is experienced but no advaita vedanta through its steps its inquiry will show to you you are the reality which is experiencing itself as the experiencer ramya and ramya's world swami vivekananda in the poem he says one only exists it appears as nature soul soul you the experiencer the experiencing age sentient being nature the universe so one only exists it appears as to the non-dual reality exists it's real but what does it appear as as the dualistic universe why it cannot appear otherwise remember what happens in our own experience what happens when you remove the distinction between subject and object what happens when you remove duality in waking world duality is experienced do not real according to advaita vedanta in dream world duality is experienced though not real not only according to advaita vedant according to us also the duality that with multiplicity that we see in the dream world all the people the places the activities whatever is going on when we wake up what do we say none of it was there there was only one thing there what the dreamer's mind my mind alone by itself appeared as all of that so we have enough experiences and now there's the modern she's at the cutting edge of indian technology iit kanpur is probably the best engineering school in india so virtual reality which is you know people are working up on it there you see a world of objects in an environment maybe other people also they're in that virtual reality and you can also enter and if you enter virtual reality you're given a virtual body and those virtual bodies in in computer language are called avatars so you have an avatar inside that virtual reality but what's there all the time in the midst of all that plurality it's only one computer which is generating everything so non-dual reality is perfectly compatible with a dualistic appearance second question if brahman is neutral in the sense that it is neither physical or non-physical how does it constitute the physical and the mental how does one understand this manifestation relationship or are you of the opinion this is closed for science one might go to the depth the last part of the question how do you understand this manifestation why does brahman manifest at all suppose you may say fine non-dual reality is the only reality duality duality is just an experience it's not real but why the experience at all brahma could have remained without manifesting just perfect existence consciousness place why the manifestation of duality and this universe we understand now why to manifest something to experience something you need duality you need an experience of duality not a reality of duality just an experience of duality but even that why experience at all why any of it let me give you an um two logical options brahman could either manifest as something or just nothing at all it could either be something or just nothing at all these are only two options either brahman could manifest or nothing it could just remain as brahman now isn't that what is happening to to us all the time notice in our daily experience there is a manifestation by manifestation i mean uh experience subject object experience what what is that waking dreaming so there is something going on so brahman is manifesting also we have an experience of a kind of deep sleep let's not call it an experience a duality no but it's okay it's a it's also there we know that everything finally stops the difference between subject and object is erased it's in a mass of darkness no specific experience is there so so you you have both nothing blankness deep sleep something waking and dreaming these are the only two possible alternatives brahman is providing the only two possible alternatives why are you complaining asking why is brahman appearing in this way brahman says all right no appearance deep sleep is also there and in the entire universe that's our physical level at our individual level in the entire universe so according to hindu cosmology the universe goes through cycles there is the state of existence of the universe and there's a state in which the universe collapses is dissolved the word is pralaya complete dissolution of the universe back into its state of maya which is like a cosmic deep sleep again from that the universe emerges and we have an experience of the universe again it goes back to that cosmic dissolution notice at the universal level also at the level of the universe also exactly the same thing is happening there is something the universe stars and planets and life evolving things are going on happening and at a subtler level there will be multiple sentient beings going through many life cycles experiences happiness unhappiness heavens and health and earth all of that is happening and one day it all comes to an end it's all absorbed back into maya nothing so at the cosmic level also brahman is manifesting as this universe and sometimes not manifesting at all two things something or nothing what are you complaining about brahman is giving you the full range of options one reason deeper reason why we are unhappy with the state of affairs is in the state of bondage in the state of samsara in the state of suffering when one inquires then one begins to feel it is samsara which is responsible for my suffering it is this something this dualistic universe out there and me being part of it that is causing my suffering so at that stage it's actually an advanced stage one feels it would be good if it was not there i realize there is a perfect reality call it god brahman atman pure consciousness whatever you call it that's there then the question is why is the rest of it here we could do without it summerset mom he went to meet ramana maharshi in india and then he was told about vedanta about brahman projecting this universe so he commented with his dry humor he said i felt one feels that brahman could have left well enough alone it could have left this universe brahman could have just stayed put as i am saying that's the case also brahman stays put for some time and brahman also plays out this entire universe brahman gives both but our question is at this point let it just be brahman perfect and nothing else see advaita vedanti's answer is that is the case brahman was just existence consciousness place before the projection of the universe and after the universe disappears it is still that non-dual existence consciousness bliss but most important during the existence of this universe durim samsara during the worst suffering also it is exactly that existence consciousness bliss and not one bit more it was only the screen before the movie started and it's only the screen after the movie is gone but during the movie also it's only the screen there's nothing else beyond that that's what makes then samsara itself like an aesthetic experience a matter of joy once one realizes this then one realizes that in everything that you experience in samsara you are experiencing brahman you are experiencing that perfect oneness non-duality this is the only way one can experience it so it's one way brahman is having fun you might say good for brahman what about me brahman is having fun but it's it's it's death to me it's suffering to me but when who are you you are brahmana it is your game it's your play so it's not something to be worried about all that one needs to do is to become enlightened see the proof of this proof of what i'm saying is notice the jivan mukta the concept of being enlightened while living is exactly this it's not that the samsara has disappeared for the jeevan book but the evan mukta sees this samsara as brahman in reality not in imagination we are living in imagination we are sleepwalking through life we are dreaming daydreaming the enlightened person has woken up and having woken up sees that everything is all right it is brahman itself right now it is all right not only for the enlightened person the enlightened person also sees it's all right for us too but we don't see it we see that it's it's terrible it's scary then we ask a question like why is this appearing is this closed for science again yes and no it is not closed for reason it's not closed for philosophical investigation as we just talked about science as it is um it is not something that's equipped to handle this kind of inquiry but there's no reason why it should not expand to include this kind of inquiry i would say advaithic inquiry is a kind of science yoga is a kind of science yoga is empirical that's why it was why vivekananda taught at the turn of the 20th century 19th to 20th century he translated the first book he translated was not an advaithic book it was patanjali's yoga sutras and though he gave it a vedantic bent the raja yoga which was published from here in the vedanta society in the late 1890s empirical science not just data in the physical world outside but data in the sense in the pure sense of the word data that whatever appears to you whatever you experience is data so what you experience in your mind can it not be data of course it can be data so if you accept that as data all your experiences and data then the patanjali yoga approach opens up to you as an empirical investigation into our own experience so yes science as it is might not accept it i remember this conversation i had with brian greene the cosmologist was at columbia and who is a very well-known popularizer of physics of cosmology his latest book the i think something i forget the name of the book he was launching that book at harvard and then he mentioned that he had these discussions about vedanta about the vedas with his brother who is a monk so the question was what is said in this vedantic ideas is it is it the same as modern cosmology and he said no this is not science but we can see it's a poetic echo of what we are discovering in modern cosmology it's sort of a poetic way of saying the same thing that's what he said okay and this is from diksha s 17 year old from india if brahman cannot be experienced as an object what happens in the state of nevikalpa samadhi isn't it equivalent to deep sleep where there is no experience of body and mind but an experience of blankness i know that in deep sleep there is ignorance in bishop and in narvikalpa samadhi there is no ignorance but what sort of experience is there in nervikalpa samadhi if one can't objectify brahman very good question and also anticipating my reply nirvikalpa samadhi or which is like the assam pragyata samadhi of patanjali yoga where there is an absolute cessation cessation of mental activity patanjali yoga sutra defines it as yoga-sa is the cessation of mental activity of the british of the mind now that sounds suspicious like deep sleep when we are awake our mind is active senses are active senses go out and seem to contact an external world mind is active in sleep in dreams the senses may not be active the body may be sleeping but the mind is active it's generating dreams but in deep sleep even the mind stops working the body is sleeping and the mind also goes to sleep so isn't that like like nirvikalpa samadhi so the standard answer is in nirvikalpa samadhi there is no ignorance deep sleep is pervaded by ignorance we fall into deep sleep we don't fall into nirvikalpa samadhi nirvikalpa samadhi is achieved through assiduous training over a long period of time in ashtanga yoga and patanjali's ashtanga yoga the eight there is effort you don't fall into it it takes years of discipline and effort and beyond that one one cannot make an effort to jump from the samadhi into nirvikalpa that one just one slides into it let us say but so there is the deep sleep is pervaded by ignorance it's based on ignorance caused by ignorance and samadhi is not caused by ignorance one is quiet actually the mind is quite awake there just still but then i can't say that because the 17 year old has already preempted me so i know that there is ignorance in deep sleep and there is no ignorance in samadhi but then what kind of experience if there is no ignorance in samadhi what kind of experience is there if you cannot objectify brahman true one cannot objectify brahman so one cannot know brahman as an object that this is brahman i see this is the world i may even have visions of gods and goddesses this is shiva or kali this but that's still an objectifying but ultimate reality is not an object why because it is you yourself you are not an object how can you be an object to yourself that's not possible it is your own real self real self um the upanishad says it is other than the known and beyond the unknown other than the known beyond the unknown see all our knowledges there's something that i know and a vast number of things that i do not know but what is common they're things they're objects they could be any subject any kind of topic of study but they are objects basically things to be known understood experienced only a small fraction are known and there's a rest that is unknown so what is brahman is it something known i said no i don't know it so is it something unknown the ubernation says no not even unknown here is the answer to your question it is not an object not a category of a known object not the category of an unknown object it is rather the knower who is not a known object who is not an unknown object and yet this knower who is not an object you cannot say it is unknown you cannot say it is not experienceable rather as vivekananda said it is more than note it is you you are that first you know yourself first you are evident to yourself first before you become a knower of objects before you see you know that you are before you hear anything you know that you are before you smell taste touch you know that you are this irrefutable knowledge of my own existence and this is uncategorizable if you ask how do i know what what kind of experience is my experience of myself it is is it sight or sound or smell or taste or touch is it inference is it logic is it a belief none of them why they all depend on your prior existence your pre-existence so the direct answer to your question is that it is self-effulgent brahman is self-revealing it reveals everything and it reveals itself also but it reveals itself not as an object it reveals everything as an object every manifestation of brahman is revealed by brahman as an but itself it's the only way of knowing it is your own self-existence and through that knowing everything in the world the one example i can give which comes pretty close is this your own eyes so you see so many things what is the proof that such and such person is there i saw the person seeing the person is a proof that that person exists now if i ask um if i see some other person i cannot say that person was there i would say the other person was there seeing x is not the proof of existence of y seeing y is the proof of the existence of y for me now if i ask what is the proof of the proof that i have eyes i don't see my own eyes i can at the most see a reflection of my eyes or a picture of my eyes but the way the eyes directly see other things i don't see my eyes directly so what is the proof remember what is the form of the proof i see x or i see why do you see the eyes no so does that mean the eyes are not there no the eyes are there what is the proof that what do you see to prove the existence of your eyes the answer would be x y z anything anything that you see has a double edge like it has it works both ways it proves the existence of x or y or z and it proves the existence of your eyes reflexively every experience proves to you that you are brahmana then the next question very sharp 17 year old would be then why nirvikalpa samadhi then yes so this is the beauty of advaitha advaitha points out that in every experience brahman is realized but if this is too difficult it's not not clear then one experience could be when you shut down every experience you're still there when you come out of nirvikalpa you realize in the absence of every experience i was still shining in nirvikalpa samadhi you can't say that because the mind is not functioning but once you come out you would say aha what was that i was still there mind will say i was still there in the absence of any kind of experience objective experience so i am this self-luminous self-revealing subject which is the atman brahman whatever you call it yeah marina s asks the book ashtavakra gita is dear to me i feel there is one place in your reasoning where i have to make a leap of faith we are different bodies and minds but the awareness in these bodies and minds is the same my heart knows this is the truth but my mind wants a proof why do we believe there is one awareness and not many similar awarenesses very good we just discovered discussed this little bit earlier so the question about ash she says that ashtavakra is very dear to my heart and ashtavakra is very dear to my heart as well so but arshtavakra is like a final text so it takes the ultimate conclusions of advaita vedanta and states that again and again and again in hundreds of verses it just tells you that you are brahman that's all but this question shows that you like ashtavakra is a great blessing it's wonderful and it's really enough for for liberation but this question also shows the need for other texts the need for the the text which are which use reasoning which use questions and answers which may be considered lower text but they build up to ashtavakra if those are not there then this kind of question will come up when you study the ashtavakra you get it but the mind still asks but how how is it that i i am consciousness i understand my real nature is consciousness but there are so many other minds and they also must be of consciousness and they are all different minds so there must be different consciousness aha there just because they are different minds does not mean they are different consciousnesses why do we feel they are different from us people are different from us identified the moment we think we are the body then truly every other body is different from me i can see counted count them they're different the moment i identify with the mind truly every other mind is different from me because see their their personal histories are different their thoughts are different their emotions are different their opinions are different clearly those are minds and they're different from me but not body not mind consciousness only consciousness only how is it different in different bodies and minds yet advaita vedanta reverses that question advaita vedanta asks why would you think it is different the reason why we think we have an instinctive feeling the mind feels that there must be different consciousnesses prove that there is one consciousness advaita vedanta reply to that question will be another question why do you think they are different consciousnesses there is a clear reason to think they are different bodies there is a clear reason to think different minds but if you understand what consciousness is beyond body and mind why would you think there are different consciousnesses the reason we think that there are different countries it feels like that it feels like that because there is this lingering identification with body mind we are rooted in body mind see that's the difficulty of advaita vedanta one must be honest about it in the bhagavad-gita arjuna asks krishna which is easier the way of advaita vedanta the way of dualistic bhakti krishna says bhakti is easier why tahi gathered the way of the unmanifested reality that means non-objective pure consciousness is very difficult for the embodied now embodied you have to understand carefully everybody is embodied even the enlightened person see there are bodies embodied here means strongly attached to a body-mind identity strongly attached to body-mind identity one will continuously make mistakes about consciousness one will bring one's own one one of the contemporary shankaracharyas in india you know there are different monasteries established by the original shankaracharya the head of each one is called the shankaracharya the contemporary shankaracharya of puri in the shankara mata in puri nishchalan and saraswatiji he says one must be careful otherwise one does not know what one smuggles into brahman when one says i am brahman we are smuggling in body and mind because we have not gotten rid you need a thorough customs check you have to declare i am bringing in body and mind no not allowed put it in the trash bin these are not these are on the when you enter into the land of brahman these are on the prescribed list i remember when i for the first time i went to australia so they're very careful about their biodiversity and they don't want to import any kind of life form from the from the world outside they're nicely cut off from the world so no food and i remember in the um in the airport when we were taking our luggage there was this dog which was going around sniffing everybody's luggage and it's pounced on a particular and gentleman's suitcase and the police officer asked the gentleman that do you have any food in the suitcase and the gentleman said no and then they opened it and they found an apple and the policeman is like it was some kind of radioactive waste or something immediate with gloves and a thick plastic packet they put the apple inside and tossed it into a bin and issued a stern warning never do it again you'll be fined heavily the band said i just forgotten there was this apple i mean i totally forgot i didn't know that i was carrying a food item exactly like that we are carrying non-brahmana items into brahman and that there was apple means there's a body or a mind we've forgotten about it i think i am brahmana and then i ask a question like how is it the same thing in all bodies and minds it's because i'm thinking of myself as a body mind let go think of yourself as only awareness the one screen on which different movies play then you realize movies don't come with their separate screens so on one screen tragedy a horror movie a science fiction movie a drama they all play come and go on one screen similarly in one consciousness multiple movies multiple personalities multiple universes are being played out and you are that screen the ground of this universe very good we'll bring this to a close now we hope to take up more of these wonderful questions keep them coming stay safe i pray to sri ramakrishna holy mother swami vivekananda to bless us all to protect us all this is the month of durga puja the worship of the divine mother who is the protector of the entire universe may her blessings be on all of us on [Music] foreign [Music] you