Video 36

Ask Swami with Swami Sarvapriyananda | June 25th, 2017

so we have questions from across the world thousands of people in the our virtual audience and also questions from our live audience here so we will take a question from the virtual audience first and then I will get your questions ready I'll ask you to raise your hands and you can come forward and ask your questions here yes Diane okay sorry we have questions start off with about which path which guru and what duty and South questions come from Jo T with the fish vision and Cleveland Ohio and he says how does one to left a path to follow for example Kriya yoga Siddhanta bhakti etcetera singing the Ramayan for example brings me to tears routinely since it talks at the heart this link uh Vedantic talks is so utterly logical that it appeals to the scientists however I do not want to give the proverbial well in too many races looking for water it appears this is a question that one has to answer for oneself again hoping for your guidance for a way out of this dilemma so those of us who are still living active samsara life then which guru related to the above question it is said that even the most knowledgeable guru cannot actually make one experience the divine Brahma yet the need for a guru is emphasized for spiritual guidance it's also said that for the true seeker the Guru finds the disciple and not the other way around the definition of the truth seeker may not fully applied to many like me however you have to do exactly such people that perhaps need help from us how would one know it is time how would one recognized as Lulu how should one seeker glue if one moves forward to choose a group then doesn't want automatically pre-select a particular path that brings us back to question number one and if then then we have a question from Niraj who says I'm writing for guidance for one of the common problems we often hear and read about that you should follow your beauty but I don't know what is my duty how I decide so these are questions regarding the spiritual path and guru you see all the paths can be fundamentally classified into the for yoga Swami where they can just spoke about gana yoga the path of philosophical discrimination will be realized that I am Brahman by in an intuition by philosophy then there is the path of meditation Raja Yoga Patanjali yoga where the idea is to meditate to calm the mind down so that the truth becomes evident that I am the witness self then there is the path of love which is the most common in in all the religions of the world where there is faith in God and love and surrender to God and trying to live live a godly life then there is a path of converting our our actions into spiritual practice the path of service karma yoga all these are different paths to spiritual realization and in the different religions of the world you will find basically these are the main types of practices they may go under various names there may be various mixtures of these folks but fundamentally these are the four kinds of practices we find in spiritual life it's interesting to note that we have even psychology says we have three kinds of powers there is a cognitive domain thinking there is the cognitive domain we'll doing something and there is the affective domain emotion feeling these are the three aspects of our psyche and you can easily see that the three of them are related to three of the yoga's one of them is related the cognitive domain is related to gana yoga the affective domain - bhakti yoga and the cognitive domain - Karma Yoga and Raja Yoga of course is the power of concentration of focus so all of these powers are present in each of us Swami Vivekananda he pointed out that people are different the same size shirt will not fit with any two persons so people are different we have different natures some are more active some are more contemplative some are by nature more rational and inquisitive some are devotional they find it much easier to love and surrender so depending on our own nature the kind of path we take it depends a great deal on on our own nature the the safest and the most comprehensive path Swami Vivekananda recommended for everybody he said the harmony of the four yoga's karma yoga bhakti yoga raja yoga and ghana yoga it is the harmony of the four yoga's that is the path that is most suitable for our modern age in our lives we should have a component of a philosophy of reasoning of understanding we should have a component of meditation daily meditation and a component where you love and worship and adore God in whatever form that is your tradition or what appeals to you and also make sure that our lives are of use to others in karma yoga so all of these four yoga's are part of our spiritual practice if you see the emblem of the Ramakrishna order you find nothing here in the lectern emblem of the Ramakrishna order which Swami Vivekananda's EIN here in the Society of New York he said that the emblem represents all the four aspects you have the baby waters which represent karma you have the Sun of knowledge rising in the back gana yoga you have the Lotus of bhakti and then you have the encircling serpent which represents the power of Kundalini which in turn represents yoga Patanjali over the power of concentration so by by understanding by devotion by action and by meditation one can realize God this is what he recommended now depending on our nature the particular mix that we will follow will vary you start off with all four and you will see over time you may be more attracted to Ghani yoga you may be a bhakta you may be more attracted to bhakti yoga you see you notice within yourself that reciting the Ramayana brings tears to your eyes but that says something about your nature so one may have on may develop a tendency towards the walk towards one of these paths and the other should also be kept even though you may not be particularly attracted to a particular path which should be kept as a part of one spiritual repertoire the reason is even if you are not not very comfortable or it's not very easy for us to do one thing somebody says I love working I love serving people but don't ask me to meditate but invariably this one we will ask you to meditate somebody wants to meditate a lot and he is told to go and go and work swami ashok ananda said when I tell you to work I can see the rebellious look on your face you think perhaps that the Swami does not think highly of my my capabilities as a spiritual seeker perhaps he thinks I am NOT ready for meditation well I will show him and then Ashok aunty says and you will show me but not in the way you think so often the path which we are uncomfortable with or which we not capable of doing so far those are the parts which which are of maximum benefit to us because those are the sides of our personality we have not yet developed it's good to operate in a zone of minimal discomfort in the zone of absolute comfort growth is not possible in the result of great discomfort again growth is disturbed but some discomfort where you are pushing yourself a little beyond your present capabilities that's when we grow so the harmony of the four yoga's is to be kept in one spiritual life guru is very important in spiritual life especially in the Indian traditions one reason is these are knowledge traditions and knowledge always requires a a teacher in fact one of the ways in which we conceive of God or Brahman in Hinduism is as the adi guru the first guru the guru of gurus in fact a famous guru stotra mr. guru brahma guru vishnu guru devo maheswara guru deva param brahma tasmai shri gurave namaha now whom should you select as a guru really speaking guru is selected for you already that's what we hear from our tradition but a certain criteria are mentioned in our innovate antic texts and open ishod's shroud tree of brahman East a karma hata one is the person must be well-versed in the tradition which tradition in Vedanta we will say vedantic tradition must we will well learn it in the Upanishads Gita in the brahma sutras in vedantic text and abel and must have the ability to transfer this knowledge but it need not be limited to the vedantic tradition whatever tradition the guru should represent some tradition there is a lot of discussion about this why can't a person who has realized the truth in a person who is illumined does not belong to any particular tradition why can't such a person be my guru well can be but really it's very difficult to know who is illumined and who is not and therefore when you go out say for example you go out to a store to buy something you would rather buy say computer or or anything a stove or or a piece of equipment which has the brand in an accepted brand an apple or something like that which which you which people trust and which people believe and which has delivered the goods again and again so there is some quality control you know that when it comes from this particular brand there is some assurance of quality if you're going to buy a computer for example you go to the shop and you buy a computer but if you see a guy standing outside the store and saying hey come here I made this computer in my garage and it's better than any computer we'll get in that store now mind you he may be right he just may be right who knows but he may not be right also and you have only that much money to spend now almost always you will go and buy something from the store because there's a guarantee of safety there now in the same way we have these traditions there are Vaishnava traditions there are non dualist traditions there dualist traditions their shakta tradition Shiva traditions their traditions in Christianity various traditions in the different religions of the world in Buddhism in other religions of the world where something has continued for centuries for millennia we talked about the Buddha to the 2500 years this tradition is continued and there are reports of enlightened persons in this tradition year after year century after century so you know it works so the person who is teaching us belong to some tradition and must be learn it in at least in that tradition must have the ability to transfer the knowledge of restoration that's one but that's not enough second there are scholars who are learning in the tradition but does that person practice it in his or her own life second thing is Brahman Easter is the entire life built around that teaching is the entire life built around spirituality brahma-nistham means dedicated to established in Bremen if the person is a human nothing like it the person is an enlightened person nothing like it that's best of course but that's very rare and that's very difficult for us to verify what we can do is look at the person's life is that person leading a spiritual a this is primarily a spiritual person or a spiritual teaching a part-time job for that person so Brahman Ishta means person must be a full-time dedicated at least a spiritual seeker is not a person who is already enlightened and the third criterion for a guru is a car Mahuta literally translates into not injured or not destroyed by desire does the Guru want anything from you if it says pure ways to God realization $100 course crash course in meditation $50 come and I'll teach you meditation in three days you may crash but I don't know if you should really learn how to and there is some utility there may be again I'm not denying it because the person may know certain techniques and is teaching the technique but a general a good rule of thumb is the guru should not be making millions out of the Guru business there is somebody who joked he said there's only one business which is not affected by Wall Street it goes ups and downs in the economy and that's the religion business so it should not be a business it should not be way where the Guru wants something from you that's why the idea was all knowledge and specially spiritual knowledge is sacred and therefore free in the traditional ashrams in India the Guru would actually support the disciple staying in Daschle it take the help of the king or the other rich benefactors in society but those who are studying and learning in the ashram they were not expected to pay anything to the Guru only after completion of studies they would might might give a gift of guru Dakshina so these are the three criterion Shaurya well learn it in a particular trade where does this person come from you should ask that question second completely dedicated to spiritual life and third is does not want anything material from me okay and the last question was about what is my duty in life well there is a in traditional scriptures you find the concept of swadharma your own karma that was easily defined in ancient India not so easy today why was it defined in ancient India because they had a rigid social structure they were castes and there was this what is called ash Rama that means stages of life so there are four castes in general the priestly the the warrior caste and the business class and a caste and the laborer cast before caste and before stages of life where your student and then you were a householder then you were a retired person and then you are a sannyasi a renunciate now the idea of Duty was built around this structure how did it work it worked like this there's an equation what is your duty in life swadharma they will say ashram and herma first if the five components ashram adharma ashram adharma means the duty of your station in life whether you are a student or a householder your duty will change the second one is a word no Dharma that means the duty determined by the cast by your family profession for example what you choose to do in those days it was very very little choice people sort of went into the profession of the parents and all that so are you a priest are you an administrator or your businessman are you a worker what are you so that is another component of your duty the third one was varnasrama-dharma the conjunction of the two are you a householder who is an administrator or a warrior then you have a duty are you householder who is a priest when you have some some other duty so for example when Krishna and Arjuna speak Arjuna is asking questions about what he should do and what he should not do now in this matrix which I am drawing for you look at where Arjuna is placed he is a householder and he's a shot Rhea a warrior so he's a warrior householder so he has some particular duties if he was a priest and household they would have some other duties if he was a business family and and a householder would have some other duty so what neshama Dharma the third one is called vitiation her militia Dharma means specific specific duties which come with your particular situation in life so for example Arjuna for that time being is a general in the in the Pandava army he was not earlier and he would not be later on but at that particular time he is a general in the Pandava army and so being a general gives him some special duties he's not just a warrior is not just any other householder he is also the general of the army I remember a lesson in this way I was taught this a long time ago when I was appointed the head the principal of a college but that that was a long time back 2002 and I was as I said quite night so I was made the principal and then they said so he worked from now on you are in charge of the college and I always had this monastic identity strong in me I said look I don't care about all this I'm a monk and that's it from then the principal who was retiring before me he sat me down he was not a monk he was a professor a householder but he handed over charge to me he sat me down and in private nobody knows about this and for the first time speaking out he said look I was not yet a Swami I was a brahmacari if he said look Maharaj I understand and appreciate your monastic ideals but also remember as long as you are sitting in this chair you are the principal of the college and people look up to you and as long as you are you have taken up this role you must play this role - you cannot say that I'm just a monk I am NOT the principal so that's called vitiation Irma I was not the principal earlier and I am NOT the principal of the college anymore but if as long as you are there you are expected to fulfill a role now look at the roles that we fulfill in life there are specific roles in situations you may be the manager of a company there are duties for that you may be a father or a mother there are duties for that you may be a son or a daughter there are duties for that you may be a friend a member of the community if you accept that you are a citizen of the country if you accept that I am a member of this community if these are the roles you accept yes then you cannot refuse to fulfill the obligations which come with that role you have to what is the connection with spiritual life remember all of this is meant for spiritual development do it positively do it seriously it helps in spiritual development howsoever leti but it does help so this is called vishesha Dharma and the last one is Sardar and herma general dharma which are truth unselfishness self-control something that human qualities everybody must have these fall within the universal norm of everybody so what have I said the question was what is your Dharma and the answer again in traditional old India will not work so easily today was swadharma your own Dharma is equal to ashram adharma warna Dharma varnasrama dharma vish a Dharma and sad hardened thermo the five components your stage your station in life your role in life the combination of your station enroll and then your specific situation in life and the general qualities of a human being so these are all part of your duty now this may not be specifically applicable to anybody let alone in the world even in India today because the old system is broken not twisted now but it can get throw some light on what I'm supposed to do now a simple answer would be a principle which I take anything that takes you Godward towards spiritual realization is your duty anything that takes you away from God is not your duty yes all right yes there's a question please come forward if to speak in the microphone please tell us your name I know your name but for the internet audience please it what do we sit when we read the gospel of ramakrishna sir over and over again he says God has become all this again come all beings serve Jeeva Shiva and we've heard from Holy Mother that Ramakrishna is definitely in there void but if these statements that God has become all doesn't sound like the world is a rope which we mistake for a snake so my question is is Ramakrishna a Shankara advisor okay difficult question but thank you because these are the questions that I enjoyed first of all a traditional Advaita would say would summarize his position as brahma satyam jagat mithya Jeeva Brahman even opera which means this rope snake example which you mentioned Brahman alone is real the world is in appearance and Who am I a real order in appearance you are real you are none other than brahmana Brahman is real the world is an appearance and you the individual being you are actually Brahman now when Ramakrishna says everything in the world is Brahman is God and worship everything as Shiva Giani ji receiver worship all ji in the knowledge that it is cheaper it can very well be interpreted in terms of traditional Advaita why you said that it doesn't seem to quite match the rope snake example it does actually we the way we are seeing the world how do we see the world right now unless you are enlightened right now the way we understand the world is these are human beings some of them are for my friends some of them I don't like some of them I like a lot some of them I mean indifferent to and these are Birds these are animals these are insects these are in sentient things like tables and chairs and buildings and atoms and galaxies this is how we see the universe we actually do not see the universe as God Brahman we read about it we hear lectures about it but we do not see it we are seeing the snake we are not seeing the rope even on Ramakrishna's position actually one Yemeni says everything is God here we don't see it that way it sounds nice it's nice to think about it but actually we don't feel it he sees it for him it's a reality he sees the rope we see the snake and the snake has to be corrected by knowledge that it is all brahman so from an from that perspective it matches the traditional advaitha position a traditional adverting would find no fault in ceramic richness things would be happy with it but then there are lots of things which Ramakrishna said which cannot be so conveniently packaged away as traditional of Greater somebody it's in the letters of Swami Tori Ananda I think it's a Swami Sivananda who wrote to Swami Torian and the what was the philosophy of sri ramakrishna somewhat like your question was the anon dualist was he a qualified monist was he a duelist ad waiting we she stopped waiting Drayton or something else and so long reply which Swami Torian on the G is given wonderful reply it's worth reading when he discusses various facets of what Sri Ramakrishna's taught and then he says but if you push me so give me a straight answer what is the philosophy of ceramics then he says I will have to say the philosophy of Sri Ramakrishna is realize God by whatever means possible in Bengali it's even more direct Joshua Rey Pavan LabCorp by whatever means possible realized God that at the cohort seems to be what ceramic Krishna said but he gave a lot of emphasis on on advaitha because he said base yourself on Advaitic knowledge and then practice whatever you want to practice one of the things he said but then he also put tremendous emphasis on bhakti love of God good question one more question from the internet audience now yes so it will come to you there was a question here also yeah there - now a question from the Internet audience the question is fish in his discourses Swamiji mentions that everything we experience in our lives are objects such as the body soul memory and that even a sense of I is also an object if the sense of I is an object unaware of when away it must be in the racing mind how then do we claim that it was I who is in deep sleep how do we have the memory of the blackness of deep sleep and awake in mind this question has been troubling me and I would really appreciate it if you could answer this in the next minute that's a second question I'll repeat it for you in case you missed it he says Envy danta all of this these are objects for consciousness quite clearly look around you everything that you experience is an object and you are the subject in your experience isn't that true if you look at your body that's the same thing the body that you experience is an object in your awareness the mind that we experience if you experience the mind then mind is also an object and in the the ego the i-ight if you feel it right now I if you feel it if you experience it within yourself no matter how subtle it's still an object now this eye disappears in deep sleep and yet when I wake up in deep sleep we don't feel I am sleeping of course not if you feel that you are not sleeping this is just a blankness but when we wake up you say that I slipped and yet that I was not there it's an object which was not during deep sleep but the question is how do you reconcile this I Who am NOT there I claim that I slipped it's a very subtle question and if you can answer this question and grasp the answer to this question at the very least you have grasped or greater and at best you will get enlightened that's how powerful this question is here is the question points to a fault line in Maya there is a crack in this illusion we are living and this question actually points to that that that fault line if you investigate their Maya does not want you to investigate it'll direct you here and there but if you investigate there the crack widens till the whole illusion disappears and the truth is should be to you the answer to the question is this if you only have understood the question then only the answer will make sense the answer to the question is this that I which was an original is an object in your waking state that I which was not there in deep sleep it is true that I did not experience deep sleep and yet upon waking up when the mind starts functioning that eye comes up it claims that falsely I was asleep it claims that I was asleep what does it claim it takes the experiences which are still there and there is a witness which recognizes the deep sleep experience that witness is not the eye the witness is the witness of the eye also right now when you feel I am i what is feeling the eye right now that witness it continues when the eye also shuts down I mean the this this I shot down and the vertical eye also shuts down in deep sleep that witness continues and the experience of deep sleep is a technical point the experience of deep sleep is recorded in our Guiana in the anandamaya kosha the exact the answer you find in Vedanta sorry says RT Sushma via Ghana with T V by an extremely subtle movement of a yawn anandamaya kosha this experience of deep sleep is also recorded now the interesting thing happens is when you wake up the mind starts working and I comes up and those experiences are there and the i falsely mischievously coolly takes up the experiences of that and said I he was asleep the ego was not there the witness experienced the real Atman the sack she experienced the deep sleep experience illumined that that's why deep sleep you see the paradox of deep sleep in each of us say that we experience deep sleep yet that experience was not of the subject object kind of experience which were having right now because we cannot actually say that I was there and I experienced deep sleep I was sleeping deeply no we can't say that and yet we cannot in all honesty did deny that we have all experienced deep sleep do you see this put these two facts together then something startling it emerges what experienced deep sleep what is it in you that experienced deep sleep in sir the witness and instead of answering that quickly can you actually trace it back can you try to feel it with that real witnesses right now it's present right here can you get some clarity about it what will happen is you will be free of the ego you will realize I am NOT I Shankaracharya of any sings manova ahankara cheat Thani Nam look at the contradictory nature of that line he says I am NOT the mind I am NOT the intellect and not the memory they're all objects but funnily enough he says I am NOT the ego ego means I literally if you translate that put it on paper it will read I am NOT I we sing it happily I think it's very profound but what a stunning thing he has said I am NOT I think about this I the one which is right now you say I am sitting in this room and I am listening to the talk clearly the ego is saying it and ego is right ego is right here but that ego when it says re-experience deep sleep it's a false statement and yet something did experience deep sleep put these two facts together and something startling will reveal itself very good question yes the reflected consciousness does not exist in deep sleep now we cannot speak like this because there is a it's being recorded for the purposes of the internet now should I leave it there I'll come to you here is a question you had a question please tell us your name so me - my name is Rama and I'm going back to the question the previous question your answers about the five stages of duty that you just spoke about five components of swadharma five confidence of Swadesh whatever so and so in the modern life even if you're performing those duties it just sucks all your energy and they how do you while performing duties make it something that actually provides spiritual growth because you can perform these very duties sincerely and yet you may not feel that it translates to you growing spiritually and you don't have time in any other way to do anything else other than perform your swaddling yes so how do you go about that it's a good question we might say Swami you are a Swami so your whole swadharma all your roles or spiritual roles so you can happily speak about spiritual life doing this and that but we are students and teachers and mothers and fathers and and so many things in society and all of that energy and time how can I convert those things into spiritual practices if possible indeed it is possible Swami Vivekananda once walking in almoravid Korean energy he said hurry by this time I have started a new path this time that means in this age I have carved out a new path for the youngsters who are going to come after us they will work for the welfare of others and thereby they will develop themselves spiritually I am paraphrasing this is not the language he used this conversion of our day-to-day activities into spiritual practice this is a central teaching of the OP Swami Vivekananda sister nivedita said henceforth no division between the sake sacred and secular to labor is to pray to have and hold is as sacred a trust as to renounce and quit the shop floor the factory floor and and the office and the place of they are as fit a place for the meeting of man and God as the cell of a monk how can we do that every work that we do at the beginning of that work remember god whichever form you worship that my lord this is my Dharma my swadharma in front of me might the role you have assigned me to play I'm going to play this role and mentally I offer it to you like a flower I offer at the feet of God I offered this action at your feet at the end of the work when you're finished again remember the Lord and you offer off of that slowly the attitude will be everything that I am doing it may be I'm doing my job in the office it may be that I'm taking care of children in the home or in the school it may be I'm just doing the same worldly activities but internally they'll be a tremendous transformation that I am doing everything for my beloved Krishna or Rama or or Christ whatever whichever form of God you are worshiping concentrate on that that I am doing these activities as worship to God and make sure more and more I don't want anything from that for myself I am doing it as a service to God so two things one is connect the activity to God and second is a component of unselfishness as much as you can bring in remember common sense if you are holding a job that does not mean the tomorrow onwards you I'll do the job but I won't take salary from you anymore it's not sustainable you can't do that here we are running an ashram so even as a monk I have to take donations so how much more so when you are out in the world and you are working you will definitely take your salary and earn what you have to earn but that apart there should be no other particular selfish desire behind Act that action the selfish desires like by this job by this role by this salary or by this promotion I will be fulfilled that's a worldly attitude I will be fulfilled by God alone by realization alone by spirituality alone and these are all these things will help me the duty which we have in life is not against spirituality when we think of it as duty that something that I have to do and finish it somehow then that will do I will do my spiritual practices then it becomes a terrible burden so I'm wearing on the coats the ashtavakra humanity scorched by the midday Sun of duty not that way not that way work as a free agent this is in front of me it's an opportunity to do something it's an opportunity for spiritual practice there was a goat yesterday a devotee showed me a coat on our computer different wonderful coats one of them was from a Japanese Zen master Dogen and it says if if this if you think that the self confirms ten thousand things you are in delusion but if you think 10,000 things confirm the self you are enlightened now that person who showed me she said hmm I think well I don't know what that means really you know what that means it's a very profound truth ten thousand things means your life everything in your life what you see what you hear what you do what you smell but you touch what you enjoy what you suffer if you think that's what you are doing in life all of this you say yes you are deal in delusion according to Dogon if all of them point back to the spirit within you then you are enlightened if n thousand things point back to God within you so one way in up in a bhakti wave in a karma yoga way if ten thousand things of your life is you can connect to God if God is the golden thread running through all of that then even if you are not enlightened you are well on your way to enlightenment if that does not appeal to you if you are in personalistic by nature non-dualistic by nature then you say instable put the word God out of the equation I the pure consciousness what you eat it it just is something that is revealed to you in your consciousness what you do is reveal to you in your consciousness everything that happens in life shines in your awareness use that to become aware of the awareness like you would use a mirror do you use a mirror to look at the mirror or do you use the mirror to look at your face when you are looking at the mirror are you looking at the glass usually not you're looking at the reflection similarly everything in the life life is a mirror which reveals God to you when you are looking at life and sayd revealed life to me mostly unhappy then you're looking at the glass in the middle you're not looking at the reflection okay one more question from the internet audience good questions very Park I try to follow the six steps you have taught in your dream to share difficult lectures there I did some meditation in the morning but when I try internal headspace meditation external things come to me as input I can close my eyes but can't for five years so it's chair playing clock ticking come to my ears even though no thought is present or just as a doubt expensive text is present about that moment I feel that external and internal is getting mixed up for me as I understand this body mind they're nothing but a unit of some atoms has a special capability through the witness consciousness that is enabling this piece of matter to hear see touch smell taste and think is it really possible to have the internal text-based meditation my own breathing movement also comes as a distraction can you please let me know if I'm doing something wrong which I can correct very good question very good question do you know what it refers to in the text trig ratio Vivica towards the end there are six meditation techniques and he's talking about the first two of those meditation techniques what are the meditation techniques it's a nice segue into this question from the other earlier discussion you know the ten thousand things in life what the technique tells you is take any thought whatever comes to your mind if it's two plus two is equal to four or AB Rose is a red flower that is thought comes to your mind instead of concentrating on the thought become aware of the thought signing in your awareness when the thought comes up instead of we get engrossed in the thought and then we jump from one thought to another but what the meditation technique tells you is take the thought and immediately become aware of yourself as the witness to that thought that's our sheet to annotate Onam become aware of yourself as the witness of that start can you do that it's subtle but not difficult now what he's saying is that the next step after that when you become you're aware of your the witness to that sort is now you go to a text-based meditation which says a Sango hum I am unattached I am an attached means that witness which I am is unattached things come and go in its light it is not they don't stick to it I am unattached dueto vegeto um I am non-dual sub Prakash or hum I am self-effulgent these are obvious facts once you have got the witness clarity about the witness all these things will be obvious facts just you're repeating a fact to yourself now the problem which this person has referred to is that Swami when I think about a start if you think about a thought right I am the witness of the thought but then the clock is ticking and then the and then the birds are chirping and then it's hot and then lot of other things come into my mind a thought might be very difficult illusive to get hold of lots of other things are crowding into my mind so what is the way out what do you think correct absolutely the answer from the gentleman was witness of everything you are not just a witness of the thought the thought is not important if the clock is ticking wonderful wonderful use it immediately the clock ticks when it when it goes tick-tock if I am the witness of the tick-tock when the bird chops outside I am the witness of the chirping bird or the chirping of the bird any movement anything that registers in your awareness is a mirror to your awareness it reflects you back to your awareness I have known of persons who get into a kind of internal intoxication just by listening to the sound of a clock tick ticking yes it's possible absolutely possible hours can pass because the ticking of a clock is a very powerful device its rhythmic its monotonous every tick point you back to the witness conscious and you tend to get absorbed there's no escape from the witness consciousness if you're listening to a ticking of a cough of a clock if you see that well first of all you have to understand what the witness consciousness is you have to have clarity about that that's one thing that's why the dribbler Civic text is there you see the Holy Mother she used it in a different way she told one of the disciples that my child listen to the ticking of a clock repeat your mantra with that regularity with that comes steadiness and regularity keep on repeating the mantra I'll tell you an experience it was in the Himalayas we were studying ashtavakra very high text of non-dual Vedanta and the Swami was teaching us there was a word naira Marianna without break in the text he was teaching us a mere group of mostly group of monks some lived in huts some in caves and some had long beards somewhere shaven-headed mostly we were very scruffy lot so we were all sitting around his feet and he was teaching us when he came to the word night hunt arena without break he closed the book and he looked at us and he said before the class I was thinking how do I explain this word and then in front in front of him you have to see the Ganges is roaring past just in front about 40 50 feet below its mountainous you understand the Ganges is roaring past he says immediately my eyes fell on that and I felt just like without break the stream of water is roaring continuously flowing fast in front without any break at all like that should be the thought should be the thought of the self should be your establishment in the self in a in a Advaita Vedanta chakra and that night a monk you know he went for meditation and he sat in meditation and he could not stop meditating throughout the night because the roaring of the Ganges mixed up that monks Hut that thought kept kept coming to him and because the rolling is without break I couldn't stop it was so powerful hour after hour passed you know six hours seven hours so that's without break anything in the world especially like the ticking of a clock or the flowing of water can be an excellent reminder of your witness status a question from the audience here you have to come forward and speak in the microphone now pass it and take up the microphone please sit down because it's being recorded that's why okay please sit down sit okay the question two questions before in the microphone I have two questions before when we are talking about hi my I think in course of meditation and prayer subject and object pose disappear why cannot come when you meditate when you pray we didn't ask God to anything I or Who I am with just to subject and object disappear automatically in course of prayer and meditation I think another question people are asking that is a excellent person I eat little bit bothers in my life giving any existing shellworld the sucio model vocabularies are so strong today even you try to pray to God to in search of mystic mysticism touching the real spirituality to go to real from unreal in that case exist tensional world they are more aha Pokhara very social immoral VUCA bernie is so powerful and guided the way it is hard people could understand us what we are doing and what we are looking for on plain view like you are a person he was Swami ji we all know you are a spiritual seeker but I am an ordinary person okay and the moral vocable is using a soup our food people mistreat me they think they read mean wrongly that's why how could we cross that boundary when you are talking about God and we are in search of mysticism that going from unreal to real then that moral vocabulary sociation I am I think I understand the question yes the first part about meditation and the subject and the object disappearing I think that was more of a comment there was not there wasn't a question there that's very good and the second thing is about other people misunderstanding spiritual seekers one thing is that unless a person is a secret to some extent it's no use talking about these things to to such a person so person it will not be real to that person but then the truth is that people are seekers there are so many people who are seekers and if you want to communicate with them if there is even a little bit of genuine questioning you have to understand the vocabulary you will be rightly pointed out the vocabulary is important you have to understand what are the terms that person is using and on what terms you can relate to that person so yes a little bit of adjustment you have to do but it only works with a person who is interested the person is not interested and then then we are also not interested Vedanta is very patient if you are not interested we say fine go and do the thing there must be something you are interested in the world so go and do it pursue it and we will wait this life next life life after that many licensed there is no hurry so I mean we reckon this language he says take your time there is no hurry even here is half serious when you said that I'll write a question from the internet audience this is from Arvind who is in Brisbane Australia in one of your talks recently you mentioned your discussion with the book in one of your talks recently you mentioned your discussion with the Buddhist monks at a conference where the monks went into went into a huddle after you invoked neti neti I have a question about the nature of consciousness in the two schools of thought from what I have gleaned from listening to your talks it seems in the Vedanta school consciousness is primary with the attributes of sat-chit-ananda in some of your talks you have mentioned that the mind borrows this consciousness much like the moon borrows its light from the Sun on the other hand my understanding of the Buddhist school is that they have developed the idea of an Atman no self thus the Buddhist school says Juniata is primary if my understanding is correct then in such a case consciousness is not primary and must be generated or developed somehow from Shunyata that is my question how does consciousness arise or form from shoonya in the Buddhist view maybe you can give a short answer to this question or if you could point me to some books that I can read I read always my favorite question the contrast between the Hindu schools of thinking and Buddhist schools let me set out the contrast first before attempting to resolve it the dualistic schools of Hindu thought by which I mean for example the Naya the vaisheshika the Sankhya the yoga these schools of Hindu thought they claim that in addition to the physical bodies Tula sharira we have a subtle body suksham sharir and that is not subject it's not a matter of belief the experience at all the time we experience life and thought and memories all the time we are experiencing it that which you are experiencing as a first person private experience within yourself that's the subtle body so we have a subtle body suksham sharir and in addition to that we have the Atman the self self with the capitalist the physical body dies at death the subtle body goes on for life after life but when you are enlightened the subtle body also falls off and you realize you are the unchanging Atman so physical body subtle body Atman the self now along comes the Buddhist and says physical body in subtle body are matters of experience where is this precious Atman of yours physical body series of changes subtle body mind and intellectual memory another series of changes beyond this what else exists everything is Emperor Li transient everything is momentary everything is empty the word which he used Shunyata emptiness and they are they have their self nature empty of self nature that means there is no inherent unchanging nature to anything that was the Buddhist insight and it's a very powerful challenge a very powerful challenge in the book that said aletheia manikyam saruba manikyam temporary a transient transient everything is transient everything goes away Shani come Shani come serve oh honey come not only that everything goes away you see everything goes everything Nobi everybody dies and they also will have to die that does not really bother us as long as it everything stays for just enough for my team my purpose if the house lid is kind stays steady for 50 years or 100 years it's good for me I'm going to use it for 50 years or hundred years after that doesn't matter if the body lives for 30 40 50 60 or 80 years good enough for me because I'll do whatever I can in that period of time if the cookie melts in my mouth and is gone in 10 seconds that's also good enough for me because I can taste it in the ten seconds so temporary is okay with us we really don't mind temporary impermanent we don't mind but Buddha goes on further spoilsport that he is he says Shani come Shani come not only temporary momentary momentary everything changes from moment to moment it does not stay steady for let alone for decades and centuries it does not stay steady from one second to the next let me sound like a startling claim from our common sense point of view but as we go on modern science is more and more as shown that everything is a whirling mass of particles the whirling mass of change continuously all around us this from our perspective something seemed more steady than others Shani kamsani comes sarvam Shani come and hence unum chungnam sarvam shown 'i'm wide void all is void and then finally do come to come serve them to come hence because because it is transient because it is momentary because it is wide everything is of the nature of dukkha suffering if you feel the suffering you're feeling the reality if you feel pleasure and happiness you are deluded because they were suffering before it there is suffering at the end of it and they're suffering underneath it any joy that we have so real spoilsport the Buddha well hard truth now in this mass of change where is this permanent Atman you are speaking about so the Buddhist launches a two-pronged attacks one is on your permanent solemn the your immortal soul is no such things about the faith and the second one is we the partner to your immortal soul the poor God an immortal God unchanging reality calls God dude this lunch is an attack on that - where is this card you speak about both are equally are impossibilities an immortal God sitting somewhere way up in heaven where and your own immortal soul you speak about Atman where you can't prove it and thus began a thousand-year battle between literally a thousand years from around 2005 little after the Buddha ban the philosophical schools of Buddhism began to grow strong till the disappearance of Buddhism from India around 800 900 AD so for more than a thousand years there was a philosophical debate a battle between the Hindu schools and the Buddhist schools and was good because it led to a flowering of philosophy very sophisticated philosophy developed over a thousand years and you have gotten text after text the Hindus trying to defend the immortal soul Atman defend the existence of God and the Buddhists attacking both the great Hindu logician Judean Acharya around 10th century AD there is the famous story of how he goes to he fought against the Buddhists yet he has two classic books we just still studied one is called osmoter 12-acre where he tries to prove with extremely subtle reasoning that there must be a permanent unchanging consciousness at the back of everything changing otherwise this life is not possible it tries to explain that and then the second book is nee Aiko Samantha Lee where he gives 9 proofs for the existence of Ishwara of God against the Buddhist opponent so this kind of a great logician you know he goes to the story that he goes to jagannatha temple in puri and for duction for the for the darshan of lord jagannatha and at that time the doors are closed because offering is going on the Bogue offering to the lord is going on the doors are closed so there is a very funny Sanskrit shloka attributed to Odin Acharya it seems he composed it when he saw the doors closed he said my lord now you are so proud and you shut your doors to me but when the Buddhists come and attack you and try to disprove your existence you run to me for proving your existence now you won't let me go in and I know I have your audience in houses when wealthier but you are helplessly dependent upon me to prove your existence in the book this comes from ataxia anyhow humor apart this was the situation now now what does a joy to bring to the mix swami vivekananda you wanted a text swami vivekananda practical vedanta lecture number 4 where he takes up the Buddhist position the Hindu duelist position and reconciles it with the Advaita Nandu listen there's a lot more to be said about this but I'll mention just this what does swami very kind of say look at the classic example of the snake and the rope it is not that there is a rope and on top of that there is a snake that you drive the snake up and then you get the rope no these are not two different things a rope and a snake the rope is mistaken as the snake what you think is the snake is the rope itself mistakenly snake taken for what it is rope in ignorance snake in knowledge rope similarly he says both the Buddhist and Hindu dwellest are right the Hindu dwellest is right when he says there is an immortal reality called the soul or God or whatever it is and the Buddhist is right when he says that there is nothing apart from this which you call God or so it is the same thing which you regard in ignorance as a mass mass of whirling change which we see as this world and in knowledge you will find all of this is nothing other than Perlman it's not that there is a soul and there is a body mind and universe separately Advaita says there is only one thing in ignorance it is regarded as world as body as mind as Jeeva in individual g1j gap in knowledge when you get brahma jana this very Jeeva jagat becomes none other than brahman for you you that's why enlightened persons will keep on saying I see God everywhere what does that mean the person does not say I see the world and I see God in heaven which way something says that nobody they all say I see God everywhere which means where everywhere means were here he might as well say I see the Rope in the snake he never says I see a rope and a snake no it is what you considered to be the snake the person who knows he says it's a rope it's what we considered to be a mass a changing mass a physical massive change called the body mental massive change called the mind known in reality it is nothing other than such hidden under so this is how Vivekananda reconciles it now is it accepted no there are scholars who accept it there are scholars who do not on both on the Vedantic side and on the Buddhist side there are scholars and monks and teachers who will not agree that the two are ultimately the same I remember speaking to a Buddhist Lama in Delhi Universe in Delhi University there was a seminar the Lama spoke I also spoke and afterwards a person in the audience a lady said to the Lama holy Lama what the Swami was saying and what you say they seem to be very similar this is the problem with the Hindu mind they immediately find the oneness behind everything they don't stress the differences they stress the unity so they are did he seem to is very similar what you are saying and the what the Swami is saying I was I spoke from the Advaita perspective and he spoke from the Tibetan Buddhist perspective and so the Lama he smiled and he said no actually they are different you know there are a lot of differences and I stepped in doing the Hindu thing saying yes there are differences but there are different paths they lead to the same conclusion you know and then the Buddhist not to be outdone the Lama said yes he has a meeting point but after that again different [Laughter] so there are people on both sides who would not agree but there are scholars who do agree if you read a book called the central philosophy of Buddhism central philosophy Abood ISM TR we move T you will see Tibetan Buddhism Mahayana Magna Hakka Buddhism of Nagarjuna it's explained in in terms which are very Advaitic non-dualistic I've also had occasion to mention Sam Harris was a very popular 80's speaker here in the United States and he says religion is mostly hypocrisy and nonsense superstition but he says there are these two traditions one is a great of a dontoh and the other one is Tibetans of chain Buddhism which have a core of truth in them and it's the same truth both are both are speaking about there is a professor of religion a philosopher actually in Australia a lady Miri albahari and I find in her work she is primarily a scholar of Buddhism and and the way she interprets Mahayana Buddhism especially Magda McCarthyism of Nagarjuna is very close to Advaita Vedanta Shankara and she she mentions it explicitly they too are very close why I mention her is that she is coming to give this talk about advaitha Vedanta and the problem of consciousness in NYU next year and I have invited her to come and speak here to us so I really hope she does come and speak to us but she speaks about exactly this problem yes we have run out of time you must tell me when the food is reused let me know yes so there is a question from the yes please come and somebody else raised the hand there yes I'll come back to you yes there's a mic please tell us your name and please sit my name is Sri and just I guess talking about Buddhism I'm thinking of this concept of compassion that the modern Buddhists are talking a lot about now and and with this I'm asking a very personal question but I think it probably affects a lot of people from time to time so you know we try to have compassion and we try to have empathy and sometimes we think we're doing great you know we're around a grieving parent and we can feel everything that they're feeling and you know I guess we must well I must have been tapping myself on the shoulder because the next I meet someone else and they're grieving and I seem to have zero compassion to have judgment and then I continue to sort of beat myself up over not being able to muster any compassion so then do I just give up and wait for grace or do I keep working at it that's my question you see this is a problem that's inevitable as long as we regard ourselves as individual points of consciousness that I am an individual among many individuals and what kind of an individual am i I'm a body and mind with consciousness I am a body and mind with consciousness then what becomes primary is body and mind and the way I relate to others as body minds now what will happen is I like some of them some of those body Minds I like them some of those body Minds I don't like them those who might like is easy for me to have compassion and love for them those who I do not like it's not easy for me to have any kind of compassion for them and yet I am told to have compassion for everybody look at the language have compassion for everybody the moment you say everybody then there must be something same that you see in everybody so that you can have the same compassion for everybody do you follow then what is the same thing in everybody at all times and at all places there is only one reality which runs through all of us base yourself on the vedantic reality that you are such chit Ananda you are none other than God and then therefore everybody that you meet even whether you like the body-mind or you do not like the body might everybody you meet the background is the same such chit Ananda when that's no longer theory when that begins to become reality to you then you will find having compassion for everybody becomes automatic love will become automatic compassion will become automatic judgment may still come up the mindedness it has a way of judging but your judgement you can dismiss easily because you know beyond whatever you judge judge a person to be good judge a person to be bad you make up your mind this person is bad a bad body mind but at the same time you will know that sub that's absolutely on the surface it's superficial the reality is existence consciousness place is the one unchanging reality in me in you in him and in her that's the real basis for compassion change your concept about yourself I am NOT this person body mind culture II Sri is really the existence consciousness bliss appearing at the body mind here then you will see that everybody else else changes automatically for you and then the problem of compassion problem of love the problem of hatred it will disappear it will become spontaneous love will become spontaneous compassion will become spontaneous if by automatic reaction hatred or irritation comes you will be more and more able to dismiss it easily okay I'll take one last question from the lady there could you come up and ask the question come to the mic here last question I hear the food is ready so we will make this the last question there's the microphone my name is Pat this is a somewhat confused question so I apologize to all hungry people in the microphone and a Zen master was asked and said to me I asked what is Buddha mind and he said non holdin now we come to Vedanta and God the Buddhist ideas of continuous motion voidness motion nothing held but the Vedantic idea I picked is you must not confuse prana with God who does not move but my problem in meditation is how do you get from this for my infatuation electric Arana with prana to the non-moving state right it's not at all a confused question it's a very good question and very precisely put in most of identically put so yes non holding is the essence of the Buddha mind and it applies very equally to the Vedantic mind also anything objective that you hold on to as yourself I am this holding on to a changing body it's continuous change what am I when I say I am this body I am prana if I hold on to that continuously flowing in and out like the bellows pumping in and out air flowing in and through me life forces coursing through me continuously changing like the ebb and flow of a tide prana courses through me what watches the when you say I am breathing in I am aware of breathing in I am breathing out I am aware of breathing out what it is it that is aware of the breathing in and breathing out the breathing in and breathing out are the movements of Karla what is it that is aware of the breathing in and breathing out that is not moving in and out that is aware of the movement of the product is it moving itself no if you come to the site II do finish it you ask the question what am i you start with the body you clearly see that you cannot be the body for certain reasons it's external to you I feel I'm inside this and is an object this is something external to me it is changing and I am unchanging it is an object of my experience I am the subject of experience for certain reasons I cannot be the body for exactly the same reasons I cannot be the product you're not denying that the prana is there let the prana move in and out if got to keep on breathing yes until you're enlightened you have to go to creep keep on breathing so yes and then the mind the mind moves continuously look deeper within the prana thoughts ideas come but you are aware of the movement of the mind is it not and then the intellect even that which you are using to understand all of this you're aware of the movement of the intellect anything that you are aware of is not the Atman and in the microphone yes it's not thought so much but when I meditate I feel this incredible seething energy which is very nice to feel but I can't get beyond them it's it's like the energies all right is there and very pleasurable but but you said look at the words you used I feel this incredible energy it feels pleasurable yes I feel this energy what fees that's right but how do I get beyond to join the feeling you don't have to start this way this way the moment followed is carefully the moment you recognize that there is something that is aware of the surging of this energy within me what you're asking is how do I stop the energies from surging or how do I get beyond the feeling of pleasure of in reveling in that energy the Vedanta cancels you don't have to all that you need to notice is that someone something here is aware of that energy just notice that let the energy be there let it see it within you let it course within you let your mind enjoy that energy - if you cannot sit for long for meditation you feel so energy to get to get up and walk get up and walk the Atman is not disturbed all you need to notice it that it relieves that surging energy that feeling reveals the ever-present awareness within you if one day do not feel that energy if you tired or quiet it is the same awareness which notice that energy the same awareness which notices the lack or diminishing of that energy that is what you are let the play of prana go on why if i disturb it let it go on the body the prana the mind these are creations of Ishwara of god you need not destroy them to do you need not transcend them to become enlightened you are already beyond that you need not and you cannot how can you get rid of front of it so you get rid of prana god forbid listen every will be diabetic so we need we need not do that either and we should not do that either why not here is the crucial I'll end with this here is the crucial secret it is that very surging of prana which you are noticing like a mirror it reveals your own existence also the mirror it's not me but it reflects my face the experience of the surging prana it's not you it's not the Atman it's not the real you but it really needs the real you because it shines in your light it is revealed in your awareness it's a door to to self-realization does it make sense no you you you know you know what is hard you know what is hard controlling that prana is hard controlling the planet that's what you feel as being hard can I control that Rana can I somehow transcend it go beyond it but it ceases to disturb my meditation that's what you're asking in the microphone my meditation I could do that all day all you need to do is then watch The Watcher what you watching means as the surges come and go it reveals you as the not surging water all the time all the time well it just impacted just a reversal it's like right now you are immersed in the mirror and delighted by the reflection of your face in the mirror all you need to do is let the mirror be there let the reflection of your face be there just to remind yourself that's the real face here not there what is being reflected here is really me here so the fascination with the mirror and the face will go away right now we have we are like person was forgotten his or her real face and very fascinated with the mirror oh nice and somebody wants to take the mirror Robin no no no I lose my face if the mirror goes away but my face is not in the mirror we know what the problem with with the real faces and what the advantage of the mirror is mirror reflected face advantages you can see it and the problem with the real face is you cannot see it but once you realize this is the real face which is reflected there then you're not dependent on the mirror if you remove the mirror you cannot see the face anymore but you know it's there you're not craving for the mirror yes it will work don't worry just relax it will work all right before I close there are a couple of announcements so this is the last ask Swamy session until the end of September because we are closing for summer after today's session there will be no normal classes in July and August in the middle of September the next a swami session will be at the end of September at this point I would like to wish everybody a very happy and pleasant summer I would like to pray to sri ramakrishna masha Radha and Swami Vivekananda to bless us all with peace and joy let none here be touched by sorrow let gladness and joy fill our summer survey after soaking us unto salvation to Nehemiah Marcus she took cover over wait I pray to the to tackle my ecology to bless all of us here Oh Shante Shante Shante hurry you that's that Sri Ramakrishna 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