Video 7

Ask Swami with Swami Sarvapriyananda | Jan 23rd, 2022

[Music] lead us from the unreal to the real lead us from darkness and to light lead us from death to immortality om peace peace peace so we have a set of questions here today and diane is going to ask those questions good morning swamiji um the first question is from nandan swamiji i believe firmly that there is no universe out there it only exists in our consciousness a principle of biocentrism my question comes from watching your lectures on who am i at itt kanpur is it possible to experience tui temporarily i would love to hear from you and we believe that there is no universe outside our consciousness it's all in our consciousness and is it possible to experience turiya temporarily all right is it possible to experience turia temporarily and the straight answer would be yes and no [Music] no it is not possible to experience thuria temporarily in fact at all it's not possible to experience turia at all and yes it is possible to experience study temporarily in fact you can experience thuria all the time so how does that work what does it mean we must first understand what is meant by turiya in fact what is meant by consciousness in advaita the word turiya itself means just the fourth fourth number the number four and it's a technical term which was used by godapada in the mandukya karika which is built around the manduka upanishad where what godapatha does is we have this waking experience i experience this world i am the waker and this is my world which i experience then we have dream experiences i i'm experiencing a dream world then we have an experience of deep sleep that's also a kind of experience the blankness of deep sleep all of these three experiences come and go in the same awareness after all it's i who was awake and i who's dreamt and i who was in deep sleep i would never even say that i am i'm awake but somebody else dreamt and a third person slipped no i am the same one then what is the same one this same one is consciousness is awareness now with respect to waking one dreaming to and deep sleep three a fourth is postulated literally sanskrit word for fourth would be turia therefore the fourth is called thuriya but that fourth is no one fourth is the one the one to which the waking dreaming and deep sleep appear and play around and disappear now that force that consciousness in which all experiences happen how can we experience that can we experience that temporarily can we experience that all the time or not at all first of all no you cannot experience it what is experience experience is nothing but that one consciousness the theory itself channelized through the mind and the senses and then seeing something so consciousness lights up the mind thoughts feelings our inner instrument and the lit up mind now uses the the senses for example the eyes with the eyes i see the flower there's a flower and there's there my eyes and then behind that there is the mind and illumining the mind is consciousness itself so consciousness sees something through the instruments without the instruments just the mind the consciousness can illumine the mind and the contents of the mind will be visible but consciousness itself cannot make itself an object like this let me repeat that when we say experience something this is something that i can experience experience means c for example see here smell taste touch think remember understand love hate all of those are experiences now i can experience this flower consciousness mind sense organ plus flower of course light must be there and all those conditions must be there like this flower i cannot make consciousness i cannot put it here and experience consciousness you know i can't see consciousness i can't hear it i can't i can't smell it taste it touch it so can i experience turiya no it's not an object of experience but swami vivekananda says in one of his ghana yoga lectures that you must not go away with the feeling that the ultimate reality consciousness is unknown it is more than known how is it more than known in and through every experience every experience is possible because of the theory every experience is possible because of consciousness it is consciousness through the mind and the eyes which sees these things it is consciousness which is through the mind and the ears hears all this it is consciousness which ultimately gives us the experience of smelling and tasting and touching the experience of thinking and understanding and remembering and forgetting and loving and hating all of those experiences are possible because of consciousness now this is the only way in which we experience consciousness and this experience is not temporary it doesn't come and go all experience is this only this consciousness only shining through in various mediums is giving us experience this is basic sankhya epistemology consciousness itself gives us experience without consciousness no experience therefore in that sense alone we are actually experiencing consciousness all the time whenever you are experiencing it's like light whenever you are seeing something you are seeing light is it possible to see light briefly i mean in that sense if you're seeing you are seeing light um it's like when you're looking at pottery lots of clay pots is it possible to see the clay briefly no as long as you're looking at the parts you are seeing clay but what is necessary is you must recognize that it is clay that's the only thing otherwise the question might be that also in every experience turia is evident yes it is but only to the enlightened if in every experience story was evident then everybody would be enlightened everybody would say yes i know i know i am the theory it's always it's always evident to me but generally we don't have that feeling we don't think so we don't think so this is ignorance it is all the time available all the time experienceable within quotes not experienceable like an object experienceable as the experiencer or the illumina of objects in that sense when i'm looking at the waves in the ocean is it possible just by the grace of the guru to see the water just a little bit no you're seeing water all the time but if you think that you don't see the water you have to be introduced to the water looking at clay pots if you think that i don't see clay anywhere i see parts then you have to be introduced to what is clay if you're looking at ornaments all the time and gold ornaments and i don't say i see the ornaments but i see necklaces rings and all the ways the gold you have to be introduced to what is gold then you see all the time that is called you're seeing it oh now gold is an object clay is an object water is an object and so they can see it directly like that it's an example but the peculiar problem with consciousness is it's not an object it's you it is i it is the pure subject and therefore uh it cannot be objectified like clay or water or gold so turia is never ever experienced and always experienced but the sense of the word experienced is different in two cases one is it's experienced through mind and senses no turia cannot be expressed experience through mind and senses another one experience means recognized in every experience so there's a whole philosophy in kashmir shaivism based on this called pratyavikya which means recognition philosophy so that is tyria now there is still some sense to the question why what happens is this it's a temporary little bit i caught a glimpse of turiya of sakshi philosophically the statement is not correct but psychologically it makes some sense because what happens is [Music] when the mind is calmed especially through meditative techniques one may get the intuition that i am awareness practice that i am awareness all the time but when the mind is calm it becomes more evident that is the whole logic behind patanjali yoga the whole logic behind seeking samadhi that it becomes very clear that i am consciousness once one comes out of samadhi one will can look back upon that and understand what was happening there so in that sense one might feel when the mind is flickering i am not centered in it i i understood i am the witness consciousness but now it's not there anymore one may feel like that philosophically that's not correct you are always the witness consciousness but one may feel like that because of the association with the mind or identification with the mind in pure and concentrated mind it is evident in disturbed mind it's not evident in that sense alone one might say i have a temporary glimpse of turiya but not otherwise all right the next question is the next question is from rajiv raj deep dah why does drigrisha vivek viveka suggest that only the other china theory truly explains the jivahud and not the other theory such as the chidawbasa conception of jiva viveka shloka number 32. all right that's a fairly technical question but very interesting there are different theories which he has mentioned the theory of uh theory of pratibhimba appearance pratibhimba means reflection and means limitation appearance theory reflection theory limitation theory now what's all this all these are to explain a big question which arises when you say there is only one consciousness consciousness is one reality but then how does it appear to be so many there are so many of us here and each of us it clearly feels that we are different consciousnesses it feels like that i mean it may be that there is one consciousness but we all feel different not only bodies minds and we also feel like we are separate conscious beings how can one consciousness be individuated can be decomposed into many consciousnesses as if the gita also says undivided in all beings it appears to be divided but yes it's good to say that it appears to be divided but how does one reality become divided or appear even appears to be divided and by the way it's not an ancient question uh which puzzled some indian philosophers a thousand years ago literally a thousand years ago because it this thing this these divisions into schools came uh about just after shankara so thousand one thousand two hundred years ago but it has tremendous contemporary relevance those who are in consciousness studies they know that one problem which puzzles thinkers in you know those who advocate pan psychism that there is one consciousness in the universe so one objection against the theory of pan psychism is how does this one consciousness of the universe also known as cosmopsychism how does this one consciousness of the universe appear as so many consciousnesses so many living beings so many human beings and other living beings are conscious how does one consciousness appear as many so it's a new question right now in the 21st century if you see literature on pan psychism which is advocated by our own david chalmers here in new york university and now some others are also joining the bandwagon um there is tonini for example who who has propounded the integrated information theory of consciousness that's the leading theory in consciousness studies today they all talk about that the possibility that consciousness is a fundamental reality of the universe but then this problem is there how does it decompose into if it at all does decompose but how does it become many so the answer many people just don't know that this question was considered more than a thousand years ago by the advait advaita philosophers and they came up with not one but three different answers and these three different answers became three different schools of advaita vedanta one answer is the limitation theory limitation theory is it's very it's not difficult to understand it's suppose you look up at the sky it seems to be one undivided sky big vast unlimited blue sky but suppose you do this now you just put your hand up like this and you look through your hand through the gaps between the fingers and now it looks like multiple v-shapes one and two and three and four right and it seems the sky has got these divisions but there's no divisions in the sky it's it's because of presence of the hand which is doing that which gives the appearance of demarcations in the sky if you look at the sky through a window i mean you have grills in the window and you will see multiple shapes and sky seems to be cut up into those shapes i i hope you understand the the example it only seems like that it's not that the sky is actually cut up if i put my hand up there it's not that sky is cut up into five parts it just looks like that because of the hand now because of the appearance of maya in consciousness brahman just appearance and maya can be divided and subdivided and so it seems that brahman can now technically or or at least in principle is possible to appear as divided so that's the limitation theory our chair the appearance of maya and its products the causal body and many causal bodies and the subtle body and many subtle bodies and the physical body many physical bodies it appears to demarcate consciousness into multiple consciousnesses so that's one theory if you suddenly see that just like understanding looking at the sky like this and realizing yes of course the sky it looks different but it's these differences are here not in the sky if you do that you to in this case of bodies and mind you will see i am one consciousness now the sec this theory is called avatar the limitation theory the second theory is called pratibhimbawada prathi bimbavada means reflection theory the reflection theory is like sun is in the sky one sun but if you put ten pots with water in them you'll find 10 little sparkling suns in that water and not only that those little sparkling suns also have some of the a tiny bit of the power of the original sun because they can also illumine a little bit the water inside is illumined by the presence of the light there so that reflected sun which is nothing other than the original sun nothing means nothing other means it's the sun's light which is there that reflected sun functions like the original sun and that is called a reflected sun or patti bimba like consciousness now is reflected in the mind the subtle bodies sukhma shardira the part is like the physical body the water in the pot is like the subtle body and consciousness is reflected in the subtle body and that's what we feel right now our minds feel conscious if you just look inside thoughts feel aware whatever thoughts you have emotions you have ideas you have memories you have desires you have perceptions you have all of them have one thing in common they all feel aware they all feel lit up you're aware so that awareness is not atman itself it's a reflection of the atman in the mind that is called pratibhimbawala and that reflection is actually nothing other than the original atman that just as the moonlight is literally nothing other than the sunlight it is literally the sun's light which comes to the moon and then bounces off and is reflected back to us as moonlight so that is called pratibhimbawada the third theory to explain how one consciousness appears and functions as many is abha savada appearance theory now it's just like the reflection theory the only subtle difference the reflection theory says that the reflected consciousness is nothing other than the original consciousness just as reflected sunlight in the pot of water is nothing other than the it's just the original sunlight being reflected there just as the reflected moonlight the moonlight is nothing other than sunlight but the if the appearance theory says no no the reflection is false the reflected consciousness in the mind is not atman it is false it's an appearance the atman is different it has nothing to do with the reflection now it's a subtle difference both are reflections but one affirms that the reflection is nothing but the original like reflected sunlight is nothing but original sunlight another one says that the reflection is not real you don't say it is nothing but the originals there the example the mirror and the reflected face will be more appropriate it is true that the reflected face is resembles the real face in the mirror real face but what's there in the mirror is not the real face the real face is here in that sense it's not the real it's not like the sunlight which is physically there in the um on reflected from the moon or from the part of water you see the subtle difference both are reflections but one is real in the sense it's nothing but the original a reflection is nothing but the original in that sense like reflected sunlight is sunlight but reflected face is not the real face real face is made of skin and tissue and reflected face is not made of skin it's only glass there if you touch it's light optically reflection is produced there reflected this original face is i reflected is not i so the reflection is not the original it's an appearance this appearance is called abhas means appearance a shadow an appearance three theories limitation theory avocado reflection theory and uh appearance theory abha savada and reflection theory appearance theory slight difference is there but important difference reflection is real appearance is unreal how did these come about the reflection theory the pretty bimba theory is all three are supported by the way by the brahma sutras and by shankara's own writings all three have derived from shankara's writings sometimes he calls it a reflection you know the multiple conscious beings they are reflections of the original sometimes he calls them limitations of the original sometimes it's an appearance of the original all three can be derived from shankara's original writings who derived these so the source of the reflection theory own direct is first disciple and maybe his favorite disciple so that's a reflection theory and then the um the limitation theory was okay the appearance theory abha sawada was developed emphasized and developed by another of shankaracharya's disciples the massively erudite sureshwar acharya who wrote the commentaries on shankara's commentaries on the upanishads and so that is called he's called the vatikakara the writer of the vartika commentaries sureshwaracharya he developed the appearance theory abha sawada and the other one the limitation theory was developed by the great philosopher and say and the very saintly person vachaspati mishra that is called the bahamati school the avats was emphasized by the bahamati school the pratibhimbawada was emphasized by the vivarana school and the abha savada was emphasized by the vartika school schools of what they're all schools of advaita vedanta the three schools two of them are well known vivarana school and mohammed school and technically if you want to many people don't know that technically which school do we belong to we belong to the viva runner school which traces itself back to padma padhacharya shankaracharya is a disciple so we were in a school there is the bahamati school of bhajaspati and the third one never really took off as a school but it was a wonderful for the development of advaita vedanta so-called vartika school because it was started by sureshwaracharya who wrote the vartika subcommentaries on shankaracharya's commentaries now why am i saying all this the text which he is talking about drishya viveka is possibly written by vidyar and nyaswami possibly sometimes it is attributed to shankaracharya but that's unlikely but the language and the logic there seems a lot like the panchadashi so vidhyaranya swami is supposed to be the writer maybe now vidyar naswami follows the vartika school to some extent mostly so you will find a lot of influence of the appearance theory that's why the talk of chida bhasa the appearance theory is there appearance of consciousness the reflection of consciousness in the mind is nothing other than atman or brahman that padma pad or reflection theory would say but if you see the drikdrish the the author of shiveka probably vidyarnya asks the question what is the connection between the atman and its reflection its appearance in the mind consciousness and its appearance in the mind the consciousness which we experience in the mind and the real consciousness which you are remember you are not the little uh dot of light in the water in the pot you are the actual sun you are not the pot you are not the water you are not even the little shining light in the water in the pot you are the actual sun now what is the relationship between the that and the um reflection there he uses the appearance theory like the mirror and the face in the mirror what is the relationship between you and the face in the mirror your real face and the face in the mirror actually no relationship there's no relationship it appears when you stand in front of a mirror the moment you stand in front of a mirror your reflection will appear there but that reflection on your real face has no connection at all but we forget we are as if we have forgotten our real face and we think that that's who i am there in that mirror therefore uh the author of rig rishi viveka says what is the relationship between the pure consciousness witness consciousness and its reflection in the or its appearance in the mind he says only stupidity is real is the relationship yeah branti it's born of error we don't know this therefore i think i am that one no it has nothing to do with you it's the very nature of the mirror to generate a an image when you come in front of it this one has nothing to do with that one you are this not that so this is the logic behind it original consciousness appears to be split up into millions and millions of so-called consciousnesses but only appears to be how do you explain that limitation theory about the reflection theory you know pratibhavada appearance theory abba savada all developed over a period of thousand one thousand two hundred years um these are the theories to explain each of them has an important point to prove and it's useful all three are useful which is the best one no best one which is the correct one no correct one all three are supported by shankaracharya's own commentaries and the brahma sutras also good uh the next question is from anil bhavi whenever the question of free will is asked to a jivan mukta it is said that humans have no free will as such everything is predestined if so how is karma and the results of karma applicable to a human being is he or she not innocent why does he or she have to suffer so much so there are two questions here the larger question of free will and the question of karma and its effects on us first let me take up the question of karma karma is causality cause and effect now cause and effect is observable in this world karma is the same principle applied to the moral life of human beings we do good and bad and the results are good and bad what we sow we reap this idea is present everywhere in indian systems all of the indian thought systems except the materialist uh will accept the hindus systems the six systems of hindu philosophy to six systems of buddhist philosophy and the one way of categorizing buddhism is to see the six different schools not six sorry four different schools the six schools which are orthodox based on the vedas and six schools of thought which are not based on the way the six schools not based on the vedas are the materialist charvaka the jaina school and it's also a little unjust to put all the vast jaina literature under one umbrella but anyway the chinese school and then the four schools of uh buddhism now out of these 12 schools in sanskrit it's called dwadasha the 12 philosophies out of these 12 schools the six non-vedic and the six vedic school schools which we know very well nyaya vaishya shikha sankhya yoga puruba and vedanta only one does not accept karma i mean law of karma as we understand it our good actions lead to merits lead to happiness a pleasant life evil consciously done evil or bad actions leads to demerit or sin and leads to unpleasant consequences this is the law of karma and clearly from this comes the entire concept of multiple lives and reincarnation punarjan why because when we are born we are different different parents different abilities different race gender so many differences between us already so much difference is there that means the cause of these differences must be before birth so we must accept we existed in some form before birth and all the things that we do in this life we don't seem to get the results of that in this life at all that means the results will be if the results are going to be there at all we must be there to experience those results so we will be existing after death before birth and after death and that leads to the idea of many lives um and people here in uh the west in america for example they find it a little difficult and they're not comfortable with this concept but i wonder why the only one who would be actually uncomfortable with this concept would be the materialist a mainstream scientist who agrees that who feels that life begins uh with this birth or at conception and ends with the death of the body there's nothing more no soul no nothing left over in that case no past lives no future lives no karma nothing of that sort is possible so a materialist a committed reductionist materialist would not at all accept multiple lives or karma but the whole western tradition is based on christianity and judaism the judeo-christian you know world view we have immortal souls so these souls exist after death you may not accept multiple life but you do accept existence after death if you at all believe in christianity or judaism then you do accept existence after death in fact why just christianity and judaism all the western pre-christian the pagan so-called pagan religions you know the greek religions or the roman religions or that was in with northern africa they were religions all of them talked about existence after death and in fact all religions in the whole world is no religion which talks which can accept that there's no nothing after that every one of them talks about a post-mortem existence post-body existence you can't have a religion without that so if you accept the existence of the body or existence of the soul after the death of the body then multiple lives is just an extension of the same thing it shouldn't be so shocking um now the question is that so karma if we don't remember our past lives and we have done something in our past lives and then we experience the results now and then we suffer now isn't this a kind of unjust punishment not necessarily remembering something is not necessary the idea is that if i remember the things i have done wrong then i can learn from them then the i can see the connection you may and then the punishment may feel um justified oh i'm being punished for what i did then but what good does it do what good does it do does it really help to reform as people may think that if i remember what i did wrong then i will change my ways not necessarily why are so many people repeat offenders and put in jail what is our greatest sorrow well our greatest problem the the the you know the existential problem of human life in moral terms is that we know what is wrong and yet we do it and we keep on repeating it so we know it we remember it and yet we don't learn we do learn over a long period slow painful process so learning is not from memory actually memory is a flimsy thing a flimsy thing then how does it work how do we learn and change we change through samskaras over lifetimes we have a certain intuition certain kind of character is developed through repeated actions and this character is inherited in lifetimes so children have different characters have different natures when they're same family not that they remember past lives but they're just different by nature how did that difference come in difference in nature come through experiences of past lives through samskaras and that is real character that is real change change in samskaras is the change in character not memory karma does that karma and its effects on character slowly build up character and help us in spiritual growth now the question of suffering suffering really does not come because of karma we think so but no really suffering is due to ignorance look at the difference between the so-called enlightened and those who are not enlightened so-called who have become jeevan mukhtas enlightened in this very life and those of us who are not we suffer from karma karma is working for them also karma works for everybody kotibi in a million births also the effects of karma will not disappear unless they are experienced so karma will give results but for the enlightened ones they are not affected what effect does it have on you the real face what is done to the reflected face you are seeing your face in the mirror somebody comes and polishes the mirror do you feel your face has been polished no suddenly the mirror is cracked do you feel your face is cracked no the reflection may appear cracked but the face is not correct the enlightened one has is not affected by the effects of karma enlightened one suffering if are you really suffering no the classic example of sri ramakrishna suffering from cancer and hurry was turian asks him sir how are you today say i'm in pain this is hurting i cannot eat and then he says but sir i see that you are in great joy and sriram krishna instead of saying what do you mean i am suffering from cancer and you are saying i'm in great joy she says oh the rascal has found me out in bengali that means all the effects are being experienced of what is happening in the body and mind will be experienced and yet you know the enlightened one knows it has nothing to do with me just like a reflection in the mirror i am free of it so enlightenment saves you from suffering not you are not suffering because of karma actually we are suffering because of ignorance now as to the question of free will always accept that your free will free will does not apply to jivan mukta that's a much later concept as for as as long as our spiritual life continues free will is to be taken for granted all these scriptures give us teachings based on the idea that we have free will otherwise the scriptures those teachings will not make any sense why give teachings to somebody who's not free so all moral teachings spiritual teachings everything is given with the understanding that we have free will society functions with the idea that we have free will you can't have a justice system to punish the perpetrators of crimes unless you believe that they have free will they had a choice not to do it but they did it anyway and then they have to be punished otherwise you can't punish somebody who has inevitably has to do it how can can you punish an animal you can't you can train an animal but you can't punish an animal because an animal curve is not supposed to have free will so um though i think dog and cat owners will dispute that clearly they have free will and they're up to no good all the time so take it for granted that you have free will exercise it ultimately no free will but that's some that's that's in the long run and that's the final story yes the next question is a wee bit longer it's from m banerjee from west bengal in india we learned from the vedanta sarah class that consciousness in association with cosmic causal body is ishwara and consciousness in association with cosmic causal body and cause and cosmic mind is hiranyak hiranyagawa in mandukya upanishad we learned about hiranya gaba cosmic mind in dream state ishwara god the creator in deep sleep state but in the previous class of qatar upanishad you mentioned about the hiranya gaba as brahma the creator of the universe and also the limit of maximum happiness possible happiness of hiranya gaba is 10 to the power of 20 times the highest possible human happiness as per taitriya upanishad please clarify one who created the universe ishwara or hiranyakaba two how can hiranya gaba which is consciousness associated with all subtle minds becomes so blissful that he gives maximum possible happiness okay that's a mouthful so many technical terms in but it's not very difficult to cut through to the essence of the question first of all the term hiranyakarpa literally it means the golden boom of the golden egg and this is a concept you know if you look into not just uh in ancient india but ancient china also they have this concept and some other ancient cultures have this concept of the whole universe was born from a golden egg literally it means hiranyakar hiranyam is golden and garber egg got the womb now in qatar banishad i said this is brahma in the upanishads this hiranya garbha is also called brahma what is this hidden karma let's understand this carefully it's not very difficult to understand first of all let's look at ourselves we have a physical body and within this physical body we feel a subtle body by subtle body i mean physical body is clear to everybody this physical body which is which you can touch and you can weigh and all of that but inside we feel feelings emotions memories ideas thoughts that's clearly not the physical body why not well first of all it's not physical it's not obvious to anybody outside a doctor can examine this physical body and i can examine what's inside the physical body but no matter whatever instruments the doctor uses it can't discover your thoughts feelings emotions and swami from fmri scan you can detect the electrical activity in the brain yes that's all you can detect show me one scan which has ever revealed the taste of coffee or the the color of a flower no you have revealed bursts of electricity which might correspond to some of those experiences that's all and the connection between electrical activity in the neurons of the brain and the first person experiences which we call thoughts and sensations memories desires no the connection is not at all clear what is the how is it possible at all that's the hard problem of consciousness so that is the subtle body and beyond that vedanta says there's a causal body which we sort of the closest we can understand that is in deep sleep i with all my experience of the universe and the physical body and my mind all of that seems to disappear down a dark hole in deep sleep but it's not gone it all comes back when i wake up therefore let's call that deep sleep a seed state like a seed it's all becomes potential that is called the causal body from which germinates pops up the subtle body and our experiences of the physical universe in the waking all right so this is the three states causal state which we experience in deep sleep and the physical and subtle the subtle which we experience in itself in dreams and the physical which we experience in the waking remember in the waking all three are present when the physical body is present the subtle body is also present not only you are having a physical experience internally you are having a subtle experience and behind that the causal body is always present all three are there to give us this experience of the physical world two are there causal body and subtle body to give us the experience of the dream world one is there causal body to give us the experience of deep sleep now deep sleep dream waking causal causal plus subtle causal plus shuttle plus physical this is at our level now it's not that i alone exist i can see a vast world out there everything the whole world is there so i am not the only physical thing in existence here is this entire mass of physical beings living and non-living this is a cosmic physical body individual physical body cosmic physical body individuals subtle body in in them here cosmic subtle body all of these subtle bodies in all the living bodies all summed up together and just like i have an individual causal body this entire universe in all living beings sentient beings there is an individual there is a cosmic causal body consciousness plus this um causal body is called i server priyananda the deep sleeper consciousness plus all causal bodies is ishwara the god of the universe with this causal body and this mind now i am the person sarva-priyananda same consciousness plus all causal bodies and all subtle bodies is hiranyakarbha the cosmic mind same consciousness and i the consciousness with this one causal body and one subtle body and one physical body is the jiva called sarva-priyananda the same consciousness with all causal bodies all subtle bodies and all physical bodies is the cosmic being called virat or vishwaroo because it's another matter that i am also vishwaroo but that's just that's neither here nor there so that cosmic mind consciousness plus all causal bodies plus all subtle bodies is hiranyakarbha another name for that is brahma the brahma in the hindu in the range of deities so brahma is actually hiranyakarpa now question who is the creator of the universe god or hiranyakarba both who is the creator of your dream world the causal body or the subtle body when the subtle body is there causal body is there or not yes it has to be there so the entire mental universe hiranyakarpa but also has ishvara behind it without ishvara no hiranyakarpa or in our quranic terms without narayana vishnu no brahma what is the artwork which depicts this so vishnu is always a couch potato he's always reclining on his couch is the cosmic serpent sheisha naga thousand-hooded serpent and from his navel a lotus blooms and on that lotus who is sitting brahma and when the universe is created god creates the universe but how does he create the universe not not himself when you make a house you don't start go and make out make the house you give the contract to a to a vendor to a contractor who will do it for you so brahma is the contractor so he is the one who gets it all done and god the causal body it's a nice way of depicting it because the causal body doesn't seem active at all it's just potential it's just there but because it's there now the mind can become active so the first level of creation is the subtle creation the mental world so you see the hindu cosmology is inside out from the way we experience how do you experience deep sleep dreams waking so inside out modern scientific materialism is outside in first a cosmos was created how big bang no consciousness mind and no cosmic mind nothing of that sort big bang so when the universe went bang and then all the stars and planets were created in time and then in some remote location of the universe one tiny planet in that somehow matter became this organic matter came and organic matter somehow became living matter and living matter after millions of years of evolution generated sophisticated nerves and nervous systems and brains their consciousness and mind came up so it's an outside in way of looking but the hindu cosmology is inside out the way you experience life from inside outwards so who created the universe brahma did but without ishwara without narayana it's not possible cosmic mind did but cosmic mind cannot function without the causal being that is ishwara second maximum happiness we have so little we have little happiness and lots of misery in our minds and if you put all minds together you'll have lots of misery then how is it that brahma has this 10 to the power 20 human happiness this is actually taken from thaiteri upanishad there is a section called anandam imamsa a calculus of happiness and there it says brahma the highest being the cosmic mind has the maximum possible happiness unimaginable happiness if you think about it you'll die so don't think about it and brahma has this kind of happiness how is it that brahma has so much happiness if it's just the submission of all the minds remember that happiness if you read the thai theory of punishment it depends upon enlightenment so brahma is enlightened free of all desire brahma is the greatest karma yogi abhi or karma yogis we do a little bit of karma yoga we think you've done a lot brahma does the best karma yoga he creates the entire universe or without any desire of his own and so brahma is without desire and fully enlightened and therefore brahma sees his all minds without any limit and therefore happiness is maximum where is happiness felt then you might must say that ishwara's happiness is even greater than brahmas because ishwara is higher subtler than brahma but the felt happiness the experienced happiness requires mind the activity of the mind deep sleep yes you are happy but you are not experiencing happiness in the way that you are experiencing in the mind when the mind is that you feel joy you feel play pain also but brahma because of enlightenment has no connection with pain and because of being all minds together is completely aware of his unlimited nature and so the happiness is maximum as he says that akama hatha who is not limited by or destroyed by desire so the maximum extent of desired lessons highest manifestation is in brahma so the highest happiness also is in brahma asks swamiji i am not my mind what good is this knowledge to free myself if i'm still stuck seeing the same mind when advaita vedanta says the witness consciousness is ever free how is it really free if it cannot at will choose what it wants to witness [Music] how is the witness consciousness free if it cannot at will choose to what it wants to witness notice the words choose want want where is want is want in consciousness or in the mind wanting is in the mind desire is in the mind choice is choice in consciousness or in the mind choice is in the mind i don't like my mind i would like the mind of vivekananda truly but who is thinking that is consciousness thinking that the thinking is always done in the mind consciousness is ever free of the mind this mind or vivekananda's mind it's wonderful to have vivekananda's mind and one can work towards that by changing our own mind purifying it focusing it through the practices of karma yoga bhakti yoga raja yoga so it changes the mind and you can have a much better much more improved mind but remember witness consciousness is ever free of the mind being free of the mind does not mean oh now i can go and return this mind to the shop and get a better mind an upgraded mind you know iphone 8 or something like that i want i don't like this mind i'm going to return it it's become old and slow i'm going to get a new shiny new mind no it doesn't work like that who thinks like that the mind itself is thinking like that you it has to be realized that i am consciousness which is free of the mind this thing requires vedantic shavana and manana again and again hearing something like drink trisha vivek or apparatus you hear that think about it this question arises when the mind has not been sufficiently analyzed it's still consciousness mind mixed up then such a feeling comes i want to be free of this mind who is saying it mind you really want to be free of this mind every day you are free of this mind deep sleep you are completely free of this mind that which is free of the mind in deep sleep is also free of the mind in waking and dreaming you're not stuck to the mind it's something that appears plays around in you and disappears back that consciousness is the same in all minds or all minds are appearing in that one consciousness okay one more yes zohar asks in previous lectures you have said that pain is also a thing which we experience same as bliss both are experienced in the mind in the spectrum of emotions then why is atman just pure bliss why can't it also be pure pain if it's not then it is because pain is related to the body mind and outer world while bliss is the experience of mere absence of it please clarify all right um so in my earlier lectures i have said that pain is also in the mind i haven't said it everybody knows it i don't have to say this is the common problem of all humanity in fact all sentient beings all jivas human beings and animals and all we all experience pain so pain is a fact in the mind but as you have said range of emotions the ananda which is translated as bliss is not an emotion when you say atman is or the witness consciousness is anand or bliss it's not an emotion it is the very nature of consciousness which is different from the emotion that's why it's not trans uh translated as pleasure or joy it's translated as bliss and not the emotion of being feeling blissful or feeling joyful emotions are in the mind pain is in the mind pleasure is in the mind then what is bliss bliss is the very nature of consciousness the witness itself one way of understanding this would be i am awareness whatever the mind is undergoing i am awareness one must first understand this otherwise one cannot see what is going on in the mind unless your awareness itself i as awareness remain the same throughout whatever happens in the mind pleasure or pain only because i'm aware i can have the experience of pleasure only because i'm aware i can have the experience of pain pleasure and pain are different they come and go awareness behind both is the same does not come and go now this awareness does not come and go is not subject to birth and death is not subject to change and in fact does is the same in all beings or rather all beings are in it so this being the same not coming and going not changing not increasing and decreasing unlimited this unlimited awareness itself this unlimited nature of awareness itself is ananda bliss another word for it would be purnathwa completeness another word for it would be ananta unlimited infinite that's why in the thai theory upanishad our real nature is defined as satyam gyanam anandam brahma existence consciousness limitlessness you would have expected existence consciousness bliss sat chit ananda but what did upanishad say existence consciousness limitlessness what what limitlessness of what limitlessness of existence consciousness limitless existence consciousness swami vivekananda says truth knowledge and bliss that follows both in his song of sannyasi very interesting we are phrasing it truth means existence knowledge means consciousness bliss that follows both means once you realize that i am that truth knowledge existence consciousness that is bliss itself that will be reflected in the mind manifested in the mind of the enlightened being as joy as the absence of pain but in itself the witness consciousness is neither pain nor pleasure but when it when it is realized it is realized it is experienced it is felt in the mind that realization produces unlimited joy in the mind that's why the enlightened one is joyful or blissful so i'm sorry to rush a little today but thanks to the wonders of modern technology i am now scheduled to speak in dublin ireland so i have to take leave of you here and join the audience in dublin thank you very much and take care and stay safe no [Music]