Video 1

Introduction to Vedanta Part 1 - Swami Sarvapriyananda - January 12 2016

Umaga vittles of an open up to civilian kuruvamma hey Diaz Fein Harvard hitam us to mahadba shava Hey Oh Shanti Shanti Shanti Oh may Brahmin protect us both the teacher and the taught may Brahmin give us the fruits of this study may our maybe accomplish great things together may this study enlighten us may there be no disharmony amongst us ohm peace peace peace welcome to the first class on the subject is introduction to Vedanta or with anta 101 as somebody put it questions like fundamental questions Who am I what is God exactly what is the purpose of life how can I get permanent satisfaction happiness if at all if that is possible how can I overcome sorrow what is this universe which we see spread out before us if these questions and questions like these if they are of interests and they are of interest to everybody these are fundamental questions then this this course is for you this set of classes which we are starting this evening is for you the answers that we will discover over the course of several evenings to follow these answers are the answers provided by the most ancient civilization on this planet the answer is given answers found by the sages of the most ancient religion existing on this planet today these are the answers that we get from Vedanta now in a course like this it would be customary to start with an introductory lecture you know where I tell you what Vedanta is and what the fundamental texts are and many preliminary questions what is expected offers what are the preparations so on and so forth but I shall not do none of those things to begin with today for two reasons one is that none of you almost all of you have been coming to the Vedanta Society for quite some time so none of you are novices to Vedanta and I'm sure all of you even if there are a few who are coming for the first time you're all spiritual seekers we are all spiritual seekers so these questions are not new to us even the answers are not new to us so I shall not start with our you know the usual formal boring introductory lecture that's the first reason why I shall not do that now the second reason is I have selected for this class a little text this text called Rig Grisha Vivica which is in hands of most of you this evening already the analysis of the seer and the seen this text is what is called a aprica rana Grantha an introductory text loosely translated it would be exactly what we have called this course introduction to Vedanta so this text itself is an introduction to Vedanta and this text is a very interesting text one reason I selected it is because it has certain very unique characteristics this text is a very exciting text the author does not beat about the bush does not waste any time on preliminaries wastes no time on preliminaries not a single verse in this text is wasted on anything though there are important preliminary questions but he dismisses all of them and he goes straight into the heart of the matter in the very first verse it's just it's quite interesting to note all traditional texts start with salutations to guru to God and so on your new dove noticed he doesn't even do that he goes straight into the subject matter and the text is dramatic maybe the most important verse in the whole text is the first verse and there are other remarkable verses which come up one after another which have become famous in the entire corpus of Vedanta literature so it's a text which is full of drama movement profound philosophical thinking so in the spirit of this text instead of wasting time on preliminaries I shall get to all that much later but we shall go straight into the subject matter straight away in the spirit of the author of this text the author of this text is a bit is obscured in mystery one source puts it has that Shankar Acharya wrote adi shankaracharya wrote this text 1200 or 1300 years ago but that is not a very credible idea there are two other possible authors one is Marathi theatre and the other one is with DRN yo you might have heard of a very well-known non-dualistic text called punch of the sheet so the author of punch of the sheet with dr Enya was probably the the author of this text but no author is mentioned if he was indeed the author of the text the text is 600 years old 6 centuries old but you see how fresh it is and how powerful it is so without any further introduction further advertisement since I have already got a captive audience let's go straight into the text the whale I'll approach it is this is of course a Sanskrit text but you needn't worry it I presume no knowledge of Sanskrit and I'll indeed have very little to do with the Sanskrit in the text but I will chant the Sanskrit and you can follow after me if you like and then it will be entirely in English with a few smattering of few Sanskrit terms which I will explain a number of times two points about using this book if you can read this a script text very good you can read it otherwise you can read just the English translation so here you have the Sanskrit text you have the word by word meaning of each word in there translated into English and the meaning of the entire verse given in brief followed by certain notes so you can read the English translation I would ask you not to go into the notes now I would ask you to concentrate on what I am saying later on if you like you can go to the notes often the notes are not very helpful they're a bit dense so focus on what I am saying and try to follow that the book has 46 verses there are two versions of this book one with thirty one and one with 46 the entire text is here but traditionally it is said that the thirty thirty one verses verses one to thirty one of the original verses and we will see that it completes the whole text so we shall study one to thirty one the scholars feel that the verses from 32 to forty six I have been added later so we will not go into all that when we study this the procedure I would like us all to follow is threefold first we shall study diverse I shall talk about translate the meaning and talk about the meaning so first stages am i able to repeat back what is there in the text I won't ask you to repeat back the Sanskrit original though that is what is done in traditional you know traditional guru in Uttarakhand they will ask the students to memorize the text I will not do that for fear of scaring away the audience but what we should require of ourselves is that once I read it and I listen to it can I repeat back what the book says can I repeat back what the book says I am NOT asking you to say that you have understood what the books is the first stage is simply to repeat back this is what the book says maybe I don't understand it maybe I don't believe it but can I say what the book said that's the first stage and that's the basis without that we are lost so the first thing is what did the book say in the next stages do I get it do I understand intellectually do I understand what the book said that's the second stage so I should be able to answer questions doubts which come up in my mind I should be able to answer that so do I understand what the book said and the final and most important is is it real to me is it real to me in that what the book says is can I recognize it as a fact if you can recognize it as a fact that's the that's the last stage or the penultimate stage to enlightenment now I wouldn't require that of anybody not not you and not myself because when we would mostly be disqualified if you see that all these things become fact to you immediately after you read it that's to setting the bar too high but these are the three stages of grasping the meaning of these verses first what did it say to me second do I understand what it is trying to say third can I acknowledge that it's the truth it's the fact it's a fact right which having said that let's plunge straight into the text let's see what this author 600 years ago in South India in the state what is the state of Karnataka now it was the Vijayanagar Kingdom 600 years ago what the author has to say to us in Hollywood in the 21st century and we'll be stunned at how profound some of these things are I was reading a few few days ago that every year nowadays every year we publish more books more books but published in 2015 then have been published in all of human history until the 21st century that is true thousands tens of thousands hundreds of thousands of books and monographs are published but you know how many of the greatest books of humanity and maybe a few hundred or a few thousand books have been published in the last 2,000 years until the nineteen to eighteen to nineteen centuries but you will see among the greatest books that we have of humanity our human civilization those are the few books which were written hundreds of years ago and of the books thousands of books which we published last year I don't know how many will be remembered this year or the year after so this book is like that it embodies timeless wisdom the core of not only Hinduism this is the core of all religion especially in this modern age the age of reasoning and questioning the answers are here we shall see all that as we go in I shall read please follow after me then we shall discuss rupam drishyam Lochan and Rick Todd drishyam Drik tamanna' some dry shaadi rehtaeh Sakshi three giver not Audrey Shetty this is the verse what does it mean we'll leave the Sanskrit alone for the time being now focus carefully on what I've got to say focus as you have never focused earlier I am going to talk about this verse in four stages stage 1 stage 2 stage 3 stage 4 and all throughout I would like us all to remember one operating principle one and one operating principle alone what is that operating principle the seer and the seen are different the seer and the seen are different seer means I am this year literally seer here means the one who is seen I am the seer and this book here is the scene and they are obviously different you can clearly see there two are different to do different or do you mean by different different entities the one who knows is different from that which is known the subject is different from the object this is the operating principle and here the book is not asking us to accept anything on faith it's a common it's common sense that's what we accept anyway I see something and what I see is different from the eyes that's common sense we know this everybody knows this and the book says that is sufficient just hold on to that that is number one and that's the important principle that we have to hold on to now what does the verse say stage 1 I told you 4 stages stage 1 the verse starts very simply the verse starts very simply it says forms colours are the scene in that which is seen eyes are the seer the eyes are the seer the eyes see and the forms are seen they are not making a sophisticated statement not a scientific statement not out the philosophical statement just common sense just the way we experience the world eyes are seeing and the forms and colors in the world are seen now what is the principle that we were are we are going to hold on to the CR and the scene are different so the eyes are different from what they see quite obviously true what I'm seeing around they are all different from my eyes in fact unless an object is at a distance from the eyes the eyes cannot see even the spectacles which I wear on the bridge if you wear up spectacles on the bridge of your nose the spectacles also must be at a little distance from the from your eyes in fact the only thing that the eyes cannot see are lies themselves eyes cannot see themselves you can see a picture of your eyes you can see a reflection of your eyes you cannot eyes cannot directly see the eyes themselves they can only see things which are different from them so the seer and the seen the eyes are the seen seer the seen eyes are the seer and the seen is this world of forms literally the Sanskrit term Rupa means color but also you can extend it to forms all shapes and forms whatever you see actually in your visual field they're all different from the eyes now what the verse is going to do here is like any good teacher the verse the book the author starts from the known and will take us to the unknown like any good teacher from the near to the far from what is to what shall be that is the golden rule of teaching from the known to the unknown from linear to the far from what is to what shall be and that's what the author is doing first he states something that's so obvious we will feel like right many of you would be feeling now okay you advertised it a lot now can you get a move on we know this this is very simple but wait we are going to take a few more lessons from this and then move ahead first one we all know the seer and the seen are different that's one second the eyes are one I don't mean we are one eyed the one organ of vision the same organ of vision and the things that I see are many I can see white here black here gray here blue here so many shapes I can see people here benches and and the carpet and the light and this beautiful Hulk so many things so many forms all are seen by the same eyes so what is the principle we extract from the from this eyes the see seer is one the scene or many the seer is one the scene are many that is one one lesson we take from this the second lesson we take from this is if you sit and watch here I'll find what what I see is continuously changing peep this hall was empty people came in this hall was dark it was it has been lit up after some time we'll all go away what you see keeps on changing isn't that so the eyes being relatively the same and unchanging relatively it's part of the body and body is changing of course but relatively unchanging the what it sees continuously changes so the seer is relatively unchanging see our remaining unchanging the see keep changing the seer remaining unchanging the scene keep changing so three things we are taking from this the first thing is our original lesson that the CCR is one at the seer is different and the scene is seen are different that's number one number two the seer is one the scene are many number three the seer is relatively unchanging the scene keep changing okay that's that stage one now let's go deeper let us go deeper book tells us the first verse tells us the eyes themselves become the scene and the mind is the seer the eyes themselves become the scene and the mind is the seer now what does it mean it means not only do I see the world with my eyes but I also know with my mind my eyes are open this guy's boring me so much I can't keep my eyes open I know it I can see very well I know that my eyes are good I can't see very well I need spectacles or contacts so the conditions of my eyes those are known to me who knows that not the eyes themselves the mind reflects upon the condition of the eyes so the mind is the seer now the word seeing is used metaphorically it means ignore so the mind becomes this year eyes become the scene the mind becomes the knower the eyes become the known the mind is the knower the seer and the eyes become the known or the seen fair enough we know all the conditions of the eyes and all the body in fact not only the eyes the same applies to the ears and the nose and all the sense organs in fact the whole body it is the known and the mind is the knower now let's apply the three lessons we learnt earlier the three principles the first and fundamental operating principle the seer and the seen the no.1 and the known are different is it true that the mind is different from the eyes yeah pretty obvious mind is whatever the mind is it's definitely different from the eyes different from the ears or the nose or the skin or the tongue so the mind is different from the sense organs number one number two the conditions of the eyes keep changing the conditions of the eyes and the ears and the nose there are many sometimes eyes are are good sometimes ears you cannot hear well and so on all of these variety of the conditions resents organs of the body is known by the same mind the same mind knows the variety of conditions of the different sense organs and the body second third the eyes the conditions of the eyes the ears and the entire body they keep changing the mind compared to that relatively unchanging it's the same mind after all mind changes into mind but the eyes ears body they all keep changing in various ways so the variety of changes in your body are known by the same seer the mind that bears repeating the seer and the seen are different number two the seer being one the seen are many number three the seer remaining relatively unchanged the seen keep changing and again it's obvious again it's obvious now let's go deeper now the magic begins the third stage of the verse talks about the mind itself has seen the mind itself has seen are we not aware that I can understand what this person is saying are we not aware that I cannot understand what this person is saying when I had I want something a desire I'm aware of my desire when I'm happy am I not aware that I'm happy when I'm sad am I not aware that I'm sad when I can remember something am i not aware that I am remembering something if I cannot remember something my memory is failing me am I not aware that I cannot remember something so all the functions of the mind are known to us whatever is happening in the mind are more or less known to us we are aware of it therefore the mind is also something that is seen it is something that is known we can immediately do it close your eyes and look into the mines called introspection you can do it so the mind is something that is known if mind is known the mind is something seen and there is a seer of the mind there is a knower of the mind what it is we don't know exactly but we can call it the witness the Sanskrit term is Sakshi let's call it the witness why would you call it a witness because it is that which sees the mind it sees the mind so the mind becomes seen and there is a seer of the mind within us so what well here is where things start getting fun let's apply those three lessons number one the seer and the seen are different so that which the witness which watches the mind is different from the mind and the second one is the seer remaining one the scene are many thoughts feelings emotions ideas are many in the mind continuous stream of movement in the mind always the knower of the mind is the same third the mind has many types of his mind is continuously changing so many types of thoughts feelings emotions that mind is many fold the knower is one and the third point is the mind is continuously changing these the Sakshi the witness is not changing it watches unchanging these three lessons so what well as he hears where I usually tell a story was very interesting instructive story there was this businessman in India who had problems like businessmen do and what they do in India is they go to a Swami and the Swami usually lives in the Himalayas and the higher than the Himalayas the wiser is supposed to be you live higher you live the more wisdom you're supposed to have and it's gets colder and you're supposed to wear less and less clothes as you go out there and that's a really great Swami I remember seeing this cartoon in Reader's Digest long long ago and they had this comic you know Peaks mountain peaks just like triangles very sharp up there made a small one a medium one and a very high one and on each of them these Peaks they were four or five of them each of them there is a Swami sitting there on the peak itself in a yogic pose with long beard and looking up Egypt when looking up when you look up at the highest peak what are they all looking up at on the highest peak is a television set so they are looking up so this businessman he this this chap he goes up to a pretty great Swami who lives very high up in the Himalayas and he says to the Swami Oh Swami I am miserable I am miserable help me Swami says are you do you experience your misery do you feel your misery she's of course I do that's why I've come to you and he says if you feel your misery if you feel your misery if you know your misery then you cannot be misery miserable you are the knower of the misery in your mind because the knower and the known are different misery is a feeling in your mind if you are aware of it you are that which is aware of the feeling in the mind aware of the misery in the mind that which is aware of fear is not fearful that which is aware of sadness is not sad now this person thought about it and if you think about it you know if you do that the result will be at the very least the prob the mind will become a little quieter moment you put some psychological space between the problems in your mind and yourself then what happens is we start questioning whether these belong to me I'm aware of it but do they belong to me used to of course they belong to me why have you ever asked this does the mind belong to me of course this remember I mean we think we are the mind if you make a distinction between yourself and the mind you'll say Swami at the least even if I am NOT the mind all right I can grant you that but at the least it's my mind so I care whether this sadness in the mind or misery in the mind or ignorance in the mind but is it really your mind what kind of question is that of course it's my mind well think about it you go on a train you board a train here add a train and you have a passenger who sits in front of you and you get to know this guy you know his name and what he does and you can see him what he looks like or what he talks like everything you know about him after a few hours he gets down in his gun just because you know about him just because you are with him for a few hours he doesn't belong to you never has never will anyway more of that later now the man thought like this mind come down a little as it will you can try it and he came back to the Swami and his arm and he said Swami you are right that's really profound Swami I am very peaceful now the real fun starts now the teachings that was not the teaching the teaching comes now and the Swami immediately says to him sharply no you are not peaceful you are the knower of the peace in your mind you see how profound that is the moment I say there is misery in my mind and I get attached to it and the Swami teaches me that which I'm aware of is different from me so I'm aware of the misery in my mind so I am different from the misery in my mind and the misery sort of diminishes sort of becomes controllable ignore you can ignore it and mind feels peaceful the moment I say I am peaceful I am again attached to the mind what will happen is this chap when he goes down from the Himalayas into Delhi or whatever whatever else you don't like like you go away from here into 101 the peace disappears again that's the nature of the mind if you are attached to the peace in your mind the moment the mind loses its peace if you say oh and the Vedanta society or in the Himalayas I was so peaceful now I have lost a piece in the mind you are a knower of the peace in your mind you are the knower of the lack of peace in your mind you are the knower of the happiness in your mind you are the knower of the misery in your mind you are different from the happiness you are apart from the misery you are you are the observer quite different from the peace in your mind in fact thus being different from the peace or the lack of peace in your mind that is true peace in the open ishod's Manduca venetian one of the names for the Atman the self one of your names is peace shantung Shivam the name of the Atman is peace it's not that the Atman that the spiritual self is peaceful it is peace itself whether the mind is at peace whether the body is at peace whether the world is at peace you are eternally undisturbed that peace that is the witness that is what you are even when you clutch the mind to yourself this is my mind the misery of the mind is my mind the ignorance of the mind is my mind the unspiritual nature the worldly nature of the mind is my mind even then we are telling ourselves something there is false we are attached so strongly attached to the mind and through the mind to the world I often get this very stark example we find in the Vedanta among the Swami's in the Himalayas think of the greatest possible attachment in the world the greatest possible attachment human attachment in the world is the attachment of a mother for her baby the greatest possible attachment it's a good attachment the baby needs it but it's a greatest possible extremely strong whatever the mother does some there at the back of the mind will be an awareness of what the child is doing and how the child is now imagine that mother when the baby's goes to sleep and the finally the mother goes to sleep I can see some lady smiling Swami you don't know anything about babies mothers do not go get much sleep yes but when the mother finally get goes to sleep that mother so tremendously attached to the baby would not like to be separated from a baby for more than a little bit of time that mother happily completely totally forgets the baby not unwillingly willingly goes into deep sleep complete forgetfulness of the world of the baby of her own body everything forgotten and it does the mother does that every night and does it willingly and happily it's a it's a common experience we never reflect upon it philosophically what it means philosophically so whatever is there in the mind you are the witness of that mind and the witness is ever separate from the mind the very fact that you are the knower of the mind means you are not the mind not yet Vedanta very far from it but already just about every problem in the world is solved what a strange statement Swami think about it problems are in the world or in our bodies or in our minds if you are separate from the mind you are an entity or independent of the mind and the body the problems of the mind and the body do not touch you you may be aware of them when they come up you are aware of them when they go away you are aware that the problems have gone but they are not your problems they never wear they never will be you are free to clutch hold on to them my misery my poverty my failure my desires you're free to hold on to them but they do not belong to you you have to learn to let go of what you actually you cannot hold on to it will go over anything it has come you imagine that you're holding holding on to it it will go away however hard you hold on to your worst problem it goes away it goes away every night this think about it the prog guy with the worst kind of problems in the in the intensive care unit of the ugly what's the hospital cedars-sinai in the intensive care unit of that hospital I'm dying multiple diseases organ failure no hope the moment that guy goes into sleep into deep sleep that guy's deep sleep and the billionaire's deep sleep and Obama's deep sleep the present most powerful president most powerful country in the world their deep sleep is exactly the same no problems all right now you know learning to let go I can't help but tell you that little story here it's another disarm ease other stories the Swami's in the Himalayas tell what is this learning to let go there's this monkey in a farmer who is to keep bananas in a jar and the jar had a narrow neck and there was a monkey who watched this and when the farmer would go a little distance away the monkey would come down from the tree and put its hand in the in the jar and take out the bananas and run away and a farmer thought how do I get when you know control this pest so what he did he got a jar with a much more nad a narrower neck and he put it there and he forced the bananas inside one by one the monkey watched all this when the farmer went a little distance the monkey climbed down put its hand in you can imagine the triumphant grin and caught hold of the banana but the problem is now it can't pull the banana out of the jar because the neck is not wide enough for the banana and its hand and the farmer comes and trashes the poor little monkey you know gives him a solid beating now how can the poor little monkey it's not very portable pretty naughty monkey how can the monkey monkey escape the crashing the only way the monkey can escape is to let go of the banana but the monkey just knock her to it so attached to the man Hannah tremendously I will not let go and it takes a beating you can just let go and it can run away but it will not let go it is not trapped the only thing that traps it its desire and its confusion that I cannot take my hand out you cannot take your hand out because you are holding on to something which is not part of your hand it's how does the monkey escape by letting go of the banana letting go of the banana the monkey becomes a monk you let go of what never belonged to you anyway what does not belong to you that which belongs to the world that which belongs to the body that which is part of the mind none of this belongs to you you are the witness right the fourth stage is the third stage of fourth stage here it here is where Vedanta really starts so supposing such a witness is there even if I feel ok could it could be true that I am this unchanging witness it's only because I've become identified with the body and mind that I feel I am this limited individual the body is born I feel I have been born the body gets older I am getting older body gets sick I am sick the mind there are thoughts you know I learned something the mind learn something so I have become learned it the mind forgets I have forgotten oh I cannot but tell you this story see how even before coming to the fourth stage the third stage how it helps us one of the greatest scholars act met master of both Eastern philosophy and Western philosophy a philosopher is still alive I met him at at one of our ashrams in India and he had a mild stroke he taught in USA in Germany and in India so he's old now he had a mild stroke and he was little depressed he told me Swami I am forgetting what I have learned and I feel bad imagine somebody who's gathered millions of dollars over the over the years through hard work and suddenly economic bust or whatever and he loses it what you have worked for your life and that is slipping out of your fingers so you feel bad you've invested your life in that so a great scholar has invested his life entire life in cultivating learning and that's going now the mind is not sharp mine is losing what it had learned that's one picture the other picture there was a Swami in our order not very well-known outside but inside the order we all knew him moksha dhanananda ji Ramar at he has passed on now he is tutti even I was lucky enough to learn under him he's to teach in the in the training center in Balad mud vastly learn at Swami and a very great Swami now see the difference I used to go to him with questions as a young novice so one day I went to him he used to be in the what we call the Arab girl power where the old Swami stay he was sick he was 1214 hours in a day sometimes oxygen had to be given to him and always there was a twinkle in his eyes and a smile on his lips anyway so as to go to him with questions towards the end of his life one day I went with the last time I went with a question to him he thought and he thought and he thought and he said I can't remember any more it's all going away okay till his pointed matches the next he said with a big smile let it go it's work is done so all the way lanta have studied in my life all the scholarship I have got let it go it's work is done he has got something eternal something permanent something unshakable from which position he can let go of everything he can let go of the banana yeah there's no problem anymore this is the this is what happens when we truly truly understand and feel that we are not the body not the mind fine now suppose we are this witness of the of the mind unchanging witness immediate question will be great that's what I want to know now can you tell me Swami how do I know this witness how do I get this witness how do I realise this witness how do I know this witness and the answer comes in the last quarter you can never know it you can never know it I can see the shocked expression most of your faces Saamy you should have told us this earlier I wouldn't have signed up for this course can I have my $3 back more than 100 years ago in London Swami Vivekananda was giving a talk on advaita vedantins on yoga and he said exactly this thing the self cannot be known is not an object of knowledge then he says horizon-- and says but you must not go away with the idea that it is unknown it is more than known in every knowledge the self reveals itself the K in open Ishod says what is the self the nor the witness the Kane open assured says it is something different from the known also it's unknown no it's something different from the unknown think about it if I ask you a question what is it that's different from all that you know all the subjects you know the people you know your memories ideas opinions different from all of that and different from all that you do not know there's a vast ocean of and that ignorant switch we have we do not know many things so there are many things which we do not know and there are many things which we know what is it that's different from both of them it's not something that we know it's not something that we do not know yes some people have an idea yes exactly yourself you know Swami I know myself what do you know about yourself you know what your passport tells you your driver's license tells you you know your body you can see the body you know your memories your family now that's in the mind and if you know all that it must be different from you that which knows all this do you know that no it cannot be an object of knowledge and yet it is not unknown for what is more known than yourself you know that you exist you know that you are it's exactly like how do I know you are all there because I can see you how do I know that my eyes are there I can't say because I can see my eyes I know that I have got eyes and they're in perfect working order because not because I can see my eyes because I can see you whatever I see proves to me not only that object is there but also that my eyes are there in the same way whatever experience you have you see something in the world outs outside it proves that you are the conscious self you feel you have a feeling in your mind and memory and emotion it proves to you not only that the emotion is there in your mind but also that you are the witness the conscious self every experience is a proof that we are consciousness we are this witness the cane open Ishod says pretty both have a little meta memories are too may mean that they when you realize the infinite existence infinite consciousness in every experience of your life not just in the temple or in the church not just at the time of prayer not just even in Samadhi in every experience when you're talking you're thinking you're laughing in every experience when that self this this existence consciousness bliss is realized that is immortality and that is possible so the fourth quarter says this self the witness is the true seer what about the mind it is the seen this witness plus the mind becomes the seer of the body and the sense organs this witness plus the mind and the body and the sense organs becomes the seer of this world but the true reals here is this witness alone everything else is the seen this witness is the knower everything else is the known and this witness is separate from all that is known this witness is unchanging everything else is changing this witness is one everything all others are multi various multiple this is in brief the explanation of the just first verse I'll say one more thing and throw it open for questions last 10-15 minutes or so we can have questions I think so just one more thing I said there are three stages of understanding these vs1 stages you should be able to say now what the verse said number one number two is understand what it said and number three is is it a fact for you is it is it real for you look at it take it stage by stage the first stage says the eyes are different and the forms are different is this real is this a fact for you do you have to believe this is it - Asif II know it's common sense is it a fact yes it's a fact that my eyes are different and this book is different it's a fact I want to learn about this the book is just telling me what I what's already a fact just drawing my attention to it second that my eyes are different and my mind knows the eyes the mind is the knower and the eyes and this body is unknown and the mind is different from from the the sense organs is that a fact or do I have to believe it it's a fact I experience it that the witness is different from the mind third stage witness is different from the mind is it a fact or is it something to be realized is it a fact now that's what the book claims most people would say at this stage well it's a great theory and it was something to be I can I don't disbelieve it but it is something to be realized after lot of southern a lot of spiritual practice and then finally I will realize I am different from my body and mind that's all right but that's not what the book is saying just as the eyes are different from this microphone exactly in the same way you the knowing self is just now right now you are completely different from the body and mind only in our understanding the monkey has caught hold of the banana we have caught hold of the body and mind in our understanding not physically in our understanding that's why we feel trapped so just now also it is a fact that you are not this body not this mind the Sanskrit goes like this I will quickly run through it those who can read Sanskrit you can follow me do not repeat it you just say rupam drishyam Lochan am dick Rupa means farms drishyam means that which is seen low channa means eyes Drik means the seer rushed Artemis here the book is the analysis of the rush time ratio the seer and the seen so the eyes are the - two forms are trisha go deeper second stage Tugg drishyam the eyes become the scene the shem mind becomes the seer rush time and the mind and the eyes are different then the third stage Rashad he retire Sakshi the mind the thoughts feelings ideas in the mind they all are Deshea things which are seen and there is something watching them that is called the Sakshi the witness d retire the modifications of the mind here the D word III is used as a global term mana bodhichitta Hank are those who are interested in Vedanta you know all of them are included here and finally the fourth quarter three gave an authority that Sakshi that is the real rest of the real no or the reals here that never ever becomes an object of knowledge never ever becomes an object of knowledge and that is who you are that is who you are that is Who I am many questions will come about this if that's what I am why don't I know it if I am this permanent witness why is it that sometimes I'm aware sometimes I fall asleep so consciousness comes and goes what happens to this witness all those questions will come what is this world how is this created what is its relation to the witness why is it there at all things like this so many questions are there which will come up one by I will stop here and do a peace chant and we'll throw it open for questions we have ten minutes for questions Oh Shanti Shanti Shanti hurry he owned that set sri ramakrishna eponymous - any questions yes there's a question there a look you have a pain an ache in your stomach suppose someone punches me in the stomach but first of all deal with the guy who can punch him back or whatever then you can then you can do Vedanta this question of having dealing with pain and the grossest form is physical being physical pain and this question is immediate and it works here - it works here powerfully it works here just now even before we are realised Souls are enlightened Souls it still works you see it works this way this question was asked by a student - Shankar Acharya there's a book called upadesa Shastri in that Shankar Acharya gives this this you know philosophical way of analysis of your feelings emotions pain and so on then the student asked this question but sir in the book it's there but sir if if my hand gets burnt it hurts even after I read whether antic still hurts Shankar Acharya says their answer is are you aware of the pain of course I'm aware of the pain if you are aware of the pain you are that which knows the pain and you must be different from it remember Vasanta is not anesthesia Vedanta is not a painkiller in Hindi they say Vedanta torpor and hickety a Vedanta does not try to change the world of appearance Karma Yoga tries to change something it changed it does good to the world and purifies the mind Bugti yoga tries to make a change in our you know take our desires of the world and focus it all on God love God it's a change Raja yoga the path of meditation makes a change in the mind focuses the mind on God and tries to attain Samadhi which is also a state of the mind Gyana yoga alone does not try to change anything it just tries to get knowledge which removes ignorance so it's not going to take away your pain what it going to what it's going to do is something more profound sri ramakrishna terrible pain of cancer in the throne throat he's lying there sick sick and weak in Kashi poor Indian Calcutta last days of his life and swami Torian and the hurry he comes and he asks her how are you today and soon ramakrishna sort of croaks you know I can't eat it hurts and Torian and I don't know why he said well I can see that you are in great joy and sri ramakrishna bursts into laughter and he says this rascal has caught me out Shailaja Rin eh this rascal has got me hooked that it pains and it hurts and I can't bear it anymore up to this we all understand we are we experience that the next part of it it does be in and it's terrible and at the same time I can transcend it in a blink of an eye that is possible only for the Gani the same Hari Mirage turian energy in the last days of his life two incidents I'll tell you one is with Swami Atul Anand the Guru does Mirage who was with whom he was in American later on in Banaras and in in Kashi in India they traveled together once somewhere I think near hard water somewhere there was a group of pilgrims and they are sitting together at night Swami Atul Ananda who was a Dutch and also American he was here in America he was a Swami and Swami Tori Ananda you're sitting together talking about Vedanta a group of pilgrims had gathered around them in the campfire and listening to talks on Vedanta and then somebody disputed it look sir all this sounds fun I mean all this sounds great but that you are not D buddy it is easy to say these things if you put your hand in the fire won't it get burnt and three onion DG says I can do that I can put my hand in the fire it will get burnt but it does not affect me and he rushed to put his hand in the fire and others jumped in and caught hold up and pulled him back now this is one incident the second incident is very well known he was in Kashi Sjostrom old in his old age and he had a wound in the hand once here a carbuncle also there was an operation but also a wound in a hand and finger and it had to be lanced a doctor came to lens the wound and the doctor said it's going to hurt terribly and I'm going to put an anesthesia and the Swami said no there is no need to put an anesthesia you can operate and the doctor did operate and the Swami sat there calmly smiling established I believe in the knowledge that I am NOT the body and not the mind there is a cutting in the hand going on this bleeding there and there is terrible pain there and I watch all of that that knowledge is so strong within it that the knowledge itself calms down the mind which wants to react in shock and pain the funny thing happened the next day the next day the doctor came again to dress the wound and he opened the bandage and he was about to dress the wound and the Swami shouted in pain the doctor was surprised so on the yesterday's this is a dis hurts I know but yesterday when I operated upon it it must have hurt much more you you you had no reaction then and you are shouting in pain now what is the mystery and the Swami said in Bengali world Watauga Montelena thumb you should have told me that you are going to touch it I could have you know lifted my mind from the body they can do it immediately so it's possible and yeah I'll come to that but I cannot help but add the funny sequel to all these stories this is a well known story I don't know how true it is among monks of our order it is well known it seems a monk read a lot of Vedanta all these books and everything and was convinced about it and one day he had an operation somewhere a minor operation and the doctor said do you need anesthesia and he said no and the Atman didn't and Rupa shivoham go ahead and cut are you sure so on its going to hurt but you say hurt like blazes and Swami said of course it can hurt but I'm the witness of the pain and the moment the knife cut should just cut through the skin the Swami shouted stop stop stop saw me what happened to your Vedanta and he's this works best in Hindi well translate he said wash ala kitab Chabad get America all that stupid Vedanta is in the books of Vedanta it's not in English let it doesn't work you have to be so what works it as I said you know just like this book is different from my eyes it's a real fact for me you don't have to tell me how to convince me no philosophy is necessary in the same way I must be separate I must be convinced clear that I am it's obvious that I'm separated from my body and mind then only it will begin to work okay last question yes yes yes that is a question one should definitely come up to any thinking person you see it's very clear when you are the question exactly it's an important question the moment you say that I am there's something watching the mind and that which knows the mind is different from the mind but you see the mind can also watch itself which is not a problem when it comes to the body or the world outside the mind has a capacity to reflect upon itself this capacity is called introspection so when I say I am watching the feelings in my mind thoughts in my mind memories of my mind is it not simply the mind watching itself isn't it introspection isn't it introspection I will answer that and just give you the answer in brief in two ways just consider it one answer is the standard answer given in advaitha Vedanta the clear proof that you exist apart from the mind will be if you have an experience where the mind is not there but you are there isn't it and they say deep sleep is exactly such an experience which we have all the time if say no in deep sleep I was not there even not there then who slept no it's just the body was sleeping but you wake up and you say that I slept happily I did not know anything now until irradiation so come Hamas up sama I slept happily I did not know anything if you did not know anything that is also an experience something must have experienced it I'll leave it you leave that with you it's a lot of argument about this lot of thinking about it and their different schools of thought but that apart let me give up more subtle but much more simple example when you are not introspecting when the mind is not watching itself are you at that moment still not aware of the mind when you do not when you do not think about yourself I am watching the mind don't do it normal times talking walking and all that at that time also there is a basal basic level awareness going on all the time even when you are not self reflecting that is what is interesting there is something illumining the mind and the mind of course can self reflect but when the mind is self reflecting it is one thought thinking about another thought it's one idea thinking about another idea or a feeling or something intellect pondering upon memories and feelings and perceptions but apart from all that it still there is consciousness in the mind even when you even when you're completely absorbed in a task a surgeon operating on a patient completely focused in the state of what be hi chicks in me I would call flow completely forgotten self-awareness complete self-awareness forgotten and that time is the surgeon conscious or not of course he is conscious he is completely conscious just that I feeling is not there the self-reflection is not there that's one function of the mind so the witness is different from the ego witness in fact one of the definitions of the witness in Advaita Vedanta is the witness of the ego Buddhist Joe Sakshi in one of the hymns of Sri Ramakrishna we find Buddhists chisaki yo wait Tisa column Machias Savita one who knows everything but who is not known by anything who is that we say Oh God no in Advaita Vedanta it's you the witness of the intellect witness of the ego will go further into it all those things will be explored slowly so as I promised it starts with a bang tremendous first verse tremendous first burst Advaita Vedanta as we will see later on what is Vedanta what is advaita vedanta and what are the roles of meditation worship all those things have a role we will plug them in as we go along but it claims that all the worship that we do all the religion that we do all the good works that we do all the meditation that we do all of it is supposed to culminate in this knowledge this is the crowning jewel of philosophy in India rather Krishna and dr. Radhakrishnan called it called advaitha Vedanta the fairest flower of Indian philosophy I might even say it's one of the grandest philosophies the world has ever thought of so we should undertake this journey it won't take very long it's a small book maybe in six or seven months if we get two classes a month we can cover the whole thing thank you very much thank you