Video 10

Introduction to Vedanta Part 10 - Swami Sarvapriyananda - May 24, 2016

esatto Mossad gamaya Thomas OMA Joe Teague Amaya great Jorma Umbra Tunga Maya own shanti shanti shanti hurry he owns a home lead us from the unreal to the real lead us from darkness to light lead us from death to immortality home peace peace so we are studying the brig Trisha vivica and for the past few classes we have seen these six techniques of meditation in adwaita Vedanta the practice consists of the words our Shravana mañana needed husana hearing which means a systematic study of the valent under a competent teacher and reflection using reasoning to grasp what we have studied and then we have knitted Hasaan of it which is meditation which is a an attempt to absorb the truths which we have studied and grasped now it is this third stage needed the asana where we have the six techniques in this book the six techniques if you recollect they are three internal and three external three internal techniques being the first technique is using an object to become aware of the of the witness consciousness using an object a thought a thought to become aware of the witness consciousness the second and then next what you do is use a Vedantic text to stabilize the awareness of yourself as the witness consciousness and you drop the object for thought and finally both the object and the Vedantic text are dropped and one will slide or glide into the nirvikalpaka stage a third in the deepest stage of internal Samadhi external Samadhi since Brahman is everywhere in any object that we experience externally Brahman should be available to us and indeed Brahman is available to us everywhere as existence Brahman appears as the existence of being Brahman which is such chit Ananda existence absolute consciousness absolute and bliss absolute that existence absolute or pure existence pure existence is appearing to us as the existence of the things of the world everything that we experience is experienced as existing you know the microphone exists the table exists the people exist the room exists so this existence which we experience indubitably everywhere we never pay attention to it but Advaita says it is the reflection of pure existence in the various things of the world so it is this which we seek to focus upon ignoring the name and the form we seek to focus upon the existence which we experience in everything and once we focus on this then we drop the object and take up a Vedanta text use that to stabilize our awareness in the existence which we experience everywhere and finally as we slide or glide into nirvikalpaka Sumati external using an external support midweek alpaca Sumati we drop both object and devil antic text so these are the six techniques now the result of all of this in traditional texts after the practices the result is mentioned what is to be gained from all of this and we know what we are looking for enlightenment and so that is described in verse number 30 and 31 so 30 day Harvey Monica Lee T Lee Harvey Monica Lee T Vic ja t Parramatta money McCarty / amok money yatra at Romano yachty yatra at Romano yachty tetra tetra Samad hahaha doctorate otra semana ha a very interesting verse which says as we keep practicing these six techniques as we devote time and energy to these six techniques our knowledge get stabilized what knowledge the awareness that we are the witness consciousness the awareness that everything that we experience in the world is pure existence with an overlay of name-and-form pure existence is there in everything in this way in this universe and that pure existence outside and the pure awareness witness consciousness within is one in the same reality so this becomes more and more stable we become more and more aware of it I am reminded of I think I've told this earlier but it bears repetition what happens if we practice and what happens if we do not practice by a study careful reflection on these Advaitic tricks one may come to a discernment that we are the witness consciousness quite apart from this body and mind but after that unless that is a simile unless that becomes a part of our life unless that becomes a reality what will happen is this I remember about a decade ago in Haridwar in India I was attending a class of a teacher a non doulas teacher and traditional Swami in the Himalayas and his one of his disciples had just had an operation a kidney transplant or something major and then he was telling the Swami that I have got so many dietary restrictions and so many medicines that I had to take this Swami was little surprised so you've already got this new organ and so why do you need to now why do you need to follow this strict dietary restrictions and there's all these medicines why do you need to take all this drugs well the gentleman explained Swami it's like this if I do not take all these precautions and all these medicines and all this strict diet what will happen is this new organ which has been introduced into my body it will not be integrated with my body that will be number one my body will not accept it as its own part number one number two I shall not get the benefit from this organ it will not start functioning number three finally my body will reject it the organ will die the new organ will die so if I do not take all the precautions the transplanted organ will not be integrated with the body I will not get the benefit from the new kidney and finally this new kidney will also die and the Swami was so excited he said in Hindi I saw here this is the way it is once you get an understanding once one gets faith in in in in the spirit in God once one gets an opening in spiritual life a real conviction that it is so what should you do that's not the end of the road it's the beginning in fact one should intensify spiritual practices that Swami said the ones one gets an in tuition that one that Brahmin is I am the witness consciousness once that understanding comes through with antic study and reflection one should intensify spiritual practices otherwise he says what will happen is what you have intuited what you have felt what you have understood will not be integrated with your personality number one number two you will not get the benefit from that new knowledge you will not be able to overcome the challenges the sorrows and the temptations of life that knowledge will not help you to overcome the fears and temptations in life and number three after some time that understanding that intuition that knowledge will again disappear it will not become a permanent part of our it will not come into full blown realization it will not be spiritual realization so practice of practice is essential now as we practice what will happen identification with this body and mind will do indle they have Iman equality by mistake the witness consciousness reflected in the mind as reflected consciousness I hope you remember we have studied all this pure consciousness is reflected in the mind as reflected consciousness and we come to think of ourselves as this reflected consciousness we have no conception no feeling about the pure consciousness which is being reflected it's just like a person if I have a mirror in front of me and I'm looking at the mirror and I see my face in the mirror if somehow I actually forget that this is my real face and I think that is my face and now when the mirror is dirty I'll feel my face is dirty when the mirror is cracked I feel my my face is getting cracked mirror is shining I feel my face is shining it's a reflected face it depends on the mirror it's not your real face in the same way we lose sight of the fact that we are pure consciousness and we get identified through the reflected consciousness with our mind and the body with the mind and the body and this is what happens now through this process when we realize ourselves as the pure consciousness as the witness consciousness this identification with the body and mind occurs it doesn't mean that the body and mind will disappear the body will still be there the mind will still be there and they will do body will do bodily things and mind will do mental things they will go on nothing is going to be destroyed there or change there but a realization will turn in the mind that we are not the body not the mind they are women a gala day we got a power mark money we realize ourselves to be the witness consciousness which is nondifferent from which is not different from brahman paramatma d the lord himself which is one with brahman the very idea I am Brahman hamamass me that will become more and more strong that pure consciousness that witness consciousness admits of no limit it is not limited in space it's not limited in time nor is it limited to one individual Vidya type Aramark money we realize a humdrum ask me I am Brahman then we can sing like Shankar Acharya cheese on and Rupa her shivoham shivoham then what will happen a most interesting thing will happen yet riot romano yachty that rather through some odd here the mind will continue to function the body will continue to function after that whatever you do in life you go on doing the things which you were doing earlier in life every action will be the same as Samadhi you don't have to sit in the lotus position you can you can sit in the lotus position with eyes closed and meditate within all you need not you can walk you can talk you can go to your you can drive on and you can go to your office you can have a family everything can go on as it was going on but everywhere in every thought in every action in every word you speak the the reality Brahman existence consciousness bliss will shine forth that is Samadhi being aware of the spiritual reality Samadhi after all what is the goal of Samadhi to be aware of the ground of this illusion I'm using I'm translating a Sanskrit term into English to be aware of the ground of illusion what does it mean when you are aware of the Rope the snake cannot delude you anymore snake the rope which we are mistaking for a snake when the delusion will go away only when you become aware of the reality the ground of that snake which is the Rope the rope in which the snake was appearing so the ground of this world appearance is Brahman when we become aware of that as I am Brahman it will no longer tell you and that is the purpose of all spiritual practices including Samadhi in every action whatever you think whatever you see in this world outside now don't ask how is that possible that's what all the six techniques are about converting every thought every perception and every object in the world as an occasion for becoming aware of Brahman it's like saying it's like asking by seeing which wave will I be able to see water which wave in the Pacific Ocean there are thousands and thousands of waves by seeing which way which wave should I concentrate on to see water any wave anywaybut or so or even a better example what should I see to be aware that I have eyes by seeing what will I become will I know that I've got eyes if the first reaction is people will say we'll look at yourself in the mirror you will know you're but eyes foolish answer by seeing anything the very fact that I am seeing means that I've got eyes if I did not I couldn't be able to see I wouldn't be able to see anything so the very fact that we have conscious experiences shows that you are that consciousness yet ramanayake that rasam are here so here you see you may sit down in a lotus position and meditate you will find pure consciousness within that you are pure consciousness or you may open your eyes and act in the world in every action you will find brahmani that which we chant from the gita before every meal in our centers brahma heartburn um rama v from ha brahma Hoberman autem grammarian event uh p.m. room Makar Massimo Athena it means that last time I also explained that in a ritual in a Vedic fire ritual there was a ladle in which they offered the offerings into the fire now it means that the ladle is Brahman it's not a little it's Brahman the offering which he poured into the fire the priest pours into the fire that offering is Brahman the fire is Brahman the one who is pouring it also Brahman now what's the point the point is if you can do this for every action any action that we do in our day-to-day lives it can be secular action it need not be a religious action any kind of work that we do in our day-to-day lives you can see it has Brahman the people who are involved in that work the instruments which you use the place where you do that work and the you who are doing that work all of it is pure existence Brahman if you do that you have got somebody one who does this one who sees Brahman in all the factors involved in action this is called brahmacari other person is called Brahman or karma Samadhi the person who has attained Samadhi in action seeing Brahman everywhere 31st again the result the result of such a state is enlightenment what is that enlightenment big dirty reader your grunty idiot e-reader your grunty GD&T service am shia can't a service am Shia she aunt Atossa karmani she aunt Atossa karmani the Smin Drishti robbery the realization enlightenment that is described here now this is a famous mantra in vedanta this is a direct quotation from the Mundaka Upanishad from one of the Upanishads Mundaka Upanishad is a direct quotation it describes enlightenment it describes freedom while living in this life itself what does it mean at that stage what happens deity idiot grunty the knots of the heart are rent or cut asunder shouldn't a service am Shia all doubts are gone forever all doubts are gone forever Gionta joste Kirmani the massive load of karma storehouse of karma which you have gathered for life after life all of that disappears is destroyed dustman rishtey / robbery upon realizing that supreme self now let's go a little bit deeper into it the reason why the author quotes it here is he shows he could have composed a verse himself instead of doing that he quotes directly from the Upanishad she gives the the what we call shoe deep pramana a a proof a direct quotation from the Upanishads showing that he is interpreting the Punishers it it's a the Vedanta dopes Anisha themselves say what he is talking about now the knot of the heart is rent or cut it is not open-heart surgery what is meant here is heart Shankar Acharya explains heart here means Buddha the inner sense our our mind our intellect put thee the intellect ignorant is there in our mind knowledge dance in the mind and destroys ignorant where darkness is there light comes and destroys darkness ignorant is in the mind knowledge dance in the mind and destroys the ignorance ignorance is called in not in the heart heart means here the inner sense the mind and the intellect so the ignorance that is the not heart here means the mind or the intellect and there because of this knowledge which we have gained that ignorance is destroyed forever ignorance is destroyed and as a result what happens Chianti sort of a some Shia all doubts are gone forever once you see this once you get this insight nothing can delude you anymore nothing can tell you you anymore it will never go away there it will never go away it's interesting once we were discussing this among the Swami's in Haridwar about the practice of this knowledge the six techniques which we are discussing about needed the asana Vedantic reflection bill antic meditation and one of the Swami's said to the teacher well at least I have to hold on to this hot that I am Brahman I must at least hold on to the awareness that I am Brahma Remus think that I am grim when I am Brahman that that much thought must be there and the teacher said in Hindi II saved Mohito naked nigh that is what you should never do and we were all mystified why not because he says imagine an actor who comes on the stage to play a part so maybe the actor is playing a part of a beggar in a in a theatrical performance and he comes on stage and plays the part very well now does the actor have to keep thinking in his mind let me keep remembering that I am an actor I'm not a beggar I'm an actor I am NOT a bigger because in just in case I forget and become a beggar he doesn't he'll absolutely no fear of that in fact he shouldn't think that he's an actor and not a beggar he should think with a hundred and ten percent effort that I am a beggar and this is how I am acting that's how his acting will be very good because the reason is that acting is something that he super imposes upon himself it's imagination it's held together by effort and that he is an actor mr. so-and-so a dramatist an actor in a theatre that is knowledge he doesn't have to put any effort to remember that it's always available Holy Mother was once asked Masha Rada do you remember your real nature and she said no my child how can I carry on the day-to-day activities if I did so but it is always available to me whenever I want immediately so knowledge is like that it is without any doubt without any doubt one of the Vedanta teachers put it over humorously you see difference between a person who is enlightened and the other person who has attended a few with anta classes the difference between this will be this imagine a person who has read about milk and heard about milk but never seen milk and then somebody talks to him about milk asks him do you know about milk yeah I know but do you know well it comes from cows and it is white and you can drink it and it tastes like this I know all about it then the other person mischievously tells this man that you are right but partially right you don't know the whole story about milk you're right that milk is white but only when it comes from white cow's milk when it comes from from red cows it is bread when chocolate cows in chocolate from black cows it is black now this person is quite likely to be confused he seems it's it's pretty reasonable maybe what I read was meant it was meant only for white cows because after all a brown cow and a red cow and a black car will get brown milk and a red milk and black milk it's reasonable but the person who has seen milk and has drunk drinks the milk and as tsunami Krishna says as John that milk can become strong he will never we have never have any doubt at all let anybody give any kind of reasoning red cow black cow doesn't matter I'm reminded of a joke not 13 inputs it's so funny because of tremendous competition in the in the kindergarten stage children are also interviewed there are whole panels for admitting so I know it's true in India so if you want to admit the child to a an elite school a kindergarten school the parents will be interviewed and the child also little kid will be interviewed by all these grown up this teacher and the principal of the school and the psychologist child cycle and all these things well sometimes the kids get better up the interview panel so there's a little kid it seems it's his true story a professor of management told me the story he said that this in this particular case the child was asked by the school psychologist can you tell me how does a white cow eating green grass give how does a black cow eating green grass give white milk a black cow eating green grass gives white milk how does it happen and the kid immediately replied he was not at all fazed he said how do I know ask the cow the fact is one who knows what milk is will never be diluted in the same way service anxiety Deonte all doubts are resolved once one has got this you will never ever have any doubts this is true then what happens Gionta jaws check our money all Karma's are destroyed karma means the results of our past karma the Karma's which are stored up you see the philosophy is that our bodies are produced because of our karma we live these lives because of our past karma we are getting the results of our past karma and as long as there is a storehouse of karma we will be born again and again and again but when that storehouse of karma is destroyed because of this realization then there will be no more rebirth the reason why realizing the true nature of Brahman sets us free from the cycle of birth and death is because the this realization simultaneously destroys all the Karma's the Karma's are products of Agana ignorant and ignorance is destroyed by that knowledge since the root causes destroyed the material is destroyed the effect the karma fellows are also destroyed now here there is a lot of discussion a lot of sophisticated philosophical discussion you see the question will immediately arise if all Karma's are destroyed Karma's are of three types agami sanchita and prarabdha if they are all destroyed then how does the liberated person be Jeevan Muktha the enlightened person how does he or she continue in this body the body should also die immediately because there is the body sustained by karma so how does he continue and there are a lot of discussions one theory is that there is a theory of product the Karma layha vidya resulting in the continuation of product the Karma I am NOT going to explain all those technical terms what it means is of the three types of karma all the stored current egami and sanchita destroyed and that karma we just started giving results in the form of this life and this body that will go on till it is exhausted so that accounts for the continuation of the life of the enlightened person and that's a good thing for us trust me because if that didn't happen if all enlightened persons died then who would teach us then all the teachers would be unenlightened because if enlightened is a enlightenment is equivalent to death first of all it wouldn't be a very attractive proposition there are easier ways of committing suicide and enlightenment does not mean death do as long as product the Karma remains the body will continue now there are a lot of discussions about this but since this is an introductory course we will not go into those intricate discussions only note that the continuation of the power of the karma the continuation of the Karma which produced this body will not affect the liberated person does not affect the liberated person it will affect his or her body so disease may come and the person may get sick but that person always retains the ability to rise above that sickness and the pain and transcend that suffering that's the difference between an enlightened person and a not so enlightened person the other person will suffer and this enlightened person can transcend that suffering transcend is a word I using carefully because it's not that enlightenment is an anesthesia it's not a painkiller you can enlighten so that there'll be no pain there will be pain but the person also clearly knows that I am the witness of this body which which is suffering pain many examples are there in Sri Ramakrishna's life when he was suffering from cancer one famous example I've quoted where Hari Mirage turian energy comes a hurry March comes and says how are you today and Sri Ramakrishna says this he had a throat cancer there's a lot of pain here I cannot eat weekly he says I cannot eat anything is lot of pain here and hurry I don't know what got into him said but sir I see that you are in great bliss the quilting to say to a person suffering in from cancer and stre ramakrishna burst into laughter he said well the rascal has caught me out he has found me out so he could do that once Swami Advaita Nanda was nursing Sri Ramakrishna who was towards the end of his life suffering from throat cancer and he used to clean the wound in the throat of sri ramakrishna with neem leaves it's an antiseptic but because it was an open wound it would hurt terribly so once he was going to do that and sri ramakrishna gasped in pain and then this person who was doing that he said well if it hurts you if it's so painful then I won't do it anymore Hansa ramakrishna said wait wait let me lift my mind from the body and the next moment he says now you can do it and I did it and sanam Krishna lay there absolutely calmly smiling serenely now they can do it because they know clearly that I am NOT this body in mind they can transcend and many other such examples are there so product the Karma will continue but it will not affect the enlightened person the Jeevan Muktha the living while enlightened while living will not be affected by the plan of the karma when the body dies finally the enlightened person is already brahman remains as Brahman already being free is freed I am translating from dupe initial and the unenlightened person when the body dies it transmigrates what happens is the subtle body leaves the dead gross body and goes to other worlds and in other bodies and goes to new linear lives but for the enlightened person there are no more new lives remains as Brahma there's one word here should be explained per every the high and the low the unmanifest the transcendent and the maddened literally it means para means the transcendent Brahman in Sanskrit near guna Brahman our remains the eminent Brahman in Sanskrit saguna brahman Brahman with attributes Brahman without attributes so the one word is used to indicate both ferrari showing thereby it is the same reality which is the new guna Brahman in Advaita Vedanta which is worshipped as God in religion with attributes it becomes the god of religion beyond attributes it becomes tinted guna Brahman of non-dual Vedanta now with the 31st verse the text is more or less complete the traditional text will give the practices and then the results and then come to a conclusion and the results have been given here and then it should logical it should come to an end but something funny has been done in this text you see it starts all over again there are actually from fourteen more verses it's almost like a postscript which the author has added on to it I have heard that there are versions of this book regressive occur which end at 31 but we have with the other verses here also up to 46 so we shall do them before we go into that let me tell you what he has done he has done but he has added these fourteen extra verses as a sort of revision enabling us to go over the material which we have studied but in a different way it's quite an interesting presentation what he has done in the next fourteen verses pretty interesting it's interesting in this way it answers a vital question some of you may have come across that question and eval tell you you see you know this class has gathered quite an online following so a lot of people all over the world are watching this not directly but on the youtube uploads and many people write with very interesting questions unfortunately I have no occasion to answer all of that will be impossible to reply to all of those emails but one question which has come more than once is this question if we are really Brahman if you are really Brahman then who is the one who is in bondage who is struggling to get out of bondage and who is the one who gets liberation one who is the one who goes from birth to birth body dies and then goes elsewhere Brahman does not go anywhere Brahman is one and the same so if you are Brahman then then who is it that is in in bondage Brahman is never in bondage who is it that is in bondage who is struggling for liberation so basically the question is about the nature of the Jeeva what is the Jeeva Jeeva means individual be you are i right now what are we actually if we are really Brahman then what are we right now what is this that is the question what is the nature of the Jeeva nature of the individual being which we experience ourselves to be right now so answering this question the author has written fourteen more verses and given us a new way of dealing with this whole idea which we have been studying a new paradigm a new structure quite interesting let me start the thirty second verse and I'll tell you in brief what's going to happen our Cinecitta bahasa of a Cinecitta hasa 3t swap knuckle pizza t swap knuckle beta v Gaia's trivia Jeeva big Gaius trivia Jeeva tat Raja para martica that Raja para martica he says conceive of the individual in three ways conceive of yourself in three ways one is the witness consciousness the witness consciousness the other one is the reflection of that witness consciousness in the mind in the waking state the third one is a reflection of that witness consciousness in the mind in the dream state so we have got three conceptions of ourselves one is the witness witness consciousness Sakshi witness consciousness which we have studied about all the while here the witness consciousness that's number one that's what who we really are the second one is right now what we see ourselves to be right now what is this a reflection of that witness consciousness in the mind the consciousness which we feel in the mind what consciousness people looking mystified the consciousness which is making you look mystified just now that very consciousness we are not talking about any metaphysical speculation we are talking about hard experience which everybody has all the time the consciousness which we feel just now that is the second that is the first reflected consciousness second type of jiva individual the first reflected consciousness he speaks about a second reflected consciousness what we experience in dreams in dreams what happens we go to sleep we forget that we are sleeping when we imagine a world and we are in that world and we don't even think that we are imagining it it seems real so we are in a world we have a body a dream body and we are interacting with persons and there is a world the whole thing is a dream and in the dream we have consciousness in the dream we have consciousness to be not we have conscious experiences in the dream that is called second reflected consciousness so what do we have one original witness consciousness one reflected consciousness in baking stage and the second reflected consciousness in dream stage the second and the third one reflected consciousness in waking stage we are aware of reflected consciousness in dream state we are aware of more or less every day we dream and mean we are aware of that the first one is what the book is trying to teach us so he makes these categories now what does he say let's see now we can easily understand there are three conceptions of the Jeeva the individual consciousness limited by the by the internal instrument that is my mind number one the witness of the mind number two reflected in the mind in the waking state number three reflected in the mind in the dream state the first one may not have been clear what I said just now you see it's like this take the mirror example again I have a mirror and I am being reflected in the mirror my face is being reflected in the mirror the face which is being reflected in the mirror is the witness consciousness the reflected face in the mirror is the first reflected consciousness the face which is being reflected in the mirror is what is called our chin Chaitanya I will translate the sanskrit it is called the consciousness delimited that will be the technical term delimited by the mind now i don't want to use the technical term because delimited by the mind or limited by the mind seems like the pure consciousness is being limited in some sense it's not limited it's just that just the one which is being reflected it's just like when i have a mirror in front of me my face is being reflected in the mirror and if I call my face original face the original which is being reflected in the mirror in that sense the original witness consciousness which is being reflected in the mind so that is the only limitation they are speaking about here now he says these are three conceptions of the individual Tatara are the para martica the first one is the real consciousness is the absolute consciousness is Brahman which is the first one they witness the Sakshi the witness the one which we found in the very first verse the eyes are the seer the forum is the scene the eyes become the scene and the mind is this year mind becomes the scene and the witness is this year that witness that is none other than Brahman that is pure consciousness that is Brahman that is eternally unchanging the reality which you are that's one that's the absolute reality here let me add a short note on the three levels of reality Advaita Vedanta has a special they speak of different levels of reality truly speaking in advaitha Vedanta the only reality is Brahman existence consciousness bliss existence consciousness bliss everything else is an appearance is false but the problem is we do not inhabit that our experienced world the world of our experience is this world where we see ourselves as bodies and minds who drive up to the Hollywood temple and attend of a ranter class we do not see ourselves as Brahman exists infinite existence consciousness we do not see that we inhabit this world it may or may not be false Vedanta says it's false but this is what we take to be real in order to help us Vedanta gives a sort of provisional reality to this world this world is called varaha rika Satyam the relative reality the empirical reality I might even call it the pragmatic really pragmatic in the philosophical sense so where Maha Rika septum what is way vodka sod septum this world which we are experiencing right now this transactional world and brahman itself pure consciousness existence bliss that is called para martica septum the absolute reality absolute reality Brahman empirical reality what we are experiencing now relative reality or empirical reality and there is a third level of reality our dreams when we go to sleep and we admit dream the dreams are we know their faults when we wake up we say oh it was a dream I am in in Hollywood right dreamt I was in Delhi or in some other place why wake up and say oh that was a dream so something you recognized to be false in this waking state itself that is called the third the lowest level of reality called Pratibha Sica Satyam technical term Proteus occur literally party wauzeka means appearance that which is not real it appears so three levels of reality really real brahman practically real transactionally real our world and sometimes appears to be real and we soon realize it's not real that is Pratley Waseca septum our dreams are illusions you by mistake you see a snake in a rope that snake is Patty massacre and the rope is where barik absolutely good so your fur that was a in an impromptu quiz the rope is Veronica transactional reality but in reality everything is supposed to be Brahman that is the so the three tiers three levels of reality which Advaita Vedanta speaks about absolute reality relative reality and the level of illusion or appearance now see the first Jeeva the witness is absolute reality the witness witness consciousness absolute reality the first reflected consciousness in the waking state state is via waha Rika transactional reality and the reflected consciousness in the dream state prathab our second appearance appearance another point let me make the appearance is resolved into each lower level of reality is resolved into the next higher level of reality let me repeat the lower level of reality is resolved into the next higher level of reality so when we see a snake by mistake the snake is false when we realize oh it's a rope what happened to the snake it was realized to be nothing other than a rope so the prati Waseca was resolved into the via Behar iike the illusory level of reality is resolved into the practical or the transactional level of reality empirical reality and upon enlightenment here is the insight upon enlightenment what happens is the empirical level of reality this reality is resolved into the absolute reality the varaha Rika solved into the para martica we basically realize I am NOT that phase reflected in the mirror I am this so that is what happens in enlightenment the varaha Rika is resolved into the para martica empirical reality this universe this body and mind all are realized to be none other than pure existence consciousness bliss such a Donald that is what is now will quickly come up now the author sort of dug a hole for himself by saying the ultimate reality is the one limited by the mind immediately question will come how can a limited reality be Brahma not be ultimate so he will have to answer that in the 33rd verse we just read that and stop for questions our shader chol beyt Asad our Jada kalpate Asad our Che diem two vast album of a che diem two vast urban toss Minji but tomorrow pod toss min Jeeva tomorrow pod Bromham to swab avatar from to Saba Vata very simple he says that which limits let's imaginary that is imagined that is name and form only that which is limited is real so the imaginary can never limit the real what does he mean by all of this it's like you see the desert in the middle of the desert see an oasis of water so now the desert has a particular area where there is no desert its water but when you go and close and see the seeds of Mirage there is no real water now did the Mirage water actually limit the desert did the Mirage water actually limit the desert no it seemed like desert plus water this part is desert the rest of it is water when when you go close you see all of it is desert only there is no water there so the imaginary can never limit the desert imagine you can never limit the real the commentator says even a grain of sand cannot be made wet by the water of the Mirage it looks like a big lake it cannot let a single grain of the sand of the desert so it cannot affect the real the lower level of reality cannot affect the higher level of reality the snake does not make the Rope poisonous the imaginary snake the imaginary water of the desert cannot bet single grain of the sand of the desert in the same way an imaginary body and mind do not actually limit Brahman Brahman exists as pure existence consciousness bliss right now right here forever not affected by our world of appearances our world which in which we live and work and Xperia and enjoy this world of birth and death it does not affect Brahman well it may not affect brahmana I am getting plenty affected you might say no you as Brahman you also do not get affected as Brahman so he says the limiting factor being imaginary that which is limited is real and hence it is not really limited its Jeeva to 'm brahman appears as a Jeeva as an individual that is superimposed it's not real its Brahman Ness it's a play on words I mean is actually should not say Brahman s but it's being brahman is real appearing as a Jeeva is false being brahman is real so that's what he mentions here so how does that answer our question our question was what is the nature of the Jeeva who is struggling for liberation who is the one who enjoys and suffer and comes over to the vedanta class and attends away Roth occurs who is this now you can precisely answer it is the reflected consciousness number one the you the pure consciousness reflected in that mind in the waking state that's what we are right now and if we really understand this we will see it's just he's just repeating facts back to us just repeating facts vectors it's exactly what our situation is right now I dip your consciousness reflected in this mind and due to the effect of Maya forgetting that I am pure consciousness I only know myself as consciousness in this mind and I am at I am identified with this body and hence I interact with this world so this is my life what will anta tries to show me is that this is a mirror the consciousness you feel is a reflection in the mirror you are that which is being reflected in the mirror eternally free of the mirror and its reflection right now so that's what they are trying to see should we take some questions in questions today yes there's a question there yes interpreting a dream so question is let me get it right when in a dream are you talking about interpret yes yes all right the question is when you wake up from a dream how do you interpret it in your life in Advaita Vedanta is a thing to grasp whenever a dream example is used immediately our natural reaction is to be concerned with what we experienced in the dream so is it false is it true does it have any implication for my life in the waking State that's what we are interested in what is the meaning of the dreams earlier people used to use dream cells profess prophecies for telling something in the future now it is not so much nowadays people go to the psychoanalyst or daven that has gone out of fashion that used to happen a few decades ago you go to the psychoanalyst and you tell him your dreams and he'll make some sense out of it what annoyed the veil aunt is interested in is something entirely different it doesn't matter what we have dreamt about what Advaita Vedanta is interested in is two things first of all that which we dreamt about dreams are false immediately another question comes no Swami dreams can be true I have seen I dreamt of something and it happened in my life be careful we are doing philosophy here you have to be very precise when you say I dreamt of something and it happened in my life I dreamt I was going to meet my long-lost friend and lo and behold next morning he had come to meet me so it K it is true but be careful if in your dream you met your long-lost friend and you woke up and your friend came did you meet your friend twice no I heard this story a person who got a present who we know who prophesied that such and such person is coming today from Japan and will bring me a pair of slippers from Japan and I'm not revealing the names because the Swami knows who it is and and the other person said who is coming from Japan and why would they bring you paradin I went to Japan and then I purchased a pair of slippers you were sleeping you were dreaming no it's true after some time a person did arrive from Japan and said well Swami here I've got a pair why I don't know what to get for God this pair of comfy slippers exactly what he had predicted it predicted that I went to Japan last night and I got a pair of slippers and next morning somebody actually comes from Japan is on the and and brings him a pair so you will say oh the dreams turned out to be true well if dreams had been true you'd have got two pairs of slippers one which he found in his dream and one which came in in the waking State no what you mean by dreams being true is it has some predictive capacity something was seen in dream and that seemed to happen in in the in the waking state but Advaita is not interested in that other it is interested in the fact that what happens in a dream is seen to be false upon waking up it did not happen it may happen in the waking State then it will take it to be real but in the dream it's a dream more importantly what other evidence is interested in is the consciousness which is aware of that dream Advaita is not interested in the dream although it is interested in the dreamer yeah there's a question there yeah this is actually the central question of this book it's very interesting take two thoughts say it take the thought thought that Sacramento is the capital of California is a thought and California's on the west coast that's another thought two thoughts one thought came and it went away the second thought came and it went away and each thought the thoughts are different from each of the one is about the capital of California one is about the geographical location of California two thoughts two different thoughts but both of them arose in the same mind they were illumined by the same consciousness thoughts are different what is common to the you experience two thoughts so that each experience is different what is common to the two experiences all let me put it this way you are looking at that light the chandelier you look at it yes and then you hear a sound yes that experience of seeing the light this experience of hearing the sound you're two different experiences one is sight one is hearing one came before one came afterwards the two different experiences but what is common to both of them that which was experiencing that which was experiencing it see I can make it even more simple consider the example of the microphone and the book the two objects they are different from each other but both are shining in the same light the light the light vigil means the microphone is the same light which aluminum in the same way there is an unchanging light within us which shines upon different objects externally different thoughts in our mind and gives us the experience of our life gives us this movie which we call our lives that unchanging light is consciousness in pancha dashi written by vidyaranya swamy we find Shub dispersed shadow Vaidya waited triage a grave attack turtle we worked out at some with a guru partner no big dirty what does it mean sounds throughout the day we hear so many sounds touch we touch so many things we taste so many things we see so many things throughout the day hundreds and hundreds of experiences each is different from the other each comes and goes apart from all of them is the one unchanging consciousness he calls it some with the consciousness which illuminance a sound the consciousness which alia means your sight it's the same consciousness the sound and the sting scene are different from each other only thing is don't try to make that consciousness and object you see our problem is we everything that we experience is an object everything that we experience is not everything in the universe so when they try to teach us about religion God that also we think is an object God now the problem about teaching us about consciousness is this whatever we the teacher or the books tell us about consciousness we tend to make it an object how shall I understand consciousness when you ask this you ask how shall I understand consciousness you are thinking in terms of making consciousness and object of your understanding it can never be the object of your understanding the very first verse of this book side 3 gave honor to drishya T the witness never becomes the witnessed the best way to understand this is the example which I really like is the one I gave earlier eyes how do I know the table is there and microphone is there and you are sitting there because I see it I see you I see the book I see the microphone how do I know that I have got eyes the problem here is I cannot see my eyes you may say that you can see it in the mirror I can only see the reflection of my eyes in a mirror this eyes cannot directly see themselves eyes cannot directly see themselves then how do I know that I have got eyes by seeing anything seeing anything whatever we see is a proof that I have got eyes that's the only way I can know that I've got eyes so that consciousness is understood by experience experience of what anything the proof that you are here for me the proof that you are here is because I see you so seeing the object is the proof that the object exists for me but then how do I prove that eyes exist I cannot see the eyes it's only the very act the experience of seeing which proves that the eyes exist experience of seeing anything so the conscious experience experience any experience proves consciousness in fact a very beautiful okay will come to you and conclude with that beautiful definition of Brahma the ultimate reality is catch this the beautiful definition of Brahman Anubhava marked Rama Rama Rama P or experience is Brahman what do you mean by pure experience is there an impure experience from any experience every experience is an experience of an object drop the object you have got drama which object whatever your experience and drop it we have got Brahman alright last question all right and it's a good question the question is is there a real point in becoming enlightened other than of course not being born and not dying not going through the cycle of birth and death but even you know the cycle of birth and death that's also a bit theological it's only when you believe in the entire theology of the Hindus or Buddhists or Jane's the Indic religions they speak about many lives and that's also so distant past lives maybe I don't have any direct memory future lives who knows they say the past somebody said the past is a canceled check future is a promissory note the present is all that you have so how does it help me now that's the question how does enlightenment help me now the real purpose of all of this let us not forget what is the real purpose of Vedanta the real purpose of Vedanta in Sanskrit let me put it identical Calibri the paramon and the practice Chur complete transcendence of all sorrow and suffering and attainment of pure bliss that is the goal no less in fact all that we are trying to achieve in life whether in secular life or in religious life or in spirituality whatever we're trying to avoid sorrow and get happiness and they say the only real way of doing this is through enlightenment you totally completely transcend suffering I am using the words very carefully transcend not actually it's not that it's a painkiller if you get enlightenment your pains will go away or it is cure for poverty if you get enlightenment you will become rich no but you transcend all that they cease to affect you at all and you discover the source of pure bliss eternal happiness which is within ourselves which is the self which we realize ourselves to be so that is the purpose the highest goal of human life is at through this there is a there is a saying in there is a beautiful verse in the poncho that she or there's so many questions coming riddle verse in particular she says that why is an enlightened person so happy why are they so joyous the mystics of the world they are joyous because they have done what is to be done in human life they have got what is to be got in human life they have known what is to be known in human life they have got something where the greatest of sorrows cannot shake them they have got something greater than which they can never get there's nothing to be current gain greater than that last question No yes all right right so let me answer this in briefly in two sentences one is what is the purpose of all of this the purpose of all of this is in swami vivekananda words the goal is to manifest the divinity within ourselves to recognize the our spiritual reality to come to this realization is the goal of this game of life that's one and the second thing is about meaning and teleology and evolution in the materialist reductionist approach the whole universe is devoid of meaning even the best of them as recently reading a book called the big picture by Jacque a Carol who is a physicist in Celtic even they're the best that he can do is to say that we have to manufacture meaning for ourselves it does not deny that meaning is important but meaning is to be manufactured by us there is no meaning in the universe as such so that's the physicalist materialist approach it's just the mirror image Virant is just the opposite here everything is imbued with meaning because nothing is other than brahman nothing is other than your inner self so at every step there is meaning in this approach we'll conclude with that and we'll take it up in the next two classes Oh Shante Shante Shante hurry boom that's at sri ramakrishna must you