Video 6

Raja Yoga: The Path of Meditation (Part 2) | Swami Sarvapriyananda

[Music] leaders from the unreal to the real leaders from darkness unto light leaders from death to immortality all peace peace peace the different yoga's are all these different ways to remove the second arrow the real cause of suffering and each yoga has its own paradigm the way it sees the problem and the solution it offers the path of bhakti says the problem is we do not have faith in God we do not have trust and surrender and love for God and the solution is Mukti devotion to God the way of karma karma yoga says our whole problem is this terrible attachment to body and mind and selfishness and the solution is to transform our lives make it completely unselfish then the path of Raja Yoga which you have taken up now it says it's not so much a question of selfishness or unselfishness or not so much a question of believing something and not believing something faith or no faith rather we do not experience the reality as it is we do not experience ourselves as pure consciousness which is not subject to the second arrow which is not even subject to the first error if we are not subject to the first arrow you are not subject to the second arrow also you are not a body hence not subject to old age disease and death you are not even the mind not subject to confusion sorrow and disappointment you are an immortal awareness consciousness you do not know this you do not see this therefore all problems then why do we not see this the result the answer is that the mind is disturbed is constantly being thrown into waves and it obscures what lies beneath or beyond the mind that the consciousness our real nature the solution will be problem is restlessness of the mind solution is calmness of the mind concentration focus serenity of the mind so this is the path of meditation Swami we have akanda called it Raja Yoga it's based on potential is Yoga Sutras so yesterday we saw the background of it with nice stories of hearing negara and Patanjali and so on that's why if often in yoga books books which are translations of yoga sutras for example you will see a depiction of the multi headed serpent and pretend Jerry sitting so that's the background of the story why that that kind of iconography is used so Yoga Sutras yesterday I offered a practical a set of practical points for meditation which are very helpful for meditation whatever your meditation practice those 10 points which I show kanji mentions are really good but today it is the heavy stuff I won't say the boring stuff but the heavy stuff the Yoga Sutras themselves we will do for sutras the first four sutras and the first Sutra is the introduction to the Yoga Sutras it is what is the text we are taking up Yoga Sutras of Patanjali which is the oldest manual of meditation we can find so the first Sutra is artha yoga asana Yoga Sutras suitor number one author in successful yoga I'm Shannon this is the Sutra see the Sutra literature is met a huge amount of information a full knowledge system is packed into a few cryptic statements and of course in those days it was all sanskrit basically the core scriptures of the hindus are the vedas and the final highest philosophical spiritual teachings of the Vedas are found in dopes initials which are found in the Vedas themselves but after the Vedic Age came the age of philosophy so these philosophical systems based on originating from or in dialogue with sometimes contradicting Vedic teachings came the various philosophies many many philosophies in India and there was a time when all these philosophies were condensed and codified in Sutra literature so sutras are very cryptic in English you will call them aphorisms they're actually not ever isms they are more like in computer you have zip files lot of information is packed into something so a lot of information is packed into these sutras and every system of knowledge they develop this sutra it was a good way of systematizing it conveniently packing all the information into an easily memorized able form and then the teachers would explain it it requires explanation because it's so cryptic what does it mean if you go straight to the sutras often it's not all that clear so it requires explanation what does this Sutra mean this is the first Sutra of the yoga sutras there are 195 Sutra yoga and shanem other means now-now-now yoga a new means after or sequence and random means teaching instruction teaching so teaching about yoga now is presented the teaching about yoga after means that it's a matter for decoding after means some say it means after the tradition in the tradition of stretching all the way back to that guy on the Lotus Hiranya garbha from here Onagawa who discovered the method of math of meditation to down to Patanjali who is writing this who is codifying this knowledge so in that sequence another meaning of inertia so now if you take them together is the text now the text about yoga one of the commentators watches petha Mishra says in that Anusha sanam is no Shas Anu means Annina by this by this Yoga is taught by this means by this text so initial sternum actually refers to the text also that's also possible now this is the usual style in which the Sutra literature begins for example and there are a lot of Sutra literature there is Brahma sutras for Vedanta which is a bigger 555 sutras this is this is only hundred ninety-five there is the bhakti sutras of Narada a little bit of which we will see tomorrow which is much smaller 84 or 85 and there is the the the karma kanda sutras the gemiini sutras which talk about the various Vedic rituals which is much bigger there is the grammar sutras we talked about yesterday for which Patanjali wrote the commentary part of which was eaten by the by the groats so that is HUGE nearly 4000 sutras so these sutras they usually begin like this for example the first Sutra of the Brahma sutras is athato brahma jijnasa hence for an inquiry into brahman notice there are slight differences inquiry into brahman but here instruction about yoga instruction is something that you have to carry into practice what does enquiry lead to any kind of knowledge yes correct and if you inquire into something you get to know something there it is implied in Vedanta I am jumping ahead to the next class in Vedanta it is implied that the goal is to know this that will solve their problem here it's it's not that you have to know something knowledge is important but after that you have to any kind of instruction any kind of teaching after transfer into practice so an asana which is being taught Yoga is being taught hopefully it will practice it later so Yoga is being taught now the sutras in order to understand them you have to look at the commentators many great scholars Yogi's came after Patanjali they took up these sutras and commented on it so the foundational commentary the one which everybody should go to if you are seriously interested in investigating anybody who studies them also you go to what is called the Vyasa Prussia commentary by Vyasa Hashemi commentary we are some harsher commentary by Vyasa Vyasa so when we studied the Yoga Sutras when we have a novices we studied it with we are so with the Vyasa brusha what do they do in these commentaries they take up each word of the Sutra and they examine it etymologically from the grammar point of view they examine it philosophically what does it mean in the whole philosophy they examine it contextually in that particular context what does it mean so in many of these ways semantics the meaning of the particular word so grammatically the semantically philosophically contextually each word is interpreted that's the job of the commentators so we understand what it means so the original commentary on this is Vyasa Pasha the original commentaries are called bashes so for example brahma sutra the sutras for the vedanta our system and the commentary was written by Shankar Acharya and of course by many others another commentary was written by ramanuja another commentary was written by madhvacharya and yet another one by vallabhacharya and so on different commentators have written commentaries for yoga the oldest and the most comprehensive commentaries by Vyasa this is what so if you ask where are you getting these meanings from here and then afterwards there were some other commentaries also interestingly Shankara Shankar Acharya he wrote a commentary which I have not studied a little bit of doubt is there whether it is the same Shankara who is the advaitha teacher or is it something somebody else modern scholars they'll find some difference in the commentator so the two must be different though I have the same name I'm afraid that 500 years later they will say there were many Vivekananda's because if you see the complete works many types of teachings are there so there is one Vivekananda was a teacher of bhakti either we become there was a teacher of yoga they might do that that's what's got his scholars are up to so Shankara he wrote a commentary then there is another great scholar Watchers party Misha of course many of these scholars in ancient India were also spiritual practitioners this name you keep coming across in Indian philosophy because he was a very great master of all the systems there is a term for him sarva Tantra Swatantra chharia Tantra means here not Tundra of the tantric philosophy it means philosophy system of philosophy Serova Tantra Swatantra but the one who has independent access to all systems of thought so he has the password for all the networks all the sutras he has written masterful works on each system so he has written a work on yoga he has written a work on Sankhya and he's written a work on purva mimamsa is written a work on me I have a shaker but his what he's famous for his his commentary on vedanta-sutra s' shankara's commentary on brahma sutra and watches but the mistress commentary on Shankar's commentary on brahma sutra so he's famous for that but he has written a very useful common tree for this and I will use some of his insights another one very well-known began a big show he interprets the Yoga Sutras and introduces many elements of Vedanta into it so some some people have said Swami Vivekanand that as commented on the Yoga Sutras his is one of the first English commentaries on the Yoga Sutras Swami favicon which was published which have got the book you have got here which was published first from the veyron Society of New York but some have said that but he is giving a Vedantic interpretation of yoga but that Vedantic interpretation of yoga goes way back about 500 years ago began a big show did that he give away ranting interpretation of yoga and we had a professor speaking at the Vedanta Society of New York recently Andrew Nicholson who has done major work on the galaxy has a whole book on the work of began a big show Anju Nicholson is right now in Princeton but he's originally from Rutgers I think then began a big show there was one king I think he was between multi-talented prodigy he was a poet and a composer and and also a philosopher and a yogi who is said to have attained enlightenment so a bit like Janica Raja but he's a historical figure well-known he wrote a commentary acting Raja Mark Martin de on on the Yoga Sutras which is also supposed to be a brilliant commentary but I have not read that and then in our time here's a monk I mentioned him yesterday the one who when you become the head of the order you are walled up in a cave and the food food is sent to you and once in a week you give audience to through the hole in the cave we can ask a question so that guy his commentary is a modern commentary but it's now used he wrote it in I think originally he wrote it in Bengali but it's it's basically what he has done is he has taken the yoga sutras and the Vyasa basha original one and given a very detailed modern introduction to it but tough so that's the one which is used in philosophy departments in the Universities now and we used it when we studied yoga sutras and then there are many others most famously swami vivekananda himself who has given a beautiful powerful introduction to your potential yoga sutras he is really responsible for making it so popular in mod in the modern world today as reading JD Salinger the novelist Catcher in the Rye so I had never read that book Catcher in the Rye and people kept talking about it and Salinger is so salient shall we shall we say to our better on the movement he as I decided to read it just last year I didn't like it and then I couldn't finish it and then somebody said so I'm it's too late it's something you should read when you're a teenager it's teenagers like it's not at your age it's of course a very good book but but for kids JD Salinger says in one place there are these two classics karma yoga and Raja yoga which our modern American youth of course is talking in the 1960 setting 50s probably 60s our modern American youth would do well to carry around in their pockets he says Raja Yoga and karma yoga so this is the commentarial history what else do should I say about this okay the meaning of the word yoga yes so yoga has two meanings the original Sanskrit see etymology comes how what is the meaning of the word the origin of Sanskrit is huge because yoga is such a popular word these days what does it actually mean originally the original Sanskrit meaning it comes from the term huge and it has two meanings you'd some are though ug yogi yogi means to join two things another meaning is meditation in this case Yoga Sutras the meaning is meditation because often people think you know yoga or spirituality is joining the Jeevitha mat of the Paramatma to the sentient being to the supreme self and so on but not in yoga Yoga Yoga means separation not joining the whole problem is we have become joined to material nature you are spirit you have become joined to a material nature you are purusa you have become joined to prakruti your consciousness you have become mixed up with matter and that is that is the whole problem that is samsara so the whole purpose of yoga is to separate purusa and prakruti consciousness and matter to show you that you are not material that you are pure spirit so therefore this meaning of Union will not apply in a very loose sense it might apply how Union with your real self you are already the real self pure consciousness just that you don't know it you think you are the body mind and so when you know it by the process of yoga you can sort of indirectly say you've been United with your real self in that sense you can sort of stretch the meaning but really yoga here means vo --ga Yoga means separation separation from material nature all right second sutra first let's repeat the first sutra that's how a traditional it is studied the teacher will chant the sutra and the students repeat it artha yoga no sha sanam [Music] Arta yoga noches annum this world also I can't resist the itch to mention it because see there are many things which I did not mention traditionally while studying any kind of Scripture it has to start with what is called Mangala and an auspicious chant so usually you'll see we start with a chant texts also start with a chant usually it's a chant in praise of the guru or bowing down to God or something auspicious and then you start the study now otta has this meaning it is auspicious so ohm if you chant that's auspicious and 100 auspicious word is ASSA hence here it means hens are now an entry into spiritual life so it's auspicious so in that sense Mangala one purpose it serves is to make an auspicious beginning docked in utter bottom athato bottom vehicle sama now we shall explain Mukti Mukti sutras but they're also utter athato brahma jijnasa now an inquiry now hence an inquiry into brahman ji utter but not always the Shiva sutras of Kashmir Shaivism it starts straightaway chaitanya Atma consciousness is the self immediately objection will come where is your auspicious chant what's the hurry where is the auspicious chain and the answer will be that you are directly referring to the highest reality consciousness itself that's auspicious so that way anyway that's not so fortunate next second what is now training about yoga the question will arise now what is yoga them we're going to train us about yoga so what is the teaching about yoga before the teaching tell us what yoga is define it Yoga Yoga mind modification cessation so yoga is mind modification sensation Uvas chitta vritti nirodh aha' cessation or whitening do you see what I said earlier it's the turbulence of the mind which is preventing us from realizing our real nature so yoga the purpose of yoga is to calm the mind down to make the mind one-pointed calm focused so that there is no turbulence in the mind Yoga is the cessation of the modification of the mind so this requires some explanation swami vivekananda puts it this way or we'll go to that little later first little background yoga philosophy is derived from Sankhya philosophy yoga philosophy is derived from Sankhya philosophy and the Sankhya philosophy has literally the word Sanka comes from Sankhya which means number and so they enumerate the categories of nature very ancient philosophy when the Buddha went out to learn and become enlightened he got masters teachers who were basically some kind of proto sunken teachers so what he learned from them which he was not satisfied with but the teaching he got was sang here so what is the enumeration what do they talk about what are the categories 25 categories they talk about don't worry don't get tense 25 categories now all of it is not important most important is pollution consciousness pollution also literally means male and that's derived meaning but the original meaning is that that spiritual being that consciousness which we are whether you are in a male body a female body whatever we are that consciousness body is not important there so that's one and there is another category called rock within nature remember this is Sankhya philosophy not Vedanta don't become confused don't mix them up together there's there are big differences Purusha is pure consciousness the self and prakriti's material nature and prakruti has evolute prakruti evolves into this universe prakriti's are always changing it's made of what is it made of what is purusa made of consciousness what is practically made of now from property what happens first evalute is first thing which emerges is called Wolvie a self-awareness our awareness itself of knowledge knowingness annoyingness let us call it the Buddha is what they are talking about is not literally the intellect which we have now another name for that is Maha from that comes from that comes with D ahankara the ego ahankara ego will be literal I mean sort of approximately you can translate it as intellect understanding or knowingness and then ego interesting see already the difference between consciousness and mind are very it's very clear today this basic understanding is not there or not accepted in modern consciousness studies modern consciousness study cyst still mixes the whole thing together consciousness intelligence mind perception all of it is called consciousness studies there is a reason why they do it we'll see and Sankhya and yoga says there lies the problem the inability to distinguish yourself from your mind wondering what's all that very complicated don't worry about it you can just write it down five sense organs but the indriya eon indriya you can write in english five sense organs and then if you are writing than five motor organs five subtle elements and five gross elements what are what are the five subtle elements and five gross elements five subtle elements are sky and wind and fire and water and earth but not in the way we find them not this sky and not the wind none of this in in a very subtle form may almost like a mental form and then they make among themselves and form this physical universe which is perceptible to us anyway that's the way they look at it notice that the whole universe is seen as emerging from the subject from inwards to outwards from consciousness outwards to the universe what we regard as the universe starts here it's from these five gross elements that this physical universe is created yes punch again indriya five beyond andreas then five Carmen Reyes motor motor organs five tan mattress pancetta no otra tan Matra actually in sanskrit thought Matra that that much only that means the subtle elements and then punch of hooter or in sanskrit punch of mahabharata brutha means not ghosts here brutha means elements the five elements you see it's not just Sankhya any ancient cosmology in India in Greece in China they talked about four elements of five elements yes yes do they are they are prakruti this is the constituents of practicing prakruti is made of the three gunas the the way they describe it is imagine a rope a rope has braids so imagine prakruti is a rope and it has three braids or imagine in our modern when you look at the depiction of a DNA you know like a coiled like that the strands are coiled within the DNA helix double helix like that the it also means string gunas actually means strings somebody said super strings are so we have come back to the same idea now and it's interesting they are extraordinarily subtle they are the fundamental constituents of nature and they are vibrating you know almost by bit like description of super strings and they produce the entire universe so these three together Carmen Rhea feikin in reified carmine area five shuttle elements five physical elements or gross elements so this is the whole system of Sankhya and this whole thing is borrowed by yoga now why am I saying all this what is the point point is this these three together good day plus ahankara plus minus is called cheetah what what jitter this one chitta vritti nirodh aha' so I'm trying to explain where this what is does this word I have translated it as mind but it's mind is a very broad term what does it include it includes in our case our intellect our ego the ego that we feel right now intellect the knowingness the understanding that we feel right now the power of clarity knowledge and the ego and the mind what are the functions of each why are we using different terms for them because each of them has different functions the ego in sanskrit the function of the function of the buddha first function of the intellect nice chai at Mecca Budi Budi is that which gives clarity understanding reveals to us also it is the agency that I do the doing that I am doing something I am the doer of this action this comes from wood he cut it were doing so good is that function of the cheetah which gives knowledge clarity and Manas is that function which it does sankalpa be culpa macam mana that means when you are considering many things thoughts are coming in what the - does is it collects information from the world outside the five sense organs and it collects information from its storehouse memory and it considers many things many thoughts come up in it perceptions are all dumped in it all the sensors that be pulling in information sight sound smell taste touch and they all are dumped into the - and the - also retrieves information from memory and it has many kinds of perceptions feelings pleasure pain and all kinds of subtle related feelings about it all of this churning goes on in the - and when there is clarity knowledge flash of knowledge I get it Budi but they're all part of the same thing called cheetah and what does anchor of the ego do the ego is in Sanskrit its function is a women at Mecca abou Monica means appropriating function that means it identifies when thoughts are there I am thinking when you're seeing some the site site is I giving perception to the mind what the what does the ego say I see when the intellect gets a flash of understanding what does the ego say I understand the ego is that which integrates all these functions under one head what is that head I so it is necessary for functioning then you will feel a sense of integration that I am this one person I am the one who saw I am the one who thought about it I am the one who understood seeing sense organ thinking mind feeling mind and understanding intellect and all of that is appropriated taken up by owned by ego I it gives it a go and that feeling of I am doing the doing this sense of agency is in booty but the ego says I do I enjoy which one so high there's no I in booty put these understanding flash got it but I got it that is ego no agency is there the doing it that the doer doership is Indian with the character and the ego comes and joint says I do it the sense of execution would the fear feels that I that the agent it's the agent and then ego comes and says I am the agent the agent ship is taken up by understanding in a booty is taken up by ego and says I understand notice these are subtle differences of functions but these differences are there if you just note it you will see differences are there in the mind ego feels like one function understanding feels like another function memory feels like another function thinking emotions another function multiplicity of perceptions another function and the doing things through sense or through motor organs another set of functions all of that is integrated and it's one inner organs called untuk karana inner organ inner organ in contrast to the external organs what are the external organs sense organs and motor organs these are external organs actually in contact with the world physical world the mind is not in contact with the physical world the mind is in contact with the sense organs and the motor organs of execution motor organs so the mind is in contact with the inner world and it takes information from the senses senses are in contact with actual external world so sensor senses are called external organs but this whole thing the cheetah is called inner organ inner organ of knowledge yes yes no both are affected remember all this is part of nature so if there is a deep-seated problem in the physical body see dementia or something it will have effect on the outer the physical body but also it will affect the inner functioning of the intellect of the memory all of that will be affected yes here tipped another car not the same now an important question again the word cheetah has a specific meaning not here but in Vedanta it has a passive specific meaning memory so when Shankar Acharya sings ma nobody on karachi Thani Nahum I am NOT the mind all right check I am NOT the ego good the check I am NOT the I notice the real I is not the ego who is the real I so I am NOT I the pollution I am not this ego it's a ego is a function of the mind it's a movement of dinner organ but then he goes on to say another important point Kotani nam so definitely there the cheetah does not mean this because into the double-counting already has dismissed this this so one more function is there which is not mentioned in the yoga or Sankhya psychology that is memory here they include it in mind itself so and they use the word chapter for the entire thing all the yes agency yes Budi and ahankara appropriate suited I am the tour doership the sense of execution is the doing I'm the agent that's there there but the hunk are appropriate sitting together you get the agent the I am the agent yes the if you notice it you will see suppose doership is not there I can't do I feel paralyzed I cannot do anything but the ego is still there now the ego does not feel like the door anymore it's being done to me but I can't do anything there's a separation of ego and doership there all right now all of this together these internal activities together are known as the citta and their activities are known as a great theme with pretty means they activity you can understand it this way if the cheetah is like the sea with these like the veins under Connecticut our same what we call antic karana in Vedanta is called it the here so chitta compare it to the sea then the riff these are the waves the whales are not different from the sea they are the activity of the sea so the activity can be of different types one type of activity is understanding good thing one type of activities ego ahankara that's also an activity of the mind one type of activity thinking perceiving that's in the mind mind plus sense organs so this is called chitta and the cessation of the movements the activity the restlessness is is continuously moving things are happening there all the time right now also in fact the Yogi's they consider even sleep so I am know nothing is happening and feeling very dull and sleepy that sleep is also a function of the jitter jitter gets resolved it stops moving for some time that's also a function so according to the Yogi's deep sleep is also a function of theta in the Sankhya yoga psychology all of these functions they have to stop Maha Bua the core to make up the external world they make up the external world and the theta also the physical basis of gypte is also the certain certain bunch of others that also goes to make up our individual minds so that gives like the physical substrate or product is no no it's not that the gross body is comes after this physical world and gross gross body all of them come after the five gross elements up to this is a subtle world when this physical body falls apart and subtle body will go away into other lives consciousness remains constant yes all of these resources Prakriti everything in this universe source is practically yes certainly so all of these are made of subtours estimates all everything that is produced from practically is made of Satori's estimates because its source material etcetera estimates so good D is made of said to the customers a hunk ramana's the sense organs the motor organs the subtle elements and the gross elements and everything in the universe is ultimately made of sattva rajas tamas yes the physical nature of everything are the gross elements everything according to this kind of cosmology everything that we experience in this universe whatever we see whatever we hear smell taste touch matter is if you break it down it's nothing other than space and and air and fire and water and earth yeah so that was their way of understanding yes it doesn't come so according to samkhya philosophy these two are eternal realities Purusha and rotating they have coexisted forever and they interact with each other nature is eternal beginningless and endless it will not disappear it has been there forever and it will continue to be there it just keeps changing when it resolves everything resolves back into practically that is called the dissolution of the universe but practically remains sattva rajas tamas remains and then when it vibrates again and the entire universe is produced and this goes through cycles Purusha remains constant in Sankhya there are many parotias many may each of us is an individual Purusha infinite consciousness but many how can there be many infinite they give the example of light so one light when you switch it on it pervades the entire room if you switch on another light that also pervades the entire same room so the entirety of practically is pervaded by a consciousness and many consciousnesses and these consciousness is they get entangled with subtle bodies with minds and intellects and then they feel I am this one and they forget their own nature and then they think I am a body or a mind I'm my body mind with prakruti yes yes so that is yes but remember they don't use the term Maya they use the term prakruti it is this thing which later on Vedanta takes the prakruti of Sankhya and yoga and adds it to Brahman makes it the power of Brahman remember here the two are separate but there in Vedanta what it was Shankara does is he merges perfectly back into purusa and says it is just the power of brahman like fire and it's burning power they are not two different things so consciousness and its power is practically then he does not use the term practice sometimes he does but most the term Maya is introduced so the Maya of advaita vedanta has its genealogy its roots in the property of Sankhya yes no no all of them monkara is untraceable to prakruti remember ahankara has two aspects one is consciousness and one is the ego yes so the the itself is always part of practically or Maya but there is behind it see the whole thing in spiritual life in Sankhya yoga or in Vedanta you can put it in this way the ego what does it refer to but by I meaning referred to what I mean is every word refers to something when I say chok chok is a word it's a sound what does it refer to this this so word refers to something object as a meaning the philosopher Wittgenstein there's a story about him he used to teach in Cambridge so he was talking about word and meaning so he raised the chalk in the class it seems and he asked what is this and when the student said sir it's a chalk is it chalk is a word and he threw the chalk and hit the student and said is that a word that's the thing the difference between word and thing we'd confuse after some time it becomes same for us because we continuously use words but what does the word refer to when you say chalk it's a sound it refers to this object Mike it's a sound it refers to this object I is a word a sound what does it refer to what does it refer to a hunka yes what does anchor is I what does it refer to what does it mean which is the object show me the object Rick Victoria said body mind I am this so it all of that together body mind complex is the reference of the eye and Vedanta Sankhya yoga they say this is the problem I does not refer to body mind that is ahankara the real eye is beyond the body mind that is pollution of consciousness that is totally forgotten that Purusha itself shining upon the prakruti forgetting itself things I am this and uses the eye which is the product of the proclivity to refer to itself as I am this as long as it refers to itself as I am this samsara will continue for it pleasure and pain hold on here pleasure and pain life after life seeking to protect this body and mind to give it lot of pleasure to avoid the pain for this body and mind it goes on like that now what is spirituality it is shifting the reference of the eye from body mind or right mind body to consciousness Purusha shifting the reference of the eye from the products of prakruti back to Purusha we wanted to say if yeah they're there later if you think about it that way Swami Vivekananda said capella the founder of the Sankhya system is the oldest philosopher the early first philosopher of the human race capella if you find you may find interesting similarities with advaitha because we are all familiar with advaitha and interesting these similarities also with advaitha what are the similarities pure consciousness I am consciousness when Shankar Acharya sings ma nobody hunka Rajat on in our home I am NOT the mind I am not the intellect I am not the ego and not the memory you can easily see I'm not these things I can cross them out then he sings Jaudon and Rupa her shivoham I have the nature of Shiva and the nature of consciousness and place correct but what is the difference the difference is first of all in Advaita Vedanta there is only one consciousness there are not many consciousnesses we are not many we are one consciousness at that level many bodies and minds but one consciousness that's one second in adwaita Vedanta most importantly precarity is not apart from purusa prakruti is not a real thing separate from purusa prakruti is the power of purusa Purusha itself is projecting all this that beautiful story by by what's-his-name the book Allen Watts do you remember the story what is this whole life the stories goes like this God existed from eternity to eternity then God because existing eternity to eternity all alone is boring so God got very bored and God wanted to play but did not have any friends whom will God play with so he thought for a long time but because he is God is very clever he got a solution what is the solution God pretended to be not God now they were to God and not God now the play could start what is God pretending to be not God pretending to be not God pregnancy and the products of parity and now the play could start but what is the problem because God is awfully good at what he does his expert really good because he's God so he is really good at what he does so when he pretended to be not God he did such a thorough job of it now he can't remember who he is and now God pretending to be not God totally forgotten that he's God is searching for himself it's his own real nature and that is samsara what a beautiful story because the whole story of Sankhya which is borrowed entirely by yoga the story of Sankhya is exactly that what is the whole story according to Kapil according to samkhya what's going on here is purusa and prakruti are interacting prakruti does two things for purusa or each other is one thing for prakruti Purusha lends illumination consciousness experience without pollution no experience is possible without consciousness no experience is possible just take an ordinary product of prakruti like say a computer which can do everything it has got intellect it has got us like I'm not a conscious sense of self but the sense of self it can act as if it is knows itself to distinct from others and it can consider things it has got sensors it has got out like a robot or something yeah all of these things are possible for a computer yet there is no internal experience there is no subjective experience we are talking about it yesterday deep blue defeated Grandmaster Grandmaster may feel humiliated by Purusha connected consciousness connected with this intellect this intellect has been defeated and the flash of defeat here is experienced by the positions humiliation but in the case of the computer this is not there only these things are going on there is no internal experience so prakruti is illumined by purusa and prakruti gives experience to purusa of two types boga apavarga bhaga means experience what kind of experience pleasure and pain suka suka and apavarga is a very ancient word for liberation moksha nirvana Cavalia one of the most ancient words is up over cannot out of use these days but three four thousand years ago apavarga means Beedrill or release bra quickly gives that so what does practically gave body mind ego intellect universe go out there and play have fun and suffer all of these things whatever you can experience the worst of sufferings the greatest of achievements everything life after life human life animal life plant life all of this you experience at one time this soul which is pure plus clarity it wants freedom from it all can I become all can I become free of this limited existences and prakriti then says alright come to yoga Sutra here is the book for you come to Vedanta retreat and so the path to liberation is opened up by prakruti both are given by prakruti i come i'm coming to you both of you notice how in vedanta this whole idea became saying that the keys to Brahm Magan are in the hands of the Divine Mother so you have to please the Divine Mother because she will let you free she spirituality and materiality both are in the realm of Maya yes [Music] the Arnold aspect of it yeah they don't mention it it is awareness and existence but not bliss is not mentioned whereas the Sankhya does not mention bliss yoga does not mention bliss it is of the nature of peace beyond suffering that's it it's very interesting the most ancient philosophies Buddhism nyaya vaisheshika Sankhya yoga they talked about overcoming suffering the second arrow and leave you there that's it you are beyond suffering but even more ancient of the Upanishads Vedanta which talks about Allen the bliss joy so but the joy definitely you have to understand it's not a feeling to have any kind of feeling particular feeling particular experience particular knowledge what do you need this all right now let's go on little further yes [Music] they're separate in Sankhya yoga purusa and prakruti can exist separately they do exist separately the mid matter time space matter energy is an independent reality consciousness is an independent reality they interact and when they interact in ignorance samsara results this is very much like what David Chalmers is proposing a span psychism now what is materialism what is the problem of materialism in modern science they are saying basically modern science is saying this is real they don't talk about such Rajas Tamas they talk in terms of matter time space energy and this is real and what is purusa what is consciousness this is born from this this is also productive like all of this is also productive of nature in a physical body living body living brain consciousness somehow originates but the trick is in that somehow how somehow it's got an answer how but if you cannot answer that how then the hard problem of consciousness comes in and David Chalmers says we may have to admit a crazy idea that matter is fundamental in real time space matter energy and one more fundamental thing could be consciousness if you say that you are back to 5000 years ago what Kapila said David Chalmers hard problem of consciousness is in yes you had a question yes or Maya is not a real separate thing yes none of this exists apart from this is really Brahman it seems to be apart from Ramon it seems to be a real independent prakruti it's not according to Advaita Vedanta yes it's possible it's valid but it's not necessary advaitha we'll say we'll see in the next class advaitha will say you are consciousness regardless of Prakriti and all you have to do is know yourself as consciousness that I have to settle practically into a particular state of calmness my mind has to be settled into a particular state of yogi calmness then only I will know I myself as purusa that's not true you can even in this state where the mind is moving active engaged with the world thinking feeling enjoying suffering even here are you clue shut not yes you are it should be possible to know yourself as pollution and if you know yourself as pollution question is upon what does your freedom depend upon what does your freedom depend does it depend upon calming the mind which is a product of prakruti putting the mind into Samadhi that gives you freedom or realizing yourself as purusa which is ever free anyway that gives you freedom if realizing yourself is Purusha Ambrym asks me if that gives you freedom then you realize that way whatever form necessary why is it necessary to put the mind in a particular form some are he one of turrican sadhu said in hindi he said if if you're moksha lies if you're freedom peace freedom lies in Samadhi and he said in Hindi low-low apne Perico Samadhi KL honeyBun cardia see you put your beloved that means God or whatever your spiritual you put your beloved in the jail of Samadhi as long as I'm in Samadhi it's alright when I'm out of Samadhi it's not alright wadn't advaitha would say no no no it's a serious mistake so anyway that will come to later on but I'm taking the Veda on take by perspective what will the yogi perspective be yogi one yogi told me once I asked him don't you like he was doing some odd even practicing somebody in the high Himalayas he's to live in a cave I said what about Vedanta don't you like Veyron tiny it's alright they talk a lot they don't have experience so the yogic response to all this will be lots of tall talk mister but do you really know what you're talking about have you experienced it so yeah so there are two two perspectives and there's a lot of discussion which is correct because advaitha happily uses this the techniques they are all used for meditation totapuri taught all of this to our tzunami Krishna to attain Samadhi so all of these are used by a traitor they are very powerful very useful see advaitha uses the logical argumentation techniques from the ayah advaitha takes the whole concept of pure consciousness from Sankhya and meditation techniques from yoga so but the approach is different the whole philosophical approach is different okay yes near okay good only one let me ask that we have made a valid point but one little correction this illusory stuff we are too conditioned by Vedanta Sanka and yoga will say this is not at all illusionary they are all very much real prakriti's real nature is real mind body everything is real and you as consciousness are also reel to reels have gotten mixed up and the difference is not clear the difference has to be understood and for that we need the help of the mind the mind is the source of the confusion here jitter and it will also clear up the confusion but you are saying that the mind is needed correct in one sense that is the whole purpose of prakruti in in Sankhya prakruti is needed by Porsha for what experience and prakruti is needed by purusa for what for release moksha only thing is when purusa gets that murk shed realizes I've always been free but right now it needs this it needs all of this to be engaged in the world and to get freedom from the world also to come to the Vedanta retreat installed like you need body you need mind and you need all of nature the question becomes even more serious in advaitha Vedanta here the two real things are there and they are cooperating with each other understandable they give a nice example in Sankhya there are very old old examples even before the sutra literature few nice stories are there very interesting one is purusa and prakruti they are like a lame man and a blind man the blind man cannot see and the lame man cannot go anywhere but what they do the blind man puts the lame man on his shoulders and the blind man tells the layer the the the lame man tells the blind man where to go and what is he is seeing and all of that and the lame the blind man carries the lame man wherever he wants to go so the blind man is nature material nature and the lame man is consciousness consciousness cannot do anything by itself but everything is done anything means nothing physical can be done by consciousness because consciousness is not physical nothing mental can also be done by consciousness because consciousness is not the mind but everything can be experienced only by consciousness matter can do everything matter energy time space can do everything but can't experience anything now you'd say what kind of philosophy is this this is the most basic kind of philosophy if you think carefully about it you don't need any scripture to come to this just sheer logical analysis of our experience will drive you to this think about it all our experience all experience whatever you have done in life whatever anybody can do in life and experience in life has this structure subject object if you investigate the object you will find nature per treaty if you investigate the subject you will find at the back of it consciousness this is the basic idea behind couple a brilliant idea and he stops here another idea was given by a great professor of religion Chicago University many years ago made chilliad he went to India thing he was Hungarian or some or Romanian he went to India at that he met Robin do not to go or he studied under sudden you know that's the scoop then Calcutta he stayed there meet charlie then he came back to so in one of his books is it in good books on yoga in one of his books he says notice that Sanka comes to pollution prakruti and stops there after this after capela comes Buddha and then Shankara and what did they what did they do Buddha pushes the purusa into prophetic it denies that there is anything like purusa only a whirling mass of matter if you realize that you're free and what does Shankara do he pushes property into purusa and calls a Brahman so the two rebellious children of Kapil upon his hand one is Shankar sanction Shankara yes no Jeevan Muktha is coming down the property what is the purpose of coming down clarity we will see next Sutra let us write what happens it's a good question what is calmness of the cheetah one way of understanding is is quieting down Dorothy's the movements of the gypte thoughts feelings emotions perceptions stop Samadhi another way of looking at the same thing is that reduce the length of the ship and make it very suffering that sub trajectories easily goes into some other spirituality is basically in terms of shock to Rajas Tamas increase the circle guna maximize it and reduce these then what will happen then that highly sattvic chapter will reveal to you that you are not the cipta you are beyond the chitta Purusha always beyond the three gunas gita keeps telling you go beyond the three gunas go beyond what what does it mean go beyond three gunas now you can understand you are identified with the body mind which are products of the three gunas you are playing in a samsara which are the product of the three gunas but your real nature is purusa which is beyond the three gunas realize yourself as purusa that is going beyond the three gunas Sri Ramakrishna explains very nicely he says a man was going in a forest and he was caught by three robbers one robber wanted to kill him Thomas another robber wanted to bind him and robbed him of all his wealth grudges and they did that luckily Thomas was not able to kill Raja said let's just bind the fellow and leave him there but the third robber was kind-hearted they all robbed him nicely but then the robber was kind-hearted he set him free and took him to the road and said this is a safe area so you can and you can go back in this way you can call an uber or something like that and and don't come in this neighborhood and this man was so happy he said you come with me you saved me Stockholm Syndrome syndrome you say you saved me you come with me back to my house to the city and this sucked well the robber said no I cannot go with you I cannot go with you there that is beyond my range because I am a robber to my limit is here you can go there because you are this actually so that's a nice story Sri Ramakrishna said even subtour does not give you enlightenment it just it's just a stage for enlightenment it's necessary all spirituality your tapasya your moral life your fasting your prayer your puja your meditation study discipline all of that is meant to increase the top and reduce these two but even that sucker is not the ultimate goal you have to go beyond the three gunas your means you are beyond the three corners you had a question and come to you now we come to that now so what is all this let us come please repeat yogas chitta vritti nirodh aha' yogas chitta vritti nirodh ha ha yogas chitta written you know ha ha yogas chitta written you know huh we don't have much time let me do the third and fourth sutras quickly so what is the purpose of all this why should I take all the trouble to calm down the mind and attain Samadhi and there will be a whole process for that Sutra we'll talk about astanga-yoga yama niyama moral disciplines then asana sitting then pranayama breathing we have to learn how to sit and breathe yes we are not sitting properly a yoga teacher would be annoyed at all the postures he will see in this room and we are not breathing properly also BK's anger who is one of the source of anger yoga in the West he writes in his book when he first opened the yoga studios here Westerners would come and learn yoga he said they are hardly breathing it's so tense the shallow upper body breathing so hardly using their lung capacity no wonder disease comes anyway so pranayama then we have pratyahara withdrawal from the world outside five sense organs starting outside then dhaarana focus instead of scattered jitter with the focus one's Authority all jitter it is reduced to one that focus will deepen into Dhyana meditation that meditation depends into Samadhi complete absorption where the entire world is blanked out one with T alone remains some practice Ahmadi then that one will t also goes away on some regular Samadhi it is revealed to you that you are not the mind and then let's quickly do the third and fourth sutras third Sutra what will happen then [Music] da da then when when when your mind the chipped abilities have seized when you are in Samadhi then rush to the seer who is the seer here physical seeing is not meant not even mental seeing awareness consciousness Purusha the fear in abides the Purusha abides in its real nature then when the mind is in Samadhi when the mind is an absolutely calm in Samadhi you remain in your real nature God remains as God God is recognizable as God in the language of Alan Watts remember Sanka does not use the term God at all Yoga uses the term God but as the first teacher here in Ann Arbor in that sense that is the purpose here Swami Vivekananda comments what happens is like a lake where all the waves and ripples have seized its one shining calm surface and the water is absolutely crystal clear two conditions no waves clear water clear water means the mind must be pure sattvic and no waves means samadhi so will a kind of such a trick might be disturbed yes disturbed means not in a bad sense but you can have seen many pure and simple people the Ricardos have seen but also very restless but that restlessness can easily be dealt with they can if they want they can settle down in meditation like in nobody else very pure that restlessness is more like the restlessness of a child we are restless deep inside they're complicated people they are restless in the surface inside they are very simple Sri Ramakrishna you wouldn't think of him as restless when you had to go to Calcutta to somebody's house the carriage would be called he would be the first one to jump on the carriage and sit waiting for him I have seen monk very senior monks spiritually advanced they're to go on a train journey hours and hours ahead of schedule they go and sit in the station there's something there I don't know what happens I think when you're at that level you will understand that probably so then what happens then when the lake is absolutely clear and no waves are there you see through to the bottom do you remember the story the yogi told me on the bank of the river Ganga in in Himalayas in the winter if you come Swami you will see the same River few thoughts are there no ripples and the water is so clear not muddy so clear he said in Hindi oh there's a wooden bridge there Oh bridge said Giovanni pull such a wannabe geara doga would they agree if you throw a quarter from the bridge and it falls into the river and sinks to the bed of the river you can read up the denomination of the coin from the top of the bridge it's so clear and still almost is it doesn't seem to be there at all but its water and for plains folk like us when at that time they're not used to snow and ice I remember we have time up to 12 right yeah first time I encountered these mountain streams I was going up to the Himalayas and the bus dropped me off it was getting evening I had to find my log cabin otherwise you'd be in 10,000 feet in the Himalayas without a place to stay a night is falling the result is equal to freeze to death the on the first night in the Himalayas anyway so I saw this little stream running across the road very clear water I thought okay it's nice it's just little bit of water I can walk across it and started walking so cold just ice melted after sometimes my legs became numb I could barely move in the water I got across okay yes yes let's the if you use that language they don't use that language he says this then the seer who is the seer you SWA rupee in your real nature what is your real nature not body not mind as awareness our sternum abides yes well in number two that is yoga chitta vritti nirodha no waves assumed already Yama niyama that is why do you remember the shankara's they advaitha vedanta matrix of sadhana three levels of the purity of mind clearing the water then a Kagura the focus of mind stealing the waves then Jana comes it's not all that different you see practically it's not all that different the reason why we cannot still the waves is because the water is not clear yes [Music] yes but they will say - because why moment you say something you're already down to the level of concepts and speech that's an interesting point because Advaita Vedanta what Shri Ramakrishna says the ultimate reality is the same but is a big problem there it is beyond language and concepts the moment you drag it down to the level of language and concepts all your religious philosophical conditioning will come into play the sunken will come back from Samadhi and say I experienced myself as Purusha apart from prakruti the awaiting will say I realized I am Brahman one existence of the universe which one is correct to take your pick the yogi or the devotee will say I became one with my Krishna yeah but you can you can can you not understand it that way if prakruti entirely disappears from it for from you then in that sense it will seem like a void a complete emptiness and you can can you describe it as Suniya yes you can wide wide of what wide of material nature no world no body no thoughts no mind it's a void is it nothing no no it is something consciousness is there I once had this argument with my teacher near Auburn Chakravarthi he was a philosophy professor who had retired and he's to teach us brahmacharis in the in our monastery so I was very enamored by Sunni Avada enough Nagarjuna this philosophy of the void I said that's the ultimate conclusion you can come to I mean I don't want your opening shot saying that that is Brahman and all of that that you're believing that but practically inexperience and logic shows you it's a void and he gave a very incisive thing which I understood much later he he was short man disciple of swami vivekananda big eyes and he looked at me with those big eyes and he said ah but who knows the void the void to whom all right then last one fourth one at that time the consciousness abides in its real nature at other times the question arises now then other times what's happening with these are mister we omitted at the fourth one with the modification of the mind sorry opium identification interrupt at other times it's retro means at other times other than what time some are he see how it's connected each other other than other times other than what other than then then means when when when the mind is in in Samadhi when the mind is in Samadhi then the witness remains in its real nature as pure consciousness at other times the witness becomes identified with the modifications of the mind you see this is how you read the sutras anger comes in the mind I am angry not that I am the consciousness which is the witness of the wave of anger in the mind no I am mad at you like this at our dough yo-yo Ganesha serum now starts the instruction on yoga what is yoga yoga chitta vritti nirodh aha' Yoga is the cessation of the with ease of the cheetah and remember what is jitter what is with the like the sea and the waves so thirteen-year-old huh why what will happen then what's the point Dada then then the witness will remain in this real nature what real nature consciousness will bring in all of the Sankhya philosophy there Purusha you will remain as purusa then at other times if then you remain as Purusha consciousness at other times what happens at other times the wii-u will be identified with the beauty whatever is happening in the mind you will get mixed up with that it's true actually it's a literal statement of the truth what I'll do it say in this you got it this is a way to read it what are droids to is this language at that time the witness remains in his pure consciousness nature advaitha will save the witness always remains in his pure consciousness nature at other times it is identified with why at other times also it's it's actually it's not that time or other time it's knowing yourself and not knowing yourself the actor say mr. Smith who plays back Beth in the role in and Shakespeare in the Park when he's playing Mac bet he still mr. Smith he has no problem there because he knows I am mr. Smith he doesn't think I'm Mac but he feels like an axe like Macbeth to the best of his ability and when he's not acting as Macbeth he still knows I'm mr. Smith it's not that he becomes identified with Macbeth at that time and when he stops playing Mac but then he is mr. Smith so is it are they confused Yogi's and sanctions actually not if you read the Vyasa harsh a commentary the Vyasa admits at all times consciousness remains as consciousness it's only mixed up with the thoughts it only seems to be mixed up with the thoughts then what is the problem problem is not really modification of the mind problem is ignorance and knowledge if you know yourself as consciousness then even in in Samadhi your consciousness even while mind has got it to rity still consciousness yes they accept ignorant is the problem in Samadhi actually what happens they call it vivica Cathy the difference becomes obvious Cathy flash vivica separation the separation between pollution / quickly becomes obvious in Samadhi once it's obvious even when you're out of Samadhi you know although I'm fully mixed up in all of this I am none of it yes correct correct correct environment correct in fact it it's it's a very it's a very ancient story a song Qian story the cute stories are there I didn't I didn't have time to mention it so there is the son of a king stories little archaic because of certain conditions astrological conditions he was exiled from the kingdom and he was bought up by the Saburo tribe in a sovereign Indian tribe in India is the forest dwellers his brought up to suffer a tribe and he always thought I am a suburb a forest dweller then many years later the minister finds him and says o Prince you are alive you're a prince come and claim your kingdom so he comes to the understanding oh I am NOT the Suberu Suberu tribe tribes man I never was a server I thought I was but I always was a prince and immediately comes into possession of his kingdom so this is the ancient story sangeun story yes all right you're right the way you would actually the way you would do it is now and then would not refer to time of Samadhi and outside time of Samadhi now and then would refer to knowledge and ignorance in knowledge you realize I am pure consciousness in ignorance at the time of ignorance you realize that you feel that I am body mind once you have knowledge even when see the way it is translated is when Purusha pure consciousness is confronted with an active mind it confuses itself with the mind and thinks of itself as the mind and they give very nice examples I don't have time for that one example is tree is reflected in the lake sorrow Siva Tata drew Maha tree is reflected in the lake the lake is like Purusha pure consciousness and trees are like the movements of the mind they reflected in the lake and if the lake loses its an understanding of itself as water it says I am the trees he never was the trees the trees appeared in the lake at no point the trees were in contact with the lake so when you realize that even when the trees are appearing in the lake even then at other times when the trees are appearing then also it will think of itself I am the water let the trees appear it as many old jungle let it appear nothing to me not even one tree or one twig is in me similarly all thoughts and activities of the mind let them go on I asked a great scholar he was the head of the house pundit semaj what was his name he sucked at it he was I keep forgetting his name he was a master of Vedanta and sang here and yoga and he could hide degrees in each he was 95 years at the time I met him he died one year later well we I was in a particular meeting he was supposed to address it and his old man he insisted a lot of trouble to take him on the stage you need two people to lift him and put him on the stage so even before the audience came there to take him up it's a big operation to put him on the stage so he was sitting alone in the stage I saw this is my chance to ask this question what is the fundamental difference between the Advaita approach and the sanction approach so I went and you have to shout in his ear good year and Oita says this Sankhya says that what is the difference he listened and won just two words he said he listened like this and he said like this Drishti a particle difference in point of view it's a difference of perspective they're talking about the same thing but there are other big philosophical differences that property is not an independent reality like in Sankhya in advaitha prakruti is nothing other than you yourself advaitha makes it one non dual Sankhya remem remember Sankey and yoghurt staunchly strongly dualistic let's repeat the verses the sutras after yoga asana yogas chitta vritti nirodh aha' tadaa - - swoopy of a sternum with these are opium eater etre none of these will enlighten us until you meditate om Shanti Shanti Shanti hurry he owned tatsat sri ramakrishna eponymous - [Music] you