Video 67

67. Bhagavad Gita I Chapter 5 Verses 18-19 I Swami Sarvapriyananda

[Music] guru we are studying the fifth chapter which is on gyani yoga it's the path of knowledge which is probably why i like it a little more than maybe other chapters we have had some wonderful verses in the 16th and 17th verses we saw uh knowledge is compared to a blazing sun which destroys the darkness of ignorance aditya gyanam knowledge like the sun the sun rising removes all darkness just as it as it illuminated all objects in daytime things in in broad daylight are seen so clearly indubitably exactly like that the person of enlightenment he or she will realize that i am brahmana brahman is the only reality the world is an appearance of brahman um this will be absolutely clear not something abstract not not philosophy or speculation not a theory not even something that you believe in or you would wish for to be true but and a choicelessly a fact which is choicelessly there it doesn't even depend upon you anymore it's a fact once that breakthrough happens then the 17th verse was interesting there the the uh shri krishna tells arjuna how to how to get this knowledge he gives four stages he says the general interpretation is this you have to be devoted to to spirituality you must make up your mind that i will become enlightened this will be my purpose in life and this is not crazy also because from a vedantic perspective this is the purpose of human life all of us the purpose of our life is this even if we think that it is not the purpose of my life i have got some other aim in life we just we don't know we don't realize what we are saying whatever be our goal in life whether it be family or you know career or being rich or science or art or whatever be our goal in life basically we are aiming at uh fulfillment we're trying to get happiness fulfillment deep lasting happiness overcome suffering know the very secret of existence what is all this this is the fundamental questions to which we are trying to um get answers is um we're trying to get solutions in our life and this is basically the quest for enlightenment so knowingly or unknowingly everybody is moving towards enlightenment so that parana means consciously knowingly deliberately making up your mind and telling yourself at least even if nobody else telling yourself at least goal of my life is god i mean i've repeated this number of times but i really like it so much that you know mahatma gandhi says that when people ask me who am i and people think some people think i'm a freedom fighter something that i'm a politician something that i'm a social reformer you know many things but if you ask me i'm a simple man in search of god and that's what we must all be able to say that is our true identity so means being completely dedicated to uh enlightenment god realization it need not be in this particular vedantic path that i want to realize it you know that i am brahmana and this this particular vedantic paradigm if you take it up very good but there are so many people who are spiritual without being particularly you know non-dualistic vedantic that's also all right um the search for god in any form in any religion it's it's this is what is meant now not just making up your mind that that's my goal actually dedicating your life to it so in a vedantic sense it would mean pursuing shravana and manana you know coming turning up for class and reading this and thinking about it and you know getting clarity and conviction about the vedantic teachings which we are all studying trying to put it into practice in our lives and then tadat mana so after you get clarity conviction being one with it that means giving your mind to it in in in need in a vedantic meditation becoming one with those teachings uh the result will be tad i'm on 17th verse you that knowledge that breakthrough comes me will come so you see starting spiritual life that means includes getting all the qualifications the four-fold qualifications developing an ethical life a disciplined life then shravana and manana in vedanta and then the breakthrough that's one interpretation that's the general interpretation but last time i gave a more advanced interpretation advanced interpretation was once you have the clarity and conviction the breakthrough then this is all about making that knowledge stable um you know becoming a jeevan mukhta so you start with tatwa that knowledge arises then you stay with that knowledge day in and day out you know intense meditation on the realization aham brahmas stay with it so that is called tadaatmana cut aside all other activities which may take you away from your vedantic meditation so it's a very monastic lifestyle which is being indicated here and even when other activities are going on this should all you know in every activity you should see brahman so that's the more advanced interpretation of this verse but basically what it means is our life should be a quest for enlightenment this should be not one of the boxes we will take so i've got a million dollars i've got a country house and i've got a vacation to the bahamas and also enlightenment one more tick the box i i once in an ashram in himalayas i met this young man from america it's a long time before i came here so this young man he was sitting under a tree and reading ashtavakra so anybody who wants instant enlightenment they go straight to ashtavakra and so i asked him what are you doing here and he said he works for a firm in wall street and he has taken a two-month sabbatical so the two months is for becoming enlightened and he's feeling depressed because the two months are almost over and he hasn't got enlightenment and he has to rejoin his office back here in manhattan so i i didn't know what to say i sort of mumbled that well it takes a little bit of more time you know you should don't be in such a hurry and he scolded me i was a young monk at that time he's quoted me he said no this is not sri ramakrishna's attitude salaam krishna said this kind of casual relaxed approach to spiritual life i don't like yeah i must become enlightened that is true it's a good good thing to feel that i must become enlightened now but to give it two months and also on top of that uh that is one of the things that i have to do before getting back to manhattan and rejoining my job so it's not like that the goal of your life now becomes enlightenment so someone like and remember the great insight of sri krishna in all of this is that you need not actually be a monk in the mountains you may be but you need not be you could be a person involved in a lot of activities in the world look at mahatma gandhi who was more busy than him i remember when i was a young brahmacharya in dyoghar ram krishna mission deokhar so as to frequent the library there a lot i was always impressed to see they were almira's full of the complete works of mahatma gandhi if i'm not wrong if i'm not wrong i have to check this it was one set a multiple arbilar eliminators were full of one set of mahatma gandhi's complete works so it was a hundred volumes or more can you imagine a one person doing all that writing and all that social activity you know to uplift uh the hurricanes and so many the the upliftment of the villages um the basic education you know the bunyadi section the basic education which he started a harmony between religions and on top of that all his political activity for the freedom of india against the british rule all of that and in the midst of that is spiritual his whole point is this is all of it is my spiritual activity it is my worship of god so that's that's the spirit of the bhagavad-gita in the midst of all activities you can still sincerely say all of this is my quest for god realization so that's why sri krishna is telling all this to arjuna and saying that you can still fight the battle do your duty and be spiritual they're not two different things so this is a the great teaching of the bhagavad-gita i've told this story earlier but let me repeat this mahapurush maharaja swami shivananda ji was the president of belur mutt and one day this gentleman comes to him this 1920s early 1920s comes to him and at that time mahatma gandhi had started his non-cooperation movement against the british rulers so this gentleman comes to him and you know complains that all these young boys they are dropping out of college and they're neglecting their duties their studies and their duties and they're going on to join um the movement started by mahatma gandhi against the british rule it's just troublemakers they're just avoiding the responsibility isn't it very bad swami shivananda kept quiet then a couple of days later again the gentleman had come and this time a young man had come to become a monk so he bowed down to swami shivan and the jihad was the head of the order at that time and he was given blessings and sent off to the monastery and this gentleman was grumbling swami is this right now mahatma gandhi is leading the nation in a struggle for freedom against the british rulers and this young man is avoiding all those responsibilities and coming and becoming a monk you know when the nation needs him then swami shivananda could not keep quiet anymore he said look here i am quite sure that this that mahatma gandhi in the midst of all his activities and responsibilities and all of this he enjoys peace of mind and this young man who has given up the world you know career and family and friends and will pursue god realization one pointedly i'm sure he will enjoy a peace of mind the only one i find without peace of mind is you sir yes uh in fact i'm going to speak up the reason i'm going on and on about mother matt gandhi's actually there's a talk coming up at the institute in los angeles of course it's all online now uh next week so uh i think i'll tell this story the reason i'll tell this to the one i just said i'll tell the story is right now there are uh it's it's sad how mahatma gandhi is the target of criticism from different angles now so there are right-wing people who criticize mahatma gandhi for apparently he loved the muslims too much and there are uh extra liberal the work liberal kinds who criticize mahatma gandhi i think that he's not liberal enough uh apparently he was racist in some way so i think the story fits that he enjoyed peace it's these people on all sides of the political spectrum who who have no peace not only peace they have no genuine sympathy for anybody at all it's just you know taking up different positions and making a name for themselves by it's easiest to become famous if they target somebody who is who is you know like so high and famous like mahatma gandhi okay now moving on the next two verses are very beautiful let me chant and then we will talk about it the wise look with equal eye on a brahmara endowed with learning and humility a cow an elephant a dog and an outcast so this enlightenment when it comes what is the form of that enlightenment remember in advaita vedanta two stages first and most important is we realize what we are so advaita vedanta questions this basic assumption that we are a body mind no you are not and then there are all these processes of investigating um our experience of ourselves are you really this party are you really this mind or this personality which you identify yourself with the method that vedanta employs to find out who am i is actually if you look at it carefully it is to find out who or what i am not it is actually a negation a neti the only way of discovering the rope is to negate the snake the false snake so what i am not that is that clarity comes when i begin to realize this then what i am is intuitively realized so why can't you directly say what i am you can't directly say it because we have no experience of that if we just say your pure consciousness what is pure consciousness what is pure consciousness rather if my attention is now drawn instead of talking about pure consciousness my attention is drawn all right notice this body and for these these reasons you are not the body you become at least intellectually convinced that yes i am not quite the body but i never said i was the body i am the person in the body all right let's now notice notice the person in the body what are you are you the breath are you the thoughts or the emotions the perceptions the memory and one by one we begin to see we could not be any one of them really nor a combination of all of them in this process we are going from the gross to the subtle from the outer to the inner and as we do that we will begin to appreciate what is meant by consciousness or awareness awareness is not a body it's not something goes go inner and more subtle breath not even that because we are aware of it it is not awareness are the perceptions seeing hearing smelling tasting touching again not even that go more inwards more subtle thoughts emotions feelings not even that because they are aware of those more subtle more inwards the very understanding which we are using now not even that that also changes and that also we are aware of that's also changing objective and we are aware of thoughts we are aware of understanding we are aware of the intellect even the ego i the feeling of i it's a feeling it's a function of the mind are you the ego itself or even the ego can is can be appreciated as an object of your awareness when we begin to realize what awareness is what consciousness is i am indiscriminately using words like awareness and consciousness what awareness or consciousness is in itself apart from body apart from mind perceptions memories intellect apart from all of that apart from even blankness apart from all of that we begin to appreciate and when we appreciate we don't see it as an object it can't be seen as an object if you say i am experiencing my awareness you are experiencing something else it is awareness which is experiencing or illuminating so we begin to realize that what awareness is and we realize we must be that constant awareness which illumines all change a change in the intellect change in the mind change in the prana change in the body change in the world all of that is illumined illumine means we experience it that is revealed by this constant awareness and this awareness is um not attached to anything body mind thoughts they come and go they're all revealed they're coming and going are revealed by the same awareness so it does not stick nothing sticks to it it is by implication it must be immortal it does not come and go other things come and go all of these things we realize and that's the first thing this is the meaning of atma this is the meaning of consciousness the second big thing the great thing we have realized in this chapter this first thing we have realized it's already there in chapter two the nature of the atman has been taught by the first thing that krishna taught arjuna was the nature of the atman who am i the second step is this who am i this consciousness we discover is it one in each body or is it one for all living beings billions of living beings have their one consciousness or are they separate bodies are separate minds are separate living beings are separate so it do they have separate consciousness it seems to be logical when we discovered no it is one consciousness in all beings when we go further all these beings the bodies themselves and the minds and the external universe what is their relationship with awareness are they separate is it like light and there's light here and there's a book here and the light illumines the book here so is awareness like a light it's often compared to a light which reveals everything so but everything is separate from awareness just that the book and the light are separate they're not the same thing or is awareness and what it reveals are they one and the same thing in the sense that what is revealed by awareness is not apart from awareness awareness is independent of it awareness is separate from what it reveals but what it reveals is it separate from awareness that sadhu who put it very beautifully what means here and seeing the seer is definitely distinct um from the scene you the seer you're definitely distinct from the scene but what you see is it distinct from you what does that mean very simple think of the dream in the dream you see so many things people and places and all of that and you are the seer you are the dreamer take it in a very simple way the way we dream now you the dreamer are not the things which you are seeing there clearly you are different from them but they are not different from you everything that you see in the dream is nothing other than you the dreamer it's it appears in your mind what else is it it has no independent existence similarly we suddenly realize the next step in advaita video so all this was the first step the next step in advaita is non-duality that we realize all of this vast variety which we are seeing is not different from the consciousness which sees means experiences all that consciousness experiences is not different from it by the way when i say consciousness experiences somebody asked a question my consciousness is experiencing but this is not correct because to experience something you must change when i see something my eyes are active they are changing when i think of something that's an experience of my mind is changing so if consciousness experiences something consciousness will change but according to advaita vedanta consciousness is beyond change so when i say consciousness experiences what i mean is consciousness does not directly experience consciousness illumines the mind with the reflected consciousness it's the mind which is changing into virtis and giving rise to various experiences but the presence of consciousness is is absolutely essential without the presence of consciousness there will be no experience it's like all the objects may be there but if i don't switch on the light there'll be no illumination so all the objects which are experienced by consciousness are not different from consciousness just like all the objects experienced by mind are not different from the mind in the dream so this is non-duality the variety of objects cannot be proved to exist apart from consciousness and this becomes even more clear when you realize consciousness itself is existence so it becomes what is called in mathematics or logic tautological all these variety of objects cannot be proved to exist apart from existence obviously apart from existence non-existence so nothing exists apart from existence itself or sat itself and that's earth itself is consciousness i'm making number of jumps but many of you have studied mando kyo panishadra and uh drinkdrish viveka praksanov you know the in between steps okay why am i saying all this this existence consciousness is you the real you and that you have we have realized now in the last two verses we have come to this realization like the sun illumining everything it becomes clear to us at the point of enlightenment that i am this existence consciousness unlimited being unlimited awareness and this very unlimitedness of being an awareness is ananda is bliss so this is saccidananda unlimited existence immortal existence this is immortality chit unlimited awareness behind every knowledge is this consciousness ananda this unlimited fulfillment ever fulfilled this satyadananda you are and the world is not separate from this because the world is not separate from this everything that you experience all the variety of objects in all the different places at all different times good and bad pleasant and unpleasant desirable undesirable noble and ignoble all of it is in reality nothing other than this satchida just as all the um things that we experience in the dream you meet your beloved friend in the dream and you meet a very maybe annoying mosquito in the dream and you visit a beautiful place and see a beautiful sunset and maybe you see a dirty place and a drain or something all of that is what all of that is nothing other than you the dreamer exactly like that all of this entire universe good and bad all of it is actually not the universe not the good and the bad not people and places not particles and you know animals and birds not quasars or um what are they like you know quarks quasars and quarks but this being consciousness and with the network of maya it appears in this way since it is so then the person of enlightenment will know at heart that whoever he or whatever he is interacting with he or she it is the same reality and so that is the first which we just read one of the consequences of enlightenment is this same sightedness now it sounds like a vision defect nearsighted farsighted same sighted but sane cited means means uh seeing the one one reality in all beings one brahman in all beings so the way krishna puts it what is the form of enlightenment this is enlightenment after completing the two stages i am saccidananda the world is nothing other than saccidananda then vidya vinaya brahmani the brahmara the real brahmana the real brahman is who the one who is enlightened so the real definition of brahmin in the vedas and upanishad is one who is enlightened this not the person who belongs to a particular caste that's a secondary meaning the real meaning of brahman is the one who is enlightened um that means vidya means knowledge so this person is full of spiritual knowledge and vinaya vinayam literally means humility but vidya and vinaya you know there is a saying which we learned as kids in india vidyadha so true knowledge gives rise to humility it is just a little bit of knowledge that gives rise to arrogance but real deep knowledge gives rise to humility but that's not humility it's the manifestation of that knowledge so the spiritual knowledge the realization has come ahm brahmasmi but even that is all internal i mean the enlightened person has realized it fine but how do we know externally we must see the manifestation of that knowledge and how is what is the manifestation of that knowledge first of all has it solved your problems can you say that i am at peace the enlightened person should be able to say at the very least i am at peace permanently so no matter whatever is going on in life with other people with one's own health with whatever is going on difficulties troubles the enlightened person will say i'm all right i'm fine so i mean shivan and disease i like that it's funny you know the old age he was the president of the ramakrishna order at that time and he suffered terribly from asthma and other things so one night the news was that the swami head of the order he suffered all night he could not sleep because of asthmatic attacks next morning the monks as usual went to bow down to the president of the order and one of the monks asked swami uh uh are you well how are you today and swami shivanandaji answered oh i'm fine i'm fine then this monk was taken aback he said but we heard that last night you didn't get sleep and you're suffering shivananji as if a great light dawned on him oh you mean the body it's not at all fine it's not doing well at all so this clarity he's not trying to say that everything's fine at the level of the body also you know there's a problem but he is fine with it i have myself seen swami um ranganathan and the 13th president of our order after he got a stroke in the brain and then he with a lot of physiotherapy and all he recovered uh you know his speech had become slurred and his movements had become just the usual problems after a stroke but he recovered moral as well and then he he was explaining to us what happens in a stroke he's the patient he's explaining how um there's a disruption of the blood supply to certain regions of the brain everything is explaining as if it's an object he became quite interested in how a stroke happens after that and he read up on books on it but it's just like looking at an object he is perfectly unconcerned about it so manifestation of your enlightenment have you solved your own problems that is first enlightened person has no more right to grumble that's one right you lose when you become enlightened no more grumbling and then is it manifested as unselfishness serenity love for others um of you know an attitude of of service of being a well-wisher for everybody of um deep very natural sympathy for the sorrows of others so all the qualities of a saint to some extent they must manifest in our lives that is what is meant by vidya vinaya sampanen it's not just vedantic knowledge not even just vedantic enlightenment but the qualities which should come the ethical manifestation so that's why i like swami vivekananda's definition of religion religion is the manifestation of the divinity already within us not knowledge of the divinity just knowledge is not enough not even you know like enlightenment he uses the words realization or manifestation so you're a very practical spiritualist it's wonderful that you get these visions it's wonderful that you have the sublime feelings it's wonderful that you have realized clarity has come i understand what is meant by consciousness and i am that consciousness all very good but is it being manifested are you able to overcome your suffering and are you a blessing to yourself and to others around you so that is what is meant by vidya vinaya sacha brahman brahman ramen means enlightened person um such a brahman and then he says in such a brahman same reality the enlightened person sees this is another enlightened person the enlightened person sees the same reality in this enlightened person gavi in a cow hastini in an elephant a shuni in a dog chopaki uncultured person literally it means the dog eater so i'll tell you about these examples why these examples were used now what it means is exactly what the holy mother said mashaarada she said at once she said just as sharath is my son so too is anjad my son sharatu yamanama chili amjadu the direct disciple of sri ramakrishna the author of the great master the you know the wonderful book the authoritative biography spiritual biography of sri lanka he was the first general secretary of our order a jeevan mukhtar an enlightened person brahma gyani number of brahman one of the first generation of monks of our order and the holy mother mashaada says just as he is my son exactly in the same same way amyad also is my son who was amyad he was a muslim decoy a robber who lived in the neighborhood in the village in in jarambati and he would rob people but he had a great respect for the holy mother and he was won over by her kindness and her love but look here is this enlightened monk and here is a person who's not even of your own religion who is a muslim here is this person who is so has all the wonderful qualities literally literally an amazing example of the perfected spiritual person and here is a person who is a robber who spends half of his time in jail and yet how can the holy mother say they are not only just not only they are both my children they are exactly the same to me she would say at other times i am the mother of the good and i am the mother of the wicked if you even if you have nobody always remember you have a mother so how can she say that whether the differences are so obvious and krishna goes further a cow an elephant and a dog now these examples would see it in the indian context so cow was it was and is uh highly revered because of many cultural and religious reasons so in certain parts of india definitely cow is even worshipped so it is like the abode of the gods like that so a cow in but it's an animal it's still an animal and then an elephant uh not as highly revered as the cow but in some places especially in the south of india it's it's a well-known temple animal so it's there in temple procession so temples are um they pride themselves in not how many suvs they have maybe these days do but they would pride themselves in how many elephants they have while temples ashrams also i remember uh when we were young novices in yoga and the head of another monastery came visiting so in order to establish his superiority over our swami the swami was in charge of our ashram the mahanta of our ashram yeah but so the visiting swami first thing he asked was how many elephants do you have i have four or five elephants something like that he said and how many elephants do you have and our poor swami said but i have none and so obviously the hierarchy was established i am a bigger swami than you are because i have five elephants and you have none so elephant is a symbol of i mean maybe because the symbol of ganesha also it could be that but it's a it's a temple animal and it's also respected but it's still an animal and the enlightened person sees this fully realized jivan mukta enlightened being the same what he sees in this enlightened being the same brahman he sees in the cow he sees in the elephant and then again this is in the dog in sunni in the dog so in the ancient indian hierarchy of animals the dog was considered an unclean animal and lowest so this kind of classification doesn't work here in the united states today your dog would be much higher ranked maybe even above the enlightened person just next to god so dog is just next to god so it needs some explanation but there it was seen as an unclean animal the lowest of animals no longer so i mean dog is very popular in india nowadays but obviously not as popular as it's in new york you just have to go out to central park and see how pampered the dogs are i've seen a poor baby being a toddler being dragged along uh willy-nilly by its mother but in the pram the dog is sitting there so i've seen another place leash there's a baby leash and a leash for the dog and the mother is holding a mobile phone in one hand and two leashes in the other one leash is connected to the toddler and the one to the dog so this example has to be understood in its context there the dog was regarded as an unclean or low animal but even in that the enlightened person sees the same divinity not one bit less exactly the same divinity as in the fully enlightened jivan mukta just as sharath is my child amjad ii is my child like that though in though the differences are vast and then the most cultivated enlightened the most superior among human beings the enlightened being and the most inferior among enlightened among human beings he says shopake the dog eater who is an outcast who is inferior in learning in manners and has the lowest status in society understand ancient indian certified ancient even until recent times so outcast and then and you see the same divinity in the outcast also as in the enlightened person as in the cow or the elephant or the dog i was reading joseph campbell joseph campbell went from new york to india in the 1950s with swami nikhilanandaji and he wrote this book bakshish and brahman so he was unsparing about all the filth and corruption and all that he found in india but he says on the surface it's like it's so filthy but there's this amazing civilization underneath it this he's ecstatic about that but he's very critical about what he found found in the you know the dirtiness and the although many things have changed for example he notes that even the big cities in india delhi and calcutta he visited all of that and he said you hardly see any woman outside and that has changed so much in the last 50 60 years you see women now going to work in every sphere of life but joseph campbell also notices the reverence for the cow and him he notes in his dry humor he says this this cow silliness has to stop this cow's silliness has to stop i remember in santa barbara one of the nuns told me american nurse she told me that many years ago an indian swami not papavan and somebody else so he was grumbling about why there is a why the nuns had kept a dog in the in the convent and he was saying well dog instead of a dog um how about you keep a cow a pet i don't know what central park would be like if everybody took their cows out for a walk um sunni the pundit has the same vision of divinity in all of these beings who is a pundit a real pundit now this pundit the word has entered into the english language so there's a wall street pandit and an election pandit so pandit is like an expert who gives opinions about different things in society the word pandit originally in sanskrit meant a scholar so in india all sanskrit scholars are called pandits but the derivation shankaracharya gives in some place in his commentary in the bhagavad-gita pandit is panda it comes from the word panda panda means atma vishaya pragya often think panda is a temple you know in puri jagannath or industrial and all these are these brahmin priests are there who will give you a tour and offer puja on your behalf and try to extract as much money from you and we think that's our idea of a panda but the word panda actually means the enlightenment about the self atma vishaya pragya that's the definition of panda given in bhagavad gita commentary by shankaracharya so pandit is one who has realization about the atman that's the real meaning that's the etymological derivation one of the derivations of the word pandit that is panda and one who has it is called pandit and this pandit what does he see his enlightenment his or her enlightenment is that in the highest saint and in the most uncultured person in a cow in an elephant in a dog in fact in every being he sees the same divinity not more or less and yet so here is the level the two levels of truth paramatic and at the transactional level you will deal with life as it comes so when the dog comes you don't bow down to it and chant the verses in praise of the guru you don't do that or when the enlightened saint comes to your house you don't offer it a dog biscuit so you do exactly what is necessary how does that work once you realize all the ornaments are made of gold does that prevent you from recognizing a necklace for a necklace or a bracelet for a nice basis of course not you will still put the necklace on your neck and the bracelet on your wrist and if somebody says but it's all gold why are you putting the necklace in gold you can put now put the necklace on your wrist and the bracelet you can put on your ear or something no we understand that there are two levels of reality so we we do that in our day-to-day life also similarly the enlightened person will know how to behave and in fact the enlightened person can can behave in a much better way because of enlightenment that the first little petty personal equations we have will not operate in the case of this enlightened person because the enlightened person knows everything is brahman and everybody is nothing other than brahman god is present everywhere inside and outside therefore he or she will have the highest respect in fact devotion for everybody he or she meets and will act properly whatever is necessary in each case with people whom he can help he will help that will be the worship he's giving to brahman there to the hungry he will offer food that is his worship to god to the ignorant he will offer education that is his worship to brahman in that form um to the saintly person he will go and sit at his feet and learn about vedanta that's also the worship of of god in that that form so in whatever form all of it will become an expression of the divinity it will not this realization of brahman will not hamper it will help you in day-to-day life of course again let me qualify that there are people um jivan mukta's enlightened persons who become so absorbed in god consciousness that they find it difficult to function in day to day life we know such stories of such saints you know who the saint who came to dakshineshwar and sriram krishna saw him who was eating the food after food people have eaten food and the leftovers are thrown away and there's a dog eating leftovers and this apparently madman but also apparently an enlightened person he's eating together with the dog he's put his one hand on the dog's shoulder dog is also eating and he's also eating you think he's mentally unwell or insane no he's actually an enlightened person who for such people the the differences which appear in the uh apparent level of truth the differences are becoming slowly erased and the underlying divinity is shining forth so strongly it's difficult for them to function at our level that might also happen these it happens to people who are very deeply immersed in god consciousness same swami shivananda so every day monks and devotees would come and bow down to him he was the president of the ramakrishna order now it was seen that he would bow down to them also and it really made people feel uncomfortable we are bowing bowing down to the president of the ramakrishna order and you know he's a disciple of sri ramakrishna he's an enlightened person you bow down to him and he bows down to you you feel uncomfortable i said swami why are you doing that and then he said what can i do when these people they come to me i can't see their human aspect i see their ishta devatas so whatever is your chosen form of god that shines forth how can i talk to to god in that form how can i give advice i have to bow down after some time that form fades away and the human form comes in front then i can give advice then i can teach and so it can happen that the vehicle level the transaction level at which we interact with the world it can get erased for the case of some people for some time and of course in samadhi it gets erased of course for that pretty particular period of time then the next verse is so this is one uh major consequence of enlightenment samadarshina all the high and the low that we see this difference is erased for the enlightened person tallest of trees and the shortest of bushes it all seems the same when you climb up i remember climbing up a particularly high peak and looking down into a valley in the in the himalayas when i was staying there and all those towering trees which i used to walk through from that peak when i looked down they all looked like stalks of grass far down in the valley so all the so called high and mighty and the so-called poor and miserable they all seem the same from a very high altitude from a very high lofty perspective some other this also another reason i must add this that um this practice of equality this practice of um considering people everybody to be your equal and uh you know sort of demolishing hierarchy that's a good thing for vedanta swami vivekananda more than 100 years ago he noted that india and indian society where he had come from is very hierarchical you know um caste the well-born and the poor and the inferior just notice even the language here so the the dog-eater is it is an example of a very inferior person but when swami vivekananda noted more than 100 years ago when he came here even europe was a hierarchy was and is also hierarchical but when he came to united states swamiji noted the democratic spirit here he writes that pat it is today saint patrick's day yesterday um so he says that when pat comes from ireland he's beaten down and cowed down when he comes to new york and and he's told well pat you are as much of a man as i am and he stands up straight and he walks and that you know the dignity comes back to him and in a few days he's you cannot recognize him and he said that spirit of sameness he says that vedanta has a greater hope here if people become spiritual vedanta has a greater hope here in india it's this distinctions high and low are so deeply pushed in over centuries of millennia um so some other yes from an enlightened perspective all are same and that was very well understood in india whether you are a vedantic and advaitan you see everybody is brahman and everybody has your own self doesn't matter if the person is high bond low bond man woman hindu or muslim or atheist or whatever or even from a devotional perspective it is understood that the devotee of krishna has no caste this is saying among the vaisnavas the holy mother sudama krishna would say holy mother would say among the children of taco there is no caste so this is a devotional perspective but quite apart from the devotional perspective the social perspective if one has a democratic spirit it is easier to absorb and understand vedanta because this sameness oneness this is the it's not even equality this is something far higher than equality it is oneness literally you are that the so-called other is you there is no difference really ultimately so this is why vivekananda mentioned this then the next verse is also very beautiful [Music] is very beautiful verse even here in this relative existence is conquered by them whose mind rests in equality for brahman is even and faultless therefore are they established in brahman a very important point has been mentioned here where will you get salvation where will you get moksha where will you get nirvana freedom here or elsewhere in this life or after death so most religious approaches are how can one become free in this life itself the body itself is subject to old age disease and ultimate death how can that be perfection that's crazy so there is perfection we promise perfection in our religion but it's only after death it may be in a different place you go to heaven or vaikunt or the abode of vishnu or vishnu narayana or heaven or the land the pure land of the buddha somewhere you go and there you will get perfection after death um or a different time not now but after death not now but coming after the coming of the messiah something after later in that particular time not in this body but in a more perfect body which you will get when you go to to heaven it will be made perfect you will get perfect body so many of these dualistic religions theistic religions they per they promise this perfection freedom in some other place in some other time in some other form or body look at advaita vedanta in radical distinction from this he says here itself now itself here itself as you are and that sounds cool but how is it possible it's because as you are what are you you are brahmanas you say you are this little body subject to old age disease covad death then perfection is not possible but you are not this body this is what you realize all the good and bad which appears is appearance in a movie it does not affect the screen at all the screen on which the movie plays you want the screen let the movie go and you don't have to stop the movie to attain freedom when is the screen free of the movie okay this is the question when is the movie screen free of the movie after the movie is over well yes but what about during the movie during the movie too there's nothing that happens in a movie the worst of earthquakes the greatest of floods or fires has the slightest effect on the screen the greatest of tragedies will not make the screen weep the greatest of comedies also will not make the screen laugh because they offer they are at two levels of reality the screen is the absolute reality whereas the are technically from vedantic perspective the screen is the vera harika and the movie is the pratibhasika screen is transactional and the movie is illusory or appearance similarly brahman is paramatic absolute this movie of the world is veva harika transactional therefore it does not affect you you as brahman you are free here itself you just have to realize the difference is not between being free and not free the difference is not between being here and in heaven no the difference is not between being in this life and after death no the difference is only between ignorance and knowledge between not knowing it or realizing it and knowing it and realizing it is creation birth and death they have conquered birth and they've gone beyond birth and death when not after death now now here itself so this is called sadio mukti sandhya mukti is direct liberation this is promised by advaita vedanta and it's promised because you already have it that's your very nature you just have to realize it what is the characteristic for those whose minds are centered in sameness what sameness he says brahman is that sameness the same existence consciousness plays the same radiant divinity in every being or all times in all places unconditionally present what language why vivikan they used here you might be even considered blasphemous the very worm is brother to the nazarene he says the very worm and nazarene is the son of god jesus christ the berm is the brother because the same divinity everywhere it's a maximum expression in say in ramakrishna or in jesus or krishna there's very little expression in the word but the reality is the same behind all of both of them and he says nir dosham beyond any fault philosophically it means beyond karma brahman never enters into karma the papa and punya the merits and demerits sins and good deeds they have no effect at all on brahman just as what happens in the movie has no effect on the screen the smart brahmani they stays therefore they are in they are established in brahman let me quickly look at the activity in the chat so two very beautiful verses they have the same theme what is the theme sameness why sameness because all is brahman rather more precisely all is not brahman alone is and you realize that consequence you get freedom here and now right away in this life let's go through the questions oh abhijit has given 98 volumes gandhiji's complete was all right so i was more very close 100 volumes how could that man write 98 volumes of in the midst of that intense life and it's all available online how is gana alpana is asking how is gyana same as the self what is ghayana yana is knowledge is knowledge the same as the self so if i read an encyclopedia is myself going to get bigger if i get amnesia is myself going to become less no gyan is same as the self in what sense ghyana has two meanings one is written one is swarupa ghana with the ghana means the knowledge in the mind the movements of the mind activity of the mind that produces the knowledge with which we are acquainted with when i read a book when i hear something learn something remember something these are all called with the activity of the mind but behind all with ease is what consciousness the one unchanging awareness which you are you should say i am behind all with behind means i am the illuminati's i am the revealer of all british all the virtis of the mind they appear and disappear in me you the foundation the ground of all of these british the illuminate of all of these bitties i'm translating from hindi spurti satya means existence footy means illumination you give existence to all thoughts all knowledge and you illumine all of that that is revealed because of you another name for you is ghana so ghana has these two meanings activity of the mind the knowledge which you get in the mind very precisely and consciousness itself the reality swarupa so in that sense jana is same as the self not in the sense of the activity of the mind anuradha is asking could you please explain the difference between awareness and consciousness no awareness and consciousness i'm using indiscriminately you see because there is no uh clear word corresponding to chaitanya the many words used in vedanta chaitanya there are different words which are used in vedanta but there's no exact equivalent in english that's why awareness and consciousness i'm using the same sense little confusion is raised because of for example i've seen nisargadatta's book those who have read i am that so he will say something like this consciousness is temporary when the body dies the consciousness is gone only awareness remains so what actually it's all translation from marathi so in what sense is he using awareness and consciousness is using consciousness as with the gyana and awareness as swarupa so i'm just using words like that i mean chaitanya pure awareness of pure consciousness um bill is asking who is the divine dreamer can't be consciousness it's conscious divine dreamer as we have to go back to vedanta consciousness plus the causal body plus the subtle body so the divine dreamer would be precisely the cosmic mind hiranyakarba who is the sum total of all our minds consciousness in itself does not dream and by the way just i mean even divine dreamer one need not use that terminology because it's just an example you can just as well say the divine creator punita says dream state and its people and objects are easily resolved as non-dual by almost all regardless of faith nationality etc despite similarity the waking state and its people and objects are this difficult to resolve or accept as non-dual even for the most dedicated seekers why saw why so how best to remove this ignorance single pointedly okay this is a very single pointed question um dream state and its objects its contents are resolved as non-dual what does it mean the moment we wake up we realize whatever and whoever we experience whatever whoever whenever we experienced in the dream world nothing other than me the dreamer my mind other than my mind so i have become identified with the dreaming mind when i wake up i was dreaming oh it's all nothing other than my dream fine then the non-duality non-duality meets and there is no second thing in my dream apart from me the dreamer that becomes clear only from my perspective as the waker now what perspective do i have to adopt in the waking state to realize this entire universe is nothing apart from me what perspective and why is it difficult the we have to adopt the perspective of consciousness for that first of all i was i have to become aware of what or understand at least what is meant by consciousness and for that we must thoroughly go through uh these processes rishi viveka the discrimination take it very seriously step by step follow it in your experience not as an argument not as a philosophy in the first instance as an argument is a philosophy but actually in our own experience it's a wonderful thing that it's available to us right now it's not something that is promised as a result of a lot of sadhana you will get in this life maybe next life who knows no no it's available to you right now if you look closely that's all you have to look closely and how to look is being pointed out by these texts do the pancha koshavi vega do the avastat and notice what consciousness is step one notice means get a clear idea at least get a clear understanding of what is meant by consciousness you may say oh i know all of that i know what is consciousness no you don't in most cases we do not know we are just thinking about some subtle form of the mind i'll tell you something if you get a very clear idea of what is meant by consciousness just an understanding a very clear understanding of what is meant by consciousness you will become enlightened enlightenment is nothing other than the deepening of this understanding it's that close it is you why should it not be why should you not become enlightened so actually we do not understand that's why i keep that's why now in classical vedanta the emphasis is not on meditation then emphasis is not even on reasoning the emphasis is on listening they all are saying one and the same thing just listen carefully if you get bored of listening to the same thing over and over again there are so many different texts that's why you have a wide range of texts all telling you the same thing all trying to slowly take you by the hand step by step point you towards your reality and hope that you make the jump so make that jump but even that is not the answer to puniti's question once you've made the jump you have taken the perspective of consciousness it's that deep that easy and that difficult from that perspective you have to resolve the objects of the waking state all the people and the things in the waking state they are non-dual not second apart from you the consciousness you have to only from that perspective otherwise we have the perspective of body mind from that perspective you cannot resolve the objects of waking state into asthma you cannot realize non-duality here you can't realize non-duality here i asked a very great teacher of advaitha he teaches in chennai so and he told me this thing that the drishti srishtivada that is from a dream perspective from the waking perspective if you want to resolve everything back into consciousness you must take the stand as consciousness right now what end are we taking we are consciously or unconsciously knowingly unknowingly we naturally take i am this person imagine in the dream you are also a person in your dream and if that person tried to resolve the entire dream universe into himself or herself impossible can't do it you would have to wake up from the dream so that is the answer how best to remove this ignorance single pointedly concentrate on shavana then concentrate on experience experience means whatever you are hearing whatever the teaching is notice in your experience carefully notice the body carefully notice the breath carefully notice thoughts carefully notice the intellect which is noticing go beyond that carefully notice the blankness to try to notice the notice that you can't but you will become the noticer so that is consciousness but actually you must do it in experience the usual result of trying to do that is a headache then vishwanathan says namaste swamiji you mentioned that for some jivan muktars it is difficult to operate at the transactional level swami shivan in the story sometimes from our perspective looks like suffering ramana namahashi leaving his home and going hungry or meditating in different difficult spaces for them are they able to transcend such suffering because they see the deeper truth correct they can transcend if they bring their mind to the body they will actually experience suffering exactly as much as we do but they can also see the underlying truth the deeper truth the reality the screen behind the movie and so in that sense this they transcend the suffering whereas we cannot because we operate only at the level of the movie we operate only at the level of the dream and therefore it's very difficult for us to transcend they can transit then abhijit is asking these words awareness and existence is so tightly coupled that we can't talk about one without the other whatever exists has to be in awareness and whatever is in awareness has to exist this super tight bond points to the fact that awareness is existence and existence is awareness that thus they are not two different words but are the same thing is this so absolutely so but the problem is this what you are saying already if you have understood that you've already gone very far ahead normally in the waking state existence and awareness are not coupled so i exist no doubt about it and i am aware i'm aware of my own existence and i'm aware of other things but i see so many objects in front of me a laptop is their book is their table is there i see them as existing but i don't see i don't it doesn't seem that they are awareness i know what you are saying this existence cannot be appreciated apart from awareness so that it does not exist apart from awareness awareness and existence go together in fact if you notice closely what you mean by existence in your experience what you mean by existence in your experience is nothing other than your awareness notice whatever we think is existing is basically your awareness only which is which gives you the feeling of existence and it's your feeling of existence which is borrowed so to speak by everything that you experience as existing astitita and chaitanya are deeply coupled they are one and the same thing you're right but in a normal waking state it is it seems to be separate it seems that these see this is the question that i asked the master of advaitha who teaches in chennai the objects of the world seem to exist apart from me when i leave the room this seems to exist it's sort of intuitive for us the world exists and then i come to be aware of it this is the perspective of sri distrib world is created and then i'm thrust into the world and i'm experiencing it but how do we go to the fact that everything is in my experience i know my my thoughts and my dreams are in my experience but there's an external world which does not seem to be in my experience that's because i'm identified with this individual being body mind that's why this is happening so this realization existence and awareness of the same thing is the key which will open the door charles chaw is saying that what is intuition see again these words are very approximate intuition or instinctive feeling that is used in a certain way in english i am trying to use it for a very specific use that when you have seen very clearly with your intellect you have seen very clearly that i cannot be this body i cannot be this subtle body i cannot be even the causal body the blankness beyond physical body and subtle body then i intuitively grasp the experience of the witness of these bodies that's where intuitive intuition works one swami explain it to me very well just watch this i liked it so much it's exactly like that actually it is in an aquarium have you seen fish they swim like this the fish are swimming like this little fish they swim like this and then they reach the end of the aquarium what do they do they swing like this and then they turn this fan come again start swimming this way they make a sudden turn have you noticed this can you make that sudden turn into yourself not into body not into breath prana not into thoughts not even into understanding not even into the darkness of sushupti into that which illumines and reveals because of which all of these are experienced by you that is your real nature pradeep bose is asking worldly folks seek pleasure or happiness via change and variety they consider sameness as boring but enlightened beings are in bliss while perceiving sameness emits the same variety is this a valid observation yes but that bliss comes not from the sameness it is the sameness which underlies all this wild variety when the variety is not there in samadhi they are at absolute peace and then the variety comes they are in delight because they see the sameness appearing in this variety whereas for us what happens is we jump into the variety and we embrace a little part of it this body and mind as i my life and everything else is the other from whom i can get something or some i can lose something this raga dwesha likes and dislikes start we are all immersed in the variety without knowing the background we are immersed in the movie without knowing the screen but without knowing it's a movie we are in the dream without knowing the dreamer this is the problem the enlightened person knows the dreamer knows that it is a movie and therefore he can enjoy the aesthetic experience of the movie it is art to the enlightened person to us its tragedy so enlightened person experiences a variety just like us which is a delight for the enlightened person in kashmir shaibism again and again abhinava gupta bursts into poetic delight at seeing the variety of this is all of it is shiva even the tragedies of life the sorrows of life from the enlightened perspective of course you should not go to a starving person sick person or humiliated person and say it is all shiva that is unkind okay let us end here oms [Music] so