Video 82

82. Bhagavad Gita I Chapter 6 Verses 22-23 I Swami Sarvapriyananda

[Music] foreign so in the gita we were studying the sixth chapter and we were on verse number 21. last time we did a detailed description of that with that state in which one enjoys extraordinary spiritual bliss born of samadhi and that bliss comes from the atman it is beyond it's not um sensory pleasure it is not even the joy in a my in the mind in the bond of like an intellectual pleasure it's beyond that and one does not waver from that state so first of all what's being talked about here is um samadhi because this is sixth chapter the chapter on meditation and krishna has described how one studies the body the breath withdraws the attention from external objects focuses inward and then through the process of dharana dhyana samadhi dharana focus dhyana meditation and samadhi is absorption so these are successively deeper states of concentration or focus meditation absorption in what specifically here the object of absorption or meditation is the subject is the atman here though in a wider sense one may say if you want to include the ishta devata meditation that we were doing that is uh that is also equally applicable here now when the mind is yes this is probably i thought we finished only now up to verse 19 if i'm not wrong oh so that was good for i think the way yeah last week we did 20 and 21. we did 20 and 21.21 we did oh i'm sorry i'm sorry to i really apologize for interrupting you so 19 we did up to last uh when we when we stopped before the vacation i think we're just stuck and then the last class we did 20 and 21 okay 21 especially we spent a lot of time i missed a class probably i'm sorry i'm sorry i really apologize knowledge i know that's all right so uh so last time we spent a lot of time on this 21st verse where we talked about yes so the state of bliss which comes out of the control of the mind absorption where the mind is completely settled and absorbed uh in our real self that is the witness consciousness atman the the self with the capital s and this is patanjali yoga patanjali yoga says yoga's chittarotti nirodha by by calming the successive modifications of the mind what is modifications to the mind sounds rather abstract it just means all sorts of thoughts and feelings and emotions and ideas whatever is going on in the mind right now internally first person all those are chittarthi and they are distracted they are they are full of hundreds and hundreds of such modifications when you calm them down and focus inwards and settle on the witness consciousness basically it will go into sampragyata samadhi we talked about these things last time and then asam pragyat samadhi where the distinction between the meditator and the object of meditation and the process of meditation is lost there is only the witness consciousness this patanjali in this in the third sutra of yoga sutras he says and that state the witness consciousness is in its real nature it is actually appreciated industrial nature just like a lake calmed there are no waves on the surface of the lake the water is absolutely clear you can see through to the bottom of the lake similarly that is the condition otherwise what happens when the mind is indeed then you get identified with the waves hunger you feel that it's raises a wave in the mind i am hungry uh unhappiness it's a wave in the mind i am unhappy and so the witness consciousness gets mixed up with these waves in the mind that's our normal ordinary condition so that the condition of the state of samadhi is an extraordinary state in which our real nature we see what it is the same it is called asante samadhi in yoga sutras it is called nirvikalpa samadhi also same thing now what we went a step further there last time we said it is not just in the state of samadhi samadhi is a state it's a state of the mind a super fine super absorbed super focused state of the mind difficult to attain and difficult to maintain also so it but it is a particular state in that one clearly clearly appreciates that i am not the body not the mind i am the unwavering light of consciousness within not affected by the ups and downs of the body not affected by the ups and downs of the mind i realize my consciousness nature i realize my free nature free nature means i'm totally free of the problems of the world i'm totally free of the problems of the body and the mind this i realize but the thing is it goes further than that if it was only limited to the state of samadhi that would be an extraordinary thing but it would still be limited then he says that it is available all the time um really we become enlightened when this this knowledge of our consciousness nature and our purna ever fulfilled nature is available to us all the time whether you are in samadhi or you are in the waking world or in dreams wherever you are in whatever condition you are you're working or sitting relaxing or meditating it's constantly clear to you that i am not the body and mind but i am the awareness in which i'm experiencing a mind and a body and the world then this state is uh is what is meant in advaita by enlightenment brahmagyana so you see this one extra thing we have to do here if you precisely follow if you follow the text itself it is talking about samadhi why do you say that because that's the context the it's the dhana yoga before this he has told told you how to sit he's told you how to breathe he has told you how to withdraw the senses just told you how to focus how to take care of distractions and then deeper focus into samadhi so the context is samadhi i spoke extensively about the real nature of bliss last time if you remember the difference between swarupana and the the bliss of atman the atman which is bliss and the bliss which is experienced in the mind these distinctions i made so all of that where am i getting i'm extending this uh idea if you stick only to the the gita sloka it is a description of samadhi and benefits which arise from samadhi and especially if you read shankara or madhusudan saraswati the comment classical commentators they stick to that much the krishna is teaching meditation and this is the culmination of meditation meditation on the self atman wider understanding would be once they have got this culmination you realize me or chidanan and that bliss is none other than the atman itself it's not a new kind of blissful experience and also i keep repeating yes the mind will be surcharged which will be radiated with with peace and place that is also there but that's the mind when the mind is shut down in deep sleep you will not have that extraordinary spiritual bliss when the but the atman as bliss is constantly available to us this is realized now we go to verse number 20. 3 and 22 and 23. so 22 is a beautiful verse in fact i like it so much i think it sort of sums up the whole purpose of spiritual life and i'm going to give a full talk on it i think next sunday or the sunday after sunday after that um it is i titled the talk no greater gain no greater gain and it's actually going to be about this verse so we'll see that briefly now verse number 22 [Music] yes means having obtained which one does not think there is anything greater to obtain being established in which there is no possibility of being shaken even by the worst of sorrows the greatest of sorrows so this is the greatest gain and there is nothing greater than this two no more nothing more to be attained and established in which even the greatest of sorrows cannot shake you again i will interpret it at two levels one is the immediate interpretation samadhi because that's the topic going on meditation so established in that samadhi the great joy or the bliss which actually which is experienced in the mind and when you look back when you come out of somebody else you look back as nothing matches that experience that's why vivekananda always wanted to go back he asked sram krishna asked him what do you want after he attained nirvikalpa samadhi what do you want he said i want to be in that state remember it's a state it comes and goes it is generated and then it again you can come out of it so i want to stay in that state because that state is the state of the greatest peace the greatest joy let me see if i can call up swami vivekananda [Music] he wrote about his experience in the song of samadhi i think i might have it here so wikipedia also has an article on it the hymn of samadhi all right so let me read out what is it like to experience it um so it was in bengali nahi nahi jyoti there is there the sun shines not not the moon so this is taken from the qatar panishad for example i mean that's the original source the qatar open ship but i'll read out the english translation so he tried to describe his experience of samadhi no the sun is not nor the comely moon all light extinct in the great void of space floats shadow like the image universe in the void of mind involute their floats the fleeting universe rises and floats sinks again ceaseless in the current i slowly slowly the shadow multitude entered the primal room and flowed ceaseless the only current the i am i am loath is stopped even that current flows no more void merged into wired beyond speech and mind whose heart understands he verily does so that's a description of nirvikalpa samadhi or somebody who experienced it in our time extraordinary and so at the very end he says beyond language and you know beyond words beyond thought um so that's one level of interpretation that and in that stage compared to that state there is nothing higher and there is in that state even the greatest of sorrows cannot affect you the greatest results cannot affect you because simply you are not aware of those sore results they say that the bliss is so extraordinary nothing worldly compares to it and the greatest of sorrows madison saraswati says including the mosquitoes biting you if you're meditating in indian forest maybe the mosquitoes are biting he includes mosquito there also but it also includes being attacked with a weapon or you know physical pain or whatever it is none of these sorrows can even attack you and because you're basically not aware of them you you simply it's like being completely unaware of the external universe of your own body even in deep meditation one is not aware there is a description of swami vivekananda meditating under a tree girish saw him do this his face black with mosquitoes one mosquito can disturb our meditation face covered with mosquitoes and not aware of it so he's not moved by sorrows whether it's a mosquito or whether something much greater because simply there is no awareness of that sorrow but he'll feel it when he comes back from samadhi he'll definitely feel the mosquito bites all right so that's the preliminary level of um understanding that there is no gain greater than this because this is the greatest bliss that one can ever experience in life there is no possibility of being affected by any sorrows there also so because your mind is completely absorbed fine now why is there nothing greater than this notice now we're going to take a deeper level of interpretation the realization of the self atma by this experience of samadhi we realized i am existence consciousness this becomes very clear to me now there is no joy which can compare to this you see people throw their joy outside where is joy where is fulfillment where is happiness in a job in the career prospects success in my job or business that gives me joy or in children when the children are doing well i feel very happy or in money or in my house or in um you know possessions or something higher like um like my works of art or the books that i've written or in science or art or something these are sources of joy all limited all of them come and go and whatever is external is a source of joy for you the source of pain for yourself relationships relationships which can give you tremendous amount of joy and people are crazy about it those relations can give you tremendous amount of unhappiness also anything other than you where is joy oh it was there not it's not here but um you know that place which i went to when i took a vacation that was so beautiful somewhere out there my joy is out there or or it was then way back when we were children in school the fun that we had nothing compares with that later on so it's way back in time these are guarantees of sorrow that my joy is in something else other than me you're trapped you're finished you're a prisoner to that other thing or my joy is in some other place not here or my joy is in some other time either in the past look back nostalgically old people do that that time was the best time of my life what about now no it's not so good now or in the future you look forward to a future younger people do that that when i graduate that'll be the best time of my life no it won't actually they don't know that then you'll enter the job market in a terrible economy and you'll be worse off probably be the worst time of your life and then or when i you know when i get married or when i have children or when i get a promotion in the future or when i get samadhi then or when i go to heaven after death then that will be the best time ever you thrown your happiness into something else thrown your happiness elsewhere thrown your happiness else when a mature person is the lucky person the fortunate person is the person who can claim honestly when were you most happy now whenever that is now i'm most happy in my life where are you most happy here i'm most happy here and with whom are you most happy with those whom i'm right now whatever is there right now that i am the most happy honestly now that is possible if your happiness is within it's not something other than you see this the joy the bliss of ananda [Music] it is not limited in space it's not that that happiness is somewhere and not now it's only in the monastery in bellurmart only i'll get the bliss of atma only in himalaya 10 000 feet the moment i come down to 9000 feet joy becomes less 8 000 feet even less and in the plains of india no more joy no it's not it does not depend on altitude it's not limited in space it's not that it is not here but in some other place in death it will be after death in the heaven it will be there no it's not limited in time that it was then but it's not happiness now or it will be in the future but it is not now atma nanda is everywhere and here atmananda is all the time and now and atma is nothing apart from you yourself it does not depend on anything atma is not tamasik joy or rajasik joy or satwik joy see what is thomasic joy the joy of being lazy taking a nap relax nothing more to do sleep laziness that's a kind of joy that is the tamasik joy atmananda is not rajasik joy up and doing have a good time excited about something go out and party and enjoy sense pleasures chase something fulfill the ambitions all good but that is rajisik joy that binds one to the world tamasik joy is destructive it slowly is a negative effect on character say for example the joy of the or the happiness excitement coming from addictions it's a negative effect it breaks down character uh rajasik joy it's excitement it can give a lot of happiness and you have to put an effort for it to get those joys but in the end it's always disappointing and satwik joy it usually comes out of cultivation out of culture you have to put in some effort first and develop those capacities so the joy of say classical music the joy of study of knowledge the joy of a pure and higher satwa of spiritual practices so i'm enjoying the name of god the star trek choice is none of them not the tamasic excitement or pleasure not the rajasik excitement not even the highly cultivated refined joys of the satwik mind it is uh permanent it does not depend on the sattva rajasthan are constituents of the mind and some people predominantly thomas sick some people predominantly rajasik and the few lucky ones are predominantly satwiks so if it's not that then what's the use of sattva guna why why should one try to move from tama strike and rajasthan to satyr because without sattva spirituality is not possible even the realization of athananda will not be possible but atma is not limited to those three you remember the story of the three decades which ram krishna used to say that a man was caught uh you know robbed by three robbers one wanted to kill him the other wanted to bind him i said don't kill him let's just bind him let's rob everything and bind him third one was kind hearted he robbed but he he freed that person and showed him the way back home and the man said to the third robber you're so kind sir come with me at home and the third robber said no i cannot do that because i'm also a robber i can't go to the city the police will catch me now what does that mean the one who wants to destroy you is thomas the one who wants to bind you as rajas the one who frees you is sattva but they are all part of material nature they are part of your body they're part of your mind the atman and the bliss which is atman i'm not saying the bliss of the atman the bliss which is atman that is not dependent on any of these rather they are dependent on it the satwik joy is just a fraction which is just a reflection of the the fulfillment which is atma itself even rajasik join thomas joy pleasures are just distorted reflections so to rajasthan they just reflect the atman in a distorted way that's all so this is the joy we are talking about the joy which is beyond any um which is getting which one does not think that there is anything higher samadhi manifests it samadhi gives me the key to it but samadhi is not necessary also for this child once you you have it you have it young labdua [Music] literally it means getting gain lava means to gain but you know it's so curious that if samadhi can be gained no doubt a lot of effort but gaining your own self that is supposed to be the highest gain there is a saying there is no higher gain than the gain of the self will you think about it isn't that a paradoxical statement um gaining the self the self is always there the one who gains it is the self what did you gain so is is gaining the self is it possible or regaining the self is it possible yes it's possible only in the sense of ignorance being overcome and knowledge being attained but i fought somehow under some delusion i thought i was not it i am this little body and mind subject to so many problems and desperately seeking some pleasure and happiness then it is possible to gain or regain yourself you can call it lava lava means to gain so the sanskrit word labva means having gained here it one other sanskrit word is related to this it means it's literally the same root the same root verbal root but upon the word means realization so here gaining means realizing that i am brahmana shivoham i am of the nature of shiva i am pure consciousness i am brahman that is gaining it's not that gaining normally what does it mean gaining in the world means getting something that i didn't have but here it does not mean getting something that i didn't have i always had it but then somehow i didn't know it i didn't recognize it so i recognizing it is gaining it realizing it is gaining it and this gain is the highest gain um see this is even beyond what we might call god realization normally what we think about ourselves i am this little being this person called sarva and i believe being a religious man i believe in the existence of almighty god and somehow i will one day get that god what this atma-gyana the self-knowledge is telling you you are not this little body and mind nor is god the almighty creator of this universe it is telling you the truth about yourself and the truth about god the reality about yourself and the reality about god what is the reality about yourself you are this uh indivisible existence consciousness place you are this ever free unlimited awareness what is the reality about god god is that indivisible existence consciousness place it is that unlimited awareness aren't they the same thing yes they are the same thing so what do you gain here you gain the reality about yourself and the reality about god the reality about yourself and the reality about god are one and the same thing i like the quote from the great german mystic maester eckhart who says the ground of my soul and the ground of god are one and the same the reality of what myself and the reality about god is one in the same reality that's what we are talking about here it's not just samadhi the context is samadhi but not just samadhi this is brahmagyana realization of brahman atma gyana realization of the self he says one realizes that there is nothing greater than this you see whatever gains we get in this world none of them can be greater than this gain of money gain of um husband wife children gain of uh of knowledge accomplishments awards they come and go they increase and decrease they are pleasing and they're not pleasing anymore and they are like dreams in the night when they're gone they're just like dreams something that we have a memory of and something that is fiction you'll see they're almost similar if you look back upon life especially the long life we look back upon the places you have seen the people you have met the events that happened and maybe if you have seen a movie or read a storybook they seem pretty similar they are not vivid anymore they are only in memory the fiction which you read is in your memory and the p and the experiences of your life in the past 20 30 40 years ago are in your memory as memory they are very similar they don't feel more tangible one does not feel more tangible than the other they're like dream stuff none of these gains are solid games they come and go even i will go so far as to say bold enough to say gaining god realization as long as you think god is an other that is also not not ultimately a solid game see i keep the name of god in my heart these are these are extraordinarily high and valuable things far higher than the worldly things we're talking about i keep the name of god in my heart all the time as long as you keep it it's there if you don't keep it it's gone i have deep love for god in my heart as long as you cultivate that bhakti it's there when you don't cultivate it it's gone when you fall asleep it's gone so all of these even god as the other is also subject to increase and decrees presence and absence coming and going in the dualistic traditions any number of records are there mother teresa so how touching it is one of our last um the records of our of our diaries you know i pray and pray and all i find is darkness now what is what is she talking about this is an experience of um the saints in all the dualistic traditions the divine presence in a pure prayerful loving mind you feel it but then again it goes away and then again it comes and a deeply devout person will keenly miss the divine presence i pray and pray and there is no answer she writes there's no answer it's only darkness imagine a person who has thrown her entire life long life into this and suddenly if you're confronted with nothing advaita vedanta explains this says what is the problem here see this is dependent on the condition of the mind it's not that god has disappeared it's the condition of the mind the mind particularly tuned in a certain way is able to feel the presence of god and other times it's not able to feel the presence of god it's not that god has gone and where will god go god is omnipresent whereas in advaita vedanta what happens is it is your own real self realizing that which can never go away from you it is effortless and instantaneous and always available to you that i am this unlimited awareness the beauty of that is once you realize it then god realizing that the god you get in god realization is a real god it's real god realization the heaven you go to is a real heaven and it's a real attainment because no matter what happens in the world outside what visions come up and disappear heaven earth hell whatever comes and goes it's that one unlimited being which is always shining forth for you because you now you know what it is no matter what movie is played on the screen a tragedy a comedy a horror show a feel good movie you know it is the screen you know now you don't go through ups and downs because comedy is very nice and then a tragedy comes oh how awful no so you know the underlying reality now this is solid realization there is nothing higher than this now after this realization one may get extraordinary visions mystics get visions one after another they may get it and they will enjoy all of that but without that also it's fine with that it's better all the better more the merrier without that also you've got the reality and so there can be nothing higher than this this is the glory of atma self-realization just means established in which the heaviest of sorrows can cannot shake you true in deep some modern heavy sorrows cannot shake you because you don't experience it but let's say you opened your eyes now you're out of samathi you're experiencing this world the world has its problems from mosquitoes to disease to nasty people to you know the ups and downs of the mind everything will the dance of the world will again appear before you and yet you will be unshaken yet you will be unshaken this is the glory of atma vidya one of the greatest teachings spiritual value from our level up to the level of the the person who's meditating in samadhi beyond that to the level of jivan mukta one great great thing to learn is forbearance in bengali sri rama krishna used to say shah shah shah the bengali letter uh is the three letters in sanskrit sarsha shah but in bengali it's all pronounced as shah and sudama krishna made a word play on that shah also means in bengali to forbear in hindi [Music] so to forbear the ups and downs to forbear the problems thrown at you at the world knowing that they are all appearances in me in consciousness so to not to be swayed by troubles to remain centered in your knowledge in your devotion whatever it is in your yoga to remain centered in the midst of the turmoil of the world this is called forbearance not to be shaken not to be furious then there are causes of fury not to be depressed when there are causes of depression not to be tempted when there are causes of temptation this is called titiksha forbearance sri ramakrishna said this is very important he said he said jeshoi say roy jena one who forbears that one will survive will will will exist forever the one who does not forbid reacts in anger fury depression unhappiness that one will be destroyed that means you will fall away from your spiritual goals you will not attain the goal of life sri krishna says this to arjuna sri krishna gives in second chapter he gives a beautiful description of the atma you know that you are existence consciousness please you do not die when the body dies uh you were not born with the birth of the body um you are of the nature of consciousness you are not an uh object of knowledge your weapons cannot cut you and so and so forth but then the question may be so problem is all that is true but as this person arjuna as this this human beings you know as a person with a body when you have a body when you have a mind you are affected heat affects you cold affects you disease affects you covet affects you there is pain there is suffering there is unhappiness there are expectations which are dashed but there are desires which are fulfilled and found to be disappointing so all this happens what do you do yes being an infinite consciousness and all that fine but these problems are also there what do you do and krishna answers is it very important to see no solution to that he says tantitik in the second chapter he says they come and go they flicker across the screen of your consciousness the ups and downs of life they are like dreams they rise and disappear you are this infinite being so these little things you have to forebear same thing which thousands of years later sri krishna suram krishna says forbearance to diksha forbear this it's a very important thing i mentioned in one place that so ami he told swami um who was here in swahili this reminiscence he said swami pramanan once told me every day after meditation morning meditation so i'm praying that says i repeat 108 times sha shaft or sriram krsna's teaching i repeat that 108 times before coming away from our from the meditation my child there is no no quality like for their instability to tolerate and for bear to be patient in life um [Music] the beloved is attained through patience what is the beloved attained through so he goes through a whole list you know and then he says no none of them yamily sabri say the beloved of my life god is attained through patience hold on hold on hold on now how do you how can you be patient what will help you how can you hold on in the midst of so many problems and what will happen to these problems let me be as negative as possible what is the final culmination of all the troubles and turmoils death so that's the most cheerful conclusion to all the trouble we go through in life what is the final conclusion guaranteed death that's the end how do you face this [Music] when sadhu said beautifully you do you know the the knowledge the vidya it's called avidya do you know the knowledge that which which will help you to face this everybody wants to be happy nobody wants to be sad but do you know but but they don't want to learn the knowledge the the the secret by which one can be happy effortlessly spontaneously beyond limit and never be touched by sorrow do you know that secret everybody says that everybody wants to be um knowledgeable i want to know i want to be enlightened i don't want to be ignorant but do you know the secret the way by which you will be enlightened you know the shravana you must learn that how will you overcome ignorance how will you be enlightened you must learn that everybody wants some quoting a monk he said it in hindi i'm just translating everybody wants to live nobody wants to die but do you know that secret that secret knowledge which will take you beyond death forever which will give you eternal life he put it so beautifully huh he says i'm translating the original hindi i'm telling you foreign so what is that knowledge that secret which makes you immortal which makes you awareness itself not just knowledgeable what makes all knowledge possible is awareness you makes you awareness itself and makes you happy forever without any any shadow of possibility of sorrow such a thing is possible this is that knowledge atma that is why this is the greatest game and that's sadhu he concludes what is that vidya tell me what is the secret uh he says very beautifully put it he said this is the this is the secret of vedanta this is the secret of yoga this is the secret of bhakti and again it is an effective knowledge effective and important immediately so it is something that is useful here and now everybody will tell you especially young people if you try to be spiritual they'll tell you this is not the time it's a time for you to study and you know get a job go out and play and all of that this is for old people it's not for old people this is for the young people this is about middle age people this is for old people before death one must acquire this knowledge it is immediate and effective now it's effective whenever you acquire it wherever you are in whatever position you are this knowledge is this vidya this secret is of is of extreme of greatest importance to you and one must acquire it this one is of the greatest help nothing else helps really okay now another little point i want to make this is just a wordplay guru established in this you can withstand that forbeat iksha the the greatest of sorrows you can withstand an annoying person you can withstand a mosquito you can withstand heat and cold you can withstand financial ups and downs you can withstand you know humiliation you can withstand sickness you can withstand physical pain old age loneliness and ultimately physical death also easily withstand all this so this is the not uh with eyes closed in submarine with eyes open also all these sorrows will not affect you so this is the promise um now little word play this works in sanskrit so if you see the original sanskrit guru nabi guru means heavy so with the heaviest of sorrows dukkha is sorrow and guru means heavy even the heaviest of sorrows cannot unsettle you which all your talents are killed you unsettle you from what the knowledge the sure knowledge and limitless awareness not affected by anything it will not unsettle you now the little wordplay it's sort of funny and don't take it all that seriously because those who study the commentaries will say this this is not the intended meaning but it's good guru also means teacher so not guru napi yet if take it that way even the guru even the greatest of teachers the most knowledgeable of people if they tell you it is not so you are not brahmana you are not pure consciousness you are just a body or mind and you are going to die and that's it make hay while the sun shines you live only once if even the greatest authorities come and tell you you are not shaken see if a person who rests you respect a knowledgeable person a great philosopher person of insight and wisdom comes and tells you look all this is nice theory but you are not that limitless consciousness you laugh at that person because it is by that limitless consciousness that this person also is revealed his skeptical words are also revealed he is very the words of doubt and skepticism fully prove to you the truth of the advaithic realization now guru napi if god comes and tells you that this is not true you are not a limitless awareness you are not brahman that very experience itself of god disputing it proves to you the truth of that you are brahman god will never tell you that but so this is a nice word play but it's a beautiful point that he makes even the greatest after this so we have learned from gita we have learned from upper okay i am told us this that i am brahman all good i am happy with this if tomorrow ancient scripture tells me that i am not brahman and serverpiano suddenly turns up and and says look i changed my mind i'm following a new philosophy now we are actually just bodies you know just matter and consciousness is a by-product we have solved the hard problem of consciousness it's just brain and after death there's nothing more it's just a play of matter and energy and that's it you will laugh at server priyanka and you laugh at that scripture because both the skeptic and the texts which contradict this are revealed by that same consciousness it's by look in the sunlight if somebody stands and says there's no such thing as a sun the person who's saying that is revealed by the same sunlight this is even more clear than this nadu [Music] what does this mean this one one should know is designated as yoga untouched by all contact with pain that yoga should be practiced with with conviction and without depression of spirits so tang this what this yoga which has been taught now samadhi and the realization of the of the self i am brahman this should be known as that knowledge which which which is dissociation with pain but that's a very abstract way of putting it takes you forever beyond the possibility of suffering and this is called yoga yoga sangeetam this is the meaning of yoga so it is a play of words here yoga yoga yoga the same word yoga is used so many times yoga means the spiritual path but normally yoga means to unite here he's saying it's not uniting here it's separating it's separating what separating you forever from suffering yoga contact with pain the yoga forever separation is called yoga so now you look at the word play here yoga yoga yoga so yoga is yoga literally meaning union it means disunion from the union with pain this is the meaning of yoga how does it happen by realization that i am the athman vidya the important word tam vidya know it and this is the way of knowledge of realization this knowledge is there's one thing i wanted to share here it's an open secret upanishad knowledge upanishad literally means secret secret knowledge but what kind of secret is it it's an open secret it's available to everybody everywhere there are other secret practices there are there is secret knowledge in the world you know classified knowledge there is uh right now something was revealed pandora paper something was revealed you know so all secret things have been revealed in spiritual life there is secret mantra given to you by guru is a holiest of secrets not supposed to reveal to every everybody um there are so the upanishad is also a secret but it's an open secret what it tells you is openly continuously directly available to everybody and all the time so this open secret why we become the called it the open secret which is always available we just not just not seeing it because we are not seeing it because it's shouted by ignorance that's why we can call this knowledge a secret because it seems to be hidden because actually it's not hidden it's acid and brahman is as hidden as if you look at the clay pot and you say this is a pot where is the clay you're telling me about something called clay is the clay hidden in the pot you're not seeing you don't know what what is meant by clay because the clay shines forth in the when you're looking at the pot it's the clay only shankaracharya in upper okay says for one who knows what clay is in the clay pot the clay shines forth unconditionally um choicelessly and he says basuram like a sun it shines forth a clay shining fort like the sun so like water is clearly evident in the way like gold is clearly evident in in the ornaments if you know what is gold if you know what is water if you know what is clay we know what is brahman brahman is clearly evident all the time no no possibility of any kind of um confusion now what i wanted to share here was there was a book very popular lots of people especially people who are interested in spirituality especially in the west is called the secret the secret uh ronda bryan i think ron de bruyne the secret and very very popular people have asked me about it i have read if not the whole thing at least i've read part of the book i remember seeing the book at least i've read quite a bit of it several years ago it was published now and though for those who don't know the basic idea of the book was you can get whatever you want in life money youth health job you know your the mention of your choice and relationships whatever and joy happiness in life whatever just by focusing your mind consistently holding on to what you want and the universe will give it to you and all of that so that's the secret and obviously you can see it was very popular i'm oversimplifying it's a whole book and uh it became sort of a household name and all of that fine yesterday i was in this talk show with um with hail dwarskin so he is he hosts a very popular uh show with you know self-help teachers uh new age spiritual teachers and so on um it's um on youtube you can see and also uh podcasts and all his written books uh he his videos and all he's been in this for a long time he told me he's been doing this since 1976 now and recently has become very interested in non-duality and vedanta which is why he interviewed me and then he asked have you read the secret i said yeah but that was a long time back and he said no no have you read the greatest secret i said i don't know what is the greatest secret isn't it that book said no she has written another book and it's a recent book she has written it last year in september it's called the greatest secret and he must have known my little bit of hesitation i might have had about the earlier book he said um she has become very interested in in non-duality in the advaithic idea that we are pure consciousness so she has moved on from the secret to the greatest secret and now the greatest secret is all about non-duality that i am brahman i am pure consciousness that's the book it's all about that and then this gentleman suggested to me that you read this book and we'll have a separate program about it so what do you think as a teacher of advaita vedanta what do you think of this presentation now what was uh what i really liked about this whole thing was look at this movement the secret to the greatest secret the secret is that how by what means can i obtain all sorts of worldly things and the greatest secret secret is much greater than that is that which is by getting which nothing higher can be obtained this is the greatest of all things and that is i am pure consciousness this what ronda bryan has done from the secret to the greatest secret this is literally the movement from karma khanda to gyanakanda the whole idea of karma khanda the whole idea of conventional religion is by the help of god by the help of vedic rituals whatever you call it by these means my present life will be fulfilled whatever i have desires those desires will be fulfilled and not only that after death i will go to heaven this is karma khanda which we are seeing in the qatar panishat what naji keta's father was trying to accomplish but then you move from there to a higher truth that real fulfillment lasting fulfillment unlimited fulfillment is not through the fulfillment of desires it is uh by realizing i am unlimited consciousness this is the movement from karma conduct to gyanakanda the ritualistic portion of the vedas to the knowledge portion of the vedas this is the movement from purva memsa to uttaram imamsa the two schools of philosophy this is the movement from the secret to the greatest secret um then he says with the art you must realize this this is so this is a open secret the greatest secret ronda bryant's greatest secret is this secret krishna is talking about yoga so two points i'll quickly make here and stuff one is an amazing point is that look all of this yogic practices ashtanga yoga culminating in sampragyata samadhi and some pragmatism it's awfully difficult i can hardly meditate and this is so difficult and even your advaita vedanta saying to realize i am brahman so much of sanskrit words and logic and argumentation and subtle thinking gives me a headache i don't think i'm ever going to get it that i'm i'm brahmana then here is a way out this comes from ashtavakra just believe it simple short straightforward just believe for the moment that not that i am just a little body and mind i am awareness obviously i'm awareness because this awareness is evident to me in every action every thought every perception i am aware whatever else is going on i'm aware this awareness is unlimited it's an immortal awareness there is it is all pervasive it is not subject to ups and downs of physical or body of the mind this immortal unchanging limitless awareness ever fulfilled i am i am brahmana don't wait for realization don't wait for samadhi just believe it um he says my child just just believe this i'm telling you just believe this for a short while just believe just see what what would it be like and if there are any ways any place you're getting stuck how am i awareness how am i not affected by this or the other thing there are arguments to show you there are nice pointers to show you how everything else that you experience is an appearance in you the awareness people bodies um thoughts feelings they are like the movie playing on the screen of awareness they are like the dreams in the in the night which a dreamer dreams they are like the magic of the magician they are an illusory projection of that limitless light limitless consciousness i am that limitless consciousness everything else is an appearance in me hold on to that then see the magic so this is nishjaya see what prevents us from realizing this is maya ignorance and maya is false it's an appearance false maya can be taken over you say this this belief you are telling us this belief this is not real i i'm just believing it it's just make believe good my eyes also make belief the make believe the acting that i am brahman your make believe that i am brahman you are acting that i am brahman will remove the acting that i am body mind yes it can do that you you may object i am just you're just making it up i'm just trying to believe something i don't actually realize it i haven't got samadhi i haven't got your brahmacar briti which has been talked about in vedantasara i don't have the clarity and conviction just make believe yes make believe make believe it will work also swami vivekananda said tell yourself again and again i am that i am he i am that so again and again till it tingles with every drop of your blood the clarity will come and why not notice i am the body i am the mind i am this limited creature who told you that which book told you that which guru told you that nobody this is sankaracharya says this is a natural sequence of ignorance from in beginningless lives so it comes to us naturally and of course conditioning is there through society and all of that and we sort of take it for granted i am this body-mind when you please examine it a substitute for that a much more better belief given to you by guru by upanishads by vedanta i am brahman you do that it will cut out that the ignorance that i am body-mind now at this point so this is point number one point number two is at this point one may say it is not working i tried it and didn't really work then he says without fatigue without fail without depression without admitting defeat hold on to it didn't work when did it not work it just didn't work just now good that's one moment it didn't work another moment has come you have the opportunity to try it again the power of decision what will i think in this moment what will i say and what will i do that power of decision when do you have it every moment fresh power of decision it's not that i tried to change my behavior i tried to change my feelings didn't work fine that was that's in the past now another opportunity has come every moment is offering you a fresh opportunity and a fresh power of decision take the fresh power of decision i am brahmana let's see hold on to it thousand times defeated try a thousand in one time sorry vivekananda says never give up you know he says what you're not able to concentrate the mind you're not able to realize god he says he's startled as what what are you asking abbas yoga means simply repetition hold on to this repeat without being you know without admitting defeat without giving up thoughts are coming in our mind every time thoughts come we think it's mechanical we can't do anything about it no you can every thought we think every word we speak every action we do we have the opportunity to decide for ourselves normally we don't there's a word default computers have default setting so unless you do something it will boot by itself it will do whatever has been programmed so all our thinking speaking actions are normally going on by default but the great power which we have is the power of decision i can you see i may not have the power to decide what i will think for one hour or 10 hours i'll think of god for hours and hours and you say it doesn't work true but i'll think of god for one second who is there who can say i can't do that everybody can do it for the next one second once i will think about god once i will repeat the mantra once i will affirm i am awareness who cannot do that everybody can do that it's the easiest thing and then the next second comes next second you have equally the same power so anirwin without depression you have infinite um at least 24 hours of not maybe if not infinite time 24 hours in a day so that and full of choices to make even if once it doesn't work 10 times it doesn't work 100 times it doesn't work doesn't matter you will get thousand more chances so it is connected to the english word yoke yoke yourself to this practice one is believe in it straight away and it's done breakthrough not working hold on to it repeat it until it's done okay um let me see there are a lot of comments let me quickly go through this if the eye subsides in samadhi when it is said that there is no joy when compared which compares to samadhi who experiences remembers the joy in samadhi so as to compare it with sense pleasures in waking is something like a deep sleep experience in the sense that someone remembers that one slept soundly little bit like that but deep sleep is generally tamasik and this is the highest sattva remember it's not like sleep awareness is completely there it's just that no no thinking is going on about that thinking starts when one comes out of samadhi then the eye ego starts working and reflects back so that experience is there and right after samadhi also will be suffused by this the radiation or the the great joy so when one looks back at that one sees that what was there is also here now and there it was tremendous peace tremendous place shweta says where will seeking the company of holy persons be praised satwik rajasthan star trek if you're going to ask spiritual questions satwik if you're going to ask what's for food in the ashram that's rajasik and if you're going to fall asleep in a vedantic class in vedanta class that's thomas joy so in ashram you can have all kinds of joy then patrick says what does gauravada mean by reality which is beyond duality and non-duality here he means the philosophies of duality and non-duality he's teaching non-duality but even he admits that non-duality can is a philosophical structure and the non-dual reality is beyond the philosophical structure he calls it the reality reality is not entirely captured by just the philosophy of non-dualism shawn lee says as you said knowing yourself will give us ultimate joy happiness and contentment don't you think having feelings for of compassion kindness and empathy and sympathy for others will give us joy of mind yes these are the higher saturated spiritual the feeling of sympathy for us others the more you feel sympathy for others the more you feel friendliness for others uh unconditional acceptance of others the more joy there will be even higher than this is uh is brahmana the joy of of realizing your own self how can we control our negative emotions how can we deal with others judgments that undermine us see that is the diksa and that is the knowledge we are teaching that is what the sadhu said have you learned that knowledge by which you can bear all this what is that knowledge it is vedanta knowledge it is yoga knowledge it is bhakti knowledge uh kiran says is the knowledge of the self already in our subconscious mind our goal is to unveil it well let's not make it more complicated right now we are not aware of or we are not we don't realize what we truly are we have to realize that and for that the teachings are there the openness all the texts are pointing out that is say why is it that only disunion from pain is mentioned shouldn't it be pain and pleasure both worldly experiences yes this union from pain is the goal one does not want this union firm pleasure the joy will be the fulfillment you get by its realization and you see it is couched in this language pain and pleasure are both coming from outside so when we seek pleasure outside through sense contact and we seek to avoid pain coming from outside this practice this knowledge will set you free from all kinds of pain which come from outside they will be there causes will be there but you are not affected anymore and it also set you free from seeking pleasure with contact sense contact from outside because the joy is from within it is your own joy you don't need it from outside ricky oh you're going to interview rhonda uh rhonda bryan excellent we look forward to that in bad gap shweta said there's a secret documentary too i hope they make another documentary about the greatest secret vishwanath says is this a reference to gita chapter nine raja vidya raja gohan royal secret uh which reference did you mean can you unmute yourself the greatest secret oh no the greatest secret i was making a reference to ronda's new book yes you're right krishna uses the same language in the ninth chapter he says it's the royal secret the royal knowledge the royal secret what is the royal knowledge of royal secret don't worry it's you know it already you are brahman that's the royal secret i'll end with a very nice story uh swami suhitan and she told this to us when he was the sevak attendant for swami primesha nandaji the disciple of the holy mother in his own lifetime he was known as a jeevan mook the enlightened one so the swami told us that swami premish anandiji in his old age he would often you know catch hold of you and try to tell you this great secret one day he like it it would go like this more than once you know he got hold of me i'll tell you something a great secret just um the young monk goes yes swami tell me he goes on doing whatever he's doing so no no no pay attention and make sure that there's nobody around close the doors and windows are you sure nobody's listening and then he would say that yeah yeah there's nobody listening you're gonna go ahead and tell me that this great secret well let me tell you and you know the great joy in his eyes and face he would say sri ramakrishna is an avatar he's an incarnation of god and then the young monk would smile and say well swami everybody knows and nobody cares and it's what people know this is this is everybody knows and nobody's nobody cares nobody's interested see we know this we read about it and we say oh there is god there's an incarnation and now sri ramakrishna is an incarnation all of it is pretty theoretical for us but if god is real for you imagine how amazing that is and on top of that is sri ramakrishna who is a historical figure whose tradition you are in this is actually a picture of him the pictures of him there are books of people who have seen him and their descendants you know them he was god himself if you actually vividly felt that what a stunning thing that would be that obviously would be an extraordinary secret all right there's one more question below by siddharth why am not am i not seeing it why am i not seeing the question by siddharth what yeah but i can't oh sangeeta wrote it down okay if i am the divine self and realize i am the divine self why did i know it before why did i not know it before it is like god playing hide and seek with himself so i think you mean why did i not know it before yes so you can say it's like like god playing hide and seek but you're asking a question about why is there ignorance you see the question is all right it seems to be clear that if at all vedanta is true if i am brahman right now i don't seem to know it or at least i know it just theoretically you've told me i've read about it and then one day hopefully i will know it really that i am fine now the question is why did i not know it earlier why did i not always know it are there some who always know it yes god always knows i am brahmana god means saguna brahman always knows i am nirguna brahman and there are nithya siddhas ever perfected ones who are always enlightened and there are those like us um some of us with a lot of effort and grace we become enlightened and we realize i am brahmana was brahmana ambraman will and the rest of us we are on the way we are trying to realize that but why is it that why is ignorance like that so one of the answers is that it is god playing hide and seek with himself the kashmiri shiva that's the kashmiri shaiva answer alan watts in his book i've mentioned it again and again that it is shiva hiding from himself so that he has something somebody to play with god wants somebody to play with so there's nobody else except god then how will god get somebody else to play with so god pretends to be not god and so god and now god pretending to be not god there are two they can play but the problem is god is really good at what he does so when he pretends to be not god not god is so good at it he totally forgets that he's god and now he's trapped what was play now becomes a nightmare and he struggles to get out of it so that is one interpretation but you want a more philosophical interpretation that's also available i mentioned it earlier that this question itself look at the inconsistency of the question you are asking why about why ignorance means maya time space causality causality means why cause and effect cause and effect is already within ignorance brahman is beyond cause and effect now why do i have ignorance is like asking um the cause of causation why of why it's like asking what is outside space you've already accepted space the moment you say outside that means you have accepted inside outside it's like asking what was before time then you already accepted time before and after is possible only when there is time moment to ask why why what is the cause of causation you've already accepted causation so this question doesn't work it's good that it doesn't if there was a real reason why there is ignorance then ignorance also would be real then causation would be real this is the insight the tremendous insight of gorda pada we talked about it in manduka karika it's an attack on causality he says the ultimate reality has no causal link with our world of appearance it makes the appearance possible but there's no causal link no backward link from the world of causation of this the cinema back to the screen in the movie a harry potter movie the king kong movie um whatever the the and what was that the movie on the holocaust um schindler's list schindler's list movie or a charlie chaplin comedy movie in nowhere in the movie in nowhere in the plot can you argue back to the movie scream it's not possible and yet the entire movie is made possible by the movie screen the plot of the movie the fiction in the movie is not causally linked to the screen though without the screen the fiction is not possible okay very high philosophical note to end on this [Music] namaste