Video 84

84. Bhagavad Gita I Chapter 6 Verses 26-27 I Swami Sarvapriyananda

[Music] guru we were on sixth chapter and the 25th verse that's what we were doing last time the context is meditation and here shri krishna after having given us the instructions on meditation uh how to say it how to withdraw the mind how to focus all of that now is giving us some advanced instructions in uh in meditation the culmination of meditation into samadhi how does that happen so very important verses the 25th verse we were doing it last time i'll make some more remarks about it and then go ahead and go ahead so here um one point he makes is withdraw the mind from its external engagement in stages slowly methodically shani means slowly slowly methodically in stages what is this slow methodical in stages he says buddha by knowledge and this is just this word is like a placeholder it indicates the vedantic training that we have all undergone we have all studied this basically what it means is the mind is continuously flowing outwards that is the fundamental problem uh in meditation especially in realizing that i am the witness consciousness because the mind is continuously engaged with the world outside the upanishad also says this um our senses are turned outwards by design and because of that we are engaged with the external world and that's why we do not realize the the uh inner self or innermost self openation says it said this is the exact language used by the opennation so we have to make a special effort in meditation to turn inwards upanishad itself says special seeker dheera literally means a person with tremendous patience perseverance uh who seeks so some not all but some seekers ultimately achieve this or realize their innermost nature they are the self within how it is very evocative average action literally means with covered eyes but it doesn't mean like this but it means disengaging with the world and disengaging with this with the senses and finally disengaging with the mind also but this has to be accomplished in stages by doing this uh what does one attain practice means saw realized and why would anybody do that the goal is the purpose is amrita it means desiring immortality desiring to overcome death and basically solve the whole question of life and death so what are the stages because the mind is continuously engaged outside the first thing is to withdraw from the outside world from the external world and then you become aware of the body all the five senses actually reveal the body to you you feel the sense first of all the sense of touch tense of touch means an inner touch a feeling of existing a sensation of this the whole body and you can see the body of course if your tummy is rumbling you can hear hear it also we have an ashram in the himalayas a place called maya with established by swami vivekananda and it's extraordinary for its silence i think something to do with the acoustics of the valley it's not that it's particularly high it's just about 5000 feet but it's extraordinarily silent it's one of the most silent places i've ever seen in my life one monk who meditates a lot he told me he could hear his heart beat and the blood pounding in his veins at times it's so silent uh once the editor of our english journal prabhu davar so by tradition he is stationed there that monkey station there in mayavati and in winter becomes very cold and very quiet and you know this india so you don't have this kind of heating there if it's 20 degrees outside it's 20 degrees inside the room also fahrenheit um so he said once you're sitting in meditation it's very cold outside and snowy and all and he heard this roar it's continuous roar he couldn't understand why is this a road there so like heavy machinery then finally discovered in the next room in the editor's office the computer was running the it's the fan of the computer just little little fan the whirring sound that sounds like a roar there so every sense organ objectifies the body and so we must withdraw our attention from the body um you can withdraw it to the breath or we do it through the sensations withdraw further into thoughts the movement of the mind thoughts memories withdraw further by quietening the mind down you can do it with a mantra or just by focusing turning inwards to the self so it has to be done in multiple stages this is the meaning of chaneshneri in stages from the gross to the subtle to the causal to the atman and if you'll notice the techniques which we have learned in advaita vedanta they're all like this do you remember drikdrisha viveka it starts with the form the form is the sea and eyes are the seer you remember and then eyes themselves become the scene and the mind is the seer and then the mind is seen and consciousness is the seer witness consciousness i am that witness witness consciousness so can i see that no you cannot see that you are that and every time the mind flows outside you again bring it back but notice forms eyes mind if at any time you are again distracted by sounds from something outside again back to the senses from the senses back to the mind then to the witness of the mind notice how stages grows subtle causal actually here it grows and subtle basically um or the panchakusha viveka there it's even more evident withdraw from the external world sit quietly calmly withdraw from external world become aware of the body then go little become withdraw further the draw means make it more subtle inwards it says the self is inner to the body in your sensations focus on the breath and annual from the breast goes further down slowly slowly stage by stage shanishani focus on the mind mind means thoughts ideas what do i have to do now what are the stages these are all thoughts so there's the mind from there focus even more so it's a very finely tuned degradation focus on the the another function of the mind itself called the intellect which is a very subtle function of understanding see i have understood the instructions i'm going from the gross to the subtle to the causal this is the understanding this faculty of the mind which is going on that's also not you it's a faculty of the mind it's a it's a capacity it's an app you become aware of that go even further more subtle what could be there subtler than the subtlest you get put go to the causal level blank peaceful quiet so that's meditation no that's the anandamaya kosha the causal sheath turned further inwards beyond the blankness transcending the blankness it's something that you cannot objectify anymore that becomes the witness consciousness but that you cannot objectify you are that but notice my point here is look at the stages we went through don't jump straight into ahm brahmaspian that's it we used to have this when the senior swamis would scold us we had to set times for meditation and many of us have um the rosary the japa mala so brahmacari is you know very active energy taken so sitting down meditation jump into the seat and sit straight and immediately start you can hear the clicking sound of the rosary and so the senior monks would say that what are you doing you know are you pulling in an anchor from the boat you know when you when you let you launch a boat you pull the anchor up are you doing that you sit down and start rolling the rosary no calm down the mind withdraw the mind from the external world settle down breath thought calmness quietness then you start don't immediately jump into it step by step how do you do that buddha by knowledge what knowledge this knowledge this is the reason why vedant has to be learned before you jump into vedantic meditation you can do mindfulness meditation with just one set of instructions you can even do japa and you know just a little bit of instructions but vedantic meditation is much more important to listen to the teachings first study the upanishad the gita or the vivek apparatus not all of them so that's too much then any one of them will do it will teach you a methodology of doing this stage by stage withdrawal so buddha by knowledge what knowledge whatever you have gained so far that knowledge has to be applied when you sit down and meditate um then the next part with the focused intent so driti greta means focused intent with patience with focused intent carefully not mindlessly mindfully so there is a focused intent so intent means i am going to do this this must be burning in the mind otherwise the mind will tend to get scattered and start thinking about different things so there's a clear intent i am practicing vedantic meditation as taught by krishna sixth chapter bhagavad-gita and also driti hold on don't let the mind slip away now here i want to make one point here one of the commentaries which is generally do not refer to but it's really a magnificent commentary because i really have not studied it seriously or in depth that's why i don't refer to but it's very well known in india it's called the gyaneshwari so um one problem is it's uh i mean the original i think is in marathi an old marathi um so of course there's a hindi version a sanskrit version also and good english versions but it is it's full of wonderful insights so here in this verse what uh santiago says is that this stage by stage withdrawal into the into the innermost self into the witness consciousness you can do in two ways he says very carefully very interesting he says this knowledge based approach what i just talked about stage by stage withdraw and be the witness consciousness you are the witness consciousness he says he clearly this is i'm quoting ganesha centuries ago if this does not work he says if this is not working then he makes it a an alternate a fallback a default for like a fallback backup what is that dhriti he says make a vow a firm resolve that i shall be centered in the witness consciousness like a like an unflickering flame of a lamp i'll be at centered in that i will not allow my mind to be scattered and then repeat use the process of repetition you can concentrate on on a mantra or something focus the mind into a stage of state of steadiness so this is giving an optional backup if this the path of knowledge culminating in vedantic meditation is not working for you then simply sit and try to focus with a firm result the firm resolve will be at every stage sage means physical body i will not move it it will sit straight in the posture it will not move even a little bit the breath will be regulated the eyes will be closed or half closed and i will not engage with sounds with sensations in the body itching or coughing or whatever i will not try to open my eyes and look around i will not think of what comes next or what went on before all of these firm resolve all of these basically mean stillness so make an effort to be by a firm resolve and then focus by repetition it could be on the witness consciousness it could be the mantra the guru has given you it could be just om chanting or following the breath whatever it is a practice of repetition and focus then what else is said here so atma samson establishing the mind in the self settling the mind on the self with self pure consciousness sacred on the witness consciousness do not think of anything else what is this settling the mind on the self we know what it means so so settling myself on the chair that i make a movement and i come and sit down on the chair i have settled myself on the chair settling myself into the posture for meditation so i understand what that means i can also understand when he says fix your mind on say a flame of light or fix your mind on the mantra om what does it mean i will repeat the mantra continuously in a stream and not try to think of anything else that's fixing my mind on something so any object fixing my mind on any object means to think of that object and not think of anything else fixing my mind on a book fixing my mind on on my work whatever it is but what is fixing my mind on the atma atma-samstam having settled the mind fixed the mind steadied the mind on the self selfier means the real self the witness consciousness it's not an object so what is the mind going to think about what is the mind going to be focused on what is it going to hold on to so what happens here is in vedantic meditation use you withdraw not the body not the breath not the mind not the intellect why even while using the mind remember but i am not the mind the my object is not to think about thoughts i now am that light which reveals the intellect the mind the breath the world through the senses it reveals the entire world that shining all else is revealed by the light of that consciousness and remember this is i'm doing it very deliberately i know what i'm talking about i am not just repeating by rote just as i know what is meant when the body is meant just as i know what is meant when the breath is meant just as i know what is meant when a thought is meant thought is mentioned as i know what is meant by intellect as i know what is meant by the blankness beyond intellect i also understand thanks to my vedantic training that what is meant by awareness in itself so by that awareness my mind is noting this everything that i'm experiencing is lit up by that awareness that awareness is not physical it's not mental it's not something that intellect does it's beyond all of that but it lights all of it up noticing this i'm noticing this recognizing all this that awareness does not come and go thoughts and feelings and sensations come and go that awareness experiences time time is in that awareness awareness is not in time all space is experienced in that awareness awareness is not a point in space therefore awareness must be unlimited in space and unlimited in time which means it must be important i am that immortal awareness as a fact which will not die when the body dies does not age with the aging of the body is not disturbed with the disturbance of the mind when the flash of annoyance comes in the mind when the grief comes in the mind when anxieties come in the mind they are all revealed by not by awareness but by i by awareness my anxieties no anxieties are mine what anxiety does awareness have it's as the vast blue sky might as well say my clouds not your clouds because of you providing the space all the you the sky in your in the sky birds fly around clouds float around sometimes it's empty and bright but you the space are completely unaffected dark thunder clouds white fluffy clouds no clouds morning sunlight blazing blue sky evening dusk and deep night blackness the dark sky you are the same sky absolutely unaffected exactly like that you are the same consciousness absolutely unaffected by the disasters which the mind reveals to you happening in the world outside by the failing uh you know health of the body healthy body sick body same awareness happy mind miserable mind same awareness understanding vedanta not understanding vedanta same awareness remembering nostalgic good times in the past sorrow and tragedy in the past same awareness if the mind runs ahead what will happen next time to do this i have to do that same awareness is revealing it awareness neither runs ahead nor goes back to the past it's the mind which is doing it i am perfectly all right from eternity to eternity what is all this this is atma sangstam the mind continuously noting appreciating my nature my real nature this is vedantic meditation other name for that is vedantic meditation being centered the absolute clarity of what i am you see all these things sound like slogans rhetoric no they are not if they sound like slogans rhetoric positive affirmations then the vedantic teaching has not taken hold yet it has not been assimilated not been digested go back to the classes listen to the classes and see whether it sounds true or not if it does not where does it get get where are you getting held up where is the blockage question that focus on that it those are very good doorways to um a deeper grasp of vedanta wherever it's don't avoid that don't be afraid every such question has a very clear answer and it will take you far ahead in your journey to enlightenment if you dissolve if you look at those those blocks those knots and dissolve them and then with clarity you can settle down but that clarity settling down is necessary that is the practice krishna is telling that is atma-sang-shi the pitch do not think of other things centered mind centered whatever things come up immediately use it to turn back to the witness consciousness a kind of anxiety comes up in me the limitless consciousness this little vritti movement called anxiety has come up i note it it's fine with me from that perspective of atman or brahman none of this really matters none of this no event here no person here including the person that disappears this body mind none of them ultimately matter to it because it you that reality you are immortal and between the immortal and the mortal there can be no relationship between the eternal and the ever-changing there can be no relationship between the real and the appearance there can be no relationship you however enable the mortal the ever changing and the uh appearance without you that cannot happen but you don't depend on it you are perfectly fine without the appearance of the universe it's like a magic show magician exists happily without the magic show but the magic show cannot exist without the magician you are that magician which shines forth in all these ways unfortunately you tend to get trapped in your own magic and then it becomes a dream becomes a nightmare then yes [Music] another thing one commentator so there multiple commentators one commentator says this is the stage of dharana dharana you know in the patanjali yoga dharana dhyana samadhi so one commentator sridhar he has written a very simple commentary called subodhini literally means easily understood it's a simple commentary or 600 years ago he wrote this commentary on the bhagavad-gita he is famous for his commentary sanskrit commentary on the bhagavatam an extensive commentary on the bhagavatam so he says that from a yogic perspective slowly withdraw your mind systematically the firm result focus on the object of meditation and do not slip away from that this is called dharana what is dharana remember the eight steps or the eight limbs of yoga the moral practices yama and nyama the do's and don'ts the moral restraints then the sitting posture asana then pranayama the control of the breath to control down to calm down the mind then pratyahara withdrawing the mind from external engagement and then dharana focusing so focusing is is what is being meant here that focusing deepens into meditation and meditation deepens into samadhi so he just may say that this is krishna is talking about dharana here then the next verse 26 charity [Music] wheresoever the restless and unsteady mind wanders from that very object it should be restrained and brought under the control of the self alone not control of this himself in the sense control the mind and focus it back on the self that is what is meant here um is charity wherever wherever the mind flows out why will it flow out you have decided not to let it flow out what will happen is once we focus the next step will be distraction invariably in our stage of meditation unless one is already a profound and deep meditator and a skillful meditator mind will get distracted don't worry about it this is the very nature of the mind so where how will it get distracted is because of the upsurge of rajya guna you know thomas rajas and sattva steady mind serene focused light luminous mind that is sattva goda unsteady flickering mind restless mind raja gonna dull sleepy mind bored mind tamagona so because of the upsurge of rajas it's likely that the mind will flow outwards where in multiple directions the site to see something it not need not be physically with your eyes just maybe images in your mind sound touch smell taste memories uh anxieties about the near future or plans or you know thought about what happened just in the past near past all long back in the past dwelling on nice things dwelling on fears all of these this mind is flowing out even though fears anxieties desires are all in the mind but they are it's flowing out away from the atman the witness consciousness because of raja gonna what do you do he says from those up from those um objects you withdraw them withdraw the mind how will you withdraw i'll tell you but one more point i have to make mana chancellor master the mind is restless and unsteady now that's the very nature of the mind and that becomes very obvious during meditation otherwise its mind is in its normal when we are using it in our daily affairs in work at home and relaxation mind just chatters on and does what we give it to do but when you want the mind to be calm and withdrawn then all the it becomes like a monkey hopping around here and their monkey might so daniel goleman you know the [Music] psychology and a well-known science journalist and writer he's the one who popularized the term emotional intelligence so eq all that at one time so that book was very very popular emotional intelligence his recent concern has been focus he wrote a book called focus this is on attention and he said i have been told by so many people parents teachers managers in company who are hiring youngsters and youngsters themselves there's a crisis of attention among the young today one big reason of course is the digital media so he wrote this book focus it's worth reading it's a nice really nice book in one chapter there he he says that the well-known stages of in meditation what happens that you try to focus stage one mind gets distracted stage two mind wanders around stage three then you recognize that the mind is wandering around and bring it back so that's stage four and stage five recognizing recognition that the mind has strayed away that's a distinct stage and then fifth stages you bring it back and make an effort to focus back on what you are focusing on so these five stages now the interesting thing in the book he says modern neuroscience when they track fmri scans of the brains of meditators and neuronal activity there so these are real stages corresponding to um distinct activities in the brain so that's the thing i didn't know and it's reasonable to think that but he says they have now isolated a certain groups of neurons which become active when you are focusing that which ganesha said make a deliberate attempt a vow to focus an intent to focus in an earlier verse he said when you do that there's actually a set of neurons which become active which shows that you are making a conscious deliberate attempt to focus distraction when it happens for whatever reason as he says whatever reason multiple reasons the mind gets distracted that that very fact of distraction there's a separate set of neurons which gets activated so it's interesting to note whatever is mentioned in these ancient texts it corresponds to actual neuronal activity distinct groups of neurons being activated then the mind wandering without awareness without without deliberation jumping from one thing to another thing to another thing the way the mind normally wanders when we are not conscious about it when we are not attending to it normal way the mind wanders so another third set of neurons becomes active there plus every other area which is activated by the mind wandering then the recognition oh i am not focusing on the atman or uh on om nama shivaya or on the breath whatever your tradition of meditation a distinct moment comes when you suddenly you are startled into self-awareness this is what's going on in the mind like a fraction of a second another set of neurons come kicks into effect into action and then finally the effort to bring it back again to focus again that set of neurons which is controlling focus that kicks into action you are actually doing things in your brain you're pressing buttons in your brain when you follow these stages these stages are not just like moral advice these are good things to do no there's good neuroscience to back them up now so that i found that very interesting the neuroscience of mind wandering of of inattention now how do you bring it back he says the next stage is to bring it back the mind will wander guaranteed don't don't wait for the mind to wander don't when you're having meditation it's going too well when will the mind start wandering mind do your thing don't do that if it's going well it's going well but if it does not doesn't matter the moment you recognize it bring it back to the object of meditation there are different ways of doing it um one way is the yogic way suppose i'm thinking of shiva i'm supposed to visualize shiva lotus of the heart the t shiva and the mantra om nama shivaya should be chanted and the mind wanders away elsewhere then i remember then what i do i drop that object whatever i'm thinking of whatever the mind is going to whatever it is i drop it i substitute the deity shiva the visualization the lotus and the mantra so that's the yogic way you substitute stop pull back the mind there and from there and bring it back to the deity the mantra or it could just be the breath it could just be so mindfulness meditation they tell you to do that bring it back to the breath don't uh berate yourself don't say or you know get exhausted or unhappy about it just calmly it just heads up for you that back to the breath or back to whatever you're meditating so that's the yogic way um also works for buddhist mindfulness but here in vedanta if you remember there's a there's an entirely different thing that we do and that is use the object of distraction to come back you define this in advaita vedanta you find this in tibetan buddhism also in zogchen what they do is use the object of meditation uh use the object of distraction so i'm supposed to be um you know enjoying the glory of mother self um the limitless awareness and then maybe there is a mosquito or there is a police siren and then i imagine a police car and or is it an uh ambulance is kovit increasing these are the thoughts which are coming suddenly i become aware i've drifted away from that now what i do is that image of my in my mind of a police car racing through the streets of you know upper west in manhattan sound the sound of the siren i use that in me the awareness is revealed this sounded and it's a fact the siren is sounding the sound is the space of awareness limited unlimited space of awareness in which there is a movement in the form of sound of siren the visualization of the police car i am awareness in medicine and back to the awareness so whatever destruction this distraction that can be used as a powerful method because the destruction is happening because of the very awareness which you are very awareness which i am that enables the distraction to happen use the distraction the absurd chain practices you dissolve it so if it's a physical sensation dissolve it into the the mental thought behind it from there into the causal and into from there into consciousness itself they call it freeing it it's a not in which you have been caught up in something external not in the radiance of your own awareness or you the awareness dissolve it with that whatever is external is just shining in the space which is your awareness so you can dissolve it so this is called pulling back now do you see the difference between the two approaches one is stop don't think of that think of this other one is have it your way think of it but notice what are you what's going on there just notice that it's whatever you think of or blank don't think of anything it's all such charge with irradiated with with you the consciousness blazing forth there it's always you the consciousness are always available in the midst of the worst distraction and settle back there and then again atma samso i am awareness i am limitless all that appears appears in me shines in me every sensation every thought every idea and the absence of sensations thoughts ideas so back to the witness consciousness there are other ways also the bhakti traditions don't have these problems too much if you have a deep love for something see emotions are usually much more powerful and they catch attention much more easily so it's much easier much sweeter much more of a of a happy thing to make your thoughts flow to something that you love so my beloved krishna or or shiva or the divine mother sudama krishna you know i'm the child and she's the mother it's much easier that way so it uses the power of of emotion of love to hook awareness yogic method is little more dry it makes effort you have to take effort and a little dry meth you know continuously making the effort to substitute the one thought for everything else and the advaithic method is to recognize whatever thought whatever distraction is entirely enabled illumined and revealed in you the awareness you're always available there okay then atman never basham knight bring the mind under control or we can say again establish the mind in the witness consciousness up [Music] to this yogi whose activity rajas who has been has subsided who is of a tranquil mind sinless and identified with brahman comes supreme bliss so if you do this and settle your mind on the self all right one more point that commentator i mentioned sridhar swami on the 26th verse which we just did he says it makes a very simple observation this is actually pratyahara withdrawing the mind from engagement from from distraction wherever wherever the mind is distracted pull the mind from there and put it on the um the object of your meditation this is the classic definition of pratyahara the um uh the fifth stage in uh the eighth or the fifth limb of the eight limbs of yoga after pratyahara comes so the point i was making is in the 25th verse sridhara swami says it's basically dharana and the 26th verse he says basically pratyahar if you get distracted withdraw again and back to the object of focus now 27th verse if you keep doing this meditation will become deeper so you will enjoy the bliss of meditation the peace of meditation the quietness the serenity of meditation prashanth the mind becomes shanta means peaceful prashantha means profoundly peaceful very deep very very completely awake you haven't fallen asleep it's completely awake luminous and steady so that's a wonderful state of mind it's um mihai chikuzanmihai in his book flow has you know he spent his whole career studying attention and he says these moments of intense engagement with some worthwhile pursuit that leads to the best experiences of our life and he calls them flow experiences connected to you know maslow's idea of a peak experience but uh flow experiences i can imagine if the flow experience is also um satwik because sometimes when the mind is rajasik also you can have a flow experience so the mind is satwik a little pure little sublime little elevated and you have the flow experience that's what he's saying prashanth and we had chicks in mia in this book he has he has observed that these are very healthy periods of our experiences of our life they integrate the personality much better you know they are these flow experiences are the experiences which are the best moments of our lives most precious moments of our lives and among them the best ones are when you focus on on god or the chosen ideal or on on the witness consciousness there is not only concentration focus not only calmness but an entirely different quality of holiness sacredness profoundness which is something more than just be calm and concentrated if you're reading a book which you love you'll be calm and you'll be concentrated the sense of the sacred is something higher much higher much deeper than that all that is captured by the words prashantha not just calm and focused but calm focused the highest bliss or the highest happiness this highest happiness is of again two things two senses in which we can interpret one is the highest happiness of meditation the joy of meditation is such is much higher than the joy of engagement with the world true proper meditation is very nourishing very deep and very um you would not want to really come out of that only thing it's difficult to achieve and hold on that's why so few people know about it that's why our teachers would always tell us the masters that keep on trying at first it's hard work but afterwards when you get into the flow it's very sweet it's very nourishing it's immensely attractive so the flow of meditation culminates in dhyana and it may culminate in samadhi also the eighth limb and that gives great joy tremendous joy nothing in this world nothing in this world can match that child so so that's one kind that's one meaning of sukham uktam but again note it is still a joy which comes and goes you don't have it when you're not in meditation in the best moments of meditation you have it for a short while again you when you come out of it or your mind gets distracted the joy is gone it'll leave its trace you will feel you will remember it it's wonderful but it's gone so number one it comes and goes number two it is subject to more or less the best moments of meditation we have much more of this joy in samadhi even more of this joy so it's subject to increase and decrease more and less gradation and it's subject to a particular state of mind it depends on the meditative state of the mind without the meditative state of the mind it will not come so what am i trying to say anything which has these characteristics is ultimately not god or not the not the atman not the ultimate which has the characteristics of coming and going one which has the characteristics of increasing and decreasing which has the characteristic of being dependent on some activity some elevated you know effort spiritual effort uh then they're all wonderful very nourishing very uh healthy in a in a psychological and spiritual sense also but not the ultimate truth the ultimate truth is you the witness consciousness akhman or brahman which is the second meaning of sukhamuttamam the highest bliss is the self itself so is it another kind of place this must be understood carefully it's not another kind of place it is that which is experienced as every kind of bliss it is the reservoir unlimited infinite reservoir from which comes every kind of list the crude distorted pleasures of the world to the refined pleasures of art and science and and creativity to the more um you know rare joy of of spiritual life of being selfless of having deep devotion to god the love of god of absolute quietness of mind of um so all of these these give rise to the highest the highest pleasure but higher than that is this with this infinite source which is the source of all of these these joints it is like my face being reflected in mirrors so very crude mirror you'll have a distorted reflection you have a finer mirror you have a much better reflection but depending on whatever mirror is the reflection will change but you know the original is you it is which is the face here which you not reflected which you're not seeing that's which which is being reflected which you're seeing as reflections in the mirror those reflections are the joys but the source of all the joy is you that realization is the highest joy swami vivekananda says knowledge truth and bliss that follows both knowledge i am brahmana reveals to you that i am this infinite existence consciousness place and that is followed by fulfillment and unchanging fulfillment what about the earlier joys the joy of a cookie joy of music the joy of reading a book and the joy of deep meditation and prayer all of those are easily available to you don't worry those are available but you are not dependent on any one of them if they are there very good and they are not there fine if the mirror is reflecting my face very good the mirror is not there i know nothing is lost i am that face this this fullness this completion this purnatwa this this this wholeness this is the highest bliss sukramukhtam so two in two interpretations those who know sri ramakrishna's terminology of uh vishyananda bhajananda brahmananda vishyananda the ananda from vishaya bisha means objects of the senses actual sensory perception gives you some object like you listen to music taste good food and thoughts about all of that about the pleasures of the senses about the world that some kinds of thoughts give you happiness that's all that is vishayananda worldly worldly pleasure then the higher joy is bhajananda the joy of meditation the joy of prayer the joy of selfless service joy of surrender and dedication and adoration of god far higher far superior but he vedanta goes even further so vedanta says even this depends on effort this depends on a state of the mind this is also a reflection it's not the ultimate truth it comes and goes it increases and decreases so the ultimate truth is beyond that and sriram krishna calls it brahmananda it is the complete final fulfillment never subject to any coming and going no subject to increase and decrease what increase and decrease can there be in infinity and it's not dependent on any state of the mind not even on knowledge once knowledge has come no longer dependent on the mind to generate that knowledge anymore then what happens brahman what is being brahman realizing that i am brahmana so the different commentators all of them shankaracharya swami they all say this refers to jivan mukti the goal of vedanta liberated while living in this body itself you're living here in this world as earlier people just see you as this person maybe a much holier person now but as this person and yet you are you know you are brahman you're not just this person you're that impersonal absolute now um so this liberated while living i'll make a little comment here and addendum so this is the subject of a lot of enquiry among vedantic monks but this is the goal what does it consist of broadly this liberated by living this is the final goal um highest goal this has three components it's an analysis where am i taking all this from the different books but the one i'm taking it from is jeevan mukti vivek of srividyaranya so in jeevan muktiv he says that this is this enlightenment full-blown enlightenment liberated by living has three components one he calls which is basically what i'm calling enlightenment literally it means tatwa means reality ghana knowledge knowledge of the ultimate reality realization of the ultimate reality or in one word enlightenment that's one component component of what liberated while living the second component is literally means you have to treat it carefully literally means destruction of the mind but doesn't mean becoming brainless or brain dead or in comatose it just means that you are capable your meditation is of such an order you're capable of attaining deep meditation samadhi the mind has come under control to that extent then the third one third component of liberated while living is the vasanakshaya the complete purification of the mind wasn't actually means the destruction of desires or literally the destruction of the desire traces the tendencies in the mind the purification of the mind so three things are necessary for liberated while living jiva mukti one is of course enlightenment but interestingly enlightenment itself does not mean you're you are you are perfect perfection still requires meditation to the control of the mind to the level of samadhi and then um it also requires purification of the mind you know like literally at the mental level you are already a saint all these three together then you are liberated by living now the question may arise is it possible to be enlightened without the other things happening it is possible and we know this from experience from the from seeing people seekers in the world people can get profound breakthroughs lasting breakthroughs and in a certain sense they are already enlightened and vidyaryana swami says yes they know they already know that they are brahman and this is breakthrough not about some mystical vision some kind of lower i can say that openly from an advaithic perspective everything else is lower some vision of a god goddess some kind of light not none of those things i mean this is far higher this person already realizes without any doubt i am brahman not only brahman is real i am that it's absolutely clear to that person yet there may still be some shortfall in the control of the mind some shortfall in the purification of the mind then what will be the result of that the result will be what is the gain if you get enlightenment and use some shortfall in other areas under components the result will be twofold first of all you are not perfect you are not really attained full-blown enlightenment the second result will be then what's the good of it the good is at the point of death you're liberated forever samsara is an end for you this is the end of the play of samsara for you poetry is very beautiful i mean it's so stirring which describes what happens at liberation but at enlightenment he says it's like the storm is over the last storm clouds are moving away from the sky there's a brilliant rainbow in the sky and he's it literally akash ram dhanur mala festival of rainbows in the skies above you what is this festival of rainbows it shows you the storm of samsara is over not only in this life many lives countless lives have you passed the buddha says life after life have been whirled around in samsara maya i have recognized that you know that i recognize thee no more will you spin webs of the seat for me your house of illusion is shattered i'm awakened i am the buddha i'm paraphrasing edwin arnold put it much more beautifully um so that enlightenment is like that you have this festival of rain don't take it literally that oh i haven't seen the rainbow so i'm not enlightened or i saw a rainbow then i must be enlightened no it just means rainbow means what does the rainbow signify end of the rains basically so the storm is over there is a zen poem about it one of the haikus in japanese zen it says um the last cloud or the the storm is over the last clouds disappear sit the old mountain and i until only the mountain remains beautiful imagine this hermit who has been meditating all his life and makes the breakthrough and so the samsara has drained away from the sky there's no more storm clouds anywhere and he's sitting here and his old mountain where he has been sitting for years maybe this is until only the mountain remains and that is enlightenment that little self has gone forever and yet vedanta goes further that's not enough you have you have gone away from samsara but now you must come back as long as the body exists the world will have still appeared to you now what will happen is if one does not have the full blown liberation by living full-blown enlightenment perfection samsara will affect you the karma the past karma proud of the karma will keep on giving results pleasure and pain old age will come up for the body disease will come people will be nasty to you good things will come terror will come temptation will come so many things will come in your life and much more in your life than others samsara sort of speeds up trying to exhaust all the karma because they know this guy is gone forever they're not going to catch him anymore so you have all those experiences and you can still suffer you can still suffer you can still have problems with samsara until death comes and you're released forever so to prevent that i mean do all of this i once had to put it beautifully one monk put it beautifully what happens if you have not perfected the other components there are two other components the meditation and purification of the mind if you have not perfected them the monk said jivan mukti ke villakshan suk sevan the you will miss you will be deprived of you will lose the extraordinary delight of jivan mukti the freedom and joy of being still alive in this body it's like being in a lucid dream dream the dream is still continuing but you're perfectly aware that it's a dream um so that joy that tremendous freedom that will uh you will miss that and you will also not be a very effective teacher or guide for others if you're not a g1 mukta so all these these problems remain so what is the upshot the upshot is what krishna is telling you and what the that jivan mukti book tells us if you think you have got the breakthrough if you feel like that then don't go immediately on the lecture circuit you know book launch lecture circuit ted talk what you do is you plunge deeper into satan intensify your spiritual practices what practices exactly what you have been doing till now purification of the mind karma yoga bhakti yoga rajya yoga dhyani yoga all of those purify those you will you intensify those it will uh complete the purification of the mind and uh interiorization control of the mind in samadhi those things will come then you are a jivan mukta you are free forever you are free anyway at the end of this life you're free all of this you know the holy mother mah shahadah you put all of this in in a very simple words somebody she initiated somebody and this person said mother if i don't do the mantra then then what if i don't repeat it and the mother said my child since i have initiated you you have you need not have any fear at the point of death takur will come sriram krishna she says she would be very self-effacing it's the same thing she and sri ramakrishna will come and take you so you are safe that way then she says but if you want joy in this life the spiritual joy then you must do spiritual practices you have to repeat the mantra which is basically summing up all the complicated analysis i was giving you if you want the benefit here and now what was promised what was promised the complete transcendence of sorrow paramount attainment of the ultimate satisfaction fulfillment here and now in that case liberated by living is the goal and in that case this whole course has to be completed antibiotics you must finish the course if you stop halfway you may be safe but it's it's there's some damage done all right so you're safe but you need the third booster dose that completes the whole course of vaccinations um let's quickly look at the oh why did i say all this because the uh shloka says shanta rajasam brahma bhuta makal masham brahma bhutam according to all the commentators brahma bhutam literally it means being brahman literally it means being liberated by living jivan mukti now remember all of this was meditation so we are we are assuming you have got this control of the mind and you are able to focus deeply so manonasha that component is also checked you have completed your vedantic training we understand that you've got complete clarity of that you are brahmana so the tatwa gyana the realization of the reality is also checked the final thing is this um how do you pacify the restlessness of the mind akal masha purification of the mind the worldly desires lust and possession of property and name and fame and all of that the let's put it this way the desire to be an extraordinary person even that's a huge barrier that you will realize only we realize only as we proceed into higher levels of spiritual life trying to be an extraordinary person is a very good advice given to young people given to people who are making their way in life who want to achieve great things in life yes try to be great try to be extraordinary and there's a wealth of positive psychology and inspirational stories and so on which will help you there and it's really good even for spiritual life but at this stratospheric level at this everest level of spirituality you'll notice any kind of effort to glorify the personality is a huge barrier it drags you down immediately so this person should be as ordinary to make the person as ordinary so purification of the mind saints always try to be as these are extraordinary they fail to be ordinary because within our eyes they are so extraordinary but they themselves from their side they always try to be as humble as ordinary as possible i mentioned this because i was reading a buddhist text instruction to an old man given by padma sambhava the great master who transmitted buddhism from india to tibet this old man who served him i mentioned this on some other occasion old man who served him and after time came for the great master to leave the old man said that master gave me something which is direct and powerful and i am old i know i shall not live long i am not learned i am not a good meditator my mind is restless and so on i'm a very ordinary person and so give me something which is powerful which will give me enlightenment here and now so padmasambhava basically gives him that the zogchen teaching which is very close to the advaitha teachings that you are that ultimate reality in buddhist terms but there the point of this whole story is i noticed something beautiful he gave a few final uh instructions after giving the deep instruction about nature of emptiness that you are the the radiance of awareness and all of that you know i'm basically telling you that you are brahmana and all of that final instructions do not concern yourself about your possessions do not concern yourself about the health of the body and the you know just take care of the body but not about old age disease that don't worry about that do not concern yourself about your offspring do not con and all of that and one instruction was desire to die an ordinary person important so desire to but you have to understand it in context so this is the purification of the mind is that that vasanaksha purification of mind deep control of the mind through meditation and of course enlightenment altogether you are jivan mukta liberated while living let me quickly look at the comments raphael says i might have missed something the witness consciousness also witnessing our step by step remember witness consciousness is not witnessing anything witness consciousness is just a way of just language it just means consciousness ever shining so is it shining on our step-by-step meditation practice of course but if you don't do the step-by-step meditation practice it's still shining equally for somebody who has no interest in spirituality it's still shining equally that's what makes all kinds of activity possible it's just like this light which is shining on my face you are that light of consciousness witnessing has the sense of an activity that the mind can do suppose somebody tells you witness your thoughts be a witness to your thoughts don't get mixed up in your thoughts there is a buddhist practice a beautiful practice of standing on the bridge so this is a stream flowing past imagine and this little wooden bridge imagine you have to imagine a zen garden and you're standing on the bridge and you watch the stream flowing past so you're not being swept along in the stream thoughts perceptions desires attitudes memories they're all flowing past you're standing on the bridge and watching it nice you're not being swept aside you're not being swept along that's a practice the moment you stop doing it you're being swept along but whether you are practicing that standing on the bridge or you are you have jumped into the stream or you're being swept away in every case the witness consciousness is constant and shining that's what gives us the experience of life it seems that there is a gap between the practices we do and the witness consciousness that we are yes absolutely every practice that you do is with the body with the speech with the mind it only can point you towards the witness consciousness which you have to grasp by yourself sudhir ji says i read the dhaneshwari 3000 plus shlokas yes it's a detailed commentary but it's in marathi yes those who know marathi should read it though i have heard it's old marathi abhijit says i read in some book which are uh explained as bird movement of attention opposite direction beautiful i have not heard this one but it's good vijara means inquiry but here enquiry uh he says it's another etymological derivation of that term would be movement in the opposite direction true we're flowing outwards the movement in the opposite direction is is which are inquiry but this is self inquiry vedantic inquiry good good rodrigo says shouldn't vedanta meditation slip into samadhi yes it will in fact one of the commentators when he's in that verse it says do not think anything else once you have stabilized there one of the commentators says sridhara swami again he says stop trying to meditate at that point but that's an advanced instruction be careful with this instruction don't try to stop meditating now you'll fall asleep or be restless you have to make the effort up to that point but at that point you must stop trying to meditate otherwise that effort will itself create disturbance i'm jumping through shweta saying it says does the neuron fire first and then we get reminded that we had forgotten the object of meditation is it the other way around first recognition happens and then the neuron fires it happens simultaneously something for neuroscientists to think about all those you must have heard of the benjamin libit experiments where they found startling evidence that we think we are thinking and so i'm thinking and then therefore the machinery of the brain must work but benjamin limit found that the neurons are firing well ahead of our thoughts i think a particular thought but already the persons who are scanning my brain they know that i'm going to think that thought so that's very scary there's a lot of debate about it it's a pretty old experiment and more detailed analysis has been done on the libit experiments it really tallies with the gita in the one verse which krishna has repeated three or four times in the bhagavad-gita prakriti wakarmani nature does everything body brain nervous system is doing everything one who realizes this realizes consciousness does nothing very interesting another another place same verse in different language krishna says that prakriti is doing everything nature is doing everything body is doing everything your brain's nervous system is doing everything deluded by the activity of the ego consciousness feels i am the doer mediated by the ego ego is also part of an activity of the brain and this matches very well with what liberty is trying to say it would it would then follow that it's the basically the nature body mind which is doing everything and we think we are doing it srinivas raju says wherever the mind goes try to see brahmana yes approaching upper okanagood is there drink this shall be awake the same thing bill says the bhakta is trying to develop love deep love is not yet there distraction happens all the time what to do bring it back more love and do what can evoke the feeling of love it could be music it could be like a flower offering it could be prayer prayer works it's very powerful and after to a certain extent or for a long time prayer is more powerful than trying to meditate and alpana says sangeeta says similar to the caution in the gyana margaret is there a danger of satwik or developing in this path process of meditation if yes out recognize and avoid it it's a good question um maybe next time i can deal with it other time after that and arjuna will ask questions about the difficulties on the path of meditation yes there's always the danger of pride in being a meditator one sign of a pride is a kind of selfishness my peace of mind my meditation ours somebody in the next i know from the experience in the monastery and in the in the himalayas also i literally experienced this someone in the next room is sick nobody's bothered it's my time for studies my time for meditation no what about what serving same brahman you're talking about is they're being sick [Music] so it's it's a kind of selfishness which comes and that's an obstacle how do you avoid it one powerful way of avoiding all these obstacles and overcoming them and managing them is the harmony of the four yogas that's why swami vivekananda said it's a safe and wholesome path have all these components in your life vedantic inquiry of course but have a devotional component have a meditation component and have a service component in your spiritual practice in your spiritual day what happens to subtle body in mind in sleep that it doesn't respond to external touch stimuli because it gets merged in the causal body that is the definition of deep sleep says the realization of the highest knowledge itself requires a very quiet and reflective mind absolutely how does one progress move from temporarily experiencing reflected consciousness to finally realizing pure consciousness that is the whole effort that's what we are trying to do i will just stop here because we have really run out of time yes um and we'll take it up next time some more very beautiful verses are coming up and after that an important section when arjun asks the question which usually is there in everybody's mind and arjuna will he sort of reigns on krishna's parade by saying all this is really useless it doesn't work it's too difficult how can my meditation be better he asks that question foreign