Video 85

85. Bhagavad Gita I Chapter 6 Verses 28-29 I Swami Sarvapriyananda

[Music] guru so we have been studying the sixth chapter of the bhagavad-gita which specializes in meditation meditation for what meditation for self-realization or realization of our nature as brahman and we were on verse number 27 we had finished and i think we're going to go on to 29 onwards so till now krishna has taught arjuna the method of meditation all the practical details first of all of course the moral ethical preparation given by karma yoga and then you know how to say it the posture the breathing where to keep your eyes and then the withdrawal of the senses and focus and then deepening the meditation up to samadhi and that leads to that moment intuitive moment of realization that i am the atman now in the 28th verse krishna says verse number 28 chapter six [Music] the yogi was entirely free from taint constantly controlling the mind verse attains easily the infinite bliss of union with brahman yunjin even practicing in this way which way the way which has been taught till now um all the time all the time in the sense of continuously systematically giving it some effort for a long period of time we got the kalman purified so this is is stressed again and again this is very important the moral and ethical practices which leads to a satwik state of mind a pure state of mind without which these things are not possible neither deep meditation is not is possible nor genuine love of god is possible and let alone that enlightenment i am brahman these are not possible one swami senior swami gave us an ancient example that without purification of mind without the sufficient preparation when one engages in vedanta one may actually feel that i have got it i've understood what's being taught but how do i know whether it's real or not the test is very simple are you getting the result does it take you across sorrow has it taken you beyond samsara are you really can you honestly claim that you do not have suffering in your life and can you honestly claim that you are completely at peace with everything you one can always take a look at oneself one's own inner state so what is that that feeling that i've got it so it's an ancient example this swami swami pitambar the jesus he told us that um it's like a man sitting under a mango tree near a like a pool there's a mango tree and in the reflected in the pool he sees a mango and he says ah so this is what is eating the mango no you haven't even seen it let alone touch it nor smelt it not tasted it let alone eating it completely so you are just seeing a reflection of the mango and then it remains to be seen and touched and savored and then eaten and nourished so that is the extent of uh enlightenment which is the extent of realization this is a difference and the difference is not so much in technique it's not so much in philosophy uh it's basically the purification of the mind wigata kalmasha purifying the mind easily so without the purification of mind it's a terrible struggle uh with sufficient purification sufficient uh purity of mind giving up desires a contentment regarding the world a genuine love of god arises or genuine inquiry into brahman arises and that person can spiritual life becomes easy for the easier for that person brahma samspersham literally means the touch of brahman now from an advaithi perspective there's of course no touch of brahman you are you are brahman that's what you realize attains uh limitless place what is this limitless bliss we have discussed this earlier um the vishayananda bhajananda and brahmana the ananda which comes from contact with sense objects the joy of of spiritual life of renunciation of devotion of meditation of vedantic inquiry and selfless service this is and finally beyond all of this is brahmananda the bliss that is brahman itself it's not another kind of bliss but it is brahman so this is the result the nature of this illumination is now given in the next verse twenty-ninth verse what is the nature of this so sriracha never tires of coming back to this theme and it's a magnificent verse basically this is what i will dwell on for the rest of today's class let me chant it and we'll see why it's so great 29th verse money what does it mean that man whose mind is absorbed in yoga and who sees the same brahman everywhere sees the self in all beings and all beings in the self so the self in all beings and all beings in the self this is a phrase which we come across time and again across the vedantic texts right from the upanishads and bhagavad-gita and other places also it's scattered but this very phrase it comes multiple times sarvava bhutastamat maanam the self in all beings and all beings in the self just examples most famous example of course the first earliest one we get is from the isho upanishad the famous ishopanesha which starts off with that very famous mantra in everything that moves and does not move in all beings and everything that entity that exists god alone pervades everything or ever you have to dis you have to see god in everything so that is the famous first line of the first mantra of the ish open mahatma gandhi famously said that if all of hinduism were to disappear and just this first line of the first mantra of this one upanishad remained all of hinduism would remain so that's the first one but there are other famous mantras there which i will chant to you now this is from the ish openish which is exactly what we read in the gita just now what does it say it says the sixth and the seventh mantras of the issue yes sir he who sees all beings in the self and the self in all beings feels no hatred by virtue of that realization seventh mantra yes sorry yes means when to that one of realization all beings become the very self then what delusion and what sorrow can there be for that fear of oneness or another way translated in the self capital s of the one who is realized in which all beings become the self what delusion and what sorrow can remain for that seer of oneness more or less the same thing so you see ishopanishad says exactly what we just read then um [Music] a new verse from the manus mriti and that's interesting i just came across it today the 12th chapter the um last chapter actually of the manuscript the 91st verse of the 12th chapter yes foreign the atma yaji which means the one the self sacrificer we'll see what that means later who sees the self in all beings and all beings in the self by that realization sees the sameness everywhere oneness everywhere and attains or realizes his own empire swaraj you realize you attain to your own empire we'll see that a little later basically what does it mean you see on each other to see the self in all beings and all beings in the cell now notice the very first thing it's it's counterintuitive where do i find myself only in myself here and everybody is not myself you are all not myself everybody is different from me i am separate from everybody else the moment i say sarva bhutas in all beings and all living beings i find myself this distinction between i and the other is erased so ami virajan and beautifully he was the president of our order he beautifully says this body and this world are revealed to me at once either i am all of it or none of it this is the meaning of this phrase actually so when i say i find myself in all beings in that case this whole distinction of i and the other i and you this is i and this is mine and that's you and that's yours this distinction disappears this is the um first thing that we get here that you see an underlying oneness um and this is the sankey and realization not sanction sorry this is the realization that i am not the body not the mind and this pure consciousness and this pure consciousness alone is the same in all beings in 13th chapter krishna will say imam with the shaytarish in all these fields there is the knower of the field in each body and mind the knower you the one you feel yourself in all these fields knower of the field is actually one the fields are different bodies are different minds are different but behind them there is one knower of the field so this is the first meaning that the distinction between i and you i and mine and everything else is other than this this distinction disappears i am one in all beings but further server bhutanese all beings are in me this means the distinction between and i'll explain this technically it is called adhishtan and abdhastha the distinction is not there it's not like there are two things you know there's one reality underlying reality and there is a something else separate a world and other beings there's one consciousness and then everything else is separate from it the universe is separate material beings are separate our bodies are separate there are millions of bodies and minds no all of them are nothing but this underlying reality it erases the distinction between the pot and the clay between the ornament and the gold we must understand what gold is to see the one one reality underlying all ornaments but then we must also see all the ornaments are not different from this code first of all what did you do gold is not a bracelet gold is not a necklace gold is not a not a ring yeah water is not a wave or a bubble or a foam or surf you know what water is you know what gold is having discovered that the one reality underlying all waves all surf and all foam having discovered that you realize that waves surf foam are nothing but water it's one reality you realize that the necklace and bracelet and ring are nothing but gold it's one reality a variety of pots and jars they are nothing but clay it's one reality first you must separate and then you see the oneness in sanskrit this is called adhishtana and adhastha the ground or the foundation and the appearance they are one and the same thing um let me go back to the the manusmithy verse it's it's very interesting it says yaji means the sacrifice the one who does vedic sacrifices so that one sees all beings this is the all beings in the self and the self in all beings and um sees oneness and realizes his own empire that's the beautiful way of swaraj a beautiful way of expressing liberation enlightenment so what is this self-sacrifice the the conventional meaning of course in the in the vedic context is people performed religious religious rituals we have seen this in the qatar peninsula we were it's all about those rituals you were thinking we were studying all that fire is lit a fire altar is built according to specifications a sacred fire is lit there are priests who chant the mantras offerings are poured into the mantras and there is a particular intention behind it the good karma generated from this will give me my desired object so on this is external yagya or external fire sacrifice but there must come a time when this devout vedic fire sacrificer the religious person of those days when this person would um do it internally so instead of an external fire altar and a fire being lit so within oneself one would visualize the entire thing that's a more advanced practice and that has carried over to modern hinduism you have an elaborate puja there's a deity and there are offerings and their flowers and fruits and incense mantras are chanted you show the various hand symbols the mudras and so on an elaborate puja is done but there's also mana sapuja mental worship where everything is visualized offerings are visualized the deity is visualized the lotus in the heart is visualized the whole thing is mental so that's that's the preliminary meaning of the sacrifice or the ritual being performed internally in one's mind that's called sacrifice within oneself but that's not what is meant here this is higher this is philosophical this is metaphysical this is very deep what is meant here is we are pure consciousness and now with the appearance of a mind and a body this pure consciousness reflected in the mind as the reflected consciousness now identifies itself as a person when this person realizes i'm not the body i am not the mind i am the witness consciousness when this person realizes shankaracharya sings i am not the mind not the intellect not the memory not even the ego what then what am i i'm of the nature of pure consciousness i am i'm shiva i'm shiva this realization where you sacrifice this apparent self into the real self where you merge this i thought i was this person i merge my individuality or my reality back to the pure consciousness this is called atmayaji so basically the realization i am not this person i am the witness of this person i am not this limited being and the awareness which is appearing as this limited being just this realization itself is called the self-sacrifice you sacrifice the lower self the apparent self the emergent self back into the background the ground of this you know uh what is what eckhart calls maestro record calls the ground of my soul back into that and how do you merge it back by understanding by realizing this is called atmayaji and when he does this what happens you see the our likes and dislikes our fears psychologically this is what roots us in samsara i am this body i am and i and mine this is my personality and now i there are things which i want and there is desire there are things and people and situations which i'm scared of which i dislike there is repulsion dwaysha so raga and vaisha and overall behind it all is fear fear is fundamental to the human psyche fear of many many things from physical fear of physical death to subtle things fear of being insulted fear of losing health fear whatever all sorts of fears huge range of fears they give rise to samsara and modern psychologists agreed entirely now what this atma yaji does is this is very beautiful that the object of attraction and the attraction are merged back into pure awareness behind the attraction and the object of attraction is pure awareness in awareness only you become aware of that cookie in awareness only you become aware of the desire for the cookie if you if you focus back from the cookie and the desire for the cookie into the the awareness which is shining on that you have merged the cookie and the desire for the cookie back into the awareness it is in awareness only that i become aware of something that i dislike or someone it is like and in that awareness only the feeling of dislike dwisha arises when i realize the light in which the disliked object is shining and the dislike or the hatred is shining that is called merging the object of ishaya and the dislike duesha back into consciousness let me do this and because i am not the little person there is nothing that i've got to be afraid of i the awareness i'm not subject to birth i'm not subject to aging not subject to death i am not subject to the passing moods fancies depressions miseries of the mind i illumine all of them i reveal all of them but i am not tainted by them so fear goes away i am beyond fear in fact enlightenment one of the descriptions of enlightenment is fearless when the emperor janaka attained enlightenment his master told him oh emperor jennifer you have attained fearlessness you didn't say you have attained brahman you are now enlightened self-realized whatever you have attained fearlessness so the atmayaji is free of raga dwesha and bhaya of the attractions and the repulsions and the fear which characterizes samsara this is freedom freedom from samsara um then the next one i wanted to say was okay in the gita itself the result of this is mentioned of seeing all beings in the self and the self in all beings you see here itself we will do these verses later but 31st verse if you see 6th chapter 6 31st but just two verses ahead it says what is the result of this realization whatever be the condition whether you are in a hospital bed and um dying at an old age or sitting in meditation giving up the body or somebody dies in an accident or in the midst of plenty and fame and or in poverty and forgotten whatever be the condition even physically in a coma body is in a coma mind is shut down even that condition whatever is always in me he says this yogi is always in me in me means you are always brahmana this is one result and the same thing in the 13th chapter it says in chapter 13 verse um [Music] 23 chapter 13 it says the result is this person will never be born again will never be born again so whatever be the condition as far as the world is concerned as far as the body and mind is concerned you are brahmana this is called jivan mukti in the while living in the in this life here itself and the next thing is after death this one is never born again this is called bide the the meaning of these two jeevan mukti is liberated by living video mukti is freedom um the bodyless freedom that means not to be born not being born again these are said to be the two results of liberation of of enlightenment i mean it's the same thing you are brahmana but practically it looks like these two things as long as the body is there this person is uh the enlightened person liberated by living this um um one second while the um other one is after the death of this body this is the last life so this person will never be born in a limited in a as an individual again this is called moksha so while living always whatever the condition of life you are brahman and after the death of this body you're not born again so this is the result then another point i wanted to mention was um if this is not realized this means i am that reality in all beings number one and all beings are appearances in me if you put them together it becomes oneness i'll repeat that um i am the same in all beings that is one and those all beings the moment i say all beings there's a there's a change of difference there there are so many bodies and so many minds and so many non-living things what are they they are nothing other than i i alone appear as that so this is oneness now suppose this is not their contrast it with our pre-enlightenment stage our ordinary stage the stage of samsara what happens there there's no oneness there's sat existence is an other to you chit consciousness is an other to you ananda bliss is an other when existence sat is an other it's not me then i'm dependent i am dependent on life and death then i i struggle to live in this body and i'm terrified of death because my existence depends on the other on the continued existence of the body and the continued existence of the mind this quest for physical immortality quest for uploading our mind to the cloud or whatever it is what is it what is this what does this show it shows that i'm terribly dependent for my existence on something else but when your existence itself you don't depend on something else you are immortal your existence is assured because you are being your business chit consciousness that there is this conscious being called god if it is other than my consciousness if it is a separate consciousness then it's imagination even the very idea that there are so many conscious beings here it's something that we infer that as i am conscious clearly within myself all these people here looking at me through zoom they also must be conscious unless they are zombies so it's imagine and so there is a supreme conscious being called god it's still imagined if it if chit or consciousness is an other if ananda bliss is an other it's not you then you are needy you become needy i am going around with a begging bowl in the world give me some happiness give me some bliss give me some joy whereas what this one says is that joy is your very nature that chit or consciousness is you and that existence being is you it can never be lost you are neither born nor will you ever die consciousness consciousness is ever revealed you don't have to imagine it it's it is that which powers all imagination reveals everything so it's continuously blazing forth right now and bliss we don't have to go around in the world begging from money or little appreciation little attention little relationship a little power status for happiness no so this is the thing the distinction between othering and oneness and this is the teaching of oneness okay big point so i was reading this um great swami akandan under saraswati who lived in the mid 20th century and after that also his teachings are mostly in hindi and sanskrit so he says in his commentary on this verse he says that this money this is a mahavakya what is a mahavatya this is equivalent to our mahabharata what those great sentences you find in the upanishads which sum up the entirety of vedanta that thou art tatwa masih i am brahman like that you say is you or i my real nature your real nature and sarva server bhutani chat money all beings in the self that is god's real nature and the two are one and the same this is how it's a mahabharata let's go into this we'll see so sarva bhutas in all beings there is the atman the self moment you say the word bhuta that's etymologically it means an entity which comes into being it's born and it it arises it's produced it exists for some time then it dies or it's destroyed that's a bhuta and there are there are many in number that's why sarva many many booths are all different from each other all different from each other they come and go they're born they exist they play around and they disappear in all this changing multitude there is one underlying unchanging reality it is this one consciousness in all beings see when we investigate ourselves what are we basically you can't say this is body no more fundamental is the fact that we are basically experienced think about it this way the most general description that we can give about ourselves is anubhuti experience is it not so he said no no i'm this body no and this body is having an experience no this body is revealed to you in experience it's an experience for you this body thoughts i am this person that's an experience for you being this person thoughts emotions this is an experience so what is an experience an experience is consciousness plus an object consciousness plus an object think about it you are awareness and an object comes up in you and then then the two come together it's called an experience it's like light and an object this is light all around suddenly an object comes it reflects light you see something similarly consciousness like a light is there always you are that then an object comes what's an object a sight a smell a taste a thought an emotion a memory a desire you have an experience you say i see i hear i smell i taste i touch i think i remember i desire i understand so consciousness plus object is experience and our life is only series of experiences now see in all these experiences thoughts come and go consciousness is the same behind every thought is the same consciousness memories arise and disappear they fade away sometimes distorted sometimes you remember or sometimes you cannot recall behind it all is the behind the functioning of the memory is consciousness behind the key in memory is consciousness and behind the fading memory loss of recall is consciousness consciousness does not become keying or dulled it reveals the keen memory of the dull memory behind emotions all kinds of emotions happy and sad um you know angry and peaceful every kind of emotional state it there must be awareness behind all actions walking talking eating cooking jogging whatever you're doing this is new york marathon is going to come so the huge preparations are going on here in um central park so on sunday new york madison so when you're jogging in marathon you're running awareness is it it's it has to be an awareness behind all actions behind waking dreaming even deep sleep is that one awareness one consciousness this one consciousness in all beings it is the same consciousness you might say in all my states there's the same consciousness how do i know it's the same in you because the consciousness in itself has no difference the bodies are different minds are different but consciousness is not different this is the argument of advaita against sankhya anyway so one consciousness in all beings this is called saruba bhutas born existing dying server difference many many difference when you use the sanskrit words it means it is unchangeably one and unchangeably beyond any possibility of change so that one consciousness one awareness whatever you call it in the midst of the birth existence and deaths of all entities in the midst of the variety of those entities this is uh now going further all these beings all these bodies minds objects universes objects which give us experience where are these objects in which screen is this movie playing here is the master stroke it is in the same consciousness it is in you and look at it in your experience it's a fact you look at any experience where are the objects that you experience what do i mean by this is is this object extern in this book it's an object it gives me an experience what experience i see this book now is this object outside my awareness or in my awareness what i mean is my awareness is there book is there like the light in a sense this book is outside the light because the light can exist without the book and book can exist without the light the separate things light falls on the book and reveals it so is my consciousness like that or is this book internal to my consciousness what i mean is do i have any sense of there was a book outside and here was my consciousness now the book has entered my consciousness no there is no where is the limit of my consciousness where is the boundary of my awareness i'm aware of there is no boundary there you say no there is a boundary you cannot see outside your room swami but i my i cannot see outside my room but i am aware here is the limit of my sight and there is something beyond this limit of my side that's still within my awareness as the great unknown it's not within my sight that's why vedanta makes a distinction between knower and consciousness knowing and awareness pramata this different difference is made so there are things which are known and things which are unknown vedanta never suggests that if something you don't know does not exist no what vedanta suggests is everything exists in awareness some of it is known and a vast amount of it is unknown when awareness deploys the mind and the instruments of knowledge it knows something otherwise everything is presented to that awareness is a as a general mass of the unknown but other than awareness there's no limit to this awareness there's no margin to this awareness so all the beings not only is awareness one and the same in all beings but all of these beings are in awareness are indistinguishable from awareness are appearances of awareness three stages all beings in this universe are presented to you the awareness in you the awareness as nothing but you the awareness it appears as different from you none of these things appear as awareness but they appear as computers books people but they are nothing but other than this awareness shining forces all these things therefore all beings are in awareness means all beings are nothing other than the awareness they're not you don't literally say all beings are awareness it doesn't seem so it doesn't seem very logical to say that but then nothing other than awareness can be logically proved it can be proved logically it can be proved can be tracked in our own experience i'm using words carefully here now put it together you are the one consciousness in all beings this is your real nature and all beings this entire universe is an appearance in consciousness that one consciousness in which all beings are appearing and you the consciousness behind this body mind all experiences this one consciousness this is the meaning of me or that thou art if you just remain with i am the consciousness which is illumining all the activities in this body and mind that's sankhya that's where drink drisa the separation of the seer and the scene takes you up to that much but what about this vast universe this universe is an appearance in consciousness so this cosmos take the example of our dreams this is a good example suppose i'm walking around in my dream i don't know it's a dream i am just i think i'm just taking a walk in the park here is the park here are people here are carriages horse carriages and and so that was amazed to see rickshaws in new york you know so there are rickshaws but the rickshaws here are all for rich people um so they charge you 4.99 per person per minute so if you take a uh so five dollars let's say two people sit and go in a rickshaw for 30 minutes you get charged 300. which is more than the price you played for paid for the air ticket to come into manhattan in the first place from many places in usa so um all of these are there i'm seeing all of them now and i also feel i am a person here and i'm aware but when i wake up i realize that person i felt and the awareness there and all those things that person was seeing in the dream the whole thing was an appearance in me the dreamer that's what i realized exactly like that everything that you see here and you yourself are this one consciousness this is the meaning of this that's why that swami called it a mahavakya when you say sarva bhutastamat malam in all changing multi-various beings one consciousness and all changing multivarious beings in that one consciousness not distinguishable from that one consciousness so you have got oneness this is called this is that's why it's a mahabharata it does not stop with sankhya it does not stop with the realization of one consciousness within then he goes on the sanctuary sees realizes realizes this person who is yoga two words are used yoga yupta who is in yoga and sarvatra samadar seeing the same in everything these two are the two states samadhi being in samadhi so the mind this is the samadhi which krishna has been teaching arjuna all throughout in the sixth chapter being in samadhi shutting down the senses with drawing inwards focusing um emptying the mind and becoming aware of awareness i am the self and the rupa shivoham staying with that you get a mind gets absorbed in samadhi like the flame which unflickering flame of a lamp in a windless place in that state brahman and ramana alone that infinite consciousness alone but objectless and then he says this next word he uses is startling suddenly everything sarvatra means everywhere samandrasana means seeing the same so everywhere and time and space and objects have all appeared now they have all appeared and yet this person sees the same thing which which same thing the same realization which he had in samadhi he sees that sudam krishna put it very simply that when i close my eyes god is there and if i open my eyes god is not there what kind of god would that be so this is the same god with eyes closed the same god with eyes open what ramana maharishi called sahaja samadhi the natural samadhi so samadhi not only just the yogic withdrawal and absorption within but natural with eyes open with the mind thinking with the body working everywhere the same in the midst of work brahma pranam ramahabi that verse it says brahma the one who sees brahman in all actions that means you are acting you're actually doing work but there is that one reality all the time in the midst of the active mind it's not that the mind becomes very serene and absorbed then you can't work the mind is furiously active you may be doing office work or house work or whatever it is and yet you know it is the same reality this is knowledge see here is this difference between yogic samadhi and advaithic samadhi yogic samadhi is control of the mind it is generated held on and dissipates it comes and it goes advaitic samadhi's knowledge you realize your brahmana and that brahman does not come and go does not arise or dissipate once you realize what that is it's there all the time it's always available or somebody says this there's a website for that never not here very nice phrase never not here it is always here instead of saying always here positively it's even more accurate to say never not here always here somewhat it means that you are always thinking about it you may not think about it do you always so i am server priyanka do i always think i'm sorry and i'm server priyanka i have to practice server priyanka samadhi otherwise the server priyanka will disappear no it's not going anywhere unfortunately so i don't have to practice samadhi on server piano it's always never not here it's always available so that is the meaning of sarvatra samadar yoga in samadhi and out of samadhi why this is important is in the second chapter arjuna had asked krishna then the description of the enlightened one he called it stabilized wisdom it's very evocative for a non-dualist because after getting a breakthrough after clarity dawns the next complaint is it's not stable it comes and goes i keep forgetting or it slips away it doesn't actually that's still the mind but still when you say stabilized wisdom that means a jivan muktan who is actually liberated by living now arjuna asks how does this person walk in prabhas how does he talk how does he interact with sense objects and how does he meditate so one is the meditative state and the other one is the uh engaged state in sanskrit samadhi tamadista absorbed in samadhi arising from samadhi so the two words here refer respectively to two of these two yoga yukta means absorbed in samadhi and sarvatra samadarsana seeing the same reality everywhere is arising from samadhi because everywhere all objects are there which means you're already active you're seeing you're interacting with the world and yet you see it's the same reality and what is that reality it's you this is the realization of the advaitic brahman and that swami who gave it all these things he said in hindi very rhetorically very powerful it may sound shocking it's not meant as a criticism of any particular path but he says this not notice what he says he says what kind of enlightenment have you got do you have got this enlightenment after many spiritual practices i here in this body i am free now i have realized i am brahmana and there are those people in there those bodies they have not done spiritual practices they are far behind they are not liberated this is liberation with respect to one body in hindi he puts it is this a knower of difference other known of non-duality doesn't have the same punch in english so are you and what have you realized you have realized difference you have realized duality notice how tiny your realization is i am the one who has realized in this my realization is centered around one body in this body is the realized one which i am and in all those bodies are not the ignorant ones who have not done spiritual practice they are in bondage no that's a body-centric realization mind-centric realization i have practiced the samadhi taught by krishna and now in this samadhi mind mind absorbed in samadhi stilled in samadhi this is realization enlightenment liberation depends on the mind depends on the peace and lack of peace in one mind no not even that so this teaching all beings in the self and the self in all beings it goes beyond that it it makes us rise above a body centric realization a mind-centric realization even a samadhi centric realization this realization is realization of the reality which is always there how is it different after all spiritual practices when i find that i am enlightened realize when what will it be like it will be like there's this one reality it's not that those are people who are not enlightened yet and i i am so enlightened [Music] one theologian he says what are the joys of heaven what are the joys of heaven when you go after death you go to heaven so the theologian said one of the joys is from heaven you look down upon the suffering people in hell and you delight in it and so that's one of the perks of being in heaven is not very heavenly at all but so you don't feel that oh there are all these limited beings who are not enlightened no i realize brahman and raman alone exists all these limited beings and they're not realization is an appearance it's not that they're not enlightened they're not free they are free because they are brahmana i know they are pretending not to know that's all that's the only difference after samadhi i get this insight i am the witness consciousness i am the one reality in all beings all beings are in me then it is not dependent on the samadhi anymore whether this particular mind goes into samadhi arises from samadhi is restless is at peace i am ever the same not a body dependent enlightenment not a mind-dependent enlightenment not a samadhi dependent enlightenment that is true enlightenment that is advaithic enlightenment [Music] um one how are we doing for time almost gone it's a big topic i'll just touch upon it and then i'll stop sama darshana literally it means seeing the same brahman everywhere but the word darshana is also the word for philosophy in india and it also means seeing the meaning of philosophy in india is seeing i mentioned it in other contexts but let me repeat it here what i want to say is this first of all when we were taught philosophy as novices we were always taught western philosophy is philosophy love of wisdom philosophia and indian philosophies darshan are seeing the ultimate reality and these two are different so western philosophy is thinking about subjects of philosophical interest but no i have mentioned this earlier also i read this in a book by luke ferry in the history of thought which is a sort of french introduction to western philosophy there he says philosophy is not the right term the right term is theory and then the etymological it derives theory as theos around or something like that which means seeing the ultimate reality the seeing the divinity or seeing real it's exactly the same meaning as darshan so darshana seeing the brahman everywhere but also philosophy now the point i want to make here is in all vedantic texts you will find many philosophical viewpoints are discussed why are they discussed and how does it help you to come to the advaithic realization so this swami whom i'm quoting akandan sarsiti he says it is actually important to get a general idea of these philosophical viewpoints and see why they are not right or how what is the particular perspective from which they are speaking and rise above that if you don't he says he says i've seen many people in my life who after studying little bit of vedanta here little bit of this and that finally slipped back ultimately to a gross materialistic perspective because they have not evaluated these philosophical perspectives materialist perspective is a perspective but it's a perspective you have to see what from what what point of view it is said and what are its limitations and how advaita helps you to come up rise above that i remember when i was a novice another brahmachary another novice monk very brilliant young man once he confronted me with this question why do we study the char walkers the meemam sakuras the buddhists and the giants and the sankhyas have you ever come across some imam sakh on the street outside who catches hold of you and attacks non-dualism no and for the most part these are all dead and gone in dusty old books they don't exist in modern life anymore so why study them the reason that the young monk told me the reason is there is a charvaka within us there is a subjective idealist vignava the buddhist within us there is an emptiness philosopher should nevadi within us and unless these aspects are addressed understood and transcended they will uh they will bug you they'll come back the americanism they'll come back to bite you and later on in philosophical life there are any number of intellectuals people who have studied philosophy vedanta and all and sort of remain some kind of materialist so darshan or some other you have to rise above this what i was going to say is just indicate it and stop there is no time um shankara he criticizes the buddhist what is this all about swami vivekananda says in one place the ancient battle between the realists and the idealists in ancient india this is being played out all over again in the west so bishop berkeley's subjective idealism everything is in the mind and the realists who say though there's an external real world outside the mind this battle between realists and idealists it was an ancient battle in india more than a thousand years ago the hindu dualists like the philosophers vaishika philosophers who were realists the world exists outside your mind yes you have a mind in your mind there are thoughts but there are there are entities outside the outside the mind this is your own body for one there are other people there are other objects there's the universe out there and your thoughts are about that universe but the universe doesn't exist in your thought it has its independent existence a common sense approach you might say which is very fashionable today because of the prestige of science and also idealism is out of the is out of fashion and realism is in passion these days what did the idealist say the idealist says that um everything is in the mind look every experience that you have is in the mind you cannot leave the mind out of any experience and because you've had no experience ever it's impossible to have an experience without the mind then you have no right to speak about objects existing apart from the mind even if they do exist it's a subtle distinction even if they do exist you have no access to them only thing you have access to are the contents of your own mind think about it is it true or not so this was bishop barkley's big thing subjective idealism and a thousand years before bishop barkley more than a thousand years the buddhist vigyanawa is they said this there's a huge centuries-long debate between the hindu realists and the vikyana you would expect shankara being a non-dualist advaitan to be sympathetic to the buddhist idealist because after all what does advaita say just now we read all the self in all beings all beings in the self aren't you saying the entire universe is appearing in consciousness the buddhist is just saying about a variation of the same thing no shankara takes up the buddhist idea list and subjects it a very forensic analysis every argument of the buddhist is taken and taken apart and shankara uses very realist arguments he seems to say there is a real world outside your mind the world is not a creation of your mind and there are beautiful arguments i was just reading its coincidence that i'm talking about today i was reading a paper by professor andrew chakravarti the idealist refutation of idealism so shankara being an idealist he refutes the buddhist idealism but why and why am i bringing it up here why does he refute the buddhist idealist because there's a huge mistake one might make go back to the dream example let's forget that we don't we don't know it's a dream you are in your own dream you're walking around meeting people things are good and bad are happening and you don't know you are dreaming now what is the experience like there are people there there are objects there there's a virtual dream world you don't know it's a dream world and you are there there's the person in sanskrit they call it swapna purusha the person in the dream who's walking around interacting a lot like our modern virtual environments you are introduced into a virtual environment and it's there now it feels like there is a world outside and i am here here is my body here is my mind and there is a world outside now it is not true for that person to claim that this world outside is in my mind it's not this person and this person's mind and the world he's inhabiting the whole thing is in the dreamer's mind but not that this particular person's world is in his own mind the dream individual and the dream world dream world is not in the dream individual's mind it's in the dream individual and the dream world are both in the dreamers mind similarly come back to the waking world the it's not that the waking world is the creation of sarbapriyan in this mind not at all in that sense shankara vedanta accepts the realist position but goes further and says the so-called real world and this individual who is experiencing the real world outside not just mind real world there the whole thing is an appearance in consciousness which i the individual really am so this thing shankara wants to prove he doesn't want to say that the world is a figment of your individual imagination no so samadhar you you realize the one reality behind everything and through this approach what will be the result of this we will see next the 31st verse 30th and 31st verse we'll see i think we just saw the 29th verse 30th 31st verses we'll see and then the 32nd verse is very interesting you see it is what is called the golden rule it's there in all religions of the world it's one common the highest teaching of all religions highest ethical teaching of all religions and found in all religions and here in hinduism we'll find it here in the 32nd verse it's there in the united nations if you go to the third floor of the headquarters u.n headquarters there's a half-ton mosaic which is which shows the golden rule treat others as you would have them treat you and here the golden rule is derived from vedanta so that we will come we'll see all right sorry for this long rant i really like this this verse so prabhu vasu says bhagavad-gita 5 18 which also talks about samadhina it's the same thing the same theme comes up multiple times in the gita dima says if i understood correctly in order to experience itself higher self needs enlightened jiva and why such a precious entity dissolves after the death of the physical body no you as pure consciousness you are experiencing yourself throughout the entire universe you see in our state it seems like that brahman pure consciousness whatever you call it needs me to experience itself actually it's the other way around i need it to experience anything at all to have give anything existence and to illumine anything at all i need it we need it it does not need any of us it's perfectly all right in the you know when the entire universe collapses per layer there's no universe there's no bodies minds no living beings brahman is perfectly all right it's no less and when the entire universe is there all this is going on brahman hasn't increased an ayat it's the same same infinity rick says some say that things only come into existence when someone perceives them i think you're saying vedanta disagrees with that in general yet yes so they have to be careful here in general yes vedanta disagrees with them vedanta says just treat it as your common sense approach things exist you experience them and then that gives you the experience of things but youth experiencer and the existing things are none other than the underlying brahman so in that sense they are all one reality so that's what the two-level truth is important but why am i careful here there is a flavor of vedanta which says exactly exactly what you just said things pop into existence only because we perceive them exactly like the dream so in dreams what happens things pop into existence because we perceive them in the dream otherwise they don't exist the moment you stop dreaming everything pops out of existence so that that particular flavor of vedanta called vrishti srishtivada and the name is very evocative seeing is creation the vada means the position that seeing is creation perceived perceiving his existence is very much like subjective idealism but here it's not the mind both mind and the world they pop into existence because you are this one consciousness but when this consciousness is not objectifying things the objects don't exist anymore and that is a sub-school a very radical kind of vedant and if you pursue it little further you will see it leads straight to what is called aka jivawada that there is only one being only one sentient being there is only one see when you are dreaming you are there and there are many people in the dream but when you wake up you realize there was only really one person in the dream you the dreamer and all those persons in the dream were in your dream viewed you were only one and among them you are only one so in this all of us sitting here and the seven billion people on this earth presumably and billions of other beings who is that one being who's dreaming all this when that one being stops dreaming will all disappear because we don't exist other than that being who is that who's that guy and adventurer says it's you which you any any one of you but then how can it be then there's so many of us no there's only one of you why this why why are these separate uh philosophies which one is true then is seeing is creation true or creation exists before seeing none of them are true you have to see the vedantic position none of them are true the vedantic position is that things do not come into existence nothing has ever come into existence brahman is the only thing that ever which can be said to exist or it is existence itself that's the only truth to realize this that truth we have these different pathways these tracks these are methodologies they are not claimed to be the truth do things come into existence when i perceive them or do they exist before i perceive them advaith actually will say neither neither has anything come into existence when you perceive them nor do things exist when you do not perceive them because nothing exists at all except brahman that's advaita's position actual position and all of these the rest because we are a little nuts the advaitha comes down to our level and develops this these nutty paradigms according to our the flavor of nut we like and then guides us back to that reality these are called prakrias methodologies algorithms alpena says after understanding this and being fully convinced about oneness how to make this experience fine mind that is the whole technique purification of the mind concentration of mind and then the study of vedanta which will lead to illumination patrick says can you explain again the difference between everything is consciousness and everything is nothing other than consciousness right so everything is nothing other than consciousness means consciousness alone exists but when you say everything is consciousness it means somehow everything exists and sort of made up of conscious consciousness it's not that there are things and they are made up of consciousness or consciousness you know that god is all beings this is that that famous poem mary hale wrote to swami vivekananda i have understood what you thought you are taught that everything is god so i'm vivekananda wrote back saying that i've never taught such strange doctrines that everything is god and she was stunned you said it said no what i said was god only is everything is not another way of saying this is everything is nothing but god or everything is nothing but consciousness with a capital c rodrigo says each veda is a text and also a deity and it's vedic mantras are texts with deity and shakti in vedanta the mahabharata is a super compressed information a particular teaching of the best of a particular person and we actively do shavana manana needed hassan is there any value in a mechanical mahavakya ah so japa a repetition no repetition of a mahavakya will at the most will help you to remember them but mahavakya is mahavakya means that thou art i am brahman like that it is meant to be realized not repeated repetition is part of meditation repetition is part of japa and mahawak is part of gyana knowledge a very nice story in this regard swami atma priyananda which whom many of you know he gave a talk here he's the head of our university in india so when he was a young monk i mean he just got his ordination as a monk swami gambhira nandaji in fact the one who has translated these upanishads swami gambhira nandaji was the president of the order and he had given ordination to that batch of monks where swami akhma priyanji became a monk and so they received the mahavakya in our tradition it is me i am brahman this is from the brihadarn eco condition so this was one of the questions exactly this question which rodrigo has asked this question was asked by some of those newly minted monks to the president to the guru and there's a system is all of you don't get to speak you have a spokesperson so swami akhma was a spokesperson who you give your questions to him and he presents it to the master arvis how many times are we supposed to repeat the mahavaka japa how many times repetition and swami gamdiranji was famously you know laconic very few words he said it is not for repetition it is for realization are there any other questions no you may go so famous words it's not for repetition it is for realization explain he's not for one for explaining you understand what is meant it's a pretty clear statement but yes so that you don't forget it i remember when we got our ordination sannyasa something like this came up somebody asked so how many times should we repeat these particular mantras including the mahavakya and swami ranganathan anderji who gave us sannyasa i will still remember he was very casual about it he said three times 10 times 12 times and we had a novice master who guided us through this was very strict he knew that we were such lazy fellows he is so he told the swami so please say 108 times we have to make him say it so that it becomes the commandment for the rest of us because he was afraid we'd forget of the whole thing why was he so casual because it's not a point of repetition is not the point for a mantra you must repeat don't don't forget never mix these two up a mantra has to be repeated otherwise there's no power in it i mean there's a power but it will not work until you repeat it its power comes from repetition meditation has to be repeated mantra has to be repeated knowledge has to be generated knowledge has to arise parul says i am in you you are all in me it's often misused by novice learners like me to not own some uncomfortable truths about myself and seek solace it's not me it's it's i i believe there's a paradox after this please what do i keep in mind analyzing myself and my reactions to others who are in a very different path yes so this particular person once you realize this oneness from that perspective you can deal with this person the person who is parallel you can deal with this person the ups and downs of the the quirks the individual eccentricities of that particular mind will be pretty clear to you and because you know deep inside i am not limited to being just power rule you will be able to deal with the problems of power much more effectively see the likes and dislikes of power the fears of parul are not your own but they are still there at that level at the power body mind and that personality and you can deal with them you can try to rise above them purify the mind discipline it analyze and see what can be done all those things become much easier to be if you go through this process if you are centered in this all beings are in me i am in all beings you're centered in oneness in kitty says can you explain this in respect of aka jivawad as you noticed i have that question rodrigo no rick asked that leads to akerjeevawada that this is one jiva one sentient being remember that's a a radical kind of advaita i would recommend you not go down that particular rabbit hole it's pretty suited to monks living by themselves you can see why they would come up with something like that notice that shankaracharya generally does not teach that the traditional teaching of advaita vedanta the mainstream gita for example um upanishad commentaries they are all much more mainstream and they accept that there are many jeevas why do they do that because it's a much easier way to start off that's our common sense approach i am the only being then you begin to treat this waking world as a dream there can be damaging consequences of that for people who are not ready to face it kieran says you mentioned everything is consciousness and can be proven logically are you preferring to are referring to the logical steps you went over in your talk on non-dual meditation yes um also in the talk i gave recently in santa barbara i think all beings in the self the self in all exactly like this thing seven steps i've delineated start with absolute material reality and you end up with consciousness alone seven steps i have explained them step by step there this was in santa barbara just a few months ago um yes srita says then ekajeevawada maybe it's the shortest way back to brahman yes and um even higher than that is the ajayatavada but the higher the root the more uncomfortable and scary and prone to slipping and falling and dangerously close to insanity is also it is so you have to be careful there all right um [Music] namaste