Video 14

14. Katha Upanishad | Mantras 1.2.11 - 13 | Swami Sarvapriyananda

may the lord protect us both the teacher and the taught together by revealing knowledge may the lord protect us both by giving us the results of knowledge may we attain vigor together let what what we study be illuminating may we not caval at each other om peace peace peace so we are studying the cut openation and we were in the second section of the first chapter we have done the tenth mantra if i remember correctly where yama the lord of death and the teacher is praising the young boy naji keta who is also the student and saying that you know you are unique i was at one time a martyr like you so for this we have to understand all these gods with with small g they they are sentient beings just like us like us is a stretch they are extraordinarily powerful and and magnificent in many different ways uh they're like you know superman spiderman and so on so forth all rolled together in all the superheroes in one but they are still sentient beings they're jivas and they have come to these powers and extraordinary positions because of a lot of good karma a lot of vedic rituals performed at some time now yama says i was a mortal like you but this is this big difference i performed these rituals to get um you know these high posts in heaven so a lot of power and and glory i did not look for knowledge i did not look for truth i did not look for enlightenment whereas you little boy that you are at this stage itself you have seen seen through the whole show the whole sherad carefully and and you have rejected all of it worldly and heavenly all the glories the pleasures of it worldly and heavenly rejected it and you have opted you have chosen only enlightenment only moksha only liberation only spiritual freedom you are indeed extraordinary may we have more students like you um so what have i got yama expounds on that what did i choose and and what did i get which is the highest thing one can get in this world of maya what's the it's all a movie but what's the best movie one can watch so he's going to describe that in the 11th mantra what he's going to describe sounds a lot like brahman the supreme reality but it is not it is actually the state of uh hiranya garbha actually that is the highest thing one can aim for eleventh mantra kamasya [Music] you on becoming enlightened have rejected them all rejected them all by examining patiently the highest reach of desire the support of the universe the infinite results of meditation the other shore of fearlessness the extensive course of hiranya garbha that is praiseworthy and great as also your own state so he praises naji keta now all these descriptions sound a lot like the ultimate reality but they are not these have to be carefully distinguished what he's saying is that what's the greatest thing one can attain um in this world in this world and the next world for this one can look at the tithiri upanishad in the second chapter of the tithiri upanishad which is called the brahmanandawali the the section of the chapter on the bliss of brahman at the very end there is a section called a calculus of bliss a measurement of happiness and there what it says is briefly i'll outline it and it'll give you a background to what we are going what yama is going to indicate now where what is said is that if the goal is profound satisfaction the deepest the highest possible happiness then we need to understand what happiness is and we need to develop a scale of happiness the economists would be very interested there the upanishad this is dietary openness the upanishad says let's consider that what's the maximum possible happiness you can think of in this world so consider a person who is first of all young so at this point i remember one audience that was in trabuco um in orange county when i said in order to be really happy the upanishad first of all says you have to be young and from the audience there came booze from i think senior citizens but it's an unfortunate fact that the kind of uh ease uh you know health and that the young enjoy effortlessly it takes a lot of hard work when you get older to even come close to that so you have to be young you are sayat upanishad says and also healthy not a sickly youngster you have to be physically very strong uh arshisht or darish tabalista multiple words that used to indicate strength and vigor vigor of all the senses one of the commentators says the ability to consume that not just physically food eat food but um all the senses are powerful so you're you're young and vigorous and healthy and then not a fool you are highly educated you have got degrees from all the ivy league universe universities it says who is highly qualified highly learned multiple degrees and then all of that is again not much good if you're very poor you've got enormous student loans no that's all of the wealth of this world is at your disposal so what do they call trust fund babies so you're born into a lot of wealth now enormous amounts of wealth a lot of learning uh tremendous physical strength and you are young and salute you are a good person noble person well-intentioned not a waste real not somebody who will waste all these resources somebody out to do good lead a fulfilling life and be good to um to just be a blessing to society and then the upanishad says imagine this and this is the maximum happiness imaginable in human life what they have thought about 5 000 years ago still holds true today actually that's what we can imagine the maximum possible human happiness young strong vigorous highly learned well-intentioned and all of that together and enormously rich now he says the upanishad says this is one unit of happiness this is just one unit of happiness is there more happiness possible upanishad says yes but not in this world why not in this world because happiness depends upon three factors one is the instrument with which you will enjoy the body so the human body cannot enjoy cannot consume enjoy experience more happiness than this you'll burn out it's like passing a million volts to a small electric bulb it'll just burn out so you need a more powerful body are there more powerful bodies possible it sounds like science fiction they say yes in other words there are other other bodies possible these heavenly worlds will have heavenly bodies i mean quote unquote and then not only these bodies with these bodies you need better uh objects of desire the your worldly food and worldly music and worldly art and worldly uh vacations won't cut it they you have to have otherworldly heavenly food and music and vacations and stuff like that so objects of desire also must be extraordinary and then the environment also counts the world in which you will enjoy these things it can't be this gross physical world it has to be today we understand a virtual environment or something like that so sharira body vishaya objects of enjoyment loka world in which you enjoy all three must be superior to this mundane world a body far superior to our poor human mortal bodies um objects far superior to whatever we can produce even today in 21st century and a world far superior to this material earth are there such worlds are there such bodies are there such objects of enjoyment upanishad says yes and tells you there is a higher there are higher they call them heavens sword a whole range of heavens not one heaven multiple heavens and by the way none of them are particularly spiritual they are not uh gross they are subtle sophisticated uh they are um [Music] it's more um you know there's there's greater sensual enjoyment there there's some it's like you know i was just thinking what could it be like they talk about enjoyment of the divine musicians the gandharvas who have extraordinary enjoyment of the arts so who was the uh i think it was bach who became deaf beethoven yes better when he became deaf and yet imagine composer of classical music who became deaf and yet could in his mind experience it maybe even more vividly music so it's possible that an extraordinary level of enjoyment is possible if you cultivate it enough and if you have that kind of a of a mind and inner instrument of enjoyment so there are other worlds other bodies and other sources of enjoyment and the upanishad sets up a whole range of these depending upon your credit your good karma you get to go to one or more of these heavens and enjoy much more than you could a hundred times more than that extraordinary human being who has maximum human happiness a hundred times more than that that's the lowest heaven a hundred times more than that is the next heaven the hundred times more than that is the next heaven and so you go on where does it end is there a maximum possible happiness so all this is from the vedas the karma khanda you will say hey wait a minute all these wonderful things are available i never heard of this you you i never hear you teaching these things they all belong to that portion of the vedas which precedes the upanishads which precedes vedanta this that portion is called the karma kanda the ritualistic portion of the vedas where these things are promised and clearly see they are all faith-based that you have to buy into this you know believe in this where does it end what's the highest the highest is hiranyakarba or brahma not brahman but brahma hiranyakarpa which is what yama is talking about the limit of anything that can be pre that has been promised in all the vedas for example uh that is brahma i sat down and calculated how much happiness does brahma get so if that extraordinary young man rich and learned and healthy and all of that if that's one and a hundred times that is the lowest heaven and hundred times that is the next highest heaven when you work your way all the way up to even the king of the gods indra even higher than that so yama is relatively lower yama is a minion of the king of the gods higher than him is indra the king of the gods and higher than indra so higher than that you ultimately go up to what is called hiranyakarbhar brahma and i calculated it comes to 10 to the power 20 one followed by 20 zeros of what of the highest possible human happiness if you think about that you're going to have a stroke so don't think about it and that's the the limit and that one can attain but there's only one brahmara one in each cycle of the universe for millions and millions of years there will be one here in nigeria when this universe is destroyed the next universe is created one more hidden negative will be projected depending on which sentient being has the maximum good karma and so on so all that is um interesting but don't bother yourself about it because that's not what we are looking for and that's naji keta has set it all aside he says it's still fiction it's still something within a virtual reality it's still a part of a movie it's still maya so yeah i have no interest in that sort of thing but that's what yama is not talking about he's talking about the happiness of um the greatest of the gods big what we in vedanta what we call the cosmic mind consciousness associated with all minds suppose you could be that consciousness associated with all minds uh that would be the happiness of hiranyakarta what is it like kamasya thing what a beautiful phrase the limits of desire you cannot hope for anything more than that you cannot this itself is beyond our imagination the limits of desire jagat of pratishtham the foundation of the universe you are the foundation of the universe it's like why is hidden negative the foundation of the universe it's like in your dreams so you are there and people are there and there's a world that you imagine but all of that the world that we imagine in the dreams and the people who populate that world and including i myself in that world the whole thing depends upon my mind the dreaming mind the dreaming mind is the cosmic mind in that dream similarly in this universe which we inhabit there's a cosmic mind which is the foundation of this universe you are the that is possible to be that one which is the foundation of this entire universe the endless result of all vedic meditations so in in the karma kind of ritualistic portion of the vedas which we don't touch which we skip over there are these rituals and there are certain meditations which are supposed to be practiced in accompanying these rituals so these meditations are specifically referred to as the normally means all vedic rituals including the meditations here it means the meditations the ultimate result of this the greatest of the results abhayasya param another beautiful phrase the limit of fearlessness or beyond the shores of fear once you have attained it you are beyond there's nothing that can disturb you nobody is going to overthrow you nobody is going to threaten you you are safe there are no elections there's nothing for you to lose anymore the next here and negative is going to come contest elections and no you are safe safe for the till the end of the universe but that's also coming in any movie you may be the supreme power in a movie but if it's a movie a movie will come to an end and even when the movie is going on it's still not ultimately real there's something underneath that which is appearing in all these ways so allah yes beyond the shores of fear you have reached the shores of fearlessness but only in it in a um relative sense not absolutely absolutely beyond fear is realization of is god realization is enlightenment is nirvana moksha whatever you call it that's what naji keta wants that which is highly praised where is it highly praised in the ritualistic portion of the vedas in the karma contest that's the highest thing that they can talk about mahadura vast is the course of hiranya garbha pratishtham drishtva this foundation having seen examined dritya carefully patiently consistently dheera you the you firmly consistently intelligently rejected the whole thing rejected firmly from a distance what did nachiketa say do you remember he said to him keep your songs and dances i don't want any of that so from a distance you're not even slightly tempted also you treated it the whole thing uh with the disdain it deserves how did you do that trishta you saw through it it's not bravado you have examined it you really want happiness you really want to go over over suffering overcome suffering and this is one way of getting happiness and overcoming suffering but you see through it this is still within the realm of illusion within the realm of maya it will still come to an end and even as long as it lasts it's not real real in the sense of brahma the ultimate reality patiently consistently you didn't you didn't fluctuate you didn't hesitate you didn't blink um you let go of the whole thing even the slightest hesitation you would have been trapped in samsara once again dheera why why was it possible here is a word which is used again and again in the upanishads it basically means the one qualified for vedanta the one who has viveka the discernment between eternal and non-eternal as vairagya firm dispassion for the non-eternal has the six-fold disciplines or treasures required for vedantic seeker and intense desire for enlightenment the fourfold qualifications if one has that is adhira who is that najib you are may we have more students like you now he yama is finally going to talk about what naji keta wants and he introduces the subject for the first time what is the subject now he's going to introduce brahman the ultimate reality the absolute and very important and powerful mantras 12th and 13th mantras [Music] [Music] let me use the sanskrit original the translation would be the intelligent one gives up happiness and sorrow by developing concentration of mind on the self with capital s and thereby meditating on the old deity whose inscrutable lodged inaccessibly located in the intellect and seated in the midst of misery all right a very powerful introduction to the subject so at last we get around to it myanmar is now introducing vedanta what is this reality which nachiketa is seeking he says it is very difficult to experience it can be experienced but very difficult why is it difficult because it's not an object of the senses it's something that cannot be seen it cannot be heard smelt smelled tasted touched and if it's not something that's that's empirically evident then all our reasoning is also based on empirical data see science depends on data and then reasoning or you set up a hypothesis and then collect data and then check it out but if there's no empirical evidence possible for this then reasoning also won't work so it's not available for pratyakshan anumana for sense perception and inference therefore duradasha very difficult to perceive then he says guru manu manupravistam it is inscrutably lodged within it is hidden inscrutable means hidden here hidden how the atman it is you but it's hidden your real nature is hidden how is it hidden shankaracharya the commentator he uses a very interesting phraseology here he says prakrita vishaya vikara vignan hidden covered hidden by what by our ordinary knowledge prakrita vishaya vikar avigyani by consciousness modified by the experience of ordinary objects what does it mean is this it is you it is already there it cannot be hidden it is shining forth all the time but as if hidden you know how is it hidden it is hidden like the movie screen is hidden by the movie is the movie screen really hidden by the movie well yes and no that's a peculiar thing i love this story and actually i heard it from ramananda saraswati so a wandering monk a very wonderful teacher who passed a few years ago so he said that imagine this little boy who goes to see him who doesn't know what a movie is it's very difficult to imagine today but his father takes him to the city to show him a movie a cinema a film and on the way the father explains to him there'll be this movie screen and on which you will see the pictures and sounds and that'll be a movie so they enter and it's important thing that they enter the cinema hall when the movie has already started this is if you get in at the beginning you can understand what's going on but unfortunately unfortunately whatever it is we have been thrown into the middle of the movie when we were born and we saw the body and our pledge fledgling thoughts and mother and father in the world the word the movie was already on and we were thrust into the middle of it so this bar enters but the movie is already on and they sit in the darkness and watch the cinema after some time the boy at first the boy is entranced so this is a very nice example at first we are entranced by the movie we get busy with the movie but after some time we ask a question what's the point of it what's going on here what's the reality we ask a philosophical question we ask a spiritual question even the fundamental sciences i've seen some of our best monks were are physicists by training you know it's it's no accident because many of them became physicists because they studied physics fundamental physics particle physics or cosmology the same quest to understand what is this so you ask the boy asked the question where is the movie screen you talked about i can see the movie this is the movie i understand where is the movie screen film the [Music] cinema screen and the father whispers right there in front of you and so i imagine this is a mahabharata movie maybe and krishna is teaching the gita to arjuna and the boy says so that one arjun is the movie screen now behind him behind him means krishna no behind him behind him so behind krishna is the chariot and the battlefield no behind all of that it's all all of it you mean so the movie screen means the chariot plus the krishna plus arjuna plus the battlefield and the sky all together is the movie no no no no remove all of that then you get the movie screen oh you mean then the movie screen is nothing how will the father indicate what the movie screen is if he points to something there'll be a picture if he says it's all of it then the boy will tend to put all the pictures together and think it's a set of pictures the father says dismiss the pictures it's that which is behind the pictures if he dismisses the picture the boy will think it's nothing because all he sees are pictures how will the father point out the movie screen the movie screen as it there is hidden by all these pictures and imagine then go little further imagine a movie in which you're not only pictures and sound imagine it's three dimension imagine there is um smell there's they actually have a movie theater like that where in this the seats where you're sitting there little bursts of air will put some fragrances if there's a flower in the cinema or something like that you will you will smell the fragrance of the flower also um and then they have added motion your seat will move a little bit uh if there is a car or something moving so you get a feeling of actually what's happening um and touch i don't think that's come in the cinema yet but they're working on it in mit media labs in boston they showed me uh something in development so there are these you know like these pictures which are virtually floating out there nothing actually there if you reach out and try to touch you will feel the touch how does that happen so you have sensors which give you tiny bursts of air on your fingertips you feel a kind of pressure more or less depending on how by how much you're pushing what you are touching some are warm some are cold so without anything there you put your hands you can feel you can actually touch things so touch can also be simulated now imagine a movie in which you see it all around your virtual reality and imagine you can smell it you can taste it you can touch it you can hear it all around you and also imagine the thoughts are also being projected in your mind so what the hero is thinking you you're thinking the same thoughts what the hero is feeling the flight and the happiness and the you know you're scared of whatever is happening and or thrilled all of those things you're feeling suppose those things can be injected in your mind and then suppose the characters memories are put into your mind and then your own memories and thoughts are blanked out you will totally forget that you are in a movie won't we forget we just feel i am this one that i'm sitting in some kind of super advanced virtual cinema theater i forget that i just feel this is what i am this is where i am this is who i am i'll forget that it's part of a cinema part of of a virtual reality and maybe that day is not too far off you know to some extent we're going there with the meta and things like that now shankaracharya says the same thing here imagine that so that's what has happened to us he uses the term the reality is hidden by our experiences of of nature of the world because you see you hear you smell you touch you think you desire you remember you try to understand all of these things are actually obscuring the reality which is present right there like the movie screen by the way in the movie screen you can extend it further how would the child see the screen there are two ways of doing it there's a yogic way and there's a vedantic way of doing it the yogic way says that shut the movie down for goodness sake for a moment let the kids see the uh screen a shutting the movie down will result in what is this darkness when we were kids we used to go to cinema halls there was to be an intermission i don't know if that's there anymore nowadays so there is to be like a break um so you see the movie for a while and the movie stops and you can go out for popcorn or things like that and come back again into the movie hall but when the movie starts the hall becomes dark you can't see anything you can't see a movie but you can't see anything else also then the lights come on so when the hall becomes dark it's like deep sleep every night we experience that the movie is switched off but there's nothing else there's just darkness also no lights come on so it's like darkness that is agyana the ignorance of uh you know it's called the causal body or again now when the lights come on in the hall the kid finally gets to see the screen oh i see so that happens in yogic samadhi that's one way and that's not the way of actually yogic samadhi claims you shut down the movements of the mind you see the problem as shankaracharya says is because you are seeing hearing smelling tasting touching thinking desiring loving hating remembering forgetting this is because of that you are not able to see consciousness as it is then shut all of that down yogas and yet you are awake not in deep sleep you will see the pure consciousness which is behind underneath illumining all of this and you will become enlightened vedanta says this is a confusion no this is not the way to do it notice the difference between the father and the kid even when the movie is going on and all the pictures are there does the father have any confusion about the screen does the father say hold on just a minute switch up the movie i need to see the screen no the father knows whatever he is seeing is the screen the screen is underneath it all it makes the entire movie possible there's no problem at all with the movie play a horror movie play a funny movie play a sad movie for him it's all aesthetic enjoyment why what is the difference between the father and the son the father already knows what the screen is and even when the movie plays it's no obstruction to the father so the experiences of the senses are no obstruction actually to uh for the enlightened one now you say but yeah but at one point you have to see the screen then only you realize not necessarily even when the movie is playing vedanta says you need to distinguish between picture and screen distinguish not physically not by switching up the pictures in your understanding exactly like that in our understanding we need to distinguish between consciousness names and forms names forms and activities that is the picture that is the picture of the film of samsara and in and through it underneath it it is always that one unlimited consciousness that can be understood grasped through vedantic inquiry right now without yogic samadhi without trying to switch up the movie do you see these two ways which which way is better i will always claim the vedantic way is better the path of knowledge actually madhusudan saraswati the great non-dualist in his commentary on the bhagavad-gita in one verse he he says since ancient times the lord that is maheshwara shiva has given these two paths one for those who consider the world body and mind to be real there is no path other than samadhi you have to shut it down to see what's beyond and for those he says those who follow the vedantic path the path of the upanishads and this is the way of vedantic inquiry you know drink trisha vivek panchakosha the three states all of that whatever we study this is the way of inquiry and and he says clearly that is the path indicated by our venerable master shankaracharya the path of vedantic inquiry right here while experiencing the movie can i see that what is real and what is a movie okay so all of this is guru manu pravishtam it is hidden so what should we do vivekananda you need all of it you need the purificatory practices you need devotion to god you need regular meditation and vedantic inquiry if you are a regular meditator capable of focusing and controlling the mind vedantic inquiry is that much more powerful if you're not capable of meditation if you ignore meditation oh that's for yogis i am a pedantic and the follower of open issues i don't need to meditate and you are this distracted restless person that inquiry won't work the vedantic inquiry won't work it will be shallow and unstable you'll end up saying after a lot of effort will end up saying i understand it intellectually but i'm not experiencing it it's you know if you try to explain to the kid what the screen is and what the movie is um the kid might end up saying exactly the same thing i understand theoretically what you're trying to say but i can't appreciate the screen so i need to switch up the movie and see the screen for itself and then you switch on the movie again i'm fine with it so all of that is very helpful then where is this atman where is this brahman which is asking in the cave of the mind it's right here it's in you it is you the real you it's not the body but it's in the body it's not the mind but it's in the mind it's that which lights up the mind and the body lights up the mind and the senses and the body and gives us all sorts of experiences that light shining at the core of our minds core of our beings that is our real nature that is consciousness that is sitting in the cave of the mind what a beautiful and you know disturbing phrase he says in the midst of all this nastiness in the midst goveristam in the middle of miseries in the middle of samsara in the middle of this mess where we find ourselves right now in this nastiest of places not in some heaven somewhere else which is perfect but right here in samsara in this body of flesh and blood and bones in this mind of thoughts of restlessness in the middle of all problems in the middle of desire and frustration in the middle of aging and disease and hopelessness in the middle of poverty and and ignorance in the middle of war and hatred is this perfection already there is god already shining forth right here right now gov this is the meaning of the word govarestam literally it means in the middle of the mess puranam purana means the ancient one this atman this consciousness is the ancient one ancient one eternal it's always been there it is there will always continue to be there but even higher than deeper than this it's not really eternal even time is an object to it space is an object to it object to what to consciousness in consciousness appears space in consciousness appears time consciousness utman is not limited by space or time taking into account space you have to say it is all pervasive otherwise people will think it's small it's it's inside the body inside the mind some tiny little thing no to to uh correct that belief that it's somehow a limited thing you say it is all pervasive but that's only after accepting space even space appears in consciousness it is uh eternal that's only after accepting um time actually time is smaller than the atman space is smaller than the other one is more limited than the other one but still puranam ancient one this ancient who is this ancient one my great grandfather no it's you you are that ancient one you are more ancient than the worlds before this body you wear before humanity itself you wear before life existed you were before these planets came up you were at the beginning of the big bang there was one witness you and before that that changeless darkness which preceded the appearance of this universe you were the witness and the earlier universe before that you had the witness so you are the most ancient one another description devam literally means god literally if you etymological it means the bright one it means consciousness that which is ever shining timelessly shining that shining everything else shines because of that you're able to hear smell taste touch how strange our hearing smelling tasting and touching hides that one so to say it's only because of that reality we are able to do this and these these are if you understand what is being talked about it just follows it's just a description of our real nature we should just if you get it our reaction to this wouldn't won't be a quizzical what is he trying to say it should be yes yes yes it's true it's a fact eye shining tamer bhantam anubhati that shining everything else shines that means consciousness shining what else shines our mind our thoughts feelings emotions are revealed sense perceptions seeing hearing smelling tasting touching the universe is revealed that shining consciousness shining you shining everything else shines after you thus itself it will come by its light everything here is revealed everything here is shining it's light by the light of consciousness by your light by your light you and the light are one the one and the same thing all right matwa having realized it having realized this this has to be realized how does one realize it yoga more precisely centering yourself in that reality being stabilized in that i am brahman i am atman i am that limitless awareness unchanging you know the in the phrase of arubindo the white glare of an immortal gaze what is the white glare of an immortal gaze sounds like science fiction sounds scary you are that what is your immortal gaze the experience of the universe what is the white glare consciousness itself how do you realize that being centered in it how do you become centered in it here specifically if you look at the commentary of shankaracharya needed dhasan is mentioned having heard it having clarified what it means being absolutely convinced convinced and confident about it center yourself through meditation then what is the result again the word is the qualified one on from our side we need to prepare the mind with the fourfold qualification then sravanamanan and nidhitasana the advat yoga the yoga of um let us say knowledge basically but here it means the culmination of that the centering yourself into your consciousness all right yeah that's a good way of putting it yoga is centering yourself into your consciousness in that in that clarity i am brahmana that is yoga by that matwa having realized what is the result of jahaati goes beyond pleasure and pain a search for pleasure and avoidance of pain that defines samsara what goes beyond that it doesn't matter anymore because what you realize that white glare of an immortal gaze that is beyond pleasure and pain it does not increase does not decrease pleasures and pains are all enabled by it what is a comedy and what is a tragedy to the movie screen both are enabled by the movie screen the neither leaves any impact on the movie screen you can enjoy both even pain and pleasure both can be enjoyed both can be human you can take both it's the same to you you can give up both it's the same to you you don't need them you're not you're not diminished by pain you are not increased one bit by pleasure from your perspective from the enlightened person's perspective yes one gives up pleasure and pain in the sense there is no increase or decrease in that infinite radiance which you are which you find yourself to be by pleasure or pain they do not diminish you they do not increase you both are in fact they depend on you so that is the giving up of pleasure and pain it's not becoming like a stone statue i will not i will grit my teeth and not react to any kind of pain let a mosquito bite me let a let you know like disease come or something i will just sit there bearing it all and pleasure nothing will move me even the tastiest food given to me i'm thinking of a yogi sitting in a cave i will not be moved by any kind of pleasure i will not be moved by any kind of pain that's willpower that's a good practice that's not what is being meant here what is meant here is the real you in everybody's case it is not impacted not increased or decreased by pleasure or pain that is giving up going beyond pleasure and pain then he goes on what is the result of all of this method to realize it and the result of it mantra number thirteen eighth another beautiful mantra from [Music] yama having after hearing this grasping it fully separating this righteous thing from the body etc and attaining this subtle thing that martel rejoices what he has obtained that which is the cause of delight i consider that mansion of brahman is wide open to you najigata again very nicely put poetically he says matya oh mortal man oh mortal being yes you are immortal but right now the one who is seeking is seeking only because we feel we are mortal we are subject to birth and death and misery we are in the midst of sorrow she says matya means mot immortal that mortal who realizes this how does he realize shuttle you're sravana means you go to the teacher and you study these upanishads carefully you come to vedanta class that is so this is the beauty of the way of knowledge in any other path you read the book you go to the teacher then you have to start doing it here just listening to it trying to understand what is being said you're already doing it this is knowledge about yourself then somebody agrees here he says somebody here the commentator says by grasping it but he's talking about me aham brahm has me i am brahman it means i am brahman and brahman is i i am nothing but brahman which means i am not the body not the mind i am brahman and brahman the ultimate reality is nothing but i it's not vishnu and shiva and the divine mother and you know god allah all of that other than as an object to me is not the ultimate reality it is my own reality so brahman is nothing other than you you are nothing other than brahman in this way it has to be certain this is a real reason real real reason why brahman is our ultimate reality is hidden is because it's not an object it is hidden as yourself as the most obvious thing and yet hidden because we will search invariably helplessly for an object and it's just not an object i'm reminded of someone no less than david hume one of the greatest philosophers he says when i search for the so-called self i find a stream of ideas and intentions and memories and perceptions but there's no self and vedanta would say that mr hume you are looking in the wrong place you're looking at the stream of the mind that which is looking that is the self i can't do anything with it no you can't because it's not an object but it is the most important thing without that no objects will be presented to you no life is there no experience is there so atma bhavena realize it i am that reality what you are asking for nachiketa it has to be realized as i who thought i was this little boy nachiketa and the absolute reality of the universe then how do you realize i am that reality bravrish separating this is very important um in fact shankaracharya himself says separating from the body etc now separating does not mean physically separate you can't extract the atman with some instrument uh you know you have to go to the dentist and little like a tooth extraction extract the other one no um it is by the way of inquiry after all what is drigrishya viveka it is to appreciate the the seer the experience the ultimate experience of the ultimate subject as apart from that which is seen drasta in itself apart from that which is seen what is the method of the five sheets i look at what i think myself to be this body mind and say oh this physical body then the vital body prana and then the mental body the mind and then the intellect and then beyond that just blankness and i the consciousness which reveals all of these illumines and irradiates these and activates this body mind system i am not the annamaya not the pranamaya not the manomaya not the big janamaya not the anandamaya not as rhetoric not as just slogans but as pointing out again and again and again it's being pointed out see this is a thing you are not a thing you are that which illumines and reveals a thing so apart from the five sheets then what is the method of the three states waking dreaming deep sleep that which is the waker and experiences the waking that which is the dreamer and experience of the dream that which is the deep sleeper and experiences the deep sleep underlying all of that is the one awareness in which this game is going on so appreciating that one awareness as apart from the waking dreaming deep sleep as apart from the five sheets of the per human personality as apart from anything that is object and seen this is called prabriyah one word he uses here prabrijya again this is in understanding a clarity must come about this you can't physically separate a movie from the screen you must understand in what sense in what sense is a part different from the clay or the clay is different from the part in what sense is the water different from the wave or gold is different from the ornament you can't physically separate two but it is different in that sense what is this reality some two words are used here dharma anum anu means it's subtle it can't be an object of the senses it can't be an object of action it cannot be an object of reasoning it cannot be an object of language it cannot be an object of thought so arnold very subtle literally anu means atom so it doesn't mean that the atman here is atom or atomic in size it is vast it is limitless but anu here means subtle actually then dharmyam a strange word to use dharma means morality ethics religion that is which is the very nature of something that which holds something together is dharma dharana that which is moral ethical that is dharma so but here the ultimate reality is called bharmiyam seeming to indicate that it is only through a moral life that one becomes spiritual only by being good that one gets god without morality spirituality is not not possible one may be a good person without being particularly spiritual but cannot be a spiritual person without being good you cannot attain enlightenment without first being a reformed character being a making an effort to be a good person one may not be like a hundred percent saint in all respect but an effort to lead as much of an ethical life as possible that is the foundation of spirituality so that is being probably being indicated here by saying ultimate reality to be reached through dharma that which is the most delightful what a nice way of calling ultimate reality the most delightful what does this person do he delights the enlightened one delights because already have said goes beyond pleasure and pain sounds slightly boring no most happy the saints the enlightened ones are the happiest of all by far we can't even begin to understand the sublime joy which they effortlessly experience it's always available to us we don't see it we'll get it when we realize who or what we truly are mordhate why is vidyar in yaswami in panchoda she asks why is the enlightened one so happy why does why do they go around with smiley faces i mean they don't but they might as well so why are enlightened beings so happy imagine the happiness of someone um who has got what is to be got in life there is something to be attained in life you have attained it there is something to be done in life you have done it what is to be done in human life there is something to be known in life the secret of this universe you have known it is having attained having got what has to be god in life means this is a term used again and again in vedanta for an enlightened person it literally means having done what has to be done the enlightened one has has done what has to be done in human life what we have been trying lifetime after lifetime is finally done the game is at an end here imagine the satisfaction the peace and then the third one is what is to be known what is the secret of this universe what is the meaning of it all what am i what is all this you have known it having known this having done this having got this rejoices that spills over people around them they they are they feel that elevation that's sublime joy um [Music] enjoys and then he uses a very nice phrase for nachiketa he says vivritam this mansion this vast palace of brahman is wide open to you nachiketa the doors are open walk through it it is easy of attainment for you there's no struggle needed you're perfectly qualified here is the teaching walk through it the doors of doors of enlightenment are open to you here the a commentator helpfully says we won't make this mistake but the commentator helpfully says mansion of brahman and brahmana the same thing it's not that there's a huge mansion in which brahman is sitting somewhere in there and if you go through and and then meet brahman no mansion of brahman and brahmana the same thing it's you this is a way of speaking the mansion of brahman is open to you i think i feel this there was a cinema it's in the news now matrix the first one of them which was very it's very philosophical somebody told me many years ago in late 1990s i think it was produced this is a very vedantic movie and in that movie in the beginning the hero is given a choice of two pills red pill and blue pill if you take the blue pill you will remain in this samsara in the world of network of delusion life will just go on the way it has been but if you take the red pill you will be given truth red pill is truth your choice so yama here is offering the red pill to nuchi keta the door to enlightenment is open take this if you want and you will walk through the doors of enlightenment there in the matrix movie the whole thing is a very science fiction thing and it's like there is a network of illusion very very much like maya but what lies beyond that is very nasty there are some aliens and there's a science fiction war going on don't worry what lies beyond the network of maya here is wonderful is our real nature that's what we have been seeking lifetime after lifetime take the red pill fearlessly walk through these doors but yes it's irreversible once you see you cannot unsee once you walk through you cannot take it back anymore that's why sometimes i say don't be in a hurry to become enlightened you cannot undo this so it is irreversible of course i'm just joking that it's it's a great great blessing so that's what it is now let's quickly take a look at the comments patrick says hidden again the same as saguna brahma no no no second abraham is ishwara god and is eternal and that god alone appears next stage as hiranyakarwa as the first jiva which which is the first product you know in the iconography vishnu there's a lotus which blooms in the navel of vishnu and on that lotus sea sea sits brahma that is hidden that's the highest being but that comes and goes with the creation and destruction of the universe rick says yama refers to nachiketas having already become enlightened merely by rejecting the previous offer you aren't becoming enlightened really or is he using the word enlightened in a different way here um i forgot to mention it there but yes a different way in a relative way when he talks about this infinite being hiranyakarpa which is beyond the fear you have reached the limit of desire all of it is relative in this world of movies in the fiction this is the greatest thing that there is and so nachiketa has understood this in this sense he's he's enlightened we shall all share in that enlightened to some extent at least to the to the extent that we are firmly convinced god realization enlightenment is our goal yama would say you are enlightened then you already have it because you are going to get it you are unstoppable now if we are particularly naughty and lazy and we mess it up then not in this lifetime but even then we're unstoppable it'll be one more lifetime at the most but let's try to make it in this lifetime punita says it may help us more if mit labs could focus on simulating the experience of an enlightened being then simulate our daily life experience virtual sitting yes who's going to tell them uh abhijit says your description of the three-dimensional five senses movie reminded me of matrix movie right right this is exactly what i was talking about rick says plenty of people think they are enlightened because they understand that the screen is there yet they are not because not a living experience for them yes it's true that living experience is most important otherwise we won't be able to live it in our lives the taste of the pudding you know you have to walk the talk like americans say one may get it one may even even feel that such a thing is there but unl but one still has not solved one's problems ishwar says are these lokas and heavens projections of the mind not really i mean to the extent that this world is not a projection of the mind then these locus and heavens are also not projections of the mind they are different states of being somebody said there are different states in this here itself here is the world which we experience as a mortal world there are beings who will experience uh hellish worlds here there are beings who will experience heavenly worlds here but all of them are in in samsara in in the realm of maya they're all movies on the same screen you may see a a comedy and one may see another movie at another time which is a tragedy but both are movies tamiko says it sounds like as a personality in the upanishads yamaha or death serves as a bridge between less conscious limited world view from the vedas more complete one of vedanta yes and that's that you will find in all the almost all the upanishads all the upanishads you know it remember these upanishads are part of the vedas so they have a background of this enormous ritualism this attraction for going to heaven all that is in the background and they're leaving it all behind so you in many of the upanishads you'll find a critique of what has gone on before that munda copenhagen will read they'll mention those rituals and going to heaven and staying there for countless ages and say that none of that is any good when it's all over it's just over it's as if you've never had it at all it's better to to forego all that and search for enlightenment search for the truth rather than you know take the blue pill and relax back into sleep again take the red pill and see for yourself what the truth is abhijit says governest in the midst of misery why is misery highlighted why not joy or just experience itself could be but right now we are seeking all this in the midst of misery we are in samsara and we know there is sorrow here and that's why we are seeking for a solution and the pointing out is that here itself not somewhere else now itself not some when else so here and now is this mess which we find ourselves in here itself you will find the perfection here you will yourself will find the ultimate in the midst of the relative by the way in case i forget you remember i mentioned that um i'm the ancient being brahman is called ancient being and i said it's actually not even ancient because brahman is beyond the concept of time only when you accept time you have to say it is eternal so i would like to point out this is where it becomes acceptable to buddhism see what madhyamaka buddhism of nagarjuna what it rejects is the two extremes nothing is real nihilism and then that is rejected but it's also not that there is one unchanging ultimate reality eternally existing that's called eternalism utc is classified as eternalism there is one eternal unchanging reality but actually that's not true we are not even talking about one eternal reality there is time and true time persists this unchanging reality no even time appears in that reality it is beyond change and not change then it becomes acceptable to uh should never buddhism anyway this is just a point question two extending the movie and screen example to 3d movie all surrounding us what would be the screen why only 3d 5d all five senses plus thoughts emotions ideas identity what would be the screen consciousness atman brahman sridhama says is there a way to understand consciousness as being beyond time and space even with the dream example time specially feels relative to dreamers time don't think about the dreamers time think about the time within the dream that time is different from the time you have spent sleeping in the bed the feel that you get within the dream a lot of time may have passed or very quickly things go by so if there's a time dilation or a time distortion even your depending on your attention our experience time is sometimes feel bored time to seems to just not pass you're excited and happy time just flies what is time flying and not passing it's a subjective experience um so time and space depend on change depend on on extent and change and both of these are appearances in consciousness the dream is actually a good example for both ishwar says am i wrong in understanding that ishwara god so ishwar is saying this is god is an object in consciousness no issuer or god is consciousness think about yourself what are you are you an object in consciousness or are you consciousness you are really consciousness but your body is an object in consciousness thoughts and feelings are objects in consciousness similarly for ishwara for god who is consciousness but god's power maya that is an object in consciousness but god himself herself itself is pure consciousness the same as you o [Music] harih be [Music] you