Video 16

16. Katha Upanishad | Mantras 1.2.16 - 19 | Swami Sarvapriyananda

[Music] may the lord protect us both teacher and taught together may the lord give us the results of our study together may we attain vigor together may our study be illuminating may we not cavale at each other om peace peace peace so in this upanishad in the cut openation what is the subject here yama has finally started instructing nachiketa in vedanta in the now in the question which had asked first he had asked in a general sense what happens after death the secret of death and that's a question of all humanity all of us we we would like to know and then he makes it much more sharp much more precise much more philosophically correct technically correct in this section perry asks that which is beyond the law of karma which is beyond uh dharma and adharma good and bad and that which is beyond cause and effect which reality which you see overlord of death that which is beyond samsara the absolute reality of this universe talk about that and then yama says it is om all spiritual practices which people undergo are meant for this for this is the ultimate truth he's going to talk about and it is the symbol for that is om now uh om is a symbol for the two phases of vedanta the first phase is the worship of what we we might call god the god of religion the creator preserve or destroyer of this universe the power that is omnipotent omniscient omnipresent um all loving all beneficial the way we understand god in the theistic traditions of the world all justice and the symbol for that is om and here you use om in faith here is this we we are taught that it is so god exists and we shall meditate on god we shall center ourselves in god by the chanting of home by meditation on om om is a symbol of the divine but what divine saguna brahman god now the core of vedanta the second phase of vedanta is the core of actual vedanta which is self-enquiry om is also a symbol of that ultimate nature of ourselves i am existence consciousness bliss i am not this mortal flesh and blood and this mortal flesh and blood is there it's an appearance but the reality of all of this i am i am brahman this is to be revealed and for that also om is useful so om can be used in two ways what are the two ways one is the meditation on o the chanting of home using om to worship brahman but which brahman brahman has the creator preserver destroyer of the world saguna brahman om is a method of worship and the second use the real use of ob is as a method of inquiry how does that work we did the whole manduka karika on that waking dreaming deep sleep and the silence beyond a uma waking dreaming deep sleep and the consciousness underlying all of them the witness to the waking dreaming deep sleep the fourth all of this we did whole mandu kyopanishad is about this the use of om as self inquiry which will show to us that we are brahman now this theme continues in the mantra number 17. let us read that the two uses of home mantra number 17 [Music] this support or this method o this means support something that you use for meditation so this support is the best shrestham this support is the supreme om is supreme om is the best why best why supreme we shall see eight of the alambanam gyatva knowing this support what is the result one is glorified in brahmaloka in the world of brahma now what does this mean om is shrestham is the best why because prashas the commentator says it is most highly praised in the vedas so om is the most highly praised mantra in all the scriptures so it's the best support for meditation it's the best support for spiritual practice so om is the best mantra basically now omi is a supreme mantra it's a supreme mantra so pre mantra because it is useful for meditation on brahmana saguna brahman or god is also useful for inquiry into the self and realization i am brahman the two users of om both in the technical language of the commentator he says and upper abram that means the sabuna brahman or the god of the universe both are indicated by o then either knowing this mantra one goes to brahmaloka again here two interpretations will be there one if you are using it for meditation on brahman on god then knowing literally translation of the sanskrit yatwa is knowing here it will mean dhatwa meditating meditating on om one goes to brahmaloka goes to brahmaloka means after death you will go to brahmaloka what is brahmaloka it's literally the seventh of the seven heavens with the english term seventh heaven is not wrong it's the highest heaven so the world of brahma the highest heaven one goes there and lives there for the duration of the universe and finally attends to liberation and it's of course an extraordinary existence so that is called in vedanta krama mukti sequential liberation by that practice of om by meditation on god devotion to god one does not may not get directly liberation here and now may not become a jeevan mukhtar fully liberated here and now but will never come back it's still freedom because it will never come back to this world and reborn in this world but still exist as an individual in the world of in brahmaloka now what this brahmaloka is basically this is the idea of heaven in all theistic religions the all the religions the goal is to go to heaven after death you will go to heaven if you are a virtuous christian muslim vaishnava shakta shaiva you go to heaven what is heaven it is kailasha for the shiva it is devi loka for the worshipper of the divine mother it is vaikuntha or goloka for the worshipper of vishnu or krishna it's the heaven of the christians the jannat of the muslims the pure land of the buddhists so there is a state of existence which is supreme which is extraordinary which is unthinkable for us but which we can attain to and still retain your individuality so it's a most blissful state and theistic religions aim at that isn't it enough yes it is in the sense that you will never be reborn again and you'll never suffer again you'll remain in joy and bliss in the presence of god for a very very very long time why very why not eternally well because this universe will come to an end and with that all places will come to an end including brahmaloka so only after that only god will exist with god's power of maya for a long time i mean time won't exist until the next creation but then those who are in brahmaloka those who are spiritual practitioners who have meditated on om will not come back again they will attain liberation at the end of this universe so that's one track of magnificent but difficult to attain and very very long duration millions and billions of years you will exist in that way so this is why you might say how do i know any of this is true it's just that the books say it true you may believe in it and being a follower of vedanta we believe that such a thing is possible and notice in general they may not use terms like om and brahmaloka but in general all theistic religions across the world speak of this they all speak of the existence of god they all speak of uh those who are good in the in the terms of their religion after death you still continue to exist in a wonderful place in the presence of god they will say eternally but we can take it as an extraordinarily long period of time so it is interesting that different religions different perspectives who don't agree on anything but they agree on this that this is the result of all devotion but vedanta goes beyond that real the core of vedanta is not even that so if somebody says i don't believe in such things doesn't matter the real vedanta which know where yama is going to go into real advaithic teaching is not about going to heaven about staying in brahmaloka for millions of years none of that it is about here and now it's not about believing in something it's about our experience right now who we are what we are investigating into that and finding our infinite nature right here and this body will continue this world will continue to appear but in in and through this experience we will discover our unlimited nature that is moksha that is the very different perspective of advaita vedanta which we now we will see so what did we see here summarizing yama started the teaching by saying i'm going to teach you vedanta the answer to your question is vedanta and that answer i can teach in one mantra in one letter om and the meaning of that om it's the best support for meditation it's highly prescribed it's a good thing to do even if you're on the path of inquiry it's good to chant mantra of course many of us are initiated you'll notice that in your initiated initiation mantra om will always be there and followed by something else so you may not chant only you may chant your ishta mantra and that is highly recommended it's it is very good for our vedantic enquiry which we will do it prepares the mind for vedantic inquiry it collects the mind concentrates the mind and purifies the mind then vedantic inquiry is powerful and effective otherwise vedantic inquiry becomes a miserable affair very difficult one may not believe in it one may not progress far in it one may not see what is being taught there even if you see it may not feel like a real thing even if it feels like a real thing one may still complain my suffering has not gone away because the mind has not been prepared the other you know desires are still there in the mind distraction of the mind is still there all those things are corrected by chanting of the mantra om or in our case ishta mantra is okay now or the second use of home is as inquiry that enquiry part will be started now though he will not talk about om as a tool for inquiry which is done in mandu kyopanisha banduk it is literally an analysis of om of a um of uh waking dreaming deep sleep and pure consciousness the fourth here he will go on to teach the same thing in simpler language very poetic next mantra he starts the teaching of self-inquiry which is the heart of vedanta not to do this meditation and chanting and believe in god and at the end of your life you will go to heaven and stay in brahmaloka for eons no not not that that is the sequential liberation in sanskrit krama mukti but now he is going to talk about the path of sadhyamukti sadhyamukti means here and now direct liberation in this life now as you are living in this body you will attain to realization of god you will attain to enlightenment and be free here and now that is going to be the teaching now from now onwards so that's really the heart of vedanta can it be chanted silently certainly allowed prolonged chanting is good it calms the mind home calms the mind down and silently also it focuses the mind in any case many of you of us who are chanting or repeating the mantra ishta mantra which we have got from our guru are silently repeating om as part of our mantra anyway now onwards to um teaching of vedanta self-inquiry the real nature who we really are that is now going to be taught mantra number 18 [Music] very poetic mantra that this being of intelligence the your reality the atman it is not born it does not die nor does it come from anything nor does anything come from it unborn ajah nithya means eternal shashvata means again eternal or like long-lasting there are multiple words in sanskrit which all basically mean eternal i am purana it's ancient yet new hanyat does not die with the destruction of the body so it continues here in the body it's there and after the destruction of the body also it persists so this is a classic doctrine the hindu doctrine of the atma of the self the real spiritual self the word you hear used here is vipastit vipasjit means consciousness vipasjit means consciousness awareness the commentator says it made harvey so the word used in indian language in sanskrit it means an intelligent person bengali also means intelligent person a person of great acumen and intelligence but what is the technical meaning here in the upanishad it means consciousness the shankaracharya the unwavering consciousness the unflickering consciousness consciousness which is not subject to increase and decrease coming and going birth and death this is a very important point um this consciousness what is this consciousness if we analyze all our experiences we will find this consciousness this consciousness does not mean the um the various conscious experiences we are continuously having so it is a very important thing to distinguish the moment you talk about consciousness studies today what people mean is that you're seeing something that's a con that's consciousness you are hearing that's consciousness um you're thinking feeling something emotions happy and sad that's consciousness you're trying to remember something remembering or failing to remember that's consciousness you're trying to understand something um create something mentally so there all these are consciousness that's what how consciousness studies talks about consciousness that's the normal the dictionary understanding of consciousness would include all of these things you are awake right now so this is consciousness in some sense dreaming is also consciousness but deep sleep would be unconscious this is the way philosophers doctors physicians biologists brain scientists they all understand consciousness and conscious modern consciousness studies talks about it but here notice it says consciousness yet this consciousness it does not change this consciousness it's not born with the birth of the body and the brain nervous system it does not die with the death of the body brain under the system it does not come and go does not increase and decrease then it's not talking about these instants and instances of consciousness which we experience just seeing something that is a flash of an experience for the split second you saw something that experience was not there earlier that experience was not there afterwards what he's saying here is then what what consciousness is he talking about what what consciousness is um upanishad talking about this is the only kind of consciousness that we experience it is this thing and yet it is not this thing how this thing means what we are experiencing right now take a closer look at what we are experiencing when you see something different colors you are aware when you hear something right now you're reading my voice you are aware but when you see something you see um a pen a flower you're aware and when you listen to my words you are aware the two experiences are different seeing a flower and listening to the sound of a human voice these are two different experiences yet what is common to both both are conscious experiences the consciousness in each experience in itself appear apart from the flower ex seeing the flower and hearing a voice these are two different kinds of experiences apart from them this unique nature of both notice when something was common to both that it felt like something that it was an internal direct experience which we had that experience is common to all our experiences in life when you see something you are aware when you hear something whenever you hear something or aware when you touch something you are aware when you smell something you are aware when you taste something you are aware when you are thinking thoughts are coming and going there is awareness when you are feeling something anger love desire peace all of this there is awareness when you are awake there is awareness when you are dreaming there is awareness without that no dream is possible and vedanta will go so far as to say when you are in deep sleep there is still awareness this is where consciousness studies most of the understanding of consciousness parts company with the vedantic or sunken idea of consciousness consciousness which is not lost so it's not lost in deep sleep either why does it not feel like anything because of the fact that we are taking mind as consciousness the activities of the mind is consciousness the moment the mind shuts up feels like nothing blank and yet it can't be so the blank itself was uh revealed to something you cannot deny you are the one who is awake you are the one who dreamt then will you deny you are the one who had deep sleep did you say somebody else slept will you say there was no deep sleep no there was deep sleep and you own up to it it was my deep sleep whose deep sleep was it if you if there was no awareness there at all who was it what was it and deep sleep is a phenomenon recognized in every culture of the world everywhere there is a language there is an expression about deep sleep deep sleep is is real is real it happens modern physiology also shows the different brain states associated with waking dreaming and deep sleep that means deep sleep is a distinct state and curiously enough reductive materialism which says brain is nothing but consciousness brain activity is consciousness well then you have to admit in deep sleep there is still clearly activity in the brain then will you say that there is no consciousness how do you know the consciousness study is researcher tanoni so who is that this the leading theory of consciousness today what is it integrated in information theory i think uh iit it's one of those higher order theory what they call them hot theories higher order theories of consciousness i was listening to an interview with him it's very close to vedanta i mean very close not vedanta talk but very close one more big step is necessary he's saying that a person in somebody's in coma clearly in coma nothing you can no there's no reaction outside yet fmri scans reveal that this person in coma he calls it very poetically says the brain is islands of light in the midst of a chaos of destruction all other parts of the brain are dead some parts of the brain are alive and they're functioning you can say it is lit up now the interesting thing is those are the sometimes they are the areas which correspond to the perception of sound somehow sometimes they are the areas which correspond to the perception of taste or smell does that mean in this person who is in coma the person is hearing inside nothing else is functioning but is able to hear if you are reductive materialist you say that the activity of the neurons is the consciousness whenever the neurons are active you must say this is consciousness then and then these neurons which the parts in the brain which correspond to the perception of sound are active in a comatose brain what will you say then that then is it then you have to admit that that person may be conscious inside just we cannot access that anymore um what does a child's brain which is not developed in many areas some areas are developed so many areas are not developed a baby newborn baby's brain is the person is the baby conscious or not conscious this is the question she's asking now notice from a vedantic perspective these are components of mental activity so um if there is bursts of sound yes consciousness may be perceiving sound inside it's not that that neural activity is generating consciousness plus the perception of sound that neural activity is corresponding to the perception of sound and that is possible because of the constant presence of consciousness what shankaracharya is calling the consciousness which is not ever lost the negative sense is using never lost consciousness one website is there never not here the name of the website is never not yet it's a website on vedanta it's a very nice way of putting it atman is something which is never not here it's always there so this the upanishad uses the word vipasjit which means consciousness it is there when you're awake it's there when you're in dreaming is there when there's deep sleep and again when you awake same awareness same consciousness is there this one consciousness which lights up all our activities lights sub means it enables us to have experience look at one more argument which occurred to me about the unique and independent nature of consciousness is that um these advanced machines which we have now which are powered by ai so you have various sensors robots and all of that which are powered by ai advanced computer programs now they can imitate they can do whatever um living being can do it they can see there are sensors which can see see means at least behaviorally they can see you go to an airport door it will open suddenly it's a simple sensor there's no ai there it's a simple sensor but in one sense it sees your presence it senses your presence there are devices which here all our devices right now are hearing all these phones and all they suddenly offer to help you with something which means they're always listening this this sneaky devices they're always listening to what we are saying so they are hearing um there are devices which can taste and smell also there are devices which are they called a haptic senses they can sense pressure and touch yet one thing they cannot do and mit engineers um harvard engineers they they all will agree they are not having internal sensation of seeing hearing smelling tasting touching no they are not all the activities of senses are duplicated all the activities of mind are duplicated now there are programs which can play of not only play chess but also can they can be creative they can write stories they can do wonderful acts of translation recently i was stunned to see that one of the most difficult philosophical texts ludwig wittgenstein's tractatus logical philosophicals which is a classic of western analytic philosophy in the 20th century it was fed and ai was made to study it and not only that write more extend it further what wittgenstein would have said today the ai was asked and it so it wrote wittgenstein 2022 some more statements which are part of the original book it extended it most difficult philosophical text now ai is studying and suggesting some more uh uh you know additions to it what it's suggesting is utter nonsense i mean if clearly it has not even scratched the understanding of there's no understanding there at all but some kind of philosophy good enough for philosophy professors to dabble in it and publish articles so what ai does with you know with philosophical statements ai is studying philosophy ai is composing poems good poems and short stories so all of this is happening creativity memory of course memory tremendous memory computers have tremendous memory far more powerful than ours creativity memory at least a simulation of desire you know emotion it can simulate behavior all of this computers are able to do now everything that your mind can do and your senses can do computers can do now and in many cases better better how do you know better by the results you compare one human being has to do it and ask the computer to do it computer will do often better except one thing what is the most common thing for all of us we are having a vivid first person experience inside none of those computers ever have that none of those machines ever have that nobody even questions it because the people who are designing it they will say we never programmed it to have consciousness inside we can explain seeing hearing smelling testing touching we can explain memory we can explain decision making in ai we can explain creativity in ai translation in mi ai but there is no module no program for consciousness first person experience we don't even know how to do that there's no we can't even approach it in programming how can it have inner experience like we are all having effortlessly all the time therefore all this is to indicate therefore we must treat consciousness in itself as an independent as entity which has its own properties don't treat it as a movement of the mind or just as a movement of the senses those things can be duplicated by machines without any consciousness whatsoever so consciousness is unique and it gives you the first person experience of anything your whole life is basically because of consciousness this is called all of this is to say we first checked how could such a consciousness begin how could it be born still from the birth of the body with the baby and the brain when it's been really we just talked assured that it is not a physical thing it is not something produced by a physical body there is no theory now which is even close to solving how a brain could produce consciousness let me surprise so many people that's the so-called heart problem of consciousness no none of them and i'm now beginning to see at least three names i know dan hoffman david chalmers bernardo castro and some others also who are beginning to say things about consciousness which are very much like mahayana buddhism and advaita vedanta and there are they are very respected members of philosophy departments and scientists um [Music] so not yet mainstream but now you're beginning to see an insoluble problem which cannot be solved by mainstream reductionism and now they're thinking about consciousness as an independent entity this consciousness is not produced by the brain there's no way it could have been produced by the brain if it's not produced by the brain why would you say it is born with the birth of the brain why would you say when the brain dies it will die how do you know it has nothing to do with the birth and death of the brain with the birth and death of the living body so nadja ayat this consciousness is not born this consciousness does not die you your essence what you truly are is already immortal it does not depend upon vedanta does not depend upon you being spiritual a good person bad person you are already mortal that cannot be destroyed um then the next line is very interesting that is it is not caused by anything nor is anything caused by it you see where does god come from where does atma come from where does consciousness come from it does not come from anything it is fundamental to this universe if you ask where does existence come from you cannot say that because why not what is the cause of existence where did existence come from but if something it came from something then that must exist how will it come from how will existence come from that but if it exists in existence already there you've admitted it in advaita vedanta consciousness and existence are very much the same thing this is a conscious existence or an existent consciousness such it so there's no question of it coming from anything and nothing is produced from it see from one material entity another material entity can be produced but from consciousness which is not a material entity which is not an object how can something be produced which is an object production cause and effect both are objects to consciousness if something is produced from consciousness and consciousness itself becomes an object it becomes a cause but consciousness is neither cause nor object from what material entity was consciousness produced one buddhist lama he give a nice argument he says but the traditional idea right now which is the material is reductionist approach from the brain consciousness is produced the the buddhist lama argued in this way two big problems you will have first of all the hard problem of consciousness you cannot show how from a brain consciousness is produced which is something cutting is investigating it now these buddhists were talking about it thousands of years ago upanishads were talking about it 5000 years ago you cannot explain consciousness in terms of a physical entity so brain is producing consciousness you can't explain it tell me how second big problem will be that there is a brain apart from consciousness how do you know that there is a world apart from consciousness that the world exists you see what a crazy idea no it's not a crazy idea this is called idealism and it's in a very respected ancient position you cannot demonstrate the existence of anything apart from consciousness think about it anything that you demonstrate that you say that this exists no in the far reaches of the universe on some planet um in some rock there's something there we don't know about it how there is no consciousness and we are not aware of it but it's there without consciousness it exists who is saying this a conscious being where is even the conception of a universe a far-off universe i am a tiny creature and outside me there is a huge universe all of this is happening where in consciousness you have to radically rethink why this idea is difficult to accept is we are so solidly entrenched in the body i am this then there is a universe outside you then there are power of planets which you have never seen and never you never will see and those exist without your intervention but you the body and this planet and the power of universe all of that is being experienced in consciousness is it not you the consciousness it is impossible to demonstrate the existence of anything apart from awareness consciousness or in idealistic terms apart from mind many people think idealism has been thoroughly rejected idealism means mind is the only reality consciousness is only real it has been thoroughly disproved in a modern world because of which you know the modern science is so prestigious and powerful nobody thinks that consciousness is the only reality but if you go to philosophy departments they are not so sure and there is the great philosopher g e moore who was an elder contemporary of russell bertrand russell in cambridge he is his refutation of idealism is a famous paper short two pages two three pages paper apparently idealism that the world is in in your awareness only that idea was totally destroyed by ge moods refutation of idealism if you read that paper you'll be shocked you know what is the proof that there is an external world what is the proof apart from the mind there is an external world can you prove it he says yes the proof is simple and what proof he says he says hold up one hand and say this is one hand yes hold up the other hand and they say this is another hand yes they proved that they're two hands so what do you mean just as in normal day to day language when you say there is a book in front of me do you think is the book really in front of me or is it in my mind only you don't think that when you say there is a book on the table there is a table and there is a book on the table that's how you understand language so similarly it is about hand you don't have to think any further is there externally a hand or only it is in my mind anyway this is the level of argument you might say what kind of argument is this and it was taken that idealism is finished no there is no way these two things are impossible if you say brain produces consciousness these two things are impossible to prove how brain produces consciousness nobody knows nobody has any idea and then um ternary was asked in that interview that some uh philosophers and scientists are saying consciousness is an illusion it's not only laughed you say i don't know what to say to such people the only reality that we have ever have and ever possible to have is consciousness so if you say the only reality is illusion then what is reality i don't know so two problems cannot be solved if you say brain produces consciousness how brain produces consciousness you cannot solve that that is the problem of hard problem of consciousness is there at all a brain apart from consciousnesses i mean any external world is there at all apart from our awareness that is the problem of idealism these two questions cannot be answered so consciousness is the reality in which the universe appears and changes universe is changing consciousness is not changing consciousness was not produced by the universe then what about this universe where did it come from what's the relation with consciousness the answer is no relation from advaita vedanta perspective no universe was produced by consciousness this is interesting when you say so you cannot prove that consciousness is a product of brain and nervous system good then are you some kind of religious nut you think that consciousness has produced the word god has produced the word are you trying to say that advaita vedanta upanishad says nothing has been produced from consciousness then what is the relation between these two where does this come from advaita vedanta says this what you are experiencing universe body senses mind thoughts feelings emotions all of them are a display in consciousness like reflections in water like a movie on a movie screen like dreams in the mind they have no existence apart from consciousness and they have not been actually produced in consciousness see when um you know you see cities cars people dogs in a movie screen have cities been actually built on a movie screen have are there cars which are being driven on a movie screen not at all these are pictures there are really no car there no city there no dog there nothing there are appearances on the movie screen for all that we experience in life apart from consciousness is not apart from consciousness it appears to consciousness it means the universe appears to consciousness step one in consciousness step two nothing but consciousness step three if you see a flower in a dream what will you say it appeared to my mind in my mind and it is nothing other than my mind it's not a flower it's my mind alone appearing as a flower similarly in this waking world the universe is appearing to you the consciousness including your body including your little personality is appearing to you the infinite consciousness unlimited consciousness in you the consciousness because there's nothing outside you and if it is in you and to you and in you it cannot be anything other than you you alone are appearing as your other you the subject are appearing as the object you the consciousness are appearing as the non-conscious sentient appearing as insentient you the unlimited are appearing as many many limited things you the eternal you are appearing as the temporary events and things of the world you the complete blissful you are appearing as the incomplete fractured sorrowful in this world so this is the meaning of [Music] now one very interesting in this very line so the first line of the quran many people don't know this al-quran the first line of quran is allah was not born from anything and nothing was born from allah very interesting that you would think a very theistic dualistic text like the quran it starts with the highest truth of non-duality of course it is not understood in that way i was reading a commentator in the very beginning he takes it up and starts a fight he says so the quran says the holy book says nothing was born from allah was not born from anything and nothing was born from allah therefore god cannot be born as the son of god and christians are wrong to call christ the son of god because son god does not have a son nothing was born from allah so christ is not the son of god so immediately first line up there itself it's they start a fight but it has a very profound deep meaning that the ultimate reality is not a cause is not an effect it is the only reality that is the ultimate reality is not a cause and not effect then there is nothing else apart from it it is non-dual no second thing apart from it let us see so all of this is to negate the six four changes which we undergo we we are so identified with the body this cuts it down you are the consciousness you are not the body the body undergoes six four changes you the consciousness do not undergo six fold changes what are the six four changes i'll give you the sanskrit names first and then run through them in english means it comes into existence comes into existence means in the mother's womb the body comes into existence that body of the baby the fetus which was not there earlier now comes into existence then the second is born so the body comes as a separate existence apart from the mother is born second change all physical then um [Music] it grows baby little boy or girl and teenager you it grows then it reaches maturity vipari namate keeps changing and then old age sets in apache begins to deteriorate things begin to fail and fall apart and finally that body which came into existence in the mother's womb nashyati dies you the consciousness has none of these changes there's never a time when you came into existence you always wear there's never a time when you are born you illumine the experience of the baby being born that was the experience of the baby being born you are the same you are not born with the birth of the baby then what the consciousness neither grows nor decreases it is ever the same what happens when you take a cup of coffee you feel very more much more conscious otherwise they feel sleepy that's the mind the mind is feeling alert mind is feeling sleepy my alert mind illumined by same consciousness consciousness is ever alert undiminished the moon goes through phases of the moon sun does not go through in the sun there is always blazing with light similarly consciousness always blazing forth mind can be alert mind can be dull and that's why you feel more conscious less no more conscious no less conscious no change no growth in consciousness then it reaches maturity keeps on changing it does not change it illumines all change but consciousness is not something that is subject to change so is it unchanging does the language of the upanishads uh eternal nagarjuna says asha non-eternal so are they talking about something no notice it just means consciousness it does not come under the category of changing or unchanging changing unchanging are revealed by consciousness you cannot say it is changing or unchanging if you want to say something say it is unchanging um then apakshiyaty it declines consciousness does not decline it reveals the declining of the body and mind so bill was saying now i can't remember many things so he's 97 i said you remember more than us probably your memory is better than us but remember you are the same one who was the witness of the keen memory and is the same one who is the witness of the declining memory it you did not change because the memory changed and he said that does not help uh yeah you have to take care of the health of the body and the memory as far as possible but it will decline as the buddha said all compounded things decay what has been put apart will fall apart similarly you can good health and good you know good practices good medical care can help you but it you cannot put it off till the very end um i mean you cannot put it off put the end off completely forever so apaksha deteriorates consciousness does not deteriorate falls apart destroys death consciousness does not die so this consciousness which you are you are not born you don't die you don't grow you don't change you don't decay you are ever the witness of all of this when the body is destroyed not destroyed with the death of the body this theme of not destroyed with the death of the body is put again in the 21st verse sorry um um 19th 19th verse which we have 19th mantra which we will see now [Music] the killer things uh that i i am killing the one who is killed things i am killed or destroyed both do not know that the self atman neither kills nor is killed so very murderous language is used here you know almost exactly the same language used by krishna in the bhagavad-gita and second chapter when he's talking about arjuna directly directly these mantras he has taken sometimes the exact language sometimes just paraphrased them and there it makes sense because in the middle of the battlefield you are going to instruct you will use instruct using these words so just to give an idea of what kind of things academicians busy themselves with in harvard this is one of the assignments there was a paper which said this is very confusing why is yamaha suddenly using the term the one who kills and one who thinks he's killed both are wrong what is this killing and being killed suddenly this means the same verse is found in the gita which means now look at the amazing conclusion which is john it's actually cut open yamaha has copied from the gita he was killing and killed this language makes sense in the gita in the context of kuruksetra which means cut open is must be later than gita this is all making a mess in bengal you say kichudi making a mess of the whole thing no the qatar finisher definitely predates the gita and krishna is quoting from the upanishads and this verse's quote is mantras quoted from krishna why suddenly this language not surprising because yama is the lord of death why should there be any problem in him using the language like the one who kills the one who is killed quite possible and so they belong to entirely different eras rama and krishna and the age of the puranas much later and upanishads are much earlier so this is the kind of text games that academicians play all right now let me read from a poem from emerson raspberry waldo emerson and you'll be stunned to see exactly this language let me see i got the poem here the name of the poem is brahma so i'm reading the poem by ralph waldo emerson remember emerson soro and walt whitman they were heavily influenced and they loved ancient indian texts emerson actually had the best collection of vedanta books or indian philosophy books in the whole of america in those days and he lent some of these books to sorrow who went for you know in the cabin when he stayed there he would read um gita he would read gita regularly so let me read out the poem keep in mind this mantra which we just read brahma by ralph baldw emerson if the red slayer thinks he slays or if the slain think he is slain they know not well the subtle ways i keep and pass and turn again so just clear things he's slaying and this lane thinks he's late they do not know the subtle truth i keep i am and i i come and i go but i am still the same i am not killed nor do i kill far or forgot to me is near shadow and sunlight are the same the vanished gods to me appear and one to me are shame and fame who leave me out when me they fly i am the wings i am the doubter and the doubt i am the hymn the brahmin sings the strong gods pine for my abode and pine in vain the sacred seven but thou meek lover of the good find me and turn thy back on heaven so you find ultimate reality and you turn your back on heaven this is a very vedantic thing that going to heaven is is part of a of a lower path when you realize you are one with the with the ultimate reality you are beyond heaven and earth you don't have to go to as the earlier mantra said brahmaloka and be there in the highest heaven not necessarily you become enlightened you are one with that right now so emerson this he took directly from the qatar from these this mantra which we are reading what has been said here basically what has been said here is not only is consciousness not born not only consciousness does not die not only consciousness is unchanging not only consciousness does not increase not only consciousness is ever shining makes possible all our experiences but also consciousness is not a doer or a sufferer the basic problem in our samsara is that with action is done i am the doer in sanskrit i am the doer and then the result of the action inevitably comes to me i this person i did something now i got to suffer suffer for it then i am the sufferer or enjoyer in sanskrit muktrit this is samsara this is the core of samsara see if all of this were like a movie playing out in consciousness you were watching a movie we could we had no problem we really don't even have problems with the most monstrous um villains in the movie or we are not particularly you know moved by even the greatest of heroes in the movie because it's a movie but if i am a character in that i cannot but be affected by it if i think i am doing these things so isn't consciousness doing it no imagine a film screen a movie screen somebody is driving a car will you say the screen is driving a car no because from the perspective of the screen there is no car and there is no driver there is no road the car driver road are all pictures appearing on the screen screen neither drives a car nor is the car not the driver not the owner of a car because none of them are there their appearances from the perspective of the screen the moment you think i am the driver i am this car is real i am real then you are the driver then you have to pay for the insurance of the car and every accident is your responsibility the law of karma will work when you identify yourself with body mind when you realize you are the atman law of karma will not work you are not the doer that is freedom vivekananda's good good bad bad and none escape the law but whosoever wears a form wears the chain too what's the chain the chain of karma then what is upanishad saying what is vedanta saying far beyond name and form is atman ever free no thou art that sannyasi bold say um you are that reality you just have to realize that i am that then you are free of this the movie will not stop the world will go on this body will go on to its inevitable end mind will go on thinking with the senses you will experience and with the hands and feet you will act and yet in the midst of all of this you are free you don't have to go to brahmalok or heaven to be free you don't have to sit in samadhi to be free wherever you are whatever you are doing you are free all throughout because you know that you are consciousness itself you are not the doer hence neither the good actions nor the bad actions dharma or dharma will have any effect on you you are not the doer not the experiencer of the results of doing and yet then who is the doer who is suffering in samsara who is doing all of this you are doing it you are the doer you are the experiencer you are the sufferer but you are always safe from it what do i mean how how can i contradict myself because without you the consciousness is any doing possible without you the consciousness is any enjoying or suffering possible impossible you being there there appears a world a body a personality and other people and activities going on there good and bad all of those things appear from your perspective they are like a magic display from your perspective you are ever free of it but the world goes on as an appearance within you so that is the meaning of this wonderful mantra here it denies to this pure consciousness the atman the immortal awareness which you are it denies agentship and experiencership you are neither the subject of action nor the object of action so this is the meaning this is freedom from samsara realizing this and in the midst of that again activity we can continue after teaching all of this i'm sure nachiketa lived a very active life after this neither the doer nor the sufferer of actions arjuna was asked to continue as a warrior after being taught all of this so at the level of the world level of the body actions can continue and should continue there's no need to stop them you can't even stop them the movie will continue as the director has willed it but you are free from it and now as the reality of this behind the movie you are free to enjoy it and live your life through that and also be a source of peace and blessings for others you are no longer trapped there this is called jivan mukti free while living in this body good let us quickly look at the observations patrick says it sounds like going to brahmalop as a scenic route to brahman why wouldn't this be acceptable to vedantist it is acceptable there are people who would want it and why not go and live in the presence of god for millions of years before disappearing into infinity but there are those who want to be enlightened here and now girish says david chalmers's new book reality plus in which says he's agnostic about the possibility of phenomenological world simulation is this a potential convergence with advaita but in different worlds could we not say that appearance in brahman is equivalent to simulation of course in fact i have spoken with david chalmers about this he he proposed that we have a conversation on advaita vedanta and his new book this reality plus and he actually sees this convergence i don't know when that conversation will happen but i agreed to it and so if it does happen great in fact when he told me about the book several months back so at that time i pre-ordered it so it should be coming anytime i think it's going to be released this month oh by the way before i forget um we have another significant major book being released this month um it is about swami vivekananda ayan maharaj swami medhana who wrote that wonderful book infinite path to infinite reality about sri ramakrishna's philosophy has written another book about swami vivekananda's cosmopolitanism so that book is going to be published by oxford university press released it's already done it's going to be released this month so yes david chalmers has written this book and uh i look forward to reading it and having potentially having a conversation with david chalmers poornamji says to realize the highest as grace they have a role as bhagavan mentions in gita or meditation on home is enough even to meditate on om you need grace even to have the desire for enlightenment all of this is a sign of great grace and advaita vedanta she said the grace of god is upon you if you are interested in advaita if you are practicing if you are seeking enlightenment already you are blessed prabhupada says awareness you are talking about different from reflected consciousness yes it is original awareness reflected consciousness also comes and goes when the mind shuts down so if you take away the mirror the reflection will go away but the original will not go up gloria says what is the connection between the objects of awareness and maya are the manifestations of maya they are manifestations of maya it's a magical display how can there be a magical display in consciousness it is this is called maya why is basically like a magical display it is the very power of consciousness to appear to itself as an other eternal appears as the ever-changing the conscious appears as the non-conscious insentient the unlimited appears as the limited something that is born and changes and dies that which is full and and the blessed appears as the miserable and the small swami vivekananda said this universe is the shipwreck of the infinite on the shores of time space and causation rama says the awareness which has experiences all the time is it the awareness of the mind or the siddha so this is what exactly what praveer bhagava had asked it is the original consciousness it is consciousness itself which is reflected in the mind as the chidawa is a reflected consciousness enabling it to experience so in the mind all sorts of thoughts feelings emotions are coming they're rising they're called virtis in the mind and all of them are lit up by the reflected consciousness that's what gives us our individual experience that's why machines which may generate all sorts of um you know thought like uh simulations but there's no experience going on in there because there's no reflected consciousness there rick says beethoven had started a tenth symphony but died before he finished it ai was recently used to complete it spread into a lot of information other works a symphony recently performed it sounded a lot like something he might have written yes creativity i'm i'm reading or i mean um this mathematician marcus tusatoi at oxford university he told me about the amazing strides that have been made in ai creativity including music although at this level i didn't know but this is something like wittgenstein's philosophy book so if you see what ai has written wittgenstein 2022 it sounds a lot like wittgenstein but basically it's it's nonsense so but in music it sounds a lot like bit open so it probably is not nonsense it's probably pretty good a widget says does the mantra 1 to 18 imply advaita yes can the self exist and there be a world disjoint from it no does this mantra rule out such a possibility yes it does um that if nothing if it's not born from anything else and nothing else comes from it and it illumines and gives existence to all experience then it's the only thing that could possibly exist there's an advaithic perspective sankey would say yes this is perfectly compatible with the material universe existing outside its superkriti and purusa dualism what will happen if someone lost all five senses similar it has been simulated sensory deprivation tanks are there you can you can will be immersed in this dark chamber and floating in a liquid so you will not be able to see anything hear anything smell anything taste or even touch anything the world will disappear but what will be the conscious experience be like while the person is still alive why don't you look at your own dreams the world has disappeared you're not seeing smelling tasting touching anything outside but it's all entirely in your mind it's a pretty vivid experience consciousness and mind continues suppose next you say suppose the mind is also put to sleep no more thinking then deep sleep kiran is saying jeevan mukhta is detached from the so called first person experience how they define their first person exercise consciousness only is not detached the first person experience you will see has two aspects what is first person experience something feels like something it feels like something to taste coffee it feels like something to touch a hot cup of coffee and the touch of the heat and the taste of the coffee are two different feels like something this difference in the taste and the touch is caused by the external world and by the writings of the mind these are all appearances in consciousness but it is an inner feeling direct first person experience that is due to consciousness and even even that is also mediated by reflected consciousness um so not detached the jihad mukhtar realizes this one unlimited awareness is all that exists i am that awareness in that the world body and the first person experience in this body mind are continuing they are appearing disappearing rising and falling and i am the enjoyer of all enjoyer means witness of all of that i illumine all of that and i give it all of that ex reality i give it its existence whatever existence it has i am the existence of all of that sangeeta says if not seen from a philosophical lens is emerson's poetry also touching upon the concept of law of conservation of energy i suppose yes why not rick says some people use i'm not the doer excuse immoral behavior yeah that will not cut much ice either with people outside or even with the person who's trying to excuse it so you cannot be excused i am not the doer and then i do wrong things uh deliberately see there is a falsity there he said why not i'm not the duo so long things can happen like a movie there can be a horror movie there can be a good movie so when the screen is not affected if you have a horror movie or a villainous person on the screen doesn't affect the screen you are the witness if the terrible things are done by the body mind what what is it to you but notice when you do when once someone violates ethics why does someone violate ethics why would i tell a lie and do something immoral and steal and you know cheat people only because of desires only because of fear or temptation something i cannot resist so i'm overstepping ethical i know what is wrong yet i'm doing it because i can't resist it or the opposite that i am scared of something and little children scared of being scolded or punished tell a lie now an enlightened person if you realize that you are infinite consciousness what can you desire there should be no nothing in this world that you particularly desire what are the things that you desire in a movie nothing how much would you pay for a candy which you saw in the movie nothing unless you get it really just the picture of the candy in the movie you don't pay anything it doesn't it's not there an enlightened person sees that there's nothing apart from brahman atman pure consciousness or pure being and therefore there's nothing that moves you you are complete in yourself the entire universe is nothing apart from you in one sense is nothing to be desired in another sense everything is accomplished already everything is yours so why would you desire something why would you be afraid of anything nothing can kill you or damage you even what would you be afraid of what threat what fear what anxiety what disease can affect you nothing at the most at the worst it can affect only this one little body how many such bodies have come and gone have the same vairagy for the mind just as you treat the body as something that has come and gone thoughts in the mind little fears anxieties you know how one monk put it very beautifully early in the morning you see a ray of sunshine come into your room and you see the brownian motion of little dust particles floating around many tiny breast particles how many such thoughts feelings emotions in how many many many minds across the universe across all living beings they're appearing dancing and floating around in the ray of consciousness the light of consciousness don't bother even in the mind if there is negativity if there is desire if there is anger if there is depression even a little bit comes and goes don't really be upset about it don't even try to go and fight it if you see i am the witness of it you'll see it will float around and disappear again don't be swept away into action by those thoughts which are coming in don't become depressed don't become angry don't give way to greed no they're like dust particles floating most of dust floating in in immortal light that light which you are always have beam shiva prayer says actually there is no heaven hell or brahma look out there it's all about consciousness realization brahma general right but never make the mistake of thinking there is no heaven there is no hell but there is this world and there is this body that is materialism that is materialism advaitha vedanta says there is it starts with before denying heaven and hell it first of all deny your own body negate your own body mind there are appearances in consciousness then you go on to negate heaven hell and god and all of that but not before that otherwise what will happen is if i negate oh advaitha has told me this actually ultimately there is no heaven there is no god but in my subconscious there is very much there the reality of this world reality of this body and the reality of this little mind which tortures me that is very much there then you are stuck then it is gross materialism gloria says has the movie that we are experiencing now our current life already completed and we are just watching it somehow that's an interesting question because there is a perspective first of all god's perspective and there are enlightened beings for whom from whose perspective our movies are complete they know what we have we have come from what is going to happen to us they know it this there are cases there's one monk who talks about swami brahmananda so swami brahmananda once asked him to render some service massaging his feet while the swami was lying down and suddenly this person he said when i started massaging his feet i went into kind of a trance and suddenly i became a self-aware and i saw swami brahmananda was sitting up and listening carefully and then suddenly he looked at me and said what what did you say and he appeared to lose all interest and he went lay back again as if he was not concerned and later he said i i understood what he was doing was reaching into some realm and asking me questions who are you [Music] where have you come from what will you do in this life what are you going to experience what sort of life are you planning to have here now what is it what an unsettling thing that it's all done for us i'll share a little interesting incident of my own all this is non vedantic from yama's level from the upanishads level they'll think what nonsense you're all discussing you are pure consciousness and that's it whether it's predicted in what is predictable or not is it a movie that's play out that you are interested in the movie but be interested in the light in which the movie is appearing the screen in which the movie is appearing the plot of the movie is not interesting but anyway here is my own little experience before i became a monk but i already decided i was a student so we had this very perceptive psychology teacher who was guiding us through an intense six-hour session all the students there's he was an expert in various advanced psychological techniques transactional analysis and some other things so when it came to be to me to be guided through a particular analysis i was on there was a hot seat to sit there and he searches he subjects you to very searching questions he uh said so kind of a hypnotic regression so what do you see i still remember that i said what do you see i said i see a ray of light a beam of light and then he says where does it go as it goes and it very soon it sharply moves upwards and then i said then there's a vast burst of light and then he said to me that um is that what you see please meet me in my office i went to his office afterwards and he said um that is the interpretation that we have is is for death that you're going to die very soon this means that you're going to die i said look i haven't told anybody but on such and such day i'm going to give up everything and become a monk in the next few weeks i'm going away is this how the mind is interpreting then he said could be and he was also very surprised to know that i was going to become a monk so it was a business school so there were very few people becoming amongst the business school so he told me that he was a jesuit priest a very learned old man he told me that so when you do become a monk after two months write to me to let me know that let me know you are all right so i did that i wrote back to him saying that i'm still alive here so it probably meant so somewhere deep inside our minds maybe subconscious level super conscious level i don't know what it is at one level we already know what's happening in our life and what's going to happen to us it's all there so this experience showed me that next time i met him was many years after i'd become a monk i went to the seminary where the jesuits were trained and i told one of the sweet monks that i knew i just went farther long ago when i was a student father john prabhu they said oh he is here i said he's here i thought he was very old and at that time was suffering from terminal cancer i thought he must have passed away by now who is it he is here and then he we walked to the graveyard and there we went to the grave where john probably was there so i they stood there for some time and prayed for him so quite an amazing old man but you see that means at some level the mind knows what's going to happen to this individuality from vedantic perspective what nonsense forget that something or the other will happen in the movie but it's a movie that's the most important thing and you are not that little character that's the point that yama is making does the jivan mukta feel the pain of other people as his own pain yes yes you so then that's awful we can't bear our own pain or if you start feeling the pain of everybody else but remember the jivan mukta is also above it the zebra mukta can easily say i am the witness of all of that and these are appearances we need the consciousness all right how time flies let's bring it to a close here oh [Music] namaste [Music] you