Video 23

23. Katha Upanishad | Mantra 1.3.13 | 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 we study be invigorating or illuminating may we not cavale at each other home peace peace peace all right so in the catholic nation we're studying this wonderful dialogue between uh yama the lord of death and the little boy nachiketa and yama is teaching nachiketa about the knowledge of the self of our true nature of what we are the promise in vedanta is that our goal of our life all that we can attain peace transcendence of problems it's all easily within our reach because it is our real nature if we know what we truly are we will transcend suffering and attain fulfillment transcendence of suffering attainment of fulfillment how does that happen in vedanta in the path of knowledge it happens by realizing who we are it's as straightforward as that we are already here we are ourselves i me myself my real nature is always always there because i am here but we don't see that how do you see that so yama is giving the teachings and we'll just take a quick recap of what we were doing remember the chariot so yama introduces it's a classic very ancient way of describing the human personality the chariot so we'll start there and quickly go through the versus the mantras which we have already done this is 1.3.3 we have already done these things i'll just quickly go through that and give a little bit of a catching up and a recap of what we have done the third mantra said in this chapter third mantra said [Music] so know the self as the master of the chariot you are the passenger the body is the chariot and the intellect is the charioteer the driver is the intellect and the mind is there is the range the brittle controlling what controlling the horses so next next mantra says so they the wise people say that our sense organism these are the horses and the path they run upon are is the objects in the world you know the eyes see the forms ears hear sound and so on and so they're like horses yoked to the body the sense organs and the mind the self is now called the bhokta the enjoyer you are actually the passenger sitting in this body mind complex the body mind complex is the chariot you're actually the passenger there it's an instrument for you but then connected to this yoked to this combined with this you become the enjoyer and the doer i mean the sanskrit words are bhokta and karta the experiencer it's just not just enjoying it's suffering also more in suffering than enjoying as we become engaged with this body and mind we experience with the mind we can think and imagine and feel and remember with the intellect we understand all of this and with the senses we can see i the awareness the self i can see and hear and smell and taste and touch and with the with the organs of action you know with the speech i can speak with the hands i can grasp with the legs i can walk and so on all of these now become possible for me understanding feeling desiring acting knowledge the power of understanding of knowing then desiring the motive power within us i want whatever it is that i want and then that kicks the body into action with the five senses of knowledge and the five senses of action we act in this world all of this is when you the consciousness you become um you're yoked with the body mind a problem is that you the consciousness i the consciousness i am not aware of myself as awareness i am aware of myself as body mind it's like the passenger has forgotten himself or herself and thinks i am the chariot now how ridiculous is that but that's our condition we think we are the chariot realizing our true nature that i am the passenger in the chariot you can still let the chariot do its job you can still that the you know the chariot can run and should run similarly the body can act when the body should act but you should be active in this world but i can realize that i am not the body mind that sets me free you know i transcend the uh the the agent ship and the uh experiential ship of the body these are clumsy words in sanskrit book triton then the next so this is a model body mind is called chariot and then in the chariot the body is the chariot in that he points out three things one is the sensory system so those are the horses that's one second is the reins with which the horses are controlled that's the mind and third is the driver the charioteer that's the intellect so keep your attention on these three the senses the the range that is the mind and the intellect you might say why i mean isn't it all included in the chariot isn't it all included in the body mind yes but because we are on our way to enlightenment these three are important the sensory system the mind and the intellect and you are none of them you are the chariot the passenger in the chariot you are the in the body-mind you are the awareness awareness itself now what do we do with this chariot model um next fifth mantra yes [Music] but the organs of that intellect which being ever associated with an uncontrolled mind becomes devoid of discrimination are truly like the vicious forces of the chariot this is our usual condition mind does not have knowledge knowledge means it has all sorts of knowledge which we get in school and college but uh not vedantic knowledge not self knowledge the mind does not the intellect sorry the intellect does not have self knowledge without technology which is being imparted here normally does not have does not know who the reality is what the reality is and the mind is flickering not focused scattered and the senses are indisciplined they run to wherever whatever is pleasing towards them and run away from whatever is displeasing towards them so this is the condition it is like the horses are indisciplined they don't respond to commands the rains by which the horses have to be controlled it has become loose it is not useful anymore and the driver the charioteer is completely misinformed so that is disastrous for the journey for the passenger it's disastrous because the chariot is going to meet with an accident then imagine the driver is drunk the steering wheel is loose and the wheels are all going in different directions you're going to have a terrible accident in contrast what do we need what do we need this chariot to do what condition should it be in yes that intellect which is associated with the restrained mind is endowed with discrimination the organs are controllable like the good horses of a chariot here so the intellect is is endowed with knowledge about the self who am i that knowledge and the knowledge is not in awareness the knowledge is in the intellect actually awareness is there all the time if the intellect is bewildered is confused is misled same awareness will illumine that intellect the intellect is now trained with vedantic knowledge or self-knowledge awareness illumines that so intellect has vedantic knowledge self-knowledge one the mind is now focused not flickering even if the intellect has knowledge if the mind is flickering you will not be able to translate that knowledge into day to day activity the mind will fail us again and again so you know like i know i am the witness consciousness but when that person is rude i lose my temper what happened the knowledge is in the intellect but the mind is so loose is so um not aware not alert it just repeats patterns of behavior somebody said something rude and there's a flash of anger then i say something back in anger what happened the mind did it because the mind was um you know is not uh mindful in fact that's the word used here someone else come mindful it's not trained to be mindful when the mind is mindful mind is focused the intellect has self-knowledge then the senses come under control very easily similarly he says if the charioteer is sensible if the reins are strongly in the hands of the charioteer and the horses are well trained and they will come under control easily then the next seventh one is so what why should i bother about you know a philosophically trained intellect a focused mind and controlled senses what happens if i don't bother with all this seventh mantra says yes a person who whose intellect is not informed the mind is flickering and the senses are ever engaged in impure activities that person does not attain the goal the goal is enlightenment and freedom what happens to that person meets with an accident what's the name of that accident samsara samsara attains to samsara i think we are all uh like major multi-card crash with that that's basically our our lives that's where we are right now but on the other hand the person who leads a disciplined life whose mind is focused and the intellect is enlightened and that person will will realize the goal of human life that is enlightenment and freedom yesterday that passenger that master of the chariot who has a discriminating intellect who is endowed with the controlled focused mind is ever pure that means the senses are under control attains the goal from which he is not born again that means does not come back to samsara one way is the disaster called samsara the other way is freedom from samsara this is the whole project here what is that goal number nine vigna sarah theory very poetically sublime verse poetically put that passenger you know who has his charioteer as a discriminating intellect his mind circum mind is under control um that first person attains the end of the road advanti you reach the end of the road what is that end of the road tad vishnu paramam padam that is the highest place of vishnu which is which is godhood basically you realize godhood you become one with the infinite then the method is now being introduced first the framework and then the actual technique the framework we had done last time up to last time and i'd left people on tenterhooks how do you actually do it but before that 10th and 11th mantras which gives us the framework now the path the the teaching tenth indriya this sense objects are higher than the senses higher means subtler subtler than the senses why are sense objects subtler than the senses i won't go into it i spent some time explaining it last time you know this is the first which is used in the gita and krishna has simplified this verse if you remember i talked about it doesn't matter he's just saying there are sense objects there are senses higher than that is the higher means subtler and more inwards the mind is subtler more inward more subtle more inward is the intellect why circle an inward because the most subtle and the most inward is the self you that's where we are going we're trying to locate the passenger of the chariot so we're going into the very heart of our own existence your own existence at the very heart of your own existence is what you the real you so we are going from the external to the internal from the senses to the mind to the intellect more internal more internal more inner more subtle more subtle subtler and subtler and more subtle than the intellect is the cosmic mind of which this intellect is a part notice what do you you know we would expect oh we've been studying vedanta long enough i understand what he's doing notice the body and then notice we are experiencing the body through the senses notice the senses notice that we are experiencing the senses with the mind notice the mind thoughts feelings emotions we are noticing the mind with the help of the faculty of understanding intellect and then beyond that if you push you will hit a blank which is the anandamaya or the the you know agayana what we experience in deep sleep and then we will be told um the swami will tell us the tenth man story for the millionth time and say that you are the witness of all of these um these these components of your being that's what we we expect but no advaita vedanta is not just individual not just that one consciousness within you are the one consciousness illumining the entire universe so at some point in any true advaithic teaching the cosmic will be included so when you say i am the intellect the here is the intellect and how do you locate the intellect the mind is the thoughts feelings emotions ideas which we have this is all mind memories desires all mind intellect the best way to locate is intellect is that at the heart of the intellect is the sense of i yeah the certain sense that i am this is at the level of the beginner so i am that is the level of the intellect of course the intellect is the faculty of knowing is intellect as a definition of intellect in vedanta the determinative faculty when you get something the flash of understanding comes that's intellect and at the heart of that is the eye sense which is constantly there that i am the the center which integrates all of these mind and senses and intellect and all into one person that's also in the intellect and that ego that's the ego that's the i and that's not the real you that's not the real us so i am that the that's the intellect then the upanishad says wait a minute here before going on to atma wait a minute this intellect and the mind and the senses they are all part of a cosmic mind you know just look around yourself so many people so many animals living beings varieties of bodies varieties of activities going on multiple sensory systems multiple minds and intellects and all of that together is one cosmic mind they are not separate this one cosmic mind is called hiranyakarpa and that is what is mentioned here buddhism beyond our in the individual intellect is the is the vast cosmic mind and then next number 11 [Music] the unmanifest is higher than the mahat the purusha is higher than the unmanifested there is nothing higher than the purusa he is the culmination he is the highest goal so beyond this cosmic mind like beyond our individual mind if you try to go beyond the intellect right now if you try to notice you will get a blankness suppose you shut down everything you are not seeing close your eyes you're not thinking not remembering you're not even trying to understand not even trying to feel the eye what will happen you'll fall asleep or you'll just feel a blankness for a moment that blankness is the anandamaya kosha the agyana and in the cosmic level that is maya that is the seed form of the hiranyakara by the cosmic mind just as our mind goes into a blankness in deep sleep the cosmic mind in its seed form is is maya here it is called abductor and for obvious reasons it's called the unmanifest object means unmanifest beyond the unmanifest is the purusa is the real self is the real you purusa is the real you the real self and what's beyond the purusa the purus there's nothing beyond the purusa that is the ultimate reality sarcastha he is the culmination he is the highest goal that consciousness our real nature you are the ultimate ground of this universe you are the fight you are the the the base the foundation of this entire cosmic play not only of this little body-mind little person of the entire universe and that is called purush and that's our real nature we are not part of it we are it all of us together not to not even together individually also there's no individual and cosmic there there's only one undivided consciousness there division comes at the level of maya in vegas you see how useful it is the ultimate reality existence consciousness bliss is indivisible but my eyes is infinitely divisible that that accounts for so many individual beings anyway so that is the teaching so far and the 12th mantra he just sums it up saying that it's this is the ultimate reality and it's very subtle this pure consciousness is hidden in all beings and does not appear it's not explicitly available as the self of all beings because normally what do we mean by self we normally mean the ego i this cosmic this consciousness which is the self of all beings is not obvious at all but by the seers of subtle things sukhmadarshi those who understand subtle ways subtle things this pure consciousness is seen through a pointed and fine intellect this purified and pointed inter-sharpened intellect is done through sadhana through spiritual practice that's why spiritual practice is necessary done now i had said so what's the technique how do we actually practice it now if it's so obvious it's here not obvious but it's here it's our real nature how do i actually come to realize it come to see this so a technique will be suggested by none other than the lord of death yama and we will do that now so the mantra is the thirteenth mantra thirteenth mantra yatcheth [Music] the translation from swami gambhira namdaji is the discriminating man should merge the organ of speech into the mind he should merge the mind into the intelligent self he should merge the intelligent self into the great soul he should merge the great soul into the peaceful self what does all this mean okay remember what are we trying to do we have been told that we are this we are consciousness i am awareness this purusa this final ultimate reality and i am that already how do i come to see that or realize that that's the purpose of the path of vedanta path of knowledge we'll have to go from the external to the internal not physically internal if you physically go into a body internally you will find organs flesh blood and all that of course internal into our own experience of ourselves right now you're experiencing yourself experiencing the world you're experiencing yourself attend to the experience of yourself draw our attention away from the experience of the world to our experience of ourselves so immediately the body becomes obvious you draw your attention away from the experience of the body to the experience of our sensory system i am seeing and hearing i'm smelling tasting touching and the yama starts there the teaching starts at that point be aware of your sensory system he says merge the speech into the mind merge the speech into the mind walk your chair means you throw or withdraw or merge what into what he says walk menacing speech into mind my speech is meant all the senses is meant eyes ears nose tongue touch is also meant all the senses of action the organs of action so speech is one organ of action hands are another organ of action a feat another organ of action so all these organs of action and organs of sense fi ten organs he says merge them back into the mind what do you mean by merge it means by to steal them to step back from sensory level of existence into mental existence now here this has to be understood carefully it's not just simply a question of sitting quietly and closing your eyes it does it means that but it's not simply is that it has it's more subtle and more powerful than that the teaching is that notice merging means noticing that all the sensory activities are ultimately mined let me repeat that all the sensory activities are ultimately mental mind seeing his mind hearing his mind smelling tasting touching his mind talking his mind walking and grasping things all the actions that we do and all the knowledge that we get from the world ultimately it's mind what do you mean there are obviously the physical organs are not the mind there are eyes and ears and nose and tongue there are hands and feet that's not what is meant the activities of these organs called vritti the activities of these organs all are ultimately dumped in the mind and controlled from the mind it's the mind which is the control center of all our center sensory systems one very good way of noticing this is dreams notice in the dreams our eyes are closed we are not hearing anything physically externally we are not tasting anything but in dreams we seem to be seeing perfectly well you see a dream world you hear your friends talking um you can even maybe some people have some kind of taste or so multiple senses might be working there and yet we know for sure none of the senses are working there physical senses these organs they're all shut down they're all sleep we are sleeping that means the mind by itself in the dream world has split into the five organs of sense so mind is gen we know for sure whatever you see in the dream world is being generated by the mind the mind in itself is now able to see hear smell taste touch in itself is now able to do things like walk around you don't in a dream nobody has this feeling oh i can't see anything obviously i can't see anything because i'm sleeping my eyes are closed how can i see anything you don't feel that you feel i'm able to see perfectly well we don't even have any feeling that we are sleeping on the bed and eyes are closed no notice how the mind in itself can vividly simulate the activities of all senses that's because even while waking all the senses are behind all the senses is the mind right now sensory activity whether organs of action or organs of sense of knowledge is actually mental activity even in the waking state notice how a person there's a famous story in the upanishads of a man who was making arrows sharpening an arrow and the whole procession passes by and he does not see the procession and somebody says and then asks him didn't you see the king and the retinue go past no i was so focused that means his eyes were open his ears were there but he didn't see anything didn't hear the the the commotion because he was so focused the mind had no extra bandwidth left over for any other sensory activity so without the mind the senses cannot generate sensory experience that's actually pretty simple without the mind senses cannot generate any sensory experience without paying attention you can't do even simple things like you know talking or walking you will have an accident or you will you won't be able to talk you have to pay attention to what you are saying attention to where you are going attention is mind so when you say withdraw into the mind what uh the upanishad is giving yama is giving the lord of depth is giving us a subtle and powerful teaching not just simply sit quietly yes sit quietly but notice that thoughts and that that seeing hearing smelling tasting they're all mental stop the actual physical action of seeing something yes close your eyes withdraw into the mind now i am not a seeing hearing smelling tasting talking walking grasping creature i am a mental being now thought and only thought and physically whatever you're doing you're sitting quietly obviously you're sitting quietly you've closed your eyes in a calm environment now you're going to so this is now we have withdrawn from the sensory system into the mind and must stay there for some time steady yourself there before taking the next step who can do this he is saying here prague the wise one who is the wise one the one who has already acquired the wisdom up to the 12th mantra before this it was already got the framework of the chariot correct who knows the goal is to find out the passenger of the chariot myself who knows that the senses and the mind and the intellect they all belong to the chariot and they're like the driver and the reigns and the horses they are not me all this knowledge is there vedantic teaching is there this is called pragya so shankaracharya will say in his commentary viveki the discerning person who is already trained in vedantic thinking such a person now will withdraw the sensory activities into the mind how do you withdraw the sensory activities of the mind of course you state physically quietly but notice all of them are nothing but the mind all the senses are the mind only in their activity next what you do now the mind you withdraw into the intellect so we are going subtler and deeper from external to internal from gross to subtle subtle to subtler mind is pretty subtle from thoughts feelings memories um desires sensory a perception will all of these are mined now i still them what is at the center of all of them what is inner to all of them what is subtler than all of them intellect what is that intellect how to locate it i've already told you locate the eye sense at the center of this constellation of thoughts emotions desires activity sensory perception is i you the the sense of individual i i sense locate that and you've located the intellect buddhi we draw it all into that eye sense practically what does it mean as i have stopped seeing hearing smelling tasting touching walking talking now i stop quiet and at least try to quiet thoughts emotions drives memories i quieten that and stay with i am that is withdrawing the mind into the intellect not easy and he says stay there now stay there for some more time sit there quietly like that with the i am then next what do you do gyanamat money mahathir no just note this this i am sense this intellect is actually a tiny part of a vast cosmic mind that is called math here calls it mahath it is hiranyakarba it is hiranyabagarba the cosmic mind what does it consist of it consists of the sensory perceptions of all human beings not only human beings all kinds of animals all living beings all of their sensory activity one it consists of all the thoughts emotions memories of all minds it consists of the knowledge in all intellects and the common ego in each mind and intellect and this one ego is part of that this one i i am is part of a similar i am in all living beings this is called hiranyakarba the cosmic mind it has three four powers the power of knowledge the power of desire and of wanting and the power of acting doing things ghana chakra all three and in the cosmic sense in the sense of all that you see around all living beings all life that is the cosmic mind and that also includes prana which means life all of life is included in that cosmic mind hiranyakarpa how do you withdraw the intellect into hindu just recognize that this i am is part of an ocean of i am not just one little i am in one body mind then what do you do to what is all this this whole drama this panorama this amazing spectacle to what is appearing in what all this is appearing and we all know it is consciousness awareness it's a fact isn't it you must be some kind of an aware being for all this to be experienced in awareness notice that here we have skipped over object or the unmanifest maya doesn't matter all of this display cosmic mind the individual intellect the individual mind individual sensory system and individual body and the world we experienced by the body the whole thing is appearing in awareness like a like a steady light and that awareness is a very important step here all of these are objects even the mind the intellect is an object but this awareness is not an object it's you it's the pure subject in that this objective order of things is appearing the intellect the mind the sensory system the body and the universe so one consciousness in which one awareness in which all of this is appearing that awareness there is no objective quality to it so it's called shanta atmani shanta means peace into the peace self into the consciousness self the consciousness self is called the peace self this is from mandu kyopanishan your name is peace it's not that you're peaceful the mind can sometimes be peaceful the external world can sometimes be peaceful or sometimes it can be there'll be war and disturbance the mind can be depressed or annoyed or angry or excited or sometimes peaceful but you are peace itself your real nature that awareness is peace itself that's why it's called shantaratmani in english in the self which is peace into that you merge the cosmic mind how do you merge the cosmic mind in the sp itself nothing you just recognize the whole thing this whole display is an appearance in you there is no external you know something apart from consciousness or you know some other entity called a cosmic mind whose part is an individual intellect and mind and sensory system and body and external world all of that is an appearance in awareness in being existence this is the shanta atma in um i remember in sri ramakrishna in the gospel of srinam krishna his talk is going on about spiritual life and somebody remarks oh the path is an endless path and there is no end to this spiritual path and sudam krishna immediately corrects him and says no where there is peace that is the end of the path what piece is he talking about brahman atman the ultimate reality is discoverable and within quote-unquote is recognizable it's not discoverable or recognizable in an objective fashion but as i am that aham as me i am brahman [Music] this is the meaning you contemplate that using the intellect you contemplate the fact that all this is appearing in this this background radiation of consciousness this which i am i am that atman and stay there this this is a realization and understanding so you start you sit quietly shut down your shut your eyes in a peaceful environment and withdraw your mind from all external thought thought of the world then you notice the body then withdraw mind from the body to the senses and you can see i can see i can feel my existence from there you will draw into the mind and notice that senses are nothing but the mind notice that actually notice without the mind no sensory experience is possible so with nothing but the mind and the mind now you withdraw shut down the activities of the mind which are thoughts emotions perceptions memories withdraw into the sense of individual existence and then notice just think with that intellect itself just notice that it is the entire cosmic mind is just like this this i am sense every entity has this i am sense this is the hiranyakarpa which consists of the universal intellect understanding universal feeling and universal action gana ichakriya and to what is all this appearing you that is the merging back of the cosmic mind into the atman at this at that point nonduality is attained if you do notice the beauty of the system if you take an individual consciousness individual intellect and i am the witness of this intellect then you will still have a sense of a kind of um you know a kind of background feeling of individuality and then this thought will nag you what about this world no in advaita vedanta the world is non-different from this background awareness which we are you know this peace atman shanta it's a very beautiful name in fact our swami in delhi ramakrishna mission delhi his name is shantat mananda it's from shantatma um let me just share this with you i was having a long conversation today with a scholarly monk from um benares from kashi and we are having very subtle discussion of the methodology of teaching advaita vedanta he says one approach is what you do swami he told me he has watched some of my videos um he said see what you do is what you do is you do drip drishta viveka you know i've often talked about this about this i am the experiencer everything is experienced the seer is different from the scene and so on he says that is a sankhyan technique that is true it's a from sanction technique the problem with that will be two twofold one is you will end up with a feeling of i am a witness consciousness in this body and mind and so possibly there are millions of witness consciousnesses drasta seer sakshi that feeling will be there all the time and that is not a problem for sankhya because that's exactly what they want to say there are many many consciousnesses and then that scholars that swamiji said to me then swami notice what you have to do you have to work very hard to show people it is one consciousness in all bodies and minds if you listen to my lectures that's the next step i take this is one side of the problem the other side of the problem is see this is not non-duality it's still duality because seer and sin have been separated so the entire universe and the body and the mind all of this is still there now you have to show you have to now take take up jagat falsity of the world and show that these are all appearances in consciousness and therefore not a countable second apart from consciousness therefore not to non-dual advaitha so beautiful analysis of most of my talks you know in various ways i just do this sometimes through panchakoshavika sometimes to drink this sometimes through avast waking dreaming deep sleep and turiya but basically i'm doing this all the time and he says this effort to prove the falsity of the world is ultimately it comes from buddhism this drink-dressing analysis you what you do it ultimately comes from sankhya and there's a price you have to pay for this and you have to work hard to make it non-dual after all of this and he says it's fine this is one way of doing it and it has an advantage because it's very logical it's it's very it's immediately appealing it and one can follow it step by step there is the classical upanishad method is to start with awareness with being and to see how that awareness or being appears as you the experiencer and the experienced universe if it is that awareness appearing along with the appearance of the mind it becomes the jiva the knower the individual when it appears with name and form it becomes jagat but in both cases nothing other than the awareness and dream example is very good to show that so he starts upanishad starts from the very root so non-duality is preserved there all throughout anyway just i wanted to share this with you um before i go to the questions let me just read a little bit about what shankaracharya has said in his commentary to this thing this technique the technique which has been shared by uh yama the lord of death this technique is in vedanta this will be called nidhiddhasa vedantic needed the teaching has already been given manana has been done up to 12th mantra 13th mantra is having understood this that's why he's calling you pragya the one who is already well informed you have understood the teaching now stay with the teaching how do i stay with the teaching here do this withdraw in this way from the world to the body from the body withdraw means attend attention understanding world to the body body to the senses senses to the mind mind to the intellect intellect through cosmic mind cosmic mind to the non-objective pure awareness now shankaracharya says the way to realize to become enlightened the method is being now taught that is shankaracharya saying this is the method then he says that word yatchet means put put means upasangrid withdraw vidra means and then who will do that pragya the wise one who is the wise one shankaracharya says viveki this discrimination or discernment between self and not itself kim what will you withdraw vlog so this is mentioned speech but just to indicate the entire group of five sense organs and five motor organs are all included under the umbrella all of them have to be withdrawn because they are nothing other than mind itself will you withdraw them in the mind then he says [Music] shankaracharya says we draw the mind into that which knows the mind the knowing faculty understanding faculty what is that intellect and as i gave you the clue intellect is a more fuzzy vague term catch hold of the eye the isense which we all feel right now buddhi manadi karanani pervades the mind and the sensory system and is internal to them is the very self of those uh the mind and the sensory system so we draw it into that very self and then he goes on to say later on he talks about the hiran negbakarba the cosmic mind and then finally he gives a beautiful statement yatcheth recognize all of this is a display in he says mukkyat when the primary self in the ultimate self ultimate reality what is that shanta in the in the that which is peace where all objective distinctive qualities have have um have faded away it is one blazing light aurobindo called it a white glare of an immortal gaze then avikri unchanging changeless sarvantari the innermost of all existence of all beings of all minds of all beings of all existence at the heart of it is this awareness server buddhi pratya sakshini into the the witness of the the the activities of all minds of all intellects all minds they're all illumined by one consciousness what is that the real self you i remember in one of the hymns to srama krishna one phrase is used [Music] nikhil the one who is the witness of the buddhi of the intellects of all sentient beings the one who shines upon them who knows it all but whom nobody knows what is that that's consciousness it is consciousness which knows everything in this universe but nothing knows consciousness nothing can nose means nothing can objectify consciousness to consciousness everything is an object to you everything is an object but you are not an object to anything so that is sri ramakrishna what do you see that is the atma the self yes and that's i yes you the self and god are one reality when vedante is studied in the himalayas they have these invocatory verses and one verse will always be chanted i salute that one radiance which appears as god which appears as i i i this individual being and as my guru who's teaching me vedanta who is that fast like the sky this is a radiance like the sky uh that is dakshina murthy the south facing shiva this from the motif yes all right now let's quickly look at the questions vishnu that which surrounds everything vishnu's paramampadam is the fourth part of ishmaturiya nothing beyond curious toria surrounds everything means yes like the clay surrounds clay surrounds the pot means the pot is clay right the waves are water sparks are fire the the great space isn't it it pervades all the space in the pots right very beautifully put i am that highest state of vishnu so that is that is realized rick says we have the mahat unmanifest in purusa where do consciousness god and brahman fit into this hierarchy right consciousness is the purusa consciousness plus the unmanifested is god the consciousness is the purusa and that is brahman brahman purusha consciousness one thing consciousness of course i mean pure consciousness brahman purusa consciousness the the real self you the real you that's that's the ultimate reality what about god it is this consciousness limited by the unmanifest in association with maya who is called god or ishwar or bhagavan rick says at each stage in verse 13 we hear the phrase he should merge is an agent or doer separate from all these things that are being merged who can do the merging one should have merged himself early in the process no it means here the merger is a less an activity of merging one thing into another more an activity of recognizing a fact about yourself in the stage of the senses the body being still and the sense is being quietened there is an activity going on where you try to quieten down the senses but then you recognize the sensory experiences are nothing without the mind and the mind is nothing without the eye sense of the intellect and i sense is ultimately recognized to be an appearance in consciousness which you are at each stage you the consciousness with the help of the intellect you're recognizing these facts about yourself is um hiranyakarbha same as mahat yes shankaracharya in his commentary also points out cosmic mind you see a pure sanction would not do this pure sanction would say merge the senses into the mind the mind into the intellect and intellect into consciousness finished but the advaitan will say at some point he will bring in the rest of the universe the whole display of this cosmos abhijit says same question is rick step three from i am to the cosmic mind how can they have a doer apart from i am as i said it's not a doer you're not actually merging you know pushing one thing into another drowning one thing in the other you're just recognizing it's a fact um you know how do you merge new york into the united states united states into north america north america into uh you know the into earth you just notice new york as it is is the united states it's it's part of that this this part this is also united states this is new york but it's also united states the united states is also not american you just recognize it you're not actually merging something you recognize the fact that it's already it's an accomplished fact it's not that these are all separate now you have to push them back together like a lego set or something it's an accomplished fact and north america is nothing but this earth you recognize that and that's the merger gaurav says i did not get the second method during rig rishabhi wake and seeing world like appearance you discuss non-dual meditation very logical and direct yes it is and the second method is not but not very different from all this but that that swami from banaras he pointed out the techniques which we use they have their advantage because they are logical and pretty analytical pretty acceptable relatable drigbrishavik then the appearance nature of the universe but they have the price you have to pay for that because they are borrowed from other systems from sankhya from buddhistic ideas see what the point he was trying to make and which is well taken is the upanishads they have only one point they're trying to make there is one non-dual reality at the heart of all existence which is divine notice when vivekananda teaches vedanta he doesn't talk about all this he says he is teaching us these two aspects our innermost divinity the divinity within us and the oneness of all existence that's pure upanishad after that is the world an appearance is it is the jagat mithya is the drashta and russia separate all those come much later they are they are ways of trying to bring us back to this one realization that we are all one divine reality non-dual divine reality that is the core message of the open shirts everything else follows the appearance nature of the word jagat mithya world is false it follows logically follows but that's not the central teaching another point that swami made which was well taken i agreed entirely he says he told me that swami in the way you are teaching people will have a problem with bhakti notice you have borrowed two techniques one from buddhism and one from sankhya and neither sankhya or buddha nor buddhism have any space for god so you can accomplish all of this rig rishabhiweka falsity of the word jagat mithyatwa that means falsity of the world separation of the seer in the scene and come to non-dual realization without once talking about god and devotion whereas in the upanishadic way you start at the top or at the bottom with with one brahman and that appears as you the knower with the mind and the world with name and form when name and form comes that brahman appears as the world when the mind appears that brahman appears as you now i at my in the background is one non-dual reality if i am that no one non-dual reality with mind and body with the appearance of mind and body now i can conceive of that non-dual reality as god and i can have devotion to it's my source after all i can have devotion to my source and all the devotional vedantic systems dualism qualified monism bishit advaitha they arise because of this fact you start with non-dual brahman come to yourself and the world and devotion is still possible in that way so these are good points only thing is it might not be as logically appealing as seer in the scene and the appearance nature of the world all of that is more appealing to the modern mind one the mind trained by modern science all right jennifer says swamiji would you venture to explain this four-step instruction in the context of vicharas taught by ramana maharshi the same wife to mention mahathir nagar right so the reason why the mahathir hindi garba is mentioned is because of this notice even in the path of the maharishi ramana maharshi you will end up with who am i i am that i am that reality you realize i am awareness in and not the body not the mind the world is dream like but the oneness of all existence is not established there and you will have to bring bring that in later the non-duality of existence that none of this exists without me the witness consciousness omi will take you to the heart of of of of realization i am pure awareness whatever you call it but it still has to be said that what is this cosmos then what is all this if you ask that integration is done that's why the upanishads at some point they will bring in the cosmos from individual mind they'll bring in the cosmic mind you don't have to do anything you just have to recognize that this experience of the ego of the mind i'm having it's a tiny part of a vast mind tamiko says as a follow-up to jennifer's question my understanding is rama namashi instructed the eye senses located in the heart how does one incorporate this focus of awareness heart is just a way of speaking it it helps us to locate in your practice that in the heart but he meant the spiritual heart what is the spiritual heart is to put it very simply just have a feel for your own existence now our own being and what philosophers called phenomenologically it's a sense of my physical being my emotional mental being all of these are components to my my feeling of my own existence and the heart at the core of this existence is what ramana mashi calls the heart and within that is the real nature of the eye the witness consciousness shiva prayer says all is in the awareness no awareness no word is very direct precise method but the other one stepwise method is very long one might get lost in between yeah that's why you need a teacher shiopra says awareness is the buddhi intellect cosmic mind then the awareness of that blankness correct even the blankness even maya appears in awareness good prabhupada we are holding on to the question for a long time let us see yes so in in your talk on the self on in all beings and all beings in the self which is just up on the internet a few days ago you had you used a little differently you said we took experience of seeing and from that he said that it's it's in them all in the mind and the mind you said that the mind is shining in consciousness is revealed in consciousness so it says it's all pervaded by consciousness it's one consciousness so the intellect didn't come in in in that actually and the hiro nagar so that right so but that is not an important distinction because you intellect is when i said mind is shining in consciousness intellect is just one more faculty of the mind i'm using mind in a way we use it in english in a broad sense of whatever is going on inside so our thoughts feelings emotions and also intellect and also ego so i wanted to make it very very direct you have an experience of the world but none of that is possible without mind you have an experience of the mind but none of that is possible without you the consciousness so ultimately you that you shining mind shines you and mind shining the world shines for you i found that very very very very easy for much it's very easy and it's good for sadhana remember however huge amount of philosophical argumentation has gone into saying something like that because there'll be huge questions of you're already assuming there is no external world it is in the mind only doesn't the world have an external reality apart from your mind so the whole idealism versus realism debate the debate between thousand year debate between the buddhist vigya navadins and on one side on the other side the hindu nayakas vaisheshika sankhyas mumsakas realism versus idealism and those that debate is has to be gone through a lot of philosophical movements argumentation centuries of work has gone into putting it so simply not that it will be acceptable to non-dualism to non-non-dualistic it's acceptable to you because you're a non-dualist thank you then rama pranam swamiji uh the question i have is the way we are reading this ownership that's been taught here where is the non-duality coming here because can we understand non-duality uh without jagat methyatm so whereas that when we talk about resolving into um you know sense objects into mind minded to intellect are we talking that that is the there is nothing apart from consciousness everything is consciousness where is that coming here when you say merging it back ultimately when you say intellect mind external senses external world are nothing apart from the consciousness in which you are seeing then non-duality is already coming nothing apart means not two see if when i see lot of people in a movie lot of cars and you know places actually how many are there there's nothing apart from the screen only one screen is there in that we are seeing many characters in a movie because it's a movie because so notice then underlying it is one reality called the movie screen but in the movie you have many characters and many places and many activities and many objects but none of those objects places activities persons actually exist apart from the screen so from perspective of the screen all those things are non-dual they don't exist apart and also that's a movie that is the jagat mit the world if the world exists apart from your you external apart from you the awareness apart from you the experience the consciousness externally this is the way of saying that the world is real in itself but here we are saying the world is not real in itself it is something experienced in awareness right so so it's non-dual non-dual means nothing exists apart from consciousness for apart from you the awareness so it is in awareness uh but it's not other than awareness comes only yes yes good example is our dreams yeah in our dreams we see so many things and meet so many people we are also there we have a little body in the in the dreams we are walking around and but none of those things and bodies and people there none of them actually exist they are all our own mind appearing in that way similarly here in this waking world it's not our own mind only it is consciousness which is appearing as the mind and as the objects so and vikander put it so nicely one only exists it appears as nature soul nature this universe soul you the knower and the known both are appearing in one awareness and they are not three things awareness nowhere no no no one unknown are not apart from that awareness just as the example the srinivas raju gabe that just as clay surrounds the pot place around support does not mean that there is a pot and then clay surrounding it every bit of that pot is clay every bit of the golden ornament is gold every bit of the of the wave is water when we say water wave is surrounded by water vishnu is that which surrounds the entire universe surrounds the entire universe means every bit of this universe is in reality vishnu or or the divine the divinity is the only thing that really exists but we see it fractured into names and forms like a dream like quality we see so other than the divinity nothing exists that is non-duality thank you let's bring this to a tour close oms [Music] so [Music] you