Video 24

24. Katha Upanishad | Mantras 1.3.14 - 17 | Swami Sarvapriyananda

[Music] may the lord protect us both teacher and taught together may the lord give us the results of our knowledge together may we be nourished by the knowledge that we gain may our study be illuminating maybe attain vigor maybe not cavill maybe not quarrel amongst each other om peace peace peace all right so kato punished we've been studying the we have been studying the qatar connection and we are almost at the end of the third section of the first chapter remember the structure of the qatar panisha there are two chapters or two adiayas and each of these chapters has three sections the sections are called only so two are the highest each with three verlis we are on this at the end of the third worldly of the first adhayah that means first chapter third section basically at the end of the first chapter and in response to the boy nachiketa's third question yama the lord of death has self-knowledge the realization of who or what we truly are and what we truly are is pure consciousness pure awareness once we get that perspective we go from ignorance our about ourselves to realization of the truth about ourselves our problems are solved thereby how are they solved will my debts be paid off will my um health problems be cured will everybody be nice to me no no no that's at the surface of life that will continue as it is but we will begin to see that we have this tremendous extraordinary depth to our our being that we are so vast these things are tiny these things matter not to us we we are the entire universe is one with us uh we are not the body we are not the mind we are immortal consciousness is incredible claim but yama the teacher here the teacher vedanta tells us that we can actually come to see it in this very life and that knowledge will free us from samsara that is called moksha and even by living in the midst of samsara in this body amongst people holding a job taking care of responsibilities in the world whether we are sick or healthy whether young or old whether successful or unhappy in the circumstances of life we will be able to transcend it immediately we will be able to rise above these problems immediately through this knowledge so that's the uh claim and the specific method that yamat used was the metaphor of the chariot he compared the way he taught nuchi keta was think of yourself as a chariot so the way we see ourselves think of it as a chariot let the body be the chariot the senses are the horses the road they run upon are the sense objects the reins with which the horses are held is the mind the driver of the chariot is our intellect and the passenger in the chariot is the re is you the real you right now we don't know ourselves as at what we truly are we are we are mixed ours it's like the passenger has identified himself or herself with the chad yet we think we are the chariot but we are not the chariot and not only so this makes it a clear distinction between body mind and the self you're not body mind you are the self you're not the gross physical body or the subtle mind but you are the consciousness the self um also it gives us spiritual practice the three levels of spiritual practice first at the level of senses the importance of self-care sense control disciplined life first stage then the second stage would be focus of the mind mindfulness attentiveness so at the level of the mind and third stage is knowledge at the level of the intellect see the horses have to be disciplined in the chariot metaphor and the reins has had to be tight effective and the driver the charioteer has to be well informed about where you are going only then will the passenger reach the destination what is the destination that is the language of the upanishads the supreme state of vishnu which is a way of saying the absolute reality of the ultimate reality and of course this is not a journey from one place to another it is a journey from not knowing to knowing from not realizing to realizing what the truth about ourselves so we will realize we will become enlightened if like the chariot the horses are trained that means the senses are disciplined the mind is uh attentive that means the rains are tight the mind is attentive and the charioteer is well informed that means the intellect is well informed by vedantic teachings all three are necessary notice how they correspond to the three levels of sadhana karma yoga for purification of the mind like a ethical lifestyle uh then upasana or meditation for focus of the mind and then gyani yoga for training the or for informing the intellect for getting knowledge about our true nature and then finally we were introduced to a beautiful technique a meditation which we looked at in detail in the last class a vedantic meditation using all this knowledge which we have learned till now how do you still keep the body still withdraw from the senses he says merge the senses in the mind what does it mean withdraw from the senses and be a thinking being not a seeing being smelling tasting touching or moving walking talking no just in thoughts then withdraw from the mind into the he says that means buddhi into the into the knowing self basically it means still the mind also not a thinking being not a desiring being not a remembering being not angry or sad being not feeling not remembering not um thinking just the eye sense which is where the buddhi is located it's deep stillness from there you merge it one more little wrinkle was added you merge it from the individual buddhi to the cosmic buddhi just know that this buddhi the individual i is actually part of a cosmic mind so that you know it's not an individual journey and then you become aware of yourself as the witness of that buddhi i am aware of the intellect that witness behind it's called shanta atma very beautiful name the the self which is peace itself the biblical language the peace that passage understanding is so precise normally when you hear peace that passes understanding you think of it as some very great extraordinary peace you know beyond our understanding here it is literal understanding is the level of the buddhi of the intellect of the vigna maya kosha that is understanding and the upanishad says beyond the level of understanding behind it higher than it or deeper than it is is you which is peace itself serenity itself then shankaracharya in his commentary makes a very deep philosophical statement about non-duality let me read it out here i'm skipping a little bit this is from shankaracharya's commentary evan purusha atmany servant in this manner the spiritual seeker having merged submerged everything in the self in the real self how what how do you merge something in the real self submerged means like you're like drowning something in water is it like that no he says swatma swatma yathat by the knowledge of the reality about yourself swatma yourself reality gyani final knowledge by the knowledge by the realization this body i am not this breath i am not it's an object these thoughts i am not they are objects even this understanding of vedanta and all that we are doing now i am not they are objects beyond that the darkness the blankness of the seed state or the deep sleep state the causal state i am not that's an object to that awareness to that radiance to whom all these objects in whom these objects float around like so many moats of dust that radiance i am that can never be objectified to it everything else is an object i am that radiance by this understanding everything is merged back into the absolute but by this understanding how is everything merged back into the absolute by understanding i'm awareness how is it that this world is merged back into awareness what is the feeling that we get i'm aware just because the light is illuminating this room the light is illuminating the computer the table the cloth that was chair does it mean that the computer cloth chair table are merged in the light no no no the light is different and these objects are different isn't that so one should ask this question what do you mean merged i can sort of get what you are trying to say that i am awareness and i am aware of all of these things all right but all of these things how are they merged in the awareness how do they become non-different how do they disappear into that mass of radiance until that radiance alone is left shankaracharya says he said just like mirage and water just like the rope and the snake just like you know sky and the apparent like you know coloration in the sky or the dust in the sky or the dirt in the sky there's no dirt in the sky but the child might think the skies become dirty so just like that what happens when you realize that there is no water in the desert it's just a mirage when you realize there's no snake there it's just a rope when you realize the sky is absolutely stainless though it seems colored in different ways at different times you know when you realize that even when the mirror the water it still looks like water even after you realize it's it's just a mirage still looks like water from a distance you understand the example which we are talking about the mirage in the desert it still looks like water even when from a distance it still sort of looks like a snake even when the sky does to a child look you know sometimes bright dirty dark whatever it is it's absolutely space it's just space it's not colored or dirty or anything even when it looks like that you will say the snake has been merged back into the reality which is rope the water has been merged back so-called water has been merged back into the reality which is the mirage and the so-called dirt in the sky has been merged back into the sky which is basically space stainless exactly in the same way when we become aware that in the two measy awareness this entire world of phenomena appears in me the awareness this entire world of phenomena appears and as nothing other than me the radiance this entire world of phenomena appears everything that you see here smell taste touch everything that you think remember desire hate understand all of these phenomena whether it's physical gross phenomena outside or subtle phenomena in our minds they are nothing but you the radiance they just you are appearing to yourself as an object consciousness is appearing to itself as its own object exactly as the dreaming mind appears to itself as its own dream world i'll repeat that the dreaming mind appears to itself as its own dreaming dream world similarly you are appearing to yourself as the world just by that understanding of your real nature the universe is merged back in you universe is merged back in you the body is merged back in you the mind is burst back in you the intellect is merged back in you merge means just by the understanding of that the realization of that what will it look like after that merging exactly like this this is the way it is waking world will be like this you're coming into contact with the physical universe seems to be like that dream world it will be like coming into contact by the light with dreams created by thought and deep sleep will be coming into contact with a blankness it will appear like this and disappear like this and all the time you know it is none other than brahman which you are this is what shankaracharya says what happens then being established in oneself so this word swasta has two meanings in indian languages swasta means healthy and in vedanta swasta means centered in the atman centered in your real nature centered in your real nature what happens prashanth you become extraordinarily peaceful you become peace itself you are peace itself you have no problems at all what can a non-existent universe how can it threaten you though it appears it appears the body appears with all its problems world appears with all its problems but you know at the deepest level the metaphysical level and what is called the ontological level of existence there's no problem at all you are that reality and and everybody else is critical bhavati it means literally it means having done what has to be done in life you have achieved the purpose of life which life all our lives it has come to this this culmination you have realized your oneness with the universe your oneness with the absolute reality this is the culmination of all these cycles of birth and death of all our long journey across lifetimes what extraordinary adventures and misadventures we have gone through and this is the culmination and this also is the final life um [Music] there's a song bengali song i forget that the festival of the the play of life is done and in the sky there is a festival of rainbows when when do you see rainbows in the sky when the storm is over when the rains have stopped the rains have stopped there are rainbows in the sky festival of rainbows in the sky what is that that's the sign of liberation freedom that these little games are at an end and infinite life is before us now no more this being born and dying that's not infinite life that's just going from death to death from struggle to struggle now infinity is before us so that is the grand conclusion now we come to the 14th mantra which is one of the most famous mantras in all of upanishadic literature you'll read it and then you will see this is the mantra which you know swami vivekananda's famous exhortation arise away you can stop not till the goal is reached it's taken from this mantra um then for example another reference is the razor's edge somerset mom the very the famous uh book which set lot of people on their spiritual journey journey of larry and who uh goes to india in search of wisdom and he comes across enlightened enlightened master razor's edge the term raises is also taken from this mantra so this is a very well-known mantra very famous mantra let us read it what does it mean read out the english translation from swami gambhira arise awake and learn by approaching the excellent ones the wise ones describe the path to be as impassable as a razor's edge which when sharpened is difficult to tread on here is an exhortation to us arise awake approach the excellent masters the great masters of the spiritual knowledge and realize the truth shankaracharya tells us arise from what he says arise to arise to what arise to spiritual life we have wandered far from lifetime to lifetime in many bodies in so much sufferings that we have undergone we luckily have no memory of those things once i think sister nivedita asks swami vivekananda how can i awaken memories of past lives and swami vivekananda scolded her he said sufficient unto the day the evil thereof you can't cope with the you know the problems of one life why do you want to awaken the memories of past lives we think everybody thinks in my past life i was uh alexander the great or cleopatra or something like that we were what we were would be something just like what we are now you know and our lives would be just as good or miserable as they are now so why what is the point in awakening all that but we have gone through so many lifetimes 84 so 840 000 they say 840 000 lifetimes it takes to gain a human birth it's just a huge number just to impress us how important a human birth is the buddhists say one buddhist um like a like a i would say like a like a parable or a fable is there is a blind tortoise in the endless oceans of the world and once in a while it comes up to the surface of the ocean and there is a golden ring which is floating somewhere on the ocean so imagine the chances of the is suddenly coming up and putting its head through that golden ring how how very unlikely it would be this is as unlikely as that is getting a human birth that's just meant to scare us a little bit to take this life seriously so yes we should take this life seriously it's only in this life in this human life that we can become enlightened having come to this human life not only that having come to this knowledge spirituality that the possibility of freedom from this endless cycle the you know the story of sisyphus who is condemned to roll a huge rock up the mountainside and he struggles and toils and rolls it up the mountain side pushes it up the mountain side and then finally the task is done he lets it go hit it again rolls down the mountain side and again he has to repeat it push it up and endlessly toil like this that is not one lifetime sisyphus has been at it for lifetimes and that's us that's us we struggle to put things right in our life and maybe we do make a decent job of it and when we are done it collapses falls apart again and then again we are at it and very soon death comes sweeps us away from this life and to start that whole miserable drama all over again and who knows when we will get when the tortoise will get to the golden ring again then we will get a human life again in this life we have got it and the possibility of spiritual realization is there the knowledge is available to us let us let us be up and doing shankaracharya's commentary here is he says from asleep by you know put to sleep by beginningless ignorance or sleeping the beginningless sleep of ignorance awakened o sentient beings hey jantava or sentient beings awaken awaken means or arise arise means not um awakened arise the first word is arise so arise means be um pursue self-knowledge pursue the knowledge of who you are abhi muka means orient yourself how do you orient yourself so there are three steps to that the first step is a moral life an ethical life from an instinctive animalistic life you arise to a controlled disciplined ethical life practice of truth and self-control and selflessness which is at the foundation of any kind of civilization let alone spirituality but that's not enough from there we rise to a cultivation of devotion meditation maybe a belief in god of religion so those practices in our tradition it would be initiation a mantra is given by the guru how do you meditate how do you repeat the mantra and the regular practice of that mantra you know turning the mind inwards first controlling the outgoing tendencies of the mind disciplining the senses and then turning the mind inwards through mindfulness and meditation and then finally the third level would be the vedantic teaching about the real nature this infinite awareness which we are so these three stages you can see how it corresponds to the chariot control of the horses the tightening of the reins and then the charioteer informing the charioteer enlightening the charioteer so that we reach the goal so that is called he atma jana abhimuka in sanskrit orienting yourself or pursuing self-realization so that is arise that's the meaning of the word arise awake [Music] means what awakened from the beginningless sleep of ignorance so arise be up and doing towards towards self-knowledge and then what do you do awaken you have to awaken from the beginningless sleep of ignorance it says goraruba terrible is this darkness into we are into which we have plunged ourselves what's the problem why not stay there this is the seed of all suffering of all that is inauspicious all that is unwholesome and negative which pursues us from lifetime to lifetime a source of all suffering this ignorance this deep sleep this divorce from reality awakened from that arise awake this is literally the mean meaning of being a buddha the word buddha itself means the one who has awakened i have told this story earlier also houston smith mentions it when after his enlightenment the buddha is walking down before he gives the first teaching a shepherd boy sees him and is so struck by the expression on his face the extraordinary radiance goes and asks him not who are you but what are you and houston smith remarks that most of us we've been asked who are you but there are very few in history who've been asked what are you what are you are you a god and the buddha says no are you a divine being a messenger of the gods no are you a human being no because this is no then what are you i am the awakened i'm the buddha meaning thereby the rest of us are sleeping so here the upanishad says awaken arise and awake awakened from the sleep of ignorance of course vedanta is such that it can actually put into a real sleep not just the sleep of ignorance it can be deadly dull sometimes so arise awake i remember the students in the ashram when i was in yoghurt they would have evening studies the little boys you know they would sometimes drift off to sleep and they had these lines memorized they're so mischievous when the study period would come to an end one of the boys would suddenly uh yell out her eyes awake long night is over that means now they can they can go the studies are over and stop sleeping then what is next so you want to put an end to ignorance what do you need for that the teaching you need the you need the teacher prabhuparan go to the masters and study vedanta you know sign up for the zoom classes or whatever and then you study vedanta varan means the the superior teacher the excellent teacher the enlight and literally doesn't mean enlightened just means those who are adorable those who are worthy of being worshipped find them and learn from them enlighten yourself um this also emphasizes that this is a transmission of knowledge right we must learn this is something to be learned it won't happen by itself ignorance can continue by itself the sleep of ignorance can continue by itself but knowledge will not come by itself we must make an effort to acquire it enlightenment will not come by itself we must make an effort to get it shankaracharya comments here prakristan aryan the well-known teachers the masters the excellent masters those who know that reality those who have realized that reality themselves meeting what does he say he says go to these masters who know that reality themselves i mean they have the body of knowledge which has been transmitted down through the lineage but also they have realized it themselves that's most effective when the master is also enlightened and then from them realize that truth about what the inner reality of all things sarvantara at madam and you realize that how do you realize it ah i am the innermost reality of this entire universe that realization should come not that there is an inner most reality or that there is brahman or that there is some kind of atman pure consciousness i am that that realization should come so he has here he is given an outline of the entire vedantic path of spirituality first awaken or arise arise to the possibility of spiritual solution to our problems that itself most people don't do vast number of people they're either pretty happy with it what's going on or unhappy but they don't see any solution they don't seriously think any solution is possible you try to make the best of whatever is going on here then some do feel that yes there is something to spiritual life it is truly worthwhile i more and more i begin to see i begin to feel you know that it is a sign of maturity until a person i'm not saying that you have to come to vedanta you if you come to buddhism you know the higher mystical part of all world religions christianity islam hinduism whichever part whichever religion the core of it the higher religion not the externals the rituals or the doctrines dogmas until you come to that i really don't think the person is mature so one must become serious about one spiritual quest once one has become serious about one spiritual quest then the sadhana must be there there must be an effort and the effort is as i said threefold one is at the ethical level discipline second one is at the internal spiritual practices basically basically mantra upasa meditation you know turning the mind inwards and this is a preparation for vedantic knowledge finally the third stage would be this vedantic knowledge itself all right now he gives a upanishad or yama gives a warning he says it's not easy the razor's edge consider the razor's edge and sharpened a sharpened razor's edge how difficult it is to walk on that not walk over that walk along the edge of the razor because you can cut your feet but as difficult as that is this path now why is this path difficult again at every level it's difficult three levels one is that the level of ethical discipline our minds tend to overstep the boundaries of morals and ethics we can we have this tendency of doing the wrong thing saying the wrong thing thinking the wrong thing because we are always this these two problems terror and temptation temptation the world pulls us and pulls us beyond the limits of what is ethical what is moral what is decent attracts us the world scares us into doing things which are not ethical so either driven either by fear or by temptation we do wrong things we think we do things which we ourselves regret so that tendency has to be curbed that is discipline that's the first level it's a big struggle a moral life is a struggle we all all of us we are trying to be better than what we are and what what we wear we're trying to be better the second level is the inner practice of controlling the mind again very difficult we all know mind is very fickle and third level is pedanta and that's difficult because it's subtle what with what vedanta is trying to point out about ourselves it's subtle and it's really really subtle you will see i have this topic this talk coming up later in may on the birthday of the buddha i want to talk about the buddhist no-self and the vedantic self what yama is teaching here is the pedantic self the atman and the buddhists thoroughly analytically thoroughly rigorously deny that there is any such atman so both have to be understood you first of all understand the buddhist position very clearly then you begin to understand what advaita vedanta wants to say so that it's very subtle actually what vedanta is pointing out so for all these reasons the moral struggle the struggle to quieten and concentrate the mind and to realize this extremely subtle nature of what we are because of that he says it's like the edge of a razor and this is the thing that uh summerset mom he took the book razors i think they made a movie out of it also at one time it was all the rage especially here in the west in europe and in america a lot of young men and women became backpackers in india they went off to india to search for spirituality because they read the razor's edge i read it too in india of course as a college kid very nice book very well written and somerset mom actually uh he met raman maharshi in india and he met one of our swamis i think ganeshan he was the swami who was in chicago at that time he met this swami on the ship to india and later on in india also again so yes the razor's edge before i go on the next mantra changes the subject so let me quickly see what the comments are rick says last week you mentioned that the things listed in mantra 13 already merged in the way new york city is contained with new york streets continue united states country north america you recognize this but who or what is it that does the recognizing does he remain unmerged or separate to some degree in order to observe these mergings would this separation be less of india no who is it who does the recognizing who is it one the one who is doing all the spiritual practice vedanta meditation whatever it is that same pure consciousness with the overlay of the intellect see who is it that who sees anything talks does anything is it that the eyes they see or the tongue which talks no it is consciousness plus the mind plus the senses which do all these activities so who is it that who is observing this merging it is that same pure consciousness with the help or with the support of the intellect who does this and does it remain unmerged not at all it's talking about merging with itself it's its own inner innermost reality so sitting here in new york do we remain unmerged with the united states no we are already merged with united states i just recognized it as a fact that's all that is mentioned here nilavora says some of the tibetan monks when they die actual rainbow appears there is a description of that and they have something called the rainbow body also they talk about it the what i was referring to was a bengali song bhagav jiboner something like that i forget the play of life is over and there are rainbows in the sky michael bird says this may be similar to rick's question but after the last life of form is there any subjective awareness of merging into awareness itself or will it be akin to infinite deep sleep it will not be akin to infinite deep sleep see what the moment we hear these things we think that it will be like oh so the move the the movie is over it's all darkness no it isn't darkness even if you have the movie example what happens when the movie is over we come out into real life so uh but if we just look at it from our waking dreaming deep sleep perspective and you follow carefully what vidant is trying to say then after all right i realize i am infinite awareness as long as the body is there everything continues as it is but when the body is gone and if i don't have any more individual lives then will it be like nothingness it seems to be like that to me no it's not like nothing like just the opposite it's like infinity um but it can be described as nothing less it can be just described as fullness and also nothingness swami sarudanji says what the buddhists call emptiness is what we call fullness we call it purna and they call it sunny and there is a perspective from which both are correct gaurav says rupert spira as a video title beyond oneness which is similar to your video non-dual meditation part one tree outside ultimately label of image and perception projected to our mind so tree is reduced to perception perception intermittently appearance in knowing awareness in this way objects can be merged into awareness developing intuitive understanding of this seems simple this is how i understood your explanation of shankaracharya statements correct what i did in that non-dual meditation part one is basically a simplified form of what was just taught in the 13th mantra the one what we did the last week the structure is always the same see that what we call a gross external universe is nothing other than the subtle internal universe see that the subtle internal universe is nothing other than awareness that's it is saying what kind of realization one begins to get before you get full-blown self-realization yes light comes like there are breakthroughs and then there are confusions further confusion set up by the mind by the cogitating mind so multiple levels of breakthroughs can be there as the mind becomes purer one gets joy one gets steadiness strength peace more understanding as the mind becomes steady meditative even more understanding and clarity comes and as the vedantic breakthroughs start coming one begins to see first of all it is true and that's a great great relief that it is true and then one begins to understand different spiritual paths also from that perspective what what the devotee is trying to do what the yogi is trying to do what the buddhist is trying to do and you can see how they are all approaching the same reality shiva priya says actually nothing is merging it is aware yes actually nothing is merging there's no something separate which merged in just a feeling that you are merging something into something deeper but no in reality there is only one one unchanging reality or one radiance but that has to be recognized because we are in a state of difference and separation so the feeling will be of you know something merging into something faster you mentioned how the very senior swami ramakrishna who was suffering from stomach cancer was found talking and pleading to the holy mother in the most trying pains of the body presumably had lifetime to ponder and similarly the vedantic truth i'm not the body ultimately resorted to taking support from the divine what can we understand from this in whichever way so ramakrishna will say we'll see the next class gospel class salaam krishna will give this idea what we are talking about he will give this idea and then he will relate it to the path of the bhakt of the devotee notice that swami was praying to the divine mother to get rid of the pain of the body let the body go and the gyani also does the same thing when confronted with something unpleasant like suffering or pain he uses the gyana this process of merging of realizing that i am the witness and this appearance is nothing different from me he uses that technique he uses gyana to overcome suffering and this song is using bhakti devotion surrender to overcome suffering what is the problem just the paradigms are different 15th mantra this is a restatement of the ultimate reality what is that ultimate reality atman brahman whatever it is it's being restated by yama as a closing of the this great theme of the of the first chapter of qatar nation s beautiful verse the whole of advaita vedanta has been set out here what is that ultimate reality what do you do have to do about it and then what happens what's the result of all of this this entire exercise i'm giving swami gambhira an energy is translation one becomes freed from the jaws of death by knowing that which is soundless touchless colorless undiminishing and also tasteless eternal odourless without beginning and without end distinct from mahat and ever constant all right so first of all this reality with utman computer consciousness is not an object of the senses so he says ashabdam it's not sound you can't hear it um it can't be touched i'm just seeing there was a great american psychologist who inspired skinner you know skinner's behaviorism so john watson he was a very great psychologist he said that um psychology need not be bothered with the mind you do not be stunned what do you mean psychology is about the mind no just behavior is enough that's where skinner got his behaviorism so watson said we are not bothered with the soul the soul is not something that can be touched or nobody has ever seen this touched the soul or seen it in a test tube all right so you can't see it in a test tube or you can't touch it and therefore it's not something that you want to study um well in that case you are leaving this entire part of reality out of the scope of your study if it's only what you can touch or smell or taste or see in a test tube then your area of study becomes the world of objects you see here he's pointing out the atman is very much there but it's not an object asparagus can't be touched aruba for without form it can't be seen so let no one say after this i can't see the self so it doesn't exist it can't be seen it's like saying that i can't see atoms therefore they don't exist well even if atoms did exist here you won't see them because by definition they are not you know you can you can't see atoms with the negative the naked eye you can't so they are atman you cannot see it not because it's tiny but because it's not an object aruba then arasam it cannot be tasted it is no taste agandavat without any smell without any fragrance so you can't see it smell it taste it hear it or touch it so none of the five senses can objectify it and that also means the mind cannot think about it the intellect cannot conceive of it language cannot express it so it's that subtle then why talk about it at all but it is that because of which you're able to see hear smell taste touch it's that because of which you are able to think and love and hate and and imagine and you can use language you can do science you can do religion you can do art all because of that it is that awareness so and then he says undecaying and eternal that which is not decaying only that which decays and changes and degenerates that dies if it does not decay change or degenerate then it is eternal beginningless and endless beginningless and endless means it is beyond cause beginningless what what has a beginning when a cause produces an effect that's the beginning of the effect so um from clay a potter makes pot the clay is the cause and the pot is the effect now the part has a beginning which means it has a cause something gave rise to it we our bodies have beginnings our parents gave rise to it there is a cause even this earth has a beginning even this galaxy this physical universe has a beginning the big bang gave rise to it so all that changes here has a cause but he's saying the atman has no cause it was not produced by something you cannot ask why does it exist you can ask anything of anything you can ask why and the answer would be the cause why is the grass wet because it rained why did it rain because there were clouds why were there clouds because of evaporation why was there evaporation because of the sunlight and so on you can give a because answer for every why but for the atman you can't ask why because there's no because for it just a couple of days ago we had this discussion at nyu with a panel discussion we have a veritas forum organized by students it was about consciousness and life with a very interesting title do all dogs go to heaven that was the title of the discussion panel discussion so this is a very brilliant scientist a data scientist who asked this question when i talked about pure consciousness self being pure consciousness the advaita perspective he asked why is there this self why at all this consciousness is there and i gave this answer that it has no cause causation starts with maya after the maya there is causation in everything in this universe you can talk about causation but about the consciousness itself there's no cause for it and he is so sharp so brilliant he got it immediately he says i see it would have to be causeless it would have to be beyond causation it's not another link in the link in the chain of causation cause and effect it is that in which cause and effect take place see it's like this i was just thinking a movie for everything that happens in the movie you know why is the hero angry because of all the injustice that was done to him why was all the injustice done to him because the villain is particularly willingness and so on but the screen on which the movie is being played that has no causal link with the story of the movie yeah the screen is not a character in the movie you can't say what is what role is the screen playing uh the hero and the villain and then there's a screen no the screen is the reality on which this story of cause and effect is being played out do you see what i mean there's a causal link you can ask why what what is going on in the movie you can ask why but that story has nothing to do with the screen but it's not that they're two different things the movie is being played only because the screen is there without the screen the movie cannot be played and whatever is happening in the movie depends entirely on the existence of the screen but screen has no causal link with the movie similarly atman that in which it's the mirror of consciousness in which you see the appearance of the universe there is no causal link with their consciousness with satchida and that's what you are anadi anantam endless it does not transfer me to some something see if you ask why did brahman become this world why did consciousness appear as all this the answer is it didn't it didn't nothing happened consciousness aloneness it's not that consciousness transformed into this world or it did something no it just is it shines then what is all this it's just the shining of consciousness that's how it's it's something that you can easily claim for your dream isn't it it's just the shining of your dreaming mind whatever happens in the dream all the characters in the dream all the events in the dream there's a good dream or a nightmare all the places the sky and the earth everything in the dream is just your dreaming mind shining similarly you consciousness you are shining as this universe right now ana anantam it is not that consciousness produces an effect i read somewhere the very first verse of the quran the al-quran is that allah is neither born nor does it give rise to nor does it give birth see it has no cause it has no effect that's how we would understand it [Music] but the particular interpretation i read was immediately the commentator went off on an attack against christians and hindus since allah is not born does not give birth so therefore allah has no son the christians are wrong in saying jesus is the son of god and the hindus are multiple times wrong when they say that allah is born as so many avatars but that's the deeper philosophical meaning of it is the absolute reality alone is that shines sport as this world it's not transformed does not give birth to a universe it's not that it's physically transformed mahatma maha we read about this earlier it is the cosmic mind we are not talking about god here we are talking about not talking about the cosmic mind we are not talking about god also we are talking about the reality of god or in meister eckart's words the ground of god or the godhead the ground of god or the absolute reality beyond god param transcendent supreme druvam literally means the unshakable the absolute reality the only one that is what do you do with it nichaya know that well realize it discern it it's a very beautiful word means discerning it discerning it means it's already there it's shining at us through every experience of our lives and discern it in your in your already available experience discerning that you are set free from the jaws of death forever you realize that you always bear free basically but this is put in this way you are set free from the jaws of death the cycle of birth and death many lifetimes the poor blind turtle has been swimming around in the depths of the ocean is set free finally from this vast cycle of life and death if somebody doesn't buy that that many many lifetime cycles of birth and death all right you will see the direct result here you'll be set free from the limitations of this little human life no beyond suffering your all your problems are solved at the deepest possible level you find peace for the first time you find depth peace meaning and um a deep serenity that shantatma you attain peace and serenity and who is teaching this look at the poetry of the qatar nation death is teaching and death is saying you'll be set free from the jaws of death that means he'll be set free from me he is showing the rest of us how to be how to get free from him comments here what does he mean by death will be set free from the cycle of ignorance desire action from the ignorance of our complete nature poorna nature comes this feeling that i am small i am miserable i need many things for being fulfilled and because i feel i need then i engage in action for getting things for myself with selfish action and that sets off the terrible machinery of karma the wheels of this the machine of karma start to grind and then we are caught in it karma gives rise to results and then we do more karma more results we are caught in cause and effect in life and death so this wheel starts rotating but we are set free from this shankaracharya is one of his favorite phrases ignorance desire action action means selfish action desire prompted action desire comes from the promptings of ignorance ignorance about our real nature now he wraps up the chapter two verses to wrap up the chapter up [Music] beautiful verse to end the chapter gambiranji's translation real relating and hearing this eternal anecdote as received by nashiketa and as told by death the intelligent man becomes glorified in the region that is brahmana naji ketamopathyanam the story about the knowledge received by naji keta so what was received by nachiketa this story about that um sanatana eternal eternal means is very ancient the story is very ancient even the veda the veda is basically quoting the story stories relating the story to us so the story is older than the vedas itself so it's a very ancient tale this tale of death and the little boy who asked questions to death so this is related this teaching was given by mr taught by hearing about this story and narrating the story passing on the story to others as we are doing right now this person the the intelligent one the intelligent seeker the enlightened seekers not just hearing about it hearing reasoning meditating going through the process of the path of knowledge one becomes enlightened glorified in brahmaloka in the world of brahman world of brahman shankaracharya immediately comments brahman itself is called the world of brahman that means you become you realize your infinite nature and you're freed from samsara one more verse so this is a concluding verse these verses are sort of stylistic they um they just tell you this is a very holy text study it and repeat it and it brings great merit i mean quite apart from becoming enlightened and getting more just by reciting it it's a meritorious deed so he says should anyone after purification get this highest secret recited before an assembly of brahmanas or at the time of the ceremonies for the dead then that ceremony becomes conducive to eternal result so this paramam ghoeyam it is the greatest secret it is in the sense of being the most profound and this one you can get it chanted you can you can ask someone to read it out and chant it uh in an assembly of brahma samsari means an assembly of brahmins they are in general an assembly of people who are devout who are interested in spiritual life who are believers in the vedic tradition so let them hear it this highest teaching of the vedas or and he says prayata that means the person who chants it should do it with respect with purity and take a bath and wear ceremonial clothes and with all respect chant it out this this entire sanskrit text from the vedas another alternative is shraddha at the time of the ceremonies for the dead so somebody has passed maybe or some close relative or father or mother or somebody and then when you perform the funeral rights the ceremonies as part of the ceremonies in fact chankaracharya says when the brahmins who have come for the ceremony to attend the ceremony of the departed one when they sit down for eating it says at that time this if this is chanted out it leads to um it it leads to endless result eternal result eternal result normally stands for moksha liberation so would it just by reading it or chanting it would you would it give moksha not directly i mean you introduce this knowledge and then people will take it from there they'll become interested they keep hearing it and they study it understand it and practice and then they realize what is being taught so it leads to um endless result there's a spiritual result but also it means merit it's good merit too it's very good merit to chant this to and to tell this to others but those who are respectful those who believe in this tradition and then the whole thing is this last phrase is repeated once again to show this is a stylistic way of showing the end of a chapter so two times it's repeated endless result accrues indeed indeed endless result accrues means full stop so this is the first chapter over now let me just see if there is any comment is cause because of my abrinda says cause is part of maya what is maya time space causation time space causation that's the stage on which the universe that the drama of the universe is played out the theater the broadway show of the universe is played out what theater not broadway theater time space causation theater so yes causation is part of maya kieran says this mantra is similar to mantra 7 of the mandu yes it's talking about the ultimate reality which is not an object not a cause not an effect and an absolute truth gaurav says merging objects into knowing and awareness is in reality which we are trying to recognize even if you don't recognize it remains true what is ramanuja madhvachar's understanding on this will they accept this reality as a fact they won't go so far i'm sure they know the truth but they will say and srinam krishna reconciles all this in that beautiful section which we are going to read next time in the gospel he says as long as you think you are one entity and this universe is something separate from you as long as you the your final understanding is subject and object in that case the only way to introduce you to that absolute reality is as god so that's what ramanujacharya would say or bandavachari would say that brahman is god but in this you know it's not that you are one entity in the universe is another what did he say just like the water in the mirror just like the snake in the rope just like apparently the the color of the dirt in the sky it is nothing other than the sky itself the rope itself or the mirage itself similarly what appears to you as a separate entity is nothing other than you if you realize that then you don't have to go the god way you see that it is your your own infinite nature niraj says is there any similarities of these teachings with the tibetan book of the dead i'm sure there is the tibetan book of the dead actually has if i remember correctly it is also teaching of the ultimate truth according to tibetan buddhism but also it has very fine grained analysis of what happens when the physical body dies especially of advanced practitioners [Music] to [Music] you