Video 25

25. Katha Upanishad | Mantras 2.1.1 - 2 | Swami Sarvapriyananda

[Music] [Music] may the lord protect us both teacher and the torch together by revealing knowledge may the lord give us the results of knowledge may we attain vigor together let what the study be illuminating maybe not careful at each other home peace peace peace so we've reached a milestone in our study of the we are now about to start part two part one with its three sections is over and now part two the open edition itself is divided into two parts so we are in the second part now we are about to start this um in the in part one it was uh said that this is very subtle and therefore it requires a subtle mind subtle intellect to discern the truth about ourselves that we are the atman now what is the obstacle the main obstacle a very crucial point for spiritual practice will be pointed out just now in one of the most famous um mantras of the katrina finishing which will start the second part of qatar panishad and this is very crucial for our spiritual practice that will be pointed out now and then the chapter will go deeper into the subject of the self about ourselves as pure consciousness some very profound insights will be shared with us and the results what we can expect what is the outcome of that insight about ourselves self-knowledge that will be discussed in detail so that's what's ahead of us very important very interesting and very useful for the understanding of advaita vedanta all right so what is this great insight what is this this very important mantra often quoted in many other places in vedanta and of great importance to our spiritual practice which is going to be shared now the first mantra of the second part of qatar condition let me dive straight into it so then second part first section and first a self-existent lord destroyed the outgoing senses therefore one sees the outer things and not the inner self a rare discriminating man desiring immortality turns his eyes away and then sees the indwelling self so this is the translation from swami kampiran if you look at the mantra itself the word used is khani khani literally means apertures or orbs so the senses here the eyes and the ears the nose and the tongue and the sense of dust touch these are a smell and touch these are called khani here and these the sensory system is parangi khan they are turned outwards they reveal their objects eyes reveal forms ears reveal sound nose reveals smell the touch reveals various tactile sensations the tongue reveals taste and so on external objects are all revealed by these senses and they are continuously outward flowing not only this very natural they have been designed to bring information from outside but they are outward flowing and they engage us continuously in the external world insight sound smell taste touch and continuously engaged later on in the commentary shankaracharya will say it's not really the problem of the senses it's the mind behind them the mind has this tremendous taste built up over many this lifetime and many lifetimes of being engaged in the sights sound smells of the external world and it delights in them including the pleasant ones and unpleasant ones the mind has a tendency to become mixed up with the external world mind contemplates on the information that's been continuously dumped into it by the senses the mind's mind is engaged in it so this flowing outwards is the real problem the senses flow outwards by design and the mind follows them and mind not only follows instigates them uh to keep on chasing the eyes like to see certain things the ears like to hear certain things i mean all of these senses have a kind of autonomous intelligence built into them and these have been programmed to continuously flow and outwards and engage us in the external world therefore so what it sounds perfectly natural after all sensors are supposed to do this he says damaged disturbed malfunction is the lord the designer ishwara bhagavan has so designed our sensory system and the mind behind it it's a kind of damage it's a kind of um it's a serious problem metric literally means to destroy or damage why is it damaged it functions perfectly well after all water eyes supposed to do and what are the years supposed to do they're supposed to hear sounds and see sights and so on no the pro damage is this therefore our entire attention and information and engagement is with the external world and in advaita vedanta the external world is the world of appearances it's it's not the world of reality non-tarakhman we are not we do not attend to we are not aware of we we do not know about the inner self you see the world extends the external world and that's not us we are very clear about that and then there is the body but that's not us also um and then there is the mind mind body and external world these are in vedanta these are called anatma not self and that's all that we are concerned with all the time that we actually are not the body minds and external world external world we are not we know but we are not the body mind that we don't know we are not even aware that there is an inner self beyond all this we are not aware of it and we are not concerned with it at all we are just engaged with the world with people with happiness in the world money relationships pleasure pain um trouble ambition um little little projects to engage us from from day to day month to month year to year and this is how we spend our lives this is he calls it damaged we continuously flow into the world like this helplessly therefore we do not see the atman we do not realize the atman which is the goal of all of vedanta this is a very big problem this continuous extrovertedness and this is by design this is by design so this is this is why uh he says yama tells us that god has actually damaged um our as far as spiritual life is concerned this is what makes spiritual life difficult but not impossible the ability to pull out of this and to realize our true nature is also there within us and so the next line says some rare individual most people keep flowing into the world outside are extroverted some rare individual here means a patient heroic heroic not in the external sense of bravery but in a more philosophic sense that it takes up the spiritual challenge for for self-realization for enlightenment like the buddha for example a heroic person there are some people who can utilize that capacity for withdrawing for turning inwards what do these people do they turn themselves inwards now turning inwards does not mean turning your senses inwards trying to hear what's going on in the body trying to see what's going on in the skull not like that instead of our attention the problem is with the mind even for the enlightened person you see the senses will always reveal an external world the enlightened person's eyes also see an external world enlightened person's ears also will reveal sounds and so on but the mind is crucial and the spiritual seeker has that kind of a mind shankaracharya says in his commentary who is this here what is the crucial nature viveki viveki means has the power of viveka discernment your discernment means discernment between what is eternal and what is non-eternal what is real or what is not real what is ultimately worthwhile in life and what is worthless in life this person discerns clearly and then chooses in the language of qatar upanishad which was presented earlier shreya and prayer it's presented earlier yama says all the time these two choices are coming before us prayer the pleasant and often this the pleasant is not the good that which is beneficial that which is the highest that which is the purpose of life that's called shreya and that's only one purpose of life moksha enlightenment god realization and prayer is this continuous flowing into the world into its pleasures and pains trying to avoid its pains and trying to capture some of its pleasures that's what most of us are trying to do all the time naturally this dhira the spiritual hero has the ability has the good sense to stop tries to stop again the commentator says it's like trying to reverse the course of a river which is flowing in one direction turn it around and change the attention back to the spiritual reality within not to the world not to the body not even to the mind at least first of all withdraw from the world and the body into the mind you know the meditation which was suggested at the end of the last section how you withdraw from the external world and you know from the sensory system and sit quietly in the mind then you withdraw from the mind and sit quietly in the sense of understanding the sense of i am and from that you shift back into the witness consciousness so this this person who can do that is called the one who is at least trying to do it talking about us the people who are here yes those who are continuously flowing outwards would not be spending a wednesday evening or morning depending on where you are listening to an ancient philosophy the fact that we are listening to all this and we are interested in it is we fall in this rare category of people or at least making the attempt to turn inwards into our own spiritual reality so question what does this person do literally turning the eyes away or covering the eyes or turning the eyes away now turning the eyes literally does not mean looking away or closing dice it could mean that but it basically means not just the eyes but all the sense organs that for a time being at least the sights and smells and tastes and touch of the word do not interest me i am turning my attention from the world outside to the body from the body to the mind from the mind to the intellect from that to the witness consciousness itself this inward turning is called avrita actually it really means eyes here but it stands for all the senses and the mind also turning inwards away from it inwards um what will uh he this this seeker what will they get but means saw realized gained an insight into into what practice self who am i the real real self this not the not the world not the body not the mind beyond that this inner self which is limitless awareness and being what is called immortal soul one realizes that i am this for what purpose what good is all this desiring what one should uh make such a big attempt you know it's quite a big commit commitment spiritual life it's the it's what most mature people would do in life i mean i personally think person is not mature unless there is some spiritual commitment some spiritual interest doesn't have to be advaita vedanta though doesn't have to be even if it's devotion if it's meditation if it is uh and you know any spiritual path in any religion that shows maturity amrita desiring immortality there is no immortality in the world outside the world is continuously changing no immortality in the body i just saw news report oldest person in the world has died i think she was a japanese lady quite elderly and she has died yesterday so oldest person in the world will die no matter how long we live we will have to die one day there is no immortality in the body and the mind is even more fleeting uh she was 119. thank you rick so 119 years and she passed um and there's no stability in the mind the mind changes continuously it's a flow and stream of thoughts and it changes day and night from morning to evening there is no stability let alone for months and years uh mind changes so much imagine what our minds were like when we were kids you know school kids it will be like the mind of an alien there's almost nothing that we will um you know will be amused by it or horrified by what we used to think about how we spent our times then um so mind changes there is no stability in the mind beyond that the witness there is reality there is permanence there is reality beyond the body mind beyond the world body and mind and beyond means inward inward so this inner reality by realizing that one attempt attains immortality one goes beyond the fear of death in fact one goes beyond all human limitations want you know desire um unhappiness depression fear of death all of these instantly overcome one when one realizes oh i am this glorious reality nothing can threaten me everything is included in me included means there's nothing different from me nothing no second reality apart from me the atman so this is the meaning paranji ghani victory not swamp the lord the self-existent lord none other than god not ishwara bhagavan the one who has designed everything huh as if it's a way of speaking our sensory systems continuously beguile us in the world outside the smart parang therefore continuously involved in external life naan taratman does not realize the self within which vedanta is trying to teach us this is a huge simple point we all know this it needs to be needs to be told to us that we there are all these spiritual teachings available all techniques are available all options are always open shreya and pray are coming to us both at the same time as yama said what is the beneficial and what is the pleasant they keep coming to us both all the time but our sen we keep choosing the pleasant and ignoring the uh the good the beneficial we keep choosing the exciting and we ignore the the reality that we keep choosing the uh the um appearance and we ignore the reality but why the answer is given here because that's how our sensory system is designed that's how our minds are continuously turned outwards and chasing the sensory system but then what's what hope is there there is hope there are people who have attained sufficient maturity they are called the specific quality of the dheera is viveki the spiritual discernment between eternal non-eternal between the good and the pleasant this ability to discern the two separate the two and choose the eternal over the non-eternal choose the good over the merely pleasant choose the reality over the appearance and this person what practice puts a stop to this outgoing tendency see i can tell you one thing here i have taught vedanta again and again and i keep stressing that it's perfectly possible to be and it one should be entirely spiritual rooted in vedantic awareness in the midst of a busy life now i will take it back at least for the purpose of this mantra there is a great great utility and point to withdrawing once in a while in our lifetime in our year in our month maybe and in our daily lives also a little bit of stepping back is necessary especially for vedanta um vedanta requires the most amount of introvertedness at least until you get it once we get it and then become stabilized in it then this problem will not be will not affect us the enlightened person can be happily withdrawn into samadhi can be happily engaged in external activities our problem is we are not happily engaged in external activity we are sucked into it and we are trapped by it and we are unable to withdraw into samadhi your mind will not allow it this is our problem so this person practices that sharply with drawing they say in spiritual life there is a rhythm in spiritual life one must go away and come back but remember to come back one must go away first the buddha went away and then he came back with all that wisdom and somebody beautifully pointed out if you look at the daily routine of the buddha daily he would go away early in the morning it would become would start with deep meditation in the afternoon meditation again in the evening after the day's work was done meditation in between he would go out with the other monks for biksha for begging the daily round of begging he would meet the monks and guide them he would meet with endless visitors you know from royalty to ordinary people who'd come to meet him and then again in the evening and night dead of the night completely withdrawn so this going away and coming back this going up is what is meant by avid the srirama krishna also says the simplest instruction he would give notice when people asked him so what's the way upai came what sir what is the way for us and householders would ask to household as he's telling go away he says for one day or two or three days or for some more time need janaewas to stay in solitude for a short period of time don't overdo it but short period of time nidja nabasha prathana he says he says pray to god contemplate meditate and this is avrita and and of course he said sadhu-sanga contact with you know the sadhus with dedicated spiritual seekers that makes it real in our lives this is called avrita and what will they realize realizes this non-dual infinite being which is i am that i am brahmana and the result will be the purpose is desiring immortality desiring freedom from cycle of birth and death beautiful powerful verse i remember that um many i often quote this so years ago i was invited to give this talk at uh in london uh it was on gita organized by the indian council of cultural relations iccr and the program was organized by this lady who was a retired ifs officer very accomplished person scholarly and she i remember in her talk just before her talk i gave my thought and i quoted this mantra saying that we'll be continuously engaged in the world outside we need to turn away and we draw into our inner self you know not in the world not in the body not even in the mind um paranthi khan is the senses are continuously we are engaged in seeing hearing smelling then she stood up and she she said i still remember he said swami has just said that we are continuously looking at the world outside would it be that it were true unfortunately in today's world that is also not true we are continuously looking at our screens if we were only looking at the world also that also would not be bad you know we were looking at other people we're looking at nature we're looking at the world outside that also is not there we have added one more layer of delusion our senses are engaged with the virtual world with our screens we're looking at screens not even the world so further damage has been done uh it has to be reversed atma the self shankaracharya in his commentary here he makes an important quotation he gives a very important quotation beautiful quotation about the deep spiritual meaning of the word atma atma just means self it means i i mean in the upanishads for example the word atma has been used for body has been used for mind and has been used for pure consciousness so if you think i am this body so this is atma this bodhisattva in that sense also atma has been used i have shared with you on occasion the story that once i went to beg for food high in the himalayas and this farmer he gave me food to eat i was this young monk at that time this was 16 years ago and then i'm not a good eater so i ate a little bit and that that farmer said to me i'll tell you in hindi and you need to translate he said to me oh monk you eat like a bird first look after the atma then this means self and paramatma means the supreme self what he meant was and was not wrong even though he should say that by selfie meant the body first look after the body then you will search for your god um so atma is just a word which means i myself my real self or myself now what is the deep spiritual meaning of the word atma here shankaracharya gives a rare quotation but an important quotation which gives you the beautiful non-dualistic advaitic meaning of the word atma i will read out the quotation it is from the linga purana it is in shankaracharya's commentary to this mantra yes all right what is the atma uh it is that which pervades everything everything means whatever you experience in life is pervaded by atma means it's covered by there's not actually nothing other than everywhere anything that you experience the atma is there how is that possible well here by atma is meant sachidananda look at it as existence so whatever we experience it must be existing so atma is there as existence if even if it is say some if it's a place it is that way we experience it it's the person that person he or she is that's why we experience them is it could be something abstract like the number one or two but in some sense that number is that's why we experience even a fictional character like harry potter when we talk about it in some fictional sense harry potter is to that extent we are existence is there so as existence the atma is that which pervades all of our experience has awareness also this is more starting difficult to understand and the the you know like in waking state it's much easier to understand things exist look around yourself you're sitting in an ocean of existence things exist all around you your room your doors and walls and even the space in the existing room where you're sitting it exists you're sitting in an ocean of business that is this is atma but in your dream state notice one thing when you are in dreaming all the things and people even the space and the sky and the earth which you see in your dreams they're all products of your mind not even products they are your mind itself your mind itself has is appearing in those ways is it not true so in that sense mind which is a conscious entity in one sense awareness the aware mind has transformed into the dream world isn't it exactly like that in the waking state also i will not argue it further the waking state also this awareness which we are this itself is appearing as our waking state that's what manduka teaches so this awareness this existence is atma and it is awareness this is atma it pervades all of our experience in fact whatever we experience is nothing other than atma the real you you are only experiencing yourself so this is the meaning of what pervades pervades what everything all of life into which everything disappears it is in this awareness this entire universe is appearing and into this awareness alone everything disappears at night when the external waking world and the dream world everything disappears into a uniform blankness that blankness is nothing other than this awareness itself shining upon that madness just because all the specificities differences have disappeared it seems to be a blankness so the awareness alone shines with nothing to shine upon that's deep sleep that is the whole universe is merged is merged into that deep sleep into that awareness there is nothing more to be aware of only awareness is there that is other thing not just in deep sleep at the end of the universe you know when the entire universe is destroyed in one cosmic cycle which is called pralia the cosmic dissolution there also no specific entity exists anymore for an indeterminate period even time does not exist actually there and why talk about deep sleep why talk about the end of the universe moment to moment this is happening the atman is swallowing everything whatever is appearing is you the consciousness existence consciousness appearing as people tables chairs as space and air and earth and water as thoughts and feelings and emotions where are they going the fact is they're all merging back into awareness they're there's a very nice word in hindi and sanskrit it's puran spuran suran or spurti which means an effervescence a bit like um a coke if you open it it bubbles and fizzes for a while so this universe is is yeah that's a nice way of putting it is the fizzing of the atman i coined that just now it's not a very uh scriptural example but anyway it is further so spurty is the fizzing of of yourself you the consciousness and where does this fizzing go away it disappears back into um into into vapor into yourself back into the atman this is it absorbs the universe back into itself very easily because the universe is nothing but it it's very easy for it to absorb itself then next literally it means that which eats it is this awareness alone which is the ultimate consumer this awareness alone is the one which is seeing and hearing and smelling and tasting and touching we are just now blaming the poor senses and the mind actually you the atman alone are to blame for all these activities you the consciousness in connection with the mind and in connection with the visual system you are the one who is consuming or seeing but seeing is what consuming forms seeing this this this you the awareness in connection with the mind and in connection with auditory system you are hearing but what is hearing is consuming sound you're eating up sound you alone this awareness through the appropriate channels you alone are consuming taste and smell and touch pleasant and unpleasant you are the ultimate consumer he says that which consumes eats eats in a sense of consciousness which basically means experiences remember sometimes we talk about advaitha you are pure consciousness you're not the mind not the senses not the body then we get this sort of delusion that okay i am the witness and it is the mind which is uh seeing hearing smelling tasting it's the mind which is active in the world i am the witness of all that i am not involved yes and no you are the witness you're not involved and yet none other than you is the consumer there's nobody else other than you who smells eats touches tastes uh enjoys suffers you alone are there who else is there the connection between you the pure consciousness and this empirical consciousness which is the consumer which things i am smelling tasting touching and thinking desiring hating this one what is the connection it's the same connection as between sunlight and moonlight at night the world is lit up by moonlight true and yet the moonlight is not different from the sunlight in fact the moonlight is the sunlight reflected off the moon and used in a particular way um to illumine the night world at night similarly our present empirical consciousness which is the consuming consciousness which we have which experiences all these things which extroverts the mind which is extroverted through the mind and senses this is nothing other than you the pure consciousness atma reflected of the mind the mind is like the moon the sun is like the atma the pure consciousness this is a good example in fact uh i was reading this this very interesting dialogue between uh swami pramishan and the jee and swami suhitan and the sweethanji is our revered vice president now but uh he was the head monk when i joined as a young novice and he was fortunate enough to serve for a long period of time very closely be associated with an enlightened master swami prime so we have heard many stories and but this is one which i had not heard it's been published in a book which i read just last week and that portion i read that portion so there this refers to the initial days of training of swami sweet and by swami formation um and i have heard this from swami sweden and many years ago that master this used to drive us nuts the young younger novices day and night it would be vedantic teaching and swami premier shanda was very ill so it required very close nursing and swami sweden to serve him with great devotion late at night maybe he says i'm desperately sleepy but the swami needs to go to the bathroom and i have to assist him he'll slowly move to the bathroom standing in the bathroom holding onto my hand he says have you understood this carefully the five layers of the personality the physical and the vital and the mental and and swamis you say that it grown and they said not again i said yes yes i've understood it but it was intense because for the the premier sanji it was real and he was desperate let this young person at least you know make this breakthrough as long as i am here i can help him do it once he gets it so one of these instances was is recorded in that that bit i read last week which i had not heard earlier beautiful there swami premiershin that tells swami sweden is he says so tell me have you understood the difference between chit and chaitana chit and chaitana if you have understood this i can die in peace chit chat means pure consciousness and chaitanya means this empirical consciousness which we feel right now all of us we feel it when we say we are conscious this is the consciousness which we feel that i am aware i am listening to you swami i think i'm conscious i'm thinking i'm remembering i'm trying to understand i feel here i'm sitting in the chair so this is i feel this this is called the reflected consciousness or empirical consciousness the transactional consciousness which which we all have all the time this is what consciousness studies is studying today in uh you know the subject consciousness studies just studying this and what is chit pure consciousness which atma which is trying to teach us and what is the relation between the two it is exactly like sunlight and moonlight it's trying to see the moonlight and from that and trying to understand grasp the sunlight and the swamis swami pramishanji is saying if you can understand the difference between the two i will die in peace because if you can understand the difference that this applies to all of us if you can understand the difference between the two you are just one step away from enlightenment just one step away why is that possible why is why would you be one step away from enlightenment because it's not as you know like a speculative matter not like a subtle concept of philosophy if you get it good if you don't get it it really doesn't matter no this pure consciousness is you and you are continuously shining it's just that we don't see it this is called ignorance that continuously it's the open secret which is blazing forth all the time they don't see it if i can this but what what we do see is the reflected consciousness we are aware of that constantly if we can begin to distinguish between the two and caitanya pure consciousness and this empirical reflected transactional consciousness if you begin to see we will get it it will just take a second a split second next moment you will see oh i am that it may take some time after that to stabilize and sometime after that to manifest it in life but you will get it immediately you will get peace and the old swami can now die in peace so uh so that was really i really like reading that and this is what is being pointed out it eats what do you mean pure consciousness eats pure consciousness does not correct but it is none other than the pure consciousness which through the reflected reflection in the mind and the senses which is consuming everything in the world which is our daily life what does it eat vishayana yeah he emphasizes objects which objects here here it it consumes cookies and coffee it consumes sound it consumes sights it consumes touch and smell objects are being consumed continuously by this consciousness that is atma then finally and that which is being itself which is constant being all things in this universe including our own bodies our lives they depend on this atma for existence that's why there's a new term being used in new vedanta circles these days which i like very much it's they use the term presence for this atma presence is a good word why because presence has connotation of two things presence means existence it also means awareness you say i feel a presence here you don't feel a presence you are the presence it is this presence which gives light to the universe but also existing to the universe existence so yes the continuous existence upon which all temporary existences depend um when swami prime sanji says if you can understand the difference between chit and chetan i will die in peace to that i will add if you can understand the difference between being and existing things if you can understand the difference between bliss and temporary pleasures and you can understand the difference between pure chit and jet and pure consciousness and empirical consciousness then the swami says i can die in peace it's the same thing if you can understand the difference between chit and chaitana you can understand the difference between in sanskrit sat and bhava padarta that means pure being and existing things existence and existing things there's a german philosopher who did a lot of thinking about this heidegger and between this ultimate fulfillment ananda and little little pleasures which we chase in this world if you can understand the difference between it's exactly the same difference and this sat this chit this ananda is the same one thing and that's you it's not a thing it's you the moment we understand it we are it nothing more remains to be done because we are it already the moment we understand what it is it will say oh i am this that is the meaning of very good all problem solved so this is atma tasman thus this reality ultimate reality is sung of glorified as atma i'm quoting i'm just explaining the verse which shankaracharya quotes from the linga purana this is the deep spiritual meaning of the word atma simple meaning i myself you could refer to body to mind to pure consciousness but what is the deepest spiritual meaning atma that which pervades that into which the all of everything disappears is absorbed that which eats all objects here that which gives existence which is eternal existence which gives existence to everything objects time space everything therefore this reality is called atma is glorified as atma what a magnificent definition of the atma a little more then we will move on so this turning inwards does it mean then let me just put up s stunning sudden stuck to everything sit down quietly withdraw close my eyes like the buddha said i will sit in meditation here let my body um wither away let in this asana my body wither away but i shall not get up from this meditation seat without bodhi without realizing the ultimate reality like that not so fast all the sadhanas our karma yoga bhakti yoga and meditation dhyana yoga all are meant for this avrikta the turning away you might say karma yoga will engage us in the world how is it turning away it is turning away a real problem are not the eyes that eyes are open that's our problem no no no our real problem is the mind behind it and the selfishness of the mind which wants to draw pleasure money success praise love from the world to this person this little thing it's selfish grasping of the mind that's the problem that's reversed by a selflessness karma yoga the selfless mind can settle down in meditation very quickly so the person may be engaged in tremendous activity but as long as it is self-less activity karma yoga that person can meditate in contrast a person may stop all activity in the name of meditation i am withdrawing upanishad has told me avid should turn away your vision shut your eyes i'm going to shut my eyes to the word sit quietly mind will bubble with desires will boil over with desires because it's it's just stuffed in there layer after layer of conditioning i'm reminded of a classic example swami vivekananda's two disciples nishcharanda and kalyana nandaji who went and established the hospital in kangal in in haridwar so there's a big ramakrishna nation hospital there now but it is they started in a very small way these two swamis they went there and they looked after the sick people especially the swamis who became sick and there was nobody to look after them so they worked very hard including actually physically lifting up six to six people and bringing them to the hospital cleaning their stool and urine and blood and pus and getting medicines and treating them dressing their wounds hard work dirty work throughout it to the extent that the other monks shunned them and called them bhangi sadhu sweeper monks you know they're a strict caste system people would look down upon people who did the dirty work of society and so these monks are people who are doing dirty work and so other monks would see we are superior but the life these two led later on other monks who went to help them said we are amazed back breaking work throughout the day and in samadhi throughout the night sitting in deep meditation absorbed in god throughout the incredible life which means engagement in work is not the distraction the distraction is in the mind selfish selfishness is the distraction self-seeking is the distraction then bhakti one might think then thinking about god bhajans kittens that is also a distraction it's the scatteredness of the mind it's not turning inwards no our desires are that which pulls out to the world if we collect the desires and focus it on god it may be that you are focusing on god but god is our innermost reality actually so you are focusing inwards when swami gave a beautiful example isn't somebody which say upanishad says are it projects you turn your sight inwards but when you are reading a book attending a class looking at the swami zoom meeting aren't you looking outwards so aren't you by just by reading vedanta are you not disturbing your mind no swami gave a beautiful example of the mirror when we our eyes are open and we're looking at the mirror we it seems we are looking at something external but the mirror is reflecting our face back to us we are actually looking inwards at our own face what the upanishad does what vedanta does is it provides a mirror for our inner reality look what we are studying here is our own reality instead of doing this if you just sit quietly the mind will either fall asleep or run in 100 different directions so vedanta is the mirror which helps us to turn our vision inwards so just vision inwards does not mean just sitting quietly with eyes closed it means selfless activity karma yoga very helpful it means devotion bhakti love of god not love of the world and it means vedantic inquiry into the self and of course it means actually shutting your eyes in meditation regularly morning and evening physically shutting down the movement of the body the vibration of the senses and the continuous you know fizzing of the mind shutting it down so that actual shutting down the eyes also is included here all four yogas are meant by avrita turning the eyes inwards turning the vision inwards good now let me go on to the next one the same thing that's why i want to complete two together yamaha it tells nachi keta para come on so unintelligent people follow the external desires they get entangled in the snares of the widespread death therefore the discriminating people having known what true immortality is in the midst of impermanent things do not pray for anything here is giving us a follow-up consequences of what happens here in this mantra the first one he says children immature people they keep running after external things basically saying people don't learn people don't learn it's the rare one who learns most people as i always say what is the what is the result of chasing samsara two things first of all either you will get things which you want or you won't get what you want if you keep getting things which you want the result will be dissatisfaction no one getting what they have wanted in life has ever reported permanent lasting deep satisfaction except the enlightened ones except that one case nobody else in the world has said i've got what i wanted and it's great there's no problem at all and i would thoroughly recommend it to everybody else yes go and you know eat as many burgers as you want go to as many parties as you want and buy as many gadgets as you want and when you get all these you will be deeply deeply fulfilled the advertisements are gospel truth nobody has ever said this so getting what we want does not lead to deep any kind of deep lasting fulfillment that's why i feel sometimes it's easier to understand these things in a first world country in economy like this in a poorer place where if a person is poor or at least the standard of living is not to not as high as say in countries like this in the united states one may have the inner feeling that if i could you know live in a place like that and work in a place like that and earn money like these people then i would really really be happy no it doesn't work like that if you if you do get it you'd still be disappointed and if we do not get it you'll be frustrated i have many desires and i did not get them frustrated these are the only two only two results of samsara disappointment frustration there's no third of alternative possible and so this is if we change samsara these two are the only alternatives and another second thing is by chasing samsara what happens is it becomes habit for me it becomes addictive we and we no longer have independence um srirama krishna says he sees he says i saw these old people who had retired and sitting they were playing cards and i said isn't it time to start calling on god even now isn't it time so it's a typical site you can see in the villages in india you know it's very relaxed kind of life so people sitting around in the afternoon or evening playing cards just to pass time and sriram krishna says isn't it high time to start calling on god that means death is at your door old age disease and death are there in front of you now no isn't it time now it it won't work because this engagement with the world is so addictive and so independence destroying that at that age if someone wants to start very difficult there's an inertia which has built up and one can only at that point watch the sit and watch tv in the earlier generation which see grandparents sitting with the radio there will be those old transistor radio sets and sit and listen at least that was not as distracting then came tv now there's internet and what do people you know they criticize the new generation for internet addiction i seen many old studs are deeply they're all on the screens sometimes it's more addicting to older people than to younger people have grown up with it those people elderly people who have not become addicted to it you're happy and you're blessed don't get addicted so it becomes difficult there is an inertia of being you know addicted to this world so ramakrishna gives another example the camel it eats thorny bushes in the desert and it's its gums bleed and yet it goes on eating that so there is pain and there is dissatisfaction not knowing any better and habituated and addicted to this one keeps on doing the same thing patterns of behavior patterns of consumption that is just be repeated especially as we get older it's very difficult to change it anymore so when these good impulses come in our life to study to meditate to be devoted and we should act on it immediately vigorously so people don't learn and shankaracharya here says he comments on this external objects men of little intelligence to childlike bala means childlike childish childlike is good it's good to be childlike it's not good to be childish so this childish people are childish inclinations follow the chase they are up and doing to keep on you know adding more activities more engagements more possessions more achievements in the world outside then what's the problem one is living a full and engaged life british vitatus who is saying this yamaha the lord of death and he's warning a stark warning such people will go from death to death what a terrible warning death awaits awaits i await such such people so that means that the cycle of life and death will not cease driven by desires plagued by dissatisfaction and frustration what will happen to such people they will die with unfulfilled desires and their karma will propel them into newer and newer activities newer lifetimes to repeat similar cycles without separation the widespread network of death what is this widespread network of death shankaracharya uses his favorite phrase ignorance desire and desire prompted action ignorance i do not know the atman the glory of which we spoke about earlier i don't know that i just think i am this little creature then what happens desire comes i'm a little creature subject to death i struggle to live subject to disappointment i struggle to entertain myself and make myself happy and fulfilled i'm driven by temptation and fear this is karma and then i this desire prompted action is karma and karma gives rise to results causality except the terrible wheel of causality in motion moment i set into motion actions have consequences and these consequences are spread across lifetimes i am seeing the results of that right now so this is what this is the widespread network of death and this is my network um yama says i i will catch them these are the ones who will be caught and they will go from death to death except the hera the why the wise patient spiritual heroes i spoke about um us here who realized the immortal self amrita having realized what do they find they find the undecaying unchanging in the midst of the decaying and changing all things decay all things pass away all things are subject to change and transience classic buddhism and he says here is that that nature that reality buddhism also says this but it will not say it positively if you ask a buddha so if i ask a buddhist so what about the buddha nature does it decay and pass away continuously no it doesn't so the buddha nature the ultimate reality which is your own self according to advaita vedanta your innermost reality the atman that doesn't decay that doesn't pass away they realize this where do they realize it here here in the midst of all that is changing in the midst of all that is decaying in the midst of all that is disappointing and frustrating they realize that and then consequence they go beyond desire how interesting you are not brought to you they do not desire anything in this world anymore they have nothing to gain from this anything in this world what a coincidence just um a couple of classes ago we were referring to the razor's edge and uh today an article has been published in one of the print internet media on news website about summerset mom going and meeting ramana maharshi it's a well-known incident but this is just a recent article it talks about how in the movie two movies were made based on the book razor's edge in hollywood and then one of the characters in the movie of course in the book of course was ramana marchi which is called shri ganesha in the in that book by the way it's not mentioned here but in the book if you see larry the character he meets a swami from the vedanta society he was the swami at that time who was in charge of the society of chicago in those days all right let's quickly take a look at the chat abhijit says can the description of the atman as that which consumes be related to ananda from the ghana later that which who enjoys yes but here that which consumes means vishayan it says every object of experience is experienced by the atman but through the mechanism of mind and senses atman does not consume anything and it's none other than us consumes everything but there's no other consciousness to consume then shivani says what would be the line of enquiry to make the distinction between empirical consciousness and pure consciousness other particular questions for example i have spiritual teachers asking questions like what is hearing those words and what is looking out through the eyes are these questions that lead to towards the recognition of pure consciousness as an empirical consciousness yes but the traditional methods of inquiry viveka pancha viveka avastha vivek i know no of no other methods which are more powerful than these just follow the first verse of the rig rishi viveka and the six methods of meditation at the end of dripbrishay rebecca i've taught all this in in the series of twelve lectures on rick richevek or the pancha kosha the five layers of the human personality in the cave of the heart i've given a talk there more than once i've taught that from the title openation that's also an inquiry which takes us from the empirical consciousness to pure consciousness and it cannot nothing can take you there it can be pointed out then you have to grasp it intuitively there are many many such ways of pointing out the pure consciousness using the empirical consciousness in fact in vigna bhairava the kashmir shaiva text on meditation 112 meditation techniques are given dharanas many of them not all but many of them are tricks basically tricking our empirical consciousness to orient itself towards pure consciousness yeah i can put it that way to orient or reorient itself towards pure consciousness and there are tricks you know what tricks like for example um you have to you lie down on a say a grassy field and this meditation requires open eyes and you look up into if there's a vast blue sky it helps if there are no clouds now just notice this vast blue luminosity without any feature whatsoever focus fiercely on this endless blue above you it is just um space and luminous space now close your eyes and drop that vast blueness you have to focus fiercely on that vast blueness until that moment comes when nothing everything else has been purged from your mind just endless vast blueness drop it when you drop it instantly there'll be a blankness drop that blindness then there's no way of expressing what will happen then um but that that's just a way of tricking you know exhausting or emptying out empirical consciousness from all its contents and then trying to make it notice the luminosity which pervades it just like the vast space is pervaded by light sky is pervaded by light your mind is the space pervaded by consciousness is it's a way of tricking the mind into trying to see what vedanta is trying to say that's one one technique and there are many such techniques patrick in his name and form superimposition is the same concept as borrowed existence exactly superimposition of name farm and and activity also is is what is what enables borrowed existence simple example would be clay but when you give it a form of a pot and call it a pot and put water in it and you are superimposing name form and activity but the clay remains clean and that's true of this world everything in this world shravani how to understand the practice of merging the mind into intellect does the intellect here include ego the empirical eye what you said about caitanya moonlight the mind into intellect and this is related to the meditation technique with which we uh which came at the end of the last section so the merge the speech into the mind the mind into the intellect that that one there for the intellect think of i am this distinction has been pointed out by vidyar india those who remember remember the speech has to be merged in the mind which means from a talking seeing smelling tasting touching being i just become a thinking being sit quietly in the mind and quickly stop the thinking into i am this i am and drop all the um the adjectives to i am i am meditating no i am just i am and then bring in the idea that this i am is constant in all sentient beings i am server playing the meditating is only this being but i am is common to all the 81 beings who are in this meeting all of us all of us have the same i am the moment you add something else then it becomes a particular intellect but when you have just the general i am that is called mahat where do i get this distinction it's from vidyar india vidyarniya makes this distinction when you when you move from the individual i am to the cosmic i am that was the distinction where which upanishad made if you remember that meditation technique from there move on to the witness of the cosmic i am which is awareness but that can can never be i can't show it to you you have to intuitively see realize because that's you that's basically the real you it's called shanta atma the atman which is the self which is peace very beautiful name was given in that meditation technique where every distinction every quality is extinguished the mind is convinced that it is just a drisha itself and is irrelevant is there anything else that needs to be done no nothing else that needs to be done but moment it mind is convinced that it's a drishya it will also be aware of it's rishi to what and once that is clear nothing else needs to be done but also at that point i'll say this is the sankhya insight consciousness and everything else but then the oneness which vedanta talks about that also should be clear nila varaji says how to explain the precognitive dreams or visits in dream departed relatives of friends it's not an activity of our minds it's an activity of the cosmic mind still from a vedantic perspective not interesting this is again a tendency of the mind to be interested in objects you know interesting objects interesting happenings these are subtle happenings in the mind but you are interested in that no who is the one which is interested so you pray if someone is engaged in selfless charity working out to save the poor the thought goes out to solve those problems as thought comes during meditation is disturbing turning inside yes maybe only temporarily this is far easier than a self selfish mind which is too much concerned with one's own little problems and issues a compassionate mind can be of a deeply meditative mind kalpana says i understand the joy of deep sleep for transactional atma how to think of ananda of pure consciousness i'm not going to talk about that here i have talked about it a few times in search of bliss if you want the text the text is the anandam imam sh extensively commented upon by shankara and others entitled upanishad second chapter the end of the second chapter it's called the calculus of bliss so there what is empirical bliss and what is pure bliss exactly the same connection between empirical consciousness and pure consciousness between empirically existing things and pure be same difference gaurav says in advaitha atma paramatma are one when paramatma there are two meanings the direct meaning and the implied meaning the direct meaning is usually this person which is pure consciousness mixed up limited by ego mind body and so on that's what we call the atma pure consciousness distinguished from ego mind intellect body is what is meant by parama more can be said about it but i will just refer you to the analysis of the mahavakya the analysis of the great statement tatwa masih as you find in this vedanta i have extensively given classes on that the author louis burst figured out that the character of larry in the razor's age was based on sri ramana devotee named alan chadwick i didn't know that that's very interesting ramya says swamiji is the i am for mahatma necessary step or can we go from the i am individual to blankness to awareness we can whether you run the danger of um that sankian isolationism i am then you will not know that i am the witness this pure consciousness is the atma of all beings is the atma of that cosmic i am not just individual this person's own i am then you'll get a feeling there are these 81 consciousnesses here in the zoom meeting but if you say that one i am common to all beings and that i am witness is consciousness itself then it is the consciousness behind all beings it's the light radiating through 81 different body minds yeah so it would be advaita see the advaithic approach is this is listening to a talk by a traditional monk in in in himalayas he says to think that there is no atman paramatma there is no god there is no immortal soul to be skeptical like that he says it's foolishness so that's the state of many people that's the spiritual maturity i talk about then the second stage is conventionally religious he says there is a world i am there we are sentient beings and there is a god behind everything else god world and individual being this he says is the conventionally religious perspective of the dualistic vedanta school then he says you go further that god alone is actually this world and us individual beings so god brahman has been transformed into all of this so everything is pervaded by divinity that is the perspective of vishishta dwighta shuddhata these other schools of vedans which are not strictly dualistic which are quasi-monastic let us say in between qualified modernism to think that the shiva nature pure consciousness which is none other than i has been transformed into this world i alone have become this world this kashmir shaivism that i by the by the principle of spun the vibration it is consciousness alone which now vibrates out as mind as life as body as matter as space and time this is kashmiri shaivism then what is advaita advaita is that all of this is not awareness alone is this is advaita this is strict uncompromising non-duality the appearance of the all is not denied but it is this pure consciousness alone which appears has not become all of this has not been transformed by vibration or otherwise and it's certainly not a separate reality so this on this grand theme let's namaste [Music]