Video 36

36. Katha Upanishad | Mantras 2.2.12 | Swami Sarvapriyananda

foreign [Music] together by revealing knowledge may the Lord protect us both by giving us the results of knowledge may we attain Vigor together let what we study be Illuminating maybe not cavel at each other om peace peace peace so in this class we are doing the cut upanishad and we are fairly far along in when we stopped before the break we had done the 11th mantra the second chapter the second section and the 11th Mantra we've gone up to that I'll chant the Mantra I think that will be familiar for for people um [Music] I'll read the translation we've already done this so I just it's it's recapitulating what we have done the translation of the Mantra from Swami gambhirananda Ji he translates it as just as the sun which is the eye of the whole world is not tainted by the ocular and external defects similarly the self that is but one in all beings is not tainted by the Sorrows of the world it being transcendental um the question is that if we are this one awareness which is one and the same in all beings and pervading everything not only this it's one Consciousness in all of us but it's everywhere inside outside it pervades everything that exists if that is true then um it raises the whole problem of you know it's not the problem of pantheism you know if this world itself God has become this world then the world is a nasty place there are lots of problems with this world so it will become a god immersed in problems and anyway why call it God in that case why not just call it the world and then how would you save this Divinity which has now become this world the Sorrows of this world uh you know from physical injury to illness to unhappiness to misery from Evil from suffering all of those will affect if it's everywhere then whatever is there in this world will affect that reality that Consciousness and if I am that how will I be how will I be able to transcend sorrow the whole idea was to transcend go beyond sorrow you'll be affected by everything in the world right now I am this one Consciousness I feel in this body and I'm affected by the problems of this body I'm affected by the problems of this mind and to the extent by this through this body and mind I'm aware of the world I'm affected by the problems of the world too how can how are you saying that this Consciousness is beyond sorrow as he gives an example of the sun there was someone sun shining um reveals this word to us but notice the sunlight is not affected by what it reveals so there's snow last last couple of weeks ago there was this tremendous amount of snow Upstate luckily here in New York in uh we in the city itself we were spared this the snow although the bitter cold was here but there's no Brilliance know that the lake here froze so the sunlight falling on the on the frozen lake on this on the ice there notice that the sunlight didn't become icy when it fell on the ice illumine the ice when finally in the last two to three days the ice has melted it's water same sunlight is Illuminating the water but the sunlight doesn't become wet by Illuminating the water if snow melts and everything becomes muddy the same sunlight which illumine the brilliant snow in but now illumines the muddy after effects of snow does the sunlight become muddy no exactly like that the sunlight which reveals everything and yet is not affected by what it reveals that's an example exactly like that you the Consciousness you reveal whatever is going on but you are not affected by by whatever is going on the defects of what is revealed by Consciousness do not affect Consciousness why because if the word used is by here transcendental because Consciousness transcends the Illumina transcends what is illuminant the good and the bad whatever is revealed by Consciousness that does not affect consciousness um remember here we're talking about Consciousness the abdomen we're not talking about the mind the mind which thinks about the world will be affected by the world but that Consciousness which illumines the world and the mind that is not affected by the external objects or by internal the the subjective arisings which we call thoughts emotions it reveals it just is and it reveals so we saw I think I read out some of shankaracharyas comments in his commentary here he points out logo here with dir swap money because of our ignorance that we do not know ourselves as this one Consciousness therefore we identify ourselves with this mind and this body and then we experience an external world and subjective feelings emotions ideas and some of them are we we like them and we chase them some are disturbing unpleasant like a physical illness or an unhappiness in the mind so we dislike them we try to avoid them and thus sentient beings are caught in samsara but these problems in the world all these problems of samsara these are not in the Ultimate Reality they are not in the cell in not in Consciousness this is what shankaracharya says in you the consciousness the world itself is an appearance it's not that he knew the Consciousness there are actually trees and stones and the sky and Earth it's an appearance that which is appearance cannot affect reality all the water in a mirage is not enough is not sufficient to wet one grain of sand of the desert um even the most venomous snake seen by mistake in a rope in a rope mistaken as a snake all the Venom in that snake is not uh will not make the Rope poisonous in a movie the movie example uh a conflagration in on the screen does not burn the screen a great delude in a movie does not make the screen wet why why not because if the reality and appearance they belong to two different levels of existence reality really exists that's why we call it reality apparently uh appearance only apparently exists that's why we call it appearance and that which apparently exists cannot affect that which really exists other way around does that which really exists does it affect what apparently exists well yes in the sense that it gives the very existence to this apparent existence um if the Mind were not there there would be no dreams if the film screen went not there there would be no movies if the desert were not there there would be no Mirage similarly if Consciousness were not there there would be no samsara so Consciousness you the Atman you are the inner reality of this samsara um you give it existence and you illumine it but you are not affected by the real you you are not affected by it that's what he wants to say and then he gives the examples just like the Jew rope shukti um the maker which you find like a seashell which you find on the seashore um means desert a dry place so for examples rope um the seashell the desert and the sky what happens to them snake rope is mistaken and you see a snake or the seashell is mistaken and someone thinks it's a piece of silver or the desert you mistake it and you see it as water in a mirage you think it's water or the sky mala means dirt so sometimes children think that the sky has become dirty it has to be cleaned or something scrubbed so but the sky is not dirty it's just maybe cloudy or Dusty or whatever in the atmosphere then what's the point he's making in all these errors these are examples of error these are examples of Illusion none of these these defects this rope appearing as a snake the dry desert apparently looking like a wet Oasis or you know Sky appearing Dusty or the seashell actually looking like like silver none of these actually exist in in the Rope or in the sky or in the desert or in in the you know whatever what is the example in the um this seashell huh nothing I'm skipping a little bit so if there are any defects in the appearance those are do not affect they do not affect they do not smear the reality so the snake is poisonous looks like a poisonous snake none of the poison actually affects the Rope similarly none of the water in the Mirage makes the desert wet because whatever is superimposed by uh by ignorance ignorance in our intellect makes the Rope appear like a snake but the Rope transcends the snake superimposed upon it yeah that's a good way of putting it the Rope reality transcends the appearance the appearance which is superimposed by ignorance we don't know the Rope as it is and we make a mistake of thinking of it as a snake our mistake the Rope transcends our mistake similarly you the Atman you the pure Consciousness you transcend the world appearance and therefore nothing in the world appearance can actually damage you hurt you just like that shankaracharya says he says all this word which is which consists of action and its results action the instruments of action and the results the law of karma basically we perform actions with the help of the body and the senses and the mind and we get the results what are the results present and unpleasant good actions tarmic actions we get sukha pleasure present results adharmic action being deliberately naughty or evil and we get the results which is pain or suffering so none of that but underneath all of this you are this one Consciousness and this one Consciousness is not affected by Karma or the effects of karma the sentient beings taking the body and mind with only reality and this world to be the only reality they perform Karma and they are trapped by the results of their own Karma and they suffer because of seeing that only to be the real it's like being trapped in a movie there may be a horror movie and you suffer or being trapped in a movie which is a comedy you may laugh but it's still it's still delusion it's not real yeah but the real you the one who's watching the movie is not affected by the movie whether it's good or bad so this is what's the point here though you are Consciousness and you are one in all beings you're not affected by the sufferings of all beings your one Consciousness and you pervade all living beings and external whatever what is what seems to be external solid world out there it's all pervaded by one Consciousness the defects of that world they also do not affect you because you transcend them how do you transcend them because they are all appearances in you and it's not very you know the thing to note is it's a description of bare reality when you when you say things like that it's one Consciousness transcending everything it everything appears in one Universe appears in one Consciousness the fact is what else is it right now right now if even if you forget it just physiology and psychology and brain science will tell you that whatever we are experiencing we are not experiencing actually directly in contact with a hard World outside whatever we are experiencing is a construction in our minds generated by the sense Impressions from outside and the inner you know arisings in our mind the subject and the object come together to produce this and all of it is appearing in Consciousness what else could it be our life is basically objects appearing in Consciousness it's Consciousness and its contents it feels like something that's our life basically all of it whether there is an external Universe quite apart from us whether Consciousness is generated by the brain whether it's just the material world all of those whether it's you take a materialistic approach whether you take a subjective idealist approach or you take an advaithic approach whatever it is all those philosophical uh speculations come later on nobody can deny even the hard most hard and fast materialist cannot deny right now literally what we are experiencing is consciousness and its contents that's it now moving on how does this help us what what results does it do us first of all you're just been told by the example of the sun you are safe you as Consciousness do not have any problems so yeah as Consciousness I might not have problems but the world has so many problems and the body has so many problems and my mind has so many problems and other sentient beings around me live all my neighbors and family members they have so many problems and yet what it is saying is all those problems are an appearance in Consciousness as our bare nature as pure Consciousness you transcend all those problems that level you are safe yeah I love that definition by Wittgenstein that religion is the search for Ultimate Security um and it's true advaita vedant is telling this this Mantra is telling us you have that Ultimate Security if you were to know yourself as you truly are it's like for example a sketches of any person sees a lot of problems in the world outside I'm being persecuted I'm people are out to get me so that movie was there a beautiful mind and yet you would tell such a person it's all right there is no problem at all it doesn't seem like that to that person but that person you realize transcends the problems which are appearing to him similarly we are all in a certain sense schizophrenic about our lives and our works this it is an appearance to Consciousness Consciousness itself like sunlight illumining a world is completely unaffected by what it reveals that level you are safe not as body not even as an individual might it has a body mind you're going to be affected by the world all right moving on the next mantra so these are all powerful they are descriptions of our real nature as pure Consciousness and also shows us how to realize what we are and how to get the benefit of that so first of all note that you are safe second again on the the theme of being safe like just like the schizophrenic patient to extend that example little further you may know that the patient is safe and there's no problems as what the patient feels like but the patient's suffering will not cease until the patient sees that for himself then the suffering sees similarly we are safe right now you need not worry about the birth and death and samsara and all terrible things because at the ultimate level as Atman or Brahman we are safe already whether you're enlightened or not but our suffering will not cease until we come to see it until we realize it and if our goal is to see suffering then we must enlightenmentism us because people can ask you know if what you're saying is it's all right in that case why should I pursue spiritual life well because why did you start in the first place we started spiritual life in the first place because we wanted to overcome suffering we wanted to attain peace we wanted wanted to attain happiness well until we have attained that until we we can honestly say that I have the peace that passeth understanding the peace that cannot be shaken I have the happiness which is spontaneous and natural I'm ever fulfilled until I can honestly say that at least to myself I must pursue this path of realization right now the 12th mantra was [Music] going to tell us how to attain Everlasting Bliss so let's pay attention it's worthwhile most worthwhile 12th Mantra I'm reading out Swami gambhiran under this translation Eternal peace is for um Eternal happiness actually or peace is for those and not for others it's for those who are discriminating and who realize in their hearts him who being won the controller and the inner self of all makes a single form multifarious all right what does that mean view the Atman is one existence Consciousness it's one a kaha it's one one now this one what it means here is it's one in the midst of the many it's the one appearing as the many it's Consciousness appearing to itself as the multifarious world it is the one existence appearing as many existence existence or existing things of the world that one existence that one Consciousness you are because when you say one in the context of religion it can mean different things it can mean God is one for example that's and that's not what they want want to say they agree that God is one but they're going beyond the concept of God so when say that there are it's not polytheistic they are not multiple Gods there's only one God that's a big argument the monotheistic religions make comes from Judaism but then Christianity and Islam also that there are not many gods there is the one God who is our um Eternal Father in heaven or Allah or Jehovah that the same the one God and that's uh understood well enough in vedanta also that in this wild diversity of names and forms which you find in Hinduism behind it all is one ishwar or one saguna Brahman that's me one meaning of one when he says it's one reality but that's not the uh the deeper meaning here in fact even material nature in vedanta in sankya material nature is also called one all of these wild diversity of things in the world from quasars to quarks from blue whales to the kovid virus all of it from a grain of sand to planets all of it comes from one nature prakriti so that is there is there is a Unity at the heart of material nature also so that's also called one um so in that sense the physicists have it right when they are trying to pursue or develop a grand unified theory in material nature also there is Unity that's also one God is also one but here when it says one it means in the multiplicity of this entire universe there's one underlying reality and of course you are that one so one underlying reality in the multiplicity of this material universe um this one is also Washi it's called Washi means it is the controller the moment you we say controller we immediately you know it should come up in our minds so he's talking about God then so it is not only one underlying reality it's also the controller of the Universe from a vedantic perspective Advantage perspective it's not that there is some big boss sitting in the headquarters office up there and controlling this entire universe or some person in the control room pushing buttons not in that sense shankaracharya explains [Music] it exists controlling the universe in in which way being the inner reality the inner self of all things just as in in this body mind it's one Consciousness which illumines all the experiences of Our Lives not only that it gives existence to this body mind similarly in everything in the universe sentient and non-sentient in non-sentient beings Atman or Brahman gives existence it is the being the very existence of those things in sentient beings it's not only the very existence of our bodies and minds but also the Illumina that which gives us the first person experience consciousness so in that sense it controls the world just an aside here I heard you know two comments by two speakers one is very noted physicist um Roger sir Roger Penrose and there he says something he he is well known for his theory where he thinks that um Consciousness is the key to the to the physical Universe in what sense so I'm I'm just repeating his words because I'm very careful here it's way beyond my uh my expertise my physics doesn't exceed School level physics so let alone this level of cosmology or you know fundamental physics so these are his words sir Roger Penrose he says Consciousness enters this universe by the collapse of the wave particle duality that's his theory now the interviewer asked him why do you think so what kind of reasoning LED you up to this um he said I got this idea first when I attended a course of lecture so I'm just quoting him verbatim here sir Roger Penrose he said I got this idea when I first attended a course of lectures on mathematical logic by one Professor esteem I think this was at Oxford where he was either at Oxford or Cambridge and I understood that Consciousness is not computable it doesn't compute it's it's not computable and then the next step in his argument was then I was thinking if Consciousness is at all part of this physical universe it's not computable what's the other thing in physics which is not computable and he says it's the wave particle duality and therefore they must have something to do with each other anyway so that's the that's what I heard and the other thing which I heard was from Donald Hoffman he said that it is now mainstream physics that space time is not the end of the story it's not the fundamental reality there's something deeper than space-time and it's beginning to seem as if Consciousness could be the deeper reality now put these two together he's just putting up these are theories there's certainly not uh accepted or proven as yet but just put this together here are leading physicists very mainstream one of them is a Nobel Prize winner who's talking about the fundamental reality of this universe being consciousness or at least Consciousness being implicated in the fundamental reality of this universe now just for a moment let's step back and think how amazing this is because to me a study Physics at the school level you would not expect physicists to be talking about Consciousness because the way we all we have been taught we have come to think about Consciousness is the Consciousness is a higher order emergence the reality of this universe is space time matter energy and somehow it leads to a universe a big bang in this universe and somehow somewhere in some part of this universe in some some planets like the Earth this material Universe becomes a living Universe you know part of it this matter becomes life living bodies um from unicellular beings to complicated bodies like our bodies living bodies emerge and somehow some of these living bodies have sophisticated nervous systems and brains and somehow these physical things living matter bodies with nervous systems and brains produce something called Consciousness so Consciousness comes much later in the story of the universe that's how we we were taught and that's that's the common sense idea of science but now physicists we investigate the fun nature of fundamental reality and the physical reality they are saying somehow the story could begin with Consciousness clearly they are not talking about Consciousness in the sense of something produced by a living body and nervous systems and brains so just leave it at that what it struck me as from an advaita vedanta perspective is when we investigate ourselves through drishya viveka the you know the Syrian scene or the waking dreaming deep sleep or the five levels of the human personality whichever methodology we come to the conclusion we are awareness just Consciousness bear awareness and according to the greater vedanta this whole universe also emerges the physical Universe not just ourselves the universe this vast universe is an emergence from Consciousness that is called Brahman the Consciousness within us and what we are Atman that from which the universe is emerged is called Brahman and the whole point of advaita vedant is to say Atman is Brahman ASI now it begins to seem that science is not if not saying that pointing that way I am consciousness go to David Chalmers or someone the heart problem Consciousness they will tell you the Consciousness you are if your Consciousness you cannot be a product of this body mind that's a hard problem of Consciousness then go to Sir Roger Penrose or a Half Men or others they're saying this universe is fundamentally Consciousness then they are the same thing you and the universe are one reality anyway so in that sense it is the controller of the universe of course it's in the sense of um God if you were in the theistic sense of course that same Consciousness is the Lord or the god of the universe and that sends the controller it is the inner self of all sentient beings the one being who becomes transforms makes the multiplicity out of that Oneness here I'm going to quote from one God who teaching this thing in the Himalayas in Hindi he said but I'll just tell you the English very powerfully he puts it he says just as we have to imagine uh you know a fair in Hindi it's called a mela so a traditional rural Fair uh in India where there are lots of um toys made of clay for children so clay toys they're the camels and the horses and the Tigers and whatnot they're all cutely made of clay so he says look at all the toys made of clay whether it's camels horses or Tigers they're all clay just as one Earth has become all of these just as one water appears in a droplet of water and in a mountainous mountain high wave in the ocean it's the same water same water principle just as one fire is there in a burning log of wood or in the scalding hot boiling water it's the one principle of fire same everywhere as the one wind air is the breeze which carrieses your face or the the hurricane which is brewing out there just as in this is this one Sky whether it's the sky inside the pot inside the house or the vast Sky outside it is one unbounded space you know the five elements it's beautifully earth and water and fire and air and Sky he's using all of those as examples to show that there's one principle which can appear in so many ways then it goes further it is just as it is one mind in all our Daydreams and in all our dreams at night whatever we see whatever we experience smell taste touch in those dreams it's just one mind appearing in all those ways just as it is the one rope which mistakenly someone sees as a snake someone sees as a discarded garland from a fla from a temple someone sees as a crack in the earth these are the classic examples used in you know in Sanskrit to show error so as the ground of the error is present in all forms of the error something is mistaken for something else whatever you mistake it for the reality is the underlying reality is the same in the same way it is this one inner self of all beings is one inner Consciousness which you are which appears in all these ways of this entire multifarious universe that's the meaning of a come one rupam form multiplicity the one who makes one who appears and all of these things okay sounds great what do you do [Music] um you are supposed to see it as yourself I am that I am that let me point out the structure of this Mantra the first line it shows one reality the inner controller being the inner being of all a reality of all beings that one appears or makes itself into this vast multifarious Universe what you're talking about it's talking about Brahman the reality of this universe the one reality underlying the center at the universe first line of the Mantra second line of the Mantra it talks about the great identity you are that that you are when we hear about one reality underlying everything and appearing as in the entire universe we say great that's fascinating what's it to me though it says you are that that's the second line then it goes further more for those who see this as their own self for them is uh is eternal Bliss not for others so this the second line also gives us the result of this of this realization so three things has been have been pointed out by this Mantra Ultimate Reality Brahman the one reality underlying the multiplicity one non-dual reality second how do you realize it you have to realize it as yourself I am that third what good does it do it gives you endless Bliss and not otherwise there's no happiness Elsewhere One of the upanishads upanishad says that which is infinite is Joy Bliss there is no joy in The Limited this is the infinite and you are that you must realize I am that I am Brahman how anupashyanti this is literally if you translate it they who see after they will see in this manner in which manner after what shankaracharya he says this is let me translate this how do you realize this agama the upanishads the text acharya the teacher of the text Anu that means as taught the text as taught by a competent teacher in that manner when you see this is very important this is a knowledge which is being which is being given to us we must get it first we must download it into ourselves first and see it through those eyes the eyes of the text as taught by a competent teacher Anu means afterwards later in this manner not rethinking or or as is done often in Academia today you know I'm going to do a deep reading of the text so I'm going to do deep reading and I'm going to be rewarded for getting new and new and meaning rubbish that's not how these texts are meant to be used you can get newer meanings you can make poetry out of it and what you can do whatever you like but first the text as transmitted to you by um the teacher of the lineage because they are they the text is meant to point out something to us if you are not receptive to what it is pointing out and I'm trying to make new meanings out of it no good you can write a book or get a poetry prize for it but you will not get enlightened they're trying to show us something so one must see what they are trying to show us the teaching of the text with the teacher not not even the text I'm reading it making sense of it by myself no why the T why is the teacher important because it's an unbroken lineage of teachers who have been taught this from the earlier teacher and so they know in which way to interpret the text and tells us what kind of person we must be to make full advantage take full advantage of the teaching vivekina foreign engagement with the external world must come to a stop or we must be able to stop at least for a while our obsessive engagement with the world with people with the world with our own bodies with our own little problems that means a dispassion a certain Detachment from the world must first be cultivated before you can take advantage of these teachings otherwise we'll just not get it either one will not get interest in this or while we not see the point of all of this or even if we get we see we are interested and we see the point of it it will not dawn upon us that breakthrough will not happen and then so this is the meaning C but see how after in this way as taught by the teacher not by the teacher himself again the other way is round is also there there are teachers who say I'm enlightened or really which lineage which book are you going to teach from books I don't care for books I don't belong to any lineage I have discovered this by myself they may well have but it's no good for us these are um you know red flags so there must be some kind of lineage which is being followed so some kind of guarantee of that there are people who have become enlightened in this path for centuries if not millennia so text and teacher both are important and then he uses the word dheera literally it means in Sanskrit means a quality of patience a quality of spiritual toughness equality of steadiness patience steadiness with a sense of a spiritual steadiness and patience very important in the midst of happiness and sorrow I my attention must be fixed on that reality which is the teacher and the text that taught me which I've got it I have understood it but then the I'll be buffeted by the waves of pain and pleasure buffeted by the waves of Terror and temptation buffeted by or dazzled by the magical display of samsara generated by my past karma in the midst of that to have the patience and steadiness to hold on to this Vision to this inner vision to this realization that is dheera it takes some doing that that kind of stability is necessary here let me point out um yes courage fortitude people are pointing it out in the comments it is true all of these but dheera is like a spiritual hero who has that that power that's required now someone asked the question so isn't so this Insight which we get teacher text gives us this Insight I am awareness the whole universe emerges from that awareness so it's one underlying reality I am that underlying reality and I begin to get it now what is the role of meditation here isn't meditation necessary for that breakthrough and having that breakthrough to be stabilized in it is in meditation absolutely necessary the answer here is it's this is very sophisticated very deep one must pay attention carefully here the answer here is both yes and no why yes meditation is necessary at both stages to make the Breakthrough meditation is necessary the mind which is habitually Disturbed must be calmed and focused that's why shankaracharya said here the we must get the development on the we must develop the capacity of not being scattered in the world not being continuously um pulled out sucked out by the World by here means the externalized activity of the mind that must cease so those of us whose minds are um most of us are in that case would benefit from being mindful would benefit from meditation of some sort Mantra meditation breath meditation whatever it is then once this breakthrough happens once this Clarity comes this knowledge becomes a living knowledge for us yes it is true I can honestly say it is true then again yes meditation is useful to keep us steady in that to establish Us in that and that's called meditation non-dual meditation where the vision of the Atman is clear to you Krishna says in the bhagavad-gita stabilize yourself in that vision and do not let other thoughts arise thoughts perceptions memories do not let those things arise study there um so this is yes why meditation is absolutely necessary now no why no because since this is already an accomplished fact you are pure Consciousness you are Brahman right now we are that right now meditation is not going to make us more Brahman meditation is not even going to make you more steady as Brahman are you kind of you're aware we understand yes yes but I was shaky earlier and I'll be more steady now what was shaky and what becomes more steady it's the mind you as Brahman were always Rock Steady even when you are completely not interested in vedanta completely immersed in worldliness completely in the midst of suffering we are Rock Steady as permanent that this understanding must come otherwise I'll tell you what happens is we become dependent on meditation it's meditation which is giving me access to my nature as Brahman see yeah that sounds right no it isn't so I am sitting here on this chair right now this is what where I am what practice should I do to sit on this chair so nothing just be as you are let's see if some if somehow I don't understand this I need some practices then you might design some artificial practices well get up take a walk around come and sit back and notice that you have sat on the chair that's how you sit on the chair now if I get addicted to that practice I'll be forever taking a little walk around and coming back and sitting on the chair because my mind is telling me somehow you're not sitting on the chair this might sound silly but that you are Brahman is even greater a fact than the fact that I'm sitting on the chair right now no meditation is not an absolute necessary for you to realize that you're Brahman because um this notion that I am not Brahman is born of ignorance in the mind this notion has to be removed and that removal of the notion is the job of this Insight given by vedanta so then meditation is not necessary again be careful meditation before breakthrough after breakthrough necessary because the mind demands it consider three levels one the level of the sort of basic level which most I guess most of us we are at that level we need a calm mind and therefore meditation is necessary prolonged effort with effort with all care to study the mind we will immediately see the benefits of that you know this invertisation calming Focus whatever our meditation technique all of them have one thing in common they they are designed to train the attention so this training of attention we can all benefit from as the mind is calmed then use the vedantic teaching it could be dragged ratio here is something that I see that's seen the eyes are the Seer the eyes are something that I am aware of I blink my eyes and I notice carefully the mind is the Seer of the eyes then with that calm and steady mind I noticed that whatever arises in the mind is appearing to me the witness consciousness and then study there that witness Consciousness not as an object continuously discarding whatever objects pop up external or internal steady there that's the basic the vedanta says that this is the state of the the lowest kind of spiritual Seeker we're talking about a person study in samadhi a higher the the a better kind of spiritual Seeker would be a person who sees this truth that with eyes open eyes closed and this one consciousness so stay in that one Consciousness like a lamp not flickering every um start in the mind you know is an object which points back to you the one Consciousness because every thought in the mind is being illumined by me the Consciousness just as as I see everything everything that I see is reminding me that I have eyes so if everything I see instead of attracting my attention reminds me to take my attention back to the eyes that's an example in the same way every experience that I have if it's a reminder to me to turn the attention inwards to awareness itself and then it's not that I start thinking about awareness no no no even those are thoughts so stay there that is vedantic non-dual meditation that's for the that a little better the better grade of spiritual Seeker and then vedanta says the highest grade of spiritual Seeker is the one who sees this directly this is just as the sunlight is not affected by what it illumines Illuminating mud doesn't make sunlight muddy Illuminating the water doesn't make sunlight wet similarly I the Consciousness shining I'm not affected by whatever experiences arise in consciousness just as and with various things appear in the mind in dreams similarly I the Consciousness one Consciousness I'm clearly one in all bodies and minds and all bodies minds and the words they all appear in need a Consciousness this is directly evident to this person the best kind of spiritual Seeker so with eyes closed eyes open always in that effortlessly no effort of mind is any more required for that secret that is what is called Savages someone like say ramanama she was naturally in that state all the time um so these are different grades that person makes no effort for meditation the middle grade person makes an effort for meditation but it's a non-dual meditation stilling oneself in that realization and the basic grade of Seeker makes an effort in meditation for first stealing the mind and then discovering this reality that I am pure Consciousness and trying to stay there three grades and therefore the role of meditation also changes Hira study one must remain steady in this Vision I am pure Consciousness in the midst of Sorrows also he says what is the result of this this practice the result of this realization and this practice Eternal Bliss unbroken Bliss your waking is bliss whatever you experience in your Waking Life every bit of it is bliss all our dreams are placed and deep sleep is bliss our Smiles are Bliss and our tears also are blessed how can tears be blessed how can unpleasantness be Bliss it is so I've given the example of a sahasri ramakrishna in when he is suffering from terminal throat cancer and yet his disciples says you are in Bliss and SRI Ram Krishna agrees how can you be in Bliss in the midst of terrible physical pain oh conventional religion will say well there is God pray to God maybe there'll be a miracle and your cancer will go into remission it's been known to happen but for every case that happens also it doesn't happen or the yogic approach will be well Focus your mind on the self or on God to such an extent that you cannot actually there's no bandwidth leftover for feeling suffering or unhappiness or pain if that can be done also the mind can be focused in samadhi through great effort and long practice so that actually you don't feel physical pain but neither of those is meant here what is meant is what exactly what SRI ramakrishnas are undergoing actually feeling everything in life seeing feeling pain and yet at the level of that one Consciousness I am at Bliss I am in place why well it's like Consciousness is like Broadway and the the Broadway show is is like a theater of our life is the play of our life just as a tragedy in Broadway is also enjoyment a comedy in Broadway is also enjoyment Smiles are enjoyment tears when you are Weeping for a well-performed tragedy in a Broadway uh show you're actually enjoying that's enjoyment to this Ananda this sukha is not pleasure even in the underlying the underlying Pleasure and Pain there's one seamless Bliss because this whole drama is taking place in the Broadway Theater of your consciousness of you the consciousness and therefore unbroken Bliss if something is Pleasant is presented that's happiness if something unpleasant painful humiliating frustrating arises that is happiness if nothing arises in deep sleep or deep meditation that is happiness unbroken Bliss for the deeper reason that your very name is happiness in the manduke upanishad it says your name is peace your name is happiness you are that happiness how can you not be happy that sounds awfully philosophical will such a person be actually happy in the way we understand happiness yes gives an example of such a person this wandering paramahamsa who came who um and it was always smiling and he had a pure childlike face and always smiling he lived in a little cottage on the bank of the ganga for a for some time in the temple of Kali dakshineshwar the temple garden and SRI ramakrishna said you'd always be smiling and laughing so he's actually feeling happy in the way we feel happy and what would he do he would sometimes come out of his Cottage and look at the sky and the river the ganga the temple and the people and Shout in Delight in he would say wow the wonderful Glory how how amazing what is how amazing this line from the upanishad how that one is appearing as the many how is that one pure subject Consciousness is appearing as this objective universe what a delight here it is appearing as human beings and animals and the birds of the air and the fishes of the river here it is appearing as the Laughing child and the Weeping person or person here it is the childhood newborn and the dead man being taken for cremation on all of it is this one reality how delightful how amazing says sometimes this this paramahams or this enlightened being he would roll on the ground in in in laughter he couldn't control himself and unlike totapuri SRI Ram krishna's own teacher dismissed the personal God so this one did not he oh I'm confusing it with another one so who who was like this also but little more crazy he came to the Temple of Kali and chanted A Hymn to the Divine mother Kali and sriram Krishna says the temple shook and Away with and that's a huge Temple and this is the vibration this one person for whom God is ever effortlessly a reality that when I said the three grades of uh of non-dual seekers the highest grade is like this the second person Sadam Krishna mentions and that is a little more crazy than this one at least this person was nice and clean and happy and delighted childlike the second one was like a madman he's dressed in rags and he came um like even there were Beggars who used to be fed nobody would eat sit and eat with him he seemed like a he was a crazy person even the Beggars would not let him see sit uh with with them and so this finally this man would go uh and eat with the dogs when the food would be thrown out and the street dogs would come and eat this man would share the food with the dogs and the SRI Ram Krishna gave such a vivid description of this crazy uh holy man he would throw his arm around the shoulders of a dog and both of them would eat from the same plate um that this and Sri Lanka it scared SRI ramakrishna he says I prayed to the Divine mother will I also become like that let me not become like that will my madness about God will about this self-realization take me to that level of this madness or the craziness and yet this crazy man immediately saw through him and said this is the fully enlightened being he goes to the Temple of Kali and prays it's such that the whole Temple seemed to vibrate and sudam Krishna says the mother smiled which he saw this and then this crazy man he left the temple garden and he walked off and SRI Ram Krishna told his nephew Freda this is an enlightened person fully enlightened person so did I chase this holy man said sir please teach me how can I become enlightened this man wouldn't reply for a long time and then stopped and pointed at the water in the drain he says when the water in the drain and the water in the Holy ganga you see the both are the same reality exactly like that you see the same reality everywhere then you are enlightened exactly what this Mantra is saying and then of course this story had a funny ending because I said make me your disciple and then the holy man started he picked up a stone to throw at his eye yes so he died of In Fear And The Man threw the stone down and then disappeared and is never seen again so it is possible that there are such people who realize this um and my point is they actually feel happiness the way we would define happiness not just pure Consciousness and Limitless awareness and the happiness of that but also real smiles and laughter and delight and you know smiley face that also effortlessly all the time not for others is a warning shankaracharya explains not others not for others who are these others whose minds are ever attached to the world to wealth and pleasures and success or problems and suffering and miseries the continuously minds are messed up engaged with that those who do not discern the reality from the appearance um although although it's their own self you are that Brahman yet because the obstruction of ignorance is there wise ignorance there because viveka is not that the discernment is not clear that teaching does not take hold why doesn't the discernment a teaching not take hold because minds are continuously flowing outwards so for such people it will not become clear for the rest for those who see this unbroken Bliss good um let me look at the comments Michael bird says love is love just an appearance to Consciousness or love the very fundamental makeup of the of Consciousness both love in the sense of an emotion appears in Consciousness it's it's a capacity of the mind but in a deeper sense love as Ananda is the very nature of consciousness so set cheat on and then that Anand is in fact in vaishnava vedanta schools that Anand itself is called bhakti or love so in a deeper sense love is the very structure of or is the fundamental nature of this very Universe when you say word like love well it's a little noise and emotion an emotion is in the mind and the mind is illumined by consciousness so it cannot be a fundamental reality but Consciousness itself is also love in the sense of Ananda is external universe is manifestation of our thought and not real in the physical sense I did not say that from an advertic perspective both thought and external objects are appearances external objects appear in Consciousness and the subject also appears in Consciousness and the subject experiences the object both are enabled by Consciousness and given existence by Consciousness because if you say the external universe is nothing but our thought that something called subjective idealism is not subjective idealism and shankaracharya takes a lot of effort to distinguish this from the yoga Chara vignanabad of view of Buddhism which is a subjective idealist philosophy there there's no external world nothing apart from thought does not say there's nothing apart from thought no no the world is there that's an object you are there you're the subject but your reality is pure Consciousness the Atman Brahman which you discover and that is the reality of the subject and the object also both that's the meaning of Atman is Brahman whatever we see whomsaver we meet are all in our thoughts no no no whatever we see whomsoever meet they are all outside our thoughts and they come into our thoughts through our uh you know epistemic instruments but both our thoughts and the words out the world outside so called outside all our appearances in consciousness Priya Kulkarni says many cosmologists allude to the non-separatedness without talking about vedanta right these are all very interesting developments in modern physics Michael bird said didn't the physicists who won the 2022 Nobel Prize prove that quantum entanglement the universe neither local nor realistic people have forwarded those articles to me yeah as I said it's very interesting Peter says does the witness Consciousness observe the actions of the body opening up a door or walking to the subway Etc be careful when we say observe observes looks like an action so like I am observing you what's going on in the screen I'm observing the screen not like that Consciousness choicelessly illumines everything so the very experience of opening a door experience your it's an experience of walking to the subway there is Sight and Sound and color and there are internal thoughts and judgments about it all of it feels like something but why does it feel like something because you are you are conscious this is consciousness gives us the first person experience of life in fact that's the name of the book by Christoph Coke the feeling of life itself what is the feeling of life it's a consciousness of course advaita vedanta would say that's the Consciousness already mediated through the mind and the senses but anyway still Consciousness and it gives us the experience of life um it's not like a little person in the head which is observing everything it's rather like the light which illumines everything presence of things changing things absence of things waking dreaming deep sleep all these experiences are revealed illumined given very existence by Consciousness right now Priya what is the Buddhist equivalent of the third state of breakthrough in real life third state of breakthrough and you mean the the one who's effortlessly sees the one Consciousness not being affected by the world the one Consciousness which is in the midst of the multiplicity effortlessly without the support of any kind of meditative practices yes now equivalent means in zocchin Buddhism that's the highest attainment of the that's that's full-blown enlightenment at least there's one feature longchampa who puts it in those those terms all right very good oh um [Music] [Music] thank you