Video 12

13. Mandukya Upanishad | Chapter 1 Mantra 9-11

let's start with the peace chant ohm Bodrum Kareem Ebisu new Yama Deva petrm Bechet Mahavira steer on guys - Tagum Shasta no V V Ashima diva he Tejada Yahoo swass Tina intro grid - Rafa swass Tina who shava shava de soie CineStar show Irish Tony me swass Tino brie hospital da da - home shanti shanti shanti mantra number 9 please repeat after me jaggery Tostan o waste wanna rock or aha Pratham imatra opti Roddy Matata parody what Kwadwo up naughty Hawaii sorrow bond up naughty Hawaii Sullivan common Ardis Chippewa T this job poverty URI Bombay the URI bum did so this is where we had stopped last time see the man Dukie opposition is both small and in its message is very compact it is only 12 mantras and its messages the analysis of the self and the analysis of ohm so from mantra number three to mantra number seven inventor number seven it came to a glorious climax the analysis of the self the self has four quarters it was said the first quarter is what we experience in the waking the second quarter is what we experience in dream third quarter is what we experience within coats in deep sleep and the fourth quarter which is the point of all of this is the real self which is existence consciousness bliss which alone appears as the other three quarters if you remember the terms do the visual ty jessa Praga Turia we shouid of acre digests are the dreamer braga the deep sleeper and toriel the consciousness in itself now in order to absorb this teaching the opening shot now goes on after the seventh mantra the eighth month onwards till the 12th gives us a method of absorbing this teaching that is the analysis of all which is the single most sacred word in the indian traditions not only hinduism with all indian traditions so this is the deepest meaning of ohm that we get in the indian scriptures ohm has when you analyze or analyze ohm it has four letters or four no not literally four letters three letters and silence so for Matra the correct terms as we term is mattre the self has for father four aspects and the ohm has ford matras and what the Upanishad wants us to do is use ohm to understand the real self to come to an understanding the realization of your real self who you are of thorium how do you do that the Upanishads suggested in the eighth mantra that look look at the symmetry ohm has four matras ah and silence the silence which both succeeds oh man underlies ohm the silence which is there which is evident when there is no noise but even when there is noise it underlies that SIA that noise so 400 and silence or in English we have putted the closest is a u M and then silence at this point you might say that I don't see any a or you I see an all right if you look at home where is the a and the you well as I mentioned last time because of the rules of sanskrit phonetics of sanskrit grammar the r and the ooh when they are in proximity they are pronounced as oh so the a and the you are hidden in that oh now the open Ishod suggested you can match or associate the four matras of ohm with the four fathers of the self father means aspects of the self and you can see in sequence it suggests that you equate our or a with the Waker though then ooh with the dreamer mmm with the deep sleeper and of course it includes the Waker and experienced universe in waking the dreamer and the experience subtle universe of our minds the dreams deep sleeper and the deep sleep darkness or blankness and the silence with turian with pure consciousness existence consciousness please make this association in your mind then chant ohm keeping that association in your mind mindfully chant long ohms silently all in a low voice don't make a noise ins lots of ohm it at home you can lead to I was in the Bahamas where just the eye I mentioned is the cruise ships huge cruise ships go people go as tourists to the Bahamas and it is in front of the ashram and they had this big horns on the ships so it's a very booming kind of thing it carries across the water across the bay and it sounds like oh my very deep bass ohm and the monks there they say that Swami look the ships are oming chant it and as you go through the ohm as of fades into fades into mm conjure up within yourself by association by the power of association your entire life the experience of your life the entire hour the entire gamut of our experience of life is covered by waking dreaming and deep sleep so this life which we have let it come before your eyes up the eye of your mind dismiss it then let the dream world your mental world your subjective world come before your mind's eye your inner life dismiss it and the blankness let it come before your mind's eye dismiss it as it fades into silence as sound ohm fades into silence let the manifested world the three worlds of waking dreaming and deep sleep fade away into conscious and you are that consciousness all the time not only at the end of ohm even during home not only Tory I'm in itself but during baking during deep sleep during dreaming also that's the whole point now what the open ition will do in mantras 9 10 11 and 12 it will help us in this process what is the process of matching ohm with the self the different aspects of the self and so each mantra the eighth month the ninth mantra helps us in matching waking with our the tenth mantra will help us in matching dreaming with ooh and the eleventh mantra will help us matching deep sleep with mmm and the twelfth mantra finally we'll conclude the Upanishad and match todya and silence remember the conclusion of ohm is not sail you're not supposed to be silent you are supposed to but the silence should remind you of the pure consciousness which you are so it's a consciousness pervading the silence which is the point of ohm that's the whole point of chanting the all so how does how do we go about this matching the Upanishads the mantras all of them have three aspects or three points each mantra nine ten eleven twelve each mantra will make come come come in come in effective lots of spaces here each mantra has three points to make first of all it will tell us what to associate with what we know this already but we are getting ahead of ourselves so what to associate with what number one the second thing it will tell us is why you see I'm saying that you associate R with the waking breaking world but when you associate two things there must be some similarity some link somewhere some reason for associating can't randomly associate something with something so why should I think of AA as my entire life waking life will give us reasons these reasons are just just by the way of helping you to make that Association the third point each mantra will make is what is the result of such an such a meditation so what do you get if you associate or with your waking universe and meditate on that and taste spend time thinking about that you will ask what do you mean what result aren't we supposed to be enlightened yes the ultimate result the point of all of this is to realize that your tour IAM correct that's the whole purpose but there's just a point in come come come there's a space here yeah there is a just a point to understand in traditional in the way that's not only Vedanta in the in the Vedas the way it is taught is any kind of action has a result so you do something to get something this comes from the Vedic ritual ISM when you perform a ritual in order to get a result now a meditation is also a kind of action a mental action so by that logic you would expect a result from the meditation so that's why keeping in that particular style they will mention results suddenly those results might seem strange but it's remember style of the entire Vedas so they will mention some results the thing to keep in mind is when particular meditations are prescribed in the Vedas the results are of two kinds one is a worldly result or other worldly result and second of spiritual result the spiritual result is what we are looking for enlightenment that I will know that I am Brahman and go beyond sorrow and suffering that's the point but there's also supposing someone is not interested in that but is interested in something more concrete and worldly not us it's not meant for us don't get diverted so somebody wants to be rich somebody wants to be learn it somebody wants to be powerful so those worldly results are also promised but they're only meant for those who have worldly desires why would they be promised at all because the Vedas have these two kinds of religion in them one is a more conventional kind of religion where people go you know buddy you see it in temples and churches all the time people go to God for curing diseases for success in life for a healthy family or things like that so that my life goes well conventional kind of religion so that was also there in the Vedas which is the early part of the Vedas the first part of the Vedas and the second kind of religion is the spiritual what we are looking for enlightenment liberation Nirvana moksha whatever you call it so these are reflected in the results you will see just I'm just mentioning it as we go along we shall see what I mean the first one nine we did this last time what does it say the waking experience in each experience there is an individual consciousness associated with one body mind in the waking state that one that consciousness will be called Vishwa but consciousness associated with the entire waking universe that will be called Veera so it says Viraat in the waking experience it mentions it this name spirit but it we should include visuals so this should be associated with Okada Pratham imatra with the are the first remember each mantra has three points to make point number one what should be associated with what second point why how third point result so the first point is what should be associated with the Waker associate all with the Waker which are the beginning of ohm it's hidden in the Oh Berta maha-mantra why how why are why not something else because it says it gives two reasons up there are DeMuth to a dois because of pervasion and because of its being the first pervasion means the v-rod it but just like the v-rod pervades the entire universe it's a consciousness which is associated with the entire universe similarly or is the sound is the basic sound which gets modified into all other sounds I mentioned this last time you start with AA and then you as you change the position of your lips different science sounds come so that same effort is actually producing different sounds because o is the basic sound which pervades all the other vowels and the walls are the ground are the building blocks of speech of pronunciation and in the same way vrock pervades the entire universe so make the connection that way another way of making the connection is our DeMuth walk because it's the first oh is the first sound you produce when you open your mouth the first sound you make is AA like dentist say uh so uh and bharat is the first of the gods to be manifested it's the first thing that appears in creation the smart varada jayate is one of the Vedic hymns you find the first to be even before that God exists Ishwara exists with Maya but first manifested in this universe is Bharat so Viraat is the first which is manifested and as a part of Bharat is the entire universe and we are all parts as bodies and minds as parts of Bharat so where art is the first manifested or is the first sound because of these reasons pervasion and being the first because of these reasons connect Viraat or the waking to our which means your own baking also to our what result should we get what should we expect from this meditation the worldly result and the spiritual result the worldly result is serve on karma on up no tea serve on common just as without pervades everything this person also person person who does this meditation who keeps on associating the entire universe with AH when he chants ohmm so this meditation the result will be this person will expand pervade expand in terms of wealth and success and power and also and so forth will do very well millionaire serve on common are this job Parvati and becomes an excels in every sphere of life just as ah or Bharat is the first this person will also become the first in every sphere but what do you call it summa laude graduates at the top of his class his or her class and does very well in family life in academic professions and whatnot and so on this is the promise for attracting customers so who are who are after these things why would the way the promise this the reason is that it wants to entice people into a moral religious spiritual way of life that's why but it's not meant for us remember we are after three chances what is this result promised that if you do this practice ultimately you'll realize that you are - Liam that's nine ten swapna's tan Tai yasue cara de casa god vicki imatra woodcut shot ooh Brad Wadhwa wood Carcetti Hawaii Ghana Santa team of a gun a Santa team semana chapati Nasia Brom Hobbit Nasia Brom Hobbit Coulee poverty your evil Veda tenth mantra it teaches us to associate ooh with our dream experience not just dream experience you can look at it this way even in the waking experience there are two aspects one is the physical world we live in so that is the gross or physical world we live in that's the v-rod and there is the inner private life which we are experiencing right now a world of our mind our thoughts our memories our inner life so that's the subtle world that's the world of the dreamer or the we hearin Agartha the cosmic mind that's available right now also right now because of the preponderance of external physical gross experience outside that's why we call this the waking universe and we rot but the subtle universes are right here in the dream state what happens is the waking universe is shut out you live only in the mind and it conjures up dreams anyway my point is at the point of the open it is softness thana now consider the dream state you the Trey Jessa taya Jessa associated with where is the ooh if you look at oh there doesn't seem to be an you there but it's actually hidden in the oh it's a and you together make an O in sanskrit grammar so it's there in the OU associate the O with the dream experience you the dreamer point number one what do you associate with the dreamer ooh why two reasons Oscar shot over here one is because of excellence and because it excels number one and number two because it's in the middle the second one is very self-explanatory because it excels and because it's in the middle that's why dream state should be associated with ooh now what do you mean it accepts how does the Tyga or the Hiranya garbha excel what does it excel it excels the waking or the v-rod it excels that how does it excel because it's subtler the subtle always controls the grows the mind controls the body the subtle is often the cause of the gross the subtle is the cause of the physical it in via vedantic thought or in Hindu cosmology what happens is you sure of it the God with the power of Maya projects the five elements the ancient cosmology of five elements space an air and fire and water and earth and in order of a mixture of those five elements this entire physical universe is supposed to be formed but a point there is often overlooked those five elements which are projected they're supposed to be there chords called sukshma tan Matra they are subtle in form they are not the space we see here or the the fire which we see flames which we see or the physical earth which we are standing upon no they are subtle elements which are perceptible to Yogi's maybe they are mixed those five elements are mixed to produce a physical world my point being the subtle is the cause of the gross so the five subtle elements are actually curved the causes of the five gross elements which go to make this world so from that point of view the subtle exceeds a subtle excels the the physical or the gross because they are causes another way the subtle exceeds the excels the the gross is because the gross is borne of the subtle and when the gross disappears when the in your menu at night you fall asleep the physical body disappears and you remain as the subtle body of mind at the end of the universe when the whole universe is dissolved by by Ishwara the physical universe that the Vedanta cosmology physical universe resolves back into the subtle universe the five subtle elements before resolving back into issue are our God itself so it's the the subtle universe the the dream of the Hiranya garbha the subtle universe is the place of dissolution of the physical universe at the time of the destruction of the universe so in that sense the subtle is also said to be superior remember this all in terms of cosmology the the old ancient cosmology so in that sense also the subtle is supposed to be superior to the gross what's going on here they're trying to just help us to associate so why should we actually associate you with the dream because the dream is the dream level of the subtle universe is superior to the gross universe and the ooh is also superior to who is superior how because it is the or is the basic sound which is modified the who comes after in that sense in that sense who excels our so just as who excels our by coming afterwards don't you look puzzled don't overthink this in fact look at it like a child would look at it child would be convinced by this kind of reasoning okay doesn't doesn't who come after oh yeah yes and so in that sense who is better than now yeah sue is better Dana who is better than uh and the subtle universe is better than the gross universe and therefore connect the two another reason why you can connect the two is because ube o'clock because in the in the middle clearly dreamer is in the middle of the Waker and the deep sleep you wake up the Waker goes into deep sleep in-between state is the Dreaming state who is in the middle of AA and when you pronounce ohm who comes in between so because of being in between you can connect the two so because of these two reasons ooh think of o as the entire dream universe entire subtle universe the cosmic mind keep it your entire inner world practically speaking your entire inner life hopes desires memories regrets frustrations plans knowledge ignorant memory all of that you connect it to you when it comes to oh that's that's the entire experience all your Vedanta knowledge all of that so oh is superior to uh as the subtle is superior to the gross I mean in sanskrit why is the subtle why sukshma superior to this Tula in sanskrit they will say sukshma garden at wat but beasts are not taught last Hana because it is subtler because it's the it's the cause of the gross because it is the source or the place of birth of the gross it is the place of dissolution of the growth because of these various reasons the subtle is superior to the physical gross yeah I just mentioned a little while ago these are not demarcated though the gross universe and the subtle universe and the causal universe are not strictly demarcated when you have the gross universe like when you are a body right now here's the body and here is the physical universe at this point do you not have a mind certainly so the circle universal is always there when the gross universe is there the subtle must be there and beyond that the causal must be there the causal circle and then gross but the circle can continue without the gross in your experience so when you dream you need not what is the difference between a dream and waking in the waking we are in touch with the physical universe through our sense organs all this refers back to mantra 3 how through the remember through the 19:19 mouths 19 mouths we are experiencing a physical universe a common ongoing shettima car so we are experiencing a physical universe through our sense organs that's the waking but at that point the mind is also there so the subtle universe it's not that the subtle universe is available only in our dreams it's available in our minds we look into your minds in fact in one of the caracal Shankaracharya mentions this I mean in God our Father says something and Shankar Acharya comments upon it in one of the Caritas Godfather says earlier Caritas which we have already done Cora father says meditate upon the tide jessa in the mind where he said duction Akshay before vishwam mana scientists to Tiger sir do you remember there was a character in which God upon us say meditate upon the Waker in the right eye meditate upon the dreamer in the mind Shankar Acharya in the comment repeated a pointer did not raise at that time Shankar Acharya in a commentary to that carica he says that the master means in the waking state itself here itself you can find the Waker here itself you can find the dreamer if you pull yourself away from the world and sink into deep thought how is it different from the dream world if you swing from deep thought into absolute silence in meditation or just quietness how is it different different from the deep sleeper so here itself you can find all three all right so relate these two what will you get if you relate these two what are the worldly results and spiritual result if you meditate like that one is wood Carcetti the person excels the one who does this meditation excels how where does this person excel gana Santa comes no you get a PhD from Columbia or and or become a full professor or write books which are taught in universities or even get nominated for the Nobel Prize or even win it something like that there are many stories in India of people who worship God for knowledge not spiritual knowledge not ultimately God realization but some kind of philosophical knowledge worldly knowledge even religious knowledge but not ultimate God realization so in India the concept of worship of Saraswathi God in the aspect of knowledge is conceived of in a female form as as a deity Saraswathi clad in white and in fact Sri Ramakrishna said about holy mother that she is Saraswathi she has come to give knowledge spiritual knowledge so the worship of Saraswathi is actually something like this if you worship service Fertitta the gain is that the crickets they all believe they're going to get by their exams do well at get good grades if they worship service worthy so so so it is very popular among students even as you would expect and her sister lakshmi who is the giver of all wealth so lakshmi is very popular among businessmen so a worship of lakshmi is a bit like the first one which we saw just now little while ago this is the ninth mantra and the tenth mantra is more like the meditation on on who is more like the worship of Saraswati knowledge new multiple stories [Music] there is a story of how panini got the Shiva sutras Maheshwara sutras who was going to who devised the whole system of grammar so he meditated upon upon shiva and she were revealed to him the the sutras which becomes reference which becomes the basis of the entire classical Sanskrit grammar so you he worshiped God he was supposed to be not a very brilliant person otherwise so he worships god and gets all this knowledge fantastic knowledge about grammar I also told you the story of the great non duelists rehearse sha I think I don't know if I'd it's worth repeating if you think these are difficult probably the most difficult book and very profound book of Advaita Vedanta non-dual Vedanta is a book called kondañña kandahar dia which means the pastry's of not a refutation or the delicacy cookies of non-derivative petition sweetmeats sweets of refutation of refuting other other philosophical points of view don't worry we won't study bad I can barely understand a bit of it myself it's extraordinarily difficult but the story behind that book is even more interesting the story goes that three harshad the author his father was a scholar of non-dualism and in the court of the king at that time his father was defeated by a duelist an IKE a scholar a logician so he wasn't his father three horses dad was a non duelist but probably didn't do his homework too well so in the debate he was defeated and he was imprisoned or some say drowned by the king for his failure or something like that and sridhara vowed revenge on the duelists that he would defeat all the duelists and remember all this defeating is not fighting physically but intellectually so he would defeat the duelists the logicians deny cus that was his vow the only hitch was he was dumb I mean there's no other way to put it he he was he was not the brightest kid in the class so now he thought how do I go about it I'm no match for the logicians so he prayed to God he prayed to the divine mother for knowledge so something like this I don't know if he prayed did this kind of meditation so to get knowledge in order to defeat the non duelists right to the duelists and so the Divine Mother appeared before him and what do you want and he said make me so intelligent that I can beat everybody you know like the most intelligent person there and the divine mother said all right that's the result which is promised here now he became very very super intelligent I mean even the what is that society the Mensa societies they would be dumb compared to him ha ha that's how intelligent he got now comes the second problem he became so intelligent and he was able to defeat every but the only thing is he's so intelligent nobody knew what he was saying they couldn't understand him at all now if you defeat somebody in a debate in an argument alone they don't understand your arguments they don't think that defeated at all so nobody felt that they were defeated by him and then this is not working out well so he goes back again and prays to the Divine Mother and she appears now what and he says could you dial it down a little bit that's how you say to America how could you dial it down a little bit step it down the divine mother said well we can do two things she recommends a particular doll I'll tell you it's supposed to make someone Thomas sick which one yeah yeah yes right a particular doll which which makes you Thomas sick dull so he said you you take more of that done with with your rice once they made I told the story to the novices in bel-air mutt and lo and behold that afternoon that particular doll was made and the Brahma cherries refused to I said it's just a story go I detail I mean drink as much of it as you want it's not going to harm you that's one and the second thing the Divine Mother recommended was there's a particular kind of berry so you it's supposed to be toxic so you sit under that creeper that berry the creeper and then you write your books so it'll really make you dull and so he wrote the book his masterpiece kondañña Condor Katya the the cookies of reputation are the sweet meats of reputation and that turns out to be the most notoriously difficult book in all of advaitha literature even now if you can google it it's literally it's a book to fry your brain every verse there has a double meaning of him each word can be interpreted in multiple ways so I wonder what he was before he was dialed down you have to know Sanskrit to understand the beauty of that that composition he is also the composer of one of the greatest dramas in Sanskrit literature Machado Charita Sri Hashanah the cholito so that's the point you can practice this this meditation and one of the results will be you excel in knowledge the other result will be some honest job Parvati this person becomes equally acceptable to all others that means becomes a kind of a peacemaker in friends and enemies like the same person Shankar Acharya in his commentary says he does not become an object of envy to his enemies just as he's not to his friends so he's equal to everybody everybody likes this person so you want to win you want to get lots and lots of likes on Facebook you should do this meditation it will become very popular on Facebook then the other result from it another result is promised promised nasi Abramovitch Kalavati not only this person but his lineage or his clan or his school of thought it could be it could mean anything there will be no it will never be divided of knowers of brahman or they they will all become knowers of brahman in that sense you might mean it might mean not literally a knower of brahman it might mean his his children or his members of his clan or his school they will all be very wise already accomplished it might mean in a general sense also see I am Veda Veda means literally means nose but here it means one who practices this meditation remember practicing this meditation means not that you're going to sit and chant ah or sit and chant ooh I told this earlier it means you're going to chant ohm but do the whole meditation now we go on to the eleventh mantra suped Astana Prague Yamaha de tutti imatra meaty repeated min ot haha Edom servin a PTA poverty URI bomb Veda 11th mantra deals with associating deep sleep with mmm so shocked Astana the deep sleep experience what are you in deep sleep what are you called you the consciousness you are called bravia in deep sleep and at a cosmic level when the universe is dissolved God alone exists with Maya consciousness exists with the power of Maya that consciousness will be called Ishwara so what does it mean proud gear with the deep sleep fear associated with mmm three points again what are we to associate what with so associate deep sleep with the second point is why how do you associate what are the connections here it says meet a repeater wha because of two reasons because it measures or because of absorption because of absorption that's easily explained what is the similarity in deep sleep your experience is the waking world and the dream world are all absorbed in the deep sleep experience absorb means dissolved resolved see the deep sleep is not that the waking world is not there not that the dream world is not there not that the physical world or the subtle words are not there they are just covered in ignorance it's like switching up the lights because the moment you wake up it's all back again so it's there so deep like that it's the place where everything is absorbed at the time of cosmic dissolution when the universe comes to an end so the entire physical universe the subtle universe all are absorbed back into Maya and God exists along alone with Maya so because of absorption how do you how is it related to mmm again easy to understand oh the all the sounds you can see they finally what you do close your lips or whatever sound you make and then finally mmm so they are all as if absorbed back into yourself so that is absorption because all sounds are finally absorbed and the sound you make while absorbing them and pulling them back is mmm similarly the waking world physical world dream world subtle world are all absorbed in your deep sleep that's why you relate them yeah you can you can do that but the rationale is used only to help you to associate see these are the reasons you saw the reasons which were given why I should be associated with waking because it's the first sound of ohm and waking is the Baraat is the first manifestation of Brahman that way that's an association it might not work too well with modern people it would work with Vedic people because that's how they thought of God and the world so then remember these rationals are not meant for do we explain anything they're only meant to help us to associate if you're fine with they say that think of the entire waking universe put it on or and meditate meditate means stay with it you see I'm okay with that you don't have to explain it too much fine go ahead but if you want a similarity they'll give you a similarity in that sense so what is the similarity between deep sleep and absorption ah all finally get absorbed in mmm and the waking dreaming all get absorbed in deep sleep the other rationale given here meet a it measures that requires a little bit of explanation it's rather cute actually why how do you what is the similarity between the two okay to understand this I guess it was clear to the rural folk you know the simple folk of the Vedic times because something they saw all the time and we don't see it too much a measure meet a means measure Mitte means measure a measure works like this even now in some Indian villages I guess I have seen it myself also if you go to purchase rice for example the shopkeeper will have a measure like a cup like a cup a measure what the shopkeeper does is suppose you want rice you've gone with your sack you want rice for your family a shopkeeper brings out his store of rice and he pours it out like this makes a big mound of rice and now he has got his cup then he asks how many measures do you want you say 10 what the shopkeeper will do is he will take 10 cups he'll put up a cup in it he will pour it into one go into the cup until it's full and then pour it out on your side then empty it at your side and then again fill it up from this side from his store and empty it on your in your bag or on your side until ten cups are transferred to your side and then you pay him now here's the thing if you actually closely watch this you know what's happening it's as if the rice on this side it disappears and it appears again right it's it's gets poured into the cup and it reappears that's what it looks like to only take that much that's the whole explanation it seemed I guess it was a very easy example to give to people in those days or in rural places in villages people would still under but it sounds complicated to us because we don't see it in action it's very simple it gets poured in if you see there's a shop keepers they're experts it's like the it comes out of it and then it good they go very fast it gets poured in and poured out just keep that in mind poured in pour it poured in disappears port a poured out it appears again now when you look at your waking dreaming and deep sleep think about it this this way this whole universe here this is the physical universe and this whole universe here thoughts ideas feelings your whole personal identity but the person here subtle universe it's as if all of it gets poured into a cup in deep sleep and it's not visible anymore but it's all there next morning it gets all poured out and you have a waking world and a dream world a physical world in a subtle world you see this entire universe is poured look at your own experience can you imagine it like a like a measuring cup where everything is poured in into and it all disappears your world has disappeared your dream explain your deep sleep experience your physical world is disappeared your inner world has disappeared and this blankness but you know it's all there you don't experience anything and then it suddenly seems to pour out again right you can if you can think of your waking dreaming deep sleep in that way we normally don't think about it that way we think I have fallen asleep it's all there I have fallen asleep now I wake up and see it we look at it that way but try to look at it this way now it makes sense just as you're waking and dreaming and all disappear into deep sleep and in the sea and then reappear again when you wake up similarly when you chant ohm where are the sounds oh and when everything everything is in mmm and again you open your mouth oh so everything gets poured into them mmm everything gets in there when you close your lips when you open your lips all other sounds come out we love them and when you close your lips as if all the sounds are there but they have been poured in you've swallowed them eaten your words mmm all in there so I'd had to go through all this explanation but actually it's a simple example and it's a cute example also a meteor means measuring because of measuring it's like everything being poured into deep sleep and coming out of it everything bent all all sounds being absorbed into mm and then are being poured into them and then coming out of it because of that connect prog beyond the deep sleeper with Ishwara or antaryami with the deep sleeper with with mmm so that's the these are the reasons and what do you get what do you get the results again remember worldly results spiritual result worldly result mean OT Hawaii Dharam sarvam this person can measure the universe has perfect judgement about everything in the universe so that is a crucial factor in succeeding in the world you have perfect judgment about everything people and events and situations in your life in other people's lives you can be a top class management consultant or somebody so you have perfect judgment about everything and a PE teacher and you are the ground of resolution of all problems everything comes and gets absorbed in you I guess you can yeah again a counselor you can solve everybody's problems everything disappears all things disappear in your all problems disappear in you Shankar Acharya gives a deeper spiritual be even in the world lead results he says you become identified with Ishwara Ishwara is which at the time of cosmic dissolution the entire universe is pulled in retracted absorbed in Ishwara you become one with Ishwara by this meditation you feel a oneness with God that's also not the ultimate spiritual gain the ultimate spiritual gain is beyond Ishwara you realize that your to Liam so the second result would be the real result which we are looking for is you realize your to DM and thus now we have been taught how to associate three of the mantras of ohm with three of the fathers of the Atma right did you have a question now so this is just an exercise it helps you to absorb or to assimilate the teaching you chant the ohm a prolonged low ohm physically or mentally and associate mentally the whole physical universe disappears the whole inner life disappears the whole blankness also dropped that beyond that you cannot express this is the realm of language this is the universe physical universe subtle universe causal universe language a Ummah it represents language you go beyond language you go beyond the universe to what you are you really are that pure consciousness do it repeatedly till the locus of the I I is who who we are normally it's related to the Waker I am this person till it shifts tutorial to that consciousness you can confidently say I'm the witness consciousness in the waking state you can say I am NOT this body and mind so that's the whole technique now before we come to the end of the opening shot goda pada will now take a break a colleague a break like a coffee break he is going to give us some reverse and the vs. yeah yes right you associate it and when you repeat ohm it gets repeated again and again till the association becomes strong so that when you repeat the ohm mentally you rotate these experiences as a result what happens is you first of all two results you know what will happen is you will become dissociated with these things right now you are in the midst of it with one body and mind we are in the midst of this waking world and I think I am this one as you repeat it you will see quite clearly body it has come and gone in my awareness I'm in media awareness the body has arisen and disappeared so many times every day it comes and goes in my awareness am I a body with consciousness or am i a consciousness to which a body appears and I use the body to exist in a physical world you will see this latter one which might seem a very radical claim seems more and more as a matter is a fact it is something that's already there once you make that shift from a body with consciousness to consciousness experiencing a body then you see a tremendous change comes over you that already it'll make a big change most of the problems of the physical world and body related problems you will get a gap between yourself and your problems it gives you room to maneuver it gives you room to rest it grids your some room to step back it saves you most of all from the great fear of death what is going to die there's no doubt about it but you the consciousness to you how many times the body dies every day dies to you when you are just when you do this you will see Oh to me it appears body and its way it's world to me it appears the mind and it's dreams to me it appears the blankness nothingness of deep sleep you begin to appreciate what you are that pure consciousness to which everything appears that'll be the first step a separation between you and these three worlds the second step will be even more profound you will realize you are all these words what are those words aren't they something separate from you which they come and go and you sit separately in experience no you are the consciousness in which they arrive like waves in an ocean the waves are not separate from the ocean they arise in the ocean they exist in the ocean and disappear back into the ocean the waking person and his or her world arises in you the ocean of consciousness exists in you and disappears back within you the dreams the world of the dreams the private world of the mind inside it arises in you shines in you and disappears back in you you are the witness of the body and the mind also the subtle universe how many times you will see the mind has awakened functioned gone back to sleep yet I continue I the pure consciousness I continue in me the mind awakens so I am NOT the mind first thing the eye identification will move from the mind to the pure consciousness it will move from the body to pure consciousness we move from the mind to pure consciousness not only am I not a body with consciousness and the consciousness in which the body appears not only not I am NOT a mind I am the consciousness in which the mind appears also what a great freedom be rest assured the mind will exist and function as it is supposed to do but if you are not the mind then you're free of the mind not that you'll become mindless the mind will still be there but you are not the mind it doesn't define you doesn't restrict you you are not it slave it appears within you it's an instrument to be used it's a nice thing a nice little app to be used it comes up it exists shines it helps you work in this world it gives you dreams at night and it is a years in deep sleep how many times the mind is a reason how many times you see happiness coming and going irritation coming and going Vivekananda goes so far as to say as reading yesterday control of the mind let it be uncontrolled what is it to me I want a peaceful mind in deep meditation why good if it's peaceful good if it's not peaceful it is nothing to do with me it will disappear anyway the holiest the noblest of thoughts which you cultivate the sublime experiences which you will have they'll go away and so will the most miserable low thoughts will go away now the going R is not important it shows that it's not you you continue you were there before them you are there to experience them you are there after them tell me one thought tell me one state of mind which has continued till today nothing it lasts for seconds minutes if you cultivate it deeply with a lot of meditation and prayerful you'll have a deep feeling of bhakti maybe the best thing that you can cultivate in a mine during deep devotion to God but many times in a day you will still not think of God and definitely when you fall asleep and go to deep sleep it will all go away anyway so I am NOT the mind does not mean again warning that you will not cultivate bhakti will not meditate you will not pray do all of that it's good to have a nice mind a spiritual mind than a worldly mind a troubled mind a depressed mind it's much better even Vedanta becomes possible when the mind is good so continue your project one Swami says it's a nice project to spend your time with you you refine the mind make it sattvic make it spiritual but at all times spiritual non spiritual you are free of the mind it's not you not even your mind you're not responsible for it either it's God's creation this entire universe God's projection if you need an accounting for it no but it's still there I need to know what is it if it's not me or mine it's issuer's creation you didn't create it you are not maintaining it it and you will have no control over it it'll go away so you are not the mind the locus of the eye shifts from the body and the mind to pure consciousness and yet you all minds are you they arise in you after all just like all waves are the ocean so you are one with all minds and all bodies and all beings see first it frees you from the prison of one body and mind and then it shows you that all bodies and minds everything they are all appearances in you so you are everything you are this entire universe and yet being free from it Shri Krishna says this is the great secret in the ninth chapter of the bhagavad-gita he says I'll reveal to you a great secret what is the great secret this entire universe in is in me he says one and second lo and behold the entire universe is not in me this if you can understand these two together what man do can opener should say is here is the entire universe is in you and lo and behold it is not in you just as how the snake is in the rope true because the snake of the snake is nothing but the rope but really really speaking is there a snake in the rope is the rope free of the snake forever right in that sense so you are the two reom yes yes yeah one thing I will take I will point out there it's not supposed to be these are not supposed to be something that you experience in deep meditation this Waker in the wakers world is what we are experiencing now without meditation what you are experiencing now whether he do one minute's meditation or not this is what is called the Waker and the wakers universe this is what you should associate with right why do you need to meditate to experience your life what you are saying is this this can be used for meditation on these this is supposed to be used for meditation [Music] and there is and if somebody has had that experience there is no way for them to relate it to or conveying to the world just like if somebody hasn't had you know how do you convey it true of the five senses the other four senses are you yes the only sense that works is the sound true true because after all what is the open assured word the no shooty means the wisdom is conveyed through words so the open ishod's are texts are words they're trying to convey something through language which cannot even be conveyed through language and in those texts also the most concise way to convey that is the maha vaakya you are brahman in this Upanishad we saw a maha vaakya do you remember what it is I am Atma Brahma this very self is Brahman even more concise way of conveying that same truth is ohm not even the final way do you remember cut rope initial where the little boy goes to the the lord of death and asks for the ultimate truth and then what does the lord of death do it's not it's not Manduca open assured he has a lot of space to play about with so the lord of death Yama tempts the boy and tries to divert him and then yeah educator rejects all the temptations and finally says I want to know that highest truth and finally Yama when Yama tells him the highest truth you know how he tells him what you are looking for is ohm and this end all of that is set aside in the Mandopop initial it just goes straight to the fact that it is ohm and what is all all these things yes you can see that ohm is basically to expand ohm you will come to these things this is basically an account of the universe which we know and all of these things are used to point to something we do not know yet the pure consciousness the pure consciousness is represented by ohm one way of using ohm is the meditation is the Hindu way of using symbols for spiritual concepts so the image of Ganesha is a symbol on which you superimpose the idea of the Lord Ganesha and then you meditate the Shiva Linga is the symbol for the Lord Shiva and you superimpose the idea of Lord Shiva superimpose means associate and then meditate this is Lord Shiva now you do that - ah is your entire universe waking universe associate put it on that and meditate and ooh is your entire inner world dream universe your mind and all of that mmm is your absolute blankness of deep sleep put it on that ohm is your entire experience of life beyond this on the sound ohm is the silence the amat right is called the imatra Pratham imatra duty imatra treaty imatra first mantra second motto third mantra and the chatter - fourth matras imatra on that silence you associate with the the inexpressible consciousness behind waking dreaming and deep sleep this is the technique yes yeah you need not need not be daunting meditation you can do it open eyes with closed eyes also but it's good if you do with closed eyes because the whole thing is to make a breakthrough once you have got it you can will do it with open eyes with closed eyes also practically when you need to understand something what do you do you close your eyes and think about it all you want to appreciate classical music or something what do you do you close your eyes and listen to it carefully more you are practically more you got your eyes open the more of your cognitive capacities are connected with the visual part of your brain so if you shut it down it frees up lot of cognitive resources you need a lot of bandwidth a lot of CPU power to make this breakthrough but once you made this breakthrough it's actually pretty simple truth which you're trying to say which they're trying to point to once you get it you've got it again you will not be able to express it if they say you got it and now you teach it to me and say you get to go to them and okay I can't teach better than that right I was think yes please have you been coming to the class or disavow yes so this is the Atma what is Atma myself you yourself right Atma means you yourself what do you think is you what what do you think you are our usual answer is this body and mind this is who I am if you ask what I what are you this so this is what he calls the waking self the Vishwa the whole loop an assured is about the Atma what is the Atma upon assured says the Atma has four aspects Atma has one aspect which is the waking self right now what you think of yourself sir right now this is the day that's the first aspect of the Atma what you think of yourself your conception about yourself your experience of yourself and the universe in your dreams that is the second aspect of the Atma how you experience yourself and your conception about deep sleep when everything is erased or covered in darkness in deep sleep that is the third aspect of the self now these three aspects of the self Upanishads says they are well known we all experience them daily nothing new to know there Upanishad just labels them first aspect second aspect third aspect this is what you know yeah this is your universe yes now let me show you something beyond these aspects that is the fourth that's the seventh mantra of definition which we have done which which points out the fourth and knowing that for knowing that what means knowing yourself to be that fourth not any of these three aspects these three aspects appearances of the fourth they are not the reality the fourth is the reality so what will happen is your sense of self I will shift from these three to the fourth your sense of reality what's real will shift shift from this world is real it will shift from this world to the fourth then you'll be able to say brahma satyam jagat mithya brahman alone is real the world is called what is the world the waking world grows the dream world subtle the deep sleep world causal this gross subtle causal world with three expected world falls it's an appearance appearance of what of me Brahman and Jeeva Brahma even opera the individual being this way cur Vishwa is none other than Brahman this you realize now I could measure that I can measure the gold you know so I can compare it to that and say yes but how do I since you cannot measure from one material anything like that how do I know that what enlivens me this body mind also enlivens is the same thing if if the knowledge is not there in fact it seems to be a negation of knowledge not this so right two points here first of all you're still treating it as an object there's gold here there's gold here let me see the same kind of gold why not suppose I change the example the same gold is made into our necklace melted made into a ring melted and made into a bracelet would you still have to measure anything no because you know what to say except in sits always was that's the only point they are not concerned with atomic numbers are we're not talking about that they are only saying that you know it's the same substance the person who understands what the substance is in spite of change of name change your form change a function nama Rupa Vivaro changes you know it's the same same substance are you with me so far the example must be understood first right now for you look at your own experience your own experience it's the same you have dissapointing out to one consciousness which appears with all of this as the waking world which appears with all of your dreams as your dream world which appears with when all of this subsides as the deep sleep experience that one consciousness look at it this way you still of course that not say I'm coming to in it two different ways that's one that's the easiest way out of course but but imagine this I that answer which she gave you are taking me as something separate from you but where do you see me this objective approach you see this is the problem the objective approach is where you start with an object and you conveniently ignore it's an object in your awareness we're starting with this and that but both this and that appear to you the consciousness for example if I suppose I asked you in your dreams when you see yourself and many others in your dream after waking up when you look back upon the dream would you ever even consider thinking that all right I was there in the dream and I knew I was conscious in the dream there was a consciousness in me but all those other people in the dream do I know that the same consciousness was in them you would never ask such a question because you are completely sure all those other people in the dream but generated by your own mind they are absolutely no existence apart from your mind do you see that all right so the direct answer with Vedanta would give in the waking state also is exactly that all of this that you experience is it not experienced in consciousness in your consciousness yeah it's a good way of putting it to awaken from the waking state the waking state is also compared to a dream go to pass I said that little while ago is it sit there there are only two states sleeping and dreaming what is dreaming waking is dreaming dreaming is dreaming and deep sleep is sleep remember dreaming waking and dreaming are said to be states of ignorant and error deep sleep is said to be a state of ignorance only awaken from the ignorance automatically awaken from error also that's called waking up no but you see everything is in consciousness this is a radical point but advaitha that's the direct answer that advaitha will give I'll give you the second answer which is not acceptable this is too if it's too much to swallow I'll give you a second more commonsensical approach but this is the real answer which advaitha wants to give if you really understand a greater you will see it is all an appearance in your consciousness one Swami put it very clearly um I'll tell you in Hindi and translate he said Jerez sick anubhav see shahrukh Arun Jerris assured wot mat karo George - rokka rokka - Jaya Himalaya don't start with in sentient objects if you start your analysis within sentient objects you will get my even start with matter you will get matter start with experience analyze that you will come back to consciousness you might say why why should I not start with matter after all scientists start with matter remember this is the place where scientific method have begins to fail why I believe that's a big thing to say I'll say why see the scientific method was made to study up the objective universe the thing out there empirical universe and there as much as you eliminate the subjective component the better your results are right that's why to be objective is something is something that's good in science it's a value in science to be objective so it's become part of how thing be objective in Vedanta it's a dirty word be objective is immediately infected with error and ignorance what Vedanta points out is when you are going to study what is this good studying the self when you're studying yourself a conscious entity you have to study consciousness start with experience Anubhava without the points of something interesting even when you study an object see suppose you won't study this what is this you describe it you'll say it's a book Vedanta will say wait is that absurd that's one description isn't it better to say it's a book in my awareness isn't it a book isn't it better to say it's a book that I'm seeing which is a more complete description of the truth it's a book it's a book that I am seeing which is more complete second one Vedanta will say when you take a purely objective view of something you are already in error you have left out a very vital part of it what have you left out yourself you have left yourself out of the equation normally does not matter and normally it's good when you're doing science when you're studying with materials when you're trying to study an objective universe out there an empirical universe it's good to leave the subjective component out it'll just complicate matters but when you're studying yourself to leave yourself out of it it leads to disaster and that's where consciousness studies is stuck today it's a horrible mess because they try to make it objective a thing you will never get consciousness as a thing because everything is in consciousness it's like trying to understand not understanding gold and trying to understand the ornaments you cannot that come to you so when you when you're studying yourself the self it must be you start with with a with a conscious experience immediately you will come back to it this will work it will take you back to the reality the original thing is the saying was Georgia showroom at Cairo Georgia Shahrukh yoga - Jaya Himalaya a new obsession recur you understand Hindi right don't start start with matter you will end up with matter you'll end with matter you you see what's wrong with that it's not that the ending that matter is anything wrong with ending this matter because it's a lie you're leaving out something essential that's why people studying consciousness recently they've come to such a ridiculous idea I mean it completely crazy ideas like we don't have a mind are these zombies there is no such thing as consciousness within what are you experiencing when there is no such thing as experience also there's only bodies but it's patently false the first experience anybody has even the word experienced presupposes consciousness why do they come to such a ridiculous state of affairs because they are starting with the objective and they think that is the only reality they forget themselves they leave themselves out of the equation you know it's known as WOM you are making a mistake then selves of ourselves is also objective yes but what's objective about yourself the body even the mind is an object they have not come to this kind of understanding yet I'll come to you the classic I'll give you one funny story which happened one of our Swami's Aetna prion disease he was here so he was giving a lecture in Calcutta University there is an animal vivek on the lecture there so he was talking about the man Dukie open Ishod waking dreaming deep sleep and in deep sleep the world is not there the body is not there the mind is not there and one professor in the crowd in the audience he stood up indignantly was a professor of physiology he stood up what do you mean in deep sleep body is not there the fellow is there sleeping and snoring we can see him the whole point is what do you the the Manduca experience is from your own experience from your own standpoint this is an analysis of the self what what does the self experience in deep sleep when you say the body is there and sleeping you already assume that the body is the self and the body is sleeping actually it's the self which is sleeping and the body you are experiencing is in your waking state okay yes no you mean if there are only subjects and no objects yeah if there were so yeah it would it would be something like deep sleep but remember one thing what Ardwick true but I remember something but remember one thing want one remember one thing this entire world this entire world according to Manduca ultimately see if you say if you separate consciousness from everything then your question becomes valid then what is consciousness in itself apart from everything else it's like asking what is gold apart from the ornaments it's still the reality but my point man so there would be the things which you are separating the ornaments they are nothing but gold they are expressions of gold the entire universe is you it's not there is an universe apart from which I can get in touch with it I can get apart from it no when you get apart from the universe there is no universe that's what Manduca wants to say in fact you will say that the consciousness I'm paraphrase your question consciousness divide of its object seems to be empty and barren a nothingness it's like saying goal devoid of the ornaments is nothing rather the ornaments divided of the gold are nothing rather the waves divide up the or water are nothing water is real gold is real with respect to the waves and ornaments but you still there's no variety there's no difference there's no to answer that I will say all this variety all this difference that's all so this none other than this pure consciousness this entire universe is the richness of the pure consciousness which you are the ultimate the conclusion of Vedanta is not that there are two things our universe and two reham this is also an analysis analysis means separating splitting to understand once you have understood what will happen is the reality is to reom which is experienced in all these ways so your entire waking experience is maintained in its entirety we don't lose one atom of this universe your entire dream experience which maintained its entirety all thoughts memories good bad everything is maintained and deep sleep the restfulness of deep sleep the blankness of deep sleep is maintained all of that is maintained and it's shown to be none other than you yourself that's a much more advantageous position to be than to be one little player in the middle of a vast uncaring physical universe so you are the universe and you are also much more than the universe the universe is like nothing to you it appears in you like like no ornament is of any importance to the gold itself yeah again you're repeating the same thing what the rest of the what oh you means the rest of the universe oh I see I see what you mean it's a good point to say only two liam is the universe meaningless the universe is given meaning because of thorium right now we are constructing meaning from our perspective that I am a little body mind here is the world and I have meaning in the world and it's a desperate quest this is the whole quest will we are meaning-making creatures we live on meaning you should deprive human beings of meaning they die that was Victor Frankel's understanding in them the man's quest for meaning in that how he survived the concentration camps in Second World War he found those who had meaning in their lives and got strength to survive those with no meaning they fell apart now religion is a way of trying to make sense and meaning of the world a place in the world for ourselves the whole terrifying problem about the attack of science on religion is that it we don't care so much about our stories about our mythologies what it deprives us of his mirror of me is meaning and that's what terrifies us now you say but if to reom is the only reality there's no meaning rather you become the locus of all meaning you are the one which gives existence and value to this universe you don't depend on the universe to construct meaning the whole universe depends upon you for existence for Revelation your consciousness after all and for meaning the meaning aspect is in the under the bliss such you are existence itself you give existence to the universe it's not matter which gives existence to you it's reversed pure consciousness you reveal the universe it's not matter which generates consciousness in you reversed and Ananda bliss you are the source of all happiness bliss meaningfulness in this universe it's not that you have to seek somewhere in a vast uncaring forgiving universe for meaning this is what it means from this perspective all of religion is an imperfect approach to this grand conclusion all of religion they're desperately trying to show that spirituality is more important than materialism that there is a God which is more important than the world and there is that a religious purpose and meaning are more important than materiality and meaninglessness but it's sort of halfway house that's why it's so vulnerable to attack from science this is this is a firm foundation yes it could be because a lot of people are trying to relate the latest discoveries in quantum mechanics to Vedantic insights I don't know enough about physics to make a comment and I have some monks who are very well placed in the scientific world who tell me apart if I try to talk quantum mechanics and mathematics without knowing anything about it so I don't make these comments swami smyrna and the g who is our president now at one time he taught us relearn a coupon assured we were novices so we used to go to him to study i still remember one comment he made at that time he said sometimes monks are too eager monks in their enthusiasm are too eager to relate physics and Vedanta he says don't do that physics is still evolving if you relate your vedanta to one set of theories the day it is discarded your Verint also will be discarded with the best you can say you should be honest about it the best you can say is the latest discoveries of physics have very interesting parallels with vedantic insights that's the most you can say be conservative about it be don't be rash in making judgments but yes there are these parallels again and again that's why in so many books have been written Amit Goswami has been writing books about it recently it started with Fritjof Capra the tower physics and he I found in one place he writes how that book came to be written it was a landmark in this kind of literature he was a physicist or is letting history he is a physicist he was sitting on a seashore once and he says he had a like almost like a mystical experience he could he knew he said first of all he says I know clearly that we are being continuously bombarded with invisible rays from outer space and there's a rain of these particles flowing through the atmosphere earth even my body you're sitting on a seashore and all of this is the projection of the interactions of extraordinarily minut and energetic particles and energy fields I knew all this he says and at that day on the beach probably he says that this knowledge became reality for me in one sense not not that anything changed not that he had a vision it's just that his way of looking at the world shifted entirely informed by particle physics and then he said this is what the Eastern masters in here in Vedanta and Buddhism have been trying to tell us and so he wrote that book true that's one way you can put it that BR the hitching post of the universe and what Arjuna saw was Krishna revealing himself as the Virat as because he saw it in the physical universe if you could see the entire physical universe with its underlying unity all the billions of people creatures planets and stars not only at this slice of time all time together past present and future all together at once we'd be scared and Arjuna was terrified he said every hair on his body stood in Sion on end and he prayed and prayed for it when he got it he prayed and prayed wanted to be taken away he said I can't bear it it's unbearable yeah that is true it's a more you think about it it's why it's incredible two ways of putting it do I think way of putting it would be if it were not for your consciousness the book wouldn't exist at this point a lot of people will protest if you have the idea of the common-sense approach of the world that everything exists even if I don't see it things exist so they will protest against that anyway go on yes all right this another point I want to address would it all be empty if it's only Tory and pure consciousness would it be empty of of things to see of experiences to have of people and birds and central power can and all of this and cookies and all of this wouldn't be empty would it be an empty universe once you realized it know the emptiness is not bad every night you would experience an emptiness you have no objection to deep sleep so why would you have an objection to an empty you but you said you think that the empty for all time would be very boring there would be no one to be bored remember that okay thorium is not bored would be nothing its boredom occurs only when the mind is there and the mind comes in and dreaming and waking but the fact is that our consciousness cycles between our the mind cycles between waking dreaming and deep sleep and we have a variety of experiences physical subtle and blankness and it settles continuous it cycles continuously another way of putting the same question and come to a conclusion another way of putting the same question would be why does to reappear like this turian could have remain just to you we have come across this question in religion it's the question why did God create the universe this is a much more sophisticated philosophically way of asking the same question why is is this one reality why is it appearing like this my eyes and on sets of word it I have answered this in different ways God a father answered it the final answer he gave many answers or one answer was it's the play of God but if you are strictly philosophical if you have a sort of dry and non-playing kind of nature then you would say why play why would God want that's just a human way of anthropomorphizing God so another was the law of karma what is even law of karma is causality is part of this nature the universe why would there be a law of karma also the last one answer was Maya but what did god Apophis a Advaita generally stops at Maya because of Maya this world appears but Maya is also a word actually Oh the final answer given by God a father do you remember they were state and that's there but they were CH Aslam ha who I am if you want a straight answer to your question all right let it be appearance ma Maya will say doesn't exist it looks like this will you can go push it further why does it look like that it need not look like anything the answer given by God or father is this is the very nature of the Torian that's all you can see it appears like this one Swamy they explained it very nicely one Swamy put it this way he said think about it this way when you look up into the sky it looks like an inverted blue bowl a surface though there's no surface there so I'm seeing but it's not a bowl it's not a surface either but it looks like that now he gives the example of this this this example he says the nature of the eyes is to see the nature of the sky or space is to be unseen you can't to see basically means the surface must reflect some light then only you see a surface but there's no surface there to see in pure space just empty space the nature of space is to remain unseen the nature of the eyes is to see now when you try to see the unseen what will happen an illusion will come and error will be generated you will see but what you will see does not exist it's a bowl and he say give that example the nature of consciousness is to know is to illumine is to reveal there is nothing other than consciousness in this universe what will happen you will end up knowing something but what you will end up knowing does not exist apart from you the consciousness I think that's a very nice answer I mean I really liked it it's not one of the usual philosophically answers you get you really so it's something meeting something else which and gives rise to an impossible situation and the result is Error illusion that error illusion is called Maya is a word used is Maya I'll end with a funny story I just remembered I was very fond of Asimov the science fiction writer Isaac Asimov as a kid so here the book where he is lot of biographical details were there and he writes about how he made met this woman who asked him I think on a park bench or somewhere who asked him a question that what the usual question riddle what will happen if an irresistible force meets an immovable object okay this is a question and I thought you just rewrite it so having a very difficult to answer and his answer was he said that's easy and she said you're the first one who said it's easy to tell me and he said by definition moment you say irresistible force there cannot be an immovable object by definition if you say immovable object there cannot be an irresistible force so two can never meet so and then he concludes that little piece by saying that's how I met my wife all right we'll end here Shantay shanti shanti hurry Hume that such Shri Ramakrishna