Video 44

45. Mandukya Upanishad | Chapter 3 Karika 31-32

let us start with the chant om bhagam [Music] is [Music] so problem is samsara and solution is freedom from samsara and samsara is characterized by unhappiness lack of fulfillment freedom from samsara should be happiness lasting profound deep fulfillment in religion and in philosophy this samsara and freedom from samsara are understood at different levels a conventional understanding in religion different religions of the world is this is samsara what is this samsara this world and freedom from samsara is something like a heaven which is elsewhere in some other place not this place else when not now some other time um in the future and not this thing so separated from this by deja kala vastu desha means place separated from this by time and separated from this by object object means it is not this thing this is samsara and something else is freedom or heaven here is samsara and there is freedom now is samsara and later maybe after death or after illumination or after something will be freedom in in the advaita vedanta in the mandu kyopanishad samsara is understood as dwayta duality and freedom or liberation is understood as advaita moksha is non-duality what is duality duality is no it's all right duality is difference when i see myself as a limited being i am different from you and all this world is different from me immediately what comes likes and dislikes so what is good for this being i like what is is unpleasant for this being i dislike in sanskrit this is called raga does raga means attraction duesia means repulsion dislike and that which i am attracted towards i try to get it i try to enjoy it i try to possess it so i go towards that as it were i engage in that activity that is in sanskrit called pravrtti and that which repulse repels me that which i find unpleasant for myself it could be unpleasant for the body something an uncomfortable invite maybe it's too hot or too cold it could be unpleasant for the mind you know something that is insulting something that is demeaning or and so on so all these things i try to go away from in sanskrit this is called nivriti moving towards moving away from and as i do this i engage in karma and karma gives rise to results the doctrine of karma you do something you get a result action and reaction there's a result causality is set in motion causality is a subtle but very powerful force what we do it generates results once karma is set in motion the results of karma are certain that they are going to come now or later if you have set a cause in motion the effect is going to come um if the cause is good so good and bad comes in at this stage you know the concepts of dharma and adharma good and bad good and evil so if the our karma is good then the results will be good good karma is called dharma and the result will be good result is sukha happiness pleasure bad karma is called adharma and they have been consciously done deliberately done wrong things and the result is unhappiness if you ask why would anybody do bad karma if if that results in unhappiness why wouldn't everybody do good karma the reason is why are we doing karma at all what was just before karma what was just before karma what comes just before why are we engaging in karma because of priority and everything that we are moving towards something i want something and i um i try to get away from other things and why do i want something and why do i want to get away from something else what was before that ragadvisha attraction repulsion now imagine if the attraction or repulsion are too much unmanageable i will overstep the limits of morality and ethics i will i knowingly i might do things which are wrong because i can't can't control myself maybe the attraction is too much or maybe the anger or hatred is too much so i react out of greed or lust or hatred or anger and i do adharma so that's why people see people do not do wrong things as a as a matter of principle you know out of um completely unselfishly uh out of the goodness of my heart i am robbing people and murdering no but it sounds ridiculous people do it because they're impelled from within by these forces of good and bad so by these forces of attraction and repulsion and once dharma and adharma good karma and bad karma and certain motion the results are certain and these results are seen in this life or if not in this life in lives to come that leads to birth and rebirth now look at the chain look at the chain birth and revert this life is going on why propelled by karma good and bad karma why is this good and bad karma because i have done dharma and dharma why have i done dharma another because i have pravriti and nivriti i go towards something and i withdraw from other things why do i do that because i have likes and dislikes i have needs why because at the root of it is dwayta i see myself as a limited individual separated from the entire universe so that is the analysis of samsara in duality and the solution to this is solution to non-duality and according to advaita vedanta this non-duality this solution to samsara is right here it's not there it's here non-duality is here duality samsara which is obviously here but non-duality is also here it's not then it's right now non-duality is right now and it's not that thing it is this thing itself what we are experiencing right now right here right now and this itself is the non-dual reality this is the the stunning claim of advaita vedanta that raises the question if this itself right now right here is non-dual we clearly see it as duality if this is non-dual then what is going on why am i not able to realize this as as non-duality the difference is knowledge and ignorance in ignorance this reality this non-duality is experienced as a duality and leading to samsara in knowledge in knowledge this very reality is experienced or realized as non-dual leading to freedom from samsara i've summed up the whole thing you can go home now because wait a minute what so knowledge is the key thing then how do i get this knowledge that's why we are here let's see how do we get this knowledge so god father yes consciously thinking thoughts yeah so like the reason i'm asking is like you know i've started to notice that i have these thoughts which just arise and how do i sort of replace or start like now yeah i'm catching it good good so this is what we will talk about today in fact this question about managing or spiritualizing the mind is going to come up today yeah but there's one point here the holy mother says khali moner pop up in the age of kali this this age this grand time we are living in a sin of the mind is not to be considered a sin of the mind but that doesn't give you a blank check why the reason is whatever we consciously do that means mentally verbally or physically it sets up forces so if i mentally give permission for my mind to think certain thoughts which are undesirable my i'm automatically limiting my future choices because a tendency set up in the mind next time it will be much more difficult to control if i automatically start using curse words i am already conditioning my way of speaking next it will be difficult for me to control my speech and if i actually physically start doing these things whether good or bad it will set up a habit so even if so for example holy mother would not regard a mental act as bad karma she doesn't but it certainly sets forces in motion it makes it all that more difficult for to to do a good act next or to opposite also holds true good thoughts noble thoughts i was reading swami turian and the remedy senses of swami turian and he says ultimately it's very simple in bengali he said the translation is only the one who is immersed in high and noble thoughts who can entertain in high and noble thoughts will be saved in the end it all boils down to that it's a actually practically it boils down to what you said just the mind itself the rest follows so if you immerse yourself in high thoughts in noble thoughts if you can hold on to that your life will be transformed i was reading the quality of life is written by one binifred gallagher and she faced cancer and she said that at one time it became too much the treatments and the pain and the unpleasantness of it all the financial problems so i just decided i'm not going to think about it she started thinking about her work i think she was an artist or writer something like that and then she said i made this remarkable discovery this lady benefited gallagher i made this remarkable discovery the quality of my life is not something outside i realized the quality of my life is the two things what i think about where i put my mind and how much of my mind i put in that if i think about my pain and suffering and i put most of my mind there my quality of life will be horrible in the same situation if i think about my writing and put most of my mind there visit my quality of life fighting cancer is actually dramatically better than what it was before cancer before i was just unconsciously drifting along doing this and that now under the pressure under this terrible crisis i had to make a an effort quality of life depends on what you think about and how much you think about it is these two things where you put your mind to srirama krishna suffering dying from cancer all his mind is given to god he's thinking about god and with all of his mind we are just reading in the gospel of sri ramakrishna yesterday m says to sri ramakrishna that few days ago somebody had come and you are pacing in your room and this person visitor first time visitor he said he looked at you and he said that he is the happiest man i've ever seen in my life we just felt like that seeing this who is this man who's going to die in a few days out of terminal cancer how is that possible where i put my mind and how much of my mind i put there yeah we'll come back to it it's relevant to today's discussion now god father says all right so dualism is the root you understand how dualism is the root of samsara as i said dualism means difference difference means likes and dislikes likes and dislikes means activity towards something and away from something and that leads to dharma and dharma dharma dharma leads to the result karma fella good and bad pleasant and unpleasant and that leads to many lives so this is the general way to look at it duality dwitha is at the root difference a sense of difference so oneness is the solution nothing new that's what we have been studying all along in fact if you want to put it in the language of the manduko punished which you have studied where is duality in waking waker and waker's world dwight or duality dreamer and dreamer's world dwight or duality deep sleeper and deep sleepers blankness you'll say there's no duality there's no experience duality it's just one mass of blankness deep sleep but the seed of duality is there the bija it's called the seed state because it comes back all of it comes back when you wake up so waking dreaming deep sleep are all duality waking and dreaming are actual duality and deep sleep is potential duality it is the turia which is non-dual the underlying one consciousness in which all of these appear and disappear that one is non-dual there is no duality there so turia is freedom turia is moksha turia is our real nature turiya is non-dual okay now gowdapadha goes deeper he says all right this is all very nice this is very philosophical this is very abstract you know in certain sense very practical to go to father but most of us will say can't you tell us something more a little more but we can get our sink our teeth into so guru pada says here goes notice the last two verses we did we did 29 and 38 we've done it last time yes as maya through the instrumentation of the mind vibration of the mind appears as a duality in in dreams what do i mean by duality in dreams just that subject object i am different from these things we experience that in dreams right are you with me in the same way because of my maya through the mind the vibration of the mind appears as a duality in the waking state also here also he says it's it's the mind basically then he goes on [Music] in the in our dreams the mind alone which is not to not to means in the dreams what is this just your the dreamer's mind you are there and you are experiencing something in a dream but both you in the dream and what you experience in the dream both are the dreamer's mind you the dreamer's mind correct you are sleeping in your bed and dreaming but in the dream you are there yourself with a body since some place in some time experiencing other people and events so that duality is actually the non-dual dreamers mind which is not two is only one mind which is appearing as two similarly in the waking it is the atman the non-dual atman which through the agency of the mind appears as the dualistic universe so what godapad has done here is interesting problem is samsara at the root is duality according to advaita vedanta and now gordapada pushes it further can we narrow it down where is the problem the problem of duality inheres in the mind it is actually the mind which is practically that mischief maker the troublemaker so it the problem has to be dealt at at the level of the mind duality non-duality very philosophical very metaphysical and wonderful but ultimately when you actually it comes down to our spiritual life it's a question of the mind so go gowda father introduce the mind notice here's first the first time brahman maya duality non-duality first time mana mind mind mind is introducing this so mind is at the source of our problems and how do we deal with that keeping all this in the background now let's look at what the mind does verse number 31st so from now on a new topic has started 31st onwards non-duality and mind non-duality and mind wonderful and very immediately applicable series of instructions 31st please repeat after me [Music] this duality which you are experiencing it's it's it's a projection of the mind it's the mind manodhrashim the mind alone appears as this drishya this objective universe dualistic universe yat kinchit sacharacharam whatever you see living or non-living literally it means moving and non-moving whatever you experience see hear smell taste touch whatever you think about it's all mind here this mind appears as the duality which you experience and uh when the mind becomes no mind mana so here many when the mind becomes no mind duality is not experienced duality is not experienced or duality is not um not seen on duality is not found okay this requires some explanation no mind amani bhava no mind so here we are introduced into the to the um fourth of the great themes in the mandukya karika there are four great themes one is advaita non-duality no duality second is ajata no origination third is aspara yoga no contact and the fourth is no mind amani power non-dual no duality no origination no contact no no no no mind advaitam yoga and amani bhava abduitavada the doctrine of non-duality ajayatva the doctrine of non-origination um aspartia yoga the the way of non-contact and finally amani bhava they all follow they're all deeply interlinked i won't explain now i've been touching upon it and in fact i gave i've given talks about all of these the essence of all vedanta one talk was there that's about non-duality aspect of it the ultimate truth that was about the non-origination aspect of it no no um that one no origination um no no no no origination no no dissolution and so on so that was the second one that was called the ultimate truth the third talk i gave was aspartyo it was called aspara yoga yoga [Music] yes so asparagus yoga which talked about both of these aspara yoga the way of no contact and also no mind both we talked about in the third lecture the fourth one was about the fourth chapter of the mandukya which is later on anyway so the the idea of no mind is being introduced so that's going to be the subject for the next few verses this is a special teaching of godhapada very profound teaching it is the innermost core of spiritual life the most advanced idea of spirituality we have in the world and throughout civilization whatever we'll see um first of all you just made a very radical claim that all this worldly experience duality is because of the mind prove it so the commentator shankaracharya he introduces this verse he says the commentator says asks in sanskrit what is the proof that mind is at the root of all this sounds cool to say it's the mind but prove it the proof is given in this verse entire experience of duality is a projection of the mind when the mind becomes no mind the duality is no longer experienced now if you put it this way it becomes like this so no mind i gave a talk and i just freshly shaved my head before the talk and i saw that in the comments at the youtube it said the talk talk was no mind so come in said no mind is no here um it's like this imagine pattern clay the part and clay example which we use okay now if clay is there part is there clay is there pot is there if clay is not there what will happen to the pot not there so can we say the clay is the cause of the pot cause means material cause the substance similarly when the mind is functioning world is seen when the mind is not functioning world is not seen when is the mind not functioning maybe in deep sleep maybe in samadhi and so on so the world is not seen so can we say mind is the substance or at the root of the world experience you might say just a minute just because my mind is functioning doesn't mean the world is gone if i am knocked out if i am asleep does it mean the world has disappeared no no remember we are talking about your experience of the world whether the world exists independently of our experience or not is an entirely different question we'll see god deposit does not believe in any world outside your experience but right now right now this much you have to admit if your mind is not functioning you have no experience of the world at all you have no experience of duality in that sense the mind is at the root of the world experience functioning of the mind okay so far this is called andreya vethireka it's an argument based on english translation would be agreement and difference if one factor is present and then the second one is present if the first one is absent the second one is absent then the first one is the cause of the second one this is a method of agreement and difference mind present you experience a world mind stops you do not experience a word so mind is somehow causally linked to your world experience this much we can minimally say so let's understand this more deeply what does god power mean by this for him the functioning of the mind and experience of the world are moral and more or less the same thing every thought has a content as an object so um here is a pen and i have a thought about a pen vritti and that alone allows me to experience the britta here is a board and i have a board with vritti in the mind and so that allow alone allows me to experience a board and there's a man a man with a woman a woman with t in the mind so the objects pen board man woman sky earth ocean whatever big small whatever these are objects and each of them corresponding to each one there's is a viktor or thought in the mind thought i am using in the most general sense the movement in the mind corresponding to your experience now the sum of all virtis is the mind and the sum of all objects is the word right corresponding to each means thought or let's just put thought corresponding to each thought there is an object and corresponding to each object there is a thought if you sum up all the thoughts you get mind if you sum up all the objects in the world you get world right and so right to the consciousness but right now in our common sense approach so every thought has a content without objects there would be no thoughts okay without thoughts you have no way of speaking about objects how can you say an object exist if it does not come into your mind in any way if it if your mind does not have a conception about it it could be a fictional object like harry potter but still your mind must have a conception about it if there is no thought at all you cannot speak about any object about the existence of any or it would be nonsensical to say that so thought and object are mutually interdependent mutually interdependent this is what he means the vibration of the mind and the world are the same thing by god apartheid says basically throt all thoughts together as the minor all objects together is the world and the thoughts and objects they correspond perfectly not that you have thoughts about all objects in the world but whatever we have experienced different people different times we have thoughts about that we have had movement in the mind and so they're mutually dependent and we will take that up in the next verse we leave it at this basically what he says is in that case if the mind is not there thoughts are not there the corresponding objects are also not there or at least not experienced by us this is what he calls no mind now this no mind idea it has to be understood carefully no mind this idea has to be understood carefully basically by no mind what is meant here is spiritualization of the mind not destruction of the mind we'll see that next next verse basically by no mind it is the spiritual management of the mind which is which is meant the way it is approached in life in spiritual life depends upon your philosophy upon your spiritual approach for example a bhakta a devotee of god one who believes in god loves god surrenders to god how would a bhakta manage the mind how would the bhakta deal with this my mind creates samsara for me what do i do i surcharge my mind i i suffuse my mind with love of god with divine thoughts with the leelah the divine play of god with my krishna or my christ i fill my mind with divine thoughts holy thoughts pure thoughts or at least i try to that is my approach to mind management in the path of bhakti in the path of say karma yoga unselfish service what is the approach to the mind instead of the mind being involved in its own subjective problems my health my wealth my problems my my little insults and my pride and my ego no be completely dedicated to helping others so the mind is constantly thinking about how to help others not the subject but completely given to others that's one way of managing the mind that's one way of dealing with samsara i was just reading about this librarian it was um came out in the news two or three days ago in south india i keep forgetting the name of the librarian um all his life he uh do you know the name no all his life he dedicated his life to helping others so he got a job as a librarian and whatever he he earned in the job in a in a government job in a college as a librarian whatever he earned in that job the entire salary he donated to poor students and started an organization called palum which means which bridge yes he's very well known and all his life and at one time he was working as a waiter in a small hotel to earn his living so all his salary he was 100 giving away what he owned he did not marry and had a family because he felt it would be a distraction at one point he was living like beggars on the platform of a railway station just to feel what the poorest people feel and all his joys in helping others so finally the government recognized him many awards and recently they gave him 30 lakhs or three crores 30 crores 30 crores 30 which is a lot of money which is like um 30 million rupees and immediately donated it all he said he was delighted to get that award why because he could give it away and so he now imagine i am sure that person is very very happy very very happy swami vivekananda said it is unselfishness which is more fulfilling but it takes maturity to understand that he says his exact words the bright ones come to it faster the others have to struggle a longer time that it is unselfishness so this is one way of managing the mind again this we are not talking about god apartheid's approach here this is one way of managing the mind then there is a third way of managing the mind which godopath will just refer to which is the yogic way the way of meditation if the vibration of the mind creates the world for me or the world of experience control the vibration of the mind consciously deliberately calm the mind down cessation of movements of the mind yogas yoga is the cessation of the movements of the mind cessation of movements of the mind cessation of the world that is one way of managing the mind the last way the one which which governor father wants to recommend to us which is really what he means by no mind we will come to it in the next verse is not by any of this not by any of this not by trying to shut the mind down let the mind work you realize that underneath the mind the reality of the mind and the reality of the world there is one underlying reality the atman of the turiya the turiya it is the turia alone appearing as the waker's mind and the waker's world as the dreamer's mind and the dream world as a deep sleeper in the deep sleepers darkness so turia is the reality when you realize turia is the reality the mind and the world are appearances in turia like a dream for example if you could realize the falsity of the dream and live in lucidly in the dream it wouldn't be a problem according to godhapath that is no bind so that's what we should see what is gaurav patha's recommendation how does one get to know mind so we'll see that next all right let's just do the 30 second verse the general approach to no mind is that it's spiritualization of the mind it's not destruction of the mind we'll see we'll go deeper into it and see specifically what god pardon recommends do we have to meditate do we have to go to a lot of soup kitchens do we have to repeat the mantra sing and dance what or attend plenty of vedanta classes plenty of vedanta classes actually anyway that's coming now next 32. atma satya nobody [Music] this is the key phase key phrase by realizing the truth about the self i am the one non-dual consciousness underlying waker and waker's world dreamer and dreamer's world deep sleeper and deep sleepers darkness and that one that is the truth that is the reality of which the rest are appearances that is the reality of the atman the knowledge of non-dual vedanta brahman alone is real the world is an appearance and i am none other than brahman this real realization this is atma by this the mind will become no mind so let's see how yes what did you say was the meaning of this context means agreement mind their world is there vitiligo means mind not their world is not there difference yeah anwaya agreement and betraya means difference all right now let us see just a minute hold on don't forget the question um you have do you have a question who asked the question yeah go ahead what's the difference in the similarity between zen and tibetan zen in tibetan buddhism that's uh not a directly related question but it's a very deep question i will give a quick answer and leave it leave it at that a quick answer leave it at that zen zen buddhism tries to achieve the breakthrough by circuiting the short circuiting the intellectualization of the mind the one the intellectualizing process of the mind trying to think and understand and grasp it intellectually zen buddhism tries to short-circuit it and directly intuitively breakthrough they call it satori so for example they'll give you a question to meditate upon where for which there's no answer and they don't expect an answer also to to sit for hours and hours with sound of one hand clapping what's the sound of one hand clapping not two hands one hand clapping and or what was your face before you were born don't say well you can look at the ultrasonogram in the head no no no doesn't mean that even before you had a body so what was your original face so questions like this which do not have an answer they're called koans and you sit with that the point is to sit with that if you come up with an answer and rush there's a teacher who's waiting for you to come and give an answer so he'll come up so he gets an answer he goes to the teacher and this is the answer and he gives a little talk about philosophy and the teacher has a long bamboo cane and he hits him in the head with that and go back and meditate the second time he comes running even before he's opened his mouth the teacher wax him on the head go back and meditate third time he's there his face is shining he has no answer and the teacher says you have realized now see if this path works for you well and good but it has to work or not work and so i am not a zen one of our monks was a zen practitioner alan watts whom i quote sometimes so he nicely combines zen buddhism and advaita vedantas that that's one way so zen buddhism is like that some of our early swamis did not think much about zen buddhism swami pavitra anandiji who was here a nun in santa barbara told me many decades ago swami pavitranji was visiting santa barbara at that time zen buddhism was very popular in this country so one of the nuns asked him what is zen buddhism swami pavitranji had a very cryptic way of speaking he didn't speak much he said what is in buddhism he said perverted buddhism now make of it what you will so but it's a it's a very well-known path and it's very popular at one time a a lot of a wave of zen buddhism came to this country suzuki and others if you go deep into it in writings of dd suzuki you'll find it's very close to advaita vedanta so that's one way it's not all these classes and intellectualization trying to understand no stop it stop trying to understand the zen stories like the monks meditating outside the monastery and there's a flag flying on the monastery the young monk the newcomer says look look the flag is flying the flag is flapping uh the flag is moving and the senior monk says no it's not the flag which is moving it is the mind which is moving no sorry it's a it's the wind which is moving the wind is moving so the flag moves because of the wind it's really the wind which is moving a subtler answer the senior most monkey was meditating he said no it is the mind which is moving because of now the most senior monk who was retired and up and sick and in his room upstairs the monastery looks out of the window this is tongues which are moving too [Laughter] much a typical zen story tibetan buddhism on the other hand is um a full-blown system zen is very japanese very minimalistic that's why that samurai and all they loved it like a samurai sword cutting through very minimalistic austere and it's a it's very very japanese in spirit minimalistic approach elegant beautiful sharp tibetan buddhism is just the opposite it's maximal so there is enormous philosophy it's very close to advaita vedanta philosophy in fact many tibetan buddhists actually have told me that your teachings and what we learn in fact one tibetan buddhist nun said the pointings which we take years to come to in our tradition you're just giving them out openly on youtube so it's very similar plus there's a lot of ritualism there's a lot of profusion of meditation techniques rituals uh a full-fledged monastic system so that's tibetan buddhism i mean i'm i'm doing an injustice to everything by saying these things but if a simple answer just yesterday i was in bryan park outside the library and this lady came up an american lady she comes and she does this and says are you vedanta i said yes well thank you for your teachings i practiced vajrayana buddhism buddhism is tibetan tantric buddhism and so your teachings are very evocative for for me all right so we'll leave it at that now um back to no mind how do you become how do you get this no mind no mind is not destruction of the mind how do you get rid of samsara of the world let's take a broader question before getting rid of the mind making the mind no mind let's make the let's make the world disappear there are two ways one is take the example of a pot part negation how do you negate or destroy a part why i am saying this is this example i've used earlier that's why i'm saying this one is take a stick and break it smash it so you break the pot the other one is if you have attended lots of vedanta classes then you will see that oh it's actually clay if you touch the part you are touching clay if you see the top of the pot it's clay inside it's clay outside it's clean it's like it's clay through and through there's no part voila the part is gone so part negated by seeing its cause it's reality c as clay then what do you say clay is the reality of which part is the part is the insubstantial name and form is the unsubstantial name in substantial and substantial unsubstantial name and form part is the unsubstantial name and form and clay is the inner reality in the same way world negation one way is through trying to destroy the world one is you wait for the world to be destroyed in the hindu cosmology it's called pralaya you might call the big crunch one day the world will be modern physics has two options one is called the big crunch where the forces of gravity become powerful enough they'll pull the entire universe back together back into a singularity from which it all began that's one theory but bill told me that it is outdated now another one is the heat death theory that the world universe keeps spreading and spreading and until ultimately because of the second law of thermodynamics there's entropy increases until everything cools down and everything is gone so i mean everything stops basically in sanskrit it is called pralaya pralaya means destruction of destruction of the universe cosmic dissolution so samsara is troubling you want to get rid of samsara you wait several billion years but the problem is it will take a long time to come end of the universe and so many lifetimes and that is according to hindu cosmology or indian cosmology hindu buddhism that's not the end too other universes will begin after that and modern physics also seems to support that there are multiple universes so that's one one way the other way is how do you get rid of samsara and all its sufferings um our own personal little pralaya everyday fall asleep deep sleep sushupti that's also another way no world you are not there world is not there problem solved so are we supposed to sleep all the time it's not as silly as you think what else is alcohol addiction what else is drug addiction you see the the way we try to solve our problems notice either we try to stealthify the mind drug it drink into oblivion so that i don't feel anything that's one way we try to there's no way of seeking peace because that will just increase tamas and that tramas increases darkness and suffering so that's one way the other way is overload the mind with pleasant sensations take drugs take the other kind of drugs which excite you a series of um nice experiences what they call binge watching television there's a new term binge watching continuously all day and night you watched somebody playing video games somebody says i can play video games for six hours at a stretch um so you continuously do that but even that is not a solution really and at the end of it you just unhappiness has increased in fact somebody told me elon musk has a new company neural link something has somebody heard of it very interesting you heard of it yes so he's saying ultimately all our enjoyments happiness is within us right whatever he said no it's out there all the shops and broadway and all of that times square all of that is happiness no but ultimately it has to come into the mind you have to experience it for you to it to make you happy right if you have to experience it it has to come in through your body mind system and that's where elon musk comes in he says forget the world outside if i can provide the experiences directly to your your neural network artificially stimulate your then you will get the same joys which the world is providing you and perhaps much more refined much more direct even more direct than what drugs can provide you directly and he says in a safe way we can stimulate your brain cells your neural network and so you'll be happy for what nothing for nothing but you'll be very very happy and endlessly happy smiley face really does the company look it up not in a bad way he says that this is real prospect for this there are so many experiments the classic experiment of a rat which uh they stimulated the pleasure centers of the brain and so there is food pellet um so there is one liver if the rat pushes food pellet will come it will eat another lever at the right pushes is a little electric shock to the pleasure center of the brain they wanted to see what the right would do the rat kept on pushing the pleasure liver to getting little birds to pleasure in the brain food no no eating until it collapsed of hunger then it might eat a little bit again start the moment it feels a little better again start that so that is extraordinarily directly and extraordinarily addictive because we want that that's one way of doing it notice again it is basically the mind what elon musk is saying he's saying the neural network because he's talking about brain and nervous system guard apart goes a little more subtle the whole thing ultimately boils down to the mind to the mind samsara it's a great lesson to learn god apart is not interested in this he is going to say something here else here but he says the great lesson to learn i mentioned this earlier a monk in himalayas said one of the most beautiful things i've heard shant manmala samsara whoever has seen samsara in a peaceful mind profound you might not think it what's so great about it very very interesting it's just the opposite of what we think we think the world disturbed me that's why my mind is disturbed samsara provokes me samsara disturbs me samsara attracts me samsara repels me and so my mind is provoked disturbed attracted rep repelled unhappy and this the yogi said you are absolutely wrong it's just the other way around it's because your mind is disturbed that's why you have samsara whoever has seen samsara in a peaceful mind same world same disease same pain a yogi's mind and a worldly person's mind the worldly person sees samsara and pain and suffering and misery and frustration and the yogi sees peace and serenity how the difference is in the mind samsara disturbs me because my mind is disturbed not that my mind is disturbed because of samsara it's a very great insight again remember not at all what god or father is saying no you have not yet come to that so one way is to directly stimulate the mind and try to make it as happy as possible and elon musk has taken it to the logical extreme forget the world very god upon the extreme forget the world i have a machine this will make you happy until right like the rat you collapse and die out of happiness out of sheer happiness so no he didn't he doesn't say i'm giving him bad press he never says you're going to die it's safe for 199.99 or something like that i'm joking but anyway so they're making progress but ultimately this is also it leads to samsara it doesn't lead to freedom you're still dependent on a particular state of the mind for your happiness here is the thing yogis say by a conscious control of the mind in sanskrit niruddha mana one can through samadhi there are various states of mystical experience through which one can safely and indeed wholesomely attain true lasting upliftment and peace so the yogic way samadhi same effect better effect wholesome lasting uplifting um [Music] in one do you become a wreck and in the other you become become a saint this is the difference you're transformed in the other one in fact this was the point of difference aldous huxley he was very close to swami prabhavanandaji but i think he wrote the doors of perception i think yeah that's why they fell apart see the patanjali yoga sutras it does say that these experiences are attainable by certain drugs it mentions it patanjali yoga sutra says by artificial means you can generate and in principle it should be possible because they are objects they're subtle objects in the mind it's an experience experience can be generated by other objects but it warrants against doing these things because it is not spiritually uh in ennobling it's not lasting and it will ultimately do no good so when at that time they didn't know the effects bad effects of this timothy alpert um then who became ramdas uh the timothy leary richard alpert richard alpert who became ramdas um timothy leary um then aldost actually too so they started experimenting with lsd and other drugs to generate their purpose is good can we have um literally out of the mind experiences so swami prabhupada warned him against he told him absolutely not don't do these things they were very close in that vedanta society of southern california where he wrote the classic book the perennial philosophy in fact in our trabuco canyon monastery in orange county in southern california there's a library still there where aldous actually used to work and wrote that book the perennial philosophy some of his books are still there and library is also very nice very old-fashioned kind of library you can see so so swami prabhupada said the yogic way is best through a disciplined course of exercises to attain deep samadhi that is the solution for mind and samsara to to shut down the mind in samadhi and yet we are completely conscious you see yourself as consciousness free of the mind no world is experienced no mind is experienced and yet you have not fallen asleep you are there none of which god of other recommends so what does he recommend the third the the his alternative just like see break the pot this is like break the pot c as clay pot negation world negation see as atman you see what is the world in mandu kyopanishad what is the world it is the waker's world it is the dream world and the potential darkness of deep sleep that all of these appear and disappear in the one consciousness which you are you realize the waker in the waker's world the dreamer and the dreamers world and the deep sleep experience they are all constituted of nothing but consciousness in atman because of maya these appear and disappear they have no independent reality just as the pot has no independent reality apart from clay clay is substantial part is name and form atman or consciousness is substantial name world is name and form samsara is name and form mind mind where is mind is it within the world or within atman it's a part of the world it is the world it's part of the world and being part of the world it is also name and form what is gorapada's idea of no mind by realizing that atman is real atma you realize mind is mithya mind is false mind is an appearance when the appearance nature of the mind is realized then you have dealt with the problem of duality if you have dealt with the problem of duality you realize the non-dual nature of the of the atman non-duality is freedom duality is removed um bondage is removed it's like this so this idea you have got what is the way to deal with the world there are two ways of dealing with the part you take a stick and break it there are these different ways of dealing with the world you can wait for the end of the universe or you can fall asleep or drink drug yourself to oblivion erase the universe or you can try to overload yourself with pleasant engagements in some way or yogic samadhi the spiritual way of erasing the universe this is recommended very good but what god says in this universe itself you see that atman existence consciousness brahman your reality is the reality of which the universe is an appearance including mind is an appearance and that non-duality will save you from samsara now let's explore that little further what does he mean by seeing the atman is the reality take the case of dreams first in the dream you are there you are there and you are experiencing objects of people in the dream so the dream mind just as your mind is experiencing the world here in the dream also the dream mind experiences dream objects is this clear or is not visible mind experiences dream objects and remember this is the nature of the world is what did we say mind and objects thoughts and objects that's the world world and the mind that's what's going on so in the dream this is what happens by dream mind i mean your mind in the dream when you are there you don't know it's a dream you are experiencing a dream and you feel that i have a body i have a mind i have got senses i am experiencing a world i am thinking about it enjoying and suffering so that dream mind it experiences objects in the dream world flowers and people your own body sensations so that's what's going on but what godapatha says is what happens when you wake up all the thoughts in your dream mind and all the objects which the thoughts were about all of that is actually the waker's mind baker's mind means you the one who sat up on the bed and said oh it was a dream you were actually not that person in the dream and those objects in the dream were also not actual both were imaginations in your mind you were lying in the bed and dreaming are you with me so far so by a realization of the baker's mind and mind behind the dream both the dream mind and the dream objects become falsified in sanskrit mithyaatva nishtaya now and what happens next in vedanta what he is saying is the same thing for the waker's mind too in the dream you are there in your own dreams when you experience a dream you are right you are there you feel that i am here you don't know it's a dream you feel it's real um you are there yourself you see a body of a mind you see other people and your mind is having thoughts about them are you with me so far i'm describing a dream when you wake up what happens all those objects are nothing but projections of your mind whose mind the waker's mind not the person in the dream the person the dream thought that's a world outside me this is a world inside me this is my mind that's the world these are my thoughts those are the objects when i see a pen in my dreams when i see a pen i see it's a pen an object and here's a thought thought about a pen but when i wake up what do i realize suddenly when i sit up on my bed oh that pen it was imagined in my mind there's no pen there and the thought of that person in in the dream that's also imagined in my mind both the mind and its objects thoughts and objects mind and the world were both imagined in the waker's mind is that not it i'm just describing a dream it's an example now let's apply the example in the waking world what advaita is saying and godhapath is saying what is the way to attain no mind here is the waker's mind what is this waker's mind right now what you've got now that's the waker's mind what you feel now and there is the waker's world or makers objects maker's world let us say what is the waker's world this so you feel here is a world here i am and here are my thoughts about the world they are all appearances just like part and clay all of this is an appearance in atman in consciousness in the thorium seventh mantra of the upanishad waking dreaming deep sleep come and go in one awareness in one consciousness that consciousness itself is appearing as the waker's mind and the world of waking objects once you realize this then this waker's mind remember when you wake up from a dream dream is gone when you wake up from this enlightenment when you wake up from this this will not go this will still keep on appearing what will happen is a real duality will now keep on appearing as an apparent duality like watching a movie so what will happen now is you realize oh i am not this one i am the atman you'll realize this clearly right here right now in this experience itself this will continue to be there but this will not be real anymore nor will its objects be real this mind here is the thing this mind is called no mind no mind is not destroying the mind no mind is realizing the mind is none other than brahman actually first we have to separate the mind from brahman i am not the mind i am pure consciousness of the nature of shiva chidan and rupa shivoham then you realize this is an appearance these are not two entities i alone and appearing as the waker's binding of the waker's world if i alone am appearing from this point of view how many are there from this point of view there are many duality but from this point of view how many are there not two not to from the clay point of view how many things are there not two the part is not a second thing it's only one from the waker's mind when you look back upon the dream how many things are there are there thousands of people thousands of entities no a vast space in a vast long time no it's only the waker's mind which appeared in that all those ways one appearing as many after enlightenment the atman alone appears as all of this this is called no bind one swami in chennai he put it very nicely there are many misconceptions about no mind amani many misconceptions why because sometimes the terminology itself vidhyaranya swami another great teacher panchalashi he in his book jeevan mukti viveka for no mind he uses the term mano nasha mano nasha means destruction of the mind negation of the mind so people think this enlightenment means mind is you become mindless or something like that no one swami in chennai he put it very nicely he said enlightenment means that this mind he says it should not be destroyed it cannot be destroyed and it need not be destroyed what did he say it should not be destroyed it cannot be destroyed and it need not be destroyed why do this destroy thing come because when you hear things like no mind destruction of mind you actually think the mind will go you'll become a zombie a physical body without a mind is that enlightenment no so should not be destroyed why not should not be destroyed how is it possible to be enlightened without a mind the sages if they clearly have a body what do they become like shells without like computers without the software hard disk erased is that enlightenment mindless zombies not at all enlightened person so holy so loving where is all that love love is usually in the mind but enlightened person is no mind so where is all that love gone how can he be endless so full of wisdom and compassion where is the wisdom and compassion if no mind is there and the mind is not there where is the teaching where is mandu kyopanishad clearly my body is there if the liver is functioning heart is functioning lungs are functioning then mind is also functioning so mind should not be destroyed even after enlightenment should not be it's a very unattractive proposition if i become enlightened i'll be a zombie who wants to become an one more candidate for the psych ward what happened became enlightened attended too many vedanta classes yes they revert back to this state of no mind when they come back i'll touch upon that later let me just complete this one then i'll relate it back to samadhi um so um should not be destroyed clearly cannot be destroyed how can the mind be destroyed at least in in indian ideas of the mind we have body mind and atman stuart shadier such a did i forget the current shading atma what dies at the death death body dies and our belief not only our belief the belief in every religion it's a subtle body goes on even in english when you say um what is death he gave up the ghost in india you say just the opposite he gave up the body but there is something giving up something else so there is something that continues after death even death cannot destroy the the mind it's the mind which goes on subtle body which takes up other bodies it's the mind which is living life after life imagine how indestructible the mind must be to live life after life and in hindu cosmology if you if you're not enlightened if the if the end of the universe comes billions of years later stars and planets will all disappear everything is merged back into maya no bodies anymore no worlds no bodies nothing everything is merged back into maya even time and space are occluded are withdrawn matter energy time space nothing exists only lord and his maya god and god's maya in the maya are merged the minds of all of us they are not there individually but still merged sriram krishna put it in a very simple way he said after the harvest season the granny she goes to the field and she picks up the seeds and puts them in little cloths and next season she will use those cloths to plant the vegetable garden again so who's granny mahamaya she picks up all the seeds what are the seeds our minds in in storage in zip format and they're they're all withdrawn and our karmas our accounts are all there but with muhammad when the universe starts all over again we're back into play with all our past karma and everything and this will go on until we get enlightenment in fact the only thing that can destroy the mind is enlightenment at the death of the body when the body falls apart the subtle body the mind also falls apart for the enlightened person for the unenlightened person mind goes on life after life world after world universe after universe so that sound that sounds better if the mind goes then where am i you are the infinite the mind is like a cage the body is like even worse cage the body cage falls apart after every life the mind cage will still remain until you get freedom into your infinitude so um it cannot be destroyed until the death of the body for the enlightened person yes that person goes on to other lives in the sixth chapter of the bhagavad-gita arjun asks this suppose i get all of this and i try but i do not attain enlightenment in this life what will happen to me and krishna says you will go on to the higher worlds and then come back again into this world and try again until you attain enlightenment so you will progress in spiritual life that's what what will happen um there's no regrets for such a person but the enlightened person when the body dies the mind also will dissipate back into nature but until that point by enlightenment the mind is not destroyed what happens to the mind and the word is it is falsified it becomes an appearance enlightenment is realizing atma satya jagat cannot be destroyed and need not be destroyed need not be very important to understand somehow people get the feeling that enlightenment liberation salvation moksha might mean no mind destruction of the mind erasing the world vedanta tells you you don't have to erase the word you don't have to erase the world experience yoga tries to erase the world experience bhakti tries to replace this world experience by a better experience of heaven nice i'll be with god better you suffer in fact there's a description in medieval christian tracts that one of the causes one cause of the enjoyment of the senses of the saints enjoyment of the saints is the presence the holy presence of god but another cause of the enjoyment of the saints is that when they look down from heaven into sufferings of the sinners in hell they will feel oh good i'm saved that's replacing this world with a better world heaven the yogi does heavens health earth all erase stop yogi in samadhi i remain as pure consciousness no experience of the world stop nirvikalpa samadhi but the moment you come out of nirvikalpa samadhi oh no i'm back again and you're left with a wonderful impression of having nirvikalpa samadhi but what godhapath is saying here is that even when the world is going on you realize this world what is this world it's me i alone am appearing as this world when i look at the snake and the rope or say when i look at the water in the mirage i thought it was a real water now after enlightenment i realized that it's a it's an it's an optical illusion but when i look back upon it it happened to swami vivekananda when i look back upon it what do i see water it looks like water but i know that it is not water so the appearance of duality goes on the mind appearance goes on the world appearance goes on the enlightened person sees all of this as nothing but atman the self i alone am appearing as all of this and then there is no problem the real source of problem is real duality satya advaita an apparent duality is not a source of problem rather it's enjoyment it's fun it's theater it's pure drama it's you yourself experiencing yourself in all these ways just uh hold on to the question the story of the princess of kashi which i've told number of times when the um enlightened person that you know the story most of you know repeated quickly the the there was a theatrical performance in the court of a king and one of the roles was the princess of kashi who was supposed to be a little girl and the queen said dress up the prince who was a little boy as the princess and so the prince was dressed up as a princess and he looked so cute the queen said to the court painter paint this picture of the prince dressed as the princess of kashi and a portrait a portrait was made years past and the prince was all grown up maybe 20 years old now and one day while exploring the the cellars of the palace he found this portrait and this girl it says princess of kashi and dated 15 years ago and she thought she must be my age and she's a princess and he fell in love with her he said i want to marry this princess but he's shy he can't tell other people and then his mother and father the king and the queen are worried what happened to the prince finally a wise old minister takes him aside and says prince tell me what your heart what's in your heart why are you so unhappy the prince says that i am in love oh very good who is she or she's the princess of kashi princess of kashi very good a princess very good where did you meet her i haven't met her but i have seen her picture um painted long ago but she's my age quite clearly then the minister seems to remember something and said picture where did you see this picture take me there the prince takes him to the cellar and shows him the portrait and the minister says prince you need to sit down this is not the princess of kashi the princess whoever she is i'll marry her this is not even a a girl you can marry it is you that thou art tattwa masih and he tells the whole story how this thing was done the portrait came about to be the moment the prince realizes what happens to his does the portrait disappear no it's still there but what happens to his desire for the princess of kashi gone gone why because he sees there is no object for the queen called the princess of kashi to be attained why because she is married off no because she is engaged to some other prince no because there is nothing apart from him there he alone is there though it looks completely different look at the verse here it says because of the absence of anything to be attained the mind does not try to attain anything apart from it that is no mind no when the mind does not make sankalpas does not recognize an entity apart from it and think about it what is sankalpa thought object the way we are doing right now thought an object this this is very subtle philosophy the mind will continue to function how just as it is functioning now your intellect will work your memory will work your mind will work um your all your abilities will be there body will work everything will be there except nothing will be there because it you realize it is the atman alone appearing as the mind and its objects because of that though all functionality is there you realize every bit of it is atman i myself and therefore there is nothing here to be attained graham there's nothing here to be discarded nothing to be attained nothing to discover what will you discard it's you what are you trying to so hard to attain it's you the purna in kashmir shaivism is called the infinite eye without any limit and therefore you are completely fulfilled about as far as the universe is concerned you're completely fulfilled nothing in this universe can disturb you why it's you nothing in this universe can attract you separately why it's you and all of it now becomes drama or theater or an extension of your own joy it's your own bliss overflowing as this universe so it's delightful then it becomes delightful there is no longer any necessity of erasing does the prince feel now i have to burn the portrait does the prince feel that i have to tear this portrait to shreds no there's nothing it's just me just me this universe every bit of it is it's brahman it's brahman somebody said there is a change in the mind also yes change in understanding there is a there is a tremendous upheaval in life your whole idea about the world purpose of life everything is turned topsy-turvy you are one with everything there is no further individual striving for fulfillment you are you realize you are ever fulfilled you are the infinite what else could you want what else could you what what is there which is lacking in your life every bit of this world good or bad is you yourself swami vivekananda said in his poem one alone exists these are these are his words one alone exists it appears as nature soul one alone exists it appears as nature soul object subject whom will you be angry with whom will you desire or or be be annoyed with or attract or be repelled to because it is ultimately these are names and forms utility will continue experience will continue activity will continue after realizing that the part is made of clay does it prevent you from storing water in it earlier i could store water but it's not a pot anymore after attending the vedanta class now i know it's clay i can't put anything in it no you can go on but absolutely knowing that you can say while saying that it's not a pot you can easily go on behaving as if it's a part similarly you are you realize your infinite nature death will touch what the body changes are always at this level they are not real you are the immortal changeless self so it still looks the same but your understanding of it is completely revolutionized that's a beautiful story about the sun wittgenstein the great german philosopher i really liked this he was british from from austria but so the story goes um he was in cambridge one day he is walking outside his class and the lady who has recorded the story she says suddenly he looked at the sun and he said wittgenstein he said i wonder why the ancients thought that the sun moved around the earth instead of the other way round it's the earth which is turning right from west to east that's why it seems that the sun is rising in the east and going to the west this earth which is rotating so why did the ancients think that the sun is moving and the lady said why because it looks like that it looks like that it looks like that and therefore they thought it the sun which is moving and not the earth his answer was what would it look like if that were not the case it would look exactly the same what it means is it looks exactly the same and if the earth were turning and the sun were not moving around the earth what would it look like just like this if you are if it is dualism is correct you are a separate reality and the world you are all these are all separate reality from you what would it look like like this if it is truly non-dualism one infinity appearing as many what would it look like like this that's the amazing thing you need not erase it the truth is from that non-dual perspective it's perfectly all right it is non-dual hence no samsara the appearance of duality is not samsara because because what is samsara birth and death the law of karma good actions and bad actions attraction and repulsion raag advaisha pravriti nivriti dharma dharma punar janma this is samsara none of it will be there when you are enlightened so when you realize non-duality though the world continues to appear and work in this way you are delivered of samsara a great change comes internally i think it was eliot who said um that that we shall sail forth and see new seas and so many things and very beautiful language and this is when we come back again to the same place but we shall see the old with new eyes now the whole world viswamata nandanavanam the entire this world itself is transformed into the heavens of indra of the world i mean the heaven the gardens of heaven you realize that yeah this is the most mature idea of spirituality all others try to shift or change something change something in the world outside replace this world with a heaven or change something in your own perception replace this perception with a new perception or stop the perception yoga but here let everything remain only knowledge ignorance is replaced by knowledge just understand what it is and you are delivered from it it's so easy to say like we know what clay is yes but interestingly the question was see i do not know what atman is vedanta will say stop atman means i be myself are you saying that i do not know what i am i do not know what i am if you say i do not know what i am vedantas is very good it's a good place to begin if you say i know what i am that's much harder first i have to disabuse you of the idea that you really know what you are because you if you say i know what i am so i know what i am i will probably point to this one okay tell me what are you i am this didn't start vedanta abc i am not the body why because it's a drishya because this is anitya because it is jada because it is anika because it's by here so many reasons and so many exercises will be there when you begin to see okay maybe i'm not this physical system but i am the mind and the person inside the body yes that's correct all right let's take that up same logic and exercise we've done this any number of times then you begin to appreciate what the atman is you are the atman right now see if everything was perfect you don't need a vedanta class what does the vedanta class do does it change the world for you no does it change your experience of the world not even that the yoga class will change the experience of the world for you sorry i disagree with that wait just change the your experience of the world too because you know what you teach us here when one embodies wait wait you are all right correct but at core what does it do if you say changes the experience of the world say a class in astronomy which taught you that the earth is rotating not the sun sun is not revolving around the earth did it change your experience of looking at the sun you're still seeing the same thing but now your understanding is completely different similarly at least at least from a very common sense point of view you're still the same person other people will see you're still seeing the same world yes you are a completely changed person inside because of that knowledge yeah and that's knowledge learned in a textbook here the knowledge is about yourself because it is about you so i know what you're trying to say because it is about yourself it feels like a tremendous change in your experience because it is yeah you can say your experience has changed in that sense you can see your world is also changed right the what i'm trying to say is that the prince who looked at the portrait of the princess of kashi after the knowledge did he see a different portrait same portrait but his entire perspective has changed similarly your entire perspective right here right now in this thing and atman we can never say that i do not know myself because you are you but what is the nature of i myself without reflection i have taken myself to be a body it's like this when i take myself to a physical body it's a physical universe the body is physical universe is physical i interact with physical entities other bodies objects space this is this physical but then i realize like elon musk has realized all this so-called physical universe i'm experiencing in the mental if the mind were not there but god a father says if the mind did not vibrate no physical universe would be experienced so what i'm experiencing now is i'm experiencing inside no doctor would deny that also it's the data pouring in through all our senses collected collated assimilated and represented in our minds how after the neurons what happens no doctor till today knows somehow it is presented to us the mind so at that level then i am a mind experiencing mental objects so no no there's a physical object no there's no physical object there anymore it's the physical so-called physical object is in the mind just like you recognize it's possible in dreams go one step further and you're at the atman the entire mind appears and disappears in you the awareness that awareness is not an object it's the pure subject can never be objectified the last object is the mind or let us say even more subtle is the absence of the mind that is the path of yoga when you make the mind absent there is the possibility of recognizing yourself as the witness of the presence and absence of mind so that atman is once you are we are educated into it there is something to be done as you are saying that we understand what is clay and what is part obviously you understand because that's why the example is used if one cannot understand the example there's no point in giving an example right so i understand the example but it's meant to show something that something similar is going on here and to understand that one must um study this yes [Music] the enlightened mind in its real nature is limitless because the enlightened mind is nothing other than brahman but still the mind that is enlightened yes mine is in latin means it is brahman brahman alone is actually the mind is also nothing but brahman in the early stages the first stage i have said there is a stage of separation i am not the world not the body not the mind i understand begin to understand what the ottoman is but next stage you must reduce the world body and mind back into atman right but the same mind functions at both levels yeah both levels means no mind is not paramatic paramatic is only brahman when brahman is walking talking eating this is here it is body mind but the difference is we think it is body mind and world this is duality the enlightened person sees it is the same brahman appearing as body as mind and as a world this one for us this is theoretical if i ask you is does this make sense what waker's mind and waker's world you see yeah that's one way of looking at it but i'll say if this makes sense so this part we will put a question mark here this is you are saying it mandooky is saying is god apart is saying it but really what is that the atman if you're saying that we are this is ignorance this is at the level of avidya what vedanta the whole of vedanta is trying to educate us into seeing this this background existence consciousness bliss right now in a dream in a dream if you did not know it was a dream i am dreaming and seeing the dream world and if somebody keeps telling me this is a dream at the background of everything background there is a mind you are sleeping on your bed you're not walking or jogging in central park there's no lake here there's no park here there is no body here there is no jogging here there no birds chirping and flowers blooming it's all mind it sounds something out of science fiction but when you wake up when you wake up will all your perceptions be true or with what that person said in the dream will that be true that will be true you realize all of it was in the mind yes how is this how is this inconsistencies which swami vivekananda was found he was used to repeat in the in america here itself and it's basically the essence of um of um religion and spirituality you find a part of it in shweta yeah the whole thing which swine vivekananda would say srinivanthu vishwa amrita listen the children of immortal bliss um [Music] i have realized that infinite being what is that infinite being like aditya varanam tamasaf parasthat blazing forth like the sun like the spring sun outside blazing forth with the radiance like the sun beyond darkness blazing forth like the sun not like the material sun is the sun of consciousness of awareness beyond darkness means beyond ignorance beyond death beyond suffering beyond duality so what is that infinite being shining forth like the sun is this one where have i become aware of it hear itself i have realized that infinite being then what's the use of realizing this infinite being infinite look at the words mahanta means infinite anantam infinite means there cannot be anything else apart from this it is all that there is therefore this waker's mind and waker's world must also be this one only what what is the use of all this prayer janam tim prayujanam what is the use tamaeva vedit tua atim ritu meithi by realizing that one goes beyond death how does one go beyond that by realizing that i realize i am not this little person i am that infinite being this one does not die i am this one therefore i do not die okay yeah go on uh talk about how to become the new mind or in practical terms or just talk about if you ask god or father this is the most practical thing he has said see this is advaita vedanta this is like the final teaching it's what is called a direct teaching after all this no this is very theoretical can you tell me practical practical means in the upanishad will say okay i get it i understand the case i'll tell you what i'll tell you what sit straight fold your legs i can't my knee pain all right sit on the chair back straight breathe like this close your eyes calm the mind can't calm the mind it's so restless understood ten thousand mantra repeat the mantra ten thousand times a day and i fall asleep gets distracted open your eyes put a picture of shri krishna in front of you look at the picture so that you don't fall asleep it's so boring okay here is a puja there's flowers and they have to cut the fruit and take a bath and make the garlands and sing a song and then do the puja then sit and repeat the mantra how many times ten thousand times a day how long forty years then come back okay come back then what that was [Laughter] there was this vedanta student who came to a teacher in in uttar in the uttarkashi to the teachers in the himalayas and young student he said give me enlightenment and the teacher said tattoo that thou art and the student said oh i know that it's in this upanishad then the other upanishad says this and that one says it but buddhism says that then the teacher said hmm send him to the cowshed he's going to clean cow dung for now that's his job he said it's horrible and he's a he's a college student he doesn't know that hasn't done this dirty work anyway he wants enlightenment what can he do he sticks it out years pass and he is grumbling and he says when do i get enlightenment and finally 12 years later a guy comes and says the guru has called you come tomorrow and take a bath first so next day he goes and says yes master that dao art and this person says yes i get it he might be scared of being sent to the back to the country no but truly truly that's why vedanta it takes a little getting used to i call this the finishing school of spirituality it's not working this sounds so theoretical and abstract okay i'm going to enroll you in vipassana meditation 10 hours a day for one week yeah that seems nice okay try it what happens is why this doesn't work there are different layers of problems and complications in our mind and so a vast amount of spiritual technology has been developed that's why tibetan buddhism is spectacular that way because it has a whole range of techniques starting from the physical to the mental to the more subtle to the very subtle everywhere designed to tackle particular problems advaita vedant is basically the the peak of the everest the peak of the everest is not a comfortable place kashmiri shaivism for example another system of hindu philosophy is a very positive and very full spectrum approach they call they have four levels there is the direct path and then there is a path of meditation there is a path of rituals and there is a path of action and puja and at the beginning the master says if by the direct path you realize what you are the rest is not necessary doesn't work start where you are see where the shoe pinches and start there yeah yes i feel that the the dream that we care the dreams that we get uh is just a highest manifestation of the infinite grace that god gives us because every night it kind of points us to the real model of how this is going to work we just don't give attention to to this correlation the coalition that we did today like the dream person and the dream men wake up and the waking person and the super conscious this correlation right in fact the simplest thing you need to do is to whom is disappearing what is to whom is this appearing where we get caught up is it simple turn we are always interested in the objects of experience here is the world i am interested in this what else should i be interested in what about the one to which the world is appearing vedanta says turn inwards to whom is this world appearing as the vedanta teacher said the master somebody went a lot of problems in life and the teacher shouted i'm not interested in your problems how cruel no i'm not interested in your problems i'm interested in you so there's a difference between you and your problems what are you who am i what am i in dreams too we are fascinated with what we are dreaming about good dream bad dream basically it means the contents of the dreams but what about the dreamer what vedanta says first understand who the dreamer is who the seer is who the experiencer is and then you will see what is experienced seen dreamt is nothing apart from the seer from that experiencing consciousness it is one seamless reality yeah last question this might be a stupid question but uh usually the best ones let's see if there is one individual who realizes that their true nature is enlightenment and then is living this you know appearance of the world through you know what was his body and mind previously but if atman is one there's the same athman in every individual around him why wouldn't that person be experiencing the world after enlightenment through the eyes and ears of every person or do they i'm going to subcontract these what is it called outsource this these questions simple the answer is simple experience you know why we ask these questions very interesting the reason is we are so identified with the mind that we think all right i have understood what you are saying no you have not you're still thinking of the mind as with this mind i understand what's going on in this body and this mind to understand what's going on here and to understand what's going on in the mind you require the mind similarly i the consciousness in each body mind and the recipient of the experiences of that particular body mind so when i realize myself as pure consciousness i will know that i am the same consciousness in all bodies and minds but this i will know this knowledge is also in this particular mind that's why one person is enlightened it's not that everybody will be enlightened by the same knowledge to answer this question really viscerally to understand it clearly if you can really understand it that's just one step away from enlightenment to the difference between consciousness and mind will have to be understood all right let's stop here this this this will go on that's the other question yes i just want to talk to you before it's too late today so [Music] by the way vivekandes approaches all of this use the gyana approach of gowdapadha use the bhakti approach use the meditation approach of patanjali so all of them use all four yogas you don't have to be exclusive about it all right and this topic will continue the no mind topic will continue in the next few verses very beautiful verses are coming up