Video 16

16. Vedantasara | Texts 92-97 | Swami Sarvapriyananda

[Music] [Music] the self the indivisible existence consciousness bliss absolute beyond the reach of words and thought from the substratum of all for the attainment of my cherished desire so in the vedanta sara we had reached text number 90 is that right is that about right text number 90 i think we had done i remember doing text number 89 last time so what's happened till now what are the pieces in the game we know the basic understanding is that there is one absolute reality which is brahman but then the question remains that what about all this where did all this come from what is all this so the vedantasaur starts with um that vastu satchida brahma brahman is the only reality which is non-dual even the word non-dual means that there is no second reality apart from brahman so brahman is the only reality non-dual and what is this brahman existence consciousness place and then everything else that we see we don't see it as brahman then what is this this is in reality brahman but in appearance um from ignorance downwards from maya downwards everything is an appearance and jada samohad jada means object of an object of knowledge a material object this is all material objects they are all appearances and then we saw an investigation into what maya is what is it that causes brahman to appear in this way there was a discussion about maya the properties of maya among the properties of maya is that it it can be divided into infinitesimally small parts or it can be taken as one as a whole so when it is taken one as a whole brahman and maya brahman limited by this maya which is not ultimately real brahman limited by this um this relative maya is called god or ishvara and brahman limited by a part but by each part of maya becomes the individual sentient beings which we in ultimately which will be like us so the other thing interesting about it was the maya has two powers one is veiling and one is projecting so maya has the capacity of uh veiling brahman that it that everything is brahman is not clear to us at all that we are brahman it's not clear to us at all we think we are these limited bodies and minds the projecting power of maya then what does it do that same brahman the same ultimate reality it projects as this relative reality that absolute reality alone is projected as the relative reality that brahman alone is projected as this universe how does it do that in three stages the first stage is causal second stage is subtle and third stage is gross gross in the sense of physical not in the sense of you know awful or something the physical so causal causal is maya maya itself is causal so the causal state is maya itself and consciousness in association with maya at that stage is is god literally god is the cause of this universe and that notice that in a different language all the theistic religions actually say that god is the um cause of this universe god god is the creator and preserver and destroyer and the source of this universe is god so that is the causal level of creation it's like a seed and then comes this subtle level how does the subtle level come maya projects this brahman itself as the five subtle elements space earth sorry space then air and fire water and earth and that earth is not for example um you know this thing no it's not a physical gross thing it's a subtle element and those subtle elements in sanskrit known as sukshma tanmatra sukshma tanmatra these subtle elements they combine together and they produce subtle bodies what's a subtle body what's the causal body ignorance itself maya itself is the causal body what's the subtle body and the subtle body is composed of 17 parts and we saw the 17 parts and how they come from the subtle elements you know the five sense organs the five motor organs the the five pranas and the inner so-called inner instrument mind intellect that makes 17 but if you further count memory and ego that makes 19 whatever the whole set is called the subtle body this is what undergoes um which this is what goes from birth to birth so that same consciousness which was there now covered with or limited by maya is now covered which are limited by all these subtle bodies and will be called hiranyakarbha the cosmic mind and the same um brahman limited by individual causal bodies and individual subtle bodies remember whenever you're talking about a subtle body you're already assuming the causal body is still there causal body then further covered over by a subtle body is us sentient beings so it's called it says for the first time a transactional active sentient being comes thinking feeling knowing doing all this becomes possible when the subtle body is there that's very recognizable as us that thinking being embodied we still don't have physical body but the thinking being which we identify ourselves as this person this is that subtle body consciousness flowing through the causal body and the subtle body is the person you think yourself to be is what i think myself to be and we were told that it has the powers of ghana knowing so brahmana's pure consciousness does not know directly it generates a causal body and a subtle body then it can know something no in the sense of our sense of knowing seeing hearing smelling tasting touching thinking understanding remembering it has the power of desiring icha and it's the power of doing kriya gyana icha kriya the power of knowing desiring and doing these comes with the subtle body you think of it as a set of apps yeah there's the same phone the same computer the set of apps enables you to do many more things with that so the same brahman now can do so all these things and the question will come oh so brahman does depend on a subtle body or a causal body brahman by itself seems to be pretty useless it's like saying that gold does depend on a necklace to be worn you know and used in these ways and to be called a necklace yes and no because the necklace itself is nothing but the gold this universe and the body and the subtle body causal body whatever you call it whatever fancy name you give it is nothing but brahman is nothing but god one reality alone is there so these things they are you can call them the glory of god you can call them the glory of brahman it's not that brahman has become dependent on this like depending on a crutch and working on that you know not like that this idea of dependence this idea of duality comes from a sankhya purusha does depend on prakriti in sankhya philosophy there are two realities consciousness and matter and consciousness does depend on matter for every kind of material experience and activity because matter is different from consciousness in sankey philosophy but in advaitha matter is merged back prakriti maya merged back into brahman so it is brahman's glory or brahman's power whatever you call it all right this is what we have got so far now let's go ahead before closing this topic of subtle bodies we are now ready to slowly move into the gross universe the physical universe this actually the stuff which we are seeing around us how does that come so the movement is from uh absolute reality brahman to this causal to the subtle and now we are moving towards the gross or the physical our actual these bodies will also come but before that uh the author wants to make a point that the oneness which we which we began brahman is one reality that was maintained when maya came we can think of maya he's remember they said you can think of maya as a forest as one forest or a collection of trees it's the same thing and now that we are we have a very complex set of subtle bodies so many subtle bodies the oneness is still maintained he will just make a point that it is still one reality text number 90. so i'll just quickly read through this take some questions then move on to the next important thing which is the the dirty work of producing the physical universe a lot of hard labor ahead of us i'm reading text number 90. [Music] here also the sum total of all the subtle bodies when looked upon as one like a forest or a reservoir is called samashti or aggregate and when viewed as many like the trees or quantities of water is called vesti or individual same thing basically you just take all the subtle bodies together and you can think of it as one subtle body that will be the subtle body of god it'll be the cosmic mind or you can take them individually like we are doing right now all of us each of us when you look at i mean it's it's not saying something very sort of when you look at all these people on the screen you know in each of those bodies dwells are mind and we feel these are separate minds individual minds you know individual subtle bodies minds intellects memories egos the whole set of pranas and sense organs so they each has a separate subtle body you can think of them as separate as many many subtle bodies or as all of those billions as one subtle body as you can think of a forest as one forest or many many trees you can think of the reservoir as one mass of water or billions of drops of water so 91 so what the point he's going to make is in 91. [Music] consciousness associated with this quality is called sutrath etc because it is imminent everywhere and because it identifies itself with the five great uncompounded elements endowed with powers of knowledge will and activity basically what is he saying here he's talking about the existence of a cosmic mind what's a cosmic mind all our minds put together my mind i just don't mean one mind i mean i'm just mind i mean intellects memories all the data we have stored all our processing capacity all our creativity all our personalities all our egos all put together into one extraordinary you know internet internet of the mind a cosmic mind so there you can take it all as one mind cosmic mind and behind that is consciousness consciousness cosmic causal body cosmic mind what is this consciousness plus cosmic causal body called ishwara or god what is this consciousness plus cosmic causal body and cosmic mind called hiranya garbha he is giving three names here hiranya garbha praana so this prana is not the prana don't mix it up with it the word prana is used in many ways it's not the prana which is the vital force uh not the prana which is the breathing in breathing out here prana means the cosmic mind why would you call use the same word isn't it confusing why would you use the same word for something extraordinary like the cosmic mind because um the subtle body the most obvious part of the subtle body right now is this process of breathing which we have which is a link between the subtle body and the physical universe so you take that as indicating the entire subtle body so prana here is taken as indicating the entire world of energy vitality beyond that the entire world of mind mind intellect memory ego see when i'm using the word mind i'm using it in the sense of the entire inner instrument mind intellect ego memory altogether it is also known as sutrathma the how do you put it to sutra atmos like literally means like a sutra means a thread like a thread going through a garland when you have a garland with many flowers or you have a garland with many gems it's all linked together by a thread so the cosmic mind is what runs through all of us as a thread as all all billions and billions of living beings it runs through all of us as a thread it's the mind which unites the whole thing um so what did we read either samashti this totality which totality totality of all subtle bodies consciousness associated with all this totality of subtle bodies is given few names sutratma like a thread like the thread sole let us call it which runs through all beings literally the golden egg uh it's because that's where i'll tell you why it is the golden egg it's it's actually the originator of the universe he said i thought god was the originator of the universe yes but god is a kind of non-active partner sleeping partner the actual work is subcontracted to hiranyakarwa in hindu mythology he is called brahma so brahma is the creator of the world actually this is brahma not brahman brahman is absolute reality this is brahma with an ah the creator of the world this is brahma the one who comes up in the navel of vishnu sitting on a lotus so the brahma vishnu maheshwara of that of the trial of the triad of gods the creator preserver and destroyer so brahma that brahma another name is prana what does it what does it do because it is pervading all bodies it is running through all bodies like a thread like a thread runs to all flowers of a garland and what powers does it have gana itcha kriya so it has the powers of knowledge and it has the power of willing or desiring and the power of doing just like our minds we have the powers of knowing things we see hear smell taste touch we understand we remember and we have the power of desire i want i will do this and we actually have the power of executing we put the mind is what puts the physical body into action so three powers gyana cha shakti these become manifest at this level again question might come so brahman in itself is powerless useless and powerless brahman two answers one is all these powers ultimately they belong to brahmana after all all the beauty of a necklace or a bracelet it is the beauty of the gold itself without the gold none of that would be possible you have worked upon the goal to bring out that beauty similarly all these powers are inherent in brahman itself if you call them they depend on brahman for their very existence they depend on brahman for their manifestation so that's one answer the deeper answer is power is actually a sign of weakness when we do not have power we are called weak and those who have power they are powerful but powerful and weak with regard to the ability to do certain things to fulfill certain desires the very fact that we have to do certain things but we have desires to be fulfilled it shows limitation it shows limitation i to cross the um hudson river i need the george washington bridge and a bird can fly across so bird is more powerful than me yes but in one sense it's also limited it needs to fly across if it were everywhere for example if it's the sky does the sky need to go anywhere does the sky need the power to drive across a bridge or fly over something no it's everywhere so something absolute like brahmana would not have any desires would not have things to be accomplished that is the sign of supreme power there's absolutely no need for power there so i don't if that makes sense to you that's one way of looking at it and then notice also again and again the words you being used one word is being repeated here upahitam remember the term i used upadhi like the red flower being present near a crystal so crystal is a clear um so like this for example so and now this is clear no color the moment i bring a yellow cloth behind it now it looks yellow it has not become yellow at any time but the very presence of the yellow cloth makes it look here look this yellow cloth is called the upadhi of this thing it lends its properties to this as if not that anything enters into it just looks like that this is called upahita so all of this according to advaita vedanta nothing really has happened to brahman nothing really has happened in reality it is because of this magic generated by maya the brahman seems to have all this causal body subtle bodies powers of knowing hearing doing and desiring all of this all right now little more before i stop text number 92 [Music] [Music] all right now this totality of all subtle bodies on this cosmic mind the totality of subtle bodies um is it's made of the what is it made of began amaya kosher the sheath of the intellect manomaya kosha sheath of the mind and prana maya kosher what about ananda my kosher that's causal at the causal level karana sharira at the subtle level sukshma sharira are the three vigyana maya intellect sheet manomaya minesheet pranamaya the vital sheath so this totality this all subtle bodies took us taken together why is it called subtle what's subtle about it stool up because it is subtler than the gross universe which is to come next we're going to produce it now you see where does this cause where does this question arise all we are used we have got so far look at the things we have got so far in our play set we have got the absolute reality brahman which is extraordinarily subtle and uh we have got maya which is really really subtle and now we have got these subtle elements and subtle bodies why are we calling these subtle what are these subtle with regard to these are actually grows quite close compared to brahman and maya do you see where the question is coming why is the subtle body called subtle subtle with regard to what so he's explaining which subtle with regard to something that's going to come next which is the physical body not subtle with regard to what has gone on previously which is maya itself and brahman those are even more subtle than this so it doesn't deserve subtle body doesn't deserve to be called subtle with regard to consciousness itself brahman itself or maya itself no but it is certainly compared to the physical this body which is going to come next um which is composed of the three koshas vikyana maya manamaya and anandamaya it is also another name for this is dream it is equivalent to a dream in the sense that it is pervaded by the experiences of the waking state it is the place where the physical the gross universe is dissolved result is merged back daily in our dreams and ultimately at the time of cosmic resolution when um ishwar god dissolves the universe the physical universe will will be withdrawn back into the mind of god and the mind of god will be withdrawn back into the causal body of god and that's how the universe will remain for untold eons until god again projects this this is the so-called cyclic theory of creation preservation and destruction of the universe many universes projected over infinite time and whole game goes on many jeevas many infinite sentient beings like us playing this game and becoming liberated and so on and that's it's really stupendous i remember reading carl sagan he had this wonderful book cosmos and there was a serial this is one of the few western serials we had on tv in india when we were kids we used to watch carl sagan's cosmos and in his book in cosmos he talks about scales of time and he says that compared to primitive civilizations now in our modern scientific age the scales of time which we are used to billions of years primitive ideas of creation which started a few thousand years ago those are childish compared to what we're talking about now billions and billions of years and then he ends there's only one scale of time which is even more stupendous than our modern scientific conception and then he says it's the ancient hindu conception of the cyclic universe over he says an infinity of eons of time um this universe is coming into being playing out over billions of years disappearing more universes coming into being so you see that is even more stupendous than our present scientific conception so he says tula prapanjalayasthanam the subtle universe is the place where the physical universe is dissolved what it just means is our experience of the physical universe disappears when we go falling fall asleep and dream and actually this physical universe will disappear back into the cosmic mind at the end of this present cycle of creation a little more a little bit patient till we finish this section now this is the cosmic mind what about us individual beings that's coming next i'll just race through this 93. [Music] consciousness associated with each individual subtle body is known as tijasa or full of light on account of its being associated with the effelgened inner organ antakaranam that's us they're talking about pure consciousness brahman limited by each individual subtle body is this each right now we can identify here there are 73 subtle bodies and of course physical bodies but 73 subtle bodies and therefore we say that there are 73 participants zoom can count 73 participants each of these subtle bodies is different thoughts feelings emotions personal narrative his so the this each subtle body limiting and channelizing brahman is what is called individual sentient being um the name given is stages full of light it's it's associated with individual mind and karana what does this individual subtle body do 94 asiya pm yesterday the individual limiting adjunct of taija satu so such a cumbersome term individual limiting adjunct what it means is our mind and the individual limit or subtle body let's call it subtle body the individual limiting adjunct of digester ii made up of three sheets vigyanamaya manomaya pranamaya is called the subtle body why is it called what is it subtle in comparison to it is because it is finer than the gross body which grows body this one it is also called the dream state as it consists of the impressions of the waking state and for that very reason it is known as the merging place for the gross body when you fall asleep we lose contact with our gross body that's all it means then 95 we'll do up to 97 and stop is through subtle functionings of the mind experience the subtle objects that means our own thoughts dreams memories ideas this is what we experience witness such shruti passages and squirting from the mandu kyopanisha we have done all this in the mandukya taija says the enjoyer of subtle objects 96 here also you can talk about it as uh individual and and um gross you know jalapeno here also the aggregate and individual subtle bodies are identical like a forest and its trees or like a lake and its waters and the sutra manta just which have those bodies of the limiting adjuncts are also identical like the space is enclosed by a forest and its trees are like the sky is reflected in the lake and its waters it's exactly like what was done in the case of causal bodies what he's saying here is you can take all the subtle bodies as individual like the trees in a forest many trees or you can take them all together as one forest you can take all the subtle bodies together as one subtle body or one cosmic mind he gives the example of forest and trees lake and water and he says the consciousness associated with the cosmic mind and the consciousness associated with each of these individual minds here is one and the same it's like the sky reflected in the lake the sky reflected in the drops of water and the sky reflected in the lake itself is the same sky the sky enclosed by the total forest and the totality of the sky enclosed by the trees is the same sky so like that the same consciousness is limited by individual minds seems to be different in every being together with the entire cosmic mind seems to be one but it is the same one consciousness only there are no parts in consciousness therefore we come to the end of this section 97 thus two subtle bodies originate all right big part of our job done remember what stage we have completed in the construction of the universe brahman with maya causal universe then subtle bodies all these subtle elements subtle bodies and all subtle universe and now gross elements and gross bodies and you in the universe planets and stars and all of that is going to come next all right let's look at the activity in the chat lisa is saying swamiji many of us reeling with everything that's happening in our country now as vedantins what is the best way for us to handle this what is the perspective we should take well don't real be be calm and collected and [Music] do whatever has to be done whatever your role is in life is and as citizens of the country there is no need to be upset we have seen worse in this life or past lives and in other forms in other countries and you know people are seeing worse than this whatever you can imagine here in the united states yeah but i know what you mean i i was watching the news on youtube anuradha is asking why is it that in said in that in higher vedanta maya word should be changed to a ghana what is the benefit um i don't know if it said that but notice that in the vedanta it is used bhagyanam's totality of argyanam as individual again the whole point is to ign overcome ignorance with the help of knowledge i think to stress that so maya word is ambiguous it covers so many things just now i saw a book which i had not seen earlier six meanings of maya other than illusion according to dr radhakrishnan that's the name of the book so my word has many meanings again i'm very clear ignorance then abhijit is asking pronouns manages a part of the causal body shared by all subtle bodies all subtle bodies have a causal body uh and the causal body is just ignorance itself think about it this way when the mind is shut down that is the causal body when the mind is active that is the subtle body um it it when is the mind shut down deep sleep that is the causal state everything is in the seed state at that at that level and then it becomes active in the waking state now we say is it gone then in the waking state is the causal body gone no it's always there there's a background to all activity all activity of the subtle body rama how do we differentiate between sukshma bhuta or tanmatra from pancha bhuta so bhuta means element one must be clear here because in most indian language bhuta means ghosts and there is a reason why buddha means ghosts in indian languages because the ghosts are made of subtle elements this sukhpo the five subtle elements we talked about subtle space and air and fire and water and earth that is the constituent of our minds and what is a ghost if i give up the body and i stay with the mind alone i'm a ghost it's it's a consciousness with with the mind only i mean with mind means with a subtle body without the covering of a physical body so you can't see me but i can go around doing boo and so that will be a ghost and what am i made of then what is the subtle body made of five subtle elements panchayat so that's why we are known as bhuta ghost is known as buddha then how do we differentiate between such mabuta and tanmatra from pancha bhuta so the tranmatras are also panchaput there are five tan matras five subtle elements and these are also known as the five tan matra tanmatra means that only space that only fire is only fire earth is only earth what does it mean only earth what else could it be we'll see what else it will be now soon it'll all be mixed up to form um the gross elements when they're mixed up to form the gross elements by which the physical universe will be constructed then they are called pancha mahabhuta the five gross elements or five physical elements patrick is asking the practice of distinguishing the subject from objects and merging everything back into subject two steps to not to related super input yes superimposition d superimposition are the two separate techniques to realize the same thing no it's the same technique the two steps to the not two first you separate consciousness from everything else and then that everything else is merged back into consciousness so that's the way to do understand advaita non-duality and this super imposition the supreme position is basically the formal way in which this is done this thing is accomplished the two steps rick is asking could it be that the six schools of indian philosophy are not originally conceived as competitors but as teachings appropriate to different levels of consciousness or spiritual development yes and no if you ask an academic you they will say that they're all competitors they all grew up in rivalry to each other but i have actually heard it said by monks and at least one great pandit who has written only in bengali unfortunately in in the early 20th century who talks about the harmony between the six schools of uh philosophy of orthodox philosophy orthodox hindu philosophy nyaya vaisheshika sankhya yoga purvam imamsa and uttaram imams are vedanta so they seem to be rivals they seem to say different things but if you notice there is a progression the niya and vaishyashika school the vaishishika schools and the schools there are pluralistic there are multiple realities in this universe and there are some minds who can't go beyond that who want to be like that that it's that seems to be realistic for them to reduce everything to consciousness seems fictitious so such minds can they not progress spiritually certainly they can and such minds are not dumb william james for example he had running debates with swami vivekananda and later on with swania vedananda and he could not accept the monistic doctrine the advaithic doctrine there's a disc there's a nice description of swami abedan who was visiting new england at that time i think so he was he gave a talk on advaita william james attends it with his students and then william james in fact in the during the talk william james was whispering questions to his students to ask to the swami and the pr and those things were very formal the president of the meeting stood up and said the swami would very much appreciate it if the professor the learned professor would put his own questions in person um and william james laughed and he said it's not appropriate now but then he invited the swan before dinner he already knew swami vivekananda so he knew that was a brother disciple of vivekananda the the dinner party at uh william james's house is described very nicely there is charles landmann who was the founder of the sanskrit department in harvard university there was um um royce one of the leading uh american uh um idealistic of philosophers and uh um there was sami abedin there and josiah royce josiah rice and there was william william james and swami abedan and then james debated on one side was swami abedan and the charles landman and josiah royce all of them were for advaita and william james was on the other side and the description we have got in our books is that the discussion went on for three hours after dinner and then william james was forced to admit the force of the swami's arguments and it ends there but i don't think he was convinced because to the end of his days he remained a committed pluralist so naya and vaishashika philosophies are pluralistic that there are ultimately many external realities substance is a reality quality is a reality action is a reality so and among substances there's a kind of substance called self and among cells there are individual selves and the supreme self which is god and thus religion is based on this distinction one step higher is the sankhya yoga paradigm where all material entities instead of plural realities they're all put under nature prakriti so entire material universe is prakriti nature as opposed to this is consciousness which is seen as separate it is not part of material nature so it is somewhat similar to what william james is now proposing not william james uh david chalmers is proposing a span psychism in the latest form pansexism is the old theory the newest form of pan psychism that consciousness is a fundamental reality all pervading reality in this universe so there's a material universe and consciousness very similar to what sankey said what happens is then you see yourself as consciousness and yet there are people who cannot dismiss this world as as not real so the world the reality of the world is preserved that is the sankhya yoga paradigm then you go to the vedic pattern where it's divided into conventional religion which is the realm of purvami maamsa ritualistic conventional religion and then you come to advaita vedanta i'm moving by leap leaps and bounds advaita vedanta which says there's only one reality brahman so you see there's a certain progression they're not really rivals in that sense they're they're sort of harmonious i was reading a talk given by but a leading lama he was the master of zhokjan buddhism in last century in fact this llama organ tulku i think he lived in nepal sam harris mentions this lama and he says in his book waking up he says i went there to learn the essence of tibetan buddhism and he says this is a extraordinary teacher who just seemed to hand you the insight that you are not the body and mind that you are the witness consciousness it gives you the power to overcome at least the tides these are these words tides of mental suffering directly you can overcome and it shows that it's possible so that llama i was reading one of his talks and translated into english so there he says about buddhism he's not at all talking about the six schools he's saying after all the schools of um the the lesser vehicle the greater vehicle and so on you know in buddhism they have the theravada the mahayana and the tibetan buddhists consider themselves to be the superior so professor garfield said buddhism for dummies and buddhism for semi-dummies and buddhism for smart people that's how they regard themselves buddhism for dummies the buddhism for semi-dummies is mahayana and in mahayana itself the really smart ones you go to tibetan buddhism but he says in this writing the various vehicles and the four schools of buddhist philosophy satrantika the mind only yogacara school and the emptiness school of madhyamaka they are all pointing towards the same truth and they are designed to help people at different levels of preparation although if you read buddhist philosophy they are seen as terrible rivals they are fighting mostly each other um so i remember in professor garfield's class at harvard last year we were trying to identify which schools is this particular medieval tibetan scholar dividend buddhist scholar is harshly attacking certain schools of thought and i identified the schools as the purvam imams or the sankhya he was attacking hindu schools professor garfield said absolutely not they are almost not at all interested in the hindu schools all their targets of attack are the other buddhist schools whom they consider to be rivals and here is this lama saying they are not at all rivals they are all designed for a progression of thought then why do they attack each other the reason is very simple so if a particular school suits me suppose i the nia school suits me i really like it now it will not help me to know that it is actually for dummies i must know that it is right and it's better than everything else i should be able to use nyaya to cut down your advaita or your tibetan buddhism everything and show that is really correct then only it helps me to progress in spiritual life so they treated each other as rivals anyway it's a very interesting way of looking at it perhaps over time the common understanding degenerate into seeing them as competitors yes rather than as complementary tools correct and in fact now we can use them as complementary tools i study and teach advaita vedanta but i must admit when i study vishishta dwaita vedanta or dwight vedanta the insights i get into bhakti is some simply not available in advaita vedanta because it's not supposed to be but if you are interested in bhakti you should look at how ramanujan interprets the gitash lokas overflowing with devotion um the cosmic knowledge desire and doing are they to be understood as laws of physics how can cosmic desired worship and laws of physics i don't know they talk about aritha a law according to which the whole universe flows and now and the laws of physics could be as a subset of that i suppose it is a very subjective way of looking at it so cosmic desire would simply what we would call this uh the will of god but in dualistic religion is called the will of god girish is asking the phenomenal world is caused by ishvara right presumably using projecting power of maya right but ishwar is itself is brahman limited by the projecting power or maya correct so why have the intermediate step of ishvara why not brahman directly using the projecting power of maya to create the illusion of the world just for our understanding so there's this absolute reality which is the only reality we need not speak of maya and the world but we have so and that is brahman so that is the nirguna brahman or existence consciousness place and advaita says that is the reality full stop so what you're asking is why not stop there you cannot because we from our perspective we have this entire universe with demands and explanation and we are these individual spiritual seekers we demand a path to enlightenment so all these same answers we need so we introduce maya then what happens to that ultimate reality brahman it becomes conditioned by maya just like this crystal now appears to be yellow so why don't you say that talk about the crystal why are you talking about yellow crystal because it is only when you talk about crystal condition by yellow you can talk about yellow crystal brahman condition by maya you can talk about the projection of the universe that brahman conditioned by maya which creates preserves and destroys the universe which has the powers of you know knowing doing willing which has the powers of loving protecting what you think god has so that is so distinct a category apart from brahman though it's physically not apart from brahman it's not anything and distinct from brahman nothing is distinct from brahman but for our understanding it's so extraordinarily new you have to give it a term you have to call it something like brahman otherwise if you don't call that brahman if you call that brahman also don't use the term ishwara you have to say then directly i am also a brahmana and all the world is brahman which is what advaita is pushing you towards but that's not helpful straight away all these categories are introduced ishwar is none other than brahman as you are none other than brahman and everything that we experience in the world is none other than brahman but first because we experience this diversity we have to label this diversity in order to handle this at least in concepts if you say why not brahman directly using the projecting power of maya to create the illusion of the world that's exactly what is called god brahman using the power of maya to create the illusion of the world or create the world is it called ishwara that that's called ishwara why introduce a new term why don't you just say brahman did it because brahman didn't do it that's the thing you know because of the level of brahman no maya no illusion no word the moment you introduce world and maya and individual beings then you better give a new name to brahman ishwar or god rick says do clusters of subtle bodies such as everyone in city under form a collective subtle body that is own integrity the way clusters of cells in a body form different organs who knows i haven't heard of this but who knows and we really have to think about these things as we move into the era of artificial intelligence and so on deepa is asking when we die does the subtle body sukshma shadira retain the knowledge gained through shravanam and mananam the chance that we do again and so we can continue the spiritual life next oh right an important question so the subtle body which includes memory so does it include the memory the so if this is moving on to the next life will the memories be retained very important or do we have to go through vedanta sara class all over again next life unfortunately you have to go through without a class all over again all that is transmitted is this a set of tendencies at the time of death the subtle the subtle body curls up into it the causal body retains certain tendencies from this life and goes on so if you're a musician you will love you'll be an expert musician in your next life possibly you love music you'll show an extraordinary talent for music but you will still need training you'll pick up faster than everybody else you'll be a genius we will still need training if i've gone through this class vedanta sarah and next next life i again end up in this class somehow or the other i hope you don't i hope you all get enlightenment but if you do end up you will understand things just like that it will seem familiar and it will seem just obvious i remember asking one of the about of our monastery about swami ranganathan anderjee who was at that time the vice president of the order how we had heard how as a brahmacari as a novice in 1930s and so on this swami um he while washing the dishes in the monastery and there was a pandit teaching the swamis there a scholar teaching vedanta and he was regarded as too immature or not qualified enough to attend those classes and he was given the duty of swami ranganathan he was given the duty of washing dishes he would wash the dishes and learn the verses just by listening to the class going on how he would you know get no money to buy books and use a pencil and a notebook to copy down entire texts we have seen those notebooks some of them are still there i said how is that possible after a hard day's work in the monastery at night left let alone read vedanta or memorize the gita i i just barely can read reedus digest and then the abbot said oh but they are not monks of one life this is not the first life there that he's a monk he's been a monk in other lives in bengali is asking so the answer is that yes we will not remember the particular verses or you won't have the same notebooks and things like that but the you'll have the capacities that's the essential thing even memories do not last throughout one lifetime we may learn something now and then forget 20 years later how much we have how much do we retain of what we studied in school anyway shaban is asking can we get the name of the book that harmonizes the schools of philosophy yes i have a bengali photocopy of the book it's very rare it's by yogendranath bhakti i'll see if i can find it some rad car to everyone god is the same as hiranyakarba yes and no what is hiranyakarwa consciousness limited by the causal body further limited by cosmic mind it's like you sumrat you have a certain existence in deep sleep which is consciousness limited by one individual ignorance then you you samrat alone you have a certain existence in dream which is consciousness limited by one individual ignorance and one dreaming mind and you the same samurai same consciousness have a limited existence as what you are right now as sumrat as one as the same consciousness limited by the same igno causal body same subtle body and this physical body gross body so just as you are the same as as the dreaming samarat similarly god is the same as hind also god or saguna brahman shavani how does hiran nagara correlate with ishwara cosmic causal state cosmic mind or being in any way represent the mind of ishvara absolutely just as you have a causal state and a mind and a body all together you are called shavani right now so that is sravani's body shaven is mind and shravanis causal state causes i'm keep saying causal state is no equivalent india um english word it's our deep sleep state actually so you you have a deep sleep state you have a dream state and you have a waking state which is what you are right now and they all belong to you similarly to sagunabran alone belongs the deep sleep state of um which is itself like when the universe is dissolved god alone exists without with only maya and nothing else and then to saguna brahman alone belongs to cosmic mind at which level the same reality will be called hiranyakarba and then the physical universe will come not yet come it's going to come next then the whole cosmic being will be called virat or vishwaroopa if that's what arjuna saw in the 11th chapter of the bhagavad-gita the vishwarupadharsa is the view of the cosmic body of god and the cosmic body of god the same god with the entire universe as the body you might say but we are also seeing the entire universe are we seeing the body of god yes but we don't recognize it as such we see it in fractions one of the commentators says that what arjuna saw is exactly what we are seeing but we are seeing it scattered in bits and pieces across lifetimes we are experiencing a little bit little by little by little different places people times objects experiences imagine all living beings together and past present and future with all their bodies and all their minds all of them suddenly you see the unite united into one super being you know the cosmic being and then that being turns around and looks at you no wonder arjuna says his first reaction was he was scared out of his wits this is every hair in my body standing on its end it's like if you look into those eyes it's like he says ten thousand suns rising in the sky imagine the the power the intelligence the the awareness in those eyes of billions and billions of living beings throughout history all together united in one time and space and then i'm saying hello to you you know and see he says krishna says this is what you wanted to see and arjuna was sorted his reaction was only of terror he was so overwhelmed he said i don't want to see this anymore i'm like so that is that is the pirate physical form of of god same god bhirat hiranyakarba ishwara gross subtle and causal all right who's raised their hands uh good evening uh i wanted to ask a question uh like to verify if my thinking is correct uh so if let's say my is a set of laws that govern their apparent reality and uh and they also mentioned earlier that uh like to have a desire is already a limitation so within this mind within this set of laws what is a primary motivator or a primary desire is it a desire to be happy and the only way to be happy is actually to realize that you're brahmana and over the multitude of lifetimes these set of laws are governing your journey back to brahman and essentially that's how machine functions right and the primary motivator the primary imperative is this seeking for fulfillment you may not use the word happy i remember this scientist sean carroll who wrote the book the big picture he's from uh he's from uh from celtic the big picture at the end he says that now people say that happiness is the goal of life i don't think so that's too superficial for me knowing the cause of the universe and the solution to the great questions of physics that is the goal of life and that's not a good way of looking at it because simple question then you could ask sean carroll would be does knowing the um you know the answers to the great questions of physics does that make you happy or unhappy obviously it makes you happy it fulfills you at some level that's why you are trying to get do that so the drive for fulfillment the drive for completeness the in the upanishadic terms the drive for infinitude says that which is the vast bummer means vast that which is the vast the limitless the infinite that alone is happiness there is no happiness in the limited so therefore the moment the five elements exist it begins yes the moment ignorance exists begins why even the enlightened being in the midst of this drama of five elements sees the limitlessness everywhere and is absolutely not um unhappy at all um you know is completely fulfilled and does not find himself limited he sees i am the limitless you know existence consciousness place it's not that the ocean has to be waveless to be perfect it's the same water even if there are tens of thousands of waves coming and going it's that underlying one water essence that has to be realized to notice the limitlessness of water in the ocean similarly the underlying one awareness existence place that once that is realized let the five elements remain let the five elements combine to make the gross elements let them combine to make planets and stars the enlightened be person is fully happy as if only brahman exists for him only brahman exists actually but this state of happiness it's still a state it's still an experience in the mind right but okay so the state of happiness in the mind is a state and the fulfillment we are talking about is actually not a state this state of happiness is a good indicator it is what drives us towards that fulfillment that fulfillment we are talking about is brahman itself it's not a state of mind but it the thing is when i say that people are disappointed so when i realized brahman won't i be happy won't i have a happy state of mind if the mind is still there yes you will once you realize your infinite nature which is happiness itself then the mind which belongs to this enlightened being will always be flooded with happiness and there will be this underlying current of fulfillment everywhere the guitar says attaining which nothing greater remains to be attained established in which the deepest of sorrows cannot shake you um so nothing greater remains to be attained at the level of the mind who wants to attain great things the mind does no sorrow can shake you where is there are these sorrows at the level of the mind and those shadows cannot cannot shake what cannot shake the mind so what i'm talking about is fulfillment this infinitude limitlessness this is brahman itself it's not a state of the mind but the state of mind of the enlightened being reflects this yeah uh who else has raised the hand thank you you are i just want to make a comment i mean about your answer to gracious question about the god you need god to explain what the universe the concept of god i know i was thinking that same thing is applicable to reflected consciousness also there is no really any reflected consciousness but we need that to explain what's going on i mean how once you admit something is going on then you have to admit reflected consciousness you have to admit if you admit a world if you admit a body if you admit a mind and in the mind there is consciousness don't you feel awareness in the mind right now what is that awareness you feel in the mind right now but you're right what you're pointing towards is all this reflected consciousness and stuff is nothing other than the original consciousness the pure consciousness atman itself the witness consciousness so you are always the witness consciousness that's true and that's an important thing to hold on to in all these distinctions one tends to get lost the thing one must hold on to is that brahman alone exists that pure consciousness alone is there that unlimited existence consciousness bliss and that always is there all the time um that lama i was reading he says the buddha nature underlies samsara and nirvana what we call nirvana what we call samsara they are appearances in the buddha nature the buddha nature is the only thing that exists even when a person is trapped in samsara one is trying to say oh i'm trying to go from being a trapped being in sorrow to attain my buddha nature and he says no no buddha nature is there right now that buddha nature alone is manifesting as samsara and is this trapped being and then when you after a lot of spiritual practices when you attain nirvana that buddha nature itself is manifesting as nirvana it is this it's a better manifestation maybe it's the same buddha nature everywhere same brahman everywhere yes continuing to dimitri's uh question when a person is enlightened do they have to be given mukta have to be in the sense like when you're saying that okay they will be always happy they will see brahman in everything but they still have their feelings they have emotions still playing yes so for the time being you might lose the sight of brahman and and i'm back again yes and that's the jivan mukta and that jivan mukta never really loses sight of brahman it's just that in the play of life you cannot be a static smiley face in all right always with a big scary grin on your face if you look at the lives of enlightened beings if you look at ramana maharishi or vivekananda or something ramana mashiach is generally placed in serene throughout very kanda sometimes scores and he laughs and he jokes and he feels he deeply deeply feels the sorrow of other people around him but notice certain things he is always able to withdraw into his real nature into into a serenity which is he never loses and the second thing is his his sorrow and weeping are always for the sake of others at no point ever does he feel sorry for himself that is a jivan mukta jivan mukta somebody who has solved his or her problems really permanently completely so is it synonymous with jivan mukta and enlightenment jimin muktan enlightenment no enlightenment is brahmagyana that's what i was getting enlightenment is brahma and the result will be g1 mukta as long as the body and mind last body and mind will last only because proud of the karma is there this is from our perspective perspective others and that's good for us that's that enables an enlightened being to dwell amidst us and teach us if enlightenment meant that after enlightenment there'll be no body and mind it would be equivalent to suicide would have to call 9-1-1 every time anybody had enlightenment they're dead because they attained enlightenment no uh the body and mind continued exactly as they were continuing a person can be brahma-gani but not jeevan mukhtar ah that is another question um first let me deal with this so a person is jivan mukta as long as the body mind lasts the enlightened person when the body mind the body dies instead of going on to other bodies like all the subtle bodies do the subtle body of an enlightened person goes back to nature now we understand what that means physical body always goes back to the five gross elements now for the enlightened person the subtle body will also go back to the five subtle elements out of which they have been made that normally does not happen our subtle bodies are sticky they go on they exist together and they go on from lifetime to lifetime until realization comes after realization comes nature is done with you this person has seen through my games so you stop playing now i'm not going to let you play anymore your physical body falls apart at the death and the subtle body also goes back into nature and there is nothing to go forward into again in buddhist terms definition of nirvana the simplest definition of nirvana they have is exactly this the cessation of the five aggregates they talk not about what body mind if i punch a skanda that stops and then just stops you remain as brahman they won't say that they don't use that language it just stops extinct extinct extinguishes this so nothing remains no we didn't say that but what remains we will not say that's the buddhist approach now your further question does enlightenment brahmayana mean necessarily that you will become a jeevan mukhtar no here is a further discussion you find in the jihad muktivewaka is a jeevan mukhtar you might say perfectly enlightened so is there some kind of partial enlightenment possible yes it is possible and the jihad mukti viveka says three things are necessary for perfect enlightenment jivan mukti to become an enlightened being fully enlightened being one is enlightenment itself what is enlightenment itself tattoo again knowledge of reality realization of the reality i am brahma realization isn't that all that is necessary no second he says literally it means destruction of the mind but it means samadhi the ability to be con put it very precisely the ability to center your mind completely in your realization so wouldn't that not naturally happen it would naturally happen at the moment of your realization but if the mind is not fully trained and not fully prepared it will again start running around but the realization will be there then the third thing necessary for full enlightenment is called um it's called vasanaksha vasanakshaya is the perfection of chittashree purification of the mind purification of mind to an extreme point where there's absolutely no desires extinguished all desires so all desires extinguished the minds tilled in reality and you know the reality i am brahman this is a jivan mukta what practically what difference does it mean practically the jeevan mukta can effortlessly manifest all the qualities you would associate with a saint you know complete fearlessness total unselfishness being impervious to uh worldly suffering i can at just at at a you know so easily withdraw the mind from physical suffering of the body and so on so forth right so that is the nature of the jivan mukta now vidyarnya says sometimes it is possible either by the grace of the guru or by your past lives practices or whatever you might make a breakthrough and realize that you're brahmana but if your vasanaksha is not perfected yet if your manonash is not perfected yet what will happen he says two things will happen one is this person is already enlightened what is the benefit of that at the point of death that is the end of this person's game of life we'll never come back again but until that point he says if you want to enjoy the benefit of enlightenment we live in this life with full of bliss and then go ahead and perfect your vasanakshaya and manonasha so the intense spiritual practice is necessary for that after enlightenment to be steady in that and that you see in the lives of many great spiritual experiments ramana maharshi months and months he remained after the initial breakthrough he remained months and months and absolutely mobile under very austere conditions sri ramakrishna and nirvikalpa samadhi and then six months in that state the direct disciples of krishna in all their lives the monastics you know all in their lives you will see after the passing of sri ramakrishna after having extraordinary mystic experiences they plunge into even deeper and very hard spiritual practice and they were asked what are you trying to do there were other disciples astrid ramakrishna who did not do that he said we have already been given a glimpse of god we know it's real this world is an appearance so what else are you doing what else you're trying to do he gave us everything and these monks they said that what he gave us we are trying to make it our own in technical terms they are centering themselves in the truth they are disciplining their bodies and minds so that they become a perfect vehicle for the expression of their realization which they already have let me see more comments are coming in vasanakshaya burma canada need not automatically imply vasanasa no it need not automate but remember already the vasanas the desires have been thinned out they called tanukrita they say has been attenuated to a great degree it's not that a person who is very greedy or you know sensual or angry jealous will suddenly get enlightenment that's not possible already a great deal of purification of the mind has taken place all right then we did not start the construction of the physical universe but that's a big job we will we are ready now next time we will start the construction of the physical universe [Music] namaste