Video 25

25. Vedantasara | Texts 144-150 | Swami Sarvapriyananda

i take refuge in the self the indivisible the existence consciousness bliss absolute beyond the reach of words and thought and the substratum of all for the attainment of my cherished desire so we were on text number 143 which goes like this if you look at text number 143 by this process of superimposition and de-superimposition the precise significance of that and thou is clearly determined so this marks the beginning of a very very important section maybe the most important section in vedanta sarah what is that the analysis of the great saying of the mahavakya the great sentence that thou art what has been accomplished till now we have done superimposition and superimposition what are these this is the central method of teaching in advaita vedanta superimposition and do the superimposition what is this all about um superimposition d superimposition is is it's like making an error and correcting it so suppose someone makes an error not deliberately but one falls into the error of um of thinking that a rope is a snake does not know the rope thinks it's a snake with all consequent uh ill effects and then you that that thing that part is called superimposition and that's advaita vedanta claim is that's exactly what is happening here there is this ultimate reality uh existence consciousness bliss which like the rope being mistaken for a snake is being mistaken for this world for this universe our ex our present experience of the universe this is like the the snake born of error this is called adida rope or superimposition taking something to be what it is not now you have to reverse this why do you have to reverse this why do you have to correct it because we are suffering first of all it's false so we must know the truth whatever the ultimate consequence of that and also because of dwelling in this falsity is the source of our suffering and to get out of suffering to attain fulfillment um you know the the claim of advaita vedante is that the goal is that overcoming suffering and attainment of fulfillment to get that we have to correct this error just like seeing the so-called snake is nothing but the rope similarly realizing so-called universe is nothing but brahman existence consciousness place that is called the superimposition and this has been accomplished this has been shown till now we saw all of that we have been doing for the past few months is how from an absolute reality appears this error illusion false understanding of this universe and then how it is again seen to this universe itself is seen to be brahman how the rope is discovered again and the error about the rope is corrected and i have given a number of examples there are many many stories in vedanta to illustrate this i gave a talk recently using some of those classic stories you know the whole story about the emperor janaka is that true or is this true the whole dream and then the correction of the dream so that is about superimposition the superimposition if you remember the story about the the donkey which was they pretended to tie the donkey and then pretended to untie it pretending to tie it to superimposition pretending to untie the superimposition or the story about the princes of kashi and when the prince realizes that there is no princess of kashi apart from him he alone is the princess of kashi so this is called the superimposition and the superimposition all these stories are to illustrate that one central method of teaching this superimposition d superimposition now what he's saying it now is that uh by this what we have accomplished is we can now understand the meanings of the terms of the words that and thou in the sentence that thou art so what is this switch happening what's what's happening now where are we going you see advaita vedanta can be expressed in very simple terms in very direct terms what does advaita vedanta teach he teaches that thou art that you are brahman so the sentence is in the upanishads which which express the central teaching of advaita vedanta the whole point of this exercise such sentences are called the great sentences they are used to summarize the entire teaching of advaita vedanta and four of these sentences have been taken as representative of the four vedas tattwa masih that thou art from the chando gyo panishad which is from the sama veda pragyanam brahma this very consciousness is brahman that is from the iperia upanishad which is from the rigveda aham brahmasmi i am brahman which is from the briarne upanishad which is from the um veda and then ayamatma brahma this very self is brahman which is from the mandukyo panishad the atharva veda so the four vedas upanishads from these vedas and one one sentence which all of these sentences tell you the same thing they all talk about the identity not even unity unity often we say unity of god and man which identity of the sentient being the jiva individual and of of ishwar or saguna brahman the identity the oneness so that that is the central teaching of advaita vedanta another way in which this whole thing has been put is brahma satyam jagat mithya jiva brahmanathara there's a famous saying to like a representative saying of advaita vedanta brahman alone is the reality world is an appearance and you are none other than brahman so these four mahavakyas they express the same thing among them the most famous is that thou art in the chandra gyopanishad and usually when teaching advaita vedanta it is that one that zao art tatwa masih which is taken up for analysis but the same process which we will go through now you can use it for the other other mahavakyas the other great sentences and by the way it's not that just these four sentences which are mahabharata's there are many more but these four are just taken as representative just to you know like showing that these vedas and these upanishads it all teach the same thing again from an advaita vedanta perspective the dualistic school or dwight avedanta or the other schools of vedanta they do not give all this overwhelming importance they don't call them mahavakis for example they will give some interpretation it's not the interpretation which we are learning now imagine the great claim that is being made here the claim that is being made by advaita vedante is that you are brahman you are the absolute reality of the world and the whole point of this superimposition this superimposition the underlying claim is that what we know about ourselves now is a big big mistake we are in great error now the only thing that you can do to an error is to correct it and the only way you can correct an error is by knowledge and um the only way you get knowledge is by inquiry so see what huge implications it has for spiritual life for religion what is the problem the problem is one of ignorance not of sin not of being caught in the bondage of karma or whatever whichever way you put it it's basically a problem of ignorance and ignorance about our real nature if that is so then what is the solution in spiritual life what should we seek we should seek knowledge we should seek knowledge about our reality not mystic experiences not bhakti not even doing good to others all those things become secondary so just look at the huge implication of what we are trying to study here then what will be the practice what will be the practice in advaita vedanta the practice will be enquiry because we want knowledge and enquiry means studying these texts shavana thinking about them trying to understand what is being said here and then making it a vivid realization sravana mananananandhyasana systematically studying them thinking about it getting clarity conviction and then making it a vivid living realization that's the that's the spiritual practice then it is not you know whether you sit cross-legged or stand on one leg whether you do this ritual or that ritual it's not whether you have schools and colleges and hospitals to help poor people it's not even whether you have devotion and faith in god not none of those not that they are wrong they were they're all there we all know that those play a uh a secondary role they can help and and they must be there in our lives they they are they prepare us for this uh realization so i'm just trying to impress upon you the huge huge implications of this kind of knowledge for our spiritual life it has it's truly radical actually okay now what will happen is he's saying that all the exercise that we went through till now superimposition and de-superimposition whatever we learned will help us to understand that thou art how will it help us to understand it will help us to understand the meaning of that it will then help us to understand the meaning of thou what is meant by that and what is meant by you thou and how are the two the same identical so it will help us to understand that it will help us to understand thou and it will help us to understand the identity between the two what will help us whatever we have gone through we are going to deploy all that knowledge to understand that thou art so this is what is starting now in fact in the traditional way of understanding advaita vedanta a traditional scholar would basically say advaita vedanta is hermeneutics it is interpretation of text in sanskrit the term is meemamsa meemamsa means pujita bichara inquiry and into the vedic texts which text are we inquiring into we are inquiring into that thou art we're trying to understand the meaning of that that is advaita vedanta and now we have a more precise understanding of what is advaita vedanta it is tattvamasi that thou art or the other such sentences and how to understand it so that exercise is starting now we are ready to understand that thou art all that we study till now how did it help to understand that what we'll quickly see now before we start the process the process of trying to understand that our art has not started yet it will start just a little later but first of all what do you mean that all that we did till now superimposition and superimposition will help us to understand that and thou that was said in 143 means clarification clarification clarification of what the meanings of the word tat and tum that and thou has been will be clarified the clarification is will be helped by all our studies till now the superimposition and superimposition let's go into it and see how uh it's going to help to understand that what so what is the what's going to happen from now on for the rest of almost the rest of the book almost except a little bit at the end almost the rest of the book is enquiry into the meaning of that thou art and that is the heart of advaita vedanta so [Music] [Music] to explain collective ignorance and the rest consciousness associated with it and endowed with omniscience etc as also the pure consciousness unassociated with any attribute these three when appearing as one inseparable like a red hot iron ball become the primary meaning of the word that okay that's a mouthful what is the meaning of that um consider the example he gives first a red hot iron ball a red hot iron ball imagine like a iron works foundry like in a blast furnace or something there's a ball of iron which has been heated up to you know like it's red hot now glowing red hot now in that red hot iron ball there are um these two things the iron itself which is cold and it's round it's an iron ball and there's fire which is hot and glowing so when you see the red hot iron bollocks it's actually two things together there is the it's glows because of not because of the iron it glows because of the fire it's round round not because of fire fire is not round it's the iron ball which is round it's heavy heavy not because of the fire it's because the iron which is heavy and it's it's glowing and hot so that light and heat comes from the fire not from the iron but all the mixture is presented as one similarly when you say that in that thou art what is meant by that the word that it means uh maya and all the products of maya now we understand what is what is meaning remember all we read maya and all the products of maya what is maya and all the products of maya maya you remember the definition of maya which cannot be expressed as existing as non-non-existing composed of three gunas which is uh negated by knowledge the definition which we did of maya so maya and what are the products of maya there are five subtle elements and um the the mind this the subtle body and then the five gross elements and the physical bodies and this physical universe all these are products of maya so that's one thing which is meant by that maya and all its products then consciousness associated with maya what is consciousness associated with now you will see immediately how with all the study of vedanta sarah is immediately useful consciousness plus maya is what it is so consciousness limited by maya is ishwara and further also you can say consciousness limited by maya plus the subtle universe which is a product of maya is hiranyakarpa consciousness limited by maya and the subtle universe and the gross universe is virat or vishwa uber so that that's also included in the word that and what else is included the ultimate reality which is always there but what is that ultimate reality was to remember when we started superimposition be superimposition it said there is only one reality like the rope there's only one reality what is that reality is only existence consciousness bliss non-dual brahman and then starting from adjana ignorance etc etc means all the products of maya everything is ours to an appearance so now the word that has these three components one is the actual reality that is brahman pure consciousness existence consciousness bliss non-dual brahman that's there of course without it nothing can be there after all then you see the snake when you see the snake what's there there is that appearance called a snake and there is the rope which is the ground of that appearance called a snake and basically it's a rope only let me repeat that there's a way of looking at at uh when you make a mistake about a snake not taking a rope to be a snake actually there are three three you can sort of decompose that analyze that into three aspects one is of course there is a snake of course there's a rope that's the reality that's always there rope and um there is that appearance called a snake in one sense is means within quotes it appears so that snake that erroneous the the snake born of illusion of the snake the error of the snake is there and you can say the rope as a ground of that error as a basis of that error so it's almost like double counting the rope rope in itself and the false snake and the rope as the ground of that fall snake in the same way consciousness sachidan and the brahman is there and maya and it's all its products all of this the causal body subtle body gross body the causal universe the subtle universe and the gross universe all of it is there and that consciousness associated with this um they associated with maya so three things are there or if you say that that thou art the word that can be decomposed analyzed into these three aspects i will not say three things because they are not really three things um there are three aspects one is the reality pure consciousness second is maya and its products third is consciousness the same consciousness but limited um in association with obscured by maya to make it even more simple the word that has three these three components maya so that's the meaning of that that means remember that what we're talking about is the sentence that thou art so tada so to explain further again ignorance etc the totality the totality of ignorance consciousness which is associated with maya and is qualified has got qualities like knowing omnipotent omniscient omnipresent whose qualities are they not the ultimate reality they are all qualities of god all pervading reality whose quality god so you will say isn't nirguna brahman the absolute reality not all-pervading you can't say it's all pervading because all is not there this all space and time and all these objects they all come up because of maya only because of maya we say there is a universe and there are all these planets and stars and people and sentient beings and all of this is because of maya once maya is admitted then brahman is seen to be pervading all of it you say all pervading brahman is seen to be all-knowing sarvagya omniscient brahman is seen to be all powerful um sarva shaktimaan this is called god ishwar sagun brahman and behind all of this is he says anupahitam the unassociated consciousness and it's a very mild term which is used for the ultimate reality which is the nirguna brahman non-dual existence consciousness place ether triam these three together now among these three there's only one thing which is real but these three together there's three aspects we're just analyzing theoretically like a heated iron ball a cut twain avap appears as one where does it appear as one take a look around it's appearing to you right now what is appearing to you it's not theoretical also you can actually analyze it and for an enlightened person immediately what is my name and form and what is the reality becomes absolutely clear effortlessly it becomes clear to the enlightened person to us it appears as one mass we say tables and chairs and people and computers and sky and earth and cities and body and mind and thoughts and feelings and emotions and this whole vedanta and all of that all of this taken together is the appearance and there are if you say crucially or at the core of this there are three things nir guna brahman saguna brahman maya and its products okay now number 145 8 the unassociated consciousness which is the substratum of the limiting adjuncts and of ishwara which they limit is the implied meaning of that okay so we have to make a distinction between the direct meaning and the implied meaning watch what we just saw a little while ago the meaning of that that is maya and its products that is called the direct meaning of the word that and now there is something called the implied meaning what is this direct meaning and implied meaning all of that will become clear as we go along it's just showing us how what we all studied till now is helping us to understand that thou art this this parts will not become clear right now it will become clear a little later so he says there is something called the implied meaning and the implied meaning of the term that is um the pure consciousness only by why do i say only the the direct meaning was three things pure consciousness ishwara maya and the implied meaning is only pure consciousness see pure consciousness ishwara maya that is the meaning that is the direct meaning direct meaning literal meaning dictionary meaning whatever you call it so that is the watchy author that's technical term the direct meaning of the term that and what is the implied meaning only uh pure consciousness so not the um you know ishwara not maya drop ishvara and maya the pure take the pure consciousness alone that is the implied meaning it's like saying rope and snake so when you see the snake there are actually three things there there is the original rope itself there is the snake burn of our error and there is the rope which is the the rope itself which is the the ground or the the basis of that error now if you want to take the direct meaning of the word that but here it will mean the rope itself the original group itself which has nothing to do with uh snake and you know errors and things like that just the rope itself the reality itself so now we have implied meaning and direct meaning of what of the word that don't worry too much about it all these things will be discussed in lots of detail very soon it's going to start now now so this is the direct meaning and implied meaning of the word that there's one more word in that sentence what is the direct meaning of you and what is the implied meaning of you we will see 146. so direct meaning of the word thou what does it mean what does it refer to it refers to ignorance etc ignorance etc means our causal body subtle body gross body uh karna or if you want to go into further detail the ananda my kosher the bliss sheath the vigna my kosher the intellect sheath the manomaya kosha the mayan sheath the pranamay kosher the vital sheath and the annamaya kosha the physical body all of that then either chaitanya consciousness associated with that consciousness associated with what the three bodies or the five sheets which is um characterized by alpha little knowledge little power what are we talking about you right now what we think about ourselves just now take a look he's talking nothing theoretical just here right now here is this body and in that we find um a mind and beyond that the blankness which we experience in deep sleep this is ignorance and its products are the ignorance and its effects uh and then consciousness associated with it consciousness associated with it means the awareness which i have right now i server priyananda i serve a priyananda this ego associated with this mind with this history this memory this personality this body this is called the direct meaning of the word thou it just means what it what you refer to when you say somebody you what you would refer to as that that's the direct meaning of the word you when you refer to any person when you say you i mean you what do i what do i mean by that i mean that person i mean the body i mean the mind i'm in the history of that person i mean the conscious being who is associated with all of that that's the person there is one more thing which we do not mean but it's there that is the pure consciousness there which we do not mean because we don't know about it vedanta teaches us about it for the first time the rest of it we know about it physical body mind and awareness who does not know it's become the common experience of all humanity in fact this experience of all living beings only humanity can think about it so that body mind complex plus pure consciousness is the direct meaning of the word um thou direct meaning of the word thou is pure consciousness and the consciousness associated with body mind and body mind i'll repeat pure consciousness consciousness associated with body mind and body mind what is this this is the direct meaning of the word and then implied meaning of the word tuam let us see 147 the implied meaning the unassociated transcendent consciousness the inward bliss which is the substratum of the limiting adjunction of jiva which they limit is the implied meaning of the word thou basically the implied meaning of the word thou is pure consciousness what is it you know if you do drink drishya viveka the witness consciousness which you discover i am the witness of the mind that is the implied meaning of the word sakshi here the word used is body-mind consciousness the ground of that the witness of this body-mind this jiva that is the implied meaning of the word thou and what is that today um it is not the waker not the dreamer not the deep sleeper it is the one consciousness which appears as waker dreamer deep sleeper when you drop the waker dreamer and deep sleeper hood the consciousness itself if you take that is the implied meaning of the word it is the innermost consciousness it is the so-called fourth why forth not waker not dreamer not deep sleeper the fourth and it is anand the nature of bliss so that is the implied meaning of the word thwam thou what was done till now just to tell us to link what we had studied till now uh with what we are going to study now what we are going to study now is the heart of advaita vedanta we are ready now we are you may not feel ready you may feel confused but don't worry it will all fall into place a huge system has been built up it's all going to fall into place nicely as we go into this uh study now this will look very different from what we have done till now put the superimposition d superimposition all of that on the shelf for the time being now we are going to you know till now we have been doing a lot of metaphysics and epistemology now we are on world building and all of that now we are going into going into linguistics and grammar because what we're dealing with now is a sentence uh it's a sentence from the vedas specifically from the upanishads the particular one which is taken up for analysis and always in traditional teaching this is the one which is taken up that tao art tatwa masi i know of um it's very well known actually when you talk about vedanta often people have heard about that dawah tattoo messi i know of this one gentleman i never met him but he was in california one of the disciples of swami prabhupada and the ji his name was tattwamasi i mean he took the name tatwa masi all right so we are ready to start now so from text number 148 onwards we will see the meaning of that thou art or thou art that and remember this sentence comes from chandragupta sixth chapter one day i don't know when someday we will study the chandra gopanisha the sixth chapter and where we'll see all this uh in its natural habitat we'll see the animal in its natural habitat in the chandragyupanishad where the father is telling the sun and that means the ultimate reality saying oh son you are that ultimate reality nine times will be said but anyway we're just taking the sentence out and we're trying to understand it now with all that we have read till now 148. [Music] s is being described the meaning of the great vedic dictum mahavakyam so now we are going to [Music] and try to understand investigate the meaning of the mahavakya why because it's the central teaching of the advaita vedanta why do you want to need this why do you need the central teaching of advaita vedanta central teaching is for knowledge why do you need this knowledge to remove ignorance why do you need to remove ignorance because ignorance has created this superimposition we need to we need de-superimposition and that's done by this knowledge so it's absolutely vital this is the central spiritual practice of advaita vedanta i'll repeat again what what we're going to do is the central spiritual practice of advaita vedanta shravana manana needed hasanah of what we keep hearing um um you know hear and reflect and meditate hear and reflect and meditate what this one this sentence vacuum which sentence with three relationships with the help of three relationships reveals the und the meaning the undivided reality akanda means undivided bodhicum that which enlightens us that which teaches us which shows us the sentence will enlighten us about that undivided reality notice that when we start the session every day which we chant a condom and um the one undivided existence consciousness place so that will be revealed by this sentence so in fact this is a definition of a mahavakya a great sentence how do you define what is a great sentence usually jiva is that which tells you the identity of jiva and jivanishwara but a more precise and clear definition is this one which is given in this book above the kambakim the sentence which reveals or which teaches us about the undivided reality about the oneness that the universe is one with you swami vivekananda said you know the two sides to his teaching that one is the divinity within ourselves the second one is the oneness of the universe so this oneness of the universe is being taught here so any sentence which talks about akandar the undivided reality one reality that is mahavakya now what was what is the new thing which was said here in order to in order to understand the mahavakya we need to go through three steps these steps are called relationships sambandhatrayam three relationships we have to apply at this point we may say hey wait a minute i already understand that means that the award i understand i am brahman i understand it no you don't as we shall see it's not all that easy at all uh as it will it will be revealed to us what are the problems every step we'll have to overcome a number of problems to get greater clarity about what this teaching is so three relationships or three steps we have to go through it's a process like an algorithm like a machine you put the sentence mahavatya to amasi at one end and out will come the meaning at the other end in between there are these three steps or three processes 149. [Music] so the three relationships are so the relationship between two words having the same substratum the relationship between the imports of the two words qualifying each other um so as to signify a common object and lakshya nabhava or the relationship between the two words an identical thing implied by them here the inner self okay this all sounds terribly complicated don't worry it's actually pretty simple so first of all he gives us the names of the three steps the names of the three relationships um the first name is and the names are pretty formidably quite scary what are they saying first relation first name is the second one is third one is lakshya lakshana bhava you will translate into english sama nadi karanyam means the property of having the same substratum what does that mean we'll see pretty easy actually the visualization of harbor means the adjectival relationship adjective noun relationship and the third one lakshy election of however means the implied meaning the implied meaning finding the implied meaning so three steps we will go through common substratum adjectival relationship and implied meaning at the end of it we should get the clear meaning of that thou art what is meant by that thou art okay and at the end of it you will end up saying that i knew that we didn't have to go through all of that but you have to if you are going to be very careful and precise and you will see why all this this meticulous investigation is necessary otherwise you will not end up with what what you know you already know it all they're trying to say is that you are brahman i know so you said i knew this already but we'll get a much clearer understanding how they come to this relationship and how they come to this understanding that you are brahmana um before we go into it the whole process is going to start and it's going to take a long time to complete not very long but still long enough it's going to go on till 180 180 from 148 to 180 and difficult portion let me outline what's going to happen and then we'll dive into it um the first one is what are we starting with that thou art tattvamasi now what do we do sama and ali karanyam to understand the question first then we'll understand the answer why we are taking these steps we have to understand what is the problem here trying to deal with the problem a vacuum a sentence so i'll use the sanskrit and the english if you don't understand something immediately you can ask i will clarify a sentence is a collection of words in sanskrit word the sentence for the word for a word is pada pada collection of words in a particular relationship is a sentence now the problem is this words mean things words mean some they have got a meaning they mean certain things when i say pen and book and i i have a pen and a book so i've used three words i book pen and also i've used words like have uh and so on so pen is a word it means this object book is a word it means this object so the the word has something called a referent referent means the object which is meant by the word in sanskrit it's called padata for the word referent but the word the object i'm reminded of the philosopher wittgenstein in cambridge so it seems he held up a chalk a piece of chalk in the class once and he said what is this and somebody said it's a chalk and immediately we can stand through the chalk at him which bounced off his forehead to get to his shock and he said a chalk is a word was that a word so there's a word pen and there's an object here there's a word book this is an object and there's a word i and there's an object here this one and then there are words which express relations have number a i have a pen and a book so these are different words one thing you immediately notice different words they refer to different objects how many objects are there you can easily see i means one object pen means one object book means one object so if you have a sentence you will have different words and different words mean different things they have different reference immediate objection is that um a sentence will always express duality it cannot express non-duality why because a sentence is a collection of words and words mean different things and if there are really different things than it is dualism or pluralism it's not non-duality if you're going to say sentence refers to akandar tabodha kambakam sentence will refer to one undivided reality it cannot sentence is made of words words refer to different things if they're different words then they'll have different things then if there are different things how can it be one thing it's as simple as that so something like tattoo that thou music its meaning will be what then what could be the meaning of that thou art the meaning could be in sanskrit you can do this you know um thou art subservient to that that is god and thou art the servant of god that is the lord is the king god is the king and you are the like the subject of the object of god you know you're different you and god are different things and there's a relationship between the two of you please accept dualistic vedanta not non-dualism do you see where the how the problem has been posed where it comes from it comes from a simple fact about sentences sentences are made of words words refer to things there are many words there are many things if there are many things it cannot be one thing and therefore non-dualism is not possible at least you cannot express it with with a sentence so this is called the thing to which a word refers so the word pen is a word and it's locus is this object the word pen refers the referent is called the adi karan and a sentence will have multiple adherents pen book i and so it is called vyadhikaranam v adhikaranam many words referring to different things they're going in different ways the classic example is the the is a classic example used in used by sanskrit pundits that uh the boy is bringing the cow with a stick so you can imagine a indian village at sunset and the boy has been sent out by his father fetch the cows back from the field and he takes this stick to shoo the cows back into the to the cow pen and so the boy stick cow and the action of bringing they're all different things so the words refer to different things how can it be one reality it's a multiple things are there so this is called vyadhikaranavakyam a sentence which has multiple loci multiple adi okay it talks about many things it cannot be one thing now at this point we point out we means the non-dualist we point out you're right but all sentences are not like this there are sometimes sentences which refer to the there are many words these words have different meanings but they all refer to the same thing how is that possible i say i have a black pen here black um refill pen there's a black refill pen this is a black refill pen then all the words in the sentence this refers to what this black refill pen pen refers to what this black refers to what this pen refill refers to what this pen all of the words are meaning this one object so when we salute you know vishnu's astronomer the thousand names of vishnu vishwang vishnu vashit all the words in in those verses thousand names what do they refer to thousand words do they refer to thousand different entities no they all refer to the same entity in different ways so when i say this it's pointing out to this object pen it's naming the object itself black it's giving the color of the pen refill it's you're telling me of the nature of the pen the the model of the pen and similarly vishwam vishnu rashad prabhu these are names of the lord and they have expressed different aspects of god but they all refer to god they all mean god we have many many words but they all refer to the same locus if you the sentence has the same locus and having a lot of words it is called samana same different locus different loci samanadi karna same locus there are such sentences and our claim is tatthwamasi that thou art is this kind of a sentence it is a so sentence having the property of having the same locus in spite of having number of words that is called the property is called so it's a big word it just means um having the nature of one locus or one referent with many words referring to the same object the classic example example is nilot blue lotus blue lotus so blue lotus what does lotus refer to the flower what does blue refer to that flower the color of that flower but they're both referring to the same object where is the blue in that object where is the lotus that object so the both are the same object and they are not different but they are different words similarly that thou art it refers to samana the current name not vyadhikarnam this is our contention okay now we move on so this is the first step the first step is to prove though your sentence has many words it refers to the same uh referent so we are we are it is our contention refers to one reality then the next problem will come is that the opponent says yeah sure but notice saman adhikarnavakyam the same that is the same locus they have the nature of this that second relationship will come now adjectival relationship vishna sheikh shabhava what happens is you gave the example of nilot palam blue lotus blue lotus in blue lotus it is true blue and lotus are intimately connected they refer to the same flower what is blue that flower lotus what is lotus that blue flower so blue lotus niloth palum it refers to the same object but blue and lotus are not the same thing blue is a color lotus is a flower blue is a property lotus is a substance there's a guna and guni it's a substance and property it's a quality blue is a quality tall man tall and man are not the same thing when you say black pen the example you gave swami black pen black and refill and pen are not the same thing black and refill are the qualities of this pen are the properties of this pen but just um it could be a blue pen it could be a yellow pen what not and they are not the same thing qualities and the substances are not the same thing they are intimately connected what is the connection between quality and the substance adjective and noun that's why this is called visheshan of the bhabha the noun possessor of the quality and the quality so so what so what will happen is you should accept that tattwa masi is a sentence of this kind i agree that are referring to the same one reality but one is an adjective to the other one is a property holder another one is the property what would that be like how can one be a property can we individuals be the property of brahman yeah come to my camp this is called vishishtadvaita you have been lured into the camp of israel the brahmana is one reality whose qualities are whose adjectives are jiva and jagat jiva jagat vishishta brahma qualified monism this is what we're trying to tell you you are right it is one reality it's one organic reality but there are distinct parts to it the oneness is qualified by the presence of many many jiva sentient beings like you and many incenties things also chit chit vishishta brahma vishishta brahman the ultimate reality qualified by look at the word qualified by by what innumerable sentient beings like us and innumerable incentive entities like matter and space and time and planets and stars and all sorts of things all of that together there's an underlying unity you are right there is a oneness and this whole thing together is called vishishta dwayta agree to it we we sort of you say no this is not exactly what we mean um but there's no way out you have argued yourself into our camp you said that it is one reality and if you come out of the camp the other camp is waiting the dualistic camp you say the different realities if you say one reality the only way it can be one reality is qualified and qualifier adjective and noun what else can there be then we say yes we agree that it is qualified qualified but in the case of that thou art there's no meaning the meaning doesn't come out the way you are putting it why because that thou art is like um the sentence so i am devadatta this is that devadatta this is the example which we use this is that devadatta this is the developer means developer is just you know like the just the guy whoever you can get any name um that devadatta whom i saw 30 years ago is this they were the time seeing now that devadatta whom i saw in mumbai is this david that time seeing in manhattan that devoted who i saw was young is this devadatta now i see he's old that they were a full head of hair is this devadatta who is now balding that devadatta who was lean and fit is this table that there was a punch and slowing down this is that devadatta now there are not two there is one and it's not that one qualifies the other it's not that one is adjective and one is the noun both are the same reality it does not matter one was old and one is one is old and one was young at that time one was in the past one is in the present one was in mumbai one is now in manhattan we disregard all of that and we imply it is the same person we do it all the time it's a common experience we have we do it all the time we disregard many aspects and say it is the same same literally one person not property not adjectival not different also and we claim that thou art is like that sentence it's not like blue lotus the sentient being is not a quality of the ultimate reality and the resentient being and ultimate reality are one and the same but you have to take the implied meaning that's why you see the we talked about the implied meaning of that in the direct meaning of that implied meaning of thou the direct meaning of thou and so on so that will we'll have to take the implied meaning and for that we go to the third relationship which is called lakshya lakshana bhava implied meaning now when you say relationship it's always between two things the first relationship remember it was what is s the relationship between the words relationship between the words the words have the same locus what are the words that and thou have the same locus the second relationship was between the words and their objects the words and the objects um the visualization of the word itself and what does it imply so like a blue lotus the blue color and the blue and the lotus the flower how what is the relationship between their objects the objects not the word and object between the objects the relationship between the objects in sanskrit the first relationship samantha karanium is between the bada the two the words and the second relationship vishesh navisha shabhava is between the padarta the objects to which they are referred so blue lotus it's not between blue and lotus between the color the blue and the flower lotus the color blue is a property and the flower lotus is the property holder so now we're asking what is the relationship between that and thou not the words the relationship between the words is the first one they have the same locus now the relationship between the objects denoted by that and thou now you'll see why it was important to find out what is the direct meaning of that what is the direct meaning of thou and what is the implied meaning and so on and the final is i mean the relationship the implied meaning is the relationship between the sentence that the what and its meaning what the and the reality it refers to and notice one very crucial thing it is between the wakiya and the uh the lakshyat the in the ultimate reality is pointing to pure consciousness notice one thing the relationship between the sentence that thou art and what it is revealing pure consciousness brahman whatever it is it is a relationship implied relationship implied meaning the sentence is a pointer to that relationship it is not directly telling you about brahman and see whatever what a crucial you know part of the puzzle this is because remember we have always said the ultimate reality is beyond language the ultimate reality is beyond language the absolute nerguna brahman cannot be revealed by language now if you say it might be you know like puzzleless but aren't you trying to say that that thou art this is language and this language is telling us about the ultimate reality yes it is and no it is not because and the final analysis when we come to the third stage we will say it is only an implied meaning meaning thereby that it's only a pointer it it is pointing at something that you have to grasp intuitively so it is not that language is directly revealing brahman the direct meaning of the word that thou the direct meaning of the sentence that thou art cannot reveal brahman and therefore we preserve that that you know that the teaching that ultimate reality is beyond language it's beyond language but it's not beyond these strategies employed by the upanishads strategies like superimposition d superimposition nathanity not this not this paradoxical language and this one which we will use in this book implied meaning implied meaning is basically a pointer it points us in the right direction after which you have to get it yourself okay so three steps sama nadikaranyam same locus this is a relationship between what between the words what words that and thou the second relationship we'll go to is vishal abhishe bhava adjective noun adjectival relationship and what the relationship between what relationship is always between two things the relationship between what between the objects denoted by those words what that means and what thou means between those two objects what is the relationship and finally lakshya election of however implied meaning implied meaning is relationship between what between the sentence that thou art and the ultimate reality which it points to it's an implied meaning indirect not directly okay this is the journey that we shall undertake it's a map i've given you of course it'll be done in more slowly with more detail where did you get all this all this fancy stuff so he quotes from a past master this is from naishkarma siddhi [Music] [Music] compare the relations are the relation between two words having the same substratum that between two words qualifying each other so as to signify a common object and the relationship between two words and an identical thing implied by them here the inner self and this is a quote from nishkar nya siddhi mesh karma siddhi is a masterpiece written by sureshwaracharya sure acharya was one of the direct disciples of shankaracharya he is known as the warthikakara shankaracharya is known as bhashyakara bhashyakara means the great commentator the commentator because he wrote commentaries on upanishads bhagavad-gita and brahma-sutras so he's known as the bhashyakara commentator now on his commentaries further subcommentaries were written and the one who wrote the subcommentaries the primary one among them is his disciple sureshwaracharya was a very learned probably the same as mandana mishra who was the great vedic scholar mimamsa scholar who was defeated by shankaracharya in a debate as the story goes but even if he was not sure acharya is of course a great master of advaita vedanta and the subcommentaries he wrote that's a particular form of subcommentary called vattika so each of these subcommentaries has a particular form and a definition and a purpose so the bhashya commentary brings out the inner meaning of the original text according to a paradigm so shankaracharya has a paradigm of advaita vedanta and is interpreting upanishads bhagavad-gita brahma-sutra in that paradigm so his commentary brings out that meaning now it requires further illusion elucidation so that is done by the vartika the vertical is all inverse so you have to write this huge voluminous subcommentaries all in verses so shankaracharya for example um satyam yana manantam brahma one sentence infinite existence consciousness is brahman and shankaracharya writes a couple of pages of commentaries on that and sureshwarachary if i'm not mistaken writes more than 200 what the verses on that one sentence so imagine how difficult it is um i remember harvard this is professor always the students will groan if you give them assignments if they are long you know so the professor gave us this end term paper which had to be 25 pages and all the students myself not not excluded we all know 25 is too long and then he said all right it can be 12 pages but then it has to be all in verse you have to write in poetry your final paper anyways no that's too difficult we'll write it in in prose so the vartika are inverse form what does it do so whatever has been said by the commentator shankaracharya has to be elucidated further and whatever has been left unsaid by shankaracharya that has to be like fill in the blanks that is his job to suresh for his job to fill in the blanks that which has been said but it's difficult it has to be uh cleared up clarified that's also his job that is the job of the vatikakara but apart from these these subcommentaries which he wrote he wrote sub commentary and the vertical on that called the manufacture was written by sureshwara charlie now suresh rachael composed an independent work a masterpiece called nishkar nya siddhi um the attainment of perfect actionlessness not that he was lazy perfect actionlessness it is it is brahman actionlessness realizing that it's beyond all change so it's it's an independent work uh it's advanced so that's what the reason why we don't study directly maybe one day we will but let's start on on the table right now but this is a quote from the nash karma siddhi he is showing the author our author is showing that i am in line with someone no less than sure acharya who has said to understand the mahavakya padata the mahavakya you need to go through these three steps samana vikranium one locus and one of the karana implied meaning by this you realize you realize the inner self pure consciousness that is the reality by these three steps okay done let's quickly look at the activity in the chat and then we'll see so we'll take up these steps we have not yet started actually i've just given you an outline of what to expect and we will go through that slowly over the next uh few weeks all right girish says the punch above the theory of the five basic elements building blocks of the weba hadik domain appears to be as reductionist as modern science where aggregates of elementary particles make up all the matter is that accurate if so it means that in advaita non-dual pure consciousness accommodates a phenomenological domain where duologistic based reductionist view prevails yes it's accurate as far as it goes because the reductionism to the five elements is not final it's actually not even the five elements it's all back to maya and even that is not final it is back to consciousness associated with maya ishwara even that is not final it's actually nothing at all it's just nirguna brahman so it's like reducing the whole film to the film screen so in the as a as a step in between if you say in the movie this entire universe and all the actors and all the heroes and villains and nothing but you know uh atoms and subatomic particles but that's also not true even the there's no atoms and subatomic atomic particles uh in those those those characters and objects do not exist they are an illusion playing upon a screen so ultimately it is screen plus illusion ultimately there is no reality of the illusion also it is the screen alone so reductionism is when you reduce something to its building blocks analyze it down to the ground and dismiss all emergentism so that you know at a certain level of complexity certain things emerge which cannot be reduced to the fundamental building blocks of my of the universe so that is when reductionism becomes a problem but here ultimately you're not even talking about reductionism we are talking about an um an order of reality which is entirely different from this order of reality you know you are not saying for example it would be reductionist if you said the snake is ultimately composed of a rope but you're not saying that you're saying that there is no snake at all there is really a rope so that is not reductionist then put in another way what i am saying is both can be accommodated a very reductionist materialistic reductionist approach and uh an emergentist you know like epi fundamentalist approach both can be accommodated in advaithic framework with the proviso that both are false from an advaithic perspective that's all from the ultimate reality but within the domain all of science if you say no science works advertising absolutely no problem with science working fine because otherwise it is not challenging that when dimitri says in order to see all as one the instruments of knowledge needs to change right we have to look into this this is actually a very very tricky question i don't know in what sense you mean it instruments let me take it at a very simple level to know anything you need an instrument of knowledge knowledge is called prama and the source of knowledge is called pramana all knowledge has to come from a valid instrument of knowledge you can't just say that i know it by my genius but what what is the genius composed of what is the basis of it i have to give some basis i saw it or i heard it or i inferred it by a valid scientific process these are sources of knowledge now what advaita vedanta would say is the vedas are the sources of knowledge in what sense they are the record of the experiences of the rishis it is revealed to rishis in this way now do you have to believe in it no what you do in advaita vedanta specifically not other parts of the veda in advaita vedanta what we are doing is when it says you're not being asked to believe that you're probably in fact you must not you must analyze it like we're going to do thread pair and it will point to something in our own experience which they're trying to point out so this whole way this pramana so the upanishad is a pramana that is the source of knowledge that's the instrument of knowledge which gives us the knowledge about brahman but the whole way it works is sort of indirectly because ultimately we'll come to an implied meaning a pointer not a direct revelation so it's definitely not something you're supposed to believe in which is also definitely not something that language is expressing it is unique that way and because it is our own reality and it's a luminous reality it can be pointed out okay this is the preliminary answer to that question instrument of knowledge needs to change no this particular you need a particular instrument of knowledge particular pramar it is called shruti pramana and i told you how this ruthi pramana functions it is an indirectly it points out you have to grasp it now if you mean that the instrument of knowledge in the sense of the mind yes it needs to change in the sense it has to be purified it has to be focused and that is the purpose of all the sadhanas the fourfold qualifications we talked about viveka vairagya and the all the qualifications of an advaithic seeker in one sense you can say they are all perfecting the instrument of knowledge which is the mind these are all preliminary answers the real answer to this is actually i don't know if you're asking that it's it's um it's a huge problem in which was first caught by nagarjuna 2000 years ago he said i'll just give you the question what is the problem i will not go into the answer he said um you see if you say this is all an appearance then you are denying the reality of this world correct but the instruments of knowledge with which you are denying this world are also part of this world correct then you're saying that the instruments of knowledge are also not ultimately real right then the conclusion that the knowledge that they generate can also not be ultimately real why should i uh accept what you say in fact the way they put it is why should we admit these people into our philosophical discourse because they do not accept the instruments of knowledge it's a very deep question because the entire philosophical discourse in ancient india was based on what is called pramanas a mutually agreed system of systems of knowledge if if we do not agree what we are talking about how can we debate if you challenge everything that i hold that i'm saying something whatever you say is false then how will i debate with you so the question um was raised by the realists the dualistic philosophers the nyaya philosophers and later on the dualistic vedanta school also against the non-dualists first the niyah school raised it against nagarjuna the buddhists especially the emptiness people and later the dualistic schools of vedanta raised it against us why should we at all take these people seriously because they challenge the very validity of knowledge so this is this is actually a very serious question we we will not allow you to enter this debate at all to enter the debate you must take seriously pramanas sources of knowledge something must be established it doesn't matter maybe your point of view my point of view but all points of view are wrong this uh how can we even start a debate so this is this was responded to by sri harsha in his masterpiece written about a thousand years ago the word the name of the book is which just literally means cookies cookies of refutation kandakardya means sweets or cookies kandana means refutation so they are cookies and he gives an answer to that why we should allow people like and there he points out there is fundamentally no difference between us the non-dualists and the madhyama kashunya or the philosopher's buddhism this is one of the few places where a traditional advaita master has accepted the commonality between advaita vedanta and nagarjuna's raised her hand so i should give her a chance to speak before we end go ahead yes swamiji thank you uh actually you just said in the last that instrument of knowledge on that what i have i'm going through all these classes i hear some of the lectures at the end i have found that this my there is a theme line between this brahman and this mind because when i'm saying i am brahman it is brahman is beyond knowledge we i can say i have the knowledge of brahman so till the time you say i am enlightened a person is enlightened it means he has the knowledge of brahman as soon as he is brahman because brahman is not even blissful like i mean i am in bliss so the emptiness they're going all over the place you have to i know sharpen your question so what i am i mean that emptiness is the ultimate reality because brahman is not even a bliss because i am in bliss all the time it's a it's a feeling of mind it's again it has to be little bit of my mind otherwise but but you know okay i'll just stop you there brahman is bliss a continuous feeling of bliss that's not the meaning at all that's why it's a natural mistake to make um you look up my lectures uh online there's one lecture in search of bliss it talks about the island aspect of brahman brahman is bliss does not mean that you will be in bliss all the time it's just a confusion created by the word when you say brahman is ananda there's a difference between ananda and ananda maya anandamaya means pervaded by ananda or a modification of ananda which is experienced in the mind which you are calling a feeling of peace that will come and go that will increase and decrease yeah and that is not what is meant by brahman when you say brahman is ananda um in upanishad it's uh chandragupta defines ananda the very anam the nature of brahman as the very infinitude of brahman the the purnathwam the completeness of rama it's not a feeling yeah brahman is not a feeling ah just notice this i'll end it here just notice this thing when you say brahman is existence it does not mean brahman is an existing thing when you say brahman is consciousness it does not mean the brahman is a conscious event in the mind you know thoughts feelings emotions perceptions this is what we mean normally by consciousness this is not what is meant by brahman so i cannot say i am brahman no you i can say i have the knowledge of brahman just the opposite you cannot say you have the knowledge of brahman that is all that we are i am brahman as long as i am thinking i am brahman i am actually experi like i am i i have i have learned like i have till end i have to exist this body mind it has to be there to say i am brahman so okay i will leave it there this body mind has to be there to say i am brahman it's separate like body mind brahman it is separate you know what i'm saying is this body mind has to be there notice what you said i'm putting the emphasis on the word say this body mind has to be there to say that i am brahmana to think that i am brahmana to express that i am brahmana obviously i need a body so for example i'll give you an example to say that i am happy i need a tongue but happiness is not something that you say it's a feeling in the mind you're only expressing it through your tongue you're saying i am happy who is happy is the tongue happy no happiness is a feeling in the mind suppose i am dumb i cannot speak does that mean that i cannot be happy i can be happy i'm just not unable to express it so thinking that i am brahmana requires the mind without mind no thinking is possible that's what i am saying requires the tongue without tongue no expression is possible but being brahman does not require mind or the tongue just think about it all right [Music] krishna foreign