Video 26

26. Vedantasara | Texts 151-152 | Swami Sarvapriyananda

[Music] 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 are on text number 151 we're done up to 150 i think last time so what's going on we are analyzing the statement that thou art tatwa masih why are we doing that because it's uh it's the heart of advaita vedanta all of advaita vedante can be expressed as the teaching that thou art these mahavakyas these great sentences they summarize the entire teaching of advaita vedanta the claim is that all the upanishads bhagavad-gita brahma-sutra and all the texts in advaita vedanta they culminate in this final this central teaching that you are the absolute reality and so sentences like that dawah tatwa masih which is most well known which we are doing right now or the same meaning is conveyed by ahamhasmi i am brahman or um by ayamat mabram this very self is brahman brahma consciousness is brahman all means the same thing now that thou art this is a sentence which is uh from the chandragupta nation sama veda where the father tells the son that you are that ultimate reality there is an uh there is a reality existence sat from which the entire universe has emerged and that is one without a second ekame and you are that reality now what is the meaning of this sentence tatumasi you might say that but didn't you just say tell us the meaning that thou art you are that reality it's not that simple and as we shall uh proceed we shall see why it is not that simple um what are the technical difficulties involved in it so a clear understanding of this sentence is the crux of understanding advaita vedanta when we study advaita vedanta finally we'll say that we know what it means when it's you mean when you say that thou art that's what we are studying now the last time we saw that this sentence to understand this we have to put it through three processes here it's called three relationships so this sentence itself that thou art three processes it has to undergo to give up its final meaning to give its clear meaning the three processes are sectional um we saw in text number 150. [Music] what are these three processes of these the these three relationships so what happens just to summarize what we did last time take the sentence that thou art and then put it through these three steps go through these three steps to understand the final meaning of the sentence the first is um sama and ali kharanyam but first we must we must find out if all the words this is a relationship between the words in the sentence and this relationship between the words of the sentence that means that all the words in the sentence refer to the same thing or do they refer to different things if you ultimately are going to talk about a non-dual reality you are brahmana then ultimately we are talking about one reality so do all the words in the sentence refer to one thing or do they refer to many things most sentences have words which refer to many things but some sentences have words which refer to may have many words all sentences have many words but sometimes all those many words refer to one thing and this all the words in a sentence referring to a single locus sanskrit adi karnatika means lokas this is called sama nadhikaranyam the same locus all the words are related to each other because they all point to the same same reality same locus we used an example um nilot palam blue lotus so when you say blue lotus the word lotus and the word blue both refer to that same flower blue lotus refers to that same blue flower and lotus refers to that same blue flower blue and lotus both refer to the same object so uh this is called sama nadi karanyam the um so that's that's the first thing to do then we go to the second step wishes which is the adjectival relationship um so we this is a relationship between the were between the the meanings of the of the words so when you say blue and lotus blue and lotus are two words in the first step we found out that both words they refer to the same entity same object but now individually each of the words means something blue means a particular color and lotus means a particular flower so what is the relationship between the lotus and the color with flower and the color i'll repeat the words have meanings means they they they point to or they refer to certain objects what's the relationship between those objects first step was saman of the karanam what is the relationship between the words the second step is what is the relationship between the objects referred to by the words that means when you say blue lotus blue is a word which means the color blue the color itself lotus is a word which means that flower lotus now what is the relationship between that color and the flower so the color is a property of that flower that's a relationship it's a blue flower a blue lotus the color so they are related to each other by what what kind of relationship we say adjective and noun property and property holder substance and a quality let's put it this way substance and property or substance and quality what is the substance flower what is the quality color color is in that flower what quad color it's a blue color and the and the substance is a flower so it's a blue lotus and then at this point the thing becomes clear what you're talking about when you say blue lotus that thing is clear but always it it cannot it may need not be so clear we need to have one more step so why do you need one more step to find out the meaning of the sentence um you know if this is a blue lotus the meaning is very clear now so to analyze this the sentence this is a blue lotus you need only two steps first step is this ah blue lotus we have found out they all refer to the same thing so samanov then to find out the final meaning of the sentence we find that blue and lotus they are related to each other by the substance and quality relationship or property and property holder relationship adjective and down relationship and that's it that's the meaning of the sentence but suppose there are some other sentences for example so i am devadatta this is the sentence they will use as an example why will you use different examples because we must find out the example which fits our um case our case is that don't forget all of this we are trying to understand that we are not interested in blue lotuses we are not interested in the gentleman called devadatta no those are just our examples so another example is this is that devadatta this is that devadatta um what do i mean by that so this devata is just [Music] whom i saw at that time 30 years ago and is this devadatta whom i'm seeing now so 30 years ago and now this is that they were that the whom i saw in mumbai is this devadatta whom i'm seeing in manhattan so mumbai and manhattan uh that they were who was young this deva who is elderly so young and elderly this is the all these qualities are there now we are referring to the same person we understand what is meant but when you come to visheshan of ishishabhava it doesn't fit it doesn't fit if you say you know why it doesn't fit if you say something like large blue lotus or beautiful blue lotus large beautiful fragrant blue lotus the meaning is pretty easily understood because large a flower can be large and can be blue and it can be beautiful it can be fragrant all those properties do not contradict you can get the meaning of the sentence very easily but if you put all the meanings of devadatta together in a sentence past devadatta present devadatta so what will it be this is this past present devadatta how is that possible what will it mean this is the young and old devaratha the you know mumbai devadatta and manhattan who is so what are you talking about we are talking about mumbai and manhattan it's not possible these are contradictory qualities you can't have all those qualities at the same time for the same person different times for the same person possible um or same time for different persons possible but contradictory qualities cannot be affirmed of the same locus at the same time so what you do is you take a third step to understand the meaning of this is that devadatta the third step will be lakshya election of our implied meaning what is implied meaning you leave out all the contrary qualities you just drop them and you take the person we are not interested in whether the person is elderly or young uh we're not interested in whether the person is in mumbai or manhattan we are just saying that i recognize this person that's the meaning of a sentence we automatically do it see these steps are not something very sophisticated something very abstract speculative this is something we use all the time if somebody tells you this is that devadatta the one i saw in mumbai i'm seeing in manhattan the one who was young is now old the one who was you know skinny is now fat so we we don't become confused we don't ask how can the past and the present be the same how can mumbai and manhattan be the same how can skinny and fat be the same we understand immediately that what is being referred to is not skinny and fat it's not young and old it's not mumbai or manhattan we are referring to the same person that's just the person is being referred to without any reference to the qualities so we are indicating the same person we are dropping the qualities the implied meaning is that this is the same person so do we we do that right we normal conversation we often do this somebody takes you say the ganga the river ganga you know what it means it means the river flowing from the glacier gangotri in the himalayan mountains to the bay of bengal so so many thousands of kilometers it flows and then if you say i took a bath in the river ganga did you take a bath from the glacier to till the bay of bengal no here you are using the word ganga in implied sense you implied that in one spot of the ganga in one particular place i took a dip in the water and everybody understands so you are taking an implied meaning similarly a third step has to be taken when you are analyzing a sentence like this is that devadatta what was the first step you would have to say that this that devadatta they all mean this and that they mean the same devadatta the second step would be that this qualifies developers qualified by this and that and third step would be the qualifying attributes are dropped you mean the person only that would be lakshya lakshana bhava by these three steps you come to the understanding of the meaning of the sentence this is that devadatta why such an example was taken will become clear now when we take up a take up the example of we'll take up the sentence that thou art tatwa masih so we will try to understand that thou art um by the way before we go into it you have to keep in mind the background of whatever we have read what is that and what is doubt that thou art see what is that and what is thou very clear precise definitions have been given that means god and thou means the individual being you that is consciousness limited by maya and thou means again operator titanium the individual jiva the consciousness limited by agyana or avidya ignore individual ignorance plus its associated body and physical body and all that so that means consciousness limited by maya tao means conscious the same consciousness limited by the individual ego the individual ignorance and all the other associated upadhis so this is the meaning of that and thou where did we get these meanings that's what we all studied uh from for the last few months you know when we started with adhd the reality is the non-dual existence consciousness bliss everything else starting from maya downwards is an appearance is not an ultimate reality so if we started from there what did we do all that for as far as our that thou art the sentence is concerned tertiamasi the benefit of all of that was we now have a precise meaning of that precise meaning of dao besides meaning of that precise meaning of tom so there's a question why does that mean saguna brahman nir gunabram why well for i can give you a couple of reasons right now one is that um of course you have to look at the um context where does this sentence come from this sentence that wamasi you must look at it in context where does it come from it comes from the chando yo panishad chando gyo panisha the teacher is telling a father is telling the sun sade was it that the sentence is before the universe was manifested it was one existence without a second one without a second from that from that alone this entire universe has come and how the universe has come it was it's all been described there now for our purposes if the universe is coming from that reality what did we read in vedanta till now from where does this universe come according to vedanta it comes from maya chaitanya consciousness associated with maya saguna brahman who is the creator preserver and destroyer of the universe it's the creator god of religion therefore that refers to saguna brahmana not nir guna brahman because tat is used in the sense of sat in chando gyo panishad initially it is referred in the sense of the creator the source of this universe from which this universe has emerged so therefore we are talking about saguna brahman remember ultimately the meaning of the word tat will be nir guna brahman see this is what the this is how the uh mahava cathartomas functions that thou art functions in this way to start with the meaning of that will be saguna brahman and the meaning of thou will be you the person and we'll end up with the meaning of that will be nirguna brahman and the meaning of dao will be nirguna brahman both are one and the same it's only in that sense that tattwa message is correct dramasi cannot be correct in the sense of saguna brahman and jiva saguna brahman and you are not not the same just like that devadatta and this there is a huge difference similarly between that consciousness with maya saguna brahman and this consciousness with the individual ignorance and body and mind there's an enormous difference the difference between the sentient being the individual jiva and god that's why when dualists they charge non-dualist with this is blasphemy you are saying that you are god you miserable creature how can you be god god is omniscient you have you know so little god is all-powerful you are so weak god is eternal you are subject to birth and death continuously you're born the other day and you're going to die the next day how can you compare yourself to god this blasphemous you're not comparing in fact the meaning of the messi is that that and thou are not the same in the sense of the preliminary meaning the direct meaning of the word of that and thou the direct meaning is for that and uh jiva individual sentient being the the individual being like us for thou the implied meaning will be both are the same how are both the same as nir guna brahman because saguna brahman is ultimately nothing but nirguna brahman and you are also nothing but nirguna brahman so those things will come later on now um this is one one reason why that the word that refers to saguna brahman not need guna brahman because this is the context of the chandraganath where we are taken taking it from another technical reason no word can directly refer to nirna brahman nir gunava brahman is beyond language so if a word directly refers to something it must refer to something within maya with something within this manifested union with this universe it could be the cause of the universe which is or the effect the universe itself this is the range of language so when you say tat if there's a direct meaning it'll mean something which is which language can denote and language can denote god the sagunda brahmana can be denoted by language very much so but not near guna brahman so then how will nirguna brahman reveal how will that and tom reveal need guna brahman because that was still language by the process which we will see by implied meaning not directly only indirectly i've told you earlier that the vedas use a variety of strategies to reveal something which cannot be revealed by language what are the strategies for example niti naiti not this not this if you cannot directly say what it it is you can you can say what it is not if nirguna brahman cannot be expressed by language at least you can express what dirguna brahman is not negatively you can say or one can use adhero papavada superimposition disinform position with the whole hope that we intuitively will understand what is being pointed towards or we can use paradoxical language greater than the greatest smaller than the smallest further than the furthest nearer than the move nearest it moves but it moves not and with the hope that we will understand what the paradox points towards or one more strategy is lakshana this implied meaning which will be used here implied meaning now um let us take up text number 151 we will go through each of these slowly each of which the three steps sama nadi karanyam vishesh navishay bhava and laksha [Music] [Music] it is the relationship between two words note relationship when you say relationship relationship is always between two things which are the two things in the first first case in samara the condition is to between the two words in the sentence two words having the same locus for instance in the sentence this is that devadatta the word that signifying devadatta associated with the past and the word this signifying devadatta associated with the present both refer to one and the same person called devadatta similarly in the sentence thou art that the word that signifying consciousness characterized by remoteness etc and the word thou signifying consciousness characterized by immediacy etc both refer to one and the same consciousness namely brahman what was said here samana karanya sambandhat so to explain further the first relationship sama nadikaranyam first relationship is what example yatha yatha means example let's take an example first then what will we do we will apply to what we want to understand that is that thou art before we start with that what let's start with an example problem is example is also in sanskrit and all the technical terms are also so first you have to understand the sanskrit and then you have to understand the example then you have to apply it to that thou art so it makes it all the more complicated this actually it's pretty simple sanskrit yathayata means just like soyam in the sen in the example in the sentence this is that devadatta what are the words in this sentence the words are means he i am um that or this so means that or he who in the sense of that devadatta i am this devadatta so that and this both of them refer to the same person that's what we want to prove in the first instance first step is that devadatta and this they were just like um so yeah let's just take this example so so take the word um what are the characteristics that at that time 30 years ago that devadatta in mumbai that devadatta who was young that they were who was skinny so it all means all of that it's that that it stands for that and the other word um refers to what the one who i see in manhattan the one who is at present the one who is young is old uh so the one who is um fat so all of this the present devadatta the deva here in manhattan the devadatta who is older the devadatta who is plump both of these words that and this they refer to one and one person in one and one person only the same they were is meant so the words are related to each other by saman of the quran because they all refer to the same thing the same devadatta exactly like that sentence let's look at um now let's come to our sentence what is what are we interested in we are not interested in we are interested in that so that da what in this that dawah there are these words that and thou so what does that refer to and what does dao refer to so it says first of all that that refers to consciousness but what kind of consciousness consciousness associated with maya the consciousness which is the consciousness of god um what are the qualities associated with with god first of all he says etc it's a very abstract way of referring remoteness etc what does that mean one of the characteristics of god is remoteness in the sense that we do not directly experience god at least at present how do we even know about all of this because the scriptures tell us that there is a god holy people tell us realize people tell us that there is a god but we do not have any direct experience neither with our sense organs nor with any kind of intuitive experience we don't experience god god for us is remote that god adi etc what are the other qualities of god associated with the word that all knowing omnipotent omniscient uh all pervading sarvagya sarvasaktiman sarvabhyapi all of these are the qualities of god so the word that means god the word that means consciousness with what qualities consciousness with the qualities of remoteness that no we are not directly experiencing it that with the qualities of omniscience omnipotence omnipresence where did you get all of this wherever where is all this coming from we studied it remember what did we read there's only one reality existence consciousness bliss then comes along comes maya which is an appearance and that existence consciousness bliss associated with maya maya that's what we're talking about that is called ishwara bhagavan saguna brahman antharyam we read all this earlier so that is the meaning of the word tat so the word tat refers to consciousness with these qualities which makes it god then the word tuam thou you what does it refer to look but what consciousness the consciousness which is characterized by certain qualities what are they immediacy directness your you the consciousness or let's call it your consciousness right now your consciousness is it a remote consciousness or do you feel it directly do you do all of us do we not feel aware do we not feel um you know alive aware conscious so this awareness which you feel this is the meaning of you and what else is it what are what are the other qualities etcetera etcetera means it has qualities of less knowledge it has quality of um less power we have so little strength so little power then so our pervasiveness our power our capacity all of these are very limited our knowledge that is the meaning of the word so let's put it together that thou art that means consciousness with the qualities of god thou means consciousness with your qualities how will i describe i the conscious who am i if i describe right now i am aware i am conscious and uh i'm conscious that i have this mind with these certain likes and dislikes with a certain memory with a certain story of my life these are all associated with me the consciousness and i am um i have a body i am a man and i am a server priyanda all of these i'm sitting in manhattan now all of these qualities these are all they follow from this consciousness associated with the limiting factors of the individual being each of us has has a feeling like that and i have limited knowledge limited power in all of this limited lifespan so all the qualities of mind and body are now associated with consciousness and what about that that is the consciousness which is remote for me from my perspective i don't experience it that is remote and that consciousness is associated with um with uh you know um all-knowing all-powerful the creator of this universe benevolent all-pervasive ishwar so but both of them refer to the consciousness itself so therefore it is that thou art that both talking about consciousness one associated with those factors of god one associated with your factors or your qualities but it's the same consciousness we are talking about so this is the meaning of text number 151 what is the meaning of all this process we are applying we want to establish samana the current same locus why otherwise we cannot proceed we are aiming towards non-duality all the words in the sentence must apply to the same i must point to the same one non-dual reality so we are establishing that all the words refer to the same reality what reality it is true it is individual being and its god but both are consciousness where do you get all these ideas from from whatever we have read till now that thou art that we have already got again we've already got from our earlier you know which we are studying is the jiva is all these things we have got from our earlier studies all right before we proceed next step is visualization of to understand this the next relationship which we will apply before that let me see if there is any question rick is asking how does the sense of self i think the word is ahamkara fit in with the five cautious model sense of self which we normally have which here he has indicated as ahamkara is um translated as ego literally if you translate it will become ego maker ahamkara it is the sense of um appropriating things we we read all these definitions earlier what is ego it is one of the functions of our inner instrument again what do you mean by inner instrument antakarana which we studied uh earlier inner instrument consists of four factors means the mind buddhi means intellect means the memory [Music] these are the four functions of our inner inner instrument the function of the ego or the ahankara is to appropriate all the activities to itself so when the you're remembering things it's not the ego which is doing it it's the memory but the ego says i remember when you are when there's some understanding the buddhi understands something some understanding flashes you say i get it what is this i it is the appropriating the unifying function and it's necessary to give you a sense of that one individual being it gets a sense of self separate from everything else so that's the function of the ego where does it fit in with the five cautious model it's it's in the uh the vigna maya kosha some put it in the in the manoa my question some put it in the beginning of my kosher but basically it's in the antakarana which is divided between the vigyana my question and the mano my question below that is the pranamay kosher above that is the anandamaya kosha so when you're talking about ego it is in this vigyanamianomaya kosher level then vishwanathan is asking in the direct meanings of both tat and tuam consciousness is counted twice once associated with ignorance and once not associated could you please help us understand why it is considered twice it's not considered twice both times it's associated with ignorance in one time when you say tat it is consciousness associated with maya samashti adhyana with maya and in tuan it is consciousness associated with vyashtyarjyana with what we call ignorance which is the same consciousness it's the same consciousness appearing in these two ways imagine when you are dreaming so you the dreamer's mind is like the ishwara of your dream is the projector of your dream the same consciousness together with the whole dreaming mind projects the dream world but a fraction of the dreaming mind becomes a individual in that world the same consciousness identifies with that individual in the dream world and does things in the dream world so you in your dream world you are both ishwara and the jiva each were in the sense of the creator of the dream world and jiva in the sense of the one individual actor in the dream world but you're not counting the consciousness twice the same consciousness acting in this way prabhir basu is asking in words in text 151 why does that not refer to nir gunabram and exactly what rick had asked so that's the same answer to put it very briefly the word that tat and the word tum they refer so two mean two meanings you have to take one is direct meaning one is implied meaning implied meaning is what we will get at the end of the entire process the direct meaning is the meaning which we have right now in sanskrit what means the direct meaning direct by what do you mean by direct meaning just the common meaning which you would take in in a dictionary for example you would find what is the meaning of the word so the direct meaning of that which we get is ishwar or god and the direct meaning of is jiva and the same that and thou will refer to indirectly the implied meaning will be nir guna brahman so to begin with saguna brahman and jiva ending up with one nir guna brahman that is the whole process yeah okay now we go to second stage three stages three relationships one is second one is the first one was the relationship between two things which are the two things the two words in the sentence that and they have samantha and the second relationship will be between the meanings of those two words the objects the reference of those two words what is the relationship between saguna brahman and jiva so what is their relationship what is the relationship between that devadatta that we will see now second step and you must also like feel why is this step coming very naturally once you have established blue blue lotus this is a blue lotus you have established blue and lotus mean the same thing the next question naturally will arise is what is the relationship between the blue and the lotus so that's why this second step comes up is translation the second relation that obviation of ishibhav is this in the same sentence this is that this is that devadatta the meaning of the word that is devadatta existing in the past and the meaning of the word this is they were that existing in the present these are contrary they are contrary ideas but still they qualify each other so as to signify a common object similarly in the sentence thou art that the meaning of the word that is consciousness characterized by remoteness and the meaning of the word thou is consciousness characterized by immediacy etc they are contrary ideas but still they qualify each other so as to signify a common object sounds complicated but it's pretty simple first of all let me show you how this second step the visualization of how how this works let's take a simple example then we will jump into all of this simple example is this blue lotus why do you keep harping on a blue lotus bits because you know there was a there was a tinting comic book i don't know how many of your fans of tintin were fans of tintin were kids there's a tintin comic book the blue lotus but it's not referring to that blue lotus long before tintin this was a common example in our shastras blue lotus this is a common example so what does that example mean how does how does this second stage work so it um this is adjective it helps in distinguishing the object you want from everything else i'll repeat that it helps in distinguishing the object you want from everything else for example if you say get me the blue lotus how does the word blue function it helps that person to understand you want the blue lotus you don't want the red lotus you don't want the yellow lotus you don't want the white lotus the word blue helped in excluding all other non-intended things i'll repeat that the word blue the moment you said get me a blue flower immediately the person who understands who hears understands that he wants a blue flower it it means that i can leave aside the white flower and the red flower and the yellow flower and the pink flower and all of that i just need to get a blue flower how did that person understand by the word blue all the other flowers were excluded you notice how it it helps you in excluding everything else and when you say lotus or flowers say a blue flower a blue lotus um a blue flower let us say the person wants a flower he does not want a blue cloth he does not want a blue pen does not want a blue chalk he doesn't want a blue berry he wants a blue lotus so the word lotus excluded everything else else except a lotus the word blue excluded everything else except blue now they qualify each other and you understand only one and one thing blue lotus blue x excludes all other colors lotus excludes all other objects except the lotus and the two together they can only point to one object that is the blue lotus so this is how adjectives function they help in excluding all the non-intended things when you say um say call the the the um you know say the driver of this car who is parked outside immediately you know not to call anybody who is not a driver not to call any driver who is a driver of any other car which is not that particular car the two terms driver of this car immediately exclude every other person except one person who's intended by this this is how and we all use it all the time we use it all the time for every day we use this kind of adjectival relationship now the same thing happens in devadattas this is that devadatta so but this is that devadatta um this mutually exclusive exclusions it the this and that they work together to point to only one and one person that they were there nobody else similarly he says now apply to amazing that thou art and very interesting thing happens then when you apply it what does it mean that thou art tattoo it's a very dramatic meaning that thou art that means brahman god saguna brahman is you are that so by this it means when you say that god is you it means you are excluding everybody else except you you say the word you excludes whom just like the word blue excludes all other colors the word you from the meaning of god from the meaning of god if you just say for example lotus it means blue lotus white lotus yellow lotus but the moment you say blue lotus all other lotuses are excluded the moment i say god it means durga kali shiva vishnu jehovah allah it means every conception of god that we have got but the moment i say you tatwa masi what is excluded everything is excluded except you so very god but what what what god are we meaning we mean we do not mean shiva or vishnu or kali or durga or narayana we mean you none but you you are god and the opposite also works when i say you are god then what you am i referring to i'm not referring to server priyan and i'm not referring that you are a man you are a monk you are staying in this this is your personal history no the only thing that i'm interested in you is god you are none other than god and god is none other than you what a dramatic sentence when you say ahamram ask me i am brahman it means what what does it mean i am not the body not the mind because i said i am brahman brahman is not a body not a mind i am not the body not the mind that's what it means when i say i am brahman i am of the nature of consciousness and bliss of shiva but the opposite is also true when i say i am brahman then what is brahman nothing but me it is not something called shiva something called vishnu allah jehovah no it is me it is i now see how the two function together by saying you are brahmana what it points to is that then you cannot be the body you cannot be the mind you cannot be this little person and by saying brahman is you it cannot be some other deity it must be you the consciousness when they work together they point to one thing and that will come later on so they're mutually excluding this is that now it still does not give us a meaning see at this stage the meaning of blue lotus is very clear i hope you're following me what was the first stage blue and lotus refer to the same thing saman of the current name second stage blue is a quality lotus is the substance blue is a color lotus is a flower meaning is clear nothing more needs to be done but here so i am devadatta this is that devadatta tucked to a messy it still doesn't work if you put the two together they're totally contradictory the meaning doesn't work it's no good saying that you are none other than god and god is none other than you what does it mean why is it contradictory think about what you said um what is that god omniscient omnipotent uh all loving the you know the creator preserver destroyer of the universe is none other than you are you omniscient omnipotent all loving creator preserver destroyer of the universe no no and you remember tum what did we say tuam is consciousness associated with individual ignorance individual mind individual body you are god so is god sarva-priyananda sitting in a chair in manhattan this middle-aged person with wearing a orange robe is that god no that doesn't matter match any description of god at all so it doesn't fit just like the example so i am devadatta this is that devadatta does it fit because this is that they wanted to put them together that devoted and this they [Music] how can the same person be young and old young and old they were the skinny fat they were doctor there and here devadatta past and present day they're totally contradictory they cannot go together does not give us our final meaning because it's contradictory so to find out the final meaning of a sentence like this is that devadatta or our sentence that thou art we need one more step we need one more step that will be the implied meaning we know what's going to happen we are going to give up just like this is that we give up the non-essential qualities it doesn't matter it is past and present doesn't matter he's young and old it doesn't matter he is skinny or plump we know it's the same person similarly what will happen in the case of that what it doesn't matter is all knowing and less knowing doesn't matter it is a single human body or it's a cosmic body we know all of that we can drop it why can we drop it we can drop it because they're all products of maya there's only one underlying reality which what is that consciousness is existence consciousness please alone that alone exists both mean the same thing drop the qualities of ishwara because they are projected by maya superimposed upon consciousness drop the qualities of the jiva because they are projected by agyana by the individual ignorance and superimposed upon consciousness you get consciousness and consciousness alone such brahma that will that will come up later next that's the third step implied meaning implied meaning we will do that next time that is a long process which will start the implied meaning is not an easy one uh even samanadikaranyam i have mentioned at some other point that having a common lokasama location in professor ganapathi's book i was reading twenty varieties of samantha current sixteen varieties of salmon of the current name are there only one of them will fit with advaita and you have to argue why tattoo messy fits that one variety of salman adhikarim not the other 15 varieties um so on all right we will see the complications next time but let me just tell you in brief the sheer elegance and beauty of what's going on you know what's going on here is that um that god this limited being notice that god um has all power excellence there's no problem this infinite knowing being eternal god has no problem on the other hand i have many problems i have birth and death i have disease old age limited knowledge suffering so many problems endless problems but that has one disadvantage god has one disadvantage what is the disadvantage god's existence is doubtful god's existence is not directly experienced it's a matter of belief reading about it it's at least at present it's not directly experienced so god's existence is uh doubtful it is uh remote it is not directly on the other hand i have one advantage my own experience for me at least is indirectly experienced immediately experienced it is continuously obvious to me i exist whether anything else exists or not even this class this laptop you all present you might not be there i might be dreaming that i'm taking a class i might have fallen asleep and you might be sitting and wondering why is swami not coming for the class might be so i how do i know um so all of this it depends on me the consciousness but i am aware i exist this is there is no doubt this is where descartes stopped his inquiry that the guardian doubt uh cogito so i exist i have no doubt god exists doubtful but god's doubtful existence is a spectacular existence infinite no problems my limited existence undoubted but has a lot of limitations a lot of problems what this tatthwa masih is doing is bringing the two together and revealing to us an indubitable certain infinite existence it is taking your certain existence and proving it to be infinite i'll repeat again your existence for you is direct indebtable because it is upper okay directly revealed to you that you are my own consciousness is by the method of this what will happen in the next step um this implied meaning you know the lakshy election of however all the contradictions between me and god will be dismissed with and my infinitude will be revealed it brings god's infinitude and my certainty together and makes a certain infinitude if you understand advaita vedanta properly it's stunning you need nothing more beyond this maybe at the most you need to stay with this to solve all your problems it will reveal to you by putting god and the individual together they will mutually remove all the clashing uh qualities leaving you with the absolute consciousness only which is always free of uh problems you will realize ahamram that's what's going on underneath first of all we'll bring it together samantha karanyam it's a fancy name for saying that god and you refer to the same thing it's the same object same reality then second visiting they mutually exclude everything else which is stunning even the decision of subhaba though it does not give you the final meaning it still takes you to a stunning level it tells you you are nothing but god and god is nothing but you you are not a part of god because god is nothing but you not one bit more than what you are and you are nothing but god when you just put these two together it's a stunning statement the swami pramishanji i referred to yesterday there's a story um very interesting incident it's a very senior monk uh he's still alive in in banaras so i will not take his name he told us this story when he was a young student he used to visit swami pramisha on the jeep and one day swami pramishanji said to him he bowed down to say information on the permission he said to him look here this and he touched his finger to his forehead like this cold sudden cold touch of the finger and this young man he jerked back in surprise and then swami pramishandi said there there that one that one we just now jumped back in surprise other than that there is no rascal called god in bengali he said now what does he mean he doesn't mean that young man who just jumped back and said it does not mean the body does not mean the surprised mind he means the awareness quite apart from body and mind other than the body and mind the awareness itself that awareness in itself is not is the same awareness with which with the quality of my with the power of maya you call that same awareness god with the with the this individual body and mind you call that this young man both are the same thing it's one consciousness alone another way of putting it same rope people not recognizing the rope as a rope some say it is a snake some saw it as a garland discarded from the temple some saw it as a crack caused by the last earthquake on the earth this is the classic example bhu chidra pushpa mala sarpa snake garland crack on the earth suppose you take snake and garland now somebody comes and tells you the snake is the garland it's like saying tattwa masi the snake is the garland it's actually not a snake it's actually not a garland both are the rope now you might say why don't you just say it's a rope in the case of a rope you can say it's a rope but suppose the rope is something you cannot express by language not only that the deeper meaning the deeper problem is this if you say it's a rope the person who's seeing a snake won't understand anything because he's seeing a snake the person who is seeing a garland will not understand anything because he's seeing a garland you have to say the garland is the snake so to understand the way i'm using this sentence it means whatever is the garland is the snake and yet the garland and snake cannot be the same thing how can a garland be a snake the only possibility is it's not a garland it's not a snake it's quite something else altogether that you realize is the rope now this is just an example it's not a perfect example but here the rope is an object but here in this case we're talking about you by using saguna brahman we are actually leveraging out pulling out your limitations and showing you infinity and then letting go of saguna brahman also it's not about god it's also not about really the individual human being which we are so worried about it's what lies behind both of them that's why they are saying god is the in the human individual human being ishwar and jiva are the same issue and you are not the same but what is the fact is what you are talking about you the consciousness you nor a jiva you're something beyond both you are that which appears as both okay we'll see the second step next time third step lecture election above that's a long uh difficult process um let's look at the remaining questions shavani says pranam maharaja blue lotus points to one object is that specific enough what if they're 10 15 rule if there are 10 15 blue lotuses you'll be in trouble so you'll get a blue lotus but even then it works because if somebody has asked for a blue lotus you get a blue lotus that's good enough it worked in this case luckily there are not 10 15 consciousnesses to point to there's only one consciousness which is you you might ask at this point why there are so many people in the here there are 79 i can count aren't there 79 consciousnesses no look at your experience there's only one consciousness which you experience it is you consciousness is always singular professor arundham chakravarti the philosopher he pointed out something i forget who said this oh it was communicated to him by one of the leading philosophers to 20th century in oxford university um but anyway he doesn't want the name to be revealed that professor said that you know this is mystery ultimately the i the feeling of i they're not talking about consciousness they don't they don't talk about it in the way we understand but the feeling of i i it's always singular when you say i you mean only one thing and for you there's no other if you say book if you say car it can refer to millions of things but when you say i it refers to only one thing and god is singular that is the great insight of monotheism that there's only one god god is also when you mean god you you can call it whatever name you want but it actually means one reality there's only one reality called god and he said the universe is also singular now this dif remember this is the metaphysical conception of the universe literally universe means all that is the case this is a wittgensteinian approach whatever is real is called the universe all too altogether taken all together not the items of the universe so if reality if you take it all together it must be one because anything other than that will be unreal so in that sense the universe is there's only one universe the totality of all facts there's only one god there's only one eye is it possible god universe and i all singular can be one thing and he left it at that that's exactly what advaita vedanta says isn't it there's only one sachidan in the brahma which appears as jiva jagat ishwar this is all of modern physics and all of modern philosophy that professor who shall remain nameless came to this conclusion at all of his thinking till the final thinking of his of his life is that it's how mysterious when i say i when i say god when i say universe they're all singular they must be one thing it and all these three which seem so different from i am not god god is not the universe universe is not i and yet if they are singular is it possible that ultimately somehow they are all one reality yes they are that is what advaita vedanta wants to say it is one existence consciousness place which in your subject object experience you call i this universe and that god then um abhijit is saying that they were that the pointer is like the way of 1880 whether they were left of mumbai developed of manhattan but regarding the unnecessary stuff correct that will that's what will happen in the third step we will disregard the unnecessary instead of saying unnecessary why will you disregard what gives you the permission the legitimacy to disregard these huge differences is because they are all appearances created by maya how can you disregard the differences between a snake and a garland it's because it's not a snake it's not a garland that's why you can disregard similarly it's not a world it's not an individual human being it's not even god that's why we can disregard and find out the underlying reality and because the underlying reality is you that realization will be a direct realization if it was something else then it would be a theory but it's about that consciousness which you are feeling right now this whole process will be you will see why it is superimposition and superimposition it will remove the superimpositions and reveal to you the glory of what you are ah vishwanathan is asking swamiji step two seems to have opened up a contradiction as you mentioned problematic to directly equate ishwara with jiva which we are seeking to fix using step three as we will drop the qualifiers why doesn't the text jump from step one to step three directly we have already established that both words refer to the same law lotus as locus correct and in fact one of the movements he will make is that it doesn't apply this thing is not working it has not given us the meaning and therefore we go on but why did you go through this method at all because uh remember we are doing a linguistic grammatical exercise linguistic exercise semantic exercise to find out the meaning of a sentence we are trying to do that this is normally how we go every time you say blue lotus or things like the white chalk we try to find out how if white and chalk are referring to the same thing first step then what is the relationship between white and chalk is is usually a quality and then quality holder guna and rabbia and that's how it always works so we try it out because that's how we would expect to get the meaning and remember the vishista dwithin would want us to try to try it out because wants the jiva to be sentient being to be a visheshah of brahman brahman the ultimate reality qualified by sentient beings and incentive uh entities it's an organic unity in vishistantvita that's not what advaita vedantis wants to say alpana is asking in the case of devadatta we can easily drop the contradictory attributes and identify developed why can't we do that for brahman in spite of strong conviction intellectual understanding because strong conviction intellectual understanding are not there you can't drop it it's not all that difficult at all we can as many times as you want we can take it step by step until we begin to see it's as easy as that dropping the in contradictory qualities of devadatta it's as easy as that the apparent contradictions between jiva and ishwara will continue to appear to us but we'll see the underlying oneness um the next question is swamiji is the lakshy election of how the same as tata lakshana or are they different lakshya nabah and that is the same thing actually there it means different thing tata means the um the definition of brahman in its real nature swarupa and um oh sorry just the opposite saru palakshana means the nature the definition of brahman as it is tata talakshana means uh an incidental definition of brahman so that i'm not going into now but the process will be the same from going from the incidental definition of brahman if you don't know what i'm talking about don't bother if you uh we don't have time to discuss that it's actually a simple problem how do you define god how do you define brahman ultimate reality so one definition of brahman is that from which the universe has come in which the universe exists and into which the universe disappears the definition of ishvara of creator god god is the creator of the universe so is that the definition of brahman no it is an incidental secondary um accidental definition of brahma it's it's not the real definition of brahman this is called tata an incidental definition of brahman swarupa the real definition of brahman the definition according to the real nature of brahman what is that definition it is s infinite existence consciousness saccidananda brahma advayam brahma these are all surupal the direct definition and the relationship between the two is a lot like what we are doing here it comes by this implied meaning that's it that's the relationship but don't go by the word laksana layer lakshana means definition here lakshya lakshmi means implied meaning pointer uh here lakshana means the pointer and lakshya means the pointed in in our case implier and implied what is the employer the sentence is what is implying something and what is implied nir guna brahman implied otherwise it becomes a contradiction how can ishwara and jiva be the same thing so right now we are at a contradiction in the second step we have landed in a contradiction ishwar and jiva are qualifying each other like blue and lotus the qualifying blue and lotus fit nicely color and flower fit nicely no problem but g1 ishware do not fit nicely they cannot be the same thing the qualities are so different from each other how do you resolve this we will see in the next um kalpana is saying pranam swamiji is breakthrough or realization necessity to see oneness indicated in the implied lakshyata meaning yes it is by contemplating the lakshyat or the implied meaning and contemplating means all of this you know it sounds so abstract an intellectual exercise as a grammatical exercise a semantic exercise it's not actually we must i'll show you how next time but we must immediately relate it back to our experience now and it's all the time talking about exactly how we are experiencing the world nothing different it's just the language is sanskrit the terms are metaphysical it looks very fancy but is actually talking about our experience right now and we should relate it back to our experience to make it a living exercise where is maya in all this all this is because of maya where is mine all this let me point it out when you say where all this these are all maya where is maya in all of this this this idea of where space this object all totality these are all maya then where is brahman is so if you analyze your sentence you will find brahman and maya there itself is saying infinite of god and certitude of my existence source excellent if you like that idea because you're saying infinitude of god and certitude of my own existence so sublime perfect sit in the fact individual fact that i am there's no doubt about it then ask yourself where is this am i am limited normally without knowing vedanta we think it's limited in body because i think i am body it's limited in mind you say i am or simply i and then don't add anything anymore and if you reflect on it you will see that that sense of i what it refers to is unlimited everything else else appears in that consciousness which you are calling i true or not belong the world body mind god all of these are appearing in consciousness only what else that consciousness what limits it true we are saying ishwar are different yes very different and the aim of jiva is to get the gunners of god and become god-like one with it yes that is the dualistic approach that is exactly what you must not do in advaita vedanta when you say i want to become god-like that is the vaishnava dualistic approach i contemplate on the glories of ishwara and transcend my human imperfections and i hope after death to remain in vaikuntha in the presence of ishvara but swamiji yes but yes how can you how can you become realize and become one with god without that doing that part also becoming because because when we are reducing karma like we are like neti neti when you say like a wash ever no abortion no like i as is no uh aversion no desire no nothing so i am becoming god god like means it's like ever blissful ever okay let me stop you because we are studying uh we are studying advaita vedante we have a framework but but how can you how can you reach a big wait uh this is the general question but you must first settle down into the framework which we are studying how can we become god-like if you say what is god in this framework what is that what are the qualities of god see the otherwise what happens is you ask a question it means something quite different in this framework you say we are trying to become god like jiva is trying to become god like can you actually become god like what is the quality of god in this in this framework there is a clear definition one must not go by one's own conceptions it has no value that's why we are learning vedanta we are trying to understand the system and trying to uh clarify our concepts so what is god maya chaitanya what are the god-like qualities um the swishtis of the universe can you do that even jiva at any point can you do that no at the most in dualistic religion theistic you know like vaishnava religion one can contemplate on the glories of god and can be can become a much more refined purer jiva not bound by worldliness and filled with devotion to god filled with the feeling of closeness to god after death not take any more births by the grace of god be liberated and remain in the presence of god that's the closest one can get to being god or being close to god in any religious idea even dualistic religion will never say you can become one with god you can become one with god in only a particular sense the jiva feels one with god this is called sarupya mukti saluk there are different kinds of four five kinds of mukti are there so that's dualistic religion here we are saying that you will not become god like no no not at all you you have to lose your jiva characteristics and realize that the reality which appears as god reality which appears as you the jiva that is one reality and that reality which you are that is what you are you are saccidananda not ishwara you don't try to become god you cannot become god that is in fact the great um charge which dualists you know they charge advaiths with you're trying to become god you cannot become god but fine i understand what you are asking you are asking that the cultivation of these divine qualities purity of mind love for all uh unselfishness self-control these divine qualities daily sampad which is there in the gita are those qualities necessary for advaita or not certainly they are that's what you are asking certainly they are they are all included in the beginning of advaitha itself the the sadhana the fourfold qualification which is necessary for entering into advaitha so those qualities which religion seeks to inculcate in us are most necessary for any vedantic inquirer i think that's what you are trying to ask yes good all right [Music] [Music] namaste [Music]