Video 3

3. Vedantasara | Texts 5-15 | Swami Sarvapriyananda

[Music] so namaste everybody um we are studying the vedanta sara and we have had a couple of classes so we are on text number five and going on text number six i just read out text number five and the translation adhikari vishaya shanani the preliminaries the four preliminaries of vedanta are the qualified or the competent student number one adhikari number two the subject matter vishaya number three uh sambanda it's connection with the text the subject matter and the text how are they connected and prior what's the point of this study so that's that's how classically all classic or classical sanskrit texts begin at the beginning you would expect these four to be pointed out we would like to know who is qualified to read this text who is and and then what is the subject matter of the text what are we studying and then the relationship of the text with the subject matter that's a technical thing we'll see later and then the fourth one is the what's the use of this what do we get out of this kind of study so that that is something that is uh true across the board whenever you study such texts it will be pointed out here whatever are the the four preliminaries of vedanta itself the entire subject are the four preliminaries for this book also so what what the text will now do is the four preliminaries they will take up each one qualified student what is the subject matter what is the purpose what is the relation of subject matter text and then talk about each one separately so that's the style of this book first a list of subjects will be given and each one will be taken up one by one so now we go into text number six the qualified student before i go into this i'd just like to mention a couple of things why do you need qualifications one might ask um if i have an amazon account i can order the book and get the book and then read it that's it what is the point of what qualifications do i know if i know the language and if i can understand what's being said fine no the point is one can get the text and read it but unless one has these qualifications one one will not get the full benefit of the text that's the whole point that the whole point will be to get enlightenment will we get enlightenment by studying the text and the claim is you will get the full benefit if we have the full qualifications so that's why the qualifications of the student are important it's like you take up a graduate level textbook and any subject and the qualifications are that you must have completed high school and some amount of college before you get into this kind of study so a kind of qualification entry level qualification is required in any area so that's the point of qualifications the second point i wanted to make was don't get scared off when we read the qualification it might seem that oh i don't have these qualifications then i may be i will not i'm not don't deserve to study vedanta no we all have these qualifications you will see to some extent it's just that when such things are pointed out um these are the qualifications one needs to have this is the kind of concentration this is the kind of purity of mind one needs to have it's just being pointed out what we should pay attention to that we should develop these things more and more within ourselves to get the full benefit of studying vedanta um often people get scared that oh maybe i'm not fit to study vedanta or i will not attain enlightenment so i always like this to tell this story about a person who went to ramana maharshi you know ramana maharshi would always tell people to enquire who am i so a person went to ramana maharshi and asked am i qualified to study vedanta am i qualified you know adhikari and ramana maharishi said did you say i if you said i then you are qualified the practice is who am i so if you can say i then you must be qualified so it's maybe it's not as easy as that but the point is we are all qualified for vedanta because ultimately we are brahmana who else is more qualified for vedanta than brahman so we are that ultimate reality and of course we need to the whole purpose is to discover that so in that sense ultimately we are qualified but we need to know these things for our spiritual life now with that uh as the background let me get uh go into this qualified student text number six by the way this book i i have given you a pdf and the number of new people have come in i hope you've all got the pdf you can follow on the pdf or if you have got the book the vedanta is easily available it's published by advaitasram it's available in india it's available here in the united states translated by swami nikhilan and it's a very good book it's good to have the book in hand so text number six [Music] so that's a mouthful sometimes in sanskrit sentences are very long the translation can read out the translation and don't worry i'll just tell you the gist of it afterwards the translation is the qualified student is an uh is a spiritual seeker like us who by studying in accordance with the prescribed method the vedas and the vedangas has obtained a general comprehension of the entire vedas who being absorbed from all sins in this or in previous life by the avoidance of the actions known as kamiyah rights performed with the view to attaining and a desired object and nishita those forbidden in the scriptures and with the performance of actions called nithya daily obligatory rights animatica obligatory on special occasions as well as by penance and devotion has become entirely pure in mind and who has adopted the four southerners or means to the attainment of spiritual knowledge big mouthful but the most important thing in this whole thing is the last phrase the qualified student who is the qualified student it is the one the seeker the the pramatta means knower who has the fourfold qualifications to repeat again the qualified student is the spiritual seeker who has the fourfold qualifications what are the four fold qualifications all that will be explained uh later on so that last part is the takeaway from this whole thing but what is the whole thing all about we will see um so i mean let's go word by word i'll read out the sanskrit if you're not following the sanskrit don't worry i will keep translating everything to means so now or but here we are going to talk about adhikar yadhikari means the one who is qualified to study this who has studied the vedas and the auxiliaries the vedangas i'll explain that in a traditional manner that is being initiated into vedic study and you go to a guru and you study the vedas the four vedas or at least one veda the four vedas are the which one need which one needs to study in order to understand the vedas so all of this it is there in mundaco panishad a list is given when the student show naka uh goes to in fact i was reading some i think the chancellor in england is called show nakano rishi shonaka right he's an indian descent i think the shonaka is this a student who goes to uh the teacher in mundakopanisha and asks what is that by knowing which one can know everything and the teacher of this question is of course about brahmavidda the knowledge of brahman the ultimate reality of the universe if you know brahman you know the ultimate reality and therefore you know everything but the teacher starts by saying there are two kinds of knowledge so there are two kinds of knowledge the transcendental and the relative and what is the relative knowledge so when he talks about the relative knowledge um he gives the entire vedic study syllabus you know so that's where you find what is meant here by veda vedanga i'm explaining that [Music] [Music] so relative knowledge is the four vedas and the six auxiliaries called the vedangas the four vedas and the six subjects one needs to know in order to understand the vedas what are the six subjects the chanda the vedic prejudice how the vedic meter was written and then jyotisha study of the movements of the stars uh in order to you know find the right time for the vedic rituals um the vedic dictionary and then bayakara the vedic [Music] of vedic the vedic chants how to pronounce it properly so there are rules for that and so on so these are called the vedangas so this is having studied the vedas and the vedangas having a general idea of the entire week not having realized brahman that then there is no purpose of the study at all so uh having known the general meaning of the vedic teachings having studied the vedas and got an understanding of the vedas and this is important asmin janmani janmantareva now if you if you're thinking that that's a huge thing i have not studied any of the vedas i don't know sanskrit or the vedangas or anything and there's no chance of me studying that anyway now and i'm not going to let me stop this then no it says asmin janmani janmantareva in this life or in past lives so the whole point is this entire qualification one may be qualified for vedanta one does not have to actually go through this process if one has inquiry if one wants to realize that you know the purpose of life enlightenment is the goal um so we'll see the general qualifications necessary later i'm just reading out the text now in this life our past lives and this this applies to what is coming now also what is to be done kamiya there are certain things which are to be given up one must give up immoral activities sinful activities what is prohibited nishida means prohibited by religion by by morality and ethics one must give that up and then kamiyah not only give up the private actions but also there are actions which we perform for our selfish reasons so there are certain rights and rituals in the vedic karma kanda the ritualistic portion which are called kamiya karma so we read about you know the kings who performed vedic rituals for um conquering their enemies or they wanted children or they wanted wealth or something like that so these are all called kamya karma we have a worldly this worldly or otherworldly goal and we perform these rituals but that's entirely to do with this world that is not a spiritual goal so those things also should be given up one should not take two uh use religion for materialistic purposes that's the point then what should be done so this is a list of do's and don'ts what should be done nithyanatha and upasana so three kinds of rituals price chitta for if i feel i have committed sins so there are um rituals which will help me to get rid of those sins and feel purified surprise chitta karma they're also rituals and then nithyanandika nithya karma are the rituals a person following a vedic lifestyle who is a believer in the vedas who is a religious person the rituals a person has to do every day obligatory rituals so like people used to do this are the rituals one has to follow at specific occasions on the birth of a child or when one takes the sacred thread so a special um special rituals for special times of the year are in special occasions in one's one's life those are called name because of some particular reason nymit so these are three kinds of things to be done nithya karma naimittika karma and praise chitta karma three kinds of rituals plus upasana worship as prescribed in the vedas now i just want to say here what do all these do's and don'ts everything will be explained later on each item will be explained but we'll probably not be very clear about it even when we read the explanations because remember the context is a vedic context to understand this one must see what is it there in our modern hindu life so the rituals the vedic rituals have been replaced in modern hinduism by puja so instead of the it's still performed in a small way in the part of a big pooja like durga puja is coming up you will find a home of fire is lit so those are vedic rituals which are still performed but they have all become part of our hindu pujas so what we the what religion has now evolved to temples deities and the worship of those deities so those are the rituals in our present context we don't have to actually go back and perform those vedic rituals so have uh have some religion in your life to put it in a broad and simple way it is not against religion it's vedanta is not saying that you stop believing in all that i am brahmana and that's that's it no a devout religious life is very helpful for vedanta notice these are preparations for vedanta to be a student for this book or for vedanta one it's helpful if one has a religious background that i can put it uh and an ethical and moral life ethical moral religious life and uh upasana so the superstar is in vedas certain meditations were prescribed you had to visualize uh certain things and their detailed descriptions are there now those things have gone out of vogue in modern hinduism in modern hinduism what we do is those who have taken mantra diksha you know that an ishta devata is given krishna or rama or durga or kali ramakrishna and then you are shown how to meditate on your chosen deity and you're given a mantra so that is our upasana the upasara basically means worship done mentally has two sides one is the physical puja which we do which are equal to vedic rituals and then there is the actual mental internal worship that we do it's visualization repeating a mantra which is equivalent to the vedic upasana and why is this done in such a way remember this goes back to the the structure of the vedas the vedas themselves the four books if you see the constituents what are they all about they're about three things karma upasana means ritual upasana means worship and gyana means worship or meditation let's say meditation and gyana means knowledge ritual meditation knowledge karma upasana this is the structure of the vedas in the all the vedas all the texts that you find there they're concerned with these three so that's why you will see here there is some instruction about karma what do you do with the vedic karma those karmas which are prohibited don't do them those which are to which are related to fulfilling worldly desires don't do them those which are obligatory duties rituals nithya karma do them which are occasional major rituals to be performed nightmare thicker do them which are for repentance and for um you know if you one feels guilty about past misdeeds christ chitta karma do that and then the second component is upasana meditation that also you have to do upasana having done these you come to the gyana portion three parts karma upasana you come to the gyana potion finally the last and final portion of the vedas which is found in the upanishads which is called vedanta so we are now going to enter vedanta you see i hope this is making sense now we are going to enter vedanta who is going to enter vedanta those who have already done the karma and upasana portions of the vedas what does it mean for us today for us it means today that some religious background is necessary an ethical life is necessary plus some practice of meditation is necessary it's a good solid foundation for vedanta which we are going to enter now this is an interesting balance usually religion is understood as rituals prayers meditation and here in vedanta where we are being told all those are not the actual um the essence of spirituality which is vedanta which we are going to talk about and learn today and learn from now on but on the other hand those are not to be dispensed or scorned and thrown away some vedantists make that mistake so they say we don't need rituals i you know it goes back to the time when advaita vedanta was being taught becoming popular in india after shankaracharya so many hindus thought are these people actually hindus are they religious people are they some kind of buddhists are they some kind of atheists or skeptics i mean do they go to temples do they take birth in the ganga do they go on pilgrimages do they believe these things so the advaitin had to say yes we believe all of it we believe all of it but all of it is what what is called the transactional vehicle level at that level and it's a very good preparation for the actual vedanta which we're going to talk about so this is one side the other kind of extreme is those who don't pay any attention to the vedanta and they are remaining only at their level of rituals and maybe some kind of meditation mostly sometimes people remain only with rituals external observances that is not the essence of spirituality one must come to the core which is vedanta okay now i think so what is the purpose of all of this the purpose is next i'm reading from the text those who are following the sanskrit nitanta nirmala swanta swanta means one's own mind antakaran one's own mind what will happen very pure so the mind has to be made pure or very pure how nirvata nikhila kalama having uh erased removed all kinds of impurities from the mind removal of all kinds of impurities from the mind attainment of a pure mind as a result of which what will happen as a result of all of this we will get four qualifications which are essential for vedanta that's the whole takeaway from this those four qualifications and all of this which we read was how do you how does one become qualified for vedanta one becomes qualified for vedanta if one has those four four qualifications which we will see later i will take questions but before that let me just share the basic structure of spiritual practice in vedanta this is an important thing i will share with you which will be helpful for the study of any vedantic text and later on you want to study upanishads it helps in understanding what's going on so let me share this i'll share the screen with you also so that you can see um one second okay uh can you see this uh powerpoint yes okay so this is what we are studying the four preliminaries to the studying to a text are the but this is what i wanted to share with you so look at the whole structure of spiritual practice in advaita vedanta advaita vedanta says you are brahmana that's the teaching so there should be no problem you are infinite existence consciousness please what problem does one brahman have but then immediately our reaction will be but i don't know that i know it's not real for me i don't feel that i don't get the benefits you're talking about you know the removal of suffering the attainment of um peace and bliss so i'm not i don't know this what you're talking about it's not something that i have realized it's not something that is a is a reality here can you see the movement of my uh do you see here the problem is ignorance the problem is ignorance and i've given you the sanskrit equivalent agana what kind of ignorance not ignorance or physics chemistry or even sanskrit ignorance of my nature the claim in vedanta that you're you are brahmana that i do not know i must honestly confess i don't know this this is my problem and no means as a living reality not just that i've read about it or not yeah i've read about it i've heard about it but it's not a living it's not clear to me at all i have not realized it so the solution will be knowledge guyana because the solution for ignorance is always knowledge and remember this knowledge and this ignorance how are they related here is a simple thing knowledge removes ignorance knowledge removes ignorance when when the object and the locus are the same two things i'm repeating when ignorance and knowledge have the same object and same locus it may sound uh strange what does this mean but when i explain to you you'll see it's very simple actually so suppose i don't know maths i don't know mathematics and i go to a class i have ignorance about mathematics so what is my ignorance about what is the object of my ignorance mathematics where is that ignorance in me in my mind now i go to the teacher teacher is going to give me knowledge about mathematics so the knowledge must be about what about mathematics i can't go to a music teacher or you know spanish teacher because the object of my ignorance is mathematics so the knowledge must be about mathematics the object must be same what is it what are you ignorant about then you need knowledge about that only and where is where should the knowledge come it should come where there is ignorance where is ignorance in me not in my teacher the knowledge is which is in my teacher that will not remove my ignorance that knowledge has to come in me and it has to be about what i am ignorant of then if the locus locus means the place where it is the locus and the object of ignorance and knowledge are the same then only knowledge removes ignorance so the object of ignorance is mathematics i do not know mathematics then the knowledge also must be about mathematics if the locus of ignorance is in me i do not know mathematics then i must know uh mathematics the knowledge knowledge must come here it sounds like a simple thing we all understand this why i make a big deal about it because first of all when we say vedanta is about knowledge yoga knowledge yoga not all kinds of knowledge only knowledge about the self about what i am and also my teacher's knowledge will not help me and the enlightened person vivekananda ramadan marsha's knowledge will not help me it has to become my knowledge i must realize this okay how do i get it what is the method the method is one must systematic one chavana means hearing all these things will be explained later shravana means hearing manana means reasoning about it and nidhasana means meditating about it hearing of the teachings of vedanta it means more it means actually systematically studying vedanta systematically studying vedanta when we study it a lot of questions come and so those questions have to be resolved through reasoning discussion and then once i have studied it once i have understood it then i must meditate upon it to assimilate it so that it becomes knowledge it becomes a realization living knowledge and this knowledge alone can remove argyana ignorance all right that sounds fine so this whole process is called gyana yoga shravana madana nirasana is called yoga that sounds fine but then the complaint will be i have been attending so many classes i have been i've read so many books and heard so many lectures somehow knowledge is not coming and ignorance is not being removed i still don't realize that i am brahmana then vedanta says there is a another level of second level of problems what is that problem wick shape big shaper literally means scattered mind the mind is unable to absorb what is being taught i am hearing that i am brahman not working it's not working i'm not i'm not realizing that i'm somehow not getting it so the mind must be concentrated problem scattered mind solution concentration in sanskrit weak shape the solution for that is this is common sanskrit word found in many indian languages it means focus or concentration how is that achieved remember this whole structure is classical advaita vedanta if you go to a bhakti teacher they will not at all agree with this structure it's about the the traditional advaita vedanta the structure followed in this book and in all advaithic texts so how does one get concentration by meditation devotion so raja yoga and bhakti yoga will be useful here for what not for liberation not for enlightenment but for concentration of mind what will give you liberation only knowledge knowledge will remove ignorance and you will find that you are always liberated you are ever liberated so this rajya yoga and bhakti yoga is actually what is called upasana in this book arupasana and the vedas now one might at this point object but i have been meditating i took the mantra from such and such guru so many years ago and for last 20 years meditating but my mind is so you know it fluctuates so much i either fall asleep or my mind becomes restless when i meditate so they are saying vedanta will say there is another level of problems a third level of problem and i promise is the last level the third level of problem is impure mind why can't the mind concentrate because the mind is impure in sanskrit mala or chitta mala i can i should add mala simply means dirt but what kind of dirt chitta means mind so chitta mala the dirt in the mine impurities in the mind conditioning from this life and many many past lives so um how what is the solution we keep hearing about this again and again in spiritual life purification of the mind this is the unglamorous work of spiritual life this is where it starts actually so purification of the mind how is this done karma yoga first of all ethical moral life and then unselfish action that purifies the mind so how does this work so look at this problem in pure mind a solution pure purified mind how do you do it by karma yoga the mind is purified with a purified mind you meditate upasana and the scattered mind becomes concentrated with a purified and concentrated mind kitty and will generate knowledge which will remove ignorance and we will know that we are brahman so this is the whole structure of spiritual practice so is there a sequence so uh are we saying that so right now i have to start karma yoga then after 20 years i will go to raja yoga and bhakti yoga and finally when i'm 70 years old i will come to your vedanta sahara class no no not at all all of these go together they all go together what will these first two do okay there is one interesting insight here these first this karma yoga and rajya yoga bhakti yoga this karma nupasana these two preliminaries before gyani yoga what do they do if they have been done well then those four qualifications will come one will become a qualified student of venanta if they have not been done well those four qualifications will be weak which are the four qualifications we will see from after this okay that's what i wanted to say this is all a background for um for what we are going to study today at this point if there are let me just quickly read through um the next few texts so as usual the author has used a number of technical terms and as is his style he will explain he'll define each of those terms so he has mentioned things like kamya karma nishida karma you know rituals done with desire prohibited actions obligatory actions so what are these things he will define each of them quickly text number seven sacrifices such as jyotishma etc which enable their performance to get the desired fruits such as living in heaven etc are known as kamiya karma remember these are not to be done for if you want enlightenment then number eight nishidhani narakaddhi anishta sadhanani brahmana hanana veeni actions such as the slaying of a brahman etc which bring about undesired results such as going to hell etc or forbidden acts so sinful acts uh which are again not to be done then number nine [Music] daily rights or obligatory rituals for a religious vedic person such as sandhya vandana the daily rituals the non-performance of which causes harm are called nithya karma so these are obligatory rights if you think that you are a devout hindu so you have these so in today's age i mean at least now it has all changed but at least at the time of our parents or grandparents or great grandparents we would see they would have a series of rituals which they would do throughout the day they were not the in some cases the original vedic rituals but in some cases something else like in the morning they would take a bath and then sit for puja with the the household deity offer food to that and then in the evening they might do a little arti um little bhajan might be there a little puja would be there so these are like daily little rituals and they are to be done yes then number 10 uh sacrifice which are performed subsequent to the birth of a sun etc are called the namitika karma or rights to be observed on special occasions so birth or the upaniana or other things like marriage etc so certain rights are to be performed a religious householder should perform those things all these things are good preparation a religious lifestyle good preparation for vedanta 11 price chitta karma which are expiation of sins penances christ chittani papak shaya sadhanani chandra yanagini rights such as the chandrayaan etc which are instrumental in expiration of sin are trash jitters or penances so it's a particular type so all these names have been given i'm not going into that i'm racing through these ones because these are technical and also not directly relevant because most people don't do it these days they do other things which are more common in hinduism nowadays for example the chandrayaana would be a proud so i feel i have committed a sin so i'm going to repent for this sin and perform this ritual so this ritual involves a worship and also with the movement of the moon or the lunar calendar my food will be reduced so i start with 14 little uh morsels and then um as the days go by every day it will be reduced by one and one until the um when there's no new moon day uh there will be i will fast and then it will be over uh i mean actually it will increase again so again it increases from one more cell two muscles in three months and then the end of the fourteen days again i can have a full meal so that's a kind of um ritual then number 12 i'm just racing through it then i'll take the questions number 12 upasana meditations so um mental activities basically meditations they are visualizations relating to the sagunda brahman saguna means god all these things will be defined much later such as are prescribed in the chandelier or upasanas or devotions to be done so chandelier videos is a kind of meditation prescribed in chandragupta the others also like india so as i said the vedas are divided into three parts rituals meditations knowledge we are actually going to enter the knowledge part now the knowledge part is vedanta vedanta is the knowledge portion of or the spiritual let's say the spiritual portion of the vedas the others the rituals and the meditations uh what this vedanta says is they are not to be discarded you can do them uh but not for any worldly purpose those are good preparations you do them without any worldly purpose you just do them as a good practice as a purificatory thing what will you get out of it you will get two things purity of mind concentration of mind with a pure and concentrated mind if you come to vedanta it will work miracles um without that if if purity and concentration of mind are lacking what will happen is either we will not understand what's being said or we will say many people come to this day they after a serious study of vedanta over years they finally come to i get it now and it's wonderful what vedanta is saying but it's not a living reality it's not becoming a living reality for me i have not realized it yet so that's because the fourfold qualifications which we will talk about they are lacking so this the meditations about god sakuya brahman is god basically the god of religion that these these things have been replaced by our modern uh ishta mantra and so if you ask in advaita vedanta if you ask i have taken so what would a classic advice say you know like a traditional advertising it's very good it's a fun very good preparation for um vedantic realization that i am brahmana which is very different from what a bhakti teacher would say bhakti teacher would say devotion to god in that form is enough that itself will take you to god realization and you know enlightenment but in advaithin we'll say that's a good preparation now come to vedanta come to the class now 13 and 14 before i go into it i'll just say um what these are about is summing up what has gone until now the real thing is going to come after this the fourfold qualification for vedantic student but this is just the background uh he will say that what is the purpose of all this nithya karma namithika karma price chitta karma upasana doing these and avoiding other things the purpose is purification of mind concentration of mind if you do it without any worldly desire but most people you see conventional religion from vedic times till today most people who come to religion are not coming for this purpose for god realization for becoming enlightened forgetting brahma gyara moksha they are coming for it coming to religion for some worldly purpose or otherworldly purpose worldly purpose is let my illness be cured let kobe go away all good purposes let the economy recover or let me get a green card things like that so a worldly purpose or it may simply be general thing you know it's it's nothing wrong in it let all things be good for my family for the society it'll all be good it's still worldly it's not for god realization enlightenment so if one has a worldly goal one will get that if one does not have a worldly goal and still practices these things the ones purity of mind will increase and concentration will increase that is what is being said in 13 and 14 13 you will get concentration of mind and purity of mind if you follow these rituals without any desire i'll read out what has been said here um of these the nithya and other works mainly serve the purpose of purifying the mind but the upasanas chiefly aim at concentration of mind as in such shruti passages brahmanas seek to know this self by the study of the whalers by sacrifice regardless as well as in such smitty passages they destroy sins by practicing austerities in the manuscript so what was said here if you follow the sanskrit i'll just break it up for you and we'll go through it together aj sham of these all these rituals which was mentioned etc what is the purpose param actual ultimate purpose [Music] purity of mind which i just mentioned actual purpose is purity of mind problem impurity of mind solution purity of mind and that's done by these practices then what is the purpose of meditation i the purpose of this meditation is concentration of mind now another thing throughout the book you will see remember this book is a systematization of what has been found in the vedas in the upanishads so whatever the author says time and again he will he will demonstrate that i'm not making it up it's from the upanishads it's from the scriptures from the texts i'm taking it and systematizing it so when he said all of these things he has said that all these vedic rituals they will lead to mental purity the upasanas will give us concentration where did you find such a thing he will quote from new conditions for example he says the spiritual seekers they seek to realize um the atman by study of the vedas by sacrifice so by all these rituals so they try to realize my rituals another quotation from manusmithi tapasa by austerities people seek to overcome impurities so by leading an austere light tapasya all right so this is a preparation for spiritual life but suppose you say but most people who do these rituals most people who go to temple and church and you know are they doing these rituals whatever the rituals are for attaining purity of mind and concentration of mind no no no they are doing it for worldly and other worldly purposes let me have a good life here and let me go to heaven after death now i don't want god realization or mocks or anything like that so that will be said in number 14 [Music] okay that means the higher heavens you go to heaven after death as in the shruti passage by sacrifice the world of fathers by knowledge or persona the world of the devas is gained from recognition okay so that's what is going on here now all this at the risk of upsetting traditional pundits i will say not important so much for us it's all so much background the real important thing is coming next let me just see if there are any questions or anybody has raised a hand or something let me see okay so quickly i'll take it what if you are not a hindu right so it is not to be understood in a narrow or you know sectarians sectarian manner see what happens is in the um in some religions to get the benefit from that you have to be a part of that religion so you have to be a christian and then you accept jesus christ as a savior then only the benefits will flow to you or become a muslim and you accept islam then only you will get the benefit of it but in advaita vedanta it really doesn't matter though it is a tradition of hinduism and firmly rooted in hinduism it's very impersonal it you will see at no point it says that if you believe this if you are a hindu then you only get the benefit no if you if you become enlightened if you are if you get knowledge ignorance is removed whoever you are you will get the benefit of it you will become enlightened you will be free of suffering so it's a very impersonal philosophy now because it is set in hinduism and in ancient vedas so all the preparations and preliminaries you will see they are all very vedic in fact why hindu why only hindu because even modern hindus will find this strange because it's so um almost obsolete modern hindus are much more used to puja and festivals and mantras and all of that so that is the way the religion has evolved so what is the take away from this take away from this this is for everybody to take away from this is not that you have to be a vedic hindu for for you to study upanishad no to study vedanta no what you have to be what it's trying to tell us is you we need first of all an ethical life and some religious preparation for purification of the mind and concentration of mind there should be some kind of ethics and religious ritual in our life depending on what i mean whatever your background is that's one and there should be some kind of meditative practice for focusing calming down the mind number two if you have these two your preparation for vedanta is complete that's a good question then mantras for person are not chanted loudly right mantras for upasana which are found in the mantras during rituals are chanted loudly but done mantras for dupasana are actually telling you what to do mentally and if they are mantras to be chanted they have to chant them mentally um means having done earlier pura salaam ramya is asking pura means having done these things earlier and then you go to the next one this is jyotishtova uh then they this jatashti various kinds of vedic rituals these are traditional vedic rituals which have to be performed most modern unless they are very strict vedic brahmanas most modern hindus do not perform these they have replaced it with modern poojas so what else is there anybody else who's asking a question no all right now so this is the background you might say why so much why not get to the actual point what are the actual qualifications of we're talking about a qualified student so what are the actual qualifications of a qualified student you said there are four sadhana the one who's studying this one who wants to know what kind of knower is necessary equipped with the four-fold uh spiritual qualifications so why not go straight to that remember uh upanishads are firmly embedded in the vedas so question will arise if vedanta is the ultimate teaching of of the upanishads the vedanta is the ultimate teaching of the vedas they might not just discard everything whatever went earlier just go straight to vedanta so two reasons one is that psychologically it is it's not good one needs some preparation and so the preliminary portions of the vedas which deal with action karma and with uh meditation upasana these two are very helpful as for preparing preparing you for the future study of vedanta second if you discard the earlier portions of the vedas it leads to a kind of fanaticism that only this is right and then the question might be asked oh so all that went in the vedas before the upanishads everything else the ritualistic portion the meditation portion they are useless they are not right in that case how do you know that the upanishads themselves are right that will also be open to question so what the vedanta teachers have done is they have not discarded the ritual portion they have not discarded the meditation portions they have kept them as preliminary not as the ultimate purpose but kept them as preliminary practices so this has been the approach in hinduism when you make a progress when you come upon something new and better don't abandon the earlier one keep it in a subsidiary position so for example over thousands of years hindus we have moved on to from veda from where the religion was centered centrally located in vedic rituals huge fire sacrifices those things have faded away and we have now temples and deities and puja um but we have not faded up entirely so they are there as part of our major pujas not only that every puja every warship always will have a lamp which is lit first so that could be a vestigial leftover of the huge vedic sacrifices which were performed earlier so in hinduism nothing is totally discarded it is incorporated and kept at a certain level somebody raise their hand gloria gloria please go ahead gloria you have to unmute yourself can you hear me yeah i'm just unmuting here she's still muted so either you have to unmute her or she has to unmute herself okay i'm here i'm here yes i it wasn't unmuting uh gabriel's question has has raised something for me when jesus said um i and the father are one is is he saying um the same thing i am brahmana but christianity has um kind of packaged as jesus is the only one yes so from a vedantic perspective when we um hear the teachings of jesus we find a a you know a dualistic teaching a qualified monistic teaching and a non-dualistic teaching so when i and my father are one it is non-dualistic i am one with with the with the lord it's literally the meaning of me but um so if you look at the orthodox catholic interpretation of that it's only jesus who can say that not the rest of us so the rest of us are not one with god we are rather we are creatures and the lord is the creator so there's this huge gulf between us and god um so yeah so that's that's what i would like to say from an advaithic perspective it immediately makes sense i and my father are one but advaitan would say that everybody can say that we are all one with with brahman we are brahmana in fact okay and all these things will become very clear this is the beauty of the book what is god what are we in what sense are we um one with god everything will become very clear crystal clear in this book and even if you don't study any vedant after this this is a solid foundation for the advaita every term is clearly defined and especially when we study the uber issues when we go back to the sources of this book this groundwork will be very will be very useful for us thank you anybody else no then i will just mention the fourfold qualification and then stop today so most vedanta books will not mention all these things they'll start with the four-fold qualification straight away so it mentioned four-fold qualifications for the vedanta student come to text number 15 text number 15. those who are following the sanskrit you can follow with me [Music] the means to the attainment of knowledge are one discrimination between things permanent and transient two renunciation of the enjoyment of the fruits of actions in this world and hereafter three the six-fold treasure such as control of the mind etc and four the desire for spiritual freedom four-fold qualifications viveka from which the word from which the name vivekananda comes viveka which is the we all will be defined later on viveka and second and third is the six-fold treasures shama etc all to be defined later and then mumuk should come intense desire for freedom all right i'll just leave it at that if others have any questions because this thing it's better to discuss it at length in the next class because he's going to go on till text number 26 about these fourfold qualifications girish go ahead thank you um my question is is about karma is karma associated only with individual jivas or is there a collective karma for the entire empirical world as we know it a karma that would dictate the the life and the rebirth of the phenomenal world because science does say that this world that we know will end so is it is it other religions say that god will come down and and all the dead will rise and all that we don't have that here so but but we do we have a rebirth according to karma for the universe yes so the vedantic idea not just advaitha in fact all of hinduism has this idea of a cyclical theory that the universe has been created and it is propelled by karma and this goes on until um at the end of the particular cycle the universe will be destroyed destroyed we'll all see what is what does it mean to be described it's all absorbed back into maya which is the power of god but all those beings who have not attained liberation will still remain in a seed form with all their impressions and all their past unexhausted past karma in the in the collective maya and the next cycle of creation again the universe will be created and as it has been in innumerable times in the past so it will be created again and all those beings who have not suppose they have not attained enlightenment i don't get off scot-free by when the universe ends because i'll be kept in cold storage and when the universe starts again i'll be put back into play again until this will go on until i get enlightenment only when i get enlightenment am i free of this cycle so that's the idea is there collective karma there will be collective karma individual karma collective karma so karma is the field that propels this creation existence and destruction of the universe again and again and again it's a cyclical theory how would you reconcile this with one creation and then the end of the universe in some of the abrahamic traditions i would say in a cycle if you take just one section of it creation existence destruction if you take that much only that that's that much only is what they are talking about but the indian view is much faster you take a step back and you begin to see that has happened again and again and again and it's going to keep on happening we'll see later on says yes but no none of this has actually really happened not happening will it happen brahman alone exists from eternity to eternity and it is eternity to eternity also is the language of time which also depends on brahman there's only one perfect existence which is non-dual brahman as long as we don't realize that all this is uh is temporarily or or relatively valid for us all this is important but not ultimately true the dualistic religions take this alone as the truth there is god and there is us and we are in trouble and there is a heaven and hell and earth and then creation and destruction all of this is like a movie being played again and again so does the movie have one show yes but it also has many shows so the the hero will undergo tragedies and will finally triumph and all of it will be over and then in the next show it will start all over again what advaita vedanta says is that it's a show and otherwise non-dual brahmana is perfect all the time gabriel manish has a question who agrees i have a couple of things one is i struggle with the concept of sacrifice in vedas it has always bothered me how can one have a purity of mind when the base of that is based on certain recommended sacrifice the moment the sacrifice of a being not effectiveness of a being does not mean so all of these young generally don't mean sacrifice of living beings often they are just small rituals to be performed so yes animals were sacrificed in major vedic rituals and those were often rituals they were usually they were rituals connected to some kind of worldly and otherworldly desire so that was the old religion of the vedas yes and swamiji one more thing i think the matrix you showed on the powerpoint slide yes uh if you just extend that into a third dimension combine it with satraj in tamgona yes get a 27 cube matrix and if you extrapolate that you can say imagine in the gurukuls that existed in the past a guru would look at the specific quality and the readiness of a student to come based on those 27 different greetings of where the student was and then accordingly prescribe which of the sequence that you put together in the slide which comes first because what the the sequence that may work for one student may not work for another student so it gives a very fine grading potentially to true but remember this what this says this is something that you find in the upanishads in the bhagavad-gita all the time for everybody there is a certain necessity of karma certain necessity of meditation and then ultimately gyan knowledge works now for most of us we start with with karma progress to meditation and then knowledge becomes fruitful for us though we practice all three together the more satwik the mind the more certain the mind the faster you you get to the level where knowledge will work for you and enlightenment is the result the more thomasic the mind the more important it is for a person to practice karma yoga um rajasik mind has to be controlled through meditation yes but the three gudas are very very important in understanding the level of a spiritual seeker and recommending spiritual practices and that is exactly my problem when we see you know there are so many shades of religion and different ways of interpreting the correct path and sometimes i feel that i feel that there is there is a prescription which is provided i'm not talking here but generally outside which is less suited to the needs of a person but more because that is what most people are accustomed to and that's what they can teach and that's why they teach that it is true that's why the vedantic path is is really good because it gives you the whole you know the whole broad span of spirituality from the beginning to the end what we need is ultimately knowledge not working because of lack of concentration of mind meditation is necessary not working because of the impurity of mind when purification is necessary if you see at that level purification is not coming that would be rare but then you have to look then further back do i have an ethical um moral life one can't jump from uh immoral life to unselfish action no immoral life to moral life moral life to unselfish life unselfish life to meditation and focused mind with a focused mind vedanta becomes immediately effective and who else is there all right um giant are you gabriel has a question yes gabriel can you unmute yourself yeah just quickly also to what gloria said earlier i find since i've been studying with you swami uh i suddenly understand references uh that i made to the bible which i never understood before and now since studying with you it's like oh yeah okay of course this is what they mean like my father and i are one other references suddenly it's crystal clear to me so i just wanted to mention that that i think that's wonderful for example very powerful in the beatitudes in the sermon on the mount jesus says blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see god your pure in heart will see god now see the whole point here is the the fundamental task before us is this purity of heart purity of heart is what is called purification of the inner instrument right vedanta master once told me that with this purification with the fourfold qualification which we shall talk about next time with those qualifications approach vedanta the same teaching will take you to enlightenment without those or without without a sufficient grounding in those four-fold qualifications approach vedanta you will be left with a feeling of i understood it but it's still not real for me and i i get what is being said but it levels remains at the level of the intellect what remains at the level of the intellect will deepen into enlightenment depend not by more study but actually by these preparations all right uh let's end this here we will take it up next time thank you thank you everybody thank you [Music] krishna you