Video 31

31. Vedantasara | Texts 173-180 | Swami Sarvapriyananda

[Music] m 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 in with vedanta right now study of the vedanta sarah we have come to a crucial point where some very vital concepts and very interesting concepts for example what is the role of the mind in enlightenment you know brahma gyan atma ghana what we are all trying to get what is the role of the mind why is this question important because we keep hearing um we keep hearing that it is beyond thought beyond the mind and again we see that it the upanishads themselves said it is to be realized by the mind alone not only that we ourselves observe that whatever we are doing is thoroughly in the mind all our study even our meditation um even samadhi when you try to shut down the mind in deep meditation you're shutting down the mind you're you're working with the mind so the mind is absolutely vital to all of this and yet we are told that it is beyond the mind so what is the exactly the role of the mind in enlightenment that takes us to the bigger question what is enlightenment what happens during enlightenment what is the mechanism um so and then it takes us to the even bigger question what is the nature of knowledge itself according to advaita vedanta any kind of knowledge because enlightenment is knowledge about brahman are about our self the what the identity of brahman and the individual self jiva that is the knowledge we are looking for in in vedanta but what is the knowledge in general what do you when you see somebody when you hear a sound when you think all this kind of knowledge what is going on there so these are the questions which are now going to be answered so these are very important and very interesting also but the points which are being made here are subtle so you have to pay attention and think about it i've given you the outline last time but we will dive into it this time so text number we are on text number 172 um in 172 we already read this i'll just quickly go through it and then proceed 172 says what does that mean remember that the basic concepts just in fact the talk i gave on sunday the lamp of bliss which is based on the seventh chapter of the pancha dashi which is based on the brethren upanishads methi purusha brother nicolas there we talked about this the the crucial concept here is you are really pure consciousness chit and because of maya you are reflected in maya and its products what is my the product of my especially one important product is the mind so you the pure consciousness are reflected in the mind so now you have you have three concepts uh analytically speaking you have the pure consciousness chaitanya which is the only reality that there is then you have maya and its products which are all maya maya mind and so on and then you have the reflection of consciousness in that maya which is called chidab hasa reflected consciousness and the example i gave keep it in mind everything will be clear the uh face your real face this face and then there is a mirror or for example this is also good in a computer in a camera you can see i can see my own face in the computer so here is my real face there is my reflected face or the image of my face and that requires a mirror or a computer now this real face is like chit pure consciousness and the reflecting medium mirror or computer is like maya and mind especially here let's we'll just call it the mind and the reflected face there is called chidab hasa um it's like the reflected consciousness now if these three mind everybody knows we all feel the mind right now there's nobody who does not has not some notion of the mind at least because we are all the time using it the thinking feeling imagining remembering desiring understanding um all of this is the mind and note carefully in the mind right now you feel aware so i'm making a distinction within the mind itself i'm distinguishing the awareness in the mind from the contents of the mind let me repeat i am distinguishing the awareness in the mind from the contents in the mind what is this distinction like it's like distinguishing the reflected face from the mirror the mirror is like the mind and the awareness is like the reflected face so now in when knowledge happens what happens um by using our sense organs our eyes or like right now for example we are using ears to listen to the voice so the ears will deliver sound to the mind and in the mind the sound creates a vritti you're paying attention to what is coming into the ears so this is a vritti priti means a modification in the mind a thought about about the input from the sense organ that thought is illumined by what by the reflected consciousness there the chidabahasa in the mind which is always there just like if you have a mirror and you look at the mirror your face will always be reflected in the mirror you are pure consciousness and the presence of the mind reflects that pure consciousness that reflected consciousness will illumine anything happening in the mind now what is happening in the mind whatever happens in the mind is called a chittavriti how do these chitravitis come swamijanda gives a nice example of a pebble being thrown into a lake when you throw a pebble into a lake there are ripples created so what are the pebbles all the inputs from the world sound form smell taste touch not only from the external world from within the mind itself memories desires all of these create ripples in the lake of the mind these ripples are called vritti's the viktis are nothing but the mind they are the mind itself in motion and each british is about something so you are right now you are having gritties in the mind they are about the sound of my speech you're having with these in the mind they're about the in this computer screen which is giving a form uh avriti about it so your computer with the uh are these going s in the mind and as the virtis are going on in the mind they are being continuously illumined by the reflected consciousness present in the mind this mind taking brittis about something is called vritti dhyapti suppose we want to know x some object x it could be a form it could be a sound something then the mind will have an x akara britthi the avriti about x and the reflected consciousness in the mind will illumine that withy so when the britti is there we call it vritti dyapti pervasion by the britty what is pervaded by the vikti that object x that input x it's a fancy way of simply saying that you are having a virtue or you're attending to that sensory input that's all you're paying attention to that sensory input simultaneously what happens is the reflected consciousness riding in that vritti illumines the content of the pretty this is called palabdyapti pervasion by reflected consciousness these are little dry abstract terms but they are something please note they are going on right now there's nothing abstract about it right now we are we are experiencing and if you noted you can immediately note what's going on are you not paying attention to what i'm saying if you are then what you are doing is you are using your sense organs and paying atten attention by the mind that's generating a virtue in the mind about my speech that vritti is being lit up by the awareness constantly present in the mind so why are you distinguishing the awareness from the vritti because the virtues keep changing right now you're listening to my speech after that you will see something else after that you may take a dinner you'll have a taste with the sound with the form with the various wikis are coming even when you're listening to me it's not one breaththi moment to moment to moment writtens are coming and going every word of mind every sound is creating a british in your mind so with these keep changing but the reflected consciousness is the same one that reflected consciousness keeps on illuminating these with these that is called palab so these two terms please keep in mind um now what happens is in the case of enlightenment brahmagyana realization what happens is we generate a britti about brahman how do you generate that by the shravana mananananan pedanta what we are doing right now if it falls in place if it clicks if it's the right writi exactly what is being transmitted by the upanishads we get it as it is meant to be as the rishis of the upanishads meant now in communication any kind of communication there is the speaker and there is the hearer there is the originator of the communication and there's the recipient of the communication the originator has an intention in sanskrit it is called vivak the what is intended to be conveyed and if the recipient understands it in exactly the same way as what the communicator wanted to convey then the communication is successful so the upanishad the communication is successful then what will happen is there will be a virtue about brahman what it is like it's just sort of falls into place it clicks in a moment and that virti bhatti normally it should be illumined by the reflected consciousness but the reflected consciousness is not necessary anymore why because the reflected consciousness is coming from brahman it's like i give you the example of the moon reflecting the sun's light back to the sun the moon light need not illumine the sun because the sun is shining with its own light a million times brighter than the moon and not only that moreover the moonlight is nothing other than the sunlight it is the sun's own light so the sun blazes forth just that conjunction has to happen earth moon sun you know in this case the conjunction has to happen you have to get it what the upanishad is trying to say just by the way i heard a very nice you know simile about our metaphor about what the upanishads are did you ever hear this that the upanishads are a burp deku in bengali the great marathi saint ganesha he says the rishis of the upanishads they stuffed themselves with self-knowledge they were they filled their beliefs with self now they had a nice feast of self knowledge and they burped and that burp was the upanishads so so they can't also say these are the expressions of the realizations of the rishis but i never thought that uh the this most august and uh ancient and sacred of scriptures would be described as a burp so all right now what happens well one more point to be noted what exactly is the function of british what exactly is the function of in any knowledge the function of yapti is to destroy the ignorance about that object so i want to know x right now i'm ignorant about x why for example what is behind me right now maybe you can see but i can't see so i need to i'm ignorant about it what is behind me so in one way i can put it that what is behind me is covered by ignorance for me how do i remove that ignorance i have to create a virtu how do i create the vitivapti i have to look around and use my eyes and see what is there behind me that creates a viti about the thing which is behind me and it removes the ignorant of ignorance about that simultaneously what happens is the reflected consciousness in the mind will illume in the revealed the the revealed object and i will get the knowledge that i see what's there so vritti vyatti destroys ignorance reveals or illumines the object i'll repeat again objects are hidden to us the vritti dopty destroys the ignorance hidden by what hidden by ignorance destroys ignorance illumines the object another example dark room you have a flashlight now the problem with the flashlight is it cannot illumine the whole room you're only a beam of light so to see things in the room you have to continuously focus that beam of light that focusing is the british just the focusing that means just you turn the flashlight around this way and that way that is creating the virtis and wherever the light falls that is the palab so the light is absolutely essential but the light by itself will not reveal what you want to see you need to focus it and then um you need to focus the instrument and then the the light which is riding that instrument why i'm using the riding because these are the terms used uh with the aurora the consciousness riding the britthi by the way when i'm talking about all of this those who are who have studied vedanta in depth especially vedanta paribasa there is a whole discussion about how the antagonity flows out and covers the object to be cognized and destroys the ignorance there and the consciousness reflected consciousness riding on that antakaranavithi illumines the object so uncovered i'm not going into all of that not necessary just we need to understand what's going on in very practical and simple terms so um in the case of brahma gyana brittiv byakti is necessary palab vyapti is not necessary this is a you can see the power of these terms in a very short way like a philosophical shorthand you can answer the question in the case of enlightenment the brahman realization i am brahman absolutely essential you must focus you must focus the flashlight you must turn your mind towards your real self-brahman which is inwards actually but the reflected consciousness in the mind will simply merge back with will become one with the original consciousness of the the pure consciousness chit in in our terms will not reveal chit chit is always self revealed but the mirror of the mind must be focused turned towards or turned must be made about the chit i'm saying the same thing multiple times in different ways all right that should be enough so what happens the consciousness that the mind the mind that there's a virtue created our real nature is negated then what happens is one more point when the ignorance about our real nature is negated then every product of that ignorance is also negated what is that ignorance maya when maya is negated all products of maya mind body universe everything is negative negated means be careful negated i introduced the term badate means not that the entire universe will be pounded into you know cosmic dust or something it just means you'll be falsified mithyatwa nishchaya falsification you realize that it's not real oh the sky is not really blue it's just this scattering of light which physics has revealed to me but when i look at the sky still looks blue there is no mirage there's no water in the desert it's just a mirage but when i look at it still looks like water similarly for an enlightened person once this process has finished looks opens the eyes looks around the universe will still look the same but the enlightened person now knows it's thoroughly knows without any effort effortlessly knows it's an appearance i the underlying chaitanya pure consciousness and the only reality that sachidananda is the only reality just like if you burn the threads in a cloth the cloth is also automatically burnt similarly akhila karani again when they call the material of the entire universe the material causes the entire universe which is ignorance maya agana when it is negated that car is here the the product of that maya is the mind and in that mind is the brahmagyana the the realization which has just come you remember the viktor biati where is the viktor in the mind it is mental with you only that will also be negated that will also be negated because if the mind is falsified then the knowledge in the mind also will be falsified and so bad this answers another question after enlightenment you realize you are brahmana so what will remain will two things remain brahman and the knowledge of brahman no only brahman will remain even the knowledge of brahman will be negated in the last talk on this sunday i raised this question panchodashi author vidyarny has raised this question that when the opponent asks so you are saying that this reflected consciousness is not real yes we agree only pure consciousness is real if the reflected consciousness is not real whose knowledge who generates this knowledge it's the reflected consciousness in the mind where the knowledge is generated if the reflected consciousness is not real if the mind is not real then the knowledge i am brahmana in that mind is also not real the opponent thinks he has caught us trapped and uh with the hare industry we can imagine his humor and he's so blunt and you know blatant about it he says who says that it is not real who says that it is who says it is real who say who denies it now i think over this who is denying it we perfectly we admit it the knowledge also is false now this confused some people somebody asked so then i am not brahmana somebody felt hurt that it's false no you are brahman you always wear brahman that fact is not touched just the ignorance about the fact that i was brahmana that is gone and the knowledge which is generated that is part of the mind universe body mind they are all falsified therefore the knowledge is also falsehood falsified means what it's an appearance it is none other than brahman that's all and the example that vidyarny gave was very nice radio surprise padam he says like the snake rope snake when you realize it's a rope the snake goes away it's like saying is the going away of the snake real or not the snake is sort of saying the figure of speech the snake slithers away the slithering away of a false snake is it real or not what i what i mean by that is snake was not real everybody now we have understood that so the snake is gone now the opponent is you the opponent you are asking so did the snake the going away of the snake is the real or not because if i say that going above the snake is not real you will immediately say the snake is still there did it go away or not it was never there to begin with it it was an error so the going of the away of the snake is also part of that error in that sense only that i am brahmana knowledge is falsified not that the fact that you are brahman that is not falsified you are you were brahman even before that knowledge that knowledge did not make you brahman enlightenment does not make you the absolute you already are that way that sadhus i still remember always this sadly used to say whether you know it or not whether you accept it or not you are rabbah you are a god or one with god that also is negated because it is a product in the mind itself produced in the mind when the mind is negated it's also negated okay then number 173 yeti papa they are fond of long sentences as the light of a lamp cannot illumine the lustre of the sun but is overpowered by it so consciousness reflected in that state of the mind is unable to illumine the supreme brahman self-effulgent and identical with the individual self and is overpowered by it and on the destruction of the state of absolute oneness with which that consciousness is associated there remains only the supreme brahman identical with the individual self just as the image of a face in a looking glass is dissolved into the face itself when the looking glass is removed so one must carefully understand and apply these examples so now he's saying what he's going to do what is he going to say that palabra is not necessary he's going to say that the reflected consciousness in that writing which i am brahman how did that come by carefully listening to the classes and thinking about it and meditating upon it especially by sravana and that comes that vitti with that reflected consciousness that reflected consciousness does not reveal brahman the reflected consciousness does not reveal just like the flashlight you take the beam of the flashlight beam and you can see things in the room but if you turn the flashlight towards the sun if you turn the flashlight towards the sun will you say now i saw a table a chair a person you know like the books in the dark room with my light now i'm seeing the sun with my light how silly is that similarly he says just like a deep so just as the lamp if you take a little oil lamp and hold it towards the sun that is it is impossible it is a crazy thing to say that little flickering light of my little oil lamp is now illumining the sun not necessary why it is simply overwhelmed by the billion times more effulgence of the sun and that's why the moonlight example is even better because if the lamp light you feel sort of different sunlight is different lamp light is different but moonlight and sunlight is so that's why i really like the example given by that swami ramananda saraswati um that's what exactly is happening to us all the light we use right now light means our thinking feeling you know all the normal technical terms which we are using all the time the reflected consciousness is nothing but the tiny tiny fraction of that one indivisible light channeled or reflected of a fragment of maya which has given rise to our antakarana our inner instrument and then s which is non-different from you the inner self you are that you are that and that is you i'm a part of that everybody else is no there's no everybody else and no part you are that and that is you and there's that is nothing but you and you are nothing but that that that little reflected consciousness in the mind is overwhelmed by you the infinite consciousness and where is that reflected consciousness it's in that briti what ritti i am brahman but that i am brahman has been falsified already because you are enlightened you realize that whole world including the mind is also an appearance and that knowledge i am brahman that's also an appearance then what happens just as if you remove the mirror remember our example my real face mirror reflected face if you remove the mirror then the reflected face is in a way of speaking it remains as nothing but the real face mirror is gone where is the reflected face you may say reflected face is gone but gone where in a manner of speaking you might say it is nothing but the real face similarly that consciousness riding in your mind right now it remains as its original source which is pure consciousness which you are it says that supreme brahman in non-different from the inner cell which you are that alone remains what's the point of this the point of this is that for enlightenment with tibdyapti is necessary and palabryapti is not necessary and then once the vitibatti happens and the self-effulgent brahman reveals itself then what will happen the virty vaptiv itself will also be falsified the mind will be falsified dirty we have to that's why enlightened persons do not want to say i am enlightened it doesn't seem true to them we will misunderstand oh so you are not enlightened no not that way you are perfectly enlightened for our practical purposes we should consider enlightened persons as enlightened we should say they are brahma gyani technically however the enlightened person the brahman ghani will refuse to say that because i am brahman not a brahmana jani brahma brahma i think vivek ramani also shankaracharya says i am brahman not a knower of brahman such being the case there is no contradiction between the following shruti passages by the mind alone it is to be perceived from prayer necropolis and that which cannot be thought of by the mind can open we are to suppose that the unknown brahman is brought into contact with only the mental state but not with the underlying consciousness what does it mean what we have discussed till now the one of the upanishads says it can be known by the mind alone every knowledge is in the mind including knowledge of the absolute it's not by the mind alone and the cain opened says just the opposite it cannot be no thought of by the mind the mind cannot conceive of it cannot reveal it what does this mean it means this apparent conflict contradiction shruti we know that it is there is no contradiction at all why now you can easily answer it yes it is to be known by the mind alone because vritti dapty is essential pervasion by the mental viktor is essential for brahmagyana yes it cannot be known by the mind because is not possible or not essential not required for brahmagyana brahman reveals itself the reflected consciousness in the mind does not reveal brahman the sun reveals itself your flashlight does not reveal the sun so this is the answer what was the question we had what is the role of the mind is the mind necessary for brahma-gyana yes will with the mind reveal brahman no so yes why because british is necessary one must do shavana manan and asana one must focus the flashlight but or do you want to see the sun you must turn towards the sun definitely but then your flashlight need not reveal the sun the reflected consciousness in the britti which reveals every other kind of thing in the world without which nothing can be known in the world but brahman it need not reveal then he quotes where did you get these all these fancy theories he says not mine he quotes pancho dashi in fact it is said thus it has been said the authors of the scriptures have refuted the idea that the individual consciousness can manifest the brahman but they admit that brahman associated with ignorance is brought into contact with the mental states only for the purpose of dispelling ignorance regarding it clear enough what the panchodashi says is that the masters the those who have worked out the scriptures shasta krit means the the composers of these of the sastras they have they have they have denied that the reflected consciousness will reveal the absolute reality that cannot happen not necessary but with tibet is necessary for what purpose what does it do it removes ignorance about brahman we have ignorance in the mind about the reality and knowledge in the mind now we can be very precise what kind of knowledge we obtain the mind will remove the ignorance about brahman in the mind but unlike all other knowledge brahman that ultimate reality will reveal itself in devotional language that's why in devotional language again and again it is said you don't realize god god reveals out of his own grace god reveals himself what god gives you his own darshan we have the idea in hindu you know mysticism god gives you the vision it's the grace of god you have not been able to catch hold of god by your own spiritual practices that's a devotional language this also explains the upanishadic thing you know that that that the atman reveals its itself to those upon whom the atman to whom the atman wants to reveal itself so what do you mean atman wants to reveal itself to someone it's just that um atman is is self-luminous no you are your palab dyapti is not necessary but your with tibet is necessary then 176 so am further says brahman being self-luminous does not depend on the individual consciousness for its illumination individual consciousness reflected consciousness everything else is revealed by reflected consciousness but brahman is not revealed by reflected consciousness everything you can see with your flashlight but the sun you cannot see with your flashlight cannot see means you need not it is meaningless to shine your flashlight on the sun then all this is true only of enlightenment realization of brahman it is not true of other things in the world 177 but there's a difference when the mental state assumes the form of material objects when you see something here something smell taste touch something when you think of something when you remember something desire something try to understand something all of these are our ordinary day-to-day use of knowledge both are necessary to simple enough because in the case of the experience this is a jar the mental state assumes the form of the jar makes the unknown jar its object dispels dispels ignorance regarding it then the consciousness underlying the mental state manifests the material jar to put it very simply there's a pot a pot when i get the knowledge this is the part first there must be a vritti in the mind about the part what does the vritti do yeah how does the vitti come look at the part or touch the part or whatever and what does the british do it removes ignorance about the part and immediately the reflected consciousness in that rit because reflected consciousness is always there when the mirror is there reflected face will be there reflected consciousness always there that reflected consciousness illumines the part in your virtue and you get the resultant knowledge i am this is a pot so both are necessary for any kind of worldly knowledge both are necessary both means this answers the question what is knowledge in vedanta this is the question before this we saw what is brahmagana the knowledge of brahman and before that we saw what is the role of mind in brahmayana where it is necessary where it is not necessary another quotation it is said that's [Music] thus it has been said both the intellect and the consciousness underlying it come into contact with the jar the intellect destroys the ignorance regarding the jar and underlying consciousness manifests the jar simple words there's a jar and you have intellect coming to contact means with you you have a british british about the jar and understanding i thought about the jar and in this the reflected consciousness in your intellect in your mind that illumines the vritti so ignorance is destroyed by british and the object is illumined or revealed by the mind the knowledge in the mind destroys ignorance regarding the object and the reflected consciousness in the mind reveals that object to you basically what will happen at the end of it in a split second you will get the knowledge this is a part two things have happened your ignorance about the part has been removed by the virti in the mind about the part and the reflected consciousness in that ti reveals that part to you and you get the feeling i know the part i see the part i touch the part whatever and that's ordinary knowledge all sorts of ordinary knowledge this is basically what's going on and please note in your own experience you can immediately see all these things happening all the time just as the light of a lamp coming into contact with a jar or cloth existing in darkness dispels the darkness which involves envelops them and through its own luster manifests them it as well so the flashlight example there are there's a cloth or a pot in the darkness it's alliterative you know gatapattah so butter means cloth gutter means pata means cloth and gutter means pot and in the darkness you focus your lamp or your flashlight that focusing is called with and that destroys the ignorance about it and then the light that means the reflected consciousness in the mind illumines that object that is called palapdyapti reveals it in the case of enlightenment you need to destroy the ignorance ignorance in the mind destroyed by knowledge in the mind that's with brahmaca but you need not reveal it because that what you're talking about is self revealed um so that sort of concludes our discussion of advaita vedanta before you know it it's over after this what will happen a lot of interesting stuff will come but the difficult part is over the teaching is over after this what will happen i'll tell you how do we do this sadhana practices and the practices we have been hearing all the time that um it is a hearing and contemplation meditation reasoning and meditation but how is there any technique special procedure of hearing or shavana is there any procedure what goes on in manana and what kind of meditation you're supposed to do so those practical matters will be dealt with interesting but nothing very difficult at all there and then the result of it all which is g1 mukti enlightenment i mean the living while free they will talk about it they are always in ecstasies when they talk about the great fun that is awaiting all of us at the end of all of this so they'll be the result of of all of this palam in sanskrit palam result and that brings vedanta sara to a close what we have done till today is the teaching is advaita vedanta outline of advaita vedanta with all the concepts the basic concepts have been defined and clarified but remember these these are not the original text the original text we will start after finishing vedantasal the original text are the upanishads the burp the from the enlightened masters so we will start wrist studying all of that there you will not find it so systematic neat and geometric you know here it seems very neat it's been organized and thought over and systematized over centuries and you get it in this form remember this was for introducing it to students for newcomers now when you jump into the upanishads you're going back to the ocean we have learned swimming in a swimming pool here everything is neat and safe and nice and then you're going to jump into the ocean and to swim next now that we are ready to swim but the ocean has waves and and sharks and octopuses and so and so forth where is the teaching let me delineate it for you mark it out for you it starts with um it starts with text number 32 what superimposition is seeing just like seeing a snake in a rope making a mistake similarly seeing this entire universe in one absolute brahman that is superimposition starts there text number 32 and it ends with where we ended today text number 180 with clarifying certain matters regarding illumination or enlightenment so this is advaita vedanta yeah there's there's quite a bit remaining now but the essence has been touched upon you are equipped to to actually swim in the ocean with the big guys now all right let's take a look at what's being discussed in the chat how do i become prabhu vasu is asking how do i become aware of the britta is it the chidavas or the pure consciousness which makes me aware of the vrt the the vritti itself is always illuminated by the jiddabhasa but the object of the vritti that you are having a written mind that is always revealed by siddhava but the object of the vitti is revealed by um by the viti by the palabrati in the case of ordinary objects but in the case of the absolute reality pure consciousness which is your own reality that is self-revealed that reflected consciousness need not reveal it's like this when i look at this book i have book akaravity in my mind so this looking at the book and attending to this information creates a virtue in the mind that there is everything the mind is revealed by the reflected consciousness but this book also has to be reflect revealed by the reflected consciousness because the book is not luminous i mean it's not consciousness itself but when the question is about brahman my real self then the british will will remove the ignorance about my real self i know what it is like and then the real cell will become obvious to me it's already obvious it's already there actually just like it's just like the um original face my real face is always there whenever i'm looking at my reflected face in the mirror my original face the real face is always there but what's the problem you can see the reflected face but you can't see the original face the real face similarly reflected consciousness you're aware of that you are using that to become aware of everything and that also you're aware of right now but the real consciousness pure consciousness chit brahman utman witness consciousness you're not aware of it because it's not an object in enlightenment you realize what it is and you are free what happens is that suddenly i realize oh i am not that reflected face which is entirely dependent on the mirror mirror gets dirty reflected face reflection is poor mirror is cracked reflection is disturbed mirror is wavy or concave or convex reflection changes the reflected face is entirely dependent on the mirror because it's nothing other than the you know the it is it is it shares the material nature of the mirror but the moment i realize i am not it i am this i am free of the mirror and all its limitations now all the sorrows suffering limitations of the reflected consciousness i am free of it i've always was but i didn't know it it's a um this is called adhyasa mutual superimposition how does it work i am the real uh consciousness i am infinite i am real i shine forth now i superimpose that reflected consciousness upon myself which means what the evident nature of that reflected consciousness which is very limited i feel i am limited now and i superimpose my own nature on that reflected consciousness and the reflected consciousness feels i am real i am conscious i shine so now you have an amalgamation a strange mixture of two things i am real and i am limited what are you really you are real and you are unlimited you are awareness what are you not that limited consciousness reflected consciousness but when you mix them up when you superimpose one on the other the two appear as a real and limited consciousness and tell me isn't that what we think of ourselves right now we are really there and we are very limited uh conscious beings that's what we think that's the amalgamation of chit and chidadhasa superimpo this mixture it's like a strange weird thing where i the real face having forgotten my nature but i'm there even if i forget the real face the real face will always be there i now think i am that reflected face in that mirror i don't even call it a reflected face i said that's me now everything that affects the mirror now affects me though really doesn't then krishnamurti biswanathan asks is lighted up absolutely ankara is written every function of the mind is what are the functions of the mind about objects and then the intellect is definition of intellect we read all of that you know that's the beauty of the vedanta sarah i can use it to answer all your questions you asked is ahamkara vritti and is it lighted up by chida bhasa let me give you the answer the book has already given the answer please go back to text number 69 text number 69 direct answer to your question this is the beauty of vedanta sarah you asked ankar is it a function of the mind is it a british is what is the the appropriating function which says i am xyz you know but for our purposes the answer is it is a virti and every antarctic is lit up by reflected consciousness because it's like a mirror so always the reflected consciousness will be there when you feel i that shines with the reflected consciousness but you are not that british not even the reflected consciousness in that you are not the mirror not the reflected face then kiran asks swamiji is the same as or is this a result of manu nasha mano nasha if you see it as a sense of as samadhi malana can be understood in two ways one is the negation of the mind that means the mind is not real another one is the shutting down of the mind technically not technically it is a vritti if you do chittariti niro the samadhi then the writi is not possible but the samadhi may be followed by the ibrahim when you have the brahmacar with the aham ramahasmi in a very concentrated mind it will plunge into samadhi then but why i'm saying this i'm careful with this question is one um great sadhu akanda saraswati was very well known in the north of india in the 50s 60s he went to the shringeri shankaracharya in those days and asked him this question that what exactly is the nature of brahma karavriti what happens there the shrinkage and karacharya says it is like striking a rock an unbreakable rock with a sword what will happen the sword will will be broken it's not literally it will not be able to crack the rock it'll be broken what happens is when you investigate i am brahmana with the help of all the upanishads the mind will be focused on this knowledge as the mind if as it clicks as it falls into place the mind itself will disappear you realize brahman alone is shining forth and whatever happens after that mind comes back body comes back world is there that's nothing other than the shining of brahman now if you want to call this mano nasha yes it's a very subtle and powerful answer here you can see the combination of advaita vedanta and patanjali yoga in one side of it it is like the assam pragyat samadhi of patanjali yoga on the other side of it the initiating factor is the brahmacar avriti of advaita veda this is a very subtle question what lights up the object that i'm looking up is it that it is the reflected light from the object that is entering my eyes it creates everything in the mind which is illuminate correct but where does where the first light comes from what is what what do you mean by first light project verbo i mean if the let's say there is a book lying on the table that book has to be lit by something that's an external light isn't it yes that's an external light objects because your your sense organs will depend on external conditions it has to be lit up by an external light and that light will come that is what your sense organs are designed to accept that's a material light of course so that's a material light lighting of a material object correct it could be a light for us for a dolphin or a bat it could be the sonar way sound waves um you know and it's just one mode of perception every mode of perception has its own physical mechanism and all of that can be copied machines can do that um i mean your radar and sonar and infrared sensors they all work on you know technology already available in nature that's all material but if i if i start from brahman and some and if the world is appearing from brahman then i can't seem to come around i mean i get that's why all this is useful you start from brahman then what comes next see now now i will subcontract out all the questions to you all because you have read vedanta what comes next after brahman maya what comes next after maya the all the products of maya the subtle five subtle elements five cross element with the five gross elements what is created the fourteen words the universes in the universe what is there there is the sun and the moon and there is there is there are chemical lights and there are electromagnetic lights all kinds of radiation are there which are all material those light up material objects what are they they are none other than brahman how do you know the whole chapter on upper vada adhara papaw you go back from that material world all these physical elements and radiation and everything into the subtle five elements and the five elements are nothing but maya maya is nothing but brahman brahman and saguna brahman is nothing but nirkuna brahman then rekha he says you are brahman with or without knowledge of course of course then why go through all this trouble because you are suffering you are in trouble you don't know it that's why you suffer you're like you are a billionaire then why do i need to know all the uh you know accounts where all my bitcoin has been kept all the passwords and everything because without that you can't use your billions i think dimitri is there he's the bitcoin guy uh do you want to ask a question dimitri uh yes um uh yes thank you uh swamiji i wanted to verify i'm getting it right uh so at the moment of the enlightenment the the very like the very notion of why i disappear so there's no such thing as i it's just brahman very that's of i you said i uh be very careful there people there's a tendency many people want to say this but don't let go of that what will happen what the tendency is to say that oh there is some absolute reality which alone exists neither the world exists nor i exist no that absolute is you yourself yes don't let go of the eye the eye as dimitri will not is not real it's not there but the eye indicates that absolute reality until there's a singularity right yes why the singularity but why do i why does advaitha keep on insisting on i am brahman i am brahman because one more you think about it you feel that i becomes inconsequential there you are right that i is the ego that becomes inconsequential long ago but unless you realize it as i am brahman it will still remain as what is called parochial indirect knowledge what is the difference between indirect knowledge and direct knowledge i can put it very precisely brahma asti brahman is that's indirect knowledge there is this absolute reality brahman perfect infinite unlimited nothing else exists besides that that's indirect knowledge brahma ask me that's the difference between us in sanskrit asti is asmi am brahman is that will not help you that might be a very peaceful way of thinking about it brahman i am that will help you that will immediately set you free from all trouble so that direct knowledge is brahman i am brahman is indirect knowledge brahman i am 10th man that's the topic for my talk this sunday tenth man when the people were weeping and that we cannot find the tenth man our tenth friend then the wise man comes and says that he realizes what has happened they are not counting the tenth person that is himself he's not counting himself so he says the tenth man is there your tenth friend is there that is indirect knowledge everybody feels okay tenth person is there but where i believe you i sort of get it that somehow it must be there because you say so but i don't see it how and then dawad the tenth he realizes oh i am the tenth then all the sorrow is gone so that i am the tenth the direct realization must come don't let go of the eye and this this this final this kind of i am is sort of because as we as as it continues to manifest in in maya it's an ego that the ego essentially becomes like when like um my question is that all right this happened and then you know ramadan is continue to leave they can uh they you know they're using they're using words and when they say i am that's brahman speaking through the ego so let's say and the ego already like at this point ego is permanently educated and there is no confusion that i am this or that i am ramana that's it correct that was the topic for our discussion in this uh in this last lamp of bliss talk you see how these questions are the beautiful answer there for an enlightened person what does i mean i when the enlightened person says i that leads to the larger question of what does i mean for the rest of us for the rest of us i means is this one this body mind or more precisely in the language of the panchadashi it means for the rest of us it means pure consciousness chit plus reflected consciousness which includes the reflecting medium the mind or the fragment of maya in the example what does i mean it means the the real face the mirror and the reflected face that's for us for the enlightened person for the enlightened person i means two things we saw last time that there is the uh implied meaning the two two implied meanings are there one is that the i means um pure consciousness i am brahman for me when i say what are you really i say i am the real face the one here which cannot be seen uh the one here the real face that i am and for practical purposes for dealing with the world when sheram krishna says i will go to calcutta i need a glass of water and he sees his own picture and says this will be worshipped and so what is he talking about there there he he refers to the the ego eye the body mind complex the um the reflected uh consciousness they see for the enlightened person the enlightened person has done this one simple thing has been able to distinguish between pure consciousness and reflected consciousness that's it so the enlightened person can refer in all truth to i as the chit pure consciousness and for dealing with the rest of us can refer to the i as the chidava as a reflected consciousness but we can't what we consider to be reflected consciousness is a weird mixture of pure consciousness reflected consciousness and it's reflecting medium yeah okay sudhir says is that is it that after enlightenment maya still continues her magic but you know how she covers and no maya's magic correct you have found the magician and you understand the magic now it will still continue and you will delight in it for you it is aesthetic enjoyment the good and the bad suffering and the pleasure all of it is the play of maya but you will have complete compassion for those who do not know the difference they are actually suffering srinivasa says is it like the finite knowledge removes finite ignorance about brahman then both are discarded leaving brahman the infinite knowledge as your own self infinite consciousness yes as your own self it's always there and that is that is what remains rick says in enlightenment is there still a sense of personal self it's almost undetectable like a candle on a sunny day or a current in the ocean it's my understanding that some sense of personal selfless of it is necessary in order to function in the world absolutely a sense of the personal self will remain and with all its qualities sriram krishna liked after enlightenment also he liked jalebi the jilipi in bengali sweet and swami vivekananda liked chocolate ice cream he could always be brought back to the dining table but i mean the his american disciples knew that the moment you had just had to announce there will be ice cream for dessert and he would be back immediately uh so uh so he where does that come from that comes from the personality from educated calcutta boy so the personality has a whole constellation of likes and dislikes and factors but it's not them it's the mirror and the reflected face and they know about it it's the nature of the mirror and for them it's not me they're very clear about it but they hold on to it it remains for a time being and srirama krishna says it's like a burnt rope a burnt rope if you don't disturb it it still looks like a rope sort of slightly singed and dark it looks like a rope but you can't use it to bind if you try to tie something it will just fall apart into ashes in fact if you blow on it it'll fly away into ashes similarly the it's as you said it's like a candle in the daytime it's simply overpowered by the blazing reality nisargadatta this is a sign of an enlightened person you see directly if you ask a question they give such a powerful answer somebody asked him are you always aware of your real nature as brahman he said yes what is it like is it like some kind of vague you know like a philosophical understanding like a concept or like some kind of intellectual understanding you know or like a background concept is it nothing like that at that time on the mumbai skies at that time sometimes you see the sun and the moon are both present he says brahman is like that unmistakable blazing forth scorching the light of the sun brahman is like that all the time and what you call the individual self and world is like that faint outline the moon on the other horizon it's there it's a faint outline it's a world personality individuality the reflected consciousness is that the jiva nature appears like that brahman is always in uttarakhand they have these sayings in hindi it says tasatas bharpur it is packed with brahman this universe is packed with the absolute reality there is not the slightest space left over for an universe it must be an appearance every bit of it is the absolute every bit of it is garden and if you use theological language there is nothing left over for for a material universe for a sinful nature for an individual being all these are appearances on the stage of divinity swamiji you were just talking about desires and last friday i think it was in the gita class we were talking about desires and i got the impression that you were saying that the enlightened person doesn't have desires correct me if i'm wrong but um you just said the enlightened person still has a sense of personal self and when vivicanando likes ice cream or you know ram krishna likes jalabi's isn't that a desire but wouldn't we say that the desire is sort of negligible by comparison with the the fulfillment of the self whereas for the unenlightened person the desire is rather all-consuming because they don't have that larger fulfillment yeah absolutely the the desire is it's we might call it an ab has an appearance or a shadow it's something that continues over from the husk you still you're using the the mask of the uh individual self so it has it has the original appearance as it looked the way it looked earlier but every bit of it is permeated by divinity so that desire is like the burnt rope it will not bind the enlightened person it's just a mask which the enlightened person uses to interact with the rest of us but you still need those sort of little impulses of desire as a motivation otherwise you wouldn't be motivated to do anything yeah so what will happen is whatever was the the mind or the personality at the moment of enlightenment that will continue so um but that is no longer the reality or bound by the mirror whatever the mirror was and the reflected consciousness reflected face in the mirror was that will continue after you realize i am not the mirror not the reflected face but the mirror will be the same and the reflected face will also look the same but you just now know you're free of it so tota puri suram krishna's master he had a fiery temper and that continued after his enlightenment also when he was talking about iron brahman there's only one reality and then this the night watchman of the temple comes and you know totally had the sacred fire the dhuni burning all the all night long and the watchman comes and says that i want to take some fire for my um tobacco for my smoke and he picks up like a ember from the sacred fire which you cannot do actually it's sacred though he flies into a fury and takes up his tongues and chases the poor man around it you can imagine he was this huge uh and naked to boot and this towering powerfully built punjabi and the poor watchman made a run for it to save his life and sudama krishna couldn't stop laughing you know he roared on the ground and clapped in glee and laughed and thought he said what are you laughing at krishna says in bengali club i've seen the seen the limits of your enlightenment your knowledge of you know you're just saying all is brahman why are you getting angry and tadakari said you're right and nobody ever saw him angry after that so this is the difference if they want to get rid of a particular aspect of that mask they can't if they feel it's not not helpful or something negative they can we can't because first of all it's it's us it's me and if you try to get rid of it it's like tearing myself apart for them it's just a thing oh this thing is not quite appropriate okay i can erase that and it's nothing to me i am that absolute reality then alpana says after brahma karabrithi dissolves can the mind still try to create another viktor to know what is being ah remember dissolves means what badate negates remember again after enlightenment also the mind will continue to function with these will keep coming exactly like whatever is going on after you realize the ocean and all the waves and the bubbles and the foam and the surf in the ocean are nothing but water will the waves stop did the bubbles stop no but you realize that there's no such thing as a wave it's water and water all through there's no such thing as a blue sky it's a colorless sky there's no such thing as water in that that place in the desert it's an appearance it's shimmering heat and it's a mirage but it still looks the same similarly british will continue even brahmacarity will continue to appear but what is what is meant when you say dissolves it's negated falsified don't forget the term badhati negation you realize it's brahman and it continues to appear so british will keep on appearing so this distinction it's absolutely clear to the enlightened person it's a child's play but for the rest of us when we study i remember at harvard whole class was dedicated to one like a passage again and again this comes up the buddha is omniscient and knows everything in the universe and the buddha knows sees nothing hears nothing smells nothing touches nothing remembers nothing desires nothing which is it whatever is known desired thought of heard is false and that has gone for the buddha the buddha will never see what is false and what is unreal and at the same time you are saying the buddha's omniscient buddha knows everything which is it professor garfield called it the brainstem buddha brainstorm for the buddha is reduced to a brain stem like coma brain dead buddha is that what is meant no the brain is fully functioning consciousness and the subtle body is fully functioning intellect is fully functioning memory is fully functioning ego is there mind is there see don't get confused they're all fully functioning as they were earlier and yet truly speaking none of them exist anymore it's only brahman am i confusing you it should not be confusing you after you realize in pottery barn all of it is clay do the pots all disappear no but what disappears was the idea that there are independent things called parts out there okay um lola has raised her hand lola would you like to ask hello svaniji hello thank you very much uh for for your talk i have a question about uh buddha's um was speaking about being empty of south is that what he was talking about being empty of the small lola or a small person or jiva and remain and remain um satchitanan that what you was just talking about now that buddha is exactly in in buddhism the nature of the mind is empty nature of the true nature of the mind is emptiness the true nature of all our experience is mind and the nature of the mind is empty what does that mean none of this has any substantial reality then what is real buddhism will say don't ask that for them real means objectively real and they will show whatever you think is objectively real is not so it's not real it's an appearance and that should be enough to free you you shouldn't have to talk about sachidan and absolute so that's the buddhist approach in vedanta positive side is given you are the absolute it's in madhyamaka buddhism madhyamaka and yogachar buddhism of the synthesis which you find in tibetan buddhism there they also talk about the positive aspect in a very guarded way they will say that it is the clear light of the of the void it is the dharmakaya which is always there but they will not say it is satchet and all that they don't want to say you just want to leave it there and they're right in one sense it's good to be careful there so it's just empty of self that's how far they go being empty of self and to contemplate on emptiness of my person as just a small person lola right yes and after that emptiness of self the person lola will still continue to appear right right but you are not it you are free of the person lola you are the impersonal awareness in which the person lola has appeared is playing around and will one day disappear you are perfectly all right yeah thank you thank you please remember your questions you can ask we'll have more time from next time onwards it'll be a more we'll we'll be taking a more relaxed nice and thing you know like you'll be more relaxed the things which are going to come afterwards are useful practical but also pretty easy compared to what we have seen [Music] very good namaste [Music]