Video 33

33. Vedantasara | Texts 191-192 | Swami Sarvapriyananda

[Music] i take refuge in the self the indivisible the existence consciousness bliss absolute beyond the reach of words and thought and the substratum of all for the attainment of my cherished desire so we are studying the means for enlightenment in advaita vedanta and the means are shravana mananananana literally if you translate them they mean shavana means hearing manana means reflection or reasoning and needed means meditation more specifically shravana means systematically studying vedanta which means primarily the vedanta text supernishads which we will take up soon but also all the other texts based on the upanishads the brahmasutras the bhagavad gita and indeed all of these texts including the vedanta sahara and they say it's not that you have to study all of them and put them together then only you know what vedanta says no each of these texts independently points to the truth the code texts of course the root texts are the upanishads so what you learnt in vedanta sahara is exactly what we will learn when we study the open issues just the approach is different language is different and a variety of approaches variety of ways of trying to point out the same truth now when i say systematically studying vedanta and a competent student from a competent teacher but what is the system the system is what we were looking at last time the six-fold method of interpreting a text the beginning and end of the text then uh repetition then apoorvata the uniqueness the unique message of that particular text then attawada what is praised what is the eulogies there then there is the palam the result what are you going to gain out of all of this what's the purpose of the point of this entire entire exercise that if you look at that that also tells you the meaning of the text and points to the meaning of the text and finally number six would be upapatti the various kinds of reasonings given within the text itself which try to the arguments which are embedded in the vedantic teachings which are trying to show something to us if you put them all together you get the meaning of the text not any not just advaita vedanta text any text actually this is basically a machine for extracting uh the meaning from a text this the six fold is called shad with a linga this six fold six signs literally these six signs signs of what this sig and sign the signs of the meaning they are indicating uh the underlying meaning or the inner meaning of the text basically an exercise in what might be called today hermeneutics in investigating a text and finding out the meaning of the text in textual interpretation so that's the that's the meaning of shravarna how many times do you need to do that as many times as required until you become enlightened it's not a ritualistic duty you know there's a commandment in the in the ritualistic portion of the vedas that if you desire to go to heaven then perform these rituals these vedic sacrifices if you ask how many times you keep performing them um as long as you live because going to heaven is not going to happen in the mid in our lifetime it's only after death so it's it's a promissory note that it you're going to encash it only after that postmortem heaven but this is not like that this uh is enlightenment in this life itself we must come to that as long as that does not happen you go through these cycles of sravana manana nidhithyasana you study the upanishads and the bhagavad-gita the brahma-sutra and other texts like this and then repeat not enlightened yet repeat yet again and go on so that is shavada then mananam what is the purpose of mananam of reasoning the purpose is shavana has given me an idea of what the teaching is now i know and what is the teaching after all these exercises what what is the conclusion of these texts you are drama that my reality is that i am the absolute um which is cool but we need to understand this in what sense i am the absolute what is the absolute how am i the absolute all of these things are taught in the first stage of shavana i i understand that this is the teaching but i have many questions about these teachings so these questions which are all together put together they're called assam bhavana impossibility problem it's an obstacle impossibility it's impossible that i am in more infinite consciousness what is infinite consciousness and how am i infinite consciousness it is impossible that i am not the body it is impossible that i survive after death how so when these questions have to be clarified this impossibility questions all of all all doubts basically all doubts are clarified and this goes on along with the sramana you know the teaching first of all you listen carefully to the teachings and you ask questions you don't it just doesn't have literally have to be in the chat or in the to the teacher it could be to yourself it could be to the book the book itself raises so many questions many many questions which we would never have thought about but the book raises the various positions i remember um this very intelligent young brahmachary many years ago 20 25 years ago sitting in the library at belur mutt this is this i was uh also uh i was a ramachani also and this other brahmacharya was just a couple of years junior to me but he made such an intelligent remark you know he said look we are now studying the ancient schools of niya and vaishesika and sankhya and yoga and the purva mimsa and our own school of vedanta um and also the uh non-vedic schools like buddhism and jainism and the materialism charvaka these are all very ancient positions these are very ancient positions what's the point of studying them now today the point he said very good remark he said see we have a materialist a char walker within ourselves we have a sankhya within ourselves we have a logician within ourselves some of these positions when you think deeply about vedantic teachings these are bound to come up if not all many of them so they are relevant so the whole discussion goes on questions are raised and answered till we gain clarity till we gain clarity it this this stage is not meant for argumentation it's meant for clarity till we get the point of uh we get the point of the teaching still we come to the position of saying aha i get it oh that's what it meant so i'm clear about it now what is brahman how am i brahman how am i not the body and the mind how i'm what is liberation how am i ever free what is ignorance so all of these things become very clear to me you can say oh i'm sold i got it then what remains what remains is called viparita bhavana that i still feel that it is not a living reality for me i know the teaching i have understood it very well it's still not a living reality what do you mean by living reality well look at the result i was promised that i will overcome all sufferings i look at the lives of the great jeevan mukhtas something like that i don't i'm not claiming that i have to be like ramana maharshi or vivekananda but something like that some of that at least i should be able to enjoy wasn't it promised that you will overcome suffering wasn't it promised you will attain limitless bliss i'm not getting limitless bliss or overcoming suffering i'm still reacting to the world like a jiva like a bar they can consciousness uh embodied limited by body mind and an individual limited individual i'm still if it hurts i say ouch if it um if there is a financial crisis i get tense relationships bother me all of these problems are coming in my life so how is it that how am i enlightened so to overcome these problems these problems are called viparita bhavana where are these problems not in the teaching not in brahman not in your real nature these are because of the preconditioning of the mind of this life and many lives past we are used to being a body mind and behaving like a body man talking like body mind thinking like body mind and behaving and especially reacting to the world as a body-mind this has to be overcome you must now react from from what from what you have already understood and accepted as the truth you look at the contradiction at this stage i understand that i am brahmana this is the teaching and i accept it i have no more doubts about it i am clear about it and yet i struggle in day-to-day life still it is still you're pretty advanced already because you have done some spiritual practice but still these problems remain how do i manifest this knowledge so manifestation of the divinity within that's the language of swami vivekananda or you see the wonderful definition of religion it does not say just reading about or getting the knowledge of the divinity with him or understanding the divinity within he says manifestation the manifestation means already understanding must be there and then the manifestation must come for that the recommendation is you have to stay with what you have understood what you are very clear about you have not the slightest doubt about for a long time stay with it wash off deprogram your earlier programming wash off the earlier layers of dirt accumulated over a lifetime or maybe many lifetimes with the light of this new knowledge and then you attain viparita bhavan cleared off and you are you may call it fully enlightened or a technical term would be jeevan mukti liberated by living so that is needed a vedantic meditation let's see now we had done up to text number 190 completing the six signs for textual interpretation now mananam and needed dhasanam definition i'm on text number 191 reflection is the constant thinking of brahman the one without a second already heard about from the teacher by arguments agreeable to the purpose of the vedanta has been completed you have studied the texts you have heard about these teachings not just tatwa masih or humbramhasmi but yes you have studied the vedanta sarah you have studied the qatar panishad kenobi some of the upanishads you studied the bhagavad-gita so you are sort of well into hearing the truth and in its all facets in all all different approaches so you are well into that now you have to reason it out your intellect also must assent to it that yes this is not only possible it is so it must be so i see it now how do you do that so shrutas what has been heard an undivided reality an unlimited reality advocate non-dual was to reality the non-dual reality has been taught been the first stage sramana in the second stage arguments vedanta means reasoning so by reasoning one must come to see this what kind of reasoning vedanta anuguna the reasoning which supports the conclusions of the vedanta which are agreeable or in accordance with the conclusions of the vedanta anu chintanam chintaram think anuchintanam thinking after after what thinking after the teaching it's not that you start off by reasoning and argumentation many people do that i've got some bright idea and i'm arguing for it not no no value at all your bright ideas no value at all first of all sit down and listen and then and it's not just vedanta every anything that you want to learn in depth anything serious any kind of classical knowledge not just vedanta not just even philosophy you want to learn literature and grammar and art and classical music you cannot start off with your own ingenuity to begin with it has no value first comes rigorous training in every tradition in not only in india but in the west everywhere here for example is the juilliard school in manhattan it's one of the world's leading maybe the leading school of music especially classical music but also various forms of western music here i'm quite sure i don't know of course but i'm quite sure if some bright young person goes there and starts demonstrating his or her you know originality there they're not interested first you have come here to learn you put in your hours and you learn what is to be taught and then of course you must be original you must develop your own talent um i am reminded of when i went to learn navdanya the you know is one of the schools of orthodox hindu philosophy so nabjaniya is that further development of niya which took place about a thousand years ago in a state what is today's bihar mithila so they're gangaisha the great nayaka master of niya he wrote a book called tatwa in tamini of reality of prince of the principles of reality anyway and that was further developed in bengal in navadweep where for example caitanya mahaprabhu himself was a great scholar of nabyanaya a very sophisticated system of logic swami vivekananda says that the most intricate and he said bewildering system most sophisticated system of logic ever devised it came up in uh in navadweep in nadiya even now bengal has a very strong tradition you know vedanta was not always very strong in bengal it was actually mostly niya and tantra in bengal of course vedanta also has a very long history in bengal with madhusudan saraswati and this but mostly it was tantra nyaya now my point is i got an opportunity to study navian the asiatic society in calcutta a very renowned scholar was coming there to teach so i went to attend the classes in the very first class itself um when the scholar started saying traditional pandit pandit bienja professor so when he started speaking so a lady at the back one of the participants in the workshop she stood up with a question and a complicated question the pundit heard her out and then he said it's not bengali but he knew bengali so he said in bengali but i'll tell you in english first she said is your subject philosophy she said no is your subject sanskrit she said no then i suggest you sit and listen listen and slowly a samskara will develop in your mind you know a kind of conditioning will develop then you can ask questions and the lady sat down and i don't think she asked questions for many many classes at the beginning until she got courage to ask questions again but that's a good point in bengali he said um keep listening and after some time you'll ask questions get used to the whole thing which is a very very reasonable thing actually so um after shravana anuchintanam you think about it all over again it's very important otherwise if you don't think about it all over again you just oh i don't need to think about it the upanishads have said it and the great masters have taught it i believe you you are great then you are not a vedanta student this is the second step you have to think i don't need to think i i trust you implicitly it won't work it just won't work because you have to come to see it for yourself otherwise it won't work it's not based on faith it will not work if you accept it on faith so anu chintanam think about it now crucial point vedantanuguna tarka without arguments supporting the purport of vedanta the teachings of vedanta immediately one might think why not just any argument why just argument supporting it why not criticize it why not cut it down so there's a chance of misunderstanding what is the chance of misunderstanding is there is an entire branch of um i would say scholastic studies it's called theology which is you take a faith-based religion like christianity for example or you know the karma kanda of the vedas something which is promised which you don't see for yourself right now something you have to take on faith now in order to take something on faith you have to be convinced there are good reasons for believing in this so providing these good reasons so theology is providing arguments in support of for example god existence of god the existence of heaven so existence of hell and sin to provide arguments for that now notice what is the problem with this the problem with this is you have already accepted the conclusions of the bible or the vedas or something and now you are arguing to support it ultimately no problem with that but that immediately in today's world you'll say that is not reasoning that you have already come to a conclusion you have already accepted that the teachings of my holy book are true now i am coming up with lots of arguments to support that is the thing of the very nature of argument in the brahmasutras it is pointed out the nature of argument is that it serves the intellect which deploys it you can come to any conclusion by a silly chain of arguments and established it establish it and somebody else can cut it down there is no finality in argumentation so i can take something on belief my holy book says this and here are my reasons the the basis is actually faith you have started with belief and now you're providing certain reasons for that so that's the distinction between for example in in modern philosophy they'll show you the distinction between philosophy and theology philosophy you are you are free to criticize in fact you must criticize anything and everything but in theology you cannot do that in theology you are supposed to um come to a conclusion already pre-established you have you're supporting something now why am i saying this immediately the problem will be that then this is this vedantic theology you are accepting that you are brahman and now coming up with arguments in support of of that position no this is a subtle difference which one must understand it is not theology it's not that you have accepted it already see what is the whole thing about sravana manan and hasana the upanishads they contain the expressions of the realizations of the rishis and the rishis want you not to believe in that they want you to come to see that it is so in order to make you see that it is so they give you the teaching the realization they have had and then help you with the argumentations to come to see that oh so this is brahman and this is the way that i am brahman and it's a fact that i'm already brahmana and therefore in that from that perspective i'm already free of suffering this is moksha now this has to be seen for oneself not belief so what's the difference between theology at the end of theology you will say i have good grounds for believing in heaven hell god are you experiencing heaven hell god i said oh god no i'm not not yet but i'm just i think it's a good thing to believe in these are the reasons why i believe in it theology has given me the reasons the defense of my faith but uh the vedanti mananam is not a defense of your faith mananam is coming to see for yourself to understand you are already brahmana and that is actually self-evident it's our ignorance that we don't see it we don't recognize it so what these arguments do is that they remove the ignorance they remove the not seeing they don't even reveal brahman you see someone might point at ask that didn't you just chant beyond words beyond thoughts so uh words arguments are just words how can words reveal brahman or establish brahman arguments don't need to do that they just need to remove our ignorance that we are not brahmana the misconception and the error that we are not brahmana that is removed by these arguments when we begin to see for ourselves at the end of theological arguments your faith is stronger or weaker if the arguments are not satisfying then it's weaker a very famous philosopher i forget his name modern philosopher he's written a history of western philosophy also recently he uh wanted to become a priest and then he writes how did he come to philosophy he says when i studied theology arguments for the existence of god i lost faith i said if these are the arguments then i can't believe so that but then i thought philosophy is great then so i came to philosophy vedantic arguments are not like that they are not meant to strengthen your faith in brahman i am ramana rupa nisha no no not at all they are meant to help you to remove doubts about the fact or to to clarify an already existing fact which is actually evident to make something which does not seem evident to us at all to make it evident to us that's why these arguments are given and these arguments what are these arguments you find them all over without the text every almost every vedanta text will have various kinds of arguments on various questions so that is mananam and the end of mananam is i not only know the teaching i also i'm convinced about it now i'm clear about it now repeated continuous it will not work one once i go around the whole books all of these books i've done i'm done with it no because it's so startling so subtle we need to stay with it for a long period of time till it becomes very clear to us so anavarata then what is meditation 192. needed vedantic meditation meditation that is vedantic meditation is a stream of ideas of the same kind as those of brahman one without a second to the exclusion of such foreign ideas as those of the body etc what is needed what you have studied in shavana what you have understood you are convinced about in mananam you stay with it to put it very simply you stay with it why do you need to stay with it because we are complaining that it's not yet a living reality for me i can't put it into practice in my day to day life stay with it till it becomes as evident as today it's so evident that i'm the body so i react to everything that happens as if i am the body it should become as clear as that that i am this one shining consciousness in which body mind world are you know being revealed they play around and they disappear brahman alone is the reality the world is an appearance in brahman of brahman and i am that brahman this becomes absolutely clear to me not just in understanding it's a fact that's why in some ways i um at the risk of oversimplification i characterize the three stages asking me three questions shavana what does it what is the question what did he say or what did the book say if i can answer this shavana is complete second do i get it what did he say and what did the book say and do i get it two different questions so do i get it i understand what the teaching is i understand the objections i understand the answers it's clear to me so do i get it if i say yes then mananam is complete third needed dhasanam is it a fact right now not just a fact see even after manana strava and mananam you can say it's a fact because it's quite obvious to me but it's a fact in the sense of i am the body seems to be a fact to me in my stage of ignorance can i live it yeah that's a good question can i leave it can i manifest my knowledge these two models of enlightenment have spoken about it in a buddhist context two models of enlightenment one is called the paradigm shift model another one is called the uh called means i'm giving it to the name it's called the ethical manifestation model so when we say enlightened person one meaning is i am brahman i know that i have it's a fact i've realized it so i am enlightened that's one meaning of enlightenment but another meaning equally important meaning of enlightenment is so if you're enlightened do you have the qualities of a buddha of a ramana maharshi of a vivekananda do you have the fearlessness in the face of physical death do you have the ability to withstand and transcend suffering do you have the unselfishness to embrace all of humanity so-called friends and foes alike do you have this uh this unconditional love for all unselfishness selflessness unconditional love for all this transcendence of bodily weaknesses all of these what we might call um ethical the fundamentals of ethics are uh am i able to manifest it in my day-to-day life or am i grumbling complaining um so if i'm able to manifest it in day-to-day life that is the ethical manifestation model of of enlightenment basically have you become a saint and these two are both necessary for enlightenment because without that that paradigm shift that is an epistemological you know like i have earlier i thought i was this body mind and limited person here is the world separate from me now i realize it's one undivided existence consciousness please and i am that this without this paradigm shift simply if one has wonderful virtues you might simply be just a very good person this is good but not necessarily an enlightened person your mind the subtle body may have gathered many virtues over years or lifetimes of being a good person which is great but it's still not enlightenment the opposite where you have realized this but you are unable to express this realization in in saintly virtues in in in a high degree of ethical life then it's more likely to be a breakthrough it could be a very genuine breakthrough but the hard work of uh needed of absorbing the knowledge to the level that you can live it that has not been done yet you cannot be called a jivan mukta jivan mukta is person who has accomplished all levels is is can fully manifest his or her realization or enlightenment so this paradigm shift as well as the ethical manifestation that's why i think swami vivekananda's definition of religion is so good the manifestation of the divinity within us not just the knowledge of the divinity within us it happens i knew this great vedantic scholar and great very good sadhu who is to teach he taught many years ago at the training center the novice monks by the time i came it was unfortunate for me he was already too old and uh uh i mean he had sort of retired from active teaching but wonderful i used to go to him sometimes with questions and now he had a hot temper so in the funniest it would be funny you know like i remember this instance where it happened in front of me where there was like a you know what a mitzvah is we used to have them in india earlier small cupboards where you keep food items you know so there was an apple or something there and there was a like a volunteer in charge of the pantry for a senior monks to come and have a snack or something and the volunteer was grumbling that uh where is the apple somebody has taken the apple and nobody told me that they took the apple they should tell us before you take the apple and the swami has actually eaten the apple so he felt very guilty and he was very angry and he was saying and he had a high-pitched voice he was saying are you accusing me of being a thief i am a great monk i i am a master of veda answer and i'll be among all these years so like never have i told an untruth how dare you accuse me of being a thief and it was delightful to see that the young boy and this old swami go on back and forth the boy was never directly addressing the swami just letting him hear his monologue did i ever say that you have eaten the apple now he would lose his temper so somebody asked him if you're so convinced about one undivided reality or brahmana everybody's brahman you're one with the universe why do you get angry and his answer okay pat came the answer he said oh that's at the level of the mind i know that i am existence consciousness and this is the only reality the world is an appearance and the level of the mind is anger and there is a certain truth to this kind of a claim but unfortunately it's not a very inspiring thing to see one sadhu in uttarakhand said who likes or is inspired by a grumbling complaining enlightened person it's no good to that enlightened person or to anybody else so that the work of enlightenment must be completed otherwise their their danger of slips and falls and scandals things like these things have happened and you read about them so the work of this was understood in ancient india the moment you have a breakthrough unfortunately these things are little bit lost in today's world the moment you have a breakthrough don't go on a lecture tour in ancient india they could say redouble your practices stay with it i remember swami ramananda saraswati he he was talking about this topic when um one of the devotees a householder devotee whom he knew came and said that his operation for replacement of a kidney had been completed and then the swami asked him how are you now and the gentleman said i have a lot of restrictions um a diet and all these things restrictions are there swami did not know much about modern medical technology so he was curious so but the new organ has been implanted in you right yes then why do you have to follow all these rules now you should be all right and that man said well the doctor told me if i don't follow these rules if i don't follow these restrictions the new organ will not be accepted in the body as a part of the body body's immune system will not accept it as part of the body it will not function as a kidney it will not do its work i will not get the benefit from it and third ultimately it may be rejected the body and the organ may die so i have to be very careful until everything is fine and the swami was so delighted he looked at the other monks assembled and he said mahatma oh monks listen listen this is it this is what you must do after studying vedanta stay with it intensely if you do not stay with it intensely do not concentrate upon it and try to live it both things meditate upon it and live the life if you do not do that these three things will happen the knowledge that you have acquired that is an insight actual insight which you have acquired that will will not be accepted by the rest of your um you know mental makeup what is the rest of your mental makeup i am a body uh i am a monk uh people should bow down to me the ego and the you know all sorts of problems which were already there this new knowledge will not go with it it will not be accepted second you will not get the benefit of this new knowledge what is the benefit of this new knowledge joy peace of mind strength to overcome problems in the world selflessness love for others those benefits will not flow the benefits of enlightenment will not flow and third it may be lost it uh actual breakthrough will never be lost according to vedanta conclusions but anyway it may be lost or at least for all for all practical purposes overcome by not doing sufficient sadhana spiritual practice after the insight after intensive vedantic studies and completing a vedantic understanding also after that you have to stay with it so this is staying with his insistence and so this is uh in vidyarania's book the um this given mukti viveka the whole discussion about this after you get an insight literally it means knowledge of the reality after you get there how do you get it by shavana and marana you get it but then he says two more things are necessary vasanaksha is complete control of the mind literally means destruction of the mind there's the misleading meaning complete control of the mind to the level of samadhi control of the mind to the level of samadhi you can be completely absorbed in the reality which you have discovered to the exclusion of the world which we will talk about now and the other one is vasanaksha all the so-called desires of the world the temptations they have no more hold upon you have completely overcome that so these two must be achieved for what tatwa bodha the knowledge of reality uh then which is enlightenment vasanaksha elimination of desires and mano nasha which is absorption of the mind in samadhi literally destruction of mind but absorption of the mind in samadhi these three must go together then what happens that is called jivan mukti that is the goal of advaita vedanta so advaita vedanta is not just understanding vedanta it's also not just samadhi or not just giving up desires of the world and leading a very austere life all three come together now needed what do you do there what is vedantic meditation what is the nature of vedantic meditation you make a conscious effort to stay with your understanding your insight set in motion a sequence of thoughts the sequence of thought means make your mind dwell on this non-dual reality which you have read about which you have understood and which you are absolutely clear about stay with it and exclude vijayatya the other every other kind of thought body related thought world related thought my other past memories related to just ruthlessly excluded they are false why dwell in dreams all your life if you are very clear what i have studied and understood is the reality stay with reality hour to hour day after day stay with that as much as possible this is called nidithyasana is it necessary for um jivan mukti for for complete enlightenment let's put it this way there are many uh discussions about there are many issues related to it many subtleties involved in this um let me point out the main main issue under discussion before i jump into it this discussion we are going to do little bit uh remember whichever side you come down on nasa vedantic meditation is a must you must do it which are the two sides what is the issue what's the question does enlightenment come from vedantic meditation or from shavana in manana knowledge gana what ghana brahma gyana aaham brahmasmi i am brahman does it arise from shabana does it arise from vedanta vichara inquiry into the self what is inquiring to the self the teachings and reasoning it out does it arise from that the the realization or enlightenment or does it arise from meditation and there are two schools of thought here one school of thought to which we subscribe as monks of advaita vedanta it is called shabda parokshavadha direct enlightenment through text shabda parokshava the direct enlightenment through text the other one um which might be called shop the parochial that the texts cannot give you direct enlightenment after going through shavana and manana one must meditate upon it and that meditation will give you enlightenment in the first school your inquiry gives you enlightenment and then meditation is necessary otherwise you will not be able to live that it will not get the benefit of that you have to stay with what you have realized the other the second school says the first two um shravana and manana studying and reasoning will give you only an indirect understanding and that direct enlightenment will come from meditation needed the assam this is a second school and there are actual ancient philosophers who have taken these different positions our position is the first one but what i'm emphasizing here is practically as we are all spiritual seekers practically it does not make much of a difference one has to go through all three practically for whichever position you take one has to go through all three unless you are that rare kind of person like sri ramakrishna you hear the truth and you become immersed in the realization of brahman for us we have to make an effort at every level um you neither school can you dispense with vedantic meditation in neither school can you dispense with inquiry very briefly what's the argument on both sides the argument on the side of those who say that meditation is the leads to enlightenment is that look how can texts give you knowledge aren't you like going on saying brahman is beyond words texts like the upanishads are words how can words give you knowledge words can only give you approximate knowledge you know remote or indirect knowledge not the thing itself so you know like they give the example of heaven the vedic texts which say if you perform these rituals you will go to heaven now after reading all of that you don't get an experience of heaven you only know that i have to do this and then after that i'll go to heaven so you have only got some information like reading a tourist brochure or seeing a website about a tourist attraction you read about times square you read about central park that does not mean that you have seen times square or central park even if you've seen pictures and videos of it you have to actually go there and see it so similarly secondary knowledge is or indirect knowledge comes by uh text and the direct knowledge will come by uh meditation needed hassan that's one position and there were teachers like bajas pati mishra and others who held on to that um and they said all three have to be completed for enlightenment and the other one is that no you are right texts generally give you secondary knowledge indirect knowledge but some texts give you direct knowledge thou art the tenth in the tenth man story so when he counted and he could he missed counting himself the wise man said you are the tenth one two three four five six seven eight nine and turn it you are the ten you are missing you are missing it what he was always present it just has to be pointed out and then he comes to see oh i am the tenth that dawah the tenth that sentence did it give uh did it give indirect knowledge of direct knowledge it gave direct knowledge how did it work how can words give you direct knowledge it can give you direct knowledge if the thing you're talking about the reality is already present it's not remote if it's something that you have to go somewhere see something hear something taste something then indirect knowledge only by texts by reading the menu you don't test taste the food you have to actually order the food and wait and then taste the food but if it's something about yourself which is something directly presented or something here in certain person you did not know mr so and so and somebody comes and introduces you this is mr soan so whom you are waiting for now that sentence itself gives you direct knowledge because the thing which you wanted to know is already present there brahman is it already present or not yes is it already revealed shining forth self-luminous or not yes then what is the problem problem is i don't see i don't recognize it i don't note it though the tattva masi if it is properly understood by a competent teacher competent student who has gone through vedanta sarah and all like you all so when you listen to it and carefully dwell on it it should flash maybe not once maybe it takes time but the words will give you knowledge and now um the argumentations and the meditation will only help you establish you in that knowledge meditation will remove the obstacles to the to the living of that knowledge to the manifestation of the knowledge needed hassan is useful but not for giving you the knowledge it just it will even even common sense you know like other kinds of um knowledge like you learn physics you learn physics not by sitting quietly but by first attending classes reading the textbooks thinking about it and then staying with it for some time till it you make a breakthrough but if you say staying with it will for some time will making a breakthrough sitting eyes closed with your forehead screwed up that is the process then i let me not i will not go to the class i will not read the textbooks i will not listen to the lectures i'll just sit like this with my eyes screwed up and all and will i understand physics no you won't what is it that you will meditate upon if you don't go through the first two stages so the position is if you look at it this way it seems more like a theoretical wrangle than a practical problem practically everybody has to do meditation i am pointing this out because there are many many issues involved here um some people think i'm telling them not to meditate no quite the contrary vedanta insists that you must meditate at two stages one is before vedantic studies you must do your regular meditation whatever meditation you are doing because that is that will give you the fourfold qualification for vegantic study it will give you the concentration the strong mind which will absorb the teachings without that ekaga that is called focus without that vedanta will not work second level of meditation is once you have completed the teachings shavana and mana has been completed they don't think meditation has to be done so vedanta does emphasize teaching but you must does emphasize meditation but you must understand in what sense so this this is a point i wanted to make a very interesting point swami bhutishan anderjee was asked that that is clear direct question it's been published now so amputation he was the 12th president of our order he was asked is samadhi necessary for enlightenment his answer was direct one word no no then the question was the follow-up was why do we ask this because we have read that sri ramakrishna when he was taught vedanta by by totapuri after that he attained nirvikalpa samadhi and so we always these two go in our minds together advaita vedante this was asked and then what was his reply he said that was not just vedanta vedanta you have to understand there's elements of yoga were also present there when he said after vedantic teaching you use meditation to attain samadhi nirvikalpa samadhi good that's yoga teaching and that's used by vedantics it's very powerful method for menididasana vedantic meditation these two questions are sort of lost in all the discussions but these are very important when you have questions about the role of samadhi in enlightenment is it necessary yes but you must understand in what sense it is necessary practically very much so but um not what you might think that after that kind of thing then only i will become enlightened no all right that's the rank um there have been papers written i mean there's a lot of background in my mind why i'm saying these things papers written on it michael commons for example he says the role of samadhi in advaita vedanta blaming us the ramakrishna mission for over emphasizing samadhi he says where in all of shankara's writing where does shankara talk about samadhi almost never so what are you guys talking about when you talk about samadhi now why i'm saying this is it's a very complicated issue you will find in this book now from now on he will go on and on and on about samadhi and he's not wrong at one point in the last thousand years or so vedantic asana and samadhi yogic practices of samadhi were integrated into vedantic nudity asana so practically it meant non-dualist monks spent a lot of their time which was not in shavana and manana in actual yogic practices which looked indistinguishable from patanjali yogi samadhi at least from the outside so what were they doing they were incorporating the ashtanga yoga of patanjali to help them in vedantic theatre and that's what was going on so you can see lot of subtle points have to be clarified let me all right i'll start samadhi next time i've given you the background i just go through it what is samadhi the varieties of you might ask why are they discussing it here because of this traditionally it had several hundred years ago it became nicely integrated into advaita vedantas patanjali yoga practices as a part of vedantic needed thiasam then the difference between samadhi and sleep the actual practices of sitting and breathing and concentration and what are the obstacles to samadhi and the removal all this will come up let me quickly look at the points raised here sharmini among the concepts of chidabhasa chit brahmacar vitti which one is what we call the self all right so these are the things that can i can farm out to you all you know outsourcing you should immediately should have no doubt at all chit consciousness is the only one here which is the self tidabhas is the reflection of the channelization or the limitation of that consciousness in the mind brahma kaaraviti is that particular viti of the mind which destroys ignorance and reveals to you the brahma karate does not reveal to you that your atman utman reveals itself technically very precisely brahmacari destroys ignorance what is the self chit consciousness and only that okay reikha ji asks so realization of your true nature yourself is manifested when you say stay with it it is manifested all the time when enlightenment comes we don't think so right now if i feel no it's not manifested what is manifested is the world is the body is the mind where is the self where is brahman and we are not seeing it so it is manifested now the enlightened person will say it's manifested i am in ignorance to me it is not manifested the problem is in my mind the problem is not in the self manifestation of brahman so it is first of all always manifested second to the enlightened person it is really manifested because it is manifested equally to everybody but only the enlightened person can say i see it see it means i get it how it is manifested third third level of manifestation is what you are talking about vedantic needed after enlightenment you choose to stay with it it's a simple thing like uh you are reika the fact of your being reika is it manifested or not is it manifested or not what will you say he will say yes and no yes it's i am always rika but no i don't always think that i'm like i'm not always thinking that i am so and so i'm wrecker that's silly but if i want i can sit and think yes i am rika so rekhaji can think that i can think i am server priyanka the server player in the nature is always there always manifested but i can choose to stay with it mentally or not stay with i can dwell on it mentally or not dwell on it dwelling on it mentally if you call that manifestation fine then prabhir babu um asks swamiji in practical vedanta says to think of a day and night think of it day and night and it becomes part and parcel of your life he says assimilation till it tingles with every drop of your blood that is ninjatasana that is an easy task it is not brainwashing it is not a positive affirmation it is already known it is very clear to you it is understood already but you stay with it that is uh vivekander called it assimilation then sandhya and rajiv they ask is jivan mukti city also called brahms brahmi city yes brahmi is becoming enlightened i'm thinking about last verse of second chapter of bhagavad-gita so it is compatible with jivan mukti and vidhyamukti brahmati is just the enlightened person has realized that i am brahman as long as the body continues we will call that one jivan mukta when the body has gone you will call that one from that enlightened person's perspective i am brahmana a body staying or going is is not very important then cordelia asks in order to practice vedantic meditation hour after round day after day don't you to give up the usual way of life and commit to this as the primary goal please tell us how householders can practice this yes the kind of meditation which is going to be taught here in vedanta it's very suited to monks we've basically given up other responsibilities you have plenty of time and freedom and you're being left alone so that's there but that's the beauty of vedantic meditation you see the difference between this and this yogic type of meditation and the vedantic nerdy asana is there is other kinds of needed possible patanjali yoga is not possible unless you sit unless you sit unless you stop other activities unless you shut your senses unless you withdraw from external world and focus on one thing and one thing only it's not possible when you're cooking and you're eating and you're driving and working no patanjali is not possible in that case it's possible only when you cut off the word you meditate and only meditate that is patanjali yoga and that's generally our idea of meditation in brahma-sutras there is a sutra asi no sambhava that is possible when seated you have to sit for meditation that is patanjali yoga but the uniqueness of vedantic meditation is it's possible under action also bhagavad-gita fourth chapter says brahma pranam ramahavi brahma in all activities if you see brahman you will attain brahma that means you will realize that you are brahman in all activities while doing activities after concluding the activities if you reflect upon what's going on you see your brahman it's like i am server priyananda do you have to sit quietly to be server priyananda can't i be server player when i'm speaking can't have a server plan when i'm walking talking when i'm happy when i'm unhappy when i'm hungry when i'm sick when i'm healthy under all of these conditions can i not be server priyananda i can be and recognizing that is vedantic meditation i'm not savvy i'm brahmana so vedanti nidit dihasana is possible both seated in yogic posture as we will talk about here next class and also at other times did you not you remember what does what does it mean desire anger peace all of these are writtens of the mind you know use these like mirrors to turn in words that you are the witness whatever vritti comes in the mind whatever movement of the mind each of it you note that it's being illumined by you the consciousness you are the sakshi of it notice the difference between this and patanjali meditation patanjali meditation is you say kamadhya anger desire happy miserable patanjali would be scandalized stop it stop this nonsense stop be quiet then only meditation is possible but as vedanta says let them come all you need to do is that they are coming and disappearing in what light you are that light this is the difference um is translated as meditation is meditation as in raja yoga or living the truth at every moment both this is what i was trying to say both in patanjali yoga sit we will talk about it samadhi the all these steps of formal meditation you can do vedantic dyson like that totapur used to sit in meditation you can do it like that also you can carry on at other times um then shiva priya says this class has become so so much interesting ah now it is interesting not interesting earlier now i know what you mean but yes people perk up the moment you did you sit like this ah that's what i was waiting for what about all the pure consciousness and the different level layers of the human personality and maya and poor maya brahman ishwara all s them will feel so glum so we are not interesting only meditation meditation is glamorous but i know i know what you mean i'm just joking srinivasa says isn't vedantic samadhi different from yogic samadhi vedantic samadhi can be there while dealing with the world by realized masters yes ultimately ultimately there is vedantic samadhi should in with eyes closed with eyes open same reality srirama krsna says what is this if i close my eyes god is there if i open my eyes god is not there what kind of god is it he blames god with eyes closed and eyes open i should be able to see the same reality then only it is reality reality is not conditioned on my opening and on the movement of the eyelids by the way we are talking about very advanced things here we are jumping ahead there are beautiful things about the principles of meditation which one must know why eyes are to be closed or half closed very important things to know we so let's not be over confident and super serious about that and so vedanta has that danger occupational hazard of looking down on other things your level of discussion is about the self and consciousness and brahman and then he said some once in a while do spare a little time and attention to these little things about the psychology of meditation why it's important to close the eyes neuroscience will tell you how much of our cognitive capacity is immediately captured the moment your eyes are open why is it so difficult to meditate with your eyes well it's difficult to think deeply even feel deeply with your eyes open so there's a lot to understand about the neuroscience of meditation about the psychology of meditation let's not dismiss it let's be careful about uh i met this young monk in the uttara in uttarakhand i told you number of times this story shiva harigiri young nepalese monk barely 20 21 years old i asked him what do you do he sits in a cave and if you had the dreadlocks and you're sitting in a cave and meditating above the um this sewerage coordinating near gangutri so it is spectacular huge cliff and this little cave and from across the river you can see this monk sitting there with his bread locks and meditating he said i'm trying to achieve samadhi i came close once but i got scared and ran away he jumped up and where do you run away from your own mind he jumped up and ran away from the seat of meditation but he's after that i haven't been able to come closer then he knows it now i tried of course you know my predilection for vedanta so i said that's great but what about vedanta don't you like vedanta he said yeah i don't mind i like it but these vedantins they talk a lot they don't have experience so i'm trying to get the experience by yogic meditation this becomes the problem suman says i learned from your lecture in toronto that vedic meditation is open eye meditation very striking message for me vedic means vedantic there is close day meditation also plenty of it but yes open-eyed meditation is also possible is meditation referred refer today's close-eyed meditation or look at the world as ishavas sumitam servum it's true what we are talking about here shweta asks isn't dwelling mentally on our satchit nature the best use of the mental faculties yes but it is the best use but the thing is it is not all it can be very exhausting it can be very difficult i have told this again many times i was in the in gangotri and studying ashtavakra and one very old senior monk who was a sevak of tapovan maharaji near mine near where i was staying he asked me what what about what was i studying and doing i showed him the ashtavakran obviously so i was doing savannah needed just especially he needed of vedanta and i would attend one vedanta class a day and i would spend my hours in meditation doing what you are trying what you are saying and he said he gave me the vishnu shastra nama which is a very devotional text he said read this also for balance he said in hindi nato pancho so it may sound contradictory why should i not just stay with ahmra mahasami the answer is tried but don't try too hard that's a heard of people losing their mental balance by overdoing it i know at least a few another person i met in gangotri elderly gentleman he was studying gashtavakra also i was so serious and suddenly we came together so he was very delighted he was so ecstatic about it he was telling me but swami this is the truth my guru and i know who he talked about his guru my guru never told me about this he's his guru was a very acharya that means very perfect in his daily routine and life so he just told me about taking the name of krishna about worshiping the tulsi plant and all of these things this is the real the real deal you know the ashtavakra i said look did your guru know but does your guru know about the ashtavakra and the gentleman said yes he does because i knew he's good i met his i had met his good his wonderful son really good sad so does your guru know about just our he said yes he does and after studying jasta bakr also he worships the tulsi plant and takes the name of krishna he said yeah that is true so you should think about it um ulka says good thinking of our ishta and chanting the mantra during activities or in between activities during the day be categorized as vedantic meditation and not needed hassan as such but it's a highly recommended practice make a habit of repeating the mantra at times when you are motivated to do vedantic inquiry and vedantic meditation do that study vedanta and sit quietly in meditation there are some powerful teachers of vedanta i was reading one swami sashwatanji is talking about attending classes of swami turiyananda hari maharaj he says his classes were so inspiring in vedanta he talked about you know in one class after swami turian and talked about it he said then he said said this has to be experienced felt for yourself and he ended the class and one swami who was in the class got up from the class and rushed to his room and sat down in meditation for hours and hours and hours he would they would be inspired like that so powerful was the teaching so when you are in that mode definitely shavana marana dhasana at other times whether you feel like it or not there will be times when you don't feel like it then don't force yourself into vedantic yasma stay with the mantra again up to your own tastes and preferences alpana said yesterday after asking to hold on to the thought of one consciousness you pause for five seconds that silence and expression said a lot it's good to notice these things all right um dimitri uh good evening swamiji i have two uh two questions one when you refer that initial breakthrough is that the actual uh event when you know brahman reveals itself and it's irreversible at that point a particular mind already knows that uh what is truth and uh no effort is needed to continue yes yes and then if that is so you later you also mentioned then then to achieve the full jivan muktan state one has to stay with it and choose to kind of work further to manifest it in life uh why is it a choice is it actually a choice or actually choicelessly one would go to that direction why would why one would not go to that direction yes so even if you don't do anything after that initial breakthrough that manifestation will happen but it will take a longer time it will naturally sway vivekananda said truth is a corrosive substance of infinite power once it has come into your mind it will work your personality will be transformed however if you want to enjoy the unique bliss of jivan mukti as soon as possible what is promised in advaita vedanta help the process stay with it again i'm only giving you sort of the tip of the iceberg there's a lot of deliberation on this the best book i know about all these discussions is jivan mukti viveka of um vidyar naswami where he talks about it's an enquiry into jivan mukti so there's the initial breakthrough then what is the importance of giving up desires what is the importance of meditation of samadhi on on that breakthrough and why one should intensely he says after the breakthrough one should intensely practice uh hold on to that and that breakthrough is not just an occasional let's say i had an experience when it seemed to be right but then i lost it yes so we do have experiences which come and go and those are also genuine but that is not the advice breakthrough i'm talking about the very nature of that advaithic breakthrough is uh is that it is irreversible there is no chance even if you don't do anything if you don't do anything also it won't go away it's like i am server priyanka whether i practice being server priyanka not practice being server priyanka never think about it a whole moment day long i am server priyanka and it's always available to me moment anybody asks me what's your name i'm effortlessly i don't have to say that oh i haven't practiced for a long time wait for a minute and i must settle down into my server priyanya in the nature and then i will tell you that i am server priyanka no it is effortlessly available to you so that breakthrough will be effortlessly available to you but if one has so there is a lot of discussion about what should precede this kind of thing a lot of spiritual practice usually precedes this so a person is like almost virtually a saint at least a very good person that is called krita pasti one has performed karma yoga and upasana meditation meditative practices and unselfish action purification of the mind one has already done that then there would be effortless manifestation of jivan mukti no further major practices are required so like sriram krishna is the most excellent example attains realization it's already demonstrates the qualities of a g1 mukta to the fullest extent without any further you know practices required but vidyanya points out there might be many seekers who have not completed the course let us say so they need to complete the course your disease is cured but it's recommended that you finish the course of antibiotics um and he says that what is the result of all of this he says the result of the breakthrough is at the first of all you know that you're brahman that's a very great great thing and at the point of death you are set free forever there are no more cycle of birth and death for you so that's the direct result of the breakthrough nothing can reverse it it's done the game of life is over for you but in the meanwhile from the point of breakthrough till the death of the body if you do if you want to enjoy the bliss of being liberated and which is the whole point of it then you must work for it you must make sure that the mind and the body don't resist that knowledge why would the mind and body resist that knowledge because of ingrained past behavior the the patterns of behavior a nice example is thothapuri losing his temper just you know the story of how became annoyed at the watchman who came to take the flame from his sacred flame he wanted to take fire for his you know tobacco his uh hubble bubble why did he lose his temper does that mean he's not enlightened he is enlightened and pretty far along in his practices that's why he was able to give up temper also the moment sudam krishna pointed it out he gave it up giving up being angry that's not so easy at all it's easy for them you point out this is not quite right for an enlightened person in your you know in your state they can get rid of it if they want thank you all right [Music] my