Video 34

34. Vedantasara | Texts 193-198 | Swami Sarvapriyananda

[Music] [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 were on text number 192 which is meditation vedantic meditation so the subject we are discussing are the practices what do you do we do three things in vedanta the core practices are shavana mananda nidhit dhyasana which literally mean hearing reasoning and meditation by shavana we have understood that it is to study the text systematically and the system also we looked at what was the traditional system of interpreting vedantic text so with the help of a competent teacher you go through the basic vedantic texts and that gives you the idea that gives you clarity that the central teaching of all these texts is that you are brahman what is brahman what are we exactly and how are we brahmana all these things are clearly mentioned there so we understand the meaning of the text or the teaching of the texts and then the question might be that i have many many questions about all of this many doubts and that is clarified in the second step which is reasoning which is so that which has been understood in the first stage i am brahman this is the teaching this has been understood this has been heard understood and gathered we have got the teaching now now using a variety of arguments reasoning to see this truth intellectually with with clarity so that we are convinced that uh this has to be the fact we see that it is so so this clarity comes so once this clarity has come you have completed the second step now you know what it means and you you are completely convinced about it you see it for a fact in fact now the third stage is meditation what is the purpose of this meditation the purpose is this we have the knowledge now we have the insight now we have actually made a breakthrough about it um we see that we are brahmana this is a fact but now comes the problem because of long conditioning of behaving and thinking and reacting to the world thinking speaking and behaving as if i am this limited body mind not only in this life in many past lives we have been identified with physical bodies we have been identified with the thoughts in the mind and that's how we have lived life this not only this life many lives possibly now what happens is even after clarity a peculiar situation can arise where i see that i'm unable to put this knowledge to work for me so when problems come up in life and problems will keep coming up in life because of our prarabdha karma each body mind system has its own load of past karma which are giving results in this life a variety of things are happening to us good bad and ugly and our our tendency our conditioning is to respond to it all as a body mind and that causes suffering that's always been so the strange thing is after the insight also it's not so easy to overcome this conditioning remember you might say why not well we should be completely free in an instant yes and no you know you're completely free as the atman that atman which you now see that pure con existence consciousness place that you see you know that this is a dream but imagine even after knowing that this is a dream if you you had no way of accessing the waking state if you had no way of snapping out of the dream you know it's a dream and yet it continues to be vivid and unbroken it's difficult um so one one has a tendency in the punch pancho deshi vidyarna says um two problems and uh it is expressed in two ways what are the two problems first problem is i think i'm conditioned to think i am the body mind that's the problem i react to the world as a body mind yes i am the atman but my son does not listen to me you see the contradiction at one moment i say i am the atman and then next moment i will say is the prob real problem is with my child it doesn't listen to me so my child we are already thinking as the atman now we are already thinking as a body mind sorry the moment you say my child does not listen to me and this is my sorrow i'm already thinking of myself as a body-mind again after getting clarity that i am the up and why are we doing that uh it is because of past conditioning so that's one problem the second problem is to think of the world as real what do i mean by real the for the enlightened person and for the unenlightened person the world will keep appearing the enlightened person knows it to be a dream once you have had the breakthrough after vedantic study you've got the breakthrough that intuitive um piercing the veil let us call it you you see that it is a dream and yet uh because of past conditioning we take it to be real you know why we take it to be real the moment we identify with the body and the mind the mind and the body the moment we identify with the ego to be very precise the identification comes with the ego the moment we identify with the ego ahamkara the ego is part of the mind and therefore we will identify with whatever is going on in the mind sorrow desire sadness all of that we add into it it's i who am because the i is always identified with these things and the moment you identify with the contents of the mind you will identify with the body because the mind is intrinsically very closely connected with the body so the problems of the body are my problems the moment we connect with the body that i am this body you know what what's happening you are transferring your reality your reality is the atman's reality you're transferring or superimposing it on the body and the body is superimposed on you the argument then it becomes real body the moment you say the body is real the world will immediately become real because you are identified with a part of the physical universe the rest of the physical universe also will become real husband wife children money sickness health pleasure pain achievement failure everything in the world will now become real become real means it will feel real it doesn't become real actually but it you are now nicely trapped in the world illusion so these are the two aspects of the problem you will face then the um the two ways in this in which this manifests is all i'm quoting from vidyar in one verse he says in pancho rashi two ways in which it manifests is he says puna it says it comes in an instant we have no time to deliberate upon it somebody's throws an insult at you or there's a disappointing news something happens in the stock market or in the family it makes you unhappy people have behaved badly with you now in an instant nobody gives you a menu option will you react to it as study or choose your option will you react to it as server priyananda then i would have said i will react to it asturia i will be i'll know that i am the one reality underlying this dream of the universe no option is given to me the mind instantly says vidyar india in an instant it goes to its default conditioning not to your and the mind says i don't care about your newfangled fancy vedanta you know that i am the absolute all that no i will react as i have been trained to over many lifetimes they say why you did it you trained me to react in this way you have practiced being worldly you have practiced being the body you have practiced being material life time after lifetime so this is that it is an instant it manifests this identification with the body and the world is real this the second way in which it manifests this problem he says punapuna again and again if it once in a while i feel i am the body and i react to it but most of the time i feel i am the witness consciousness should be fine but again and again and again day after day month after month all the time in my waking life in my dream life i continuously seem to behave like the body it's only when i sit with vedanta vedanta class and all i begin to think no no i'm not really the body mind i am the witness consciousness here so two problems i am this body mind second body and the world is real and manifested in two ways instantly and again and again so because of this i am unable to actualize my realization i am unable to manifest the divinity within me now we see the beauty of swami vivekananda's definition of religion he said the goal is to manifest the divinity already within us not just know it not just get clarity about it not just get an intuitive grasp of it but manifest manifest means again swami vivekan himself clarifies in another place my mission in life can be put in a few words it is to to preach unto mankind repeating to humanity their inner divinity and how to make it manifest in every movement of life that's a crucial phrase in every movement of life what is movement of life in our behavior in our language in our thoughts at least at the level of thoughts there's the shift must be clear otherwise you see what a strange thing we will be caught in we have got very clear knowledge conviction about our inner divinity about that we are the we are existence consciousness place and we behave in a different way in our day-to-day life it's contradictory so this situation has to be resolved technically this problem is that you have attained knowledge but this is not g1 mukti so jivan mukti which which is the goal of vedante in uh for the first right now we must have we must reach the stage of jeevan mukti jivan mukti is the ability to manifest this knowledge live the truth you know walk the talk after all um you might say why is it necessary i now got the knowledge after great difficulty now why further struggle is necessary you might ask i understand and i'm convinced that's it well no we remember where we started the journey the journey was attainment of bliss and overcoming of suffering i cannot honestly say that i've overcome suffering if a pin prick makes me say ouch if i get upset at the behavior of others if i um you know i have desires for things of the world because of preconditioning and i keep following those desires so then it it's i have not overcome uh the conditioning and i have not overcome suffering so it's a good checklist it's very it's practical spirituality so overcoming suffering that reminds me today is a very auspicious day it is the birthday of bhagavan buddha and we offer our salutations to bhagavan buddha it's a thrice blessed day vaishak it is the day on which buddha was born and in the same day at the age of about 35 he attained bodhi enlightenment and also nirvana and then at the age of around 80 he attained the mahabharat nirvana the final liberation you know very interesting attaining bodhi enlightenment and then the next more than 40 years he lived and he taught so in vedantic terms that would be called jivan mukti you are still in the body the body goes on in this way and then what they call mahaparinirvana that means the great liberation would be called video mukti in vedantic terms the physical body falls off of course from the buddha's perspective it's already done um by the way just just in case anybody's wondering i'm not saying that the buddha is to be compared to uh the usual jivan mukta from our perspective even from a hindu perspective the buddha is an avatar so an avatar demonstrates the truths of spiritual life but anyway his first teaching was there is suffering there is a cause of suffering there is a release from suffering and there is a way out of suffering so unless we have come out of suffering how can we say we have achieved the goal of vedanta and the goal of spiritual life so this must be actualized the inside that we have gained i must be able to live that in day to day life it's not even enough to become a monk you say that these problems might be there in the life of a householder householder might say that my i'm the athman but the real problem is my son is not listening to me my daughter is misbehaving the monk who's the guru might say my disciple is not listening to me same problem is there in another form sometimes bigger monk has to establish establishes an ashram has to collect funds for the ashram and run the ashram i remember meeting this sadhu who whom we studied ashtavakra from indonesia so he used to he had a little cute little ashram overlooking the i think suraj kund or something i don't know the exact name of that place there so we would go there and listen to his classes and from there he could see the the cave there were towering mountains all around so he could see the cave very used to do his sadhana his spiritual practices in his young age he had been in the same place for 40-50 years and he would point out and he would say you know he was old you look at us and you say you know i was actually happier there in that cave i made i made only one mistake in my life what is that swami i started this ashram and we would of course say no no we are getting all this benefit because we have started the ashram he said i have made only one mistake starting this ashram so even the monk is troubled by problems even if you run away from worldly problems no husband wife children to bother about no possessions to bother about and maintain no house to you know pay rent or taxes you have nothing to do with the world nothing to do with politics nothing to do with family problems relationships no property to maintain you have a place to stay maybe a a hut or a or a cave and you have food and you have just enough to wear so aren't you free of problems especially if you are interested in spiritual life if you have strong desires for worldly things then you'll be in serious trouble if you end up in that situation but in if somebody is seriously interested in peace of mind and spiritual life so aren't you free of problems not necessarily the body is still there the mind is still there and that's the source of problems suppose illness comes you have to deal with it you're proud will come our past karma will catch up with us even if we keep changing the scenarios outside it will manifest in some other way some problem it will come so problems will keep coming in worldly life and if i identify myself with the ahankara whether a monk or householder the moment i identify with ahamkara identified with mind momentary identified with mind identified with body what do i mean by identified simply i am this exactly the way we feel that i am this and i react i live my life as if i am this the way we are doing all the time the moment we do that world and all the problems and situations generated by my own prarabdha they will become real remember for the enlightened person also these will keep appearing but that's not real for that enlightened person the enlightened person has does not even see himself or herself as a person sees a deeper reality compared to which the proud of the problems are like a dream like an illusion or an appearance and the person from that perspective from the higher perspective paramar thicker the absolute perspective the jeevan mukta can deal with the problems much better than we can so in fact this identification with the body this is what makes vedanta difficult krishna says in the to answer to arjuna's question in the 12th chapter arjuna asked this question so we have talked about these two paths a path of knowledge which seems very direct and a path of devotion which is better who is the greater yogi and krishna says to this sadness of allah student he says the path of devotion is the better one why he says he says the path of the unmanifest the impersonal reality that means the what we are talking about here that is much that is very difficult for the embodied one embodied everybody is embodied even the enlightened person is embodied in a certain sense so what does he mean by embodied by embodied he means the person who is stuck to this body and mind as my only identity for that person it's very difficult so even after the breakthrough one has to work has to decondition the mind this deconditioning of the mind freeing the mind from past conditioning the good news is it can be done and can be done pretty fast you might think so if lifetimes of conditioning are driving my behavior as body mind then what's the point even after realizing will it take lifetimes of meditation to clear up the mess no it it can be cleared up pretty fast and the way it can be cleared up is that understanding which we have got after getting clarity of the shavana madana it's clear now that understanding that conviction that breakthrough we have got stay with it stay with it for long hours make that effort and try to live your life according to that that knowledge no i'm the witness consciousness not that i am this body and mind you will see the result will be quite simple all the virtues that we think of as being associated with saintly life that will be the result you will increase in patience and forbearance you will naturally stick to the truth we will have sort of natural self-control a dispassion for the world an evenness of temper a feeling of unconditional love for everybody uh selflessness because we just we do not consider this little self to be ourself so all these things will will manifest that is called the manifestation of the perfection already or divinity already within us that is called jivan mukti and that's a delight at that point one can say i have overcome suffering and i have attained peace and place what was promised has been fulfilled so that's the goal how do you do that so that's why this nidhasana is there this is post breakthrough or even if one says i really don't have that breakthrough yet but do you have an understanding and appreciation for the vedantic truth yes are you convinced about it more or less all right try to stay with it so that trying to stay with it is called needed asana um text number 192. so how does that negative work vedantic meditation 192 vijayati meditation is a stream of ideas of the same kind as those of brahman the one without a second to the exclusion of such foreign ideas is those of the body etc let's put it very simply this way you haven't you have a clarity are you convinced i am the drastia not a drishya i am the consciousness not an object if this is this is the clarity you have stay with that feel it staying with that feeling saying with that clarity is what is mentioned here to the exclusion of the opposite i am the body thoughts and feelings come i am the mind no those are contrary tendencies those are dualistic tendencies those are dualistic um with ease of the mind exclude them that's the effort exclude them stay with i am the witness consciousness i am the witness everything else is an object i am the witness of the five sheaths of my body mind i am the witness to which appears the waker and the waker's world the dreamer in the dreamers world and the deep sleeper in the deep sleepers darkness that witness i am not as a method of positive effort mission a born of understanding if you do it born of understanding then it is needed if you do it as a like a i am brahmana i am ramahan ambram has me i am i keep repeating it it's like a mantra not bad but that's not what is meant here what is meant here is you know the truth stay with it so to the exclusion of the body identification mind identification and the the thoughts which which which are of the nature i am brahman the non-dual reality what is non-dual reality brahman um means that cognition what cognition ahamram has me i am brahmana as a truth just like it's like if i repeat now i am server priyanka it's a fact for me exactly to that level it must come i am brahmana just repeat that fact make it a fact repeat the fact stream not just i am brahman now back to the world no i am brahmana and stay there the stream sajathiya of the same kind i am brahmana i am brahmana i am brahmana it need not be the same words i am the sakshi i am the unattached i am luminosity itself everything else shines and disappears good and bad shines and disappears in my light in me the light and so on this is needed vedantic meditation at its highest it will become absorption deep absorption which is called samadhi most praised and valued mental state mental state so samadhi the word has been used in many ways mandukka karika godapadhy uses the word samadhi to refer to atma satyadananda itself is samadhi here it is the result of this vedantic meditation two kinds of samadhi now this samadhi he will say savikalpa nirvikalpa we have heard these words earlier in devotional meditation dualistic meditation cervical nervi kalpa has a separate meaning related but separate meaning here it it is little different um in devotional meditation what would be savikalpa samadhi i am meditating on krishna suppose or mushiba and i repeat the mantra om namashivaya visualize shiva after some time it will become a very living visualization and then i will have the actual vision of my chosen deity i am having the vision of my chosen deity in my heart it will be a very living very valuable spiritual experience that is called savikalpa samadhi still there's a difference between i the meditator and the process of meditation and the meditated upon object savikalpa samadhi it's a it's a vision and then the the difference is obliterated that is becomes nirvikalpa samadhi difference between meditation the meditator meditation and meditated upon object so that is called in the s in devotional process dualistic meditation same terms are used but you will see what it means here it's something quite different in advaita vedanta all right so what is 193 absorption of samadhi is of two kinds namely that attended with self-consciousness and that without it um self-consciousness don't get mixed up with pure consciousness and all the self-consciousness means i am the meditator and this is the process i'm following and this is the reality i'm meditating upon if you have this kind of a framework it is when this framework is erased it is nirvikalpaka now you'll see what is in a pedantic perspective advaita perspective [Music] absorption attended with self-consciousness that in which the mental state taking the form of brahman the one without a second rests on it but without the merging of the distinction of knower knowledge and the object of knowledge that sounds pretty abstract but it's actually quite simple it's like watching a movie where you see the different characters and places and events taking place and at the same time you're aware it's a movie it's just screen and light or waking up from a dream and then thinking about the dream just you know the dream is not a good example so movie is a good example or you look at the blue sky and the sky appears blue and you are aware of it's aware of the blue at the same time your knowledge is that it's not blue similarly it's very clear to me here is our body this is the mind i am the consciousness in which the mind and the body are appearing and through this mind and body in that same consciousness the world is appearing with all the people and the so-called um you know relationships problems all of that is appearing it's all appearing but i am very clear it is appearing in me the existence consciousness please this is stay in that that framework as much as possible it's basically what we have understood from all of this studying till this point make it clear in your mind stay with it and look at the world in that way this is called persavan it's both possible sitting quietly in meditation also possible with your eyes open because the world is appearing to you but you know it is appearing in brahman in brahmana you are that brahman this is savi kalpaka samathi hold on to your questions i'll just go ahead a little bit we'll see the nirvikalpa samadhi we'll see the difference he gives an illustration what is savikalpaka samadhi in advaita vedanta 195. [Music] in that state the knowledge of the absolute manifests itself in spite of the consciousness of the relative as to understand all of this just follow this example as we know a clay elephant etc the knowledge of the clay is also present so this is a classical example you see um sculptures so shiva is sitting on the bull or durga on on the on the lion it's a stone sculpture and you can make out the lion and the divine mother durga and the weapons in your hand and all of that you can make out but you also know it stone you know that the reality is stone and you are aware of both at the same time what is the reality to stone and as far as name and form are concerned in the transactional level you are able to make those distinctions very clearly one is durga one is the lion or in this case it's an elephant or it may be a man or a horse but they're all clay images when you can see both you are in that savikalpaka state this is this state is calling sabika and it should be clear um children go to the traditional fairs in india religious fairs are there and children go it's like a festival and there are toys made of sugar so there is a lion made of sugar and there's a horse and the man and an elephant and the child is crying and i i want a lion and the mother tells the child well all of them are the same thing you can take a man or an elephant or uh or a horse and the child says like are you crazy how can an elephant or a man and a horse be the same thing as lion i want a lion when the mother understands what the child means because these are the different forms fine and the forms are relatively real because when the child will play a game of elephant horse man lion maybe a hunting game or something like that then the forms are important and the names are important but really they are all sugar so when the mother says they are all the same the mother is in the sabikalpaka samadhi state can see both sides and both are not equal sugar is real elephant lion man horse these are all superimposed brahman is real man woman child health sickness pleasure pain in this world panorama it's all superimposed when you this is clear you can stay with it eyes closed eyes open it does not matter then he quotes from um so look at the text in sabi samadhi marin elephant etc means appearance elephant appears but they are mrinmaya made of clay mrid bhanovat in that appearance of the elephant and man and lion what appears clay to whom does it appear the one who understands it's made of clay child might say it's an elephant mother would say yeah it's an elephant it's also clay or it is actually clay how is it clay it's an elephant this is a lion this is a tiger as a human being yes but literally they are nothing other than clay even when the entire dualistic universe dualistic appearance an entire dualistic universe appears what is so this dualistic universe where do you get one here we are right now in it this is appearing all of this is exactly appealing the enlightened one sees exactly the way we see even in that in and through that what shines forth not clay reality shines forth so this is a good example then this upanishadic in all the golden ornaments necklace and bracelet and the tiara and a ring gold shines forth in all the pottery in pottery barn it's a clay which shines forth in all the iron implements it's the iron which shines both in all the waves it is water which is appearing so in that way it's brahman which is the truth which is evident self-evident all the time effortlessly to this person i won't say effortlessly in the sama savikalpa samadhi is making an effort to stay with it um then he quotes from shankaracharya this is from upadheisha sahasri introductory text it's introductory but it's also pretty advanced [Music] so [Music] it has been said i am that brahmana that intelligence absolute formless like ether supreme eternally luminous birthless the one without a second immutable unattached all-pervading ever free drishi swarupam so what do you do with this kind of a verse he's just giving it as an example a quote from the master shankaracharya the person who is in savikalpaka samadhi or each of these words would be true like if i ever try to try savikalpa samadhi on my present stage that server priyaranda i am server priyan and i can see it for a fact yes it is true and i am sitting in my chair yes it is true uh i am wearing uh the ochre rope yes it is true check check check and you check it's true in savikalpa samadhi such a verse the enlightened person would be able to check go through the checklist and say yes it's a fact not something that i'm trying to believe not something that i'm trying to program my mind brainwashed my mind into that or positive state of thing or repeating like a mantra no you see it for a fact simple fact if you stay with it it's it is called savi kalpaka samadhi so what does this person see the enlightened one drishy swarupam i am always the witness consciousness is it true check yes effortlessly i don't have to try i am always that gaganova transcendent transcendent like what like the sky you see everything the entire physical manhattan everything is in the sky the clean air and the polluted air and the good things and bad things the sky is completely unattached it gives space for all of this the sky makes all of this is spacious enough to accommodate the universe everything can be there everything can play around in the sky and nothing the sky or space is not affected by anything similarly i am that witness consciousness existence consciousness place in which the universe of the good and the bad of the human and the non-human of the body and the mind of gross and the subtle all of these appear because i give space to it it is immediately all these things appear the movie screen might say i am giving the foundation the space for all sorts of movies it could be science fiction movies tragedies and comedies and actors and animals and so many things can appear and play around i give space to all of it and i am totally unaffected by any of it check yes it is true see what a what a tremendous freedom this is it's it's thrilling it could be scary at first but it's also incredible it's makes you limitless there's not one thing which offers resistance to you it's all in you it shines in you i mean they're not in you like things are in your pocket they're in you like things are in your dream they're in you like the blues color in the in the sky they are in you like um snake in the rope in that sense in you i am the unborn i am the one there is no possibility of any second aksharam i am the unchanging and so on so all of this is you have a checklist here and it need not be only this verse vedanta is full of such verses in upanishads and the later vedantic masters they've composed it they just look at their experience and if they happen to know sanskrit they come up with nice sanskrit poetry to describe their experience in some way and we can check then staying with it something happens happens where happens in the mind not in the atman the mind moves from this kind of awareness to becoming absorbed see here i am still i am the one who is experiencing myself in this way this is still there that will also disappear into a state where the mind is not functioning anymore it is the the distinction between the knower the known and knowledge is erased mind is still there but like an unflickering flame in a windless place that is called nirvikalpaka samadhi 197. adv absorption without self-consciousness the total emergence in brahman the one without a second of that mental state which has assumed its form the distinction of no knowledge and object of knowledge being in this case obliterated this is also called assam pragyata samadhi this is the corresponding this is the samadhi corresponding to the yogic asam pragyata samadhi and this is a powerful state you know if one can attain this that problem of previous conditioning is overcome easily you it's wiped out that previous conditioning your knowledge of the atman is is the same it is it is already you already know that you are chidan and rupa shivoham but now what will happen is coming back from such states it's easy to live it it's easy to say that i am not the body and mind it's absolutely clear so i don't react as body and mind to the problems when the world appears body appears mind appears i don't react to the word problems generated by the proud of the person i'm not the person anymore that that's that explains the extraordinary capability of enlightened beings to withstand sorrow and pain physical level emotional level deprivation what might seem terrible to others to us but from their perspective it's nothing it's like a not even a flea bite swami vivekananda gave the example of a big bull or an ox on whose horns a mosquito came and sat after some time the mosquito felt a little uneasy and said oh mr bull um i'm sorry i sat on your horn without asking you your permission i hope you are not i did not cause any discomfort and the bull said oh you're there i didn't even notice oh you're welcome you come with your entire family your brood and settle down there it's nothing to me so that will be our attitude to samsara um we'll be able to manifest that reality that our knowledge in day to day life the difference between the knower the knowledge and the pro the thing which we are realizing the non-dual reality those distinctions are erased those distinctions are actually not there they are created by the mind so when the mind is tilled in nirvikalpaka samadhi the distinctions also disappear and yet you are left with the absolute reality which you cannot at that point expresses the absolute reality you already know it now the question here might be this is exactly what the yogi is trying to do the patanjali yogi instead of going through all this vedantic study why not just still the mind it won't work what will happen is sriram krishna calls it jada samadhi if you really are able to still the mind like that what will happen is either you come out of it and you reflect back upon your experience and you become enlightened at that moment that can happen or you will enter into a tremendous peaceful thoughtless state stay for some time come out of it and you're back to where you are not exactly where you are because you are already an accomplished meditator probably you are much calmer and more peaceful than others but not enlightened so that can happen the the nirvikalpakar for a person who has deeply studied and immersed himself or herself in vedantic knowledge is an extraordinarily powerful way of overcoming past conditionings becoming a jeevan mukhta manifesting the divinity within as swami vivekananda says for a person who has not made the breakthrough it can be helpful in making the breakthrough or it can just be a very deep and nice meditative state that's it so when the distinctions have been erased then what happens 198 text number 198. [Music] s just as when the salt has been dissolved in the water it is no longer perceived separately and the water alone remains similarly the mental state that has assumed the form of brahman one without a second is no longer perceived only the self remains so ramakrishna gave this example the salt doll which went to measure the ocean so from outside it can talk about the ocean here is the ocean and it's like the savikalpaka state here is brahman you know you can talk about it as we did till now but the moment it enters walks into the ocean what happens to it it dissolves in the ocean now who's going to say what the ocean is like it's become one with the ocean it is the ocean now it's become infinite it's not a little congealed salt all does it mean i am gone no you are now the infinite which you always wear it's like the ocean had forgotten itself had generated a little salt doll which was walking around and creating all this mess now the salt doll has been persuaded to come back and touch the ocean the moment it touches the ocean it it you know melts back into the ocean so this is a good way of putting it at that state nirvikalpaka samadhi or a sampragyata samadhi salt doll is not there anymore it is there as the ocean so um let me just take a few questions and come to the next issue of samadhi and sleep deep sleep there are some comments here um rita says oh shaking blessings are auspicious yes we all pray to the bhagavan buddha for blessings rita again asks how is this similar different from japan meditation as i said in the beginning the two kinds of meditation the dualistic devotional meditation where you have japa and the ishta devata and you repeat that and the color it will culminate in savikalpaka samadhi in the vision of your ishta devatha will be a living vision and it will become available at other times i have told you about the story of swami gambhira the 11th president of our order who was asked that have you seen god he said what do you mean by seeing god every time i close my eyes i see blazing forth in my heart the living form of my chosen deity my easter devata effortlessly so that's somebody who's already established in savikalpak samanthi and quite possibly nirvikalpa but that's the devotional approach the japan dhyana will lead there if you see swami saradananda ji's description of this process in the great master he shows how after that it leads to the non-dual realization also that also is possible through this method of japanese then suman asks drasta and rishi are both are one consciousness there are no two only oneness isn't it is it not so in the first stage this you must be able to understand answer now rashta and trisha means here and seeing um in the first stage one must distinguish the real seer the witness consciousness from everything else so everything becomes an object you alone of the consciousness see these are not theories you must you must track it in your experience when you say drastic and rishi are one consciousness are you speaking from some kind of um you know you read read it in a book or you feel it must be so or are you speaking from your experience what is our experience i am the seer the book is the scene i am the seer and the book is the scene here i am the drastia this is drishya where do i find consciousness in my own experience i find it within myself in the drastic not in this book is this understood this is actually i'm reporting a simple fact the simplest fact don't argue here no but vedanta says this book is also consciousness what anybody says does not matter what do you feel right now ultimately it must be clear to you it is clear that i am the awareness and i am aware of a book the book is an object i am the subject the book is the scene i am the seer this is this is the how we talk and how we experience life start there then you go you know the second stage the eyes themselves are the scene and the mind is the seer where do you find consciousness in the mind not in the eyes i am conscious where i am the conscious mind experiencing the eyes is it not so each stage we should take it very slowly then go further track in your experience i am the consciousness of the thoughts and feelings in the mind where is the consciousness in me the one who feels um abcd your thinks a thought a b c d one two three four this is a thought which is conscious i the one who thought that thought or is the abcd conscious not at all abcd just like a mental language you know repeating a word mentally repeating something mentally it's i'm aware of it one two three four is not conscious abcd is not conscious means is it conscious of me or am i conscious of it i am conscious of it so in this way you isolate the drastica isolate means i am only the rashta without the drishya i am the atma without the anatma without means i have separated myself in my understanding now i am the awareness in which this world appears this is called sankhya then comes advaita and there's a whole process where we see that then all of this which we saw separate from ourselves see hear smell taste touch think reflect all of this is it an independent reality apart from me the consciousness or is it an appearance in me the consciousness is there any possibility at all even in principle of their being experienced without consciousness experience means consciousness so they are all dependent upon consciousness they cannot be anything other than consciousness they are names and forms imposed upon consciousness that otherness is a projection in that sense now if you say suman if you say dashtandrashia both are one consciousness yes in that ultimate sense true then only advaita is established but one must be careful about this process so otherwise there's a possibility of a mistake rich says do recluses have an advantage over householders in performing needed yes i must admit that recluses have nothing more to do all you have to do all day long you're supposed to do is you gather your biksha your food and that also is nowadays in many places available in one place you don't have to go from house to house you get it you don't have to cook you don't even have to wash the dishes you eat and you come back i remember a particularly funny cute episode in one little ashram in the himalayas where monks were being fed and i used to go and have food there also so one monk decided to introduce an innovation now you will consider it a horrible innovation plastic spoons so earlier we used to eat with our hands from leaves and the leaves would be thrown into the river it's an organic it'll decompose immediately within a short time so they told us be careful um the leaves have to be thrown and don't throw the spoons the spoons have to be washed and then returned to be used again they are all the monks are used to finish food victory to the lord toss it into the river and all the leaves and the plastic spoons went into the river so the innovation lasted only for one day they decided to go back to the old system but there are ashrams in which there are these metal plates and utensils anyway my point is it's taken care of for you in most cases you have a place to stay you don't even have to pay rent it's a cave or even there are funny incidents there was the government was making records of the land in gangotri at that time so this up and doing young bureaucrat and his assistant with the laptop came and was going around taking records from monks one monk came to me sorely worried he said look you are an educated young man can you tell me what do i do they have come to me and asking they are asking me for papers for my cave where do i get papers for the cave it's just that the swami who lived there earlier had died and i went and started saying that i've been staying there for 20 years where do i get for the papers for the cave so but anyway the point is that you don't have to show you have papers for the cave you don't have to pay rent all this is taken care of for you all you have to do is shravana manananananasana stay with the study stay with the reflection stay with the nudity asana so it is easier for recluses now one advantage of of the vedantic approaches this eye is open meditation one if one consciously tries to do that one can do that in worldly in household life also one can do that it's not impossible in fact if one develops the capacity of doing that in the midst of activities in the world it is a more powerful meditation the things are happening all around you in your mind outside and yet you can stay centered then nothing can shake you is there a danger that trying to stay with the understanding that i am brahmana while performing worldly activities might divide the mind and thus make one less effective in activity no when an activity takes up your attention do it don't do that in the middle of heavy traffic you're going to crash and cause a mess but in many cases you can are in the midst of activity you can stop it and quietly withdraw and center yourself and come back into the activity again shweta singh says won't it be sahaja samadhi ultimately yes once see this this is a dyasen is a practice it's meant for solving a problem for removing a particular type of obstacle a big obstacle which is everybody complains after you are sufficiently advanced in advaita vedanta you will all have the same complaint that how can i live this it goes away for me it is swept away or how can i live it from day to day how can i get the benefits of it the peace of mind the strength the stability there this problem is solved by nudity asana once the problem is solved then what are you one name for that is called sahaja samadhi jivan mukta is always in sahaja samadhi whether with eyes closed him still may meditate or eyes open there is a stage before that when you are practicing nirvikalpa this um i'll say needed hasana when you're practicing needed you might feel disturbed with your interactions with the world and to to take care of that disturbance that loss of balance you practice neritasana the monks there they know this is an ancient problem so they have did nice stories so they tell the story of the mongoose the mongoose always fights with the cobra so and actually you can see this oh i've seen it a couple of times so there is i don't know if it is true or not but it seems to be a story or a myth that the mongoose sometimes gets bitten by the cobra they're extraordinarily skilled little animals but sometimes it does get bitten the cobra is very fast so it does get bitten by the cobra and the poison spreads in its body but the mongoose knows what to what to do so it rushes off into the the bushes in the jungle and it knows there is a particular kind of herb if it chews on that herb the poison goes down now i don't know if it's actually that way maybe it is they have observed it but maybe it's just a story to illustrate that so when you are this advanced vedantic student dealing with the world maya will inject its poison in you you may get upset you may get annoyed you may lose your balance temporarily go back and chew the the herb of vedanta stay with that for some time the poison of maya will go away from your system then you can go back and fight with the cobra again of samsara that's the story um prabhir basu says does it mean that one will be in savikalpak samadhi while engaged in the world yes this will be quite different from the yogic samadhi you're right one can sit quietly and be absorbed in sabi kalpaka samadhi or with eyes open brahmat panam ramahavi the fourth chapter of the gita where you see brahman in the midst of all actions brahma karma samadhi who sees in the midst of actions brahman that is not possible in yogic in patanjali yoga samadhi patanjali you must be still you must be seated you must cut away the world you can't be in in the middle of action and yet say i am in samadhi and that is at least not allowed by patanjali but in this vedantic approach you can be both ways after all it is brahman i mean with eyes open also it is brahman what else is it when the movie is on and the movie is switched on i've switched off and the movie switched on and the movie switched off in both cases it's just the screen there's nothing else there um so for this practice krishna says in sixth chapter regular practice is necessary you are deconditioning the mind so regular practice is necessary it's not just reading about it regular practice is necessary and vairagya vargas dispassion for the world if you do not have dispassion for the world mind will not be steady if there are things in the world which attract us which tempt us or terrify us so in both cases the mind will be agitated it will be very difficult to settle the mind down this there's the story of the three friends who were drunkards who one day they were drunk they decided to go home they went to the boat they had to cross a river and they started rowing the boat in the morning they found they were sitting right there they had not moved an inch from the bank because they had forgotten to untie the rope so that is vairagya unless you untie the rope from samsara you'll be stuck and we may there in meditation think about read about vedanta and try to concentrate so externally you have cut yourself off from the world but internally if thoughts keep coming that means vairagya is less why will things which do not interest us thoughts about them don't come in our mind if we have dispassion for them if we are disinterested in them if you have renunciation for that then those thoughts will not come up in the mind it'll be much easier to meditate you're making your life more difficult if you have if you maintain secretly maintain a little bit of you know my favorite little attachments and then meditate those things will trouble us patrick says did i understand that correctly raj yogi that experiences samadhi might not change in this life much and will not be released yogi the sense of patanjali yoga if if that realization does not come now a person who's properly practicing patanjali yoga at least a sankhyan no yogic realization will come that i am the purusa and the world is the prakriti the prakriti purusa the yoga that means the separation of consciousness and matter that much realization will come if a person systematically practices what i was saying is this is the distinction between making the mind thoughtless and just that and immersing yourself in the advaithic understanding there is a distinction between the two what we are talking about here is immersing yourself in the vedic understanding to the exclusion of all other thoughts and also sri ramakrishna has given the example what he called jaroshamati so a person was showing some magic tricks or something you know and was saying abracadabra and because of certain practices his mind went into a still absolutely still state it became quiet and sat there like a statue for a long time for a long time like a stone statue the moment his awareness came back to the world and the body the first thing he said was abracadabra so whatever some scholars were there earlier that continued that means it did not that just being thoughtless for a long time does not make one enlightened dimitri says what will be the logic to prove that existence is not separate from consciousness without involving experience okay this is a subtle question existence is not separate from consciousness now this is an interesting question because normally the way we are experiencing the world it may seem that there is my existence as a conscious being is consciousness and existence seems to go together but there are a lot of existences around me which are not conscious they are objects to my consciousness book it exists book is existence but it's not conscious i am conscious of it so existence can be there without consciousness and this is what we feel there's a world out there which i'm not conscious of so it exists and it's not in my consciousness also in no sense is it in conscious now it's difficult to understand this this question how can we understand that exp the existence and consciousness are the same thing without talking about experience we're making my job harder by leaving experience out of it then just think about the dream experience in dreams even without talking about experience the moment you wake wake up and think about dreams there were things which you were aware of as the person in the dream you were aware of yourself and something in your neighborhood and you are also vaguely aware that there is a world out there in your dreams nobody thinks in the dream that i am dreaming and i mean in the head of one person we think we are in the world so part of the world we are experiencing just as we are experiencing now we see here smell taste certain things some simulation of that is in the dream and importantly there is a vague awareness of the world other than what i am experiencing in the dream just as there is now when we wake up what do we say oh whatever i was experiencing was within my experience and therefore in the mind of the dreamer but also the vaguely sensed world around the dreamer that was also part of the mind of the dreamer there was no world out there in the dream it was just the whole thing the exp known and the unknown the experienced and not experienced all of it was part of the dream is that or you can think of a movie in the movie um the character the hero maybe talking with some people maybe sitting in a cafe and sipping coffee on a sidewalk in manhattan and in the movie there is a larger world manhattan is there the united states the world and the universe are there in the movie it's there and only a part of that is being experienced by the hero what is the hero of the movie experiencing that particular sidewalk a cafe in manhattan and there is a larger world which nobody in the movie is experiencing but it's part of the plot of the movie obviously there must be a universe and yet we know all of it is an appearance in the scene of the part which the hero was seeing experiencing and that which he was not experiencing the experienced world of the hero and in in not experienced world of the hero both are appearances in a movie in the simulation now let's leave it at that um there is a more subtle okay i'll just give a hint so this is to answering dmitry's question the more subtle and direct way of answering this question existence and consciousness are the same thing ask yourself what exactly do you mean by existence in our lived life it is always something exists in our experience in our consciousness that existence in fact if you pursue it closely that sense of existence is never separated from my sense of being a conscious being conscious being consciousness being is existence is awareness actually are the same thing we are just using two words it is a it's a shining uh reality or one word would be good it's a presence presence presence has connotation of both consciousness and existence right shweta says is it not easier to spot the screen when the movie is not playing exactly that's why yogic samadhi is preferred by many to be absorbed in brahman is it not is it not necessary to unclutch from the worldly projection isn't there more concentration when you're sitting in meditation absolutely all of these are true that's why many people prefer the yogic approach patanjali yoga approach switch off the movie appreciate the screen for what it is and then you come back when the movie is on you understand this what is the screen and what is the movie that's patanjali yoga the classic patanjali yoga patanjali yoga is that saiyan vivekananda says yogas when your mind is absorbed in samadhi no virtis are there movies which stop then what happens then the witness is seen in its real nature the screen is appreciated for what it is minus movie when the movie is on what is the problem the problem in the next sutra it says um as long as the movie is playing the screen is hidden covered up and mixed up with the movie similarly the witness consciousness is mixed up with thoughts feelings emotions reactions body world all of that it's very difficult to distinguish consciousness in when mind is active that's why mind is settled down in samadhi that's the point then what's the point of advaithic uh the advaithic approach why is the advertising approach called the direct approach a vedic approach is called a direct approach because advaithic approach is literally the truth isn't it true that even when the movie is playing it is the scream whether you can appreciate it clearly or not that's the secondary thing that's our problem the problem of the mind of the practitioner it's a practical problem but what is the truth the truth is that the witness consciousness is always there regardless of whether the movie is playing or not and if you if you stay with that it's just it's just most straightforward way to appreciate the truth and anyway even through the yogic meditation you will ultimately end up with this in yogic meditation also you attain asan pragyat samadhi the point is not that you have to always stay in a sampragyata samadhi that would be like a perpetual you have to stay in samadhi otherwise you're trapped again no you get the insight and then in samadhi and out of samadhi also the same inside stage then only you're liberated if it is available only in samati when swami put it very nicely so if it is available only in samadhi see you have you have put your beloved in the jail of samadhi it's available only in samadhi and not outside but that should not be the case advaita vedanta says it's always effortlessly available ulka says from the readings of the life of holy mother do you think we can say the ma used to be in state of savikalpak samadhi towards the later half of our life mai used to have samadhi both sabi kalpaka nirvikalpaka as far as we understand quite effortlessly throughout her life rick says the silence of the mind experienced in patanjali style meditation gets integrated and stabilized so the mind becomes quite silent in activity agreed shweta says you can never say you exist without being conscious of it that is true reika says could idealism be what dimitri is talking about in idealism existence and consciousness are identified it is it is mind first then only things exist but there's a difference between advaita and idealism at least the berkeley and kind of idealism there's a big difference which is why shankaracharya strongly criticizes buddhist viganavada extensive criticism of buddhist viganavada subjective idealism pretty similar to berkeley and idealism subjective idealism and that is not advaita there are there are differences gaurav also makes it very clear in his alatashanti prakar and manduka karika and just leave it at that alpana says if existence was outside of consciousness then something needs to be conscious of that and also other way around non-con non-existent cannot be conscious correct dimitri says the paradise is clear when experiences paradigm as i guess you mean when experience is the proof absent experience it is hard to logically prove it i'll just say one thing here think about experience itself you know one of the definitions of brahman is it is experience anub experience itself whether objects of experience are present or not when objects of experience are present we call it an experience supposing without objects of experience what happens the experiencing consciousness remains like light without anything to reflect off so experience itself without experience you say in an absolute sense is it even possible you have to demonstrate also then he says however from the personal first person there is no contradiction as experience is always there therefore the same existence and consciousness would be the same same with existence and consciousness yes a first person view it is true but um think about it is there anything other than the first person view we think of the first person view as one alternative is the first person view then there is the objective view the scientific view the you know the god's eye view and diff but all of them are within the first person so the first person alone who's talking about all of this there's nothing else other than the first person there's a very radical kind of solid solipsistic advaita all right lot of high talk here let's stop at this moment [Music] [Music] the practical upshot of all of this is i am not speaking out or never was i nor is advaita vedanta speaking out against meditation always meditation is a very good idea and meditation requires practice so it's good to have a regular practice of meditation