Video 5

5. Vedantasara | Texts 27-29 | Swami Sarvapriyananda

[Music] so we are studying the uh vedanta sara of sadhananda by the way somebody remarked that he has another copy of of there he has another book called the vedanta sarah by ramanuja and that's right so ramanujacharya the great master of vishishta doita vedanta he also wrote wrote a book called vedanta sara but that vedantasara is a presentation of vishishta dwayta philosophy and that's an entirely different book this is an introduction to advaita philosophy but confusingly both are called vedantasara now we were studying the four preliminaries the four preliminaries are adhikari the qualified student vishaya the subject matter sambanda relation of the text to the subject matter and then prayojana the purpose or the benefit of this study so we have already seen the the qualifications for um the person who's going to read this text so a spiritual seeker who has the fourfold qualifications that i'm just taking the last phrase from that the text which we read the the knower or the seeker after knowledge who has the four-fold qualification is qualified for this text what are the four-fold qualifications um viveka discernment between eternal and non-eternal vairagya a dispassion towards the non-eternal the sampati the six treasures which are important in our spiritual journey and the mumuksutum which means intense desire for freedom so the one with these four qualities four fold qualities which are actually nine because six have been packed into the number three the six treasures so the one with these qualities or with the sufficient amount of excellence in these qualities will benefit fully from this text that does not mean that now we have to stop studying and go back to perfecting our viveka and bhairav and all of those six treasures and then i'll come back to the text 20 years later no we have to go along with all of these we have to study we have to develop those qualities we have to carry on our meditation all of those practices have to go hand in hand uh just that one must keep an eye on those four four qualities that we have to develop them to a certain level before this thing becomes effective now this is just the first of the four preliminaries the first one adhikari qualified seeker a qualified reader then the second of the four preliminaries was vishaya subject matter what are we studying here so we are going to go to that now text number text number 27 those who have a book you can refer to that or the pdf the pdf has the added advantage of uh having an english transliteration so when i read out the sanskrit you can actually follow those who can't read the sanskrit letters you can follow in the transliteration vedanta so this is the subject matter what is the subject matter it is the identity of the individual self and brahman which is of the nature of pure intelligence and is to be realized for such is the purpose of the vedanta texts so all right what is this text all about and by extension what is the what is vedanta all about because this is an introduction to vedanta so the subject of this book is also the subject matter for all of vedanta so what is this about jiva brahma i am the oneness of jiva and brahman now both of these terms are important they'll all become very clear later on everything will be defined but still jiva means a sentient being like us so all human beings all living beings are jivas specifically pure consciousness limited by ignorance and uh in association with a particular subtle body is called a jiva and usually it is inhabiting a physical body also right now we have physical bodies we have subtle bodies we also have causal bodies and all of these things will be deta will be explained and shown to us in great detail in in the texts ahead so jiva is basically sentient being just like us individual beings and we for example we are the jivas who are seeking liberation enlightenment realization and that's why we have come to vedanta what is brahma brahman literally the word means the vast the sanskrit etymology means that which expands brahma is the etymological meaning is the one which expands without limit literally vast infinite specifically in vedanta it refers to the ultimate reality of the universe even more specifically in this context it refers to that reality of the universe from which this entire universe has come in which it is sustained and into which it shall uh dissolve at the end of end of a cycle only to be resurrected again and again and again so the whole universe comes from this brahman exists in brahman disappears back into brahman so this brahman which is talked about here is technically the god of religion in religion god is the creator and the preserver and ultimately the dissolver of the universe and brahman is also used in the sense of the ultimate reality which is which has no reference to the universe or to our individual existence what is called nir guna brahman in vedanta so brahman refers to two kinds of uh there are two kinds of references to brahman i'm not saying two kinds of entities it's the same entity but one is nirguna brahman the ultimate reality and one is saguna brahman brahman with qualities or burman with characteristics which is god god of religion so here it is being said the identity of the individual with the with brahman and here the word brahman preliminary meaning is ultimate meaning will be nirkuna brahman so the identity of jiva and brahman is the subject matter of the um of vedanta sarah and the subject matter of vedanta itself of this book and of all of vedanta so what is the the subject matter of your identity with brahman and this is expressed in the so-called great state statements mahabharatas found in the different upanishads uh the famous tatthomasi that thou art see this is what is being taught there the identity of jiva and brahman to brahman refers to you the jiva and asi means you are that that thou art identity of jivan brahman or look at aham brahmasmi i am brahman from the braille articulation drama is from chandu gyopunisha ahmed ramhas means from britain i am brahman i refers to i the jiva brahma refers to brahman of course i am brahman again identity the oneness of jihad brahman or pragyanam brahma the consciousness that we feel now the awareness our our uh the sentience we feel right now that is brahman again you see identity of of your identity with brahman is being mentioned here or ayam atma brahma from the mandu kyopa nation this very self is brahman again the identity of jivan brahman so these mahavakis great sentences they expressed the whole teaching of vedanta in one sentence and what is the whole teaching of vedanta so it's so simple and direct the identity of jiva and brahman the identity of the individual and the cosmic so this is the whole of vedanta the essence of vedantic teaching now um oneness means oneness what kind of oneness just a little bit of thinking about it let's just dwell on this um it is it like you know the classical example they'll give give us is maybe like a like a red lotus maybe um i mean actually the texts talk about kneel about a blue part but that's a weird example uh a red lotus maybe so the red and the lotus are the one and the same thing because that red is the color of that lotus they are not two different things the red and the lotus are the same thing the red is the color and the lotus is the flower they are the same thing means they exist inseparably the lotus does not exist without a color and the red does not float in the air they exist together is that the kind of uh oneness that is being meant here no no it's not like a substance and its property lotus is a substance and its property is like the red color so they are one but not that kind of oneness or is it a kind of oneness like when two things are mixed like milk and water so is it like that but no that's not really oneness because milk existed without the water water existed without the milk they have been mixed together and they can be separated again that's not the kind of oneness that is being met then what kind of oneness is meant here absolute oneness identity is meant here when it is said jiva and brahman are the same thing or oneness of g1 brahman oneness of brahman and the sentient being us it means jiva is brahman and brahman is zero it's a very radical oneness you uh the jiva sentient being actually really though it does not seem like that really you are nothing other than the ultimate reality of the universe you are nothing other than brahman and brahman god of this universe is actually nothing other than you that kind of identities meant that's really bewildering because at first sight it does not seem so uh it it um seems very different even if we did believe in a god of the universe the idea that we have about god is that uh it is omnipotent omniscient uh with creator of the universe i am nothing like that it is one i am there are so many of us billions of us it is immortal we are subject to birth and death uh it is all powerful we are so weak all knowing we know so little so it's so different i am if there is such a god you're saying i'm one with that but it's so different how can we be one with that therefore it says pure consciousness so you see the words jiva brahma kim the identity now we know what kind of oneness identity they're identical jihan brahman identical to what pure consciousness should the caitanya what does this mean the differences between you and brahman are only apparent they are not ultimately real um what you are actually is pure consciousness what brahman the god of the universe this all powerful uh entity which we don't know directly which we believe in is also actually pure consciousness and our limitation our smallness our little knowingness our non-eternalness you know being born and dying our changefulness all of these are superimposed qualities appearances they are not real similarly god's all-powerful nature all beneficent nature loving nature that's also relative not ultimately real ultimately there's only one reality which is pure consciousness it's like saying um when you're in a movie hall you see a movie and if somebody says look actually really speaking there's only the screen the movies are just appearances in the screen so what follows in that case the hero is the villain in what sense not in the sense of the movie or the plot of the movie in the sense that that hero wherever he is there uh in in the movie and the villain whenever he's there in the movie they're actually appearances then nothing but the screen and the play of light and all that in the screen the hero is the screen and the move the villain is the screen as screen they are one no matter how different they appear you could say the tragedy and the comedy are won because the tragedy ultimately is not a tragedy it's a movie playing on a screen the comedy is ultimately not a comedy it's a movie playing on a screen so on a fictional level they're different but ultimately there's nothing other than the screen which is appearing in all these different ways here also uh ultimately there is this pure consciousness which is appearing as god and god's universe and also us individual sentient beings you are really pure consciousness and god is really pure consciousness and therefore you are identical not different pure consciousness not different pure consciousnesses there's only one pure consciousness and which is appearing as you and god all right um so this is what is behind the whole brahman is real and the world is false notice here brahman has been used in two ways here one is jiva brahmaicum the identity of your identity with brahman there you are the jiva the moment you are jiva then brahman means saguna brahman god identity of these two apparently polar opposites and should the chaitanya pure consciousness that's also brahman but then it refers to nirvana brahma the the absolute so at the level of the absolute no differentiation at the level of the different of the universe tremendous differentiation but what advaita is saying they are one and the same thing okay now the next word is interesting it says this is what is to be known that should the chaitanya pure consciousness is the thing to be known or realized pramayam means to be known literally pramata the knower pramayam thing to be known the source of knowledge so for example i am the pramata knower and this pen is the pramayam the known and my eyes are the source of knowledge pramanam using a source of knowledge primarily what kind of source of knowledge is this perception protection using perception visual perception chakra protection i have knowledge brahma brahma is another term knowledge of pramayam the object of knowledge this so i've defined four terms here are indicated for four terms instrument of knowledge pramayam object of knowledge what is to be known and brahma the knowledge itself all these divisions are possible and that's how how we carry out our daily activities all our activities depend on this kind of knowledge the very fact of me talking to you right now is because i have my my sense organs which are giving me the knower knowledge of the world how to operate this computer how to read this book and then how to talk to you all of this is deployed because in the background there is knowledge i am the knower there is things things to be known and there are ways of knowing it and there is knowledge now the problem will be if you say pure consciousness is to be known didn't you follow this this is fun didn't you just say it is beyond all attributes beyond all qualifications there isn't no ability also a kind of qualification you can at least say pure consciousness you can't say it is red or white or blue it is not big or small but you can at least say that it is knowable because you just said it is the thing to be known so how is that beyond all qualifications that's one even more damaging the moment you say knowable then aren't you importing the entire realm of duality into it no if it's knowable pure consciousness is knowable then there must be a knower there must be a way of knowing it pramadam and there must be knowledge of that pure consciousness so aren't you importing a whole the whole spectrum of duality into what you are claiming to be non-dual ultimately you will say this is a non-dual brahman non-dual absolute reality but you are now saying it is knowable which means all of this epistemology becomes effective there again another problem aren't you going against your own upanishads didn't you just say that vedanta is upanishads and don't the upanishads say that the ultimate reality is beyond mind beyond conceptions beyond thought beyond speech um if it is beyond speech beyond language then the how can the upanishads talk about brahman how can the upanishads reveal brahman so all these questions will come up um so how the upanishads talk about brahmana revealed brahman is very interesting no brahman is not actually an object of knowledge when even when you're saying pramayam open so it's an object of knowledge for the upanishads upanishads reveal brahman but not the way you would think how the upanishads circumvent this problem that the brahman cannot be revealed by speech brahman no nothing that you can conceive of is actually brahman so if that is so then how do the upanishads reveal it if it's beyond language and upanishads are language how does language work around this problem of inexpressibility how do you express the inexpressible so i won't say that now courtesy of i've talked about it number of times i think advaita vedanta and the paradox of language i think there's a talk there you can look at it we'll see later on how it does that the basic idea is it does not talk directly about brahman that's why it employs a variety of strategies you see why in the upanishads why do they revel in paradoxes why do they revel in these cute little stories like the 10th man story why do they use what is called a pointer you know the chinese saying about the finger pointing at the moon the finger is not the moon it's pointing at something and that you have to follow the finger and grasp the finger is useful but it's not the point what is it is pointing at the moon that's what you want you're supposed to see similarly upanishads as language do not directly reveal brahman but they indirectly by the use of paradox or implication or you know stories or contradictions they will try to indicate so they are basically pointers okay so that's what i wanted to say from am so in it's only in that very special sense that brahmana is none of the panoply the range of dualities is imported there so when we say that pure consciousness is premium premium means a thing to be known does not mean that we are talking about a distinction of no thing to be known an instrument of knowledge no there's no distinction because you are it's the pure consciousness you just said that so you cannot be distinct from it it's just said you are that absolute reality you are pure consciousness and if that is to be known you are actually to be known and you cannot be a separate knower upanishads cannot be a source of knowledge in that sense they can only indicate it they cannot directly reveal it yeah now so you have questions hold on to that let me just go a little further um is that all is that what vedanta talks about you are brahman that's it all these books all these ancient texts and all the explanatory note the texts down to this text itself so much has been written it all means i am brahmana that's all but if you look at the text there are so many there are stories and there are there is poetry and there is uh there are there is a there are like arguments and philosophy um so many things are there why are you just saying the upanishads teach you you are brahmana because very important point tatra eva vedanta vedanta all the vedantic sentences it refers to the mass of upanishadic literature vedantana means vedantic sentences literally the upanishadic literature all of that tata perya that perya what it wants to say all the upanishads want to say that they are this is what they are all pointing towards this is what they are all building up towards all the stories all the poetry and the arguments and whatever is described there in the upanishads everything ultimately the the um in sanskrit there's a term vivaksha desire to speak some desire to say something they desire to say this purport of the vedanta text is jiva brahma kim the identity of sentient being with brahman which is pure consciousness that's all they want to say ultimately in that sense vedanta is very simple actually our very our real nature is pure consciousness and that is what is to be realized that's all that is it's meant here that's the take away from this but look at how subtly they investigate what is the nature of oneness what kind of oneness are you talking about and if it's pure consciousness then how is it to be known because there's so many objections to to the knowability of pure consciousness no notice if you say okay it is not to be known in that case it's unknown in that case all your vedanta is not expressing pure consciousness and why study it at all why did you just say the subject matter of vedanta is pure consciousness if it's that is the subject matter if that's what is going to be taught then how and at the same time the vedanta itself says it cannot be taught it cannot be the subject matter so what is the way out of it can open ishad says when the student goes to the teacher teach me um you know what is that which is behind all my thoughts which inspires my thoughts my speech that's the first verse mantra of the ken openisha which it says what is that one shining reality behind all my thoughts my speech my my seeing my hearing so all my conscious activities behind all of it is what that is basically the the question of you know the hard problem of consciousness which we are talking about today what david chalmers is speaking about five thousand years ago they asked that you this is the crucial question to ask what is that one thing behind everything and the answer is also remarkable it is uh it says it is it is the you want to know what what is behind your hearing it is the hearing of the hearing you want to know what is behind your seeing is the seeing of the seeing eye of the eye but behind your thinking at that time i think the student would say let me guess it must be the mind of the mind yes behind your speech is the speech of the speech why put it in that kind of paradoxical language the reason is you're talking about consciousness so why don't you just say it's consciousness or pure consciousness whatever it is the reason is the moment you give a name consciousness brahman atman our immediate thing is to objectify it there is a thing called atman brahman whereas i am myself that and then go out searching for it so in order to stop that tendency in order to make us look within ourselves into our conscious experience it brings our attention back to our conscious experience seeing hearing smelling tasting touching it's right there what you're asking for in all of these things great then the student is is asking you can imagine the student asking this is wonderful please teach me and then the teacher says navid we don't know how it can be taught we don't know it ourselves and we don't know how it can be taught so at this point the student might be then why did i come to you let me leave it's exactly what is going on here can it be known can it be taught so no it can't be known it's not an object of knowledge it can't be taught it's not something that can be said by any text or even thought of by any mind then the teacher says wait there is a way there is a way of realizing this the ancients have taught us that way it worked in our case and it might work for you let me tell you what that is and then you know the classic the openish it says the teacher says it is other than the known other than the unknown now what is other than the known what is other than the unknown you only the knower the real nature of the knower is that which knows everything or does not know something all objects are known or unknown all the entire set of superset of objects is either known or unknown there's only one thing apart from all of this the subject the knower then the real nature of the knower anyway all this is to explain what is going on here that pure consciousness is being pointed towards now next and all of that is the purpose of the entire vedant and this is just said so simply here if you go to the brahma sutras there are sutra after sutra in the and long commentaries by shankaracharya who has to show in detail how this upanishadic text or that upanishadic text how does it ultimately point to that thou art the identity of jiva and brahman they don't seem to be connected they seem to be saying something different so he has to stitch together he has to synthesize all of vedanta all these texts and show that they all mean one thing then number 28 i'll do this and the next one and then take questions 28 is this sambhanda four preliminaries we have already done two this is what we just did was vishaya subject matter you might be thinking what was the first one adhikari the qualifier the qualified student adhikari qualified student vishaya subject matter and now the third one sambandha relation relation between what and how is this a preliminary so the connection or the relation between that identity which is to be realized and the evidence of the upanishads that establishes it as a between a thing to be known and that which tells of it what does it mean so this book or the text is called upanishad what relation do they have to this realization which is the ultimate purpose the realization of what of oneness or identity jiva brahman what kind of identity is it the radical oneness the identity that you are pure consciousness brahman is pure consciousness that is to be realized that realization that ultimate enlightenment and this book how are they related we must know then only we can use the book properly to get to that point so the purpose of the book is not to read the book purpose of the book is to read the book so that we ultimately get that realization and book of the the purpose of the book is not that's not the end of it so why is what is the relationship simple bodhibodaka thing to be understood and thing which makes you understand it but here you have to realize that i am brahmana and this is the one which helps you to realize that that which makes you realize that which tells you literally it's the one which tells of it it tells that it gives you information you might ask doesn't every book do that no books are of different kinds a nice detective novel that doesn't tell you anything it entertains you that's the purpose your purpose is entertainment book entertains you a nice coffee table book of of art so it can it gives you an aesthetic enjoyment so that's the purpose of the book um why i said coffee table book is this laptop i have put it on two books which are big and heavy books they are books of buddhist art of kashmir and it's published by the rubin museum i gave two talks there and both times they gave me the same book as a present and so the purpose of the book is aesthetic enjoyment but right now it is serving a different purpose to as a support for the laptop now so the books can have different purposes are different uses more technically more specifically why does why are they saying it this is an important point here upanishads are part of the vedas and the vedas have broadly two distinctions two distinct parts one is called karma kanda the ritualistic portion the other one is called gyanakanda the knowledge portion and the upanishads belong to the knowledge portion vedanta is the knowledge portion of the vedas it is very different from the the ritualistic portion the karma portion of the vedas which is full of different kinds of rituals you perform you know to go to heaven or to win a kingdom or to make rainfall or whatever now the two kinds of texts are very different those ritualistic texts what kind of text are they what is the relationship of the text to the ritual it tells you to perform the ritual it shows you how to perform the ritual it is not informative it makes you do something it inspires you to action whereas the upanishads don't inspire you to action in fact the upanishads are telling you something about yourself they are pointing out something very important about yourself that you are pure consciousness this is being shown by the upper nations there's no they're not telling you to do this or do that and this is very important because if you're a vedic student you're used to that kind of vedic knowledge ritualistic knowledge which is various kinds of rituals uh what are they meant for how to perform them and we should perform them they are inspiring us to perform it so when you come to the upanishads one might be excused to if one makes the mistake this is also telling us what should we do now if you're still waiting for that with all of the vedas that i've read earlier they've told me clearly what is to be done now what is the open issue you are brahman okay what do i do now nothing it's not supposed to be like that it's supposed to be telling you something you have to realize for yourself and that's the whole purpose uh swami atma priyanjit is to tell us when he would teach us he told us about his teacher his teacher who was a great vedanta master in our monastery i can tell his name he has passed on now swami mukhyananda so he was quite a picturesque character he was this huge man and potbellied and with a long flowing beard which is rare for monks of our order because we are usually clean safe shaven so he had a white hair long flowing beard and just like a like a rishi the pictures you get depictions and he was always feeling hot so he had this hand bamboo hand fan which would fan himself all the while and the more excited he got him more he would find himself and that's the way he would bless people so i've seen him and he's i've received those blessings the blessing says when you bow down to him he'll hit you on the head with the fan tap you in the head with the fan so i've been tapped many times i thought i don't know that's why i'm bald i don't know so swami mukhananda he was a great vedanta teacher not for us because by the time we went for training for studies he had already sort of retired he was too old to teach but atma branji used to give us stories of how he taught so when he's teaching this portion what is the distinction between a text which tells you something which commands you to do something he comes to the class and he had a high-pitched voice so apparently imitates him beautifully he says he comes to the class and all the novices are sitting the brahmacaris he suddenly barks you get me a glass of water and this brahmacari gets up stop sit down and he sits down then he says look the grass is green this gold media grass is green so get me a glass of water he stands up again fool sit down you see the difference between the two kinds of texts one is telling you a fact and that confuses the brahmacharya i mean he's like what am i supposed to do with this grass is green nothing it's a it's a fact and it's an unimportant fact maybe and you are brahmana is an all-important fact but just like that it's a fact it's to be realized it's to be known get a glass of water is like the ritualistic portion of the vedas there's some action to be done and that is so easily understood by us that's why the brahmacharya happily stood up i know what to do with this get a glass of water it's easy that's why the islamic fool sit down so that's the point buddhia bhava the relation of something to be explained and the explainer what does it explain and um so what are the what is to be explained that identity what identity jiva brahman identity pramiyah thing to be known what is the thing to be known pure consciousness realized and what is the one which explains all the pratipada upanishad the one the upanishads which are the source of knowledge which explain that or which establish that identity between these two the relation is the thing to be realized and the thing which makes you realize okay the last of the four preliminaries the purpose of all of this i'll just say that and stop and take the questions purpose of all of this study again the the benefit or the purpose or the necessity of this study so the necessity here is to remove the ignorance about that identity what identity what you're going to study you are brahmana we are ignorant of that we must admit we just heard about this i don't know what you're talking about yes that's the very thing that is to be removed the purpose is to remove this ignorance why what's the purpose of that he says to attain that bliss which is your own nature your own nature is that place to attain that place where do you get this from taratis upanishads themselves say that the knower of the self goes beyond sorrow which is from chandragupta is virtually brahmana or becomes brahman becomes means is brahman realizes from him from all these and many other others upanishadic text shruti means upanishads or vedic texts from all these upanishadic texts we know the purpose is transcendence of sorrow and attainment of our infinite nature which is infinite place all right two points here the way it is normally put what is the purpose of vedanta are all a spiritual life in uh indian traditions in all indian traditions except the materialists whether all schools of hinduism yoga vedanta meemamsa or buddhism all the schools of buddhism all the schools of jainism and sikhism the ultimate purpose is is freedom from is freedom moksha freedom from what from samsara what is samsara the cycle of birth and death janma chakra this cycle of birth and death we are born here but we were there earlier that's what all these schools of indian philosophy believe in and we will continue to exist this body goes the jivas the sentient being goes on to other bodies and other lives and freedom from this cycle this is inherently unsatisfying full of suffering and misery so once you have had your fill of this you would like to get out of this that impulse brings you to this this you know vedanta so the purpose is uh freedom freedom from samsara moksha moksha means literally means freedom being set free so what is the nature of the samsara birth and death the cycle endless cycle of birth and death which is of the nature of misery now one might say hmm i don't really believe in that cycle of birth and death maybe especially in this country in the west uh for in the abrahamic traditions we have only one life who where is the proof of other lives and where is even the proof that i shall exist afterwards so what's the point of all this you're setting me free from a problem which i didn't uh didn't have i don't have it you know that story of this the snake oil salesman who was arrested by the police in the sheriff in the wild west and bought before the judge and he was charged with giving real remedies for imaginary diseases and imaginary remedies for real diseases so is it like that is it an imaginary disease birth and death i don't know about it therefore the actual purpose of vedanta is put in another way forget all talk about many lives and freedom from the cycle of samsara this life consider this life freedom from suffering upanishad does not even talk about many lives it just says crosses over suffering taranti shall come suffering transcends crosses over overcoming suffering and attainment of true lasting happiness so it is put in this way cessation or transcendence of suffering attainment of bliss or like true lasting fulfillment let's put it this way deep fulfillment now who can argue with that you can't argue everybody wants that in all our pursuits of life basically that's what we want and vedanta promises it in its utmost form you tried everything you tried toys and relationships and money and fame and learning um going to heaven all of that you have tried power none of that has given you you have not been able to overcome suffering you have not been able to attain lasting bliss here is something that promises that kind of transcendence of suffering and attainment of actual fulfillment that is the purpose and he gives supporting evidence from two punishers and says there are many such upanishadic statements which say you will attain infinite bliss and you will overcome suffering forever that is the purpose and so that brings to the close the four preliminaries we haven't started the text yet just the preliminaries for the text so the four preliminaries adhikari qualified student vishaya subject matter sambandha relation between the book and the subject matter and the prayer jana the purpose of this study good let's take up shashank can you tell us who is going to ask questions yes in dmitry uh good evening swamiji um a good question like if i understand correctly that uh intellectually i realize the the message that you are now conveying and also practically when i try to see in a moment i see that i'm nothing that i am able to objectify or observe or experience then this is like i cannot disprove what i care like it's uh it's a truth for me then the next step is really like but in order for me to attain this everlasting happiness and and please this is the other knowledge of vedanta that is kind of bhakti yoga and you know karma yoga that one needs to practice to change the qualities of jiva in order to have a different kind of experience while keeping in mind that it's just a temporary thing that eventually will uh well i don't know actually how to continue from here right i understand what you're trying to say no um the bliss which is used that's why i'm careful about using the term place the moment we say bliss we feel it's some kind of deeply fulfilling experience a feeling an emotion a joy a peace something experienced which is very nice is that what is meant here no when it says ananda prabhuptis notice it qualified it by swarupa one's own real nature which is of the nature of anand or bliss so that's why i said fulfillment what is meant here it's so the just as when you say brahman is pure being it's not when you attain brahman is it a particular thing that you attain is brahman one kind of existing thing no it is being or existence itself when you say brahman is pure consciousness so is it a kind of conscious experience you see something here something or a mystical experience or something no it is consciousness itself which is at the root of all conscious experiences similarly when you say ananda is it a particularly brilliant thrilling kind of experience you know which is very pleasing and very very nice no it is that which is at the root of all fulfillment all our desires our drives to fulfillment it is those are all manifestations of this one thing just as existence sat pure being is not a thing which exists pure consciousness is not a particular kind of conscious experience pure bliss is not a particular kind of bliss so it is rather so you can put it this way all fulfillment fulfillment without limit which is manifested in different ways once you attain that that's the nature of brahman you don't need to do other things for that it is done your nature is off is unlimited fulfillment you know one swami put it this way to prevent this kind of confusion this teacher said ananda bliss can be understood as limitlessness it is the very limitlessness of existence and awareness which is ananda our why what is the argument for this because the traditional scholar would immediately say you your swami can say whatever he likes where is the upanishad the proof for this so the upanishadic proof is in the chandragyupanishad it is said your way there is no true happiness in the limited no lasting happiness in the limited no matter whatever it is then what is lasting happiness your way bhumatatsukam that which is the infinite literally means the vast that which is the vast that is real happiness so every other limited kind of happiness you're going to overflow that one day you're going to over you are going to be tired of it it's it's going to disappoint you one day only the infinite uh will fulfill you because you are the infinite and that infinite is not a thing out there what is that infinite being and consciousness what being not a thing that exists but being itself what consciousness not a particular kind of consciousness not a particular conscious experience not even a particular mystical experience not even nirvikalpa samadhi but that which makes all these experiences worldly and spiritual secular and sacred all of it possible uh may i ask like a clarifying point here so yeah this is very clear this is like absolutely yes it makes so much sense then uh then shall i just you know stay with this knowledge and you know stay with this moment and um you know what what really trips us over is back to that four-fold qualification because we don't really have it and our minds are clouded by past conditioning it's still instinctively reaching out to find fulfillment in the world outside so for a spiritual seeker it might not be a gross form of thrill-seeking or pleasure-seeking outside it might be a more superior kind of a pure kind of joy nothing wrong with it but that's not uh the ananda which is being spoken of here no more than um a thing in the world outside is the being which is being spoken up here yeah so what is to be done if you ask specifically that purificatory process where meditation and service and devotion all of those things continue because they are changing the mind you are not the mind they are changing the mind they are actually removing those urges to flow outwards into the world and use vedanta to become more and more clear about what is this that you have discovered this this being consciousness place what is it that you've discovered i i mentioned um in that um talk and google talk you know when i quoted heidegger the importance of this question that uh he says this question is the question of the first rank why because we were asking about something that is the widest it includes everything that is the deepest that is before any other kind of question and also the most fundamental of questions because it questions itself that bliss now what what kind of bliss would that be that which is at the foundation of all bliss that which includes all bliss and that which is not a thing out there rather is that the root is at the source of all bliss that is the anand we are talking about and it will become more and more clear what vedanta does is once you discover what is being talked about it it shows you what kind of thing it is that you have discovered all right a good example would be sri ramakrishna's story of the washer man so the washer man found a diamond a big diamond and he didn't know being a poor washerman he didn't know the true value of it he just thought it was a stone and he used it to scrub clothes for this you have to imagine the washer men on the banks of rivers in india so they take your clothes out the washing machine is the river itself and they will scrub your clothes and let it dry on the river banks so they need a scrubbing stone he thought this diamond is like a nice peculiar scrubbing stone he used to scrub clothes with it then he took it to his friend the vegetable seller and asked him this is something special it looks like do you know what this is and the vegetable seller thought this is a pretty stone well i'll give you 10 rupees for it and luckily the washerman didn't sell it for 10 rupees he went ultimately he went from one person to another went ultimately to the diamond merchant who said this is the most magnificent diamond i've ever seen i'll give you a million rupees for it and the washerman all his needs and his poverty were removed because the diamond bought him whatever he could want in life now the moral of the story is we have discovered the diamond but once you begin to understand what this witness consciousness is but we are still using it for scrubbing clothes we are what are we using this for we are using it for seeing smelling tasting touching we are using it for thinking um for remembering and forgetting desiring hating loving questing all of these are scrubbing clothes now you ultimately when you realize vedanta comes like the diamond merchant and shows you the real nature of what you've got already got it's with you actually just by seeing that by the realization that i am this pure consciousness you are actually set free of all of that that's what's going to happen as we dwell on the vedantic truth and stay with it what you have got yeah thank you um manish manish you swamiji i heard your talk when you spoke to the houston community your houston group on that weekend the long weekend and there was this woman who asked a very simple but a brilliant question and her question was if truth is one why there is so much um you know different views with respect to what the ultimate truth is and i think today you nailed it i was kind of a little surprised by your answer the other day because you you seem to imply that probably nobody knows that at least amongst the people who are here today and i've always struggled with this because i believe that the problem is in the terminology we use in the interpretation of our of our um you know the sanskrit texts things like where there is no attribute the opinion should say neti neti but the moment we put a word some language to it the moment you know people start thinking about in different ways a specific question about this are we very just going well swamiji my question is is that is there some work that has been done with respect to this is there somebody who um uh i was i'm just look talking from a critical inquiry standpoint whether is there a linguistic issue here a linguistic issue you have to be more like linguistic issue in what sense is the denial of everything and what remains is what we call consciousness but what if we don't put a word to that and we just say when you go through the process of meditation the external world the gross world dissolves the the subtle world which is basically your mind and body dissolves then you know when things are dissolving there is a natural filling up of this universal ineffable love and if the truth is without attributes that means there is something about even that quality of universal ineffable love which needs the support of an impure mind when the impurities go away that itself dissolves and perhaps that transition itself is ananda where the the most powerful thing in the world which is the you can all right you can understand it in your own way but also i would suggest you pay attention to what the text is saying and and what i'm saying about the text it's good to think about it independently and come to conclusions but first of all the the first process is shravana is careful listening and study so that you can say what the text say said what is the standard vedantic interpretation after that you can think about it so for example the not this whatever is presented as an object external world not that is not brahman not the atman the body is not the atman because it is presented to you this is this this body is it brahman no is it the atman no this prana no this mind no this um this intellect no um then the the the causal body beyond that this anandamaya is it that no when you have exhausted everything that is presented as an object the natural tendency will be to conclude then there's nothing is it it's all avoid shunyam the second nati comes into play there not even that then what is left so what they are pointing towards is that consciousness you the pure consciousness to which all of this is appearing all the that is appearing as a presence it is appearing as an absence all of that beyond all of that shining upon all of that is you the consciousness that's what is being pointed out yeah um is a pointer right yes i i found you know this vehicle there is this meditation tool it says i found that to be more useful in meditations because me has this harmony and it actually creates a problem so what do you what do you think about now the arm should not create a problem because from the aham all that is objective has already been stripped before you start meditating if you say right away i'm going to say ahmra mask me that's the whole point of vedanta i'm not going to attend any classes no you will end up in serious problem because the aham as it stands now ah means i i as it stands now it immediately points to the ego which is associated with body and mind so when i say i am brahmana i'm already i mean body and mind this body and mind by itself is not brahman ultimately it is but then everything else is also but right now only this body and mind is what i mean by aha i don't mean the whole universe i mean just this person and if i say i am brahman that's megalomania that's just crazy so one has to go through the whole process which will be we will go through over the next few months which will finally strip the aham of all false associations all false associations and point to the reality of the aham notice even in the meditation which you found useful satsida and the dwitavarjitam suprakarasha all of that then it says asme as me already means me as me means am so the i is implied there i am this so i is again i is there but the i must must already be processed through vedanta the raw eye it already is is comes mixed up with body mind one as i said one in fact the current shankaracharya puri he says you must warn he wants vedantic students against smuggling in the body-mind into brahman he says you are smuggling in the mind of it's like basically what happens whenever there is a problem you know that you're smuggling the mind into into brahman yes thank you thank you yes so verse 27 um these are all you can just call them texts because verse means shloka some of them are slokas but 27 for example is just a text yes that's a simple point here go on so text 27 uh brahman is premium but it is not knowable now another paradoxical word you know that um we use a lot in teaching is experience right and you could argue that they are interchangeable in that sense but personally for me more than triputi the word experience that you use you know in teaching sort of conveys a little bit more better meaning um everything that we have in this phenomenal world every experience we have is unreal um but when when we were studying mandukya right um you went again and again like you know um look at your experience waking sleeping dreaming look at your experience um you know when i think about the word experience and then try to understand what shankaracharya says about every experience in being unreal it feels like you know in my mind i'm going in circles in circles real unbreakable all right stop there let me just you have used a few terms let me define them and see whether it answers the question you're leading towards very precise definitions what is experience consciousness plus an object is experience chaitanya plus vishaya is experience it's only when consciousness shines upon an object that we get experience now usually our experience has these these three components uh the experiencer the experienced object and the instrument of experience so just what i call what i said knower renewable object and the instrument of knowledge pramana pramaya pramata this is the triputi what is brahman consciousness itself when you eliminate the object from uh from experience you're left with consciousness consciousness plus object is experience experience minus object is consciousness itself so when you drop the object from experience or even more in detail drop the um the object of experience and uh the the the source of knowledge and the pramaa trithum of the pramata the knower hood of the knower what is left is only the consciousness so the definition of brahman definition of brahman what is the thing to be realized very beautiful definition experience itself is experience only is the absolute brahman the ultimate reality experience only follow this carefully anubhava mastram anubhava experience matram only what is that only you have dropped the object you have dropped the object from experience why will you drop the object because ultimately we will see in vedanta the object is not real it's not to be counted along with consciousness there is no separate uh thing called an uh object it dropped the object which also means uh in the prop in the triputi the knower the knowable object and the source of knowledge you drop the knowable object you drop the source of knowledge and don't drop the knower because the very nature of the knower is consciousness itself drop the knowerhood of the knower the knower ship of the nova in sanskrit brahmatritum one of the opponents of the text says how can we know the literal translation is my dear how can we know the knower how do we know the knower you might say at first what's the problem here i am i'm the no one i can see myself you're seeing the body is the body the nowhere i look inside here are my thoughts i know this um subject that's a thought is the thought itself the knower when you go back further then you come to something which is not an object and that is the real number real number means the essence of the number so to answer your question or what you're leading up towards experience is consciousness plus object think about it what is an experience very clear different definition simple direct definition consciousness plus object plus means what is the plus mean what does it mean consciousness shining upon objectifying something is experience in experience you want to discover the ultimate reality experience minus object is ultimate reality consciousness yeah maharaja you know last week only i was actually reading upanishad and there is this thing that the student says to the teacher that you know i feel i know it but i i i don't know um in response to teachers uh question whether you've understood it or not so i feel like i over intellectualize it sometimes it's probably you know easy to just let go and and not think too much about about it i don't know if it's a cop out or not but i do tie myself and not stop there you have to listen carefully to what i'm saying yeah it's so for example i'm listening very carefully to what you're saying i don't know whether to let go or not whether it's a cop-out or not suppose you let go of this trying to understand it or you do not let go you follow it up seriously a question read about it think about it in both cases isn't it the same thing which has let go or which is the same thing which is following up isn't it the same awareness what is that which witnesses which reveals the letting go or the not letting go yeah in my mind it's empirical awareness but it's even beyond that it's the pure pure the one which is says in my mind to whom does that mind appear to the jiva not no not even the answers all of this is appearing to what to the church but don't give a name to it if you if you know what it is appearing to suppose you follow it up and try to get an understanding you the one who followed it up that one suppose you do not follow it up isn't it the same one who did not follow it up what is that one then what is the difference between the two the difference is at the level of the mind one mind intellectualized it struggled with it another wine just kept quiet but the awareness behind both minds is the same that awareness is being spoken about and you you cannot objectify it note that it gives you an uneasy feeling when you try to think about it it's it's behind every thought illuminating every thought stay with it stay with it thank you let me just quickly um all right you can stop here let me just quickly go through the comments in the chat section and we'll see if anything i can need to respond to do you and brahman are the same samrat is asking this why didn't i could accept fruit from vivekananda always make a distinction between what is at the level of appearance and what is an absolute reality so remember even what did you read here jiva and brahman are the same but in what sense as pure consciousness but the moment there is good and bad and there is spiritual and non-spiritual all the distinctions you have to apply it's like asking if the bracelet and the necklace are the same they're gold then why are you putting the bracelet on on the wrist and the necklace on the neck why don't you do the other way around no what you put where what you call it you call one thing a necklace another thing a bracelet it's it's at the level of name and form and use but the substance itself the reality itself is gold is all the study and investigation practice basically a means of removing what is obscuring the direct knowledge yes but remember obscuring the direct knowledge this is glory asking this it is obscuring the reality not the direct knowledge the knowledge removes the obscuration you see what i'm saying knowledge is not obscured what is obscured is the reality that you are pure consciousness and then knowledge comes and removes the obscuration it's like the classical example of seeing a rope the snake in a rope it's a rope but we don't know it and it looks like a snake to us what is obscured not the knowledge of the snake what is obscured what is obscured is the rope itself not the knowledge of the rope the appearance of the snake the air of the snake obscures the rope now what you need is a knowledge of the rope to overcome the error that it is a snake but the reality is always the rope and that is what has become obscured the reality is always brahman and that has become obscured that is obscured right now and the knowledge about brahman removes the ignorance about brahman and we'll see all that in detail in a very beautiful book towards the end of it we are still far away what is enlightenment how does it happen uh so all those things my new details are pointed out how is this realization enlightenment different from our ordinary knowing all those things we discussed in very precise detail um i've heard that why couldn't a spiritual where is that situated is it sagan abraham and it is but remember i will always say my country is the highest heaven a spiritual heaven but i'll always say when we are studying something like this it's always a good good practice to remain confined within the text a traditional scholar would have scolded you at this point and said where is this why kunta where did it ever come up in this discussion nowhere why are you bringing it up so this look at the author they are so precise every word they use is being defined very soon so they don't mean any they don't want to use anything that is undefined but to answer your question in dualistic uh vedanta dwight vishista where the ultimate reality is god saguna brahman they don't have an i uh conception of something beyond an absolute beyond sagna brahman so god exists god the heaven exists and your whole idea is to go to that highest heaven which is called vaikuntha in vaishnavism and that you do by bhakti all of that vedanta here advaita vedanta will say that's all relative beyond all of that beyond god beyond individual beyond heaven all of that is this absolute pure consciousness which you are om [Music] foreign [Music] you