|| No Mind || by Swami Sarvapriyananda

oh uh sir to Ma said Gama yeah Thomas oh ma duty Gama great Daruma Amrit um gamma [Music] shanti shanti shanti ohm leaders from the unreal to the real leaders from darkness into light leaders from death to immortality Oh peace peace peace good morning you're all aware today that or we have an interesting subject no-mind a few weeks ago when we announced this subject a gentleman asked me so no mind is so intrigued and no mind does it mean not thinking or you know being unconscious so what is this no mind I was giving a series of lectures on the Manduca carica of God ibadah I have given two talks on this I think the first one was the essence of all Vedic based on the first chapter of the Manduca carroca the second one was the ultimate truth based on the second chapter of the one Dokic arica and today's talk no mind is based on a couple of verses in the third chapter of the Manduca carica the third chapter of the Manduca carica is called adwaita prac Arnim the chapter on non duality in the first chapter the Upanishad was there the Mundaka Upanishad and the teachings of the Mundaka Upanishad are discussed in detail are described in more detail in the second third and fourth chapters so in the second chapter what was done was on the basis of logic on the basis of reason and our own experience the falsity of the world is demonstrated that the world jagat mithya world is supposed to be an appearance in non dual vedanta that is demonstrated that is proved using logic based on our own experience that's the second chapter of the Manduca carica the third chapter of the Manduca carica is the world is an appearance but an appearance of what what is it that is appearing as the world the classic example in Vedanta the Rope appearing as the snake all right the snake is false there's no real snake but then what is it that is appearing as the false snake it's the rope which is appearing as the false neck what is it that is appearing as this false world illusory world it is Brahman existence consciousness bliss or as we saw in the first chapter of the Manduca karika the fourth aspect literally the word Turia means the fourth aspect but we saw that it does not really mean the fourth it means the one reality which appears as our waking experience this one as our dream experience and as our deep sleep experience that one consciousness Turiya that is the reality which appears as this world therefore the essential teaching of vedanta brahma satyam jagat mithya brahman alone is real and the world is an appearance and what are we really appearance we are none other than brahman Jeeva Brahm Havana para ha this thing is talked about and demonstrated in the third chapter called adwaita Brecker Onam the chapter on non duality and so demonstrated with the help of reason in the third chapter go to father tells us samsara this problem which we have samsara this is duality duality causes samsara and more and moksha freedom non duality is freedom so advaitha is moksha and waita is samsara you might say that that seems unfair why would later be samsara duality be some sorry in what sense but just look at our own experience we have duality by by the way when Dwight our duality when we talk about it in Vedanta what it means is this subject object duality which is the very basis of our experience of this world I am a limited being separate from all of you this feeling which we naturally take for granted I am separate from all of you you are different I am different this difference this is the duality subject object to allottee I am the experience and all of this is something separate from me this subject object duality is at the root of samsara take our experience we can just look at our experience in the waking world is this subject object duality there right now yes we experience it and there is some sorrow there are things which we like and we are chasing it there are things which we are scared of afraid of uneasy about we try to avoid it and thus it gives rise to strife and struggle what we call samsara constant change ageing and decay and death and probably rebirth again so this is what we call samsara and this goes on this is our waking experience look at our dream experience in dreams do we have this duality greater yes in dreams also we have good dreams and bad dreams but everywhere we also have that subject-object experience I am experienced some something though later on when you wake up you realize it was all in my mind but in the dream we don't feel that in the dream we feel I am the experiencer and this is something that I'm experiencing the duality subject of duality is there a waiter is there and so samsara is also there what about deep sleep when we completely fall asleep and we are not aware of the world we do not dream dreams in our mind we are not even aware of ourselves as sleeping deep sleep is there some sorrow we do not experience samsara and deep sleep and sometimes say the person with the greatest problems in the world suppose person is sick and maybe dying and on life-support in in Mount Sinai or something like that terrible condition and the insurance is not willing to pay up also so all sorts of problems terrible problems and yet when that person goes to sleep falls asleep deep sleep that person has no problem in deep sleep even the sickest person on life support in Mount Sinai has absolutely no problem so samsara the sufferings of samsara are not there in deep sleep notice something in deep sleep the duality is also not experienced subject and object are also not experienced duality dita is not there or at least is not experienced in deep sleep and so suffering samsara is also not experienced in deep sleep goroh pada seems to have a point when he says duality and samsara go together and non duality where there is no subject and object is freedom from samsara but does that mean we have to fall asleep and stay asleep that doesn't seem to be a solution though it's not as silly as it sounds because lot of people try to take that route what else is you know drinking taking drugs trying to forget our sorrows it's basically to stop this experience of samsara is but that is no root that is not birth even God our Father says actually samsara is also there duality is also there in deep sleep in what form he says in the seed farm be Java stuff after all deep sleep we wake we come out of deep sleep and again samsara comes back the same body the same physical problems the same financial problems relationship problems all of them again come back which means in deep sleep the problem was they're not experienced as such in deep sleep but in the seed form like a computer being switched off when you switch it on all the data is still there good and the bad everything still stores it all comes back so deep sleep is no permanent solution then go to pada so what how do we solve this problem of samsara of duality even Shankaracharya in his introduction to the Manduca carica he says rogue artists yoga nibroc das was taught on just as for a sick person we seem to be on the mount sinai example rag again Shankar Acharya 1400 years ago he gives the same example just as for a sick person curing the disease is attainment of health health is basically getting rid of the disease health is the natural state similarly he says the cessation of duality that non duality which is the cessation of duality that is liberation duality is bondage greater is bondage and add weight and non duality is liberation he says the duality of what kind when the Rope appears as the snake and we realize the snake is nothing other than the rope that means in a sense the snake sort of in a way you can say it merges back into the rope actually there was no snake there was a misperception in the same way when non duality is perceived as a dual universe samsara is there when we realized the non duality here and now samsara is not there so Shankar Acharya also agrees duality samsara non duality moksha liberation so how do we go about it in the third chapter 31st verse goto pada Acharya who is by the way Shankar Acharya teachers teacher you know when you study the Manduca carica and you study Shankar Acharya swards you seem to see quite naturally a change in the tone Godfather seems to be much more extreme what you might call hardcore non duelist Shankar Acharya strange is much broader I asked a Swami in in the Himalayas do you think that there is a difference between God epatha and Shankara and why does God apart seems to seem to be more hardcore hardcore non dualist giving no quarter then that Swami said in the typical Hindi of that place in the tarantula in the Himalayas he said goal of our chariot about poker Mahatma ta Godfather was see the word curd in it has different meanings in India in the lower regions in the plains it means a beggar you know like what you might call a hobo here I don't live there anymore hobos but so like a beggar but higher up in the Himalayas a Mahatma is a monk who is a kind of a daredevil you know who doesn't care for the world it's completely dependent on God and absolutely has no care for the samsara for this world at all so he says God our Father was like that didn't care for anything and then I said then what about Shankar Acharya he said Shankar Acharya so jagadguru Tina Shankar Acharya was a world teacher so he had to carry everybody along so his approach is a much more Universal approach we may think Shankar Acharya is very non-dualistic but actually several steps ahead of him is his is guru's guru God Apothecary so gorup are the points out something interesting the third chapter of the mondo Cocorico he says notice one thing duality is linked to the functioning of the mind where there is mind there is duality where there is no mind there is non duality there's a beautiful verse he says mano drishyam Edom do item yet hinge it such a Raja Ram mana so here money pavé do item naive opal a beauty a beautiful verse which means this world is a projection of the mind or is experienced by the mind this world the word he uses is this duality this duality is projected or experienced by the mind what does he mean by duality yet kings it's such a rush on anything what you see in this universe moving and unmoving living and non-living everything is duality this is experienced by the mind then when the mind becomes no mind mana so he Amani Vavi so he has this very beautiful phrase Imani bhava it means the no mind state of the mind no mind state Imani vow then what happens Dwight am naive opal Abbiati duality is no longer cognized the words are very carefully chosen he does not say duality is not experienced anymore OOP Allah beauty this difficult to transience it's a heavily loaded term in Sanskrit do a tam neighbor opal a beauty but the basic idea we get from here is mind and no mind this concept of no mind when the mind becomes no mind no more duality non-duality and no more samsara moksha so the problem of moksha and samsara liberation from samsara is actually the problem of Dwight and advaitha duality and non-duality the problem of duality and non-duality is further reduced to the problem of mind no mind harmony Baba so what is this no mind what is this no my is it clearly we saw when the mind does not function in deep sleep there seems to be no duality but then God about himself points out the seed of duality is there in deep sleep because you wake out of deep sleep and all of the things which you see in samsara are very much present there because they come back if they didn't every morning you would wake up fresh completely blank hard-disk wiped out there was a cinema about this Hollywood I didn't see it but I had said the review about it that really struck me many many years ago it is called the Eternal Sunshine of the spotless mind the Eternal Sunshine of the spotless mind of a person who forgets everything and then wakes up fresh so that would but that that does not happen every day we wake up with with all the knowledge of the past so the seed of the of the waking samsara is there in deep sleep deep sleep is not a solution then what is a solution what about meditation Samadhi the path of Samadhi the Yogi's the Patanjali Yogi's Rajee Yogi's what they do is they say yes this samsara has to be wiped out how does it have to be wiped out when the mind is no mind when you meditate and then all the modifications of the mind settle down the world will not be perceived they this is a very important principle to grasp here this is not what God our Father says we are going to cut this down but there's a very important principle to grasp here which is very practical for our lives I'll tell you something spirituality or no spirituality yoga or no yoga Vedanta no Vedanta all the samsara that you and I what we experience what we are experiencing right now we are experiencing in our minds do you agree when you've read too much of a ranter that's why you agree so here but think about it every experience that you have from beginning till now and whatever experience we will have from now on all our experiences our experiences in the mind without my no experience you will say no there are things outside and we are experiencing them actually what is happening is when you look at the flowers there what is happening is light falls on those flowers and the light is reflected back to your eyes it enters your eyes and in the lens of the eyes and image is formed and see already at this stage what has entered into your eyes is light not the flower the flower into your eyes then you'd be blind what enters our eyes are not people and flowers and trees and you know cards no no no that would be disaster only thing that enters our eyes is light and then what happens the light I did this forms an image there and then the images from there it is transmitted transferred to not not light electrical impulses in the neurons there are electrochemical neuro chemicals which are working and they generate little bursts of electricity between the synapses of the neurons and that is transmitted from the optic nerves to the certain centers in the brain so when it reaches the brain no flower not even light not even an image burst tiny tiny bursts of electricity that's what reaches the brain and somehow from that how we don't know neuroscientists also don't know just up to that point they are beginning to understand a lot but from that point onwards it still is a mystery how is that little bit of electricity reconstituted back into the living experience of a flower where in your mind so far nobody in the world will dispute it even the most hardcore materialist reductionist will say yes this is what is happening we can't dispute that nobody says that actually a flower enters into your mind no it is presented to your mind to your car just ness as this flower so this flower which you are seeing right now you're seeing it in your mind this flower is nothing but your mind rikiya thought in your mind all of samsara your most beloved person the most annoying person you know the best of experiences the most miserable of experiences all of them are in your mind you know they are outside and they are being represented in your mind all right that's a particular point philosophical point of view representation ism and that is one kind of philosophical point of view but nobody will deny what you are experiencing you're experiencing in the mind so what is the great secret that we can learn from this again not our main subject today but it worthwhile learning this therefore the quality of our experience depends on the mind not really on the world outside the the our natural reaction our natural way of trying to make our lives better is to trying to change the objective things outside a wiser person tries to change the subjective our whole perception of things and the way we understand and react to things inside the mind one of the most beautiful things I've heard comes from a monk in the Himalayas who said I'll tell you in Hindi and then translate into English chant man may Allah songs are Kondik hi whoever has seen samsara in a peaceful mind what is the great thing about this normally we think just the opposite my mind is restless because samsara makes me Restless this monk says you have samsara because your mind is restless if your mind were peaceful in the same situation a person with peaceful mind will experience at least less suffering not that everything will go away but suffering will definitely be less good deal of our suffering is our own country contribution of our own minds again I'm going little off-track but it's worth mentioning here a few years back I attended a medical conference not as a doctor but I was invited to speak the conference was on pain pain and management of pain and one of these sessions was talk therapies so counselling for pain management and there are different people giving talks counsellors doctors patients suffering from chronic pain so on one of the doctors said something very interesting she said I'll let you into a dirty secret of the pharmaceutical industry the painkillers he said some multi-billion dollar worldwide industry painkillers he says the effectiveness is less than 50% less than half of the drugs have any effect at all some of it might be placebo effect and less than half of it is me and there are lot of side effects that is there side effects are guaranteed and then he drew three circles pain big circle but is for chronic pain continuously people who have different kinds of back pain things like that so big circle inner circle and the smaller circle inside he said the smaller circle is the actual physical pain felt and the bigger circle is the the circle around it is the expectation of pain or it's going to hurt again it's going to hurt again is going to be uneasy the mental uneasiness and misery coming out of the pain that is the bigger circle that accounts for more of these of total suffering than the actual physical pain and the much bigger circle again around it are all the Associated social problems that I I cannot go such-and-such place because I will have this pain things like that many other things which are felt to be disabilities so a good deal he says about 70 to 80 percent of our discomfort and suffering is contributed by our own minds only twenty to thirty percent is the actual physical pain and the medicines if they could work they could only reduce that actual physical pain they will not address the thinking of our minds and even they're also medicines don't work half the time so anyway back to the proper thing that Maur minds samsara a good deal of samsara is in the mind if the mind can be made into no mind the Yogi's solution is chitta vritti nirodh aha' calm down the mind when the mind is absolutely still no samsara so they call it Samadhi and they have eight steps in Patanjali yoga so three you will see Yama and niyama the moral disciplines then how to sit study even to make the mind steady the body must be steady people are so restless I met this young student of a couple of years back brilliant going to one of the Ivy League universities and his parents introduced him very nice young man but what I saw he couldn't sit still even when standing and talking to me he was jumping around here steady the mind has been compared to you have a bowl with water in it if you shake the bowl ever so little the water will splash out so imagine how steady are to keep the bowl our bodies are always trembling and moving one Olympic the drys field shooting he'd written an article he said we are we are not generally aware of how much our bodies are movement are moving it's only when you have to keep your body very very still for the target shooting there's a little trembling of the hand also can throw the the bullet of several feet at the end of the at the target so they have to be very still and is interesting to note that at the moment of releasing the bullet they have to hold their breath so pranayama yes literally they have to control the breathing now asana first how to sit study then pranayama how to control the breath why breath because it steadies the body and the mind the body the breath is the link between it's a circle link between body and mind the breath so control of the breath then pratyahara withdrawing the senses from the world outside from the engagement in the world outside then dharana dhyana samadhi deeper and deeper focus first there is savikalpa samadhi up in yoga system some bread grantha samadhi and then finally need to be culpa Samadhi or Assam / Grantha Samadhi when the mind is absolutely still what do you get out of it when the mind is absolutely still they say you see the witness the real self beyond the mind becomes clear so that's the Yogi's approach shut down the mind that's the Yogi's approach God epatha does not agree no mind is not not thinking no mind is not shutting down the mind no mind is not being inactive what is no mind then harmony power no mind basically means managing the mind spiritualizing the mind this is the central question of spiritual life whether you are a devotee whether you are on the path of knowledge whether you are a Buddhist whether you are a meditator whatever it is ultimately whatever the philosophy it comes down the practical thing comes down to handling the mind therefore you will see this question what we are talking about today no mind this question was actually asked to shri ramakrishna by master mihashi m they don't think about it that way because the gospel of ramakrishna is written in such a simple language but the tremendous depth in that I'll tell you what what's the M asked the very first question that M asked in any second visit the first visit there was no chance of deep discussion the first real discussion that M had with sri ramakrishna and the very first question he asked which shows the caliber of the mind our questions show a caliber of our own minds I heard about a University where the examinations are not that the quest have asked and you have to answer the questions rather you are asked to formulate the best possible question you can and you're graded on the toughest questions that you can formulate and the students say it's actually much harder to formulate a difficult problem than to solve the problem so M he asked the question of T asks two questions and I think they are the fundamental questions of spiritual life the first question is what we are dealing with today no mind you know what he asks Sri Ram Krishna he says in Bengali is sure a monkey KFI how can I fix my mind on God why is that simple question but why is that question so deep because if he asks how can i attain liberation how can I find God Sri Ramakrishna is going to tell him think about God all the time now that's easier said than done the real question is how do I think about God all the time how do I fix my mind on God you'll see love God Sri Ramakrishna's often was at Vakula to Holly Hobbie if you have intense desire for God if intense longing for God you will realize God you will become enlightened but then the question really is how do I get intense longing for God that's the question so M is so intelligent sensitive he asks that question first not how I will realize God how can I fix my mind on God he asked that question that's the first question Sri Ramakrishna's answered three sentences he covers the the entire range of spiritual practice simple sentences he says sing the glories of God take the names of God ashore in namgoong Goncharova bhakti yoga the path of bhakti in one sentence then he says Dan Corby mone Bonilla Kony meditate meditate how where meditate in your mind meditate in a corner meditate in the forest why which he means in a secluded location you can't get a far you can get Central Park here of course but not very good for meditation I tried it it's actually easier to meditate in this hall here than in Central Park there's something about the tan Matra d the underlying vibration though it's very beautiful so meditate in the forest meditate in a secluded place our ashram wherever in the mountains and meditate in the mind and meditate in a corner of your house wherever you are basically Raja yoga the path of meditation he indicated it and the third one is what interests us us what would make gora pada perk up his ears he says always do vivica the philosophical spiritual discrimination vivica we'll talk about this later on always do we wake between the eternal and in non-eternal and what you find to be non eternal temporary and transient have vairagya for it dispassion for it follow the eternal give up the non-eternal so three sentences bhakti-yoga Raja yoga Gianni you see the essence this B is indicated and in such simple language most ordinary Bengal you think that it's all right I knew that it is nothing nothing very great about it but he has given you you just hold on to that you will realize God that's just enough exactly what M asked that is the answer yes given what is no mind the yogi says no mind is Samadhi shutting down the mind what does go to power the say the next verse the verse I just quoted was 3.31 third chapter 31st verse now third chapter thirty second verse next verse tells us what is golda padas advice about no mind Misato no bow Dana sankalpa Omanis Tom tada yah tea Gras ha ha Batum what does it mean when you realize yourself the Atman as existence consciousness bliss as Brahman then the mind there will be no more desiring reaching out grasping in the mind anymore when the mind finds nothing out there to grasp then it becomes a non grasping mind agram that is no mind then the mind becomes no mind what does it mean let me repeat a story but it's very irrelevant here I have already told you the story the princess of Kashi many of you have heard it but it's very relevant here the story goes that there was a prince there was a kingdom in ancient India where in the court a play was staged and in the play one of the roles was the roles of the other role of a little girl who was the princess of Kashi Kashi you know Banaras that was a big city in ancient India now they couldn't find a little girl to play the role so the Queen said the prince is where can be dressed on the prince was a little boy at that time five years old so he can be dressed up as a girl as a princess and he can be the princess of Kashi so they dressed up the prince as a princess and the play was staged and the boy looked so cute the mother said the Queen said make a painting today it would be so easy not just click but selfie or something but make a painting and the Court painter made it made a painting a portrait of the boy dressed in as the princess of Kashi and that it titled it named it the princes of Kashi dated it and so and so forth fifteen years passed the Prince was quite grown up twenty years old now doing all kinds of princely things and then one day he was exploring the palace and he goes into one of the old storage rooms underground and he discovers he looks around old stuff and he discovers this old painting wipes the dust of it and sees the princess of Kashi and says oh she's about my age look at the date so she must be as and he falls in love with her and he says this is the princess I want to marry unless I married this princess I will never be happy in life again royal wedding recently don't but he's shy he can't tell his mother or his father the king of the Queen and they noticed something is wrong with their son because he is moping and he doesn't seem to be interested in anything anymore finally a wise Minister goes and asks him what ails you Prince you can confide in me and the Prince says well what can I tell you I'm in love very good who is she oh she's the princess of Kashi good a princess perfect this is very good where did you meet her I haven't met her I've seen her picture picture very good well where is the picture well it's down there it's um I'll show you it's an old picture it was taken it was painted when she was 5 years old the date says many years ago 15 years ago then the minister says wait a minute old picture and the princess of Kashi can you take me to that picture and the Prince takes him down into that cellar and shows him the painting and the minister sees that and tells the Prince Prince you need to sit down for this that is not the princess of Kashi so whoever she is I'll marry her no Prince there are many years ago there was this drama staged a play was staged in the court and we needed to have a person who would play the princess of Kashi and we found you to be the perfect one to play the princess of Kashi so you are that that thou art dr. Amma see and the princess sits down now what happens to the desire in the princes mind it is called in Sanskrit sankalpa I want this what happens to the desire it disappears immediately why did it disappear because you could not fulfill it because the princess of Kashi it does not exist apart from him he alone is the princess of Kashian always has been this idea of duality something apart from him which is nice and which he wants this led to the Sankalp in the mind and that sankalpa that desire i want this it could be the other way around also something bad I want to avoid this I want to get this I want to avoid this raghav Asia this is at the root of samsara his sankalpa disappeared immediately why did it disappear because duality do i eater disappeared there is no second thing no person called princes of kashi apart from me this is what the prince realized dwight the duality disappeared the moment well it disappeared sankalpa in the mind also disappeared that there is something out there which I have to achieve or get no it is me and when the sankalpa has gone Raghav aja attraction repulsion has gone it is me alone what is there in me to be gotten rid of or what is there in me to be achieved it's always there with me I am myself so when the duality goes merges back into the non dual self the Sankalp it's a very beautiful story actually it applies so directly to this he says when the reality is understood art Misaki on abode Hina na song called peyote era when one realizes the truth about oneself and that thats princes of Kashi's none other than me then the mind does not do a sankalpa that I want this why graha Bobby because there is no separate reality to grasp that agraja the mind becomes non grasping this non grasping ever free mind he says Arminius thumb to the irt this is no mind this is no mind and this is freedom look the difference here is the print still has his eyes open the yogi would have said don't look at the princess of kashi keep your eyes closed me if you don't think about it it will be alright the non-dualistic waiting says keep your eyes open experience the world as it is but rooted in the knowledge of the self that I am the non-dual self this entire world shining forth this world is your princess of Kashi this world yes this is your princess of Kashi the good and the bad all of it is you not the slightest difference between you bye-bye view I mean the real you that's why God Apophis said Artemis at the on about Dana once you realize the truth about yourself after that not as a body and mind then everybody else is about if you are a body everybody else is a body also if you are a person everybody else is a person also if you are pure consciousness then the entire world you see appears in you the pure consciousness some sorrow disappears you see this is the important thing difference between the yogic approach and the Vedantic approach the yogic approach seeks to free you by erasing samsara shutting down samsara it's like you're watching a movie a horrifying movie you've forgotten it's a movie you are scared what's the way to come out of being scared the yogi will tell you switch up the movie the Vedanta is telling you see that it's a movie then the most horrifying movie also you will enjoy it will give Oscar award to it the more horrifying the more Oscar Awards you'll get to it at misaki honorable Dana samsara goes away one Swami said very interestingly that way to my labs where Mohammed annika leaning non-duality Advaita is not meant for for wiping out your activities in this world or for destroying your life in this world Oh No then what is an advaitha what does it do in Hindi he said adwaita up Covell up kava harmony robot Vanna theta makes you absolutely limitless and free less and and limitless and free limitless and free in your life right now we are limited I am different from you this is limit I my life is limited I was born in such-and-such time I'm going to die after sometime my capacities are limited I am a tiny being in the vastness of time and space what are do I - does is it shows you the entire vastness of time and space is nothing other than you you are the infinite consciousness in which entire universe appears how does it do that how does it do that how can you see God with eyes open Kabir he says cool a 9-day Khan Sahab go I shall see my Lord my beloved Lord with open eyes not just in meditation with open eyes sri ramakrishna says your bundle curly tinea chin chocolaty Nene you can you can see God only with closed eyes you cannot see God with open eyes what kind of God it is that if just closing the eyelids and only God is that if you open your eyelids God goes of it's very weak kind of God can't you see God with open eyes we're seeing God with open eyes mr. Ramakrishna talks about the seeing Sahab because they cuckoo Lena and with open eyes do I behold my beloved that is Kabir just by the way next week on Friday at 7:30 7:30 to 8:30 we have a wonderful event Prahlad sing de Ponyo if you look up look him up on YouTube he's a new sensation I think in India who sings Kabir presents a very natural very spiritual man which his team is going to come here for one hour he's going to perform and there's going to be a professor from she's from the Harvard Divinity School she is going to help us with the translations and guide us through it so very wonderful event same Kabir so how do we do that the answer is God opposes Vivek what is vivica look at the answer given by the yogi the yogi says Samadhi the Advaita nandu list says vivica this the spiritual discrimination Sri Ramakrishna said always discriminate the eternal and anon eternal how do you do that God our Father says you know even the name Vivekananda that comes from that vivica Viveca is the peculiar method of non-dualism there is a beautiful verse to Vivekananda which goes this way uneat the addressee hov which an idiom thus means amar that he has Malaya the wake of a raga we should touch it Tom yo so Viva kita Mahama mommy I salute that Vivica the one who has we wake up you see the word Vivica is common in Indian languages in Bengali or Hindi there it means conscience that which inside the voice inside which tells us what is right and wrong but there is a deeper philosophical spiritual meaning to Viveca which you find in Vedanta it is related conscience basically helps you to separate right from wrong this separation dispersed philosophical separation in your understanding in your grasping that is done in Vedanta what is Vivica in Vedanta in that verse to awaken and it is said an idiot Rishi a shoe in this in this spectacle of ever-changing temporary temporary transient world in life uh Nakia all transient drishya means experienced objects they say this experience life in the midst of this while experiencing this he was able to discern the eternal here itself on it you drishya Viviani tiem he was able to separate vehicle separate how not physically not it pincers or forceps in your understanding he was able to note recognize in this very experience in our experience of life the eternal consciousness existence consciousness bliss how you will ask him we want to know how to do that I'm coming to that dawn for a way to just terminal if we finish the translation of that verse and having separated in his understanding what did he do thus means some are that he his mind became absolutely absorbed not some artists became absorbed in the the non-dual reality with great difficulty with tremendous effort no he has Melilla like like plate like child's play why is it so difficult for us and why is why was it like child's play for Vivekananda the next line says vivica Vairagya we should touch it them the mind which is purified prepared by vivica this philosophical insight and Vairagya dispassion go back to what Sri Ramakrishna said continuously discriminate between the eternal and the non eternal and have vairagya for the non eternal so that is where the shoe pinches for her for most of us even the understanding is not so difficult but then letting go is a little difficult mentally again letting go so how do we do that where the name Vivekananda comes from how do we practice this way rakia how do we have see the eternal in this non eternal God our Father says and that is the teaching of demand occupation look at our lives our day has these three experiences the waking experience the dream experience and the deep sleep experience what are we who am i what am i am I this person who's sitting here or talking here I might the person who when I fall asleep maybe I'm walking in somewhere in Mumbai or in Delhi in the dream I might that person or is it the blankness of deep sleep knowing nothing knowing neither myself nor the world and my dad person that's experience gora pada says the Manduca says you are the one consciousness in which the Waker and the wakers world appears in which the dreamer and the dreamers world appears in which the deep sleeper and the deep sleepers world I won't say appears does not appear blank you are one consciousness you are not the Waker they the good way of understanding this is our dream example in our dreams we our mind when we fall asleep it constructs a world and in your dream you are there also right you are also there in your own dream you don't think it's a dream you think you are there and you are experiencing something it's like waking it's only when you wake up from the dream that moment of waking up what is your discernment what is your understanding what is your vivica oh it was a dream all of it all the people I saw all the places I went to all the time that past all the events that happened and most interestingly even I myself in that dream that body that person in the dream all of it was dreamt up by my mind and I wake up saying oh it was just a dream but not all of it was your mind you alone became the subject and the object you alone became the good and the bad you alone became pleasant and unpleasant experiences you alone became time and space in your dream exactly like that in the waking also not the mind it is a consciousness alone which appears as the waking experience at you the subject right now what you think yourself to be and your world this world both of them are appearances in one consciousness which you really are that one consciousness is apart from the waker dreamer and deep sleeper so the fourth it's called the fourth turian first waker second dreamer third deep sleeper fourth is the Turia is from it but also underlying it the ground of these three just like you the Waker when you dream you are apart from the dream person or the dream world but you are the ground of that because of you the dream and a dreamer and the dream person and the dream world appears in the same way you are the one consciousness apart from the waked dreamer and deep sleeper and yet even through the waked dreamer and deep sleeper this is called Atma anartha Vivica remember what are we doing now Viveca discrimination at mahatma Vivica self non-self the discriminant not nonsense non-self the discrimination between self and non-self at mahatma vivica note note some three things about it one is the the one consciousness is is neither bond nor dies it's the person in the dream or in the waking who is born and dies the body is born and the body dies people are born and died things are created and destroyed things in the dream are in the waking world are non eternal temporary the subject to birth and death that consciousness is not subject to birth and death Atma is nityam eternal enactment not self an idiom this Vivek Anita Anita vivica another thing not even in this world right now everything is changing but the consciousness to which appears this changing world that consciousness is not changing body is changing body they traditionally they say six folds changes jayate a a steve at a vapor in amate EPOXI at a nasiha t it is born comes into existence grows and develops becomes mature then begins to begins to deteriorate in old age and finally dies six-four changes and all of them are noted by the same unchanging consciousness consciousness the Atma itself non changing everything else in the world whether it's waking world a dream world changing deep sleep world in the deep sleep no change is noted but the deep sleep state itself changes into the waking and dreaming so Atma nirakara midweek are means and unchanging an Atma savy car it changes whether it's the waking world dream world or deep sleep note one more thing another point this is the deeper point the turian the pure consciousness and the waker dreamer deep sleeper are they different they're actually not different you the person in your dream and you the person who's dreaming are the two of you different no you the dreamer when you are sleeping in your bed and dreaming you yourself have become the person in your dream right that person in the dream is not different from you you exist without that person in the dream because you are there before the dream started you are there when the dream is there because you are dreaming it and you will be there when the dream ends when you wake up but that person in the dream cannot exist without you as long as you dream you the person in the dream you will be there when you do not dream that person is not there anymore so what is the point here Atma Satyam an Atma mithya very important point you the pure consciousness the witness consciousness you are the reality and the Waker dreamer deep sleeper are the appearances just as the person in your dream is your appearance in the dream like a role an actor plays on stage so all of this the waker dreamer and deep sleeper and the wakers world dreamers world and the deep sleep darkness they are all appearances of you the one conscious that one consciousness the Atma satyam it is the truth it is the reality the rest the other three are appearances Shankar Acharya in his invoke it reverses on the comic commentary to Mundaka Upanishad he says Maya Sankhya Toriyama very evocative phrase the real Atman such Eden and the you you are called the forth only when you count through Maya when you count one two three these three steps you count are false they are not really there only with respect to wake a dreamer deep sleeper are you the fourth but really speaking you are the one those three are your appearances Artemis at iam an Atma mithya the self is real the non self is an appearance put it all together at Mahatma Vivica number one Atma is nipt IAM eternal and the an Atma is non-eternal number two number three is Atma is unchanging an Atma ever-changing number four is that at my Satyam anot mama TIA put them all together what you will get is this if the anatomize mithya can you really count it it's like an example I give if you if I eat a cookie and then I like it and at night and dream I dream about eating three more cookies in the morning will I say I've eaten four cookies I can't say that I cannot count the dream cookies it works the other way also you earn a lot of money you get a lot of money in your dream and win the lottery and you're counting the dollar bills that counting is of no good when you wake up you can't deposit take that money to the bank no but you don't have to pay taxes on it also that's also there sir you cannot count defaults along with the real you cannot count the appearance along with the reality the two cannot be counted together I I give the example of the ornaments made of gold so a necklace or a bangle or a ring made of gold and gold itself so if there are three ornaments will and then somebody mentions gold so does it become four no gold is the one reality and the three are appearances of that one reality you cannot count the three ornaments along with gold because gold is the reality of those three ornaments if you cannot count waker dreamer and deep sleeper and their universes along with dr. iam the interim becomes one without a sake second a Camejo do tiem one without a second without a second if you put it in sanskrit it means adwaita without a second if you put it in sanskrit it means advaita so you are advaita when you realize this all - Tom - the IOT the mind becomes without Sangha it becomes no mind it still works you can see the world you can experience the world you can use the mind you can do everything but like the princess of Kashi you know it's not a separate reality out there which I have to chase or I have to be afraid of you become fearless you attain to fearlessness fearlessness is in fact the sign of enlightenment when Janaka attained enlightenment his guru told him I am by proptosis Janaka you every didn't say you have become enlightened he said you have become fearless you become fearless so this is the meaning of no mind this no mind does not force you to sit in meditation you can sit in meditation in fact if you concentrate deeply upon the story of the self the mind will go into Samadhi so Samadhi is not excluded from God about this definition of no mind it is there but it's not it's not a kind kind of God or reality which you have only with closed my eyes you can as well experience it with open eyes the Prince does not have to close his eyes the Prince can open his eyes and see the portrait of the princess of Kashi and it looks different it is called something different and yet he knows it is I a hum Brahma has me I am all of this indeed even with open eyes even talking walking doing one's job in life living a perfectly ordinary life it won't be an ordinary life really internally to be an extraordinary life but that is possible God is available not only in Samadhi one Swami in the Himalayas humorously he said if the yogi thinks God is available only in nirvikalpa samadhi when you sit in meditation world is shut out I forget my body I forget the world then God will somehow pop into existence so that that Swami he put it in Hindi I'll translate for you he said low up in a Pyare called Samadhi kozelka name even kardia look now you have put your beloved your beloved lord you have put your beloved Lord in into the jail into the prison of Samadhi and locked it and thrown away the key because God is available only in Samadhi if I cannot reach Samadhi I cannot reach God in mystic trance in mystic absorption certainly God is available there but also here also now just today we were reading Sri Ramakrishna somebody asked Sri Ramakrishna why can't I see God what prevents me from seeing God and Sri Ramakrishna is simple we are sitting on the cot he took his towel in Bengali gamja and put it on his face he says now you cannot see my face yes because of the towel and remove the towel you can see my face now yes just like that because of our ignorance we cannot see God God is he says the next God is everywhere here and right now it is because of my ignorance that I cannot see God this Lawrence is removed by vivica then with eyes open or with eyes closed the same reality it's always there this teaching goda pada gives it a beautiful name especially oka the yoga of no contact the yoga of no contact especially yoga Swami Ranganathan and the G the 13 president of our order he was fond of this term he used to call it advaita vedantins especially oka it's also a yoga a spiritual path but what kind of spiritual by the unique spiritual path which is called the path of no contact why the path of no contact because you see Brahman and the world are not any means the real and the faults are not enemies you might think think that reality and falsity are enemies know what is an enemy of falsity is the knowledge of reality you see the false snake and the real rope are not enemies they are not contradictory it is because of the real rope that we can mistake it and see it as a snake the desert is not an enemy of the Mirage water it is because the desert exists that we have the illusion of a Mirage water what what contradicts the Mirage the water in the middle what contradicts the false snake our knowledge that it is a rope our knowledge that it's a mirage it's not really water that contradicts so knowledge of reality is the enemy of falsity but reality as such is not the enemy of falsity in fact reality is very kind it tells falsity you you come and settle down here I have no problem make your house here after all if it is true that Vedanta is at all true then we are Brahman when now today after realization after realization certainly but before realization you are not permanent you are Brahman right now what is this world it is Brahman it is the absolute right now but there is no where we do I have no idea about the absolute Brahman the absolute right now is the ground of the appearance of this word this world appearance has no anima T with Brahmin it is because of Brahmin that this world is appearing it is because a Brahmin that we have samsara the knowledge of Brahman is the enemy of samsara Brahma gana is the enemy of samsara not Brahman itself Brahman itself has no enemy to beat samsara why because there is no real contact between Brahman and samsara samsara cannot disturb Brahman samsara cannot harm Brahman the rope the false snake cannot harm the rope does the rope become poisonous because of the false snake no Shankar Acharya says the water in the Mirage in Sanskrit Maru Mary chica the water in the Mirage all the water in the mirage cannot is not sufficient to wet even a single grain of sand in the desert right because it's not really there so the appearance the false world cannot absolu any harm to you the real you because there is no point of contact between reality and falsity because reality is all that exists if two things exist then there's a question of contact if two things exist but two things do not exist it only seems to be two because when you talk about when you try to enlighten a person when you give a teaching the person knows the world then you have to introduce something called God and then finally show that it is God alone which is appearing as you and the world but first it seems there are two things now world and God person knows I am body and mind then you have to introduce something called Atma self then the person thinks okay this is not the self there is something called the self but after enlightenment that self alone appears as body and mind don't you alone appear as The Dreamers body and mat the dream person in the in the dream all of that is you alone so there is it is actually one reality and the feeling of - it is a inbetween interim state the example which i gave about pot and the clay and clay in the pot first there is a pot and then we are told that there the constituent of this pot is clay there is a cause of material cause of this pot and that is called clay at this point you start thinking there are two things there is a pot and it is clay then you examine the pot and you find top to bottom inside outside it's all clay in fact you are hard-pressed to find anything called pot because every real thing there is clay every bit of it is play there is no such separate thing as pot and finally you realize it is clay and clay alone part is a name it's a form it's a particular use nama Rupa Viva Hara the real problem comes if you stop half way if you are told here is a pot and there's a reality called clay then you start thinking okay there's a pot and clay then you are in trouble Alan Watts calls it the clay pot theory becomes the crackpot theory why if you stop at this point what happens is then you are all the time searching for some God somewhere which is the cause of this universe or when you look inside and like the Hindu Duellists the naiyayikas do body mind and some self some Atma is there separately you keep searching so clay pot Theory becomes crackpot theory then that is the problem if you stop at this point that is why the Yogi's say you have to blank out the world to realize the self because they think there are two things you have to shut your eyes to them do you really have to shut your eyes to this lectern to see the wood here if I say see the like podium so yes Swami if I say see the wood here you'll say yes so I'm it's pretty easy do you have to shut your eyes to see the wood know to see the waves in the ocean go to the beach yes with open eyes to see the water do you have to shut your eyes no with open eyes you can see the water it's a change in paradigm it's a change in your understand the shift is internal the yogi because he thinks water and wave are separate things golden ornaments separate things you have to shut your eyes then you can see the reality so I'll end with a beautiful verse especially oka that now we understand why it is called no contact because there's one reality does the clay ever come in contact with the pot now you'll understand the clay never comes in contact with anything called pot the pot is a construct which we think of the cake clay in that form we call it apart there is no thing called pot with which the clay will come in contact so the clay is a special it has no contact with the part Brahman Atman pure consciousness is a special it has no contact with this appearance of the world so gora pada has this beautiful verse a slightly mischievous verse at the end very pokes fun at the Yogi's he says a spark yoga ye nama darshan Salva yogi be yogi no be Beauty has smart hadar Sheena this teaching is called especially oka the methanol path of no contact and it is very difficult for Yogi's to understand this it's very difficult for Yogi's to understand this why the Yogi's are afraid of this path are scared of this path because they see fear in the fearless Abhay via - inna they are the ones who see fear in the fearless open your eyes see the picture of the princess of Kashi no no you will be attracted to that don't open your eyes keep keep your eyes closed No so AB hiya hiya - Tina they see fear in the fearless once you realize this as Brahman you are the fearless this world itself is the fearless there is no fear here sri ramakrishna says people call it is towards doe catotti this world is a place of DC and fraud but I see it as modular cootie a mansion of mirth what is the mansion of word Mertz this world itself after realization after enlightenment this world itself is Brahman dimension of mirth Abhay via darshan aha so let us put it all together no mind this teaching of no mind we noticed that because of the movement of the mind because of the mind we tend to think that this is a world of duality world of duality leads to bondage non duality leads to freedom so no mind is the key Amani bhava how do you achieve no mind the yogi says by samadhi nirvikalpa samadhi shut out the world don't get involved in the world stay in Samadhi and finally give it up we have a Candace said he who runs away to meditate and die in a Himalayan cave has missed the way don't look at the picture of the princess of Kashi so that is one one approach to no mind another approach to no mind is given by God apart Italia he says at Masotti honorable Tina by vivica at Mahatma Vivek by the way wake of self and not self by the way vehicle by seeing that the self is eternal and not self non-eternal by seeing that the self is unchanging and the not self changing by seeing finally the self is real and the not self is an appearance by this Vivica you will realize the self alone is non dual addto-item when you come to the non duality of the self in this way you have achieved Amani bhava and that harmony Wahab is permanent it's not dependent on any kind of practice anymore you see it as very natural very good let me do a peace chant and then I'll come back for Q&A shantih shantih Shawn he hurry he own that sat sri ramakrishna Aparna Musto [Music]

Channel: Vedanta New York

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Keywords: vedantany, vedanta society of new york, sarvapriyananda, swami sarvapriyananda, sarvapriyananda lectures, swami vivekananda, vivekananda, vivekananda teachings, vedanta ny, vedanta, vedanta lectures, belur math, jnana yoga, hinduism, spirituality, enlightenment, higher consciousness

Id: DkMRiiVJFWg

Length: 73min 16sec (4396 seconds)

Published: Sun Jun 03 2018