Ask Swami with Swami Sarvapriyananda | Apr 10th, 2022

[Music] [Music] lead us from the unreal to the real lead us from darkness unto light lead us from death to immortality all peace peace peace good morning and namaste everybody we started with a hymn to sri ramachandra because it's ram naming today it's also palm sunday so it's the holy week which culminates with easter so first of all it's good to be back i was away on a month-long trip in india after more than four years and i thought that i'll it'll be a sort of a change a break a bit of a restful time i had four or five lectures scheduled but quickly all the gaps got filled up and i ended up giving some 26 or 27 talks sometimes two a day and meeting loads and loads of people visitors so this ask swami what we do is we take questions from all over the world and we collate them there's a team which organizes classifies and presents them to me but we also take questions from the live audience here so those of you want to ask questions we'll hold on to your questions but you will get your chance when i ask you raise your hand i'll call you up here tell us your name and ask your questions but first some questions from the internet audience we'll take a couple of those first diane is going to ask the questions as usual the first question is from pre-tam m pranam swamiji in the gospel of sri ramakrishna takur talks about vidya and avidyamaya and explains that things like anger jealousy constantly seeking sense pleasures are the things that fall under the rubric of avidia maya on the other hand things like acquiring spiritual knowledge generating love for god seeking mental purity walking a spiritual path are considered to be under the rubric of video maya whether a video or video it is still maya how do we know then that enlightenment or spiritual liberation is not just another unexplored part of this maya how do we know that spiritual liberation enlightenment liberation is not not just that's also could be that could be part of maya it is that in fact is the stunning conclusion of advaita vedanta those who have studied the mandukya remember there's this verse which sets out the highest truth the final thing that can be said and it's quite a stunner i gave a talk about it i think it was called the ultimate truth yes what does it say gowda prada shankaracharya's teacher's teacher shankaracharya's teacher is govinda pada and his teacher was gowdapada who wrote those commentarial verses on the mandukyo upanishad the verses are called the manduka karika and in that verse he makes this stunning statement resounding words more than fifteen hundred fourteen hundred fifteen hundred years ago what does it say um this universe this samsara it has no end why doesn't it have an end because it never be never begun you know if it began then you could talk about an a conclusion an end to samsara but what about all of us we are in bondage we are here in vedanta society we want liberation nobody is in bondage then but then what are we practicing spiritual disciplines for if we are not in bondage if why are we meditating and philosophy and good works he says there's nobody practicing spiritual disciplines what do you mean what about the seekers of liberation those who want exactly what he's talking about seekers of liberation enlightenment the ones who want moksha nirvana liberation salvation there is no there's nobody who wants liberation there's no there's no seeker of enlightenment but then at least there are those who are enlightened i mean after all you are an enlightened being presumably though you sound crazy but presumably you are an enlightened being he says there is nobody who is enlightened what are you talking about this is the highest truth this is the ultimate truth yes it is from the perspective of advaita vedanta when you look at what vedanta says absolute truth is existence consciousness place that's all that there is all this is an appearance a display a movie playing on the screen of the absolute so from the from the absolute perspective none of this is true including neither bondage is true but then in that in that case if bondage is not true then freedom is also not true means it's not a specific event in space-time so ultimately the ultimate reality brahman alone is the reality that always was is and will continue to exist and even was is will continue you know you're you're presuming time already there now this is very high this is very abstract so it is good to know this and this is a direct answer if you want a straight answer to the question what about liberation what about enlightenment isn't it part of maya also yes it is if you are already liberated if you never wear in bondage then the so-called enlightenment liberation must be part of my don't you see in fact if it were not think of the consequences if i'm really in bondage and then i need a real liberation from this real bondage who knows there might be a real bondage once again after this not only that knowledge can't help me in that case enlightenment means getting realizing something something dawning on you the light bulbs going off that can't help you if i'm really tired with the rope just thinking i am free doesn't help me i'm still tired here are the ropes but if i think i'm tired with the rope and i'm in a dream if i somebody helps me wake up from that and i see it's all right then knowledge helped me the path of knowledge the path of enlightenment the ignorance is the problem and knowledge is there is the solution that works only if what godfather said was true that bondage and liberation are both in maya only then but having said that now down to brass tax to be practical how does that help us right now right now we don't see that we it's an amazing thing to hear and to understand philosophically it's great it's actually reassuring it quells our anxiety at a deep existential level but practically to get to that point uh what sri ramakrishna has said is very useful vidya maya avidyamaya yes it is all maya but it's vidyamaya and avidyamaya vidya is knowledge and avidya is ignorance there is the maya of ignorance which sucks us in pulls us deeper into the mire the swamp of samsara and that is anger and lust and greed and self-seeking which is at the basis base of anger lust and greed and at the base of all of it root is this little me mine i i am this thing and everything for me once i do that immediately i'm in conflict with every other little individual in conflict in competition and so samsara starts for me now all of these things which tie me down to this little me i me mine now i me mine is still philosophical little abstract we want more concrete examples anger that's pretty pretty clear lust greed and the consequent fear and anxiety and and guilt and all of the the the you know the whole range of negativities which is produced by this kind of a life all of that comes under avidyamaya ignorance why ignorance because it's based on a fundamental ignorance about ourselves we do not know what or who we truly are as vivekananda would often say with a touch of pathos in here in the united states if only you knew who you truly are that would really set us free so that is avidyamaya now every effort to lead a higher life a moral life a caring life a self a selfless life and the higher spiritual disciplines of prayer of meditation and inquiry all of these are under the as he is beautifully written actually under the rubric of vidyamaya what does this do this attenuates thins out the self-seeking the root of being caught in samsara and then we are prepared for the liberation the eventual liberation yes it's within maya no doubt but that also that event within maya it shows us what we truly are then we realize it was all right truly realize not just say it not just read about it and then we are called jivan mukta even in this body and mind even running around in this world is still free free at the level of our own innermost reality as the atman the body is subject to cause causes and conditions it will come and go it will rise it will decay and it will die i was just reading today in the morning um here in the prayer we were reading mahapurushmara swami shivanandaji somebody asks him he's very old he's the president of the order suffering physically somebody asked him swami are you all right he says i am all right but the body is not and the body is subject to um you know birth and aging and death and this body he says is now on its way to the final change death and it is all right it has lived long enough has it not and i am all right i know i'm ageless i'm timeless i'm very clear about that so i accept it peacefully so vidyamaya frees us from this this trap of samsara let's go a little further deeper into this you know the very ancient philosophy of sankhya that talks about two ultimate realities it's not non-dualistic it's it's uh unapologetically dualistic material nature you know the physical nature and even mental nature so all of whatever is an object matter energy time space but also mind thoughts feelings emotions they're objects because they are aware of them what's an object whatever you're aware of is an object or as the philosopher arundham chakravarthy ad rightly put it whatever objects to your consciousness is an object objects means resists your consciousness you you run up against it and you become aware of it you see all of these if objects were not there you would be an unlimited field of consciousness and actually not aware of anything the moment moment you're aware of something it's something that you are running up against it's an object you see it you hear it you smell it you taste it you feel it you think of it you understand it you remember it you desire it you hate it but that it is an object so whatever is it an object the sankey and philosophy calls it prakriti nature this vastness spread out before us and the one who experiences the it the one who experiences the it the knower the experiencer the awareness shankin here the sanskrit word immediately evokes if you know sanskrit it might mislead you because it evokes the idea of a male it's not male it's that conscious being the knower and prakriti it's not it's a female principle but it's actually the known of the entire universe the entire time space matter energy power all of that now sankhya says the whole problem for us is that we are a mixture of prakriti and purusha we are consciousness mixed up with a lot of a lot of it that object body mind and senses and thoughts and emotions and all of that and what prakriti material nature does for consciousness is it does two things this is where it connects with the question it gives two things to purusa prakriti gives two things to purusha nature gives two things to you the experiencer bhoga apavarga the sanskrit term bhoga means experience what kind of experience pleasant and unpleasant the lower forms of samsara where we are trapped and we struggle and we suffer and the higher forms of samsara we you know better life and then upper varga freedom ethics spirituality and ultimate enlightenment but that's also given by nature freedom from what freedom from itself from nature so nature gives the the awareness you it gives you two things experience of what of nature and freedom from what from nature both are given by nature now you see how that concept of prakriti ancient swami vivekananda calls it the father of all philosophy most ancient philosophy long before the buddha that philosophical understanding that nature gives us two things bhoga experience samsara and freedom from samsara upper varga which is an ancient word for moksha that has become the vidya maya and avidyam maya which saddam krishna is talking about maya giving it's it two things two things ignorance and samsara and suffering and freedom from all of this and enlightenment and fulfillment both are given by maya to us and both are within maya i think that'll do one more question this question is from swastik m after meditating on your discourses on adviser i've come to understand the following the witness is ever present and cannot perform any action it has only three attributes sat chit and ananda this truth is the source of all other truths the witness never has a desire to seek anything it is the mind seeking liberation this implies that the mind itself removes its own veil through knowledge assuming my understanding is correct how to turn the understanding i have into meditation practice i think it's particularly well put swastika right i think we'll go to through it sentence by sentence at first he says that the witness consciousness um has only three attributes sat chit and ananda those are the first two sentences present and cannot perform any action it has only three attributes sat chit and ananda yes the witness is ever present witness means the sakri consciousness which we are all of us we are that ever present yes it's ever present and then cannot perform any action you this is again coming from sankhya all action is performed by prakriti by nature and purusha consciousness does not perform any action but it's not true that it cannot perform any action in fact because of it all action is performed think of um you in a you're supposed you're dreaming and maybe you're taking a walk in the park and talking with your friends you the dreamer are not walking in the park or talking with your friends you're actually sleeping and dreaming it all up and yet all that walking and talking is being done because of you it wouldn't exist without you so without this witness consciousness no action exists it's not that sankey would have two things consciousness and a material realm the material realm then the action takes place and the consciousness is a witness thereof but even in sankhya the presence of the consciousness is necessary for the material realm to act and it for that action to be registered in advaita it goes even further there is no material realm apart from that consciousness the entire material realm entire realm of prakriti is an appearance in consciousness so without this witness consciousness which also is this pure being there is no action possible all action is possible because of you because of you the consciousness but yes you're right it does not directly act the next he says it has only three attributes satchit is consciousness and ananda is bliss this is the truth that is the basis of all of the truth that's pretty well put i think we just stop a little bit here we in vedanta we incessantly talk about the ultimate reality and what is the ultimate reality it is being existence sat it is chit consciousness it is ananda it's bliss and it's very easy to slip into the way of talking that uh this uh the question is written that these are the attributes of the witness consciousness they are not the attributes they are the witness consciousness what's the difference see a thing has attributes so if you say the self has these attributes it is it has existence it has consciousness it has bliss then it is something apart from the attributes it has those attributes no that is not true according to advaita vedanta the self your reality is that you are being itself existence you are consciousness itself you are bliss itself as opposed to what as opposed to your existence itself as opposed to an existing thing things exist these things exist so the self witness consciousness atman brahman is not one more thing which exists and there's a table and a microphone and a clock and one brahman ultimate reality no it's it's not it's going you are not going to find it in a catalogue of things which exist but it is the very existence of everything then it is consciousness itself what does it mean when we talk about consciousness what we actually comes to mind are is thinking is perceiving is feeling is memory is desire all of these things which we associate with consciousness so these are events conscious events taking place in the mind chit consciousness is not one more conscious event it is that which makes all consciousness possible and ananda anand is joy or bliss so when we think about that we think of a smiley face you know very happy some feeling of happiness it's not some feeling of happiness it is that which is manifested as all sorts of feelings of happiness from the grossest up to the most uh elevated artistic you know aesthetic or even spiritual moods all kinds of fulfillment happiness are ananda these are not attributes no more than the example which i love is golden ornaments no more than gold is another kind of ornament you have necklaces and bracelets and rings and what what what other ornaments do you have gold no gold is not one more type of ornament it is the reality of all those gold ornaments similarly satchita and ananda is the reality of everything now he says this is the basis of all truths this is the truth which is the basis of all truths i don't know what scentsy wrote it in swastik but it is very well put all of philosophy broadly you can classify it into three areas ontology which deals with existence what is then epistemology which deals with knowledge what is knowledge what do we know how do we know all these things and axiology which deals with things like beauty and good morals what is good what is beautiful things which were earlier under the um under the classification of aesthetics under the classification of ethics all of that is now sort of values and goodness and beauty axiology now think about it sat chit and ananda these are the answers to the deepest questions in ontology epistemology and axiology in fact these are the answers this is the answer to all philosophy ultimately what exists what is reality answer is sat pure being unlimited being question epistemology what is knowledge how do we know who knows um the answer is consciousness chit the answer to all knowledge is consciousness i mean that's at the basis of all knowledge and then finally what is worthwhile what are we seeking what's the point of life what is this all about value the highest thing that we can have purpose fulfillment the answer is ananda axiology all ontology all epistemology all lexiology culminates in satchit ananda and that's true what he just said this is the truth which is at the basis of all truths you see literally all the philosophical truths that you come across in ontology in epistemology in axiology if you solve the questions and if you give answers to the questions fundamental questions of philosophy have given answers to all important questions the philosopher you might say no no what about science science is a fringe to ontology it's a quest for what is real in this physical universe that's an offshoot of the broader philosophical question of what is real so the philosopher wittgenstein said when all the important questions of when all the questions of science have been answered no problem of any importance will have ever been solved you need to work that out for yourself but he was full of these utterances you can see what he means importance to us these are the important things what's real who are we what is the point of all this and the answer is yes he has put it beautifully swastik that this is the truth the basis of all truths in this universe existence awareness goodness value whatever you call it next sentence witness never has a desire to seek anything it is the mind seeking liberation yes the witness doesn't doesn't have desire to seek anything because it does not lack anything i mean even us at our this level notice how all desire sees the moment the mind stops functioning and deep sleep for example so mind is not functioning mind is stilled everything is there the memory is there it all comes back when we have when we awaken but there is no desire there there is no possibility of desire without some movement in the mind the desire depends on the mind also let's look deeper it doesn't even depend on the mind proof there are minds which are free of desire the mind is there enlightened ones their minds are supposed to be free of desire the minds are working and yet they're free of desire so it's not really the fault of the mind the mind is an instrument what fault does it have mind is like you know always blaming me these vedantins but it's not not the mind's fault also it's the fault of ignorance of not knowing our real nature the enlightened one knows who he or she is and who means that you are sachidonda and that knowledge removes all desire from the mind so desire comes from ignorance ignorance of our ever fulfilled nature makes us think that we are not fulfilled makes us think obviously as these little bodies and minds we have we are we are always small and weak and vulnerable and therefore of course we need so many things desire comes from a wrong idea identity identity of body mind when that is gone even the mind will be without desire the mind can function in fact better the less desire there is in the mind the less ignorance there is in the mind the better the mind functions the minds of the enlightened ones function the best so mind desires but yes the it's the mind which desires and the mind of the highest kind of desire can be the desire for liberation he's right the mind it's the mind which desires liberation yes the last one then he says this implies that the mind itself removes its own veil through knowledge assuming my understanding is correct how to turn the understanding i have into meditation practice understanding is good actually what he has written swastika was pretty good does the mind remove yes the mind removes its own veil through knowledge but always remember not forgetting yourself you are the sun ever shining on the mind you are the one who lights up the mind the ignorant mind even the clouds which are right there now in the manhattan sky but we it wails the sun but it's the same sun which reveals the clouds even the ignorance in our mind is revealed by consciousness by our real nature and when the ignorance in the mind goes and knowledge arises it reveals to us what we truly are it reveals to the mind what its own innermost reality truly is and that is liberating it's liberating for the mind yes so ignorance is at the level of the mind knowledge is also at the level of the mind somebody asked this question but knowledge also comes in the mind so isn't it it's also a mental event right since ignorance is in the mental thing knowledge should also be a mental thing the sun does not need illumination the clouds need to be removed from our sight the sun is ever illuminate you do not need elimination you are ever illumined if there is ignorance in the mind you the illumined you you consciousness you reveal the ignorance in the mind the ignorance goes and knowledge arises that knowledge is also revealed by you good how do we turn this into meditation and why would you want to meditate no i'm just only half joking yes to turn this understanding into meditation you need to stay with it that's all the staying with understanding is called nididihasana this is a vedantic meditation different kinds of meditation broadly speaking all techniques of meditation are meant to focus the mind here this is i would say the peak the everest peak of all meditation techniques still a technique it is meant to focus the mind but focus the mind on what on the understanding already gained what you have gained is wonderful stay with it till it deepens still the mind in that that clarity till it deepens till it becomes an unchallengeable fact it's already an unchallengeable fact but we don't see it for that so what it what that meditation will do it will remove the last vestiges of the clouds covering the sun it will help us to assimilate swami vivekananda talks about the value of meditation at this point what swastika is asking he says you dwell on this fact i am that i am that till it twink till it tingles with every drop of your blood till it becomes a living reality for you after that you you don't have to make an effort just like i don't have to make an effort to remember i am server priyanka it's not even a memory it's knowledge for me it's not that morning and evening i have to sit and meditate on see i have understood i am server now what technique of meditation shall i apply on myself to know that i am server priyananda not necessary i effortlessly know it and that is also a kind of conditioning because i was given the name sarah priyanda so quickly it becomes part of my identity but this is the reality what you are talking about sachi dhananda is the reality behind all conditioning how much more natural that it will be um it will be choiceless it will always be there effortless but yes as long as we feel that um it's not i'm not steady enough i get the understanding then it slips away it's not helpful to me in my practical day-to-day life it's not it's not i cannot use it so far to overcome my negativities then meditation is very much necessary and for that so many techniques are there there are six techniques in drigrishya vivek which i have talked about if you see that series there are 15 techniques in apriochanabhuti which i have talked about if you see that series just use anything and everything to dwell on that truth swami suhita nandhiji who is our vice president now who served swami premier sharanji for a long time swami pramishanji was definitely an enlightened master a disciple of the holy holy mother in his last years he was bedridden and sick when he would suffer a lot he had a peculiar medicine he would tell his attendant take out swami vivekananda's gyani yoga the book and read to me from that it seems dry and abstruse philosophy who why would a sick person want to have that right and when the attendant would read from that this old swami you know he would pass into a peaceful reverie and become quiet and still overcoming the multiple problems in the body what happens he's using that he's already enlightened but he's using that as a crutch to point back towards the reality which is always there he just needs a little bit of it and then he's gone inside it need not be a vedantic thing the path of knowledge it could be devotional i was reading how swami brahmananda in balurmat early in the morning before sunrise before even going to meditation the attendant swami ramananda was our first president you know the attendant in his room he would tell him he would give him a very beautiful tune that joy radha madhava radha madhava like that this names of krishna you sing that and he would sing and swami brahmananda very quickly he would pass into samadhi it would completely be absorbed we would stop saying ramananda would come out of it again and say let it go on don't stop go on they use it as a crutch as as a support or as a pointer back into the reality which is always there would somebody from the audience would you want to ask a question there's a gentleman there and the next two so we'll take two questions tell us your name and ask the question actually i have two questions tell us your name first my name is prabhal mukherjee um and speak into the microphone yeah i have a request on the question is that due to my limited vocabulary i would like to ask this question in bengali i know please go ahead yes i'll translate for others thank you [Music] [Music] right and if you connect to this dupethau thing there is a song from prasad so all right this is the first question is the first question yes so what he's asking is that in the gospel of sri ramakrishna siram krishna again and again says dive deep dive deep what's the use of floating on the surface so how do it's probably some action he's referring to what is this dive deep [Music] the first thing one should do if to dive deep is to occupy one's thoughts once time once days with spirituality how do you do that with the four yogas at all times am i engaged with god either through action or devotion or meditation or self inquiry karma yoga bhakti yoga raja yoga gyani yoga these are broad classifications you'll find in fact in all religions of the world some variety which will fit in in any one of these four paths are more than four i mean across multiple of yogas am i engaged in that it's possible to be engaged in that even the so-called secular actions can be spiritualized under the broad head of karma yoga so then my one and only goal becomes god enlightenment the rest is basically all nonsense the rest as we you know we spend so much of our time in this virtual world the simulation of maya one senior swamiji said this we call it the relative world don't use such terms as well things of the relative world job money relationships well maybe they are relatively useful no they are not even relatively useful they are positively harmful from a spiritual perspective from ultimately if you want enlightenment so spiritualize all of that and in fact externally not much may change you just your focus will change in life externally you still have a job you still have parents and siblings and husband wife children all of that job is going on you must everybody must have a field of action kurukshetra was the field of action for arjuna it's a battlefield of action that has to be spiritualized then the next thing so this is the preliminary of dupe now this is even just the beginning as we um you know spend our time and our days with god but as we do that we will begin to see in each of these yogas it is possible to deepen [Music] karma yoga can be deepened not just being ethical and doing some good to others but this inner feeling of offering it to the divine god in all beings i am worshiping god i have come across this multiple times actually having a spirit of worship with in our hospitals in our schools i have seen and known monks who have practiced practice this i met this monk this time in my tour of india whom i'd seen more than five years ago was amazed at his spiritual development the power he has accumulated i mean um i gave a talk everybody expected ah vedanta talk swami sarvapriyan then all of that but then this young monkey stood up and spoke he he shook the hall you know by the sheer power of character and sincerity and positivity and conviction just the force and what was his secret service just seeing god in everybody and and and working for them it was a very strange audience actually unique 180 cops police these were policemen in charge of different parts of police stations of different parts of calcutta tough crowd to motivate yeah often do you have a you know you would see that they're very cynical crowd so the you can deepen service and you realize how far spread are the tentacles of self-interest when you see what deepening means and how freeing and how purifying it is not to be concerned with one's little self the worries and problems it's not important the other one is important god is present in those forms this little body mind is problems are unimportant then you can deepen bhakti yoga not just a little bit of ritualistic worship not just a prayer but you know the most powerful force we have love collected from all the ways we have scattered it in the forms of passion and desire and relationships in the world you collect that energy and make it stream upwards towards god it's love i think it was c.s lewis who wrote that book near christianity and he said what is devotion what is faith in god he says the best example i can give which people in the world will understand easily is to fall in love when you fall in love you you don't give reasons and all that that comes later but you just fall in love so you fall in love with god try it you see how deep it can become then of course meditation can be deepened you start doing meditation you'll begin to see there's so much scope of deepening it we float it becomes very clear how we are floating on the surface especially in meditation becomes clear and what is diving deep there is is stillness is focus is clarity and the living experience i mentioned swami suitable and swami premiership towards the end in fact the very end of swami formation on this life he asked his attendant did you want want anything want to know anything a couple of things the attendant asked attendant is swami sweet under himself he told me so one thing he asked was that one one he got an answer the other one he didn't get an answer the first thing he asked was you know these pictures we see so you look at these pictures all the time swami are they pictures to you or are they real and swami pramishanji said they're real god exists i i see sriram krishna holy mother so i'm vivekananda the next question he asked of course it's not relevant to us but just the what do you call it the hutzpah or the young attendant he said you were initiated by the holy mother tell me that mantra and the swami point blank he smiled and said no that cannot be done actually he did just a part of it and he said stop no further uh so it can be deepened meditation can be deepened so much and then dive deep in the path of self inquiry direct path the truth is ever shining at us all the time unobstructed shankaracharya takes the classic pot example clay and pot is the clay ever obstructed in the pot and the pot is there is it hidden the clay is the clay hidden if you look at this this podium this uh this altar it's made of wood is the wood hidden here is it like yeah i can see the altar and you're saying there is something called wood is it deep inside the altar somewhere in one corner is it hidden somewhere behind the altar no the whole thing is wood what you see is the wood what you touch here what you what it sounds from it it's the wood the clay is absolutely in shankaracharya's blazes forth like the sun similarly the truth that this is brahman is all the time blazing forth yet we don't see it that's the amazing thing about it dive deep into the path of knowledge it will be immediately clear and at the deepest level all our problems will be solved straight away forever deepest level practical day-to-day problems will always there and you'll have to navigate your way through life but you'll be happy you'll be all right with it it's fine there will be no um you know one beautiful way they put it in the upanishads when death comes physical death comes to the enlightened one enlightened one is without regret why did i do these evil deeds why did i not do the good when it was presented all of us unfortunately at the point of death we regret there was this but the enlightened one is free of such regrets in the sense that he has attained the goal of human life so nothing more needs to be accomplished at the deepest level well there was this emergency room nurse she wrote of her experiences with dying patients palliative care and then emergency care also people who are dying not emergency room the i uh what do you call it i see intensive care unit nurse yes and it was published in reader's digest what's the most common lament of those who pass away consciously most common lament is why did i not do it when i had time whatever it was something nice they wanted in life and it passed them by and what they did in life doesn't seem to have satisfied vedanta there would have said among all of those things if it was something spiritual yes it's worth lamenting why didn't you do it even something else don't worry about it because it wouldn't have amounted too much anyway if it was something spiritual and i did not do it it's worth lamenting because the upanishad says kain openished in this life itself hear itself you become enlightened then there is truth for you there is reality for you there is immortality for you if in this life itself one does not become enlightened great is the loss mahati vinashti vast unending is is our loss indeed so while we have time as he says let us dive deep second question if you still remember yeah i remember i i had a following question no let's just ask the second one okay okay we've got one more question so there is uh yeah there is a uh i mean there is a [Music] the fire doesn't have any any fail any fuel yes what is that like i mean yeah how do you know so our life is like a blazing fire which is filled by uh desire which is in in turn filled by ignorance but that is wiped out that fire of life fire in the sense of we are burning another example is used fever we are in a fever the grip of a fever that is quietened the fire is put out in fact the original meaning of nirvana which is used by buddha is nirvapita extinguished the reality is not extinguished this flame which is burning off of a you know we are literally burning up with the fever of worldliness that flame is extinguished you are left cool so nirindhya even in means fail when the fuel of worldliness is exhausted then reality shines forth that is quietened i did not answer your question about the ram prashad song but those are actually meanings are often elliptical it would take a scholar of tantra to you'd you dive and to the root of kundalini to awaken the kundalini act dummy the dom here might mean control of the breath it might mean well enough it might mean kumbhaka the reference might be to that but i won't venture there because that's not my area of expertise it's it's a vast a see these people the difference between them and say vedanta for example vedanta post shankara vedantes for example they wrote in a very precise logical language directly accessible to our intellect these people they wrote in an elliptical language the language they called it evocatively they call it the language of twilight the advantage of elliptical language is it can convey a lot precise logical language will convey only one thing what it intends to convey poetic language elliptical language the language of they call it the language of twilight and evening even that is it can convey a lot also it's good for secrecy so you don't know what they are talking about it's but somewhere deep inside our mind understands our logical mind can't make sense of it there is this beautiful song for some time cultivate in secret oh my mind your love for krishna go and bathe in the uh in the lake of krishna why would your clothes get wet that's this is not talking about a real lake with water so yeah so this is like the language of evening it evokes something and actually our mind understands somewhere deep inside we understand but we also can't put it quiet into words what it's saying all right thank you so much for those questions all right you can ask you may not get the answer yeah yeah um how do i know that i'm doing it correct like dipping dive or whatever you say that how with that person come the question will come thank you there's one more we'll take another question from this young man here tell us your name and ask the question pranam maraji my name is ritojit i wanted to ask that i read when ram krishna was in his deathbed and naren was thinking that if this man can say that i am incarnation it and this point then i believe it and iran krishna immediately turned and said today what does ram krishna mean by when he says not according to your vedanta but the truth and even among his disciples ram krishna makes this distinction that nito shiddha ishar koti jeep koti how does this actually like goes with advaita vedanta answer is it doesn't but you see sri ramakrishna's approach is so universal if if you go only by classical advaita vedanta they wouldn't say such things but classical advaita vedante is not the only philosophy there is even among the vedantins they tell us something useful that don't hold on to a philosophy too tightly because these are frameworks and these are approximations of the truth they are not the truth itself there's a difference between a fossil in the museum of natural history and the real living animal in the wild itself so the fossil is the framework it is the philosophy somebody said if you hold on too tightly to advaita vada the philosophy of advaita veda you will get advaita but you will not get enlightenment so how do you hold on you must be clear you don't have to be fuzzy or you don't have to be vague about it absolutely clear master of the philosophy and yet completely open to seeing other sides you know beginning to see how the other philosophy is also talking about the same thing which you are talking about yet from an entirely different perspective so when srirama krishna says that he who was rama he who was krishna is in this body in this life in this body's ramakrishna but not from your vedantic perspective so what is your vedantic perspective one existence consciousness places there and that manifests as everything what about sentient beings yes you are manifestation of that you are that absolute reality what about this world this world is that absolute reality actually when it's truly known for what it is it's not a world it is brahman brahman alone appears as this world and what about god god is also that same of existence consciousness place that's that's also there then the incarnation of god is the same existence consciousness place which you are now that erases the difference between you and an incarnation of god but only at the absolute level of course suramaram krishna says don't take it in that spirit take it in the spirit in which devotees take it say a vaishnava a devotee of vishnu will take rama and krishna and presumably caitanya ramakrishna as incarnations of vishnu of incarnations of god not like us swami vivekananda says what's in avatar he says nature has two kinds of creation one the universe and us all of us all of this is the creation of nature and two a special creation called the incarnation of god and he gives the example like rama or krishna or jesus he says so that much of a distinction he makes all of us everything from the vastest galaxy quasars and all down to the tiniest you know super strings or whatever we're all on one side all living beings all of us we are on one side and the incarnation of god is on the other side they're completely different distinct from us so that distinction is pointing towards i am not like the rest of you an incarnation of god in reality so that advaita vedanta would say to that also if you say what would advaita say to that fine have it your way but you are brahman isn't it yes and the rishis when ramachandra with sita goes to the exile in the forest the first rishis the ashrami comes to the rishis are in meditation the sages are in meditation and they open their eyes and look at ramachandra and they know who he is and the reaction is so what the reaction is we he just they just say to us we know who you are but to us you are the son of dasharat the king of um of ayodhya and ramachandra smiles and says so be it it's all right non-dualist after some time there's a very peculiar dialogue he says to srama krishna i see now who you are let me go. sram krishna says no i will not let you go until your mission coming here until full advaithic knowledge is attained i will not let you go so what is it that totally sees suddenly he saw a perfect disciple and he said we do want to learn advaita and he says let me go and ask my mother you know the story sridham krishna goes to the kali temple and then comes back dhottapuri thought that he had gone to ask his own natural biological mother then he teaches him advaitha as time goes by totha pretty finds he cannot live leave the place used to stay only three nights in every place then he begins to see that this is not just a great disciple he's a wonderful perfect disciple you know who'd get non-dual knowledge and he did get non-dual knowledge then he begins to see who this is what what what is it that he sees there's nothing is mentioned nothing is explained i think he sees sri ramakrishna as an avatar one of those rare instances in history that he says oh i've stumbled on this one. and his reaction is not devotion he says please let me go and sriram krishna says no and until full advaithic knowledge is attained now whose full advaithic knowledge who knows maybe it says that until you have transmitted all knowledge of advaita to me because that's why you have come here or it could be the other other way around the full-fledged advaithic knowledge which you lack yet that will be accomplished the two things were accomplished here whenever all these masters came the ramayan sadhu the rama tradition today is ram navi who came with the baby rama then ram lala then bhairavi who came with the vast knowledge of the tantras to sri ramakrishna and then dota puri who comes with this advaita vedanta classical advaita vedanta knowledge so all of these streams of spiritual practice which were there existing in and around that milieu in sudan krishna they flowed through him and got re-verified stamped with the fact that it works in this day and age also these are not old theories you can become enlightened he shows demonstrates to the highest possible extent in each one of them he gives a tick mark so the traditions are again regenerated the ancient traditions so he's called establisher of dharma what do you mean establish dharma is already there established in the sense that he injects new life and light into them but the opposite is also true those who came to him they were also fulfilled they had something left which something they got from him and then they went away so this is the idea class if you can there's a it might be a tendency to dismiss the avatar idea from the classical advaithic perspective and avatar is fine with it but then for a vast majority of people avatar is a powerful it's a gateway to enlightenment even for non-dualists i have known of non-dualists who have got non-dual knowledge by meditating on sri ramakrishna they are not trying to get non-dual knowledge they are meditating on easter devata and doing japa and what realization did they get the oneness of all existence and i am that no so it's a powerful gateway to whatever kind of enlightenment whatever your path of spiritual practice christians and muslims have attained to enlightenment through the avatar and enlightenment according to their own path fulfillment according to their own path so this would be lost if you um if you dismiss the idea of avatar by saying i'm also an avatar i'm i'm a manifestation of brahman after all everybody is in avatar cats and dogs are avasaras also so then you would lose the speciality of the avatar thank you so much thank you we'll take a couple of quick questions first this is from rama m how do i know if i am progressing or regressing in my path to enlightenment how does one recognize an enlightened being so this is what you were asking prabal yes so this is the question i remember it was on the list um yes bishop sriram krishna gives the criterion that more our attraction grows to for god and more our detachment from the world detachment sense it it's not important it doesn't matter what's important is god love of god meditation god service of god that matters what happens in the world doesn't matter so much i mean you convert the activities in the world as a worship of god of course and then it matters so this is one one indication ishtaryanurag vishway pulled towards god and a detachment you're not disturbed by the world so much further development of this idea is that the negativities start reducing good indicator in our life is the negativities anger fear anxiety the pull of the world it starts reducing the frequency goes down earlier i used to get upset maybe every day or every other day and now it's maybe once in 15 days once in a month earlier it would be more intense i would fly into a rage and now it's a burst of irritation so intensity also will be much less it hasn't gone away those which are deep tendencies in our mind some have anger issues some have anxiety issues some feel very guilty to keep beating themselves up those things will will go down also quickly you can come out of it earlier one would go into feel unhappy depressed and last for days and days but now you feel bad but in the afternoon you're okay the sun is shining so these are indicators that spiritual practice is working on a practical level it's working it is not instantaneous just as the body is a machine a biological machine the mind is also a machine so it whatever is its tendencies are it will keep running along those lines it's difficult to change it changes ever so a little bit but doesn't have to change too much all we need is change enough to give us enlightenment freedom from it you don't have to make it into a perfect mind you know like a complete saint you can't i mean some people can it takes a lot of effort a lot of blessings and grace but we need to do enough so that we the mind is clear enough clean enough shiny enough to reveal our true face our true nature once it does that its work is gone how many minds will you reform when uttarakhand sadhu said in the beam of light in the early morning so many moats of dust are floating around have you noticed this in the morning when the beam of light comes into imagine the himalayas the little hut of a monk in the first ray of sunlight and that can come quite late in the day because the sun has to rise above those towering mountain peaks first ray of sunlight and little moths of dust floating around he says vesey just like that in the radiance of your light you consciousness in in your radiance millions of minds are floating around like motes of dust how many of them are you going to clean this it's also a clever uh you know like illusion there you can't clean a bit of dust it's still dust so mind is mind it should be clean enough to give so i'm vivekananda says the only thing that we can do is polish the mirror inspired talks swami vivekananda said this in here in upstate new york on thousand island park the only thing that we can do is polish the mirror what is the mirror the mind how do you polish it karma yoga bhakti yoga raja yoga even ghana yoga all of those help in first cleansing the mind and then giving us enlightenment yeah so that's the sign the second part of the question was how do you recognize an enlightened being oh that's a difficult one enlightenment is entirely internal how do we know really how enlightened a person is we don't difficult to say some characteristics are there that is what is discussed when arjun actually asks this question to krishna in the second chapter of the bhagavad-gita prague how would you define literally how would you define an enlightened person how does this person talk how does this person walk how does this person sit not just talk walk and sit a deeper meaning is how does this person walk a talk meets how does this person react to problems in life good and bad things happen we react with delight when things go our way we react in annoyance when things uh do not go our way one sadhu tarakan was saying in samsara worldly people come to vedanta very quickly they understand everything is vedanta until somewhere that selfish interests are obstructed then all vedanta disappears thrown out of the window what how i am such a vedante and i am so spiritual how did i become sick how did i get kovid then it can't be true but it's true regardless of whatever happens to me or to anybody else good and bad [Music] so um difficult whatever whatever has been said by krishna to arjuna if you look at those things how does a person react to good and bad things we react in this way how does an enlightened one react then how does a person walk walk it literally doesn't mean walk how does this enlighten one interact with the world what we do in in this world how we behave how is it different from the enlightened one or how is the enlightenment different from us how does this one sit when we withdraw from the world we relax we meditate or what is it for this person so all of these questions he asks and if you see the answers that krishna has given you'll see all of them are very internal you really can't say it works for you if you see that happening to yourself well maybe you're enlightened or on the way to enlightenment but how do you see it for somebody else one criterion is of course ethical behavior an enlightened one is not bound by ethical behavior but generally an enlightened person would not be unethical so if you see unethical behavior immoral behavior whatever that person is is probably not very spiritual let alone being enlightened a good sign sri ramakrishna has given jake they claim you feel um you feel appraised you feel purified you feel sublime in the in the company of such people and this many many of us have noted very few highly spiritual people i have met in my life i've seen absolutely always it is the case that people around them they feel it how do they feel they feel purified negativity is diminish you feel peace you feel acceptance you feel joy a kind of very pure luminous joy you feel higher life becomes real worldly life sort of fades to the background a holy place like a pilgrimage can do that to you and a holy person can do that to you an enlightened person more powerful they are the more deep that effect is i have seen a number of cases for example i have seen swami bhutishan anderjee twelfth president of our order coming to an ashram i saw the before and after it's an ashram a holy place yet it seems suddenly everything is lit up not physically somewhere somehow everybody is in a state of joy because of his presence and every day everybody wants to finish their daily tasks and routine just go to sit in his presence after all he's a 95 96 year old man what what what are you getting from this little old man but you sit there everybody's rushing like they're all attracted like honey bees to the flower that unexplained attraction [Music] i mean again and again i've seen crowds of people just gathering to look at him so what is it that attraction that shows um some kind of that shows enlightenment and you can see it more extraordinarily of course in the case of avataras you read of chaitanya mahaprabhu what extraordinary depictions and they're so vivid they must be depictions by people who are there kitan singing and dancing is going on at night and the whole crowd around they're playing the drums and symbols and you know hare ram hare krishna they're singing in between them is caitanya mahaprabhu in in ecstasy he's not aware of the external world and only half aware and therefore and he's singing to the song and dancing and the beautiful description of people holding up these flaming this fire brands this mashal and uh lamps they're holding it up so that they can get a glimpse of his face and this huge crowd is entranced see we can't see god but he here is one who is literally seeing god right at this moment and it's it's like it's expressed in his face that that's what stuns all of us sri ramakrishna he went to back to the village and he said he says mohammad belki lagi dish is a magic show of the um of the divine mother he had no rest for days on end wherever he goes crowds of people gather around to look at him and he says in bengali tagoti tagory that means the play of the drums everywhere you go and groups of musicians arrive and they want to sing and dance with him take the name of god and he can't sleep at night people pressing all around similar example is there of swami priman the babur maharaj was the manager of peloud mutt direct disciple of sri ramakrishna he was an extraordinary spiritual when he passed holy mother masharada she burst into tears and said my baburama was a light on the bank of the ganga he was like light up the grounds of balor mutt because she lived on the other bank and she felt his presence as a light shining on the other side of the river and he has gone that light has gone out now but there's a description of sriram krishna's birthday in charge of all the festivities crowds of people coming musicians they rush towards him and surround him and they sing and he just stands in silence or in ecstasy but they're seeing him this particular thing a small description which i found unforgettable in the afternoon with all this pressure you know in the afternoon he wants to take a break the famous indian afternoon siesta so he goes to this place which is called the visitors room it's still there in belurum now it has got many windows all around so he goes and he wants to take a nap there and all the windows are thick with people who are looking down at him just to see his face while he's sleeping what is that attraction it's the attraction of god and it says it's something that we are feeling all the time whatever we do in life so vivekananda says in bhakti yoga whatever we do in life do you not see that one force behind all the good in this life the love of the mother for the child the the the love of the greedy man for his money the love of the um the politician the ambition for success and power in the world and the the tremendous urge for um scientific discovery among a researcher the the uh you know the tendency of the the writer the artist for artistic expression pouring themselves out vivekananda says it's one force and it's at its higher end it is the saint um you know searching for god but it's the one force everywhere playing in all human beings in all civilizations in all life itself that is general but when it becomes very specific when that which all of this is searching for god when that god becomes even indirectly manifest to us in the face of somebody who is seeing god imagine the attraction we will have i remember there was this swami pavw in this was about nearly 30 years ago um in dogher i remember in the evening he was a disciple of swami shivananda and he was an irishman in his old age nearly 90 years at that time in the evening after the arathi was over he would go to his room i would you know accompany him hold his hand and slowly take him there before he would leave the temple he would turn around and bow down to sri ramakrishna i still remember the first time i saw him do it i was walking towards him he was facing he was going down but before he left the temple he turned around facing me looking over my shoulder at the pictures at the images on the altar i tell you every hair on my body rose yeah literally it's as if he was seeing this divine presence i whipped my head around to see what he was looking at you're just looking at the pictures but i'm sure he was not seeing what i was seeing i was seeing pictures of srirama krishna but he was seeing a living presence now what i'm saying is just the expression on his face how is it that 30 years later i it is most vivid i close my eyes instantly it is there it is a reflection indirectly here is a person i believe seeing god and i'm seeing the expression on his face it's unforgettable i'm you know in this life if nothing happens i've seen those things i know another monk like that who was a disciple again a disciple of swami shivan and the near mukta who lived for more than 100 years as to talk to him open maharaj another monk a senior monk she saw me talking with this old open mara nirmuktanji and he said and this other senior monk who told me was very accomplished is a very accomplished man a lot of things he has done in his life he said you know for all i have done in my life um he said i am um i had considered myself fortunate to roll on the dust on which this old monk has walked that's my stature compared to him and i understand his feeling so this is the feeling you get when you come near a person let alone avatar such persons who probably are highly spiritually advanced i don't know who is enlightened or not this is just to illustrate sri ramakrishna is saying that ishari uddipandha you get the feeling of the presence of god in the present when you are with such people that's a good indicator again all indirect indicators and we take one more and we'll conclude this is from manoj s swamiji you said that god-fearing is not about bhakti but most of the poojas and qatar's in hindu drama are all about do this or do that otherwise god will punish her punish you why this tradition yes fear can fear take us towards god certainly but it's the kindergarten of religion love is what pulls us towards god and remember fear and love do not go together now fear it might start i mean the beginner the lowest kind of mind may be turned towards god by fear awe is a little better than fear god is awesome not in the manhattan sense of awesome but everything is awesome but really truly awesome the only truly awesome thing is god and you would naturally be afraid of such a thing um so can it turn you towards god initially it can and that's why many religions um have this component of fear the wrath of god fear the anger of god and so on i remember this is harvard divinity school two years back when the kovid had just started we're beginning to see what it was people didn't know about social distancing masking first time i heard the term social distancing was at harvard um for it was for my talk it was going to be a big talk organized for me uh and other teachers of vedanta they were supposed to be 250 people it's a big crowd for harvard and then it got reduced to 25. i said why then i heard this term social distancing so we were in class and the class was christian contemplative prayer and then the professor i still remember stephanie paulsel she talked about what does god do all day long routine daily divine routine of the god of god so god believe it or not reads the bible in the morning and the torah under the jewish the torah and there is a time when god sits he has different thrones so this is a throne of judgment god sits on the throne of judgment and she put it so vividly that i think he has just sat down on the throne of judgment and what we are going to see and and that class little bit of it turned out to be like a prayer session you know this everybody felt quiet and she said i'm afraid of what we are going to see over the next few years and we we pray to the lord i mean it's our prayer that sit not on the throne of judgment sit on the throne of forgiveness and compassion so fear it can help people to turn towards god and so that's why it is taught but one must quickly move on from that to love god doesn't want us to fear god the more higher manifestations of god are the most human ones which are closer and closer to us and they say in hinduism the ten armed deity then the six armed deity then the four armed then the two armed deity two armed deities a human deity then the baby krishna ramallah the baby jesus why why a baby is god a baby no but why in the form of a baby the closest that you can get and from the baby you need not be afraid rather you have to take care of the baby you have to protect the baby and how ridiculous it is that you have to protect god or take care of god but no the point is god wants you to be as close not afraid and so love of god in spite of all that moment we have the slightest intimation of who or what it is that we are talking about the first reaction believe it or not will be will be terror somebody asked swami bhutah 12th president why was narendra nadal vivekananda why was he so scared when he he wanted to see god right and sriram krishna was about to give him a direct experience of god why did he become so scared what did he say when everything seems to be disappearing from him narendra nade says to sri ramakrishna stop stop what are you doing to me i have parents at home he wants it to stop he's terrified swami brahmananda rakhal he complained to sri ramakrishna everybody's getting visions and all that i don't get anything and please bless me so that i might and sudama krishna plays to the divine mother that if if he can have some some experience and the next time rakhal goes to the temple of kali he sees this living deity and light radiating everywhere and he ran he ran for his life and he came to sudama krishna srilam krishna says what's this now you ask for it you you nag me for it and when you get it you run away but why so the question was why did they get scared when arjuna after in the 11th chapter he asks for the vision you know krishna i believe he says to krishna i believe what you say but can't i have this experience of seeing that you are god and what your real nature as god i'm seeing you as krishna and i believe that you are an avatar of god but what is god like what are you truly like can you show me and krishna says i can and he grants him his prayer his prayer he grants him and what good did that do what was the result arjuna was terrified he said i don't want to this my mouth is drying up the earth is shaking i'm my every hair in my body is standing on its end i can't think my my mind is spinning uh stop this show me as you were earlier in the human form now the question to swami bhutah sanji was why why do we get so scared and his very humorous answer he would give this answer but you know he would joke but never laugh himself deadpan expression which made it all the funnier you to think of those who have not seen you have to think a little bit of yoda and he was a very yoda-like master so he said of course you will feel afraid and because you know every bit of your personal identity spins away into nothingness you'll feel terror and so on he went on and then he said but you lot have nothing to be afraid of we didn't get it at first you understand right now but we didn't we then we were shocked here is the head of our order basically telling us you'll never be enlightened uh we said swami what are you saying and he was uncommon he said no all right so uh on that note let's bring today's uh ask swami to our conclusion be [Music] you

Channel: Vedanta Society of 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, meditation, mindfulness, realization, consciousness, moksha, nirvana

Id: 4QDmwE0Fw2o

Length: 83min 26sec (5006 seconds)

Published: Sun Apr 17 2022