Navigating the Afterlife: Swami Sarvapriyananda's Teachings on Overcoming Death

um bring to our notice is that quite apart from all these texts in ancient Sanskrit and all the arguments and the philosophy the epistemology the metaphysics of it all the beauty and advantage of ad is it's talking about some something directly presented to us directly and continuously openly available to us all the time so that's why it's called the path it points to a reality right here right now always available in spite of our efforts um we can Nei erase it nor create it it's there um so it's good to keep that in mind because when we plunge into all of this we may feel confused we may feel it's too much it's too complex it's not at all complex it's good to keep in mind it's actually very simple ad for example unlike most of the philosophies it can be expressed in a single short sentence you are that I am Brahman that's it and when you try to understand it all of this is useful now asakra is going to do something very interesting and a little different in verse number eight [Music] [Music] have faith my child have faith never conf confuse yourself in this you are knowledge itself you are the Lord you are the self and you are Beyond nature what ashtavakra is telling us here is that if you're feeling bewildered by all these teachings and the philosophy and seems too subtle too complex too difficult one thing one can do straight away is he says just trust me just believe in this I am Brahman we believe in so many things many of which cause so much trouble and unhappiness to us we believe quite easily actually it's only when it comes to spiritual life that we become suddenly big Skeptics and critics and all that we believe easily every Advertiser knows that the whole Art and Science of advertisement is is predicated on that if people know you show something to people whether they and they sort of uncritically absorb it and that's the trick to selling products to advertising it works that's why billions and billions of dollars have spent on it so we believe and we absorb all sorts of nonsense from the world the sadhu tell you in Hindi and then translate he was explaining that you are Brahman and then he said I'm telling you if nothing else I'm telling you then just accept it because I'm telling you so um he gave an example when uh you were bought home from the hospital we B we were born how do you know that these are your parents your mom and dad and somebody said the nurse said so the nurse said so and then the Swami said I'll tell you hindian translate he said am I even less trustworthy than the the nurse you in the hospital so something so important for you you in your life you take it on trust and I am telling you without any expectation of any material gain from you nothing from you I'm telling you that you are Brahman sages and Saints Masters throughout history have told us this again and again so he says my child so here the just as a father just as a parent has only the interests of the children at heart similarly the spiritual master has only our interest at heart that how can we be delivered from unhappiness from sorrow how can we find fulfillment how can we reach the goal of life purpose of life is such the stakes could not be higher this is the point of it all the point of life and here it is presented to us directly see not to knock down other approaches but since this is AD and we think we are pretty cool and pretty high way up there this way up there I remember seeing a cartoon so there's a hierarchy among scientists um so there's this biologist and in in front of standing is the is the chemist you know he says you who I'm I'm superior to the biologist because all of biology ultimately depends on chemistry and then above this guy is standing the physicist he says I'm a physicist I'm superior to you guys because all of this your chemistry and biology depends upon the element Elementary particles of matter which I study then higher above that guy stands the applied mathematician know where whose mathematics is used for all of modern physics so I am the pure scientist you know and then that Caron it shows way above all of them sitting on a cloud is the pure mathematician he say Yoo guys I'm up here so pure mathematician who takes Delight in just sheer abstraction and concept it's supposed to be the most uh aloof and most elevated of all the Sciences G Hardy who was who's the one who invite invited ramanujam to Cambridge University so he was interviewed once and asked what is the application what application does your pure mathematics have what use is it does it have an application and he says I should hope not application means too grubby too low down to have applications so we otherwi things we consider ourselves to be above the clouds you know this the highest final ultimate um the ultimate teaching um so from that perspective I'll be a little critical the bti approach the devotional approach beautiful and sweet but it depends upon belief Faith you cannot be a devote you cannot be a b you cannot be a lover of God if you start by being a committed atheist if you it it depends on accepting the existence of God if you do not accept the existence of God devotion will not work for you the problem with that approach is in this day and age it is very difficult if if you're a thinking person you just listen to Richard Dawkins and Christopher Hitchens and Daniel dennet and Sam Harris when they attack the concept of God and religion you listen to them for half an hour one hour a day you will cleanse your mind of all religious nonsense they're going to vacuum your mind free so difficult in this day and age we have in this day and age it's the largest number of atheists and agnostics that there ever have been in the entire history of humanity this this age we are living in compared to this the yogic approach says that not belief but experience this is what viand what made Narendra into viand and what viand brought into this country see what did the Young Narendra go around doing in Kolkata in late 19th century they went around asking people have you seen God he went to Sri ramak Krishna that's where he received his first his the clearest answer most convincing answer have you seen God not whether does God exist or why do you believe in God do you believe or why don't you don't believe in God have you seen God and S Krishna said yes just as I see you even more clearly and you can too so this is the yo promise of the yogic path that not belief they're not asking you to believe in God if religion is true it should be experienceable if there's a God I should be able to see God if I have an immortal soul I should be able to feel it and experience it and pranali yoga it's the classic book of the yogi tradition which says that you sit in this way you breathe in this way Focus withdraw your mind and senses in this way meditate in this way and I promise you you will have certain extraordinary mystical experiences which will prove to you the claims of religion so you will have these experiences and these are all Extraordinary experiences samadi various types of samadi and this is what viand B here the first book he translated and published was his commentary on on the patanjali yoga sutras Raj yoga from New York he said to um the Americans in the late 19th century that religion is realization religion is not believing in a book it was a new idea at that time that he could actually experience God it was there in Christianity all out all throughout but what was what came to happen was people felt these mystical experiences are only for a few people they're like the athletes of the spiritual word not for the mass of people there are going to be a few Mystics but for the rest we have to just go to church and believe in what the pastor says and try to lead a good life and that's it and surrender that's it no all of us can should must realize God must experience God that's the yogic promise but there is from an adic perspective you see there is a problem with that too the problem is this these experiences are special experiences Sak Krishna is having a vision of Kali how many of us are having a vision of Khali even in that book when you see the description of Sak Krishna talking he's talking with the Divine mother but uh he is talking with the Divine mother nobody else in that Gathering is actually seeing the Divine mother so they believe that SRI Rak Krishna is having an experience with the Divine mother and they have shha belief faith in that what did people think of it what did people what have people thought about Mystics throughout the ages they're crazy most people during SRI Ram krishna's lifetime the people around most of them thought he was this mad priest of Kali and dakshineshwar and that's true of all the mistakes whenever they have in every religion people around them even religious people would doubt their sanity because mainly because we don't share those experiences they are rare and difficult to get and they're not public experiences and today especially in this day and age the neuroscientist will tell you I'm sure you feel one with the universe or I'm sure you're seeing a Divine Light or you're seeing forms visions of God I'm sure you're seeing that but it's not because actually you're seeing God it's because there's a little stroke on the left side of your brain and there's little Heming there and that is affecting your experience of the world there's this very nice uh talk by this lady she had a stroke she she was a neuroscientist it's maybe the one of the most watched TED Talks ever and she wrote a book about it too because she was trained she realized that I'm having a stroke and she felt one with the universe so are you actually one with the universe no no no you're just a human being having a stroke so the neuroscientist will tell you there is some neuron something wrong with your brain that's why or if you're in New York um especially after 5 in Central Park you're high so most people are and so they're feeling one with the universe and that's the problem with um mystical experiences there are genuine mystical experiences but how do you know which are genuine and which are not there are mystical experience seem to be mystical born of nothing more than unfortunate mental illness hallucination um drugs or neurological problems many kind of things so how do you know now um says not belief as in the path of biti not special mystical experiences as in the path of yoga but just our daily cottian experiences experiences we have right now of seeing hearing smelling tasting of being the subject and experiencing the object of being awake dreaming and sleeping who does not have these experience experiences who has not experienced being awake or Dreaming or sleeping everybody has who has not experienced the physical body and the subtle body all of us and all the time we experience it now this is enough for the adic inquiry to start ad vant says you just need whatever you already have and then we will guide you step by step logically at every step we will not tell you that there is some extraordinary thing you do these practices 25 years later you may have that vision and then you will see for yourself or none of that you have to believe in it none of that it's just it's available and you can see right now right here this is the beauty of AD however if all these teachings are too complicated too subtle asakra says the Baka has a great point the faith is a great power if you believe in what I'm saying just simulate it suppose it's true what all these texts and all the Masters are telling me I am Brahman right now I am pure awareness and try to see what it looks like the world and yourself if you have suppose you're already enlightened you're a j m what would it feel like what would it be how would you as the enlightened person react to it react to the things in the world the whatever is happening in your life and in the behavior of others as viand says I know I cannot die therefore I'm not in a hurry I know I'm one with all of them are one with me imagine my happiness and so on soas just believe it what is that fake it till you make it one might say but doesn't say it's not a question of belief you must understand it well the the interesting thing psychologically is if you believe in it if you take it all right let me take it as it is that as suppose it is true let me take it that way and I am rman right now if you believe in it if you have conviction in it the process of understanding and realization becomes much easier so do not be deluded on this point this Del this confusion who am I what am I this has these two forms in adant me talk about that a little bit see when we come to ad there are actually three three points of confusion three kinds of questions which come up first is um what is the teaching all these books I'm seeing what are they telling me in technically this is called prar um prah samay means a doubt about the source of knowledge itself about the teaching itself so what exactly is astavakra saying what exactly are the upanishad saying what exactly Shankar AAR saying and and how do you remove this you remove this by studying listening so when we listen to the talks when we attend Retreats like this when we read the book attentively after sometime you if you try to rehearse it in your own mind if you try to repeat back the essential points as we gathered them that cloud begins to dispel now I have a clear idea about what the books are telling me so that's the first St but that's set aside we have already listen listened to it but now two more problems come two more questions two more kinds of confusion the second kind of confusion is I know what the teaching is I've heard the talks but I don't get it it's quite possible to know the teaching I can even tell you summarize what the book says but there are many things I don't get I know the book says you are Brahman I know vant can be summarized in one sentence Brahman is real the world is in appearance and you are brahmanah it can be summarized I know all these things but I don't understand it so let's take up the questions one by one and deal with it this not understanding I know the teaching but I don't understanding don't understand it this is called um impossibility doubt I I don't see how I am brah you are Immortal I don't see how I am Immortal you're all pervading I don't see that I'm just here so these are serious doubts and they have to be resolved by reasoning and vant will demonstrat for example the text that I'm going to teach in Phoenix ad makarand the honey of nity so that deals with all of this it starts with I am I am Brahman I exist I I aware I shine I am happy and that is sat an so how am I not Brahman Brahman is existence Consciousness Bliss right and he says look at yourself do you exist or not everyone will say I do are you aware or not yes I am aware and are you happy at least occasionally are you happy or not well yes I'm happy this is what Brahman is existence Consciousness Place s so how how am I not Brahman and then the questions will come wait a minute it's true that I exist and I'm aware most of the time and Happy some of the time but Brahman is um is the cause of this universe the books tell us that Brahman is the cause of the UN the universe is produced from Brahman am I the cause of the universe it's absolutely not true and then he will explain what is meant by pure Consciousness and how the universe is an appearance in pure Consciousness then the next question will come yeah I exist see I exist but Brahman is eternal existence I'm not Eternal existence I was born on that day and I'm sure that I'm going to die on a particular day in the near future sometime so my existence is entirely cut off there was a time when I was not there was a time when I will not exist so how am I Brahman Brahman is supposed to be Eternal existence that means Immortal then the author will explain that as pure being or pure awareness it's only the body which is Born the body which dieses but you have no proof and he'll give arguments to show pure Consciousness is not born pure Consciousness does not die or pure being is not born or pure being does not die the next question will be um all right but uh Brahman is supposed to be um you know pure Consciousness and I'm conscious now after two hours of vant lectures I'm a little less conscious and then after lunch I'll be even less conscious and at night I'm not conscious at all how is this Brahman is endless awareness and Limitless awareness and then the author will explain that how these are states of the mind you are that a awake Consciousness witnessing the awake mind the Sleepy mind the dreaming mind and so on like this so what's going on here these are questions I have about the teaching I know the teaching but I have doubts about the teaching and they are how do you resolve them through reasoning and thinking it through with the help of others with the help of the teacher with the help of the books and also thinking it through for yourself till you get clarity now what have we achieved we have removed two of the problems one is uh um and this is PR impossibility regarding I am Brahman and the doubts about the teaching itself both are removed now I know the teaching I understand it I have got clarity now now what's the problem it still doesn't seem to be a living truth to me I still react to the world just like that old guy you know unhappiness the misery the the restlessness anger all of that I react to it like that old person so to overcome the old Tendencies of the body mind you have to meditate on the clarity to marinate in it you know to another term is familiarize yourself the truth you have understood it they have got Clarity stay with that Clarity till it becomes oh it's a fact how wonderful then you are enlightened so this is Sir or my child do not be confused on this point get rid of the three kinds of confusion what is the teaching I don't don't get it or I get it I know the teaching and I get it but it's not real for me it's not living for me all these three confusions get rid of in Sanskrit they are called um andana VI is contrary Tendencies then he says at this phrase is profound impacted bhagavan God bhagavan means god which God the Creator preserver destroyer of the universe the one God worshiped by all theistic religions of the world why do I say theistic religions because there are religions which are not theistic there are religions which are not concerned with God and do not worship God Buddhism jism even within Hinduism you have something I mentioned Sanka Sanka doesn't talk about God so yoga philosophy yoga there's God In Yoga philosophy but marginal God is not the goal of yoga philosophy self-realization is the goal so there are philosophies and religions which are non-theistic but all the theistic religions of the world they posit that there is an omnipotent omniscient and Omni presentent deity and it's one which is the creator of the universe the maintainer preserver sustainer of the universe and ultimately the dissolver destroyer of the universe and then again repeat repeat so this idea in different forms it's there in all the theistic religions he says bhagavan then he say another term Atma self what is the self you I we the self and then he says bhan Atma this bhagavan and this self is one and the same is one and the same how can it be one and the same bhagan is only presentes everywhere I'm just here if I go to my room then I won't be here you are there but you're not here we are limited we're so small not omnipresent and God is omnicient all knowing we are not all knowing we what is called in Sanskrit alya very little knowledge we struggle and struggle through school and college and get knowledge and promptly forget it afterwards or even if you're the most knowledgeable encyclopedic knowledge a little bit of Alzheimer's it's still gone so our knowledge is very shaky and very limited I think it was Einstein who said as I know more it's like I become aware of the shores of my ignorance like surrounded being being surrounded by an ocean an ocean of knowledge out there which I do not know only a little bit we know they pushed back the the borders of human Ignorance by getting a little bit of knowledge so we have have so little knowledge and God is supposed to be omnicient Elon Musk said he read through the entire encyclopedia branica when it was a school kid but even that's so little knowledge compared to what what God knows Swami vianda he actually memorized the encyclopedia britanica h as Leisure reading in Bel but towards the end of his all too short life one day he was sitting and reading the encyclopedia branica and his disciple sharak Chandra chakravarti came into his room and uh he saw the whole set and those days it was 10 volumes but they are more impressive than these days it's all disembodied and in the cloud or something so you can't but it's impressive to see 10 big volumes they are all leatherbound big volumes and the gentleman said to Swami vivanda I don't think a man could read through all of this in one lifetime via said what are you talking about I have read through nine of these volumes I'm on the 10 you can ask me any question from these nine volumes not only read through it but you can ask me any question and Shandra goes ahead and he checks it out he asks question and random puts out the volumes and checks here and there was it sh Chandra or one of the disciples maybe Shar Chandra or one of the other disciples this is happened in India in Kata so he pulls out the volumes of here and there and asks questions and he writes later in his Memoir that the Swami answered every question often down to the comma in the full stop in the same language and he asks incred this is incredible how is this possible said by the power of Purity and concentration it's possible but even that is limited knowledge God's knowledge is omnicient and our knowledge is so little and only poent God can do anything but our power is so limited so limited so weak even at our strongest even at our most competent we still so weak and so incapable how can bhagan Atma how can you be you the self be bhagan it's completely contradictory then what does it mean what it means is what is bhagavan and what are you what we are we can already say I am the witness Consciousness I am not the body not the mind I am the witness of the body witness of the mind I am this awareness itself this awareness quoted by this mind and this body is you that same awareness quoted by this mind and this body is s PR and it's him it's her it's all of us it's all living beings all human beings all animals plants all sentient beings are that same Consciousness qued with a particular mind and body at Birth that body is born but the mind has been existing since time IM immemorial it comes downloaded to that body when that body perishes that same mind travels it's to another world and another body and so on so forth this is called rebirth cycle of birth and death and what is bhagavan what is God it is that same Consciousness which is connected to all bodies and all Minds technically I can give you the definitions again the book Vantas which I mentioned yesterday it's all it's all there it's all basic what is called mahavakya and Analysis of the great statements that thou art so what is God according to vanta what is the sentient being according to Consciousness associated with Maya with the totality with Maya with the cosmic mind and the physical Cosmos that is God and the sentient being is one part of that Maya and one mind and one body same Consciousness limited by one one little causal body one subtle body and one physical body that's a j each one of us that's the thing but suppose you set aside the contributions of nature set aside the physical body the subtle body the causal body take the Consciousness in itself then what happens bhagan and Atma you are one and the same if you take Consciousness in itself awareness in itself then God and you are one and the same it's like the emperor and the beggar in a Broadway show so there's an emperor with all his finery and all his Grand dialogues and everything and you know surrounded by his glory and there is the beggar in rags and weeping and bemoaning his faith and his poverty but suppose there's this one great Broadway actor who is act acting in a double role as the emperor and as the beggar he goes into the green room and changes into the clothes of the emperor comes out and speaks grindly and struts around the stage goes back into the Green Room changes into his tattered clothes and comes and is a beggar and you say the beggar is the Emperor and somebody can ask you legitimately how can the beggar be the emperor don't you see the clothes are different don't you see how this man walks and then that man walk walks don't you see how this person speaks and how the beggar speaks the lies are dead dialogue is different the clothes are different the behavior is different how can they be the same what what do you mean the emperor is not really an emperor the beggar is not really a beggar it's a play behind both Emperor and beggar is one man the actor similarly if you look in the Green Room you will find one Consciousness when you come to this world you will find that you will find the sentient being yourself and God but you are the sentient being and you are that which is called God also bhagan Atma how do you reconcile the two the first word g pure Consciousness as pure Consciousness in association with Maya you are called bhagan as pure Consciousness in association with this causal body subtle body and physical body you are called Mr or Miss Mrs so and so this is mahak mAh great statement what are the great statements that th I Amah Brahma Consciousness this very Consciousness is Brahma Ultimate Reality of the Universe I am Atma Brahma this very self is Brahma they all mean the same thing all of these mahavakyas they mean the same thing mahaka great statement this is a great statement what is the definition of a great statement mahak Jah that which establishes the identity of the individual sentient being and of the the cosmic Lord of Brahman that which establishes the identity that is the called a great statement so conventionally we take four one from each of the four vas but there are any any number of such statements across the vas and across these texts everywhere you find this a great Identity or the great equation somebody called it what is the identity ban at ban Atma God and you the self saying how G as pure Consciousness and he tells us how to equate the two if you transcend nature Beyond nature they are the same when you come within nature same Consciousness same electricity flowing through a million power bulb same electricity what in India we used to have something called zero power bulb I don't know if I've Not Seen It in America it's a very very dim light but there are these ones nowadays they there near the floor in many rooms you find just gives a little bit of Illumination at night so like that but it's the same electricity the difference is in the capacity of the bulbs you have a light which lights up a stadium blazing light you can be seen from outer space from orbit that kind of light and you have the tiny little light at The Corner Room you can barely see it at night but the behind it is the same electricity you are not that bu you are that electricity itself and he said you say that I don't really get it I mean it's tremendous but what can I do with this believe in it my child believe in it and see what happens then we have we're almost out of time it's supposed to end at yeah 20 20 minutes 11:5 115 115 okay look at the consequence N9 and 10 now we're going to see the results of all of this what benefit do I get first of all you go beyond death you lose fear of death number nine the body composed of the ingredients of nature comes stays and goes the self neither comes nor goes why then do you mourn it this body made of the three goodas of nature satas made of the five elements space and wind and air and fire and water and Earth or um how many elements is it now in the periodic table it keeps increasing so what 120 140 elements whatever all the elements in the periodic table this body is a composite made of all of that so is the mind it comes it stays for a while it goes but you are the Limitless Consciousness in which these elements have Arisen Arisen mean they have not come out of you they are appearing in you and a combination of those elements these worlds have Arisen appearing in you these bodies have Arisen appearing in you they are born these bodies age and then they die you are the same the wave appears in you the ocean it rises to a height and then begins to subside and then it fades away you the same otion you neither increased nor diminished by the arising and the subsiding of the Waves will say that in you the infinite ocean of Consciousness the waves of these worlds arise let them arise let them subside you are neither increased nor diminished by that let Birth come you're not increased by that let aging and disease come and death come you are not diminished by that let success come wealth education winning the election or something you're not increased by that the same same ocean wave has come up let failure and poverty and loss come you are not diminished by that same ocean just the way was gone and AD say it's a fact right now this is the best clearest most honest depiction of what's going on these are appearances in you the Consciousness what is the self it neither comes nor goes at it's not something that goes away not something that comes body comes welcome it stays for a while and keeps on changing good it goes away goodbye you were there all the time you were there before the body during the body and afterwards but the body body doesn't exist without you like a body in the dream what are you weeping for what are you afraid of the psychologist R Lane he was in his a British psychologist in 1950s 60s he famously said that human beings are afraid of we are all afraid of three the three great fears of our lives these common fears the deepest and strongest fears of our lives first and foremost the fear of death it dominates Our Lives you said that's not true it's just a cliche I hardly think of um death of my death usually I hardly think of that and that's because you're suppressing it you know he was a Friedan psych analyst so in frian psychist is nobody's normal if you say but I have no problems ah serious problem you're suppressing all of your problems I'm not thinking about death you're you're dead scared of death that's why you impossible you find it impossible to think about death there's this book the denial of death earns Becker he got a poit surprise for it quite a long time back it's based on psychoanalysis but he says all our lives are guided this one thing haunts us although we refuse to acknowledge it it's like a ghost always there we refuse to look at it the fear of our own death and he says whatever human beings do they're all as a reaction to that fear a fight back against the fear of death and all are doomed to failure what are what what do we do everything that you do from having children to building a business Empire to writing a book to whatever he calls them all immortality projects immortality projects somehow I will persist but will you persist what you what you are this person no viand says death is everywhere Emperors die and poppers die Scholars die and fools die Saints die and sinners die all will die but you will not there's no question of your death both birth and death you are the witness to both you they are all possible birth and death because of you you exist they borrow their existence from you the body borrows its existence from from you so what are you um sad about so what are the three things uh we are all scared of first death un specker said second thing we are all scared of is other people that's not true we are scared of other people especially people in our lives people first most obviously people you consider to be enemies or who can threaten you who can cause you harm you know the Troublesome neighbor the terrorist or the gangster but also someone like who can um seriously harm you like like your boss who can lay you off or get afraid of them like the teacher who can give me a f or even scold me a humiliate somebody who can scold me a humiliate me in public we're afraid of these people almost everybody again even more interesting we are afraid of people we love because they can come cause harm to us they can they can not that they would want to but they can because you love them You're vulnerable anything happens to them your wife husband children parents you love them because you love them anything happens to them you suffer terribly often in the world people suffer more for the sufferings of their beloved people rather than themselves their parents all the time they consumed by anxiety and worry not so much for themselves for the children who couldn't care less really there's one great thing to learn you as parent those were parents one great release you need not be so unhappy or so worried or frustrated or anxious it's needless because the people you are anxious about or worried about they are not all that worried at all you keep on imagining imaginary threats problems so we are afraid of other people enemies people who can harm us people who are beloved to us and close to us they're afraid of them because of them and then third oh this afraid of people the French existentialist s famously said that definition of hell hell is other people hell is it's there in a play hell is other people if imagine if you are locked up in a room with a group of people and there's no escape from that room very soon you would feel that those people are hell they feel the same way about you I remember this monk in our senior monk very wonderful Swami who's done a lot of work in our order he told me a personal story he said when I was a novice monk many many decades ago I was in this asham it was quite tough the monastery and there was this great Swami I would write letters to Swami dhanda who was in our asham in K harida he was a great non-dualist great a saintly person so this monk said I would write letters to him in those days post cards and that would in one in some way that was a good time because it would take 15 days or one month for your letter to reach and then another month for that to come back it gives you enough time to cool down and reflect so once I was very unhappy and I said wrote to him I can't bear these people you know the people in the asham they're treating me badly and I'm suffering I can't bear this people inali and he wrote to that Monk and then a reply came and he said I was expecting sympathy or advice you know how to deal with these problems there's only one line remember they are also bearing with you you don't think that we are unbearable awful people but we are it for me each of us in the eyes of at least a few others you might be astonished why would I'm such a nice guy why would people dislike me they do and in their eyes for pretty good reasons so we are afraid of other people and the third thing we are afraid of according to Lane is um our mortality afraid of other people and our own minds we're afraid of our own minds we are afraid of ourselves ourselves basically our own minds what we might think what we might do to ourselves and others what's the next crazy thing that I will do or I'll just not measure up to my own expectations that's also there it's me I'm afraid of myself and solves all of those problems how that's your homework think about it it solves the problem of mortality solves the problem of other people by showing you that they are not other people they yourself and it solves the problem of the Mind by saying you are that in which mind appears like a bubble a wave it's nothing apart from you and it's nothing to you then next number 10 sorry I missed one thing Let the Body last to the end of the cycle millions and billions of years suppose you live Immortal practically all or let it go even today let the body die today let death come today right now where is there any decreas or in you who are pure Consciousness you should be perfectly equanimous from that perspective there is nothing more that I want to achieve through this body and mind or at least vant vant does not require this body and mind vant only requires you to be pure Consciousness which you have now now you have understood this so this body and mind is the Lords and it goes on as far as your past karma is there what is called prabha karma or as the Lord's wish is there this body mind embodiment will go on as long as it goes on be a blessing to yourself and everybody else and when the Lord Wills that this particular drama should end should go back to the Green Room huh happily it's nothing to you it's a ition in the Limitless Consciousness that you are so will you disappear not at all you'll remain in your real nature infinite existence Consciousness which you are right now so it says Let the Body say sometimes people say that I don't want to live any longer it's awful miserable that's ignorance that's ignorance that's still strong body identification that's why suicide is discouraged I I recently did a little TV spot for suicide watch and they had approached spiritual teachers they of course told us what to say don't kill yourself that's message number one number two is that dial this number they're going to help you and things like that so suicide is strongly discouraged that shows strong body identification um or let it stay for ages hundreds of years thousands of years let this body survive I was once approached just a couple of years back last year I was approached by Hollywood not the asham the film industry and they say how would you like to be in a film with William Shatner I said wow that's great we grew up as little kids in India we had only two shows from America at that time one was star Tre the original series with William Shatner as Captain Kirk and the other was I Love Lucy so why would I not not want to be in a film with Captain Kirk so there's this thing called I think it's on History Channel or Discovery History Channel It's called The Unexplained and in season two there was one the mysteries of the uh yogis who can live for a long time 100 years 200 years the secrets of immortality and so I agreed and I was interviewed but I never got to see William Shatner he he is the host so there are a lot of interviews and he pulls them together and he hosts the the people in the those the movie people they told me that see we'll try to get you to meet with William Shatner but he is probably the oldest living and active actor in Hollywood so he pretty much does what he wants to so you can't really he went to space Also recently in a rocket finally Captain KK went to space so in that interview they asked me how did yogis live to be 100 years 200 years I gave them the example of um of tranga Swami who was in Banaras s Ram Krishna met him so VI the holy mother day all all met him and he lived what 240 years now that's not an exaggeration because there are multiple records testifying to him it was the period of the British rule so they were the British government testified to seeing him at over the decades and so anyway I talked about that and I told them you don't have to live in this body you are the immortal Consciousness anyway they were not interested in that and I saw the actual show they had cut out those parts all the vant but they had kept all the yogis living for hundreds of years that's what they found fascinating let it stay for hundreds of years or let it die today let the body die today I'm completely unaffected by it it's nothing to to be viand says just as a hair falls from the head and B you i' be happy if all the hair fell from my head permanently but the hair falls from the head it's nothing to you similarly when one body goes it's nothing to you the soul the Atman hundreds and thousands of bodies and come have come and gone we are if nothing else we are masters of dying we have died many many many times in the past we've just got it down like that it's so don't be at all afraid of time there's no increase in you if you have a body there's nothing that you lose if the body goes you are pure Consciousness all right let's do we'll take a little bit of time the questions the three people who wanted to ask questions yes I can start with online the other three people who wanted to ask questions please come here and we will send the microphone to [Music] you it is said that even sh who is himself to feel as an object to be experience creates the universe with all its dualities so how have realize and happiness for themselves or compassion for others because now all life is of the nature of one single where is the joy and if all of it is nonell and one it's all one with you imagine your happiness as VI says I know that all are one with me imagine my happiness every living being is I it's in Oneness that there is happiness what do you do when you want to be happy what do you do when you want to have some pleasure know right the object of pleasure a cookie what do you do with it you make it one with yourself put it into your tummy it must tou touch my tongue when I want to see a beautiful sight what do I do I go and so put it in contact with my eyes Oneness happiness always requires you to become one with the object of your happiness and if you know you are one with the entire Universe imagine your happiness there's also the difference to be considered between what is known as brti Anand and swand the happy which is experienced with the help of the mind and the senses I taste something that gives me a burst of happiness I think a happy thought and that gives me a burst of Happiness that's something that comes and goes that arises and then diminishes and Fades away that can be more or less but ad talks about the source of all happiness which is you the Atman that existence that Consciousness is also an Limitless existence Consciousness Place only a little bit of that is reflected in our day-to-day happinesses all of these little happinesses which come and go the Anand which the Anand of saand does not come and go it's always there does not increase and decrease it does not depend on an object to be enjoyed it's the difference between so the question was if it's all one um what about particular happinesses which we enjoy those particular happinesses like the reflection of my face in the mirror now the desire to enjoy those particular happinesses is like the desire to keep on reflecting my face in the mirror I see my face in the mirror occasionally you might see your face in the mirror but if you say I am anxious about it all the time with great care I want to maintain the face in the mirror that's lunacy what is our normal state of mind sometimes I may see my face in the middle sometimes I may not I have no anxiety about my face it's there I know I don't need to see it all the time similarly I am that Limitless happiness I don't need to keep it keep reflecting it in the mirror of the mind and to experience it as an object if that makes sense so now the question is is the nellist Enlighten one happy or not well direct answer very happy don't worry about it you'll be you'll be very very happy when you are enlightened let's have these questions tell us your name and ask the question pram Swami G my name is promode promode means happiness uh my question is uh what does progress uh for a lay person uh who's on the path of atic meditation uh what does it look like I'm assuming it starts initially with a glimpse of of this Con non-conceptual like uh awareness and I'm assuming that the Glimpse will become like more stabilized or like will be longer and eventually does it get to a point where somebody when they're doing a normal task like a day-to-day task can actually do that without without like the ego or like without a conceptual view of of what is being done yes does it get stabilized over time it does um it's actually quite a deep subject you are promode when you given that name it took you a little bit of time to get familiarized with it but now it is effortless you don't need to practice being promode in the morning and evening you know my daily promote meditation I am promote I am promote just in case that I don't forget get no you don't forget and you don't put any effort into it although that's something that's imposed upon you because there's a name that was given to you and that has become so effortless that I am Rahman becomes effortless like that no practice is needed to maintain this that's the goal that's what we have that's where we have to reach out actually the fact is that that's where we are at but we don't recognize that fact I remember a similar question was asked by Young monk to a spiritual master in haridwar is there he this young monk asked the master the teacher in Hindi am at least we have to we should hold on to that knowledge this realization what the beautiful things that asak is telling us to boil it down basically I am limitless awareness I must at least hold on to that right this is the gain the take away from this and the master said with equal vment he said that's what you must not hold on to as long as you holding on to that it's a practice how much effort do you put in in practicing promote being promote nothing no effort at all it would be wasted time for you so that is what we must reach towards there's a story about one of those nice little stories about ashtavakra and janaka one day janaka was sitting after listening to all this sitting on the bank of the river and meditating and practicing I am Brahman I am brah brah bras asak looked at him and came and sat down next to him now this is a little difficult to explain wondering monks in India they have a little stick um like Dunder with a chent shape where they can put their hand and do the Jabba with the rosary and everything and they have a water pop the stick is called Dand um something sometimes it's called Gand alland and the water pot is called kamandalu kamandalu is a water pot a brass water pot monks walk around carrying this stuff I don't know today they might be carrying mobile phones and stuff but this is traditionally what a monk is supposed to carry so he sat down asakra next to janaka with the Dand the stick and the water pot and janaka is saying I am Brahman I Brahman I Brahman and asak said this is a stick this is a pot this is a stick this is a pot and janaka looked at him quizzically and glared at him and started chanting loudly I am Brahman I am brah he started chanting even more loudly and finally J got exasperated he said who doesn't know that's a stick and this a p what are you doing and ashak said exactly what are you doing all right but this is the final this is when you are have no more problems at all but before that if you have problems with this sh don't worry about small glimpses persisting glimpses go back to listening go back to reasoning and stay with that listening and what what you get from that listening what you get from that reasoning try to stay with it there are techniques of vitic meditation of course okay okay thank you you help a lot of people deal with problems so first of all thank you my question is about what's your name my name is ano ano my question is about aarti why is it called aaro anuti and why is it notti so there is a text called aaro anuti which literally Lally means if I translate it very literally usually it is translated as direct realization it would mean non indirect experience so what is this direct indirect non- indirect Etc praka is direct perception so if you're seeing that's praka the Sanskrit word praka is AA means eyes and in general it stands for all the five sense orbits literally the eyes but all the five sense organs praka that which appears to your sense organs so that which you can see hear smell taste touch all of that is called protction English sensory perception or just perception perception but there are a lot of things which we do not perceive but we know them we read about them in our science books in our geography books things which are far away from us we read about in geography books or see it on on the internet there are things which are removed from us in the past we read about it in history books so there these are we do not see them we do not hear of them they they're either separated from us in space or they separated from us by time but we have knowledge of them so that kind of knowledge which we do not gain from our sense organs is called paroa beyond the range of our senses it could be physically beyond the range of our senses maybe far away or maybe very tiny like atoms which we can't see or the covid virus we can we cannot see it paroa because it's too tiny to see or it could be things like heaven and God how did you know is a God or Heaven if you do know at all well the holy books told us let paroa that is beyond the range of our senses these are the two kinds of knowledge that we have praka and paroa but you exist I exist how do I know that do I see myself if you ask Swami is um um ano there I'll say yes how do you know because I see him now if you ask Swami are you there are you here I say yes if you ask how do you know I say because I see myself let me take a look yeah I am here do I ever do that for ano I'll do that I'll see oh yeah he's here but for myself I'll never take a look or sometimes this is so praka for me I don't need prak to see know that I exist is it paroa even less so who all attended take a look at the list of attendees or these people with was ano there yes his name is there he signed here he's here was I there let me see have I signed am I so I must have been there that might be true in the past if I don't remember but right now let me see the list of people yes I am here because clearly it says so that's paroa but do I depend on that for knowing I'm here no then how do I know I am here not pra not by seeing hearing smelling tasting touching yes yes I here no not by paroa by reading something by being told by somebody else let me ask you do you think I'm here yes swam you are here okay so I must be here I don't do that how do I know I am here this is called aaro not protection not direct not perception not indirect knowledge also not Pera prot this is AOA this is called a direct knowledge of myself so it's used in a double negative sense paroa not Paro not indirect um here also there's a slight um refinement that can be and should be done the realization of self Atma that and pure Consciousness is not even appro actually if you look even closer what is direct thoughts pain I feel pain how do you feel it do you see it hear it smell it taste it touch it no do you think about it do you imagine it you know it's like a nurse nowadays they ask a pain question it's new I saw in the hospital they'll take your blood pressure um your pulse rate oxygen level that also is new addition after covid I think and then what else do they take uh your weight or something like that and now they ask pain are you in any pain if you say no fine zero they'll put if you say yes then 1 to 10 I think that's paroa the doctor will ask is the patient in pain okay one to 10 he said six yeah the patient is in pain that's paroa but the patient himself or our does the person have to look at the scale and say it says I'm in pain so I think I'm in pain no directly without sense organs I'm unhappy even more clear how do you know that that is AOA directly in Consciousness unhappiness arises Consciousness pain arises that is a paroa if you make that a paroa then the Consciousness itself the self itself how do you know that so there's a new term for not a new term very ancient term from the Sak direct and immediate that's why it's called aan the last person Namaste Swami G and I'm so happy to see you in person uh my name is SAA uh my question is um before this knowledge I was a victi so acted accordingly but I was a VI individual a person a person individual yes so after a lot of understanding listening and intuitively knowing that I'm a sakshi um there is still a confusion on how to U deal with one's own emotions and how to deal with unfairness um how to go about in the world basically they say a sad Saint is a bad Saint so I I wanted to have a summary on how a sakshi would act in this world when the choice making is um you have to make choices in certain situations and all that right so first of all how do you act in this world first answer important Point normal be normal I've had people who were very enthusiastic about these teachings somebody wrote to me that one Limitless Consciousness which is you yourself in and through this particular body with the name of Mishra is writing to you just say Mr Mishra don't do that be absolutely normal s ramakrishna said about this answer to this question that um there was a clerk remember this was British times there was a clerk who was jailed for something then he was led out of the jail what will he do in Bali he said will he go back to his clerkship or will he dance around he may dance around for a little while and free but afterwards he'll go back to his job his is being a clerk again that mean like it's a very normal hrum Loki job similarly be normal be ordinary the Great Master Padma samha he was asked by an old man who served him and then asked him a question master I'm old my days are not long I'm also uneducated and I'm not done any spiritual practices give me an instruction by which I will become enlightened so there's a very short onepage instruction if you Google it you'll find it very beautiful highest teachings direct path teachings like ad vant it's in what's called zokan Buddhism Tibetan Buddhism so there the name of the teaching is pointing the staff at the heart of the old man pointing the staff at the heart of the old man so Padma samaba the Great Master who took tiet Buddhism to Tibet before leaving he lifted his staff and he pointed it at the old man and he said a few words it's less one page direct teachings that you are the Buddha nature your some things like that very nice at the end of it he gave some practical advice because that old man said I'm I'm a householder and I have not done any spiritual practice I'm old and soon I will die and I'm not very educated also please teach me in simple words so that I'll be enlightened right now so he gave some practical advice advice like do not think too much about your children do not waste time in in Gossip do not concern yourself too much in matters of health and wealth and then last but not least always aim to die an ordinary person I never found his teaching anywhere that is important we trying to be extraordinary that also gets us into trouble it's good this is a teaching for a mature person remember if I was talking to college students I would always encourage them and be great and try your best and Excel and all of that is a very important but after some amount of maturity if you're a spiritual Seeker as far as your worldly life is concerned aim to die an ordinary person and that sets you free because you are not you're not ordinary you are the most extraordinary thing in the universe but don't try to make that person extraordinary all right now with that to answer to your question is how do you deal with unfairness how do you deal with different emotions in the mind first of all don't try to deal with them be centered in your own nature as Limitless Consciousness awareness from there now you deal with that person who's being un unfair to you who is that person is you yourself look at the storms in the mind the unhappiness frustration restlessness what are those those are waves in the ocean that you are see all these questions come up if we are not firmly properly fixed in our real nature as Limitless Consciousness if you are that if even Clarity is there these questions will answer themselves by themselves what asakra is doing here I am limitless Consciousness Immortal what about fear of death he says Let the Body stay let it die what is it to you so how will I actually deal Common Sense common sense when shank the story is there and Shankar is walking down the lane in a village and a mad elephant charges he climbs a tree and then somebody asks him but you are Brahman why did you run away from the elephant and climb a tree you know that I know that but does the elephant know it that I'm from s Krishna story of the mahut and the elephant and so on so anyway so that's the answer be ordinary use common sense but the direct answer to that is first be centered in your nature I am Brahman you'll see all the will come very easily either it will not matter to you and you also know the skillful way of handling day-to-day work yes thank you so much om shant shant [Music] shant [Music] so welcome to the apparo anuti class bad weather and only a few few hearty Souls have turned up um of course we are joined by um a number of quite a large number of uh viewers on the Internet thanks to the magic of uh thanks to the magic of modern technology we are able to connect to so many people across United States I'm told Canada and other parts of the world special uh thanks to the volunteers who have come in the midst of snow and cold to enable the the live stream to work I'm told it in the 20s outside -4° C -4 - 5 5° C so this is titia U spiritual fortitude that I'm interested in vidanta in spiritual knowledge so I'll put up with the troubles that the world throws me heat and cold and sickness and problems and troubles and traffic and whatnot we were on verse 68 we had done 68 [Music] 69 [Music] [Music] just like a pot is all clay a pot is made of clay I'm translating so this body is actually Consciousness therefore the division into Atma and an Atma I the self am pure Consciousness and I'm not the body and mind the body and mind is separate I am separate this is a division which is made in Vain by the ignorant okay now this is strange you know we spent so much effort so many verses so much of logic was spent in distinguishing the witness self from the body mind complex that I am the witness self I am pure Consciousness this body is an object and now if if that is so not only that um I am separate from the world I'm separate from the body I'm separate from the mind I am the witness consciousness of the body mind world now you are saying that there is only one reality pure Consciousness if pure Consciousness alone shines forth as this world why did you make this distinction between Consciousness and everything else especially why did you make this difference between Consciousness and the body what did they just say now just as a PO is all clay through and through it's Clay when you examine it it's just made of clay it's just clay all of it is Clay similarly this body mind complex is nothing but pure Consciousness that's the claim which is being made here when we first started vanta we were shown we were told look just as this book is an object and I am the experien of the book The I Am The Seer of the book The Seer of the book and the book are different similarly I the experiencer of the body I'm must I am different from the body I must be a different entity and we had so many reasons it was so strongly and well argued that the body is Ever Changing I see myself as not changing the body is an object I am the subject the body is not conscious I am conscious and so many other reasons were given I think seven or eight reasons were given to carefully distinguish the body from the the the self from the body and the mind we did that so carefully and now it's just being reversed it's saying that's a division done by the ignorant to no purpose what does it mean we must understand this carefully you see at that stage at the beginning this division was done why was it done it was not wrong it was done with a purpose this identification with this body that I am who am I I am this body and what else are you nothing else I am this body and what is this body it's me what are you body what is this body me it's I so this strong identification with the body only and nothing else this has to be broken because we are so convinced that we are this body with the birth of the body I'm born with the Aging of the body I'm a aging with the sickness of the body I am sick with the pleasure of the body I am happy with the misery of the body I am unhappy when the body is feeling hot I am hot when the body is feeling cold I'm shivering in cold it is it is when the body feels hunger I am hungry when the body is satiated I am satiated it seems so beyond dispute to me that this distinction has to be drawn sharply first that I am not the body this this cutting off the of the identification with the body has to be done first that's what was done at the at the beginning now what they're going to show now is am I audible to everybody at the back too yes now what they're going to show is when you keep talking about distinguishing the Atma from the an Atma the self from the not self the pure Consciousness witness from the body mind you indirectly tend to set up the body mind as an independent existence as if there are two things here is one book and here is another book two separate things so here is a witness Consciousness and here is a body mind and the two are not the same they're different from each other you're setting up the body mind as if it were real now they're going to show that the body mind is not a reality the body mind is not a reality it that's going to be shown now other than the self the not self what is the not self mind is not self body is not self the universe is not self they are not independent realities that's what we are going to see now what will be accomplished by that if you show that that they are not independent realities remember we are establishing nonduality so the nonduality of Brahman of the of the the absolute the nity of the self the nity of you that is what is going to be established now to establish that that which is which seems to be different from you we must establish that that's just an appearance that's not an independent reality there is no real second thing apart from you remember which you not the body we have already taken a lot of pains to establish that you're not the body you are the witness self pure Consciousness now we moving into the second step of nity of of ad vant that is to establish that which you we separated you the pure Consciousness from those things body mind and world are not independent realities it's not you the self one and then the Mind two and the body three and the world entire universe four not like that one only pure Consciousness and mind and body and universe are appearances in that why are you calling them appearances because we do not deny that you experience them we do not deny that we experience these things ad is not Escapist it it's very matter of fact we experience a mind we experience a body yes bu to go back to the analogy of the pot the pot is made of clay it's nothing but clay yes but it has a certain form and that you can't deny that form which uh has a certain reality even though it's not a physical reality yes now the part has a form we are not denying that that it is a form in fact ad never denies that there there are forms there are appearances so there's a form and why are you calling that a form isn't it a kind of reality true but notice very carefully that form entirely depends on the clay take the Clay Away what what will happen to the form will it remain a shadowy outline a sketch no it disappears take the Clay Away give me the clay keep your pot form you can't but there must be a Potter who who SP the clay into a pot don't extend the example you you run into trouble it's like s ramakrishna used to say example is meant to point prove a point like you say as Brave as a lion I don't if lions are brave but anyway as Brave as a lion and um what you want to prove there is this person is particularly brave but the lion if you say that but the lion crawls on all fours does he crawl on all fours and the lion growls and pounces upon you does he growl and pounce upon you no it doesn't that's not what the example is supposed to prove the example is supposed to demonstrate one point of similarity here the point is reality is being demonstrated we are not bothered about the Potter whether it was made in a factory or by a Potter or no we are talking about the the pot is nothing but clay you see the form of the pot that's also nothing but clay but are you denying that it has a form of course not it has a farm but that farm is a dependent reality why only a farm it has a name look there are two names two words clay pot if they were exactly the same why would you use two words so the pot has something unique to it which that's why you use the name pot which is a form so there's a name and a form this is called Maya Nar Maya is n name and form adant accounts for that not only name and form po something else use what a lump of clay cannot do you cannot keep water in a lump of clay you cannot store your milk in a lump of clay but you can store that in a pot a pot has used so name and form and transaction in Sanskrit n Rara this is Maya why are you calling it Maya why not reality because all of these things the name part the form of the pot and the use of the pot all are not possible without the clay the only substantive reality there is the clay what you weigh is a clay what you touch there is a clay what you store and carefully preserve is the clay itself right it requires a different kind of thinking to it now it says in vain this distinction is made by the ignorant now at this stage when you're trying to see that the Consciousness alone is everything if you try to distinguish between the clay and the pot it's a vain distinction because you cannot actually show them separately pure Consciousness existence Consciousness Bliss alone is the reality and that is what is going to be established now now in vain is the distinction that the language used is by the ignorant the distinction between self and not self between Consciousness and Body Mind the distinction is made in vain why because in first at first the distinction is important then we come to an understanding of what we really are we can say sham I pure Consciousness pure Bliss not a body not a mind not an intellect not the memory so on but don't hold on to that distinction now look at that look at that existence Consciousness place and see the world as an appearance in that otherwise you will be stuck halfway you'll be stuck halfway that's not non Duality that's Duality you say what's wrong with Duality the say from the existence of a second there is fear desire fear anxiety all is is there because of difference because of Separation because of I and you this and that if you have a deep feeling of Oneness with the universe you have no fear so this that Duality and that fear will not go away that suffering will not go away you know if I understand myself like the Sania does the yoga does I'm an unchanging Consciousness the world let it be there what's it what's it to be let it be a separate reality I've separated myself from it well it caught me once it can catch me again maybe who knows there always will be an anxiety about it there'll always be fear so Oneness ad seeks to establish Oneness ad seeks to establish non Duality and we are very far from Duality if you say I'm a pure Consciousness and this body mind is something separate from me then you have millions and millions of bodies and minds and millions and millions of entities billions of entities in this world which are separate from you where is nity Far Cry think about it this way also in another sense I can say I'm a witness Consciousness and this body mind is separate from me I can experience I'm not saying physically you understand that I am the witness of the existence and the functioning of this body mind I don't I'm not affected by the changes in this body mind I can say that but can God see it I'm this question is being asked from a different angle God means inah ban the one who projects this universe where does God project this universe from from within himself herself itself there's no other material apart from Brahman according to vant Brahman projects this universe with its Maya that's the that's the understanding in vant saand plus Maya projects this very saand this very Brahman itself is projected as the universe I often say Brahman correctly Mis Brahman misunderstood is the universe the universe correctly understood is Brahman this universe is nothing other than Brahman so Brahman alone has been projected as this universe I can say or you can say that I am I am different from body mind can God say I'm different from this universe because this universe is nothing other than Brahman and we have this beautiful analogy of vishnu's dream God's dream this universe is the dream of God you know Vishnu is lying down on his um on his eternal this this this Saga the the cosmic serpent on the ocean the Eternal ocean of existence and and Vishnu dreams and what are his dreams Universe we are the dreams of Vishnu now can Vishnu say I am different from that that does not exist without without Vishnu your dreams do not exist without you you can't go into a dream and come out and say okay those guys are there I'll come go to next tomorrow in the night I'll go and meet them again we we'll um that that pie I ate half of it I put it in the ref dream refrigerator and the dream pie tomorrow when I go to dream I I'll take it out and and eat the rest of the dream pie no it does not exist without your dreaming it they are not separate from you God cannot say this world is separate from God God cannot say see this is a very interesting thing God cannot say I'm the pure Consciousness I'm not the body not the mind no no the body mind and entire in fact the very dust of this universe is one with God the air this the sky is one with God the air is one with God the the fire is one with God the water and the Earth are all one with God so this entire universe God cannot separate it again and again in many of the ancient scriptures not just vedanta books in the ramay in the Mahabharat in the bhagavatam in many places in Hindu scriptures you will come across brah jagat not in these words the Ultimate Reality alone is true the world is an appearance the world is compared to um Castles in the Air gandharva nagar Castles in the Air a cloud sometimes look like castles the world is compared to a dream swapna the world is compared to the product of of a magic show Maya the world is compared to daydreaming gandhar man man means daydreaming so it has no existence apart from the reality behind the world which is Brahman consider the classic vant example snake and rope the snake and rope we always say that okay it's not a snake we making a mistake understand it correctly it's a rope it's not a snake it's a rope but that snake follow this carefully that snake that we saw by mistake I admit by mistake but that snake isn't it nothing else other than the Rope are there two things there rope and snake no there's only one thing rope and we by mistake we saw that rope as the snake isn't it so what ad is saying the ultimate conclusion there is only one thing that is Brahman alone is there that eess alone is there and we we experience it as an as an as a universe we don't exp we don't see it as Brahman we do not experience it as Brahman we see it as men and women and chairs and tables and atoms and galaxies and so on that's how we see it even the snake rope example proves nity how many are there one apart from the Rope not two and yet what do we see a snake so that is the example you think snake you have a question no I'm asking is it one like a snake no it is not is it a snake drope do you think so do you do you think so do you do you ever have that example I saw a snake do you ever ever uh experience it that way I saw a snake and then I went close and saw I understand the point why make snake snake rope whatever either way are you saying a rope appearing as a snake no both are one you are giv two names but one name is false snake can you do that way I'm asking you I'm very clear you cannot do it that way but I'm asking you why would you even say that if you don't say Sil I can't you can say it's a rope snake R snake why would you even there's a question behind I know there's something that you want to say you have to be precise about it what is it that you want to say think about it and come back with the question again all right is just a projection in mind which one mind State of Mind what is a state of mind Maya Maya is a state of mind no mind is a state of Maya May is projecting mind mind is not projecting Maya Maya Works through the Mind Maya and mind are very closely connected yeah imagine yourself let let me finish this verse imagine yourself as an infinite ocean of existence and the mind is like the wind which blows and turn CHS this ocean into waves it's still an ocean of existence the waves which appear are because of the mind and this is Maya basically so Maya produces mind and body and produces means what projects Brahman itself as a mind as a body as a universe just as our ignorance projects the uh rope as a snake even when it is projected as a snake it's it is there is no second thing it's still one rope only even when this multifarious universe is projected there is only one thing Brahman what is that one thing it is explained in many ways in in the upanishads the the shastras put it in in many ways all of this is pure being all of means all this all this means whatever you experience in life everything all this is pure Consciousness all this is Brahman the absolute all this is at the self I alone am all this Brahman know sat pure being chit pure Consciousness Brahman Atman the self all of that is actually you there're different names different ways of putting it you cannot go there first without distinguishing yourself from Body Mind as a body mind it it it's ridiculous to say I am pure being in the universe no as a body and a mind it's ridiculous to say I am pure Consciousness no I must first understand what pure being or pure Consciousness is that's why that exercise is there in vant I'm not the body not the mind understand that and then you can say from that perspective from the perspective of pure Consciousness from the perspective of pure being now when you look at the universe is the universe different from being if it were different from being it would be not being it would be non-existence is this universe different from Pure Consciousness can you ever experience the universe without Consciousness no look at the steps all our experience in life has been we have experienced the world and life only through Consciousness only because of Consciousness step one step two we have always experienced life and our the whole world in our Consciousness not Consciousness experiencing a pre-existing world but Consciousness experiencing a world in itself and third step this world which is experienced only in Consciousness in Consciousness cannot be other than Consciousness it is permeated through and through by consciousness so everything that you experience is you but which you not this person Consciousness pure being is equal to Pure Consciousness is equal to Brahman is equal to the self is equal to you this is what it says let me finish if that is so we're going to toward something Grand if that is so hold on to the question if that is so then what desire what will you desire in this world what is there in this world which is not you when you wake up from a dream what you lost in the dream you got a million dollars in a lottery in a in a dream are you unhappy about that you're unhappy that it was a dream but you're not unhappy about losing that million dollars because you will say one it was a dream so never really never had that million dollars or two it's it's me I alone appeared as the million dollars in the dream what you see in a dream is not apart from you it's you alone what will you deser what will you desire in this life why is there wasana from that perspective there is nothing that you will want that I if I add this to myself I will become whole and complete pum you are pum with with all the things in the world without anything in the world you are Pam as you are because none of those things add anything to you they are all you I have told this story earlier maybe once or twice but it's uh I can repeat it now the yes the princess of Kashi it's apt here it's an ancient story you'll find among the monks in the Himalayas that there is a there was a kingdom not Kashi Kashi is the ancient holy city of the Hindus Banaras but there was another kingdom in which um once there was a theatrical performance in the court of the king a theatrical performance in the court of the king and one of the characters in the in the drama was the princess of Kashi the princess of Kashi and they didn't have they didn't have a little girl she was a little girl so didn't have a little girl who could play the part but the prince the king King's son in that uh Court the prince was about that age and he was very cute so they dressed him up as a girl the queen said dress him up as a girl and uh he can play the princess of Kashi so they dressed him up as a girl and he was the princess of Kashi I guess he didn't have too many dialogues to say that he just has to dress up and stand there and it was the the drama was a success and the queen was very happy and then she said um he looks so cute make a portrait of him dressed in that thing and today it would have been so simple to take a picture a selfie or a know picture but so there the quote artist drew the Royal painter drew a portrait of the Young Prince dressed as the princess of Kashi and labeled it the princes of Kashi and gave the date and so and so forth and that's it years passed 15 years later the prince was a young man in the kingdom and doing all sorts of princely things um now nowadays his doings would be you know this is what the royal wedding everybody is yes so it would be a media thing now one day the prince was exploring the old Palace and he went down to the store room you know a seller underground seller and he was looking through so many things accumulated there and he finds this old painting and he wipes the dust of the painting and he sees this cute picture the picture of this cute girl and it says princess of Kashi and the date is there and he thinks oh now she'll be my age and he falls in love with her and he says I'm going to this is the princess for me I'm going to marry her and if I don't marry this this is the I will never be happy if I don't marry this this princess but he's too shy to tell the king or the queen so he sort of mopes and neglects his princely studies and duties and all of that and the king is worried and the queen is worried and they can't get anything out of him until the wise Minister takes him aside and says Prince what ails you tell me I can help you and the prince says well I'm in love the minister says that's wonderful who is she oh she's the princess of Kashi and the minister says a princess wonderful uh where did you meet her I haven't actually met her but I've seen her picture and Minister says that's very good where did you see her picture oh in the cellar it's not her picture it's not a new one it's a picture from 15 years ago but she looks about my age and so I can marry her now something goes in The Minister's memory you know he said just a minute a 15-year-old painting in our Sellar yes a princess of Kashi yes take me down there and the prince takes the minister down there and the minister says show me the painting and the sees a painting and he tells the prince prince you have to sit down I've got something to tell you many years ago there was this play in our court 15 years ago and one of the characters was the princess of Kashi we did not um I mean um so this is the person who played the princess of Kashi she's not the princess of Kashi and the prince said well whoever she is I'll marry her it's not even who it's not even a girl it's you we dressed you as the princess of kashii that thou art that thou art Prince now what happens to the princess desire for the princess of Kashi the desire goes but why does it go away does it go away because oh I can never marry the princess of Kashi no not because of that it goes away because he realizes there is no princess of Kashi apart from me whatever this person is in the picture is exactly me there's nothing to attain there exactly like that this world out there is your princess of Kashi you are ever fulfilled what is there to desire and quite conversely what is there to hate if it is all you who is there to hate and what is there to hate from that point of view from the point of view of pure being pure isness pure Consciousness what is there to hate this is called patam completeness or infinitude limitlessness Shankar aara has in his commentaries a phrase which he uses again and again to explain samsara if we are that Brahman how come we are here in this miserable State he has a crisp phrase Aya Karma ignorance desire Karma action ignorance ignorance of what my f my infinite ever fulfilled ever satisfied nature I don't know that not knowing that I see myself as this body mind the moment I see myself as the body mind every problem of the Body Mind Body Mind always has problems it's a biological entity it's a delicate entity it's subject to cold and heat and hunger and disease it's a b it's battling to survive every moment so it has problems then we are Minds we are social entities in a society again many more problems the body do you think the body has problems the mind has many more problems and identified with that the sky the vast sky imagine this example one Swami in the Himalayas put it so beautifully the vast Sky the classic vedantic example pot sky and the and the vast Sky once you have a pot then you think that space inside the pot space inside the pot and space outside the PO just the existence of the PO seems to divide space into space inside the pot and space outside the PO actually doesn't divide anything the part cannot it just looks like that many people don't even understand that I ask somebody tell me you have a glass of water when you move the glass does the water move with it of course otherwise it'll make a mess I say bring me a glass of water you can bring me a glass of water if you have a glass of air just close it and then you move will the air inside move if you don't if you close it yes the air inside will move with it when you move the glass but the glass the space in the glass will it move when you move the class that space there tell can can you bring it to me in a box or a glass you cannot many people don't even understand this it's a simple point but many people think yeah it will move no it doesn't it doesn't do you think the space in this room stays in this room oh no no no the room along with New York City along with America along with the everything else on the earth is hurling through space and so we're moving through space we don't not carrying our own space with us we cannot space is not affected by the barriers you put on it so the part inside the space is absolutely one with the Infinite Space outside with the vast space outside but it looks different and we use it differently what happens is if you think pot space limited immediately limit comes poverty comes why how much can the pot hold how much can that space hold one liter at the most PO space can hold one liter how much can the space in itself hold the whole universe galaxies and galaxies and galaxies and the part space and this vast space are exactly one it's the partt which holds one liter of milk not the space space holds entire universe but that illusion is created space is limited by the part no no no similarly I the infinite existence I appear to be limited by Body Mind and so desire comes and From Desire Desir prompted action that leads to Karma once you engage these subtle forces Cosmic forces you're trapped you're trapped Karma will give result happiness try to pursue more more happiness misery try to avoid that misery if that happiness and that Misery the Good Karma and the Bad Karma all of it you are why would you try to pursue one and try to avoid one but we don't know that we try to pursue one and we try to avoid the other and we trapped in the cycle of karma leading to an endless cycle ceaseless cycle of births and deaths Aya karma karma crisp phase ignorance desire action but you are Pam you are infinite there is nothing like the princess of Kashi nothing that will add to you there's nothing that you can ever lose you neither gain nor you lose anything the masakra says I'm an infinite ocean of being in which the universe arises as a wave the universe arises as a wave in the infinite ocean of being which I am let the ways wave arise I don't gain anything by it let Birth come let Prosperity come let Health come let Fame come I gain Nothing by it because all of that I am or the reverse you can say none of that is real what is real I alone am real and the opposite let the waves upside let old age come and disease come and death come and poverty come and sickness come and ill repute and Ill Fame and failure come I lose Nothing by it why either you can say all of that I am already they're not different from me or you can say they don't exist they are they are appearances in me without me none of them exist like a pot will not exist without the clay I am buram I am infinite one more Point hold on to the question on one more point and then I'm done when this point is the climax of it when am I infinite tell me when where am I infinite tell me where when am I infinite that's the correct answer now no yeah you're right but only after realization only after I get n samadi then I'll be infinite no no no it's like saying only when the part is broken that the space will be one with the infinite space no only when the waves subside will the water be one with the ocean no it's just water all the same you are the infinite Brahman now fully without the slightest limit slightest staint slightest impurity you are the infinite Brahman here what exists right now right here as your life is you might think that's furthest from Perfection you can imagine oh no no no it's far from Perfection if you look at yourself as a body mind if you look at yourself as the infinite ocean of existence which you are right now you will find it's all perfect now it always was is and will be your Pam why wait for something to fulfill you what are you waiting for nothing there's nothing that what will come you know there's a saying what is behind you and what is yet in front of you behind you means in your past in your life whatever has gone by in your life and whatever is yet to come in your life is as nothing compared to what is in you we live our lives like you know the slapstick com comedy routines person slipping on a banana peel Falls forward either the person falls forward and falls back we laugh CR at that person but we are continuously falling back or falling forward falling back into the past if only that had happened if and the future that what if if only and what if you don't need to why should you regret anything in the past nothing in the past all of that is you you regret your little MISD deminers what about all the terrible things that had happened in the world all the gang is an and Hitlers and all of that I'm telling you something terrible all of that was you the Tyrant was you and the tyrannized were you but also the the only saving grace is in reality there was no Tyrant nor not tyrannized it's the only ocean of existence which is always there the ocean of awareness which is there we are soaring to the highest metaphysical Heights here viand said the ancient adans of India they take us to Heights where the human lung can scarcely dare breathe you are perfect as it is right now right here if you try it we scared of trying it because we are driven forward by hope things will be a little better later won't things were pretty bad then no yes you are right the things will improve and again get worse and again improve as long as you live this surface life as long as you live this surface life but in depth the things are perfect always where are and always will be any questions yes will also okay so when you started to talk about how the the Dual understanding that you know I'm the body that identification is what we all have so to have this perspective that I am one and everything is one you need to become Godlike it's the other perspective of it so you let me stop you there you need to become Godlike another word you used was a perspective you need to change your what vant is telling you don't need to become anything you just need to change your perspective you say as easy as that as easy as that as difficult as that why is it easy because it is you right now I can tell you that with full conviction it is you right now but why is it difficult because you will not let go that story um of the student who wanted Enlightenment and the guru said come tomorrow in the morning so the student went to the the cave where the guru used to live the master and there was this old dry tree outside the cave and the guru is clutching it tightly and the student says and the guru shouts free me free me free me and the student says just let go and the guru said precisely viand said let go thy hold thine only is the hand that holds the rope that drags thee on Let Go thy hold sasi Bo say what say what say omat om om tatat means om that truth which truth this truth you say Okay difficult to understand difficult to realize fine not difficult to imagine imagine it also you will get tremendous peace you'll get tremendous quietness of Mind you'll get you'll feel a tremendous depth to yourself a prevision of Enlightenment and liberation your perspective yes details perspective and perspective ACC to it starts Chang the mind of course all change of perspective has to be done in the mind where is perspective only in the mind we are bound in the mind and we will get freedom in the mind also the Atman as such the reality as such is always free so perspective change has to be done in the mind but what do you mean by perspective change exactly what we are doing all throughout first start with first look who am I what am I am I this body that is the first beginning of the perspective change step by step I'm not the body not The Prana not the and why am I not that not only reason actually feel it that is the change of perspective first understand it hear these truths understand it assimilate it that's what his perspective change then you actually begin to feel that I am the witness of this body mind not so difficult and say oh nobody seems convinced actually it's not so difficult not so difficult to understand at least yes then to Enlighten it seems to be constantly surrounded by banana feels that you can step in go straight way the way to Enlightenment is this change in perspective establish yourself in that so that you don't keep slipping into on the banana pels into the future in the past remember even after we get a clarity about this there are tendencies in the mind to go back into that banana peel slipping kind of mode so you have to apply what you have understood to your life and that takes um effort alertness and effort first it takes alertness there's a word used in Buddhism and in yoga also aada Prada error aada nonerror don't keep slipping back into error anybody else yes bill you had a question seem to me that you were talking about it all being in appearance the the really important kernel of this whole thing is to stop beny as a separate human being I mean that's the ethical kernel of this teaching so that as long as we think we're separate suff correct guaranteed correct and if we can really be convinced to strive for the realization that we're not separate yes it seems to me this teaching has done work right and this teaching is actually showing you the way to understand that it's not just an ethical imperative separation is bad and Oneness is good so try to feel that Oneness and that's what the teaching is telling you that's only at the surface it's actually taking you there it's taking you by the hand it's trying to show you something not inspire you or encourage you inspire you encourage you is good it will inspire you and encourage you but actually that it it accomplishes the fact right if you remember the 10th Man story I will not go into it the wise person actually found out the 10th person and showed it to you it's not just encouraging you oh the 10th person is alive and don't cry not there it takes you by the hand and shows you Thou Art the 10th you don't have to believe it you have to see it for yourself and this will show you don't think that ad vant is only positive thinking adant is only telling you something Grand and cool about yourself it is showing you it is directly showing you you must have that aha moment I get it after which nothing remains to be done that is the meaning of the open you see all sadanas you think that this is okay some kind of idea it gives you now you have to engage in enormous amount of spiritual activities do do lots of puas and repeat lots of mantras and meditate in different ways and so then you'll come to this no no no no all of those are meant to come to this this is the Pinnacle if you get this none of those are necessary if you don't get this repeat the month or 10,000 times a day and then you'll get it and then come back again can you get it with there was a question there yes aak ignorance desire action that we see separate so if we do know at the understanding level that we not separate let's assume for now that that's understood but the very fact that we are in a body mind hased in itself a survival K so non reaction that the meth of you know sustaining this VI it can come in conflict with the very survival that is ingrained in the system how do you break this or how do you you don't have to break you don't have to break it remember we have been told again and again so all the answers have been given in 110% detail but it's natural we miss it we take it as nice teaching they said after you realize that the pot is Clay does it prevent you from using the pot for holding water none of the worldly usages are prevented by realizing that you are Brahman can I still go to my drive to my job and um yeah if the traffic say okay you can drive to your job after realizing I'm Brahman you can look at the lives of enlightened person did did they stop eating did they stop breathing did they fail to protect the body everything can be done if you realize that the pot is made of clay oh it's Clay now I can't hold milk in it or put water in it no how ridiculous if you realize that the uh necklace is made of gold the bangle is made of gold and the ring is made of gold can you say that oh it's gold I can put a ring on my finger I can't put gold on my finger you won't don't say that it's ridiculous after realizing that they are all the same gold you'll still put the ring on your finger you'll put the bangle on your wrist and the necklace on on your neck usage in Sanskrit again I'm repeating V will continue only you won't be stuck to the raadha the desire for completion the aversion for fear of something that that activity in the world your life in the world will be fearless and dieul not driven not slipping off into the future or not falling back into the past not driven by fear not pulled by lust and anx and desire it'll be that is the life of a Jan MTA it'll be a fantastic life it'll be life full of joy and peace and fearlessness can you see that if you see yourself as one with everything will it prevent you from feeding this body will it prevent you from taking a pill if you this body gets a fever nothing but the fever of this body will not bother you in the sense that you know it's a body it gets these problems doesn't matter one day it's going to die doesn't matter at all yes bill says how prove it to somebody else it cannot you see wherever realization is talked about can you prove realization to somebody else first of all you would not want to it the the thing is meant for yourself not for proving it to others and the second thing is wherever realization is talked about you will see these are descriptions of internal states only the person himself would truly know the others can estimate you would feel a great peace and Holiness in that person maybe maybe you would see that that person really cannot hide that transcendental light which the person sees within oneself but otherwise there is no no way of um in you know in irrefutable proof that a person is enlightened when Krishna Arjuna asks Krishna that um what are the characteristics of an enlightened person you'll see in the second chapter of the bhagat Gita Krishna gives a series of characteristics you if you see them carefully they are all internal States you cannot judge from outside all right you had a question question seems simp a lot people goal POS everything seems to come from mind all the to come from the mind so is there all right let me stop you right there don't let go of material positions right now you'll get me into trouble what happened New York is having more and more homeless situation because Swami taught them to let go of everything no no no no no no let go Works only see the scent this book teaches you teaches you only one thing first see it without seeing it if you try to let go it'll be a terrible mistake it'll be it'll be a struggle which will tear you apart how much effort did the prince have to put into letting go of the princes of Kashi once he knew how much effort none how much suffering was there in letting go of the princes of Kashi none but before that if the queen or the prince had said they said that no we have we are in a state of war with Kashi you can't marry the princess of Kashi how difficult would it have been for the prince very difficult he would have been miserable now he lets go of of the choices desire of his heart he lets go in an instant effortlessly without any problem how that he saw that Insight oh this is it I'm not really letting go of anything real now when you let go of the world based on this Insight person can let go of all worldly positions and go and sit in a cave in the Himalayas has let go and the person can sit in a Billionaire's apartment with with the cars and people and responsibilities and jobs and everything and has still let go of everything you see it really does not make so much of a difference what you have surrounded yourself with outside that's part of your karma Raman Mahi once said to a household a family a lady a housewife that you can stay there and become an enlightened person then housewife said then why are you a monk in a cave Raman Mari said mother that is my karma and to be a housewife in that household is your karma but Enlightenment is open to all of us be do not do not misunderstand that's why ad was restricted it it can lead to complete misunderstanding either non-comprehension or a kind of inspiration which leads you to take rash steps I've seen people running up leaving everything running up to the him is after 2 days of sitting in the cold and the ice and the wind and the Rocks becoming miserable yes you had a question yes I have a question so I'm sorry I'm probably repeating myself you said about the insight and the perspective yes but you also said I mean that you have when you read this or you think about this what you're currently teaching yes that there would be this aha moment yes my question to you is does that aha moment come to people who have not done spiritual practices or the spiritual practices help you get that aha moment right do spiritual practices help you get that aha moment the realizing that the princess of Kashi was none other than me do you get that of course that's the point of all spiritual practices note just note the yogas for example an example note the yogas how do they help note um Karma Yoga all my energies are devoted to helping others unselfishly do you now look at it from this perspective aren't you cutting at the root of this identification with one body and mind Karma Yoga is helping you or not if you do karma yoga if you are concerned about others not about the little problems of this one body and mind will it help you to understand this certainly that's why karma is strongly recommended it will attenuate thin out the desires of the world the discipline imposed Raj yoga meditation deep meditation absolute quietness of the Mind Stillness of the body Stillness of the breath Stillness of the mind will it help you to appreciate an unchanging awareness in the background of everything what do you think yeah I'm not asking you if you're doing that but asking you if if you could do that would it not help you to appreciate it and once you have appreciated that would it not be much easier to understand what they talking about as one Consciousness behind everything certainly Raja yoga helps you in this B Yoga when all the desires poured out in the world are collected and put at the feet of my beloved Rama or Krishna or the Divine mother or Christ or whatever that continuous stream of love and devotion towards the Divine with a particular name form a Rel the god of religion will it help you to attain adic Insight or not it will tremendous help shankaracharya says is the greatest support to adant in VI so bti Karm yoga B Yoga Raj yoga they are all tremendous supports for this Enlightenment aha moment but what ad insists is they are supports for this without that not much chance but remember so studying this is not studying this is also spiritual practice you mean studying a book is spiritual practice not in normal circumstances you read a book on bti and then you have to feel that and practice that you read a book on meditation you have to actually sit down and practice meditation be inspired by Swami viandas Karma Yoga have to go out and do that it won't just help to say oh I feel good about everybody that won't help you have to go out and do that but there's a great distinction it will take a different class to explain it there's a great distinction between AD shastra and other things you know what this shastra is like it's like it's like the difference what practice did the prince that Prince have to do do when the minister told him this princess of Kashi is you o Prince when he explained it to him what practice did the prince have to do nothing the 10th Man in the story when the wise man comes and points his hand towards him Thou Art the 10th what practice did he have to do nothing REM ignorance that removal of ignorance this directly removes ignorance Sam we've been attending classes for years why isn't it REM moved or ignorance the problem lies not with this the problem lies the shoe pinches elsewhere the meditation the Devotion to God the cleanliness of heart the unselfishness the karma yoga has not been completed the B Yoga has not been completed Raj yoga has not been completed but I'll put you put one one simple addition here one thing is necessary above all you might think it's a strange thing to say in this class the grace of God the most radical text of starts with this first sentence it is by the special grace of God the god of religion that you get a person gets liking for non-dual vant how strange it is the grace of the dualistic God who takes you rrishna said the knowledge of AD to the Hem of your cloth like women in The Villages in India do they not the knowledge of AD the keys of the household to the Hem of their clo and then do whatever you you want to do do whatever you want to do is you are free you have got the Ence of it be a devot be a meditator be engaged in tremendous action in the world whatever you want to do everything will be a blessing for the world whatever you do okay we have run out of time you know I wanted to do 10 verses today I did one oh shant shant [Music] shant one thing I want to um bring to our not is that quite apart from all these texts in ancient Sanskrit and all the arguments and the philosophy the epistemology the metaphysics of it all the beauty and advantage of ad is it's talking about something something directly presented to us directly and continuously openly available to us all the time so that's why it's called the direct path it points to a reality right here right now always available in spite of our efforts um we can either erase it nor create it it's there um so it's good to keep that in mind because when we plunge into all of this we may feel confused we may feel it's too much it's too complex it's not at all complex it's good to keep in mind it's actually very simple wa for example unlike most of the philosophies it can be expressed in a single short sentence you are that I am Brahman that's it and when you try to understand it all of this is useful now asakra is going to do something very interesting and a little different in verse number eight sh [Music] [Music] have faith my child have faith never confuse yourself in this you are knowledge itself you are the Lord you are the self and you are Beyond nature what ashtavakra is telling us here is that if you're feeling bewildered by all these teachings and the philosophy and seems too subtle too complex too difficult one thing one can do straight away is he says just trust me just believe in this I am Brahman We Believe so many things many of which cause so much trouble and unhappiness to us we believe quite easily actually it's only when it comes to spiritual life that we become suddenly big Skeptics and critics and all that we believe easily every Advertiser knows that the whole Art and Science of advertisement is is predicated on that if people know you show something to people whether they and they sort of uncritically absorb it and that's the trick to selling products to advertising it works that's why billions and billions of dollars are spent on it so we believe and we absorb all sorts of nonsense from the world the sadhu tell you in Hindi and then translate he was explaining that you are Brahman and then he said I'm telling you H if nothing else I'm telling you then just accept it because I'm telling you so um he gave an example when uh you were brought home from the hospital we B we were born how do you know that these are your parents your mom and dad and somebody said the nurse said so the nurse said so and then the Swami said I'll tell you hindian translate he said am I even less trustworthy than the nurse in the in the hospital so something so important for you you in your life you take it on trust and I am telling you without any expectation of any material gain from you nothing from you I telling you that you are Brahman sages and Saints Masters throughout history have told us this again and again so he says my child so here just as a father just as a parent has only the interests of the children at heart similarly the spiritual master has only our interest as at heart that how can we be delivered from unhappiness from sorrow how can we find fulfillment how can we reach the goal of life purpose of life this such the stakes not be higher this is the point of it all the point of life and here it is presented to us directly see not to knock down other approaches but since this is AD and we think we are pretty cool and pretty high way up there this way up there I remember seeing a cartoon so there's a hierarchy among scientists um so there's this biologist and in in front of him standing is the is the chemists you know he says you who I'm uh I'm superior to the biologist because all of biology ultimately depends on chemistry and then above this guy is standing the physicist he says I'm a physicist I'm superior to you guys because all of this your chemistry and biology depends upon the element Elementary particles of matter which I study then higher above that guy stands the applied mathematician where whose mathematics is used for all of modern physics so I am the pure scientist you know and then that cartoon it shows way above all of them sitting on a cloud is the pure mathematician he say Yoo guys I'm up here so pure mathemati who takes Delight in just sheer abstraction and concept they supposed to be the most uh Alo and most elevated of all the Sciences GH Hardy who who was who's the one who invite invited ramanujam to Cambridge University so he was interviewed once and asked what is the application what application does your pure mathematics have and what use is it does it have an application and he says I should hope not application means too grubby too low down to have applications so we other things we consider ourselves to to be above the clouds you know this the highest final ultimate um the ultimate teaching um so from that perspective I'll be a little critical the biti approach the devotional approach beautiful and sweet but it depends upon belief Faith you cannot be a devote you cannot be a baka you cannot be a lover of God if you start by being a committed atheist if you it it depends on accepting the existence of God if you do not accept the existence of God devotion will not work for you the problem with that approach is in this day and age it is very difficult if if you're a thinking person you just listen to Richard Dawkins and Christopher Hitchens and Daniel dennet and Sam Harris when they attack the concept of God and religion you listen to them for half an hour 1 hour a day you will cleanse your mind of all religious nonsense they're going to vacuum your mind free so difficult in this day and age we have in this day and age it's the largest number of atheists and agnostics that there ever have been in the entire history of humanity this this age we are living in compared to this the yogic approach says that not belief but experience this is what viand what made Narendra into viand and what viand brought into this country see what did the Young Narendra go around doing in Kolkata in late 19th century he went around asking people have you seen God he went to Sri ramakrishna that's where he received his first his the clearest answer most convincing answer have you seen God not does God exist or why do you believe in God do you believe or why don't you don't believe in God have you seen God and S Krishna said yes just as I see you even more clearly and you can too so this is the yo promise of the yogic path that not Bel they're not asking you to believe in God if religion is true it should be experienceable if there's a God I should be able to see God if I have an immortal soul I should be able to feel it and experience it and pranali yoga is the classic book of the yogi tradition which says that you sit in this way you breathe in this way Focus withdraw your mind and senses in this way meditate in this way and I promise you you will have certain extraordinary mystical experiences which will prove to you the claims of religion so you will have these experiences and these are all Extraordinary experiences samadi various types of sadii and this is what weand bought here the first book he translated and published was his commentary on the patanjali yoga sutras Raj yoga from New York he said to um the Americans in the late 19 century that religion is realization religion is not believing in a book it was a new idea at that time that you could actually experience God it was there in Christianity all out all throughout but what was what came to happen was people felt these mystical experiences are only for a few people they're like the athletes of the uh spiritual world not for the mass of people there are going to be a few Mystics but for the rest we have to just go to church and believe in what the pastor says and try to lead a good life and that's it and surrender that's it no all of us can should must realize God must experience God that's the yogic promise but there is from an adic perspective you see there's a problem with that too the problem is this that these experiences are special experiences s Rak Krishna are having a vision of Kali how many of us are having a vision of Khali even in that book when you see the description of s ramak Krishna talking he's talking with the Divine mother but uh he is talking with the Divine mother nobody else in that Gathering is actually seeing the Divine mother so they believe that SRI ramak Krishna is having an experience with the Divine mother and they have shha belief faith in that what did people think of it what did people what have people thought about Mystics throughout the ages they're crazy most people during SRI Ram krishna's lifetime the people around most of them thought he was this mad priest of Kali and dwar and that's true of all the mystics whenever they have in every religion people around them even religious people would doubt their sanity because mainly because we don't share those experiences they are rare and difficult to get and they're not public experiences and today especially in this day and age the neuroscientist will tell you I'm sure you feel one with the universe or I'm sure you're seeing a Divine Light or you're seeing forms visions of God I'm sure you're seeing that but it's not because actually you're seeing God it's because there's a little stroke on the left side of your brain and there little hemorrhaging there and that is affecting your experience of the world there's this very nice uh talk by this lady she had a stroke she she was a neuroscientist it's maybe one of the most watched TED Talks ever and she wrote a book about it to because she was trained she realized that I'm having a stroke and she felt one with the universe so are you actually one with the universe no no no you're just a human being having a stroke so the neuroscientist will tell you there is some neuron something wrong with your brain that's why or if you're in New York um especially after 5:00 P p.m. in Central Park you high so most people are and so they're feeling one with the universe and that's the problem with mystical experiences there are genuine mystical experiences but how do you know which are genuine and which are not there are mystical experience seem to be mystical born of nothing more than unfortunate mental illness hallucination um drugs or neurological problems many kinds of things so how do you know now um says not belief as in the path of bti not special mystical experiences as in the path of yoga but just our daily cottian experiences the experiences we have right now of seeing hearing smelling tasting of being the subject and experiencing the object of being awake dreaming and sleeping who does not have these experiences who who has not experienced being awake or Dreaming or sleeping everybody has who has not experienced the physical body and the subtle body all of us and all the time we experience it now this is enough for the adic inquiry to start ad vant says you just need whatever you already have and then we will guide you step by step logically and every step we will not tell you that there is some extraordinary thing you do these practices 25 years later you may have that vision and then you will see for yourself or none of that you have to believe in it none of that it's just it's available and you can see right now right here this is the beauty of AD however if all these teachings are too complicated too subtle asakra says the Baka has a great point the faith is a great power if you believe in what I'm saying just simulate it suppose it's true what all these texts and all the Masters are telling me I am Brahman right now I am pure awareness and try to see what it looks like the world and yourself if you have suppose you're already enlightened you're a j m what would it feel like what would it be how would you as the Enlighten person react to it react to the things in the world the whatever is happening in your life and the behavior of others as VI says I know I cannot die therefore I'm not in a hurry I know I'm one with all of them or one with me imagine my happiness and so on so just believe it what is that fake it till you make it one might say but doesn't that vant say it's not a question of belief you must understand it well the interesting thing psychologically is if you believe in it if you take it all right let me take it as it is that as suppose it is true let me take it that way and I am R right now if you believe in it if you have conviction in it the process of understanding and realization becomes much easier so do not be deluded on this point this delusion this confus Fusion who am I what am I this has these two forms in ad vant let me talk about that a little bit see when we come to ad there are actually three three points of confusion three kinds of questions which come up first is um what is the teaching all these books I'm seeing in library what are they telling me in technically this is called um prah Samaya means a doubt about the source of knowledge itself about the teaching itself so what exactly is astavakra saying what exactly are the upanishad saying what exactly Shankar aara saying and then and how do you remove this you remove this by studying listening so when we listen to the talks when we attend Retreats like this when we read the book attentively after sometime you if you try to rehearse it in your own mind if you try to repeat back the essential points as we gathered them that cloud begins to dispel now I have a clear idea about what the books are telling me so that's the first St but that's set aside we have already listen listened to it but now two more problems come two more questions two more kinds of confusion the second kind of confusion is I know what the teaching is I've heard the talks but I don't get it it's quite possible to know the teaching I can even tell you summarize what the book says but there are many things I don't get I know the book says you are Brahman I know vant can be summarized in one sentence Brahman is real the world is an appearance and you are brahmanah it can be summarized I know all these things but I don't understand it so let's take up the questions one by one and deal with it this not understanding I know the teaching but I don't understanding I don't understand it this is called um impossibility doubt I I don't see how I am Brahman you are Immortal I don't see how I am Immortal you all pervading I don't see that I'm just here so these are serious doubts and they have to be resolved by reasoning and vant will demonstrates for example the text that I'm going to teach in Phoenix ad makaranda the honey of nonduality so that deals with all of this it starts with I am Rahman I exist I I am aware I shine I am happy and that is sat so how am I not Brahman Brahman is existence Consciousness Bliss right and he says look at yourself do you exist or not everyone will say I do are you aware or not yes I am aware and are you happy at least occasionally are you happy or not well yes I'm happy this is what Brahman is existence Consciousness Place how how am I not Brahman and then the questions will come wait a minute it's true that I exist and I'm aware most of the time and Happy some of the time but Brahman is um is the cause of this universe the books tell us that Brahman is the cause of the UN the universe is produced from Roman am I the cause of the universe it's absolutely not true and then he will explain what is meant by pure Consciousness and how the universe is an appearance in pure Consciousness then the next question will come yeah I exist see I exist but Brahman is eternal existence I'm not Eternal existence I was born on that day and I'm sure that I'm going to die on a particular day in the near future sometime so my existence is entirely cut off there was a time when I was not there was a time when I will not exist so how am I Brahman Brahman is supposed to be Eternal existence that means Immortal then the author will explain that as pure being or pure awareness it's only the body which is Born the body which tries but you have no proof and he'll give arguments to show pure Consciousness is not born pure Consciousness does not die or pure being is not born a pure being does not die the next question will be um all right but uh Brahman is supposed to be um you know pure Consciousness and I'm conscious now after two hours of vant lectures I'm a little less conscious and then after lunch I'll be even less conscious and at night I'm not conscious at all how is this Brahman Brahman is endless awareness and Limitless awareness and then the author will explain that how these are states of the mind you are that ever awake Consciousness witnessing the awake mind the Sleepy mind the dreaming mind and so on like this so what's going on here these are questions I have about the teaching I know the teaching but I have doubts about the teaching and they are how do you resolve them through reasoning and thinking it through with the help of others with the help of the teacher with the help of the books and also thinking it through for yourself till you get clarity now what have we achieved we have removed two of the problems one is uh prahar and this is PR the impossibility regarding I am Brahman and the doubts about um the teaching itself both are removed now I know the teaching I understand it I have got clarity now now what's the problem it still doesn't seem to be a living truth to me I still react to the world just like that old guy you know unhappiness the misery the the restlessness anger all of that I react to it like that old person so to overcome the old Tendencies of the body mind you have to meditate on the clarity to marinate in it you know to another term is familiarize yourself the truth you have understood it they have got Clarity stay with that Clarity till it becomes oh it's a fact how wonderful then you are enlightened so this is Sir or my child do not be confused on this point get rid of the three kinds of confusion what is the teaching I don't get it I get it I know the teaching and I get it but it's not real for me it's not living for me all these three confusions get rid of in Sanskrit they are called um and is contrary Tendencies then he says this phrase profound and packed bhagavan God bhagavan means god which God the Creator preserver destroyer of the universe the one God worshiped by all theistic religions of the world why do I say theistic religions because there are religions which are not theistic there are religions which are not concerned with God and do not worship God Buddhism jism even within Hinduism you have something I mentioned San s doesn't talk about God so yoga philosophy yoga there's God In Yoga philosophy but marginal God is not the goal of yoga philosophy self-realization is the goal so there are philosophies and religions which are non-theistic but all the theistic religions of the world they posit that there is an omnipotent omniscient and omnipresent deity and it's one which is the creator of the universe the maintainer or preserver sustainer of the universe and ultimately the dissolver destroyer of the universe and then again repeat repeat so this idea in different forms it's there in all the theistic religions he says bhagavan then he says another term Atma self what is the self you I you're the self and then he says bhan at this bhagavan and this self is one and the same is one and the same how can it be one and the same bhagavan is only presentes everywhere I'm just here if I go to my room then I won't be here you are there but you're not here we are limited we so small not only presentes and God is omnicient all knowing we are not all knowing we what is called in Sanskrit alaga very little knowledge we struggle and struggle through school and college and get some knowledge and promptly forget it afterward words or even if you're the most knowledgeable encyclopedic knowledge little bit of Alzheimer's still gone so our knowledge is very shaky and very limited I think it was Einstein who said as I know more it's like I become aware of the shores of my ignorance like surrounded being being surrounded by an ocean it's an ocean of knowledge out there which I do not know only a little bit we know we pushed back the the the borders of human Ignorance by getting a little bit of knowledge so we have have so little knowledge and God is supposed to be omniscient Elon Musk said he read through the entire encyclopedia branica when it was a school kid but even that's so little knowledge compared to what what God knows Swami vianda he actually memorized the encyclopedia britanica as Leisure reading in Bel M towards the end of his all too short life one day he was sitting and reading the encyclopedia branica and his disciple sharak Chandra chakrawarti came into his room and uh he saw the whole set and those days it was 10 volumes but they are more impressive then these days it's all disembodied and in the cloud or something so you can't but it's impressive to see 10 big volumes they are all leatherbound big volumes and the gentleman said to Swami vivanda I don't think a man could read through all of this in one lifetime viand said what are you talking about I have read through nine of these volumes I'm on the 10 you can ask me any question from these nine volumes not only read through it but you can ask me any question and Shandra goes ahead and he checks it out he asks question and random puts all the volumes and checks here and there was it sor sh Chandra or one of the disciples maybe Shandra or one of the other disciples this is happened in India in Kolkata so he pulls out the volumes of here and there and asks questions and he writes later in his Memoirs that the Swami answered every question often down to the comma in the full stop in the same language and he asks incred this is incredible how is this possible said by the power of Purity and concentration it's possible but even that is limited knowledge God's knowledge is omnicient and our knowledge is so little and only poent God can do anything but our power is so limited so limited so weak even at our strongest even at our most competent we still so weak and so incapable how can bhagan Atma how can you be you the self be bhagan it's completely contradictory then what is does it mean what it means is what is bhagavan and what are you what we are we can already say I am the witness Consciousness I am not the body not the mind I am the witness of the body witness of the mind I am this awareness itself this awareness quoted by this mind and this body is you that same awareness quoted by this mind and this body is s pran and it's him it's her it's all of us it's all living beings all human beings all animals plants all sentient beings are that same Consciousness qued with a particular mind and body at Birth that body is born but the mind has been existing since time IM immemorial it comes downloaded into that body when that body perishes that same mind travels it's to another world and another body and so and so forth this is called rebirth cycle of birth and death and what is is bhagavan what is God it is that same Consciousness which is connected to all bodies and all Minds technically I can give you the definitions again the book vantara which I mentioned yesterday it's all it's all there it's all basic what is called mahavakya and Analysis of the great statements that thou art so what is God according to vanta what is the sentient being J according to vanta Consciousness associated witha with the totality with Maya with the cosmic mind and the physical Cosmos that is God and is the sentient being is one part of that Maya and one mind and one body same Consciousness limited by one one little causal body one subtle body and one physical body that's a j each one of us that's the thing but suppose you set aside the contributions of nature set aside the physical body the subtle body the causal body take the Consciousness in itself then what happens bhagan and Atma you are one and the same if you take Consciousness in itself awareness in itself then God and you are one and the same it's like the emperor and the beggar in a Broadway show so there's an emperor with all his finery and all his Grand dialogues and everything and you know surrounded by his glory and there is the beggar in rags and weeping and bemoaning his fate and his poverty but suppose there's this one great Broadway actor who is act acting in a double role as the emperor and as the beggar he goes into the green room and and changes into the clothes of the emperor comes out and speaks grandly and struts around the stage goes back into the Green Room changes into his tattered clothes and comes and is a beggar and you say the beggar is the Emperor somebody can ask you legitimately how can the beggar be the emperor don't you see the clothes are different don't you see how this man walks and then that man walk walks don't you see how this person speaks and how the beggar speaks their lines and their dialogue is different their clothes are different the behavior is different how can they be the same what what do you mean the emperor is not really an emperor the beggar is not really a beggar it's a play behind both Emperor and beggar is one man the actor similarly if you look in the Green Room you will find one Consciousness when you come to this world you will find that you will find the sentient being yourself and God but you are the sentient being and you you are that which is called God also bhan Atma how do you reconcile the two the first word g pure Consciousness as pure Consciousness in association with Maya you are called bhagan as pure Consciousness in association with this causal body subtle body and physical body you are called Mr or Miss Mrs so and so this is mahak mahaka great statement what are the great statements th Amah Consciousness this very Consciousness is Brahman Ultimate Reality of the Universe I am Atma Brahma this very self is Brahman they all mean the same thing all of these mahavakyas they mean the same thing mahaka great statement this is the a great statement what is the definition of a great statement mahavakya J brah that which establishes the identity of the individual sentient being and of the the cosmic Lord of Brahman that which establishes the identity that is the called the Great statement so conventionally we take four one from each of the four vas but there are any any number of such statements across the vas and across these Texs everywhere you find this a great Identity or the great equation somebody called it what is the identity atan Atma God and you the S same how G as pure Consciousness and he tells us how to equate the two if you transcend nature Beyond nature they are the same when you come within nature same Consciousness same electricity flowing through a million power bulb same electricity what in India we used to have something called zero power bulb I don't know if I not seen it in America it's a very very dim light but there are these ones nowadays they there near the floor in many rooms you find just gives a little bit of Illumination at night so like that but it's the same electricity the difference is in the capacity of the bulbs you have a light which lights up a stadium blazing light you can be seen from outer space from orbit that kind of light and you have the tiny little light at The Corner Room you can barely see it at night but the behind it is the same electricity you are not that bu you are that electricity itself and he said you say that I don't really I mean it's tremendous but what can I do with this believe in it my child believe in it and see what happens then we have we almost out of time it's supposed to end at yeah 20 20 minutes 115 115 okay look at the consequence fact 9 and 10 now we're going to see the results of all of this what benefit do I get first of all you go beyond death you lose fear of death number nine the body composed of the ingredients of nature comes stays and goes the self neither comes nor goes why then do you mourn it this body made of the three gas of nature satas made of the five elements space and wind and air and fire and water and Earth or um how many elements is it now in the periodic table it keeps increasing so what 120 140 elements whatever all the elements in the periodic table this body is a composite made of all of that so is the mind it comes it stays for a while it goes but you are the Limitless Consciousness in which these elements have Arisen Arisen mean they have not come out of you they are appearing in you and a combination of those elements these words have Arisen appearing in you these bodies have Arisen appearing in you they are born these bodies age and then they die you are the same the wave appears in you the ocean it rises to a height and then begins to subside and then it fades away you are the same ocean you you neither increased nor diminished by the arising and the subsiding of the Waves asakra will say that in you the infinite ocean of Consciousness the waves of these worlds arise let them arise let them subside you are neither increased nor diminished by that let Birth come not increased by that let aging and disease come and death come you are not diminished by that let success come wealth education winning the election or something you're not increased by that same same ocean wave has come up let failure and poverty and loss come you're not diminished by that same otion just the wave has gone up and AD say it's a fact right now this is the best clearest most honest depiction of what's going on these are appearances in you the Consciousness what is the self it neither comes nor goes at it's not something that goes away not something that comes body comes welcome it stays for a while and keeps on changing good it goes away goodbye you were there all the time you were there before the body during the body and afterwards but the body doesn't exist without you like a body in the dream what are you weeping for what are you afraid of the psychologist R Lan he was in he was a British psychologist in 1950s 60s he famously said that human beings are afraid of we are all afraid of three the three great fears of our lives these common fears the deepest and strongest fears of Our Lives first and foremost of fear of death it dominates Our Lives that's not true it's just a cliche I hardly think of um death of my death usually I hardly think of that well that's because you're suppressing it you know he was a Friedan psychoanalyst so in frian Psych analy is nobody's normal if you say but I have no problems ah serious problem you're suppressing all of your problems I'm not thinking about that h you're dead scared of death that's why you're impossible you find it impossible to think about death there's this book the denial of death earns Becker he got a pit surprise for it quite a long time back it's based on psychoanalysis but he says all our lives are guided this one thing haunts us although we refuse to acknowledge it it's like a ghost always there we refuse to look at it the fear of our own death and he says whatever human beings do they're all as a reaction to that fear a fight back against the fear of death and all are doomed to failure what are what what do we do everything that you do from having children to building a business Empire to writing a book to whatever he calls them all immortality projects immortality projects somehow I will persist but will you pers what you what you are this person no viand says death is everywhere Emperors die and poppers die Scholars die and fools die Saints die and sinners die all will die but you will not there's no question of your death both birth and death you are the witness to both you they are all possible birth and death because of you you exist they borrow their existence from you the body borrows its existence from you so what are you um sad about so what are the three things uh we are all scared of first death un specker said second thing we are all scared of is other people so that's not true we are scared of other people especially people in our lives people first most obviously people you consider to be enemies or who can threaten you who can cause you harm you know the Troublesome neighbor the terrorist or the gangster but also someone like who can um seriously harm you like like your boss who can lay you off or get afraid of them like the teacher who can give me a f or even scold me or humiliate somebody who can scold me or humiliate me in public they're afraid of these people almost everybody again even more interesting we are afraid of people we love they can come cause harm to us they can they can not that they would want to but they can because you love them You're vulnerable anything happens to them your wife husband children parents you love them because you love them anything happens to them you suffer terribly often in the world people suffer more for the sufferings of their beloved people rather than themselves their parents all the time consumed by anxiety and worry not so much for themselves for the children who couldn't careless really here's one great thing to learn you as parents those were parents one great Rel you need not be so unhappy or so worried or frustrated or anxious it's needless because the people you are anxious about or worried about they are not all that worried at all you keep on imagining imaginary threats problems so we are afraid of other people enemies people who can harm us people who are beloved to us and close to us we're afraid of them because of them and then third oh this afraid of people the French existentialist s famously said that definition of hell hell is other people hell is other it's there in a play hell is other people if imagine if you are locked up in a room with a group of people and there's no escape from that room very soon you would feel that those people are hell they feel the same way about you I remember this monk in our order senior monk very wonderful Swami who's done a lot of work in our order he told me a personal story he said when I was a novice mon many many decades ago I was in this asham it was quite tough the monastery and there was this great Swami I would write letters to Swami Dand who was in our asham in gal harid he was a great non-dualist great a saintly person so this monk said I would write letters to him in those days postcards and that would in what in some way that was a good time because it would take 15 days or one month for your letter to reach and then another month for that to come back it gives you enough time to cool down and reflect so once I was very unhappy and I said wrote to him I can't bear these people you know the people in the asham they're treating me badly and I'm suffering I can't comp this people in Bali and he wrote to that Mon and then a reply came and he said I was expecting sympathy or advice you know how to deal with these problems there's only one line remember they are also bearing with you you don't think that we are unbearable awful people but we are take it for me each of us Us in the eyes of at least a few others you might be astonished why would I'm such a nice guy why would people dislike me they do and in their eyes for pretty good reasons so we are afraid of other people and the third thing they're afraid of according to Lane is um our mortality afraid of other people and our own minds we're afraid of our own minds we are afraid of ourselves ourselves basically our own minds what we might think what we might do to ourselves and others what's the next crazy thing that I will do or I'll just not measure up to my own expectations that's also there it's me I'm afraid of myself and Soles all of those problems how that's your homework think about it it solves the problem of mortality solves the problem of other people by showing you that they are not other people they yourself and it solves the problem of the Mind by saying you are that in which the Mind appears like a bubble away it's nothing apart from you and it's nothing to you then next number 10 sorry I missed one thing Let the Body last to the end of the cycle millions and billions of years suppose you live Immortal practically or let it go even today let the the body died today the death come today right now where is there any decreas or in you who are pure Consciousness you should be perfectly equanimous from that perspective there is nothing more that I want to achieve through this body and mind or at least vanta vant does not require this body and mind vant only requires you to be pure Consciousness you now now you have understood this so this body and mind is the Lords and it goes on as far as your past karma is there what is called prabha karma or as the Lord's wishes that this body mind embodiment will go on as long as it goes on be a blessing to yourself and everybody else and when the Lord Wills that this particular drama should end should go back to the Green Room happily it's nothing to you it's a fiction in the Limitless consciousness that you are so will you disappear not at all you'll remain in your real nature the infinite existence Consciousness which you are right now so it says Let the Body stay sometimes people say that I don't want to live any longer it's awful miserable that's ignorance that's ignorance that's still strong body identification that's why suicide is discouraged I recently did a little TV spot for suicide watching they had approached spiritual teachers they of course told us what to say don't kill yourself that's message number one number two is that dial this number they're going to help you and things like that so suicide is strongly discouraged that shows strong body identification um or let it stay for ages hundreds of years thousands of years that this body survive I was once approached just couple of years back last year I was approached by Hollywood not the asham the film industry and they said how would you like to be in a film with William Shatner I said wow that's great we grew up as little kids in India we had only two shows from America at that time one was Star Trek the Original Series with William Shatner as Captain Kirk and the other was I Love Lucy so why would I not want to be in a film with Captain Kirk so there's this uh thing called I think it's on History Channel or Discovery History Channel It's called The Unexplained and in season two there was one the mysteries of the uh yogis who can live for a long time 100 years 200 years the secrets of immortality and so I agreed and I was interviewed but I never got to see William Shatner he he is the host so there are a lot of interviews in and he pulls them together and he hosts the the people in the those the movie people they told me that see we'll try to get you to meet with William Shatner but he is probably the oldest living and active actor in Hollywood so he pretty much does what he wants to so you can't really he went to space Also recently in a rocket finally Captain Kirk went to space so in that interview they asked me how did yogis live to be 100 years 200 years I gave them the example of um of tranga Swami who was in Banaras s Ram Krishna met him SW VI the the holy mother they all all met him and he lived what 240 years now that's not an exaggeration because there are multiple records testifying to him it was the period of the British rule so they were the British government testified to seeing him at over the decades and so anyway I talked about that I told them you don't have to live in this body you are the immortal Consciousness anyway they were not interested in that and I saw the actual show they had cut out those parts all the vant but they kept all the yogis living for hundreds of years that's what they found fascinating let it stay for hundreds of years or let it die today let the body die today I'm completely unaffected by it it's nothing to me Vive says just as a hair falls from the head and I'd be happy if all the hair fell from my head permanently but the hair falls from the head it's nothing to you similarly when one body goes it's nothing to you the soul the Atman hundreds and thousands of bodies and come have come and gone we are if nothing else we are masters of dying we have died many many many times in the past we've just got it down like that it's so don't be at all afraid perod of time there's no increase in you if you have a body there's nothing that you lose if the body goes you are pure Consciousness all right let's do we'll take a little bit of time the questions the three people who wanted to ask questions yes I can start with online the other three people who wanted to ask questions please come here and we will send the microphone to [Music] you it said that even sh who is himself to feel as an object to the experience creates the universe with all itties so how us have realized Detachment and happiness for themselves or compassion others because now all life is of the nature of one single for is the n if all of it is nonell and one it's all one with you imagine your happiness as says I know that all are one with me imagine my happiness every living being is I it's in Oneness that there is happiness what do you do when you want to be happy what do you do when you want to have some pleasure know right the object of pleasure a cookie what do you do with it you make it one with yourself put it into your tummy it must tou touch my tongue when I want to see a beautiful sight what do I do I go and so put it in contact with my eyes Oneness happiness always requires you to become one with the object of your happiness and if you know you are one with the entire Universe imagine your happiness there's also the difference to be considered between what is known as BR Anand and swand the happiness which is experienced with the help of the mind and the senses I taste something that gives me a burst of happiness I think a happy thought and that gives me a burst of Happiness that's something that comes and goes that arises and then diminishes and Fades away that can be more or less but ad talks about the source of all happiness which is you the Atma that existence that Consciousness is also Anand Limitless existence Consciousness please only a little bit of that is reflected in our day-to-day happinesses all of these little happinesses which come and go the Anand which the Anand of saand does not come and go it's always there does not increase and decrease it does not depend on an object to be enjoyed it's the difference between so the question was if it's all one um what about this particular happinesses which enjoy those particular happiness is like the reflection of my face in the mirror now the desire to enjoy those particular happinesses is like the desire to keep on reflecting my face in the mirror I see my face in the mirror occasionally you might see your face in the mirror but if you say I am anxious about it all the time with great care I want to maintain the face in the mirror that's lunacy what is our normal State of Mind something sometimes I may see my face in the mirror sometimes I may not I have no anxiety about my face it's there I know I don't need to see it all the time similarly I am that Limitless happiness I don't need to keep it keep reflecting it in the mirror of the mind and to experience it as an object if that makes sense so now the question is is the non-dist enlightened one happy or not well direct answer very happy don't worry about it you'll be you'll be very very happy when you are enlighted let's have these questions tell us your name and ask the question Swami G my name is promode promode means happiness my question is uh what does progress uh for a lay person uh who's on the path of atic meditation uh what does it look like I'm assuming it starts initially with a glimpse of of the this Con non-conceptual like awareness and I'm assuming that the Glimpse will become like more stabilized or like will be longer and eventually does it get to a point where somebody when they're doing a normal task like day-to-day task can actually do that without without like the ego or like without a conceptual view of of what is being done yes does it get stabilized over time it does um it's actually quite a deep subject you are promode when you were given that name it took you a little bit of time to get familiarized with it but now it is effortless you don't need to practice being promode in the morning and evening you know my daily promode meditation I am promot PR just in case that I don't forget no you don't forget and you don't put any effort into it although that's something that's imposed upon you because there's a name that was given to you and that has become so effortless that I am Brahman becomes effortless like that no practice is needed to maintain this that's the goal that's what we have that's where we have to reach out actually the fact is that that's where we are at but we don't recognize that fact I remember a similar question was asked by Young monk to a spiritual master in haridwar is there he this young Monk asked um the master the teacher in Hindi I am at least we have to we should hold on to that knowledge this realization what the beautiful things that asak is telling us to boil it down basically I am limitless awareness I must at least hold on to that right this is the gain the take away from this and the master said with equal vment he said that's what you must not hold on to as long as you're holding on to that it's a practice how much effort do you put in in practicing promote being promote nothing no effort at all it would be wasted time for you so that is what we must reach towards there's a story about one of those nice little stories about asakra and janaka one day janaka was sitting after listening to all this sitting on the bank of the river and meditating and practicing I am Brahman I am brah brah Brasi asakra looked at him and came and said down next to him now this is a little difficult to explain wandering monks in India they have a little stick um like d with a cent shape where they can put their hand and do the Jabba with the rosary and everything and they have a water Pol the stick is called Dand um sometimes it's called Gana Dand and all Gand and the water pot is called kamandalu kamandalu is a water pot a brass water pot monks walk around carrying this stuff I don't today they might be carrying mobile phones and stuff but this is traditionally what a monk is supposed to carry so he sat down as next to janaka with the Dand the stick and the water pot and janaka is saying I am Brahman I Brahman I am Brahman and this is a stick this is pot this is a stick this is a pot and janaka looked at him quizzically and glared at him and started chanting loudly I Amah he started chanting even more loudly and finally jela got exasperated he said who doesn't know that's a stick and it's a PO what are you doing and asak said exactly what are you doing all right but this is the final this is when you are have no more problems at all but before that if you have problems with this sh don't worry about small glimpses persisting glimpses go back to listening go back to reasoning and stay with that listening and what what you get from that listening what you get from that reasoning try to stay with it there are techniques of vitic meditation of course okay okay thank you thank you help a lot of people deal with problems so first of all thank you my question is about what's your name my name is ano an my question is about ATI why is it called ATI and why is it notti so there is a text called AAR anuti which literally means if I translate it very l usually it is translated as um direct realization it would mean non indirect experience so what is this direct indirect non- indirect Etc praka is direct perception so if you're seeing that's praka the Sanskrit word praka is AKA means eyes and in general it stands for all the five sense orits literally dies but all the five sense orgs praka that which appears to your sense organs so that which you can see hear smell taste touch all of that is called protction English sensory perception or just perception perception but there are a lot of things which we we do not perceive but we know them we read about them in our science books in our geography books things which are far away from us we read about in geography books or see it on on the internet there are things which are removed from us in the past we read about it in history three books so they these are we do not see them we do not hear of them they they're either separated from us in space or they separated from us by time but we have knowledge of them so that kind of knowledge which we do not gain from our sense organs is called paroa beyond the range of our senses it could be physically beyond the range of our senses maybe far away or maybe very tiny like atoms which we can't see or the covid virus we can we cannot see it paroa because it's too tiny to see or it could be things like heaven and God how did you know is a God or Heaven if you do know at all well the holy books told us there paroa that is beyond the range of our senses these are the two kinds of knowledge that we have praka and Pera but you exist I exist how do I know that do I see myself if you ask Swami is um um ano there I'll say yes how do you know because I see him now if you ask Swami are you there are you here say yes if you ask how do you know you like say because I see myself let me take a look yeah I am here do I ever do that for ano I'll do that I'll see oh yeah he's here but for myself I'll never take a look or sometimes this is so for me I don't need protection to see know that I exist is it paroa even less so who all attended take a look at the list of attendees or these people with was ano there yes his name is there he signed here he's here was I there let me see have I signed am I so I must have been there that might be true in the past if I don't remember but right now let me see the list of people yes I am here because clearly it says so that's paroa but do I depend on that for knowing I'm here no then how do I know I am here not not by seeing hearing smelling tasting touching yes yes I here no not by paroa by reading something by being told by somebody else let me ask you do you think I'm here yes Swami you are here okay so I must be here I don't do that how do I know I am here this is called aaro not protection not direct not perception not indirect knowledge also not par protction this is aara this is called a direct knowledge of myself so it's used in a double negative sense paroa not paroa not indirect um here also there's a slight um refinement that can be and should be done the realization of the self Atma that I'm pure Consciousness is not even appro actually if you look even closer what is direct thoughts pain I feel pain how do you feel it do you see it hear it smell it taste it touch it no do you think about it do you imagine it you know it's like a nurse nowadays they ask a pain question it's new I saw in the hospital they'll take your blood pressure um your pulse rate oxygen level that also is new addition after covid I think and then what else do they take uh your weight or something like that and now they ask pain are you in any pain if you say no fine zero they'll put if you say yes then 1 to 10 I think that's paroa the doctor will ask is the patient in pain okay one to he said six yeah the patient is in pain that's paroa but the patient himself or our does the person have to look at the scale and say it says I'm in pain so I think I'm in pain no directly without sense organs I'm unhappy even more clear how do you know that that is aaro directly in Consciousness unhappiness arises Consciousness pain arises that is a paroa if you make that a paroa then the Consciousness itself the self itself how do you know that there's a new term for not a new term very ancient term from the Sak direct and immediate that's why it's called a the last person Namaste Swami G and I'm so happy to see you in person uh my name is SAA uh my question is um before this knowledge I was a VII so acted accordingly but I was a VI individual a person a person individual yes so after a lot of understanding listening and intuitively knowing that I'm a sakshi um there is still a confusion on how to U deal with one's own emotions and how to deal with unfairness um how to go about in the world basically they say a sad Saint is a bad Saint so I I wanted to have a summary on how a sakshi would act in this world when the choice making is um you have to make choices in certain situations and all that right so first of all how do you act in this this word first answer important Point normal be normal I've had people who were very enthusiastic about these teachings somebody wrote to me that one Limitless Consciousness which is you yourself in and through this particular body with the name of Mishra is writing to you just say Mr Mishra don't do that be absolutely normal s ramakrishna said about this answer to this question that um there was a clerk remember this was British times there was a clerk who was jailed for something then he was led out of the jail what will he do in Bali he said will he go back to his clerkship or will he dance around he dance around for a little while I'm free but afterwards he'll go back to his job his being a clerk again that mean like it's a very normal hram Loki job similarly be normal be ordinary the Great Master Padma sambava he was asked by an old man who served him and then asked him a question master I'm old my days are not long I'm also uneducated and I'm not done any spiritual practices give me an instruction by which I will become enlightened so there's a very short onepage instruction Google it you'll find it very beautiful highest teachings direct path teachings like ad vant it's in what's called Zen Buddhism Tibetan Buddhism so there the name of the teaching is pointing the staff at the heart of the old man pointing the staff at the heart of the old man so Padma samaba the Great Master who took Tibet Buddhism to Tibet before leaving he lifted his staff and he pointed it at the old man and he said a few words it's less than one page direct teachings that you are the Buddha nature you are some things like that very nice at the end of it he gave some practical advice because that old man said I'm I'm a householder and I have not done any spiritual practice I'm old and soon I will die and I'm not very educated also please teach me simple words but that I'll be enlightened by now so he gave some practical advice advice like do not think too much about your children do not waste time in Gossip do not concern yourself too much in matters of health and wealth and then last but not least always aim to die an ordinary person I never found his teaching anywhere it is important we trying to be extraordinary that also gets us into trouble it's good this is a teaching for a mature person remember if I was talking to college students I would always encourage them and be great and try your best and Excel and all of that is a very important but after some amount of maturity if you're a spiritual Seeker as far as your worldly life is concerned aim to die an ordinary person and that sets you free because you are not you're not ordinary you are the most extraordinary thing in the universe but don't try to make that person extraordinary all right now with that to answer to your question is how do you deal with unfairness how do you deal with this emotions in the mind first of all don't try to deal with them be centered in your own nature as Limitless Consciousness awareness from there now you deal with that person who's being un unfair to you who is that person is you yourself look at the storms in the mind the unhappiness frustration restlessness what are those those are waves in the ocean that you are see all these questions come up if we are not firmly properly fixed in our real nature as Limitless Consciousness if you are that if even Clarity is there these questions will answer themselves by themselves what asakra is doing here I am limitless Consciousness Immortal what about fear of death he says Let the Body stay let it die what is it to you so how will I actually deal Common Sense common sense when sh the story is there and Shankar is walking down the lane in a village and a mad elephant charges he climbs a tree and then somebody asks him but you are Brahman why did you run away from the elephant and climb a tree you know that I know that but does the elephant know it that I'm from s Krishna story of the mahut and the elephant and so on so anyway so that's the answer be ordinary use common sense but the direct answer to that is first be centered in your nature I am Brahman you'll see all the answers will come very easily either it will not matter to you and you also know the skillful way of handling day-to-day work yes thank you so much oh [Music] [Music] shant [Music] so welcome to the aparo anuti class bad weather and only a few few Hardy Souls have turned up um of course we are joined by um a number of quite a large number of uh viewers on the Internet thanks to the magic of uh thanks to the magic of modern technology we are able to connect to so many people across United States I'm told Canada and other parts of the world special uh thanks to the volunteers who have come in the midst of snow and cold to enable the the live stream to work I'm told it's uh in the 20s outside -4° C -4 - 5 5° C so this is titia um spiritual fortitude that I'm interested in Vidant in spiritual knowledge so I'll put up with the troubles that the world throws at me heat and cold and sickness and problems and troubles and traffic and whatnot we were on verse 68 get done 68 [Music] 69 [Music] [Music] just like a pot is all clay a part is made of clay I'm translating so this body is actually Consciousness therefore the division into Atma and an Atma I the self am pure Consciousness and I'm not the body and mind the body and mind is separate I am separate this is a division which is made in Vain by the ignorant okay now this is strange you know we spent so much effort so many verses so much of logic was spent in distinguishing the witness self from the body mind complex that I am the witness self I am pure Consciousness this body is an object and now if if that is so not only that um I am separate from the world I'm separate from the body I'm separate from from the mind I am the witness consciousness of the body mind world now you are saying that there is only one reality pure Consciousness if pure Consciousness alone shines forth as this world why did you make this distinction between Consciousness and everything else especially why did you make this difference between Consciousness in the body what did they just say now just as a pot is all clear through through and through it's Clay when you examine it it's just made of clay it's just clay all of it is Clay similarly this body mind complex is nothing but pure Consciousness that's the claim which is being made here when we first started vidanta we were shown we were told look just as this book is an object and I am the experience of the book The I Am The Seer of the book The Seer of the book and the book are different similarly I the experiencer of the body I'm must I am different from the body I must be a different entity and we had so many reasons it was so strongly and well argued that the body is Ever Changing I see myself as not changing the body is an object I am the subject the body is not conscious I am conscious and so many other reasons for given I think seven or eight reasons were given to carefully distinguish the body from the the the self from the body and the mind we did that so carefully and now it's just being reversed it's saying that's a division done by the ignorant to no purpose what does it mean we must understand this carefully you see at that stage at the beginning this division was done why was it done it was not wrong it was done with a purpose this identification with this body that I am who am I I am this body and what else are you nothing else I am this body and what is this body it's me what are you body what is this body me it's I so this strong identification with the body only and nothing else this has to be broken because we are so convinced that we are this body with the birth of the body I'm born with the Aging of the body I'm aging with the sickness of the body I'm am sick with the pleasure of the body I am happy with the misery of the body I unhappy when the body is feeling hot I am hot when the body is feeling cold I'm shivering in cold it is it is when the body feels hunger I am hungry when the body is satiated I am satiated it seems so beyond dispute to me that this distinction has to be drawn sharply first that I am not the body this this cutting off of the of the identification with the body has to be done first that's what was done at the at the beginning now what they're going to show now is am I audible to everybody at the back too yes now what they're going to show is when you keep talking about distinguishing the Atma from the an Atma the self from the not self the pure Consciousness witness from the body mind you indirect tend to set up the body mind as an independent existence as if there are two things here is one book and here is another book two separate things so here is a witness Consciousness and here is a body mind and the two are not the same they're different from each other you're setting up the body mind as if it were real now they're going to show that the body mind is not a reality the body mind is not a reality that's going to be shown now other than the self the not self what is the not self mind is not self body is not self the universe is not self they are not independent realities that's what we are going to see now what will be accomplished by that if you show that that they are not independent realities remember we are establishing nality so the non duality of Brahman of the of the absolute the nality of the self the non-duality of you that is what is going to be established now to establish that that which is which seems to be different from you we must establish that that's just an appearance that's not an independent reality there is no real second thing apart from you remember which you not the body we have already taken a lot of pains to establish that you're not the body you are the witness self pure Consciousness now we are moving into the second step of nity of of ad vant that is to establish that which you we separated you the pure Consciousness from those things body mind and world are not independent realities it's not you the self one and then the Mind two and the body three and the world entire universe four not like that one only pure Consciousness and mind and body and universe are appearances in that why are you call calling them appearances because we do not deny that you experience them we do not deny that we experience these things ad is not Escapist it it's very matter of fact we experience a mind we experience a body yes Bill to go back to the analogy of the pot the pot is made of clay it's nothing but clay yes true but it has a certain form and that you can't deny that form which C reality even though it's not a physical reality yes now the path has a form we are not denying that that it has a form in fact adant never denies that there there are forms there are appearances so there's a form and why are you calling that a form isn't it a kind of reality true but notice very carefully that form entirely depends on the clay take the Clay Away what what will happen to the form will it remain a shadowy outline a sketch no it disappears take the Clay Away give me the clay keep your pot form you can't but there must be a Potter who who SP the clay into a pot don't extend the example you you run into trouble it's like srish used to say example is meant to point prove a point like you say as Brave as a lion I don't know if lions are brave but anyway as Brave as a lion and um what you want to prove there is this person is particularly brave but the lion if you say that but the lion crawls on all fours does he crawl on all fours and the lion growls and pounces upon you does he growl and pounce upon you no it doesn't that's not what the example is supposed to prove the example is supposed to demonstrate one point of similarity here the point is reality is being demonstrated we are not bothered about the Potter whether it was made in a factory or by a Potter or no we are talking about the the pot is nothing but clay you see the form of the pot that's also nothing but clay but are you denying that it has a form of course not it has a form but that form is a dependent reality why only a farm it has a name look there are two names two words clay pot if they were exactly the same why would you use two words so the pot has something unique to it which that's why you use the name pot which is a form so there's a name and a form this is called Maya n Maya is n name and form adant accounts for that not only name and form but is something else use what a lump of clay cannot do you cannot keep water in a lump of clay you cannot store your milk in a lump of clay but you can store that in a pot a PO has used so name and form and transaction in Sanskrit n r this is Maya why are you calling it Maya why not reality because all of these things the name po the form of the pot and the use of the pot all are not possible without the clay the only substantive reality there is the clay what you weigh is a clay clay what you touch there is a clay what you store and carefully preserve is the clay itself right it requires uh different kind of thinking to it now it says in vain this distinction is made by the ignorant now at this stage when you're trying to see that the Consciousness alone is everything if you try to distinguish between the clay and the pot it's a vain distinction because you cannot actually show them separately pure Consciousness existence Consciousness Bliss alone is the reality and that is what is going to be established now now in vain is the distinction that the language used is by the ignorant the distinction between self and not self between Consciousness and Body Mind the distinction is made in vain why because in first at first the distinction is important then we come to an understanding of what we really are we can say I'm pure Consciousness pure Bliss not a body not a mind not an intellect not the memory so on but don't hold on to that distinction now look at that look at that existence Consciousness place and see the world as an appearance in that otherwise you will be stuck halfway you'll be stuck halfway there not non Duality that's Duality you say what's wrong with Duality the say from the existence of a second there is fear desire fear anxiety all is is there because of difference because of Separation because of I and you this and that if you have a deep feeling of Oneness with the universe you have no no fear so this that Duality and that fear will not go away that suffering will not go away you know if I understand myself like the Sania does the yoga does I an unchanging Consciousness the world let it be there what's it what's it to be let it be a separate reality I've separated myself from it well it caught me once it can catch me again maybe who knows there always will be an anxiety about it there'll always be fear so Oneness ad seeks to establish Oneness ad seeks to establish non-duality and we are very far from Duality if you say I'm a pure Consciousness and this body mind is something separate from me then you have millions and millions of bodies and minds and millions and millions of entities billions of entities in this world which are separate from you where is nity Far Cry think about it this way also in another sense I can say I'm a witness Consciousness and this body mind is separate from me I can experience I'm not saying physically you understand that I am the witness of the existence and the functioning of this body mind I don't I'm not affected by the changes in this body mind I can say that but can God see it I'm this question is being asked from a different angle God means inah is bhagavan the one who projects the this universe where does God project this universe from from within himself herself itself there's no other material apart from Brahman according to vant Brahman projects this universe with its Maya that's the that's the understanding in vant saand plus Maya projects this very saand this very Brahman itself is projected as the Universe I often say Brahman correctly Mis Brahman misunderstood is the universe the universe correctly understood is Brahman this universe is nothing other than Brahman so Brahman alone has been projected as this universe I can say or you can say that I am I am different from body mind can God say I'm different from this universe because this universe is nothing other than Brahman and we have this beautiful analogy of vishnu's dream God's dream this universe is the dream of God you know Vishnu is lying down on his um on his eternal this this this Shaga the the cosmic serpent on the ocean the Eternal ocean of existence and and Vishnu dreams and what are his dreams Universe we are the dreams of Vishnu now can Vishnu say I am different from that that does not exist without without Vishnu your dreams do not exist with without you you can't go into a dream and come out and say okay those guys are there I'll come go to next tomorrow in the night I'll go and meet them again we we'll um that that pie I ate half of it I put it in the ref dream refrigerator and the dream pie tomorrow when I go to dream I I'll take it out and and eat the rest of the dream p no it does not exist without your dreaming it they are not separate from you God cannot say this world is separate from God God cannot say see this is a very interesting thing God cannot say I'm the pure Consciousness I'm not the body not the mind no no the body mind and entire in fact the very dust of this universe is one with God the air this the sky is one with God the air is one with God the the fire is one with God the water and the Earth are all one with God so this entire universe God cannot separate it again and again in many of the ancient scriptures not just vedanta books in the ramayana in the Mahabharat in the bhagavatam in many places in Hindu scriptures you will come across brah not in these words the Ultimate Reality alone is true the world is an appearance the world is compared to um Castles in the Air gandharva nagar Castles in the Air the clouds sometimes look like castles the world is compared to a dream swapna the world is compared to the product of of a magic show Maya the world is compared to daydreaming Gand Manor means daydreaming so it has no existence apart from the reality behind the world which is Brahman consider the classic vedantic example snake and and rope the snake and rope we always say that okay it's not a snake we are making a mistake understand it correctly it's a rope it's not a snake it's a rope but that snake follow this carefully that snake that we saw by mistake I admit by mistake but that snake isn't it nothing else other than the Rope are there two things there rope and snake no there's only one thing rope and we by mistake we saw that rope as the snake isn't it so what ad is saying the ultimate conclusion there is only one thing that is Brahman alone is there that eess alone is there and we we experience it as an as an as a universe we don't exp we don't see it as Brahman we don't experience it as Brahman we see it as men and women and chairs and tables and atoms and galaxies and so on that's how we see it even the snake rope example proves non-duality how many are there one apart from the Rope not two and yet what do we see a snake so that is the example you think you have a question I'm asking is it one like a snake no it is not is it a snake drope snake do you think so do do you think so do you do you ever have that example I saw a snake do you ever ever uh experience it that way I saw a snake and then I went close and saw I understand the point why make snake make R snake snake rope whatever either way are you seeing a rope appearing as a snake no both are one we are giving two names but one name is false can you do that way I'm asking you I'm very clear you cannot do it that way but I'm asking you why would you even say that you can say it's a rope snake R snake why would you even there's a question behind I know there's something that you want to say you have to be precise about it what is it that you want to say think about it and come back with the question again all right is just a projection in which one state of mind what is the state of mind May Maya is a state of mind no mind is a state of Maya is projecting mind is not projecting Maya Maya Works through the Mind Maya and mind are very closely connected yeah imagine yourself let let me finish this verse imagine your ourself as an infinite ocean of existence and the mind is like the wind which blows and turn CHS this ocean into waves it's still an ocean of existence the waves which appear are because of the mind and this is Maya basically so Maya produces mind and body and produces means what projects Brahman itself as a mind as a body as a universe just as as our ignorance projects the uh rope as a snake even when it is projected as a snake it's it is there is no second thing it's still one rope only even when this multifarious universe is projected there is only one thing Brahman what is that one thing it is explained in many ways in the in the upanishads the shastras put it in in many ways all of this is pure being all ofam means all this all this means whatever you experience in life everything all this is pure Consciousness all this is brah and the absolute all this is at the self I alone am all this Brahman know sat pure being chit pure Consciousness Brahman Atman the self all of that is actually you there different names different ways of putting it you cannot go there first without distinguishing yourself from Body Mind as a body mind it it's ridiculous to say I am pure being in the universe no as a body and a mind it's ridiculous to say I am pure Consciousness no I must first understand what pure being or pure Consciousness is that's why that exercise is there in vant I'm not the body not the mind understand that and then you can say from that perspective from the perspective of pure Consciousness from the perspective of pure being now when you look at the universe is the universe different from being if it were different from being it would be not being it would be non-existence is this universe different from Pure Consciousness can you ever experience the universe without Consciousness no look at the steps all our experience in life has been we have experience the world and life only through Consciousness only because of Consciousness step one step two we we have always experienced life and our the whole world in our Consciousness not Consciousness experiencing a pre-existing world but Consciousness experiencing a world in itself and third step this world which is experienced only in Consciousness in Consciousness cannot be other than Consciousness it is permeated through and through by Consciousness so everything that you experience is you but which you not this person Consciousness pure being is equal to Pure Consciousness is equal to Brahman is equal to the self is equal to you this is what it says let me finish if that is so we're going to toward something Grand if that is so hold on to the question if that is so then what desire what will you desire in this world what is there in this world which is not you when you wake up from a dream what you lost in the dream you got a million in a lottery in a in a dream are you unhappy about that you're unhappy that it was a dream but you're not unhappy about losing that million dollars because you will say one it was a dream so never really never had that million dollars or two it's it's me I alone appeared as the million dollars in the dream what you see in a dream is not apart from you it's you alone what will you Des what will you desire in this life why is there wasana from that perspective there is nothing that you will want that I if I add this to myself I will become whole and complete pum you are pum with with all the things in the world without anything in the world you are Pam as you are because none of those things add anything to you they are all you I have told this story earlier maybe once or twice but it's uh I can repeat it now the yes the princess of Kashi it's apt here it's an ancient story you'll find among the monks in the Himalayas that there is a there was a kingdom not Kashi Kashi is the ancient holy city of the Hindus Banaras but there was another kingdom in which um once there was a theatrical performance in the court of the king a theatrical performance in the court of the king and one of the characters in the in the drama was the princess of Kashi the princess of Kashi and they didn't have they didn't have a little girl she was a little girl so didn't have a little girl who could play the part but the prince the King's son in that uh Court the prince was about that age and he was very cute so they dressed him up as a girl the queen said dress him up as a girl and uh he he can play the princess of Kashi so they dressed him up as a girl and he was the princess of Kashi I guess he didn't have too many dialogues to say that he just has to dress up and stand there and it was the the drama was a success and the queen was very happy and then she said um he looks so cute make a portrait of him dressed in that thing and today it would have been so simple to take a picture a selfie or a know picture but so they the quot artist drew the Royal painter drew a portrait of the Young Prince dressed as the princess of Kashi and labeled it the princess of Kashi and gave the date and so and so forth and that's it years passed 15 years later the prince was a young man in the kingdom and doing all sorts of princely things um nowadays his doings would be you know this is what the royal wedding everybody is yes so it would be a media thing now one day the prince was exploring the old Palace and he went down to the store room you know a seller underground Cellar and he was looking through so many things accumulated there and he finds this old painting and he wipes the dust of the painting and he sees this cute picture the picture of this cute girl and it says princess of Kashi and the date is there and and he thinks oh now she'll be my age and he falls in love with her and he says I'm going to this is the princess for me I'm going to marry her and if I don't marry this this is the I will never be happy if I don't marry this this princess but he's too shy to tell the king or the queen so he sort of mopes and neglects his princely studies and duties and all of that and the king is wor and the queen is worried and they can't get anything out of him until the wise Minister takes him aside and says Prince what ails you tell me I can help you and the prince says well I'm in love the minister says that's wonderful who is she oh she's the princess of Kashi and the minister says a princess wonderful uh where did you meet her I haven't actually met her but I've seen her picture Minister says that's very good where did you see her picture oh in the cellar it's not her picture it's not a new one it's a picture from 15 years ago but she looks about my age and so I can marry her now something goes in The Minister's memory you know he said just a minute a 15-year-old painting in our Cellar yes a princess of Kashi yes take me down there and the prince takes the minister down there and the minister says show me the painting and the sees the painting and he tells the prince prince you have to sit down I've got something to tell you many years ago there was this play in our court 15 years ago and one of the characters was the princess of Kashi we did not um I mean um so this is the person who played the princess of Kashi she's not the princess of Kashi and the prince said well whoever she is I'll marry her it's not even who it's not even a girl girl it's you we dressed you as the princess of kashii that thou art that thou art Prince now what happens to the princess desire for the princess of Kashi the desire goes but why does it go away does it go away because oh I can never marry the princess of Kashi no not because of that it goes away because he realizes there is no princess of Kashi apart from me whatever this person is in the picture is exactly me there's nothing to attain there exactly like that this world out there is your princess of Kashi you are ever fulfilled what is there to desire and quite conversely what is there to hate if it is all you who is there to hate and what is there to hate from that point of view from the point of view of pure being pure isness pure Consciousness what is there to hate this is called patam completeness or infinitude limitlessness shankaracharya has in his commentaries a phrase which he uses again and again to explain samsara if we are that Brahman how come we are here in this miserable State he has a crisp phrase Aya Karma ignorance desire Karma action ignorance ignorance of what my f my infinite ever fulfilled ever satisfied nature I don't know that not knowing that I see myself as this body mind the moment I see myself as the body mind every problem of the Body Mind Body Mind always has problems it's a biologic iCal entity it's a delicate entity it's subject to cold and heat and hunger and disease it's a b it's battling to survive every moment so it has problems then we are Minds we are social entities in a society again many more problems the body do you think the body has problems the mind has many more problems and identified with that the sky the vast Sky imagine this example once Swami in the Himalayas put it so beautifully the vast Sky the classic vedantic example pot sky and the and the vast Sky once you have a pot then you think that space inside the pot space inside the pot and space outside the pot just the existence of the PO seems to divide space into space inside the pot and space outside the pot actually doesn't divide anything the part cannot it just looks like that many people don't even understand that I ask somebody tell me you have a glass of water when you move the glass does the water move with it of course otherwise it'll make a mess I say bring me a glass of water you can bring me a glass of water if you have a glass of air just close it and then you move will the air inside move if you don't if you close it yes the air inside will move with it when you move the glass but the glass the space in the glass will it move when you move the glass that space there tell can can you bring it to me in a box or a glass you cannot many people don't even understand this it's a simple point but many people think yeah it'll move no it doesn't it doesn't do you think the space in this room stays in this room oh no no no the room along with New York City along with America along with the everything else on the Earth Earth is hurtling through space and so we moving through space we don't not carrying our own space with us we cannot space is not affected by the barriers you put on it so the part inside the space is absolutely one with the Infinite Space outside with the vast space outside but it looks different and we use it differently what happens is if you think pot space limited immediately limit comes poverty comes comes why how much can the pot hold how much can that space hold 1 lit at the most pot space can hold one liter how much can the space in itself hold the whole universe galaxies and galaxies and galaxies and the pot space and this Vass space are exactly one it's the pot which holds one liter of milk not the space space holds entire universe but that illusion is created space is limited by the part no no no similarly I the infinite existence I appear to be limited by Body Mind and so desire comes and From Desire Desir prompted action that leads to Karma once you engage these subtle forces Cosmic forces you're trapped you're trapped Karma will give result happiness try to pursue more happiness misery try to avoid that misery if that happiness and that Misery the Good Karma and the Bad Karma all of it you are why would you try to pursue one and try to avoid one but we don't know that we try to pursue one and we try to avoid the other and we trapped in the cycle of karma leading to an endless cycle ceaseless cycle of births and deaths Aya Karm Karma crisp phase ignorance desire action but you are pum you are infinite there is nothing like the princess of Kashi nothing that will add to you there's nothing that you can ever lose you neither gain nor you lose anything the masakra says I'm an infinite ocean of being in which the universe arises as a wave the universe arises as a wave in the infinite ocean of being which I am let the W wave arise I don't gain anything by it let Birth come let Prosperity come let Health come let Fame come I gain Nothing by it because all of that I am or the reverse you can say none of that is real what is real I alone am real and the opposite let the waves upside let old age come and disease come and death come and poverty come and sickness come and ill repute and Ill Fame and failure come I lose Nothing by it why either you can say all of that I am already they're not different from me or you can say they don't exist they are there are appearances in me without me none of them exist like a pot will not exist without the clay I am buram I am infinite one more Point hold on to the question on one more point and then I'm done when this point is the climax of it when am I infinite tell me when where am I infinite tell me where when am I infinite that's the correct answer now no yeah you're right but only after realization only after I get Nadi then I'll be infinite no no no it's like saying only when the part is broken that the space will be one with the infinite space no only when the waves subside side will the water be one with the ocean no it's just water all the same you are the infinite Brahman now fully without the slightest limit slightest staint slightest impurity you are the infinite Brahman here what exists right now right here as your life is you might think that's furthest from Perfection you can imagine oh no no no it's far from Perfection if you look at yourself as a body mind if you look at yourself as the infinite ocean of existence which you are right now you will find it's all perfect now it always was is and will be your pum why wait for something to fulfill you what are you waiting for nothing there's nothing that what will come you know there's a saying what is behind you and what is yet in front of you behind you means means in your past in your life whatever has gone by in your life and whatever is yet to come in your life is as nothing compared to what is in you we live our lives like you know the slapstick com comedy routines person slipping on a banana peel Falls forward so either the person falls forward and falls back we laugh CR at that person but we are continuously falling back or falling forward falling back into the past if only that had happened if and the future that what if if only and what if you don't need to why should you regret anything in the past nothing in the past all of that is you you regret your little MISD deminers what about all the terrible things that had happened in the world all the gisans and Hitlers and all of that I'm telling you something terrible all of that was you the Tyrant was you and the tyrannized were you but also the the only saving grace is in reality there was no Tyrant no not tyrannized it's the only ocean of existence which is always there the ocean of awareness which is there we are soaring to the highest metaphysical Heights Here viand said the ancient adans of India they take us to Heights where the human lung can scarcely dare breathe you are perfect as it is right now right here if you try it we scared of trying it because we are driven forward by hope things will be a little better later won't things were pretty bad then no yes you are right the things will improve and again get worse and again improve as long as you live this surface life as long as you live this surface life but in depth the things are perfect always where are and always will be any questions yes will also okay so when you started to talk about how the the Dual understanding that you know I'm the body that identification is what we all have so to have this perspective that I am one and everything is one you need to become Godlike right it's the other perspective of it so you let me stop you there you need to become Godlike another word you used was a perspective you need to change your what vant is telling you don't need to become anything you just need to change your perspective you say as easy as that as easy as that as difficult as that why is it easy because it is you right now I can tell you that with full conviction it is you right now but why is it difficult because you will not let go that story um of the student who wanted Enlightenment and the guru said come tomorrow in the morning so the student went to the cave where the guru used to live the master and there was this old dry tree outside the cave and the guru is clutching it tightly and the student says and the guru shouts free me free me free me and the student say just let go and the guru said precisely viand said let go thy hold thine only is the hand that holds the rope that drags thee on Let Go thy hold sasi B say what say what say om tat om omat means om that truth which truth this truth you say Okay difficult to understand difficult to realize fine not difficult to imagine imagine it also you will get tremendous peace you'll get tremendous quietness of Mind you'll get you'll feel a tremendous depth to yourself a prevision of Enlightenment and liberation exion to that question your perspective yes details whats changing perspective and perspective is it accurate to that starts changing the mind of course all change of perspective has to be done in the mind where is perspective only in the mind we are bound in the mind and we will get freedom in the mind also the Atman as such the reality as such is always free so perspective change has to be done in the mind but what do you mean by perspective change exactly what we are doing all throughout first start with first look who am I what am I am I this body that is the first beginning of the perspective change step by step I'm not the body not The Prana not the and why am I not that not only reason actually feel it that is the change of perspective first understand it hear these truths understand it assimilate it that's what his perspective change then you actually begin to feel that I am the witness of this body mind not so difficult and say oh nobody seems convinced actually it's not so difficult not so difficult to understand at least yes then way to Enlighten things to be constantly surrounded by banana pills that you can step in go straight from the way to Enlightenment is this change in perspective establish yourself in that so that you don't keep slipping into on the banana peels into the future and the past remember even after we get a clarity about this there are tendencies in the mind to go back into that banana peel slipping kind of mode so you have to apply what you have understood to your life and that takes um alertness and effort first it takes alertness there's a word used in Buddhism and in yoga also aada Prada error aada nonerror don't keep slipping back into error anybody else yes bill you had a question it seem to me that you were talking it all being in appearance but the the really important kernel of this whole thing is to stop identifying as a separate human being I mean that's the ethical kernel of this teaching so that as long as we think we're separate suff correct guaranteed correct and if we can really be convinced to strive for the realization that we're not separated yes it seems to me this teaching has done its work right and this teaching is actually showing you the way to understand that it's not just an ethical imperative separation is bad and Oneness is good so try to feel that Oneness and that's what the teaching is telling you that's only at the surface it's actually taking you there it's taking you by the hand it's trying to show you something not inspire you or encourage you inspire you encourage you is good it will inspire you and encourage you but actually that it it accomplishes the fact right if you remember the 10th Man story I will not go into it the wise person actually found out the 10th person and showed it to you it's not just encouraging you oh the 10th person is alive and don't cry not there it takes you by the hand and shows you Thou Art the 10th you don't have to believe it you have to see it for yourself and this will show you don't think that ad vant is only positive thinking ad is only telling you something Grand and cool about yourself it is showing you it is directly showing you you must have that aha moment I get it after which nothing remains to be done that is the meaning of the open you see all sadanas you think that this is okay this some kind of idea it gives you now you have to engage in enormous amount of spiritual activities do do lots of pujas and repeat lots of mantras and meditate in different ways and so then you'll come to this no no no no all of those are meant to come to this this is the Pinnacle if you get this none of those are necessary if you don't get this repeat the mon 10,000 times a day and then you'll get it and then come back again can you get it wait there was a question there yes Aya kak Karm ignorance desire actions are separate so if we do know at the understanding level that we not separate let's assume for now that that's understood but the very fact that we are in a body mind complex itself a survival kit so non reaction if that be the method of you know sustaining this vid it can come in conflict with the very survival that is ined in the system how do you break this or how do you you don't have to break you don't have to break it remember we have been told again and again so all the answers have been given in 110% detail but it's natural we miss it we take it as nice teaching they said after you realize that the pot is Clay does it prevent you from using the pot for holding water none of the worldly usages are prevented by realizing that you are Brahman can I still go to my drive to my job and um yeah if the traffic is okay you can drive to your job after realizing I'm Brahman you can look at the lives of enlightened person did did they stop eating did they stop breathing did they fail to protect the body everything can be done if you realize that the pot is made of clay oh it's Clay now I can't hold milk in it or put water in it no how ridiculous if you realize that the uh necklace is made of gold the bangle is made of gold and the ring is made of gold can you say that oh it's gold I can put a ring on my finger I can't put gold on my finger you won don't say that it's ridiculous after realizing that they are all the same gold you'll still put the ring on your finger you'll put the bangle on your wrist and the necklace on on your neck usage in Sanskrit again I'm repeating vah will continue only you won't be stuck to the Radha the desire for completion the aversion for fear of something that that activity in the world your life in the world will be fearless and joyful not driven not slipping off into the future or not falling back into the past not driven by fear not pulled by lust and anx and desire it'll be that is the life of a Jan MTA it'll be a fantastic life it'll be life full of joy and peace and fearlessness can you see that if you see yourself as one with everything will will it prevent you from feeding this body will it prevent you from taking a pill if this body gets a fever nothing but the fever of this body will not bother you in the sense that you know it's a body it gets these problems doesn't matter one day it's going to die doesn't matter at all yes bill says how could you prove it to somebody else it cannot you'll see wherever realization is talked about can you prove realization to somebody else first of all you would not want to it the the thing is meant for yourself not for proving it to others and the second thing is wherever realization is talked about you will see these are descriptions of internal states only the person himself would truly know the others can estimate you would feel a great peace and Holiness in that person maybe maybe you would see that that person really cannot hide the transcendental light which the person sees within oneself but otherwise there is no no way of um in you know in irrefutable proof that a person is enlightened when Krishna Arjuna asks Krishna that um what are the characteristics of an enlightened person you'll see in the second chapter of the bhagat Gita Krishna gives a series of characteristics you if you see them carefully they're all internal States you cannot judge from outside all right you had a questions simp people goal POS body and everythings to come from to come from mind so is there all right let me stop you right there don't let go of material positions right now you'll get me into trouble what happened New York is having more and more homeless situation because the Swami taught them to let go of everything no no no no no no let go Works only see the scent this book teaches you teaches you only one thing first see it without seeing it if you try to let go it will be a terrible mistake it'll be it'll be a struggle which will tear you apart how much effort did the prince have to put into letting go of the princes of Kashi once he knew how much effort none how much suffering was there in letting go of the princess of Kashi none but before that if the queen or the prince had say they said that no we have we are in a state of war with Kashi you can't marry the princess of Kashi how difficult would it have been for the prince very difficult he would have been miserable now he lets go of of the choicest desire of his heart he lets go in an instant effortlessly without any problem how that he saw that Insight oh this is it I'm not really letting go of anything real now when you let go of the world based on this Insight person can let go of all worldly positions and go and sit in a cave in the Himalayas has let go and the person can sit in a Billionaire's apartment with with the cars and people and responsibilities and jobs and everything and has still let go of everything you see it really does not make so much of a difference what you have surrounded yourself with outside that's part of your karma Rashi once said to a household a family a lady a housewife that you can stay there and become an enlightened person then the housewife said then why are you a monk in a cave and Raman Mari said said mother that is my karma and to be a housewife in that household is your karma but Enlightenment is open to all of us be do not do not misunderstand that's why ad was restricted it it can lead to complete misunderstanding either non-comprehension or a kind of inspiration which leads you to take rash steps I've seen people running off leaving everything running up to the Himalayas after 2 days of sitting in the cold and the ice and the wind and the Rocks becoming miserable yes you a question yes I have a question so I'm sorry I'm probably repeating myself but you said about the insight and the perspective yes but you also said I mean that you have when you read this or you think about this what you're currently teaching that there would be this aha moment yes my question to you is does that aha moment come to people who have not done spiritual practices or do spiritual practices help you get that ah moment right do spiritual practices help you get that aha moment the realizing that the princess of Kashi was none other than me do you get that of course that's the point of all spiritual practices note just note the yogas and for example note the yogas how do they help note um Karma Yoga all my energies are devoted to helping others unselfishly do you now look at it from this perspective aren't you cutting at the root of this identification with one body and mind Karma Yoga is helping you or not if you do karma yoga if you are concerned about others not about the little problems of this one body and mind will it help you to understand this certainly that's why karma is strongly recommended it will attenuate thin out the desires of the world the discipline imposed Raj yoga meditation deep meditation absolute quietness of the Mind Stillness of the body Stillness of the breath Stillness of the mind will it help you to appreciate an unchanging awareness in the background of everything what do you think yeah I'm not asking you if you're doing that but asking you if if you could do that would it not help you to appreciate it and once you have appreciated that would it not be much easier to understand what they are talking about as one Consciousness behind everything certainly Raj yoga helps you in this B Yoga when all the desires poured out in the world are collected and put at the feet of my beloved Rama or Krishna or the Divine mother or Christ or whatever that continuous stream of love and devotion towards the Divine with a particular name form a Rel the god of religion will it help you to attain adic Insight or not it will tremendous help shankaracharya says bti is the greatest support to in VI so bi Karm yoga B Yoga Raj yoga they are all tremendous supports for this Enlightenment aha moment but what ad insists it there are supports for this without that not much chance but remember so studying this is not studying this is also spiritual practice you mean studying a book is spiritual practice not in normal circumstances if you read a book on bti and then you have to feel that and practice that you read a book on meditation you have have to actually sit down and practice meditation be inspired by Swami viandas Karm yoga have to go out and do that it won't just help to say oh I feel good about everybody that won't help you have to go out and do that but there's a great distinction it will take a different class to explain it there's a great distinction between AD shastra and other things you know what this shastra is like it's like it's like the difference what practice did the prince that Prince have to do when the minister told him this princess of Kashi is you o Prince when he explained it to him what practice did the prince have to do nothing the 10th Man in the story when the wise man comes and points his hand towards him Thou Art the 10th what practice did he have to do nothing remal ignorance that removal of ignorance this directly removes ignorance samam we've been attending classes for years why hasn't it removed our ignorance the problem lies not with this the problem lies the shoe pinches elsewhere the meditation the Devotion to God the cleanliness of heart the unselfishness the karma yoga has not been completed the bti yoga has not been completed Raja yoga has not been completed but I'll put you put one one simple addition here one thing is necessary above all you might think it's a strange thing to say in this class the grace of God the most radical text of ad starts with this first sentence it is by the special grace of God the god of religion that you get a person gets a liking for non-u vant how strange it is the grace of the dualistic God who takes you s ramakrishna said tie the knowledge of to to the Hem of your cloth like women in The Villages in India do they not the knowledge of AD the keys of the household to the Hem of their cloth and then do whatever you you want to do do whatever you want to do is you are free you you have got the essence of it be a devot be a meditator be engaged in tremendous action in the world whatever you want to do everything will be a blessing for the world whatever you do okay we have run out of time you know I wanted to do 10 verses today I did one om sh shant [Music] shant one thing I want to um bring to our notice is that quite apart from all these texts in ancient Sanskrit and all the arguments and the philosophy the epistemology the metaphysics of it all the beauty and advantage of ad is it's talking about something something directly presented to us directly and continuously openly available to us all the time so that's why it's called the direct path it points to a reality right here right now always available in spite of our efforts um we can Nei erase it nor create it's there um so it's good to keep that in mind because when we plunge into all of this we may feel confused we may feel it's too much it's too complex it's not at all complex it's good to keep in mind it's actually very simple ad for example un likee most of the philosophies it can be expressed in a single short sentence you are that I am Brahman that's it and when you try to understand it all of this is useful now asakra is going to do something very interesting and a little different in verse number eight [Music] [Music] have faith my child have faith never confuse yourself in this you are knowledge itself you are the Lord you are the self and you are Beyond nature what ashtavakra is telling us here is that if you're feeling bewildered by all these teachings and the philosophy and seems too subtle too complex too difficult one thing one can do straight away is he says just trust me just believe in this I am Brahman we believe in so many things many of which cause so much trouble and unhappiness to us we believe quite easily actually it's only when it comes to spiritual life that we become suddenly big Skeptics and critics and all that we believe easily every Advertiser knows that the whole Art and Science of advertisement is is predicated on that if people know you show something to people whether they they sort of uncritically absorb it and that's the trick to selling products to advertising it works that's why billions and billions of dollars are spent on it so we believe and we absorb all sorts of nonsense from the word the sadu tell you in Hindi and then translate he was explaining that you are Brahman and then he said I'm telling you if nothing else I'm telling you then just accept it because I'm telling you so um he gave an example when uh you were brought home from the hospital we B we were born how do you know that these are your parents your mom and dad and somebody said the nurse said so the nurse said so and then the Swami said I'll tell you hindian translate he said or n am I even less trustworthy than the the nurse in the in the hospital so something so important for you you in your life you take it on trust and I am telling you without any expectation of any material gain from you nothing from you I'm telling you that you are Brahman sages and Saints Masters throughout history have told us this again and again so he says my child so here the just as a father just as a parent has only the interests of the children at heart similarly the spiritual master has only our interest at heart that how can we be delivered from unhappiness from sorrow how can we find fulfillment how can we reach the goal of life purpose of life there such the stakes could not be higher this is the point of it all the point of life and here it is presented to us directly see not to knock down other other approaches but since this is AD and we think we are pretty cool and pretty high way up there this way up there I remember seeing a cartoon so there's a hierarchy among scientists um so there's this biologist and in in front of him standing is the is the chemist you know he says you who I'm uh I'm superior to the biologist because all of biology ultimately depends on chemistry and then above this guy is standing the physicist he says I'm a physicist I'm superior to you guys because all of this your chemistry and biology depends some of the element Elementary particles of matter which I study then higher above that guy stands we applied mathematician where whose mathematics is used for all of modern physics physics so I am the pure scientist you know and then that cartoon it shows way above all of them sitting on a cloud is the pure mathematician he say Yoo guys I'm up here so pure mathematician who takes Delight in just sheer abstraction and concept they supposed to be the most uh aloof and most elevated of all the Sciences GH Hardy who was who's the one who inv invited ramanujam to Cambridge University so he was interviewed once and asked what is the application what application does your pure mathematics have what use is it does it have an application and he says I should hope not application means too grubby too low down to have applications so we otherwi things we consider ourselves to be above the clouds you know say this is the highest final ultimate um the ultimate teaching um so from that perspective I'll be a little critical the bti approach the devotional approach beautiful and sweet but it depends upon belief Faith you cannot be a devotee you cannot be a baka you cannot be a lover of God if you start by being a committ atheist if you it it depends on accepting the existence of God if you do not accept the existence of God devotion will not work for you the problem with that approach is in this day and age it is very difficult if if you're a thinking person you just listen to Richard Dawkins and Christopher Hitchens and Daniel dennet and Sam Harris when they attack the concept of God and religion you listen to them them for half an hour one hour a day you will cleanse your mind of all religious nonsense they're going to vacuum your mind clean so difficult in this D age we I have in this day and age it's the largest number of atheists and agnostics that there ever have been in the entire history of humanity this this age we are living in compared to this the yogic approach says that not belief but experience this is what viand what made Narendra into viand and what viand brought into this country see what did the Young Narendra go around doing in Kolkata and late 19th century he went around asking people have you seen God he went to Sri ramak Krishna that's where he received his first his the clearest answer most convincing answer have you seen God not whether does God exist or why do you believe in God do you believe why don't you don't believe in God have you seen God and S Krishna said yes just as I see you even more clearly and you can too so this is the yo promise of the yogic path that not Bel they're not asking you to believe in God if religion is true it should be experienceable if there's a God I should be able to see God if I have an immortal soul I should be able to feel it and experience it and pranali yoga is a classic book of the yogi tradition which says that you sit in this way you breathe in this way Focus withdraw your mind and senses in this way meditate in this way and I promise you you will have certain extraordinary mystical experiences which will prove to you the claims of religion so you will have these experiences and these are all Extraordinary experiences samadi various types of samadi and this is what viand bought here the first book he translated and published was his commentary on the patanjali yoga sutras Raj yoga from New York uh he said to um the Americans in the late 19th century that religion is realization religion is not believing in a book it was a new idea at that time that you could actually experience God it was there in Christianity all out all throughout but what was what came to happen was people felt these mystical experiences are only for a few people they're like the athletes of the uh spiritual world not for the mass of people they're going to be a few Mystics but for the rest we have to just go to church and believe in what the pastor says and try to lead a good life and that's it and surrender that's it no all of us can should must realize God must experience God that's the yogic promise but there is from an adic perspective you see there is a problem with that too the problem is this these experiences are special experiences Sak Krishna is having a vision of Kali how many of us are having a vision of KH even in that book when you see the description of Sak Krishna talking he's talking with the Divine mother but uh he is talking with the Divine mother nobody else in that Gathering is actually seeing the Divine mother so they believe that s ramak Krishna is having an experience with the Divine mother and they have shha belief faith in that what did people think of it what did people what have people thought about Mystics throughout the ages they're crazy most people during SRI Ram krishna's lifetime the people around most of them thought he was this mad priest of Kali and dakshineshwar and that's true of all the mistakes whenever they have in every religion people around them even religious people would doubt their sanity because mainly because we don't share those experiences they are rare and difficult to get they're not public experiences uh and today especially in this day and age the neuroscientist will tell you I'm sure you feel one with the universe or I'm sure you're seeing a Divine Light or you're seeing forms visions of God I'm sure you're seeing that but not because actually you're seeing God it's because there's a little stroke on the left side of your brain and there's little hemorrhaging there and that is affecting your experience of the world there's this very nice uh talk by this lady she had a stroke she she was a neuroscientist it's maybe one of the most watched TED Talks ever and she wrote a book about it too because she was trained she realized that I'm having a stroke and she felt one with the universe so are you actually one with the universe no no no you're just a human being having a stroke so the neuroscientist will tell you there is some neuron something wrong with your brain that's why or if you're in New York um especially after 5:00 p.m in Central Park you're high so most people are and so they're feeling one with the universe and that's the problem with uh mystical experiences there are genuine mystical experiences but how do you know which are genuine and which are not there are mystical experience seem to be mystical born of nothing more than unfortunate mental illness hallucination um drugs or neurological problems many kinds of things so how do you know now um says not belief as in the path of bi not special mystical experiences as in the path of yoga but just our daily cottian experiences experiences we have right now of seeing hearing smelling tasting of being the subject and experiencing the object of being awake dreaming and sleeping who does not have these experiences who has not experienced being awake or Dreaming or sleeping everybody has who has not experienced the physical body and the subtle body all of us and all the time we experience it now this is enough for the adic inquiry to start ad vant says you just need whatever you already have and then we will guide you step by step logically and every step we will not tell you that there is some extraordinary thing you do these practices 25 years later you may have that vision and then you will see for yourself or none of that you have to believe in it none of that it's just it's available and you can see right now right here this is the beauty of AD however if all these teachings are too complicated too subtle asakra says the Baka has a great point the faith is a great power if you believe in what I'm saying just simp simulate it suppose it's true what all these texts and all the Masters are telling me I am Brahman right now I am pure awareness and try to see what it looks like the world and yourself if you have suppose you're already enlightened you're a j m what would it feel like what would it be how would you as the enlightened person react to it react to the things in the world the whatever is happening in your life and the behavior of others as viand says I know I cannot die therefore I'm not in a hurry I know I'm one with all of them are one with me imagine my happiness and so on so just believe it what is that fake it till you make it one might say but doesn't say it's not a question of belief you must understand it well the interesting thing psychologically is if you believe in it if you take it all right let me take it as it is that as suppose it is true let me take it that way and I am ran right now if you believe in it if you have conviction in it the process of understanding and realization becomes much easier so do not be deluded on this point this delusion this confusion who am I what am I um this has these two forms in ad vant let me talk about that a little bit so when we come to ad there are actually three three points of confusion three kinds of questions which come up first is um what is the teaching all these books I'm seeing in library what are they telling me in technically this is called um prah samay means a doubt about the source of knowledge itself about the teaching itself so what exactly is astavakra saying what exactly are the upanishad saying what exactly is Shankar aara saying and and how do you remove this you remove this by studying listening so when we listen to the talks when we attend Retreats like this when we read the book attentively after sometime you if you try to rehearse it in your own mind if you try to repeat back the essential points as we gathered them that cloud begins to dispel now I have a clear idea about what the books are telling me so that's the first St but that's set aside we have already listen listened to it but now two more problems come two more questions two more kinds of confusion the second kind of confusion is I know what the teaching is I've heard the talks but I don't get it it's quite possible to know the teaching I can even tell you summarize what the book says but there are many things I don't get I know the book book says you are Brahman I know ad vant can be summarized in one sentence Brahman is real the world is in appearance and you are Brahman BR it can be summarized I know all these things but I don't understand it so let's take up the questions one by one and deal with it this not understanding I know the teaching but I don't understanding I don't understand it this is called um impossibility doubt I I don't see how I am Brahman you are Immortal I don't see how I am Immortal you are all pervading I don't see that I'm just here so these are serious doubts and they have to be resolved by reasoning and vant will demonstrate for example the text that I'm going to teach in Phoenix ad makarand the honey of nity so that deals with all all of this it starts with I am Rahman I exist I I'm aware I shine I am happy and that is sat so how am I not Brahman Brahman is existence Consciousness Bliss right and he says look at yourself do you exist or not everyone will say I do are you aware or not yes I am aware and are you happy at least occasionally are you happy or not well yes I'm happy this is what Brahman is existence Consciousness Place howah how am I not Brahman and then the questions will come wait a minute it's true that I exist and I'm aware most of the time and Happy some of the time but Brahman is um is the cause of this universe the books tell us that Brahman is the cause of the UN the universe is produced from Brahman am I the cause of the universe it's absolutely not true and then he will explain what is meant by pure Consciousness and how the universe is an appearance in pure Consciousness then the next question will come yeah I exist see I exist but but Brahman is eternal existence I'm not Eternal existence I was born on that day and I'm sure that I'm going to die on a particular day in the near future sometime so my existence is entirely cut off there was a time when I was not and there was a time when I will not exist so how am I Brahman Brahman is supposed to be Eternal existence that means Immortal then the author will explain that as pure being or pure awareness it's only the body which is Born the body which tries but you have no proof and he'll arguments to show pure Consciousness is not born pure Consciousness does not die or pure being is not born or pure being does not die the next question will be um all right but uh Brahman is supposed to be um you know pure Consciousness and I'm conscious now after 2 hours of vant lectures I'm a little less conscious and then after lunch I'll be even less conscious and at night I'm not conscious at all how is this Brahman Brahman is endless awareness and Limitless awareness and then the author will explain that how these are states of the mind you are that ever awake Consciousness witnessing the awake mind the Sleepy mind the feeling mind and so on like this what's going on here these are questions I have about the teaching I know the teaching but I have doubts about the teaching and they are how do you resolve them through reasoning and thinking it through with the help of others with the help of the teacher with the help of the books and also thinking it through for yourself till you get clarity now what have we achieved we have removed two of the problems one is and this is Prana impossibility regarding I am Brahman and the doubts about the teaching itself both are removed now I know the teaching I understand it I have got clarity now now what's the problem it still doesn't seem to be a living truth to me I still react to the world just like that old guy you know unhappiness the misery the the restlessness anger all of that I react to it like that old person so to overcome the old Tendencies of the body mind you have to meditate on the clarity to marinate in it you know to uh another term is familiarize yourself the truth you have understood it they have got Clarity stay with that Clarity till it becomes oh it's a fact how wonderful then you are enlightened so this is M sir or my child do not be confused on this point get rid of the three kinds of confusion what is the teaching I don't get it or I get it I know the teaching and I get it but it's not real for me it's not living for me all these three confusions get rid of in Sanskrit they are called um and is contrary Tendencies then he says Atma this phrase is profound and packed bhagavan God bhagavan means god which God the Creator preserver destroyer of the universe the one God worshiped by all theistic religions of the world why do I say theistic religions because there are religions which are not theistic there are religions which are not concerned with God and do not worship God Buddhism jism even within Hinduism you have something I mentioned Sanka Sanka doesn't talk about God so yoga philosophy yoga there's God In Yoga philosophy but marginal God is not the goal of yoga philosophy self-realization is the goal so there are philosophies and religions which are non-theistic but all the theistic religions of the world they posit that there is an omnipotent omniscient and omnipresent deity and it's one which is the creator of the universe the maintainer or preserver sustainer of the universe and ultimately the Des olver destroyer of the universe and then again repeat repeat so this idea in different forms it's there in all the theistic religions he says bhagavan then he says another term Atma self what is the self you I you're the self and then he says bhan at this bhagan and this self is one and the same is one and the same how can it be one and the same bhagavan is only present everywhere I'm just here if I go to my room then I won't be here you are there but you're not here we are limited we so small not omnipresent and God is omnicient all knowing we are not all knowing we what is called in Sanskrit alya very little knowledge we struggle and struggle through school and college and get some knowledge and promply forget it afterwards or even if you're the most knowledgeable encyclopedic knowledge a little bit of Alzheimer's still gone so our knowledge is very shaky and very limited I think it was Einstein who said as I know more it's like I become aware of the shores of my ignorance like surrounded being being surrounded by an ocean it's an ocean of knowledge out there which I do not know only a little bit we know we pushed back the the the borders of human Ignorance by getting a little bit of knowledge so we have have so little knowledge and God is supposed to be omnicient Elon Musk said he read through the entire encyclopedia branica when he was a school kid but even that's so little knowledge compared to what what God knows Swami vianda he actually memorized the encyclopedia britanica as Leisure reading in Bel but towards the end of his all too short life one day he was sitting and reading the encyclopedia branica and his disciple sharak Chandra chakravarti came into his room and uh he saw the whole set and those days it was 10 volumes but they were more impressive than these days it's all disembodied and in the cloud or something so you got but it's impressive to see 10 big volumes they are all leatherbound big volumes and the gentleman said to Swami vianda I don't think a man could read through all of this in one lifetime viand said what are you talking about I have read through nine of these volumes I'm on the 10th you can ask me any question from these nine volumes not only read through it but you can ask me any question and sharat Chandra goes ahead and he checks it out he ask question and random puts all the volumes and checks here and there was it sh Chandra or one of the disciples Maybe chra or one of the other disciples this is happened in uh India in Kolkata so he pulls out the volumes here and there and ask questions and he writes later in his Memoirs that the Swami answered every question often down to the comma in the full stop in the same language then he asks incred this is incredible how is this possibleand said by the power of Purity and concentration it's possible but even that is limited knowledge God's knowledge is omnicient and our knowledge is so little and omip poent God can do anything but our power is so limited so limited so weak even at our strongest even at our most competent we're still so weak and so incapable how can bhagan Atma how can you be you the self be bhagan it's completely contradictory then what does it mean what it means is what is bhagavan and what are you what we are we can already say I am the witness Consciousness I am not the body not the mind I am the witness of the body witness of the mind I am this awareness itself this awareness quoted by this mind and this body is you that same awareness quoted by this mind and this body is s pran and it's him it's her it's all of us it's all living beings all human beings all animals plants all sentient beings are that same Consciousness qued with a particular mind and body at Birth that body is born but the mind has been existing since time IM immemorial it comes downloaded into that body when that body perishes that same mind travels it's go to another world and another body and so on and so forth this is called rebirth cycle of birth and death and what is bhagavan what is God it is that same Consciousness which is connected to all bodies and all Minds technically I can give you the definitions again the book Vantas which I mentioned yesterday it's all it's all there it's all basic what is called mahavakya and Analysis of the great statements that thou art so what is God according to vanta what is the sentient being J according to vanta um so Consciousness associated with Maya with the totality with Maya with the cosmic mind and the physical Cosmos that is God and the sentient being is one part of that Maya and one mind and one body same Consciousness limited by one one little caal body one subtle body and one physical body that's a j each one of us that's the thing but suppose you set aside the contributions of nature set aside the physical body the subtle body the causal body take the Consciousness in itself then what happens bhagan and Atma you are one and the same if you take Consciousness in itself awareness in itself then God and you are one and the same it's like the emperor and the beggar in a Broadway show so there's an emperor with all his finery and all his Grand dialogues and everything and you know surrounded by his glory and there is the beggar in rags and weeping and bem moing his fate and his poverty but suppose there's this one great Broadway actor who is act acting in a double role as the emperor and as the beggar he goes into the green room and changes into the clothes of the Emperor comes out and speaks grandly and struts around the stage goes back into the Green Room changes into his tattered clothes and comes and is a beggar and you say the beggar is the Emperor and somebody can ask you legitimately how can the beggar be the emperor don't you see the clothes are different don't you see how this man walks and then that man walk walks don't you see how this person speaks and how the beggar speaks their lines and their dialogue is different their clothes are different their behavior is different how can they be the same what what do you mean the emperor is not really an emperor the beggar is not really a beggar it's a play behind both Emperor and beggar is one man the actor similarly if you look in the Green Room you will find one Consciousness when you come to this world you will find that you will find the sentient being yourself and God but you are the sentient being and you are that which is called God ban Atma how do you reconcile the two the first word g pure Consciousness as pure Consciousness in association with Maya you are called bhagan as pure Consciousness in association with this caal body subtle body and physical body you are called Mr or Miss Mrs so and so this is mahak mahaka great statement what are the great statements that th I Amah Consciousness this very Consciousness is brah Ultimate Reality of the Universe I am Atma Brahma this very selfish Brahma they all mean the same thing all of these mahavakyas they mean the same thing mahaka great statement this is the a great statement what is the definition of a great statement mahak that which establishes the identity of the individual sentient being and of the the cosmic Lord of Brahman that which establishes the identity that is the called a great statement so conventionally we take four one from each of the four vas but there are any any number of such statements across the vas and across these texts everywhere you find this a great Identity or the great equation somebody called it what is the identity Gan Atma bhagan Atma God and you the self same how as pure Consciousness and he tells us how to equate the two if you transcend nature Beyond nature they are the same when you come within nature same Consciousness same electricity flowing through a million power bulb same electricity what in India we used to have something called a zero power bulb I don't know if I've Not Seen It in America it's very very dim light but there are these ones nowadays they there near the floor in many rooms you find just gives a little bit of Illumination at night so like that but it's the same electricity the difference is in the capacity of the bulbs you have a light which lights up a stadium blazing light you can be seen from outer space from orbit that kind of light and you have the tiny little light at the corner you can barely see it at night but the behind it is the same electricity you are not that bu you are that electricity itself and he said you say that I don't really get it I it's tremendous but what can I do with this believe in it my child believe in it and see what happens then we have we almost out of time it's supposed to end at yeah 20 20 minutes 115 supp to 115 115 okay look at the consequence of it N9 and 10 now we're going to see the results of all of this what benefit do I get first of all you go beyond death you lose fear of death number nine the body composed of the ingredients of nature comes stays and goes the self neither comes nor goes why then do you mourn it this body made of the three gas of Nature satas Made of the five elements space and wind and air and fire and water and Earth or um how many elements is it now in the periodic table it keeps increasing so what 120 140 elements whatever all the elements in the periodic table this body is a composite made of all of that so is the mind it comes it stays for a while it goes but you are the limit less Consciousness in which these elements have Arisen Arisen mean they have not come out of you they are appearing in you and the combination of those elements these wordss have Arisen appearing in you these bodies have Arisen appearing in you they are born these bodies age and then they die you are the same the wave appears in you the ocean it rises to a height and then begins to subside and then it fades away you are the same ocean you neither increased nor diminished by the arising and the subsiding of the Waves asakra will say that um in you the infinite ocean of Consciousness the waves of these worlds arise let them arise let them subside you are neither increased nor diminished by that let Birth come you're not increased by that let aging and disease come and death come you are not diminished by that let success come wealth education winning the election or something you're not increased by that same same ocean wave has come up let failure and poverty and loss come you're not diminished by that same ocean just the way was gone and AD say it's a fact right now this is the best clearest most honest depiction of what's going on these are appearances in you the Consciousness what is the self it neither comes nor goes at it's not something that goes away not something that comes body comes welcome it stays for a while and keeps on changing good it goes away goodbye you were there all the time you were there before the body during the body and afterwards but the body doesn't exist without you like a body in the dream what are you weeping for what are you afraid of the psychologist R Lan he was in he was a British psychologist in 1950s 60s he famously said that human beings are afraid of we are all afraid of three the three great fears of Our Lives this common fears the deepest and strongest fears of Our Lives first and foremost the fear of death it dominates Our Lives it's not true it's just a cliche I hardly think of um death of my death usually I hardly think of that that's because you're suppressing it you know he was a Friedan psychoanalyst soan Psych is nobody's normal if you say but I have no problems ah serious problem you're suppressing all of your problems I'm not thinking about death H you're you're dead scared of death that's why are impossible you find it impossible to think about death there's this book the denial of death erns Becker he got a poit surprise for it quite a long time back it's based on psychoanalysis but he says all our lives are guided this one thing haunts us although we refuse to acknowledge it it's like a ghost always there we refuse to look at it the fear of our own death and he says whatever human beings do they're all as a reaction to Fe fight back against the fear of death and all are doomed to failure what are what what do we do everything that you do from having children to building a business Empire to writing a book to whatever he calls them all immortality projects immortality projects somehow I will persist but will you persist what you what you are this person no viand says death is everywhere Emperors die and poppers die Scholars die and fools die Saints die and sinners die all will die but you will not there's no question of your death both birth and death you are the witness to both you they are all possible birth and death because of you you exist they borrow their existence from you the body borrows its existence from you so what are you um sad about so what are the three things uh we are all scared of first death un specker said second thing we are all scared of is other people that's not true we are scared of other people especially people in our lives people first most obviously people you consider to be enemies or who can threaten you who can cause you harm you know the Troublesome neighbor the terrorist or the gangster but also someone like who can um seriously harm you like like your boss who can lay you off or get afraid of them like the teacher who can give me a f or even scold me or humiliate somebody who can score me or humiliate me in public they're afraid of these people almost everybody again even more interesting we are afraid of people we love because they can come cause harm to us they can they can not that they would want to but they can because you love them You're vulnerable anything happens to them your wife husband children parents you love them because you love them anything happens to them you suffer terribly often in the world people suffer more for the sufferings of their beloved people rather than themselves they parents all the time they consumed by anxiety and worry not so much for themselves for the children who couldn't care less B there is one great thing to learn you as parents those who are parents one great release you need not be so happy or so worried or frustrated or anxious it's needless because the people you are anxious about or worried about they are not all that worried at all you keep on imagining imaginary threats problems so we are afraid of other people enemies people who can harm us people who are beloved to us and close to us they're afraid of them because of them and then thir oh this afraid of people the French existentialist s famously said that uh definition of hell hell is other people hell is other it's there in a play hell is other people if imagine if you are locked up in a room with a group of people and there's no escape from that room very soon you would feel the those people are hell they feel the same way about you I remember this monk in our order senior monk very wonderful Swami who's done a lot of work in our order he told me a personal story he said when I was a novice monk many many decades ago I was in this asham it was quite tough the monastery and there was this great Swami I would write letters to Swami dhand who was in our ashram in gal harid he was a great non-dist great a saintly person so this monk said I would write letters to him in those days postcards and that would in one in some way that was a good time because it would take 15 days or one month for your letter to reach and then another month for that to come back it gives you enough time to cool down and reflect so once I was very unhappy and I said wrote to him I can't bear these people you know the people in the asham they're treating me badly and I'm suffering I can't bear these people in Bengali I mean and he wrote to that Monk and then a reply came and he said I was expecting sympathy or advice you know how to deal with these problems there's only one line remember they are also bearing with you he don't think that we are unbearable awful people but we are take it for me each of us in the eyes of at least a few others you might be astonished why would I'm such a nice guy why would people dislike me they do and in their eyes for pretty good reasons so we are afraid of other people and the third thing we are afraid of according to lay is um our mortality afraid of other people and our own minds they're afraid of our own minds we are afraid of ourselves ourselves basically our own minds what we might think what we might do to ourselves and others what's the next crazy thing that I will do or I'll just not measure up to my own expectations that's also there it's me I'm afraid of myself and solves all of those problems how that's your homework think about it it solves the problem of mortality solves the problem of other people by showing you that they are not other people they're yourself and it solves the problem of the Mind by saying you are that in which the Mind appears like a bubble a wave it's nothing apart from you and it's nothing to you then next number 10 sorry I missed one thing Let the Body last to the end of the cycle millions and billions of years suppose you live Immortal practically or let it go even today let the body die today let death come today right now where is there any decrees or in you who are pure Consciousness you should be perfectly equanimous from that perspective there is nothing more that I want to achieve through this body and mind or at least vant vant does not require this body and mind vant only requires you to be pure Consciousness you have now now you have understood this so this body and mind is the Lords and it goes on as far as your past karma is there what is called prabha karma or as the Lord's wishes there this body mind embodiment will go on as long as it goes on be a blessing to yourself and everybody else and when the Lord Wills that this particular drama should end should go back to the Green Room H happily it's nothing to you it's a fiction in the Limitless Consciousness that you are so will you disappear not at all you'll remain in your real nature infinite existence Consciousness which you are right now so it says Let the Body St sometimes people say that I don't want to live any longer it's awful miserable that's ignorance that's ignorance that's still strong body identification that's why suicide is discouraged I recently did a little TV spot for suicide watch and they had approached spiritual teachers they of course told us what to say don't kill yourself that's the message number one number two is that dial this number they're going to help you and things like that so Sude is strongly discouraged that shows strong body identification um or let it stay for ages hundreds of years thousands of years let this body survive I was once approached just a couple of years back last year I was approached by Hollywood not the asham the film industry and they say how would you like to be in a film with William Shatner I said wow that's great we grew up as little kids in India we had only two shows from America at that time one was Star Trek the Original Series with William shner as Captain Kirk and the other was I Love Lucy so why would I not want to be in a film with Captain Kirk so there this thing called I think it's on History Channel or Discovery History Channel It's called The Unexplained and in season two there was one the mysteries of the yogis who can live for a long time 100 years 200 years the secrets of immortality and so I agreed and I was interviewed but I never got to see William Shatner he he is the host so there are a lot of interviews and he pulls them together and he hosts the the people in the those the movie people they told me that see we'll try to get you to meet with William Shatner but he is probably the oldest living and active actor in Hollywood so he pretty much does what he wants to so you can't really he went to space Also recently in a rocket finally Captain Kirk went to space so in that interview they asked me how did yogis live to be 100 years 200 years I gave them the example of um of tranga Swami who was in Banaras s Krishna met himand the holy mother they all all met him and he lived what 240 years now that's not an exaggeration because there are multiple records testifying to him it was the period of the British rule so they were the British government testified to seeing him at over the decades and so anyway I talked about that I told them you don't have to live in this body you are the immortal Consciousness anyway they were not interested in that and I saw the actual show they had cut out those parts all the vanta but they had kept all the yogi living for hundreds of years that's what they found fascinating let it stay for hundreds of years or let it die today let the body die today I'm completely unaffected by it it's nothing to me viand says just as a hair falls from the head and uh you know I'd be happy if all the head fell from my head permanently but the hair falls from the head it's nothing to you similarly when one body goes it's nothing to you the soul the Atman hundreds and thousands of bodies and come have come and gone we are if nothing else we are masters of dying we have died many many many times in the past we've just got it down like that it's so don't be at all afraid of time there's no increase in you if you have a body there's nothing that you lose if the body goes you are pure Consciousness all right let's do we'll take a little bit of time the questions the three people who wanted to ask questions yes I can start with online other three people who wanted to ask questions please come here and we will send the microphone to you okay uh it is said that even sh who is himself to feel as an object to the experience creates the universe with all its so how did us who have realized Detachment and actualized feel happiness for themselves or compassion for others because now all life is of the nature of one single where is the joy andity if all of it is nonell and one it's all one with you imagine your happiness as vand says I know that all are one with me imagine my happiness every living being is I it's in Oneness that there is happiness what do you do when you want to be happy what do you do when you want to have some pleasure know right the object of pleasure a cookie what do you do with it you make it one with yourself put it into your tummy it must tou touch my t T when I want to see a beautiful sight what do I do I go and so put it in contact with my eyes Oneness happiness always requires you to become one with the object of your happiness and if you know you are one with the entire Universe imagine your happiness there's also the difference to be considered between what is known as brti Ananda and swup the happiness which is experienced with the help of the mind and the senses I taste something that gives me a burst of happiness I think a happy thought and that gives me a burst of Happiness that's something that comes and goes that arises and then diminishes and Fades away that can be more or less but ad talks about the source of all happiness which is you the Atman that existence that Consciousness is also Anand Limitless existence Consciousness Place only a little bit of that is reflect in our day-to-day happinesses all of these little happinesses which come and go the Anand which the an of saand does not come and go it's always there does not increase and decrease it does not depend on an object to be enjoyed it's the difference between so the question was if it's all one um what about this particular happinesses which we enjoy those particular happiness is like the reflection of my face in the mirror now the desire to enjoy those particular happinesses is like the desire to keep on reflecting my face in the mirror I see my face in the mirror occasionally you might see your face in the mirror but if you say I am anxious about it all the time with great care I want to maintain the face in the mirror that's lunacy what is our normal state of mind sometimes I may see my face in the mirror sometimes I may not I have no anxiety about my face it's there I know I don't need to see it all the time similarly I am that Limitless happiness I don't need to keep it keep reflecting it in the mirror of the mind and to experience it as an object if that makes sense so now the question is is the non-dualist enlightened one happy or not well direct answer very happy don't worry about it you'll be you'll be very very happy when you are enlightened let's have these questions tell us your name and ask the question pram Swami G my name is promode promode means happiness my question is uh what does progress uh for a lay person uh who's on the path of atic meditation uh what does it look like I'm assuming it starts initially with a glimpse of of this Con non-conceptual like awareness and I'm assuming that the Glimpse will become like more stabilized or like will be longer and eventually does it get to a point where somebody when they're doing a normal task like a day-to-day task can actually do that without without like the ego or like without a conceptual view of of what is being done yes does it get stabilized over time it does um it's actually quite a deep subject you are promote when you were given that name it took you a little bit of time to get familiarized with it but now it is effortless you don't need to practice being promode in the morning and evening you know my daily promode meditation I am promode I am promode just in case that I don't forget no you don't forget and you don't put any effort into it although that's something that's imposed upon you because there's a name that was given to you and that has become so effortless that I am Rahman becomes effortless like that no practi is needed to maintain it that's the goal that's what we have that's where we have to reach our actually the fact is that that's where we are at but we don't recognize that fact I remember a similar question was asked by Young monk to a spiritual master in haridwar is there he this young monk asked um the master the teacher in Hindi I am at least we have to we should hold on to that knowledge this realization what the beautiful things that is telling us the boil it down basically I am limitless awareness I must at least hold on to that right this is the gain the take away from this and the master said with equal vment he said that's what you must not hold on to as long as you're holding on to that it's a practice how much effort do you put in in practicing promote being promote nothing no effort at all it would be wasted time for you so that is what we must reach towards there's a story about one of those nice little stories about ashtavakra and janaka one day janaka was sitting after listening to all this sitting on the bank of the river and meditating and practicing I am brah I am brah bras Brasi asakra looked at him and came and sat down next to him now this is a little difficult to explain wondering monks in India they have a little stick um like d with a chent shape where they can put their hand and do the Jabba with the rosary and everything and they have a water Pol the stick is called Dand sometimes it's called Gana Dand and all so Dand and the water pot is called kamandalu kamandalu is a water pot a brass water pot monks walk around carrying this stuff I don't know today they might be carrying mobile phones and stuff but this is traditionally what a monk is supposed to carry so he sat down asra next to janaka with the Dand the stick and the water pot and janaka is saying I am Brahman I Brahman I am Brahman and as this is a stick this is a pot this is a stick this is a pot and janaka looked at him quizzically and glared at him and started chanting loudly I am Brahma he started chanting even more loudly and finally janaka got exasperated he said who doesn't know that's a stick and this a PO what are you doing and asav said exactly what are you doing all right but this is the final this is when you are have no more problems at all but before that if you have problems with this sh Manas don't worry about small glimpses persisting glimpses go back to listening go back to reasoning and stay with that listening and what what you get from that listening what you get from that reasoning try to stay with it there are techniques of uh vitic meditation of course okay okay thank you thank you help a lot of people deal with problems so first of all thank you my question is about what's your name my name is ano an my question is about anuti why is it called aarti and why is it notti so there is a text called aaro anuti which literally means if I translate it very literally usually is trans ated as direct realization it would mean non indirect experience so what is this direct indirect non- indirect Etc praka is direct perception so if you're seeing that's pra the Sanskrit word pra is AKA means eyes and in general it stands for all the five sense organs literally eyes but all the five sense organs praka that which appears to your sense orans so that which you can see hear smell taste touch all of that is called p in English sensory perception or just perception perception but there are a lot of things which we we do not perceive but we know them we read about them in our science books in our geography books things which are far away from us we read about in geography books or see it on on the internet there are things which are removed from us in the past we read about it in history books so there these are we do not see them we do not hear of them they they're either separated from us in space or they're separated from us by time but we have knowledge of them so that kind of knowledge which we do not gain from our sense organs is called paroa beyond the range of our senses it could be physically beyond the range of our senses maybe far away or maybe very tiny like atoms which we can't see or the covid virus we can we cannot see it paroa because it's too tiny to see or it could be things like heaven and God how did you know there's a God or Heaven if you do know at all well the holy books told us it's paroa that is beyond the range of our senses these are the two kinds of knowledge that we have praka and Pera but you exist I exist how do I know that do I see myself if you ask Swami is um um ano there I'll say yes how do you know because I see him now if you ask Swami are you there are you here say yes if you ask how do you know you like say because I see myself let me take a look yeah I'm here do I ever do that for ano I'll do that I'll see oh yeah he's here but for myself I'll never take a look or sometimes this is so prak for me I don't need prak to see know that I exist is it paroa even less so who all attended take a look at the list of attendees or these people with was ano there yes his name is there he signed here he's here was I there let me see have I signed am I so I must have been there that might be true in the past if I don't remember but right now let me see the list of people yes I am here because clearly it says so that's paroa but do I depend on that for knowing I here no then how do I know I am here not protction not by seeing hearing smelling tasting touching yes yes I'm here no not by paroa by reading something by being told by somebody else let me ask you do you think I'm here yes Swami you are here okay so I must be here I don't do that how do I know I am here this is called apparo not protction not direct not perception not indirect knowledge also not per protection this is aara this is called a direct knowledge of myself so it's used in a double negative sense paroa not paroa not indirect um here also there's a slight um refinement that can be and should be done the realization of self Atma that I'm pure Consciousness is not even appro actually if you could look even closer what is direct thoughts pain I feel pain how do you feel it do you see it hear it smell it taste it touch it no do you think about it do you imagine it you know it's like a nurse noway they ask a pain question it's new I saw in the hospital they'll take your blood pressure um your pulse rate oxygen level that also is new addition after covid I think and then what else do they take uh your weight or something like that and now they ask pain are you in any pain if you say no fine zero they'll put if you say yes then 1 to 10 I think that's paroa the doctor will ask is the patient in pain okay one to he say six yeah the patient is in pain that's paroa but the patient himself or herself does the person have to look at the scale and say it says I'm in pain so I think I'm in pain no directly without sense organs I'm unhappy even more clear how do you know that that is aaro directly in Consciousness unhappiness arises Consciousness pain arises that is aara if you make that aara then the Consciousness itself the self itself how do you know that so there's a new term for not a new term very ancient term from the Sak direct and immediate that's why it's called a the last person Namaste Swami G and I'm so happy to see you in person uh my name is SAA uh my question is um before this knowledge I was a victi so acted accordingly but I was a VI individual a person a person individual yes so after a lot of understanding listening and intuitively knowing that I'm a sakshi um there is still a confusion on how to deal with one's own emotions and how to deal with unfairness um how to go about in the world basically they say a sad Saint is a bad Saint so I I wanted to have a summary on how a saki would act in this world when the choice making is um you have to make choices in certain situations and all that right so first of all how do you act in this world first answer important Point normal be normal I've had people who were very enthusiastic about these teachings somebody wrote to me that one Limitless Consciousness which is you yourself in and through this particular body with the name of Mishra is writing to you just say Mr Mishra don't do that we absolutely normal s ramakrishna said about this answer to this question that um there was a clerk remember this was British times there was a clerk who was jailed for something then he was led out of the jail what will he do in Bali said will he go back to his clerkship or will he dance around he may dance around for a little while I'm free but afterwards he'll go back to his job his being a clerk again that mean like it's a very normal hram Loki job similarly be normal be ordinary the Great Master Padma samha he was asked by an old man who served him and then asked him a question master I'm old my days are not long I'm also uneducated and I'm not done any spiritual practices give me an instruction by which I will become enlightened so there's a very short onepage instruction if you Google it you'll find it very beautiful highest teachings direct path teachings like ad vant it's in what's called Zen Buddhism Tibetan Buddhism so there the name of the teaching is pointing the staff at the heart of the old man pointing the staff at the heart of the old man so Padma samaba the Great Master who took tiet Buddhism to Tibet before leaving he lifted his staff and he pointed it at the old man and he said a few words it's less than one page direct teachings that you are the Buddha nature or some things like that very nice at the end of it he gave some practical advice because that old man said I'm I'm a householder and I have not done any spiritual practice I'm old and soon I will die and I'm not very educated also please teach me in simple words so that I'll be enlightened right now so he gave some practical advice advice like do not think too much about your children do not waste time in Gossip do not concern yourself too much in matters of health and wealth and then last but not least always aim to die an ordinary person and never found his teaching anywhere it is important we trying to be extraordinary that also gets us into trouble it's good this is a teaching for a mature person remember if I was talking to college students I would always encourage them and be great and try your best and Excel and all of that is a very important but after some amount of maturity if you're a spiritual Seeker as far as your worldly life is concerned aim to die an ordinary person and that sets you free because you are not you're not ordinary you are the most extraordinary thing in the universe but don't try to make that person extraordinary all right now with that so to answer to your question is how do you deal with unfairness how do you deal with different emotions in the mind first of all don't try to deal with them be centered in your own nature as Limitless Consciousness awareness from there now you deal with that person who's being un unfair to you who is that person is you yourself look at the storms in the mind the unhappiness frustration restlessness what are those those are waves in the ocean that you are see all these questions come up if you are not firmly properly fixed in our real nature as Limitless Consciousness if you are that if even Clarity is there these questions will answer themselves by themselves what asakra is doing here I am limitless Consciousness Immortal what about fear of death he says Let the Body stay let it die what is it to you so how will I actually deal Common Sense common sense when shank the story is there and Shankar is walking down the lane in a village and a mad elephant charges he climbs a tree and then somebody asks him but you are Brahman why did you run away from the elephant and climb a tree you know that I know that but does the elephant know it that I'm from s Krishna story of the mahut and elephant and so on so anyway so that's the answer be ordinary use common sense but the direct answer to that is first we centered in your nature I am Brahman you'll see all the answers will come very easily either it will not matter to you and you also know the skillful way of handling day-to-day work yes thank you so much om [Music] [Music] shant [Music] so welcome to the okuti class bad weather and only a few few hearty Souls have turned up um of course we are joined by um a number of quite a large number of uh viewers on the Internet thanks to the magic of thanks to the magic of modern technology we are able to connect to so many people across United States I'm told Canada and other parts of the world special uh thanks to the volunteers who have come in the midst of snow and cold to enable the the live stream to work I'm told it's uh in the 20s outside -4° C -4 - 5 5° C so this is titia U spiritual fortitude that I'm interested in Vidant in spiritual knowledge so I'll put up with the troubles that the world throws at me heat and cold and sickness and problems and troubles and traffic and whatnot we were on verse 68 we have done 68 [Music] 69 [Music] [Music] just like a pot is all clay a part is made of clay I'm translating so this body is actually Consciousness therefore the division into Atma and an Atma I the self am pure Consciousness and I'm not the body and mind the body and mind is separate I am separate this is a division which is made in Vain by the ignorant okay now this is strange you know we spent so much effort so many vers say so much of logic was spent in distinguishing the witness self from the body mind complex that I am the witness self I am pure Consciousness this body is an object and now if if that is so not only that um I am separate from the world I'm separate from the body I'm separate from the mind I am the witness consiousness of the body mind world now you are saying that there is only one reality pure Consciousness if pure Consciousness alone shines forth as this world why did you make this distinction between Consciousness and everything else especially why did you make this difference between Consciousness and the body what did they just say now just as a pot is all clay through and through it's Clay when you exam examine it it's just made of clay it's just clay all of it is Clay similarly this body mind complex is nothing but pure Consciousness that's the claim which is being made here when we first started vedanta we were shown we were told look just as this book is an object and I am the experien of the book The I Am The Seer of the book The Seer of the book and the book are different similarly I the experiencer of the body I'm must I am different from the body I must be a different entity and we had so many reasons it was so strongly and well argued that the body is Ever Changing I see myself as not changing the body is an object I am the subject the body is not conscious I am conscious and so many other reasons were given I think seven or eight reasons for given to carefully distinguish the body from the the the self from the body and the mind we did that so carefully and now it's just being reversed it's saying that's a division done by the ignorant to no purpose what does it mean we must understand this carefully you see at that stage at the beginning this division was done why was it done it was not wrong it was done with a purpose this identification with this body that I am who am I I am this body and what else are you nothing else I am this body and what is this body it's me what are you body what is this body me it's I so this strong identification with the body only and nothing else this has to be broken because we are so convinced that we are this body with the birth of the body I'm born with the Aging of the body I'm aging with the sickness of the body I am sick with the pleasure of the body body I happy with the misery of the body I'm unhappy when the body is feeling hot I am hot when the body is feeling cold I'm shivering in cold it is it is when the body feels hunger I am hungry when the body is satiated I am satiated it seems so beyond dispute to me that this distinction has to be drawn sharply first that I am not the body this this cutting off of the of the identity ification with the body has to be done first that's what was done at the at the beginning now what they're going to show now is am I audible to everybody at the back too yes now what they're going to show is when you keep talking about distinguishing the Atma from the anat the self from the not self the pure Consciousness witness from the body mind you indirectly tend to set up the body mind as an independent existence as if there are two things here is one book and here is another book two separate things so here is a witness Consciousness and here is a body mind and the two are not the same they're different from each other you're setting up the body mind as if it were real now they're going to show that the body mind is not a reality the body mind is not a reality that's going to be shown now other than the self the not self what is the not self mind is not self body is not self the universe is not self they are not independent realities that's what we are going to see now what will be accomplished by that if you show that that they are not independent realities remember we are establishing nonduality so the non duality of Brahman of the of the absolute the nity of the self the nity of you that is what is going to be established now to establish that that which is which seems to be different from you we must establish that that's just an appearance that's not an independent reality there is no real second thing apart from you remember which you not the body we have already taken a lot of pains to establish that you're not the body you are the witness self pure Consciousness now we are moving into the second step of non-duality of of ad vant that is to establish that which you we separated you the pure Consciousness from those things body mind and world are not independent realities it's not you the self one and then the Mind two and the body three and the world entire universe for not like that one only pure Consciousness and mind and body and universe are appearances in that why are you calling them appearances because we do not deny that you experience them we do not deny that we experience these things ad is not Escapist it it's very matter of fact we experience a mind we experience a body yes Bill to go back to the analogy of the pot the pot is made of clay it's nothing but clay yes true but it has a certain form into the pot and that you can't deny that form which uh has a certain reality even though yes now the path has a form we are not denying that that it has a form in fact ad never denies that there there are forms there are appearances so there's a form and why are you calling that a form isn't it a kind of reality true but notice very carefully that form entirely depends on the clay take the Clay Away what what will happen to the form will it remain a shadowy outline A Sketch no it disappears take the Clay Away give me the clay keep your pot form you can't but there must be a Potter who who the CL into a don't extend the example you you run into trouble it's like s ramakrishna used to say example is meant to point prove a point like you say as Brave as a lion I don't know if lions are brave but anyway as Brave as a lion and um what you want to prove there is this person is particularly brave but the lion if you say that but the lion crawls on all fours does he crawl on all fours and the lion growls and pounces upon you does he growl and pounce upon you no it doesn't that's not what the example is supposed to prove the example is supposed to demonstrate one point of similarity here the point is reality is being demonstrated we are not bothered about the Potter whether it was made in a factory or by a Potter or no we are talking about the the pot is nothing but clay you see the form of the pot that's also nothing but clay but are you denying that it has a form of course not it has a form but that form is a dependent reality why only a farm it has a name look there are two names two words clay pot if they were exactly the same why would you use two words so the pot has something unique to it which that's why you use the name pot which is a form so there's a name and a form this is called Maya Maya is n name and formant accounts for that not only name and form but something else use what a lump of clay cannot do you cannot keep water in a lump of clay you cannot store your milk in a lump of clay but you can store that in a pot a pot has used so name and form and transaction in Sanskrit n Rara this is Maya why are you calling it Maya why not reality because all of these things the name po the form of the pot and the use of the pot all are not possible without the clay the only substantive reality there is the clay what you weigh is a clay what you touch there is a clay what you store and carefully preserve is the clay itself right it requires U different kind of thinking to it now it says in vain this distinction is made by the ignorant now at this stage when you're trying to see that the Consciousness alone is everything if you try to distinguish between the clay and the pot it's a vain distinction because you cannot actually show them separately pure Consciousness existence Consciousness Bliss alone is the reality and that is what is going to be established now now in vain is the distinction that the language used is by the ignorant the distinction between self and not self between Consciousness and Body Mind the distinction is made in vain why because in first at first the distinction is important then we come to an understanding of what we really are we can say I'm pure Consciousness pure Bliss not a body not a mind not an intellect not the memory so on but don't hold on to that distinction now look at that look at that existence Consciousness place and see the world as an appearance in that otherwise you will be stuck halfway you'll be stuck halfway that's not non-duality that's duality you see what's wrong with Duality the say from the existence of a second there is fear desire fear anxiety all is is there because of difference because of Separation because of I and you this and that if you have a deep feeling of Oneness with the universe you have no fear so this that Duality and that fear will not go away that suffering will not go away you know if I understand myself like the Sania does the yoga does I an unchanging Consciousness the world let it be there what's it what's it to be let it be a separate reality I've separated myself from it well it caught me once it can catch me again maybe who knows there always will be an anxiety about it there'll always be fear so Oneness ad seeks to establish Oneness ad seeks to establish non-duality and we are very far from Duality if you say I'm a pure Consciousness and this body mind is something separate from me then you have millions and millions of bodies and minds and you millions and millions of entities billions of entities in this world which are separate from you where is nonduality Far Cry think about it this way also in another sense I can say I am a witness Consciousness and this body mind is separate from me I can experience I'm not saying physically you understand that I am the witness of the existence and the functioning of this body mind I don't I'm not affected by the changes in this body mind I can say that but can God see it and this question is being asked from a different angle God means in adah isar bhagan the one who projects this universe where does God project this universe from from within himself herself itself there's no other material apart from Brahman according to vant Brahman projects this universe with its Maya that's the that's the understanding in vant saand plus Maya projects this very saand this very Brahman itself is projected as the Universe I often say Brahman correctly Mis Brahman misunderstood is the universe the universe correctly understood is Brahman this universe is nothing other than Brahman so Brahman alone has been projected as this universe I can say or you can say that I am I am different from body mind can God say I'm different from this universe because this universe is nothing other than Brahman we have this beautiful analogy of vishnu's dream God God's dream this universe is the dream of God you know Vishnu is lying down on his um on his eternal this this this Saga the the cosmic serpent on the ocean the Eternal ocean of existence and and Vishnu dreams and what are his dreams Universe we are the dreams of Vishnu now can Vishnu say I am different from that that does not exist without without Vishnu your dreams do not exist without you you can't go into a dream and come out and say okay those guys are there I'll come go to next tomorrow in the night I'll go and meet them again we we'll um that that pie I ate half of it I put it in the ref dream refrigerator and the dream pie tomorrow when I go to dream I I'll take it out and and eat the rest of the dream pie no it does not exist without your dreaming it they are not separate from you God cannot say this world is separate from God God cannot say see this is a very interesting thing God cannot say I'm the pure conscious ious I'm not the body not the mind no no the body mind and entire in fact the very dust of this universe is one with God the air this the sky is one with God the air is one with God the the fire is one with God the water and the Earth are all one with God so this entire universe God cannot separate it again and again in many of the ancient scriptures not just vedanta books in the ramayana in the Mahabharat in the bhagavatam in many places in Hindu scriptures you will come across brah not in these words the Ultimate Reality alone is true the world is an appearance the world is compared to um Castles in the Air Gandhara nagara Castles in the Air the clouds sometimes look like castles the world is compared to a dream swapna the world is compared to the product of of a magic show Maya the world is compared to daydreaming Gand man means daydreaming so it has no existence apart from the reality behind the world which is Brahman consider the classic vedantic example snake and rope the snake and rope we always say that okay it's not a snake we making a mistake understand it correctly it's a rope it's not a snake it's a rope but that snake follow this carefully that snake that we saw by mistake I admit by mistake but that snake isn't it nothing else other than the Rope are there two things there rope and snake no there's only one thing rope and we by mistake we saw that rope as the snake isn't it so what ad is saying the ultimate conclusion there is only one thing that is Brahman alone is there that eess alone is there and we we experience it as an as an as a universe we don't we don't see it as Brahman we don't experience it as Brahman we see it as men and women and chairs and tables and atoms and galaxies and so on that's how we see it even the snake rope example proves nity how many are there one apart from the Rope not two and yet what do we see a snake so that is the example you think SN you have a question no I'm asking is it one like a snake drope no it is not is it a snake drope snake rope do you think so do do you think so do you do you ever have that example I saw a snake do you ever ever experience it that way I saw a snake and then I went close and saw one I understand Point why make snake snake either way are you saying a rope appearing as a snake no both are one you are G two names but one name is false can you do that way I'm asking you I'm very clear you cannot do it that way but I'm asking you why would you even say that you can't you can say it's a rope snake rope R snake why would you even there's a question behind it I know there's something that you want to say you have to be precise about it what is it that you want to say think about it and come back with the question again all right is a projection and which one may State of Mind what is the state of mind Maya Maya is a state of mind no mind is a state of Maya is projecting mind is not projecting Maya Maya Works through the Mind Maya and mind are very closely connected yeah imagine yourself let let me finish this verse imagine yourself as an infinite ocean of existence and the mind is like the wind which blows and turn churns this ocean into waves it's still an ocean of existence the waves which appear are because of the mind and this is Maya basically so Maya produces mind and body and produces means what projects Brahman itself as a mind as a body as a universe just as our ignorance project the uh rope as a snake even when it is projected as a snake it's it is there is no second thing it's still one rope only even when this multifarious universe is projected there is only one thing Brahman what is that one thing it is explained in many ways in the in the upanishads the shastras put it in in many ways s all of this is pure being all of means all this all this means whatever you experience in life everything all this is pure Consciousness all this is brah and the absolute all this is at the self I alone am all this Brahman know s pure being chit pure Consciousness Brahman Atman the self all of that is actually you there different names different ways of putting it you cannot go there first without distinguishing yourself from Body Mind as a body mind it it's ridiculous to say I am pure being and the UN Universe no as a body and a mind it's ridiculous to say I am pure Consciousness no I must first understand what pure being or pure Consciousness is that's why that exercise is there in vant I'm not the body not the mind understand that and then you can say from that perspective from the perspective of pure Consciousness from the perspective of pure being now when you look at the universe is the universe different from being if it were different from being it would be not being it would be non-existence is this universe different from Pure Consciousness can you ever experience the universe without Consciousness no look at the steps all our experience in life has been we have experienced the world and life only through Consciousness only because of Consciousness step one step two we have always experienced life and our the whole world in our Consciousness not Consciousness experiencing a pre-existing world but Consciousness experiencing a world in itself and third step this world which is experienced only in Consciousness in Consciousness cannot be other than Consciousness it is permeated through and through by Consciousness so everything that you experience is you but which you not this person Consciousness pure being is equal to Pure Consciousness is equal to Brahman is equal to the self is equal to you this is what it says let me finish if that is so we're going to toward something Grand if that is so hold on to the question if that is so then what desire what will you desire in this world what is there in this world which is not you when you wake up from a dream what you lost in the dream you got a million dollars in a lottery in a in a dream are you unhappy about that you're unhappy that it was a dream but you're not unhappy about losing that million dollars because you will say one it was a dream so never really never had that million dollars or two it's it's me I alone appeared as the million dollars in the dream what you see in a dream is not apart from you it's you alone what will you Des what will you desire in this life why is there wasana from that perspective there is nothing that you will want that I if I add this to myself I will become whole and complete pum you are pum with with all the things in the world without anything in the world you are Pam as you are because none of those things add anything to you they are all you I have told this story earlier maybe once or twice but it's uh I can repeat it now the yes the princess of Kashi it's apt here it's an ancient story you'll find among the monks in the Himalayas that there is a there was a kingdom not Kashi Kashi is the ancient holy city of the Hindus Banaras but there was another kingdom in which um once there was a theatrical performance in the court of the king a theatrical performance in the court of the king and one of the characters in the in the drama was the princess of Kashi the princess of Kashi and they didn't have they didn't have a little girl she was a little girl so they didn't have a little girl who could play the part but the prince the King's son in that uh Court the prince was about that age and he was very cute so they dressed him up as a girl the queen said dress him up as a girl and uh he can play the princess of Kashi so they dressed him up as a girl and he was the princess of Kashi I guess he didn't have too many dialogues to say that he just has to dress up and stand there and it was the the drama was a success and the queen was very happy and then she said um he looks so cute make a portrait of him dressed in that thing and today it would have been so simple to take a picture a selfie or a know picture but so the the cot artist drew the Royal painter drew a portrait of the Young Prince dressed as the princess of Kashi and labeled it the princess of Kashi and gave the date and so and so forth and that's it years passed 15 years later the prince was a young man in the kingdom and doing all sorts of princely things um nowadays his doings would be you know this is what what the royal wedding everybody is yes so it would be a media thing now one day the prince was exploring the old Palace and he went down to the store room you know a seller underground seller and he was looking through so many things accumulated there and he finds this old painting and he wipes the dust of the painting and he sees this cute picture the picture of this cute girl and says princess of Kashi and the date is there and he thinks oh now she'll be my age and he falls in love with her and he says I'm going to this is the princess for me I'm going to marry her and if I don't marry this this is the I will never be happy if I don't marry this this princess but he's too shy to tell the king or the queen so he sort of mopes and neglects his princely studies and duties and all of that and the king is worried and the queen is worried and they can't get get anything out of him until the wise Minister takes him aside and says Prince what ails you tell me I can help you and the prince says well I'm in love the minister says that's wonderful who is she oh she's the princess of Kashi and the minister says a princess wonderful uh where did you meet her I haven't actually met her but I've seen her picture and Minister says that's very good where did you see her picture oh in the cellar it's not her picture it's not a new one it's a picture from 15 years ago but she looks about my age and so I can marry her now something goes in The Minister's memory you know he said just a minute a 15-year-old painting in our Cellar yes a princess of Kashi yes take me down there and the prince takes the minister down there and the minister says show me the painting and the sees a painting and he tells the prince prince Prince you have to sit down I've got something to tell you many years ago there was this play in our court 15 years ago and one of the characters was the princess of Kashi we did not um I mean um so this is the person who played the princess of Kashi he's not the princess of Kashi and the prince said well whoever she is I'll marry her it's not even who it's not even a girl it's you we dressed you as the princess of kashii that thou art that thou art Prince now what happens to the princess desire for the princess of Kashi the desire goes but why does it go away does it go away because oh I can never marry the princess of Kashi no not because of that it goes away because he realizes there is no princess of Kashi apart from me whatever this person is in the picture is exactly me there's nothing to attain there exactly like that this world out there is your princess of Kashi you are ever fulfilled what is there to desire and quite conversely what is there to hate if it is all you who is there to hate and what is there to hate from that point of view from the point of view of pure being pure isness pure Consciousness what is there to hate this is called patam completeness or infinitude limitlessness Shankar aara has in his commentaries a phrase which he uses again and again to explain samsara if we are that Brahman how come we are here in this miserable state has a crisp phrase Aya Karma ignorance desire Karma action ignorance ignorance of what my f my infinite ever fulfilled ever satisfied nature I don't know that not knowing that I see myself as this body mind the moment I see myself as the body mind every problem of the Body Mind Body Mind always has problems it's a biological entity it's a delicate entity it's subject to cold and heat and hunger and disease it's a bad it's battling to survive every moment so it has problems then we are Minds we are social entities in a society again many more problems the body do you think the body has problems the mind has many more problems and identified with that the sky the vast Sky imagine this example one Swami in the Himalayas put it so beautifully the vast Sky the classic vedantic example pot sky and the and the vast Sky once you have a pot then you think that space inside the pot space inside the pot and space outside the pot just the existence of the PO seems to divide space into space inside the pot and space outside the pot actually doesn't divide anything the part cannot it just looks like that many people don't even understand that I asked somebody tell me you have a glass of water when you move the glass does the water move with it of course otherwise it'll make a mess say bring me a glass of water you can bring me a glass of water if you have a glass of air just close it and then you move will the air inside move if you don't if you close it yes the air inside will move with it when you move the glass but the glass the space in the glass will it move when you move the glass that space there tell can can you bring it to me in a box or a glass you cannot many people don't even understand this it's a simple point but many people think yeah it will move no it doesn't it doesn't do you think the space in this room stays in this room oh no no no the room along with New York City along with America along with the everything else on the earth is hurtling through space and so we moving through space we don't not carrying our own space with us we cannot space is not affected by the barriers you put on it so the part inside the space is absolutely one with the Infinite Space outside with the vast space outside but it looks different and we use it differently what happens is if you think pot space limited immediately limit comes poverty comes why how much can the pot hold how much can that space hold 1 liter at the most pot space can hold one liter how much can the space in itself hold the whole universe galaxies and galaxies and galaxies and the part space and this vast space are exactly one it's the pot which holds one liter of milk not the space space holds entire universe but that illusion is created space is limited by the part no no no similarly I the infinite existence I appear to be limited by Body Mind and so desire comes and From Desire Desir prompted action that leads to Karma once you engage these subtle forces Cosmic forces you're trapped you're trapped Karma will give result happiness try to pursue more happiness misery try to avoid that misery if that happiness and that Misery the Good Karma and the Bad Karma all of it you are why would you try to pursue one and try to avoid one but we don't know that we try to pursue one we try to avoid the other and we're trapped in the cycle of karma leading to an endless cycle ceaseless cycle of births and deaths Aya Karm Karma crisp phase ignorance desire action but you are Pam you are infinite there is nothing like the princess of Kashi nothing that will add to you there's nothing that you can ever lose you neither gain nor you lose anything theak says I'm an infinite ocean of being in which the universe arises as a wave the universe arises as a wave in the infinite ocean of being which I am let the way wave arise I don't gain anything by it let Birth come let Prosperity come let Health come let Fame come I gain Nothing by it because all of that I am or the reverse you can say none of that is real what is real I alone emel and the opposite let the waves upside let old age come and disease come and death come and poverty come and sickness come and ill repute and Ill Fame and failure come I lose nothing Nothing by it why either you can say all of that I am already they're not different from me or you can say they don't exist they there are appearances in me without me none of them exist like a pot will not exist without the clay I am buram I am infinite one more Point hold on to the question one more point and then I'm done when this point is the climax of it when am I infinite tell me when where am I infinite tell me where when am I infinite that's the correct answer now no yeah you're right but only after realization only after I get Nal samadi then I'll be infinite no no no it's like saying only when the part is broken that the space will be one with the infinite space no only when the waves subside will the water be one with the ocean no it's just water all the same you are the infinite Brahman now fully without the slightest limit slightest staint slightest impurity you are the infinite Brahman here what exists right now right here as your life is you might think that's furthest from Perfection you can imagine oh no no no it's far from Perfection if you look at yourself as a is a body mind if you look at yourself as the infinite ocean of existence which you are right now you will find it's all perfect now it always was is and will be your Pam why wait for something to fulfill you what are you waiting for nothing there's nothing that what will come you know there's a saying what is behind you and what is yet in front of you behind you means in your past in your life whatever has gone by in your life and whatever is yet to come in your life is as nothing compared to what is in you we live our lives like you know the slapstick com comedy routines person slipping on a banana peel Falls forward either the person falls forward and falls back we laugh cly at that person but we are continuously falling back or falling forward falling back into the past if only that had happened if um and the future that what if if only and what if you don't need to why should you regret anything in the past nothing in the past all of that is you you regret your little MISD deminers what about all the terrible things that had happened in the world all the gisans and Hitlers and all of that I'm telling you something terrible all of that was you the Tyrant was you and the tyrannized were you but also the the only saving grace is in reality there was no Tyrant nor nor tyrannized it's the only ocean of existence which is always there the ocean of awareness which is there we are soaring to the highest metaphysical Heights Here viand said the ancient adans of India they take us to Heights where the human lung can scarcely dare breathe you are perfect as it is right now right here if you try it we scared of trying it because we are driven forward by hope things will be a little better later won't things were pretty bad then no yes you are right right the things will improve and again get worse and again improve as long as you live this surface life as long as you live this surface life but in depth the things are perfect always where are and always will be any questions yes will also okay so when you started to talk about how the the Dual understanding that you know I am the body that identification is what we all have so to have this perspective that I am one and everything is one you need to become Godlike right it's the other perspective of it so you let me stop you there you need to become Godlike another word you used was a perspective you need to change your what vant is telling you don't need to become anything you just need to change your perspective you say as easy as that as easy as that as as difficult as that why is it easy because it is you right now I can tell you that with full conviction it is you right now but why is it difficult because you will not let go that story um of the student who wanted Enlightenment and the guru said come tomorrow in the morning so the student went to the cave where the guru used to live the master and there was his old dry tree outside the cave and the guru is clutching it tightly and the student says and the guru shouts free me free me free me and the student says just let go and the guru said precisely viand said let go thy hold thine only is the hand that holds the rope that drags thee on Let Go thy hold sasi B say what say what say om tat om om tatat means oh that truth which truth this truth you say Okay difficult to understand difficult to realize fine not difficult to imagine imagine it also you will get tremendous peace you'll get tremendous quietness of Mind you'll get you'll feel a tremendous depth to yourself a prevision of Enlightenment and Liberation extension to that question perspec yes changing perspective and we CH of perspective it is accurate to think that it starts changing through the mind of course all change of perspective has to be done in the mind where is perspective only in the mind we are bound in the mind and we will get freedom in the mind also the Atman as such the reality as such is always free so perspective change has to be done in the mind but what do you mean by perspective change exactly what we are doing all throughout first start with first look who am I what am I am I this body that is the first beginning of the perspective change step by step I'm not the body not The Prana not the and why am I not that not only reason actually feel it that is the change of perspective first understand it hear these truths understand it assimilate it that's what his perspective change then you actually begin to feel that I am the witness of this body mind not so difficult and say oh nobody seems convinced actually it's not so difficult not so difficult to understand at least yes then why to Enlighten things to be constantly surrounded by banana pills that you can step in the way to Enlightenment is this change in perspective establish yourself in that so that you don't keep slipping into on the banana pels into the future and the past remember even after we get a clarity about this there are tendencies in the mind to go back into that banana peel slipping kind of mode so you have to apply what you have understood to your life and that takes um effort alertness and effort first it takes alertness there's a word used in Buddhism and in yoga also aada Prada error aada nonerror don't keep slipping back into error anybody else yes bill you had a question it seem to me that you were talking about it all being appearance the the really important kernel of this whole thing is to stop identifying as a separate human being I mean that's the ethical kernel of this teaching so that as long as we think we're separate suff correct guaranteed correct and if we can really be convinced to strive for the realization that we're not separate yes it seems to me this teaching has done its work right and this teaching is actually showing you the way to understand that it's not just an ethical imperative separation is bad and Oneness is good so try to feel that Oneness and that's what the teaching is telling you that's only at the surface it's actually taking you there it's taking you by the hand it's trying to show you something not inspire you or encourage you inspire you encourage you is good it will inspire you and encourage you but actually that it it accomplishes the fact right if you remember the 10th Man story I will not go into it the wise person actually found out the 10th person and showed it to you it's not just encouraging you oh the 10th person is alive and don't cry not there it takes you by the hand and shows you Thou Art the tenth you don't have to believe it you have to see it for yourself and this will show you don't think that ad vant is only positive thinking ad is only telling you something Grand and cool about yourself it is showing you it is directly showing you you must have that aha moment I get it after which nothing remains to be done that is the meaning of the open you see all sadanas you think that this is okay this some kind of idea it gives you now you have to engage in enormous amount of spiritual activities do do lots of pujas and repeat lots of mantras and meditate in different ways and so then you'll come to this no no no no all of those are meant to come to this this is the Pinnacle if you get this none of those are necessary if you don't get this repeat the mon 10,000 times a day and then you'll get it and then come back again can you get it wait there was a question there yes Aya Karm ignorance desire action all starts separate so if we do know at the understanding level that we not separate let's assume for now that's understood but the very fact that we are in a body mind complex has ingrained in itself so non reaction if that be the method of you sustaining this VI it can come in conflict with the very survival that ised in the system how do you break this or how do you you don't have to break you don't have to break it remember we have been told again and again so all the answers have been given in 110% detail but it's natural we miss it we take it as a nice teaching they said after you realize that the pot is Clay does it prevent you from using the pot for holding water none of the worldly usages are prevented by realizing that you are Brahman can I still go to my drive to my job and um yeah if the traffic is okay you can drive to your job after realizing I'm Brahman you can look at the lives of enlightened person so did did they stop eating did they stop breathing did they fail to protect the body everything can be done if you realize that the pot is made of clay so it's Clay now I can't hold milk in it or put water in it no how ridiculous if you realize that the necklace is made of gold the bangle is made of gold and the ring is made of gold can you say that oh it's gold I can put a ring on my finger I can't put gold on my finger you won't don't say that it's ridiculous after realizing that they are all all the same gold you'll still put the ring on your finger you'll put the bangle on your wrist and the necklace on on your neck usage in Sanskrit again I'm repeating V will continue only you won't be stuck to the ra the desire for completion the aversion for fear of something that that activity in the world your life in the world will be fearless and joyful not driven not slipp off into the future or not falling back into the past not driven by fear not pulled by lust and anxi and desire it'll be that is the life of a Jan MTA it'll be a fantastic life it'll be life full of joy and peace and fearlessness can you see that if you see yourself as one with everything will it prevent you from feeding this body body will it prevent you from taking a pill if this body gets a fever nothing but the fever of this body will not bother you in the sense that you know it's a body it gets these problems doesn't matter one day it's going to die doesn't matter at all yes Bill person how prove somebody else it cannot you'll see wherever realization is talked about can you prove realization to somebody else first of all you would not want to it the the thing is meant for yourself not for proving it to others and the second thing is wherever realization is talked about you will see these are descriptions of internal states only the person himself would truly know the others can estimate you would feel a great peace and Holiness in that person maybe maybe you would see that that person really cannot hide the transcendental light which the person sees within oneself but otherwise there is no no way of um in you know in irrefutable proof that a person is enlightened when Krishna Arjuna asks Krishna that um what are the characteristics of an enlightened person you'll see in the second chapter of the bhagavat Gita Krishna gives a series of characteristics you if you see them carefully they are all internal States you cannot judge from outside all right you had a question Yeah question said Let It Go it seems like the simplest thing but it's really for a lot of people to let go material posession body and everythings to come from the to so is there the spiritual practice that we do all right let me stop you right there don't let go of material positions right now you'll get me into trouble what happened New York is having more and more homeless situation because the Swami taught them to let go of everything no no no no no no let go Works only see the scent this book teaches you teaches you only one thing first see it without seeing it if you try to let go it will be a terrible mistake it it be it'll be a struggle which will tear you apart how much effort did the prince have to put into letting go of the princess of Kashi once he knew how much refer none how much suffering was there in letting go of the princess of Kashi none but before that if the queen or the prince had say they said that no we are we are in a state of war with Kashi you can't marry the princess of Kashi how difficult would it have been for the prince very difficult he would have been miserable now he lets go of of the choices desire of his heart he lets go in an instant effortless without any problem how that he saw that Insight oh this is it I'm not really letting go of anything real now when you let go of the world based on this Insight person can let go of all worldly positions and go and sit in a cave in the Himalayas has let go and the person can sit in a Billionaire's apartment with with the cars and people and responsibilities and jobs and everything everything and has still let go of everything you see it really does not make so much of a difference what you have surrounded yourself with outside that's part of your karma Raman Mahi once said to a household a family a lady a housewife that um you can stay there and become an enlightened person then housewife said and why are you a monk in a cave Raman Mari said mother that is my karma and to be a housewife in that household is your karma but Enlightenment is open to all of us be do not do not misunderstand that's why ad was restricted it it can lead to complete misunderstanding either non-comprehension or a kind of inspiration which leads you to take rash steps I've seen people running off leaving everything running up to the Himalayas after 2 days of sitting in the cold and the ice and the wind and the Rocks becoming miserable H yes you have a question yes I have a question so I'm I'm sorry I'm probably repeating myself but you said about the insight and the perspective yes but you also said I mean that you have when you read this or you think about this what you're currently teaching yes that there would be this aha moment yes my question to you is does that aha moment come to people who have not done spiritual practices or does spiritual practices help you get that aha moment right do spiritual practices help you get that aha moment the realizing that the princess of Kashi was none other than me do you get that of course that's the point of all spiritual practices note just note the yogas for example note the yogas how do they help not note um Karma Yoga all my energies are devoted to helping others unselfishly do you now look at it from this perspective aren't you cutting at the root of this identification with one body and mind Karma Yoga is helping you or not if you do karma yoga if you are concerned about others not about the little problems of this one body and mind will it help you to understand this certainly that's why Karma you guys strongly recommend it it will attenuate thin out the desires of the world the discipline imposed Raj yoga meditation deep meditation absolute quietness of the Mind Stillness of the body Stillness of the breath Stillness of the mind will it help you to appreciate an unchanging awareness in the background of everything what do you think yeah I'm not asking you if you're doing that but asking you if if you could do that would it not help you to appreciate it and once you have appreciated that would it not be much easier to understand what they talking about as one Consciousness behind everything certainly Raj yoga helps you in this B Yoga when all the desires poured out in the world are collected and put at the feet of my beloved Rama or Krishna or the Divine mother or Christ or whatever that continuous stream of love and devotion towards the div Vine with a particular name form a Rel the god of religion will it help you to attain adic Insight or not it will tremendous help Shankar AAR says b is the greatest support to adant in so Karm Yoga Yoga Raj yoga they are all tremendous supports for this Enlightenment aha moment but what ad insists it there are supports for this without that not much chance but remember so studying this is not studying this is also spiritual practice you mean studying a book is spiritual practice not in normal circumstances if you read a book on bti and then you have to feel that and practice that you read a book on meditation you have to actually sit down and practice meditation be inspired by Swami viandas Karm yoga have to go out and do that it won't just help to say oh I feel good about everybody that won't help you have to go out and do that but there's a great distinction it will take a different class to explain it there's a great distinction between AD shastra and other things you know what this shastra is like it's like it's like the difference what practice did the prince that Prince have to do when the minister told him this princes of Kashi is you o Prince when he explained it to him what practice did the prince have to do nothing the 10th Man in the story when the wise man comes and points his hand towards him Thou Art the 10th what practice did he have to do nothing REM ignorance that removal of ignorance this directly removes ignorance so you we've been attending classes for years why hasn't it removed our ignorance the problem lies not with this the problem lies the shoe pinches elsewhere the meditation the Devotion to God the cleanliness of heart the unselfishness the karma yoga has not been completed the B Yoga has not been completed Raj yoga has not been completed but I'll put you put one one simple addition here one thing is necessary above all you might think it's a strange thing to say in this class the grace of God the most radical text of ad vant aadita starts with this first sentence it is by the special grace of God the god of religion that you get a person gets a liking for non-u vant how strange it is the grace of the dualistic God who takes you s ramakrishna said tie the knowledge of to the Hem of your cloth like women in The Villages in India too they not the knowledge of AD the keys of the household to the Hem of their class and then do whatever you you want to do do whatever you want to do is you are free you you have got the essense of it be a devote be a meditator be engaged in tremendous action in the world huh whatever you want to do everything will be a blessing for the world whatever you do okay we have run out of time you know I wanted to do 10 verses today I did one om shant shant [Music] shant one thing I want to um bring to our notice is that quite apart from all the texts in ancient Sanskrit and all the arguments and the philosophy the epistemology the metaphysics of it all the beauty and advantage of ad is it's talking about some something directly presented to us directly and continuously openly available to us all the time so that's why it's called the direct path it points to a reality right here right now all the always available in spite of our efforts um we can neither erase it nor create it it's there um so it's good to keep that in mind because when we plunge into all of this we may feel confused we may feel it's too much it's too complex it's not at all complex it's good to keep in mind it's actually very simple ad for example unlike most of the philosophies it can can be expressed in a single short sentence you are that I am Brahman that's it and when you try to understand it all of this is useful now asakra is going to do something very interesting and a little different in verse number eight [Music] have faith my child have faith never confuse yourself in this you are knowledge itself you are the Lord you are the self and you are Beyond nature what astavakra is telling us here is that if you're feeling bewildered by all these teachings and the philosophy and seems too subtle too complex too difficult one thing one can do straight away is he says just trust me just believe in this I am Brahman we believe in so many things many of which cause so much TR trouble and unhappiness to us we believe quite easily actually it's only when it comes to spiritual life that we become suddenly big Skeptics and critics and all that we believe easily every Advertiser knows that the whole Art and Science of advertisement is is predicated on that if people know you show something to people whether they and they sort of uncritically absorb it and that's the trick to selling products to advertise it works that's why billions and billions of dollars are spent on it so we believe and we absorb all sorts of nonsense from the word this sadhu tell you in Hindi and then translate he was explaining that you are Brahman and then he said I'm telling you if nothing else I'm telling you then just accept it because I'm telling you so um he gave an example when you were brought home from the hospital we B we were born how do you know that these are your parents your mom and dad and somebody said the nurse said so the nurse said so and then the Swami said I'll tell you hindian translate he said am I even less trustworthy than the the nurse you in the hospital so something so important for you you in your life you take it on trust and I am telling you without any expectation of any material gain from you nothing from you I'm telling you that you are Brahman sages and Saints Masters throughout history have told us this again and again so he says my child so here the just as a father just as a parent has only the interests of the children at heart similarly the spiritual master has only our interest at heart that how can we be delivered from unhappiness from sorrow how can we find fulfillment how can we reach the goal of life purpose of life this is such the stakes could not be higher this is the point of it all point of life and here it is presented to us directly see not to knock down other other approaches but since this is AD and we think we are pretty cool and pretty high way up there this way up there I remember seeing a cartoon so there's a hierarchy among scientists um so there's this biologist and in in front of him standing is the is the chemist you know he says you who I'm a I'm superior to the biologist because all of biology ultimately depends on chemistry and then above this guy is standing the physicist he says I'm a physicist I'm superior to you guys because all of this your chemistry and biology depends upon the element Elementary particles of matter which I study then higher above that guy stands the applied mathematician where whose mathematics is used for all of modern physics so I the pure scientist you know and then that cartoon it shows way above all of them sitting on a cloud is the pure mathematician he say youo guys I'm up here so pure mathematician who takes Delight in just sheer abstraction and concept they supposed to be the most uh Alo and most elevated of all the Sciences GH Hardy who was who's the one who invite invited ramanu JP to Cambridge University so he was interviewed once and asked what is the application what application does your pure mathematics have what use is it does it have an application and he says I should hope not application is too grubby too low down to have applications so we otherwi things we consider ourselves to be above the clouds you know this the highest final UL imate um the ultimate teaching um so from that perspective I'll be a little critical the bti approach the devotional approach beautiful and sweet but it depends upon belief Faith you cannot be a devote you cannot be a b you cannot be a lover of God if you start by being a committed atheist if you it it depends on accepting the existence of God if you do not accept the existence of God devotion will not work for you the problem with that approach is in this day and age it is very difficult if if you are thinking person you just listen to Richard Dawkins and Christopher Hitchens and Daniel dennet and Sam Harris when they attack the concept of God and religion you listen to them for half an hour one hour a day you will cleanse your mind of all religious nonsense they're going to vacuum your mind free so difficult in this day and age we have in this day and age it's the largest number of atheists and agnostics that there ever have been in the entire history of humanity this this age we are living in compared to this the yogi approach says that not belief but experience this is what viand what made Narendra into viand and what VI brought into this country see what did the Young Narendra go around doing in Kolkata in late 19th century they went around asking people have you seen God he went to Sri ramak Krishna that's where he received his first his the clearest answer most convincing as have you seen God not whether does God exist or why do you believe in God do you believe or why don't you don't believe in God have you seen God and Krishna said yes just as I see you even more clearly and you can too so this is the yo promise of the yogic path that not belief they're not asking you to believe in God if religion is true it should be experienceable if there's a God I should be able to see God if I have an immortal soul I should be able to feel it and experience it and prel yoga is a classic book of the yogi tradition which says that you sit in this way you breathe in this way Focus withdraw your mind and senses in this way meditate in this way and I promise you you will have certain extraordinary mystical experiences which will prove to you the claims of religion so you will have these experiences and these are all Extraordinary experiences samadi various types of samadi and this is what viand B here the first book he translated and published was his commentary on the patanjali yoga sutras Raj yoga from New York he said to um the Americans in the late 19th century that religion is realization religion is not believing in a book it was a new idea at that time that you could actually experience God it was there in Christianity all out all throughout but what was what came to happen was people felt these mystical experiences are only for a few people they're like the athletes of the uh spiritual world not for the mass of people there are going to be a few Mystics but for the rest we have to just go to church and believe in what the pastor says and try to lead a good life and that's it and surrender that's it no all of us can should must realize God must experience God that's the yogic promise but there is from an adic perspective you see there is a problem with that too the problem is this that these experiences are special experiences s ramak Krishna is having a vision of Kali how many of us are having a vision of Khali even in that book when you see the description of Sak Krishna talking he's talking with the Divine mother but he is talking with the Divine mother nobody else in that Gathering is actually seeing the Divine mother so they believe that SRI Rak Krishna is having an experience with the Divine mother and they have shha belief faith in that what did people think of it what did people what have people thought about Mystics throughout the ages they're crazy most people during SRI Ram krishna's lifetime the people around most of them thought he was this mad priest of Kali and dakshineshwar and that's true of all the mistakes whenever they have in every religion people around them even religious people would doubt their sanity because mainly because we don't share those experiences they are rare and difficult to get they're not public experiences uh and today especially in this day and age the neuroscientist will tell you I'm sure you feel one with the universe or I'm sure you're seeing a Divine Light or you're seeing forms visions of God I'm sure you're seeing that but it's not because actually you're seeing God it's because there's a little stroke on the left side of your brain and there's little hemorrhaging there and that is affecting your experience of the world there's this very nice uh talk by the lady she had a stroke she she was a neurosci scientist it's maybe one of the most watched TED Talks ever and she wrote a book about it too because she was trained she realized that I'm having a stroke and she felt one with the universe so are you actually one with the universe no no no you're just a human being having a stroke so the neuroscientist will tell you there is some neuron something wrong with your brain that's why or if you're in New York um especially after 5:00 P p.m. in Central Park you're high so most people are and so they one with the universe and that's the problem with um mystical experiences there are genuine mystical experiences but how do you know which are genuine and which are not there are mystical experience seem to be mystical born of nothing more than unfortunate mental illness hallucination um drugs or neurological problems many kinds of things so how do you know now um says not belief as in the path of biti not special mystical experiences as in the path of yoga but just our daily quotidian experiences experiences we have right now of seeing hearing smelling tasting of being the subject and experiencing the object of being awake dreaming and sleeping who does not have these experiences who has not experienced being awake or Dreaming or sleeping everybody has who has not experienced the physical body and the subtle body all of us and all the time we experience it now this is enough for the adic inquiry to start ad vant says you just need whatever you already have and then we will guide you step by step logically and every step we will not tell you that there is some extraordinary thing you do these practices 25 years later you may have have that vision and then you will see for yourself or none of that you have to believe in it none of that it's just it's available and you can see right now right here this is the beauty of AD however if all these teachings are too complicated too some subtle asakra says the bhaka has a great point the faith is a great power if you believe in what I'm saying just simulate it suppose it's true what all these texts and all the Masters are telling me I am Brahman right now I am pure awareness and try to see what it looks like the world and yourself if you have suppose you're already enlightened you're a j m what would it feel like what would it be how would you as the enlightened person react to it react to the things in the world the whatever is happening in your life and in the behavior of others as viand says I know I cannot die therefore I'm not in a hurry I know I'm one with all of them are one with me imagine my happiness and so on so just believe it what is that fake it till you make it one might say but doesn't adant say it's not a question of belief you must understand it well the the interesting thing psychologically is if you believe in it if you take it all right let me take it as it is that as suppose it is true let me take it that way and I am R right now if you believe in it if you have conviction in it the process of understanding and realization becomes much easier so do not be deluded on this point this delusion this confusion who am I what am I um this has these two forms in ad vant let me talk about that a little bit so when we come to ad there actually three three points of confusion three kinds of questions which come up first is um what is the teaching all these books I'm seeing in library what are they telling me in technically this is called prah um PR samay means a doubt about the source of knowledge itself about the teaching itself so what exactly is asakra saying what exactly are the upanishad saying what exactly is Shankar aara saying and then and how do you remove this you remove this by studying listening so when we listen to the talks when we attend Retreats like this when we read the book attentively after sometime you know if you try to rehearse it in your own mind if you try to repeat back the essential points as we gathered them that cloud begins to dispel now I have a clear idea about what the books are telling me so that's the first St but that set aside we have already listen listen to it but now two more problems come two more questions two more kinds of confusion the second kind of confusion is I know what the teaching is I've heard the talks but I don't get it it's quite possible to know the teaching I can even tell you summarize what the book says but there are many things I don't get I know the book says you are Rahman I know can be summarized in one sentence Brahman is real the world is in appearance and you are Brahman brah it can be summarized I know all these things but I don't understand it so let's take up the questions one by one and deal with it this not understanding I know the teaching but I don't understanding I don't understand it this is called um impossibility doubt I I don't see how I I am Brahman you are Immortal I don't see how I am Immortal you are all pervading I don't see that I'm just here so these are serious doubts and they have to be resolved by reasoning and vant will demonstrate for example the text that I'm going to teach in Phoenix ad makarand the honey of nonduality so that deals with all of this it starts with I am Brahman I exist I I am aware I shine I am happy and that is so how am I not Brahman Brahman is existence Consciousness Bliss right and he says look at yourself do you exist or not everyone will say I do are you aware or not yes I am aware and are you happy at least occasionally are you happy or not well yes I'm happy this is what Brahman is existence Consciousness Place such how how am I not Brahman and then the questions will come where minute it's true that I exist and I'm aware most of the time and Happy some of the time but Brahman is um is the cause of this universe the books tell us that Brahman is the cause of the UN the universe is produced from Brahman am I the cause of the universe it's absolutely not true and then he will explain what is meant by pure Consciousness and how the universe is in appearance in pure Consciousness then the next question will come yeah I exist see I exist but Brahman is eternal existence I'm not Eternal existence I was born on that day and I'm sure that I'm going to die on a particular day in the near future sometime so my existence is entirely cut off there was a time when I was not there was a time when I will not exist so how am I Brahman Brahman is supposed to be Eternal existence that means Immortal then the author will explain that as pure being or pure awareness it's only the body which is Born the body which tries but you have no proof and he'll give arguments to show so pure Consciousness is not born pure Consciousness does not die or pure being is not born or pure being does not die the next question will be um all right but uh Brahman is supposed to be um you know pure Consciousness and I'm conscious now after two hours of vant lectures I'm a little less conscious and then after lunch I'll be even less conscious and at night I'm not conscious at all how is this Brahman Brahman is endless awareness and Limitless awareness and then the author will explain that how these are states of the mind you are that ever awake Consciousness witnessing the awake mind the Sleepy mind the dreaming mind and so on like this so what's going on here these are questions I have about the teaching I know the teaching but I have doubts about the teaching and they are how do you resolve them through reasoning and thinking it through with the help of others with the help help of the teacher with the help of the books and also thinking it through for yourself till you get clarity now what have we achieved we have removed two of the problems one is and this is PR the impossibility regarding I am Brahman and the doubts about the teaching itself both are removed now I know the teaching I understand it I have got clarity now now what's the problem it still doesn't seem to be a living truth to me I still react to the world just like that old guy you know the unhappiness the misery the the restlessness anger all of that I react to it like that old person so to overcome the old Tendencies of the body mind you have to meditate on that Clarity to marinate in it you know to another term is familiar iiz yourself the truth you have understood it you have got Clarity stay with that Clarity till it becomes oh it's a fact how wonderful then you are enlightened so this is Sir or my child do not be confused on this point get rid of the three kinds of confusion what is the teaching I don't get it or I get it I know the teaching and I get it but it's not real for me it's not for all these three confusions get rid of in Sanskrit they are called um andita is contrary Tendencies then he says this phrase is profound Anda bhagan God bhagavan means god which God the Creator preserver destroyer of the universe the one God worshiped by all theistic religions of the world why do I say theistic religions because there are religions which are not theistic there are religions which are not concerned with God and do not worship God Buddhism jism even within Hinduism you have something I mentioned Sanka Sanka doesn't talk about God so so yoga philosophy yoga there's God In Yoga philosophy but marginal God is not the goal of yoga philosophy selfrealization is the goal so there are philosophies and religions which are non-theistic but all the theistic religions of the world they posit that there is an omnipotent omniscient and omnipresent deity and it's one which is the creator of the universe the maintainer or preserver sustainer of the universe and ultimately the dissolver destroyer of the universe and and then again repeat repeat so this idea in different forms it's there in all the theistic religious he says bhagavan then he says another term Atma self what is the self you I you're the self and then he says ban at this bhagan and this self is one and the same is one and the same how can it be one and the same bhagan is only present everywhere I'm just here if I go to my room then I won't be here you are there but you're not here we are limited we so small not omnipresent and God is omnicient all knowing we are not all knowing we what is called in Sanskrit alya very little knowledge we struggle and struggle through school and college and get some knowledge and promptly forget it afterwards or even if you're the most knowledgeable encyclopedic knowledge a little bit of Alzheimer's it's still gone so our knowledge is very shaky and very limited I think it was Einstein who said as I know more it's like I become aware of the shores of my ignorance like surrounded being being surrounded by an ocean it's an ocean of knowledge out there which I do not know only a little bit we know they pushed back the the borders of human Ignorance by getting a little bit of knowledge so we have have so little knowledge and God is supposed to be omnicient Elon mus said he read through the entire encyclopedia britanica when he was a school kid but even that's so little knowledge compared to what what God knows Swami vianda he actually memorized the encyclopedia britanica as Leisure reading in Bel but towards the end of his all too short life one day he was sitting and reading the encyclopedia branica and his disciple sharak Chandra chakravarti came into his room and uh he saw the whole set and those days it was 10 volumes but they were more impressive than these days it's all disembodied and in the cloud or something so you got it but it's impressive to see 10 big volumes they were all leather B big volumes and the gentleman said to Swami vianda I don't think a man could read through all of this in One Life Time band said what are you talking about I have read through nine of these volumes I'm on the 10th you can ask me any question from these nine volumes not only read through it you can ask me any question and shat Chandra goes ahead and he checks it out he asks question and random puts out the volumes and checks here and there was it Shar Chandra or one of the disciples maybe sh Chandra or one of the other disci deciples this is happened in uh India in Kolkata so he pulls out the volumes of here and there and asks questions and he writes later in his Memoirs that the Swami answered every question often down to the comma and the full stop in the same language and he asks incred this is incredible how is this possibleand said by the power of Purity and concentration it's possible but even that is limited knowledge God God's knowledge is omnicient and our knowledge is so little and omnipotent God can do anything but our power is so limited so limited so weak even at our strongest even at our most competent is still so weak and so incapable how can bhagan Atma how can you be you the self be bhagan it's completely contradictory then what does it mean what it means is what is bhagavan and what are you what we are we can already say I am the witness Consciousness I am not the body not the mind I am the witness of the body witness of the mind I am this awareness itself this awareness quoted by this mind and this body is you that same awareness quoted by this mind and this body is s PR of them and it's him it's her it's all of us it's all living beings all human beings all animals plants all sentient beings are that same Consciousness qued with a particular mind and body at Birth that body is born but the mind has been existing since time IM immemorial it comes downloaded into that body when that body perishes that same mind it travels it's go to another world and another body and so on and so forth this is called rebirth cycle of birth and death and what is bhagavan what is God it is that same consciousness which is connected to all bodies and all Minds technically I can give you the definitions again the book vantara which I mentioned yesterday it's all it's all there it's all basic what is called mahak and Analysis of the great statements that thou art so what is God according to vanta what is the sentient being according to V Consciousness associated with Maya with the totality with Maya with the cosmic mind and the physical Cosmos that is God and um is the sentient being is one part of that Maya and one mind and one body same Consciousness limited by one one little causal body one subtle body and one physical physical body that's a j each one of us that's the thing but suppose you set aside the contributions of nature set aside the physical body the subtle body the causal body take the Consciousness in itself then what happens Bagan and Atma you are one and the same if you take Consciousness in itself awareness in itself then God and you are one and the same it's like the emperor and and the beggar in a Broadway show so there's an emperor with all his finery and all his Grand dialogues and everything and you know surrounded by his glory and there is the beggar in rags and weeping and bem mooning his Fai and his poverty but suppose there's this one great Broadway actor who is act acting in a double role as the emperor and as the beggar he goes into the green room and changes into the clothes of the emperor comes out and speaks grandly and struts around the stage goes back into the Green Room changes into his tattered clothes and comes and is a beggar and you say the beggar is the Emperor somebody can ask you legitimately how can the beggar be the emperor don't you see the clothes are different don't you see how this man walks and then that man walk walks don't you see how this person speaks and how the beggar speaks their lines and their dialogue is different their clothes are different their behavior is different how can they be the same what what you mean the emperor is not really an emperor the beggar is not really a beggar it's a play behind both Emperor and beggar is one man the actor similarly if you look in the Green Room you will find one Consciousness when you come to this world you will find that you will find the sentient being yourself and God but you are the sentient being and you are that which is called God also bhagavan Atma how do you reconcile the two the first word g pure Consciousness as pure Consciousness in association with Maya you are called bhagan as pure Consciousness in association with this causal body subtle body and physical body you are called Mr or Miss Mrs so and so this is mahak mahaka great statement what are the great statements that thou brah I am brah brah Consciousness this very Consciousness is Brahman Ultimate Reality of the Universe I am Atma Brahma this very selfish Brahma they all mean the same thing all of these mahavakyas they mean the same thing mahavakya great statement this is the a great statement what is the definition of a great statement mahak Jah that which establishes the identity of the individual sentient being and of the the cosmic Lord of brah that which establishes the identity that is the called a great statement so conventionally we take four one from each of the four vas but there are any any number of such statements across the vas and across these texts everywhere you find this a great Identity or the great equation somebody called it what is the identity atan Atma God and you the self same how G as pure consciousness and he tells us how to equate the two if you transcend nature Beyond nature they are the same when you come within nature same Consciousness same electricity flowing through a million power bulb same electricity what in India we used to have something called a zero power bulb I don't know if I not seen it in America it's a very very dim light but there are these ones nowadays they there near the floor in many rooms you find just gives a little bit of Illumination at night so like that but it's the same electricity the difference is in the capacity of the bulbs you have a light which lights up a stadium blazing light you can be seen from outer space from orbit that kind of light and you have the tiny little light at The Corner Room you can barely see it at night but the behind it is the same electricity you are not that bu you are that electricity itself and he said you say that I don't really get it I mean it's tremendous but what can I do with this believe in it my child believe in it and see what happens then we have we almost out of time we supposed to end at 20 20 minutes 115 115 115 okay look at the consequence of it 9 and 10 now we going to see the results of all of this what benefit do I get first of all you go beyond death you lose fear of death number nine the body composed of the ingredients of nature comes stays and goes the self neither comes nor goes why then do you mourn it this body made of the three gas of Nature satas Made of the five elements space and wind and air and fire and water and Earth or um how many elements is it now in the periodic table it keeps increasing so what 120 140 elements whatever all the elements in the periodic table this body is a composite made of all of that so is the mind it comes it stays for a while it goes but you are the Limitless Consciousness in which these elements have Arisen Arisen means they have not come out of you they are appearing in you and the combination of those elements these worlds have Arisen appearing in you these bodies have Arisen appearing in you they are born these bodies age and then they die you are the same the wave appears in you the ocean it rises to a height and then begins to subside and then it fades away you are the same otion you neither increased nor diminished by the arising and the subsiding of the Waves asakra will say that in you the infinite ocean of Consciousness the waves of these worlds arise let them arise let them subside you are neither increase nor diminished by that let Birth come you're not increased by that let aging and disease come and death come you are not diminished by that let success come wealth education winning the election or something you're not increased by that same same ocean wave has come up let failure and poverty and loss come you're not diminished by that same ocean just the way has gone and AD say it's a fact right now this is the best clearest most honest depiction of what's going on these are eth appearances in you the Consciousness what is the self it neither comes nor goes Atma it's not something that goes away not something that comes body comes wellcome it stays for a while and keeps on changing good it goes away goodbye you are there all the time you were there before the body during the body and afterwards but the body doesn't exist without you like a body in the dream give me what are you weeping for what are you afraid of the psychologist Rd Lane he was in he was a British psychologist in 1950s 60s he famously said that human beings are afraid of we are all afraid of three the three great fears of our lives these common fears the deepest and strongest fears of Our Lives first and foremost the fear of death it dominates Our Lives that's not true it's just a cliche I hardly think of um death of my death usually I hardly think of that that's because you're suppressing it you know he was a Friedan psych analyst so frian psych analyst is nobody's normal if you say but I have no problems ah serious problem you're suppressing all of your problems I'm not thinking about death you're you're dead scared of death that's why you impossible you find it imp possible to think about death there's this book the denial of death earns Becker got a pit surprise for it quite long time back it's based on psychoanalysis but he says all our lives are guided this one thing Huns us although we refuse to acknowledge it it's like a ghost always there we refuse to look at it the fear of our own death and he says whatever human beings do they're all as a reaction to that a fight back against the fear of death and all are doomed to failure what are what what do we do everything that you do from having children to building a business Empire to writing a book to whatever he calls them all immortality projects immortality projects somehow I will persist but will you persist what you what you are this person no viand says death is everywhere emperors die and poppers die Scholars die and fools die Saints die and sinners die all will die but you will not there's no question of your death both birth and death you are the witness to both you they are all possible birth and death because of you you exist they borrow their existence from you the body borrows its existence from you so what are you um sad about so what are the three things uh we are all scared of first death un specker said second thing we are all scared of is other people that's not true we are scared of other people especially people in our lives people first most obviously people you consider to be enemies or who can threaten you who can cause you harm you know the Troublesome neighbor the terrorist or the gangster but also someone like who can um seriously harm you like like your boss who can lay you off or get afraid of them like the teacher who can give me f or even scold me or humiliate somebody who can scold me or humiliate me in public they're afraid of these people almost everybody again even more interesting we are afraid of people we love because they can come cause harm to us they can they can not that they would want to but they can because you love them You're vulnerable anything happens to them your wife husband children parents you love them because you love them anything happens to them you suffer terribly often in the world people suffer more for the sufferings of their beloved people rather than themselves their parents all the time consumed by anxiety and worry not so much for themselves for the children who couldn't care less really here's one great thing to learn you as parent those were parents one great release you need not be so unhappy or so worried or frustrated or anxious it's needless because the people you are anxious about worried about they are not all that worried at all you keep on imagining imaginary threats problems so we are afraid of other people enemies people who can harm us people who are beloved to us and close to us we're afraid of them because of them and then third oh this afraid of people the French existentialist s famously said that uh definition of hell hell is other people hell is it's there in a play hell is other people if imagine if you are locked up in a room with a group of people and there's no escape from that room very soon you would feel that those people are hell they feel the same way about you I remember this monk in our order senior monk very wonderful Swami who's done a lot of work in our order he told me a personal story he said when I was a novice monk many many decades ago I was in this asham it was quite tough the monastery and there was this great Swami I would write letters to Swami dhand who was in our asham in kanal harid he was a great non-dualist great a saintly person so this monk said I would write letters to him in those days postcards and that would in one in some way that was a good time because it would take 15 days or one month for your letter to reach and then another month for that to come back it gives you enough time to cool down and reflect so once I was very unhappy and I said wrote to him I can't bear these people you know the people in the asham they're treating me badly and I'm suffering I can't bear these people in Bali and he wrote to that Monk and then a reply came and he said I was expecting sympathy or advice you know how to deal with these problems there's only one line remember they are also bearing with you you don't think that we are unbearable awful people but we are take it for me each of us in the eyes of at least a few others you you might be astonished why would I'm such a nice guy why would people dislike me they do and in their eyes for pretty good reasons so we are afraid of other people and the third thing we are afraid of according to Lane is um our mortality afraid of other people and our own minds we're afraid of our own minds we are afraid of ourselves ourselves basically our own minds what we might think what we might do to ourselves and others what's the next crazy thing that I will do or I'll just not measure up to my own expectations that's also there it's me I'm afraid of myself and a solves all of those problems how that's your homework think about it it solves the problem of mortality solves the problem of other people by showing you that they are not other people they're yourself and it solves the problem of the Mind by saying you are that in which the Mind appears like a bubble a wave it's nothing apart from you and it's nothing to you then next number 10 sorry I missed one thing Let the Body last to the end of the cycle millions and billions of years suppose you live Immortal practically or let it go even today let the body die today let death come today right now where is there any decrees or in you who are pure Consciousness you should be perfectly equanimous from that perspective there is nothing more that I want to achieve through this body and mind or at least vant vant does not require this body and mind vant only requires you to be pure Consciousness which you have now now you have understood this so this body and mind is the Lords and it goes on as far as your past karma is there what is called prabha karma or as the Lord's wish is there this body mind embodiment will go on as long as it goes on be a blessing to yourself and everybody else and when the Lord Wills that this particular drama should end you should go back to the Green Room yeah happily it's nothing to you it's a fiction in the Limitless Consciousness that you are so will you disappear not at all you'll remain in your real nature infinite existence Consciousness which you are right now so it says Let the Body stay sometimes people say that I don't want to live any longer it's awful miserable that's ignorance that's ignore it that's still strong body identification that's why suicide is discouraged I recently did a little TV spot for suicide watching um they had approached spiritual teachers they of course told us what to say don't kill yourself that's message number one number two is that dial this number they're going to help you and things like that so suicide is strongly discouraged that shows strong body identification um or let it stay for ages hundreds of years thousands of years let this body survive I was once approached just couple of years back last year I was approached by Hollywood not the asham the film industry and they say how would you like to be in a film with William Shatner I said wow that's great we grew up as little kids in India we had only two shows from America at that time one was star treit the original series with William shner as Captain Kirk and the other was I Love Lucy so why would I not want to be in a film with Captain Kirk so there's this thing called I think it's on on History Channel or Discovery History Channel It's called The Unexplained and in season two there was one the mysteries of the yogis who can live for a long time 100 years 200 years the secrets of immortality and so I agreed and I was interviewed but I never got to see William Shatner he is the host so there are a lot of interviews and he pulls them together and he hosts the the people in the those the movie people they told me that see we'll try to get you to meet with William Shatner but he is probably the oldest living and active actor in Hollywood so he pretty much does what he wants to so you can't really he went to space Also recently in a r it finally Captain Kirk went to space so in that interview they asked me how did yogis live to be 100 years 200 years I gave them the example of uh um of tranga Swami who was in Banaras s Ram Krishna met him viand the holy mother day all all met him and he lived what 240 years now that's not an exaggeration because there are multiple records testifying to him it was the period of the British rule so they were the British government testified to seeing him at over the decades and so anyway I talked about that and I told them you don't have to live in this body you are the immortal Consciousness anyway you were not interested in that and I saw the actual show they had cut out those parts all the vant but they had kept all the yogis living for hundreds of years that's what they found fascinating let it stay for hundreds of years or let it die today let the body die today I'm completely unaffected by it it's nothing to me vianda says just as a hair falls from the head and uh it's Bal you I'd be happy if all the hair fell from my head permanently but the hair falls from the head it's nothing to you similarly when one body goes it's nothing to you the soul the Atman hundreds and thousands of bodies and come have come and gone we are if nothing else we are masters of dying we have died many many many times in the past we've just got it down like that it's so don't be at all afraid of time there's no increase in you if you have a body there's nothing that you lose if the body goes you are pure Consciousness all right let's do we'll take a little bit of time the questions the three people who wanted to ask questions yes I can start with online the other three people who wanted to ask questions please come here and we will send the microphone to [Music] you it said that you sh who isend himself to feel as an object to be experienced creates the universe with all its dualities so how realized and feel happiness for themselves or compassion for others because now all life is of the nature of one single Joy if all of it is n D and one it's all one with you imagine your happiness as vand says I know that all are one with me imagine my happiness every living being is I it's in Oneness that there is happiness what do you do when you want to be happy what do you do when you want to have some pleasure know right the object of pleasure a cookie what do you do with it you make it one with yourself put it into your tummy it must T touch my tongue when I want to see a beautiful sight what do I do I go and so put it in contact with my eyes Oneness happiness always requires you to become one with the object of your happiness and if you know you are one with the entire Universe imagine your happiness there's also the difference to be considered between what is known as vti Anand and swand the happiness which is experienced with the help of the mind and the senses I taste something that gives me a burst of happiness I think a happy thought and that gives me a burst of Happiness that's something that comes and goes that arises and then diminishes and Fades away that can be more or less but ad talks about the source of all happiness which is you the Atman that existence that Consciousness is also an Limitless existence Consciousness Place only a little bit of that is reflected in our day-to-day happiness all of these little happinesses which come and go the Anand which the an of saand does not come and go it's always there does not increase and decrease it does not depend on an object to be enjoyed it's the difference between so the question was if it's all one um what about this particular happinesses which we enjoy those particular happinesses like the reflection of my fa face in the mirror now the desire to enjoy those particular happinesses is like the desire to keep on reflecting my face in the mirror I see my face in the mirror occasionally you might see your face in the mirror but if you say I am anxious about it all the time with great care I want to maintain the face in the mirror that's lunacy what is our normal state of mind sometimes I may see my face in the mirror sometimes I may not I have no anxiety about my face it's there I know I don't need to see it all the time similarly I am that Limitless happiness I don't need to keep it keep reflecting it in the mirror of the mind and to experience it as an object if that makes sense so now the question is is the non-dualist Enlighten one happy or not well direct answer very happy don't worry about it you'll be you'll be very very happy when you are enlighted let's have these questions tell us your name and ask the question pram Swami G my name is promode promode means happiness my question is uh what does progress uh for a lay person uh who's on the path of atic meditation uh what does it look like I'm assuming it starts initially with a glimpse of of this Con non-conceptual like uh awareness and I'm assuming that the Glimpse will become like more stabilized or like will be longer and eventually does it get to a point where somebody when they're doing a normal task like a day-to-day task can actually do that without without like the ego or like without a conceptual view of of what is being done yes does it get stabilized over time it does um it's actually quite a deep subject you are promote when you were given that name it took you a little bit of time to get familiarized with it but now it is effortless you don't need to practice being promode in the morning and evening you know my daily promode meditation I am promode I am promode just this case that I don't forget no you don't forget and you don't put any effort into it although that's something that's imposed upon you because there's a name that was given to you and that has become so effortless that I am Rahman becomes effortless like that no practice is needed to maintain it that's the goal that's what we have that's where we have to reach out actually the fact is that that's where we are at but we don't recognize that fact I remember a similar question was asked by Young monk to a spiritual master in haridwar is there he this young monk asked um the master the teacher in Hindi I am Brahman at least we have to we should hold on to that knowledge this realization we what the beautiful things that asak is telling us the boil it down basically I am limitless awareness I must at least hold on to that right this is the gain the take away from this and the master said with equal vment he said that's what you must must not hold on to as long as you're holding on to that it's a practice how much effort do you put in in practicing promote being promote nothing no effort at all it would be wasted time for you so that is what we must reach towards there's a story about one of those nice little stories about asakra and janaka one day janaka was sitting after listening to all this sitting on the bank of the river and meditating and practicing I am Brahman and I am brasas asakra looked at him and came and sat down next to him now this is a little difficult to explain wondering monks in India they have a little stick um like d with a cent shape where they can put their hand and do the Jaba with the rosary and everything and they have a water pot the stick is called Dand sometimes it's called ganad Dand all Gand and the water pot is called kamandalu command is water pot a brass water pot months walk around carrying this stuff I don't know today they might be carrying mobile phones and stuff but this is traditionally what a is supposed to carry so he sat down asakra next to janaka with the Dand the stick and the water pot and janak is saying I am Brahman I Brahman I Brahman and asakra said this is a stick this is a pot this is a stick this is a pot and janaka looked at him quizzically and glared at him and started chanting loudly I am Brahman I am brah brah he start chanting even more loudly and finally J got exasperated he said who doesn't know that's a stick and this a part what are you doing and aavak said exactly what are you doing all right but this is the final this is when you are have no more problems at all but before that if you have problems with this sh man don't worry about small glimpses persisting glimpses go back to listening go back to reasoning and stay with that listening and what what you get from that listening what you get from that reasoning try to stay with it there are techniques of vtic meditation of course okay okay thank you thank you help a lot of people deal with problems so first of all thank you my question is about what's your name my name is ano an my question is about anuti why is it called aaro anuti and why is it not anuti so there is a text called aaro anuti which literally means if I translate it very literally usually it is translated as um direct realization it would mean non indirect experience so what is this direct indirect non- indirect Etc praka is direct perception so if you're seeing that's praka the Sanskrit word praka is AKA means eyes and in general it stands for all the five sense orits literally the eyes but all the five sense organs praka that which appears to your sense organs so that which you can see hear smell taste touch all of that is called protction English sensory perception or just perception perception but there are a lot of things which we we do not perceive but we know them we read about them in our science books in our geography books things which are far away from us we read about in geography books or see it on on the internet there are things which are remote from us in the past we read about it in history books so there these are we do not see them we do not hear of them they they're either separated from us in space or they're separated from us by time but we have knowledge of them so that kind of knowledge which we do not gain from our sense organs is called paroa beyond the range of our senses it could be physically beyond the range of our senses maybe far away or maybe very tiny like atoms which we can't see or the covid virus we we cannot see it paroa because it's too tiny to see or it could be things like heaven and God how did you know there's a God or Heaven if you do know at all well the holy books told us there paroa that is beyond the range of our senses these are the two kinds of knowledge that we have praka and Pera but you exist I exist how do I know that do I see myself if you ask Swami is um um ano there I'll say yes how do you know because I see him now if you ask Swami are you there are you here say yes if you ask how do you know you like say because I see myself let me take a look yeah I am here do I ever do that for ANUK I'll do that I'll see oh yeah he's here but for myself I'll never take a look or sometimes this is so prak for me I don't need prak to see know that I exist is it is it paroa even less so who all attended take a look at the list of attendees or these people with was an there yes his name is there he signed here he's here was I there let me see have I signed am I so I must have been there that might be true in the past if I don't remember but right now let me see the list of people yes I am here because clearly it says so that's paroa but do I depend on that for knowing I'm here no then how do I know I am here it's not PR not by seeing hearing smelling tasting touching yes yes I am here no not by paroa by reading something by being told by somebody else let me ask you do you think I'm here yes Swami you are here okay so I must be here I don't do that how do I know I am here this is called aaro not PR not direct not perception not indirect knowledge also not protection this is upper this is called a direct knowledge of myself so it's used in a double negative sense paroa not paroa not indirect um here also there's a slight um refinement that can be and should be done the realization of self Atma that I'm pure Consciousness is not even appro actually if you look even closer what is direct thoughts pain I feel pain how do you feel it do you see it hear it smell it taste it touch it no do you think about it do you imagine it you know it's like a nurse nowaday they ask a pain question it's new I saw in the hospital they'll take your blood pressure um your pulse rate oxygen level that also is new addition after covid I think and then what else do they take your weight or something like that and now they ask pain are you in any pain if you say no fine zero they'll put if you say yes then 1 to 10 I think that's paroa the doctor will ask is the patient in pain okay one to he say six yeah the patient is in pain that's paroa but the patient himself or our does the person have to look at the scale and say it says I'm in pain so I think I'm in pain no directly without sense organs I'm unhappy even more clear how do you know that that is aaro directly in Consciousness unhappiness arises Consciousness pain arises that is aara if you make that aara then the Consciousness itself the self itself how do you know that so there's a new term for not a new term very ancient ter from the open Sak direct and immediate that's why it's called a the last person Namaste Swami G and I'm so happy to see you in person uh my name is SAA uh my question is um before this knowledge I was a Viti so acted accordingly but I was a VI individual a person a person individual yes so after a lot of understanding listening and intuitively knowing that I'm a sakshi um there is still a confusion on how to U deal with one's own emotions and how to deal with unfairness um how to go about in the world basically they say a sad Saint is a bad Saint so I I wanted to have a summary on how a saki would act in this world when the choice making is uh you have to make choices in certain situations and all that right so first of all how do you act in this world first answer important Point normal be normal I've had people who were very enthusiastic about these teachings somebody wrote to me that one Limitless Consciousness which is you yourself in and through this particular body with the name of Mishra is writing to you just say Mr Mishra don't do that be absolutely normal s ramakrishna said about this answer to this question that um there was a Clark remember this was British times there was a clerk who was jailed for something then he was let out of the jail what will he do in Bengali he said will he go back to his clerkship or will he dance around he may dance around for a little while and free but afterwards he'll go back to his job his being a clerk again that mean like it's a very normal hrum Lo job similarly be normal be ordinary the Great Master Padma samha uh he was asked by an old man who served him and then asked him a question master I am old my days are not long I'm also uneducated and I'm not done any spiritual practices give me an instruction by which I will become enlightened so there's a very short onepage instruction if you Google it you'll find it very beautiful highest teachings Direct B teachings like ad vant it's in what's called Zen Buddhism Tibetan Buddhism so there the name of the teaching is pointing the staff at the heart of the old man pointing the staff at the heart of the old man so Padma samab the Great Master who took tiet Buddhism to Tibet before leaving he lifted his staff and he pointed it at the old man and he said a few words it's less than one page direct teachings that you are the Buddha nature you some things like that very nice at the end of it he gave some practical advice because that old man said I'm I'm a householder and I have not done any spiritual practice I'm old and soon I will die and I'm not very educated also please teach me in simple words so that I'll be enlightened right now so he gave some practical advice advice like do not think too much about your children do not waste time in Gossip do not concern yourself too much much in matters of health and wealth and then last but not least always aim to die an ordinary person I never found his teaching anywhere it is important we trying to be extraordinary that also gets us into trouble it's good this is a teaching for a mature person remember if I was talking to college students I would always encourage them and be great and try your best and Excel and all of that is a very important but after some amount of maturity if you're a spiritual Seeker as far as your worldly life is concerned aim to die an ordinary person and that sets you free because you are not you're not ordinary you are the most extraordinary thing in the universe but don't try to make that person extraordinary all right now with that so to answer to your question is what how do you deal with unfairness how do you deal with different emotions in the mind first of all don't try to deal with the them be centered in your own nature as Limitless Consciousness awareness from there now you deal with that person who's being un unfair to you who's that person is you yourself look at the storms in the mind the unhappiness frustration restlessness what are those those are waves in the ocean that you are see all these questions come up if we are not firmly properly fixed in our real nature as Limitless Consciousness if you are that if even Clarity is there these questions will answer themselves by themselves what asak is doing here I am limitless Consciousness Immortal what about fear of death he says Let the Body stay let it die what is it to you so how will I actually deal Common Sense common sense when shank the story is there and Shankar is walking down the lane in a village and a mad elephant charges he climbs a tree and then somebody asks him but you are Brahman why did you run away from the elephant and climb a tree you know that I know that but does the elephant know it that I'm from s Krishna story of the Mah and elephant and so on so anyway so that's the answer be ordinary use common sense but the direct answer to that is first be centered in your nature is I am Brahman you'll see all the answers will come very easily either it will not matter to you and you also know the skillful way of handling day-to-day work yes thank you so much om shant shant [Music] shant

Channel: Sacred Visions

Views: 8,058

Keywords: is there life after death, dark night of the soul ego death, the tibetan book of the dead, ramana maharishi teachings, how to overcome the dark night of the soul, tibetan book of the dead, life after death, awakening dark night of the soul, what is the dark night of the soul, the charlie and ben show, the charlie and ben podcast, dark night of the soul carl jung, dark night of the soul philip wesley, ‘mystical teachings’, charisma on command podcast, dark night of the soul

Id: josBdxWXvWk

Length: 491min 30sec (29490 seconds)

Published: Mon Nov 20 2023