Samsara and Moksa Swami Sarvapriyananda

[Music] [Music] lead us from the unreal to the real lead us from darkness unto light lead us from death to immortality om peace peace peace good morning to the brave few who braved the sleet and the cold and the rain and came for the vedanta class today the subject before us this morning is samsara and moksha life and liberation you see vedanta holds and we have heard this again and again that brahman the ultimate reality is omnipresent it's there everywhere and is eternal it's there all the time in the past in the present and the future and it's non-dual there's nothing in the universe separate from brahman we have heard this we have read about it but the fact remains when we look at the experience of our lives that far from being everywhere we do not find brahman anywhere we do not find god at ultimate reality we don't find it anywhere far from being eternal and all the time we do not find it any time we haven't found it in the past we don't find it now we don't i don't know when we will find brahman the god or the ultimate reality let alone all beings being brahman we do not find brahman in any being either outside us or inside us so what happened what went wrong where is this precious brahmana of vedanta where is this precious god of religion brahman is supposed to be existence consciousness bliss infinite existence infinite consciousness infinite bliss sounds nice and we are supposed to be brahmana tattwa see that thou art me i am brahman but when we look at ourselves we certainly do not see ourselves as existing infinitely we know that we were born and we know that one day we shall die it that seems to be the one truth infinite consciousness we find our knowledge is very limited and our attention soon flags you know without a cup of coffee our consciousness seems to diminish and wither away and every day we go to sleep we seem to lose consciousness and infinite bliss the less said the better most of us we are chasing happiness and we find very little of happiness out there our quota of happiness seems to be very little indeed in this life we find just little bits and bits of happiness and a lot of suffering a lot of misery in life so where is this infinite existence consciousness bliss which is supposed to be there all the time everywhere and which we ourselves are supposed to be where is it what happened according to vedanta the problem is ignorance this essence of the spiritual problem is not that there is a problem with the spirit there's no problem with god with brahman with our essential self the problem is at our level at this level of samsara and level of embodiment we are in a state of ignorance ignorance of what this brahman this ultimate reality which vedanta speaks about we do not know it that is the essence of the problem the problem is ignorance this ignorance has two aspects one aspect in vedanta is called avarana veiling it veils the truth from us it's very simple srirama krishna in dakshinish were in the temple garden of dakshin ishwar he would sit on the little little bedstead and and he would show his disciples this indian tower gamja he would take that up and hold it in front of his face and say look you can't see me now and then he would remove it and say that look you can see me now and exactly in the same way ignorance the power of maya veils our inner reality wales brahman veils the divinity within us another example he would give is from the ramayana when rama and sita and lakshmana are going to the forest rama walks in front sita is in between and lakshmana moving behind and lakshmana is representative of us the jiva the individual being and rama represents god and sita represents the power of god so as long as she is between lakshmana and rama lakshmana cannot see rama the individual being cannot see god we as human beings we do not see our divine nature out of her own grace if she steps aside and then she lets the individual the jeeba see brahman realize itself as brahman so that's the veiling nature because of that nature we are unable to see brahman but that's not the end of it the real problem starts after this maya this cosmic ignorance has another power apart quite apart from the veiling power which veils the reality it is another power with the power is called um the power of projection not only does it veil the reality it projects the reality as quite something else that reality which is infinite existence consciousness bliss is projected as this the world as this the body and mind you see it's like um the classic example of the snake and the rope where there is a rope in semi-darkness and we do not know that it is a rope and not knowing is that is the ignorance and follow this carefully not knowing the rope does two things first of all it it as if it covers the rope it does not allow us to see the rope as a rope one second it presents the rope as a snake because we do not know the rope our fears or anxieties or whatever are now projected upon it as a snake it seems to be a snake so instead of a rope we see a snake and we are terrified in the same way maya has two powers one is it covers our inner reality the reality of this universe which is brahman does not allow us to see it that's called our unavailing and the other thing is it projects this universe it projects this body mind the mind which is called the subtle body mind and intellect the life forces memory the ego sense all of that is projected by maya and also the physical body the gross body which we have got here and the physical universe before us now begins the game of life you see there is this uh old story brahma is supposed to be the creator not brahman brahma the indian god of creation srishti so it is said that when brahma first created the universe and what do you mean by first creating the universe we know that the hindus have this idea of cyclical cyclical creation creation existence destruction and again creation existence and destruction which you find in nature from a seed comes a sapling which grows into a tree and then gives fruits and further seeds and the tree dies but the seeds again give rise to more trees and so on so in this cycle now brahma when funny story it goes like this when he first created he thought he should do a good job after all he's been given the job of creating the universe let's do a good job let's make a perfect universe and let's make all perfect beings so he created the first set of perfect beings and these beings were sages the moment they came into existence and they saw this universe and they were embodied in a body and they had a mind and we thought we are brahmana infinite existence consciousness consciousness bliss why should we be in a little body and a little mind let's meditate and realize brahman and be free and that's what they did and they were free and that was the end of the game of life so brahma thought it didn't work so what he did was next time when he created he created it with lots of rajas and thomas desire and passion and activity and laziness and indulgence and inertia and then he created all these beings and from that time onwards it's carrying on beautifully from our point of view it's not so beautiful but from brahma's point of view the game of life is self-perpetuating it's going on nicely that's the story but really what happens to us vedanta says that brahman itself pure consciousness existence bliss shining through the veil of maya because of it because it's a veil it's as if it has forgotten itself and through the projection of maya what does it experience it experiences first a mind thoughts memories ideas a body here is a body a changing body which requires food and drink and protection and and so and so forth and a world in front other other people other limited beings things to which are nice desirable things which are scary you know disease and death and dishonor and frustration so there are things which you can which are nice which you can look forward to there are things which seem to be scary all from the point of view of the body and mind and thus embodied in this body and mind begins the game of life samsara whatever seems to be favorable to the body and mind this very brahmana embodied forgotten itself says i want that i want that whatever seems to be unfavorable to the body and mind we see i'm afraid of that i don't want that i want to avoid that and so desiring something and being averse to other things in sanskrit raga dwesa desiring something and being averse to other things the this embodied being brahman in this little limited in this little body and mind engages in action starts doing things action what kind of action trying to get something trying to avoid something in life and as it engages itself in action it sets into motion what is called the law of karma the law of karma is something profound that we should understand it's very interesting that all the diverse schools of hinduism whether they are dualists whether they are qualified modest whether they are non-dualists they are all accept the law of karma some say you are one with god some say you are different from god some say the path to liberation is through knowledge some say through meditation some say it's through devotion to god and surrender to god but they all without any deviation except the law of karma that actions have consequences that's the law of karma not only all hindu schools whether they are shaktas or vaishnavas or or shaiva whatever whatever sect they belong to all of them except the law of karma not only the hindu schools all the buddhist schools in fact all the schools of indian philosophy except perhaps the materialist jarvaka all of them accept the law of kaaba in spite of other enormous differences philosophical differences among themselves the buddhist does not speak about a separate atman and an eternal self separate from the body and mind the buddhists say there's no such thing and the hindu dualist says that there is a separate eternal self self theory and no self theory and seems to be diametrically opposite and yet these schools they all believe in the same law of karma so that's why i'm saying the law of karma is something not to be dismissed lightly it's a very profound thing at its core it just says actions have consequences if you do something there'll be results that seems reasonable the law of causation is something that is accepted by everybody it's common sense cause and effect in fact the whole of science all of our common sense everything is based on cause and effect and the law of karma is just a derivation and uh as an extension of the law of causation so cause and effect how does it work if you do good things dharma what your conscience tells you is right what morals tell you what civilization tells you what law tells you is right you do that that is called dharma the result is something called punya merit it's just the opposite of sin so punya merit so you have some some credit in your in your bank balance cosmic bank balance and that punya gives rise to sukha which is happiness so the equation is this dharma punya sukha do good things then it generates some merit you've got some plus points what do they call it brownie points or something and and then that produces happiness in life this life or the next and if one is naughty adharma the result is what is called power demerit or sin and the result of that sin or demerit is dukkha suffering yes so the equation the law of karma work works this way dharma punya adharma and once this embodied being brahman embodied in body and mind thinking of itself as an individual the sanskrit word is jiva individual individual sentient being it engages in action it is caught in this machine of the law of karma its own actions generate experiences further experiences pleasant experiences unpleasant experiences sukha and dukkha and it does not come to an end with one life we often see a person has done so much evil and the person dies he said he didn't suffer that person hitler or somebody didn't suffer for the terrible things they did well the law of karma says wait you don't know it but that that part that being is not gone it will go into further embodiments and the accumulated power the demerits will give rise to unhappiness in future lives and in the same way uh good persons every time you we say that you will get the result of this in future so the law of karma says that is true good actions will give rise to good results vivekananda puts it so powerfully good good bad bad and none escape the law but whosoever wears a form form its body and mind must wear the chain too in fact the law of karma says we have these particular bodies and minds right now this particular body it's produced by our past karma and the experiences which we are getting in this life are also the product of our past karma we get a lot of pleasant experiences unpleasant experiences often you know we plan so much for our life but when you look back upon life you see a lot has happened without your planning everybody i can see a lot of people nodding it it's true the older you get the more you look back upon your life how much of what happened in your life was your own planning your own vision and how much of it you didn't know it just happened so this life what we are getting in this life is a result of our past lives what we have done in past lives it's giving results in this life so our present life this particular body and the experience we have in this life is a result of past karma and so also our future lives you see from this law of karma how the idea of rebirth birth and rebirth because we have past karma we have to be born to get the result of that because we generate new karma in this life it will lead to future lives because we see that we have so much diverse experiences in this life and we cannot explain it in this life we must accept that they were past existence i existed earlier and i shall continue to exist in future so this series of lives birth and death and rebirth and so on is is in fact a corollary a derivation from the law of karma so law of karma and reverts many lives they go together and this is in fact accepted by all the schools of indian philosophy except again i meant it mentioned the materialists but the buddhists the jains and all the hindu schools they accept that we have many lives now in this life what is it that we are looking for we are looking for happiness we are trying to get sukkah happiness and avoid misery suffering that's in the essence that's what we are looking for and how do we do it how do we do it let's take a look at our lives as we live it quite apart from vedanta setting vedanta's side for the time being one of the first things that we do when we want when we want happiness we look for happiness in pleasure good food pleasurable good company movies kids want to play games and grown-ups too once you want to play games and so pleasurable activities that gives happiness but pleasure you see there's a professor of positive psychology professor seligman martin seligman he has studied this whole search for happiness and this very very interesting book authentic happiness what how do we look for happiness and what's a wise way of looking for happiness and i'll relate it to vedanta a little while later so he says the first thing that we do is look for pleasure so happiness the first first place where we look for happiness is in pleasure in partying in music and you know all of this and he says this if you look at these attempts to to get happiness from pleasure it's strictly limited it's limited why you eat something nice and it feels pleasurable but it feels pleasurable at that moment after 10 seconds it's gone it's gone somebody said why am i dieting why don't i eat the things which i want to eat is it because some phrase he used it's two second on the lips and 20 years on the hips two seconds you will get the pleasure after that you become fat and that you have to fight against that and go through diets and so on so pleasure is very momentary it comes and goes not only that it's habit farming habit farming means you get used to it you get pleasure from having eating one brownie maybe when the second brownie comes yes that's also pleasurable third brownie not so much fort brown you'd rather not have it and if someone forces you to take a fifth one you will you might even want to throw up um so you see the first one gave a lot of pleasure the second one gives less the third one gives even less and those of us who have studied economics we know the first lesson we learned in economics class the law of diminishing marginal utility right so each unit of consumption gives less and less utility that's another thing he points out pleasure is habit forming once something gives you a lot of pleasure but after some time that does not give you the same pleasure you may want more of that or something different some variation otherwise you don't get that pleasure again so it's habit forming and there are many other problems associated with it one may get addicted that's how people become alcoholics or drug addicts they go in for pleasure or relaxation or something but then they get caught by it ramakrishna he gives this example of a of a man standing by the riverside in flood and things are being swept along in the flood waters and he sees a big rug looking expensive being swept along and he thought why should it be wasted let me let me catch it and he jumps into the flowing fast flowing river and he swims out to it and tries to grab it and then he finds when he comes close to it it's not a rug it's a bear which had been swept along in the water and the bear grabs him and people standing on the shore of the river they just see this person struggling with what seems to be a rug and being swept along and they shout let go of that rug you'll be drowned you'll be swept away let go of that rug and that man shouts back i let go of it it doesn't let go of me and that's the story of addiction for pleasure for relaxation people take hold of the substances and then substance abuse and then it leads to the person is trapped is actually trapped a hunger develops in this body-mind system for that substance and then the person can't get out of it so there are problems with pleasure what gives pleasure to one person may not give pleasure to another person what give gave pleasure to you when you were six years old does not give pleasure to you now what gives pleasure to you now would not have given pleasure to you at six year old you you like classical music now and as a teenager you might have liked rock music so that rock music might be torture for you now and the classical music might have been tortured for the teenagers so what gives you pleasure now but might not give pleasure at other times or to other people the professor seligman says there is a higher form of happiness than pleasure what is that he calls it engagement and here's this equation happiness h is equal to small p pleasure plus e engagement if you are one of those few people who are lucky enough to find joy in your work if you are one of those few people who is lucky enough to get paid for doing what you anyway enjoy doing a pilot in an interview he said i'm the luckiest person in the world they pay me for doing what i would gladly do for free they're for flying a plane so in the people who enjoy what they do they get engagement in their work so their um their minds and their skills are absorbed and challenged and they get that kind of get engagement there's a whole psychology behind this the psychology of flow where you're fully engaged in your activity it might not be a profession sometimes people are they're not interested in the profession they're just doing it to earn money but then they have a hobby then they have a pastime maybe somebody plays something maybe somebody is a musician or an artist as a pa as a part-time thing and they get joy their engagement there now the point is the happiness that you get from engagement is of a different kind and the happiness you get from pleasure and it's a greater kind of happiness engagement need not be pleasurable when you're working hard at something or you're maybe you're a musician you're practicing hard that may not be pleasurable it's hard work it's often it's not pleasurable but it's deeply satisfying you see it's the difference between learning to play a musical instrument yourself and sitting back on the couch and watching a musician play an instrument learning to play a game yourself and going out there and playing or sitting back and watching a game on tv the game on tv might be a better game than you play but the happiness there is is pleasure it's passive one sign of pleasure is its passive you you observe it whereas if you go out there and play your skills your energy your attention is engaged there that's engagement that's not passive pleasure so that gives you actually greater happiness engagement some work you see it's one of the great illusions we think that work is distracting work is uh um unpleasant it's something that you have to get over and then go back and the real happiness will be when you go back and relax on your couch and or watch tv would they call it couch potato so that will be happy but actually um seligman shows that surveys have been taken when you actually ask a person in the middle of work rate your happiness right now and they consistently rate themselves and giving themselves high levels of happiness when they're actually doing something later on when they're not doing something when they're asked to think about work how happy are you at work they rate themselves very low they think no i'll be unhappy at work actually when a person is working if you ask are you feeling good are you engaged are you feeling alive yes i am so there's an illusion we seem to think that work is unpleasant and so we should not be happy in work but we are actually happier in work in engagement than in pleasure and then seligman goes on to say there is a higher level of happiness than that there's actually a higher level of happiness than engagement and that he calls meaning m so h happiness is equal to p pleasure plus engagement e plus m uh meaning if you are one of those rare few people who find a purpose a higher purpose a deeper meaning in life that meaning gives much higher happiness see for example i have seen people who are well engaged in their careers i've seen people in india who were dot-com millionaires in silicon valley in california and they gave up their job they're fully engaged they're earning a lot of money and they're enjoying what they were doing but they gave up the job to go back to india to some rural place several kilometers outside bangalore where there is electricity is uncertain roads are bad and lots of illiterate people and they establish school first kids i'm talking about an actual example and there's not just one just a few days ago this young man came a multi-millionaire he's been working for one of the top companies of the world he literally travels across the world every week he came and stayed with us uh for a few days and he says i have done this i have i am successful i've got everything but i need to move on in my life now i need to do something that is deeper and more profound than just earning money so look he's moving from engagement to meaning he's seeking meaning maybe he has not found it yet but he's seeking meaning usually not always but meaning is usually associated with something larger than the self often meaningful activities are there where you do something for others those activities one finds meaningful that's why seligman points out that mothers have a natural advantage because they automatically care for others and their meaning in life is for a long time at least until the children grow up the children are their meaning in life so automatically they have some meaning in life the rest of us may have to seek for meaning in life and mothers too have to expand the meaning in life beyond their own children so meaning in life actually gives more happiness than say a very successful career or just sitting down and watching tv or playing a video game and seligman says our total happiness is a summation of pleasure and engagement and meaning and he says it's not equal pleasure gives a little bit of happiness engagement gives much more and if you have meaning in life purpose in life much much more victor frankel man search for meaning logo therapy he writes about his experiences in the uh in the concentration camps in auschwitz and dakao and buchenwald in germany in the second world war he noticed that the persons it was terrible suffering starvation suffering torture and continuous mass executions and so on but he said those amongst us who survived many people who were healthier perished first because they gave into despair they saw me no meaning anywhere and those who found some meaning they survived it could be different you know some people found meaning in religion some people found meaning in the community some people found meaning like viktor frankl himself he said i had this book to write this idea to give and i wanted to do it and that is one of the things which sustained him through this terrible hardship so meaning in life gives more happiness than engagement or pleasure now when i was reading this i looked back upon vedantic's thought and what did i find there if you ask vedanta how do human beings search for happiness in life they'll talk about four things first karma pleasure you see pleasure then success engagement in life doing something being succeeding getting something in life making a name for yourself a position for yourself you can see engagement at time engagement directly you can map it and then they say that dharma dharma is a wider term it means religion also it means morality also it means doing something for others expanding beyond the self and again you can map it dharma and meaning do you see how beautiful it maps pleasure karma engagement and meaning in life dharma dharma is a bit of a stretch if you want to map it to meaning in life but the three the structure which seligman is now talking about was well understood was well understood thousands of years ago this is how we seek happiness in life the jiva the embodied being seeks happiness in these ways by the search for pleasure karma by the search for success and power and status in society artha and to expand beyond the self to find meaning to do something for others unselfishly dharma that's one meaning of dharma maturity you move from pleasure to engagement to to meaning or dharma you see this is well understood earlier nowadays you know if you look at society and you say look at the world around and i want to be happy and what does the world tell you buy this gadget you'll be happy how do you know because in the advertisement everybody is what the gadget is smiling buy this soda you'll be happy buy this car you'll be happy consume pleasure and engagement happiness means you consume these kinds of gadgets and these kinds of foods and these experiences vacation so forth plus you make a million bucks on wall street or in silicon valley or something that's the definition of success if you are not success happy that way then what is the solution you if you want more than this our world modern world seems to have no further answer than this you're not happy with your iphone 6 well iphone 7 will make you happy more of more of consumption more of pleasure more of engagement that makes you happy this job does not make you happy here on the subway i saw there's a sign there are you going to a job you hate contact us this call this number which means i will give you another job replace one engagement with another engagement we seem to have no other answer we seem to have no other answer you got this latest car now you aim for your private jet or something that again a variation of the same thing pleasure and engagement what other answer is there i have seen people friends of mine who where i met them 20 years ago who were gunning for success and they got it all a family and success and everything some people come and they say that we know this is what our life is going to be like we know we have children now we have a job and it's good but at the same time we also feel a little trapped is this all that it is going to be i'll get old and die and that's it if things go well the old idea of dharma kama and what seligman is now saying pleasure engagement and meaning gives you a clue there must be a time when you must move from engagement and pleasure to meaning in life from from earthquake to dharma to expanding beyond the self one powerful way of getting happiness straight away in life is expanding beyond the self it seems counterintuitive i want happiness for myself and yet the answer seems to be instead of trying to make yourself happy try to make others happy you will become happy vivekananda said unselfishness is more paying paying for whom for you but it takes maturity to understand this he said um that's why the indians will know this we never say dharma what do we say dharma takama so the basis is always dharma the basis is always morality basis is always unselfishness you seek your pleasure you seek your success in life but the basis and the limits must always be dharma don't transgress that so when people come to me saying that we have got it all but we are unhappy what do i do now i don't tell them that you are now you have to meditate and realize that you are brahmana no that's skipping a step i say one way of becoming happy straight away right now if you want to become happy look for a charity look for a place where you can give your skills if you do not have time at least give money there are people who are suffering can you give something to them can you if you can if you have no money to give give a smile be helpful let others have their way you know make make an effort to make others happy in that effort you will make yourself happy and bring a lot of blessings upon yourself here is another point the law of karma says the more you do for others dharma the more puniam you get and the result of punyam if you look back so come yes look at the equation dharma punyam sukham the more you do for others the multiple multiplier effect on your prunium on your credit in the cosmic bank and the result is happiness for you there's no doubt it leads to happiness for you in fact the equation says that if you want to be happy don't look for it in karma not don't look for it in pleasure and engagement look for it in unselfishness in meaningful purposeful activity in a higher purpose in life you will get happiness straight away guaranteed i was once at a conference in which there were these uh very interesting young people each of them tremendously is tremendously successful in their lives but they were doing something for society beyond their own success in life one was the management graduate from the top management school in india and he he happened to see in chennai one day he told us and there's a group of young people the whole conference was meant to inspire young people to do something for others so you had these examples of such very successful young people whom they would ideally idolize and yet these people were actually doing things for society at large so that was the point now this young man he was a top a graduate of the top management school of india i am ahmedabad if you know and one day in chennai he saw this poor man on the homeless person on the pavement eating dirt because he had no food maybe he was mentally ill also eating dirt and it shocked him so much that he decided to do something about it and look how he did it intelligently he started a restaurant chain which is a pretty successful chain in chennai now and what that restaurant does is apart from very good food is that they collect all um leftovers and then there are vehicles which go and distribute this at different points and he himself makes it a point to physically go and feed people every day that was the main purpose behind it and he's rich and successful also so meaning in life but the purpose is that and there's another person i told you who came with a dot-com millionaire who came to in karnataka and started a chain of schools elementary schools there's this another person uh anand his name was he is very very famous in india because in india everybody wants to get into these elite engineering institutes called iits and they pay a lot of money for this coaching institutes which make a lot of money by coaching young boys and girls to get into these iits and this young man who was a brilliant mathematician and he got an invitation to cambridge and he could never go because of the poverty of his parents and he had no money to go and he vowed that he would he would help poor children so that poverty would not come in the way of their education and he started this school for the poorest the only criterion is that you have to come from an economically disadvantaged disadvantaged group and he would take these boys and girls without charging them any money at all he would pay for their board and food and everything and he would train them up and every year all of his students get into these iits so it's called the super 30 it's in patna it's a phenomenon in india of course the coaching industry hates him they don't know how he does it but so he was there now these young people who were there in that audience they asked all of these people on the stage what a great sacrifice when something came to my mind i was conducting the program so i asked each of them in turn do you think you have sacrificed your happiness for the welfare of others and each of them said no i am much happier than i always was i don't think i'm sacrificing anything if you would offer me what the power and wealth and success which i had earlier i wouldn't want it now i'm much happier now you see dharma meaning in life in seligman's equation the m in kamata dharma if you do that you are actually much happier seligman himself conducted a nice experiment in his class one day to show how doing things for others makes you happy he one day in class he said today there is no class we go to a movie movie pleasure so we'll go to a movie and i'm sure the kids were very happy the college kids okay let's go to a movie after they came back from the movie being a psychology professor he handed out a questionnaire he said rate your happiness from the movie one to five one not happy at all five very happy three or four in between and they all gave some rating three or four or something and the week after that he said today again no class i can imagine the students going movie again sir no today we are going to this end of the town where we have got the kids from poor families together and we are going to spend the afternoon with them we have collected clothes and toys and all we'll give them gifts and we'll make friends with them and so they all went these elite college kids and made friends with these other kids and they spent afternoon with them came back questionnaire rate your happiness they gave some rating through four or five something now the real thing came six months later suddenly in the middle of the class he came with questionnaires and he distributed it look back recall that afternoon when we went to a movie think about it now how much happiness does that movie give you now one to five and many of them said we all remember that we went to the movie i don't even remember the name of the movie and happiness yeah something i don't really don't feel anything at all i hardly remember the movie itself let alone the happiness from the movie so one not two or something and you remember we went the next week to the kids yes yes we remember that when you think back that you did that one afternoon you spent with the kids how much happiness does it give you now six months later and they all gave consistently high scores four or five or something whatever happiness it gave on that day six months later it gives the happiness on that day and i can predict six years later and 20 years later it will still get the same happiness you never ever have regretted doing anything for others when you do something for others without any expectation of gain throughout your life whatever may happen you will not regret that having done that that's very interesting that's very interesting so dharma meaning in life gives more happiness but is this all is this all in life houston smith he writes in his introduction to hinduism and his religions of the world after all the pleasures enjoying the pleasures of life enjoying success in life enjoying high culture after all of that one is still asks one asks he in fact says after back one can still ask is this all it seems ungrateful to ask that but you can still ask that is this all isn't there anything more very soon i'll die it'll be gone what is the meaning of this life what is the purpose of this do i exist after death is there anything beyond all this this game that i played for a few years short years on this planet so that question that the good professor seligman has not talked about he stops their meaning in life but vedanta says yes now you are asking the real question what is the point of this game of life where we are which we are playing we're seeking happiness here is there something beyond this life beyond death is this was there something beyond before our birth what is the purpose of this ultimately is it simply to do do good to a few poor people and that's it is that all of life that's good but it cannot be all of life if you have this question and i'm sure you have it that's why you've come to the vedanta society then vedanta says if at last you are asking the real question who am i what is the meaning of life does god exist is there anything after death these are the profound questions these are the deepest questions of life and yes there is an answer to that that's called moksha moksha literally means freedom freedom from what are we trapped it doesn't seem so but yes according to vedanta the law of karma has it has us in its clutches we are bound by cause and effect we go from life to life we seem to be trapped in a narrow track and there seems to be no getting out of it so this can we expand beyond this is there something beyond this death death seems to be an end whether it's pleasure whether it's engagement whether one is a drug addict and or one is a successful millionaire or one is the greatest social worker the world has ever seen whatever it is death great equalizer finished at that point anything beyond that and vedanta says there is something there is something really really great if you if you investigate if you care to investigate and swami vivekananda would put it this way he would quote from the upanishads there's one mantra one verse ancient which seems to encapsulate the promise of religion and spirituality all religion spirituality put it in this one verse and he would he was fond of chanting it when in the united states in new york he would chant this sonora sanskrit and then he would translate what does vedanta say to this final question the greatest of questions he says [Music] [Music] what does it mean beautiful very poetic in ancient times some rishi some great sage we don't know who stood up and said listen ye children of immortal bliss amrita addressing all of us as children of immortal bliss now look the one truth that we know of our lives is that we are mortal we are born and we shall die and the sage calls us children of immortal bliss if there are gods in higher heavens you also listen to me what i'm going to say you do not know also this great secret all are deluded by the veiling power of maya the shakti now we are going to pierce that primaval veil which is at the root of our this list life of ours of samsara what does he say i have known that infinite being there is an infinite being which i have known all right supposing such a thing is there what's it like aditya varnam blazing forth with the light like the sun not a material light of the sun with the light of infinite consciousness and awareness aditya varanam literally means golden hewed like the sun tamasa parastat forever beyond darkness that that existence is forever beyond darkness beyond darkness means beyond the darkness of death beyond the darkness of limitation and sorrow and misery this constant seeking and striving it's beyond that tamas of paris what good is it to know that knowing that alone tamaeva veditwa ati meiti one goes beyond death you see this fundamental condition of human life everything comes to an end with death vivekananda said saints die and sinners die emperors die and poppers die the most learned of persons dies and the most ignorant of persons dies death is the common truth that we have whether you're religious or not religious whatever you are and here it says there is a way to go beyond that immortality is there such a thing exists and that is the promise of every religion different language different mythology different philosophy and theology but basically there is something transcendent beyond this world of appearances and he says knowing that alone one goes beyond death there is no path other than this aren't there any other paths to happiness you just said pleasure and engagement and meaning i can do so many things in life can't i be happy with those no none of them promise permanent happiness none of them promise deep and profound and lasting happiness none not even the greatest of doing good to others that's good that's a great blessing but that's also not permanent you have to pierce through the veil of maya because of which we see this game of life and see what lies beyond the veil of maya beyond the veil of mamaya is the face of god you have to see that and vedanta goes one step further advaita vedanta non-dual vedanta goes further and says this infinite being is you yourself if you only would know yourself as you truly are you would find this being this infinite being is brahman existence consciousness place within ourselves we do not know it the problem is one of ignorance we are back full circle the problem is one of ignorance vedanta teaches us we do not know it and we have to know it and vedanta takes us through a process through a process the process is called vichaara an in philosophical spiritual philosophical reasoning to point out the truth to us it shows us look at this this body and mind when you go into dream the dreams are in your mind definitely and the physical body lies unrecognized on the bed it's sleeping that means you can continue to have a conscious experience without the experience of the body i'll repeat that you can continue to have a conscious experience without experience of the body so you are not this body it's quite possible that you can remain conscious and have experiences and this body is not there in a dream from your point of view from the dreamers point of view you're not aware of the body on the bed and sleeping and dreaming otherwise you wouldn't be able to dream if you think that i am here on the bed and sleeping now i am dreaming you can't dream in the same way in deep sleep when the mind shuts down the absolute blankness of deep sleep awakening from which we say i slept happily like a log i did not know anything that was an experience that means there is consciousness there too which experiences the absence of the mind the absence of waking the absence of dream this is one of the methods in which vedanta teaches us it's called the method of the three states of the mind waking dreaming and deep sleep by watching these three steps we find there is one unchanging consciousness shining upon these three states beyond mind and beyond body in fact mind appears in this consciousness like a wave in the ocean in this consciousness appears the body birth of the body growth of the body middle age old age deterioration of the body do you not know the deterioration of the body in old age i am old and sick do you know it or not yes of course i know it that's why i'm complaining if you know it then it's a it's a it's an object in your consciousness exactly as the healthy young body was an object in your consciousness you are not that body you are something apart from that body in fact the entire universe appears in your consciousness said i am an infinite ocean of consciousness in which the universe arises like a wave i am the ocean of which the universe is a wave let it rise let it settle back into itself i neither gain nor do i lose anything the ocean is not increased if there is a wave the ocean is not decreased if the wave subsides it's the same water from the ocean it's absolutely nothing let birth come i do not gain anything thereby it's the birth of the body let old age come let death come i do not lose anything by that it's the death of the body the body old age and death of the body are again arising in consciousness in the ocean of consciousness which i am you may say that's all very well we have read all this in the books but it doesn't seem to do us any good it doesn't seem to do us any good because we have to do the preliminary practices and vedanta teaches us there are certain preparations necessary morality first of all a moral life is absolutely necessary basis for spiritual life one may be moral without being spiritual but one cannot be spiritual without being moral so morality is first and then unselfishness from selfish action to unselfish action we already saw that is a good way of happiness but that's also essential for spiritual life beyond that devotion prayer all of these practices there are entire technologies of these entire so much literature is there so many techniques are there those are given as supporting practices with those practices the which are the philosophical spiritual inquiry of vedanta will give rise to that intuition called brahmagyana that flash of awareness which removes the avarana shakti of maya the veil of maya it actually works like that i've heard it from people who have experienced it it was like a whale lifting brahman is right here god is right here you are none other than god the thinnest of veil separates you from that right now for an enlightened person they look upon us with amusement and pity and sadness why is it that they suffer the infinite is there there was a song i think of the poet rajani kanto that sitting by the river of immortality of nectar they die of thirst not once do they turn around and see that rushing river of immortal bliss the day of thirst they are digging in the sand for one drop of that water which is right there by their birthright it's theirs they never care to turn around once turn around once means to look inside we're always looking out there in fact vedanta says the whole problem why we are unable to overcome the primaval ignorance is we are distracted we are distracted by the world by people by relationships by suffering by enjoyment we are distracted by the body and most of all we are distracted by our own minds the first trick that the mind plays is i am the mind i am the mind happiness of the mind i am happy desire of the my mind i want misery in the mind i am unhappy anger in the mind i am angry this is a trick you are not the mind at all it's not very difficult to see that at all so we are distracted now if you look at the yogas karma yoga bhakti yoga raja yoga and gyani yoga all of them they take your attention away from the world to god or to brahman think about it karma yoga all the work which was doing for this body and mind are those who are related to this body and mind family and colleagues and all now i do all that work for the sake of brahman i conceive of brahman as god i am doing work for god not for the world you see how attention is taken away all my activities now flow towards god the same activity i'm doing you may be taking care of your family you may be taking care of your company but that is now internally the attitude is i am doing it for god look at bhakti yoga what does bhakti yoga do very simple the nature of desire is i want the world the nature of bhakti is the same i want the same i want remove the world put god there i want god so all our love our desire our passion our even our anger it all flows towards god once swami vivekananda was joking about sriram krishna and somebody was a little scandalized and he said are you joking about ramakrishna and swami said why should i joke about you meaning thereby when i talk about anything even when i joke it will be about the highest it will i will not come down i will not stoop down to that level of worldliness look at raja yoga the path of meditation our thoughts are continuously going outwards it's about things and people and happenings in the world i collect it all and focus it inwards think about this the higher self about brahman see attention every place the attention is being collected from the world outside and taken in you don't have you are not going to become god you are that you have to pay attention to that fact all the yogas do only that they take the attention scattered in the world collect it bring it back they take our actions scattered in the world collected bring it to god our affections our desires scattered in the world collected bring it to god our thoughts scattered in the world collect it bring it to god that is karma yoga that is bhakti yoga that is raja yoga and jana yoga gives you the truth that this world is an appearance it's the snake like the rope which appears as the snake it is brahman it is you who are appearing as this world and and again actually logically with reason it points it out to you so one day then we following this path when we want moksha there's more to be said but i'll stop uh here and then we'll go for question answers i can we can talk more about it when we follow this path of moksha liberation god realization nirvana salvation whatever you call it this highest goal that is open to us when we follow this path maybe in this life if we are sincere enough or maybe in lives to come it's a path which gives results without fail krishna says in the gita definitely you will get the result either in this life or in at the worst in some time to come and you'll get liberation that intuition will come when the veil of maya the hour and a shakti will fall away what about the projection this world the projection will continue that projection which was a source of temptation and terror for us of misery and fear for us that projection will become a playground it's your projection you will see you are the world or if you are devotionally inclined you will see my beloved krishna or christ or that is appearing as this entire world i see that the same rama is in all beings in everywhere that will become the experience then this samsara itself will become moksha there is no difference there is a hairspray difference between samsara and moksha the only difference is ignorance there's no difference in place moksha is not another place samsara is not another place it's right here there's no difference in time it's not that it's samsara now and one day it will become moksha oh no the difference is in ignorance and knowledge the moment you get that intuition moment we realize that it flashes and dance upon us we will see not only you might say that why do you say there's no difference in time right now we are unenlightened and there will come a time when we will be enlightened so there's a difference in time the difference in time is from ignorance to knowledge not that moksha was produced afterwards not that moksha will come at that time when you become enlightened it's the experience of all enlightened person it was there all along i never saw it the divine mother was right there behind me all along in all my life i never saw it now i see it that's the difference we pray to the lord that the blessed day may come soon in our lives [Music] krishna [Music]

Channel: Vedanta Video

Views: 38,921

Keywords: Vedanta, religion, god, karma, meditation, ramakrishna, vivekananda, brahman, hindu

Id: MHl79bvRrcA

Length: 61min 32sec (3692 seconds)

Published: Mon Nov 29 2021