Swami Sarvapriyananda: Mandukya Upanishad, 6 of 6

oome Bodrum Carini vishnu Yama Deva bhadram pachi moksha period etre Styron gate Oh Steve Adams hasta no Vee be Ashima deva hittin ya da who was Tina in drove Rick - raava Faustina pooja Vishwa Vida Sistina star show our astronomy Faustino Bri Hospital data to whom Shanti Shanti Shanti yes ohm peace peace peace so in this final talk instead of making it a concluding talk I wanted to make make it a continuing talk so we have seen the Mundaka Upanishad the twelve mantras and a few caracas by goda pada but i also mentioned that Gaara pada wrote these Kali cos these verses in four chapters so what we have seen is the first chapter and in case you are wondering what was God about the up to in the other three chapters some wonderful insights into spiritual life so that's what I'll talk about this evening so that it encourages us to investigate further to study further to look it up further the second chapter in the second third and fourth chapters gora pada carries on the same theme but in seconds chapter what god epatha does is when you see the world is false the world is an appearance what exactly do you mean and how can you prove it because it seems to be really very very real really real to us the world so how can you prove it with logic so that is the theme of chapter two white a tiara Khurana vitae means the chapter on falsity and chapter three is a logical exploration of non-duality Advaita proc arena go Rapada explain explains how non duality is logical and then in chapter the last chapter there are various topics discussed various other philosophical points of view a lot ashanti pre karana the chapter on the quenching of the firebrand but anyway what I'll do this evening is pick out one verse just one verse from Goethe padas second chapter the waiter tip rocker on the chapter on falsity where guru father does not hesitate to say shocking things stunning things so this this verse which I will take up it's one of the most shocking we already know the Manduca open issue the central teaching it's an exploration of our experience of life of ourselves so ourselves are understood as having four aspects waking dreaming deep sleep and the real aspect pure consciousness which is the ground of the other three so I've repeated it enough by now you all know yes is gone we know what they're going to say so we are the pure consciousness in which we experience ourselves as a Waker experiencing of acres world our dreamer experiencing dreams and deep sleep experiencing experiencing I'll say within quotes experiencing the blankness of deep sleep in another way it is put the three aspects are the gross aspect that is the physical aspect when we experience a physical world out there new forms and sights and sounds and smell and touch that's one the second aspect is the subtle aspect where everything is within the mind dreams are within the mind and the third one is the causal aspect in sanskrit karana causal aspect the deep sleep state is called the causal state because it's seen as a seed from which the waking and dream emerge so cause an effect waking and dream are called the effect Caria and deep sleep is called the cause karna in sanskrit or causal subtle and gross cardia at the karana the causal subtly sukshma and the gross is Tula so this is the way the three aspects of our experience which are well known to us and what the Upanishad said all of these three are appearing and disappearing before you the pure consciousness not only before you in you the pure consciousness and these three have no existence apart from you the pure consciousness just as the ornaments have no existence apart from the gold which constitutes them this much we know in the second chapter the verse I am going to quote is the 32nd verse chapter 2 verse number 32 chapter 2 verse number 32 it goes like this nany Roja nacho patear now but do not just hard haka namu mock shorn away mocked AHA ETA sharp our amar Tata wait for it there is no cessation no origination nobody who is in bondage nobody who is a spiritual seeker nobody who is liberated or seeking liberation nobody was seeking liberation or liberated what's this such is the ultimate truth it thr amar tada shocking they see the way we have understood the entire spiritual quest God our Father seems to turn it upside down completely what is the story that we know the Buddha for example puts it very well there is suffering dukkha first noble truth and there is a cause of suffering our desires Trishna and there is an escape of freedom from suffering Nirvana and there's a way to do it spiritual practices the Eightfold way Margaret Sanger marker now this is just like a doctor tells you here is the disease it has a cause it has a cure and it has a treatment so that's basically the outline of the spiritual path as we know it we know we are in bondage here I am here at this body and I seem to be identified trapped with this body it is changing aging disease and death and suffering are there I am in this world people are nasty to be rude to be mean to me and I suffer and my fortunes go up and down with the Wall Street index you know the stock market all of this happens I seek fulfillment and I'm frustrated maybe I get something and that's not enough maybe I get I do not get what I want and I get what I do not want all of these things happen in life and this is bondage and I'm told and I'm told on top of this this is not the only time I have done this many times earlier and I'm yet to do this many more times because this cartoon I saw where this American I think I mentioned it American guys talking to an Indian guy and the American guy says I'm a born-again Christian and the Indian guy says I'm a born again and again and again Hindu whether Hindu or Buddhist are all the Indian Indian philosophies they all believe in many lives that we have had many lives earlier and until we get liberation until we get moksha until we get become illumined we will continue to repeat this maybe not the exact same thing but variations on this theme with more or less the same results it may be a little better sometimes a little worse sometimes and this will go on until we learn to realize what we truly are there's a joke I read you know when you go for this medical insurance in America it's it's terrible lots of paperwork and everything have to go for medical insurance they'll ask you a lot of questions about your your health your previous illnesses and so on so this is joke it says one of the questions and if you are a Buddhist what was the cause of your last debt cause of your laughter so the idea is that we are in in bondage we know this is called samsara this is what is going on and we are trapped in this Gorda pada says no no bondage not only this we know that we do spiritual practices we want liberation we have heard of people who are enlightened would liberate in the Buddha is one of them and so many others religion promises as deliverance from suffering in different ways some promise heaven some promise Nirvana some promise many ways salvation but in many ways religion does promise a freedom from suffering and we want it and for that we do things we practice we do yoga and meditation and prayer and study and good works we believe in religion belong to churches so many things that we do spiritual practice and here is God upon the saying there is no liberation there's nobody who's liberated and there's nobody who's a spiritual practitioner there's no spiritual practice but remember at the end he adds from the ultimate point of view from the ultimate point of view what is the ultimate point of view the point of view of the fourth waking dreaming deep sleep from the point of view of the fourth it thr para Marchetta this is the ultimate truth before we go into this there is a mature way of handling a verse like this and there's an immature way the immature ways and there are people I have actually come across such people who become overexcited see if this you don't like this kind of teaching you're safe but if you like it one hazard is one becomes overexcited and over-enthusiastic about it oh now I have the highest truth what was I doing so for so long you know meditating and praying and practicing oh stop all that oh that's useless go to path has told me there's no spiritual practice I am Brahman done I don't know what's done but you are done that's the name better way of handling it I met this person when I was in Gangotri in Himalayas you meet all kinds of interesting people there people who stay in caves and in in huts and people with long hair and dreadlocks people who are shaven-headed people with long beards and people with no hair at all and people dressed in orange or red or black or white was all kinds of different orders spiritual seekers of many kinds Yogi's and so many so there's this gentleman who was staying in the hut next to mine and he had come from a town called Dehradun and he was a disciple of Guru actually I'll tell you what he when I met him he was reading ashtavakra and I was reading ashtavakra too this is the highest text of non-dualism but often it spells trouble if you don't handle it well it's full of verses like this this verse which I just said ashtavakra is full of verses like this so this gentleman was reading it and then we got talking and he said he was so happy since this is the real truth at last have come to this you know and the disciple of my guru never told me about this my I said who's your guru and he told the name of a monk who I know is a very good very good sad a wonderful practitioner seeker in in Dehradun I know he's very good what does your guru do well my guru you know he goes he does these fasts and these pageants and he worships the Tulsi plant in the courtyard and so many other things rituals and and this is the highest truth you know rituals and all these things are not necessary they are they're so low and he never told me about this so I asked him does your guru know this book yeah I found it in his library so do you think he's read it I think he has and after reading this also he is doing all the rituals and the meditation and the fasting and he said yeah that's true there's an immature way of handling the is a mature way spiritual practices see when we understand the meaning of this verse we will actually have deeper understanding of spiritual life what is bondage what is freedom what is spiritual practice and what is the desire to be free all these things we will understand much better what is the whole nature of spiritual quest that we will understand let me take it up one by one quickly he says there is no origination no destruction origination of the universe neither origination nor secession naniiro though not bhakti what could he mean consider our old example the pot so when the Potter shapes the clay into a pot the clay pot has a pot being produced really our immediate reaction is yes of course a part has been produced but think about it in terms of reality you have this thing called clay and now the Potter says I've produced a pot is it a new thing apart from the clay which has been produced is there a new entity no we know that it is the clay alone with a new name and a new function and a new form we call it a pot somebody said well yes you're right but there is both clay and pot no there isn't if there was both look at the word both means two can you count two here is clay and here is pot no you can't countably there is only one so there is actually it's really speaking a real second entity countably second entity has not been produced there is no beginning no origination of a new entity called pot that's why when Advaita Vedanta says world is false and Brahman alone is real what it means is it's not that it's denying this experience what adwaita means is you realize all of this as Brahman and realize what you're seeing here does not exist apart from Brahman not entirely relevant for a very deep point I'll share with you what I've been saying all along is Advaita Vedanta non-dual Vedanta but there are many schools of Vedanta there is vashisht Advaita qualified monism there is Dwight Ovid on the dualistic vedanta multiple schools several schools of Vedanta and they have different interpretations so just for those who are interested a little aside I heard it from a great scholar of dualistic Vedanta basically what's the difference non-dual Vedanta is what we have been studying and we know what it says you are Brahman and the entirety of this universe the appearance and the differences they are all appearance they are not real only you as Brahman are real vashisht Advaita Vedanta whose great teacher is Ramanuja what's the interesting thing that he says how is it different he says no no it's not that the world is false and you alone a Brahman no Brahman is the totality of which we are parts you are not ramen but you're a part of Brahman you are not God you are a part of God God is the organic unity of the entire universe so there's one divine reality of which the entire universe is a part so there are sentient parts like ourselves and there are in sentient parts of God like this table and chair and the Sun and the moon all of these are parts of God not one with God not identical with God not Brunt you are not you cannot say I am Brahman but I'm a part of Pramod yes you are Brahman in the sense a ray of light is a is the Sun yes it's the Sun but it's a tiny part of the Sun what does dualistic Vedanta say dueto Vedanta it says that there is one Supreme Lord it's very it's very similar to say Christianity or the Abrahamic religions there's one Supreme Lord and we are all different from that Lord and the Lord is our master our ruler like the king and we are all subjects we are entirely dependent on the Lord God so God is separate from us you cannot say that you are one with God sacrilege absolutely not you cannot even say you're a part of No God is different that is the Lord and we are the worshipers we depend on the Lord the Lord is the only independent entity and they are all dependent upon the Lord so these three approaches for example now the interesting insight I want to share with you is this a scholar of Dwight away than the last one mercury shrinivas 4kd in India he gave an interesting insight which I've never heard anywhere else he said to the same text if you ask three different questions you will get these three different systems if you ask what is real and what is false what is real and what is unreal you get Advaita Vedanta to the Upanishad if you ask what's real Brahman is real what's unreal difference the world separation unreal you are Brahman adwaita Vedanta if you ask the question what is the whole and what is a part you will get the vashisht Advaita Vedanta Brahman is the whole of which you are all parts we are all parts of the develop the divine if you ask what is the one independent supreme authority of and we are all dependent on that reality that is dwight away than the dualistic vedanta so it is his insight not only not a bad inside pretty new way of looking at the same thing anyway here we are talking about the first approach non-dualistic Vedanta go to pada Shankara they are all firmly in the non-dualistic camp you are that ultimate reality when we experience a snake in a rope we take a we mistake a rope to be a snake did a snake originate it was a snake born when their eggs out of which a little snake came and then it grew and started wriggling on top of the rope no no not at all there's no snake there at all it's a mistake there's only the rope so no snake originated and when you became enlightened was the snake killed did you chase it away with a stick or something nope there is no origination of that snake and no cessation of that snake either in the same way there is no origination of samsara and there is no cessation of samsara here is another deep point what is the nature of this samsara if you ask a dualistic school of a dancer they will say it's real God has created this world if you ask adwaita Vedanta generally Shankara for example will say Brahman alone is real but because of Maya Brahman appears in this form because of sleep you have dreams your mind alone appears as all the creatures in the dream in the same way Brahman appears in all these forms gold epatha goes one step further gota bother goes one step further he says there is no samsara top there is no origination no cessation so gota pathes approach has a special term it is called a GRT or agita wada the doctrine of non origination shankara's idea is nothing really originated but because of Maya it's been projected gota father says no projection forget the projection business there is only Brahman there is no Sun the all that appears has no intrinsic reality of its own in Gangotri I met this monk very strong non duelist he passed away a few years ago but he has been there for 40 years so as to go and attend classes under him the ashtavakra classes he told us a story that many years ago a television crew came to Gong go through Kengo trees the place where the river Ganga originates high up in the Himalayas so go MOOC is the place where it originates actually but it flows down into Ganga 3 and Ganga 3 itself is it's a valley but it's ten thousand feet high in the Himalayas now the story is at the what he told me was a television crew came to take pictures of that place and because that Swami had been there for 40 years he had never seen this new technology to television so they wanted to show him what it's like so they rigged up a generator and they put a TV set and they pointed the camera at the river and the Swami was telling us which I liked him he was telling us he knows monks in India Hindi Mahatma ji Matmos you know I saw everything in that little box the river is there and it makes a gurgling sound also and then I asked the gentleman the TV gentlemen could I have a glass of Ganga water from that and then the gentleman said Oh Swami there is nothing there it just looks like that and then the teacher the master turned to all of us who were sitting there I still remember piercing look into each of us and he says so My dear monks all of this he showed the towering mountain peaks real Giants around that you know 15 20 thousand feet high glaciers coming down the forests of pine forests all around and the river rushing by below the our feet he says all of this it just appears there is nothing there there's nothing there then what is there you got there you the consciousness in you all disappears and into the you it disappears exactly the teaching of the man Tokyo punishin once many years ago I there's a professor I don't know if he's still alive in one of our ashrams this gentleman who used to be a professor of philosophy and very intelligent person of extraordinary professor you nobody ever knows him because he never wrote a book somebody asked him you are brilliant when you explain things you're so brilliant why don't you publish papers or write books and it seems a friend of mine a monk asked him and this is the answer he got my professor has a tendency to be dramatic he said Swami you know those who give a lot of talks they can't write it's like me I think and those who write a lot they don't think I think I can think anyway this professor was there in ashram and we had gone to visit him and some others with a very senior monk of our order who has since passed away Swami Muktananda he was a very scholarly monk so when we went we sat down to have tea and the the Swami in that ashram told the professor well professor you can ask all your questions to this swami is a very learn it's warm you can ask him and we were all waiting to hear what kind of discussion would be there between the Swami and the professor and the professor asked how does one experience or practice goda bothers ajar Towada the says the theory of non origination this absolutely crazy theory that the universe has not even originated how is that possible what does it mean and the Swami gave a nice little example of what it means he says suppose a child has grown up in the forest and has never seen modern civilization and then one days father takes him to a village and to the village head man's house and there is a chair and a table and the father explains look my boy this is a chair and this is a table and the child looks and says I see wood where is the chair and the table I'm seeing this wood all of it is wood wherever you touch whatever you do it's it's good where is the thing called the chair of the table now he says God our Father looks at the universe in that way whatever you experience here's see smell taste touch he sees it as Brahman where is this thing you call the world so he says there is no regeneration of the world there is no dissolution or cessation of the world it is an appearance in consciousness it's worthwhile quickly to take a look at these different theories of what is the relationship between matter and consciousness the relationship between matter and consciousness before I tell you silly joke which I can't resist any philosophy class this is the first joke they will tell you you know mind and matter the dualism the Cartesian dualism between mind and matter so the joke goes like this what is mind no matter what is matter never mind stupid joke anyway but really what is the relationship advaitha is not interested in relationship between mind and matter according to adroitly even mind is matter but what is the relationship between consciousness and matter you may see will look a little puzzled what is the difference between mind and matter and consciousness Advaita Vedanta the definition is very clean elegant and sharp you know how a consciousness and matter are defined in Advaita Vedanta very very clear and all of us we experience it all the time anything that you experience or can experience as an object this is matter anything this table matter this hand matter this bread because I can experience this matter thought ideas memories desires matter why because the definition says if you can experience it as this this thought I can experience as this thought its matter and what experience says and what can never be designated as this that is consciousness what is the definition whatever you can experience as this that's matter and what cannot be what is the experiencer and yet cannot be objectified as this that is consciousness and you are consciousness never matter but what is the relationship between matter and consciousness the different theories and this this description I'm going to give you in two minutes it was given by a monk many years ago in India who didn't even know English had never in modern science or Western philosophy but within two or three minutes he gives such a wonderful survey of the entire field of matter and consciousness I think even latest researches today I have not surpassed that what did he say these are the possibilities relationship between matter and consciousness one is consciousness has come out of matter consciousness has come out of matter that's one possibility which is this possibility materialism materialism it says that the bodies are matter modern science mainstream science holds bodies matter nervous systems brain all matter and they generate consciousness so consciousness has come out of matter if you ask wait a minute how does the brain generate consciousness then our neuroscientists will tell you materialist philosophers will tell you we don't know yet give us time we will find out they call it promissory materialism promissory materialism means I will give you a materialistic explanation but I promise give me thirty forty years I will we will we'll come to it but surely there is some material ground for consciousness one leading philosopher Galan strossen there was a very great British with one of the greatest British philosophers in 20th century PF strossen his son is also a great philosopher Gallants russian he's in UT Texas University of Texas Austin UT Austin he said this idea that a physical system like the body can generate subjective experiences consciousness he says it's the silliest thing I've ever heard he wrote an article saying calling the it the hard problem of matter he says it's not a hard problem of consciousness it's a very automatic approach what he says is we make up our minds we have already assumed world exists body exists brain exists somehow brain is producing consciousness we don't understand how hard problem of consciousness but rather the other way around Christmas is the first thing that we experience to experience anything you must be conscious so consciousness is the first thing that we have we are aware so awareness is the first thing and then matter comes into our awareness this world body mind all of it comes into our awareness he said what requires explanation is matter not consciousness and he says the more we investigate matter the more matter is disappearing vanishing before our eyes modern particle physics he gone down to atoms and subatomic particles and quarks and now they're talking about super strings and whatnot bottomless unable to find as he says matter is disappearing before our eyes consciousness does not require an explanation matter requires an explanation all right so consciousness is originated from matter materialistic theory and Indo ancient India this was the theory of the charvak as the ancient materialists second theory the opposite matter has originated from consciousness so our Advaita no didn't didn't we just read didn't be just here no origination so matter has not really originated from consciousness no more than a pot has been really created out of clay matter originates from consciousness who says this the theistic religions of the world you might not think so but imagine what to just recall what do they claim all the theistic religions the religions which believe in God they all claim God created the universe and if you ask them is your God conscious or unconscious of course our God is going to be upset of course God is conscious God is sentient and so God created the universe matter energy time and space were created by a sentient entity called God but basically per our purposes consciousness created matter that's the second theory the third theory is the neither created the other consciousness and matter Purusha and prakruti are parallel our eternal realities they interact but independent and parallel realities Sankhya and yoga the yoga philosophy of Patanjali the Sankey philosophy of capella they say consciousness is fundamental matter is also fundamental and they interact with each other in fact the latest understanding we live in a very interesting time where this reductionism about consciousness is actually seriously being doubted I've mentioned David Chalmers earlier the David Chalmers is the head of the consciousness mind brain Institute in NYU he's the one who coined the term hard problem of consciousness hard problem of consciousness he advocates a view called Pan psychism and psychism means this universe matter energy time and space is real but consciousness is also a fundamental reality he says it's time to think of a crazy idea he says it's impossible to explain consciousness through matter so maybe we should entertain a crazy idea that perhaps just as matter and energy a fundamental space and time are fundamental in the same way consciousness also may be fundamental in the universe Pan psychism of course he's continuously attacked by many other philosophers and scientists but anyway at least some of the leading thinkers in this world today are into seriously entertaining an idea which is pretty close I was once in a discussion with have you heard of Deepak Chopra he's a famous many areas but once at in New York I was in a discussion with Deepak Chopra in a dialogue about Vedanta at the Rubin Museum so when I mentioned David Chalmers hard problem of consciousness you know he said to me in private before this talk in the green room he said you know Swami these guys they're taking our ideas and they're not giving us credit you know Hindu or Buddhist ik ideas with antic ideas Buddhistic ideas not giving us credit I said it's good that they are not giving us credit because moment a philosopher or a scientist says I got it from Buddhism or I got it from Vedanta the rest will dismiss it always become a religious nut not what they are taking being taken seriously but if the scientist says I have no affiliation with any kind of religion and this I am coming to this conclusion through sheer hard thinking through absolutely on a scientific and philosophical basis in a modern sense with no reference to ancient thought then everybody is forced to take cognizance you can't dismiss this person so easily so it's good we don't want credit we just want the ideas to be able to go out there and be accepted so this is the third option Sankhya and yoga and today penned psychism David Chalmers was interviewed once and about this hard problem of consciousness and he said he's very humorous he's Australian he's very humorous he said if you think about the problem of consciousness long enough you will either become a pan cyclist or you go into administration that's the third option there's a fourth option the Mahayana Tibetan Buddhist the Mahayana Buddhists what do they say the emptiness people everything is empty they say neither mater is real nor consciousness is real they arise and disappear together one of the great Medea maka Buddhist philosophers Chandra kiti who was a commentator on Nagarjuna he gives a very beautiful example he says imagine sheaves of straw straw bundles of straw and the way they're kept is they lean against each other they kept like this it's a lot of straw and a lot of strop tied together to keep you keep it like this now they lean against each other they mutually support each other and he says consciousness and matter are like that subject and object are like that in waking and dreaming you are the knower this is known and the to arise together and disappeared together the Vedanta would say no consciousness is the witness the absence of all objects in deep sleep he would not agree he would say in deep sleep there is neither object not subject though that's their view both sides are empty and both their mutually dependent consciousness and matter are mutually dependent what is the Vedanta view what is going about what has guru pod have been saying the Vedanta beyou the Manduca carica view is consciousness is fundamental and matter is an appearance you can put it this way matter is the dream of consciousness the Korowai consciousness experiences itself that's matter that example of God pretending to be not God anyway so this is the meaning of neither origination nor cessation in that sense the universe has never really originated and there's no question of it ceasing either no but uh there is no bondage and there is no no no freedom either what does he mean what does go to pada mean when he says there is no bondage no freedom I'm reminded of a classic story which the monks in the Himalayas they talk about from the ultimate point of view pure consciousness is always free there's no question of bondage or freedom when one becomes enlightened one does not feel that all this time I was in bondage I was going through births and deaths and so much struggle and finally I've got the prize I'm enlightened I'm free at last no that's not what will happen what will happen is we realize I was free all along I never saw it it was alright all the time it's not that it was horrible for many lifetimes for millions of years now it's good at last no we will realize it was good all through and there was never really any bondage and so there was never really any question of freedom from real bondage it reminds me of this story which the favorite of the monks in the Himalayas story about so you have to imagine a washerman Indian washer man not a washing machine so Indian washer man what they do is they come to your house and they collect your clothes your laundry and they have a donkey so they'll put the dirty clothes on the donkey and then go off to the next house and so on and make their rounds and collect and go back and the next day they take all the dirty clothes to the Riverside and they clean it you wouldn't want to see what they do to your clothes the way they beat it on the rocks but they do clean it I think it's it reduces the life of the clothes quite a bit but then they do clean it and they spread it out on the rocks to make it dry I've seen this it's less and less now because washing machines are coming in and all of that but I've seen this happen they spread it out on the rocks on the side of the river and it dries out then they fold it nicely they put it on the donkey and they drive the donkey back home next day they go on the round of distributing your clean clothes around again so that's the system now this washer man he had of course a donkey and he loaded the donkey and went to the Riverside to clean the clothes and then suddenly with alarm he realized he had forgotten to get the rope with which to tie the donkey to the tree and now he can't go back to his village and get the rope again too much time will go and the time for washing the clothes and yet he cannot let the drunk donkey remain just like that because the donkey wand herself he's a poor man and what he's going to do and this educated gentleman from the village is walking by and what's your problem why do you look so harassed and this poor man says washing man says sir sir what can I do this is my problem and this intelligent man you know he says don't worry all you need to do is go to the donkey and pretend as if you've got a rope and pretend to tie the donkey let the donkey see that you are trying you may go ahead go to the motions that's all yes that's all and so he does it he as if he's whipping out this rope and he's putting out the neck of the donkey and he's pulling the rope there's nothing there and the donkey is watching can you imagine flapping the big ears and he ties it to the tree as if there's nothing there and jonkki is watching and then he takes the clothes and he's walking to the river and looking back at the donkey and donkey is also looking back at him but doesn't move and he cleans the clothes once in a while he's nervous he looks at the donkey donkey still standing there munching grass not move as if he's tired and the evening has finished his work happily he loads the donkey and says shoo let's go and donkey doesn't move and he rushes to the gentleman in the village and says sir Sir what trouble I mean if it was tied I could have untied it it's not tied so I can't untie it goroh part actually says this if there was a samsara it could be removed there is no samsara so its untied how do what do I do now and the man said it's pretty easy just pretend to untie it just go through the motions that's all that's all and he goes and does that and the donkey is watching and afterwards he says shoo and the donkey happily moves along girl Rapada say is our bondage and liberation or like that see if you think that oh if it's that simple you're pulling a fast one on me a trick in that case I need not do anything I know I'm not in bondage won't work as long as you deeply feel that I am this body that I am this mind and I have so many troubles in life we are well and thoroughly bound whether the rope is there or not we are bound and so we have to go to the process of freeing ourselves even if the process is just you know it's an appearance still the process has to be gone through so that is the idea of bondage and liberation in in in goda pada he says nurse ha ha ha there is no one there's no one who's doing spiritual practice the Sanskrit word sadaqa there are some allied words sadhana sadhana means spiritual practice any kind of practice is sadhana but spiritual practice specifically so prayer and yoga and meditation worship these are all sadhana and this what we are doing now contemplating Vedanta this is also sadhana and there is something called Satya Satya means the goal so I am the Sarika the one who employs an instrument instrument sadhana or satin or sadhana to reach a goal satya so for example we all came here to Siobhan and the yoga ashram this is our goal Satya and what is the means we employed we took the boat from Nassau we took a plane to Bahamas and then the boat from Nassau and that is the sadhana or sadhana what the practice that we did to come here and therefore we are sadaqa so we have a goal to achieve and we are the practitioner of a particular practice or an instrument which will take us to the goal none of it will get us to liberation that's what Shankar Acharya says he says what can be done through practice any kind of action what can action do he says action can do four things one is which body would Padia appear Beccaria Sam Scalia with podría means produce you can produce something a farmer produces wheat in the field can produce something can you produce the Atman I am NOT pure consciousness I'm just this little server pre Ananda but I have heard there is the fourth pure consciousness can I produce it by some action no it's either there or you or nothing it's there already you can't produce it up can i attain it can I go somewhere remember we talked about spirituality in Advaita Vedanta not being a journey in space not being a journey in time you cannot go anywhere it cannot be attained so you can attain the Bahamas you can fly to the Bahamas that is up here but your nature is pure consciousness where will you go to attain it one teacher put it beautifully here you are sitting where will you go which direction will you move to reach there where which direction will suppose I am here and my goal is to reach here now which direction should I move whichever direction I move I'm moving away from the reality you cannot attain it by work by any kind of practice can I change it we card yeah the third thing you can do is change so for example the example Shankar Acharya uses is milk is changed into curd yogurt by a process that's called baqara so I'm this guy Salva pre Ananda can I change myself into to do Brahman pure consciousness you can't do that and then the last one is some scarier improvement refinement there is crude oil in the earth and then it's a huge and complicated process of extraction and refinement until we get something useful similarly I am an impure sinful creature can I refine myself can i scrub myself and rub myself deny till I on the shiny Brahman or something like that no that can't be done to none of the things which can be done by action apply to Brahman our real nature but here is the thing to understand Shankar Acharya is not speaking out against spiritual practice in Shankar Acharya system got about the system to spiritual practice has a role Karma Yoga purifies the mind it is a practice which is required to purify the mind not the Atman that man is ever free ever pure but the mind has to be purified in the Himalayas the monks of sometimes have a greeting the non-dualistic monks they have a greeting for each other the greeting is Oh monk is the mirror clear that pond Sava is the mirror clear mirror is mirror of the mind mirror of the heart is that clear because that's where realization happens purification of mine can be done by practice meditation yoga is meant meant for a concentration of mind the purified mind is concentrated by yoga but the realization of our real nature that isn't that cannot be done by any kind of action that is only through knowledge it exists and we only have to uncover it through knowledge so that is not sadaqa from the ultimate point of view there is no spiritual practitioners nama moksha there is nobody who Mushu is interesting what it means the desire for freedom and considered to be essential for spiritual practice the desire for enlightenment the desire to attain moksha Nirvana the word moo moo shu comes from moksha literally it means desire for freedom the very beautiful analysis of this I'll share that with you because we do not know ourselves as such pure being which is immortal we try to live as this body we don't know that we are the immortal such pure being Brahman therefore we try to live as a clinging to life I want to live in Sanskrit this is called ggv sha clinging to life I want to live in this body not just in this but somehow and it's possible the body also should be perfect and nice there is a shop closed shop called forever 21 there's a shop I like the name I haven't seen the shop but I like the name because that is such a desire of you know for we want the body I really want to remain in this body as this body and in a perfect shape 21 years old not possible it's an ever-flowing River it's a foolish thing to do you are already mortal what are you afraid of you're afraid of getting old and dying you will not get old and you will not die you are older than you think you are you're really really ancient but the Atman is also ever new piranha there's a word piranha which is used for some texts are called piranhas but the Atman is also called piranha itself it means put up in our ancient yet ever new and that's your nature that's my real nature pure consciousness is ancient older than the universe itself and yet ever new we try to hold on to the body because we do not know our real nature as pure culture in mortal being we do not know our real nature as pure consciousness chit and therefore we try to know things in detail in the world 3 King thereby if I can increase my storehouse of knowledge of the world I will be satisfied and fulfilled this is called Jigyasa desire to know so desire to know things in little by little try lifelong trial of trying to get know more and more knowledge ends with frustration who was the great scientist who said that I feel that I am living on an island you know little bit I know here in this island and there's a vast ocean of ignorance all around me the more I know the more I'm beginning to understand how much I do not know if you try to know things in detail in this universe there's no end to it nobody ever comes to an end Jiji Jigyasa because we do not know ourselves as pure consciousness which is the light behind all knowledge and because we do not know ourselves as Ananda pure bliss we do not know that that we are bliss we are absolutely full complete poornam not knowing that we go around the world with a hat in hand begging for a little happiness here little happiness there it's our own happiness which we have lent to objects and people and things in the world and then we begged for it back from them a little cookie here a few words of praise there a little success there I am fulfilled and chasing after it endlessly it's your own happiness it's your own bliss that you're looking for it from the world outside this is called in sanskrit bubu sha the desire to enjoy the desire to enjoy this little sense pleasures here and there why because we do not know our own endures were open our nature as Ananda because we do not know that we are sucked there is Gigi which are clinging to life because we do not know that we are there is Gigi azar trying to know things little by little in the world and because we do not know we are on under there is this booboo Keyshia desire to you know this hunger petty hunger for enjoying this enjoying that one after another trying to be happy with that in order to counter these three clinging to life trying to know separately this world by little by little and trying to get enjoyment through senses affection through sense pleasures in order to counteract ggv Shahji gasps and boo-boo Keisha and term comes Vedanta puts forward Moo Makka Moo Makka means trying to get freedom from these things trying to get freedom from these things when we realize what we are we realize we always we're free soma moksha is not necessary anymore that's why God our Father says in your real nature there is no need for Mamaki also Shankar Acharya sings in Nirvana satakam not hermana chart ohnaka Mona moksha I do not want the conventional religion Dharma I do not want pleasure I do not want wealth but then at the end he says I do not want moksha what could he mean moksha means spiritual freedom is I do not want that also why sadhana and Rupa shivoham shivoham because i am of the nature of existence consciousness place moksha is not something that I have to attain it is or ever attained it is my very nature so nom nom ahkna momusu na Makaha but always remember it tiesha param our theta this is the ultimate truth from the ultimate perspective this is our real nature from the transactional perspective viajar iike all continues and should continue what unto us if you suddenly decide oh I don't need any spiritual practice no no complete misunderstanding until you get the realization that you are Brahman till that point the pursuit should continue but pursuit should continue the seeking and the practice must continue otherwise suffering is our lot one more point I'll end the Swami's there they put it very humorously in Hindi I'll try to translate into English after talking about all of this one of the teachers masters he said mr. Vedanta in Hindi said Vedanta Babu mr. Vedanta or master Vedanta you have said world is false spiritual seeking is false spiritual practices are false liberation is false what about you are you real or false we're on turbulent itself and Vedanta has the absolute honesty to say I too am false I am also an appearance and I am also to be discarded when you are enlightened god help you nobody can help you if you discard me before enlightenment at enlightenment when you realize I am Atmaram the Manduca open assured says that this very self is Brahman at that time you can let me run to go also I pray to the Lord that that enlightenment that breakthrough comes in our lives and that we can manifest that realization in our thought word and deed become a blessing unto ourselves and a blessing unto humanity in this very life time itself Oh Shanti Shanti Shanti hey hurry Hume that you

Channel: Sivananda Ashram Yoga Retreat Bahamas

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Keywords: Sarvapriyananda

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Length: 56min 48sec (3408 seconds)

Published: Mon Jan 20 2020