The Open Secret · Swami Sarvapriyananda 7 11 2021

[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 everybody it's wonderful to be back here namaste i offer my pranams to rivet swami sarvadevanandaji maharaj and to the other revered monks and nuns present here pronouns and mascaras to every one of you it's good to see so many familiar faces in spite of the partial anonymity of the masks i recognize many if not most faces and some new faces too the subject that i wanted to speak about today was something that swami vivekananda spoke about here in los angeles more than 120 years ago on in 1900 on the 5th of january swami vivekananda gave a talk the open secret it's also sometimes it's also titled we ourselves so we ourselves are open secret the talks which swami vivekananda gave here in california in 1900 tour of lectures here in northern california they are marked by a special power and luminosity in a very high order very high non-dualistic tone it's this radiance which swamiji always felt and dwelt in but it seemed to shine through his talks and he transmitted the special power especially in this talk if it's published in the second volume of the complete works of swami vivekananda and if you look at the talk it's short at least what we have got of the talk it's a few pages only slightly disconnected at times maybe something is lost in between but one can see the power swamiji going into flights of eloquence and sort of radiating the non-dual truth i will just dwell on two or three points he makes two or three thoughts from swamiji so powerful so profound swami vivekananda starts with our experience of ourselves he says in a very simple way he starts he says that look at these eyes our own eyes they're so small and insignificant and delicate and vulnerable just a pin prick and destroy these eyes and yet it is because of these eyes that the the universe is revealed to us uh he says the eyes see nature guys say nature you exist and nature exists of course he's putting it in a very simple way what he means is not just seeing seeing forms hearing sounds you know smelling odors tasting flavor flavors and touching you know soft and hard and heat and cold all these senses bring to us the news of this universe we are a subject and we experience an object all of our experiences of this form whatever experience we have worldly or spiritual subject and object we are here and we experience a world and the subject we i seem so small and insignificant in the face of this vast universe i'm so tiny and the universe is so vast and especially modern science and astronomy have revealed to us the unimaginable extent of this universe the physical the sheer physical extent of this universe and my time in time also our lifetimes are better spec in the cosmic scale of time few years here today gone tomorrow and yet this tiny subject we it's because of us that this enormous practically eternal almost and tremendously powerful universe the masses of matter and energy playing around in time and space it is revealed to us on our side if you think about it on the side of the subject is mind awareness intelligence purpose meaning but on the side of the universe there is existence there is it seems to be it's real there is power there is extensity immensity it seems so tremendously powerful and we seem so little and yet so much seems to depend on us as knowing subjects so swami vivekananda says what is big and what is small what is powerful and what is weak and then he says he makes a stunning move he says actually neither neither because not the subject not the object underlying the subject and the object is one reality it is one infinite reality which appears as the subject and the object as us the knowing subject and this the entire vast known universe they are not two polarities not two opposites but underlying them there is a a reality which is appearing as both he says one only exists it appears as nature soul the person and the objective universe and then some of those typical vivekananda phrases the infinite is the finite and the finite infinite i remember this verse immediately it came to mind the famous mantra of the upanishads that is infinite this is infinite this infinite has a reason has arisen in that infinite or from that infinite and in this infinite if you discover the infinity here then the infinity alone remains this one word purnam purnam it literally means complete whole full infinite if you want to take one word away from today's talk i would urge you to take this word away from it purnam you know it this word and what swami vivekananda is trying to say here this word is the profound secret of not only vedanta but the entire hindu tradition we'll see how if there is one thing which encompasses which epitomizes the the entire wisdom of the indian nation for five thousand years it is this one word purnam i remember as a little kid i must have been seven or eight years old in the ashram in bhuvaneshwar which i used to visit i have a very distinct memory that in those days when you would go up the staircase upstairs the shrine was upstairs you would have to pass through a small room before you entered the shrine now it's all different now it's a much bigger shrine now it's been remodeled but in those days there was a smaller shrine and with srirama krishna swami vivekananda the holy mother and swami brahmananda but before that you would have to pass through a small room a bear room and in that room there was only on one wall there was this mantra framed that is infinite this is infinite from that infinity this infinity has arisen if you discover that infinity in this infinity then infinity alone remains om peace peace peace i remember it so vividly i can still feel the cool stone steps i would climb i can feel it under the soles of my feet i can i can see in my mind's eye that bare room and that mantra there sunlight streaming through there was stillness a quietness nobody else around just that little kid staring at that i don't know what i understood but there was a feeling of great depth a feeling of something very profound something awakening i mean i have no qualms in saying there must be a past a memory of past lives somewhere i must have come across that that mantra i must must have studied it in some past life or something but i was oh i was awestruck there was nothing to see but i still remember the quietness of that room i still remember the the some the feeling of a vastness of her radiance streaming through and those words that is infinite this is also infinite and this infinite has come from that infinite so what is that that is the transcendent the absolute beyond time space causation brahman nir gunabram and the absolute which we talk about ad nauseum in in advaita vedanta that is the infinite and this infinite the universe here permeated by that divine by that divinity swami vivekananda he said we hindus worship a transcendent imminent god a very profound formulation of all of hinduism especially of advaita vedanta a transcendent imminent god what does that mean that infinite the transcendent beyond time space causation formless beyond language beyond even thought that is the transcendent and this infinite whatever we see here smell taste touch not exactly what we see here smell taste touch not the pots and pans but that divinity permeating this universe the imminent so that and this that transcendent and this imminent are the same god a tremendous statement if you see purna madaf purnam idam the two words we are going deep into the analysis here ada means that means this and that and this is the whole story of spirituality religion philosophy metaphysics that and this but what is this mantra saying it is saying that is purnam and the same purnum is this now what is sort of startling about it is it seems to erase the difference between the transcendent imminent saying at a deep level that which is transcendent is also imminent that adaha this are negated this is the advaithic concept of bada i was talking about it with our brahmacaris here a couple of days ago literally means cancellation negation the ascertainment of falsity that the thatness that it is remote and removed from us in time beyond time space and causation and the business that it is presented to us right now through all our senses these two are negated cancelled in sanskrit baadhita to show the underlying oneness or identity purnum that is purnam this is purnam and that purnam and this purdum are not different that and this appear to be different negate that and this only one reality remains poor nam that alone appears as the transcendent and that which appears as the imminent are both one in the same reality then another very profound truth here purnasya purnam from that infinite has arisen this infinite and here the entirety of causality is involved you know the idea of god as the creator and this universe as the created creator and created vedantic terms the call brahman is the cause of the universe and brahman has the effect of this universe again transcendent and imminent but in different languages language of causality all of devotional religion all of theistic religion is basically this that there is a creator there is a source there is a reality from which all of this has come to in a very broad terms this is all that is but what is this mantra saying something stunning and profound that which is the cause and that which is the effect poor not the in sanskrit that last that suffix indicates the fifth case which means the source that from which something else has come poor num this is the infinite the first case it means this is this reality is a product and that reality is the source that is the cause this is the effect and what does this mantra say no no go deep enough to the heart of reality you cancel the cause you cancel the effect in vedanta they will say the reality which is which is beyond cause and effect it's neither the cause nor the effect it is the one reality beyond cause and effect which appears as cause and effect the causality of brahman the brahman is the cause is negated and brahmana is the effect is negated actually the other way down brahmana as the effect is negated that means this effect is not real in itself and the if the effect is not real then how can brahman be the cause and therefore brahman alone remains neither cause nor effect now this sounds awfully abstract let me use an example shankaracharya himself in upper oak channel uses gives an example the classic vedantic example of a pot and so why a pot of all things well that was sort of the most common thing that was available i suppose in ancient times if you do an archaeological dig what do you what do you find in any part of the world when you're investigating an old civilization you find pottery so i guess there are lots of parts around he says take a part it is vedantic magic it's going to take a part it's going to make it disappear in front of your eyes so he says take a part and you begin with you know it's called what you have in your hand it's a pot it looks like this it feels like this it says a particular name and you can put stuff in it it's a part but then you are told part is not the ultimately real thing what is a deeper reality more fundamental reality about the part is clay in what sense is of clay more fundamental well it was clay earlier it's clay now and one day when the pot breaks if you break the part it'll still be clay so clay is more fundamental than the part is born clay is not burnt pot exists part lives and the pot dies clay does not die it was clay earlier before the pot was born and is clay and continues to be clay so clay is the reality the second stage first stage part now we introduced a new reality a deeper reality why is it deeper deeper because more fundamental than the part clay now you investigate what is uh this clay where is this clay and we are told look at the pot which you are holding if you investigate the part you will find what you are touching is clay you see what you if you touch the part you are actually touching clay like if i touch this electron i'm touching wood so you touch the part you're touching clay it's clay on the top it's clear on the bottom it's clay on the insides clay on the outside is clay through and through every bit of the part is clay that's stage three where do you discover that new reality called clay there itself in the pot every bit of it is clay and the fourth stage would be you realize there is no substantial entity called a pot apart from the clay what is the part then it is the clay but it's an it's a new shape it's a new use and it's a new name in sanskrit nama rupa viva rupa a new form appears a new name is a designation is given to it and many new uses are possible all that is admitted all of this is what vedanta will ultimately call maya why call it maya because they have no existence apart from the clay apart from the substance so now the fourth stage you have ended up with clay alone think about where you started you held a part and what if you were asked what is it you would have said it's a part after these four stages of analysis part cause of the part material cause of the part claim investigation into it finding every bit of the part is clay and then finally seeing that there is no pot apart from the clay so you started with a pot what did you end up with clay where did the pot go it was never there actually it was an appearance and it continues to be an appearance it is a name you can use the name for the appearance and it's a use it does use nam aruba viva name form and transactions users continue but the reality now we discovered is clay the the process must be completed and then what's the point of all of this notice that first you were told that there is a reality called the pot and then he was we were told we were told that the part is an effect and its cause is a material called clay so we have a cause effect relationship okay then you go further you try to find out where is this material called clay we find everywhere in the so called effect all of it is nothing but the material called clay and then we end up seeing that there is no effect at all the pot has no substitute effect has no substantial existence i hope you are with me i remember reading this you know kids we used to read tintin comics and those of you have read this is a professor professor calculus and once he is explaining something about nuclear physics and behind him tintin and captain haddack and the thompson twins those who you know you know what i'm talking about they're walking and the professor says i hope you are following me and captain haddock who is not understanding any of this he scowls and says yes we are right behind you so the effect the part has no substantial existence therefore the effect does not exist follow me here carefully effect does not exist and therefore if the effect does not exist what is the cause of cause of why would you call it a cause the clay is just clay i'll run through the steps quickly again but we give it a name effect oh it's an effect what's the cause clay good investigate where is this clay it's just clay through and through there is no substantial reality countable apart from the clay you count clay one part number two no there's no second thing called part so the effect does not exist independent of the cause if the effect does not exist why would you call the cause a cause shankaracharya says the causality of the cause is lost and therefore the clay remains neither cause nor effect this process must be completed otherwise what happens in the words of alan watts he put it very nicely he said he called it if you don't complete it and you leave it as cause and effect god and world and leave it like that clay and pot he says he calls it the crackpot theory [Music] what will happen is there is a god who created this universe cause universe effect like the part like the click there is a god who created the universe cause and effect and then if you don't complete the investigation find out where god is what god is you will be left with two things and forever searching for a god a creator god swami vivekananda says neither cause nor effect and that mantra says poor namada putnam not effect and therefore not cause purdum alone appears as all of this so this is the deep reality from this you can see a corollary just an implication just a derivation would be non-duality see what is non-duality if there was a separate clay and a separate part if there was a separate god in a separate world then you would have duality whenever when i came here somebody warned me you are going to the west and when you go there and you talk about duality non-duality everybody will think in christian terms of good and evil not in those terms in ontological terms in metaphysical terms in terms of existence are there separate plural existences or is there one non-dual existence so advaita vedanta claims there's one non-dual existence if there is no cause no effect then the reality remains non-dual there is no second thing apart from that reality all our advaita vedanta is just one small consequence of poor nam let's go deeper into it this purnam why did i say it is the most profound secret at the heart of not only vedanta of hinduism if it is poor nam then no difference between the god with form and god without form what a tremendous debate sakara and iraq are with form and without form led to so many quarrels reform movements and fights and violence and these people hindus are idolaters break the idols god must be with without form without form and with form which one is correct the same reality which appear which is experienced or realized as formless and with form all right with form male or female male or female hinduism says both and beyond both so we have no problem at all with the modern lgbtq movement at all i last year i was at at harvard for uh with a fellowship for a few months and the first thing we were given is buttons with preferred pronouns so he him his she her hers they them theirs and more and there was even a blank one you can put in your own tile whatever you and people have to select the ones they liked and put it i collected all of them so purnam so they thought this guy must be really advanced on the cutting edge of the lgbtq revolution yeah they found it difficult to understand why i remember going to the first time to the weidner library uh it's the largest academic library in the whole world you go in there and the front desk they say ma'am this way ma'am you know not their fault if you're dressed like this wearing a dress perfectly all right purnam sometimes when i'm asked to give talks on hinduism i want to impress upon people the tremendous diversity of ideas which are which are encompassed in hinduism i say that if you ask a question to hinduism the answer will always be yes and no do hindus believe in god yes no is god with form yes and no is god male yes and no it's a god male or female purnam that which appears as the male deity that which appears as female i asked a rabbi once why is it difficult to conceive of god as female in in western thought in judaism or christianity and then only half jokingly he said you know with all respect to all the ladies present here he said you know it's difficult to conceive of god being up there with a high-pitched squeaky voice and the divine voice coming down it's in vedanta and hinduism there's absolutely no problem poor nam male and female beyond gender with form without form along comes the buddhist and he says that no no i don't believe in your god with form without form all of that is just a superstition where is this god you're talking about male female and animal forms in this form that form ridiculous there is no such thing i will investigate my own existence and find out the reality within beyond the changing body and mind the reality he's not going to talk about an immortal atman also and hinduism says perfectly all right that reality which the theist discovers in the quest for god realization is the same reality that the yogi the buddhist and the jain the sankhya discovers with the investigation within that the reality outside and the reality with him within edam is the same reality what is that purnam that is the meaning of tattoo amasi that thou art that reality which you are investigating there and worshiping their devotion and the reality within you same thing there's a beautiful story about the golden buddha which i love it seems since monastery in thailand they had this big image of the buddha it was made of clay and they had an um a story that many hundreds of years ago in our temple there was a golden buddha but there were invasions or they were robbers and it was lost but now we have this clay buddha and that's fine and at one time the clay buddha needed some touching up some repairs so skilled works men were called and they worked on it and one day one of the workmen rushed to the abbot of the monastery and said venerable come come quickly we found some gourd inside the clay and they quickly removed the clay as much as possible the more they removed it the more the gold underneath shone through what had happened was centuries ago there was some kind of attack and some quick thinking monks had clever covered the golden buddha with the clay and given out the story that the golden buddha has gone the clay buddha this body of flesh and blood with prana coursing through it with mind full of thoughts and feelings and memories and ideas with the intellect deciding this or that beyond that if you push in deep sleep a blankness the pancha kosha the five layers of clay the golden buddha is within us it's same reality which you are investigating outside when the buddhist says i'm not interested in your god i'm either atheist or agnostic i don't believe in it i'm not interested in it but i'm interested in the reality with an hour so what exactly is going on here and the vedantin says fine because purnam the sankhya philosopher says that this distinction be the difference between consciousness and matter prakriti purusha veda distinction you are consciousness you are spirit and this universe is matter and vedanta says both are manifestations of one reality purnum creator and created prakriti and purusa the human and the divine formed and formless god and self poor num one reality shining through what is the consequence the result of all of this as all veda as we look through all behavior difference and see the purnam and we realize there's one divinity shining through then all what is called raga and dwisha the particular the obsessions and hatreds the prejudice the negativities they they are erased if you see the same divinity in the high and the low if you see the same divinity in the king and the popper you see the same divinity in the learned and the ignorant you see the same divinity shining through in the rich and the poor in the mighty blue whale and yes even in the kobit the virus in the quasars and the quarks the same divinity everywhere in the the macrocosm and the microcosm why would you discriminate why would you feel that is better than this all phenomena as the buddhist would say are actually empty and they are grounded in this purdum buddhist wouldn't say they're grounded in the purina we are saying that's grounded in the purnum in this infinity one infinity appearing in all differences by the way here uh always i have in my mind professors philosophers you know they would say hang on that sounds very cute but it doesn't work how can you for example how can you assert contradictory ideas at the same time it sounds great that there is some reality which you know which reconciles both how can you reconcile contradictory ideas farm and formless no sri ramakrishna did it he said it is the same water which freezes and takes form in icebergs and then melts and this is a formless water but same substance but anyway contradictory ideas how do you how are you erasing them how are you substituting one homogeneous sameness that is a misunderstanding of vedanta none of the differences are erased is very important to understand none of the differences are erased all differences are valid at their level of reality yes education is better than being illiterate healthy is better than being sick differences are definitely there and they are valid to be spiritual is better than to be worldly though both are purnam but at that level these differences are there science is there and fully affirmed this is one of the beauties of advaita vedanta at no point is science contradicted if you misunderstand advaita vedanta i've seen this objection coming from consciousness studies experts you know modern consciousness studies investigators if you do that in swami science is not possible science is entirely possible science is entirely possible but what we are saying is there is a deeper level of reality where it is one and it can be experienced it can be understood and then experienced and it is fulfilling so all differences when they are erased at that level at the level of activity see a movie screen you can have a movie with hundreds of characters and hundreds of activities and a plot it could be a comedy it could be a tragedy hundreds of movies can be played on the same movie screen which makes all these movies possible how can you say a tragedy is the same as a comedy you can say that if both are movies playing on an underlying screen there is a reality which you experienced as the movie called a tragedy there's a reality same reality which you experienced as the movie called a comedy and that does not erase as i want to emphasize does not erase in any way the difference between a tragedy and a comedy you see it's all the same a mass of nothingness no not only does not erase it makes possible the experience of difference it explains the experience of difference how is multiplicity appearing before us in this way once this is realized we are at a deep level at our deepest level at least philosophically to be to begin with we are free of these differences at our deepest level of understanding and that's really sets you free jivan mukti the goal of vedanta being free while living it becomes possible because of purnam once this is realized see if it's not realized what will happen is my god there and i worship that god and because of that god i will be free and then what about the rest i'll be free of the world the world has to be given up i will go to heaven difference incompleteness when the buddhist says i reject your god and i want to investigate myself fine it's a valid spiritual path but still difference is there when the yogi says in samadhi i shall attain to the divine and experience the divine but you have to close your eyes shut out the world there's still differences there in this insight purnam there's no difference one great advaitan once said advaita vedanta is not meant for erasing the experience of the universe it makes you completely free and limitless this is a word he used it's very difficult to translate into english nirvana it makes you completely free sort of limitless in the world of experience completely fearless you are this infinity what can hurt you at the level of the infinity yeah so it makes this purnam makes possible freedom jivan mukti what else it makes for harmony you can easily see how to make for harmony if you hold on to god then the buddhist will seem like an atheist i know one swami a senior monk of our order very wonderful swami but very devotional he was very annoyed with buddhism he said it seems like half a religion where is god there is ethics and there is meditation and it's all good where is god how can you have religion without god so there is division but then there will be always be quarrels i am right you are wrong you worship images god is without form if god is without from then who is the one with form i'll i can't resist telling the students in hindi i'll try to translate into uh english as as much as possible there was a gentleman who was a pundit a strong dualist and he would go to this monk it's in the himalayas and he would argue the monk was a non-dualist who said there's only one reality and this pandit argued that no there are two there is god and there's the rest of us there's a difference and finally and the monk once said in hindi i'll translate it as he says if duality is true if duality is real that cow yonder cow chewing the grass knows the duality is real the grass is different i am different i have to chew the grass and put it inside me the cow knows that you are a pandit tell me something new after all these arguments after the pundit came finally to the monk and he said one day he said sir you are right non-duality is true so he said in language in nirakar the formless non-dual truth the formless non-dual reality is the truth you are right swami and immediately the swami shot back he said nirakar satya haiti now this is colloquial hindi i'll have to translate as best as i can it's like if the formless non-dual truth is the truth then what is the one with form your uncle that doesn't have the same punch as it does in the hindi hindi is something like saying bob's your uncle or something like that to you uh who's that what he meant was purnam that which you which is ascertained as ultimately non-dual formless in advaita vedanta is also exactly what you worship as vishnu as durga as kali as the avatar as um you know krishna christ ramakrishna all the all of them which for purnam it makes possible harmony it brings an end to uh into quarrels it brings an end to violence i remember in the world parliament of religions in um and was that in toronto 2019 or 2020 2019 yes so everybody in the world parliament of religions you you know people will be there they are all um it's like preaching to the choir everybody is talking about harmony of religions that all religions lead to the same goal and so on so forth but there was one young man an evangelical christian they normally did do not come for all this harmony of religion stuff you know but he came and his point he made a very good presentation that how can you uh include um evangelical churches within the you know the activities of different interfaith activities so very good and it was it was heavily attended because it was a different kind of presentation here is somebody who does not agree with the harmony of religions who does not agree that different religions are true and they can lead to the same goal so [Music] he's i asked him what is the core belief he said we want to live like jesus taught us to live and tell others how they are wrong and bring them to our path now you may well laugh i understand where we are coming from coming from the same place but it's very important for them because i asked the first part i have no problem with it's beautiful do you want to live as jesus taught you to live amazing beautiful but why is it central for you to tell people that they are wrong and you must come to our path and he said well that's the way it is we have been taught that that's uh it is a central uh thing because we are right and you are wrong and that i remember having this debate on a long flight with this gentleman sitting next to me he was the pastor of a small church in the midwest and you know what it's like but it was very cordial very respectful nice debate we had and he wouldn't budge an inch i'm right not only you everybody else including the other little darn church across the street they are all wrong and it is clear that everybody every one of you is going to hell so fine but what he said at the end was very interesting he got up and he said well swami and he said well swami i know i'm right but if i did not i would say you are talking sense so there's a lot of sense in this even if one is not convinced finally but once intellect says that yeah it is this could be right and and it's it's a much better way of looking at this world much better way of looking at this world it enables you to be inclusive it enables you to be kind without erasing any different any of the differences what people are afraid of is will be amalgamated in our our uniqueness will be lost no your uniqueness will not be lost when you play different movies on the same screen the movie is mixed up and jumbled and not at all so poor nam it makes for harmony makes for peace not just between religions sister nivedita says henceforth after vivekananda in her magnificent introduction to the complete works of swami vivekananda it's worth reading if you do not read the complete works do read it but if you do not read it but at least read the first few pages or the first volume sister nivedita's introduction and he says henceforth she says there henceforth no distinction between the sacred and the secular no distinction between the sacred and the secular to labor is to pray to have and hold is as turn a trust as to quit and renounce the the these um you know like the the shop of the shopkeeper the uh the the factory of the workman and maybe the study of the scholar i'm adding that but all of those are as fit meeting places between god and man as the seller of a monk how can she say that purnam she says swami vivekananda told us that religion art and science are different ways of attaining to the same spiritual realization but he said he added swami vivekananda but you need advaitha to understand this what did he mean he meant putnam so this is the heart of advaita vedanta swami vivekananda just puts one pithy sentence infinite the infinite is finite and the finite is the infinite and he says we have a memory of this we have it we feel this nobody wants to die we want to survive not only do we want to survive we want to be aware if somebody says yes you're going to survive but you're going to be the hospital in a coma in the icu and you can survive for centuries like that no i want to experience i want to be able to you know be aware and know things all right you will be you will survive you will be aware and you will know things but all you will know is misery and pain and suffering and sorrow no i want to be happy without limit i want to live without limit i want to know without limit i want to be happy without limit sat chit ananda existence consciousness bliss without limitless existence limitless awareness limitless joy or fulfillment but then swami vivekananda also says it's uh it's true in a way but it's also the fact that it's sort of instinctive we don't know it specifically we have it's either covered over by a veil of ignorance or we have forgotten it whatever way you put it the fact is all this we are talking about is not available to us right now at this stage and because it's not available to us and yet we have a kind of atvista kind of instinctive feel for it he says then swamiji says every civilization in the world every religion in the world has had this quest for freedom nature wants to crush us down and we're tiny subject vast objective universe nature wants to snuff us out to crush us down and we revel and say we will be free of this this quest for freedom is at the heart it is the engine which powers all spirituality across the world across time across civilizations this quest for freedom swami began to say first man imagined or conceived of beings who were free the gods of the original primordial religions their beings where were more powerful than us they were free of the limitations we were subject to and we projected this freedom outside and we thought of god and these beings finally coalesced into one supremely powerful being not just power but also goodness far better than we are completely just totally loving caring there's a perfection all power all knowledge all love all put together this this conception of god this is the most free being we can conceive of and that is god the god of religion let me just think about it this this idea of beings who are more powerful than us more free than us swami hari namanji told us told me once that you know because the united states we in america this is a new civilization we don't have the ancient mythology that you know for example india has thousands of years of stories and myths and that's why we take our superheroes so seriously i'm continuously amazed at how much emotion it evokes they are fans of more than pepsi and coke they're fans of dc comics universe and marvel comics universe and superman and batman and spider-man they're imaginary but no they respond to something deep within us feeling that there is a possible a much better life is possible put them all together in the most refined form you have the god of religion omnipresent omniscient omnipotent all-knowing present everywhere all-powerful all-loving most virtuous not only did god make man in his image man also made god in his image in the deepest sense of what is within and then man established a relationship with this god this after the goal is freedom goal is freedom mukti and it's all right thank you the goal is freedom or mukti and man established a relationship with this god so that by the grace of this god i will get mukti freedom god is my master i am the servant a dualistic relationship or i am i'm a part of god i am divine too god is the vast divinity god is the son of which i am a ray i am a spark of the divinity qualified monism bishita and finally coming to the grand conclusion of the advaita vedanta where you realize that that divinity which i am seeing out there is actually i am i am that and then you have purnam the oneness of the self and the cosmos the microcosm and the macrocosm this quest for freedom starting with our human life in our human activities proceeding to spirituality from dualism to qualified monism to non-dualism take a quick look i'll take a few minutes i'll survey this whole quest for freedom in 5 000 years of indian thought you know in one way if you look at indian thought all of indian philosophy it's this immortality this this freedom project this project of seeking freedom heinrich zimmer the endologist he said the philosophies of india are not pessimistic they talk in pessimistic terms about this world but they are profoundly optimistic because each of them i'll exclude the materialist each of them has this grand vision of human possibility which we will we can and we must attain it's possible this freedom is attainable what is pessimistic pessimistic is this is all that there is make the best of it what can we do that's it when you're dead you're gone that's it finished that is pessimistic so this freedom quest the materialist said freedom the charvaka the material is said that freedom is when the body dies and that's it you're gone finished so that's the charvaka freedom is the death of the body and that's pretty much the world view of modern materialist reduction is science but not just science a sort of popular world view and i think that's always been popular the char walker literally means the sweet talker that which is very uh acceptable pleasurable to us somebody told me famous phrase i mean a well-known phrase yolo yes some of you know it a younger audience a big burst of laughter would have been there many of you do not belong to the luckily to the yolo generation the yellow means you only live once you only live once therefore therefore what therefore fill your life with frivolities and superficialities continuously do something go there eat this meet that person and always remember to take selfies and upload that is the charvaka world view because at the end of it life is over that is freedom that is the materialist worldview the buddhist comes along and says no life is not over those same negativities desires imperfections you know the grasping more and more and more it will continue body will die but in the body even you the materialist you feel a first person existence this this mind i'm going to go very fast five thousand years have to cover in five minutes so the buddhist says it will continue lifetime after lifetime new bodies will come up it is a series of momentary existences the it will be carried over from past lives it will not end this cycle of births and deaths this suffering will go on you'll be whirled around in this wheel of samsara until you reach nirvana freedom not by the death of the body but by the by the extinction of desires with the extinction of desires this flame which is burning from lifetime to lifetime will be extinguished this is the original meaning of the word nirvana to extinguish and you'll be free but then it raises the uncomfortable question who is free if everything is extinguished yeah so the buddhist later buddhists began about this i mean with apologies to two thousand five hundred years with this thought it's completely unfair to you know over oversimplify like this the later buddhists they said only the negativities are extinguished pure consciousness the stream of pure consciousness momentary pure consciousness continues and that is what is i will use the term for tibetan buddhism conventionally designated as buddha we're very careful with their words no self no permanent self the jain comes and says what is this there is somebody who is in bondage there is somebody who will be liberated by the exhaustion of bad karmas through intense austerities finally the self there is the self it will rise to literally use the space metaphor it will rise to the top of the cosmos a low carcash or the light the sky of light and there you will reign in solitary splendor the word used is kavalin [Music] kavalin from which the word kaivalya has come very ancient word before buddhism you remain in solitary splendor something like what much later the german philosopher mathematician like knits he talks about monads you know like stars in the night sky you remain in solitary splendor that is freedom then along comes the nyaya vaishaishika philosopher and says that we the self the freedom must be freedom from suffering so the self is trapped in this cycle of suffering because of wrong knowledge and by right knowledge by right knowledge they mean the knowledge of the seven categories of the vaishyashika or the sixteen categories of the nayaka shoulda shaped i'm not explaining anything just rushing through by that knowledge you will realize what you truly are and what you are not and this will lead you not to act out of wrong knowledge and out of desire not acting like this past karma will be exhausted no new karma will be added and after death no new birth will be dead there and the self the atman here we first come across the atman idea atman will remain ever free no consciousness there also just the atman is free then comes uh the sankhya and yoga philosophy for instance but what does this freedom mean without consciousness so you are of the nature of awareness and material world is of the nature of not aware insentient sentient and insentient they have been mixed up due to error that is samsara when through proper knowledge and cultivation of samadhi you see the difference between yourself and nature between spirit and matter this distinction is clearly appreciated uh through sankhyan discrimination or discernment or through yogic or both through yogic samadhi some pragmatism there's a arising of knowledge called viveka the difference between spirit and matter you are free they use the word kaivalya these are ancient words keval in nirvana moksha mukti is of course a very common word apavarga the nayakas use this word then along comes the various schools of vedanta god exists by the grace of god we get freedom the dualistic schools speak about four kinds of freedom you go to heaven the the you know the abode of vishnu or kailash or the abode of shiva and there you become a citizen you get your citizenship the ship there and that's the freedom it's called salokia mukti freedom in the same abode as the lord there are grades to that sometimes you get a job which allows you to hang around god there so that is sam you you are in the presence in the divine presence not only the same abode not only in heaven but in the divine presence but even more than that you become like god you begin to look like god it's called sarupya mukti and that's not so strange it is said that you know husbands and wives who are married for a long time to begin to resemble each other and and not just that it even says they say that if you have had a dog for a long time the master and the dog also tend to be become more and more like each other so if a dog can program you to become more dog-like god can do the same the more it's not uh strange that if you contemplate god intensely at the time you are in the labor of the lord you will become divine like and then say you you merge with god these are some four of the forms of freedom talked about in devotional religion there is freedom in advaita vedanta what kind of freedom are we talking about in advaita vedanta freedom is not something to be attained it is another name for you a real you you are freedom itself you are never in bondage nor do you actually attain to freedom they say what was already yours you get it or regain it by knowledge by realization that i always was free what bound me nothing bound me once swami in the himalayas he said what is the cause of bondage in hindi he said stupidity alone nothing binds you really freedom our real nature is freedom and swami vivekananda ends with soaring you know he says assert this freedom you are that it always always tell yourself i am it i am it no matter how much the problems these are the problems of the world let sickness come and you know difficulties come like mountain high you assert the your true nature that i am this infinite reality and they will disappear he says 120 years ago here standing here in los angeles in california he said there were times when i hadn't eaten for days on end weak with hunger i was walking as a wandering monk he said i could not go on anymore i would sink at last helpless and tired under a tree life would seem to be ebbing away i could scarcely think i'm quoting vivekananda now directly i could scarcely think until the mind again reverted to the same idea i am it i am it i neither hunger nor thirst arise awake and walk on stop not and strength would come i would feel reinvigorated new light would come and here i am he says here i am today before you still living and therefore fear not he says very powerful phrases whatever the difficulties after all it is but a dream mountain high though the difficulties may seem terrible though the gloom may seem it is but maya fear not and it is banished crush it and it vanishes stamp upon it it dies never be afraid assert your glory this is to be thought about this is to be heard this is to be thought upon and it is to be meditated upon the hands will work but the mind must continuously repeat i am it i am it till all gloom vanishes till forever all littleness all misery and all evil are gone forever till the vision of truth shines forth forever effortlessly at every moment just like now we are effortless we feel we are this little creature then we will effortlessly know that we are that infinite light that purnum and we always wear it was always all right so that's where he concludes let me do the piece chant and then we'll do a short q a actually we have time for a short 10 minute q a um [Music] i pray to sriram krishna to the holy mother swami vivekananda may they bless us by their blessings may this realization come into our lives in this life itself may we be blessed so there'll be a microphone you raise your hand and make it short and sharp don't take up all of the 10 minutes with your question and i'll try to give short and sharp replies anybody wants to ask a question no this is your chance there there on your left tell us your name and ask a question i will ask one question hopefully you have no answer but you choose i felt that the yolo people also believe in mahmud they don't know that's their selfie they will survive them the yolo of people they believe in the atman they don't know that they don't know that it survives them yes the you live only once people yes the sense of self is always there sense of sense of self is always there we don't investigate it and that's the whole thing yeah then there was somebody else the lady here tell us your name and ask the question my name is christine what are you reading right now what am i reading right now oh there is uh well there is a book by michio kaku the god equation i just bought it before coming here it's a short book he's a japanese japanese physicist and very enthusiastic and and he has such a command over the subject so basically the book is about the latest in string theory so that's one thing i'm reading now and there's always some advaithic stuff which i'm reading as part of my daily so there is right now it is most of the time it is ashtavakran now also it's ashtavakra you have a question yes go ahead i know a lot of the time it's stressed that to realize our true nature uh that we are godly but there's also a lot of stress that to so that we are not reborn yes why should i be why should focus on that also rather than you know just focus on the all right this life and right yeah so why this focus on the not being reborn again this is something that people told me that you're going to the west this concept of multiple lives and karma and reincarnation is not part of the thought structure here in the west it's sort of axiomatic in india especially indian thought one swami said notice there are vast differences in indian thought you believe in god the buddhist doesn't believe in god you believe in an immortal soul but this doesn't believe in any moral soul and yet with these vast differences two things are common to all indian schools again except the the charvak or the materialist the two things are common karma and reincarnation that there is cause and effect causality swami vikander says good good bad bad and none escape the law but whosoever wears a form must wear the chain to the chain cause an effect past karma which is giving rise to this life of course what does vedanta do swami vivekananda says but far beyond name and form is atma never free no thou art that sannyasi bold say um so that's what vedanta does it sets you free from this now why why should you talk about birth and rebirth therefore if this concept is difficult to understand you can put it in another way the whole point is to be free of suffering to transcend you know the freedom which swami vekanda talks about transcend limitation attain fulfillment rise above suffering and that's a project anybody can get behind in fact that's the only human project that we have not only human every sentient being is trying to attain fulfillment and avoid suffering or overcome transcend suffering notice whatever we do i mean a very good scientist here the big picture sean carroll so there he writes at the end of the book he writes as disappointed actually he writes that no we just search for happiness this is to this is not really true i mean i pursue scientific knowledge and i'm willing to put up with a lot of unhappiness so that i can get results to my scientific quest but that's no argument at all you just have to ask professor if you get the results of your experiments does that please or displease you it pleases me you are chasing happiness it may be different from it may not be in the form of a smiley yellow when you live on selfie not in that form it may be in a much more deep and profound form the search for happiness and the quest to overcome suffering that in terms of indian philosophy translates into multiple lifetimes and this cycle of birth and death so it's often put in that way freedom from the cycle of birth and death if you say i don't believe in birth and freedom you know past life future lives and only this much this life fine the same thing can be put in another way and it has been put attenti complete cessation of um suffering and the attainment of fulfillment our bliss yes okay two more questions and we'll end we are running out of time swamiji actually my name is gautam i actually have two questions they're both short okay quick the first is i would like to start reading the complete works yes do you recommend that i pick up all the volumes or how do i start pick up all the volumes it's good to have it in the house it's a blessing to have those volumes in the house but start with swami vivekananda's you know start with sister nivedita's introduction very powerful every sentence is worth its weight in gold uh very considered well-written introduction then go on to swami vivekananda's chicago addresses that's how swami vikander became known to the west just as a way of starting then go on to there are four yogas so gyani yoga karma yoga raja yoga bhakti yoga now you can go that way you can do ghana yoga first karma yoga next raja yoga but i for example st when i was a kid i started with raji yoga and then much later read ghana yoga karma yoga bhakti yoga the novelist um salinger he used to go to the east side center in new york they made a movie about him recently they called them called the movie the rebel in the rye the the yeah the catcher in the rise or play on that rebel in the rye and they show him talking to swami nikhilan and then anyway he mentions he writes that these are two classics our american youth would do well to keep in their pockets karma yoga and raja yoga he says sir read those then read the letters of swami vivekananda that's very special the conversations between the swami and the disciples the inspired talk the lectures from to his lectures in india from colombo to elmora and these are the highlights but there are so many other things even down to the stray observations so powerful just this lecture which is just scattered notes basically it's not even a complete what i use today but that phrase the infinite is the finite and the finite alone is the infinite yeah and second question drink this could you give us the short version of it for everyone sure so there are 12 12 hours of classes but he gotham thinks if he can compress 5000 years of thought into five minutes she can do 12 hours in what 12 seconds so it's a very powerful introduction to advaita vedanta and i use it to introduce advaita vedanta that's not the traditional way it should be done traditionally you should go to vedanta sarah which i've done recently so you can go there also so vedanta sara is like a book of definitions people might be put off because it's a little dry what is brahman what is maya what is body what is mine but it's important to know all that when you want to go deeper into vedanta but drink rishi viveka is a very exciting book from the very first verse you are plunged into the highest truth so it's a very tasty introduction to advaita vedanta do look it up there are 12 talks which were given right here in this hall at hollywood okay all right we'll take we have two minutes more uh my name is sangeeta i have a question so we have uh in this world we have different roles and duties and obligations associated with them so how do you how do you think we can be free how do you think you can be free of duties and obligations you are already free none of those duties and obligations can bind you you were there before those duties and obligations came along you will be there long after those duties and obligations have gone new duties and obligations will come along don't worry but note that you are all the time free how so every night when you fall asleep the world disappears the body disappears people disappear duties and obligations disappear you go into a dream world separate world that also stops you are not stuck to this waking world you are not stuck to this dream world you are not stuck to the deep sleep either that's a very philosophical sense in which you are free but freedom i mean it's good to talk philosophy but if you want practical advice to make this freedom solid swami vivekananda has been very lectured i didn't have time to say he says ultimately it all depends upon you who else will set you free but you yourself and then he's saying from the quoting from the gita you are your own greatest enemy you are your own greatest friend to summarize in a few seconds when are you your greatest enemy when are you your greatest friend you are your greatest enemy when we are our greatest enemy when we work selfishly ceaselessly for the sake of this little body mind we are our greatest friend when we work selflessly for all that is around us could be the whole community could just be people in your family more selflessly we work more you are friend to yourself the more our desires are scattered in a hundred different channels in the world the worst enemy we are of ourselves the more all our desires are concentrated focused into one all-consuming love for god bhakti then you are your greatest friend the more our thoughts are scattered in a thousand directions and the more you are your greatest enemy the more the thoughts are stilled one one-pointed focused inward you are your greatest friend and above all when you do not know yourself you are your greatest enemy when you know yourself with capital s purnum you are your greatest friend then you will enjoy and taste freedom in the midst of all duties when all the duties are there no problem when they are not there no problem finally so as you said that there are several births and desire will come you will burn it and then it will extinguish so i didn't say that that's the buddhist approach that's the buddhism so i have so many desires and life continues to give me so many career goals and everything yes so do i have a control over that i can burn all the desire in this life or like how do i do it like goals continue to come in my life true goals and desires desires come first and then the goals investigate you don't have to burn up the desires you don't have to give up the goals but first investigate think about it what is really my goal what is the one desire underlying all desires it is to be happy i am doing everything for the happiness of this oneself now how do i truly become happy and then you investigate what are these things which i have been doing have they really made me happy and what is possible is it really possible to be happy more happy deeply happy lastingly happy that's what vedante is saying don't make any radical change you cannot until your very philosophy of life changes there was a gentleman young man who said oh i don't like all this philosophy all my i really love my job i've got a wonderful job in one of the top companies of the world so somebody's asked him a philosopher asked him oh really so you love the job more than anything else yes all right you can do the job but you won't be paid your salary you can do just keep on doing the work so no no no i i want the money too which one if you are given a choice between the two which one would you want i'd want the money okay you will get all the money you're getting you get all the money but but you can't spend it no no no i want to spend it i want to spend it for my wife and kids and my friends and for myself i want to spend it so all right you can spend it but and you can spend it for your wife and kids and friends but they will no longer be your wife your kids your friends just be people no no no they must be mine ultimately it comes back to me mine this this in a ignorant way it leads to unhappiness if i see the i this is this little body mind it will never lead to fulfillment so we must ultimately investigate what am i and as we get into a wider appreciation of what i am then all these things will start making sense okay good thank you so much [Applause]

Channel: Vedanta Video

Views: 40,607

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

Id: Qkn4ia8OvRw

Length: 77min 55sec (4675 seconds)

Published: Wed Nov 24 2021