The Ultimate Secret of OM | Swami Sarvapriyananda

[Music] let me start with a short prayer from the Upanishads and then we'll get into the subject a Sir Thomas Adama Thomas oh ma Duty gamma written written gamma ohm Shanti Shanti Shanti Oh leaders from the Unreal to the real leaders from darkness unto light leaders from death to immortality ohm peace peace peace good morning everyone and thank you for having me here to the organisers I owe a special debt of gratitude for putting this program together pronounced two revered Swami ji shank Ranji who's present here these subjects that we have this morning is it's called a secret of ohm so I'll get into that eventually but first let me say what a wonderful place Sedona is I come from the Vedanta Society of New York Swami Vivekananda was the person who really bought Vedanta to the West in 1893 in the world Parliament of Religions and in 1894 the very next year he started the first Vedanta Society in New York so that's why I'm coming from right now and it's closed in summer so the monk there travels in summer giving talks in different parts of the United States when people knew that I'm going to come to Sedona they everybody kept telling me oh you'll love it it's wonderful it's fantastic and I was thinking it's a desert ha ha ha how good could it be I didn't say anything to anybody not to hurt their feelings but but then when we just entered Sedona it was remarkable it's magical and I was thinking how lucky you people are stay here you know you tend to get used to a place when you stay there you have to see it with fresh eyes with the kids eyes are you seeing it for the first time so it's beautiful it's magnificent it's magical and it's spiritual I sensed it immediately people have told me maybe a little bit of conditioning working there but we have told me that it's spiritual but I do sense it almost it was almost like crossing a barrier as you enter the precincts of this area you feel the vibration here so yes I do believe that there are special places special times which I won't say there are more spiritual than others but they seem to channel or manifest spirituality more than others that is true it's more manifest in certain places Sedona I believe is one of them so once again I'm very happy to be here with all of you the subject I want to speak about here today is Vedanta not many people so many people know about it especially if you are spiritual if you are new agey in any way though I find many people in the West in the United States and in Europe they think vendata is it the vendata Society or something Vedanta comes from the Vedas the word Vedas which is the most ancient scriptures of the Hindus in the Vedas towards the end of these Vedas the final teachings of the Vedas Vedanta literally means the end of the Veda anta is end and Veda is the revealed scriptures so the final teachings are the highest teachings in that sense and sometimes literally towards the end of the body of texts called the Vedas you find these texts called Upanishads and these open ishod's are the root texts of Vedanta in fact if you look for a philosophy of Hinduism you would come to Vedanta there are many many schools of Vedanta the Upanishads have been interpreted by masters through the ages the one I will speak about the one I represent is called our dua Toronto and the Swami there also comes from the same lineage so advaita vedantins non-dual vedanta and it is based on a significant figure there is Shankar Acharya where again the Swami's name Shankar ananda comes from Shankara also means Shiva one of the forms in which God is worshiped in Hinduism Shankar Acharya lived about 1400 years ago in the south of India and he selected 10 some say 11 of these opening shots to write commentaries so basically non-dual Vedanta is overwhelmingly based on these 11 Upanishads and among these opening shots there is one the smallest among them perhaps not perhaps the most powerful among them is it's called the mandu kyo punishment it has only 12 mantras you know the texts only twelve it will fit into an a4 size paper if you write it down and yet it's the most powerful in Bengali which is an Indian language they talked about you know Indians like hot food spicy food so there is small chilies which are really really hot in bengali they call it honey Lanka which means a tiny chili which is really hot this man Tokyo Punisher is like that in the ancient Indian story of Rama Sita Rama Ramayana so there's a nice story where Rama's dedicated devotee Hanuman who comes in the form of a huge monkey so a Hanuman asks Rama how do I get liberation freedom and salvation whatever you call it moksha in in Sanskrit and Rama says the Manduca opposition is sufficient by itself for those who seek liberation mandu kamehameha vollum moo moo shu we mocked a that's original Sanskrit the mandu key open assured that that text is enough by itself to confer liberation upon those who seek it and then he goes on to say suppose you go through the Mundaka Upanishad and you still don't get it it's still not enlightened when Rama gives a syllabus of 108 upanishads so I think that's a good incentive to become liberated with this one and open issue and this one who punishes the mandu coupon assured tiny in itself it's a very powerful text nowadays if you read the text it comes embedded in a larger text called demand okok Erica literally meaning verses on demand okay open issue so Shankar Acharya z' gurus guru his master's master goda pada he wrote a commentary in verse form on the Mundaka Upanishad he included the mundo coupon assured in the first chapter of this book four chapters first chapter includes the bund okay open it and then go to pada wrote about 215 verses on this original text which has only 12 mantras so that's it that gives you the background of the source where I'm going to take this from what I'm going to talk about this morning why is it called the secret of ohm the subject today if there is one mantra one sacred sound which is overwhelmingly the symbolic of the divine it is ohm in all the sacred traditions of India Hinduism is wildly diverse I often I sometimes I'm called upon to introduce Hinduism to schoolchildren or college students in their religion courses and I say that it's difficult to summarize Hinduism because any question that you ask of Hinduism the answer is always yes and no do Hindus believe in God yes and no he's God which form yes and no is God male yes and no God is male and female and beyond gender and so on so all of these forms of Hinduism but one thing common to all of them among the few things that are common one thing common to all of them is they all revere ohm the mantra oh not just Hindus the Buddhists all the different flavors Buddhism comes in always regarded as the highest mantra for example the Tibetan Buddhist mantra om mani padme hum so there's ohm there the giant traditions it's less not very well known in the in the West that's another strand of another another religion in India which is actually like an older contemporary of Buddhism they also revered ohm the youngest of the religions of India Sikhism the Sikhs there their word term for the absolute is a comb car with a 1 ohm that stands for the transcendent so anyway I have sold you on the importance of ohm and as you would expect with this wide diversity of traditions and philosophies and views you will expect a wide diversity of interpretation of ohm what does it mean and so many many meanings have been given ohm stands for the the Trinity of Hinduism you know Bramha Vishnu Maheshwara the creator the preserver the destroyer and many many meanings the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali which is the classic manual for meditation it says the name of God is ohm that does SIA Huachuca Pranava that's a Sutra it says the name of God is ohm or the highest name name of God is ohm and so on even Time magazine got in on the act there was I remember many years ago there was a cover story on meditation but the story start I mean the cover page had ohm on it now the deepest and the most ancient interpretation of ohm in the open ishod's you can find is in the Mundaka Upanishad in fact the man dookey open he should to speak about today is built around all so today I'm going to talk about that the highest teachings of Hinduism in the Vedanta and Vedanta it's most concentrated form you find it in the magic combination and the essence of demand okay open Ishod is all alright I still haven't started how am i doing for time okay good I'll speak for a while introduce you to it and then we will interact we can ask questions what the Mundaka Upanishad says is all Vedanta Advaita Vedanta can be summarized in a statement that thou art in Sanskrit Tama see the basic insight of all villain it's a vast literature but it can be expressed easily expressed in one sentence is this one thing that you take away from this talk it would be this you are that what do you mean by that that absolute the ultimate reality what we are seeking for we are that but there but then the question comes if we are that then why don't we know it if I talk about a god or a divinity who is in heaven you if you ask why can't I see God I'm safe I'd say because God is not here God is in heaven some other place but if God is here or that ultimate reality whatever you talk about is here then the question it is the valid question why don't I experience it if it is right to hear if I ask the question when is God and if the answer is aft after death then again I am safe because you'll have to die and go to heaven and then you see God why can't you see God now because it's not now it's then not here they're not now then then the teacher is safe if you go there and then and then you don't find God you can't catch me anymore it's too late but Vedanta claims that absolute reality which mere anta calls Brahman and the word Brahman not ramen ramen is a priestly class in India Brahman means literally it means the vast the Sanskrit derivation if you go to the root it means that which expands so for the vast literally the limitless so that absolute if I claim it's here it's now and it is you then you have a legitimate question that doesn't seem likely like it I don't feel very absolute I don't feel like the transcendent I don't feel very godly so the whole question comes if you're claiming that then prove it show it let me see what you mean and that's what the Mundaka Upanishad does with ohm it says what religions call God is our own real self look at the words real self by that it immediately implies that we do not know what we are Swami Vivekananda when he came here more than 100 years ago he would tell me Vivek and there was the disciple of Sri Ramakrishna so remarks ramakrishna was probably one of the most significant figures of hinduism in the recent times now swami vivekananda you knew what you are you would often tell his disciples in America in the late nineteenth century if only you knew what you are that thou art the vedantic texts Express this essential teaching in sentences called great sentences of profound sentences in sanskrit maha vaakya Maha Maha means great walk you mean sentence great sentence is not in the sense of long sentences there are a lot of those in Sanskrit they go on and on they can fill up literally a page with one sentence but great in these sentences are very short usually two or three words four of them and they all mean the same thing it literally means you and God are one you are the divine so the most famous of these great sentences it's already pretty well-known in the West also it's taught to a mercy that thou art it's from one of the Upanishads called the chandogya upanishad another one is also not as well known meaning the same thing ah-hum Brun has me it's from the BRE had our neck open Isham it literally means I am the absolute I am Brahma be absolute another one is their broad jeonnam Bramha it's from the IT reopen assured it means this awareness which we feel right now what you're feeling now if you understood it what it was that is the absolute this awareness is the absolute fraud jeonnam brahma and the last of the four great sentences I am Atma Brahma this very self I am means pointing towards yourself this part myself Brahma is the absolute and this last was sentenced this self is the absolute I am Atma Brahma is actually from the Amanda combination the one which are going to talk about today that's all I want to say about the text itself now we will dive into ohm what does it mean here's the deal the bond okay open Ishod has it's what I said just now applies is to the general at Dwight uh Vedanta philosophy now the peculiar technique adopted in the Mundaka Upanishad it's a technique of the three states of awareness now the three states of our mind what do you mean well three states of our mind it's something that we experience every day and we pay no attention to it we are experiencing it right now what are the three states waking dreaming and sleeping dreaming is also in sleep so we can put it in this way waking dreaming and deep sleep these are the three experiences which we have in common all our lives every day we have we are awake right now hopefully because we Dante as a way of putting people to sleep waking and then we fall asleep and we dream dreaming and then there is there's dreamless sleep deep sleep and then we wake up again are we going to dream so these three keeps cycling and that's the story of our lives and the Upanishad Mundaka Upanishad makes this radical claim you don't need anything else all you need to do is take a closer look at your daily life and the absolute Brahman the ultimate reality your own reality is right there discover it and you get immortality you are free you know the prayer we did just now lead us from darkness to light lead us from the Unreal to the real leaders from death to immortality those results you get the real you get the light you get immortality freedom from death not in the body the body is still going to go to its inevitable conclusion but you realize that you are this immortal existence great promise what you call moksha what is called moksha in Hinduism Nirvana in Buddhism salvation or whatever you call it in different religions that is attained it is attainable where aren't they in fact claims it is already attained you don't know it that is discovered when you investigate waking dreaming and deep sleep that's why one of the things why I like the Advaita so much you see if you take conventional religion it depends heavily on faith it starts with faith there is God and you do these things and then you get freedom or salvation it's this is what is called the path of bhakti devotion it's it's based on faith if you don't if you are skeptic if you are Sam Harris or Christopher Hitchens won't work because it's you can't start with questioning the path of devotion starts with faith you have to have some kind of faith the path of yoga is a path of experience not faith the path of yoga says to you Patanjali yoga for example fate is not so important what is important is do these things these practices these techniques of meditation sit like this breathe like this meditate like this eventually you will have certain specific mystical experiences extraordinary experiences called various samajis which will prove to you the truth of religion a spirituality you see the difference between the yogic approach and the devotional approach the yogic approach is more of an experiential approach it doesn't really matter what you believe or do not believe what matters is have you had these experiences which proved to you the truth of religion and it's very very appealing for our modern age because we want proof and Vivekananda he he was he made waves when he came he at the end of 19th century and he said religion is not belief religion is realization they actually have to realize God actually like to experience God Advaita goes a step further not belief not extraordinary experience rather ordinary experience we will investigate into ordinary experience which we all have everybody has it no matter what you believe whether you practice meditation or not does not matter ordinary experience which we already have we will investigate that and the absolute God whatever you call it will be revealed to us so what an incredible claim but you'll have to follow the chain of reasoning understand and then apply the understanding to what you are already experiencing it'll be revealed all right big claim what's the word put your money where your mouth mouth is yeah and Americans are very practical people so they have number of phrases for this where the rubber hits the road walk the talk yes these are the terms all right I'm going to do that now it's very direct it's subtle but very very direct immediate almost what the opener should the peculiar technique of the mando combination is waking dreaming deep sleep it says what it says is consider the waking experience then the dream experience in the deep sleep experience what happens in the waking experience is in you the consciousness you are aware we are all sentient we are all aware we are all conscious in consciousness we see we experience a body senses and a mind is active look already the language is a little different from what we normally the way we describe it we describe it as I am this guy so we start with the body the opening shot starts with awareness you are aware you are sentient you're conscious and what what is presented to you the waking consciousness a body senses mind and a world which you sense we see right now you're seeing you here right now you're hearing you taste and smell and touch so that one consciousness flowing through the mind gives you sight sound smell touch taste and when you look inward in the mind there are thoughts ideas memories desires there is the ego which keeps on saying I anger desire love frustration memory the person so this is what is presented to you are you with me is this not a description of our daily life this is what we discover there's a world out there and I am the Waker experiencing the wakers world with my senses and then next the Upanishads says you fall asleep and remember all these analysis is from the wakers point of view right now we are awake and we're looking at our experiences and how would we describe it we I the conscious I lose sight of my physical body that it is on a bed and sleeping I completely forget it and the mind generates in its own place it generates a world dreamworld and I am in the dream world too I have a body there and I'm experiencing I meet people I go to places I have good and bad experiences good dreams and nightmares and so on and all of that is generated by the mind how do I know because when I wake up I realize and under in the bed it all happened in the mind so that's the dream experience and then that also shuts down there's a different kind of sleeping called deep sleep Vedanta has a unique take on deep sleep parantha says you are not unconscious in deep sleep you the same consciousness you have forgotten your body which is there on the bed that's what we assume the dream world disappears there's just uniform blankness darkness we normally think of it as a an unconscious state but what Vedanta says is it's not an unconscious state you are still consciousness but there is nothing for you to be conscious of it's like you're driving up those hills in Sedona and you have got this headlights of your car and in that you see so many things at night and when you come to the top of a hill the lights the beams go out into the darkness of space and then you don't see the light also because there's nothing for the light to be reflected up if there's mist or cloud you can see two beams of light but if it's an absolutely clear sky I mean you're on the top of a hill the two beams of light go out there you know light is there if you stopped the car and stepped in front of it you would see in the blaze of illumination but you don't see anything it seems dark why because there is nothing to reflect the light from exactly like that in deep sleep Advaita Holtz you are still this consciousness but it's not the waking state where you have body and senses to experience a world it's not even a dream state where the mind generates dreams toward you to experience consciousness alone remains without anything to experience so it seems like nothing there's not even the mind which will say I am sleeping if you think I'm sleeping they're not sleeping you know in India sometimes mothers will check where the little kids are sleeping and they fake you know kids get hyperactive at when it's bedtime so mother the mother says the little boy good little boys sleeping and if he's really asleep then his left big toe will twitch and if they're like big toe - it twitches a mother not sure that the gaba is faking it if you are thinking I'm sleeping then you are not sleeping even the mind shuts down so there's no sort that's why you don't feel that I am sleeping it's a big claim but there's a lot of we can discuss it later also is there consciousness in deep sleep I remember there was a conference on consciousness studies in Calcutta in one of our centers in Calcutta it's called the Institute of culture and there were professors of philosophy they were signed to neuroscientists they were monks and there's been interesting discussion but the philosophers of religion and spirituality and the scientist couldn't come together on a definition of consciousness they still haven't but but one of the professor's who's a professor of Sankyo philosophy he's an American Larson professor Larson he asked a question to the neuroscientist dr. in neuroscience what is the definition of consciousness is there consciousness in deep sleep and the doctor said no the way we define consciousness there is no consciousness in deep sleep it's an unconscious state and the philosopher said well that's the difference in Indian philosophy there is only consciousness in deep sleep there is no object of consciousness actually you can see the tear coming from two different points of view one is coming from an objective point of view and it's coming from a subjective point of view I remember one Swami giving a talk about this Manduca in Calcutta University and he says when you go into the deep sleep there is no world there is no body there is no mind consciousness in itself without objects that's how the open assured describes it and one physiology professor could not take it anymore he stood up in indignation and he said what do you mean there is no world and body you can see that the guy is sleeping on the bed and snoring there's the body from your point of view but from the person's point of view what is that person's experience think back about your deep sleep experience after waking up was it not a blankness how do you prove that there is consciousness in deep sleep I'll just touch upon this once and then go ahead consider what it will it is like to be in deep sleep when you wake up and you look back upon it in every culture in the world if there's a phrase like I slept happily who slept like a log I didn't know it I was out like a light every culture in the world has that in the most ancient Sanskrit also it's their sukima hum I swapped some knocking till of Elysium I slept happily I did not know anything now where does this come from if there was no consciousness and no experience in deep sleep supposing it was nothing blank in that case you know what our report would be when we wake up I went to sleep I dreamt part of which I remember and then I woke up I would never report that there was a period when I didn't know anything how do you know that there was never and I didn't know anything there was a period of blankness it's like when I'm open my eyes I see and when I close my eyes in a sense I am still seeing right your eyes are still still working absolutely in this is an example in the same way you can apply that to consciousness when it there's a world and a body to experience the world with you are experiencing when this is erased and there's a dream world you're still experiencing and when the dream world is erased blankness you're still experiencing blackness so that awareness waker and the wakers world dreamer the dreamers world and the deep sleeper and the sleepers world according to Vedanta that claim is they all appear and shine and disappear in the light of one consciousness which you are so Vedanta says the real that the essential teaching of demand ochio Punisher is this that we normally think of ourselves as the Waker Who am I this guy this body this life this is who I am and that's different from me that's the world what Vedanta says no no you are not the Waker you are not the dreamer you are not the deep sleeper they come and go in you you are the consciousness alone you have that pure consciousness you are the fourth why fourth Waker first dreamer second deep sleeper third and fourth the word in Sanskrit is Turia yes it's a common word understood in not very common you would have to be a little bit of a philosopher in India to have heard that word but literally the word Turia in English tea you are iya Turia it literally means the fourth it just means number four you are not the first the Waker normally we think we are the Waker think about what it means if I am consciousness in itself and the waker dreamer in deep sleep are just the appearances in me things appear in my light in either light and they disappear also the light is constant then the Waker and the wakers problems are not really my problems I can exist without them the dream when the nightmare are not really mine they come and go what happens in the movie doesn't stick to you you are the watcher of the movie not a player in the movie itself as long as you think you are a character in the movie then it's a tragedy or a comedy for you but when you are in the audience it's all fun entertainment it's Hollywood I ask that when is a catastrophe when is something horrible a tragedy an accident a tragedy when is it acceptable when is it enjoyable only when it is Hollywood when it is art when it is fiction when it is a movie it's a painting then alone but if it is real then you cannot say it's enjoyable is it's horrible all disease suffering murder whatever it is if in some sense I am safe in the audience you are safe then you can enjoy the show this show is put up by consciousness which you are and consciousness is not harmed by it think about it forget the fourth the pure conscious men don't forget it but for the plane being set it aside even deep sleep I give this example a person in say New York and in Manhattan dying in in Mount Sinai with a huge medical debt and about in an intensive care unit terrible problems maybe alone abundant whatever when that person goes into deep sleep what problem does that person have nothing from the Vegas point of view you will say no no no is just because it's forgotten it how is the problems have gone but if you see it from the consciousness point of view the waking world with its promises and problems comes roaring into your consciousness occupies that space the movie plays itself out then disappears then comes the dream world with its own experiences that also goes then there's nothing deep sleep and this is repeated again and again in the light of that one consciousness which you are what I'm saying is you the consciousness in itself the real consciousness the forth is absolutely free of problems and yet you can inhabit this waking world and enjoy it to the fullest the good things here Sedona and smoggy there's no longer smoggy LA or whatever it is the good and the bad all of them and you can live a full life in your waking world in a waking incarnation also with joy and fearless lessor because you are ultimately not trapped in this you're absolutely independent of it ok let me go ahead one more point and then I still have not come to ohm one more point when we say forth it does not mean there are actually four consciousnesses there is only one consciousness which appears as three do we already see some of that right waking dreaming deep sleep are not three different persons apart from you they are you but they are appearances in you you are not trapped in any of them so and a good example very good example which I often use is gold and ornaments suppose there's gold and it is made into a necklace then it's melted and made into a ring it is melted and made into a bracelet now necklace ring bracelet one two three they are different they look different their names are different necklace ring bracelet and they're used in different parts of the body necklace ring bracelet and yet isn't it the same thing the same gold right it's the same gold it is made into these three forms and the gold in itself is neither a necklace nor a ring nor a bracelet but it is the reality of the necklace reality of the ring reality of the bracelet is it not now this is an example you'd say so what the the conclusion is this Vedanta says or the Manduca open assured claims you are that one consciousness just like the gold which is now fashioned into the Waker and the wakers world then again melted back into an fashioned into the dreamer and the dreamers world and then melted Bank into a lump of featureless Ness called the deep sleep but in and through Waker dreamer and deep sleeper is one awareness so the forth is not separate from the waked dreamer deep sleeper it has it is in mint through the Waker dreamer deep sleeper just like gold is in and through the minute necklace bracelet and a ring right why is this important because when people hear the fourth something apart from Vega dreamer deep sleeper immediately the conclusion is then there must be this is not the truth right now there is something else called the fourth which I have to attain then only have attained illumination it's like saying oh the necklace is not the truth I've just been told the truth is something called gold throw away the necklace let me search for gold you'll never find it you just threw it away the absolute call it God Brahman whatever you call it the light of pure awareness the Buddhist some of your beautiful term the clear light of the void whatever you call it it's available fully completely right here right now you are it just as the gold is fully available we're in the necklace or when it is a ring or then it is a bracelet it is the gold but you have to know the gold is gold a good story with Sri Ramakrishna is to tell very beautiful story it's the story of the washer man who found out diamond the story is in India you have to see the Indian context where until very recently we didn't have washing machines for the clothes washing our dryers so there will be these people a lot of such people who are washer men and washer weapon they'll come up and pick your clothes from your house and then they take it to the Riverside and then they wash it you wouldn't want to know what they do to the clothes the way they thrash it on there but they really make it clean and then spread it out on the rocks and dry it and to scrub it and so this washer man found a stone a shiny stone and thought it was nice Rock to scrub the clothes with actually it was a huge diamond but you didn't know where the diamond was so he scrubbed clothes until one day he thought this is a weird rock let me ask my friend who's a vegetable seller who knows a little more than me so he goes to the vegetable seller what do you think this this is how much will you give me for it and the vegetable seller said oh this is not an ordinary Rock it's quite a pretty Rock and I will give you 10 rupees for it even he didn't know what a diamond was but he thought it's a something nice luckily the washerman thought let me ask somebody more knowledgeable than him so the whoever he went to each of them gave a higher valuation of that until he came to the diamond merchant who said my god where did you find this this is the most magnificent diamond I've ever seen or heard of I will give you 10 million rupees for it and so the washerman was immediately rich and all his troubles were over now the point of the story is all along he had this most magnificent diamond with him and he didn't know it he used it for scrubbing stew our clothes point is we have the absolute right now we are it but we don't know it what do we use it for we use it for seeing and hearing consciousness smelling and tasting and touching fighting and desiring and and hurting and and feeling miserable and committing suicide and that's what we use consciousness for like scrubbing clothes with the diamond we don't know what it is what we have got here the key to salvation is right in our hands right now rare all the time it's right there I always used to think let people put a price on things but the greatest thing in the world should always be free and always available and the fact is it is that's what makes it ultimately a just world the greatest thing that your awareness this consciousness this immortal awareness which we are it's continuously available to us all the time just like the sunlight and the air and the water like that much more than that the most important thing is this awareness is continuously available to us the fourth is something that we already are the three are manifestations of that fourth waking dreaming deep sleeping but why are they important waking dreaming deep sleeping because they are doorways to this realization why is the necklace important or the bracelet or the ring because with that you can realize what gold is you need a name in a farm all right done now we go into ohm you might have a question that all right is very good now what do I do how do I get this in sanskrit it's called brahma mahad yonir the realization of brahman the enlightenment how do I get this traditional religion or yogic approaches it would be a lifelong process of of devotion and worship and yogic processes would be lifelong effort of concentrated meditation and so and so forth all of which are good Vedanta does not dispense with anything all of them Vedanta ceases useful and helpful for ultimate enlightenment but Vedanta gives direct methods and one of the most powerful direct methods is oh here is how it works in the Mundaka Upanishad after explaining these half of the mandoke Upanishad is what i just said the other half is what I'm going to tell you now about oh it's a method which you can apply to come to this enlightening moment what's the method Manduca says you the Waker and your entire waking world is an appearance in consciousness give this experience what you're having now give this experience a name you see it says ohm has four aspects ohm has four aspects what are the four aspects of ohm it literally says four letters of ohm what are they in English we say au m and then silence after that in sanskrit the club actually AUM is the closest we can get in Sanskrit Oh mmm ooh if you combine them together you get not um a little knowledge is a dangerous thing before you knew this you are pronouncing it correctly you're saying ohm moment you say aha it is our uma or a um so it must be um now I know more no it's wrong the rules of sanskrit grammar say when you put R and mu together it becomes oh oh so when the moon comes after that correct pronunciation is ohm correct you had it right the first time around but if you analyze that split it apart you get uh hmm the closest we get in sanskrit is in english is a um but luckily fortunately when you write it as om in English that's actually the correct pronunciation ohm is the correct pronunciation after that comes silence so when you say Oh [Music] silence aah ooh mmm silence these are four three letters and one silence after that for some of you might be going wait a minute the fourth we just saw when you experienced you look at your own experience doesn't it have four aspects waking dreaming deep sleeping and the real consciousness in which all three are experienced the consciousness itself four aspects four aspects of yourself four letters of ohm hmm can I match them yes the opening shot says that's what you have to do match them map them how do you map it here is the process you the Waker and your entire waking experience name it ah the first letter of oh you the dreamer and your dreams which dreams our dreams name it ooh the second letter name it means associate in your mind that's the name of dream whose dreams our dreams you the consciousness and the deep sleep silence and darkness give it the name mmm M and you the real consciousness the gold in the tree ornaments name it the silence it's the silence after all now you have the beginning of ohm as Waker and wakers world dreamer and the dream world deep sleeper in the deep sleep world and beyond that the silence but remember that silence and you the fourth the consciousness itself that silence is not the silence opposed to noise here there is noise and here there is silence but that silence which ohms that we speak about is the silence underlying noise also it's a continuous silence rather what is meant is the consciousness in which the silence is experienced experience the silence and go back from the silence to awareness in places like this you can easily do it actually like Sedona for example so Oh waking ooh dreaming mmm deep sleep you don't have to wake dreamer go into deep sleep in the waking world itself just simulated sit quietly with eyes closed when did go when you go through all chant the whole oh okay there's another thing I am now practicing the waking world I go uh no don't do that that's silly chant the whole ohm just know that it stands for waking dreaming deep sleeping so when you drag it out Oh cycle in your mind through your entire waking life the person you experience yourself as then some hypothetical dream maybe how it is like to be in dreams as you go through the and as you come into the cycle and simulate in your mind what is it like to be in deep sleep and as you fade away into silence we know that you are the one consciousness in which all three appear and disappear try it now let's see I will chant you chant with me three times then the next time I will chant three times you don't change with me you just keep remembering waking you the Waker your dreams your deep sleep and the awareness in which all three come and go first chant together and then listen to me chanting it three times if you feel like you can sit up straight not rigid relaxed but alert relaxed alert good good instruction is be relaxed don't move be alert relaxed no movement be alert one Swami who sounded like a what you might call a bootcamp instructor in the Himalayas is giving instructions for meditation be effective little rough but effective he shot barks at the people sitting there in Hindi I'll tell translated into English he barks at them hello mat bholenath Sojo mutt what does it mean don't move and everybody sort of freezes don't speak okay don't think don't move don't speak don't think and each of those has very deep implications even the instruction not to move it takes a long time to settle down into it speaking it's not just the tongue with the mind the chatters away don't speak from there too don't think that's a big thing we are compulsive thinkers obsessive thinkers all right so sit straight don't move but alert if you like you can close your eyes chant with me Oh Oh Oh [Music] [Music] Oh I will chant ohm three times listen and intensely imagine you're waking self your dream experience deep sleep and in the silence you are the one awareness listen and simulate it simulate it within yourself [Music] silence you're the consciousness in which silence is experienced you are the consciousness in which is experienced the waking you are the awareness in which you is experienced the Dreaming you are the awareness in which deep sleep hmm is experienced and in and of itself your name is silenced [Laughter] [Music] silence witness consciousness once more [Laughter] [Music] when you are comfortable slowly open your eyes yeah I'm not so fast enlightenment yes it'll happen it's good to listen to these things alright let's discuss it your questions observations anything to do with not on just am and okay or ohm but also Indian philosophy in general spirituality in general I'll see what I can say yes right now in the Sanskrit word the number of words for that chit chaitanya Turia is one word for that I'm using in the general sense that's why I keep switching between awareness consciousness even sentient because the English words are ambiguous that's why I tend to use a number of words for what I mean I mean something very specific it's there it's very real it's now it's here it's you there's no doubt about it but I'm using different words to point to it consciousness studies is a big thing now it's interesting we added at that point in science and civilization in last 20 years or so before that scientists were not interested and now they are interested in consciousness yes yes a lot of discussion going on now and I have come to know some of the people I had read their papers and books earlier but now I see some of the best philosophy departments are in New York in Manhattan so for example David Chalmers he is the one who coined the term the hard problem of consciousness and there was amazed to find him that in the New York University he is the head of the mind brain a consciousness unit there and the others so there's a whole range of views on consciousness right now but they're seriously discussing it so one topic which has come up now because people are interested in AI now in artificial brains now so are an artificially intelligent machine a brain would it be conscious would it be conscious in the sense I'm talking about but that's a little debatable but a little difficult to say but one thing is very vague antek there you could have a machine which is intelligent without being conscious clearly showing what vedanta again and again this point it makes that mind and consciousness are not the same thing mind memory thinking intelligence you could have a machine do all of that just like use a machine as a forklift to lift heavy weights you don't need a living body to do that similarly you don't even need a living brain to get have intelligence you might even have a machine now these machines are so intelligent one of my hosts and Mayer in Denver the little girl she speaks equally to her mom and to Google she carries on these conversations with Google happily now you could have a brain artificial brain which mimics our us and to all purposes from externally it is intelligent it does intelligent things but it's not conscious no more then if you want a water faucet to be turned on and you ask me and I turned it on I consciously turned it on but there's a sensor you put your hand in front of it and water comes out there's no consciousness behind it in California now this they're trying out the Google car different places so already had its first accident also I think but anyway when you are driving and this driverless car pulls up beside you from a distance if you see that too behavior of the two vehicles they seem same you but there's a big there's a world of difference between the two what's the difference in your car you are there driving you are having a conscious experience of sight sound smell touch decision-making all of that is shining in your awareness all of that is going on there in that Google car also but without that awareness it is happening not even the most ambitious Google engineer will say that his invention is conscious they might claim that it is intelligent and there are tests for a Turing test is there and so on to test whether it is really intelligent or not so something could be intelligent there could be artificial intelligence without consciousness what makes all right I'll stop at that yes right correct in fact the English word soul is ambiguous in Sanskrit you have precise words for these things why is it ambiguous in English when you say so look at the way you use the word soul she is a good soul meaning that person is kind and generous and nice and polite which are characteristics of the personality of the mind another way you use the word soul is my immortal soul we're talking about what you might call the spiritual soul in Vedanta clear distinction is made between physical body which is called a gross body gross not in the sense of being gross but it can be pretty gross but in the sense of being physical which you can see touch smell taste this this thing gross body and inside this there is something called the subtle body in Sanskrit sukshma sharir a subtle body and beyond that is you the consciousness when you are awake in this body you are consciousness plus subtle body plus this gross body when you are in dreams you are consciousness with the subtle body we're in deep sleep consciousness enveloped in darkness there is something else called the causal body I'm not going into that so the soul yes one sense of the word soul is this and according to advaitha what is this soul what is this what we call the immortal soul spirit whatever you call it it is awareness we have it all the time it's the diamond in the hand of the washerman that consciousness it's immortal what do you mean immortal the body dies what was born the body was born what ages the body ages what gets disease the body even the mind might get diseased what dies the body dies what transmigrates unit from life to life it's the mind which transmigrates consciousness is one and unchanging according to Advaita Vedanta Advaita as many of these pointers something available to us all the time which we don't catch it so Advaita or the Advaita Vedanta continuously tries to direct our attention to it it's available to us but we don't see it just like the gold is available in the ornament if someone keeps saying yeah I see a necklace what do you mean gold what's gold you melt it down necklace is gone no it's not gone that this thing is still there it's gold so well like that the absolute spirit consciousness whatever you call it it's kind continuously available to us all the time yes right coach what is this experience according to Vedanta it is awareness with name-and-form and what's the necklace it's gold with name-and-form one more step would be name form and utility in Sanskrit nama Rupa Viva Hara so gold is the reality it's name is necklace its form is like this and its utilities you put it here now why Vedanta does not give importance so much importance to form why does it make it secondary there is a reason the reason is this notice what happens when you take the gold and make it into a necklace melt it down make it into a bracelet melt it down make it into a ring what keeps changing form name even the use what's constant the gold in the same way in our lives what keeps changing our waking life keeps changing it's full of change and then the whole waking life goes away and there's a dream life that's also full of change and then the whole thing goes away and there's the deep sleep there's there's no apparent change there and then it goes away the whole thing goes up in the waking life comes rolling in but what's constant there it is consciousness now the necklace or the bracelet or the ring have no existence apart from the gold are you with me here every bit of that necklace is gold if you take the gold away you know they say that and the value of that is gold I was in Manhattan when I said that somebody said oh you don't know go to Tiffany's the value is not the gold values there is the name the brand Tiffany no you know why because if I go to Tiffany and say oh the value is the brand okay fine I don't care for your brand keep the necklace I'll take the gold away won't work the brand and the necklace and the form and all the glory of the Tiffany's brand of whatever it is it depends on the gold without the gold nothing I'll come to you so yes in our day to day life name and form and use our paramount importance and the in the end that's called Yamaha Rika so let's say there's a say in samsara in Maya all of this is of paramount importance but immortality salvation realization guys in noticing what's underneath otherwise it's like seeing a movie and becoming a player in the movie then you are trapped in the movie but if you see the movie as a movie then you're alright let the movies come and go you don't have to switch up the movie the yogi says switch up the movie in deep Samadhi need to be culpa Samadhi or some pregnant Samadhi the truth will be revealed to you you want to see the screen switch up the movie Vedanta says let the movie play the movies fun you are the screen unaffected by the movie a terrible firestorm in the movie the screen doesn't burn the greatest of floods comes earthquake comes on the movie the screen is not split orbiter are drenched by the flood nothing happens to it it's perfectly safe not only the screen saved it makes the movie possible not only are you safe safe means you are immortal but you make this experience possible you are the gold in the ornament you are the screen in them of the movie I remember hold on to your question I'll come to you I remember once I was in the Himalayas and I was studying non-dual Vedanta under this Swami who is to live in a little ashram there a little center how am i doing for how much time do we have okay and this Swami he had never seen he teaches this kind of philosophy but he used to meditate in a cave he used to hear Oh tell us that the only sin I've ever committed in my life is starting this ashram this sin Center I was happier in the cave but then we would say but but then we all benefit from the center people can come and meet you because of the center so he would say to us he he told me a story not me personally but everybody who was there he had never seen a television so a television crew came there that's the origin of the river Ganga you know it's holy for Hindus all Indians in fact that's the source so a television crew came there to film it and the beautiful scenery of the Himalayas and because the Swami had not seen television so they rigged up a set in front of him they put the camera towards the river and spun up a generator to power the television and and as Swami told us he was delighted like a little boy he was in his eighties did he told us I'll tell you in Hindi it's really sweet those and then I'll translate he said Mahatma jisub the cub or monks everything could be seen in that box the river was there the gurgling sound of the river was there a Cal Calcutta TV pani he said everything was there and I said to the TV crew in Hindi he said Babu a glass can happen is oh my My dear sir can you give me a glass of holy Ganga water from this road upon that and then the then the TV director said Oh Swami there's nothing there it just looks like that sounds like it lik looks like that but it's not there having said that the monk turned to us and said so monks do you understand my my dear monks do you understand all this it appears there's nothing real here you are the only reality in Hindi he said is some dicta that means it's something like this towering it was about eleven thousand feet high and you could see and that's like low in the Himalayas it was surrounded by the real Giants with her 18 19 20 21 thousand feet I was in Colorado the Rockies just two days ago and I was at 14,000 feet and one gentleman there said oh you come from India but you're the Himalaya these are our tallest mountains but these are babies compared to what you have got there yes because it goes all the way up to Everest which is 29,000 feet of remains so the Swami said all of this it appears you can see it hear it smell it taste it touch it it's not real what is real the consciousness in which you are experiencing all of this that consciousness appears in these five modes hearing smelling tasting touching see oh if the body is harmed its you are not the body the body is part of the movie our general you know our framework because we have been brought up in this way our framework is I am a body in which consciousness is generated so I'm like a computer running a program but what Vedanta does is it reverses that you are consciousness in which a body appears is used and it dies and goes away you are untouched you need not be afraid suppose someone comes and kills the body you would not be harmed in the least it's like someone melting the the necklace necklace is gone so what you have the gold you wear the gold you are the gold now earlier you were a necklace now you're a lump of gold the name has changed the form has change you are exactly the same there's a beautiful analogy which Vedanta teachers use it's about the ocean a little wave races along the Pacific Ocean is born there and it's having a nice time it has got a little wave friends and some of them are friendly to it and some of but then problems come some of the waves are mean to it as little waves will be to others and some waves are huge and it feels like a nobody compared to that look at that a tsunami wave my god I'll never reach that you know Jeff Bezos multi-billionaire he just crossed into I saw Time magazine it says he crossed over first person his history to cross over 100 billion dollars in personal belt the tsunami wave well never be like that and then little wave looks at a bubble maybe and says we're a loser I'm so much but bigger than him that little thing and envy and jealousy and friendship and enmity all of those are there that's called samsara wave samsara but the biggest problem of all comes when the wave sees the shore rushing up yeah and asks what's that that's California what's happening to all the waves they smash against didn't they die I'm going to die too yeah that's the that's the that's the end of all the waves you hit the shore and you burst into spray and that's it how horrible and luckily for it along comes a vedantic wave maybe a but a spiritual a spiritual wave and says look all this is true but there is a deeper truth what is that there is something called water it's something called water it does not die it changes forms but it does not die really yes it is same everywhere really it's great but good for water but what about me I'm going to die there is water in you really yes you are actually water where where well first look deep within you he would find water and then next look at your surface you will find water look in between you'll find water in fact you'll find water all around and once you realize that you'll realize that you are water racing towards the shore when you smash against the shore you lose the wave form but you're still water in million drops of spray spray and form you rise up to the sky in vapour you're still water you'll come back as rain you're still water right you are that that immortal thing called water not only that another amazing thing happens the moment somebody's phone is on yeah the moment you realize that you are water another thing happens is that everybody nearby all the other waves you realize they are water too and you are not you are not water in that one little wave you are water in all the waves the moment you realize you're water you don't think I am water as a little wave if you become limitless you become the entire Pacific Ocean tell me which is more powerful wave or water water because the way it cannot exist without the water it's very existence all its power is drawn from the water which is more powerful wave our ocean ocean much faster the wave is a tiny part of the ocean but which is more powerful water or ocean water because the ocean is nothing but water now in the vedantic scheme of things a little wave is at us individual beings the ocean is God the whale antic idea of God is the totality but the water is is Brahman the absolute which you are the little person and the totality God and the universe they all depend upon you not you as the person the person comes and goes yes isn't the problem really our identification absolutely here's the crucial thing only one thing you need to know that's a beautiful way of stating Vedanta our identification right now is I am a body with consciousness you change it reverse it you are consciousness with a body consciousness aware of a body of a body functioning and appearing in consciousness and I'll tell you something if you are honestly take a look at your experience right now forget the categories of enlightened not enlightened I am a poor little being forget those categories just look at your experience right now how are you experiencing the world as a body with consciousness are you experiencing yourself as a consciousness in which a body appears tell me the truth you look at look tell yourself the truth look at your experience right now doesn't your body appear in your awareness if you wear the body then in dreams you know what would happen your experience would be I am lying on the bed you could not continue to experience yourself in a dream world having dream experience is completely forgetting without reference to the body of the waking self which shows in principle at least even a silent materialist cannot deny this that a conscious experience can continue without subjective reference to the body that much at least in a very cautious way I am putting it don't forget your question hold on to that so yes what Dwight uh Vedanta is as you said it's a shifting of the reference of I reference of I means words have things they refer to clot is a word this is the thing clot is the word referring to this thing picture is a word referring to that thing chair is a word thing now I is a word the vertical line not this one the vertical eye is a word it refers to what the body that's what we normally think Vedanta says no it refers to you the awareness in which the body also appears and dissapears the body appears every day when you wake up and disappears and there's a dream body which fears in dreams and disappears and there's no body which appears in deep sleep right shift the reference eye does not mean body eye means awareness and now apply to every problem that you face in life you will see every problem is a problem in the world outside or the problem in the body or problem in the mind a waking problem a dream problem in the seed of all problems in deep sleep because it comes back but there is no problem at all disease death poverty unhappiness misery depression no problem at all associated with consciousness as such every problem is an object for consciousness is not in consciousness it does not belong to consciousness it comes and goes like motes of dust in bright sunlight they float and disappear when you realize you shift your awareness to the eye when you shift your awareness to the IKE as consciousness everything that appears in consciousness you will welcome with a namaste give it a cup of tea as long as you are there and when it goes right but the reason I ask this question is based on a movie a book and a movie it's about videogames yeah and you escape into a virtual world and living your life and I virtual so my concern is coming out of that where when does one come to that question that I want to realize and I'm afraid for those I care about that they won't come to that question of course they have many lives according to us but to do that but all right I split your question into three parts one is can I realize for another second is that a question of you know when does one come to this realization and third is your concern for others no you're afraid for others first is can I realize for another if you are one consciousness remember we are one consciousness but different in bodies and minds those bodies and minds are also in consciousness but they are not the same in consciousness clearly with one way Vedanta works beautifully is if you stick very closely to what you are experiencing do we experience one body or many bodies many bodies clearly do we experience one mind on many minds many minds clearly each mine is a unique and different now where is spiritual realization is it in the consciousness or in the mind it's in the mind that's why when we speak about an enlightened person and a person who is not yet enlightened where is the difference if there are one consciousness they are one consciousness but the difference is this mind does not understand and that mind understands has got it not understanding in an intellectual way but actually clarity is there it's absolutely clear daylight for that person so the difference is in the mind you may realize it in your own mind but those around you may not realize it you can help the other but your realization is not the realization of another person otherwise when the Buddha becomes enlightened view would have all become enlightened when Ramakrishna Vivekananda or Ramana Maharshi or Christ on anybody becomes enlightened we are all enlightened that no it doesn't work that way it hasn't obviously doesn't till now it has not happened that way but they can help us the Manduca open assured helps us and the teachings of the great spiritual masters in all religions they are helping us in fact a place like this exists sadhana because of the that inherited heritage of spiritual knowledge so that's helped second you are afraid for those around you that your concern and it's very good but remember ultimately they are safe they are all ultimately safe but if you want to lessen their suffering you have to work hard for to help them in various ways transmission of spiritual knowledge but also service medicine for the sake for the illiterate so service where they kind of strongly emphasized service if you are enlightened what will you do just sit with a shiny face no when you realize I am the water in all the waves and the spray and the bubbles everywhere I am that one water they're all in me immediately that way as long as it is there it becomes lives a life of wavy service so yeah so that that's the answer all right we are out of time thank you very much thank you for having me I enjoyed this session and the beautiful questions too [Music] you you [Music]

Channel: Vivekananda Samiti IIT-Kanpur

Views: 258,340

Rating: 4.8517532 out of 5

Keywords: vivekananda samiti, vsiitk, Saravapriyananda, Swami, vivekananda

Id: 0iZ3GG5SYOo

Length: 83min 5sec (4985 seconds)

Published: Fri May 29 2020