The Ultimate Truth | Swami Sarvapriyananda

ooh esatto Kamiya Souma - Tirra gamma written condition leaders from the unreal - the real leaders from darkness unto light leaders from death to immortality Oh peace peace peace good morning not as nice a morning as yesterday but still nevertheless every vedanta morning is a good morning this morning our subject is the ultimate truth nothing less this relates to a verse from the Manduca carica last last week i spoke about the Manduca carica the first chapter the talk was based on the first chapter today's talk is based on the second chapter and specifically from only one verse in the second chapter the verse goes like this Nonnie road who notch out party na da na cidade haka na mo moxuan away i mocked aha it t ha Parramatta what does this mean go to father the composer of these verses he says there is no origin of this universe no cessation no creation nor destruction of this universe there is nobody who is in bondage there is nobody who is a spiritual seeker Buddha who is doing spiritual practices there is nobody who is seeking liberation and indeed nobody who is liberated this is the ultimate truth the highest teaching the ultimate truth it tiesha para Martha now this does violence to our way of thinking this is really really radical what does it mean what are its implications for our spiritual life that is what we shall take a look at today the subject is taken from thee the title of the subject is taken from the verse itself this is the ultimate truth it thi para Martha all this will make sense only if we remember that it is from the Turia point of view remember last time when we spoke about when we introduced the theme of the Manduca Upanishad the Manduca carica like all Vedanta like all Upanishads it teaches us that our our reality is the ultimate reality God is our own reality you are Brahman this is the ultimate reality and the Mundaka Upanishad gives us a specific way of understanding this it says that if you examine your own experience you will come to this truth directly what is this experience commando combination guides us we have three kinds of experiences in our lives a waking experience we have our dream experience and we have a deep sleep experience it's common to all of us and the Mundaka Upanishad claims that if you examine this experience which you all have which we all have you will come upon the real truth about yourself it says that you have a fourth aspect so called a sport aspect actually that is the one reality calls it the thorium literally the fourth this fourth is actually the one reality which appears as the Waker and the wakers universe this one as you in your dreams the dreamer and the dream universe as you the deep sleeper and the blankness which you experience in deep sleep all three are appearances in that fourth one the tertium that fourth one alone appears in in all these three forms in the gross aspect as this physical universe as you the experience of the physical universe and the physical universe and it's subtle aspect as you the dreamer and your dream experiences why is it subtle because it's in the mind and in in what is called the causal aspect why is it called the causal aspect I'm not going to go into that all over again because we did that last time the causal aspect is the deep sleep you experiencing the blankness the darkness of deep sleep all of these are appearances they appear in disappear in one consciousness which is the turian which is your real nature right now you think of yourself as this person this seems to be the indubitable truth for us but I am this person what where are the claims is if you investigate in this method of the waking dreaming and deep sleep it will investigate you will come across the real you not this person but the witness of this person the tariya in which this person is arising shining and falling again from that Toria perspective Goethe pada composes this verse usually what is religion and spirituality what does Veda and indeed any religion Buddhism or even the theistic religions Christianity Islam or Vaishnavism or shaktism all of them what do they tell us we are in suffering we are in samsara the word used is but we are in bondage in suffering the language used may be different some may say you're bound by your Karma's or might others might say you are bound by the original sin whatever but we are in suffering we are experiencing suffering the Buddhists say Buddha says the beginning of the disa mystics the acknowledgement that all is suffering so we are bound we are in suffering and the claim is that if you go through certain spiritual practices in Sanskrit if you , sod haka a spiritual practitioner it could be of various kinds of practices depending on the religion your particular choice your a particular approach philosophy it could be meditation it could be doing good to others it could be love and devotion and surrender to to God it could be Vedantic analysis karma yoga bhakti yoga Raja yoga Gianni or it could be any kind of practice you become a sadhaka a spiritual practitioner why because you are a moo moo shu a seeker after spiritual liberation I want freedom from suffering I want freedom from samsara the samsara which I am trapped in I want freedom from that and therefore I am doing spiritual practices the the core teaching of the Buddha it sums up the entire structure of religion there is suffering one there is a cause of suffering there is an end to suffering that is moksha Nirvana and there is a way Ahana astanga marga Buddha says so I am a spiritual seeker I am doing spiritual practices and I am a spiritual seeker moo moo moo moo shu literally means one who is seeking freedom and finally I I hope that after all the spiritual seeking all the spiritual practice one day I will become free enlightened liberated I will become Jeevan Mukta liberated by living or in different religions in different languages I will one day go to heaven and live with God and free be free of suffering so this is the structure which we have been taught which every religion teaches us bondage practice spiritual seeking aspiration and freedom and here comes God our Father and says there is nobody who is in bondage there is nobody who is practicing spiritual practices there is nobody who's a spiritual seeker account for those who are supposed to be free enlightened persons there is nobody who's an enlightened person or free there is nobody who's booked and this is supposed to be the final teaching the ultimate truth what does this mean today we shall investigate this do you see the radical nature first you must appreciate why is it so shocking this one if properly understood and which we wish we shall attempt to do at the end that by this by the end of this session we shall try to grasp the meaning the implication of this if properly understood then really we will get an understanding of what samsara is a deep direct understanding of what samsara is we will get in real understanding of what bondages when he says there's no one Ds will see what what is really meant we will understand what is spiritual practice and what is the role of spiritual practice what it can do and what it cannot do we will understand that today we will understand what is what it is meant to be a real spiritual seeker emotion and we shall not only understand what is it means to be enlightened to be free if one really understands this grasps it assimilates it one will be free by the end of this talk that's why it's called the ultimate truth the final teaching like last time this time also the usual cautions apply I mentioned last time that there is an there is a immature way of understanding this and there is a mature way of understanding this and the immature way will say that oh now I realize all kinds of conventional religion and prayer and temples and churches all of them are false oh they are all imaginary or superstitious now I have got the real truth yeah even worse I had no need now I know I have no need to meditate I have no need to pray I know I have no need to do any good works or anything like that because I know the truth I am I'm free no that's an immature way of understand it the mature way is we get a deeper understanding of what samsara is what bondage is what spiritual practices what is it does it mean to be a spiritual seeker and finally what it means to be free that is the mature understanding which we shall aim at we shall see how instead of cutting at the root of religion this actually gives a foundation to religion that's what we shall see where to start let's start at the beginning it says that there is no origination no no creation of the universe no destruction no cessation of the of the universe now to put in early rhoden Echota party what does that mean we will approach it in different ways in advaitha let's take them one by one let's take a simple example which i've used often from a clay a potter fashions a pot makes a pot right so our normal way of saying is saying this is that the potter produced a pot but if you examine the pot what do you find when you touch it you'll find you're touching clay when you see in the top it is clay then you see the bottom it is clay inside it is clay outside it is clay when you wait it is the weight of the clay I mean you might say if there's water there and other things there also but fine in principle it's the weight of the clay the substance is the clay it was clay to begin with it still clay what has changed is a form it's a new form which has emerged what has changed is a name or earlier you called it a lump of clay now you call it a pot what has changed is the use you couldn't store water in a lump of clay now you can put water or milk in the pot name has changed form has changed uses change nama Rupa Yamaha in Sanskrit but the substance the reality is still the same if you are not convinced ask yourself the question suppose I take the layaway you say that a pot has been produced say okay keep the pot give my clay back keep the pot keep your pot give my clay back you cannot do that there's this joke a scientist goes to a philosopher and says that you don't need God anymore we have produced life in our our laboratory and the Philosopher's is really let show me and the scientist says come to my lab I'll show you alright first you take a little bit of clay and a little bit of Earth and the philosopher says get your own earth first God made better so if I ask for the clay back you have no part at all now can we say that no real second thing has been produced the first thing is that clay apart from the first thing that clay there is no real second thing which has been produced though the name has changed though the form has changed though I admit though the use has changed but substantially speaking there is no new thing which has been created thing the thing the substance the reality is still the same in the same way Advaita says such pure being existence itself with different names and forms appears as the samsara when the samsara appears when we see the samsara then just like the production of the pot you cannot say a new thing has been created it is that being itself suck itself existence itself that is 'no sit self which manifests now as planets and stars and quarks and protons as whales and human beings all of these are names and forms are network of names and forms drawn upon that primal business the being sucked that means pure being that pure being you are the opening shot says Tut - um I see that thou art you always wear that you are that you and you will continue to be that Maya just draws a network of names and forms over you and including this particular body and mind and we say I am this body and mind here is a universe that has been created but as far as the substance the reality is concerned it's still that primal isness son another way of understanding this is in a material world the matter is the clay for example is shaped into a part but when you come to your inner world the world of consciousness of awareness consciousness does not have to be shaped into something things just appear in your consciousness for example when the classic example in which a man mistakes a rope to be a snake in a darkness he sees something and thinks it's a rope actually but he doesn't know it's a rope he thinks by mistake that it is a snake all right and later he realizes it's not a snake it was a my mistake it's a rope now let me ask you the question was the snake born did it emerge from an egg did it wriggle on top of the rope and when you saw that it's a rope did it die and it had to be buried or something no the snake you will say no no no snake was never born it is not created it was not produced it did not die rather it appeared and that too by mistake and once the mistake was corrected it disappeared the claim in a greater Vedanta is this entire universe which we are experiencing how do we experience it rakers world this one the dreamers world when you sleep and dream and the deep sleep darkness these are the three types of experiences which we have variations all of them appear and disappear like the snake in the rope they appear and disappear not on a rope on you the consciousness that consciousness is at Oriel can you really say just like the snake was never born really never died really this universe which you experience you are experiencing it in your consciousness in your consciousness no universe is born it appears no universe is produced no universe actually evolves there it appears it is experienced it disappears do you see now how it begins to make sense when guru father says there is no origination there is no cessation of the universe display of consciousness and matter it's very interesting if you take the different points of view quickly let's take the material I'll go through the entire range of views you get in Indian philosophy the material its point of view which is of course very popular it's the most popular point of view at that time in ancient India and today in 21st century in Manhattan - what is the materialist point of view consciousness is produced out of matter so matter and energy and all they evolve into living matter bodies into nervous systems and brains and somehow mind and consciousness are produced by the brains and nervous systems so consciousness emerges out of matter this is the materialist point of view in ancient India these people they're called char walkers the materialist point of view is consciousness mind consciousness awareness sentient these are epiphenomenon they like you burn a candle and light and heat emerges from that similarly when the biochemical reactions are going on in the body and the brain consciousness somehow the operative word is somehow till today the doctors neuroscientist nobody knows how they're working hard on it but indeed we have called it the hard problem of consciousness I often mentioned this David Chalmers here who is in NYU the mind brain science consciousness unit he coined the term the hard problem of consciousness how can an objective piece of matter the brain nervous system how can it generate a completely different thing called a subjective first person experience we don't know we just don't know how does mind emerge out of matter there's an old joke in philosophy classes when they talk about mind matter dualism what is mind no matter what what is matter never mind I'm sorry I couldn't resist that's old an old old joke but it goes to the heart of the problem that it's got it now they have got to call it the hard problem of consciousness and if you google it it's all over I mean there are different branches psychologists philosophers computer scientists neuroscientists linguists they're all trying to understand and track this hard problem of consciousness how can matter give rise to consciousness but that's the view of the material list because matter is the ultimate reality so if there is something called consciousness it must arise out of matter there's no other way we will not consider any other alternative that's one point of view in India it was called the charvaka point of view the second point of view is just the opposite it's the point of view of a religion of theistic religion in Hinduism when you talk about God creating the universe so our universe is created the universe is produced it exists and is destroyed and that's what God is supposed to do Shrishti City Pro layer in Sanskrit God projects not actually creates but projects the universe maintains the universe and reabsorbs the universe at the end of the cosmic cycle so depending upon your choice of deity you can say Vishnu does it or Shiva does it or the divine mother Kali or Durga does it or the same idea is there in the theistic religions in Christianity in Islam and Judaism God creates the universe if the universe created yes very much so where is it created from God is God consciousness yes definitely whatever your idea of God in whichever religion nobody will say God is a block of stone they'll say God is consciousness God is sentient so the emit the material universe matter time space energy emerges out of consciousness if you take the principle behind it this is just the opposite of the materialist approach charvaka so the theistic approach whether in Hinduism or in any other theistic religion that matter and emerges out of consciousness second approach third approach is the eternal duality of consciousness and matter this is held by Sankhya philosophy by yoga philosophy by China philosophy they say neither emerges out of the other consciousness is eternal matter space time energy eternal so this time space matter energy they lump it together and give it one word prakruti nature prakruti that's a Sanskrit word for nature nature is eternal it is not produced from something else and what about consciousness consciousness lots of fundamental reality it coexist with nature like two parallel lines consciousness Sanskrit word Purusha nature Sanskrit word prakruti they eternally coexist neither one produces the other and they interact the interaction of consciousness and nature is samsara the if that sounds too abstract is not at all abstract it's very much concrete for us right now you what you consider yourself to be right now is an interaction of nature and consciousness prakruti and purusa you the sentient being with this body provided to you by nature with this mind provided to you by nature you are one package but with two components Purusha prakruti and this is samsara so this parallel coexistence of consciousness and matter and energy and time and space this is the view of Sankhya yoga philosophy Patanjali yoga philosophy Jaina philosophy next comes the Buddhists I'm taking one point of view the Tibetan Buddhist the maja the Mahayana point of view specifically madam a convict began about the point of view what they say is yes matter the nature and the objective universe and the subjective consciousness the to the self and the not self both are empty they are neither produced from each other nor are they continuing parallel with each other the real nature of both is emptiness Sunita they have terms for that her misciagna table which by which they mean the emptiness object of the objective universe and put girl and I dr. Harman Arachnia and put girl on Iraq Nia my rakia means the self non self nature the self itself is if you analyze it it revealed as empty there's no such thing as a self and what about the external universe no such thing as the external universe so both consciousness and matter are revealed to be empty suniye that is the Buddhist approach and if anybody is philosophically trained yes I am oversimplifying a little bit I can you see if if a philosopher might be rolling his eyes but for this purpose it will it will bring out what I'm trying to say I'm trying to just simplify and and put the point different points of view in one framework then comes the non dualist framework which we are talking about where conscious unconsciousness alone is the reality and that which we take to be the non conscious matter time space bodies our songs are of this world these are appearances in consciousness not apart from consciousness just like a dream when you go to sleep and dream all the things that you see in the dream have no existence apart from your own mind in the same way this entire universe which we experience has no existence apart from consciousness non-dual the consciousness is non-dual meaning there is no second thing apart from consciousness non-dual not two so there is no second thing apart from consciousness if this non-dual consciousness is somehow regarded as an as the other as a non dual reality then you get kashmir shaivism which talks about the param Achieva Prakash of emerges Rupa of the nature of light of consciousness Prakash alight like consciousness and reflectivity self-awareness Prakash of emerges were lupa of course in kashmir shaivism also shiva is your real nature but that's not so stressed so much as the Shiva nature is stressed or you can get another variety of non dualism which is what we are talking about which is what God apart is talking about you are that non dual reality you are that consciousness that Turia in you the consciousness the entire universe is an appearance not apart from you not a second thing apart from you hence you are that non-dual consciousness to reom you are the universe whatever you are experiencing right now it's you the consciousness both of these statements are true either I am all of this or I am none of this when we are in ignorance when we are not aware of our real nature the sign of ignorance is that I say I am this and nothing apart from this this is me and that's not me the enlightened person would say it is true to say I am all of this or I am none of this to get stuck in a particular body mind and personality that's ignorant you step back from a particular mind body minded personality into the background consciousness bacterium that's enlightenment so from this point of view the universe is not produced it is not destroyed it is nothing other than you it appears in you it shines in you and it disappears within you now but haha there is no one who is bound its I am bound by every account I am this person I'm bound by the body I'm born I'm aging I am subject to disease ill health and subject to death and subject to a thousand disappointments and hurts I am bound on all sides I have so many desires of only a fraction of which I can fulfill and even if I fulfill them I do not get the satisfaction I was expecting and bound and limited on all sides how can you say I'm not bound goda pas de bourree says you never we're bound you are not bound you never we're bound neither can you ever be bound how is that possible if you just take a look and the things which you say you bind you are you bound by the body are you not the consciousness which witnessed the little baby's body the child's body the teenagers body the young person's body the middle aged persons party the old person's body the body keeps on changing can you hold on to anything can you hold on to a particular age is that that I want to hold on to you know what do they say forever 16 some sort of fine I want to hold on to that forever 16 forever until some word forever 21 or something like that forever 21 it is there is it clothing store or something yes it's a clothing store so I want to hold on to that goroh father says neither can you hold on to that nor can that hold on to you it came and went you cannot hold on to it with whatever amount of yoga and gluten-free you do it will still go it comes and goes body is old and diseased and infirm and suffering I don't want this don't worry it will not stay it will go one day it will not hold on to you either neither the body holds on to you no you hold on to the body the mind and the mind right no not really how many times the mind has woken up in the morning how many times the mind rent how many times the mind slept and you are the witness of all of them the way they teach is very interesting I will give you it doesn't have the same force in English maybe but I still try it it's very simple almost homely but the truths are very profound a teacher is saying that when the teacher are you happy tell me are you happy or are you sad um sometimes I'm happy I always happy no sometimes I'm sad and the teacher said how is that possible how can you be two things what do you mean follow this carefully it might sound simplistic but it's very profound how can you be two things sometimes I'm happy sometimes I'm sad the teacher actually said in Hindi Kabhi Megha Kavita ha how is that possible sometimes I am a cow sometimes I am a donkey and then we say oh I see what you mean teacher all right and in that sense what I meant was not that sometimes I'm happy sometimes I'm sad but sometimes there is a feeling of happiness sometimes there's a feeling of sadness ah now we come to the point so sometimes there's a feeling of happiness and you own it and you say I am happy sometimes there's a feeling of sadness which arises in you the same awareness and you own it and you say I am sad and yet you cannot be both you are that which was there before the happy feeling came you are that which was there before this side feeling came when those feelings come you you grasp it you identify yourself with clutch it to yourself and say I am happy I am sad no you are the one which is free of happiness and sadness you are the one which is the witness of happiness and sadness witness of their arrival witness of their stay witness of their departure look at your experience is it not true what sticks to you does happiness stick to you has it ever till today stuck to you know what sticks to you the deepest misery the greatest trauma of my life the greatest cause of regret of my life know every day when I fall asleep suppose I have a great sorrow in my heart but I fall asleep it's gone when the mind shuts down the sorrow which it bears also goes away with the mind and in fact if I'm honest in my day throughout the day when I'm awake how even the this overwhelming sorrow how long does it stay can I live it does come and go I must admit it comes and goes it lessens and increases so none of them stick to me you are the one the Teflon Teflon nonstick the nonstick consciousness to which the mind does not stick the body does not stick in fact consciousness is never bound neither in Sankhya philosophy nor in vedanta philosophy in samkhya philosophy consciousness experiences a real world but even while experiencing a real world consciousness is not bound by the real world it's like the blue sky so nice and bright and beautiful yesterday in the morning now full of stormy clouds racing across the sky it's still that same sky you're not affected in the least by the clouds it looks like that we are affected by it the sky is not affected by it you the consciousness that aureum you are not affected by the storms in the mind the the ups and downs which come because of the mind or of the and they appear in the body like the clouds in the sky and they disappeared back the body mind appearances coming you the consciousness that appear in you and they disappear they melt away within you again you the consciousness you are the experiencer but ever unaffected samkhya philosophy which accepts dualism what to speak of Vedanta which does not even accept that there is a separate reality called the mind I am so miserable the veyron team will say where is this misery in my mind where is this mind in my awareness is it a real thing apart from your awareness no if the mind itself is not real what to speak of the contents of the mind the misery the happiness of the desires nothing sticks to you it arises shines and disappears in you now but nobody was ever bound by anything in any life anywhere how does it how do we get bound you know this feeling of getting bound again an example they give in them and when the teach parent in India this is the Ganga river is flowing and actually seeing this sometimes a dead body flows or floats past sometimes flower garlands float past now if you jump into the river and swim mightily and clutch the dead body the rotting body to yourself and say I'm so dirty I am an impure or I'm a sinner you have clutched it and then you claim that I have become impure and I am a sinner I am dirty all the flower garlands you clutch it and you say I have touched something purified with this garden from a temple I am elevated both Dharma and adharma the good and the bad the elevating and the demeaning they float past you in the stream of the mind you are the you are consciousness sitting on the banks of the river of the mind watching why do you have to jump in to the mine and go and clutch that one of that this one and then all up to it and then cry I am horrible I am a sinner I am depressed or look at me I am so religious I'm so pure I'm so good none of them they float past you in your awareness you don't have to clutch any of them because we get word of that and hold it to ourselves and then we cry I am bound consciousness is the principle consciousness is never bound it gets seems to be bound only when it imagines and other within itself and then establishes a relationship with that other in your dream how can you be bound will you see so many things and so many people in your dreams and then you establish relationships with those people and things in your dreams then you are bound but really speaking all the people that you see in the dream all the things that happen in the dream they are you only they are appear in you and they disappear in you and they're not really there they are imagined in consciousness I'll give you a definition of falsity a technical definition but a very powerful definition it's used in a great evident in advanced Vedanta philosophy listen carefully it sounds complicated but it's actually very simple and very powerful the original Sanskrit is this so our tenth of our wave has a monatomic atom so a tenth of our body current so 10th Ababa the karana basa monatomic captain what does it mean which something which appears in the locus of its absence is defined as false I'll repeat that again appearing in the locus of its own absence is falsity explain here are many of you are getting it take the classic example of rope and snake the snake appears in the rope but really there is no snake there so the snake is appearing where it is not there in the rope there is no snake at all it's a mistake but you saw it by mistakes just for a flash maybe so it appeared in the locust locust means the place the place means this that the rope in the place where there was no snake a snake appeared that snake which appeared in a place where there is no snake that snake is a false snake this world which appears in you the consciousness the dream is false why because it appears in the mind you are lying down and sleeping in the mind many things take place and you forgotten that you are sleeping you think it's a real world and real people and real events and then you interact with them establish relationships with them love and hate it feels real when you wake up the first reaction is oh it was a dream meaning thereby it appeared in the locust of its own absence so attentive Javed occur in a BAS a monatomic captain this entire universe the Advaita Vedanta claim is like a dream like that snake this entire universe is appearing in the locust of its own absence which is what you the consciousness after realizing this when we wake up from a dream the dream disappears when you see that it's a rope the snake disappears but in this case this dream will continue like a blue sky you know that it's the color blue is not really there in the sky once you realize it and look up you still see the blue sky Manoj water same definition water is appearing in a place where there is no water so ten tejada Karan a harmonic to emit theorem appearing in the locus of its own absences is his falsity the water appears in a desert where there is not a drop of water that's why you call it a mirage water it's not really there after you realize that when you look back upon it what do you see water it still looks like water similarly when you realize this entire world body-mind this person and all other persons they are all appearances in maybe one consciousness there are appearances in the locus of their accents which is me then the falsity of the world is realized and yet you continue to experience this then all things become become entertainment for you for agony everything is entertainment everything is fun life becomes joyful full of fun full of it becomes a blissful they call it a river of place now but there is no one who is bound and just reminded of something in the earlier point that consciousness is fundamental you know we are we're talking about consciousness arising out of matter or matter arises out of consciousness or consciousness is fundamental to the universe neither arises out of the other David Chalmers who's here in the NYU mind brain consciousness unit he says in one place in an interview he said quite humorously that if you contemplate the hard problem of consciousness long enough you become a pan psychist pan psychism means consciousness is fundamental it's not born out of matter it exists along with matter space time energy either you become a pan psychist or you go into administration you begin to have believed that consciousness is fundamental it is not originated from matter here is a person who is not influenced by Eastern mysticism or Eastern philosophy here is a person who is not at all a mystic of any sort but he is a very hard-headed philosopher and would be happy to describe himself as a materialist but he says you cannot be just cannot accept that consciousness was born out of matter with there's no way of explaining it anyway going ahead nasa hidaka now we are beginning to get the hang of what god of others doing he is using these provocative words there is no universe which was born there's nobody who's bound nobody used a spiritual practitioner but basically is pointing tutorial the ultimate reality in all of these nasa haka there is nobody who's a spirit practitioner about spiritual practice let me make a quick few quick observations the word sadaqa it relates to another word in sanskrit sadhana and another word Satya what does what do these words mean satya means a goal which I have to reach sadhana means the instrument that will take me to that goal and sadaqa means one who operates that instrument so I want to come to the Vedanta Society the goal is that Satya then what is the sadhana the instrument the subway and then I become the sadaqa who uses the subway to come here so basically it is cause and effect if I do this this will happen if this then that this is causality all spiritual practice depends on causality and gora policy is to diem the ultimate reality which you want to realize is beyond causality you cannot do something and get it Shankar Acharya in one of his commentary says what can any kind of spiritual practice any kind of work causality what can it do it can do four things it says put path there up here some scary or Beccaria force words in Sanskrit you can produce something you can get something you can change something you can refine something these are the meanings of the four words and it gives examples so the farmer put seeds in and produces crops can you produce the ultimate reality I am such a Don and they can it be produced in some way can you make it no it can't be made it's already there its ultimate reality it exists it's because of that everything else comes and goes or if you cannot produce it up you can you get it can you buy from a shop can you import it can you borrow it can I get it from my guru I am such Alan and my divine nature can I get it from somebody no that's something that you can do but no the the Atman cannot be got in that way can I modify something into the Atman like he gives the example of milk being modified into curds into yogurt so here I am a sinful fallen person can I modify myself can I change myself into divinity I am a body and a mind can I become pure consciousness can I change myself into it no that also you cannot do this for that option is refined samskaara so the building needs a facelift and you paint it or you extract all or oil from the ground a crude and then you go through a enormous process complicated process of refining it into the kinds of products you want can i reform myself a fallen being into can I define myself into divinity scrub and scrub and scrub until I shine no you cannot do that one reason you cannot do any of these things is all of them are strictly temporary so whatever you produce whatever you get whatever you produce will be destroyed at one time whatever you get will be lost at one time whatever you change will again change into something else after some time whatever you refer refine will again degrade after some time if Artman the 2d has something like this it would be something that is produced and destroyed which is gotten lost which is refined and degraded which is changed and changed and change that would not be divinity that would not be enlightenment that would not be released from from samsara you cannot do any of these it is not something that you can do by spiritual practice here is note of caution then I will not do spiritual practice thank God I'm saved I thought I had to do lots of meditation prayer and and be a veritable saint or something now you're telling me you cannot get it by spiritual practice good Swami's they say they put it very nicely both but I got the emigres okay you're going you're going to fall into a very big pity of duck for yourself no don't do that all of these spiritual practices remember they are instruments designed to achieve a goal so from avid antic perspective you begin to understand what these spiritual practices will do see this teaching if it takes hold if you feel that you are detour iam and you you actually experience life in that way if you can honestly claim I transcend my sorrows I understand sorrows at the level of body and mind and the unaffected witness of it I have no more problems thank you Swami this is the last time I'm coming to Vedanta society I've realized everything then you don't need it then you don't need spiritual practice but if I say that my MA I just can't grasp this you know I have so many problems well if you are Tori I'm the pure consciousness you don't have problems if you have problems then in some sense you're still identified with the body and mind then you definitely need the spiritual practices selfless work purifies the mind deep devotion and surrender to God takes all the desires which flow into the world collects them and directs them to God Brook tea is of great use to a person walking walking on the path of knowledge this is a great insight devotion bhakti love of God is a group is a powerful thing for those who are walking on the path of knowledge what is the big obstacle for practically what is the big obstacle for people walking on the path of knowledge our desires continue to flow out to the world desires operate at the level of the heart desires do not operate to the level of the intellect here you are using the intellect to understand these concepts and after some time if you keep at it the intellect will understand these concepts and you will get a lot of peace but the desire still remain and they continue to flow towards the world so bhakti operates at the level of the heart the problem at the level of the intellect is ignorance knowledge can cure that at the level of the intellect but the problem at the level of the heart is desire greed lust for the world the intellect cannot cure that at least not directly love of God can cure that if all the same desires instead of world put God their same desires will now flow to God what is God other than this very Torian with a particular name and form with in Sanskrit they're called body I will not go into that the idea of God in religion is an indirect way of indicating your own reality within Upanishads you say Tut Rama see that thou art once Swami told us we keep saying that thou art what we don't realize how radical a statement it is you know what it means that thou art means you are nothing other than God which means you are not the body you are not the mind you are not even this little person you are nothing other than God and even more stunning God is nothing other than you one so I mean Bengali said o it to me Chara Kono's Allah Bhagwan nee other than you the real you there is no rascal called God [Music] you are very deeply God and God is very telling you but remember the real you not the person and the otherwise it'll lead to arrogance and that is crazy that I am this little person of flesh and blood I was born in such-and-such state I am God this is megalomania this is why the duelists distrust the non duelists so much they charge the non-dualistic with sacrilege and blasphemy you are saying you are God but you misunderstand us sir I am NOT saying as a little person when I say that I am God I mean all of us an enlightened person realizes that he or she is one with God realizes that everybody is one with God God Brahman alone shines in all these bodies and minds not only me so not just Chanukah nama moksha there is nobody seeking moksha moksha means in the freedom moksha means freedom freedom from samsara that's the story we've been told that you are in samsara because of your past karma you are born in this life whatever karma you do now good or bad will give you results in future lights and you keep going through this cycle of birth and death so all Hindus and Giants and Buddhists they seeks the in Indian religions to believe in this cyclic cyclic theory and we want freedom from this the cognate to this in the symmetric religions would be salvation we going to heaven and staying with God and here God our Father comes and says nama moksha who there is nobody who's seeking motion again you understand he's talking from the Turia point of view Shankar Acharya in his beautiful hymn seed onon the Rupa her shivoham shivoham i am of the nature of shiva and pure consciousness and pure place what does he sing not her mana chart ohnaka Moana moksha the four goals of human life pleasure power in belt and morality decency religion Dharma artha kama and ultimate goal is moksha here Shankar Acharya says I do want pleasure well on right I don't want wealth okay you're a monk I don't even want the conventional morality goodness Dharma alright I don't even want moksha why because you are you are always free you are Brahman right see down on the roof of shivoham this Brahmin want moksha does Turia want mooks no why would Tony I want moksha but why would the ulti of absolute reality want workshop freedom from what but there is only one reality freedom from what but you are that one reality right now what freedom are you seeking and from what a great teacher once told wrote actually from enlightened persons perspective the same consciousness merged without any names and forms in the deep silence of Samadhi it's like an ocean without any waves and now the ocean breaks out into waves names and forms people and animals and things and the body and the mind and stars and planets appear they are waves in the same motion which that enlightened person is now here is the crucial point our Groening hona chahiye the enlightened person must not have a preference for this or that to erase the universe in the silence of Samadhi that also shows ignorance because you you think that this universe is something different from what you get in Somali to prefer this universe and not Samadhi shows an extroverted mind I want these things but these things are exactly what is there in Samadhi now moo moo shu alright follow this carefully very interesting point I will use a few terms you know Brahman is regarded as such chit Ananda existence consciousness bliss because we do not know ourselves as that immortal existence sucked we have a desire to live I must continue living in this body why because I do not know that I am that immortal sucked pure existence the in Sanskrit the word is gg we shall desire to live continue to live in this body struggle to preserve this body because I think I live only in this body somebody went and reported to Ramana Maharshi that such and such person is dead and he said it's very good your own existence is indubitable why would you want to preserve the body you exist in their waking you exist in the dream without reference to the waking body you exist in the nothingness of deep sleep also why would you want to hold on to a particular system of flesh and blood we somehow in spite of all philosophy we think our only existence is this one it's not ggv shah desire to continue existing in this body another term Jigyasa a desire to know we think we know this much and there are many many things other than what is known that we would like to know Jigyasa desire to know but we do not know that we are that one chit one consciousness in which everything is appearing suppose in your dream there are many things some of which you have seen and you get the feeling there are some things which I have not seen I must see that but when you wake up you realize whatever you saw in the dream was your own mind all the time the things known and the things unknown are all in your mind is it not so in the same way chit pure consciousness is the one reality in which the entire universe appears not knowing that we think we know this much and there are things which we do not know in detail it may be true when you are enlightened you realize everything is that one consciousness the detail you may not know but you know it is one consciousness but anyway Jigyasa desired to know this is another word boo boo cha desired to enjoy why because I think my jaw my bliss depends on the things of this universe the food and the drink and the company and the movies the pleasures of the senses that I get from gross pleasures to refine pleasures of the Arts and the science and literature all of that they will give me pleasure but I am Ananda saruba I am the nature of bliss itself it is my bliss which is reflected out there and I borrow it and taste it I go out hat in hand begging for my own money I am borrowing my own bliss is linked to the world and then I I like a beggar I seek that that bliss are outside the word is boo boo Keisha now three words Gigi which are desired to continue living in this body Jigyasa desire to know the particular things of this world boo boo Keisha desire to enjoy the particular things of this world all of them stemmed from the ignorance of my nature as such pure being immortal being chipped pure consciousness onon the pure bliss in order to make me realize this a new term is put forward mu Mucha desire to be free desire to live in the body desire to nothing separately in the world desire to enjoy things in the world all based on ignorance Mooka desire to be free is also based on ignorance what ignorance that I am already free I don't know that desire to be free but this mimosa cancels the other three it replaces the other three the desire to continue living in this body desire to no particular things in the world desire to enjoy sense subjects they are all replaced by an overarching desire to be free of samsara that's more moksha but when we realize we are such Adan and that MooMoo Charles has gone because we always we're free that's why he says nam amok show there's nobody who desires to be free from Turia point of view and finally he says na mocked ah ha not free is there is nobody who is free so what does that mean what how do you explain the enlightened people all of these people Ramana Maharshi and so many others throughout history there are free enlightened people how do you explain that what he means to say here is there is freedom but nobody who is free what does that mean to explain that let me give another example I have earlier mentioned this example me circa the Tao somebody pointed out - he was regarded as an enlightened being he lived in Mumbai a few decades ago in a slum which is regarded as an enlightened being that book is there very popular I am that somebody said to him you are an enlightened being you are Brahma gyani you are nowhere of Brahman and immediately he reacted in annoyance and he said and just as a way of teaching he said you are insulting me insulting you know or of Brahman that's the highest praise you can give in our civilization the knower of the absolute he said I am NOT Brahma Johnny I am Brahman I am NOT a knower of Brahman I am Brahman pointing out there by the secret of enlightenment when you are enlightened when you know that the absolute Turia it's not as an object I know the to do I know the satchitananda I know the absolute I have no Brahman no no you are that that's what you realize you are not a person who realizes the absolute if you're a person who says I know the absolute then you do not know the can open assured says he who claims that he knows does not know he who knows that it cannot be known as an object no truly knows so you are not a person who lives eternally you are that eternal existence itself something you are not a person who knows that ultimate reality you are that knowledge itself chip you are not a person who enjoys various kinds of blissful experiences you are that bliss itself Swami Vivekananda put it directly not that it exists it is existence itself not that it knows something it is knowledge itself not that it is happy it is happiness itself such chit Ananda when you become an enlightened person you are not a Brahma Ghani you are gallus rooper knowledge itself you are not somebody who lives eternally in this particular body your eternal existence itself you are not somebody who has lots of bliss in the mind you are bliss itself in the same way you are not somebody follow this carefully you are not somebody who has become free your freedom itself you are not a person who is Mukhtar literally the word Buchta means a person who is free the person is never free you become free of them you become free of the person the person does not become free you think of yourself as a person now you will see you when you step back from that into your real nature thorium your free of the person the person will still appear do its job every night it will disappear in deep sleep and one day in debt of the body that personality also will disappear but you the infinite existence which is the background of the person you still exist that is freedom not a person who becomes free in that sense no taha you're not a person who becomes free this is it thr parramatta this is the highest teaching ultimate truth what is this ultimate truth one reality see one reality in Samadhi in the deepest meditation in your waking world here one reality in the highest heaven and in the lowest most infernal hell I will say boldly see that one reality toriel they appear renew and disappear anew in the heights of happiness and success in the depths of misery and frustration and failure one shining reality to reham and thus you are free stand upon that establish yourself in that your real nature all these are marriages and dreams which come enjoy them when they come and go don't try to run Zen saying if they liked very much playing of one thing against the other desiring one thing that it should be so and it should not be so this is the disease of the mind why is it the disease of the mind now we realize this should be so and that should not be so I like this and I do not like this both of them are you the consciousness it shows an ignorance a preference for this and the dislike for the other it shows that you do not realize the one reality behind both of them such a person will not criticize everybody that you meet everything that happens to you is a manifestation of the light of the divine your own light you yourself appear whom to blame whom to praise this waiver countless lines one only exists whom to blame whom to praise praise or praise blamer blame doubt but one and that one is you this is the ultimate truth Vedanta points this out and now if you ask Vedanta you made everything false there's nobody bondage is false spiritual practice is false the seeker is false liberated liberated person is false everything is false then what about you mister maid aunt are you true or false I'm translating as mr. Vedanta because this for me originally said who taught peace he said our Vedanta Babu Aapke Hain mr. bell our master Vedanta what are you true or false and you know what Vedanta replies i2m false then what is the truth you are the truth my only job was to show the falsity of the world direct mediator and point towards the truth which you always wear having pointed that out please excuse me now release me let me go I'm also false don't hold on to me as the truth even up Dwight er says it's also a methodology to point out the truth the one truth which you are once you have got that and let this goals but warning Vedanta leave leaves with a warning before you realize the illusory nature of the world appearance before you realize the falsity of the world before that if you consider me to be false then you are trapped forever you're trapped forever you must use me to dissolve the world problem and leave yourself as the background the addition the ground of that appearance you are the only reality this is the ultimate truth I pray to the Lord that maybe get this intuition in our very life make this breakthrough when once you walk through these doors and you look back upon the world and see it as yourself shining forth the work is done in Buddha's this will be I dead when I learned the song then it is a beautiful poem he wrote about the light of Asia no more is birth no more is dead no more shall delusion weave her charms you know the I have known the delusion of the world and I rafters and the roof of magic and spells is broken forever I see the truth now and the awakened and paraphrasing miserable his original words were much more beautiful may we all get to say that in this very life itself you realize the truth which is already ours it's already ours it exists now in full measure right now we just have to see it with prayers to talk with mine Swamiji with their blessings may be realized this great consummation this great this greatest of all adventures may it come to a culmination in this very lifetime of ours shantih shantih shantih hey hurry he that sat sri ramakrishna repaired a must

Channel: Vedanta New York

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Keywords: vedantany, vedanta society of new york, sarvapriyananda, swami sarvapriyananda, sarvapriyananda lectures, swami vivekananda, vivekananda, vivekananda teachings, vedanta ny, vedanta, vedanta lectures, belur math, jnana yoga, hinduism, spirituality, enlightenment, higher consciousness

Id: goNIy6RDfX8

Length: 70min 53sec (4253 seconds)

Published: Sun Apr 15 2018