Transcription
foreign [Music] foreign [Music] foreign bharam yet [Music] verse 42 foreign [Music] [Music] all right so here we have two important ideas. The first idea is knowledge only removes ignorance. It does not reveal the self. That's the first idea, first concept. So I was thinking, what example can I think to help you understand? Of course, in the group discussion, I saw all of you have understood quite well and you explained the points also. One example I will give. The example at the time of the dream lion waking up the dreamer, and you cannot do anything more than that. It cannot reveal the Waker because at the time the dream lion, dreamlier ends with the dream. And when the Waker is there, you don't have the dream lion. So that example we use.
Pencil this example. Suppose there is a pot and that pot is covered by a thick blanket. Pot is covered by a thick blanket, thick, very thick. No light can go in, come out, full covered. Suppose we want to see that pot, what is required? Remove the blanket and put some light. You remove the blanket and then you have a torch or something or put on the light. So two steps are required. Remove and then put light. But suppose instead of the pot, you have a light and that is covered with a thick blanket. Now to see that light, two steps are not required. One step, what is required? Remove the blanket. And then to see that light, you don't need a light because it is light. In the same way, in the same way, to see the self, what is required? That ignorance should be removed. That's all. Why? Because self is self-lit, self is self-led, self is effulgence. Right? Are you getting this example? So the effort required is not to reveal the self. The effort required is only to remove the covering of the self, remove the ignorance covering the self. To light the self, you don't need anything. So knowledge is required. What for? To remove ignorance. Knowledge is not required to reveal the self because it is not an inert object. It is a prakash chaitanya. This example fits.
Next important point which is taken up here is that it's not that the self is gained newly. The self is myself. So far, I have not paid attention to myself. I have only paid attention to the body, to the world around. Maximum I have paid attention up to Jiva. I am so and so. In other words, my attention is on the effects of ignorance. So that attention on the effects of ignorance has prevented me from paying attention to myself. But all the time, I'm there. I have never disappeared. God is ever there. This is God. Okay. When I say Sachidananda, that is Bhagavan. Don't think Bhagavan is other than this. This is Bhagavan. But then, what? I am not paying attention to this Bhagavan. So when the ignorance is removed, my knowledge, and then the self is self-shining. Now, now the self is self-shining. Therefore, there is no question of absence of experience of self. This because self is self and it is self-experienced. Now, can you say that you have gained the self? No. The self was ever there. Now I have the attention on the self. That's all. So selfish. When I'm inattentive, non-attentive on the self, I am ignorant. My maternity of the self, then there is no problem. By nature, is Sachidananda. That is never lost. That is never lost. Example given, swakanta is necklace. The necklace was always there. It was never lost. So what is happening? By knowledge, by knowledge, I recognize that it was never lost. And that is why we say Buddha, ever enlightened, nitya Buddha muktas. That is by nature. Never did it become dirty. Just because you think that you are the Jiva, doesn't mean the dirt of the Jiva ever came to that self. Just because you think you do not know the self, doesn't mean self is not there. Selfish. Even than selfless. Only you are not paying attention to it. Buddha. Just because you think your Jiva, doesn't mean that you are that self has got samsara. Self is totally free of samsara.
Foreign. I offer my salutations to that Supreme Lord. Who is that Supreme Lord? Just my inner self, myself, pure self, which I am not seeing. And then I'm saying, I'm in search of God. I am now searching for God. I am searching for liberation. God is saying, "Hey, look at me. Please look at me. Please look at me. Look at me. I'm here only. You please look at me." And we are saying, "Where?" We are using our senses to see the Lord. We can never see. I am going for Yatra. Yatra where to see Bhagavan? Bhagavan is laughing. "I am with you only. Wherever you are going, I am with you only." And there also, you go to Bhagavan. And when they show Bhagavan to you, and then they show the light, what are you doing at that time? You're closing your eyes. Why? Because the inner self. Quite on the mind and see the Lord within. That is the significance of Aarti. Is religion? This is philosophy. Can you see that connection? But in philosophy and religion, this is religion. What is religion? Meaning what? Don't hear any other sound except the sound of this call for seeing the self. That that bell is to say, shut off the mental noise. That is bell. And that light is what? Knowledge light to show Bhagavan. Aarti is being taken. Now when the Aarti is being taken, even if the baby child is there with the mother, and the child is looking at what? Mother will say, "Cross your eyes. Close your eyes. Close it eyes." But light, if you want to see it, close your eyes. Because you can't see God with that outer light. You have to see God with the inner light. This is philosophy. So philosophy is what? Philosophy is a practicalization of that knowledge. That very knowledge you are putting it as a practical. It's a practicals. Okay.
Foreign [Music] because of ignorance, it feels as though this Atman is not there. And we're taking the whole journey to reach the self. All that we are doing with all the sadhnas is what? Finally, the destruction of this ignorance. And when the ignorance is destroyed, then we say self-realization. We say, actually, that is what it is. Again, knowing that this necklace was never lost. It was ever on my neck. Even when I was searching, it was on my neck. When I find it out, again, it is on my neck. What was the change? The change is only the movement from ignorance to knowledge. That's the only thing which has changed. Nothing otherwise has changed. Because now we have found the necklace, it doesn't mean one more bead is added to the necklace. Because you thought the necklace was lost, it doesn't mean that two, three beads went away. It was the same. When you do not know the self, when you did not know the self, the self is Sachidananda. When you know the self, the self remains Sachidananda. I have been always Sachidananda in ignorance and knowledge. Okay. So what exactly happened in ignorance? What exactly happens in knowledge? Both these Bhagavan Shankaracharya explains in the next two verses.
Foreign [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] [Music] right. So what exactly happened? If you look at the whole thing, what exactly happened in ignorance? What exactly happens in knowledge? Bhagavan Shankaracharya gives an example. He says, because of ignorance, because of delusion, imagination, what has happened? In sthanu, you see purusha. Purusha is a human being. What is tanu? Stranu is post. Some in a post, how you can see human being? Post. Can you see human being? Usually, rope, snake, shell, silver, that is all fine. Desert, mirage. Postman. How? Branches, leaves, and all. Ah, is leaf? Shaka? Branch? Virjina? Not there. Without taru, tree. A tree without branches and leaves. But why it is like that? Swamiji, you see, in those days, when they used to use firewood for cooking, so what they would do is that around that, they would put these trees which grow very fast, very fast they grow. And what does a lady do? The lady, every day, what she does is that she goes, cuts those branches, trims those leaves, takes it inside and uses as firewood for cooking and for other purposes also, even boiling water. So many purposes they use this. The man who was gone, the man of the house, was gone for work to the fields. He returns back in the evening. And from distances, is "Hey, who is that fellow standing near the window?" Two hands like this. From distance, in that semi-darkness, some thief. You, I have to alert my wife. Then he tries going in a different way so that this fellow who from this window can't see. And finally, she goes inside. Defaults. But no sound, nothing is coming. "I'm here only." He takes his knife out again, goes there, and then sees. "Array, he comes and says, did you cut the tree?" He says, "Yes." Because you know, people won't understand. Post in postman. It is not rhyming so well also. So if you see, I do not know in your book what is written there, how the translation is. Swamiji changed it. Gurudev, he changed it. He did not say man in the post. In the post, can you see that post to ghost? This was a new addition. Post to ghost. This is what exactly has happened.
You are seeing that individual. It's only imagination. Nothing has actually changed in the Jiva. Now you clearly see that man is nothing but a post. Finally, you come to see. Then what happened to that man? What happened to the thief? The moment you see that it is nothing but a post, and what happens to the thief? It just goes away. Where did it go away? Where did the thief go away? Go into the house? Deductive? Go somewhere else? Did the thief, because you brought that knife, ran away somewhere? No. It was never there. It was never there, first of all. Never there. Where will it go? It just ends. It just sees us the experience of Jiva. Baba, just goes away. That's all. Brahman. Did it run away somewhere? Once you know your real nature, once you know this is I am not a Jiva, where will the Jiva go? It just ends. That's all.
Foreign quickly, immediately, without any time lag. Ate example, like the confusion of directions. Let me explain this one or the example. Let us see first. Suppose you have come to a place, night time. You've reached a place. Did you all reach daytime or nighttime here? Evening or night. Night. Suppose you reach a place, night time. When you reach a place, night time, they give a room, probably, let us say, a hotel room. Even then, you go, you settle down, put your baggage, everything. And then suppose, let us say, you are a person who does your daily Pooja and all, and you're carrying your altar with you. You're carrying the altar with you. Now, after putting your bed and arranging everything, now you want to take your altar. And then you wonder, which is East? ER, you keep it. That keep it with you. Let us leave. Morning, when you go to sleep, then you get up in the morning. If you open the curtain, ah, there is Sun. East. Now, when you have found out East, we won't have any doubt. Which is West? You won't have any doubt. Which is North? Which is South? Yes. Everything finding one. All your doubts have gone away. You found only Sun rising in the East. Sun rises in the East. Sunrise on the East. Now, once you know what is East, then any doubt about which is South, North, West, everything goes away. In the same way, by the knowledge of one tatva, by the knowledge of reality, by the knowledge of the nature of the reality, experience, not just intellectual knowledge, experience, actual experience, not depending on somebody is telling you this is East. To yourself, it is your personal experience. Doubtless, it is. Then what happens? The knowledge which rises out of this personal experience of oneself, of the reality, quickly, no delay, quickly, what does it do? All delusions of "I am the body." All delusions. "This is mine. This is hers." This is all those things have gone. No. I know my Japanese. I can't even tell you. If I tell you what I'll have done, you would not have taken me for this camp. All kinds of ignorant notions about oneself. We have a million notions about ourselves. Only even if you say "I am good," it is ignorance. Even if you say "I am bad," that is also ignorance. Everything is ignorance. Any notion we have about ourselves. Sachidanta is not a notion. It is a direct experience. Everything else is imagined. Sachidanta is my swarupa. Swarupa never goes away. All kinds of properties we imagine of ourselves based on our actions, based on our thoughts, based on our words, based on our past history, our past history, the upadhis, past history. What do I have? See what a freedom it is. Absolute freedom. Absolute freedom. All of them, it puts an end. Like how big Brahma, like the delusion, are like the various notions or confusion, like the confusion of the directions. When you know that this is East, the sun has risen here, and you're seeing with your own eyes. Okay. That was [Music] [Music] what is the perception of this nyani? What is this perception of the self-realized master? This is taken up in the next two verses. Let us read them.
Foreign [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] [Music] some yet Yogi. Who is a Yogi? Today's Yoga Day, right? International Yoga. Yogi. The word yoga comes from the root which means to unite. Unite. U n i t I think you must be knowing. Yoga means to unite. Who uniting with whom? The you uniting with the self. This is called as jivatma becoming one with paramatma. Today, I consider myself to be an individual. I no more consider myself to be an individual, but I am one with the paramatma. This is yoga. The final yoga. Final yoga. This is the final, final yoga. And for this, these are the initial steps. Means focus. First, you focus. Then dhyana. We have studied. Then samadhi. Samadhi is of two types. Then what if samadhi where you put yourself fully, where you're absorbed in that. In other words, this person who has gave to yoga is a yogi. And anybody who is practicing for that also, working for that also, we call that person Yogi. He is only now giant. MBBS, one month over. Is going to college and coming in the home. They start calling him "Our doctor has come." And he's just now, he's not even so much. Five years is there. And afterwards, house sajan, see, so many things are there. Then only he will become a doctor. But now itself, we start calling him doctor. This fellow is very good in doing shavasana. We call them Yogi. Why? Started. All right. This is the path of Ashtanga Yoga. Then you have the path of Karma Yoga. What is Karma Yoga? Doing one's duties to perfection. Have you watched today the Prime Minister's address on the Yoga Day? You watch. You'll quote all this. You'll quote on this thing from Bhagavad Gita. It is in action perfection. Bring it with your full heart and soul. And then dedicating it to God. Dedicating it to God means what? Even when you do the actions to full perfection, you say, "Bhagavan, this capacity, ability, you have given. This body, this mind, everything is your grace. Through what you have given, I am only serving you." This kind of. And when you give something to God, to your most dear Lord, will you give anything which is substandard? No. No. You'll give the best. So making your actions the best and offering it to the Lord as you are worship, puja. This is Karma Yoga. Yoga. Bhakti Yoga. What is Bhakti Yoga? The same Lord as Bhagavan Rama, as Krishna. You worship. And who's this Rama? Finally, his Atma Rama. Who's this Krishna? Finally, this Krishna is also finally that Sachidananda.
Foreign Lord, who is beyond names and forms. For the purpose of upasana, for the purpose of worship, we give a name and form. Which is finally, you give up also. And you say, "Bhagavan, you are my Atma." Is I am in your heart. Foreign. I am the self. So you take this Bhakti Yoga. And finally, you reach also the same yoga. Union. Yoga. And then what is yoga? What you're doing is Foreign. The gold is also yoga. The path is also yoga. Meaning, through this path, you reach that final union. So today, we have understood what is yoga. Is it not? What is yoga? The goal, the part, both we have seen. So this Yogi means without any doubt, clearly. Not just clearly. He has understood. Not just intellectual knowledge, but actually experiential wisdom. Not that somebody told you this is East. You open the curtain and suffer yourself. Yes, this is East. Personal experience. Not going by faith and trust. You, his faith and trust was required on their face when you started. But you cannot end in mere faith and trust. You have to fulfill faith and trust by actual experience. Then is faith required? No. You are you are the proof of it. Faith when you start. As you start experiencing, you see that faith what you had is true. And finally, when you come to the total experience, you are the proof for that.
Foreign. They are the living proof for it. And from their experience and from their wisdom, when they speak, we are all also convinced. Yes. And we also, yes, this is where I have to go. We also walk the path. But you should not always have only faith. You should finally come to your own experience also. Faith should culminate in experience. Reaches its fulfillment in anubhuti. Sacha Yogi. What is this experience? He perceives. He experiences. What is his experience? This entire world of infinite space and time of objects of enormous variety. Such variety is there in this world that one person's thumb impression is not the same as other person's thumb impression. Oh, such a variety is there in this creation. And all this variety, we analyze and then we create subjects. Botany, zoology, physics, chemistry, organic chemistry, inorganic chemistry, physical chemistry. Aquatic animals, then terrestrial animals, amphibians. Just because we are able to categorize them, we think we are wise. But every time they discover new and new things. In fact, there's so many things remaining undiscovered even now. We may have gone to moon, but we have not explored the most deepest portions of the ocean. One flight went somewhere into the ocean. We have not found out where it has gone. So much remains undiscovered and unseen. Only in one planet where we are all sitting and eating and giving all our lives, having children and and growing. So much is there in this whole cosmos. And alleged, how many cosmoses? Cosmos after cosmos after cosmos. This entirety, this nyani sees as what? Sees only in itself. He sees only in his self. Means what? There's no space in his heart. No, no, no. He doesn't think himself as the body, mind, and intellect. The infinite self. And all of them are what? Buddhana.
Foreign. Oh, he sees all in himself. And all as himself. There is no difference between himself and the entire world. He sees. This is his experience. In other words, the nyani does not think something else other than him. Why are you saying something other than him? You should say something other than her. Problem. People fighting on all these kind of useless nonsense. There's neither him nor her. Only one self is there. All kinds of things. And how is this experience possible? Through the eyes of knowledge. Through the eyes of experience. Through the eyes of wisdom. He has opened the third eye. Shiva, open the third eye. We have two eyes. These are what? Charma chakshu. A. And then we have one eye that is which is close to now for Shiva. It is open. That is why when Shiva opened the third eye, the whole world burns. What do you mean? Whole world burns? What is the meaning of it? It means the whole world loses its existence. Because the nyani, for the nyani, there is no world. There is only self. This is a symbolism of the third eye. So that Shiva, you worship. Why? So that you become that Shiva. Is Lord Shiva opens the third eye, meaning what? The entire world becomes basma. Is it not? Sure. Means what? Goes to dust. It vanishes. When the nyani opens his eye, or when you open your third eye, the world ends. The word ends means what? There's no world other than you. That is the end of the world. [Music] This whole world is self alone. Speaking of the nyanis experience. Today, for us, when we hear all those things, we it looks like an idea. An ideal. One day, yes, one day we shall overcome. We shall overcome. We shall overcome. One day. Today, now, if this knowledge is there, that is the end of it. That is a completion.
Foreign. Not the small eye, but the bigger eye. Than the self, there's nothing. There is only self. I have you heard this line? Foreign. Because it is infinite. Foreign. Like what? Like how every part, every plate, every whatever utensil which is made of clay is clay. Hello. Other than clay, you cannot get anything there. It may be called as a plate, but it's clay. It may be called as a pot, but it is only clay. You remove pot, you remove clay. There is no part. You remove clay, there is no plate. You remove anything there is that no accidental is not there. Can you say there is other than Sachita? Anything? Nothing. You remove existence. The whole world will crumble to nothingness. That existence is the. In this way, swatman. This niani sees all has himself alone. You know. And now Swamiji was speaking to us. Speaking to us. We'd say he was speaking to us at his other limitation. He us. And Gurudev was speaking. Chennai, or Mumbai, or Bangalore, or so many any place. Thousands of people at those times. Thousands. No hall cannot covered it. So open, open here. Thousands. Sometimes in Chennai and all, I think I don't know how many thousands. Nine thousand, ten thousand. Bombay also. Bangalore, thousands. And pin drop silence will be there. Totally. And every person sitting there feels, "Is talking to me." [Music] It's not like a lecture given and then people said, "No." Everyone used to felt that he's addressing me directly to me. And everyone felt close to Gurudev. Ten thousand people sitting. How can everyone be close? But felt close. I'm saying because I have ex I've seen explodes. Why? Because the nyani connects with each one very closely. Because the other person is not other person. Other person is the self alone. That was the experience we all had. My way.
Foreign [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] which in the which earlier in ignorance were considered to be oneself. The body was taken to be oneself. And taking the body to be one cell, one had the feeling, "I am man or woman, born in a particular family." One had the feeling that "I am, etc., etc." One in a particular place. One has the feeling that "I belong to the state, to that state, born in a certain country." One belongs. One thinks that "I belong. I'm this state. I'm this country. I'm that country." And "I am this person, Indian person." You know, US science and Japanese. "I am a Chinese." Are not only that of the mind, identified with the mind. All the thoughts of the mind. When the anger comes, "I am angry." This was an experience before as a Jiva. No more. He has got yearly limitation. Any identification. His union with the selfish is so much one, so complete that this whole world is not even a family. Is he himself? In other words, every object, every being, every person, anyone anywhere, sinner, saying to good, to bad, he has no differentiation. He has only the knowledge that "I am everything. I am everyone." Why? [Music] Because his nature now is Sachidananda. Wow. How did this person become so completely different? How did the Jiva now? He was also a najiba before. Totally given up that love. What is the nature? Sachidananda. How did this change happen? It is like what? Brahmara. Means worm. A brahmakita means what? The kita becoming a brahmara. Becoming pramara. The worm becoming warm, becoming butterfly. What is this? The caterpillar. How it becomes a butterfly? Caterpillar is eating all leaves and all. The butterfly Foreign flies. Caterpillar, fish, butterfly, beautiful. Caterpillar touches you. Are you eating? Scratching. Butterfly, you only wish it comes and sits on you. But remember, it is a caterpillar which was earlier this despicable, this most irritable and most unwanted. It is that caterpillar which alone is the butterfly. But what was caterpillar? What was butterfly? Totally different. It's not just a different. You can't imagine how the caterpillar can be butterfly. The first time someone told me when I was very young, they said, "Butterfly was earlier caterpillar." I said, "No, not possible." No. Then in the school, they taught me it has got different stages. There is something called metamorphosis. Yes. Capital police. But it undergoes the stage of thorough meditation. Because they're not total silence, undisturbed silence, solitary under the leaf. Nobody knows. Nobody has seen. Unknown to the world, that sadhaka. He said, deep samadhi where the caterpillars, the entire system, the whole system undergoes a total change. Total change. And and comes out of the wind. So beautiful and flies. And the pure heavenly space in total freedom. Goes through shravana, manana, and transforms from the despicable Jiva to the Supreme Brahmana. [Music] But you can't see the connection. No connection.
Shall I give you one more way of looking at it? Brahmara is also a wasp. Wasp, you know. Wasp. I haven't seen. I don't know what you call in Tamil. We call qualavi. Huh? Bhavara. Okay, okay. It's called wasp. Have you seen how a wasp builds its nest for its child? Or it's. Have you seen that? Usually, it will breed with clay in which it has put its saliva and makes it wetter. So first, it will build that. And after building that small, you know, thing like this, that that house, the opening, it leave it empty, not covered. You have to watch all these things carefully. It's very interesting. It will come slowly. It will put something again. And it will go again. Again, bring something. Behind the window, somewhere it will do and create this. And then after some time, after this home is built, it will bring a small worm child, small worm, a larva. It will bring. And that worm will be hanging. It will hold. And it will bring and it will put inside. And then it will close it. And after some time, it becomes a wasp. And then it breaks open and comes. Poetically, what we say. We don't say like this. Poetically, it's a poetic license. Poetic imagination. I can imagine. What is this? This is kavi samaya. It is called this wasp. Now, you see how the quiet thinks. This wasp, after it has put this baby inside, this wasp mother stands there, stands aware in the entry, on the door, blocking the way. And it has got huge eyes. Which stands there and looks at that baby. The baby is utterly mesmerized, hypnotized by that mother. Keeps on looking. In case this larva, that baby moves a bit here, there. Okay. And the baby looks, looks, looks. No, don't look here, there. Exactly are. In case, in utter fear of that strike from the mother, that baby meditates on the mother. And when the baby that meditates on the mother, the baby which is it becomes now a brahmara. So like that, whatsoever. The same way, the guru catches a fellow. They find there. This fellow has got the capacity. Catch a sort of brings in, keeps him in the gurukula. And looks at that fellow. Disciplines him. And the fellow also willingly takes the discipline because love. And continuously listening to the guru's teaching, shravana. Non-stop reflecting upon the teaching, manana. And meditating upon the ultimate truth which the guru expounds. Also becomes the same paramatma. Very beautiful.
The first time I listened to it from Gurudev, my God, I can't tell you. I can't tell you how it was. This fellow who was earlier this ignorant fellow, suffering and going through ups and downs of life, becomes totally changed. Finally, the process is the same. Processes shravana, manana, reaching to the ultimate samadhi. Only such a person is only such a person. What is jeevan mukta? Swamiji. Jeevan mukta is a person who is liberated even while living. Liberated even while living. Even one being present in the body, mind, and intellect, is beyond the body, beyond the mind, beyond the intellect. The limitations of the body, mind, intellect are no more his limitations. A saint is that. We all grow to become satjivan muthas. The very fact Bhagavan thought that we deserve to gain this knowledge shows Bhagavan's faith in us. That we can. We have to strive. How do we strive? First, perform your duties well. Karma Yoga. All spiritual life starts with Karma Yoga. And once the mind becomes pure, everything. The very fact that you're all sitting here shows that there is an amount, an element of purity and goodness. But it searches that it shall show us that there is an opportunity for us to keep walking. Okay. [Music] um [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music]