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5. Mundaka Upanishad | Mantras 1.1.8 - 9 | Swami Sarvapriyananda

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Summary

Core Theme

This content explores the concept of Brahman as the ultimate cause of the universe, detailing the process of creation and the different philosophical perspectives on reality within Advaita Vedanta, ultimately aiming to guide individuals towards enlightenment.

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oṃ bhadraṃ karṇe bhiḥ śṛṇuyāma devāḥ bhadraṃ paśye mākṣabhir yajatrāḥ sthirair aṅgais tuṣṭuvāgam̐sas tanūbhiḥ vyaśema devahitaṃ yadāyūḥ

svasti na indro vṛddhaśravāḥ svasti naḥ pūṣā viśvavedāḥ svasti nastākṣaryo ariṣṭanemiḥ svasti no bṛhaspatirdadhātu

oṃ śāntiḥ śāntiḥ śāntiḥi

Om O Vedic Gods, may we hear auspicious words with our ears.

While engaged in sacrifices, may we see auspicious things with the eyes.

While praising the gods with steady limbs, may we enjoy

a life that is beneficial to the gods.

May Indra of ancient fame be auspicious to us.

May the all-knowing Pusha, God of the earth, be propitious to us.

May Garuda, the destroyer of evil, be well disposed towards us.

May Brihaspati ensure our welfare.

Om Peace Peace Peace.

So we have started studying the Mundaka Upanishad.

A quick summary of where we are

and then we shall proceed.

What we have seen so far is; this ancient knowledge

was transmitted from guru to disciple

since ancient times.

And where the text picks up is, a disciple Shaunaka, comes to the guru

Angiras, and poses a question.

The question is, kasminnu bhagavo vijñāte sarvamidaṃ vijñātaṃ bhavatīti.

Oh revered sir, by knowing what,

one thing...

By knowing which one thing, is everything here,

here meaning in this universe, whatever I experience, everything that

I experience in life, all of it, will be known?

So what is that one thing?

What's behind this question?

Behind the question is the idea that if I know

the cause, I'll know the effect.

Or the material cause, I know the effect.

If I know what gold is, I know essentially what golden ornaments are.

Essentially.

If I know what water is, I know what waves and foam and surf and raindrops

and the water in the glass, all of that, what it is, I know.

If I know wood...so on

I know what wood is, so I know all the wooden furniture,

I understand what it is, essentially.

In its substantial nature, in its reality.

Not in detail.

So, a variety of ornaments may be produced.

Who knows what will be produced today or what has been produced in the past.

I may not know the details, the forms of those ornaments, nor their names,

but I know what they really are.

They really are nothing other than the gold which I know.

So, if you know the cause, you know the effect.

And what Shaunaka is asking the Guru; Is there

one cause for this entire universe?

And of course, Vedanta says Brahman is the cause of the universe.

There is one cause.

And it can be known.

In fact, the most remarkable thing is that you are that Brahman.

So, the Guru starts instructing him.

First of all, he makes a distinction, based on the question.

There are two kinds of things to be known.

There are two kinds of knowledge,

Paravidya and Aparavidya.

The supreme knowledge and the relative knowledge.

Transcendent knowledge and relative knowledge.

Higher knowledge and lower knowledge.

Knowledge of the cause is the higher knowledge.

And knowledge, the detailed knowledge of the effects, is the lower knowledge.

Spiritual knowledge of the one reality is the higher knowledge.

And all the sciences and the arts and the humanities, whatever we do in

this world, that is the lower knowledge.

So, he makes this distinction.

Then, he says that, that by which, and he gives

a list of all the lower knowledge,

the four Vedas, the six auxiliaries and everything.

And that by which we know the one imperishable, that's the higher knowledge.

Thereby indicating that there is an ultimate cause of the universe,

which he calls Akshara, the imperishable.

And then he goes on to explain what this, or indicate what this imperishable is.

He uses a string of negatives.

It can't be seen or heard.

It's not an object of the senses.

It's not an object of the motor organs.

You can't see it, hear it, smell it.

You can't walk to it or catch hold of it.

And by extension, our instruments also can neither know it

nor can they manipulate it and so on.

And then the question would be, all right, suppose such a thing is there.

Suppose Brahman is there, pure consciousness, pure being.

But what about the question that the student asks?

The student might think; I ask, tell me one thing

by knowing which I know everything here.

So, if you say that there is some imperishable reality,

okay, there might be.

How does that help me?

Because I want to know one thing by which I can know everything here.

And then the teacher says, Tat bhutayonim paripashyanti dheera.

That one Brahman, which I indicated through negatives, not this,

not that, is also the source of all the things in this universe.

The entire universe emerges from Brahman.

Brahman is the cause and the universe is the effect.

The wise, the enlightened, here in this life, by living this life,

they see that cause in and through everything, just

as you might see clay in all pots, just as you might see gold

in all golden ornaments.

Exactly like that, the enlightened one sees Brahman in

and through all the effects.

What are the effects?

This universe.

What's that like?

How is this one Brahman the producer of this entire universe?

Then the teacher replied with three examples.

He says, as a spider produces the web from its own body.

So, for the web, the spider is the material cause, because the web

is produced from its own body, and also the intelligent cause,

because the spider is a sentient being spinning a web.

Similarly, Brahman, the god of religion, Saguna Brahman, Brahman with attributes,

is the material cause of this universe and the intelligent cause

of this universe.

That's what that spider example means.

Now, one might question there that, all right, spider, but spider puts in

a lot of effort in making a web.

So, does God have to work really all that hard

to make this universe?

And also, the web example is a little inadequate, because the web

is just one kind of thing.

The spider makes a web.

That's it.

But the universe is diverse, is enormously diverse.

So, the next example answers these two questions.

Just as from the earth, herbs and plants and trees emerge, of a variety,

and they emerge effortlessly,

the earth doesn't have to work hard.

Just they emerge from the earth, all sorts of plants

and herbs and trees and so on.

So, a variety, the universe of tremendous variety,

emerges effortlessly from Brahman.

So, is Brahman like a force of nature?

Many people, when they hear Advaita, they try to match it, not their fault,

but they try to match it with their knowledge of science.

They say, oh, it's some kind of energy

or it's some kind of something.

They match it with super strings or quarks.

No, no, no, all that is matter.

That's matter and energy.

That's not Brahman.

Or that's not Brahman in itself.

Then, so, just like the earth is an insentient thing,

and plants emerge from that, is it like that?

Is Brahman an insentient thing?

No.

The third example is, just like from the living human body, hair

and nails and all that, they emerge.

Similarly, Brahman is consciousness, is awareness,

in fact, the source of all sentience, and from that emerges

a non-sentient universe.

Universe which is... borrows its existence and awareness from Brahman.

Existence, awareness and purpose. Sat, chit, ananda, borrowed from Brahman.

So the universe emerges

just like the...hair, it's not a living thing, emerges from a living body.

Nails, not a living thing, they emerge from a living body.

Similarly, the universe, which is diverse, emerges from the one Brahman.

The universe which is non-conscious, jada, emerges from

the consciousness, Brahman, chetana.

Universe which is impermanent, anitya, emerges from the permanent.

You see, from Brahman, a very dissimilar universe appears.

That's the meaning of that example.

So the words used are, yatha, tatha, yatha, just like, just like what?

yathor ṇanābhiḥ sṛjate gṛhṇate ca, the spider.

yathā pṛthivyāmoṣadhayaḥ saṃbhavanti, earth and shrubs and herbs.

yathā sataḥ puruṣātkeśalomāni as from the living human body

emerges hair and nails and so on.

Hair, basically.

tatha - tatha means like that.

So these are examples, like that.

tathā'kṣarātsaṃbhavatīha viśvam like that.

From the imperishable appears, emerges this universe.

Now, next, he's going to give details about the emergence

of the universe from one Brahman.

See, the way this teaching has been structured, the question was;

Tell me one thing by which I'll know everything.

Now he has told you that one thing.

The teacher has told you that there's one imperishable reality.

But he has to show how this everything has come from that one thing.

Therefore, if I don't understand the connection between gold and ornaments,

I won't understand what is meant by; By knowing gold,

you know all the ornaments.

I have to see how that gold is these ornaments, how the goldsmith carved

or molded these ornaments out of this gold.

So how does from Brahman...how is this universe crafted

or how does it emerge?

Basically, a very...the story of creation, but in a very philosophical way.

Now, onto the next mantra.

More details about the emergence of the universe.

Eighth mantra.

tapasā cīyate brahma tato annam abhijāyate

annātprāṇo manaḥ satyaṃ lokāḥ karmasu cāmṛtam

A very melodious Sanskrit.

Through knowledge, Brahman increases in size.

From that is born food, the un-manifested.

From food evolves prana, the Hiranyagarbha.

Thence the cosmic mind.

Thence the five elements.

Thence the world.

Thence the immortality that is in karma.

What's all this?

All right.

The point is that there is a sequence.

When from the one, the many comes,

from Brahman comes this universe,

there is a sequence.

It's not accidental or it's not random.

Shankaracharya in his leading commentary to this mantra, before the mantra

starts, he makes an observation.

yadbrahmaṇa utpadyamānaṃ viśvaṃ tad anena krameṇa utpadyate

So the whole universe is going to come from Brahman,

but it comes in a sequence.

And the sequence is going to be mentioned.

na yugapad badaramuṣṭi prakṣepavaditi krama niyama vivakṣārtham ayaṃ mantra ārabhyate

So, it's not like you have a handful of berries, jujubes, you know,

that's a little fruit, like a small berry.

So if you take a handful of that, Shankaracharya says, a handful

of these small berries and you suddenly scattered them,

just a random scattering;

Does the universe appear like that?

Just like a blast, you know, suddenly everything comes all

at the same time, like that?

Or is there a sequence?

And he says, the Upanishad says there is a sequence.

And what's that sequence?

We're going to see that now.

I'll tell you what the sequence is first,

and then we will go into the mantra itself.

There are two views on this.

There is a more radical non-dualistic view,

which actually says the universe appears, just like that.

Because it's not a real production,

nothing has really come.

The universe is Brahman, existence, consciousness, bliss all the time.

There is no particular sequence because there is no emergence anyway,

it's an appearance, like a dream.

So you might be in a dream walking around, talking with people,

things might be happening.

And in the dream also, there might be a story, that the world evolved like this...

You know, the universe started and the worlds were created,

life evolved and, you know, human beings came on this planet and history,

and then finally we are here talking with each other and walking around

on the streets, here in Manhattan.

And that's the sequence.

But is that true?

It's not true.

Because we know when we wake up, none of that happened.

It was just a dream.

It appeared all by itself.

There was no multi-billion year old evolution

to come to that point in the dream.

It was a projection of the mind.

Similarly, there is a radical non-dual view, which says

that the entire universe appears like that.

There is really no, I mean, it's all a story within that appearance.

Really, these things did not happen because world after all is an appearance.

In that appearance you can tell the story of a sequence and everything.

That's a radical view.

All that is not taken into account here.

If you go to the Upanishads, in general the Upanishads speak about a sequence.

So what is that sequence?

I'll tell you, I'll give you the finished product first.

But here we are going back to the construction materials, you know.

The finished product which you come across in later texts.

So, we studied Vedanta Sara.

There in detail this sequence was talked about.

I'll sum up in a couple of minutes,

but remember, Vedanta Sara is a much later text.

It was written about 700, 800 years ago.

Where did they get all that from?

They got it from the Upanishads.

But not from any one Upanishad.

All these Upanishads, most of them, they talk about a sequence.

In the emergence, creation, whatever, projection,

whatever you want to say of the universe.

So studying all of that together, putting it together, using reason,

you have a model, like a standard model which is taught to Vedanta students.

So what's the standard finished model, the finished product?

It goes something like this,

Brahman is existence consciousness Bliss.

Maya, which is the three gunas, Satva, Rajas, Tamas which is neither ultimately real,

because only Brahman can be ultimately real in Advaita Vedanta.

Maya is a set of potentialities, names and forms.

And this Maya projects Brahman as the five elements,

the space and air and fire and water and earth,

the cosmic elements.

And these elements are in what is called, a subtle form.

And these subtle elements combined together, they form mind.

Mind is formed of the sky, air, fire, water, earth and so on,

but they are in the subtle form.

They are not in the physical form which we see.

So mind is formed of that.

Mind, intellect, prana, all of that is formed.

Then these subtle elements combine together

to make more gross elements.

Out of the gross elements, these worlds are produced.

They talk about 14 worlds being produced,

and in that our bodies are produced, living bodies.

And the minds come to reside in these living bodies,

and the sentient beings who are basically reflections

of Brahman in these minds,

they continue.

Where do the sentient beings come from?

They had their seeds in Maya.

In Maya, all of our past universes, our samskaras, our karma is all recorded.

They are just inscribed onto the minds when the minds are produced.

These bodies, living bodies, they are born, they age, they die,

and there are many, many such bodies.

We go through... these sentient beings, which are none other than Brahman

limited by Maya, each with their own destinies

formed by past karma,

they are downloaded, let's say, into these minds,

and the minds are downloaded into these bodies, each time a body is born.

And then they go through their destinies on these 14 universes which are created by

Ishwara, by Saguna Brahman.

Until they, attain their enlightenment

and they are released from these cages, of mind-body cages

and they attain their realization as Brahman.

And the universe goes on for some time.

And finally, Saguna Brahman, or God, dissolves this universe,

withdraws the physical universe into the subtle,

subtle universe back into Maya.

Maya is the causal universe.

That's the story.

So that's what we saw in Vedanta Sara.

Now, where did this standard model of, it's called cosmology,

Vedantic cosmology, where did it come from?

Vedanta claims, everything that we speak about comes from the Upanishads.

So, how do you ground these theories in the Upanishads?

Take a look at the Upanishads.

Various Upanishads, they have these ideas, these teachings

about creation in a different language.

Mundaka Upanishad is one of the more clearer ones,

but even here you will see there are arcane words and terminologies.

They don't exactly match the standard model.

But remember, standard model has been put together by consulting

multiple Upanishads and coming to a consensus about...

The general pattern is, you will recognize here;

What's the general pattern?

The general pattern is, ultimate reality is Brahman.

That's always there.

Now, in association with Maya, which is not ultimate reality,

according to Advaita Vedanta

it is part of the projection, part of the movie, part of the fiction,

in association with Maya... Maya is like a seed state,

Maya is basically the set of names and forms which will come out,

it's like a potential state,

in association with Maya, Brahman is called God.

I mean, the name in Vedanta would be Saguna Brahman, Ishvara,

Bhagavan, multiple names.

It corresponds to the God of all theistic religions.

Why does it do that?

Because the idea of God in all theistic religions is;

God is the creator of the universe.

That's the one common definition.

So, creator of the universe.

But also, the repository of all great qualities, blessed qualities,

omniscient, omnipotent, omnipresent,

all loving, all powerful, all of that.

So, maximum of good qualities.

So, all of that is found in Saguna Brahman, Ishvara, Bhagavan.

So, this is called the causal state.

What's the causal state?

Brahman plus Maya.

Why is it called causal state?

Because it's like a seed.

All the names and forms which we will see as this universe,

this entire universe of variety, is found in that Maya,

but in an indistinguishable state.

Just as a tree, with all its branches and leaves and flowers and fruits,

is actually that one little seed.

If you examine the seed, you won't find fruits

and flowers and leaves.

But the potentiality is there.

All the information and power for generating a tree

under suitable circumstances is there in the seed.

So, that's why, Maya is like that,

Maya is called the causal state.

The seed is the causal state of the tree, future tree.

Another beautiful example, which you find used in

Kashmiri Shaivism, is of the peacock.

The peacock has a dazzling display of feathers.

Some of the most magnificent color found in nature

is found in the tail of the peacock

when it dances, it unfurls the tail and dances.

But the Kashmiri Shaivaites say that all that display of amazing color

and beauty, magnificence, it's all there in the egg of the peacock.

The yolk of the egg, which is colorless fluid, or just one color maybe,

that in potential form, it contains all the magnificent display of colors

which you find in the feathers of a peacock.

Similarly, in Maya, you find this tremendously variegated universe.

But in Maya, you will not find the differences.

It's just in a potential form, in a seed form, in a causal form.

Then what happens?

This Ishwara, which is Brahman plus Maya,

in technical terms, to be precise here, Brahman not plus, is limited by Maya.

maya avacchinna chaitanya, consciousness limited by Maya.

What does it do?

It produces a subtle universe.

A subtle universe of mind, of subtle elements and mind.

Prana, mind, all of that.

And then, from that comes the physical universe

of the worlds and bodies and all,

so the gross universe.

So here are the stages.

The sequence is like this.

Brahman, always there.

Brahman plus Maya is Saguna Brahman, Ishwara, Bhagavan, causal state.

Then, mind, the cosmic mind, Hiranyagarbha, subtle state.

And then, the physical universe, Virat or Vishwaroopa.

So this is the sequence of creation.

One way of understanding this very clearly in our own experience is to look at

our experience of deep sleep, dreaming and waking.

Our deep sleep state is like the causal state.

It's like Brahman plus Maya.

Everything that we experience in this world, our whole personality

is there in that causal state.

But we don't experience any difference there, any uniqueness there.

Just blank.

There's no distinction between subject and object in deep sleep.

But in potential form, everything is there.

That's why when we fall asleep, we are not destroyed.

We come back again, the same person again.

So the deep sleep state can be called the causal state, Karana.

In Sanskrit, Karanavastha, causal state.

And our dream state can be called the subtle state.

We have an entire world, which is all in the mind.

It's all in imagination in the mind.

In Sanskrit, Sukshmavastha.

And then we wake up into an apparently physical world,

solid world out there.

We are in the middle of it with a physical body in a physical world.

That is called the gross state or physical state.

In Sanskrit, Sthulavastha.

Exactly like that, in the cosmic level, Brahman proceeds through a causal state,

subtle state and gross state to create this entire universe.

The causal state is called Ishwara or Saguna Brahman.

The subtle state is called Hiranyagarbha, the cosmic mind.

And the physical state is called Virat, the cosmos basically.

All right.

Now, same thing, but with unfamiliar terms.

Let me go to the actual mantra and we will see.

So, Tapasachiyate Brahma.

Tapasa.

What happens in this creation?

By Tapah,

Tapah means austerity,

you know, all the spiritual practices we do are called Tapas or Tapasya.

Brahman undergoes this Tapasya.

But what is this Tapasya of Brahman?

This is a poetic way of putting it.

So, Shankaracharya says.

jñānena utpatti vidhijñatayā bhūtayonyakṣaraṃ brahma

The Tapah, the austerity, the practice of Brahman which Brahman

undergoes, supposed to, quote unquote, before the creation

of the universe is just knowledge.

So, Ishwara or God or Saguna Brahman has the knowledge of creation,

has the knowledge of how to create this universe

and the power to create this universe.

So, that is called jñānena utpatti vidhi jñatayā

So, vidhi jñatayā

That means the one who has the power of, who knows

the way of creating this universe.

cīyate, expands.

Brahman, again within quotes,

as if, it is as if Brahman expands,

you know, at the moment of creation.

And Shankaracharya gives two examples to explain this.

One is a seed.

So, just before the seedling sprouts, it swells up.

The seed swells up just a little bit.

And Shankaracharya uses this example.

Just before the seedling sprouts, the seed swells up a little bit.

So, this, just before the universe is created,

as if Brahman swells up a little bit.

The second example he says, Shankaracharya says, just like parents are

delighted as they produce a child.

In the birth of a child, the parents are delighted.

So, Brahman, harshena, he says, as if Brahman

with delight, as if, swells up.

Of course, there is no physically swelling up

or mentally.

There is no physical universe yet.

There is no mental universe yet.

But as if.

But swells up with what?

He says, tato annam abhijayate

He gives an example.

Shankaracharya explains,

sarvajñatayā sṛṣṭisthiti sangāraśakti vijñānavattaya upacitāt

Has swells up with the, this omniscience, the knowledge of creation, maintenance

and dissolution of the universe.

And knowledge and power, he says, shakti vijnana.

It's not just theory.

Ishwar or Bhagavan has the, this omniscience of creating the universe

and the power of creating that.

What happens then?

In God, at this causal state itself, he makes a distinction.

Annam Abhijayate.

Literally, if you translate it, it means food appears.

But food here means, Shankaracharya explains, bhujyate iti annam.

That which is consumed is food.

So whatever in future all sentient beings will experience, the worlds,

our own bodies, our thoughts, our... you know, see, hear, smell, taste, touch,

and actual food also which we will eat.

All of that is contained in a potential form in Brahman now

as a set of names and forms.

You know, as the all, set of all possibilities.

Like all the colors and dazzling colors in a peacock's tail is contained in

that colorless yolk of the egg.

In the same way, all these possibilities, this is called annam.

Literally, annam, of course, in Sanskrit and in Indian languages means food.

But food here means all the consumable, all objective manifestation.

Now that is still in the causal state.

It's just a set of names and forms, which...Sri Ramakrishna put it

in his inimitable way, very simple way.

He says, at the end of a harvest, the old lady

of the house, he uses the term budhi.

So she goes, she goes out into the fields

where everything has been harvested.

She collects the seeds, the seeds, and she puts it into little cloth bundles.

Because those will be, they will be sown for the next harvest.

Who is that lady, old lady?

She is Maya.

And what are all the seeds?

This is annam, which she will take out of a pot.

The next time, they are going to sow the field and start a new crop.

Similarly, it's like the old lady now rummaging around in her pot

and getting ready to pull out the seeds.

So that's the causal state,

that is the state of annam.

Nothing has been done yet, but everything is in a potential form.

Tato annam abhijayate.

Then what happens?

annātprāṇo manaḥ satyaṃ lokāḥ karmasu cāmṛtam

From annam, from that potentiality, from the causal state,

the subtle state appears.

What is the subtle state?

Here two things have been mentioned, prana and mana.

Prana is a technical term often found in the Upanishad.

It refers to Hiranyagarbha, the cosmic mind.

One good way of understanding this is, when we emerge from deep sleep

in our daily experience, when we emerge from deep sleep

into a waking, into a dream, when dreams kick off

again, we have not woken up

but we are not in deep sleep.

Dreams are happening.

Similarly, the cosmic mind awakens.

In iconography, this is shown as Vishnu, who is always reclining on

the cosmic serpent, Sheshanaga, in his navel, what happens?

A lotus blooms and Brahma, not Brahman, Brahma is depicted sitting there

with four heads looking in the four directions.

So, Brahma emerges.

Who is Brahma?

Prana or Hiranyagarbha, the cosmic mind.

So, that's the second stage, that Hiranyagarbha, the subtle creation

has started now, cosmic mind.

Another way of looking at the same thing is the five sheaths,

the five sheaths of the human personality.

The physical body, which is called annamaya, the food sheath.

The pranic body, which is called pranamaya.

The mental body, called manomaya.

The body of the intellect, called vijnanamaya.

And the causal body, which we experience in

deep sleep, called anandamaya.

So, when anandamaya is there, that's the causal state.

When vijnanamaya, manomaya and pranamaya are produced, that's

the subtle state, which is where we are now.

And finally, when the annamaya, the food sheath is produced,

that's called the physical state.

Same thing, I'm telling you in different ways.

So, when Hiranyagarbha appears, Shankaracharya says, jñānakriyāśakti adhiṣṭhita jagatsādhāraṇa

cosmic mind appears, for the first time you find the powers, threefold power,

power of knowing, power of willing and the power of doing.

These are powers, which emerge with the emergence of the mind.

In maya, all the powers are there.

Maya itself is power, but those powers are not active.

In deep sleep, all your powers are there, which are not active.

When you dream, activity begins.

When you think, activity begins.

So, jnana, kriya-shakti,

here he has just mentioned the power of knowledge and power of doing.

Jagat sadharana, this Hiranyagarbha is common to the entire universe,

because from that Hiranyagarbha, all of us have come.

So everywhere, another name for Hiranyagarbha is sutra, the thread.

You know, in a garland, when you weave a garland of flowers or a garland

of pearls, there's a thread running through all the flowers.

There's a thread running through all the pearls.

Similarly, in this vast universe, there's a thread running through

all of us, a thread of divinity,

that's the cosmic mind, Hiranyagarbha.

Jagat sadharana, common to the entire universe.

And what will happen next

in this subtle creation? Sentient beings will emerge.

The seeds, which the old lady has planted, now

they will start sprouting,

and that sprouting seeds will all be different.

Till now, it's all common, but they'll all be different from each other now,

when the sprouts emerge.

Who are the sprouts?

Us.

But in what condition?

As mental beings, as sentient beings, not yet with bodies.

So we have, he says, avidyākāmakarmabhūta samudāya bījāṅkuro jagat

So the entire collection of this world, all sentient beings, with their ignorance,

with their old samskaras and desires, and the action they're about to engage in,

in this life, in this universe, they all begin to sprout.

But they're still at the mental level, at the subtle level.

They don't have bodies or worlds yet.

Then what happens?

Annat prana, mana, Cosmic mind and individual minds have emerged.

And then, satyam.

So it already means that the subtle elements

That's how the cosmic mind and individual minds have been created.

Now he says satyam.

Satyam here means...literally if you translate

it means truth or reality.

But what it means here?

The five elements.

Bhuta panchakam abhijayate Akashadi. Shankaracharya says,

the five well-known elements, you know, he says, satyākhyam ākāśādi

which are space and air and fire and water and earth,

These are called satyam.

You know, it's interesting,

Advaita Vedanta will end up calling all of this mithya, appearances.

Like a snake in the rope.

And here, originally in the Upanishad, they are all called real.

And later, Brahman will be called, not in this Upanishad,

in another Upanishad, Brahman is called satyasya satyam,

the reality of all real things.

Anyway.

So then, all these elements emerge,

five elements.

And then what happens with these five elements?

Lokaha,

the universe emerges.

The 14 worlds emerge.

According to Vedanta, Vedantic, old Indian cosmology,

there are 14 universes.

But the physical, basically the physical universe,

which we experience now,

that emerges.

And then what happens?

In that physical universe, there are living bodies,

and all these sentient beings, which existed in Maya,

as the little seeds, which the old lady had put in her pot.

And then they sprouted in the cosmic mind

as individual beings like us.

In the mind.

And then now they are downloaded into these physical bodies,

as the physical bodies are created.

It could be, initially there will only be a set of bacteria or viruses.

And then there will be multicellular organisms.

There might be aquatic beings.

Then there might be amphibians and dinosaurs and so on.

And then, finally, maybe at this present time,

we've got human bodies.

But the same beings are going from body to body over millions of years.

So he says, living beings...

Now living beings, what do they do?

When they come to human form, they engage in further karma, in action.

Why do they engage in karma?

Due to kama, desire.

Why do they have these desires?

Due to avidya, ignorance.

They don't know that they are Brahman.

So because of that, avidya-kama-karma, Shankaracharya's famous equation,

they engage in action.

And once they engage in action, actions give rise to results.

And this is what the Upanishad says,

karmasucāmṛtam

These results are called immortality.

What do you mean immortality?

Shankaracharya explains here.

kalpakoṭiśatairapi na vinaśyanti

They will not be destroyed for eons to come,

until they give rise to their results

and you experience the results of your own actions, good and bad.

That's why it's a kind of immortality.

It's the fuel which propels this universe.

Why does this universe continue?

It's because of causality.

Causes are set into motion,

they're bound to give rise to effects.

Actions will have consequences.

So because of this, the universe is going on.

It's not real immortality,

this is continuous change, continuous birth

and death, and continuous suffering,

until you realize the truth.

So this is the grand view of the universe.

Basically, ultimate reality still continues to be the same.

Think about it like gold and gold ornaments.

Gold continues to be the same.

But the goldsmith has a whole set of ideas,

which he wants to make into ornaments.

And those ideas are the annam, the food, the causal state.

They are not manifested yet.

When he puts them down, let's say in a diagram or a computer-aided design

or something like that,

that's the subtle state.

Ornaments haven't been produced yet,

but there are plans now.

And then when he actually carves or molds those things into gold,

And then you have the actual ornaments.

So you have gone from a causal state,

the goldsmith's own skill, talent, potential to create ornaments,

to the subtle state where he actually makes designs

for future ornaments.

And then the physical state where he actually makes those ornaments,

and puts the names and forms on the gold.

What about the gold itself?

Continues to be gold.

It was just gold earlier.

And when the plans were going on to make necklaces and bracelets,

it was just gold.

And when they were formed into necklaces and bracelets,

it's just gold.

Similarly, Brahman continues to be Brahman.

When associated with Maya,

now you can call it a new name,

Bhagavan, Ishwar or God,

Saguna Brahman.

And when it produces

and it takes out its set of

you know, plans, potentialities

you give it a new name.

Annam.

You know.

The set of potential names and forms.

And when it produces a cosmic mind,

you give it a new name,

Hiranyagarbha.

And when it becomes a physical universe,

you give it a new name,

Universe.

But it's still the same Brahman.

And you are that Brahman.

Not a bit has changed

as far as Brahman is concerned

or as far as you are concerned.

Now, one more mantra

and I will conclude this chapter.

Why is he saying all this?

Because we want to know

how this universe is connected to this one reality.

How you're talking about one

having...

is appearing as the many,

the many have come from the one.

How?

give us a theory.

And here's a theory.

Advaita will finally say it's a story.

You asked,

so you're getting a story.

The real,

the true, true story is that there's no story.

Brahman alone remains.

But anyway,

one observation here.

Advaita Vedanta is often talked about as

Brahmasatya Jagatmithya.

Brahman is real,

the world is false.

But notice,

all this time when we have been discussing in

the Upanishads,

there's no hint of the falsity of the world.

Brahman.

From Brahman has emerged the world.

How?

Like web comes from the spider.

Like herbs and shrubs come from the

earth.

Like hair emerges from your living body.

Just like that from the imperishable,

all these perishable entities. Variety.

From the one many have come. From the imperishable,

the perishable have come.

From

limitless pure being,

existing things,

limited things have come.

Nowhere is it said that

all that you are seeing here is false,

and Brahman alone is real.

All that is the later development.

It's only when you want to make sense of it

through logic.

Then you are driven to the position,

the ultimate reality alone,

that must be the ultimate reality.

That alone is real.

And the rest of it,

what is being spoken here

must be of a lower grade of reality.

Otherwise you can't make sense of this.

Now

one more mantra

and then we will stop.

yaḥ sarvajñaḥ sarvavid yasya jñānamayaṃ tāpaḥ tasmādetadbrahma nāma rūpam annaṃ ca jāyāte

I'll read the translation from Swami Gambhirananda.

From him who is omniscient in general,

and all knowing in detail,

and whose austerity is constituted by knowledge

evolves this Brahman,

derivative Brahman,

name, color and food.

So what is being said here,

sarvagya, sarvavid,

Two words have been used here.

Sarvagya means all knowing.

Sarvavid means all knowing.

But they have two different meanings.

The sarvagya and sarvavid.

I'll give you a simple clear answer first.

What does it mean?

Why is the same thing said twice?

They are in two different senses.

Sarvagya means knowing the cause.

Sarvavid means knowing the effects individually.

Sarvagya means you know gold,

Sarvagya means all knowing.

So all knowing in the sense of knowing the gold.

Sarvavid means all knowing in the sense of knowing the ornaments in detail.

Suppose you know it's all gold.

But you go to the jewelry shop and you read the catalog.

Or somebody gave a box of chocolates.

Chocolates you just eat,

but then nowadays there are fancy things,

you know, like we open the box,

Even to eat the chocolates you have to read.

And there is a list of different chocolates,

and they all have different names,

And there are of course different ingredients.

But basically if you know it's a box of chocolates,

so even without reading you know one thing,

they are all chocolate.

But when you read you know,

You come to know;

Oh they have all these fancy names,

And they have different shapes,

and different taste and so on and so forth.

So the first one is Sarvagya.

All-knowing in the sense of knowing the cause,

the material,

the reality itself.

And the second one is Sarvavid,

knowing everything in detail.

It's an approximate example.

The first one is realizing you are Brahman.

Aham Brahma asmi.

And you realize that.

The enlightened one is Sarvagya in that sense.

But to know everything in detail

you have to be the cosmic mind-

Hiranyagarbha,

or Ishwar or Bhagavan.

God knows everything in detail.

So it's like you know the entire library.

You read up everything about everything,

you know every subject.

And whatever has been written you read it up

then you are knower of everything in detail.

So these are the two meanings of the word omniscient.

The first one,

the enlightened one,

you, I, we will all be omniscient when we are enlightened.

In that sense that, we know everything is Brahman.

But the detailed knowledge of everything,

of every being, that only God has

or avatars, incarnations have.

In the Bhagavad Gita,

Arjuna asks this question;

You were born recently just like me.

Krishna says no,

we have had many many lives before.

You and I and all these kings.

I know them all.

You have forgotten everything Arjuna.

So, I know,

I know them all,

that means Krishna knows all,

all his past incarnations.

And he knows in detail all of Arjuna's past lives,

whatever has happened to him.

And this present life,

and whatever is going to happen to him in this life.

And all his future,

if there are any future lives at all.

So Ishwara knows everything about us in detail.

We know only one thing,

if you become enlightened.

Don't become enlightened then you don't know anything.

But if you become enlightened,

then you know one thing,

one thing in reality

that everything is Brahman,

I am Brahman.

And I am that Brahman.

And that's the saving knowledge

that's the real knowledge.

So in Vedantic text.

Ishwara is called Sarvagya

All-knowing.

And we are called Alpagya,

little-knowing.

So our knowledge is very frail.

We struggle to get a little bit of knowledge

from kindergarten to PhD. And that after struggling

we promptly forget most of it.

And later in old age,

we sort of forget all of it.

So that's the state of our knowledge,

terrible.

But God knows everything in detail.

Sri Ramakrishna, asks M; Tell me,

tell me in truth;

that I know everything about you,

your past, present and future.

And M's actually suddenly overcome

and he holds his hands,

and he bows down,

and he says,

It is true.

You know my past, present and future.

Now what is that knowing the past, present and future?

That is Ishwara or Bhagavan,

knowing everything in detail.

Then,

Gyanamayam Tapa.

So a little more explanation is given

for the word austerity

which was used in the earlier mantra.

Brahman undergoing austerity

to produce Tapasya

to produce the universe.

What does it mean?

Gyanamayam.

It's austerity

of the nature of knowledge.

Brahman has the knowledge.

It reflects on its past knowledge.

Of how...

Alright,

it's time to create a universe.

So how do I do that?

Well,

you pull up all those old files

from your hard drive.

And you can;

What did I do in the past universe?

So that's the austerity of Brahman.

It's of the form of knowledge.

From this Brahman,

What happens?

From this Brahman,

the other Brahman is born.

What is the other Brahman?

Hiranyagarbha.

That means from Saguna Brahman

Hiranyagarbha is born.

That's what was said earlier.

And from that

what happens?

Names and forms,

Nama Roopa.

The entire universe of names and forms

is formed.

Basically,

the jeweler,

he puts into

action,

he has designed...

he has made designs for lots of ornaments,

now he pulls out the gold

and puts those names and forms on the...

this one is shaped like this,

it's called a bracelet.

That one is shaped like that,

it's called a necklace,

And so on.

This universe is produced.

Annam.

Here the word annam means actually consumable.

All names and sights

and the forms...

and the smells and tastes.

Everything that we can refer to by language,

and even down to the actual literal meaning of the word.

The food that living beings dwell on,

which gives them energy

to carry on the activities of life.

All of that is produced.

All right.

So this ends the first chapter

which is very dense,

lot of things have been said.

Now things will be expanded

over the next few chapters.

Let's see what

reactions and questions we have here.

Ekajiva vada dristi-srishti vada

Step one.

As a concession to a daily experience and requiring one of the.

None. Endorsed by.

From direct realization by Ramana Bhagwan,

as well as Gaudapada.

Why not accept this definitive cosmology

instead of going down the rabbit path of theories?

All right.

So what he's asking here is a very profound and deep question.

It's that, you said,

Universe is created in a sequence;

That's a theory, right?

It's a cosmological theory.

And you yourself admitted,

just a story. You ask...

you're asking for a cause.

You're asking for how all this happened.

The real answer is, it didn't happen.

But if you want an answer...

It's like you're running from a lion.

I give this example;

Sometimes in a dream, you don't

know it's a dream and you're running and running.

And then a wise man turns up

and you say, save me.

And the wise man says, just wake up,

nothing's happened.

And you say; No, that's terrible.

Can't you see the lion?

Then what will the wise man do?

The wise man will tell you,

all right, climb a tree.

He shows you the tree and you climb the tree.

And then you have a question;

Where did the lion come from?

You can see the wise man rolling his eyes.

The lion came from its lion dad and lioness mom.

Where did they come from?

Well, they came from their lion dad and their lioness mom.

From grandfather lion and grandma lion.

None of it is true.

The real answer is to wake up.

But you need these.

Just yesterday in a class, somebody was asking,

why not give them the direct truth

from the Buddhist perspective? Why go down these theories?

So the answer is; this is the way of giving them the direct truth.

After all, what is all this?

What's all this going on?

Whether it's Upanishads or whatever, you are trying to lead people

The masters are trying to lead us to enlightenment.

Now, for many of us, if you directly tell me; look,

just wake up, you're Brahman.

Forget all this samsara.

Just give it up,

it's all nonsense anyway.

That's too much.

I can't swallow that.

I will not listen to you.

I'll think you are crazy.

Give up all this entire world?

Well, I won't give it up.

I'll give you up,

but I won't give up this world.

Then you need to show me that there is an ultimate reality.

All right, there's an ultimate reality which has to be realized.

Fine.

But what about this world?

This is real.

You're saying some ultimate reality,

this is real for me.

Well, then you have to show me how this reality

has come from that reality.

And for that, stories are necessary.

Or theories are necessary.

Cosmological theories.

So that's why you have to.

And the aim is still the same, to lead people to enlightenment.

Very few people can digest very strong, you know, like strong coffee

or something like that.

You know, it can upset the tummies of most people.

So you need... Sri Ramakrishna said, the mother cooks

various kinds of dishes for the children.

She knows which child has a sensitive stomach, which child

doesn't like spices, which child likes spicy food.

And she makes this out of the same fish.

She makes five varieties for the five children.

So here, what he has asked is, in Advaita Vedanta, there are

these three approaches to the universe.

I have to explain what is this universe, right?

Three approaches.

One is called Srishti Drishti Vada.

Third one is called Ajata Vada.

If I literally translate, the first one means creation and then seeing.

That's the theory.

The second one is seeing and then creation, or seeing is creation.

Third one is nothing happened theory, the theory of no birth,

Ajata, no birth, no creation.

What do they mean?

The first one says that, yes, there was this one reality,

but from that, by a process, which I will explain,

this entire universe has come.

Oh, do explain the process.

Well, then comes in all these ancient cosmologies

from the creation stories, you know, in the scriptures of the world,

to the more philosophical approaches you find, multiple approaches,

which you find in the different Upanishads.

Basically, a causal state, then a subtle state,

and then a physical state.

Science does the same thing, cosmology

on much more empirical grounds, much more rational grounds, using data

and mathematics and all of that, to argue your way back to that there's

a possibility of a Big Bang at the beginning of everything.

And then what happened?

The whole sequence.

So sequential creation.

Universe was created, and now you are here and seeing the universe.

Creation first, then seeing.

Srishti-Drishti, Srishti creation, projection.

And then seeing, Drishti to see.

So now, universe was there, and now we are seeing this universe.

We are born into this world, and we are experiencing this universe.

You can see this is a very common sense way of looking at it.

That's how we feel.

We feel this.

And almost all the Upanishads texts, they all take this position, but not all.

Some are more radical.

The more radical view is Drishti-Srishti.

Drishti-Srishti is the second one.

Seeing first, and then creation.

Not that the universe was created.

You are seeing it,

that's what creates the universe.

You, the conscious being, you see first

and then the universe is created.

That seeing itself constitutes the creation of the universe.

What does that mean?

One very good way of understanding is dreaming and waking.

In the waking world, what do we all feel?

All of us,

whatever our theory is,

What do we actually feel?

We feel the world existed, and I have come into this world.

I am looking around.

I am sort of passing my time in this world,

having all kinds of experiences.

But the world existed.

I didn't exist,

I was born into it.

And very soon I won't exist, but the world will continue to exist.

This is called Srishti-Drishti Vada.

Universe was created, then we have all come into it,

and we are experiencing it.

Theory one, common sense theory.

But in our dreams, what do we feel?

When you wake up from a dream, what did you feel?

The places you went to, the people you met, the good

and bad things which happened.

You realize, oh, I actually didn't go to... those places don't exist outside my mind.

Those people don't exist outside my mind.

Those events did not happen outside my mind.

It was all the dreaming mind.

The dream itself was the universe.

Dreaming created that universe.

It's not that the universe was there

and I went and saw it.

It was dreaming itself that generated the universe,

like a virtual universe.

So, that equivalent is Drishti-Srishti Vada.

That's in a dream.

Advaita claims in the waking world also exactly the same thing is happening.

This world you are seeing around, it doesn't exist.

You are seeing, that's why it exists.

Stop seeing, it won't exist.

And the proof of it is, as long as you are there as the seer

and experiencer, in the waking, in the dreaming, there is samsara.

The moment you, the ego, the individual being, goes to sleep

in deep sleep, samsara also disappears.

You, the experiencer, and your experienced world,

they arise together and they fall together.

When do they arise?

Dreaming, waking.

When do they disappear?

Deep sleep.

But all three are appearing before you, the reality, pure consciousness.

So, that's the Drishti-Srishti example.

The Drishti-Srishti has some consequences which you must be ready to bear.

Which means, in this waking state also, you'll have to regard this universe

as a dream, as an appearance.

Just like you regard your dreams.

You are not bothered by your dreams.

You should be ready to be not bothered by this waking universe also.

Also, the big metaphysical consequence, an epistemological consequence

of this theory is that you are the only being then.

We are all appearing in your dream.

Just as in your dream, who is really there?

You are there, nobody else.

Although the whole universe seems to be there.

So, this leads to a kind of, in philosophy,

what is called, a kind of solipsism.

One knower, you are the knower.

Eka Jiva Vada.

There is one sentient being, you, in ignorance.

And when you realize that you are Brahman, there is

no more sentient being, you are Brahman.

That's it.

This is called Drishti-Srishti Vada.

And some, like Prakashananda and some later Advaitins,

they held on to this belief,

this way of looking at the world.

It's easier if you are an all-renouncing monk.

You know, just imagine, you have simply cut yourself

away from everybody.

You live in a forest or a mountain cave, and you hardly see a human face.

It's all rocks and wind and ice.

I'm literally, I'm talking from personal experience.

Not a mountain cave, but I lived in a mountain hut

for days and days on end.

So, I just stayed for a few months, couple of months at one time.

But I was imagining, if somebody... I've seen monks like that

who stayed for 30 years, 40 years.

Now, the world very soon becomes dreamlike.

The world in the plains, which I was there, in the big cities

of India, soon become dreamlike, like some faded memory.

And you are living in this extraordinary place,

so it helps you to dismiss the world as an appearance.

That solid feel of the world begins to fade away.

And you have no connection with anybody in the world.

So, you have to be that kind of an extremely, you know,

of what is called a high degree of vairagya.

In the Himalayas, they say, Bahut Phakkad Mahatma Hai.

That means a person of tremendous renunciation.

Vivekananda, I'll just read out to you.

I was just remembering, but sometimes Vivekananda is in that mood,

extreme renunciation.

It says here, this is the lecture called The Free Soul.

And there, in volume three of the complete books of Vivekananda,

in The Free Soul, he says, he says here; Deny that there is any life at all,

because life is only another name for death.

What a... I mean, to many people it will be a horrifying statement.

Everything that we hold to be real, worthwhile,

he's just dismissing at one sweep.

Deny that there is any life at all, because life is

only another name for death.

Deny that you are a living being.

Who cares for life?

Life is one of those hallucinations and death is its counterpart.

Be careful, it is not recommending suicide.

One who commits suicide is deeply mired in ignorance.

Because what is the logic behind suicide?

If I destroy this body, I won't exist anymore.

That means I am very solidly convinced

I am this body, not even a mind.

I'm just this body.

If I destroy this body, I won't exist anymore.

So suicide is absolutely not being talked about here.

Life is one of these hallucinations and death is its counterpart.

He said life and death both are hallucinations.

Joy is one part of these hallucinations and misery the other part and so on.

What have you to do with life or death?

And we just say; what does he mean?

We think all that we have to do is life and death.

We are concerned with life and holding on to life like anything

and we are terrified of death.

That's everything life's all about...

That's the best description of all living beings,

including all human beings.

He said, what do you have to do with life or death?

These are all creations of the mind.

And he says, this is called giving up of desires of enjoyment,

either in this life or the next.

You can see. If you have that kind of renunciation, then this next one is,

this Drishti-Srishti Vada is for you.

This one more, though I'm saying it's a post Shankara development, it is

a radical form of Advaita. Generally in the Upanishads,

you will find Srishti-Drishti Vada, the more conventional approach,

like you found just here, what we read just now.

It talks about it like a real sequence of things happening one after another.

And we as individuals appearing at some point in time.

And life and death being very important.

Life is where you work out your enlightenment.

Death is the problem you're trying to solve,

attain immortality.

The Drishti-Srishti Vada completely dismisses all of that.

It's just a dream.

It's foolishness.

It's hallucination.

Step out, stop it immediately.

It's like you're being chased by the lion and the wise man comes

and says, wake up from this.

No, if I stop running the lion will eat me.

Let him eat you.

Nothing will happen.

Just see.

Like that.

They literally mean that.

And there are people who practice this.

But it is difficult.

It's easy to talk about.

It's a cool theory.

But if you try to do it, it's very difficult.

And it's not recommended for people in the world.

It's recommended only for, if you have that kind of a mindset,

only for extreme renunciants.

And there's one more beyond this,

this is called Ajata Vada.

Not even a dream.

Not even that the world is appearing to you in a dream.

The way to understand it is deep sleep.

So the way to understand Srishti-Drishti Vada is our waking state.

The way to understand Drishti-Srishti Vada is the dream state.

And the way to understand Ajata Vada is our deep sleep state.

In the deep sleep state; We talk about world or dream or whatever,

nothing is there.

No world, no dream, nothing.

Brahman alone exists.

And you are that Brahman.

So that's even more extreme.

And then some Upanishads, like the Mandukya Upanishad famously,

it supports the Ajata Vada or at least the Drishti-Srishti Vada.

I must mention, though I'm saying that it is a radical, these are

very radical theories, very rare and very, mostly not supported by the Upanishads,

but however, someone, one of the greatest Advaitins,

Madhusudana Saraswati, in his commentary on Shankaracharya's Dasha-Shloki,

the famous commentary called Siddhanta Vindu,

which is the Advaita teachings in a drop.

It's not a drop,

it's a big commentary.

But anyway, there he says, Drishti-Srishti Vada

mukhya siddhanta eva.

The real teaching of Advaita Vedanta is Drishti-Srishti Vada, is that second one,

to consider the universe as a dream,

what Vivekananda just said here.

Oh, one more thing.

By any of these means, this is the answer to what the question which Sriram asked,

by any one of these means, you can attain realization.

By, you know, an extraordinary cool theory,

Drishti-Srishti Vada, Ajata Vada, you don't get a better, improved Brahman,

Brahman plus, because I went, took the more difficult road.

No, you don't.

It is the same Brahman you reach.

If you reach it by Srishti-Drishti Vada, if you reach it

through simple dualistic devotion also, it's

it's the same reality which you are touching.

It's the same elephant which you are touching.

So that's the beauty of it.

Then one might say, then why take up these extreme positions?

One is, if you are willing to cultivate that very high level of Vairagya,

detachment, these positions will make your path

to enlightenment dramatically shorter.

It's just one step away then.

All right.

Sandhya; how can Brahman be limited by its own potential?

Because it's not limited really, and it's not even a potential really.

Potential is when something is less, and it's a potential you manifest it,

it's become bigger or greater, final.

I mean, I have a lot of potential, and if I work hard at it,

then I can become more learned, more artistic, more musical,

better orator, more rich, whatever.

Those are my potentials.

So I clearly have become better.

I manifested my potential.

Brahman is not like that.

Even when this entire universe is manifested,

so-called Brahman's potential is this vast universe,

Brahman is exactly the same.

Not one more thing has happened.

If you have a movie screen, and on that movie screen you play

the best movie, the Oscar-winning movie, has the movie screen

become a little better by that?

No.

If you play the worst movie, nobody wants to see it,

has the movie screen deteriorated by the playing of that awful movie?

No.

So what is meant by limitation?

Limitation just means apparent association with Maya from our perspective.

It veils the real nature of Brahman. In that sense.

The more greater danger is to think that association with Maya

and the production of the subtle universe, production of the physical universe,

gross universe, all of it is... somehow Brahman is expanding,

becoming bigger and bigger and better and better.

Not at all.

It's exactly the same Brahman.

Patrick says; What explains the huge difference

between enlightened person and a sincere seeker who

is convinced there's only Brahman?

So the sincere seeker is still struggling, doesn't know it yet.

We are still looking.

An enlightened person has found it and then feels, it becomes a living reality

for that person; That I am Brahman. And then they can behave accordingly.

So that behaving accordingly shows. That's what makes for the enormous difference,

which Patrick is talking about.

Jivan Mukta and the Sadhaka.

Sadhaka is improving himself or herself, trying to become a better,

less selfish person, more devoted to God, deeper meditation,

and trying to understand and live as if, that I am Brahman.

It's all a struggle because the deep feeling

is, I'm still this limited being.

But for the enlightened person, that feeling itself is gone forever.

The enlightened being clearly sees without the slightest effort, slightest doubt,

slightest hesitation, that one limitless Brahman,

and I am that Brahman.

It's always available to that enlightened person.

And so they really have no problems at all in life.

Shivapriya says, enlightened one, Sthitapragya is living always

with knowledge I am Brahman, but spiritual seeker,

knowledge cannot live with this always.

Yes, is that it Swamiji?

Yes, yes, that's it.

Subrata says, a swelling of Brahman can be explained as the Ananda,

the union of Para, Shiva and Shakti.

That's also true from the Shaiva perspective.

Pradeep Bose says, the sequence of steps described implies time,

in which step, is time created?

Yes, so time, space and causation, causality are all in Maya.

So they are deployed in the creation.

So there's a sequence and the sequence implies time.

Krama means time only,

and that time is already there,

it's the basic structure of Maya.

Maya is Satva, Rajas, Tamas.

Maya is time, space, causation.

Amira says, after realizing the nature of the self, when we are surrounded by

the inexplicable power of Maya on a daily basis, there's

a choice to witness it and step away.

If we decide to engage in the material creations of life, career,

relationships, how do we play our own roles in the mind

also, not to get trapped in this illusion?

Yes, that is why Nididhyasana is very important.

You realize it and you stay with this realization for some time

until it becomes effortless.

There'll always be a tendency to get swept away.

But what you're talking about is a pretty advanced stage

where already clarity has dawned.

Then how to make that clarity a part of our daily life?

Live it.

For that first stage would be Nididhyasana,

Vedantic or non-dual meditation.

To immerse yourself in clarity and stay with it, before you take it

out for a spin in the world.

Rajendra says, Swamiji, how is Vivartavada different from Avikrita-

Parinama Vada, Vallabhacharya?

They are actually different.

Vivartavada is a theory of causation held by Advaita Vedanta.

And this Avikrita Parinama Vada of Vallabhacharya is a theory

of causation held by Shuddhadvaita Vada.

Shuddhadvaita means pure Advaita, but basically it's pure dualism, dvaita.

What it says is that ultimately Vishnu or Krishna is non-dual.

And this entire universe is nothing but Krishna.

And it's real.

Krishna has become this universe.

You take what the Upanishad says, take it literally.

Krishna became the causal creation, subtle creation

and then this physical creation.

Really?

Yes, really.

But then in that case Krishna has changed.

No, Krishna has not changed.

How can something change without changing?

Literally, you're saying this.

That is the meaning of Avikrita Parinama Vada.

Avikrita without change, Parinama change.

The theory of without change, change.

And there's an answer to that.

He says you are thinking about worldly things.

Worldly things cannot change without changing.

They don't, they lose their nature if they transform them.

You know, yogurt, milk can become yogurt.

It's no longer milk.

It's transformed.

The seed can sprout into a tree.

It's no longer a seed.

It's transformed.

But Krishna can become or Vishnu can become

this universe without being transformed.

And that's because he's divine.

I can see some of you rolling your eyes.

Yes, that is the right response.

That's a theory.

See, that's the whole question is how do you reconcile

what the Upanishad just said?

Everyone accepts this Upanishad.

The Shuddhadvaita, Dvaita-Advaita, Advaita of Shankaracharya, Vishishta Advaita

of Ramanuja, Dvaita of Madhava, they all accept this Upanishad.

But you can clearly see if you really dig into this,

that imperishable, completely unchanging, it swelled

and then it produced a subtle universe, Hiranyagarbha.

And then it produced a physical universe of tremendous diversity.

All the examples of a spider, of a human body, of the earth

producing herbs and shrubs, they're all examples of actual change.

But yet the imperishable cannot undergo these actual changes because,

first of all, the very nature of pure being, pure consciousness,

how can there be a change?

Second, if there is a change, then the divine has lost its divinity.

See, there is a clear reason why the religions, dualistic religions,

Christianity, Islam, they say God is transcendent

and they deny that God can be immanent in this universe.

If God is immanent in this universe, if God transformed in

this universe, then God is no longer God.

That's the problem with pantheism.

How do you reconcile these two?

Either you have to sacrifice God, that God is separate and this universe

is separate, to protect the transcendent perfect nature of God.

Or you can divinize this entire universe.

You'll have to explain how God is this entire universe

without losing God's divine nature.

One answer might be what Vallabhacharya said and defended,

defended with a lot of logic.

God is not like your ordinary things, can be transformed into the universe

while retaining its divinity.

All right.

How do I make sense of that?

Well, because it's God.

Well, Advaita Vedanta gives, answer is, talk about two layers of truth.

Ultimate truth, untransformed Brahman and the lower truth is like fiction.

So all sorts of things can happen in fiction without affecting

the ultimate truth.

On the same paper you can write lots of stories.

The stories can talk about many things, but it all remains the same paper anyway.

Same movie, movie screen, can play lots of movies.

But the movie and the movie screen, the story and the paper

are not at the same level of reality.

Then you can have change and changelessness.

There is a world of changing universe, but they are appearances

in Brahman which is changeless.

Appearance and reality can coexist together, even if the appearance

contradicts the reality.

The reality is unchanging and the appearance is changing.

They can exist together if one is real and one is appearance.

But if two are real and they're contradictory,

they cannot coexist together.

It can't be both really changing and really unchanging.

So there are a lot of these theories.

Another theory is that parts. In part God is unchanging,

in another part, God is changing.

Immediately you'll see the problem.

So God, Brahman has parts.

Anything that has parts is compounded.

Anything that's compounded is subject to change and destruction.

So God will die someday.

So these are all problems.

I think Shankaracharya's approach, Advaita approach is the most logical, which is

why it is accepted philosophically.

The rest are relegated to theology.

Subrata says, can material cause be characterized as Sat

and intellectual cause be characterized as Chit?

No.

Sat, Chit, Ananda are the very nature of Brahman and they're

the very nature of Ishwara also.

Then the intelligent cause is Ishwara plus Maya.

Kaustubhi says, thank you for your time and generosity.

Kaustubhi here.

Do you teach the Upanishads from an Advaitic philosophical basis?

Absolutely.

This is one thing we must be clear about.

So what we are doing here, all these texts, for example,

Gambhiranandji's translation.

It's a translation of Shankara's commentary.

So I'm explaining Advaita, the Upanishads on the basis of Shankara's commentary.

Shankara's commentary is an Advaitic commentary,

classical Advaitic commentary.

So non-dualistic.

That you always have to keep in mind.

Kiran says, the austerity of knowledge, is it in reference to Saguna Brahman?

Nirguna Brahman has no attributes.

Yes.

See in this mantras, how smoothly he shifts from

Nirguna Brahman to Saguna Brahman.

Akshara, beyond all qualities, is Nirguna Brahman.

And the next he says, Bhutayonim, the source of all beings,

that is Saguna Brahman.

So it is Nirguna Brahman, which itself appears as Saguna Brahman.

Saguna Brahman is Ishwar or God.

Parul says, last lecture you did excerpt on Vairagya.

Yes, this is what I read.

Just now again I read.

Motherhood and faithfulness of opposites, I feel sometimes.

Oh yes.

So that's why motherhood,

if you are a parent, you are helplessly tied, you know,

by the bonds of affection to your own children.

Don't struggle against it.

Use that as a doorway to spiritual development

by seeing God in them.

Not by saying they don't exist, they are figments of my imagination.

You can't do it.

And it would be disastrous to try it.

Rather do it in a skillful way.

What Vivekananda says, see divinity in everybody.

See divinity in the child, in the people around you.

That's a much better way of… and that's also true.

Siddhartha says, is there a dreamer or only a dream?

The individual being who is a dreamer...

Is there a dreamer or only a dream?

Answer is in your own dreams.

Think about your own dreams.

You are there in your own dreams.

And that you, the person in the dream and the world of the dreams

are both appearances, part of the dream.

So from that perspective, there's only the dream.

Really there is no individual dreamer and the individual dream world.

However, there is an underlying reality to this whole dream, which is

the dreaming mind, which throws up the dream.

When it throws up the dream, a world is created

and then you are put in the world.

Both you in that world and the world, both are appearances

of an underlying mind.

So the underlying mind is reality, that's like Brahman.

And we, the individual being and the world which we experience,

both are appearances of Brahman.

Like Vivekananda said, one only exists.

It appears as nature, soul.

Object, subject.

But both of them are only one thing,

Consciousness or Brahman.

Swami Brahmananda, when he went to Vrindavan, did spiritual practices,

was following Drishti-Srishti Vada?

I don't think so.

All right, we'll leave it here.

Om Shanti Shanti Shantihi. Hari Om Tat Sat Shri Ramakrishna Arpanam astu.

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