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Flowering of Supreme Bliss

Discourses by Sadguru Prabhuji On (March-April 2014)

Transcribed and Edited by Atmajyothis

Published By Light of the Self Foundation Publication

Price: Rs 200

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Contents

Preface ...... 4

Introduction ...... 5

Brahmananda ...... 13

The Sheaths of Food, and Mind ...... 19

The Sheath of Intellect ...... 30

The Blissful Sheath ...... 39

Brahman, the Foundation of all ...... 48

Supreme Bliss ...... 53

Bhrigu Valli ...... 62

Annexure: Questions ...... 79

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Preface

Existence is Bliss. It is Bliss Supreme. In this very life we can realize the Supreme Bliss which is our own true nature. One who realizes the Supreme Bliss becomes immortal in this very life. We are indeed fortunate to have the gift of Taittiriya Upanishad from . It describes the Nature of Supreme Realization in a very lucid way.

For any success in life, it is important to have a disciplined noble way of living. A way of living in tune with the Universal Law – . The Dharmic way of life leads to purification of the mind leading to increased awareness and Self realization. The first chapter of Taittiriya Upanishad is an instruction in Dharmic way of living by the Spiritual Master to the disciple at the time of graduation. The Spiritual Master lovingly instructs the disciple to lead a life Dharma after he leaves the abode of the Master and takes up a householder’s life.

The second chapter of the Taittiriya Upanishad describes the glory of the Self Realized. The degree of bliss experienced by Self Realized soul – Jnani is far greater than the bliss experienced by any being in existence. This chapter also beautifully describes the 5 sheaths of human being – Annamaya (Physical), Pranamaya (Vital), Manomaya (Mental), Vijnanamaya (Intellectual) and Anandamaya ( Blissful sheath) and the Self beyond these sheaths thus giving a clear model for contemplation for Self Realization.

The third chapter describes the way the son of Sage realizes the Supreme Bliss.

This book covers the lectures on selected shlokas from Chapter 2 and 3 given by me to the members of Atmajyothi Satsang.

Prabhu 12th July 2014 Purnima

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Introduction

My respectful Pranams to all Atmajyothis.

Today we shall begin the study of Taittiriya Upanishad. It is a part of Yajur Veda. There is an interesting story behind this Upanishad. There was a by name and his Guru was Vaishampayana, a very famous Master who used to teach Yajur Veda. People used to come from far and wide to study under his guidance. The king of that country had some disease and he came to Vaishampayana Rishi’s ashram seeking treatment. Vaishampayana agreed to treat the king. He would go to the palace and recite some Yajur Veda and conduct some . This went on for a month but the king did not find any relief. The king then came to Vaishampayana’s Ashram and said that the Mantras are useless and Vaishampayana Rishi was cheating him. Yajnavalkya who was a student there could not withstand the accusations made by the king. He told the king that the Veda mantras have the ability to bring about any desired results; he pointed to a dry piece of wood lying nearby and said that the mantras have the ability to bring life into it. He then chanted some Yajur Veda mantras and sprinkled some water on the dry wood and much to the king’s surprise it came to life and green leaves appeared on it. The king then humbly requested Yajnavalkya to come to his palace and cure his disease and Yajnavalkya obliged. When Vaishampayana learnt that his disciple had cured the king’s disease which he was unable to cure, he was angry that his disciple had spoilt his reputation. Vaishampayana cursed Yajnavalkya for having insulted him. A Master’s curse is very effective; the disease that the king was suffering from, now came on to Yajnavalkya. The other students were very sad to see him suffer from the disease. Yajnavalkya told them not to worry and he cured himself by uttering the Prayaschitta . This made Vaishampayana angrier; he went wild with fury as his disciple had insulted his curse too. He then asked Yajnavalkya to give back everything that he had learnt from him. Then Yajnavalkya chanted the entire Yajur Veda and said that he has returned everything that he had learnt and he would never chant the Yajur Veda mantras again. The story says that the other disciples at the Ashram were very eager to learn the mantras and they took the form of Tittiri bird (partridge) and swallowed the Yajur Veda mantras vomited by Yajnavalkya. These are only symbolic, don’t be under the impression that they had an extraordinary ability to take the form of the bird and swallow the vomit of Yajnavalkya. It is a figurative way of speaking. The Yajur Veda mantras that he gave back his Master came to be known as Krishna Yajur Veda (Black Yajur Veda). Yajnavalkya from that day onwards stopped practicing the Yajur Veda mantras learnt from Vaishampayana. He then decided to get the Yajur Veda mantras directly from the Sun and did . have three portions: Kãnda for rituals, Upasana Kãnda for worship and Kãnda for 5 knowledge. Upasana is worshipping, contemplating or meditating upon divinity through a form. He meditated on Suryanarayana, Narayana in the form of sun. Upasana requires a Pratika (form). Surya was very pleased with his Upasana and he came in the form of (horse) and taught the Yajur Veda mantra again to Yajnavalkya. The mantra which Surya (in the form of Hayagriva) taught to Yajnavalkya became Shukla Yajur Veda (White Yajur Veda). What does acquiring a mantra from Surya mean? Is such a thing possible today? Is it possible to realize the mantra, is it possible to experience the mantra, to understand and receive the mantra from God? One who receives the mantra from God, from the divine directly is called seer of the mantra Mantradrishtara or Rishi. Veda mantras are called Shrutis, ‘Shruthi’ means heard, Veda mantras are heard. Hearing the mantra and seeing the mantra are different. When one sees the mantra, he experiences the mantra directly. For example, there is a mantra in the Purushasukta which goes like this, ‘ yevedam sarvam yadbhutam yaccha bhavyam, sahasra seersha purushaha sahasraaksha sahasrapaat’. The Purusha is ‘Sahasrapurusha’, he has thousands of heads, eyes and ears. Everything in this existence is Cosmic Consciousness. The Rishi who wrote down this Mantra not only heard the mantra but also experienced the mantra simultaneously and that is why he is called Mantradrishtara. The mantra is not just heard, mantra is experienced. Yajnavalkya is the Mantradrishtara of Shukla Yajur Veda. Yajnavalkya is a very famous Rishi of the . The entire Brihadarankyaka Upanishad is dedicated to the teachings of Yajnavalkya.

There is another story about Yajnavalkya. There was a king called Janaka in Mithila, at the time of . He was Mother ’s father. He used to host Vidvatsabhas and invite many saints and scholars for discussions. He would ask questions and would honour those who gave the right answers. In one of those Vidvatsabhas, Yajnavalkya was present and King Janaka announced that the one who is recognized as the greatest Brahmajnani would be presented one thousand cows that are decorated with golden ornaments. Nobody came forward as nobody had the courage to claim that they are Brahmajnanis.

Brahmajnani is the knower of , Brahman is the absolute Reality behind all names and forms that we see in the world. Brahman is the axle behind the revolving world; Brahman is the unchanging substratum that supports the ever changing world. Brahman is not available for knowledge, cannot be experienced by the senses. Like how an electric bulb cannot understand electricity, similarly, a human mind and intellect cannot understand Consciousness. One might wonder that this being the case, how can anybody be a Brahmajnani, how can anyone know that, which cannot be reached by any human faculty? A Brahmajnani is not a knower in the ordinary sense. A

6 knower is always in relation to an object, ‘knowing’ is the relationship between a subject and an object. If I say I know this book, I have read this book, the book is the object and I, the knower am the subject. Whereas Brahman is not an object to be known, Brahman is the subject and that is why it is said that the knower of Brahman becomes Brahman himself ‘Brahmavid brahmaiva bhavati’, the object, the subject and the process of knowing is Brahman. So when we say Brahmajnani or do not be under the impression that he is a knower of Brahman, he is Brahman himself. Brahmana in this context is different from the Brahmana of the Chaturvarna, ‘Brahmana, , and ’. ‘’ means colour, the nature of the soul can be Brahmana. A Brahmana soul has an aptitude for learning and teaching spiritual truths. This was true for the earlier days; in today’s context a Brahmana can be a scientist or a knowledge worker, somebody who has keen interest for intellectual enquiry into any subject can be a Brahmana by Varna. Brahmana when it comes to Brahmajnana is somebody who has gone beyond Varna and Dharma, who has become Brahman himself.

There was a Brahmajnani called Ajja in Puttur. He used to wander around and take food wherever it was available. Usually in South Canara, food is served in all the temples during lunch time and it is served in separate halls for and non-Brahmanas. Ajja went into dining hall in a temple at lunchtime and they asked him if he was a Brahmana and Ajja said yes. They asked him to remove his shirt and he did. They noticed that Ajja was not wearing the sacred thread. They were angry that he was not wearing the sacred thread but claiming to be a Brahmana. They literally lifted him up and threw him out of the dining hall of Brahmanas. Ajja was physically injured and at that time somebody who knew Ajja came by and asked him if he was hurt and if he felt bad. Ajja replied, “The body is injured but I do not feel bad, they asked me if I was a Brahmana and I said yes. Knower of Brahman is a Brahmana for me while a person wearing the sacred thread is a Brahmana for them.” In today’s times, a Brahmana is merely someone who wears the sacred thread. Why does a Brahmana wear the sacred thread? The thread represents the four Vedas - , Yajurveda, and Atharvanaveda, and all these four Vedas are in three forms; prose, poetry and verse. These are represented by the three threads and the knot which connects these three threads is the Brahmagantu which represents Brahman. A person desirous of knowing Brahman wears such a sacred thread to remind himself everyday about his prime motivation to realize Brahman. It is thus only symbolic. A thread is called ‘’ in . The sacred thread is the Brahmasutra. Brahmasutra is one of the three prime texts of spirituality; the other two being Srimad and the Upanishads. The knowledge of Brahman is told in a very systematic way through Brahmasutras, and the sacred thread is worn in remembrance of that. Next is the question about why married men wear a

7 pair of such sacred thread. In the olden days some women did not have the spiritual education due to lack of facilities and at the time of marriage the husband would take a commitment to teach Vedas to his wife. One was a reminder of his own commitment to study and the other was symbolic of his commitment to teach his wife if she had not studied at a Gurukul and was not a knower of Vedas. If the wife had gone through Gurukul education then it was not necessary for the husband to take a commitment to teach her.

Coming back to the story of King Janaka, Yajnavalkya stood up in the gathering and asked his students to take the thousand cows to his ashram. Everyone there objected and asked him to prove to them that that he was a Brahmajnani before he could take the reward. Yajnavalkya then said “When the king announced the prize no one came forward, I want the cows and the wealth to run my ashram and take care of all my Sishyas so I am taking the cows with me.” They did not agree to that and started questioning Yajnavalkya on Brahmajnana and he answered them all. Finally, the wise lady Maitreyi asked him several questions and he answered them too and she proclaimed that he was a Great Brahmajnani. She was attracted by his wisdom and clarity and asked him to marry her. Yajnavalkya who was already married to Katyayini then married Maitreyi. After many years of running the ashram he decided to take Sanyasa and before leaving he wanted to distribute the wealth that he had received through donations between his two wives. Then Maitreyi asked him to give her the teaching that would make her immortal instead of giving her his wealth and Yajnavalkya taught her ‘Atmadeva drishtavyam mantravyam shrotitavyam’, this is the famous teaching of Yajnavalkya. For self realization, you have to meditate and contemplate only on , think and contemplate only about Atman. People say I love my parents, I love my wife, I love my children and none of this is true! You love your children, husband or wife for your own sake, for yourself. The self alone has to be meditated upon and realized is the teaching of Yajnavalkya. Our real self is Atman, which is not a body, not a mind and not the intellect but pure Consciousness.

Taittiriya Upanishad has 3 Vallis, Vallis means chapters. Siksha valli, Brahmananda Valli and Brighu Valli. Valli is the teaching about how your living, conduct and thoughts should be in order to attain Self realization. In the second chapter Brahmananda valli, the degree of ananda (bliss) experienced by various beings is compared with the ananda experienced by a Brahmajnani. The bliss experienced by a human being, the bliss of a , the bliss of Devas, the bliss of are compared to the bliss of a Brahmajnani because Supreme bliss cannot be explained it can only be compared.

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To explain this in a better way, let me tell you a story. There was a frog in a well. A bird came and sat on the well and sang about the ocean. The frog which had never seen anything outside the well asked the bird about the ocean. The bird said that the ocean is very big and has lot of water, the frog showed it hands and asked if it was that big and the bird said it is much bigger, the frog then stretched out its arms and asked if the ocean was that big and the bird said that it is much bigger. The frog then asked if an ocean is bigger than the well and the bird said yes it is much bigger and the frog called the bird a liar! The maximum that the frog has seen is a well. The human mind has a similar limitation, it cannot understand ananda. It tries to understand bliss through comparison, in comparison to the joy of drinking coffee, joy of watching a movie and so on, as it cannot comprehend absolute bliss. The bliss experienced by various beings is explained in the Brahmananda Valli. The Self realization of Brighu maharshi is explained in Brighu Valli. Taittiriya Upanishad also contains the Jnana.

Shanti Mantra oṃ śaṃ no mitraḥ śaṃ varuṇaḥ | śaṃ no bhavatvaryamā | śaṃ na indro brihaspatiḥ | śaṃ no viṣṇururukramaḥ | namo brahmaṇe | vāyo | tvameva pratyakṣaṃ bhrahmāsi | tvāmeva pratyakṣam brahma vadiṣyāmi | ṝtaṃ vadiṣyāmi | satyaṃ vadiṣyāmi | tanmāmavatu | tadvaktāramavatu | avatu mām | avatu vaktāram | oṃ śāntiḥ śāntiḥ śāntiḥ ||

AUM, may (Sun) be propitious to us. May Varuna be propitious (to us) May be propitious (to us) May and Bruhaspati be propitious (to us) May the all pervading be propitious to us. Salutations to Brahman. Salutations to you, O . You indeed are the perceptible Brahman. Of you indeed, the perceptible Brahman, will I speak. I will speak of the right. I will speak of the truth. May that protect me. May that protect the speaker. Let that protect me. Let that protect the speaker. AUM! ! Peace! Peace!

May Sun who is the deity of the day, the friend who facilitates our growth and development and Varuna the deity of night who facilitates rest and rejuvenation bless us. May Aryaman, the deity who powers the Sun and 9

Bruhaspati who is the Guru of all the bless us. Devatas are the powers of nature and the powers of Consciousness. The power of the eyes to see is due to Chakshu . The power of ears is due to Shrotru Devata, the power of skin is due to Twak Devata. The inner deity of the eye (microcosm) has a corresponding outer deity in the universe (macrocosm). If in the microcosm the deity is responsible for seeing, in the macrocosm the same deity is responsible for the energy that facilitates seeing. The eye is useless without light (), Agni is the Devata inside the eyes, Agni is the Devata who gives light outside. The inner and outer power of Consciousness is called Devata. Your ability to hear is because of Shrotru Devata operating in you and also outside you to propagate the sound. We are here praying to Bruhaspati who is Devaguru, the one who gives wisdom to all the Devatas. Devatas gain understanding about how to play their role from Bruhaspati.

Vishnu is the all-pervading Consciousness. Everyone must have heard about the story of Trivikrama and Bali Chakravarthy. Bali Chakravarthy was a demon king who had conquered all the three lokas and chased out the Devatas. Then Vishnu in the form of went to him and begged for three pieces of land. When the land was granted Vamana became Trivikrama and pervaded through space, Earth and nether lands. ‘Vishvam vishnur vashatkaro’, the whole universe is pervaded by Consciousness, by Vishnu. Apart from the cosmic context, this story should also be understood in the context of the individual. Bali represents ego. He taking control of all the three lokas is similar to how ego takes control of our waking, dreaming and deep sleep state. ‘Mana’ means mind and ‘Vamana’ means an uplifted mind, mind which can show the limitation of ego and bring divinity in life. This story is about enlightenment. God first comes into our life as a small being, as Vamana, as purified mind. If we give a chance to that small Vamana then he will pervade through our waking, dreaming and deep sleep state as Trivikrama and we can realize Vishnu Consciousness. This is called Savikalpa . The story says that Bali Chakravarthy offered his head, offering head is symbolic of offering the ego. Once offered the ego disappears into nether lands and this is the state of Nirvikalpa Samadhi.

Salutations to Brahma and salutations to vayu! Brahma is the unseen (Nirguna) and vayu is seen (Saguna), the formless and the form are both respected. The formless and form are related to each other in the same way as wave is related to water.

Wave is the form and water is the formless, ring is the form and gold is the formless. The formless does not disappear once the form manifests, both formless and form coexist. The moment I say formless you should not search for it elsewhere, both the formless and the form are within you and without you but your mind gets gripped by the form, when you look at the ring you

10 forget about gold which is the substratum of the ring. When you are able to see the form and the formless simultaneously in the universe you attain complete realization. Realization of the formless alone is not complete. Realizing both and , Consciousness and energy, formless and form is complete realization.

Sri Paramahamsa had realized Mother in her form. He was able to speak with her and this was Saguna rupa realization. Kali is the power of Kaala, the time. She is dark because time cannot be seen only its effect is seen. Everybody is afraid of the effect of time as it can take away anything from us; body becomes old, disease takes over and finally death. Time can destroy everything that we know and her form is as terrifying as her effect. He realized that she is a mother and not terrible and to the one who realizes this, time becomes a loving mother and its effect becomes responsible for your liberation. If you are not seeking Mukti, time is terrible to you but when you seek liberation it is a loving mother that facilitates. Later a Master by name Totapuri came to Dakshineshwar and told Ramakrishna that he will teach him . Ramakrishna said that he has to take his mother’s permission before he can accept teaching from him. He went inside and asked mother Kali and she gave him permission to learn Vedanta. He then went back and the first thing that Totapuri did was shaving off Ramakrishna’s head. Shaving the head is symbolic of dropping all the old thoughts, vasanas and samskaras and this is why at the time of Brahmopadesha and also at the time of initiation into Sanyasa the head is shaved. People go to and other temples and offer the hair. The idea is to drop all old thought processes and become free from all the past impressions. After shaving off Ramakrishna’s head, Totapuri taught him Brahmasmi, I am Brahman and everything else is , an appearance. The moment Sri Ramakrishna closed his eyes mother Kali appeared and he told the same to Totapuri. Totapuri tells him that mother Kali is Maya and asks him to cut her off and he does the same and becomes one with Brahman and stays in that state of Nirvikalpa Samadhi for twenty one days. Totapuri was a wandering monk and would not stay anywhere for more than three days but because Ramakrishna was in Samadhi for twenty one days he had to stay there. After twenty one days he prepared to leave and at that time he got a terrible pain in his stomach and it was so severe that Totapuri wanted to kill himself in the river Hoogli. The river was known to be in floods but the moment when he wanted to kill himself and entered the river; much to his surprise the water level went down and there was not enough water. No matter how far he went, the water was only knee deep. He was surprised by this Maya, he was not able to kill himself so he prayed to be healed and the pain disappeared. He then came running to Sri Ramakrishna and said that he had been rejecting everything in the world as it was Maya but he has now realized the power of Maya. Brahman is the unseen, unchanging, supreme Consciousness and Maya

11 is the changing appearance in the form of the world but they are not separate. Just as you cannot separate fire from burning, you cannot separate out Shiva and Shakti. Those who realize only one aspect, either Shiva or Shakti are not complete. Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa had realized Shakti first and then by the teachings of Totapuri he realized Shiva whereas Totapuri realized Brahman first and then Maya.

Now we are praying to vayu (prana Shakti) who is a manifestation of Brahman. ‘ritam vadishyami’: the word ‘ritam’ in Sanskrit means rhythm of English. There is a rhythm or pattern in everything that exists, there is a pattern in the appearance of the world, something is born, it grows and it dies. There is a pattern in the seasonal changes; there is a pattern in sunrise and sunset. This pattern is governed by Chaitanya, you can see the pattern which is the effect of Consciousness but you cannot see the Consciousness behind it. ‘Twamevaritam vadishyami’: I am saying that ‘Lord you are the rhythm too’. ‘satyam vadishyami’: rhythm is the periodic pattern of changes and satyam is the truth, Consciousness. satyam cannot be explained but only experienced. satyam is your own nature. May the Lord protect me and my Master who is teaching me the truth. Let there be peace throughout the universe. May the Brahman alone who has been described so far in his various forms as Mitra, Varuna, Vishnu, vayu, ritam and satyam protect my Master and me. The Master himself must have the health and the wisdom to be able to speak the truth and the student must have faith and ability to grasp the truth. The protection prayed for, is in these regards. ‘Shanti Shanti Shantihi’: There are three types of problems Adibhautik, Adidaivik and Adhyatmik in existence. Adibhautik problems are physical problems related to environmental condition like rain and whether change, Adidaivik problems are those related to natural calamities like earthquake and Adhyatmik problems are mental and psychological disturbances like anger, depression, and suspicion. Shanti is uttered three times so that Lord Brahma may protect the Master and the disciple in these three domains.

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Brahmananda Valli

In the first chapter of this Upanishad Shiksha Valli, the Master educates his disciples about how they should lead their life. We can find teachings like ‘ devo bhava, matru devo bhava, pitr devo bhava’ and ‘Swadhyaya pravachanabhyan no pravatitvyam’ which outline how we should lead our life, engage in self-study and teach the higher truths every day. Speaking of teaching, the best way to learn is to teach since the teacher should always be at least one step ahead of the disciple. If you teach you learn, if you give you get and this is true for everything in life. If you give money, your money increases. I am not speaking about charity I am speaking about the law of business. If any businessman has to be successful then he has to help people make money or save money. For example I bought this wireless router a few days ago. Its selling point is high speed internet, high speed saves my time and time is money. So the one who sold this router made money by helping me to make money. The paradox of life is that we gain by giving and lose by holding on. We have to know how to offer whatever we have and that is . Yajna is the basic teaching in the first chapter. Without going into the details of this chapter let us move ahead to Brahmananda Valli which speaks about attaining supreme bliss.

Shloka 2.1

ॐ ब्रविदाꥍनोवि परम ् | िदषे ाऽभ्यक्तु ा | सत्यं ज्ञानमनन्िं ब्र | यो िेद वनवििं गिु ायां परमे व्योमन ् | सोऽश्निु े सिाान ् कामान ् सि | ब्रणा विपवििेवि || िस्माद्वा एिस्मादात्मन आकाशः संभिू ः | आकाशाद्वायःु | िायोरव्नः | अ्नेरापः | अदभ्् यः पवृ ििी | पवृ िव्या ओषधयः | ओषधीभ्योऽन्नम ् | अन्नात्प셁ु षः | स िा एष प셁ु षोऽन्न्नरसमयः | िस्येदमेि वशरः | अयं दविणः पिः | अयमुत्तरः पिः | अयमात्मा| इद ं प楍ु छं प्रविा | िदꥍयेष श्लोको भिवि ||१||इवि प्रिमोऽनिु ाकः ||

Om Brahmavidapnoti param tadeshabhyukta satyam jnanam anantam brahma Yo vedanihitam guhayam parame vyoman Sa ashnute sarvan kaman saha brahmana avipaschiteti Tasmad va etasmadatma askashah sambhoota Akashat vayuh vayor aghih anger apah

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Apbhyapruthvi pruthvya oshadhayah Oushadhebhya annam annat purushah Sa vaa esha purusho annarasamayah Tasmadeva shirah Ayam dakshina pakshah ayamuthara pakshah Ayam Atma puchcham pratishthaa Tadapyesha shloko bhavati

AUM. The knower of Brahman attains the supreme. As to this the following has been said: He who knows Brahman as the real, as knowledge and as the infinite, as placed in the transcendental space within the secret cavern, enjoys all desires along with the attainment of Brahman, the all-knowing. From such a self, verily, space came into existence. From space emerged air. From air fire, from fire water, from water the Earth, from Earth herbs, from herbs food and from food the person. This person verily consists of the essence of food. Of him this indeed is the head, this the right side, this the left side, this the body, this the tail end, the foundation. As to that there is also this verse.

Brahmananda Valli means supreme bliss and the first Shloka of Brahmanada Valli explains about Brahman. We are seeking something, searching something and we are always in need of something throughout our life. What is it that we are searching for? It is bliss that we are in search of. A boy is in search of a girl, a girl is in search of a boy, both of them search for name, fame and money, everyone is going round in circles. Each person is chasing something and nobody knows what. You think that by getting married you will be happy, the moment you get married restlessness starts because you will want to have children. Every time you say that you have reached a step the next step will open up. Life is continuously shifting and you go on looking for one thing after the other. What is it that everyone is searching for? Everyone is searching for bliss, a peaceful and tranquil state of mind. When we are blissful we feel expanded, limitless and when we are sad we feel small, we shrink. We constantly seek that expanded state but we have a wrong understanding about it. We think that we attain that state by getting something, we put a goal for that and try to achieve it but in reality no goal will satisfy us for long as the infinite cannot be gained by the finite. You cannot gain the infinite by any method unless you already have it. Infinite bliss is something that is already within you and discovering that is the purpose of your life.

There was a beggar who used to beg near the Gateway of . He had bought that begging spot from another beggar. Later, when he died, the people from the municipality came to take the body away but then decided to bury him there itself. When they dug open the place they found a lot of money underneath which, the previous beggar had hidden. This poor beggar

14 was all sitting on this huge pile of money all these years but spent his entire life begging. If you have infinite bliss within but don’t know and don’t recognize it in you then you will still be a beggar. All of us are beggars who are begging for happiness and peace from someone else while all the while we are sitting on the infinite treasure of happiness and bliss. Bliss is our own nature and this Shloka points that out.

‘ brahmavid aapnoti param’, the one who realizes Brahman attains the supreme eternal bliss. We not only want happiness from the world but also want permanent happiness from it. Nothing is permanent in life, everything comes with an expiry date and everything changes. How can we aspire for permanent happiness and bliss? ‘Brahmavid aapnoti param’, one who realizes Brahman attains supreme eternal bliss. A knower of Brahman becomes Brahman himself. In the world, it is not possible to become someone by knowing that person or to become the subject by knowing the subject. But in the domain of spiritual knowledge if you have knowledge of Brahman then you become Brahman. You might wonder how so let me explain it through the story of a salt doll.

There was a salt doll that was depressed because it was small. One day someone told the doll that it is not small, it has a rich heritage and its grandfather is the ocean which has a lot of salt. The salt doll went to see his grandparents and entered the ocean. Once the salt doll entered the ocean there was nothing left of it. No more salt doll, the ocean alone remains. If you are on a journey to meet Brahman then ‘you’ will not return, only Brahman will remain and what you know as ‘you’ will disappear. If today I ask you who you are then you will tell me that you are a daughter or a mother or a working woman. All these are temporary. You are a mother with respect to your children and a daughter with respect to your parents; all of these are temporary and relative identities. Do you have a permanent identity or do you thrive only on relative identities? That permanent identity is Brahman, Supreme Reality. This unchanging identity supports the changing identities. It is like how an axle supports the wheel. The unchanging which supports this constantly changing universe is Brahman. We chase the change hoping that it will be permanent. We drop what is permanent and this is the misery of life. Our search for permanent happiness in the world is like going behind a mirage looking for water; it disappears the moment you go close to it. Look at your own life, your body has changed in these years, your body will grow old and die but you still say ‘I’. It is because this ‘I’ has not changed that the body which is changing can exist. If ‘I’ also changed then you would be a different person yesterday and someone else tomorrow but it is not so because inside you there is an ‘I’ which is not changing and that ‘I’ is God. That ‘I’ is the support for your existence and in the universe too there is something which is unchanging called Brahman. Are these ‘I’ and Brahman

15 different? They are the same. You are one with the Supreme Reality and even when the body dies you do not die as the ‘I’ is eternal. When you realize your infinite nature you will attain infinity.

Before knowing Brahman one has many temporary identities as life itself will be a web of relationships. For some reason or the other God shows grace and detaches you from all the relationships either naturally or forcefully. The identity that you have when all the relationships are taken away is called Brahman. What you have will disappear but what you are cannot disappear and what you are is that Supreme Reality. I said that knower of Brahman becomes Brahman. What is this knowledge about Brahman? You can know about any object but how can you know about Brahman? He is the subject, he is the knower in you and is there a way to know the knower? Can you know about sunlight which powers all forms of light by using a torch light? Atma, the Self cannot be known by any other means other than dropping the ignorance due to which we identify with relative identities and not the absolute identity. You were not related to your husband of wife before marriage, you were strangers but one event changed it, it gave you a new relationship and identity. Similarly one correction in our faulty understanding, one time removal of the error in our body, mind and intellect complex will help you see your true identity and remain eternally blissful. You will realize that this was the only purpose of your life and life is a waste without that.

‘tadesha abhiyuktanam’, this is what is told in the scriptures. We can know about the objects which are available to our senses but how can we know about Brahman? The tube light works because of the presence of electricity but it cannot understand electricity, similarly our body, mind and intellect lights up due to the presence of Atma but the intellect cannot know Atma. The created cannot know the creator and this is the challenge about knowing Brahman. To know that there is infinite bliss within you, somebody has to tell you about it and the Vedas tell you that.

Nobody tells you anything without a benefit for themselves in doing so, without some selfish motive. If somebody does tell you that you are Brahman how can you trust such a person? If there is no trust on the person then there is no confidence in what he says either. If you are ill and someone advices some medication to you then you will not take it because you will be afraid of the damage it can cause if it is not the correct medicine. But if a doctor prescribes the same medicine to you then you will take it. Is there someone trustworthy in the world? Yes you can trust a doctor for health, an engineer for a building and a banker for a transaction but how can you trust someone in the spiritual matter where Atma cannot be seen. Our day to day experience is that the Sun goes round the Earth but when our primary school text book

16 told us that Earth goes round the sun we believed it because we have faith in the text book and the teacher. We take many things in life based on trust and faith. Whom should you trust about immortality and your true nature? That trustworthy person is called Sadguru. For a very mature student if the Sadguru tells him once that he is Brahman it is more than enough. No explanation and logic is required. Trust and faith on the authenticity and spiritual authority of the Master is most important. The Sadguru derives his strength from the Upanishads and Vedas. Upanishads are the experiences of realized masters the Rishis. The Master shares his experience, he tells you that his experience is true for you and then says that the Rishis also say the same, and he refers to the Upanishads. When he refers to the scriptures it does not mean that he teaches from the scriptures or just repeats what is in them. He teaches from his own experience, he is the authentic source; he refers to the scriptures for the student’s confirmation. His experience is the ultimate realization, he is Brahman, his words are the Vedas and Upanishads, and you cannot find any difference between what is written in the scriptures and what a realized Master teaches. Vedas are nothing but the words of realized Rishis. Similarly what Sri teaches is Ramana Veda, what Ramakrishna Paramahamsa teaches is Ramakrishna Upanishad. Vedas and Upanishads aid the students to cross check and confirm as there are many false whose teachings are not in tune with the teachings of the Rishis. Spiritual journey is from the known to unknown and to embark on that journey you need to have faith and confidence in the Master and you get faith in the Master when what he teaches is in tune with what has been mentioned in the Vedas and Upanishads.

‘brahmavid aapnoti param’, knower of Brahman becomes Brahman himself. This is the reason why are worshiped in India. is someone who is Brahmin not by caste but one who has realized Brahman. Buddha and never spoke about God but people call them Bhagvan Buddha and Bhagvan Mahavira because they have realized God, supreme Consciousness. ‘satyam jnanam anantam brahma’, it is impossible to define Brahman as he is the subject but it is possible to outline the main characteristics. ‘satyam’, truth is one of them.

Truth is something that does not change with time, something that existed in the past, exists in the present and will exist in the same way in the future. We get confused between truth and fact. Fact is something that is available to objective experience and it changes. Truth on the other hand is a subjective experience. For example, happiness or unhappiness is a subjective experience, it is truth for you but not a fact for me as I cannot know it if you do not express. It cannot be proven or shown by any scientific instrument or cannot be proven by anyone. Truth is your inner experience but fact is an objective experience. ‘satyam shivam sundaram’, Shiva is truth, truth is the

17 eternal reality. Find out that in you which does not change. Your body, mind, house, society, and lifestyle everything has changed but have you changed? You still say ‘I’, that ‘I’ which is constant throughout is Atma; the truth, the unchanging in you.

Let us now understand ‘Jnanam’. There are four aspects of our personality, doer, enjoyer, thinker and knower. We say I eat, I drink, I go around, and the doer is the body. Mind in the experience of all the emotions, intellect is the thinker and you are the knower, Atma. To make this clear to you let me give you an example. When you play a 3D game wearing the 3D glasses you feel as if you are driving the car but are you really driving the car? You experience as though you are driving the car because of the 3D glasses that you are wearing. The moment you remove the glasses the experience disappears. There is a knower and the known, Kshetra and . Kshetra is the field, the world and Kshetrajna is the knower, the Atma. Your body is also a field (Kshetrajna), you know that your body is doing something; you know that your mind is happy or unhappy; you know if your intellect is thinking or not thinking. You are the knower not the doer. Atma is jnanam. It knows what is happening in your body. The universal Atman knows the collective experience and knowledge of the world; it is the knower of everything in the universe. To know everything your mind has to become silent. Silent mind becomes one with the knower, the Kshetrajna. ‘Anantam’, Atma is infinite in space and time.

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The Sheaths of Food, Prana and Mind

Shloka 2.1 continued

‘brahmavid apnoti param’, the knower of Brahman attains the Supreme Reality and becomes Brahman himself. This is not possible in a day-to-day transaction. If I know about something, I cannot become that. But Brahman is something where a knower of Brahman becomes Brahman himself. Not because he was something else earlier and here, knowing is not in the sense of knowing something as an object, knowing is a correction in understanding. And because of the correction in understanding he becomes (realizes that he is) Brahman himself and because, earlier also he was Brahman. Only there was an ignorance which made him feel like an individual. So ‘brahmavid apnoti param’: the knower of Brahman becomes Brahman himself. “tadesha yukthaha” – This is what is told in Scriptures and Upanishads. So knowing God, Brahman is to be one with Brahman. You cannot know Brahman, the Supreme Reality as an object, He is the subject. This correction takes place.

“satyam jnanam anantham brahma” – What is the definition of Brahman? satyam – eternal, Jnanam – Consciousness, Anantham – infinity. So these are the three aspects of Brahman. ‘yo vedam nihitam guhayam paramam .’ He is to be known in the cave of the heart. The cave of the heart is the intellect. It is called cave because there is darkness there, the darkness is ignorance. In that cave of the heart resides the Supreme Reality. ‘soshnuthe sarvan kaman’ One who realizes Brahman, all his desires will be fulfilled. This is great actually. Does it mean that whatever he desires for will be fulfilled? What is the meaning of that? The desire in us arises from the feeling of inadequacy which is there because we feel like an individual separate from existence. Now, when this feeling is dominant, all our life we have a fear because at any given point of time our identity –physical, mental or psychological is under threat because of our perceived separation. So to protect against an eventuality, we have a desire to build layers and layers of protection. Just like politicians who have many rims of police protection around them, we build layers and layers of safety. It can be relationships, it can be family, money, job, power etc. So, all our desires are related to the sense of inadequacy because of the feeling of separateness from the existence. To cover that up we build protections and these protections are called objects. So, these desires are always related to fulfil the need for security in some way and to increase that. When you realize the Brahman, your ignorance drops and you realize yourself as the infinite Self. The moment you realize yourself as the infinite Self, the deep rooted feeling of inadequacy drops. When the feeling of inadequacy drops all the existing desires which are born out of ignorance and inadequacy will drop. He feels fulfilled as nothing else is there to be achieved in life. So the desires getting fulfilled does not mean that whatever he thinks or desires will come true. He 19 will not have any desire to acquire out of ignorance. Still the person will continue to have, as far as the world is concerned, his own way of living. A person who is a monk, who is enlightened, will live out of charity that is given to him. An enlightened person who is a king will live like a king only. His day-to-day routine will not change. A person who is enlightened and working in some place will continue to work there for the maintenance of his body. It is not that Universe will suddenly give him something to maintain his body and mind. There will be no alteration in his day-today affairs as they are concerned with the maintenance of body and mind. The only thing that will drop is the deep rooted fear and desire for survival and growth.

There are 4 aspects of motivation for a person, Dharma, , and . Kama means desire, all desires are related to Kama, and it is related to inadequacy and is born out of ignorance. Artha (money) is required for fulfilment of Kama, desire. Doing that in Dharmic (righteous) way to purify oneself is called Dharma. Moksha is liberation or Self realization. When somebody gets Moksha, when somebody realizes his own nature as Consciousness, Dharma, Artha and Kama as motivations drop. What will he live for then? He will continue to live, maintain his body and mind, probably social responsibilities, etc whatever is required. Responsibility is slightly different from duty. Duty is a compulsion whereas responsibility is something that is taken up. So a Jnani or an enlightened being will continue to have responsibilities, may take up higher and higher responsibilities to help the people through whatever position he is in. A king like Janaka Raja ruled the kingdom in the view of the protection of his subjects, establishing Dharma in the society. A monk who is an enlightened being may teach which was the case with enlightened beings like Maharshi, Buddha, Adi etc. They may continue to take the responsibility for the purpose of upliftment of the world, but not anything born out of selfish desires. There are no selfish desires left beyond the point of enlightenment. That is what spirituality is.

Now the process of creation is told. What is the process of creation? From that Self all this has come. All that is there is one reality Brahman whose nature is Consciousness. That one reality took the form of the subject and object. For the sake of convenience I will say ‘Subject Consciousness’ and ‘Object Consciousness’, because all that is there is Consciousness only. So I will call matter as object Consciousness and individual I will call as subject Consciousness, just to bring in the word Consciousness. In that Supreme Reality, there is subject Consciousness and object Consciousness which appears. This happens in the dream state. When you enter into a dream your mind is there. The mind takes the form of subject as well as object. Mind takes the form of a tiger, a building, or a forest and yourself. Both are mind only. One mind appears as subject as well as object also. Similarly Universal

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Consciousness appears as both subject and object, subjective reality and objective reality – this and that, ‘aham’ and ‘tat’. Aham means subject and Tat means the object. Tat also means ‘That’, the Consciousness. So that ‘Tat’ becomes ‘Aham’ and ‘Idam’, Subject Consciousness and Object Consciousness. What is the difference between the Subject Consciousness and Object Consciousness? Subject Consciousness becomes the experiencer and Object Consciousness becomes the ‘experienced’. But both are coming from the one reality or ‘tat’, they are not different. So from that reality, ’akasha sambhutha’ space appeared, ‘akasha vayuhu’ - from space, wind appeared, ‘vayoha agnihi’ - from wind, fire appeared, ‘agnihi tapasaha’ - from fire, water appeared, ‘tapasaha prithvihi’ - from water appeared Earth and from Earth human beings appeared. So, this is the process of the appearance of creation. Successive levels of creation are explained in this. It is almost something similar to the scientific of explanation of creation. What science explains for this creation is, long before there was nothing. In that nothingness there was a gaseous formation which exploded, what you call as the big bang. In that big bang, the whole space and time were created and the universe started expanding. Initially the universe was in the form of a sparse molecules which were scattered by wind, as those molecules cooled down, they liquefied and subsequently got solidified into Earth. On the Earth, water appeared, then life forms appeared and then human beings appeared. So the process of creation is from big bang, the explosion, formation of solar system, galaxies, mostly in the molten form, then gradual solidification, and then life form creation. Except for that Scientists don’t recognize or don’t give credence to Consciousness which is the source of all this. They say there was vacuum, there was nothing and in that nothing something got created. Whereas Upanishads went one step further and said, to say that there was nothing, is not true, Consciousness, Chaitanya was there all along. In that Consciousness, space was born, the wind was born; the wind is nothing but movement of molecules. When the movement of molecules happens at very long distances, it becomes wind and when the molecules come closer and closer, heat gets generated and that becomes fire. When the cooling takes place, there is water and then the water or the liquid form melt in Lava. Then gradually solidification takes place which became Earth and beyond the Earth, living beings are born. Initially the Earth is composed of inorganic molecules. Gradually there is formation of complex molecules in terms of organic molecules. Organic molecules support life form and life is thus born. “Annad graasaha” From the essence of food which is actually Earth, all the living beings are made up of Earth elements predominantly Earth element is organic and inorganic molecules and that is what our bodies are. So, ‘Purushaha’, living beings are born. So this is the summary of creation.

Why is this told like this? Because all of us are deeply connected to all aspects of existence. On Apollo mission to moon there were three astronauts. Before

21 landing on the moon, the lunar module gets separated out and when it lands on the moon, there is a module which rotates around the moon. One of these three astronauts was sitting inside this module which was launched for exploration purpose. The atmosphere on the moon was having less of oxygen and all around it was deep darkness. As the module was orbiting around the moon, he could see the stars, planets, galaxies in a different colours. Suddenly he had a realization of feeling connected with the whole of existence, every part of existence. He felt oneness with the existence. He realized that the universe of galaxies, stars and planets are made of the same stuff. The star dust is also a part of his own body. His body is also made up of the same start dust which all the galaxies are made up of. You are related to every aspect of creation. Suddenly his Consciousness opened up and after that he was no longer the same person. When he landed on the Earth, he was well received and he became a celebrity. But he just withdrew himself and he found an organization to research into Consciousness with which he spent the rest of his life. He could not find the right word and the meaning in the English language for the experience which he had at that point of time. Eventually he found closest meaning in Indian literature and that is called ‘Savikalpa Samadhi’. Feeling of total oneness with the Universe which is also called God Realization. So this is the experience which he had. The idea is, as an individual we are connected to the universal and how we are connected to the universe is told step by step in this Upanishad.

Even now if you look at yourself, the air which you breathe is the same air which is circulating the atmosphere throughout the world. The air which has been there millions of years ago is the same air that is getting circulated, it is not different air. The same air which Lord or Lord Shri Krishna breathed is also there today. The same air which is being breathed by the human beings in America or in Australia is what you are breathing now. So you are connected to the rest of the world through air. What about the space in you? You might feel space in you is separate, but if you look at the atoms or molecules in your body there is vast space actually. What scientists say is, if you collapse all the atoms and the molecules in the universe, they would not even occupy one spoonful of space. There is so much of space in between, but it appears to be solid and large to us. Your body is also 99.9% space, still it feels very solid. Between the nucleus and the electron the space is so much that it is equivalent to a football ground. Two Venus planets positioned across the distance of football ground, that much of space is there at the molecular level. You are nothing but space. Your body is full of space.

Your body is also 80% water. Where is the water coming from? The water comes from the water you drink and the blood is nothing but water. The water you drink comes from the rains which come from the ocean and all the

22 rivers and the oceans in the world are connected. So you are also deeply connected with the existence in the form of water.

What about fire? The heat in your body is nothing but the heat generated through the chemical reactions which got produced because of the food you ate. The food you ate came from the food which was grown in the fields. The food was grown in the fields because of the sunlight. Because of the solar energy or the sunlight it became the heat in your body. If there is no sunlight for a couple of days you will be dead.

Then what about the Earth? Your body of bones and bone marrows is made up of the Earth element. How is it made up of the Earth element? You ate an apple, what is an apple actually, or the food grain? Food grains are actually the synthesis of the nutrients taken from the Earth. In the solar light it gets transformed into an apple. It may look like very nice, something to eat, but it is actually mud transformed into apple. So when you eat, a larger part of that goes into flesh and bones. A small portion becomes energy and some part gets circulated into blood. So your body is nothing but mud or Earth element. Earth is the same which is throughout the world and the same Earth is also there in the Mars and in some other galaxies. You are actually a part of the whole existence and not different from it.

You are connected to the universe very deeply. If there is no sunrise tomorrow your life will also disappear because you are connected to the sun. If the wind is polluted or poisoned you will be dead because you are connected to the wind. If the water is polluted you will not survive because we are connected to all five elements of the nature very closely and these five elements of the nature came out of Consciousness, Chaitanya. And this Consciousness takes the role of converting the non-living material into Consciousness living being and vice versa. For example, you take apple; the apple that you ate got converted into your blood and cells in your body. Apple is non living because it is cut from the plant but it gets converted into something living in your body. Who does this? This is done by Consciousness, Chaitanya. This process goes on. So this Shloka states that you are deeply connected to Existence. You have to relate the feeling of separation from the Existence to what is told in the Upanishad and trace back your Existence to Chaitanya. Our mind gets stuck in separateness. You have to go back to the original source of life, Chaitanya.

Shloka 2.2

अन्नाद्वै प्रजाः प्रजायन्िे | याः काि पवृ ििी ीँ वििाः | अिो अन्नेनैि जीिवन्ि | अिैनदवप यन्त्यन्ििः | अन्नीँ वि भिू ानां 煍येम ् | िस्माि ् सिौषधम楍ु यिे | 23

सिं िै िेऽन्नमाꥍनिु वन्ि | येऽन्नं ब्रोपासिे | अन्नीँ वि भिू ानां 煍येम ् | िस्माि ् सिौषधम楍ु यिे | अन्नाद ् भिू ावन जायन्िे | जािान्यन्नेन िधान्िे | अद्यिेऽवत्त च भिू ावन | िस्मादन्नं िद楍ु यि इवि | िस्माद्वा एिस्मादन्नरसमयाि ् | अन्योऽन्िर आत्मा प्राणमयः | िेनैष पणू ाः | स िा एष प셁ु षविध एि | िस्य प셁ु षविधिाम ् | अन्ियं प셁ु षविधः | िस्य प्राण एि वशरः | व्यानो दविणः पिः | अपान उत्तरः पिः | आकाश आत्मा | पवृ ििी प楍ु छं प्रविा | िदꥍयेष श्लोको भिवि ||१|| इवि वद्विीयोऽनिु ाकः ||

Annad vai praja prajayante Yah kaashcha pruthveem shritaa atho annenaiva jeevanti Atha ened apyantyantatah Annam hi bhootaanaam jyeshtham tasmad sarva oushadhamuchyate Sarvamvaite annam aapnuvanti Ye annam brahmam upaasate Annam hi bhootaanaam jyeshtham tasmad sarva oushadhamuchyate Annad bhootaani jayante jaataani anyena vardhante Adhyaate atichabhootani tasmad annam taduchyata Tasmadvaa etasmaadannarasamayaat anye antara atmaa Pranamayah tenaishapoornah sa vaa purushavidhah eva Tasya purusha vidhataam anvayam purushavidhah Tasya prana eva shirah Vyano dakshina pakshah apaana uttara pakshah Akaasha atmah pruthvee pucham pratishtham Tadapyesha sloko bhavati iti dvithiyo anuvakaha…

“From food, verily, are produced all creatures—whatsoever dwell on Earth. By food alone, furthermore, do they live and to food, in the end, do they return; for food alone is the eldest of all beings and therefore, it is called the panacea for all.” “They who worship food as Brahman obtain all food. Food alone is the eldest of all beings and therefore it is called the panacea for all. From food all creatures are born: by food, when born, they grow. Because it is eaten by beings and because it eats beings, therefore it is called food.” Verily, different from this, which consists of the essence of food, but within it, is another self, which consists of the vital breath. By this the former is filled. This too has the shape of a man. Like the human shape of the former is the human shape of the latter. prana, indeed, is its head; vyana is its right wing; apana is its left wing; akasa is its trunk; the Earth is its tail, its support.

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‘anna tvam’, ‘anna’ means food and anna also means matter, prakriti. So from ‘anna’ - matter, ‘prajaha’ - living beings are born. They live in that matter; they die and again go back to that matter which is ‘anna’. So anna is the original source of the living beings. That is why it is called ‘Aushadha’, the medicine. One who worships anna as Brahman; he will not have any shortcomings in life. ‘Annam Brahmeti’, we will understand the meaning of this. So first it is told that all living beings are born from matter and matter is not the first born. So, the process we have already told, from Consciousness space was created, from space water, etc and all this matter was created. So matter came out of Consciousness. So that matter becomes the playground of Consciousness. Matter is not opposing Consciousness but the matter becomes the material through which the Consciousness expresses itself and its creativity. It is like a painter, his creativity gets expressed through the painting. He can take multiple colour paints and create a painting of forest, animal, living beings or non-living beings, etc. The painting is the means through which the creativity of the painter is expressed. So creativity of the Consciousness is expressed through matter. anna bhutaha, living beings are born out of matter. That does not means that matter gives rise to Consciousness. The material becomes a playground for the Consciousness to operate. So the play in this world can involve birth, growth and the death. They play and go back to matter. The body is made up of five elements and again goes back to the five elements. So this is the process by which creation happened. ‘Annam brahmeti upaseta’, matter becomes matter, anna. It is Brahman, the Supreme Reality and one who worships that will attain abundance.

Now the problem is, it is not that matter has to be worshipped, stone is not Brahman because the quality of stone, the Consciousness what we have to see, the Consciousness which is the nature of the Brahman is not expressed in stone. But the matter comes out of Consciousness. The source of matter is Consciousness. So one who worships the Brahman, understanding that the matter is born out of Brahman, for the play of Brahman, for the play of manifestation of Brahman, he will attain abundance. One who worships matter does not attain abundance. One who worships the source of matter, as Brahman will attain abundance. Earlier I told what is meant by abundance, abundance is lack of individual limitation. The way to do that is, matter becomes the focus point, you go beyond matter and understand that Consciousness is the source of the matter and then you become free. This is actually a very different opinion from that of a scientist. They are materialists. They think that Consciousness is born out of matter. It is the other way. A couple of days back I received a phone call from a scientist. That lady is doing a research in Australia. She is in Neuroscience. She was talking to me about the mind and brain connection and Consciousness. I told her that body and the mind are born out of Consciousness. She was shocked. That is not what is taught in neurology or in science. What they say is, ‘You have a brain,

25 which is why you have a mind and because you have a mind you have Consciousness’, so it is the other way for them. Consciousness is a by- product of matter, which is what is taught in science. What spirituality says is that Consciousness is the one which is the source of the matter. So what difference does it make? If the Consciousness is the source and matter is the by-product and on the other hand matter is the source and the Consciousness is the by-product? It makes a difference. In the sense that matter undergoes changes. Consciousness does not undergo any change. You are actually confusing something which is eternal with something which is temporary. Your view of life will be very different including your perception of what is the source and what is the by-product.

Today’s understanding of science is, there is a body, there is a brain and because there is brain there is mind and because there is a mind there is Consciousness. The body has a short life, may be fifty-sixty years and after that nothing is there because when body goes you are also gone. This is a very temporary view of the world. We are super-imposing the characteristic of matter on Consciousness. See, with this temporary view of the world, a second view comes, ‘anyway life is short, get the maximum juice out of the world in this temporary life. Just squeeze maximum possible out of this world’. That will be the view of the world. Whereas Consciousness being eternal, the other view of the world will be, ‘anyways there is infinite time, you take one body or the other body, this lifetime or the next lifetime, this is anyway a never ending process. So you can just go on and on, you can keep on doing. You do not have to kill yourself in this lifetime itself to get everything out of life. This is the other view and the view here is that Consciousness is eternal reality and the matter is a temporary reality. Matter is equivalent to paint in the hands of a painter or stone in the hands of the sculptor. So what are you really, that makes the difference.

‘Anyo anthara aathma pranamayaha” So, anna, the body is made out of the matter. Consciousness is different from the body. The body is born from Consciousness, but Consciousness is different from the body. The body has no life of its own. Consciousness animates the body with the prana. prana is the life force. prana is the Shakti. Without the animation of the body with the prana, the body has no life. It is non-living. prana is of five types, prana, apana, vyana, udana, samana. Atma controls the body through prana. Atma animates the body through prana. Here the parts of the body where the prana is there is described. prana is the head portion, vyana is the lower portion, apana is the nasal portion, and samana is the middle part of the body ‘pucchaha’, which means the back portion. This is how the prana is established in the body. Atma is the controller, prana is the controlling force and body is the controlled. What is the difference between what is said here in the first Shloka and this Shloka? In the first Shloka there is a process of subtle becoming

26 grosser and grosser and taking the body form. In this Shloka from the grosser you start and go back to subtle and subtler. You start from matter and then you say behind matter is prana, the energy or life force and behind energy there is Consciousness. You move from the grosser to the subtle, reverse process.

Shloka 2.3

प्राणं दिे ा अन ु प्राणवन्ि | मनषु याः पशिि ये | प्राणो वि भिू ानामायःु | िस्माि ् सिाायषु म楍ु यिे | सिामेि ि आययु ावन्ि | ये प्राणं ब्रोपासिे | प्राणो वि भिू ानामायःु | िस्माि ् सिाायषु म楍ु यि इवि | िस्यैष एि शारीर आत्मा | यः पिू ास्य | िस्माद्वा एिस्माि ् प्राणमयाि ् | अन्योऽन्िर आत्मा मनोमयः | िेनैष पणू ाः | स िा एष प셁ु षविध एि | िस्य प셁ु षविधिाम ् | अन्ियं प셁ु षविधः | िस्य यजरु ेि वशरः | ऋ्दविणः पिः | सामोत्तरः पिः | आदेश आत्मा | अििााङ्वगरसः प楍ु छं प्रविा | िदꥍयेष श्लोको भिवि ||१||इवि ििृ ीयोऽनिु ाकः ||

Praanam devaa anupraananti manushyah pashavashchaye Praanohi bhootaanaamayuh tasmaad sarvaayushamuchyate Tasmad sarvayushamuchyate Sarvameva ta aayuryaanti Ye praanam brahmopaasate Praanohi bhootaanaamaayuh Tasmad sarvaayushamuchyati it Tasyaisha esha shareeraa atmaa yah poorvah Tasmadva etasmaadpraanamayaat Anye antara atmaa Manomayah tenaisha poorna Sa vaa esha purushavidhah evam Tasya purusha vidhaataam anvayam purushavidhah Tasya yajur eva shirah Ruk dakshina pakshah saama uttara pakshah Aadesh aatmaah Atharvaangirasah puchcham pratishtham Tadapyesha sloko bhavati Iti thritheeyo anuvakaha.

The gods breathe after the prana, so also do men and cattle; for the prana is the life of creatures. Therefore it is called the life of all. Those who worship the prana as Brahman obtain a full life; for the prana is the life of creatures. Therefore it is called the life of all. This sheath of the prana is the embodied soul of the former. Verily, different from this sheath, which consists of the essence of the prana, but within it, is another self, which consists of the mind. By this the former is filled. This too has the shape of a man. Like the human shape of the former is the human shape of the latter. The Yajur Veda is its head,

27 the Rig Veda is its right wing, the Sama Veda is its left wing, the teaching is its trunk, the hymns of Atharva and are its tail, its support.

‘Pranaha anuprananthi’: All livings beings including human beings and the Devatas which means Divine beings are all born out of prana. prana, the life force is giving life to all the living beings. As long as there is prana in the body, you will be living. The moment prana goes, you are dead. prana is the fuel which is responsible for running your body. As long as this prana is there in your body, your life will be there. So your life is nothing but prana. ‘ye pranambrahmeti upansati’, one who worships prana as Brahman will become free. Again when you say prana is Brahman, prana itself is coming out of Consciousness. When you say ‘prana ithi Brahma’, we worship the prana as controlled by the Self, Atma. prana has no independent existence other than Atma. prana is nothing but the force of life which is coming from Consciousness, Atma. So, ’pranam brahmeti upansati’ which means all living beings are born out of life, they live in prana and die in prana. So the birth, growth, death and decay of the living beings is because of prana. prana is controlled by the Brahman, the Supreme Reality and one who realizes this will become free. prana has no independent existence; otherwise prana itself may be taken as the Supreme Reality which is not true.

People understand this in various ways. The body oriented aspect of understanding is the body is you. If your body is gone then you no longer exist. Your body itself has a shape and form and once you die, the body is gone. This is one way of thinking. If you go a little bit subtler your body lives as long as there is prana. You will say you are nothing but the life force, prana. Here it is being pointed out that within this grosser form of the body there is the subtler form of prana, beyond that there is Atma. So none of this, neither the body, nor the prana is the Atma, the Supreme Reality, body and prana both are controlled by the Atma, the Self. The Self is the Supreme Reality. So this is what is being taught here. Without prana there is no animation of the body, no life. So life is dependent on prana and the prana itself is dependent on the Atma.

So Atma uses the shareera (body). The body is operated through the mind, manomaya. The mind controls the body and prana animates the mind and the body. So one who is there in annamaya (this body), one who is there in manomaya (the mind) and one who is there in pranamaya, that Atma is what you are. The Atma is there in the body in the sense that he is there spread throughout the body. His head is Yajurveda, his right hand is Rigveda, his left hand is Samaveda, and Brahmana is the middle portion. is the lower portion. So the meaning of this is Rigveda, Yajurveda, Samaveda, Atharvaveda and Brahmana, they actually adore Brahman. The Vedas are the means of adoring and worshipping Brahman. Brahman, Paramatma is called Veda Purusha. He is

28 explained in terms of the four Vedas. Who is this Veda Purusha? All these four Vedas speak of Brahman, in a different language. They worship and praise Brahman and Vedas came from Brahman. So Vedas actually manifested from Brahman like everything else has manifested. What is speciality about Vedas is they describe, proclaim and talk about Supreme Reality. Whereas other things which have come from Brahman like science and technology etc, do not speak of Brahman directly but speak about matter. That is the difference. So, while science speaks of matter, Vedas speak of Consciousness through matter. The Vedas have more direct connectivity to the Supreme Reality. or Brahman is called Veda Purusha because Vedas manifest from him. The authentic knowledge of his own Self is in the form of Vedas. That is why he is called Veda Purusha. What you study in the Vedas is nothing but description of Brahman.

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The Sheath of Intellect

Shloka 2.4

यिो िाचो वनििान्िे | अप्राꥍय मनसा सि | आनन्द ं ब्रणो विद्वान ् | न विभेवि कदाचनेवि | िस्यैष एि शारीर आत्मा | यः पिू ास्य | िस्माद्वा एिस्मान्मनोमयाि ् | अन्योऽन्िर आत्मा विज्ञानमयः | िेनैष पणू ाः | स िा एष प셁ु षविध एि | िस्य प셁ु षविधिाम ् | अन्ियं प셁ु षविधः | िस्य िद्धैि वशरः | ऋिं दविणः पिः | सत्यमत्तु रः पिः | योग आत्मा | मिः प楍ु छं प्रविा | िदꥍयेष श्लोको भिवि ||१||इवि चििु ोऽनिु ाकः ||

Yatho vacho nivartante aprapya manasaa saha Aanandam brahmano vidvaan na bibheti kadaachaneti Tasyaisha shareera atmaa yah poorvasya Tasmadva etasmanmanomayat anye antara atmaa Vijnaanamayah tenaishapoornah Sa vaa esha purushavidhah evam Tasya purusha vidhataam anvayam purushavidhah Tasya shradha eva shirah ritam dakshina pakshah satyam uttara pakshah atmaah Mahah puchcham pratishtham Tadapyesha slokobhavati Iti chathurtho anuvakaha

He who knows the Bliss of Brahman, whence all words together with the mind turn away, unable to reach it—he never fears. This sheath of the mind is the embodied soul of the former. Verily, the different from this sheath, which consists of the essence of the mind, but within it, is another self, which consists of the intellect. By this the former is filled. This too has the shape of a man. Like the human shape of the former is the human shape of the latter. Faith is it head, what is right is its right wing, what is truth is its left wing, absorption is its trunk, Mahat is its tail, its support.

Brahman is of the nature of Supreme Bliss, ananda. The highest possible ananda, the greatest possible bliss is Brahman. All our life we keep searching for ananda, bliss. Somebody says, ‘I am trying for a job’, somebody says, ‘I am trying for a marriage’ and somebody says, ‘I am trying for this, that etc’. Finally what you are trying to do is you are searching for bliss in whatever way possible. Do you have experience of bliss in your life? Do you know the 30 difference between joy and bliss? When you get something you have a joy, you are happy and you enjoy, right? The joy which is experience is momentary in nature whereas bliss is eternal in nature. Bliss is you own nature; joy is what you experience when you get something. When you get something in life you say “I am joyful”. But bliss is your own nature. The closest experience of bliss which you experience is when you are in deep sleep. After waking up you say I felt very peaceful and enjoyed a good sleep. In twenty four hours of a day, in the waking state you are stressed from the interaction with the world. In the dream state you recollect in various ways whatever you did in the dream state, which is also a sort of disturbance. In deep sleep state, there are no thoughts, no ego, there is a deep sense of peace and joy. That is the joy that is closest to Brahman. When there is no sense of ego and no sense of appearance of the world, your own nature as Brahman is experienced.

What is joy? “I am so happy when my cricket team wins; I feel joy when I eat ice-cream, I feel joy when I eat jalebi.” What is this joy? Joy comes when I get something from the world, joy is object related. When you seek an object in the world, let us say ice-cream, a job, or whatever that is, your mind is constantly agitated with lots of thoughts about acquiring the object. When you acquire that the mind becomes momentarily silent and you experience the joy within. That ananda came from inside you not from outside. That ananda which you felt is not because you got a jalebi or a job or something in life. It is because during that time your mind became silent. When the mind became silent momentarily, you felt your Atma in that silence. So what you experienced is ananda, the bliss of the Atma and nothing else. But we make a mistake in attributing happiness to outside factors i.e. objects, but bliss can never come from outside objects, it is only inner experience, the experience of Atma, Brahman.

‘Yatho vacho nivarthanthe’, the words cannot describe that bliss. It is very difficult to explain any experience of life. Let us say you felt happy and you are asked to go and tell somebody else that you felt happy. They will ask, ‘How much happiness?’ You say, “Very happy” or “Very very happy”. You can tell the adjective, but you cannot explain very clearly what happiness is about. Similarly if somebody has never eaten a sweet before; you cannot communicate sweetness i.e. taste of sweets that you eat with the word ‘sweet’. I cannot understand what that real sweet is, I don’t know. We cannot easily communicate our inner experiences to somebody; we can only communicate about outer objects. We can speak about this book or this chair, but we can’t speak about the inner experiences to anybody. So what about the experience of Supreme Bliss which is infinite? There is no way you can explain the infinite bliss to somebody. For that matter our mind and words cannot explain what that infinite is to anybody. Let us say, I ask you, what is space?

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Can you explain space to me? How will you explain it? If you want to say what space is, you’ll say absence of objects is space. What is space you cannot explain. Similarly ananda, the bliss of Brahman which is of infinite nature, you cannot explain to anybody, because any explanation falls short. But the beauty of that ananda is, it is your own nature and you already have it. But you keep on searching for what you have without knowing that you have it and search outside in various objects, in some entertainment programs, alcohol, smoking, and job, etc. You try to find that ananda which already you have like the story of the beggar told earlier.

Even though you have lot of ananda, bliss inside you, if you don’t know it, you keep on searching outside in Rasgulla, Laddoos, jobs etc. What all jobs you search! So you keep on searching for bliss outside when bliss is your own nature. Atma’s nature is ananda. Now the problem is not only you search for ananda outside, you say, ’My wife has to give ananda to me, my husband has to give ananda to me’ and we expect somebody else to give ananda to us as if they have extra stock of it. They are also beggars who keep on begging for ananda from somebody which you don’t know. And then there are these Swamijis who keep their name as some ananda, at least in their names they want to keep as ananda, Brahmananda, Yogananda, and Mukthananda etc. So you keep on searching for ananda. So where do you get ananda from? Ananda or bliss can come only from within. That is infinite and the closest example you know of that is in deep sleep. You experience the bliss, ananda. That is your own nature. The key to ananda is that the mind has to become silent. In deep sleep, your mind becomes silent. Now the problem is, throughout the day, our mind keeps jumping like a monkey. Not only my mind is monkey, I can make your mind also a monkey. See, the monkeys have to keep on jumping, keep scratching each other’s head. So we scratch everybody, we make everybody a monkey. Ananda is our nature and we can experience that when the mind is made silent. The process of making the mind silent is called meditation or dhyana. When my mind is silent, I will not disturb you and if you disturb me, it doesn’t matter. I am peaceful. Now the problem is, my mind is disturbed and I disturb your mind also and everybody’s mind is disturbed. You have to do meditation daily to make your mind silent, to experience the ananda of Atma.

‘Yatho vacho nivartante’ How much is the ananda, the bliss you have already inside you? It is infinite and no words can explain it. ‘apraapya manasasa’, the mind can’t reach it. Why can’t the mind reach it? The ananda of the Atma can be experienced only when the mind is silent. Then you say I got joy, I got some money or I got a job and I became very happy. What you don’t understand is the happiness is not because you got a job, happiness is not because you ate a jalebi or laddoo. Happiness is because when you got the job or ate jalebi, your mind became silent. When the mind became silent, the

32 ananda of the Atma got reflected in that silent mind. The mind comes back and says, ‘I experienced joy’. The experience of joy was there because it became silent. When it is talking, it has already come out of the silence.

‘Anando vidwan nabhibheti kadhachaneti’, so one who has realized the Brahman, see, we call as ‘Brahmin’, but Brahmin has become just a name. Brahmin is not somebody who is born in a community. Nobody becomes a Brahmana by being born in a Brahmana community. Brahmin is the one who has realized the Brahman, Atma. Such a person is called Brahmana. Now, Brahmana by a community is not the right explanation of a Brahmana. If a person who is born in a Brahmana community can become a Brahmana, then the moment a child is born in a lawyer’s family will become a lawyer, a child born in a doctor’s family will become a doctor and a child born in a policeman’s family will become a policeman. No such thing happens because only somebody who realizes Brahman becomes a Brahmin and not by birth. One who realizes Brahman, one who realizes the bliss of Atma within, he becomes free from all the fears.

Why is it important to become fearless? All our life we are driven by fear. Constantly at the back of our mind, there is a fear factor. We fear, “What will happen if this does not happen, what will happen we do not get money, if I don’t get a job, what will happen if my health is not good’, all these fears are there in the background of our mind and Consciousness throughout. We live and die in fear. We may not say so, but fear is the real motivator which makes you go out and do something. When you become fearless, your mind will become clear and the decision making will become clearer. Otherwise our decision making is always cluttered with fear factor. When you realize the Atman or Brahman, the fear drops. Why? Because you realize that my nature is only Brahman. Only one who realizes this is called Brahmana. My nature is Brahman, I am of the nature of Supreme Reality. Brahman has no birth or death. My nature is infinite. This understanding will make one free from fear. We have a fear of losing 5000 rupees or one lakh rupees, why? That one lakh rupees is important for us because we have very less money. But let us think of a billionaire who has lots of money. If he loses one lakh rupees, it is nothing for him; he doesn’t even bother about it, because he has no fear. When you get something in infinite, then you will not be worried about the finite. When you get infinite ananda you will lose the fear of anything because your nature is bliss. Otherwise, moment to moment in your life, please look at what you are afraid of, you are afraid of losing something because you think that having that is ananda, and you are afraid of losing ananda, bliss which is our life. Constantly we are afraid of losing something, it is not the objects, husband, wife or job, it is the fear of losing ananda or the happiness that we have. So that fear disappears.

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He will be free from any aggression in the world, no weapon can threaten him. He is not afraid of any weapons. The war was there, Lord Shri Krishna was sitting unarmed as a charioteer for Arjuna. He was not using any weapon, but he was not afraid of anything also. Why? When you know yourself as the birthless and deathless spirit, the Atma, there is no question of at all. No weapons can threaten him. Please understand, all your life you make decisions based on fear. Can you take a decision in ananda or happiness? Then that decision will be clearer and less cluttered. Because that is not based on the fear factor.

‘anyo antharatma” we have multiple layers in the body. Annamaya is the outer layer of the body, the physical structure. It is made up of skin, muscles, bone etc. Inside Annamaya kosha we have Pranamaya kosha which is giving life to our entire body. Inside Pranamaya kosha, there is Manomaya kosha, the mind which has the thoughts, images, imaginations etc. Behind that Manomaya kosha is the Vijnanamaya kosha - that is the intellectual sheath and beyond that intellectual sheath is the Atma. So there are five layers in our body, Annamaya kosha (the physical body), Pranamaya kosha (the vital body), Manomaya kosha (the mental body), Vijnanamaya kosha (the intellectual body), (blissful body) and Atma which is of the nature of bliss. One who has realized the Atma in these five layers, he becomes free. But most of the people live with the concept that ‘I am the body’. They don’t even know that there is something beyond the gross body. They live like machines because they live in the outer layer of their life. You live in the surface level of Consciousness, you do not go deeper. If you go deeper inside, you will see the Bhagavan, Atma or Brahman inside and that is the realization. He is beyond the Vijnanamaya kosha and his head is shraddha.

What is shraddha? It is not name of some girl. Shraddha means faith. Our entire life is driven by a sort of faith and we are dependent on it. Our day-to- day transactions are dependent on it. When the child drinks milk from the mother, it has the faith that she will not give poison. Otherwise it will not drink milk. When husband and wife are living together, the husband has the faith that wife will be giving food, not poison. When you are interacting in the office, you have the faith that if you work hard you will get salary. When you are doing business, you have the faith that the customers will pay you for the products you have sold. Faith is the foundation of life. Faith is the foundation of spiritual life also. In material life you need faith for living, if you live in constant suspicion you cannot live. If you are suspicious, you cannot do any transactions. Some amount of faith is required in transactions. If this faith is missing, there is no transaction possible in life. Without faith how can you find God in you? To find God, Atma or Bhagavan in you, you need shraddha. How does the faith come? Faith comes from the teachings of the Bhagavad Gita, Upanishads and the teachings of realized masters. It

34 comes from the teachings of the Guru. Faith is required to do any , to realize your Self, the Consciousness beyond the body mind intellect. Beyond the five my Atma, my God is there. God is in me. For this realization, faith is the shraddha, the head that is required.

‘ritam dakshina pakshaha’ - ‘ritam’ is the left hand and ‘satyam’ is the right hand. ‘ritam’ comes from the English word, ‘rhythm’. Rhythm is a pattern. There is summer, rainy season, winter etc, which is a seasonal rhythm, and then there is a body rhythm. There are various rhythms in the world. Rhythm is the pattern in nature. satyam means the truth, your inner experience is called satyam. So left hand is ritam and right hand is satyam. Likewise Atma has two dimensions. Atma manifests as the ritam in the outer world and as satyam in the inner world. That Atma, ‘tat’ becomes, ‘aham’ and ‘idam’, the Self and non Self, Subjective Consciousness and Objective Consciousness. The one Parabrahma appears as two, as individual and as universal, ‘aham’ and ‘idam’. In the individual he manifests as ‘satyam’ and in the world he manifests as ‘ritam’. The world has a pattern and if that pattern is destroyed, the world will go. The different seasons occur as a pattern and if suddenly that is disturbed, then life will go. So that pattern itself is important and Bhagavan himself appears as that pattern. Consciousness itself appears as that pattern. That pattern is called ritam (rhythm). Inside you there is a deep feeling called ‘I am’ or ’aham’ and that is called satyam. Satyam and ritam are his left and right hands.

‘Yogaha madhyaha’ – Yoga is the Self. To realize Atma you need to go through the process of Yoga. There is , yoga, and Kriya yoga. There are different types of yoga. Yoga is one which helps you to attain peace, attain Bhagavan, and attain Consciousness in you. What we are doing now is a part of Jnana yoga.

‘Mahaha pruccham pratishta’: ‘mahat tathva’ is the lower part, what you call as Bhagavan, God. We are speaking of Parabrahma, Bhagavan and the jivatma. They are related to each other like water, ocean and wave. Wave is the individual Consciousness. “I am a small wave, you are small wave, he is a big wave” similarly each individual is an individual wave. Waves are part of ocean and ocean is nothing but water. These are actually representations for Parabrahma which represents water. Bhagavan or God represents the ocean and jivatma represents individual wave. Bhagavan is also called as ‘maha tathva’. He is also called as ‘Saguna Brahma’. The realization is “I am not the body, mind and intellect, I am Pure Consciousness, Atma which is ananda, bliss”. This realization is explained in this chapter. What is the realization?

“Nanu nanembudhu naan alla ee deha mana buddhi naan alla, satchitadAnanda Atma shiva naanu naane shivoham shivoham shivoham”.

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So the purpose of life is to realize the Atma, Parabrahma in us and in everybody. By that realization we feel Supreme bliss, ananda. That is the meaning of this Shloka.

Shloka 2.5

विज्ञानं यज्ञं िनिु े | कमाावण िनिु ेऽवप च | विज्ञानं देिाः सिे | ब्र 煍येमपु ासिे | विज्ञानं ब्र चेद्वदे | िस्मा楍चेन्न प्रमाद्यवि | शरीरे पाꥍमनो वित्िा | सिाान्कामान्समश्निु इवि | िस्यैष एि शारीर आत्मा | यः पिू ास्य | िस्माद्वा एिस्मावद्वज्ञानमयाि ् | अन्योऽन्िर आत्माऽऽनन्दमयः | िेनैष पणू ाः | स िा एष प셁ु षविध एि | िस्य प셁ु षविधिाम ् | अन्ियं प셁ु षविधः | िस्य वप्रयमेि वशरः | मोदो दविणः पिः | प्रमोद उत्तरः पिः | आनन्द आत्मा| ब्र प楍ु छं प्रविा | िदꥍयेष श्लोको भिवि ||१||इवि प祍चमोऽनिु ाकः ||

Vijnaanam yajnam tanute kamaani tanutepi cha Vijnaanam devaah sarvah brahmajyeshthamupaasate Vijnaanam brahmachetvada tasmaachenna pramaadhati Shareere paapmanohitvaa sarvaan kaamaan samashnuta it Tasyaisha eva shareera atmaa yah poorvasya Tasmadva etasmaadvijnaanamayaat anye antara atmaa Aanandamayah tenaishapoornah Sa vaa esha purushavidhah evam Tasya purusha vidhataam anvayam purushavidhah Tasya priyam eva shirah modo dakshinah pakshah Pramodo uttara pakshah aananda atmaah brahma pucham pratishthaa Tadapyesha sloko bhavati Iti panchamo anuvakaha

The intellect accomplishes the sacrifice; it also accomplishes all actions. All the gods worship the intellect, who is the eldest, as Brahman.” “If a man knows the intellect as Brahman and if he does not swerve from it, he leaves behind in the body all evils and attains all his desires. This is the embodied soul of the former. Verily, different from this, which consists of the essence of the intellect, but within it, is another self, which consists of bliss. By this the former is filled. This too has the shape of a man. Like the human shape of the former is the human shape of the latter. Joy is its head, delight is its right wing, great delight is its left, bliss is its trunk. Brahman is its tail, its support.

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Jnana means knowledge and Vijnana means science in common language. But here Vijnana means ‘visishta jnana’, the knowledge which is actually arrived at after deep analysis. It is not just ordinary knowledge. You just don’t take for granted what is there. You go deeper, analyze and understand. ‘Vijnanam yajnam vinuthe’, greater than your senses is your mind, greater than the mind is the intellect. Intellect has knowledge and after a clear understanding of life the knowledge becomes Vijnana, Supreme knowledge. It is not a mistaken knowledge but a clear knowledge of the higher purpose of life. We have a knowledge of the lower purpose of life. I have to earn money, I have to do this job, I have to take care of children, etc. But higher purpose of life is to realize Brahman, God within. So that comes from Vijnana and application of that Vijnana in life is called Yajna.

I keep saying Yajna is the foundation of life. The idea is service and when you know how to do service, , the mind gets purified. Yajna is the supreme principle of life. In nature everything lives on the basis of sharing. The ocean shares the water with the cloud, the cloud shares the water with the rivers, and the rivers give back the water to the ocean. The process of cycle of nature is called Yajna. Everything in life, whether it is plants or trees or animals, they know how to give. That process is called Yajna. What you give grows, except money. If you have knowledge when you teach children it grows. You are a teacher, when you teach children, your understanding becomes much better. Who is learning, children or the teacher? The teacher becomes better every year. He is able to teach. Knowledge grows by teaching. Goodwill grows by helping each other. Similarly money grows by giving, not in charity, but in business. What happens in business is that somebody who makes lot of money teaches other people how to save money or to earn money in business. Nature is the process of giving. Only by the process of giving you grow and that is Yajna. One who has Vijnana, one whose understanding has become clear, he lives by Yajna, and he understands how to do Yajna. Then he uses his sense organs and body, mind complex for the purpose of Yajna and service. Why do you do service? By doing service, helping each other, by doing service to God, your mind becomes purified. In that pure mind, you become closer to God, you can realize Bhagavan. Realization happens with inner clarity, inner purity.

One who realizes that Vijnana is Brahman, here, don’t be under the impression that intellect itself is Brahman, the intellect is powered by Brahman. Like you have laptop, right? Laptop has ‘Intel inside’. So what do you have to say? ‘God inside’. Then the power will be higher. Only when Bhagavan is inside you will have more power. The idea is to realize that Supreme Reality, Brahman, Atma is in you, that is your power, and then you will get enough power in the world to interact. There are different types of powers on which people live, what are the powers on which people live? Dhanabalam,

37 somebody who has lots of money; power of money. Adhikarabalam, the power of position, and Yavvanabalam, ‘I am youthful, I am handsome, and I am beautiful’. Jnanabalam, the power of knowledge. Whatever balam you have is not good enough. Adhikarabalam, when you sit in the chair there is power, when you move out of the chair somebody else comes and sits. The chair is powerful, not you. When you sit in the chair you will get power and when you go out, the power is gone. And people are waiting to pull you out of the chair!! The life of a person in power is very fearful. In earlier days when the kings had many wives, the wives were the power. If a king had hundred wives he was more powerful compared to some other king who had fifty wives. But even that king was living in fear that his wife may add poison in his food anytime. So kings used to have dogs which ate the food first after which they eat. Power is also fear. Power of Yavvanabalam “I am handsome, I am beautiful”. There is a girl of twenty – twenty five who is beautiful. One day a kid comes and calls her ‘Aunty’, she becomes aunty? She gets very angry. She goes and tells the kid, “Did you call me aunty?” and then kid says, “I am sorry nani (grandmother)”. So yavvanabalam also goes. Dhanabalam, I have so much of money. My dear, there will always be some bigger guy who will come as competition in your business. None of this bala is yours. They are all borrowed, rented. Only bala you have deep inside is called atmabala. Atmabala is the strength, which alone can make you survive. All your balas are dependent on atmabala. Your body is dependent, your mind is dependent, your intellect is dependent, and adhikara is dependent on Atma which is the inner strength. There is a huge building under which there is a strong foundation of concrete pillars. What you don’t see is the concrete pillars, what you don’t see is the foundation, but you can see the building. Similarly our life has a foundation, that foundation is Jnana. The foundation of life is Yajna, which people cannot see. The strength, the inner pillar within us is Bhagavan, God, Atma in us. We cannot see that, but everything is dependant on that alone. What is seen is the physical, mental or intellectual strength, but the real strength comes from Atma, the Brahmabalam within.

“Shareere paapmanohitvaa sarvaan kaamaan samashnuta iti tasyaisha eva shareera atmaa yah poorvasya” Then he becomes sinless or free from sin. What is sin? Society has a concept of sin based on right and wrong that is ethical and moral values. The sin spoken of here is to know yourself as a body and mind, not as Atma. This is the greatest sin. And because of this sin all your life you are living in an illusion that you are a body mind complex. This is the biggest sin and there is no other sin. To realize that I am not the body, I am not the mind, I am not the intellect, I am pure Atma, I am pure spirit, Chaitanya, Consciousness one with Bhagavan is the greatest freedom, freedom from sin. Only when you realize this you will be free from the cycle of birth and death “Punarapi jananam, puranapi maranam”. Until you realize “I am Atma” there is no freedom, there is no Mukti.

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The Blissful Sheath

Shloka 2.5 continued

In the last shlokas, we talked about Annamaya shareera (body), Pranamaya shareera and Manomaya shareera. Now we are coming to Vijanamaya shareera. There are actually five Koshas or sheaths. The physical sheath is called Annamaya. It is made up of food (matter). Pranamaya kosha is full of pranic energy and is composed of prana, apana, vyana, samana and udana. Then comes Manomaya, the mental sheath. What does the mental sheath have? Thoughts, imaginations etc., Beyond Manomaya kosha, there is Vijnanamaya kosha, the sheath of intellect whose role is decision making i.e. to decide what is right and what is wrong, what is to be done and what is not to be done. I see something, the eyes get the sense inputs, and then the mind says, ‘I like this, I don’t like this, this is a fruit, this is a mango, etc.’ Then the intellect has to decide whether I eat it or not, whether I do something or not. So Vijnanamaya kosha, ‘Vijananam Yajnam thanuthe’, we have to understand the Vijnanamaya kosha and lead our life in the form of Yajna. What is Yajna? Yajna is an offering, Yajna is a service. The moment we say Yajna, we remember fire worship where some offerings are made into the fire and there is some prayer. The real Yajna is the karma which we do in our life. So what are the actions which we do in our life? Most of the time when we do actions, it is for selfish reasons. When we are able to the actions with the attitude of service, as an offering to the Lord, Bhagavan, it becomes Yajna. It has nothing to do with fire worship. The real Yajna is your action which is service oriented and done with deep devotion. There are Panchamaha or five Yajnas which are prescribed, through which you can do service to Bhagavan: Deva Yajna, Pitru Yajna, Manushya Yajna, Bhuta Yajna and Rishi Yajna.

Deva Yajna Deva Yajna is service to the divine beings. Who are the divine beings? These divine beings are responsible for the balance in the nature, for protection of the nature. So for them, any offering you do is called Deva Yajna. So, Indira, Vayu, Varuna, Agni etc. are all divine beings. Now what is their responsibility? What do the Devatas do? They are responsible for the balance in the nature. Timely rains, sunshine, weather conditions, oxygen etc which are required for the survival of the life forms. So any action which you do, to help the environment, to take care of the environment , for the protection of the environment, for bringing back balance in the environment, for cleaning up the rivers , reducing pollution etc all these are participation in Deva Yajna. So, that is an offering, service to the Devatas. Any you do at home, any you do, that also comes under the Deva Yajna category.

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Pitru Yajna Then comes the Pitru Yajna. What is Pitru Yajna? Pitru Yajna means you live a life of gratitude for generations of people who have given birth to you and sustained you. It is not easy to survive in life, it is a hard struggle for anybody. You might have read in the newspapers, more than 40% of the IT graduates today get high blood pressure by the age of twenty seven compared to any other field. There is so much work pressure that survival is not easy. With that condition our parents have struggled to survive themselves and bring you up, give you education and make your life easier. So Pitru Yajna is gratitude to the ancestors, senior citizens, and elders. Also, in Pitru Yajna, what happens is, earlier there was a way by which three generations of people lived together. Grandparents, sons and grandsons. So in the process there was wisdom transfer from one generation to next generation. The Grandfather will pass on the wisdom to the grandchild, in the form of stories, in the form of blessings. Today the families have become nuclear. There is no Grandmothers and Grandfathers; they are mostly in old age homes or their own houses. The son is in the USA, the grandchild will probably study for a few years with the parents and then he will go for studies in hostels. So the whole family gets separated out. When the family gets separated out, how does the education come? I am not speaking of social education which is required for living. I am speaking of spiritual education, how to face life if something happens, how not to get stressed, face life confidently etc, who will give that courage, who will give that strength? That is gone. Because father is busy with his own job, he is himself under tension. The son is under tension, the grandfather is nowhere. Where is the passing of the wisdom from one generation to another? India is an ancient country. If you see the Ramayana and Mahabharata age, which is like 20,000 years back, wisdom got passed from one generation to next. If the wisdom does not get passed, it gets blocked; at various places it gets cut. When it is getting cut, what role do you have to play to make sure that wisdom gets passed from one generation to the next generation? That can be done by inculcating spiritual values, provided you have values. If you don’t have values, what to do? Can you bring it, borrow it? What to do? So there are systems required to bring spiritual education to the children. Pitru Yajna means respecting the elders, respecting the senior citizens and bringing spiritual education to the next generation through some systematic way.

Bhuta Yajna Bhuta means living beings. For us to live, we displace and destroy a lot of life forms. In the last one century alone more than few tens of millions of life forms have been killed. Systematically in the name of entertainment, food industry, we rear animals in farms and kill them. We torture animals for beauty products, scientific experiments, and even for fun. Any contribution you do, any service you do to bring love, to animals in any form

40 is called Bhuta Yajna. Bhuta Yajna nowadays is limited to what you do when you have some puja at home. You keep some food at the door steps so that ants can eat. It has to go slightly beyond that. Manushya Yajna Manushya Yajna is service that you do to human beings who are in difficulty, in distress. Now if you do service to human beings, it is called social service. We are not speaking of social service. Social service does not lead to spiritual evolution. Social service may get you a good name, fame and probably a Nobel Prize too. But for spiritual evolution to take place, what is important is your attitude toward service. Your inner feeling should be, ‘I am doing the service not to the human beings, but for God himself’, Naranarayana seva. If that attitude is there, you will get elevated. If you think ‘I am doing service to a human being’, then it becomes a social service. No doubt it is good, but to really uplift yourself, you should have an attitude of doing puja to God in the form of human being. Rishi Yajna Finally, the last and most important Yajna is called Rishi Yajna. It is the study and passing on of the teachings of the Rishis. The teachings of the Rishis have come in the form of Vedas, Upanishads, and , . Study them and pass them on by teach them to the next generation. This is what I’m doing today as Rishi Yajna. You might have heard, where there is no Yajna, in that place, or demons will dance. So where Rishis teachings are not taught, the mind becomes clouded and deluded. People start behaving erratically, they become trouble for others. Any philosophy will start gaining ground. Somebody says this is good, then people will start following that and when somebody says the other thing is right, people will start accepting that because they don’t have a direction. The directions that Rishis have given have to be learnt and implemented in life, which is called Rishi Yajna. So these Panchamaha Yajna have to be performed with Vijnana. The buddhi directs us to act, you do this or you do that. So the direction has to come with Yajna bhava.

All the sense organs, eyes, ears, skin, etc and the organs of action follow the guidance of Buddhi (vijnana). So it is very important that Buddhi is purified and it is giving the right direction to the sense organs. Only then your life will be Yajna, otherwise life will be spent in Karmic actions, actions which will lead to karma phala, thereby creating more and more karmic load. Whatever actions you do with the attitude of Yajna will purify you, will uplift you and this society also. That is the importance of Yajna.

One who knows Vijnana (intellect) as Brahman and is not deluded by Annamaya kosha, Pranamaya kosha, Manomaya kosha, becomes free. See we have a lot of respect for intellectuals. We say that person is an intellectual. Being intellectual is called the greatest thing. Some intellectual comes and makes a

41 statement and all the newspapers will publish it though he may have made a stupid statement. But people give respect. The person with a greater intellect is considered as a great person. So now intellect is no doubt highest, but higher than the intellect is Atma. People get misled by somebody having good intellectual powers. The same mistake happens at lower level also. Somebody who is handsome, beautiful, with strong muscles, etc. get respected in society. Many people in society believe that body itself is Brahman, God. You have to understand that body itself is not supreme. Some of the people are very focused on prana. They say prana itself is God, Brahman. They do are involved in different kinds of healing which involves prana, e.g. Pranic healing. prana is no doubt important, it is required for sustaining the body and mind, but it is not supreme. Many people are not aware that something more than prana is there. They think if prana goes, the person is dead and nothing is there beyond prana. Then there are people who are very focused on the mind, manas. They give a lot of importance to it. Look at the poets and all these movie songs. What are movie songs designed for? Stirring emotions in you. We say, ‘Oh! Such a moody person!’ thinking as if the mind is supreme. No, the mind is not supreme. We call somebody an intellectual. There are so many intellectuals in the world who have given direction and shape to the history of the world. Ultimately Intellectuals are the people who are able to bring some direction in the society. But the intellect is not supreme because it can be misguided. There are lots of philosophies in the world, for example Communism, Marxism which have influenced many people. They started growing beards, wearing weird dresses, saying “I belong to such and such a cult, philosophy”. The intellect gives rise to ideas and philosophies and people do get influenced by that. Large number of people get influenced by sharp philosophies. Even in the political systems you see now, somebody will say ‘corruption has to be banned’. Lot of people will follow, until they find that there is problem with the person himself. So, even though the person is intellectually superior there may still be some defect in him. Because the intellect itself is not supreme. Beyond the intellect there is the Anandamaya kosha or the blissful sheath. That intellect is the one which gives you bliss, but that is also not final, beyond Vijnanamaya kosha there is Atma. So you have to go deeper and deeper inside you.

Only who realizes that there is something greater than the intellect, he will not sin. This is a very important understanding. Those who think that they are intellectuals are actually fools. An intellectual, buddhi jeevi, not only misguides himself but misguides others also. It does not mean that the intellectual himself is wrong, but there is something higher than the intellect. So only the person who has risen above the intelligence has the right ability to the guide the intellect. The situation is like this. There are twelve servants in the house of a rich man. One day he goes for a foreign tour. The servants have a good time. One uses the master’s dress, another uses the master’s bed,

42 and another uses master’s plate. So, they enjoy, watching TV, smoking from master’s pipe. They were having a great time. One day the master comes back suddenly without informing these servants about his return. Everybody is shocked and they go back, they hide whatever they have done and sit as if nothing happened. Who are these ten servants? They are the five karmendriyas (organs of action) and five jnanendriyas (sense organs) in you. There are two other servants, the mind and the intellect. These servants are supposed to be working under the master called Atma. Most of the time they say “The master himself is not there in the house, I am the master”.

When the intellect becomes the master, it is very dangerous. There are many many big scams, banking scams, frauds in the world. They are conducted not by petty criminals but by the ones who have studied from the best of the best, the top most management schools, the MBAs. They know exactly how to manipulate the system and make money. For example the world went into recession in 2008-2009. It was called Lehman’s crisis. Now if you think that this crisis has been created by some government, it is not true, it has been created by a very few bankers, may be eight or ten of them. The best and the brightest (most intellectual) of the bankers in the world studied in the best MBA schools. They studied how to get more and more money out of the system. People say that they are intellectuals and we should give them respect but in fact many of the intellectuals don’t even know that they live in ignorance. They misguide the people because they don’t know that the Atma is the master, and not the intellect. That’s why in India there is respect for a person who is Self realized, an Atma Jyothi whose intellect works properly under the guidance of Atma and not on its own, otherwise it will go haywire. The intellect itself is Brahman we say. When we say Brahman, please understand, people worship so many things as God, like money, name, beauty, duty, body, mind and Intellect, forgetting real God which is Atma. Only when you realize Atma, the mind and Intellect will be in proper shape.

Then he will become sinless. What is the meaning of sinless? Most of the times, sin is determined by the society. In some countries if you don’t cover your face you are committing a sin and in some countries if you cover your face you are committing a sin. So what is right and what is wrong? These are all manmade. What is sin from God’s point of view? Sin from a human point of view and sin from God’s point of view are different, they are not the same. What is sin from God’s point of view? Thinking that you are a body, mind and intellect is sin. Living with that thinking is the only sin. That is the greatest sin. Once you do that everything goes wrong in your life. Not literally, it goes wrong in the sense that although you may make lot of money, name and fame etc. you will not be having inner peace. The sin is not having inner peace because of the wrong understanding about yourself. When a person becomes sinless because he never mistakes himself to be a body and

43 mind, he knows that he is Atma all the time, he is called Atmajnani. That is why there is a saying in our Sanatana Dharma that somebody goes and takes a dip in holy he becomes free from sins. Does that happen? A lot of waste is dumped into Ganga and Ganga itself requires a lot of clean up. If you take a holy dip in Ganga, will you become free of sin? You have to understand the real meaning of Ganga. Ganga comes from Lord Shiva’s head, Shiva’s I. That is the real Ganga. What comes from the head of Shiva is Jnana Ganga. What is Jnana Ganga? Jnana Ganga is yoga, Shiva’s teachings, Agama and the . This is what Shiva teaches. In river Ganga you have to take a bath to purify yourself and in Jnana Ganga you have to take a bath to become free from sins. Without taking a bath in Jnana Ganga which has come from Shiva’s head, how will you become free? It is required. Jnana Ganga is in the form of Upanishads, Bhagavad Gita, and Shiva’s teachings. Yoga is required to become free. Then there is another saying that if you take a dip in Prayag, you will become sin free. Prayag is where the three rivers Ganga, Yamuna and meet. One who takes a dip in a place where these three rivers meet will become free from sins. Is it true? It is also true. These three rivers are nothing but three pranic currents in our body Ida, Pingala and Sushumna, they meet at Ajna chakra. One who meditates at Ajna chakra will become free from sins. Then what is the importance of taking bath in Ganga and Prayag? Is it of no importance? Or is just a myth? What happens is, when you go to Ganga or Prayag and take a dip in that holy river, there is a larger concentration of Atma Jnanis, Jnana around that place. There is a possibility that you might meet a Jnana Purusha. So you get a purification of the body, mind and intellect with the Jnana Purusha’s darshan. That is why it is important to go to holy places. So are there no Jnana Purushas in Bangalore or Hubli or other places? Jnana Purushas are there in other places also, but what happens is that in many of these river banks you may find them more in number because most of them chose to be in such places. There is no place for Jnana Purusha. The world is his house. They can be anywhere. But there is a possibility that many of such holy people can be found near river banks. So the purpose of going to Ganga is not to just take a dip, but to meet a Jnana Purusha and get some wisdom from them. That was the purpose. He will not sin means he will not do any action thinking that he is a body and mind. How will that be a sin? Everybody thinks like that. Does that means everybody is sinning? What happens is, what you think yourself as will determine your love and affection wherever you see. If you think yourself as body, then your life will have full of attraction for bodies, materialistic bodies. Because you think yourself as matter, you get attracted to matter. It will not lead you to peace and satisfaction because anything related to the material world or matter keeps on changing. You may be attracted to a beautiful girl or boy. So the boy looks at the girl, gets attracted and marries her. Two years are over, girl changes, she becomes fat and he also becomes fat. The girls also get attracted to boys with six pack abs and may be a nice

44 bike; but a couple of years later, abs are replaced by tyre. You get attracted by so many superficial things. Somebody is attracted by money, somebody gets attracted by beauty. All those things will change. Everything is temporary, because you are thinking yourself as a body; you get attracted by the bodies. Then what will happen, your life will be full of suffering, because your attraction was wrong. Now you think of yourself as mind, so then you say, ‘Oh! I love her, she is so moody, and her smile is so beautiful’. You are getting attracted by the moods of the person. Those who get attracted by moods will take a roller coaster ride because they will be in one mood in the morning, another mood in the afternoon and different mood in the night. So what you think you are, you get attracted by that. Then you get attracted by intellectuals. You say, “He is such a great intellectual, I have never seen such a person’. There are so many people who get misled by wrong ideologies. Many countries have been ruined by their wrong ideologies. People are made paupers. We have followed some ideologies from last 60 years and that has taken us down the road of ruin. Then some country says, this is the best ideology, revolutions happen and people are killed in large numbers and jailed, but the country remains the same, people still remain poor. So it is a problem when people get attracted by intellectuals. Only when you know that you are Atma, then you will be free from these temporary things, intellect, mind, buddhi etc. Don’t get trapped by them but use them properly. Such a person’s actions are very beneficial to mankind because he is not partial. He is not attracted by superficial things. He doesn’t do anything out of a narrow mindset. Such a person is called Jnani, Mahatma. No sin can happen from that person, because all actions are universal in nature, not partial, not based on caste creed, religion, community, sex, ideologies, but pure love and compassion.

‘Tassmat kaaman’, all his desires gets fulfilled. This is a great thing. A person who becomes Jnani, all his desires gets fulfilled. Tell me what desires will he have? You have to understand desire. Desire for anybody is born out of fear. The fear is born out of wrong understanding “I am the body, mind and intellect”. When that ‘I am’ becomes small you become limited and because you become limited you will have fear and this fear leads to desire. Because, once you have fear, you need protection, insurance. The only guys who sell really some useful product which is not useful to you are the insurance guys. That is always useful to somebody else. Our neighbour used to say, ‘I will never take Insurance because anyways it will not be useful to me.’ All these things we do out of fear. Fear is the root of our existence. Out of fear we have desire. Now we have lot of desires and when you get them you will happy and when you don’t get them you will feel miserable. Ultimately, you come to a conclusion that these desire can never be fulfilled completely. Whether they are your desires, or your husband’s desires or children’s desires, but ultimately you come to a conclusion that there is no end to these desires.

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Then is there a way to end all the desires? Is it possible to end all the desires? So, there is a great desire to overcome all the desires – mother of all Desires. That desire is called Mumukshatva, desire for liberation. So one who gets Atmajnana becomes free from the desires itself because he has no fear left. The fear called I am the body, mind and intellect is not there, and subsequently there is no concept of desire. So a person who has no desire will he become like stone? A dead body? The stone has no desire. If an Atmajnani has any desires, what desire will he have? He will have a desire for loka kalyana, to help and serve all the people, because for him, everybody in the world is his own Atma. His concept of Atma gets extended from the body, mind to everything in the universe. So naturally he will be able to take care of the people, society and animals in a more beautiful way. So his desire is not for the individual, his desire is for universal welfare. These desires will also get fulfilled when somebody gets Atmajnana. So when Ramakrishna Paramahamsa had enlightenment, Mother Kali told him that you will have students who will teach other people. Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa keeps on waiting for the students to come. He used to get angry with Mother Kali, “You told that students will come, but nobody is coming”. His desire is to teach so that people will benefit from the experiences he had gone through. That is the desire. A jnani will have a desire for Universal welfare. Whereas an ajnani will have a desire of selfish nature. That is the difference between the desires.

So, beyond Manomaya kosha, there is Vijnanamaya kosha. Within Vijnanamaya kosha there is Anandamaya kosha, the sheath of Bliss. What is the body of Anandamaya? Priya, something which we like. Whatever I like is Priya. All of us get some joy in what we like, that is called Priya. Modha means whatever you like you get it and enjoy it. That is why it is called Modhaka in ’s hand. You enjoy that, taste that. Pramodha, a greater joy, an overflowing joy, that is the left hand. So Priya is the head, the joy, modha is the right hand, Pramodha, overflowing joy is the left hand, ananda is the middle portion. Brahma Puccha, puccha means the lower part. So, a description of the Anandamaya kosha is explained here. When I say Anandamaya kosha it is Ananadmaya Purusha the inner soul. If I have to describe a person, I will say, he has a head, two hands, two legs and a body. What is the head of an Anandamaya Purusha, not figuratively, but for explanation purpose? Priya and then Modha, Pramodha, these make up the body of the Annamaya kosha. But Puccha means bottom, it is standing which means that Annamaya kosha itself is not final, it is standing on Brahman, supreme Consciousness. Annamaya kosha, Vijnanamaya kosha, Manomaya kosha, Pranamaya kosha, Annamaya kosha, all these five Koshas are animated and lit up by Atma, Brahman. Like the electricity that lights up a tube light, fan or a motor, where these don’t have any characteristics of electricity. Light glows, fan rotates, motor pumps, what you see is the action of these, but what you don’t see is the electricity. Similarly

46 what we see is the action of all the Koshas, but we don’t see the Atma which is lighting up all these. Like a building where the pillars are not visible but the building is standing on the strength of the pillars the foundation is not visible, but we can see the strength of the foundation. We can see the body, mind and intellect operating, but we don’t see the foundation which is Brahman. The foundation of bliss is Brahman which we don’t see, we see only the effect.

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Brahman, the Foundation of all

Shloka 2.6 असन्नेि स भिवि | असदब्र् ेवि िेद चेि ् | अवस्ि ब्रेवि चेद्वेद | सन्िमेनं ििो विदरु रवि | िस्यैष एि शारीर आत्मा | यः पिू ास्य | अिािोऽनप्रु श्नाः | उिाविद्वानमं ु लोकं प्रेत्य | किन ग楍छिी३ उ | आिो विद्वानमं ु लोकं प्रेत्य कवित्समश्निु ा ३ उ | सोऽकामयि | ििु स्यां प्रजायेयेवि | स िपोऽिꥍयि | स िपस्िꥍत्िा | इद ीँ सिामसजृ ि | यवदद ं वक祍च | ित्सृ ्िा | िदिे ानप्रु ाविशि ् | िदनप्रु विश्य | स楍च त्य楍चाभिि ् | वन셁क्तं चावन셁क्तं च | वनलयनं चावनलयनं च | विज्ञानं चाविज्ञानं च | सत्यं चानिृ ं च सत्यमभिि ् | यवदद ं वक祍च | ित्सत्यवमत्याचििे | िदꥍयेष श्लोको भिवि ||१||इवि षोऽनिु ाकः ||

Asanneva sa bhavati asad brahmeti veda chet Asti brahmeti chet vedah santam enam tato viduriti Tasyai ya eva shareera atmaa yah poorvasya Athato anuprashnah Uta avidvaan amum lokam pretya kashchana gachchati Aaho vidvaanamum lokam pretya kashchil samashnutaa u Sa akaamayata bahusyaam prajaayeyeti Sa tapo atapyata idam sarvam asrujat Yadidam kincha tat srushtva tadevaanupravishat Tadanupravishya sat cha asat abhavat Niruktam cha aniruktam cha nilayanam cha anilayanum cha Vijnaanam cha avijnaanam cha satyam cha anrutam cha satyam abhavat yadidam kimcha tatsatyamiti aachakshate Iti shashto anuvakaha

“If a person knows Brahman as nonexistent, he himself becomes nonexistent. If he knows Brahman as existent, then know him as existent.” This is the embodied soul of the former. Thereupon the following questions of the pupil: Does anyone who knows not attain that World after departing this life? Or does he who knows attain that World after departing this life? He desired: “May I be many, may I be born. He performed austerities. Having performed austerities, He created all this— whatever there is. Having created all this, He entered into it. Having entered into it, He became both the manifested and the unmanifested, both the defined and undefined, both the supported and unsupported, both the intelligent and the non - intelligent, both the real and the unreal. The became all this: whatever there is. Therefore call It the True.

One who knows Brahman as Asbhaat (nonexistent), he himself will become nonexistent. What we think we will become is the law of nature. If we constantly think of higher things in life, we become that. There is an example 48 in the Upanishads. It is called ‘bhramara keeta ’. A bhramara is an insect; it brings for itself as food a keeta which is another small insect and keeps it in its nest to feed its child. The keeta is very afraid of bhramara and keeps thinking ‘it will eat me’. It constantly thinks of the bhramara. What will happen to that insect? It itself will take the shape of the bhramara. This is called ‘bhramara keeta nyaya’. We have heard this in many puranas as well where kings like and attained Mukti. People like Kamsa thought of Krishna while walking, eating, and talking. Even devotees of Krishna will not think of him so much. They will think of Krishna only in their free time. Whereas Kamsa was thinking of Krishna all the time, even in his dreams. That is called ‘dvesha bhakti’. You constantly think about something which you hate or are afraid of. But if you love something, you may not think constantly about it. Kamsa was always afraid that Krishna could come anytime and kill him. He could come from the window or sky or any other place and kill him. Even in sleep Krishna could come and kill him. He was very afraid and used to constantly think of Krishna. Because he was thinking constantly of Krishna, at the time of death his mind became very peaceful and he became free and attained Mukti. So this is the story.

Whatever you think you become that. But that doesn’t mean that you should have ‘dvesha bhakti’. It doesn’t mean that you have to hate Krishna or hate Guruji to get Mukti. Have you seen anybody’s marriage photos and photos of the same couple taken again after twenty five or thirty years? Of course, both would have gained weight. Other thing what will happen is, if you look at the faces of husband and wife, both look alike. Husband keeps constantly thinking of wife, because he is afraid of her and wife keeps constantly thinking about husband because she either loves him or hates him. Both are constantly thinking of each other and one day their faces become alike. So, the idea is whatever you think you become like that. If you think about Brahman, God, you become Brahman. If you constantly think about some negative thing, you will become that. What you think in your life is important. Is your life full of negative thoughts, positive thoughts, loving thoughts or thoughts about Brahman? Is your life full of God? What is it? That you become.

Please understand, what you love may fluctuate, but what you hate never fluctuates. Fear and hate is very constant. If somebody says there is no Brahman or God, he will go into non-existence, asat. Because, you are creating your own reality, you are an amsa (reflection) of Brahman, the Supreme Reality which has the ability to create anything. You are also creating your life constantly. Every minute what you think you are creating. If you think that there is no Supreme Reality you also get unrelated, you will also not exist, because you also came from that Supreme Reality. You will also attain asat. There is a class of philosophers called ‘Charuvaka’. Charu means sweet and

49 vaka means talk. They are called Charuvaka. Their philosophy in life is that you have only the body, there is nothing called soul or Atma. ‘ranam krathva dranam pripetha’: enjoy your life when you are alive. In earlier days, it was told, ‘borrow money to eat ’. At that time maybe eating ghee was the only enjoyment. They did not have all those bottles of Coke, Fanta etc. Nothing will happen to you after you die because there is no ‘papa’ or ‘’, because there is no soul at all. This is the philosophy. Then there is another philosophy that there is Atma and it will never die. What difference does it make, please tell me? Whether body is Atma or body is different from Atma, what difference does it make? If body is Atma, then body is limited, it has a shelf life. You have to use within a certain number of day, like all these food products that you get in the market which have a shelf date and an expiry date. If you don’t consume it before the expiry date, it will be useless. You also have a shelf life say sixty or seventy years until which you can indulge in enjoyment. So this is one philosophy where there is a lot of pressure on you to extract maximum enjoyment in a lifetime. Now another philosophy says, the bodies come and go, you will take another body and life goes on and on. So the pressures of enjoying life and achieving everything within a period of one lifetime come down. You don’t get tensed and you become relaxed otherwise this life itself becomes a pain. But some people can convert that itself into stress, ‘Oh!!! I have to get Mukti in this life only. I don’t want so many lives, I want Mukti now itself.’ It is a different matter that people can convert anything you tell them into stress. But these things are told so that you don’t get stressed and learn to relax. Life is a continuous process.

So there are two alternate thoughts, body is Atma or Atma is different from the body. If Atma is different from the body, then Atma can change bodies, but it can never die. So the fear of death will go. Otherwise many people who are body conscious have tremendous fear of death. The death affects them seriously. It is very important that Atma is different from body. This concept has been given to us in India by the Rishis which has made death less fearful. There will of course be fear of living when someone who has taken care of you has passed away, but that is ok. So what you think of Atma, you will become that. If you think that Atma is small you become small. If you think it is big you become big. If you think that Atma is eternal, you become eternal. Atma has the ability to create reality for you. The question is whether you have the right or the wrong understanding of Atma. Most of the people think that Atma is body. You have become body because you constantly think of Atma as body. You have to start thinking that Atma is Chaitanya, it is ‘Sat-chit- ananda’ swarupa’ (of the nature of Existence Consciousness and Bliss) and become free from the bondage of the body. If you constantly think “I am not realized” you become that only. That is why it is told in Upanishads that never think that you are bonded, never think that you are born, and never think that you will die. Consider yourself as Atma. To think otherwise is a

50 wrong understanding. What is the teaching? “Nanu nanembudhu nanalla ee deha mana buddhi naan alla satchitanandatma shiva naanu naane. Shivoham. Shivoham. Shivoham.”

Please understand that whatever you think you experience. If you think that God is sitting far away, thousands of miles away in Kailasa, God will be sitting like that. You will be far away from him. Constantly think that God is in your heart then he will be in your heart. Constantly think that I am one with God, you will become one with Him. Whatever you think you create reality for yourself. Please understand, you have to create right reality which is beneficial to you, which uplifts you. Don’t mess up your life by creating a wrong reality. But to know what the right reality is, you have to first understand and know about it. From where will you learn? Who will teach you? Everybody will teach you. Now it is elections time, right? Everybody has their own truths, their own interests. The teachings of Rishis, the spiritual masters are not selfish. They never did anything selfish. All other teachings are selfish in nature. If I say, you are Atma, you are Brahman, it will uplift you, what is the benefit for me? There is no benefit for me. What Rishis told created divinity in all people and it was not for any personal benefit. Whereas politicians do it for votes, businessmen do it for gaining money. Everybody does in some way of transaction to tell something. The absolute truth can be told only by the realized Masters, a Rishi. The spiritual teachings which are pure and not corrupted, which only uplift are called Upanishads. If you think that Brahman doesn’t exist, you will become like that. This is actually what happened to science. Science constantly denied Consciousness. Lot of improvements happened in society, lot of material benefit came, but the 20th century was disastrous for the psychological health of the people where lot of so called modern development happened. In the entire human history until now, the maximum percentage of psychiatric patients existed in the 20th century. I don’t know if the percentage is same or increased in the 21st century. What happens is when you constantly think that you are a body, there is no higher Consciousness, you start becoming restless out of fear, that fear starts becoming a psychological disorder. You don’t know how many people have psychological diseases. Psychological disease is not abnormal, it is very common. Only the people who go to the psychiatric hospitals are uncommon. People don’t want to go. Otherwise psychological disorders are very common. A much larger percentage of the population is affected by psychological disorders. It is simply because they don’t have concept that there is something higher than their body, mind and intellect.

Have you heard this story called ‘Alcoholics anonymous’, AA? In the US there was an alcoholic, a drunkard. He was drinking so much of alcohol that his liver got spoiled. Alcohol will affect the liver. He started taking treatment. This is back in the 20th century. No treatment worked for him although he

51 got them from the best, top most psychiatrists at that time who charged him heavily. He used to take the treatment and come home. Within a few weeks, it relapsed and he again went back to drinking. So the doctor told him, if you don’t stop drinking, you will die within 3 months because your liver is completely damaged. Unless you stop drinking nothing will happen. He asked, “I have tried the best psychiatrist in America, who can save me?” The doctor said “Only God can save you, human beings cannot save you”. Then this person went home. He felt so bad and he prayed to God, “Please free me from this disease”. He prayed very sincerely and that day his alcoholism went away. It dropped. He lived for many more years. He said “I can share this experience with other people. No Psychiatrist will help you, no doctor will help you, but God will help you.” So in this AA group, they pray to God the higher Consciousness, ‘Free us from alcoholism’, and it brings them some relief. Unless we have a concept of higher reality we are stuck to the lower, bound to the lower. There is a higher Consciousness in you, Atma. There is Brahman in you, the Supreme Reality. Unless you constantly think of that you are stuck to the lower plane of existence. Many people think, “There is God, where is He?” In some far away loka, but if God is in faraway loka, of what use is it to you? Do you think that God is in some faraway place and you have to take a train ticket or a bus ticket, go and wait in a queue? Some people also have such kind of concepts which is wrong. God is in you. God is the one who is closest to you, God is you. Atma and Brahman are one. This understanding has to be there constantly, otherwise life become miserable.

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Supreme Bliss

Shloka 2.6 continued

I had mentioned in my previous talk that you will become what you think about. If you think that there is no Brahman or there is nothing then you will become nothing. We should rather think that there is Brahman and contemplate about the Supreme Reality behind everything. What about people who say that there is no God? If somebody tells you that there is a very beautiful place and you will enjoy its natural beauty if you visit that place. If you say that there is no such place, there is no such thing as natural beauty then you will just miss out on that beautiful experience, nothing else will happen to you. You will ultimately attain whatever you think. Vedas and Upanishads say that Brahman is the Supreme Reality; their purpose is to guide you and uplift you, not out of any selfish reason. If you think that Brahman does not exist then you will also become nonexistent, Brahman alone existed in the past; he alone exists in the present and will alone exist in the future. Everything that exists is pervaded by Brahman and thinking on these lines will uplift us. This brings us to another question. If Brahman is the Supreme Reality does anyone who dies attain Brahman automatically? If an ajnani, an ignorant person who is identified with finite things like his body, mind, profession, achievements, name, fame or anything else dies, does he does not attain Brahman the Supreme Reality. To attain something in life you have to drop something else that is holding you back. You have to drop TV time if you want to study; you have to drop your job if you want to become a business man and so on. An ajnani is holding on tightly to something finite, he cannot attain the infinite until he loosens his grip on the finite and drops it altogether.

To bring more clarity to this let me tell you about how monkeys are caught. A few peanuts are put in a bottle with a small neck through which the monkey can squeeze its hand. Once the monkey grabs the peanuts it will not be able to take out hits hand from the bottle. It will remain caught there but will not drop the peanuts and release itself. If you hold on to something finite you will be stuck there like the monkeys. The body, mind and intellect is given to you so that you can understand the reality of life and once this vehicle dies there is no possibility to gain anymore knowledge. You leave with ignorance and find another body to experience life. Coming to what happens to a Jnani when he dies, does he attain Brahman when he dies? No. A Jnani is one who has attained Brahman while he is alive. Mukti is not something that you attain after death; it is only when the intellect is working that one can realize what reality is and what it is not. You have to attain Brahman when you are alive; you have to attain Jeevanmukti when you are alive.

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Let us say that someone is content and leads a simple life, does not want anything, will he attain Brahman after death? Some identity, some individuality still exists and that is the problem. The prominent thought at the time of death is supposed to determine the next life. The prominent thought of this person will most probably be about how he is a content man and that will determine his next life. He will be born and lead a content life again. Contentment is only a state of mind, absence of fear is not wisdom. Life will continue to exist in one form or the other until wisdom dawns. Contentment is not a stable state of mind, life after life various situations will come which will trigger fear, restlessness and suffering. A content person is not always wise but a wise person is always content. There was a king by name , his kingdom spanned from Afghanistan to Sumatra. He was content with his achievements and with his life as an emperor. He then renounced everything and went to the forest to lead an ascetic’s life. In the forest he saw a wounded deer and out of compassion and not desire he began to take care of the deer. At the time of his death the most prominent thought in his mind was about who will take care of the deer after his death. In his next life he was born as a deer. Ignorance is like a seed, one seed can give rise to thousands of plants.

Before creation Brahman, Paramatma alone existed. This is depicted as Narayana resting peacefully on Adishesha the serpent. Narayana then decided to become many, he created many and entered all of them, and he gave life by entering them. Many ask me if He created out of boredom or unhappiness. He created out of bliss, out of ananda and that is why it is called as his Leela, his play. When you have to construct a building you first contemplate about what you want to do, visualize it in your mind and then lay the foundation. Mental creation precedes actual creation. Similarly, Narayana meditated and visualized about creation and this is called Tapasya. He did Tapasya and created the world out of Tapasya. Conceptualization gives rise to thought, and from the thought comes the form. He entered all that he created, ‘Niruktam cha, aniruktam cha’, ‘niruktam’ means spoken and ‘aniruktam’ means unspoken. He entered both the concrete and the abstract. Everything is Consciousness only. ‘Nilayam cha anilayam cha’, ‘nilaya’ means a place where one stays. God entered both, those who have a place to stay and those who do not have a place to stay. ‘Vijnanam cha avijnanam cha’, ‘vijnanam’ means intellect. He entered both the ones with intellect and the ones without intellect. ‘satyam cha, anrutam cha’, ‘satyam’ means truth. He entered both the true and the false, both water and mirage. You see a tiger in your dream, it is not real but you still see it, your mind itself has taken that form. While dreaming, everything that you experience appears to be real, this is the individual dream. All the things that we see around is the universal dream, dream of Brahmaji and that is why Narayana is shown lying down and resting on Adishesha. Many universes appear and disappear in the dream of the Naryayana – Supreme consciousness. But from individual stand point, these

54 appearances and disappearances last for billions and trillions of years. Once you wake up the dream disappears name and form which are untrue disappear and only Chaitanya (Consciousness) which is true remains. Deep inside us we have a feeling that we are separate from the universe, from existence, in our meditation we can rectify this thought by the understanding that everything is Brahman, Consciousness alone.

Shloka 2.7

असद्वा इदमग्र आसीि ् | ििो िै सदजायि | िदात्मानीँ स्ियमकु 셁ि | िस्मात्तत्सकु ृ िम楍ु यि इवि | यद्व ै िि ् सकु ृ िम ् | रसो िै सः | रसीँ ेिायं लब्ध्िाऽऽनन्दी भिवि | को ेिान्यात्कः प्राण्याि ् | यदषे आकाश आनन्दो न स्याि ् | एष ेिाऽऽनन्दयावि | यदा ेिैष एिवस्मन्नदृश्येऽनात््येऽवन셁क्ते ऽवनलयनेऽभयं प्रविां विन्दिे | अि सोऽभयं गिो भिवि | यदा ेिैष एिवस्मन्नदु रमन्िरं कु 셁िे | अि िस्य भयं भिवि | ित्िेि भयं विदषु ोऽमन्िानस्य | िदꥍयेष श्लोको भिवि ||१||इवि सप्तमोऽनिु ाकः ||

Asad vaa idamagra aseet tato vai sad ajaayata Tad aatmaanam svayam kuruta tasmaat tat sukrutam uchyate iti Yad vai tat sukrutam raso vai sah rasam hi eva ayam labdhaa aanandee bhavati Ko hyevaanyaat kah praanyaat yadesha aakasha aanando na syaat Esha hyevaanandayaati Yadaahyevaisha etasmin adrushye anaatmye Anirukte anilayane abhayam pratishthanam vindate Atha sa abhayagato bhavati Yadaahyevaisha etasmin daramantaram kurute Atha tasya bhayam bhavai Tatvesha bhayam vidusho amanvaanasya Tadapyesha sloko bhavati Iti sapthamo anuvakaha

“In the beginning all this was nonexistent. From it was born what exists. That created Itself by Itself; therefore It is called the self made.” That which is Self made is flavour; for truly, on obtaining the flavour one becomes blissful. Who could direct the prana and the apana if this Bliss did not exist in the akasa? Brahman verily exists because It alone bestows bliss. When a man finds fearless support in That which is invisible, incorporeal, indefinable and supportless, he has then obtained fearlessness. If he makes the slightest

55 differentiation in It, there is fear for him. That becomes fear for the knower who does not reflect.

Whatever you see was ‘asat’ earlier. asat means not there. It doesn’t mean that it was non-existent, it was in a very sookshma, subtle form. For example, a mango tree exists in a mango seed in the subtle form and once it is sown the gross form will manifest. The universe has a gross, subtle and a causal form. It existed in the causal form in the beginning, it then manifested in the gross form and it will sooner or later go back into the causal form again, it was never nonexistent. Just like the tiger which manifested in your dream, although it was in your mind in a subtle form even before it manifested. Nothing comes out of Shunya, the universe has not come out of nothing, and it has come out of the causal form in which it existed. This is explained beautifully in the Puranas. Narayana is shown sleeping on the , ‘Shesha’ means remainder, all the remaining Karmic impressions become Shesha and the next universe comes out of this. Now do not mistake that some material is used to create the universe. The creation is always a part of Brahman, everything is from his self. Everything that is created is created out of ananda. Wind blows out of ananda, trees grow out of ananda; there is no bondage. Everything you do from cooking to working to dressing up is out of some sort of fear or expectation of some reward. He alone is responsible for experience of ananda in our life. Whatever little ananda you experience is because of him. When you understand your relationship with Brahman fear which there because of feeling of separation, drops. Brahman is ‘Asharira’. He has no body but all bodies are enlivened by him, like how all golden ornaments have a shape but gold itself does not, like how waves and ocean have a shape but water itself does not. He is ‘Avikari’, free from all forms of disturbance because he is not bound. He is ‘Anirvachya’ because there is nothing that you can speak about the formless. Pooja of idols and chanting of God’s name is to reach the formless through form and nameless through name and one who realizes the formless and nameless becomes Brahman, goes beyond the body, mind and intellect. Once the name and form is removed Chaitanya (Consciousness) alone remains. Fear is due to identification with the limited self, with the body and mind, when you become unlimited the fear drops. That is why we see all idols show ‘Abhaya hasta’. You will be completely fearless only if you realize that everything in the world is Brahman, if you see even a minute difference in Brahman that is sufficient to create fear. Lord Narayana’s idol has four hands. Two lower hands that represent the manifest world have Gadha and Padma, while the upper hands which represent the non manifest world, beyond the creation, have Shankha and Chakra. Shankha represents the primordial sound Omkara, Chakra represents the universal intelligence, the Maha Tathva. Gadha represents the karmic laws and Padma represents liberation. Gadha says that the world is ruled by him through the laws of karma and Padma says that he

56 facilitates liberation and since they are related to the world they are in the lower hands.

Tatvesha bhayam vidusho amanvaanasya. Vidusho means a scholar, a scholarly fool who has learnt all the scriptures and all about Brahman but has not realized Brahman. Once there was a scholar who was crossing a river by boat. He asked the boatman if he has studied the Vedas and Brahma and the boatman said that he had not studied them. The scholar said that the boatman has wasted half of his life. Then it started raining heavily and water began to collect in the boat, the boatman asked the scholar if he knows to swim and the scholar said that he does not. The boatman said to him that then he has wasted his entire life and he is in danger now. The boatman jumped into the water. The problem of learned fools is no different from the problem of others; it is realization that makes a difference not learning.

Shloka 2.8

भीषाऽस्माद्वािः पििे | भीषोदवे ि सयू ाः | भीषाऽस्मादव्निेन्रि | मत्ृ यधु ाािवि प祍चम इवि | सैषाऽऽनन्दस्य मीमाीँसा भिवि | यिु ा स्यात्साधयु िु ाऽ्यायकः | आवशो दृविो िवलः | िस्येयं पवृ ििी सिाा वित्तस्य पणू ाा स्याि ् | स एको मानषु आनन्दः | िे ये शिं मानषु ा आनन्दाः स एको मनषु यगन्धिााणामानन्दः | िोवियस्य चाकामििस्य | िे ये शिं मनषु यगन्धिााणामानन्दाः | स एको देिगन्धिााणामानन्दः | िोवियस्य चाकामििस्य | िे ये शिं दिे गन्धिााणामानन्दाः | स एकः वपिणृ ां वचरलोकलोकानामानन्दः | िोवियस्य चाकामििस्य | िे ये शिं वपिणृ ां वचरलोकलोकानामानन्दाः | स एक आजानजानां दिे ानामानन्दः िोवियस्य चाकामििस्य | िे ये शिं आजानजानां दिे ानामानन्दाः | स एकः कमादिे ानां दिे ानामानन्दः | ये कमाणा देिानवपयवन्ि | िोवियस्य चाकामििस्य | िे ये शिं कमादिे ानां दिे ानामानन्दाः | स एको देिानामानन्दः | िोवियस्य चाकामििस्य | िे ये शिं दिे ानामानन्दाः | स एक इन्रस्याऽऽनन्दः िोवियस्य चाकामििस्य | िे ये शिवमन्रस्याऽऽनन्दाः | स एको ििृ स्पिेरानन्दः | िोवियस्य चाकामििस्य |

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िे ये शिं ििृ स्पिेरानन्दाः | स एकः प्रजापिेरानन्दः | िोवियस्य चाकामििस्य | िे ये शिं प्रजापिेरानन्दाः | स एको ब्रण आनन्दः | िोवियस्य चाकामििस्य स यिायं प셁ु षे | यिासािावदत्ये | स एकः | स य एिंविि ् | अस्मा쥍लोकात्प्रेत्य | एिमन्नमयमात्मानमपु सङ्रामवि | एिं प्राणमयमात्मानमपु सङ्रामवि | एिं मनोमयमात्मानमपु सङ्रामवि | एिं विज्ञानमयमात्मानमपु सङ्रामवि | एिमानन्दमयमात्मानमपु सङ्रामवि | िदꥍयेष श्लोको भिवि ||५||इत्यमोऽनिु ाकः ||

Bhisha asmad vatah pavate bhishodeti suryah Bhishaasmaadagnishcha indreshcha Mrutyurdhavati panchama iti Saisha aanandasya meemaamsa bhavati Yuvaasyaatsaadhuyuva aadhaayakah aashishtho drathistho balishthah Tasyeyam pruthvi sarva vittasyapoomasyaat Sa eko maanusha aananda Te ye shatam maanusha aanandah sa eko manushyagandharvaanam anandah Shroutriyasy chaakaamahatasya Te ye shatam devagandharvaanaam aanandah sa eka pitrunaam chiralokaanaamaanandah Shrotriyasya chaakaamahatasya Te ye shatam aajaanajaanaam devaanaam aanandah sa eka kamadevaanaam devaanaam aanandah Shrotriyasya chaakaamahatasya Te ye shatam devaanaam anandam sa eko indrasya aanandah Shrotriyasya chaakaamahatasya Te ye shatam indrasya aanandah sa eko bruhaspateraanandah Shrotriyasya chaakaamahatasya Te ye shatam bruhaspateraanandah sa eka prajaapater aanandah Shrotriyasya chaakaamahatasya Sa yashchaayam purushe yashchvaasavaaditye Sa ekah say a evam vit Asmaallokat pretya etam annamayamaatmaanam upasmakramanti Etam praanamayaatmaanam upasamkramanti Etam manomayamaatmaanam upasamkramanti Etam vijnaanamayamaatmaanam upasamkramanti Etam aanandamayamaatmaanam upasamkramanti Tadapyesha sloko bhavati Iti ashtamo anuvakaha

“From fear of It the wind blows; from fear of It the sun rises; from fear of It Agni and Indra and Death, the fifth, run.” Now this is an inquiry regarding the Bliss.

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Suppose there is a young man—a noble young man—versed, the best of rulers, firm in body and strong and possesses the whole world, full of wealth, is his: that is one measure of human bliss. This human bliss, multiplied on hundred times, is one measure of the bliss of the human , as also of a man versed in the Vedas and free from desires. This bliss of the human gandharvas, multiplied one hundred times, is one measure of the bliss of the celestial gandharvas, as also of a man versed in the Vedas and free from desires. This bliss of the celestial gandharvas, multiplied one hundred times, is one measure of the bliss of the Manes, who dwell in the long—enduring world, as also of a man versed in the Vedas and free from desires. This bliss of the Manes who dwell in the long—enduring world, multiplied on hundred times, is one measure of the bliss of the gods born in the Ajana heaven, as also of a man versed in the Vedas and free from desires. The bliss of the gods born in the Ajana heaven, multiplied one hundred times, is one measure of the bliss of the sacrificial gods who have attained to divinity by means of sacrifices, as also of a man versed in the Vedas and free from desires. The bliss of the sacrificial gods, multiplied one hundred times, is one measure of the bliss of the gods, as also of a man versed in the Vedas and free from desires. The bliss of the gods, multiplied one hundred times, is one measure of the bliss of Indra, as also of a man versed in the Vedas and free from desires. The bliss of Indra, multiplied one hundred times, is one measure of the bliss of Brihaspati, as also of a man versed in the Vedas and free from desires. The bliss of Brihaspati, multiplied one hundred times, is one measure of the bliss of , as also of a man versed in the Vedas and free from desires. The bliss of Prajapati, multiplied one hundred times, is one measure of the bliss of Brahma, as also of a man versed in the Vedas and free from desires. He who is here in man and he who is in yonder sun—both are one. He who knows this, after dying to this world, attains the self which consists of food, attains the self which consist of the vital breath, attains the self which consists of the mind, attains the self which consists of intellect, attains the self which consists of bliss.

The wind blows out of fear of Brahman. This creation has a certain order and laws that are created by Brahman and everybody follows that order. The laws of universe operate at various levels and it is called Dharma. No being can violate Dharma. The sun rises and sets, wind blows, fire burns, mrityu also operates according to Dharma. Now comes the main shloka of this Upanishad. This particular chapter is called ‘Brahmananda Valli’. It explains Brahmananda, the bliss of Brahman. It is very difficult to explain something without giving examples or comparing it with something that you know. Even if I try to explain about a new sweet you will ask me questions comparing it to a sweet that you have tasted. Hence there are a set of examples here to make us understand about Brahmananda.

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Imagine the ananda (bliss) that a person who has conquered the whole word and all its riches. That ananda is the least, the smallest, it is called manushyananda. If you put together hundred such manushyanandas you get manushya gandharvananda. Gandharva means musician. A musician experiences more ananda in music than a person can experience with all the riches. Ananda of hundred gandharvas is equal to one deva gandharvananda. Hundred deva gandharvanandas is equal to one pitr ananda. All these anandas are only a fraction of brahmananda. There is sunlight, tubelight and candle light, can any form of light exist without sunlight? All these are derived from sunlight and are only a small fraction of it. Similarly all forms of ananda are derived from brahmananda and are only a small fraction of it. Pitras are those who have passed away and attained Sashwata Lokas. There are two types of lokas, Sashwata Lokas and Asashwata Lokas, permanent and temporary lokas respectively. The ananda of hundred such ancestors is equal to the ananda of one unborn Devata. There are different categories of Devatas, unborn devatas and karma devatas. Karma devatas are those who have done lot of good service here and have attained the after death. The ananda of a karmadevata is equal to the ananda of 100 unborn devatas but even that is just a fraction of the ananda experienced by a Brahmajnani. Hundred such devatanandas is equal to the ananda of Indra, hundred put together is equal to the ananda of Brihaspati the Devaguru. Hundred Brihaspatis put together is the ananda of Prajapati, the creator, Chaturmukha Brahma and that too is just a fraction of Brahmananda. This is just to give a gradation of ananda. The one who realizes the eternal within crosses over the annamaya, pranamaya, manomaya, vijnanamaya and anandamaya koshas and becomes free. Aditya is one who has no beginning or end. All these koshas are like clothing, these change but Atma does not change. The difference between you and Chaturmukha Brahma is that you have a small body and he has a bigger body but the one who is wearing it is the same, the same changeless Atma. One who is in the ant is the one who is in the elephant, one who is in the devatas is in you. Everything is a covering and the one who realizes this becomes free.

Shloka 2.9

यिो िाचो वनििान्िे | अप्राꥍय मनसा सि | आनन्द ं ब्रणो विद्वान ् | न विभेवि कु ििनेवि | एिीँ ि िाि न िपवि | वकमि ीँ साध ु नाकरिम ् | वकमि ं पापमकरिवमवि | स य एिं विद्वानेिे आत्मानीँ स्पणृ िु े | उभे ेिैष एिे आत्मानीँ स्पणृ िु े | य एिं िेद | इत्यपु वनषि ् ||१||इवि निमोऽनिु ाकः || 60

Yatho vacho nivartante aprapya manasaa saha Aanandam brahmano vidvaan na bibheti kadaachaneti Etam ha vaava na kimaham naakaravam Kimaham paapamakaravaamiti Sa ya evam vidvaaneti aatmaanam sprunoti Ubh hyovaisha ete aatmaanam sprunute Ya evam veda ityupanishad Iti navamo anuvakaha

He who knows the Bliss of Brahman, whence words together with the mind turn away, unable to reach It—he is not afraid of anything whatsoever.” He does not distress himself with the thought: Why did I not do what is good? Why did I do what is evil? Whosoever knows this regards both these as Atman; indeed he cherishes both these as Atman. Such, indeed, is the Upanishad, the secret knowledge of Brahman.

Words cannot explain Brahman, how can words explain the experience of deep silence and deep love? When you see two people speaking, the only thing absent there is love, if there was deep love between them then there would be no words. Brahman is beyond words and only silence is the way. Every word falls short, words are only a pointer. Upanishads are also words, they are also just pointers. Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa once asked Vivekananda to squeeze out a cup of water from a book about rivers of India in order to explain the limitation of words. Upanishads are only a roadmap to attain Brahman. All scriptures are like maps not the destination. Brahman has to be realized and one who realizes Brahman becomes free from fear, free from regrets and goes beyond Dharma and adharma. He becomes free, you cannot judge him by social standards but he will never do adharma. Krishna says, ‘yada yadahi dharmasya’, ‘whenever Dharma goes down in the society I will come back to restore it’. In the Mahabharata he ordered Arjuna to kill when he was stuck without a chariot. Is that Dharma or adharma? Shri Krishna merely allowed the play of karmic laws – “What you reap ye shall sow”. Karna had killed Abhimanyu another warrior in a helpless situation earlier in the war. Shri Krishna is beyond Dharma and adharma, an atmajnani is beyond Dharma and adharma. Atmajnanis vision and action are towards establishment of dharma, and elevating consciousness of masses.

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Bhrigu Valli

Today we are going to start with Bhrigu Valli, the third chapter. This is a recording of realization of Bhrigu.

Shloka 3.1

भगृ िु ै िा셁वणः | ि셁णं वपिरमपु ससार | अधीवि भगिो ब्रेवि | िस्मा एित्प्रोिाच | अन्नं प्राणं चिःु िोिं मनो िाचवमवि | िीँ िोिाच | यिो िा इमावन भिू ावन जायन्िे | येन जािावन जीिवन्ि | यत्प्रयन्त्यवभसंविशवन्ि | िवद्ववजज्ञासस्ि | िद ् ब्रेवि | स िपोऽिꥍयि | स िपस्िꥍत्िा ||१||इवि प्रिमोऽनिु ाकः ||

Bhrugurvai vaarunih varunam pitaramupasasaara Adheehi bhagao brahmeti tasmaa etatprovavacha Annam praanam chakshuh shrotram mano vaachamiti Tam hovaacha Yatho vaa imaani bhootaani jaayante yena jaytaani jeevanti Yat prayatyabhisamvishanti Tadvijnaasva tadbrahmeti Sa tapo atapyata sa tapastaptvaa Iti prathamo anuvakaha

Bhrigu, the son of Varuna, approached his father Varuna and said: "Venerable Sir, teach me about Brahman." To him, the son, he said this: "Food, the vital breath, the eye, the ear, the mind, speech." To him he said further: "That from which these beings are born, That by which, when born, they live, That into which they enter, they merge—seek to know That. That is Brahman." He performed austerities. Having performed austerities—

Varuna was Bhrigu Maharshi’s father. He was a realized Master and had many students. On one day Brighu approached his father and asked him to teach him Brahmajnana. It might appear strange to you that a son is going to his father who has many students and asking him to teach. Hasn’t the father already taught the son? Even a father does not teach his son until it is asked for and this is a very important aspect of spirituality. Only the ones who seek are taught. If there is no seeking then there is no teaching. Many people who get an initial exposure to spirituality, out of their enthusiasm try to teach spirituality to everyone they come across. It is like giving food to somebody who is not hungry. It doesn’t work. Even though Brahmajnana is very important and realizing Brahman is the ultimate purpose of life it is not taught to those who do not seek. Religion is taught to everybody, but do not mix up

62 religion with spirituality. Religion is for masses, it is about following something, you believe in God so you go to temples and on pilgrimages, it is about doing something. Spirituality is not about doing something it is about seeking something within. Religion is about God and spirituality is about realizing God. If you think that all the people who worship God want to realize God then you are mistaken. They worship God because they think that if they worship him then he will solve their problems. Spirituality is for people who want to realize God and do not have any expectation of any other benefit. When a student approaches a realized Master seeking Atmajnana, the Master will not tell him everything at one go, he will take him step by step. When Bhrigu approached his father he asked him to contemplate about the origin of life as follows,

‘annam pranam chakshuvu kshotram mano vachamiti’

Varuna said to Bhrigu that the five things of which living beings are made are anna–food, prana-energy, shrotram-hearing, manas-mind and vakk-speech. Go and seek something from which all the beings are born, grow up and go back to after death. Seek that which is behind birth, sustenance and death. Reality is something that is all pervading and it should be the substratum of all change (birth, sustenance and death). It is like how a scientist asks about the fundamental nature of matter, fundamental means that it should be a part of all matter, something that is common to all forms of matter be it wall or water or anything else. Similarly, here Varuna is saying that something which is present in birth, growth and death is Brahman. Brahman is that fundamental nature. Bhrigu then goes away and does tapasya.

Tapasya means constant focus on a subject, contemplation and deep meditation about it. When a student studies with focus and concentration it is Tapasya. When a scientist studies in depth about a subject it is Tapasya. When someone is focusing on his body to build and maintain it well it is also Tapasya. Tapasya for higher truth is uplifting. Tapasya for Brahman is to understand, contemplate, think and come to a conclusion by eliminating all that is not reality. This method of eliminating the untruth is called ‘’ (not this, not this). If you eliminate what is not Brahman you will realize Brahman. Many people think that if I meditate then one day Brahman will come and stand in front of me, that is false. Brahman can be realized through the process of and vairagya. Viveka is the ability to distinguish between Atma and Anatma. Varuna’s idea was to set Bhrigu on the right path of contemplation so that he comes to discover Brahman himself and not to spoon feed him. If you think that the Guru will give his disciple Brahman on a spoon then you have mistaken. It is not possible because Brahman is not an object. The Guru can only point in the right direction. Do not hold on to the

63 guru’s finger. After contemplation as per his father’s instruction Bhrigu comes to a conclusion, he returns and says,

Shloka 3.2

अन्नं ब्रेवि व्यजानाि ् | अन्नाद् येि खव쥍िमावन भिु ावन जायन्िे | अन्नेन जािावन जीिवन्ि | अन्नं प्रयन्त्यवभसंविशन्िीवि | िवद्वज्ञाय | पनु रेि ि셁णं वपिरमपु ससार | अधीवि भगिो ब्रेवि | िीँ िोिाच | िपसा ब्र विवजज्ञासस्ि | िपो ब्रेवि | स िपोऽिꥍयि | स िपस्िꥍत्िा ||१||इवि वद्विीयोऽनिु ाकः ||

Annam brahmeti vyajanaat Annaadhyeva khalvamaani bhootani jaayante Annena jaataani jeevanti Annam prayantyabhisamvishanti Tad vijnaaya punareva varunam pitaramupasasaara Adheehi bhagao brahmeti Tam hovacha Tapasaa brahma vijnaasasva Tapo brahmeti Sa tapo atapyata sa tapastaptvaa Iti dviteeyo anuvakaha

He realised that food is Brahman; for from food, verily, are these beings born; by food, when born, do they live; into food do they enter, do they merge. Having realized this, he approached his father again and said: "Venerable Sir, teach me Brahman." To him, the son, he said this: "Seek to know Brahman by means of austerities. For austerities are the means of knowing Brahman." He practiced austerities. Having practiced austerities—

Annam brahmeti upasita – food itself is Brahman. Food is matter composed of the five elements space, air, sunlight, water and Earth. All living beings are born out of matter, grow in matter and die and go back to matter. Therefore matter itself is Brahman. Varuna then asked him to continue his Tapasya and discover the truth. Tapasya, the ability to focus and contemplate itself is Brahman. Many people think that if they are spiritual then they need not do anything. They are missing the point, the ability to focus and do something is itself a spiritual act. Brahman created this whole world out of Tapasya.

Shloka 3.3

प्राणो ब्रेवि व्यजानाि ् | प्राणाद् येि खव쥍िमावन भिू ावन जायन्िे |

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प्राणेन जािावन जीिवन्ि | प्राणं प्रयन्त्यवभसंविशन्िीवि | िवद्वज्ञाय | पनु रेि ि셁णं वपिरमपु ससार | अधीवि भगिो ब्रेवि | िीँ िोिाच | िपसा ब्र विवजज्ञासस्ि | िपो ब्रेवि | स िपोऽिꥍयि | स िपस्िꥍत्िा ||१||इवि ििृ ीयोऽनिु ाकः ||

Prano brahmeti vyajanaat Pranaadhyeva khalvamaani bhootaani jaayante Praanena jaataani jeevanti Praanam prayantyabhisamvishanti Tad vijnaaya punareva varunam pitaramupasasaara Adheehi bhagao brahmeti Tam hovacha Tapasya brahma vijijnaasva Tapo brahmeti Sa tapo atapyata sa tapastaptva iti tritiyo anuvakaha

He realized that the prana is Brahman; for from the prana, verily, are these beings born; by the prana, when born, do they live; into the prana do they enter, do they merge. Having realized this, he approached his father again and said: "Venerable Sir, teach me Brahman." To him, the son, he said this: "Seek to know Brahman by means of austerities. For austerities are the means of knowing Brahman." He practiced austerities. Having practiced austerities—

After further tapasya Bhrigu comes back with a conclusion that prana is Brahman. The moment prana enters the body one comes to life. Prana maintains life and the moment it leaves the body one dies. So prana has all the characteristics of Brahman. There are five elements of prana. The main prana is called Mukhyaprana. Once it enters the body it takes five forms prana, apana, vyana, udaana, and samana. Prana is in the upper part of the body, responsible for heart and lungs and vital organs to function. Apana is in the lower part of the body which aids excretion, child birth and such activities. Samana is in between prana and apana and is responsible for distribution of energy in the body. Udana is in the upper part of the body, the head portion which is responsible for various states of Consciousness, waking, dreaming, deep sleep and enlightenment. Vyana radiates from the center of the body, heart and spreads throughout the body spreading energy. Nobody can live without these five and if the flow of prana to a certain part of the body is blocked then that part becomes paralyzed. Hence prana itself is Brahman is Bhrigu’s conclusion.

It is not so, prana is not Brahman because it has no ability of its own, it gets ability to move and function when Chaitanya is present, prana is not 65 fundamental. Prana is just like an instrument in the hands of Chaitanya. This is why Sri says, ‘ sarvottama vayu jeevottama’, vayu is prana and Hari is Consciousness. Varuna again asks Bhrigu to continue tapasya and understand Brahman through tapasya

There is another misconception about tapasya that it takes a lot of time. Tapasya is the ability to focus and concentrate and it does not take time. Understanding can dawn in a second and all it requires is a sharp intellect. To do anything in the world outside you require time but it does not take time in the inner world. There was a lady who saved a lot of money over many years and bought a diamond necklace. She wore it and was very happy, she had done tapasya to save and buy the necklace. One day she was unable to find it anywhere and was running around searching it. At that time her friend pointed it out to her that the necklace was around her neck, she became happy again in no time. Tapasya for Brahmajnana is about turning your mind from outside to inwards and recognizing what is already within.

Shloka 3.4

मनो ब्रेवि व्यजानाि ् | मनसो ेि खव쥍िमावन भिू ावन जायन्िे | मनसा जािावन जीिवन्ि | मनः प्रयन्त्यवभसंविशन्िीवि | िवद्वज्ञाय | पनु रेि ि셁णं वपिरमपु ससार | अधीवि भगिो ब्रेवि | िीँ िोिाच | िपसा ब्र विवजज्ञासस्ि | िपो ब्रेवि | स िपोऽिꥍयि | स िपस्िꥍत्िा ||१||इवि चििु ोऽनिु ाकः ||

Mano brahmeti vyajanaat Manasohyeva khalvamaani bhootaani jaayante Manasaa jaataani jeevanti Manah prayantyabhisamvishanti Tad vijnaaya punareva varunam pitaramupasasaara Adheehi bhagao brahmeti Tam hovacha Tapasya brahma vijijnaasva Tapo brahmeti Sa tapo atapyata sa tapastaptva Iti chaturdho anuvakaha

He realized that the mind is Brahman; for from the mind, verily, are these beings born; by the mind, when born, do they live; into the mind, at the time of dissolution, do they enter, do they merge. Having realized this, he approached his father again and said: "Venerable Sir, teach me Brahman." To him, the son, he said this: "Seek to know Brahman by means of austerities; for austerities are Brahman." He practiced austerities. Having practiced austerities—

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Bhrigu meditates again and concludes that manas is Brahman. The mind uses prana to make the body do some action. Nothing can be done without the mind. There were two beggars, one without legs and the other without eyes. The beggar without legs used to sit on the shoulders of the beggar without eyes and direct him. Prana is like the blind beggar and manas is like the beggar without legs. Mind itself has no ability to move, it directs prana to move so mind and prana work together. Mind is higher than prana and mind itself is Brahman. When a desire to take birth arises in the mind one takes on a body. He lives his life based on fears and desires of the mind and when the body is no longer useful it is dropped and the mind moves on with the prana. Our life and death is because of the mind. Varuna listened and asked Bhrigu to continue meditation and contemplation.

Shloka 3.5

विज्ञानं ब्रेवि व्यजानाि ् | विज्ञानाद् येि खव쥍िमावन भिू ावन जायन्िे | विज्ञानेन जािावन जीिवन्ि | विज्ञानं प्रयन्त्यवभसंविशन्िीवि | िवद्वज्ञाय | पनु रेि ि셁णं वपिरमपु ससार | अधीवि भगिो ब्रेवि | िीँ िोिाच | िपसा ब्र विवजज्ञासस्ि | िपो ब्रेवि | स िपोऽिꥍयि | स िपस्िꥍत्िा ||१||इवि प祍चमोऽनिु ाकः ||

Vijnaanam brahmeti vyajanaat Vijnaanaadhyeva khalvamaani bhootani jaayante Vijnaanena jaataani jeevanti Vijnaanam prayantyabhisamvishanti Tad vijnaaya Punareva varunam pitaramupasasaara Adheehi bhagao brahmeti Tam hovaacha Tapasaa brahma vijnaasasva Tapo brahmeti Sa tapo atapyata sa tapastaptvaa iti panchamo anuvakaha

He realized that the intellect (vijnana) is Brahman; for from the intellect, verily, are these beings born; by the intellect, when born, do they live; into the intellect, at the time of dissolution, do they enter, do they merge. Having realized this, he approached his father again and said: "Venerable Sir, teach me Brahman." To him, the son, he said this: "Seek to know Brahman by means of austerities; for austerities are the means of knowing Brahman." He practiced austerities. Having practiced austerities—

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Bhrigu goes back and understands that mind itself is not final. It is directed by the intellect and hence Vijnana is Brahman. Intellect directs the mind, intellect is what has the ability to understand, analyze and decide. Intellect or Vijnana decodes what needs to be done and the mind executes it with the help of prana. Intellect is what leads life and intellect is what decides to leave the body at the time of death when there is no will to live anymore. We were born with the intellect; we live and die according to it. Varuna again encourages Bhrigu to continue contemplation.

Shloka 3.6

आनन्दो ब्रेवि व्यजानाि ् | आनन्दा्येि खव쥍िमावन भिू ावन जायन्िे | आनन्देन जािावन जीिवन्ि | आनन्द ं प्रयन्त्यवभसंविशन्िीवि | सैषा भागािी िा셁णी विद्या | परमे व्योमन्प्रविविा | स य एिं िेद प्रविविवि | अन्निानन्नादो भिवि | मिान्भिवि प्रजया पशवु भब्रािचासेन | मिान ् कीत्याा ||१||इवि षोऽनिु ाकः ||

Aanando brahmeti vyajanaat Aanandadhyeva khalvamaani bhootaani jaayante Aanandena jaataani jeevanti Aanandam prayantyabhisamvishanti Saisha bhargavee vaarunee Parame vyoman pratishthitaa Sa ya evam veda pratitishthati Annavaanannaado bhavati Mahaan bhavati prajayaa pashubhirbrahmavarchasena Mahaan keertyaa iti shashto anuvakaha

He realised that Bliss is Brahman; for from Bliss (ananda), verily, are these beings born; by bliss, when born, do they live; into bliss, at the time of dissolution, do they enter, do they merge. This is the wisdom taught by Varuna and learnt by Bhrigu. It is established in the supreme akasa, in the heart. He who knows this is established in the Bliss of Brahman. He becomes a possessor of food and an eater of food. He becomes great in offspring and cattle and in spiritual radiance and great in fame.

After further contemplation Bhrigu comes back and says that ananda, bliss is Brahma. The entire creation is pervaded by bliss. Living beings are born out of bliss, seek bliss and when they die they merge with that bliss, ananda. The existence is born out of bliss, lives in bliss and dies into bliss. This is the realization which Bhrigu has and one who realizes is Parame vyoman. This is the innermost space, the innermost reality of all living beings and one who 68 realizes this will attain ananda (bliss). Annaman annado bhavati- There will not be any shortage of food for that person. He will attain whatever is required for his survival. He will have many children. It does not mean biological children but spiritual children. He will have many students who will come and study about Self realization (Atmajnana) under his guidance. Bhrigu was initially the biological son of Varuna and seeking spiritual knowledge from his father made him his spiritual son. The father does not make any distinction though, does not give any special privileges to his son, he will have to study the subject of spirituality like anyone else through contemplation, meditation and service. He will then attain prosperity, as many students come he will get more donations and wealth which he can use for the purpose of teaching more students and building an ashram.

Maha brahma varchasvi bhavathi - tejas, the light of Brahman will shine through him. Varchas is ability of a person to have tremendous influence on others without using force or power. Things just happen in his presence. Just like how bees come in search of a flower when it blossoms, many students come to him to learn about Brahma vidya.

Shloka 3.7

अन्नं न वनन्द्याि ् | िदर् िम ् | प्राणो िा अन्नम ् | शरीरमन्नादम ् | प्राणे शरीरं प्रविविम ् | शरीरे प्राणः प्रविविः | िदिे दन्नमन्ने प्रविविम ् | स य एिदन्नमन्ने प्रविविं िेद प्रविविवि | अन्निानन्नादो भिवि | मिान्भिवि प्रजया पशवु भब्रािचासेन | मिान ् कीत्याा ||१||इवि सप्तमोऽनिु ाकः ||

Annam na nindyat tad vratam Prano vaa annam shareeramannadam Prane shareeram pratishthitam shareeram pranah pratishthitah Tadetannamanne pratishthitam Sa ya etadannamanne pratishthitam veda pratitishthati Annavanannado bhavati Mahan bhavati prajayaa pashubhir brahmavarchasena Mahaan keertyaa Iti saptamo anuvakaha.

Let him (the knower of Brahman) never condemn food; that is the vow. The prana is, verily, food; the body is the eater of food. The body rests on the prana; the prana rest on the body. Thus food rests on food. He who knows this resting of food on food is established; he

69 becomes a possessor of food and an eater of food. He becomes great in offspring and cattle and in spiritual radiance and great in fame.

Here the hierarchy among anna, prana, manas, vijnana and ananda is told. It does not mean that if you are aspiring for ananda then the others are not required. It is not so. You need a physical body for realization; body is to be taken care of with good food and exercise. Prana enlivens the body and they both exist together and should not be ignored. Taking care of the body which is the temple of God is a Vratha in itself, it is worship. Prana and body are two aspects of the same basic element like ice and water. Without these you cannot interact and operate in the world. Food is required for energy. A part of the food gets converted into prana and a part gets converted into body. There is constant interaction between the body and prana. If one takes care of the body with the understanding that I am not a body, mind and intellect, I am Pure Consciousness then he will attain the supreme.

Shloka 3.8

अन्नं न पररचिीि | िदर् िम ् | आपो िा अन्नम ् | 煍योविरन्नादम ् | अꥍस ु 煍योविः प्रविविम ् | 煍योविषयापः प्रविविाः | िदिे दन्नमन्ने प्रविविम ् | स य एिदन्नमन्ने प्रविविं िेद प्रविविवि | अन्निानन्नादो भिवि |मिान्भिवि प्रजया पशवु भब्रािचासेन |मिान ् कीत्याा ||१||इत्यमोऽनिु ाकः ||

Annam na parichaksheeta tad vratam Aapo vaa annam jyotirannadam Apsu jyotih pratishthitam jyotishyaapah pratishthitaah Tadetannamanne pratishthitam Sa ya etadannamanne pratishthitam veda pratitishthati Annavanannado bhavati Mahan bhavati prajayaa pashubhir brahmavarchasena Mahaan keertyaa Iti ashtamo anuvakaha

Let him (the knower of Brahman) never abandon food; that is the vow. Water is, verily, food; fire is the eater. Fire rests on water and water rests on fire. Thus food rests on food. He who knows this resting of food on food is established; he becomes a possessor of food and an eater of food. He becomes great in offspring and cattle and in spiritual radiance and great in fame

Food makes the body. It should not be denied but should be respected. Water is also food; a larger part of the body is made up of water. The fire element is also present in the body in the form of heat and temperature. 70

Don’t ignore matter which consists of five elements. Water and fire are together responsible for digestion, assimilation and growth. One who understands this will have wealth in the world.

Shloka 3.9

अन्नं ििु कु िीि | िदर् िम ् | पवृ ििी िा अन्नम ् | आकाशोऽन्नादः | पवृ िव्यामाकाशः प्रविविः | आकाशे पवृ ििी प्रविविा |िदिे दन्नमन्ने प्रविविम ् | स य एिदन्नमन्ने प्रविविं िेद प्रविविवि | अन्निानन्नादो भिवि |मिान्भिवि प्रजया पशवु भब्रािचासेन | मिान्कीत्याा ||१||इवि निमोऽनिु ाकः ||

Annam kurveet tad vratam Pruthvee vaa annam aakaasho annaadah Pruthvyaamaakaashah pratitishthanti aakasho pruthvee pratitishthanti Tadetannamanne pratishthitam Sa ya etadannamanne pratishthitam veda pratitishthati Annavanannado bhavati Mahan bhavati prajayaa pashubhir brahmavarchasena Mahaan keertyaa Iti Navamo anuvakaha

Let him (the knower of Brahman) make food plentiful; that is the vow. The Earth is, verily, food; the akasa is the eater. The akasa rests on the Earth and the Earth rests on the akasa. Thus food rests on food. He who knows this resting of food on food is established; he becomes a possessor of food and an eater of food. He becomes great in offspring and cattle and in spiritual radiance and great in fame.

We have to grow food that is required for sustenance. Don’t ignore it. By growing food, we can sustain our life and by distributing food help sustain other forms of life. Nature produces everything in abundance. If you sow a seed, that seed will become a tree and that tree will produce lot of fruits which in turn will produce more trees. The law of nature is giving, growing in abundance. Similarly you should also grow food. Food can be in terms of agriculture or business or wisdom and teaching something that you can share. Don’t say that I don’t need this, by growing and sharing everybody will prosper and everybody will grow together. The Earth grows food and the space eats food. It means that whatever grows is absorbed by space. Earth is established in space so the Earth and space are given as examples here. Interdependence of various things is given in this shloka. Food is dependent on water, water is dependent on fire, fire is dependent on water and water is dependent on food. Prana is dependent on body and body is dependent on prana. Everything is nature is dependent. Earth is established in space, food is 71 grown on the Earth, living beings live on Earth and whatever is required for Earth is supplied by space in terms of rain and water. They need each other. There is a harmony in all aspects of life. Within the body there is interdependence between anna, prana, jala and agni. Likewise the interdependence of nature is also understood. Understanding this interdependence, grow something by sowing and distribute the fruits and in the process you will prosper. This is Yajna.

Shloka 3.10

न क祍चन िसिौ प्रत्याचिीि | िदर् िम ् | िस्माद्यया कया च विधया िह्वन्नं प्राꥍनयु ाि ् | अरा्यस्मा अन्नवमत्याचििे |एिद्व ै मखु िोऽनीँ राद्धम ् | मखु िोऽस्मा अन्नीँ रा्यिे |एिद्व ै म्यिोऽनीँ राद्धम ् | म्यिोऽस्मा अन्नीँ रा्यिे |एदद्वा अन्ििोऽन्नीँ राद्धम ् | अन्ििोऽस्मा अन्नीँ रा्यिे य एिं िेद | िेम इवि िावच | योगिेम इवि प्राणापानयोः | कमेवि िस्ियोः | गविररवि पादयोः | विमवु क्तररवि पायौ | इवि मानषु ीः समाज्ञाः | अि दैिीः | िवृ प्तररवि िृ ौ | िलवमवि विद्युवि यश इवि पशषु ु | 煍योविररवि नििेष ु | प्रजाविरमिृ मानन्द इत्यपु स्िे | सिावमत्याकाशे | ित्प्रविेत्यपु ासीि | प्रविािान ् भिवि | िन्मि इत्यपु ासीि | मिान्भिवि | िन्मन इत्यपु ासीि | मानिान्भिवि िन्नम इत्यपु ासीि | न्यन्िेऽस्मै कामाः | िदब्र् ेत्यपु ासीि | ब्रिान्भिवि | िदब्र् णः पररमर इत्यपु ासीि | पयेणं वियन्िे वद्वषन्िः सपत्नाः | परर येऽवप्रया भ्रािव्ृ याः | स यिायं प셁ु षे | यिासािावदत्ये | स एकः स य एिंविि ् | अस्मा쥍लोकात्प्रेत्य | एिमन्नमयमात्मानमपु सङ्र्य | एिं प्राणमयमात्मानमपु सङ्र्य | एिं मनोमयमात्मानमपु सङ्र्य | एिं विज्ञानमयमात्मानमपु सङ्र्य | एिमानन्दमयमात्मानमपु सङ्र्य | इमाीँ쥍लोकन्कामान्नी काम셂ꥍयनसु 祍चरन ् |

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एिि ् साम गायन्नास्िे | िा ३ ि ु िा ३ ि ु िा ३ ि ु अिमन्नमिमन्नमिमन्नम ् |अिमन्नादो३ऽिमन्नादो३.आिमन्नादः | अि ीँ श्लोककृ दि ीँ श्लोककृ दि ीँ श्लोककृ ि ् |अिमवस्म प्रिमजा ऋिा३स्य| पिू ं दिे ेभ्योऽमिृ स्य ना३भावय |यो मा ददावि स इदेि मा३ऽऽिाः | अिमन्नमन्नमदन्िमा३वि |अि ं विश्वं भिु नमभ्यभिा३म ् |सिु ना 煍योिीः | य एिं िेद | इत्यपु वनषि ् ||१०||इवि दशमोऽनिु ाकः ||

Na kanchana vasatou pratyaachaksheet tad vratam Tasmaadyaa kayaa cha vidhaya bahunam praapnuyat Araadhyasmaa annamityaachakshate Etadvai mukhato annam ratdham Mukhato/sma annam ratdhyate Etadvai madhyato/nnam ratdham Madhyato/sma annam ratdhyate Etatdvaa antato/nnam ratdham antatosma annam ratdhyate Ya evam veda kshema iti vaachi Yogakshema iti pranaapanayoh kameti hastayoh gatiriti paadayo Vimuktiriti payou iti manushee samaajnaa Atha daiveeh triptirit vrushtou balamiti vidyuti Yasha iti pashushu jyotiriti nakshatreshu Prajaatiramrutamaananda ityupaasate Sarvamityaakaashe Tatpratishthetyupaaseet pratishthaavaan bhavati Tanmaha ityupaseet mahaan bhavati Tanmana ityupaaseet maanavaan bhavati Tannam ityupaseet namyanteasmai kaamaah Tadbrahmetyupaseet brahmavaan bhavati Tadbrahmanah parimara ityupaseet Paryangam mriyante dvishantah sapatnaah Pariyoapriyaa bhratruvyaah sa yashvaayam purushe Yashvaasaavaaditye Sa ekah Sa ya evamvit asmallokaapretya Etam annamayamaatmaa anupasamkramya Etam manomayamaatmaa anupasamkramya Etam vijnaanamayamaatmaa anupasamkramya Etam aanandamayamaatmaa anupasamkramya Imamllokaan kamaanni kaamaroopyanusamcharan Etat saamam gaayanaaste Ha3vu ha3vu ha3vu Ahamannam ahamannam ahamannam Ahamannado3 ahamannado3 ahamannadah Aham slokakrut aham slokakrut aham slokakrut 73

Ahamasmi prathamajaa shrutasya poorvam devebhyoamrutasyanaabhyai Yo maa dadaati sa ideva maavah Ahamannam annamadantama admi Aham vishvam bhuvanamabhyabhavaa3m Suvarna jyotih ya evam veda ityupanishad Iti dashamo anuvakaha

1 Let him not deny lodgings to anyone: this is the vow. Therefore he should procure much food by any means whatsoever. To guests, he should say: "The food has been prepared for you." If this food is given first, food comes to the giver first. If this food is given in the middle, food comes to the giver in the middle. If this food is given last, food comes to the giver last.

2 He who knows this obtains the fruit mentioned above. One should meditate on Brahman as preservation in speech, as acquisition and preservation in the prana (upward breath) and the apana (downward breath), as action in the hands, as movement (walking) in the feet, as evacuation in the anus. These are the meditations on Brahman through actions. Next follows the meditation on Brahman, through the gods: One should meditate on Brahman as satisfaction in rain, as power in lightning;

3 As fame in cattle, as light in the stars, as procreation, immortality and joy in the organ of generation and as everything in the akasa. Let him contemplate Brahman as the support and he will be supported; let him contemplate Brahman as greatness and he will become great; let him contemplate Brahman as the mind and he will be endowed with mind.

4 Let him contemplate Brahman as adoration and all desires will fall down before him in adoration. Let him contemplate Brahman as the Supreme Lord and he will be endowed with supremacy. Let him contemplate Brahman as the destructive agent and his enemies who hate him and also those who do not hate him will perish. This he who is in this man and that he who is in yonder sun, both are one.

5 He who knows this, as described above, after dying to (i.e. withdrawing from) this world, attains the self which consists of food, attains the self which consists of the vital breath, attains the self which consists of the mind, attains the self which consists of the intellect, attains the self which consists of bliss. Then he goes up and down these worlds, eating the food he desires, assuming the forms he likes. He sits, singing the chant of the non—duality of Brahman: "Ah! Ah! Ah!"

6 "I am food, I am food, I am food! I am the eater of food, I am the eater of food, I am the eater of food! I am the uniter, I am the uniter, I am the uniter! "I am the first—born of the true, prior to the gods and the navel of Immortality. He who gives me away, he alone preserves me. He who eats food—I, as food, eat him. "I, as the Supreme Lord, overpower the whole world. I am radiant as the sun." Whosoever knows this, attains Liberation. Such, indeed, is the Upanishad.

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The first principle told here is, if somebody comes for your shelter, don’t refuse. It is like saying ‘athithi devo bhava’. Respect somebody who comes to your house. We have to give food to them. We should not send them away without giving food; if you do so then you will lose the yajna phala that you have earned. ‘Food’ is a metaphor. It may be related to eating or it can be teaching. If somebody comes to listen to teaching; you have to give them teaching, you should not deny teaching to anybody. You should also not send away somebody hungry. If you have to give food to somebody, you should first have sufficient food for yourself. You should earn and only when you earn you can give something to somebody. Without earning how can you give? Whether is it wisdom or money you have to earn it first and then you can give it to others. So don’t ignore earning and growing food for a living. Only when you earn for a living, you can generate excess and then give others. So the importance of work and earning excess for the purpose of yajna is stressed here.

Taittiriya Upanishad is a summary of all the teachings for students. It is similar to convocation. In the first chapter of Siksha Valli, they are taught what to do. Then there is a summary of teachings about Self realization and finally a summary of way of living. This is their final class so he tells his students that they have to study every day after going home. ‘swadhyaya pravachanabhyam na pramaditavyam’ – this is told in the first chapter. You have to study, be aware and teach without fail. Then a summary of what is anna, prana, manas, etc is given and finally there is a detailed explanation about Bhrigu Maharshi’s realization. He stresses on how to live because all his students would be entering Grihasthashrama. Just because Brahman is the final realization, you should not ignore everything else. You have to live in Grihasthashrama in such a way that you earn your livelihood, you should give and grow. Just because you have Atmajnana you cannot ignore everything.

He then teaches about talking. Talking itself is tapasya. Talk is the way of worshipping Brahman. Don’t ignore talk. If you are able to bring love, compassion and wisdom by your talk, it will help other people grow. Your words should bring peace, happiness and confidence to somebody. You should enrich and nourish life that way. That itself is tapasya of talk. Talk which nourishes, which inspires, which brings the positive in other people is called Tapasya. Our body itself is a marvellous engine, a marvellous instrument. To keep the body in the right condition through right food and exercise also is tapasya. ‘shareeram khalu dharma sadhanam’ you require a proper body to perform any act of dharma. By working your body will be exercised, you will earn your livelihood and you will be able to contribute back to the society.

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Now he speaks about Upasana, worshipping God. Everything in nature is the grace of Divine. Timely rains and lightning which increase the fertility of the soil are grace. Cow which indicates prosperity and provides food and milk is grace. Whatever you are getting in your life is a gift of Brahman. Human beings have the ability to produce the children, the virility to produce children. The child has two aspects, the body and Consciousness, the Consciousness aspect comes from Brahman. We get that aspect of Brahman which we worship. If you worship the power aspect you will get money, if you worship the healing aspect you will get healthy, if you worship the Guru aspect you will get wisdom. That is why there are so many forms of Divinity representing various aspects, , Narayana, , etc. e.g. Hanuman represents the strength aspect. Whatever aspect of God we worship that aspect multiplies in us.

There are two aspects of realization; one is called Brahman realization and the other Shakti of Brahman, the power of Brahman. The power of Brahman is required for living in the world, whether it is food, prosperity, job or Yajna. We need to contemplate and meditate to bring the power of Brahman into our life. Don’t say Brahman alone. Brahman and the power of Brahman are to be contemplated on. Whatever power of Brahman you understand will manifest in your life. There are people who understand that the world is sustained by Brahman and that Brahman is the ruler, Brahman is the power behind the world and they have become powerful leaders. It depends on what aspect appeals to you.

Suppose somebody wants to become successful in Yoga then Brahman has to be meditated upon and worshipped as , the Master of Yoga. Lord Shiva is Yogeshwara, Lord is Yogeshwara. Various Swamijis and Gurus have established various temples at different places. These temples are established with an intention that a particular aspect of Brahman should be worshipped there. The wisdom aspect of Brahman is worshipped in Shringeri Sharada temple. Lots of wisdom and spiritual knowledge is concentrated in that center. There is Mahalakshmi Temple in Bombay and no wonder it is the financial capital of India. This is being told here because these students, these children are completing education and they have to go out to work and become successful in life. Some people will become Brahmanas, some people will become , some people will become , and somebody will become workers. These people have to know how to worship God so that the power which they required will come in their life. A Kshatriya has to worship the power of God as a ruler of the world. If you worship with the feeling that Brahman is the all pervading reality, Brahman alone exists; then you will be filled with the power of Brahman. If you worship with a feeling that Brahman is Sachidananda Swarupa, of the nature of Sat-Chit-ananda, Existence-Consciousness-Bliss then you will realize

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Brahman. Your body and mind will become an instrument in the hands of Brahman and he will take care of all your needs because the mind and body are offered completely to him. Brahman becomes the sustainer and protector of the body because that body becomes his instrument.

There is a rule for Sanyasis that they are not supposed to store more than what is required for a day because what is required for the next day will come to them. Once Taponanda Maharaja was in Himalayas and suddenly there was a snow storm. He was walking and he lost his way. He was very hungry but had not carried any food because sanyasis are not supposed to carry any food. The teaching here says that if you rely on Brahman, then Brahman will come and provide you food and Taponandji Maharaj wondered how he can get food in this Himalayas area where no one is around. With that thought he became unconscious. He woke up after sometime and when he opened his eyes he saw a lot of people around him. Somebody was sprinkling water on his face, somebody was giving him food. After sometime he realized that they were robbers. There used to be many robbers in the Himalayan region before as merchants used to carry food in huge bags on the donkeys to sell in other regions like and Ladakh. These robbers were searching for merchants to rob the food and then they saw one big bundle of cloth lying at a distance. They thought that some merchant has left something and ran away so these robbers went closer and saw that it was a Swamiji lying there on the ground. They woke him up and gave him food. Swamiji realized that Brahman will take care of you even if you are unconscious. The question is what is your faith? As is your faith, so is your life. If your faith is that Brahman will take care, he will surely take care. If your faith is that Brahman is wisdom then wisdom will come to you. If your faith is that Brahman is the source of wealth, wealth will come into your life. The question is what is your faith? One who does Upasana of Brahman as Sat-Chit-ananda; he will attain Brahman himself, not the Shakthi or power of Brahman, but Brahman himself.

The one in me and in the Sun is the same. What is in the individual is in the universe, it is one and the same. Behind both the jivatma and Hiraynagarbha, the living being and God is the same Parabrahma, one who knows this will attain Mukti, liberation after death. He becomes one with the Supreme Reality, he will be blissfully and joyfully enjoying in Brahman. He says, ‘aham annam, aham annado’ which means, ‘I am the food and I am the consumer of the food. I am everything, I am the seer and I am the seen.’ That means the object and the subject is one, one who understands this will be beyond birth and death. One who is able to give to others, one who is able to donate and one who is able live his life as an offering will get everything in plenty, abundance. One who gets food only for himself, only for making his own living will destroy himself. You have to live with an attitude of loka kalyana. He will become the light for everybody; he will become the light of lights. In

77 this Upanishad there is a teaching about the individual and there is a teaching about the Universe. You have to understand the relation between the individual and the universe. At the individual level everything is interdependent and at the universal level also everything is interdependent. In this way if you understand that there is commonality between the individual and the universe, “yat pindande yat brahmande” then you will understand that what is in you is the Supreme reality. Individual soul and Paramatma are one, and if you live with this attitude you will attain Mukti, you will become free. This is the teaching of this Upanishad.

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Annexure: Questions

Student: When you say the jnani transcends the gunas, does that mean that he will be able to operate through any of the varnas after enlightenment? Prabhuji: The jnani is basically self identity, so what each of us has is self identity. When I say I, what do you mean by I? That I has an identity, I as a body has identity, I has a profession as identity, and I has a knowledge as identity. I am an engineer or something else. I is associated with certain identities. Now a realization means the identity is with respect to pure Chaitanya (Consciousness). I am supreme Consciousness that is the identity. A woman before marriage is known by the identity of the family, surname. After marriage she is known by the identity of her husband’s family. Before engineering graduation you have some identity and after that you have an engineering identity. These are all variable identities we take up, but what is your absolute, unchanging, true identity? That true identity is Brahman. A Brahmajnani will never forget his true identity with a relative identity. In any action he does or wherever he is, he will not forget his true identity. It is something similar to this. A woman is a mother when children are there, a wife when her husband is there, an employee when she goes to office. In all these conditions she still remembers that she is a woman and she will not forget that. Similarly a Brahmajnani will not forget he is Brahman himself whatever action he performs. It doesn’t prevent him from doing any action. In fact he can do any action. He will continue to do some action for loka kalyana for the service and welfare of the world for which he has to use one of the identities acquired earlier and continue with that. For example a Brahmajnani can become a teacher, Master, where he takes the identity of a Guru. He can be a musician like Thyagaraja or Purandaradasa. They are enlightened poets and they will continue the music, poetry or any other skill they have acquired in their lifetime for delivering the message to the world. The only difference betwee an ajnani and Brahmajnani is that the ajnani is never aware of his true identity. He is only aware of his relative identity and that is concrete for him. For the Brahmajnani his relative identity is not at all solid, only his true identity is solid. Relative identity is used for discussion and interaction, but he will not be identifying himself with that relative identity. The ajnani is possessed by the identity whereas the Brahmajnani possesses the identity. That’s why you see nagabharana where Shiva has a nag or serpent as the abharana, as the ornament on his neck. What does this serpent signify? The serpent is poisonous. It kills others and is dangerous. For Shiva it becomes an ornament. The serpent there on the neck of Shiva represents ego. The ego is the ornament he just uses. The ornament has no utility, its only purpose being to show off. Similarly a Brahmajnani uses the identity. It is an ornament for him for the purpose of interaction with the world, but he is never possessed by it. Whereas for an ordinary person the snake is poisonous. It can kill him. It is not an ornament. So the identity becomes 79 bondage for any person, whereas it becomes an ornament for the Brahmajnani for just its decorative purpose. He puts on the ornament and removes it as needed.

Student: In terms of skill Thyagaraja is a musician. One day he becomes a jnani and realizes that he is Consciousness. Now can he become a Kshatriya? Prabhuji: No, he won’t, that is the point. The question is ‘What is the effect of enlightenment?’ You have to understand what is called , sanchita karma, kriyamana karma, agami karma. In Brahmajnana, sanchita, agami and kriyamana disappears. Kriyamana disappears in the sense that he does some action, but there is no imprint left in his Consciousness. Whatever he does, even if he kills somebody also there is no imprint left. Krishna was responsible for almost fifty lakh people getting killed in Mahabharata but there is not a trace of karma in him. The Consciousness is pure because it has already lost its individual identity. It is universal identity. That is what kriyamana is and effect of this is agami which is gone. Sanchita is gone because all accumulated karma is gone but prarabdha remains. Prarabdha is actually your body and accumulated impression during your growth. So if somebody learnt music, after enlightenment he cannot switch off his prarabdha, his skill. He can continue to be a musician if he wants to or he can stop, but he cannot become a scientist, because the skill is not there. After Brahmajnana there is no motivation to learn another skill. So Osho gives a good example. He keeps going for walks on Juhu beach. On the beach there is a person, a beggar who makes dolls, vighrahas, and sculptures out of sand. People used to throw some money to him. Osho used to go and see him making beautiful sculptures of people and animals. This person was deeply spiritual and wise man and Osho used to have conversations with him. Osho goes there after a couple of years. The same person is there but now he is no longer making statues of animals, birds and all. He is making statue of enlightened beings like Buddha sitting in meditation. Now Osho asks him “Why are you making this? People won’t pay money for this. They may buy some statues of girl and pay you money but if you make Buddha who will pay”. He says “They are peaceful and I like this”. Osho then asks him “Why are you making them out of sand. You can make them from stone” He says “Life is anyway temporary like this sand. It comes and goes. Let me live life for today.” He has become a wise man. So Osho says enlightenment does not change your skills. A musician will not become a dancer, a dancer will not become a musician. Because of the skill acquired, a sculptor will continue to be a sculptor but the only thing will be that their enlightenment will give a new touch. It will shine in wisdom. A housewife will continue to be a housewife. Suddenly there is enlightenment. Does it means that a housewife will go and give pravachanas? No, she won’t. Unless she has the skill, the prarabdha karma. Otherwise she will become peaceful will give peace in and around her. The skills will not be new. An enlightened person suddenly will not fly an aircraft, ride a bike or

80 start horse riding. There will not be any new skills. Don’t mix up skills with enlightenment.

Student: Let’s take my own example. If I am a non confrontational person, after enlightenment will I just go and confront anybody? Prabhuji: No. The non-confrontational attitude is not a skill, it’s a strategy of life. Confrontation and non confrontation is actually a strategy a nature of the mind. Enlightenment means you become free from that nature of the mind. That means in case you have to confront somebody, you will confront, you will not be overpowered by the mind

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Student: There is a knower in her a knower in me, both are different body mind complex. Would not they interpret the same data differently? Prabhuji: There is sunlight which throws out light uniformly. The sunlight is same but the reflected surface makes a difference. The Atma is one like the sun. For Atma it doesn’t matter. Who is asking this question is the reflected surface (mind). It has a question. From the point of view of Atma there is no question actually. Student: The distinction between knowledge and memory is a bit confusing I see the lamp at different times. What throws up that memory of the lamp? Is it knowledge or is it something else? Prabhuji: The memory is a recording of the event. There is an image associated with that. There is a name associated with that. The name and picture recorded is the memory, it like a recording in the camera Student: So where is that memory? Prahbuji: You can say it is in nervous system. It is in the universe. It can be in any place. It doesn’t matter Student: But not the self? Prabhuji: Not the self. The Self is the knower of that, it sees the record and intellect says this is the lamp, self says ok, I understand. Student: Isn’t that also a form of memory? Prabhuji: No. For example, in the laptop a beautiful picture comes up. The laptop has a program; it says this is a beautiful picture. The program is coming from memory, and does it have any value? You see it and say yes. The value is given by a sentient being, Consciousness. The body mind and intellect is like a computer. It gives lot of data that is validated and authenticated by a sentient being, which is jnanam. Jnanam is not lot of information, it is authentication by the sentience. If you don’t exist, whatever laptop says is of no value. Your existences gives a value to that. Your Consciousness gives a value to that. It is that Consciousness we are speaking of. That means you may not be as fast as a computer, that’s all job of the body mind complex Student: What is it that triggers memory? I am travelling and I see a statue of Buddha. So who triggers this memory of Buddha? Did the first time I got identified with it got recorded somewhere Prabhuji: Yes, it is more like a computer mechanism, learning mechanism. The neuron connection form, the neuron will have a name and form record in the body. The body mind complex is more of a computer, but only biological. In the earlier days there was no concept of a computer but still they understood this principle very clearly. Now in the age of computer you should be able to understand and appreciate much better, because body mind complex is nothing but a computer, whatever junk which is produced by the computer has no value unless the sentience comes and says yes. That sentience is the knower is you. Did you understand the difference? Tell me what you have understood

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Student: I am always there, whatever memory or whatever I am just seeing it, I am experiencing it, I is always the same Prabhuji: That’s perfectly alright, but the problem comes when you confuse that I with the temporary I. The body mind complex is like a computer or a mirror. This I sees the face in the mirror. The mirror shows something then this I identifies with the mirror not with itself. So when you confuse yourself with the body mind complex, then you start feeling the misery. Even though you don’t have misery, can you live without that confusion is the question. For example, you say “I am walking”. The ‘I’ doesn’t walk, it is just there. What walks is the body and you are mixing up that ‘I’ with the body. Who did this trick? The intellect. You accepted whatever the intellect says without asking any question. The intellect is like a tube light. It can only see what the body is. When the body walks it says “I walk”. It borrowed the concept of I from the self and said “I walk”. You accepted it without questioning. I cannot walk. I doesn’t walk. I is eternally there. But you do not question that. You say, “Oh somebody died”! ‘I’ cannot die, the body has expired. So that unchanging in you is what you are and that is what is called Satya. Jnanam means throwing light, the light of awareness. As told earlier, the computer is there, unless your awareness is there, whatever shows up on the computer will be meaningless. It is all memory. You give the validity to memory, which means you are sentience, Jnanam.

Student: If there is oneness at all levels how does separation come into picture? Prabhuji: There is no separation. Student: But that ignorance is there, right? Prabhuji: That is the nature of the mind. Mind is there for experience in life and that is also part of Consciousness. So for the very purpose of experience of life, there is a separation. Your mind is nothing but that which creates the subject and object Consciousness. And experience in process is also created by the mind. So, this gives rise to the feeling of separation. It is the feeling of separation, not reality. So, now, what are you doing now? Student: I am sitting Prabhuji: Are you sitting still or moving? You are actually moving at a speed of 25000 miles per hour. That is the speed at which the Earth is rotating. You are feeling the stillness when actually you are in motion. The Earth is spinning around its own axis at one speed and going around the sun at another speed. The sun is going around the galaxy at some other speed. We are actually moving at a mind boggling speed. Yet we feel the stillness. It is a feeling, but not a reality. So this feeling of separation appears to be there. But if you really enquire, it disappears.

Student: Why is there creation?

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Prabhuji: Why the creation is there, there is no answer. Anywhere in the world, science or spirituality, for ‘why’ you cannot answer. A painter likes a painting. If you ask him why he is painting, he will reply that it is his nature. Of course, he may be selling those and making some money for a living. Because it is his creativity which creates the painting. So Consciousness has the creative ability. With that creative ability it has created the Universe. It is out of sheer creativity. Now if you ask why this creativity is there, it will say, ’it is my nature’. If you ask, ‘Why did you create?’, it will say, ‘Because I have the creativity’. For ‘why’ there is no answer. Science can explain only ‘what’, but it cannot explain ‘why’? It can say gravitational force is there and what is this gravitational force, etc. Why gravitational force is there. There is no answer for that. So for the question, ‘Why creation’. There is no answer as such. The simple answer for this is creativity, sheer creativity. It is the nature of Consciousness to be creative. That creativity is called Shakti. In Vedantic literature it is called Brahman and Maya. Maya is the power of creativity. Creativity is there and it creates. That is the answer. Yet we need further inference. Because we have become very business minded. Everything needs to have a purpose, everything needs to have a cost-benefit analysis and profitibality. In everything we do, we think ‘what is in it for me’? In creation that ‘what is in it for me’ is not there but only the sheer joy of creation, of creativity. That is why it is called leela. If your life has become a leela, then you are in tune with creation. If your life has become not a leela, a play, it becomes a burden, and then you are out of tune. When I say leela, it is not a girl’s name. Leela means ‘play’. Is your life a play? I am not asking if you play with somebody’s life. Your life itself is a play. If it has become a creative expression of yourself then you are in tune with the universe. Or else you are out of tune with the universe. If it has become too much of business then you are out of tune. It will be like, what is the benefit, what is the profit, what is the loss, etc. Life should be sheer creativity. So, you will get some money, some fame will come, something will go.

Student: Is the physical death controlled by Atma? Prabhuji: When does the death happen? Each body is taken to fulfill certain karmic impressions, certain karmic experiences. Your fuel in the body prana is always sufficient to fulfill those karmic experiences. Suppose you want to go from Bangalore to Chennai which is 500 kms you need some 50 liters of petrol. Once you reach Chennai, the fuel in the vehicle will be over. If you have to travel further from Chennai to some other place you have to again fill the fuel tank. Similarly, once the body is created for fulfillment of certain karmic impressions or desires, the amount of prana shakthi required for that duration is determined and that will be available in the body. Once it gets exhausted, the individual Consciousness which identifies with the body moves with the associated with that shareera into another body for further experience of life. There is a gross body, a subtle body and a

84 causal body. The subtle body and the causal body together move from one body to another body. Atma is of course the controlling force, the individual Atma is the one which is identified with the subtle body and the causal body. When the identification with the subtle and causal body drops there is no more transmigration or rebirth.

Student: Guruji, theoretically is it possible to hold on to the same physical form for a longer period than the normal period? Prabhuji: Why is it required? Student: There is no answer to the “Why”. It is just out of curiosity. Prabhuji: See, there are always stories about who have lived for thousands of years. There are yogis who have been living forever. So such stories are there. These are all very interesting to the human mind. Because for the human mind, living means living with the body. So prolongation of the body itself appears to be a very great fascination for human beings. From that perspective all the medical sciences are working on how to prolong the human body. In the last century there have been lot of advancements in medical science. Lot of body parts can be replaced with mechanical parts. Your lungs will be operating with mechanical lungs and most probably by the time you become old, all your teeth will be replaced by silicon teeth. And may be the liver will be replaced with some auto pump which will pump insulin. Moreover the body parts will be replaced by mechanical and electrical parts. So one day you will become a cyborg which means you can live longer, the physical form can be there for a longer time. I don’t know whether you have heard about this project called Project 2035. There is a Russian Oil billionaire, he has billions of dollars which he is pumping to make human beings immortal. It is done in three phases. In the first phase all your memories and experiences of life get recorded in digital form. It is not very complex actually; you wear a small camera near your eye and an audio sensing device near your ear. So anything you experience in your life from morning to night will get recorded somewhere in digital form. Your whole life, whatever experience you are having in your life from your view point from your sense organs will be recorded in digital form. This is the first step. The second is that your genetic map is stored in a digital form. What this means actually is that your genetic maps are available on the network. The third step is a robot can be used to use your experiences and operate. For example let us say that you are doing very good gardening. This experience can be recorded in digital form and given to the robot and the robot will perform that very well. The Fourth step is that your holographic image can function out of your digital document. So practically you can do functions, mechanical functions or memory based functions and your holographic image can do sufficient for your presence. All these things are available in a digital form on the internet. Even if you die, millions of years later you will live on in your memories and live in biological form. And one day they can recreate a genetic map of you as

85 the memories are there and they can recreate you. That is the concept. Whether yogis physically living for longer period is important or not, but surely in millions of years they can live in digital life also. Now the question is, is it you? You have a memory but are you the memory? These all are our illusions, what we experience in our lifem if you record it you are living for ever. That is not a right understanding. What is the guarantee that what you are today is not the digital recording of you done some billions of years ago by somebody else? You may be just a reproduction of that, your body and mind. What are genes actually? Nothing but some sort of recording, some memories. You are a carbon based lifeform. Life is carbon based. You may be the carbon copy of some genetic form. So the question is what are you? If you are just body, mind and memory, then you can be reproduced; you can live for billions of years. Digital forms can survive for long time. But are you that? The whole of system of spirituality says, you have memory, you have experiences, you have body, but you are none of them. You are the Consciousness which uses that. And the Consciousness itself cannot be preserved. Consciousness itself cannot be recorded somewhere on the internet. Consciousness can always use the recording later at some point of time. But Consciousness itself cannot be preserved, it is always there. So this is a good modern way of science.

Now coming back to ancient yogis, there is always some fascination for yogis who have lived for 2000 years, 3000 years etc. But what is that they have done by living for so many years? By preserving a body for 200 years what is that they have achieved? This is actually a mistaken concept of fascination that human beings have about body being the Self. If some has lived for 200 years, I don’t know what is that he is doing. Nowadays an engineer working in some company for 3 years gets outdated actually and by the fourth year he is junk and will be thrown out. A person who has been living for 200 years, how much outdated he is I don’t know. I don’t think they have the time to update also. All these changes in technology, software, up gradations etc nothing is there. He may have some knowledge which is 2000 years old. It is very tough, hard to live for 2000 years, there will be no contemporaries, there will be no means of living, there is will be no means of knowing anything because all your knowledge is outdated and there is no means of earning also because with that man you can’t earn anything. What will you do?

So this actually is, I would say, a popular fantasy of human beings. Living 2000 years is not a big achievement. That may be possible with some yogic practices by preserving prana. There was a person called Changdev a yogi. The yogis are supposed to have very special abilities. At least yogis are supposed to know how to preserve prana. Just like how we are able to preserve the fuel like the most fuel efficient cars. For example, if one car runs

86 for 15 kms/liter, the other car runs for 20kms/liter. Likewise yogis are like very fuel efficient vehicles. So Changdev was a yogi. It is told that he lived for 400 years at the time of Jnaneshwar. Jnaneshwar was a very young boy. He was very famous and known as a Jnani. This Changdev had ten thousand disciples. Changdev heard the name and fame of Jnaneshwar and he sent him a piece of white paper. Jnaneshwar wrote back the essence of Bhagavad Gita which was named as Janeshwari in Marathi. It was written in the form of Changdev PrathiShati, in hundred shlokas he explained Bhagavad Gita to Changdev and he sent that to Changdev. Changdev, it seems he got wild and angry and he came riding on a tiger with ten thousand disciples to Jnaneshwar. Jnaneshwar was sitting on a wall, seeing the arrogance on Changdev, Jnaneshwar said, “move” and the stone wall started moving and it stood in front of Changdev. Changdev was so impressed by Jnaneshwar’s achievement that he fell at the feet of Jnaneshwar. He asked for forgiveness and became Jnaneshwar’s disciple. This is the story. Actually most of the spiritual stories are corrupted versions. They bring the fantasy of the people at that point of time. So let us look at this story. Changdev sent a letter, a white piece of paper to Jnanadev. In the popular version it says that Changdev was very arrogant. He sent a white piece of paper as a challenge to Jnaneshwar. Actually the reality is that Changdev was very humble, he says, “I am a piece of white paper, you please teach me”. But in the popular story this has been misinterpreted as Chgandev has challenged Namadev with a piece of white paper. So, then Jnaneshwar wrote Changdev Prathishati. Then in the story it is said that he came with 10000 disciples riding a tiger. So the tiger in Puranic literature is the mind. Changdev was a yogi, he had mastered the mind. Then it is told that Jnaneshwar was sitting on a stone wall and he asked the wall to move and that point Changdev said, “mera bitta chad gaya”, Changdev was from the Kashmiri tradition and ‘bitta’ in Kashmiri language was ‘’, which meant that looking at Jnaneshwar my Kundalini arose. ‘bitta’ in Marathi is wall. So the whole story gets misinterpreted and corrupted in the common man’s mind.

The point here is Changdev lived for 400 years where Jnaneshwar was 18 yrs old. Now why Changdev lived for 400 years, you have to understand. Yogis prolonged their lives for the sake of Self Realization. He was not realized for 400 years, which is why he retained the body. After Self realization there is no need of body. So if somebody is living for 5000 years or so, that means that he is not yet Self Realized and he is preserving his body for that purpose. Otherwise there is no need of the body. Actually when somebody says that a person lived for 200 or 300 years, you have to pity on that person. Because he has not achieved the purpose of life. It is actually common because it is fantastic. But for a Jnani it is such a pitiable condition. The purpose of life and having a body is to achieve Self realization, Enlightenment. Till that point of time body has to be preserved because goal is not reached.

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Somebody preserving their body 1000 years or 5000 years needs that to reach his goal.

Student: Where does the concept of time come from? Prabhuji: There are two types of time, psychological and chronological. What is chronology? There is a movement of sun. There is movement of planet, Earth. The sun rises in the morning, sets in the evening. One completion of such event is one day. It is chronological time. The chronological time is related to the nature and the psychological time is related to you. Psychological time depends on your state of mind. If you are happy in the company of good people, you are in satsang, you don’t know how fast the time has passed. The time flies away. The time disappears. Because the mind has become silent. When you are in deep sleep, you feel like you have slept for only half a minute whereas in reality you have slept for an hour or two. Time has disappeared because there are no thoughts in the mind. So time disappears when mind becomes silent. Now let us say you have a tooth ache that too at 10 in the night. Every minute you keep looking at the clock. Every minute appears to be like one hour. When we are in pain and suffering time appears to be extending. Suffering extends time; joy and happiness make time disappear. This is psychological time. So when we speak of time, we speak of psychological time because psychological time is real experience of time. What is psychological experience of time? It is the gap between two psychological events. I saw the sun rise and I saw it set, the gap between the two I call as time. Now this is actually my experience of two physical events. But that psychological experience is affected by the mental state. If the mind is very peaceful, time disappears. When the mind itself disappears and becomes no-mind it is enlightenment and the Self disappears from experience. Student: Does chronological time disappear after Self Realization? Prabhuji: Chronological time goes on, but for you time is gone. You have gone beyond time. Observation of time will be there Student: You said time disappears and you gave two examples of sunrise and sunset and the observation of that is the one which is causing the experience of time. Now, that observation constitutes the same. Prabhuji: No. The observation will be there because the psychological experience of passage of time is different from chronological experience of time. In one dream you may have two lifetimes going through, your psychological experience of time. That is independent of chronological time. Student: So when we are in joy that experience of time has collapsed. Student: The concept of Brahman and Shivathva, are they similar? Prabhuji: First you have to understand that everything is Consciousness, whether it is Brahman and Shivathva or for that matter Brahman or anything else. So when Consciousness performs various roles, it is called by that name. A woman is a mother when she performs the role of taking care of a child,

88 she is a wife with respect to a husband, she is a daughter to her mother, and she is a friend to her friends. When Consciousness operates in different roles, with respect to the function performed by that role, it is called by that name. Brahman or the Supreme Reality is called Narayana when it is in a resting form, where there is no function or manifestation that happens. The same Brahman or the Supreme Reality is then called as Vishnu when he manifests as the world and protects the world as all pervading Consciousness. When he destroys the manifestation he is called Shiva. When he takes functions as an individual he is called Jiva. When he takes the role of destroying ignorance he is called Shiva Consciousness or Guru. So Shiva is called Adiguru. There is absolute and relative and all names are with respect to the relative. Conciousness in relative domain functions within the framework of name and form.

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