Sarvapriyananda masterfully distills complex non-dualism into a lucid framework that challenges the very foundation of our perceived identity. It is a profound intellectual bridge that makes ancient metaphysics feel like a modern psychological breakthrough.
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The Mirror of Consciousness: Who You REALLY Are (Advaita Vedanta)Added:
Avatarish Rama Krishna Riyad Swami Sarvadan Maharaj other revered monks and nuns and dear friends it's a delight to be back here again uh I was on my way back to New York but uh then I thought I have this weekend and why not go to Hollywood. [laughter] Yes. And here I am just yesterday, day before yesterday, I was at the Grand Canyon and sightseeing my first time in my life and uh [clears throat] yes and uh we were also shown a wonderful IMAX movie on the Grand Canyon. Uh now I was just wondering standing there in that vast extraordinary creation of nature more than 200 miles and then wide more than 10 miles or so something like that. um extraordinary and we are reading that uh we we saw in that IMAX movie um there multiple tribes of Indians who lived there for more than 4,000 years and there was a nice depiction of their lives various uh uh different tribes at different times different kinds of lives and I was just thinking over in that extraordinary landscape for 4,000 years before us. So many generations, so many people, families and mothers and fathers and children and grandchildren, lives of struggle and sorrow and laughter and thought and that place is also what's called a dark sky park. And the Sedona, the city near it is also a dark sky city, which is a very nice concept because of the high desert air. The night sky is especially spectacular there. I saw a little bit of it, not as much as you would expect if you actually stay in uh you know the Grand Canyon or in Sedona.
Some of the famous observatories are there. The loyal observatory is there.
Um and imagine thousands of years ago these uh Indians who lived there on the the cliffs and the rocky faces of the Grand Canyon staring up into the blazing sky sky above the stars in Asimov's phrase the stars like dust the stars like dust spread across the sky the vastness of space the oceans of time when you look up there they dwarf even the Grand Canyon They dwarf the earth itself long before those stars have seen the birth of the earth and let alone the Grand Canyon. For them, these 4,000 years of human history in that Grand Canyon is like a flicker, like a like a blink of an eye. How much more so our own little lives, we are dwarfed by these oceans of time and space which we look around and we wonder there. And yet today we greater than all of that. There's a saying which I like u recently I saw it attributed to Emerson. I'm not very sure but the saying goes like this. Whatever lies behind us and whatever lies in front of us ahead of us is as nothing compared to what is within us.
So all the oceans of time and space which we see before us and behind us when we look behind even they are they are dwarfed by the immensity within us. Within us it means our true nature what we truly are. I'm reminded of a beautiful verse in um a 14th 15th century adita text the panchadashi um Month, days and months roll by. Years pass by. Decades and centuries roll by and vanish. Eons and ages roll by.
Universes rise and set and rise again.
But the sun of consciousness ever blazing somewhat. This one blazing light of consciousness neither rises nor sets.
It's ever shining. And Vanta says that's what we are. That's our real nature. We dwarf this universe even the in the immensity of its space. We dwarf this universe even in the immensity of its time. They play out in our radiance.
You know the whole of vanta it can be compressed if you just want to make it into the brief the basic the skeleton of it.
I have this friend who is a mathematician and pure mathematician a monk. Now one day I was excited about a book of mathematical logic as an introductory book I was reading it a big book and I excitedly told him about it and he said show me the book he took the book and he went to the last page you know at the cover between the cover there's a cheat sheet all the formula are given if it's a textbook sometimes you will have all the formula there he spent a couple of minutes looking at the formula and he said slam the bookshelf okay I've got it [laughter] and then he said why so verbose why talk so much the essence I want the essence for a highly trained mind like that a person who you know is trained in pure mathematics and abstract thinking like that he just needs the equation just this much not the whole explanation of the thing not a 500page textbook so what's the basic the adic you know from first principles from our experience and reason it's it can be put in very few words but expanded across vast literature'ses on nonduality the very few words you can put it this way for example you are awareness whatever you are aware of that you are not that's the first step that's not the final position however first step is you are awareness you are aware and then we are aware of so many things whatever you are aware of that you are not so clearly we are aware of our own bodies and that means obviously we are not the body we are aware of our own minds and thoughts and emotions we are not even the minds and thoughts and emotions and personality we just awareness. But that's just step one. The next time and space and everything that we experience is in awareness. We experience it in awareness.
So if uh time is in awareness, awareness is not something going through time.
Rather time is something that is experienced in awareness. The argument would be awareness itself is beyond time. In that case it would be uh eternal. Let us say if space itself is experienced in awareness then awareness itself would be all pervative limit not limited in space. And if everything that we experience in life we experience in awareness by definition. After all experience is awareness plus an object.
So whatever we experience we experience in awareness. So those objects do not constitute something other than awareness.
Aware the objects are objects we experience are not. We're already looking puzzle. Don't worry we'll cover this ground again and again throughout the next one hour.
But here in that case no object is an other to awareness because they are all experienced within awareness.
If space, time and objects are experienced in awareness, then awareness itself becomes limitless, all pervasive in space, eternal and non-dual with respect to the objects. that objects do not constitute a countable second with respect to awareness and therefore awareness becomes limitless infinite in fact the only reality that there is and that you areasi that's advant in a nutshell and that too from direct experience and you know arguing from first principles that's just a first pass at it we'll do this a few more times today what I'm going to talk about today this very poetic title the mirror of consciousness I'm using the words consciousness and awareness you know interchangeably the mirror of consciousness and this is borrowed from Adi Shankarachara's very beautiful hymn Dakshina Morti stotum the hymn to Dakshina Morti Dakshina Morti is an incarnation of Shiva Shiva is the teacher the giver of knowledge giver of enlightenment there's a funny story which you know it's about Dakshina Morti how did Shiva come to take the incarnation of Dakshina Morti? The four original sages Sapa, Sanandan, Sanatkumar, they at one time they thought let's learn meditation and they said let's go to our father our heavenly father is Brahma the creator of the universe. So these sages go to Brahma. Can you teach us meditation? Now they saw Brahma is very busy. He's the creator. You know he's been God subcontracts Brahma to make the universe. So Brahma has many projects and they found the sages found him extremely busy and they found him a very uninspiring figure to teach meditation very restless full of lots and lots of stuff to do. So they were disillusioned.
They said this is not a person we can learn meditation from. Um then they say let's go to Vishnu. And then they go to Vishnu and they find Vishnu is like a couch potato. He's relaxing on his on the cosmic serpent dozing off and Shri Lakshmi is massaging his feet and there this is not a guy who can teach us meditation. He's already dozing anyway couch potato. So then they go to let's go to Shiva. Then they go to Shiva and oh my god even worse they find him sitting he's given up half of his body to the divine mother Parvati Narishwaran as as the male and female figure together he's sitting half the body is himself and half is his wife Mrs. Shiva you know barbati they were thoroughly disillusioned he can't teach us meditation so to teach them a lesson and to give them enlightenment Shiva is supposed to appear as dakshina morti the south facing form form of grace and the greatest grace of god is the instruction uh which leads to the knowledge which leads to enlightenment enlightenment straightforward what I just mentioned our infinite limitless consciousness nature awareness nature this vast radiance which we are to realize that that teaching is given by Shiva and and of course the teaching was also extraordinary he taught them in silence he didn't give talks he didn't give classes nothing he just taught them he's supposed to have taught them in silence and the sages who are s sitting around him their doubts were dispelled the explanation is silence um you know Adwita vanta can be taught in in a nutshell in make it as brief as you want.
If you want to make it in all the vast literature compress it into a pity saying brahma ja brahman is the only reality consciousness pure consciousness is the only reality. The world is an appearance in consciousness and you are none other than that consciousness. That's one way of putting it. Suppose you say no no no make it even smaller even shorter more precise.
All right you are that I am Brahman and I am pure consciousness. No no no no make it even smaller shorter. All right.
Yeah. And if you explain Om, if you see the mandukish, it explains Om as the one consciousness which experiences our waking life that is uh and our dream life that is oo and our deep sleep experience that is and all three are illumined by one consciousness and all three are appearing in one consciousness and indistinguishable from that one consciousness which you are and that's you say no make it even more concise.
All right. And Dakshina Morti teaches by a gesture mudra. This is called a gesture of consciousness. Chin mudra.
And what does it mean? This one stands for the ego. This this finger. And when the ego is like this associated with the physical body, the subtle body and the causal body. Physical body this one. And I this ego says I am this. Who am I?
This. What is this? I.
And the subtle body is nothing very esoteric. Just what we all feel right now when we think and remember and understand and desire and um love and hate and enjoy and suffer. That's a subtle body. Thoughts, feelings, emotions, memories, the personality within us. Yeah. Which we all experience.
And there is also something called the causal body, not casual causal body. Um it is like casual wear actually. It's when we put on that we become the Brahman becomes the ja but anyway let's not bother about that right now. So when the ego is associated with these three I am this and this is what we are naturally that's what we think of ourselves and how we live our lives and the instruction of dakshina and the instruction of vanta is to show that you are not these three there is something this pure consciousness you are that so when we realize I am that not these three bodies this is pedagogical this is again not the final statement of truth this is a way of teaching I am this. Then we are enlightened. And Dakshina if you see the iconography is always this is called chin mudra. The mudra the gesture of consciousness. Chin mudra.
Um I was reading anthropom anthropologists have said that we are u the only apes who can do this. There are actually some other great apes who can do this. Opposible thumb. uh this thumb which can do this which enables us to operate machinery and this thing is actually this ability to do this actually they say is at the root of all civilization.
We are here because of this the ability to do this you know use the thumb and use the other fingers in opposition to each other and then operate stuff do delicate work anyway that's just an as an aside the reference is to the first verse of the dakshina mortistotra composed by adishankarachara maybe about 1200 or 1300 years ago a very beloved hymn the hymn is often uh chanted as a part of a puja or as a devotional practice but it contains the essence of ada vanta nonvanta and the first verse itself is is very poetic sublime remarkable I salute the guru the teacher who is also Dakshina Morti. I salute that one who gives us this teaching. What is this teaching? The entire universe which one is like a city seen in a mirror.
It's like a city seen in a mirror but within oneself.
Just like we see a whole world in a dream.
And when we fall asleep and we dream, we see a whole world there. The dream world which is within us. When we wake up, we realize it was not actually outside. It was all within us. And the one who realizes this and realizes that myself is nondual. Whatever I saw as an other, other people, other places, other times, other objects, they're all nothing but me. There is no real other.
The one who realizes that at the time of awakening to that one I salute who is also the guru, who is also Dakshina Morti. Go my salutations. So that's the very beautiful um uh hymn the first verse of that and there occurs this city in the mirror the universe is compared to a city seen in a mirror but then immediately qualifies it it's important the examples are very useful the reason why so many examples analogies metaphors are used in advant is that because what is being taught here is so subtle it's difficult to describe in language we are operating at the very margins of language language.
We're trying to do something with language what language was not designed to do. Language was designed to operate in this world of duality, in this world of appearance. But we're trying to do that with language. And therefore, examples, metaphors, analogies are used. There it is the duty and the skill of the teacher which matters because an example is meant to illustrate something, show something. Now when you say the universe is like a city in a mirror. The moment we think about a city in a mirror, you can imagine what a city in a mirror is like. You have a mirror and if you see stand up especially high up like this and you know in our parking lot and pointed out to Los Angeles, you will see Los Angeles in the mirror. Especially at night you can see all the glittering lights and everything in the mirror. But of course our first reaction would be yeah what's the big deal about this?
There is Los Angeles outside and you hold a mirror. The very nature of the mirror is to form a reflection of something that is outside. And so if you're trying to say that there is a world and here we are with our sense organs and our mind and the world is in one sense quote unquote reflected in our minds. No big deal. That's what we all believe in. But immediately Shankarachara adds nijanatam within oneself. Forget the city outside.
Forget Los Angeles outside. Just see the mirror and the reflection within. That's all. That's all you might say. Why?
Because it's an example. An example is meant to prove one thing. If if Shankarachara had computer screens and monitors or iPads, he could have given that example. But he just had mirrors.
Um so he says, "Forget the whatever is being reflected outside. Just look at the mirror and the reflection there. So in the mirror you see a whole city.
We shall explore this example a little bit for the next few minutes and then we'll apply it to ourselves. We'll see what a powerful pedagogical tool this example is. What a wonderful pointer to our own nature, our infinite consciousness nature this example is. So he says to make this example work, forget the city outside. Just take a look at the mirror and see the city reflected in the mirror. And in the mirror, what do we see? We see streets and we see buildings and we see the sky and the plants and you know trees and cars and people. Uh we see everything.
The hill, we see all of that. The Hollywood sign, we see all of that in the mirror.
Now notice the first thing about it.
First thing about the city in the mirror. First discovery we make.
Extraordinary discovery wherever you see in the city in the mirror wherever the Hollywood sign or the capital hills build the capital records building or whatever you see where wherever you see there the mirror is I'm pointing out a simple thing but it's very important wherever you see in the city in the mirror the mirror will be there wherever whenever you see the city in the mirror the mirror will be there whenever And whatever you see in the city, the buildings and the cars and the people and the sky and the earth, mirror, mirror, mirror. Isn't it true? We must first be clear and agreed upon with the example. Then only we can apply it. Is this true? Is this clear? You say, "Yeah, it's a no-brainer. Go ahead. Get a move on." Right?
Now the claim here, the big claim here is just as the mirror is the foundation is the ground of the city in the mirror.
Can I use words like that? This is the foundation. It's the basis. It's the ground, the underlying reality. I'm trying to give words for adishtana in Sanskrit. The Sanskrit word is adishtana.
The ground, the underlying reality, the basis of the city in the mirror is the mirror. Therefore, wherever, whenever, whatever. Sounds like a song.
Wherever, whenever, whatever you see in the city, it's the mirror, mirror, mirror.
Now, the claim is consciousness.
And let's be clear what he means by consciousness. It means you just means us, our core nature, our basic nature, our fundamental nature. Consciousness is the basis, the ground, the foundation of this universe.
Huge claim, huge claim. Yeah. Two steps have already been taken here which I mentioned just before starting the at the beginning of the talk. You are awareness.
Whatever you are aware of that you are not. Step one that is Shankarachara singing in the six stanzas of Nirvana. Do you remember? I'm not the mind. I'm not the ego. I'm not the memory. I'm not the what the intellect. I'm not the five senses. I'm not the body made of five elements. I am Shiva. I am bliss. I am consciousness.
Do you remember that's step one? That's the separation.
That's the analysis.
But then in that that six stanzas of Nirvana, Shankarachara does sort of basically half the work. At the end he completes it. people who who don't are not looking out for it might miss it.
But the second part of the work is when you look back upon what you are aware of. Yes, you are not what you are aware of but what you are aware of the objects we are aware of that which we are aware of that is not other than you. This I can repeat like a mantra and the more you hear it the more puzzling it should become at first and the more interesting it'll become afterwards and more stunning it is. What am I? What is this mantra?
You are quite other than what you are aware of. But what you are aware of is not other than you.
[clears throat] You're quite other than what you're aware of. The mirror is quite other than the city in the mirror. But the city in the mirror is not other than the mirror.
Shankarachara gives the dream example.
You the dreamer, the dreaming mind by itself is quite other than the places, things and happens happenings in the dream. It can exist without the dream.
But the dream, the constituents of the dream, the elements of the dream, the people in the dream, the events in the dream, the places in the dream are not apart from the dreaming mind. They cannot exist without the dreaming mind.
Therefore this distinct consciousness which you are which I am but the objects of consciousness are not distinct from it. This consciousness is the ground the foundation the underlying reality of all these objects of all this space all this time and all these objects.
This is called adishtana. The ground.
The mirror is the ground of the city in the mirror.
Consciousness is the ground of this universe.
It's a huge huge step. I'm just giving you the claim itself and trying to illustrate it with examples. Two examples I'm using. One example is mirror entity. The other example Shankarachi uses is the dream example.
Same thing you can apply the dream example.
Isn't the dreaming mind the ground of the dream? The basis, the foundation of the dream. Whatever you dream in the mind, whatever you dream about, the places we dream about, the time which is there in our dreams, they are all nothing but projections of the dreaming mind. They don't exist apart from the dreaming mind. That's obvious.
Nobrainer.
So the dreaming mind, the mind is the basis, the ground, the underlying reality of the dream universe. The mirror is the ground, the basis, the underlying reality of the city in the mirror.
Consciousness is the ground, the basis, the underlying reality of the experienced universe.
I hope you're listening carefully.
I'm I'm slipping in words here and there which you should be alert about and you should flag it and and catch me in the question answer session. Yeah.
Why did I say the experienced universe?
What does it mean anyway? So that's the first thing which is what first thing which is being claimed in this example of the city in the mirror. Just as the city in the mirror is founded on is is grounded in the mirror itself. And similarly this universe is grounded is based on is founded in consciousness itself.
What is the relationship between consciousness and its objects? We are all aware and we are aware of something that's life. Think about it. What is the most essential? If you reduce all of life to the basic equation of life, subject and object, awareness and its objects, that's all that there is. Think of something else.
Nothing else. Nothing else. I often give this example to to clarify this. There's a there might be a doubt in our minds.
You know, it's all very well to talk about consciousness. But right now, for example, there is there is this vast universe. You just talked about Grand Canyon Swami. There is a vast Grand Canyon. millions of bits of rock and places and nooks and crannies which you're not conscious about. You don't even know that they exist. There are planets and stars which we do not even know anything about.
I don't even know what's under this desk right now. How can you say everything is in your consciousness?
How can you say that?
Let me give an example. I have often given this example. The question was raised by our senior most member Bill Conrad. He's a legend in our vanta society. He's 100 years old this year.
He was is a veteran of the second world war. He used to fly um in bombers in Pacific theater. So he's a physicist and a skeptic a realist. So he said no swami the world is not in our consciousness.
Consciousness is in the world. This is a common sense view. So we are sitting here in this room. He told this is exactly what he told me. We're sitting here in this room and u I'll prove it to you. Let's put a camera in this room and we will both leave the room. Then we'll go outside and then we come back again and I will show you the camera has taken pictures of an existing room which is empty. No conscious beings there. The room existed by itself and then we as conscious beings came into the room and we became aware of the room. It's not that the room exists in consciousness and depends on consciousness.
Consciousness is the ground of the room.
Not at all.
It's just a real world which exists and we as conscious beings have come into this real world a tiny you know this vast time you know ocean of time and space we have just come in in a corner of it which scientists said that uh um this vastness of space there are these little balls of mud planets and on that a slight mold has grown which is life and in that mold thin layer of mold there is this occasion right now there's occasionally a civilization and so that's all that we are if the universe decides to apply an antifungal agent we'll be gone very soon we'll be washed out within we'll be gone as if we didn't exist at all so he says see the camera will prove to you the room exists without any conscious beings so I said to him Bill in your consciousness You you thought of this experience in your consciousness. You both of us left the room. You put the camera and both of us left the room. In your consciousness, we re-entered the room. In your consciousness, you showed me the pictures in the camera which showed an empty room in your consciousness. At which point did you step outside your consciousness? Is it even possible to step outside your consciousness?
It's it's a very simple idea but difficult to wrap our minds around.
What it means is there's a distinction.
We'll discuss this more in the Q&A.
There's a distinction between consciousness and knowledge. It's true to say there are vast number of things in this universe, places and things which I don't know about. You don't know about no human being knows about.
But both what Vant is claiming both the known and the unknown are appearances in consciousness.
I'll give you an example. The dream example makes it very clear. In our dream, suppose you're walking around here in the ashram in you know in a parking lot and you don't you don't know that you're dreaming and you see the parking lot you see the cars you see the swamies you see the temple and you also feel there is a vast city Los Angeles beyond this ashram and beyond this is the whole world and stars and planets which I do not know I do not see at all I see only a tiny bit a part of this asham but the moment you wake up the moment you wake up you will think oh the whole of that asham which I saw in my dream and the so-called Los Angeles and the world and the whole unknown universes existed all of it the known and the unknown the little known and the vast unknown they all existed in the dreaming mind it's the mind which appeared as the known part of the dream universe and the vast unknown part of the dream universe but both were equally in the mind just because the unknown Los Angeles was not seen in the dream doesn't mean it existed outside the dream. It was also part of your dream.
Similarly in consciousness this entire universe appears as the known as the unknown.
So this is the I just made the first they made a first pass at this example city in the mirror and we are making the claim here uh that consciousness is the ground of this universe just as the mirror is the ground of the city in the mirror.
The rest of it follows even more dramatic uh results but they'll follow easily. The second discovery, the second implication, the second uh result of our investigations is when you look at the city in the mirror, we all know there is no city in the mirror. What's there in the mirror?
Mirror.
in the mirror. When you show the city of Los Angeles in the mirror, when you see the the Hollywood sign and the buildings and the cars and the sky and the hills in the distance, are there hills and skies and um Hollywood signs in the mirror? No. What's there in the mirror?
Just glass. It's a mirror.
[clears throat] Mirror real reflection is reflection.
It's false. It's an appearance.
So the second great claim that we are making that this example makes the city in the the world is like a city in the mirror. The world is an appearance in consciousness. In that case consciousness is the reality and the world is an appearance.
This the mirror is the reality and the city is an appearance. Oh you can make all sorts of distinctions. You can see the building. Just because it's an appearance doesn't mean it'll disappear in the mirror. You can distinguish one building from another. You can distinguish one person from another. You can distinguish the sky and the earth.
You can distinguish the Hollywood sign from the reservoir. Everything you can see. All distinctions will be clear.
All language will work. Language will work. You can use words to designate what you see in the mirror.
And the cars will run very well. The planes will fly and the birds will fly.
All of that. Everything will function well. Everything will be linguistic usage is there and the distinctions are all very clear. And yet all of that is still an appearance.
Mirror real city appearance consciousness real world appearance.
This is the Brahma claim of vanta. Brahman is the reality of which the world is an appearance. Now by appearance we don't mean that oh suddenly I realize the world is an appearance. Now my credit cards don't work and and the food is become suddenly tasteless. Not at all.
Everything [clears throat] will function exactly as it has been functioning. Only we realize what it is. We realize the underlying truth of this appearance that it's not a city. It's a mirror. It still looks like a city. It's not a universe.
It's consciousness. Still looks like a universe. It looks walks and talks and quacks like a universe.
So everything will continue. This is the word in vanta they call it vavahara or transactional reality. The world of transactional reality.
This is the second result we get. What are the two results? Don't forget what was the first one? Mirror is the ground of the city in the mirror. Consciousness is the ground of this universe.
Is the basis of this universe. Second one step forward bigger claim. Mirror is real. The city is not really a city.
It's a mirror. It's appearing looks like a city. Similarly, consciousness is real and it appears is experienced as this universe including this body including this subject and the object one consciousness. Viveand says one alone exists. It appears as nature soul subject object and object and subject.
Further, the third great result of our investigations into the city in the mirror.
Notice the peculiarity about the city in the mirror. Nothing that happens in the city in the mirror in that city affects the mirror.
[clears throat] There can be an earthquake. Entirely possible.
There was one actually in the Bay Area just a few days back.
But the mirror is not affected. Just because you have a big crack on 101 doesn't mean that the mirror will get a crack.
It's an appearance. The mirror is the movie screen is not a affected by say an explosion in the on in the movie or uh uh does the movie screen start burning up? Not at all. Or by a tsunami in the movie. Does the movie screen get wet?
Not at all.
The appearance in the mirror does not the city in the mirror. Nothing that happens in the city in the mirror affects the mirror. Nothing that happens in appearance affects reality.
Shankarachara's famous one place he says somewhere that all the water in a mirage cannot affect even a grain of sand of the desert.
Why? Because they belong to two different orders of reality.
So the mirror is not affected by the happenings in the city in the mirror.
And our deepest reality, the consciousness that we are is not affected by the happenings in that app in the appearance we call the universe.
That's why we say lives may come and go and then the body changes from childhood to middle age to old age. Consciousness doesn't get old from um you know the body becomes wrinkled and old and bent. Consciousness doesn't become wrinkled and old and bent. It displays the body which is wrinkled and old and bent. The same Bill Conrad, he was complaining, you know, grumbling. Swami, my memory is not what it used to be. I said, Bill, it's fine.
I'm half your age and my memory is not what it used to be. But you are not the memory. You are that which is aware of the you know slowly the slowing down mind and memory. But you are not slowing down. You're fine.
He said fat lot of good that does Swami.
Yes. But it does do good to step back psychologically speaking, philosophically speaking, ontologically speaking from the everchanging mind and body and see that it's like a movie playing on a screen like reflections in a mirror. It does not affect the ground of that movie, the basis of that uh appearance. You are fine regardless of what happens in the body or even in the uh mind. But you means you have to be very careful which you you as this limitless awareness as the absolute reality of this universe.
This is called asa the unattached. Unattached is too mild a word for this.
You are this tefloncoated consciousness nonstick cooking wear is there. See you are this consciousness. It's non-stick because it does not belong to the same level of reality. That's why it's non-stick. It appears but everything at the level of um the level of appearance everything is affected. As long as we are like this body, mind and the you know the causal body, subtle body and physical body and I'm like this I will definitely be affected. Everything that happens in the physical body and in the subtle body they will affect me.
Um so the third great point is the mirror is asanga.
If you look closely we have said two things. When we say the mirror is the ground of the city that means whatever is there in the city in and through that the mirror is there. This is called imminence.
It exists in and through a reality which exists in and through this diversity.
And when we say it is asanga nonattached non-stick teflon then we are saying transcendence vandanda said we Hindus worship a transcendent imminent god the ultimate reality of this universe is where in in this universe it's right here just as the mirror is right there where you see the city where is the dreamer in the dream right there in the dream whatever whoever wherever the dream is whenever the dream is the dreamer is there.
So the ultimate reality pure consciousness is right here. So it is imminent in all our experiences.
But this pure consciousness is not at all affected by what we experience. It's not damaged, corrupted, destroyed, [clears throat] does not age.
So it is trans because it is transcended. It transcends. Another name for that is asanga unattached.
And finally one more um conclusion from this. This is the deepest ever. You know we put all of it together. Notice one thing about the city and the mirror. In this in the mirror there are so many buildings, so many people, so many cars, so many places, sky and earth and so many things are there. Things are there, people are there, actions, changes are there, but they are none of them are anything other than the mirror. They they do not have a countable. If you start counting, you know how many people can I see in the city in the mirror, you can count so many people, so many cars, so many buildings. But if you count the mirror, none of those things are a countable second apart from the mirror. The claim is the mirror is nondual with respect to the city in the mirror.
There is no second thing in the city in the mirror apart from the mirror.
Just as in our dreams there is nobody, nothing other than you the dreamer. You may dream of an audience of thousands.
You may dream of cities and people and events whatever with all sorts of dreams come. And yet it is true all of us without being philosophical at all we get up and we say oh it was all a dream it was nothing but my own mind I appeared in all those forms in all those events in the dream there was no second entity in the dream apart from the dreaming mind there is no second entity here apart from you nobody's other to you I'm repeating holy mother's last words and there's nobody here who is another to you.
This person and that person equally are appearances or nothing other than that one consciousness appearing in these ways.
There is no second reality here apart from you. You are nondual with respect to the universe.
This is called in Sanskrit adam non-duality.
These are some of the tremendous results we get from the city in the mirror.
You are the ground of this universe.
You are the reality of this universe.
You're entirely unaffected. You transcend this universe, space, time and object. And you are non-dual even while experiencing a universe with populated by billions of beings and billions of planets and stars. Yet you are nondual.
That one vast radiance which we are is non-dual adam.
As long as we do not know ourselves as that, as long as we are like this, not like this. As long as we are like this, this world, it seems separate from us out there. It seems real quite apart from us. Us means quite apart from um this individual being as we find ourselves, as we think of ourselves.
This is a separate reality. As Bill Conrad said, it exists apart from consciousness.
It's a real world out there.
Not only that, it as long as we are like this, this world affects us tremendously.
Terror and temptation, this world pulls us and repels us because it's another.
An attractive other pulls us. A repulsive other repels us.
Some situations are very nice. We aspire for that. Some situations are awful.
We're scared of that. We want to run away from it. change it utterly.
And yet when we awaken to this reality that we are this limitless pure consciousness, then the first thing which will happen is whatever we experience, we are that. Wherever we experience it, we are there. Whenever we experience the universe, then we are time, space and object, we are the ground of that.
Second, the second thing which will happen is when we awaken to our our reality is that this universe will no longer seem like a separate reality real and out there. It's you alone appearing in all those forms.
Third, we will realize in the midst of all kinds of troubles that there is a center an eye of the storm which is not affected by the storm.
At at a certain level at the deepest level we are all right. Even when the body might be getting old, body might be getting sick, even when people might treat treat us horribly or worse, people might not have anything to do with us completely lonely solitude. It's a big problem.
I think I was reading England created its first ministry ministry of loneliness. Yes, sad. Ministry of loneliness, loneliness affairs.
So, no, you you realize in And it's very interesting. You realize there is no one apart from you. But you don't feel lonely. The solitude in which you are comfort completely comfortable with billions of people. There's only one reality. And you are that there. They are also equally that. Everybody's equally that you are non-dual with respect to the universe. You are this one consciousness. When we awaken to it, this is called.
Now look at the beautiful example of awakening. Awakening from a dream and awakening into our real nature.
Awakening into our real nature is called enlightenment. What happens when we awaken from the dream? I look back and I see oh those places I went to they're not places. I alone was there. I the dreamer. The time of the dream, the place of the dream and everybody in the dream and every event that happened in the dream that's me. I was there. We don't think about all this. Now I hope we will we'll use the dreams as an exercise in adita.
We generally don't do that. We just get up. Oh, there was a dream. Now let me get on with my day. But no, let's just dwell on it that I I was the ground of this tremendous diversity of time, space and object I saw in the dream. I am the adhan of the ground of the dream.
Similarly, I have woken up into this waking world. I am actually the ground of this waking world.
Second thing we notice, what do we say?
That's the most obvious thing we notice.
Even if you're not philosophers, we feel oh it was a dream. It was Changangzu, I think the Chinese philosopher who said who woke up, he was dreaming was a butterfly and he woke up and then because he's a philosopher, he thought, oh, so am I a philosopher who was dreaming that he was a butterfly or am I a butterfly who's now dreaming that he's a philosopher?
What would Adwita say regardless butterfly philosopher both are appearances in one consciousness? You cannot deny that you're consciousness.
To be a philosopher, you have to be conscious. To be a butterfly, you have to be conscious.
The butterfly nature and the philosopher nature are appearances in one consciousness. I mean, even if you see God, if you see God, God will appear to exactly this consciousness which you are.
The mind will be tremendously different.
It'll be a highly spiritualized mind.
Then only have a vision of God. But the consciousness will be literally be the same.
Yeah.
If you don't have this consciousness, no god experience also.
So when we wake up, we realize just as we realize that the dream is nondual with respect to us. All those people in the dreams. Oh, we also realize, oh, it was just a dream. What do we say? It was just a dream. Especially after a nightmare. Oh, thank God. It was just a dream. What? What are we saying? I was so scared. I was so terrified. But now it's all right because not because I did not see it. I saw it.
Not because I was not scared. I was scared. I had a vivid experience. I have memories.
But the crucial difference is what is called very concisely in Sanskrit.
The determination that this is an appearance. The appearance nature of it.
Oh, it's a dream.
The realities it didn't happen actually though I experienced it but it didn't happen actually what happened was my eye was dreaming I was all of that even all the scary stuff then that makes it all right not forgetting it not thinking now let me think of something positive that was horrible no just realizing it was an appearance makes it all right just like a horror movie so I saw a movie quite horrible but I enjoyed it eesthetic experience I scared out of my wits. How delightful.
Only because the crucial thing is it's a movie. That's the only thing that makes it okay.
Similarly, I am the ground reality of this universe. Therefore, nothing that happens in this universe or in my little life affects me. Little life reminds me Swami Ramak Krishna G. So in in he established he was uh instrumental for many many years working very hard to establish our monastery and temple in Chennai in Madras in those days was called. Sister Deva Mata traveled from an American lady. She traveled from the United States to India at that time and met many of the disciples of Sri Ramak Krishna including Swami Ramakrishna and stayed with them and observed them and talked with them. So one day she was listening to the stories of the hard struggles that the Swami went through.
Yeah. And she she writes she felt very bad. She said felt why should such a saintly soul suffer? And she said I asked the swami why did you have to suffer so much? And the swami looked astonished. He said what of it?
My real life is eternal. Let the lord play with this little life as he will.
See the same same idea that this particular life is a tiny blip and also an appearance in the underlying life spiritual life our nature as consciousness which is perfectly all right right now.
So unaffected this is called assanga.
Your transcendent nature transcends the ups and downs the vicissitudes of this life. And that makes this life you're safe in this life itself in the midst of midst of all kinds of struggles and sorrows and that makes this life you know then you can use this life not to protect oneself but as in the service of the lord you let let him play with this little life as he will. We are running.
We are like uh you know we're running scared from lifetime to lifetime as as if we are being chased down and hunted down. You stop being scared. Stop being scared. Not being afraid. You know you cannot die. Vivant himself to Ingresol he says you know I I know I cannot die.
So there's no need to be afraid. I know I'm one with the universe. Imagine imagine the joy of living when you know you're one with the entire universe.
You're not in a hurry.
There's nothing here except you. There never will be. they cannot be.
So that's the next thing we realize when we wake up from a dream we realize in spite of seeing so many people so many places so many events none of them are separate from me I am the dreamer is nondual with respect to the dream the elements of the dream nondual with respect to the dream and all of this happens when we wake up from a dream we might just say I never noticed it swami well now let's we better notice it and then you apply it to our life our waking life and Say like that I am I awaken to my true nature my real nature as pure consciousness. I go [clears throat] from this to this and I look back settled in this grounded in this realization that I am awareness. Now you look back there is this beautiful footnote in the nectar of supreme knowledge which Riyad marajas translated in the sixth chapter atma praarana where it is a it is a um it's it's a quotation from a subcommentary on one of the toughest books of adwita vanta adwita siddhi there's a quotation from a chandria commentary there it says Being grounded in your nature as awareness.
Now look upon this world you will see they are all appearances of yourself and therefore you are called you the awareness are called s pure existence being grounded in this awareness in this consciousness I'm quoting from that commentary being grounded in this consciousness now look upon your life and you see you're ever fulfilled there's nothing that this consciousness you could ever want therefore you this consciousness you are called ananda bliss.
Being grounded is a subtle one. Being grounded in that consciousness that I am this consciousness. Now look upon all little little things you know all beings places all limited things in the universe places all limited beginning and end coming and going changing. Look upon them you will realize that's why you are called upper limitless you're limitless because all of them you are not limited you're not separate from all of them all those events are nothing but your appearances like a movie playing out on you this consciousness you are called aaricin limitless very beautiful sequence of it keeps telling you ground yourself in awareness basic idea is whenever we face any problem in life.
Take a step back. Do this. Ground yourself in awareness and look back upon the problem in life. You will get the deepest solution.
[clears throat] You'll have to deal with it. At the physical level, you have to deal with the problem. At the mental level, you have to come up with some solution. But at the deepest existential level, you will see you're fine.
You'll get a smile like Dina Morti.
who sees one's own self as this nondual reality to that morti who appears as the guru who teaches me this who is my own self who I am also to that one reality is this salutation is this bowing down this isam this salutation the philosopher Arindam chakraarti He has a way with words. He plays with words to bring out deep philosophical insights. So nama salutations. Now I do salutations going to the shrine. I the ja the individual being I bow down to the lord. Jvatma bow down bows down to paramatma. That makes sense. I bow down to the lord. I bow down to god. But how do I what does it mean when I say I bow down to myself. My real nature. What does it mean? So arunamab chakravati he plays on the word. He brings out two meanings, beautiful meanings. One meaning namaha. He goes back to the Vic roots of the word.
In the Vic times where the worship was a fire sacrifice where the priests accompanied by the chanting of mantras would offer oblations into the kindled sacrificial fire offering to the Vic deities and they would chant Indra.
And this is this is offered unto Indra the some deity. This is not mine. And the whole act of worship was understood as sacrifice.
I was reading in old Icelandic or something the word for God is is actually the word for sacrifice. Even the meaning of the word god is the deepest oldest roots are in sacrifice.
So sacrifice whatever is mine I offer it unto thee.
And then I need my disease to be cured and the lottery ticket to be I need something back. So that was the transactional idea. I'm praying I offer you this now do the thing for me which I want.
So that was the old old idea. I mean the not just old it's also pretty common today. So that's mass religion. But the crucial idea is the definition of worship as uh as the renunciation of an object ownership of an object. It's not mine.
And that nama not mine is compressed into nama. Not mine. Not mine. And therefore notice this. I am firmly settled like this. I am this body mind.
This personality I am servy. This guy, this orange guy. I am this is it. And now what do I do? These three clearly they do not belong to me. This body, this mind, the subtle body, the causal body, not mine. I offer it unto you, unto Brahman, unto God. Nama nama moment I do that I realize my own nature as limitless consciousness.
So the very act of nama to say that these three are not mine.
I offer these back these are the lords.
I offer these back onto you. It belongs to you anyway. Then I am set free from this. I into my limitless nature. I'm set free from the cage. This is the cage. I'm I'm in this cage. I'm set free from the cage. The moment I give this up and I naturally settle down, recede, become one with my real nature. Namaha.
This is one meaning of nama. Second one I'll mention is even more cute and then I'll end.
uh this he's quoting from a Kashmir Shiva philosopher Abhinavag Gupta where he the word used Shankar um professor Chakravati quotes Abhinavaga saying atma you see I salute the atman the self but he says look closely at that word nami ma means to measure ma means to measure the Sanskrit word ma means to measure What can be measured? Only the limited.
Only the limited. The world can be measured. Space can be measured. Time can be measured. Objects can be measured. The that which is limited can be measured and described. That becomes an object of empirical knowledge of science. But he says here the self cannot be measured. I do not measure the real self. No, mommy. I do not measure.
I do not limit the real self. This is limited. This after all after all this is limited. This body has a certain you know age and the mind has a certain characteristic is limited. But when I say atma I have to give up these three and I settle back into my limitless nature.
If you didn't quite somewhat look a little puzzled what?
So we have the Q&A so we can uh uh you can always ask about that these two meanings of the word how do you the whole question is how do I salute use salutations in non-duality when you are saying I am that what does salutation mean so two meanings according to professor chakravarti one is I let go my body mind identification then I become non-dual that's the meaning of salutation the other meaning is I do not limit myself to this body mind nature. So I become the limitless or I realize that I am the limitless. Both namaha or nama I do not measure or I let go. Both meanings.
[snorts] Om shanti shant shanti homatrishna namastu.
I pray to Sri Ramak Krishna, Mahasharada, Swami G and all the other great masters throughout the history of our um you know religions and spirituality to bless us that these insights may become living insights in this very life of ours. Thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you. We'll do we'll meet in the Q&A again I think.
Yes.
>> Uh >> please tell us your name and ask the question. Mahesh Anand and uh the question is you know all these exercise about consciousness the mirror and grit like that mathematician I want the equation.
>> Mhm.
And maybe you gave the answer towards the end in that you know real life you know that guy's flying business class I'm in the back maybe you gave the answer or he's also part of me or this is transitory uh this is for me today maybe I'll be there tomorrow uh so it's is it a mind game is that the equation >> uh no it is not when you Okay, we see all these tremendous differences in life. That guy is applying business class. I'm in economic class and there's a clear difference. I'm suffering. That guy is relaxing. [laughter] And uh and what they do is it's cruel. They'll show you all the fancy stuff that's coming out from the galley and they serve to them. And then if you think that the the lady's coming to you with the tray, but she stops exactly when the business class ends and goes back and [laughter] and then somebody else comes and tosses you. Here are your peanuts or whatever your your pretzels.
So there's a clear difference.
Um now what Vanta says is he's not part of me. It's not a mind game. It's not reframing. No, no, no. First take a look at what you mean by I.
What we did today is a little bit of an advanced vanta. Vanta really begins with I. We didn't do that today. It begins with an investigation of what do I mean by I before I go on to him and business class and economy before all of that what am I?
Unless I question that vanta will not begin for me.
So when I question that my first reaction would be I that's a no-brainer that's not a problem I am this body I'm this person after all I am Mahishand that's who I am and vanta asks you to question that and the way to question it they also give you the technique like a can opener to open a can they give you the technique the technique is this you clearly exist and you are aware and whatever you are aware of that you are not this is a I mean whole classes should be spent on on this precise this this precise can opener let's say um I'll repeat that you are aware what you are aware of you are not now clearly you are this you are not this building I'm I'm a mahand I'm not this building I'm sitting in this building but what about the body am I this body now if The that principle the can opener is correct. I am aware of the body. In that case I must admit the body is an object to me. All my senses objectify the body. I can see it. I can touch it. I can smell it. I can taste it. If my tummy is rumbling, I'm hungry.
I can hear it. All my senses objectify the body. It's an it, an object of awareness to me. Just as for example, this paper is an object of awareness. I don't say I am the paper, I am aware of it. Why do I say I am the body and I am aware of it. So I'm awareness and the body is one more object, a very important and intimate object, but it's still an object. If I am not the body, then what am I? As long as I don't even question who I am, I am quite obviously the body. And it's not a question I'm bothered about. I'm more bothered about the guy sitting in the business class.
But now when I say I am not the body, I am the awareness which is experiencing this body. Am I the mind? Am I the personality? Am I the thoughts? This person called Mahesan. Am I that one?
But then you apply awareness. Are you aware of your own thoughts? You said I can be. I can introspect. Are you aware of your own feelings? Yeah, of course.
Who else is aware of my feelings if I am not? If I'm aware of my feelings, if I'm aware of my thoughts, then I am not my thoughts or my feelings.
They are also objects to me. And in what sense are they mine? They are also objects to me. If I am that awareness which is not a body, not a mind, then I've gone from here to here.
Then I am awareness itself and everything else. Body, mind, business class, the other guy, they're all appearances in awareness.
Then from that perspective, I have to look back upon life.
How long is business class and economic class important to me? As long as I'm the guy Mahishan, if I'm awareness, the same awareness in all beings, then what difference does it really make if this guy is in business class and that guy is in economic class?
So my personal equations are removed from from that. That's the beginning of a dwita just an investigation. In this it is also common to say sananka and yoga and all of that that I am awareness and everything else is an object to me.
Adita goes further. Then we had these four uh conclusions which we drew throughout the talk today that awareness is the ground of reality. Awareness is real and world is an appearance.
Awareness is not affected by the appearances and awareness is non-dual with respect to the aware appearances.
Anyway, but the that's a good good segue into our discussion.
All of what I said makes sense only when you ground yourself as awareness. I will talk to you as awareness. If you talk as a body mind, I will try to force you from here to here.
We if we do this then you'll see most of the questions we ask the answers also we can figure out for ourselves. At least intellectually we can even if we don't feel it that way. All right. Who's next?
>> Yes. Tell us your name and ask the question. Pranam Swami my name is Harish Kumar >> um I I ask questions based on my life experiences so I'll be very >> the best way to learn ad >> our son has a dog and he comes and stays with us for a few days now and then I take him out for a walk >> yes >> he's happy running around chases butterflies he does his thing I clean up then he sees the other dog he's all ferocious I had to hold him and say Hey, it's okay. Sit, etc. Then I come home and then he's all happy. So what did I learn from that? I asked myself a question. Perhaps I need a leash for my mind >> without which everything that I hear in Vanta and other things stays in the mind but gets kicked out like a football. So my question for you Swami is do I need a leash? How do I get it?
>> The leash is is a very good example.
The mind is exactly like the dog happy chasing butterflies and then sees something threatening and becomes all know growling and showing bearing its teeth and then again happy and relaxed.
So uh leash for the mind is a very good idea. Now if I have a I have to put my mind on a leash then what am I then I'm not the mind just as I'm not the dog on the leash I'm not it I'm not the mind either which is such a big thing to claim that means I am not the thoughts I'm not the emotions I'm not the memories I am not the projects and desires I am not my complaints I am not um um you know my pleasure and pain I am not my um my you know my list of demands for Christmas shopping none of them I am they're all objects to me then what am I I am awareness itself now how do I get the leash um three things imagine this body mind consciousness this whole thing being like a chariot this is an what is SUV today is an example given in the kato punishad at three levels So it says imagine the horses our senses being like the horses.
Imagine the reins with which the horses are controlled. Our mind is like that.
Imagine the driver of the chariot. You are not the driver. Very interesting.
The driver is the intellect. The driver of the chariot is the intellect. And you your consciousness. What are you? You're the passenger in this chariot. You're the passenger in this chariot. Normally we don't think like that. We think we are sometimes we think we are the chariots, we are the horses or if we are a little reflective I am the driver of this personality but vanta says none of that even the driver is is an object is is the you're not the driver you're the witness consciousness the now what do you need to do as far as consciousness is is concerned we need not do anything we cannot do anything but there are three things to be done at the level of the senses mind and int intellect at the level of the senses. Training of the senses is very necessary. Vanta says it's like Katoishad says like the horses are well trained then the uh chariot the passenger will reach the destination.
Self-realization. If the horses are not well trained you're going to crash.
>> So the well-trained horses basically boils down to an ethical life. The horse says the senses should go where it's moral to go, necessary to go, should not go where it is immoral to go, unnecessary to go. Whatever the direction I have to take in my spiritual life, the horses have to go there. The senses have to be engaged. The five senses of knowledge, the five senses of action, our life has to be engaged in spiritual life, in spiritual cultivation, in service, in meditation, in prayer, all of these. So basically a disciplined moral spiritual life. Step one. Step two, horses may be well trained, but if the reins with which you hold the horses are loose, they will not be responsive. You will not your commands will not the driver's commands will not go to the horses. It's like you're driving the SUV is fine, but the the steering wheel comes loose in your hand. Whatever you do, it doesn't translate into the you'll crash. So, at the level of the mind, the katoishad recommends, you'll be surprised.
thousands and thousands of years ago.
Samanaskka, which is an exact Sanskrit word for what we call mindfulness today.
Samaska literally means mindful, attention, focus, concentration, mindfulness. The mind has to be alert to be mindful, not perpetually distracted.
All knowledge will be lost. All training will be lost if the mind is not mindful, not alert. If it's continuously scattered.
So mindfulness at the level of the mind.
Third, the driver. What does the driver need? Says the driver buddhi sarati the driver needs to be well informed.
So this vantic understanding which we are talking about the intellect should be infused with that with vantic understanding. What is the understanding? My real nature. What is beyond the intellect pure consciousness that uh is everything is it is aware of everything but it is not the intellect.
Not the mind, not the senses, not the body, not the external world. I am awareness. That understanding should be there in the intellect of my real nature. So the wellinformed in Sanskrit kato says vigan in well grounded in vanta. The the intellect is not confused. It doesn't think I am the body mind. No, I am awareness.
Whatever appears to me, I am not that.
That is the information at the level of the intellect. well-informed intellect, mindful, the mind is mindful and the senses are on the right path that which takes us towards our goal. Then the chariot reaches the goal which is realization of what you already are that is pure consciousness.
So that's how you get the leash. A very good question though. The whole of spiritual life is encompassed in that ethical life, mindfulness and vantic knowledge.
>> Question on this side.
>> Yes. Hey Swami U, my name is Susan Canal. I'm from Nepal originally and um I have a deep interest in tantra and the similarities and differences between advant and tantra.
>> So is supreme consciousness uh intentional? You know what I mean by that is you can still train your three senses and sometimes when I'm listening to these lectures um on both sides of the equation it feels like things might go good for you like there's an so you've trained all your senses it could still be very um things can still end up being very negative in this scrat body for you in that sense so I'm just curious about whether what um if you think there's an intentionality to the supreme consciousness What do you mean by intentional? Do you mean it in the philosophical sense? In the philosophical sense, intentionality means consciousness is about something or do you mean it in our common sense in the way that supreme consciousness has an intention, has a motive? Do you mean it in that sense?
>> Oh yeah. I think I think I mean I guess in both in in both of those ways. Um uh because for it to be ascribed if if you're saying okay I'm if you're saying sorry if you're saying okay um is the point only awareness I guess if if if I should ask it that way because you can still be aware of things and and things can still be horrible to you in this in this material body. Yeah >> let me start with that the tail end of the question. You can still be aware of things and still can things can be still be horrible to you. The moment you say things are horrible to me, what does that mean?
Is it awareness?
Can anything be no matter what is happening in the city in the mirror, can it be horrible to the mirror?
No. Why not? Remember the four conclusions we drew. The four conclusions we drew. Number one, the mirror is the ground, the foundation of the city in the mirror. Number two, the mirror is the reality, city is an appearance. Number three, the appearance cannot affect the reality.
If the appearance cannot affect the reality, how can something be horrible to you? The awareness and you say that something can be horrible to me as the body.
>> That's true. That's true. But you are not the body.
So in the that is the beauty of it. When Sri Ramak Krishna is asked that uh how are you feeling today terminal throat cancer a horrible thing it's a doctor was telling me that it's one of the most worst kinds of cancer you cannot eat it is painful you cannot swallow we we don't realize how much we are swallowing our own saliva so the saliva continuously droos out of your mouth because you can't swallow and he was asked how are you feeling today how are you today and he says it hurts and I cannot eat and this person hurry who asked him he said but I see sir you're in great delight and Sri Ramak Krishna strangely accepted that he said oh the rascal has found me out now are things now let me put it in terms of your question are things horrible in terms of the body yes they are it's terminal progressive fatal cancer and it's going to kill him the body will die very soon within few months of that so it's horrible at the level of the body but at what point at what level does Sri Ramach Krishna say I am in great blur bliss he agrees with that how are they equal is it true that it's equally horrible and I'm also equally in great bliss that doesn't seem quite right from a certain perspective it's horrible it's painful he was not pretending when he said I can't eat it hurts he's not pretending but there is a deeper truth not a equal truth a deeper truth that yes it's all right as pure consciousness I'm fine another time when somebody said we I want you to eat with this mouth. He says, I can't I can't ask the divine mother for that because I'm eating. The divine mother shows me I'm eating through all these mouths.
Now to say that no, I must eat through this mouth to this body. I'm again reaffirming the I'm putting the pure consciousness back in the cage. I'm going from here to here again.
I can't be very honest from this perspective to say I must eat through this mouth, this one.
Um now let me go back to your deeper philosophical aspect of your question Adita and Kashmir shism or tantra one good book is there's one book by Jay Singh he gave a talk in the institute of culture in Kolkata uh where he talks about adwita and kashmir shyana the tricka system and and I think notes about 18 or 20 points of difference there so there are many many differences many many differences between them But specifically with regard to your question is consciousness intentional first in the sense is it about something consciousness pure consciousness chit or Brahman in adic sense is non-intentional it's not about anything it is the reality and it's only consciousness reflected in and channeled through the mind and the senses and the intellect which is about something.
All our thoughts are about something our feelings are about something. Our understanding is of something. Our concepts are about something. They're intentional in the philosophical sense.
And they also have an intention in the ordinary English sense. We have a purpose, a goal. But that's also at the level of the mind and the intellect.
Notice when the mind and the intellect are shut down in deep sleep. What happens to your intentions? Gone. What happens to witness consciousness? Pure consciousness. As always, no effect at all. So this is the clear distinction.
But from an adic perspective. So all intentionality adita will put at the level of the transactional theahar appearance not so tantra. However, from a tantric perspective, pure consciousness, non-intentional is admitted. But intentionality of consciousness is also pure is also real.
Consciousness at the highest level is also intentional.
And uh it manifests and so it is about this entire universe while retaining its non-intentional pure nature. You can call it the divine mother, you can call it Shiva, you can call it Shiva Shaki, whatever you want to call it. And the intentionality of consciousness is not relegated to the level of appearance.
It's also real.
It's and the ultimate reality also has an intentional side to it. If if I may put it in this way in Kashmir shism this is the ultimate reality is not non-intentional pure consciousness as in adita vanta but it is praasha consciousness which is pure light pure awareness but also intentional also aware of itself in a kind of self-reflective uh way we'll leave it at that these are very profound and I always think there is truth on all sides logically impossible to reconcile But it's not necessary. It has to be logical.
Yeah.
>> Yes.
>> Pranam Swami G. My name is Lakshmi.
First of all, thank you so much for coming here. Swami G. My question is um how do I practice this philosophy? You explained that I am pure consciousness and pure awareness. All these experiences that I have in my daily life is just a projection in my or a reflection in my consciousness. us on a daily life like we we we drawn so many hats as a wife, as a mother, as a boss and we go through so many challenging situations. Now while I understand philosophically when a trial or when a challenging situation happens, everything goes out of the window and we react and outburst and lot of decisions we make at the spur of the moment. My question is how do I practice and how do I dwell in this awareness 24/7? So just for success in life and be remain unaffected by any of it that is happening in my life.
>> It would be very interesting. We can write a whole book on that question [laughter] if I if I were to parse your question. So first of all straight away how do I practice this answer? You can't.
It's like no I'm being serious and we'll go deeper into this and I'll show you how you can practice it uh at three level at three levels. The first level is you can't practice it.
Anything that you practice is artificial.
This is the only thing that is not artificial.
For example, if I ask you how do you practice being Lakshmi? You say what a silly question Swami.
But it's very important to you. You are Laxshmi. Don't you devote hours and hours of practice to being Laxshmi?
Morning meditation, Laxshmi meditation, evening Laxmi meditation, repetition of the Lakshmi mantra. Yeah. And reading the Lakshmi upanishad.
You said no Swami, it's natural to me. I don't need to. I don't even need to practice.
I don't need to do anything about it. If anything, it's that's the source of the problem. Laxmi is the problem.
I don't need more laxby in my life.
So now what we are talking about our nature as awareness is exactly like that more.
So even the Lakshmi identity is an assumed identity. The name was given by your parents and we got used to it and that's how you be you respond to Laxshmi and a personality was developed over one if not many lifetimes but our nature as pure consciousness is already a given you cannot do any anything to it practice will change it no practice is needed to change it what is needed is to discover it must become like Lakshmi so that no practice becomes effortless how if I notice your question How am I? How how can I remain in that awareness 24/7? Let me ask you, how do you remain as Laxshmi 24/7?
>> Effortlessly.
>> Effortlessly you don't even think twice about it. How much energy do you put into it? How much practice? How much discipline? Nothing.
And you are already that. This choiceless awareness, this effortless awareness, this very natural awareness, we already are that. The problem is not to how do I remain in that. It's that why do I think I am not that? I'm quite clear. I feel obviously I'm not that Swami. I am Laxshmi and I have many problems and what you're describing seems very different from what I am.
Vanta says you are that except that for some reason we don't think we are that.
And there are many things which appear to you the consciousness which we have latched onto a mind, a personality, certain ideas, certain feelings, a story and a body. I've latched on to it and think I am this. What we need to do is go from here to here.
And how do you do that? Use this simple equation. What I am aware of that I am not.
This tendency in my mind I have this negativities. Are you aware of it? Of course they trouble me. If you're aware of it, I am not that.
You are you are not those negative tendencies. They are not even yours.
They are appearances to you. One sadu put it so beautifully. He says how what how many things will you change? He says early in the morning in your cottage in the Himalayas ray of sunlight comes the first ray of sunlight. He says millions of particles of dust float around in that in limitless consciousness. Millions and billions of minds and personalities are floating around. How many will you change?
How many will you polish?
First and foremost, realize that what we truly are. Realize that first. The project of improvement, improved Lakshmi, Laxmi plus that will happen.
No, no, it will happen because that's why you are here and that's why we are we're trying all these things now. We are all doing that improving the personality. Yes, that will happen and that can happen to a great extent to the level of becoming a saint, to the level of becoming a Buddha, to the level of becoming a jan mukta. But we are not talking about that here. We're talking about something much greater. Not about one personality. What we talking about exceeds all the jantas, all the Buddhas, all the avataras. It exceeds even God.
It's the real nature of all these this god and avataras and buddhas and jan muktas and our real nature also we're talking about that and so that you realize by that simple proc process you can apply it anytime now anything that I'm aware of that I am not whatever I'm aware of that I'm not then you deal with it and what am I then I'm awareness only I am I shine What do I practice? So this is the first answer. How do I practice this? This is the first three levels of answer. Second level, yes, you can practice. How?
Always keep it real. I like this saying that Americans have keep it real.
Always keep it real.
Sadhu put it this way. How do you practice adita? He says when you ask I love this. When you ask a little kid, what's a nose? The kid will not say a nose is the organ of the alfactory organ and the organ of respiration. No, the kid will say is a nose.
So use it like that. When I say what's a body this what's the mind that what's awareness?
So keep it real just like this is a nose instead of giving a a thought. There's a saying do your words come from more words or do they come from silence?
Don't trade words for words. How do you practice adwita? Don't trade words for words. Don't go for looking for definitions of Brahman, atma, pure consciousness. No, no, you are it. Why do you have to have look for look in a book?
All the books put together that will not reveal even a fraction of what is inside. What what you truly are? So I am that. Have confidence in yourself.
I am that. I am Brahman.
So that's the second level of practice.
Keep it real that I am Laxshmi. Is it real to you? Is it real to you right now that you are Laxmi? Yes. Yes. It's it's real. It's real. Keep it real like that. This body it's real. Yes. Mind it's real.
Consciousness.
It's real. It's real. I was giving a talk in our ashram in Narendraur in Kolkata. and vidanta and all of this punch kosha vijara and all of that and then this lady indignantly in the question answered first she's charged across from the audience to the microphone and said all this is nice but it's all theoretical I said madam not one word of adant is theoretical you're standing here and asking me a question are you theoretical or are you real she said I'm real this body is real or theoretical is it real and then the breath flowing through your nose into your lungs is That breath real or theoretical? It is real. Then go more subtle. The thoughts in your mind, the question you're asking, those are thoughts. Those are there. Is it a fact or is it some theory? It's a fact. Just like that. As you go further and further, subtler and subtler and more and more inward, you will discover consciousness is the greatest reality that that there is. In fact, all reality depends upon the testimony of consciousness.
Consciousness testifies to what is real.
So that is the second level of practice.
Keep it real. No.
Third level of practice. I'm becoming more and more practical. Quote unquote from a vantic perspective. More and more unnecessary and theoretical. But I'm becoming practical. The third level of practice. Stay with the teachings. Read the Gita the oponyishads. Listen to the talks on Vanta. Think about it. Think about it. What are they saying? Because what the beauty of adita they're saying something which is true right now and they're claiming all of it is available to us right now right now it's available to us when we become enlightened we will see my god why didn't I see this it is always there and it's equally there for everybody and the strange thing about it is call it maya or ignorance or whatever we don't see it and then we go around our lives being Lakshmi so you see it you think about it and if once once you have heard the teachings and you have thought about it. Clarity you get then you meditate upon it. There are so many techniques of nondual meditation. Then it will become real.
Then the real practice begins. What is the real practice? Live life as Laxshmi.
Now after that realization this will be a janta lakshmi or a laxmi who's trying to be jan mukta equipped with that knowledge. I am awareness shining in this body mind as Lakshmi. Then you'll see. So three levels you cannot practice you are it.
Second keep it real.
Third shana manidyasan listen think reflect upon it meditate upon it. Yeah listen somehow neglecting. Don't you guys have lobbyists?
You have to pay them something.
>> I'm pranam swami g.
>> Yes. I'm Oscar and um I was wondering if you could clarify the difference between the ego, the subtle body, the self and the atman.
>> All right, I'll just for those of you who might have similar questions, we're throwing around so many terms, you know, and this is all real. It's already a fact. Body is there, mind is there, ego is there, who all of us, we experience it. But it helps to have clear definitions. So there's a book called Vedantasara.
It's a manual of definitions. It's a dry little volume, but I used to teach it in the training center. It's good to have a set of definitions at your disposal.
Not that you have to be limited by it, but at least have a common language to talk about when you talk about ego, mind, body, subtle body, causal, but what are they? They are very precisely defined there. For example, when you ask what is an ego and what? So physical body we have no question we know what is the physical body what is called the subtle body is what is available to us in first person experience see the doctor can examine the physical body that's available publicly this one but what I'm thinking what I'm feeling even pain don't doctors nowadays ask on a scale of 0 to 10 how much pain are you feeling they should know why aren't they can do some pathological tests and you know they can scan what is the firing of your what is the C fibers I think for pain yeah in the neurons the C fibers how much firing of is going on there and then I can tell you how much pain you are in no pain is a first person experience I have to ask you the doctor has to ask me so why pain pleasure um emotion memory understanding these are all in the subtle body there is something called the antarana inner instrument and it has four functions One is the mind manus. Another one is the intellect Buddhi. Another one is the memory chitta. And another one is the ego aankara. What are the definitions?
The mind processes information. The five senses bring in information from the outside world and dump it into the mind.
It's like a CPU. It processes information. That there's a definitional mind is that which processes the information, considers various alternatives. You know, you're working at a math problem, you're struggling with it. That's the mind. The same thing, it's the mind. But when you make a breakthrough, I get it. I know the answer to it. Now, when the knowledge arises, when the processing is resolved, this is what it is. This kind of knowledge that is called buddhi, intellect, the determinative faculty of the inner instrument is intellect. memory that which recovers old traces. Experiences leave traces on our minds. So those traces are still there. If you recover them, it's a me it's a retrieval system.
Uh that is called memory. Um this smiti and finally a question ego it is called ego is the appropriative function of the mind uh of the inner instrument. What do you mean appropriative function? Pretty simple. A lot of things are going on here. I'm breathing. I'm talking. I'm thinking. I'm listening. Notice these are all very different s systems.
There's a respiratory system breathing.
There is a vocal system talking. There is a memory which is I'm I'm understanding, remembering. There is an audiary system. I'm listening. But notice what did I add with all of them?
I I I am talking. I am breathing. I am listening. I am hearing. I I am thinking. So this I what does it do?
It's an appropriate it it connects it.
It owns all the activities going on in this body and mind and unites it into one person. That's what the ego does. I am it's a function. Ego has no reality apart from that function of the mind.
Sometimes it stops. If you're very absorbed in a task, if you're listening to music, if you're studying, if you're playing a game with great concentration, the ego will disappear for a moment.
It's just a function of the mind. But a very vital function of the mind. It integrates whatever is going on in the body mind into a it's what makes you a person. But it's not you. It's not you.
It's just something that the mind does.
It's like a shorthand for the mind. But we identify with the ego and becomes all about the ego. Then so this is one function. So like this all of them are uh defined. You ask your question was what is the ego and what's the subtle body? The subtle body is all of these.
The ego is one of the functions of the subtle body but consciousness is apart from all of them illumining all of them giving them existence and uh awareness.
Yeah. And vanta says the first step to be vantic is to realize I am consciousness. You have the ego that deploy the ego, deploy the mind, deploy the intellect, deploy the memory, deploy the physical body. Use all of them like a vehicle for example. But you are awareness. You're neither the body nor the mind nor a function of the mind called the ego.
The first line of shank is very interesting.
The Sanskrit how interesting if you translate it, it literally means I am not I. Flat out contradictory. I am not I. How can I be not I? But then what am I? I am the witness of the eye. The ahankar is literally if you translate is the eye maker or the eye constructor. I'm the witness of that eye constructor.
Ahankar.
>> Hey there. How can I help?
Yes.
Tell us your name and ask the question.
>> Yeah. Swami, my name is Chandan and uh I have a more fundamental question. I think it's also a definition based question. Uh so as we read and understand more about different vantic viewpoints or different schools of vanta we see that many schools differ with advita in terms of what is real and unreal.
>> Mhm. So when we say real what do we really mean by it right so what is the definition and are all these schools accepting on the same definition of reality and unreality uh these things also yeah follow up would be like if we say something in real advita actually establishes that if something changes if it is permanent it is real changes unreal right these sort of definitions so are all these schools accepting to uh these particular definitions It's a good question. When we have these debates about what is real, what is unreal, world is real or unreal, Brahman is real. What do you mean by real? At one point we'll a philosophical trained person will immediately ask this question. What do you mean by real?
Define real before we go into this debate any any further. And even if you're not philosophically trained, after we spend some time talking about these things, thinking about it, we will be forced to dis what am I talking about? What is re what do you mean by real? So we'll be forced to define real and it's a whole whole debate. It's been going on for millennia actually between for example between the earliest debates when the opanishads themselves reality alone existence alone existed before all this appeared non-reality was before all this was but how can some reality come out of non-reality that debate goes back to the opanishians and then the next level of the debate it came in the post upanishadic age when the rise of the philosophical systems there was a thousand-year debate on what is real between on one hand the Hindu schools and on the other hand the Buddhist schools and the China school a huge huge debate so what is real how do you define reality and each of the schools came up with its own definition of reality very interesting so for example this will make it clear a little light on the subject And then the next level of the debate was after the Buddhists faded away from India. The debate was between inside um the Indian the Hindu schools especially between Adwita and the dualistic schools.
Um so let me give an example of what I mean and then we'll see what is meant by reality.
The Buddhists they define reality as practical efficacy. If it works it's real. What it means by that is suppose I go water in a mirage.
Favorite example of Adwitans Shankara also uses it. Buddhists say no that's not real water at all because when you go and try to drink that water you will see you can't drink it. So it's not real water at all. If I could drink it and it could quench my thirst then it's real.
If it works as it is expected to work as it is defined to work in Sanskrit.
Practical efficacy is reality. This by the way the modern American school maybe the one original school of American philosophy pragmatism.
Dwey and Pierce Pierce. Yes. Their definition of reality was somewhat similar. I mean sort of oversimplified as a cash value philosophy, a dollar philosophy. What's it worth? How does it work or not? But yes, very important.
And in fact, Dwi's entire uh theory of education was based on this pragmatism.
Modern American school education was influenced by this idea. So anyway, work does it work?
Does it function as defined or does it fail at some point? Now what does the adin say to this? The adin says ah so um work if it works then it's real. Yep. So suppose you drink a glass of water and you quench it, it it feels wet and cold and quenches your thirst. Would you say it's real? Yeah.
And the next moment you wake up and you will realize you were dreaming the whole thing then you have to say that yes it worked. It looked like water. I called it water. It felt like water. It quenched my thirst.
Worked like water. Fulfilled all.
Checked all the boxes. But the next moment there was a waking up. There was a correction. It's not water. I was dreaming. The whole thing was a dream.
Now I'm woken up.
So then the Buddhist says, "Okay, wise guy, what's your definition of reality?"
Because now you have to set aside this definition.
There are, how do you set aside a definition? It's the Nayakas, the Naya school of logic, they set the parameters of the debate. So there are um three qualities of a definition you must fulfill. Um three problems. I abti and asam bhavana.
So the definition must not extend to something which is not being defined. So for example your definition that reality is workability. It extended to dream water also which is not real obviously.
So definition fails there. So therefore then the Buddhist now hits back. Okay wise guy. What's your definition?
Ad the challenge the ball is in my court. I have shown your definition doesn't work. Now you then you must you ask me okay tell me what's what's your definition of reality the says that which cannot be corrected >> is real very interesting way of putting it that which cannot be negated which cannot be corrected you can never ever have a cognition of the form oh it's not water I was dreaming oh it's not a snake it's a rope that correction that should not be possible and if you see the only thing which can which satisfies this criteria because somebody might ask how does that help me because something I might take it to be real it could be the matrix mo movie next moment I might see it's not real thousand years later I might see it's not real I might never wake up from the the simulation and I might so I might never ever correct it how do I know whether something will be one day corrected or not one day negated or not one day canceled or How will I know? So technically the answer is there's only one thing which is logically impossible to negate. What is that? It's consciousness.
Think about it. How would you correct consciousness?
How would you ever say oh consciousness is not consciousness is something else that requires consciousness.
The only uncorrectable by logic you can call it existence also.
When you say this is not existence, existence is not real. What does it require? Existence or more correctly more even more precise consciousness because in vanta existence consciousness they take it to be the same thing being awareness. So this was this is an example of the debate where um definitions matter very much. The new book reality plus by David Chamas. So there he talks about what he talks about virtual reality and reality. In one chapter he gives five definitions of reality including this correctability definition. Multiple definitions of reality is given. Um so you must have a definition and if you notice if you follow these debates closely you will see each school has defined reality in a way which will prove their own position and they don't share their definitions.
But that does not mean you cannot arrive at a at a conclusion. You can arrive at a conclusion. uh you must see what definition finally is uh emergent and um you can't go beyond that others and it does not mean that the others are useless for example as I said pragmatic definition of you of reality is useful in so many areas of uh life um then came the next last point I'll make after the Buddhists faded away then came the huge debate between the adwightins on one hand and on the other hand the Vishadins and particularly the Madwa school huge debate the Madwa school you know the book which I quoted a commentary of that I quoted earlier it starts with the first sentence of that book is what is this falsity which you're trying to prove is it this is it that five definitions of falsity and then they cut down each definition then comes and defi defends each of those definitions shows all of them are correct Yeah. What is a falsity?
So yeah, so these are the these are the debates. It's a huge debate. But you have asked a very important question when you talk about Brahman real world real or false. What is reality?
>> Yes.
>> First thank you so much Swami G for all of your lectures on YouTube and for being here. It's very inspiring. Um and you just answered the question about the subtle body and my question is uh can you please explain what is the causal body?
>> Yeah. Again a vantasara question you can just go go to the vdantaasara the definitions are given there the causal body is called um ignorance is called avidya if you want practically show me I can show you the physical body that's the physical body look inside I can't show you the subtle body but all of us are each of us is aware of the subtle body within our sense so I know okay that's the subtle body if you're trying to keep it real you know what's the nose like that here is the physical body here is the subtle body now what's the causal body What does it feel like? Um the best the closest we can get to the causal body is our deep sleep experience. It is the anandaya the anandaya kosha. Five levels of our being physical, vital, mental, intellectual and causal or the bliss sheet. So that is regarded as the causal body in uh openish and in in vdanta also we can parse this physical body mind in into three parts or five parts. three parts. Physical body, subtle body, causal body, tula, five parts. Anamaya, the food sheet, pranamaya, the vital sheet, manaya, the mental sheath. Sheath I'm adding later, but just the mental let us say the intellectual and anandaya, the bliss or the causal.
So simple straight answer. What does it feel like to be in deep sleep? That's the causal body seed state let us say.
Yes. Should we wrap up now?
>> The last question then. Yes, >> you have the last word.
>> I know. I know. Uh my name is Vani Roach Chadhuri. Inside the mirror, I pretend to be a professor. So, uh I tell my students that do show up in lectures.
Don't just watch Zoom.
>> Yes.
>> Because live lectures are lot lot more than just video recording. So, same to you. I know there's a YouTube university and we can listen to you on YouTube and read your writings but I thought I would ask a question uh that you have answered and see one of the problems of a very good teacher is you represent this thousand of years of arguments. So when I listen to you, everything seems so simple but clearly I was talking to my therapist and I was trying to I was trying to explain to him uh the awareness you know and so I said oh I'm aware of things and all that. So he goes, "Oh yeah, that's the observing ego in our language." Right? So anyway, so I thought I would listen to you say in few words, uh, the big elephant in the room, Buddha. So if Buddha was here in the lecture, uh, what would you say >> about everything? For example, >> I wouldn't dare to say anything to the Buddha. [laughter] Now for example I know you were defining something that everybody said is beyond logic and beyond something right so um just wanted to get your live interpretation of sun shuna versus the pa and not ascribing a word to it versus saying in parlance that you are that >> yes first thing about live lectures I remember uh there's one professor of philosophy at Harvard University, Goldfarb. Um I forget the whole name.
>> Daniel, >> no.
>> Joshua, >> no. Goldfarb. Um he is an expert on Vidgenstein, a leading authority on Vidgenstein. And he's the senior most professor in philosophy department in in at Harvard and he's been there at Harvard for 50 years as a graduate student to now being a professor.
Now he always says this all the professors are you know they have their web pages. I don't know what is it called Crimson Carton. You know, all universities are like that now. It's all online and you've got the assignments and the quizzes and the discussion boards all online. His is uh blissfully empty. [laughter] Something is there but not much and hardly anything up to date.
What he says is come to class, come sit here, look at me, listen to me carefully. And these are very subtle matters. These will become clearer the more you sit quietly and listen and watch attentively. things will click fall into place. Um, >> yeah, even Siri is getting uh impatient.
[laughter] All right, let me just end with this.
The Buddha and emptiness, you know, when I'll take off from where I ended there, the deep sleep experience, the blankness and consciousness is the witness of deep sleep. That's what the vantist would say. Nagarjuna post Buddha would say that's just your construct. In waking state I am the subject. This is the object. In deep in dreams I am a subject and there is an object, a dream world.
In deep sleep it's it's useless to say that you are the witness consciousness and you are witnessing darkness. No, it's just a post waking up reconstruction of what went on there.
There is no subject, there's no object.
The subject and object rise and fall together. They use a uh an example which vantis will never use. Chandra kiti uses them. Two bales of hay leaning against each other. If you remove one bail, the other bail also will fall. So subject and object are like that. You notice in your own be true to your own experience.
They would say to us, be honest. Be true to your own experience. In waking and dreaming, there is subject and object.
In deep sleep, no object, no subject.
So both subject and object are therefore empty.
Fine that emptiness vanta would say I I remember Baron Babu who was a vant a philosophy professor in India who used to teach us western philosophy he was a great ad a disciple of a nand gi when I gave him this argument emptiness means just nothing and he had he was a short man big eyes he said ah but nothing to what is that he explained is that nothing an experienced nothing or a nonexper experiencable nothing. If it's a non-experiencable and uh nothing, why talk about it? If it is an experiencable nothing, then to what or by what is that nothing experienced? That would be the vantic counter move to to that. Um Buddha there Nagarajun also here there's a big question. I'll leave you with this.
There's a big question. What what does shunada what does Nagaraj Juna Chandrait the Buddha himself what would they have said to this there two answers one is uh professor Garfield J Garfield he says that keep your ad out of this swami he said to me that's literally what he said to me he said in emptiness in shunyadada in madhyamaaka if you feel that you're falling into a bottomless well you've understood it that's what's called anti-foundationalism Any conceptual structure you set up, we cut it down. Yeah, it's not non-conceptual, pure consciousness, they'll say, "Sh, don't talk about it."
The moment you talk about it, what you say is false.
And the other answer is I subscribe to that. We are basically talking about the same thing. Just the way they're doing it is very different. I did a very good course on um emptiness on Madhya Buddhism, Indotibetian Madhya under a leading world scholar professor Garfield and at the end of it my view was modified not changed I realized how different they are the Adwita and the Madhya their approaches are really different but I'm not convinced that their conclusions are different we leave it at that it's a very emptiness way of leaving it thank you so much thank >> [applause] >> So thank thanks to yeah thanks to our wonderful exposition of sunnuro and it's all same and really really we are so many ways we are enriched our mind our intellect gets saturated with this noble thought. Thank you Swami for coming and enlightening us. Now um we tomorrow tomorrow Swami will leave in the morning so there is not much scope for this time for further uh class or lecture or anything but we expect that he will come again and give us such joy. intellectual food, physical food, you will get it here now [laughter] but mental food, intellectual food and spiritual food. That's a wonderful gift for all of us. Thank you all for coming.
So we'll go out now and the food is ready but the chanting let us do it here itself because all Brahman know that that we can do it in the shrine also not near the food.
Okay. So The way Brahma Brahma Avatarish Rama Krishna Riyad Swami Svani Maharaj other Rivierad monks and nuns and dear friends it's a delight to be back here again.
Uh I was on my way back to New York but uh then I thought I have this weekend and why not go to Hollywood.
Yes. And here I am just yesterday day for yesterday. I was at the Grand Canyon and sightseeing my first time in my life and uh yes and uh we were also shown a wonderful IMAX movie on the Grand Canyon. Um now I was just wondering standing there in that vast extraordinary creation of nature more than 200 miles and then wide more than 10 miles or so something like that. um [clears throat] extraordinary and we are reading that uh we we saw in that IMAX movie um there multiple tribes of Indians who lived there for more than 4,000 years and there was a nice depiction of their lives various uh uh different tribes at different times different kinds of lives and I was just thinking over in that extraordinary landscape for 4,000 years before us. So many generations, so many people, families and mothers and fathers and children and grandchildren, lives of struggle and sorrow and laughter and thought. And that place is also what's called a dark sky park. And the Sedona, the city near it is also a dark sky city. It's a very nice concept because of the high desert air. The night sky is especially spectacular there. I saw a little bit of it, not as much as you would expect if you actually stay in uh you know the Grand Canyon or in Sedona.
Some of the famous observatories are there. The loyal observatory is there.
Um, and imagine thousands of years ago these uh Indians who lived there on the the cliffs and the rocky faces of the Grand Canyon staring
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