The Atman (individual soul) is the universal consciousness that pervades all existence, illuminates everything, and destroys the darkness of ignorance; it is independent of time, space, and dualities like heat and cold, and is the source of eternal happiness and immortality.
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Self-Knowledge (Atmabodha) Part 41 with Swami SatyamayanandaAdded:
Shut all shankar locarum.
M I salute Bhagavatpa the shankarachara who is a repository of the shrutis the smitis and the piranhas who is the benefactor of the world and who is compassionate.
Uh this is the last class in this series of self-nowledge atma. With this class we complete this text of Shankarachara and we go to another text of course. But um before we can proceed, I would spend a few minutes talking about Bhagavan Buddha because today is his birthday. It's also called thrice blessed day because he was born on this day the full moon. The Buddha purima purima is a full moon. So he was born on that day.
He was al he also attained enlightenment nirvana on this day and he also gave up his body on this particular day. So that's why it's called a thrice blessed day.
And Swami Vandanda says the greatest man that was ever born.
He never did anything for himself.
Did everything for the world.
And he was born in a place called Lumbini which is now in Nepal, northern India.
more than about 500 years before Jesus Christ and he as Swami Vna says he worked out the the love side of Vanta.
Shankarachara worked out the intellectual side of Vanta.
What we need today, Swami Vikandanda says, is a combination of both the head and the heart.
And if you can do that, it'll be there for all times to come.
That he had a great loving heart that wept for the suffering. Not only weeping, we also feel sad when we feel people suffer. He wanted to find out the solution of suffering and how to get out of it.
And his whole doctrine, his whole philosophy was towards this how to end suffering briefly. It is to attain nirvana.
Yes.
If you get attain nirvana, you end suffering.
So called Nirvana is called he was born Gautama Buddha Gautama Siddharta Siddharta [snorts] one who has attained his aim in the clan of Gautama and then that name sticks. Your clan name sticks. He was a prince in what is called Capilawatu.
His father was Sudhodana and his mother was Maya Davi.
So his religion as I said spread all over. It was the first missionary religion and the missionaries were the monks and the lay people also.
and they spread his teachings just through the force of their spirituality and their morality.
It changed the world and still there his power is still working in this world.
So it is a a great day 2,500 years and he's still alive in a way. Here he is, there he is, he's everywhere.
to come back to the verses verse 67.
The atman which is the son of knowledge rises in the firmament of the heart and destroys the darkness.
And he's explaining the pervader of all and the sustainer of all it that is atman illumines all and also itself.
Now here we have the it's a very common theme to show like the sun that rises and dispels all darkness.
So the atman is like the son of knowledge and [snorts] it dispels darkness. Where where does the son of knowledge the atman rises in the firmament of the heart as they say firmament that's an old uh word it translated it's called akash it is better to use word sky or space now in the space of the heart rises the sun of knowledge dispelling the darkness of ignorance Oh, then what's the sun? What's the sun like? What's atman like? This is what the pervader of all. It pervades everything. Uh only human beings. No, it pervades everything.
We have a tendency to think in terms of uh human beings only because we are human beings.
Uh but it pervades even the smallest the visible and the invisible. It pervades that which is smaller than the smallest and the greater than the greatest. It pervades everything.
And what is that? And is the sustainer of all.
So the sun of knowledge which rises in the space of the heart.
What is the heart?
Uh that's another old word that has been used.
It's called the intellect, the buddhi or intelligence.
In the supreme space of that intelligence, what is this intelligence? Oh, it's there everywhere. That's intelligence.
So in that it rises.
So it has it is it pervades everything everything.
And uh there were times when even the direct disciples of Shriram Krishna used to uh ridicule it not mock ridicule. Ah it cannot be. And Shiram Krishna showed them yes that one Brahman the atman pervades everything sustains everything holds everything.
So the word usesma in the space of the heart in the sky of the heart in the in the space. Why is it called intelligence is like space?
Yes. Why not?
Everything is space. The atom also is nothing but empty space now. And uh we are a bunch of atoms, bunch of more more little more dignified bunch of molecules, bunch of cells. Okay. Everything is space. Everything is space.
So there in that space of the heart. Why it is space? Because it is like space.
It is very subtle. It is here. It is everywhere and yet undetectable.
So there in that supreme space [snorts] of the of intelligence.
So it says it illumines all and also itself. This is very important. This is what Vanta keeps on saying. The word used is everything.
Saying what is uh the what is consciousness? It is consciousness.
It consciousness illumines everything.
Everything. Yes. Everything. Right down to your thoughts and feelings to the viruses and bacteria and viruses. People say they are maybe they alive, maybe they are not. We don't know. But it pervades everything. Consciousness pervades everything. It illumines everything. How? It makes it an object of knowledge.
It illumines like this. You turn this lights off and it's all dark. Yeah. And the sun sets, it's all dark.
What What happens to the light? Oh, the light objectifies thing. So when you say it illumines all, it objectifies everything. The whole universe is objectified. Everything is objectified.
Why? Because of consciousness.
But here's the catch. They say and it also it reveals itself, illumines everything and also itself.
What kind of uh like the son of knowledge?
Well, the sun does not know I'm the son.
S U N. Okay.
Yes. But that's a illustration given.
But in consciousness, consciousness illumines everything and and it knows itself.
It reveals itself.
So to think that consciousness is unknown we say oh what happened is unknown where is he hiding somewhere vanta has never taken this stand that God is unknown.
God is known.
It starts this with this assertion.
It is attained by by those who have the idea it exists.
Where is consciousness? Where is consciousness? It is there is illuminating everything and it illumin.
So in this space of the heart the sun of knowledge the atman rises illumines everything makes everything known the the modes of the mind the thoughts the feelings the everything and outside inside everything.
So this is that's why they say knows it destroys darkness. What is darkness?
Darkness of ignorance.
Where the sun is concerned, there is no darkness around it.
Okay, for us there is darkness. When the sun goes on the other side, there's dark.
So that's the the constant or the you can say standard illustration that uh religions have been giving light, sun, [snorts] darkness, everything etc etc. In the Bhagat Gita say in the 10th chapter there is a verse which says out of compassion out of compassion for them to to them who those who are struggling I destroyed the darkness of ignorance.
Verse two by the lamp of knowledge which is in the heart. So what God does is out of compassionate compassion for these people who are trying to struggle to know of course those who are struggling to saying I the lamp of knowledge destroys the darkness born of ignorance. It's a very very it's a very famous I mean off quoted verse I he says God himself says I destroy where is that God is separate that same thing is that God the atman So God reveals itself to who? To those people who are struggling the light of knowledge.
There he is using the word lamp.
Ganad the lamp of knowledge. Ganad the lamp of knowledge. They destroy the darkness through the lamp of knowledge.
So it's the same thing.
uh is a son of knowledge ultimate source of light. Yeah. Because uh there's only one source of consciousness. There can be there cannot be two sources of consciousness.
This and this then we'll have to fight over them. That's what we have been doing. Which is bigger? Like people of different religions are fighting amongst themselves. Which god is better? Which god is bigger? Which god is more powerful? I mean crazy like them fighting over there. So no vanta says sorry we don't have we have only one. We don't have too many because too many too many divinities will spoil the show will create trouble.
Firmament of the heart that is say the buddhi the saying the light of atman is reflected clearly. So the light of consciousness is reflected in intelligence very clearly that is where we catch and that is what you are known for. It is your intelligence.
You may be anybody but is the intelligence and this intelligence then manifests itself as life.
What is the secret of life? People are saying what is life? What is life? What is life?
Life vanta long time back had told there's no secret of life. It is intelligence. The buddhi itself is manifesting as life. It is manifesting as mind.
It is manifesting as the world.
And these fellows have been trying to break their heads over this. And I think more than 1 billion books maybe have been written about life and this and that and all all the all the things related to it.
Useless.
Take one book not say vanta is one book one idea in that book vanta is the one idea they could have taken and written they could have written more than one trillion books then and they know now whether life is here life is there life is where is life first they thought only we we were alive and the other everything was dead now at least now they Oh no, animals also have life. Okay, don't take anybody's life.
Okay, now they say trees also have life.
Oh, all right. Good. That's a good thing. And then insect, insects also are alive. Alive. So finally our bastion of selfishness is breaking down. And that's what thank god to science. But what vanta says it is intelligence that is manifesting as life. It is manifesting as mind is manifesting as all this world everything and in that intelligence shines that consciousness and that's why because the consciousness shines in the intellect the intelligence life becomes intelligence mind becomes intelligent the world becomes intelligent This simple calculation they could not figure it out. See those sages they had nothing. They used to meditate, go to the the forest, meditate, eat those fruits, pluck fruits, flowers, this that and eat and live happily.
And they built up this whole universe that they found out the secret of this soul.
And people have been again muddling this uh vidanta with find out who am I? Who am I? What where you're supposed to go? You go there and so yeah this is darkness caused by ignorance. We have to be careful. The darkness of ignorance comes even for those who are studying vanta also not those who are not studying vanta.
When ignorance is destroyed the individual soul now individual soul what is it's like a piece like a diamond here something like that shining like a lamp.
These are symbols given individual consciousness.
The soul has different meanings to different people. They will say soulmate.
So soulmate the soul does not need mates. The soul soul can be a soul.
Yeah.
The they they think in terms of material.
The soul is material but in vanta it is consciousness.
It's identity with Brahman or universal.
So the individual becomes aware suddenly.
Oh it it what happened to nothing.
Oh my god it's and now I'm a universal consciousness. So this is that this is what happened.
Sustainer of all atman as Brahman is the unshakable foundation of the universe as I said so that consciousness reflected in intelligence which isn't like in the heart all pervading and that so consciousness at the is at the background of everything. So it sustains everything, holds everything.
Servi pervades everything and holds everything.
Okay.
It's like a glue.
Holds everything. So what holds you?
Oh, my name, my fame, my wealth, my this, my that.
What really holds you is that consciousness, that God inside.
We can acknowledge that the person of knowledge real realizes the atman of the inmost soul of the individual which is vividly felt in the heart. vividly felt we don't feel uh we don't feel it vividly only when we are emotional we are suffering we are crying sometimes the heart is broken we say heartbroken uh the people heartbroken and now doctors are saying actually there's something called a broken heart now again we are saying what is this now this heartbroken and all this is like the heart cannot be broken the heart is that falls like space that intelligence but it is called hard because it is here it is felt like this and uh is it just an we assume it no it is seen it is realized by the sages in the heart it is there in the heart in theishads It has been spared when all the knots of the heart have been cut as this very mortal becomes immortal.
Yes.
But this is in the heart in the very core of a and which sustains the body, senses, mind and more. That's what we see one with Brahman.
So the last verse in this atma now comes 68.
Well, he who one who renouncing all activities activities worships in the sacred and stainless shrine of atman which is independent of time, space and distance which is present everywhere which is a destroyer of heat and cold and the other opposites and which is the giver of eternal happiness.
Such a one becomes all knowing and all pervading and attains hereafter immortality. It's a long it's a little elongated translation.
What do you mean renouncing all activities? You cannot renounce all activities. You'll become like a stone.
What happened the stone? Oh, I've renounced all activities because I'm following the text. I'm a vantin.
You renounce the feeling of I. I am the doer.
When you can renounce the feeling of I am the doer, then nature is taking care of itself and nature knows how to take care of itself. She has been here for not only 13.8 billion years. This particular thing she has been here since the beginning even time started when she started coming out what happened before the big bang time started after the big bang words. So nature procriti she moves in cycles long cycles. Is it true? Everything moves in cycles.
She drags everything along with her.
So I was just talking to somebody in the family. Yeah. the the spring and the beautiful that things change you know from uh the dark and gloomy and wet and cold [snorts] winter now you're coming ah things change everything changes seasons sun moon everything everything is circling the whole nature also is circling you think nature will stop working just because you don't like how she works no she knows She had been working.
So you give up your idea that I am I'm the worker. I'm the doer. I'm the enjoyer. So that is is renouncing the idea that you are the worker. You you are the doer. Renouncing all activities worships in the sacred and stainless shrine of atman.
Yeah. I said it described it's stainless even the say it is taken from the shankar the haram.
So the haram in that supreme space called dhara vipa which is sinless there lives the the supreme paramehar buddha in that supreme space which is like depicted like a lotus.
So there in that sacred and stainless shrine of atman there it is there beautiful [snorts] which is independent of time place and distance.
Why everything else in the world objective world is dependent on time.
This is time 7:00 time for the atma class and then uh 7:45 is time for everything depends on time you me and we look in the mirror oh how how much I have changed so somebody tells you oh after a long time you how you've changed yeah we have a plaque there the only constant is change.
So when things change things change because of time and space and the laws of causation everything things have to change in time and the change has to be in space. You cannot have it something floating about there but time space is has to be and the laws of causation. Yeah.
One thing gives rise to another.
So in the language of vidanta it is the clay is the cause and the pot is the effect. But we see the effect.
The cause clay itself has become the pot.
There's no such thing as two separate thing.
So the cause itself has become the effect and then the effect itself becomes a cause and gives another effect. So cause and effect and cause and effect and cause and effect and cause and effect. What's happening? We only seeing is one side. This is cause and this is the effect. These are changes constant.
These are the laws of causation.
The same thing we're saying, oh this is the cause. Oh, this is the effect. Oh, okay. It's the same thing and everything has to happen within time and space.
Okay. So, atman is independent of this.
That's why not much change. No, it cannot change.
If reality would keep on changing like you and me changing clothes then it it will not be a reality. I say this fellow this thing is is a fraud fake.
So it is changeless. Reality cannot change. It is it is beyond changes.
Priti itself with all her great powers doing all these things cannot affect that. It is beyond cause.
Okay. Like Aristotle would say uh the uncaused cause first cause the primal cause. You cannot ask what caused it.
That is the cause of everything.
So it's called a prime mover also whatever. So but it is that's why it's called unchangeable.
Okay.
Uh so uh we can understand consciousness God said unchanging which is a destroyer of heat and cold and the other opposite. What is the heat and cold etc. Just giving you an example. Joy, sorrow, happiness, misery.
This, that, heat, cold, pain, pleasure, these are the dualities that make up this world. A life.
The holy mother says, joy and sorrow, they are your constant.
They are your companions.
Where will they go? Let them stay.
Let them stay. Yeah, your your companions. Joy and sorrow.
At least they don't leave us. [laughter] Everything else leaves us. Joy and sorrow does not leave. They will be with you. You're born, they come and they die. People say they're guardian angels.
I don't know about that maybe.
But these guys are there with you.
Shankarachara when he was a little boy according to legend uh he two boys used to accompany him always only he could see that okay one was knowledge and one was death always everywhere they used to be with them I used to legend yeah it's kind of yeah so vignana and so why is terrible no so he knew the nature of the world knowledge and procriti's nature there's only that because this world is called the world of death in the Bhagat Gita ma a loca.
So he had conquered this.
You see fascinating holy mother when she was little uh a little girl used to who looked exactly like her used to accompany her everywhere. Nobody could see only her everywhere.
So she used to dive in the water in that pond to cut that long grass for fer. The girl also used to dive. Holy mother used to bring out a big sheath of grass for the fer keep it on the banks and the girl used to also come.
So these are these are things which are uh they happen only to incarnations.
So the destroyer of heat and cold and other opposites. So atman is free from all this all this your companions they free from all they have got no companion there and which is a giver of eternal happiness eternal happiness.
So the word used is constant eternal happiness. Oh, eternal happiness. Because we can understand happiness.
Oh, are you happy? [clears throat] Try to be. Then after 2 minutes, are you happy? Yeah, I'm happy. You know why?
Yeah. Because you fell down. Fell down and broke your leg. You get happiness out of crazy things.
So happiness is there. So we so this is just to tell us that we we know we have the idea of happiness that it is noneternal we know it also when we are parting we are happy some some people are not happy doing while parting they plum nobody to talk to all dull boring people unhappy depends if you're happy then you know the party is going to get over go back.
So we know happiness and we know it is impermanent.
We know it. We are not we are not fools.
Only thing we want to close eyes. That's okay if you want to close your eyes. But you cannot remove that knowledge from it. We know it very well.
Okay.
And it becomes all knowing and all pervading and attains hereafter immortality. All knowing.
This is the conclusion.
Servit.
Yeah. Serve with servo.
All knowing. You know everything. Yes.
Because the person has understood the very foundations of everything.
Touch consciousness.
And touching consciousness is becoming one with the person becomes one with consciousness finds everywhere.
Oh, I thought I was confined only to this body and now I find out.
But I Yeah, we we actually when we feel love or kindness or compassion, we are not just confined to our body.
We feel that we are reaching out.
Empathy or sympathy and all these things tell us that we cannot be just confined to our body.
Yeah, even animals feel for other things.
Yeah, they also moan. They also weep.
So to be thinking that we are only confined to the body. Nah, that's a wrong thing.
But this person sees itself everywhere.
The whole world. Holy mother said, "No one is a stranger, my child. The whole world is an is your own. Learn to make the whole world your own."
So this is what and attains immort that is a super immortal that person gone beyond death and beyond and beyond everything that person.
So the Sanskrit he's got a long note uh [snorts] on he used the word the word shrine in the text also means the holy place ta the ta is oh there are some in India there are maybe maybe thousand places thousand pilgrimage places. This called pilgrim centers, huge pilgrim centers. Huge in a sense. What? No, not physically.
But you will see thousands of people.
How many thousand? 100,000 200,000 500,000 people going there every year.
Oh, with all the trouble they take and they'll go. What is that?
So there are places here where you can ta is to for f not a car to cross to cross over to fold.
So you can cross from one dimension to the next dimension or from the world world of matter to the world of spirit.
But there are some places in this world where you can easily go that side. The bridge had been made. Yeah. These are those powerful shrines.
The person's consciousness can from year go and jump over. There's already bridge made.
Forward is to the bridge. But the ta So in that and people know they have to go at auspicious time going at inospice time also will not get all the benefit. They will take all the trouble and they will make it a point to go.
Why? Because that has great merit and you can afford but they want to come back. That's okay. But at least you get a glimpse. you get a glimpse there anyway, but at least you know that there's another realm. So the deity the either it's a god or a goddess or whatever or anyone is the meeting point between this and this he can come this side go that side then you come down once you come back no problem but you have come down you have seen the other side ah now I Now you aren't you under any illusions.
That's the idea. There are some people who only do all these ta yatras. They will go to all this this and that and this yatra and that yatraat yatra and and kail yatra and then we'll have this and with that and they will go around and somewhere deep down that particular deity also they say it draws you yes it draws you come I'll take you across there so this ta that is a physical ta We can see it. But here uh he's quoting the Mahabharata describes the atman as a real sacred river bathing in which the soul becomes free of impurities.
So where you want to go? You want to for across here inside. So he's saying the river of atman is filled with the water of self-control.
Truth is its current.
Righteous conduct its banks and compassion its waves.
Oh son of Pandu bathe in its sacred water. Ordinary water does not purify the innermost soul.
A visit to then he says okay what who are those guys who have gone this and come? They themselves becomes a walking ta. They themselves become people of those those types who have gone there and come. They become because they have seen the light they themselves become walking tas walking pilgrim. People go and that's why they go to them. That's why he says visit a visit to holy men bestows merit because they may be regarded as moving holy places.
The Lord dwelling in their hearts renders holy the place where they live.
This is what So it has been always said what's a purest place? Purest and the purest place they they they wanted to in the old days they wanted to make a sacrifice. What's the sacrifice?
The purest place was the heart of Buddha and he gave his life. Purest place.
So, so what I'm trying to say is there are the best place the foring is done here in Narati sutra we forisms on biarada uh it says those who go to these places pilgrimage places pilgrim places they make this place even holier.
These are the people who also uh make all karma all work holy saying karma. So they make all kmas good and they make all scriptures [snorts] also valid.
Such shastra kuranti shastrani because they become the living embodiment of karma of all sacred knowledge and they become the foring place. So so there you can go. So catch somebody like that and you can go.
When I was young, I went I met somebody who I I knew that God.
So yes, a river filled with sacred water is no doubt sacred sacred river.
An image of stone or clay is no doubt a deity. After woriing them for a long time, the aspirant becomes pure. But by mere visit to a holy man, one attains purity.
So it keeps on saying by virtue of even a moment's serenity attain true knowledge of the identity of atman and Brahman. The seeker attains the merit that one may obtain by bathing in all the sacred rivers of the world. And there say by giving away the entire world in an act of charity by performing a thousand sacrifices thousand of those great sacrifices you know yaknas and by woriing the 330 millions of gods you can the [clears throat] maximum what you can do all will be useless compared to just One moment of this flash of knowledge of your identity, the individual identity with the universal identity, God.
You are one with God. You're part of God.
Then then your life's work is over.
Yeah. Then the saying this is a very famous saying say the family becomes sinless the mother is fleshed and the earth becomes sacred.
These are the people.
So here it is very famous. So this these kind of people they make everything pure. The family is blessed.
So, so this is what happens. These people are now the walking pilgrim places.
You know, you hear people going all the way to the some in the Himalayan cave.
Some holy man is sitting down there meditating and they take all the trouble. Why? Because of this.
So everything they they wherever those people are they are the blessings of this to this world and we have seen this in the lives of these great saints in any everywhere all over the world you'll find they have been great blessings to humanity.
This does ends at the self-nowledge.
Our next text is there's a text GA in the Mahabharata called Vad Gita also called sometimes Dharma Vada Gita Dharma is righteous pious I have said okay let's put a pious butcher vada is a butcher what's wrong with that So pious butchers teaches the Gita.
So and it forms part of the Mahabharata.
There are other Bhagwat Gita Gas like Anu Gita etc etc. Aaduta Gita in the Mahabharata.
So the most important one is the Bhagat Gita.
So this also is forms part of the Mahabharata and we are going to take it from next Friday.
Tomorrow we have Raj Yoga.
Uh it's a it's a uh it's on online and in person.
Those who would like to be here I'll give the class year.
We on the second ephorism second and the third at 7 p.m. after best pass. Those who had the zoom link can uh go and go zooming uh and mother's children of course Sunday and Sunday we we are changing the format just a bit uh at 10 we start but at 10 we start meditation ation from 10 to 10:25 we'll give a guided meditation year from 10:30 we'll begin the talk and then after the talk we have a QA the topic for the Sunday's talk is why Seattle honors Swami Vand as you've seen is the first civic monument to Swami Viveandanda in the US.
So I've tried to analyze it from different angles why it h why did it happen and we also have in the evening Ram nam 7 p.m.
Okay. Uh yeah, I think uh we have any no tomorrow we have uh of course our vash team vidanta action and service team uh will be uh doing preparing sandwiches for the homeless. Some homeless, not all the homeless. There are plenty of but we will do our bit to serve this.
Om shanty shanty shanty hy.
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