Ananda Valli - 4 of 4 | Swami Sarvapriyananda

[00:00:00]Om asato ma sad gamaya tamaso [singing] ma jyotir gamaya mrityor ma amritam gamaya Om shanti shanti shantihi Om lead us from the unreal to the real.

[00:00:28]Lead us from darkness to light. Lead us from death to immortality. Om peace [snorts] peace peace.

[00:00:40]So here we are in this session.

[00:00:44]The session is on bliss. What could be happier than that?

[00:00:48]So we are going to Before we go into it, look back upon what we have been studying. Brahma vid apnoti param, the knower of Brahman attains to the ultimate.

[00:01:01]That's what was promised.

[00:01:04]And then we had three questions. What is Brahman?

[00:01:06]How do you know Brahman?

[00:01:08]And what is the ultimate? What do I get out of this?

[00:01:12]Tad esha abhyukta satyam jnanam anantam brahma. The next line answers the first question, what is Brahman? It is said in the Vedas that infinite existence consciousness is Brahman. Every word is very deep.

[00:01:29]Brahman is what? Infinity. Infinity means what? We remember that it's not limited in time, not limited in space, not limited by object. Therefore, all pervasive, eternal, and non-dual. And that is Brahman. But what is it exactly?

[00:01:44]It is existence itself. It's consciousness itself. Limitless existence consciousness is Brahman. But you have to know that.

[00:01:51]It's not just defining it or philosophically an abstract understanding of it. How do you know it? And that's what we have been doing since yesterday until this morning.

[00:02:02]No, how do you know Brahman? You wait and he come go higher and higher may be all men. You have to find Brahman in the sacred space in the cave of the heart.

[00:02:13]Which is a poetic way of saying you have to know Brahman as I am Brahman.

[00:02:17]I am that. You have to realize that. How do you realize that? Well, we went on a journey.

[00:02:23]Like Sri Ramakrishna says going to the roof of the house, we went on a journey into the cave of ourself.

[00:02:29]From the outermost domains of the cave, the the physical body.

[00:02:34]And then my the food body.

[00:02:36]Then the physiological body.

[00:02:38]Uh Sanskrit pranamaya, the vital body.

[00:02:42]Then we went deeper into the mind, thoughts, feelings, our own story about ourselves, memories, emotions.

[00:02:49]The manomaya.

[00:02:51]You went even deeper into this intellect which we are using right now.

[00:02:55]This analytical intellect which is generating knowledge, understanding, science, logic, philosophy. Vedanta.

[00:03:02]This is this is this intellect. But we realize I am not that either.

[00:03:06]And then we went deeper.

[00:03:08]Into just blank.

[00:03:11]Vijnanamaya, then we go deeper into the just nothing. Anandamaya, the deep sleep experience.

[00:03:18]Yet we realize that's also an experience. That also comes and goes.

[00:03:22]It's nothing, but it's a kind of a thing as an absence of something.

[00:03:27]So, then we realized I am that to which all of these are appearing.

[00:03:34]The physical, the vital, the mental, the intellectual, the causal. They are appearing and disappearing to that one consciousness which I am.

[00:03:44]Annamaya, pranamaya, manomaya, vijnanamaya, anandamaya, vyatirikta atma. The the the self which is the witness of all of these.

[00:03:54]That is the roof of the house. That is the deepest point of the cave. Where from where we look back into the the tenth man. The witness consciousness.

[00:04:08]If you draw from Mandukya Upanishad, then you're looking at the Turiya.

[00:04:12]The fourth. Not the waker, not the dreamer, not the deep sleeper, but that which is appearing which is a witness of all three and appearing as all three.

[00:04:23]So, how do you realize that?

[00:04:27]Having grasped this, then we spend time with it. We meditate upon it. The non-dual meditation, which we did just now.

[00:04:35]The non-dual meditation, where we explored and we found that I am the light of our lives, the witness consciousness. I am always there, never absent. I'm unmodifiably there, unchangeably there. I'm ever the same.

[00:04:49]I've seen taste. Whatever the experience, I'm still the same.

[00:04:52]Therefore, I'm not traumatized or damaged by experience.

[00:04:56]All very difficult to claim.

[00:05:01]But also to the process of claiming is first to see the truth of it. Is it true at all or not?

[00:05:07]And then to see that I am that. And then to live accordingly.

[00:05:12]Nisargadatta was asked, "How did you come to this realization?" He said, "My guru taught me and I devotedly practiced what he taught me. I tried to live accord I believed it, number one.

[00:05:23]I believed him that I am that.

[00:05:26]And I practiced he said, "I struggled accordingly."

[00:05:29]In a short while, within few years.

[00:05:31]And I tried to live accordingly.

[00:05:34]I I I realized this. It became the truth for me.

[00:05:39]I am that.

[00:05:42]And it is the light of our lives.

[00:05:45]The sense of self-luminosity, light of lights, light of lights.

[00:05:49]It is immediately, directly accessible to us.

[00:05:53]Choicelessly, immediately, directly, effortlessly accessible to us.

[00:05:57]It is us. It is I.

[00:05:59]Atman.

[00:06:02]This is the exploration of the roof.

[00:06:03]When we look back up at the rest of the house, we look back upon the cave which we have traversed.

[00:06:09]And we realized this consciousness time is an appearance in this consciousness. Space is an appearance in this consciousness. Objects are an appearance in this consciousness.

[00:06:20]Therefore, this consciousness transcends time, space, and object. Therefore, for all practical purposes, it is eternal, all-pervasive, non-dual.

[00:06:30]To this consciousness, you cannot ask Actually, the real thing is that this consciousness or this Atman, our real nature No, don't even call it consciousness. It's not quite consciousness in the sense we deal with Suppose you're saying it's there even in deep sleep, then we are not talking about the consciousness which we normally talk about.

[00:06:47]So, that Let's call it that.

[00:06:50]But that is you. Atman.

[00:06:52]This Atman is uh timeless beyond space beyond object.

[00:07:01]To it, you cannot ask the question of where, what where, when, and what.

[00:07:08]How and why? These questions cannot be asked. Not that you're prohibited from asking, they are meaningless to it.

[00:07:14]They come only after this when the when the manifestation starts.

[00:07:19]Um And this Atman you are, this is called Brahman.

[00:07:23]Being so, being non-dual and infinite, it's also It is called Purnam. It is complete and whole in itself. There's nothing else. This whole universe is this Purnam.

[00:07:34]And you are it. That is Purnam.

[00:07:37]Now, result. Time to enjoy the pension?

[00:07:43]So, last chapter of the second chapter, last section of the chapter um two.

[00:07:50]Last section. These are the I think the Upanishad is divided into three sections or three chapters called Valli.

[00:07:55]First Valli, second Valli, third Valli.

[00:07:57]The second Valli is what we have been discussing. Brahmananda Valli, the bliss of Brahman, a bliss that is Brahman.

[00:08:04]Ananda Valli.

[00:08:06]Brahma Valli. They are different names for this chapter, same chapter which we are discussing.

[00:08:10]The last section of it.

[00:08:12]Section number eight.

[00:08:18]And there is one uh one more, nine. So, eight and nine, these two.

[00:08:42]So, chapter eight is the the section eight in chapter two. Section eight eight and nine, especially eight, is an analysis of bliss. What are we going to discuss here? The question, what do I get out of it? You said Brahma vid apnoti param, the knower of Brahman attains the highest. But what is the highest? Then that section, the first paragraph itself tells us.

[00:09:04]What is the highest?

[00:09:06]So, vaashnute sarvaan kaamaan saha brahmaNaa vipash chiteyti. That one attains to the fulfillment of all the yearnings.

[00:09:15]All the desires, whatever we could wish for. All that is fulfilled when you realize I am Brahman.

[00:09:23]To some extent we have gotten intuition about that means. If you center yourself as I am that Atman, that limitless non-dual Atman, what could I want?

[00:09:33]What suffering could touch me?

[00:09:36]Remember, keep things where they belong.

[00:09:38]Where do sufferings belong? At the level of the body, at the level of the mind.

[00:09:42]What could they touch? What could they How could they touch me?

[00:09:47]Now, bliss, an exploration of bliss. So, the question of happiness is taken up now.

[00:09:53]What is happiness?

[00:09:56]Vedanta says happiness is within.

[00:10:01]Happiness comes from within.

[00:10:03]This comes from within and I'm reminded of a classic joke.

[00:10:07]So, this New York, you know, pizza.

[00:10:10]You have pizza, you have the basic pizza, then you have toppings.

[00:10:14]So, you would you say, "Make me one with this topping, that topping, that topping."

[00:10:18]Now, this uh monk goes there to the pizza shop and says to the pizza guy, "Make me one with everything."

[00:10:36]Then, the pizza guy makes him one with all the toppings and gives him the money the monk pays more money than what is necessary and he wants for the change.

[00:10:45]But, the pizza guy is not returning the change and the monk says, "Give me back my change." And the pizza guy says, "Change comes from within."

[00:11:01]And actually, a reporter, an American reporter, tried this joke on the Dalai Lama. It's there on YouTube, you'll check it see it, it's there, very funny.

[00:11:10]He goes and tells the There's a joke.

[00:11:13]The Dalai Lama is sitting with his interpreter and uh he says, "A monk goes to the pizza owner and says, 'Make me one with everything.'" The Dalai Lama thought he's being serious, so the Dalai Lama is saying, "Theoretically possible."

[00:11:25]Um Then, the pizza guy the the reporter said, "I knew it wouldn't work.

[00:11:34]The Dalai Lama looks very puzzled. What is he saying? He said the reporter said let it go. I don't I think it won't work.

[00:11:42]Happiness comes from within like change.

[00:11:44]Happiness comes from within.

[00:11:46]And it's not in objects.

[00:11:48]We We also understand. At first, we think my happiness is tied up with that object, with that relationship, with this object, with this activity, with this job, with this food, or this music.

[00:11:59]All of these things are They are what are giving me happiness. Then I realize of course, it's not that they are giving me happiness.

[00:12:06]Happiness comes within, and those objects generate that happiness inside us.

[00:12:13]Um So, I need those objects. Anyway, the point is I want I want to be happy. I want to feel happy.

[00:12:20]And if I fulfill my desires, then I'm happy.

[00:12:24]So, we go on. Desires have a role. Maybe the object does not is not the source of happiness. My own mind is the source of happiness. But I still I need the object.

[00:12:33]I need to fulfill my desires, then only I'll be happy. This is our understanding. Vedanta says, no. There is something wrong with our understanding.

[00:12:42]Vedanta says, what you call happiness is a reflection of your real self.

[00:12:48]Atman or Brahman, when it's reflected in the mind properly, you feel happy.

[00:12:52]You don't know that.

[00:12:54]It is your own nature.

[00:12:57]There is this infinite happiness within us, and a little bit of it is reflected once in a while in the mind, and we call that happiness. And we want that again and again and again.

[00:13:07]We're madly chasing that. We means every sentient being, not only human beings.

[00:13:12]Yeah. All beings are chasing this little flash of happiness in the mind.

[00:13:16]But Vedanta what Vedanta adds here is, the entire ocean of happiness is within you. It is you.

[00:13:23]You are seeing yourself in the mirror of the mind in flashes, distorted, not clearly. That's what you call happiness and you're chasing it. How does it work?

[00:13:33]We have we set up a desire.

[00:13:37]And we satisfy the desire. When we set up a desire, we don't maybe consciously do it, it's there. Desires are there, either created outside by advertisement or by you know by the world, by what society teaches us.

[00:13:53]Or it's in our samskaras, in our own conditioning from this life or past life, it's there. It is often rooted in biology also. So, there are desires.

[00:14:03]And I notice whenever I fulfill the desire, I feel happy. Vedanta says, what's happening here is the desire obscures the reflection of your innermost in inner happiness. And when you satisfy a desire, the mind becomes calm for a while. The obscuration is gone and you catch a glimpse of your real nature and that's what you call happiness. You don't recognize it as coming from your real nature.

[00:14:29]You think it's coming from uh that object.

[00:14:32]Or the satisfaction of the desire.

[00:14:35]And therefore, we uh we get we keep on satisfying desires one after another. We keep trying.

[00:14:41]And that's the chase, the um chase for happiness, the quest for happiness.

[00:14:48]The story of the dog, I mentioned that those who were there at the uh church yesterday, I mentioned the story of the um the dog there. The dog who was chewing a bone and a few drops of its own blood came out there and he found it very tasty. It's the same thing which which Vedanta is saying. It's your own happiness which reflected. The satisfaction of the desire is the chewing on the bone.

[00:15:12]And then you taste something, but it belongs to you. You are tasting yourself and thinking it is coming from the bone.

[00:15:20]The bone is the object or the bone is if you're more psychologically savvy, you'll say it's the satisfying the desire. That's what's giving me happiness.

[00:15:30]That's why we keep on trying to do that.

[00:15:32]But there are the mind is delicate.

[00:15:34]Again, it gets obscured.

[00:15:37]And so the it is the reflection is obscured or hidden, and therefore we don't feel happy. And we kind of try to repeat that.

[00:15:44]Now, Vedanta says if this is so, then how can we be happy? What is the Vedantic prescription for happiness?

[00:15:53]There are two ways.

[00:15:56]One is called the way of action, the other one is called the way of spirituality, of realization. Way of action is to keep satisfying the desires, so your inner happiness keeps getting reflected in the mind more and more and more. So you have a series of flashes of happiness, and greater and greater happiness. How to satisfy the desires properly, so that you can sustainably be happy, fulfilled?

[00:16:22]That is called in Sanskrit Pravritti Marga.

[00:16:27]The way of engagement, of Vivekananda called it circling outwards. Going outwards into the universe, flowing outwards.

[00:16:35]And there religion comes to our help, Dharma.

[00:16:39]Today you might call it positive psychology.

[00:16:41]Ethics plus positive psychology, that was the idea of Dharma earlier. That how to sustainably do this.

[00:16:50]So keep on satisfying, enjoying the world, and get some happiness.

[00:16:57]This is one one track.

[00:16:59]But there is a wiser and deeper way of getting happiness.

[00:17:02]Track two.

[00:17:04]The track two is this, you see, somebody, a wise person might say, "Wait a minute.

[00:17:08]If it's my own reflection that I want, and what is obscuring my reflection?

[00:17:15]Is uh the disturbance, the dirt on the mirror.

[00:17:21]Let me give up. Let me cleanse the mirror. Let me not put dirt on it and clean it and put dirt on it. Let me cleanse the mirror and reflect myself there. I will get happiness. Let me give up those desires.

[00:17:33]Let me center myself in my real nature and then notice what happens in the mind.

[00:17:39]Use Vedantic knowledge.

[00:17:41]Give up the desires, this cycle of trying to fulfill desires.

[00:17:46]And center yourself spiritually. Then I should be happy if Vedanta is right.

[00:17:51]It's a very great question.

[00:17:54]Enjoyment of the world makes me happy and it takes effort and it's evanescent.

[00:17:58]It comes and goes with all its attendant problems. That is well known. That's one way Vedanta agrees. But then Vedanta says something extra here.

[00:18:06]That happiness is not coming from the satisfaction of desires. That happiness is coming because the satisfaction of desires creates the necessary calmness in the mind, the the stillness in the mind to enjoy your inner happiness. It's reflected there.

[00:18:22]Then it opens up a new door, a new avenue, a greater, more powerful way of being happy.

[00:18:28]If I renounce those desires and I stick to my spiritual nature, that I am this, then that happiness should be more continuously and easily accessible to me.

[00:18:40]And it's a test for the Vedantic hypothesis.

[00:18:43]Because if it is desire and satisfaction of desire which leads to fulfillment, first lesson in economics, all human beings have endless desires and limited resources. How to use limited resources to satisfy unlimited wants is economics.

[00:19:01]First thing that our economics teacher told us in class.

[00:19:05]Vedanta says, wait.

[00:19:08]All human beings want that uh limit that on the happiness.

[00:19:13]And unlimited uh wants and limited resources to satisfy the happiness and to get that happiness is one way.

[00:19:20]Another way is give up those unlimited wants.

[00:19:24]If it is your inner happiness you want, it will be manifested anyway.

[00:19:29]And it's a test. If it does not happen, then it will prove that economics is right. It only by satisfying desires you can be happy.

[00:19:38]If you have no desires, it's pathological. You're sick.

[00:19:42]Not happy.

[00:19:45]But if Vedanta shows that you can be happy without these desires.

[00:19:49]Then we have to sit and think about our whole modern world view of life.

[00:19:55]Our whole modern world view of life.

[00:19:58]In recent conference in Stony Brook University, we had uh one of the speakers was Bob Thurman, Robert Thurman. He's a great scholar of Buddhism.

[00:20:09]Close to the His Holiness the Dalai Lama, also.

[00:20:13]And has written wonderful books on Tibetan Buddhism.

[00:20:17]And he jokes that I'm only well known because of um as Uma Thurman's father.

[00:20:25]And he was saying that I named her Uma because she was born I was in Nepal at that time in India in studying Buddhism.

[00:20:30]So the name Uma I gave to her.

[00:20:36]Yeah.

[00:20:37]So he was saying in that conference, "But look at the rubbish we are teaching our generations of youngsters.

[00:20:45]What are we telling in the most advanced schools in the world today?

[00:20:50]It's uh it's not only in America, across the world. It's the same thing.

[00:20:53]To be really mature, to be really educated, to be sophisticated, to be cool, you have to stop believing in all this nonsense. You know, spirituality, idealism, any kind of high idea. It is all that nonsense. You have to grow up.

[00:21:06]You grow up. Stop believing in that stuff.

[00:21:08]And um Bob Thurman was saying, "What a disaster."

[00:21:13]We are condemning them to what? If you If you stop If you give up Buddhism, Hinduism, Christianity, all of that, what are you left with? A bundle of basic instincts.

[00:21:23]Will you be able to give up your animal instincts and cravings and greed and lust? No.

[00:21:29]You can't Not only you cannot, society seems to be telling you to maximize that.

[00:21:35]This is This is horrifying.

[00:21:38]You're condemning them to a life of meaninglessness and frustration and unhappiness.

[00:21:44]It's an animalistic life.

[00:21:46]An animal can somehow struggle through that through death. A human being will suffer terribly in that kind of life.

[00:21:52]And that's what is being taught in the name of the most mature kind of thinking. It's not.

[00:21:58]It's nihilism.

[00:22:00]So, it's nihilism disguised as education.

[00:22:04]So, um Vedanta says that spirituality should give you renunciation of desire combined with spirituality should give you not just renunciation of desire. The You give up the lower only when you get the higher. Something you must get. You can't just give up and then left leave with what?

[00:22:21]You must get something greater.

[00:22:23]So, when you leave or give up the lower for the higher, catch hold of the higher and let go of the lower, you should get all this happiness. That's what Vedanta is trying to tell us.

[00:22:31]Test.

[00:22:33]You know, that's the reason I became a monk. Cuz I used to sit and see these monks in the monastery near our house.

[00:22:39]And I watched how happy they were. Not that they were already enlightened or anything, but they were generally very happy people. And that struck me as strange.

[00:22:46]Because they don't have money like my mom and dad. They don't have a house and a car.

[00:22:51]They don't have me.

[00:22:54]A kid.

[00:22:56]And they are even happier than that.

[00:22:58]>> [laughter] >> So, they are happier than my and then how?

[00:23:04]Is it possible to be happy without stuff?

[00:23:08]Without things in our lives, possessions, I, me, mine.

[00:23:12]And clearly they were happy.

[00:23:14]So, Vedanta says it's possible. That's a test case.

[00:23:18]This is track two.

[00:23:21]And there is a track three.

[00:23:24]Which is reflection of your happiness is what we call reflection of your inner self is what we call happiness. But what is that inner self?

[00:23:35]That is Ananda itself, bliss itself.

[00:23:38]When you realize I am that, even the reflection will not matter.

[00:23:43]It's like looking in a mirror.

[00:23:45]And if you polish the mirror, you will get a better reflection of your face.

[00:23:50]And um but getting the reflection of the face is not the goal of life.

[00:23:57]Is this face dependent on that reflected face? No. Not at all.

[00:24:03]Does this face become more than it is when you're reflected in a platinum mirror? No.

[00:24:08]Does this face become more glorious when it's reflected in a barber's shop in a hundred mirrors?

[00:24:13]No.

[00:24:16]So, the third track, the third level of this is when you realize I am bliss itself.

[00:24:23]It's not even necessary to reflect it there. That is Brahma Gyana, realization [clears throat] I am that, enlightenment.

[00:24:31]When the quest for being happy, even spiritually happy also, is not necessary.

[00:24:37]At that point you can say even moksha is not necessary.

[00:24:42]Na dharmo na cartho na kamo na moksha, chidananda rupa shivoham shivoham.

[00:24:48]Shankaracharya sings I am not dharma. I am not the pursuit of pleasure, kama. I don't want I don't want dharma, the pursuit of heaven through ethics, through good karma. I don't want kama, the pursuit of worldly pleasure. I don't want artha, the the pursuit of wealth.

[00:25:08]I don't even want spirituality, moksha, the liberation.

[00:25:12]Why? Because I am Shiva.

[00:25:15]Does Shiva want moksha? Not at all.

[00:25:17]So, that's the track That's the third third level.

[00:25:20]These three levels all within the Vedic path.

[00:25:26]The three levels level one, which is called pravritti marga, the way of action and engagement. This is the level at which Dharma helps us. Religion intervenes and tells us the right sustainable moral ethical way to satisfy desires in the world and be happy.

[00:25:45]And then comes track two.

[00:25:48]This is Vedanta starts there, spiritual practice, the pursuit of moksha, spiritual life.

[00:25:54]And then you get even more happiness.

[00:25:57]Track three, or not track three, the stage three. Let's call it stage. Stage one, stage two, stage three. These are three stages.

[00:26:02]Stage three is enlightenment. They are also happy, more than us.

[00:26:08]That is called the bliss of Brahman, the bliss that is Brahman.

[00:26:15]The three names Sri Ramakrishna used vishayananda, bhajanananda, brahmananda.

[00:26:20]Vishayananda, the pleasure coming from enjoyment in the world.

[00:26:25]Bhajanananda, the the joy of spiritual life.

[00:26:30]My meditation, self-inquiry, devotion, all of that.

[00:26:35]Brahmananda, Brahman that is ananda, ananda itself. You become You become sugar before in in stage two, you were eating sugar.

[00:26:47]In stage three, you become sugar. You are sugar. You realize you are always where sugar.

[00:26:52]Stage one Stevia.

[00:26:58]If you thought it, you think it's sugar, it isn't.

[00:27:03]At Oh, sugar, that reminds me. I told this story to the to Bob Thurman and the audience there in Stony Brook. Sri Ramakrishna, the little ant which saw discovered a mountain of sugar.

[00:27:16]And then it took one grain of that sugar and dragged it back difficulty to its little home and looked back at the mountain and said, "I'm going to come back for the rest of it." It doesn't have to. It cannot take the whole mountain. It but it doesn't have to. That little grain of sugar is enough for that that ant. It can't digest any more.

[00:27:37]We are like that little ant. When we approach Brahman, it's limitless. But whatever we do, whatever breakthrough we make and attain to realization, that's enough for us.

[00:27:47]We are little ants that way. We'll be free at that moment. And Bob Thurman loved it. He laughed and he said, "I love that, the diabetic ant."

[00:28:00]All right. Now starts the analysis of bliss.

[00:28:06]Three levels.

[00:28:07]Vishayananda, Bhajananda, Brahmananda.

[00:28:10]The enjoyment of the world, then enjoyment that the happiness of spiritual life, the bliss of the spiritual life, the godly life. And third, the happiness that is the absolute, the joy that is the absolute.

[00:28:23]Saisha, I'm reading out from that section. Saisha Anandasya Mimamsa Asya Mimamsa Bhavati.

[00:28:31]Hence now there is an analysis of bliss.

[00:28:34]Hence now we're going to analyze bliss.

[00:28:38]Uh Swami Gambhirananda translates it, "This then is an evaluation of that bliss."

[00:28:44]First, worldly bliss.

[00:28:47]Vishayananda.

[00:28:48]Engagement with the world. and trying to get joy from this.

[00:28:54]How?

[00:28:56]He says analysis you have to measure.

[00:29:00]Measurement requires a unit. So what's the unit of human bliss? Maximum unit.

[00:29:05]The maximum happiness that we can aspire for, he says, let's call it one, number one. And every other gradation will be measured according to that.

[00:29:16]Who will get maximum bliss in this life?

[00:29:19]Human life.

[00:29:38]One unit of human happiness. It means the maximum happiness possible in human life.

[00:29:46]How do you get that?

[00:29:49]Don't look so eager. The first thing itself will annoy you.

[00:29:52]The first thing he says is you are young. You must be young.

[00:29:58]Most of the audience will say, oh, I missed the bus.

[00:30:04]I remember I was giving this talk in another ashram and there were many elderly people there. When I said this, you must be young, they all went boo.

[00:30:14]But no, you must be.

[00:30:17]See, what comes naturally, effortlessly, easily, unthinkingly when you are 21 years old? Try doing it at 51 or 61.

[00:30:26]51, very difficult to party like a 21-year-old.

[00:30:32]61, 61, don't even try it.

[00:30:35]71, only if you want to die.

[00:30:39]So, is you young, Young.

[00:30:44]A German general in Second World War, he writes in his diary, it's exhausting work, war.

[00:30:51]So, he writes in his diary, now I understand how Alexander the Great conquered half the world.

[00:30:58]He was 21.

[00:31:02]He was youngster. You are young. You are young.

[00:31:06]But not just a young man.

[00:31:07]Young person.

[00:31:09]You can be a young man and be a loser.

[00:31:11]That doesn't make you happy.

[00:31:13]You have to be really something, you know, just not just young.

[00:31:16]Uh He says you have to be a good person.

[00:31:20]Young person, but a noble person.

[00:31:24]Then, highly learned.

[00:31:28]You've got a PhD from Harvard and Yale.

[00:31:32]Uh very scholarly, learned.

[00:31:34]Arshishtha, drishtha, balishtha.

[00:31:37]Of tremendous confidence and self-esteem. Arshishtha.

[00:31:42]And physically tough. Drishtha.

[00:31:45]And vitally powerful. Balishtha. With strength, eagerness, power, energy, dynamism. People should say, where does this boiling energy come from?

[00:31:56]And then, then then what else?

[00:32:01]And that's not enough.

[00:32:03]If you've got all of that, but to be happy you need money.

[00:32:08]And if you spend all that energy and youth in earning money, somebody said, see, you spend your health in becoming rich and then spend the wealth in recovering your health.

[00:32:20]That's what our life is. No.

[00:32:22]But this person is wealthy from that youth itself.

[00:32:26]All the wealth in the world is his.

[00:32:33]Or hers. You are the heir to everything.

[00:32:36]You are super duper rich. You are a trillionaire.

[00:32:43]And tremendously energy energetic. You work 100-hour weeks.

[00:32:49]And you are utterly utterly smart, brilliant.

[00:32:54]You know who I'm talking about.

[00:32:58]And you have to live in Texas.

[00:33:02]And the he says, "Sir, ekah manusananda."

[00:33:07]That's one unit of happiness.

[00:33:10]That's happiness one. Just the beginning of happiness.

[00:33:13]How many in human life and history attain to all those conditions?

[00:33:20]You see, so is he perfectly happy? No, we're not talking about perfect happiness. We're talking about lots of happiness.

[00:33:25]So, is that person very happy? Might be too busy to be happy.

[00:33:30]Earning the next trillion.

[00:33:32]So, that is one human happiness.

[00:33:35]Few people in every uh age attain to it.

[00:33:38]You know, earlier it you would have to be a an emperor or some kind of an incredibly incredibly rich and powerful person. Usually a man.

[00:33:48]Uh now, there might be a few such people who are at the peak of their careers.

[00:33:53]Very rich, very famous, very competent, and still quite young.

[00:33:58]They are this He says, "This is the beginning of human happiness."

[00:34:02]Just the beginning. Number one.

[00:34:04]Now, come to switch to track two.

[00:34:07]From disha ananda to bhajana ananda, spiritual life. Now, say see.

[00:34:12]Te ye shatam manusananda.

[00:34:20]What is 100 times more than this? Any more happiness than this is possible?

[00:34:25]Any more happiness than this is possible?

[00:34:27]Not in this life, unfortunately. That's the limit of human happiness.

[00:34:33]You can't conceive of any practically you cannot conceive of any more happiness in human life than this. If you're on track one trying to satisfy desires, be wealthy, famous, powerful, successful and then be happy by that.

[00:34:47]How can you be more happy than this?

[00:34:50]But it is possible more happiness is possible in other worlds.

[00:34:56]So this is this is the Vedic idea. There are multiple worlds. There are many worlds.

[00:35:01]There are other worlds. There are other lives.

[00:35:04]There are the worlds of the gods, demigods and so on. Heaven after heaven.

[00:35:09]So in Hinduism there's not one heaven.

[00:35:11]There are multiple heavens.

[00:35:13]They're not particularly spiritual.

[00:35:15]They're just having a party there.

[00:35:17]So those heavens afford us more happiness than this. How so?

[00:35:22]See happiness depends on three things.

[00:35:25]One is sharira body.

[00:35:30]You must have the senses and capacity for enjoyment.

[00:35:35]How much can you eat? How much can you drink? How many movies can you watch?

[00:35:41]I remember when we were kids there used to be something in India called VCR, video cassette recorder.

[00:35:47]And um after examinations parents would allow us one day to watch movies.

[00:35:54]Because one day and we're kids cram as many movies as possible into one day.

[00:35:59]So I remember once after such a binge before the word binge watching was there. We still pre-binge watching binge watching. So you would have to go to a shop and borrow rent video cassettes.

[00:36:13]So all our favorite movies we'd get and friends we would watch it. The next day one of my teachers asked me so what did you do? I said we watched movies sir. From we borrowed it. How many? I said it was an ungodly number of movies. All day long we watch movies. We were we we kids. We could go on and on because we had to cram all the satisfaction before the parents took away the permission.

[00:36:35]Next day no more movies.

[00:36:37]So I remember my teacher asking, "So many movies in one day? Are you human or animal?"

[00:36:47]So you need a body. You need senses. You need the capacity, the bandwidth, the ability to enjoy more and more. This human body cannot do it. It will blow a fuse.

[00:37:00]If you party too much, what happens? You get sick. You don't enjoy anymore.

[00:37:04]There's a limit of enjoyment and then it you feel begin to feel you start feeling sick.

[00:37:11]So Somerset Maugham, I quoted him yesterday.

[00:37:14]The single-minded pursuit of pleasure, if you single-mindedly pursue pleasure, very soon you'll find nothing pleasing anymore. Why? Because the Vedas would say, "Your capacity is limited."

[00:37:27]The little boy Nachiketa, when he was tempted by the lord of death Yama, Yama said he asked for self-knowledge. And Yama said, the lord of death said, "Don't ask for that."

[00:37:38]You always tell kids, "Oh, that's for old people. You go and have fun." So Yama says, "You go and have fun. I'll give you all this stuff to enjoy." What was the reply of Nachiketa, the little boy? So wise. Sarvendriyani Jarayanti Tejah. He says, "All of your enjoyments, oh lord of death, whatever you're setting before me, the entire catalog, it all has an end.

[00:38:02]And very quickly do they wear out our senses.

[00:38:06]It'll age you.

[00:38:08]It'll damage you.

[00:38:10]It'll kill you. If you keep on trying to enjoy You become an addict. You You lose all capacity for enjoyment. So you need a more powerful body.

[00:38:22]Superman, Spider-Man body, huh? To enjoy more powerful senses. Then what else do you need to maximize enjoyment? Vishayaha, objects. What objects will you enjoy here? The whole range of objects. Now, everything is available for enjoyment if you have money. Amazon Prime will give it to you.

[00:38:42]This is the heaven idea. In Vedas, you find what is the the great thing about heaven? Whatever you desire will be immediately provided to you. Amazon Prime, one day.

[00:38:56]But, you see, you have to have money.

[00:38:57]Yes. In heaven, the money is your good karma. You're spending your karma credit.

[00:39:03]And whatever you want is immediately provided. Heaven idea, Amazon Prime is delivering it to to you.

[00:39:09]But, better and better objects, superior objects, things which the objects of enjoyment which we cannot even imagine here.

[00:39:17]Extraordinarily sophisticated, powerful senses to enjoy those objects, and the objects are also of a superior kind.

[00:39:25]It's like this.

[00:39:27]And that Okay, I'll I'll mention it later.

[00:39:31]The most refined of artists, classical musician, painter, dancer.

[00:39:38]It's not really the physical thing which they're doing which they enjoy. There's a a level of aesthetic enjoyment in a cultivated mind.

[00:39:48]So, who was it who became deaf?

[00:39:49]Beethoven?

[00:39:51]Beethoven.

[00:39:52]Yet, he could compose music. He was hearing it internally. Music was in his mind, not this physical ear.

[00:40:01]And I can guarantee the music he heard in his mind was a supernal music, far superior to what we hear with our ears and physical vibration.

[00:40:13]That becomes the enjoyment of the gods in heaven.

[00:40:16]That's just the beginning of it.

[00:40:18]Vishaya.

[00:40:19]And then what's the third thing that you need? Lokaha, a world, an environment, a virtual environment.

[00:40:26]See, environment is very important in our enjoyment.

[00:40:30]The same cup of tea you get uh outside in a cart.

[00:40:35]You ask for that cup of tea in Hilton or something like that, they'll charge you 10 times more.

[00:40:41]Why? What are they charging you for?

[00:40:43]It's the same thing. You're the same person, the cup of tea or coffee is the same cup of coffee. Then what are they They're charging you for lokaha, environment.

[00:40:51]Heavenly environment of our Hilton.

[00:40:54]Or whatever it is.

[00:40:56]So, heaven, it's an extraordinary environment, extraordinary object of enjoyment, extraordinary capacity to enjoy. You have the appetite for it. You have the delightful food to enjoy, and you have a nice, nice environment to enjoy it in.

[00:41:14]This is lokha, sharira, lokha, vishaya.

[00:41:17]Those are boosted. You come to the next level of enjoyment in heaven. A hundred times that.

[00:41:24]He says, shatam manus so ekam manushya gandharvanam anandam. There are these This is what I meant.

[00:41:32]This is a the next heaven you can go to, aspire for, is a where these divine musicians dwell.

[00:41:41]Artists, they're called gandharvas.

[00:41:44]What are they like? You can get a little intimation of that if you hear the What happened?

[00:41:53]Oh, the food's here.

[00:42:00]Yes.

[00:42:02]That's enough enough of Vedanta.

[00:42:04]>> [laughter] >> The food's here.

[00:42:07]Go get it.

[00:42:11]Yeah. So, it's so attractive. This this uh 100 times more joy. The joy they get the divine artists musicians we all have heard the term in India the Gandharvas.

[00:42:22]They are supernatural musicians, dancers, artists.

[00:42:27]Their aesthetic enjoyment is a 100 times more than that guy who has got the maximum human at You may be the most brilliant person, the most successful person with a trillion dollars to your name, and still quite young and healthy and everything, but 100 times your happiness 100 times your happiness is available to everyone who dwells Hilton not Hilton that Manushya Gandharva Loka. There is one world there where you get a body like that, you get objects like that, and you get a world to enjoy it.

[00:43:05]This is the first of many heavens.

[00:43:09]This 100 times but only catch is you got to die to go there.

[00:43:14]You can't have it now.

[00:43:16]How do you go there? You perform these Vedic rituals, you earn the karma credit to go to this heaven.

[00:43:23]After death. All temporary. When you run out of money you are rejected. Thank you, sir, you can come back again.

[00:43:30]You have maxed out your credit card karma credit card. You are reborn in this world again. Then do more Vedic rituals and you are back. So, this is the karma kanda of the Vedas. This is causality cause and effect. Generate good karma, enjoy the results of good karma.

[00:43:45]Of course, it's far better than generating bad karma and suffering.

[00:43:49]So, this is the first of many heavens.

[00:43:52]Now, what about our track to what about spirituality? What about Vedanta? It starts now.

[00:43:58]Shrotriyasya Chakama Atasya says This man who says, "Wait a minute.

[00:44:06]Suppose I give up the desire for wealth, for progeny, for fame, for power, and I center myself through meditation, devotion, self-enquiry into this limitless nature which I am.

[00:44:21]And I don't want this joy.

[00:44:24]This object getting that object and enjoy. I don't want it. I'm going to stop that.

[00:44:28]Then what will happen? So, you start off in this life itself with a hundred times more joy. The joy of that first heaven you will get in this life itself.

[00:44:39]Your friend who is the most successful person in the world and most rich and most happy, maximum human happiness, a hundred times more than that you will get right now if you are on stage two or track two.

[00:44:52]Bhajananda. Of course, you must be genuinely on that track two. You can't be I am a spiritual seeker. I want God realization. And I desire that a little bit, too.

[00:45:02]Then you are asking for trouble. If you put your feet on both boats, you're going to sink.

[00:45:08]The danger of this kind of life There's a saying among monks.

[00:45:13]See, renunciation is common. You have to renounce internally if not externally.

[00:45:17]Externally if you renounce internally and externally, you're a monk.

[00:45:21]Internally you renounce, externally you may be still be in the world. Many of these people were householders. But internally their goal was I am a seeker of God. I am a spiritual seeker. My goal is God realization. And I'm on track two. I am a uh my my joy is Bhajananda. The joy comes out of spiritual life.

[00:45:41]So, if you're on track two, that internal internally you have renunciation. The renunciation is a must.

[00:45:48]You don't have the renunciation. There's a saying among monks.

[00:45:52]Sadhu hona kathin hai.

[00:45:54]It's difficult to be a monk.

[00:45:56]Jaise ped khajoor.

[00:45:58]Like the date palm tree.

[00:46:03]So, it's like tall like a coconut tree.

[00:46:05]It's difficult to climb.

[00:46:10]If you climb it the date palm is very sweet.

[00:46:14]You can taste the he says you can taste the primrose the the the the syrup of divine love.

[00:46:23]You you taste it if you climb it.

[00:46:29]But if you slip and fall from there the higher you climb the faster you'll fall.

[00:46:34]If you do fall if you slip and fall you'll be smashed.

[00:46:38]You'll have nothing left at all. You'll be devastated completely.

[00:46:41]So, you have to be careful.

[00:46:44]But you get a hundred times if you're genuinely a spiritual seeker. Whether you are externally a monk or not internally a bonus to be monk like that internal renunciation has to be there.

[00:46:54]That is the condition for this track two.

[00:46:57]This track two he says a hundred times you begin with a hundred times joy.

[00:47:01]Without going without dying without going to that heaven without becoming a divine musician or whatever you still have a hundred times the maximum human joy right here.

[00:47:13]But that is to be based on he says shrotriyasya chakama tasya. You must not have the desire for that track one.

[00:47:23]I will get some of that.

[00:47:25]And plus my Vedanta. No, then you're self-sabotaging.

[00:47:31]So, what do you have shrotriya? Well grounded in spirituality. Shrotriya means shruti Vedanta well grounded in Vedanta. I am Brahman whatever we talked about till the morning.

[00:47:41]Really genuinely I am that and fill our lives with meditation devotion service study all of that the the spiritual practices and that's my life.

[00:47:55]You will get a hundred times the joy of the the most successful worldly person.

[00:48:00]This is not the end of it. Analysis of happiness continues.

[00:48:16]100 times the happiness of that Gandharva.

[00:48:20]The divine musician is the next heaven.

[00:48:24]If you go there, you will get a 100 times of that. And how much is that of the maximum human happiness? 10,000 times.

[00:48:31]Keep multiplying. 100 into 100, 10,000 times.

[00:48:35]Where is this next heaven? It's those of the the Deva Gandharva. They are divine musicians, but they are not um The other one was a transition between the human and the divine, Manushya Gandharva. The Deva Gandharvas are superior. Their heaven, they are more high-class.

[00:48:54]And they are Juilliard School.

[00:48:56]So, they they they are What is that? Berkeley School of Music is there?

[00:49:03]Ensemble? Yes, so they have a 100 times the happiness of that lower heaven.

[00:49:07]10,000 times what you can get in this world maximum.

[00:49:11]And he says, you if you give up that desire also, you will enjoy it here and now if you are a spiritual seeker.

[00:49:19]Two things, you must not have that desire.

[00:49:25]And second, you must be centered in spiritual life.

[00:49:29]These two things together. You will have that happiness here. Then, 100 times the happiness of that also.

[00:49:43]>> [singing] >> 100 times of that. You go to the level of the heaven of the ancestors where your ancestors dwell the good ones among them.

[00:49:58]Where they dwell, they are enjoying a hundred times the happiness of the divine musicians that that heaven of the ancestors to that you may aspire for.

[00:50:07]If you have enough of karma credit and you have a really really unthinkably happy time. The more you think about it, you feel like fainting. What can be a hundred times ten thousand times the happiness of the maximum human happiness here. But all of that you can have right here. If you give up that desire also and say I am Brahman and those things are also Brahman and Brahman alone is appearing as that heaven.

[00:50:32]I am all of that. I am Brahman itself and center yourself without those desires.

[00:50:38]Center yourself in spiritual life.

[00:50:42]Bhajanānanda, get joy from spiritual life. You will get it right here.

[00:50:50]And it goes on like this.

[00:50:53]Heaven after heaven after heaven and each stage it is said śrotriyasya cākāmahatasya śrotriya centered in Vedānta akāmahatam not literally not damaged by desire.

[00:51:08]Not sabotaged by desire.

[00:51:12]So all those things you hear about slips in spiritual life it's because of this of trying to walk on both boats at the same time.

[00:51:20]Renunciation a powerful turning away from worldly projects is necessary. Externally you may still do your duty. You will still be you See.

[00:51:31]Nisargadatta fully enlightened person what did he do for a living? He sold beedis.

[00:51:36]The uh the the local cigarettes.

[00:51:43]Yes, the rolled tobacco.

[00:51:46]So he continued.

[00:51:50]You have to do something.

[00:51:51]Life will continue. That is of no consequence to the enlightened person.

[00:51:56]So, you could be a monk or you could be whatever you are. That can continue. Sri Ramakrishna put it this way.

[00:52:02]What happens after enlightenment? He says, "A clerk was caught doing something wrong and put in a jail. Then he was released from jail.

[00:52:09]What will he do?" In Bengali he said, "Okay, they they could not say."

[00:52:13]Really done. He may dance around for a while, but then he'll go back to being a clerk.

[00:52:18]So, after enlightenment also, external life may continue in some form.

[00:52:24]And so it continues like this. One heaven after another heaven after another heaven.

[00:52:34]And it goes on up to the greatest of heavens.

[00:52:47]Go up to Brahma, the creator of the universe.

[00:52:51]What is called Hiranyagarbha, the cosmic mind.

[00:52:54]Consciousness associated with all minds of the universe.

[00:52:58]Is an unthinkable being. Bit like ChatGPT.

[00:53:04]So, the joy of that that one consciousness associated with the entire universe.

[00:53:11]That joy will be yours.

[00:53:15]Where? Here.

[00:53:19]I don't know if all of that you can measure that way, but it is true.

[00:53:23]Among the happiest of people I have seen, truly, lastingly, deeply, unshakably happy is our spiritual people.

[00:53:30]Those are genuinely spiritual. There may be a handful who are genuinely like that. But they are One thing is common to all of them. Whoever they are, in whatever religion they are, they're genuinely very happy people.

[00:53:42]Unshakably so.

[00:53:45]You feel It brings a smile on your face if you go next to them.

[00:53:49]You say, "Why? Are they comedians?"

[00:53:53]Sometimes they may appear to be grim.

[00:53:56]The personality may differ. Internally there's a fountain of joy always. Very pure, natural joy, unshakable.

[00:54:04]One thing common to all spiritual people, all great spiritual people, however advanced they are, one thing common to all them, in whatever religion they are, they don't grumble.

[00:54:15]Then you might Apparently they might have many problems. Maybe physical problem, illness, what not. They might be poor people, desperately poor.

[00:54:24]No complaint at all. No complaint.

[00:54:26]I have seen a monk who was paralyzed, both feet paralyzed, one arm paralyzed, blind in both eyes.

[00:54:37]And he's a monk. He has no family.

[00:54:40]He has no money. Nobody took after him.

[00:54:41]Of course, we looked after him.

[00:54:43]The monastery did so.

[00:54:45]Never ever, let alone unhappiness, not a single complaint about his own physical state.

[00:54:53]That he taught me just by seeing him you realize what is bodilessness.

[00:54:58]Bodilessness is not something mysterious, science fiction, special effect. You come out of the body like a smoke or some like a ray of light. No, it is remaining the body and the body does not concern you in the least. It's as if it's not there at all.

[00:55:14]Whatever the even the worst state of the body. See, what is the sign of ill health? When you the body reminds you that it's there, that's the sign, beginning of ill health.

[00:55:24]Perfectly healthy body, it will you will not notice it generally.

[00:55:29]Hunger, thirst, illness, pain, all of them are bodily problems reminding you, "Here, pay attention."

[00:55:37]Now you have the most devastated body.

[00:55:40]Paralyzed.

[00:55:41]Old, going to die soon. I don't know what other medical conditions were there. Blind.

[00:55:46]And utterly helpless in the world.

[00:55:50]You can't think of a more devastating social and physical or medical condition.

[00:55:55]And yet, what a personality. My god, he would dominate the entire room.

[00:56:00]What a voice.

[00:56:01]If you went to this this old monk, he would ask you first.

[00:56:05]You have to say who you are. Where are you from? How are you? How are you doing? Which ashram have you come from?

[00:56:10]Which are the other monks there? How are things in the ashram? You have to tell them and he would convey his blessings and inspiration to you.

[00:56:19]He would scold.

[00:56:21]This is not This is the evening comes.

[00:56:23]Oh, monks, I still remember the hospital. We're sitting around evening, we're gossiping. We thought we were off from the monastery routine because we're sick after all.

[00:56:30]So I can take a day off.

[00:56:32]He's sitting He's lying in the bed there in the corner.

[00:56:35]And other monks were sitting um something called Bengalis like muri jhalmuri.

[00:56:40]We were having that and gossiping. And the monk The old Swami at the corner, he What a voice.

[00:56:46]The evening comes. Oh, monks, this is time for meditation. Stop gossiping.

[00:56:51]Mhm.

[00:56:53]And everybody obeyed him.

[00:56:56]So it is possible.

[00:56:57]Does not matter what is there at the physical level.

[00:57:01]So this joy is possible here and now.

[00:57:04]It is possible here and now.

[00:57:09]The greatest of joys, the joy of Brahmaji.

[00:57:14]Mhm. The the creator of the universe, Hiranyagarbha, that one.

[00:57:19]Now this is called Bhajananda.

[00:57:23]Now.

[00:57:29]Track three.

[00:57:31]Or the stage three, Brahma.

[00:57:37]I calculated all these heavens.

[00:57:40]How much happiness will there be at the highest heaven?

[00:57:43]Remember what is what unit one of happiness?

[00:57:47]You have to be young.

[00:57:49]You have to be super smart. You have to have a trillion dollars. You have to um be noble. You have to have good intentions in the world.

[00:57:58]All of that.

[00:58:00]Uh that's the maximum possible human happiness.

[00:58:03]Then 100 times that, 100 times of that, and 100 times of that. Higher and higher heavens or here itself if you are on track two.

[00:58:11]You will get all that here.

[00:58:14]Now I calculated what's the maximum happiness they're talking about.

[00:58:20]Um Brahma Hiranyagarbha's happiness.

[00:58:24]Compared to that human being's happy maximum the maximum human happiness 10 to the power there's a two to Calculators have to go and calculate it.

[00:58:32]They're talking about 10 to the power 20. One followed by 20 zeros.

[00:58:36]And you remember what that one is? It's the most incredible happiness you can uh success and happiness you can think of in this world itself.

[00:58:44]10 to the power 20. One followed by 20 zeros. That many times this happiness. It's just a way of making us wow go wow.

[00:58:56]The Vedas just trying to attract our attention here. This is what is possible.

[00:59:01]The only way you can the two ways you can do it. One way is do lots of Vedic fire rituals and make sure the priest gets his commission. That's was the whole point of it.

[00:59:11]And you can't catch hold of the priest if you don't get 100 times the happiness of your worldly happiness. He says, "Hey, you promised 100 times. I want to talk to customer care." No, you are dead. Remember? You are gone.

[00:59:21]The you can't get hold of the priest anymore.

[00:59:24]Uh Uh, so that is one way. The other way is spiritual life.

[00:59:29]Uh, spiritual life. You will get that happiness here itself, not at the very end. From the beginning itself, that much happiness you will get. Higher and higher and greater and greater happiness as you move through spiritual life.

[00:59:41]It's not all or nothing. It's day-to-day result.

[00:59:45]You get peace in life. You get strength to face life. You get meaning in life, a purpose in life, a a very pure joy in life. All those things you get from day-to-day in spiritual life. That's what keeps people in spiritual life.

[01:00:00]Not just the promise of eventual moksha, salvation, heaven, nirvana. That seems very far away. What am I getting now?

[01:00:08]You will get something now. Every day.

[01:00:10]Day-to-day you will get.

[01:00:12]Krishna says, "Svalpam apyasya dharmasya trayate mahato bhayat." Even a little practice of spirituality saves you from great fear.

[01:00:21]All right.

[01:00:23]10 to the power 20.

[01:00:25]That's so much that even thinking about it makes you dizzy.

[01:00:31]I remember reading a science fiction childish science fiction story.

[01:00:36]Um I've even forgotten the name of the story, but the ideas are stuck in my mind. When we were kids, we learned bigger and bigger numbers. We learned to count to a hundred. That's a lot.

[01:00:47]Then we understood the concept of a thousand.

[01:00:50]Then a ten thousand.

[01:00:52]A hundred thousand. It's impossible to count. You will have You won't have patience to sit and count to a hundred thousand. We all learned, but we understand how much it is. A million.

[01:01:02]A billion. You go, "Wow, a billion." And now a trillion.

[01:01:07]A trillion. Wow, that's a lot.

[01:01:10]So, the person who invented that 10 to the power He talked about 10 to the power 100, that number, one followed by 100 zeros.

[01:01:18]And his nephew or somebody was a story goes um his nephew or somebody was a little baby and so he asked his nephew, "What is this number?"

[01:01:27]And the baby just said, "Googol."

[01:01:30]And so he named it Google.

[01:01:32]That's how the name has come.

[01:01:34]Do you know the story the Google Google name has come like that? Google actually means 10 to the power 100.

[01:01:39]Uh, look it up.

[01:01:41]And there's a story that the little baby named it. And he just said, "Googol."

[01:01:48]And there's also something called Googleplex.

[01:01:51]10 to the power Google number of zeros.

[01:01:54]These are just theoretical numbers. Even every um, the tiniest quark in the universe, total number of elementary particles also is far less than that. That is the number which it seems to have no use at all. But you can think about it. And so tremendous, as the science fiction story goes, the bigger the number we learned, 100, 1,000, 100,000, wow. You get more and more thrilled and amazed.

[01:02:18]It's mind-blowing.

[01:02:20]So then, so there's a scientist who invents a number which is so big if you see it, you will die.

[01:02:28]So it's not billion, not trillion, he called it a killion.

[01:02:34]Huh.

[01:02:35]If you see it, you will die. It's so big. You'll be so thrilled, you will die.

[01:02:40]And so you just have to show people that number and they will die. It's the most powerful uh, weapon.

[01:02:48]Now imagine this is so much happiness.

[01:02:50]If you even think about it, you may get a stroke.

[01:02:54]10 to the power 20 happiness of uh, the maximum human happiness.

[01:02:58]But that you can get here.

[01:03:00]And then he goes on to say finally, "But all of this is reflecting yourself in a mirror."

[01:03:08]If you reflect your face in a mirror, could be an ordinary mirror, it could be a shiny mirror. In a barber shop you can get a thousand reflections of that. But they're all reflections.

[01:03:19]You are it. With a reflection, with no reflection, with good reflection, with shiny reflection, you are that face.

[01:03:27]Do you really need to keep reflecting it?

[01:03:30]We don't. A mature person will never carry around a mirror. Very narcissistic to keep looking at yourself in.

[01:03:35]Nowadays, mobile phone is there.

[01:03:38]Selfie.

[01:03:40]No, you don't need to.

[01:03:42]You know, I am this.

[01:03:44]So, the enlightened one knows I am Brahman.

[01:03:48]I am that one reality which shines in that one guy as the maximum human happiness. It shines in Brahma as 10 to the power 20 of that.

[01:04:00]It also shines in the one miserable person, also.

[01:04:03]Also in the ant, also in the mouse, also everywhere.

[01:04:07]And I am that.

[01:04:10]That realization is called Brahmananda.

[01:04:13]You are the bliss that is At that point, you're no longer tasting sugar. You are sugar.

[01:04:21]Upanishad says, "Sa yas cayam puruse, yas caso aditye, sa ekaha."

[01:04:29]What did he say here? Something startling.

[01:04:32]10 to the power 20, where where are we?

[01:04:34]That killian happiness.

[01:04:37]The 10 to the power 20, maximum, unthinkable. I have don't even think about it, you'll faint.

[01:04:43]That happiness we are there. Now, the Upanishad comes here says something startling. It's been going up, you know.

[01:04:48]One, then 100 times that, then 100 times that, then 100 times that. Now, he has reached 10 to the power 20. Then, he says the Upanishad, the teacher says, "The happiness that is in that one and the happiness that is in Brahma, the one human being and in Brahma, that happiness is one."

[01:05:07]It's the same thing.

[01:05:09]1 is equal to 10 to the power 20. How is that possible?

[01:05:14]How is that possible?

[01:05:18]The answer is this.

[01:05:20]The one happiness is the reflection of Brahman in that body, in that world loka, in those objects of enjoyment.

[01:05:28]That's the maximum possible reflection in that mirror.

[01:05:32]And that extraordinary happiness is the reflection of the same Brahman in that mirror of Brahmadi, the body, the the environment of Brahmadi, the tremendous mind of Brahma. In that, the reflection of this sun, blazing sun of happiness in that.

[01:05:52]In Vedanta, that is called Aditya, the consciousness associated with the sun.

[01:05:58]This is called manushya, consciousness associated with the human body.

[01:06:04]But what am I? I am consciousness itself.

[01:06:09]Whether shining in a human body or shining in the mirror of of of Brahma.

[01:06:14]But the original I am.

[01:06:18]It can be manifested as one here, it can be manifested as 100 there, 10,000 there, or 10 to the power 20 there.

[01:06:25]All of these are not real. They are all reflections of me. I am looking at my face in various mirrors.

[01:06:32]But I am the original face.

[01:06:34]And so he says, "Say yes chaiyam purushay, the happiness that is there in this human being, most happy human being, yes chaso Aditya, the happiness that shines in that tremendous deity, sa ekaha.

[01:06:51]It's one.

[01:06:53]Which is that one? It is you.

[01:06:55]You are that.

[01:06:57]Once you realize this, the desire for throwing myself into a particular name and form and enjoying myself there, that will disappear.

[01:07:08]Yeah. You'll be fully satisfied.

[01:07:10]You will have no desire that See, there's an analysis here. The happiness that is reflected happiness and the happiness that is original happiness.

[01:07:20]The original happiness is what? Brahman, Satchidananda.

[01:07:24]That which you found in the morning session. That is the original.

[01:07:27]These are the ways in which it is it is reflected and experienced in a human mirror, in a Gandharva divine mirror, in a Deva Gandharva, in up to Prajapati and Brahma. These are the different mirrors which the Vedas set before us.

[01:07:44]You may not believe in these things also. Doesn't matter.

[01:07:47]This which we are talking about, you have to believe in it because it's it's evident. It's just demonstrating the bliss that is Brahman.

[01:07:57]I am that. Therefore, I need not throw myself into various mirrors, try to see myself in various mirrors. You may if you want to.

[01:08:05]Sri Ramakrishna says something very odd in one of the sections in the Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna. He says, "If I were to keep seeing my face in a mirror, people would think I'm crazy."

[01:08:17]But there's no context for that that comment. It It I think it means this.

[01:08:24]Why would you want this mirror, that mirror, this You let go of all of that. You are sugar now.

[01:08:31]Sri Ramakrishna would ask people who would come to him, he would ask a question, "Would you eat sugar or be sugar?"

[01:08:37]Ramana Maharshi was asked. Sri Ramakrishna used to ask people, "Would you eat sugar or be sugar?" Ramana Maharshi was asked, "What do you say?"

[01:08:43]Ramana Maharshi said, "In this context, very precise, in this context, eating sugar means means becoming sugar."

[01:08:51]If you eat the sugar, you inevitably you are sugar itself.

[01:08:54]It become It means this from an Advaitic perspective, of course.

[01:08:58]>> Sa ekaha Brahmananda I pray to Sri Ramakrishna, Ma Sharada, Swami Vivekananda to bless all of us and that we may realize our true nature in this life itself.

[01:09:17]That we may be flooded with this divine bliss. That we may understand the importance of turning away from pursuing this happiness in objects in the world and find it.

[01:09:30]If you want to pursue the path of Jnana it's your real nature. If you are of a devotional bent of mind, it is God. It's the love of God. Bhakti and your Ananda in in Vedanta is the same thing.

[01:09:45]You see all these things do not apply to me. I love God. Good. That's what you're talking about.

[01:09:50]You by loving God, one becomes love itself.

[01:09:54]Or by realizing what I am Brahman, one again becomes love itself, bliss itself, the bliss that is Brahman.

[01:10:01]Om Shanti Shanti Shantihi Harihi Om Tat Sat Sri Ramakrishna Arpanamastu.

[01:10:17]Very good.

[01:10:20]Yes.