Amrita Bindu Upanishad (3 of 6) Taught by Swami Tadatmananda

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[00:00:02]Just a brief comment before we begin.

[00:00:06]Based on what we've been studying, we just concluded the most important part of the class, right?

[00:00:19]That's what this is all about.

[00:00:23]So we'll come back to the last verse that we saw which was all about meditation. You'll see meditation continuing in uh today's class. Without doubt these first 10 minutes are the most important part of the class. All right begin with our prayer.

[00:00:48]Foreast.

[00:01:24]The name Shanty Shanty Shanty.

[00:01:40]Very good. [sighs] Uh so my remarks a few moments ago are completely based on the uh verse that we ended our last class with.

[00:01:58]Is that the last one? Four. No, five.

[00:02:02]Yeah. Yes.

[00:02:08]You should restrain your mind to a certain extent. To what extent?

[00:02:19]To the extent that your mind resolves in the heart. And we translated or heart. In our last class, we interpret it to mean such anandanda atma, your true self. That consciousness which is the core of your being. The consciousness because of which you know what's happening right now. Keep it very immediate. The consciousness present in this experience. When your mind resolves in that consciousness and that expression of resolving your mind in the in in consciousness, an expression like that is open to lots of debate and discussion.

[00:03:05]Um, if we were going to interpret that expression, what does it mean to resolve your mind in consciousness?

[00:03:13]This is a text on Adita Vanta. So if we're going to interpret it, we should in interpret it according to traditional commentaries on writings of of uh Adwita Vanta and especially interpreted according to how Sri Shankarachi explains these texts. So following that interpretation to resolve your mind if anything resolves it's really a hungara that resolves ego that resolves so that to the extent that you no longer identify yourself as being a limited individual you no longer identify yourself with your mind with your body with your senses etc. So that you have an opportunity to personally discover I am that consciousness. I am that's such an atma. The consciousness present in this experience is unborn, unccreated, unchanging, boundaryless, limitless, vast. I am that consciousness. That's a recognition that's implied by this prior verse.

[00:04:29]This is the wisdom that we wish to achieve.

[00:04:34]This is the purpose of meditation.

[00:04:40]Everything else is just logic and reasoning that goes on and on. The purpose of that logic and reasoning as we discussed before class is to make that discovery. So this verse talks about that discovery. That discovery and I think we discussed this briefly in the last class. We'll just mention it before we move on to the coming text.

[00:05:02]That discovery can take place at the time of listening. It often does.

[00:05:08]Doesn't have to be a special situation.

[00:05:10]It doesn't have to be in deep meditation. When you make that discovery, that discovery can take place and often does for many students take place during the time of listening in a class like this. But that discovery may not take place in the time of listening.

[00:05:28]It can take place at other times as well. I'm smiling because I'm recalling a nice explanation for this. Kind of a cute explanation of this. Did you ever get stumped by a problem and you couldn't figure it out? You really tried to figure it out, couldn't figure it out, couldn't figure it out, couldn't figure it out. And then, you know, you slept on it and then you woke up in the morning, you still can't figure it out.

[00:05:53]Sometimes you sleep on it and you get it. But suppose you slept on it, you still can't figure it out. What can you do? You go and you go on with your morning's activities. You take a shower.

[00:06:04]And while you're taking a shower, did that ever happen to you? While you're taking There's something about taking a shower. I'm convinced there's something about I wonder how many people got enlightened while they're taking a shower.

[00:06:21]And if not enlightened, it's an op some there's something about taking a shower that allows the mind to relax in a certain way. And when that mind is relaxed, it has an opportunity to discover new things.

[00:06:40]So that relaxation can take place in the shower. The relaxation that allows you to drop some wrong conclusions which prevent you from discovering what this rishi wants us to discover. Those wrong conclusions obstruct your personal discovery. If you drop those wrong conclusions, making the discovery is effortless. And sometimes we need a little help in relaxing in dropping our wrong conclusions. Taking a shower can do it. Going for a long walk can do it.

[00:07:14]Meditation can most certainly do it. So this is one of many reasons for meditation. We're going to see quite a bit more on meditation in the in the uh coming verses.

[00:07:28]So this prior verse said said your mind is to be restrained. Not just restrained means restrained but not mere restraint restraint with direction. You know to merely restrain is useless. Just let's be very clear. To merely make your mind quiet in and of itself is useless. I don't know. We had this discussion, I think, quite a while ago. Let's just reflect on that once again. To merely make your mind quiet is useless. I'm sorry to say it in such blunt terms, but every night in deep sleep, your mind is perfectly silent. You don't wake up from deep sleep enlightened. You wake up refreshed.

[00:08:21]If in meditation all you manage to do is make your mind silent, all you're going to get out of it is you'll emerge refreshed.

[00:08:31]There's so much more to meditation than mere restraint of your thoughts. So here it's restraint. It says so it's giving a direction. So it's not mere restraint but it's restraining the mind and redirecting your mind where towards the heart towards the core of your being towards the truth of who you are such anandanda atma. So that process is going to be discussed now in the next uh couple of verses.

[00:09:09]You might ask if if we're describing a process of meditation, what are we meditating on?

[00:09:20]So it says you should restrain your mind and you should direct your mind towards your heart towards consciousness.

[00:09:31]Does it mean you meditate on consciousness?

[00:09:37]There's a problem here. Consciousness is not an object on which you can meditate.

[00:09:45]In fact, consciousness is the meditator.

[00:09:50]Consciousness is the essence of the meditate.

[00:09:55]Consciousness is not an object of meditation. Consciousness can never be an object of meditation because it's not an object. It's the subject. Objects and subjects are different. Grammatically they're different and in terosophically they're different. Experientially they're different. You are the knowing subject, the awareful subject.

[00:10:19]Consciousness is you.

[00:10:22]You can't meditate on consciousness.

[00:10:26]But then that's what the verse seems to be saying.

[00:10:30]I am you should res you should turn your mind towards consciousness. Let's explore this a little bit with the with the coming verse. What does it mean to meditate on consciousness? What does it mean to turn your mind towards the core of who you are? The term used here is heart. What does it mean to restrain your mind and direct your mind towards your heart towards consciousness? Let's see the next verse.

[00:10:59]Gentium genty.

[00:11:30]So what is it you're meditating on?

[00:11:32]Whatever it is, you literally you can't meditate on it.

[00:11:38]It is not chinta. It is not available for contemplation or meditation or thinking. Chintium literally means thinkable and that's a very awkward English word but it's the closest equivalent. Centium is that which you can think about. You can think about apples and oranges. You can think about what day of the week it is. You can't think I'm I need to be more precise in my language. An apple or an orange can be the content of a thought. Be very we have to be real careful on language here. An apple or orange can be the content of a thought. You can think about it. It can be the subject matter of a particular thought. The subject matter of a particular thought can be an apple or an orange. It can be what day of the week it is. Can be the subject matter of your thought. What your thought is about. The content of your thought. The object of your thought.

[00:12:41]That's the word I'm that's the obvious word. The object of thought can be an apple, can be an orange, can be Tuesday night, etc., etc. Can be the object of thought. Conscious object of thought means chintenta. Chinta means object of thought.

[00:12:59]Apples and oranges can be chintenta.

[00:13:02]Days of the week can be chinta. Abstract thoughts about goodness and love can be chenta.

[00:13:11]Consciousness is not chinta because it's the one doing the chintana.

[00:13:20]the one doing the thinking.

[00:13:23]Consciousness cannot be an object of thought because consciousness is the one thinking. Whenever you're thinking about something, there's a subject object relationship. I am thinking about the apple. I am thinking about what day of the week it is. I am thinking about goodness and love. I am the knowing subject. Goodness and love is the object of thought chinta.

[00:13:53]But here we admit that consciousness is noa chinta. It's not at all chinta. It can never be an object of thought. It's not out there. It's in here.

[00:14:08]It's a little bit like before class I gave that microscope metaphor. It's a little bit imagine a scientist looking through the lens. We turn this into a silly story. Scientist is looking through the lens. Swami Tarat Manandanda comes over, taps her on the shoulder.

[00:14:27]What are you looking for? I ask. She says, I'm looking for my consciousness.

[00:14:34]Not likely, but suppose you're very vantic scientist. I'm looking for my consciousness. I'm looking for such and atma.

[00:14:45]You see the fundamental error here.

[00:14:49]Consciousness is not on that side of the objective lens. Consciousness is in the other direction. Consciousness is not out there. Consciousness is in here.

[00:15:04]Things that are out there are chinta.

[00:15:07]They can be objects of thought.

[00:15:10]But consciousness is not out there available to be discovered.

[00:15:15]Consciousness is in here. Therefore, now so if you just seize on those three words and say consciousness can never be an object of thought, then why bother pursuing it?

[00:15:32]Why bother with all this vanta? Why bother with this inquiry if we admit that you will never discover among all the many things in your mind you've discovered you will never discover hidden amongst all of that you will never discover consciousness as being one among the many other objects in your mind will never be discovered if that's so then you might say well why should I pursue this at all in the next line it says In the next part it says nacha aentium.

[00:16:10]First it says nentium then aentium. Wait a minute. Even without knowing what Sanskrit you get the idea that this is self-contradictory.

[00:16:21]Consciousness is not chentia. It can never be an object of thought. But nor is it aentia. And here aentia has a little different meaning. Be careful.

[00:16:32]Words have different meanings. Aentia I'm sorry first usage of chentia means object of thought nent nentia atma cannot be an object of thought but nacha but you should not fail to inquire into it means not worthy of pursuit not worthy of understanding nentia did a grammar teacher ever tell you not to use a double negative?

[00:17:07]In Sanskrit, double negatives are used all the time.

[00:17:12]Aenta atma is not unworthy of inquiry.

[00:17:20]Atma can never be an object of thought.

[00:17:23]But atma is not unworthy of inquiry. Nacha aenta because without inquiry you will never discover it.

[00:17:37]Of course we've got this dilemma. We're trying to discover it but it is not a particular object that we're going to discover. That's absolutely okay because what all these teachings are about is to lead you to the point of discovery that this consciousness is you. It's not an object out there at all. In fact, ultimately, and we've had this discussion before, ultimately these teachings in tonight's class and in most classes, I I tend to use that word discovery again and again and again. And it's a great word to use, I think, better than knowledge because knowledge sounds very abstract. And what we're after is not something abstract. What we're after is something very immediate and very personal. So I tend to use that word discovery. But even that word is deeply flawed.

[00:18:37]Deeply flawed because you can discover your lost keys.

[00:18:44]You can discover where you left your cell phone.

[00:18:48]In that sense you can never discover atma. In that sense the selfdiscovery or selfrecognition is maybe a better word. Self-recognition is not discovering something new and novel that's out there.

[00:19:12]The key to selfdiscovery or self-recognition is actually not finding something new but getting rid of something old.

[00:19:25]What is old that we want to get rid of?

[00:19:28]Ignorance.

[00:19:30]It's the removal of ignorance that veils an already present reality and already present truth.

[00:19:41]very tricky.

[00:19:43]So, we can call that a discovery, but it's a discovery of what's already true about you. It's a discovery of what of what's already present. It's like the it's this is a little bit of a loose connection. It's like they say when when the shisha is ready, you discover the guru. You've heard this said many times.

[00:20:07]When a student is ready, the student can discover the guru.

[00:20:11]It the the the joke is the guru has been standing right in front of the shasha right in front of the students standing right in front the students had her eyes closed and then for weeks and months and years perhaps and then one day the eyes open and oh I just discovered a guru. The guru has been standing there all the time. This is a related topic. It's not our topic for right now, but it illustrates discovery. A different kind of discovery. A discovery of what is already present.

[00:20:47]A discovery that takes place through the removal of an obstacle.

[00:20:54]In that example, the obstacle is your eyelids.

[00:21:00]In this case, the obstacle is ignorance.

[00:21:05]Avidya when that avidya is removed what remains is suchanand atma. So this is an unusual kind of discovery which leads to statements like this atma cannot be discovered as an object of thought but but then don't think that atma is not available for discovery. Atma is indeed available discovery. Nacha aentam atma is not literally atma is not unworthy of pursuit atma or to get rid of the double negative atma can be discovered.

[00:21:47][snorts] Even though atma can never be an object of thought, even though atma can never be discovered like your keys or cell phone, even then chintenta.

[00:22:05]And here chintent has yet another meaning. Centium means you should pursue it. You should think about it. You should attempt to understand it. This word chentim is used here perhaps four times with four slightly different meanings which is why this is such a strange sounding uh line. So atma is here chintent not an object of thought but atma is not unworthy of thinking about it's not unworthy of pursuit even though atma is never available as an object of thought it should be inquired into you should you should think about it literally you should try to understand meaning you should try to remove that veil of ignorance.

[00:23:03]So when you look at a line like this, it looks so mysterious or someone unfamiliar with this tradition would say it looks paradoxical.

[00:23:15]And I can tell you with certainty there are no paradoxes in vanta. Paradox means something that can't be resolved.

[00:23:24]Something that can't be understood. When we say paradox we admit it can't be understood. This can be understood on the surface. It appears to be a paradox.

[00:23:37]But when you understand it thoroughly, it has to do with the subtleness of the material. The the what we're pursuing is subtle in a way that it doesn't fit into these neat categories like object of thought. We'll see that more in the next next line.

[00:23:56]All right.

[00:23:59]I've always wondered in in Vdanta there are no paradoxes. If there's not a pair, do you think there could be one?

[00:24:06]One docs, paradoxes, three docses, four docses. Sorry.

[00:24:13][laughter] Bad joke. Fun. All right.

[00:24:18]Somehow that word makes me think a pair of them.

[00:24:27]Brahma Paka means a point of view. Paka is lit.

[00:24:38]Sanskrit is such a language. Paka literally means wing.

[00:24:45]But wing doesn't have to mean the physical part of a bird. It means like in language in politics when we talk about left wing and right wing that's a wing also paka in that sense paksha con falling on that wing literally falling on the wing means clinging to a particular point of view clinging for example pakapata clinging to a point of view um clinging to a point of view like What one day I give you this is very important point clinging to a point of view like one day when my meditation becomes deep enough atma will emerge from the depths like a thousand shining suns.

[00:25:42]You may have read stuff like this.

[00:25:46]That's a pa. That's a point of view.

[00:25:50]And if you are paata, if you have clung to that point of view, you will never and that's a strong word, but I it's true. If you cling to that point of view, you will never get it.

[00:26:06]You will never understand what this rishi wants you to understand. You will never discover your true nature as such at anandanda atma. If you cling to that point of view, that atma will emerge like a thousand blinding suns.

[00:26:22]Why is that point of view so wrong?

[00:26:26]Well, you you've already figured it out.

[00:26:29]If in deep meditation you observe a thousand blinding suns, tell me who's observing the thousand blinding suns.

[00:26:43]You are the conscious observer observing the thousand blinding suns. So the thousand blinding suns cannot be consciousness. Consciousness is you the observer. What you're observing is a mental event of vi. You're observing the activities of your own mind in the form of a thousand blinding suns. It's remarkable how that particular teaching continues to be in vogue so to speak among vdanta uh students and teachers.

[00:27:13]It's been taught many many times in deep meditation. Atma will reveal itself like a thousand blinding suns. This is absolute nonsense. Unfortunat sad to say unfortunate. This is an example of pakshapata clinging to a particular view a particular a view of atma as some kind of object that one day you will discover. On the other hand, when your mind is pakshapata, vin muktdam, when your mind is vin mukta, utterly free from this pakshapata, utterly free from clinging to these wrong points of view. Really speaking, utterly free from clinging to ignorance, clinging to wrong, better to say, wrong conclusions. Clinging to wrong conclusions. When your mind is freed from clinging to wrong conclusions, how does your mind become free from clinging to wrong conclusions? Wrong conclusions are the result of ignorance.

[00:28:21]Full stop. When ignorance is removed, wrong conclusions are removed. This is what we're talking about here. A process of removing that veil of ignorance. So pakshapata vir when your mind has been freed from clinging to these points of view. When your mind has been freed from all wrong conclusions by removing the veil of ignorance, then what? Brahma tada tada. Then braha sad.

[00:28:53]One gains brahman. Wait a minute. I thought we were talking about such atma.

[00:29:00]Suddenly we're talking about Brahman.

[00:29:05]Which are we talking about? prior verse making your mind resolve in the in the heart in consciousness. Now it says when you really get it when you let go of all the wrong conclusions and really discover your true nature you'll discover Brahman. Well, from all the prior classes we've had, you can answer this question. Now, maybe before these classes, you would have had a hard time with this verse. Now, we understand very well.

[00:29:42]Atma is Brahman.

[00:29:45]Brahman is atma. That's what all the Mahavakia say in the same sense.

[00:29:49]Tatwami, I am atma, Brahma, Brahma, a brahasmi.

[00:29:56]Each of those four main mahavakyas all declare the same truth. Atma and Brahman are not two individual entities. We say atma heart the core of your being. Let's watch the language. The core of your being is a reality of who you are.

[00:30:18]Language is important here. The core of your being heart. The core of your being is the reality of who you are. The reality of who you are is not different from the reality of who I am. Is not different from the reality of because of which the entire cosmos exists.

[00:30:37]The reality of who you are is the reality of everything.

[00:30:42]The reality of who you are such anand atma is identical to the reality because of which everything exists.

[00:30:53]Brahma this is the ultimate teaching of vanta and how nice it is that this text just presumes you understand it.

[00:31:02][laughter] It just presumes of course everyone understands that atma happens to be Brahman at least you understand it intellectually you may not you know this is for the sake of understanding for the sake of teaching so it doesn't presume that you're enlightened but it presumes that you have at least an intellectual appreciation that atma is Brahman or we've expressed it another situation by saying Brahman the truth because of which the universe exists a reality because of which the universe exists.

[00:31:37]That Brahman is discovered only as your true self.

[00:31:43]You will never discover that Brahman out there analyzing a rock. Brahman is a reality because of which the rock exists.

[00:31:53]But if you put that rock underneath a microscope, go back to our scientist in the laboratory.

[00:31:58]>> [snorts] >> You put that rock underneath a microscope even though Brahman is a reality because of which the rock exists with the most powerful microscope you're not going to discover Brahman for the same reason we said before Brahman's on the other side of the lens.

[00:32:15]So this is the idea. So therefore when your attention is turned within which is what the prior verse said then this verse says further and when your mind is freed from the wrong conclusions especially the wrong conclusion of thinking atma is some object that can be discovered in your mind in meditation perhaps when your mind is freed from those wrong conclusions when the veil of ignorance is removed then tadada then brahas Then you discover the absolute reality of everything. Discovering the reality of yourself is to discover the reality of the cosmos. All right. Now, how how to do that? How to turn your attention within? How to how to observe?

[00:33:14]What are you observing? What we're after is associated with the observer.

[00:33:21]My my my guru had a nice way to put it.

[00:33:24]He said instead of meditating on something, this is like meditating on the meditator.

[00:33:33]How do you meditate on the meditator?

[00:33:35]You can't just, you know, where do you begin? Put it like that. Where do you begin? And in the next verse, we'll see where we begin and where we end. And we'll see some very familiar teachings that we've seen in prior classes.

[00:34:15]Bavarum sandum sand. You should practice yogum meditation.

[00:34:37]You should practice meditation. How? For our Sanskrit students, how is often answered with the word in the instrumental case?

[00:34:48]By means of a by means of a sound.

[00:34:55]By means of a sound.

[00:34:59]You should meditate. You should take the help of a sound to meditate. What sound?

[00:35:05]Well, there's one sound we've talked about quite extensively in in two of the texts we've studied in both kyalia upanishad and in mandukia upanishad.

[00:35:16]We've talked very extensively about meditating with a particular sound.

[00:35:22]What other sound? So swear with the help of the syllable om you should meditate. Now remember Om has all the meaning that we've studied in the kaalia and in the mand especially in the manduki panishad where a represented the waking state oo represents the dream state macara represents the sleep state to meditate on the sound om includes all of that and that's a lot if you remember how how profound our discussions were on that on and that uh use of omara meditation making use of the uh syllable om. So how do you begin this process?

[00:36:18]by taking the help of the syllable om.

[00:36:23]But that's not enough because u u and m are makara are the sw but that's not enough to lead you to discover the truth of who you are. Uh is you in a waking state. U is you in a dream state. M is you in a sleep state. But none of those three indicate your true nature as such an atma. Of course, what does indicate your true nature as atma is the silence that follows.

[00:37:01]The silence that follows M. In that silence, you and you alone are present.

[00:37:07]Consciousness and consciousness alone is present. And that's exactly what the next part says. So first part you should prepare yourself by meditating taking use of the syllable.

[00:37:22]Then what? Awar sound.

[00:37:34]You should meditate on param, the supreme, the absolute, the truth of who you are, which is the truth of everything. The truth of who you are.

[00:37:46]Atma, which is the truth of everything.

[00:37:48]Brahman that is pam the absolute. So sware with [clears throat] the help of au and ma you prepare your mind. Then in that gap of silence literally without a sound in that silent gap between repetitions of omay param you have an opportunity to discover the reality of who you are.

[00:38:21]Again when I say discover we I've already talked about the problem of that word discover. It's already present.

[00:38:28][clears throat] To discover to discover what is already present is so odd, but it's so important.

[00:38:40]Oh, there's just um there's a nice story. My guru likes to tell this story. It's a true story. Um my guru was in route to his ashram in Rishiesh and he was uh flying into the there's a small airport in Derodun which is a small town near Rishikesh in the foothills of the Himalayas and on the airplane along with him was a young American and uh they're they're flying it's a short flight from Delhi to Dodd and takes 45 minutes I forget not long. So as they're flying this young American turns to the turns to the swami and says are you going to rishiesh and swami dianandanda says yes and it says he says I'm going to rishikesh also the young American says and um the young American says I'm going to rishikesh to meet swami dianandanda [snorts] [laughter] that's very interesting so swami dianandanda is sitting next to him in the plane. He was going to Rishiesh for the sake of meeting Swami Diananda. He's obviously not met before.

[00:39:51]This is a great example of a of a opportunity to discover what is already present.

[00:40:03]So when Swami Diananda says you know the Dian that you're going to rishiesh to meet I am that Dian and this is pretty much what what happened on the plane. He tells the story many times notice when he reveals himself as the one that the young man is looking for. The young man discovers what he's looking for.

[00:40:29]But what an odd discovery because Diona was already there before.

[00:40:36]Diona was present before the discovery.

[00:40:38]Diona is present after the discovery.

[00:40:41]What kind of discovery is that? It still is a discovery. But you get the idea.

[00:40:46]It's a discovery where it's a discovery through the removal of the veil of ignorance. That kind of discovery.

[00:40:59]The Sanskrit expression to describe that particular usual discovery is if I'm going to use these fancy Sanskrit words, let's make sure they make some sense.

[00:41:15]I I'll use Roman letters.

[00:41:21]Since I was talking so much before about discovery, this concept is important to share with you right now.

[00:41:32]Propi means acquisition.

[00:41:35]Propi gaining something is propa means something which is not acquired.

[00:41:44]Aropia means attaining something that is unacquired. acquiring something that you don't have, getting something that you don't have. That's our usual sense of discovery when you when you have the propi, the acquisition of your keys which have been arroa lost.

[00:42:09]When you find your lost keys, that's the most common kind of of discovery. But in vdanta we have a different kind of discovery like when the young man discovered Somidian sitting next to him on a plane and that is called the acquisition of what you already have gaining what you already possess. That literally is what it means.

[00:42:47]This is an expression that's used to dis to describe what what we were referring to before as self-recognition to discover your true nature. To discover your true nature is not a it's not getting something new. It's not getting something you didn't have before, but rather self-recognition.

[00:43:11]Enlightenment is it is the acquisition of what's always been present. Always present but unrecognized.

[00:43:24]Okay, that's a very important expression.

[00:43:27]So [clears throat] back to our verse.

[00:43:35]First you should take Om to prepare yourself using a U and M. Then then without a sound meaning in that gap of silence between repetitions of Omaha you have that operative.

[00:43:53]You meditate on pam the supreme.

[00:43:56]Meditate on supreme doesn't mean it becomes an object of meditation. It means you have an opportunity for discovery. You have an opportunity to remove the veil of ignorance to discover the reality that's been present all along.

[00:44:14]Anubhava.

[00:44:16]And through this Anubhava be through this experience in the absence of a sound. Through this experience means through this meditation on the silence in between mantras.

[00:44:35]Awarenava through meditation on the silence between mantrasa is kind of a poetic expression existence [clears throat] the reality you seek is cannot be abhavaha cannot remain non-existent the reality you seek bhava The reality you seeka cannot remain non-existent.

[00:45:13]The reality you seek cannot remain absent from your experience, absent from your knowledge, absent from your understanding. Again, more double negatives. That's the the language. It's to turn it around. It says you will discover what you want. It the language though says that through this meditation making use of that silence in between repetitions of om in that silence.

[00:45:44]Yeah.

[00:45:47]In that silence the reality you seek cannot remain as though hidden. That's a kind of a paraphrase a little bit. The reality you seek cannot remain hidden in that silence if you've prepared yourself properly through meditating on a ma.

[00:46:11]It's not just silence. First it's a preparation that formal process of upasa as we learned before meditating on auma with all the symbolism then in that silence you have an opportunity to discover what you seek. All right.

[00:46:47]for that indeed.

[00:47:11]What indeed? That which is present in that silence between mantras.

[00:47:18]In that silence between mantras, what is present? Consciousness and nothing else.

[00:47:34]Consciousness indeed is Brahman.

[00:47:37]Nishkalam Brahma. Brahman which has no parts. Brahman which is nirvalpum literally means that which that which is free from the kalpa concept. That which is inconceivable is a good translation here. That which you can't that which can't be conceived. That which cannot be an object of thought. As we said before, chintium nervical.

[00:48:05]So that Brahman which is nishkalam free from parts, free from aspects. That Brahman which is nirvikalpum free from concepts. That's a nice way of putting it. Free from concepts. Pakapata.

[00:48:22]Free from pakshapata. It's not a Brahman is not a concept anyway. Brahman is a reality because of which everything exists. that Brahman which is niranjanam stainless.

[00:48:36]Now these words can be glossed over but if you make a little effort you can get a very deep meaning for each one of these words. Niranjanam braha is niranjanam. What does that mean? Brahman is stainless. Well we can be very abstract and philosophical about it or we can connect it to your experience which would probably be better. The brehman we're talking about is the consciousness present in the silence between repetitions of m. That consciousness is bremanhan which is niranjanam unstained untainted.

[00:49:14]Untainted. How? That consciousness is utterly unaffected by anything that happens in your mind.

[00:49:24]So that consciousness in between repetitions of Om when the next repetition of Om begins how is that consciousness changed that consciousness remains unchanged in the presence or absence of M. Remember um when we gave that example of when we explained ava in a prior class avached we said was a way of understanding mental events as consciousness with a form superimposed upon it. So when you're chanting om in your mind as a vi in your mind that om is consciousness with omness superimposed upon it. If you're right now you're looking at me in your mind is a vi with swamiatmanandanda superimposed on that vi a form superimposed on that vi. So when in water when a form is when a wave form is superimposed on water how does a water change? If it's a small wave it's a if it's a big wave if it's a breaking wave or if it's a very broad shallow wave or if it's a tsunami.

[00:50:47]How is the water affected by the shape of the wave? Water remains utterly unaffected. So how is your consciousness affected by the presence or absence of M?

[00:51:02]Not at all. Consciousness is utterly unaffected. That's what niranum here means. Stainless, taintless. But take it further. If you get it that your consciousness is utterly unaffected by the presence or absence of M, try this one.

[00:51:18]Your consciousness is utterly unaffected by the presence or absence of physical pain.

[00:51:27]Wow.

[00:51:29]It's equally true.

[00:51:31]Your consciousness is utterly unaffected by the presence or absence of your consciousness is utterly unaffected by the presence or absence of physical pain which is registered in your mind as a vi.

[00:51:45]And similarly your consciousness is utterly unaffected by the presence or absence of sadness or grief.

[00:51:55]H that's what niranjana means untainted unstained means utterly unaffected consciousness is utterly unaffected.

[00:52:07]Your consciousness, not your consciousness, you consciousness, the consciousness which is your true nature, utterly unaffected by any thought, even pain, even sorrow.

[00:52:20]And that consciousness is nirvalpum, inconceivable. It can never be an object of thought. We discussed before it is nishkalam. It is partness. It partless.

[00:52:32]It is one whole. It is you. The whole that is you. Whole with a W. Right.

[00:52:43]We have to be we have to be careful with spelling. Whole with a W. Brahma tha. Aam. That's a mahavaka. Right. A. I am. Tut braha. I am that Brahman. Tut braha. Aam. I am that Brahman.

[00:53:08]uh having understood it thus, having understood thus, having discovered I am indeed that Brahman, that unchanging, untainted consciousness, having discovered that Brahman, Brahham, Brahma, Brahman is obtained most certainly without any doubt.

[00:53:38]Brahman is obtained. Notice the expression. Brahman is obtained not when you get some philosophical understanding of Brahman. Not when you understand that Brahman is satyum.

[00:53:53]That's a very famous and important expression that comes up.

[00:54:00]Suppose you spend lots of time understanding Brahman is satyamanum.

[00:54:08]You understand what is satyam. You understand what is nyanam. You understand what is anantum. Limitless.

[00:54:14]You spend a lot of time analyzing and understanding that passage.

[00:54:19]Would that ever make you enlightened?

[00:54:22]That kind of abstract theoretical is I want to come back to that idea of discovery.

[00:54:36]This sense of personal recognition of who you are is such an simple and direct and immediate thing. It can't be the result of some concept or abstract idea.

[00:54:54]Look at this.

[00:54:57]The mahavakia aam brahasmi which is almost the same as what we see here in our text. That mahavakia aamhasmi I am Brahman generally for most people is an abstract concept. So suppose you take that expression ahammi and you want to really make it real for yourself and I'm going to be a little facicious here right now. So for the sake of making it your personal reality you decide to take it up as a mantra and go on reciting it. Aam brahasmi aamhasmi aam brahasmi aam brahasmi. You just go on repeating it. I am Brahman. I am Brahman. I am Brahman. I am Brahman and trying to convince yourself or trying to make something in your mind change so that it becomes your personal reality.

[00:55:52]Do you think that works or do you think that's silly?

[00:55:57]I think it's silly. And this is why I think it's silly. A brahasmi is actually an equation, isn't it?

[00:56:06]A I equals Brahman.

[00:56:11]Equations in math are meant to communicate knowledge. That's what math is about. It's meant to convey some knowledge. In the same way the mahavakiahmi is meant to convey some knowledge. If you merely go on reciting a brahasmi, you're reciting an equation.

[00:56:35]What do you think you'll get out of reciting an equation?

[00:56:39]Suppose I start start chanting or going on in meditation E= MC² E= MC² E= MC² that's an equation by reciting that equation what will I get out of it even if I un presuming that I understand the equation first that's important so suppose I happen to understand I studied this suppose you study in a physics class and you understand enough to understand what that equation really means. E= MC². So even with the understanding of what E= MC² means, will you get anything out of reciting it? E= MC² E= MC².

[00:57:23]In the same way when you see a mahavakia like ahammi just paring that equation ahammi ahammi ahammi does nothing again what we're after is a personal discovery there's a term that's used not so much in that dwight vanta but it's used in some other traditions I think it's used in the shiva sedhanta Kashmir shyism some other some other teachings which are similar to to advite vanta but not exactly the same. They use an expression you may have heard atma sakshhat put that up here. I don't believe Sri Shankara has ever used this expression but there's some value in it since we're talking about discovery.

[00:58:26][sighs and snorts] It's a long compound word atma atma.

[00:58:39]Sakshhat is immediate.

[00:58:41][clears throat] Sakshhat is to make something immediate.

[00:58:46]Atmaakshhat is to make atma immediate.

[00:58:52]Of course, it already is.

[00:58:56][laughter] Atma already is immediately present even for the most you know there are no degrees of enlightenment or no degrees of unenlightenment but if we were to jokingly say even for the most unenlightened of people you can imagine I don't know who who that might be these days it might be the uh might be the head of Syria might be the most unenlightened person around. Just to give an example, even for such a person, atma is absolutely present. Immediately present as present as Swami Dian was to the young American seeker on that airplane.

[00:59:46]Present but unrecognized.

[00:59:49]So this term atma sakshhatkara to make atma immediately present means to recognize the truth the already existent truth of who you are and it's very strange to say that something about us is unrecognized and just to we'll end the class just with this observation I think we're done with this verse yes t and there's a virama missing there. Another stroke is missing brahma.

[01:00:25]Through this first person discovery, not some intellectual abstract idea, but through this personal immediate discovery most certainly Brahman is discovered.

[01:00:40]Oh, I just wanted to end with this one point. I think it just went away. Let me see if I can bring it back.

[01:00:57]We said what separates you from this discovery is not the absence of anything but the presence of something. We call that something ignorance. I've used the expression veil of ignorance several times. But we could um be a little bit more concrete and say the presence of ignorance together with its effects. The effects of ignorance would mean identification with your body, identification with your personality, with your roles in life.

[01:01:33]How can you possibly discover the truth of who you are? So long as you remain firmly identified with the body, with the mind, with the senses. For this reason, we use a lot of logic and reasoning to break down that identification. Turns out the identification with the body and mind is totally unreasonable. It's illogical. So if we use the teachings of Vdant and we use some reasoning to break down the wrong conclusions we've made about ourselves.

[01:02:09]How about this? When we remove when we remove all the wrong conclusions about ourselves, what remains?

[01:02:25]Now there's an argument here. when you remove how many wrong conclusions do you think we may have about ourselves this could be a long process and at the end of a class I don't think we want to get into a very long process so suppose you have thousands and thousands and thousands of wrong conclusions about yourself when you remove the last wrong conclusion you'll be enlightened not very encouraging Is it?

[01:02:58]There's a shortcut.

[01:03:01]The shortcut is not to remove them one at a time.

[01:03:07]The shortcut is to drop all conclusions about yourself.

[01:03:14]If you drop all conclusions about yourself, you don't have you don't need to conclude a brahasmi. You don't even need to say It's unnecessary because you already are it.

[01:03:32]Is it necessary to put in words a truth that's already obvious? For example, is it [clears throat] necessary for me to tell myself I am Swamiat Mananda? Any necessity for that? None at all. So when all your wrong con when all conclusions not wrong conclusions when all conclusions about yourself are dropped removed you're done.

[01:04:07]Ahamasmi is not a second step. Ahamasmi is obvious when you've dropped all conclusions.

[01:04:17][clears throat] Notice I just want to make this point clear and then we'll stop. It's not a two-step process. It's not first boy this is actually I remember studying some commentaries on this. It's actually a very technical and deep topic but we're taking it in a very light way. It was very it's not in this way it's not very difficult. Just try this two-step process means first you drop all conclusions then you discover who you really are.

[01:04:48]This is a one-step process like on the plane when when the the young man was ignorant of this being Swami Taratman when Swami Tarat Manandanda says I am that Taratana I'm I am that Dian got all anundandas are confused here when when when Swami Dian says I am that Dian is there any second step the wrong conclusion is removed D there's no second step. So here when all conclusions are removed there's no second step which means a brahasmi or braha is not a second step it becomes obvious when all the conclusions have been removed. Okay, little that's a little complicated stuff but but uh I think it fit in very nicely at the end of the class. We will resume our text with our next class and conclude with our prayer.

[01:06:03]to sata shanty shanty.

[01:06:33]Shanti.

[01:06:36]That's it.