GOF 2026 |Awakening to Oneness: Advaita for the Contemporary Seeker|Aurobind Padiyath

Added: 2026-05-09

[00:00:30]Namaste. Welcome to the seventh edition of the global festival of oneness celebrating the life and works of adishankara and organized by indika moka. My name is Anuradha and I'm the host of this session. Let us start with a prayer. Sadash shiva samaram shankaratyamadaram guruparam.

[00:00:54]We are very pleased to have with us Shri Orurubin Padiat who will be talking on the subject awakening to oneness adita for the contemporary speak seeker.

[00:01:05]Before we go down to the talk I'd like to introduce the speaker or Gi was born in the mid 1950s into a family deeply rooted in dharma where early spiritual impressions were shaped by his grandmother through devotion, pilgrimages to guruayur and stories from the bhagawatam and naranium. Though professionally trained as a medical engineer and engaged in over 35 years of industrial service, his enduring passion remains Aduita Vanta and the study of individual uh Indian spirituality.

[00:01:37]Inspired in adolescence by the teaching of Swami Chinandanda, he later undertook formal study as a brahmachari at Chinma mission and continued learning under revered teachers including Swami Hari Namanandanda, Swami Krishna and Swami Kaanandha.

[00:01:54]Deeply grounded in the traditional study of Adishankara's bhashas in Sanskrit. He has since then devoted himself to teaching vidanta in English offering a clear and vigorous approach for modern seekers. His work reflects a lifelong study of journey of study, contemplation and living assimilation of advita.

[00:02:16]Welcome Orurabenji.

[00:02:22]Mi I'll start with a prayer.

[00:02:44]for haram friends.

[00:03:13]Global Oneness by Inta. This is the first time I am taking part even though I have been attending their all series the last six years and even in this series I have been attending the earlier ones. It brings me a lot of happiness to be surrounded by people and teachers who have been involved in ada.

[00:03:49]My approach to adwita has taken shape predominantly with Swami Chennmear addressing the modern youth, the scientifically minded youngsters who have no idea what is our culture, our background, our ancestry etc. It still gives me a pleasure and thrill to address those people who have no idea about what is the spiritual heritage we are carrying on with us for so many millenniums especially had it not been adishankarachara I don't think we would have ever had this ada which is today known as oneness in the English speaking people or the non-duality as a popular I won't call it as a philosophy but way of life but to be called a way of life we need to understand the complete picture of what is this nonduality ity about nonduality apparently may sound that it is some utopian philosophy which is not practical because we are seeing all multiplicity in our day-to-day life riddled with lot of competition then you know other problems of related to life and its challenges is we are not experiencing this non-duality at any part of our life. So how can there be a nonduality and ada call it as adamar that means is the only truth.

[00:05:54]We all act for happiness as our end goal.

[00:06:01]But yet happiness elude us and never give us a complete happiness.

[00:06:10]Is there a way out for this? Is the quest based on which the entire humanity is in the pursuit?

[00:06:20]They do not know or they don't they have no idea as to where does the happiness lie.

[00:06:29]Every morning we wake up with a plan whether it be a business meeting or it can be a family conversation or a project or you know school related problem for our children etc. We intent for a specific outcome from all those activities. Yet how often does life cooperate with our expectation as we plan?

[00:07:01]Most of us may admit that very rarely.

[00:07:06]There is a reason for this because when we are planning our day-to-day activities, we do not have the complete picture of our own involvement in the world which has got the three components. We the subject, the world as the object and the interconnectedness between the world and the knowledge of the three about ourself, about the world and how we are connected all three are partial from our point of view because we have no complete picture at all.

[00:07:53]Has anyone of us ever thought that we can control completely the outcome of a meeting and we are taken back completely wrong in spite of our so much of confidence and uh knowledge. We think we have the complete picture in our mind and then we want to go ahead with that execution but surprise comes up something goes wrong.

[00:08:22]So we are either taken by our boss to task or by our family to task or by even by strangers when we are on the world outside. They all take us for a task because we are not performing either to their expectation or they are not performing to our expectation. And this mismatch between the expectations between us and them is what is creating all the unhappiness in this world.

[00:09:00]Is there solution for this? If we look at this as a as a what do you call a closed environment where we should be in in control of this thing because the as an executioner or a person who is acting. I had the options how to act and what is to be expected out of the action which we are doing. And then I know the world also because the objects which I would call it as the objects I'm interacting not the entire whole world at the one point of time. I'm dealing with item by item. So I should be able to interact in a way with which that object is taken to meet my requirement.

[00:09:58]In all these picture we feel that something is missing.

[00:10:05]What is missing?

[00:10:08]We will see that during this period because I have gone through these problems from the from the time I became an adolescent to the time when I was practicing different aspects of the learning which I learned from different masters.

[00:10:29]Still I have never been able to find a you know solution for it until the basha from Shankarachara the commentaries from Shankaraja speaking to me directly in the language Sanskrit which I was thankfully educated in. So for me it became an eyeopener that the lot of words which we use in English do not convey the meaning to the complete what Sanskrit can convey.

[00:11:09]Not only that the intricacies in which the translations were done of Shankaraja's commentary or other master's commentary all of them were mostly coined by those people who translated with what they had in my mind in their mind not what Shankarachara wanted us to Understand?

[00:11:39]So to understand ada itself as it is the same way know as it is is most important that I could do it only when I understood and studied the baras in Sanskrit under the feet of Swamiandha who gave me the complete picture of it.

[00:12:02]He didn't he translated it of course but while translating since my knowledge of Sanskrit was good I didn't have much problem in understanding the translations so there was a burden on put on me by my masters my teachers that I should convey what is the intended meaning not the literal meaning or to the translated meaning of the verses of Upanishad Gita or Brahma Sutra or any of those adic texts which which we are normally studying by giving a modern approach because the modern words are being used. No, where we have to explain one word with multiple sentences it need to be done then only we are doing justice to it.

[00:12:59]So when I understood this the most important book which I would say for the part of the reality or the truth the opishetss are the best but the problem with the opishads is that they talk about the absolute or the truth.

[00:13:23]Practical application of that is not the interest of the rishies who taught us the opinions.

[00:13:34]They had only one purpose in their mind to convey the truth which cannot be conveyed through words in such a way that a person who takes pain and effort will realize it in his own bosom.

[00:13:54]Brahma Sutra as a text was more logical analyzing with from the point of view of technicality.

[00:14:02]That is also not a practical book. The only practical book which even today I read every day is Bhagawat Gita because they're the two characters Krishna and Arjuna depicted by Viasa as two individuals even though in reality they were not mere individuals.

[00:14:32]Krishna depicted as an abatara come to the world through Dwiki and Dweki Putra or the son of Dwiki and was Da.

[00:14:46]The other one was Arjuna who is a warrior of a class which is un parallel.

[00:14:56]So there were these two were the best among the human beings which were available those time for Vasa to bring in into a picture where a practical application by based on dialogue can be conveyed to the humanity or not millennium or lifetime as long as humanity is there on the surface of Bhagat Gita will be the guiding factor for all of us.

[00:15:32]Krishna has been depicted as a avatara means Brahman himself Brahman itself as taken in shape of a human being at his own will.

[00:15:47]Mama maya he is using his own maya or his own shy to become a human being and he is presenting himself but he is presenting himself as a teacher par excellence jagatguru a teacher whom we should all say that you cannot have a better teacher the reason being that is He himself in his life has depicted which most of us will challenge. Was it righteous or not righteous? Did he not mess up with things in his life? And how can he be a teacher when he himself is messing up with things? And how can he be a teacher to Arjuna? Arjuna is in a in a dilemma there because he has got a predicament.

[00:16:45]His own relatives, teacher, his own grandson, his c uncles, cousins on the opposite side whom he has to fight and defeat them and eliminate them by anhilating to reestablish what is called his kingdom. Now whether his kingdom is what is for his purpose or not he is not very sure. So he gets into a dilemma by killing them. Am I not incurring sin by killing my own relatives or my own kit and kin or am I doing the right thing? This dialogue or dilemma is the dilemma which all of us face in our life also every time. So a deluded Arjuna is not a character in Mahabharata in the what you call a battle in a battlefield confused as to whether he should fight or not.

[00:17:45]Arjuna is our mind in every moment of life.

[00:17:52]We are confused.

[00:17:54]We do not know what is right, what is wrong, what is to be done, what is not to be done, what is the way to be done, what is the wrong way or right way to be done. All type of questions comes to our mind.

[00:18:10]So the teaching what Krishna gives to Arjuna is exactly what will come in handy for each one of us when it is decoded properly. And this decoding was done by none other than Adishankar.

[00:18:27]And if we study it in that proper way, there are two benefits for it. One is we will be impartial. We will not be controlled by either religion, cast, color, creed or ethnicity or the location of anything. It is universally applicable. That's why the world the name global oneness is apt for it.

[00:18:54]And second thing is that the person whom Arjuna Krishna is addressing even though in the book it is Arjuna he is addressing to you and me in a state of predicament where we need an answer. So open any page on Gita and read through it. the answer will be found. What I have been doing and I have found I have been answered most of the times.

[00:19:29]Krishna says that even for a moment no one can ever remain without action.

[00:19:43]That means to act is in our grain whether it is breathing, eating, sleeping or our office work, family work or so social work whatever it is but we do not know why this action is following us wherever we go.

[00:20:11]Can I be away from this action and the consequences? Because every action has got consequences. Nobody can be away from the consequences.

[00:20:22]So what is the the relationship with the action and the consequences is something which we are not sure. Sometimes we expect a result to come the result doesn't come. Sometimes we don't expect something to happen and it happens. It can be good or it can be bad. What is good? What is bad? We are confused about it. All sorts of confusion arises in action.

[00:20:49]So Krishna says in the second line to Arjuna that all kmas all actions are not because the action is done by us.

[00:21:10]That every action is born out of the gona of the pragrati.

[00:21:17]The goona of the pragrati. We all know that there is satic or the pious or the well tran I mean equipoed people. There is rajasic people who are agitated and you know actionbounded.

[00:21:33]Then there are tamasic people who are more into what you call lethargy inaction and would like to avoid even if it is their job they will try to find an excuse and get away from that.

[00:21:48]So these are the three type of people and these people are what I call it as a mental disposition by individuals.

[00:21:57]We will find they are varying from person to person.

[00:22:01]This variation in the people is exactly what Krishna says as born out of the pragi.

[00:22:13]Means born out of the pragi ga means the satastas.

[00:22:18]So it is that nature with which we are made the body, mind, intellect which functions the way we function.

[00:22:30]But what what is wrong if they are made by the prai and we are acting according to that if it is that creation it should be acceptable and okay with everyone no it doesn't happen that way because there are two things we bring in when we do action karma and karma says that these are the two varies means the enemies who interfere in our natural disposition of our gona.

[00:23:23]The gonas when they are performing it is not a problem but they interfere in our gona performance to such an extent that it becomes either harm to others or we get angry by their failure. Karma is our desire which is affecting others. Crada is our reaction when it fails.

[00:23:52]So when these two are understood as the two enemies, we should know that the expectation karma has no other better word in our modern dictionary.

[00:24:08]Every action we do is with expectation.

[00:24:13]I want it to be done this way. Whether it is a boss or a subordinate, whether it is a wife or the husband, whether it is a father and child, doesn't matter.

[00:24:23]Each one of them have expectations.

[00:24:27]Action is never free from expectation.

[00:24:31]The action itself is defined as you know quoted with expectation.

[00:24:38]And if we don't meet the expectation, the person who is interacting with us is bound to get reaction because expectation is not met. So the other person can get angry or if we are expect having an expectation we get angry because the other person is not doing as per expectation. So if the subordinate doesn't do the job, the boss getting angry is natural because he has expected something from the subordinate.

[00:25:10]But why did the subordinate not able to do it as expected by the boss?

[00:25:20]Think because boss should have given the job to such a subordinate who has the potency and capability to do the job.

[00:25:31]Then only that expectation has a meaning.

[00:25:36]Otherwise it is just like you know loading a donkey which cannot carry the weight. It will stand there without moving unless it is proved that you know the or necessary training is given, education is given and all those things which will make the person enable to do the job. That time the expectation can be you know rectified and when it is fractified we are happy.

[00:26:10]But Krishna says in this one, one who sees inaction in action and action in inaction, he is the wise personn.

[00:26:35]And he is a yogi and a performer of all actions means all karma is doing. Why he is doing that action and inaction?

[00:26:49]Because if you know the karma is based on the goona of the person whom you are going to give the job your expectation will not be more than what you can expect out of the gona of the person.

[00:27:08]So what you are doing is you are seeing there a limitation for the action but not only that and you will not get angry also to that person because you know you can expect only this much or you may know that a person has the capability and your expectation will be based on that aspect.

[00:27:36]So what happens when we do that is we need to clearly understand how karma acts.

[00:27:50]Krishna says that he has created as Lord is paramatma. He says that So what is that?

[00:28:14]This is the most mistransated and misunderstood words in the entire Bhagawat Gita. Nobody has been able to understand it properly who has translated into it because they said chhatur means forecast like that even though the war are not cast.

[00:28:39]He says that the war are being created not cast jias I have created. Why I know that jay the gonas are the reason why karma can be done. So based on the goa of every creation there is a limitation of karma possible in that category.

[00:29:07]So when he says the ga karma vagasha the categorization vagasha is based on the karma karma which is dependent upon the jay and based on that I have created four category of people. It is not brahmanhatria sudra it is four categories.

[00:29:36]So it is neither ashramati warnabased.

[00:29:39]Wa means categorization of the gonas which are that is satus is only three but the satwa and tamas the either end of it is been fixed.

[00:29:57]The satic people can do all the satic jobs. The tamasic people will never do any job other than being in tamas.

[00:30:06]But the registic people in between they have the tendency to because they are highly active and agitated in nature. So they are never happy being what they are they want to do something better or some people don't want to do better. These are the two categories.

[00:30:24]So those who are rajasic and they want to do be better off they borrow something from satuga sata and those who are active but given a choice they would like to be inactive they borrow from tamas.

[00:30:39]So this is the four category based on and karma.

[00:30:45]And he says I am the doer of this because he is the one who has given the preri from the the priori is being created by him. But he adds one clause into that in such a way that know me as the non-doer. He says I am a kartaram at the same times know me as a non-doer.

[00:31:22]This paradox that I am the doer yet I am not the doer.

[00:31:32]is where there is no or no what is there is no immutability I mean in it's immutable and what happens that in this in the situation is that when he says I am the doer and I am non non-doer Arjuna can get confused not only Arjuna all of us are confused his stand is what he is making it very clear for all of us.

[00:32:04]If you want to be a doer, you be aware of the gonas and their actions but don't be the doer with the goona as it is your goona.

[00:32:24]So that is why Krishna very clearly says that the gonas are created and the goonas work for themselves. I am just aarta and a to make this very clear to Arjuna. He says still Whatever the three words we are talking about whether it is loa that is one category for those who are in the Quranic field but for Our adic people it is jagaratna the three world the three worlds are jagaratna and Krishna says that in the three world as atma or brahman I am in the location I am there in the east of these world of experiences but I have nothing to an there is nothing which I have to attain or there is nothing which is unattained that should be attained later that is porni or pa he has completeness in himself when he says this completeness he's talking about from a different level.

[00:34:23]That is the level where he says I am the means he is present in waking is present in the dream. He is present in the deep sleep as our three world of experiences. Other than that we have no world.

[00:34:41]Even in this three world depending upon the goona the waking will work the dream will work or the deep sleep will work.

[00:34:50]In that three the goonas are working for themselves.

[00:34:54]Therefore the the based on the gonas the four attitude you will undertake in each one of them will be based on the satwa rajas or the combination of satwa with the tamas or tamas with the tatwas which I explained earlier.

[00:35:11]In these three when it is being done there is nothing which is bothering me because he's making it very clear in that three world I am present.

[00:35:41]as atma.

[00:35:46]What he said, actions do not taint me.

[00:35:49]Whether the waking waker doing the actions or the dreamer doing the actions or the deep sleeper doing total inaction.

[00:36:00]But who knows me thus your mom She is not bound by the actions which the waking dream or deep sleep is doing.

[00:36:22]So what is this coming to? This is where the mantra comes very handy for us.

[00:36:35]Chinatra, the three states or three locas or three worlds of experiences which are nothing but jagatna.

[00:36:51]In each one of them there is a subject there are objects and there is a connection between bta bogium boa. These are the three words which is being used.

[00:37:06]So waking we have a subject the waker.

[00:37:10]The world of experience of the whale waker is the world which we are interacting right now. And there is a connection between me as the waker and the world. There is an interaction.

[00:37:23]Same case with the dream. The dream world is there. The dreamer is there.

[00:37:27]The interaction between the dreamer and the dream world is there.

[00:37:32]Same case with the deep sleep. But there is a problem there.

[00:37:37]The world of deep sleep.

[00:37:41]There is absolute nonduality.

[00:37:49]There is no way we can know otherness.

[00:37:54]But at the same time, we cannot deny the presence of us.

[00:38:01]in the deep sleep because when waking we say that I knew nothing in my deep sleep. So the know of nothingness of the deep sleep was present.

[00:38:15]The knowing took place because of which I am saying that I knew nothing but there was nothing as an object for my mind or sense organs which are not functioning at that time to grasp.

[00:38:30]But that nothing in us is the bokeium is what is the objectctor.

[00:38:37]So in all the three worlds there are the three subject object and the connection between them that that's one abadi one who knows me as separate from the three world and the three and aspects in each one of them.

[00:39:07]He the actions of waking dream or deep sleep doesn't taint him because he is a I am always pure.

[00:39:28]In what form? Pure awareness.

[00:39:32]Mat the word is to deny that awareness has anything any qualification. Therefore, it is called nirva. Not because it doesn't have or noas. There is no way you can identify it. But it is present.

[00:39:53]How?

[00:39:55]All of us if we analyze our life or if I if we go through this we have the knowledge that I am having waking I am having dream I am having deep sleep.

[00:40:09]It is just like I have a house and I am going through the three rooms independently. When I am in one room I cannot be in the other two rooms. That is same in the case of jagratnasi or the waking dream and deep sleep.

[00:40:22]But I am separate from that because I'm aware in each room when I am going. Same way when I become a waker I am knowing waking and the waker and I am the dreamer I know the dreamer and the dream world but I do not know the waker. When I am in the deep sleep I knew I am in deep sleep. I knew nothing but I never knew what is the waker and the dream. So what happens is that this aspect is what Krishna has not told but he will be telling it in no term ultimate term when he says that but he has said it in the language which Arjuna will understand these actions will not touch me which is The opin mantra which is put into practice by Krishna.

[00:41:23]We have to understand what we are to know we are so that we are untouched by the actions of waking the events of the dream and the events of the deep sleep.

[00:41:42]So when hap what happens is that the me the my etc which Krishna says in every word in the Bhagawad Gita he is not talking about Krishna the Dvati putra he's talking as that chinatrahamasu that pure awareness which is there. So when he says that your mom abidadi that who knows me as this in every creation you, me and everyone in this world we are the only one who can segregate that pure awareness from our three worlds of experience.

[00:42:35]The other creations like animals, birds, they do not have the intellect to segregate that. So they live like the animals or or that is where the they cannot segregate it. So they are driven by more by the prehiji. Their gonas are that that they are a lion will be ferocious, a cow will be pleasant and pleasing or a bird will be chirpy and enjoying all the time. And all those things which we are seeing is nothing but the gonas in operation. That is the gonas of which are operating in us also.

[00:43:10]So when Krishna says ma you have to understand that Krishna is not talking about his atma.

[00:43:20]We have to transport ourself to that state what Krishna is asking us to be and relate to the statement which Krishna is making in that.

[00:43:32]So when he says that He is telling Arjuna in me.

[00:44:00]All actions you relinquish into me. The me in you, the me in me, the me in everyone. What is that? The atma.

[00:44:13]That is why he uses the word adhyatma the chas or the consciousness or the intelligence which we have to be adyatma in nature atma means abiding in atma and when we are doing it we have to be absolutely tensionfree fearless because the asha the expectation which we do with the actions which is because of the jun I am not the related the body mind intellect which is made of the nirama what can I say it is mine as atma I am not bound by one body or one sustance it is in the chap was the in the for the way in which we see the otherness that should not be seen and when we do this without the expectation and that ego of selfishness means without fear of failure or fear of favor etc means to fight. Fight what? Fight the life which we are leading every day. It is a fight appearing when we are in the world with Asha and Mata.

[00:45:55]When will we become with the fight will become a no fight when we do not have Asha and Madam.

[00:46:06]But one thing which we are not very clear is how did I become or how did I became this human being if I I tell this also then before I stop if atma is the same in everyone we are all atma in true nature because we are not the the subject, object and the thing in each of the three states.

[00:46:42]We are the and pure consciousness.

[00:46:53]But how did we become the human being?

[00:46:57]It is the nature of awareness itself.

[00:47:04]In the ka muka says that it is the nature of consciousness to be aware of itself.

[00:47:14]I am we are all aware of ourself. Can we say we are not aware of we are not we are not aware of ourselves. Every moment I am aware that I am that I amness is very much there. But what is that I there is a confusion. This happens because when the awareness becomes aware of itself for a split second it forgets that it is looking at itself which we call it as ignorance aidya or non nonappenship.

[00:48:01]or in technical term people call it as maya of Brahman atman etc. I don't want to get into those si and all those things but from practical application when I was aware of myself for a flatten of a second I forgot I am atma and I am identifying myself with the instruments with which I am performing all the instruments right from the intelligence mind body everything sense organs everything is object for me but the same objects becomes me because I forgot I am atma.

[00:48:45]This forgetfulness is avidya or the ignorance which we call it as and this can only be removed when we do the segregation between what is known and what is known. No, this no known aspect is the one which is being told in the book that word is to segregate.

[00:49:19]When we segregate it, we will be able to know who we are separate from the body, mind and intellect. And when we are doing that, we will be abiding in ourself.

[00:49:34]That is the knowledge which Krishna wants us to that action will not bind you. So if you want to be free in the world in actions but yet not tainted by the action or the onslaught of the actions it has to be without any expectation and without I am doing the action.

[00:50:04]I am the non-doer atma in the in the functioning through the body. Body is only an instrument. Body may get beaten up. Body may get heat and cold all those things. Sithapna, I'm not going to discuss into sitna.

[00:50:19]All the equipo state of the person who knows that we are made of breathi. He remains the akarta and that is the only solution for us to be living in this world with is with so much of problems seen by all of us. At the same time when we know that I am that awareness which is knowing the problems but I am not the part of the problem.

[00:50:47]I am the observer of the problems. The problems are of that body and the mind.

[00:50:52]And that body is born. Body will die. I am not going to die.

[00:51:02]Has said this to us.

[00:51:04]So we can definitely find the peace and harmony in living when we can abide in this atma as our true nature. Those who are successful in finding that within themselves for them no work is work because no action will touch you because I have no in it. I have no desire in those actions. That is by the body. It will keep on happening. Wish you all speed and success to knowing that atma and abide in that atma. Oh shanti shanti shanti >> thank you urban gi for uh clearly explaining to us these very complicated verses of the Bhagat Gita where we continue to do action but still stay away from be not touched by these actions viewers we have many such valuable sessions tomorrow morning at 7:00 a.m. India time Vikram Jaganadan will be talking on an axiomatic systemization of Adita Siddhant. This is at 7:00 a.m. India time. Indic is also hosting a Vedanta retreat in July.

[00:52:32]I will share the details. Introduction to Vedanta by Nema Majmuda. This is running 2nd to 6th July. So please do attend all our sessions. See you.

[00:52:43]Namaste.