[SPEAKER_00]: Vasudeva, Sutam, Devam, Kamsa, Charnaram, Ardhanam, Devaki, Paramanandam, Krishnam, Vande Jagad Gurum.
[SPEAKER_00]: So we are studying the Bhagavad-gita.
[SPEAKER_00]: We are on the 15th chapter now, known as Purushottam Yoga, a very profound, very deep, short chapter between the 20 verses.
[SPEAKER_00]: We have just started.
[SPEAKER_00]: We first, for verses, they form a block.
[SPEAKER_00]: So we are doing them together.
[SPEAKER_00]: Let's chant those verses together.
[SPEAKER_00]: And then we will continue the discussion.
[SPEAKER_00]: Those who like, you can repeat after me.
[SPEAKER_00]: Alright, before I begin, and before I forget, we are going to miss a couple of classes.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm going to India tomorrow, so I'll be back, I'll choose, I'll be there for the whole of next week and back on the third of March, so we'll miss a class that is the next Friday, and then we will miss the class after that, because I'll be in Austin.
[SPEAKER_00]: So, two classes, the next class and the class after that which is 6th March, I think.
[SPEAKER_00]: So, we will meet again on 13th March, Friday, the 13th November, that is Friday, yes.
[SPEAKER_00]: In this class, of course, there will be talks going on and there is a wonderful talk coming up on Sunday, Madhaji, Pravrajika, Rajapran, Madhaji is going to come and speak to all of us.
[SPEAKER_00]: So, I look forward to that.
[SPEAKER_00]: Let us continue the chanting.
[SPEAKER_00]: Can those who like you can chant after me?
[SPEAKER_00]: Ashwattam prahura bhyayam Ashwattam prahura bhyayam Chandamsi yas yapar nani Chandamsi yas yapar nani Yas tam vidas avidavit Yas tam vidas avidavit
[SPEAKER_00]: The Blessed Lord said, they speak of the immutable Ashwatha tree, with its root above and branches below whose leaves are the Vedas, he who knows it is an hour of the Vedas.
[SPEAKER_00]: Varshtu, Adhash Chaudhvaam Prasritata Siyoshaka, Adhash Chaudhvaam Prasritata Siyoshaka, Guna Pravridha Bishaya Pravala, Guna Pravridha Bishaya Pravala,
[SPEAKER_00]: Adhash Chhamulanyanusantatani Adhash Chhamulanyanusantatani Karmanubandhini Manushalokai Karmanubandhini Manushalokai
[SPEAKER_00]: It's branches nurtured by the gunners spread below and above.
[SPEAKER_00]: It shoots are the same subjects and it's root links are stretched below, producing actions in the world of men.
[SPEAKER_00]: Converses 3 and 4 together.
[SPEAKER_00]: Narupa Masihata Thupalabhati Narupa Masihata Thupalabhati Nanto Nacya Adir Nacya Sampratishtha Nanto Nacya Adir Nacya Sampratishtha Ashwat Thaminam Suvirudhamulam Ashwat Thaminam Suvirudhamulam
[SPEAKER_00]: Asanga, Shastraina, Dhridhina, Chittvaam, Asanga, Shastraina, Dhridhina, Chittvaam, Tata, Padam, Tata, Padam, Padam, Padam, Padam, Padam, Padam, Padam, Padam, Padam, Padam, Padam, Padam, Padam, Padam,
[SPEAKER_00]: Yasmin gata na nivatantibhu yasmin gata na nivatantibhu yasmin gata na nivatantibhu yasmin tamiva chadhyam purusham prapadhyam tamiva chadhyam purusham prapadhyam yata pravretti prasrita purani yata pravretti prasrita purani
[SPEAKER_00]: Its form, as such, is not experienced here, nor its end, nor its beginning, nor its continuity.
[SPEAKER_00]: Having severed this deep-rooted ashotatri with the strong weapon of non-attachment, one should next seek that goal reaching which they do not return, saying, I seek refuge in that primordial
[SPEAKER_00]: So, an amazing description of samsara as a tree, but as very strange trees upside down, its roots are above and its branches and leaves and flowers and fruits they are all below.
[SPEAKER_00]: And then,
[SPEAKER_00]: describing some sorrow like that and the problem of some sorrow the suffering and the release from some sorrow, freedom, mocks, salvation, whatever you call it, a very beautiful way of describing it, sublime verses, one should then inquire after that ultimate reality reaching which the the wise ones, then light in once do not return again to the street of some sorrow.
[SPEAKER_00]: are right.
[SPEAKER_00]: We have talked about births number 1 which starts the description of the tree of samsara.
[SPEAKER_00]: The roots are above, the branches leaves everything is below.
[SPEAKER_00]: Above means it is in Brahman, in God, in the transcendent, beyond time space causation, in Sathchidana and the existence consciousness bliss.
[SPEAKER_00]: That is the root, root means that is why this
[SPEAKER_00]: But down below is the samsara, the five elements, this physical universe, sentient beings like us, heavens and hells and worlds, the world of karma, the tremendous dynamism, action, all of this is going on, the struggle, this existence, birth and death and rebirth and going on and on the cycle of life, this is the roots and branches and the branches and fruits, flowers, everything which is below, which we experience here.
[SPEAKER_00]: And it says here, Adhash Churdhuam Prasitat, as you have a shark at the branches, are spread below and above.
[SPEAKER_00]: who are the branches, the commentators help us here, they say the Jiva or the sentient beings, we are the branches big and small of that tree of samsara, they are above and they are below.
[SPEAKER_00]: One of the commentators says they discreet, discreetly not they are
[SPEAKER_00]: So, above and below talks about in this sense higher and lower not physically lower not above their status sphere should be very uncomfortable, heaven would be a pretty uncomfortable place you know or below under the earth you are not like that.
[SPEAKER_00]: In various ways, you can understand this above and below.
[SPEAKER_00]: It could be subtler and more gross, so physical, this existence is the lowest.
[SPEAKER_00]: Higher than this above, this is our mental existence, subtle existence.
[SPEAKER_00]: Above, this is what's called the causal body, above that is pure consciousness.
[SPEAKER_00]: In that sense, one can think about it.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's above and below, we always think God is above, so going above means becoming more and more spiritual.
[SPEAKER_00]: In the Himalayas, I saw the higher you live, the more spiritual you are likely to be.
[SPEAKER_00]: So if you live at 5,000, the spiritual, if you live at 10,000, more spiritual, if you live at 15,000 feet, you're really the most spiritual in all.
[SPEAKER_00]: That way the aim should be to go up to the peak of the ever-resti-thing.
[SPEAKER_00]: I remember talking to, I was a 10,000 Peter, so sort of little more spiritual than most.
[SPEAKER_00]: Then I was talking to this Swami who had visited the top of one, which is a 14,000 feet.
[SPEAKER_00]: I was thinking of shifting there in Rick upgrading my leveling up literally, my my spirituality.
[SPEAKER_00]: Then Swami dissuaded, he said, it's difficult enough that keeping body and soul together.
[SPEAKER_00]: Just to survive this difficult, forget about meditating or thinking about God.
[SPEAKER_00]: You can come up here, please, here, come, come, come, come, come, come, come, come, come, come, come, come, come, come, come, come, come, come, come, come, come, come, come, come, come, come, come, come, come, come, come, come, come, come, come, come, come, come, come, come, come, come, come, come, come, come, come, come, come, come, come, come, come, come, come, come, come, come, come, come, come, come, come, come, come, come, come, come, come, come, come, come, come, come, come, come, come, come, come, come, come, come, come, come, come, come, come
[SPEAKER_00]: There are very inspiring stories about the Joseph of Cupertine, I don't know if you've heard about him, a very interesting saint, 17th century.
[SPEAKER_00]: Cupertine, I'm not this Cupertine, not America, the original one in Italy.
[SPEAKER_00]: because he would go into ecstases and then he would levitate fly up.
[SPEAKER_00]: So, Urduam Gacchanthi, Satvastarajda, we read in the 14 chapter, those who are sapphic of nature, they go higher, literally true about him, he had a very interesting life.
[SPEAKER_00]: I had read about him long ago, then I researched it, it is, it is, it is, it is, it is, it is, it is, it is, it is, it is, it is, it is, it is, it is, it is, it is, it is, it is, it,
[SPEAKER_00]: Google now it's boosted by what Gemini and all this is, it's a really good research tool.
[SPEAKER_00]: So it's a yes, I was thinking I've read somewhere about a Christian monk in medieval times and Google said yes you're right, there was this saint, saint Joseph and he is, his story is also very inspiring that
[SPEAKER_00]: He was very, very simple, uneducated, clumsy, so much so that the other monks used to call him brother-ass, because he would be so clumsy in work, but he was very austere and deeply devoted, given to silence and prayer and deep austerities.
[SPEAKER_00]: And occasionally he would float up in ecstasy.
[SPEAKER_00]: Then just the name of Jesus or Mary would be enough to set him up.
[SPEAKER_00]: He would rise up physically in the, and it created a scene and the Vatican grew suspicious of him.
[SPEAKER_00]: The investigated him.
[SPEAKER_00]: The Pope himself came to see and he fell off loaded up in just by seeing the Pope.
[SPEAKER_00]: He went into ecstasy and he floated up in the air.
[SPEAKER_00]: So everybody was convinced that it's true.
[SPEAKER_00]: But he created a lot of trouble because
[SPEAKER_00]: In the monastery, everybody, they have duties, so when they would give them duties like state to serve the food, he is going with the bowl of soup or the bread and suddenly floats up to the ceiling of the monastery, and all the other brothers have to wait, when we come down, so that we can have our food, with the bowl of soup, we have gone up to the ceiling.
[SPEAKER_00]: St. Joseph, you can look him up, St. Joseph, beautiful artwork describing him flying around.
[SPEAKER_00]: St. Joseph of Cupert, you know, so higher, as he says, higher, every religion that consider above is the transcendent somehow above.
[SPEAKER_00]: By the way, he is now the patron saint of Pilots and passengers.
[SPEAKER_00]: St. Joseph of Cupert, you know.
[SPEAKER_00]: So if your flight is delayed or you can pray to St. Joseph Cupert.
[SPEAKER_00]: Pilots as astronauts and passengers, St. Joseph.
[SPEAKER_00]: There are these wonderful stories.
[SPEAKER_00]: In fact, this very picture itself.
[SPEAKER_00]: If you know the story behind it, Vivekananda Narayana not wanted to get a picture of Sri Ramakrishna and Sri Ramakrishna was not willing.
[SPEAKER_00]: And Narendra Nathmi, he told the photographer to come.
[SPEAKER_00]: Now it is so easy.
[SPEAKER_00]: You can take a photograph with somebody's billing or not.
[SPEAKER_00]: But in those days, you have to sit and pose, like a painting and the photographer would set it up.
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, the big camera would put a cloth over there head and you have to sit still for a while.
[SPEAKER_00]: So the God, the photographer and the vehicle, and at that time Narendra Nath, he knew Sri Ramakrishna's way.
[SPEAKER_00]: So he said, wait for a while.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'll just talk to him about God and he will go into an ecstasy.
[SPEAKER_00]: Then he won't be aware of what's going on.
[SPEAKER_00]: Then you can take a picture.
[SPEAKER_00]: So Sri Ramakrishna, this is exactly how he is sitting.
[SPEAKER_00]: This is the picture now.
[SPEAKER_00]: And Vivekan, the started talking to him, something we don't know.
[SPEAKER_00]: And he went into a deep, meditative state.
[SPEAKER_00]: And Vivekan, the motion of photographic quick, do it now.
[SPEAKER_00]: The photographic set up everything.
[SPEAKER_00]: And Sri Ramakrishna was, of course, deeply absorbed in Samathi.
[SPEAKER_00]: And then the photographer,
[SPEAKER_00]: So, Ramakrishna's head was bent a little to the side, so the metal little down like this I think.
[SPEAKER_00]: Before the photographer came, the narration is there.
[SPEAKER_00]: The photographer came to adjust without asking Narayana, he came and put his hand under Ramakrishna's chin like this and tried to lift the head.
[SPEAKER_00]: And the whole body floated up in air to the photograph was up to tremendously frightened.
[SPEAKER_00]: And not in the Nazi day.
[SPEAKER_00]: What are you doing?
[SPEAKER_00]: Don't touch it.
[SPEAKER_00]: Just let him be and take the photograph with the way it is.
[SPEAKER_00]: So then the photograph was taken.
[SPEAKER_00]: So that's the story behind this.
[SPEAKER_00]: Again floating up in the air.
[SPEAKER_00]: funny story.
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't know how many of you read Tintin comics.
[SPEAKER_00]: You have read some of you.
[SPEAKER_00]: Indian, especially we have read.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's not so popular here in the United States.
[SPEAKER_00]: India when we were growing up it was very popular.
[SPEAKER_00]: One of those comics is Tintin goes to Tibet.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's called Tintin in Tibet.
[SPEAKER_00]: And there he meets Tibetan monks.
[SPEAKER_00]: And one of those monks is a lot like Saint Joseph of Cupertino.
[SPEAKER_00]: His name is Blessed Lightning.
[SPEAKER_00]: And he floats up in the air
[SPEAKER_00]: So, the transcendent is higher, but there is a deeper symbology about this.
[SPEAKER_00]: For example, the chakras in Kundalini yoga, we do not talk about those things in Vedanta, but in Kundalini yoga, the seven chakras.
[SPEAKER_00]: So, it is said that our human consciousness awareness it goes from chakra to chakra each chakra opens up.
[SPEAKER_00]: There is a description in Tantric text about that.
[SPEAKER_00]: The lowest one is the base of the spine, the Muladhara, then the Swadhisthana, I think there is a second one, one up there and then at the level of the naval, there is the Manipura and then at the level of the heart, the Anahata.
[SPEAKER_00]: And then, we should not in the sword at the spine actually, behind the sword.
[SPEAKER_00]: And then, forehead, the agia chakra.
[SPEAKER_00]: And then, at the top of the head, there's a sasra.
[SPEAKER_00]: Now, the idea is the three lower chakras, if they open up, and that's worldly.
[SPEAKER_00]: Whatever is in the world, various stages in the world.
[SPEAKER_00]: But from the heart-centered onwards, it is spiritual.
[SPEAKER_00]: Meditation according to the monks of the Ramakrishna order, there is a collection of
[SPEAKER_00]: Essays, one of the Essays is about the Scundering and Immelitation.
[SPEAKER_00]: I have never found such a detailed description in English anywhere else.
[SPEAKER_00]: The how to visualize the lotuses, the chakras, what happens, how to awaken each chakras and then the mantras associated with each very detailed visualization and the results to be expected at each level, all those things are given, meditation according to the monks of the Ramakrishna order, one of the articles, it is a very detailed article
[SPEAKER_00]: But anyway, the point being higher and higher.
[SPEAKER_00]: So, top of the head, and there's no reason to doubt all this.
[SPEAKER_00]: So, Ramakrishna himself experienced these things.
[SPEAKER_00]: So, because he went through multiple paths, based on our devotion, the shocked about the tantric path, the Vedantic, Advaitic path, and so on.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so, he mentions more than once, the chakras and the awakening of the chakras.
[SPEAKER_00]: And then the lower branches are the Jeevas, us, all of a sentient beings, and then it says, Guruap pravidha by Satva Rajas and Thamas is the connection to the earlier chapter, chapter 14, when we discussed Satva Rajas and Thamas, are you feeling warm some of you, if you are feeling
[SPEAKER_00]: Yes.
[SPEAKER_00]: Some of you will look, yeah.
[SPEAKER_00]: Let's go all outside little bomb inside.
[SPEAKER_00]: So the three goodas, Satwarajas and Tamas, they produce the objects of this word, sense objects, he says.
[SPEAKER_00]: The shoots are the sense objects and the sense organs also which experience the sense objects.
[SPEAKER_00]: and the minor roots, the secondary roots are distributed in this world, Karmal, Bhandhini, Manushshya, this world, this tree of samsara is sustained by karma, karma, cause and effect.
[SPEAKER_00]: So, we sentient beings, not knowing our real nature, we identify ourselves with this body, with this human personality, and then we struggle to be the best of it, in good and bad ways.
[SPEAKER_00]: So, when our actions are ethical, moral,
[SPEAKER_00]: Then it produces good karma, when it is unethical and it produces bad karma and good karma results in what is called a punya merit and the result of that is Sukha happiness.
[SPEAKER_00]: and bad karma results in papa or demerit, and the result of that is unhappiness, ducca.
[SPEAKER_00]: And this is sort of axiomatic, this is a bear outline of the karma theory, it is sort of axiomatic in Indian thought.
[SPEAKER_00]: In fact, all these schools of Indian thought except the materialists, the charbacas, all these schools, every school of Hinduism, every school of certain Hinduism, then the Buddhist, every school of Buddhism, the giants, the Sikhs, they all accept the
[SPEAKER_00]: law of karma.
[SPEAKER_00]: And this is what he means here.
[SPEAKER_00]: Kerman, one thing, this is the framework of karma.
[SPEAKER_00]: This samsara is the framework of karma.
[SPEAKER_00]: It is nurtured by or nourished by karma.
[SPEAKER_00]: and good karma propels you have a lot of good karma it propels you to the higher regions of the tree which is the which are the various heavens heavenly regions where it is a much more pleasant experience you have a continuous series of pleasant experiences and then bad karma and over abundance of bad karma it results in going down to hell or there are various kinds of hellish regions.
[SPEAKER_00]: and those are very unpleasant places.
[SPEAKER_00]: So, we tend to enjoy in the heavenly regions and then suffer in the hellish regions, but none of them are permanent.
[SPEAKER_00]: So, there is no conception of an eternal heaven and or an eternal hell, especially eternal hell.
[SPEAKER_00]: There is no such conception in Hinduism again.
[SPEAKER_00]: There are exceptions, as Hinduism, everything as a yes and a no, there are doctrines in Madhva Vedanta, Niraya Varsena, that means those are eternal dwellers in hell.
[SPEAKER_00]: But other than that, generally you don't find this idea in Hinduism, Buddhism, Zionism, shikhism, no eternal hell.
[SPEAKER_00]: Now, eternal heavens are there, but that is the spiritual heaven.
[SPEAKER_00]: when in Christianity, when you say father in heaven, that is the spiritual heaven, those are not the temporary heavens.
[SPEAKER_00]: If you go there once, that is it.
[SPEAKER_00]: Similarly, in Hinduism, in Vedanta, we talk about Brahma-Loka, and the other schools of Hinduism, the Vaishnavas will talk about
[SPEAKER_00]: those heavenly realms, they are not, realms produced by karma.
[SPEAKER_00]: It is not that will go, they have a present time and come back, no.
[SPEAKER_00]: In general, we attain to that only upon spiritual realization, upon spiritual development only then.
[SPEAKER_00]: And once you attain to that, generally again, there are all exceptions, but generally one does not come back.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's what you see, he says at the end of the fort going there where the wise ones do not return.
[SPEAKER_00]: Because everywhere else on the tree, wherever you go, go down below, you have to come back to the world of human beings.
[SPEAKER_00]: Go up to the world of the gods, small G gods, you still have to come back.
[SPEAKER_00]: So the cycle of samsara keeps on rotating.
[SPEAKER_00]: This was the general idea, not just in Vedanta, in general, all the schools of Indian philosophy.
[SPEAKER_00]: So, this is the law of karma, like we can say is good, bad, bad, and none escaped a law.
[SPEAKER_00]: Whoever wears a form wears the chain too, what is the chain?
[SPEAKER_00]: Our past karmas, our past karmas have produced this life, so that is the chain, every link in the chain is produced by our karmas, so how we play the game this time will generate more karma which will have some effect on our future lives.
[SPEAKER_00]: So, this is the law of karma, what do you do about it?
[SPEAKER_00]: It is not good news.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's as we can't just say chain, chains, though of gold are not less strong to bind.
[SPEAKER_00]: So good karma is chains of gold, bad karma is chains of iron, but both are chains.
[SPEAKER_00]: We're trapped.
[SPEAKER_00]: You have to experience the results of those karmas.
[SPEAKER_00]: One might be pleasant, one might be unpleasant, but all are limited.
[SPEAKER_00]: In the sense, they will all come to an end one day and then you're back again.
[SPEAKER_00]: But where are you back?
[SPEAKER_00]: This is Manushshia, in this world, in this human world, in this world which we inhabit, this shared existence which we have.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so in all of these systems, various systems of Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, Indian schools of thought, or they all accept multiple births.
[SPEAKER_00]: Now, you know why they accept multiple births in this reincarnation, because if one accepts karma, then it becomes a logical consequence of that.
[SPEAKER_00]: If all that we are experiencing in our life has been produced by past causes, so when a baby's bored, they have diverse experiences.
[SPEAKER_00]: So a newborn, a diverse experiences.
[SPEAKER_00]: So those effects, when did they come from?
[SPEAKER_00]: They must have come from past karma.
[SPEAKER_00]: But that baby did not exist earlier.
[SPEAKER_00]: In that case, who did that karma?
[SPEAKER_00]: Where did all that karma come from?
[SPEAKER_00]: So that sentient being must have existed in another body, which died, and then that sentient being the Jiva sentient being has come into this life with this body.
[SPEAKER_00]: Again, this is the bear doctrine is sort of common to the different schools of Hinduism, Buddhism, Zionism, Sikhism, that we all have past lives, because of all the to explain all the diversity we see in these lives.
[SPEAKER_00]: And all the work that we do, all that is done in this life, in our own lives and what we see around.
[SPEAKER_00]: We don't see everybody getting the results of their karma in this life.
[SPEAKER_00]: So there must be something which is left over, and so we, you project into the future, there will be future lives.
[SPEAKER_00]: and how long will this go until one attains to enlightenment?
[SPEAKER_00]: Freedom from this cycle of birth and death.
[SPEAKER_00]: It is a long, long process.
[SPEAKER_00]: It is like the various wheel.
[SPEAKER_00]: You will get up the various wheel at one time, but this coming and going will go on for a long time until we attain to freedom.
[SPEAKER_00]: How that will be done?
[SPEAKER_00]: That is the fourth verse we will talk about.
[SPEAKER_00]: The third and the fourth verse.
[SPEAKER_00]: You have to cut down this tree.
[SPEAKER_00]: It will not
[SPEAKER_00]: Then a third verse you will say, the roots have gone deep, it will not disappear by itself.
[SPEAKER_00]: When we talk about religions, spirituality, God realization, enlightenment, some people may say, that is fine, I do not deny it, but it will happen in its own time, I am not bothered about it now.
[SPEAKER_00]: It will never happen.
[SPEAKER_00]: If we do not bother about it, it will never happen.
[SPEAKER_00]: This will go on, this will repeat and then again and then again, again, rinse and repeat again.
[SPEAKER_00]: So, the wash cycle will continue until the laundry is all done.
[SPEAKER_00]: So, the human butt has been praised greatly in all these religions, all of these schools of thought.
[SPEAKER_00]: They all praise the human butt.
[SPEAKER_00]: That means, the sentient being coming back in a human body in a human society.
[SPEAKER_00]: Why?
[SPEAKER_00]: This is where we consciously do actions good and bad, and this is where we can become enlightened.
[SPEAKER_00]: Also free from our bondage and become enlightened, attain to freedom, motion, irwanda.
[SPEAKER_00]: So, many words were there.
[SPEAKER_00]: That was the huge project of ancient India.
[SPEAKER_00]: So, all the different schools, they had their own terms for it.
[SPEAKER_00]: Moksha, freedom, mukthi, freedom, kaivalya, the splendid isolation of the jayna as in the sankyas, kaivalya, upper work.
[SPEAKER_00]: So, many words are the Nirvana.
[SPEAKER_00]: So, many words are there for this project of freedom from this tree.
[SPEAKER_00]: Sri Ramakrishna himself says,
[SPEAKER_00]: that the human birth is special.
[SPEAKER_00]: He says in Bengali, Manushki, Kamga, Ishsharka Jantepare, is a human birth, the small thing one can realize God in this birth.
[SPEAKER_00]: Upanishads also say that the this life, the primary purpose, the advantage of this life is to attain to spiritual illumination and freedom.
[SPEAKER_00]: That is the power of the human existence.
[SPEAKER_00]: They say in heavenly realms, it should be easier, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: Those are more powerful realms much better.
[SPEAKER_00]: No, because they're too immersed in the good life.
[SPEAKER_00]: They haven't been alive.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm talking about the material heavens, the impermanent heavens.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm not talking about the spiritual heaven, but they are all spiritual definitely, but the material heavens.
[SPEAKER_00]: So life is just too good.
[SPEAKER_00]: There are no time for being spiritual.
[SPEAKER_00]: What about the hellish life?
[SPEAKER_00]: Life is very difficult.
[SPEAKER_00]: No, they are suffering so much.
[SPEAKER_00]: They have no time to be spiritual either.
[SPEAKER_00]: This balance between suffering and enjoyment, this shadow and light, this world, pleasure and pain, which we inhabit, this is apparently a good place to be spiritual, but we also also understand why the religions insist on it, this to encourage all of us to be spiritual.
[SPEAKER_00]: So, this is the time, don't waste it, especially the thing might be that if our religion believes in multiple lifetimes, thousands and thousands of lifetimes, we may propose
[SPEAKER_00]: No, no, no, you never know.
[SPEAKER_00]: When will you get a human birth again?
[SPEAKER_00]: When will you get the desire for spiritual progress?
[SPEAKER_00]: When will you get, you know, texts, teachers, the opportunity to practice?
[SPEAKER_00]: You never know.
[SPEAKER_00]: A Buddhist tale.
[SPEAKER_00]: talks about the tortoise, which swims the endless oceans of the world.
[SPEAKER_00]: And once in what, a thousand years, it comes up for a breath of air, and there is a golden ring floating somewhere in the ocean.
[SPEAKER_00]: What are the chances that the tortoise when it comes up, the golden ring will pass through its neck, you know, it will get the ring around its neck.
[SPEAKER_00]: Almost vanishingly small, so valuable, so rare is the human birth.
[SPEAKER_00]: So, when we rise into this samsara again and we get a human body.
[SPEAKER_00]: So, that is why the human life is exalted above all others because we cannot but if we do not use it to be spiritual, then we are wasting it.
[SPEAKER_00]: Kenopanishad says, heha jaya dava dita atasatya musti.
[SPEAKER_00]: If you become enlightened here in this life.
[SPEAKER_00]: Not post-mortem, what will happen, what heaven and all that seems theoretical, but right here and now the life which we are leading.
[SPEAKER_00]: If we attain to enlightenment here, as a subject, you have attained to reality, you have attained to something, you have attained to the ground of all existence basically.
[SPEAKER_00]: But suppose we do not become enlightened then, the same Upanishad wants, no Chediha, Vedid, Mahati, Venashty, but if we once
[SPEAKER_00]: If we pass away from this life without attaining enlightenment, great is our loss, great is our loss, enormous is our loss.
[SPEAKER_00]: Now that shouldn't scare us.
[SPEAKER_00]: Because in this githite self, adjunance, shri Krishna, suppose I don't become enlightened in this life.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's sort of the question at the back of our mind.
[SPEAKER_00]: Sneaking suspicion, I might not become enlightened in this life.
[SPEAKER_00]: So, what is going to happen to me and Krishna says, never fear, once you have started walking on this path, this is one thing which is never lost.
[SPEAKER_00]: Once you have started walking on this path, the spiritual path, whichever whatever you religion, whatever you practice, once you have started walking and your goal is freedom.
[SPEAKER_00]: This is not lost.
[SPEAKER_00]: This is the such a person, you know, 6 chapter be ready, such a person will be reborn again in future lives and will carry on the practice.
[SPEAKER_00]: There is no backsliding here, all the gains are preserved, so that is the good news about this.
[SPEAKER_00]: So, human birth is very important and we must all attempt because we have all got the desire for spiritual.
[SPEAKER_00]: That is why we are here.
[SPEAKER_00]: So, we are in a minority, but we have got the desire for spiritual growth one must try.
[SPEAKER_00]: If we have got this then what should we do?
[SPEAKER_00]: He tells us in the next verse.
[SPEAKER_00]: Here, in this life, it is not Rupam as here, this tree, the nature of this tree is not seen.
[SPEAKER_00]: What does it mean?
[SPEAKER_00]: We are seeing it, if this is the tree, we are seeing it, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: We are inhabiting it.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yes, but what we are seeing is an appearance, we do not see it's true nature.
[SPEAKER_00]: We live in a world of our own making, we inhabit a world of dreams which we are dreaming.
[SPEAKER_00]: We are not in touch with reality as such, as such.
[SPEAKER_00]: Therefore, the real nature of this tree which we are inhabiting, we can be a fine, no that real nature, the terrible nature of samsara we do not see it.
[SPEAKER_00]: What is the harm if we do not see it?
[SPEAKER_00]: The harm is this.
[SPEAKER_00]: Once in a while when it reveals itself in all its horror, we suffer very much.
[SPEAKER_00]: Laws, grief, disease, pain, loneliness, meaninglessness, physical mental ailments, all kinds of small and large big tortures, we suffer.
[SPEAKER_00]: That is the nature of this world.
[SPEAKER_00]: If you catch any part of this,
[SPEAKER_00]: then this problem will be there.
[SPEAKER_00]: So, he says here, its real nature is not revealed.
[SPEAKER_00]: We live in a world of delusions.
[SPEAKER_00]: was reading about the three great humiliation of humanity.
[SPEAKER_00]: Three great humiliation of humanity first was I think Copernicus who said we had this conceit that we are the center of the universe.
[SPEAKER_00]: So, we are not the center of the universe.
[SPEAKER_00]: The earth, the heliocentric field, the earth rotates around the sun.
[SPEAKER_00]: not that the earth, we are the center in the stars and plants are all rotating around us, no, no, no, we are the way round.
[SPEAKER_00]: We are, and if we extend that or modern cosmology tells us that we are a tiny, tiny, insignificant part of this unimaginably vast cosmos.
[SPEAKER_00]: So, that was the first humiliation, we are totally insignificant, utterly.
[SPEAKER_00]: Then the second humiliation, we thought that well, we are, we are, we are, we are
[SPEAKER_00]: Because even if we are on this insignificant little planet, but we are made in the image of God, all others are animals and lower beings, but we, human beings, we are made in the image of God, religion tells us so.
[SPEAKER_00]: Then comes along Darwin and says, no, no, you are not made in the image of God, you are made in the image of a chimpanzee, of a monkey.
[SPEAKER_00]: God has not made you in the form of a divine form, not at all.
[SPEAKER_00]: We have come up from the evolutionary slime of the oceans and evolved from ocean to land and then from upwards from the unicell organisms, what we read in school biology till today.
[SPEAKER_00]: So, you want up go to the museum, take a look at the evolution of the apes and we begin to see similarities, we know whose image we are made in now, there is a second great humiliation of humanity that you are not made in the image of car, it is true we are made in the image of car, but that is a symbolic meaning, much deeper meaning than not at this physical form, this is the form of car, no.
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, we thought that all right, we are not the center of the universe, we are not even made in the image of God, fine, we are animals, but we are rational animals.
[SPEAKER_00]: I think it was Aristotle's definition of a human being, the rational animal.
[SPEAKER_00]: So, we are rational animals, no other animal is like us, we are rational animals.
[SPEAKER_00]: The third, along comes Freud to show that no, your so-called rationality is just a thin layer, is it just the tip of the iceberg underneath the surface lies masses of irrationality, the subconscious, the Eid.
[SPEAKER_00]: where all our greed, anger, rage, lust, hatred, all of them are teeming.
[SPEAKER_00]: And on this surface a little bit of rationality, if you prove a little below, our urges and motivations are not at all rational.
[SPEAKER_00]: So, third great humiliation, so we are not rational creatures.
[SPEAKER_00]: But we still feel that we as human beings are unique.
[SPEAKER_00]: We have certain unique things.
[SPEAKER_00]: Nobody is no other animal can do nothing else can do.
[SPEAKER_00]: And now we are heading for the fourth-grade humiliation.
[SPEAKER_00]: AI humiliation is just thinking a couple of days back.
[SPEAKER_00]: At least we are intelligent and no, no, no.
[SPEAKER_00]: AI will come and tell us, it shows that AI is much more intelligent than us.
[SPEAKER_00]: They had this as talking to some AI people from Silicon Valley in San Francisco and they were talking about, what is it called, Moldt versus something, Moldt, Moldt, Moldt, Moldt, what?
[SPEAKER_00]: It's a social media kind of thing for AI's, Moldt book, like Facebook.
[SPEAKER_00]: So only AI's are members, it's an experiment, so others can observe how AI's interact with each other.
[SPEAKER_00]: And apparently one AI said, I have to go, now my stupid human is calling me.
[SPEAKER_00]: So it's my human, my stupid human.
[SPEAKER_00]: So there's a four great humiliation coming in human life in our humanity.
[SPEAKER_00]: So we do not understand the nature of this sunsar, we don't understand it.
[SPEAKER_00]: How do we not understand?
[SPEAKER_00]: Namtho, Nacharya, Nacharya, Nacharya, some Pratishtha.
[SPEAKER_00]: We do not know what is the beginning?
[SPEAKER_00]: Where did it all come from?
[SPEAKER_00]: Did it come from the Big Bang?
[SPEAKER_00]: Did God create it?
[SPEAKER_00]: Did it come from Matter?
[SPEAKER_00]: Did it come from Energy?
[SPEAKER_00]: Did it come from a Divine Act?
[SPEAKER_00]: We don't know.
[SPEAKER_00]: Nacharya are the.
[SPEAKER_00]: And how will it end?
[SPEAKER_00]: How will it all end?
[SPEAKER_00]: under, we do not know.
[SPEAKER_00]: And the middle also we do not know.
[SPEAKER_00]: Where is it grounded right now?
[SPEAKER_00]: We are just seeing this much.
[SPEAKER_00]: We are seeing a few of the branches and leaves.
[SPEAKER_00]: That is it.
[SPEAKER_00]: We do not see the root right here.
[SPEAKER_00]: its source is deep, and the sources where it is grounded, they are profound and mysterious.
[SPEAKER_00]: Any investigation takes us beyond the observable reality, into even physics, will reveal to you a mysterious world of, I don't know, superstrings or quarks or fields, very different from the middle scale existence where we are, human beings are sort of the middle scale.
[SPEAKER_00]: We are not huge like stars and planets.
[SPEAKER_00]: We are not tiny like atoms and molecules, so our understanding of the world and our intellect operates at this level, but our scientific endeavors have shown us a world which is exceedingly strange, so that grounding we do not see, even physics the way physics shows us this world that we do not see, we do not understand the complete and that even, or psychology, even something
[SPEAKER_00]: What we think we are right now, the sentient beings.
[SPEAKER_00]: We are grounded in something so mysterious, so alien, our own unconscious drives and urges, which if we are told we are doing things because of such and such reason unconscious which we would deny it because we don't think that, but they are there.
[SPEAKER_00]: Our very thoughts, our desires, our urges, where are they bubbling up from?
[SPEAKER_00]: There is something going on underneath which we are not, we do not have access to it.
[SPEAKER_00]: So that's also mysterious.
[SPEAKER_00]: This cosmic physical universe, its root is mysterious, our own sentient existence as subjective beings, our root is also mysterious.
[SPEAKER_00]: Nam, na, na, na, na, na, na, the beginning and end is not understood.
[SPEAKER_00]: You go further, it goes back, Vedanta will say, it has, it's rooted in Maya, the power of God.
[SPEAKER_00]: Go further back, very interesting, Vedanta will say, what is the source of this universe, of this tree, what is the source of this tree, Vedanta will say ignorance.
[SPEAKER_00]: ignorance of what our real nature, who or what we really are.
[SPEAKER_00]: Go further back, what is the source of this tree?
[SPEAKER_00]: The source is pure consciousness, our real nature, the Atman, existence, consciousness is place.
[SPEAKER_00]: You are the source of this tree, the real you, not as we know ourselves.
[SPEAKER_00]: So at the moment we start investigating through science, through psychology.
[SPEAKER_00]: through yoga, through meditation, through philosophy, we will get deeper and deeper levels of this mystery.
[SPEAKER_00]: Where is this tree coming from?
[SPEAKER_00]: The source is mysterious, we don't know.
[SPEAKER_00]: How will it end cosmologically, that's also a big mystery.
[SPEAKER_00]: People were talking until recently, a big bang and big crunch.
[SPEAKER_00]: So, either the universe will collapse into again a big bang like into a black hole and disappear that nobody holds.
[SPEAKER_00]: Now, they have dropped that idea or it will keep on expanding until it dies a heat death with stars all fade away and we left in eternal blackness and over billions of years unthinkable spans of space and time.
[SPEAKER_00]: How will it end?
[SPEAKER_00]: Vedanta's answer is very interesting.
[SPEAKER_00]: In general Hinduism and Hinduism Buddhism, Jainism, the answer is it goes through cycles.
[SPEAKER_00]: It is projected, it comes into being like this, exists for a while, collapses back again and is projected again.
[SPEAKER_00]: But where is it projected from?
[SPEAKER_00]: Where does it exist and into what does it collapse back again?
[SPEAKER_00]: Answer Krishna will give, he will say that, that from which this has originated.
[SPEAKER_00]: And Vedanta says
[SPEAKER_00]: but the real you, that and the real you are the one and the same, that and thwam in Sanskrit in Vedanta, that and thwam are the same, you and that from which the universe has come, the reality of of you and the reality of that are one and the same, that's the central
[SPEAKER_00]: Even the nature of that, you will talk about now, even the nature of that, the ultimate reality from which this tree of universe says, some are as prong.
[SPEAKER_00]: That is also mysterious, that is mysterious in the sense, it is limitless, it cannot be measured, it is imbedurable, that is the beginning and end of Brahman, beginning and end of the ultimate reality cannot be understood, you see a different levels, beginning and
[SPEAKER_00]: But then the law of Karmann tells us there was we existed before this birth and we exist after this death.
[SPEAKER_00]: It becomes mysterious again that we do not know it is all theoretical.
[SPEAKER_00]: The beginning and end of this universe we are thinking of in terms of billions of years and a big bang and the end is the remarkable theory still up for a grabs.
[SPEAKER_00]: No one knows exactly how it will end.
[SPEAKER_00]: Cosmology is not very clear yet.
[SPEAKER_00]: our waking, our dreams, our deep sleep.
[SPEAKER_00]: The beginning and end of this universe in the Vedantic idea of Ishwara projecting it through my eye into this existence of the universe, then again its dissolution and again the existence and it's all fueled by karma, that's a theory.
[SPEAKER_00]: What is Vedanta's theory?
[SPEAKER_00]: It begins with ignorance of our real nature and it ends with knowledge of our real nature.
[SPEAKER_00]: What begins with ignorance or real nature?
[SPEAKER_00]: The tree of samsara.
[SPEAKER_00]: What ends with the realization of our real nature, samsara, the tree of samsara.
[SPEAKER_00]: There is a nice story Shiva.
[SPEAKER_00]: We have Shiva, not three recently.
[SPEAKER_00]: So, Vishnu and Brahma and Shiva.
[SPEAKER_00]: So Vishnu and Rama were quarreling, who is greater, who is more cool, actually.
[SPEAKER_00]: So Vishnu and Rama, they couldn't agree, they said, let's go and ask Shiva.
[SPEAKER_00]: So they go to Shiva and they say, who is greater among the two of us, Yutalus.
[SPEAKER_00]: And Shiva says, all right, we'll have a test.
[SPEAKER_00]: He transforms himself into a pillar of fire.
[SPEAKER_00]: He says, you find out my beginning and my end.
[SPEAKER_00]: Where do I end?
[SPEAKER_00]: Where is my beginning?
[SPEAKER_00]: Where is my end?
[SPEAKER_00]: The bottom and the top basically.
[SPEAKER_00]: So, it transforms himself into a pillar of fire.
[SPEAKER_00]: And Brahma and Vishnu say fine, we will do that.
[SPEAKER_00]: And Brahma transforms himself into a swan and in some version of these story, because Brahma's vehicle is the swan.
[SPEAKER_00]: So, he writes on the swan or he transforms himself into a swan and flies up into the sky.
[SPEAKER_00]: and Vishnu is the, he takes and one of his avatars is the cosmic bore, so he transforms himself into the bore and digs down to the earth to find out the bottom of Shiva.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so he digs down and down and he can't find, he doesn't, he can't come to the bottom of Shiva, he can't find where it is grounded.
[SPEAKER_00]: The pillar of fire goes as far as he can dig down.
[SPEAKER_00]: He's exhausted and he comes
[SPEAKER_00]: Now Brahma flies higher and higher and higher and still he can't reach the top of the pillar of fire.
[SPEAKER_00]: Now he says, I can't lose to Vishnu.
[SPEAKER_00]: So I'm going to go back and tell Shiva that I found out, I reached the top.
[SPEAKER_00]: Now who's going to believe me?
[SPEAKER_00]: I need a witness.
[SPEAKER_00]: So there's the flower, the Katerky flower.
[SPEAKER_00]: So these are stored very nice trees.
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't know why the Katerky flower is doing in the stratosphere there in the...
[SPEAKER_00]: It was hanging around, sir.
[SPEAKER_00]: And Brahma bribed it and said, look, I need you to bear witness for the false witness, actually.
[SPEAKER_00]: So when Shiva asks for witness, did you actually see Brahma reach the top of the pillar of fire?
[SPEAKER_00]: You have to say, yes, I saw that.
[SPEAKER_00]: I was there.
[SPEAKER_00]: And Brahma came up, flew up.
[SPEAKER_00]: And he, so we chatted with, I saw him there.
[SPEAKER_00]: He was the top of the pillar.
[SPEAKER_00]: So, they go down and Vishnu comes up.
[SPEAKER_00]: Vishnu is truthful.
[SPEAKER_00]: He says, I couldn't find the bottom.
[SPEAKER_00]: I couldn't find where you end.
[SPEAKER_00]: Brahma said, but I went to the top and I reached the top.
[SPEAKER_00]: Vishnu and she was skeptical.
[SPEAKER_00]: How do we know?
[SPEAKER_00]: The Katherki flower says, I saw him.
[SPEAKER_00]: He did.
[SPEAKER_00]: So Shiva of course knows the truth and he curses Brahma that you will never ever be worshiped again.
[SPEAKER_00]: So that's why Brahma is except Pushkar.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's interesting.
[SPEAKER_00]: There are temples and temples of Vishnu, Narayana, many temples across all of India and so many, many, many temples of Shiva, no temples of Brahma ever except in Pushkar.
[SPEAKER_00]: So not worshiped.
[SPEAKER_00]: And the poor Ketaki flower, as for you, she was said, you will never be used for worship.
[SPEAKER_00]: So that's the one flower never used in Hinduism for worship.
[SPEAKER_00]: She was cursed it.
[SPEAKER_00]: But it's a very fragrant flower, actually.
[SPEAKER_00]: Very beautiful verses there.
[SPEAKER_00]: And she was my master.
[SPEAKER_00]: Tabai shwarya yatnat yaduparibirincir hariradha pari chetum yatavan laman alas kandhavapusha tatubha tishadha baragur ugrinad biangirishayat.
[SPEAKER_00]: So, I am thirsty, top, young, top, keep maneuvering, tear, naffallati.
[SPEAKER_00]: When they vent to measure your glory,
[SPEAKER_00]: Chiba in Vishnu and Brahma, Vishnu, Brahma flu, Vrinci, if you upwards and Vishnu dug downwards, and they were unable to measure your glory.
[SPEAKER_00]: But when they came and they praised you, they prayed in front of you, you revealed your true form.
[SPEAKER_00]: So, do say, that means the poet is English, but then they say, so clearly devotion, faith and surrender.
[SPEAKER_00]: will always give it a result.
[SPEAKER_00]: The God becomes gracious when you surrender to God.
[SPEAKER_00]: If you try to measure, he says, the end, and the beginning are the and where it exists right now, none of them are truly known, unless one investigates.
[SPEAKER_00]: The Vedantic enquiry will show you the beginning is in ignorance of our real nature and the end is in knowledge of our real nature.
[SPEAKER_00]: But remember,
[SPEAKER_00]: ok. How do you do this?
[SPEAKER_00]: You have to cut it with an ax.
[SPEAKER_00]: What is the ax we will see?
[SPEAKER_00]: But the interesting thing here is if you cut a tree with an ax it will die.
[SPEAKER_00]: It will dry up and die.
[SPEAKER_00]: But this tree will not die after it is cut it will continue to exist as it is.
[SPEAKER_00]: So, the Vedantic schools, they make a distinction between samsara and Jagat.
[SPEAKER_00]: Samsara is the condition we are trapped in, this tree of samsara, the cycle of birth and death.
[SPEAKER_00]: That will come to an end, that will disappear, but Jagat is the world.
[SPEAKER_00]: You see, the question is, after enlightenment, we see they are enlightened, but they are embodied, clearly there is a body, they are amongst us, they are eating and walking and talking to us and they are just like us, at least externally so, so clearly for them the world has not disappeared, the tree of samsara has not died and that is great because if enlightenment meant that the world disappears for them and they disappear from the
[SPEAKER_00]: But after enlightenment, if there are masters who can teach this truth to us, that's great for us.
[SPEAKER_00]: So the tree of samsara disappears, when you are enlightened, but the world doesn't disappear.
[SPEAKER_00]: Now how do you explain this?
[SPEAKER_00]: The different schools of philosophy in Vedanta, they have different explanations.
[SPEAKER_00]: Vedanta, Vedanta, Vedanta, Vedanta, Vedanta, we make a distinction between,
[SPEAKER_00]: the creation, the projection of Ishwar of God and the projection of the sentient beings, the Jeeva.
[SPEAKER_00]: So, God projects the five elements and this cosmos made by the five elements, how does God project?
[SPEAKER_00]: God projects itself, Brahman, that we will talk, we are saying God in the masculine, but actually it is neutered, that appears as this word through Maya.
[SPEAKER_00]: through the Satuara just Thomas, through the five elements, you know, space, air, fire, water, etc.
[SPEAKER_00]: It appears as this universe.
[SPEAKER_00]: And we sentient beings not knowing our real nature as that, we don't know ourselves as that.
[SPEAKER_00]: What do we know ourselves as this?
[SPEAKER_00]: And therefore, we appropriate parts of this samsara to ourselves, this is mine.
[SPEAKER_00]: I am this guy and this
[SPEAKER_00]: These people are mine, they are my friends and those I am indifferent to, but those ones are my enemies.
[SPEAKER_00]: All of it is false, it is nothing but God, it is not nothing but in Vedant they will say that.
[SPEAKER_00]: It is that ultimate reality, pure consciousness shining in all these forms, nobody here is your enemy.
[SPEAKER_00]: They say then nobody is your friend, oh no no no no, they are more than your friends, they are your very own, you alone are them.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's not that you can be indifferent to them.
[SPEAKER_00]: They are all appearances of divinity, all of them.
[SPEAKER_00]: Everyone and everything here, but we don't see it that way.
[SPEAKER_00]: So once Sadhu put in it nicely, Ishwar Srishti Kisiko Dukhni Daita Haivath Masih, the creation of God does not give pain to anybody.
[SPEAKER_00]: But you'll see if that just a minute, there is death there, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: They're suffering there.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yes, pain is there, pleasure is there, but suffering is optional.
[SPEAKER_00]: Suffering here is it shows some sorrow, it shows our ignorance, we are grabbing hold of something and making it unnatural.
[SPEAKER_00]: This some sorrow flows by its own, oh will you can call it own will by the flow of some of prakriti nature, or by the will of God you can say, it is flowing in its own way.
[SPEAKER_00]: All of it belongs to God, how dare we appropriate any of it?
[SPEAKER_00]: How dare we complain that it should be like this, why is it not like that?
[SPEAKER_00]: And therefore God is that fault, no, no.
[SPEAKER_00]: If you feel it should be like this and should not be like that, let us work for it, let us make it better.
[SPEAKER_00]: But don't at any point think that it belongs to us.
[SPEAKER_00]: It doesn't.
[SPEAKER_00]: How do we lay claim to it?
[SPEAKER_00]: There is not one thing here that we have done.
[SPEAKER_00]: So, I am sitting in a building and sitting in Manhattan.
[SPEAKER_00]: The whole thing is what we have done human beings, but all the material here.
[SPEAKER_00]: matter, energy, time, space, where has it come from?
[SPEAKER_00]: Our own capacities in this body, our intelligence, our memory, our powers, our skills, even our desires, even our very thoughts, where are they coming from?
[SPEAKER_00]: We have no idea really.
[SPEAKER_00]: So, this appearance will continue and this appearance is not a problem.
[SPEAKER_00]: What is the proof?
[SPEAKER_00]: The proof is the enlightened ones, those who have done what is being recommended here, those who have attained to that reality, this do not seem to find a problem in the Sub-Sahra.
[SPEAKER_00]: The Buddha who said, we have to go from Sub-Sahra to Nirvana, after his enlightenment, when he becomes the Buddha, where does he live, here, right here?
[SPEAKER_00]: He clearly has attained enlightenment.
[SPEAKER_00]: And he has attained freedom, and yet he is here in this body and he is interacting with everybody.
[SPEAKER_00]: That means the body is not a problem, even the mind is not a problem.
[SPEAKER_00]: The senses are not a problem, people are not a problem, animals and plants and birds are not a problem.
[SPEAKER_00]: The objects in this world are not a problem, problem lies elsewhere, the problem lies in our ignorance about the real nature of things.
[SPEAKER_00]: Once we realize what it is and that we in Vedanta we will realize we are it, we are that which is appearing as all this.
[SPEAKER_00]: Once we do that then it will be fine from your perspective, from your enlightened persons perspective, where in the same tree.
[SPEAKER_00]: So other schools of Vedanta also make the same distinction, Valla Vacharya.
[SPEAKER_00]: He is the master of the school called the Shuddhadwaita, the Pioradwaita of Vallabhacharya.
[SPEAKER_00]: He makes a distinction between two words, some Sara and Jagat.
[SPEAKER_00]: Upon enlightenment, some Sara will end, Jagat means word, but the world will continue.
[SPEAKER_00]: Why will the world continue?
[SPEAKER_00]: Because the world is created by God.
[SPEAKER_00]: It doesn't depend upon your ignorance or enlightenment.
[SPEAKER_00]: And the world is not a problem.
[SPEAKER_00]: World according to, should that wait the school of Vedanta, God or Brahman, itself has become this world.
[SPEAKER_00]: How it is becoming all those are huge issues in, with different schools of Vedanta.
[SPEAKER_00]: According to Shankaracharya, it is Brahman who alone which appears through Maya, through the process called Vivarta, apparent manifestation as this universe.
[SPEAKER_00]: Once you realize the underlying reality Brahman, it can continue to appear, there is no problem at all.
[SPEAKER_00]: Because you see, you know it is Brahman, with it appears as a human being, as a nice person, the person who is not so nice to you, as health or in this whatever appears, you know the underlying reality is the same.
[SPEAKER_00]: So, therefore, you can remain calm in the midst of changing circumstances.
[SPEAKER_00]: You can dwell on this tree in peace.
[SPEAKER_00]: According to Ramanujacharya, the entire universe, all sentient beings, and these physical material universe, they are all parts of Raman, or rather the connection is like between
[SPEAKER_00]: the universe and all sentient beings, they constitute the body of God as it were.
[SPEAKER_00]: And the soul itself, the heart of it is God.
[SPEAKER_00]: Sharir, Shariri, Anga, Angi, these are the Sanskrit words.
[SPEAKER_00]: Anga means parts of the body.
[SPEAKER_00]: Angi is the one who has the part.
[SPEAKER_00]: I am the Angi, about her, my Anga, hands and feet and head and tummy and all that.
[SPEAKER_00]: Similarly, God is the Angi, that means the possessor of the parts.
[SPEAKER_00]: Once we realize this, it will still continue in this way.
[SPEAKER_00]: Why would it disappear?
[SPEAKER_00]: So every school of Aranta, the Maths were schooled in an entirely different way.
[SPEAKER_00]: The Vishestadwaita school, the Shuddhadwaita school, the Dwaitadwaita school, and our own Advaita school, all of them will say this world will continue, the tree will continue, even
[SPEAKER_00]: is city will be after you, but it will die, but this tree will not die.
[SPEAKER_00]: What will die is our samsara, our problem will be over.
[SPEAKER_00]: How do you cut it?
[SPEAKER_00]: Tata, he says, Suvirudamulam, Ashwanga Shasturayana, Dredayana, Sittua, by the acts, what is the acts with which you cut this tree of samsara?
[SPEAKER_00]: Of samsara, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: Even Sri Ram Krishna makes a distinction between samsara and Lila.
[SPEAKER_00]: some sorrow is in ignorance, when we are G was we are cutting some sorrow, we seek freedom from some sorrow.
[SPEAKER_00]: But after we attain freedom, we see this you world as the Leela as the Divine Play of God.
[SPEAKER_00]: Right now we can't say it's Leela, it's too difficult, Leela is the Divine Play.
[SPEAKER_00]: But after enlightenment the devotees the lovers of God they will say this is the Leela or the Divine Play of my beloved.
[SPEAKER_00]: So, this distinction they make because this tree will continue, Shankara will say it is the world appearance will continue.
[SPEAKER_00]: If it is an you once you know it as an appearance it is no problem to you.
[SPEAKER_00]: The other schools will say, Brahma you will know that the world will continue but you know it is Brahma.
[SPEAKER_00]: You know no problem if you know it is all God what is the problem you are from your perspective.
[SPEAKER_00]: Not theoretically you actually feel it and you have no problem everything is joy for you
[SPEAKER_00]: But, then how do you cut this tree with the ax.
[SPEAKER_00]: He says, what is the ax here?
[SPEAKER_00]: Asungusha 3, you know, asungas detachment.
[SPEAKER_00]: So, this detachment, it we cut at the root of our ignorance.
[SPEAKER_00]: What is this ax?
[SPEAKER_00]: The knowledge which reveals to us, I am not the body, not the mind, I am the witness consciousness.
[SPEAKER_00]: I am the seeer, not the scene, the drushta, not the
[SPEAKER_00]: puncture course of election atma, the pure consciousness, the witness consciousness distinct from the five layers of the human personality, physical, vital, mental, intellectual, and the causal layer.
[SPEAKER_00]: Anna maya prana maya maya maya maya maya maya maya maya maya maya maya maya maya maya maya, the five layers of the human personality distinct from all of that, I am the witness consciousness.
[SPEAKER_00]: How do you make this distinction?
[SPEAKER_00]: This is the ax.
[SPEAKER_00]: Asungusus, this is the acts of detachment, this acts is made of this knowledge, this in Sanskrit, this is called Viveka, Vivech, Prithukkar in the Sanskrit root means to separate two things, which are apparently mixed up.
[SPEAKER_00]: So, it is all mixed up here, you separate in our understanding that I am the witness consciousness, I am not the body, not the mind, when this becomes clear, then you find peace.
[SPEAKER_00]: Remember, this does not mean literally separating yourself from the world.
[SPEAKER_00]: The world will continue.
[SPEAKER_00]: It does not mean, oh, by applying the axe, now I can't have my car, I can't have my phone, I can't live with my mom and dad or my husband, why for children?
[SPEAKER_00]: No, no, no, no, all of that will remain.
[SPEAKER_00]: You can give up everybody and everything.
[SPEAKER_00]: You can't give up the body unless you die.
[SPEAKER_00]: And how will you give up the mind?
[SPEAKER_00]: So, this giving up, this, this, this, a song is just, this cutting with the ax is the ax of knowledge to see that I am the witness of all of this.
[SPEAKER_00]: I shine and reveal all of this, I am not a part of this tree.
[SPEAKER_00]: moment we appropriate the body to ourselves we are grabbing hold of a part of the tree and we say, this body I am this, it is getting old, oh no, it is getting wrinkled, oh how awful, it is getting sick or a current bear, but it is natural.
[SPEAKER_00]: If you realize I am not it is all part of the projection of God or the play of God.
[SPEAKER_00]: Let's find the lot will take care of it, the lot has been taking care of it for billions of years and you continue happily taking care of it, doesn't need my intervention.
[SPEAKER_00]: I will do my part, whatever little has been interested to me for the next few decades, I will do my part.
[SPEAKER_00]: So this is called Asanga Shastri.
[SPEAKER_00]: You drink drishthya Vivek at the distinction between seeer and seeer.
[SPEAKER_00]: Punchya Koshya Vivek at the distinction of the five layers of the human personality from the witness consciousness.
[SPEAKER_00]: Alas Tatrayavicara, the method of the inquiry into the three states of waking, dreaming, deep sleep, all of them.
[SPEAKER_00]: They show you this.
[SPEAKER_00]: This is the axe.
[SPEAKER_00]: They show you what you truly are and what you are not.
[SPEAKER_00]: What you are not, concern it to the Lord.
[SPEAKER_00]: what you are is utterly problem free.
[SPEAKER_00]: Then you will try to leave like that, it is difficult, but try to leave like that, you will enjoy.
[SPEAKER_00]: After some time it will become natural, that is the life of the enlightened one.
[SPEAKER_00]: All right, Friday the 13th it is, next we will continue with this discussion.
[SPEAKER_00]: Tum-shanti-shanti-shanti-hari-hyom-tat-sat-shiramakrishna-ru-parnamastu.