Day1, 17 January 2015, 10:30 AM (IST), The Art of Living International Center, Bangalore: Welcome to the commentary by Sri Sri Ravi Shankar on the Ishavasya Upanishad.
The manifest world that we perceive, or our experience, is the tip of the iceberg. All that we experience through the senses is a small part of the universe. Most is unmanifest. That is full. To understand, we must have an experience of what That is. That is what Ishavasya Upanishad is about.
Sri Sri: Upanishads begin with Shanti mantra.
Let's all chant the Shanti Mantra.
Om purnamadah purnamidam purnat purnamudacyate | purnasya purnamadaya purnamevavasisyate || Om santih santih santih ||
Upanishad means sitting close to the Master. A student and a teacher sit close. It is mental proximity. Only then can knowledge flow.
When there is no connectivity, knowledge cannot flow. For knowledge to flow there needs to be sense of belongingness.
Today, the issue in the world is that the students in classroom are at a different level and teachers are at a different level.
For knowledge to be transferred there needs to be peace. That is why, Upanishads start with the Shanti Mantra.
Is there an inquisitiveness to know or are they (student) caught up in desires? Are you already overflowing?
A student knows he already knows everything, he is only there to verify what he already knows.
Willingness to know and the faith in the teacher.
Teacher should know the sincerity of the student. A student should have faith in the wisdom of the teacher. Then, they are at the same wavelength.
This is the discord we are seeing. Why in spite of so many Universities, we are not bringing up the wisdom.
That is why the Shanti Mantra.
The concept of zero comes from Shanti Mantra.
If you take some furniture out from this room, then there is this room minus furniture. This is linear thinking.
The Rishis have given us spherical thinking. This is also complete. That is also complete. A baby is complete. A mother is also complete.
The concept of zero has its origin in the Shanti Mantra. From the fullness, comes the fullness and still the fullness remains. You can analyze the Shanti Mantra at various levels: Maths, spiritual, Physics.
When you share your peace with others, you will not lose your peace.
Similarly, this Universe, in fact this multi-verse, is dynamic.
Many things are born here everyday and die here everyday. Still the manifest and unmanifest is complete.
Three times Shanti.
Your body-mind complex needs to be fit. Your environment needs to be peaceful.
Let's do a short meditation. Today we are going to chant this mantra: Satyam Param Dhimahi. May my intellect be soaked in the transcendental truth.
Chanting balances our right and left brain. Left brain is logic, right brain is music.
People in love want to repeat things. I love you. I love you. Repetition is so musical when the right brain activity is going on. Repetition has been a part of every learning. Logical understand, knowledge you receive, needs emotional integration.
It is so interesting to see the entire Ayurvedic text is in the form of poems. Wisdom with rhythm.
Everyday, we will chant a few minutes.
Ishavasya Upanishad.
The concept of God is something that has baffled this planet from time immemorial. The people who say there is God have concepts and people who say there is no God they also have concepts.
Om Isavasyamidam sarvam yatkiñca jagatyam jagat | tena tyaktena bhuñjitha ma grdhah kasyasvid dhanam || 1 ||
This entire Universe is permeated by the Divinity. It is not a God who is trying to give you a finger and you try to catch him and he runs away.
God is here. Now. In everything. In fact there can be nothing that is away from God. Not just the permanent, also the changing. The entire Universe is permeated by something and that you can called God.
There are people who are craving for God realization. As though he is somewhere outside.
Everything here. Some may ask: how can God be in Hitler? How can God be in something that is bad? You ask a physicist, did he have atoms in his body of not.
We are caught up in the duality of right and wrong. You are caught up in the hero and villian. A director honors the hero as much as the villian. Wake up and see, you rise to another dimension.
A dimension that is beyond good and bad.
Right and wrong.
Isavasyamidam sarvam yatkiñca jagatyam jagat
And there is this another nothing: God willing. If God wishes, then it will happen.
If God is responsible for everything in this Universe, then why should I be punished?
The doer and the enjoyer go together. They are two sides of the same coin.
This power, which is here, right now what is the password for this?
We are holding on to some material thing, like holding your fist.
When you open your fist, sky is there.
What does your mind hold on to?
Anything that gives you pain and pleasure. When your mind latches on to a limited something, you are occupied.
On a beautiful day, you see the sky. A dust particle enter your eye. That's it. You cannot see the sky.
Do the Rishis mean drop everything and run to the Himalayas?
No.
The world is here for you to enjoy but not by holding on to t. Letting go. Relax. When you relax, you are able to enjoy better. Don't covet for other's possessions.
Let's do a meditation on this mantra only.
It was good?
So when everything is done by God, what is the purpose of my life?
this question should pass by an intelligent mind? It should bug you.
Is it all eating, sleeping, and doing your routine?
Has this question come into your mind?
I am sure.
Have you all got this question some time or the other?
Good.
Seeds has started sprouting. Don't be in a hurry. This question invokes the spirit in you. It is a sign of the seed sprouting.
Hold on.
Upanishad say keep doing your work and live for a hundred years.
kurvanneveha karmani
There is no other way.
kurvanneveha karmani jijivisecchatam samah | evam tvayi nanyatheto'sti na karma lipyate nare || 2 ||
There is no other way. Knowing that this is permeated by the Divine, keep engaged in activity and live for a hundred years. When you are doing an action for yourself, then it is painful.
If your focus is only on you. If you are taking. How much can you take? If you are a giver, if you are only to give, the action does not bind you. When you take, you feel obligation. When you give, you feel the freedom. Keep acting and live for a hundred years.
Your wish should be to live for a hundred years.
Till your death you must keep acting.
Now, here there are two types of action:
Channel your energy is doing something or you sit and get restless.
Restless is also activity.
People who are engaged in any type of activity in the society and not wanting anything are much more happier.
Steam is generated in the course of life. But the steam has to be channelized.
Our energy needs to be channeled to do something useful.
The joy in getting is an infant, immature joy. We are born with this.
Kids love grabbing things. When they are 3 or 4 years old, they love to give. Have you noticed this? They have a tendency to give also. Similarly, grandparents have a tendency to give.
When kids come home, she cooks many dishes and serves.
Unless we move from the joy in grabbing to the joy in giving, we cannot be satisfied. That will keep creating irritation inside you.
Just observe small incidents in your own life.
All this knowledge is for you to look inward.
Am I getting this? What is the cause of my depression? What is the cause of my anxiety?
Once you are on the path, you are sitting with the Master, relax. Still if you keep running, it is like running inside the train.
If you run inside a plane, it is not going to land faster.
Determination to do work that does not benefit you. Once again think on this. Take a few minutes. All other actions that we perform to which we get attached, we want to run away.
A flower is not making an effort to bring fragrance to you.
When I say action, immediately you think that person is able to do more seva. I am old. Don't get into that trip. Desireless action which you can do, which is within your capacity is seva.
Suppose you are not a doctor, no one expects you to treat them.
This action is not a burden on us. This again you must keep in mind. Do what is comfortable. Take such commitments that is comfortable. If you are youthful, take challenges. While doing this, relax.
This energy which permeates the entire Universe is alive. That life force can convey to you without words. That is Isha. There is a word in Sanskrit, Viru Paksha. Eye without a form. Shiva is called Viru Paksha.
Shiv is the coolness of the water that you feel. Om Namah Shivaya is the five elements.
You know why Sun is round?
Sun is pressured by the dark space around. The invisible space around the Sun is 1000 times more powerful that the Sun.
Like the air bubble trapped in a bottle.
Similarly, the empty space is such that the heavenly bodies are spherical.
Around you there is so much energy. Above us 200 miles of air is there. So much pressure of air is there. A scientist can understand. Similarly, a seeker can understand.
What you see as matter is a small aspect of the entire totality. The manifest is an insignificant portion of the unmanifest. That is what you are made up of.
Your own body is made up of atoms. Atoms is 99% space. Relax into this space.
Actions that you do without any expectations, they make you realize you are joy. Just imagine yourself as a flame or fountain of joy. Anything that is obscuring is wanting to grab something physical or spiritual.
You might ask what about jigyasa?
Krishna says, one who wants to get onto the pedestal of yoga, relaxation is the path. Life is a combination of action and relaxation. Pravruti and nivruti.
Let's us once again sit and internalize.
5 minutes recollect all that you heard.
Before you question the validity of this knowledge, see from your life's experience, the truth of this.
(Sit) with your gaze fixed at some point of your eyes closed.
asurya nama te loka andhena tamasa'vrtah | tamste pretyabhigacchanti ye ke catmahano janah || 3 ||
Our life is not just these 60, 70, 80, 90 years.
Our life is eternal. Have you ever thought of the people who have died and gone?
Where did they go? If life is imperishable, where did they go?
Is life so impermanent? If I have been here forever, I should know what I was before and what I will be in the future?
Life is older than the Sun and the Moon.
Our brain is like a frequency analyzer, so it is able to only decode this. People with bipolar disorders, they have access to another frequency.
Scientists are now probing into the previous birth. No one asks now was there a past life? Well informed individuals have come this acceptance which world over people have been saying life is eternal.
A few people get this question what is the purpose of life. What happens to the rest of the billions of others?
Asurya is one who is not centered. People who have eyes cannot see in the dark. They live with their eyes shut and after dying also the spirit lives in a place that has no joy.
This human birth is so precious. Only in human birth you can know: I am that.
People who are living in the darkness have lost the chance. It is like suicide, they have killed themselves.Thank yourself that you are not one of them living in the dark.
You have to be grateful at least I have got a glimpse of knowledge.
This has been the style of Rishis.
It is like someone asking what is the point of learning about nutrition?
The animals don't go for nutrition.
Man has moved far away from nature.
You can exist about hygiene, you are in darkness. You are in a world where there is no center.
The Rishis have given the pros and ons. Before the question arises in you. The purpose of knowledge is to move from darkness. There is no chance that anyone who has been in knowledge, cannot be in the dark world of the pretas or dead spirits. This is like insurance.
Be assured. That none of the spirits can touch you as you have stepped into knowledge.
Nothing can affect you.
Whom will it affect?
Those who are not interested in spiritual knowledge.
Ask questions that are relevant to this topic and this subject.
Q: What is dhyan and samadhi?
Sri Sri: Are you listening? Are you listening as if your entire body is an ear? How are you hearing? What are you hearing? You heard? What is happening within you right now? Nothing? That is meditation.
When you listen as if your entire body is an ear, then there is nothing.
Becoming one with Viru Paksha is meditation.
You have the power to see dreams. Do you see dreams with your specs? You have the power to see. You have this power in every cell of your body. The power to know is in the consciousness. Even with your eyes closed you can see. The power to see, know, hear is present in the consciousness and consciousness is permeating everywhere.
Day 2 - 18 January 2015, 10:30 AM (IST)
Om purnamadah purnamidam purnat purnamudacyate |
purnasya purnamadaya purnamevavasisyate ||
Om shantih santih santih hi ||
We will do the fourth shloka.
anejadekam manaso javiyo nainaddeva apnuvanpurvamarsat |
taddhavato'nyanatyeti tisthattasminnapo matarisva dadhati || 4 ||
Kashi: The Self is motionless one. Swifter than the mind. The Devas, the senses would not overtake. It ran before them sitting. Sitting it goes faster than those who run after it. By it, the element of air, the matarisva, supports the activity of all living beings.
Sri Sri: Sometimes you wonder, how breath is automatically going in and coming out. You are making no effort for that. Even in sleep, the air goes in your lungs and comes out of it. Not just you, all the living beings in the planet. There is something that is creating the rhythm of life. What is that? Have you ever wondered about it? There is something by which your intellect is functioning, your emotions are functioning, your body is functioning. Not just your body, the entire Universe is functioning. What is that? There is something by which the mind is grasping, understanding. Mind is functioning on the basis of some energy, some principle. What is that principle? Have you wondered about it?
What is the basis of the whole Creation? A movie is projected on the screen. Right? Now, what is the screen on which this movie is being projected?
If you see the four elements in creation, earth, water, fire, wind. They are sustaining the fifth element, that is space. A scientist had come here to the Ashram a couple of years back. He said the Egyptians and Mesopotamians knew only four elements. The ancient people knew only four elements. The fifth element was given to the world by scientists. That is the space. I told him, "Sir, you are not informed well." We have always said the fifth element is space. And in space also we categorize three types of space:
* Bhoot Akasha. The physical space where the heavenly bodies are floating.
* Chida Akasha. The space in which the thoughts move.
* Chitta Akasha.
It is so difficult to describe that which is present everywhere. The Rishis have beautifully said that, "It is already there in front. It is in the back also." The Self or the Bramhan, that consciousness, is everywhere when it is the basis of this whole Creation.
tadejati tannaijati taddure tadvantike |
tadantarasya sarvasya tadu sarvasya bahyatah || 5 ||
Sri Sri: Made it even more clearer. When you think it is everywhere, you have an idea of space being stagnant. This space is lively. It is not a dead space. This space is scintillating, is lively. So, it is farther than the farthest and it is nearer than the nearest.
Have you ever thought about where are you in your body? This question has come to you? Where you are in your body? In your arms, in your heart, in your brain? Where are you? You are everywhere and yet nowhere. Heart transplantation happens. Many people who have undergone brain surgery, a portion of their brain has been removed. Still they are complete. So where are you? In the brain, in the heart, in the hands? You are everywhere, yet nowhere.
Something that is so subtle is difficult to explain. The Rishis and Upanishads have made an effort to bring it to your awareness. It is closer than the closest and farther than the farthest. How do you like that? Somebody says something is very close to you, yet it is very far. Our linear thinking mind says, "Wait. Wait. Wait. What are you saying? What are you talking? How is it possible?" Something is either close or it is far. The conditioning of the mind breaks. And it is given an opportunity to see beyond what it knew all the time, beyond what it perceived all the time to be true. Something more. Another dimension gets added to you.
yastu sarvani bhutanyatmanyevanupasyati |
sarvabhutesu catmanam tato na vijugupsate || 6 ||
Kashi: He who constantly sees everywhere often all beings and forms, thereafter feels no hatred for anything.
Sri Sri: Actually, it is aversion. You know, you have preferences, you have aversions, you have likes and dislikes. Likes and dislikes belong to the ego. Ego is one layer above the Being. A limited identity of likes and dislikes. When you recognize there is something that is much more basic to the existence, to life and that is inside this body and the other bodies as well. See, no one hates their own hand, because it is my hand. You don't hate your hand because you think it is your hand. What keeps us separate is the Ego.
Don't think ego is bad. Ego is part of existence. When your vision does not transcend the ego, you are caught up in cravings and aversions, concepts, likes, and dislikes. So, your vision remains limited. You are unable to see the larger perspective. So but one gets a glimpse of the space which is beyond ego, which is the same everywhere and which is what you are. Then how can anyone hate or dislike anything? The aversions simply vanishes. When you realize that all these bodies are one huge wave of life force; the whole planet is one organism.
Imagine 7 billion waves arising at one point of time. Then will one wave hate another wave? Will a portion of the water dislike another portion of water? Will air here dislike the air in another part of the room? Impossible. Not all waves are of the same dimension, magnitude, force.
When the glimpse of this reality comes into your existence, the ego-centric dislike that you had harbored for lifetimes together simply vanishes. Any sensitive person will have this experience. As a child, we all had this experience. If you see kids, one kid cries, another kid also cries. A bunch of kids in nursery, kindergarten. You just pinch one kid and make one kid cry, you will see everyone starts crying. The ego is not very dominant there. It is coming in the natural flow. It happens to everyone. Any sensitive, sane person will feel the pain of others and happiness of others too. If someone is sharing their life experience of either misery or of gratefulness, you will see others also something touches everybody's heart, tears start flowing in other people's eyes. The entertainment industry knows this very well. And they make it with all special effects. Play certain music. And everyone starts either laughing or crying. There is no barrier in emotion. Similarly, there is no barrier when you step beyond the ego.
Here, again I am telling you. You do not have to dismiss the ego, get rid of the ego. If ego is there, let it be there. Ego will remain in either one of the forms: satvic, rajasic, or tamasic. There is a satvic ego through which you can see this. Satvic ego means an ego where there is no hatred or aversion towards anyone.
Again, this is a Catch-22 type of situation. Once, you have had a glimpse of Self as part of everybody or as a part of the whole, then the aversion and hatred disappears. And when the aversion and hatred disappears, you are able to see the oneness in everybody. Either way is possible.
yasminsarvani bhutanyatmaivabhudvijanatah |
tatra ko mohah kah soka ekatvamanupasyatah || 7 ||
Kashi: When to the knower all beings have become one in his own Self, in his Atman, how shall he feel deluded thereafter? What grief can there be to one who sees everywhere oneness.
Sri Sri: It is self-explanatory. We will go to the next.
sa paryagacchukramakayamavranamasnaviram suddhamapapaviddham |
kavirmanisi paribhuh svayambhuryathatathyato'rthan vyadadhacchasvatibhyah
samabhyah || 8 ||
Kashi: He, the atman is all pervading, bright, bodiless, without muscles, pure, unpierced by evils, wise, omniscient, transcendent, and self-existing. He alone allotted the respective functions to the various eternal ears of the Creators.
Sri Sri: This question has been hunting mankind, especially in the Occident, for a long time. We say God is all permeating. If he is all permeating, why wrong things are happening? Why misery? If God is bliss, then why there is sorrow? If God is all permeating, then where is the place for Satan? If God is all permeating, then there is no place for Satan. Either he is in Satan or Satan does not exist. If Satan exists, then God cannot be all permeating. You can say God permeates, except in Satan. These are the three qualifications of God: omniscient, omnipotent, and omnipresent.
The presence or existence of Satan disqualifies the God of all the three. He cannot be omniscient, because somebody is more scient and potent than him, he cannot be omniscient, omnipotent. And if he is omniscient, why would he allow Satan to function when he is functioning?
These philosophical questions have arisen and there has been no answers found for this in the Occident. For centuries debates have happened in the Occident. The Orient has given a befitting answer to this. The Orient found a solution. They found one level below God. There they have placed both the angels and the demons. This is an area of duality, you can keep fighting. But when you go to God's level or the Bramhan's level, there is only one thing that is all permeating. It is non-dual. There is no challenge for God. There is no other for God.
How is Bramhan? What is the relation between this world and Bramhan? The best example could be is spider. A spider from its own saliva has created a web and remains in the web. The saliva is also from the spider only. The spider does not take any external material. From its own saliva, a spider creates a web and remains in the web. For its own entertainment, the Divinity created the duality. Like the Director who creates a villain and hero and enjoys. And this is the essence of it. Now, the director is free from the afflictions of an opposite, afflictions of the villain. Again when the duality is concerned, it is only relative. So, the relative and going back from there to the absolute. And both have significance. And the Bramhan is without a form. There is a difference from Bramhan and Bramha. Bramha is a personified Bramhan. bramhan is the Cosmic existence. While Bramhan is complete, Bramha has a limited role. Bramha is a Devta. Bramhan is the Paramatma, the Self. And the Self has no form, yet it lives in all the forms. Like it is farther than the farthest and nearer than the nearest, it is the cause of all the forms.
They have described how the Bramhan is pure and blemish-less. Like the space cannot be polluted. You can pollute everything else. Space does not move, yet in space everything moves. Suppose you take a pot, a mud pot, and crush it. A mud ball has no value. But a mud pot has space inside it. A mud ball with space inside becomes a pot, (and) it has value. You pay Rs5, Rs10, $1 to buy a mud pot. What are you paying for the mud or the space inside it? What are you paying for? Are you paying for the space? Why should you pay for the space? Space is available everywhere. There. There you get the point. When you move the mud pot, does the space also move? An empty vessel I keep here. And the space inside the vessel is what is important, that gives the value to it. When I move the vessel from this side to this side, has the space changed?
Yes.
If you say yes, I will say no.
If you say no, I will say yes.
When you move this, the space is there. It is moving in the space. The space has changed, yes, and it has not changed inside it. It is the same amount of space inside. This is higher knowledge. Where it is neither yes or no, but both together: yes and no. If a paradigm shift has not happened to think in this direction, you cannot understand this. Because we are conditioned to think only yes or no, black or white. In atman gyaan, self knowledge, you need a different mode of operation. Because you are dwelling on a level which is beyond logic, beyond intellect, beyond ego.
What happens in that? The space is not afflicted by any action. Similarly, you are free from karma. Karma is action. There are three types of karma:
* Potential karma: The tendency in you that will make you act in the future.
* Action that is happening now. This is also karma.
* The action which has happened, which has left an impression on you is also karma.
The impression of action, action, and the potential action all three are called karma. Often people don't make this distinction. They get so caught up with this Karma thing. Oh Karma! Karma!
It India, if we say, "It is my karma." It means, it is inevitable. I have to bear it. So they say, "This is my karma." Something that is unavoidable, you think this is a karma. No. Karma is action which is potential, which is present (acting on it), third is impression of an action.
A glimpse of this dimension which is beyond the space, frees you from karma. This experience has come into your life some time or another. Wherein you are saying things that you did not want to say, but you are watching helplessly. How many of you have done this? You got upset or you said things that you did not want to say, but you kept saying it. Sometime or the other, you have experience like that. And sometime or the other, you have experienced that you are watching, witnessing whatever is happening. It may be a fleeting second.
If you have some time, if you happen to go to a jail, just to visit and speak to the people there. You will be amazed to find that they say that we did not do anything wrong. Once, I was in the largest jail in India. Ofcourse, to give a talk there. And I asked how many have you committed a crime? Not one raised their hand. I looked at the jailor, who was sitting next to me. They say they are all innocent. He said, "That is not true." They all claimed to be innocent. This is true because the atman, the Self always feels it is innocent. It is unafflicted. It is not the doer. People in 50s and 60s you feel children have grown, but I am quite young. No one feels that they have grown old. Why? The Self does not age. The Self is pure. That is why the worst criminal will say, "It just happened I don't know how it happened. Whatever happened, happened. I was not in control." The moment you become aware, you know you are not the doer, whether it is a good act or the worst act. People who have done extremely well in sports or music, (who have) won grammy awards. You ask them, they will just stare. They are amused or amazed what nice good things have happened through them. The field of action has its own set of laws. The existence of Self is the summum bonum of creation has a separate dimension. The Upanishads give a glimpse into this marvelous, unfathomable, indescribable aspect of Creation. But, both are essential. Next. It is going to come in the next one.
andham tamah pravisanti ye'vidyamupasate |
tato bhuya iva te tamo ya u vidyayam ratah || 9 ||
Kashi: They who worship avidya alone, enter blinding darkness. They who worship vidya, wearily fall as though into an even greater darkness.
Sri Sri: To simplify this or to understand this in today's language, I would bring you back to Quantum Mechanics and classical chemistry. Both are essential. If you are stuck in periodic tables, If you are only thinking about quantum mechanics, you cannot exist.
A stone or a handful of grains is same. A table, chair, and door everything is the same. Avidya is all the sciences that we have. Everything about the body, everything about the nature, everything about the Creation. All the intricacies here in this dimension of life: food, nutrition. All the vedas come in avidya. Especially, the vedas which deal with the material science. These are all avidya.
And there is vidya, which is knowledge of the Self. The more subtle, causal and subtle, and ethereal knowledge. Knowledge about the energy, about life force. This is vidya. Knowledge about the matter, avidya. Knowledge about the Self, vidya. Both have to be taken together.
Dance can happen only when one foot is on the floor, the other is in the air. If both your feet is buried in the mud, you cannot move. It is no dance. But if both are up in the air, that is also not dance. So, you need to balance.
andham tamah pravisanti. Blind man walking into the darkness if he catches hold of any one of it. The gross material Universe is governed by the subtle forces. The subtle forces are called Devas. The macrocosm and microcosm is connected. There are 9 planets in the solar system, they have an impact on the body-mind complex. They have impact on the grains, on the plants that grow. The ancient people had a science of tracking the connection. A particular part of your body is also connected to this. Like, the ancient people said that the liver is connected to planet Mars and chickpeas. Similarly, rice is connected to eyes and the Sun. Sesame seed, teeth, crow, and Saturn are connected. Each animal on this planet brings down certain cosmic vibration onto the planet. So the Divine forces always had a vahana, the carrier. The Divine forces or Devas are being carried into the planet by certain things.
Remember, Devas are not Bramhan. Devas are particular energy patterns in the Universe. Sunlight when it passes through the prism gives seven colors. Each color has a definite function. You can comprehend the white light for the Paramatma or Self.
You need a doctor for ENT. You need a doctor for heart. Cardiac surgeon is different from Neurologist. Neurologist is different from Urologist. Urologist is different from Orthopedic. You have different doctors to attend to one single body. Similarly, these are the Devas perhaps. Devtas are for definite parts of the body. In the rudraabhishekam, you invoke different Devas in different parts of the body. Particular Deva is like the particular divine light, particular aspect of the ethereal Bramhan. Knowledge about the subtle, spiritual knowledge is vidya. So, material knowledge and spiritual knowledge have to be combined. You have to move with both.
A doctor who has only Orthopedic knowledge, he will be incomplete. You have some stomach problem, he cannot treat a stomach problem. You need a complete picture. Those who are studying the gross are incomplete. Those who ignore the gross are also incomplete. You need a mix and match.
anyadevahurvidyaya'nyadahuravidyaya |
iti susruma dhiranam ye nastadvicacaksire || 10 ||
Kashi: One thing they say that is heard is verily from the wise who explain that to us.
Sri Sri: Yes. This is obvious. A dietician will say what you need. You need to take more proteins or you have to cut down on carbs, or you have to take more carbs, reduce fat. They give you this knowledge. This is very subtle knowledge. In a similar way, in the realm of consciousness, there are definite forces. And they are the Devas.
How many devas are there? There are 330 million. I don't know who counted it. So many different types of Devas are present in the consciousness. All these particular Devas have a definite role to play in protection of the Universe. As I said, each animal carries bio-magnetic and bio-dynamic rays with them.
Bio-dynamic is brought into this Universe by peacock, by lion, by every other species. Every single species is connected to a Deva. You know what the scientists say today? Even if one species becomes extinct from this Creation, there will be total imbalance and chaos in this whole Creation. Creation cannot sustain itself. They may reduce in numbers, but they cannot totally get extinct. Because the Creation will get dissolved and new Creation will have to happen. For the current Creation to exist... You know about the String theory? This is related to String theory in Physics. A butterfly, a mosquito, rabbit, rat are all part of this Creation. Even if any one of these species is eliminated, ... They may get reduced in numbers, but they cannot totally be eliminated from the Creation. They are part of the Creation. This is what is the subtle science of the Devas.
You have a particular problem with a muscle or tissue or bone in your body, the Osteopath knows. The Osteopath manipulates a particular bone, so that you feel normal, you feel better. The devas provide us comfort in this gross Creation. The gross Creation is ruled, managed by the subtle one. And the subtle energy is what is called Devas.
vidyam cavidyam ca yastadvedobhayam saha |
avidyaya mrtyum tirtva vidyaya'mrtamasnute || 11 ||
Kashi: He who knows at the same time vidya and avidya, overcomes death by avidya and obtains immortality by vidya.
Sri Sri: It is obvious. Work on the subtle and work on the gross.
Consciousness is everything, but knowing that the consciousness is everything you cannot eat everything. For your physical well-being, you have to be very discreet. What you should eat and what you should not eat. You cannot say, all this is Bramhan, all this is me only, all this is part of me.
That discrimination. Unfortunately, this advaita knowledge has been misused. You have not understood the very basics. You will see people with matted hair, lying down anywhere, as though everything is same. They do not bother to clean or cut their nails. In the name of advaita, torturing one's form. The scriptures do not give sanction to such practices.
Someone said, he is a very great saint. He has been standing one leg for 30 years. What did he get by standing on one leg for so long? Torturing one's body is not advaitya, is not vedanta.
Or sitting and doing some pooja from morning till night and chanting the whole time is also not .. Rituals, ceremonies, they have their own importance. They create subtle energies or vibrations. They are the means to work on the subtle level. But not one who is totally immersed in it day and night and not taking care of anything else in life. The wise one marches in life, crosses the ocean of death by avidya, and attains immortality through vidya.
Day 3, 19 January 2015, 10:30 AM (IST)
OM purnamada? purnamida? purnata purnamudacyate |
purnasya purnamadaya purnamevavasinyate ||
OM santi? santi? santi? ||
andha? tama? pravisanti ye.asambhutimupasate |
tato bhuya iva te tamo ya u sambhutya.N rata? || 12||
Kashi: Those who worship the unmanifest, they enter into blinding darkness. Those who worship the manifest, they enter into blinding darkness.
anyadevahu? sambhavadanyadahurasambhavata |
iti susruma dhira?a? ye nastadvicacak?ire || 13||
Kashi: The wise have said the worship of manifest and unmanifest yield different results.
sambhuti? ca vinasa? ca yastadvedobhaya.N saha |
vinasena m?tyu? tirtva sambhutya.am?tamasnute || 14||
Sri Sri: You take medicine to get rid of sickness.
For example, you exercise when you go to a gymnasium. There are different exercises for different parts of the body. One for the calves, chest.
Similarly there are specific tunes to create specific moods. People in the entertainment field they know very well.
In a love scene, they will not put thrill music.
When you come to the ragas, that is tunes. There is a whole Upaveda which is just for the tunes: Sa Re Ga Ma Oa Dha Ni Sa. The seven tunes are corresponding to seven animals.
Elephant's pitch is very high. It says Ni.
Pa comes from birds, nightingale. Ma comes from cows and goats, sheeps.
Each animal has only one particular tune that they can sing. Humans have the entire range.
Get over the death. If you are sick, take medication or exercises and get over it. That is got going to give you liberation. That is essential.
When you are normal, you can look for something high.
The manifest and its relevance. the unmanifest has its own relevance. One cell multiplies itself and becomes an embryo.
That embryo when it becomes bigger, it knows where the eyes, hair. Thought it is one human body, each part is different. This is the level of Deva. Though the Atman is one, the Devas are many.
In Christianity you say, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
There are three levels on which you can get disturbed: causal, physical, meta-physical.
To bring peace to these three levels, Shanti, Shanti, Shanti.
In Christianity, Father is the infinite Omnipresent God. The Son is the human form. The holy spirit is the energy. The Holy Spirit is not one but it has diverse functions and qualities.
A connection between microcosm and macrocosm is established.
Do Devas live in another planet? No.
There is no physical body for the Devas. They are only light bodies.
Where do they establish themselves? In the mantras.
It is one electricity, somewhere it has become sound, air, light.
There is one infinite Being, the Self, which is what you are. In you there is diversity.
Nose can only do the function of the nose.
You must recognize the differences.
Whether someone pulls your cheek or pulls your ear, you feel it. Yet they have different functions.
That is what the Universe is all about. Though, one consciousness creates itself into this Diverse Universe. It is only one thing, yet it is many.
Someone who catches hold of the many is going into darkness. Someone who catches hold of the one is going into deeper darkness.
To gain specific results, you need to use specific mantras. That is the science of the vedas.
hira?mayena patre?a satyasyapihita? mukhama | tattva? pu?annapav??u satyadharmaya d???aye || 15||
Kashi: Uncover the veil, so that I may know the truth.
Sri Sri: The quest for truth itself is a sign of blossoming. In the quest for truth, the paradigm plays an important role. Those who believe in many, cannot comprehend the one and those believe in one, cannot comprehend the many.
Why should God be one?
Why should God be many?
What makes us comfortable is if God is only one. It is correct. If God is many, then how could God be omnipotent?
Here is another paradigm. God can come in any costume.
He can come in the track pants in the gym, when he goes to office in three-piece suit.
Why do you limit the expression of God to only one?
Rishis said that the entire Universe is his own form.
In the morning Rudrabhishekham, they chant. All the forms in the Universe are yours. The native people all over the World, whether British Columbia or the Mori tribe of New Zealand, you will find the native people they honor the mountains. For them the rivers, the trees are sacred.
The idols came much later.
If you open a transistor, there are circuit diagrams to catch the waves.
There was a Buddhist monk here from Mainland China. This person in meditation has experience of the Shat kona. He wanted to know more about that. The flag of Israel has the Shat Kona. The Jews and Vedas have one common symbol: the Shat Kona. It is not someone's imagination but an experience.
She found it here. She said this is what I came here for.
All temples are placed on mantras and yantras.
There is a proverb in Sanskrit. It is by the effort of worshiper that a stone turns into divinity. The intention in you to invoke the prana in that. The stone also responds to you. All poojas are done by yantras. Yantras are the main thing. Yantras are diagrams.
There are specific mantras.
When you think of an elephant, you feel like an elephant. There is an exchange happening between the viewer and the viewed.
In theory of relativity, you are looking at a object and because you are looking the object has already changing. You have an impact of Deva and Deva have an impact on you. Fire, water, air, Sun are Devas.
Make good use of them all.
Honor them.
The ancient people would honor them all.
Have any of you been of some Safari?
When you go into a forest, it is so clean. Nature knows how to maintain itself. This is yagya. Yagya means honoring the elements of nature.
Yagyas have three aspects:
Honoring the Divinity in its diverse manifestations. Honoring human beings, trees, rivers.
Sangatikarana. If you see a good movie, you do not keep it to you. In isolation you cannot be happy. Suppose you have a family of 6 or 7, if one of them is unhappy, can you be happy?
You effort is to make everyone happy. How can someone be happy? Through knowledge. knowledge is a vaccination which keeps you away from the flu of misery. Suppose they are not ready for knowledge, pray to the Devas: let them be happy.
This intention. The left brain people would say intention, right brain people would say prayer. But both are the same.
A wise one would say both are the same.
In fact the prayer is a little more stronger as emotions are a little more stronger.
So, you do some karma, some action to make them happy. Similarly, if there is an emergency in your country, city, or state, can you be at peace? You cannot say, I want to have clean air only in my home. If you do not have clean air in the city, forget about it. You have to work for it.
If you spread happiness, happiness gets sustained. If you spread knowledge, knowledge gets sustained.
That's why the mind is always running for something bigger because it is in search for happiness. It is looking for all these glittering things. Truth is hidden under these glittering sheets.
Please unveil this and let me have a glimpse it.
hira?mayena patre?a satyasyapihita? mukhama | tattva? pu?annapav??u satyadharmaya d???aye || 15||
For me to recognize you are dharma, O Mighty God! You only can unveil this. Remove this glittering sheet. Whatever the mind can achieve on its own is always smaller than the mind. If you say, "I have got it." It is because it comes within your grip. You cannot get something which is bigger than your effort. Are you getting this?
Whatever you achieve with your effort is always smaller than you.
And it is not worth it.
What is worth? That comes to you as a gift, as a blessing.
The outer shell, the glittering, the mind is running after that. O my dear Divine! Please remove that so that I may see the truth.
pu?annekar?e yama surya prajapatya vyuha rasmina samuha teja? | yatte rupa? kalya?atama? tatte pasyami yo.asavasau puru?a? so.ahamasmi || 16||
Sri Sri: So Hum means I am that.
The definite qualities of the consciousness and the Purusha, the imperishable consciousness.
There are 8 manifestations of the nature. Beyond nature is the consciousness. Before the Purusha is the different aspects of Devas: surya, pragapati. Let me see all this and realize I am that.
That which connects the different parts of the body. I am that. I am that Purusha.
vayuranilamam?tamatheda? bhasma?ta.N sarirama |
OM krato smara k?ta.N smara krato smara k?ta.N smara || 17||
Kashi: O Self! Let me shed the mortal awareness.
Sri Sri: Let's do a meditation on this. Our body is air, vayu, fire, water, earth. All these elements. And one day this body is going to become ashes. In the mind, remember all that you have done.
Taking your mind through all the actions, you becomes free from the impressions of the action. This is actually a meditation technique here.
We seldom remember that we are going to die one day.
We do not realize that we are going to die one day.
It does not matter where you stay. You are going to die one day. This body of yours is going to become ashes.
How do you want to exit from the body? Knowing you are human or clinging on to things? Aversion, anger, frustration? You want to live with that?
Remembering, recollecting, and let go.
When you remember that the body is going to become ashes, suddenly a new life force gushes in you ready to know, ready to grasp.
Every moment this realization, everything is perishing. Even cells in your body are dying. The awareness of death brings you more life. In wisdom, awareness of death brings you more life.
People who commit suicide, they want pleasure. There is no patience or endurance of misery. Unfortunately, they come back and they feel much more misery. That is why spiritual education should be inducted into each and every child.
You cannot give children Bramh gyaan immediately.
A logical conclusion to the apparent existence which causes a lot of chaos.
A quest for truth, yearning for higher knowledge also makes better citizens.
No mother wants their children to be miserable and become terrorists. But they simply do not know how to prevent. That is why spiritual knowledge is so important.
agne naya supatha raye asman
visvani deva vayunani vidvana |
yuyodhyasmajjuhura?ameno bhuyi??ha? te nama ukti? vidhema || 18||
Sri Sri: You know Agni means one who goes in the front and who leads you in your life.
The fire in you wakes you. The life force in you is really the agni which moves you forward. It leads others also.
A leader is agni. And the fire in you leads you. Your intellect leads you.
You know the Divine, the Guru, the Self knows all the aspects of Devas.
And so the prayer.
Wealth is confidence, generosity, your character.
Lead me to this path. Not just me. Us - everybody. Lead us. He is not saying lead me alone. It is a collective prayer.
You know the mob psychology is only destructive most of the time. But if that is turned, hat is benevolent to the world. Nothing like that.
Let the negativity that keeps us away from the realization be away from me.
This is more so with the people who are addicted to drugs and alcohol.
What the counselors tell them? Be with a higher power. I was told that this is one of the 12 steps of AAA. You surrender. This is one of the addictions, you take it away.
The ancient Rishis said that if there is any blemishes in me, you take care of that.
Again and again. It is not just once.
Again and again and again, I offer my salutation to you. I recognize you.
The mother told the boy to say your prayers before going to bed.
The boy said Ditto and went to bed.
Mother said, OK tomorrow at breakfast I will also say Ditto.
Everyday we eat again and again. Everyday we sleep. I feel so bored to use toilet or eat everyday. We do this as a routine. Why don't we pray in morning. Prayer rekindles or makes you aware.
Activity makes you forget the Being.
You have to remember that you are much bigger than the actor and perceiver that you are. You are the Being as well. That happens in vishram or rest, or nirvikara (blemishless and rest).
When you listen to something very keenly, you close your eyes.
Our ability to perceive is limited.
If you want to distract someone who is watching the heavenly bodies, you can play some music. Why in meditation we say close your eyes?
With your eyes open, you are grabbing things around. Meditation is inaction.
All the five senses is action.
We want to shift our attention from the action to the actor. What is the way? Close your eyes, close your mouth. You cannot close your nose.
The energy that is going outward gets consolidated. This is one way.
The other way is to close your eyes and listen. Tratak: with eyes open gaze at a candle. Every position of your eyes, triggers certain feelings in your brain.
Different eye positions triggers something.
When you want to remember something, you eyes go right side up.
When you doubt something, your eye goes left side up.
When you look both eyes up, you are day-dreaming.
If you look left side down, "Whom you think you are?"
If you have some guilt, your eye moves like this. I cannot do this properly.
If your eyes are at 30 degree angle you are introvert. You are only conscious of your breath.
Krishna says, keep your attention on the tip on the nose. That is 30-degree. But don't see any sight, any direction.
Then the mind goes inward.
This is one way. Lord Buddha and Lord Mahaveer says close your eyes.
Lord Shiva says, close your eyes 98%. Eyes are just crack open. Eyes closed you might get lost in the inner world. Eyes open you will get lost in the world of five elements.
This is neither awake nor asleep, somewhere in between. Samadhi is when the effort is dropped.
The manifest world that we perceive, or our experience, is the tip of the iceberg. All that we experience through the senses is a small part of the universe. Most is unmanifest. That is full. To understand, we must have an experience of what That is. That is what Ishavasya Upanishad is about.
Sri Sri: Upanishads begin with Shanti mantra.
Let's all chant the Shanti Mantra.
Om purnamadah purnamidam purnat purnamudacyate | purnasya purnamadaya purnamevavasisyate || Om santih santih santih ||
Upanishad means sitting close to the Master. A student and a teacher sit close. It is mental proximity. Only then can knowledge flow.
When there is no connectivity, knowledge cannot flow. For knowledge to flow there needs to be sense of belongingness.
Today, the issue in the world is that the students in classroom are at a different level and teachers are at a different level.
For knowledge to be transferred there needs to be peace. That is why, Upanishads start with the Shanti Mantra.
Is there an inquisitiveness to know or are they (student) caught up in desires? Are you already overflowing?
A student knows he already knows everything, he is only there to verify what he already knows.
Willingness to know and the faith in the teacher.
Teacher should know the sincerity of the student. A student should have faith in the wisdom of the teacher. Then, they are at the same wavelength.
This is the discord we are seeing. Why in spite of so many Universities, we are not bringing up the wisdom.
That is why the Shanti Mantra.
The concept of zero comes from Shanti Mantra.
If you take some furniture out from this room, then there is this room minus furniture. This is linear thinking.
The Rishis have given us spherical thinking. This is also complete. That is also complete. A baby is complete. A mother is also complete.
The concept of zero has its origin in the Shanti Mantra. From the fullness, comes the fullness and still the fullness remains. You can analyze the Shanti Mantra at various levels: Maths, spiritual, Physics.
When you share your peace with others, you will not lose your peace.
Similarly, this Universe, in fact this multi-verse, is dynamic.
Many things are born here everyday and die here everyday. Still the manifest and unmanifest is complete.
Three times Shanti.
Your body-mind complex needs to be fit. Your environment needs to be peaceful.
Let's do a short meditation. Today we are going to chant this mantra: Satyam Param Dhimahi. May my intellect be soaked in the transcendental truth.
Chanting balances our right and left brain. Left brain is logic, right brain is music.
People in love want to repeat things. I love you. I love you. Repetition is so musical when the right brain activity is going on. Repetition has been a part of every learning. Logical understand, knowledge you receive, needs emotional integration.
It is so interesting to see the entire Ayurvedic text is in the form of poems. Wisdom with rhythm.
Everyday, we will chant a few minutes.
Ishavasya Upanishad.
The concept of God is something that has baffled this planet from time immemorial. The people who say there is God have concepts and people who say there is no God they also have concepts.
Om Isavasyamidam sarvam yatkiñca jagatyam jagat | tena tyaktena bhuñjitha ma grdhah kasyasvid dhanam || 1 ||
This entire Universe is permeated by the Divinity. It is not a God who is trying to give you a finger and you try to catch him and he runs away.
God is here. Now. In everything. In fact there can be nothing that is away from God. Not just the permanent, also the changing. The entire Universe is permeated by something and that you can called God.
There are people who are craving for God realization. As though he is somewhere outside.
Everything here. Some may ask: how can God be in Hitler? How can God be in something that is bad? You ask a physicist, did he have atoms in his body of not.
We are caught up in the duality of right and wrong. You are caught up in the hero and villian. A director honors the hero as much as the villian. Wake up and see, you rise to another dimension.
A dimension that is beyond good and bad.
Right and wrong.
Isavasyamidam sarvam yatkiñca jagatyam jagat
And there is this another nothing: God willing. If God wishes, then it will happen.
If God is responsible for everything in this Universe, then why should I be punished?
The doer and the enjoyer go together. They are two sides of the same coin.
This power, which is here, right now what is the password for this?
We are holding on to some material thing, like holding your fist.
When you open your fist, sky is there.
What does your mind hold on to?
Anything that gives you pain and pleasure. When your mind latches on to a limited something, you are occupied.
On a beautiful day, you see the sky. A dust particle enter your eye. That's it. You cannot see the sky.
Do the Rishis mean drop everything and run to the Himalayas?
No.
The world is here for you to enjoy but not by holding on to t. Letting go. Relax. When you relax, you are able to enjoy better. Don't covet for other's possessions.
Let's do a meditation on this mantra only.
It was good?
So when everything is done by God, what is the purpose of my life?
this question should pass by an intelligent mind? It should bug you.
Is it all eating, sleeping, and doing your routine?
Has this question come into your mind?
I am sure.
Have you all got this question some time or the other?
Good.
Seeds has started sprouting. Don't be in a hurry. This question invokes the spirit in you. It is a sign of the seed sprouting.
Hold on.
Upanishad say keep doing your work and live for a hundred years.
kurvanneveha karmani
There is no other way.
kurvanneveha karmani jijivisecchatam samah | evam tvayi nanyatheto'sti na karma lipyate nare || 2 ||
There is no other way. Knowing that this is permeated by the Divine, keep engaged in activity and live for a hundred years. When you are doing an action for yourself, then it is painful.
If your focus is only on you. If you are taking. How much can you take? If you are a giver, if you are only to give, the action does not bind you. When you take, you feel obligation. When you give, you feel the freedom. Keep acting and live for a hundred years.
Your wish should be to live for a hundred years.
Till your death you must keep acting.
Now, here there are two types of action:
Channel your energy is doing something or you sit and get restless.
Restless is also activity.
People who are engaged in any type of activity in the society and not wanting anything are much more happier.
Steam is generated in the course of life. But the steam has to be channelized.
Our energy needs to be channeled to do something useful.
The joy in getting is an infant, immature joy. We are born with this.
Kids love grabbing things. When they are 3 or 4 years old, they love to give. Have you noticed this? They have a tendency to give also. Similarly, grandparents have a tendency to give.
When kids come home, she cooks many dishes and serves.
Unless we move from the joy in grabbing to the joy in giving, we cannot be satisfied. That will keep creating irritation inside you.
Just observe small incidents in your own life.
All this knowledge is for you to look inward.
Am I getting this? What is the cause of my depression? What is the cause of my anxiety?
Once you are on the path, you are sitting with the Master, relax. Still if you keep running, it is like running inside the train.
If you run inside a plane, it is not going to land faster.
Determination to do work that does not benefit you. Once again think on this. Take a few minutes. All other actions that we perform to which we get attached, we want to run away.
A flower is not making an effort to bring fragrance to you.
When I say action, immediately you think that person is able to do more seva. I am old. Don't get into that trip. Desireless action which you can do, which is within your capacity is seva.
Suppose you are not a doctor, no one expects you to treat them.
This action is not a burden on us. This again you must keep in mind. Do what is comfortable. Take such commitments that is comfortable. If you are youthful, take challenges. While doing this, relax.
This energy which permeates the entire Universe is alive. That life force can convey to you without words. That is Isha. There is a word in Sanskrit, Viru Paksha. Eye without a form. Shiva is called Viru Paksha.
Shiv is the coolness of the water that you feel. Om Namah Shivaya is the five elements.
You know why Sun is round?
Sun is pressured by the dark space around. The invisible space around the Sun is 1000 times more powerful that the Sun.
Like the air bubble trapped in a bottle.
Similarly, the empty space is such that the heavenly bodies are spherical.
Around you there is so much energy. Above us 200 miles of air is there. So much pressure of air is there. A scientist can understand. Similarly, a seeker can understand.
What you see as matter is a small aspect of the entire totality. The manifest is an insignificant portion of the unmanifest. That is what you are made up of.
Your own body is made up of atoms. Atoms is 99% space. Relax into this space.
Actions that you do without any expectations, they make you realize you are joy. Just imagine yourself as a flame or fountain of joy. Anything that is obscuring is wanting to grab something physical or spiritual.
You might ask what about jigyasa?
Krishna says, one who wants to get onto the pedestal of yoga, relaxation is the path. Life is a combination of action and relaxation. Pravruti and nivruti.
Let's us once again sit and internalize.
5 minutes recollect all that you heard.
Before you question the validity of this knowledge, see from your life's experience, the truth of this.
(Sit) with your gaze fixed at some point of your eyes closed.
asurya nama te loka andhena tamasa'vrtah | tamste pretyabhigacchanti ye ke catmahano janah || 3 ||
Our life is not just these 60, 70, 80, 90 years.
Our life is eternal. Have you ever thought of the people who have died and gone?
Where did they go? If life is imperishable, where did they go?
Is life so impermanent? If I have been here forever, I should know what I was before and what I will be in the future?
Life is older than the Sun and the Moon.
Our brain is like a frequency analyzer, so it is able to only decode this. People with bipolar disorders, they have access to another frequency.
Scientists are now probing into the previous birth. No one asks now was there a past life? Well informed individuals have come this acceptance which world over people have been saying life is eternal.
A few people get this question what is the purpose of life. What happens to the rest of the billions of others?
Asurya is one who is not centered. People who have eyes cannot see in the dark. They live with their eyes shut and after dying also the spirit lives in a place that has no joy.
This human birth is so precious. Only in human birth you can know: I am that.
People who are living in the darkness have lost the chance. It is like suicide, they have killed themselves.Thank yourself that you are not one of them living in the dark.
You have to be grateful at least I have got a glimpse of knowledge.
This has been the style of Rishis.
It is like someone asking what is the point of learning about nutrition?
The animals don't go for nutrition.
Man has moved far away from nature.
You can exist about hygiene, you are in darkness. You are in a world where there is no center.
The Rishis have given the pros and ons. Before the question arises in you. The purpose of knowledge is to move from darkness. There is no chance that anyone who has been in knowledge, cannot be in the dark world of the pretas or dead spirits. This is like insurance.
Be assured. That none of the spirits can touch you as you have stepped into knowledge.
Nothing can affect you.
Whom will it affect?
Those who are not interested in spiritual knowledge.
Ask questions that are relevant to this topic and this subject.
Q: What is dhyan and samadhi?
Sri Sri: Are you listening? Are you listening as if your entire body is an ear? How are you hearing? What are you hearing? You heard? What is happening within you right now? Nothing? That is meditation.
When you listen as if your entire body is an ear, then there is nothing.
Becoming one with Viru Paksha is meditation.
You have the power to see dreams. Do you see dreams with your specs? You have the power to see. You have this power in every cell of your body. The power to know is in the consciousness. Even with your eyes closed you can see. The power to see, know, hear is present in the consciousness and consciousness is permeating everywhere.
Day 2 - 18 January 2015, 10:30 AM (IST)
Om purnamadah purnamidam purnat purnamudacyate |
purnasya purnamadaya purnamevavasisyate ||
Om shantih santih santih hi ||
We will do the fourth shloka.
anejadekam manaso javiyo nainaddeva apnuvanpurvamarsat |
taddhavato'nyanatyeti tisthattasminnapo matarisva dadhati || 4 ||
Kashi: The Self is motionless one. Swifter than the mind. The Devas, the senses would not overtake. It ran before them sitting. Sitting it goes faster than those who run after it. By it, the element of air, the matarisva, supports the activity of all living beings.
Sri Sri: Sometimes you wonder, how breath is automatically going in and coming out. You are making no effort for that. Even in sleep, the air goes in your lungs and comes out of it. Not just you, all the living beings in the planet. There is something that is creating the rhythm of life. What is that? Have you ever wondered about it? There is something by which your intellect is functioning, your emotions are functioning, your body is functioning. Not just your body, the entire Universe is functioning. What is that? There is something by which the mind is grasping, understanding. Mind is functioning on the basis of some energy, some principle. What is that principle? Have you wondered about it?
What is the basis of the whole Creation? A movie is projected on the screen. Right? Now, what is the screen on which this movie is being projected?
If you see the four elements in creation, earth, water, fire, wind. They are sustaining the fifth element, that is space. A scientist had come here to the Ashram a couple of years back. He said the Egyptians and Mesopotamians knew only four elements. The ancient people knew only four elements. The fifth element was given to the world by scientists. That is the space. I told him, "Sir, you are not informed well." We have always said the fifth element is space. And in space also we categorize three types of space:
* Bhoot Akasha. The physical space where the heavenly bodies are floating.
* Chida Akasha. The space in which the thoughts move.
* Chitta Akasha.
It is so difficult to describe that which is present everywhere. The Rishis have beautifully said that, "It is already there in front. It is in the back also." The Self or the Bramhan, that consciousness, is everywhere when it is the basis of this whole Creation.
tadejati tannaijati taddure tadvantike |
tadantarasya sarvasya tadu sarvasya bahyatah || 5 ||
Sri Sri: Made it even more clearer. When you think it is everywhere, you have an idea of space being stagnant. This space is lively. It is not a dead space. This space is scintillating, is lively. So, it is farther than the farthest and it is nearer than the nearest.
Have you ever thought about where are you in your body? This question has come to you? Where you are in your body? In your arms, in your heart, in your brain? Where are you? You are everywhere and yet nowhere. Heart transplantation happens. Many people who have undergone brain surgery, a portion of their brain has been removed. Still they are complete. So where are you? In the brain, in the heart, in the hands? You are everywhere, yet nowhere.
Something that is so subtle is difficult to explain. The Rishis and Upanishads have made an effort to bring it to your awareness. It is closer than the closest and farther than the farthest. How do you like that? Somebody says something is very close to you, yet it is very far. Our linear thinking mind says, "Wait. Wait. Wait. What are you saying? What are you talking? How is it possible?" Something is either close or it is far. The conditioning of the mind breaks. And it is given an opportunity to see beyond what it knew all the time, beyond what it perceived all the time to be true. Something more. Another dimension gets added to you.
yastu sarvani bhutanyatmanyevanupasyati |
sarvabhutesu catmanam tato na vijugupsate || 6 ||
Kashi: He who constantly sees everywhere often all beings and forms, thereafter feels no hatred for anything.
Sri Sri: Actually, it is aversion. You know, you have preferences, you have aversions, you have likes and dislikes. Likes and dislikes belong to the ego. Ego is one layer above the Being. A limited identity of likes and dislikes. When you recognize there is something that is much more basic to the existence, to life and that is inside this body and the other bodies as well. See, no one hates their own hand, because it is my hand. You don't hate your hand because you think it is your hand. What keeps us separate is the Ego.
Don't think ego is bad. Ego is part of existence. When your vision does not transcend the ego, you are caught up in cravings and aversions, concepts, likes, and dislikes. So, your vision remains limited. You are unable to see the larger perspective. So but one gets a glimpse of the space which is beyond ego, which is the same everywhere and which is what you are. Then how can anyone hate or dislike anything? The aversions simply vanishes. When you realize that all these bodies are one huge wave of life force; the whole planet is one organism.
Imagine 7 billion waves arising at one point of time. Then will one wave hate another wave? Will a portion of the water dislike another portion of water? Will air here dislike the air in another part of the room? Impossible. Not all waves are of the same dimension, magnitude, force.
When the glimpse of this reality comes into your existence, the ego-centric dislike that you had harbored for lifetimes together simply vanishes. Any sensitive person will have this experience. As a child, we all had this experience. If you see kids, one kid cries, another kid also cries. A bunch of kids in nursery, kindergarten. You just pinch one kid and make one kid cry, you will see everyone starts crying. The ego is not very dominant there. It is coming in the natural flow. It happens to everyone. Any sensitive, sane person will feel the pain of others and happiness of others too. If someone is sharing their life experience of either misery or of gratefulness, you will see others also something touches everybody's heart, tears start flowing in other people's eyes. The entertainment industry knows this very well. And they make it with all special effects. Play certain music. And everyone starts either laughing or crying. There is no barrier in emotion. Similarly, there is no barrier when you step beyond the ego.
Here, again I am telling you. You do not have to dismiss the ego, get rid of the ego. If ego is there, let it be there. Ego will remain in either one of the forms: satvic, rajasic, or tamasic. There is a satvic ego through which you can see this. Satvic ego means an ego where there is no hatred or aversion towards anyone.
Again, this is a Catch-22 type of situation. Once, you have had a glimpse of Self as part of everybody or as a part of the whole, then the aversion and hatred disappears. And when the aversion and hatred disappears, you are able to see the oneness in everybody. Either way is possible.
yasminsarvani bhutanyatmaivabhudvijanatah |
tatra ko mohah kah soka ekatvamanupasyatah || 7 ||
Kashi: When to the knower all beings have become one in his own Self, in his Atman, how shall he feel deluded thereafter? What grief can there be to one who sees everywhere oneness.
Sri Sri: It is self-explanatory. We will go to the next.
sa paryagacchukramakayamavranamasnaviram suddhamapapaviddham |
kavirmanisi paribhuh svayambhuryathatathyato'rthan vyadadhacchasvatibhyah
samabhyah || 8 ||
Kashi: He, the atman is all pervading, bright, bodiless, without muscles, pure, unpierced by evils, wise, omniscient, transcendent, and self-existing. He alone allotted the respective functions to the various eternal ears of the Creators.
Sri Sri: This question has been hunting mankind, especially in the Occident, for a long time. We say God is all permeating. If he is all permeating, why wrong things are happening? Why misery? If God is bliss, then why there is sorrow? If God is all permeating, then where is the place for Satan? If God is all permeating, then there is no place for Satan. Either he is in Satan or Satan does not exist. If Satan exists, then God cannot be all permeating. You can say God permeates, except in Satan. These are the three qualifications of God: omniscient, omnipotent, and omnipresent.
The presence or existence of Satan disqualifies the God of all the three. He cannot be omniscient, because somebody is more scient and potent than him, he cannot be omniscient, omnipotent. And if he is omniscient, why would he allow Satan to function when he is functioning?
These philosophical questions have arisen and there has been no answers found for this in the Occident. For centuries debates have happened in the Occident. The Orient has given a befitting answer to this. The Orient found a solution. They found one level below God. There they have placed both the angels and the demons. This is an area of duality, you can keep fighting. But when you go to God's level or the Bramhan's level, there is only one thing that is all permeating. It is non-dual. There is no challenge for God. There is no other for God.
How is Bramhan? What is the relation between this world and Bramhan? The best example could be is spider. A spider from its own saliva has created a web and remains in the web. The saliva is also from the spider only. The spider does not take any external material. From its own saliva, a spider creates a web and remains in the web. For its own entertainment, the Divinity created the duality. Like the Director who creates a villain and hero and enjoys. And this is the essence of it. Now, the director is free from the afflictions of an opposite, afflictions of the villain. Again when the duality is concerned, it is only relative. So, the relative and going back from there to the absolute. And both have significance. And the Bramhan is without a form. There is a difference from Bramhan and Bramha. Bramha is a personified Bramhan. bramhan is the Cosmic existence. While Bramhan is complete, Bramha has a limited role. Bramha is a Devta. Bramhan is the Paramatma, the Self. And the Self has no form, yet it lives in all the forms. Like it is farther than the farthest and nearer than the nearest, it is the cause of all the forms.
They have described how the Bramhan is pure and blemish-less. Like the space cannot be polluted. You can pollute everything else. Space does not move, yet in space everything moves. Suppose you take a pot, a mud pot, and crush it. A mud ball has no value. But a mud pot has space inside it. A mud ball with space inside becomes a pot, (and) it has value. You pay Rs5, Rs10, $1 to buy a mud pot. What are you paying for the mud or the space inside it? What are you paying for? Are you paying for the space? Why should you pay for the space? Space is available everywhere. There. There you get the point. When you move the mud pot, does the space also move? An empty vessel I keep here. And the space inside the vessel is what is important, that gives the value to it. When I move the vessel from this side to this side, has the space changed?
Yes.
If you say yes, I will say no.
If you say no, I will say yes.
When you move this, the space is there. It is moving in the space. The space has changed, yes, and it has not changed inside it. It is the same amount of space inside. This is higher knowledge. Where it is neither yes or no, but both together: yes and no. If a paradigm shift has not happened to think in this direction, you cannot understand this. Because we are conditioned to think only yes or no, black or white. In atman gyaan, self knowledge, you need a different mode of operation. Because you are dwelling on a level which is beyond logic, beyond intellect, beyond ego.
What happens in that? The space is not afflicted by any action. Similarly, you are free from karma. Karma is action. There are three types of karma:
* Potential karma: The tendency in you that will make you act in the future.
* Action that is happening now. This is also karma.
* The action which has happened, which has left an impression on you is also karma.
The impression of action, action, and the potential action all three are called karma. Often people don't make this distinction. They get so caught up with this Karma thing. Oh Karma! Karma!
It India, if we say, "It is my karma." It means, it is inevitable. I have to bear it. So they say, "This is my karma." Something that is unavoidable, you think this is a karma. No. Karma is action which is potential, which is present (acting on it), third is impression of an action.
A glimpse of this dimension which is beyond the space, frees you from karma. This experience has come into your life some time or another. Wherein you are saying things that you did not want to say, but you are watching helplessly. How many of you have done this? You got upset or you said things that you did not want to say, but you kept saying it. Sometime or the other, you have experience like that. And sometime or the other, you have experienced that you are watching, witnessing whatever is happening. It may be a fleeting second.
If you have some time, if you happen to go to a jail, just to visit and speak to the people there. You will be amazed to find that they say that we did not do anything wrong. Once, I was in the largest jail in India. Ofcourse, to give a talk there. And I asked how many have you committed a crime? Not one raised their hand. I looked at the jailor, who was sitting next to me. They say they are all innocent. He said, "That is not true." They all claimed to be innocent. This is true because the atman, the Self always feels it is innocent. It is unafflicted. It is not the doer. People in 50s and 60s you feel children have grown, but I am quite young. No one feels that they have grown old. Why? The Self does not age. The Self is pure. That is why the worst criminal will say, "It just happened I don't know how it happened. Whatever happened, happened. I was not in control." The moment you become aware, you know you are not the doer, whether it is a good act or the worst act. People who have done extremely well in sports or music, (who have) won grammy awards. You ask them, they will just stare. They are amused or amazed what nice good things have happened through them. The field of action has its own set of laws. The existence of Self is the summum bonum of creation has a separate dimension. The Upanishads give a glimpse into this marvelous, unfathomable, indescribable aspect of Creation. But, both are essential. Next. It is going to come in the next one.
andham tamah pravisanti ye'vidyamupasate |
tato bhuya iva te tamo ya u vidyayam ratah || 9 ||
Kashi: They who worship avidya alone, enter blinding darkness. They who worship vidya, wearily fall as though into an even greater darkness.
Sri Sri: To simplify this or to understand this in today's language, I would bring you back to Quantum Mechanics and classical chemistry. Both are essential. If you are stuck in periodic tables, If you are only thinking about quantum mechanics, you cannot exist.
A stone or a handful of grains is same. A table, chair, and door everything is the same. Avidya is all the sciences that we have. Everything about the body, everything about the nature, everything about the Creation. All the intricacies here in this dimension of life: food, nutrition. All the vedas come in avidya. Especially, the vedas which deal with the material science. These are all avidya.
And there is vidya, which is knowledge of the Self. The more subtle, causal and subtle, and ethereal knowledge. Knowledge about the energy, about life force. This is vidya. Knowledge about the matter, avidya. Knowledge about the Self, vidya. Both have to be taken together.
Dance can happen only when one foot is on the floor, the other is in the air. If both your feet is buried in the mud, you cannot move. It is no dance. But if both are up in the air, that is also not dance. So, you need to balance.
andham tamah pravisanti. Blind man walking into the darkness if he catches hold of any one of it. The gross material Universe is governed by the subtle forces. The subtle forces are called Devas. The macrocosm and microcosm is connected. There are 9 planets in the solar system, they have an impact on the body-mind complex. They have impact on the grains, on the plants that grow. The ancient people had a science of tracking the connection. A particular part of your body is also connected to this. Like, the ancient people said that the liver is connected to planet Mars and chickpeas. Similarly, rice is connected to eyes and the Sun. Sesame seed, teeth, crow, and Saturn are connected. Each animal on this planet brings down certain cosmic vibration onto the planet. So the Divine forces always had a vahana, the carrier. The Divine forces or Devas are being carried into the planet by certain things.
Remember, Devas are not Bramhan. Devas are particular energy patterns in the Universe. Sunlight when it passes through the prism gives seven colors. Each color has a definite function. You can comprehend the white light for the Paramatma or Self.
You need a doctor for ENT. You need a doctor for heart. Cardiac surgeon is different from Neurologist. Neurologist is different from Urologist. Urologist is different from Orthopedic. You have different doctors to attend to one single body. Similarly, these are the Devas perhaps. Devtas are for definite parts of the body. In the rudraabhishekam, you invoke different Devas in different parts of the body. Particular Deva is like the particular divine light, particular aspect of the ethereal Bramhan. Knowledge about the subtle, spiritual knowledge is vidya. So, material knowledge and spiritual knowledge have to be combined. You have to move with both.
A doctor who has only Orthopedic knowledge, he will be incomplete. You have some stomach problem, he cannot treat a stomach problem. You need a complete picture. Those who are studying the gross are incomplete. Those who ignore the gross are also incomplete. You need a mix and match.
anyadevahurvidyaya'nyadahuravidyaya |
iti susruma dhiranam ye nastadvicacaksire || 10 ||
Kashi: One thing they say that is heard is verily from the wise who explain that to us.
Sri Sri: Yes. This is obvious. A dietician will say what you need. You need to take more proteins or you have to cut down on carbs, or you have to take more carbs, reduce fat. They give you this knowledge. This is very subtle knowledge. In a similar way, in the realm of consciousness, there are definite forces. And they are the Devas.
How many devas are there? There are 330 million. I don't know who counted it. So many different types of Devas are present in the consciousness. All these particular Devas have a definite role to play in protection of the Universe. As I said, each animal carries bio-magnetic and bio-dynamic rays with them.
Bio-dynamic is brought into this Universe by peacock, by lion, by every other species. Every single species is connected to a Deva. You know what the scientists say today? Even if one species becomes extinct from this Creation, there will be total imbalance and chaos in this whole Creation. Creation cannot sustain itself. They may reduce in numbers, but they cannot totally get extinct. Because the Creation will get dissolved and new Creation will have to happen. For the current Creation to exist... You know about the String theory? This is related to String theory in Physics. A butterfly, a mosquito, rabbit, rat are all part of this Creation. Even if any one of these species is eliminated, ... They may get reduced in numbers, but they cannot totally be eliminated from the Creation. They are part of the Creation. This is what is the subtle science of the Devas.
You have a particular problem with a muscle or tissue or bone in your body, the Osteopath knows. The Osteopath manipulates a particular bone, so that you feel normal, you feel better. The devas provide us comfort in this gross Creation. The gross Creation is ruled, managed by the subtle one. And the subtle energy is what is called Devas.
vidyam cavidyam ca yastadvedobhayam saha |
avidyaya mrtyum tirtva vidyaya'mrtamasnute || 11 ||
Kashi: He who knows at the same time vidya and avidya, overcomes death by avidya and obtains immortality by vidya.
Sri Sri: It is obvious. Work on the subtle and work on the gross.
Consciousness is everything, but knowing that the consciousness is everything you cannot eat everything. For your physical well-being, you have to be very discreet. What you should eat and what you should not eat. You cannot say, all this is Bramhan, all this is me only, all this is part of me.
That discrimination. Unfortunately, this advaita knowledge has been misused. You have not understood the very basics. You will see people with matted hair, lying down anywhere, as though everything is same. They do not bother to clean or cut their nails. In the name of advaita, torturing one's form. The scriptures do not give sanction to such practices.
Someone said, he is a very great saint. He has been standing one leg for 30 years. What did he get by standing on one leg for so long? Torturing one's body is not advaitya, is not vedanta.
Or sitting and doing some pooja from morning till night and chanting the whole time is also not .. Rituals, ceremonies, they have their own importance. They create subtle energies or vibrations. They are the means to work on the subtle level. But not one who is totally immersed in it day and night and not taking care of anything else in life. The wise one marches in life, crosses the ocean of death by avidya, and attains immortality through vidya.
Day 3, 19 January 2015, 10:30 AM (IST)
OM purnamada? purnamida? purnata purnamudacyate |
purnasya purnamadaya purnamevavasinyate ||
OM santi? santi? santi? ||
andha? tama? pravisanti ye.asambhutimupasate |
tato bhuya iva te tamo ya u sambhutya.N rata? || 12||
Kashi: Those who worship the unmanifest, they enter into blinding darkness. Those who worship the manifest, they enter into blinding darkness.
anyadevahu? sambhavadanyadahurasambhavata |
iti susruma dhira?a? ye nastadvicacak?ire || 13||
Kashi: The wise have said the worship of manifest and unmanifest yield different results.
sambhuti? ca vinasa? ca yastadvedobhaya.N saha |
vinasena m?tyu? tirtva sambhutya.am?tamasnute || 14||
Sri Sri: You take medicine to get rid of sickness.
For example, you exercise when you go to a gymnasium. There are different exercises for different parts of the body. One for the calves, chest.
Similarly there are specific tunes to create specific moods. People in the entertainment field they know very well.
In a love scene, they will not put thrill music.
When you come to the ragas, that is tunes. There is a whole Upaveda which is just for the tunes: Sa Re Ga Ma Oa Dha Ni Sa. The seven tunes are corresponding to seven animals.
Elephant's pitch is very high. It says Ni.
Pa comes from birds, nightingale. Ma comes from cows and goats, sheeps.
Each animal has only one particular tune that they can sing. Humans have the entire range.
Get over the death. If you are sick, take medication or exercises and get over it. That is got going to give you liberation. That is essential.
When you are normal, you can look for something high.
The manifest and its relevance. the unmanifest has its own relevance. One cell multiplies itself and becomes an embryo.
That embryo when it becomes bigger, it knows where the eyes, hair. Thought it is one human body, each part is different. This is the level of Deva. Though the Atman is one, the Devas are many.
In Christianity you say, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
There are three levels on which you can get disturbed: causal, physical, meta-physical.
To bring peace to these three levels, Shanti, Shanti, Shanti.
In Christianity, Father is the infinite Omnipresent God. The Son is the human form. The holy spirit is the energy. The Holy Spirit is not one but it has diverse functions and qualities.
A connection between microcosm and macrocosm is established.
Do Devas live in another planet? No.
There is no physical body for the Devas. They are only light bodies.
Where do they establish themselves? In the mantras.
It is one electricity, somewhere it has become sound, air, light.
There is one infinite Being, the Self, which is what you are. In you there is diversity.
Nose can only do the function of the nose.
You must recognize the differences.
Whether someone pulls your cheek or pulls your ear, you feel it. Yet they have different functions.
That is what the Universe is all about. Though, one consciousness creates itself into this Diverse Universe. It is only one thing, yet it is many.
Someone who catches hold of the many is going into darkness. Someone who catches hold of the one is going into deeper darkness.
To gain specific results, you need to use specific mantras. That is the science of the vedas.
hira?mayena patre?a satyasyapihita? mukhama | tattva? pu?annapav??u satyadharmaya d???aye || 15||
Kashi: Uncover the veil, so that I may know the truth.
Sri Sri: The quest for truth itself is a sign of blossoming. In the quest for truth, the paradigm plays an important role. Those who believe in many, cannot comprehend the one and those believe in one, cannot comprehend the many.
Why should God be one?
Why should God be many?
What makes us comfortable is if God is only one. It is correct. If God is many, then how could God be omnipotent?
Here is another paradigm. God can come in any costume.
He can come in the track pants in the gym, when he goes to office in three-piece suit.
Why do you limit the expression of God to only one?
Rishis said that the entire Universe is his own form.
In the morning Rudrabhishekham, they chant. All the forms in the Universe are yours. The native people all over the World, whether British Columbia or the Mori tribe of New Zealand, you will find the native people they honor the mountains. For them the rivers, the trees are sacred.
The idols came much later.
If you open a transistor, there are circuit diagrams to catch the waves.
There was a Buddhist monk here from Mainland China. This person in meditation has experience of the Shat kona. He wanted to know more about that. The flag of Israel has the Shat Kona. The Jews and Vedas have one common symbol: the Shat Kona. It is not someone's imagination but an experience.
She found it here. She said this is what I came here for.
All temples are placed on mantras and yantras.
There is a proverb in Sanskrit. It is by the effort of worshiper that a stone turns into divinity. The intention in you to invoke the prana in that. The stone also responds to you. All poojas are done by yantras. Yantras are the main thing. Yantras are diagrams.
There are specific mantras.
When you think of an elephant, you feel like an elephant. There is an exchange happening between the viewer and the viewed.
In theory of relativity, you are looking at a object and because you are looking the object has already changing. You have an impact of Deva and Deva have an impact on you. Fire, water, air, Sun are Devas.
Make good use of them all.
Honor them.
The ancient people would honor them all.
Have any of you been of some Safari?
When you go into a forest, it is so clean. Nature knows how to maintain itself. This is yagya. Yagya means honoring the elements of nature.
Yagyas have three aspects:
Honoring the Divinity in its diverse manifestations. Honoring human beings, trees, rivers.
Sangatikarana. If you see a good movie, you do not keep it to you. In isolation you cannot be happy. Suppose you have a family of 6 or 7, if one of them is unhappy, can you be happy?
You effort is to make everyone happy. How can someone be happy? Through knowledge. knowledge is a vaccination which keeps you away from the flu of misery. Suppose they are not ready for knowledge, pray to the Devas: let them be happy.
This intention. The left brain people would say intention, right brain people would say prayer. But both are the same.
A wise one would say both are the same.
In fact the prayer is a little more stronger as emotions are a little more stronger.
So, you do some karma, some action to make them happy. Similarly, if there is an emergency in your country, city, or state, can you be at peace? You cannot say, I want to have clean air only in my home. If you do not have clean air in the city, forget about it. You have to work for it.
If you spread happiness, happiness gets sustained. If you spread knowledge, knowledge gets sustained.
That's why the mind is always running for something bigger because it is in search for happiness. It is looking for all these glittering things. Truth is hidden under these glittering sheets.
Please unveil this and let me have a glimpse it.
hira?mayena patre?a satyasyapihita? mukhama | tattva? pu?annapav??u satyadharmaya d???aye || 15||
For me to recognize you are dharma, O Mighty God! You only can unveil this. Remove this glittering sheet. Whatever the mind can achieve on its own is always smaller than the mind. If you say, "I have got it." It is because it comes within your grip. You cannot get something which is bigger than your effort. Are you getting this?
Whatever you achieve with your effort is always smaller than you.
And it is not worth it.
What is worth? That comes to you as a gift, as a blessing.
The outer shell, the glittering, the mind is running after that. O my dear Divine! Please remove that so that I may see the truth.
pu?annekar?e yama surya prajapatya vyuha rasmina samuha teja? | yatte rupa? kalya?atama? tatte pasyami yo.asavasau puru?a? so.ahamasmi || 16||
Sri Sri: So Hum means I am that.
The definite qualities of the consciousness and the Purusha, the imperishable consciousness.
There are 8 manifestations of the nature. Beyond nature is the consciousness. Before the Purusha is the different aspects of Devas: surya, pragapati. Let me see all this and realize I am that.
That which connects the different parts of the body. I am that. I am that Purusha.
vayuranilamam?tamatheda? bhasma?ta.N sarirama |
OM krato smara k?ta.N smara krato smara k?ta.N smara || 17||
Kashi: O Self! Let me shed the mortal awareness.
Sri Sri: Let's do a meditation on this. Our body is air, vayu, fire, water, earth. All these elements. And one day this body is going to become ashes. In the mind, remember all that you have done.
Taking your mind through all the actions, you becomes free from the impressions of the action. This is actually a meditation technique here.
We seldom remember that we are going to die one day.
We do not realize that we are going to die one day.
It does not matter where you stay. You are going to die one day. This body of yours is going to become ashes.
How do you want to exit from the body? Knowing you are human or clinging on to things? Aversion, anger, frustration? You want to live with that?
Remembering, recollecting, and let go.
When you remember that the body is going to become ashes, suddenly a new life force gushes in you ready to know, ready to grasp.
Every moment this realization, everything is perishing. Even cells in your body are dying. The awareness of death brings you more life. In wisdom, awareness of death brings you more life.
People who commit suicide, they want pleasure. There is no patience or endurance of misery. Unfortunately, they come back and they feel much more misery. That is why spiritual education should be inducted into each and every child.
You cannot give children Bramh gyaan immediately.
A logical conclusion to the apparent existence which causes a lot of chaos.
A quest for truth, yearning for higher knowledge also makes better citizens.
No mother wants their children to be miserable and become terrorists. But they simply do not know how to prevent. That is why spiritual knowledge is so important.
agne naya supatha raye asman
visvani deva vayunani vidvana |
yuyodhyasmajjuhura?ameno bhuyi??ha? te nama ukti? vidhema || 18||
Sri Sri: You know Agni means one who goes in the front and who leads you in your life.
The fire in you wakes you. The life force in you is really the agni which moves you forward. It leads others also.
A leader is agni. And the fire in you leads you. Your intellect leads you.
You know the Divine, the Guru, the Self knows all the aspects of Devas.
And so the prayer.
Wealth is confidence, generosity, your character.
Lead me to this path. Not just me. Us - everybody. Lead us. He is not saying lead me alone. It is a collective prayer.
You know the mob psychology is only destructive most of the time. But if that is turned, hat is benevolent to the world. Nothing like that.
Let the negativity that keeps us away from the realization be away from me.
This is more so with the people who are addicted to drugs and alcohol.
What the counselors tell them? Be with a higher power. I was told that this is one of the 12 steps of AAA. You surrender. This is one of the addictions, you take it away.
The ancient Rishis said that if there is any blemishes in me, you take care of that.
Again and again. It is not just once.
Again and again and again, I offer my salutation to you. I recognize you.
The mother told the boy to say your prayers before going to bed.
The boy said Ditto and went to bed.
Mother said, OK tomorrow at breakfast I will also say Ditto.
Everyday we eat again and again. Everyday we sleep. I feel so bored to use toilet or eat everyday. We do this as a routine. Why don't we pray in morning. Prayer rekindles or makes you aware.
Activity makes you forget the Being.
You have to remember that you are much bigger than the actor and perceiver that you are. You are the Being as well. That happens in vishram or rest, or nirvikara (blemishless and rest).
When you listen to something very keenly, you close your eyes.
Our ability to perceive is limited.
If you want to distract someone who is watching the heavenly bodies, you can play some music. Why in meditation we say close your eyes?
With your eyes open, you are grabbing things around. Meditation is inaction.
All the five senses is action.
We want to shift our attention from the action to the actor. What is the way? Close your eyes, close your mouth. You cannot close your nose.
The energy that is going outward gets consolidated. This is one way.
The other way is to close your eyes and listen. Tratak: with eyes open gaze at a candle. Every position of your eyes, triggers certain feelings in your brain.
Different eye positions triggers something.
When you want to remember something, you eyes go right side up.
When you doubt something, your eye goes left side up.
When you look both eyes up, you are day-dreaming.
If you look left side down, "Whom you think you are?"
If you have some guilt, your eye moves like this. I cannot do this properly.
If your eyes are at 30 degree angle you are introvert. You are only conscious of your breath.
Krishna says, keep your attention on the tip on the nose. That is 30-degree. But don't see any sight, any direction.
Then the mind goes inward.
This is one way. Lord Buddha and Lord Mahaveer says close your eyes.
Lord Shiva says, close your eyes 98%. Eyes are just crack open. Eyes closed you might get lost in the inner world. Eyes open you will get lost in the world of five elements.
This is neither awake nor asleep, somewhere in between. Samadhi is when the effort is dropped.
