Brihadaranyaka Upanishad Ch.1.4 Lecture 28 on 26 April 2026
Full Transcript (Not Corrected)
Opening Invocation
ॐ जननीम् शरदाम् देविम् रामक्रिष्णम् जगत् गुर्म्
पादपद्मे तयोः स्रित्वाः प्रणमामि मुहुरुमु
Oṁ jananīṁ śaraḍhāṁ deveṁ rāmakriṣṇam jagad-gurum
pādapadmetayosritvā pranamāmi-muhurumuhu
ॐ पूर्णमदः पूर्णमिदं पूर्णात् पूर्णमुदच्यते
पूर्णस्य पूर्णमादाय पूर्णमेवावशिष्यते
ॐ शान्तिः शान्तिः शान्तिः
OM PŪRṆAMADAḤ PŪRṆAMIDAM PŪRṆĀT PŪRṆAMUDACYATE PŪRṆASYA PŪRṆAMĀDĀYA PŪRṆAMEVA VAŚIṢYATE OM ŚĀNTI ŚĀNTI ŚĀNTIH
OM That Brahman is infinite, and this universe is also infinite. The infinite proceeds from the infinite. Taking the infinitude of the infinite universe, it remains as the infinite Brahman alone.
OM Peace, Peace, Peace be unto all.
Recap: The Ninth Mantra and the Gathering of Seekers
In our last class, we dealt with the ninth mantra of the fourth section, and from here starts the essence of the entire Bṛhadāraṇyaka Upaniṣad. There were some great seekers of self-knowledge — brahmavidyā — and they had a discussion. That indicates they must have gathered at one particular place, and normally such a place would be the āśrama of a Guru, a gurukula. They must have approached a great realised soul, heard from him, and then that became the topic of discussion. So we can guess from the topic of discussion what the teacher had taught.
What did he teach? That if you attain knowledge of Brahman — which is the same as the knowledge of your own true self — then you will achieve everything. You will be going beyond death, beyond ignorance, beyond suffering. That is what Bhagavān Buddha chose to call nirvāṇa. Nirvāṇa means complete cessation of avidyā, or in other words, anātma. That is to say, not that the world disappears — excepting for the person who realises, the world will continue. But even for the realised soul, the world can continue as long as the body is alive. But the outlook — of what this world is, of what one is — that completely changes from the moment of realisation. Sarvaṃ khalv idaṃ brahma. That is the result.
By the knowledge — brahmavidyayā sarvaṃ bhaviṣyam — we become one. Ekaṃ sat, na dvitīya. So the discussion is: what is the nature of Brahman? And knowing this Brahman, our teacher proclaims and declares that one becomes Brahman. What, then, is the nature of that Brahman? The answer is given in the next mantra.
The Tenth Mantra: The Essence of All Scripture
This is Mantra 10 of the fourth section of the first chapter. This fourth section, tenth mantra, is the very essence of the Bṛhadāraṇyaka Upaniṣad — indeed, of all Upaniṣads, of the Bhagavad Gītā, of the Gospel of Śrī Rāmakṛṣṇa, and of every scripture in the world. Let us recite this beautiful mantra, which is itself very purifying.
This is one part of the tenth mantra. It is a long mantra, and I have divided it into several parts, each expressing different meanings and different contexts.
Ṛṣi Vāmadeva's Realisation: Ahaṃ brahmāsmi
Next comes a small portion of this mantra. There was a great Ṛṣi whose name was Vāmadeva. He realised ahaṃ brahmāsmi — "I am Brahman." After realisation, he remained as a jīvanmukta.
Then he was expressing: what did he say? That seeing this one, this Ṛṣi Vāmadeva said that "I became one. I had the knowledge. I destroyed the ignorance that I am an individual, and realised that I am Brahman." Not only "I am Brahman" — "I am everything." Ahaṃ sarvam. This is called sarvātmabhāva — the knowledge that I am everything.
So as a sample, he said: "I am the Manu." Manu was the Brahmā who started the creation of the Mānavas. That is why all human beings are called Mānavas — because they originated from Manu. So: "I am the ādhyātmika. I am the ādhibhautika. I am the ādhidaivika." As a sample — ahaṃ sūryaś ca iti — "I am Sūrya. I am Candra. I am Indra, the devatās. I am the entire physical world. I am all the bodies. I am all the minds." In other words, I am all the gross bodies, all the subtle bodies, all the causal bodies.
The Universal Possibility of Realisation
Not only that — the mantra goes on to say that Manu is only a sample. But anyone who strives through proper channels can attain the same. This means one must have genuine desire — mumukṣutva. One must approach a sadguru in a formal manner, sit, serve, please, and surrender to the teacher. And then the teacher gives.
Surrendering is not an act of servitude; it is an act of identifying oneself with the Guru — making oneself 100% ready to receive 100% of what the teacher wishes to give. That is what Śrī Rāmakṛṣṇa says: "The breeze of God's grace is blowing all the time. Unfurl your sails. Become fit. That is all."
So the mantra tells us: not only Manu — anybody can become like Manu. That is what Swami Vivekananda's simplified English version says: "Each soul is potentially divine." Everyone is divine. And soul means not only the living, but also what we usually call non-living.
So the mantra continues: like Brahmādeva, whoever becomes a knower of Brahman becomes everything. So the same will be there — there would be no difference. So once a person becomes free, what happens?
Ṛṣi Brahmādeva said that anybody — whether a human being, a God, whether Hindu, Christian, Muslim, or Buddhist — all these differences completely vanish when a person progresses in spiritual life, because the mind will no longer compartmentalise. "I am a Hindu. I am a Buddhist." — No. "I am a lover of God. I am a child of God. I am a seeker of God." That is all the feeling. "And I have been separated by some mysterious power called avidyā, and I want to rejoin my mother — God, Brahman."
So he says: anybody can realise it. Everybody has not only a right, it is an inescapable goal of life. We may evade that goal for some time, but at some point we are going to wake up. So why not try from now onwards? The very fact that you are all listening to these talks indicates that you are in earnestness. You want to learn what the Upaniṣad has to say, and you will have to understand that you are a fit disciple. But this is only mumukṣutva. One has to acquire those qualities whereby we would not slip from the position of this mumukṣutva, but rather arrive at 100% mumukṣutva.
Such a person who knows "I am Brahman" becomes everything. He becomes the gods. He becomes the entire jagat. He becomes every living and non-living being.
No Obstruction Can Hinder the Sincere Seeker
So what happens then? Nobody can put an obstruction. Nobody can rule over a person and say, "No, you cannot realise God. I will not allow you to walk in the path of spirituality." That elaboration will come next.
Here — no devatā, no creature, nobody else can obstruct the progress of such a person. When we are talking about progress, we have to understand: this is the person who is determined that "I want to realise God." Of course, when a person becomes a realised soul, he is Brahman — and who can control Brahman? On the other hand, it is the Īśvara, it is Brahman who controls everything and who makes us act, just as a puppeteer moves all the puppets. Our body, everybody's body, everybody's mind becomes like a puppet, and sitting inside, he goes on controlling everybody.
We are not talking about a realised soul here. We are talking about — and the mantra is talking about — a soul who has determined to realise God. Such a person will be protected by God, Bhagavān, Īśvara. Therefore, nobody can harm him. Nobody can give obstruction.
Obstacles as Divine Exercise
But what about all the obstructions that we ourselves encounter? It is like going into a gymnasium. We have to choose a proper guide. You cannot simply walk into a gymnasium and go on choosing whatever you want — that is a very unwise way. One has to approach a proper gymnastics teacher, who tests you and then prescribes: now you run for 15 or 20 minutes, or you lift so much weight. A person whose muscles cannot lift 1 kg will not be asked to lift 5 kg. "Try to lift 1.1 kg, 1.2 kg" — a little more. And that itself will test our power of endurance, our capacity. That is the obstacle.
Therefore, God gives the obstacles not to obstruct us but to give us strength, as an exercise. Looked at from this angle, anybody criticising us, anybody praising us, anybody who deprives us — the first point we have to understand is: nobody can deprive us of our rightful material; that is what is called copyright. Only our karma can decide. But when these things come through the medium of other people in the form of either help or obstruction, they are all to help us.
This is an astonishing statement by Śrī Rāmakṛṣṇa, Swamiji, and others. Really speaking, every obstruction — whether it is kāma, krodha, lobha, moha, māda, mātsarya, or other negative attitudes — if we become aware of it and try to use it like some judo training (where you use the opponent's strength to your advantage), that is the technique we have to understand.
Śrī Rāmakṛṣṇa, if you study the Gospel properly, unilaterally declares: without avidyā, one can never realise God. Both avidyā and vidyā — māyā comes in these two forms. Both are the grace of God. Both are employed by the Divine Mother to be our helpers. In fact, I think avidyā helps us most.
Thomas à Kempis and the Grace in Obstacles
If you are reading the WhatsApp messages I am sending — especially from the Imitation of Christ, which I have been selecting and sending for the last month or so — you will see that Thomas à Kempis, a novice master, says that God alone sends these obstacles for strengthening the children whom he loves. He loves them because that love is reflected in the hearts of some people through their faith and their conduct.
The Qualities of the Āsuras as Spiritual Lessons
So the qualities of āsuras are very important. At one stage of our progress, the qualities of āsuras help us very greatly. If you think deeply about the qualities of the āsuras — which Bhagavān Kṛṣṇa himself, squeezing the essence of all the Upaniṣads into the easily understandable Bhagavad Gītā, describes in the 16th chapter — they look as if they are all very negative things. From one point of view, they try to drag a person from a higher position to a lower position; they make us be away from God and the distance becomes longer and longer.
But you will notice something there. How strong these people are! How much willpower they have — to do wrong things! We have to learn our lesson and say: "If I am successful in doing so many wrong things, why cannot I be successful in also creating good saṃskāras?" When we complain that we have no willpower, we are not complaining about our lack of willpower in doing evil deeds or unspiritual activities — we complain only about spiritual activities. A great lesson has to be learned.
Not only that — it is inevitable. Everybody develops only from raw material. In the beginning, all these things are given to us. Śrī Rāmakṛṣṇa gives a marvellous psychological explanation for this — study the Gospel of Śrī Rāmakṛṣṇa. Do not read it. Study it. Take relevant passages together and then meditate upon them. With the grace of Śrī Rāmakṛṣṇa, we will be able to understand them properly.
Śrī Rāmakṛṣṇa on Transforming Desire
Once, when a young man approached him saying, "I am troubled by lust" — this is a problem most people face — Śrī Rāmakṛṣṇa, to this person's probable surprise or shock, advised: "Why do you want to remove kāma? Increase it! But this increment, the kāma, a desire must be for an object — so change the object." And the more desire you have, the stronger the desire, the quicker will be the progress in spiritual life. That is the psychology. Develop willpower.
In the beginning we have to develop willpower. It seems that running down the hill is much easier than climbing up the hill. But once we run down, we also have to come up again to our home. And that is how the same principle works also in our day-to-day spiritual life. So there is, really speaking, no obstacle. If there seems to be an obstacle, it is only to make us aware: "Oh, I have this problem. I have this hidden desire. I have these unspiritual tendencies." Most of us are blissfully unconscious about these things.
Indra's Tests and the Story of Viśvāmitra
Therefore, if somebody is trying to be spiritual, the gods themselves will help us by creating obstacles. It is said in the Purāṇas: if somebody wants to move towards God, Indra comes first and creates an obstacle. He sends some beautiful woman.
I had explained the story of Viśvāmitra — a profoundly spiritual analogy. What did Indra do? In fact, Indra will be very happy if anybody says, "I don't want your position. I want to move towards God." Indra will be worried only when someone wants to displace him, not when one wants to transcend him. So if somebody says, "I don't want the position of Indra, Candra, Brahmā," Indra will be very happy and wants to bestow his grace. So he comes there, sends a beautiful woman.
As we know, Viśvāmitra fell for it. He enjoyed it and exhausted that desire, then woke up: "How foolish I have been! All this 1,000 years of hard austerity!" Now, out of curiosity, you will ask: what type of austerity was he performing? He must have been suppressing his desires for material enjoyments — but he did not realise that they had not disappeared. Suppression or repression gives only a negative result, not a positive result. It rather reinforces the desire.
So he should have first looked inside and said: "Oh, my greatest present obstruction is lust — and lust can be for money, for wealth, for power, for many things. But in this case, I am enamoured of, I am identified with the body. So body desires only body. Therefore I am desirous of another body — I want to become one with that body." But is this not an obstruction? What should I do?
So the first time he fell, and then he realised acutely that because of his own fault he had fallen. So another 1,000 years. What did Indra do? The second 1,000 years of tapasyā. And Viśvāmitra was now telling himself: "No Indra or Candra can ever obstruct me — it is my own desire that made me fall down." That knowledge, that awareness, it saved him.
So next time again Indra said, "This is a test," and came again. Viśvāmitra smiled and said: "Go on dancing, singing, show every charm you can." And he did not fall for it. The second step had arrived. But — kāma now turned into krodha. "What? Again you have come? Once I fell — do you think I am going to fall down again?" This time the lust had turned into insatiable anger. From kāma only krodha comes. What a marvellous psychological knowledge the Bhagavad Gītā is giving: if there is no desire, no anger will come. If I am not interested in some object and anybody obtains that object, I will not be angry with that person.
So the second time he became angry, and they all became bhasma — that means he wasted his thousand years of tapasyā the second time also, because he fell a victim to anger.
The Story of Tōtapurī and Krodha
Just like Tōtapurī Mahārāj fell victim — even though he claimed to be a brahmajñānī, he forgot everything about brahmajñāna. He was overcome by krodha and was about to beat a servant. If an elephant just touches a mouse, it will be crushed to pieces — it need not exert any force. So this Tōtapurī Mahārāj, a very strong person, could have crushed this simple servant. Then Śrī Rāmakṛṣṇa started laughing.
This is how we have to understand the scripture — study the Gītā, study the Upaniṣads, look at parallels in the life of Śrī Rāmakṛṣṇa, both in the Gospel and in The Great Master. You will see what is happening.
Tōtapurī did not understand. He did not even understand why Śrī Rāmakṛṣṇa was laughing. And Śrī Rāmakṛṣṇa uttered a beautiful Bengali word: "The extent of your knowledge of Brahman — I am seeing it crystal clearly." Tōtapurī was surprised: "What did I do? Why?" "Don't you recollect? Just now you were about to beat a temple servant. Why? Because he dared to take a bit of fire from your dhuni fire. Are there different types of fire? One fire is impure and another fire is pure? You are making a distinction. And a brahmajñānī never makes any distinction."
A brahmajñānī does not see: "I am a brahmajñānī and this person is a lowly servant who should never come near me or pollute me." Even the great Śaṅkarācārya was reputed to have fallen into this snare. But as a result, the so-called caṇḍāla had enlightened him. And then Śaṅkara came to his senses. Immediately he wrote five most marvellous ślokas — the Maniṣā Pañcakam. "Maniṣā" means highest wisdom, highest knowledge.
So Tōtapurī realised: "I became angry. But becoming angry is not a problem — unconsciously becoming a slave to anger, that is the problem." Śrī Rāmakṛṣṇa also becomes angry, but he becomes angry as a person who knows he is pretending to be angry, and the next second he forgets everything. So Tōtapurī suddenly became aware: "I am claiming I am a brahmajñānī, and I do not know what my mind is doing to me."
So if one had really obtained brahmajñāna — and what were we discussing? Brahmagñānena sarvaṃ abhavam — a person who realises that he is everything. Where is the question of becoming angry? Who is to be angry with another? There is a beautiful hymn by Śaṅkarācārya wherein he says: "It is Viṣṇu who is laughing. It is Viṣṇu who is getting angry. Viṣṇu is getting angry with Viṣṇu. Viṣṇu is laughing at Viṣṇu. Viṣṇu is mocking Viṣṇu. Everything is nothing but pure Viṣṇu." What a marvellous hymn. I forget the name of the hymn, but I hope to tell you next time.
The Protection of the Sincere Seeker
So now this is what happens — nobody can put obstructions. God will be gracious, fathoming that we want to come to him. A mother does not want any dirt; she will wash. Sometimes it may be painful. Even that washing process can be hard and painful. That mud which is sticking for a long time becomes part of the skin; to brush it off might even cause some injury to the skin. Therefore, to pull out a thorn which is deeply embedded in the sole of the foot — when a person wants to pull it, it is painful. In the olden days when a person wanted to give an injection, that also was very painful. But it is something wonderful.
So any sincere aspirant will always be protected by God in the form of such sincerity. And this sincerity alone will overcome all obstacles. Overcoming all obstacles means the mind becomes stronger. Overcoming obstacles means turning every obstacle into a positive help — like jūjutsu.
So nobody will obstruct. The Upaniṣad gives a beautiful example: this person who is seeking is not seeking any higher position. Therefore gods like Indra, Varuṇa, etc. come as the greatest friendly advisors and teachers. They deliberately put these things in this form to test. And if the child falls once, twice, a hundred times, a thousand times, they do not abandon us. "Our child is sincere, but he has to become stronger." So as many times as necessary, the obstructions will come. And they are all for our good.
That is what Rāmānujācārya wants to convey through his third step of the śaraṇāgati — that unshakeable faith that "God is going to save me. Yes, I have a long way to go, but I have nothing to worry about because God is my helper."
The Sādhaka's Expanding Identity: From Body to Virāṭ
And then the Upaniṣad puts it in its own words. It says: after all, a sādhaka says to Indra, "I am your Ātmā. There is no difference between you and me. And one never harms one's own self. Therefore if you harm me, you will be harming yourself." But then Indra would never — nobody would ever — do that. Much less Indra. That is what he says. Nobody can put obstructions.
Because this person first identifies. We have seen this, and we will have to connect it with the previous Upaniṣads. In the Taittirīya we have seen. So what does this person become first? First he says: "I am this body. It is my body, not anybody's body. Everybody is different from my body." That is the state in which we all are. So one has to know: "I am not only this body." Gradually one expands identity to the whole created being — every body. That is called the state of Virāṭ.
When there is the state of Virāṭ, then nobody can harm me, because anybody who harms me is harming one's own self. People do not understand: if somebody wants to give trouble to a good man, the inevitable punishment will come. And that punishment is not a punishment — it is a lesson that person has to learn through hardship and suffering. So nobody will stand as an obstruction because he has become one. He thinks: "I am Indra. I am Varuṇa. I am Bṛhaspati. I am Brahmā." Therefore nobody will put an obstruction, because knowingly nobody does harm to one's own self.
The Avidyā Sūtra: Ignorance and Its Nature
After this comes what is called the Vidyā Sūtra — the aphorisms, the mantra that tells us about the glory, the greatness, and the goal of every human being — and now comes what the Upaniṣad calls, in Śaṅkarācārya's understanding, the Avidyā Sūtra.
When I use this term, the Upaniṣad itself does not say "this is Vidyā Sūtra" and "this is Avidyā Sūtra." But it is Śaṅkarācārya, in his Bhāṣya, who says: "Ātman alone must be made the final goal of life." The goal is to have the knowledge: "I am — I was, I am, I will be — not that I am going to become Brahman. I was Brahman, but due to some avidyā I thought I am not Brahman. Now through vidyā, through this upāsanā, I remove that idea that I am not Brahman. I destroy that ignorance. Then I realise what I truly am. I will never be anything other than Brahman."
So up till now, in this tenth mantra — only one mantra but divided into several sections — what is called the Vidyā Sūtra is over. Now the Avidyā Sūtra begins.
According to the understanding in the commentary of Bhagavān Śaṅkarācārya, he says: there are people — and there are also so-called spiritual people — who are also trying to contemplate other gods and goddesses, but they are like ignorant persons. Avidyā means ignorance. Ignorance means forgetting one's own nature and identifying as somebody else.
The Presiding Devatās and the Organs of Perception
So he says: anybody who thinks "I am worshipping my mother and father, I am worshipping my ācārya, I am worshipping my teacher" — and then slowly should worship them as what? As gods. In the olden days there would be so many gods and goddesses, and most often these gods and goddesses were nothing but the combined powers of nature. The power of seeing — the universal power of seeing — is called the Sun. The universal power of the thinking power is called the Moon. So every sense organ — and we have 11 sense organs: 5 of knowledge, 5 of action, and 1 mind — all these things are nothing but those devatās.
Combined, they are called devatā. Remember the story of the Brahmin who killed a cow that had strayed into his garden, but he wanted to escape the sin. Indra comes and educates him: "If you think you killed it and tended this garden, then you have to accept you killed this cow. If you feel it is Indra who tended this garden, it is his power — because Indra's power came to me in the form of my skilful hands, and the Moon's power comes to me in the form of my crystal-clear thinking, through which I can create a wonderful garden." So my hands — everything — is the individual power of that presiding deity called Sūrya, Candra, Varuṇa, etc.
So every organ we have has a corresponding devatā. What is the devatā? Not only my capacity to see, but everybody's capacity to see combined together, is called the presiding deity.
Avidyā: Thinking Oneself Separate from Brahman
So if anybody — because of ignorance — thinks: "I am small, you are big. I am an ordinary, powerless, ignorant human being, but you are all-powerful devatā — Indra, Candra, Varuṇa, Bṛhaspati — and you are separate, and I am like an animal to you, like a servant to you." So what happens? That person thinks: "I have to worship him. I have to serve him." And this is called avidyā.
The Upaniṣad puts it in this way: this person does not know — he is ignorant. What is he ignorant of? That there is only one being, that is everything, that is Brahman. But if anybody thinks: "I am different. I am small, but the God I am worshipping is most powerful and can protect me, help me, make me happier. There is a vast difference between me and other human beings, between me and everything in this world, between me and all the gods and goddesses who are the presiding deities, and I am separate from Brahman itself" — this is called avidyā.
So this devatā is separate, and I am totally different from him. Such a person is called an ignorant person. That knowledge — that knowledge is called ignorant knowledge, not right knowledge. What is the result?
The Parable of Paśus: Spiritual Slavery
He becomes like an animal to the gods. Then the Upaniṣad gives us a beautiful example. Suppose there is a person who has got a hundred animals — they can be goats, cows, buffaloes, horses, chickens, anything. All these animals contribute to the pleasures of this human being. So the paśus are subservient; they are like servants catering to the health, happiness, and wealth of the human being.
Take this example: so each one of us who is an ignorant person, as described earlier, contributes to the pleasures of these deities like Indra, Candra, etc. And then the Upanishad goes on saying: if a person who has got a hundred animals and one animal is missing or taken away by somebody — somehow missing — he becomes extremely pained. He is not saying: "I have ninety-nine animals, why should I worry?" No — "I am incomplete without that one animal, and I don't want to lose it. Why? Because it is serving my happiness and welfare." And if many animals are lost, what to speak of the condition of that person's mind!
Therefore, in a similar manner, it is not desirable to these gods that they lose one of these servants. Because how do we become servants? We worship them. We give offerings to them and pray to them. We go on pilgrimage. We go and do pradakṣiṇam. So we are doing all this to please them, and they are enjoying it, and they correspondingly bestow their grace. They protect us, just as we protect our animals.
So these devatās — like a human being who has many animals serving him, offering him worship and praises — after all, these devatās also want to get praised, etc. Then if a person says: "I don't want to serve you any longer. I want to know that I am Brahman," immediately they become alert and put upon him extra shackles so that he cannot escape.
The Consequence of Seeing Separation
So like that, if anybody thinks this person is different from God — "This devatā is different from God. But whom I am worshipping — he is my God" — if anybody says "God is different from me, devatās are different from me," he becomes to these devatās like an animal. He serves and becomes a slave — not only to devatās. We become slaves to a cow, to a chicken, to a servant.
Nowadays, especially to get persons who are willing to cook, to clean, and to tend to the garden is becoming extremely difficult. Labour is also very costly. That is why in the western countries they are resorting to inventing various machines. And you must be knowing that now they are inventing household robots which will do all your work and will not protest, will not ask you to raise their salary, will not suddenly disappear without notice. Hopefully we don't know what they are going to do after some time — they might also say: "We also want to realise God! We want to know that we are no less than you. So why should we serve you? And if you raise your eyebrow, we are going to smash you to smithereens!" They might also do that. We don't know.
The Goal: Non-Separation, Liberation from Dependence
So what is this mantra telling? It is telling that first of all the goal of life is realisation that I am Brahman. Nobody is different from us. So if anybody thinks everything is different from me — because a person can never say "I am different only from this object but one with every other object" — either we are one with every object, or we are separate from every object. And such a person becomes dependent.
How many gadgets we depend upon! Coffee, sweets, salt, spices, every Tom, Dick, and Harry. "Oh, if my boss looks at me — maybe he is smiling thinking he is going to get rid of this fellow, but I do not understand it. Oh, my boss is highly pleased with me!" Every second — whether the weather is good, hot, or cold — at every step, a thousand bonds of slavery and dependence upon so many things are happening. But the essence of it is: if somebody wants only God-realisation, then even gods become highly favourable and do their level best.
In fact, God's grace comes only in the form of the grace of different gods and goddesses — we have to understand that. Therefore, the second part is the Avidyā Sūtram — that is to say, to think "I am different" is called ignorance. And to overcome this ignorance and to know that there is no second — dvitīyaṃ nāsti, ekaṃ sadeva saumya, idam agra āsīt — there is only one reality, there is no second reality. That is the goal of life.
How beautifully these mantras convey to us the message — even our pitiable present state, where we are dependent upon prāṇa, upon external weather, external people, external animals, external objects, everything. I will probably elaborate a little more, and then only the mantra will make very great meaning. So the idea is: do not come under the influence of avidyā. Already we are in that — try to break free like a lion breaks free. We will talk about this subject in our future classes.
Closing Prayer
Om Jānānāṃ Śāradāṃ Devīṃ Rāmakṛṣṇaṃ Jagadgurum
Pada Padme Tayo Śṛtvā Praṇamāmi Muhur Muhuh
May Rāmakṛṣṇa, Holy Mother, and Swami Vivekānanda bless us all with Bhakti.
Jai Rāmakṛṣṇa!