Brihadaranyaka Upanishad Ch.1.4 Lecture 31 on 09 May 2026
Full Transcript (Not Corrected)
Opening Invocation
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 Goal of Life and the Nature of Brahman
As we saw, a great discussion was going on: what is the goal of life? Some seekers understood that realisation of Brahman alone is the goal of life. And what does one gain? They also understood the gains — sarvam idaṃ bhavati, so sarva bhāva prāpti. A person who realises Brahman becomes sarvam, becomes pūrṇam.
Then, how to attain it? We have seen also that this whole creation is a play of Brahman, so that he wants to entertain himself. It is like playing a solitaire game, where one tries to deceive oneself, and then catch oneself, and then go on laughing: "I caught myself!" So it is what is called līlā.
Summary of the Tenth Mantra: Ahaṃ Brahmāsmi
In our last class, we completed one of the most important mantras — the tenth mantra of the fourth section of the first chapter of the Brihadāraṇyaka Upaniṣad. What is the essence of this tenth mantra? This tenth mantra unfolds and establishes that there is only one reality, that is called Brahman — call it God, call it Allāh, by whatever blessed name you desire to call.
And what are we? The jīva, the individual soul, is essentially identical to that Brahman, because if Brahman is everything, if Brahman is the cause, then this entire universe is the effect. And the effect can never be different from the cause.
Then what is it we are experiencing now? This is called saṃsāra. Saṃsāra means seeing everything as different. I am born — that is different. I am surviving — that is different. One day I will have to disappear from this world — that is also a change. This entire birth, growth, sustenance, old age, disease, and death — this is called ṣaḍvikāra, the sixfold changes. Everyone has to go through them. Saṃsarati means continuous change.
And Brahman is one — eternal, unchanging, one without a second. So how can we equate this world with Brahman? But this thinking — really, Brahman has not created, has not become, has not become jīva, is not thinking as the jīva — and all these thoughts are only from our mind's point of view, from the avidyā point of view. All questions — "Who am I? Why am I here? How did I happen to come here? Why did Brahman create? He could have created a better world" — all these questions are products of ignorance.
So long as we are ignorant, so long as we do not know that we are Brahman, these questions will not cease. So long as a person is experiencing a snake, his fear will never vanish.
The Awakening of the Spiritual Seeker
But at some point of time, a person gets tired. First — and this is a very great psychological point — first, all of us get so much of pleasure from various things. In fact, we try to minimise all unhappiness and all suffering, and maximise all our happiness. This seems to be the goal of life for a very, very long time.
And then comes the awakening: that it is impossible to achieve this objective. Therefore there must be another way, where I can be without any fear of death, ignorance, and suffering. And for that purpose, the search is now withdrawn from the external to the internal. Such persons are called spiritual seekers.
Then that person, with the help of the Guru who interprets the scripture, slowly destroys the avidyā. Now, what Advaita wants to convey to us is that vidyā, or true brahmavidyā, or ātmavidyā — knowledge of one's own self — is never lost, can never be lost. But it is covered up. So every spiritual practice is only to remove this covering.
So destruction of avidyā, or destruction of the adhyāsa (superimposition), is called spiritual practice. And as soon as we succeed in removing this ignorance — ignorance of who we really are, not what we think we are — the moment we remove the wrong notion totally, vidyā stands revealed. We do not need to acquire vidyā; it is already there.
Just like the removal of darkness manifests the light automatically — not that after removing the darkness, like somebody sitting outside, we have vacated a seat, there is a vacant chair and you can come inside. No, not like that. Removal of adhyāsa or avidyā alone is spiritual practice. And then we realise: we were never bound. What we were wholeheartedly seeking, we already have, as it were — we are that.
Just, we have to remove the covering. For that, a mahāvākya tremendously helps. And the essential point in this tenth mantra is ahaṃ brahmāsmi. And then — ātmany eva upāsīta — one should therefore strive to realise this Brahman alone.
Overview: Mantras 11 to 17 of the Fourth Section
Now we are going to proceed. This particular fourth section has got seventeen mantras. We covered more or less ten mantras, and some mantras I have already described — especially, I think, in the eighth mantra, how this creation has started. Now again, from the eleventh to the seventeenth, this fourth section gives us two important ideas.
So creation has been described earlier. But to maintain this creation and to see that life goes on merrily without any problem, then we have to create those people who tell us how to run, how to live life, and how not to do certain actions which will only stop our further evolution — or even take us back to the previous state. How to stop that? And then slowly, how to progress?
The Origin of the Four Varṇas (Cāturvarṇyam)
So Brahman has created four types of castes. This is the origin of the caste system in Hinduism. God himself has created it, and Bhagavān Kṛṣṇa affirms it. So what is the purpose? Maintenance.
But the peculiarity of this Brihadāraṇyaka Upaniṣad — what do we mean by cāturvarṇyam, the four castes? The Brihadāraṇyaka Upaniṣad elaborates and says that because sṛṣṭi also contains gods and goddesses, the entire creation can be divided into three: ādhyātmika, ādhibhautika, and ādhidaivika.
Each one of us, as individuals, is called ādhyātmika. Then the entire external world, which everyone of us is experiencing and formulating certain saṃskāras through our experiences, is called ādhibhautika. But to have an overall management — how to make a person behave properly, do this, do not do this, the do's and don'ts — certain powers are created. They are called adhiṣṭhātṛ devatās. And also, how to live life: for that purpose, four castes were created.
Now what the Brihadāraṇyaka Upaniṣad wants to add is that it is not only at our level, but even at the level of the gods, four varṇas are there. So there is a deva-brāhmaṇa, deva-kṣatriya, deva-vaiśya, and deva-śūdra.
The Three Guṇas and Their Combinations
Now, what are these castes? Castes are nothing but divided on the basis of guṇas. As we know, guṇas are three. So certain combinations — and this is a very important point — no guṇa by itself can be effective. It is only the combination of every guṇa that counts.
How many combinations are possible? First: sattvaguṇa dominates, rajoguṇa supports, tamoguṇa helps — that is called brāhmaṇa. Second: rajoguṇa dominates, sattvaguṇa helps, tamoguṇa also helps — that is called kṣatriya, or the rulers and warriors. What Plato or Socrates used to call the second category.
The first category, according to Socrates, is called philosophers — those who set the goal of life crystal clearly. But to maintain this order, kṣatriyas are necessary, with tremendous power. They are the kings, they are the warriors, they are the leaders of men. They fall under the second category and are dominated by rajoguṇa. They have to be extremely alert and intolerant of any evil that is being perpetuated.
People were advised according to their castes what special activities they would have to do. So for example, for the brāhmaṇa — study of the Vedas, leading an ideal life — that is the speciality of brāhmaṇas. For kṣatriyas — protecting the weak, subduing the strong and evil, and seeing that society runs smoothly. That oiling process of this machine called society — they are called kṣatriyas, or the warrior class.
And people are advised: you have to worship God, you have certain duties in life. For that purpose, pañcamahāyajñas, special worships, special upāsanās, have been given. And to see that they are done properly, many things are needed, many items are needed. So one has to get that supply. The persons who see that everybody requires food and materials — and at one place something grows, another place something else grows — these third castes are called the business people, vaiśyas.
Their business is such that they have international connections. If some excess product is there, they remove it, take it where it is needed and not available. And what is available there — say, for example, certain exotic things are not available in western countries, only India can give, especially spices. That is why everybody wanted to come and conquer India, so that they could have free access. India was also known as a treasure house of gold, silver, and many other precious minerals and metals.
So that is why everybody's sight was drawn there. That is why Muslims had come, that's why English, Dutch, Portuguese, French people — everybody had come. Finally, only the Muslims and the English people dominated and looted. And that we should not blame them, because we welcomed them and we helped them to loot everything, because of our non-cooperation. Even now it is going on.
So the third class — what is called rajo-dominated, greatly helped by rajas and tamas in equal proportions — they are called vaiśyas. But there are different types of activities: harvesting, cultivating, cleaning, storing, bringing things. Workers are needed — they are called śūdras.
And it is not that a particular caste of people have been created. No. According to their guṇa, where tamoguṇa is more — the person needs to be told, "You have to do this," etc. They cannot think for themselves; somebody has to continuously direct them: "Do this, don't do this, do this after that." Such people are called śūdras.
And in every society, in every age, we get these people. Not that it is only from the beginning so. For that purpose, from Brahman, having created this universe with all the pañcabhūtas, he then created deva-varṇas — deva-brāhmaṇa, deva-kṣatriya, deva-vaiśya, deva-śūdra.
Intelligence in Nature: An Illustrative Digression
And this Brihadāraṇyaka Upaniṣad, from the eleventh mantra onwards — from the eleventh section onwards — is trying to elaborate one after the other that with the help of everyone doing their duties properly, everybody will be progressing. So śūdras will develop higher consciousness, then they become more rajo-dominated, and then later on they will be dominated by sattvaguṇa. That is how this is a slow evolution from a low state of consciousness to a higher state of consciousness — that is what this section wants to tell.
Just as Brahman created the deva-varṇas — the four castes of the devas, the gods and goddesses — we have to understand that exactly in a similar manner, all human beings were also created. So deva-brāhmaṇas degenerated into manuṣya-brāhmaṇas, deva-kṣatriyas into manuṣya-kṣatriyas, deva-vaiśyas into manuṣya-vaiśyas, and deva-śūdras into manuṣya-śūdras.
Now, though it is not necessary — this is a point we can add here — does this division apply only to human beings or to non-human beings also? Yes. Take one simple example: the story of the honey bee. There is a queen, there are warriors to protect the hive, there are workers who will be going and gathering — it is such a marvellous story. How much intelligence is needed!
Just to give one small example: there are some ant colonies that were being flooded, and they had to find a safer nest. What do these ants do? They have to cross sometimes huge expanses of water. And individually, if they do it, it is not going to help. So they join hands and legs and form a huge, like a boat or a huge mat. The entire rest of the colony gathers onto that mat, as it were, and they float. And these front ants slowly guide it to a place where the danger of water is not there.
That's why if anybody scientifically examines either a beehive or an anthill, you will see how much intelligence is there. When you look at some birds — there are some birds who create such beautiful nests, and they are fully aware, fully conscious that snakes are there to hunt them. So there are particular species of birds I have seen in a video: they create a nest with various doors, and the real room where they store the eggs will be practically like Lucknow's maze, the Bhūlbhulāiyā. The snake will poke into several nests and not find anything. Finally, disappointed, most snakes leave.
Why am I citing this example? To show how much intelligence is really working there, albeit unconsciously. Many squirrels gather nuts when winter is coming — they have to survive in their burrows, to tide them over during that cold season when they cannot come out. What do the bears do? They hibernate. How much intelligence!
This is only to place before you how much intelligence these creatures have. So Brahman manifested himself as the world, then created various animals, then created human beings. Then a world order has to be established. For that, adhiṣṭhātṛ devatās were created. And that is from where the karma-siddhānta has come — these gods are watching us. According to our karma, if we worship them, they reward us; if we neglect and misbehave, they keep count and will try to correct us. It is not a punishment — it is a correction.
The Varṇas as a Framework for Evolution
So this is how deva-varṇas and brahman-varṇas are created. And then, what is the purpose of all this? Right from the lowest caste, we have to strive — through the devout performance of our respective duties — to evolve. That is how a śūdra becomes a vaiśya, meaning the terrible tamoguṇa now becomes mixed up with more of rajoguṇa, and then he enters into more sāttvikaguṇa and becomes a kṣatriya. This is a state of progress.
We have to understand: it is not a privilege to oppress and suppress and selfishly hoard everything for one's own self. And whenever we neglect this, the karmaphala will come with a big blow. Study history — this is what happens. And this history has been repeated in our Purāṇas in the form of the continuous warfare between the suras and asuras, gods and demons.
What is this fight? The fight is: whenever somebody neglects and doesn't live a proper life appropriate to their station in life, then karmaphala will come in the form of suffering. Here, a demon is nothing but a creator of — or an excuse for creating — suffering. Suffering awakens these people. Then they think deeply: "We have neglected the commandments of God." That's why in the Bible it is called the Ten Commandments, and we have got dharmaśāstras — nothing but vidhi and niṣedha, the do's and don'ts.
Then we slowly acquire faith, and we experiment and get some results. Our faith deepens. That is how we progress.
The whole thing is meant — involution is meant — so that we can evolve. If I have to summarise the entire creation: first, it is nothing but involution, coming down to the inorganic. Thereafter, evolution starts with the sprouting of prāṇa in the one-celled body — call it amoeba, by whatever name — and slowly multiplying and evolving physically, brain-wise, then mentally, then spiritually, finally reaching the destination, that is, reaching home from where we have come. This is the idea.
A Note on Methodology: How to Read a Text
Now I will give you a gist and summary of these mantras from the eleventh to the seventeenth. Six or seven mantras are there for us to deal with. Once we understand the gist of this — which I have already given as the summary of the summaries — I am going into a little more detail. And then we will go through the proper mantras; it will be a breeze to understand them.
This is how we have to read any book. This is the technique by which one can grasp the most in the least amount of time, and grasp more intelligently and retain it for a longer time. First of all, you read the foreword. The author, if he is a good author, crystal clearly outlines: "This is the subject about which I am going to talk, and on this subject, especially I am going to emphasise these particular points of view." And then he elaborates them, giving examples, etc.
So it may be a 300-page book or a 400-page book. At the end of every chapter — every paragraph has a connection with the next paragraph, if it is intelligent writing. Every chapter has a connection to the next chapter. And at the end of every chapter: "These are the special points we have discussed so far in this chapter," and then: "This is the connection between the previous chapter and the next chapter." This is what Śaṅkarācārya calls sambandhabhāṣya — the relationship between the previous mantra and the next mantra, previous chapter and next chapter, previous section and next section. If we can follow this methodology, it will be marvellous.
Before Creation: Brahman Alone
So what happened before creation? Who was there? Brahman alone existed — ekaṃ sat, advitīyam, sadeva saumya idam agra āsīt. In the Chāndogya Upaniṣad, we have seen, in the sixth chapter, that only Brahman alone existed. That is what the Brihadāraṇyaka also repeats.
So then Brahman wanted to create. Now, so many people question: why did Brahman have to create? Could he not have kept quiet? Then we need not have all these classes, this saṃsāra, this — "create a problem, then show a solution." No. This is called līlā. And you cannot complain, because: who is the creator? Brahman. Who is the creation? Brahman. Who has degenerated or involved? Brahman. Who is evolving? Brahman. That is the fun of it — he does it for fun, and he knows it with full consciousness.
So this is what we have to understand. Before creation, Brahman alone existed. And to ensure the proper functioning of this created universe, Brahman created the powerful castes — so kṣatriyas, and earlier he said agni — agni means brāhmaṇa — so Indra, Varuṇa, etc. While the kṣatriya power, the warrior class, represents power, its source is none other than Brahman.
And that is why in the rājasūya sacrifice, the king has to sit below a brāhmaṇa who is performing the agni. So a kṣatriya has to honour his own source.
To understand it in common sense language: why is the person doing this agni or yāga, etc.? Because he learns from the brāhmaṇa that the goal of life is to manifest your potential divinity. And you are a kṣatriya, and the duty of the kṣatriya is to protect, and also to evolve one's own self. So if you can do some agni or yāgas, that is not the only duty. Your main duty is to see that society functions as it is supposed to function. But since you are also a human being with individual desires to fulfil, you can do some agni, yāgas, etc.
And only powerful, wealthy kṣatriyas can do some of these. And that is — at the very beginning of the Brihadāraṇyaka Upaniṣad — we said that what is called aśvamedha, as virāṭ, a king can do, with all the elaborations and all four varṇas necessary. But if somebody doesn't have that capacity, you just sit and do mental upāsanā — it will give you exactly the same result as if you are the king and you are doing it meticulously from the beginning to the end. That is why that virāṭ upāsanā and its continuation was there. First it is the aśva, then it is the agni, then it is the prāṇa — we have seen that one already.
You will always have to keep the essential points in mind, otherwise my talk will be what is called dissected, non-related topics.
Mantra 11: The Creation of Brāhmaṇas and Kṣatriyas
So the essence of the eleventh mantra is: Brahman created what is called brāhmaṇas and kṣatriyas.
Mantra 12: The Creation of Vaiśyas
Then the twelfth mantra: power alone, strength alone, was not enough. Because for the sake of wealth and social nourishment, many things are necessary — suppliers of many things. And therefore deva-vaiśyas were created. That is described in mantra 12. So like vasus, rudras — these vaiśyas were created.
Mantra 13: The Creation of Śūdras
But creation of brāhmaṇas, creation of kṣatriyas, creation of vaiśyas alone will not do. There is so much physical, menial labour one has to do. When a person has vast lands for cultivation, the cultivators — only śūdras can do it. And then harvesting, and then storing, and then protecting them — so many things one has to do. For that purpose, the śūdras have to be created.
Mantra 13: for service and support, the śūdra-varṇa. Here also, deva-śūdra — you have to remember — pūṣan, that is pṛthvī, was created. Here the earth is called pūṣā, because it is she who is cultivable, who yields, sustains, supports, and nourishes all of us.
Mantra 14: The Creation of Dharma
Then the fourteenth mantra tells us something extraordinary. Here are the kṣatriyas, here are the brāhmaṇas, here are the vaiśyas, here are the śūdras. And there are also infinite variations possible. Suppose some kṣatriya has got tremendous power, or some brāhmaṇa has tremendous knowledge. Then he can become very arrogant — that possibility is there, because avidyā is ruling. Similarly, a powerful king, like a powerful politician, can do whatever he likes. If somebody praises him, he will bestow the highest power and all his goodies and goodwill. And if he doesn't like somebody, however worthy that somebody may be, he will demote and destroy them. This is the way — just look at the newspaper, that is what you will see everywhere going on.
So to protect against this, Brahman created something marvellous — it is called dharma. So a brāhmaṇa has brāhmaṇa-dharma, a kṣatriya has kṣatriya-dharma, a vaiśya has vaiśya-dharma, a śūdra has śūdra-dharma. What does it mean? It means these people, according to their own caste — and they were created and classified as belonging to that caste because a particular quality is dominating in them, assisted of course by the other two qualities.
Just as in a brāhmaṇa, sattva is the dominant quality, rajas is the helpful quality, and tamas is another one. Here rajas is more powerful and more helpful — that's why he retains. So it is not according to birth; caste is according to quality.
So that is what we need to do. And now a very interesting analogy can be given. There are so many AI companies — like OpenAI, Microsoft, Google of course, Meta, and so many others coming. And China is producing marvellous AI, which India cannot even look up to. Not because we lack intelligence, but we lack that puruṣakāra, that energy. Full of jealousy, intolerance — we cannot tolerate our own. Our greatest adharma is to pull down the other person as much as possible. "I may not get anything, but I will not tolerate another person getting even a little better than what I have." This is the main cause. If this cause is not addressed, however much money the government may spend, we are not going to improve at all — whatever party comes into power. What type of persons are there using that power — that is most important.
So Brahman has created dharma. And very interestingly, dharma and satya are equated. Satya is understanding what the proper action is to be done and the proper way to do it. And dharma is putting it into absolute practice. That is why you cannot separate satya and dharma. We will come to that.
So in this fourteenth mantra, Brahman, after creating the four divine castes, now created dharma, so that dharma keeps them under control. If anybody transgresses the dharma, then dharma itself becomes Yama — Yama Dharmarāja. That is why Yama is called Yama Dharmarāja. Yama Dharmarāja will give appropriate karma for all.
This is dharma — dharma is the power behind power. The controlling power of any power is called dharma. Where dharma exists, even a weak person can overcome a strong one. That is why we say dharma and satya are one. In the ultimate instance, it is only dharma and satya which become victorious — temporarily maybe something may not be there. That is the essence of the fourteenth mantra.
Mantra 15: The Purpose of All Action — Ātmajñāna
The fifteenth mantra: this social order exists among both gods and men. So if a person performs many holy works without realising his own self, those works are only temporary. Only when a person knows who he is — obtains, through the obtainment of self-knowledge, ātmajñāna — then these works become complete and help him achieve the goal of life, which is to know ahaṃ brahmāsmi.
So mantra 15 is reminding us: the whole purpose of creation is to catch hold of dharma and satya. That is why in the eleventh anuvāka of the Taittirīya Upaniṣad — the rest is elaboration.
The social order exists among both gods and men, as I said earlier. For example: Agni is the deva-brāhmaṇa, Indra is the deva-kṣatriya, the vasus etc. are the deva-vaiśyas, and pṛthvī is called the deva-śūdra, etc.
In this fifteenth mantra, it says we have to evolve slowly. What is evolution? Absolutely behaving as we are supposed to behave. And this we get from dharmaśāstras: if you are a śūdra, this is your dharma; you should not do your adharma. And if you follow — so if a person discharges his duty as a worship of God, that is the essence of Karma Yoga. Then slowly he progresses. And ultimately, by the grace of God, he will become a vaiśya, he will become a kṣatriya — that is called improvement, progress in the state of consciousness. Ultimately a person will become a brāhmaṇa, that is, a seeker of Brahman. And then he will practise, and then he becomes a realised soul. That is the most wonderful thing.
What is the fifteenth mantra saying? Let me first quote how Śrī Rāmakṛṣṇa beautifully puts it: any number of zeros without a one in the front are completely zeros — valueless. But put one, and as you go on adding zero after zero, the value increases: 10, 100, 1,000, 10,000, 100,000, 1,000,000, etc. This is what the mantra is telling — that if every activity is not directed towards reaching our own true nature, or Brahman, or ātmajñāna, all these works will only give temporary effects.
The mantra is not telling that they will not give effect — they will. But again and again and again, we fall from that high state, and again we have to do it, until we learn the lesson. That all these works will give permanent result only when we offer them as worship of God.
Mantra 16: The Jīvanmukta — The Liberated Soul
Then mantra 16 beautifully puts it. Suppose a person, through the evolution from śūdra to brāhmaṇa, from tamoguṇa to sattvaguṇa — then the śūdra with sattvaguṇa will slowly realise, like that person who was saved from tamoguṇa, then saved from rajoguṇa. Sattvaguṇa alone saves — it brings him to his home, his village. "You go there."
When the man invited, "You have saved my life, I am eternally grateful, please come to my house — we will be blessed to honour you," he said, "No, I am also a robber." That means: all guṇas belong to sṛṣṭi. We have to go beyond sṛṣṭi — to what was before sṛṣṭi, which is Brahman.
So that is how a knower of the ātman becomes a world for all beings. Because a knower of Brahman or ātman is Brahman. And such a person — anybody who worships, anybody who wants any desire to be fulfilled — should worship an ātmajñānī, because an ātmajñānī is non-separate from the ātman or Brahman. So here is a living example called a jīvanmukta.
Through his sacrifice, study, and service to guests and animals, he supports entire creation. These are called pañcamahāyajñas — devatās, ṛṣis, pitṛs, and then all human beings, and all non-human beings, and even the smallest creatures. When he loves all, the entire creation loves him back.
Just imagine — Rāmakṛṣṇa once saved a big magar mach (crocodile). We don't know how the crocodile really feels after that. According to its own capacity, it must have had a sigh of relief, become happy, and must have expressed gratitude to the saver, which is Rāmakṛṣṇa. Whatever is minimum necessary, they will do — but beyond that, they will never try to harm.
Even what minimum they do, also with a prayer. I heard that some South Africans, when they hunt — because they don't get anything else, for some particular animals like deer — they run them down. Finally they pray: "O devatā, spirit — you are dying, sacrificing your life for the sake of sustaining us. We pray to God that in your next birth, you will have a better life because of your sacrifice." And after this prayer to their ancestors, to their own gods in whom they believe, they sprinkle a little bit of dust. This is what we do — śrāddha, etc. — in gratefulness to all our ancestors. All pañcamahāyajña is nothing but uttering this gratefulness and sprinkling the dust.
So mantra 16 says that everybody loves a jīvanmukta, because a jīvanmukta becomes the ātman of all these beings.
Mantra 17: The Gṛhasthāśrama — Legitimate Fulfilment of Desires
And the final mantra — mantra 17 — in this fourth section: when the ātman existed alone, it desired a wife, children, wealth, and work, to feel complete. So what does this seventeenth mantra really mean?
It means: when a person comes of age, comes to consciousness, becomes awakened, he looks around and understands what to do. He understands: "This is my duty in life if I want to progress further." So therefore, he wants to fulfil all his desires legitimately, according to the direction of the scripture. Such a person — what is called a brahmacārī — desires a wife, children, wealth, and work.
And then the purpose is not to enjoy the world, but the purpose is slowly to evolve — by developing faith in the scripture, and by satisfying some of the desires.
So this mantra teaches us a very important lesson: an unfit person cannot simply renounce the world. He will be like a jobless person renouncing the world, going to Vārāṇasī, and then after some time securing a job. "Do not worry, I am keeping well. I am sending ten rupees — I got a job now. The next time when I come, I will bring some clothes and some other materials for you. So you do not feel bad about me, don't feel anxious about me." This is called jobless vairāgya — śmaśāna-vairāgya, prasūti-vairāgya, markaṭa-vairāgya, jobless vairāgya.
So the mantra 17 tells us that all this entering into gṛhasthāśrama from brahmacaryāśrama to gṛhasthāśrama is an evolution. So that what we have learnt must be put into practice — that helps us to evolve further. Ultimately it brings us to vānaprasthāśrama, which leads us to sannyāsāśrama. That is the essence of this mantra 17.
Conclusion: The Mutual Relationship of Mantras 11–17
So that is the essence of the eleventh to seventeenth mantras. There is a mutual relationship between these mantras, which we will talk about in our tomorrow's class.
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!