Brihadaranyaka Upanishad Ch.2 1.15-20 Lecture 50 on 12 July 2026
Full Transcript (Not Corrected)
Opening Invocation
ओं जननीं शारदां देवीं रामकृष्णं जगद्गुरुं, पादपद्मे तयोः श्रित्वा प्रणमामि मुहुर्मुहुः.
Oṃ jananīṃ śāradāṃ devīṃ rāmakṛṣṇaṃ jagadguruṃ, pādapadme tayoḥ śritvā praṇamāmi muhurmuhuḥ.
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.
Introduction: The Nearest Example – Deep Sleep
We have seen how Ajātaśatru wanted to teach about the supreme reality to his apt disciple Gārgya, and the nearest human example to understand the real nature of Brahman – it is not exactly the real nature of Brahman, but the nearest example – is deep sleep. As we have seen, in deep sleep, one special power of ignorance called vikṣepa śakti totally disappears.
So we have seen this story: Ajātaśatru takes Gārgya by hand and then goes to a sleeping man. First he calls him, then he touches him mildly, then he shakes him violently, and then only the man woke up – and that is all the incident. But the lessons to be derived from that incident are these.
The Three States and Their Characteristics
First of all, when the person is addressed by some words, titles – “O Rāma”, “O Kṛṣṇa” – if the person is in the waking state (and that is the characteristic of the waking state), if somebody says “I am awake” but does not hear his name being repeatedly called, then he is not really awake. Every waking person is completely conscious of his sense organs, his body, and the world, and immediately he should respond. But this man did not respond.
Then he shook him mildly, which indicates he was not even in the dream state – not only was he not in the waking state. Why? Because the dream is also very near to the waking state. In both waking and dream, the two distracting and covering powers of Māyā – āvaraṇa śakti (covering of our true nature) and vikṣepa śakti (making us think reality is something else) – are active. We have two obstacle courses to run. In deep sleep, where the person is not aware of the world, therefore he is not in the waking state, and therefore his sense organs do not work. In the dream state, subtle sense organs do work, but mild shaking did not wake him up.
Then Ajātaśatru violently shook him, and by that the deep sleep was broken, and the man woke up. So that third state is the state which is going to be described. It is not to say that the description of the third state (suṣupti) is equivalent to the truth of Brahman; but it is the nearest.
Why Deep Sleep Is the Nearest
How is it nearest? First of all, there is no duality – the person does not feel duality. Secondly, his saṃskāras do not actually work. Thirdly, a person is absorbed nearest to Brahman – he is absorbed in that warm presence of Brahman, which is his own nature. That is to say, it is my nature, your nature, everybody's nature – even the nature of what we call inert matter, a stone, etc.
Many times we unconsciously use the examples of rivers and forests. From the Western point of view, that is accepted – they are all inert. But even if you say it is a forest, it is not inert – every plant is alive, every microbe is alive. But when it comes to rivers, to stars, to stones, then they are considered inert. That is why our spiritual understanding has to be really improved. Why? Because what is outside – what is called creation – our mind, associated with cidābhāsa (reflected consciousness), divides the whole universe into two categories: the living and the non‑living, the organic and the inorganic. But that is not the truth. A stone is not an inert thing; a stone is perceived by us as an inert matter by our mind. It is our division – the mischief of our mind. But truly speaking, everything in this universe is absolutely alive.
Suppose a human being is analysed: first this is the body, then these are the atoms, then these are the particles, then these are the pockets of energy. So human language and understanding must come to an end. Naming something as “the ultimate material out of which the whole creation has come” – that is all what we call the thought processes that take place in our mind. How do we know that what I am stating is the truth? Because in the eyes of a jñānī of Brahman, like Ramana Maharshi, like Śrī Rāmakṛṣṇa, they see everything as alive. Even a speck of dust is most sacred. In order to inculcate that tremendous spiritual truth into our muddy brains, they say: when you see your mother, your father, take the dust off their feet – so as soon as the dust is associated with them, it becomes alive. Of course, no need to say about one's own Guru.
The Living Presence in All Forms
A stone, when it is shaped in the form of a devatā, immediately becomes alive; a yantra – a diagram – immediately becomes alive. So you see, when a devotee of Śiva or Viṣṇu meditates upon a Śivaliṅga or a Śālagrāma, it is not an inert piece of stone, but really Nārāyaṇa or Śiva assuming those very particular formations. So where is the truth? This truth which we are speaking now has been taught by Swami Vivekananda to an ignorant king in Rajasthan. The king was audacious enough to ask Swamiji: “We should not worship idols.” The same problem came also with M, the chronicler of the Gospel of Śrī Rāmakṛṣṇa. Rāmakṛṣṇa asked him, and in reply he said: “I do not believe in image worship.” In fact, he was daring enough to say that people should be told not to worship idols and images. These people – who not only do not understand, but think they understand and go on preaching – are called iconoclasts, breakers of images. Why so many Muslim kings? Even today, Islam does not believe in images.
Śrī Rāmakṛṣṇa removed that wrong notion and said: “Why? It is the Divine Mother. Why do we say it is a lifeless being? Anything that is existing – sat – a stone is, a tree is – whatever of which we can say 'it is'. And only when it is, it is experienceable.” Whenever we look at a tree, what is the first thing we experience? If I ask you, “Look at that, what is that you see?” you say, “I see a tree.” But you are placing the words wrongly. You should say: “I see an existent tree. I see an existent house. I see an existent man.” A tree is, a man is, a stone is, a river is – that is is called sat, and that is the greatest truth.
And is it single, or is it always associated with cit? According to Vedānta, Brahman is called Sat-Cit-Ānanda, and these are not three separate things – wherever there is one, the other two will also be there invariably. But we do not see it. If you do not understand something, it does not mean your understanding is the right understanding. When a person advances spiritually, the same person first perceives Brahman. How does he perceive? In the form of “this is existent, this is existence”. As soon as he understands this is existence, he does not separate it as conscious or blissful – he says it is nothing but Brahman. So a piece of stone is Brahman, a tree is Brahman – both living and non‑living, whatever exists – and ekam sat.
We have analysed this in the Chāndogya Upaniṣad in the sixth chapter beginning itself: sadeva somya idam agra āsīt ekameva advitīyam. Wherever we perceive existence, we have to perceive consciousness – not little but full. But we never perceive full consciousness – either in the waking state, or in the dream state, or even in the deep sleep state. Only a knower of Brahman perceives one hundred percent Sat, one hundred percent Cit, one hundred percent Ānanda – but it is only after obtaining the vision of Brahman, becoming one with Brahman.
Concentration, Meditation, and Samādhi
Every time we concentrate upon something, it is truly speaking, trying to become one with the object of our thought. We become one with that thought. The destruction of duality is called concentration. When concentration deepens, it is called meditation. When meditation deepens, it is called samādhi – so it is a gradual progress. Only a jñānī of Brahman does not see anything except Brahman. Brahman means Sat-Cit-Ānanda.
What is it that we share with the jñānī of Brahman? Whereas a jñānī of Brahman sees Sat-Cit-Ānanda as an indivisible whole – one without a second – we divide it and say: “Sat with cit” and “without cit” – with consciousness and without consciousness. And consciousness in our vision is invariably associated with prāṇa. So that which is living and that which is non‑living – both are existing. A stone exists but without life. But Swami Vivekananda questions this because he is aware of Brahman: “Where do you draw a line and say 'this is living' and 'this is non‑living'?” So everything is Brahman.
But what the real nature of Brahman could be – that is beautifully analysed through this deep‑sleep example.
The Deep Sleep State as Equalising All
As I was mentioning, you can see that Ajātaśatru wanted to find out: when we are in the waking state, our mind is scattered terribly – every second our mind is drifting from one object to another, which means from one thought of the object to another thought of another object – and there tamoguṇa (ignorance) is very thick. Whereas when we enter into the dream state, it is vastly expanded. We feel that we are the masters of time, albeit unconsciously. We can be anywhere with only a thought: “I am here in Vārāṇasī” – that is a thought. “I am on the planet Mars” – that is another thought. How much time does it take for this mind to traverse between “I am here” and “I am on Mars”? Not even a twinkling of a second. A man can be anything he wants.
But that is not all. When two people enter into deep sleep – here the example given is a kumāra (a small baby), a mahārāja (an emperor of a vast empire), and a mahābrāhmaṇa (a great learned Brāhmaṇa) – when they enter, they attain equal status. There is no difference at all. A Brāhmaṇa does not think “I am a Brāhmaṇa; this person is only a king; and this child is only an ignorant child.” No, because there is no duality – ekam sat – there is only one pure, unbroken awareness of existence. Existence also becomes one – anantam – infinite existence, infinite consciousness, infinite bliss.
So as long as a person is in the deep sleep state, there is no difference. “This is a tiger; it has come to eat me up” – no. Even if a person is caught by a tiger and it is slowly licking the person's body, the person is in great bliss because “this is me and this is the tiger” – that differentiation, that separateness, is completely vanished. And along with the vanishment of duality, all the effects of duality become completely erased. This is a marvellous thing that happens.
A poor man sleeps, a rich man sleeps, an old man, a small baby, an animal, a mosquito, a tree – do trees sleep? Definitely they sleep. Wherever there is life, there is action. Life means action; prāṇa means activity. And where there is action, there is exhaustion. Where there is exhaustion, trees also rest. That is why Hindus believe that you should not do anything to any plant at night; whatever you want to do, do it only at daytime.
Developing Spiritual Qualities
This is what Ajātaśatru wanted to convey. I am taking time because this is the most sublime subject. For that, we have to develop certain spiritual qualities. As we go on developing these qualities, a person develops that special spiritual outlook of looking upon dualities – heat and cold, honour and dishonour, gain and loss, victory and defeat, happiness and unhappiness – and converts everything into one unbroken, pure bliss. And that is what all of us do when we enter into the deep sleep state. Even the person who is about to be executed – electrocuted – the moment he enters into deep sleep, he is absolutely free from any type of this thing. Not only that – not only is he free from dualities and unhappiness, he is full of bliss until he wakes up. What a marvellous gift the Divine Creator has bestowed upon us! That is why a baby is so blissful – until we teach it, until its own saṃskāras wake up, then it becomes so lovely.
So these are spiritual qualities. What is a spiritual quality? That capability to perceive everything not as reality, but perceiving everything as divine, accepting everything as divine, which leads this person to unbroken bliss. That is the purpose of developing these qualities. And who does not want it? Everybody wants only unbroken bliss, but due to Mahāmāyā – the power of illusion, ignorance – we are running like a musk deer which runs after its own fragrance coming from its own navel, thinking it is coming from somewhere else. Śrī Rāmakṛṣṇa illustrates through the example of a camel or a dog worrying a bone, etc.
The Zen Story – A Living Example
When a person attains to this state, one living example – both I think are living examples – one is a Zen story. Zen Buddhism is nothing but Dhyāna Buddhism. The word dhyāna (meditation) has become corrupted when it went to Japan through China – then it became Zen. That is why it is called Zen Buddhism. There were great enlightened monks in this tradition, and their stories are marvellous.
So there was a Zen master. He could live anywhere; wherever he lived was only Brahma Loka – we can say that – but even I would say Brahmananda Loka, not even Brahma Loka. So a Zen master was living a pure life; his necessities were very little. In that village, there was an unmarried girl who became pregnant. When her parents questioned her, she confessed it was this Zen monk who was the father of the child. The whole villagers, who had been revering him as a great man, forgot the whole lot, came and beat him, abused him, and told him: “This is your baby; you will have to take care.” So when the girl gave birth to the baby, they brought it and said: “You look after it; we do not want anything to do with this illegitimate child.” Smilingly, with the most peaceful and joyful smile, the Zen master took it upon himself. He started bringing some milk and started looking after the baby as if it were his own baby.
Somehow, after some days, the girl could not stand her own deception. She confessed: “I falsely accused this monk. It is actually the neighbouring youth who is the real father of the baby, but in order to escape, I named this helpless monk.” The villagers understood. Immediately they came down, profusely apologised to him, and then they asked for the baby back. Cheerfully, the Zen master handed it over with the same smile with which he received it. There was not a bit of pain, regret, or accusation – nothing was there. What a marvellous story! Such inspiring stories are why reading the lives of great saints is very much wanted. That was the story I promised to tell you.
Knowledge Proceeds from the Known
Now let us proceed. Through this small story, this Bṛhadāraṇyaka Upaniṣad – or rather Vedānta philosophy, through this dialogue between Ajātaśatru and Gārgya – specifically focuses on the nature of the jīvātman. What is the nature of the jīvātman? Because always knowledge proceeds from the known to the more known. I mentioned this. These are profound truths.
Suppose you go to an island where the people never knew what is called “sweet”, but they are accustomed to a kind of vegetable that grows there which is bitter, like bitter gourd. Even this bitter gourd has different types of bitterness – much less bitterness and most bitterness when it is fully ripe, etc. If you want to convey to that person what “sweet” really is like, you cannot – any amount of description is not going to help. You have to convey the knowledge through what he already knows. That means you expand his already existing pool of knowledge. So you bring some of these bitter fruits at various stages of their development and then ask: “Which one do you prefer to eat?” (because they have to eat). Any person prefers “I prefer this – it is tasty.” Of course, anything that is eaten day after day becomes tasty only. There is a beautiful saying in Bengali: khete khete bhālōi lakṣī – as I go on eating, it is tasting better and better. That is our stupid psychology – whatever food we are accustomed to, that alone we think is the greatest food on earth. A baby does not know all these things until we teach them.
That is why I give an illustration. Suppose there is a Bengali baby who is taken to South India into a pure South Indian family and is accustomed to all the South Indian dishes, and grows up. One day he is brought back to Bengal and given Bengali dishes to taste. His face becomes a little bit – not sour – “What type of food is this?” Because we think whatever I am accustomed to is best, and my mother is the greatest cook. Anyway, this is child psychology – we are what our habits are. That is why saṃskāra is also called habit.
Higher Knowledge through Lower Knowledge
Now coming back – so this person who says “this is the least bit of bitterness” – now you see, people like it. They prefer, if you present different maturing bitter fruits, everybody rushes only to that type of fruit which is much less bitter. And much less bitter is the sweetest according to them. Now you see, you are getting so much joy. “Now there is a sweet which will be a thousandfold more sweet than this” – how do you convince him? Because he understands there must be something which is much better than what we know here. But even then, that knowledge will be only a guess knowledge – intellectual knowledge, but not existential knowledge. So if you can bring a sweet fruit like a sweet mango and present it to him, then he understands: “Oh, this is what you are talking about.”
So what is the important point I wanted to bring to your notice and make you understand and remember – that is very wonderful: higher knowledge is possible only through lower knowledge. That is why Karma Kāṇḍa is the lower knowledge, and with the help of Karma Kāṇḍa, if it is done sincerely and properly, a man attains to the highest happiness. Every higher loka is a higher degree of happiness, and it is experienced by the mind as such. I am just making it a little bit light: if somebody is taken to Brahma Loka and he is worried about his stock market, which he came before going to Brahma Loka, he thought that the stock value is going to crash – so many pundits had foretold – even if that person goes to Brahma Loka and starts worrying about his stock price, then ease in Brahma Loka or ease in the stock market world? We have to understand it is the state of mind. So higher knowledge always associates higher knowledge with higher joy and less grief, and that should give a long food for our thought.
The Three States of the Jīvātman
Coming back, there are three states of every jīvātman: the waking, the dream, and deep sleep. What is wrong with this waking state and dream state? The thickness of ignorance is greatest in the waking state, much less in the dream, and far less in the deep sleep state. Once a person is given – what is the cause of this incomparable bliss? Then we come to know, or the teacher explains, then we come to know. Intelligent persons come to know by their own thinking because they have attained purity or intuition. As a swami used to say jokingly: “Until we develop intuition, we have to be in tuition” – we have to accept a scripture, a guru – somebody who through their experience can teach us better.
So in the waking state, the cidābhāsa (reflected consciousness) first becomes associated with the mind, then it becomes slowly associated with the sense organs, and these sense organs go out and take impressions like dental impressions, and then present them to the mind. The mind analyses them and creates pieces of knowledge which we call citta vṛttis. We know all about the external world only through these citta vṛttis – we actually do not know anything about the external world. It is like watching a football match or a cricket match on a monitor – however big the monitor, first you are aware of the screen, then you forget everything and you are cheering, shouting, dancing, or getting depressed according to the goals achieved by your favourite team or the team you do not support. But for the time being, we forget – even though a little bit we are conscious that I am watching what is happening elsewhere reflected on this monitor.
If you can take and study this example: our mind is that monitor; our sense organs are the channels fed through different wires; and then we, as if, are sitting there. This is what Śaṅkarācārya has written beautifully in his Dakṣiṇāmūrti Stotram at the very beginning itself: viśvaṃ darpaṇa dṛśyamāna nagarī tulyaṃ nijāntargatam – the whole universe that we experience is like a man sitting near a window, and outside the window there is a ninety‑degree reflecting, beautiful mirror, and he is watching the whole external world as reflected in that mirror. This is the greatest truth. We do not know even the person – even if you think somebody is sitting next to me, I do not know anything about that person except what thoughts I produce about that person. Is that all? Now, even when I see my own body, I will not know anything about my body – only the thoughts about my body that my mind has gathered – even though it says “I am the body”, feels “I am the body”, it is only thoughts. That is why mind alone is the cause of both happiness and unhappiness, of bondage and liberation, of good and evil. Everything depends upon the mind.
The Three Guṇas
Mind itself is the greatest Mahāmāyā, consisting of the three guṇas – sattva, rajas, and tamas. The more the sattvaguṇa, or the more the tamoguṇa, our wrong knowledge is more – that is like cleaning the mirror. As we go on cleaning our mind, it becomes better and better, cleaner and cleaner, purer and purer; then we understand the truth much better. This subject is beautifully discussed both in the fourteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth chapters of the Bhagavad Gītā.
The Names of the Jīva in the Three States
So this is what Ajātaśatru really wanted to teach – what is the jīva's nature when the jīva is associated with the waking state, and then he acquires a name. He is called Viśva – or he is called “Waker” – “I am a waker.” Then his knowledge of himself – because the whole world – here I am going to tell you the greatest truth: the world is like a mirror, and what reflection we get from the mirror depends upon what type of guṇa – tamoguṇa, rajoguṇa, sattvaguṇa. So we judge the whole world through the guṇas, and it also reflects us. That is why the world is the greatest aid. It helps us to find out who we are. If we observe fully awake, fully conscious, fully aware, and try to analyse – why did I react to this person in this way? Why did I react to that other event in another way? How can I retain my happiness? Because these continuous reactions make me go up and down. So that reflecting process is a great improvement in spiritual life.
Most people, unfortunately, are like blind people – or they do some japam, they visit some holy places, they worship regularly, they study scriptures regularly, but they are what we call, in Vedānta, the six enemies – kāma, krodha, lobha, moha, mada, mātsarya – lust, anger, greed, envy, arrogance, jealousy. If these do not become lesser and lesser, then there is something seriously wrong with us. On the contrary, a person becomes more selfless, more and more unselfish. He is affected less and less by the events that happen – and which must happen inevitably according to one's karmaphala in this life. So this is how man progresses.
The Call of the Upaniṣads
When a person gets a terrible blow – it is “Awake! Arise! And stop not till the goal is reached” – uttiṣṭhata jāgrata. Then the Upaniṣad continues: prāpya varān nibodhata – “Oh, I am ignorant; I have to learn a lot of things. So let me approach somebody” – just like Gārgya approached Ajātaśatru. First he thought “I know everything”; then he understood “I know nothing”; then he became nothing. Then humility had come – humility means to think “I am nothing”. And then he approached Ajātaśatru – prāpya varān nibodhata. And then Ajātaśatru recognised the sincerity of the student – he is a fit student, made him fit actually – and now he is teaching the final truth.
The Withdrawal from the External World
So when this jīvātman withdraws from the external world, he identifies with his own thoughts – all the impressions gathered from the waking state, not only in this life but janma janmāntara – life after life, millions of lives together. Then he starts analysing himself. He becomes much freer, more happy – no doubt about it. And Swami Vivekananda also sings that Tulsīdās beautiful song: jāgi, tyāgi, moha tā anurāga śrīhare – “Become awake (jāgi), give up this egotism (tyāgi), and develop intense love for Śrīhari” – Śrīhari means Brahman, Saguṇa Brahma. Rāma is both Saguṇa Brahma as well as Nirguṇa Brahma – no doubt about it.
Why the Sleeping Man Did Not Wake Easily
So this is the process Ajātaśatru had adopted. By calling names, he said: “This person is not in the waking state.” By gently touching and shaking, “This person is not in the dream state.” Then the only state he could be is the deep sleep state. In that deep sleep state, it takes time because the person is blissful. Why does the person take such a long time? Because if a person is suffering, it is very easy to wake him up – he is already almost awake, because suffering makes a person remove himself from happiness. Happiness means complete absorption, complete concentration, oneness with Brahman – though it is a temporary phenomenon. All dualities have disappeared; the mind is not there. So he does not want to easily come out of that state. Who wants to be separated from happiness? None of us. Separate a child from its favourite toy when it is playing with that toy; separate a young person from his beloved wife; separate a greedy merchant from his accumulated money – because these are the venues of getting more happiness, mistakenly though. So a person does not want to be removed from happiness. Every person is eager to be removed from suffering, but this person is in greatest bliss.
That is why his body does not work, sense organs do not work, the mind also does not work. That is why calling by name, sounds, touching gently – nothing works. Nobody wants to be separated from Ānanda. It is the same condition when we are in deep sleep – it is not easy to wake us up because we are unwilling to be woken up; nobody wants to be separated from Ānanda. And Ānanda is our own nature, and this is the highest truth. Our nature is Ānanda, Sat-Cit-Ānanda, and we never want to be separated from that Ānanda. The whole life is a quest for regaining this fullness – unbroken happiness, which is called satyam jñānam anantam brahma. That infinite bliss transcends past, present, and future, both dualities and individuality. Nobody wants to be separated from there.
Samādhi and the Unwillingness to Return
That is why Śrī Rāmakṛṣṇa says: when a person enters into samādhi, most people do not want to come back because they never found such great bliss in their lives. The word “bliss” is a very special word; it should not be misplaced by using words like “happiness”, “satisfaction”, “pleasure”, “joy”, etc. This is a unique word – bliss, which is called ānanda. Even the ānandamaya kośa is only limited happiness because it changes. Why is it limited? Because it changes. So ānandamaya kośa is equated with deep sleep because there is nothing but ānanda – there is not even that separate knowledge: “I am the knower and this is something to be known.” Those divisions are completely overcome in that state.
But there is a mysterious karma which brings us down with a thud – like a mongoose whose tail is tied with a brick and suddenly falls to the ground even though it does not want to come down. We all fall down. So we are moving from waking to dream to dreamless, again to waking – and this brahmacakra, this wheel of Brahman, is continuing. Until we wake up and know who we are, this will continue.
Conclusion
So Gārgya, being a fit disciple endowed with that keenness like Naciketā, must have understood it. In our future classes, we will briefly discuss the other Brāhmaṇas. But this is the essence. So if you understand what we discussed yesterday and also today, you will understand the essence of this Ajātaśatru‑Gārgya dialogue.
Closing Prayer
ॐ जननीं शारदां देवीं रामकृष्णं जगद्गुरुम् ।पादपद्मे तयोः श्रित्वा प्रणमामि मुहुर्मुहुः
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!