Brihadaranyaka Upanishad Ch.2 4.1-5 Lecture 60 on 16 August 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 Teaching of Yājñavalkya

Yesterday we have seen how Yājñavalkya had started teaching to Maitreyī, and this teaching started from the fifth mantra. What is the essence of the fifth mantra? In this world, everyone loves only Ātman. Ātman is not the individual but the universal. Even from another point of view: if God is everywhere, is there any existence of anything else besides God? It cannot be that God is everywhere and somewhere somebody else is there – some other object is there. That is not possible. Even from that point of view, everybody is loving only the Ātman.

Why Do We Love the Ātman Alone?

Why do we love Ātman alone? Because it is of the nature of Paramānanda Svarūpa – of the nature of infinite, eternal, unbroken bliss. And as I explained, this is a point you have to keep in mind: I have to exist in order to experience good, bad, happiness, unhappiness. So Sat – without Sat, Ānanda cannot be experienced. Then I have to be conscious – not only should I exist, I should be fully conscious. If I am one percent conscious, then my experience will be only one percent. If a student has only one percent concentration, his knowledge will be only one percent. That is the correlation we have to presume in every respect.

The Analogy of Eating

If our stomach is small, so it can only accommodate as much as it could. If somebody else's stomach is huge like Bhīmasena, so it could accommodate more. Not only that, if I could digest one percent of what I eat, what I consume, then my ānanda will be only to that extent. If Bhīmasena could consume one hundred percent and be immediately hungry, then his ānanda will be great to that extent. But if God is eating – and God is called Vaiśvānara – He can digest the whole universe; He can burn the whole universe. What does it mean? What happens when we eat? That object which we eat does not exist anymore, but it is not destroyed – it loses its individuality and becomes one with me, so I expand to that extent. Perhaps that is why people's stomachs go on expanding – the more they eat, the more fat they eat, then their stomach also becomes expanded. And he cannot complain that "the chicken is fat" or "the oil is fat" – no, it has become one with the person. So he says "I am fat." If he does not say it, others will – everybody will point it out.

The Essence of the Teaching

So this is the essence: there is nothing but Ātman. Ātman is of the nature of Sat-Cit-Ānanda. All of us – what are we seeking? Ānanda. How do we know? Because the moment we do not get Ānanda, even we do not wish to be existent – we wish to be unconscious. When the pain becomes unbearable, the doctor injects anaesthesia – that is, we are separated as if for the time being from the experience of pain.

Running After God Unconsciously

So everybody – all of us – we are running only after God, albeit unconsciously. So what is the lesson we have to learn? Yājñavalkya wants to teach us through Maitreyī that everyone can love God, and all of us have to love God. That is what Śrī Rāmakṛṣṇa says: "God realisation is the only goal of life." Swami Vivekananda says: "Each soul is potentially divine." It means actually not only that you are divine – you cannot escape from divinity, and you cannot postpone it. Whatever we do in this world is for the realisation of Ānanda, because unconsciously we do not want to die, we do not want to be unhappy, and we want to know that we are happy and not suffering much. That is the lesson we have to learn.

The Opposite – Egōism

Now the opposite. What is it? Whoever, because of this ahaṃkāra (egotism) – what is egotism? That which separates many things from oneself – in fact, everything. A selfish person cannot even love his own family members; he can only love himself, like Virocana. But what happens when a man loves the body? The body rejects him. What happens when the person loves the mind? The mind rejects him. That is why if you study psychology, you will very soon find out that the more you are concentrated, you have become one with your mind, and to that extent you experience tremendous joy; your knowledge expands and you forget your individual body because now you are expanding your mind.

The Negative Description

The negative description: if anybody, out of ignorance, or even after knowing scriptural teachings, can become very ignorant – because after coming to know what the scripture teaches and still the person does not strive for the Ātman – such a person is no different from a thoroughly ignorant person. It is the changes that are brought about both in the body and in the mind, and especially in our behaviour, our relationships, our perception of the world, that prove whether we are including everything within ourselves or trying to separate ourselves from everything else. That is very important for us to understand.

The New Relationship

So Yājñavalkya now teaches to Maitreyī. We should never forget – now Yājñavalkya is not the husband; he was the husband. Maitreyī is not the wife; she was the wife. Now she became an apt, receptive, highly fit adhikāriṇī – Sādhanā-Catuṣṭaya-Sampanna Adhikāriṇī. So that is the relationship. The śāstra is only being taught to such an apt disciple. But through the medium of this teacher – a teacher is only an instrument – so what is he teaching?

Multiplicity and Separateness

Whoever perceives multiplicity – what is multiplicity? "This is me; everything else is separate." Then if anybody thinks "I am separate, but the whole world – everything in the world, every object, every human being, every living creature – is separate from me" – and they also instantaneously feel the same. In this connection, I remember a beautiful anecdote.

The Story of Rabī'ā

There was the greatest woman saint, one of the greatest woman saints – Rabī'ā of Sufism. One day she was walking in the forest, and the birds were competing with each other, quarrelling with each other – who will get a place to sit on her shoulders? And there was one of her followers, admirers, who had given up eating meat. Seeing Rabī'ā – like Saint Francis, who used to address the birds as sisters, the sun, the moon as brothers – "brother sun, brother moon", etc., and animals – "brother wolf" – like that, Rabī'ā had that very attitude. She never speaks about it, but she is the very embodiment of love. She knows: "This bird is me; I am the bird." She knows: "Every animal is me; I am the animal. Every tree is me; I am the tree."

The Follower's Experience

So her follower was trying to invite the birds: "I am a very harmless person. I have given up eating meat twenty years back. Please come and sit – I would love that." But alas, the birds, the moment he approached near, started flying away from him. Then he became a little bit – I think – hurt. So he asked Rabī'ā: "How come birds are competing with each other to sit on your shoulders? But I was not doing any harm to any birds. How come that these birds are avoiding me?" Rabī'ā turned. She could read the past, present, and future of anybody. She said: "That is because, though you have given up eating meat, the taste of the meat lingers within you."

The Taste Lingers

Any bells are ringing in your mind? Śrī Rāmakṛṣṇa gives the example: a few monks were meditating, and a woman happened to pass by. They were all with closed eyes, shut eyes, trying to meditate, but one monk opened and with a side glance started observing the woman. Śrī Rāmakṛṣṇa explains: "That is because he had given up wife, children, maybe children, etc. – but at some time back, some years back, he had experienced all those things. So the taste – viṣayā vinivartante, when a person does not experience objects for a long time, memory also seems to have been lost – but rasavarjam – the taste, the saṃskāra, how pleasurable it was, never departed from that person's deep unconscious. The moment an object appears, this memory springs back – because if the memory had not sprung from this monk, he would not have opened his eyes and sought the source of the anklets, the sound of the anklets."

The Lesson in Psychology

How much psychology is involved! That is why I tell: when you are talking to somebody, and if your glances are resting upon one person more than other persons, then you will have to stop and analyse. Since I am speaking with so many, why is my sight again and again drawn to this particular person? There must be an element of attraction – and that attraction could be any type of attraction – could be possession, it could be a sexual desire, anything like that.

The Simple Truth

So Yājñavalkya wants to teach the simple truth. What is spiritual life? Including everybody, everything into oneself. We have seen in the Taittirīya: a spiritual seeker, first of all, includes every person's, every living creature's body – and that is called looking upon everybody as Brahma, Brahman. That is why annam brahmeti vyajānāt. And when he reaches the pinnacle of that progress, then he understands that there is something higher – there is his limitation which he thought is the highest unlimitedness, but he perceives that is limited. In Vedāntic terms, this limitedness is called kārya (effect). Unlimitedness, in relation with that effect, is called kāraṇa (cause). When a person succeeds in becoming one with a lower cause, immediately he finds that cause had transformed itself into an effect, and he goes on seeking what is the cause. That is how he transcends all the pañcakośas – etam annamayam ātmānam upasaṅkramati.

The Essence of the Taittirīya

So we have been studying that – rather we have completed that. We are only summarising the essence of the Taittirīya Upaniṣad. So now this is what Yājñavalkya wants to teach.

One's Progress Does Not Enlighten Others

One important point we have to remember here: I may consider somebody as Brahman, that means as Ātman, that means as myself – but others may not consider. That does not matter. Only a spiritual seeker can think that everything is Ātman. Everybody is not going to be enlightened by one person's spiritual progress. That is why if Śrī Rāmakṛṣṇa had achieved God realisation, that is a shining brilliant example for me – but it does not mean I have realised. I have his realisation – no, I have to strive myself. But by his grace, through prayer, through surrender, he is capable of bestowing – because he is no more Śrī Rāmakṛṣṇa; he is Brahman. Swami Vivekananda – if he says "I will give you liberation", he is not talking as Swami Vivekananda; he is talking as Brahman. And Holy Mother says: "Anybody whose responsibility I have taken upon myself – that means I initiated them, accepted them as my children – they will not have to be reborn." So that is what we have to understand.

Technical Aspect – Spiritual Life

Technically speaking, what is spiritual life? Look upon everybody as your own self. What happens? First of all, we become sympathetic with everybody's happiness – we become happy. If somebody is suffering, we also suffer in a separate manner – we sympathise with them, we pray for them wholeheartedly with greatest love. But slowly, slowly, the world will be as it is – nothing will change. The person will change – the seeker will change.

The First Teaching – Brahma Tam Parādāt

With this background, Yājñavalkya's words – we will see first only the first teaching, we will analyse, and we will apply it to all the other following lines. Brahma tam parādāt yaḥ anyatra ātmanaḥ brahma veda.

Meaning

What does it mean? Yaḥ – here yaḥ means not any ordinary person, only a spiritual person – any spiritual person, if he wants to be spiritual, if he wants to progress in spiritual life – ātmanaḥ anyatra brahma veda – "that is, God is separate from me" – here ātmanā means "from oneself" – "so my father is separate from me, my mother is separate from me" – so you can apply it to the whole world. Then what happens? Brahma tam parādāt. Parādāt means "Brahman, that is in the form of mother, father, etc., also keeps separate."

The Practical Effect

This is very practical. If you criticise somebody, that person will forever remain as your enemy or disliker and try to see you in a very negative light. But something strange happens: if somebody truly loves, sooner or later the other person also is forced to accept and he stops criticising. So Brahma tam parādāt – "if I look upon anybody else as not myself, as other than myself – that means not Brahman, not Ātman, not God, not sacred, not holy – then that person will also look upon me or repay me exactly in the same coin."

The Worldly Person

But what about worldly people? So it is not that they are Brahmajñānīs. What is a worldly person? He who thinks "I am completely separate from every object." That is what I call the world – not one single object is me. And if anybody thinks such, a person is called anātmabhakta – is a devotee of the world. And by this psychological law of Yājñavalkya just now explained, everybody feels: "You are not me; I am not you." And if the moment comes "I am not you", I will not love you. If I love you, it is not for your sake, because I am getting some benefit from you – and that benefit is nothing else but only Ānanda, whether it is money, possessions, power, name and fame – anything is meant only to give me happiness.

Obstacles to Happiness

But if a person misunderstands this statement – if a person does not derive happiness from wealth, from power, from position, from name and fame – those very things become the greatest obstacles to that person's happiness. That is why if you remember, when Swami Vivekananda, after his very first talk at the Chicago Parliament of Religions, when everyone was adoring him, he became the star of the show as it were – how much heartache he must have created in so many of those other teachers that had come, God alone knows, we do not know. But what is important here for us to understand is that we have to slowly expand ourselves. I cannot be my body, mind, and be Ātman at the same time.

The Taittirīya Teaching

So that is what is taught in the Taittirīya Upaniṣad, eleventh section. First try to become one with your mother – Mātṛdevo bhava – then father, then teacher, then slowly expand it to the other persons. That is how one grows.

Brahman in Name and Form

So Brahma tam parādāt – "God Himself, who is manifesting with name and form as the other object whom I think is not Brahman, not Ātman, not myself" – synonymous words – "then that God also thinks 'I am separate'." When we think that we are separate from Ātman, so our Sat becomes Asat – our Cit becomes Acit, that means ignorance – and our Ānanda becomes duḥkha – extremely limited.

The Other Examples

Now we can apply:

• Kṣatram – here Brahma means what? Brāhmaṇa-jāti – we are not talking about the Supreme Brahman; we are talking about a Brāhmaṇa. So if anybody thinks "a Brāhmaṇa – jāti Brāhmaṇa – is separate from me", and that Brāhmaṇa also rejects this person as separate from himself.
• Kṣatram tam parādāt yaḥ anyatra ātmanaḥ kṣatram veda – we have to extend exactly the same meaning. Instead of Brāhmaṇa, we have to say a Kṣatriya, and we have to extend the meaning, etc. – what is that etc.? Vaiśya, Śūdra.

The Third – Lokas

And the next teaching: lokān tam parāduḥ yaḥ anyatra ātmanaḥ lokān veda – six times. This teaching is repeated with six different examples: Brāhmaṇa, Kṣatriya, Lokāḥ, Devāḥ, Bhūtāni, then like the previous mantra – Sarvam.

So we have to extend.

The Meaning of Lokāḥ

Then the third one – Lokāḥ – that is everything that exists in any loka in this whole creation – including heavens, hells, higher worlds, lower worlds – not only human beings, animals, trees, insects, birds, microbes, then the non‑living also. That is why for every Hindu, the Himālaya is not a lifeless mountain. Himavān uttarasyām diśi devatāyā – "There is a great devatā in the direction of the northern direction – Himālaya – Himālaya nāma nagādhirājaḥ – he is the emperor, the greatest mountain. His name is Himālaya. Himālaya's daughter is Haimavatī, because he is Parvata; Parvata's daughter is called Pārvatī." How can a mountain have a daughter or any child unless it is a living being? It is a living being. Pṛthvī is a living being. Water is a living being – not only living being, but it is a living Devatā – without whose grace, without whose support we will not be able to live at all.

The Scope of Loka

So this word Loka covers everything that we can experience, that has been experienced, that is going to be experienced in future, and what is being experienced right now.

The Fourth – Devās

Then the fourth one is Devāḥ. So earlier also we have seen all these are included there. Now Yājñavalkya cut it a bit short because the idea is there. So Devān tam parādhuḥ – if I think that some Indra, Candra, are separate from me, they become separate. They also reject me. And then once they reject, we become their slaves. They use us as slaves, as animals.

The Chandogya Teaching

In the Chāndogya we have seen – the Bṛhadāraṇyaka also we have seen – that every human being who worships a god is like an animal to the gods. Just as when we possess some animals – and maybe many animals – and one of the animals runs away, we feel the loss tremendously, so we go in search of it and try to bring it back as soon as possible. Like that, if any human being wants to escape to become one with God through spiritual practice, it is said they will create many obstacles. Why? Because what happens – this person will realise God, and anybody who realises God becomes one with the whole creation. Such a person becomes one with the gods, since a person is God Himself. Then the question of anybody saying "I will make myself an animal to myself" – such an idea can never arise. So he escapes, and the devatās cannot do any harm to him, because doing any harm to such a person is like doing harm to one's own self.

The Fifth – Bhūtāni

But it is not only devatās – whatever is mentioned here – if I try to do any harm to a Brāhmaṇa, to a Kṣatriya, to anything in this world, to devatās, to any being in this world called Bhūtāni, to everything – anything in this universe – then we will be harmed. It is like, as I said many times, trying to lift your head and spit into the space – ākāśa – and then where does it fall? This is called Karmaphala. This is related to Karmaphala – because if I do some harm to somebody, then that harm will come to me in the form of pain, suffering – it is called pāpa. Conversely, if we do some good to somebody – even one person, not to speak of many persons – then that will be written down in our account book: "This person had done something."

Sympathy and Empathy

And when we do something, how do we do it? Because we feel sympathy. And what is sympathy? "If I were in this state, I also would have experienced the same condition, pain, maybe." So that is called empathising, sympathising – whatever name you call it. It means that feeling "there is no difference between me and this person." So think of devatās as yourself. And how to do that? Upāsana.

The Sixth – Everything

Then the fifth one is Bhūtāni – bhūtāni means everything. So if we reject any bhūta – a single bhūta – "this is separate from me" – that bhūta instantaneously, from my own side, becomes separate from me, and it will also react exactly in the same way as our reaction. So the reaction will be there. And then sarvam tam parādāt – "Everything we reject – we see everything as different from me – and therefore everything rejects me. If I reject everything as not myself, then everything rejects me as not itself."

The Essence

This is the essence. What is the real lesson Yājñavalkya wants to teach? He wants to teach to Maitreyī what is spiritual life: to gradually find, identify oneself slowly – expand myself, identify myself with more and more of the creation. The whole of creation is contained in those pañcakośas. And once I contain everything, I become Ānanda Svarūpa, and nothing but ānanda will come.

The Doubt About Suffering

What happens when I identify myself with everything? In this world, we find everybody experiences happiness, everybody experiences unhappiness. But the moment we identify with everybody, the normal doubt that can crop up, pop up is: if somebody is happy, I am happy – accepted. Somebody is unhappy – I have to be unhappy – not acceptable, not at all rational. Why? Because if at any given time some people are happy and some people are unhappy at the same time, so at the same time to experience both happiness and unhappiness with the same mind is irrational. But we do not understand the truth of this matter. What is the truth? That when I identify myself with everything, so it is only myself who is happy and unhappy. It is myself who is the killer and the killed. It is myself who is the friend and enemy. And at that stage, when I realise I am playing the game – solitaire game – and that is called līlā.

Līlā – The Transformation

The more we identify, the more this whole world becomes līlā. Līlā is the transformation of ignorance into knowledge. Then when I am suffering, I am pretending how much I am suffering – and inside, I am so glad. Am I really such a great actor that the whole world is mistaking that I am suffering so much? And when somebody is happy, I also pretend to be extremely happy – pretension. Remember this word, because līlā is pretension. Drama is pretension. Cinema is pretension. It is not reality. Unreality is a pretension from the knowledge point of view. But so long as we are ignorant, we mistake this līlā as real. And that is what brings in suffering.

The Conclusion of the Mantra

So idaṃ brahma, idaṃ kṣatram, ime lokāḥ, ime devāḥ, imāni bhūtāni, idaṃ sarvam, yathāyam ātmā – Yājñavalkya concludes in this mantra, as part of this mantra. What is it telling? "You, your thinking something is separate from me, is born out of ignorance – because when a person identifies himself with the Ātman, Brahman, then this Brāhmaṇa, the Kṣatriya, these worlds, these devatās, all the beings – living and non‑living – idaṃ sarvam – everything in this creation – yathāyam ātmā – is nothing but manifestation of Ātman."

Why Do We Call It Manifestation?

Why do we call it manifestation? Because so long as we are still in that dvaitic experience, identified with the body and mind, we experience the world as dual. But upon enlightenment, the same duality can be experienced but with the truth.

The Story of Swami Brahmananda

You know how – once at Bālrām Bābū's house, Swami Brahmananda was living, and he was very fond of the children. Many times he used to – that huge person – Brahmanandaji was a very big personality, not only spiritually but physically also. So he used to become one with the children – even a two‑year‑old child – he would crawl and play with them. One day he wanted to have a different type of play. He entered with a tiger's mask and jumped into that room when children were playing, roaring like a tiger. Everyone looked, and then they all ran away through the other door. But one small child got stuck to the place; he could not move out of fear. He was looking – the face was looking like a tiger, but the rest of the body was very familiar. So he started weeping, trying to stop his tears, rubbing his eyes: "I know you are Mahārāj." The moment the child said that, immediately Swami Brahmananda removed the tiger's mask, took the child in his arms, and started dancing.

The Masks of God

So for an enlightened person, everything – these are all masks. That is what Vānaprastha Swami calls it – veśam. God comes in the veśam of a king, of a beggar, of a scholar, of an illiterate person, of Rāvaṇāsura, and of Rāma.

The Purāṇas

Now try to read the Purāṇas – we get all the stories. So Kṛṣṇa is pretending that "I love the Gopīs." But the Gopīs also – they also were enlightened ṛṣis. The Gopīs were pretending: "We are illiterate women." Kṛṣṇa was also pretending: "I am an illiterate, almost illiterate young man here, but extraordinarily intelligent, attractive – nobody can escape." That is why very aptly he was called Kṛṣṇa – karṣayati iti kṛṣṇaḥ – "He who, being helpless, will pull you towards him and never allows you to be separate from you."

The Rāsa Līlā

The whole Rāsa Līlā is nothing but one of the biggest līlās in the world. And if any foolish fellow tries to read it from purely worldly eyes, then not only he will go to hell, he will also take other people also to hell.

The Gopī Gītā

Now, how do we know what I said is correct? Because just before the Rāsa Līlā takes place, there is a beautiful description of hymns called Gopī Gītā. The Gopīs had got a terrible blow to their ahaṃkāra, because their ahaṃkāra had risen: "We, by our prayers, by our sādhanā, obtained Kṛṣṇa." The moment that egotism rose, it stood like a huge wall in front of them, obscuring the vision of Kṛṣṇa whom they were enjoying a short while ago. And immediately, as if somebody had thrown them from Brahmaloka to the lowest Pātāla, they understood – because God's presence always enlightens us. Then they started singing, realising their mistake. That is what is called Gopī Gītā. One of those ślokas is tava kathāmṛtam.

The Gopīs' Realisation

So then they were singing: na khalu gopikā-nandano bhavān akhila-dehinām antar-ātma-dṛk – "O Kṛṣṇa, do not mistake us. We know who You are. You are not merely the illiterate son of an illiterate Gopī called Yaśodā. We understand You as what – akhila-dehinām antar-ātma-dṛk – You are the inner Self hidden in the hearts of every being." Īśvaraḥ sarva-bhūtānāṃ hṛd-deśe 'rjuna tiṣṭhati – "We know that." How did they know? Because it is not that they were born as illiterate girls to illiterate mothers and then by the grace of Kṛṣṇa they became enlightened.

The Rāma-Kṛṣṇa Connection

No – long before Kṛṣṇa had incarnated, according to Śrī Rāmakṛṣṇa, when God incarnated as Śrī Rāma, He went to Daṇḍakāraṇya. There He saw sixty‑four thousand ṛṣis, and all of them were enlightened. When Rāma appeared before them, they got so much joy – indescribable joy. This is called līlā. Samādhi Ānanda is different; Līlā Ānanda is quite different. That is why devotees say: "We do not want to become sugar; we want to enjoy sugar." Previously, they were enjoying sugar. Their wishes were enjoying sugar. Now they started even more enjoyment. And they understood – they prayed: "O Lord, this is much better than what we were experiencing. We want to be with You." Rāma said: "No – I will teach you a billion, trillion times superior happiness than this happiness, but not in this life. I will be reincarnating for all your sake as Kṛṣṇa. And all of you will take birth as Gopīs." And that is what had happened. This is Śrī Rāmakṛṣṇa's version, and I believe in it.

The Five Bhāvas

So they were all born Brahmajñānīs, but they wanted to taste how a true bhakta – especially Mādhurya Bhakti, the sweet relationship – tastes like. Because we have seen:

• Śānta Bhakti gives tremendous happiness.
• Dāsya Bhakti gives million times more.

Just as we have seen the description in the Taittirīya Upaniṣad: this Manuṣya Ānanda is only one measure, and many hundreds of times to that is Manuṣya-Gandharva, Karma, Deva, etc. It is not one hundred times – it is billions of times. So a real servant of a bhakta who assumes like Hanumān – do you think he is serving God? He is serving himself, because he considers: "I do not exist; only You exist." Then who is serving You? You Yourself are serving Yourself, but You assumed the form of me – that is the Dāsya Bhakti. And million times superior to that is called Sakhya Bhakti.

The Progress of Bhakti

So at every stage, the quantum and quality of happiness is increasing. And then he attains what is called Vātsalya Bhakti – there is no bhakti comparable to parental love. That turns to varieties we have seen – so the devotee thinks "I am a child, You are my parents" – and some other devotees would say "I am Your mother and You are my child." That is called parental devotion. But even much higher than that is called Madhura Bhakti. Even in Madhura Bhakti, there are two types:

1. Kanta Bhakti – a legally wedded wife solely devoted to her husband. She derives a happiness which is indescribable, because even body is offered to the Divine Lord there.
2. Parakīyā Bhakti – as if she is the wife of somebody else – that intensity of attraction – whatever that person is doing like a mistress – another man's wife fell in love with another man. She is cooking, she is serving, she is doing everything to her husband – but where is her mind? Only on her beloved. And no other bhakti can be compared – therefore, no other joy could be compared to that. That is called Parakīyā Bhakti.

The Goal of Identification

So this is the matter – Yājñavalkya wanted to teach Maitreyī that the more we identify ourselves with other people, the more will be our joy – indescribable, immeasurable joy.

The Fundamental Question

Now Yājñavalkya wants to teach the fundamental question: "Okay, you are talking – we are already within the creation, but you are also confusing me perhaps. How do I understand 'I am the Ātman? How do I understand not only I am the Ātman, but everything in this world is also Ātma? That was your advice – look upon everything as Ātman."

Two Meanings of Ātman

The word Ātman means "as one's own self." This word "one's own self" can be understood with a lower and with a higher meaning – two meanings:

1. The lower meaning: "Me, the individual person – jīvātman." But that is not what is meant.
2. It is the second meaning – Paramātman: "I am the Paramātman." That is the highest teaching that Yājñavalkya wants to teach, because no need to teach "you are a jīvātman" – you are already exhibiting your knowledge from janma janmāntara – from many past lives. You do not need a Guru for that.

The Real Jīvātman

But who is this real jīvātman? If you understand that you are created by God, then you will understand everything in this creation is also the creation of God. What is the essence of this sentence? That whatever is the nature of the kāraṇa (cause) becomes what is called the same nature – that will come to the effect, albeit with a form and with a name, with a dress. But we are nothing but Brahman.

One Brahman Manifesting

That is what he makes one understand. So the one Brahman is manifesting as the entire creation with infinite, uncountable names and forms. So we have to be aware that everything is of one nature, and everything we perceive is because of the different forms and names. One is sāmānya (general) – sādhāraṇa jñānam. Another is viśeṣa jñānam (particular knowledge). And this is what we will discuss in our next class.

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!