Brihadaranyaka Upanishad Ch.2 4.11-12 Lecture 66 on 06 September 2026 Q&A

Discussion on Consciousness, Duality, and Universal Love

Question: Understanding the Consciousness of Natural Elements vs. Individual Beings

Participant: When I am reading through this, when I am understanding we have the natural elements – the five natural elements that we call. Now, can I understand that their consciousness or their intelligence is so pure that we are not able to identify? Whereas, as an individual like Gopi, the consciousness, the intelligence is so impure that I have to make it pure, like in the mind. Is that how I should consider?

The Root of All Problems: The Sense of Separateness

Response (Maharaj): Yeah, we have to say: all problems come because I think "I am not you."

Participant: Okay.

Response: You follow: "I am not you" means I am not any one of you, anything of this. I am an individual, and that's it, OK? And that creates – I like somebody, I dislike somebody, and I desire something and I don't desire something. All these problems arise because of this duality.

Example: A Mother's Universal Love

Response: Yes, like a mother – if she has got, say, five or six children. Her motherly love will not divide itself. That is called universal love, isn't it?

Participant: Yes.

Response: So she will not distinguish, but the children may distinguish: "This is me. This is my brother – I hate him. This is my sister – I don't want to go to heaven if she is also coming," and all those things. So what am I talking about? It is because of thinking "I am separate from everything else," all these problems arise.

The Process of Transcending Differentiation

Response: So how to get rid of this differentiation? Make the whole thing "me" – one universal consciousness. That is the teaching.

That is called: slowly you give up your Annamaya Kosha differentiation. Then, so far as bodies are concerned, you see only one body and all are coming only from Pranamaya Kosha. Then you see all the pranas – my prana, your prana, any prana. Do you follow?

Participant: Yes.

Response: Then say what you call love comes only for the prana. Then slowly ascend to its cause, which is the mind, then Buddhi, then Ananda. And when everything is one, there is no differentiation. My Ananda also becomes one unbroken bliss – no past, no present, and no future. So in a sense, what is it? I have to somehow transcend this duality, and that process of transcendence is called spiritual struggle.

Question: Practicing Constant Remembrance

Participant: Okay Maharaj, so constantly remembering every moment – initially to practice around this?

The Danger of Thinking of God as a Separate Individual

Response: So that's why I will tell you something very briefly. When a person claims "I am a devotee" and that person starts thinking about God, he starts thinking only that God also as an individual. His sense of individuality has not disappeared. So whether he looks at his neighbor or at God, both are only separate individuals. Yes.

Ahh, that is why he looks up: "God is somewhere in Vaikuntha or Kailasa or in Mecca." That is the problem. What we should do is: if I am thinking of God, I should automatically say, "It is the same God who has created me, who created my neighbor."

Participant: Same God.

The Teaching: Thinking of God Means Thinking of the Whole Creation

Response: Therefore, both of us are nothing but brothers. Should we not look upon each other equally? Yes. That part, somehow we forget. We only try to remember: "God is separate. I think I pray to Him. He will only give me." So sometimes this jealousy works so badly. If God gives me, because of my prayers, 100 crores, and by any mistake or chance if God gives 200 crores to my neighbor, what happens? I start cursing God: "What right have you got to give? My neighbor is not a devotee, he is not praying to you, and yet you are giving so many things to him. At least I'm calling upon you, isn't it?"

Participant: Yes, yes Maharaj.

Conclusion: Thinking of God Means Connecting with the Whole Creation

Response: So what I'm talking about is: thinking of God means thinking of the whole creation. We have to connect. That is the idea. And that is, in normal simple words, in philosophical language, it is called morality.