Chandogya Upanishad Lecture 38 on 29 September 2024

Full Transcript (Not Corrected)

We are studying the Chandogya Upanishad. We have just completed the 7th section and then we have to enter into the 8th section. What was the essence of the 7th section which we just now completed in our last class. The teacher Uddalaka gives the example when curds is churned, water comes up and it floats. So also the 3 elements, the food, the water and the fire. Fire means oily stuff. They transform. The food goes to make up the mind, water becomes prana and oily food becomes speech. What is this description for? One important while doing spiritual sadhana, we have to be extremely careful what we eat, what we drink and what we speak because they alter our entire personality. Either they can take us up nearer to our Self or they can take us away from the Self. But the deeper meaning, second meaning that we can derive is these are all effects and every effect is unreliable. It only forges more bonds. So we should seek what is the real cause of every effect. The cause of food is waters. The cause of waters is fire. Here we are talking about the 3 Devatas, the real causes of this entire creation. In this Upanishad, as we discussed earlier, instead of using the 5 elements model of the Taittiriya Upanishad, we are only getting the 3 element model. But it means one and the same thing. So every lower element which is the grossest merges in the gross, gross merges in the subtle, subtle merges in the subtler, subtler merges in the subtlest and that subtlest merges in the pure existence which is otherwise known as Brahman, God, Sat. These are the various names. And this 6th chapter is aptly named as Sat Vidya, knowledge of the pure existence. So pure existence is appearing to us whatever we see, whatever was in the past, in the present and is going to be in future. Everything is nothing but modifications of this pure existence. Existence with a form, with a name and with some qualities. So that is the essence of this 7th section. And then Uddalaka concludes it. What is he trying to tell through that experiment? Remember, the 7th section is about how he wants to prove that if a person doesn't eat then his elements will not function, body will not function, brain will not function and therefore the mind is functioning fully but its instrument for us to obtain. Just imagine a person's brain is totally damaged, his mind is fine but is there any way for him to say even to know my mind is thinking like that because the root cause is the brain. That's why when a person is unconscious the brain is not functioning because it is part of the entire physical body, gross body but the mind is fine. And as we said earlier, how do we know? Because even if the body is dead nothing happens to the mind and it seeks a new vehicle to express itself which is called a new body which is called birth. So Uddalaka is telling that my dear, that is student, of your 16 parts only one part was left that is when Shweta Ketu did not eat for 15 parts the ability to function that was destroyed but one small part like a smallest sparking ember so it is there but if you add again dry grass etc this spark slowly becomes stronger better blazes forth and it can regain its previous strength that means your prana is hanging just only by one 16th part so go on eating food your body becomes strong mind becomes strong and the test is after 15 days of fasting he could not remember anything of everything that he knew so thoroughly so well but after eating for 15 days he just regained everything nothing has been lost that proves that mind is not affected never mistake if we don't take food mind is affected but mind is not available accessible through another instrument which is called the brain that is the idea so then what is the point point is food is the root cause of brain brain is the root cause of mind and mind is the root cause of reflecting the consciousness so take this food as the cause temporarily provisionally and then seek because it itself is an effect and its cause is water and waters is an effect and so therefore it is also undependable seek its cause which is fire and according to Chandogya Upanishad fire is direct manifestation of Atmanar Brahman this is the essence that seek the effect take like a staircase use it and go forward and then Shweta Getu was intelligent he said eject now eject now i understood i understood thoroughly with this what we call the first part of the teaching which is called superimposition what is superimposition we are already living in the created part but we do not know what is the root cause of this creation so that is we are thinking whatever we see is real a tree i see is real a tiger i see is real even a mosquito i see is real everything is real no this is not the reality then is it unreal no it is not unreal then what is it it is partial part reality that is important for us to know so part reality what is the trouble with part reality if i get one small bit part then the effect will be part so i want full happiness but a part can give me only part happiness if i want full happiness i must get the part so everything in this world is only parts and they are changing and they are dependent they are not non-existent but they are limited our goal is to go beyond the limited how to go climb the staircase called the effect in the first staircase then the second staircase is its cause third staircase is its cause finally after three or according to taittiriya five steps we reach the roof and this is what saram krishna meant that when a person until a person reaches the roof he thinks roof is different and all this staircase the whole house is different but when he reaches the roof that is the brahman in this instance then he understands everything is nothing but brahman so this is called jagat brahma satyam jagat mithya mithya means neither real nor unreal partially real partially unreal because it is any mithya is based purely upon satyam only without satyam without the rope without the substratum there cannot be any superimposition any mistake to be done so seek it then everything is partial truth what is the full truth so jagat mithya that is called adhyaropa but by slowly climbing to its real cause we overcome this superimposition that is by slowly understanding this snake is only a part i explained it while studying the mandukya upanishad so imagine there is a rope and the rope is existing and that in that row if the whole of the row is not being superimposed that the existence of the rope is there how do we know there is a rope and when we mistake it for a snake what do we say there is a snake so there is a rope there is a snake there is a is the first part and the rope is the second part it is only the rope part which has been superimposed by this snake so every mistake every mithya is partial transformation superimposition but it totally depends upon the satyam you remove that rope there is no rope there would be no chance of mistaking it as a snake so there is a that is the state we have to reach so don't even say rope that is what the vedanta teaches if you say there is a rope if you say there is a tree if you say there is a man if you say there is an animal then all that second part will create is creating has created this illusion of this world what is the point now now slowly we have to convert that tree that rope that animal that man into its original cause that is the whole world has to be submerged in the original cause and that is called apavada how to slowly overcome this dichotomy division and that is being said from this 8th to the 16th nine mantras so what is the second part jagat mithya if jagat mithya my body my mind everything is part of this world that is mithya then what is real atma alone is real then what happens instead of saying i am the body and mind i will start saying i am atman i am brahman and that is the satyam the there are plenty of mahavakyas and there is one mahavakya and four mahavakyas are chosen out of these plenty of mahavakyas a mahavakya is one which tells us that you the jiva atma is none other than paramatma there is absolutely no difference then why am i not knowing because your mind is creating problem mind alone is the world mind alone is the delusion mind alone is the ignorance mind alone is the knowledge we have to completely merge the mind in brahman that mergence of the mind in brahman is called brahma akara vritti in that three words are there brahma akara and vritti that akara and vritti have to be eliminated and then that vritti now realizes i was thinking that there is a brahman now i know i am brahman even brahman doesn't say i am brahman this is for explanation only for communication only there is nothing else so every section beginning from the eighth buddhalaka now says that you are that brahman so the root cause of water is uh food is water the cause of water sees fire the cause of water is atma what has it got to do because you think you are the body mind but you are not the water you are not the fire you are not the food but you are brahman that from asi shweta keto nine times repeated and this is also as i mentioned earlier in the introduction what is called shuddling to to come to the right understanding of any scriptural teaching especially the vedanta scriptures our teachers employ these six characteristics the beginning and the repetition and the end and the uniqueness and the result of it all these characteristics definitely point to brahman as the ultimate reality this is repeated nine times and this is called abhyasa abhyasa means repetition of that truth until it sinks into our unconscious becomes part of our life with this background we will go enter into the seventh mantra now how is uddalaka trying to convey this that you are that now until now we're we're talking about three elements we're talking about the cross body subtle body causal body now these three bodies bring us three distinct experiences what are the experiences the waking state the dream state and then the deep sleep state now the waking state as well as the dream state both are causes of bondage bondage always remember is limitation finitude finiteness is called bondage because why is it bondage if we are really finite creatures finiteness is not a bondage but if we are infinite and then we are thinking that we are bound finite that is called bondage very simple example i will give you supposing you have a cot and you are six and four foot tall and the cot is only three and foot length and if you link half 50 percent of your body has to hang on the floor and that is terrible you can't sleep properly similarly if it is like your the bed that they provide in the train so you are a huge fellow with plenty of big grown up stomach fatty fellow and then you will not be able to move here and there and they provide only for a small children i think some small child has designed it so you feel that anything restricted so you want to you're a big fellow you want to eat plenty of food and only you are supplied on what they call thimble full that is a spoon a few spoons how do you feel so anything that is limited if it doesn't fill us then we that is called bondage the infinite of course any addition of finiteness cannot make it up infinite and therefore we feel that longing let me never die let me always be having knowledge let me have unbroken happiness we want infinity we want eternity this is called in sanskrit language immortality so so we want oh lord take me to that which is my birthright so therefore we have three different experiences waking and dream but then something extraordinary happens when we enter into the deep sleep state all the limitations are completely gone how are they gone because they are produced by mind mind is the limiting factor time space and causation which is the nature of nature of the constituents of the mind they are limited and therefore we can never feel we are free but as soon as we enter in this we transcend time space and causation even if a hungry tiger is sitting near our head and caressing lovingly we are blissfully ignorant of it and this is considered swapithi means one who is abiding in one's own self that is very important for us to know so through this example of our day-to-day experiences uddalaka the teacher of brahmavidya wants to convey to shwetaketu who is an extraordinarily intelligent student and this is the analysis of the swapna etc and then he gives in the second mantra a beautiful analogy for this and this analogy siram krishna also takes up is the analogy of a bird and somehow in this siram krishna's example a bird saw a ship probably it was tired and then it flew and then started taking rest on the mast and it went into deep sleep and then meanwhile the ship had started traveling journeying and then when the bird woke up found it did not find any shore so it flew to the east west south north and nowhere it could find rest and then it came back and then it it gave up the chasing what is the analogy we are chasing for something in our both waking and dream states this is the analogy for eternal struggle that is going on and i am going to quote swami vivekananda with regard to this this is called evolution in other words what is evolution struggling to remove struggle that is called evolution struggle to remove struggle knowledge to remove what we call knowledge which is called in other words ignorance ignorance means limited knowledge so our struggle is to transcend anything that is limited whether it is prana whether it is longevity whether it is hunger we want to remove anything that is limiting factor so for that this beautiful marvelous example of this bird is given siram krishna has beautiful commentary upon it to me and i think that siram krishna's commentary is based upon this second mantra of this eighth section of this sixth chapter of chandogya with this background we will start reading the first mantra beautiful sanskrit if we know a little bit uddalaka so the son of aruna that's why he's called arunaha said to his son swetaketu my dear learn from me the true nature of sleep when a person has entered into deep sleep as it is called then my dear he becomes united with that pure being called sat he has gone to his own self is abiding in his own self that's why they say people say he's in deep sleep this word deep sleep in english language has got a sanskrit equivalent he's got swapithi it is because he has gone apita means he is abiding he has gone from this limitedness to his own swam apitaha swam apiti swapithi that is the etymological meaning now what is the telling we will just analyze a little bit of this sanskrit uddalaka arunahi arunahi means son of aruna who is the uddalaka so like dasarathi that is the rama is called dasarathi because he is the son of dasaratha dasarathi ramaha like that so this uddalaka the son of aruni who is a brahmagnani himself because he told earlier in our family no ignorant person ever is born ignorant means what a person who doesn't know about brahman he is called an ignorant person however much the person may know about worldly things what did this aruni do so the son earlier he said i do not understand exactly what you mean would you kindly explain it to me further certainly i will do so that was what the promise he gave at the end of the sixth mantra of the seventh section putram so addressing his son called svetaketu vacha he started giving this teaching me from me somya pleo pleasing one because you are very intelligent and as soon as i explain something you immediately have the intelligence to grasp that is why i am very pleased with you and my teacher will be highly displeased when he has to go on boringly repeating the same thing again and again and again so he was very pleased because you made my labor very very little hey somya so what is swapna swapna means dream swapna means also partly waking state that after transcending both waking and as well as dream usually our vedanta shastra scripture it classifies our experiences first waking state then dream state then dreamless state and they received up both of them are in the deep sleep that is why it is called causal body karana sharira swapnatham means what that which it transcends anthem means end so having reached the end of the dream there is only one state left out that is called the dreamless state swapnatham may from me somya oh pleasing one ijanihi that means you learn i'm going to expound it to you every jivatma every living creature be it a mosquito because scientists do not know if you ask a scientist is a mosquito going to sleep and is it going to be in deep sleep is it going to dream is it having a waking state of course we know it is having a waking state how do you know because if it is dreaming it will not come to you if it is in deep sleep of course it will not come to you but if it is in the waking state it will definitely come to you very alert whether anything is going to smash it and smother it so you can see it very difficult to kill mosquitoes so etra that state etra directly meaning where but it means that state purushaha that is this jivatma that is if my body mind complex mixed up with the reflection of the chit called chidavasa swapithi enters into deep sleep so then what is it called swapithi nama satha nama means that state wherein is called is a sleeper deep sleeper don't say deep sleeper it is like saying empty space space means empty so nobody will come and ask do you have some space for me to sit do you have some empty space for me to sit space itself means emptiness so it is redundancy here swapithi nama so this person who is a sleeper we have to understand that he has deep sleep means what beyond waking and dream states so such a person having entered into that state he will be known as swapithi nama satha so this is how he is called oh he is sleeping he is a sleeper now again second time oh pleasing one what happens to him when he enters into the deep sleep state and why this question has to come because we know what happens when a person is in the waking state similarly we also know what happens when a person enters into a dream state but what happens because it is neither waking nor dream state nobody knows he also says i didn't i do not know anything i slept well that i realize now but he goes beyond time space and causation and whatever is there within time space causation that is called creation and when you say god he by definition he who is beyond the world creation that means beyond time space and causation that means beyond limitations because time space causation are called limitations what happens to him that is he becomes endowed endowed means what he becomes one with brahman with god with his own self he becomes absorbed into himself what are we doing when we are in the waking state we are not absorbed we are identified with something else so every jivatma says i am the waker means what i am reflection of consciousness plus body mind plus this waking state same thing happens in dream state and the reflection reflected consciousness plus body mind which are in the second state and that state is called dream state but here as if he withdraws and this is in one way bhagavan krishna he explains just like a tortoise when it senses danger immediately it withdraws its all its limbs into its own self it is impossible because a very hard shell protects it even tigers cannot break it but very easy what do they do they found out you flip it over and then pure beautiful flesh will be there you don't need to cook without cooking also it can be eaten so what does happen tada this person he enters sampanna bhavati he becomes endowed with brahman god pure consciousness atman some apito bhavati he withdraws into himself he gives up the identity with the waking and dream state and people see him and then what do they say he doesn't know anything what do they mean they mean he's he doesn't know what his waking state he doesn't know what is called dream state so what is beyond this waking and dream himself thus math therefore this deep sleeper who other people oh he is in deep sleep he is himself now this is what they say this is the analysis of the sanskrit this one so now we have to understand that what does it mean so the word means the concept of deep sleep or dreaming dreamless sleep when we dream we are disturbed and it doesn't give us any rest dreams are as good as waking states when we are in the waking state we are disturbed when we are in the dream state we are disturbed but dreamless sleep is very restful that is why he says i had excellent deep sleep and i am refreshed restful if we have that kind of sleep for even a few minutes we become what free free no temporarily free from this world and this world means waking and dream state while we were sleeping the whole world was wiped out for us because the mind enters into causal state it doesn't sprout that word sprouting is a very important word we will come to it later on so the entire world as if disappeared and who remains me alone what about atman no there is no second atman i am the atman when we say the person is sleeping it means where does the when a person is in deep sleep state then where does the mind go that is being discussed here beautifully in punjath says during deep sleep person becomes united with the self really really because the mind is not there mind is as i said what is called the limitations of time space causation when the mind is not destroyed but it is it has gone to its saved state that means it is not sprouting that means it is not functioning that means it is not limiting that is why many times i told you you cannot say say while sleeping that i slept for 10 hours continuously no there is no sense of time at all so the individual self that is the jiva who is ignorant temporarily merges into the cosmic self this individual self has a body and mind but it is the mind that is closest to the self so many people mistake the mind to the self no mind is called subtle body it is as limited as gross and as an object without consciousness like the gross body so but it has a special quality it is comparable to a crystal just like if you put a red flower near a crystal a crystal appears to be red so when the consciousness is behind or enveloping the mind the whole mind seems as it were it is lighted up but it is not it's light and so it appears to be active etc so this this concept is very specifically beautifully discussed in the grid drishya viveka so because during this deep sleep state we are each soul is so close to the paramatma the supreme self it gets the reflection of consciousness and it becomes it feels i am one with it and all our organs the eyes ears hands feet the entire body everything becomes dependent completely forgotten during this period but it is not permanent state so it is only temporary state how do we know because very soon the causal cause a seed as soon as it comes into contact with soil it starts sprouting so we cannot say but during this state of this third state we become one with our own self and that is why deep sleep is so refreshing but what is the problem then problem is sleep does not give us any knowledge of our true self why because this is also part of ignorance only because our ignorance creates a barrier that keeps us from knowing our real nature and that is why those who are familiar with the technical terms there are two powers of avidya one is called covering up power and another is called projecting power during waking and dream both powers work first the truth is covered and then it is projected in both the waking and dream states by the way whenever we say dream state we use that word dream only from the waking point of view because when we are actually dreaming we don't call it dream we call it this is my waking state at that time what happens to the waking state it becomes a dream state that means it becomes unreal so we become as if one with it temporarily speaking and the nearest because distractions are gone that means projecting power is not functioning in deep sleep but the covering of power is working and that is 90 of the problem is gone that is why ignorance is bliss that is why we are so happy and there is no reality therefore there is nothing to think about there is no fear there is no anxiety person becomes completely refreshed but we have not become completely this is a automatic process mechanical process not with complete consciousness we are not merging in the self for that we have to go beyond even this deep sleep state so then are we separate from the self no we are at this stage of jivatva being jiva neither completely one nor completely separate because without consciousness we cannot survive and without body and mind nobody can think about ignorance etc so the combination of this reflected consciousness plus body and mind is called jiva the individual self but in truth we are never separate from the self but when what happens during the waking and dream state we become attached attached and what is called hatred likes and dislikes love and hatred to various names and forms therefore these names and forms create desires desires give happiness and unhappiness and that which gives happiness we are attached we like them and then that which gives us unhappiness we dislike them and quietly we forget our true self which has nothing to do with anything of these things so when i sleep what happens for the time being my ignorance is also sleeping as it were is not really sleeping because after some time from the waking point of view we wake up again the same rigmarole starts many times in a day how many times do you have deep sleep you this this many wise people answer only once at night no there are there are waking dream and sleep continuously rotating but this rotating deep sleep is for a very short while because when you forget the whole thing for a minute for a second in between two thoughts you have entered into your own self as it were but it doesn't last long when the second thought starts you identify yourself with that second thought and that you are bound that is called bondage so sairam krishna used to say that some people say that deep sleep is equivalent to samadhi sairam krishna disagrees he gives an analogy there is a belief when people take bath in the ganga all their sins get destroyed but sairam krishna says no what happens is they stay on the branches of the banks and as soon as this fellow after taking but that's why he feels so refreshed because the sins are not hanging heavily weighing heavily upon his shoulders as soon as he reaches the banks suddenly they jump up like what is called leeches jump up from treetops in kashi area meghalaya and other places so once we come out of this what is that the deep sleep is compared to taking bath in the ganga all the sins means all the anxieties sufferings they come to an end only bliss so bliss uninterrupted bliss until we wake up then we feel the same thing again so important point is it is not for once it is so many times so deep sleep can give us temporary rest but it cannot remove our ignorance this is important point please note down only if we have real knowledge through long spiritual struggle life after life the knowledge of the self can we remove these seeds of our karma once we attain self-knowledge then we feel that we are brahman and then there is no rebirth but when we wake up from our sleep of ignorance we are no longer jivatmas we become paramatmas this is the essence of the first mantra for that he gives a beautiful analogy of a bird given this analogy is also to indicate our struggles i gave the brief summary of this bird so we will dive deep into the second mantra prana bandhanam hi somya mana iti this mantra can be divided into two parts or even three parts what does it say this is the english translation just as a bird tied by a string to the any post etc so this is a bird special bird which is called bird catcher that means it eats other birds but it is a bird first then what happens it is tied securely to a pillar or to the mast or wherever it is some somebody's pet so what happened this story is slightly different from the story that is given in the parables of sir ramakrishna slightly different here it is already tied and then what happens it wants to be free so it flies to the east but the string that is holding will not allow it to fly to a long distance and then it has to come and it is tired then it tries another direction tries every direction but finding no rest anywhere settles down at the place where it is bound so a cow also sir ramakrishna gives the example a farmer ties a cow and that cow ties tries to free itself but it can only move within the ambit of the length of the rope that farmer gives but if it behaves properly that means if it pleases the farmer farmer may slowly gradually lengthen the rope giving more freedom but a time will come says my bull is or my bullock is very reliable i will not bind it any longer then it can free many western people when after using their horses or bullocks etc when they're old age they would not a few people they would not like to send them for butchers shop they just leave them you have worked well we have prospered because of you we give you freedom you are free to graze to roam to sleep wherever you want you earned your freedom so this bird goes everywhere and it cannot get rest so what does what where does it find rest in the bondage this is the first part what is the second part so also the mind that is the individual soul that is reflected consciousness my dear this jiva jivatma after flying in every direction and finding no rest anywhere settles down in the prana or pure being for the mind the individual soul is fuzzled to the prana pure being what does it mean here here it means this person not getting any rest he goes to the way in the direction of the waking state then he goes in the direction of the dream state then not finding any rest he comes to the place where he is bound which is called the deep sleep because remember the deep sleep state is also binding only only one has to go beyond these three and then only he becomes otherwise the everything we live is a bondage how is it a bondage because it is called karana sharira the seeds are there and the seeds seeds are what the deep sleep is having the seed of the waking and waking has the seed of dream so both the seeds are temporarily withdrawn into the deep sleep state or sleep state simply therefore that is called a bound state and therefore there it there in instead of struggling it gets some amount of rest but again it has to wake up and struggle and beautifully that is being illustrated here so when we are now we will go and analyze the sanskrit sayatha just like shakuni means this bird catcher or a huge bird so trina prabaddha is tied with a rope and that rope is tied securely to some point either to a bench or to a pillar or to a cage or whatever it is what does it do it gets tired of being bound what does it do disham disham patitva see what happens when we go into deep sleep so for some time we get rest and then when we have sufficient rest what do you do we become restless we jump out of the bed and we want to do this and that run here and there and then we counter trouble and then we suffer and then we come back again this waking state is troublesome state and dream state is perhaps equally or even more troublesome so let me come back this is the only place where i can get consistently beautiful rest for some time prabuddha disham disham it goes here there etc notice the different way sir ram krishna presents and this chandogya presents anywhere else a resting place incapable of obtaining a resting place comes back to the place where it is tied or bound it starts taking rest there only what is that means deep sleep state evam eva kalu saumya exactly in the same manner evam eva in the same manner kalu indeed saumya oh pleasing one tan manaha our mind your mind anybody's mind disham disham patitva that is flying patitva here means to fly disham disham this side that side what is that disham disham twice waking state and a dream state flying into the waking flying into the dream state and in both of these states anyatra in both the states elsewhere unable to sleep that means it doesn't get what it is seeking for pranam eva upashrayate so it takes refuge in the pranam what is the suddenly the introduction of pranam pranam is equated to deep sleep why refer to mandukya karika and it is clearly written what happens to a person he becomes identified with prana that is the the explanation there for gaudapada is taken from this eighth section second mantra of the sixth chapter of chandogya upanishad prana here means deep sleep that means what the waking is not working the dream is not working the mind is not working that the prana is working prana otherwise everybody first time he goes into deep sleep and then pranayasvaha then he courts death no he is very much alive what keeps him alive during this deep sleep state pranam eva upashrayate so prana bandhanam isomya manayate so that mind is that here and there flying it takes refuge in this that is what type of mind the causal mind takes refuge in this prana bandhana that is in the deep sleep state but as explained this where the person is doesn't suffer from the projecting power but he doesn't know what is atman but he unconsciously is nearest to the atman or pure consciousness or pure existence called sat and then he gets the nearer we are to god the nearer the greater will be our rest that's why any spiritual aspirant who is progressing in spiritual life the nearer he approaches god and god's three qualities first he becomes a good person second he becomes a truthful person third he gives up his likes and dislikes that is the meaning of becoming satpurusha then correspondingly his intelligence his knowledge will also grow correspondingly his ananda broke unbroken happiness also goes that is we all experience that beautiful sleep there that is the state what i did not know anything i was very very happy so when we are sound asleep what happens that mind withdraws where does it retire temporarily goes into the self what type of self prana rupa atma then the question is this the same as samadhi no is a superconscious state vedanta says no there is a distinction between samadhi and sound sleep what is the distinction both experiences bring great joy and peace but deep sleep only gives temporary joy and temporary peace and we are still held by the rope of ignorance that means we we do not know what is our own true self that means we are forced to seek for rest in the waking and dream a beautiful analogy if we think deeply so what do we do upon waking up and then go to dream state we are seeking that which cannot be obtained vainly hoping falsely searching for what we could get temporarily in the deep sleep that is why the purpose of waking and dream as some wise people say is to obtain deep sleep state this is a beautiful topic and then the upanishad gives the example here of a bird and sriram krishna is a wonderful commentary upon it and swami vikarandas saying the bird is we are the birds we want to get out of the cage that cage is what gives us rest really speaking and according to a great south indian sage kolashekar alvar a lotus feet of krishna is that cage if we can enter into that cage then forever we'll be free these are beautiful talks we will talk about them in our next class may sriram krishna holy mother and swami vikaranda bless us all with bhakti