Dakshinamurti Stotram Part 07 on 21 January 2021

Full Transcript(Not Corrected)

OM JANANIM SHARADAM DEVIM RAMAKRISHNAM JAGAD GURAM PADAPADMETAYO SRIDHVA PRANAMAMIM OOR MOHO HO We have been studying the Shankaracharya's beautiful stotram called Dakshinamurthy stotram. Until now we have been dealing with the what is called Dhyana shlokas, meditational mantras. Now we are entering into the real stotram starting with VISHVAM DARPANA DRISHYAMANA NAGARITULYAM NIJAM TARGATAM VASHYAN ATMANI MAYAYA BHAHIRIVA UDBHUTAM YATHA NIDRAYA YAH SAKSHAT KURUTE PRABODHA SAMAYE SWATMANAMEVA ADVAYAM TASMAI SHRI GURUMURTHAYE NAMAIDAM SHRI DAKSHINAMURTHAYE To him who by the power of Maya, who sees in himself the universe which is inside him as if it were outside, just as in a dream, like unto a city that is seen in a mirror. To him who apprehends an awakening, his own self as the one without a second. To him of the form of the Guru, the blessed Dakshinamurthy, I salute again and again. As we have seen earlier, this stotram has got 10 shlokas, 10 verses. And the first three verses, first, second and third dwell on the origin of the universe and its philosophical implications. Even though this is called a stotram, but Shankaracharya had squeezed the entire Advaita Vedanta, plus, that is not the only thing, the entire essence of Bhakti, which consists in complete surrender to the Guru. These two he had managed to squeeze in such a precise, concise, most expressive 10 shlokas. In our life, we have these three quests. Who am I? What is the goal of life? And what is the way to reach the goal of life? Tattva, Prushartha and Hitha. And in the very first shloka, starting with Vishwam Darpana Drishyamana Agarithulyam, Shankaracharya is not only talking about the highest truth. What is that truth? That there is no second object excepting Brahman, God, Divinity. When we study the very first sutra of Swami Vivekananda, by the way, many of us do not consider Swami Vivekananda's words as sutras, but there are some of his statements which have to be considered as a sutra. So, in Brahma Sutras, we have got Chatur Sutri. And if someone doesn't have the time for the study of this entire Brahma Sutras, which consists of more than 555 sutras, the first four sutras give the very essence of it. And of these first four sutras, the very first sutra or second sutra tells us the nature of us, the world and God. What is that? Janmaadhyasya Itaha. Therein, Badarayana, taking cue from the Upanishads, establishes that this entire universe has come out of God. This is called cause and effect relationship. And what does it mean? It means, really speaking, the effect can never be different from the cause. This invariable relationship between the cause and effect, if this is accepted, then if we go on searching, what is the cause of me? What is the cause of you? What is the cause of both living and non-living? Ultimately, like a building of a pyramid, we go up and up and up and that is what is indicated in the 15th chapter of the Bhagavad Gita, Uddhvamolam Adashayakam. And one point only will come and that is Brahman. From Brahman, this universe has come. In Brahman, it lives and it as if goes back into Brahman. The cause and the effect can never be different. And that sutra is what Swami Vivekananda also, the entire Chitush Sutri in the first four sutras is contained, essence. But if someone doesn't have even that patience to study, let him study the second sutra. If he cannot grasp or have no time, then study the first sutra, Atha Athaha Brahma Jignasa. But if that also is not understood properly, go to the, what is very popularly known as the Adhyasa Bhashya, the commentary in briefly which comprises books and books and books have been written. And as an explanation of this, comprising the entire ancient and modern knowledge, both scientific as well as spiritual. Now I am comparing this to Swami Vivekananda's four sutras, Chitush Sutri. We all know probably what I am referring to, each soul is potentially divine. The goal is to manifest this divinity within by controlling nature, external as well as internal. Do this either by work, worship, psychology, philosophy, by one or more or all of these together and be F R E E. This is the, these are the three sutras. But the most important sutra according to me is the fourth one. This is the whole of religion. Doctrines, dogmas, temples, churches, books, these are all secondary details. Whereas by Maya, we are taking only everything that is books, temples, churches, personalities, rituals. These are the most important things. And that is why so much of inter-religious quarrel, international quarrels, everything goes on. That is what is comprised in this very first shloka of Dakshinamurthy Sutram. Where is this world? I will come to the point what is this world, but where is this world? It is nothing but like a city seen in the reflection of the mirror. It's a most marvelous analogy. Then where is it? Inside each one of us. In this very first shloka, Shankaracharya gives us two important analogies. The analogy of a mirror, this has been expounded by certain schools of Advaita Vedanta as Vimba Pratibimba Vada. And the second is Avacheda Vada. The analogy is when one person goes to bed and creates an entire universe called the dream world. And therein, he will think, he creates, he divides himself into three. That is himself and the person who is manifesting there and the entire world. I will come to this point very shortly. What is the problem? Why are all these stotras or scriptures meant for? Because we have created our own nightmares which we call the world. Even there is something very significant and important. Even this word Brahman and Maya are creation of our own minds. Our study of this book itself is as if we are dreaming, this entire world is compared to a dream. That is what he says, When we have a dream, as if the entire dream world is outside us, even though all the time it is within us. So who created this world? We, even we should not say we. I created the dream world. Who am I? I am the one eternal Advaitiya, one without a second. But I divided as if by myself. This point also we will come very soon to it. Now let us first analyze in this first verse Vishwam. That is how this particular shloka starts here. Vishwam means the universe. What do I mean by the universe? This entire universe that we see, what is it? Whatever I experience that is called Vishwam. In this whole experience of me, I am not even using the word we. I am using the word only I. Because according to Advaita, you that everything is within me just as in a dream. Unbelievable, but it is true. How is it unbelievable? Suppose you are having a dream and in that dream I am taking this class and I am telling you this entire universe that you see is created by you. Will you believe me? Says okay, when you are expounding the scripture, it is fine. But really speaking, when I walk out of this lecture hall, the entire universe is like a big tigress and I have to face it and pay the consequences. The entire universe is but as soon as you wake up and then what do you say? I am the creator and then that you are the Ishwara. You are the creator. You are the sustainer. As soon as you went into the dream state, you created it or rather I would say you first created it and then entered into it. That is what the Chandogya Upanishad says. The Atman created this universe. It entered into every object of this universe in the form of existence, knowledge and bliss. When the same person you wake up, you say that I have created this universe. You will not blame anybody. But the tragedy of it is many times you create two things. Rarely we create any happy dreams. Most of the time either it is a nightmare or it is a totally meaningless irrelevant type of experience. So there was one of our senior Swamis was telling. One day a man came running and to his friend who was a wise teacher and he told him, Swami, my friend, yesterday I dreamt that I had won 100 rupees in a lottery and the friend scorched him with his look and said, you stupid fellow. Naturally the man got a little bit offended and said, why do you call me stupid when I had such a good dream? Said when it is a dream, why did you only create 100 rupees? You could have as well dreamt 1 billion rupees or 1 trillion rupees. Where is the end? Your poverty of your imagination is the only truth. The point I am laboring is that most of the time in this world we have only Dukkha, only suffering, Tapatraya, Abhigathat, Jignasa. This is what Shankaracharya is trying to tell us. This whole universe is within me and what is this universe? In our experience there are only two things are there. Not really but as an experiencer of the universe I perceive two. What are those two? Not I and you and it. No, I and everything else. Aham and everything else. This was what Shankaracharya was laboring to bring out in his brilliant Adhyasa Bhashya that is what is called the commentary upon the superimposition of both the Atman on the world and the world on the Atman. So Atman thinks I am the body-mind and body-mind thinks I am a conscious being that consciousness has nothing to do with the body and mind and it is amply proved by the analysis of the three states of experience, waking, dream as well as deep sleep. What is this word Vishram, Vividha, Pratyaya, Samohaha? That is how do we experience this world? What is it that we call the world? I am there and then I have got this body. This body has got five sense organs and through each one of these sense organs, each sense organ is producing a kind of experience. I for example perceives what is called forms and colors, actually colors. The ear it hears the sounds, the tongue tastes, the nose smells good or bad and the skin cold and hot as well as soft and hard. All these are called Pratyayas. The most wonderful thing is supposing as an example I see an object, let us call it an object, let us not call it by any name. My eye seems to see this object, the mind according to Indian epistemology. By the way, what is epistemology? The science of knowledge, what is real knowledge, right knowledge, how knowledge arises and these things are elaborately discussed and that branch of philosophy which deals with these things is called epistemology. I was giving the example the eye comes across an object. Don't say the eye sees a tree, the eye sees red color etc. Never say that. The eye sees something. Then how does it see? Because the eye is inert. So the mind also is inert. But the consciousness lends a little bit of its, a part of its consciousness to the mind that is called Chidabhasa and that mind lends a little bit of it to the eye as in this example and the mind goes through the door that's why it is called Golaka and then contacts that particular object, brings in an impression and presents it to the mind. Neither the eye knows what it is nor the nerves know what it is nor the mind knows what it is. The information is brought, presented to the mind. The mind presents it to the buddhi. Similarly, the ear, the nose, the tongue and the skin in a composite manner. Composite means all these separately are through as if five different wires. They send the messages, information. This is merely information. But the mind does two things. First of all, it combines all these things into some meaningful something. Then it presents it to the buddhi and which cognizes and says this is a tree. It is a green tree. It has a red fruit and that fruit is very tasty and the fruit is very flavorful, very nice smelling and it has got sweet or some other taste is there and it is either cold like ice cream or hot like a hot cup of tea or coffee. That is called the resultant, combined resultant of all these pratyayas combined in an intelligent manner presented to the buddhi and buddhi having superior intelligence. Buddhi means the. The means intelligence. Intelligence means the right instrument to arrive at the right knowledge. Then it levels it and says this is a tree. This is a mango tree. This is a what is called Alphonso mango tree. All these specifications it gives when we behold an object for the first time. Thereafter, whenever we come across such a same tree, then the chitta, memory power remembers it and then without much difficulty this is a Alphonso mango tree and that is a Dasheri mango tree and the other one is a Thorny bush tree etc. that goes on compiling. Now what is my point? My point is the five sense organs do not know what the world is. The nerves do not know what the world is. The mind doesn't know what the world is. But all the five sense organs when they are properly functioning, if there is sufficient light and the mind is sufficiently alert, if everything is okay, then the knowledge comes and this is called experience, Anubhuti and this Anubhuti, the whole world including let us not forget our body and our mind. We experience our body, I am a male, I am a child, I am healthy, I am a young man, this is the body. I am short, I am tall, I am fat, I am thin, I am beautiful, I am ugly. With regard to the mind, there is no such thing called beautiful or ugly. Even though we use the word is a beautiful, for example, book called a beautiful mind, a great scientist, how he had gone through this horrific experience of being a schizophrenic and he used to have perceived actually what is called something that never existed there. This is a beautiful case and there is a beautiful movie, you just google or you go to the YouTube, a beautiful mind and this is a real story. It is not a made-up story and it has a lot to tell us. This man being one of the Nobel Prize winners, he used to go through these delusions and he was given shock treatment. Ultimately, how was he cured? Only through this, the psychiatrist had managed to give shock treatment two or three times, then through lifelong medication, they gave him sufficient self-analysis that I am seeing okay. Remember, the delusions were not stopped even after the cure came, but he came to separate, this is called reality, this is called my delusion and that's how he started controlling them. If we can take that example, we are all deluded with only this difference from the Paramarthika point of view, from the spiritual point of view. We do not have the slightest clue that this entire universe is created by me. Usually in the Puranas, we go on studying Brahma created the world and in my last class also, not this particular series, I explained it beautifully who is Brahma, we are the Brahmas and with regard to the first story in the Devi Mahatmyam also, Vishnu created Brahma and commissioned him, you create this world and then two demons came out and they were about to kill, kill what? Creator, creator means creativity. What is the creativity? Brahma himself became this whole universe. So, then he had to pray to Vishnu and Vishnu was sleeping, so he had to take refuge in the Divine Mother and she withdrew from the Vishnu her power of sleep, that means unconsciousness and he woke up and he gave the power and he destroyed these two demons. Who are these two demons? They are born out of the impurities of the ear, Vishnu, Karna, Mala, both of them. What does it mean? They are called Madhu and Kaitava. What does it mean? We are slaves to praise, we are slaves to criticism, that's all it means. Until we get up from this, get out of these two, there is no hope of our being happy, even if we are not spiritual, we are not masters. That is why Guru is called Karnadhar, that means he will catch hold of both the ears and twists them nicely and then we wake up, scream and then get out of that delusion. Anyway, coming back to whatever we experience, it contains two things, I and everything else and that everything else is called Yushmat Pratyaya. Asmat means only I, what about parents, what about family, what about friends, what about country, what about religion, everything is Yushmat, Yushmat, Yushmat. Okay, I understand that. What about Guru? He is also Yushmat only. What about Brahma? What about God? He is also Yushmat. Why do you call him Yushmat? Because whatever is a thought is only thought in your mind, it has nothing to do with anything else. That is why even if a person whole life goes on thinking about God and eliminates every other thought, finally his mind is only has transformed itself into one particular thought and even that is called Pratyaya, Akara Pratyaya. Brahmakara, Kalikakara, Ramakrishna Akara, whatever name you call it, it makes no difference. Here is something very beautiful again. Suppose somebody is a devotee of Krishna and he eliminates all thoughts, what remains? Krishnakaravruthi. Another person, say Rama, Ramakaravruthi. Another person, Kalikakaravruthi. Remember that in the minds of those three people that I gave the example, only one thought is there. Now if you call that Krishnakara, Ramakara or Kalikakara, what is this business of Krishna and Rama and Kalika? If there is only one thought, who is to say this is Krishna? At least there must be Krishna and Rama. Oh, this is Krishna and this is Rama. Then what do they see actually? They see nothing but pure reflection of the pure light of the consciousness by whatever name we call it. Remember, who calls that this person is having Kalikakaravruthi? That person when he tells to somebody, he is not having Kalikakaravruthi. When Ramakrishna was talking to Dottapuri, I can remove every thought excepting mother. Was he having Kalikakaravruthi? Not at all. But when he was having Kalikakaravruthi, was he aware of Dottapuri? Was he aware of Kalika? Absolutely no. I hope I am able to convey some sense into you. When there is one thought, then you cannot say it is even a thought. There must be at least one other thought to distinguish this is my guru, this is myself and all these things. This was what Swami Brahmanandaji was trying to tell. When a person is deeply devoted to the guru and that guru takes him to his Ishtadevata, then the question came what happens to the guru? Then Brahmanandaji said the guru himself manifests as the Ishtadevata and then gives darshan. This is only for the beginning and then what happens to the person? There would be no two, there would be only one. If you think deeply about what I have been telling all this time, Brahmaakaravruthi is one vruthi. When there is one vruthi only, you cannot tell it is a thought, it is a vruthi, it is much less, it is Rama or Krishna. And that is how we have to understand the first vision of Sri Ramakrishna. Waves of consciousness came from all around me and made me unconscious. Very paradoxical expression. Consciousness came and made me unconscious. Wow, what a wonderful thing it is. Anyway, so I and everything else. These are the two things. Vishwamitra, Ashwamitra and Pratyaya. And both are thoughts, Pratyaya is in the mind. So this world is nothing but modification. This is the second point we are coming before we go into this Vishwamitarpanam. The whole universe is nothing but modification of consciousness at all. What is this tree that we have been taking earlier? We don't know. What is that object? Swami Vivekananda explains it beautifully. We don't know what is outside. Then how does he explain? He says mind, consciousness plus mind plus something x. The x represents something outside. Because if there were nothing, you cannot have any thought about it. So there is something outside the mind. What is that something? It is called Brahman. But Brahman with Nama Rupa, then we forget Brahman just as when we see in semi-darkness, we see a snake. So long as we continue to see a snake, we do not see the rope at all. So long as we continue to see Nama and Rupa, names and forms, we will not see God. We see and when that Brahman appears with names and forms, this is called Vishwam universe. First, it is manifold. Secondly, they are all separate from each other. Thirdly, I am entirely separate from all of them. Yushmat, Asmat, Pratyaya. So this is what is called the whole world is nothing but consciousness. How do I know? How do you know? Because when we are in the waking state, it is nothing but there is something outside and that outside comes into the form of a thought and that thought is interpreted and presented to the buddhi and the buddhi gives it a name and then this is a tree and this is an animal and this is an insect. This is a human being. These are all creations of the mind. This great truth has been so concisely, succinctly put in the Chandogya Upanishad. It is a word. It is nothing but a word. I will give you a beautiful illustration. What is nothing but a word? Take this world, entire cosmos, our entire cosmos. What is that entire cosmos? It consists of billions and billions and billions of galaxies. Out of the billions of galaxies, our own galaxy is there. What is this galaxy? Consisting of billions and billions and trillions of stars. Now what are we saying? One many galaxies out of that one galaxy. One galaxy, how many names? Billions of stars. This is the sun. This is something else, that like that. What does this our own galaxy consist? Billions of stars and each star, this is Vasishta, this is Arundhati and this is Vishwamitra, what we call seven and then our whole universe, this whole earth. See galaxy, our galaxy, sun and our universe and what is our universe? This earth and this earth consists of how many continents? Five continents. Now earth became what? Continents and this continent, each continent has got so many countries. So India is one of the country. See how the names have changed and India has got how many states? So many, I don't know how many, many states are there and ours is Karnataka state. In the Karnataka state, how many districts are there? Many and in our particular district, Bangalore is the city. In the Bangalore where we are living, this is called Halasuru. How many names? India, Karnataka, then Bangalore district, Bangalore city, Halasuru area. In that Halasuru, so many states are there. Swami Vivekananda wrote, in the Swami Vivekananda wrote, one Ramakrishna Math is there. In the Ramakrishna Math, there is one Arogya Bhavan. In that Arogya Bhavan, there are so many rooms. In that room, there is one room called number five. In that five number room, one Swami Dayatmananda lives there temporarily. Mind you, there is no permanence in this world. Now what are we talking about? What is this galaxy? What is the sun? What is the stars? What is the earth? What is the continent? What is the India? All these but nothing but names and names and names and still further names. Entire universe in our mind in the form of names and names and names and we identify the name with a particular object but we only have got an idea. This is called Chit. That's why Vedanta is so beautiful, so deep. We call every object Padaartha. Artha means manifestation of consciousness limited by particular name and form. But how we cognize? Only in the form of consciousness. So this is the second point. What is the first point? I and everything else including body-mind. What is the second point? What we call I and what we call this universe is nothing but two manifestations of the pure consciousness. Let us keep these two points in mind and proceed further. Except this Dakshinamurthy has got 10 shlokas. Excepting for the 10th shloka, the last line of each shloka ends with Tasmai Sri Gurumurthaye Namaidham Sri Dakshinamurthaye And this last line gives us how we have to interpret, approach, understand, assimilate and practice our spiritual life. So what is it telling? Namaha. Namaha we already explained. I will not go into detail. What is Namaha? Self-surrender. Namaha means surrender. Nothing belongs to me. Everything belongs to you. Everything is you. That is called Namaha. Na Mama. Then being a stotra, it is using a language of the surrender. This is what I mentioned earlier. Not only it gives us the greatest Vedantic essence which is Aham Brahmasmi. How to attain that knowledge? There is only one way. Go on talking. Aham Brahmasmi. Nothing will happen. Ultimately you will turn out Aham Brahmosmi. I am delusion. But what is the way? Tasmai Sri Gurumurthaye Namaidham Sri Dakshinamurthaye I surrender myself. This word particularly Namaha means not Mama. Oh Guru, in the form of Dakshinamurthaye, I surrender myself totally to you. And that is the only way for me to get that knowledge by your grace. So who is that we salute to? He is Dakshinamurthaye. But where? Who is this Dakshinamurthaye? Sadashiva. But Sadashiva we can't see. So what are we supposed to say? Each one of us, our own Guru. Namaidham Sri Dakshinamurthaye. See how beautiful it is. Namaidham. Tasmai Sri Gurumurthaye. These two words are used. Gurumurthaye. Salutations to the form of the Guru. Here we are indicating or the Shankara is indicating our own each special Guru. Whoever it may be. Swami Yudhishthira Ramji. Swami Brahmanandaji etc. etc. Whoever is our Guru. Mantra Guru. Deeksha Guru. Both as Siksha Guru. Everybody. So who is this Guru? Guru Brahma. Guru Vishnu. That idea is brought out here. That Sadashiva is manifesting in the form of Dakshinamurthy. And I hope you remember the meanings we have given to Dakshinamurthy. Dakshina means what? He who is the creator, sustainer and recycler or destroyer of this entire universe. That is a gross meaning. Subtler meaning is he who created this Maya and he who is sustaining this Maya. And he who is capable of destroying that Maya. He is called Dakshina. Dakshina means Samarthaha. So earlier also we said Dakshina is the Disha, the direction. Where Yamadharma Raja means ignorance. He rules. He by facing this Yamadharma Raja says I created you. What can you do to me? And whoever turns to this Dakshinamurthy he says I will also make you conquerors of death, conquerors of ignorance. The only way to conquer death is the only way to know I am not the body, I am not the mind but I am the Atma. Such a knowledge can come only from a Guru. That is why Gurumurthy, each one of our Gurus, how should we look upon them? As none other than God himself. In simpler language Gurur Brahma, Gurur Vishnu, Gurur Devo Maheshwara. Same thing here. Sri Gurumurthy. Namaha. I surrender myself to him. And who is ultimately my Guru? That Parabrahma in the name of Dakshinamurthy. Here one beautiful word is inserted. Sri. Now this word Sri is very important for devotees. Sri means Lakshmi. What does Lakshmi mean really? What does Saraswati mean? What does Lakshmi mean? What does really Kali mean? I will take these two, three words and that is what is so beautifully explained in the Lalita Sahasranama in the very first line itself. Sri Mata Sri Maharajne Sri Matsyamahasaneshwari. Once I explained it, don't remember where I did, I did a little bit of this Lalita Sahasranama while I was in I think Houston or somewhere. I do not remember now or Iowa. What it really means is Saraswati. Saraswati represents real knowledge, right knowledge, true knowledge which is that I belong to God. Then what does Lakshmi mean? Such a knowledge brings tremendous amount of happiness. Lakshmi means one meaning of Lakshmi if you want to know is poison. There are more than 19 meanings for this word Sri. A person who has got Sri is called Sriman. So Sri doesn't mean, usually we associate with money, wealth, property but no, a fellow is there, he is very rich, his stomach is absolutely rotten and what does all his, if you have ever read, in UK there was a great author, it's called P.G. Woodhouse and most of his novels are ridiculing the upper class wealthy people in whose name the servants create hundreds of dishes and drinks. Ultimately this fellow cannot do anything. He cannot even digest barley water or barely water. Barley water means barely water and the servants and others go on enjoying after showing it like we offer things to Sri Ramakrishna and then we are waiting. By mistake if he thinks we are devotees and swallows some part of that food, next time he is going to get only from a long distance. So these rich people often cannot enjoy. Lakshmi means the person who is happy whether he has got wealth or not. This is one meaning of it. Other meaning is a person has got tremendous knowledge. For example, Einstein has got the highest physics knowledge. Therefore, he is a Srimanta. Even today we have to salute anybody who wants to become great, you become a fan of Einstein or perhaps you don't know when Einstein proposed his special theory of relativity, it was said in the world only eight people understood it and not more than anybody else. This word Sri could be buddhi, it could be jnana, knowledge, therefore whoever has got this knowledge and here we are not talking about a knowledge of only spiritual life, but we are talking any type of knowledge. Why any type of knowledge? Remember sadhana chatusraya sampatti is a preparation, needed preparation for acquiring true knowledge and that is all falls under what I call secular knowledge. There are some people who are so what is called rational, they are so controlling their emotions. Earlier I mentioned two books. One book was Emotional Intelligence and recently a devotee pointed out to me one beautiful book, The Laws of Human Nature, not L-O-S-S, L-A-W-S, I think one Richard Green, I think. He is summarizing, do you want to be happy in this world? Then you have to be rational. You will have to accept others as they are, not as you expect them. You will have to accept whatever the world gives it back to you. Sometimes they praise you, sometimes they criticize you, most of the time they criticize you. If you are a slave to your emotions, then you will be most unhappy person. So if you can observe, there are about I think 7 or 18 laws of the human nature are there and if you read them, they appear to us this advaita work or sadhana chatusraya sampatti is being propounded. What am I trying to tell? Knowledge does not mean worldly knowledge. Usually we are not very intelligent people. The moment we use the word world, we say that which is kama, krodha, lobha, moha, mada and matsarya. We are not talking about that. There are laws of physical health. There are laws of mental health. There are laws of business prosperity. For every department of knowledge, there is a, for example, if you wanted to have musical knowledge, then you must have the shruti jnana, raga jnana, then what is called laya jnana, bhava jnana, then thala jnana and all these jnanas if you don't have and that has nothing to do with spirituality. If you have, there is a chance that you become a good musician. But once you become a good musician, that doesn't guarantee you will be a spiritual person. You could be worldly person. But what is my point? My point is even if you don't want to be spiritual, if you are an excellent musician, then you will be recognized by the world. You are likely to be happy in only one respect. It will bring you name, fame and wealth. But if you are not in control of your mind, then you will not be able to enjoy. So whether it is bodily knowledge or whether it is mental knowledge, they are also conducive to happiness in this world. And these happinesses that are related to body and mind are divided into four categories. What am I talking about? Vishayananda, Medhananda, Kalananda and Dharmananda. Brahmananda alone is spiritual knowledge. I have talked about it enough. So what I am trying to tell, this Guru is one whoever can give us that knowledge where we accept we have the knowledge of the world and accepting that knowledge of the world, we also have the rules of the game. That means how to live healthily, wealthily, happily, whatever be the circumstances. Then that will slowly awaken the spiritual consciousness which is in a what is called sleepy state. That was what Swami Vivekananda tells, uttishthata jagrata prapyavaran nibodhata. To me, these two words uttishthata and jagrata are one of the most meaningful words. Uttishthata means get up, awake. Jagrata means be aware. What does it mean? First my friend, you enjoy this worldly life, get worldly happiness. Why am I interpreting like that? You may, some of you may wonder not understanding our true Vedanta tradition. The whole Vedas are divided into what? Two categories. What is the first category? Purvartha, praise, dharma, artha and kama. What is artha and kama? Nothing but be happy. If you want to be happy, you must have the knowledge of how to acquire, how to enjoy, when to enjoy, how much to enjoy, in what manner we have to enjoy and that is called dharma. Only when we have this experience, the mind becomes even more alert, even more rational, then it gets over what is to the next stage called jignasa. That is where Brahma Sutra starts. That's why I'm taking time but these are most marvelous things. Another reason why I'm taking time is supposing you say Swami quickly finish this Dakshinamurthy Stotram and we can take up some other book. Even if I take a second book, what are we going to talk about? Exactly the same things, only a text will be different but here that's why I'm taking time and I hope you will also understand. We are going to discuss very profound laws of both body, mind as well as spirituality. So the whole first part of Veda is devoted to prayers and it is not inimical to sreyas. It is in fact the only preparation. Sadhana Chaturstaya Sampatthi will come only when a person goes through these steps that is called prayers. Otherwise jignasa will not come. That was what Bhagavan Krishna summarizes. I changed a little. First step is Artha but turn to prayers. Then you are Artharthi, unfulfilled desires. Don't go on doing by hook or crook. You also follow the first part of the Vedas. You are Dhanarthi, Putrarthi, Yasharthi. What is it? It is a Upasana for the Guru. I want my knowledge to be spread all over the world, over the disciples. Please come from the east, south, north, west, from everywhere, more and more. And what type of Brahmacharins? Those who are intelligent, those who are self-controlled and those who are eager for a higher knowledge. All these people, let them come to me more and more in number. This is called prayers. Lest you may think this is only to be seen in the first part of the Vedas. But what was Ramakrishna doing? As soon as he completed all his sadhanas, after sunset, he used to run to the roof of the Koti. Then, oh my children, where are all of you? Please come. And we are all the children that have come. And there will be millions of people who are going to come in future also. So what are we talking about here? So first of all, that I am Brahman is the meaning of this particular verse, all other verses also. And through Karya Karana Sambandha, through cause and effect relationship, Shankaracharya wants to convey, if Brahman is the cause and this world is the effect and I and you and everything in this world have come from God, therefore we have to reclaim our true nature. True and ultimately it ends with Aham Brahmasmi. But the way to that is Namah Idam Sri Dakshinamurthaye. So through the Guru, surrender yourself to the Guru. And there is something else also. In Advaita tradition, people don't often praise gods like Krishna, Rama. Often they say our Guru, Guru Brahma, Guru Vishnu is much more applicable to followers of Advaita than anybody else. It doesn't really matter whether they call him Guru. But they equate that Guru with Ishwara. And these are the ideas when we surrender and that Guru who is the embodiment of knowledge that comes to us. When we surrender means what? We open ourselves for the entry like opening a window when the outside air and light automatically enter into the room. Guru Kripa comes into our hearts, then we will also become that knowledge. In course of time, this is how Guru-Shishya Sampradaya continues. These marvellous meanings are there which we will discuss in our next day after tomorrow. Om Jananim Sharadaam Deivim Ramakrishnam Jagadgurum Pada Padme Tayo Sritva Pranamami Muhur Muhuhu May Ramakrishna, Holy Mother and Swami Vivekananda bless us all with Bhakti.