Dakshinamurti Stotram Part 30 on 03 April 2021

Full Transcript(Not Corrected)

OM JANANIM SHARDAM DEVIM RAMAKRISHNAM JAGADGURUM PADAPADMETAYO SRIDHVA PRANAMAMI MUHUR MUHUR OM YO BRAHMANAM VIDADHATI PURVAM YO VAI VEDAMS CHA PRAHINOTI TASMAI TAMHA DEVAM ATMA BUDDHI PRAKASHAM MUMOKSHUR VAI SHARANAM AHAM PRAPADYE We have been studying the 8th verse of Dakshinamurthy Stotram. Dakshinamurthy, he who is the Purusha, veiled in Maya, sees the world in terms of cause, effect, diversely related as possessor and possession, father and son, and as teacher and taught, both in the state of waking and dreaming, to him the divine teacher, Sri Dakshinamurthy, is this frustration. This is a most marvellous verse or I would say one of the most marvellous. Here the bare fact that this world is nothing but a world of relationships. We use this word, the world, Jagat, Samsara, so many times and this is one of the best ways to look upon this world. What do I exactly mean by the world? World means difference. Where there is a duality, there is bound to be a relationship. That difference, in other words, is called relationship. Small and big, superior, inferior, man and woman, good and evil, happiness and unhappiness. And when do we experience it? We experience every day three states, the waking state, dream state, as well as the dreamless or Nidra state. In the Nidra state, as we discussed earlier, there is no body, there is no mind, idea in the mind. Remember, body idea, mind idea are both ideas, vrittis in the mind. Therefore, it is a kind of Advaita and where there is only one, the question of difference doesn't arise. Therefore, the question of relationship does not arise at all. In fact, something very curious thing is there which we must take note of it. If we do not see relationship, we will not even know who we are. Simple example, even though we are 24 hours practically practicing it, we do not take notice of it. Who are you? I am Ravi, suppose we say. What do you mean by Ravi? So, I am the son of so and so. So, that means what? I am aware that there are two beings called my father and mother and I am different from them. They are different from me. The moment that difference comes, immediately relationship comes. They are parents, they are friends, they are enemies, they are colleagues or whatever it is. And then this relationship brings all sorts of troubles, superior, inferior, ultimately resulting into what we call judgmental values. Sukha and Dukha, Raga and Dvesha. I like some, I dislike others. And every event in our life, as I had mentioned, is nothing but a thought in the mind. And every thought, there is a rising, there is a sustenance and there is a dissolution. And all this takes place in time. At some point it was not there, then it comes, it abides for some time and then it disappears. So, birth or death, growth, whatever it is, everything falls under time, space and causation. It is this mind. So, two important points we have to remember, where there is duality, there would be relationships. And where there are relationships, depending upon what type of relationship we cherish. And here also, there is an inner secret, a real secret. A real secret is there. Supposing there is parents and child. It is a real relationship in the vyavaharika world. But maybe the parents love the child but the child may not love the parents. What is the importance? I am trying to point out that both have relationships. The parents think, this is my child. The child thinks, these are my parents. The parents may be saying, this is our child and we love our child very much. But the child for some reason, he may hate his parents. So, just look at your Bhagavatam. What happened to this Kamsa? He imprisoned his old father until Krishna came and related. Did Ugrasena, the father of Kamsa, love Kamsa or not? Definitely he loved. Did Kamsa love his father? Absolutely no. So, what is the point I am trying? This relationship is purely individual, depends upon our samskaras. So, vyavaharika drishti, the relationship is vyavaharika satya. But the difference will exist in both the parties. A husband and a wife. What is the relationship? I am the husband, you are the wife. You are the husband, I am the wife. The wife perhaps loves the husband very much. But the husband may be plotting how to do away with her. So, what I am trying to tell that relationships bring individual reactions depending upon how they do it. But from the life of Sairam Krishna, I will just give an example. Hriday, Sairam Krishna's nephew served him for more than 14 years so devotedly, protecting and looking after like a baby his uncle. But in the end, he himself has completely turned topsy-turvy and he hated his uncle. He wanted to control him to such an extent, Sairam Krishna wanted to jump into the Ganga and then commit suicide. What does it indicate? Now question yourself. Did Hriday, was he pretending or did he really hate his uncle who would not come under his thumb so that he could control him? The whole secret was that Hriday wanted to control Sairam Krishna. That's why many people in the West do not wish to be served because they feel obligation that these people are serving including their own children and the moment we receive the service, we are under their thumb and this is the truth also. If you depend upon the servant, you call him servant, he calls you his master. But we have to see who is the servant and who is the master when the actual work comes. So in the West, people are extremely independent. They do not wish to take anything, any service. That's why immediately they say thank you, thank you very much hundred times to get rid of that obligation. Anyway, that is an aside point but a great psychological truth. This whole world is a world of differences, world means differences, world means aneka not eka. Brahman alone is eka and everything is aneka and for that we have a beautiful imagery. The waker in the waking state is one but when he goes into dream state, he divides himself into how many? To many, many. Himself, he also will be there, he himself divides himself into three parts, a whole world, his own body, mind, individual and the sakshi who is witnessing the whole thing. How do we know? Because when that waker enters into the dream world, laying very real things like the waking state and then when he wakes up, he remembers everything that has transpired, memory you must always remember doesn't belong to the experienced but always belongs to the witness. When you are absorbed in playing, you don't know what happens but there is a witness and he says, oh the wind is blowing and then there is a thunder, there is an accident and here the play is going on. He is able to witness everything but the player himself, his experience is limited only to that particular role and that role is changing every time. Therefore, the memory of what happened in the past completely fades away from that man's person's mind. Then who remembers the whole sequence? I went to Chennai, then I stayed there, from there I went to Kanchipuram and then I came here. It is the sakshi that remembers. It is the sakshi which remembers I am the waker, which remembers, who remembers I am the dreamer, who remembers I am the sleeper and whatever had taken place during these three states of experience. So this is a very important point. Memory always belongs to the unchanging sakshi, not to the changing experiencer. That is where the Buddhists, they go terribly wrong. Anyway, that is a side point. Now, as I said this is the most wonderful shloka. This eighth verse emphasizes that the entire world of duality and all the activities based on it are due to the delusion brought about by Maya and that the Atman alone who is the substratum at the back of all these is the eternal reality. In this eighth verse, Shankaracharya reduces all the possible human experiences into four relational categories and expounds the phenomenal nature of the universe. What are the four? First of all, he says karyakarana, cause and effect. Second, he says swaswami sambandhataha. One is a teacher, one is a student. One is the master, another is a servant. The third is shishya and acharya, teacher and the taught. The fourth is pitru, putradi, everything. So, these four, I am going to analyze it and before that I want us to remember. First point, reality is ekam, nitya, shuddha, buddha, mukta, swaroopam. And as I mentioned, where there is only one, you cannot even say it is one. It is only from the dualistic point of view, we say Brahman is one without a second. Because the moment you say one, the moment you say light, what is the background idea that comes? There is a darkness. You say one, either two or many, immediately it comes whether we realize it or not. Otherwise, how do we know it is one? Supposing in your room, there are two people and a phone call comes. Someone asks you, how many people are there besides you in the room? You say two and one person takes leave and goes away and another person or the same person phones you. How many people are there? You say one. How did you utter that word one? Because you are acutely aware we were three, then we were two and there is only now me and this other person. Other than me, there is one. So in that state, for example in deep sleep, you don't say I am having deep sleep. Only upon waking up, you recollect and say I was. You can never say I am. This is for clarity. That's all. Reality is Ekam and it is Nitya, forever. Shuddha, pure because there is no second to make it impure. Buddha, ever conscious because that is pure consciousness. Mukta, completely free to be bound. There must be a second thing to bind you and a reason why you are bound and the instruments with which you have to be bound. So this is the nature of the Parvatma. That is against that background of unchanging pure consciousness only. All dualistic experiences and you can call them dualism, many things, changeful things, relationships, everything will get destroyed. The moment you become one, which is happening every day, in your deep sleep state, all relationships disappear. Have you noticed it? I am the son of so and so. I am the TA student of so and so. I am rich. I am poor. So many years old. Everything will disappear. For the simple reason, there is no second excepting you. So an important point I mentioned in my last class, all duality, a modification of consciousness. Somehow we are under the delusion that whatever we see is real, very concrete. So how do you know? So I say even Swami, my eyes may be deluded. My ears may be deluded. My smell may be deluding me. My taste may be deluding me. But when I bump my head against a concrete brick, then blood comes and everything happens. Terrible pain is there. That is the proof that it is concrete reality. And the Advaitin gives the answer, my friend, in your dream, when somebody takes up a big brick and breaks it against your head, you will feel equal pain and upon waking up, your head will not have any bump. Therefore, what does it mean? The concreteness is the guna of the skin and it is as false as anything else. All duality is a modification of consciousness. I am happy. I am healthy. I am unhealthy. I have COVID. These are all modifications of consciousness. Answer one question. Supposing you are having COVID symptoms and you go into deep sleep. Would you be worried about your COVID situation? Why? Because there is no body. When there is no body, there is no COVID and there is not even the possibility of imagination in the mind, I might have COVID and so everything is a modification. This is an amazing truth that my parents are modification of consciousness and my body is a modification of consciousness and actually modern science proves it to the hilt by the employment of psychosomatic effect. If I think this milk is poisoned, I am sure to get stomach ache and purging even if nothing is there. If you really believe in it. If you don't believe, it will not happen. So that not believing is also modification of consciousness only. Even if it is Sriram Krishna tells something very interesting. Supposing person is bitten by a snake and he says the snake has not bitten me. It is not poison. I am not going to die. If he says strongly, then the poison will disappear. Don't blame me. This is what Sriram Krishna has said and on the contrary, if somebody has been given a buttermilk, remember buttermilk because this is summer season here and very hot. Cold buttermilk is most welcome. Suppose somebody gives you buttermilk and you drink the buttermilk. Afterwards, somebody comes running and says that it is poisoned and immediately there is a chance. If you believe in it, that immediately you will have a massive heart attack and then die also. What does it prove? It proves that the whole universe is nothing but a modification of consciousness. Then the second point about duality. Duality is Mithya. That means what? Any modification, any vikara is Mithya and that consciousness which doesn't undergo any modification and that is called Brahman. That is the only reality. Where there is a duality as mentioned earlier is bound to be relationships. Duality is nothing but relationships. Think over this amazing fact. I am the son or I am the brother. I am office worker. I am a doctor. I am a lawyer etc. etc. They create their inevitable results, effects upon us because these are all relationships you are thinking. When a patient meets a doctor, you know what is the relationship? However proud a fellow may be, he may be a gunda. He may be oppressing other people. The moment somebody tells there is a growth, a biopsy has to be done and then the doctor becomes immediately Bhagawan Narayana. Please save my life. Yes, in his eyes that doctor and his words becomes Shastra's words. Whatever he says, he will do it. This every relationship has its effect and every relationship's effects can be divided into three. These points I have discussed in my last class. What are the three? Positive, negative and neutral. I give the example also. Now in this light, let us analyze a bit before we go into the shloka itself. First, relationship between the waker, dreamer and sleeper. There are three states. State of waking. What is it called? Jagradhavastha. Then there is state of dream. What is it called? Dream state. Then what is the third state? Nidrasushupti avastha. When I am in the waking state, I call myself the waker. In Sanskrit or in Vedanta, it is called Vishwa. I am Vishwa. Though we don't use, English word is waker. When I am in the dream state, I call myself according to Vedanta, Dhaijasa, dreamer. And when I am in the Nidra state, I am called Prajna. Now what is the relationship between? It is like completely three different persons. And the waker says, I as a dreamer, I behaved very badly. I got frightened. I was an unhappy fellow. Somebody came and slapped me. The waker is telling his relationship as a dreamer with himself. He is categorizing it as I was a dreamer and I had bad dream. I was very unhappy. Now I am happy because now I realize it was all an imagination. So this is the relationship between waker and dream. But there is another relationship. I will soon come into it. The dreamer and waker have another relationship with the Nidra. The most marvelous experience. I did not know anything. I was so happy. It is a happy state. That's why every drunkard, every drug addict, if you ask that person, why are you taking drink? He says my relationship as a sleeper is so happy state and I want to escape this waking state. The only way I can escape is either by drinking or taking drugs. So this is one. But there is another type of relationship. Who can have good dreams? Only when a waker lays the foundation through his activities like prayer and positive thoughts and then reading good books, thinking good thoughts, only such a person when he enters into the dream state, he will become a happy dreamer. So this is the relationship. What is the relationship? Cause and effect relationship. What is the cause? I led a beautiful waking state and therefore what is the effect? A beautiful dream state. And in my waking state, I have worked very hard and I made my body and mind get tired and that relationship affects the deep sleep. When do you get to deep sleep? Only when your body is really tired and your mind is not worried. Even if you are completely tired, you cannot have good sleep. I mean Nidra, Sushupti if your mind is agitated by any type of worries. So you see cause and effect. So the deep sleep can be cause for the good waking and dream state. The waking state will be a cause for good dreams and good Sushupti and the good dream state will be very beautiful cause for both the deep sleep as well as the waking state. Not only that, there are higher things also. Supposing in my past classes I mentioned, there are four types of dreams. Very ordinary irrelevant things is first state. Second state is remembrance of the past events in our past lives. Third event is seeing or having visions of gods and goddesses. Fourth event is foreseeing the events that can take place in the future. And most many of us I am sure have at least one or two experiences of this fourth category. First category all of us will have. Second category all of us will have. Third category may not be all of us. But fourth category may be rare. But foretelling of the future events in the form of some dream is very real. Now what I am trying to tell you that this supposing a person had a vision of Ramakrishna and many devotees had this vision and then when they had this vision, their mind is filled with unspeakable, unimaginable joy and then it might transform the whole life of that person. I will give you an example. There was a lady devotee and she came into contact with holy mother. She decided to take initiation and mother also consented. Fixed a date my daughter come on early morning of such and such a date with some flowers and fruits. I will initiate. And this lady's husband was not very spiritual but cooperative with his wife. So he says I will not take initiation but I will take you to holy mother. And then previous night they purchased for one person's initiation and that night Sri Ramakrishna appeared and said you also take initiation from mother. He thought I was thinking about my wife's initiation from mother so I had this kind of imagination. So he did not take any notice of it and next morning they both of them went to holy mother. This man was not a real devotee but he was not a bad person. He had respect. He went to make pranams and holy mother said Baba why don't you take initiation. The man replied but mother I am not true. Decided to take initiation. Mother said what even after Sri Ramakrishna commanded you in your dream that you have not decided no no you take it. Then again he objected but I brought the materials only for one person's. Mother said that doesn't matter. Both of you can take initiation with that only. So he was initiated. His whole life was completely transformed. This particular dream has made, changed his life completely. What is the point we are telling that the waking state, dream state and dreamless or deep sleep state Sushukti have got cause and effect relationship even though we do not analyze but we know how nightmares come. Children want to read very frightening stories just before going to bed and that is the cause. What is the effect? Nightmarish dreams. Okay. So this is a relationship between the waker, dreamer and sleeper and some people claim by the way that some group of spiritual teachers are there. You go to bed and then in your dream we will take you to Himalayas. We will take you on pilgrimage and many people claim their gurus came and took them around. We should not deny because we should not be skeptical. If that has some effect upon them, if it can bring a change in their character from worldliness to spirituality, anything goes. It doesn't matter. Okay. What is the second type of relationship? Living and non-living and living influence the non-living and the non-living influence the living. I will just give you a small elaboration. Today the whole of the scientific research is showing human beings have brought about pollution by the modern industry, discharging poison into the sky and into the rivers etc., environmental pollution and as a result the ice caps in the North Pole are melting into huge blocks and if this phenomena is continuing and if it happens and those blocks come, all the cities near the seashore will be submerged. Such a fact has been recorded earlier. That is what we say as soon as Shri Krishna left his body, the whole Dwaraka was submerged in the sea. Even now some people say some ruins of some walls etc. they show and all over India, all over the world, so many cities have been sunk because the rising level of the sea water which is causing. What is the cause? This kind of melting, huge blocks. Even if the sea level rises one foot then it will wreak havoc upon entire population of the cities. They have to completely evacuate those cities. We do not understand. Of course we know aeroplanes, the motor cars, the motorcycles, anything that uses a machine, how much pollution they are emitting into the sky. Then we also know how many factories are built on the banks of the rivers, how much we are polluting and we cannot even take bath even though we call these great rivers so sacred. Funny thing comes to my mind when I go to Belur Mutt, people ask me and do you take bath in the Ganges? Yes, I say I take bath twice. First I go and take bath in the Ganges. Then I come to the bathroom and take bath with the normal water. Why Swami? Because the bath in the Ganga is to remove the impurities, spiritual impurities and the bath in the bathroom is to remove the physical impurities from the Ganga. So much polluted we can see, all of us have seen. So in how many ways we are cutting down forests, we are polluting the rivers, breaking the mountains, digging the mother earth, in unimaginable ways we are polluting. So what is this we are talking about? This is the human being's relationship with the living and the non-living. So there is what is called Bhuv pollution, earth pollution, clay pollution, there is light pollution, there is noise pollution and there are so many varieties of impure thoughts through all the social media etc. So many types of pollutions we are doing it. But most important is there is a what is called very healthy relationship between the living and the non-living. Living means living creatures, non-living means the mountains and the rivers and the earth and the air and all these things, Akasha etc. So it is said when the aeroplanes attacked the twin towers in New York, for few days American government had banned the flying of all the aeroplanes and they could see how much of purity has come into the air, the pollution level had come down probably by 50%. And I have seen this recently when travel is banned because of the COVID, the birds call has increased and you can see the sky even so much there. I don't need to elaborate it but we have a definite relationship between the living and the non-living and if that relationship is disbalanced in any way, so we are going to suffer, the non-living is also going to get damaged. This is the second type of relationship. Third type of relationship between all the living beings, I do not need to describe, every country practically is having conflict with the other countries, within the country itself all human beings, of all the people human beings are the worst people having relationship. How many families can claim husband-wife relationship, parent-children relationship, teacher-taught relationship are running in a healthy manner? How do we know? Because more than 40% of the people are mentally sick especially in the West according to their own statistics, governmental statistics. Relationship between all the living beings but the most important relationship is again subdivided, this is the fourth classification and that is subdivided into three relationships. First of all, what is the relationship with God? You just say, I am a devotee of Ramakrishna, I am devotee of Holy Mother, what is my relationship with Ramakrishna, Holy Mother, Swami Vivekananda or your Guru, it doesn't matter. What is the relationship? First type of relationship is pure selfish relationship, I go to Tirupati Venkateshwara with a rotten banana or half-spoiled coconut and I want 50, 100 things, if I can list, I want this, I want that, I want the other thing, I want the other thing etc. So what is this relationship? I am the beggar and you are the giver, I am the beggar and you are the dhata. So this is the relationship, is that permitted? Within limits yes, but if it goes beyond the limits, it's not limited. Find out, do you really want God or do you want God to work at your beck and call, save you from all dangers, produce things for you, protect you from all dangers and 24 hours your personal God, all because you pay a puny insurance of 10 times repeating His name in the morning and whole life you expect Him and life after also probably if you believe you expect Him. So that is the relationship between oneself and God. Question yourself, what is it? Do I love God and am I ready to sacrifice for Him? Like Mother Yashoda used to say, if I do not look after Krishna, then He will go to dogs. I have to look after Him. So what is your relationship? And these relationships with oneself and God have been subdivided into five categories in the Vaishnava literature. You all know what I am talking about, Shantabhava, Dasyabhava, Sakhyabhava, Vatsalyabhava and Madhurabhava. And this Vatsalya has two subdivisions, looking upon God as one's own parent, mother or father. If it is Hindu religions, as mostly as mother or father. If it is Semitic religions like Christianity, the question of motherhood doesn't arise. Only father, father forgive us our daily sins, give us our daily bread, etc., etc. Okay, then this highest is, that is called, this fourth one I have been mentioning, a devotee can look upon God as one's own parent and himself as a small baby or as Ramakrishna puts it, as a kitten. Or a devotee can look upon God as, I am the parent, you are my child, like Kausalya, Yashoda, etc. This is two sub-varieties. Then Madhurabhava, one is called Kantabhava, another is called Parakiyabhava. Kantabhava means one's own married wife, how much a wife, a chaste wife loves her husband. Rukmini, how she loves. Lakshmi, how she loves Narayana. Then the Samudramanthana, churning of the milk ocean takes place. So many people wanted Lakshmi. Means what? They want money. Lakshmi incidentally is not only money, in fact she is not money. Lakshmi is happiness. You have money and you have severe headache or you have got, your stomach is gone, you can't even digest barley water, what will you do? That is 50% misery. The other 50% is in your name, everybody is enjoying excepting you. So it is 50% other misery, I am not able to enjoy, I can't tolerate other people enjoying me. Money means happiness. Sri, Lakshmi, this is Kantabhava. Parakiya bhava means the most irresistible, strongest attraction that exists between a man and somebody else, a woman to whom he is not married. That is called Parakiya bhava, mistress bhava. Radha represents not the inferior sense of keeping a mistress because keeping a mistress is nothing but pure distress from the beginning to the end. Here mistress means tremendous attraction. That woman loves only this person and in the strongest terms and because of this separation her longing for him 24 hours. Shri Ramakrishna describes, here is a woman who has a lover, she is serving her husband but her mind is always on her beloved only, her neighbour only. That is the feeling with which Chaitanya Mahaprabhu had created this Parakiya bhava, strong spiritual love between the devotee and God and later on degeneration had taken place. We need not go into that at all. So these are some of the again relationships that we are talking about. This is relationship between the devotee and God. Then the next relationship is between the disciple and the Guru. I have a Guru. What is my relationship? Do I revere him as Brahma, Vishnu, Maheshwara or annually I just pay a little bit of fees and then a little bit of pranami and that is it. What is the true relationship? That my Guru has come to me to rescue me from the samsara sagara. So I owe everything, my dhanu, dhana, mana, everything I offer to him and he had kindly granted me ishta mantra and I will go on practicing with complete shraddha in the mantra that he has given plus the instructions he has given until I realize God. So it is said true Guru Dakshina only happens after the realization of God. Then the Guru will be satisfied. I do not need to think about my child. He is already free. I can pay my attention to somebody else. Question always. Is it a family guru relationship? Is it a spiritual aspirant and God relationship or is it merely an academic relationship? And it is a very serious question because most of the initiated people have this kind of relationship. Anyway I will narrate a funny story. Swami Bhuteshanthi Maharaj had initiated I think lakhs of people. So one day an old woman, of course it is just fun, she happened to come to see him with her granddaughter. Then Bhuteshanthi Maharaj understood the whole situation at one glance. He was very very intelligent. He asked what brings you? He says my granddaughter needs to get initiated so I have brought her to you and Maharaj asked have you become initiated? Yes, yes I have become initiated. And what is the name of your Guru? And in Bengali she says Ato Shato Janina. I don't remember all those things. Maharaj was questioning. Do you remember his face? So she stared into his face for some time and said Anetta Apnaar Mukher Motanach. To a great extent my initiated Guru's face looks like yours. So this kind of relationship is called family Guru relationship. But the true relationship is like every direct disciple and of all the, every disciple of Sri Ramakrishna was great but there was one disciple called Adbhutanandaji, Latu Maharaj at that time, Latu. One day he came to Dakshineswar. While Sri Ramakrishna was away at Kamarpako, he had the faith that Sri Ramakrishna is everywhere even though Ramlal Dada, the nephew of Sri Ramakrishna tried to explain to him. Sri Ramakrishna is not here. You cannot see him. He is in Kamarpako and Latu Maharaj stubbornly refused to listen to him and refused to eat any food, went on standing at Panchavati and in the afternoon when Ramlal Dada went there, he saw Latu Maharaj bowing down to one particular spot again and again and when he noticed Ramlal Dada, he burst out and say, why did you say Sri Ramakrishna is not here? He is here, right here. I saw him just now and Ramlal Dada did not know what to speak. This is that complete faith in the Guru and as I mentioned earlier, sometimes the Guru may not deserve this kind of adoration. Sometimes downright they are commercial like Dronacharya refusing Ekalavya but Ekalavya said I have chosen you as my Guru and he became without being taught but being taught by God in the form of Guru Bhakti, he became, he excelled in archery even Arjuna. So, one has to question what is my relationship to my Guru? Is it just family Guruship? He initiated me. Occasionally, I will give him some money as pranami and that is it and I repeat the name he has given a few times and sadly many people's relationship is only like that. Then comes the third relationship, most important relationship. What is my relationship with myself? How do I look upon my body as ugly? I am inferior mentally and I do not have qualities. Everybody's life is very happy. My life alone is most unhappy. Why God has created me like this? Sri Ramakrishna never encouraged this kind of negativity at all. Say simply say and especially holy mother's teaching. Remember you have a mother and I am your mother, first commandment. Second commandment is remember that you are my child and live with that knowledge that you are my child. You are not an ordinary person. You are the child of the Divine Mother which is echoing the first mantra in the Esavasya Upanishad. Tena tyaktena bhunjitha maaghrithah kasyasviddhanam. Tena, by that knowledge. What is that knowledge? Everywhere that Paramatma alone is there and nothing, no other thing is there besides Him. With this knowledge, enjoy bhunjitha. You live joyfully your allotted period of time even if dukkha comes, suffering comes, difficulties come, consider them as miseries, a gift of God and live joyfully. My parent is God. What have I got to worry about it? That's what Sri Ramakrishna meant when he said have the attitude of a kitten not that of a young one of a monkey. These are the four things I know that you all listen very very intently but just to make points clear. Relationship between the waker, dreamer and sleeper. Relationship between the living and non-living and both influence each other. Relationship between all the living beings and relationship with God and Guru and especially oneself. Every spiritual aspirant needs to look into his own self and find out what type of relationship he or she has in all these four categories. Failure to do so is spiritual suicide. Now Shankaracharya simplifies and classifies all the possible relationships into certain categories. They are Karya Karana, Swasrami Sambandha, Shishya Acharya, Pitru Putraadi, Jagrat Swapna Sushupti. We have discussed these points as an introduction to this. Only I am going to go through very quickly. Once you have understood the introduction, it is very very easy for us to understand. We can reclassify all these relationships into six categories. Again, Waker, Dreamer and Sleeper and second Possessor or Possessed. Possessor and Possessed. Most of us are living in this second category called Possessor and Possessed. That is to say, I have a body, I have a mind, I have a house, I have a family, I have property, I have a job, I have a religion, I have society, I have God, I have got a Guru. All these are called Possessor, Possessed. If anybody says that I have a God, that is the worst relationship anybody can have. Anybody says I have a Guru, that is also one of the worst relationships. These Possessor, Possessed relationships can be again subdivided into cause and effect. This is what Shankaracharya have done. Time, Space, Causality, Master and Servant. Swasrami Sambandhata. What is the first one? Karana Karya. Karya Karanataya he said because of the Chandas. Karana Karyata Sambandha. Cause and Effect. Second is Master and Servant. Superior or Inferior. Third is Sishya Acharya. Again, because of the Chandas, first should come the Teacher. Teacher and the Taught or the Student and the Master. Fourth, Father, Mother etc. and all family relationships including neighbouring countries, friends, enemies etc. etc. With this introduction, let us analyse the 8th verse in this Dakshinamurthy Stotram. What is this verse? Vishwam Pashyati Karya Karanataya Swasrami Sambandhata Sishya Acharyataya Tathaiva Pitru Putra Dhyatmana Bhedataha Swapne Jagrativa Yaha Esha Purushaha Maya Paribhramitaha Tasmai Sri Gurumurthaye Namaidham Sri Dakshinamurthaye He who is the Paramatma or Purusha, whirling or whirled by the power of Maya, sees the world in terms of cause and effect, diversely related as possessor and possession, Father and Son, Teacher and Taught, both in the states of waking and dreaming, that means in brackets, not in the deep sleep state. To Him who removes that Maya and awakens us to that one reality where all the differences completely disappear, to that Divine Teacher Sri Dakshinamurthy is this prostration. Vishwam Pashyati, each one of us, both in the waking as well as dreaming, not in the deep sleep state, Sushupti state, because that is a kind of Advaita I said, where there is one, there is no relationship. The person sees the world and experiences it how Bhedataha Pashyati. He sees as different, everything is different, including when we say that I am seeing one minute, my eyes are seeing another minute, another I am having pain and my teeth are aching and I am not well, my stomach is not well. We are using two types of sentences and they itself predict, if I is the head then always I should say I am aching, but what do we say, my head is aching, my teeth are paining, my stomach is upset, my legs are having romantic pains etc. etc. So all this clearly shows, language shows crystal clearly that this OFF, I HAVE, possessor, possessed relationship. We have to analyze them and say I am not the body, I am not the mind, but I have a body, I have a mind, so I must discriminate and say what happens to all this, what I have cannot affect me. Just as suppose your house is damaged, it doesn't damage you, excepting you mentally, you think that I am damaged, your car is damaged, met an accident and it is written off, the car is gone, but you are perfectly alright, but we think I am gone, I am unhappy, the car never, fortunately the car doesn't have a head, that's why it doesn't have a headache, it doesn't have a mind, therefore it doesn't feel happy or unhappy, so we have to learn all these lessons from a buffalo. All the politicians are great teachers in what is called completely disregarding other people's criticisms and billions of buckets of dirt is poured over the heads of every politician and next moment he simply whips up the whole thing like a dog, simply it moves its body and everything goes up and then he doesn't even think about it. If somebody tells you something in a negative way, for 1500 days you are only thinking about what had happened. Every politician is a Samadarshi, you give me a vote and that's all your work and I look upon you as a voting animal and as nothing else, this is called Samadarshitva. We have to learn, what am I talking about? That I am not affected whatever happens because I am not the body, I am not the mind, but what do we say? We say we experience the world only in differentiation and that we should reduce slowly and what we experience is not even true. For that an example is every day the sun is rising in the east and setting in the west. Sun is rising at 5 o'clock and then at 7 o'clock it is setting in the west. Go to the sun and say why are you rising at 5 o'clock? Why can't you rise at 7.30? Damn you because I want to get sleep. Then you wake up, everybody wakes up and they disturb my sleep and if you get up two hours late, I can sleep two hours more and the sun will be surprised and said what is waking up? What is rising? What is setting? Is there anything called setting or rising for the sun? And this is what we see with our eyes every single day. Remember Vyavaharika, phenomenal, it is very useful, but the truth is what we see is not right. So you say this is my body, that is not right. If it is your body then it should be always with you. What is the definition of I? Whatever is mine will be with me always forever and whatever is not mine will always be away from me and it will changing all the time. Is this body there previous birth? Will it be there in the next birth? At least will it be there in this birth? It is changing every millisecond. So Divishram Pashyati and this is called Karya Karnataya. What is it? I have been created by my parents and you are not created by your parents. But then who created me? This is the subject we will discuss tomorrow morning in our Dakshinamurthy class. Om Jananim Sharadam Devim Ramakrishnam Jagadgurum Pada Padme Taiyoh Sritva Pranamami Mohor Moho May Ramakrishna, Holy Mother and Swami Vivekananda bless us all with Bhakti.