Kaivalya Upanishad Lecture 01 on 15 October 2023

Full Transcript (Not Corrected)

As I mentioned yesterday, from today onwards, we are going to study a beautiful Upanishad called Kaivalya Upanishad. The very name of the Upanishad, Kaivalya means mukti. Kevala bhava. Kevalakta means alone, one without a second, absolutely solitary, pure advaita bhava. The very name of the Upanishad is that knowledge which leads to this state of being ourselves. That is called Kaivalya or Moksha Upanishad, if you want to put it simply. This is not considered as a major Upanishad, but considered only as a minor Upanishad. It has only one chapter and only 26 verses. But the entire Vedanta philosophy is compressed as it were here. And even this Upanishad, Kaivalya Upanishad, it borrows a lot of these mantras from other places. When we go through them, we will find out that many times we have heard this in other Upanishads under other circumstances. Now, there are two versions are there. Just as we have Yajur Veda, two versions, Krishna Yajur Veda and Shukla Yajur Veda. This Kaivalya Upanishad also has two versions. One belongs to the Yajur Veda, specifically to the Krishna Yajur Veda. And the other comes in the Atharva Veda or Atharvana Veda. So, as I just now mentioned, what is the etymology? Do you know what is etymology? What is the meaning of the word derived? What is the root meaning of the word? That is called etymology. So, for example, Munihi, a sage. What is the etymology? Mananath Munihi. He who is completely absorbed in deeply thinking, therefore doesn't speak out. That is what we observe as Maunam. So, that is why he is called Munihi. What is Rishihi? Rishati, Janathi, Iti Rishihi. One who knows the highest truth is called Rishihi. So, Acharya. What is it? Acharati, Iti Acharyaha. One who puts into practice what he preaches, teaches to his devotees and disciples, such a person alone is worthy of being called Acharya. So, everything has got a root meaning. This is the beauty of Sanskrit language. Every single word is derived from there, from a root. So, Kaivalya means from Kevala. Kevala means aloneness, isolation, absoluteness. And so, it also means to the conduct of a person who wants to be alone with God. Not alone with some beloved object. No, alone with God and want to be completely absorbed into God. That is called absoluteness. It is a beautiful Upanishad. So, these two shakhas are there. Krishna Yajur Veda Shakha has 26 verses. This Atharvana Veda has only 24 verses. And this Upanishad, like Kata Upanishad, like many other Prashna Upanishad or Aitareya Upanishad, many other Upanishads, is in the form of a dialogue. So, why is it dialogue? I will come to that later on. It is like sitting and two people talking together. Teacher and disciple, child and mother or father, student and teacher, two friends. In fact, the whole Bhagavad Gita is in the form of a dialogue between Bhagavan Krishna and Arjuna. So, it is in the form of a dialogue. And many Upanishads are, whether it is mentioned or not, in the form of a dialogue. Because a true teacher never goes on telling without being asked. And it also has a lot of benefits. I will come to that later on. So, this Upanishad is a dialogue, a discourse between Guru and a disciple. Who was the Guru? Brahma himself. In our Puranic lore, in the Puranas, Brahma, Virga, A, A, means creator. Saguna Brahma. But if it is Brahma, short, only short vowel A, it means Parabrahman, he is true. He is neither the creator nor in any way active. So, this distinction. Because Nirguna Brahma doesn't have ears, doesn't have eyes, doesn't have any sense organs, doesn't have a mind. So, you apply and apply, there would be no reply at all. Because he cannot hear like a stone. So, only a Saguna Brahma, and we have seen, Brahma, Devanam, Prathamaha. So, Saguna Brahma is the very first. When Arjuna refers to Krishna in the Bhagavad Gita, that you are Adhikartha, you are the first person, the creator, the active person, in the form of creation, maintenance and destruction. He is referring to the Saguna Brahma, not to the Nirguna Brahma. You are the father. Pitaasi lokasya chara charasya. You are the father. You are the cause. You are the Yoni of this entire universe. So, there was a great sage, very great sage, a great Rishi. His name was Asvalayana. And he approached Srishtikartha Brahma, why? He wanted to learn Brahma Vidya. Brahma Vidya cannot be learned from a Brahman. We are all a Brahman, Anatmans. If somebody comes and asks me, teach me about God, I can teach you anything else, but not about God. Only God can teach about God. And anyone who realizes God becomes a God. This name, Asvalayana, it comes in many places in the Rig Veda. He was the author of many of the mantras. We do not know whether these mantras came after realization. Most probably. But many are attributed to him. He was a very great sage, very intelligent person. And only an intelligent person can understand about Brahma Vidya. Or even if you want to understand Einstein, you have to be one of the eight persons in the whole world. Only it is said, one of the eight persons, he was capable, they were capable of understanding Einstein's theory of special relativity. So, Asvalayana approached Brahma for Brahma Vidya. Because this Brahma is an embodiment of Brahma Vidya. Why? Because he is only a manifested form of Brahman. And so, what is this ultimate reality? It is called Brahman. And that is the state of self-realization. So, this Asvalayana, he must have been a fit student. He approached. And then what did he say? He said, Adhi Bhagavo Brahmeti. Please teach me about Brahman. That's what we will come to later on. Now the question may come, this Asvalayana, he was such a learned person, why did he need? He was a very intellectual person. But he was not a God-realized person. How do we know? Because a God-realized person doesn't approach another God-realized person. You teach me about Brahman. One who knows anything will not approach anybody else. You teach me this one. Only those who do not know, they have to approach. So, this also reminds us, what does it remind? This Brahma Vidya can never be learned, can never be understood, excepting when we are in a fit state to receive it. We must approach a proper Guru and fall at his feet. And very beautiful indications are given. I will give you one or two. First, I will give you from the Mundaka Upanishad. Samitpani Shrotriya Brahmanishtaha So, there was a student. He was a Shrotriya. That means, Shrotriya means, he who is very familiar with Shrutis. What does it mean? He doesn't know what we call the Antarartha, the inner meaning. He knows only the outer meaning. But he has studied. He had faith and he had a desire. How do we know? Because, suppose somebody tells us, such and such a place, a beautiful fruit, very, very fragrant, tasty or sweet is available. Now, we do not know such a thing really exists. All that we know is that we have faith in the person who conveys that knowledge to us. And the Guru and the Acharyas tell us about Brahman. That is the only thing real, permanent. And that is the only thing which will fulfill all our desires. So, then we must have Shraddha, pure faith. So, this person, he had approached. And we have several instances. How to approach? Samitpani, Brahmanishta means, totally devoted to Brahman. Nishtha means what? Not a realized soul, but completely devoted. Nishtha means devotion, unwavering, unflickering, unrestless. That means complete at rest, full concentration and full faith. And that is called Nishtha, like Ekalavya. So, Samitpani, he must approach the Guru with Samit. Pani means hand, Samit means dry wood, fuel. Why? Because in those days, many Rishis used to perform Yajnas and Yagas. Even though they are realized souls, they used to do it for the welfare of all people, you know. So, every time we perform a Homa in our Ashramas, the Sankalpa would be for the Bhakti, Jnana, Viveka, Vairagya, for the sake of acquiring all these marvelous spiritual characteristics. But not for me, not for only monks, but for all the devotees whoever gathers here, whoever is witnessing, as if they are participating and they are doing Sankalpa, only I am doing it on behalf of all these people. In fact, every priest, he has nothing to gain, he is not a selfish puja, so he does puja from morning till evening, but he is doing it for the welfare of everybody, that whether even if a person doesn't visit the temple, but mentally he is thinking of God and mentally he is visiting the temples for the welfare of everybody. That's why he is called Purohita, employed as a medium to approach God, to worship God, to adore God, to pray to God for the welfare of everybody else. So, Samitpani, he means what? A person who is completely devoted. What is the test of such devotion? Samitpani is Acharya's, Rishi's, they use it to perform. Remember, Vishwamitra wanted to perform what is called Sarvalokahita Igna in the Ramayana, but there are evil people who don't want the welfare of the country at all, welfare of the world, only for themselves. They are called Asuras. Asura means a selfish person, totally devoted to the satisfaction of his own sense organs. Asureshu, Pramateti, Asuraha. So, Asu means Prana, Prana means Indriya, one who revels in the fulfilment of sense enjoyment. Such a person, that means completely selfish person, that means the body alone is the greatest God and nothing else. Such a person is called an Asuraha. So, what happens to them once they go? What happens? They are like people who commit suicide, as Isavasya Upanishad tells us. Now, Samitpani, these great people used to perform Igna Yaga and different people used to supply some ringed cows. Many times, kings, etc, they used to maintain, like Agnivalika wanted to take all the cows. What was he going to do? Because he wanted to do a lot of Igna Yagas, maintain the students through milk, through curds, through buttermilk, but mainly to do. And we must remind ourselves. Swami Vivekananda, once he visited Pauhari Baba in Gajipur. It is from Varanasi, about one and a half hours to two hours away. And Swamiji admired. He was a perfected Yogi and he used to do Igna Yagas. And once Swamiji noticed this Pauhari Baba. He had decorated Radha and Krishna in a swing and then he was swinging joyfully after decorating. Swamiji was a little bit surprised, shocked. Why do you need to still perform these rituals? And Pauhari Baba smiled sweetly and said, Do you think whatever we do is only for one's own purpose? Then Swamiji understood. It is meant for the welfare of the whole world. And by the way, this Pauhari Baba, he finally offered himself in the self-immolation in a Yagna. He performed the Yagna. The final offering was his own body because he was a realized soul. So now, Samit Panihi means firewood, is to indicate that we are ready to assist you, to serve you, Guru Seva, in every way that is possible. This is superficial meaning, but there is an inner meaning. What is the fuel used for? For lighting up the fire. What fire is used? To cook food and to make hard things soft, etc. That means what? We are ready to sacrifice ourselves in order to obtain this knowledge. We will burn down our selfishness, our evil qualities, asaric qualities. Tavvaha, Tarpaha, Abhimanaha, as beautifully described so much in the 16th chapter of the Bhagavad Gita, but in simple summarization form, Shadormi, Kama, Krodha, Lobha, Moha, Mada, Matsarya. Then only we become Sadhana, Chatursthaya, Sampannaha. We are ready to control and purify our body and minds. That is indicated by Samit Panihi. So Ashwalayana must have approached this. Whom? Brahmaji himself. Why? Brahma is one who is an embodiment of Brahma Jnanam, but he is doing. What was he doing? The good of the world. This entire world he created, God created for roasting us, for making us suffer. He will be sitting and clapping. Whenever we see a cinema, we will be doing it. No, that is not the purpose. Out of pure love, he wants to make the world an instrument. Not only the external world, but our body, mind, everything, so that we can slowly approach him. This idea that separation is for the sake of greater happiness we can get through union, that is what exactly is meant by Samit Panihi. Now, I mentioned something. Ashwalayana was a great revered Vedic sage, and he was the author of many mantras in the Rig Veda. Why such a person needed to go? Because intellectual knowledge, however deep it is, however right it is, however rational it is, is not sufficient. Realization is the only way. We are reminded every time of Narada and Sanat Kumara. In the Chandogya Upanishad, we have beautiful illustrations of Hindi. I think, most likely, I forget, in the 7th chapter of the Chandogya Upanishad, there is a Narada-Sanat Kumara Sambhada. Narada, as a student, approached Sanat Kumara and fell at his feet. So, Adi Bhagavo Brahmeti, please teach me about Brahman, or give me Self-Knowledge, Atma Jnanam, Brahma Jnanam. And Sanat Kumara, the Guru, asks him, tell me whatever you know. And you know, the most surprising thing, I am a living encyclopedia. He doesn't say that. We have to say that. He knows all the Vedas, all the Vedangas, all the 64 Kalas. There is nothing in this world. Chandogya Upanishad goes into the greatest detail. He knows how to sing, how to dance, and he has even some Siddhis, like he can look into the earth and where different minerals are there. So, if China gets hold of such a person, so where to get this nuclear material, if Iran can get hold of that one? So, whether gold is hidden, treasures are hidden, and many treasures are really hidden there. Funny things happen, you know. When Rama's army has sworn, then there was a physician. What does it show? That every army in war, what we call nowadays Red Cross, had to be taken. So, Rama also, along with Sugriva, had taken a lot of physicians there. So, one of the physicians, probably Jambavan, and he had, because they were living in the forest, and they know many of these Ayurvedic medications, so he said, these people are not dead, but they are only merely swooned. I can bring back to life all of them, but I require this thing. So, where is it? It's available only in the Himalayas. So, how to go? By that time, it will take years to get there, in those days, from Rameshwaram, Sri Lanka to the Himalayas. Then they assigned Hanuman, because he could fly. And then, how to identify the plant? Said, it will be like this, like this, like this. And Hanuman flew, and he had encountered a lot of obstacles, and then he landed on the Himalayas. He looked, every single plant looked exactly like Sanjeevani Mulika. He said, it is impossible for me to understand, because there was no telephone or email to find out exactly. He could have, otherwise he could have taken a photograph, and immediately, yes, yes, that you see, turn to the right, go forward for three feet, and to your right, that is the Mulika I want. But he simply brought the whole hill together, threw it at the feet of the Yama and said, now you pick up and do. Now, what am I trying to tell? That this Narada, he knew everything. There is not a single bit of knowledge which others knew, but which Narada did not know. He, what is called, catalogued the whole vidyas. And then the Guru was a bit probably surprised, not really surprised. You are such a knowledgeable person, why do you want to come? And then what did he say? I have studied all the Vedas, studied all the Upanishads. He knows all the Upanishads. And this is the story that is coming in the Chandogya Upanishad. Then why did you come? He utters a beautiful word. You know what he says? He says, the vidya that emerges out of the mouth of a realized soul alone can lead one out of the samsara. The others will be only intellectual knowledge. And then Sairam Krishna's teachings come to our aid. He remarks about two people, you know, how true knowledge can be obtained. Says there are so many pundits, they can chant Vedas, they can explain with beautiful commentaries, but they are like vultures, who soar so high, whose only sight is on the rotting carcasses below. There are many pundits like that. But the other example is very wonderful. Unless you are an assistant, you work under a physician, Ayurvedic physician, you can't understand the pulse of a bile from the pulse of a cough. Something like that, kapha, pitta, vata. The whole Ayurvedic Shastra has been summarized in those three. Everything else, every disease that can emerge was, is and will be only from a proper improper combination of these three things only, or whichever is dominant kapha or vata or pitta. And that is the Ayurvedic theory of what is called curing diseases. Then Narada tells, I know Bhagavan, but one thing, unless a great realized soul explains these things, these will not be fruitful. So Sri Ramakrishna says, you work along with a physician, then you understand the difference between the one pulse and another pulse. You know, Ayurvedic physicians mostly are diagnosed by taking your hand and putting their fingers on the pulse. And then there are people who could really do that. And another example he gives, if you work only with weavers, then you understand the difference between the number 40 thread, number 41 thread. The difference is so minute, it is impossible to find out. So intellectual knowledge will not do at all. And it is inevitable that we have to approach a Sadguru. That is why this is called Guru-Shishya Sampradaya like Mundaka Upanishad. In this Kaivalya Upanishad also, this Brahmaji himself had taught to another person, this Asvalayana, a student. And he was a great grammarian. He was a great Rishi also. What does he do? Approaches Parameshti. Parameshti means the greatest person for the sake of Brahma Vidya. And then he gives, this highest knowledge is desired, is asked for, is cultivated only by Saddhi, good people. One that enables to reach the person who is greater than the great. So Brahma's answer will come, listen, that is called Shravana, and then think, ponder deeply, Manana, and realize through Nidhidhyasana. So I want to give you just a slight background. You know Vedas, our scriptures, they are called Apahurushayas, that is they are the direct revelations from God himself. And when God gives, He can only give God. That is Brahma Jnanam. But to attain to Brahma Jnanam, we have to be ready. And to be ready, our body should be proper instrument, mind should be proper instrument, and the mind must become pure for that purpose. There is Karma Kanda and Jnana Kanda or Brahma Kanda. I like to refer to them as Dharma Kanda and Brahma Kanda. And Vedas wants people like us to realize there are two types of fruits we all seek. One is called Prayaha. Prayaha means Dharma, Artha, Kama. And Shrayaha means Moksha. One is a temporary result, another is a permanent result. One is a limited result, another is a permanent result. That is the distinction. So the only Brahma Kanda, second part, but it doesn't mean the first part is redundant or completely unnecessary. What is the role of the first part? Called Karma Kanda or what I call Dharma Kanda. It will make a person pure, Dharmic, what is called Adhikari, Sadhana, Chatursthaya, Sampannaha. What does it mean? He has four qualities, actually nine qualities. Viveka, Vairagya, Shama, Dhamma, Titiksha, Shraddha, Pramadhana, and Uparati and finally Mumukshutva. So when a person is ready, Guru imparts that knowledge in the form of a Mahavakya. What is the Mahavakya? It is the essence of all the Upanishads. What is a Mahavakya? It is Sarva Shastra Sara. What does it mean? It means you are having ignorance. Ignorance makes you feel there is multiplicity, and many things are there, many people are there, many objects are there and that is called Jitiya. What does it do? Jitiya Dvahi Bhayam Bhavati Fear comes because of the second. Why? Because as soon as we see somebody, even brothers are jealous of brothers, sisters are jealous of sisters, even husband and wife. If a wife is more intelligent and a bigger officer and earning more and having more power, definitely the husband wishes that he should be a better person than his wife because this terrible idea all over the world that the males are better than the females will never go away from their minds. But women are more intelligent. Says, Oh man, you are only part of me. I am having five letters, you are having only three letters. So what does the Guru do to a fit disciple? Adhikari Purushaha What does he do? He will give the essence of the Upanishads. That is called Upanishad. That is called Vedanta, Veda, Anta means the essence of the Vedas or the Upanishads. And Tatparya Nishchayaha Tatparya means the very essence. What is that essence? Aham Brahmasmi What does the Guru say? Says Tattvamasi The what? That. But there are four Mahamakhyas chosen. What is it? That first of all Prajnanam Brahma We can classify them as four steps, five steps really. First is Prajnanam Brahma You are a conscious being, aware being. Without consciousness you can't experience anything. That is why consciousness is everything. We have discussed so elaborately in our last class, Aitareya Upanishad Tasmat Prajnanam Brahma Prajnana Netraha Prajnane Pratishtitam Sarvam Prajnanam Brahma So consciousness is everything. Now that is Prajnanam Brahma That came in the Aitareya Upanishad Then I am Atma Brahma This I am Atma What you call I am the body, I am the mind Really you are not the body But you are that Prajnanam Tattvam That is the in general Then Guru specifically comes and tells When the disciple is ready Tattvam Asi You are Brahman You are not the body You are not the Brahman Mind You are nothing but pure Brahman That is what the Guru tells This is called Mahavakya Shravana Through the three steps of Shravana Listening with faith Manana Ponder deeply until all doubts are removed And Nidhidhyasana Transform your life So that the realization will come As soon as we are pure Realization will automatically come This is called Nidhidhyasana And what Guru said Then what does he do He arrives at the knowledge Through experience What is that knowledge Aham Brahmasmi This is the fourth step What is the last step If that realized soul happens to still Be having the body and mind Because of Prarabdha Karma Then he sees not only He knows not only he is Brahman But there is nothing else Excepting Brahman That is the Kaivalyam So this Tatpariya Nishchaya This definitive essence summary Of all the highest teaching That the Guru passes Through his own What is called knowledge Because realization is one But how to pass on to the others It requires what Sri Ramakrishna calls Authority Unless God's grace is there Every realized soul Cannot become a real Guru That is the purpose So now how does he do it And in our Upanishads itself Especially the Chandogya Upanishad When the Guru is teaching Tat Tvam Asi Shweta Keto Now what that Shweta Keto There are certain methodologies derived It is called that methodology Containing six characteristics For ascertaining the true essence of all the scriptures Six characteristics must be applied That shows our teachers Do not blindly tell You have faith in me And God will be pleased If you go and murder somebody He will not tell What are these Upakrama and Upasamhara Six things Very briefly I will tell you If a teaching begins That is called Upakrama Beginning Upasamhara means It is the ending Simple example You are Brahman That is the beginning of the teaching And so after teaching Taking the disciple Through so many arguments Examples etc So now it is decided You are none other than Brahman Beginning you are Brahman Ending you are Brahman You are God That is called Upakrama Upasamhara The very first characteristic Then Abhyasa Repetition Why Abhyasa? Because we are like stone walls And Guru Upadesha is like a nail made up of butter And the Guru is trying to hammer it into our brains It will take a long time So repetition will go on Until the disciple realizes it That is the duty of the Guru Abhyasaha So again and again Remind this one So I will just tell you How many times Sri Ramakrishna reminds So one example Girish Chandra Ghosh Had completely surrendered himself to Sri Ramakrishna In fact Sri Ramakrishna asked him Give me your power of attorney That means surrender yourself to me And he did that And then one day he forgot And he forget means not willfully But because of old habit And he said I will do this And immediately this was said Within the hearing of Sri Ramakrishna his Guru And then he said Oh Girish should you say that I will do it You should say that if God permits Then I can do this Immediately the intelligent Girish Chandra Ghosh understood Ramakrishna is right After surrendering you are everything You can't take it back and say I know something I want to do something So this is Abhyasa And then Apurvata A teaching should be unique Because if it is available everywhere There is no uniqueness Apurvata means what Uniqueness It is completely an idea That is suitable only for the disciple And nobody else knows how to convey it Only he knows it This is called Apurvata Though it may not be related strictly But I will tell you Give you an example Once Swami Varijanandaji Direct disciple of Holy Mother A developed unbearable migraine headache So he immediately came down He could not sleep He could not eat 24 hours it was troubling him He came to Belur Math At that time Swami Brahmanandaji was the president He went and laid bare his problem And Brahmanandaji knew of course the remedy But to reinforce his faith He sent you go and ask your Guru That his Guru was Holy Mother And immediately he went to Holy Mother And as soon as Holy Mother saw him He did not even He just entered the room Holy Mother had one look Said my son Where are you meditating When you sit for meditation Where do you concentrate your mind In the head or in the heart And he said in the what is called head So immediately on the forehead Where Ajna Chakra is supposed to be Mother said I never instructed you to do that It is only meant for very few people Very highly advanced people never do that And then for a few days Very psychological treatment Don't meditate Because whenever he sits That habit will come And headache will not go So he has to eat And he was joyfully And Holy Mother was preparing so many things I have my own doubts About the tastefulness of that food Probably some mothers are also thinking Hopefully I hope so And he was very happy Within few days by Guru's grace The whole thing has disappeared And then he understood That is why a Guru is necessary That is why we all need this one And innumerable instances are there Like this in the life of Sri Ramakrishna So Apurvata means uniqueness Only a Guru can give it to Then Phalam What is the Phalam What are you going to get It must be a Phalam Which the disciple is seeking And he is not seeking Dharma, Artha, Kama He is only seeking Moksham That is why there is a beautifully told We are all people Where we know we can get something We hope to get something We run after it So where there is no hope of getting any fruit Or we are not interested The effort itself will not be there So the fourth one is unique Phalam What is it Brahma Gnanam Then fifth is Artha Vada A glorification And this fruit that we are going to get Cannot be got anywhere else It can be got only through the Upanishadic teaching That is why we say glorifying everything Just in the Punishad ways This person who has obtained the Brahma Gnanam So Amutlokat Utkramya Amushmin Lokam Utkramya Swarga Loke Immediately as soon as the ignorance is destroyed He finds himself in where Swarga Loka Swarga Loka means not somewhere else Swarga Loka means the Loka Brahman Self And then he will be swimming in the ocean He becomes immortal That is what we have seen Samabhavat Samabhavat That is called Artha Vada Glorification You know advertisement nowadays You buy this soap Oh everybody will run away from you This is I mean everybody will be attracted to you You use this scent Everybody will be running after you This is the fifth one Then Upapatthihi Throughout from the beginning to the end The logic rationality should be there Our Hindu scriptures never tell anybody Don't have any rationality Simply blindly trust And Sairam Krishna discouraged people Swami Vekananda also discouraged people You even if all the God himself comes and tells me Until I understand it I am not going to accept it He had the courage even to say I don't accept you as an incarnation of God So these are the three things And just I will repeat When the teachings of the Upanishad is taught Taking the help of all these six characteristics Apply them threadware That means no simply saying We can leave this one All the six must be applied And the greatest example is given Nine times it is repeated in the Chandogya Upanishad So that is how the disciple will be firmly convinced That doing sadhana is worthy And this is the only fruit for which we have to do sadhana Everything else is completely wrong Now this Kaivalya Upanishad is by its very name As I mentioned Mukti Upanishad Moksha Upanishad And Kaivalya Upanishad is a minor Upanishad It doesn't fall under the eleven What is called Upanishads Many people only talk Dasha Upanishad But he also had written a commentary And some people believe in it It's called Shweta Shweta Upanishad Which we also had occasion to expound But definitely on ten Upanishads Shankaracharya had written This Kaivalya Upanishad is not one of them But there are other Acharyas Who have written because it is so beautiful In any case it is not only beautiful It is very short and very sweet So this belongs to Atharvana Veda And like Atharvana Veda It also has got the Shanti Mantra What is the Atharvana Veda Mundaka Upanishad Mandukya Upanishad What is the Shanti Patha Just as we have chanted it At the beginning of this class So that is very important For all of us to understand So finally what is the Kaivalya Kaivalya means Ekatvam Ekam, Nityam, Vimalam, Achalam, Shashvatam, Deviyam These are the epithets Why? Because Vitiya Dvai, Bhayam Bhavati If there is a second one Bhayam will come So that state of Advaita is the goal Which this Upanishad by the very word Kaivalya If you say Katha What is the meaning Katha very hard, very harsh So many Upanishads do not give that direct meaning Mundaka Mundaka means indirectly Shaven headed That means you become Sanyasi For the sake of the highest knowledge That means you renounce all other desires Accepting the desire for God Realization So like that Mandukya In fact Mandukya means frog So there was a Rishi called Mandukya Rishi And so I explained to you also You can go back Mandukya Rishi thought Why is he called Mandukya? Because he straightaway jumps from the worldly subjects To the spiritual subject And Sairam Krishna had also a beautiful experience How his Kundalini like a frog jumps Suddenly quietly sitting It suddenly takes a jump from one place One leaf to the other leaf From one place to other place That is one of the experiences But here the Kaivalya Upanishad Beautiful So as mentioned earlier This Upanishad belongs to Atharvana Veda It has a Shanti Patha And what is that Shanti Patha? Shanti Shanti Shanti Om Oh Gods May we always hear with our ears What is auspicious May we see what is auspicious May we live our God allotted life Hail and hearty Always contemplating and worshipping you May all the other Gods Indra of ancient form And then Pusha, the Sun God The Garuda, the Tarkshya The Vahana of Bhagwan Vishnu And may Brihaspati May all of them be well disposed towards me And so may they bless me So that I may attain Brahma Jnanam Without any obstacles There is some meaning Which I will deal with it in my next class So then Shanti Shanti Shanti Three times Why? Because there are only three facts in this world My body The world And God's four-wheel This entire world There is nothing else in Samsara Excepting these three Adhyatmika Adhibhautika And Adhidaivika Such a beautiful concept Our Rishis have formulated Entire universe is nothing but The presiding deities of our body and mind And this entire universe And the object which we call the universe Including our body and mind And our Chidabhasa Pure consciousness Reflected pure consciousness Pure consciousness Mixing with body and mind And experiencing everything In the form of the body and mind Only three So let there be no obstacle Let there be peace So what is the essence of any Shanti Mantra? Why do we need to chant this Shanti Mantra? First is naturally Shanti Means Vijnanivarana Removal of any sort of obstacle That is already there Or that may be coming During the course of my study Under the feet of the Guru So that is the Prarthana By grace of God Then second is Vanapravati Not only removal of the obstacle But to progress further I require the blessings of Guru The blessings of the Guru Nothing but the blessings of God But we also require All my body All the sense organs Karmendriyas And Jnanendriyas And Panchapranas And four Manaha, Chitta, Buddhi, Ahamkara In a most optimum stage And also very healthy stage That is possible only by God's grace That is called Manapravati or Yogyata And then sometimes The Shanti Mantra itself indicates As I mentioned In the case of Purnam, Adaha, Purnam, Idam For that Adaha, Purnam is Brahman This Idaha, Purnam This world is also Brahman This world That is Brahman with name and form Is only manifestation and appearance of that Paramatma And so that Paramatma ever remains infinite only There is no other way So finally That realization by the grace of God alone This is a point I am never tired of emphasizing We want to be happy in this world God's grace is necessary We want to be happy in Swarga Loka God's grace is necessary We want progress in any field of life Mother Saraswati's grace is necessary We want to go to God Himself God's grace is necessary Sriram Krishna's whole teaching Bhagavan Krishna says Only by my grace Where did Krishna say that one? So he says Daivihesha gunamayi mama maya duratya Impossible to get rid of this Ajnanam Because it belongs to me Then what is the way? That only by my grace So they can come cross over This difficult to cross Ajnanam God's grace alone This is the essence of what is called the Shanti Patha Which I will elaborate in my next class A little bit more May Ramakrishna, Holy Mother and Swami Vivekananda Bless us all with Bhakti Jai Ramakrishna