Kaivalya Upanishad Lecture 06 on 04 November 2023

Full Transcript (Not Corrected)

We are studying the Kaivalya Upanishad. We have covered four mantras. The story starts with a very fit disciple, Adhikari Sadhaka called Ashvalayana, son of Ashvala. And he approached Brahma himself directly with the request, Please help me realize my true nature. Aham Brahmasmi. Help me to know that Aham Brahma. And this is the most secret knowledge, sacred knowledge and very deeply hidden. And only a few people come to know about it. And what is the benefit? The person becomes completely free from all Punyas and Papas. And to such an earnest and fit disciple, instantaneously Pitamaha, that is Brahma, he started teaching. What is the first thing? I bless you with Shraddha, with Bhakti, with Dhyana. I told you I bless you so that you are endowed with Karma Yoga, Bhakti Yoga and Jnana Yoga. And so that you can understand what I am going to teach you. Shravana, Manana and Nididhyasana. Without Shraddha, without Bhakti, without Dhyana, it is not possible to realize your true nature. And to emphasize that point in the third mantra, he is telling, Na Karmana, Na Prajaya Dhanena. Neither by any type of activity, Na Prajaya, by any type of relationship, Na Dhanena, by any amount of wealth. It means I and mine should be completely given up. And that is called Thyaga. Thyagena Amritatvam Anashaho. Everybody who realized God, had realized only, possessed of Shraddha, Bhakti, Dhyana and Yoga. And where is this? Brahman, it is everywhere. But as if, until it is realized, as if it is somewhere else. It is above the highest, even Brahmaloka. Deeply hidden in one's own heart. But ever shining in the form of Aham. I want to think that I should come first. I want to see, I should come first. I want to hear, I should come first. Whether I want to contact an external object or any of the thought within my own mind, this awareness, Chaitanya, Chidavasa, that comes first. Even if I go to Mars or Surya Loka or Chandra Loka or Brahmaloka, before I reached there, this Chaitanyam is already there. That is why I am able to cognize and say, this is such and such a world. So there are people, they reach this highest reality, how by knowing Brahman and myself are not two separate beings. This was what was said by Parameshti Brahma to his disciple Ashwalayana. And this Guru Parampara has been coming. Ashwalayana must have taught to his disciples and his disciples must have passed it on to their disciples. And that is how, whether it is Swami Brahmananda or Sri Ramakrishna or Totapuri or Shankaracharya or Govindacharya or Gaudapada or even Vedavyasa, Shukadeva, they are all coming only from the Divine Lord, also known as Brahma, Vishnu, Maheshwara, are not three separate deities, three functions of the same deity. This is the essence of the third mantra. Then in our last class, we have been exploring and we have not done it properly or completely. And I also mentioned this fourth mantra is always recited whenever we receive the head of any Sanyasa Ashrama, any Sanyasin. Why do we welcome these great souls with the recitation of these things? So that it is not for them only, but it is for us also to remind. This is a good occasion. What is the good occasion? The highest Ashrama in this world is only Sanyas Ashrama. It is also called Atiyashrama. It is also called in this Kaivalya Upanishad, Antiyashrama. Antiya means the last, because from there we take off to become one with Brahman. These people are 150% convinced whatever the scripture is telling. And Guru only interprets what the scripture is telling, reinforces with his own experiences, makes it authentic for us. And such people who are blessed, they are called Vedanta Vijnana. The essence of Vedanta, without the least bit of doubt, they have understood. How come? How did they understand? Because they did Shravana with Bhakti and Shraddha. Then they did Manana and then they practiced Nidhidhyasana for a long time. Then they realized what the Guru said is absolutely true. There is no doubt about it because nobody can realize, nobody can deny one's own realization. If you have an experience, your interpretation of the experience may be flawed. But the very fact of your experience can never be denied. So if somebody has seen a ghost, for example, not to speak of different Devatas, etc. And it could be in the waking state or it could be also in dream states. So many people get dreams. And the people who doubt such kind of dreams, they are not very intelligent people. Example, Prani Rashmani dreamt Divine Mother. Many times she appeared. First time that we know because of her own recollection, she said, She said, I started an pilgrimage and then that night Mother appeared and said, You don't need to go. You build a temple for me. All in dream. But for her, dream is more real than even the waking state. And she put forth several years and nine and a half lakhs of rupees spending the present Dakshineshwar temple complex has come into being. Then when the image was ready, the Divine Mother appeared. How long are you going to keep me in this very small box? I am suffocating. That means I am alive. If you keep any living person completely locked up in a small box, how does that person feel or how do you feel? Same way the Divine Mother is telling that I have come out alive to you. So don't keep me. And the strangest thing happened. Usually a temple dedicated to Divine Mother should be opened on that particular day. For example, if you construct a Saraswati temple, it is more auspicious if you can open it on a Saraswati Puja day. If it is Durga, Durga Puja day. So if it is Narayana, maybe on Vaikuntha Ekadashi. If it is Shiva, maybe on Shivaratri. But because of the Divine Mother's commandment, Rani had to do on a very auspicious day, particularly for the Vaishnava Snana Yatra day. So from their point of view, there is no special day. From our point of view, for our own sake, we observe certain days as specially belonging to the different aspects of the Divine. But we should never say Ram Navami cannot be celebrated on any other day, excepting on Ram Navami. Because God has no such limitations. In fact, like mine and your birthday, they don't have birthday. Therefore, there is no death day also for them. For us, there is a birthday. Wherever there is a birthday, there will be also a death day. We forget often, celebrate our birthday, not recognizing that every birthday we are nearer to the chopping block. So these people, Vedanta Vijnana Sunistha Artha, what did they do? They detached themselves from everything. That is called Sannyasa Yoga. Sannyasa has very little to do with external paraphernalia or garments, etc., insignia and having big Rudraksha Malas, etc. It is purely connected with, I even unconsciously do not desire anything worldly. I only want God. Except God, I don't want anything. That is called Sannyasa Yoga. Sannyasa means, many times I explained during puja, there is something called Nyasa, a process of transferring what I thought as mine, that it is not mine, it is God's. That process of transforming one's ownership to the real ownership to God, that is called Nyasa. And if it is done properly, it is called Sannyasa. So this complete self-surrender, nothing belongs to anybody, everything belongs to you, that is called Sannyasa. And they have been striving, it's called Yatis. Yatis means Yatta Manaha. So Yatna means continuous, unbroken effort. And as a result, they have purified their minds, Sattva Guna has increased, Shuddha Sattvaha, that's all. Such people, Parantakale, that means this is the last birth. Antakala means Mrityo, Para means last death. That means there is no more rebirth. What do they do? Brahmalokeshu. So they reach Brahmaloka. Here Brahmaloka is not the world of Brahma, it is the world of Brahman, one's own Swaloka, Atmaloka. What do they become? Para Amrutaha. There is a temporary immortality, Swargaloka, Brahmaloka, etc. But this is eternity itself. Paramrutaha, the ultimate immortality, which we all pray all the time. Asato Ma Sadgamaya Tamaso Ma Jyotirgamaya Mrutyor Ma Mrutangamaya Sarve! Anybody who reaches this state of Sanyasa, not interested in worldly objects, but they cannot live without God, like Mirabai, who bursts out into a sound, Mere To Giridhara Gopala Tu Sara Na Koi. For me, nobody else exists excepting Gopala. And whatever is offered to Gopala becomes Amruta for me. That is why when either her husband or her husband's brother, brother-in-law, sent poison not secretly but openly, I sent poison to you, you drink it. And then she said, Rana Ne Bheja Rana, brother-in-law or husband, sent me a cup of poison. Peevat Meera Haase Re I offered it to Krishna and drank as His Prasada. If anybody dies first, Krishna should die first. But Krishna is not going to die because He is the producer of poison in the form of Kalakuta. And then He is breathing every second His Vasukis, not one head but thousand heads. So He has become immune to all these Vishas. What is Visha? Deep dislike to God, good life, Dharma is called Visha. But that Visha becomes Amruta if it is offered to God. So unlike there is a saying, a huge ocean of Amruta, one drop of Visha poisons the whole Amrutasagara. That is worldly life. But in spiritual life, so even a whole ocean of poison falls into or one drop of nectar falls into an ocean of Visha. The whole Visha turns into Amruta only. That is why Kaliya had become Amrutaswarupa because He is deathless. Garuda cannot kill Him. On the other hand, He salutes Him. So this is the meaningful thing. Paramrutaha. And then if we have any doubt, it is even made even more clear. Parimuchyant Sarve. Whoever is endowed with these qualities, Sarve. That means the Rishi is assuring us. This was not a phenomenon which happened in the past. Nowadays it doesn't happen. Future it will be worse. No. Whoever past, present, future fulfills these conditions, takes or refuses in God, surrenders oneself or tries to surrender as much as possible, God out of pity lifts them up. There is no doubt. Sarve Parimuchyanti. Bandhanat. Mrutyoh Mukshiya. In the Mahamrutyunjaya Mantra Trembakameja Mahe Sugandhim Pushtivarthanam Urvarukameva Bandhanat Bandhanat Mrutyoh Mukshiya You release me. But never try to take me away from Ma Amrutat. So do not deprive me of my immortality. And nobody can deprive, really speaking. So with that I also quoted Swami Vivekananda verse into the most wonderful, the best poem in the whole world. The whole message of the Prasthanatrayam is condensed into these few shlokas of these sannyasin bold. Say Om Sat Om. That is the song of the sannyasin I quoted in my last class. So those who make proper effort and whose minds become pure who have well ascertained clearly knowledge of Vedanta because of a life of sannyasa, they at the time of the resolution of the individuality in Brahman, all of them become released from the this, what is called unmanifest Samsara Sagara. And the same will happen in future also. But we have to strive for Karma Yoga, Upasana Yoga, then Gnana Yoga, Bhakti Yoga, Chitta Shuddhi, Concentration, then Shramana, Manana, Yudhi, Tyasana and the result of it is simply called Moksha. Chaturtha Purushartha or Parama Purushartha. Now some more how to practice it. These are high ideals but the scripture doesn't simply keep quiet. It also wants to tell us with what is called pain speaking thorough details. How to sit and how to breathe and how to relax, how to concentrate, how to withdraw the mind from unwanted subjects. The whole thing we have seen as I mentioned earlier in the 6th chapter of the Bhagavad Gita, Dhyana Yoga. And I also mentioned Bhagawan has taken the essence of the Upanishads. Bhagavad Gita is the essence of all Upanishads. The best things is squeezed into these 700 odd slokas. So that is going to be described from the 5th to the 11th mantras. And those who have attended the Gita classes especially the 6th chapter is a almost verbatim repetition with slightly different words. We will move into that. Here the 5th mantra. How to sit and how to keep the body and what should be the condition of the mind, what should be our mind control over all the sense organs and what is the place of the Guru in one's spiritual life is very briefly being described in this 5th mantra. So step by step description of sadhana. What is it? First I will read out the English translation then we will go into the brief details. So a sadhaka what should he do in order to realize God? So the first thing is he should sit. Sitting means what? He should make himself undisturbed. How? In an undisturbed place resting in a comfortable posture, clean and pure with neck head and body in one line held erect with a mental attitude of sannyasa having controlled all the senses saluting one's own teacher with the greatest reverence. The sadhaka should meditate within the lotus of his own heart upon the untainted the pure the clean and the griefless. So now we will go into smaller details. Tesha means a place and in the sixth chapter also it is exactly the same thing has come. Thirteenth chapter also the same thing and Sairam Krishna's teaching also is there. Third commandment go to a solitary place. Sairam Krishna uses a very beautiful expression ma jai ma jai whenever you get opportunity nirjana stan, nirjana jana means people nirjana means where there are no people. This is a state of the mind not a physical space. Physical space also where there is no practically minimum disturbance. Even if you go to a forest there will be birds will be singing. Some birds are very very harsh so they can disturb you. So vivikta desha vivikta means completely undisturbed place externally undisturbed. But more important is as Sairam Krishna mentions nirjana means what? Jana means people nirjana means what? Where the understanding comes. In this world there is no person who truly belongs to me my mother, my father, my family my husband, my wife my children, my friends my colleagues, no none of them will come every day reveals to me, to us this news just I am giving. Newspaper also can be one of the greatest scriptures but don't go on studying. This person has acquired lot of wealth, that lady has acquired lot of ornaments other person purchased a four crore rupees worth of a car. These are not correct way of reading. You go straight to the what is called obituary column then you will see every day how many people are dying the war is going on who can be sure that next second cannot be my last second. Who can be sure any given time it can come war or no war accidents, diseases or old age anything is sufficient as soon as our allotted time is finished because of our own past prarabdha karma we have to go the Yama Dharma Raja is not going to wait for us he will not say that I will give you one minute you can dress nicely spray yourself nicely and come no I will drag you right now so that is called Vivekta there is no person in this world excepting one and that is God. God alone belongs to me I alone belong to God and nobody else belong to me everybody belongs to God and that mental attitude is called Vivekta Desha and then Sukha Sanastha depending upon our bodily condition everybody cannot sit in Padmasana or Sukhasana or Yogasana but let them sit but there is a rule we should be able to breathe properly for that purpose the backside the neck and the head should be straight what happens what is the physical advantage the lungs will be hanging free that means breathing becomes effortless and when breathing becomes effortless that is the purpose of Pranayama then mind becomes also very quiet so breath and mental conditions are very deeply related so this is called Sukha Asanastha simple definition is that asana upon which we can sit comfortably for a longer amount of time of course as we go on practicing our ability to sit calmly for a longer time goes on increasing everything depends upon habit but the more important thing is the body is uncomfortable mind becomes uncomfortable and if our breath becomes uneven the mind becomes uneven so that is why Vivekta Desha is called Vivekta Desha that is Sukha Asana sit comfortably and then any stupid can sit comfortably the place must be clean free of rubble thorns, harmful insects bad smells which anything that can disturb us that is the external condition then internally we must be pure, what is purity only one line definition, I want only God, that is called purity, Bhagawan is Shuddha and I want only that pure Bhagawan, I want purity, if anybody says I want to be pure purity is God that's why even Christ who was supposed to have learnt Yoga etc. either in Tibet or in India because remember for 18 years from the 12th year until his 30th year nobody knows what happened to Jesus but when he came back at the age of 30 he became Christ God that is a great Yogi and there is a beautiful picture of Christ very rarely now it has become little more famous in the posture of a meditative posture and in our ashramas we can get also sitting and meditating so Jesus Christ some people say he lived and in the end also he came and died either in Tibet or in Kashmir and Swami Abhyadanandaji made a pilgrimage to Kashmir and he says that I visited a place where the people claim Jesus Christ was buried there, he died there after his crucifixion somehow he disappeared this story is there in the Bible and the disciples went after 3 days and then unrolled the stone covering the entrance of the cave there was nobody inside only after 3 days he appears in a corporeal incorporeal form to his disciples and Mary was the first one to see him so this is the story that goes, Bible cannot give us the information but what is the point he gave a sermon that is called sermon on the mount and there are marvelous teachings which Swami Prabhavanandaji translated sermon on the mount is the title of the book blessed of the pure in heart why? for they shall see God and Sri Ram Krishna also confirmed it and said shuddha mon, shuddha atma are one and the same a pure mind and a pure soul are one and the same because the pure mind becomes like a completely clean mirror and it reflects only the truth which is the atma so blessed are they pure but samagreva siraha shariraha bodily posture how he should keep his back bone and neck and head straight for what reason to facilitate free easy breathing and by the way you breathe you can understand, if you bend then breathing becomes what is called difficult and also you feel constricted that should not be there, then another condition your mind should attain to that state of sanyasi this is called sanyasa ashrama and this is the last ashrama this is also called atiya ashrama here the rishi is calling it antiya ashrama that is said earlier what is said that you become a sanyasi sanyasa yoga what is sanyasa yoga that is realize everything belongs to god, that is called antiya ashrama, nothing belongs to me, I and mine belong only to god that state of the mental attitude is called antiya ashrama sthaha, so what is sanyasa, detachment of mind from the sense objects and the relief from the consequent mental agitations is true sanyasa, so these are the two conditions the mind should be detached from sense objects why detachment because complete avoidance of sense objects is impossible so long as body is there life is there we have to eat, we have to breathe we have to hear, everything is there so the objects cannot be completely made to vanish but the attachment to the objects is a mental process can be done that is what is said here detachment from the sense objects and not only that if we can do that what is the second condition our mind will not be dwelling upon smriti memory that I experienced, somebody gave me something, it was so good I want it again that should not be there so to keep the mind detached from these two that is complete control and not wanting again anything but if it comes because of prarabdham or by God's will without our willing then it is absolutely fine offer it to God this is yours, your prasada and eat it, that is the meaning of prasada, we should never criticize prasada so having controlled all the senses that is the seed then only it will be fruitful but you see we also have to be careful you see we have become accustomed to sights smells, sounds and this is how attachments come, simple example you know, when you are walking in the street, some particular smell comes, somebody is cooking onions and immediately you are reminded I don't need to remind what you are reminded of and then automatically even before you realized your tongue even in the what is called mightiest famine situation it starts flowing like rivers so this is the effect of this sound, it is a marvelous thing suppose there are thousand people thousands of people and somewhere from a long distance that person softly calls your name and even though there are thousands of people talking meaninglessly chattering what Americans call you know that useless type of talk even when they are doing it if somebody utters your name you will hear it crystal clearly as though he is shouting in your ear if you are in deep sleep also the moment you hear your name there is a likelihood that somebody is appreciating me so I will come out such is our attachment to our own name that is why having controlled all the nirudhya, we have to control and what does it mean, should I not hear, should I not smell no, controlling means let all these things happen but the associations will not stir the old memories, these are the conditions then only meditation on God, Brahman becomes really fruitful but the foundation the substratum is this bhaktiya swagurum pranamya you make pranams whom, swagurum my guru is my God, Guru Brahma, Guru Vishnu, Guru Devo Maheshwara bhaktiya with the utmost devotion make pranams and then only everything will come, many times we have discussed about the role of the guru, guru is none other than God he wants to shower his blessings upon anybody he takes the form of a human being appropriate for that person and he like a mother, slowly taking the hand of the child and guiding through perilous path so also the guru takes but he can only take our hand so pranama means complete surrender that means I will do what Arjuna replies to Bhagwan Krishna nasto mohaha smritir labdha my delusion is destroyed gone, I remember my own true self atma smriti I am the atman I have forgotten I thought I was Arjuna but I know I am not Arjuna and therefore as soon as I get rid of the idea I am not Arjuna all the relationships all the janas, swajanas beshma, drona all those fellows, mitra, shatru everything will fall along with the remembrance of one's own true nature this is called pranama pranama means what? it is only God, seeing God that is called swagurum pranamya surrender oneself surrender is the ultimate sadhana all sadhanas will end only in self-surrender and this is how one has to sit and meditate so in every Upanishad practically we find not only the ultimate goal of life but we get an exhaustive discussion of it how to do sadhana there is no book so far as we discussed three things we have mentioned earlier tattva then purushartha then hita tattva means what is the goal of life what is the truth? the goal of life is truth what is the truth? aham brahmasmi is the truth so to know aham brahmasmi is the paramapurushartha dharma artha kama should only lead to that but in the end this is most important for us hita, how am I going to reach? and I cannot describe how great Swami Vivekananda was he had put these things in the simplest possible terms embodying tattvan, purushartha and hita, each soul is potentially divine is the tattva the goal is to manifest this divinity within is the purushartha do this either by work or worship etc that is the hita the pathway that is a judicious harmonious combination of all the four yogas and that is the motto what is called the emblem of Ramakrishna Mission so we have to understand this, all, every Upanishad we must teach the first tattvan that is discussed in the very first mantra that I want to realize the highest truth Asvalayana had mentioned it you teach me, hold my hand help me to reach and this is what we call Brahma's teaching that is going on so how to do sadhana which is also called the path of meditation and that is what Patanjali Rishi's Ashtanga Yoga first become pure yama and niyama then after that you sit, asana then breath control then pratyahara withdraw your mind which is wandering here and there then dharana slowly make the mind concentrate for a short time and then a little longer time and still longer time which is called dharana and it will mature into dhyana dhyana will mature into savitarka samadhi or savikalpa samadhi and finally this will end up in nirvitarka, nirvichara nirvikalpa samadhi this is the process and this trend is there in the Bhagavad Gita and just I am quoting ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... this is echoing after we have just now discussed the fifth so the sitting process in an appropriate place being pure surrendering oneself everything to God how should he meditate that is the subject matter of the sixth mantra ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... sixth mantra it tells us to meditate upon that supreme reality where to meditate and how to meditate we also as I quoted we have also dhyana mantras for Sairam Krishna and Holy Mother also ... ... ... ... and then on Sairam Krishna that is also starts exactly the same way ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... Paramahamsa Ramakrishnam Bhajami. That is how it goes. This is what is echoing. Whatever we get now is the echoes in a slightly modified way of these Upanishadic passages that came from the mouth of the Rishi. By the way, Rishi means Rishati Janati. He knows what he is talking about. That means he is a realized soul. He is only expressing a realization. How did I realize? This is the methodology I practiced. This is the pathway I trod. And that is how I realized. Anybody who treads the same pathway, he's also sure to reach the same goal. That is why, how to meditate? Meditate within the lotus of the heart, the untainted, the pure, the clear, and the griefless. First, we will deal with half of this one. Hrith Pundarikam. Pundarikam means lotus. Lotus always stands. That's why in the Ramakrishna emblem, you see a lotus in the middle. And that lotus represents what we call the real reality. So Hrith Hridaya. This is not the physical heart, but it is the spiritual heart. And about the spiritual heart, Ramana Maharshi clearly said, the physical heart is on the left side of one's chest, but the spiritual heart is exactly in the middle. But even that is not adequate, because what is a heart? Where we feel purity, devotion, love, service, all these noble qualities, that is called heart. And if we feel the negative qualities, that is not heart. That is called heartlessness. So Hrith Pundarikam. What type of Hridaya? Virajam. And when a person takes Sanyasa, he has to chant by doing Homa. This is called Virajamantras. Raja means impurities, dust actually. So Pada Raja, dust of the lotus feet. No Raja. That is called Vigata Raja. That means pure, Shuddha Sattvas. Vishuddham. The mind has become so pure, there is only one desire. I want God. I know God exists. I know through the scriptures I am God. I don't want anything else except to realize I am God. This is called Vishuddham. And then Vishuddham, crystal clear. What does it mean? Even to think I, there must be that Shuddha Chaitanyam. And that Shuddha Chaitanyam is manifesting. You think of the body, first there must be consciousness, then only body. First there must be consciousness, then only external world. First there must be consciousness, then only follows the cognition of the thoughts. For everything, this I, Aham, Aham, the pure consciousness is what is called shining all the time. And then what is the nature of the Vishuddham? This Chaitanyam, Vishokam, pure bliss. Pure bliss. Sat, Chit, Ananda Swaroopam. So even to meditate upon this is very difficult. And words cannot really make us understand. But without words, we cannot even start traveling in the right direction. So several negative words are used. And some positive words are also used. A judicious mixture of positive and negative words. Negative words like Neti Neti. Is that like that? No, no. Is that like the other one? No, no. Then is it this way? Yes, somewhat like that. Because truth can never be described. So Achintyam, that is unthinkable. Beyond unthinkable means what? Beyond the capacity. Mind doesn't have the capacity to think. Why? Because it is Avyaktam, it is unmanifest. We can only, or the mind can only think of what is manifest. Not only it is unmanifest, it is Anantaroopam. It is hoodwinking us. Anantaroopam, in the form of infinity. You see a tree, that is Brahman. See a horse, that is Brahman. See a dog, that is Brahman. See a Brahmana, that is Brahman. See a cow, that is Brahman. See an elephant, that is Brahman. So see a river, that is nothing but Devata, Ganga, Kaveri, Saraswati, Yamuna, Sindhu. Every Parvata, every river is a manifestation of God, Anantaroopam. We have discussed it, we are repeating it. Sahasrashirsha purushaha, sahasraksha sahasrapat. So Brahman is hiding as it were, peeping as it were, from within these different names and forms. And we are seeing only these different names and forms and we are hoodwinked. Seeing the forms, not seeing what is behind the form, that is called Maya. That is called Avidya Jnana. Anantaroopam, wherever we see, it is nothing but Brahman. Why so? Because there is no second object other than Brahman. To illustrate this, they give several examples and most of the time it is stock examples. You see any number of pots, any sized pot, any shaped pot, any named pot, it is nothing but clay. See any ornament, small, big, it is all nothing but gold. See any furniture, it is nothing but wood. So to recognize is difficult. And then we have to meditate. Shivam, a most marvellous word and I have special affinity for this because you see people and they sit for meditation and come out of meditation. And before entering into meditation, they were somewhat joyful. After coming out of meditation, they become as it were more miserable. They don't feel like looking at their face and they start shouting at their family members. So what do you think this is the result of? Meditating upon a miserable God. Meditation on a miserable God produces only miserable Ananda. That means his experience is misery. Shivam, think of God. That's why Rajya Maharaj, Brahmanandji used to advise. And you sit for meditation. Imagine God in the most pleased way looking only at you. Not at your sister or brother or father or mother, wife or husband. Only at you as if you are the dearest. That is called Shivam. In simple modern English translation, power of positive thinking. Only positive thoughts, encouraging thoughts, enthusiastic thoughts. And then Prasantham. If we meditate, our mind must become more and more Prasantha, tranquil. And it is Amritaswaroopa. Incomparable bliss will come out of it. And Brahma. That Brahma. Yonim. That is even the cause of what we call Brahma. Brahma Yonim. That means the whole universe is the manifestation of Brahma. The first manifestation of Brahman is called Brahma. Also known as Saguna Brahma. Also known in Tantra as Shakti. So by Sankhyams, it is called Prakruti. Whatever name you call it, it is the most marvellous manifestation. This is called Brahma Yonim. So try to meditate on the unthinkable, unmanifest, the one of endless forms, the ever auspicious, the peaceful, the immortal, the origin of the very creator Brahma Yonim. The one without a beginning, middle and end, Anadi Mathyanta Anantaroopam. And the only one, Ekam. There is nobody else. The all-pervading, a knowledge bliss formless and wonderful. This is how we have to meditate. So these are the subject matter, how God should be thought about. And we must have a crystal clear idea. Not only the process of what is meditation, but what should be the subject of meditation. And if we don't have that clarity, our progress will be definitely delayed. And there are some more descriptions are there. We will talk about it in our next class. Om Jananim Sharadam Devim Ramakrishnam Jagadgurum Bahad Padme Tayo Sritva Pranamami Muhurmuhu May Ramakrishna and Holy Mother and Swami Vivekananda bless us all with Bhakti. Jai Ramakrishna.