Mandukya Karika Lecture 047 on 20 April 2022

Full Transcript(Not Corrected)

OM BADRAM KANNE VISHWUDIYAMA DEVAH BHADRAM PASHYE MAAKSHA BHIRYA JATRAH STHIRAYI RANGAYE STUSHTU VAGUM SASTANOBE VYASHAYE MADEVAHITANYADAYO SWASTINA INDRU VRIDDHA SHRAVAHA SWASTINA PUSHA VISHWA VEDAHA SWASTINA STHARKSHU ARISHTANEMI SWASTINO BRIHA SPATIR DADHATU OM SHANTE SHANTE SHANTE HARE OM OM O Gods, may we always hear with our ears what is auspicious. O worshipful ones, may we with our eyes always see what is auspicious. May we live our allotted life, hail and hearty, offering our praises unto Thee. May Indra of ancient fame bestow auspiciousness on all of us. May the all-nourishing potion be propitious to us. May Garuda, the destroyer of evil, be well disposed towards us. May Brihaspati ensure our welfare. OM PEACE PEACE PEACE BE UNTO ALL We have taken up the 5th GAUDAPADU KARIKA after 6 mantras of the Mandukya Upanishad are over. And Gaudapada is telling something most marvellous, which goes directly contrary to what we every second of our life experience. What is it? I am different in the waking state. I am different in the dream. I am different in the deep sleep state. Three states are totally different as objects of experience. And at any given time, two states are real. Third state alone, whichever we are experiencing, is real. In contrast, other states are unreal. If that is so, even the state I am experiencing would contradict itself, would become unreal, because it is negated from both the other two states. This is one. Secondly, every living creature is different from me. So I am experiencing. You are experiencing. Every living creature is experiencing. So there are so many different experiences and as many experiencers. For that, I have given a fairly long introduction in my last class, because here is an experiencer, here is an experience. Whether the experiencer is one, whether the experiencers are many, whether the experiences are many, even of the same experiencer, all these things arise only when we accept creation is real. Gaudapada wants to drive this point, drive away this illusion that there is no creation at all. And for that, he gives a small example. When we are in the deep sleep state, there is no creation at all. The experiencer and experience both become one. The individual and the universal, cosmic, both become one completely. And we cannot deny what we are experiencing. So how do we resolve this contradiction? That is the whole point. So in this fifth karika, Gaudapada is telling, remember karikas belong to Gaudapada. Shankara Bhashya is separate. So here after completing six Upanishads, where Gaudapada doesn't poke his hand at all, only after the sixth mantra is over, then Gaudapada begins this particular nine karikas, and again after the seventh mantra, which tells us about the fourth state, which is called the chaturthapada, turiyapada, brahmapada, unkarapada, that we are going to enter. From there, he will give another twenty karikas. And in the next three prakaranas, vaitatya prakarana, advaita prakarana, and alatashante prakarana, whatever ideas we are understanding here, which Gaudapada has given, which Shankaracharya tries to elaborate and explain as much as possible so that we can all understand, all the other three prakaranas are only expansions of particular ideas, quoting from the scriptures, proving that this world is mithya, and anything mithya is as good as non-existent. So if this world can be proved as mithya, seemingly real, not really real, seemingly real is really non-existing only, only with one caveat, we cannot see anything as seemingly real unless there is a substratum which is really real. Just as an example, we cannot imagine a dream without the waker. We cannot imagine a snake without a rope. We cannot imagine a mirage without dry sand and very hot air. We cannot experience the Brahma that there is silver unless there is a shell, real shell, and sunlight reflecting upon it in a particular way. These points we will discuss later on. What is important is that he who knows both the experiencer and the objects of experience that have been described with the three states, he who knows this as one is not affected though experiencing the objects. Bhoga is one in all the three states. Bhokta is one in all beings. How this is done, I will very briefly recollect because we have already discussed this point. Each one of us as an individual will experience waking and then every state is comparable to a particular dress and doing something with that dress. So we put on waker's dress and experience Tyagra Davastha. Put on Taijasa's dress and experience dream world. Put on Prajna's and then experience what is called Sushupti Avastha because we have what we call recollection. I was the same waker. I was the same dreamer. Now I was the same sleeper. Again now I am the same waker. This I-ness experiencing three states never goes. So the point is proved. The experiences are three but the experiencer is one. Now Godapada wants us to understand even the experience is also one. After all what is it? Tyagra Davastha is an object of experience. What is dream? It is another object of experience. What is Sushupti? Another object of experience. Anything that is experienced is an object and all these three are experienced. So all these three are completely objects and the most fundamental principle of Vedanta I am not what I experience. I gave so many illustrations and this needs to be repeated any number of times. I see a horse. I know I am not the horse. I see a car. I am not the car. I see a tree. I am not the tree. Therefore extend it further. I see the body. I experience the body. So it is an object. So it is not me. Similarly I experience the mind in the form of thoughts, the form of emotions, in the form of imaginations. So I experience them. That's why I say my dream, my imagination, my emotion, my mind got very annoyed, etc. So since I am experiencing it, Antahkarana, mind is an object. Therefore I am not that one. So all the objects can be classified under one. It is an object and it is experienceable. Therefore it is an object of experience. So whether it is waking experience, dream experience or sleep experience, all experiences are one and the same. Now the other problem comes. What is the problem? Let me add a little bit to this thought. So every experience is only of one variety. Whatever the experience. For example, I am eating sweet. I am eating bitter gourd. I am hearing beautiful music. I am experiencing very cool air breeze. So through all the five sense organs, I am experiencing. But I am judging all experiences only through one criteria. Is it giving me happiness or is it not giving me happiness? If it is not giving, then I try to reduce it, eliminate it. If I am getting happiness, try to increase it and keep it as long as possible. So that way, experience in whatever state is the same. Now apply it to every being because every being also is only after one thing. How to reduce suffering? How to increase happiness? From that point of view also, experience is the same. The only thing is I am a living creature. A horse is a living creature. A bird is a living creature. A worm is a living creature. A mosquito is a living creature. So how do I say experience is the same? Because when we think I am the individual, then everybody is different from me. Everybody's experience is different from me. But when I am in the deep sleep state, I am identified. We have discussed at that point. The Prajna has become one with Ishwara. The moment Prajna becomes Ishwara, it is Ishwara, first of all, who is experiencing the waking states. A billion waking states of every living creature. A billion dreams of every creature. That is called universal mind. Universal body called Virat. Universal mind called Hiranyakarpa. Universal causal body called Ishwara. Ishwara is Hiranyakarpa. Ishwara is Virat. So as the Samashti, cosmic, he is only experiencing it. Now to understand this properly, I will give you the illustration of dream. It is a most marvelous illustration. Imagine you have gone to dream. You means what? The waker. And when you go into the dream state, now you have created. You, the one waker, has divided yourself. That is called creation, into the dream world. In that dream world, you have become three. The witness, neither experiencing, experiencing, watching, both the experiencer and also the experiencer, experiencers, experiences. So you are eating. So you say, I remember, I was eating Rasagulla. The person who was eating is the experiencer. The person who is remembering, he is the witness. Now imagine, you invited a hundred people to your home and you prepared various dishes and everybody is eating. And now, if you are told that you are all one, you are the only one, all these hundred people is nothing but your extension. You will not believe. I will not believe. But as soon as you wake up, ask, who created all those hundred people? Or who have become all those hundred people? I divided myself as hundred people. And in front of them, there are huge number of dishes. And who created all those dishes? Or who became those dishes? I have become the dishes. Then everybody is telling, Oh, this sweet has come out extraordinarily well. That means they all enjoyed. So all the enjoyment of all the sweets, through all those mouths of hundred people, are they you, one, or are they each of them separately? The reason is, in our waking state, we don't know what is the experience of the other person. Even if husband and wife are sleeping and the wife is having one type of dream, husband is having another type of dream. Or when they are in the waking state, the husband is eating one dish, the wife is eating a different dish. Or both of them are eating the same dish, for example, a sweet. Then you can see that the wife cannot tell what is the experience of the husband. The husband cannot tell the experience of the wife. This is how we extend it to the dream state. But what happens? Just notice, as soon as you wake up, as soon as I wake up, I know the entire dream world consisting of millions of creatures and also millions of non-living things and also millions of people, creatures eating and millions of eatable objects and millions of experiences. Everything, me, one, is experiencing. Now who is this one? Who is this me? Ishwara. That is how we have to understand. And He, who knows? In simple words, two things. Keep in mind, whatever I experience, that is not me. So whatever experiences I have in the three states, that is not me. And whatever number of living creatures I am experiencing is not me. That is, I am completely different. Then what am I? If you look at those billions of things, every living creature is an experiencer and everything that they are experiencing is an object of experience. Fine logic. But the moment I say, since what I experience is not me, I am neither the experienced objects nor the experiencing experiencers. If I am not the experiencer, if I am not the experience, then who am I? There is only one. I am the Atma. Because the world disappears, there is only one. Who is that one? Pure consciousness. Pure awareness. And I have no choice but to say, since I am not the world of both experiencers as well as experience, I am only Ishwara. I am the creator. Because I have created. Just as I create the dream state, I create the dreamless state. And I create the waking state. And since I am neither waking, nor dream, nor dreamless, there is only one possibility. That is, I am Atman, Brahman, nothing else. And he who knows, through this process, and not merely intellectual understanding, even intellectual understanding is so tough because it goes directly against our experience. So if somebody, taking recourse, refuge in a Guru, listens to what the scriptures tell and how the Guru interprets the scriptures, it is absolutely true and progresses. A day will come, and that is called Samadhi, when he knows that I am Brahman. Even this saying, my saying I am Brahman, is a human expression. When you are in deep sleep, you don't say, there is only a state of non-duality and I am experiencing it. Only you recollect it upon waking up. So this is only to convey the idea that this person who progressed in spiritual life, he knows that I am Brahman and therefore, Bhunja Nahavi, thereafter, after attaining that knowledge, just as when you wake up, you recollect all the experiences in the dream state and you are not touched by them. If you experience somebody is cutting you to pieces upon waking up, it doesn't touch you. Nothing happens to you. In your dream, if your house is being burnt either by yourself or by somebody, similarly experience when upon waking up, nothing happened to your waking state house. You are not affected. You are amused. You look back and say, why the hell did I dream that kind of dream? I could have dreamt sweeter dreams and spiritual dreams, dreams of goddesses, etc. I hope the idea is going. So, God the Father is telling in all the three states, Trisu Dhamaso, Ek Bhojyam, whatever is experienced, Bhokta, and all the experiencers. Remember, the experiencer of the waking is different from the experience of the dream as well as deep sleep. So, three experiencers as if, but since you are experiencing all the three, apply this dictum, whatever I experience is not me. So, you are neither the waking, dream, or dreamless states. Neither you are the Vishwa, Taiyasa, or Prajna. Then you can be only one. That is the Atman. And since there is nothing besides you, there is nothing to attach you, nothing to contaminate you, nothing to do anything to you. So, that is how you will have to understand. Here, let us recollect the most marvelous story, very much prevalent in North India among Vedantic monks. I recollected it quite a number of times, but it is worth recollecting many times. The story of Janaka Maharaja. So, Janaka Maharaja, we all know, this is supposed to be before he attained illumination. Janaka Maharaja, after having nice food and along with his wife, they were lying on the bed and he went very peacefully to the state of sleep. And he had a horrible dream. In that dream state, what happened? An enemy king declared war against him and he caught hold of Janaka. He defeated him, but he let him go with his life and limbs. But he gave a condition. You can't carry anything excepting the cloths you are having. Whatever you have now on your body, I permit you to go. And you have to go before nightfall or before tomorrow morning out of your kingdom. Otherwise, I have commanded my soldiers to cut off your head. Go. And Janaka Maharaja started running, running the whole day, the whole night. Then he travelled many, many miles. By early morning, he reached the border of another kingdom whose king was good. And still out of fear, he ran and ran. And then he reached at north a village. He was ravenously hungry. In his whole life, without food, he never ran for his life. And just when he entered into the village, some good person was distributing food to poor people. The king stood at the end of the queue. And when his turn came, all the Khichdi was completely gone. And the server informed him, I am sorry, sir, I don't have. The king looked into the pot, saw some burnt Khichdi sticking to the bottom of the pot. He said, you just collect it. I can eat anything under this condition. Otherwise, I will die. So the man out of pity scooped it up, put it in a leaf plate, handed it over. And with the most eagerness, Janaka Maharaja brought it to the leaves. And from somewhere, a big bird came, knocked it off. The whole thing fell into the sand. And nothing could be eaten now. And as he was heartbroken and about to weep his fate, Janaka Maharaja woke up, saw the queen. He started weeping and wailing. And many people gathered. And he was bewildered. What he saw in his dream, what he is seeing now, he could not come out of that. So he started cramming. Is that real? Or is this real? What I experienced in the dream, was it real? Or what I am experiencing now, is this real? And that is the same question that is going on day and night. Everybody thought he was crazy. And one great sage, Ashtavakra, or Avadhuta, happened to go by. He was fetched by the chief minister. And he came. And the king Janaka asked him the same thing. Is that real? Or is this real? Now, this Ashtavakra asked him. I don't know if it was Ashtavakra. It doesn't matter. He can go on. He was a wise sage, realized soul. He said, My dear king, what did you see in your dream? He said, I saw my enemy king, and he is thrashing me out. And he asked me to run away. I ran away, reached a village, about to eat, and this has happened. So now, is that real in this state? He said, no. Now, when you are above, expectantly waiting for the Khichdi to be given to you, do you remember any of your present queen, present kingdom, you are the king, anything? No, I don't remember anything. So, that means, it was unreal. So when you are in the dream state, your waking state was completely unreal. And when you are in this waking state, whatever happened in the dream state is completely unreal. Therefore, both cancel each other, both are unreal. The sage asked him further, that when your enemy king was chasing you, were you there? Yes, I was there. Now when you wake up, are you there? Yes, I am there. So you mean to say, you were both in your dream state and also in this waking state. Yes, yes, I was there in the dream state, I am also in this waking state. Now tell me, Sir, is that the truth or is this the truth? Then the king said, whatever comes and goes is unreal. Whatever remains without changing, exactly in the same way, that alone is real. Your dream, when you were dreaming, that was real, the waking state was unreal. When you came back out of your dream, the dream was unreal because you are not running away and this waking state alone is real. So when you were in this state, the dream was unreal. When you were in the dream state, the waking state was unreal. Whatever comes and goes is unreal, but you were present both in the dream state as well as in the waking state. No change has come excepting it created some ripples in your thoughts. That was one thought, this is another thought. Therefore, that is not the truth, this is not the truth, you alone are the real. And with this, Gaudapada has given us the essence of the five mantras, the Omkara Nirnaya, Brahma Nirnaya, then the nature of the waking state, the nature of the dream state, the nature of the dreamless state, all those states He has given us. And now He has to tell us about the fourth state, Chaturthapada. And before that, Gaudapada wants to establish Ajativada. What is Ajativada? There is no creation. As I mentioned in my last class, for ignorant people, Srishti is accepted as a provisional reality. Otherwise, the disciple will have no faith in the beginning, in the teacher's words, and he loses faith in the teacher, loses faith in the scriptures, and that will not help him. So he says, yes, yes. So, Karya Karanavada. The theory of cause and effect is brought there. That is called Adhyaropa. From a later point of view. But at that point, it is absolutely real. Eshwara is real. He has become Hiranyagarbha and Virat. Through Virat, he is enjoying millions of physical bodies and gross world and gross enjoyment experiences. Through Hiranyagarbha, universal mind, he is experiencing the same thing, but purely without any external worlds, only ideas remembered from the experiences of the waking state. But remember, universal mind. That means he is experiencing simultaneously every single one of his creation, just as a clay experiences, even if you make a billion parts out of it, it experiences all the billion parts. In spite of the billion parts being different from each other, one is small, another is big, one is black color, one is white color, one sounds very nicely. You know, in South Indian music, very often we use that Ghatap. In another, it is very dull sound. So some parts you touch, in summer season you put water, it becomes very cool. In winter season, it becomes quite warm. So taste is different, touch is different, sound is different, smell, etc. But it is one substance that is called clay and clay experiences as it were. I am this small part, I am this big part, I am this black part, I am this white part, I am this sweet-smelling part, I am this foul-smelling part, etc. I am this sweet-sounding part, I am this ugly-sounding part, I am this very pleasing, cooling part, I am this not so pleasing, very hot part, etc. But it is one. The clay never undergoes any change. Then what are all these experiences? It is all because of the season, because of what things we keep, and because of the heat, etc. It has nothing to do with pure clay as it is. Pure clay remains unattached as pure clay. Similarly, a realized soul, he knows I have nothing to do with any of them. I know that I am clay. Here means Aham Brahmasmi. So first, this Advaita Vedanta, and in this case, specifically through Gaudapada, this Srishti is accepted to establish that beautiful theory that you are a product of the pot, you are a product of the clay, and that means you are none other than clay. Oh man, you are created by Ishwara, you came from Ishwara, you are none other than Ishwara, each soul is potentially divine. Oh, I am Ishwara, so I am divine. So I can remember I am divine, I can realize I am divine, and I can go out of samsara. Yes, yes, definitely you can go out of samsara. And slowly the teacher guides him. After some time it says, the question of getting out doesn't arise just as Janaka had not gone to another kingdom. When he was thinking, he was running away into another kingdom. Upon waking up, he knows that I have not moved from my bed at all. Then he will be at rest, at peace. Similarly also, every Jeeva, upon progressing in spiritual life, first he says, I am the body-mind, or first he says, I am the body, second he says, I am the mind, and third he says, I am neither the body and mind, and fourth he says, there is no body-mind, I am pure Atma. This is how spiritual progress takes place. But at the beginning, the Srishti creation is accepted. After some time, this Karyakarana, no, no, the cause cannot be different from the effect. The effect cannot be different from cause. There are no two objects like clay and pot. Clay alone is the object. And as soon as we remove this thought about the effect, because there is no effect, if there is no effect, simultaneously there is no cause also. And when there is no effect or cause, then what remains? What remains is pure consciousness. That is what remains. So from this time onwards, with 6, 7, 8 and 9 Karikas, so that first he accepts, and then in the last Karika, practically he says, this is for the sake of the child, you, a disciple, first adopted what is called Srishti Krama. Then I taught you what is Adhyaropa, superimposition. And then they said there is actually no superimposition, because superimposition indicates both something imposed and something to be imposed upon. So there is a snake and there is a rope. Without rope there cannot be a snake. So there must be a rope all the time. Before the snake was produced, rope was there. When the snake, when the rope is not perceived, but only the snake is perceived, still the rope is there. After light is brought in, and one experiences this rope, then also snake is not there, rope is there. No change has ever come in the rope, but the rope has never become like that. The rope has never become the snake like that. Brahman has never become the world, Srishti, waker, dreamer and the sleeper. It is all something happening in the mind, and we don't know where from this mind has come, and why it experiences like that. We don't know, but there is a way out, and that is called Adhyaropa. You superimposed there is something, just as even though there is no snake, you superimposed it upon the rope, forgetting the rope, so also forgetting Ishwara, you superimposed this world, and you are frightened of this world. First I have shown you the way. Last class I have decided that karmic suffering is exhausted by good karmas taking this world for real, and creation for real, and good actions for real, evil actions for real. But after some time, karmic actions can be remedied to some extent, but existential suffering cannot. What is existential? There is birth, there is growth, there is old age, there is change, Shadvikara cannot be avoided. What is the way to avoid? Not to be born at all. So am I to gain something to get out of this birth and death? No, because this birth and death are only thoughts in your mind, superimpositions upon Brahman. All that you need is not to get out of Samsara, but get rid of the idea that there is a Samsara and you are a Samsari, etc. That prakriya is called first Adhyaropa, then Apavada. Apavada means to remove, through making the disciple understand there is no creation at all, there is no birth at all. Naturally, as soon as birth is denied, everything else is denied. But first, there are many people who go on talking about Srishti. So Gaudapada goes along. But there is a big question that comes is does everybody think of the creation exactly in the same way? No. Is there a God? Is there a creator? So remember, if we have to take the extreme view of Advaita Vedanta, there is no creation. So to think of a God who creates is also extreme delusion. Firstly. Secondly, as soon as there is creation, there is a big problem. What is the problem? I am suffering, everybody is suffering. Even an atheist cannot deny that there is suffering, and sometimes intolerable suffering, and then there is inequality. Some people suffer more, and some people suffer very, very less. And then the question comes, who created this world? Why did he create? How did he create? How long is it going to last? And is there any end? Etc. We are all selfish. The purpose of all these questions is only one. I would never put this question or these questions never arise in my mind if I am all the time happy. But unfortunately, all the time there is unhappiness. Even the richest person, healthiest person cannot avoid aging, old age, even if he is healthy, loss of family members, loss of property, and other people's dukkha, if not his own dukkha, nobody can avoid it. This is what Swamiji and Thakur used to call it. The curly tail of a dog, it is not going to change. Naturally, for some time, our only concern is if I know the secret of creation, then I can escape. But after some time, this person will evolve. And he says, I don't care for my own salvation because I realize that I have to help other people also. A simple example I will give you. Suppose there is a loving husband and wife, loving mother and children. So, if the children are happy, parents are happy. If the children are unhappy, parents are unhappy. Even though they are not directly experiencing, because of that feeling, both parents are feeling unhappiness. If the children are happy, they are happy. Children are unhappy, they are unhappy. And there is no guarantee. Nobody had ever seen continuous happiness from day one until the person dies. Nobody had ever experienced neither incarnations nor ordinary people. Naturally, in the beginning only, the people are concerned about their children, about the husband, about the wife. But later on, they grow. Continuously, a human being is growing. Then he will say that many people are suffering and it affects them. And inevitably, everybody will feel it sooner or later. Even the most selfish person cannot remain as selfish. Why? Simple logic. This world is continuously changing. So, even selfishness also will change. When light changes, it becomes darkness. When happiness changes, it becomes suffering. When selfishness changes, it becomes unselfish. But not the other way round. Once a person experiences unselfishness, then to that extent, his selfishness becomes less. When he becomes still more unselfish, his selfishness becomes less and less and less until a day will come when the person goes both beyond selfishness and unselfishness. Mind you, not that a person will remain. All selfishness will vanish. All evil will vanish. Only goodness will remain. That's impossible. But nobody can remain completely selfless also. Nobody can ever retain this body. Body is changing. Thoughts are changing. Everything is changing. And a day will come when this changelessness will inevitably drive us to that changeless aspect. If we are a bit helpful, we stretch our hand. The process perhaps is quicker. Otherwise, nature itself will do for us. That's why Swami's message, each soul is potentially divine. Therefore, that potential divinity acts like a teleological urge. Just as a seed cannot help itself, but grow into that particular tree of which it has come out and fully manifest it and then only it can come to an end. So this samsara will come to an end. That is the thing. So in the beginning, Adhyarupa is being talked about. Before that, samsara is talked about. So there are three questions that come. I have already discussed about it. So the things that are created were there before or were they created afresh? About this, three views are there. One is called Satkaryavada. Another is called Asatkaryavada. Another is called Mithyakaryavada. As you know, there are six schools of Indian philosophy. So Nyaya, Vaiseshika, they accept only Asatkaryavada or also otherwise called Arambhavada. That means creation is very fresh. It was never there. It started. So the pot was never there, but it just started. This is called from Asat, Sat has come. From non-existence, something, existence has come. Of course, we don't accept that one. Why? Because if from non-existence, something can come, anything can come. That means we say, from dust, it can also become gold. Anything can become anything because there is no causal relationship. Naturally, even Nyaya, Vaiseshika person will not accept it. So that is called Asatkaryavada. And then Sankhya Yoga accepts Satkaryavada. What is Satkaryavada? Yes, it is there. Pot is there. And then it is created by the potter. Then naturally they counter question. If it is already there, what do you mean by it is created? It is there, not in the pot form, but in a lump form. For example, butter is there in the milk, and the milk is there in the cow, and the cow is there in the calf, and the calf is there in the form of grass, etc. So if somebody asks, do you have butter? Yes, I have butter. Can you give it to me right now? No, because I have to set it to yogurt, and I have to churn it, and when it comes, I will give you. That means it is there in another form. So according to this Mimamsa view, according to this Sankhya view, it is there in unmanifest form, creation according to them, to make the unmanifest, to facilitate the unmanifest, so that it becomes manifest. That is called Sath Karyavada. Sath means from Sath only, Sath will come. From existence only, existence will come. From non-existence, what will come? Nothing will come. Will non-existence come? Neither existence comes, nor non-existence can come. Nothing can come from nothing. So this is the view of Sankhya, Yoga, etc. Now we are talking about third view. What is third view? Is it Sath Karyavada? Do Vedantins, means Advaita Vedantins, accept Sath Karyavada? No. Do they accept Asath Karyavada? No. Do they accept Sath Karyavada? No. Then what is your view? Vedantic view is seemingly Sath Karyavada. What is it? Here is a creation, here is a snake. The snake is created? Yes, it is created. Where from is it created? It is there in the rope. In what form? Unmanifest form. So my fertile imagination and my fear, my earlier experience of another snake, make me think here is a snake. You remove the rope, there would be no snake. So what is the answer? That there is something and that is Sath. But my imagining, my seeing, just as we say what is real, what is real. According to Vedanta, pot is Mithya. What is Sathya? Clay is Sathya, not the pot. Because there is no such second object called pot. It is nothing but clay in a particular form. Earlier it was another form called lump. Now it is in a particular form called pot. That is all the difference. So this seeming manifestation, seeming means depends upon some substratum, that is called Mithya Karya Vada. Karya means effect. Is Mithya? Means it is not real. Is it unreal? No, it is not unreal. It is real? Yes, it is not real. Then what is it? Seemingly real. Because there is that Sath and fertile imagination, semi-light, resemblance, all these three things play havoc and it is there in my mind, not in reality. So reality imagined as something else is called Mithya Karya Vada and that is what Mithya Karya Vada means. Really seeming beauty is no beauty. Seeming taste is no taste. He seems to have finished his job is no proof of his finishing the job. Seemingly intelligent is no intelligence. So seemingly real is not real at all. That is what he wants to prove which we will talk about in our next class onwards and then before we will enter into the explanation of the seventh mantra in our next class. May Ramakrishna, Holy Mother and Swami Vivekananda bless us all with Bhakti. Jai Ramakrishna