Mandukya Karika Lecture 048 on 27 April 2022

Full Transcript(Not Corrected)

OM JANANIM SHARADAM DEVIM RAMAKRISHNAM JAGAD GURUM PADAPADME TAYO SRIDHVA PRANAMIM UHURMUHU OM BADRAM KARNE VISHRUNAYAM DEVAH BADRAM PASHYE MAKSHABHIRYA JATRAH STHIRAY RANGAYE STUSHTU VAGUM SASTANUBHI VYASHEMA DEVAHI TANYADAYO SWASTINA INDRO VRIDDHA SHRAVAHA SWASTINA PUSHA VISHWA VEDAHA SWASTINA STARKSHYO ARISHTANIMI 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, hale and hearty, offering our praises unto Thee. May Indra of ancient fame bestow auspiciousness on us. May the all-nourishing potion be propitious to us. May Garuda, the destroyer of all evil, be well disposed towards us. May Brihaspati ensure our welfare. OM PEACE PEACE PEACE BE UNTO ALL We are discussing the Mahandukya Karika, first part, first section called Agama Prakarana. We have completed six mantras of the Upanishad and we are coming to the fifth and sixth mantras, Karikas of the Gauda Pada. What did we discuss in our last class? Specially, I wanted to remind ourselves. According to Gauda Pada, which means according to Advaita Vedanta, there is no Srishti at all. Unlike Srishti and Advaita, which insist Ishwara is real and this creation is real, this Jagat is real, bondage is real, liberation is also real, this is called the path of Bhakti, accept everything. Sri Ramakrishna gives the example. If you want to know a complete bael fruit, or you can substitute now a mango fruit, not only the skin, not only the seed, but the pulp also. Everything has to be taken into consideration. That is a very beautiful thought we have to understand. From the devotee's point of view, nothing is excluded because everything is the manifestation of God. From the Advaita viewpoint alone, Srishti is Maya. Maya means Mithya. Mithya means the Brahman, mistaken. Brahman looked at with Nama and Rupa, that is called Paral. It is Mithya. Mithya because it is an object. Mithya means it is very temporary. Mithya means always changing. Mithya means incomplete knowledge. That is a better word. A person just sees a little bit of the rope and mistakes it. This is a snake and gets frightened. In any case, the Jagat is full of problems, whether you think it is real or unreal. That is not the point from the practical viewpoint. The point is, do I feel whether it is really real or unreally real? But if I think it is real, then it is problematic. Just as we think our dream, so long as we are in the dream, it is absolutely real. We react exactly as we react in the waking state. But only upon waking up, looking back, Oh, that was just my imagination. There is no truth in it at all. Similarly, until we realize our own true nature, which is Brahman, whether you call it really real or unreally real, it is very real so long as we think. And how do we know we are thinking it is real? Because of our instinctive reactions. So when somebody sees this is a snake, he doesn't think, is it really real or really unreal? He simply thinks it is real and he reacts. Only afterwards, when light is brought up, then only he will understand that it was unnecessary for him to have his blood pressure and got frightened, heart was beating fast, which could lead to a coronary heart attack. That is all later on business. But this is philosophical view we are talking about. In reality, everybody is in the same boat, whether he is a dualist, qualified non-dualist or non-dualist, whether he is a Hindu, whether he is a believer, he is a non-believer, everybody is exactly in the same boat. Then what is the use of belief? Well, belief is a foundation which can help us in practical ways. And that is why we need the philosophy. Philosophy is what you call intellectual pursuit of what could be the truth. So we have discussed from the Advaitic Vedantic point of view, there is one view. From the Sankhya viewpoint, there is one view. From the Nyaya point of view, another view. Three views. About what? Whether the objects we see in the creation, whether they were there before, or is it an absolutely new creation? So the people who believe that things are real, they were existing but in an unmanifested state and through some instruments, for example, clay and potter and potter's wheel. So all the three come together and the pot which was in the clay, which is the clay, the clay which is without any form as it were, is made to assume a form and that is called creation. The potter did not really create, but we can say he created previously. It was unusable. Unmanifest means inexperienceable. Inexperienceable means unusable. Cannot utilize it. Now it has become to utility. Just as butter is there in unmanifested form, it cannot be used practically, but when we set it to curds and churn it, and butter will come, then we can put it on many things and we can enjoy it. Anyway, there are things, but in an unmanifested form, already pre-existing in a seed form. Seed means unmanifested form. This is the view of Sankhya, Yoga, etc. called Satkaryavada. As against to that, Nyaya, Vaiseshika, they believe everything is fresh. There was no pot. It was completely made fresh. So that which was non-existing has come suddenly into existence. This is called Asatkaryavada. First is Satkaryavada. Second is Asatkaryavada. Will the Advaitins agree with that? No. Because that Asatkaryavada can never be accepted. And we will see an example also. Shankaracharya gives an example very soon. We will come to that. But the Satkaryavadins, their argument is, it is there in an unmanifested form, but it needs to be brought into manifestation with a particular shape, particular name, to distinguish it from others, and then Prayojana. Some purpose. Nobody will create anything without any purpose. So this is the thing. Even a child making castles in the sand on the seashore, you think, what is the purpose? The purpose is he wants to enjoy. He wants to play with the sand. So that is the answer. So what about Advaitin? Modified Satkaryavada. What is the modification? It is not complete Satkarya, but it is Mithyakarya. That is Brahman made into manifest, the Parabrahman, who is without name, without form, without any Prayojana, one, infinite, there is nobody else, nothing else. When that Brahman is given a particular shape, not one shape, but infinite number of shapes by each one of us, that is called Srishti. And this Srishti or creation is not real. It is just what you call temporarily appearing there. This is called Mithya Satkaryavada. Satkarya, but Mithya. Why is it called Satkarya? Because it says if Brahman is not there, then the creation cannot come out. There is a platform, but it is the unmanifested, has become manifested, experienceable by our five sense organs in the form of name, form and some utility. These are the things we have discussed. Then in this background, let us take up the following four Gauda Pada karikas. Now in the Mandukya Parishad, the fifth and sixth mantras, the third mantra has described the first Pada, which is the waking state, the Vishwa. The fourth mantra has described about the dream state, Swapna Avastha, which is with the help of the subtle world, subtle body, subtle world called Taijasa. The fifth and sixth mantras have described about the Sushupti Avastha. Two mantras are dedicated for the description of the Sushupti Avastha. Now the fifth mantra has described the individual in the Sushupti Avastha. So Turiya is called Prajna in the Sushupti Avastha as an individual. And as we discussed, the individual becomes merged in the universal because it is a state of complete, what is called non-distinguishable thing, inseparable thing, individual and the universal. Prajna and Ishwara cannot be distinguished. So what are the characteristics of the Prajna have been described in the fifth mantra. Sixth mantra, Esha Sarvajnaha, Esha Sarveshwaraha, and Esha Sarvabhutana Yonihi. So he is the ruler, he is the inner controller and he is the cause of this entire what we call Vishwa, Taijasa, Prajna, Stola Prapancha, Sokshma Prapancha and Karana Prapancha. And Gaudapada until his Karikas, he has been rephrasing them and what does he want to say? He doesn't give each Karika for each mantra. He combines all the three states and then he says, there is only one being, one consciousness which puts on different dresses and calls himself by three different names as three distinguishing types of experiences and then again and again he does it. So he says that three states are there, three types of experiences are there, but really speaking, so on the surface, three types of experiences, three types of experiences, three states of experience. That is Jagradha Vastha, Swapna Vastha and Sushupti Vastha. But he combines all of them and says, there are not three experiences, one experiencer. Similarly, there are not three types of experiences, Stola experience, Sokshma experience, Karana experience. No, only one experience. One experience, one experiencer and that is what he summed up. Now, in the sixth mantra, the Ishwara, who is the universal form of Prajna, is considered as the creator. That means when we wake up, Ishwara wakes up as Vishwa. When we are in the dream, Ishwara puts on the dress, calls himself Taijasa and experiences subtle world. The same Ishwara enters as an individual, he is called Prajna, experiences Karana Prapancha and is called as Prajna. So, this Prajna and Ishwara, we cannot distinguish it in the third state called Sushupti. Now, Ishwara is the creator. Therefore, the topic about creation has come. Now, when we look at the creation, the world, when we look at the world, we see two types of things. Those what is called without consciousness, called Jada Padartha, inert things and those which have got both Jada Padartha as well as Chaitanya Padartha. Jada Padartha, Chaitanya Padartha. Not pure Chaitanya Padartha. One is inert things, Jada Padartha, like stones, etc., etc. And then there is another thing called living creatures, non-living beings, non-living things and living creatures. And every living creature is a combination of both Jada and Chaitanya. The body and the mind belong to the Jada Padartha. And the Chidabhasa, the reflected consciousness in the buddhi of every living creature is what we call the Chaitanya Padartha. So, now the question comes, how did this division happen to have? That we see. Now, before we go further, let us remember one definition of Brahman is Sath, Chit and Ananda. Sath means existence. Chit means consciousness. Ananda means bliss. Now, existence without any form is pure existence. Knowledge without any limitation is called Chit. And Ananda, without the least bit of suffering, only complete and infinite, unbroken happiness is called Ananda. Let us just keep this idea behind. Now, what do we say? About creation we talked. The first type of creation is that which has no consciousness, reflected consciousness. And they are called inert things. And why is there no reflected consciousness? Because to reflect consciousness, they require Antahkarana, subtle body. So, a rock doesn't have subtle body. Mud doesn't have subtle body. So, etc., etc. Anything that is... The earth is supposed to be an inert thing. A water is inert. As I said, this is from the western point of view. But according to Vedanta, everything is having. But in our experience, we distinguish living and non-living. Let us stick to that understanding. So, the non-living things, like the mountains, like the rivers, like the fire, like the air, like the earth, like the air, and like the Akasha space, these are existing. They have borrowed. That is Brahman's one-third part called existence is reflecting in everything living and non-living. You say, here is a table. The moment you say, here is, you mean a table exists. And if you say, here is a man, a man exists. But we make a difference. A table has just existence. A man has Sat, Chit, Ananda, all the three. Why do we make this distinction? Why is it not there in the inert things, so-called inert things? Because they don't have that mind. They don't have that subtle body, causal body, and therefore, the Chidabasa cannot reflect. This is the distinction. Living means there is subtle body, causal body, physical body, gross body. Non-living means only the gross body is there without the Antahkarana. It is the Antahkarana. It is what we call the subtle body which reflects the pure consciousness. That is called Chidabasa. So, two types of creations, that is the living and the non-living. Who created? So, Ishwara. Everything has come from Ishwara and therefore, Ishwara has to be considered as both having the cause for the living and non-living. So, the Vedanta, Mandukya Upanishad, Gaudapada Shankaracharya explained to us Ishwara as pure consciousness and Ishwara with the Upadhi called Maya. These two. Who is Ishwara? Pure Shuddha Chaitanya plus Maya is called Ishwara. And just keep a note in your mind that according to Advaita Vedanta, Ishwara is also unreal. Let me repeat. According to Advaita Vedanta, Ishwara is also unreal. Why? Because his division has come. Duality has come. Pure Shuddha Brahma is only one. But Ishwara plus Maya that is called Upadhi. Samasthi Upadhi is called Maya. Vyasthi Upadhi is called Avidya. When I have ignorance, I am called Jivatma. When Ishwara has got Upadhi, Avidya is not called Avidya. It is called Maya. What is the big deal of difference? Avidya makes me completely ignorant. Whereas Ishwara is Sarvajna, Sarveshwaraha, Sarvantaryami and He is the Master of Maya. Nothing can come to Him. Because Sarvajna means all-knowing. All-knowing and ignorance do not go together. So this is the difference. So He is creating. So what is the point I am driving at? Ishwara with the help of Maya becomes what we call non-living things. It is also called Prana. Prana means, remember in the Upanishads, it is not this Panchamukha Prana. That is Prana, Apana, Vyana, Udana, Samana. Five functions of the Prana. That is not what we are talking about. Here Prana means Ishwara. We have discussed about it. This is a quotation from Chandogya Upanishad. The Upanishad confuses us unnecessarily. It should have used, instead of Prana, Ishwara. It would have been easier. Next time onwards, whenever you get across in the Upanishads, many places, you replace Prana with Ishwara or Hiranyagarbha. Then things will become very easy to understand. Similarly here, the Ishwara along with Maya, mainly the Maya becomes the Jada Padartha or non-living things. And Ishwara's Cheto Hamsa, the conscious part of it, that creates the beings with consciousness. So the Ishwara's consciousness lends its consciousness to all the non-living things, manifests in non-living things, but only in non-living things which have Antah Karana. For example, I am a Jeevatma. Means what? I have got a body, I have got a mind. If I only had a body, I would have been Jada. But since I have got a mind, mind means Buddhi, and in the Buddhi, pure consciousness is reflecting and therefore I know who I am. I am the Jeevatma. I have a mind, I have a body, I have sense organs, I experience the world. All this is possible. It is not possible for pure consciousness without the body-mind complex. It is not possible for the body-mind complex without consciousness. But when the consciousness is reflected in the body-mind, especially the mind, Antah Karana, then he is called a Jeevatma. So, two types of Srishti. Let me illustrate. In me also, two things are combined. I have got a physical body, which is just like a rock, the earth, etc. But I have got an Antah Karana, subtle body, which reflects the pure consciousness called Jada Bhasa. And therefore, according to both, I have got both these things together. So, with the non-living things, I interact with non-living things. With the consciousness, I interact with the consciousness, with the living beings. For example, when I take a stick and run after a dog, that means my consciousness is aware. I asked my body to take up a stick and then run after this, my legs to run after this dog, to beat the dog. The consciousness of the dog understands, Oh, this person wants to beat me and tries to escape from me. So, not only Ishwara, we are also reacting with both together. This is the point he wants to tell. Let us deal with that first of all. So, with the help of Maya, the inert things, or what we call non-living things, are produced. And with the help of the pure consciousness, reflected consciousness, Ishwara produces what we call the reflected consciousnesses. So, let us, with this understanding, we will explore the first, sixth Karika very briefly, because we have gone through it a little bit. sathāṁ vidyamānānām sveṇa avidyākṛta-nāma-rūpa-māyā-svarūpeṇa sarvabhāvānām viśva-taiśasa-prājñabhedānām prabhavah utpatiḥ the utpati, its creation, manifestation. Remember, here is an important point to keep in the background. And that point is that when we say creation, it is not like a female human being giving birth to a child. Here, mother is different and the child is different. But it is more like somebody shapes clay in the form of a pot. Simply, merely, this person shapes the lumpy form of the clay into the usable and experienceable and mostly usable, utilizable form of a pot, small pot, a tumbler pot, a plate for eating, etc. This is the only difference. So, in this 6th Kārikā, satām, that means all the things that we see, they are pre-existing. Satām means existing. Vidyamananām, whatever we are experiencing as what? sveṇa-avidyākṛta-nāma-rūpa-māyā-svarūpeṇa In the form of a shape, in the way of naming a particular object to distinguish it from other objects. For example, here is a small pot to distinguish it from a bigger pot or a left-sided pot, right-sided pot, etc. Sarva-bhāvānām. Here, Gaudapada uses some of the Buddhistic terminologies. Here, bhāvānām means jīvānām or bhūtānām, sarva-bhūtānām, all beings. So, what does he do? Already, these beings are existing. Existing as what? As avyākṛta, unmanifest form. That is the meaning of sarva-bhāvānām satām, the pre-existing. That is what he is indicating. This is called satkāryavāda. Already, things are there. Then, what is the use of creation? Because they are in the form of unmanifest form. What is creation? Making the unmanifest as manifest. And when we make manifest, we forget that this is a pot, but this is nothing but clay. This is nothing but clay. That part is forgotten by us. Similarly, when you look at a tree, at a human being, at his dog, this is nothing but Brahman. Brahman with nāma-rūpa. But Brahman cannot be experienced. Whatever cannot be experienced is called unmanifest. And this unmanifest has become manifest. That means what? It assumed a particular form and then to distinguish it from other forms, a particular name is given. And we forget about it. So, this nāma-rūpa itself is called māyā. So, avidyākṛta. What is this māyā? Māyā means not knowing its real nature. And what is the cause of it? Nāma-rūpa. And what is the cause of this nāma-rūpa? Avidyā. Avidyākṛta. Ignorance made. Ignorance born. Nāma-rūpa, māyā svarūpeṇa. Brahman assumes the form of svarūpeṇa. Sarva-bhāvānām. All the beings. In what form? Viśva-daiśasa-prājñā-bhedānām. This is called prabhavahā. This is called utpati. Now you can see, in our experience, there are only three states. Waking, dream and dreamless. And we have given, instead of English names, Waker, Dreamer and Sleeper, Sanskrit names, Viśva, Daiśasa and Prajñā. And always, not only one, it is taken universally also. But what is the real material? What is the clay? What is the clay? It is Brahman. It is Turiya. That was what the first and second mantras are going to tell. So, what you call this creation? First point, already it is there. It is not created out of shoonya, out of nothing. It is created out of already pre-existing, but in what form? Unmanifest form. And through avidyā, this unmanifest is made manifest. How is it made manifest? In the form of some shape, given a particular name for that, and used for a particular purpose. Nama, Rūpa and Prayojana. And this is called māyā svarūpeṇa. That is, we forget who we are. We think what we see is what we are. When you look at yourself in the mirror, I am a man, I am a woman, I am this particular individual with this particular name, beautiful, not so beautiful, young, old, this is called māyā. Sarvabhāvana, every being in this world. Every being means including non-living things. What is Himalaya? What does Kalidasa say in his Raghuvamsha? Himā astyutta raśyāṁ diśe Himālayo nāma nagādi rājaha There is a great mountain. It is a raja of mountains. In the northern direction. And He is called Himalaya. And what is He? He is one of the greatest beings. He is the greatest devata. He is not merely a mountain, but a devata. Only a Kalidasa can tell that. A Shri Ramakrishna can tell that. I remember a very beautiful incident. One Swami Akhandanandaji was very fond of Himalayas. He wandered many years there. One evening He was sitting where there was a mountain in front of Him, but sideways. Not fronting Him, but sideways. That means He could see both sides of the mountain. It was sunset on one side and it was the rise of full moon on the other side. And the sunset side, the western side, is the sun's rays, reflected on the snow, made it completely like burnished gold. And the same thing happened in the east, but pure white, because they are the rays of the full moon. And Swami Akhandanandaji was drinking this indescribable beauty. And then suddenly Shri Ramakrishna appeared and then touched His shoulders and said, Look, this is called Ardhanarishvara, Prakrutipurusha, Parvati Parameshwara. They are not mountains. They are not inert things. They are Shiva and Shakti. There is nothing excepting Shiva and Shakti. Now let me stretch this a little bit and say, You see a rock. You ask yourself, Is it having life? Say no. You ask Ramakrishna, Is it having life? You ask Kalidasa. He says, Yes. It is not only with life. It is a Devata. It is a Devata. What is Devata? It is none less than Brahman. Every river, which westerns consider as merely water, and the future wars, will be for drinkable, potable, pure water. It is going to come because the drinkable waters, the quantity is diminishing day by day because of so many reasons. And the future wars will be just like people fought over land. They are going to fight about this water. What is water? It is life, prana. What is air? It is prana. What is space? That is prana. What is fire? That is prana. If it becomes less or more, prana will go away. What is earth? It is food. It is prana. Everything is a Devata. These are called Panchadevatas. So, what I am talking about is that in this creation, we see both living and non-living. This living and non-living division is made by ignorant people, not by knowledge wise people, not by spiritual people. But anyway, both are manifestations of Ishwara. Ishwara's maya is manifesting as the body and as the mind and in inner things as the physical body. That is the physical body, gross body. The rock is the gross body. The river is the gross body. The fire is the gross body, etc. But in the living creatures, you see consciousness wriggling even in an insect. So, that consciousness part of it, however small it is, belongs to the pure consciousness reflecting in the Antahkarna. That means, amoeba also has got an Antahkarna, however crude it is. That is the idea. If we understand it, then the commentary is very, very quickly we can go. So now, Shankaracharya is explaining this. Pakshati cha. So, an explanation is given. What is he telling? Satam idya mananam. Only existing, pre-existing things, pre-existing in an unmanifested things alone can become manifested things, experienceable through the five sense organs. That means, Shabdasparsha ruparasa gandha rupena. This is what he is telling. And to explain it, Shankaracharya has given an example. Vandhya putraha. That means the son of a barren woman. There is no son of a barren woman. Barren woman means she can never bear any children. That means the child is not there. The egg is not there. There is no possibility of her bearing the son. Na tatvena. Truly, really, na mayaya, or even by magic, by maya, na jayate. It is impossible for a Vandhya putra to be born. That means we can talk verbally, we can use words, Vandhya putra, but there is no meaning to it. Then, the opponent asks a question. Then, what does he say? Yadi hyasata meva janmasyat. Supposing, except the opponent's view, what is it? Asat karyavadi. Everything has come from Asat. Asat means non-existence. Non-existence produces what? Nothing produces what? Only nothing. From non-existence, that existence comes out, something comes out from nothing is a ludicrous idea, unimaginable idea, irrational idea. So, the Shankaracharya, that means Siddhanti, is called Siddhanti. The opponent is called Purvapakshi. Pakshi is not a bird. Pakshi means opponent. So, he who takes the opposite position, Purvapaksha, is called Purvapakshi. Yadi hyasata meva janmasyat. Supposing, we accept your view, O opponent, that everything has come from Asat, non-existence, then what happens? Brahmanaha avyavaharyasya. That is Brahman, who is the cause and who is unmanifest. Avyavahara means unmanifest. Vyavahara means that with which you can deal, you can interact, you can react, you can act. That is called Vyavahara. That is why we call it Vyavaharika Drishti. But Brahman is unmanifest. Unmanifest means not available for the poison organs. So, Brahman is unmanifest. He is only available as manifest. Suppose you say, Brahman is not the creator. Nothing is the creator. What comes out of nothing? Nothing. What comes out of non-existence? Non-existence. Then, in that case, grahanadvara abhavat asatvaprasangaha. That is to say, will itself be rendered a non-entity because of the absence of means of comprehension. Supposing, Brahman is there, but He is not manifest. Who is ever going to come to know what is Brahman? Now, how are we going to know about Brahman? Because of His manifestation. What is this manifestation? Let me first give you a simple example. Now, I want to bring to your notice. These are most profound ideas. It requires very deep thought even to understand the concepts. That is why I am taking my sweet time hoping that we are able to understand better. So, this world is there. Suppose you see a calf. What does it say? This calf must have a mother. So, even if you have not seen the mother, by seeing the calf, you presume a cow must have given birth to a calf. So, it is absolute truth that if there were no cow, no calf will ever be produced. Therefore, the calf acts as a medium for me to infer even if I don't see the cow that there must be a cow. Maybe it is somewhere. Maybe it has gone for grazing, but there must be. There would be no person in this world who sees a calf and says it has simply fallen from the sky. It has come from non-existence. So, if the whole world is non-existent, two things will happen. What is it? Non-existence from non-existence. If at all anything comes, really nothing can come. But if you think something can come, only non-existence can come. And then you see non-existence. I don't know how you can experience non-existence because whatever we experience is only whatever is existing. Non-existence cannot be experienced. That is why it is called non-existence. Supposing you experience nothing, what do you have to infer? So, if nothing is the effect, then the cause must be nothing. If at all. It is only as if argument, not real argument. Then what happens? Two things will happen. So, what is the nature of nothing? What is the nature of nothing? Non-existence. And then if you want to attain to that non-existence through sadhana, what will you become? Non-existence. Not that you can become because you are existent, but imagining all these things. Exercise in fertile imagination. That is one problem that you will become non-existent because your root cause is non-existence. Second problem is nobody will ever know about Brahman. Now we know about Brahman. How do we know about Brahman? So, I see a tree. So, what is this tree? It is nothing but Nama Rupa. Remove Nama Rupa. Remove every quality from the tree. Suppose you see two things. Let me put it this way. You see two things. You see a tree and you also see, let us say, a cow. Let us say another object also, a human being. You remove all the Nama, Rupa and Guna from the cow. Nama, Rupa, Guna you remove from the man. Nama, Rupa, Guna you remove from the tree. Now tell me, what remains? Can you distinguish? It is only because of Nama, because of Rupa, because of Guna, because of Nama, we say this is a tree, this is a cow, this is a man. The moment you remove them, what remains? Don't think, nothing remains. Nama, Guna, Rupa, Rahita, Astitva. Pure existence. Then there is no difference between human beings because pure existence is one and cannot be separated, distinguished. So that is what happens. So all these myriads of things that you see, they presume, ultimately, you go on analysing and slowly, slowly, like reaching the top of a pyramid, ultimately you reach that original cause which is called Brahman. So if the opponent continues that this world is coming from nothing, then it will go back to nothing and all of us will be nothing. No sadhana is ever necessary. You see a Rasagulla, you want to eat a Rasagulla, that will be nothing. That means what? Nothing is eating the nothing called person is eating a thing called Rasagulla which is nothing and therefore his experience is nothing called enjoyment and he becomes nothing called happy. I hope I am able to convey to you. So Brahmanaha, if there is no vyavahara, no visible world, no experienceable world, it is impossible to infer that there is a root cause. These are all effects just as everything in this world has got a root cause, so also the entire world before its creation must have a root cause and that root cause you can call it Turiya, you can call it Brahman, doesn't matter by what name because it is unmanifest. You can call it unmanifest by any name. So you can at least infer. What can you infer? First thing you infer is that there is existence because anything non-existent cannot be experiencing. When you see a non-living thing, you can infer existence first, sath, sath aspect of Brahman. But when you see living beings, you can also experience their mind expressed through their activities. He is angry, he is happy, he is friendly, he is unfriendly, he is selfish, he is unselfish. These are not objects. These are called concepts. So as opposed to percepts, these concepts don't have a form, they have a name but we can only infer from actions. What is called eyebrows are knit together, this fellow is unhappy and broad smile, this person is very happy and some person comes to you looking at you, this person is loving, a great friend. This person is a great enemy, is coming to me with a gun, with a stick to beat me. So we infer all these things belong to the mind. So we infer Anantakarana. And then the person, he can do all these things only with the help of Chidabasa, reflected consciousness. So we can easily infer there is consciousness and there is body and there is a mind. These three things together is called a living being. Now, what am I talking about? When you see a living being, then you see the knowledge, the consciousness manifesting in the form of activities which are goaded by knowledge and that knowledge aspect is called Chit, you can see. Further, here is a person, he is running towards a sweetmeat shop, he is a living person, conscious person, a person with a particular desire and a set mind. He is running towards this sweetmeat shop, he purchases Rasogulla and he pops it into his mouth. You see that his face is transformed into beautiful smile, joyous face. So you infer Chit, you infer Ananda by looking at the living beings. So, now let me summarize. In this world, there are two creations, living and non-living. When you look at the non-living, you infer the existence portion of Brahman. When you look at the living beings, you infer both the Chit which is reflected in the mind and the result of every activity or thought or fulfillment of desire is called Ananda. Ananda aspect and we don't see this Chit and Ananda aspect reflected in the non-living things because there is no Antahkarna. But when we put these two together, there is existence, there is Chit, there is Ananda and when this Sat, Chit, Ananda is the difference between one object and the other object is removed, that absolute existence, that absolute knowledge, that absolute Ananda, that is how we infer Brahman. That is what Shankara is telling. They say Grahana dwara abhavat asatva prasangah since we do not have any effect to guess what is the cause of this effect. There is no abhava of dwara, there is no way to guess what is the cause of this thing. Asatva, that means Brahmanah asatva prasangah. So it is impossible to guess about Brahman and when we do not know about Brahman, then the desire to attain Brahman will not come. When there is no desire to attain Brahman, what happens you know, then the sadhana will not come. When there is no sadhana, we continue in this samsara. What is the nature of samsara? 99% dukkha, 1% sukha. And nobody wants dukkha, everybody wants sukha only. So, to strengthen his argument, Shankaracharya is proceeding further. You see, supposing this purvapakshi says, you see, here is a non-existing snake. Here is a non-existing silver. Here is a non-existing mirage, a lake. Then Shankaracharya's rod immediately falls on the head of the purvapakshi and says, Sir, supposing there is no rope. Can you see the snake? Suppose there is no shell. Can you imagine about the silver? Suppose there is no dessert. Can you imagine the mirage? So, even to see the mithya prapancha, there must be a satya vastu must be there. And that satya vastu is called brahman. To infer that there is a satya vastu, this maya prapancha is highly useful to us. I have a lot of things to say about it, but today's class, I will just give an example. Now, we are all born as children. We don't know what is God. We don't know what is spirituality. We don't know what is religion. We don't know what is morality. We don't know what is called anything. So much we are ignorant. Then you know, even a child may be innocent, may be pure up to that stage. So, if he doesn't get his milk, his food in proper time, if the mother leaves him there, subjected to mosquitoes, flies, and wild animals, etc., he will not survive for a single second. Minutest point of time also, he will not survive. What am I talking? To tell very briefly, there is nothing called happy circumstance in this world. You can continue. What is the proportion or percentage of happiness and unhappiness? Like a horse and like a rabbit. This very experience forces us to seek, is there any lasting happiness? And for that, at some point or other, everybody will turn into a jignaso, and that is the very purpose of this Sarpa, that is this world, Srishti, which is appearing. Very good. You have told wonderful things. We are very thankful for you. But, where from this creation has come? From Ishwara. Now, there are some people who ask, why in the hell God has created? Who is the creator, first of all? Naturally, we say it is God. Upanishads are telling it is God. They don't use the word God. Either they use the word Ishwara or they use the word Sat or Brahma. Doesn't he have buddhi? Can he not create marvellous world, sweet world? And then, you are born, enjoy together, grow up happily, become old happily, happily you die. Could he not have created this world? So, various contentions are there. Therefore, there must be different types of opinions about creation, etc. What is the purpose of creation? And these are most marvellous things. I came with the idea. I will cover a lot of this one. But, in order to convey to you these deep, profound thoughts, I have to go slowly. I don't mind. If you have understood it, I am very happy about it. Om Jananeyam Shardaam Deivim Ramakrishnam Jagadgurum Pada Padme Tayo Sritva Pranamaami Mohur Mohuhu May Ramakrishna, Holy Mother Swami Vivekananda bless us all with bhakti. Jai Ramkrishna!