Mandukya Karika Lecture 083 on 28 December 2022

Full Transcript(Not Corrected)

OM JANANIM SHARADAM DEVYAM RAMAKRISHNAM JAGADGURUM PADAPADMETAYO SRIDHVA PRANAMAMI MUHURMUHU OM BADRAM KANNE VISHNU YAMA DEVAH BADRAM PASHYE MAKSHA VIRYA JATRAH STHIRAY RANGAYE STHUSHTU VAGUM SASTANUBE YASHEM ADEVAYE TAYYADAYO SWASTHINA INDRO VRIDDHA SHRAVA SWASTHINA POSHA VISHWA VEDAHA SWASTHINA STHARKSHYO ARISTA NIMI SWASTHINOMBRIHA SPATIR DADHATO 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 all of us. May the all-nourishing potion be propitious to all of us. May Garuda, the destroyer of all evil, be well disposed towards all of us. May Brihaspati ensure all our welfare. OM PEACE PEACE PEACE BE UNTO ALL We have been studying the second chapter of the Mandukya Karika. Second, third and fourth chapters are nothing but Gaudapada's compositions called Karikas. The second chapter is called Vaithathya Prakarana, chapter of the falsity of this entire world, whether it be waking state and dream state. All of us commit certain mistakes. One of the mistakes is that our waking state alone is the reality and all other states are not real. That is completely false. That is what Gaudapada wants to prove. How does he want to prove? Only very simple reasoning. First of all, Gaudapada wants to say that whatever be the object of experience, be it waking state, be it dream state, be it the sleeping state, these states are experiential and an experience cannot happen unless there is an experiencer. So this is the first point, the entire scripture especially interpreted from the Advaitic viewpoint is that the experiencer alone is real, unchanging. And what is the second point? Whatever is experiential is changing and whatever is changing cannot be real. I hope we get these two points. Whatever be the experience. Waking depends upon the waker. Dream depends upon the dreamer. Sleep depends upon the sleeper. So how many experiences are there? Only one, not three. Looks as though seemingly there are three. But let us look at ourselves. I was in the waking state. I was in the dream state. I was in the sleeping state. I is not changing but whatever the I is experiencing, that is changing. This is a beautiful view. We have to understand it crystal clearly. What is the second point? That everything that is experienced is changing. So there are two ways of understanding it. The baby is born in the waking state. The baby grows. The baby becomes middle-aged, old-aged, death, continuously. It is not that suddenly after 25 years the baby becomes young person. After 25 years he becomes 50 years old person one day. And after 25 years he becomes 75 years old. Not like that. Every millisecond, second means time. Time means changing. Every second we are changing though we may not notice it. And whatever is changing cannot be relied upon. Simple example, I am happy this minute, next minute I am not happy. I can't rely upon that object which gives me happiness this minute but it simply gets destroyed next minute either by the same object or by some other object. I cannot rely upon it because I want to rely. I am searching for an object. Which one will be my dearest friend, my life, unchanging, who loves me, whether I love or not, that is what we are all searching for. Similarly, this is one way of looking. Everything in this universe, like every drop of water that is flowing in a river is completely changing. This is one way of looking. Same thing is also happening in the dream. Same thing is happening in the deep sleep also. But there is another way of changing. What is it? When we are experiencing waking, for us dream and sleep are unreal. When we are experiencing dream, both the waking and the sleep are unreal. When we are sleeping, both waking and dream, both are unreal. So with regard to one particular state of experience, the other two states of experiences are completely unreal. So that is a massive change. So complete change. The whole world changes. But who is experiencing all these three? Three persons or one person? Only one person. And is he changing? No, he is not changing. His experience is changing. He is not changing. And that is why he is able to say that I was in the waking, I was in the dream and I was in the sleeping state. All the three states one after the other are being experienced by me. Another way the scriptures had is we can never have all these three states simultaneously. So that is the important point. We can only have one after the other. And when we are in one state, other states are completely unreal. Therefore we can never rely. So these are the two most important principles of Advaita Vedanta. Everything is unreal. First of all it is dependent. Everything, anything that is dependent is unreal. Second is everything that is dependent is continuously changing. Therefore it is even more unreal. Okay, I am experiencing waking state and if I can have the same experience, unchanged waking state, then I can say there is some consolation. But no, whether it is today my experiences in the office are different, tomorrow it is different, day after tomorrow is different and not a single second's experience in the waking state is exactly the same. So there is continuity but there is no stability. It continues but there is no stability. Therefore everything is Mithya. Mithya means it is not totally real but that which comprises all the three states, that which never changes, without which no experience can be had is called the Atman, is called the Chaitanyam and that is infinite, that is eternal. Infinite means it contains everything. Eternity means it never changes. It is exactly the same. That is why Bhagawan has a name, a particular title. He is called Puranaha, not this mythology. Kabim Puranam Anusha Sitaram. We get in the Bhagavad Gita many other Upanishads also. Puranam means what? Pura Api Navaha. Even though He is most ancient, He is the most new. How can any ancient thing be most new? Because there is no change at all, because He is beyond time. He is called Mahakala. What is changing is called Kali and what is unchanging is called Mahakala. Mahakali and Mahakala. This is the Tattva or the essence of worshipping the Mahakali. Kali means Kala. Kala means change. Change means Srishti Stithi and Venasa. That is why you see four hands representing creation, sustenance and dissolution continuously going on together cosmologically and individually. Every cell is changing, every body is changing, every country is changing etc. So this is what Gaudapada wants us to drive into our brains and keep it there and live life joyfully. Because once we know, we don't expect it to change. Changelessness cannot be expected of that which is continuously changing. And when we accept that one, our mind will be remaining in calm and peaceful state. And then we understand the scriptures. Then we get a reflection of our true self. That is how we proceed forward. That is what is most important. In our last class we have seen that four objections have been raised by the opponent in this Vaithathya Prakrana. What is it? Oh dear sir, you are comparing dream and waking state. We all know, even the most foolish person knows that dream experiences are completely false. So you don't need to tell us. But don't go on preaching to us. Just like dream, waking is exactly in the same position. Like dream, it is also temporary, it is also false. Don't go on telling. And for that he raises four objections to counter Gaudapada's compositions. What are those four objections? First is utility. In waking state, I earn money, I keep it in the bank and then I work very hard. I am saving, I buy a house, I buy a car, etc., etc. And even when I go to dream state, when I even go into the sleeping state, when I come back, my house is there, my bank balance is there, my car is there, my friends are there. Are they really? Yes, maybe for one second. But after that, are not your relatives dying? Is not your car getting accidental and then trying to get damaged? Is not your house being changed, being broken? And finally, is not death happening? Do you know what happened to your father, to your mother, your grandmother, your grandfather? Is it not? Is it exactly the same? This is called utility. So whatever is useful in the waking state is real. And Gaudapada, what is his reply? In dream also, when you are having a desire to have a cup of tea or coffee and you have it and you get enormous satisfaction, there is utility. Dream thirst, dream hunger, dream desires for housing or car etc. In dream they are real. Don't bring that idea because what you do in the waking state is not real. For that he gives an example. You eat nicely and go to bed. You dream, you are ravenously hungry. Opposite example is you are ravenously hungry in dream and you eat food but when you wake up, maybe you haven't had your dinner and you are ravenously hungry when? Next second. So don't bring the idea of utility. Second, continuity. What is it? Every dream is changing. Even in the same night or day, daydream by the way are called daydreams. That's all. There is not much difference. There is a slight difference. What is the difference? In daydreaming, I am semi-conscious that I am imagining. In night dreams, they become very concrete. What I am imagining appear to be absolutely their Pratyaksha like Kalpavriksha. That is why the mind is called Kalpataru. Whatever it imagines, immediately you will find there. So there is continuity. There is no continuity in dreams and there is a continuity in the waking state. What is the answer of Godapada? He says you are foolish. Your intellect is very immature. You don't have the capacity to think deeply. Now you say there is no continuity in dream. When you are having a dream, do you have the same feeling? Yesterday I had seen a different house and I was in a different place and my family was totally different. How come today all of a sudden the whole thing has changed? Do you question like that? Or do you find complete continuity just like in the waking state? Because the question never comes. You are never surprised to find that you are in a particular place doing some particular thing. Your memory, it repels. I planned, I came to here and I am meeting my relatives after a long time. Everything as if the past was there, present is there and I am planning to return back to USA after some time. Absolutely like waking state, you never question. Why do you never question? Because the doubt, the dream is not continuous, never arises in your mind when you are dreaming. But you are putting this question, questioning this experience where? In the waking state. Similarly, if you have some vagueness in your dream, you say I was supposed to meet somebody in Bangalore. How do I find myself in Chennai now or in America? You can question. Same thing you can do in the dream state also. So never think because continuity is a proof of reality. No. Then external is real, internal is unreal. What does it mean? Means we all know, even a less intelligent person knows when I see a tree that is very real. Can I imagine in winter season that I have a mango tree in my compound and you know it gives a few fruits but extraordinarily delicious fruits and suddenly you see outside the window and you will see that beautiful mango fruits when in the deep winter season. Do you ever do that? You don't do that. But you can daydream about them and you are completely aware that what I am thinking about my mango tree inside my mind is only my imaginations and everything that we do about every object in the external world is only my imagination. I hope you get this point. Say supposing the wife is looking at the husband and the wife never knows what the husband really is. She can't read his mind. She can only see a few things in his physical body, what he is thinking about her and what he is thinking about any other woman. All these are completely sealed book so far as the woman is concerned. With what little knowledge she is having, only she is seeing the person. Rest is imagination. But she thinks what she is imagining is completely real. That's why she is surprised. One day he shouts at her and then, Oh! I thought my husband is most loving. He never speaks a harsh word to me. And now suddenly what has overcome him? Nothing has overcome him. He was like that only. You never understood it before because of your stupidity, blindness. So what am I driving at? My husband that I see in front of me is real but my imaginations about him is all unreal. This is what we think. So this externality is real. What I think about these external objects is unreal. But the whole thing in the dream is inside me. Just like my imagination, the whole dream is an imagination. This is the objection of the opponent. But Gaudapada is replying, You stupid idiot! When you are dreaming, you are exactly having the same experience. In your dream, first of all, you don't think I am a dreamer. You think this is the waking state. It is a real state. Secondly, when you look out of your window of your room, you see a mango tree and then you say that mango tree is 100% true because I could not have seen it if it was not there because I am in the waking state. But what I imagine about that mango tree, that is all my imagination and I know very well and that is an imagination. The same thing that we do, exactly 150% we do in the dream state also. So this externality is real and internality is imagination or false that argument is a very weak argument. It is what we call childish argument. It falls down. Then one more thing he adds, What in the waking state? Things are crystal clear. Are they? You get up in a winter morning and it is foggy and you see somebody walking away towards you or away from you. Is that very clear? Not at all clear. There must be sunlight. There should be no fog. Your eyes should be okay and you should not be drunk and everything is okay. Seems to be absolutely clear whereas dream is very vague. Very few people remember dreams. So this is an argument. Clarity is the sign of reality but vagueness is the sign of falsehood and reality. Gaudapada laughs and then he says In your dream on a foggy day when you see things when you are walking in the dream you see that every dream object is very very vague exactly like in the waking state there is a summer season the sun is brilliantly shining and you see everything crystal clear and then you don't feel you don't have the slightest doubt externally it is clear but what I think about it is vague. No, you don't think like that. Whatever you do in the waking state absolutely it is replicated in the dream state. So what is the point? Point is if you think dream state is false and we never say dream is real none of us even the most ignorant person even the person who never studies Gaudapada Karika when he is dreaming I won a lottery ticket in my dream and I became rich by several crores of rupees in my bank and you run to the bank and you confirm from the accountant that yes yes now your account your balance stands like this and you are very happy you return and when you wake up say it is all absolutely it does nothing this is called utility. No, my friend whatever you do in the waking state is exactly it has the same status when you are in the dream state. So what is the meaning? Both dream and waking and now you have to take sleep state also anything that is experienced is Mithya and anything that is experienced changes therefore it is Mithya. Whatever is experienced is false and whatever experienced is always changing and whatever is changing is Mithya. So this is what he wants to tell in our last class we are discussing 9th and 10th Swapna Vrutta Vape Antas Chetasa Kalpitam Tvasat Bahis Cheto Grihitam Sat Drishnam Vaitharthyam Aitayoh Even in the dream state itself anything imagined by the dreamer in his mind is considered unreal that person considers as this is my thoughts this is my imaginations it is not real. While anything experienced by the dreamer in the dream world in the outside of his body is considered to be absolutely real including his body also. But we think that is the object of things that is the reason why the dream state is unreal. He is accepting dream state is unreal but don't bring it to the waking state. What is Godapada saying? Even in the waking state whatever is imagined by the inner consciousness is false and whatever is perceived by the outer consciousness is true. It is reasonable that both these dream world experience and the waking world experience in the waking state both should be unreal because there is absolutely no difference. In case you are having what is this consciousness what is inner consciousness what is outer consciousness I already made it clear I will make it once more. When I look out of my room and see a mango tree my eyes are beholding mango tree and I see a musician singing a song my ears are hearing the sound I see a beautiful fragrant flower and that is giving tremendous amount of fragrance and I see a sweet being brought by somebody by my friend and I know it is very tasty and the weather is very hot very cold and very pleasant or very unpleasant all these that are happening outside are absolute real whereas I sit in my easy chair and I think about all these things they are but my imaginations. My imaginations are false but what my senses are beholding they are absolutely real. So therefore this waking state is real because I find I can go and then break my head against the mango tree and so it is or I can go and hit the musician and he has a stick for beating the drum and he gives one blow I can fall unconscious this is absolute truth but when I am sitting on my chair and through my mind imagining and that is unreal but whereas the whole of the dream is unreal. Gaudapada is laughing loudly and long time. He says stupid fellow exactly the same dream you are having you are sitting in a room you are looking out you see a mango tree and no doubt comes that is a very real concrete mango tree outside a musician is going and he is singing or nicely or very badly all this is exactly as in the waking state no doubt but when he says this fellow he is doing nicely he is not doing nicely all these things are completely my imaginations that is what even in dream state the dreamer is thinking but remember I am using the word in the dream state by the dreamer but when we are dreaming we don't say I am a dreamer I am dreaming when do we say only in the waking state when we are having a dream actually it is a waking state I am the waker I am experiencing there is an external world which my five sense organs can derive knowledge from and there is an imagination of all those things that I experience through my five sense organs the same thing that is happening in the waking state is exactly it is happening in the dream state also here is a point so this real state waking is real when we are in the waking state dream is real when we are in the dream state sleeping is real when we are in the sleeping state here also so many of us have terrible doubts oh I slept I did not know anything I did not know I was sleeping simple answer to counter this is sir did you sleep yesterday yes how many hours did you sleep so 8 hours I slept ok did you sleep or did Swami Dayatmananda come and sleep the fellow gets a bit confused why I slept so in between did somebody come and sleep no I went to bed at 11 o'clock I woke up at 5 o'clock continuously I was only sleeping you would never say somebody else is though I did not know anything if you did not know anything how are you claiming from 11 o'clock to 5 o'clock I was only sleeping that means there must be somebody who is keeping a watch every millisecond say I am sleeping I am sleeping you never say even for a millisecond for a few seconds I went out somebody substituted me and then sleeping you never say that what are we talking I repeated this point umpteen number of times I am not aware of my any what experience I am aware that my experience I don't understand my experience that is the meaning of I don't know anything not that there is no experience experience without experience dream experience or any experience cannot happen so dream sleeping experience also unless there is a sleeping world called avidya that is called not knowing but you the sleeper completely separate from the sleeping state are watching experiencing the sleeping experiences and what is the sleeping experience in waking you know in dream you know and in deep sleep I see darkness I am experiencing darkness I am experiencing not knowingness I am experiencing knowingness in the waking and dream I am experiencing not knowingness in deep sleep state but I am experiencing experience is real if you say I am dream I am sleeping that experience is real you have to say when you say my experience is real what is an experience without an object of experience so think over it yes you are experiencing what is the experience that it is all completely dark it is not knowable therefore you say I did not know anything I am experiencing my not knowingness in the deep sleep state that is my special experience in the deep sleep state so I understand what is the point all the states are experiential states are changing they are mithya but I am moving from one room to the other room but I alone is real and that is what Gaudapada is telling I am again reminding you two points the experiential alone is real and whatever is experienced is totally dependent upon the experiencer first secondly whatever is experienced is continuously changing therefore there is experienceability or objectivity and changefulness that is the definition of mithya whether it is waking, dream or sleep it is mithya because it is experienced by somebody and they are continuously changing from one state to the other secondly within this state of waking and dream every object is continuously changing so that changeability is unreliability whatever is unreal is called mithya now the opponent seems to have been stunned he says ok you are telling waking is mithya dream is mithya then we have to presume that means the sleep also is mithya is it right? Gaudapada says absolutely right then separate from these two especially waking and dreaming is only bringing these two so who is the experiencer? because slowly his buddhi is becoming a little more enlightened there must be some experiencer to experience the waking there must be some experiencer to experience the dream and so he is asking that you say experiencer is the real I don't see the experiencer who sir is the experiencer? that is the this eleventh karika this objector is telling so who is the experiencer of these unreal states and for that Gaudapada is giving the answer in the eleventh karika if all objects that means all the experiences in both the states means in the waking and dream states be unreal as you are claiming who is it that says both are unreal who apprehends these objects and who indeed is their creator suppose this the experiencer is real and then all these experiences are unreal very beautiful argument so supposing you say something that I see the son of a barren woman I see the horns of a hare which are not seen in this world you say that but a wise man says it is impossible it is illogical it is irrational that a barren woman can never have children that is why she is called barren a barren woman cannot have any children similarly a horn cannot have any horns a rabbit a hare cannot have any horns you can use the words but there is no such thing ok if they are not real then there must be somebody who is telling that they are unreal and so two questions come who is the experiencer is first then who is it must be imagining because either they are real or they are not real if they are real it is not imagination if they are unreal they are imaginations if they are imaginations who is the imaginer so who is the experiencer and what who is the imagining all these various things which is called waking dream as well as deep sleep state this was the question in a kind of can you prove that is the question put in this eleventh karika ubhaya or api vai tathyam vai tathyam means falsity unreality ubhaya ha abi bhedana ubhaya ha api both api both of them what both of them sthana yo yadi ubhaya or api sthana yo yadi bhedana vai tathyam waking state is different dream state is different if both are different sthana means a state of experience if both these states of experiences of both waking and dream are unreal kaha who etan budhya who is the understand understanding person who is the experiencer and it depends everything bhedana ubhaya tathyam wake up we see every object is different every object is changing every object is different here you have to understand one thought suppose you see a beautiful fragrant rose at this moment in your garden and after two hours you come and see it has already changed it is becoming faded and it doesn't have so much of fragrance it has already changed it did not remain the same so now the change is coming so who is the experiencer of these changes and if it is unreal it is imagination if it is real it is real it is not an imagination if it is unreal it is unreal it is purely an imagination like you sit and imagine through your mind so the question is who is the person who is experiencing this unreality because even to say this is unreal who can say unreal cannot say I am unreal only something real can say so is there something which is separate from this waking dream and by implication deep sleep who is called the experiencer upon whom depends all multiplying his imaginations based on that means all the differences billions and billions and billions of differences between trees between insects between leaves between flowers between fruits even the same mango fruit and the self same mango tree infinite number of differences are there so these veda differences who is imagining them so very important for us to understand without the experiencer there cannot be experience therefore who is that experiencer first question and why is he imagining so many things so many things no why is he imagining so many things and who is the imaginer who is the experiencer that was the question so now the answer is supposing you see a tree and what happens the tree is outside and your eyes bring the information and the your memory inside your mind how are you able to see because of the smriti memory now you are not opening your eyes and seeing the tree but you are seeing that tree that fruits those leaves blossoms everything in your mind now memory can function unless there is a single common experience and remember memory cannot function suppose for one hour you experience the tree another hour somebody else comes and experiences so your memory will be one hour or two hours only one hour that person's memory will be for rest of the time as long as you are conscious of it what do you say I remember I crystal clearly have seen it you yourself are accepting now I close my eyes and I can see vividly in my mind that's why when we come back to the waking state I remember I had this dream and you also say one hour back I have seen I met another person I crystal clearly remember because one hour means it is in my mind now I close my eyes and I can see vividly in my mind now I close my eyes and I can see vividly in my mind now I close my eyes and I can see vividly in my mind now I close my eyes and I can see vividly in my mind now I close my eyes and I can see vividly in my mind now I close my eyes and I can see vividly in my mind now I close my eyes and I can see vividly in my mind now I close my eyes and I can see vividly in my mind now I close my eyes and I can see vividly in my mind now I close my eyes and I can see vividly in my mind now I close my eyes and I can see vividly in my mind now I close my eyes and I can see vividly in my mind now I close my eyes and I can see vividly in my mind now I close my eyes and I can see vividly in my mind now I close my eyes and I can see vividly in my mind now I close my eyes and I can see vividly in my mind now I close my eyes and I can see vividly in my mind now I close my eyes and I can see vividly in my mind now I can see vividly in my mind now I close my eyes and I can see vividly in my mind now I can you created mango plants. How many? Numberless mango trees and they are at different stages of growth and they are yielding, one for pickles, one for a little bit sour and sweet, katta, metha, some people prefer it, holy mother preferred it, some are alfanzo, some are malgova, some are langda, some are dasheri etc. etc. You are creating so many things. Do you see how you are creating so many things and then when you are asked is this real or unreal? Suppose a dream me comes to you in your dream and puts a question. Why are you imagining so many things? This is all imagination. Are you likely to believe me? No. He says I have respect for you Swami Dayatmananda, I don't want to hurt you but I want to prove that this world is absolutely real. How do you want to prove? Then he brings him a first class mango tree grown in his own garden by his own hands and he cuts it and offers it and you taste it and tell me and I tasted it. Excellent, what a nice flavor, nice sweet, I never tasted. Now tell me my dear Swami Dayatmananda, is this real world or unreal world? Are you talking about unreal mango tasting unreal taste and having unreal flavor or are you telling the reality? And as long, so long as we are in that state everything is real. When do we say it is all my imagination? When we come back to another state called waking state and this is the answer we have to understand. Now Gowda Pada is telling the self-effulgent self that means the pure consciousness imagines itself by what? Through the mind which itself has created by the power of its own Maya because it has created. It is the creator and what it creates is Maya and what it experiences is real. So that self itself organizes the objects, classifies living, non-living, insects, trees, plants, birds, animals, human beings, Hindus, Muslims, Buddhists, Indians, Americans, USA citizens etc. etc. He himself is organizing everything and such is the definitive conclusion of Vedanta. That is to say God alone is real and He is doing all these things. Only the Bhaktas, the Puranas do not call it Mithya, they call it Leela. What the devotee, the Puranas call Leela is what Advaita Vedanta and this Gowda Pada is telling Mithya. This is a beautiful idea. We have to understand what is the correlation between Mithya and Leela and if you ask me what do you, your personal preference, I will definitely say Leela is my personal preference. Why? Because when I feel like eating mango and this Gowda Pada comes and says it is your imagination. No, no fruit is real. No, no it is imagination. But I put it in my mouth, it was very sweet. That is also your imagination and you are happy, I am happy. That is also your imagination. That is what he tries to deny. Everything is, he is a creator of deep unhappiness. But if I meet a devotee, yes mango tree is real and it is very sweet mango and you have eaten. Now it is doubly tasty. Why is it doubly tasty? First of all it is tasty in its own right and then you offered it to God and then you are very happily thinking that God has eaten and He says here you take my prasada and that makes the mango doubly, trifle, 100 times, 1000 times more happy. That is why I said I prefer to call it Leela rather than Mithya. But there is a relationship. They are exactly the same thing. I will talk about it in my next class. May Ramakrishna, Holy Mother and Swami Vivekananda bless us all with Bhakti. Jai Ramakrishna.