Mandukya Karika Lecture 098 on 12 April 2023

Full Transcript(Not Corrected)

Om Jananim Sharadam Devim Ramakrishnam Jagadgurum Pada Padme Tayo Shritva Pranamami Mohur Moho Om Bhadram Kanne Bishrunaya Madhevaha Bhadram Pashyam Akshabhirya Jatraaha Sthirai Rangai Stushtu Vagum Sastanu Bhihi Vyaseemadevahi Tanyadayu Swasthina Indru Vriddha Shravaha Swasthina Poosha Vishwa Vedaha Swasthina Starkshu Arishta Nimi Swasthina Om Brihaspati Riddha Dhatu Om Shanti Shanti Shanti Hai Hare Om Om Om Om Om Om Om Om Om Om Om Om Om Om Om Om Om Om Om Om Om Om Om Om Om Om Om Om Om Om Om Om Om Om Om Om Om Om Om Om Om Om Om welfare. Om, peace, peace, peace be unto all. We have started the third prakaranam, third chapter of the Gaudapada's Mandukya Karikas. This third chapter is called Advaita Prakaranam. This is nothing but the elaboration of the seventh mantra of the Mandukya Upanishad which was elaborately explained by Gaudapada in the first prakaranam called Agama Prakaranam. How the whole world is false had been explained throughout the second chapter called Vaithathya Prakaranam. And in essence we know there is absolutely no reality in the waking state. There is no difference between the dream state and the waking state. And by comparing these two, even the deep sleep state also, why? The reason is, first reason, because they are experienced. And in our experience, we always know an experiencer is not what is experienced. They are ever separate. The experiencer is changeless, permanent, pure consciousness, while the experienced is just the opposite, temporary and limited and always changing and depends totally upon the experiencer for its very cognition, for its very existence. This we accept when we wake up from the dream and come into the waking state. But we do not accept waking state status is exactly the same because it is also experienced and it is also dependent upon us. It is always changing and that changeful nature is most important point. What is the meaning of changeful nature? It is unreliable, insecure. This moment, we may be experiencing happiness, but it changes into unhappiness. Curiously, if we understand this fact, even when we are unhappy, we have to cognize even that also will change. When darkness changes, it becomes light. When light changes, it becomes darkness. When happiness changes, it becomes unhappiness. When unhappiness changes, it becomes happiness. This is the nature. Nothing is permanent. Everything is temporary and we have to understand it properly. Temporary means ever changing. Birth is changing into growth, death and death and death is again changing. And we don't know that. But through the scripture we come to know So this fact with conclusive proof through Yukti and Anubhava, Gaudapada had explained in the second chapter and now he has to explain. So if everything is changing, what is unchanging? The subject, the pure consciousness, it is another name for the subject, for the experiencer, for the knower. He is unchanging. He is Advaita. Whether I am experiencing waking or dream or deep sleep, they are changing. But I am throughout all these three states for one millisecond. I was never absent there. So this we know upon a bit of analysis. We are convinced of it. But we do not know what is our true nature. That is what is called Advaitam, Shantam, Shivam. And then by realizing that we are the permanent ones and in fact we are creating the entire world, so the whole world is our creation. But we don't want to play this creator creation role when we want to get out of this and that is when we become completely free from the travails of the birth and death or get out of this Samsara Sagara and that is what Gaudapada wants to establish in this third chapter. That is why it is called Advaita Prakaranam, complete exposition of Advaita. Advaita means non-dual. There are no two consciousnesses. There are no two separate Jivatmas. There is nothing besides Advaitam. Brahman is one and it is non-dual and that is the fact he wants to establish and he gives some well-known examples to drive this point home. One of the examples is Mahakasha and Ghatakasha. That is total space, original space and a pot space. When we say pot space, immediately we get it is a small bit of space. But Gaudapada wants to say the space is nothing small, nothing big because space is absolutely one. Pure consciousness is just for the sake of understanding compared to the Mahakasha. So when this pure consciousness appears to be born, that means confined by the body, by the mind, we say we are born, we say we are changing, we say we are growing, we say we are becoming old and we say we die. But pure consciousness never is born, never has any change and never dies. Just as pot space space is never born and it is not small and there is no separation from the original space, but it appears to be because of the Upadhi or limiting agent. And this is the example Mahakasha, Ghatakasha. He wants to, through this example, convey the idea to us that this Atman is like this Akasha, but let us not get that idea it is like Akasha. It is only as an example. An example is always to understand some point much more clearly than otherwise we might misunderstand it. Even this example is very difficult for us to understand, but we will strive in this chapter to understand. At least intellectually we should be able to understand another point. So why this example? Supposing there is what we call, usually we say empty space and what we buy when we want to construct a building, a house, a hall is called empty space. But it is a redundant word because space means emptiness. It is not an object which can be seen. It is something which is, but it is completely subtle. So subtle. What is subtle? That which is not manifest. So for convenience sake, we just as we use the terms in mathematics, plus, minus, etc., we use these words, this Akasha, etc., but really it is as inconceivable as Atman itself. So first, in this first Karika, Karika means a verse, trying to explain Advaita. Gaudapada seems to be what we call criticizing every other path. Now we know, and as I mentioned earlier, I would like to interpret everything in the light of Sri Ramakrishna's words. Now sometimes some of the followers of this Gnana Marga, what we call, go overboard. They go to the other extreme, condemning everything, not understanding a simple point. What is that simple point? That our goal is God. Another name for God is Atman. Another name for Atman is Brahman. Another name for Brahman is Gnanam. Gnanam means Chit, pure consciousness. So unable to understand that one, we become, what is called, confused about it. So Gnanam is the goal. What does a Yogi want to achieve? Gnanam, to know that knowledge, I am Atman, I am Purusha, I am not Jeevatma, I am not anything else, I am the Paramatma. There is no Jeevatma, Paramatma. Only one Atma and under different circumstances, we call it just as, when there is no form in gold, we just call it pure gold. But when the same gold takes a particular shape, we call it a ring or a bangle or an earring or nose ring or a necklace, different names. But all that is nothing but pure gold only. So there is no such second separate object called an ornament. That is a very beautiful example we have to keep in mind. So there is a Bhakta. He calls the same Brahman as Ishta Devata, Narayana, Shiva, Kali. This was what Sri Ramakrishna taught us from the very beginning. Since we are the followers of Sri Ramakrishna, we can understand it. We are followers of Bhakti Marga. So through Bhakti, the goal of Bhakti Marga is to love God, to develop devotion to God. But devotion cannot come without knowledge. A baby knows from the very beginning, this is my mother. That knowledge only makes the baby very happy. Suppose a stranger goes, then the baby somehow smells. Baby cannot see properly, cannot hear properly, probably, I don't know, but cannot definitely see for some time. But the baby has an acutely developed sense of smell. It knows what is mother's smell. And when a stranger comes, strange voice, etc., it becomes restless, becomes a little bit insecure or frightened, etc., until it becomes familiar, this is a safe person or safe, safe, it is absolutely okay. What is the point? The point is knowledge is necessary. Gnanam is necessary. Whom do I love? Narayana. And unless I know what is Narayana, unless I have right knowledge about Narayana, I cannot love him. That is why Swami Vivekananda says that knowledge and love, they are opposite sides of the same coin. To the extent we have that knowledge, then either love will come or hatred will come at the beginning. But once we come to know that this is the greatest being who wants only my welfare, this is the only being who can protect me, who can help me, who can love me, who can take care of me, that knowledge is called Gnanam. So whether a person is following the paths of Yoga or Bhakti or Karma Yoga or Gnana Yoga, these are pathways, the destination is Gnanam. Unable to distinguish between Gnanam and Margam, the pathway, falsely, these people get confused. So even if somebody says, I gave you this example quite a number of times, I am re-emphasizing. First, because many of us are likely to forget. Secondly, even some of those who remember may not understand it properly. So put it this way, I think it is a very rational way. You ask a devotee or a Karma Yogi or a Yogi or a Gnana Yogi, what is it you want? They will say different names. I want to go to Brahman, I want to become Purusha or I want to go to Narayana or Devi, Shiva, whatever. But what is it you want? What will you gain? Suppose you go to Vaikuntha or Kailasa, what do you want? First of all, I will go beyond death. Secondly, I will never be insecure. Thirdly, I will always be a very, very happy person. And fourthly, I will never again come back. Nobody, even the most ignorant Bhakta will ever say, I will go to Vaikuntha for a short time. I may go for a short time to Svarga Loka, even Brahma Loka, but not to Vaikuntha. And what happens? I will be immortal. I will be very happy. In simple words, he is conveying what Gnana Yogin ought to understand properly, that I want to be Sat, I want to be Chit and I want to be Ananda Svarupa. Sat Svarupa, Chit Svarupa and Ananda Svarupa. Unable to understand this simple truth, people go on saying my path is superior to your path, etc. Even among devotees, Krishna cannot take me across the samsara. Only my Divine Mother can take me across. Or Shiva is a useless person. He is a stupid person. That is what is called Bholanath. Bholanath means an idiot, cannot think properly. Who says? People who follow Vishnu and that is what they say. Vishnu never says. Shiva says I am Vishnu. Vishnu says I am Shiva. They have no problem. It is the monkeys and then the Asuras that go on quarrelling with each other. As Sri Ramakrishna tells, once there was a fight between Rama and Shiva and then very soon they understood that we are one, there is no need. But the quarrel between the followers of Rama monkeys and the followers of Shiva Bhutas, even now it is continuing. That is why be very careful. What are we talking about? The goal of every living creature is may I never die. May I never become an idiot, a foolish so that I endanger myself. And may I have unbroken happiness. That is called Prutyorma Mrutanga Maya. This is the goal. Whether expressed properly or not, this is the truth. So what are we talking about? Some of these followers of Jnanamarga, unable to distinguish between Jnanam, that is God, and Marga which is a path leading and there are how many? According to Sri Ramakrishna as many faiths, so many paths. There is no need to quarrel with anybody. The problem arises. That is how we are going to understand this third chapter because here also Gaudapada seems, I don't know what he really means, but the way he expressed it is in the very first one, as if he looks down upon everybody else who doesn't follow Jnanamarga. What is the problem? Gaudapada understands. A person travels, travelling in the path of Jnanam, he says that I know I am Brahman and I appear to have been born through scripture, through Guru's teaching. I come to know about it and I have complete faith and I want to get rid of my ignorance and I want to regain that memory that I was Brahman, I am Brahman, I will be Brahman. There is no question of attainment or any such thing because no change has ever come. I have never been distanced from Brahman. Brahman cannot be distanced at all because he is infinite. He is one. There is no I. There is no Brahman. Whatever exists, call it I, call it Brahman, call it Paramatma, it doesn't really matter. But, the very first verse which we have introduced in our last class and here it goes like this, Upasanaashrito dharmo jate brahmani vartate praag utpate ajam sarvam tena saukripanasmrutaha What it means? Upasanaashrita dharmaha. I mentioned earlier, here dharma has nothing to do with dharma, dharma, punya, papa. Here dharma means simply a Jivatma. Peculiar words. This is how he could have used the word Jivatma or Jiva. It would have been equally easier to do it but he chose to use this some of the Buddhistic terminology, what is called confusion, confounded. So, Jivatma, he takes to the path of Bhakti or Yoga. I am separated somehow from God. I came from God. I am going, I want to go back to my God and I am separated from my mother. I want to go back to my mother. The only way is Upasana. Upasana means Bhakti Marga. That is the path of meditation, Upasana and then I want to attain. So, jate brahmani vartate. I have come, jate, that means I am born. From where? From Brahman and I became separated as it were. So, I want to go back. I am now in this world created by Brahman. I am a Jivatma but I know through scripture, through Guru's teaching that I have come from Saguna Brahma. So, the only way I can go back is to pray to him, to meditate upon him, to beg him. How do you say that? Because praak utpate, before the creation, before this world was created, sarvam ajam. Everything was, ajam means unborn. Unborn means in the state of a seed, that is in unmanifested state. Saguna Brahma is the source of unmanifestation of everything and everything, whether you call it the birth of the world or you call it jagrat avastha or swapna avastha or sushupti avastha. Just like when we are in deep sleep, we feel that everything is one because there is no manifestation. But as soon as a few hours pass, then we wake up. From where did we wake up? From that avyakta avastha, unmanifest state. We have come to the manifest state and that is one manifest state, which one waking state. Then we go into dream state. This is another manifest state and then again we go back into the unmanifest. Before my birth, I was in an unmanifest form. After my birth, I became manifest. After some time, that is called death, I will go back into unmanifest state and if I want permanently to be with that, I have to pray to him. I don't want to come out. I want to be permanently one with you. This is called upasana or shritah. This jivatma dharma, he is going on praying. What is he praying? Before the creation of this world and I am part of this world and this world consists of two things, that is with life, without life. Those who are with life called pranis and they are called subjects and every subject is different. So, I will have to go back to my original state. Why do you want to go? Because whatever is limited, whatever is created is limited. What is the limiting factor? Time, space and causation and everything is changing. That means I want to be always happy. I want always to be healthy but it is changing all the time. But I will have to attain to that state where I enjoy fully. I have no fear of death. I have no fear of ignorance and I have no fear of suffering and that is called Satchitananda and my origin, Saguna Brahma is none other than Satchitananda. I came from him. The whole universe came from him and I want to go back and for that purpose I surrender myself to him. This is called upasana or shritah dharma and I know through scripture, through the teachings of the Guru that this is the real state and such a person. What does Gaudapada say about such a person? What is Gaudapada's opinion about such a person? Such a person is a very inferior person. So such a person is called Kripanaha, a miserable person and Smritaha means he should be understood as a miserable person. Kripanaha, Smritaha because of this knowledge. What knowledge? I came from Saguna Brahma. I go back to Saguna Brahma. But who is not a Kripanaha? He who thinks I have not come from any Saguna Brahma. I am Brahman only. I was never born. Only because of some ignorance I feel for some time that I was born and I am living as identified with this body and mind and through the grace of the scripture, through the grace of the Guru, I come to know that really speaking there is nobody is born, not only me, the whole world is not born. And this is the goal. That is to say what is the sadhana for? Not to become Brahman because I was never away from Brahman. But to get rid of that wrong notion, just like they give the example, this is a snake, that is there was no snake, there is no snake, there will be no snake. Whatever existed was rope, whatever is existing is rope, whatever would be existing will be rope only and because of the darkness and my fear, I see it as if it is a fearsome snake. So this is called cognitive change. That's all. So he wants to say it seems as if he is condemning. But according to Sri Ramakrishna, everybody progresses. As I mentioned earlier, nobody will say I want only Saguna Brahma. A bhakta may use the word Saguna Brahma, saying he is Narayana, he is Vishnu, he is Shiva or he is Ganesha or he is Kartikeya or he is Buddha or they say it is Divine Mother, Jaganmata. But what he means by that, I want to be Satchitananda, I want to be eternal, I want to be one, I don't want any desires, I never want any lack of knowledge. The real meaning is that one. So now Gaudapada, with this preposition, what is that? That I will tell you that there is some other goal. Oh mistaken fellow, oh ignorant Jeeva, what you are thinking is ignorant viewpoint. I will enlighten you. I am going to tell you about the truth. So this is the essence of the second Karika. With a little bit of help, this Karika is not at all difficult to understand. Since I find you and I want to help you, I am going to tell you the truth, absolute truth. Having known which, you don't need any other knowledge other than this. All right sir, what are you wanting to tell me? I will tell you about that supreme reality. What is it? Akarpanyam. Earlier shloka, what did he say? Kripanaha smritaha. So a person who thinks that the supreme reality is Sahuna Brahma is called Kripana. Kripana. According to Advaita Vedanta, even Ishwara is not the highest goal. Only Brahman is the highest goal. So that is why they condemn, oh you are the follower of Madhvacharya. You are the follower of Ramanujacharya. Where will you go? Oh you want to go to Vaikuntha. And then you know what happens? It is a very narrow space. And then before you thousands of people have gone. And already first come first served, the fellow will be sitting there and you will get from a long distance. Don't forget to carry a telescope so that you can view divinely your Vishnu. Stupid idiots. Vishnu means all-pervading. All-pervading means he who is everywhere. And if Vishnu is everywhere, tell me sir, who are you? That is why Vishwam Vishnu. The whole universe is nothing but Vishnu. You don't exist. I don't exist. The subject object do not exist. This is the understanding. In simple words, even the most illiterate person is very wise. He says I want to go and I want to be with God. He may not say I want to be one with God. But he says I don't want any birth and death. I don't want because if there is birth, there will be death. I don't want death. And what do you want? So I have to know that I am deathless. That is called Chit. And will there be sometimes happiness like day and night, happiness and unhappiness, cold and heat, victory and defeat, loss and gain, honor and dishonor? Will the dwandas be there? No. Nothing will be there. It is bliss and bliss and bliss. And unable to understand, the point is not language. The point is what everyone longs. Everyone longs only to be that where a person is extremely happy. A person is extremely happy all the time. And a person who is happy all the time is a person who doesn't have any desires. And a person doesn't have any desires because there is nothing desirable. That means I am everything. I am of the nature of everything. Besides me, there is nothing. I am infinite. Therefore, I have everything. I am everything. I am that supreme bliss, Ananda. That is the meaning. So here Akaar Panyam. By hearing my Upadesham, my teaching, and you will change your mind. You don't need to again suffer. I will tell you about that where you don't need to be called, pointed out as you are a Kripana. Akaar Panyam means you will not be a miser. Ajatim. Jati here means nothing to do with Brahmana Jati, Kshatriya Jati. Jati means year birth. Ajatim means you will realize I am worthless. If I am worthless, I don't have the sixfold change, growth, youth, middle age, old age, disease, death. No such thing. Because I was never born. And then Samatam Gatam. Samatam Gatam means uniform. Samata means uniform. What is Samata? That means there is no change at all. That is big. This is small. No. It is all one single entity. And it is eternal. Ajo Nityah Shashvatoyam Purano. So that is the Parabrahma. That is what I will tell you about that which is birthless. That which doesn't undergo any misery. That which is exactly the same because it is Purnam everywhere. And by knowing of this Yatha, once you have that knowledge, Najayate Kinchit. You will understand. Kinchit. That means in everything. Not only you are unborn, the moment you understand you are Brahman, you will see what you call this whole world. Jaya Manam Samantata. Samantata means all around you. What do you see? There are infinite number of things living and non-living. And they have their birth. Mountains have their birth. Rivers have their birth. Continents have their birth. Everything has a birth. But you will really see nothing is born. How? Like when you visit a foreign country in your dream and you wake up and say there was nothing. Suppose you witness in your dream that some mother is giving birth to a baby and the baby is growing and unfortunately the baby developed some problems and it died after a few hours. Then you wake up. You understand nobody was born. Nobody was struggling and nobody had died. It is all just a mere thought. Similarly, after attaining this Brahma Gnanam, then you will see there is no world. There is no you. Everything is Brahman. There is no birth. There is no death. There is no suffering. Sat, Chit, Ananda you will become. I am going to teach you. So this is the meaning. Therefore, I shall now describe that Brahman and about whom you do not seem to know. That's why earlier I called you. You are a Kripana. But now I am going to make you a non-Kripana. I am so generous. I am not going to withhold everything. So it's a stupid teaching. You know why stupid teaching? Oh Gaudapada, if you are really a Brahma Gnani, where do you see the Jeeva? Does a Brahma Gnani see any Jeeva? Then whom is he going to talk about? That means he is talking to himself. That means there is a problem. Mental problem. Therefore, I shall now describe that Brahman which is free from limitations, unborn and which is the same throughout. Same because not the world, not a factory made some objects, thousands of objects. They all look the same. That is not the meaning. That means only one without a second and after obtaining from this. That means once you have this knowledge which I am going to give it to you, one understands. You understand. Anybody can understand that it is not in reality born. Nothing is born. Nothing is growing. It is just a mere appearance. Though it appears to be manifested everywhere. That is the meaning he wants to tell us and impart this marvellous knowledge. I don't know to whom he is going to impart. So this is what he wants to tell us. But then there can be some objections. What objection? Oh Gaudapada, you say that there is only one Brahman. But that's not our experience. See myself, my brother, my sister, my father, my mother. So we may be in the same place. We may be eating the same things. But so my father may not like it or his stomach may get upset. So he will suffer. I have eaten. Oh, I enjoyed it thoroughly and I slept very happily and my brother's experience is different. My sister's experience is different. Everybody's experience is different. Same object, not to speak of different objects, same objects can give two different results. Some are happy, some are unhappy, some are suitable, some are not suitable. So I don't think it is the same Atman. But there is a particular school of philosophy. It is called Eka Jeevaha. There is only one Jeeva and that is what we are. Are you talking about one Jeeva or are you talking about one Atman? There is an enormous difference between these two views. As Jeeva, there cannot be Eka Jeeva because everybody's experience is different. Not only that, your own one Jeeva's experience of the same object at different times, it goes on differing. What you enjoyed in the morning, you may not enjoy in the afternoon or at night. So we don't accept Eka Jeeva Vada because what happens, there is only one Jeeva. If one Jeeva succeeds in realizing Brahman, if there is one Jeeva, then all Jeevas must attain liberation. And not only that, O Gaudapada, this is the followers of Eka Jeeva Vada. And Gaudapada's or opponent's reply is, if this is true, then you would not be there following a second school of philosophy because I have realized Brahman. So when I realized Brahman, there are no other Jeevas. So if I am happy, you are also happy. And so Eka Jeeva Vada doesn't function at all. This is the first point. There is a school of philosophy. We don't need fortunately. It is not very popular. What is that philosophy? Really speaking, Jeeva is only one, though appearing to be many, and there are some people who follow it. So he can raise an objection. But his objections are completely nullified. What is the second problem? The second problem is the inability to distinguish what we are saying. Gaudapada says, or the follower of Gnanamarga says, what we are saying is not that there are many Atmas. We are saying there are many Jeevas. So there is not one Jeeva, but there is only one Atma. For that, an example is given. Suppose there are one person and there are ten mirrors and the person is seeing how many reflections? Ten reflections. The person here who is comparable to the Atman is one. But because of the ten different mirrors, the same person appears to be ten different people depending upon whether it is a concave mirror, convex mirror, colored mirror, small mirror, big mirror, etc. You remember, Ramakrishna gives the example. Suppose there is one Sun and there are ten pots filled with water. This was the classical example. Ramakrishna was recounting it and he asks a devotee, suppose you break one pot, how many Suns are there? Before breaking any pot, how many Suns are there? One real Sun and ten reflected Suns. Now you break one pot. How many Suns will be there? One Sun and nine reflected Suns. And you break another eight pots. Now how many Suns are there? One real Sun and one reflected Sun. Now you break that last pot. Now how many Suns are there? The devotee answers, one real Sun. Ramakrishna's axe comes down. You can't say one, you can't say real because the quarrel is not between this real Sun, the quarrel is between the reflected Suns. And when there is no reflected Sun, that is when all the ten reflections are in deep sleep and do they think that we are ten people or do they think that they don't think at all. That is why it is called a state of deep bliss. So these are very subtle points and one can enjoy it even for the sake of sharpening the intellect. So this is how Manomarga proceeds. So what was the first point? There is a school of philosophy which says that there are not many Jivas, only one Jiva. But Advaita Vedanta doesn't say no. Just as, he will give an example, later on we will come to that, I will explain to you. If there are ten mirrors, appears there are ten reflections. You can't say there is only one reflection. But there is only one person in front of all the ten mirrors. Reflections are many, the reflected is only one. So he will give an example for that. But first, what is it that we want to understand? I am going to teach you that there are really, your thinking is wrong, there is only Parabrahma, nothing is born and since nothing is born, nothing is ignorant. Since nothing is ignorant, there is no Sadhana. That was about Gaudapada, that extreme, in the 32nd shloka, na nirodho na ca utpattihi, na vadho na ca sadakaha, na vai muktaha, ityesha paramardhata, he stated. It is an absolute truth, but very difficult for us to understand. But most important is, that is the final goal. Nobody differs about the final goal, whatever words the person may use. He may say it is Kingdom of Heaven, or Nirvikalpa Samadhi, or Savikalpa Samadhi, or Vaikuntha, or Kailasa, but the meaning is exactly the same. That is important for it. So this is where Gaudapada goes on to the next one. So how we can understand this theory, that there is one Atman, but there can be seemingly many, many Jivas. Seemingly because really Brahman is not born. If it is not born, the question of either one Jiva or many Jivas do not arise at all. This is what he wants to talk about in the third Karika. For that, here is a very famous Advaita Vedantic example is given. I will give you a brief introduction. This is the analogy of one space, but at the same time, supposing there are 10 pots. Before the pots were made, there is only one undivided space. As soon as the pots are made, small pot, small Akasha, big pot, big Akasha, round pot, round Akasha, and square pot, square Akasha. So like that, we are perceiving, we are measuring the Akasha. In fact, the Akasha will never be small or big. It is called small or big because we are measuring the Akasha from the viewpoint of the conditions, that is, the object. Small pot, so small Akasha. Big pot, big Akasha. Round pot, round Akasha. Square pot, square Akasha. But really speaking, nothing is born. Now, that is the first point. What is the second point? Suppose there is no pot at all, then space is considered as unborn. But as soon as you make a pot, as if it is called, a pot in Sanskrit is called Ghata. So as soon as Ghata is made, as if Ghatakasha is born. And when this pot is broken, as if that Ghatakasha now again merges in the Mahakasha, as if born and as if it is destroyed. Now, here is something very interesting. All of you should know about it. What is it? What is space? You know what is space? Avakashaha. Akasha is defined as Avakashaha. Avakashaha means what? Emptiness. I hope you understand what is the meaning of emptiness. If you don't understand, I understand. Yes, head is empty. So what is this emptiness? Emptiness, can you see emptiness? Can you hear emptiness? No. When there is such a thing, it can never be born. It can never die. Because emptiness, you say emptiness is born, then there is a big problem with our understanding of emptiness. Akasha means what? Emptiness. So how can emptiness be confined? How can it be born? How can it be confined? How can it be confined? How can it get again destroyed? How can it become merged again in its original this thing? As if, what is it? We are judging using small Akasha because of utility. Another example I will give you. Imagine a vast tract of empty, what is called not even a forest land, empty land. And then you put up a hall. Hall means usually bigger. So you confine, you construct four walls and put up a roof. Now what happens? That Akasha or the hall space is as if all, as if confined. Really not confined. You cannot confine it. But that emptiness is necessary. Because if it is not empty, you cannot construct the house at all. That emptiness is there. And you know the more emptiness you buy, the more price you pay. Whether it is in Bangalore or Varanasi or Kolkata or anywhere else. Now what is my point? Point is, we say you construct a small room, that room space. You construct a house with five rooms. Five rooms are separate spaces. You construct a hall, it is a bigger space. Smaller space, bigger space is borne as it were. Really nothing is borne. Space cannot be borne. Space cannot be divided. And so this is a subtle idea. We have to keep it in mind. So this is the example given. That's how many Jivas are born. Like that, Jiva means here Paramatma. Paramatma is pure consciousness. When this pure consciousness obtains a baby's body, as a baby Jiva is there. And if it is a male, it is a male Jiva. If it is a female body, female Jiva. If it is a dog, dog Jiva. If it is a mosquito, mosquito Jiva. We are giving all these things, cognizing what the limiting agents called Upadis, not the Chaitanyam. Similarly, that we see another beautiful example. Suppose you are watching a movie on a big screen, for the sake of clarity, big screen, 70 feet screen, seven stories screen you are watching. And then you see there are so many colors. You see black and white. Somewhere it is semi-dark. Somewhere it is dark. Somewhere it is brilliantly lit. All these are nothing but play of one single light. But that light itself is neither bright nor dark, not smaller, not bigger, but depends upon what is called the film. The light passing through that filter called the film and it manifests itself on the screen as a dark, dark house, light, a well-lit house, as stars, as the sun, etc. But light itself is never divided, has not become, appears to have become. And you switch off the projector, you will see nothing is there excepting only screen. Even you cannot see the screen also without the light. Now extend this analogy and you will see. What do you see? Everything is nothing but pure light. Here light means consciousness. That consciousness appears to be a man if it is a man's body and mind, a mosquito if it is a mosquito's body and mind, and a rock if it is a rock, a mountain if it is a mountain, is a river, it is a body of water. But pure consciousness itself is neither born nor is confined nor breaks and goes back to it, no coming, no going. Pure consciousness will always be pure conscious. But if it passes like the light through the filter of that film, our mind is comparable to that film, then this is waking state, this is dream state, this is what we call deep sleep state. All these are nothing but manifestations of consciousness as seen through the mind which itself is constituted of time, space, and causation. So this example is going to give in the third karika which we will discuss in our next class.