View source for Mandukya Karika Lecture 101 on 03 May 2023

== Full Transcript(Not Corrected) ==
OM JANANIM SHARADAM DEVYAM RAMAKRISHNAM JAGAD GURUM
PADAPADMETAYO SRIDHVA PRANAMAMI MUHURMUHU
OM BADRAM KANNE VISHWANUYAM DEVAH
BADRAM PASHYE MAKSHAVIRYA JATRAHA
STHIRAI RANGAI STUSHTU VAGUM SASTANUBHI
YASHEMA DEVAHI TAYYADAYO
SWASTHINA INDRO VRIDDHA SHRAVAHA
SWASTHINA POSHA VISHWA VEDAHA
SWASTHINA STHARKSHYO ARISTANIMI
SWASTHINO BRIHASPATIR DADHATU
OM SHANTI SHANTI SHANTI
HARE HARE OM
OM
Oh Gods, may we always hear with our ears what is auspicious.
Oh worshipful ones, may we with our eyes always see what is auspicious.
May we live our allotted life, hail and hearty, offering our praises unto Thee.
May Indra of ancient fame bestow auspiciousness on all of us.
May the all-nourishing potion be propitious to 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 started the third chapter of the Mandukya Karika.
Remember, Mandukya Upanishad has only 12 mantras.
It is one of the shortest of the Upanishads and that is over along with the Karikas of Gaudapada in the first chapter itself.
Second chapter is to prove that the world itself is only an appearance.
It is not a reality and if we can really realize that, then the whole world becomes Upashama.
That is, experiencing the world will continue, but the world will not affect us.
This is the condition of a Jeevan Mukta.
He experiences the world.
He exactly sees what we see, hears what we hear, but his mind will never be deviating from that knowledge of Brahman.
I am Brahman.
Everything is Brahman.
Like watching a beautiful cinema, everything appears to be real, but our mind will have only one experience, Ananda, bliss.
Whether it is comedy, tragedy, it will be bliss.
That state where even when the body, one's so-called body, so-called mind are going through sufferings, old age, death, etc.
So two types of suffering, let us remember.
Adventurous sufferings, that is, suddenly there is a toothache, headache or enemies will create problems for us.
Heat or cold, etc.
This is Adventurous, Adi Bhautika.
But there is another, what Buddha used to call existential suffering.
Birth is suffering, growth is suffering, youth is suffering, middle age is suffering, old age is suffering, death is suffering.
Nobody can escape existential problems, but the knowledgeable people, wise people, realized souls, their mind will be absolutely having only one experience, Sat, Chit, Ananda experience.
And also we have to remember, a Jeevan Mukta doesn't say, I have a body, I have a mind, and this body-mind are experiencing, my body-mind are experiencing happiness and unhappiness, dualities, but I am keeping my mind absolutely calm.
No, a Jeevan Mukta is one who knows that even the body and mind is one of the objects.
For us, body and mind are our own self, but for them, the body and mind are like any other object, as we are not affected.
For example, if a house is burning 5000 miles away, it doesn't affect us.
Even if it is burning 100 miles, 1 mile away, so long as it doesn't affect my house, I do not feel it.
I feel sympathy, but I do not feel my house is being affected, therefore I am affected.
That is the condition of the Jeevan Mukta with regard to the whole world.
He doesn't even say other objects.
He says, it is like a cinema, a house is burning on the cinema screen and it is heavily raining, neither the rain wets the screen nor the fire burns the screen.
And even if there are many desirable objects on the screen, it doesn't affect the witness, the seer, the audience.
So, that is the condition of the Jeevan Mukta.
What is the name for all these effects?
Called Prapancha Upashamana, that is, the Prapancha, instead of making us go up and down, makes us full of happiness, Paramananda.
And that state is called also Advaita.
So, everything is one.
That is the topic of this third chapter.
And in this third chapter, Gaudapada is trying to show that really, remember this is from the Advaitic point of view,
nothing is born, therefore nothing dies.
It is all an appearance and for that he had given certain examples.
What is the example that we have seen earlier in the mantra?
That when a potter creates a pot, it is called Ghata.
And before the pot is created, there is only one space.
As soon as the pot is created, there is another space, as if another space, called pot space, Ghatakasha.
Mahakasha outside, Ghatakasha inside, this division outside and inside is created along with the pot.
But Advaitin, Gaudapada is an extreme Advaitin.
And Sri Ramakrishna, Swami Vivekananda, Holy Mother, Ramana Maharshi, they all agree with him.
Really speaking, it is only an appearance and I will tell you also the reason.
One of the reasons they employ is, there is a law.
That law is, if heat is the nature of an object, for example of fire, then that fire will never lose that heat.
Because heat is not one of the qualities of the fire.
Let me also give, to understand this statement properly, an example.
Suppose we see a rose and this rose is a fragrant rose.
Another rose is not fragrant.
The fragrance may fade away, the petals may fall, the color may fade, because they are adventitious qualities.
They are not the real nature of the flower.
But the real nature of the flower, that I am a flower, flower-ness, that will never go away,
just as the heat of the fire can never be separated from the fire.
So in this world, so many qualities we see, they are called Tatastha Lakshanas, adventitious qualities.
For example, another example, Einstein may be very brilliant when he is awake,
but the same Einstein is totally, we call him Einstein because of respect.
He is no more Einstein when he is completely asleep, because that knowledge is completely covered up for the time being.
A great musician is not a great musician.
So the Upanishad tells, when we are in deep sleep, a husband is no husband, a wife is no wife, a king is no king,
a beggar is no beggar, a pundit is no pundit, an ignorant person is no more ignorant.
All are absolutely equal.
So that which comes and goes, that is not the real nature.
But during the waking dream, dreamless state, there is something which never changes, which can never be absent.
That is called the Sakshi. I am the waker, I am the dreamer, I am the deep sleeper.
This I am is common to all the three states.
Other states are changing, but I am is never changing and that must be my nature.
So this is a law we have to remember.
If my nature is pure consciousness, I can never lose it.
If it is not my nature, adventurously it comes.
Another example they give for understanding clearly, when you heat water, the water becomes hot.
But the heat of the water doesn't belong to the water, it belongs to the fire.
Because of the proximity of the fire, the water becomes hot.
You remove the fire, the water gains its own nature, its own temperature.
Similarly, you add sugar and it becomes sweet water.
You add salt, it becomes salt water.
These are adventurous, that means they were not there with the water.
They will not be there with the water and anything adventurous can be separated.
If we have understood this law, then if this world is real, what world?
Changing world.
There is birth, there is growth and there is death.
If this world is real, birth, growth, old age, disease, death are real.
No amount of knowledge is going to rid of them.
Because one's nature can never be gotten rid of.
Then all our spiritual practice will be totally useless.
But what do the realized souls say?
They say everything is adventurous, the soul never changes.
It is one, it is without a second, it is never born, it cannot die.
That is what Bhagavan Krishna said in the very second chapter, O Arjuna, neither you die, nor these kings will die.
Nobody is going to die.
Because neither they are born, neither you are born, neither they die, nor you die.
So ajah, shashvatah, nityah, this is the nature of the Atman.
All grief comes because we think we are born, we are going to die, we are going to change.
Suffering is called, another name for suffering is called change.
For example, when we are suffering, then we think it is not going to change.
Very peculiar, as if all life I am going to suffer.
When I am hungry, I feel I am suffering.
As soon as I take food, what happens?
All my hunger is gone, all my suffering is gone, and I am quite satisfied, happy.
But neither the hunger is permanent, nor the satisfaction of eating is permanent.
Everything is going on changing, but there is someone who is witnessing them, and that is my real nature.
So do not focus upon what is changing, but focus upon what is non-changing.
And that non-changing is only one.
It is sarva kshetresho, kshetra gnanchaapi maam viddhi.
Know me, the knower of all fields, and I am one.
But the fields may be apparently many.
I will say from the Advaitic point of view, everything is apparent only.
That is why it is called mithya.
So the point we are trying to understand is,
first of all, there are not many jivatmas.
There is only one, kshetra gnanchaapi maam viddhi, sarva kshetresho bharata.
Kshetras, bodies, are many, but the experiencer of the kshetras, that is body-mind, is only one.
This is the first delusion we all encounter.
I am one Atma, you are one Atma, XYZ is other Atmas, male Atma, female Atma, baby Atma, old Atma, young Atma, born Atma, dead Atma, rich Atma, poor Atma, etc.
These are all wrong thoughts in our mind.
The Atma is only one.
That is the first correction we have to make.
Second correction is, this Atma is not the body, is not the mind.
What is born? Bodies and minds.
The whole universe is called a combination of body and mind.
This is the second mistake we have to correct ourselves.
I am not the body, I am not the mind, I am the Atman.
There is only one Atman, Aham Brahmasmi.
This is what Lord Buddha wants to point out.
That is called Advaita, and that is what he is trying to do.
And we were taking the number 7 Karika.
na aakashasya ghatakasho pikara avaiyavau yatha
naivatmanaha sadha jivo pikara avaiyavau tatha
As the pot space, ghatakasha, is neither the effect nor part of the akasha,
so also is the jiva, neither the effect nor part of the Atma.
There are two points implied in this statement.
One, for example, that we say the pot is born of clay.
If there were to be no clay, there cannot be any pot.
So the clay is the Karana and the pot is the Karya.
Karana, Karya, that is cause and effect.
This is one type of relationship.
The whole world is nothing but a conglomeration of relationships.
Parents and children, husband and wife, and brothers and sisters,
children and grandchildren, friends and enemies,
these are all relationships.
Even there is a neutral relationship also.
So what does it do?
It will not affect us.
But whether it is friend or enemy, it affects us.
So three types of relationships, positive, negative and neutral.
And so we are working in this world only with this relationship,
Guru and Sishya, Bhagavan and Bhakta.
So all these relationships are there.
Is the Jeevatma born of Paramatma?
No, just as the ghata, the pot, is not born,
so a baby is born to a mother.
The mother is different, baby is different.
Mother is the cause, baby is the effect.
This is called Karana, Karya, Sambandha.
But Paramatma is the mother and Jeevatma is the baby.
Do we say that?
Yes, dualists will say that.
The whole world is an effect of Paramatma.
That is what Advaita Vedanta avoids and says.
No, it is not Parinama Vada, it is only Vivarta Vada.
Like the snake, as if born of the rope,
but it is neither born because the rope remains rope.
So if anything is born, if you see a baby,
baby is always there.
And mother also is there.
Mother may die, baby will be there.
Baby may die, mother will be there.
They are two separate objects.
Whereas the rope and the snake are not two separate objects.
It is only one object.
But in my mind, because of some previous experience, memory,
I mistake the rope for a snake.
Is the snake born? No.
Is the snake dead? No.
Because the idea that this is a snake is born.
Remember, the snake is born, not born.
The snake is not dead.
When it is semi-dark,
the idea that it is a snake is born in the perceiver's mind.
And when the light is brought, that the snake is gone,
that also is an idea in the mind.
So one idea is of birth, another idea is of death.
Now you can include old age, disease,
changed circumstances, everything is a thought.
And we suffer because of this thought.
Now you may counter.
How do you say, how dare you say that we are not suffering?
Because how dare you say, these are all thoughts.
Say, supposing you are sleeping,
and somebody comes and takes away all your things,
then you are probably in blissful state,
and you will never know about it.
But as soon as you become awake, you perceive.
Then a thought came, I had this object,
this object is removed,
and that thought, I was having this object,
and I lost that object.
That makes a lot of difference.
It makes us suffer.
Now there is a funny example also given in this regard.
Supposing somewhere in your house,
your grandfather had hidden a very valuable Kohinoor diamond,
and you are not aware of it.
And one day a thief comes,
somehow the thieves know where things are hidden.
They have a special yogic intuition,
where things are hidden.
So they go, or they might nowadays,
they go with a metal detector also,
no doubt about it.
But I don't think Kohinoor diamond can be detected by any metal detector.
Anyway, this person comes, he goes away,
he takes it away, and he becomes very happy.
So you made that person doubly happy.
First by sleeping, you did not know a thief has come.
You see, that is why sleep has many benefits.
Not only you are happy,
you make others also very happy.
So, that is one,
you gave a lot of happiness to the thief.
Second, that he could espy that invaluable diamond,
and he takes it away,
and he is very happy.
You made him doubly happy.
Now you wake up.
Now tell me, did you regret about it?
Not at all.
Because you did not know you had something,
you did not know that you lost that something.
So only when there is a thought that there is something,
then there is a cause for either regret or happiness or whatever it is.
So, this is what Gaudapada wants to tell us through his examples.
The birth, growth, death, etc., in both senses,
that is existential suffering,
adventitious suffering,
both are completely not there for the Jeevatma.
Because Jeevatma is a thought in our mind.
Also, remember, Paramatma is also a thought in the mind.
When does the Paramatma thought come?
When you think, I am Jeevatma,
then only there is a Paramatma different from me,
greater than me, much more powerful,
and who can protect me.
But when you are asleep,
who is Jeevatma and who is Paramatma?
Do you remember these Mandukya classes in your deep sleep state?
So, that is what Gaudapada wants to point out.
No one is born and nobody is going to die.
If you have grasped this idea,
the seventh mantra becomes very easy.
Look at it.
Aakashasya.
Vikara avaya bhau na.
Vikara means what we call birth.
That is, a mother gives birth to a baby
and this Mahakasha gives birth to Ghatakasha.
No, there is no such thing.
The Akasha doesn't know anything.
This is called Vikara.
Avaya means a part.
Supposing there is a lengthy rope
and you can cut it into pieces
and one piece you take away.
To that extent, that lengthy rope becomes short.
If two people take away two pieces,
it becomes still shorter.
But Akasha is what is called Niravayava.
There is no avayava at all, part at all.
That which doesn't have a part,
you cannot cut it.
If you want to try, they give a funny example.
You take a knife and then try to cut Akasha.
You go on moving.
I am cutting the Akasha into two.
What happens?
Excepting that you are deluding yourself,
nothing happens to the Akasha.
Similarly also, when a potter,
and remember, he doesn't produce Ghatakasha.
He only produces the Ghata.
But we are assuming that Akasha,
which was called Mahakasha before,
as soon as the pot is produced,
the outlines of the pot,
the walls of the pot,
divides Akasha into two,
outside Akasha and inside Akasha.
And that is a wrong idea.
Akasha means emptiness.
If you can understand,
that emptiness cannot be divided,
multiplied, or minused, or plused.
If we don't understand that,
then there is a lot of emptiness within ourselves.
We have to understand.
The concept of emptiness,
that is called Akasha.
Space means emptiness.
This is what he is telling.
So Ghatakasha,
Akasha is Ghatakasha.
Ghatakasha is born of Akasha.
No.
No.
Why?
Vikara.
That is, there is no Akasha.
Akasha is not the cause.
Mahakasha is not the cause.
And Ghatakasha is not the effect.
Vikara.
And Avaiyava.
So Mahakasha is big.
And Ghatakasha is small.
And we have this Ghata head cut, as it were.
A little bit of that Mahakasha.
And a bit of that Mahakasha is now in the Ghatakasha.
No.
Vikara, Avaiyava, Akashasya, Na Bhavate.
They do not exist.
So, exactly in the same way.
Tatha.
In the same manner.
Atmanaha.
This Atma.
We are not talking about Jeevatma or Paramatma.
Jeeva is what we call conventionally,
from the viewpoint of the body-mind,
we call Jeevatma.
That is ignorant person's view.
A knowledgeable person's view is
Atma is neither Jeevatma nor Paramatma.
Even to call Paramatma is to accept that there is a Jeevatma.
So, simply use the word Atma.
Atmanaha Naiva Sada Vem.
At no time.
Vikara, Avaiyava, Tatha.
So, as the Ghatakasha,
partitioned off by the part,
is neither the effect nor part of the Akasha,
so is the Jeeva.
Neither the effect nor part of the Atman.
There is no such thing.
So, that is the meaning of it.
With this, we will move to another example
that Gaudapada gives in the 8th Mantra.
8th Mantra.
So, just as the sky appears to the ignorant children
as soiled by dirt,
similarly the Atman also is regarded by the ignorant
as made impure by impurities.
We are all victims to that.
We imagine that in the sky,
suppose a dust storm has risen.
Another example is,
in the rainy season,
the whole sky is covered with thick,
black or semi-white,
these things.
These are all thoughts.
Jeevatma, Paramatma,
everything is a thought only.
But wise people understand
that there is absolutely no problem at all.
Jeevatma, Paramatma,
they are all divisions,
thoughts in our mind.
That is why,
when a person progresses in spiritual life,
the one thought that remains at the end
is the thought called Brahmakara Vritti.
But that is called very beautifully,
very aptly Vritti.
Vritti means a thought in the mind.
So does this thought remain when we are deeply asleep?
No, because the mind will not be there.
But it has to be consciously destroyed
because any thought,
even of God,
is only a thought about God.
It is not God.
We have to understand this very clearly
that everything is only a thought.
When there is no mind,
then everything is only one reality.
That is what we have to understand.
So when children are looking,
there is what is called full of clouds.
It is a black sky.
It is a blue sky.
Oh, how beautiful blue sky.
But sky is not neither black nor blue
nor rainy.
It is all nothing but something has come
in between my sight and the pure space
and we are attributing all those colors
to the space.
Similarly, Bala Naam.
Here Bala means an ignorant person,
a person who thinks that whatever thoughts
are arising in his mind are the reality.
They are called Bala Naam.
Yatha bhavati gaganam malaihi malinam.
A space is a red sky,
blue sky,
yellow sky,
because of the various...
Especially you remember when you go to Alaska
and other places,
northern lights they call it.
Beautiful display of colors will be there.
So we attribute those colors to the sky.
Similarly, Tatha.
Abuddha Naam.
Ignorant people.
Atma api.
Even this Atma means Jeevatma.
Malaihi malinaha bhavati.
They think Jeevatma is happy.
Jeevatma is unhappy.
Jeevatma is born.
Jeevatma is growing.
Jeevatma was ignorant.
Jeevatma had become wise.
Jeevatma is a householder.
Jeevatma is a sanyasin.
All these things.
So just as the sky appears to the ignorant children
as soiled by dirt,
similarly the Atman also is regarded by the ignorant
as made impure by impurities.
Children superimpose the clouds on the sky
and consider them to be patches on the sky
assuming that the clouds are the dirt of the sky.
An example is given.
If a pot is contaminated with a substance which is foul smelling,
then what happens?
The pot is smelling.
That is the Ghatakasha.
That is the space inside the pot is smelling.
No.
We have to distinguish.
The space is separate.
The air is separate.
Not even the air is contaminated.
There are certain foul smelling objects.
So long as they are there,
they emit this foul smell.
But that smell is carried by the air
and the air never contaminates the space.
Neither air is contaminated.
The air only carries that contamination.
Just like you take some bucket which is full of dirty water
and you carry.
Nobody can call you dirty.
It is also very interesting.
Supposing people who are working in what is called dirty conditions,
they usually don't take clean cloths there.
They will only use what is called dirty cloths
because anyway the clean cloths need not be contaminated.
So even is the cloth contaminated really?
Truly speaking, scientifically speaking, no.
Because what is the meaning of contamination?
That means it became one with the object.
So you add salt to the water.
Now water is contaminated with salt.
Is it really contaminated?
No two objects can never be mixed up in the world.
This is the greatest truth I have pointed out many times.
So water remains water even if you mix a thousand objects into it.
So simple example, you mixed salt.
It has become salty water.
The whole water from the top, from the middle, from the bottom
only tastes salty.
But has the water become separate from the pure water to salty water?
No.
Because of the proximity of the salt, the taste also is of salt.
It has nothing to do with water.
How do we know?
Because we have to apply the second law.
What is the first law?
No object in this world can be made impure.
What is the second law?
Even if two objects are very close so that they appear to be one,
there is some process by which you can separate these two.
In the example that I have given, if there is salt water,
you use distillation process.
Salt is what the sun is doing every day without paying any single penny.
Two objects, however close they are, however they appear as one,
if they can be separated, then they have not become one.
The third, I will illustrate this point.
It is a very important point.
Even worldly objects cannot be contaminated.
I will give you an example with this.
The water example I have given you.
In this world, there is another metal, rust.
Rust is something that comes and you wash it off.
Stains on metals, silver, gold, etc.
Another example, you take that one.
So, no two objects can be contaminated.
One object cannot be changed into another object.
So that is why, if I am the Atman, I can never be contaminated.
If I am the body, I cannot be contaminated by the Atman.
Either way, if I am the Atman, I am the Atman.
If I am the body, I am the body.
We have to accept this idea.
Now, with this idea, the sky, the space is never contaminated.
But the children think similarly.
We all think.
So, what is this contamination that Godapada is referring to?
When my mind is ignorant like a child,
and when it is happy, it thinks Atman is happy.
When it is unhappy, it thinks the Atman is unhappy.
So, it is the thoughts in the mind.
I identify myself with the thoughts.
And that is what is not acceptable.
This is a fact.
So, we have to understand the Atman remains uncontaminated as pure consciousness.
All the time, you see.
We move on.
The same idea is extended in the mantra.
Karika 9 also.
Maranaya sambhave chaiva gatyagamana urapi sthitau sarvasari reshu akashena avilakshanaha
The Karika 9 extends the same idea with different words.
Maranaya.
That is when there is death of the body.
And sambhava means birth of the body.
Gati and agamana.
Gati means going away.
Agamana means coming.
Coming and going.
Birth and death.
Health and not.
Disease.
All happiness and unhappiness.
That which comes and goes.
Remember, when you are happy,
then suddenly after some time you become unhappy.
The death of happiness took place and the birth of unhappiness has taken place.
After some time, then you become happy.
Same thing happened.
Death of unhappiness and birth of happiness.
These are all nothing but thoughts.
How do we understand?
That's why I told you, I mentioned earlier.
When we are in deep sleep, then there is no mind.
When there is no mind, I am Jeevatma.
That idea is also not there.
And therefore, many people consider deep sleep as a temporary samadhi.
I call it poor man's samadhi.
Everybody is granted that.
Even a mosquito is also granted that.
Now, I want to ask you, pose one question to you.
You have to be very intelligent.
Suppose a mosquito is in deep sleep.
And I am also in deep sleep.
Mosquito is also in anandamaya kosha.
I am also in anandamaya kosha.
And I wake up.
And mosquito also wakes up.
Because questions and answers can be done only when we are awake.
Now, question.
Is my ananda experience while I am in deep sleep?
And when the mosquito is also in anandamaya kosha, is there any difference?
Between the ananda, nobody can answer because it is exactly the same.
Because it is big and small.
More and less.
All these are thoughts in the mind.
When mind itself is transcended, the question doesn't come at all.
That is his telling.
We all think a baby is born.
It grows up.
It becomes old.
And it dies.
In a cinema, sometimes three or four generations are shown together.
How children are born.
Within two hours' time, the whole thing will take place.
So marane, when death comes.
Sambhave chaiva, when birth comes.
When something comes.
When something goes.
The whole life is nothing but janma, mrutyu, gamana, gamana of different things.
But the Atman is never born.
Atman never has any death in regard to its birth.
And also death.
Going and coming.
What is this going and coming?
Going from this body and coming in another body.
Or Sita and Vushna, Sukha and Dukha, Jaya and Apajaya, Mana and Apamana, etc.
Comes and goes.
Everything is changing.
And its existing in different bodies is exactly similar to the Akasha.
Or more precisely Ghatakasha.
Just as Ghatakasha pot space is born.
And when the pot is born, pot space is born.
Pot is dead.
The pot space is also dead.
And if there is some good fragrant flower in the pot,
then that is called gamana of the fragrance.
And when fowl, when it is removed, it is the death of the fragrance.
Similarly, when fowl, an object, even good object, same flower also,
if you give for a few days, it starts emitting a very foul smell.
This is called decomposition, disintegration.
Then also the Akasha is not contaminated.
The air is not contaminated.
But the flower is contaminated.
And that is what we are experiencing.
But what do we say?
There is a fragrance.
Fragrance is only my experience of the nature of the disintegrating object.
And nothing to do with the air in the pot.
Nothing to do with the Akasha in the pot.
Nothing to do with this world, Mahakasha or Ghatakasha.
Any place, any time.
That is what is being said.
So the Jiva Atma is similar to the pot space in the case of death, birth, departure, arrival and existence in various bodies.
So there is a school of philosophy called Mimamsa.
And they say there are so many bodies and every body has its own Atma.
If one person goes to hell, others do not go.
If one person, one Atma goes to heaven, others do not go.
This is to deny that.
But it is not merely to controvert the Mimamsakas.
But Advaita Vedanta does not want to controvert with anybody except incidentally.
But it wants to tell us the idea that everything is a thought in the mind.
That is why it is very important for us to keep in mind when we are in deep sleep.
Then the question of birth and death, happiness and unhappiness, coming and going, nothing will be there.
With regard even to myself. Not to speak with regard to myself.
So Gaudapada is pointing out that all these ideas of birth and death etc. are mere thoughts.
And thoughts are belonging to the mind.
And if we do not identify with the mind, then I am completely free.
For that I will give one example.
Supposing your neighbor's child is dead.
So the neighbor is thinking my child is born.
When the child is born, big party.
When the child is dead, another small party by Hindus.
But it does not affect you excepting the neighbor's son.
A baby is born to the neighbor.
And that baby for some reason is also dead to the neighbor.
These are thoughts.
It does not affect our food.
It does not affect our sleep.
It does not affect our own happiness and unhappiness.
So what is the example?
Sri Ramakrishna witnessed the death of Akshay.
When we say Akshay, Akshay is the name of the body-mind complex.
Remember always.
So Akshay's death means the death of the body and departure of the mind.
Similarly, the body is also not dead.
According to Vedanta, death has come from what is called unmanifest.
It goes back to the unmanifest.
Unmanifest means that which we can never experience.
So Sri Ramakrishna was witnessing Akshay's death.
All the relatives were weeping.
Sri Ramakrishna says, I could clearly see the soul of Akshay coming out like a sword,
being taken out of it, scabbard.
There was a story of a Yogi.
Alexander the Great had met this Yogi.
And Alexander fell in love with this teacher.
He asked him, I am going back to Greece, you come with me.
And the Yogi said, sorry, I don't want to leave this place and go.
Then Alexander lost his temper and said, I am going to kill you.
And the Yogi started laughing.
For a long time he laughed.
Then he said, this is the greatest lie I had ever heard.
So nobody can kill me.
That means what?
When I am unborn, how can you kill somebody who is not even born?
You just put your imagination.
Some baby is not born and you have taken a big knife and cutting that baby into pieces,
accepting you are troubled.
Nothing happens.
It is only a thought in your mind.
And then Swami Brahmanandaji, he was on his last day and he was suffering from intense thirst.
And he was being given lemonade, cool, with some ice.
And then somebody came and said, Maharaj, here is a lemonade, shall I give you?
And then he opened his mouth and said, pour Brahman into Brahman.
What was his vision?
The lemonade is also Brahman.
And the mouth into which it is to be put is also Brahman.
What was he talking about?
Brahmaarpanam, Brahmaavehi, Brahmaagnau, Brahmanahutam.
Brahma eva tena gantavyam, Brahma karma samadhinah.
I will stop here because some beautiful ideas are going to come in the next verse.
And I will give you a small introduction.
These are called sanghatas.
Every object, by definition, anything that we experience is an object.
I, the experiencer, am the subject.
Anything that is experienced is an object.
And every object is called sanghata.
Sanghata means an assemblage.
You will not find a single thing.
A simple example I will give you.
Take a house.
This is a very common example.
A house is an assemblage of what is called doors, windows, walls, roof, floor, and so many other things.
All these things come together.
Take another example, a car.
So the car has got the front, the back, the bottom, the top, the engine, the seats, and is made up of various materials.
It is an assemblage.
A clock is an assemblage.
A computer is an assemblage.
Everything in this world, whatever you call an object, is an assemblage.
And that is called sanghata.
That's okay.
Then what is the point here?
The point is every object is meant for a subject.
That is, a house is not meant for its walls, its windows, its floor, any part of the house.
A car is not made for any part of the car.
A clock is not made for any part of the clock.
Why?
Because an object is without consciousness.
And therefore, every object is that which is made aware by only a conscious principle, which is called the subject.
Without the subject, the object is completely meaningless.
So this is what it is telling.
In this world, whatever we see, the whole world, the whole Jagat is called a conglomeration or an assemblage of various parts.
And just as a house is meant for a conscious human being, so also this whole world is meant for the experience of one who is called a Jeevatma.
So what is the point?
That is, the Sanghata is completely useless without the subject.
If we can take this view, then we can understand the whole body, the whole mind, which are nothing but an assemblage.
It is all meant only for one purpose, for the purpose of an owner.
And what is that purpose?
Who is the owner?
Why is he called the owner?
Really speaking, there is no owner.
There is no wound according to Gaudapada.
But this is given as a beautiful example so that we can use the body-mind to practice spiritual discipline.
And it is meant for use.
What is the use?
That is called Purushartha.
The whole life, the body-mind is meant only for Purushartha.
If we can understand, what is the Purushartha?
Moksha.
What is Moksha?
That there is no world.
There is no Jeevatma.
This knowledge is called Moksha.
And that is what he wants to lead, which we will talk about in our next class.
Om Jananim Sharadam Deveen Ramakrishnam Jagat Gurum Pada Padme Tayo Sridhva Pranamami Muhurmuhu
May Ramakrishna, Holy Mother and Swami Vivekananda bless us all with Bhakti.
Ramakrishna

[[Category:Mandukya Karika]]