Mandukya Karika Lecture 001 on 26 May 2021

Full Transcript(Not Corrected)

Om Jananim Sharadaam Deivim Ramakrishnam Jagadgurum Aadha Padme Tayo Siddha Pranamaami Mohur Mohur This particular Upanishad we are going to discuss is called Mandukya Upanishad. So it belongs to Adharvana Veda. So the Shanti Mantra is Om Padram Kannevi Shunyama Deevaha Like we had done it in Mandukya Upanishad. So if you work in Boeing, please join. Otherwise next time you get the intonations also. It is the accents. It is available on the internet. If you do not have, you ask me in Devanagari Lipi, Hindi Lipi. So I can send it to you. Om Shanti Shanti Shanti Hari Om Oh Gods, may we hear with our ears what is auspicious. May we see what is auspicious with all our limbs in health and strength. May we keep on worshipping you until our allotted time has exhausted. May Indra, may Pushyam Surya, may Vishwa Devas, may Garuda, may Brihaspati, may all of them help us by cleansing our minds and make us ready to listen attentively, to understand rightly and to practice earnestly. Om Peace Peace Peace be unto all. As I was mentioning, from today we are going to explore Mandukya Upanishad. Unlike the other classes, I would like to start this. It is private, only for a few people. And we will explore in depth. I would like it to be more like a classroom than like a lecture where the audience, my audience cannot interact with me. I want them very much to interact with me. Before we delve deep into this Mandukya Upanishad, I would like to give a fairly long introduction. But I hope that most of you or all of you are listening to my talks for a long time. And therefore, you should not find it difficult to understand what I am trying to expound. And therefore, I will try to highlight and if there is any type of doubt etc., please let me know about it. First of all, all of us should be called not Hindus but Vaidikas. Who is a Vaidika? He who follows the teachings of the Vedas, believes in them and practices them sincerely is called a Vaidika, a follower of the Vedas. Before we go into the Upanishad, because every Upanishad is a part of the Vedas, that introduction I will come to very soon. But there is some background I want all of us to understand. There is some background. The whole of what we call Hinduism or better Sanatana Dharma or even better called Vaidika Dharma. It's impossible to understand what are Vedas and what are Upanishads, what are any other Indian scriptures. We've got to understand Puranas, Tantras, the Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, the Gospel of Holy Mother, the Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda or any other sage or saint. It's impossible to understand any one of these without understanding what popularly is called Hinduism. Now, as I mentioned earlier, Hinduism stands on four pillars. The first pillar is called Brahma. I'll come to a little more detail. Second is called Sakshatkara. Third is called the law of the Ishta Devata and included within it is the concept of God's incarnation. And the last one is the law of Karma and included within it is called Punarjanma. Now, why should we study these four pillars? Because when we are studying a scripture, Upanishad means Veda, Gospel means Veda, Bhagavad Gita means Veda, Mahabharata means Veda. Any saint anywhere in this world, whether he is a so-called Christian saint. Here I have to say something. A saint is a child of God, a devotee of God, a knower of God. There is no such thing called Christian saint, Muslim saint, Hindu saint, Buddhistic saint. These create a lot of problems for us when people become fanatical. I don't like Christian saints. It so happened once I was taking a book, a most marvelous book that was composed by Francis D. Sales. Not Saint Francis of Assisi, but Francis D. Sales. He was a bishop in the 16th century, one of the bishops in France. And he has written a beautiful book that is his teachings to his conversations, his dialogues, his talks with sincere devotees. Somebody asked him, they are very very useful, why don't you put them in an order and publish it as a book? And as a result, this person had taken the trouble and he has collected it. It's called Introduction to Devout Life. Introduction to Devout Life. And that is one of the most marvelous books I have read. Therein he explores the psychology of the mind and many people who claim to be devotees of God, really are not devotees of God, but very selfish people. I will give just a small incident there. He gives example, suppose there is a baby and its mother is in hospital and the baby is taken one day to the hospital to see its mother and mother takes the baby in her arms and gives some nice sweetmeat for the baby to eat and after that mother wants to test the baby. Baby, do you love me? It says, mom, I love you very much. Will you give me a little bit of that sweetmeat? She doesn't say, it is I who had given you the sweetmeat. Will you give me a bit? And the child outright refuses to part with the sweetmeat but still goes on claiming that I love you mom very much. So what a beautiful truth is there. Apparently many people claim we are devotees but at the same time we refuse to give what God has given us. Let us keep this in mind, whatever we give in the form of dana, dharma, etc., or do puja, go on pilgrimage, enjoy this world, everything has been given, our body, our mind, our wealth, tanu, mana, dhana, everything has been given by God. And yet we refuse to give even a small bit of it to God. So what are we talking about here? That if we want to understand what is the meaning of scripture, I just now told you there is no saint called Hindu saint. A saint merely is a man of God. He loved God, he knew God, he became one with God and he behaves like God. That is a saint. So also every scripture is called a Veda. Why these Vedas come? So it is said, a small analogy has been given once by a Swami and I liked it. So I go on borrowing, wherever I see some good things. Suppose you buy a new electronic gadget and along with it comes a manual. What is the manual for? If you read the manual first, understand it thoroughly, remember it, then it is very easy to use that gadget to the maximum benefit and if something goes wrong, immediately you can perhaps find out some method to restore it. In every way it is like that. So when Brahma created all of us, he has given us manuals and that manual is called Veda. So whether it is Christian Bible or Islamic Quran, Buddhist Tripitaka's or Hindu's Vedas or Tantric's Tantra's or devotees' Puranas, it doesn't really matter. These are the manuals and they all with one voice proclaim only some teachings. So here comes a question, a beautiful question which all of us ought to put. Without putting that question, we are not going to progress much in spiritual life. In fact some questions. What is the question? When we observe a little bit with keen mind, rational mind, we find that life is full of suffering. This was what Buddha had said. We all experience suffering. But then why a great person like Buddha had to point out life is full of suffering? Is there no joy? Yes, there is joy. But is there no suffering? Plenty of suffering. What is the proportion of suffering to joy? 50-50. A horse and a rabbit. Like that. So intelligent human beings always find life is always mostly suffering and here and there like lightning, a little bit of lightning. That is to say happiness here and there. Okay. So tapatraya abhigata jignasa. Jignasa means enquiry. Enquiry means an intelligent thinking. So what does a person do? The person goes on putting, especially when we are suffering, a question comes to the fore and we question that why am I suffering? Is there any way not to suffer? Or even better, is there any way that we can always be happy? So that is where the ancient prayer spontaneously sprung from the depths of great sages as a guideline for all of us. You all know those three ancient prayers and they are not confined only to Hindus because it has nothing to do with Hinduism. This prayer, every living creature prays mostly unconsciously. What is it? Let me never die. Let me be. Let me never suffer. Let me be always happy. And let me know that I am both living and also happy. Sat, ananda and chit. Asato ma sadgamaya. Tamaso ma jyotirgamaya. Mrutyor ma amrutandamaya. These are the prayers. So this is how one of the schools of philosophy called Sankhya philosophy. Sankhya and Yoga always go together. We have six schools of philosophy in earlier days. What are these schools? They are different thinking patterns of rational, intelligent human beings trying to plumb the depths of life, trying to find out what is the truth, etc. So they have thought about it through meditation, through deep thinking and they have formulated their own views and these are called Sankhya and Yoga, Nyaya and Vaiseshika, Purva Mimamsa and Uttar Mimamsa. In course of time, Hindu philosophers, something very special that sets them apart from any other western philosopher especially, modern philosopher especially, that they are very practical people. That's why a philosophy in Sanskrit is called Darshana. Darshana means direct experience. Sakshatkara. So these are the questions that prompted them. Every human being, specially every living creature, specially human creature, human being, suffers from. From how many sources? Three sources. What are the three sources? Adhyatmika, Adhibhautika and Adhidaivika. Sufferings stemming from body-mind complex. Sufferings stemming from external factors like inclement weather, enemies, locusts, storms, etc. And the third is, this is called Adhibhautika means external physical. Adhyatmika means both body as well as mind. And Adhidaivika means Hindus believe, many other religions also believe, God has created this world, not only our earth but innumerable world and he made several powers allotting them to different what we call devatas like Indra, Varuna, etc. Nowadays we think they are all cock and bull stories found in the Puranas but in the life of Sri Ramakrishna, Krishna clearly proves that they are all absolutely reality. So these are the three sources. Then the next question is, is there any way to get out of this suffering? Yes or no? And the answer given by these scriptures, answer found by intelligent people is twofold. Yes, there is a remedy but every remedy has twofold defect. First it is very short, that means only temporary. Secondly, it is very small. I will give a small example. Suppose a person is very fond of eating. He can satisfy himself only with limited type of food. For how long? For a short time. He has a desire like a glutton. He wants to eat every tasty thing in this world. It is impossible for him to do it all the time. Every time a small bit goes inside and once the stomach is full, he has to stop. So there is a remedy but it is for a short time. There is a remedy, it is incomplete. That is the first answer. Is there a permanent remedy to get eternal and infinite happiness? And then the scriptures categorically, unambiguously answer yes. There is a way out. What is the way? My friend, analyze first of all who is having these three types of sources of troubles, sufferings. Who is having jiva? Who is a jiva? One who is endowed with body, mind, complex. So long as one identifies oneself with the body, with the mind and body is limited, mind is limited. This body undergoes sixfold changes and the mind undergoes innumerable changes. It is impossible to have infinite and eternal happiness. Then what is the way out? You get out of the limitation. What does it mean? It means get out of the body, mind, complex. What does it mean? It means not committing suicide but you become detached. First viveka, then vairagya. That is the way to get out. Now what do I get? Now you get something called moksha. So this whole introduction I am giving you to recollect why we should study the scriptures and especially the Upanishads. And then before studying them, what are they going to teach? First question is, are they going to teach us many things? No, only one thing. Secondly, do they show any conflict? Is there any conflict among all the Upanishads, Puranas, etc.? I will give you some examples. One Upanishad says that it is only through self-effort one realizes God, herself. Another says without God's grace. For example, Bhagavad Gita, in the very last, in fact I will quote two shlokas. Those who take refuge in me, they alone can cross this maya. And what is my maya? Consists of three gunas. That is called divine maya. Maya means I am divine. This maya belongs to me. This maya is consisting of three gunas. Sattva, Rajas and Tamas. And nobody has the power, no created creature has the power to get out of this. Only by my grace, I tell my maya. Then, not only it will not bind you, but on the other hand, it will show you the way how to reach God. This is what Sri Ramakrishna used to call avidya maya and vidya maya. Now, I have a lot to say about avidya maya and vidya maya. But in course of time, here very briefly what I wanted to say is the old idea about maya, that it is a deluding power, that it is inimical to every spiritual aspirant, that one has to destroy it, that is a complete wrong idea. We understand from the teachings of the life and the teachings of Sri Ramakrishna. This maya is a divine mother, maha maya. And what is the function of the avidya? Avidya karma karma. What we call karma kanda is meant like kindergarten, what is called nursery, then lower class, middle class, higher class, then college, then university, then PhD. These are the steps we have to go through. Avidya maya is not an enemy, it is a grand opportunity to make our body and mind fit instruments, so that we can enter into vidya maya or what is called brahma kanda. Incidentally, I told you many times, Vedas are divided into two parts, I will come to that later on. But the first part is called karma kanda, I call it dharma kanda. Why? Because it teaches us the law of cause and effect. If you want happiness, sow the seeds of happiness. And karma kanda shows us how to produce the causes of happiness by crystal clearly guiding us, do this and don't do this. This is what is called prohibitions and injunctions, vidhi and nishedha. And if we have faith and we move forward and then sufficiently we become fit to enter into what I call PhD course and then we enter into jnana kanda. This word jnana kanda creates a lot of misnomers. That's why I prefer to call it brahma kanda, teaches about brahma. What is the problem with the word jnana kanda? Jnana means many people who are following blindly a so called advaitic method, what is called jnana marga. They equate unfortunately marga with the goal. Jnana marga like a four lane motorway is one of the lanes, one of the roads. Karma, bhakti, bhaja and jnana yoga, everything ultimately takes us to the same goal. How do we know? Because these blind people, fanatical people, they do not study the life of Sri Ramakrishna and Vivekananda and even our Vedas, ekam, sat, viprah, bhavodah, vadanti. Truth is one, sages call it by various names. Which means everybody is calling helplessly, choicelessly that one God with form, with qualities or without names, without forms, without qualities. In fact, that is impossible. Whatever we do with mind is only saguna brahma, never nirguna brahma. So, everybody is calling on the same God and God incarnated once more in this world, in this age to highlight that ekam, sat, viprah, bhavodah, vadanti. In spite of that and in spite of Sri Krishna, so teaching in the Gita and they follow the commentary of Shankaracharya and Shankaracharya is called ekadeshiya. He was a brilliant acharya but as Swami Vivekananda tells, he was a text to torturer. He gives lots of insights, lots of help. I have to salute him. We all have to salute him for two reasons. One reason is we most of us are followers of Sri Ramakrishna and we are all sannyasins. Sri Ramakrishna was a sannyasin, Vivekananda was a sannyasin and Holy Mother was a sannyasin and the guru sampradaya is also sannyasins. But we follow, we are part of the darshanami sampradaya belonging to Shankaracharya and therefore we have to salute him because we are following his sampradaya. But it doesn't mean we swallow, but what we call cook and sing, everything. We take whatever is good in Shankara, in Ramanuja, in Madhva, in sages and saints, from Christianity, from Islam, from Buddhism, from everywhere whatever is good, whatever is helpful, we will take it but we will follow one ishta marka, one particular path which our guru had shown to us. This is one reason why I respect, we have to respect and we all consider him as one of the greatest acharyas. And second reason is Shankaracharya's commentaries, really compared to other people's commentaries are most brilliant commentaries, highlighting and analysing in depth and making us understand what is the meaning of his most secure Upanishads like Isha Vasya, like Jhandogya, like Brihadaranyaka etc. Without the acharya's help, it would have been impossible for us to understand. For both these reasons, we have to respect. But he was, as I mentioned, ekadesiya, fanatical person. Advaita alone is taught, Dvaita is not taught. Karma marga will not take you to God. Swami Vivekananda categorically emphasised and stated, in fact, he broadcast through karma yoga also or bhakti yoga, raja yoga, jnana yoga, all paths equally take one to God. Jyotamo tatopad, the famous saying of Hiram Krishna. Anyway, coming back, we have to respect and take it. All the scriptures have to be studied with the light that Hiram Krishna had thrown. Now, I was talking about the Vedas. I have a lot to talk about it. But what I want to say about the Vedas is that the core scriptures of every religion is called the Vedas. And we have a mass of Vedas. It was not divided earlier into four. It became too unwieldy and one person had no capacity at some point of time to digest all those things. So that person, a great person, he was also considered as an incarnation of God, called Krishnadvaipayana or by his title Vedavyasa. He collected, like Max Muller collected all the available Vedas in written format on some of the old leaves, palm leaves, etc. So Vedavyasa collected because he also must have understood by that time a lot of things have been completely lost. So he collected and he had four disciples. He divided each of that mass of Vedas into four categories and then he taught each one on one particular portion. All portions are equal. That is how we get what we call the four Vedas, Rig Veda, Yajur Veda, Sama Veda and Atharva Veda. Now what I was talking about earlier. Every Veda is divided into two parts. The Dharmakanda and the Brahmakanda which I like to call them whereas my popular name is Karmakanda and Jnanakanda. I explained why I don't like that word Jnanakanda but like to call it Brahmakanda. I don't like the word Karmakanda, it is Dharmakanda. The idea is without becoming Dharmic, righteous, both physically, mentally, etc. we will not be able to progress in life. The whole life is nothing but an evolution. Now before I go any further, I want first of all to come back to my subject. What did I say? That all of us are subject to great suffering and suffering comes from three sources. That is Adhyatmika, Adhibhautika and Adhidaivika. Unconsciously or unconsciously? Mostly unconsciously. We are all struggling to get out of the suffering and to regain only happiness. And our scripture teaches us that it is not that we get happiness but we become happiness. We don't get happiness. Whatever we get is bound to be lost. That is called dependency. Whether we get it from an object, we get it through our contact with our sense organs and that is called getting and whatever we get, it will be lost. That's why I say get lost. So, is there any way? Yes, there is a way. The only way we will never lose, we will never suffer is to become the very nature of happiness. And to be happy, a person has to be alive first of all. Not only he should be alive, he or she, but he or she should be completely there. I am alive and I am happy. That is called virtue. So that ancient prayer, asato ma sadgamaya, tamaso ma jyotirgamaya, prutyor ma mrutangamaya. So, is there any way to get out of these things? That means, is there any such state where a person can be completely happy? Yes, there is a state. And such a person is called Brahman. And suppose I become Brahman, after a lot of struggle, as Hindus say, karasilat janam apradhar, bhagonam janmanamante, jnanavanmam prapadyate, vasudeva sarvamiti, samahatmasudurlabham. So, is there any way? Yes, there is a way. At the end of all the sadhana, one becomes free from attachment to body and mind and then what remains? That unalterable, clear nature, which is called Atma. Call it Atma, call it Self, call it Brahman, whatever it is. And that is being pointed out here. The very first pillar of every religion or non-religion. Is there a truth? Is there God? Is there a Satyam? Yes. What is that Satyam? That is called Brahman. And if we accept that, what are the consequences? First of all, there is only one. What is his nature? He is infinite. He is eternal. He is unchanging. He is undivided. He is pure consciousness. He is Sat, Chit and Ananda. He is Satyam, Jnanam, Anantam, Brahman. Another point I want to point out. I could not have spoken all these Sanskrit words if it was a Rajaji class, where even non-Hindus are attending. Like for example, Gita class, Yaksha Prashna, etc. And many people don't understand it. But since all of you have mostly been hearing me, studying scriptures, you should be able to understand the usage of the Sanskrit words, which will make a much better sense. So, the question that comes now is, is there such an everlasting life, where I will have eternal, infinite, unbroken happiness? Do I become immortal? Do I have all knowledge? And do I have unbroken happiness? Ananda, yes, there is. Now, the question comes, how do I know? Do I know because? How do you know that 2 plus 2 is 4? When you were a child, you did not know it. Then how did you know? You went to school, sat in a classroom, and listened to your teacher with faith, and he expounded 2 plus 2 is 4, 3 plus 3 is 6, etc. And then you swallowed it, and understanding has not come. But you just merely accepted it as a matter of faith, and after several years, maybe when you were 14, 16, even 20, even today there are people who don't understand what I am talking about. 2 plus 2, these are called axiomatic truths, unalterable truths. 2 plus 2 can never be 5. You may change words. 2 plus 2, 5, means by 5 I mean 4. Or what you call 4, I call 5. It doesn't matter. But the truth will not change. This is called axiomatic truth. So, there is that truth. What is that truth? That you never understand, you never even imagine that one day I will become non-existent. It is impossible. Again, we will discuss these points in our future classes. But there is a truth. How do we know? Because there are just as scientists experimented, and they have formulated such a hypothesis, and made them scientific law, and what they call it scientific law, is something that anybody can prove. But just like them, you have to follow their footsteps. There have been some people whom we call Rishis. They followed the footsteps, they had complete faith, and they practiced what the Veda or scripture taught, and they found out, yes, we have the proof that God exists. Why? How? Because they become God-like. So here, I want to insert one point, which always we have to keep in mind whenever I am talking about, we are discussing about this, Upanishads, or Gospels, or any scripture for that matter of fact. For that matter of fact, Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna is nothing but Veda. For that matter of fact, Gospel of Holy Mother, and the complete works of Swami Vivekananda, eternal companion of Swami Brahmanandaji, or any of the direct disciples, any sage or saint, even Ramana Maharshi, they are all nothing but Vedas. So what is the Veda? Veda is that which tells us the truths which cannot be obtained by these five sense organs. So, keep this definition in mind. What is it? Veda, or scripture in English language. Veda is that the knowledge which can never be obtained, even in the future, for eternity, so long as creation lasts, cannot be obtained through the medium instrumentality of the five sense organs, that is called Veda. What is that knowledge? There are three points there. Life doesn't come to an end with the death of the body, that means there is eternal life, afterlife. Second, there are other worlds, heavens are there, hells are there, so many other worlds are there. At that point also, when the occasion comes, I will discuss in greater details, which I had already done during my classes. The third is, if there is a God, is there a God? Yes, there is a God. Can He be realized? Yes, yes, we have realized Him. And what do I get? You become completely free from these ripples of the samsara, what we call noksha. These are the three pieces of knowledge. Life doesn't end, there is afterlife. There are other worlds where life can continue and there is God who has created us and God is called Satchitananda and the invaluable law, whatever is the effect, it must partake of exactly the same nature as the cause. If God is Satchitananda, our creator, and we are also nothing but Satchitananda, even though we are ignorant of that fact. So, three questions have to be answered by the scriptures which Vivekananda had pointed to us at the beginning of his most marvelous exposition of Raja Yoga. By this time, you should be familiar with these things. In four sentences, he squeezed the whole essence of every scripture that was, that is, and that will be. There are four sentences of which three sentences are important. Fourth sentence is most important. What is the first? Each soul is potentially divine. All of us are divine. And I mentioned it in my classes in Gita, etc., including Akshaprasna. Each soul means not only the living creatures, non-living things, whatever is created by God, it is evolving first non-living, then it is endowed with prana, one-celled, many-celled, insects, birds, plants, animals, human beings, mountains, rivers, everything in this world is a potential divinity. In course of time, everything will evolve to that same one goal, which is to manage to know I am Brahma. This is the answer how to get out of the Tritapa. You are not really a being subject to Tritapa. You can get out of it. How can I get out? Because if your nature is of suffering, then there is no way you can get out. But if you are divine, Satchitananda, nothing to do with you, but you are unnecessarily assuming, superimposing other sufferings, sufferings of the body and mind on yourself. What is the second sutra? These are four sutras. What is the second sutra? If God alone is truth, and we are all coming from God, manifestation of God, then the goal of life is to go back to God. So the goal is to manifest this divinity within by controlling body and mind. That is what is meant by controlling nature external and nature internal. Controlling means I sit like a dictator and control everybody. No, no, no. It means control my body, controlling the body is equivalent to controlling the whole world, external world. Control the mind, you control the whole world of ideas. So that is the goal. Purushartha. First is Dattvan, second is Purushartha, third is how to manifest this one. Do this. Manifest your divinity either through work or worship, through psychology or through intellect by one or more or all of this together and be free. That is any type of yoga and there are only four yogas. Why are there only four yogas? Because only four packets of the mind, the, what is called action, emotion, will and intellect. So, what is the fourth sentence? That is where Ramivekananda summarizes and cautions us. Don't fall under the trap. What is it? This is the whole of religion. Doctrines, dogmas, books, temples, churches, these are all secondary details. These are not primary. What is primary? That you believe you are divine and you make it the goal of your life and you strive your sincere most. You place yourself under a competent guru and God will definitely send you a guru when you are ready for it and then follow it sincerely and intensely and one day you are going to reach your goal and know that I am Brahman, I don't have any suffering, I am of the nature of Sat-Chit-Ananda. So, coming back, this is the first pillar of Hinduism. God exists. He is called Brahman, Allah, Rama, Krishna, Jesus, Buddha, etc. in Sri Ramakrishna's language. Second, if there is God, I don't see Him. Why don't I see Him? Because I am identified with body and mind. So, is it possible to know God? Yes. Not indirectly, not through your body-mind, not certainly through your five sense organs, not certainly through your thinking or japa or meditation, but by going beyond them, by following the instructions of the Guru, you must have not via media experience, but direct experience. This is the second pillar of Hinduism. What is that? Saksha-Tara. Saksha-Tara. Darshana. Direct experience. Aparoksha-Anubhuti. And that can be achieved only through Paravidya. Aparavidya can help us, but Paravidya must take us, which is called Brahma-Karavruti, to that which is beyond the body and mind and Saksha-Tara means what? Not seeing God, not seeing Brahman, but becoming one with Brahma. This is called Saksha-Tara. I am only telling briefly. Many times I have exposed, expounded these things. The third pillar is the law of the Ishta-Devata. Ekamsa-Ipraha-Bhavdavanam. Sri Ramakrishna again and again emphasized God can be worshipped with form, without form, He is beyond form, beyond name, beyond qualities, but for most of us we can only at the initial stages at least we must take a particular form of God and with a particular name which is called mantra that too as indicated by the Guru and slowly progress, go beyond name, go beyond form, go beyond qualities and become it in Brahma-Karavruti. One thought of the idea of God and transcend even that as Sri Ramakrishna had done with the help of Totapuri Maharaj. So this is called Ishta-Devata-Siddhanta and part of this Ishta-Devata-Siddhanta is Avatar-Tattva. Bhagavad Gita popularized it. Whenever Dharma goes down, Dharma is on the increase. I incarnate myself how many times? As many times as possible. So every Hindu believes it. Christians only believe in one incarnation. Islam doesn't believe any incarnation not even a great divine powerful being but Muhammad is considered as a prophet. Only a very powerful and human being but nothing more than that. But our idea of God if we apply we can surely think Prophet Muhammad is no other than incarnation. How do we know? Sri Ramakrishna had proved it. So third law of Ishta-Devata and the concept of the incarnation in this last century God incarnated in the name of Sri Ramakrishna and he categorically declared that he was born as Rama and Krishna that means as Jesus and Buddha and as Allah and many other incarnations in this age he has taken the name of Ramakrishna and to preach the Sanatana Dharma same eternal values but made them applicable in our changed circumstances for this from the 20th century to almost 30th century as Swamiji said Sri Ramakrishna said I have been food for 1000 years and the last pillar the law of karma Hindus, Buddhists, Jains, Sikhs invariably believe that what we are now is the result of what we have done and what we are going to become is what we do in this life. We have many births and we are going to get many births Why many births? Why many incarnations? Reincarnations? Because until we reach perfection, God has given us, will give us infinite opportunities every life is an opportunity to strive and evolve and move forward towards God. When we once fall into the ocean then only the whole thing comes to an end and as a corollary of this law of karma unarjarama, not only we had previous births, whatever we are now, the resultant of what we did in the past and what we are going to become in future depends exactly upon what we do now and Swami Vivekananda says each one of us are the architects of our own karma do not blame anybody in this context while discussing Mandapa Upanishad, I have categorically declared it is not God who creates us it is not Brahma who creates us each one of us are like seeds with the help of Sri Ramakrishna's analogy a grandmother at the end of what is called vegetable season she gathers the seeds and when the rainy season comes, she again broadcasts, sows all the seeds and every seed becomes its own type of plant, it manifests its own nature so every jiva at the end of the pralaya, a Brahma gives an opportunity creates a field and sows all of us in the form of the bijas, samskaras again we recreate ourselves we are our own Brahmas it is a wonderful concept I will explore it whenever the opportunity comes and today I will stop here what did I discuss in summary that every life is beset with three types of suffering there is nobody who is free from suffering even in the incarnation of God saints, sages, so long as there is a body, so long as there is a mind, suffering is inevitable this is beautifully put in Bengali language Brahma weaves falling into the meshes of these pancha bhutas, meaning body and mind complex, so how do every unconscious desire of every jiva is to become free from these three types of things, many times our efforts will be in the wrong direction, so we only strengthen our suffering never become lessened and evolve towards more happiness scriptures are guidelines how to proceed forward it is called dharmashastra and finally it teaches us you, your nature is sacchidananda and you will have to finally become yourself that is aham brahmasmi sarvam khalvidam brahmanam, this is the main teaching of the Vedas then for that purpose Vedas divided themselves into four parts and life is divided into four casts and life is divided into four stages these things beautifully harmonize with each other we will discuss about it in our future there is a way out of suffering and only scripture can give us that show us the way out of this suffering and I discussed the four pillars of Hinduism, without this knowledge of the four pillars it is impossible to understand the teachings of any Vedas Upanishads, Bhagavad Gita Gospels or the teachings of any sage or saint like Ramana Maharshi etc with this this introduction is very necessary as a background I have crammed many wonderful points into this simple 55 minutes talk and I hope you will mull over it my request to you is that next class when you attend, you kindly go through these points at least the important points so that I don't need to repeat them very often even though repetition is not performed, I will do that but I will not dwell upon these repetitions too long then we will understand any Upanishad particularly Mandukya Upanishad very clearly with this I am going to stop, after this I would like to speak to 3.53 little bit Om Jananim Sharadam Devim Ramakrishnam Jagadgurum Pada Padme Tayo Siddha Pratama Ame Mohur Mohur May Ramakrishna Holy Mother and Swami Vivekananda bless us all with much love Jai Ram