Svetasvatara Upanishad Lecture 38 on 09 July 2023

Full Transcript (Not Corrected)

In our last class we have studied the third mantra TAT KARMA KRITVA VINIVATYA BHUYAH TATVASYA TATVENA SAMETYA YOGAM EKENA DVABHYAM TRIVIHI ASTAVIRVA KAALENA CHA EVA ATMA PUNAYASCHA SOKSHMAIHI (तत कर्म कृत्वा विनिवत्य भूयः तत्वस्य सम॓त्य योगम्। एकेन द्वाभ्याऺ त्रिभि अष्टभिर्वा कालेन च एव आत्मगुणैश्च सूख्मैः॥) re is a spiritual sadhaka. What does he do? The yogi who first performs actions and then obtains purity of the heart, then turns away from them and who practices 1, 2, 3 or 8 disciplines, unites one principle with another principle and with the help of virtues cultivated by the Self and of subtle tendencies attains liberation in the course of time. So the previous mantra had explained that God creates the five great elements and then He enters, examines His creation and finds it lacking in spirit. Without the spirit, the matter becomes jada, creation. That means all the activities that go on in the creation are impossible without the combination of both the consciousness as well as the inert instruments. Let us remember, both body and mind are inert principles. They cannot act. They do not even have the thought that we have to act, much less whether they can do something about it. They don't have life. They don't have energy and they have no idea what to do. It is God. What does He do? He creates the pancha bhutas and with that He creates the entire universe. We know these pancha bhutas, akasha, vayu, agni, jala and prithvi and they are of two varieties. One is called subtle, another is called gross. One is called tanmatra, subtle, another is called sthula bhutas. And out of the subtle elements, the subtle five elements, the antahkarana, the sukshma sharira is created. And out of the pancha bhutas, gross pancha bhutas, they get mixed up, which is a very peculiar process. It is called panchikaranam and the entire physical, gross, sthula, bodies and everything is created. So the entire creation can be understood as living and non-living. So there are certain things which are completely non-living and there are certain things endowed with life. They are called jivas, pranis, endowed with both prana and consciousness. Let us not forget prana and consciousness, they go together. No prana, no consciousness. Consciousness can exist without prana, but prana can never exist without consciousness. So consciousness requires prana to manifest itself. That being is called jiva, reflection of the consciousness. And every prani, we presume, not only human beings, have got gross physical bodies, subtle bodies and also causal bodies. We are, though we do not know, we are guessing through that. So what does God do? He mixes Purusha and Prakruti. That was the main, greatest discovery of Rishis who have propagated Sankhya Yoga. But their thought has not extended to the extent that Purusha and Prakruti, they kept separate. They kept as eternal, but they are never belonging to the same Being. And this reconciliation slowly, with the development of intelligence, came. And we see it crystal clearly enumerated in the seventh chapter of the Bhagavad Gita. The reflection of consciousness belongs to my upper nature, and what is called my lower nature consists of the five Tanmatras and also five gross elements. Reconciliation has come. And so the division, dvaita, reality, Purusha and Prakruti, both of them have become unified now. And that is where Vedanta stands. In fact, we better know that all the six schools of philosophy, Purva Mimamsa and Uttara Mimamsa, which means Vedanta, Nyaya and Vaiseshika, Sankhya and Yoga, these are called six schools of philosophy and they have become merged into three schools of philosophy called Dvaita, Visishta Dvaita and Advaita. And the best elements of all the schools of philosophy, especially from Sankhya Yoga with regard to the explanation of cosmology and Yoga, Patanjali Yoga, as a practical means of achieving the highest realization, have been bodily lifted and incorporated in all the three schools of philosophy. Now, what is the essence of the sixth chapter of the Shwetashvatara? It is God who created and He Himself became the entire universe and He divided Himself as if into both the living and non-living. He entered into them. So the whole, what we call, Jagat Prapancha is nothing but only Bhagawan manifesting with Nama Rupa. Without Nama Rupa, God is Sat, Chit and Ananda. With Nama Rupa, Sat, Chit and Ananda plus form, plus specific name, that is called Prapancha or Jagat. So what happens? Bhagawan has first created. So this third mantra can be looked at from two points of view. From the point of view of Ishwara, the Creator, or from the viewpoint of a spiritual aspirant. What does it mean? How do we understand it? Very easy. So Ishwara, Tat Karmakritva, having created. Karma means action. What action? Bhagawan has only three actions. Srishti, Sthiti and Laya. And then He remained as a witness, completely non-attached to what He has written. Vini Vartiya Bhuyaha Tatvasya Tatvena Sametya Yogam Having created this universe, now He thought entire Prakruti is created. But Prakruti will not be able to do its job unless it is united with Purusha. Purusha means pure consciousness. So Tatvasya Tatvena. Everything is Tattva only. Everything is Brahman only. The inert is also Brahman and the living and conscious, sentient is also Ishwara only. So He united the subject and the object. United everything with what we call the spirit and the matter. Sametya Yogam. And then Ekena Dvabhyam Tribhih Ashtavihiva Four beautiful concepts have been presented in front of us. Ekena means the whole universe became one. Dvabhyam, Or if we think a little bit deeply, it can be divided into two as Purusha and Prakruti. And further Tribhih. How did He create this universe? Tribhih. What is Tribhih? Three Gunas. Or Ashtavih. What is Ashta? Here Ashta represents Pancha Bhutas, plus Chitta, Ahamkara, and Buddhi combined together. But from the ultimate point of view, everything is Prakruti plus Purusha. Then He also created time. Kalena cha atma gunais cha sukshmaihi. So this is how God created. And then endowed consciousness. And there is evolution of consciousness. God coming down from His Advaitiya state is known as involution. And having come to the lowest level, which is called inertness, non-life, as if you don't believe. Hinduism doesn't believe. Vedanta doesn't accept that a rock is having existence but doesn't have either knowledge or Ananda. Where there is Sat, there will be Chit. Where there is Chit, there will be Ananda. Sat, Chit and Ananda are not three qualities or three ways of looking at the same truth. So wherever there is existence, there will be Chit. Wherever there is Sat and Chit, there will be Ananda. But suppose you take a rock and we don't see the other two. Which are the two? Chit and Ananda. What do we see? Only Sat. The same thing can be also. We can equate that rock. Here is a person, he is completely unconscious. What is the big deal of difference between this person and rock? Rock exists, this person also exists. Rock doesn't have Chit and Ananda. This person also doesn't have Chit or Ananda. But it doesn't mean just as soon as this person wakes up, comes back to consciousness, immediately Chit and Ananda, all the three, Sat, Chit, Ananda become manifested. Similarly, also the rock at some point of time, Kalena, Kalakramena, it becomes inorganic, becomes organic and it goes on evolving until after a long, long, long time, after many, many births, it attains to this what we call human birth. Then still further it goes on evolving, but once human body is achieved, is attained, after what they call Churasi lakh janam, 84 lakhs of births, millions of births. Then what happens? Human body doesn't differ from a realized soul to the lowest person who just from an animal state, he became a human being, there is absolutely no difference. Same blood, same flesh, same bones, same everything. Is there no difference? Yes. The difference is, as Sri Ramakrishna so beautifully puts it, the difference is in the manifestation of the power. And by the way, manifestation of power means manifestation of consciousness. So intelligence, Shakti also requires not only energy, but energy comes also only because of intelligence. How come? Here is a person, he is weak and he understands, I have to eat particular types of foods and then he goes on doing exercise. In the course of time, not only in one life, but in many lives, he becomes stronger and stronger. So intelligence, which is the representation of pure consciousness, is the root cause of everything in this world. So what is the difference between the human being who just now entered into the human body from an animal state? And we can have beautiful concepts from the science also, how the chimpanzees and the monkeys, they are highly intelligent gorillas. And if we examine our physical life, sensual life, sensate life, there is no difference practically. Only difference will be animals cannot do as much harm as human beings can do. Because the greater the intelligence, the greater will be the opportunity either to do good or to do evil. But usually the persons, good persons are fewer, but helpless. Taking advantage, evil persons will do a lot of wrong things out there. So from now onwards, the evolution is not of the physical body, but of the mind. And this mind is divided into two categories. The first evolution in the mind is gradually, the person becomes more and more identified with everything in this world. This is called moral evolution. This is internal, nothing to do with physical. If you compare the bodies of a moral person, an intellectual person, an artist or a spiritual person, we will not find any difference at all. The difference is in the gunas. To put it in another way, evolution will be from tamas to rajas to sattva, more and more sattva guna. So intellectually and aesthetically and morally, a person goes on growing. So this is how we have to understand. Kalena, in the course of time, and Atma gunaischa, certain qualities are there. Bhagawan has already endowed us with all these things. And they are the gunas, the qualities, characteristics, sukshmai, very subtle. So one way of interpreting this particular mantra is, this is what God is doing in the form of involution. And what are we supposed to do? Now slowly we have gone to the rock bottom called inertness. Now the only way is to come up, which is called evolution. So what happens from the second interpretation? Here is a human being, here is a creature with life. It slowly, over millions of births, evolves into a human being. And then manifests more and more sattva guna. And in the end, what happens? Tat karma krittva. He will do exactly what God wants us to do. He will refrain from doing what God forbids us to do. This is called vidhi and nishedha. Then what happens? Having done, he becomes awakened. He becomes what is called spiritually awakened. Uttishthata, jagrata. Praapya, varan, nibodhata. Then he approaches people who are much advanced, takes refuge at their feet, and gets the directions how to live, and he progresses. Vinivartiya says, I have been doing (उत्तिष्ठत, जाग्रत, वरान् प्राप्य निबोधत।) exactly like any other animal will be doing, but now I will try to do something better. Vinivartiya, the first thing is, I will stop being an animal. Bhuyaha, then tattvasya tattvena. If God created me, I must be having the same characteristic as God. So I must become united with God, samedhi. And this process is called yogam, yoga abhyasa. And then what does he do? Ekena. First of all, he tries to become united with Upasana, with God. And Dvabhya. What is Dvabhya? I am a devotee and you are the deity. I am the aspirant, you are my goal. Or then what happens? Tribhihi. What are these three? The famous sattva, rajas and tamas. He understands thoroughly, as Bhagavan Krishna had explained in the 14th chapter of the Bhagavad Gita very clearly, that all the three gunas are there within everybody. They are there within me. So I must judiciously use them according to their use. For example, if I want to sleep, I must use tamo guna. I should not allow raja guna or sattva guna to interfere in my rest. When I am well rested, I should get up, become awakened. Uttishthata. I wake up from sleep. Jagrata. I become very alert. And I must do what is absolutely necessary. Slowly, gradually, the person will be developing or moving towards the more manifestation of sattva guna. So tribhihi or ashtabhairva. What is ashtabhairva? God has given me a body and it consists of, it is made up of, and it is maintained, and it will go on again, merge in the five bhutas. God also has given me, through tanmatra, subtle elements, the chitta, remembering power, memory power, and also the buddhi, intelligent power, and also the mind. The power to cogitate, to think deeply, guided by the scripture, by the Guru. So ashtabhihi, with the help of the body and mind, kalena, in the course of time, atma guna ischa, I will be developing certain qualities which will promote my travel towards Atman, Brahmatman. And these gunas, they become sukshmaihi. That means all the vasanas become deeply embedded. So we have to start from the physical, slowly progress towards the conscious, and then progress into subconscious, or sink these ideas into the subconscious, and then sink them into the complete unconscious. What am I talking about? So certain qualities, first we have to practice with great alertness, and then slowly they become what we call habits. They become stronger. Then they become stronger, just like as soon as we get up. So we did not know when we were babies that we have to brush our teeth. But our parents teach us, and first we have to be reluctantly doing it. Then mother threatens, no, you can't simply come and eat breakfast. Until you brush, you are not going to get. And today's breakfast is exceedingly tasty, and the child runs to the bathroom and then brushes as quickly as possible. But in the course of time, it is given to understand that this is good for me. And then after some time, it becomes very little effort. That is called subconscious, sinking into subconscious. And then it becomes completely sunk into deep unconscious. That means a person need not think at all. And I will give an illustration. Every Sannyasi is supposed to totally depend upon God. Every Sannyasi is not supposed to accumulate anything, excepting for doing some good to other people. So monastic organizations or individuals who want to do good, they have only for the purpose of doing good to the world, can accumulate, not for their own sake. So Ramakrishna was a Sannyasi. He had given up. He was not supposed to accumulate anything. Ramakrishna was very fond of eating certain spices, like cardamom, etc. Dalchini, what we call it. After taking food, he said that a few spices if you put, the mouth will not smell very bad. So I have to tell you, sometimes we have very bad experiences. Some devotees come here and their breath is so foul that it is impossible to breathe. Even Mahapurusha Maharaj had to ask some devotees that you move away from here. Terribly, what is called harmful breath is coming from your mouth. Sometimes people's breaths are so powerful, even if they are 10 feet away, their breath will be coming and attacking us directly. So Sri Ramakrishna used to advise, take a few spices, at least it will cover up, gives a good smell. That is why nowadays people go on putting something, or nowadays I have also seen some spray will be there. Open the mouth and spray also. Now Ramakrishna was not supposed to accumulate, but he was fond of a few human habits were there. And one day, Holy Mother who knew about it, tied a few spices in the hem of his upper cloth. And he came out after food, started to his room, from Nahabath to his room, and suddenly his feet were dragging him to the Ganga. And then he was completely conscious. There he said, Ma, shall I drown? Shall I drown? Holy Mother immediately saw it, understood, shouted. Hriday came running and then took Sri Ramakrishna by hand and he took him to his room, Sri Ramakrishna's room. Later on, Hriday was telling, sorry, Sri Ramakrishna was telling that I have taken complete, total refuge. I surrendered myself to the Divine Mother. She will not allow anybody who has taken refuge in Her to deviate from Truth. I have taken a vow. I must maintain. If I forget also, She will not allow anybody to take a wrong step. Sri Ramakrishna often repeated, saying is, that an expert dancer cannot even with effort take a wrong step. An expert musician can never sing in a wrong thala. And if anybody is singing in a wrong thala, you have to understand, he is an Anadi in the world. Anadi means ignorant fellow. Blissfully ignorant. That is the problem. Now, this is what he is telling. Whatever we develop, these qualities become subtle and subtler. First, consciously we have to develop. Then they penetrate into the subconscious. And in the end, they sink so deeply. And that is what Sri Ramakrishna calls My Mother. It is impossible for that person to do anything wrong, excepting behave according to those qualities. So, this is the third mantra that God created. And He came down as it were. And then what happened? Again, God only, in the form of the individual, goes up. Every individual will go up. So, Ekena, that is the spirit or sentient principle, one alone, He creates. So, the sentient and the insentient. We have to take a beautiful note here. What is the insentient? Insentient means not really insentient. Manifestation, insentiency. Prakruti, after all, belongs to God. And if it belongs to God, God can never be accused. You are a combination of sentiency and insentiency. So, this is a big topic that is what is called wreaking havoc between Advaitins and non-Advaitins, especially the Siddhas Advaitins. We do not accept your Adhyasa, superimposition. Superimposition is because of avidya. And so, before creation, where is this avidya? If it was not there before, it cannot come into the world. And if it is seen in the world, it must have been before creation. If it was before creation, the only one entity, one being was there, that is Brahman. So, Brahman must be a combination of both chitta and achitta. And that is not acceptable to Advaitins. That is why they brush away the entire argument saying that it is Anirvachaniya. Impossible to describe it as sat or asat or anything. Description is impossible. And go on describing how it is impossible for thousands and thousands of ages. Shankaracharya, fortunately for us, never bothered about it. Simply said, there is a power. Try to understand whatever way. That's not important where it is and how it is. It is important if there is a way to get out. Find out that way and get out. Wise people always tell, don't bother about this intellectual, dry discussion, gymnastics. Just you know there is something and there is a way to get out of it. Try to get out of it. That is what he says. So that is Dvabhyam. So he combined. What is Dvabhyam? That God creates Dharma and Adharma. And Jiva, at first, he combines Adharma, a large portion, and Dharma, a small portion. But slowly as he evolves, the Dharmic portion becomes better. And the Adharmic portion becomes lesser, less powerful. Finally, it becomes only a little bit of, a little, what is called, hint of Adharma will be there. But which doesn't harm anybody. That is, this is called Dvabhyam, seen as two. Tribhi means, as we discussed, three qualities, Sattva, Rajas, and Tamas. So the progress will be, evolution will be from Tamoguna to Rajoguna to Sattvaguna and then beyond all the three Gunas. Ashtabhihi, that is body and mind. So we have to understand, God has created, that is called evolution. Now creation is travelling towards God, that is called evolution. And the same way, if we have come down from the third floor to the ground floor, and we want to go back to the third floor and then go to the roof, we have to go only through the very same steps through which we have come down. I hope you have sufficiently understood. It is both the truth of creation and the purpose of creation is we are God. Everything is Brahman, but we are not aware that we are Brahman. And we have to do some spiritual sadhana and it is to do that and slowly to go back to our original and become united with Brahman. That is probably the entire essence of this last six chapters. So we will now proceed to the mantra number four. आरभ्य कर्माणि उनान्वितानि भावांश सर्वान् विनियोजयेत् यहा तेशां अभावे कृत कर्मनाशः कर्मक्षयेयाति स तत्वतः अन्यः What does it mean? Having begun the work of creation associated with the qualities of Prakruti, which are called Sattva, Rajas and Tamas, He, means the Bhagawan Eshwara, employs all the effects of Prakruti. So billions of combinations of Sattva, Rajas and Tamas, the permutations and combinations and when slowly they become less. First they become less and then they go on increasing and they reach a peak and again slowly like a cycle, slowly they come back down and down and down. So this process is called Srishti, the other process is called Laya. So this is the thing that is going on all the time. So He employs all the effects and again when the time comes, that which was created vanishes. There is Srishti and there is Laya. Again there is Srishti and there is Laya. This cyclic process is beautifully described in the Bhagavad Gita. Sahasra Yuga Pariyantam Ahahayat Brahmano Vidho Rathrim Yuga Sahasrantham Te Aho Rathra Vidho Janaha Brahma is the creator and His business is to create and His day time, what does He do? Like any one of us, He works very hard, that is Srishti and Stithi. And then what happens? Night time comes, Laya. So He goes to rest, just as we rest at night and again wake up and engage ourselves in activities. Brahma also, He works, He goes to sleep, He is called Rathri, night, rest, that is called Pralaya. And again His day time comes, He wakes up and He goes on doing. This process is beautifully, in a symbolical way, described in the Chandi, in the very first chapter, how Brahma was about to be attacked and His act of creation was to be destroyed by Madhu and Kaitava. And then knowledge comes in the form of Vishnu and removes these obstacles and then creation goes on merrily. Now in this fourth mantra, what it is telling, this process of creation and dissolution goes on and on and on. So Bhagawan, having begun the work of creation and how with the help of the Sattva, Rajas and Tamas, qualities of Prakruti, this is called Prakruti Gunas, then this combination of Sattva, Rajas and Tamas in infinite varieties, He employs all the effects of Prakruti and then He plays this game called Chess. Brahmayan, Sarvabhutani, Yantrarudhani, Mayaya and what happens after some time, Laya will come. Then slowly it comes back and that which was created now becomes vanished. When the creation is dissolved, where does it get dissolved? Into Himself. He abides in His own Self which is distinct from Prakruti. So a beautiful description of what God does. What does He do? He has two aspects. Actionless aspect called Nirguna Nirakara Brahman and the other aspect of action, Peetha action. Ramakrishna beautifully tries to make us understand when we look at Brahman without any activity or when we look at Shakti without any activity, we call that Shakti as Brahman. When the same Brahman is looked at with activity, activity means Rishti, Stithi and Laya. And as I explained yesterday, all activities are only three. Creation and continuing with that for some time and dissolution. Birth, living, death. Apply it to any activity you want. That explains everything. Karma means creation, maintenance and destruction. Nothing else. So what does God do when after some time this Leela is over, then slowly He withdraws it. Where from this creation has come? Himself. And where will it go? Into Himself. Into means not like water being poured in a pot but just as clay becomes an ornament and a pot or gold becomes an ornament, when the pot is dissolved, it will go back to its unmanifest formless aspect called clay. When the ornament is melted, it just becomes gold. It remained gold. It was from gold and gold has taken a form. Now that form has gone back into its original, what is called uniform or un-form. That's all. And this is the activity of Brahman called Shakti. So having begun this one, that is what God does it. When the creation is dissolved, He abides in His own Self for some time, there would be no activity. So these are two aspects, activity and no activity. That is what Sri Ramakrishna was trying to drill into our hardened brains, Brahman and Shakti. Does it happen one after the other? No. Simultaneously it happens. But our perception when we perceive one, we see that it is actionless. When we perceive the other one, other way, then we see it is full of activity. So the whole description is from our viewpoint. We don't know what is the Brahman's paramarthika point of view. That is what we have to keep in mind. So I'll give you one illustration. Sri Ramakrishna was given this beautiful vision exactly depicting what we just now read in the fourth mantra. He was describing graphically. One day, I was taking a walk on the banks of the Ganga. Suddenly, a beautiful young woman, later on he said that was Mahamaya, and she came out. At first, she was a very beautiful, slim looking Miss Universe. Then suddenly he found her. She is pregnant and within even a fraction of a second, her womb was full with the fetus baby. And then presently, she gave birth. And then she started fondling and looking after the baby with all the motherly love combined, Sarva Jagan Matru Bhava. And then next millisecond, she put on a ferocious appearance, went on put the baby in her mouth, Kacha, Kacha, Kacha. He went on chewing and swallowing, terrible even to imagine. And slowly, she disappeared, entered into the water, melted into the water. She came out of the water and entered back. What did she do? Srishti, Stithi and Laya. Is it not terrible? No, not terrible because it is a Leela. You make a sand castle and you admire it for some time and then you kick it out when you want to before going home. Nothing is done. It is just like play acting, but that is why God is called Sri Ranganatha. So this vision of Sri Ramakrishna is marvellous and that is going on every billy second. It is not that once he does it, it is going on. And how many Brahmans are there? Infinite number of Brahmans. How many Brahmandas are there? Infinite number of Brahmandas are there. So even if you say here is a dog, here is a cow and here is a human being, here is a mosquito, here is a fly, what are they doing? Plants, any living creature, each one, species, billions and billions of its kind. This Srishti, Stithi, Laya is going on all the time. We eat food and many times what is living, only what is living and then it becomes us. And then again it becomes recreated in the form of an offspring etc. So this subject becomes object, object becomes a subject, this is going on. This is a beautiful description. And who is doing all these things? That Divine Lord, Karmakshaye, inside the time of Pralaya, Yatisa Tattvataha. He remains as Himself and Anyaha. This word Anyaha means another. Another means what? A beautiful meaning is given. Even the Srishti, Stithi, Laya is going on. He remains as it were, completely detached. He is never involved. In Bhagavad Gita also it is said Bhagavan doesn't accept the merit or demerit of anybody. Everybody only goes through this rigmarole of doing something and experiencing the results of that something. So neither He accepts our Papa nor accepts our Punya. Each one of us are responsible. So what is the point here? What is the meaning of Anyaha? Anyaha means the Bhagavan, He remains as Brahman and He also becomes Shakti. When? One after another, for some time as Brahman, for some time as Shakti. No, simultaneously He manifests Himself as both Brahman and also Shakti. And all the time He doesn't do anything. All the time He is doing everything. What irrational thing you are talking, Swami? Well, this is the truth. And because we try to understand everything through our limited mind, which is divided by time, space and causation. Everything we have to look one after the other, left side, right side, front or back. But the thing is that every Jeeva also does exactly that thing only. So how do we overcome? Because we acquire a lot of Samskaras. But remember, Samskaras are at first the cause of our downfall. What is downfall? Forgetting who we are. But at the same time, those very Samskaras will teach us a lesson through suffering and ultimately we turn over, change our direction from outside to inside. Aavrutta chakshahu kashchit dheeraha, aavrutta chakshahu amrutatvam ichchan. I tried outside, it is not working. Now I will turn inside, I will search for God who is within. And that God within is going to be described graphically in the coming mantras also. So first there will be neutral Vasanas. Then there will be unspiritual Vasanas. Then there will be spiritual Vasanas. Then there will be no Vasanas at all. This was beautifully described in the Jeevan Mukti Viveka in two particular separate chapters by Vidyaranya Muni. They are called Vasanakshaya and Manonasha. I will not go into that subject. So we are all at this moment under the control of all the three Gunas. And Gunas create lot of habits, Samskaras and Vasanas, desires, unfulfillment etc. And that is the only way again with the help of the same Gunas, we will have to turn back towards the Lord. And that is what is going to tell us that a seeker should worship the great Lord in order to attain the knowledge of reality. What is knowledge of reality? I am not separate from Brahman. That is the knowledge of reality. But for that purpose, self-surrender. I must surrender myself to God. That is going to be described graphically in the fifth mantra. आदिः ससंयोग निनित्तहेतु परः त्रिकालात अकलोपि दृष्टः तम् विष्वरूपं भवभूतं ईडियं देवं सचितस्तं उपास्य पूर्वं Very beautiful mantra again. But put it in such words, it could create a little bit of confusion. But really, there should not be any confusion. What is the meaning? The great Lord, that is Ishwara, call Him Ishwara, call Him Brahman, doesn't matter. In the beginning, the cause which unites the soul with the body, that means creation, which we had seen earlier. But at the same time, He is above the three kinds of time. What are the three kinds of time? Time means always three kinds. What are that? The past, the present and the future. You cannot think of any one aspect without thinking of the other. For example, when you say present, we are denying the past and the future. When we are talking about the past, we are denying the present and the future. When we are thinking about the future, we are denying the past and the present. That is the characteristic of our very mind to divine time. That is why this Kaala, what is called Parichcheda, limitation of Kaala, limitation by space, limitation by an object. Kaala Parichcheda, Desha Parichcheda, Vastu Parichcheda, all the three go together. So the great Lord is the beginning, He who created this universe, the cause which unites the soul with the body. He is above the three kinds of time and He is Akalaha, Akhandaha, Ekaha, Poornaha, without any parts, because part means Jada. This is a peculiar Vedantic idea. Anything that is having a part and anything, every object is made up of parts and anything that is made up of parts is a Jada, is an inert thing and it is not meant for its own sake. It is meant for somebody who is other than what is without part and who is full of consciousness. Example is, you build a house. A house is made up of various parts. These are the walls, these are the windows, these are the doors, this is the floor, this is the roof, this is the staircase, etc. etc. Do you think the house builds itself for its own sake or you the conscious being build the house? Is it a cycle, bicycle? Is it a car? Is it an aeroplane? Is it a computer? Is it a cot? Anything that you can think of is made up of parts and whatever is made up of parts is made for a conscious being. So our body is made up of parts, Pancha Bhutas. Our mind is made up of parts, again Pancha Bhutas, but Pancha Sukshma Bhutas, so called Tanmatras. Therefore, they are Jada. Jada means inert. Inert means without any consciousness, but for what purpose? For the purpose of a conscious being and when we are attached, we are called Jiva and when we are not attached, we are called Ishwara or Paramatma. That is being said here. So that is Paraha. He completely remains unattached. Trikalath Paraha, that means He is timelessness, He is Shashvata, etc. Akalaha is partless, that means He is pure consciousness. And Drishtahaha, so people understand there is a being apart from this world because the world is a mixture of a living and non-living, a conscious and non-conscious and He must be beyond that, separate from that. Tam, that Brahman, Vishwaroopam, He alone, one without a second, alone is manifesting as this entire Vishwa. That is why in the Vishnu Sahasranama, the very first Nama name of Vishnu is Vishwam, Vishwaroopam. We have seen it in Narayana Suktam, we have seen it in Medha Suktam, we also are seeing it in the Purusha Suktam. So Vishwaroopam, Bhava, Bhoutam. Bhava, that means whatever is present now. Bhouta, whatever is in the past. So whether it is the whole world is nothing but a manifestation of time, space and causation. Bhava, Bhoutam. Idiyam, Idiyam means adorable, worship worthy, the greatest. There is only one way to get out of this samsara. It is to pray to Him, to surrender to Him, to completely leave ourselves in His hands. And that is why He is called Idiyam. No other thing in this world can save us. Only God can save us. That is why He is called Tam Adihe Devam and He is Nimitta Hetu. He is the cause of this entire universe. He is the universe, that Devam, that Divine Lord. But you are describing that Divine Lord. He is the creator and where is He to be found? So you need not go anywhere. Upasyam, He alone has to be meditated upon, contemplated upon. First hear about Him, then meditate upon Him, then completely become one with Him. Shravanam, Mananam, Nidhidhyasanam. Where is He but? Sachittastham. He is nowhere else. He is everywhere. But He is especially to be found in your own heart. That is why all the devotees, all of us who sing the Aratrikam hymns in the evening, what do we say? Namo Namo Prabhu Vakyamana Atithaha. But Jyoti Rajyoti Ujjvala Hridi Kandhara. You are manifest in the form of the light of the lights. Where? Hridi Kandhara. In each one of our deepest part of the heart which is compared to a cave. Cave means what? A secret place. He is hidden. We are looking for Him everywhere. We are looking only for Him. Nobody is looking for anybody else. Everybody is looking for God only in the form of I don't want to die. I don't want to be ignorant or foolish. I don't want to be suffering. I want to be Sat, Chit and Ananda. That's why we pray that let me not be subject to death etc. So Swachh Tastam, Upasya and Purvam. What is the meaning of Purvam? That earlier you have already been praying to Him because your very knowledge that God exists. He is the goal of life and only by reaching Him, I can be free from all this. And you heard about it. Slowly you have been worshipping, not wholeheartedly. But now you will have to devote more and more time. This beautiful idea that He is the only one worthy of worship comes even in the first hymn of Om Hreem Hritham Koma Chalo Unha Jit Unha E Diyaha. We will talk about it in our next class.