Dakshinamurti Stotram Part 08 on 23 January 2021

Full Transcript(Not Corrected)

OM JANANIM SHARADAM DEVIM RAMAKRISHNAM JAGAD GURUM PADAPADMETAYO SRIDHVA PRANAMAMI MUHURMU OM YO BRAHMANAM VIDADHATI PURVAM YO VAI VEDAM SHCHA PRAYANOTI TASMAI TAMHA DEVAM ATMA BUDDHI PRAKASHAM MUMUK SHURVAI SHARANAM AHAM PRAPADYE We are dealing with the first shloka of the Dakshinamurthy shlokam. Ten shlokas are there. VISHVAM DARPANA DRISHYAMANA NAGARE TULIYAM NIJANTARGATAM PASHYAN ATMANI MAYAYA BHAYAREVA UDDHUTHAM YATHA NIDRAYA YAH SAKSHAT KURUTE PRABODHA SAMAYE SWATMANAMEVA ADVAYAM TASMAI SHRI GURUMURTHAYE NAMAIDAM SHRI DAKSHINAMURTHAYE To him who by maya, who sees in himself the universe which is inside him as if it were outside, just as in a dream or like unto a city that is reflected in a mirror, to him who apprehends on awakening his own self as the one without a second, to him of the form of the Guru, the ancient of all, the blessed Dakshinamurthy is this prostration, pranams, namaskara. In our last class, I have clearly enunciated that NAMAIDAM, NAMAHA means complete sharanagati, surrender. Surrender to God is surrender to the scripture. Surrender to the scripture is surrender to God. So surrender to Guru, surrender to the scripture, surrender to ultimately God. Surrender means to become completely one, to become totally merged. JEEVA, ATMA, AIKIA, BODHAM, every path whether it is of devotional or of the path of knowledge. Ultimately, it is only complete self-surrender. Then we also discussed certain words here. Vishwa means whatever we experience, whatever better words I experience. In this world, there are only two things, I and everything else. That everything else is false and I alone is the real truth. What does it mean? This word false indicates there are two objects, one real and one the unreal. At any given time, we only perceive one thing whether it is real, really or unreal. Ultimately, whatever we experience at any given moment is experienced only as the only reality. Then how do we distinguish what is really real and apparently seemingly real? The only way is that when something we experience falls under the influence of time and space which means it never remains exactly as it is even for a billy-billy second. That means it is changing all the time. Whatever is changing is not non-existence but apparent existence. This is a point Advaita Vedanta strives all the time. In fact, Dvaita also strives all the time albeit in different words. I'll give a very interesting example. Suppose a great devotee of Vishnu goes to Vaikuntha and what does he get there? Continuously he sees God. Now we have to understand what is the definition of God or Narayana in this case? Sachidananda. Sat, Chit and Ananda. So continuously he has to hold, he has to experience only Narayana, Sachidananda. But supposing for one millisecond he doesn't experience, two things happen. That first of all he becomes Asat, Achit and Nirananda and which is false. That means he is not in Vaikuntha. Supposing a person is continuously experiencing Vishnu. How does he know that he is experiencing? Because it is only broken experience that brings us back. I am here and God is there. This is a wonderful interesting psychology but it is a true psychology. What is it? The mind at any given time can cherish, can entertain only one single thought. Then how does it work? One millisecond I, another millisecond God or whatever object we are experiencing. There is no such thing that I experience both I as well as an object simultaneously I experience. Such a thing does not happen. If we understand this point clearly then what is meditation? Meditation is the same thought that comes again and again and again. Then what is the difference between Savikalpa Samadhi and Dhyana? And according to Patanjali Savikalpa Samadhi is that state where the same Pratyaya remains almost continuously albeit I and Pratyaya. Pratyaya and me. But even Patanjali has to admit that in the final stage what he calls Nirvikalpa Samadhi that has to be attained. And in Nirvikalpa Samadhi there is no I, there is no God. When there is no one there will not be two. That's why Advaita is not called Eka. It is called Nadvaita. It is a very meaningful word. Now what is important for us to understand is that if a devotee goes to Vaikuntha and if he is continuously beholding Narayana then there are no two. There would be only either the devotee or Narayana and that is what exactly Advaita means even though our minds refuse to accept this simple psychological fact but whether we go to Goloka or Vaikuntha or Kailasa we are only enjoying that wonderful experience called Advaita. I will also put it slightly different way. God means Ananda. If a person's mind doesn't think of God for one millisecond that means he is removed from Ananda. That means he is unhappy. Can there be a person who goes to Vaikuntha and who experiences Dukkha then such a thing is also not possible. It cannot be even posited. Anyway, we do not need to go into these philosophical discourses. What is important is that the whole world is one even when something is seemingly real. That seeming real is only partial reality never a falsehood even though in English language Mithya is translated as false and that is not a very good translation. A better translation would be seeming reality like when we experience a snake even though we do not experience the rope but what we are experiencing is the rope but in the form of a limited snake. Okay, let us keep this in mind. Whatever I experience is called Vishwam that is in Advaitic language Yushmat Pratyaya, the thought, this I and everything else. That is the meaning. There are only two things in this world Yushmat and Asmat. The next point is very important. This I, the thought of I, the Pratyaya, the vritti of I and as well as the vritti of this both are thoughts only in the mind. So what is the implication I am driving at? When a person sadhaka after many lives comes to this realization I am Brahman that knowledge which he thinks he has in the form of I am Brahman is also a Pratyaya, is also a thought. So what did this do? I am not a divine thought is completely negated by the thought I am divine and with that the man gets rid of all what is called threefold miseries and then for some reason by some way that mind itself will be destroyed. This is called Manonasha. When that happens, what happens? It is indescribable. Now the world is nothing but modification of consciousnesses. That is why why do I use consciousness is a singular never multiple but what we experience is multiple. So better we use the word multiple thoughts, multiple feelings or awarenesses. So it is nothing but that. Now in this particular first verse two beautiful analogies are given which we are going to analyze. That's what I told you in my last class. So let us see. What are the analogies? One is that of a mirror and this is called Bimba Pratibimba Vada. In Advaita itself slightly different ways of thinking are there. So there are mainly two schools Avacheda Vada and as well as Bimba Pratibimba Vada and also there is what is called whatever I say Drishti Srishti Vada and also Srishti Drishti Vada are there. In this particular first verse of this Dakshinamurthy, first of all these two analogies are given how we experience a dream and upon waking up what's our reaction to the recollection of that dream. Similarly here is a mirror. Imagine a huge mirror. You are near the window, outside the window at a 90 degrees angle there is a huge window and below the entire city is reflected in that and you go on seeing continuously into it. First of all let me tell you what is the point of these two analogies then we can understand them better. In the mirror analogy a whole city, a whole universe in other words is experienced as if it is inside the mirror as a reflection and the analogy of dream means upon waking up. Remember upon waking up we realize that we went outside our house, we climbed a mountain and we visited a beautiful place, we attended a wonderful talk by one Swami as if we went outside. Upon waking up all these ideas of outside are perceived as inside my mind. So the point is inside. Where is this universe? Inside my mind. If it is inside my mind then what is the advantage? The first advantage is we are under the delusion that the world is both inside me or rather outside me. I am reacting to this world in my mind that I know in the form of thoughts. Then what happens if the world is outside? I am not in charge of the world. I am not the creator of the world. Somebody created the world. I am completely out of control. The world is affecting me. The only thing that I can do is I can react to it. Now every school of psychology came to this very conclusion. I will give you two examples. First of all you go to any psychologist or psychiatrist. Of late a beautiful treatment has come. You know the moment we hear psychology we always remember somebody is mad. No sir, all mad people of course according to Sri Ramakrishna the whole world is mad. But according to modern psychology all mad people can be divided into two categories. One category is really dangerous, really mad and they are completely under the control of wrong false ideas and this is one category. Another category is some emotional turbulence is there. They are absolutely normal people but there are some quirks in the mind. So their ways of thinking they make, they become very unhappy. For example here is a normal person who goes to the office, who comes back and then he goes on venting his frustration telling my boss he doesn't like me. He always scolds me. This otherwise he is normal. He is carrying on everything. He talks, he loves his family, he goes outside and then he reacts towards his family very nicely. Everything is normal. He is not harmful to the society. But in this also there are two categories are there according to psychologists. In these two categories there are some people who have tremendous potentiality within themselves but they are suppressing them and the other category is they are ordinary people. They do not have any extraordinary capacities or potentialities but still laboring under false pretenses. So these first category people are really mad. They are out of control. They have to be imprisoned. They have to be given treatment and they can never be let out so far as it is possible. The second type of category as I said they are of two types. What are the two types? What is called laboring under some mistaken, irrational, emotional attitudes and they suffer unnecessarily. So depression is one of the most common causes. For these kind of people mild psychiatric treatment, advice, counseling etc. will make them more or less this one. Here also I have to tell you something. Why am I going into this deviating from Vedanta? Because this modern psychology, a very practical psychology, it doesn't treat people, all people as mad. There are mad people and they have to be treated in a different way but there are common people and with a slight counseling and advice they can become better than what they are practically. So for this second type of mild type of people there is a treatment called CBT that is to say Cognitive Behavioral Therapy. Now what is the relationship with what we are discussing here, subject matter? The relationship is this, the CBT, those who are trained in the CBT, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy. When some people are not able to function normally but they are normal people, they have nothing of normality in them, they are laboring merely under some false ideas, they will be taken to these persons or voluntarily. Most people go voluntarily there because they are not harmful people and then take this treatment. Then what does this person say? Look here, this is the essence of CBT. What is it? You have absolutely no control over the outside world but you have 100% control if you wish how you are going to react. So the outside world is acting or affecting you but you need not be a slave or obey the outside world. You can train yourself. You just change certain habits, look upon everything as positive thinking. This is what is called positive thinking. This is the first type of, in the second category A, type A people and those people will become if the treatment, they are not treated by the society as mad people but they require some encouragement to correct their perceptions, reactions and control emotions and one such book that has influenced a lot of people is Emotional Intelligence. Now this CBT is progressing by leaps and bounds. In fact, most of the Swamis when they give advice to the devotees, they don't say that we are certified psychologists but actually they are not talking about God, they are only talking about how to change your attitudes in spite of that. When we have discussed in the 12th chapter of the Bhagavad Gita, What are we really talking about? We are only talking about that you develop an attitude of mind where you will not be too much swayed by extreme emotions. It has nothing to do with spirituality. Really spirituality comes only when a person considers that this world is not going to solve my problem. I have to go beyond this world and then with the help of the scripture, he will acquire certain spiritual qualifications called sadhana, chatustaya, sampatti. Only then anyone is fit even to look in the direction of spirituality. Until that time, what Swami Brahmanandaji used to tell again and again, be a gentleman. I gave a talk on this. Most of you can find it out. I think it is also there. Am I a devotee of God? Please refer to it. You will get all these things and even more specifically five commandments of Sri Ramakrishna. There I have outlined these things clearly. Okay. The second type of people are there. They are not abnormal but they have enormous potentialities but they have self-doubts. For such kind of people, the CBD is extremely useful. Mind you, they do not fall under the 2A. They fall under 2B. What is it? They are not making any special attempt to develop their inner potentialities. I'll give you an example. There was a man who went to become a clerk. Somehow he came under the notice of his boss. These kind of stories are very prevalent there. Then the boss found out this man is totally useless for many type of activities. But then he found out something extraordinary. This man has very great analytical mind. So the boss sent him out. You just do one thing. You do not need to do these clerical works. You just go around my factory and come and report to me what needs to be changed. Very soon that man became topmost manager and what does he do? Puts his two feet on the table, closes his eyes and then goes on thinking which department can be made better than which department. There are many bosses who are open to these kind of suggestions. In fact, nowadays every big company is taking out this what is called brainstorming. Anyway, many of you know about brainstorming. But one simple rule which is extremely useful for all spiritual aspirants. The rule for brainstorming is so long as the brainstorming is going on, no one has any right to criticize anybody else. After all, this is what Holy Mother is telling, My child, do not find fault with anybody. Rather try to find your own faults. This is spiritual advice that is coming from within us. And that's what Sriram Krishna also says, Do not even criticize an insect. For I see the pure consciousness is crawling even through that insect. What are we talking about? We are apt to lose the thread very often. I am talking about the universe. Where is it? Is it outside or is it inside? Okay, then do not come to the false conclusion. There is nothing outside. Everything is inside. That is also a wrong false conclusion. So Swami Vekananda had to work very hard to propagate these Advaitic principles. He said that according to Advaita Vedanta that everything is inside us. Therefore, if we can train ourselves to perceive the world as we are perceiving, we can make hell or heaven out of it. But then do not conclude that there is nothing outside. He said there is something outside. I call it X. What does he mean? He explained X means Brahman. There is outside Brahman which is beyond speech, beyond the sense organs, beyond any experience. And that Brahman, when that object, so-called apparent object called Brahman comes into our mind in the form of forms and sounds and smells, tastes and touches that is transformed with names and forms. That's what we call Vishwam or Jagat or Prapancha, this world, this universe. So the universe is nothing but Brahman as perceived through the medium of body and mind, meaning through the five sense organs plus also through this mind. And to the extent the mirror of our mind becomes really pure, to that extent that understanding that everything outside is nothing but pure Brahman and the perceiver inside also is nothing but pure Brahman and that is how we progress in this knowledge in spiritual life. Let us now get inside this because these are beautiful points. What are the points, lessons we have to learn according to these two analogies? Just now whatever we spoke in this class today is first of all the whole universe is within us or the whole universe is as we understand it. And more important point is we have no control over the external world. We have only control over our mind. Mind means thoughts. Thoughts means either they could be positive or negative. So slowly our aim should be to get rid of the negativity and to acquire the positivity. Then even if we are not spiritual, our life becomes much more happier, much more healthier and not only that, it obtains still more and more and still more higher types of enjoyment. I mentioned to you there are five classifications of Ananda. The pleasure we get from outside objects, the happiness we get from intellectual understanding, the happiness higher than this, both is the happiness we get from being aesthetic and then higher than that is what is called Dharma Ananda or the happiness we derive from morality. These are all gradually more and more experience of happiness both quantitatively and qualitatively. Finally all these merge in that indivisible thing that is called Ananda and that's our goal whether we understand it or not. So here how to get to that point? That is where I said Namaidam Sri Dakshinamurthy. Namaidam, I surrender myself to Dakshinamurthy. Where is that Dakshinamurthy? He is manifesting in the form of my own Guru and he will be gracious to me. How is he going to be gracious to me? Through the knowledge he imparts to me and what is the knowledge he is imparting to me? Here that is where we are dwelling into. Vishwam darpana drishyamana nagaritulyam vijayantargatam pasyan atmani mayaya bahiriva udbhutam yatha nidraya ek sakshat kurute prabodhasamaye swatmanam eva advayam tasmai sri gurumurthe namaidam sri dakshinamurthe To him who by the power of maya sees in himself the universe which is inside oneself but as if it were outside just as also in a dream or like unto a city that is seen in a mirror to him who apprehends on awakening his own self as the only one without a second to him who comes to me in the form of my own individual Guru that ancient Gurumurthe, the blessed Dakshinamurthe is this prostration. With this let us analyze this one. So in Advaita tradition the teacher and especially the teacher of Vedanta is looked upon as God and this has relationship with what we have the point we have raised just now earlier. What is it? The whole universe is within me that means within my mind. In what form? In the form of Pratyayas. How many Pratyayas? Three Pratyayas. Three thoughts. What are the three thoughts? There is God, there is the world and there is me. This is beautifully put here. Ishwaro gururatmeti murthibheda vibhagine vyomavat vyaptadehaya dakshinamurthe namaha My salutations to Lord Dakshinamurthi who is seemingly divided into three different forms. Ishwara, Guru and Atma. Atma means my own self. That means God, Ishwara, me, Jivatma and Jagat. This is the triangle. The whole philosophy eastern or western is only expounding what is the relationship between these three. Even in the western psychology and philosophy, even though some philosophy, it is called speculative philosophy, even though they use only intellect, they can deny God but they cannot deny existence. Because if we deny existence, who is going to be a philosopher? The person who analyzes, he himself is the, that he must be existent first of all. So my salutations to Lord Dakshinamurthi. Seemingly he is divided into three different forms. When? When in the state of ignorance. What are the three? Ishwara, God. Why God? Because even modern cosmogony, the whole science is trying to understand in this world whatever object we experience is an effect. The very word effect means it has a cause. So the whole world is an effect. So where from did it come? Some people have come to understand it. That is the big bang they call it. But now that theory is being questioned more than anything else. There cannot be big bang according to even the science. There must be something before to bring if big bang is in effect. There must be a cause earlier which has brought about that big bang. Or it may be that the world is going like this. So many infinite number of big bangs. You just remove that word big bang and then you substitute it with Srishti. How many times Srishti is going on? After every pralaya, Brahmadeva comes and then makes this world again, come to again and again and again. That is why Srishti is Anadi. That's what we say. This is the theory most modern scientists are slowly coming to know. Excepting they are using sophisticated words like big bang. In reality, it is nothing but what Indian philosophy has analysed long before. It is Srishti, creation is infinite, beginningless, eternal. That means this phenomena is going on and on and on. It will go on also in future. Remember this Dakshinamurthy divided himself as if into three. Ishwara. Who is Ishwara? According to Vedanta, Ishwara is the creator and sustainer and destroyer. Because I am an effect. So I find where from have I come? My parents. Where from my parents have come? From their parents. If we go on doing like a huge pyramid, ultimately it reaches one single point which is called Ishwara. So Ishwara. And then Guru. Guru means teacher. Teacher means from whom we learn lessons. We think I don't believe in Guru. Idiots speak without understanding what they are talking about. They learn from their parents first. Language, manners, culture, good or bad. Everything is soaked up by this baby like a sponge even while sleeping also. We learn affection. We learn love. We learn how to cuddle. We learn how to be jealous. Everything. The external world influences very much to a great extent. So that is the way we are learning. As Swami Brahmananda said so many times that if a person wants to be a very expert pickpocket, he should have an expert pickpocket Guru. We are learning whether we accept Guru or not. We have got formal Gurus in the form of school teachers, college teachers, university teachers, PhD guides etc. etc. And then we have got this nowadays psychologists are also called Gurus. Psychologists. Because they are the teachers of the mental science. How to control the mind. So spiritually also we need. Why Guru is needed? Because he knows what he is talking about. You don't need to discover it. What they have discovered through their own Guru's grace, they can simply convey it to you. So you can avoid all the pitfalls and dangers and also what is called shortcuts or hints to progress in whatever field you choose to advance in life. So this is called Guru. Then Guru Atma. What is Atma? I am the Atma. But I am mixed up with the body mind. I the pure consciousness to say I am the body mind also I need consciousness. Because the body cannot say I am consciousness. The mind cannot say I am the consciousness. This subject of consciousness is a huge study. Now only all the scientists are slowly trying to find out what is this consciousness? Has it come from the beginning? Or has it simply inserted itself in the middle of somewhere in the evolutionary course? Or can we lose it? When a man is asleep is he still conscious? When a person is unconscious is he still conscious? When a man has lost all outward signs like in coma what happens to his mind? Does the mind work? Or is it just like a piece of stone a dead body? Unfortunately the only problem as Swami Vivekananda pointed out more than 120 years before consciousness can be studied only through consciousness. Mind can be studied only through mind. Mind cannot be studied. Consciousness cannot be studied through the help of the brain. Because brain is a physical organism and sometimes it becomes totally useless. So how to study the mind? That is called yoga or especially Raja Yoga is study of the mind. And in fact you have to understand what is this Patanjali proposed Raja Yoga. It is nothing but study of depth psychology. What is psychology? Study of the mind. Why do we want to study? Because once we have knowledge of the mind then we will have the means, the ways how to control it. That's why Swamiji said the greatest thing in the world is Raja Yoga even if you do not believe in God. In fact Raja Yoga doesn't posit any God. It is called Seshwara Vada. But who is this Eshwara? Not according to our popular understanding Srishti Stithi Laya. According to Sankhya Yoga or Yoga there is Prakruti or inert nature alone is the cause of this entire Srishti Stithi Laya. Eshwara, Purusha has nothing to do with it. But then they admit this much without the help of Purusha the inert nature cannot do anything. The role of Eshwara is only just to be present. Just as without sunlight we cannot go about our normal day to day duties. But if you ask the sun are you getting the credit if somebody does good or evil? He says I don't know what is good, what is evil, what is a person doing. I don't even know who is a person. It's very interesting because if you say oh sun god you come here I will show you a person. If he comes down one billionth of a millimeter then that fellow will be simply burnt to ashes. So the sun, just the presence of the sun makes everything. That is why he is called Divakaraha. So in his presence all activities go on. So the Eshwara is also like that. Anyway what I am telling Patanjali Yoga Sutra is called depth psychology. Why is it called depth psychology? Because it goes so deep inside Ahamkara and then Mamakara and then Ajnana, Avidya, Asmita, Raga, Vesha, Abhinivesha, then past birth. So many Samskaras. So what is the point? Can a person become an efficient psychologist without accepting Purva Janma Samskaras? It is impossible. Two babies if you study their nature is totally different. Even twins many times are found to be behaving totally different. One twin has become a Sadhu. Another twin has become a purely worldly people criticizing. In our order we have some Sadhus. Two not twins but two brothers. One had become a Sadhu and one had become purely an atheist. On one occasion on Sri Ramakrishna's birthday at Belur Math it so happened because of this great Sadhu his brother who was also a great writer he was invited to come and speak. He got up and started criticizing religion and everything. His own brother wanted to scold him and shut his mouth. Swami Madhavanandaji said we should not do it because we invited him. He did not come of himself. Now we have to shut our mouths, pay the price for inviting such a person and we invited him. It will be disrespect if we do not allow him to speak like that. Now what is my point? Depth psychology. Unless psychologists accept even a baby is not born with a Tabula Rasa. Tabula Rasa means the blank mind. He is having full of Samskaras good as well as bad. Only he behaves very innocently because he is incapable of using those Samskaras. When his own body grows up then all the Samskaras will come out one by one. Even as children also psychologists are noticing it. There are wonderful examples. I will not go into it. Now what is the point that each one of us is a combination of awareness plus body and mind popularly called Jeevatma. Atma means consciousness. Jeeva means body and mind. A complete unity of body, mind plus consciousness has come to be known as Jeevatma. Now connect back. That same ultimate reality as if seemingly divided itself into one is the creator, one is the world and one is this individual soul like these two. Ishwaro Guru Atmeri. Moorthi Bheda Vibhagini. As if, let us not forget. But what is his name? Vyoma Vat Vyapta Deha. He is infinite. All pervading like the space. To such a Dakshina Moorthi my salutations to him. That through this Jeeva, Jagat, Atma, Aikya is posited. What is called Sarvam Kalvidam Brahma. If it is only the unity of individual soul and the universal soul it is called Jeevatma Paramatma Aikya. If it is unity of the individual, the universe as well as Bhagawan or Ishwara then that triangle is called Sarvam Kalvidam Brahma. Now coming back to that dream. One is a dream. First let me analyze first what is called, imagine a huge mirror in front of your window at 90 degrees and then there is a city. Vehicles are coming, going. People are coming, going. Birds are there. Insects are there. Animals are there. Tree plants are there. Everything exactly as we see it. But imagine you are not seeing anything outside. You are seeing only the reflection in the mirror. Okay. What does it mean? Where is the city? Outside. Where is the city for you? Inside the mirror as reflection. But you are seeing the mirror. You are seeing the reflection of the city in the mirror and you are there. So these three things don't forget about it. Now come back to the dream analogy. You are the waker when you are in the waking state. Then you get tired. Lay down yourself on the bed and then you have a dream. As soon as you start dreaming, what happens? You are the one person, X. But as soon as you went to dream, that X you have been divided into three. What is it? You see yourself also in the dream. You see the entire world as you see in the waking state also in the dream and you also are watching as unconnected with both. So there are two U's. One, the participating you and the other, the witnessing you. How do you know? Because the participating you never remembers upon waking up. Who remembers? The witnessing you alone remembers. As soon as you wake, hey, what a bad dream I have created for myself. Or you may be seeing Sri Ramakrishna or Holy Mother coming and blessing you. And one devotee told me that I had a wonderful dream. But afterwards I am thinking it was not so wonderful. So what did you see? I asked. He said Sri Ramakrishna came to me. I was so happy. He came and slapped me and went away. Now it is good. Sri Ramakrishna is paying attention to you. At least he is beating you up. He is not beating other people. Now that is a painful experience for you. Now what is the point? Seeing Sri Ramakrishna is also created by you. His slapping is also created by you. What is my point? I said, you stupid fellow. Why could you not imagine? Because it is you who created Sri Ramakrishna. You could have told him. Sri Ramakrishna saw you and comes running. My child, my child, how long have I been missing? I have been keeping a pot of rasagullas for you. Come and eat. Could you not have imagined like that? So why do you need to imagine he comes and slaps? Because you are feeling guilty of all the things you have been thinking and doing individually. Nobody knows what we are thinking. If any one of us know what we are thinking each other, there will not be, I tell you, two friends left out. Because everybody has got negative ideas about everyone else. Now what is the point we are talking about? In both of these things, so long as the dream is continuing, we feel exactly like the waking state. There is inside, there is outside. For example, I am talking now. Where am I? Inside the room. Suddenly the door is, there is a knock at the door. Where from that knock is coming? From outside the room. Inside, outside. Both ideas are there. Same idea is there where so long as we are dreaming, I am inside the house. I put on my mobile. I am seeing the zoom. Swamiji is in Alsore, in Bangalore, in Karnataka, in India. He is talking and I am in America. I am inside America. He is outside in India. These thoughts are there. But as soon as you wake up, where was India? Inside you. Where was America? Inside you. Where was the Swami? Inside you. And where was that mobile? Inside you. Everything is inside you. This is a most marvellous point for psychologists. What is that? If it is inside you, who is the creator? You are the creator. If you are the creator, then you have absolute power. Whatever you want, you can do. This is what Swami Vivekananda meant. Each soul is potentially divine. Now when we use that word potential divinity, we have to understand something very important. Divinity doesn't mean only spirituality. There is somebody who is a wonderful would-be musician. There is somebody who is wonderful, greatest, world's greatest would-be scientist. For example, when Einstein was studying, I think in Vienna or Austria, he was studying in a school. His school mistress told him, you are dumb. You don't have any good intelligence about maths. And this man, ultimately, he migrated to America and he was considered world's greatest scientist, mathematician, physicist even today. And by the way, abstract mathematics is the only way a person can become a great physicist. It's all calculations. So what potentialities a person has got? He may be a statesman. He may be a linguist. He may be a great teacher. He may be a great cook. He may be a great cultivator. He may be a great psychologist. Infinite number of possibilities are there. This is what Aldous Huxley said, the potential possibilities of human being. And we have to understand psychology helps us to identify a particular possibility and say, you pursue this particular subject, then you will become a great person. That is why in the schools nowadays, it comes. Coming back to our point. What is the point? In both the mirror, both the, upon waking up, we understand this whole universe is within us. That is the point. But that is the only point. We should not mistake. Now we have to use discrimination to find out certain differentiations. What are the, how did this division between inside and outside come about? That we do not know. It is the power of maya. Simply says yatha maya. How we dream, that is also because of maya. So our mind is compared to a huge mirror and the universe is compared to a city outside us and it is being reflected in the mirror. What is that mirror? Our own mind. The dream also is a, mind is a mirror. And our dream is also what is reflected in that particular state called dream state. It is like a mirror. And the whole city, everything is going on exactly as we see in the waking state. Now certain points, beautiful points. First thing is, just imagine, you are sitting, you are seeing a mirror and you are seeing the reflection of the city in the mirror. So how many things you are seeing? You are there. Mirror is there. The reflection in the mirror is there. Similarly, you are there in the dream state as the waker. Witness is called witness. And you are there sitting as if acting inside and then the whole world. World and yourself as an individual in that world and the witness who is called waker, who is witnessing and remembering and when you wake up, and then he is that person who says, hey you stupid fellow, you had that dream. As I mentioned, I think in my last class, a fellow came running, a devotee, said Swamiji, I had a wonderful dream yesterday. What was the dream? I won 100 rupees in lottery. And the Swami is called an idiot. Since it is a dream, you could have dreamt you have won one Koti Taka. Why only 100 rupees? Why do you limit yourself if it is your imagination? So what is the first point? The first point is that the reflection is not real. You are seeing a cinema and you see the whole drama of one's life being depicted there and your mother died there. Just imagine, you are the person who acted and then you acted there as a hero and your mother died there and you loved a woman and that woman also has taken away, was taken away by a villain. Do you, after that you are, that cinema is complete, you are sitting there. It's called preview. You are seeing there. Whom are you seeing? Your own self. You are witnessing. What is the idea now? I am judging how well or ill I have acted in that film. Suppose I acted as a hero and my friend acted as a villain and he killed me in the cinema but he acted superbly and if I am asked, first I should go to whom? I will simply say to my friend. Why? Because it is only an appearance. It is not reality. I, the witnesser, witness is the real and everything that I see in the mirror is a reflection. It is appearance. It is not real. Seemingly apparent. This is the first point we have to understand. Second point is that in the reflection or in the dream we get exactly associated. We like somebody. We hate somebody and we give gifts to somebody and we steal something from somebody and we become angry, jealous with somebody. We become exceedingly happy if our family members become better, etc. That means we are getting totally attached to everything. Upon waking up, do you feel the same attachment? One side neighbour had come and slapped you. Another side neighbour came and gifted you a billion rupees. So upon waking up, will you rush to both? One you slap and another you praise him. You are such a good friend or will you open your bank account and count one billion is added to that? You never do that. That means what? You remain totally an unaffected witness. Similarly, when we are watching in a mirror, we watch everything, we enjoy everything good and bad but we remain unattached. But the things inside the mirror they are all completely seemingly attached to each other. Third point. I am real. Whatever I am witnessing is unreal. I am satya. Everything else is mithya. And that is what where nothing affects really speaking. So supposing here Swami Harshananda died. How many of us have lost our appetite? Suppose somebody really loves Swami Harshananda. The moment he hears that word that my greatest friend had died, immediately I don't feel like eating, sleeping. I feel like weeping. How many of us have wept? And you know what is the excuse we give? Great good sadhu died. He went to Sriram Krishna. I should not weep. I should have a feast. Not fast. I should be feasting and that's what we are going to do tomorrow. So there is completely what is called this is mithya. What is mithya? Not being affected by anything is called mithya. But if it is something that happens to us or our family, we will definitely get affected. Then another is in the dream as a witness I am one but whatever I see is infinite number. Similarly you see the reflection. How many buses? How many cars? How many autos? How many people coming and going? Everything. How many objects? Millions of objects. How many are seeing? Only one person is seeing. Ekam and Ekam. One and many. This is what Swami Vivekananda gave. The one and the many. So in this one and in the reflected city there may be so many varieties like houses, roads, in reflection there is manifoldness whereas in the mirror there is no manifoldness. The mirror is only one. That mirror is comparable to the mind. That's what we have to understand. Mirror is dvaitam and the reflection is anekam. Then shuddham, ashuddham. In the what is called city, reflected city, there is a terrible rain, terrible fire. Somebody is discharging and somebody pouring dirty water, sewage water upon somebody else. So many things you see. Does anything happen to the mirror? So the mirror is pure but that which is reflected in the mirror, all sorts of things that we see. This is called shuddham, ashuddham. That means I, the Atman is pure and whatever I witness in the mind, that is all ashuddham. Mind is compared to the mirror. Therefore the mind is always pure, never impure. How do we know? Because what we call this impurity is something that comes and then goes. If it is permanent, if it is the nature of the mind to be impure, no amount of sadhana can remove that impurity because one's nature cannot be destroyed, cannot be altered. It will be always like that. That's why we say through association with a lot of things, my mind has become impure. Now through sadhana, I will reverse the process and make it pure. Why do we call it shuddham? Because according to our cosmology, Vedantic cosmology, Sankhya cosmology, the mind is the result of the Satvikamsa of the five subtle elements. It will always remain. How do we know? Because the reflection of the light of the Atman is reflecting only in the mind. That's why mind is shuddham. But so many attachments come but they are temporary. They come, they go and our goal is to remove them through sadhana. These are the five points and there is some more thing we have to understand. We will talk about it in our next class. May Sri Ramakrishna, Holy Mother and Swami Vivekananda bless us all with the peace.