Drg Drsya Viveka Lecture 05: Difference between revisions

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(Created page with "Why does this happen? Two types of obstacles should be removed. Avarna Shakti and Vikshakti. It works both inside and outside. How do they work inside? Creates... Separation. Not separation. They create identity between two unidentical objects. Two opposite objects. As though they can mix. The Chit and the Jada. The Eternal and the Temporal. The One and the Many. Rig and the Rishya. Internal. Externally, what does it do? It is the same thing it will do between Brahma...")
 
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Why does this happen? Two types of obstacles should be removed. Avarna Shakti and Vikshakti. It works both inside and outside.
= The Nature of Bondage and Liberation: A Discourse on Saccidānanda and Nāmarūpa =
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How do they work inside? Creates... Separation. Not separation. They create identity between two unidentical objects.
== The Two Powers of Obstruction ==
Why does this happen? Two types of obstacles should be removed: āvaraṇa śakti and vikṣepa śakti. They work both inside and outside.


Two opposite objects. As though they can mix. The Chit and the Jada.
How do they work inside? They create identity between two unidentical objects — two opposite objects — as though they can mix: the cit and the jaḍa, the eternal and the temporal, the one and the many, the dṛk and the dṛśya.


The Eternal and the Temporal. The One and the Many. Rig and the Rishya.
Externally, what do they do? The same thing — they create confusion between brahman and jagat. So it is not enough to remove the obstacle only within; it also has to be done without.
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Internal. Externally, what does it do? It is the same thing it will do between Brahman and Jagat. So, it is not enough to remove the obstacle only within.
== The Practical Challenge of External Purification ==
Now, that is a very practical point. Because when we sit for meditation — or rather, let me put it this way — when we don't need to do anything, we are all saints. In fact, that is the only time when we are saints. Sleeping time, of course, we are saints; everybody is a saint.


It also has to be done without. Now, that is a very practical point. Because when we sit for meditation, or rather let me put it this way, when we don't need to do anything, we are all saints.
Even otherwise, if I do not need any action, then I am the greatest saint in the world. I will be wishing all the blessings — truckloads of blessings — on everybody. But the moment I am forced to deal with somebody, then all my holiness will go.


In fact, that is the only time when we are saints. You know, sleeping time, of course, we are saints. Everybody is a saint.
So, externally also, we have to make this separation. What happens when we make this separation externally? Then we become aware that reality, or the most valuable thing in any object outside, is saccidānanda. The other is completely not important at all.


Even otherwise, if I do not need any action, then I am the greatest saint in the world. I will be wishing all the blessings, truckloads of blessings on everybody. But the moment I am forced to deal with somebody, then all my holiness will go.
Why is it not important? Anything that is unreal is not important. Anything that is real — that is the only important thing.
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So, externally also, we have to make this separation. So, what happens when we make this separation externally? Then we become aware that reality or the most valuable thing in any object outside is Satchitananda. The other is completely not important at all.
== The Unreality of Appearance: Nāma and Rūpa ==
That is why you see a beautiful diamond on the cinema screen, but you don't desire it. It may create a desire in you — in fact, that creates a lot of desires, because it is part of imagination. Cinema is nothing but imagination, a little bit brought to life.


Why is it not important? Anything that is unreal is not important. Anything that is real, that is the only important. That is why you see a beautiful diamond on the cinema screen, but you don't desire it.
That is why, if you want to be a sage, to anyone who is attractive, say: "Show your original face." All the attraction will disappear. As Chinese Zen Buddhism says, "Find out your original face." But there it means: find out your true nature. Here, I am twisting it a little. The original face, if you see it, you don't feel attracted at all to anything in this world. It is only when you cover the original thing that, for a short time, everyone appears to be attractive, anything appears to be attractive.


It may create a desire in you. In fact, that creates a lot of desires, because it is part of imagination. Cinema is nothing but imagination, a little bit brought to... That is why, if you want to be a sage, anybody who is attractive, tell, show your original face.
So both types of separations have to be achieved through the practice of yoga.
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All the attraction will disappear. Original face. As the Chinese Zen Buddhism says, find out your original face.
== Summary: The Problem of the Three Tāpas ==
So, what is our problem? To summarise the whole thing in short sentences: we are all suffering from three tāpas. We all wish to be free from them and be happy eternally. Is it possible? Yes, it is possible. So why is it not possible now? Because māyā, in the form of two powers, comes and creates an artificial, seemingly real obstruction. It is not a real obstruction.
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But there it means, find out your true nature. Here, I am twisting it a little, putting it. Original face, if you see, you don't feel attracted at all to anything in this world.
== The Universal Law: Nothing Can Truly Be Mixed ==
There is a law in this world: no two things can ever be mixed up. Some things can seem to be mixed up, but really you cannot mix them.


It is only when you cover the original thing, for a short time, everyone appears to be attractive. Anything appears to be attractive. Clear? So both types of separations have to be achieved through the practise of yoga.
To give an example: water and, let us say, sugar or salt. Apparently, you put sugar in the water and you don't see the sugar; you put salt in the water and you don't see the salt. Only when you taste it will you realise what has happened. But they have never become truly mixed up.


How it is to be done, he deals with immediately now, after another two or three shlokas. But this is what we discussed. So, what is our problem? To summarise the whole thing, within short sentences, we are all suffering from three tapas.
How do you know? Because every object has a particular name. So if a thing is its own thing, you need to call it only by its own name. You do not need to call it by another name. But if you add salt, what do you call it? "Salt water." You are using two separate words. You are not calling it just "water"; you are calling it "salt water" or "sugary water" or "sweet water." They never truly mix.


We all wish to be free from them and be happy eternally. Is it possible? Yes, it is possible. So, why is it not possible now? Because maya, in the form of two powers, it comes and creates an artificial, seemingly real obstruction.
How do you know? Whatever can be separated was never, in the first instance, truly mixed up. So really speaking, nothing in this world can be mixed up.
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It is not real obstruction. There is a law in this world. No two things can ever be mixed up.
== Brahman and Māyā: The Apparent Mixture ==
The same truth holds for brahman. Māyā, what does it do? Like salt not appearing to our eyes but being there all over — and it can be separated — it takes effort to separate it. The sun of knowledge is necessary. Just as salt remains salt when water evaporates, so too sugar crystals remain sugar crystals when water is boiled away.


There is a law. No two things can ever be mixed up. Some things can seem to be mixed up, but really you cannot mix them.
Brahman and something else appear to get mixed up — not really, only apparently. That is the point.
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To give an example, water and, let us say, sugar or salt. Apparently, you put sugar in the water. You don't see sugar.
== Liberation According to Dvaita and Advaita ==
What does the dvaita system say? It says you get liberation. How? Because you are ātman. Now you think you are a human being or whatever. You worship God, fall at His feet, surrender yourself, do whatever you like. But ultimately, either through knowledge or by His grace, you get liberation. What is liberation? You become identified with your own nature, and whatever you were mixed up with — "I am a human being" — falls away.


You put salt in the water. You don't see salt in the water. Only when you taste, you will see that it has become.
As any dvaita philosopher would say: the soul within a human body is like salt in water — salt is different, water is different; soul is different, body is different.


They have never become mixed up. How do you know? Because every object has a particular name. So, if it is the same thing, if a thing is its own thing, then you need to call it only by its own name.
Liberation means you will be separated from that which is not you. The only difference between the schools of philosophy is: are you a small divinity or a big divinity? A mixed-up divinity or an unmixed divinity? All schools of philosophy agree on divinity. Whether you are a small soul — like many, many individual jīvātmas, like sugar crystals — or something greater, that is the difference.


You do not need to call it by another name. But if you add salt, what do you call that? Salt water. You are using two separate words.
Because if it is really mixed, you can never separate it. If it is seemingly mixed, anything in this world can be separated. Gold and copper, gold and tin — there are images of pañcaloha — but they can be separated. There is no problem at all. Any two things mixed up can be separated.


You are not calling it water. You are calling it salt water or sugary water or sweet water, whatever. They never get mixed up.
If we don't separate, death separates. What is death? Separating all the elements: the salt part goes to the salt part, the zinc part goes to the zinc part, the copper part goes to the copper part.
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Apparently, they are mixed up. How do you know? Whatever can be separated was never in the first instance mixed up. They can be separated.
== The Rhythm of Nature: Janma and Mṛtyu ==
The nature of the world is always either combining or separating. When it combines, it is called janma. When it separates, it is called mṛtyu. This is the simple truth. And in between, you go on making up for the deficiencies — that is called life.


So, really speaking, nothing in this world can be mixed up. The same truth holds also true to Brahma. Maya, what does it do? So, like salt not appearing to our eyes, but it is there all over.
We are always taking in something and losing something constantly. That is our bondage. Why should we go on trying for things which are not of our nature? In fact, we never lose ourselves. That is the meaning of ātman. There is no ātman deficiency over the course of time. It remains exactly the same quantity and the same quality.
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And it can be separated. And it takes a long time to separate it. The sun of knowledge is necessary to separate.
== The Parable of the Neighbour's Garden ==
You put on a cloth; the cloth gets holy; you don't want it to be holey, so you remove the damage, taking a needle or whatever. This is not your job. Unnecessarily, you have taken up a job that is not your nature. It doesn't belong to you.


Just like salt remains salt, water evaporates. That is how salt is made. Same thing, sugar also can be made.
Guṇas are working with guṇas. What is your headache? This is what we have to understand. But we do not understand this now because we think our neighbour's garden is our garden. That means: this body and mind — we are cultivating it. But when you are decorating it so nicely, you are not knowing that it is your neighbour's garden you are decorating, not your own house.


If you boil, distilled water is distilled water, and then sugar crystals remain sugar crystals. So, Brahman and something else get mixed up. Not really, only apparently.
The jīva neither does anything nor makes anybody else do something. He is sākṣī — the witness. But somehow we mistake ourselves: "This is mine." If it were truly yours, it should always be with you. And since it has not come with you, it will not go with you.
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That is the point. Dvaita Vedanta means refuting Dvaita. What does the Dvaita system say? It says you get liberation.
== Inside and Outside: Dṛk and Brahman ==
Until now, we have discussed this: it is because of the power of māyā that we consider things which do not belong to us as belonging to us, and we forget our own true nature — both inside and outside. Therefore, we must be made to realise that outside, if you see reality, that is what is called brahman. Inside, if you see reality, that is called dṛk. Individually, it is dṛk; cosmically, it is called brahman.


How can you get liberation? Because you are Atma. Now you think you are a human being or whatever. You worship God, fall at His feet, surrender yourself, do whatever you like.
So, first we have to separate both. Then we have to see the identity between this dṛk and the outside brahman. There will be no difference. But there will be a difference between dṛśya and jagat: dṛśya are many, but dṛk is only one; brahman is only one, but jagat is many.
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But ultimately, either through knowledge or by His grace, you get liberation. What is liberation? You become identified with your own nature. And whatever you are mixed up on the way, I am a human being.
== The Five Elements of Every Object: The Key Verse ==
Let us now take the verse:


Human being means what? Soul within a human body is like salt in the water. Salt is different, water is different. Soul is different, body is different.
''Asti bhāti priyaṃ rūpaṃ nāma cety aṃśapañcakam |'' ''Ādyatrayaṃ brahmarūpaṃ jagatrūpaṃ tato dvayam ||''


As any Dvaita philosopher said, you can go to heaven with body or even mind? So, you see now, liberation means you will be separated. The only difference is we are all divine. Here, there is no controversy between Dvaita and Advaita.
Every object we experience in this world, including our body and mind, consists of five elements. What are those? Asti, bhāti, priyam, nāma, and rūpam.
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But you are small divine or big divine? Mixed up divine or unmixed up divine? These are the differences. Divine divinity, all schools of philosophy agree. Whether you are a small soul, like that many many divinities are there, like crystals, sugar crystals, you know, like that.
== Understanding Each of the Five Elements ==
'''Asti''' means existence. If an object doesn't exist, there is no question of knowing it.


But it goes on increasing. Because the sugar crystals go on increasing, the space is less. That is why you become smaller and smaller.
'''Bhāti''' means cognizability, knowability. If some object is there, it should be knowable — otherwise, how do you know there is an object? There may be a microbe here. At this level it has knowability, but you don't have the instrument to know it now. That is why many people don't like high definition: all the microbes and everything becomes visible. As they say, "ignorance is bliss."


Because you know, previously there were only half a billion. Now 7 billion human beings are there. So this is everything.
So bhāti means: every object not only should exist — whatever exists, all that, as sat, has cit and ānanda within it also. There are three-in-one, one-in-three. You can never truly separate them; there are only three ways of looking at it. Is it there? Yes. Can it be known? Yes. Otherwise, how do you know it is there?


The Jivatmas are increasing in numbers. So you have to compress them, you see. So, a seeming mixture, and that is how we can separate.
Suppose somebody says there is an object. He may be telling the truth or he may be wrong. What is the proof? Not only you, but anybody should be able to perceive it. Otherwise, the knowability is not in the object but in the knower — and that doesn't prove the object. That is what is called an illusion: it is there, but it can be known only to the person who is seeing it. That is why it doesn't have a real existence.


Because if it is really mixed, you can never separate. If it is seemingly mixed, anything in this world is seemingly mixed, gold and copper, gold and tin. There are images of Panchaloha in it.
Whatever has real existence is capable of being known by anybody, because that knowability is in the object — it doesn't depend upon the subject. It is vastutantra, not kartṛtantra. That is why you cannot change it. How you interpret it is kartṛtantra, but what it is and how it is — that is vastutantra.


But you can separate. There is no problem at all about it. Any two things mixed up, so they can be separated.
'''Priyam''' means it is of the nature of ānanda. Every object is priya to itself. Whatever the thing — however ugly a person, a toad, or something else — try to destroy it and it will protest. Why? Because it is the most dear thing to itself. That is the meaning of priyam.


So if we don't separate, death separates. What is death? Separating all the elements, you know, all the elements, the salt part will go salt part, the zinc part will go into zinc part, the copper part will go into copper part. And it goes and mixes up with its own zinc.
You may not like it; some may like it, some may not. But God will like it, because God means its own existence. That is why nobody can truly hate himself or herself. When we say "I hate myself," what do we mean? Do we hate ourself, or do we hate the non-self? It is always the non-self. There must be two objects to say "I love you" or "I hate you." For the self itself, there is no loving and no hating — love and hate are only a relationship between two objects.


That is why mineral deficiency. So if zinc deficiency is there, the zinc which was in you or in somebody, it is the process through food or whatever you call it. This is all it happens.
So priyam has to be understood in three respects. First, in the eyes of God — because He is the only one, He loves Himself; that is the most priya, because He has no other choice. Second, every object loves its own identity or existence. Third, all of us can love something at some point or another. You cannot say that eternally you will hate something — at some point, you may come to appreciate that very thing.
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But zinc deficiency cannot be removed by copper deficiency, iron deficiency. That is not possible. Every deficiency must be removed only by its own adding that particular element.
== Nāma and Rūpa: The World of Differentiation ==
'''Nāma''' and '''rūpa''' are not separate things. They are ideas imposed upon the object called brahman.


Anyway, what is the point? The nature always is either combining or separating. When it combines, it is called janma. When it separates, it is called mrityu.
What is a table, apart from wood? Can you separate and weigh the wood on one side and the nāmarūpa on the other? If you cannot, if it is one and the same, why do you call it a table? Why do you call something a chair? Wood is wood. Can you touch the nāma and rūpa? If it is not touchable, it is not physical. If it is not physical, it is subtle. Everything that is subtle is an idea in the mind. It is only an idea — and different creatures look upon the same object in different ways. A woodworm, a scientist, and a saint all look at the same object differently. So this idea is changeable. Asti, bhāti, priyam — it is the same. But the idea is changeable.
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This is the simple truth. And in between, you go on making up for the deficiencies. That is called life.
== How Nāma and Rūpa Create Distinction ==
How do you distinguish between this sofa and that sofa? Both are sofas. How are you able to say "this sofa," "this sofa," "that sofa"? Asti, bhāti, priyam are absolutely the same. Then how do you distinguish? By rūpa. Rūpa means quality — qualities perceivable through the five senses: form, colour, texture, sound, smell. It is only through the five senses that you distinguish which is a chair, which is a sofa. And according to that distinction, you give names — sofa number one, sofa number two — to distinguish.


You see, because it is coming and going. We are taking in something and we are also losing something constantly. So that is our bondage.
So, asti, bhāti, priyam is common to everything. How do you distinguish one object from the other? Only through nāma and rūpa.
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Why should we go on trying for things which are not of our nature? In fact, we never lose ourselves. That is the meaning of Atman. There is no Atman deficiency in course of time.
== Brahman Versus Jagat: Only Nāma and Rūpa Differ ==
If you are seeing any object in the sense of sat, cit, and ānanda — asti, bhāti, priyam — it is nothing but brahman. But jagat is brahman plus nāma and rūpa.


It remains exactly the same quantity, the same quality. But the other things unnecessarily we have put on. You know, you put on a cloth.
What is the difference between brahman and jagat? Three things are common, two things are not common. Asti, bhāti, priyam — saccidānanda — is common to all objects, every object, any object whatsoever. What is the difference? Only nāma and rūpa.


The cloth gets holy. Then what do you do? You don't want it to be holy. So you remove that holiness.
And all five are only ideas in the mind. So there is nothing truly "concrete" — it is all idea. There is no "external" and no "internal." You cannot say it is all inside without positing something outside. You cannot say something is cold without positing something is hot. This is the nature of the human mind — and that is why we make the distinction "this is outside, this is inside."


Taking a needle or whatever it is. This is not your job. Unnecessarily you have taken up a job that is not your nature.
A padartha — a vastu, an object — is called padartha: pada-artha, "meaning of a word." Where is the meaning? Is it an object, or is it an idea? It is an idea.
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It doesn't belong to you. It belongs to somebody. It is like an Indian village.
== The Pancabhūtas and the Whole Jagat ==
The verse says:


It is a keeping house. They keep the cows. But they go into the neighbouring houses and eat up nicely and come back.
''Khe vāyv-agnau jalorvīṣu devatiryaṅ-nṛdiṣu |'' ''Saccidānanda-abhinnāni vidrute rūpanāmane ||''


Like that, cows. Even chickens. Chickens, you know, they are also Rashnama.
Among the five — ākāśa, vāyu, agni, jala, and pṛthvī — and among devatas, tiryak (sub-human beings), and humans: from the saccidānanda point of view, they are absolutely abhinna — exactly the same. Where is the difference? Only in rūpa and nāma.


They used to jump the compound and then come. Then after some time they found the ashram so wonderful they started laying eggs also there. The neighbour will come asking, did you see any egg here? I say, of course, you know, no egg is kept there.
Everything has come from the pañcabhūtas: from avyakta came mahat; from mahat came ahaṃkāra; from ahaṃkāra came the sūkṣma pañcabhūtas; from those came the sthūla pañcabhūtas. The sūkṣma pañcabhūtas make up the sūkṣma śarīra; the sthūla pañcabhūtas make up the sthūla śarīra. The whole jagat has come from only one source.


So servants will take care. Somebody else, workers will take care. So one day I was noticing.
So all objects — however many billions and billions there may be — have three things in common: asti, bhāti, priyam. The moment you say an object exists, that very moment you have to say it can be known and that it can be experienced as the most dear.
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It was after sunset, just getting. One fellow, stupid fellow, could not go. Returned home and a cat came.
== Everything Has Life: The Universal Saccidānanda ==
Ramana Maharṣi was once sitting when a foreigner came and said that people should be taught not to harm trees and animals. Ramana Maharṣi said: "Do you know that even the carpet, the floor on which you are sitting, is alive?"


Simply jumped up on it. In front of my eyes. I was trying to save it.
He is not saying anything new. We do not perceive so many things as alive. Do you perceive life in an egg? Every egg — whether human or chicken or whatever — contains the potentiality of life. It is only a question of the right conditions.


But simply it came and got hold of the neck like lion catching hold of this thing and simply ran away. And while going it looked at me like... What entity is it? And then it went away. I don't know what it meant, what it was saying.
What object is there in this world that doesn't have life? Because, clearly — saccidānanda — what else do you want for life?


It came and went away. So we are like feeding and looking after other people's children. And we don't get any benefit.
That is why pṛthvī devatā and jala devatā — Gaṅgā devī, Brahmaputra, Sarasvatī, Narmadā, Sindhu, Kāverī — these are all goddesses. They are really goddesses. Why? Because they are what sustain so many lives. If this much water can sustain a small creature, how many lives does the Gaṅgā nadī or Kāverī nadī sustain?


We get only the labour. So we entered into the Mahamaya's compound and digging, watering and pruning and doing all those things. And it is the Mahamaya who gets the benefit.
The sun is agni devatā in pratyakṣa rūpa. The wind is our pratyakṣa devatā, prāṇa devatā. And ākāśa — the only element which can never be experienced except through sound. All the other four devatās — these huge rivers, the whole earth burning at its core — are pratyakṣa devatās. The pañcabhūtas: agni devatā, vāyu devatā, jala devatā, pṛthvī devatā — these are sustaining us every second of our life. That is why Hindus have recognised this and made them devatās and worship them.


Gunas are working with Gunas. What is your headache? This is what we have to understand. But we do not understand now because we think now our neighbour's garden is my garden.
That is how pūjā works: you worship all these items — there is light, there is the samara (waving of the lamp), there are flowers, there are fruits, there is sugandha (fragrance). All five are representative of the pañcabhūtas, to say: "O Lord, all this belongs to You. Since I am made up of all these, I also belong to You." That understanding is the result of pūjā. That is true self-surrender.
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That means this body and mind, we are cultivating it. When you are decorating so nicely, you are not knowing. It is your neighbour's garden you are decorating, not your neighbour's house you are decorating, not your house.
== Seeing Asti, Bhāti, Priyam Everywhere: The Path to Freedom ==
This is the most important thing: how to perceive everything as asti, bhāti, priyam — with nāma and rūpa as the only superficial overlay. If we can see that, we are not bound.


The Jiva neither does anything nor makes anybody else do something. He is Sakshi. That is the meaning of Sakshi.
Why? Because what is bondage? First, we think: "I am different from you." That is bondage. If I know I am not different — that all of us are non-different from each other — then the question of likes and dislikes, rāga and dveṣa, and all these things will not arise.
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But somehow we mistake ourselves. This is mine. If it is yours, it should be always with you.
== The Verse on the Practice: Upekṣā of Nāmarūpa ==
''Upekṣā nāmarūpe dve saccidānanda tatparaḥ |'' ''Samādhiṃ sarvadā kuryāt hṛdaye'tha bahiḥ ||''


And since it has not come with you, it will not go with you. Even now, like the escalator, the upper part is going that way, the lower part is... You have seen escalator? You know escalator is standing. There is a railing.
''Upekṣā nāmarūpe dve'' — keeping aside nāma and rūpa, because that is what causes bondage. Bondage is nāmarūpa.


You put your hand. It is going forward. There is no coordination between these two for some reason.
Then you meditate upon the other three. ''Saccidānanda tatparaḥ'' — "tatparaḥ" is a wonderful word: completely absorbed in that one task, thinking of saccidānanda and nothing else.


The hand goes forward and your legs go at the rate of the escalator. So, until now we have discussed it is because of the power of Maya we consider things which do not belong to us as belonging to us and we forget our own true nature, both inside and outside. And therefore, we must be made to realise that outside if you see reality, that is what is called Brahman.
''Samādhiṃ sarvadā kuryāt'' — this samādhi means constant meditation, meditating always, focused upon these three aspects.


Inside if you see reality, that is called Drik. So, individually it is Drik and cosmically it is called Brahman. So, first we have to separate both.
''Hṛdaye'tha bahiḥ'' — either inside the heart or in the external world. When you are meditating internally, that is internal worship. When you are doing pūjā outside, that is external meditation. We make a big difference between "he is doing pūjā" and "he is meditating" — but if Śrī Rāmakṛṣṇa is offering flowers, is he meditating or doing pūjā? What is pūjā? Thinking of God is meditation. Pūjā is one way of meditating.


Then we have to see the identity between this Drik and the outside Brahman. There will be no difference. But there will be a difference between Drishya and Jagat.
Śrī Rāmakṛṣṇa advised Ṛṣik who was sweeping the pathways: "So many devotees are able to walk because of your work. You are worshipping the Divine Mother. It is no less worship." In a drama, every role — even the person who claps — is essential.
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Drishya are many, but Drik is only one. Brahman is only one, but Jagat is many. So, why so much of difference is there? That beautiful analysis is dealing now.
== Not Either/Or, But Both ==
"Inside or outside" does not mean you have a choice. It means you start either from inside or from outside — but ultimately you will have to do both. Why? Because you have to see within yourself the same saccidānanda, and you also have to see the same saccidānanda outside.


Let us take it. Asthibhati Priyam Roopam Nama Chetyam Shapanchakam Adhyatrayam Brahma Roopam Jagat Roopam Tato Dwayam Every object we experience in this world, including our body and mind, consists of five elements. What are those? Asthi, Bhati, Priyam, Nama and Roopam.
Totāpurī did meditation inside, but he never did this kind of saccidānanda meditation outside. Had he done so, he would have seen the temple servant also as saccidānanda, the fire also as saccidānanda, the Divine Mother's image also as saccidānanda. But the Divine Mother, out of compassion, made him realise that truth. Thereafter, there was no conflict in his mind.


So, first let us try to understand this. Why these five? Asthi. Asthi means what? Existence.
''Yatra yatra mano bhāti, tatra tatra brahma darśanam'' — wherever the mind goes, you will see only brahman and brahman alone.


If an object doesn't exist, there is no question of knowing it. What is Bhati? Cognizability. Knowability.
Śrī Rāmakṛṣṇa once said: "One day I saw a wicked man, but I saw the Divine Mother also vibrating within him." Another time he said: "I was going to Calcutta and I saw a public woman standing there — and I saw Sītā herself sitting there, waiting for Rāma."


What is knowability? If some object, every object has got its own characteristic, by which, you know, if it is there, it should be knowable. Otherwise, how do you know there is an object? Even if it is there, see, there may be a microbe here. At this level, it has knowability, but you don't have the instrument to know it now.
Caitanya Mahāprabhu, in a similar spirit, once saw a donkey passing. He threw an ochre cloth on it and made sāṣṭāṅga praṇāma — teaching his disciples to see God everywhere.
----


Therefore, you see, it may be there all over. In fact, it is there all over. That is why HD, many people don't like HD.
== Why Ritual Has Value: Starting Somewhere ==
Why do people revere sannyāsīs wearing ochre cloth? It is not that we should revere only them and not others. Rather: learn to revere at least a few, and afterwards extend this reverence to everyone else. You have to start somewhere. That is the purpose of ritual. That is the purpose of a temple.


All the microbes, everything is probably, they will see. I am making it too much, but you can see a lot of unattractive things. That is why people don't like high definition.
When you have advanced, your very heart becomes a temple, and then you can see God everywhere. But until you see God everywhere, you have to see Him somewhere. A stone image is a wonderful place to start. Why? Because if your culinary skills are not so great and it is a living God, He may not tolerate it! But a stone God will be smiling throughout — even if you add too much salt.


Low definition is better. Because, you know, ignorance is bliss. So, you see now, Bhati means what? Every object not only should exist, of course, it is, whatever exists, all that, Sat, Amsha, Chit, will have Chit and Ananda Amsha.
When your devotion becomes niṣṭhā, you extend it to everyone. The purpose is to see the same divinity in everybody. That is what Śrī Rāmakṛṣṇa used to see — and more than that, the Holy Mother. She was called Holy Mother for exactly this reason. She saw the same divinity in all who came to her, regardless of their outward state.
 
----''Oṃ śāntiḥ śāntiḥ śāntiḥ''
It is, there are three in one, one in three. You can never separate them. There are only three ways of looking at it.
 
Is it there? Yes, it is there. And can it be known? Yes, it can be known. Otherwise, how do you know it is there? Do you see? Follow the argument.
 
Suppose somebody says there is an object. He may be telling the truth or he may be telling something wrong. What is the proof that object is there? Not only you, anybody should be able to... Otherwise, you know it, that person knows it, nobody else knows it.
 
That means that knowability is not in the object, but the knowability is in the knower that doesn't prove the object. That is what is called illusion, an illusion. What is the nature of the illusion? It is there, but it can be known only to the fellow who is seeing it.
 
That is why it doesn't have a real existence. Whatever has real existence is capable of being known by anybody because that knowability is in the object. It doesn't depend upon the subject.
 
It is Vastu Tantra, not Kartru Tantra. That is why you can't change it. How you interpret it is Kartru Tantra, but how it is, what it is, that is Vastu Tantra.
 
You see the point? Any object, if it is existing, it must be knowable. Otherwise, its existence cannot be predicated of it. If it is there, and you can't say it is there, but it cannot be known.
 
No, that is impossible. Then, Priyam. What is Priyam? It is Ananda Swarupa.
 
Why is it Ananda Swarupa? Every object is Priyam to itself. Whatever be the thing, however ugly a person, or toad, or something else, try to destroy, it will protest. Why does it protest? Because it is the most dear thing to itself.
 
That is the meaning of the Priyam. You may not like it. Some may like it.
 
Some may not like it. But God will like it. Because God means its own existence.
 
That is why nobody can hate himself or herself. But we come across expression, I hate myself. What do you mean by that? Do you hate yourself, or do you hate the non-self? It is always the non-self.
 
So who is going to hate one's own self? You see the contradiction? There must be two objects to say, I love you or I hate you. That is why for the self, there is no loving, there is also no hating. It is only love and hate is a relationship.
 
And that can be only, it is only feasible if it is something else, two objects, not one's own self. But because we identify ourselves with our body so intimately, I hate myself, I don't discriminate between who is hating whom. We do not discriminate.
 
So Priyam has to be understood in this respect. First, in the eyes of God, because he is the only one, he loves himself, means he is the most Priyam, because he has no other choice. Priyam.
 
In the second sense, every object loves its own identity or existence. That is the meaning of it. Third, all of us can love something at some point or another.
 
You cannot say that eternally you will hate something. Maybe at some point you may not like something, but at some point you will like that very thing. That is the nature of every object.
 
That is the nature of every object at some point. This is beautifully illustrated. A guru taught to a king that everything is Brahma.
 
So then he started sleeping with the maid servant. You know the story? So the queen went and said, what type of teaching you gave? Then the guru told her, invite me for dinner, we will sit, you serve like this. So she served all the best dishes to the guru and cow dung and other things to her husband.
 
So he opened the cover and then he saw these things. He saw what the guru was eating and then he asked, what is this you served? Then she said, in your eyes everything is Brahma. Maid servant is Brahma, queen is Brahma.
 
Everybody is the same, no difference between queen and maid servant. So what is the difference between royal dishes and cow dung? They are also Brahma. Then he turned against the guru and said, you only taught me like this.
 
You prove that this is Brahma. Then immediately he turned himself into a hob and happily started eating it. So what is my point? See, everything is preempt.
 
So something, everything can be preempt to everybody at some point. See, there is a beater called dung beater. You know that.
 
Its food is dung. So suppose it becomes a devotee. Will you do Brahma Arpana or not? So for it, that is the appropriate food for it.
 
So if you can see that a big fish is there, some small fish will be eating something to clean it. It is called cleaning the enemies of the virus and insects on the fish. So for that small fish, that is Brahma.
 
Is it not? So for us it doesn't mean we have to eat everything. What it means is that there is nothing in this world which you can hate, you can look down, not suitable, that's fine. But you cannot say it is Abrahma because everything is Brahma.
 
In that sense, in the eyes of a saint. And that is why, why Ravi Brahmani had taken so much trouble to bring human faeces, rotten human flesh, and cooking in a skull, and we don't know what other things she had brought. What is the idea? It is not that the sadhaka has to eat.
 
The idea is do not cherish hatred because if you say that is a hateable object, that means what you are saying, everything is Brahman, accepting that. In that sense, what is not hateable in this world? What is not hateable? If a small bit of the skin sloughs off and remains there separated from us, after one or two days, what does it become? Will you go and touch it? You have to think over it. Our own body, which is so dear to us, any part of the body, if it is separated, what happens after a few hours? Decomposition, rotten, it happens.
 
So would you feel like touching it? But that is the food, because that is Brahman for something else. So that is how we have to understand from as Brahman it is priyam. So asti, bhati, priyam, these are the three.
 
What are the other two? Nama and Rupa. So this Nama and Rupa are not separate things. Nama and Rupa are ideas imposed upon the object called Brahman.
 
So we discuss so many times, table. So what is stable apart from wood? Can you separate it and weigh wood separately and the Nama and Rupa separately? So if you cannot do that, if it is one and the same, why do you call it a table? Why do you call something a chair? Why do you call something a table? Wood is wood. But my point is, where is that Nama and Rupa? The table is there, wood is there, you can touch it.
 
Can you touch the Nama and Rupa? If it is not touchable, what is it? It is not physical. If it is not physical, what is it? It is subtle. If it is subtle, what is it? Everything that is subtle is called an idea in the mind.
 
It is only in the idea in the mind. And different creatures can look upon this same object in different ways. A woodworm, a scientist and a saint, same object, is looking in different ways.
 
So this idea is changeable. Asti Bhati Priyam, it is the same. But the idea is changeable.
 
This is good, this is beautiful, this is ugly, this is useless, this is food, this is energy. Every person has his own idea about every object. So, what is the first point in this verse we are learning? Every object is consisting of these five elements.
 
Asti, Bhati, Priyam, Nama, Rupa. You know the idea, but still I am repeating it for making it strong. How do you distinguish between this and this? You see, there is a sofa, and here is a sofa.
 
Both are sofas, there is a sofa. How many sofas are there? Three. How are you able to distinguish between them? Asti, Bhati, Priyam is absolutely same.
 
Then how do you say this sofa, this sofa, that sofa, three different sofas? There are certain differences. What is the difference? First, Rupa. Rupa means quality.
 
Qualities can be of five types. What are the five types? The form, the colour, and the style. Five senses.
 
It is only five through five senses only. If you don't have five senses, how do you distinguish which is chair, which is sofa? You can never do that. If there are no five senses, all that remains about any object is only idea.
 
It is because anything physical must be distinguishable by the five sense organs. You see the point? So, this Rupa means all these fall under the category of Rupa. And according to that distinction, you give the names sofa number one, sofa number two, sofa number three to distinguish.
 
Otherwise, distinguishing is not possible. Do you get the idea? So, what is the idea now? Asti, Bhati, Priya is common to everything. Then how do you distinguish one object from the other? It is only Nama and Rupa.
 
Look at the second part of this. If you are seeing any object in the sense of Sat, Chit and Ananda, Asti, Bhati, Priya, it is nothing but Brahma. But, it says, So, Jagat, Nama and Rupa is what we call Jagat.
 
So, what is Jagat? Brahman plus Nama and Rupa. We know that idea, but how beautifully he puts it. Because every object must, what is the difference between Brahman and Jagat? Three things are common, two things are not common.
 
Asti, Bhati, Priya, Sat, Chit and Ananda is common to all objects, every object, any object. What is the difference? Only Nama and Rupa. And all the five are only ideas in the mind.
 
So, there is nothing called concrete. It is all idea. There is no external, there is no outside, there is no in.
 
If there is no outside, see how beautifully it is. You can't say it is all inside without positing that it is outside. That is not possible.
 
You can't say something is cold without positing something is hot. No, there is nothing hot, but something is cold. Is it possible? How do you distinguish which is cold and which is without knowing? Both must be there.
 
This is the nature of human mind. That is why the distinction we make, this is outside, this is inside. But transcript has a precise word, meaning.
 
Padartha, a vastu, an object is called padartha. What is padartha? Pada-artha, meaning of a word. Where is the meaning of meaning? Is it an object or is it an idea? Idea.
 
So, this is what he says. Now he gives this illustration, Panchabhutas. So, that is the idea we discussed.
 
The difference is only in the Nama-rupa. Kha means Akasha, Vayu, Agni, Jala, Urvishu. Jalo-urvishu, Jala, Urvishu.
 
Urvi means Prithvi. Urvinatha, Bhupati, Sripati, Kamalapati, Urvipati. Urvi, you know, Urvishu.
 
Jala-urvi, Jalo-urvishu. That is how the Sandhi has to be separated. So, among the five.
 
Then, Deva, Thiriyag, Naradishu. Devatas. Thiriyag means anything that is not human beings.
 
Then, Naradishu. So, human beings, gods, and sub-human beings. Among all these things, Satchidananda, Abhinna.
 
From the Satchidananda point of view, they are absolutely Abhinna. Exactly the same. This is there, this is so-and-so, and this is a wonderful thing.
 
That is common. Where is the difference? Vidyate, Rupa, Namane. The differentiation comes only in Nama-rupa.
 
So, pancha-bhutas. And everything has come out of pancha-bhutas. So, the whole universe is nothing, both inside and outside.
 
The mind has come out from where? Again, pancha-bhutas. It has come out from where? So, from avyakta has come mahat. From mahat has come ahankara.
 
From ahankara has come the sthula pancha-bhutas. From sthula pancha-bhutas have come the sthula pancha-bhutas. Sukshma pancha-bhutas make up the sukshma sharira.
 
Sthula pancha-bhutas make up the sthula sva-pancha. So, the whole thing has come only from one. So, what he means is the whole jagat, there may be billions and billions and billions of objects.
 
All objects have got three things common. What is it? Asti, bhaati, piham. Otherwise, you cannot even say such a thing exists.
 
The moment you say an object exists, that very moment you have to say that that object can be known and that object also can be experienced as the most dear. Most dear, you know. Miss cockroach.
 
How is it addressed by Mr. cockroach, chokra cockroach? How does a chokra cockroach address a chokri cockroach? You may not address it as honey, but he addresses that as honey. Honey. We also have done that, we have forgotten.
 
We have, according to Hindu theory, 84, 90, 92 crores lives, one of the life is cockroach life. So, we all have gone through that honey, honey business is still going on. Today I read a wonderful joke, you know.
 
A husband having one photo, he was throwing things at the photograph and missing. So, he was going on doing it. So, the wife phoned from the next room, Honey, what are you doing? He said, missing you.
 
What is she thinking? What is he saying? So, asti bhati priya is the same, nama rupa differs. Why is he pointing this shloka? Through this shloka he is telling us, if you really sit and think, there is nothing you can really hate. Because there is no difference between you and the object you like, there is no difference between you and the object you dislike.
 
Because as Satchitananda, you are exactly the same material, not the slightest difference. What is the difference? Only nama rupa. And nama rupa is something which is absolutely unsubstantial.
 
So, all your likes and dislikes are based only on this unsubstantial thing. This is the truth. But at this stage of our evolution, for us, nama rupa alone counts.
 
Yes. Nama rupa alone counts. All our attention, money, time, energy, is spent only on this nama and rupa.
 
Now, nama means, suppose somebody says, a woman's name is there. No, that is not going to change. That will be there throughout life, whatever name is there as identification.
 
Then what is it that we are expending on this thing? So a person goes to a cosmetic surgeon and makes things nicely, then that is, oh, this name is a beautiful name. Because the same person's name is not beautiful, before she went to the surgeon. Now the name has become, you know, a person sees, gets attracted to that person.
 
It is the same old name. But now it becomes a very attractive name. Is it not? We are spending all our lifetime in these things.
 
So not only that, there is nothing wrong in getting attracted, but we think that is the reality. That is not the reality. Nama rupa, it can never be the reality.
 
It is always constantly changing. So when we say jagat is changing, we should never mistake the substance is changing. We should always mistake the nama rupa, whether you like it or not, it is changing.
 
But you think that is real. Real means what? It is unchanging. How can it be unchanging? A baby is becoming a young person, a young person is becoming an old person, an old person is going to die.
 
Nobody can stop this process, not even God can stop this process. But what is changing? Only nama rupa. But nothing, the substance itself is not changing.
 
Right? Now, according to Advaita Vedanta, this is, we have understood. Now, according to Advaita Vedanta, what is changing? No, no, no, that is not the point I am driving at. Is the jagat really changing, or it is our mind which is changing? You see the point.
 
A rope has changed into a snake. Really has the rope changed into a snake? So where is that change being perceived? It is only the mind. This is a hard fact for us to understand and accept.
 
What is the hard fact? No, no, I will come to that point. It appears as though an object is changing. Is that object really changing? According to Advaita Vedanta, no.
 
Is this snake... Has rope ever changed into a snake? Never. But a person is seeing the snake, isn't it? So where has the change taken place? It is the perception. That is an example.
 
Now all these changes, you know, a baby. So do you mean to say it is my mind which is seeing that same object as baby, sometimes as baby, sometimes as an old person, sometimes as a dead person? Yes. You know there were two brothers.
 
So one of the brothers was very sick. But his brother called the doctor. And the doctor came and examined and said, there is absolutely nothing wrong with your brother.
 
He thinks he is sick. And he went away. So after a few days, that brother who called the doctor was walking in the street.
 
And the doctor said, Hey, how is your brother? He says he thinks he is dead. So what is the point we are finding? This is an important point. Is there really anything that is really changing? Now to understand that point, do you follow what I am talking about? A baby is growing, and that baby is becoming a young person, then middle-aged person, then old person, then he is dead.
 
Is that also my perception? Or is it that there is some real object out there, which is really being born, being grown? That is the question now. According to Dvaita Vedanta, yes. According to Dvaita Vedanta, no.
 
So how do you understand it? You know, the illustration of rope and snake is far easier, because the snake is not becoming a baby snake, and a grown-up snake, and a dead snake. It is exactly the same. But here the question comes.
 
Now let us take first the illustration of the Swapna. You see an object there, and the object is small, and later on it becomes big, changed, recoloured, and then it disappears. But so long as you are in the dream, do you really think that this is not existing, this is unreal? You will never think.
 
But where are all those things existing? In the mind. It is an idea in the mind. So when you wake up you think, that example of dream is fine because it is a dream, but waking up you cannot say that.
 
Just as the same argument you will forward in dream, if I have to come and give this class. When you are dreaming, do you say it is a dream state? You say that is a waking state. So now we are saying this is a waking state.
 
Advaita Vedanta does not agree with that. He says this is also of equal value because no change can ever be attributed to Brahman. That is the real meaning of this verse.
 
See, Sat, Asti, Bhati and Priyam, you can never change. So now two things are added to get it the name of Jagat. What are those two things? Namarupa.
 
Where are those Namarupas? In the mind. So if Namarupa is in your mind, Asti, Bhati, Priya is never changing, then where are the changes taking place? In the mind. We don't believe it because we don't know about Asti, Bhati, Priya.
 
We only are seeing the Namarupa. What is behind, what is that which lends the Namarupa, we are not able to see that. So take another example.
 
You say there is electricity there. And imagine there is a 5 Watt bulb, 10 Watt bulb, 100 Watt bulb. How much light will a 5 Watt bulb give you? So is it because it is the nature of the 5 Watt bulb to glow 5 Watts or is it because it has limited the original electricity? It has limited the original electricity.
 
Do you see the point? So all these changes are only in our mind. It is never electricity. Does it grow and become less at any time? Do you say in 5 Watt bulb it grows small, but in 100 Watt bulb it suddenly grows as it becomes a major personality? Do you say that? Or if the fuse is gone, electricity is dead, and suddenly for some reason, by shaking or whatever, the fuse gets temporarily connected, so it is reborn at such and such a time.
 
Do you attribute such things? But that's what we are bringing all the time to all the things that are happening here. From our mayic point of view, yes, changes are taking place outside, but from the reality point of view, no change is ever taking place at all. That is something which we have to understand.
 
So how can we come to that understanding? There is only one way. What is that one way? That you will have to first catch hold of Ashti Bhati Priya, then look at Nama Rupa from the viewpoint of Ashti Bhati Priya. Now what are we doing? We are looking at Ashti Bhati Priya from the viewpoint of Nama Rupa.
 
That is right, he is born, he is dead, and all those things you are saying. So how to do that? So this point is clear? Every object has 5 elements, Ashti Bhati Priya, Nama and Rupa. The second is whatever it is, human beings, divine beings, sub-human beings, any object including non-living object.
 
Once Ramana Maharshi was sitting, a foreigner, he came and he said, Oh, people should be taught, trees and other things or animals should not be killed, trees should not be injured. I don't know what was in his mind, we do not know, but Ramana Maharshi said, Do you know even the carpet, the floor on which you are sitting is alive? Yes. He is not saying anything new, only that catches our attention because we think this carpet has no life.
 
Do you think this carpet has life? Actually, I think it does, because when you take care of it, I mean that's... No, no, we are not talking from an aesthetic point of view, we are talking from a reality point of view, whether it is beautiful or... We don't perceive it as alive, but... We don't perceive it? No. We don't perceive so many things alive. Do you perceive life in an egg? You know, and there are some vegetarians, they are called eggheads.
 
They are all vegetarians only. If you say something, they will get very much agitated. You know, they don't believe that I don't see life.
 
Of course there are eggs without life, there are also eggs with life. Yes. If there is a cock, then they become what is called live eggs.
 
And if there is not, you know, there are so many... Some vegetarians are so particular, they want eggs where there is no cock. How stupid they can be? Does not egg have life? Every egg, you know, the potentiality of life is there in every egg, whether it is human or chicken or whatever it is. It is only... You know how human reproduction takes place? Both male seed and female seed.
 
Is not female seed having life? If it is dead, only male seed comes and then joins. Will it become a human being? Don't you see? Both are there, X chromosomes, Y chromosomes, what is it you call it? So it is stupidity to think when a cock is there, that egg is having, that is non-vegetarian. If cock is not there, it is vegetarian.
 
What is vegetarian? Vegetables have no life, potatoes have no life. See, how our logic, you know, how far our... Fish has? Vegetarian. Yes, it is vegetarian.
 
Not only... No, no, nobody considers them as vegetables. They consider them as fools. No, no, fool.
 
Not fool. Yes. It is there in Bengal.
 
Yes. Yes. They call them Gangapa.
 
Yes. No, no, no. It is... Many Bengalis, they know, they use that word.
 
This is Gangapa. Yes. Because, you know... Anyway, the point is, what object is there in this world which doesn't have life? Because, clearly, Satchitananda.
 
What else you want for life? What is the rest? So which one? A mountain, a river and this earth. That is why Prithvi Devata and Jala Devata, you know, Ganga Devi or Brahmaputra, Saraswati, Narmada, Sindhu, Kaveri, these are all goddesses. Yes.
 
They are really goddesses. Yes. Why? Because they are what sustain, you know.
 
They are sustaining. If this much water sustains a small creature, how many lives this Ganga Nadi, Kaveri Nadi is sustaining? So, that is why, these are what is called the Pratyaksha Devatas. The sun is Agni Devata, Pratyaksha Rupa.
 
The wind is our Pratyaksha Devata, Prana Devata. And Akasha, the Akasha is the only one which can never be experienced, excepting through sound. All the other four Devatas, these huge rivers, they are the Jala Devata.
 
The huge fire, the whole earth, if you go to the core of the earth, is burning at what centigrade? We don't know. If you go to the core of the sun, what is that? Pratyaksha Devata, Agni Devata, Vayu Devata, Jala Devata and Prithvi Devata. These are sustaining us.
 
Every second of our life we are alive, you know, only because of them. That is why Hindus have recognised it and they made them Devatas and they worship them. And that is how Pooja means, you worship all these items, you see.
 
There is light, there is this Samara, there is the flowers, there is the fruits, there is the Sugandha, you know, Duggati. All these are to venerate the Pratyaksha Devatas and in the end you do Arati. Those five things are representative of the Panchabhutas to say, Oh Lord, all this belongs to you.
 
Since I am made up of all these, I also belong to you. That understanding is the result of Pooja. That is true self-surrender.
 
See the point? Anyway, what are we saying? There is nothing without life, there is nothing without consciousness. But why we don't see it? We don't see these things in many also. You know, when a person is sleeping, which aspect we see? Only Asthi.
 
If we don't see, we see Asthi. You understand? Asthi and Asthi. So if you don't see the Asthi, you are only sleeping.
 
Okay. So, this is the most important thing. How to perceive everything as Asthi, Bhati, Priya and Nama and Rupa? If we can see that, we are not bound.
 
Why? Because what is bondage? First we think, I am different from you. That is bondage. If I know I am not different, all of us are non-different from each other, the question of likes, dislikes, raga, dvesha, and then all these things will not come.
 
So how to do it? That is when he comes into these six types of... So, 22nd. Upeksha Nama Rupe Dve Sacchidananda Tat Paraha Samadhim Sarvada Kurya Hridayeva Tava Bahi So, Upeksha Nama Rupe Dve Keeping aside Nama and Rupa because that is what is bondage. Bondage is Nama Rupa.
 
So to keep them. Then you have to meditate upon the other three. Sacchidananda Tat Paraha Paraha is a wonderful word.
 
Sacchidananda Tat Paraha That means only think of Sacchidananda and nothing else. Tat Paraha means completely absorbed in that one task. That's right.
 
What does that mean? She is immersed day and night in doing what? How can I save my son? 24 hours, this is her only meditation. See, who is meditating upon whom? We think we are reluctantly trying to meditate upon her and she is totally absorbed in meditating. How can I look after my own child? See, God is more... That is why in the Gita also he says that even when you sleep, I do not sleep.
 
I keep watch over you. Once, who was that? Laatu Maharaj. Laatu Maharaj, a devotee.
 
Conversation, remember? A devotee did not know. He said, you fellow, when you sleep, do you think God will sleep? He is keeping a watch over you. He will never sleep.
 
He can never sleep. The devotee was stunned. He said, what? Is God always serving you? Yes.
 
Who is serving whom, tell me? Every second, who is serving whom? It is God who is serving us. You know? He is serving in the form of the space. Infinite space he created, so that as much as you increase, there will be enough space for you.
 
Already he has created, he has already looked forward in the future also. He is not the airline company. Akasha.
 
And Vayu. Vayu Devata. 24 hours he is doing immense service.
 
If he doesn't be active, Vayu Devata, then no creature will be there. Every creature will be dead. Everything will be dead.
 
Life is not possible. The Jagat itself is not possible at all. There is a relationship between Vayu and Agni.
 
Agni will not function if there is no Vayu. You must always know that. Even when there is a burning core in the sun, it is made possible only because of the Vayu which is there.
 
Otherwise it is not possible. So Vayu Devata. Then Jala Devata.
 
Agni Devata in the form of the sun and all that. Then Jala Devata, the oceans. We are all drinking ocean water.
 
Lord has created oceans for our purpose. Yes? So you don't go and drink ocean water. But what is the sun doing? You see, we can't go there and drink that water.
 
That's why the Lord himself, you know? Kavadi Kundalu, Mastargada. He is like that. The sun is lifting the water from the oceans.
 
He carries it to a mountain top and then pours it there and then flows it to the most beautiful water and then we collect wherever we are. This is the service he is doing. Jala Devata.
 
Then Prithvi Devata. When are you absent from the Prithvi Devata? 24 hours she is toiling so that she is moving. Why is she moving? She is moving because she can also change, you know? Every now and then the soil has to be fertilised in the form of what is called volcanoes, in the form of all these things.
 
All those things are also for creation of new things. Just as you prune the rose bush. So she also prunes now and then for better creation.
 
24 hours she is always God in the form of the five elements. He is serving us. What is your service? You nicely sit on a beautiful cushion and do this Chamara.
 
90% of that air is only... All the prasada you offer there, it is only after that it comes to you. All the beautiful way you decorate is only for whose pleasure? Our pleasure. And you say, I am a great bhakat.
 
God also says, yes, you are a great bhakat. Only thing is, whose bhakat? We are only... God doesn't need, first of all. Secondly, God cannot be served.
 
He is infinite, Ananta. He is Ananta, what can you add to Him? You can only take as much as you want, but you can never add, He will never increase. So, our great, what is called bhakti, devotion.
 
That is all He says, my child remembers me. He knows I am there. That is all He wants.
 
Nothing else. You can't give anything, even if you want to give, vanga jale, ranga puja. What can you give? Whatever He has already created, that is all, and He created it for you.
 
And you are thinking that you are creating it for Him. This is our mistake. So what can we do? We can never remain grateful to Him.
 
That is why gratefulness is one of the greatest spiritual qualities. What is gratefulness? Thanks for everything, for my own existence, for my own sustenance, even for my death also, otherwise death becomes impossible. That joke, have you ever heard that joke? A wife said that, I will die.
 
The husband said, I will also die. The wife asked, why do you want to die? He said, I can't be here so much happy. Okay, some other occasion.
 
It should be appropriate at least. Did you get this joke? Wife said, I will die. All of you got it? Husband said, I will also die.
 
Wife said, why will you die? Because it is too much happiness to me. So he says here, Upeksha Nama Rupa. Because if you don't do Upeksha, means if you don't forget Nama Rupa, if you go on meditating more on the Nama Rupa, what will happen? The 10% bondage will increase.
 
The share markets will just go up. If you see the point, Bandhana will increase. Why? Differentiations will increase.
 
The more you emphasise Nama Rupa, the more your attachments, hatreds will grow, and that is exactly what we should try to avoid. See how much misery comes because of Nama Rupa. A person has a beer, Rupa, Khan name.
 
Even this immigration official, the moment there is this word Khan, immediately they will suspect it is a terrorist or something. See how much it makes a difference. He may be a saint, he may be an innocent person.
 
99% of the people are absolutely innocent. They are just like you and me. Not even 99%, more than that.
 
Only a few people. They are dedicated terrorists. How much? This is a black person, this is a white person, this is a yellow person.
 
What is called ethnic discrimination. Racial discrimination, you say? Ethnic discrimination. And then religious discrimination.
 
My wife and I had a quarrel because of religious differences. Oh yes. Religious differences.
 
Somebody didn't understand. What do you mean by that? The wife was explaining. My husband thinks he is God.
 
I don't. Laughter What a wonderful list you have created, you know. Okay.
 
So, Upeksha Namarope De, Sachidananda Tattvaraha, completely be absorbed in, focus on Sat, Chit and Ananda. In that order. First focus on Sat.
 
That means any object that is there, because of its very existence, it has to be respected. It has to be respected. That is why Holy Mother, even a broomstick, how the monks use it to throw here and there, but you know that very broomstick is helping you live a better life.
 
If everything is, you know, so much of dirt and dust is lying down, you can never enjoy your life. That small broomstick will help you to lead a much qualitative life. Therefore you have to respect it because it is a good instrument.
 
Sat, anything that is Sat. Then anything that is Sat is also Chit. What is the difference? Most of the time, the Chit is dormant.
 
A baby. In the mother's eyes, a baby is very precious. But we all love babies, excepting some perverted people.
 
Nobody hates a baby, a small baby, you see. Why? There are two reasons, many reasons. One reason is because it is existing.
 
Secondly, that is, a baby is absolutely innocent. Thirdly, we don't know what potentialities lie in that baby. Nobody knows.
 
Nobody knows the difference between one baby and the other baby. It is only when the babies grow up, who is intelligent, who is not, who is powerful, who is not, all these differentiations will come, who is a saint, who is a rogue. But until that time, we just don't know.
 
So the idea is, even if somebody develops into a rogue, that is not his nature. That is a deviation from his nature. The real nature is, he is Brahma.
 
That is how a spiritual aspirant has to look. Then if we can do these two things, Ananda is assured to follow. So, Upeksha Namarupedri, Sachidananda Tatparaha, Samadhim Sarvada Kuryat.
 
So this is the Samadhi. Samadhi here means constant meditation. Meditation, we have to focus upon these three.
 
Hridaya Va Athava Bahihi Either inside the heart or in the external world. So just to give an example, what is the external world? When you are meditating, that is the internal world. When you are meditating or worshipping outside, that is meditation externally.
 
You know, when you are doing puja, that is called external meditation. If you are doing thinking inside, that is called internal worship or meditation. We make a big difference between, this is puja, this is, what is Swami doing? He is doing puja.
 
No, no, no, he is meditating. No, no, no, you are wrong. I saw him, he is only doing puja, he is not meditating.
 
See, we make a lot of difference seeing outside things. If Sriram Krishna is offering flowers, is he meditating or is he doing puja or what? What is the difference? What is puja? Thinking of God is meditation, isn't it? So this is one way of meditating. There is another way of meditating.
 
Anything can be meditated, even if you are picking up some stones from the path. That is what Sriram Krishna advised to Rishik. He said, you are sweeping the pathways and so many devotees are able to walk.
 
You are worshipping the Divine Mother. It is no less worship because somebody has to do it. In a drama, everybody, a small boy, he came home excited, Daddy, Daddy, what happened? You know I wanted to participate in the drama.
 
So they gave me a role. What is the role? He said, clapping role. Clapping role.
 
The boy was very happy. Then the father took a deep breath and said, I hope you will get a speaking part next time because he never got in his home. My wife has a speech impediment.
 
Now and then she stops to breathe. So you see, Satchitananda Darparaha, either inside or outside. So not either means, not that you have a choice.
 
It means that you start either from inside or start from outside but ultimately you will have to do both. Why? Because you have to see within yourself the same Satchitananda. You have to see the same Satchitananda also outside.
 
The practise has got to be made. Totapuri, now I told you, he did meditation inside but he never did this kind of Satchitananda meditation outside. Had he done it, then you would have seen the temple servant also is Satchitananda, the fire also is Satchitananda, the Divine Mother's image also is Satchitananda, then he would not have gone through this.
 
But the Divine Mother, out of compassion, made him realise that truth. Then thereafter there was no conflict in his mind. Inside, outside, everything is Yatra Yatra Mano Bharati Tatra Tatra Brahma Darshanam Wherever the mind goes, you will be seeing only Brahman and Brahman alone.
 
Thakurs, some examples. He said, one day I saw a wicked man. But I saw the Divine Mother also was vibrating within him.
 
Another time he said, I was going to Calcutta. I saw a public woman standing there and I saw Sita herself sitting there waiting for Rama. What was he seeing? Satchitananda Chaitanya Mahaprabhu's life is Ramakrishna course.
 
You know, one day a donkey was going. So what did he do? He threw an ochre cloth on it and then made Sastang Pranams to what is called, teach his disciples what is called seeing God. So why do people revere Swamis? Swamis, how do you recognise a Swami? Usually they put on ochre cloth.
 
Ochre cloth is a symbol of a Sanyasi. So why do we revere them? It is not that we should not revere others. Learn to revere at least a few and afterwards you extend this reverence to everyone else.
 
You have to start somewhere. That is the purpose of a ritual. That is the purpose of a temple.
 
When you have advanced, your very heart becomes a temple. Then you can see God everywhere. But until you see God everywhere, you have to see somewhere.
 
Start somewhere. That is very wonderful. And a stone image is the most wonderful place to start.
 
Why? Because sometimes your culinary skills are not so great. If it is a living God, he won't tolerate it. If it is a stone God, then he will be smiling like this.
 
Even if you add salt also, he will be smiling only. Only afterwards you will realise what you have done. So when your devotion becomes Nishta, after that you extend it to everyone.
 
The purpose is to see the same divinity in everybody. And that is what Shri Ram Krishna used to see. And more than that, Holy Mother.
 
That is why she is called Holy Mother. Do you think all the people who went to her are great spiritual people? So many worthless fellows used to go there. Sometimes in fun she used to reveal the truth.
 
Yeah. Some devotee asked, why is it Thakur had got all the best great disciples and you disciples I see are all these worthless fellows. He said, you know, the law, first come first served.
 
So he came first, he picked up the best. And all the rest, chadal purugulu. So you know, what is that, white ants? What is it called? He pushed it towards me.
 
That is what she said. I am not saying. That is what she said.
 
Om Shanti Shanti Shanti.
[[Category:Drg Drsya Viveka]]
[[Category:Drg Drsya Viveka]]

Latest revision as of 23:53, 20 May 2026

The Nature of Bondage and Liberation: A Discourse on Saccidānanda and Nāmarūpa

The Two Powers of Obstruction

Why does this happen? Two types of obstacles should be removed: āvaraṇa śakti and vikṣepa śakti. They work both inside and outside.

How do they work inside? They create identity between two unidentical objects — two opposite objects — as though they can mix: the cit and the jaḍa, the eternal and the temporal, the one and the many, the dṛk and the dṛśya.

Externally, what do they do? The same thing — they create confusion between brahman and jagat. So it is not enough to remove the obstacle only within; it also has to be done without.

The Practical Challenge of External Purification

Now, that is a very practical point. Because when we sit for meditation — or rather, let me put it this way — when we don't need to do anything, we are all saints. In fact, that is the only time when we are saints. Sleeping time, of course, we are saints; everybody is a saint.

Even otherwise, if I do not need any action, then I am the greatest saint in the world. I will be wishing all the blessings — truckloads of blessings — on everybody. But the moment I am forced to deal with somebody, then all my holiness will go.

So, externally also, we have to make this separation. What happens when we make this separation externally? Then we become aware that reality, or the most valuable thing in any object outside, is saccidānanda. The other is completely not important at all.

Why is it not important? Anything that is unreal is not important. Anything that is real — that is the only important thing.

The Unreality of Appearance: Nāma and Rūpa

That is why you see a beautiful diamond on the cinema screen, but you don't desire it. It may create a desire in you — in fact, that creates a lot of desires, because it is part of imagination. Cinema is nothing but imagination, a little bit brought to life.

That is why, if you want to be a sage, to anyone who is attractive, say: "Show your original face." All the attraction will disappear. As Chinese Zen Buddhism says, "Find out your original face." But there it means: find out your true nature. Here, I am twisting it a little. The original face, if you see it, you don't feel attracted at all to anything in this world. It is only when you cover the original thing that, for a short time, everyone appears to be attractive, anything appears to be attractive.

So both types of separations have to be achieved through the practice of yoga.

Summary: The Problem of the Three Tāpas

So, what is our problem? To summarise the whole thing in short sentences: we are all suffering from three tāpas. We all wish to be free from them and be happy eternally. Is it possible? Yes, it is possible. So why is it not possible now? Because māyā, in the form of two powers, comes and creates an artificial, seemingly real obstruction. It is not a real obstruction.

The Universal Law: Nothing Can Truly Be Mixed

There is a law in this world: no two things can ever be mixed up. Some things can seem to be mixed up, but really you cannot mix them.

To give an example: water and, let us say, sugar or salt. Apparently, you put sugar in the water and you don't see the sugar; you put salt in the water and you don't see the salt. Only when you taste it will you realise what has happened. But they have never become truly mixed up.

How do you know? Because every object has a particular name. So if a thing is its own thing, you need to call it only by its own name. You do not need to call it by another name. But if you add salt, what do you call it? "Salt water." You are using two separate words. You are not calling it just "water"; you are calling it "salt water" or "sugary water" or "sweet water." They never truly mix.

How do you know? Whatever can be separated was never, in the first instance, truly mixed up. So really speaking, nothing in this world can be mixed up.

Brahman and Māyā: The Apparent Mixture

The same truth holds for brahman. Māyā, what does it do? Like salt not appearing to our eyes but being there all over — and it can be separated — it takes effort to separate it. The sun of knowledge is necessary. Just as salt remains salt when water evaporates, so too sugar crystals remain sugar crystals when water is boiled away.

Brahman and something else appear to get mixed up — not really, only apparently. That is the point.

Liberation According to Dvaita and Advaita

What does the dvaita system say? It says you get liberation. How? Because you are ātman. Now you think you are a human being or whatever. You worship God, fall at His feet, surrender yourself, do whatever you like. But ultimately, either through knowledge or by His grace, you get liberation. What is liberation? You become identified with your own nature, and whatever you were mixed up with — "I am a human being" — falls away.

As any dvaita philosopher would say: the soul within a human body is like salt in water — salt is different, water is different; soul is different, body is different.

Liberation means you will be separated from that which is not you. The only difference between the schools of philosophy is: are you a small divinity or a big divinity? A mixed-up divinity or an unmixed divinity? All schools of philosophy agree on divinity. Whether you are a small soul — like many, many individual jīvātmas, like sugar crystals — or something greater, that is the difference.

Because if it is really mixed, you can never separate it. If it is seemingly mixed, anything in this world can be separated. Gold and copper, gold and tin — there are images of pañcaloha — but they can be separated. There is no problem at all. Any two things mixed up can be separated.

If we don't separate, death separates. What is death? Separating all the elements: the salt part goes to the salt part, the zinc part goes to the zinc part, the copper part goes to the copper part.

The Rhythm of Nature: Janma and Mṛtyu

The nature of the world is always either combining or separating. When it combines, it is called janma. When it separates, it is called mṛtyu. This is the simple truth. And in between, you go on making up for the deficiencies — that is called life.

We are always taking in something and losing something constantly. That is our bondage. Why should we go on trying for things which are not of our nature? In fact, we never lose ourselves. That is the meaning of ātman. There is no ātman deficiency over the course of time. It remains exactly the same quantity and the same quality.

The Parable of the Neighbour's Garden

You put on a cloth; the cloth gets holy; you don't want it to be holey, so you remove the damage, taking a needle or whatever. This is not your job. Unnecessarily, you have taken up a job that is not your nature. It doesn't belong to you.

Guṇas are working with guṇas. What is your headache? This is what we have to understand. But we do not understand this now because we think our neighbour's garden is our garden. That means: this body and mind — we are cultivating it. But when you are decorating it so nicely, you are not knowing that it is your neighbour's garden you are decorating, not your own house.

The jīva neither does anything nor makes anybody else do something. He is sākṣī — the witness. But somehow we mistake ourselves: "This is mine." If it were truly yours, it should always be with you. And since it has not come with you, it will not go with you.

Inside and Outside: Dṛk and Brahman

Until now, we have discussed this: it is because of the power of māyā that we consider things which do not belong to us as belonging to us, and we forget our own true nature — both inside and outside. Therefore, we must be made to realise that outside, if you see reality, that is what is called brahman. Inside, if you see reality, that is called dṛk. Individually, it is dṛk; cosmically, it is called brahman.

So, first we have to separate both. Then we have to see the identity between this dṛk and the outside brahman. There will be no difference. But there will be a difference between dṛśya and jagat: dṛśya are many, but dṛk is only one; brahman is only one, but jagat is many.

The Five Elements of Every Object: The Key Verse

Let us now take the verse:

Asti bhāti priyaṃ rūpaṃ nāma cety aṃśapañcakam | Ādyatrayaṃ brahmarūpaṃ jagatrūpaṃ tato dvayam ||

Every object we experience in this world, including our body and mind, consists of five elements. What are those? Asti, bhāti, priyam, nāma, and rūpam.

Understanding Each of the Five Elements

Asti means existence. If an object doesn't exist, there is no question of knowing it.

Bhāti means cognizability, knowability. If some object is there, it should be knowable — otherwise, how do you know there is an object? There may be a microbe here. At this level it has knowability, but you don't have the instrument to know it now. That is why many people don't like high definition: all the microbes and everything becomes visible. As they say, "ignorance is bliss."

So bhāti means: every object not only should exist — whatever exists, all that, as sat, has cit and ānanda within it also. There are three-in-one, one-in-three. You can never truly separate them; there are only three ways of looking at it. Is it there? Yes. Can it be known? Yes. Otherwise, how do you know it is there?

Suppose somebody says there is an object. He may be telling the truth or he may be wrong. What is the proof? Not only you, but anybody should be able to perceive it. Otherwise, the knowability is not in the object but in the knower — and that doesn't prove the object. That is what is called an illusion: it is there, but it can be known only to the person who is seeing it. That is why it doesn't have a real existence.

Whatever has real existence is capable of being known by anybody, because that knowability is in the object — it doesn't depend upon the subject. It is vastutantra, not kartṛtantra. That is why you cannot change it. How you interpret it is kartṛtantra, but what it is and how it is — that is vastutantra.

Priyam means it is of the nature of ānanda. Every object is priya to itself. Whatever the thing — however ugly a person, a toad, or something else — try to destroy it and it will protest. Why? Because it is the most dear thing to itself. That is the meaning of priyam.

You may not like it; some may like it, some may not. But God will like it, because God means its own existence. That is why nobody can truly hate himself or herself. When we say "I hate myself," what do we mean? Do we hate ourself, or do we hate the non-self? It is always the non-self. There must be two objects to say "I love you" or "I hate you." For the self itself, there is no loving and no hating — love and hate are only a relationship between two objects.

So priyam has to be understood in three respects. First, in the eyes of God — because He is the only one, He loves Himself; that is the most priya, because He has no other choice. Second, every object loves its own identity or existence. Third, all of us can love something at some point or another. You cannot say that eternally you will hate something — at some point, you may come to appreciate that very thing.

Nāma and Rūpa: The World of Differentiation

Nāma and rūpa are not separate things. They are ideas imposed upon the object called brahman.

What is a table, apart from wood? Can you separate and weigh the wood on one side and the nāmarūpa on the other? If you cannot, if it is one and the same, why do you call it a table? Why do you call something a chair? Wood is wood. Can you touch the nāma and rūpa? If it is not touchable, it is not physical. If it is not physical, it is subtle. Everything that is subtle is an idea in the mind. It is only an idea — and different creatures look upon the same object in different ways. A woodworm, a scientist, and a saint all look at the same object differently. So this idea is changeable. Asti, bhāti, priyam — it is the same. But the idea is changeable.

How Nāma and Rūpa Create Distinction

How do you distinguish between this sofa and that sofa? Both are sofas. How are you able to say "this sofa," "this sofa," "that sofa"? Asti, bhāti, priyam are absolutely the same. Then how do you distinguish? By rūpa. Rūpa means quality — qualities perceivable through the five senses: form, colour, texture, sound, smell. It is only through the five senses that you distinguish which is a chair, which is a sofa. And according to that distinction, you give names — sofa number one, sofa number two — to distinguish.

So, asti, bhāti, priyam is common to everything. How do you distinguish one object from the other? Only through nāma and rūpa.

Brahman Versus Jagat: Only Nāma and Rūpa Differ

If you are seeing any object in the sense of sat, cit, and ānanda — asti, bhāti, priyam — it is nothing but brahman. But jagat is brahman plus nāma and rūpa.

What is the difference between brahman and jagat? Three things are common, two things are not common. Asti, bhāti, priyam — saccidānanda — is common to all objects, every object, any object whatsoever. What is the difference? Only nāma and rūpa.

And all five are only ideas in the mind. So there is nothing truly "concrete" — it is all idea. There is no "external" and no "internal." You cannot say it is all inside without positing something outside. You cannot say something is cold without positing something is hot. This is the nature of the human mind — and that is why we make the distinction "this is outside, this is inside."

A padartha — a vastu, an object — is called padartha: pada-artha, "meaning of a word." Where is the meaning? Is it an object, or is it an idea? It is an idea.

The Pancabhūtas and the Whole Jagat

The verse says:

Khe vāyv-agnau jalorvīṣu devatiryaṅ-nṛdiṣu | Saccidānanda-abhinnāni vidrute rūpanāmane ||

Among the five — ākāśa, vāyu, agni, jala, and pṛthvī — and among devatas, tiryak (sub-human beings), and humans: from the saccidānanda point of view, they are absolutely abhinna — exactly the same. Where is the difference? Only in rūpa and nāma.

Everything has come from the pañcabhūtas: from avyakta came mahat; from mahat came ahaṃkāra; from ahaṃkāra came the sūkṣma pañcabhūtas; from those came the sthūla pañcabhūtas. The sūkṣma pañcabhūtas make up the sūkṣma śarīra; the sthūla pañcabhūtas make up the sthūla śarīra. The whole jagat has come from only one source.

So all objects — however many billions and billions there may be — have three things in common: asti, bhāti, priyam. The moment you say an object exists, that very moment you have to say it can be known and that it can be experienced as the most dear.

Everything Has Life: The Universal Saccidānanda

Ramana Maharṣi was once sitting when a foreigner came and said that people should be taught not to harm trees and animals. Ramana Maharṣi said: "Do you know that even the carpet, the floor on which you are sitting, is alive?"

He is not saying anything new. We do not perceive so many things as alive. Do you perceive life in an egg? Every egg — whether human or chicken or whatever — contains the potentiality of life. It is only a question of the right conditions.

What object is there in this world that doesn't have life? Because, clearly — saccidānanda — what else do you want for life?

That is why pṛthvī devatā and jala devatā — Gaṅgā devī, Brahmaputra, Sarasvatī, Narmadā, Sindhu, Kāverī — these are all goddesses. They are really goddesses. Why? Because they are what sustain so many lives. If this much water can sustain a small creature, how many lives does the Gaṅgā nadī or Kāverī nadī sustain?

The sun is agni devatā in pratyakṣa rūpa. The wind is our pratyakṣa devatā, prāṇa devatā. And ākāśa — the only element which can never be experienced except through sound. All the other four devatās — these huge rivers, the whole earth burning at its core — are pratyakṣa devatās. The pañcabhūtas: agni devatā, vāyu devatā, jala devatā, pṛthvī devatā — these are sustaining us every second of our life. That is why Hindus have recognised this and made them devatās and worship them.

That is how pūjā works: you worship all these items — there is light, there is the samara (waving of the lamp), there are flowers, there are fruits, there is sugandha (fragrance). All five are representative of the pañcabhūtas, to say: "O Lord, all this belongs to You. Since I am made up of all these, I also belong to You." That understanding is the result of pūjā. That is true self-surrender.

Seeing Asti, Bhāti, Priyam Everywhere: The Path to Freedom

This is the most important thing: how to perceive everything as asti, bhāti, priyam — with nāma and rūpa as the only superficial overlay. If we can see that, we are not bound.

Why? Because what is bondage? First, we think: "I am different from you." That is bondage. If I know I am not different — that all of us are non-different from each other — then the question of likes and dislikes, rāga and dveṣa, and all these things will not arise.

The Verse on the Practice: Upekṣā of Nāmarūpa

Upekṣā nāmarūpe dve saccidānanda tatparaḥ | Samādhiṃ sarvadā kuryāt hṛdaye'tha bahiḥ ||

Upekṣā nāmarūpe dve — keeping aside nāma and rūpa, because that is what causes bondage. Bondage is nāmarūpa.

Then you meditate upon the other three. Saccidānanda tatparaḥ — "tatparaḥ" is a wonderful word: completely absorbed in that one task, thinking of saccidānanda and nothing else.

Samādhiṃ sarvadā kuryāt — this samādhi means constant meditation, meditating always, focused upon these three aspects.

Hṛdaye'tha bahiḥ — either inside the heart or in the external world. When you are meditating internally, that is internal worship. When you are doing pūjā outside, that is external meditation. We make a big difference between "he is doing pūjā" and "he is meditating" — but if Śrī Rāmakṛṣṇa is offering flowers, is he meditating or doing pūjā? What is pūjā? Thinking of God is meditation. Pūjā is one way of meditating.

Śrī Rāmakṛṣṇa advised Ṛṣik who was sweeping the pathways: "So many devotees are able to walk because of your work. You are worshipping the Divine Mother. It is no less worship." In a drama, every role — even the person who claps — is essential.

Not Either/Or, But Both

"Inside or outside" does not mean you have a choice. It means you start either from inside or from outside — but ultimately you will have to do both. Why? Because you have to see within yourself the same saccidānanda, and you also have to see the same saccidānanda outside.

Totāpurī did meditation inside, but he never did this kind of saccidānanda meditation outside. Had he done so, he would have seen the temple servant also as saccidānanda, the fire also as saccidānanda, the Divine Mother's image also as saccidānanda. But the Divine Mother, out of compassion, made him realise that truth. Thereafter, there was no conflict in his mind.

Yatra yatra mano bhāti, tatra tatra brahma darśanam — wherever the mind goes, you will see only brahman and brahman alone.

Śrī Rāmakṛṣṇa once said: "One day I saw a wicked man, but I saw the Divine Mother also vibrating within him." Another time he said: "I was going to Calcutta and I saw a public woman standing there — and I saw Sītā herself sitting there, waiting for Rāma."

Caitanya Mahāprabhu, in a similar spirit, once saw a donkey passing. He threw an ochre cloth on it and made sāṣṭāṅga praṇāma — teaching his disciples to see God everywhere.

Why Ritual Has Value: Starting Somewhere

Why do people revere sannyāsīs wearing ochre cloth? It is not that we should revere only them and not others. Rather: learn to revere at least a few, and afterwards extend this reverence to everyone else. You have to start somewhere. That is the purpose of ritual. That is the purpose of a temple.

When you have advanced, your very heart becomes a temple, and then you can see God everywhere. But until you see God everywhere, you have to see Him somewhere. A stone image is a wonderful place to start. Why? Because if your culinary skills are not so great and it is a living God, He may not tolerate it! But a stone God will be smiling throughout — even if you add too much salt.

When your devotion becomes niṣṭhā, you extend it to everyone. The purpose is to see the same divinity in everybody. That is what Śrī Rāmakṛṣṇa used to see — and more than that, the Holy Mother. She was called Holy Mother for exactly this reason. She saw the same divinity in all who came to her, regardless of their outward state.

Oṃ śāntiḥ śāntiḥ śāntiḥ

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