Dakshinamurti Stotram Part 29 on 01 April 2021

Full Transcript(Not Corrected)

OM JANANIM SHARADAM DEVIM RAMAKRISHNAM JAGADGURUM PADAPADME TAYO SRIDHVA PRANAMAMI MURMUR OM YO BRAHMANAM VIDADHATI PURVAM YO VAI VEDAM SHCHA PRAHINOTI TASMAI TAMHA DEVAM ATMA BUDDHI PRAKASHAM MUMOKSHUR VAI SHARANAMAHAM PRAPADYE We are studying the Dakshinamurthy Stotram. In that we have more or less completed the seventh verse. Just a few points need to be elaborated. The essence of this seventh shloka is that our life is nothing but continuously changing effects. Whole life is a continuously changing life from birth to death. And in a classical Vedanta we divide it into six waves or sixfold changes. Shadvikara, Shadurmi. Urmi means a wave like conception, birth, growth, old age, decay and death. Or we can also take it into four categories. In this particular verse Shankaracharya divides whole life into four categories. Childhood, adolescence, youth and old age. Of course you can even add middle age etc. This is the changes with regard to the entire life. But with regard to every single day every single living creature goes through threefold changes of waking, dream and dreamless state in a continuous chakra cycle. This is the second type of change. But throughout life and which includes throughout every single day from birth to death every single living creature goes through various change of moods depending upon the change. I am happy, I am unhappy, I have become enriched, I have become poorer or I am healthy, I am unhealthy. We see these moods in every single creature and especially in human beings. Every single change of mood brings its own effect. And particularly how these moods affect us is going to be discussed in the next verse which is the eighth. We will come to it a little bit later on. But in this it is so beautifully depicted how in spite of the changes there is something that witnesses it without undergoing the least bit of change. And that is called Atma, Paramatma, Sakshi, Pure Consciousness by whatever name we give. Here goes the verse. He who through the auspicious sign of knowledge, Gnana Mudra or Chin Mudra reveals to his devotees his own self which persists in all stages of ages, childhood, boyhood, youth and old age and in all states waking, dreaming and deep sleep and in all other conditions but who constantly manifests himself inwardly as a continuous unchanging I, I, I. To him that divine teacher Shri Dakshinamurthy is this prostration. As we just now mentioned whole life is a continuous change. That is why the whole world of which each one of us are a part, it is called Jagat. Gati means movement. Jagati means continuous movement. Similarly Samsara, Sarathi, flows, moves and Samyag Rupena Sarathi, Sampoorna Rupena Sarathi continuously moving. That's what Buddha said life is nothing but a continuous flux. No man steps into the same river twice. This is an absolute truth. But the third one also, change also. Every experience brings its own special effect into us. Simple example, we have discussed this in our last class but to just remind ourselves you are hungry and you have nice food and you eat and before eating food I am unhappy, I am hungry. After eating food I am happy because there is no more hunger. So a change has taken place from the state of being hungry and unhappy into the state of not being hungry and being happy. Thus it goes on and on and on. Every experience as we will discuss in our next class brings about some effect and we identify ourselves with that effect. That is the tragedy. But people who are enlightened, Bodhis, Bhagwan Buddha, every realized soul, Jeevan Mukta, he experiences but he doesn't identify himself. Even though I am using this word himself in this in spiritual life we can never use, we must never use he, she or it. Pure consciousness as is beyond all genders, all time, all space, all causation. But for the sake of clarity we do that. So this is what all these changes have taken place and we have discussed it in considerable details. But there is one unchanging background. This is a scientific law. Change can be observed only against a changeless background and that changeless background has to be continuous and that which is continuous has no birth, no death. That means it is beyond causation, therefore beyond time, beyond space, beyond causation. This also we have discussed. There is God's grace. Call him God. Call him Paramatma, Ishwara. Call him Brahman. Call him Jeevatma, a Sakshi. Though he witnesses, though seemingly identifies and uses the word I all the time, in reality there cannot be any change. Changelessness can never be made into change. If changelessness can be made into changeful, that means originally however changeless that thing might appear, potentially it is containing a changeful nature. But here we know that Brahman is Kalatita. Whenever we think of change, we have to think these three terms. Change can occur only at a particular point of space, point of time and for a particular reason. Cause turns into effect and what is that? First one moment it is a seed. I am just giving an example. There is a seed. Until this moment it is a seed and after 2-3 days when you put it in the proximity of soil and water, it turns into a small seedling. So day before yesterday it was a seed. Now it has become a seedling. What is my point? Time is necessary. Soil means space is necessary and there must be some reason somebody or nature brings these two. That is the seed plus time-space causation near and that is what we call the effect. And here is the very deep thought. Please take note of it. No experience is there without time-space causation and we should not call it reality. We should call it an event and what is an event? That which is the effect of time-space and causation. Now I will take you one step further. There is you waiting there. There is a seed and you happen to put that seed into soil and add a little bit of water, wait for 2-3 days and then it turns into seedling. Now that is what we call effect. A seed turning into a seedling. Just imagine for the sake of argument that there is nobody. Simply a seed has turned into a seedling. For the first time a person is witnessing a seedling or a plant or a tree whatever it may be. The idea of causation never enters into his mind because to understand the relationship of cause and effect you must be observing the cause and then you observe the effect through the prism of time-space causation and it is all a process in the mind. It is all a thought process and it is all thought limiting consciousness into the form of knowledge and that is what every experience is. That is what every event is. In reality everything is pure consciousness. But this is the mischief of the mind. As I mentioned many times, quoting Swami Vivekananda, mind is nothing but another name for time-space causation. But if you remove the mind then the cause and effect simultaneously disappear and if anything is reality then it cannot disappear. But since this disappears that means it is not real. Since cause and effect are not real then the time-space and causation is also not real. Then all these have taken place in this particular order because of the mischief of the mind. Mind is very mischievous. That's why Swami Vivekananda called this world Maya and he defined it in his Nanayuga lectures. One of the most profound definitions of Maya. What is Maya? Maya is a statement of fact. What is a statement of fact? Our experience. I see you. I see a house. I see a plant. I see a dog. These are experiences. These are statements of fact. What is the statement of fact? I see the effects because when we see that here there is no dog but its mother was there and it has given birth to a puppy. Puppy has grown in course of time into this dog so before the puppy was born there was no dog at all. So we do not connect it. Here is a funny thing also I am adding. I hope you will be able to take these ideas clearly. Supposing we never see any female dog or anything female giving birth to any offspring then the idea, you extend that idea. A tree never produces a seed etc. And no change takes place. Then will you be able to guess what is called cause and what is called effect? But you see in front of you there is a puppy. It is a female puppy. It grows up, mates with a male and then it produces immediately that experience is an event and we spring to the conclusion the mother which that is the cause and the puppy is the effect and so on the cycle goes on. What is my point? My point is every experience is an event and every event is a thought in the mind. Every thought is limitation of the consciousness which we call awareness. That's why just remember what we discussed earlier about the deep sleep. In deep sleep that's also a change, an experience. There is no cause and effect at all. There is no cause, there is no effect at all. There is no world and therefore there is no cause of the world. In our eyes world is an effect and who created it? God created it. But the effect disappears in the deep sleep. Therefore along with the effect called world, the cause of the world, God also completely disappears and what conclusions can we arrive through these few examples that what is called causality is purely an imagination, a thought and we all know a thought is nothing concrete, physical. It is limitation of your consciousness. I'll give another example. You are watching a movie and movie can be watched whether you watch it on your mobile or watch it on a TV or watch it on a cinema screen. Important point is the screen is completely unchanging and capable of projecting everything as it is. Without the unchanging background of the screen it is impossible to have any pictures there. Now that is not the point. The point is that all the pictures we see, all the objects we see, men, women, animals, plants, mountains, rivers, morning, noon, night, everything is nothing but a play on the screen of light. How do you know? Put off the light, everything disappears. That means the light is limited by the film and that film is comparable in a way to the mind and as being projected that projector having the film limits or controls the pure light that is streaming through it and that is what we think is there. Here also you watch there. It is very interesting. There is a woman. She marries. She gives birth to a child and there is a sequence. At 8.15 the woman appears, at 9.15 she gets married, at 9.30 she gives birth to the baby and then you sequentially use it. So the woman was the cause and the child is the effect and in your mind is this poor screen, poor pictures do not know anything about, they are completely innocent about the cause and effect. But the watchers, the observers, the witnesses, in their mind the thought comes this is the cause and this is the effect and I will also give another example. Suppose you bring also your dog to watch that movement. Imagine that instead of a woman it is a female dog and it has given birth. Do you think the dog will have an idea of cause and effect? Absolutely no. It is only a mind capable of thinking that things that 15 minutes earlier, that means I am talking about the screen point of view, 15 minutes earlier that woman got married and 15 minutes later that woman has become pregnant and has given birth or a dog has become pregnant, has given birth. This sequence is being played not on the screen but in your mind. The screen is showing the images but the ideas of cause and effect are in our mind. That is the important point. I hope I am able to convey that point to you. Ultimately what does it mean? From the Advaita Vedanta point of view, the whole birth, sustenance and what is called final destruction means recycling, going back to its own elementary causes. This is all nothing but a thought process in the mind and this is the greatest contribution of Advaita Vedanta, such a relationship of cause and effect. This is a beautiful relationship. It is practical in this world but completely false from the Advaitic point of view and that we will come later on to understand it. It's all a play, a thought process and therefore why this thought process? Because of the Maya. What is Maya? It is the mind and what is the mind? Time, space and causation. Remove the mind, there is no time, space, causation. And when we look at Bhagawan through the prism of the mind which is time, space, causation, it is called personal God and when we look at the same reality without the prism of time, space, causation, that is called Nirguna, Nirakara, Nirvisesha, Nishkriya, Parabrahma which is beyond all five types of verbal description. This is what this particular shloka wants us to tell, during all these varying states, the sense of I, the background unchanging pure consciousness is always shining at the innermost essence of every human being. And how do we attain this knowledge? This is all theoretical, philosophical. I am talking, you are hearing. Realization is far off. How does this realization come? Only by the grace of God and that is being mentioned here, Swatmanam swatmanam prakati karoti. That divine Lord is bestowing His grace in what form? Swatmanam prakati karoti. He is proclaiming, He is manifesting, He is making us understand, O man, O jiva, O purusha, you are not what you think you are. You are me. There is no difference between you and me. Shunvantu vishwe amrutasya putra. You are a amruta putra. And how does God manifest this? Through our Guru. And what does the Guru do? He bestows that understanding upon us. And how does He bestow? What is that understanding? Swatmanam, that you are not different from me. What I call my nature, my atma, is in fact your atma. There is no difference between you and me. When is He manifesting? All the time. But we have to be ready. And that readiness is called when we, through the acquisition of the requisite spiritual qualities, popularly known as sadhana, chatustaya, sampati, then we become adhikaris, fit persons to receive that knowledge. And that is what is called bhajatam. Bhaja saivayam. Bhajatam bhakti bhagascha bhajanam bhava vedakari. The second verse that we, all the devotees sing every evening. It is the most meaningful one. So bhajatam, those who surrender to Him, become ready. Surrender means not verbally saying, I surrender myself to you, but in the mind doing, I surrender only to myself, to my selfish mean-minded self and ignorant self and agnani. That is not the meaning. Bhajatam. How does He, how does Guru do it? Mudraya. Bhadraya. Bhadraya means most auspicious. This word auspiciousness is a most wonderful word. That's why every day we sing. Sarva Mangala Mangalye. Every event that happens in this world, whether it is positive or negative, good or evil, it is all bhadra, ultimate point of view, from what is called paramatika point of view, every experience is unfolding and manifesting that divinity which is our true nature. But we think it is all something, sometimes misery or difficulty, suffering, etc., we call. Only with this background, we can understand Holy Mother's teaching. What is that teaching? Misery is a gift of God and that has been a promise in Bhagavatam. He upon whom I bestow my grace, first of all, I make Him completely bereft of every possession. I will make Him akinchana. Akinchana means being something, having something. Akinchana means an absolute nobody. And that's why I am called Akinchananam Prabhu Swami etc. This is what Bhadraya means through that most auspicious what? Mudraya. Mudra. I will now talk about this mudras a little bit even though I have spoken in my last class. What is a mudra first of all? It's a non-verbal gesture communicating some great knowledge. The whole of our Bharatanatyam is nothing but pure expression through mudras only. And lest we think that these mudras are special to human beings, no. Every living creature including the plants are showing this mudra and Bhadra mudra. Okay, even when we are studying Bhagavad Gita, in the Mahatmya it is there. Gnana mudraya krishnaya geetamrta duhena maha. Salutations to Bhagavan Krishna who is the milker of the Upanishads in the form of Geetamrta. And if you look at Sairam Krishna, that one particular pose, standing pose, one finger, one hand, especially fingers, pointing to the highest reality and then one hand resting near the heart. To my understanding it means the reality which in our ignorance we think is somewhere, it is everywhere and it is specially manifest in our own hearts. Then we also see these mudras, not only, every creature uses these mudras. I will talk about it a little bit. And if you look at, if you observe any Hindu worship, any temple, you will see so many mudras are there. The very worship starts with mudras. First of all, the pujari or the worshipper takes a little bit of water and you have noticed it, sips it, that is a mudra. What is the sipping? That means I am purifying my gross body, subtle body and causal body. I am purifying my three gunas, sattva, rajas and tamas or I am trying to purify my thought, my speech and my actions. The whole puja is nothing but various mudras. And then in the popular everyday life, namaskara. When two people meet and we do namaskara, what is namaskara? It is a mudra showing that I see God in you and you are seeing God in me. Or if it is an elderly person, he lifts his hand in blessing. What is that mudra? That is called abhaya mudra. Mudra of blessing, mudra of auspiciousness, mudra of well-wishing. But in the hands of God, it is something else which I am going to discuss very soon. Pranama, etc. And in Germany, Nazi salute. Heil Hitler, that is also a mudra. Complete obedience to the will of that supreme Reich, etc. And then there are also mudras indicative of receptivity and removal of I. Even national mudras are there. Every flag, national flag we salute. What is the salutation? That oh mother, the whole nation becomes my mother. I am a child of this mother. I am a child of this earth. I will honor you. I will protect you. I will try to make you as happy as possible, etc. There are mudras if you observe animals. I will just give you only a few examples. For example, you see dogs. Then even if you have a pet dog and as soon as it sees you after a little bit of absence, it starts wagging its tail. What is this mudra? This is called Ananda mudra. I am so happy to meet you. And then monkeys. There is a hierarchy among the monkeys and there is fight also among them. But as soon as one particular monkey exhibits its strength, either shouting or fighting, immediately the competing monkeys, they sit at a lower branch. That is a mudra showing that we are submissive to you and that is a mudra. And then I have seen the pride of lions. When a very powerful male lion approaches, then other animals, they lie down. It is especially seen among wolves, etc. If a stranger wolf comes, wants to join a pack, then as soon as it sees the pack leader, it crawls on the earth in a particular way. And the other one comes and sniffs, says, okay, you can join us. You are welcome there. But through smell, they also smell some inner feeling, either hatred, anger, revenge, etc. Either they push it off or kill, but submission, that is this we see. We see it among all the creatures. Then we know mudras, V mudra. I think you know about this V mudra. Victory. V for victory. And then thumbs up or thumbs down. You didn't win the lottery. You did not get the job. And all these things, these are mudras. But this is just to tell you, all of us are using all these mudras. In the puja, there are very important mudras are there. Like as I said, Dhenu mudra, Avaguntana mudra, Matsya mudra, Kurma mudra, etc. There are very many mudras are there. And all these mudras, what is it? Through these mudras, an inner feeling is awakened. Sometimes we just make fun, showing our fist and then trying as if I am trying to hit you. But then if it continues for some time, this action of the fist mudra in turn very soon into a real fight. So many times this tragedy has taken place. But I am only just giving a few examples. I am not really interested. But if you look at any image, any photograph of any Hindu gods or goddesses, of course, it means even Christian gods and goddesses, etc., you will see two important mudras. One is called Abhaya mudra, which indicates Srishti, Abhaya, you are going to survive. And second is Vara. Even though I mentioned in my last class, there is a third mudra, Khadga mudra, Samhara mudra. What is Vara mudra? I have no fear, but now I want to live joyfully, but I have got lots of desires. Oh Lord, I turn to you. You please fulfill my desires. Vara. Okay, my child, you are my child. You have taken refuge in me. I am going to fulfill your desires. This is called Vara mudra, Abhaya and Vara. And Samhara mudra. If you look especially at Vishnu, there is a Chakra. Chakra always means Samhara mudra. It is to kill, to destroy. So we normally think that it is used only towards enemies of devotees, but that is not completely true. Because the Samhara mudra of whether it is Mother Kali in the form of a sword or in the form of a Chakra discussed in the hands of the Lord Vishnu, all these have inner symbolism. I will just briefly give you that symbolism. What did we talk until now? First of all, Abhaya mudra, then Vara mudra, then Samhara mudra, whether it is Lord Vishnu or Mother Kali. I only take these three. Or if you take Shiva also, quickly I will add it. He has got a Trishula and means three, that is called trident. Three single pointed iron spokes are there. So what are the three for, one is to end Srishti, another is to end Stithi, another is to bring back a person. What is the spiritual symbolism? First of all, what we call Jagat, creation, maintenance and again recycling it. But this is a normal meaning. What is spiritual meaning? Srishti, when God bestows His grace, then a deep desire is shown in the hands, in the hearts of the people. They become devotees. First of all, Shraddha will come and then the desire for knowing the divine Lord called God realization comes. That beginning is called Abhaya mudra. Then spiritual progress continues and the one who removes all obstacles, call him Ignatia or Ganesha, whatever you call, is to remove all unspiritual qualities, making our power, our progress very smooth. This is called Stithi and I am not talking about the maintenance of the world. I am talking about the spiritual progress. Even to progress without falling back, the complete support background of God's grace is necessary. I think once I spoke on what is called the churning of the milk ocean and that is a highly symbolic story. I mentioned briefly in that story that when this Meru Parvata, that huge churning rod is about to sink because of its weight and both the Rakshasas and Devatas prayed to the divine Lord who planted that idea in the mind and that's what I am talking here symbolically. When that mountain was about to sink, if it goes to the earth, to the bottom, churning is not possible. Did you notice when you have to churn something, supposing you want to make buttermilk, you don't make that churning mechanism to the bottom, neither you keep it on the top. You keep it in the middle of the curds and then only it churns well and makes it buttermilk and even butter also. So also this churning rod, every mother in the past used to make this butter by churning the curds. In this Samudra, what is called Sagara, Samudra churning of the ocean, Samudra Mathana, Sagara Mathana, the Meru Parvata has gone down and they prayed and the grace of the God manifested itself in the form of a tortoise, Kurma. So that belief is there even today. The whole earth is being carried on the back of the Kurma Avatara like that. So a tortoise comes on its back, it is a peculiar back, it is not a flat back, it is an oval shaped back and then on that the Parvata is there. Churning was made possible from beginning to the end. It was the grace of God. So this is what I call Stithi, maintenance, which is symbolized by this Vara. After that Samhara. What is the Samhara? Ultimately we can never have the true realization of God without the grace of God. Only he himself has to reveal himself to us categorically and without the least bit of doubt every Upanishad is manifesting this simple truth. We have seen it in the Katha, we have seen it in the Mundaka. That is the grace of God that brings an end to this Samhara cycle. That is the spiritual symbolism of Abhaya Mudra, Vara Mudra as well as the Samhara Mudra. We usually, we don't want to look at it. That is our greatest tragedy. We have to look at all the three and derive a new meaning. Then only joyfully we can go forward. Now these three, the Abhaya Mudra, Vara Mudra, Samhara Mudra in the form of a sword in Mother Kali's left hand and in the form of a Chakra are discussed in the hands of the Vishnu. All three co-ulged become unified in the form of Chin Mudra or Gnana Mudra. This is what we discussed. There are five fingers. I showed you also in the past. This thumb stands for Paramatma and this index finger always we show. This stands for Jivatma. This Jivatma is very closely identified, unified with these three fingers. These three fingers again symbolically, this is the gross body, this is the subtle body, this is the causal body. This is the waking world, this is the dream world, this is the causal world or this is Sattva, this is Sattva, this is Rajas and this is Tamas or is control of the speech or control of the thought, control of the speech and control of the actions. Whatever way we see this one, whether it is three bodies, three types of actions or whether it is waking state, dream state, dreamless state, they are all interconnected. Whatever name we use, it's perfectly all right. Until now, the Jivatma says, I am the waker, I am the dreamer, I am the sleeper. But then the grace of the Paramatma comes in the form of Dakshinamurthy and he by his grace pulls the Jivatma, separates these three things. Remember, these three things are not destroyed but they are separated. Detachment comes. Viveka comes and then you say, this you and I are one. There are no two. There is no Jivatma, Paramatma. There is only one Atma and all these Jiva and Parama are because of the influence of these three. When once a person understands it, then he will become a Jivanmukta, then after that he can live with them freely and this is the meaning of Chin Mudra or Gnana Mudra and practically every realized soul, especially in Hinduism, in Buddhism and we get in Jainism also, in Sikhism also, in four of these religions, we get this particular thing. So, this is what is said, this Yo Mudraya Bhadraya and only for those who are ready to perceive them. What does he do? He manifests that knowledge. There is no distinction, difference between you and me. There is absolutely, there is no duality. There is only oneness is there and no two are there. This Mahavakya, Jivatma, Paramatma, Ikea is amply, very clearly, without the least bit of doubt or ambiguity is being made clear through this Chin Mudra and those who understand, they will understand. Here one addenda I have to add a little bit but a Mudra makes a meaning both on the person of the person who is showing it and only the other person who is receiving it must be in a condition to understand it. Then only Mudra will work. If a monkey looks at the Bharatanatyam dance, it will make no meaning at all. If an Anadi also sees all these things, it will not work at all. And so God's grace comes, a sincere devotee. How? In the form of Dakshina. Dakshina means that Kushalata, that skillfulness, that power to destroy the ignorance and bestow that knowledge. There are no two. There is one. Therefore, my prostrations to Sri Dakshinamurthy manifesting in the form of my own Guru. And Nama, I told you about Namaha, I do not exist. That is the meaning of Na Aham, Na Mama, I and mine are not there. That means only you are there, I do not exist. And this knowledge, I do not exist, can come only through your grace, O Dakshinamurthy. With this, we have completed the 7th shloka. We are now going into the 8th shloka. If I have to summarize the 7th shloka, what is it? Life is nothing but full of changes. Changes occur only in the world of duality. All duality is completely the result of Maya and there is only one Nitya, Shuddha, Mukta, Buddha, Saropaha, Parabrahma and that knowledge or the oneness of Jivatma, Panamatma can come only by the grace of God in the form of Dakshinamurthy, which flows in the form of my own Guru and salutations. That means I disappear. Only the Guru remains and then with the disappearance of the Sishya, Guru also disappears. What remains is indescribable. This is the essence of the 7th verse. I will give a brief introduction into this 8th verse. The 8th verse in this Dakshinamurthy Stotra emphasizes that the entire world of duality and all the activities based on it are due to the delusion brought about by Maya and the Atman alone is the only substratum and at the back of all these is that Paramatma, the eternal reality. In this 8th verse, Shankaracharya reduces all the possible universal human experiences into relational categories and expounds the phenomenal nature of the universe. What did I say? In this 8th verse, all the experiences, remember waking is an experience, dream is an experience and deep sleep is an experience. Our life is nothing but continuous experiences as discussed in the 7th verse. So life is divided into four stages. Every day is divided into three states and every moment is divided into a separate experience and every experience is an event and every event is nothing but a thought process through the prism of time-space causation in the mind. The entire mind is nothing but pure manifestation of Maya and this we will understand it. Now in this 8th verse, all the changes that have been so beautifully and so in-depth described in the 7th verse are categorized into one world. Please keep that in mind. What is it? Relationships, relationships, relationships. So in this verse, Sri Shankaracharya reduces all experiences into relationships. So let us first make a small essence of this 8th verse. Reality is one, Ekam Advaitiyam Nitya Shuddha Buddha Mukta Swaroopam. Second, all duality can be again further classified into two. First, a modification of consciousness. Remember, every experience is a modification of consciousness of which I spoke just now a few minutes before. Second, all experiences are dualities and every duality is mithya, not real. But the one who witnesses, he is real. Third, where there is duality, there is bound to be relationship. Duality is nothing but relationship. I will just give you to make this, I will further elucidate, explain this point in my next class but here I will give you for the sake of better understanding. Here you are there, your mother is there. There are two, I and my mother and immediately there is a relationship, I and my mother. What is the relationship? She is the cause and the effect. She is the mother and the daughter and then every relationship is an experience and every experience brings certain types of effects. These effects can be classified into positive and negative and neutral. This we will discuss in our next class. Where there is duality, there is bound to be relationships. Duality, the moment you say dual, the moment we say two, not one and even to say one is to say two. Duality is nothing but relationship. Fourth point, there can be no question of any relationship where only one indivisible self or atman exists and all relationships can be classified into four main categories. I am going slowly to sink the points which we will discuss in detail in our next class. All relationships, every relationship, they can fall into one or more of these four classifications. What are these four? First of all, I just now mentioned every relationship is an experience and every experience results in three effects, positive, negative and neutral. Let me give an example, you are walking in a street and suddenly you see that a car is coming at great speed and if you are in the middle of the road and the car is about to crash upon you, it is a negative experience. But if you are at the side of this one, is it a positive experience? Then no, let the car come and it has nothing to do with me, it is not dangerous at all. You are taking note all the time. There is an important point, your mind is measuring whether to run away, to stand there and watch etc. Supposing you are in a shop or in a house and you don't see any car at all, it has neither positive experience nor negative experience. This is neutral experience. But that neutral experience is the most important experience because that is what makes you either shall I act positively, act negatively or not do at all. Even to say I do not do at all anything is a kind of effect. So every experience will end in these three types of reactions, positive, negative and neutral. So now there are four types of relationships I said. Relationship between the waker, dreamer and sleeper is most wonderful topic. We are every creature, especially we are going through these three experiences day after day from birth to death, waking, dream and dreamless. They have relationship. The waker has a relationship with the dream. How does he know? He says I am a waker, I am a dreamer, I am a sleeper. So he is moving from one relationship to another relationship and he is interrelating what is the relationship between the waking and the dream and the dreamless. This is one type of relationship. I am not talking about the effects of relationship. I am talking about type of relationship. Second type of relationship, the living and non-living, all the mountains, all the rivers, all the forests, these are all what we call nature. Even though when we say nature, it consists of both living and non-living with life and without life. But especially without life, if you cut, if you destroy the rivers, pollute the rivers and destroy the mountains, it has got a terrible effect. Even if the ice melts in the northern pole, it has an incalculable negative effect upon the whole world and upon the whole weather system. This is second type of relationship. What is the first type? Between the waker, dreamer and sleeper. Third type of relationship, relationship between all the living creatures. Fourth relationship and this is subdivided into three categories, my relationship or everyone's relationship with God, with Guru and with one's own self. Just see how beautiful it is. Every spiritual aspirant needs to look into his own self and find out what type of relationship he or she is having in all these three categories. And failure to take notice of this relationship and failure to relate in the most positive and right way is committing spiritual suicide. Shankaracharya has summarized, simplified in this eighth verse which we will discuss in our next class day after tomorrow. Om Jananim Sharadam Devim Ramakrishnam Jagadgurum Pada Padme Tayo Sritva Pranamami Mohur Mohur May Ramakrishna, Holy Mother, Swami Vivekananda and Swami Yoganandaji Maharaj bless us all with Bhakti.