Dakshinamurti Stotram Part 15 on 18 February 2021

Full Transcript(Not Corrected)

Om Jananim Sharadam Devim Ramakrishnam Jagadgurum Pada Padmetayoh Shritva Pranavami Mohur Mohur Om Yo Brahmanam Vidadhati Purvam Yo Vaivedhams Cheprahino Titasmay Tamha Devam Atma Buddhi Prakasham Mokshu Ruvai Sharana Maham Prapadye We have come to the end of the second verse. What is the essence of it? The first verse is indicating to us what is the nature of every Jeeva. And the second verse tells us what is the nature of Paramatma or the cause. The first verse tells us about the Karya, the effect. The second verse indicates about the cause. There is an inviolable law. There cannot be any difference between the cause and the effect. The effect is nothing but anything that is seen through time and space is the effect. For example, there is a seed and unless time passes, unless the seed manifests and it can only manifest in a place, in space and through a given time, it will not be able to see. So the seed, the cause is Paramatma and the effect is this entire universe. This is called Jeeva-Jeevatma-Paramatma Aikiyam. That is going to be taught in this third verse which we will begin. But before we go into that, we have to briefly discuss what is called a Mahavakya. It is said that the essence of entire scriptures is called the Upanishads. That is why another name for Upanishads is Vedanta. Vedanta means the essence of the Vedas. And by Vedas are not meant merely Rig, Ejos, Sama, Adharvana Vedas, but any revelations by any realised soul at any given time. That means the Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, the teachings of Pramana Maharshi and in future millions of realised souls will come. But don't let your imagination run. Every straight corner you will see Jeevan Muktas roaming about, as a child, as a madcap, as an inert being, as a ghoul. What I meant, time is infinite. So in infinite time, infinite number of realised souls will be there. But even while we are issuing that statement, we have to keep in mind, in fact, all of us are none other than Paramatmas only. Only thing is we are like people who are sleeping or under the spell of hypnotism. But as soon as this spell is broken, then we realise we were never bound, we are not bound, we cannot be bound, we will ever remain the same. But meanwhile, it is just a play. One or two days back, I sent in one of the WhatsApp applications, Swamiji's beautiful message, extremely important as well as symbolic. Somebody, again, I suspect, taught by Swamiji himself that is not life a school, Swami? And Swamiji will be in one mood, he will be telling, yes, life is a school, life is a gymnasium, life is a circus. But on this particular occasion, he immediately changed and contradicted and whoever told you that life is a school, life is a circus. And then we are all tumbling. And who makes us tumble? He is in that high mood, he says, no, there is no power on earth which can make us tumble. We ourselves have decided to tumble. It makes perfect sense when we study these verses because in the first verse itself, just yathas nidraya, when we go to bed and have a dream, we are creating the entire world. What is that world we create? It is a beautiful circus. How do you call it a circus? All dreams are not pleasant dreams. How do you call it? Because as soon as we wake up, if we had any sense of humour left in us, we will laugh and say, what a stupid fellow I have been to create this kind of stupid dream. Even though it is my own creation, I deluded myself so much. I could not create excepting stupid dreams. And that stupid dream is created by whom? By this pure consciousness who knows everything, sarvajna. So, Swamiji instantaneously said, we are all clowns tumbling about. Of course, he was in that mood. One point we have to remember is, when people like Swami Vivekananda speak about, they are not making fun, they are not talking lightly, they are not talking to spend time, pass time. They will be in that particular mood and then the words that come out only indicate that particular mood. That's all we have to understand. So, the entire scriptures and what is the essence? Upanishads. What is the meaning of Upanishad? There are many so-called otherwise people who attribute the meaning of the word Upanishad. Upanishad means, oh, some great, meaningless, unintelligible teachings of Hindu scriptures. But the very definition of the Upanishad, Upanishad, that which destroys the veil that doesn't allow us to cognize what we really are and reveals the truth in its entirety without hiding anything, that is called Upanishad. Upanishad is not a particular object, not a particular idea, but it is the revealer of the true nature. Not only I and you, everything living, non-living, and conscious, unconscious, is the whole truth. What is the truth? There is only one truth, and that truth is nothing but Parabrahman. So, in this second verse, we are talking about this beautiful, what is called, from the seed to its manifestation. The seed is God. The entire world is a manifestation. Upanishad, To him who, like a musician or a great yogin, displays by his own will this entire universe, which earlier was undifferentiated, like the sprout in the seed, but which later was made differentiated under the varied conditions of space and time and causation created by Maya, to him, of the form of my own Guru, the blessed Dakshinamurthy, is this my prostration. That is the essence of the second shloka. What marvelous shlokas these are! They are about to lead us. Tat tvam asi. As I mentioned earlier, there are hundreds of Mahavakyas. Any shloka, any sentence, that reveals that there are no two realities, only one reality, and that is called Mahavakya. If there seems to be two, it is only seeming, not at all real. They are nothing but one. That is called Mahavakya. Tat tvam aikyam. Thou art that Tat. So, in the first verse, Tvam. In the second verse, Tat. In the coming verse, Asi. That is going to be revealed to us. So, I have already indicated in our last class, there are even though hundreds of Mahavakyas, our ancient people have taken four, especially Shankaracharya, because we have four Vedas. How many Vedas are there? Infinite number of Vedas are there. Vedas are not four. The available knowledge gathered by Vyasa, a Veda Vyasa, that is Krishnadwaipayana, and before him, so many revelations were there, they have been forever lost. After him also, many things have been lost. So, Vedas are not four. Let us get rid of that delusion. Vedas are four. Veda means knowledge. Knowledge is infinite. Revelations are infinite. All the time, revelations are going on. What does it mean four Vedas? Vyasa means editor or composer, analyzer. The person who was called earlier Krishnadwaipayana, the son of Parashara Muni, he gathered all the available knowledge, revelations, and then for the sake of convenience, divided them into four. And then what does convenience mean? Convenience means as time goes on, the capacity, the understanding, receiving, retaining capacity of the disciples also dwindles. That is why it is said, every next generation is a degeneration. So, this person, because one person cannot digest everything, Veda Vyasa digested everything. He had four disciples. He knew these four disciples cannot have the entire Veda. So, he divided these Vedas into four, and each one he gave to each one of his disciples. Even then, historically, how many differences of opinions have come, it is impossible for us to understand. Now, I said four Vedas are there. Let us get rid of the idea Vedas are four. Veda, existing knowledge, has been divided into four parts. That is why they came to be known as four Vedas. And each Veda is divided into four parts. Every part is appropriately assigned, allotted to one particular stage of life. Brahmacharya, Garhasthya, Vanaprastha and Sanyasa Ashrama. And Purusharthas, the goals of human life, have also been beautifully harmonized. For Brahmacharya life, learn what is life. Garhastha life, experience, experiment, and slowly you progress in life. And Vanaprastha Ashrama, now you renounce what is non-essential, accept what is essential, and focus your mind upon that. This is called Upasana. And in the fourth, you become one with that essence, which is you are none other than God. That is being indicated in these first two shlokas, that whether you look at yourself, from yourself to God, or from God to yourself, either you consider yourself as the effect, look at your cause, or you look at the cause, and then try to understand yourself. Both ways, there are no two, there is only one. This is being indicated by these two. So here is Mayavi, like a magician, Mayavi. And then Mahayogi, and we get statements in Shri Ramakrishna's Gospel, exactly corresponding to these things. I am going to quote some of them. How astonishingly Shri Ramakrishna's teachings can help us understand these terse verses. They are really terse, because if we want to understand them, we have to go to get help from Sureshwaracharya, who has written a Vartika Bhashya on this, called Manasa Ollasa. And there, for each shloka, he devoted more than ten shlokas, nearly 143 shlokas. He expounded the highest spiritual truth. Of course, it becomes more and more terse. So I would like to have his simple meaning. Let us now take Shri Ramakrishna's help. But before that, I also talked about, when we look at any object in this world, every object is a karya, is an effect. And every effect must have two causes, material cause as well as intelligent cause. And that is the first law. Second is, every effect must have a cause, and there should be no difference between the cause and effect. It cannot be. It is impossible. Second, these two let us keep in mind and then try to understand what Shri Ramakrishna had to say here. God and His splendour. God alone is real. His splendour has but a two-day existence. The magician and his magic. All become speechless with wonder at the magic. But it is all unreal. The magician alone is real. The rich man and his garden. People see only the garden. They should look for its rich owner. Very practical advice. First of all, he says magician. So magic is unreal. That means, what do we understand? There are two substances. One is the magic and the magician. That would be a completely wrong idea. The magic came out of whom? The intelligence of the magician manifested as an experiential fact is called magic. But this manifestation of magic is only just a part, an infinitesimal part of the splendour or power of the magician. So if we are entrenched, deluded by the magic, then do we suffer? Yes. Do we enjoy? Yes. Both will be there. And this is called samsara. This is to indicate God alone is real. And Shri Ramakrishna makes it abundantly clear as we are going to read. Important point, please remember. Magic is not separate from the magician. It came out of him and it remains for some time. And then what happens? This is the question you will have to ask yourself. Where from the magic has come? From the magician. And now the crucial question is where did the magic disappear? It only disappeared into the magician because it is the power of the magician only. The power of God is Maya. This entire creation is a manifestation of God's power. So God and this world are not at all different. And that is what will be indicated in the third verse which we will go very shortly. Who can make us understand that God alone is real, everything is unreal? Who will make us understand? The person who makes us understand is called the Guru. But how does he make us understand? So Sri Ramakrishna is giving reply. There are two ways. One is the path of discrimination. The other is that of love. Discrimination means to know the distinction between the real and the unreal. God alone is the real and permanent substance. All else is illusory. Every word of Sri Ramakrishna is pregnant with tremendous meaning. It is a substance. So there are two things called substance and qualities. So the roundness, the colour, the shape, the size, etc. is called guna. A guna is not a substance. Why? Because the substance ever remains the same. The substance can remain without the quality. But quality cannot remain without the substance. For example, a red rose. Rose is the substance. Redness is the quality. Fragrance is the quality. Multi-petalledness is a quality. So the rose will always be there. The gunas. Redness is not an object. How do we know what is an object? When you can separate one from the other and if both are separate, separable, that is called substances. For example, a table and a chair. You can separate them. But a round table. Try to remove that roundness. What will you see? Nothing. Wood alone is real. Roundness is just a quality. Redness is a quality. Sweetness is a quality. Smallness is a quality. Etc. etc. This is what Sri Ramakrishna is telling. A magician is alone the substance. God alone is the substance. All else is illusory. A magician alone is real. His magic is illusory. This is discrimination. What is this discrimination? Magician alone is real. His magic is illusory. What is the discrimination here? The discrimination is this magic is the power. If this person could create so many things out of practically as if nothing. A rabbit and a huge pole. Swami Vivekananda was very fond of quoting this one. The rope trick. Indian rope trick. So, everything, so long as we see, we were struck with wonder. A man throws a rope into the sky and it spreads, it goes up and up and disappears in the clouds. Then the man, he throws everything, starts climbing and he goes beyond. And then suddenly we see some parts of the magician, some parts of some Rakshasa are falling down, blood is there and after some time the rope disappears, the dead bodies disappear. Only the magician bows down and says, what about my face? I have shown you the magic. What are we talking about? The magic is a power and that power belongs to the that substance called God. If the God doesn't have that power, a poet doesn't have the power of making poetry, a scientist doesn't have the knowledge of science, he cannot even be called a scientist. So, what is Sri Ramakrishna indicating? That the power is an infinitesimal part of God. So, do you want infinite happiness or do you want a part? A part gives you partial happiness and partial happiness means your brother is getting more than you are getting. That is also partial happiness. It creates only misery, distress. So, do you want everything? Yes, then catch hold of God, become one with Him, that is called Upasana. This is what it is not to indicate the falseness of things, it is to direct us to the power of the person who is doing it. So, the magician alone is real. Then Sri Ramakrishna continues, Nothing exists excepting the One. That One is the Supreme Brahman. So long as He keeps the eye in us, He reveals to us that it is He who has the primal energy, creates, preserves and destroys the universe. I am keeping a small commentary on Sri Ramakrishna in the context of these Dakshinamurthy shlokas. So, he says that One is the Supreme Brahman and how long this universe contains and continues? So long as He keeps the eye in us. Who kept the eye in us? This is a very crucial question. Each one of us has got egotism. Now, stop to think and say, Did I create this eye-ness myself or did someone put it in us? Obviously, a foolish fellow will think, Why? This is me. I created myself. Well, my dear sir, I remember a beautiful story. When I was in Delhi, there was one Bengali devotee and he used to make fun of many people. So, one day a young couple came and they had a child 4-5 years old and this Bengali devotee took that child in his lap and said, Oh, I love you, but you know your parents don't love you. The child was looking, asking, Yes, my parents, they love me very much. Is it so? Then go and ask them, How come they invited me and everybody else for their wedding feast and they excluded you? They never invited you for their wedding. Of course, the child will not understand that unless they are wed, he will not be born. Immediately, the child ran and said, Why did you not invite me when uncle was invited? Of course, the parents, what could they say? So, I hope you are getting what I am driving at. Before I became I, where was I? Only I could say, I am me. After God creates the body, the mind, and keeps a little bit of that Chidad Chidabhasa, then comes only the idea of I. Not to speak of creation, even when we go to bed, our I also disappears. The Ahamkara that we understand, it disappears because there is nothing to identify with body and mind. That which He reveals, it is He who keeps the I in us. And therefore, what is the implication? Only He can remove the I in us. He reveals to us that it is He as the primal energy creates, preserves and destroys the universe. This is a sentence of such deep meaning. Why do we perceive this universe? Because of Ahamkara, egotism. Do you perceive the universe when you are in deep sleep? When your Ahamkara is not there? So, as soon as we become conscious this is me, the entire world including me is made conscious of by me. Then comes the question, where from have I come? Where from this universe has come? And what is my relationship with my progenitor and with this universe? Triangle. God who created me and the universe who is created. What is the relationship between God, Ishwara and me and the entire universe? The entire scriptures are meant only, my dear sir, first of all they say you came from God. So, this world also has come from God. So, you are also created. This world also is created. So, both of you are effects and God is the cause. But after some time they say, just as you forget yourself, God and the universe in deep sleep, so also, when you awake to that highest truth, then you understand there was no universe, there was no me, there was no creator. Karya, Karana Sambandha is totally destroyed. That is called realization. All these verses, Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, Upanishads, everything is meant for us to understand this. Sri Ramakrishna continues, What is the essence of what I just quoted from Sri Ramakrishna? It is God who created I-ness in us and only He can destroy. We cannot destroy because we cannot do anything except being. All that we can do is pray and try to surrender ourselves to Him. Oh Lord, You destroy this I-ness. That was what we discussed in Ishavasya Upanishad in the 16th or 17th mantra. hiraṇmayena pātreṇa satyasya apihitaṁ mukhaṁ tattvaṁ pōṣaṇa pāvaruṇa satya dharmāya dṛṣṭaye I surrender myself to You. I am not able to overcome this maya, golden disc. Please reveal Yourself. You remove the golden disc. And then God heard the prayer and removed. And then through this astonishment, Oh, You do not exist because only I exist and I am praying to myself. But this is after realization. yo asavasau soham asmi Sri Ramakrishna continues, That which is Brahman is also the primal energy. Once a king asked a yogi to impart knowledge to him in one word. The yogi said, Alright. You will get knowledge in one word. This is called Mahavakya. After a while, a musician came to the king. The king saw the musician moving two of his fingers rapidly and heard him exclaim, Behold, O king, behold. The king looked at him amazed. Then after a few minutes, he saw the two fingers becoming one. The musician moved that one finger rapidly and said, Behold, O king, behold. Beautiful words, pregnant with deep meaning, as I said before. What are the two fingers? Magic always requires the musician as well as what he shows and then the audience. So here God had become two as it were. What is it? God and this entire world of which I am a part. So the implication of this story, Sri Ramakrishna continues, is that Brahman and the primal energy at first appear to be two. What is the primal energy? God, Brahman and the universe. Brahma, Brahman and this Vishwa, Jagat, appear to be two separate, incompatible, about which we are going to talk very soon. So appear to be two at first. But after attaining the knowledge of Brahman, one does not see the two. Then there is no differentiation. It is one without a second. Advaita, non-duality. This is what Sri Ramakrishna says. Keep it in mind, not my words. Master to M. I learnt Vedanta from Nanta. Brahman alone is real. The world is illusory. The musician performs his magic. He produces a mango tree which even bears mangoes. Can you understand what? For a normal mango tree, it takes five, six years to get one mango. Here within a second, not only a seed becomes a mango tree, it grows in no time. That is the power of Maya. But this is all sleight of hand. The musician alone is real. Why? Because without the musician, there can be no magic. God and his splendor. God alone is real. The splendor has but a two-day existence. Like the musician, as soon as two hours is over and he packs his bag and baggage, if he gets some money, he will take it, pockets it, and then departs. And we also go back. The splendor has but a two-day existence. The musician and his magic. All become speechless with wonder at the magic. But it is all unreal. The musician alone is real. The rich man and his garden. People see only the garden. They should look actually for its rich owner. Every word of Shri Ramakrishna. Who is the owner of the garden? The garden can be owned only by a rich man. And the riches of God are what is called uncountable, infinite. If we want more, then we have to go to God. In other words, take refuge in God. So, coming back, how does a Guru make us understand? He says through the Vedantic teachings, Upanishadic teachings. What is that? Thou art that. Tattvam asi. The truth of you is the truth of everyone. And the truth of you and everyone is the truth of Brahma. Nothing else. So, this is discovered directly and immediately. You cannot understand this by study, by pravachana. That is being told here that all these things cannot be understood by any other means excepting the only means is by direct perception. And that direct experience is given by the Guru in two ways. First, He gives us through shravana and it becomes authentic. Why? Anything that comes from an authentic person becomes authentic. How do we know? Ramakrishna asked Pandit Sheshadar, Tarkachodamani, Did God give you authority? He says, No, Sir. But this fellow, Pratapchandra Majumdar, Yes, yes, he must have got like that. What is Ramakrishna referring to? And in my WhatsApp application, yesterday and today, you would see, Swami Vivekananda declared, I am God. And then he also says, One lady asked him, Swami, I wished I were at the time of Sri Ramakrishna. Then I would have... And Swamiji turned and looked at her and said, And you have seen me. And you say that. What was Swami Vivekananda telling? That if you have seen me, you have seen Sri Ramakrishna and better than Sri Ramakrishna. Why better than Sri Ramakrishna? Because if you see Sri Ramakrishna, you will not understand. Swami Vivekananda can convey you something and can joke with you and can touch you and all that. If you go to Sri Ramakrishna, I suspect he will only forever go into Samadhi, never want to see you again in your whole life. Sorry. How does the Guru teach? First through Shramana. That is His first grace. What is His second grace? He removes your obstacles and makes you progress in spiritual life. That is His second grace. What is the third grace? This we get clue from Swami Brahmanandaji. In answer to a question by one disciple, Swami Brahmanandaji says, The Guru, can He give Brahma Jnana? Yes. How does He do? He takes you to your Ishta Devata. Look at your Ishta Devata. And then what does the Guru do? He becomes submerged in the Ishta Devata. If the Guru is Ishta Devata and you are His disciple, what do you think He will do? He will keep you outside? He will also make you understand I am none other than Rama whom I am worshipping, Krishna whom I am worshipping. That is what Jesus Christ says, I and my Father are one. Aham Brahmasmi. Father means Brahma. So that something which is impossible can be made possible only. So here is something about slight deviation. So as if by Maya Viva. A musician. Maya. What is Maya? Maya is mind. Don't go on thinking. Mind is separate. Maya is separate. Maya is nothing but my own mind. And what is my own mind? It manifests, it is constituted of Desha, Kala, Nimitta. Time, Space and Causation. And when I look at my own reflection, this is the example, perhaps I have not given you before, I am giving you now. Suppose you stand in front of a mirror and you want to look at your own reflection. Now you put on a coloured spectre on your eyes and look at your reflection. How does it appear? If you put on green glasses, your reflection also will be green. And supposing your spectre consists of five, six parts, one is red, one is blue, one is concave and one is convex. Then how does your reflection appear? To be broken, to be different each part by part. So this is a more beautiful example, not merely a good mirror. So through the kaleidoscope of our mind consisting of Time, Space, Causation, when we look in the mirror of our own mind and then our reflection appears as this variegated, varied, infinite number of worlds, just as we create our own whole dream world. That is the essence of this particular second verse. So this is not a dogma, doctrine or belief. This is something we have to directly experience and then know that the world is none other than me. I am looking at it. So everything depends upon me. So this maya power, if a question may come, what is the definition of maya according to many of the Vedanta themes? Aghatana, ghatana, patiyasi. That which makes the impossible possible. We quote it any number of times but what we need to understand is maya cannot make the impossible possible. Maya cannot make Brahman into the world. Then what is the meaning? Maya seemingly makes the impossible possible. That making the impossible possible is a seeming power, not real power. Because maya itself is not real. An unreal power cannot make something very real. So many implications are there. No Vedanta in worth his salt can ever say maya is more powerful than Brahman. If you accept maya makes the impossible possible, that means it made Brahman, bhranti, abrahman, then it is a very poor man's understanding of Advaita Vedanta. But it looks as if it is real. It seems to be real. That is the power. And who is that power? Ramakrishna says God and His power are not two different things. So He is making Himself there. What we have to understand here is that if you take this whole universe, it is like a seed. The seed has come from where? From a tree. The tree is the cause of the seed and the seed is the cause of the tree, which is first. If you take linear thinking, what is linear thinking? That the whole world was not there, then it came. That is called linear thinking. What is circular thinking? The seed came from the tree. The tree came from the seed. The seed came from the tree. The tree came from the seed. The seed came from the tree. The tree came from the seed. This is called circular thinking. What is the point of circular thinking? This is important. What is the point? When did God create? How did He create? Why did He create? You cannot answer this because to say Say when, why, how, you will have to presume a beginning of time and a particular place and a particular reason why God wants to create. But if it is circular thinking like seed and when, where, which is first? There is no first. It is infinite. That means Srishti is Anadi. Anadi means beginningless. Beginningless means there is no creator. I hope you are able to understand it. Beginningless means there is no time. Beginningless means nobody is responsible. Who created? When you say, when did this potter create this pot? There is a time, there is a place. Before there was no pot but now there is a pot. So he started day before yesterday, finished it yesterday, baked it today and it is ready. That is what is called linear thinking. Circular thinking is Srishti is Anadi. So if you understand what I am talking about, you cannot question if you are thinking in this circular thinking because there is no creator. Creator means there was a time and there was a place, there was a reason. And that which is Anadi cannot have a name. If there is no creator, why did he create? That question doesn't arise. And if you cannot ask why did he, how did he create and with what materials he create? This is how Advaita Vedanta wants to take us this and destroy that Vada called Karya, Ka Karana, Karya Vada. So it is from the unmanifest to the manifest, from the manifest to the unmanifest. In the second verse, there is a word Punaha. So he is doing it, Punaha maya kalpita. That word Punaha is what we have been talking just now, Anadi. What is Anadi? It appears to be having a beginning. Say for example, here is a tree. When did it come? Oh, I put the seed, then it became a tree. And where from the seed has come? If you question, then you have to say it came from its previous tree. And where from that previous tree has come? From its previous seed. So I hope you are getting my essence of my argument is that according to Advaita Vedanta, Srishti or creation is beginningless. If it is beginningless, but it is not endless. It can be brought to an end when real knowledge comes. What happens when real knowledge comes? We understand not that we get out of creation, but there was no creation at all. All these things we will enter into the Shloka 3. Very important. यस्यवस्पुर्णं सदात्मकं असत्कल्पार्धकं भासते साक्षात्तत्वमसीति वच्यस यो भोधयति आश्रितान् यह साक्षात् करणात् भवेत न पुनरावुरुत्तिः भवां भोनिधवु तस्मय स्री गुरुमुर्तये नमयिदं स्री दक्षिणामुर्तये Obeisance, Namaskara to Sri Dakshinamurthy by whose brilliance, which is of the nature of existence, this world which is similar to unreality shines, who is enlightening those that have taken refuge in him by the message of the Vedas, thou art verily that Tattvamasi and by realizing whom there is no return to this ocean of transmigration. This third verse stretches that liberation, freedom from rebirth comes by the knowledge of the Atman arising out of the Guru's teaching of Mahavakya Tattvamasi. There are a few points. First, I will go through these meanings in a simple way. The fourth line of all these shlokas is the same, तस्मय, to that who, स्री गुरुमुर्तय, the Guru. Guru means what? True knowledge. Guru always means true knowledge and true knowledge is none other than Brahman. Another name for that Brahman is called Dakshinamurthy. Dakshinamurthy means the creator, the sustainer and the destroyer of this entire world, who, the very embodiment of knowledge, Satchitananda, is manifesting in the form of my own Guru and is trying to enlighten me through which I can get out of these limitations of samsara. I have no other way but to salute Him. Here, नमः means what? Earlier we discussed. One meaning is complete surrender. Second meaning is I do what He asks me to do. How do we know? Because this is what Arjuna is illustrating. This तस्मय, स्री गुरुमुर्तय, नमः इदं स्री दक्षिनमुर्तय. In answer to the question by Shri Krishna, almost at the fag end of Bhagavad Gita, did you hear, कस्चिदेतत् स्रुतंपार्थत् वयेकाग्रेण केतसा कस्चिद अज्ञानसंमोहः प्रणस्टस्ते धनन्जया? Have you heard my teaching, Arjuna? If so, if you have heard, the result would be all your delusions must have been broken. And categorically Arjuna replies, that is very important to understand this particular third shloka. He says, नस्टो मोहा, my delusion is gone. स्मृतिर्लभ्धा, now I have my real Smriti. What is it? I am the Atman, I am not Arjuna, Duryodhana, Dushyasana, Bhishma, Drona, Karna, Shakuni. All these are nothing but a play of the divine Brahma. माया कल्पित, देश काल कलना वयेचित्रिय चित्रिकृतं, upon the realization, साक्षात्त्त्वमसीति, बोधयति आश्रिता, आश्रिता means one who has taken refuge. The Guru teaches him, there is no world excepting you, there is no enemy, there is no friend, there is no parent, there is no son, there is no I, you, anybody else. Only that Parabrahma and that is you, that alone exists. So he is telling that Guru who gives me the teaching through Sravana and strengthens it through Manana and reveals himself as the Parabrahma in the form of pure knowledge to that Dakshinamurthy, my salutation. And how does he do it? साक्षात्त्त्वमसीति. What is साक्षात्? He simply doesn't come and say, तत्वमसीति, you are that Parabrahma, he says. He will see that you attain. This was what Sri Ramakrishna was telling through the illustration of three types of doctors, Tamasika doctor, Rajasika doctor and Sattvika doctor. A Tamasika doctor prescribes the medication, says, my good man, it will do you good, go on taking the medication. And the Rajasika fellow now and then comes, are you taking? Are you taking? He pesters us until we are forced to take something. This Sattvika, he will throw you down and sits upon you, catches hold of your throat, opens your mouth and like an animal pushes the medicine down. That is called साक्षात्त्त्वमसीति वेदवचस. Is it Guru's words? No, sir. Whose words? Veda Vachesa. And Veda is another name for Brahman. यो भोधेति आश्रितम्. But he cannot do it unless you lend a hand. So you will have to surrender yourself in front of him. And then the first sentence, what is यस्यवस्पुर्णम् सदात्मकम् असत्कल्पार्थकम् भासति. यस्यवस्पुर्णम्. असत्कल्पार्थकम् means manifestation. So whose manifestation? Brahman's manifestation. How is it manifesting? What is the nature of that पुर्णम्? सदात्मकम्. सत्. I am. I am. Existence, knowledge and bliss. सत्, चित् and अनन्द. असत्कल्पार्थकम्. See, here is something wonderful. The one Brahman appears to be this manifold variegated universe. This whole universe. Just like when a person sees in semi-darkness a rope. So this is the classical example of रज्यो सर्पब्रांति. But what you need to understand, we have to put that example in the proper way. A person mistakes the rope for a snake or something else. That translation is a bad translation. What is the right translation? When does this person understand? Only when he understands this is not anything else but only one rope. That is all. But when light is brought up, the one rope appears variegated. What variegated? It could be a garland. If a man is searching for his beloved garland, all shops are closed and here is somebody thrown a beautiful garland, variegated garland and it is completely free. That is one delusion. Another person, it is a small streak of light. Another person, there is a crack. Crack not in the earth. There is a crack in the earth and it is a little bit of bent and it appears to be a snake. That crack is really in the head, not on the ground. A stream of water, a bent stick. So one existence appears to be to different people, different things. This is what I have discussed elaborately. We create ourselves a child's world, an adolescent world, a youth's world, a middle-aged person's world, a man's world, a woman's world. Everything is totally different. In a mosquito world, if you ask the opinion of a mosquito about humanity, it says this is the worst creation of God. These rascals do not allow a good mosquito like me. They put on so much of this mosquito net and they call it mosquito net and I have no entrance into it. It does not give me the password. But of course, there are good people and those people, they become holy and holier. So the mosquito curtain becomes holier and holier and the mosquito also makes them holier and there are holiest persons where there is no mosquito curtain at all. This is the view of a mosquito. Let us never forget about it. So Yasyayivaspurana, that one existence, knowledge, bliss and what is its nature? Sadatmakam, in the form of pure existence, pure knowledge and pure Ananda. Asatkalparthakam. What is Asat? Not non-existent. Asat means appearing as many fold, just like if there are many mirrors in the room, all around our room, how many of us we will see and if the mirrors are of different sizes, different shapes, different colours and different properties, then we do not see similar reflections. We see ourselves as short, tall, lean and fat and then our face also becomes like the paintings of great painters like that. It goes on like that. This is called Asatkalparthakam. Asat means what? It is only appearance, not reality. In other words, this entire universe is nothing but a manifestation through time, space and causation of that one indivisible reality and we are frightened thinking that I am different. This maya creates as it were an artificial boundary separation like a line drawn on a body of water as Sri Ramakrishna says. But when we are suffering from this delusion, now we are not suffering. Now, not only we are not suffering, we want this delusion to continue. I want this body to live. I want my mind also to be very alert. I want my wife, I want my husband, I want my children. None of us should die and my property should go on increasing. And if it is not increasing, go and pray to God or chant Sri Suktam or Kanakadharastavam. Go on doing all these things. What are you doing? Asatkalparthakam you are doing. But a time will come like a child, in Sri Ramakrishna's words, tired of the play and then he throws the whole lot and then runs to the mother. Who is the mother? The Guru. And what does he say? Sakshat. He will tell you the truth. And you have no option but to accept because he is like a Satvika doctor. And then through Manana, he removes all your doubts. And then he makes you practice guiding you step by step until Sakshat Tattvam Siddhi. Until you realize. How do we know? Remember, Totapuri asked Sri Ramakrishna, remove all thoughts and focus upon only Brahman. What was Sri Ramakrishna's reply? I can remove every thought excepting the thought of my Divine Mother. What you cannot remove, I will make you remove. This is what exactly we are talking. The Sadguru, He will not leave you. Other words also Sri Ramakrishna expresses the same beautiful idea. You fool, you are not caught by a water snake. You are caught by a cobra. At best, you will croak three times. After that, you have no chance. And this is what exactly Swamiji also told. I think I have sent or I am going to send it. You have been caught, not by an ordinary snake, by a cobra. Where do you think you are going? You are born for me. In fact, Swami Vivekananda makes some startling statements in the West. He says, somebody was trying to run away. Then he made this statement to others about that lady, wherever she is, even if I am in hell, then she will have to come and help me because she is born only for that purpose. She cannot escape her fate. Now this is what the Guru says, oh you fellow, I have caught you and then you have no other way of escaping from me and I will see that until you realize who you are, I am not going to leave you. I am not an ordinary snake, I am cobra. But what is the condition? And those who refuse. Once a person has such a realization, it will not happen again. What will not happen? Coming back again. That means a rebirth is impossible once this realization comes. And a Guru, if a disciple truly surrenders himself to him, is going to make that so-called thing, I am God. And how does he do this? There are beautiful ideas. I will just give you very briefly. First of all, the statements of the scriptures have a superficial meaning called Vaakyaartha and there is an inner meaning called Lakshyaartha. And to make us understand the Lakshyaartha, intended meaning, not superficial meaning, there are three, what is called, instruments are used. Through three types of arguments are used. These are called Lakshanas. One is called Jaharlakshana, another is called Ajahatlakshana, another is called Jahajahatlakshana. So the third one has another name. It is called Bhagatyaagalakshana. That is, you retain something, you give up something, then only you will attain at the Lakshyaartha. Otherwise, these Vedic words do not make any meaning. And through the employment of these three instruments, the Guru makes us understand these, what we call, Mahavakyas, the teachings that teach the oneness of individual and Ishwara. This is what we are going to discuss in our next class, in this third verse. May Ramakrishna, Holy Mother and Swami Vivekananda bless us all with the blessings.