Dakshinamurti Stotram Part 19 on 04 March 2021

Full Transcript(Not Corrected)

OM JANANIM SHARADAM DEVIM RAMAKRISHNAM JAGAD GURUM PADAPADMETAYO SRIDHVA PRANAMAMI MUHURMUHUR OM YO BRAHMANAM VIDADHATI PURVAM YO VAI VEDAMSYA PRAHINOTI TASMAI TAMHA DEVAM ATMA BUDDHI PRAKASHAM MUMUKSHUR VAI SHARANAM AHAM PRAPADYE In our last class we had discussed the fourth shloka. What is the essence of the fourth shloka? That every Jeeva is the Atman and the Atman as the individual is called Jeevatma is none other than Paramatma and this supreme reality called Brahman or Atman is the substratum for the entire manifested world and to realize this oneness of oneself with Brahman and the oneness of the whole world with the Brahman is the goal of life and this can be achieved only by the grace of the God which comes in the form of one's own Guru and it was concluded that the world of objects that means the entire universe has no separate independent existence of its own and it is also conclusively proved that it is the consciousness Brahman that lends existence Sattva as well as illumination Spurana These are very two important words in the entire Vedic writings Sattva – existence Spurana – recognition of the existence These two always go together as we discussed So this fourth verse explicitly states that the knowledge we acquire through our sense organs has its roots in the Atman It is like the light kept inside a pot full of holes coming out and lighting up various objects outside Shankaracharya takes this brilliant imagery imagining an empty pot and having many holes and inside it there is a bright light na na chidra gata udarasthita maha deepa prabha bhaswaram jnanam yasyatu chakshuradi karanadwara bahi spandate janamiti tameva bhantam anubhati etat samastam jagat tasmai sri gurumurtaye namayidam sri dakshinamurtaye Salutations to that Dakshinamurti who is manifesting in the form of my own Guru whose consciousness alone is flowing out through the senses like the eyes etc. even as a powerful light kept within a pot full of holes flows out through the holes following whom a resplendent one this world is shining and thinks I know, I know, I know janami iti tameva bhantam anubhati etat samastam jagat this Atman is one and the same everywhere but depending upon the medium the status of Atma changes a beautiful example can also be taken Shankaracharya opted to give the illustration of a pot with many holes but inside there is a very bright light but we can also take this illustration electricity is one but depending upon the medium it manifests as heat, as a light, as movement as attracting power so in various ways and if the bulbs are small, big, colored, different shapes so the light also appears to be like that what does it mean? whatever exists in this world living, non-living and among the living even an ant why do, why did I remember the ant? because I remember an incident from the life of holy mother once she was in Varanasi and the topic came up because that is the most important topic in whole, in man's whole life by just merely dying just imagine this unimaginable thing no need to do any sadhana just be dying there so one disciple probably was having his own little doubts about it he pointed out to a crawling ant and asked mother is this ant also going to be liberated? mother said of course yes anything that dies in Varanasi it will attain liberation now this is what is being pointed out so what is an ant? ant's body, ant's mind is merely reflecting that pure consciousness that is an ant that is a Jeeva with regard to living things in Hindu's eyes there is no non-living thing at all rivers are goddesses or there are one or two gods are there like Brahmaputra mountains are gods whether it is Meruparvata or whether it is Himalayas these are all not only not living but they belong to the celestial realm it is said in the Puranas or even in the earlier Vedas that the mountains used to fly at the beginning and they used to land wherever they like crushing everybody like nowadays the distant electrically electronically operated drones killing people etc and people prayed to Indra and Indra came and cut off the wings and that is how the mountains became unable to move nowadays so there is nothing the Bhumi, Bhudevata, Jaladevata, Agnidevata of course Agnidevata is the most famous one because most Hindus perform their rituals only in the fire and whether a person is believer or not in the end the body is consigned only to this either fire Devata, Agnidevata or Bhudevata and some sadhus also they confine their bodies to Jaladevata or some also confine it to Vayudevata by falling down a cliff and then it slowly the body dries up through the Vayudevata it is said there is a spot in Himalayas at the edge of it there is a deep valley and because of the intense cold these people lose their life and hypothermia or something like that and immediately the high wind topples the body and then it just keeps there drying up everything is living and not only that most important fact is even the living beings cannot live cannot even continue for a millisecond if they were not dependent upon a non-living thing whether it is air in the form of oxygen whether in the form of earth in the form of plants, food etc. is impossible to live so both depend upon each other everything is nothing but the manifestation of the Atman both externally as well as internally that is one of the most wonderful things so Sri Ramakrishna has given his own illustration in so many ways he gave the illustration once I have seen the entire world made up of wax and Sri Ramakrishna used to say he has really seen the entire universe in the form of sound also Nada Brahma Swami Vekaranda had given his own brilliant example the whole world is nothing but Brahman perceived through the prism of the mind consisting of the Desha, Kala, Nimitta that is time, space and causation so what is the summary of this fourth shloka first point it is the Brahman, the pure consciousness that projects this entire universe and who am I? I am that pure consciousness and I alone manifest and illumine the whole world and without me the world itself doesn't exist if I do not cognize the world it doesn't exist the body doesn't exist the mind also doesn't exist where the body and mind do not exist the world also doesn't exist as for example in deep sleep second point this is also a very important point it is I who create, maintain and destroy the world we say it is Brahma we say it is Srishti Karta, Vishnu no, it is I a very interesting fact I will interject here a little bit supposing I am sleeping do I know anything about Vishnu? does Vishnu, Brahma, Vishnu, Shiva, Divine Mother, Atman do they really exist? when my body and mind are completely silent in the deep sleep only when I wake up Brahma wakes up Vishnu wakes up and Shiva wakes up the entire world wakes up in fact if you look at the world in a particular way that is called Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva what is that vision? when I see birth of any object in this world birth means coming into manifestation that is called Brahma when I see the world going on nicely or not so nicely that is called Vishnu and when I see something going out of my experiential realm it is called Shiva nothing but these are the three things they always come together and go together so that is the point it is I who create, maintain and destroy the world without me there is no world but I am without the world Srishti, Stithi, Laya are done by me means by my pure consciousness in the form of, through the medium of my mind remember pure consciousness doesn't do anything but when it is mixed with body which is called Avidya or Maya then only Srishti, Stithi, Laya, Sadhana, Mukti everything is posited only with the help of the mind so it is all done by me that means by my pure consciousness in association with the mind that is important this can be understood through the example of dream state a person, you, me we wake up from the dream state and come into this waking state, Jagra Dvasta and we look back who created the dream? me who maintained the dream state? me and who destroyed that dream world? me how did I destroy? not by throwing an atom bomb but by just by the mere act of waking up I destroyed this entire dream world when I am conscious the world comes into existence and when I with my consciousness when I close my consciousness withdraw my consciousness the whole world disappears remember always world and God they always go together you cannot separate that idea so when I am awake then Brahma, Vishnu, Maheshwara and the world come when I go into deep sleep I alone remain entire world disappears that means Brahma, Vishnu, Maheshwara also completely disappear this is the second point third point this knowledge what knowledge? that I am the creator, sustainer and destroyer of the entire world is the only knowledge that can and liberates me and I was able to obtain this liberating knowledge only by the grace of God who is manifesting in the form of my own Guru very important point many times I dealt with it whenever we look at our Guru never think he is a human being because only with your pure consciousness you wake up the Guru in your own mind if you have understood that third point this is what we have to understand unless you are a man or woman having deep faith you will not have faith in the Guru that means the liberating knowledge is called Guru and that liberating knowledge can come only by the grace of God and it comes only not very rarely God comes directly and tells you that happens only in Varanasi only in Varanasi Shiva comes and whispers Taraka Mantra what is that Taraka Mantra? that you are, thou art, that Tattvamasi and he touches and then immediately I realise every person, every Jeevatma realises very interesting point because this question very few people understand that here is a person who is dead and then his body is carried to the crematorium and then the body is getting burnt at that time Lord Shiva is moving among the corpses and then he whispers this Taraka Mantra to whom is he whispering? to the dead bodies or to the pure consciousness which is bound, seemingly bound by ignorance and I am being burnt so will that knowledge when the body is being burnt my body is being burnt is it there? yes, if it is, if the person is still attached to the body that will be there just as in life also I am being burnt so this many languages also we go on expressing it I am being roasted because of many problems, sufferings that we have got this is literally we need not take it sometimes it happens literally also when a house burns or when a car burns or when fire catches my saree or my dhoti then some consciousness remains and it goes I am being burnt we are going to discuss this point shortly so it is to this pure conscious Jeeva but deep ignorance binds him and makes him think I am being burnt even though the body is being burnt to such a Jeeva Shiva appears and says my son you are me there is no difference between me and you that is called Taraka Mantra so that is why Varanasi is a wonderful place you don't you you can enjoy your life thoroughly and only sadhana you have to do is don't leave that place just give up your body in that place so even an ant nothing but pure consciousness holy mother confirms that knowledge since it is Jeevatma Shiva liberates every Jeevatma but mind you it's only eight kilometer circumference if you go outside then you will have to be reborn and you have to attend some other Swami's class what is the fourth point this knowledge that the whole universe is nothing but Brahman is the essence of all the scriptures that existed or that are going to exist in future and last point as I mentioned we can obtain the grace of the Guru and become free there is no other way Tasmai Sri Guru Murtaye Namaidham Sri Dakshina Murtaye that is the essence of the fourth shloka now we are entering into the fifth shloka so until now we discussed four shlokas four verses what is the essence of the four verses the first one is has expounded the nature of every Jeevatma individual soul the second verse expounded the nature of the Tat or Brahman or real nature of everything in this world so here also one important point please keep in mind whenever we say Jeevatma there is not only the living creature it is everything is Jeevatma only a clod of earth a piece of stone or a lump of iron is it also Jeeva can it also be called Jeevatma who prevents us calling it as Jeevatma because supposing there is a person who is unconscious is a Jeevatma or not Jeevatma similarly a clod of earth or a lump of iron or a piece of stone it is just like another person who is unconscious who is in coma and that is all the difference only thing is this person has a chance to get up and manifest his divinity but according to Advaita Vedanta Hindu philosophy everything is consisting of nothing else but Sat Chit and Ananda the second verse says the nature of the God what is it nothing but God but we are ignorant so the third verse explicitly tells the Asi Padartha that the Jeevatma and Paramatma is one and the same and the fourth one tells the existence the sustenance and the functioning of whether it is the body it is the mind etc sense organs everything is possible only because of the pure Atma in fact it is the pure consciousness which manifests as the body as the mind and as the entire world and that has been beautifully illustrated through the imagery of a pot which is full of holes but inside it nothing but pure light is there so why that light is posited here because to know that there is a pot and it has got lots of holes that is possible only when there is a light so not only the light reveals itself I am the light it also reveals the pot that this is a pot it has got many holes what is this pot here the Sthula Sharira of everything in this world also this Sukshma Sharira of everything in this world again and again I have to tell many times what about a cloud of earth according to scientists it is nothing but lifeless lump of matter but according to Advaita Vedanta or Vedanta is nothing but Bhudevi you see a lump of earth and mountains nothing but Bhudevi in fact the entire physical universe is nothing but the Bhumata and wherever we see the water that is called the water god god or the fire god in the form of the sun and the Vayudevata in the form of the oxygen and carbon dioxide and the form of the Akasha these are five or not lumps of lifeless consciousness matter but always shining with the deep light of the divine consciousness see that has been beautifully illustrated and to understand that every the example of dream state has been given there just as we create and we maintain and we also destroy the entire world which is called dream world so also this entire waking world is also nothing but my own creation I had also explained this point Brahma creates the world means we with our samskaras like a seed of a tree creates itself under favorable circumstances so Brahma's contribution is to create the favorable conditions for the seed to manifest like that this entire universe each one of us is a Brahma and do we know any other world do I know your world do I know your thoughts do I know your anything about you your past life your past samskaras your future life I know nothing I only know the present and that too very little of it each one of us are creating sustaining and destroying our own universes and that is illustrated through the imagery of the dream example just as a dream we are the creators and destroyers this entire waking state Jagrad Avastha is also we are the creator but we will not be able to understand this at this point when we wake up from this waking state which is called Turiya Avastha or it is also called the state of illumination then we understand two facts first fact is that the entire creation is my creation and second fact is there is nobody else excepting me what I have been crying hoarsely Oh God Oh Guru Oh Brahman this is all I was only crying like in a dream state only to myself and to nothing else that is my essential nature but why is it that people when they are asked who are you what's your nature so many opinions come to us why because they do not have the right guidance which is called Guru so this fifth shloka illustrates why people mistake themselves so much as somebody other than the Aka here is the fact who am I I am nothing but Shiva Shivoham Shivoham but you ask the people even the people who are singing I am Shivoham Shivoham beautifully in nowadays people sing and very ugly ways also they sing there is no meaning at all simply for the sake of singing they sing So Mano buddhi ahankara chitta ninaham Shivoham Shivoham Nirvana Shatka we sing anyway it is good at least to hear it once in a while but that is the real nature that means I am the pure Atman I am the Atman that is the final truth but how many people are there who know that they are the Atman very few people then if we are not aware I am the Atman then what do I call myself I am the non-Atman and when I say I am the non-Atman you ask 10 people what do you mean by non-Atman and there will be 10 different opinions if you ask at one time and if you ask the same question many times 100 opinions will be there but all these things have been analyzed and they are all called Adhyasas superimpositions what is it I superimposed myself into five categories broadly speaking five categories I have identified myself with and we all know what I am going to talk about what are the if this statement can be also rephrased I identify myself with three states I identify myself with five sheets Panchakosha so every other opinion can be inculcated into these either the three or the five what are the three first of all that is the gross body I am the gross body I am the subtle body and I am the causal body what is the second I am the body I am the prana I am the mind I am the buddhi and I am the ananda Sanskrit we all know the terminology by this time you should be knowing I identify myself with Annamaya Kosha or Pranamaya Kosha or Manomaya Kosha or Vijnanamaya Kosha or Anandamaya Kosha there is no other Kosha only five Koshas are there and this is the brilliant topic if God permits or gives us an opportunity we can think of it in the Taittiriya Upanishad third chapter called Bhrigu Valli extraordinarily beautifully it has been explained by Varuna a Naira Brahman to his former son who is called Bhrigu it is called Bhrigu Valli so these are the Pancha Kosha this is what is called Atma Brahanti I am the body I am the pranas I am the mind and I am the buddhi or intellect and I am the Ananda now another point we have to understand is also this not that from birth to birth some people are identified with the body other people are identified with prana or mind or intellect or ananda every day at any given time we go on shifting our identity into these five for example when I am intensely conscious of the body when supposing some burning fire wood touches my body what am I completely aware of my body supposing I am suffering from asthma unable to breathe then what am I identified with now Pranamaya Kosha when I get up in the morning from an inadequate sleep my head is still reeling and I become conscious of the world I don't know who I am who am I where am I what am I supposed to do this is called identification with the mind then some important decision had to be taken and my mind is being pulled by five horses in five different because every decision has certain advantages as well as disadvantages at that time I am completely identified with the intellect and when I am in deep sleep that is the greatest example given I am completely identified with the Anandamaya Kosha so this can happen any combination can happen and in very quick succession at any given time but here is a but what is that but most of the time some of us are either in the state of identity with the body or with the prana or etc most of the time but mostly it is identity with the body who is the greatest authority a incarnation of God God himself is the greatest authority so first we will take the example from Bhagavad Gita when Arjuna asked which yoga is superior Bhakti yoga the path of devotion or Jnana yoga the path of knowledge and which is superior and that was a foolish question because it's not a question of which lane of the motorway is the best way this is depending upon your state of mind your age of the body and the condition of your vehicle and your ability whether you are half drunk or fully awake then which lane you have to take slow lane which is the best lane whichever you are comfortable with and that is the best lane this was the answer given by Krishna he says it is not that one is superior to the other whatever path suits the particular mentality that path is the best path for that particular person but in general here comes what we have been discussing the lord says categorically for those who are intensely conscious of the body the path of self-surrender namaskara is the best way the path of devotion and in the path of devotion as expounded by sage narada and in the in that path also narada ultimately comes complete surrender to god that is the the highest prapatti marga path of bhakti among bhakti also so what is superior which path is superior it is no path is superior depending upon our state of consciousness that is being expounded here that at every sloka in this dakshinamurthy stotram ends with namayidam asmai namayidam sri dakshinamurthy gurumurthy dakshinamurthy is paramatma but he is not manifesting to us in that direct form only upon realization we know every guru is nothing but dakshinamurthy but until that time my own guru is my dakshinamurthy so this is being expounded there so beautifully that's what we are going to study now so what is it in this fifth shloka and there are so many opinions i mentioned earlier depending upon what we are it could be the body identity or identity with the vital force prana or the mind or intellect or with the anandamaya kosha it could be any one of them unable to understand that we are the pure consciousness most of us identify ourselves with any one of the five what we call sheaths but this is expressed by people in different ways how does this manifest itself so various schools of philosophy have come and accepting the advaita vedanta non-dualistic philosophy every other philosophy tells us that either we are the body or we are the prana or we are the indriyas or we are the mind or we are the intellect or because of the study of deep sleep we are nothing or by the study of the mind we think that we are nothing but this mind which is changing this is called kshanika vijnana vada there are four different schools of buddhistic philosophy among them two of them have become very popular of them one school of philosophy holds that everything is kshanika means momentary flickering of consciousness and so every flicker of the consciousness it is born it dies dust flickers and dies and every human being or individual soul jiva atma is nothing but this flicker of consciousness they have their own problems but this is there what is what is called the strongest decision buddhi intellect they have come i am nothing but flickering consciousness therefore i am completely unreliable but even worse than that some other school of buddhism is there which is called everything is shunya everything is completely nothingness so here in this fifth shloka shankaracharya is constrained to bring up all these things you may logically naturally question what is the need for us for understanding all that philosophies because we are all at any given time whatever may be our intellectual pursuits we may be listening to this dakshinamurthy stotram again and again and studying vedanta but when we are hungry so we identify ourselves with the body and we not only that worse than that is we get very angry when we don't get it in time when we don't get what we really like to eat etc so sometimes we are having full of energy sometimes no energy at all and sometimes we are drowsy sometimes we are incapable of thinking deeply and many times we are incapable of coming to a decision to be or not to be which is one of the pivotal themes in shakespeare's plays there are so many opinions are there now why is this subject brought up because after reading all these views you sit alone and say to which school of philosophy am i the fan am i the devotee as i mentioned earlier we are not very particular we are sarva dharma samanvayis every path leads to the same goal that means what sometimes we identify with the body sometimes worse than that we identify with the external objects also and we know it but i will spell it out for you supposing a person is deeply attached to a dog and the something happens to the dog either it is run over by a car or runs away or shot dead by somebody or is dying i know people who grieve years after that now whom are they identifying themselves with if they have a headache they don't care much but if their son or their wife or somebody is deeply attached with whomsoever they are attached if something happens to that person to whom or object it could be money i hear of people who committed suicide because they have lost money in the business swami vekaranda course one and during that time there was a financial complete what is called downfall and there was an italian millionaire he was left only with one million dollars in those days and he committed suicide all because of what because because he lost everything excepting one million how could i live with one million when swami vekaranda was suffering to get a few thousand dollars that too for in the service of the india and here i have to mention swami vekaranda has completely failed in getting any aid then the revelation came to him you have not come here to collect money you have come here to deliver the universal message of vedanta if money comes that is fine money doesn't come it's also fine of course i have to add a few american devotees and one or two english devotees also not only contributed financially but also offered their own lives in service of the india one example is mr and mrs severe another example is sister nivedita sister christine etc to great extent they have served the society swami vekaranda realized late in life even though i have come for money that's not an important thing i'm just mentioning this by seeing that some job is lost exam some people fail examinations and they commit suicide that means they identified themselves with what i am a failure with an external they identify with an external event so let us broadly divide these identifications first of all the worst lowest type of identification with the things outside us money house cars property and that includes everything excepting my body wife children relatives friends religion country language everything then a little bit higher than that is identification with the body there was a ancient school of philosophy which is called popularly called as charvaka that is pure school of materialism what is their philosophy once this body is confined to the burning fire where is the question of this person going coming back again that means there is no life except in this body so so long as you live try to live very happily in the west these charvakas have taken a very refined form of school of philosophy they were called epicureans but they have tremendous philosophy my friend if you want to live happily you must have complete control over your body you should not go on eating whatever you like to eat but whatever sustains your life energy and allows you to live happily in this world so there is a lot to learn from epicureans i will talk about this in my next class but important thing is first identify with many things outside this body next higher than that identify with the body higher than that identify with the sense organs higher than that identify with the prana vital energy higher than that identify with the thought or mind convictions higher than that is identify with understanding thought power which is called intellect higher than that is identify with the anandamaya kosha once a person goes beyond all these things then only one one realizes naham naham neti neti i am not the body i am not the indriyas i am not the ahankara i am not the mind i am not the intellect i am not even the anandamaya kosha i am nitya shuddha buddha muktaha parabrahma asmi in order to enlighten us shankaracharya is not talking about all these schools of philosophy for the sake of educating us in philosophy this particular Dakshinamurthy stotram is purely concerned with sadhana and not with educating us with any philosophical thought not even advaita then we have to be warned my friend with what are you identified at this moment that is the most important thing are you identified with other than your body then you will have to give it up slowly that may be the very first step we have to transcend are you identified with the body transcend that are you identified with the what is called prana vital force transcend that are you identified with the what is called all the sense organs and you have to transcend that are you identified with the mind or with the intellect or even with what is called ananda what does this mean last sentence last statement mean means i am i don't want happiness i want to become happiness the tremendous difference between these two statements i want happiness that means what i don't have happiness but there are certain sources from which i can derive happiness if i can get to that source get to the that source or the medium of those who give me happiness then i will be happy what is wrong with it because every object that is capable of so we think giving us happiness is limited by time space and object very briefly i will tell you in this talk what it means really supposing there is a sweet and it is limited by time means what you can't eat at any time first of all and it doesn't last a very long time as soon as you eat it and your stomach full it will even create the opposite reaction so there is a time factor there is a factor of desha desha means at a particular space suppose it is a tiger is staring at you from behind the bush and then somebody drops into your lap a beautiful necklace diamond necklace or even a first class sweet so will you be looking at the tiger or at that object so this is called desha parichcheda you can't enjoy food untimely food and then it is limited by vastu means what your stomach can only eat so much it cannot grasp so much not only that you have enjoyed this one now maybe tomorrow you will come to know of some other object and that other object is far superior to what you have been enjoying throughout your life and then terrible regret comes why did i not know about this much sooner only in my old age i am coming to know this is called limitation by another object and this world is nothing but a combination of this time space and causation we slowly the compassionate teacher Dakshinamurthy is by expounding the deeply unconscious hidden identifications bring them up into in the in front like a good mirror or like a good testing instrument in the hospital whether there is a cancerous growth inside on the x-ray or a broken bone etc then he says find out deep think about it are you identified with it that is the problem so you you will not be having lasting happiness so identify with something higher and something still higher and something even higher until you give up one by one neti neti like Bhrigu had given up ultimately you give up even the search for happiness and say i don't want to search for happiness because i want to be happiness then the guru comes and teaches you are not going to have happiness because ayaram gayaram whatever comes that is likely to depart then what is the way guruji you are not aware that you are happiness and there is no need for you to go anywhere like the musk deer which is searching desperately all over the world for that maddening fragrance which is emanating only from its own navel and this great saint Kabir Das again and again i quote that wonderful poem moko kaha dhundere bandhe mai to tere paas me ho this maire tere paas means not by your side i am you and i am inside you and you are nothing but me but you are unable you are searching for your own true self all these ideas have been so beautifully brought out what ideas how many varieties of people identify themselves with how many varieties of non-atman and the purpose is to make us aware with which particular type of identity we are in at this present stage transcend it by identifying to the higher with the higher one and automatically the lower one will be given up and ultimately you will have to give up even that last one because something wonderful happens when we come to the last one then magical something happens you don't give it up it just vanishes like karpura like emper after fulfilling its purpose it just disappears and that last one is called guru kripa which is also called brahma akara vritti bhagavantana akara vritti krishna akara vritti rama akara vritti these beautiful ideas we will discuss in our next class om jananim saradam devim ramakrishnam jagad gurum padapadmetayo srithva pranamami muhur muhur may the ramakrishna holy mother and sramivekananda bless us all pit bhakti