Brahma Upanishad Lecture 03 on 06 April 2024

Full Transcript (Not Corrected)

So we are studying the Brahma Upanishad. This Brahma Upanishad is presented as a dialogue between Rishi and a worthy disciple called Shaunaka Mahashala. This Brahma Upanishad is totally dedicated entirely to Brahma Vidya, knowledge of Brahman. And the text opens as usual as it does in dialogues with Shaunaka, a worthy Adhikari Purusha. Inquiring about Brahman. How can I know that I am Brahman? How can I realize God? But he puts it in a peculiar way. What he says that how is this Brahman manifesting in this world, particularly in this body-mind complex as a prana? And how does the prana really function? What is the real nature of the prana? And why does it function through so many sense organs, organs of action, and even enlivening the mind also? And what is the ultimate goal of Brahman manifesting as a prana, as the body and mind complex? Why did God create this world? That was the understanding that Shaunaka wants to gain. But he uses some beautiful words. First of all, we also are aware of the body-mind. But we think body-mind. We are the body-mind, first of all. Secondly, our body-mind are only an instrument for enjoyment in this world, an instrument for increasing our ignorance. But whereas Shaunaka, in the very beginning, in the question itself, Divya Brahmapura, this body-mind complex is called Brahmapura. Two meanings of the word Brahmapura, because the realization of Brahman is possible only through this particular body-mind, which is mostly human body and mind. That is one. And this body-mind is actually none other than Brahman itself. The whole universe is nothing but the manifestation of Brahman. That is to say, Brahman is dreaming. I am the body-mind and He has created this whole world for His divine dreams called Leela, Divya Leela. And He is playing with Himself. I am an ignorant person. For some time, I play the role. I am totally ignorant and I want to enjoy myself. And after some time, I want to increase my happiness. After some time, I want unbroken, eternal, infinite happiness, which is not possible. So Divya Brahmapura, how did God create? Who created? How was it created? For what purpose it was created? This entire universe and especially this human body and mind and whose glory is that. Beautiful expression. The whole universe, when we look at it, here is a house, here is a building, here is a mud building, here is a cement building, here is a golden building. So many temples are adorned with nothing but pure gold, like your golden temple in Amritsar, etc., etc. But what is the purpose? Forever enjoyment. But the whole universe is the Mahima, the glory, the Vibhuti, the manifestation of pure Brahman. Even a blade of grass, should it be a green blade of grass? Can it be a dry blade of grass? Should it be a living body? Can it be a rotten corpse? Yes, that is also divine glory only. Everything, nothing is excluded because everything is God only. When we are eating, cooking food, from one point of view, it is a food worthy of being offered to God. And from the other point of view, when a tiger is eating a dead body or kills and then eats, then any living thing becomes a dead being before we eat. When we cook, it is living. After we cook, then it is dead. Only living creature eats the dead things and what the person eats, the dead things come out alive again through the instrumentality of the eater. So nothing is to be discarded. Nothing is to be heya, that is to be hated. That is why when Sri Ramakrishna was practicing tantric disciplines from somewhere, a Bhairavi Brahmani had brought some rotting piece of flesh, offered it to the Divine Mother and ate. How can it be eaten? Because that is also manifestation of the Divine Mother. A rotting corpse is just the food for some creatures like the vultures, etc., bacteria, small insects, etc. So whatever we eat, that is Divine. Everything in this world is nothing but God. To bring that idea, Sri Ramakrishna was forced to eat a rotten piece of fish, rotten piece of flesh and even worse, what we call our livings, what we do, what we call the answer calls of nature, that is food. In fact, that is the food only we are growing. If it is the livings of cows, sheep or birds, etc., bats, etc., that is what we call the best fertilizer in the whole world. So everything is living upon everything else. But the interesting fact is everybody is eating only the living creature. But living creature cannot live while being eaten. It becomes only a dead creature and then only we can cook and we can eat and the dead thing becomes alive again, assuming our own form. So everything is Brahman. The Srishti Sthithi Laya is Brahman. So whose glory is that? Why is this question forever said? First of all, we have to think that we also like Saunaka must go back to God from whom we have come. Then the only instrument through which we can go back is this body and mind and this body and mind must be used in this world for our spiritual progress. Nobody can make progress, nobody can do sadhana without struggle. Sadhana means changing our idea about certain things in a particular way. That is very important. So nothing is changed. The whole world will be exactly the same. But this world also will be looked upon as God. That is why Arjuna, he requested, if everything is you, let me see with my own eyes how you are everything. And then he says Swachhakshasa, you will not be able to see through your ignorant vision. Only through divine vision, through the eyes of knowledge, I am giving you. That is what he said. This is the meaning of Divya Brahmapure. Not only my body, your body, everything, living, non-living, everything is Brahman. But if Saunaka knew everything is Brahman, why should he come to approach a teacher at all? The thing is, he knows it intellectually. He understood it from studying the scriptures. He is convinced without doubt, but that has to be brought to realization. So I know the theory. I don't need your teachings for intellectual understanding. I want your blessings, your guidance for making it my own knowledge, just as you did it like me at one time. You are also intellectual. That was the idea. And this whole yogyata, fitness, perfect adhikari of this disciple was expressed by one word, Mahashalaha, a great householder. A wretched householder is one who thinks, I am this body-mind. I am nothing else but this body-mind and everybody else doesn't deserve anything excepting me. That pure narrow-mindedness is called Hinashala. But this is Mahashala. It became expanded because he had done lot of punya karmas, that is, followed the Karmakandha as advocated in the first part of the Vedas. Then only he understood the body is divine, the mind is divine, the world is divine. Sarvam Kalvidam Brahma. But that is only intellectual knowledge. I want to make it. This was the question with which the Brahma Upanishad starts. And he who approached, he must have been examined like Yamadharma Raja examines Nachiketha and just as Yamadharma Raja found Nachiketha, I tested you by offering you so many irresistible temptations. But like worse than bits of straw, you rejected them. You did not even have to think twice. You knew already the worthlessness of all these things. You don't want something temporary. You want something eternal and infinite. So I am pleased with you. And if anybody is qualified like you, for him, as if he had already realized God. That means when a person is completely qualified, he is as good as a realized soul, only a very short time. And again, I will bring to your notice. Totapuri found Sairam Krishna, very fit disciple. Even Sairam Krishna did not think about himself. I am an Adhikarika Purusha. But Totapuri understood and straight away asked, that I want to teach you the knowledge of Brahman. I find you, you are very fit. And Sairam Krishna with his usual attitude, he said, I don't know anything. Now, he initiated him into Sanyasa and then initiated him into Mahavakya Shravana and asked him to sit and meditate. Because he was a completely fit disciple, the movement to Shravana, that's all. Manana was not necessary. He sat down and merged immediately into Nirvikalpa Samadhi. And that made his own Guru wonder, what a divine Maya it is. Divya Maya. Anyway, so when a realized soul finds a worthy disciple, worthy disciple means he has projected the whole world. His only quest in life is to attain Mukti, Mumukshu. And he is possessed of Viveka, Vairagya, Samadhi, Shatka, Sampatti. And he is a Teeram Mukshu. And that is the definition of Shankaracharya according to Sadhana Chitustaya Sampannaha. And whenever a person is ready, then it won't take long time. Sairam Krishna used to use the example, the analogy of a dry matchstick. Just you touch the edge of the matchbox and immediately it catches fire. If it is wet, any number of striking will not do. Not only that, it will spoil the matchbox also. So Tasmai Saha Vacha. What did this teacher do? What did the disciple want? Brahma Vidya. What did the teacher teach him? Brahma Vidya Paristham. Of all the Vidyas, Brahma Vidya Paristham means, let us not misunderstand, there are types of Brahma Vidya and the inferior type, meddling type and the best type. There is only one type. Brahma Vidya is only Brahma Vidya. Knowledge about Brahma. And it is unlike any other Vidya. The knower will be separate from any other type of knowledge. Here the knower becomes one completely with the knowledge. So he taught him. And the disciple really understood. The rest of the explanation is for our sake. So what was it? The question started with body and mind. Body means prana, prani. So prana, what is this prana? So for that purpose, the prana is what? Nothing but the Atma. And what is this prana? What does the prana do? It manifests. Atman or Brahman manifests as prana. Prana manifests as the mind and the body. Prana manifests only as the entire world. The whole world is nothing but Brahman. And another name for that all-pervading Brahman is called prana. And this subject, this word, particular word prana, if you translate it to English language, it is called vital force. But we all use that word vital force. That is, there is a person, he is living because of the vital force and when it departs, that is called death. But that is not the meaning. That is very limited meaning. Here, Brahman itself has become the prana manifesting. That is, when we look from the standpoint of the body and mind, Brahman is called prana. And what does the prana do? First of all, prana and consciousness are invariably related to each other. If there is a prana, then there must be consciousness. And if there is consciousness, there must be prana. What about a corpse? If there is, neither prana nor chaitanya. No, both are there. But why don't we see it? Because the instrument through which prana can manifest, consciousness can manifest. And through what can it manifest? Only through the mind. Just as electricity is there, but it has to manifest through some medium. It could be a filament in a bulb or a particular, what is called, if it is a heater, that heating element should be there. Like that, for any type of activity, electricity must be there. But that electricity requires an instrument. Mind and body are the instruments. So what happens when death occurs? Prana goes away. Prana belongs to the, what is called, subtle body. The mind, the prana, the sense organs, they are all belonging to the sukshma sharira. And this sukshma sharira, along with causal body called karana sharira, and that goes away. When what we call death occurs, only the physical body is absent. But the physical body will be provided, unless a person has already realized God, the person has to complete, further evolve, for that a new body will be given. But since we don't see it, neither we see when birth takes place, where was this individual before birth? And where will be the individual after the death? That is called avyakta, unmanifest. We are not able to see. But because of the absence of the physical body, sthula sharira, sukshma sharira cannot function even though it is there. That is why as soon as death occurs, the sukshma sharira, including that is subtle body as well as the causal body, including the mind, chitta, buddhi, ahamkara, prana, and everything, indriyas, everything, it seeks a new instrument. And this is what we call, according to Hindu philosophy, death. So, prana. What is this prana? It is not apart from God. Bhagawan only is manifesting through His magic called maya in the form of prana. Prana enlivens the mind and through the mind, prana enlivens the sense organs. Through the sense organs, the body is enlivened. Through the body-mind complex, the whole world is made aware of it. The whole thing, the root cause is nothing but atman. Atman as prana, prana as mind, mind as sense organs, sense organs as the body, and body in the form of the entire world. Why do I say that the sense organs are in the form of the entire world? Because what do the sense organs, especially the organs of knowledge, what do they do? When we are looking at a tree, we are not looking at the tree. We are looking at the thought of that tree, which is manifesting in our mind in the form of a thought. So, whenever we are talking to each other, seeing each other, hearing each other, whatever we are doing through the five sense organs, we say directly, I am seeing a tree. No, we are not seeing a tree. It is just like watching a cricket game or a baseball game from the monitor. So, the game is going on somewhere, but we are able to feel as if I am watching it live on the monitor. Soon we forget it is a reflection on the monitor. We think because such is the clarity of the modern technology. We very soon forget the screen and then as if we are present there and we are able to experience whatever is happening. What is my point? It is only our thoughts and our thought makes that there is a world outside me. This is a thought and the world outside is outside. Even this world outside and inside is also nothing but a manifestation of thought. Even in the dream also, even though you have not gone out anywhere, you feel that you have gone out and at that time, have you gone out or are you thinking in your mind you have gone out? Your reply would be, no, no, I have actually gone out and I am enjoying. Enjoyment is within me, but the experience of seeing the world is outside me. Nothing can be further from truth. Only we know our thoughts inside our mind, our feelings about the objects, about the thoughts we are having about in the mind that is all compressed. In other words, there is nothing inside or outside everything is Brahman. And what is creation? Creation is to feel there is an inside, there is an outside. I am different, you are different, everything is different and I am called a living being and whatever I am witnessing is called living as well as non-living and something is inside, something is outside. The whole thing is nothing but a play of vritti and that is called Leela. So this is what is conveyed here. Pranohi, the teacher, people are answering a saunaka, pranohi esha atma, that first it was the pure consciousness atma and it is manifesting now in the form of prana, pranohi esha atma and therefore the mind, the sense organs, external world, everything is but nothing but the manifestation of prana and the prana itself is the manifestation of atma. Therefore, atmanah mahima bhava. The entire thing is nothing but the glory, vibhuti, manifestation of the atman and then this prana, that is the atma in the form of the prana. Devanam ayohu. Here devas means, not somebody else, our sense organs. Very often the word deva is used in the Upanishads as a substitute for indriyas. Sometimes it creates problem because we are remembering Adhishtatru devatas, Indra, Chandra, Varuna, Surya, etc. No. Here it means the root word dev. Dev means to shine. Shining means giving light. Giving light means when the eye alights, you see, even that word alights, it comes into contact, then immediately it recognizes this is a tree, this is a green tree, this is a red blossom, this is a yellow fruit, etc., etc. That which gives us knowledge, that is called light and that light is the very nature of the indriyas. So devanam ayohu, that is the prana. Prana which is nothing but pure consciousness but now manifesting as energy as the enlightening thing. That is why prana. Prana means consciousness. If I am not conscious, even my eyes are open, light is there but I will not be able to get any knowledge. So that is a beautiful explanation. All the sense organs are compared to devas, that is givers of light. And the light they are borrowing, reflecting rather of the light of the lights, jyotisham jyotihi, that is the pure consciousness. That is why it is called devanam ayohu. Ayohu means the very life support. So just as if there is no prana, the body becomes a corpse. Similarly, if consciousness, awareness is absent, then none of the sense organs can really function. Sa devanam nidhanam anidhanam. Sa means atma. Atma means here in the form of consciousness, in the form of prana. So this prana really means the consciousness, devanam of all the sense organs, nidhanam. If a sense organ is able to function very well, that is because of the consciousness. And if the consciousness for some reason is not able to reflect in that particular sense organ, that is called anidhanam. Nidhanam means coming to an end. Anidhanam means functioning. So both the aliveness and the depth of the sense organs. That means the inability or the ability or the inability to function properly, it all depends upon the atma, consciousness. That is why the consciousness is called the prana. The very very foundation of without consciousness they cannot function. That is the meaning. And what does the prana do? Prana in Vedanta, Advaita Vedanta especially, is divided according to its functions into five categories. Prana, apana, vyana, udana and samana. These are all do. What is called? So breathing in and breathing out, pushing something down or pushing something out or distributing, digesting is one function of the prana. Distributing the energy created by the digestive power is called another function of the prana. And whatever is not digested, to push it either from above called vomiting or below called answering calls of nature, that is one function of the prana. And keeping the whole body alive by maintaining a particular homeostasis, a particular temperature, that is also one function of the prana. So if the temperature is high, temperature is low, so it is almost either unconsciousness or certain death will come. And in the end when the sokshma sarira is literally made to depart from this body, that is also one of the functions of the prana. That is why we say a person is alive. When a person is speaking and it gives so much inspiration and that is called prana. This is a living speech, live speech. And if it doesn't inspire and that is called a dead speech. So prana is the manifestation of Atman. The whole universe is nothing but the manifestation of Atman only. This is the point he wants to say. So what is the answer of the Guru? You do not need to search inside and outside, here and there. You are that Brahman. Ultimately that is what you say. You came from Brahman and you are functioning because of Brahman. And once this duty is over, then you will again go back. This is the particular theme, as we have seen in the third chapter of the Taittiriya Upanishad, Kalubhrig Valli, from where all these creatures are emerging because of which they are able to function, to live and to discharge everything. And ultimately they go back to that source from which they have come, find out, that is called Brahman, Tapasa, Brahma, Vijaya, Jnana, Saswaya, etc. And in Prashna Upanishad, which we have dealt only a few months back, there was a Rishi called Pippalada, who unfolds the whole philosophy of this prana. But the essence is this only. This is only reiteration of what we have discussed everywhere. So Atman Prana, Atman is Prana, Prana is mind, mind is sense organs, sense organs is the body and whatever is experienced through the mind, that is also nothing but Atman only, Atman outside, Atman inside, Atman is the body, Atman is the mind, Atman is the sense organs. So if you can understand that, you are a knower of Brahma. This is the essence of what he wants to say and that is what he is trying to expound. So in the Upanishads we get Prana is often used a synonymous term with Brahman or Atman. In Brahma Sutras for example, the very first chapter, 23rd Sutra is called Ataha, Eva Pranaha. Brahman is none other than Pranaha. So this is what this Rishi is also showing, is answering Shaunaka. And then Atmano Mahima Bahuwa, the entire universe, happiness, unhappiness, babyhood, youthhood, old age, death, any experience, positive, negative, it is all the Leela, Mahima of Atmanaha. Everything is the glory of this Atman. And then a particular word is used, we just hinted, Saha, that means this Atman, that is consciousness, Devanam Ayuhu, that is the life span, very support of every Devas, Devas means Indriyas, the sense organs. And when this consciousness is withdrawn, that is called Nidhana. Nidhana means their death. Nidhana, Anidhana, death and life. What is the criteria? If there is awareness, consciousness, that is called Anidhana. If the consciousness withdraws, that is called Nidhana. Even in our day to day life, you are reading a book, suddenly you hear one word and it takes you to your past experience and what you are reading is forgotten and in all vividness, what you have experienced, you are able to see and that is what for the time being you are dead to this book. That is called Nidhana. And when you become startlingly aware, you come back, oh no, I should not deviate my mind, then that is called Anidhana. You come back to life. What is this simple translation? Consciousness is the very life or death of everything else, of the mind also. And then the Guru continues, in this divine Brahma Puram, because Brahman is manifesting as the body-mind and Brahman can be realized only through the instrumentality of body-mind. Virajam, absolutely Shuddham. Rajam means impure, stained, but absolutely stainless. Nishkalam, is it a bit in the body, a bit in the sense organ, a bit in the mind, a bit in the world living and non-living? No. Nishkalam, Brahman is Akhanda, indivisible. Remember when Shri Ram Krishna, through the Samadhi path, when he went to that realm called Akhanda, and then he saw seven Rishis in that formless realm, seven Rishis having some sort of divine form, were absorbed deeply in meditation. How is it possible? Well, this was the description of Shri Ram Krishna's experience, we have to accept it. So this pure consciousness is being described here. Virajam is absolutely pure, nothing can contaminate it, good and bad, negative thoughts, positive thoughts, no thoughts, punya thoughts of punyam, thoughts of papam, nothing can exclude, can stain. Shri Ram Krishna had a disciple called Niranjana. Anjana means stain, Niranjana means no stain. My Niranjan is without the least bit of Anjana or stain, that is Brahman. Nishkalam, Akhandam, Shubhram, because it is one, it can never become impure, it is always pure. So this is a beautiful expression, Shubhram. So there is iron and then it comes into contact with air and because of some of the elements in the air, it becomes rusty. That means impurity means two separate objects coming together is called impurity. Very interesting word because if you are having what is called first class coffee, it is impure only because four things have come together. Water has come, sugar has come, coffee powder has come, milk has come, but if your intelligence says no, no, only three, I drink without sugar, without, some people only eka evaham, only I drink hot water plus coffee, nothing else. But more than one thing, that is two things are necessary when they come into contact and inextricably seem to become one, really they cannot become one, that is called impurity. But here Shubhram, these are descriptions for meditation. Whenever we think of God, God is virajam, God is nishkalam, God is Shubhram. What is the fourth one? Aksharam. Akshara means that which decays. Decays means subjected to time. Earlier it was nice, now it has become stained, it has become old. No. Aksharam. We get these beautiful words especially in the 15th chapter of the Bhagavad Gita. Isma aksharam ati toham akshara da vicha uttamaha. That is, Bhagavan says I am both me and akshara and akshara. Why is it so? Because if you are aware of akshara, then you must be aware, you know about akshara decay only when there is something which is undecaying. So still it is in the realm of your thought only. But when you get out of the limitations imposed by time, space and object, that is the constitution of the mind, then you can't say about Brahman, He is viraja, He is nishkala, He is Shubhram, He is aksharam. This is for our sake and through the mind. These are the most positive thoughts possible for the pure mind to think. So these four qualifications, qualities are attributed for our meditation. That Brahman which you are supposed to do upasana, contemplation, you must do with these qualities. Virajam without any stain, nishkalam without any part, Shubhram without any impurity, aksharam without any decay. And that is the Brahman which is manifesting in this, as this body-mind. That is why that is also called Brahmapuri. Remember in the Bhagavad Gita also we get, Brahman neither does anything nor inspires anybody to do something. No, because these are activities. Activities are possible only when there is a desire. Desire is possible only when there is a what is called lacking. I don't have this. I am what is called incomplete. I want to become complete. If I get this one, I will become, I feel complete. So then there is a desire. But a person who is complete, a being who is complete is called Purnam. So that is why that is Purna. This is also Purna. The invisible is also Purna. The visible is also Purna. This visible Purna, Jagat, has come from that invisible, that is unmanifest, only infinite. And everything is infinite only. Never think that if something comes out of something, then that something with the cause is also finite and the effect is also finite. Cause and effect are only possible in the realm of finitude, not infinite. So this is the meaning of Nishkalam, a word of Kalas, Akhanda Rajya. And Prashna Purushot also we have got, he is called Purusha. Then he is called Akshara, undecaying. Because anything that is finite will decay. Anything that is timeless, it can never decay. Time is another word for decay. Time means change. Change means falling from one state into a completely new state, different state. But Brahman is called Akshara. And that education which leads to that Brahman who is Akshara, that is called Akshara Abhyasa. That is why in Hindu tradition, at least as far as I know, that the very first letters traced either on a slate or in a plate full of rice is first Omkara. Because Omkara is everything as we have studied in the Mandukya Upanishad. And to make us understand that Brahman is everything, so there is some examples are going to be given. But if we grasp the main idea that unmanifest is also Brahman, this manifest is also Brahman. In fact, you can take this teaching as a beautiful explanation. So Purnam Adaha. Adaha, that which I cannot grasp is also Purnam. Purnam Adaha, the experienceable transactional world which I know that is also infinite. Even though my experience is everything looks like part, everything not as infinite but finite, but I am completely wrong. Just as me, one person makes the entire universe when I go to dream. I divide myself. Really I don't divide. I am only imagining I am dividing myself and that is why as soon as we wake up, we know everything is unreal. But not content with that. Even this what we call waking state is no different from the dream state. It is Brahman's dream and that is when we understand there is only one Brahman. He is dreaming. I the one has become many and that is the teaching of the Advaita Vedanta. But according to Dvaita Vedanta, everything is really created. Then the creator himself becomes, because creator himself has to become the created, is it not going to become finite, infinite? Is it not going to become finite? Ramana Yajnacharya answers beautifully for that objection. No, because God has a very special superpower. He remains infinite and at the same time he creates real things which are finite things. Everything is different from everything else. But there is an underlying unity according to Visishta Advaita. But there is no underlying unity. Everything is different from everything else. This is Dvaita philosophy. That means lower understanding is Dvaita. Advanced understanding is Visishta Advaita. No understanding is called Advaita. So he gives a beautiful, that is what is called honey bee. So he gives a beautiful example. That is, it is manifesting in the form of the prana, in the form of the mind, in the form of the sense organs, in the form of the body, in the form of the everything experienced by the body. That means the whole Jagat made up of living and non-living. And to make us understand, an analogy is given. Beautiful analogy. So Madhukara Rajanam. Madhukara means one who makes honey. Madhu means honey. Kara means who makes, that is honey bee. Rajanam. This is one example. So that is the queen bee, let us say. It is Agni, queen. So if the queen, so long as the queen is there, everything, the whole honey bees will be around. All activities only for the purpose for serving that mother bee, honey bee, that is the queen bee, honey bee. But the moment she wants to shift her residence, everything is abandoned and it goes away. So what are we talking here? Now the Guru is teaching, this Pippalada is teaching us. What is he teaching? Every human being, that is Brahman, in the form of the body-mind complex, has chosen to do his Leela in the form of three acts. One is called waking state, another is called dream state, another is called deep sleep state. So what happens from, let us say, the honey bee is in one place and let us say that is the waking state. And for whatever reason, the queen bee wants to shift its residence to another place. That is called dream state. So as soon as it comes to the dream state, everything, every bee, everything, they just abandon that hive and then they follow the queen bee and they enter and build another hive and there they start doing exactly the same thing what they were doing earlier. That is the dream state, build up a dream state. And this queen bee, that means our mind in the dream state is served by our dream body, dream sense organs, dream prana, everything and the dream world also. Everything is for the enjoyment of this queen bee. Remember, that is why it is called Leela. So we may think, oh somebody in my dream came and slapped me. Yes, of course, that is your great misfortune. You can't even dream properly. You are so useless, you can't even get a good dream. So you should really be slapped. And if the slap is strong enough, you will wake up and you start thinking, why was I slapped? Because I was thinking bad thoughts. Now let me think good thoughts. And then next time, you will be hearing my Upanishad class, that is a very good thought and that will give you real, real good sleep also, enter a higher state. Then another one, Makshikavan, that is a spider. What does it do? A spider brings out from within, this is the important point, brings out all the threads, jala, net necessary and it weaves and then it stands somewhere and then most marvelous scientific facts have been discovered about this spider's web. In fact, the whole www is only one person observed this spider's web, is the easiest way of transferring information from one side to the other side, shortest way of doing it. So, www has come by observing the nature. The point is, it brings out from within itself and it enjoys for some time. It decides to shift to the residence, then it withdraws all the threads unto itself and then goes back. So, we are going to get what is called the description of the deep sleep state. For that only this is going. The first one, honey bee is the analogy for how from the waking to the dream and from dream the second one, that is dream is nothing but our own mind brings out all its threads, that is all the smritis and weaves a huge net and then so many incidents happen and after some time it decides to wind up the whole thing and then it withdraws into itself and then it goes into deep sleep until it gets a sufficient amount of rest and then automatically it wants to shift its residence again into the third state and for that these analogies are being given. So, a spider, just as a spider, from where is it bringing that material for the net? From within itself. So, from where we are going to go to the dream state? From within our own, all the threads. What are the threads? All the memories, all the samskaras, all the what is called all the experiences that are stored in the form of memories is called chitta vritti or smritis. Tantuna jalam vikshapati, as soon as it settles in one place decides to continue to enjoy that place and it brings out the thread, weaves the entire net and then it catches so many things, that is, it experiences so many things. Sometimes it succeeds, sometimes it doesn't, sometimes even that something which is caught may be its death also. So, these are different types of experiences, happy, unhappy, good or evil, limited or much less limited, etc. Thena apakarshati, after some time, apakarshati, it withdraws into itself. Tatha eva esha pranaha, that is the Atman in the form of the prana, first enters into the waking state, after some time, after having some fling, some experiencing, then it enters into the dream state to experience something different and afterwards it enters into another happy giving, happiness giving, bliss giving state called sushupti and then again it wakes up itself. This process is going on. So, what is all this teaching for? Just like that, the Atman, in one state it is the body-mind complex, in another state it is mind complex, in another state both of them are withdrawn into their causal state, but they are there ready to spring out. So, this is the play which we call life that is going on like a spider. So, this spider example is given even in the Mundaka Upanishad also, in many other Upanishads also it is given. So, just as here also prana is to be taken both as the Atman and also prana, manifestation of prana. So, the Atman compares to spider, the prana to the thread let off from the spider and the complex of organs, elements as the web which the thread it weaves. Why does it do? To experience that dream state. When prana itself is but the self projection of the Atman as its own principle of manifestation, it is in and through this one prana again the sense functions and sense products become evolved as well as involved. They come out of this what is called waking state, dream state, dreamless state, in every state. That is why it is said, how does this prana function? Prana, devataha, staha, sarvaha, nadiyaha. So, devataha, all the sense organs, subtle sense organs. Sense organs are always subtle. The eye that we see is not the subtle sense organ. It is called window. Just as a cameraman peers, he sees through that lens. The cameraman can be compared here as the real indriya. But the external eye that we see is just like that camera. So, the ear that we see, it is not the indriya. It is only a crude external bodily instrument through which the subtle, what is called the indriya called hearing and it belongs to the sukshma sharira, not through this gross body. That is what he wants to say that this prana manifests as the sense organs. Sense organs, how do they function? They create certain pathways. Those pathways are called nadis. All these ideas we have seen earlier also, especially in the Prashna Upanishad. These nadis are given quite a good prominence. Nobody knows even now. So, we can say the paths for the information to pass in or out, both to be taken in and also to be brought out, that is called a nadi. And their prana is called, indriyas are called nadis because without nadi, we will not even recognize there is an indriya. When I see a tree, so how do I know? Because the external eye carries that like a camera. Camera is a dead instrument. Behind that there must stand a conscious being and behind the camera just the indriyas stand in that relationship and this relationship is maintained through these nadis. So, nadis are only the connecting points just like a wire connects electricity with a particular instrument. The electricity through wires is connected to a heater and it manifests as heat. If it is connected through the filament of the bulb, then it manifests as light. If it is connected to a magnetic material, then it acts as attractive material. So, whether it is light or heat or fan for example. So, three things that is the electricity that is compared to the indriya and the wires etc. are comparable to the nadis and this external sense organs, the fan etc. When these three come together, that prana flows through that nadis and it comes and manifests. Then the sense organs I can see, I can hear, I can smell, I can taste, I can touch etc. This is the whole process wants to say but without the nadis these fellows cannot function at all. So, see how our entire body also personally it is compared to a what is called an instrument of the brahman which we will talk about in our next class.