Mandukya Karika Lecture 039 on 23 February 2022

Full Transcript(Not Corrected)

Foul play. Recording in progress. Good morning, Swami ji. Gayatri, how are you? So far so good, Swami ji. How are you, Swami ji? Excellent. Deepa? Pranam, Swami ji. So far so good? Yes, so far so good, Swami ji. Excellent. That's what I want to hear. Om Jananem Sharadaam Deveem Ramakrishnam Jagat Gurum Pada Padme Tayo Sritva Pranamami Muhur Muhur Om Bhadram Kanne Vishrunyama Devaha Bhadram Paschim Akshabhirya Jatraha Sthirai Rangai Stushtu Vagum Sastanu Bhi Vyashema Deva Hi Tanyadayu Swasthina Indro Vridhya Shravaha Swasthina Poosha Vishwa Vedaha Swasthina Starksho Arishta Nimihi Swasthino Brihas Patir Dhadhatu Om Shanti Shanti Shanti Hare Om Om. Oh Gods, may we always hear with our ears what is auspicious. Oh worshipful ones, may we with our eyes always see what is auspicious. May we live our allotted life, hale and hearty, offering our praises unto Thee. May Indra of ancient fame bestow auspiciousness upon us. May the all-nourishing potion be propitious to us. May Garuda, the destroyer of all evil, be well disposed towards us. May Brihaspati ensure our welfare. Om. Peace, peace, peace be unto all. After the 6th mantra of the Mandukya Upanishad, we have entered into the explanation of Gaudapada, who starts 29 karikas and here there are about 9 karikas. He is summarizing all the 6 mantras that had taken place. So the first karika, remember karika is not a bhashya. It is a summarizing, elaborating the most important points and he need not even go word by word explanation. That is left to Shankaracharya or anybody who wants to make a commentary called bhashya. This is called a karika. So in the first karika, Gaudapada is telling, bhahish prajnaha vibhuhu vishvaha antah prajnastu taijasaha gana prajnaha tatha prajnaha eka eva tridhasmrutaha Vishwa, that is the chaitanya, dawning is thula sharira plus mind, experiences what we call the waking state and he experiences the external gross objects. But Gaudapada wants to make a very special point. He is not merely Vishwa. He is vibhuhu. Vibhuhu means the divine Lord, all-pervading Lord. So this Vishwa is one single body-mind pervading. Whereas vibhuhu, virat, is all the external world together, all the jivatmas, everything combined is called virat. So here vibhuhu means this Vishwa has two aspects, a VST individual, a SMST universal. In fact, the individual cannot live without the universal and the meaning of the universal is useless unless there is an individual. When there is only one thing, we don't need to say it is one thing. Only when there are two, we have to say there are two. So this is the nature of every experience through the mind, black and white, good and evil, light and darkness, so also individual as well as universal. And that is indicated by this beautiful word vibhuhu. So from the universal point of experiencing, waking state, he is called vibhuhu. Same chaitanya, consciousness, when he assumes, dons a particular dress and feels, I am this particular individual, then such a person is called Vishwa and he is experiencing the bahi prajna, prajna means consciousness. Bahi means as if it is external, not really external, but as if it is external. And then this is called jagrat avastha. Then comes swapna avastha, dream state. In the dream state, the same Vishwa takes off his dress of the external gross body and then remembering whatever he had experienced during the waking state, he sits in front of them and then he goes on jiggling all those experiences and every day and every dream he creates a new combination and he is called Taijasa as an individual and he is called Hiranyagarbha as the universal. And so he is called Taijasa, same Vishwa, same Virat as Taijasa and Hiranyagarbha. This is the second pada, second expression, second manifestation of chaitanya because of the particular dress he dons, particular limitation he sets for himself. Then the third stage which we call Sushupti, Ghanapragnaha, where all the subject and object, I and everything else, the individual and the universal, everything becomes completely indistinguishably merged together. That state is called Ghanapragnaha, that is consciousness solidified. A mass of consciousness. And who is the person who is experiencing this? Pragnaha. He is called Pragna and we have to put in bracket, as an individual Vesti point of view he is called Pragna and the same Pragna from the universal point of view is called Ishwara. That is the point he wants to say. Eka Eva Trithah Smritah, one consciousness has taken three different names because of three different dresses, because of three different roles he is playing. Like an actor is a very good example. Same actor, supposing he has acted in 100 movies and every movie's name will be different, dress will be different and the story will be very slightly different in details. In essence it is the same. What is it? Good versus evil, the hero, heroine versus the villain. If you understand that, you will no longer enjoy any movie because that is the essence of it. So the same Chaitanya, he assumes three dresses and not at the same time but sequentially. He experiences one after the other but he remembers I was experiencing waking state. I was experiencing dream state. I was experiencing dreamless deep sleep state. That means he is moving from one state to the other. What is changing is the dress, the role but he himself is never changing. How do we know? Through memory all the three are interlinked saying I was the waker, I was the dreamer, I was the sleeper, I am the same person and this circle called Brahma Chakra or Brahma Chakra goes on from the very beginning of our samsara. We do not know when it was and birth after birth and day after day until this body falls or until we realize our true nature. Put an end to samsara. The same circle is going on and on and on. What is the takeaway from this Karika? That it is one Chaitanya, not three experiencers because the logic is this. If I experience one thing, you experience another thing, then I can never recollect your experience and you cannot recollect my experience because it is the same Chaitanya, it is the same actor. In movie number A, I acted as Rama. Movie number 2, I acted as Krishna. Movie number 3, as Duryodhana. Movie number 4, as Jesus Christ. Buddha, X, Y, Z, it doesn't matter. Even a billion movies. But fortunately here, only three movies. All the three are movies. And who is acting? The Chaitanya. What is the world? Chaitanya. And who is witnessing? Chaitanya. It is all just like our dream. Supposing you had a dream and you wrote a drama and you directed it and you are also the actor and there will be an audience. Upon waking up, you realise, I was the writer, script writer, I was the director and I was the sponsor, I was the actor, I was the actress, I was that drama stage and I am also the witness, I am also the critic. But all these we will understand only upon waking up, one as if has become so many. So if we can understand that the waker, dreamer, as well as the sleeper, both individually as well as universally, it is me, the pure consciousness. What happens? The difference will go. I become the greatest person of morality. Dharmic. Why? Because it is just like my right hand cannot injure my left hand. Any part of the body cannot injure any other part of the body because it is one diversity in unity. So that is why a saint is one who knows that x is me, y is me, z is me, me is me, everything is me. And therefore, who is my friend and who is my enemy? And I am the cold, I am the heat, I am the good, I am the evil. Everything is me. Therefore, I only enjoy every situation, just like a person enjoys a drama without getting involved. Not only that, I am giving this example. You are watching a movie and imagine that this movie is taken in front of your house and your neighbor's house or your house has caught fire and you are watching the movie after it is taken. Would you run to quench the fire, to put out the fire? You will not because you know it is just a movie, it is play acting, really nothing happened. What a marvelous state! And that is the experience of every Jeevan Mukta, not to speak of God. That is why sometimes we get doubts. Why are big countries oppressing the smaller countries? Why is there so much of international conflict? Why is it always the victims are the small, the helpless people or countries, etc.? Remember, country means people only. If there are no people, let them bomb it to smithereens, to ashes, it makes no difference. There must be a conscious being who understands this and who suffers or who enjoys. So, just like a movie, and any amount of distraction can take place, nothing is going to happen to me. That is why, One only is going through all the three. All the three means what? The Vishwa and Virat. What is Vishwa? The individual experiencer. What is Virat? The entire universe consisting of everything excepting I. Similarly, in the dream state, Taizasa. But who is Taizasa? The whole experiencer of the dream state, dream world is called Taizasa. And the entire dream world, another name for it is Hiranyagarbha. Similarly, the experiencer of ignorance because Karya and Karana, subject and object, cause and effect, everything has become, not disappeared, it has become indistinguishable. Like when there is pitch darkness, there are everything, there are tigers, there are goats, there are everything. And imagine, no animal can see in that pitch darkness. And then they may be side by side, and they won't be affected. They are most peaceful because there is no danger. Similarly, there is nothing to enjoy also. So that is where when we go beyond dualities, Raga, Dvesha, we get tremendous amount of peace because there is no distraction in the mind and therefore the reflection of our own Satchitananda Swarupa is undistracted. And therefore we see it as it is, but for a shorter time. And that is why it gives so much of joy, Anandamaya Kosha. This is the essence of what we discussed in our last class. And to illustrate it, Shankaracharya, not the Upanishad. Shankaracharya is the example of a great fish, say a whale. It is there in a big river and it lives only in the middle because that is the most comfortable place for it. And sometimes it drifts towards the left bank, sometimes to the right bank. One bank is the waking state, another bank is the dream state. So many things are going on in the waking state, so many things are going on in the dream state. So many things mean ultimately good and evil, ultimately happiness and unhappiness, pleasure and pain on both the banks. So this fellow slowly strolls towards the left and then it witnesses without becoming affected and then it comes to its own place, takes rest, then moves to the right bank and there also it witnesses good and evil, happiness and unhappiness and without getting affected at all. It just comes back and continuously it is doing that. Through this example, the Upanishad or the Bhashyakara wants us to learn the lesson if we can learn to identify with that what is called Mahamatsya, great fish. That means not getting affected and yet getting so much of joy. Why? Because when we think I get happiness from this object, we become attached and every attachment will break called detachment through time, through space, through any other causes. Desha, kala, nimitta. But if I can stay, enjoy it, but if I can stay without getting contaminated, attachment means getting contaminated. Getting contaminated means sometimes going through happiness, sometimes unhappiness and whatever is happiness, I call it good. Whatever is unhappiness, it is called evil and here so much of subjective bias comes. So everybody else may be suffering but if something gives me happiness, that is a very good thing. That is the certificate I give and everybody else may be enjoying but I am suffering because of some object and I label it as intense evil. It's all very subjective. So become like this great fish. Sri Ramakrishna gives the example like a mud fish. It moves all the time in the mud. It grows up in the mud but not a bit of that mud ever attaches because it is exuding a kind of oil which will not keep, not even water stays there much less to speak of the mud. So the idea is become like that Mahamatsya and another idea is what is it you are striving for? Pleasure, happiness. And do you get anywhere pure pleasure without its opposite? No. Before pleasure comes, I pay through dukkha. After pleasure is over, again I get plunged into dukkha. But whereas in this deep sleep, I am happy because I could go beyond limitation. And what are the factors which limit me? Time, space and causation. What a marvelous idea is being presented here. Now we had started the second karika and in that what does Gaudapada wants to say? He says that it is a mistake to think. Jagradhavasta is a completely separate state. Dream is another separate state. Waking is another separate state. Each has nothing to do with the other. Gaudapada wants to break this mental misunderstanding, mental illusion, brahanti. He wants to say everything takes place only in consciousness. If you are not conscious, you are neither in the waking state nor in the dream state. Then can I be in the deep sleep state? No. Even in the deep sleep state, you are fully conscious. And let me remind you, what does that statement mean? It doesn't mean that I am unconscious. This is the greatest misnomer that in deep sleep I become unconscious. No. I am 100% conscious. But then what is wrong? There is the object that I want to witness is all covered up as it were. There is a Pandora's box and it is completely covered up and locked. I can see the box, but I don't know what is inside. Like that, I can experience this deep sleep and it is as if Shankaracharya gives a beautiful example. When there is pitch darkness, everything is there. And maybe even side by side, a cobra is lying around your pillow, ready to strike you. But since you don't see, ignorance is bliss. So I am conscious that I am not having any knowledge that there is darkness. I am completely conscious that there is darkness. I cannot distinguish like I can do in the waking as well as dream state. That is the meaning of this word, I am conscious. How do we know? Because upon waking up, the first thing the person says is I slept well, I slept happily, and I did not know anything. Not that I am conscious. Even to say I know, I have to be conscious. To say I do not know, I have to be conscious. I am not partially conscious, but 100% conscious. This is the first point we have to understand. What is the first point? That every experience, whether you divide it as Jagrat, Swapna or Sushupti, takes place only where? Only in the consciousness. And where is this consciousness? More manifest. Is it manifest in the waking state? Is it more manifest in the dream state? Is it more manifest in the deep sleep state? Obviously, the answer is that I am taking this class, in which avastha I am taking. If I am in either Swapna or deep sleep, I cannot take this class. If I am in the waking state alone, I can take. And that applies to you also. If you are in the dream state, then blessed you are that it is going through one ear and going out through the other ear. So only when we are conscious, any experience can take place. No experience can take place when we are unconscious. And so when we are talking about dream, in which state we are exploring the knowledge about the dream state? Not in the dream state. It is in the waking state. Naturally, some of you think you are more intelligent than anybody else. The doubt will come. But in dream also, I can be listening to your talk and I can have the same doubts. Well, if you had never heard anybody's talk in the waking state, you will never dream. What you have never experienced in the waking state, you will never experience in the dream state because dream state is nothing but re-experiencing all the ideas, all the memories jumbling up together. You can fly like a bird. You are a man. But suddenly you sprouted two wings and you are flying here and there. Somebody is chasing you and you can just happily fly away. Police, etc. What is my point? Unless we experience and store it in the mind, we cannot experience dreams. And if we do not have waking experiences, we cannot have dreams, but we cannot also have what is called deep sleep state. Why do I issue such a statement? Because when we come out of the deep sleep state, again we experience the same thing. When, for example, after deep sleep, you come back to the waking state and where do you find yourself? Wherever you were before you went into deep sleep. If you are in Calcutta, you wake up in Calcutta. In dream, you might think, I woke up somewhere. But the curious thing is, even if you wake up, if you are very angry with somebody in the waking state, you are happily going about, I am not in Calcutta. I am in Varanasi. And suddenly, whom do you see? This fellow who annoys you in your Calcutta neighbour. And then immediately, this same situation will occur. Why? Because you are cherishing, very carefully treasuring all those Smritis, memories. And not only you are treasuring, you are guarding them. Not only guarding them, like first class seeds, you are putting them in the soil, watering them, nurturing them, growing them. Naturally, inevitably, they will grow into blossoms, flowers and fruits, though poisonous. This is how we go on cherishing it. Therefore, when you have to experience something in the dream, that is also possible only because of the experience in the waking state. We have discussed this quite enough number of times. Then, when we go into the deep sleep, what happens? These things do not disappear. What happens is, they are just like a big tree. You collect a seed and that seed you carefully protect inside a box, waiting for the so-called rainy season to come up after the spring or summer season. In the same way, this karana avastha, the whole thing, everything, a Ravanasura will have what is called ungodly samskaras. A Vibhishana will have godly samskaras. And a Kumbhakarna will have childish samskaras of khao, maja karo, khao, dao, maja khao, ghumao. You eat and you sleep. Kumbhakarna. This is the important point. When we are discussing about dream state, when we are discussing about the dreamless state called deep sleep state, where are we discussing? Are you discussing about waking and dream in the deep sleep state? Definitely no. Are you discussing about the waking state in the dream state? Yes, it is possible, but only if you have discussed it earlier in the waking state. These are beautiful points. Gaudapada wants to say that among all the three states, among all the three states, the state called Jagradavastha is where the consciousness, awareness is much, much, much more manifest than in the dream and than in the deep sleep. And that is why all these three happen only in the waking state. Here, by waking state, we have to understand what is called in a state of awareness. Whatever you want to do, you have to be aware then only it is possible. That is the first meaning you have to understand. And this manifestation of awareness is much, much more spontaneous, natural in the waking state. Therefore, another way of looking, Shankaracharya gives us this example. Supposing you are watching a cricket match. This is not the example given by Shankaracharya but following his hint, I am bringing because during Shankaracharya time I doubt whether there is any cricket match. So, there is stick and beating game is there but not as we understand any of these other games, modern games, whether it is cricket or whatever. You are watching cricket movie and then what are you doing? After some time, a kind of Tantra comes. You are not completely asleep. You are quite awake but not completely awake. A kind of dreamy like. It is called daydream and you just watched somebody bowling and then that did not hit those three sticks but in your this thing, stupid fellow, such an easy thing if I were the bowler, I would have taken and every bowling straight it will go so fast. The other fellow by that time he blinks, where is this? Already one of the sticks has fallen. If you are a catcher, I don't know what is called, then you go there and you know where it is going to end. You already anticipate where this cricket batter is going to throw it out. It is all arranged actually. So, you are ready and then it has flown and you have run, you have caught hold of it and sometimes you pretend you have slipped but you will not allow that cricket ball to touch the ground but you are lying and you are catching and immediately your buddies will come and smash you by their so called bear hugs, etc. etc. and you are very happy to put up with all those things splashing of cameras etc. When you are dreaming, putting yourself in that place and then showing your superiority over that actual player, what are you doing? You are dreaming but this is called daydream. If it is concrete dream and that is what you think is separate but it is nothing separate. Working with thoughts is called dream state and working with concrete objects along with ideas is called waking state. Then after some time you become tired, mind becomes tired. You are not asleep but then what happens is that you relax completely and the ideas for a few seconds, milliseconds you remove from your mind and that is called deep state where this, the play of the cricket and you the watcher and your reactions according to what is happening everything subsides as if gets resolved and waiting for you to wake up. So it is not deep sleep but as if it is a deep sleep and this is a phenomenon all of us are going through especially during the meditation time you sit in the meditation time I have seen so many people sitting in the audience and then closing the eyes for better hearing and afterwards thank God only I have heard a few people snoring also but that's why I tell jokes sometimes. Nowadays I become a bit serious but I tell jokes not because I feel like telling jokes but because I have to wake them up and everybody is roaring with laughter and this fellow will get up and he will also join the laughing and afterwards what is it all about? What had happened? What did the Swami say? etc. So what is Godapada is telling every experience takes place only with a full awareness remember there is no awareness and there will be no experience therefore there is no remembrance of the experience therefore there is no dream because what is dream? Recollecting the memories and jumbling joining them together like that cube game in different proportions so this is the most important point everything takes place in the pure consciousness awareness but this is the important point even though so many things take place just like watching a movie you enjoying it thoroughly if there is comedy you enjoy, if there is tragedy you enjoy, whatever death you enjoy, birth you enjoy, burning you enjoy and bestowing the greatest crown you enjoy every single bit this is called aesthetic enjoyment this is comparable to Brahmananda Ananda Kumar Swami who wrote marvelous books on this aspect and some of them in collaboration with sister Nivedita he says this aesthetic experience is nearly like Brahmananda why? Because in Brahmananda you experience everything and yet you are not affected because you know it is not real it is like real similarly you see a beautiful painting and there is an old woman she is misery personified and it is indescribable by just looking at the painting you feel the whole misery of the world is upon your shoulders but at the same time you know you enjoy how beautiful how beautiful that is called aesthetic enjoyment and that enjoyment you don't get attached because if you are really miserable you cannot enjoy misery and enjoyment cannot go together at the same time but you know this is a depiction this is a life like painting it could be a song it could be anything this is called aesthetic enjoyment so the point is without awareness no experience can take place so all the three experiences of waking, dream deep sleep take place only in awareness second point that awareness is mostly present in the waking state dream state awareness as well as dreamless state awareness can never be compared to the extent to the depth to the time span of this waking state experience that is the most important point for us but the third point is the chaitanya itself is taking all these modifications called chitta vrittis therefore without undergoing any changing that means every change is there as if an appearance really it has not has taken any change parinama is not there so that is called detachment complete detachment but that is the state of the pure chaitanya the more we identify with body mind the less we become detached the more we identify with chaitanya Ramakrishna used to call it leela, nitya and leela nitya nothing happens leela everything happens so brahman nothing happens it is the shakti everything happens Ramakrishna compared these two to a snake which is completely lying down and to a snake which is slithering here and there srishti sthiti laya is nothing but a slithering movement of the snake it is a snake whether still or slithering so pure chaitanya is that nothing is real what is the point marvelous point is all this evil that we are seeing and unfortunately we don't see what good is going on if anybody says that the evil is much more than the good then we have to say that fellow is the most stupid fellow idiotic fellow in the whole world because the amount of good and the amount of evil are equivalent in fact they are not two sides they are one side but according to you look this way or that way one way of looking it is misery another way of looking it is pleasure this is what swamiji wants to say that at one place in an ocean the wave rises at another place in the same ocean the wave dips down goes down so this is if it goes down we call it negative if it goes up we call it positive but positive can be negative negative can be positive and those who experience tsunami they can understand it so there is nothing called pure evil or pure good they are nothing but changes of the same actor it is mere change mere appearance like the waves on the ocean nothing happens to the water and that is the point Gaudapada wants to drive deep into our minds but then you say oh this is all theoretical and we are suffering misery yes so long as you think you are suffering and that is true because what you think that is true like when you are dreaming some tiger is coming and then tearing you to pieces and that so long as that dream is lasting that yes it is true and you feel the misery and when you wake up how many times you remember it because it gives so much of enjoyment and then if you are a devotee you are taking Ramakrishna's name and then if you are listening to my Mandukya class say what is that these are all appearances and let the tiger tear me into pieces nothing is going to happen and it is tearing you and you are applying this and then suddenly the tearing is a little more painful and you wake up and then you relish it so much again and again not only you relish it you want others also to relish it you bore them to death until they feel they better be torn by that tiger than be torn by your memories again and again recollecting anyway I am just pulling and stretching it a little bit but this is a fact what is the fact there is no good there is no evil but we have not yet reached that state our effort is to reach that state slowly by the grace of God and that is what Gaudapada wants to say in this second Karika is that first point is it is only one Chaitanya who is who like an actor puts on three different dresses and acts in three different ways not only that a realistic example also I will give you here is a father and he goes to the office and he is a big officer as soon as he enters the office he is not father he is not husband he is not a son he is an officer he acts he puts on the dress also he sits in the table CEO like that and then the same man as soon as the office is closed he goes to the sports club here he is not an officer he just goes on drinking and playing and chumming with all these people totally different maybe some of his subordinates are also club members so here he doesn't maintain I am an officer because the whole joy will go here we are club members let it be play let it be chess let it be carrom let it be any blessed thing and here we are all equal and then supposing the same man he goes to do social service now he becomes a service provider he goes on serving various people and with equal what is called mind a mind which is absolutely not discriminating between poor and rich and etc. not judging but serving to the extent that is possible so three different roles inside him he knows I am the officer but here I am not the officer when he is in the club I am the club member when he goes for swimming he is the swimmer when he is playing a tennis match he is a player and when he is going and doing charitable work he is a philanthropist and when he comes back he is a husband he is a father he is a son he is a friend to his neighbours all these different roles all of us are playing every single moment from moment to moment changing suppose a wife is playing to the husband then she is wife the husband is husband and she is very angry with the husband example given by Swami Vekananda and suddenly a small baby crawls mummy and immediately her anger melts the love for the baby transforms her into the most loving person and that is how it changes so we are all playing knowing that I am not a separate officer separate swimmer, separate club member etc. if we can understand this example analogy we can understand what Gaudapada is trying to tell only Eka eva tridhasmata what is the second point everything is experienced in consciousness and consciousness or awareness is more manifest in the waking state what is the third point most important point that this individual and universal are not two separate things because an individual is always part of the universal but depending upon what a person is identifying with then he can say I am either the individual or I am the universal in the given example earlier when this person is doing business he is an individual trying to earn as much profit as possible but when the same person is acting as a philanthropist then he is distributing freely and without any attachment oh I like this person his face is very sweet I will give him more no whoever deserves more he will get more whoever seemingly doesn't deserve then he will get what he deserves impartiality comes there so we are playing all these role models every single day of our life why not also we think I am the waker I am the dreamer I am the sleeper and all these I remember crystal clearly in memory where in the waking state when I am recollecting my yesterday night's dream I am recollecting it in the waking state when I am recollecting what happened oh I slept like a log I went to bed at this time and when I woke up it was already 7 o'clock in the morning so I had to get up in a hurry and take a shower and had a hurried breakfast and immediately leave for the office etc etc everything every experience is a memory and experience cannot come without consciousness or awareness once experience comes it is stored in the form of memory and in one state we are so called dealing with as if there are external objects in reality we are only dealing with the thoughts that provoke when our eyes bring our eyes ears etc bring in the information this is the most important point awareness and if we can identify with that awareness and then I am the same person I am the friend, I am the enemy I am India I am USA I am a Hindu I am the Christian and I play all the roles beautifully but I will not be affected and for that Shankaracharya gives that most marvelous example of Maha Matsya it goes here and there experiences both states but never gets contaminated and it goes every now and then to remind itself I am pure consciousness I have nothing to do with either left bank or right bank and for that matter of fact not even the middle of the river these are the important points that Guru Padacharya wants us to remember so jagarita avasthaya meva vishwa dhinam trayanam anubhava pradarshanartho I am shloka this verse is intended to show that the threefold experience of vishwa taijasa and prajna is realized in the waking state don't forget vishwa means virat vishwa plus virat taijasa means taijasa plus hiranyagarbha prajna means prajna plus eshwara all these are simultaneously present and all these are experienced in the awareness consciousness then for the sake of upasana so that we can understand it dakshina akshimukhe vishwa where is the place of vishwa just like an officer he has a house so he goes to office, he goes to the club he goes for swimming he goes and does charity and at the end he returns where we return after everything is there from where all our main business is conducted that is called our real residence Sri Ramakrishna puts it beautifully a jameendar has so much of estate, so many houses so many jameendars lands are there but generally he has a special house where most of the time he will be found when he is touring and in the house also there is a visitor's room and whenever somebody wants to go that is the place to meet so this is what Gaudapada wants to tell us what is the main place for the vishwa that is the experiencer of the waking state as an individual it is called dakshina akshim, right eye naturally why suddenly right eye why because first of all akshi means eye it means all the sense organs, it means the eyes, the ears the nose, the tongue and the skin that what indriya experiences all these five that is what it means and but say you want to hear a music, a particular music and you have got so many stacks and stacks of records, what will you do you close your eyes you go there and I want Beethoven's 9th symphony, you will not get what do you do, you open your eyes and you search for it and the moment your eyes alight upon that record with a whoop of joy you fetch it out what is the meaning the meaning is most of our knowledge comes only from the eyes and the next is through the ears and rest of the three are senses of knowledge, their role is slowly diminishing role but even among these two that is experiencing the form and experiencing the sound, we rely mostly upon the eyes but remember it means all the fashion but the most important organ is eye and among the eyes there is right eye, what is right eye Shankaracharya interprets in one way, I will interpret it in another way what is that eye scientists have found out we have got two eyes two ears, two hands two legs it is absolute fact but we do not observe that we use one of them unconsciously most often right eye or left eye or right hand left hand, right ear have you seen when somebody is a little bit deaf you know what happens, his face will be, his ear will be turned near the source of emanating sound why, because he can hear better, so no two organs exactly function alike one of them function more, so that is usually it is said in the right eye but remember, it is not a scientific fact, it is not something which will give us Moksha if you don't accept, you are not going to get Moksha, that is not the point but what is my interpretation is, that eye which is functioning better that is called the right eye whether it be right or left, it doesn't matter, it depends upon which person is getting more information from which part of the eye, that is the there, but then for the sake of Upasana meditation then is the scripture is going to tell us and Shankaracharya quotes several of those scriptures and that is what we call the right eye, means this Patavatvam that is the word Shankaracharya means most powerful, so both eyes are powerful, but one eye is slightly more powerful than the other eye, similarly one ear is more powerful similarly one nostril is more powerful, so like that the differentiation is there but we don't need to focus upon that, what is important is that the eye is the most important sense organ which will give us more knowledge and the more knowledge in the waking state we get, the more understanding comes and the more understanding comes, our action our reaction, our likes our dislikes, everything depends, that is why even in our day to day life if there is supposing somebody caught hold of you the imaginary scenario and he says I want to cut off one part of your body, you can choose, we want your eyes to be taken away you want your ears to be cut you want your nose to be cut you want your tongue to be cut etc, etc then unhesitatingly and unthinkingly we point out take any other part if it has to be taken but preserve the eye because we know instinctively that is the source of all our knowledge, enjoyment likes, dislikes, etc and this subject Shankaracharya stretches pulls and sometimes I feel it is not necessary but we will talk about it in our next class Om Jananim Sharadaam Devim Ramakrishnam Jagat Kurum Pada Padme Tayo Shritha Pranamaami Mohur Mohur May Ramakrishna, Holy Mother and Swami Vivekananda bless us all, It Bhakti Jai Ramakrishna Now any questions please Go ahead Pranams Maharaj Ok, please tell me Maharaj you mentioned about the three states being three different states..