Mandukya Karika Lecture 087 on 25 January 2023
Full Transcript
We have entered into the second chapter of the Māndukya Kārikās. Upanishad is over. Second chapter is called Vaitathya Prakarana. This has got 38 Kārikās. And the very title of this second chapter is ‘The Nature of Unreality’ - Vaitathya Prakarana - The chapter dealing with the unreality.
- Everything is unreal.
- Whatever is experienced is unreal.
- And the experiencer is also unreal.
And that is the point. For this Gaudapāda divides human experience into 3 states - The waking, the dream, and the deep sleep.
Mainly he takes here 2 particular states - The waking and dream.
We have the understanding, we have the conviction that everything in this world, in the waking state, is absolutely real. Our whole aim, goal, our ambitions, our disappointments, our happiness, unhappiness, everything is centered around this particular - waking state is real and dream is unreal.
For this Gaudapāda or Shankara or the scriptures are not necessary.
Because we are all 100% convinced that waking state is real whereas the dream state is completely unreal.
We discount the deep sleep state because it looks as if nothing is happening in that state. It is a state neither real nor unreal because we do not experience anything.
But Gaudapāda according to our Upanishadic teaching, he is not talking anything different. The only problem with Gaudapāda is he could have used simpler words. But he uses peculiar words, confusing words. In my opinion he could have made things very clear. But what Gaudapāda wants to convey to us is that everything in this world in the waking state is equal to the dream state.
That means just as we consider dream state as unreal, we should consider waking state as unreal. And when we really feel the waking is equally unreal then a great transformation will take place within us.
Then what is real? Everything is unreal. What is real? No man can live in a world which is not real. The moment we are convinced something is really temporary then we become very anxious. What is permanent? This is the whole point.
( 5:20 mins )
So when Gaudapāda wanted to speak that ‘The waking state my dear sir…’ (that means he is not addressing any opponent. He is addressing all of us) That you know very well a dream state lasts for a very short time -
- It is changing.
- It is created by you
- And it is experienced by you.
Everything looks like waking state but upon waking up you understand it is all completely your own imagination. There is not a shred of reality in it.
Alas, if we can have the same idea, exactly the same idea about the waking state everything would have been very nice.
But our, what is called, unconscious mind, here depicted as the opponent, it raises some objections. What is the objection?
‘You cannot, O Gaudapāda,’(that means O scripture, that means O Upanishad), ‘cannot simply convince me because I am an intelligent person. I can reason many things out.’
What are the things I can reason?
- The first thing is that waking state is continuous.
- Waking state, there is a utility. I run after what I think is going to give me happiness. And I run away from what I believe to be giving me, going to give me, unhappiness.
- And I have unique experiences, just as in the dreams. And whatever is in front of me, a tree, a hill, a river, everything in front of me that is called objective experience, is absolutely real.
Even if I close my eyes, everybody is experiencing. I may be sleeping, I may not be experiencing, on that account don't come and tell me that the objective world is unreal.
Because when I am sleeping the world continues and wars are going on. People are dying, people are getting married, people are getting children, everything is happening. There is a great utility. Objective existence is absolutely real.
But when I go into a dream state, that is called subjective experience.
Whatever I do with my mind, my thoughts, my imaginations, whether they be dream, day dream, or night dream, they are all unreal because it is thought. Thought is not real. So this is one of the objections raised by each one of us.
And whereas waking state is sphutam - very clear. Dream is not sphutam.
We have seen how Gaudapāda squashes all these arguments saying…
But what is the real summary of all these things?
1) First of all, whether it be a dream state, or waking state, or deep sleep state, they are experienced - First of all!
2) Secondly, they are changing from one to the other. They are temporary.
3) Thirdly, only when we cognize them, they are existing.
4) And fourthly, our cognition of the objective existence is not being done by us objectively, but by a great influence by the subject.
For example, the same thing is liked by somebody, disliked by somebody. And a person is neutral, third person is neutral. And we create our own worlds. So what do you mean by objective world?
But what is the important point here?
When I do not cognize anything, so far as I am concerned, it doesn't exist.
Let alone not creating or creating an impression upon me, it doesn't even exist. And this is absolutely true.
That means to experience waking, or dream, or sleep, there must be a consciousness, an awareness. And if the consciousness cognizes something, then it comes into being, that means it exists. And then it can create whatever impression. Because the impressions depend upon how our
body, sense organs, our past habits, our minds create.
( 10:28 mins )
So to cognize an object externally, to think about that object in the form of thought, to react to it as deciding whether it is real or unreal, everything depends upon consciousness. My friend, if you are not conscious, whatever you are not conscious of, that doesn't exist at all.
And when something doesn't exist, the question of discussion about that is completely useless. And nobody can counter this argument because this is what we are doing all the 24 hours a day.
So we will come back to what Gaudapāda says that one of the things is that when we dream, in the dream it appears to be fine. Upon waking up, when we try to recollect, it is very, very unclear.
And this is put by Gaudapāda, as I mentioned, in a very peculiar language.
This is the 14th Kārikā -
चित्तकाला हि येऽन्तस्तु द्वयकालाश्च ये बहिः ।
कल्पिता एव ते सर्वे विशेषो नान्यहेतुकः ॥ १४ ॥
cittakālā hi ye'ntastu dvayakālāśca ye bahiḥ |
kalpitā eva te sarve viśeṣo nānyahetukaḥ || 14 ||
So for all the earlier objections raised by our own mind in trying to understand Gaudapāda’s proof that the waking is completely, 100%, as unreal as the dream, we have mentioned 5 objections raised by our own mind. Such as something is very clear, and it is useful, and it is continuous, etc.
Then he is giving a sort of answer. Who is giving? Gaudapāda. What does he say?
He says, when we are experiencing a dream, he says, it is called cittakālā.
That is, as long as we are experiencing a dream, so long the dream lasts.
That is the sum and substance of cittakālā. Cittakālā means dream time.
Whereas the external waking state, what happens?
Suppose you are sleeping in your room and you lie down on the bed after having dinner. And you go to this state called dream and it lasts for some time. You come back.
So the external world in your waking state is having a beginning of a dream, end of a dream. So from the waking point, at this time this person went to bed and did not know anything. And then he came back. And we come back and we see the same house. We wake up in the same house, see the same house, and continue. And if I am 50 years old, yesterday is my birthday, I am 50 years and one day old. Tomorrow, 50 years and 2 days old. So before and after, this is called dvayakālā.
Forget about all this terminology. What it means is that there is a past and there is a future and whatever is in between is called the present. This is called dvayakālā, sandwiched between the past and future.
But that proves the reality of the waking state.
But Gaudapāda says, whether it is the dream time or whether what you call the waking state sandwiched between two times, I don't care.
Kalpitā eva te sarve - They are all your imaginations and there is no other reason.
Forget about measurement as with one time or two times. Forget about all those things. When you take notice of it, then they exist. When you don't take notice of it, they don't exist. Everything depends upon your consciousness. This is the essence of the 14th.
And then I already mentioned one of the objections. Waking state, everything is clear and dream state, everything is very hazy. This is stated by Gaudapāda in the 15th Kārikā.
( 15:09 mins )
अव्यक्ता एव येऽन्तस्तु स्फुटा एव च ये बहिः ।
कल्पिता एव ते सर्वे विशेषस्त्विन्द्रियान्तरे ॥ १५ ॥
avyaktā eva ye'ntastu sphuṭā eva ca ye bahiḥ |
kalpitā eva te sarve viśeṣastvindriyāntare ||
That is avyaktā eva ye'ntastu - That is when you are dreaming and whatever world you are experiencing in the dream - avyakta. Avyakta means not clear, very hazy, very indistinct.
When? When we are experiencing dream, nobody can say it is unclear or hazy. It is very, very clear.
When is it hazy? Upon waking up!
Similarly, sphuṭā eva ca ye bahiḥ - whatever is in the waking state - very clear. I can remember what happened 10 years back. I can remember what happened yesterday. I can remember what is happening today, even 50 years back. So clear. Nobody can read.
What does it mean? It means the waking state is real and dream state because of this stated reason, which is it is hazy, it is for a short time.
That is why it is hazy and that is why it is unreal. Dream is unreal.
As I mentioned earlier, dream state, there is no need for any book to say dream is unreal.
The point is can we say the waking state is also exactly unreal and for the very same reasons. What is that reason?
Whatever we experience depends upon us and whatever we don't experience doesn't even exist.
And therefore, what is the definition of truth? Whether we are aware of it or not!
Whatever we are aware of - that is existence.
When we are not aware - it is non-existence.
Even if you are aware of something for a 5 minutes time - whether it is in waking state or dream state, it is unreal because -
- It is changing.
- It is experienced. It is not experienced.
- It comes into being so long as you are aware and it disappears when you are not aware of it.
This is the argument.
But Gaudapāda tells one thing that you, whatever you experience, waking or dream, both are experiences. Sleep also is an experience.
All the three avasthās, Avasthā-traya are experienced.
Whatever you experience -
- It is an object.
- It is changing.
- It is temporary.
But You… there is a law that there must be an unchanging consciousness which becomes aware of the changing objective existence.
Objects are temporary but the unchanging conscious principle is eternal, trikāla abādhitam satyam. That alone is real. This is the crux of all these arguments.
That's why Gaudapāda says kalpitā eva te sarve -
Waking or dream experiences are nothing but thoughts in your mind.
I am bringing so many ideas again and again because we must always remember them.
What is it? Waking state is an imagination because you just don't know what is outside. Whatever you imagine about it… here is a beautiful person, here is an ugly person. What you say is beautiful may be ugly to somebody.
For example, an ugly woman is going and you call her ugly. Ask her child, he says ‘My mother is the most beautiful woman in the whole world.’ Why?
‘Because she is my mother and she loves me.’ Whoever loves me is beautiful.
Whoever doesn't love me is ugly.
This is the absolute truth, psychological truth. Whatever we love is very dear to us and whatever is dear to us that is the greatest truth. So this is how we say.
Gaudapāda says it doesn't matter. You love or you don't love. Something gives happiness. Happiness is also your imagination. Unhappiness is your imagination. Likes and dislikes are also thoughts. Thoughts are no different from dream and therefore everything that your mind does is nothing but unreal.
( 20:05 mins )
Why is it unreal?
Because the mind doesn't function without your taking care of it. Even as I am imagining hundreds of things in my mind, in the waking state, my consciousness which is unchanging, which alone can cognize that here is a mind and it is thinking. Sometimes it thinks I like this - some object. Sometimes it thinks I don't like this object.
But you remove that consciousness from the thoughts, from the mind,
The mind itself loses its very existence.
So whether it is waking state, dream state or deep sleep state, everything is changing, relative to each other. But that unchanging witness, pure consciousness is never changing.
This is what Gaudapāda is telling, kalpitā eva te sarve -
All the three states are just imaginations because you are aware of the changes taking place in the mind. This is absolute truth.
Then why so many changes? Viśeṣastvindriyāntare -
- If you have got external organs, whatever you are experiencing, you call it waking state.
- If you are using only the mind and not the external body and sense organs, you call it a dream state.
- When you are experiencing without the sense organs, body as well as the mind, you call it deep sleep state.
But there is someone who is witnessing all these three. Sarve evā Kalpitā.
This is what exactly Sri Rāmakrishna is telling. Always practice discrimination.
What is discrimination? God alone is real. Everything else is temporary.
What is Sri Rāmakrishna saying? Exactly what Gaudapāda is telling that your pure consciousness… In the words of Sri Rāmakrishna, God alone is permanent! Because of the law - unless there is an unchanging witness, changes can never be known or understood.
Therefore God, God means unchanging consciousness called Chaitanyam.
That alone is real and everything is a play in that Chaitanyam.
When that Chaitanyam, pure consciousness puts on some black colored specs, it is called waking state.
When it puts on a little less black colored specs, it is called a dream.
And when it puts on very crystal clear glasses without any color, that is called deep sleep.
But without any specs, that is called real pure conscious state.
It experiences itself - I am the pure consciousness!
This is what is Gaudapāda’s burden, or burden of all that we have discussed, all that we are going to discuss.
Now, what is the crux? Summary of what we discussed so far?
That is our own mind which has clarified its thoughts to some extent is asking now, ‘Sir, you are talking about that there is an unchanging witness that alone is real. And there is something which is being continuously witnessed which is called popularly as the waking, dream, and dreamless state. So, who is this experiencer? Tell me about that experiencer.
Tell me about that pure consciousness. Tell me about that Ātmā.
And then that is what in the 11th Kārikā, the opponent, means ourselves, are asking,
उभयोरपि वैतथ्यं भेदानां स्थानयोर्यदि ।
क एतान्बुध्यते भेदान्को वै तेषां विकल्पकः ॥
ubhayorapi vaitathyaṃ bhedānāṃ sthānayoryadi |
ka etānbudhyate bhedāṅko vai teṣāṃ vikalpakaḥ ||
At last, the student, having understood a little better, is asking the real question. If everything is witnessed or experienced, who is the real witness?
ubhayorapi vaitathyaṃ - ubhayā means what?
If all objects in both the states ( both the states means the waking and the dream states ) be unreal ( that means temporary ) then there must be somebody who is unchanging? And who is that who apprehends these objects, that means these states, and who indeed is their creator?
( 25:08 mins )
Because remember, another idea is projected here. First of all, not only who is witnessing and apprehending. But who is their creator?
That means was there creation before and the consciousness is witnessing?
Or the consciousness itself is both the creator and the experiencer?
The answer is yes, He is the creator and He is the experiencer.
For that we give, to make this point very clear, we always give the experiencer, the example of dream.
Now you the waker, when you are in the waking state, you are called the waker. And you spend your waking time and you feel a bit tired, then you go and lay your body on the bed. And it is a particular time you are accustomed to. And then before going into deep sleep, to get the real required rest, and you go on thinking something. Those thoughts, they assume realistic proportions.
If it is a daydream, you are aware that they are thoughts, imaginations. But if it is night time, or when a person is lying down and enters into that state called dreaming state, then what is the difference?
Everything is imagination, but in dream these imaginations become very, very, very concrete, as if it is really happening. I hope you are able to understand this point.
In waking state, I sit on an easy chair, close my eyes, especially after lunch,
and I imagine I am in America, I am in Mars, I am with somebody whom I love, whom I cherish, etc., etc. I am at the same time aware that this is my own mind creating all these kinds of imaginations.
But when I enter into dream state, that sense that I am imagining - that disappears. As if they are all real creations, and they were created, and I enter into that world, and I am experiencing it. I forget it is I who created, I forget it is I who is experiencing,
Only that I am the creator - that aspect is forgotten.
I am the experiencer - that aspect is remembered.
Because what is the difference?
That suppose you are sitting and dreaming, somebody is coming and beating me black and blue. You don't suffer. Just like when we are looking at a cinema, we enjoy it, we suffer also. That suffering is an artistic, aesthetic experience, not a realistic waking experience.
So that is what happens. Sad music - you feel sad, so sad scene - you feel sad. But it doesn't remain because you know it is a cinema, it is unreal. You are completely conscious that it is a cinema, it is something on the screen,
there is no reality.
But when we enter into dream state, those very imaginations, remember as imaginations they are not different, but they appear to be absolutely created by somebody else just as in the waking state.
And then we think somebody is coming and beating me up - it is very real. I am trying to run away - very real. Somebody comes and helps me - very real. I wake up - then I know my being beaten, my being trying to run away and somebody coming, both, all these states - everything is my imagination only upon waking up.
Gaudapāda wants to say, Sri Rāmakrishna wants to say - this waking state is also a dream.
This is what I quoted from Holy Mother, She says that everything is a dream, even this waking state. But her disciple, I think Arupānanda, just like this opponent says, ‘dream is unreal, but don't say that waking state is unreal.’
But Holy Mother did not go into Gaudapāda’s language, She says, ‘তবতু’ (tobotu) ‘even then it is nothing but unreal.’
Why does She say so?
She says, ‘my son, whatever is temporary, you have to consider it as unreal.’
You may not consider it as unreal, you don't consider it as unreal. What do you consider? You say it is temporarily real. You are using 2 - like hot ice cream. Like that you are saying: This is temporary, means unreal. Real means permanent. Unreal means temporary. That way temporary means that which is changing.
( 30:23 mins )
But Holy Mother is not a logician, She is not talking like that. But what She meant is that life is passing away and a time will come, and you become old, and you may suffer, and you will definitely die. There is no doubt about it. Have you found out a way how you can escape this fact of death?
Nobody wants to escape the fact of birth, the fact of growth. But after some time… especially, we want to be eternally youthful. After that we don't want any degradation from there. Until we reach youth, absolutely every change is most welcome. After becoming a youth, then any change is most unwelcome. But the nature of the world is that everything is temporary. That which is born is destined to die. This is called change. That change, we are not cognizing it. That is what Gaudapāda is telling.
Now the student has woken up a little, hopefully, and is asking, ‘Sir, please tell me about who is the creator? Who is imagining all those things? And what is his nature?
For that, Gaudapāda is giving beautiful answers in 12th, 13th and 14th
and very easy to understand. He says in the 12th Kārikā,
कल्पयत्यात्मनाऽऽत्मानमात्मा देवः स्वमायया |
स एव बुध्यते भेदानिति वेदान्तनिश्चयः ॥
kalpayatyātmanā''tmānamātmā devaḥ svamāyayā |
sa eva budhyate bhedāniti vedāntaniścayaḥ ||
The self-effulgent Self, Svayam Prakāśaka Ātmā, that Ātmā imagines Itself.
How? Through Itself. By the power of Its own Māyā, the Self Itself organizes all the objects. Such is the definite conclusion of Vedānta.
What is in this stanza, 12th Karika, what is Gaudapāda telling?
He is answering - The Ātman, the Pure Consciousness, gets Itself deluded by Its own delusion. And by Itself projects out the pluralistic, what we call Jagat, world. Which is nothing but Itself, It being the all-pervading and eternal.
Really, it is not difficult to understand. Because… now project, extrapolate this Kārikā into the example I have given innumerable number of times - dream!
Who goes to the dream state? The Waker.
What is the nature of the waker? He is aware of everything.
And what is the dream? It is the thoughts of the waker.
And in that dream world, who creates? Who is the creator? The waker!
And how does he create? He divides himself into three! The individual with this waking form, waking name, waking identity, in the dream also. And all the world, his native place, his house, other people's houses, etc. Or if he goes to America, it may be New York, maybe Detroit or Houston.
So he imagines exactly three.
1) Himself,
2) Every other living, non-living creature, which is called the world,
3) And the interaction between himself and especially the living creatures. His neighbors, let us say.
So he thinks, just as we think in the waking state,
1) I am… first, I am not the creator. This created world already exists. First point.
2) Second, he doesn't say it is a dream world. He says it is an absolutely real world, just as we say in the waking state.
3) Thirdly, he feels he is going through the same experiences, Sukha, Dukha, birth and growth, and old age and death. Everything, absolutely no difference.
So, until the dream state lasts, the waker forgets his waking state - that I am the waker, I am the Vishwa. And he puts on a special specs called Taijasa. Looks at himself, finds himself as the individual. Looks at the world, finds both the living and nonliving. And goes through all the interactions through his mind, through his speech, through his dreams. He can even have any number of dreams in the dream state itself.
( 35:13 mins )
And those dreams can be divided into two categories - daydreams and night dreams. So if it is a night dream, he calls it, what we can call dream number two. Dream number one is the waker, forgetting he is the waker, and thinking he is the waker in the dream state. And this dream number two, what that first dreamer is dreaming, second dream. Maybe if you are very imaginative, in that second dream also, he can have a third dream, and all these things.
Mother Yashodā had seen in the opening mouth of Bāla Gopāla - and Jagat, within Jagat, within Jagat, within Jagat. Like the barbershop mirrors -infinite number of reflections! Infinite number of Krishnas! Infinite number of Krishnas opening His mouth! Infinite number of Yashodās peering into it!
And She fell down, unfortunately unconscious! And I hope you will not fall unconscious during this Gaudapāda Māndukya Kārikā class.
So what is the answer? Who is the creator of the waking and the dream?
That is the question.
So he says Devaḥ. Deva means pure consciousness, and it is called Ātma. He is the pure consciousness. And He has a special power called Māyā.
When we go to dream state - it is called Nidrā Shakti.
When Īshwara pretends to be going to sleep - it is called Māyā.
- So Nidrā is individual Māyā,
- and Māyā is cosmic Nidrā.
Through this Shakti, Kalpayati - imagines.
Ātmana - by His own mind.
Ātmānam - Himself - as if He had become Jīva, Jagat, Chit, Achit and Īshwara.
That is Adhyātmika, Adhibhautika and Adhidaivika.
So it is all nothing but a play of pure consciousness.
And he continues. Kārikā number 13
विकरोत्यपरान्भावानन्तश्चित्ते व्यवस्थितान् ।
नियतांश्च बहिश्चित्त एवं कल्पयते प्रभुः ॥ १३ ॥
vikarotyaparānbhāvānantaścitte vyavasthitān |
niyatāṃśca bahiścitta evaṃ kalpayate prabhuḥ ||
The Lord, that is the Ātman, manifests diversely the mundane things existing in the mind. But the same Lord turning the mind outward,
He creates the well-defined things as well as the undefined things.
It's exactly the same thing that we discussed earlier.
Gaudapāda is answering, when that Ātman puts on a very thick black glass (it is called waking state) and he looks at Himself. It's called waking state.
Now a very interesting thing. I have given you this example earlier. I hope you will recollect. And I know that you don't have time, so I will recollect for you.
Imagine you are in a room. Imagine there are a hundred small, small mirrors. And imagine further. Don't say I cannot imagine. So I cannot imagine your saying I cannot imagine.
Imagine that each small bit of the mirror is of different convex or concave, of different sizes, different shapes, and different thicknesses, and different colors. Just imagine.
And then you are standing. So because they are small mirrors, one mirror reflects your finger, another mirror reflects your hair, another mirror reflects your stomach, some reflect your legs. That means part by part your body is reflected in all these hundred mirrors. But as I said, they are all of different thicknesses. So in some, one part of the hand appears as blue, in another hand appears as red, another as a small, another as a big. Imagine!
And if you are not taught this Gaudapāda class, you get frightened. What is this? I thought I was this single person. Now I see my reflection. And we get very much frightened of seeing our own reflection. This is a psychological fact that we get either happy or unhappy solely because of our imagination.
Everything is an imagination. There is no doubt about it.
( 40:05 mins )
So this is what Gaudapāda is telling in this 13th Kārikā.
What? Ātma, this Deva, earlier called Ātma, this Ātma - bahiścittasa antaścittasa - He divides his mind into outgoing and inward looking.
Outward looking and inward looking.
And when he looks outwardly, all the waking state, (what we call Jagat experiences) He experiences it.
And when the same Ātman turns his own attention inside, putting on what we call Taijasa specs, then He experiences, also, what we call the dream state.
What about the deep sleep state? Yes, when He puts on some other kind of specs, nothing becomes visible. He forgets even Himself. And as if He is immersed in deep bliss, Ānandamaya Kosha.
And we are not talking about it because our point is everything is created, everything is temporary. And anything temporary must be experienced, then only that pure consciousness which experiences, it seems the object comes out to be alive. Otherwise, no. That is the point.
Everything depends upon pure consciousness and the whole universe, what we call birth and death and everything, nothing but a pure imagination.
What about Karmaphala? That is also imagination.
What about your Svarga Loka, Naraka Loka? That is also imagination.
What about God being the creator? That is also imagination.
Everything is pure imagination.
It requires a tremendous amount of courage to accept this fact. It's telling that the Lord, Ātman, manifests diversely.
How? When He turns His mind inside, He creates the entire Swapna jagat. And don't forget, you don't call it Swapna jagat when you are in dream state. It is waking state, means real state.
When you are in the… He puts on outward specs, then it is called waking state and that is what you call the, what is called Jagrat Prapancha. Thus does the Lord imagine
And we see the same thing I quoted earlier also.
मयाध्यक्षेण प्रकृतिः सूयते सचराचरम् ।
हेतुनानेन कौन्तेय जगद्विपरिवर्तते ॥ ९-१०॥
mayādhyakṣeṇa prakṛtiḥ sūyate sacarācaram ।
hetunānena kaunteya jagadviparivartate ॥ ( Bhagavad Gitā 9 - 10 )
Working under My direction, this material energy called Māyā, Prakriti,
brings into being all animate and inanimate, living and non-living forms,
O Arjuna! For this reason, the material world undergoes the changes of creation, maintenance and dissolution.
What is the, ‘for this reason’?
That means everything depends upon -
- I imagine I am creating.
- I imagine I am maintaining it.
- I imagine that I am breaking it.
Just imagine you are a child, your parents take you to the beach. On the beach there is fine sand. And you start doing, what is called, making sand castles.
- Who are you? I am the creator.
- And ‘oh some part is falling’, and you take some more sand and prop it up. What do you call? I am maintaining the castle.
- And after some time your parents say, ‘it's time to go home and enjoy our dinner’. And the child himself kicks the whole lot.
Because he knows this is only sand. I can create it again any number of times
tomorrow, day after tomorrow. He is not worried about it.
Similarly, the divine Lord is going through this creation, maintenance and dissolution. They are nothing but imaginations. Because it is God's imagination, it appears to be very real. Just as we are all that creators during our dreaming state.
And then we continue in the 12th Kārikā. Again we are coming back. It says,
kalpayatyātmanā''tmānamātmā devaḥ svamāyayā |
sa eva budhyate bhedāniti vedāntaniścayaḥ।।
We have already seen this one. That self-effulgent, that is the Pure Consciousness, Lord, in this case creator, imagines Himself through Himself by the power of His own Māyā. Instead of Itself, I used the word Himself.
That divine Lord Himself organizes the objects, living, non-living, being born, being growing up, becoming old and dying. That is called organization.
This is living, this is non-living. These are human, these are non-human, etc.
Such is the iti vedāntaniścayaḥ - That is, this is the conclusion of the Vedānta.
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Because as I said, dream, every single person, educated, uneducated - there is no controversy. Dream is a dream. Dream is unreal. And so we don't act as if this world is a dream.
But when we come to the waking state, this is a permanent… there is a permanency, even though experiencing every second with change. Here is a person and he is walking. There is an accident. He dies. Where is the permanency? So the same thing can happen to me, to you, to anybody.
That is what is being said in the 13th Kārikā.
vikarotyaparānbhāvānantaścitte vyavasthitān |
niyatāṃśca bahiścitta evaṃ kalpayate prabhuḥ ||
This is the important part of the sentence - evaṃ prabhuḥ kalpayate.
prabhuḥ - means the Self-Effulgent Ātman. This is how He imagines, just as each one of us, we are the Prabhus when our own individual dream is considered.
So the Lord manifests diversely both the waking and the dream state universes with mundane things. All existing in the mind as in the form of thoughts.
But turning the mind outward is thoughts. These are called outward thoughts. Not that there is any object outside. There is - thought is there.
This thought is external thought.
- And if it is external thought, we call it waking state.
- If it is internal thought, we call it dream.
- If there is no thought, we call it deep sleep.
So that Prabhu creates the well-defined things as well as undefined things.
That is, there are things which we know. There are things which we do not know. Both are thoughts only.
How?
For example, you ask me the Einstein's theory of relativity. I heard about it. I know such a theory is there. But I don't know anything about that theory. If I try to explain to you, it is not only I am doing injustice to myself, I am doing injustice to you also. A fellow who doesn't know is trying to explain something. This is the well-known definition of modern art.
The modern art, the critic never understands what that particular art is. Trying to sell it to an uneducated fellow, ‘This is the most marvelous modern art.’ And if the, what is called, the customer loudly protests, ‘I don't understand it.’ ‘But if you understand, it is not modern. If you don't understand, it is the most modern.’ And it is the latest. And the more latest, the more costly it is. The less you understand, the more costly it is. That is how things go on.
So everything known as well as unknown. It means some things we know, some things others know. What we know, others may not know. What others know, we may not know. ‘There may be many things, O Horatio,’ as Shakespeare exclaims, ‘there are things which are not even dreamt of by human beings in this world.’
And don't simply say they do not exist. Heavens are there. Hells are there.
Gods, Goddesses are there. And as well as demons are there. And what is called Preta, Bhuta, Pishācha, Yaksha, Rākshasa, Gandharva, all these things are there. And we hear about them only in the Puranas. But don't say that they are all cock and bull stories.
But it is the Divine Lord. It doesn't matter. It is all His thoughts. Therefore, from the viewpoint of the Divine Lord it is all temporary.
What is permanent?
That pure consciousness. Shuddha Chaitanyam. That is the only reality.
Now, the Gaudapāda continues in the 16th Kārikā.
जीवं कल्पयते पूर्वं ततो भावान्पृथग्विधान् ।
बाह्यानाध्यात्मिकांश्चैव यथाविद्यस्तथास्मृतिः ॥ १६ ॥
jīvaṃ kalpayate pūrvaṃ tato bhāvānpṛthagvidhān |
bāhyānādhyātmikāṃścaiva yathāvidyastathāsmṛtiḥ ||
First of all, the Divine Lord creates the ‘I’, Jivatmā, Ahamkāra. And then it is projected first. Because without ‘I’ - ‘I see’, ‘I hear’, and ‘I smell’, ‘I taste’, and ‘I touch’, it is impossible. First there must be that self-conscious entity called Ahamkāra, called ‘I’. This is called Jivā.
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How does the creation start?
First with the Jivā. Then He cognizes everything in the form of this is waking state, this is dream state, and this is deep sleep state.
Thereafter follow imaginations of the various entities, both objective and subjective. Imaginations, thoughts, various entities.
Objective means what we call the external world.
And subjective means what we call the dream state.
What about deep sleep? It is as if it is neither external nor internal.
Even that thought, that it is either external or internal - That thought itself, it is a thought. This is external, this is internal - I am imagining. All these things are thoughts.
Our Gaudapāda’s Māndukya Kārikā is also a thought. It was a thought in his mind and then he put it in writing. That is another thought. When I look at it, I say it is a book, that is a thought. And this is the Kārikā, that is a thought. And this is what I understand, that is a thought. This is what I don't understand, that is also a thought. Everything is a thought, nothing but a thought.
But that one who is witnessing the changing thoughts, He alone is real. He alone is permanent.
That is what Swāmi Brahmānandaji says, during one or two days before His giving up the body. A doctor had come with some Nāma on his forehead. And looking at him says, ‘Doctor, the one whom you are indicating through your markings on your forehead, He alone is real. God alone is real. Everything else is unreal.’
This is how we will understand. We will continue it in our next class.
What is the essence of what we discussed? That there is an Ātma.
And when He imagines - that is called creation and maintenance and dissolution.
When He doesn't imagine - it is called Parabrahman.
It is the essence of what we discussed so far.
And we will continue in our next class.
Now there would be, if at all there are some questions, we will discuss it.
ऊँ जननीं सारदां देवीं रामकृष्णं जगद्गुरुं।
पादपद्मे तयोः श्रित्वा प्रणमामि मुहुर्मुहुः॥
Om Jananim Sāradām devīm Rāmakrishnam jagadgurum
Pādapadme tayoh shritva pranamāmi muhurmuhuh.
May Sri Rāmakrishna, Holy Mother, and Swāmi Vivekānanda bless us all with Bhakti.
Jai Rāmakrishna!
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