Mandukya Karika Lecture 093 on 08 March 2023
Full Transcript
We are dealing with the Karika, 2nd Chapter of the Mandukya Upanishad, called Vaithatya Prakaranam 32, verse 32 or Karika 32.
NA NIRODHO NACHA UDPATTI, NA BADDHO NACHA SADAKAHA, NA MUMUKSHU NAVAI MUKTAHA, IT YESHA PARAMATTHATAHA.
This is the highest truth. There is no dissolution, no birth, none in bondage, none aspiring for wisdom, no seeker of liberation and none liberated. This is the absolute truth. This is the final truth.
NA UDPATTI, Srishti or birth is not there.
NA NIRODHAHA, there is no dissolution, there is no death.
NA BADDHAHA, there is nobody who is in bondage.
NACHA SADAKAHA, because there is no bondage there cannot be any Sadhaka.
NA MUMUKSHUHU, therefore, a person who doesn't feel that there is any bondage doesn't have any desire at all for getting out of the bondage.
And MUMUKSHU is one who is a seeker of liberation and after doing sadhana, NAVAI MUKTAHA, somebody feels I have become liberated.
There is nobody.
IT YESHA PARAMATTHATAHA, this is the absolute truth, but this is the highest truth, and this is a truth which is absolute truth only after realization.
And until realization it is like a person who had seen a ferocious snake in the place of a rope, and he is naturally frightened of snake and ferocious snake is all the more frightening. Such a person cannot say I don't see a snake, there is no fear, I don't need to run away, all those thoughts will not even come into his mind. But what happens when light is brought out and the same person looks at what he was seeing before and finds just a piece of rope. From that point of view there is no snake, there is no destruction of the snake, and he is not frightened, he is not seeking to be free from fear etc. He is not a seeker of running away, trying to run away, become free from the fear of the snake, therefore that is the highest truth.
So let us never misunderstand. What Gaudapada says is absolute truth. And in my last class I raised very important points, especially three points. What was the first point? That Swami Vivekananda had reinterpreted in a new light and that is our Hindu way of interpretation, not the dualistic school of interpretation, not the Visishtadvaita interpretation, not the Advaita interpretation, but this is the pure Vedic interpretation. What is it? Everything is Brahman. You close your eyes, that means you go out of your mind, that is pure Brahman. You open your eyes; it is the same Brahman. What is the difference? That the closing of the eyes and the opening of the eyes belong to the body, belong to the mind. So long as body and mind are there, they are limited instruments and when the reality, the truth is looked through the prism of body and mind, which Swami Vivekananda categorizes as time, space, and causation, then what appears will be same pure light but in the form of various colours etc. Here it means Nama, names, and Rupa, forms and Gunas, qualities. What are these three? These are three which distinguish one from everything else. For example, there is an object called a tree and tree is the form and it has a name, mango tree, that is the name. And it has a quality, it bears very sweet fruits, that is called Gunas. So, Rupa, Nama and Gunas. So, it is the same Brahman. But how do we know? Sri Ramakrishna, whatever came from his mouth is nothing but pure Upanishad, highest truth. So, he gave an illustration, a person goes on saying this is not the roof, this is not the roof, illustrative of Neti Neti, Na Iti Na Iti, this is not the truth, this is not the truth. When he reaches the roof, and here we have to understand he knows the roof is made up of bricks and cement and then when he goes down he knows the whole house, all this staircase etc. is made up of nothing but only cement and bricks. There is no difference until we reach the highest truth and experience it and then when we come down, then only we can see the truth. That is to say a person enters into what we call Nirvikalpa Samadhi and then he becomes one with Brahman, knows I am Brahman and then if he happens to come down into these instruments in the form of body and mind, whatever he experiences it will be Brahman as I said Nama, Rupa, and Guna. This is what Sri Ramakrishna wants to say. Now that is the goal. How to know that there is no Dvaitam, everything is Advaitam. What is the difference? When a person is in bondage, Dvaitam is bondage, that is I am different, you are different, everything is different from everything else, that creates fear. Dvitiyam Bhayam Bhavati. Bhaya means suffering and even enjoyment is underlying suffering only because we know through experience whatever we enjoy it will sooner or later, it will come to an end. There is not one person who is foolish enough to think that when I am eating a sweet this is for eternity. He knows the sweet will be over, then he will feel the pangs of hunger after some time, then he will have to again earn money or buy it or prepare it and eat it and this process of both Dukha and Sukha, pain and enjoyment goes on forever and ever.
But we all have that teleological urge. We don't want to die because every one of us know that if I have a birth I am going to have death. In fact, every moment even a youth, I was a baby, I am going to die. All these ideas will be there. But unlike other Advaitins who from the beginning try to claim everything is Mithya, that may be suitable for some people but for most of us the world is real. But when we say the world is real, we mean the changing world is real. But when a person becomes a devotee, he still says this world is real, but that reality has two aspects. This is what we will come in the next Karika. But I am what is called forestalling. What is it? That even when I am looking there is a real tree and the tree that I am seeing it was in a seed state then it slowly became a seedling, then it grew up but there is an eternal tree. This is what I think Plato calls the eternally changing form that we experience. Behind every changing experience there is an unchanging knowledge of eternal something. There is an eternal body, there is an eternal chair, there is an eternal tree, there is an eternal dog. Everything has its corresponding eternal form is there. If we can attain to that form, then we will be free from all sorts of fears and suffering. That is the idea.
So, what I spoke was that first of all, Gaudapada or Shankara or anybody is absolutely right. This is the highest truth. When a person attains to that knowledge and there is no mind and there is nobody who even thinks like this. As I mentioned you have to listen carefully and keep it in mind and go on recollecting it. Simply listening hundred times will not do. So, I mentioned in my last class when a person is absorbed there is no mind. When there is no mind, the thought that even Aham Brahmasmi, I am Brahman, it doesn't work because there is no mind to say that I am Brahman. Only one is there. That is an experience and from that point of view Gaudapada is telling there is no birth, there is no death, there is no bondage, there is no desire for liberation and there is no person who is seeking liberation and there is no liberated soul. This is the highest truth but the experience of the highest stage, one doesn't even say it is an experience. Even to say it is an experience a mind is necessary. The moment mind steps in there is duality. But to make people like us understand intellectually all this description is being given.
Sri Ramakrishna has had his own unique way of expressing. For example, Ramakrishna says there was a village and it is far away from an ocean. Some villager happened to go to the ocean, and he returned, and the villagers asked, how did you find? He opened his mouth and said, Ah! How can I describe? Because the villagers had never seen anything like that. So, there is no comparable object even to remotely describe what this person had experienced. That is a very important point for all of us to understand. But why is it being said that that is going to be our goal. Whether we are following, treading, walking, the path of Bhakti Yoga, Karma Yoga or Jnana Yoga. Everybody will have this experience. There is no doubt about it. Sri Ramakrishna confirms it a thousand times that Advaita is the last word and that is the goal of everybody. Suppose a devotee doesn't accept it. Doesn't matter. You have some faith. You have a path. You go ahead with your path. That is absolutely fine. When what you think is the highest point, then God himself will open your eyes, say there is another aspect of me and that is this Advaita aspect. But we don't need to confuse anybody. Let us find out the next step which is going to be outlined very soon. But the point is that what Gaudapada says, we have to remember is the actual experience which can never be described.
Namo Namo Prabhu, O Lord, Vakyamana Athita. You are beyond thought. So, who is going to even talk about you? It will fall far short of all these things.
So, second is that this world is Mithya. Swami Vivekananda never used this word, Mithya. He had always spoken about potential divinity. And I mentioned two points with regard to that. Point A, in the second point, that there is a teleological urge like the seed. A mango seed wants to become a mango seedling, plant, grow. There is something and it is natural, and it cannot stop it. So, whether we believe it, we claim, profess, whether we believe in God, we don't believe in God. But everybody believes, I don't want to die, I don't want to suffer, and I want to be an intelligent person. These three desires nobody will doubt and every one of us consciously or unconsciously are striving for it. This is what the first meaning of each soul is potentially divine. Second, what is the meaning of manifesting this divinity? Many people think that there is no relationship between the way we live and the manifestation of potential divinity. A person may be working in an office or in a hospital or in a factory or a store and he has to come, separately sit, and do japa, dhyana, meditation and then what we call a spiritual life. Swami Vivekananda had completely nullified this naive view. He says life and spiritual life, you cannot divide them into two. Every action that we do including breathing etc.
Arshnan, Swapan, Gacchan, Sveshan, Nimishan, Panmishan,
brahmany adhaya karmani
sangam tyaktva karoti yah
lipyate na sa papena
padma-patram ivambhasa
Bhagavad Gita crystal clearly says that if we intelligently, that means with a spiritual attitude, whatever we do that will become a spiritual activity and we will progress spiritually. If we have worldly outlook, then we will become more and more worldly. So, it depends not on the activity. Any activity even that of cleaning a toilet also can make us reach the highest. The greatest example, telling example, in the story of Rashik who was at Dakshineshwar and Sri Ramakrishna instructed him. And even before Sri Ramakrishna instructed him, he was of that nature, he was doing everything sincerely, devotedly with one-pointedness. Otherwise, he could not have been a fit recipient to receive the grace of Sri Ramakrishna. But Sri Ramakrishna bestowed his grace and said you will attain Mukti. I will take you up at the time of your death where I live. That is where you will come. So, this is a very important point and that is what Sri Ramakrishna told. But he instructed that every day you sit in front of a Tulasi plant and then chant Hari Nama. Do Hari Nama as long as it is possible. And that's what Rashik had done. So, what is important is not what type of work we do but with what motivation we do. In fact, when we study the life of Sri Ramakrishna, we see that Sri Ramakrishna himself had cleaned the lavatory of the lavatory of the lavatory cleaners. And then why did he do it? Because was he being paid some money for that? No. He said, Oh Mother, remove from my mind the very thought that I am superior, I am a Brahmana, I am a Kulina Brahmana, I am far superior to these people, this Jati Abhimana. Which is one of the eight factors that you please remove and that is the purpose he did is even that action also helped him erase the Ahamkara, egotism, and he went forward.
So, this is what is the important point for us. Now any work we can do. But point B in the second point is how do we manifest our divinity? I mentioned specifically each one of us is endowed with a special talent. For example, somebody can cook very well. So do the cooking very well with all attention but with the feeling I am serving the Divine Lord and I want to go to the Divine Lord. A good doctor, okay, I will serve my patients. You can take your fees but if you take excessive fees and make differentiation between a rich patient and a poor patient, treat the rich patient and poor patient completely discriminating between them, man and woman, beautiful and ugly, then you will be committing a terrific mistake which of course sooner or later you are going to correct yourself because nobody can escape this one. But instead of wasting time I say I am serving the Divine Lord. That's what Swami Vivekananda mentioned Vedanta is practical. What is practical Vedanta? If it is applied properly, a student will be a better student, a housewife will be a better housewife and a fisherman will be a better fisherman. Marvellous ideas are there. So how do we manifest our divinity? You expand your special talent but direct it so that you can serve the Divine Lord in the form of the people, in the form of the world to the best of your ability with the idea, with the practice in the presence of God like brother Lawrence, I am serving you, O Lord, but you are manifesting in this particular form. This is how we also manifest whatever talent we have even if it be 1% or 0.1% that is what you have. Anybody, somebody, some people have used that much then God might increase that 0.2, 0.3 then 1, 5%, 10% whatever it is. More than sufficient. The scientists later discovered even the world's greatest genius only uses 6% of his brain power. What to speak of 100%! So, this is the second point that we are helplessly being carried by manifesting our divinity. This is what I call the spiritual escalator. We are sitting on it. There is no question of jumping off that one. Sooner or later, we are going to reach even if we sit there also. Second aspect of that, second point is that whatever talents we are given that is the only way we can progress in manifesting our potential divinity.
Now third point is Gaudapadacharya is asking us to practice spiritual disciplines in order to reach the goal he mentioned in the earlier verses. Because a philosophy is as they say is not worth the salt if simply pointing out this is the truth and this is your goal but doesn't show the means of how to reach that goal, how to realize that goal. So, this is the third point. In this we can very easily understand from the viewpoint of direct experience with Brahman what Gaudapadacharya said in this 32nd verse,
na nirodho na cotpattirna baddho na ca sādhakaḥ |
na mumukṣurna vai mukta ityeṣā paramārthatā
And all that is absolute truth. Absolute truth. But where we are that becomes our goal and that goal as I just now mentioned is what Swami Vivekananda beautifully said, don’t say this world is Mithya. This world is 100% real. But what I call real is only just what I am experiencing and probably a billionth part of the reality. But if we go on doing these two things. What is it? That my goal is to know who I am really. Second, whatever talents God has endowed me with I am going to use them to the best of my ability.
So, from the highest point whatever we discussed is absolute truth. But from the standpoint of the body, everything is real. The world is real, my body is real, your body is real, bondage is real, suffering is real. But don't only say suffering, both happiness and unhappiness, both are real. And birth and death are also real. And whatever happens, and cold and heat, and victory and defeat, and profit and loss, and honour and dishonour, and becoming young, and exhibiting all our potentialities, and gradually becoming less and less, becoming old, and finally the death of the body, it is all only to gain another body, this is also part of the reality. So, from the body standpoint, my body is real, my mind is real, my bondage is real, my desire is real, my effort is real, and I am slowly going to progress, and that progress is also very real. That is the point. So, this is instead of misunderstanding the world as Mithya, we should have to understand that Mithya means partial understanding, partial truth. That is we should never mistake it as the complete truth.
With this understanding we will move on to the verse 33. And this is where, as I said, Sri Ramakrishna's teachings come into full focus.
And I will quote a long quotation in fact, but I will come to that. Here goes the 33rd Karika.
भावैहि असद्भिहेवा अयम् अद्वयेन च कल्पितः भावाः अपि अद्वयेन इवा तस्मात अद्वयता शिवा
This Atman is imagined both as unreal objects that are perceived and as the non-duality. The objects are imagined in the non-duality itself. Therefore, non-duality alone is the highest bliss. As I mentioned quite a number of times, I think Shankaracharya would have used a better language, but unfortunately Gaudapada was what Gaudapada was. And he has been given only this much talent and he was also, I think, quite influenced to some extent by the terminology that Buddhism uses. How he tries to, what we call, confuse us. Let us find out what is the substitute for it.
भावैहि, भावा means in our understanding the feelings, the attitude, the mental experience, but here he means objects. भावा means objects. What type of objects? असद्धि. असद्धि means what? Temporary. सत् means existing, असत् means non-existing.
So, remember again and again and again. So, in this world, असत्, is it non-existent? No. If it was non-existent, then we could never have experienced it. But if it is purely existent, then it should never have changed. So that which is experienced, but only temporarily, that means changefully, that is the terminology called Mitya. So, this is what he is telling, but first I will give a small example which Shankaracharya himself gives here. Example is, suppose in semi-darkness you see a snake. Many many times we discussed it. How are you able to see it? Because there is something called a rope. If there were to be no rope, we would never have experienced this snake or anything else. So, there must be what is called a substratum upon which we forget that substratum. We see that substratum partially in semi-light and we superimpose another object which we had seen earlier somewhere else. In this case the substratum is the rope and earlier somewhere we have seen a snake and that snake frightened us. And here we thought because a similarity is there, and we superimpose that earlier seen memory upon what I am seeing right now. And then I am 100% convinced myself, I become Brahmadeva, I create the snake which was not there at all. Until light is brought out and then the truth is revealed, and I will be suffering from my own creation.
So, the world is also exactly like that. Only in theological language we say the world is created by us. Each one of us are a Brahma. And we create how? By our Purva Janma Karma Phala Samskara Rupena Samskaras. So, Brahma there is no separate Brahmadeva. We are the Brahmadeva just like we create a dream. Coming back to this there must be a substratum. There must be something even to mistake it as something else. What is that something? Only Brahman. That Brahman is Sat, Chit, and Ananda. For example, here is a snake. So, what is the substratum? A rope. What is the existence of this snake? Three things we get. What is the first thing? That there exists something and that something is a snake. Knowledge. There exists something that is called Sat and it is a snake. It is called Chit. Chit means of course here wrong knowledge. But it is knowledge. We don't know it is wrong knowledge until light is brought up. Until light is brought, until that time it is the right knowledge, not wrong knowledge. And then what is the Ananda Swarupa? Now it has become Dukha in the form of fear, in the form of heartbeat, in the form of adrenaline flowing. We feel like running away but we are rooted to this spot because of our fear. We have become what we call impaled there as it were. Unable to move because of the intensity of fear. And all these three aspects Sat, Chit and Ananda all because of that substratum of the rope. There is a something, but it is a rope. We will come to know only about it later on and the resultant. In these three the Sat aspect has not changed. It is only the Chit aspect; it is only the Ananda aspect that have really changed them. So, what Gaudapada wants to express in this 33rd is even to mistake this world as real. But we don't say just as a person who thinks this is a real snake. For us the world is not unreal. It is very real because we are experiencing it from birth to death and life after life. So, it is wrong to call it unreal. From the Shastric, scriptural point of view it is unreal. But unreal means partial reality. But from our experiential point of view in fact this is the only reality. Then who is the unreal? God is unreal. We have to crystal clearly accept it because if anybody says God is real, his whole life will be God-like life, not dog-like life. So, this is what he wants to say.
Asadbhi eva ayam advaye na ca kalpita.
Advaya means what? That what is called non-dual reality. In other words which is called Brahman. That Brahman is the substratum and that Atman, which is called Atman, which is called Brahman, that Self itself for strange reason it imagines by all these unreal so-called Mithya objects. Bhavaha means objects and what type of objects? Asadbhi. Asadbhi means what? Mithya. Mithya means what? Temporarily they are experienced because they are ever changing and that is very important part. That is why he says Bhavaha api advaye naiva. So, it is impossible to even experience this world. World means billions and billions and billions and billions and trillions of objects. It is impossible to experience this duality consisting of myriads of objects unless we have that Atman which is Advaya. Dvaya means two, Advaya means one. Even to say one we have to use the human language to make us understand. So Bhavaha, all these are imaginations. Api advaye naiva is possible only because of Advaya. Tasmat therefore Advayata Shiva. So, attainment, knowing the highest truth that Atman alone and nothing else is there. That is the great auspiciousness. Why is it called auspiciousness? As we know birth is of misery, growth is misery, old age is misery and disease is misery, death is misery. This was what Buddha Deva had experienced.
So, what is the important point? Who is imagining? Atman. And what is he imagining? That I am not one, I am the many and all the many are what is called temporarily real. So, as if you divide the Atman divided himself as we divide ourselves in dream state as our own individual self and everything else. So, we divide, we become Dvaita and then it gives only suffering. Get rid of the idea the world is only consisting of suffering. No, the world is consisting of both. Sometimes happy, sometimes unhappy. But why is it considered as unhappy? Because our happiness is very temporary, and we become very unhappy when we find our happiness is very temporary. We want to prolong this happiness, unbroken happiness and that is not going to happen because the object is temporary, the mind is temporary and what is called limited consciousness called Jivatma is also temporary. A temporary means limited. A limited being cannot imagine what is unlimited. But what is behind both the imagining imaginer and the imagined objects? That pure consciousness called Atma. And from that point of view there is no second, where there is no second, there is no birth, there is no dissolution, there is no bondage, there is no feeling of suffering, there is no seeker and after doing something you will get something. This is all from the highest standpoint of view. I hope you get the idea that I have conveyed to you.
Even to know that here is a ferocious, frightening, scary snake, I need the substratum. That substratum happens to be a rope and the rope has got three aspects as I mentioned. So, I mentioned earlier but for our clarity I will again mention. So, what was there? There is a rope but in semi-darkness and I experienced this snake earlier. And in this semi-darkness I see this rope which had crystal clearly might have experienced in daytime. Here is a piece of rope not imagining that one night it is going to create havoc in my mind and then that, oh, here somehow a snake has come. So, this general statement there is a rope has two parts. ‘There is a’ is the first part and ‘rope’ is the second part. So, when I superimpose something ‘there is a’ doesn't change. That is the Sat doesn't change. The Chit that was a rope this is a snake knowledge. What is the Ananda? That when there is a rope, I am very happy because I know it is harmless but when I see the snake it is scary and it may kill me through its poison and that is called Dukha. And so two things will change. Knowledge will change only two things. Knowledge will not change the substratum, the Sat part. It only changes the Chit part and correspondingly whatever we think of the Chit knowledge produces its own effect.
So, what is it? Gaudapada says, Shankaracharya says this Anatma is that second and third part, but Atma imagines itself as if, don't ask how, this is Anadi Maya. When it started? We don't know. Why it started? We don't know. How it started? We don't know. But we know what is the way to go beyond it. Therefore, even to imagine this world there must be that Atma. What is that Atman? And this is what we call it that the Mithya Maya, Avidya. What is Avidya? Sat part will be exactly the same. The Chit and Ananda part will be changed and that creates tremendous problem. That is called Dvaita. So, without Atman this Anatma cannot be imagined. So, then what we call this world which is called Anatma by Advaitins, is it same as Atma? No, if it is the same, we have no problem. Is it completely different? No, it cannot be different because Advaita means only Brahman alone is the only reality. So, besides Brahman there cannot be another Anatma. Anatma means something that is experienced in a wrong way. Now if we accept there is a world different from Brahman there is a problem. Brahman, if there is something besides Brahman plus world that means there are two. Where there are two it cannot be Advaita. It can only be Dvaita. That is first point. What is the second point? Brahman is pure consciousness. Therefore, the second is pure unconsciousness. What is the third point? Brahman is Ananda Swaroopa. And what is it? Every object has got Sat part, but it doesn't have Ananda. So, two opposite things cannot exist. Not only two things cannot exist, two things of opposite nature also cannot exist at the same time. Eternal and non-eternal, Infinite and finite, Purnam and Apurnam cannot exist together. Then what is it? Merely imagination just like our dream. That's why so many times this concept of dream comes to you. So, the highest teaching of Vedanta is Brahman alone is real. What are known as all these objects, the world is nothing but Brahman. The snake is identical with the rope from the standpoint of knowledge, or the dream objects are nothing but different thoughts in one mind. So are the various objects which we call the world perceived by us is nothing but Brahman. In other words, Brahman is manifesting because of our mind. Brahman is experienced as this world and that is all. But when this truth is really experienced through spiritual practice, the highest bliss is enjoyed by the realized soul and there afterwards there will be no bondage at all. Therefore, a man of the highest wisdom is nothing to be added or subtracted from.
And this marvellous idea that when we are in Nirvikalpa Samadhi is Brahman. When we come out of that Samadhi, that means when we have the body-mind, what we experience as separate, I am this here, everything is the world seen, all this is nothing but untruth. And this fact is being so beautifully explained by Thakur. As I said I am going to quote from it. It's a, as I also mentioned, quite a long quotation. But I am doing this one because many of us read the Gospel but we don't pause how much meaning is behind every utterance of Sri Ramakrishna. Sri Ramakrishna was talking to some devotees. One of them was Mahimacharan. This Mahimacharan used to take what you call Ek Tara, a one stringed instrument and going on saying that Aham Brahmasmi, Aham Brahmasmi, Aham Brahmasmi. And to this Mahimacharan Sri Ramakrishna has begun his teachings. And Sri Ramakrishna also illustrates this truth, the beautiful story of the Jnani farmer. A farmer who also happened to be a great Jnani. And this story comes quite a number of times throughout the Gospel. But in this particular episode this story is given in its fullest 100% form and slightly different way also. So, I am going to quote from the Gospel. To Mahimacharan: In the light of Vedantic reasoning the world is illusory, unreal as a dream. The Supreme Soul is the witness, the witness of the three states of waking, dream, and deep sleep. The waking state is only as real as the dream. Let me tell you a story that agrees with your attitude. Now and then I will put my own comments. Sri Ramakrishna is telling that in the light of Vedantic reasoning the world is illusory, unreal as a dream. And that is why how many times that dream example is given by Gaudapada, by Shankaracharya etc. Now we will continue. Sri Ramakrishna is illustrating. What he says, the Supreme Soul is the witness. Jivatma is the witness. What does he witness? By successively identifying himself with the waking, dream, and deep sleep. Yet remaining completely as a witness. So, the waking state is not real. It is as real as the dream. That means as imaginary as the dream state. So not to speak of the sleeping state. It is the same condition. So, Sri Ramakrishna promised, and this is what he says. There was a farmer who lived in the countryside. He was a real Jnani. He earned his living by farming. He was married and after many years a son was born to him whom he named Haru. The parents loved the boy dearly. This was natural since he was the one precious gem in the family. On account of his religious nature the farmer was loved by the villagers. Now we have to understand clearly that Sri Ramakrishna was a superb storyteller. He is graphically depicting through words the story. So, a precious gem because only one. And on account of his religious nature, this farmer was not only a religious person, but he was also a spiritual person. Why do I make this distinction? Because millions of religious persons will be there. Their life is worthless life. They are the most crooked people in the name of religion rivers of blood had blown throughout the wars etc. Study history you will understand how Christians butchered the Jews, how Muslims had also destroyed, butchered, even now trying to do so much damage to every other religion. And what is happening in some other countries you can also relate these things. So, let us continue. One day this farmer was working in the field when a neighbour came and told him that Haru had had an attack of cholera. The farmer at once returned home and arranged for treatment for the boy. But Haru died. Other members of the family were grief stricken but the farmer acted as if nothing had happened. He consoled his family and told them that grieving was futile, and he went back to his field. Just see after consoling he did not stop there, he went back to his field. On returning home he found his wife weeping even more bitterly. Why? She said to him, how heartless you are, you haven't shed one tear for the child. The farmer replied quietly, shall I tell you why I haven't wept? I had a very vivid dream last night. I dreamt I had become a king. I was the father of eight sons and was very happy with them. When I woke up, now I am greatly perplexed. Should I weep for those eight sons or for this one Haru? And I will just insert some remarks here. You should not take it. You see, I was a king, and I had a beautiful princess whom I married. And all my eight children were marvellous. In some places Sri Ramakrishna said only seven children. Here he has increased one. With time his population will increase! So, he said I had eight princesses, and I was very happy with my wife, with my children, with my ministers, with the way I was ruling, with the people who awoke me. All those things we have to imagine. Now I am greatly perplexed. Should I weep for those eight sons or for this one Haru?
Now Sri Ramakrishna himself explains. The farmer was a Jnani. Therefore, he realised that the waking state is as unreal as the dream state. There is only one eternal substance and that is the Atman. This was the explanation. Then Sri Ramakrishna moves further. But for my part I accept everything. Turiya, and also the three states of waking, dream and deep sleep. I accept all the three states. I accept all. Brahman and also Maya, the universe and its living beings. If I accepted less, I should not get the full weight. A devotee: The full weight, how is that? All laugh. Master: Brahman is qualified by the universe and its living beings. At the beginning while following the method of not this, not this, one has to eliminate the universe and its living beings. But as long as ‘I’ consciousness remains one cannot but feel that it is God himself who has become everything. He alone has become the 24 cosmic principles.
What was Sri Ramakrishna saying? As long as the body and mind are there that ‘I’ sense will be there, but I will accept the whole universe. But not before, when I was bound, I did not realise God, Turiyam. Then I was thinking I am only this body. Now I know this is called Leela. So, when I am in the Mitya, no problem. When mind comes down, then when I come down to the state of the mind then I witness the Leela. Leela means many but it is only an entertainment, a drama, a circus. When a man speaks of the essential parts of the Bhel fruit, he means its flesh only and not the seeds and shell. But if he wants to speak of the total weight of the fruit, it will not do for him to weigh only the flesh. He must accept the whole thing, seeds and shell and flesh. Seeds and shell and flesh belong to one and the same fruit. Very, very important sentence! Seeds and shell and flesh. That means the whole world and Brahman, they belong to the same category. And he explains that, Mitya and the Leela belong to the same reality. Therefore, I accept everything, relative as well as the absolute. I don't explain the world as Mitya or Maya. For I to do so I should get short way. What does he mean by short way? I should be suffering, my happiness will be very small. No, I want full way, I want full happiness. Mahimacharan is remarking after hearing. It is a good synthesis from the absolute to the relative and from the relative to the absolute. Then the master continues: The Jnanis regard everything as illusory, like a dream. But the Bhaktas accept all the states. The milk flows only in driblets from the Jnani. And this is a marvellous statement. So ,there are two types of attitudes. That of the Jnani and that of the Bhakta. From the Jnani's point of view everything is illusory like a dream. But a Bhakta is one. He starts with accepting the world as a glorious manifestation, Vibhuti of God. And Sri Ramakrishna gives a beautiful example, the milk flows only in driblets from the Jnani. That means the happiness of the Jnani is very little compared to the happiness of a Bhakta. A superior devotee of God accepts both the absolute and the relative. Therefore, he is able to enjoy the divine even when his mind comes down from the absolute. Such a devotee is like the cow that gives milk in torrents. All laugh. Then Mahima, he makes a remark. You know usually he is a fellow who always puts some negative remarks. But the milk of a cow that eats without discrimination smells a little. And everybody laughs. Anyway, probably he got some enjoyment. Master with a smile: There will be no smell whatever if you boil the milk over the fire of knowledge. What a beautiful statement!
And I will stop here because there are some things which we need to discuss in our future class. As I said, everything that comes out of the mouth of Sri Ramakrishna or any other person like Ramana Maharshi and it contains so many meanings which we can enjoy. After all we want to enjoy it. So, we will talk about it in our next class.