Patanjali Yoga Sutras Lecture 028

Full Transcript(Not Corrected)

OM YOGENA CHITTASYA PADENA VACHAM MALAM SHARIRASYA CHAVAIDHYAKENA YOPAKAROTAM PRAVARAM MUNINAM PATANJALIM PRAMJALI RANATHOSMI I bow to the eminent sage Patanjali who removed the impurities of the mind through yoga, of speech through grammar and of the body through medicine. We are discussing the most marvelous analysis of the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali. In our last class we have seen the three steps Itarka, Vichara and Ananda, three types of concentrations on a gross object, on a subtle object as well as on Ananda. Let us also remind ourselves whenever we experience any object there must be a knower and an object and that which connects the knower with the object. Concentration on the object is of two types, on the grosser aspect of an object and on the subtler aspect of an object and when a person becomes expert in that then he does not need to think of any object. He is free from the dependency upon the object, automatically the object falls away and then comes the third step. So the knower and the object and the mind, object is removed. How many are remaining now? The knower and the instrument and the instrument as we discussed in such elaborate details is equated to Ananda, Ananda means joy because all knowledge, all bliss is within us. The object is only an instrument to remove the veil, not to give but to remove the obstruction. So now even that also is grossed, the mind, the instrument is also dropped off. What remains then? I am here, you are there, I have my mind, you disappear. Then I am there, my mind is there, my mind also disappears, who is left out? Only me, I, I, I. Before we go into that subject, Swami Vivekananda had written a most marvellous poem. It is called the Song of the Samadhi. I will read out the translation. Lo! The sun is not, nor the calmly moon, all light extinct, in the great void of space, floats shadow-like, the image-universe, in the void of the mind-involute, there floats, the fleeting universe, rises and floats, sinks again, ceaseless, in the current I, slowly, slowly, the shadow-multitude, entered the primal womb, and flowed ceaseless, the only current, the I am, I am. Lo! it stopped, even that current flows no more, void merged into void, shunya, shurna, vishayjay, beyond speech and mind, whose heart understands, only he understands. Now the sun is not there, neither the moon, nor the space, the whole thing is a shadow-like image, but still it is there, first it is there outside, next it is there in the mind, in the form of idea, and that too is gone, finished, then what remains? Only the current I, I, I, I, slowly, slowly, the shadow-multitude, entered the primal womb, and flowed ceaseless, what flows? The only current, I am, I am, Ami, Ami, nothing else is there, what happens then? Lo! it stopped, even that current flows no more, void merged into void, beyond speech and mind, what is that experience? Who can say? There is no mind there, so nobody can say that, and so how do we know? He who experiences, he who understands, only he can understand. Swami Vivekananda had experienced with this, and this is the best he could do to express his experience, that's all, no more. So coming back, we discussed these two subjects, then what happens, I, I remains, what is the nature of this I? Is it the real I? Then you go on saying, I am the Self, I am the Self, are you referring to the Self, or are you referring to the reflection of the Self? What is it you are really referring? It is not the real Self, because the real Self never tells. And here, let me point out a very important principle, usually when we use the word knowledge, we think that is the highest state, knowledge, self-knowledge, is there any such concept, spiritual concept called self-knowledge? Can you ever have the knowledge of the Self? Can you have knowledge of God? You know, always remember, beyond mind and beyond speech and beyond mind, what remains there? Mind means knowledge, where does the knowledge arise, where does knowledge arise? In the mind, and now you are going beyond mind. That means you are going beyond knowledge itself. Then what is that state? Is it ignorance? So there are three states, ignorance, lowest state, so ignorance is not absence of knowledge, always let us remember this, it is so difficult for us to even conceive of what is ignorance. Ignorance is not absence of knowledge, ignorance is partial knowledge. Simply knowing something, why is it so? Just now I mentioned an important fact, if I want to have some knowledge, how many things are necessary? Three things, I have to be there, an object has to be there, and a mind has to be there, only then knowledge arises. Now we also discussed, object is not there, mind is not there, or let us take one step at a time, object is not there, then what is left out? I am there, my mind is there, and I am very much conscious of my mind. Mind means here idea, it is there, and after some time even this idea or this mind or this instrument also disappears, what remains then? I am there. The wonderful example to understand this is deep sleep. Let us say, take again one by one, one step at a time. Every human being goes through three states throughout the life, waking state, dream state and dreamless state. What is the difference? In the waking state, I am there, mind is there, an external object is there. When we come to the dream state, what is remaining? I am there, I am there, the mind is there, and I am aware I am also there, the mind also is there, and then imagine the mind also is removed. Am I aware of myself or not? Do I feel I am I am? Where do we experience that state? In the dreamless state, in the waking state, myself, mind, object. In the dream state, myself and mind. In the dreamless state, myself, what else? Nothing else. I am, I am. This is the only thing that is there. Now is that knowledge, is that knowledge or is that self-knowledge? It is not real self-knowledge, it is the reflected self-knowledge, like you are looking yourself in a mirror and you will see how many things are there now. When you stand in front of a mirror, you are there, mirror is there and also the reflection is there. Now imagine that you are like that in that state, there is a subtle type of mind in deep sleep and there you don't feel you are seeing the reflection, but it is there nevertheless. It is this reflection which says I am, I am, I am. To make this even more interesting or even more clearer, there are two ways we can look at ourselves in a mirror. Stand in front of a mirror, the mirror is absolutely stationary. You go on dancing in front of the mirror, what does your reflection do? But this is not the only way. You stand still and some through some mechanism let the mirror go on dancing. What happens to your reflection? And then we see reflected dancing movement. This is Vedantic position, the real Atman, Brahman, Purusha doesn't do anything, Sakshi. Ramakrishna puts it so beautifully, a marriage party is going on and the head of the family is sitting in an easy chair smoking, but his wife, a bunch of kids goes around, she is so busy you know and she goes, this is what I did, now and then she comes and reports to her husband, this is what I have done. What does he do? He just nods his head, but without him nothing moves, his approval is necessary, his support is necessary and his resources are necessary, but at the same time he doesn't do anything. Let me also give this illustration, so imagine there is light and two people are sitting, this is also Sri Ramakrishna's illustration only. One person is reading a sacred scripture, another person is forging a cheque, both activities are going on, good and bad, what is the relationship, what is the agency of the light there? Is the light forging a cheque? Is it reading the scripture, but without light neither could do any activity. So similarly, this I which remains, let us never forget, it is not real I, but it is when a person says I am Atman, who is telling, is the Atman telling, doesn't tell. You know why it can't tell? It can't tell because to whom is it going to tell, there is nobody, also what instrument is it going to tell? Because it doesn't have eyes, it doesn't have ears, it doesn't have mind, so it need not to do it because a knowledge is necessary only when there are two, one knows the other. When there is only one, where is that knowledge necessary? Even at the risk of prolonging the talk, I am explaining so much because, say oh I am alone, I am alone, then I know myself, no you don't know because even though you say I am alone, you are still very much conscious of your body and your mind, your happiness, your unhappiness etc. What about the deep sleep? Yes, in deep sleep also you are aware, what are you aware? I am and what else are you aware? I am very happy. This scripture tells, Sukham aham asvapsam nakinchit avedisham, I did not know anything. I did not know anything means simple statement, there was nothing else besides me, that is what is the meaning of I do not know anything. Then what did you do? I experienced bliss. The point I am trying to tell you is, how does one discriminate between the reflected I and the real I? Is the finest sattvic manifestation, no object is there, no mind is there, only I is there. Is that I the real I? No, it is the reflected I in a very fine part of the mind which is called sattva guna. That is why sattva manifests knowledge and what is that knowledge? I am, I am, that is the knowledge. But even that sattva guna also belongs to which category, purusha or prakriti? It belongs to prakriti and so long as the purusha is related, connected, glued together in some way or the other to the prakriti, he is still in a very subtle type of bondage. He gets great bliss, but still he is in bondage, that is not kaivalya. The Sanskrit word we use is called kaivalya, it is a wonderful word. Kaivalya means kevala, kevala means alone, only one. So in the fourth state, fourth type of lower samadhi, it is called sa asmita samadhi, asmi. Asmi in Sanskrit means I am and the mind goes on meditating, I am. Now very interesting point, when we are in the waking state, when we say I am, what do we mean I am? Do we mean that I am the pure I? No. What do we mean? I am endowed with body and mind. When we are in the dreaming state, dream state, there also we say I am. Then do we mean pure I? No. What do we say? We say I am there, my mind is there. Ideas of the world in the form of thoughts are there in my mind. When we are in dreamless state, still it is a state of bondage, it is called karana sharira, causal body. You know what is cause? If there is a cause, it should manifest in time and space in the form of effect. Cause and effect are not two separate things. Cause is future state and effect is past cause, as simple as that. So still it is a state of bondage and still that I am, why should a person feel I am? Because that is knowledge and that knowledge is also bondage. One has to go beyond knowledge. Now what is the distinction between knowledge and that which is state beyond knowledge or in Vedantic terminology, we use the word unfortunately self-knowledge, we use the word self-knowledge. I am that, I am Brahman, I am Atman. Very good. You are not saying I am the body, you are not saying I am the mind, but you are still saying I am Atman. Which Atman are you referring to? Why this distinction is necessary, still the person is under bondage. What is the difference during the state of spiritual practice? What are you going to say? I am Atman or I am Brahman. The guru tells, he gives a mantra, it is called Mahavakya. What does he say? Tattvam ase, he gives, you see, the very first thing that the disciple does is break the guru's words. I am only making fun. What is it? What does guru say? Tattvam ase. He says, you know, you go on doing japam, japam means repeat. What does the disciple do? The guru said tattvam ase and the disciple goes and says aham brahmasmi. Where is the connection between tattvam ase and aham brahmasmi? He goes on, he changed guru's mantra, he made it into his own mantra, goes on saying aham brahmasmi. Is that a state of realization? No. It is only a state of on the way to that. But when he attains, what happens? The Ramakrishna gives a beautiful analogy. When you take two pots, one pot is full of water, another is an empty pot. So you take the pot with water and try to pour into the other pot. What happens? There is a sound, budha budha, sound will come and that sound, do you know what that sound is? The sadhaka, the spiritual practitioner going on saying aham brahmasmi, aham brahmasmi, aham brahmasmi. Suppose he doesn't have breakfast, will the words come so strongly? No. It will become very subdued. But when the pot becomes full, what happens? What did Ramakrishna say? He gives two analogies. So the pot becomes absolutely, when it is, so long as it is empty, it makes sound and that sound is called empty sound. When it is full, it doesn't make any, this is one. The other example analogy is even better. A honey bee, when it is very hungry, what does it do? It goes on making noise because movement and when it gets some nice nectar in a flower, only occasional sound will come sipping the beautiful tasty honey and then it becomes silent. Then he says after drinking to its stomach full, it goes on again making noise. What is that noise? What is that noise? Let me repeat back. A disciple, he is given this mantra, tattvamasi, then what is the, that is from guru to the disciple because the guru makes the sound tattvamasi, tattvamasi, tattvamasi. Then the disciple starts repeating, shravana, manana, nidhidhyasana, goes on saying aham brahmasmi, that is the spiritual, the sound of spiritual discipline and he becomes full. He realizes the truth. Then some of them again start making the noise. Now what is the noise? Again he changes into gurus, tattvamasi, tattvamasi for the benefit of other people. So the fourth state of this lower samadhi called sampragnatha samadhi, it is called sampragnatha because it is accompanied with an object. So in this fourth state called sasmita samadhi, that is why it is called sasmita along with I am feeling, knowledge. It is still an object. What is that object? The reflected self is the object. That means it is its own object. The finest mind divides as it were into two, says one part becomes the observer, knower, the other part becomes the known, I am, I am, I am. When a spiritual aspirant reaches this state of development, then by the grace of God a new knowledge comes. That knowledge technically is called viveka khyati, khyati means knowledge, viveka means discrimination. What is the discrimination? I as the reflected self is totally different as from the I which is the pure purusha, atman or brahman. Now we can never understand. Even if we say aham brahmasmi, we mean my body is brahman, my mind is also brahman and I am also brahman. Everything is brahman because this is the reality for us. Intellectually we are trying to understand it. When a person reaches that state, the culmination of what is called I am samadhi, sasmita samadhi, then a most marvellous faculty automatically develops in him. He knows. Until now he knows I am with body, I am with mind. At that stage he knows. What does he know? I am the reflected self, I am not the original self. That fine discrimination is known as viveka khyati and when a man reaches that state, he has reached the very peak of the lower samadhi called sampragnata samadhi. Then comes the other samadhi. This is Patanjali uses a wonderful word. He doesn't even call it as sampragnata samadhi in the beginning, only in the introduction he says. What does he say? The other samadhi, the other samadhi. If there are two people and you are telling to the one person that you tell the other one also because there are only two. If there are more than two, then he has to specify who is the other one. There are only two. Here there are only two. But until we reach that state, not two, we all suffer from multiple personality syndrome from birth to death. How do we judge people? By the skin, like a cobbler, when a cobbler sees cows going in front, walking in front of him, what do you think he is looking at? How much skin I am going to get? What if a man who is in need of milk, if he looks at the same cow, then what do you think he is looking at? How much milk I can get? This is wonderful. Okay. Coming back to our subject, when a person attains to that highest state of the lower samadhi, then that viveka khyati, discrimination comes. Clearly he understands. Now what happens? Sri Ramakrishna describes this. What happens when the kundalini reaches ajna chakra or the sixth chakra? What happens? Sri Ramakrishna was describing graphically, now the sadhak, I could see the reality as clearly as though I can touch it. I want to touch it. As soon as I stretch my hand, what happens? It is obstructed because there is a very fine glass is there which obstructs. He is describing this state, viveka khyati, when the person feels I am that but at the same time when he wants to experience, there is a very fine barrier is there. What is that barrier? That barrier is finest type of ignorance. That has to be overcome, that has to be destroyed. So the next samadhi is called asampragnata samadhi. I will read about it. I am only giving a general introduction to it. First point we have to notice, no one can describe what is asampragnata samadhi. No one can practice asampragnata samadhi. If you practice, it is not called asampragnata samadhi, it is the lower samadhi because there is still the practitioner, there is still the practice and why do you want to practice? Because you have still a bit of ignorance left out and you feel the attraction of the reality and yet you cannot become one. Then do you know what happens? At that time a whole hearted prayer, I am only describing the indescribable, whole hearted prayer rises spontaneously, O Lord, I want to come to you but I am unable to reach you. Have you ever seen in films, a person, two persons, they are at the edge of a mountain and there is a sheer drop and one person suddenly slips, only the fingertips are somehow holding to something and he is, you know what is it, if he lets go, he will be dead. And at the same desperate to struggle, can you imagine what is that person's struggle at that time, somehow to come to a safe place? If you can imagine, you can probably imagine a little bit but if you want a graphic description, let us turn to Sri Ramakrishna's life. What did he say? When the evening, when the sun sets and then I had not had the vision of the Divine Mother. What did he say at that time? He said, such intense yearning possessed me, I panted for breath as it were, I became unconscious as it were, O Mother, I have not seen you. Another day had passed in vain and he himself says, I cannot express what I felt at that time. Then he gives also a description. Once a disciple asked a guru, when do I realize God, then the guru did not say anything, he said come with me. He took him to a river and pressed his head inside the water for 2-3 minutes. He did not allow the disciple's head to come up for breathing and after when the fellow was about to become unconscious, he lets it go. Then his disciples comes out and he asks, how did you feel when your head was under the water? He said, I am about to die for a breath of air. Guru said, when you feel like that for the vision of God, then you will attain it. This is the best we can do to describe the condition of a person who reached this fourth state, that is I am, I am state. Then he clearly sees the reality is there, so crystal clear because there is no object which is intervening between him and the reality and yet he is unable to reach. He wants to reach with all his heart. Then how does he reach? That is why it cannot be reached by any effort. You cannot focus concentration. You cannot do anything positive but you can reach it through negativity. What is that negativity? This is para-vairagya, the supreme dispassion. How does the supreme dispassion come? I am only giving a general introduction before we go and finish. It won't take long time because there is nothing much we can talk about it. So how does the supreme renunciation, how does it come? By practicing with regard to every object. In Vedantic terminology, that supreme renunciation is termed as neti-neti. Do you understand what is neti-neti? I don't want this because that is not reality. I don't want this because he understood this is not reality and none of us want unreal. It is an interesting question you know. You see a picture diamond and a real diamond and if you are asked which one do you desire? Do you think, will there be any person who would say I want only a picture diamond? I want a diamond I see in cinema. I want a diamond produced by a musician. All of us want only reality. Simplest example is love. Do you want real love or do you want fake good love? Tell me. Does any one of you really long for fake good love? You may be ready to give fake good love but you are never ready to receive fake good love. Like you know, a pickpocket always wants to pick other's pockets but he would never like anyone to pick his own pockets. Anyway, coming back to our subject, paravairagya means supreme. How does it come? So our scriptures, Patanjali doesn't say it directly, Vedanta tells it. As you know, we go on practicing, why do we practice? Practice means I don't want this. Why do we go on saying I don't want this? Because our mind is telling I want this. If you don't want it, you don't need to say it. If you are not interested, you won't practice it at all because there is no desire. Only with regard to those things which we desire, we have to practice, no no that's not good. I don't want it, I don't want it. Still the longing doesn't disappear. But how do we achieve the supreme renunciation? Supreme renunciation means he has to know these are worthless things. It is not worth, when do we lose our desire for any object in this world? If you analyze, by simply saying I don't want this, I don't want this, you are never going to achieve it. Only when we understand it is an absolutely worthless thing. Not only worthless thing means, do you know what is worthless thing? There are two types of worthless things. A worthless thing which is really worthless, there is not much problem with that. But there are things which are not only worthless, they will give you infinite amount of trouble. Not only worthless, but they will land you in infinite amount of troubles. That is called samsara. So how does this supreme renunciation come? Vedanta gives a clear, here is a spiritual person and he is struggling very sincerely, very intensely, yearning for God realisation, but he is not able to attain. Why? He is not able to say to God, I don't want anything excepting you. I want only you, I don't want anything. He was not able to say. Why was he not able to say? There was very subtle, unconscious desire for it is there. Why is it there? Because he has experienced it. That is samsara. It is called samsara. Impression. Deep impression is there. Not able to do it. This is our problem. Then how does he attain? Our scriptures give a beautiful explanation. It says, then God's grace descends upon that person. What does God's grace do? Does it give knowledge? Yes, but not directly. What does he do? By God's grace, a special power comes to this spiritual practitioner. It is called Jati Smaratva. That means he remembers all the past lives the man had from the very beginning of his involvement in the Maya, net of Maya. Then he looks, he says, how many times I was born? How many times I died? How many times I got married? How many times I got troubles? When he goes through every experience crystal clearly, like seeing a cinema in front of the aspirant, everything comes like that. When he sees, who is my father? About which body am I bothering? I had billions of bodies. I had billions of minds, billions of fathers and mothers. I had been billions of times parent. When a person sees, everything is, it comes, it goes, it comes, it goes, then he says, this is worthless. This cannot be real. And at the end of that experience, you only think, oh Lord, how quickly am I going to see you? Then he says, what happens? This experience destroys the lost lingering desire in the form of deep impressions in the unconscious mind, vasana. This is called vasana kshaya, destruction of the vasanas. When that happens, there is no obstruction, that glass case, seems that glass case, it breaks. This experience breaks that glass case, as it were. All happens by the grace of God only. Let us never forget it. Nirvikalpa Samadhi, we call in Vedanta. Let us also recollect in this connection, we did so many times. I am referring to Shri Ramakrishna's experience. Totapuri came, what did he teach? Tattvamasi. And he asked, meditate, aham brahmasmi. Now what to do? He says, whatever object appears in your mind, idea, destroy it. What did Shri Ramakrishna say, I could destroy every other object excepting one. And that is my Divine Mother. Now interestingly, what is that Divine Mother? Who is that Divine Mother? Is it reality or is it his mind taking the form of the Divine Mother? This is Vedantic language. It is called Brahmakaara Vritti. Vritti means a mental thought, modification. But it is called not any modification. It is called Brahmaakaara. Now does Brahman have a form? It doesn't have a form. But for the sake of meditation, say you meditate upon Shri Ramakrishna so intensely, what would be your last thought that remains? Whose thought? It is only Ramakrishna. And that Ramakrishna's form that is called Brahman in the form of Ramakrishna. The interesting point is Brahman doesn't have any form. That's why Brahmaakaara is not a form of Brahman. Brahmaakaara is the reflection of Brahman in your pure mind in the form of some object which you thought about it, thought of. And as soon as you attain to that state, you will also have the ability to know this is not Brahman, this is also a mental modification. It is in my mind, it is not reality. Still that I is there as an obstruction. Now what is the point? This I am, I am takes in the form of the devotee, the form of his chosen deity. It could be Jesus Christ, it could be Rama or Krishna, all these visions people had. But even that is also reflected I. That's why Sri Ramakrishna said even your visions, they come and go. Vision is good until you attain it. But once you attain it, that is also another form, finest form of obstruction to spiritual progress. So Totapuri came and then he said empty your mind and only then you will feel. This is the thing we are talking about. Ramakrishna said I can remove all other thoughts excepting the thought of my mother. Then why can't he remove, why could not he remove? So interesting you know this topic because for years and years he thought nothing excepting the divine mother. How can he go? Because the mind has become habituated. The moment he starts thinking, he only thinks about the divine mother, nothing else. But that is also a thought from the yogic point, also from the Vedantic point. It is also a thought, it is a mind, it is an obstruction. What do you mean by it? Is it not a good thought? It is a wonderful thought but it is still an obstruction for Advaita. For a Dwaitin, it is the highest experience. From the Advaitin point of view, it is still your one step below the reality, below the truth. So that has to be destroyed. Who can destroy it? You cannot destroy it. Why? I told you just now. Nirvikalpa Samadhi or Sampragnatha Samadhi cannot be practiced. It had to happen by God's grace. So what did Tothapuri do? He took a piece of glass, forcibly pressed and said, now you forget your pleasant experience of the divine mother and focus on this painful experience of the glass being pierced. Pain. Pain is the antidote to pleasure. Then as soon as Shri Ramakrishna did that, then again the divine mother's form appeared. But this time, he separated himself from the divine mother. He said, I am different. My thought is different. So he said, I took the sword of discrimination and cut the form of the divine mother into two and as soon as I did that, he used very, very interesting mystical words, mother disappeared. And he said, I did not know what happened then. When the mother disappeared, what happened to him? He also disappeared because himself was appearing in the form of the mother, his own mind, his eye. I am the mother and that disappeared. Along with that, the eye also has disappeared. And what happened? Who can say? Tothapuri was waiting one day, two days, three days. He said, kya daivi maya hai? The fellow never talked about maya throughout his life. He did not even accept that there is something called maya. He said, kya daivi maya hai? Like atheist, whenever anybody sneezes, God bless you. That Tothapuri never experienced. Then Swami Shardaananda comes to our aid. He says, Tothapuri never understood by whose grace did he attain Nirvikalpa Samadhi? By the grace of the mother. What was she doing? From behind, invisibly, she was walking in front of him. All the obstacles she was just destroying, making the path right royal path. And this person was walking very nicely. Oh, I am able to walk all by myself. In villages, a mother goes to the tank to bring water and the child says, I also must help mother. She goes on pestering. I will also carry water. So mother to pacify her, she takes one small and then mother carries both the baby and also that one to the tank. And then the mother has to fill, still it is there only. And then that fellow is carrying that one. On the way, the whole thing is practically emptied on mother and herself. But when the mother comes home and then she says, my child, what a help you have been. Pour that water into that. So Tothapuri did not understand. Mother was just in front of him, behind him, above him, below him and she was removing like Sudarshana Chakra, all the obstacles just and he was walking without any problem until now. But it is time for him to realize that he could not have attained what he attained unless he recognizes the grace of God. Even the Patanjali who does not accept the existence of Ishwara, very soon we are going to come to it. He had to accept and say, surrender yourself to Ishwara. This is the quickest way to attain to that state of Kaivalya, aloneness. So what is the point we are discussing? When a person reaches the peak of this fourth state, which is Sasmita Samadhi, it is still a lower state because that eye is still a reflected eye but he has reached the peak of this lower state of experience and there he clearly sees this is the reality and I am only a reflected self. Until now, what was his experience? I am the reality. First this world is not a reality, second the mind is not a reality, now I am the reality, I am the reality and then he understands I am also not a reality. I am only a reflection of the reality. That is called Viveka Khyati. So let us take it up from there. One important point that I have mentioned, knowledge and beyond knowledge, bliss and beyond bliss. Let me clear this subject because it is such a confusing subject. So in the fourth state, what is the third state? Sananda Samadhi, he experiences the intensest bliss. What is the fourth state? He goes beyond bliss. Now the question comes, what is that state which is beyond bliss? Is it blissful or is it opposite of bliss? So much confusion is there within us. Psychologist recognises two states, unconscious and conscious. But Vedanta recognises three states, unconscious, conscious and super conscious. So similarly Vedanta recognises three things, three types of experiences, non-bliss, bliss and beyond bliss. This is human words are not adequate to convey this feeling. Like you know, I want to enjoy sugar. This is our normal experience, I want to enjoy sugar. But Ramakrishna says there are some people who say I want to become sugar. Now the question is when you become sugar, do you enjoy sugar or not? It is much, much, much more blissful than enjoying. Because enjoying means there is a fear. It may go. Whereas if you are the bliss, then nobody can take it away because that is your nature. If you are having light, sometimes wherever you are, you take it away. And sometimes it may put off, sometimes it may become dim, sometimes it may become bright. But if you are light, tell me, where is darkness? Anyway, just to pull your legs, you know, there was this stupid Paramanandaya Sishya. One day he had a terrible doubt. It was evening, it is getting dark and he came to his guru and he said, Guruji, it is getting very dark and what shall I do? Guru said, light a lamp. The second question, where do I put it? Unfortunately, the guru was not a very intelligent guru. He said, take it where there is darkness. So the disciple lighted the lamp and he saw darkness there. So he ran there. And when he ran there, to his great shock, there was no darkness. He said, what happened? He looked back and there was darkness. So he ran back. So whole night he spent forward and backward. So what happens when a person attains to that state, which is beyond bliss, wherever he goes, he is blissful because he is blissful. But then we cannot describe it. The mistake we commit is, we think anything that exists can be described. So Vedanta tells two things, there is one thing, whatever can be described is not you and what is you can never be described. Namo Namo Prabhu, Vakyamana Adhita, that is the next line, Mano Vachana Eka Athar, salutation so Lord to you who is beyond mind and speech and yet without you, the mind and speech does not work. A fraction, infinite fraction of what is me is what makes the mind and then the speech means other, everything else be what it is. That is the very substratum, the support, the supplier, it cannot be described. You know Krishna tries to describe, he says, you know, who can describe that bliss? You cannot even describe ordinary things. If somebody goes to see the ocean and he comes back, how is the ocean? What did he say? Ah, the ah is ocean and then lot of descriptions like that, you know, silence, the Kshanamurthy, please say silence, that is another way of saying I cannot tell you, you can experience but you cannot describe it, it is indescribable. So this I state of Sa Asmita is higher or lower than Sananda Samadhi? It is higher, it is higher but even that is not the highest. What is the highest? The reality. I am only the reflected I, there is a real I, I have to go to that I. Ramakrishna also gives, you know, I am remembering suddenly, he says to explain this idea, imagine there are 10 pots full of water and the sun is shining. How many suns are there now, he asks the devotees. I say there are 11, one real and 10 reflected, then you break one pot, how many suns are there? 9 plus 1 and you break these 9 pots, how many suns are there? One reflected and one real and he says the last one is also is broken, how many suns are there? The clever disciple says one real suns are, who is telling it? You are the sun, you are not there to tell it because from the point of the sun, there is no darkness at all, there is no reflection at all. Reflection is for the pot, day and night is also from there, from whose point? You go to sun and say, oh Lord, what do you do at night? First he blinks, says repeat the question please, I didn't understand what he has told me. I don't know anything about the night, all right, what do you do at day time, blinks because he doesn't know even what is day time. If he knows day time, then he knows night time also because he doesn't know what is day or night, he doesn't know what you are talking about, your language is incomprehensible to him, that is the state. That is why the Upanishads say silence, silence doesn't mean that the state doesn't exist, it means whatever description we give, false, far, short because the questioner and the listener both are in the realm of duality only, that is not possible but we must have faith because we never know that such a state. The best we can have is in deep sleep when you say I am which is nothing but a certain form of sattvika, form of I am, there is no object there and at the same time it is its own object and that itself gives the highest bliss because you go beyond the idea of the time and space and causation, what to speak of that real life, who can describe it, nobody can describe it, even Shri Ramakrishna cannot describe it because if it can be described, it is not real. If it is real, it cannot be, but it doesn't mean it cannot be experienced, that is the difference. So he says, 18th sutra we are, virama pratyaya abhyasa purvaha samskara sesho anyaha, the other kind of concentration, meaning earlier, what is the name of that samadhi, sampragnata samadhi, therefore what is the other, asampragnata samadhi is that in which consciousness contains no object including that reflected eye, only subconscious impressions which are like burnt seeds, dagda, bija, vat, it is attained by constantly checking the thought waves through the practice of non-attachment, it is a marvellous subject. So one point we have to keep in mind before we close the talk is asampragnata samadhi or nirvikalpa samadhi or aham brahmasmi state cannot be practised, it has to come all by itself and how can we attain to that state where it happens automatically, through the practice of paravairagya, supreme dispassion. How does supreme dispassion arise, I told, any amount of practice by us, life after life can take us to the finest ultimate state of supreme vairagya but falls short, what is the way, I told you something, what is it, by the grace of God, jati smaratva comes, that means we remember all the past lives that we had gone through, when it has gone, immediately we see how much this body, you just imagine your body, when it has a disease, what you do. So this very human body is no different from that, then it is burnt, when a person holds this marvellous, all the time, how many times he was born, which includes, what is included, once upon a time we were first class cows, then unfortunately we were born perhaps in UK and then we are taken to the slaughterhouse and then we see our own body going through, you know, just imagine what they do and when we clearly see all those things, what do you think will come? Supreme dispassion will come, that supreme dispassion is the grace of God and when that grace of God comes, supreme dispassion comes, buddhi, tadami buddhiyam, when that supreme dispassion comes, you know what is the experience, oh Lord, I don't want anything excepting you and when that longing comes, God has no option but to take us into this thing. In a graphical way, this is what happened, Sri Ramakrishna went to Varanasi, as you remember and he had a vision at Manikarnika Ghat, if you remember, what happened, Shiva the Lord was whispering the Tharak mantra, means what he says, my grace is upon you, but the scenery didn't end, if you remember, you know what happened, Mother Kali was following and she had taken a sword, that's why always she has a sword, do you remember, always a sword, if you are a good devotee, she doesn't use, but if you are a bad devotee, everyone is a devotee, good or bad, then she is forced to use that, so does Mother Kali use the sword? I am asking you, what a foolish answer, when you have headache, teeth ache, husband ache, wife ache, what are all those things? Mother Kali only, you read Swami Vivekananda's Kali the Mother, a dancer, every shaking step destroys the world forever, have you not read, every difficulty that comes is the whiplash of the Divine Mother, it comes in the form of, we don't use it, mothers, we say it is Karmaphala, is it not, but you sing the songs also, Oh Mother, some people you elevate, some people you degrade, throw them down, who is doing all that, the Divine Mother, in what form, form of time, through what instrument, through the instrumentality of the law of Karma, so the grace of God comes and it gives that knowledge, Oh Lord, I don't want anything excepting you, only it comes when we have the grace of God and Jati Smaratva, we remember all the past lives and then the Lord has no option, this is what Sri Ramakrishna calls, what does he call, Vyakulata, intense yearning for God realisation, what type of yearning? Three types of forces combined together, if you remember, the chaste wife's love for her husband, the love of a mother for her only child and the love of a worldly person for worldly objects, when these three are combined, what remains, nothing remains, when that 100% force is directed towards God, I want nothing else excepting you, then that last obstruction is destroyed, what is that last obstruction, the reflected I, then what remains, real I, you cannot say, you cannot say, the real I, who says that, real I is saying or the reflected I is saying, you know, you can't say that, simply no will come, that is the goal, that is what he is reflecting, that excepting some samskaras are there and there also the samskaras not seedling producing samskaras but burnt seeds, they are there because the experiences were there, now they are totally burnt, there is no more rebirth, that is the end of the rebirth. We will discuss why this is so difficult to attain and how it can be attained, what, how parvairagya or supreme dispassion can be attained, we will discuss in our future class.