Brihadaranyaka Upanishad Ch.1.4 Lecture 28 on 26 April 2026
Full Transcript (Not Corrected)
Opening Invocation
ॐ जननीम् शरदाम् देविम् रामक्रिष्णम् जगत् गुर्म्
पादपद्मे तयोः स्रित्वाः प्रणमामि मुहुरुमु
Oṁ jananīṁ śaraḍhāṁ deveṁ rāmakriṣṇam jagad-gurum
pādapadmetayosritvā pranamāmi-muhurumuhu
ॐ पूर्णमदः पूर्णमिदं पूर्णात् पूर्णमुदच्यते
पूर्णस्य पूर्णमादाय पूर्णमेवावशिष्यते
ॐ शान्तिः शान्तिः शान्तिः
OM PŪRṆAMADAḤ PŪRṆAMIDAM PŪRṆĀT PŪRṆAMUDACYATE PŪRṆASYA PŪRṆAMĀDĀYA PŪRṆAMEVA VAŚIṢYATE OM ŚĀNTI ŚĀNTI ŚĀNTIH
OM That Brahman is infinite, and this universe is also infinite. The infinite proceeds from the infinite. Taking the infinitude of the infinite universe, it remains as the infinite Brahman alone.
OM Peace, Peace, Peace be unto all.
Recap: The Ninth Mantra and the Gathering of Seekers
In our last class, we dealt with the ninth mantra of the fourth section, and from here starts the essence of the entire Bṛhadāraṇyaka Upaniṣad. There were some great seekers of self-knowledge — Brahma Vidyā — and they had a discussion. That indicates they must have gathered at one particular place, and normally such a place would be the āśrama of a Guru, a Gurukula. They must have approached a great realised soul, heard from him, and that became the topic of discussion. So we can guess from the topic of discussion what the teacher had taught.
What did he teach? That if you attain knowledge of Brahman — which is the same as the knowledge of your own true self — then you will achieve everything. You will be going beyond death, beyond ignorance, beyond suffering. That is what Bhagavān Buddha chose to call Nirvāṇa. Nirvāṇa means complete cessation of avidyā, or in other words, anātma. Not that the world disappears — excepting for the person who realises, the world will continue. But even for the realised soul, the world can continue as long as the body is alive. However, the outlook — of what this world is, of what one is — completely changes from the moment of realisation. Sarvaṃ khalvidaṃ brahma. That is the result.
Brahma vidyayā sarvaṃ bhaviṣyataḥ — by the knowledge of Brahman, we become one. Ekaṃ sat, na dvitīya — there is only one reality, there is no second.
The Tenth Mantra: The Essence of All Scripture
Vāmadeva's Realisation: Ahaṃ Brahmāsmi
So the discussion is: what is the nature of Brahman? And knowing this Brahman, our teacher proclaims and declares that one becomes Brahman. The answer is given in the tenth mantra of the fourth section of the first chapter.
This fourth section, tenth mantra, is the very essence of the Bṛhadāraṇyaka Upaniṣad — of all Upaniṣads, the Bhagavad Gītā, the Gospel of Śrī Rāmakṛṣṇa, and every scripture in the world. Let us recite this beautiful mantra, which is itself purifying. It is a long mantra, and I have divided it into several parts, each expressing different meanings and different contexts.
In the next portion of this mantra, there was a great Ṛṣi whose name was Vāmadeva. He realised ahaṃ brahmāsmi and, after realisation, he remained as a jīvanmukta. Seeing this oneness, this Ṛṣi Vāmadeva said: "I became one. I had the knowledge. I destroyed the ignorance that I am an individual, and realised that I am Brahman." Not only "I am Brahman" — "I am everything." Ahaṃ sarvam. This is called sarvātmabhāva — the knowledge that I am everything.
As a sample, he said: "I am the Manu." Manu was the Brahmā who started the creation of the Mānavas — that is why all human beings are called Mānavas, because they originated from Manu. "So I am the ādhyātmika. I am the ādhibhautika. I am the ādhidaivika. I am Sūrya. I am Candra. I am Indra, the Devatās. I am the entire physical world. I am all the bodies. I am all the minds." In other words, "I am all the gross bodies, all the subtle bodies, all the causal bodies."
The Universal Possibility of Realisation
Not only Manu — the mantra goes on to tell us that Manu is only a sample. Anyone who strives through proper channels can attain the same. The aspirant must have genuine desire — mumukṣutvaṃ. He must approach a Sadguru in a formal manner, sit before him, serve him, please him, and surrender to him. And then the teacher gives.
Surrendering is not an act of servitude — it is an act of identifying oneself with the Guru, making oneself one hundred percent ready to receive one hundred percent of what the teacher wishes to give. That is what Śrī Rāmakṛṣṇa says: "The breeze of God's grace is blowing all the time. Unfurl your sails. Become fit. That is all."
So the mantra goes on to tell us: not only Manu, anybody can become like Manu. That is what Swami Vivekānanda's simplified English version declares — "Each soul is potentially divine." Everyone is divine. And soul means not only the living, but also the would-be living, which we usually call non-living.
The mantra continues: like Brahman, whoever becomes a knower of Brahman, he becomes everything. Once a person becomes free, all differences of human being or God, Hindu or Christian or Muslim or Buddhist — they completely vanish as the person progresses in spiritual life. The mind no longer compartmentalises: "I am a Hindu," "I am a Buddhist." The only feeling is: "I am a lover of God. I am a child of God. I am a seeker of God. I have been separated by some mysterious power called avidyā, and I want to rejoin my mother — God, Brahman."
So he says: anybody can realise it. It is not only a right — it is the inescapable goal of life. We may evade that goal for some time, but at some point we are going to awaken. So why not try from now onwards? The very fact that you are all listening to these talks indicates earnestness. You want to learn what the Upaniṣad has to say. You are fit disciples. But this is only the beginning of mumukṣutva — one has to acquire those qualities whereby we do not slip from this position, but rather arrive at one hundred percent mumukṣutva.
Such a person who knows "I am Brahman" becomes everything — becomes the gods, becomes the entire jagat, becomes every living and non-living being.
On Obstacles in Spiritual Life
No True Obstruction Exists for the Sincere Seeker
What happens then? No Devatā, no creature, nobody else can obstruct the progress of such a person. When we speak of progress, we are speaking of the person who has determined: "I want to realise God." When a person becomes a realised soul, he is Brahman — and who can control Brahman? On the other hand, it is Īśvara, it is Brahman, who controls everything and makes us act, just as a puppeteer moves all the puppets. Our body, everybody's body, everybody's mind becomes like a puppet — he goes on controlling everybody from within.
But what about the obstructions we encounter in our own sādhana? It is like going into a gymnasium. You cannot simply walk in and choose whatever you want — that is a very unwise way. One has to approach a proper teacher, who tests you and then prescribes accordingly. A person whose muscles cannot lift one kilogram will not be asked to lift five kilograms. Therefore, God gives us obstacles not to obstruct us, but to give us strength as an exercise.
Looked at from this angle, anyone criticising us, anyone praising us, anyone who seems to deprive us — first, we must understand that nobody can deprive us of what is rightfully ours by karma. When these things come through the medium of other people, in the form of either help or obstruction, they are all meant to help us. This is an astonishing statement made by Śrī Rāmakṛṣṇa, Swamiji, and others.
Really speaking, every obstruction — whether it is kāma, krodha, lobha, moha, mada, mātsarya, or any other negative tendency — if we become aware of it and learn to use it, like in judo training where you use the opponent's strength to your own advantage, then every obstacle becomes a means of progress.
Avidyā as God's Grace
Śrī Rāmakṛṣṇa unilaterally declares: "Without avidyā one can never realise God." Both avidyā and vidyā — māyā comes in these two forms. Both are the grace of God. Both are employed by the Divine Mother to be our helpers. In fact, avidyā helps us most.
Thomas à Kempis, the novice master, says in the Imitation of Christ that God alone sends these obstacles for strengthening the children whom He loves. He loves them because that love is reflected in the hearts of some people through their faith and conduct.
The Qualities of the Āsuras as a Lesson
The qualities of āsuras are very important. At one stage of our progress, the qualities of āsuras help us greatly. If you study the sixteenth chapter of the Bhagavad Gītā, where Bhagavān Kṛṣṇa squeezes the essence of all the Upaniṣads into that most easily understandable text, these qualities may seem entirely negative. From one point of view, they drag a person from a higher position to a lower position, making us move away from God. But notice something remarkable there — how strong these people are, how much willpower they have, even to do wrong things.
We must learn the lesson: "If I am successful in doing so many wrong things, why cannot I be equally successful in creating good saṃskāras?" When we complain, we complain about lacking willpower in spiritual activities — but we never complain about our lack of willpower in doing evil deeds or unspiritual activities. A great lesson has to be learned.
In the beginning, all these tendencies are given to us. Śrī Rāmakṛṣṇa gives a marvellous psychological explanation for this. Once, when a young man approached him saying, "I am troubled by lust" — a problem most people face — Śrī Rāmakṛṣṇa, to this person's probable surprise, advised: "Why do you want to remove kāma? Increase it. But this increment, this desire, must be for an object. Change the object." The stronger the desire, the quicker will be the progress in spiritual life.
The Story of Viśvāmitra: From Kāma to Krodha to Liberation
In the beginning, running downhill seems much easier than climbing uphill. But once we run down, we also have to come back up again. That is how the same principle works in day-to-day spiritual life.
It is said in the Purāṇas: if somebody wants to move towards God, Indra comes first and creates obstacles. He sends a beautiful woman — as we know from the story of Viśvāmitra. Through that story, we see a profoundly spiritual analogy. What did Indra do? In fact, Indra is very happy when someone says, "I don't want your position — I want to move towards God." Indra is worried only when someone wants to displace him, not when someone wishes to transcend him. So he came, he sent a beautiful woman.
As we know, Viśvāmitra fell for it. He enjoyed it, and then he exhausted that desire. He woke up: "How foolish I have been — one thousand years of hard austerity, now undone." One may wonder what type of austerity he was performing. He must have been suppressing his desires for material enjoyments, not realising that suppression or oppression gives only a negative result. They reinforce the desire rather than remove it.
He should have first looked inside and said: "My greatest present obstruction is lust — and lust can be for money, wealth, power, or many things. But in this case I am enamoured of, and identified with, the body. Body desires only body." First time he fell — and then he realised, acutely, that because of his own fault he had fallen.
So for another thousand years of tapasyā, Viśvāmitra understood: "No Indra or Candra can ever obstruct me. It is my own desire that made me fall. That desire, that knowledge, that awareness — it saved him."
So the next time Indra again sent his test. And Viśvāmitra smiled and said: "Go on — dance, sing, show every charm you can." He did not fall for it. But then kāma turned into krodha. He became filled with insatiable anger: "Again you have come! Once I fell — do you think I am going to fall again?" And they were all burned to ashes. That means he wasted his second thousand years of tapasyā — this time as a victim to anger. Because, as the Bhagavad Gītā tells us with marvellous psychological precision: from kāma only krodha comes. If I am not interested in some object, and anybody obtains that object, I won't be angry with that person.
The Story of Tōtāpurī: Krodha and the Limits of Brahma-Jñāna
Similarly, Tōtāpurī fell victim to krodha. Even though he claimed to be a brahmajñānī, he forgot everything about Brahma-jñāna. He was overcome by krodha and was about to strike a simple temple servant — when Śrī Rāmakṛṣṇa started laughing.
Then Rāmakṛṣṇa said: "The extent of your knowledge of Brahman — I am seeing it crystal clearly." Tōtāpurī was surprised. "What did I do?" "Don't you recollect? Just now you were about to beat a temple servant." "Why?" "Because he dared to take a bit of fire from your dhunī fire. Are there different types of fire? One fire impure and another pure? You are making a distinction. A Brahma-jñānī never makes any distinction."
And then Śaṅkarācārya was reputed to have fallen into a similar snare. As a result, the so-called Caṇḍāla enlightened him, and then Śaṅkara came to his senses. Immediately he wrote those most marvellous five ślokas — the Maniṣā Pañcakam, the five ślokas of the highest wisdom. Maniṣā means the highest knowledge.
So Tōtāpurī realised: "I became angry — but becoming angry is not the problem. Unconsciously becoming a slave to anger — that is the problem." Śrī Kṛṣṇa also becomes angry, but as a person who knows: "I am pretending to be angry," and the next second he forgets everything.
So Tōtāpurī suddenly became aware: "I am claiming to be a Brahma-jñānī, and I do not know what my mind is doing to me." And indeed, if one had truly obtained Brahma-jñāna — as we were discussing: brahma-jñānena sarvaṃ abhavam, the realisation that one is everything — where is the question of becoming angry? Who is there to be angry with? There is a beautiful hymn of Śaṅkarācārya where he says: "It is Viṣṇu who is laughing, it is Viṣṇu who is getting angry. Viṣṇu is getting angry with Viṣṇu. Viṣṇu is laughing at Viṣṇu. Viṣṇu is mocking Viṣṇu. Everything is nothing but pure Viṣṇu." What a marvellous hymn. I hope to tell you its name next time.
The Sincere Aspirant is Always Protected
So now — nobody can put obstructions, but God is gracious. Fathoming that we want to come to Him, a mother does not want any dirt on her child — she will wash it. Sometimes that washing process can be hard and painful. The mud which has been sticking for a long time becomes part of the skin, and to brush it off might even cause some injury. To pull a thorn that is deeply embedded in the sole of the foot is painful. In the olden days an injection was also very painful — but it is something wonderful.
So any sincere aspirant will always be protected by God in the form of that very sincerity. And this sincerity alone will overcome all obstacles. Overcoming obstacles means the mind becomes stronger. Overcoming obstacles means turning every obstacle into positive help — like jujutsu, using the opponent's strength for your own advantage.
The Upaniṣad gives us a beautiful example: the person who is seeking is not seeking any higher position — therefore Gods like Indra, Varuṇa, etc. come as the greatest friendly advisors, as teachers. They deliberately put these things in various forms to test, and if the child falls once, twice, a hundred times, a thousand times — they do not abandon him. "Our child is sincere, but he has to become stronger." So as many times as necessary, the obstructions will come, and they are all for our good.
That is what Rāmānujācārya wants to convey through his third step of Śaraṇāgati — unshakeable faith that God is going to save me: "Yes, I have a long way to go, but I have nothing to worry about, because God is my helper."
The Upaniṣad then puts it in its own words. It says: after all, a sādhaka says to Indra, "I am your Ātmā. There is no difference between you and me. And one never harms one's own self. Therefore if you harm me, you will be harming yourself." And Indra will never — nobody will ever — do that. That is what the Upaniṣad says: nobody can put obstructions. Because this person first identifies himself with the whole. As we have seen in the Taittirīya Upaniṣad — this person gradually expands his identity to the whole of created being, every body. That is called the state of Virāṭ. When one is in the state of Virāṭ, nobody can harm one, because anyone who harms such a person is harming his own self.
People do not understand: if somebody wants to give trouble to a good man, the inevitable punishment will come — and that punishment is not really a punishment, but a lesson that person has to learn through hardship and suffering.
The Vidyā Sūtra and the Avidyā Sūtra
The Vidyā Sūtra: Ātman as the Final Goal
So he thinks: "I am Indra. I am Varuṇa. I am Bṛhaspati. I am Brahmā." Therefore nobody will stand as an obstruction, because nobody will knowingly do harm to one's own self.
After this comes what is called the Vidyā Sūtra — or what may be called the Brahma Vidyā Sūtra. These are the aphorisms, the mantras, that tell us about the glory, the greatness, and the goal of every human being. Now the Upaniṣad wants us to clearly understand what is called avidyā — and this is called the Avidyā Sūtra.
When I use these words — Vidyā Sūtra and Avidyā Sūtra — the Upaniṣad itself does not use them. It is Śaṅkarācārya in his Bhāṣya who identifies these sections. He says: Ātman alone must be made the final goal of one's life, and the goal is to have the knowledge: "I am — I was, I am, I will be — Brahman." Not that "I am going to become Brahman," but rather: "I was Brahman, but due to avidyā I thought I was not. Now, through vidyā, through this upāsanā, I have removed that idea. I destroyed that ignorance. I realised what I truly am. I will never be anything other than Brahman."
So up till now, in this tenth mantra — one mantra divided into several sections — the Vidyā Sūtra is over.
The Avidyā Sūtra: The Ignorance of Separation
Now the Avidyā Sūtra begins. According to the understanding and commentary of Bhagavān Śaṅkarācārya, there are people — and even so-called spiritual people — who contemplate other Gods and Goddesses, but they do so like ignorant persons. Avidyā means ignorance. Ignorance means forgetting one's own nature and identifying as somebody else.
So he says: anyone who thinks "I am worshipping my mother and father, I am worshipping my Ācārya, I am worshipping my teacher" — and who slowly worships them as Gods — must understand what these Gods and Goddesses truly are. In the olden days there were many Gods and Goddesses, and most often these were nothing but the combined powers of nature. The universal power of seeing is called the Sun. The universal power of thinking is called the Moon. So every sense organ — and we have eleven sense organs: five of knowledge, five of action, and one mind — all these are nothing but those Devatās.
Remember the story of the Brāhmaṇa who killed a cow that had strayed into his garden, but who wanted to escape the sin. Indra comes and educates him: "If you think it was you who tended this garden, then you have to accept you killed this cow. But if you feel it was Indra's power that came to you in the form of your skilful hands, and the Moon's power came to you in the form of your crystal-clear thinking — then who killed the cow?" So every organ we have has a corresponding Devatā. Not only my individual capacity to see, but everybody's capacity to see combined together — that is the presiding deity, Sūrya.
The Consequence of Thinking "I am Small and God is Separate"
So if anybody, because of ignorance, thinks: "I am small, you are big — I am an ordinary, powerless, ignorant human being, but you are the all-powerful Devatā — Indra, Candra, Varuṇa, Bṛhaspati — and you are separate from me, and I am like an animal or a servant to you" — what happens? That person has to worship the Devatā, has to serve the Devatā. This is called avidyā.
The Upaniṣad puts it thus: this person does not know — he is ignorant of the fact that there is only one being, that is everything, that is Brahman. If anybody thinks "I am different, I am small, but the God I am worshipping is most powerful and he can protect me, help me, make me happier — and there is a vast difference between me and all the Gods and Goddesses and Brahman itself" — this is the state of separation. This is called avidyā. Such a person is possessing ignorant knowledge, not right knowledge.
The Parable of the Animals
What is the result? The Upaniṣad gives us a beautiful example. Suppose there is a person who has a hundred animals — goats, cows, buffaloes, horses, chickens, anything. All these animals contribute to the pleasures and welfare of this human being. The paśus are subservient — they are like servants catering to the health, happiness, and wealth of the human being.
In exactly this manner, each one of us who is in the ignorant state described above contributes to the pleasures of deities like Indra, Candra, etc. And then the Bhāṣya goes on to say: if a person has a hundred animals and one animal goes missing or is taken away, he becomes extremely pained. He does not say, "I have ninety-nine animals, why should I worry?" No — "I am incomplete without that one animal. I don't want to lose it." Why? Because it is serving his happiness and welfare. And if many animals are lost, what to speak of that person's condition of mind.
Therefore, in a similar manner, it is not desirable to these Gods that they lose even one of their worshippers — because how do we become their worshippers? We worship them, we give offerings, we pray to them, we go on pilgrimage, we do pradakṣiṇam. We do all this to please them, and they enjoy it and correspondingly bestow their protection. They protect us just as we protect our animals.
Just as that human being with many animals does not want to lose one, these Devatās also want to retain their worshippers. If a person says, "I don't want to serve you any longer — I want to know that I am Brahman," then immediately they become alert and try to put extra shackles so that the aspirant cannot escape.
The Snare of Dependence
So like that: if anybody thinks "This Devatā is different from God, and God is different from me, and the Devatā I am worshipping is my God, and he is separate from me" — he becomes like an animal serving those Devatās. And not only Devatās — we become slaves to a cow, to a chicken, to a servant, to a gadget. We depend upon coffee, upon sweets, upon salt, upon spices, upon every Tom, Dick, and Harry. "Oh, if my boss looks at me — maybe he is smiling, but is he thinking of getting rid of me?" We become dependent at every step upon a thousand bonds of slavery.
But the essence of it is: if somebody wants only God-realisation, then even Gods become highly favourable and do their level best. In fact, God's grace comes only in the form of the grace of different Gods and Goddesses — we have to understand that. Therefore the second part of this section — called the Avidyā Sūtram — says: to think that "I am different" is ignorance. And to overcome this ignorance and to know that there is no second — dvitīya nāsti, ekaṃ sadeva saumya idamagra āsīt — there is only one reality, there is no second reality. That is the goal of life.
Closing Remarks
How beautifully these mantras convey to us the message, even illuminating our pitiable present state where we are dependent upon prāṇa, upon external weather, external people, external animals, and external objects. I will elaborate upon this further in future classes, so that the mantra makes its full and very great meaning clear.
The idea is: do not come under the influence of avidyā. Already we are in that state — but try to break free like a lion breaks free. We will talk about this subject in our future classes.
Closing Prayer
Om Jānānāṃ Śāradāṃ Devīṃ Rāmakṛṣṇaṃ Jagadgurum
Pada Padme Tayo Śṛtvā Praṇamāmi Muhur Muhuh
May Rāmakṛṣṇa, Holy Mother, and Swami Vivekānanda bless us all with Bhakti.
Jai Rāmakṛṣṇa!