Dakshinamurti Stotram Part 11 on 04 February 2021

Full Transcript(Not Corrected)

OM JANANIM SHARADAM DEVIM RAMAKRISHNAM JAGAD GURUM PADAPADMETAYO SRIDHVA PRANAMAMI MUHURMUHUR OM YO BRAHMANAM VIDADHATI PURVAM YO VAI VEDAM SHYAPRAHINOTI TASMAI TAMMA DEVAM ATMA BUDDHE PRAKASHAM MUMUKSHU RUVAI SHARANAM AHAM PRAPADYE We are studying the very first verse in the Dakshina Murthy Stotram VISHWAM DARPANA DRISHYAMANA NAGARITULIYAM NIJANTARGATAM PASYAN ATMANI MAYAYA BAHIRIVA UDBHUTAM YATHA NIDRAYA YAH SAKSHAT KURUTE PRABODHA SAMAYE SWATMANAMEVA ADVAYAM TASMAI SHRI GURUMURTHAYE NAMAIDAM SHRI DAKSHINAMURTHAYE To him who by his power of Maya sees in himself the whole universe inside him, but as if it were outside, just as in a dream or like unto a city that is seen in a mirror, to him who apprehends upon awakening, waking up his own self as the one without a second, to him of the form of the Guru, the ancient of all, the blessed Dakshinamurthy is this prostration. NAMASKARA NAMAIDAM SHRI DAKSHINAMURTHAYE To recapitulate what we discussed, Atma is revealed first of all as the Adhishtana, as the very support. Atma as one but what it reflects inside the mind are many. Atma alone remains ever. Atma alone is the truth, Satyam. Atma is uncontaminated like space and Atma is Nitya, eternal. What is the essence of this verse? The purport of this verse is to tell us, to explain the second word of the Mahavakya, TAT TVAM ASI. TAT means the one reality called Parabrahma. TVAM indicates Jeevatma, the limited self, the microcosm consisting of body plus mind plus reflection of the pure consciousness called Chidabasam. So this Mahavakya which is TAT TVAM ASI, the first one, who are you or who am I? Each soul is potentially divine. I am potentially divine. Why do we use the word potential? Because we are in the spell, under the spell of Maya. The Maya makes us forget that we are the only reality but makes us think we are many and each one of us is separate and the world we are experiencing is the truth and it hides the highest truth. So that Brahman is the truth and this visible universe is only an appearance, an imagination, unreal. Just if Brahman is one without a second, this is multiple. If Brahman is the support, substratum, this is that which is depends upon. If Brahman is alone truth, this is appearance, not truth. Brahman is untouchable and this world, everything is impure. It is having Raga and Vesha and Brahman is Nityam and this world is Anityam, which fact, even the scripture need not tell. Every day, especially in countries like UK or USA, yesterday how many? More than a thousand deaths await today. How many deaths are going to come? It is not due to COVID but that's a natural phenomenon. So this first verse wants to tell us that you are not Jeevatma, you are Paramatma. There are not many things in this world. There is only one and you are not dependent. You are that Paramatma as completely independent. You are not contaminated, polluted. You are unpolluted because there is no second to pollute you and you are the eternal, not temporary passing. So whatever is experienced as temporary, as passing, as dependent, as unreal, that must be given up. There is no such object called the universe but it is because of ignorance. We think there is such an object. There is such an object that is called Brahman but we mistake the Brahman for the universe and attribute whatever are not the real attributes of Brahman, Satyam, Jnanam, Anantam. This verse tells us this has to be reversed. So that we must reverse. How does this truth gets conveyed through this first verse? Through two analogies. As if a person is seeing the reflection of a city in a huge mirror and what is the psychology here? If a person goes on seeing, let me put it this way, when a person comes and sits in front of that mirror, he is aware at the same time there is an outside world and there is a reflection in the mirror but here is the psychology. Go on looking at the reflection just as we look into the television or cinema screen, forget the audience, forget this screen and see only Nanatva, multiplicity. So this is a curious phenomena. In our mind we project that what we see is the truth, not what is really on the outside. Similarly in the dream, there is only one awakened person, Vekar Jagradhavasta. He creates the entire dream world and divides himself into, as I mentioned three, the witness, the participant and the entire universe. Through these two analogies, Shankaracharya is conveying to us that what you see is mithya, what you are, that alone is the truth. Now the second point, very important point is, at this moment we are seeing both through the scripture of course that I am also a Jeevatma but at the same time I see myself associated with body, mind and I see the entire universe. The important question is what is the relationship? Me as the Jeevatma, this world which is appearing as separate from me and Bhagawan who is the creator. This actually the subject matter of the second verse but what is the relationship? I the Atma means I am the body, the mind and the entire universe. Really there is no outside universe, there is no inside universe. Whatever exists is only one but through Maya in the form of the mind, in the form of Desha and Kala and Nimitta. Desha, Kala and Vaichitri Kritam, like a magician. So that is called mind. Mind is nothing but there is no special object called mind excepting time, space and causation. This is a profound truth that has been so beautifully illustrated or reminded us by Einstein through his special theory of relativity. Are you thinking of time? You are thinking of space and causation. Are you thinking of causation? You are thinking of time and space. Are you thinking of space? You are thinking of time, space and causation. Though I explained, these things need to be repeated again and again. So I am putting it this way. An accident happened. Someone comes and reports it to you and immediately three questions arise in your mind. Where did it happen? That means from the space point of view, which point of space this accident happened? When did it happen? From the time point of view, what time it happened? And how did it happen or why did it happen? Then from the causal point of view, causal, causation, what caused the accident? So time, space and causation. Our entire life, life after life until we attain mukti is through these three means. I was born at such and such a place. I was born at such and such a time. That is why every day, every day we don't count. Every year only we count on birthday and foolish people go on wishing us happy birthday. They never say you are nearing the chopping block every year. In fact, they must remind us and that is the purpose of putting what is called three namas on the forehead. Especially Shiva bhaktas, they are supposed to put by taking ashes from the funeral pyre three times to remind us morning, afternoon, midnight. Every time we see, look Shiva alone is the truth and Shiva resides in the smeshana. Does Shiva reside in the smeshana? He resides everywhere. But he resides specially in smeshana. Why? What does it mean? When you can burn. Desha, kala and nimitta. Time, space and causation. That means the cross body, subtle body and causal body. What remains? Shiva alone remains. Sri Ramakrishna puts it very very beautifully. When a person thinks as Jeeva, Pasha, Baddha, Jeeva. Pasha, Mukta, Shiva. Same Jeeva without three bodies is Jeeva. Same Shiva with the three bodies is called Jeeva. So, this is what he is telling. I am the Atman. I am the pure consciousness. Now, let us rearrange these sentences properly. There is this world which is reflected in our mind just as a city is reflected within a huge mirror. The same world again is reflecting. When I am dreaming, the whole world is reflecting but it is within me. I the perceiver am seeing at the reflection in the mirror. I the waker is imagining the entire dream world when I go to dream. In the what is called but the same me when I go into deep sleep, what is happening to me? This entire jagrat world, waking world, dream world. What happens to both? That which was appearing as though it is outside, as though it is dream world, even though I am dreaming within my mind as if I am inside, the whole world is outside. But what happens? The whole universe, waking universe, dream universe. So, when a Jeevatma dreams, it is nidra. When the Paramatma, he enters into this maya, as if the entire universe is outside and it is absolutely real. That is our experience. But then what happens? When as soon as the person sitting in front of the mirror comes away or the mirror is covered, then he sees the truth that this reflection is only a reflection. It has no reality. Similarly, the whole dream world is a reflection when a person wakes up. So, this is called waking up. This is called sakshatkara, direct experience, not through the mirror, not through the mirror of the five sense organs. Prabodha samaye, as soon as he wakes up, what does he perceive? Swa atmanam eva dvayam. There is no universe, there is no three bodies, there are no three bodies and there is no reflection, there is no imagination. Swa atmanam, I alone exist and dvayam, there is none besides me. There is no mirror, there is no bodies. So, therefore, I alone exist. The waker recognizes himself at the time of waking up to be the one non-dual one. So, the person at the time of dawn of knowledge recognizes this fact that I am the pure consciousness, I am the Brahman, there is no world and the appearance of this world is purely mithya. Now, again we have to remind ourselves, what is mithya? Partial knowledge of myself. Partial knowledge of myself is called mithya. Have you not heard it before? When I am in the waking state, I project myself as the world through the five sense organs. When I am going through the dream body into the dream world, I project myself as the created dream world through my imagination and when I go to nidra, deep sleep, what do I do? I enter into the causal world so that the body, mind are withdrawn. I am a witness of what there is no world but I am not a realized soul. I am witnessing the root cause of maya which is called avarana shakti and so there also I am bound. How do we know that we are bound? How do we know that in deep sleep we are not awakened? Swami Vivekananda gives the answer. Once somebody questioned him, what is the difference between deep sleep and samadhi? He gave a most beautiful answer. When a fool goes to sleep and wakes up, he remains the same fool, in bracket my words, if not a greater fool. For a few moments, we become greater fools. You know how? Supposing you were dreaming you were in America, even though you are in India or Belurmat, even though you are in Bangalore. For a few seconds, you do not know that you are either in Bangalore or Belurmat. That is even being more foolish because even if a tiger enters at that time your room, not impossible but very difficult to imagine, then you don't know what to do. If you are awake, at least you try to cry but have you noticed if you want to cry in deep sleep, a bully is chasing you and then you are unable to walk, you fall down and then you have to pray, Oh Lord, thank you for what we are about to receive. When a person is in deep sleep, he is not free, he becomes, he remains the same fool but Swami Vivekananda continues, when the same fool enters into Samadhi state, he comes out as a realized soul. So we know that every day we are waking up and I hope we are not becoming even too much foolish. In fact, that is a fact, we are becoming too foolish. I have noticed people, those who are generous when they are young, they become too miserly as they become older and older. They cling to older things, older books, useless medical books that were kept 40 years back. I have seen person, that's why I am talking, old cloths. What is the idea? You know, I want to throw out but I have a lurking feeling that at some point they will come of use and that is a great trouble after his death for his people to get rid of all those things. That is why western people are very very practical. This is what they call spring cleaning, remove everything that is not useful. So when we are under the spell of this Nidra or Maya, two things happen. What is this? This Vishwam, this world as if it is outside. Second, it alone is the real and nothing, we don't know about God, we don't know about Chidavasa, we don't know about pure consciousness. I know that this world is outside and this world is very real. How do I know? Because I am sure most of us are reading the news. When we read the news, our mind becomes highly agitated. Hardly there is any good news either in India or outside India. If it is not real, it won't affect us but if we think it is real, even if you are thinking it is after hearing this Dakshinamurthy Stotram, it is unreal but it affects us. Whatever affects us, that conclusively proves that it is real. That's why you know Buddha. Why Buddha was called Buddha? There are only, I am making fun, there are only two classes of people, wise and otherwise. So there are only two classes of people, Buddhas and Buddhus. Whoever is not awakened, he is a Buddhu and most of us fall. We are not, we should not be ashamed to speak of that. If I use the word, we are ignorant people, then it is a palliative. That is if we call Buddhu, we take it as an insult. But anyway, Swami Vivekananda, he founded one beautiful magazine. Do you know what is the name of it? Prabuddha Bharatha, awakened Bharatha, India like that. Prabuddha means completely awakened person. So an awakened person, Prabuddha Murthy is the Guru Murthy. That means a true Guru is one who is completely awakened from where? From Nidra and from Maya. Then he understands Aham Kevalam Atmaha. Aham Brahmasmi. Such a person is a Dakshinamurthy because I can create, I can maintain like Ishwara and I can also destroy. A most meaningful word. What does it mean? Mundaka Upanishad gives us this clue. Brahma with Brahmai Bhavhauti. Environ Brahman becomes Brahman. When a person becomes Brahman, is there anything that is impossible for the Brahman? It's not impossible. Therefore, if a person with devotion approaches Brahman and says, I want to become the ruler of this world, he will grant it. Vishwamitra was able to create a whole Svarga Loka. That is why we call it Vishwamitra Svarga, Trishanku Svarga, we call it. Trishanku was the king for whom he created that universe by his mere Sankalpa. Here also I have to tell you something. These things I go on repeating and you must go on listening because until it becomes completely marked in your mind, the moment I utter the word, entire meaning must flash in your mind like a big lightning. Until that time you have to go on doing it. What is Svarga? When a person is extremely happy, whatever be the circumstances outside, that is called Svarga Loka. When the same person, in spite of being at the best place, at the best time, with the best people, with absolute safety, then such is called Naraka. Again I am reminding you that beautiful story, very popular in North India. One day a great king, after having royal dinner, fell asleep on his royal bed and then he found his neighbouring king declared a war, seized the kingdom, was chasing him and this person for three days he ran and then somehow at the end of the third day he had crossed the border and then he reached a village. It was midday and he was ravenously hungry, tired and then there was somebody distributing food. He joined the queue and when his turn came to receive, the food was completely over and the man out of pity seeing this person's condition scooped up some burnt food that was sticking like Draupadi's one grain of rice sticking to the vessel somewhere. So he scooped up some, it was sufficient though half burnt and then gave it to the king. Then he was lifting it up and brought near his lips, a big bird came, suddenly kicked that leaf plate and the whole thing fell on the sand, completely unusable and when the king was lamenting his bad luck, he awoke suddenly and it was so great, he started asking, what I am seeing now upon waking up, is this real and what I saw just a few minutes back, was that real? What is real? And he would not eat, he would not drink and people thought he went mad and after three days a great Mahatma came there and he was brought and the king immediately asked the question, so what I saw or what I am seeing now, what is the truth? And this is what we have been discussing, immediately that great saint, he replied, oh king, neither that is true nor this is true, what you are seeing is the only truth. Neither the dream was real nor the waking is real now but you who are witnessing, participating both the waking dream as well as the dreamless sleep, only you are the truth alone. That is being mentioned in this first verse of this Dakshinamurthy Stotram. So that God's presence, Brahman's presence can be felt only through my own Guru who is present in front of me and he is a realized soul. This particular line contains two separate issues. That is the creator, the maintainer, sustainer and the recycler or destroyer and the same one out of infinite compassion. Why do we say infinite compassion? Because infinity cannot have finite compassion. Infinity can have only infinite compassion. So my salutations to my Guru who is manifesting that Guru of the Gurus. What does that mean? It means there are no hundred Gurus, thousand Gurus, my Guru, your Guru, my religion, your religion, my path, your path. No, only one path. What is the path? The truth. And what is the Guru? Only God is the Guru. What is the knowledge? Only one knowledge. I am that pure consciousness. So Namaha, then salutations. What type of salutations? And this word Namaha, I explained in the previous also that complete surrender, Sampoorna Sharanagati is called Namaha. That is why we stand up and fold our hands and then say Namaskara, Namaha, Narayanaya Namaha. But we have to understand it means I am seeing God. If you are seeing God, do you exist? Just ask one question. God is coming. He is standing in front of me. If truly God is standing in front of you, do you exist? It is impossible. But we think because of our ignorance, He is just like an object or just like N. T. Ramarao in the form of Venkateshwara in the cinema. That is not absolutely true. How do we know? Because that N. T. Ramarao in the cinema lasts only for two hours. As soon as the projector gets off, N. T. Ramarao vanishes. Venkateshwara Swami vanishes. Who remains? Only I remain. You remain appreciating the fact that there is only one reality. There is no individual I apart from that one reality. This is one meaning of Namaha. So this when a person really understands I do not exist. Only God exists. This was so beautifully expressed in a Sufi story. Many times I quoted but I will quote this time also. There were two lovers, a lover and the beloved. One day he went to the cottage of his beloved, knocked. From inside came the question, who are you? And the reply was given from outside, I, this is me and the door remains locked. Then second time, same thing happened. Third time, who are you? This time he said, thou my beloved. Then he found there was no door, much less locking or unlocking. So this is what the highest truth is illustrated through this beautiful parable. There is no other truth excepting me and me means not this small body-mind complexed ahankara but the universal. That is what Bhagavan Krishna says, take refuge in me. Sarmadharman parityaja maam. There maam is not Krishna the body-mind. There He is Krishna the Ishwara, Srishti Kartha. Why do we say Srishti Kartha? Why can't we say Nirguna Brahman? Because Nirguna Brahma doesn't say I am the Srishti Kartha, I am the Palanukartha, I am the Samaharakarta. There is no creation, there is no you and me, there is no universe. That is why the only expression through human words is neti neti, nothing else. This is one, what is it? Complete self-surrender is called namaha. But what type of namaha? With great humility. So this is the meaning of this beautiful verse, the whole universe is nothing but my imagination, just as I imagine I am different in my dream world, I am seeing a reflection in a mirror, the only truth that remains when you get out of the sight of the mirror and when you wake up, I alone am the truth. Now I also mentioned about CBT, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy. What does it mean? Means even from the very ordinary point of view, every day we encounter many things and most of them are not pleasant. How do we cope with that? That's where CBT comes. To practice it, there is a philosophy, this is called faith in God, this is called faith in the scriptures, this is called faith in the law of karma, karma siddhanta. Everything happens because of what? Three reasons. First reason, everything happens, well that is the nature of the world and even if you don't believe in God, there will be good weather, bad weather, summer and winter season and rainy season and atom season, spring season, many seasons are there, that is the world nature. There will be good people and evil people, there will be happiness, unhappiness, there will be light, there will be darkness. So it is inevitable because dvandva is the nature of the world. If you accept that really, okay, at that time I was happy, now I am not so happy, that's okay. So as I mentioned, there was a real response. In the west, there are many hospices, there will be people, they are declared to be on the way to death but they cannot be cared for at home and they will be kept in between hospital and death period, these are called hospices and there one journalist went and then he interviewed. Many people, oh we are so lonely, we are so unhappy, God, why God has made, many people don't believe God. They said we are very unhappy but there were a few people and they reply astonished the journalist, reporter astonished me. They replied, well we had wonderful time, I got married and I had a wonderful wife, wonderful children, I had my fling and now okay, this is also part of the life, I accept it and put up with it as best as I can. If this is not Vedanta philosophy, I don't know what it is. This attitude falls under the first condition, it is the nature of the world, so I accept it, better learn to accept it, it helps us. Philosophy always helps us. Second, there are many people who believe in God, so they say Inshallah, God's will, that is very good or many Hindus who believe in God in scripture especially Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism and Sikhism, they believe in past lives, so there is what I am today, happy or unhappy is entirely the result of my own past karma. It is a truth of course but many people may not believe it but this philosophy definitely helps us. So, there was a Greek philosopher, he used to say this world is like a dream. Some young people didn't understand, one day they decided to teach him a lesson, they tied his legs with a rope and were dragging him on cobbled roads, stony roads. He was bleeding, of course it was painful, then he asked do you still say life is a dream and he tried to smile and said yes, I still say it is a dream, a very painful dream. I cannot change any event, I cannot influence anybody, what happens in the external world including my body is not under my control. It is a very wonderful thing that we have absolutely no control. Many of us try to change the world, we can never change the world, we can only try to change the world and we fail most of the time. How do I know? The moment I declare to myself I believe in God and I have to practice spiritual discipline. If I could bring a change within myself, the next moment I would have been a realized soul that even after so many years of initiation either physical or scriptural, I am still plodding on unable to overcome even the slightest what is called habit that is a definite proof that I am unable to change my own self. If I am failing in changing myself, where is the hope of changing anybody else? There was a funny story, there was a fellow who was addicted to smoking and at one time he made some feeble effort to get rid of this habit. So he started buying so many books and reading how to quickly quit the habit of smoking and be a great, happy, healthy person and then he went on buying the books and then reading them. After many months some of his friends came and said, are you successful? He said, yes, I have given up. They asked him, what have you given up? He said, I have given up reading the books. Another joke also is there, my audience certainly will know about it. So one fellow was addicted to the smoking and he met another one of his friends and then he said, see I am unable to get out of this strong habit. Other fellow said, what? You are talking nonsense. The easiest thing in this world is to quit smoking. Just look at me, how many times I have given up. I hope you are getting it. How many times I have given up means I have not given up. So I cannot change anything. But I can change through training, through hard work, how to react. I can only try to bring about a change only in myself and that is one of the greatest sadhanas. This was what really Holy Mother is indicating to us. Holy Mother's teachings, Sri Ramakrishna's teachings, Guru's teachings, scriptural teachings can be interpreted on many different levels. Psychologically, it's all very true. That's why Swami Yathirswaranandaji Maharaj used to say, every spiritual person must have some basic knowledge of psychology. What is psychology? A right knowledge about our own mind. There is a very beautiful book. I recommend it to everybody. The very title is About Ourselves. About Ourselves. I forget the author's name but About Ourselves psychology book. Immediately you will get it and I assure you, free. You can download it. So here, what was Holy Mother saying? My child, if you want peace of mind and peace of mind again can be interpreted at two levels. I want peace of mind in this world. I want peace of mind eternally by realizing God. I am talking here about peace of mind in this world. Stop finding fault with others. You notice our mind gets disturbed only when we see defect. Defect in the world means mostly about finding fault with people, not merely events. So this is first and then start finding your own faults because there is a curious psychology here. The moment we cognize any fault with others, two things happen. A. That unless we have a fault within ourselves, we cannot cognize the same fault in other people. That is one. B. When I cognize a fault within myself, I cannot be at peace unless I try to improve myself. We try to ignore it by drinking, by smoking, by coffee drinking, by going to sleep, by what Eric Fromm calls escape from freedom, by watching mindless entertainment, etc. It only makes us worse. So if we truly find our own fault, we cannot stand rested until we can get rid of it. So this is called seriously start finding faults and if somebody can find faults, he will have enough work for life after life for many lives. Third, this world is none other than you. Particularly this third statement of Holy Mother. What is the world? How we interpret it? And in Advaita Vedanta, there are two particular statements. Srishti Drishti Vada, Drishti Srishti Vada. This first verse falls under Srishti Drishti Vada. Srishti Drishti Vada means there is something and I see it. I see it what? Not as it is but as my colored, filtered mind shows it to me. Not only the mind is a filter, every sense organ of ours is a filter. This is a wonderful subject just to dwell upon it. Supposing there is a curry and everybody likes it. It is a curry made up of many different vegetables. Imagine it is cooked by an Indian. Imagine it is cooked by a householder in Andhra Pradesh. It is a curry and give it to somebody who is not accustomed to eating chillies, immediately he will throw it out. Much less to give to a non-Indian. Non-Indian means not from India but a westerner. He cannot even tolerate because he is there. So the first filter is this is not tasty and who is telling? Who is telling that this is not tasty? It is my sense organ through the mind is telling. That means I have brought a filter and then because the tongue cannot tolerate it, the influences of the tongue but in my mind it may be beautiful food but it has been given to me by a person whom I hate. Immediately that filter mind applies. I don't like this person. So whatever is touched or brought about by this person, it is hateful to me. How many filters we are having through and my language and then the colour of my skin and then the village culture or town culture or city culture, the religion, the state and the nation. All these filters we are all applying. I am not an Indian and I am not a Hindu and I don't come from Indian culture. Terrible conflict not only between ordinary people, between so-called monks and others. I'll give an example. Suppose there is a person brought up in orthodox Christianity. In his eyes God can be realized only if they call him Jesus or God not otherwise. There are so many Indian religions who do that. These are the filters Holy Mother is talking about. Find out first of all your faults. Find out the causes of these filters which is nothing but the motives and the cause of the motives is these filters. Another word for the causes or motives of why the mind applies these filters is called these motives or that is what is called causes. Find out the causes. That is called real fine fault. If you don't remove the root, the plant will not be destroyed at all. Then the mother is telling if you make your own mind okay then the whole world will be absolutely fine. I will give you two examples. Remember I have given these examples many times in the past and I will be giving also it but it is not fault. In scriptures repetition is the most wonderful thing in the world. Repetition is needed until we realize. Okay there was a Christian monk. He wanted a solitary place where nothing can disturb him. So he went to most solitary place. He was very happy. Absolutely no human being anywhere and he is joyfully sat down to pray to God and then it was started raining a little bit and a million frogs started croaking out of joy and he said oh my God. In my old place there was only few people. Here a million frogs and he was disturbed. Very sincere person. So he prayed oh Lord I want to call upon you. Here also I am disturbed. Where can I pray to you? Immediately God gave him buddhi-yogam dadamiyam. He gave buddhi. What is the buddhi? My son. The frogs are also my creation. They are also praying to me only but in their own language. The moment he understood it all the frogs are praying and their prayer instead of human language is called croaking and if the moment it is a prayer not croaking but it is a prayer. The whole mind has become completely free. He joined them undisturbed that now a million plus one are praying joyfully to the divine Lord. Where did the change come? The frogs did not stop croaking but change had come within the mind. The another one is it is said that Duryodhana and Yudhishthira both went on a world tour. They came back and there was a meeting. They were asked to tell about their opinions and then Duryodhana got up and said I don't want to say anything. The world is so wicked. I never met a good man and sat down. Yudhishthira got up and he said I have no words to describe the goodness of the world. Everybody was treating me like his own near and dear relative and they are what is called falling upon head over heels who can serve me the best. I have never met an evil person. Everybody I met is one of the greatest persons in the world. I have no words to describe and he sat down. Same world, same tour, two different minds, two different interpretations. So we can train our mind to see something good. That's what holy mother was telling. Seeing goodness is seeing God. Seeing God in everybody as my own reflection. This is a beautiful example because of this first Vishwam Darpana Dushyamana Nagaritulyam. So an awakened person, a Prabuddha, what does he see? For that an example is given. Imagine you are in the room and there are 100 mirrors in front of you and then you see how many reflections? 100. How many of you are there actually? Only one. What does this illustration tell us? That everybody, everything in this world is nothing but a reflection of my pure consciousness. That point I have elaborated at least in three classes that the whole world is in the consciousness, is created in the consciousness, remains existing in the consciousness and disappears when we are not aware of it. This is called cognizing God, seeing God everywhere. So holy mother says my child realize that the whole world is none other than you, Paramatma. That is called realization. Only then can we have eternal peace and then Sri Ramakrishna's illustration. Sri Ramakrishna trained Narendra. This is one of the most important episodes of Narendra's life. Swami Vekananda. There was a question. How did Narendra become Swami Vekananda? Three important phases of his life. First, his own understanding of the world and himself through his self-study of both scriptures and science. Second, under the tutelage of Sri Ramakrishna, he transformed the whole concept of Narendranath and there was one special incident. One day Sri Ramakrishna was expounding the mat is God and the cat is God, the rat is God, everything you see is God and Hajra, Narendra were there and Sri Ramakrishna stopped his instruction and then these two people came out, started laughing uproariously and Sri Ramakrishna heard their laughter from inside. He came out with his wearing cloth under his arm. You have to imagine how Sri Ramakrishna looks. How does he look? Like the purest child in the world. Look at a baby smiling, a baby of three months old and there will be no brute in this world. All brutes will disappear upon seeing that divine smile of the baby. Ramakrishna came out and don't imagine if anybody comes out like that, then you will feel this is a madcap. If you don't beat, then you will close your eyes. But here this person came out and he touched Narendra. Immediately Narendra's whole vision changed. Whatever he was perceiving, it was nothing but Brahman and then the Leela Prasanga says, then Narendra understood. Whatever words come out of Sri Ramakrishna's mouth is Parama Sathya because he is the Paramarshi. This is how he trained. He trained through the two stories of Elephant and Mahout Narayana. What is it? We all know the parable. The Guru taught everything is Narayana. The disciple understood partially. One day he was going. He saw an elephant coming and the Mahout was shouting. It has become mad. Get out. But he did not get out and it knocked him unconscious and the brother disciples carried the disciple and upon awakening, why did you not run away? He said, our Guru taught everything is Narayana and immediately the Guru said, my son, the Mahout also is Narayana. Why did you not listen to his words? Only my words, everything is Narayana but the body has to be treated separately. Mind also has to be treated separately. This verse is very helpful not only in spiritual life but in worldly life also. This is what every sadhaka realizes in the end. Such a realized person alone is the real Guru. What does this real Guru realize? His own self. There is no world. It is me dreaming and creating a dream world. Upon waking up, I am the one waker. Similarly, upon waking up from this what is called waking world, then I am alone. I am that Brahman. I am Brahmasmi and Advayam, there is no second. I am the one without a second. Such a person alone is a Guru. That Paramatma is manifesting his grace in the form of this Advaitic knowledge in the form of my own Guru. That same Dakshinamurthy, that same Ishwara is now Dakshinamurthy. That Dakshinamurthy is now manifesting in the form of my own Guru to such a Guru ultimately through my Guru, through Dakshinamurthy, through Ishwara, through Parabrahma. My salutations to him. My Sastang pranams to him. I completely surrender myself to him so that I am ready to receive what he is graciously going to grant me. So this verse tells I am the pure, Shuddha, Nitya, Buddha, Muktaha. I am Paramatman. My nature is pure consciousness and the same point is discussed in the second verse from a different end. We will deal with it in our next class. May Sri Ramakrishna, Holy Mother and Swami Vivekananda bless us all with Bhakti.