Dakshinamurti Stotram Part 14 on 13 February 2021

Full Transcript(Not Corrected)

Om Jananim Sharadam Devim Ramakrishnam Jagadgurum Pada Padmetayo Shritva Pranamami Moho Moho Om Yo Brahmanam Vidadhati Purvam Yo Vaivedhamscha Prahinoti Tasmay Tamha Devam Atma Buddhi Prakasham Mumokshu Rubai Sharana Maham Prapadye We are discussing the second verse of the Lakshana Murthi. Let us always remember, the first verse is expounding the nature of the Tvam, that is, each one. We are not Jivatmas, we are really none other than that Brahman. And the second verse is being expounded that the nature of the Brahman. And in the third verse, we are going to bring about, or Shankara is going to bring about the identity between the Jivatma and the Paramatma. And exactly this was what Swami Vivekananda also had preached. So ethically, he had expressed this in such understandable language, that each soul is potentially divine, and naturally the goal will be how to know who we really are. And that was the essence of Rama Maharshi's teachings. Find out who you are, and then all complaints, all problems will be resolved. Not only that, this entire universe becomes a matter of great joy. That is like a divine Leela. It is a divine Leela. Provided we have that understanding, everything is Brahman. I am also Brahman. We are dealing with this second verse, where Tat Padartha. First Tvam, then Tat, and then third shloka, You are That. Tat Tvam Asi. Tvam Tat Asi. This is called a Mahavakya. And this Mahavakya has been stated very clearly in the third verse. What is a Mahavakya? That which without any ambiguity states that everything is Brahman. You are also Brahman. And there are hundreds of these Mahavakyas, including in the Bhagavad Gita. But four have been selectively separated from each Veda, one so that our poor memories can recognize. From the Rig Veda, Aitareya Upanishad, Prajnanam Brahma. From Yajur Veda, Brihadaranyaka Upanishad, Aham Brahmasmi. Ramakrishna Order belongs to this because of the Sringeri Matha. From Sama Veda, Chandogya Upanishad, Tat Tvam Asi, which is being expounded here in the first three verses. And from Atharvana Veda, Mandogya Upanishad, I am Atma Brahma, Thou Art Brahman. Now, we have already discussed, Obeisance to him, Sri Dakshinamurthy, who is manifesting in the form of our own Guru, who out of his free will, like a musician or a great yogi, manifests this world which was before creation in an undifferentiated form, even as a sprout is seen within the seed and becomes variegated later, on account of its association with space and time, brought about, brought forth by Maya. So, Shankaracharya is talking about Tat Padartha. What is the main purport? Let us look at a seed. The entire tree is already there in a compressed form, undifferentiated form. That is important. By looking at a seed, we cannot know what tree it is, how big it will be, what is it going to yield. This example, we have to understand only, there must be a seed for everything. Whenever we look at any object in this world, we find, we call them parents or whether it is animals or any living creature, there must be a cause. Does an inert thing have a cause? Yes, of course, there is a cause. What is the cause of Ganga Nadi? Well, so much of rain is accumulating and it becomes ice and because of the heat, the ice melts and slowly it starts trickling down and in course of time, it gathers many such tricklings, becomes a stream, becomes a small river, becomes a huge river. Where from it has come? From the ocean. Where is it going to end up? In ocean. That is the example. What about Himalayas? Well, there were some tectonic plates. There was a movement underneath the earth and as a result of it, they came together and whatever was there in between, before they came together, now because of that tremendous force was being squeezed above and slowly the pressure of the squeezing became intensified. So that is how Himalayas grew and that is a wonderful analogy because whatever grows must have an origin. However, small way. So everything in this universe that we experience has an origin, has a cause and it is moving, it is growing and ultimately they are saying, now Himalayas, they are just melting down. That means the water level will be increasing at the beginning but as it starts going down, slowly the amount of water it can hold also goes down. So the Ganga or any other river from any other source, it will also become slowly less and less until it merges and this is going on all the time. So coming out, going, growing and then going out. It is simply stated from the unmanifest, whatever we experience comes out. That is why we are able to experience. Unmanifest means we will not be able to experience and when this universe we experience, that means the unmanifest has now become experienceable. That is called birth and growth. Then a day will come because it has come, Aya Ram, Gaya Ram. So whatever has come out, it also has to go in. This process is going on. Now this raises a question. In fact, several questions. One question is who causes all these things and that is where the scriptures give the answer. There must be first of all a raw material for the entire universe and in this world there would be what is called two causes, the material cause and the intelligent cause for every object. So if we take the whole universe as one unified whole, then who was there before this universe? The answer is there must be somebody because something cannot come out of nothing. Therefore, there was somebody and that someone who was without any division, who was beyond time, space and causation and who is full of consciousness because any action can be done only by a conscious being, not by an inert being. You don't simply look at a table and then you bang yourself against a table out of either darkness or carelessness and you don't question, you damn table, what right have you got to bang me? You cannot question. Why? Because you are stupid if you put such a question. That only proves you banged against the table and you are blaming. The table is taking revenge upon you. So without a conscious being, there cannot be any creation. That is the meaning we have to understand. So what is the usefulness of it? That we are all like these sprouts. If we can understand what is my origin, where from have I come, then everything points out to that one unoriginated Ishwara. That is the point we have to understand here. Naturally, these are all examples given, metaphors to be understood, but we should not pull an example too much. Take a simple example I am giving. The seed comes from a tree. If there were to be no tree, there would have been no seed and without seed, a tree also cannot come out. So what is the implication? If this universe is like a sprout, it came out from Brahman, Ishwara. Now again, if you take this analogy of seed and tree, just as a seed has come from the tree and the tree has come from the seed, Ishwara has come from the world and the world has come from the Ishwara. So this mixture of conscious and inert thing called this world is the cause of Ishwara who is pure consciousness and this world which is limited by time, space and causation is the cause of Ishwara. Therefore, Ishwara cannot be beyond time, space and causation. This kind of illogicity will come. That is why Ishwara is called uncaused cause. From Him, everything comes out, but He does not have another cause. Even logically, it poses a big problem because where will you end up? What is called in logical language, infinite regress will take place. World has come from God, God has come from world and this world has come from God. So you can never determine and it is a logical contradiction and it is purely irrational because if you accept Ishwara or God or the Creator as a pure conscious being, He is the, soon we are going to discuss it, He is both the material as well as the intelligent cause of this world. That will be negated through this. You know this logic, some things are perfectly logical, but also perfectly meaningless and irrational. I have given earlier this example, I am going to give you. There are two persons, let us call them A and B. A says B is very truthful. A says B is very truthful. B says A is a liar. So if you believe A, then B is a truthful and the truthful B is telling that A is a liar and if A is a liar, B is also a liar. If B is a liar, A is not a liar. This endless cycle it goes on. That's why one of the most important lessons we have to learn is do not go on questioning. Who is the cause of this universe? Ishwara, Bhagawan, God. And who is the cause of God? Don't ask. The scripture tells He is the causeless cause. Can there be a causeless cause? The scripture says yes. And you have to believe the scripture and you will have to follow the scripture. With this caution, you will have to proceed forward. So let us expound into this. We are talking about Mahavakyas. A Mahavakya is one which identifies that everything in this world is nothing but God and nothing but God. Here are some interesting schools of philosophy expounding interesting. The first things we have to understand in this universe, everything has a cause, not one cause, but really you can take as two or sometimes you can take also as three. What are the causes? Intelligent cause and material cause. This more or less covers everything. But sometimes because we want a little more explanation, another cause also is posited. It is called instrumental cause. Take the example. A potter makes a pot. Clay is the material cause. This is called Upadana Karana. And the intelligent potter is called the intelligent cause. Without the potter, the pot can never be made. But can he make it out of mere his hands? Of course he can make it. It won't be refined. Yes, it is possible. But he normally uses a wheel. It is called potter's wheel. Now that potter's wheel is called Karana. Karana means instrument. Karana is one of the Karanas. So Upadana Karana, material cause. Nimitta Karana, intelligent cause. And instrumental cause, Karana. These three are necessary. This is what we see everything in this world. This is the first lesson. Second lesson we have to learn is supposing you go to a pot and you appreciate the pot and you want to find out who is the person who made this beautiful pot. So you want to seek the potter and then he may be alive. He may not be available. He may be nearby. He may be available. He may be dead. He won't be available. So you may or may not find out the intelligent cause. Then you want to find out what are the instruments. He made it with the help of a wheel. That wheel may be broken. That wheel might have been taken away by somebody or it is totally destroyed or burnt. You may or may not get it. These two points keep in mind. But if you are seeking the material cause of the pot where do you need to go? You don't need to go anywhere because a pot is nothing but clay with a particular form with a particular name and with a purposeful utility. So this is how the material cause. If we apply this analogy to this universe if you want to find out the creator of this universe then you may go to Vaikuntha Kailasa. You may not get him there or with what instruments he has done, you may not get. But if you are looking at the material cause it is whatever you see that is the material including your body and your mind. And this material unlike the clay or wood or gold what was this material before the world was made? Bhagawan. So therefore this universe is nothing but God only. So a beautiful theory has been formulated who is the creator? He is God himself is both the material cause as well as the intelligent cause. And now this is the second point. Third point you have to understand is there is a law. The effect cannot be at all different from the cause. If you apply this one if God is pure Chaitanya so this world is also nothing but pure Chaitanya only. If there is a mud pot it is nothing but mud. If there is a golden ornament it is pure gold. There is no object called ornament. It is nothing but gold in a particular shape, particular form, particular utility. You have to understand this business of utility. Out of the gold if a ring is made you can't wear it in the neck. If a ring is made you can't make it a bangle and put it on your hand. And a bangle cannot be put on your finger also. So there is a special utility and that depends upon each one of the person their capacity, their affordableness. If a poor man cannot afford etc. etc. What is the point we are looking here? This whole universe is the material cause. And before its creation it was God. Now because God is appearing just as clay appears with a special form therefore a special name. So this world is nothing but Brahman in a particular form with a particular name. Not one form, not one name but billions and billions of forms, billions and billions of names. To make this point clear as soon as the light is turned on and projector is turned on then you will see various figures on the screen and whether it is man or woman living or non-living is nothing but clay of light in different densities. But everything is nothing but light. How do we know? Switch off the light then the whole thing will stop. So also this whole universe is nothing but pure Brahman. That is why in the Vishnu Sahasranama the very first name that we get is Vishwam. So one of the lessons, secondary lesson we have to learn from this point is there is nothing called inert. It appears as though there are things living and moving, breathing, talking, communicating, fighting, dying, etc. And there are certain things like mountains, like rivers, like earth, etc. It appears that it is inert. Who is making this division? We are making the division. If God is nothing but He is not a mixture of both what is called consciousness and inertness. He is not. Because He is pure consciousness and because He is the cause everything that comes out of Him is nothing but pure consciousness only. What is the example? That's why in the first verse we discussed it. That is very important. The first point in the first verse is everything is within us. The whole universe is within us. But because of maya appears as if outside. Swami Vivekananda explained this point very beautifully. That there is a tree and then you don't know it is a tree. But there is an object. Your eyes will look at it and your mind goes out through the eye, envelops that shape of the tree, brings that information. The eye doesn't know it is a tree and it hands it to these naru cells. And the naru cells carry this information, remember, to the mind. And the mind unifies what it sees, what it hears, what it smells, what it tastes, etc. And compares to other things and gives. This is not like anything else. So it must be given a particular name. A tree is the information which we later on call a tree. It is not having any information, no name, excepting information. But the mind, it wants to separate this unified information from other information. So it gives a name. It is a tree. It is a dog. This name giving is to separate one thing from the other. That's why if you have got two or three children, you don't give the same name. Otherwise confusion will come. If everybody is Rama and whom mother is calling, all the three will say Oi. So there will be confusion. What is the purpose of a name? To separate it from everything else. And this separation by name also takes other forms. One goes by the general form called species. Another goes by the particular form and that applies only to that particular tree. For example, there are billions of mango varieties are there. So all of them by general name mangoes. And in the mangoes itself, there are thousands of variations. This is Alfonso. This is Malgava. This is Dasheri. This is Langda, etc. So that is another sub classification. Among the, for example, Alfonso, there will be Bombay Alfonso or what is called Karnataka Alfonso which is called I think Nilgiri or something like that. So still subdivision. My point is all these names are given with one purpose in mind so that we do not identify or jumble together all of them. We should be able to distinguish every single object. Similarly, even take another example. This is most wonderful exposition. Take a body. So there are hands, there are legs, there are sense organs and there is hair, etc. There also we give separate name. This is hand, this is leg, etc. Because otherwise, if there is a problem with the leg and the surgeon doesn't know the difference between hand and leg or between left hand tooth or left-sided tooth or right-sided tooth or upper tooth or lower tooth, he may take away wrong tooth and promise you that next time he is going to do it freely for the right tooth. Nama is nothing but for our facility to identify one thing from the other. And so, this Nama naming depends upon the form. Is it circular? Is it oval? Is it triangular? Is it small? Is it big? Etc. So this is called Nama and Rupa always go together. So a round thing is a round thing. The thing is different that is called Rupa and that word sound, round applies only for a particular type of object which is in a particular shape. What am I driving at? That Brahman looked at forgetting its real nature and only seeing the names and forms. This is what is called Universe and we forget, we distinguish. What is wrong with seeing many forms, many names? Really there is nothing wrong. If we do not forget that everything is absolutely the same like Sai Ramakrishna says, if you make a billion sweets out of sugar, all of them are nothing but sugar. But what is the quarrel about? One child says, I want that green mango shaped sweet. Another fellow says, no, no, I like that horse shaped sugar. This is all we experience. So we have to understand it is nothing but Brahma. This is the point of this particular shloka that pure consciousness who is one without a second is as if it is divided into many, many, many divisions and by what? By Maya power. So that is called the Universe. You, me, everybody is one of the objects of this Universe and really speaking, we are not separate from each other excepting Nama, Rupa, Guna and Nimitta. There is nothing else. Everything is one material. That is what Sai Ramakrishna means. Once I had a vision of the whole Universe in the form of wax but he saw the tree, he saw the animals, he saw the mountains, he saw the sun, the moon, the stars, the entire cosmos but he remembers everything is made up of what? Wax. That means everything is only possessing the quality of the wax. Only that is an example as I said. So Brahman is pure consciousness. This consciousness is expressed by three separate names but meaning exactly the same. This is called Sat, Chit and Ananda. I want to introduce you a particular word here in Vedanta. It is called Saman Adhikaranya. Saman Adhikaranya means many different names but meaning only one object. For example, Sitapati. Sitapati means the husband of Sita. The same Rama has got Dasharatha Nandana. He is the son of Dasharatha. He is Ravanari. He is the killer or destroyer of Ravanasura. He is Ayodhyapati. So he is the ruler of Ayodhya. There are a thousand names are there. Sahasranamas are there. But all these thousand names mean only one particular object whom we call Rama. So if we can understand that Ishwara manifesting in this whole universe, you call them living, non-living and Indian, non-Indian, man and woman and then different species like animals, trees, etc. These are all Saman Adhikaranya and that goes by one single name Jagat. So Jagat is nothing but Brahman as perceived through the names and forms. What is the point? The point is you must always remember a billion things made out of wax are nothing but wax. The entire universe is made up of nothing but Shuddha Chaitanyam. Sat, Chit, Ananda. Everything is Sat. Everything is Chit. Everything is Ananda. The main point is there are three worlds. Sat means Brahman. Chit means Brahman. Ananda means Brahman. These are not three separate qualities. Not to speak of three separate objects. But they all mean the same. And everything in this world is having all these three, a mixture of all these three Nama and Rupa. Therefore what does it mean? That we are all nothing but Brahman. Sarvam, Kalvidam, Brahma. But then because of Maya we see the varieties Nama, Rupa, Guna, Prayojana, etc. And we mistake that each is separate. This mistaking everyone as a separate object all by itself without any relationship with the other is called Maya, is called limitation, is called bondage, is called misery or unhappiness. Let us look at Sri Ramakrishna's life. There was a time when he was having severe throat cancer. Why do I say severe? At the beginning it was a little bit painful, not too much. But as time went on it became more and more painful. But just look at even though Sri Ramakrishna was suffering but he used to have constant Samadhi. That means what? He was able to go beyond all the experiences that ordinary people like us had. So he was constant Samadhi means what? He was able to say this pain, this happiness, this Janma, birth, death, growth is nothing but like figures projected on a silver screen. That's why he is able to say I am not suffering. I am swimming in the ocean of Satchitananda. So that is the goal for all of us. We forget our true nature and that is what is called Maya. This is being told here. So this is the Mahavakya's come and tell, Oh my friend, you have forgotten, you have no limitation, you have no bondage to make that point clear. Jeeva is nothing but Brahma. This second verse is proposing that you are like a Ankura, you are like a small seedling but you have a cause. What is that cause? It is nothing but Brahman. But how come I never think I am Brahman? On the contrary, I think I am a Brahman, non-Brahman. For that purpose, this verse itself is telling that that Ishwara who was one at the beginning, who was pure Chaitanya, Satchitananda wanted to play with himself. As we create a dream and we separate ourselves and then we enjoy, we suffer, remember, this suffering in the dream is nothing but a divine play. But when do we understand it is a play? Only upon waking up. So long as the dream continues, it is absolutely Sukha is separate, Dukha is separate, everything is separate and some small, some big, some good, some evil, some defeat, some winning, some profit, some loss, light, darkness, good, evil, everything seems real. Why do we use that word seems real? Because that state doesn't last long. As soon as we wake up, immediately, the whole scenario changes. Not only that, it is not that every night we are going to have only one dream. Every night, how many number of dreams we have, God alone knows. But as soon as the reality of one dream is over, the entire thing is totally forgotten and then the second dream becomes the reality. Then the third dream becomes the reality. Is that not what is happening in our life? When if you are working as a school teacher, that was the reality and you gave it up and become a business person and the whole reality has changed. Before your marriage, that was your unmarried reality. After marriage, marriage reality steps in. While working, working reality. After retiring, retiring reality. In fact, we are experiencing many realities and not able to analyze them and take it into our life. There is only one Brahman. He is only dreaming and all of us are nothing but dream objects created by that one great dreamer and how does he dream? Like us, as if we are completely dependent. We don't have any freedom. In fact, that is a very wrong idea. Who is creating our dreams? Ourselves. And in our dreams, we experience many things which we ourselves don't like. But who is creating things that we don't like? We ourselves are creating. That means we are masters of our dream. Just like a person writes the script for a cinema and he has got the freedom to do whatever but the essence of the cinema is tragedy and comedy and everything has to be beautifully harmoniously combined. Otherwise, if it is only comedy, nobody will see. If it is only pure tragedy, nobody will see. It must be combining all these elements. Now, rasa should be combined there. So, what is the point I am driving at? God is dreaming and his dream is called this world and within dream also there are other dreams. So, the first dream is this world. The second dream is the dream of all of us put together and the third dream is dreamless state and then he moves like that and finally just as we wake up and he also wakes up and then he wakes up from the waking state also and then he enjoys this one. How do we know? Because he repeats it. If you don't enjoy something, you will never repeat it. But this is going on from anadi kala like a brahma chakra and then he moves like that and then brahma chakra again and again again. If we have understood this point, now we can go perhaps. How does God dream or how does he create this universe? Maya kalpita desha kala kalana vaichitrya chitrikrtam It is done by a special power. That power is called Maya. When Ishwara dreams, that power through which he dreams himself is called Maya. When we dream, that is called nidra. This is called what you call dreaming power or sleeping power deep sleep. And how does this Maya function? Maya is nothing but time, space and causation. So desha, kala, time and space and they always go together. And then what kalana Kalana means this marvelous spreading like a painter painting on different canvases. It is all the manifestation of his creative power and he likes to he doesn't like to be monotonous. So he goes on vaichitrya chitrikrtam Here it is called chitrikrtam means like a painter. Chitra means a painting. So just as on a canvas an artist to create anything rivers, mountains, living beings, animals, anything he wants and sometimes he wipes it off and then creates he starts to put on some colors and then he doesn't like the color removes the colors and puts different colors and the final product is that is what we call beautiful painting. And how many paintings this painter is painting? He is on the same canvas he paints he wipes off he repaints he wipes off and what does he create? Through the power called maya. And what does maya mean? Time, space and causation and that is called nimitta and prayojana. Desha, kala, nimitta and prayojana. Let me give you a small example. Supposing you want to build a house. So what will you do now? First of all you must find out how many bedrooms you want. Whether I want my bedroom bigger or smaller whether I can accommodate my office there or for office I will have a separate basement, etc. So this is called nimitta. 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