Dakshinamurti Stotram Part 22 on 13 March 2021

Full Transcript(Not Corrected)

Oṁ jananīṁ śaradāṁ devīṁ rāma-kṛṣṇaṁ jagad-gurum pāda-padme tayo śrītvā pranamāmi muhur-muhur om yo brahmānam vidadāti pūrvam yo vai vedāṁś ca prahinoti tasmai tam ha devam ātma-buddhi-prakāśam mumokṣur vai śaraṇa-mahaṁ prapadye We have been elaborately discussing the fourth verse of the Dakshina Murthi in which different learned philosophers have started different schools of philosophy. What is the nature of the ātman means myself, who am I? Whenever we use that word ātman we have to substitute it as I. So who am I? That is where this fifth shloka is telling us, He who removes all the terrible misconceptions created by the deluding play of māyā in those who are intellectually innocent as a woman, a child, a blind man or an idiot, who consider the reality as their body or their prana or their senses or their ever-changing intellect or as a mere void and through error, misconception, declare them to be the only reality and the guru in the form of Dakshina Murthi in the form of my own guru, he destroys all these misconceptions without any exception. In our last class we have talked about six kinds of misconceptions and we have dealt with four of them. The first one is that whatever belongings we have, not merely the body but possessions, whether it is family members, whether it is property, bank balance, jobs, positions etc. There are people who value these much more than their own life. One simple example, additional example I am giving, imagine a miser is there. He has so much of property is there. Without having possessions, a person cannot be called a miser. If a person doesn't have anything, he is a beggar, not a miser. He rather will die rather than spend a single penny. Whole life he will be torturing his body and if there is a family, everybody. What does that prove? That my identity with the possessions is much more than my identity with any of the other things. That is the worst. The next is that Dehatma Buddhi. These are called Charvakas, materialists and in fact the whole modern science actively advocates only this Dehatma Buddhi. You are nothing but body. Why? I don't see any soul, I do not even see your mind. I only infer what is your mind through the actions done by you, through the speech that is done by you, through the dreams that you narrate to me but beyond that nobody had ever seen the mind. Nobody does know and then when the brain is dead, these are called Brain Atmavadins. There is brain and everything is okay. If there is no brain and the body itself is completely useless because even to know that I am having a body, it is only through the brain one knows. So these are called Charvakas, beautiful word. Charu means sweet, vak means speech. They delude themselves into thinking I am the body. These are the two categories in the first school who say my possessions is me or my body is me and how do they say? I am fat, I am thin, I am beautiful, I am ugly, I am man, I am a woman and the whole CV. Whenever we apply to any job, I am born to such and such parents, I am of such and such age and I have such and such qualifications, you are a humble servant. This CV indicates I am nothing but pure physical body. I am fat, I am lean. This is how people mistake themselves and this is what Shri Ram Krishna says. In this iron age most people are completely identified with the body and therefore keeping up the preserving the body and catering to its pleasures etc. is the only goal of human life. Do it by hook or crook or by your whole life you study something to get better job not because we love the job because of what the job gives us at the end and these two possessions are called Kamas or Kanchana and body is related to the Kama because all possessions need to cater only to this Kama fulfillment of the desires. Next higher we discussed Indriya and Yapi. So the body is nothing but a conglomeration, a unity of 10 sense organs, 5 of knowledge and 5 of action. So Gnanendriyas and Karmendriyas and without these life will not go on. I see, I hear and I feel attracted what I see, what I hear, what I smell, what I taste, what I touch, I would like to go near if it gives me pleasure and if it gives me pleasure to be away I would like to be away. These are called Indriyatma Buddhis. In this verse this is what is said but there are some people who say Prana is everything, vital force is everything because when there is no vital force all your sense organs will not work at all. Even some subtle thinkers among this school of philosophy say that it is impossible without Prana to use these sense organs but at the same time suppose you are alive, Prana is there but Shakti is not there. For example why people hate old age, why people hate disease, person is alive, life is there but the capacity to use the sense organs is missing. That is why these people say Prana is more important than anything else. These are called Indriyatma Buddhis. I am none other than these ten sense organs of these five important sense organs. This view has been completely rejected by a little bit deeper thinking person. He says that everything depends upon your mind. Your mind is who knows, I want to see, I desire, I know what I desire and when something is fulfilled then I get the satisfaction. So this thought process is more important. Without the thought process, especially without the cognition of that I, all your sense organs are useless. Of course along with the sense organs the body also will disappear. If there is no body, no possessions, if there is no one, all zeros are completely useless. So these are a little bit higher thinking people. So they say I am the mind, I am the buddhi, I am endowed with what we call I know, I desire and I act and I experience. Janami, I know, Gnatra bhava is there, Gnata, Aham Gnata, then I desire, Aham Ichchami, then Aham Karishyami, Karomi, I do. Aham Sukhi, Aham Dukhi, Sukham Sukhi, Dukhi, I enjoy. So Gnata, then Karta, then Bhokta. These are the things identified with this mind. And there comes another higher school. Oh my friend, you think that you know everything and you are a permanent something but you know with each changing thought your entire personality is changed, your identity is changed. For example, one minute you say I am happy and next minute you say I am unhappy. So every minute this consciousness which endows you with the thought I am so and so, I know, I desire and I do and I experience, this is also changing. So that is why don't say something permanent, I is there. The I which you consider yourself as reality is constantly in a change, constantly in a flux. These are called Kshanika Vijnana Vadins. Vijnana means consciousness, awareness. Kshanika means momentary. Only as long as a single thought lasts so long you know I am so and so. The moment another thought comes, the old you is dead and a new you will spring into existence. That means there is no eternally permanent I, it is continuously a changing consciousness, therefore a changing I. And this is refuted by higher people especially by other things. They say alright one minute before you were somebody and now you say you are somebody else and then you say yesterday I was somebody else, now I am somebody else. Then how did you know yesterday? Because along with the yesterday, you the knower of yesterday is also dead according to your own philosophy. So who is remembering? No, no there is nobody to remember. They do not admit any permanent something which remembers. So their argument is Sadrusya. There is somebody like me yesterday and by seeing it and then the Advaita Vadin refutes it, destroys this argument and tries saying but how do you remember the resemblance? Even to remember the resemblance you looked like this yesterday, there must be somebody who remembered yesterday's you, day before yesterday's you, 50 years back you and just one minute back you, compare and say this is continuously me, that feeling is there within everybody. So your claim that you are ever new, changing new is not tenable at all. This is one school of Buddhism that is called Kshanika Vijnana Vadins, that is the consciousness is continuously flickering and it lasts only for one single blinking moment and next minute the entire past is completely dead, something new has come. But they have contributed something wonderful which only modern science discovered only the other day. What is it? A continuously moving still frame at a particular rate per second gives the illusion of movement. This continuous flow, these Kshanika Vadins discovered it hundreds of years back and if we have to give credit that is the only credit but it is completely wrong. Then comes the sixth school of philosophy. What school of philosophy are we talking about? Hope we have not forgotten. The answer to that question, who am I? What is the reality? Who am I in reality? And for that the answer is Shunyam, Aham Shunyam, I am emptiness. Now this is also one school of philosophy and there were all very great intellectual people of them one of the most brilliant in the middle ages was called Nagarjuna. He belongs to the Mathyamika school of Buddhism and a lot of similarities we can find between this Nagarjuna and Gaudapada who was considered an extreme advaitin, extremist, advaitin par excellence, not even Shankara and he was absolutely the par excellence advaitin. What he says makes a lot of sense because he does not merely talk about he quotes Shruti, Yukti and Anubhava. Shruti means he brings in scriptural evidence at every step and this we find especially brilliantly portrayed in his one best known work that is called Gaudapada Karikas on the Mandukya Upanishad. Now coming back he says who am I? I am Shunyam. How do you know I am Shunyam? He says every human being in fact now scientists even confirm every living creature we don't know about mosquitoes, we don't know about microbes but definitely we know some higher evolved animals like dolphins, sharks, horses, dogs, these animals also they also dream, they also have got a state of sleep, we infer. How do these scientists infer? Through the measurement of the brain activity. When a man is sleeping then they take these measurements and these measurements are measured in the form of alpha, beta, waves etc where these waves where the least bit of mental activity is there that they identify the state of what we call Sushupti or deep sleep whereas when a person is dreaming they call it REM, rapid eye movement. So these people only remotely guess. My point is not only human beings I am firm believer probably in future scientists will prove it that even a mosquito also will be dreaming, a mosquito also will be having deep sleep if we take the analogy of a human being. So sometimes I say funnily a young male mosquito he also goes to dream state and he will be dreaming of what a beautiful young female mosquito just as human beings. So if it can sing and definitely it is our experience that mosquitoes can definitely sing beautiful tunes it may disturb us me and you but it will be saying my dream girl and though I am putting it funnily but it is a fact of life they will be and if we have to believe Vedanta everything that we experience as existence it has got Chit, it has got Ananda, Sarupa is there. Here it is very interesting I will just give a side note here the definition of God not complete real definition but an approximate definition is called Sat, Chit, Ananda. Translated into untranslatable English language is existence absolute that means pure existence, existence knowledge, knowledge absolute and bliss absolute, absolute means it has no special formation that pure existence, pure knowledge and pure bliss these are the three characteristics not like red, blue, big and small they are Samanadi Karanya that means what all three of them can never be separated where there is existence there will be knowledge for example if you see a table instantaneously your cognition of that object this is a table is a knowledge associated with the table not with your brain. In different languages you may give different names but I am a table, I am a table this is constantly there with every object I am a mosquito, I am a tree, I am a man, I am a woman this knowledge nobody can destroy because in Vedantic language they call it Vastu Tantra depends on the object not Kartru Tantra doesn't depend upon you the experiencer. You may have a choice to look at it not to look at it but once you look at it you cannot say I will think of a mosquito as a horse and I will think of a donkey as a human being or a human being as a donkey that is not that is wrong you cannot do it as you can you have a choice I would not like to see or hear etc. Kartum, akartum, anyatha kartum depends upon you but the knowledge of the object that I am a table, I am a tree that depends only on the object you have absolutely no control over it at all that's why it is called Vastu Tantra. Now my point here is that this I pure consciousness so you are saying I am a body, I am a sense organs, I am the flickering thoughts and flickering consciousness etc. So another a little bit advanced school of thought called Shunyavadins they belong to the Madhyamika school of Buddhist philosophy and their leading leader was Nagarjunacharya who was a brilliant intellect and Advaita accepts 95% of those completely but it goes further which I am going to deal with it in a few moments. So this is called Shunyavada the school of philosophy which says you are nothing. How do they come to this conclusion I am nothing? Because you say that every human being goes through three states waking state, dream state. What is the third state? Deep sleep state. It is called Sushupti state. In the Sushupti state who are you? Do you remember anything? I am a man, I am a woman, this is my name and I am an expert in music or a professor of philosophy or a PhD, a poor man or I am a sick man, I am an old man. Do you remember anything about your own body? No. Do you remember anything about your mind? Absolutely no because there is no thought there. So there is nothing there. As long as that state lasts you are nothing, you are Shunya and therefore all your things have completely subsided or denied completely in this particular state. Therefore this must be your real nature, you are complete Shunya. Now there are problems with this but there is a lot of lesson we have to learn from this also, deep sleep. First of all what is the truth about it? The truth is these people have misunderstood the state of Sushupti. What is it? That when you are in the waking state you say I am in the waking state and that is the reality. When you are in the dream state you never say I am dreaming therefore this is not a real state. Well when we are dreaming that is not called dream state that is called real state, waking state. Only when we come out of it we look back and say that was my imagination, that was completely unreal. Now interesting fact is when you say that was unreal in comparison to what do you say because you must have a comparison. If you say this is not black, this is white you must be experiencing whiteness all the time otherwise how do you say that was not white, this is white. So the argument against is that you must be knowing at that time you will be knowing this is real at the time of dreaming but as soon as you come into the waking state know this is a real state. Now a thinking Advaitin questions this assumption and says my friend when you are in the dream state if someone comes and tells you this is a dream state will you believe it? There is nobody who is to believe it. Even I don't believe it. If a Sri Ramakrishna comes and tells me that this is not a real state this is a dream state I will say if this is a dream state you are also a dream object. Your saying is also a dream saying and it is not real at all. You are comparing as if the waking state is the real state and then saying dream state is a unreal state but when you are in the dream state what happens to your waking state so called real state. I already advanced some arguments in my earlier classes I do not wish to repeat. You will have to go back and listen somewhere or if you have taken notes it is this. Supposing a person is having or you are having a dream exactly same dream every single night whenever you go to dream the same dream. Now will you cognize what is a waking state? What is a dream state? Now you are saying because every single time you have a dream that's a different dream but every time you wake up you wake up to the same place, same house, same body, same worries, same happiness, same unhappiness, same friends, same enemies, same religion, same books everything memory comes back. So it gives us an illusion that a real state is that which never changes. But how many things have changed before you went to bed and slept for six hours like a log maybe there was no earthquake before you went to dream state and when you woke up there is a terrible earthquake and your people have died, your house has collapsed so many people have died maybe a brain concussion is there in you so will you know that this is a waking state? So your argument doesn't stand at all. So then what is remaining there is a third state when you enter into that third state which is called Sushupti you absolutely no memory of either your body or your mind. When there is absence of body and mind the whole entire world which depends which is possible only through the usage of body and mind totally disappears. The moment you close your eyes all the forms will vanish. The moment you lose your power of hearing two-thirds of the world is dead. The moment similarly you lose the power of smelling, the power of tasting and the power of touching there will be no world at all that's why Prapancha means five elements become with the elimination of each sense organ it becomes four if you are blind there are only four things if you are deaf there will be three things if you can't smell there will be only two things if you can't touch there will be only one thing and if you cannot smell that also a taste that also is gone your whole world is dependent upon these five sense organs and your mind even the memory will not be there and this is very interesting fact because suppose you are alive and you are in the waking state but you are suffering from amnesia you don't remember can you tell who you are so these silly arguments that waking state is the real state is completely wrong because the deep sleep state proves that you are somebody how do you know because you are still alive you come back to waking state so there you are but then it was complete blank that is where these Madhyamikas philosophers put their foot in the slippery way and slip there what is it you say oh i did not see anything i did not know anything i did not experience anything there is complete abhava of vastu any object for that our simple contention argument is something so when you are in the dream state or waking state you see objects and then what do you say there is there is an object and i see that object so this is a waking state and same thing could be also a dream state but supposing i'm i'm giving this argument i have given many times but i have to i will also repeat many times until the understanding sinks in suppose you are in the room and you see a book in front of you and somebody asks you what do you see in front of you you say there is a book very good somebody takes in that book then at that time someone asks you what do you see in front of you do you see that book he says i do not see the book now what is this argument when there is a book there is somebody who says i see it i know i see it when there is no book i know there is no book because i do not see it for the both experiences of seeing as presence or absence of the book you are there continuously in both states whether the object is present or absent similarly in the deep sleep state you are there but there is no object there is no objective experience there is only one experience that is not mind you this is not subjective experience because only parabrahman has got subjective experience without object here absence of dream as well as waking state that's why you say i do not see any world as an object so earlier you say i see now you say i do not see but you are there to cognize that experience of not seeing so when there is knowledge i have knowledge you experience it when there is no object i have no knowledge presence or absence of the knowledge you are the witness to both the unchanging witness you are there how do we prove it because upon waking up Vedanta puts it so succinctly and so beautifully it says that aham sukham aswapsam i slept happily what does it mean for several hours i have gone beyond time space and causation i am putting it in a very concise manner and i explained it in the past but i am repeating it in a summarization way if there is an object time space and causation come into play if there is no object there would be no time space and causation because any object can be experienced only at a particular place at a particular time in a particular way so in deep sleep since there is no object there would be no time space and causation and therefore you are not even aware of yourself you are not aware of your experiencing self but you are completely aware of your witnessing self how do you know because upon waking up you don't say xyz came and slept you simply say i slept aham sukham aswapsam you are using the past tense of sleep i slept nobody ever says somebody else came and slept we say i slept then who slept i slept were you absent even for a single millisecond during the entire deep sleep you are absolutely present because if you are absent then you will not know that you are not in deep sleep if you if waking state is absent you know waking state is not there if dream is not there you know that there is no dream state similarly when you do not experience deep sleep state you also will be bound to say i did not experience now then in what state are you when you are absent in deep sleep state but you are not saying i am the atman you are only saying i slept well throughout the five hours i was there i did not know anything that saying i did not do anything that is the crucial expression i have to be there to issue the statement i did not know anything you are proving you are there in the waking you are there in the dreaming and you are also there very well in the deep sleep state that means there is something continuously present during the waking during the dream and during the deep sleep state that i you are forgetting you are only talking about that particular waking i was absent dreaming i was absent but during the deep sleep deep sleep i is absolutely present proven by the fact that i slept well and then what is the state i slept happily how could you say slept happily because happiness was equated and i repeated many times happiness is equivalent to going beyond time space and causation that's how do we know because you go on a what is called 10 days holiday and how time passes and you see it is very interesting thing you know you go to the office and there is an office clock is there and monday you go on looking it what is wrong with this clock why is it moving so slow and you come home friday night and then you look at it monday morning what is wrong with this clock how quickly it has you know friday gone saturday gone sunday gone already monday has come what does it prove that when you are happy then you do not cognize take cognizance of time space and causation if you are not aware of time you are not aware of space if you are not aware of space you're not aware of time if you're not aware of time space you're not aware of causation also and that is why it a wonderful state there is neither happiness nor unhappiness, that is called the state of bliss. Sushupti, Anandamaya Kosha. So, this is one of the schools of philosophy, Buddhist philosophy. They advocate this particular school of philosophy, philosophy that I am nothing. Because you think you are nothing, but even to experience I am nothing, you must be something. So, this Shunivada is completely cut off. Now, Sureshwaracharya tells something very interesting. There is a beautiful book called Panchadarshi written by Vidyaranya Swami. In that, all these arguments have come. And when he comes to the Shunivadins, then Vidyaranya makes fun. He says, what do you say? I am nothing. Since you are nothing, your philosophy is nothing, I do not bother even to think about it. I do not need to argue with you because if you are Shuniya, your philosophy is also Shuniya and nobody argues with Shuniya. I need not even argue about it at all. So, these are the six schools of philosophy. Now, what I want to tell about this, this particular shloka is trying to say these are all mistaken conceptions. And why these mistaken conceptions come? As I mentioned earlier, two types of people I have mentioned who have these misconceptions. One is ordinary people like us. Whenever we are experiencing something, we identify with that thing. When I am counting my bank balance, then I am identified with my bank balance. And when I am suffering from headache, and I am identifying with my body. When I am having what is called problem with the eye or enjoying something, very beautiful cinema or hearing beautiful sound, I am identifying with my sense organs. And when my mind is worried and I am a worried person, nobody says my mind is worried. Only a spiritual sadhaka says my mind is happy, my mind is worried. Everybody says I am worried and I am happy person. That means we identified with the mind. And every experience passes when I am happy and I am a happy person. But next moment, I say that was past. I was happy. There was a joke, you know. There was a 40 years old married couple were there. A journalist went there and said, you are married for 40 years. It's most marvelous. You must be very happy people and what's your comment upon it? And the husband looked at his wife and said, so you see me and my wife were very happy until we were 20 years old. Then we met. That was the answer. We met means fell in love, got married and not very happy. That's what it means. Until we met we were very happy. So it is only just a joke. Do not mind it. But every happiness that we know is a passing happiness because there are one two reasons I give you that if you were not unhappy, you would never experience happiness. If you are not hungry, even if you eat, you will not be a happy person. If you are not thirsty, you would not be a happy person. That's one. And secondly, you are always changing this idea the payment that we pay for happiness is unhappiness and the payment we pay for unhappiness is happiness. Life is passing. Supposing you are constantly happy. Will you know that you are happy? If you are 24 hours in what is called 12 o'clock midday light, will you know that this is midday? Unless you experience darkness, you will not know what is light. Unless you experience morning, you will not know what is midday. Unless you experience morning and midday, you won't know what is evening, you won't know what is night. So if you don't know that you are a man, you will never know what is a woman also. This is called Dwandwa Stithi. As soon as we say this is white, you are also aware this is not black. So from that viewpoint also, if anybody says I am continuously happy, he cannot make such a statement, illogical statement because he will simply not know what is called happiness. But there is one state. Vedanta doesn't call it happiness or unhappiness. It is called bliss. That which is beyond both happiness and unhappiness and that is called Ananda and we need a lot of thought that we are running after that Ananda and not anything else. So these are some of the things. Now the question comes that who are the people and as we mentioned six schools of philosophy and these six schools of philosophy one is slightly better than the other. I have already discussed this. A person who says I am the body is better than a person who says I am my money. A person who says that I am enjoying through my sense organs is much better than a person who says I am merely a body. A person who identifies with the mind is much higher than a person who says I am either the prana or the sense organs. So like that every experience they are not absolutely equal. Deeper thinkers and higher thinkers these are the states that are there. So this is being mentioned here by Shankaracharya Sthiri, Bala, Andha, Jada, Upamahatu, Ahamiti, Brantah, Brisham, Vadinah Vadinah means those who vehemently argue. How? Brisham, fanatically, vehemently that what I say is the only truth that alone is the truth and nothing else is the truth and all these people are Brantah, deluded and what are they deluded? Aham. What is it? I am the possessions, I am the body, I am the indriyas, I am the prana, I am the mind and I am the flickering intellect, consciousness and I am nothing. All these things change at one after the other within the life of each person from early morning to night but these are all you are not my friend that one. Then do you mean to say we are all deluded? Absolutely you are all deluded but then where from this delusion is coming? That he will deal later on but now Shankaracharya has used four words Tri, Bala, Andha, Jada. These people fall one of all these six schools or seven schools of philosophy and they fall into these four categories. Either they are called woman, a woman, a child, a blind fellow and an idiot. Immediately women are likely to take cuss words and say why we are called this? Are we women so bad people? No, Shankaracharya doesn't say that but one thing I have to admit honestly that in every country, in every history, in every religion women are condemned uncritically. Even today they are being condemned. Some religions even do not recognize some women have any souls at all. I am not talking about it. In the history there was a period of time when women are looked down and in India the greatest such thing happened. That's one of the greatest discoveries of Swami Vivekananda that negligence of women and masses is one of the most foundational error that Indians committed. For that we are suffering even today. The only remedy is education, education and education. Now very briefly I will tell you. Stree means a person, usually women. I will just put a question and you answer that question. I am not going to take part in it. Who spends more time on toiletry, man or woman? Answer honestly. Okay, whose table is laden with all these implements of what you call decorating oneself. Okay, but here I do admit that women have been looked down in past ages. This is an age education has made women more dignified. There is absolutely no doubt about it and that is as it should be because in India we have some examples of this Maitreyi, Gargi, Vachaknavi and even Devi Supta was written by a lady who realized that she is the self. There have been there but unfortunately from the worldly point of view women have been killed in masses especially Spanish Inquisition and Hindus as I mentioned in one of my classes. Millions of women were forced to burn themselves in the name of Dharmashastra Sati. Women have been looked down. But let us not look from that viewpoint. Let us look who is a Sthri? It is the person who identifies more and more with the body and spends in cosmetic surgery and cosmetic decorations etc. to appear more attractive, younger and then feel pride that I am so and so and such people are definitely deluded people men or women. Bala means child. Child means undeveloped intellect. So the people who argue I am this or that is compared to a Bala or undeveloped intellect. Andha means a blind person. A blind person is a fanatical person. A fanatical person will not admit. What is the difference between a child and a fanatical person? A child doesn't understand at that stage but he has enormous potential. It is given the right direction, right teacher, right type of education. He can develop. A child always can develop. But there are people who refuse to develop. Such people are called blind. In the Upanishads, graphic description is given. They think that we know everything. That is why they become arrogant with the knowledge and then they are reborn again and again. We have seen in Katha Upanishad. We also, Panditam Anyamanah, Janganyam Chah, Pariyanti Mudah, they go on coming back again and again to this life. Panditam Anyamanah. Even Krishna scolded Arjuna in the very first shloka itself. अशोच्यान अन्वशोच्यस्त्वं प्रज्ञाबदाम् सेवाशसे गधासू नगधासुर्ष्य न अनुशोच्यन्ति पंडिता etc. So what are we talking? A child has a potentiality to learn when the right opportunity comes. But a blind fellow turns a blind eye. I would say all fanatics are blind people. They refuse to admit either logic or experience and much less they admit the truth of the scriptural statement twisting them, taking either Vedas or Bible or Koran and supporting their mistaken views. These are called Andhas. But there is another type of person. Unfortunately, he is neither blind nor a child but he is a plain idiot. That means it is useless to argue with him. But according to Vedanta, all of them will be given a choice and they will come up. This is how we have to understand. Sthri means those who are body minded, emotional disbalance and then a child means for a restless and non-thinking mind but with a potentiality for growth and a blind person, a stubborn person who refuses to see the truth and fanatical stands for the contention that what he thinks is the only truth. Jada means an idiot, a dullard and completely immature mind but in course of time they will be also given a choice because they are all children of potential divinity. Now, what causes? Is it that we choose to be deluded or is there some power? That is where we all admit every Indian school of philosophy and even Buddhism admits Mara. Mara is equivalent to Maya who came to delude Buddha even on the last day of his illumination and then in the particular Saturn in Christianity came to tempt Jesus Christ etc. There is a power. It is useless to deny that power but we do not understand. The only thing we say it belongs to God and so for some reason it is there and we have to admit it but then what is the way out? Then in this particular shloka Venkaracharya is telling do not fear. There is Guru and that Guru is none other than Dakshinamurti and then you know what this Dakshinamurti will be doing? Maya Shakti Vilasa Kalpita Maha Vyamoha Samarini He destroys like a light like a spark of light destroys a million years of darkness in a cave The Guru Kripa which is nothing but God's grace in the form of the Guru Kripa comes and destroys but on one condition we have to take refuge in Him and therefore Tasmai Sri Guru Murthai I salute my own Guru who is none other than Dakshinamurti This is what is meant by Guru Brahma, Guru Vishnu, Guru Devo Maheshwaraha Do not ever consider a Guru's body as an ordinary body. Guru's words as ordinary words and Guru's knowledge as ordinary knowledge. Shri Ramakrishna gives us this warning. Consider He is none other than Brahma, Vishnu, Maheshwaraha He that God's grace had come to you out of His own boundless grace to destroy it and when I salute Him Namaha Namaha means I surrender myself to Him then He will destroy all these things Therefore Tasmai Sri Guru Murthai Namahidam Sri Dakshinamurti My salutations to Dakshinamurti but in the form of my own visible or invisible Guru. Now this particular shloka which is the 5th shloka has given different views of who am I and all these views are mistaken views and all these mistaken views are due to Mahamaya and this Mahamaya belongs to God and therefore as Bhagwan Krishna says Daivi Hesha Gunamayi Mamamaya Duratyaya Mamevaye Prapadyante Mayame Tam Tarantite Only by God's grace that Mahamaya can be destroyed and it will be destroyed sooner or later whether a person wants or not Bhagwan cannot leave anybody untended because we are all His children Salutations to Him In this 5th shloka the most important school of philosophy is called Shunyavada and how this Shunyavada is refuted in a particular way that we are going to see in the 6th verse we are beginning with Rahu Grastha Divaka Rendu Sadrusho Maya Samachadana Sanmatra Karana Upasamharanato Yo Abhot Sushuptah Puman Prath Aswap Sumiti Prabodh Samaye Yah Pratyabhignayate Tasmai Sri Gurumurtaye Namaidham Sri Dakshinamurtaye Unfolding up all the functions of the senses he who enters into a state of deep sleep and becomes there existence alone veiled in Maya like the sun or the moon which is not visible during an eclipse but this person who upon waking up remembers to have slept to him the divine teacher Sri Dakshinamurti is this prostration and this is a refutation of the Shunyavadins an entire shloka is devoted which we will discuss in our next class Om Jananim Sharadaam Devim Ramakrishnam Jagat Gurum Pada Padmetayo Sritva Pranamami Mohor Moho May Ramakrishna Holy Mother and Swami Vivekananda bless us all with Bhakti.