Five Verses on Enlightenment Sw. Sarvapriyananda
Five Verses on Enlightenment 2 of 2 by Sw. Sarvapriyananda at Vedanta Society Berkeley
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| Sw. Sarvapriyananda at Vedanta Society Berkeley |
Today
we have an additional part many
people
actually requested us over phone
and
emailed us whether we have any Q&A
session
or not yesterday we did not
organize
our arrange for Q&A session but
today
we will have humanization
question-and-answer
session after the
doc
few things for Q&A session there
will
be 40 to 45 minutes talk and then
there
will be 15 minutes questions of
answer
for question and answer
we
need only bullet questions and you
know
that there will be only 15 minutes
question-and-answer
session so we cannot
take
we know there will be thousands of
questions
but we cannot take all the
questions
and if you like you can email
to
New York Center and Sarvapriyananda
will
be glad to reply to those emails those
questions
so please do that he's very
firm
to reply to the email so without ado I
request Swami Sarvapriyananda to continue
his
talk and please welcome him with
heavy
applause
whom leaders from the unreal to
the
real leaders from darkness into
light
leaders from death to immortality
own
peace, peace, peace,
Good Evening Everybody welcomes back and welcome to those who
Good Evening Everybody welcomes back and welcome to those who
have
come for the first time this
the evening
I offer my pronounced and my
deep
gratitude revered Swami person
Upland
Ji Maharaj for affording me this
the opportunity
we have a lot of work this
the evening
before us so I'll get right down
to
it yesterday we saw the first and
only
the first of five verses on
enlightenment
and you must be thinking
enlightened
but that was the central
verse
the most important verse and what
was
accomplished in that verse is that
body,
not the mind on what principle not
Trisha
was too I am NOT an object I am
NOT
a thing the subject is never the object so whatever
this is a technique of
practicing
Advaita Vedanta whatever you
can
designate as this you are not that
whatever
I can
cognize
like this, I cannot be it because I
am
the one which knows this so this book
am
I a book of course not
this
body this
so I cannot be the body
this
bread is clearly the spirit I cannot
be
the breath because this thought
I
cannot be the start to because this
thought
this understanding even this
Vedantic
understanding it's also this
it's
a function of the intellect I
cannot
be it as you go beyond push back
as
far as you as we can you hit a
blankness
black nothing but this
blackness
I cannot be it what I am
really
what we are really can never be
designated
by this and yes you cannot
say
we cannot say that we don't exist we
do
exist but not as an object so I am
not
there but the body why because this
body
and not the brain this breath and
not
the mind this
mind notice that we are not saying that
the body does not exist of the mind does
not exist of course it does
it's
there the world is appearing the
the body
is there - there but I am NOT it
this
consciousness why are we calling it
consciousness
even because one thing is
undeniable
whatever I am that one is
aware
of all this
so I must be in some
sense
consciousness or awareness not in
the normal sense in which we understand
our
thinking processes because that's
also
this but the awareness the norm
objectified
will subject that I am that
was
step one biggest step that's most
essential
but then the next thing that
Shankar
Acharya says sings about in this
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| Sw. Sarvapriyananda at Vedanta Society Berkeley |
five
verses in the first verse he says
from
if you remember from the highest
god
from Brahma till down to the merest
end
I am the one conscious in
all beings,
not just one consciousness
in
one body and mind but the
consciousness
is common to all bodies
and
minds we are one reality see we're
the tremendous
claim that is far deeper more
radical
than all our claims of
brotherhood
or sisterhood that's almost
always
returning but here it's a claim
as
we are in fact the most fundamental
the fact
of the universe about ourselves is
that
we are one consciousness whether
one
accepts it or not one understands it
or
not even to conceive the fact that
Shankaracharya
is saying it's an
the accomplished
fact we are already one and
forever
one it's beautiful to think of
somebody
once wrote to me and say keep
taking
these detours but time permitting
but
anyway it's interesting it's
relevant
to Do you remember that
Malaysian
Airways unfortunately they
lost
two airplanes a few years back one
who
has got lost completely and
there's
a funny story about a very
the unfunny
incident they used to have an
advertisement
that flies with us and loses
yourself
it was an advertisement lucky
they
discontinued it anyway
it's
not funny there but the other plane
they
lost was if you remember it was
shot
down by mistake or something but
people, they were all people died and
then
somebody wrote to me the plane was
from
I think Amsterdam or somewhere and
somebody
wrote to me from Amsterdam I
was
in India at that time that my
girlfriend
was on that plane and she
died
there can I ever you know can I
know
her last thoughts there's a big
touching
kind of little email and I said
what
is advocacy so I said that fighter
does
not say that we can
the
last thoughts or any type of
another
person unless you are a telepath
a
Patanjali yogi might be able to know
the
thoughts of another person but
whether
that person the yogi will be
able
to know the thoughts of somebody
else
at a distance and the last thoughts
that's
doubtful but Advaita Vedanta says
something
deeper but you and your friend
who
perished whose body perished in that
a tragedy
you and your friend are forever
one
at the deepest level of our being we
are
actually one so in that sense we are
always
one with all those who are
beloved
to us but Advaita Vedanta says
all of those are not relevant to you
you're
also one with them so there is no
likes
and dislikes here we are one with
everybody
in the universe so that was
the
second step was the first step not
body does not mind beyond body and mind
witness
consciousness second step one
consciousness
in all beings but now
notice
one thing at first the subject
object
distinction was to begin with at
our
level is I am the subject here and
apart
from this everything is other for
me
you all and everything else is
separate
from me after Vedanta this the
pedantic
discussion this kind of
analysis
now when are we the world of
course
is separate from me but this body
is
also not the main mind is also not me I
am
the pure consciousness now when we
have
only done is we have moved the line
of
separation first, it was at this skill
now
we have moved it back to
consciousness
now it still not
non-duality
has you noticed that it
still
consciousness and not
conscious
universe I am the one
consciousness
in all beings but then
what
about the rest of it what about the
world
what about the bodies what about
the
minds what are they do we appreciate
the
problem the position we are in now
right
now it's still not non-duality
it's
still not Advaita because now
there's
a difference
earlier
there was a reference between me
the
person and everything else now
there's
a difference between me the one
consciousness
and everything else the
world
body-mind and all of this so real
non-duality will now be established in
the
second verse the whole teaching of
non-duality will be complete here in the
the second
verse I'm going to chant the
the second
verse and then translate Bromham
Java
Jessa
column china Travis Terry Tom
servo
Jaya he Jaya treguna yah Shh my
uncle's
Pritam youngest children Amati
suka
Terry me ta / a new male Chanda
allows
to so to do was to guru 88
harmony
Shama Brahma homonym java casa
columns
in mantra histórica what does
that
means
I
am Brahman and this entire universe is
an
appearance of I the pure
consciousness
pure consciousness
this
didn't master consciousness alone
literally, if you translate Ching Mothra
means
consciousness alone I am
translating
that as pure consciousness
and
this pure consciousness in brahman
are
the same thing so don't be confused
by
the words I am Brahman I am this pure
consciousness
when that's good that's
what
we got yesterday but now what
what's
the new thing that you are saying
this the entire universe this physical
universe
out there including this body
and
the mental universe thoughts
feelings
emotions the external universe
the
internal universe all of this is not
separate
from me the consciousness I the
consciousness
alone am appearing as the
object
of consciousness, you see a big
step
has been taken now instead of
saying
this is apart from me well all of
this
is nothing but me how is it is
possible
we
have experiences which by which we
can
understand for example our dreams so
you
meet people you go to places there
is
space and time and people and events
in
our dreams the moment we wake up we
realize
all those people that nothing
other
than the dreamers mind my mind
alone
projected then all those places
the
space and the time and the events
all
that I dreamt about them and nothing
apart
from my dreaming mind is that not
true
exactly the same in as an example
exactly
in the same way, not that Advaita
is
saying that my mind is dreaming of
this
universe no that would be
subjective
idealism if you think what
subjective
idealism you're living in
Berkeley
subjective idealism is
connected
to Bishop Berkeley afternoon
is
the University in the town name dr.
Bishop
Berkeley yes yes
so
this is space is named after the
greatest the subjective idealist of them all
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| Sw. Sarvapriyananda at Vedanta Society Berkeley |
So
everything is a projection of my mind
just
like a dream so that would be
subjective
idealism but are doing those
not
subjective idealism it is saying
that
even the mind is a projection in
consciousness
so mind and body and the
universe
they are all appearances in
consciousness
just as dream the objects
in
my dream are appearances in the
Dreaming
mind like that example just as
all
the people and the objects in the
Dreaming
mind do not exist as a second
thing
apart from the dreamers mind
similarly
this entire universe which I
experience
does not exist as a second
thing
apart from I the pure
consciousness
not either mind I the pure
consciousness
so the whole thing appears
in
consciousness not as a second thing
apart
from it somebody asked a teacher
in
the Himalayas
wait
a minute they're asking in Hindi
wait
a minute you are saying that I am
every
man in this entire universe I
spread
I am all over but but I'm so
lonely
I'm here I'm not even there
how
can I be everywhere how can
everything
be in me I'm just sent right
here
I'm not even there and the answer
was
the teacher said ah but here and
there
are they not both in your
experience
what does it mean imagine if
we
were dreaming and my dream suppose
I'm
standing in this big church and I
clearly
see I am Here I am not there but
then
I wake up what will happen the
entire
church and here and there would
have
been in in my mind only so all of
time
and space notice that it is all
experienced
in awareness consciousness
this
is non duality Brahma Muhammad
amjad
qourshah columns in Madras the
rhythm
the entire universe is an
appearance
in consciousness you take a
step
back and think about it what is the
relationship
between consciousness and
its
objects let's put it in the most you
know
most scientific way we can do it in
today's
world what is the relationship
between
consciousness and matter here is
matter
this is matter bodies matter and
I
am aware we are all aware what is the
relationship
between the two are they
the
same does one come from the other
are
they different so there are
different
answers which we get from in
in
Indian ancient Indian philosophy the
first
one is that consciousness comes
from
matter one one option consciousness
comes
from matter the second one is
matter
comes from consciousness third
one
is neither come from the other they
are
parallel realities they all exist
together
the fourth option is both are
in
both
our Wyatt and the fifth one is the
Advaita
gumption let's quickly take a
look
at each one what do they say what
is
the first one that consciousness
comes
from matter who says this the
materialist
says this the ancient Indian
materialist
said the body is made of
elements
and somehow it produces
consciousness
now our modern materials
say
exactly the same thing in a much
more
sophisticated way that here is the
living
body and in that there is a
nervous
system and a brain and somehow
the
nervous system and brain are
producing
consciousness so that's the
state
of art explanation of
consciousness
in today's world and you
might
say why should we not stop right
here
what the neuroscience is telling us
stop
there why go on to all these
ancient
philosophies the problem is that
we
don't have the slightest clue how
this
body and this living brain produces
consciousness
you might say no no just a
minute
the neurons are functioning and
the
neural activity of the neurons
produces
consciousness yes but now if
you
ask neuroscientists the answer will
be
there they've got something called
promise
le materialism promise Airy
materialism
is that it is matter which
is
producing consciousness and it is
true
that we don't know how but we will
know
give us 30 40 years we know this is
really
the answer then have got from
some
of the leading race leading minds a
philosopher
who is also a biologist in
NYU
heat only this that I am firmly
convinced
that it's living tissue
produces
consciousness living brain and
nervous
system produces consciousness
how
it is also truly he said that we
don't
know exactly how but his example
was
this let me put it to you and very
interesting
example
by
some of the leading scientists today
material
reductionist scientists who
want
to reduce consciousness to matter
the
argument is this interesting
argument
a hundred years ago life was
considered
to be a mystery and it was
thought
that nobody can explain what
life
is it's a great mystery and then
the
scientist and philosopher he told me
today
we understand life the processes
which
we call blanket turn life that
those
processes are understood down to
the
molecular level so we understand it
now
100 years ago we did not understand
it
now we understand almost a great deal
about
about how life comes about in
terms
of absolutely material very
sophisticated
activities going on in
living
tissues what is called life we
understand
that similarly right now we
don't
understand how neurons firing in
the
brain can produce consciousness but
give
us 30 or 40 years we will
understand
promise early materialism
what
would we learn to say to that what
would
a great to say to that advaitha
has
an interesting in immediately the
answer
will be what you sale about life
and
what you are saying about
consciousness
they are not not on
parallel
they are not it's not a good
example
it's what is called in
philosophy
and category mistake why is
it
a mistake notice but the clue which
Shankaracharya
just gave us anything
that
you can designate as this you are
not
that now on life can you designate
life
as this life yes
so
this life is explained here is like
very
good this life is explained in
terms
of this matter so this explains
this
no problem one higher mental
the material the process is explained by a lower
level
material process and update the
made
on to understands this perfectly in Five Verses on Enlightenment 2 of 2 by Sw. Sarvapriyananda at Vedanta Society Berkeley
 |
| Sw. Sarvapriyananda at Vedanta Society Berkeley |
Advaitha
made on the life is prana and
that's
also material and objective but
consciousness
Chaitanya
pure consciousness can never
be
knitted
by this so when you say I will
explain
consciousness in terms of brain
brain
can you collect this brain yes so
brain
is under the category of this
object
and your consciousness in in the
category
of subject can never be
objectified
you are claiming
philosophically
speaking it's a big jump
we
are making that the pure subject
which
can never be objectified can
somehow
be explained by objective
processes
in neurons big bling you have
to
walk the talk show me how it is done
and
I am NOT alone luckily at this time
if
you google hard problem of
consciousness
this is exactly what is
called
the hard problem of consciousness
in
fact the term was coined by David
Chalmers
who's the head of the mind
brain
consciousness unit in NYU
and
he's right there he says how can
broadly
objective processes just like
what's
going on in this building in the
electricity
similarly
things are going on the body
how
can they explain speakers
first-person
experiences subjective
experiences
none of these objective
items
have inner feelings and
perceptions
and yes you do I do
how
so he calls just a hard problem of
consciousness
and his answer is I may
come
to his answer but he says that see
you
cannot explain it by objective
processes
it just google it it's a very
big
thing the hard problem of
consciousness
now of course it's very
divisive
because there are a lot of
people
who are against it the scientist
whom
I spoke to I said what do you think
about
David Chavez hard problem of
consciousness
he said no David Chalmers
he
comes up with one idea each worse
than
the earlier one
not
true but anyway so it's a huge
debate
at least it's a debate it's not
just
something in ancient India 5,000
years
of or 1400 years ago in Shankar
Acharya, it's a very current cutting edge
cutting
edge debate in consciousness
studies
today we cannot explain
consciousness
in terms of matter that's
one
position I'm gonna those who say no
we
can but how they don't have an answer
like
yesterday I gave the example of
step
1 2 3 4 5 Step 1 2 3 lot of
mathematics
that fight a lot of
mathematics
in between step 4 is a miracle
America is so conscious in terms of
matter
very difficult to reduce
consciousness
to matter step 1 is
one
option the second option was the matter
is
produced by consciousness that stays
that
who says the matter is produced by
consciousness
all theistic religions say
these
theistic religions say that matter
is
produced by consciousness when did
they
say that one common feature of all
theistic
religions Christianity Islam
Judaism
in Hinduism you have my stove
ISM
same ism shaktism all the religions
which
are God-centered you know what one
the thing
they make God is the creator of
this
universe what does it mean God is
the
creator of the universe all that we
considered
to be matter and energy and
time
and space have been created by this
deity
now if you ask make it
philosophical
is this deity is this god
of
yours, the claim you're making is this
God is a conscious God and an unconscious God
everybody
means me no no no no God is
conscious
so consciousness is created
matter
this is the theistic model the
the third
model is that neither has created
the
other they are consciousness exists
fundamentally
and matter and time and
space
and energy also exists
fundamentally
who says this Sancha
preclude
the purusa Prakriti is nature
literally
means nature
time-space matter energy their eternal
realities
and purusa means
pure
consciousness that's also an
eternal
reality and the to exist really
matter
exists
time-space
all of it exists and
consciousness
is also present all over
and
this is also David Chavez's view if
you
google he is talking about tan
psychism
he says that we have to be
ready
for a crazy idea what's the crazy
idea
that as matter-energy time and
space
is fundamental similarly we had
to
be ready for the idea it's quite
possible
that consciousness is also
fundamental
in nature not made out of
matter
it
exists by itself it causes in tank
psychism
he's talking about it now the
21st
century and cupola and Patanjali
talked
about it five or five thousand
years
ago but the same idea and psychism of
course
he is heavily criticized for it
he
does not face him in one one
interview
he says that if you think
about
the hard problem of consciousness
long
enough you end up either being a
pan
cyclist or going into administration
so
that is the third option
consciousness
and matter energy they all
exist
parallelly not one from the other
the
fourth option is the Buddhists and
Toki
I was talking about yesterday the
Myakka
Buddhists in the line of
Nagarjuna
they say consciousness in the
sense
of self is also empty and the
object
side mattered time space energy
is
also empty soon near the void what
that
emptiness means that I am NOT going
to
go into but that's another point of
view
and the last one is the Advaita
option
where it says consciousness alone
is
the reality in which time-space
matter-energy appear now I am going to
prove that you have the consciousness
are
the reality and whatever you
experience
as this appears in you the
consciousness
not here the body, not you
in
the mind but you
the
consciousness will see two
approaches
to proving this but before we
go
into the approaches let me give us
the
simplest proof the simplest proof is
this
that what is your experience
whatever
you have experienced as an object
have
you not experienced it in your
awareness from any kind of
experience
it's always possible only in Five Verses on Enlightenment 2 of 2 by Sw. Sarvapriyananda at Vedanta Society Berkeley
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