PART – 1
Let us contemplate today on ‘Brahma Jnana’ or ‘Atma Jnana’.
What does it really mean? Brahman, or Supreme Reality, is one without a second. All that is there is Consciousness only. From Brahman point of view, or Supreme Reality point of view, there is nothing to know, because Consciousness alone is there. If there is something else, then you can know something. But if Consciousness alone is there, the Consciousness has nothing to know. There is no object to be known, there is no subject, that is why Consciousness is pure knowledge – it is called Prajnana. Pure awareness, Prajnana. There is nothing else to know.
PART – 2
Whereas, from an individual point of view, from my point of view, I have to know. My Self is called Atma. I am trying to know the identity of Atma, with Brahma or Supreme Reality. When I say ‘I’, my instruments are Buddhi, manas, ahamkara and chitta. Intellect, the outward-directed mind (Manas), ego(Ahamkara), and memory (Chitta -the subconscious impressions). These are the instruments of Consciousness, that is why they don’t have the ability to know about Consciousness. So, the Consciousness doesn’t have anything to know, the instruments don’t have the ability to know Consciousness. Then, who realizes Self? And what is this realization all about?
PART – 3
For realization to take place, there are different ways of experiencing things, and perception is one more. Perception means what is available to senses – it is called ‘Pratyaksha’. Brahma Jnana is not Pratyaksha. Paroksha means, what is understood by mind and intellect. You say something, I understand, that is Paroksha or indirect knowledge. Atma Jnana is not even Paroksha. Atma Jnana is called Aparoksha or direct knowledge of the Self. It doesn’t involve any instruments, like sense organs, or mind, intellect, or Chitta. So, it is a direct knowledge of the Self. In some way, it is easy to understand, because if you go into a room, which is dark, and if I ask you, ‘Is there a chair?’, you say ‘I don’t know, I need a light,’ because, chair is Pratyaksha. It is a perception. Perception requires a physical light. Then you may say, ‘No, there may be a chair,’ – it is a guess work. It is called Anumana – Paroksha, indirect knowledge. ‘No, somebody has told me there is a chair,’ – it is called Paroksha, because it is indirect knowledge.
But, Atma, or Brahman, is neither Pratyaksha nor Paroksha. It is called Aparoksha. Now, if I ask you the question, ‘Are you there?’ You say ‘I am there.’ For that, somebody doesn’t have to tell you, no indirect knowledge is required, no physical light is required, Pratyaksha is not required, Paroksha is not required. You know that you are there.
PART – 4
So, the Atma is something which you know intuitively – nobody, has to tell you. Then what is this Vedanta or teaching all about? It is about that Atma which you know directly, intuitively, for which there is no information or knowledge is required. But, knowledge is required to remove the ignorance or confusion. It is because we have some wrong understanding about ourselves, Atma, that there is knowledge required to remove it. That knowledge is called Vedanta. Knowledge is there to remove the ignorance of Atma. You know Atma – nobody has to tell you about Atma. But, you confuse that Atma with body, mind and intellect. That confusion has to be removed. For that, ignorance has to be removed.
PART – 5
Ignorance is removed based on the teachings of scriptures – Vedas, Upanishads, because they are considered authentic, and because you need a confidence – ‘Yes, this is true.’ Just like when you go to a doctor and when he gives medicine, you take it with confidence, because he is authorized, or authentic. Similarly, some authentic source is required to give you confidence that what you are hearing is true. That authentic source is called Upanishads. That teaching is called Vedanta and it is told, to remove the ignorance in you; and because it comes from an authentic source, the ignorance gets destroyed.
So, where is ignorance? Ignorance is not in Atma. Ignorance is in Buddhi, intellect, because intellect is confused. That ignorance is nullified through knowledge. When ignorance is nullified through knowledge, then Buddhi doesn’t cause any confusion related to Atma. It is not adding any confusion. Then, does it change the perception? Because you got this knowledge, will it change your perception of the world? Or will it change your indirect knowledge or Paroksha Jnana?
PART – 6
When ignorance is gone, will it change your perception of the world? I will give an example. There is Sun. Morning you see Sun rising in the east, and it sets in the west. So, the Buddhi or intellect concludes that Sun is going round the earth. Here comes the authentic knowledge, scientific knowledge – discovery of all scientists. So, your science teacher gives you authentic knowledge that Sun is not going round the earth, but earth is going round the Sun. Your ignorance got corrected by knowledge. Tomorrow when you wake up, again you will not say that Sun is going round the earth, because your ignorance is getting corrected through knowledge. The ignorance is called ‘Avidya Vritti’. ‘Vritti’ means thought, ‘Avidya Vritti’ is a thought of ignorance. The knowledge is called ‘Vidya Vritti’. The Vidya Vritti cancels the Avidya Vritti, removing the confusion.
So, you have understood. Your ignorance is gone. Tomorrow morning when you get up, will you see earth going round the Sun? Perception doesn’t change. Perception is the same. Sun is rising in the east and setting in the west, but, your understanding has changed. You are not confusing it with something else. The clarity has emerged. So, has your experience changed? Has your perception changed? No. The same thing happens in Vedantic teaching.
PART – 7
Your ignorance of the Atma gets canceled because of the knowledge. Ignorance of the Atma is called Avidya Vritti. Vritti means thought. Avidya Vritti means, thought of ignorance. That Avidya Vritti gets canceled with Vidya Vritti or right knowledge.The right knowledge has to come from authentic source, which is Vedanta, Upanishad.
So now you will say,’O, now I have got right knowledge. What next? What experience I have to have? I have to have some experience.’ That is like saying, when science teaches you that Sun is not going round the earth but earth is going round the Sun, my experience of Sun has to change now. Your perception has to change, that is what you are saying. So, in spirituality, you are asking for the experience to change, because you want the perception, which is Pratyaksha, to change. Neither science nor Vedanta can give you a change in perception. ‘No, no, I have heard all Vedanta for six years from you Guruji, my experience has not come. I want to see earth going round the Sun. I got Atma Jnana, now I want to see Atma – experience the Atma.’ There is no such thing. All this is coming because you have heard that some person got realized and he has got some experience, some other person got realized and he had something else as experience. Please understand that all experiences are in the domain of mental and intellectual level. They are lower level experiences, they appear and disappear. ‘No, no, I did a lot of breathing practices,’ or ‘I did lot of japa, and God appeared in front of me.’ Please understand, it is a mental experience – mental domain.
PART – 8
Now, God appeared in front of you in the form of Rama or Krishna, because of your cultural conditioning. He didn’t appear in front of you as Jesus Christ. So, it is mental conditioning which has given you the appearance of God. I am not saying spiritual experiences are good or bad – they are motivating. But, Atma Jnana is going beyond the spiritual experience. So, Vedanta is going to the source of the problem and removing the ignorance. Once, you remove the ignorance, then there is no more superimposition on the Atma. Atma or Brahman, the Supreme Reality, is infinite – Ananta, it is Consciousness, it is Nirvikara – has no modification, Nirakara – it has no form, but the intellect and mind are superimposing on that and confusing. So, that confusion will go away. The moment confusion goes, don’t ask me, give me an experience through my eyes or, ears, or senses – because that is Pratyaksha, and Atma is not available for Pratyaksha.
PART – 9
So, Brahman cannot know anything, because there is nothing else to know. The mind, intellect and senses – they cannot understand Brahman. But, they can misunderstand Brahman. This misunderstanding only can be removed through the teaching. So, when misunderstanding is removed, then who realizes Brahman? The individual cannot realize Brahman, Brahman cannot realize individual or anything else, then who realizes Brahman?
What will happen is, the mind becomes serene and silent. It becomes still. There is no movement in the mind. It becomes like a silent lake. The master of the mind is Buddhi. Buddhi only creates doubts and confusions. Any doubts and confusions stirs the mind. Now, Buddhi has become Nischala or motionless, because all doubts of Buddhi have been clarified through teaching. If Buddhi has a doubt, then Vedantic teaching has to be used to remove that doubt, that is the process called contemplation. Through the contemplation any doubt in the Buddhi you have to remove. The mind becomes silent. Of course, through some meditation practice you have withdrawn the mind from the external sense organs, the outer part of the mind. The Buddhi has become silent, then Chitta has become silent. There is total serenity and silence. In that serenity, the Presence is there. The Presence is the Self, Atma. The Self knows itself in the form of Presence.
PART – 10
For example, with my eyes I can see so many colours; I can see the photo, I can see the wall, but I forget the presence of my eyes, because I am seeing. Similarly, the Self is continuously seeing the mind and intellect, it forgets its own Presence. I see the walls and all, and now I close my eyes. I am not getting any inputs from the outer. Then, there is a feeling of presence of eyes, I cannot see my eyes, but there is a feeling of presence of my eyes. Similarly, tongue can taste so many things, when we keep on eating – sweet, sour, bitter, everything it can taste. But, tongue cannot taste itself. But, I can become aware of the tongue. Similarly, when the external stimuli in the form of sense organs, the mental stimuli in the form of thoughts, emotions, feelings, is stilled , then the Presence is felt, which is Self, which is Brahman. It is a Pure Awareness. It is not that Awareness knows itself. Awareness is the Presence, nothing else is there. And that is called ‘Aparoksha Jnana’ or direct experience.
PART – 11
So, more and more, you have the direct experience of Self or Aparoksha jnana, where there are no sense organs, everything has become still. You are the Presence. ‘No, no, I am having happiness – I meditated, I am feeling happy.’ No – the mind has come into picture. ‘I know myself,’ the intellect has come into picture. It is a state of Pure Awareness. The best example I can give is a deep sleep. In deep sleep, there are no thoughts and mind has gone to subtle condition, whereas in Aparoksha Jnana, the mind is fully awake, fully aware, intellect is fully aware, but completely silent. It is a waking sleep. It is called Samadhi. In that Samadhi, the Self is cognized as Presence. What happens when Self is congnised as Presence is that the intellect, which is of the form of Satva, has become pure now, free from doubts, free from thoughts, it is Satva, and merges with the ‘Sat’ aspect of Consciousness.
PART – 12
The Brahman or Consciousness has three aspects: Sat-Chit-Ananda. Mind has manas, Buddhi, ahankara, Chitta. Ahankara is the ego. Ego is dissolved, because it is a wrong understanding. The manas is the outer part of the mind, which is made silent, temporarily. After you come out of Samadhi, again it will become active. Nothing will happen to that. Whereas, the Chitta, which is actually memory, has become silent, and it merges with ‘Chit’ aspect of Consciousness. Buddhi or intellect merges with ‘Sat’ aspect of Consciousness, and Chitta merges with the ‘Chit’ aspect of the Consciousness. This is what Self realization is about. It is a union that happens. The mind which is nothing but Brahman, nothing but consciousness, which had separated out because of ignorance, merges back with the Consciousness. This is the state of Self realization.
So, for Self realization to take place, the mind has to be completely serene and still. Intellect has to be completely free from doubts. All the teaching which is done in Vedanta, is to remove the doubt in the intellect. Any kind of doubt should not arise, with respect to Self. There can be doubt about anything else in the world. Then it becomes silent.
PART – 13
Now, Vedanta is not a means to the end, ‘By studying, I will do something to get Self realization.’ People think that Vedanta is a theory, and by doing some practical, they will realize something. ‘The teaching is a theory, and by doing some thing practical I will get realization, and I will get some experience.’ All talking about teaching is that the teaching is theory and practical is something else. Actually, Vedanta is not a means to the end, it is an end to the means. So you have pursued Karma Yoga, Bhakti Yoga, Kriya Yoga, and they are all means. The teaching of Vedanta is end to the means. People think that Jnana is theory – most of the people think like that. ‘There is something practical to realize.’ No. Jnana puts an end to the means.
‘So, what experience I will get?’ You will feel relieved, blissful. When intellect merges with Sat, the Consciousness, and Chitta merges with the Chit, then, there is a bliss – Ananda. Relief. And then, you realize, that the whole universe is not separate from God, Brahman.
PART – 14
The universe appears to be material and solid. No. Universe is nothing but a projection in Brahman – appearance in Brahman – and Brahman has not become the universe, neither this universe is solid and real, that is just a dream like appearance in Brahman. This is what is called realization.
So, what you realize is ‘I am Brahman’. ‘I’ means, the pure Consciousness, ‘I am’ is nothing but the pure Consciousness, Brahman. The Atma is Brahman, and Brahma is Satya – Eternal. It is not appearing and disappearing. Any experience in the mind, appears and disappears. ‘Oh! I saw God,’ it disappears. Brahma is Satya, Jagat is Mithya – universe is Mithya. Mithya means temporary, dependent reality and appearance. Mithya also means having no independent existence. It is a projection in the Brahman. ‘Brahma Satya, Jagan Mithya, Jeevo Brahmaiva Naaparaha.’ I am Brahman. These three realizations happen.
Pranams