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Video Information:
Advait Learning Camp, 30.11.19, Advait Bodhsthal, Greater Noida, India

Context:

"From the Self there arise in succession:
(1) Chidabhasa (reflected consciousness) which is a kind of luminosity,
(ii)Jiva (the individual consciousness) or the seer or the first concept.
(iii) Phenomena, that is the world."

"Just as the lamp illumines the lens, etc, while remaining unaffected, the Self illumines the ego (chidabhasa), etc. while remaining unaffected."
~ Raman Maharshi

~ Why does the Guru occasionally impart thoughts to the mind?
~ Does silence need to comprehend anything?
~ How to know the tendencies of the mind?
~ How is it possible that so much appears out of nothing?
~ Who are you and what is the world?

Music Credits: Milind Date
~~~~~~~~~~~~~ .

Category

📚
Learning
Transcript
00:00Next question.
00:13So somebody asks Ramana Maharshi, how do the triple factors that is the knower, the known
00:23and knowledge which are absent in deep sleep, samadhi, etc. manifest themselves in the self
00:34in the state of waking and dreaming?
00:41Maharshi says, from the self there arise in succession, first chidabhas, reflected consciousness
00:56which is a kind of luminosity, second jiva, the individual consciousness or the seer of
01:07the first concept, third phenomena that is the world.
01:18I'll repeat it for you.
01:21The question is how do the knower, known and knowledge that are absent in deep sleep arise
01:32in the waking state and in the dreaming state?
01:37So they don't really exist, from where do they come?
01:41This triad of jnana, gata, ge, knower, known, knowledge, from where do they come?
01:47Maharshi says they come in a succession, what's a succession?
01:50First of all comes the chidabhas which is reflected consciousness, Maharshi calls it
01:57a kind of luminosity, secondly the jiva, the individual consciousness which is the seer
02:06or the first concept, the one that stands at the center of all perception, all illusion,
02:15then phenomena which is the world.
02:18It's a sequence that is being described here.
02:21How does it happen that from nothingness so much suddenly appears?
02:27You were in deep sleep and there was absolutely nothing and then you find that you are there
02:33and the entire world is there, how does it happen?
02:36Maharshi is putting that in words, giving some kind of a sequential framework.
02:46Then the second statement from Maharshi, just as the lamp illumines the lens etc. while
02:57remaining unaffected, the self illumines the ego, chidabhasa etc. while remaining unaffected.
03:07Acharyaji Pranam, when we are presented with various descriptions about self and how from
03:16self everything springs up, typical tendency of the mind is to create a mental concept
03:22about the self which is not in one's own experience and reach a conclusion about who am I.
03:27Yes, nice.
03:28As I understand that this question has no answer, just the questioner has to ultimately vanish.
03:36Please help me understand how this tendency of the mind to conceptualize can be overcome.
03:45How these descriptions about self or Brahma should really be used in the Jnana Marga.
03:53You see, it is because the mind is in perpetual appetite for concepts that sometimes concepts
04:05have to be fed to it.
04:08If you will ask the Maharshi, does it really happen this way?
04:13He will say the way it happens is not available to description.
04:22But look at your question, if you will ask me this question, then I have only two options.
04:28Either to keep mum, totally silent, which is the best response to your question, best
04:39but not useful.
04:42Because you will not be able to know my silence.
04:46My silence is an alien thing to you.
04:50Ramana Maharshi put so much value on silence and yet you see he has spoken so much.
05:03In some sense he was made to speak this much.
05:08Because his silence, in spite of containing everything, being very eloquent, was incomprehensible
05:14to us.
05:16Only silence can comprehend silence and therefore silence has no need to comprehend anything.
05:23Therefore silence will not be usually effective as a tool of communication.
05:29In special cases it would be.
05:31Usually it would not be.
05:38So the Maharshi has to speak.
05:39Therefore he has presented this sequential order.
05:41What is he saying?
05:42He is saying so you are deeply asleep and there is nothing.
05:44There is just a blissful emptiness, Sushupti.
05:51You are in the Anandamayakosh, the zone of unmitigated bliss, that is Sushupti.
06:04And then somebody comes and just shakes you up a bit and maybe slaps you.
06:11And then the world returns.
06:13How has the world returned?
06:15Maharshi says first of all there is a general illumination in which nothing is there except
06:19the illumination.
06:21You do not know whether the world is or whether you are.
06:26And then you come.
06:30And then the world comes.
06:31That's the sequence.
06:34The fact is Maharshi is telling stories to kid a kid.
06:46It's almost like you have in the movies, you know, the fellow is unconscious.
06:51Have you seen the sequence in movies?
06:55It's a very familiar sequence.
06:58The fellow is unconscious and then he very gradually opens his eyes and what's there
07:04in the frame now?
07:06Lazy light, nebulous frame in which nothing is particularly clear.
07:16This the Maharishi is calling as general illumination.
07:21First of all this comes, as they show in the movies.
07:25So the frame has become illumined.
07:28And then the camera moves to the face, the eyes of the fellow.
07:37And he is opening his eyes and he is becoming self-conscious, self-conscious.
07:49And then he rolls his eyes and now in that vague, illumined, nebulous frame objects start
08:01appearing in a blurred way.
08:04Somebody's face appears, very blurred face and there is as if the camera is not able
08:10to properly focus.
08:16The sounds are there but sounds are not clear.
08:21It's as if a 150 rpm record is being played at 60 rpm.
08:36An incoherent mixture of sounds.
08:42Those of you who enjoy Saturday night parties know what I am talking of.
08:48I am just describing your state when you wake up on Sunday afternoon.
09:00That's what Ramana Maharshi has described in a more sophisticated way.
09:05First of all there is just general illumination.
09:07You feel something is there, some light.
09:11Then self-consciousness returns, okay, I am there.
09:14And then gradually the world also returns.
09:18That's all that is being said here.
09:22Get it?
09:26And then the next part is based on another gem from the Maharshi.
09:38Just as the lamp illumines the lens etc. while remaining unaffected, the self illumines
09:43the chidabhas while itself remaining unaffected.
09:51So the questioner says, you know, all this is there and my mind quickly turns it into
09:58a framework, a concept.
10:00How do I avoid this tendency?
10:03Avoid this tendency by seeing that this is a tendency.
10:09This is a tendency, not the truth.
10:11We tend to do this with the truth.
10:17We know that we do this, so we better be cautious of ourselves.
10:22That's the thing about tendency.
10:25It comes to you forewarned.
10:29It comes to you not as a surprise, but with a forewarning.
10:39You know how you are, don't you?
10:44Then how dare you trust yourself?
10:57Tendency has this great limitation.
11:00It is stubborn, very strong, it does not change.
11:05And that's how you can detect it.
11:10It does not change.
11:12It is the same today as it was yesterday.
11:16Then why entertain foolish hopes?
11:20The mistake you committed yesterday is bound to be repeated today.
11:26So it's easy to avoid becoming a prey to tendencies.
11:33Tendencies don't change.
11:40But man is special.
11:43We fall in the same hole, 20 times one after the other.
12:00Tendency laughs.
12:02The 21st time, the tendency itself comes and tells you, you know, I am tendency.
12:10And I warn you, you'll be falling in the hole.
12:13And I tell you, in spite of the warning, you'd still be falling in the hole.
12:18And you go ahead and fall.
12:28Has there ever been a new mistake?
12:37How funny.
12:45That which peaks you today, is it not the same thing that brought you down five years
12:56back?
12:57The names, forms change, faces change, situations change.
13:04Has the tendency changed?
13:09The place where you fell, the time of the fall, the apparent reason of the fall, all
13:16these have changed.
13:17But has the tendency to fall changed?
13:22That's the thing with tendency.
13:31It's almost like playing an open hand.
13:35Such a confident player is she.
13:37She does not hide her cards.
13:43She says here, this is what I have, this is what I have, this is what I have.
13:49No.
13:52And you will still lose.
13:55You very well know how we are.
14:02And we still trust ourselves.
14:03We are still confident of ourselves.
14:34Remember, that's the advice, remember, not God, remember her.
14:54God is not an object to be remembered.
14:57It's foolish to remember God.
15:02Remembrance of Maya is what is meant by remembering God.
15:08God is not an object to be remembered.
15:10God is remembrance itself.
15:13If you can constantly remember how foolish you are, that's Godliness.
15:22You don't have to remember the greatness of God.
15:26The greatness of God is immeasurable, unthinkable, inconceivable.
15:36You don't even have to bother going into it.
15:42Don't try to remember this and that and stuff about heaven and God did this, God did that.
15:53Kiddish.
15:55God never does anything.
16:01Remember who we are.
16:04And it's easy to remember because we remain the same.
16:10It won't tax your intelligence to remember who you are.
16:17It won't even tax your memory.
16:21It's obvious.
16:40Remember if there is one trait that is like poison to the lover of truth, it is confidence.
16:54Nothing brings you down like confidence.
17:01The day you start feeling assured of something is the day you have lost it.
17:18And the worst assuredness is called either self-assuredness or assuredness about truth
17:30or God.
17:43The true lover of truth has to be an unrelenting sceptic.
17:55He has to be uncompromisingly ruthless.
18:02What is it that he must be sceptical of?
18:04Everything.
18:05Everything that comes from him.
18:07If his God comes from him, then he must be sceptical even of his God.
18:12Because it's not God you are talking of.
18:15It's your God you are talking of.
18:19Your God is your creation.
18:22You have to be very, very cynical of him.
18:29That's the one trait that characterizes the true seeker, a total absence of confidence.
18:45He keeps asking, probing, never concludes.
18:52He never stops at something.
18:54He never says, I found a center, I found a destination.
18:57He never says, the end has arrived so I can conclude.
19:01Conclusion means ending, right?
19:07He never ends.

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