Thoughts on The Bhagavad Gita (Chapter 2: Verse 16

Transcript

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Hello, and welcome to another episode of The Bearded Mystic Podcast and I'm your host, Rahul N Singh.

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Thank you for taking the time today to either watch or listen to this podcast.

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This is going to be a very deep session because we be dwelling deep on very high mystical concepts.

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Before we begin to explore this, if you would like to support The Bearded Mystic Podcast and would like to get extra content, please do sign up to our Patreon page and the details are in the show notes and video descriptions below.

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Let's begin now with exploring verses 16 to verses 20 of chapter two of the Bhagavad Gita.

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That which is asat never has any being, while that which is sat can never have non-being.

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Both these states of being are known by the seers as that which is tattva always true.

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We will go into what this really means.

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It's a very, very deep verse.

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It's one that I probably will be spending a lot of time on.

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It's more or less me reading off my notes, because what I tend to do is I read the verse.

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I read a few commentaries.

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I then think about what it means for me and then bring it into the podcast.

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Asat means that, which is unreal.

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It never has any being, it has no real existence.

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It is rooted in change.

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So whatever is rooted in change, whatever we see that you know goes through some form of modification, that is asat.

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It is unreal.

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t is always dependent upon something for a cause and cannot exist independently.

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If you have a look at every living being on this planet, everything in this solar system is dependent on one thing or another.

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In this whole universe, something is dependent upon another.

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The basic law is cause and effect, right?

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We can learn from this, that everything that we see is unreal.

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For example, hot and cold, these have been used in the previous verses.

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Hot and cold are dependent on how you perceive heat and cold.

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Sometimes you can be in the same room as someone and they may feel more cold than you do.

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Maybe the air conditioning is on, the AC and it's on a lower temp, other people are feeling cold, but your body is different.

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It's not feeling the same level of coldness.

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If you look at absolute cold or absolute heat does not exist by itself, you need someone to perceive that coldness or that heat.

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There is no way that it can just exist by itself.

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It needs some thing to perceive it.

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This is basically something I read once in a book.

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It was discussing quantum theory, the example is that of a tree falling in the forest.

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Did it exist?

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Now, if you think about it, it doesn't exist because you weren't there to hear the sound.

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You didn't see the tree fall.

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In your world, it hasn't fallen.

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But if you were there it's totally different.

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This is what I mean by nothing exists by itself.

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Everything is dependent on something and nothing exists independently.

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It depends on something, whether it is imagination, thought or memory.

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Even thought has a cause.

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Thought never appears by itself.

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Thought has an intention.

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The intention is probably caught by a desire.

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The desire is created by a product.

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The product is then created by a company.

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The company has been created by someone that someone has been created by someone else and then it just continues.

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You can see from there, everything is dependent upon one another, nothing is independent.

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This is why in Vedanta and something I strongly emphasize in most of my podcasts that you have to look after people, you have to have that basic sense of humanity because we are all dependent upon each other.

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That's why I say that if there is income inequality, we need to do something about it because it affects everyone.

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Nowadays people are on these trips to space.

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I don't see what's great about that?

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How about you sort out the earth, we're going through a climate crisis and you're going up in space.

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Like why?

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Why don't you use your time and resources to look at renewable energy and invest in renewable energy?

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Wouldn't that be a better option?

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Again, because we understand we are dependent on each other, we have to care about people.

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If you see people in the black community are being subjected to police brutality or to any form of racism by anyone, we have to call it out and we have to address it and we have to do something about it.

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Merely brushing it under the carpet is not enough.

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More has to be done.

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This is really important to understand.

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When we understand that nothing is independent by itself, that means we all have a part to play in this.

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A classic example in Vedanta, if you've been studying vedanta, you know about this one, the example of the clay pot, the pot is made from clay.

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It is dependent on clay to exist.

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Clay is dependent on the earth and the earth is dependent on the sun and the solar system and it goes on.

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Like I just mentioned, we are dependent upon each other.

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The solar system is independent on the universe.

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The universe, what is it dependent upon?

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This is what we're going to be looking further into.

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Everything is reliant on the form.

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Asat is form and form keeps on changing.

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Whatever we see has formed, even though we say , we can't see air, but air has a form because you can feel it when the wind blows, when there's a slight breeze, you feel the air.

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Therefore, if there is a feeling, there's definitely a form.

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If it is dependent on something or requires a cause, then asat means all name and form has no real existence.

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Even if you can name something, like I said, I can name air, I can name space.

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That means that's name and form.

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It's name and form by the way.

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It has to have a form.

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Something can have a name, but not necessarily have a form which we'll be looking into, but everything is reliant on a form.

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It requires atoms being packed together to have a form.

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Sat is what is real and never changes.

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In sat, there is never any non-existence or absence at all.

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Let's really dive deep into this a little bit.

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Asat, as we know, never has any being.

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Sat never has non being, which means something much deeper.

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This is why I call everything that we see and perceive, the transactional reality.

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Everything we see is mithya yeah, everything we see is subject to cause, subject to change, subject to modification.

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We are basically asat.

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We are unreal.

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It is not sat, but sat is something that never has any non-existence or absence at all.

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This means that what we are calling to be real cannot never not exist.

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It has to always exist, it has to always be here.

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And sat cannot be negated at all.

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If you look at the method of neti neti, which is,'not this, not this', it's actually taking away what is asat to eventually get to the point where only sat is.

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It can only show the is-ness of sat, the is-ness of what is real, the is-ness of that tattva, neti neti cannot take you to the absolute point.

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It can take everything away, but it is only with knowledge of what is sat, that you then discover what is left and it's not something that is left.

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It has always been there.

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Like I mentioned, where only sat is, the is-ness is sat.

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Where only is-ness is.

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Is-ness is a very good word.

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I really like this word and if there is a word that I like to use for God, it would be is-ness.

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When I say say God again, I'm meaning Nirguna Brahman.

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Brahman - the ultimate reality without any attributes.

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Even attributes they can be taken away.

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Therefore it is asat.

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People who do believe in Saguna Brahman or the Abrahamic God, basically has attributes.

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It has certain qualities.

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You take those qualities away.

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What you're left with?

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Either it's something that has never existed, or it shows you that there is Nirguna Brahman, the ultimate reality without attributes, which is the one that we should be worshiping.

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Which is actually the only one that deserves our worshiping, but sometimes we need the help of a certain form so we use Saguna Brahman, which is understandable.

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We need to go to the is-ness and is-ness is Brahman, is-ness is the ultimate reality and if sat is real, then that means it does not depend upon anything for its existence.

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Brahman doesn't need us, whatever is real doesn't require me to perceive it because can I perceive it with my senses?

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No, I really can't.

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Is the awareness within me, that is aware of all the senses and what it perceives is that ever attached to the senses?

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Does the awareness perceive itself by the senses?

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No.

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The senses can only reflect what it finds upon that awareness, but awareness always remains untouched, unchanged, unaffected, not influenced by what the senses project, but there is within us all an awareness.

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We've discussed this in the previous episodes, and that's why it's really important that we go back to really understand what we've been talking about because everything adds on.

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If sat is real, that means it does not depend upon anything for its existence.

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It doesn't need my awareness to be aware of it.

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No, it is my awareness.

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Do you see what I mean?

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I cannot call it mine actually.

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Can I call it my consciousness?

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I'll use awareness and consciousness, although I like to be more specific, but I'm going to use them interchangeably here because it means the same thing.

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Or the witness.

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Is it ever attached to the witnessing?

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No, it just witnesses.

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Just watches.

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Just observes That's why I love the quote by J Krishnamurti that the observer becomes the observed, and I find that to be very true when you go through deep meditation, that's exactly what you find.

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That's why it's not dependent upon anything, because as it says, the observer becomes the observed.

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Then the person that was watching, they find another layer of watching that's going on and it's an incredible experience.

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Incredible.

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And not everyone gets there.

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A lot of people, they like to book read, like read scriptures or distract themselves with other things like rituals and prayer and even meditation, let's do these different methods of meditation, but those things are distractions from what is sat, they distract us from turning the mind inwards and when we can turn the mind inwards, then we are getting somewhere in spirituality.

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Without that you getting nowhere.

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You can't change that fact.

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Sat is formless and the formless is always in stillness.

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Sat is awareness, it simply is is-ness.

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That which never has non-being is always still.

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In meditation, you have to keep yourself still and it's such a weird thing to say, because you think to yourself, well, how can I keep myself still?

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Do I keep my body still?

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My breath still?

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What does it mean?

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No, you still breathe.

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And you still go through that.

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Your body may move a bit, but the stillness is not in the body or the mind, the stillness is what you're watching.

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Then you become that stillness.

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When the watcher becomes watched, then you'll find actually it's the stillness, that is watching you.

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It's incredible.

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This way they can be asat and sat together.

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For example, when you say the pot is made out of clay, the 'is' in that sentence means there is sat there.

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We talked about is-ness being sat right?

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So when I say the pot is made out of clay, that means there's sat, but the pot, the creation of the pot and clay, the material that's used are all asat because they all depend on something, but the 'is', does not depend on something.

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If you say the pot is not made from clay, even then the 'is' doesn't disappear.

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The observer, the witness, that reality, they exist independently.

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That 'IS', is not dependent on anything.

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It can remain even by itself, but the pot and the non creation of the pot and the clay are all asat because even if you have a mental idea like a thought of creating the pot, but you realize, or you've realized the pot has not been made, the pot is not here.

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But something is observing that the pot is not there.

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That isn't changed whether the pot is there or not, emotions come up, but what's behind the emotions?

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If anger arises because the pot is not made, you paid a lot of money for it.

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Yes, you can get angry, but what is watching the anger?

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See how when a spider has its web.

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The thread of the web is very thin.

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That's the difference between awareness and your emotion, the watcher, and the emotion, the witness and the emotion.

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That's the slight subtle barrier you could say.

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Despite seeing both things you, who has observed this remains unchanged.

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You remain untouched, you remain unchanged by this.

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You're not affected.

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If the pot is made, if the pot is not made, if the clay is there, if the clay is not there, you remain untouched.

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I'm not talking about you as in the body, which has a name, the mind, which has a name, which associates itself to a name I'm talking about the real you.

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That's who I'm talking to.

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Since sat does not require a cause or depends on anything else.

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It is self-existent automatically and we'll go into why that is.

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Why it is self-existent?

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The transactional reality is asat because it requires a body and mind to give it a name and form.

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The ultimate reality is that awareness or consciousness beyond name and form.

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We've established this earlier and it's fairly straightforward.

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So everything that we see in the transactional reality is asat because it requires a body and mind, to give it a name and form, to associate with it, to be friends with it.

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While the ultimate reality is that awareness or consciousness or the witness, which is beyond name and form.

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We can't really ever name the observer once it is observed.

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It doesn't require a name.

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But the sages have been nice to us.

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They have given us a name and those that understand the two states of being, yeah asat and sat are the seers of truth.

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They are the tattva-darsi, the one capable of seeing the truth of everything.

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So they can see that which never has being and they can see that which never has non-being.

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They can tell the difference between those two states and that's why they are called tattva-darsi meaning they can see the truth of everything.

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And tattva in this sense means the truth, the intrinsic nature of a thing, and this is something that Adi Sankara Ji emphasized a bit more on.

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That the 'tat' is Brahman and that 'Tat' is is-ness.

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So remember the mahavakya, tat tvam asi, 'That You Are'.

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Tat means 'That' and tvam asi means 'you are'.

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Sankara states that all that is here, this is-ness is Brahman.

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Therefore the name for Brahman is 'Tat'.

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This is very interesting because as Tattva can also imply that the nature of Brahman is the cause of this world.

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The world appears against Brahman like images on a white screen, therefore all is Brahman because Brahman plus name and forms is everything that is.

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And there's a concept called sarva-nama, which means in the name of everything, the name of all that is, and that is Brahman.

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Let me explain this a little bit more, because I think it requires a bit more of an explanation.

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When it says Brahman is the cause of this world.

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It doesn't mean that Brahman created the world.

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We have to understand this.

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When we say world, we mean the universe or universes, it doesn't mean that Brahman created it, but it will always be that is-ness that is always present.

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That's why it's the cause.

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You could say that it's like, for example, the film that is used in the projector, the film reel that portrays the images, the screen allows the images to project upon itself.

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Now, when you watching the movie, are you watching the film reel or are you watching the screen?

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You're watching the screen.

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So like that you think that the screen has caused the images.

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It gives that false perception, but realistically it's the projector that is projecting upon the screen.

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So that's what it means by the cause of the world or cause of the universe.

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It's just that because you can put name and form against Brahman.

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The seers can discern easily between asat and sat, and there is no confusion about it.

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They know the transactional reality and they know the ultimate reality, very simple.

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They can tell the difference.

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The seers see from the viewpoint of sat and sees everything as the truth and at the same time, the seer can see from the viewpoint of asat and see that everything is an appearance.

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Let's just go over that a little bit.

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When you see a saint or a Sage or a Mahatma or a Maharishi, when you're with them, you can tell that they can see from the viewpoint of sat and see that everything is true.

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Everything is Brahman because if I am Brahman - Aham Brahmasmi, then Tat Tvam Asi - You Are That, this name and form, It is all That , they can see that too.

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Then at the same time, the Seer, the Saint, the Sage, the Mahatma, they can see from the viewpoint of asat too, which shows that everything is an appearance, that everything is subject to change.

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Everything is subject to decay.

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Everything is subject to birth and death.

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Therefore, it is unreal.

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It has no independent existence.

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Therefore it is not worthy to be attached to.

00:22:12.742 --> 00:22:22.128
It seems really difficult when we talk about attachment and detachment and the next few verses, we gonna go into that.

00:22:23.092 --> 00:22:23.991
Verse 17.

00:22:24.743 --> 00:22:29.423
Just try to see this tattva which is both indestructible and immortal.

00:22:29.682 --> 00:22:34.392
No one can accomplish the destruction of that unalterable reality.

00:22:34.476 --> 00:22:39.056
This verse makes it very clear on what sat is, what this ultimate reality is.

00:22:39.160 --> 00:22:44.326
This Tattva cannot be destroyed at all, nor can it be modified in any way.

00:22:44.746 --> 00:22:50.476
So Krishna is really guiding us to see this Tattva as both indestructible and immortal.

00:22:50.865 --> 00:22:52.256
It is everlasting.

00:22:52.630 --> 00:22:58.806
If this reality can not be altered, then this implies it is available right now.

00:22:58.922 --> 00:23:14.788
If Brahman cannot be altered in any way, this Tattva, this truth, this is-ness, then I can experience that is-ness, I can experience that right now.

00:23:15.161 --> 00:23:20.433
I also want to mention that here Atma and Brahman are used interchangeably.

00:23:20.614 --> 00:23:25.114
When we talk about atma here, we're not talking about your individual soul.

00:23:25.195 --> 00:23:32.742
That would be your jiva, that would be your individual soul, if you had to call it that.

00:23:32.982 --> 00:23:35.333
But the Atma is Brahman.

00:23:35.865 --> 00:23:36.105
Yeah.

00:23:36.135 --> 00:23:37.605
There's no difference between that.

00:23:38.526 --> 00:23:54.605
In fact, there's no difference between the Jiva and Brahman, but the problem is the Jiva can associate itself with the body and the mind and because the jiva is under that wrong impression, it then confuses the atma.

00:23:54.756 --> 00:24:04.333
So the atma can be confused and then when the Atma realizes by studying the scriptures, it then goes to Brahman and understands what It's true nature is.

00:24:04.848 --> 00:24:06.588
This reality cannot be altered.

00:24:06.828 --> 00:24:14.413
We cannot alter what is ultimately true and indestructible and immortal.

00:24:15.542 --> 00:24:19.202
Remember whatever can be destroyed and is mortal cannot be this Tattva.

00:24:19.742 --> 00:24:21.242
It cannot be what is real.

00:24:21.803 --> 00:24:29.272
To truly try and understand this is to understand that the unreal appears because you are what is real.

00:24:30.048 --> 00:24:35.098
You are Sat, this Is-ness in you is Sat.

00:24:35.787 --> 00:24:41.106
The unreal depends on the real, but what is real does not depend on what is unreal.

00:24:41.346 --> 00:24:48.307
That is why there is non-duality because there's no difference once one sees like a Tattva-Darsi.

00:24:48.546 --> 00:24:49.986
Let me make that very clear.

00:24:50.172 --> 00:24:52.412
The unreal will always depend on the Real.

00:24:54.009 --> 00:24:57.088
But what is real will never depend on what is unreal?

00:24:58.739 --> 00:25:02.068
So this Brahman pervades everywhere because it is immortal.

00:25:03.568 --> 00:25:04.828
It cannot disappear.

00:25:05.848 --> 00:25:16.432
There is no second thing to destroy it, and it's not subject to time, it's not subject to decay and it's not subject to modification.

00:25:16.742 --> 00:25:21.182
And Sankara says that no one can destroy Brahman, not even Brahman Itself.

00:25:21.220 --> 00:25:30.250
This is very interesting because if someone looks at that, they probably think that's a bit of a crazy statement that even Brahman cannot destroy itself.

00:25:31.509 --> 00:25:41.257
That's why it is Sat If it could destroy itself, that means it was dependent upon some thing and that would mean that it was born and therefore it has to die.

00:25:41.712 --> 00:25:45.022
That's why Brahman cannot destroy itself.

00:25:45.926 --> 00:25:49.787
Brahman can not even hide itself, forget about destroying itself.

00:25:49.817 --> 00:25:51.346
It cannot even hide itself.

00:25:51.946 --> 00:26:09.450
We have hidden ourselves from It under the impression that we are this body and mind, but to be fair, Brahman is not hiding Brahman is there in plain sight, in our everyday experiences Brahman is there.

00:26:09.500 --> 00:26:15.660
Brahman is the one that is observing within us that's untouched by everything that happens to us.

00:26:15.955 --> 00:26:19.628
This was a very quick verse, but I want to actually go back

00:26:19.628 --> 00:26:25.845
so the unreal depends on the real.

00:26:26.184 --> 00:26:27.474
What do we mean by that?

00:26:27.731 --> 00:26:29.494
Just your own experience.

00:26:30.073 --> 00:26:47.063
Remember, I mentioned that you are the observer and that observer within you has been unchanged, think about it on a deeper level, everything around you changes, even the body that you're observing through changes, but you have not changed.

00:26:47.333 --> 00:26:49.012
You've gone through so many years.

00:26:49.426 --> 00:26:53.446
You've gone through each day and you've remained unchanged.

00:26:53.477 --> 00:26:58.777
There's something within you that's untouched by this, that doesn't age in the body ages.

00:26:58.866 --> 00:27:03.426
It doesn't get emotional, when the body gets emotional, when the mind gets emotional.

00:27:03.576 --> 00:27:05.886
When the mind is stress, it does not get stressed.

00:27:05.886 --> 00:27:07.267
It watches that stress.

00:27:07.557 --> 00:27:12.162
I'm talking about that watcher within you, that observer within you, that witness within you.

00:27:12.262 --> 00:27:23.933
That's what I mean when it says the unreal depends on the real, because without that, we would all be crazy, in my opinion.

00:27:24.891 --> 00:27:28.550
Because we know there's a subtle difference between what is true.

00:27:29.570 --> 00:27:42.357
We all know this, even those that do not know about Brahman and do not know about the Tattva, that do not know about the Gita, that do not know about spirituality, you could say you're an atheist.

00:27:42.535 --> 00:27:44.008
You cannot escape this.

00:27:45.765 --> 00:27:47.535
Even they know there is something.

00:27:47.565 --> 00:27:57.917
That's why I always say that the Eastern religions cannot accommodate Nirguna Brahman as the Abrahamic god.

00:27:59.603 --> 00:28:14.065
It's simply impossible and philosophically disastrous because the Abrahamic gods gets angry, gets jealous, is loving is compassionate, is merciful.

00:28:14.251 --> 00:28:18.511
Therefore has qualities, but Brahman cannot have those qualities.

00:28:19.636 --> 00:28:23.337
Saguna Brahman does but Nirguna Brahman doesn't.

00:28:23.557 --> 00:28:29.887
The interesting thing is that Saguna Brahman will have to lead you to Nirguna Brahman because it cannot sustain itself.

00:28:30.067 --> 00:28:31.847
Eventually it will be destroyed too.

00:28:33.586 --> 00:28:36.946
That's why everything is dependent upon the real.

00:28:38.426 --> 00:28:57.542
When we talk about Brahman, we have to really understand, we're talking about the Nirguna aspect, unless I mentioned Saguna Brahman, then I mention that, but I'm always 99% of the time talking about Nirguna Brahman That which has no attribute.

00:28:58.923 --> 00:29:01.123
That is-ness with no attribute.

00:29:01.229 --> 00:29:06.068
When I say the word 'God', understand I'm talking about Nirguna Brahman.

00:29:06.118 --> 00:29:16.459
I'm not talking about any Abrahamic God, or even Saguna Brahman but language is such, but I wanted to establish that because we are all learning.

00:29:16.880 --> 00:29:19.130
The real does not depend on what is unreal.

00:29:19.522 --> 00:29:24.492
For example, if the unreal disappears, the watcher remains, that does not change.

00:29:24.561 --> 00:29:26.632
And that's why there's non-duality.

00:29:27.048 --> 00:29:30.648
Spirituality is all about removing duality.

00:29:31.200 --> 00:29:49.920
If you have even a speck of duality, you cannot say you are realized, cannot, and there's no real difference once one sees like a Tattva-Darsi, we need to become like a Tattva-Darsi, this is the.

00:29:50.289 --> 00:29:51.700
Look at the emphasis here.

00:29:51.700 --> 00:29:58.126
Krishna is saying, just try to see this Tattva, just try to see it, make the attempt.

00:29:59.586 --> 00:30:02.186
We don't even like to make the attempt.

00:30:02.644 --> 00:30:06.034
We think, especially people my age, we think we have time.

00:30:06.483 --> 00:30:11.137
We don't have time and we're going to go into why that is in verse 18.

00:30:11.228 --> 00:30:12.397
Verse 18.

00:30:13.925 --> 00:30:27.375
O Arjuna, these dehas which must someday end and then be burned are inhabited by an everlasting, indestructible, immeasurable being.

00:30:27.796 --> 00:30:30.736
Therefore, you should join the battle.

00:30:31.509 --> 00:30:44.233
So here, ' oh, Arjuna!' Maybe Arjuna got a little distracted with what Tattva was so to bring the attention back to the battlefield, the name is addressed.

00:30:44.682 --> 00:30:49.613
Krishna first tells us what this body is and that is, it must end one day.

00:30:50.007 --> 00:30:54.778
Dehas, bodies, therefore implying it is unreal, it is asat.

00:30:55.648 --> 00:30:59.398
It never has truly any being.

00:31:00.028 --> 00:31:07.522
When he says these dehas, these bodies, he's also showing Arjuna, the whole battlefield.

00:31:08.846 --> 00:31:32.857
Saying "look, everyone you see, your teachers, your brothers, your cousins, all these bodies, they gonna some day end." Then the talk of this body being burned because as hindus and all religions that have come out of Sanatana Dharma they all believe in being cremated.

00:31:33.005 --> 00:31:42.240
Here Krishna is also creating an image in Arjuna's mind that everyone will one day die and be burnt.

00:31:42.471 --> 00:31:45.161
So he's creating that image that this is normal.

00:31:45.431 --> 00:31:46.901
This is going to happen.

00:31:47.507 --> 00:31:49.377
Then Krishna adds the real.

00:31:49.510 --> 00:31:57.141
He talks about the asat then attaches the real, and this is what I mean the asat can always be connected with the Sat.

00:31:57.836 --> 00:32:11.057
He adds the real, the Sat to this asat by saying that these bodies are all inhabited by an everlasting, indestructible, immeasurable being this, Tattva, this Tat - Brahman.

00:32:11.819 --> 00:32:13.605
This is what he's talking about.

00:32:13.605 --> 00:32:19.461
That immeasurable being, that indestructible being, that everlasting being is Brahman.

00:32:20.375 --> 00:32:24.394
Now the body itself can never become indestructible and everlasting.

00:32:24.605 --> 00:32:30.785
We know this, there is no one that has lived more than 150 years that we know about.

00:32:31.332 --> 00:32:38.625
We know that everybody goes through some sort of destruction within the body, if you think about it.

00:32:39.226 --> 00:32:44.914
I mean, look at how we age that shows we are subject to being destroyed.

00:32:45.815 --> 00:32:49.444
While if something was indestructible, it has to remain the same.

00:32:49.628 --> 00:32:51.909
It cannot be modified in any way.

00:32:52.163 --> 00:32:54.952
The unreal can never become real because of this.

00:32:55.147 --> 00:32:58.948
The body can never become Sat, it can never become real.

00:32:59.701 --> 00:33:01.082
We have to understand this.

00:33:01.442 --> 00:33:06.632
It's very important that we take time to understand this, but we can use an example to help us.

00:33:06.674 --> 00:33:08.944
And that is the pot and clay.

00:33:09.028 --> 00:33:10.867
In reality, only clay is.

00:33:11.698 --> 00:33:14.008
The pot can never become clay itself.

00:33:14.404 --> 00:33:17.075
The clay appears as the pot only.

00:33:18.484 --> 00:33:25.904
The pot can never turn around and say I'm clay because no, it's always been clay.

00:33:27.644 --> 00:33:29.055
It's never been the pot.

00:33:29.384 --> 00:33:30.944
We've given it a name and form.

00:33:31.392 --> 00:33:33.342
But the clay is always there.

00:33:33.424 --> 00:33:34.214
Same with Brahman.

00:33:34.214 --> 00:33:35.194
Brahman is always there.

00:33:35.194 --> 00:33:45.654
This being within us, this immeasurable being, this indestructible being, this everlasting being has always inhabited this body, your body, every body.

00:33:45.892 --> 00:33:48.261
This is the simple way of understanding it.

00:33:48.875 --> 00:33:57.063
This being, which is Brahman is consciousness, awareness to this body, but the body itself cannot give consciousness.

00:33:57.229 --> 00:33:58.969
Consciousness has always remained.

00:33:59.028 --> 00:34:01.746
Awareness has remained even before our birth.

00:34:02.500 --> 00:34:04.780
This body is destroyed in two ways.

00:34:04.928 --> 00:34:07.748
When the body dies, we say the body is destroyed, right?

00:34:07.938 --> 00:34:10.068
We see the body go through cremation.

00:34:10.128 --> 00:34:18.565
The body's gone and then if you look at the other side, if someone has a terminal illness, we say that illness is destroying that body.

00:34:18.795 --> 00:34:26.465
Brahman cannot be destroyed because as we know It is Is-ness beyond past, present and future.

00:34:26.681 --> 00:34:28.152
It is self existent.

00:34:28.782 --> 00:34:30.282
Therefore it cannot be destroyed.

00:34:30.492 --> 00:34:32.501
The body can be destroyed by something.

00:34:33.434 --> 00:34:43.414
It has a cause behind it's destruction and will eventually regardless be destroyed, but Brahman cannot, and it cannot even destroy itself remember.

00:34:43.818 --> 00:34:48.041
Even if Brahman wanted to deny itself, it cannot deny itself.

00:34:48.298 --> 00:34:49.802
That's the reality.

00:34:50.007 --> 00:34:50.907
There's other aspects.

00:34:50.907 --> 00:34:55.487
Sometimes people have a relative type of sense of destroying.

00:34:55.887 --> 00:35:05.467
When they say that "I've lost my house, my business, everything is destroyed." That's all in the mind, but that's an absolute, the body dying is an absolute thing.

00:35:05.628 --> 00:35:17.760
When we lose someone, in my own life, the people that I've lost, my aunts, my uncles, my brother, my guru, their body is no longer here.

00:35:18.900 --> 00:35:23.061
Their body has been burnt and all that's left is my own memories.

00:35:23.653 --> 00:35:25.003
They aren't remembering me.

00:35:25.244 --> 00:35:25.934
They've gone.

00:35:26.713 --> 00:35:28.463
They need a mind to remember me.

00:35:28.891 --> 00:35:32.289
If you think about it deeply, everyone is destroyed.

00:35:32.528 --> 00:35:42.309
It's a harsh truth, it's a harsh reality and this is why I think it's phenomenal that early on Krishna does not delay.

00:35:42.878 --> 00:35:46.179
If you think about it, the first chapter is just Arjuna mainly speaking.

00:35:46.646 --> 00:35:51.206
Then in the second chapter, he goes straight into death.

00:35:51.300 --> 00:36:00.519
If there's any way to shock someone that is one way, to talk about death and when we encounter death, we then realize we need to do something.

00:36:00.730 --> 00:36:07.737
I think whenever someone dies and you experience seeing someone you love die, someone that you care about.

00:36:07.902 --> 00:36:11.891
Your own mortality always comes into the picture always.

00:36:11.978 --> 00:36:14.251
You can never escape your own mortality.

00:36:14.820 --> 00:36:19.782
We always do that, and that's why we have to really understand what we really are.

00:36:19.952 --> 00:36:24.032
We have to do it in, in the right time.

00:36:24.449 --> 00:36:26.902
We have to do it as soon as possible.

00:36:27.893 --> 00:36:32.119
I always say this to people that communicate with me on a regular basis.

00:36:32.840 --> 00:36:36.920
I always tell them that I want to become liberated.

00:36:36.920 --> 00:36:42.873
I want to attain mukti, moksha because I don't know how long I have left.

00:36:43.391 --> 00:36:51.688
I've seen people die who were younger than me or I surpassed the age in which they died.

00:36:52.045 --> 00:36:54.356
And I ask myself, what have I achieved?

00:36:54.829 --> 00:36:59.606
And that's why for me, attaining moksha is a real thing.

00:36:59.846 --> 00:37:12.998
Like if you told me tomorrow that I have to let go of everything, my wealth, my attachments, and attain moksha, when they say moksha, I don't mean dying.

00:37:13.271 --> 00:37:16.461
Like in terms of my body's going to die.

00:37:17.541 --> 00:37:23.952
I'm talking about jivan-mukti, I'm talking about moksha that you attain when you're alive.

00:37:24.449 --> 00:37:28.739
If I had to let go of my wealth, everything, I would do it.

00:37:31.079 --> 00:37:36.572
But I know that in a way, the whole point of jivan-mukti is that you don't let go of anything.

00:37:37.295 --> 00:37:38.706
It's about understanding.

00:37:39.175 --> 00:37:44.096
That's why Vedanta is so appealing to me because it's about understanding.

00:37:44.335 --> 00:37:50.413
But going back to what I was saying is my own mortality is what reminds me that I need to do something.

00:37:50.643 --> 00:38:03.068
It's really important to have that desire, that zeal, that enthusiasm, to get to the truth, to understand Brahman and to become Brahman.

00:38:03.985 --> 00:38:08.855
You have to have so much passion in this and actually the passion is created by itself.

00:38:08.934 --> 00:38:16.014
Funny thing is when I started really studying spirituality, it was during a tragic time, well I thought it was tragic.

00:38:16.045 --> 00:38:18.465
It wasn't really, it's a common thing.

00:38:18.465 --> 00:38:20.894
You go through a breakup, and you think your world is going to end.

00:38:21.764 --> 00:38:27.045
I remember that's the first time I opened myself to reading scriptures.

00:38:27.094 --> 00:38:36.628
So I started reading and then once I started, I encountered the word Brahman for the first time it was in I think, 2011.

00:38:37.239 --> 00:38:37.869
That was it.

00:38:38.324 --> 00:38:51.219
I was, I was so captured by this, that it just led me into a time of study and each time I'm finding, I'm not saying I'm there.

00:38:51.378 --> 00:38:53.509
I don't know how far I am from it.

00:38:53.728 --> 00:39:02.789
But all I do know is that my understanding keeps refining and it keeps getting better.

00:39:03.128 --> 00:39:14.545
You have to have that attitude, one of learning, of the seeker, but also of understanding and getting to terms with that understanding, then you move forward.

00:39:15.164 --> 00:39:23.114
It's like I said, once you start reading about Brahman, listening about Brahman, that's all you want to do.

00:39:23.338 --> 00:39:26.168
You have to be really careful because you have to live your life too.

00:39:26.188 --> 00:39:29.038
I have a wife, we have a mortgage to pay for.

00:39:29.038 --> 00:39:32.728
We have bills to pay for, and we need to support each other.

00:39:32.929 --> 00:39:40.762

Thoughts on The Bhagavad Gita (Chapter 2: Verse 16 - Verse 20)

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