Wisdom of the Mystics: Swami Vivekananda

In this episode, The Bearded Mystic Podcast discusses the wisdom of the great mystic Swami Vivekananda, who brought Vedanta to the West and remains a central figure in Eastern Spirituality along with true devotion towards his guru Sri Ramakrishna Paramhamsa, who we discussed last month. Swami ji gave the perfect blend of spiritual teachings like devotion, knowledge and reasoning, meditation and serving others. Ultimately, Swami Vivekananda has inspired many generations after him and will continue to do so.
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Hello, and welcome to another episode of The Bearded Mystic Podcast and I'm your host, Rahul N.
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Singh.
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Thank you for taking out the time today to either watch or listen to this podcast episode.
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Today, we'll be continuing on with our series called Wisdom of the Mystics.
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Last month we looked at the teachings of Sri Ramakrishna Paramhamsa.
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In this episode today, we will be looking at the teachings of one of the most important spiritual teachers, who first came to the West to teach Hinduism and that is Swami Vivekananda Ji, who is a direct disciple of Sri Ramakrishna Paramhamsa and what we will be doing today is looking at a few of his sayings and contemplating upon them.
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Now, Swami Vivekananda is a great primer to Advaita Vedanta and Hinduism in general.
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Most importantly, he is a thinker, a philosopher that really understood how to adapt Hinduism in today's day and age.
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Now, his vision for a pluralistic society that allows each religion to flourish is one that I really, really admire and one that I constantly advocate for even though I may disagree with a religion's philosophy, it does not mean that that is not valid for a lot of people, or it should not be practiced by a lot of people.
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It should be because everybody is at a different level.
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And I do wanna say that although Swami Vivekananda Ji believed that everything was more or less equal, the only thing where I depart from is that I think that Advaita Vedanta is the pinnacle of spirituality and to really understand spirituality is to go through Advaita Vedanta.
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But that does not mean that we cannot modernize Advaita Vedanta and Swami Vivekananda Ji was one person that really did that.
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The other thing that I want to say is that Swami Vivekananda Ji is behind all the Vedanta Societies or the Vedanta Centers that are here in the west and he's behind the whole Sri Ramakrishna Mission and what I would say that is one of the spiritual organizations that I think are excellent, that really teach the truth and they embody that truth as well.
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As you know, one of the teachers that I really respect is Swami Sarvapriyananda Ji, and he's part of the Ramakrishna Order that Swami Vivekananda set up, and he also teaches at the Vedanta Society in New York where he is the Head Minister.
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I have a lot of respect for this, spiritual organization and its teachers.
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Now, let's begin with the first quote.
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Whatever you think, that you will be.
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If you think yourselves weak, weak you will be; if you think yourselves strong, strong you will be; if you think yourselves impure, impure you will be; if you think yourselves pure, pure you will be.
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This teaches us not to think ourselves as weak, but as strong, omnipotent, omniscient.
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Now, this straightaway reminds me, and it seems to be emphasizing upon the teachings that are there in the Ashtavakra Gita.
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Now, if you remember in there there's a verse where Ashtavakra Ji says, if you think you are liberated, then you are liberated.
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If you think you are bound, then you are bound, and this is literally saying the same thing.
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A lot of people say, well, I'm impure.
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How can I know God?
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I am weak.
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How can I know God?
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God is so strong.
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God is so mighty.
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The truth is so difficult to understand.
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I'm someone of little intellect and you know, sometimes our mystics said this in poetry, but what people tend to miss out is the eventual realization that these mystics had, and because of that, they do not fully understand the intention behind what was being said.
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Now, Swami Vivekananda Ji here is literally saying in the very first line, whatever you think that you will be.
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Now imagine if you think you are liberated, your whole action will change.
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Your whole embodiment of the teachings will change, your whole understanding of the teaching will change because now you'll see that the teachings from a liberated perspective rather than feeling bound.
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And if you feel bound, how are you going to set yourself free?
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So this is the very beautiful thing about what Swami Vivekananda Ji is saying here, is that whatever you think that you will be, and here in our podcast and in our community, we constantly talk about how we are that Nirguna Brahman itself.
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We are that Formless Awareness and nothing else.
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Although we do not reduce the transactional reality in any way.
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But we do make sure we know how to utilize the transactional reality into the Ultimate Reality, Nirguna Brahman, Formless Awareness.
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The good thing is, while we're going through these quotes of Swami Vivekananda Ji, we are literally going through the philosophy that I mostly actually agree with, and which is sometimes surprising for me because I may disagree with things here and there, or have major disagreements, but with Swami Vivekananda Ji, I don't have much to disagree with.
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I probably agree with him more than I do with Adi Shankara Ji so that says a lot.
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Anyway, let's get back to the quote.
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He also says, this teaches us not to think ourselves as weak, but as strong, omnipotent and omniscient.
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Now if you have that feeling that you can be liberated or that you are liberated, that automatically makes you feel strong, that automatically makes you think, I can achieve this.
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I can get there, I will do my most to get there.
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I have all the strength, all the capability to do so.
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That's what happens when we think ourselves as strong.
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If we think ourselves as pure because remember that pure and strong is that Formless Awareness.
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Remember, we have that right understanding, not the incorrect understanding of avidya, where we are in ignorance of what we really are.
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He also says, omnipotent.
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So, omnipotent here means having all the power.
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What do you have all the power to do?
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Not to rule over people and gain political power or gain power in terms of country or a nation.
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That is just a facade of power.
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The real power is transforming your life.
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There's a saying by Guru Nanak, Dev ji, that man jeetai jag jeet.
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When you win your mind, when you're victorious over your mind, you are victorious over the whole world because if you can really have victory over the mind, if you can control your vrittis, the movement in your mind, the conditionings, the tendencies, the habits, the memories, the thoughts, the emotions, the feelings, or if you can control all of that, you are ultimately strong.
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That's why you are powerful, because you have the ability to do this because you are Formless Awareness, and that's why you have all that power to transform your life.
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First of all, we have to understand that that is the inherent power within us.
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Then he says, omniscient.
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Omniscient means to have infinite awareness.
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Now, some people say it's about being all knowing, but not in the sense of you will know the lottery numbers or you can read people's thoughts or you can second guess events that are going to happen.
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Those are clairvoyant powers.
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But the real one is Infinite Awareness.
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Now, when it says all knowing, it means knowing the all meaning, knowing Nirguna Brahman knowing the Ultimate Reality.
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That's where you are omniscient because you have that infinite awareness of what you really are.
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The infinite awareness of Formless Awareness.
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So let's say you have infinite Formless Awareness.
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So that's what that means.
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Also, a point to make.
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Sometimes people use the word Antaryami.
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Now, antaryami, the real meaning behind that is not knowing everything.
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You know, sometimes you say the Guru is antaryami and it's interpreted as, oh, well the Guru knows everything.
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No, the Guru only knows the truth.
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If you ask the Guru what you had for breakfast, the guru's not gonna know.
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Or the guru's not gonna know what thought you just had, that's not the job of the Guru.
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The Guru is there to transform your life.
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And how does it do that?
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It knows that One.
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So that's also a word that people use.
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But the antaryami is the inner dweller, which is Nirguna Brahman, the real subject, the One that's always behind our senses and its projections.
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The one that's always watching but is unchanged.
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Sometimes we say, well, I am mukt, I've received the Brahm Gyana.
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I have received that knowledge of Brahman.
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And now that I know Brahman, I'm liberated.
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In a lot of spiritual organizations this is said a lot, but then at the same time, they say that they are bound, they are bounded by the walls of that spiritual organization or that religious organization, or they're bounded by Maya.
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They have not been able to address their desires or their raga and dveshas, their likes and dislikes.
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They're not been able to deal with what attracts them and what is repulsive.
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They're not able to do that.
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So by saying that you are mukt, but then bounded by the world because you start asking for forgiveness because you feel that you have sinned, well, you know, you can't do that.
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That makes no sense.
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So growing your inner strength is necessary for spiritual evolution.
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So remember that you are strong, omnipotent, omniscient, and you are Formless Awareness.
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The second quote, and this is a long quote, the reason why I picked this is because we ask this question a lot.
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Let's see what Swami Vivekananda Ji says: the one question that is most difficult to grasp in understanding the Advaita philosophy, and the one question that will be asked again and again and that will always remain is how has the Infinite, the Absolute become the finite?
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I will now take up this question, and in order to illustrate it, I will use a figure.
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Here is the Absolute (a) and this is the universe (b).
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The Absolute has become the universe.
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But this is not only meant the material world, but the mental world, the spiritual world, heavens and earths, and in fact everything that exists.
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Mind is the name of change, and body the name of another change and so on.
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And all these changes compose our universe.
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So this Absolute ( a) has become the universe (b) by coming through time, space, and causation (c).
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So that C is right here in between.
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This is a central idea of Advaita.
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Time, space and causation are like the glass through which the Absolute is seen, and when it is seen on the lower side, it appears as the universe.
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Now we at once gather from this that in the Absolute, there is neither time, space, nor causation.
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The idea of time cannot be there.
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Seeing that there is no mind, no thought, the idea of space cannot be there.
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Seeing that there is no external change.
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What you call motion and causation cannot exist where there is only One.
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We have to understand this and impress it on our minds, that what we call causation begins after, if we may be permitted to say so, the degeneration of the Absolute into the phenomenal or transactional, and not before; that our will, our desire and all these things always come after that.
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This is a common question.
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Why did God create the world or manifest this world?
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Why is there Maya?
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How can Maya hide Brahman?
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Why do we find that Maya is absolutely real?
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But Brahman is more of an abstract, unreal thing.
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Why is that the case?
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And it's all about how we perceive things.
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Now, as he said, if we see this, if we see this as the Absolute, this, as the universe and time, space and causation in between.
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So when we see through time, space, and causation, we see the universe.
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But when we get rid of time, space, and causation, then there is no universe.
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It's only the absolute.
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So that's the way to understand that.
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Let me explain even further.
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Everything is considered as the universe or the material world.
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All of our mental faculties as well is the material world.
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Mind is one tool that shows us change and that there is name and form of another.
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That's ultimately what, the mind does.
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Now what we do know is that name and form will change.
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It has a cause behind it.
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Change is a constant in this universe.
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Planets change, galaxies go through changes, this earth is going through changes.
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Everything is changing.
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Even though, it may seem stationary, there is subtle change actually happening.
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All this change is what we refer to as the material universe.
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Now, how has this Absolute Reality become part of the transactional reality?
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That's the main question.
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First of all, we have to understand that the Absolute Reality or Nirguna Brahman is infinite, undivided, unchanging, Sat, Chit, Ananda- Existence, Consciousness, Bliss.
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Yet we experience it as a limited name of form, finite bound by space, which is divided, and time which is changing.
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Maya has two main aspects.
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One is samasti, which is the cosmic appearance and world of senses, which is not a projection of the finite mind, and then vyasti, which is the individual ignorance, which is avidya, which obstructs right discrimination, remember between the Real and unreal, like Sri Krishna mentions in the chapter two of Bhagavad Gita.
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Once we remove the avidya, we see only the Absolute Reality.
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So once we understand that everything that is unreal is that which changes, then we realize that time is always changing and it perpetuates change, space divides things and name and form or causation, has a finite existence because of being divided and changed.
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It is not that infinite, undivided, Sat Chit Ananda, therefore it's not the Nirguna Brahman.
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So because of that, we need to understand that once we remove avidya, we see only Nirguna Brahman because there is no time, space, and causation, there is no finiteness.
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If we see through avidya, we will see the universe and it's multiple manifestations like we are doing right now.
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So once you remove avidya, then we see things as they are.
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Everything that we perceive through this body of time, space and causation is subject to change and therefore is an appearance.
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And yet the Absolute Reality remains regardless if we see the transactional reality or not.
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So remember, the subject is always there regardless of this objective world, this world of objects, this universe of objects is always there changing.
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But when that is all gone, then this Absolute Reality, this Nirguna Brahman remains as it is.
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What Swami Vivekananda Ji really means is we have not utilized our intellect and we've not been able to utilize our discernment correctly.
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What's happened is we have got the Absolute Reality and basically degenerated it into the phenomenal world.
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So then we see this material world as being the only God.
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You know, that's like the Charvaka kind of philosophy, the materialist philosophy that everything is matter.
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Matter is the absolute truth, the Absolute Reality.
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But in Advaita Vedanta we say, well, that's not the case.
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It appears to be so, but actually because it's, divided, it can change.
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Remember even atoms, you can divide atoms into subatomic particles and so forth.
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So that means ultimately that that is also unreal.
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Even space, even though it may appear empty, you can also divide that.
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What Swami Vivekananda Ji saying is, once we understand there is no mind, there's no time, space, or causation.
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Now how can we experience that is through meditation.
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And that's why if you want to experience a glimpse of this, I will say attend the Saturday meditation sessions because we use a method which actually helps us to understand this even further.
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Let's go to the third quote.
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Brahman is the infinite, impersonal being - ever existent, unchanging, immortal, fearless; and you are all His incarnations, His embodiments.
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This is the God of Vedanta, and His heaven is everywhere.
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In this heaven dwell all the Personal Deities there are - you yourselves.
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Exit praying and laying flowers in the temples! This is a very interesting quote.
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First of all, he explains what Brahman is.
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He says, understand what Brahman is, that everything is Brahman.
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this impersonal being, this Impersonal Formless Being, it's ever existent.
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It's always here.
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It's eternal.
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It's unchanging because it's absolutely real, and it's Immortal because it doesn't belong to time.
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It cannot die and it's fearless.
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There is no other, so why would there be fear?
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Then he says, you are all his incarnations.
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Now here he's referring to all the Avatars like Sri Krishna, Sri Rama, he's saying that all of them are you.
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So don't think that they are separate and every embodiment, every deity is also you.
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Every Deity that is worshiped in the temple.
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That is you too.
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That is the god of Vedanta.
00:18:38.866 --> 00:18:43.997
There is only that one Ultimate Supreme Reality, and that is Brahman.
00:18:44.031 --> 00:18:46.781
This is what is considered to be Nirguna Brahman.
00:18:46.981 --> 00:18:49.842
This is what's considered to be the God in Vedanta.
00:18:49.917 --> 00:18:57.537
Actually, if you think about it, the God of Vedanta is very different to the God of the Abrahamics.
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and this is the distinction he's making in this verse.
00:19:00.240 --> 00:19:02.548
Then he addresses the aspect of heaven.
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Well, where else can heaven be?
00:19:04.250 --> 00:19:12.830
If there is only Brahman because it's ever existent, unchanging, Immortal, fearless, You are all It's incarnations and its embodiment.
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Then it must be amongst us.
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It must be everywhere.
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It must exist wherever you may be.
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It has to be within us, around us, and everywhere.
00:19:21.752 --> 00:19:26.016
If all is Brahman, how can it be soiled or ruined in any way?
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How can it be bad in any way or evil in any way?
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There can only be heaven.
00:19:31.236 --> 00:19:32.435
There cannot be hell.
00:19:32.462 --> 00:19:34.492
Swami Vivekananda Ji is addressing.
00:19:34.532 --> 00:19:39.509
If we go to the ultimate level, if we understand the Ultimate Truth, the Ultimate Reality.
00:19:39.536 --> 00:19:51.489
Now, all the personal deities that are worshiped, everybody may have a personal Deity, whether that's Hanuman Ji, Ganesh Ji, Jesus, Mohamed, Buddha, anyone, any deity.
00:19:51.689 --> 00:19:55.628
He's also saying that these are you too They are not anything different.
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It is you, so don't think they are separate.
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Don't think they are different.
00:20:00.459 --> 00:20:02.598
Don't think that they are beyond you.
00:20:02.645 --> 00:20:10.702
They are YOU! Swami Vivekananda Ji speaks the Highest Truth here, and this is hard for a lot of people to understand and maybe even accept.
00:20:10.923 --> 00:20:14.492
He says, exit praying and laying flowers in the temple.
00:20:14.692 --> 00:20:16.103
This is the highest truth.
00:20:16.432 --> 00:20:24.103
What he's saying is that all these rituals that we do, all these prayers that we do, all these are okay, but they're not necessary.
00:20:24.303 --> 00:20:34.923
Once we understand the Ultimate Truth, once we have Brahm Gyana, once we have the knowledge of Brahman, the insights into Brahman, none of those things are necessary.
00:20:35.123 --> 00:20:36.113
Who to pray to?
00:20:36.313 --> 00:20:37.992
You're praying to yourself.
00:20:38.192 --> 00:20:42.006
Why lay flowers in the temples or why wear the sacred thread?
00:20:42.006 --> 00:20:43.115
Any of those things.
00:20:43.316 --> 00:20:46.705
Why do those things when You are Brahman itself?
00:20:46.905 --> 00:20:48.336
Brahman doesn't wear a thread.
00:20:48.536 --> 00:20:49.826
You know the Brahmin thread.
00:20:50.026 --> 00:20:51.726
Brahman doesn't go on a fast.
00:20:51.925 --> 00:20:56.576
Brahman doesn't pray three times a day or five times a day, or 10 times a day.
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And That is You.
00:20:57.760 --> 00:20:59.249
So why are you doing that?
00:20:59.308 --> 00:21:02.244
Brahman doesn't need anything or desire anything.
00:21:02.244 --> 00:21:04.729
So why are you asking Brahman for things?
00:21:04.733 --> 00:21:07.729
Why are you asking these deities for anything when they are you?
00:21:07.929 --> 00:21:13.355
A very, very important truth, and not everybody is willing to go there.
00:21:13.425 --> 00:21:15.226
We like to feel separate.
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We like to feel different.
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We like to feel distinct.
00:21:18.890 --> 00:21:28.942
It's easier but if we, as it said in the first quote, if we gain that strength and we understand our internal power, we can achieve it.
00:21:29.143 --> 00:21:33.583
We can achieve the Greatest, the Highest because we are That Highest.
00:21:33.782 --> 00:21:50.326
And then he continues to say, only those who don't know Brahman say that you must do these things, all these pandits, all these priests, all these so-called religious people, they say you have to do these things, you must do these things, they are necessary.
00:21:50.527 --> 00:21:55.696
But an enlightened being will say, " yes, rituals and prayers they may help.
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They may be good, but they won't give you enlightenment.
00:22:00.126 --> 00:22:11.884
For enlightenment, you have to understand and you have to embody the Brahm Gyana, and only that knowledge of Brahman can lead you there." And this is said in the scriptures itself.
00:22:12.084 --> 00:22:15.157
This is not something that deviates from the scriptures.
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This is the very teachings of the scriptures too.
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Even the scriptures will say, there's no point reading the scriptures, if all you're doing is blindly reading and not embodying the teachings.
00:22:25.970 --> 00:22:34.856
So a true teacher, a true guide, a true friend will tell you understand what Brahman is because that's what you are.
00:22:35.057 --> 00:22:40.436
All these rituals you've been doing, they are delaying you from understanding this.
00:22:40.636 --> 00:22:46.586
Work on understanding this, not on these false pretense of doing something spiritual.
00:22:46.623 --> 00:22:50.247
If your mind is still not getting pure, what is the point?
00:22:50.446 --> 00:22:55.267
And we have to be very, very honest in our introspection.
00:22:55.683 --> 00:22:57.653
Let's go to the fourth quote.
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You are Brahman, and whatever else you may think is wrong.
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You must worship the Self in Krishna, not Krishna as Krishna.
00:23:05.864 --> 00:23:10.076
Only by worshiping the Self can freedom be won.
00:23:10.166 --> 00:23:14.676
Even the personal God is but the Self objectified.
00:23:14.876 --> 00:23:23.675
Again, very direct, teaching a very direct quote by Swami Vivekananda Ji, This is clear for us on what he's trying to say.
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That you are this Brahman and have no doubt about it.
00:23:27.286 --> 00:23:30.048
Do not doubt this truth of what You are.
00:23:30.249 --> 00:23:42.903
If you think you're anything else like this body and mind, or if you think you are this soul, this Jiva, gross or subtle or even the subtlest like empty space, then that is also wrong.
00:23:42.948 --> 00:23:44.536
If you think you're those things.
00:23:44.598 --> 00:23:48.328
If you think you are any form of any kind, that is wrong.
00:23:48.442 --> 00:23:55.169
And Swami Vivekananda Ji is very clear because his first three words are, You Are Brahman.
00:23:55.368 --> 00:23:56.269
Very clear.
00:23:56.308 --> 00:23:59.709
Remember when he's saying "You", he's talking about the Self.
00:23:59.909 --> 00:24:04.855
He also says that you must worship the Self in Krishna, not Krishna as Krishna.
00:24:05.056 --> 00:24:08.165
When we read the Bhagavad Gita, how should we read it?
00:24:08.211 --> 00:24:11.796
You know, I often talk about this in my, commentary on the Bhagavad Gita.
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We should see Krishna as Nirguna Brahman alone.
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That's the only way we should see Krishna, not as this person at all.
00:24:21.372 --> 00:24:33.464
You know, we should not think of Krishna as the historical figure in the Bhagavad Gita, we should see that that historical figure that's being referred to is Brahman itself and Brahman only.
00:24:33.664 --> 00:24:38.923
And because Krishna understood that there is only Brahman and he embodied that teaching.
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He embodied that insight.
00:24:40.801 --> 00:24:51.545
He embodied the Brahm Gyana and that's why we should worship the real essence in Krishna, which is Nirguna Brahman, this Ultimate Reality, this Formless Reality.
00:24:51.585 --> 00:25:03.535
Swami Vivekananda Ji says this maybe anticipating the way people have started to deify, Sri Krishna as the absolute therefore, bringing in duality.
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We are lower than Krishna.
00:25:05.184 --> 00:25:13.494
We are lower aspects, and they deify Krishna and ignore Nirguna Brahman and we see this in ISKCON and their philosophy.
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They see Krishna as the Ultimate and everybody is separate and different and unique to Sri Krishna.
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But this is a wrong understanding because even Sri Krishna does not agree with this.
00:25:23.961 --> 00:25:36.384
Once one sees with that understanding that you are Brahman, that we are worshiping the Self in Krishna, and this is not just Sri Krishna, but Sri Rama or Shiva Ji or any Vishnu Avatar.
00:25:36.585 --> 00:25:39.244
We see the Self in them, nothing else.
00:25:39.352 --> 00:25:49.838
But if we start seeing that Sri Krishna is separate to us and we bring in that duality, then our whole interpretation of the Gita will end up being wrong.
00:25:50.038 --> 00:25:54.338
That is the harsh truth that is being said and established here.
00:25:54.439 --> 00:26:03.169
If you want liberation, if you want freedom, then understanding the only thing worthy of worship is Nirguna Brahman, this Formless Awareness.
00:26:03.368 --> 00:26:09.471
Now the personal God of the Abrahamics is nothing but the Self seen through as an object.
00:26:09.672 --> 00:26:15.561
This is exactly the same thing that ISKCON does or the Hare Krishnas do with what they've done with Krishna.
00:26:15.595 --> 00:26:21.232
It's the same thing as the God of the Christians and the Allah of the Muslims.
00:26:21.234 --> 00:26:26.005
What they have done is they have made that God into an object.
00:26:26.095 --> 00:26:41.932
You must worship that God, that God is going to judge you, that God is going to define whether you're going to be liberated or not, that God is going to decide whether you are going to achieve freedom and that's another thing that Swami Vivekananda Ji's pointing towards.
00:26:41.982 --> 00:26:44.633
That's what he means by the Self objectified.
00:26:44.833 --> 00:26:51.222
Now, one thing I will say is remember the crux of this quote, which is You Are Brahman.
00:26:51.423 --> 00:26:52.303
Quote Five.
00:26:52.502 --> 00:26:58.986
The Self is the eternal subject, and we are eternally struggling to objectify that Self.
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And out of that struggle has come this phenomenon
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