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Panchadasi on Discrimination of Reality
Chapter 1: Tattva Viveka – Discrimination of Reality Verses 14-27
Created on Monday, 18 March 2013 21:30
Tasya hetuḥ samānābhi hāraḥ putra dhvaniśrutau, ihā nādira vidyaiva vyāmo haika niban dhanam (14). In the case of the father’s indistinct hearing of the voice of his son chanting the Veda, the obstacle to a clear and distinctive hearing of it is the chorus of the voices of other students also mingling with the voice of that particular student. That is the obstacle in the case of the illustration cited. What is the obstacle in the case of the Atman? It is indistinctly felt in us, partially making us feel that we love our own selves, which is possible only if the Self is revealed or manifest in some way. If it is not manifest at all, in any way whatsoever, there would be no love of Self. We would deny our Self, rather than affirm our Self. That is to say that the Self is manifest in some form.
But if it is really manifest, we would not love objects of sense. Why do we run after objects if the Self is really distinctly felt inside as the source of all bliss? This shows that there is some obstacle covering the consciousness of the Self, causing an indistinct perception of it, sometimes making it appear that it is revealed as the source of freedom and bliss in us, and at other times making us feel that we do not have any idea of it and are only thinking of the objects of sense.
The cause of the obstacle in this case is avidya, ignorance. It is a word which is difficult to explain. It is something which covers consciousness and is explained in many ways. Some people say that the avidya consists of a predominance of rajas and tamas over sattva; therefore, there is no illumination possible when the cloud of this avidya or ignorance covers the consciousness of the Atman. Others say that avidya is the residue of the potentials of all the karmas that one did in the past. In a way, we may say our avidya covering the Atman is nothing but our unfulfilled desires, whose impressions we have carried through several of our previous births. It may be that avidya is the end result of our unfulfilled desires which we could not fulfil through our different incarnations in this body. Or it may be, to explain the thing in a different way, rajas and tamas clouding sattva.
Sattva is indistinctly manifest in dream. So we have a hazy perception of things. Sattva is distractedly yet distinctly manifest in waking, so we can have a clear perception of things in the world. But we don’t have any perception in the state of deep sleep. It is pure avidya covering – an abundance of rajas and tamas activity, minus the appearance of sattva.
Cidānanda maya brahma prati bimba saman vitā, tamo rajas satva guṇā prakṛtir divividhā ca sā (15). There is a thing called prakriti. We have come across this term in the Samkhya doctrine studies. In the Vedanta also, this prakriti is accepted, with a little modification of its definition. Brahman is Pure Existence, Consciousness – sat-chit-ananda. We have already established this fact. When this Supreme Brahman, which is sat-chit-ananda, is reflected in prakriti, which is constituted of sattva, rajas and tamas gunas, the prakriti acts in two ways.
In what way does this prakriti act in a dual fashion? Yesterday we have heard that there is, on one hand, an obliteration of the consciousness of the universality of the Self. That is called the function of prakriti known as avarana, covering. The other aspect of prakriti is vikshepa, which causes the perception of an externality of the world. So it does two things: covering consciousness, and then distracting the consciousness in the direction of perception of objects outside in space and time.
When the prakriti operates cosmically and reflects the Universal Brahman consciousness in it, it is called maya. Ishvara is the name given to Brahman revealed, or manifest, or reflected through prakriti’s gunas. When a predominance of cosmic sattva, overwhelming rajas and tamas, reflects the Universal Brahman in itself, that reflected consciousness in the universal sattva is Ishvara. The universal sattva itself is called maya. Maya is under the control of Ishvara, but avidya is not under the control of the jiva or the individual. The avidya controls the jiva, while Ishvara controls maya. That is the difference between Ishvara and jiva, God and the individual.
Satva śuddhya viśuddhi bhyāṁ māyā’vidye ca te mate, māyā bimbo vaśī kṛtya tāṁ syāstarvajña īśvaraḥ (16). Omniscience is the nature of God, or Ishvara, because Ishvara is a universally spread-out reflection of the Absolute Brahman in the all-pervading, equilibrated condition of the sattva guna of prakriti. As sattva is universally manifest, it has no divisions like rajas and tamas. Therefore, the reflection through it of Brahman consciousness, known as Ishvara, is the omniscient knowing of all things at one stroke. For the same reason it is also omnipresent and omnipotent. So God is all power, all knowledge and all undivided presence: omnipresence, omniscience, omnipotence. This is the nature of Ishvara – God who creates this universe.
But the fate of the individual jiva is different. It is not omniscient; it is not omnipotent; it is not omnipresent. The jiva, the individual, is in one place only. While Ishvara is everywhere, the jiva is in one place only – like every one of us. We cannot be in two places at the same time. Our knowledge is distorted, reflected and conditioned to objects; and we have no power, because avidya controls us. Therefore, the individual jiva is the opposite of Ishvara. While bliss is the nature of Ishvara or God, unhappiness, sorrow, grief, suffering is the nature of the individual jiva.
Avidyā vaśaga stvanya stad vaicitryāda nekadhā, sā kāraṇa śarīraṁ syāt prājñas tatrā bhimāna vān (17). This avidya, or the causal body, which is also known as the anandamaya kosha in the individual, is of varieties and not of a uniform nature. The avidya of the human being, the avidya of an animal, the avidya of a plant or a tree, the avidya in stones and inanimate objects are variegated in their manifestation. They cause the variety of the species of individuals which are called 84 lakhs in number.
Jiva_s are 84 _lakhs in variety. A lakh means one hundred thousand – so 84 one-hundred-thousands. So many incarnations through the varieties of species of beings is what each one takes! And then comes the end result of this incarnating through the 84 lakhs of species, which is that we attain the state of humanity. Human beings are the last thread, knot, or the terminus of these 84 lakhs. Yet, evolution is not complete with humanity. We have to become divine beings. Merely being human beings is not sufficient, because even in the human being there is the operation of rajas and tamas. Pure sattva does not operate in the individual jiva. Therefore, there is unhappiness and a sense of finitude and limitation. Because of the subjection to avidya which, unlike Ishvara, is predominantly rajasic and tamasic in nature, and which is the varieties that are variegated in all the species of beings, there comes the causal body of the jiva.
The consciousness that is ignorant behind this avidya in the causal body is called prajna in the technical language of Vedanta philosophy. Prajna is only a name which means ‘the knower consciousness existing at the back of the totally covering and obscuring avidya in the state of deep sleep as it is manifest, and manifest in other states also, in different ways’. Avidya is not manifest only in sleep. In sleep it acts as complete obscuration, like an eclipse for the sun. But in the dreaming and waking states it manifests through the subtle body and the physical body, due to which we are conscious of our subtle body in dream and conscious of the physical body in waking. That also is an action of avidya because wherever there is externality of perception, there is avidya operating. And everything involved in this perception of outside things in space and time is working through avidya. It is only in the state of sleep that avidya completely covers the consciousness.
This consciousness in the three states – sleeping, dreaming and waking – is known by different names. The consciousness that is behind the causal body, as manifest in sleep, is called prajna. The same consciousness operating behind the dream state is called taijasa. The same consciousness operating behind the waking state is called visva. Visva, taijasa, prajna are the names of the same Atman consciousness operating behind the screen of the waking condition, dreaming condition and sleep.
Tamaḥ pradhāna prakṛte stadbho gāye śrvarā jñayā, viyat pavana tejo’mbu bhuvo bhūtāni jajñire (18). The _jiva_s or individuals – people like us, human beings – have been born into this body due to our past karmas, the fulfilment of which is to be worked out through this body and through any other body which may be compelled upon us on account of our not living a righteous and good life in this world at the present moment. For the sake of the experience of the past karmas of individuals, a field has to be created because experience is not possible unless there is a field, an area of action. This area of action for the working out of the karmas of the individuals is this vast world which God has created. The world of God, the creation of God, extends from the time of the will of God to create until God enters immanently in every created being. After this level, it is all bliss. It is Virat operating by its immanence in all beings; and variety is not a bondage there, because it is one Universal Consciousness beholding the variety of its manifestation – right from the will to create until the immanence and entry of this very same Universal Consciousness in all individuals of every species.
But tragedy starts when this individual, which is actually an immanent form of Ishvara Himself, somehow or other, for reasons nobody knows, asserts an independence of its own. It is something like the Biblical story of the fall of Lucifer by asserting an arrogant independence over God. Something like that is also the story of the Upanishads and the Vedanta – namely, that the individual somehow or other foolishly starts asserting its independence and falls headlong into the mire of sorrow, with head down and legs up, as it were, like Trishanku falling from heaven.
Then what happens? The individual is completely oblivious of the Universal Consciousness which is immanent in it. And through the attacher or the distorted screen of this sleeping condition in which it falls down, with it manifests a faculty of individuality, called mind and intellect and sense organs, for creating a heaven in its hell. It says, as the poet tells us, “It is better to reign in hell than to serve in heaven.” It does not want to serve in heaven. It will reign as the president in hell. The world is hell, and we are like presidents, ruling the world. And we feel very happy. All is well with this hell. This is what we think.
[Extracted from Swami Krishnanda Maharaj’s discourses Divine Life Society]
Spiritual Message 15 March 2013
Spiritual message of the day: Spirituality and Life by Swami Krishnananda
Created on Friday, 15 March 2013 22:17 Spirituality and Life
(A Message issued on the occasion of Swamiji’s 54th Birthday in April, 1976.)
The philosophy and culture of India is one of Ananda or Bliss. “From Bliss-Absolute we have come; in Bliss-Absolute we are rooted; and to Bliss-Absolute are we destined,” says the Taittiriya Upanishad. It is not a message of pain, agony and distress. Pessimism is unknown to India’s culture. It is a culture of exuberant positivity of approach, an approximation to God in the end, who is the greatest of positivities. Life is held to be a movement from joy to joy, and it is this that we call the evolutionary process of the soul. It is movement from a lesser truth to a higher truth.
Everything is as a relative representation of God’s perfection and so everywhere, even in the so-called erroneous movements of material, psychological and social forces, there is an element of God present, urging all these processes towards Perfection. To our culture, which is the culture of God, the culture of Perfection, all the duties of life become a manifestation of happiness. The glorious gospel of the Vedas, the Upanishads and the Bhagavadgita, which may be regarded as the tripod of India’s message to mankind, provides us with the hopeful exhortation that we can never be helpless at any moment of our life. Our culture is the blossoming full-moon, the real ‘Purnima’ of hope after hope; aspiration after aspiration. May we recall to our minds, once again, the message of the saints and sages of all times and climes, who have plumbed into the depths of the Great Reality of the universe, that we exist in God, live in God, breathe in God, move in God and perform the functions of our life in the Kingdom of God.
The whole cosmos is vibrating within every cell of our personalities. Everything that is everywhere is also within us and is inseparable from us. This was the foundation of the doctrine of God’s supreme perfection given to us by Acharya Sankara also, on the basis of the Vedas, the Upanishads, the Bhagavadgita and the Brahma Sutras. Everything we need is in us. Everything required by us for our existence, every movement in evolution towards perfection, is implanted in our being. When we were born we brought with us everything that is necessary for us and we carry all these necessities with us wherever we move in this world. We cannot be separated from these needs or standing necessities; they are inseparable from our vital existence. The cosmic consciousness realises that the cosmos is itself. This is the spirit of true spirituality.
Continue to read:
“Spirituality and Life” by Swami Krishnananda http://www.swami-krishnananda.org/disc/disc_43.html
inspiring messages from Swami Sivananda, Divine Life Society, Sivananda Ashram, Rishikesh, India
[Extracted from Swami Krishnanda Maharaj’s discourses Divine Life Society]
Spiritual Message 16 March 2013
Spiritual message of the day: The First Thought of the Day by Swami Krishnananda
Created on Saturday, 16 March 2013 22:14 From The Art of Total Thinking – Chapter 5
The First Thought of the Day
When you wake up in the morning, observe the first thought that occurs to your mind. This will give you an idea of the predominant thoughts which were governing your previous day’s life, or several earlier days. Make this habit of noting down the first thought that occurs in the morning continuously for days together, or even months. You will be surprised that very often when we get up in the morning we rise up with such anxiety and a rush of a feeling of responsibility that we would not have the occasion to note down the first thought. We are pushed into activity by the impulse of anxiety in the direction of the duties of the particular day. But it is good to have a habit of trying to note down the first thought that occurs in the morning.
Generally what we like the most or hate the most will be the thing that occurs to our mind first. There are among the many ideas of our mind certain intensive propulsions of the psyche which lie as an undercurrent of the other ideas, thoughts, feelings, etc., and these predominant ideas are those connected with what we intensely like or intensely dislike. No one can be free from these psychic habituations.
Why do these thoughts occur to the mind? They have a connection with far-reaching implications. They may be messages from distant realms. The distant regions may be spatially far away from us or inwardly deep in our own unconscious layers. However, on a careful investigation into the nature of these thoughts which occurred first in the morning, we will know what we are. Knowledge of what we really are will be given to us by a study of an average of these first thoughts that occur for a continuous period.
Each one of us is an individual, playing a role in this drama of creation, and we are neither necessary nor unnecessary. We have an importance, and we have no importance. Both statements are correct. Now, in this situation, who is a friend and who is an enemy? What is it that we can like, and what is it that we cannot like? Thus conduct your meditational activity in the early morning. These are the ways in which we can bring our thoughts to a concentrated focus of wholeness.
Continue to read:
“The Art of Total Thinking – Chapter 5: The First Thought of the Day **” by ** Swami Krishnananda
Inspiring messages from Swami Sivananda, Divine Life Society, Sivananda Ashram, Rishikesh, India
[Extracted from Swami Krishnanda Maharaj’s discourses Divine Life Society]
Panchadasi on wake, dream and sleep states
Chapter 1: Tattva Viveka – Discrimination of Reality Verses 1-5
Created on Saturday, 16 March 2013 19:53
Tathā svapne’tra vedyaṁ tu na sthiraṁ jāgare sthiram, tad behdo’tastayoḥ saṁvid ekarūpa na bhidyate (4). The difference between waking and dreaming is that waking looks like a longer experience, and dream is often considered to be shorter in comparison with waking. But that is a different matter. In the same way as we have diversity of perception in waking, there is diversity of perception in dream also. In dream we also have mountains and rivers and people, and all kinds of things. How do we know them? We have got a dream eye, dream ear, dream taste, dream touch, and so on. The mind in dream manufactures a new set of senses which are not the waking senses; and these sense organs specially created by the mind in the dreaming condition become the sources of the diversity of perception of dream objects. Even here, in order to know that there is a variety and diversity of objects in dream, there has to be a consciousness. Just as in the case of waking, the consciousness in dream is different from the variety we see in dream.
Also, the same person wakes and the same person dreams. On the one hand, consciousness is different from the variety of objects and the sensations thereof; and on the other hand, consciousness is different from waking and dreaming. It is not involved either in waking or in dreaming because it knows the difference between waking and dreaming. We know that we dreamt; we know that we are awake. Who are we that make this statement that waking is different from dream?
So consciousness does two things at the same time. It distinguishes between objects and transcends the objects by standing above them. Secondly, it distinguishes the states of consciousness (waking, dream and sleep) and stands above them as turiya – that is, the fourth state of consciousness.
The difference between waking and dream is only a question of shorter or longer duration, though in dream also we can have long durations of experience. But in comparison with the waking, we find that we slept for a few minutes and had a long dream; and a few minutes are very short in comparison with the twenty-four hours of waking. So apart from the fact of the difference in duration between waking and dream, the consciousness operating behind the senses of perception both in waking and dream is identical.
Supot thitasya sauṣpta tamo bodho bhavet smṛtiḥ, sā cāva buddha viṣayā’vabuddhaṁ tattadā tamaḥ (5). In waking, we have one kind of consciousness. In dream, we have another kind of consciousness. In sleep, we do not have any kind of consciousness. There is a darkness, a kind of ignorance in the state of deep sleep. But it is surprising that we all know that we were awake, we were dreaming, and we were sleeping. Granted, there was a kind of consciousness in waking, as it has been explained, and there was also the same consciousness operating in dream. But there was no consciousness in sleep. How did we know then, that we have slept? Knowledge of having slept cannot be there unless consciousness was there.
In waking, there are physical objects before consciousness. In dream there are mental objects before consciousness. The object before consciousness in sleep is ignorance; a cloud‑like covering over consciousness is the object. The consciousness knows that it knew nothing. It is a negative kind of consciousness. It is worthwhile analysing into the circumstance of our being aware that we slept, because sleeping is an absence of consciousness. And the fact of our having slept coming to us as a memory thereafter is something interesting.
We know what memory is. Memory, or remembrance, is the aftermath of a conscious experience that we had earlier. We remember a thing after having experienced a thing before; and if we did not have any kind of experience at all, the memory of it would not be there. So to assert that we slept yesterday, we must have had an awareness of having slept. But unfortunately, awareness of having slept is not possible because during sleep the consciousness did not actually ‘know’ the condition of sleep. We have to analyse by a fact of inference that consciousness must have been there because unconscious experience is unknown. All experience capable of a remembrance or memory afterwards has to be attached to consciousness.
By an act of inference, when we see muddy water in the Ganga, we infer that it must be raining upstream. And so in a similar manner we infer – not by direct experience, of course - by inference we realise and affirm that consciousness must have been there in deep sleep also – but for which fact, memory of sleeping would not be there afterwards.
So what follows from this? Consciousness was in waking, dream and sleep continuously. This is the reason why we feel we are the person who was awake; we are the same person that dreamt; we are the same person that slept. It does not mean somebody is waking, somebody else is dreaming, and yet somebody else is sleeping. It is not three different persons doing that. One continuous identity of personality is maintained by consciousness.
So what is the analysis now? Consciousness is continuously present in all the three states and, therefore, it constitutes a fourth state. It is not any one of the states. If consciousness were completely absorbed and identified with waking only, it would not be working in dream. And similarly, if it had been exhausted in one of the other conditions, dream or sleep, it would not have known other conditions. Inasmuch as consciousness knows all three conditions, it shows that it is none of the three conditions. It is a fourth state of consciousness, a transcendent element in us, or a transcendent element which we ourselves are. We are that transcendent consciousness, basically. We are not that which is involved in waking, dream and sleep. We are consciousness. This is the analysis here by examining the conditions of waking, dream and sleep.
Inasmuch as consciousness alone was there in sleep, we have to know something about what kind of consciousness it was. It could not be a consciousness that was in some place only, in a particular location. The peculiar character of consciousness is that it cannot be located in a particular place. It cannot be only in one place. It has to be everywhere. If consciousness is assumed to be present in one place only, there must be somebody to know that it is not elsewhere. Who is telling us that consciousness is only inside the body and it is not elsewhere? Consciousness itself is telling that.
It is necessary for consciousness to overstep the limits of its bodily encasement in order to know that it is only inside. We cannot know that there is a limitation of something within a fence unless and until we also know that there is something beyond the fence. The consciousness of finitude implies the consciousness of the Infinite. The impossibility of dividing consciousness into parts, fragments, and locating it in particular individuals makes it abundantly the Infinite that it is.
So we are actually entering into the infinite consciousness in the state of deep sleep; but because of the potentials of our karmas, prarabdha, etc., which cover our consciousness as darkness – the unfulfilled desires, the unconscious layer, as it is called in psychoanalysis – because of this covering, we do not know what is happening to us. We are actually on the lap of Brahman in that state of deep sleep. But blindfolded we go, and therefore it is as good as not going.
Consciousness has been analysed in these three verses as firstly, distinct from objects of perception; secondly, distinct from the three states; thirdly, infinite in nature. Such is the grandeur of our essential being. We are basically infinite consciousness. This is the reason why we ask for endless things. We want to possess the whole world. Even if we become kings of the earth, we are not satisfied because the Atman inside is infinite. It says, “Do you give me only the earth? I want the skies.” If you give the sky, it will say, “I want further up.” That is the asking for infinitude.
The Atman is also eternity. It is not bound by time. Therefore, we do not want to die. That desire to be immortal, the desire not to die, the desire to be existing for all time to come, endlessly, is the eternity in us that is speaking. Therefore, every one of us is basically infinite and eternal, whose nature is consciousness; and it is Absolute because of the infinitude of its nature.
[Extracted from Swami Krishnanda Maharaj’s discourses Divine Life Society]
Panchadasi explains consciousness Chapter 1
Commentary on the Panchadasi
by Swami Krishnananda
Chapter 1: Tattva Viveka – Discrimination of Reality Verses 1-5
Created on Thursday, 14 March 2013 20.37
The viveka or the analysis, the discrimination that is spoken of here, is actually the analysis of consciousness. The very beginning verses go directly into the subject without beating about the bush and giving us introductory passages or telling stories, etc. It goes to the very heart of the matter. The impossibility of denying the existence of consciousness is the main subject in the initial verses. We may doubt everything. We may even deny everything, but we cannot deny consciousness – because it is consciousness that is doubting and it is consciousness that is denying things. When all things go because of the denial of all things, then what remains? There remains the consciousness of having denied everything and the consciousness of doubting all things.
Even if we feel that we do not exist – we are annihilated or we are dead, for instance – even then, we will feel that at the back of our imagination of the annihilation of our personality there is a consciousness of the annihilation of personality. Even if we say that there is only a vacuum, and there is nil, and finally nothing exists in the world, there is a consciousness that affirms that nothing exists. Hence, it is impossible to obviate the predicament of a consciousness interfering with all things.
The first verse is engaged in a very interesting analysis of it being not possible to have duality, finally. If there are many objects of perception, as we have in the waking condition, there is a necessity for us to comprehend these multifarious objects in a single act of consciousness – or, we may say, conscious perception.
There are many trees in the forest, many stars in the heavens. Who is it that is aware of the manifoldness of the stars and the trees? How can we know that one thing is different from another thing unless there is an awareness that brings these two different objects together in a single comprehension transcending both items of difference? If A is different from B, it is not A that is knowing that A is different from B, because A is different from B as it has already been asserted; therefore, A cannot know that there is B. Nor can B know that there is A because it is not possible for B to know A, as B is different from A. There being no connection between A and B, neither A can know B, nor B can know A. Who knows that A is different from B? That knowing principle cannot be A, and it cannot be B. So the differences in the world, the dualities of perception, the multitudinous‑ness and the variety of things is capable of being known by a consciousness that is not involved in any of the objects of perception. This is the aim of the first initial philosophical verse, to place in perspective, the third aspect ie the knowing principle.
Śabda sparśā dayo vedyā vaici tryāj jāgare pṛthak, tato vibhaktā tat saṁvit aika rūpyānna bhidyate (3). Sabda sparsa – there are five objects of cognition or perception: sound, touch, form or colour, taste, and smell. The eyes cannot hear. The ears cannot see. But there is someone who sees and hears at the same time. We can sometimes see, hear, touch, smell and taste at the same time, though the five functions differ from one another. One sense organ cannot perform the function of another sense organ. The ear cannot even know that there is such a thing called eye, etc. How does it become possible for someone to know that there are five kinds of perception?
That ‘someone’ is none of these perceptions. The one who knows that one perception is different from another is none of these. It is not the eye, it is not the ear, it is not any of these senses that proclaims, “I know, I see, I hear,” etc. This consciousness, which is essential for the perception of the unity that is behind the variety of sense functions, has to be different from the sense functions. Vibhakta means ‘different from’; ‘variety’ means vaichitrya. In the waking condition jagara, the variety of perception of objects, is made possible on account of the variegated functions of the sense organs. We know this very well. It does not require much of an explanation. Yet, it does not require much time for us to appreciate that the knower of the difference of these functions cannot be any one of these functions. That knower is awareness, pure and simple – consciousness, samvid. On account of the transcendence and the unitary character of consciousness above the diversity of the senses, consciousness has to be established in the waking condition as existing, transcending, ranging above the sense functions. We will realise that this is the state of affairs in dream also - tatha svapne in the next verse.
[Extracted from Swami Krishnanda Maharaj’s discourses Divine Life Society]
Freewill
Freewill or Predetermined
Created on Wednesday, 6 March 2013 20.26 For thousands of years, the question has lingered in our mind: Do we have free will, or are our actions predetermined? There are three possible choices; namely, we enjoy complete ‘Free will’, or, every action is predermined, or some combination of the two. The choice of neither being true does not seem logical, because, in the absence of both free will and predeterminance, only chaos would reign. Since our Universe presents at least some order, this cannot be the case.
Between free will and predeterminance, there are strong arguments to be made for both sides, but there are several weaknesses in the hypotheses, as well. For instance, free will for every organism to influence the universe would imply that there would be no untoward experiences for anyone. This is not true in our universe, unfortunately. It is also possible that the free will of two organisms can conflict, resulting in less effect on the universe.
The universe does not seem to be totally predetermined, either, since individual actions seem to be able to change the course of history. One could argue, of course, that even these rogue actions were predetermined, but that thought process leads to fatalism.
We have failed, then, to come to a final understanding with either group. What if it is a combination of the two? If it is a combination, then to what extent do we have free will? What is predetermined? Who exerts control over events?
Scientists call this the Big Bang, which set events to flow in the forward direction and in turn to make ‘time’ move in the forward direction. At the very instant of Big Bang there was absolute ‘order’ in whatever caused the Big Bang. But from then on there is a constant movement towards disorderliness or chaotic nature of all things. The Universe is set to move from a lower entropy state to higher entropy states. Higher entropy states mean more disorder, this flow of direction cannot be reversed. This is the reason it takes more effort to bring order to our life than to let it sink into disorder. While trying to maintain lower entropy levels, we take the energy from the Universe which in turn makes the Universe move towards even higher entropies elsewhere.
So can we say that we have free will to maintain lower entropy levels? To answer this, we need to look into the Copenhagen Interpretation, which is one of the earliest and most commonly taught interpretations of quantum mechanics. It says that quantum mechanics principles cannot yield a description of an objective reality. It means that until anything is observed all things exists only as many states of possibilities or potentials. According to the interpretation, the act of measurement or observation causes the set of probabilities to immediately and randomly assume only one of the possible values. Can we imagine that all things in the Universe exist as only possibilities? In a way, this leads directly to the ‘Schrödinger’s Cat Thought Experiment’, where a cat, trapped in a box where a deadly vial of radioactive material could leak at any time, from a quantum mechanical, probabilistic point-of-view, is both alive and dead with a 50:50 chance. Extending this concept, can we say that if we do not know ‘a thing’ that ‘thing’ does not exist in reality but exists only as several possible states waiting to be manifested? So can we say that the observation causes manifestation into singular events in space and time?
Based on these, we can infer that it is predetermined that all things exist as only possibilities until our mind, through ‘free will’, manifests and collapses all the possibilities into a single event in an irreversible direction due to the increasing entropy of the Universe. So if you train your mind to manifest only things that you want, you can still do it! If a tree falls in a forest and no one around, then it did not make any noise. In fact, the tree itself might not have existed!
[Personal Notes from Swami Krishnanda Maharaj’s discourses Divine Life Society]
Conciousness
Conciousness
Created on Friday, 15 February 2013 15:27
We feel that the entire universe is changing, applies to all, from the galaxies to elemental particles, there are flow of events in the forward direction as it seems. It is not possible for anything to know the change being part of the changing universe, change cannot know change. Only an un-changing entity can know that there is a changing phenomenon. The un-changing entity is the universal consciousness.
When we look into Quantum world, we find that the wave function of the light itself collapses into a particle when observed but when not observed it continues to behave like endless waves. The pre-observed state is a mass-less state for pure energy that is present everywhere in the universe (seems so spatially), cannot be isolated into any location. This phenomenon also leads to non-locality and simultaneous existence of same elemental particles like the electrons. The waves of light interfere with each other as if it is one big ocean of water, but a small part taken out of the ocean we call it a water drop. Actually there is no water drop in the ocean; the whole ocean is one big drop!
When the wave collapses into a particle, it attains a mass which creates space for its existence, in this process of creation of space; time is also created to accommodate the flow of events. So prior to wave function collapse there was no time and no space. There is no matter in the universe if the wave energy does not convert to matter. Energy – Matter conversion and vice versa is a known phenomenon now.
Space is actually something like a medium between any two or three particles (mass), when the particles disappear; the space between them also disappears. Matter only creates space and time. An analogy would be an inflated balloon, as the air molecules inflate the balloon and creates the space and volume inside the balloon. There is no space outside the surface of the balloon itself if you compare this with the universe. An insect trying to escape from inside the balloon cannot do so as there is no space available outside the balloon. That is why even light can only traverse along the outer boundary of the universe in a cervical path as it cannot travel outside the universe as there is no space available.
So before manifesting into matter, the energy is still existing but in a ‘space less and timeless’ state and this energy is infinite, unchanging which gets manifested when observed. Who is observing? The consciousness is observing and manifests this infinite energy into matter and in the process creates space and time, the matter being all galaxies made up of fundamental particles including cells that make up living organisms. If we look deeper into quantum level we will find that there are no boundaries between anything in the universe and it a space continuum and molecular densities isolate different objects.
Psychologists say that there are three levels of mind state, deep sleep, dream and wake state. In the wake state the sense organs are very active and mind perceptions are strong. In dream state they are still functional and mind creates life-like events without actual space and time. In the deep sleep state mind also stops along with sense organs. Only vital organs function. One may not know anything during this state. But when we wake up from a deep sleep we still see ourselves not changed from before going into deep sleep, but don’t know what happened during that that period. We could have even been someone else and came back to this form again, how do we know? The only connection between the time when he went into deep sleep and when he woke up is the universal consciousness that was observing us and continues similar manifestations even after we wake up. During the deep sleep state we can say that we were one with the universal consciousness and there was no energy – matter conversion or manifestation and so there was no space and time during the deep sleep state. But when one wakes up, he has actually stopped time during the deep sleep state. But he will get back to wake state where mind is influenced by manifestations, environment and usual flow of time as we have defined time.
So we can say that our mind when merges with the universal consciousness (for eg during deep sleep), it does not manifest anything, so no matter, no space, no time but pure energy in waves present in a space less timeless condition and one with that and not different (Sat chit and Chit Sat). The only way to find out this is, that we were in that state, is the unexplainable happiness you get when you get back to wake state.
The ‘Reality’ is what the mind experiences in the deep sleep state which is ‘nothing’ but pure energy in space less timeless condition. But the wake state (like just now) is more deterministic dream state; it affirms the presence of all the objects. For one in deep sleep state, everything disappears including his own vital organs and cells, but for others who are observing him they still exist as manifested by the outside observers. When the person wakes up from deep sleep, his mind again manifest the body and the cells back to wake state and connects to the conditions prior to the deep sleep state.
[Extracted from Swami Krishnanda Maharaj’s discourses Divine Life Society]
Marriages - Wedding in Vedic Period
Wedding in Vedic period
Wedding in the Vedic period were the earliest form of marriages in India. In Vedic civilization the marriages have their written records in the Vedic texts. The Vedic Civilization had built up along the river Saraswati, in a region that now consists of the modern Indian states of Haryana and Punjab. The Vedic texts have vast dates starting from the 5th millennium BC. The use of Vedic Sanskrit continued up to the 6th century BC. Vedic is identical with Aryans and Hinduism, which is another name for religious and spiritual consideration that has evolved from the Vedas. Literary and historical researchers have established beyond that the women held a position of quality with man during Vedic period. Both the girls and boys were imported Vedic studies. The importance of woman education is described in the Atharva Veda. The success of woman in her married life depends upon her proper preparation during the Brahma Charya stage. Gargi and Maitrayee were two women philosophers of prominence of that period. There were also great woman scholars during Buddhist period. Sanghamitra, the sister of the great emperor Ashoka, went to Ceylon to spread Buddhism. There were 10 married and 32 unmarried women were among the authors of Theragatha.
During the Jainism period, the woman had an access to the education. Yayant princes remained unmarried and received ordination from Mahavira himself. Based on these facts, Altekar concluded that the girls in Vedic period in well-to-do families used to be given a reasonable amount of education. The marriage was looked upon as a religious and social duty. The unmarried person was looked upon as a religious and social duty. The unmarried person was not eligible to participate in Vedic sacrifices. This was not looked upon as compulsory for every girl. The matrimony was not essential far a woman and there was no restraint on the age of marriage.
The women who remained unmarried and thus grew old in the house of her parents were called Amajur meaning a girl who grew old at her father`s house. The Vedic woman after growing up and educated had the right to select their husbands. Love marriages or Gandharva Vivaha was also widespread in Vedic period. Re- marriage of widow was permitted in the Vedic ages. The brother of the expired husband could usually marry the widow with the consent of the elders. Some scholars are of the opinion that the widow could marry any person, always not necessarily the brother of the deceased husband
In Vedic period, both husband and wife were necessarily joint owners of the property. Hindu woman held an honored place in the Vedic society, both before and after marriage. They inherited and acquired property; they took share in sacrifices and religious ceremonies and also attended the assemblies and state occasions. The women in the Vedic age distinguished themselves in science and leaving at their times. The women after their marriage considered as intellectual partners of their husbands. The wives are the friends and loving helpers in the journey of life of their partners, in their religious duties, and the center of their domestic activities.
Hindu wives were honored and respected in ancient times. The position of the Hindu woman in the early Vedic times was much better than the position to which they were dishonored in about 300 B.C. The marriage of the daughter was not a difficult problem. The daughter herself often selected the groom in most of the cases. There was no fear of widowhood because remarriage were allowed by society. Levirate is the custom of marriage of brother`s wife and was even common. The women before 300 B.C. truly enjoyed a high status and dignity.
[Source]http://www.indianetzone.com/28/wedding_vedic_period_indian_wedding.htm
Swami Padmanabhananda
H. H. Sri Swami Padmanabhanandaji Maharaj
Webinar on ‘Upanishads’ …. Enroll by Email to thebabatimes@gmail.com
GENERAL SECRETARY - The Divine Life Society
H. H. Sri Swami Padmanabhanandaji Maharaj
Sri Swami Padmanabhanandaji, born in 1935, in an orthodox Brahmin family to pious parents in Kottayam, Kerala, is a disciple of Brahamaleen Parama Pujya Sri Swami Chidanandaji Maharaj, Past President, The Divine Life Society (Headquarters).
An Engineer in the Government of Kerala, he renounced his career and took to life of renunciation to qualify himself for ministering to the Soul of man. He studied Vedanta (Prastanatrayi) and Scriptures in typical Gurukula Samparadaya under a great Master in a Gurukula on the bank of Kaveri River, Tamil Nadu.
Swamiji is a scholar in Vedic Scriptures as well as in Puranic texts. His deep knowledge and lucid exposition of Srimad Bhagavata,Upanishads, Bhagavad Gita, Narada Bhakti Sutra and Patanjali Yoga Sutras and other Scriptural texts has made him a popular guide to Spiritual aspirants. He has been conducting classes on Upanishads and Gita with Sankara Bhasya to the inmates of the Ashram and in the Yoga Vedanta Forest Academy and also guides on Meditation and Stress Management in Corporates. He has been contributing articles on scriptures to well known magazines. His simplicity, transparent deep faith in the Divine force and surrender to the Supreme has made him a combination of Jnana, Bhakti and Vairagya.
Swamiji is doing his Seva to his Master after elected by the Trust as the General Secretary of the Divine Life Society Headquarters, Shivanandanagar, Rishikesh since 04-01-2009.
A senior monk of the Divine life Society under the leadership of the present President, Sri Swami Vimalanadaji Maharaj, Sri Swami Padmanabhanandaji continues to work vigorously to spread the Divine Life Gospel, summed up by the Grand Master, Sri Swami Sivanandaji in six succinct words: “Serve, Love, Give, Purify, Meditate, Realize.”
[Source] http://www.sivanandaonline.org/public_html/?cmd=displaysection&;section_id=1714&parent=1055&format=html
Books - Bhagavad Gita Summary
Bhagavad Gita - Summary
The blind King Dhritarashtra asks Sanjaya to recount to him what happened when his family the Kauravas gathered to fight the Pandavas for control of Hastinapura. His family isn’t the rightful heir to the kingdom, but they have assumed control, and Dhritarashtra is trying to preserve it for his son Duryodhana. Sanjaya tells of Arjuna, who has come as leader of the Pandavas to take back his kingdom, with Sri Krishna as his charioteer. The Gita is the conversation between Krishna and Arjuna leading up to the battle.
Arjuna doesn’t want to fight. He doesn’t understand why he has to shed his family’s blood for a kingdom that he doesn’t even necessarily want. In his eyes, killing his evil and killing his family is the greatest sin of all. He casts down his weapons and tells Krishna he will not fight. Krishna, then, begins the systematic process of explaining why it is Arjuna’s dharmic duty to fight and how he must fight in order to restore his karma.
Krishna first explains the samsaric cycle of birth and death. He says there is no true death of the soul – simply a sloughing of the body at the end of each round of birth and death. The purpose of this cycle is to allow a person to work off their karma, accumulated through lifetimes of action. If a person completes action selflessly, in service to God, then they can work off their karma, eventually leading to a dissolution of the soul, the achievement of enlightenment and vijnana, and an end to the samsaric cycle. If they act selfishly, then they keep accumulating debt, putting them further and further into karmic debt.
Krishna presents three main concepts for achieving this dissolution of the soul – renunciation, selfless service, and meditation. All three are elements for achieving ‘yoga,’ or skill in action. Krishna says that the truly divine human does not renounce all worldly possessions or simply give up action, but rather finds peace in completing action in the highest service to God. As a result, a person must avoid the respective traps of the three gunas: rajas (anger, ego), tamas (ignorance, darkness), and saatva (harmony, purity).
The highest form of meditation comes when a person not only can free themselves from selfish action, but also focus entirely on the divine in their actions. In other words, Krishna says that he who achieves divine union with him in meditation will ultimately find freedom from the endless cycle of rebirth and death. He who truly finds union with God will find him even at the moment of death.
Arjuna stills seem to need evidence of Krishna’s divine powers, so Arjuna appears to him in his powerful, most divine form, with the “power of one thousand suns.” Seeing Krishna in his divine state, Arjuna suddenly realizes what enlightenment can bring him in union, and he now completely has faith in the yogic path. He goes on to ask Krishna how he can receive the love of God, and Krishna reveals that love comes from a person’s selfless devotion to the divine, in addition to an understanding that the body is simply ephemeral – a product of prakriti, emerging from purusha, and is subject to endless rebirth. A person must let go of their body’s cravings and temptations and aversions to find freedom.
The Gita ends with Krishna telling Arjuna he must choose the path of good or evil, as it his his duty to fight the Kauravas for his kingdom. In that, he is correcting the balance of good and evil, fulfilling his dharma, and offering the deepest form of selfless service. Arjuna understands and, with that, proceeds into battle.
[Source] www.gradesaver.com