(Gita-7) Basics of Vedanta || Acharya Prashant, on Bhagvad Gita (2024)

Acharya Prashant

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Transcript

00:00We are taking up Bhagavad Gita chapter 2 verse 17 and if possible a couple of verses beyond

00:16that as well.

00:25Something very important comes up in verse 17.

00:39Shri Krishna says that the self is the one by which, by the

01:03virtue of which, the world exists.

01:17Then he proceeds to say this self is indestructible, avyay.

01:33What is remarkable here is the total negation of any creating agency.

01:50It is by the self, due to the self that the world exists.

02:07Not due to a creating God.

02:17And the nature of the world, the nature of the self have to be very clearly understood.

02:31That understanding gives us a beautiful foundation on which the principles of life automatically

02:46arise.

02:51So the world is due to Atma, the pure self and the world is destructible, the self is

03:09not.

03:15How is it possible that something indestructible gives rise to something of a totally different

03:30nature.

03:33That the destructible proceeds from the indestructible.

03:39Where the limited comes from the unlimited.

03:47And this is where Vedanta would ask to whom, for whom.

04:00The self is without a second, so the self is to nobody but itself.

04:09There can be no perceiver or knower of the self.

04:15The self is unknowable because it is indivisible, non-dual, without a second, without a companion,

04:28without an observer, without a witness.

04:35So to whom is the self?

04:37To itself.

04:39And to whom is the world?

04:43The world is again to itself.

04:47It's just that the world exists as a pair of an observing entity and an observed phenomena.

05:11These two together comprise the world.

05:16The two are not needed to make the self.

05:23But the moment you say the world, you have pointed at two entities.

05:35The subject and the object.

05:38When it comes to the self, there is no subject, there is no object or you could say that the

05:44subject itself is the object.

05:54So there is the world and the world is to the observing ego.

06:01The self does not exist to the observing ego.

06:05The implication is that if something exists as an observation to the ego, it is the world,

06:12not the self.

06:18So in a moment of vain carelessness, if you find yourself staking a claim of some sort

06:29with respect to the self, you must know that if you are observing something, it is necessarily

06:39a part of the world, it cannot be the self.

06:45That which is vulnerable to be observed by the ego is definitely a part of the world.

06:57And the self is not a part of the world, it cannot be a part of anything.

07:03Only the world has parts.

07:07The self is the root of the world.

07:15We need to understand how the self is the root of the world and how from an indestructible

07:21root do all kinds of perishable names and forms arise.

07:29What is meant when we say that the world comes from the self?

07:33Please understand, the world is to the ego.

07:45And the ego in its perception of itself is an incomplete mass.

07:58We would better say an incomplete mess.

08:09And it is for the sake of completion that it keeps projecting an infinity in its field

08:29of observation.

08:31There is a reason why the observed universe needs to be infinite.

08:41It is because it is the infinite that the ego is looking for in the universe.

08:52However, there is a fundamental problem in the approach of the ego.

09:09The ego is assuming the infinity to lie outside of itself.

09:22And on this assumption stands the logic of an infinite search in an infinite universe.

09:37It is this fundamental mistake that reflects as the dissonance between the nature of the

09:48self and the nature of the world.

09:54Anything that the ego projects will carry the characteristics of the ego.

10:07It may not be the same as the projector but will indeed carry the characteristics.

10:16If your hand has five fingers, your shadow will show the same five fingers.

10:31Yes, the length might be extended, dimensions and angles and proportions might change.

10:41But the number won't turn to six.

10:45Similarly, the incompleteness of the ego shows up in the world that it projects outside of

10:55itself.

10:56Therefore, the world has to be incomplete, which means finite, which means limited, which

11:04means destructible.

11:08It is because the world is to the ego that the world will necessarily be destructible.

11:20And because the ego is destructible, for this very reason, it is projecting a universe in

11:29which to search for immortality.

11:35But your projection can have shape, size, form, name different from yours but it cannot

11:50have stuff that is different from your own.

11:58Therefore, the world is made of much the same stuff as the projecting ego.

12:08What is the stuff of the projecting ego?

12:11Nothing.

12:12It is hollow.

12:15It is this hollowness that it wants to fill up by projecting huge hollowness outside of

12:26itself.

12:31The same hollowness we often call as incompleteness.

12:33That is the stuff of the ego.

12:36Are you getting it?

12:43So you see, searching for the self, the great self, Atma, the ego gives rise to its world.

13:11This is very very different from the concept of a creator God.

13:19Vedanta does not admit that.

13:24What is the world?

13:25Where did the world come from?

13:26It came from the ego.

13:27No, it did not descend from the heavens.

13:30No, nobody made it.

13:31It is being made all the time.

13:35With time, the world is continuously a work in progress.

13:43Nobody ever made it in some particular final form.

13:51You make it.

13:53So the world is a choice.

13:57In Vedanta, the world is a choice.

14:01The world is as you create it.

14:05Who is the creator of the world?

14:07You are.

14:08Now that's a lot of power and with that comes a lot of responsibility.

14:17Who created the world?

14:19You did.

14:21You did.

14:22And you are already the indestructible just that you have forgotten it.

14:30Your forgetfulness sits atop your real nature.

14:35And it is from the forgetfulness that the world springs.

14:41Does the world come from who you really are?

14:45No.

14:49The world comes from forgetting who you really are.

14:54So there is you and you are shrouded totally by forgetfulness.

15:05This forgetfulness is the world.

15:10What is the nature of forgetfulness?

15:12By definition, you have said, I forgot something, which means there is something missing.

15:17So the nature of the ego is incompleteness.

15:21It keeps on missing something.

15:24The ego is a forgetfulness.

15:27You have forgotten who you are.

15:32And since you have forgotten who you are and where you lost yourself, you start looking

15:38in the opposite direction.

15:41You start searching for yourself in all the time, space, expanse available to you.

15:49If it is not available, project it.

15:53Are you getting it?

15:58Now why do I say that this is a very important thing to be understood?

16:07Because with the concept of a creator God comes the concept of a true universe.

16:21If I hold myself to be true, then whatsoever I create will be true.

16:27You cannot say the potter is true, but the pot is not.

16:33The pot came from the hands of the potter.

16:38They will be in the same dimension.

16:42So if you believe in a world created by God, then you have turned the world into your God.

16:52Because God is supposed to be true.

16:55And if God is truth, the world too must be true.

16:59And if the world is true, then there is no harm in devoting your life to the pursuit

17:09of worldly objects.

17:11After all, the world is something godly.

17:15It came straight from God, the truth.

17:19If the world is coming straight from God, the truth, how can it be a problem to be materialistic?

17:30Do you see how materialism flows directly from creationism?

17:38If the world has been created by the highest truth, then how can you blame me for taking

17:46the world itself as something quite high?

17:50Instead, Vedanta penetrates the world, understands the world, does not worship the world.

18:13Vedanta is about liberation, freedom from the world.

18:21The world comes from the ego and the ego is a mere forgetfulness.

18:30Whatsoever is in the world is to the ego.

18:36And the ego is just like a person who has been hit so hard, he has lost his identity.

18:58Are you getting it?

19:01No point pursuing the world.

19:06No point quoting the laws of Prakriti in defense of your addiction towards objects.

19:25Please understand, if the world is coming from God, then the laws of Prakriti are sacred.

19:32Are they not?

19:33Because God is sacred.

19:34God is truth.

19:36So the world must be the truth.

19:39God is sacred.

19:40So the laws of Prakriti must be sacred.

19:42And in Prakriti you find all kinds of things.

19:45Envy, hatred, possessiveness.

19:51Then everything can be justified because everything is coming from God.

19:55Why do you have 10 kids in this age of biodiversity extinction?

20:02Because God sent them down.

20:06Have you not heard that?

20:08No, that's not just some idiot's quip.

20:11That's the product of a flawed philosophy.

20:15When the philosophy is that whatsoever happens in the world is mandated by some omnipotent God up there,

20:27then anything is justifiable.

20:30I didn't do it. Who did it?

20:32God did it.

20:34You could be the worst kind of scoundrel and after every act of lunacy you could scream,

20:42Oh my God, what have you done?

20:50Vedanta does not recognize any agency or authority outside of you.

20:58If something happened, you are responsible.

21:07You cannot say, you know, but these things are natural.

21:11Why are you so addicted to something?

21:14Why do you want to possess that person?

21:16But is not this feeling very natural?

21:22Please understand what the argument is based on.

21:25When you say something is natural,

21:27what you mean is that it exists in the world in a very primordial form since ancient times.

21:34And since it exists in the world,

21:37since very long,

21:39therefore, its existence even within me is justified.

21:44Vedanta does not admit that.

21:50You are the self.

22:00You don't even lack understanding.

22:03In some way, you just have to remember.

22:13You don't even need to be told a lot.

22:20You just need to remember.

22:25It's very interesting.

22:27The words remember and religion both begin with re.

22:33And both imply much the same.

22:38Going back.

22:42Remembering in its purest form would mean rejoining.

22:47What does it mean to dismember?

22:50Split.

22:53Cleave apart.

22:55That is what is meant by dismembering.

22:58In that sense, what does remember mean?

23:01Bring together.

23:02Rejoin.

23:04And this rejoining is also the meaning of the word religion.

23:12Vedanta, in that sense,

23:19is religion.

23:23It says you have forgotten something.

23:27Come on, come on. See.

23:31See.

23:33And you will remember.

23:39If you just see what is going on,

23:42you will remember

23:45the base, the truth,

23:48the foundation, the original, the source.

23:56Are you getting it?

24:08It begins with the ego that takes itself to be destructible.

24:14It's an assumption.

24:17Where does the destructive nature of the world come from?

24:21It comes from nowhere. It is an assumption.

24:25And because the ego assumes itself to be destructible,

24:28it projects a destructible universe.

24:31That's all.

24:35Assumptions are needed only when you have forgotten the truth.

24:40If you know, you don't need to assume.

24:48Whatsoever is being told to Arjun

24:52is just an attempt

24:57in some way to invoke

25:00an ancient memory.

25:03Not memory of the ordinary kind.

25:06You understand the sense in which you are using the word memory, right?

25:18In this

25:21invocation, the emphasis is on unlearning.

25:28You knew, but something else,

25:31an assumption, a very heavy assumption

25:34is now sitting on the top of the knowing.

25:42Hence the method of Vedanta

25:45is that of decluttering.

25:51Cleansing.

25:54Not addition, but removal.

26:01You are assuming something. The assumption has to be cleared away.

26:07And how is the assumption to be cleared away?

26:10By looking at the implications of the assumption.

26:14The ego assumes something.

26:16What is the implication of that assumption?

26:18The world.

26:20The world is the result of the ego's assumptions.

26:26One step further.

26:28What is the implication of the world?

26:31Sorrow.

26:33Therefore, the method of Vedanta is to watch the world

26:37in context of one's own sorrow.

26:41Watch the world, watch yourself

26:44and you will see how false both of these are.

26:48You will see that there has to be something fundamentally wrong

26:53in what you are assuming.

27:01Hence Vedanta places a lot of emphasis on facts.

27:06Because facts are all that you can watch.

27:09Watch the facts

27:12and there is no way your assumptions can still stand.

27:18How else will you know assumption is assumption?

27:20Tally it with the fact.

27:22See whether these two can be reconciled

27:26and no reconciliation is really possible.

27:32Between what you observe and what you assume,

27:36no handshake is possible.

27:48You think of yourself as something.

27:53Look at your actions, your thoughts, your deeds,

27:57your feelings, your relationships,

28:00your debits, your credits,

28:03fears, your hopes

28:06and see whether

28:09they agree with the assumption you hold of yourself.

28:13There can be no agreement.

28:15And when facts do not agree with assumptions,

28:19it is the assumptions that must kneel down.

28:26Now you see why Adi Shankaracharya had to say Jagan Mithya?

28:35Because the world

28:38is a product of your assumption.

28:46In what way is the world a product of my assumption?

28:54You take the world for what it is not.

29:02Otherwise you couldn't have been so smitten by it.

29:09If you are searching for the absolute in the world

29:12If you are searching for the absolute in the world

29:15and is there anybody here who does not want the absolute?

29:18How much peace do you want? Absolute peace.

29:21How much trust and loyalty do you want?

29:24How much goodness and welfare do you want?

29:27So you look for these things in the world.

29:30Searching for the absolute in the world.

29:32Do you see that you are assuming the world to be absolute?

29:35This is the sense in which the world is false.

29:39The world is relative to who you are.

29:42But you are searching for the absolute in the world.

29:45In that sense the world is false.

29:47You are assuming

29:52a fundamental difference, a dimensional difference

29:55between who you are and what the world is.

29:57Such a difference does not exist.

30:03That's where the world is false.

30:09Are you getting it?

30:11Please see Shri Krishna very clearly

30:14negating the truthfulness of the world.

30:21And the moment you negate the truthfulness of the world,

30:25the concept of God goes out of the window.

30:33Because if the world is false,

30:36what do you need a God for?

30:44So theism in Vedanta

30:47refers to unconditional love for the truth.

30:56What is Vedantic theism?

30:58Devotion towards the truth.

31:00Not belief in God.

31:07In fact, any kind of belief

31:11is atheistic behavior in light of Vedanta.

31:15If you are a believer, you are an atheist.

31:20The nature of the self

31:23is truth, realization, understanding, bodh.

31:26What do you need beliefs for?

31:28If you are someone living in beliefs, you are an atheist.

31:31What do you need beliefs for?

31:32If you are someone living in beliefs, you are an atheist.

31:43Please understand, Vedanta is not about God.

31:45It is about truth.

31:54If you want to call the truth as God,

31:59to please your habits,

32:02that is okay. That's fine.

32:07But then not a creator God.

32:10Not a God who said,

32:13now the mountains must come up

32:16and now the rivers must flow

32:18and now the stars must shine.

32:19No God of that kind.

32:29Are you getting it?

32:38And that will also tell you why Vedanta has

32:41always been for the select few.

32:47The elite even among the spiritually advanced ones.

32:54Because it places tremendous responsibility upon you.

32:59It does not allow you to get away

33:02by using the God excuse.

33:08What could I do? God willed it.

33:11No.

33:12Will is something exclusive to you.

33:17There is you, there is Prakriti.

33:20And Prakriti

33:24is absolutely secular.

33:28Secular in terms of having no inclinations,

33:31no prejudices,

33:34no favorites,

33:37no will.

33:40That's Prakriti.

33:43Do not say, oh it just happened for some reason.

33:46No.

33:47Vedanta won't let you

33:51escape with that.

33:55If something is happening,

33:58you have a choice.

34:01You have a choice.

34:06To make it sharper, if something is happening to you,

34:09you have a choice.

34:11This will help us understand better.

34:15If something is happening to you, you have a choice.

34:18Who are you?

34:20No, you are not the material body.

34:23The Vedanta does not define you

34:28as the organism.

34:34Fundamentals.

34:37It defines you as consciousness.

34:42You are not the organism.

34:44Had you been the organism,

34:46the concept of choice would stand vitiated

34:50because much can happen to the organism outside his will.

34:56You are not the organism.

34:59You are consciousness.

35:01And whatsoever happens to consciousness

35:04is within the purview of choice and will.

35:08Things can happen to the body, to the world

35:15randomly.

35:21But if something happens to you randomly,

35:26then it is just your forgetfulness

35:30still playing out.

35:33Forgetfulness still playing out.

35:42Also, because the ego is forgetfulness itself,

35:47therefore the ego has a stake

35:50in resisting the removal of forgetfulness.

35:55For example, if you choose

35:59to fall asleep with the body,

36:03the choice is not random.

36:06The choice is full of malice and mischief.

36:12You very well know that if you do not fall asleep,

36:17you will have to put aside your forgetfulness

36:20and that would make you responsible and accountable.

36:24Therefore, you choose to drift along with the body.

36:28The body is trying to fall asleep

36:32and you play along. You say, fine.

36:36You say, you are sleepy. I am game.

36:40Along with you, I too will fall asleep.

36:43Because if I do not fall asleep at this moment,

36:46I will have to own up. I will have to become accountable and responsible.

36:50Also, since my very name is forgetfulness,

36:54if I choose to remember, then I am dead.

36:57If the ego is forgetfulness

37:00and the forgetfulness disappears,

37:03what happens to the ego?

37:06The ego is gone.

37:09So, for its self-preservation,

37:12the ego plays all kinds of dirty games.

37:15It is a mass of lies

37:18extending itself all the time.

37:21To protect, justify, validate one lie,

37:24it comes up with five others.

37:33One lie gives rise to five more lies and so on.

37:39Therein comes the concept

37:42of liberation and immortality in Vedanta.

37:46Everything in the world is perishable

37:50and if you can be someone

37:53that consciousness

37:56which remains untouched by the world which is perishable,

37:59then who are you? The imperishable

38:02and that is immortality.

38:07I assumed I am incomplete.

38:10Therefore, I projected a universe full of

38:13incompleteness

38:16and I started defining myself with respect to the

38:19universe.

38:22Now, if I can

38:25cut asunder the cords of that relationship,

38:28the basis of that

38:31definition,

38:34then am I still tied to the perishable

38:37and if I am no more tied to the perishable,

38:40who am I?

38:43So, that is the concept of immortality in Vedanta.

38:46Not being dependent on the mortal

38:49is immortality.

38:55In the next verse,

38:58Sri Krishna says

39:01these bodies

39:04that are there in front of you, Arjun,

39:07they aren't immortal

39:15nor are they indeterminable

39:18Agochar.

39:21They are all very destructible.

39:26So, don't

39:29be so upset

39:32or attached. Just fight.

39:37What is the concept here?

39:40The concept is

39:43you have to

39:46put the highest

39:49value on the highest.

39:52At this moment,

39:55your highest priority is the bodies in front of you.

39:58The people you don't want to fight

40:01for the fear of

40:04killing them.

40:07The highest priority has to go to the

40:10truth

40:13and if the truth requires a particular

40:16kind of action, nothing must come in the way.

40:19You are treating

40:22these people, these bodies, these

40:25skin of yours as if they are the

40:28truth. You are placing the highest value on them

40:31but they are all destructible. So, they cannot be the truth.

40:34The truth is by definition

40:37indestructible.

40:43Then what you are doing is a misplacement.

40:50You are putting something at the wrong place.

40:53You are putting highest

40:56value at a place

40:59where it does not belong

41:02and in that you will be violating who you really

41:05are.

41:08Your own essence is the highest truth.

41:13If you instead take

41:16something else as the highest,

41:19you will be

41:22guilty of the worst kind of violation.

41:29So, see

41:32this universe and the objects in it, the people

41:35in it, for what they really are.

41:38None of them is supreme.

41:41Nothing here is inviolable.

41:44Nothing here is

41:47indestructible. Nothing here is

41:50non-negotiable.

41:53Nothing here is absolute

41:56which means that for the sake of

41:59the absolute, everything here

42:02is disposable.

42:06Dispense them off, Arjun.

42:20The law of total ownership

42:23and total responsibility,

42:26the law of absolute dignity,

42:29the law of

42:32the law of complete sovereignty.

42:40There is no truth in anything that I

42:43see outside of myself. Why do I need to

42:46bow down?

42:53I am the one

42:56potentially

42:59and I suffer exactly because I do

43:02not realize my potential.

43:12Instead of the omnipotent,

43:15I live and sleep

43:18and doze and snooze

43:21as some dirty insect.

43:24How can I avoid sorrow?

43:29And then I wonder where my

43:32sorrow comes from.

43:35It comes from my moment to moment choices.

43:45Everything that I do as a little

43:48insect

43:51just piles up

43:54more sorrow on me because

43:57a little insect I am not.

44:00Just for the sake of little convenience,

44:03I choose to behave as one.

44:11There are rats in this room.

44:14Do you blame them for not being

44:17attentive to the Gita?

44:20That's the reason why we turn into rats.

44:24Nobody blames a rat

44:27for not listening to the Gita

44:30and therefore we choose to live like rats.

44:33Now there is no

44:36responsibility to listen to the Gita.

44:39I am a rat.

44:54Vedanta isn't music.

44:57It's a gymnasium where you

45:00come to lose flair.

45:23Satsang with Mooji

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