Video Information: ShabdYoga Session, 14.02.2018, Advait Bodhsthal, Noida, India
Context:
Verse:
The firm denial of the existence of the mind and the
firm belief in the existence of Brahman - SeIf, is the sure way to
the conquest of mind, leading to the experience of the sole
effulgent Self.
~ Ribhu Gita, Chapter 15, Verse 11 .
~ How to conquer the mind?
~ How can one experience the self?
~ What is Truth?
~ Should we believe in existence of Brahman-Self?
~ What is the significance of belief in this quest?
~ Does mind really exists?
Music Credits: Milind Date
~~~~~
Context:
Verse:
The firm denial of the existence of the mind and the
firm belief in the existence of Brahman - SeIf, is the sure way to
the conquest of mind, leading to the experience of the sole
effulgent Self.
~ Ribhu Gita, Chapter 15, Verse 11 .
~ How to conquer the mind?
~ How can one experience the self?
~ What is Truth?
~ Should we believe in existence of Brahman-Self?
~ What is the significance of belief in this quest?
~ Does mind really exists?
Music Credits: Milind Date
~~~~~
Category
📚
LearningTranscript
00:00Aalok from the U.S. he has referred to a particular verse, verse 11 of chapter
00:2715. The verse says the firm denial of the existence of mind and the firm belief in
00:38the existence of Brahm self is the sure way of conquest of mind leading to the
00:47experience of soul effulgent self. So Aalok is asking, Beloved Acharyaji Pranam, in the
00:59verse below who is trying to conquer the mind and experience the self? Are these
01:08not the tricks of the ego self itself? Please shed some light on the
01:15significance of belief as mentioned in the verse. I'll repeat the verse. The firm
01:25denial of the existence of mind, the firm belief in the existence of Brahm
01:30self is the sure way of conquest of mind leading to the experience of soul
01:37effulgent self. So he's asking who is conquering the mind and experiencing
01:43the self? Are these not the tricks of the ego itself? Why are we talking of
01:53belief being significant?
01:57You are not reading the truth Aalok. You are reading something that is arising
02:21from the truth. The truth cannot be read. As long as the reader and the reading
02:36exist, there still is the dance of truth, the dichotomy of truth, the duality
02:54proceeding from truth, the shrouded truth. Shrouded truth too is verily the truth
03:12itself. It's just that the shrouded truth is not useful for you. Duality too is
03:24absolutely the truth. It is not really as if the truth is merely non-dual or
03:32adhyat. If duality is not truth, then what is duality? What else exists apart
03:44from the truth? Either you say that duality does not exist at all, which if
03:52said would negate the very statement because if duality does not exist, who is
03:59making the statement and to whom? So you will have to accept that duality does
04:06exist for you and if duality does exist then you must match it with the
04:15statement that only truth exists. Truth exists and duality exists. So duality too
04:23is truth and if you want to still forcefully negate this statement, you
04:29will have to say no, duality does not exist and if I am the perceiver of
04:34duality, then I too don't exist. If you too don't exist, then you can't exist
04:41even to make the statement that you don't exist. But you are making that
04:45statement. So you do exist and only truth exists, which means you too are truth.
04:53When the scriptures turn the world or the ego or the person as false, then you
05:04must know what they mean. They mean that the person is the enveloped truth, that
05:16the person is the manifested truth, that the person is the truth divided into
05:28duality. The truth is you see so free that it is free to divide itself into
05:40its own various fragments. So we are saying that the world is true, your
05:54experiences are true, even your dreams are true, even the apparitions are true,
05:58even shadows are true, imaginations are true, concepts are true. All of them
06:06proceed only from the truth and that which proceeds from the truth, how can it
06:11be false? So it is not a question of something being true or not. It is a
06:19question of something being useful for you or not. Even poison is truth but it
06:28is not useful for you, please. You must go towards that which is useful for you.
06:41Stop saying that you are a seeker of truth. It is a very meaningless statement.
06:46If only the truth exists, what are you seeking and who is seeking? There can be
06:54no seeker of truth but you can be genuinely a seeker of relief because it
07:01is possible to be in the truth and yet be troubled. Why? This statement sounds
07:08strange to you that one can be in trouble, can be in truth and yet be
07:13troubled. Obviously it is possible because the truth is so free that it is
07:18free to even be the troubled truth. So stop saying that you want the truth or
07:27that somebody can give you the truth. You are already in the truth. It is just
07:31that you are in the troubled truth and given what you are, given what you have
07:38taken or assumed yourself to be, you want the untroubled, still, silent, absolute,
07:46peaceful truth and even the adjectives or characteristics that I just now
07:52associated with truth have to be associated only in relation to your
07:57current state. When I say that the truth is absolute and that's what you want, I
08:04have to talk about the absoluteness of truth only because you live in the
08:09relative world and in the relative world there is trouble for you. You want
08:14freedom from troubles. You want freedom from relativity. That is why I have to
08:20talk of the truth as being absolute otherwise even the word absolute is not
08:25really applicable to the truth. You live a life of tension, stress, conflict and
08:34that is why I have to talk of the truth as being peaceful. Otherwise even the
08:40word peace is not really applicable to the truth. You must ask for a medicine.
08:53That's what you need. Do not ask for health. Health is not something that
09:00somebody can gift you or hand over to you. The statements that you are reading
09:08here, I repeat, must not be taken as the absolute truth. They are medicines. They
09:23are wonderful medicines, very very potent medicines but will you pick up a
09:30medicine and test it and ask is this medicine same as health? Obviously there
09:41is a difference between medicine and health. Medicine leads to health but is
09:46the medicine itself health? Scriptures lead to the truth. What kind of truth?
09:55That kind of truth which is useful to you. Otherwise anyway everything is truth.
10:04Scriptures lead to the truth and that is why they must be attended to and
10:10respected. But if you start scrutinizing the scriptures and asking is the
10:17statement truth? Then you might be disappointed because a lot of what the
10:24scriptures are saying is just in relation to your current state. Just as
10:31the medicine is always relative to the patient. Because you have a certain state
10:38so the scripture is offering you an antidote of that state. You know what an
10:47antidote is? Let's talk of an antivenom. What is an antivenom? Is it something
10:53very nutritious? Is it something very wonderful to eat, absorb, assimilate? You
11:04very well know where the antivenom comes from. The antivenom itself is so closely
11:12related to poison. If there is no poison you can't even make the antivenom. But
11:20the antivenom is useful. You cannot look at the antivenom and ask is the
11:27antivenom really health? No antivenom is not health but it will save your life. It
11:34will save your life and maybe restore you to health. Not restore your health.
11:39Restore you to health. Now will you be able to look at this statement with a
11:51little more sympathy? The words of the scriptures if they are not sympathetically
12:01read they will not reveal themselves to you. Are you getting it? You must see why
12:15the fellow is saying what he is saying.
12:21He's not just blabbering. He would have been greatly at ease in his own pure
12:31silence. If he's saying something it is to help you. He's not offering you
12:40literature or knowledge. The speaker of these verses, the composer of these
12:48verses had no intention to be called a scholar or a writer or a poet. He uttered
12:59these verses out of mere compassion. Like a doctor, like a helper. Take them in that
13:09spirit. He is not coming up with the claim that he is a knower of truth. He is
13:19not writing or speaking or composing to display that he has arrived. These verses
13:30are not, I repeat, a demonstration of somebody's knowledge. Knowledge or
13:38awakening or achievement or erudition, whatever you may call it. These verses
13:46are springing forth as an antidote, as a method, as an instrument that will help
14:03you. So, the instrument is free to take any form that is needed to do the task.
14:13And what is the task? The task is to help the reader. That is the only objective.
14:22And whatever it takes to help the reader will be done. I repeat, whatever it takes.
14:34If the word belief has to be used, it would be used. If the word experience has to be used,
14:42it would be used. If the verse has to be presented in a way that does not appear pristine
14:53to the Puritans, let it be. The author doesn't care. The author is already established in the
15:01truth. He has no thirst to be certified by you. If he has one objective and if that can be called
15:10as an objective, it is to merely, I know I am sounding boring, but it is to merely help.
15:18And to help you, he will say whatever is needed to help you. He will not bother about accuracy.
15:29He will not bother about being criticized centuries later. He will not bother about
15:38critics. He has no desire to be academically pure. He will wander, he will stray, he will
15:50appear deviant. He will be often self-contradictory. He will say one thing and then contradict it a
16:02minute later or a chapter later. You will have to be very intimate with him. You will have to
16:15listen to him as one listens to a well-wisher, if not a lover. If you read these verses like
16:27a scholar or analyze them like a critic or review them like a knower, then you will miss.
16:38Do not do that. Now I'll tell you simply what the little verse is trying to say.
16:51The firm denial of the existence of the mind and the firm belief in the existence of Brahma
16:58self is the sure way of conquest of mind leading to the experience of the soul effulgent self.
17:04The firm denial of the existence of mind. What does it mean? Denial the world to exists in
17:16relation to what I want. What is it that I want? Do I want stuff that comes and disappears? That
17:26comes only to deceive? No, I don't want that. Let there be stuff that is ephemeral. My way,
17:39if I want my own peace, is to not to deny that stuff, is to deny that stuff importance.
17:49Are you getting it? If I am a lover of peace, if I wish my own welfare, would I grant importance
18:01to something that is not reliable, that will deceive me? That is what is meant by the firm
18:09denial of existence of mind. Deny importance to mind stuff. Would you reread it now? Alok,
18:18would you reread it? The firm denial of existence of mind means deny importance to mind stuff.
18:26Why must you deny importance to mind stuff? Because mind stuff causes sorrow. It's simple,
18:32obvious. Is it not? What is it that you want? Why are you talking to me? Why are you listening to me
18:43sitting there at the other end of the globe? Why? Don't you have better things to do? You're
18:53listening to me because you love peace, don't you? And you love peace. That's why you must
19:00firmly denial the existence of all that which you know is conclusively bothersome. If there
19:11is something that is so very deceptive that it manages to beat your inquiry, beat your radars,
19:24beat your discretion and still deceive you, then one can be forgiven. It is not one's fault. There
19:39was something so absolutely wicked that it got the better of somebody. What could one do? In those
19:52cases, there is not much suffering either. Suffering, you know, is tragic because it is
20:04extremely repetitive. And it is even more tragic because it could have been avoided. There is a lot
20:14of pain associated with living that just cannot be avoided. And no spirituality talks of that pain.
20:26That pain is just to be taken as a component of life, part and parcel. But why must one allow
20:40himself to be deceived knowingly? What you know to be mischievous must be denied entry and importance.
20:52That is the meaning of this part of the verse. What you know to be wicked, mean, mischievous must
21:07not be entertained. The firm denial of the existence of mind, this part is simply saying,
21:15do not fall in the same rut twice. If you are deceived once, it's okay. But do not keep falling
21:25in the same trap, in the same hole again and again. Deny importance to stuff that has at least been
21:35known to be false. What do I mean by false? All that is troublesome to you is to be called as
21:44false. That is the only definition of falseness. And the firm belief in the existence of Brahmself.
21:56Now, I know this makes you wonder, how can one have belief in the existence of Brahmself?
22:07He is talking of belief because he is talking to someone who lives in beliefs.
22:16Had you really gone beyond beliefs, would you be a reader of Ribhu or would you be Ribhu himself?
22:25Is Ribhu talking to Ribhu?
22:29Is Shiva talking to Shiva?
22:31Is Shiva talking to Shiva?
22:34Ribhu and other sages talk to those whose sageness, whose Shiva-hood is hidden,
22:48potentially there, but not yet quite there. And that is why the word belief has its importance.
22:59If he tells you that Brahm is beyond belief, tell me what do you get?
23:06You always want something in your hand because right now you are just hands and legs.
23:15You always want something in your mind because right now you are terribly identified with the
23:19mind. And let's for a moment assume that Ribhu says that there can be no belief in the Brahman.
23:29Because beliefs are only about objects and Brahm is not an object.
23:35Wonderful to read. Great to hear. But what does it give you? How does it help you?
23:41Do you know of objectlessness? Objectlessness can be known only to those who are no more a subject.
23:48But you firmly believe in your subjecthood, don't you?
23:52Do you know what it means to believe in your subjecthood?
23:55It means that you still exist as the seer, the perceiver, the experiencer.
24:01Aren't you the seer, the perceiver, the experiencer? Aren't you hearing these words?
24:06Aren't you looking at me in the screen? And if you are still that, how can you go beyond beliefs?
24:14You live in a world of beliefs. So, the poet, the Rishi is giving you a belief.
24:25That is of the highest kind. A belief that dissolves other beliefs.
24:33A belief that holds not much weight in itself,
24:39but dissolves all the flab that you have otherwise accumulated.
24:45Yes, if you want to jump the gun and ask, but sir, what will happen if all the other
24:51beliefs are gone and this one stays back? Yes, you are right in your inquiry. Even this belief
24:58would ultimately disappear. But you know what? If all the other beliefs are gone,
25:03where would this belief stay? This belief rests only on top of the other beliefs.
25:11Please understand, only when the believer is there, can there be any belief.
25:17When all the other beliefs are gone, it means the believer too is gone with them.
25:22And if the believer too is gone, who will carry this belief? So, it is a great belief to have.
25:31This does not work only in one condition. When the other beliefs, instead of going,
25:37just hide themselves. And that often happens. And then you say, see, all the other beliefs are gone,
25:44but now I am of the firm belief that I am the Brahman self. No, you cannot merely believe
25:50that you are Brahman. If you are saying that you believe that you are Brahman,
25:54you would be carrying 10,000 other beliefs as well. They, however, might be hidden.
26:02Nobody can ever carry a single belief. It is impossible. Because the presence of even a
26:09single belief establishes the presence of the believer. And if the believer exists,
26:15why would he stop at one belief? He is carrying 10,000 other dormant beliefs as well.
26:26If you let this belief do its work, it takes away the believer.
26:34Once the believer is taken out of the equation, all disappears.
26:46But make sure that when you believe that you are the Brahman self, you know what you are believing.
26:55Believing that you are the Brahman self means firmly doubting all your other beliefs.
27:06Because the Brahman self belief has no tolerance for your other beliefs.
27:14It's a very special belief. It does not coexist with other beliefs.
27:18So, do not dupe yourself. Do not say, I am Alok. I am a green card holder.
27:28I am this, I am that. I am knowledgeable. I am athletic. I am a Hindu. And well, you know,
27:38I am Brahman as well. Don't get into that kind of self-deception.
27:51When you say you are Brahman, stop. Stop at Brahman because after Brahman,
27:57there is anyway nothing. I am Brahman and then you cannot be Alok anymore.
28:01You cannot be Brahm, I repeat, and Alok. So, have this belief.
28:14Of all the beliefs that are available to be had, this one is the most magical one.
28:24It kills the magician.
28:32Then the verse further says, this is a sure way of conquest of mind leading to the experience of
28:41soul, effulgent self. It is a sure way of conquest of mind. What does it mean to conquer the mind?
28:47The mind, you will again have to understand this.
28:52No one wants to conquer the mind. Where is the mind? Show me.
28:58All these are mere metaphors. Conquering the mind, this and that.
29:06You simply want freedom from rubbish, do not you?
29:11You do not want to conquer the mind. You want a peaceful sleep.
29:17You do not want to live like an idiot. That is all that we need. Keep things straightforward.
29:26Keep things straightforward.
29:31And if simple peace and freedom
29:40and stresslessness is what we want, why do we coin this kind of language?
29:48Conquest of mind. Then conquest of mind must be read as that in the mind which keeps you
30:02problemed, which keeps you suffering. That is what you want to conquer.
30:09You want to conquer that which is against you.
30:17Against your peace. And if something is against your fundamental peace,
30:23then you can rightly call that thing as your enemy. And enemies are there to be conquered.
30:32You must identify who your enemy is and conquer that. Mind is not merely an enemy.
30:41It depends upon you. The mind can be a very good friend as well.
30:48Vivek or discretion is about telling the enemy apart from the friend.
30:56You must really know who is with you and who is against you.
31:03You must be able to look at your own tendencies and you must be able to look at the light within.
31:10And you must know what needs to be supported and what needs to be ignored, despised, even suppressed.
31:24Conquer that within you which you know is going to trouble you. I'm not talking of supernatural
31:34powers. I'm not talking of mystical realization. I'm not talking of some uncanny understanding.
31:52I'm talking of basic common sense.
31:59Don't you know
31:59where your demons lie? Don't you know what you are afraid of?
32:11Then why don't you plunge into the right action?
32:17Why do you keep acting as if you are in the dark about your enemy?
32:24If the enemy is lurking around and you pretend that you do not know the enemy,
32:34would that really placate the enemy or would that only embolden and make the enemy more dangerous?
32:46You know your enemy.
32:48You know your enemy.
32:51And if you do not know your enemy, then no spirituality, no acharya, no ribhogita can help you.
32:59You know your enemy. If you know your enemy, don't support him. That is called conquest of the mind.
33:07And then finally the verse says, this leads to the experience of the soul-effulgent self.
33:19Obviously, there is nothing called
33:25a dedicated or isolated experience of the truth.
33:33But we are experiencing beings, aren't we? We keep experiencing all the time, all our life,
33:40all the places. What is the quality of those experiences?
33:46The quality of those experiences is the quality of the experiencer.
33:54One road, try this out.
33:57If you walk on it with a troubled mind, it is one particular road.
34:06And if you walk on the same road with a calm mind, it is a totally different road.
34:17Try this out.
34:17Of course, you have known this. I'll just remind you of this.
34:24When you return from abroad or from a vacation after long and you look at the faces of your
34:32family members, are they still the same faces? When you look at your relatives, are they still
34:39after long and you look at the faces of your family members, are they still the same faces?
34:47When you look at your house, the walls, the objects, do they still look the same?
35:01After you have taken a break and the break has helped in changing the climate of your mind,
35:10do things still remain the same for you? They don't.
35:16Your experiences depend totally on you.
35:21Because you are muddled within, so the experiences too are muddled.
35:30We do not really know what we are looking at.
35:34And I'm not talking of looking at God or something.
35:37What I mean is that when you look at a man, you have really no clarity as to what you are looking
35:44at. When you are reading a book or looking at words, you really do not know what you are reading.
35:52That's what I mean. I know this is not really glamorous.
35:57But then this is life. Even if it's not glamorous, you are living it, right?
36:02And that's the way it is. Glamorous or not.
36:10That's what is meant by aiming for purity of experience.
36:18When you really know what you are looking at, then that is called experience arising from
36:28the self. Experience arising from the truth. It is still not really an experience of the truth
36:38because the truth cannot be an object of any experience. But you are now at least truthfully
36:45looking at the wall or at the man or at the train or at the road. At least now you are not claiming
36:53that you already know the other person or the other thing or the other vehicle or the road.
36:59Now there is an openness, a freshness in your perception.
37:07You know, this simple fact about direct perception is called the experience of soul effulgent self.
37:18It would disappoint you because these words, they have somehow come to mean very exotic things to
37:27you. And what I am talking of is very, very commonplace. I am talking of the wall and the road.
37:36But you know, the wall and the road themselves can be very, very exotic, provided your eyes are clean.