AvadhootaDatta Peetham

Discourse on Yoga Vasishtha
Day 200, December 2 2015

Sri Sadgurubhyo namaha
Om Santissantissantissantihi

We spoke about Jagadutpatti Varnana. Now we begin studying the Svayambhu Utpatti Varnana. The important aspect now of the emergence of living beings is taught. Because we exist, the world exists. We are given clear examples. Earlier this was hinted at. Now we get the details. The world is like the city we see in a dream.

We spoke about Jagadutpatti Varnana. It is very important to know how the Universe came into being. We had to know what the circumstance is when Maha Pralaya occurs. Everything merges and nothing is left. Here a question arises. What did it merge into, how did it merge? What was that destination? Is it like a dust bin where everything is collected and dumped somewhere? Where do all the five elements and the five subtle perceptions go?

Our mind had to be taken to the state where nothing but Pure Consciousness exists, into which everything has merged. That makes it easy for us to understand the process of Creation that occurs thereafter. So, first Dissolution is described, and then Creation is described.

Many are following these discourses on Livestream on Yoga Sangeeta. The audience includes great scientist, students, and mothers. One of them asked: “You said everything has merged into Pure Consciousness. We say that everything became fragmented into atoms and remained like that. Later, when the time came, the atoms came together again to form the Universe. Why should we only accept your version?”

Maha Pralaya is where even the subtlest of entities have disappeared, whereas you are mentioning Pralaya, a stage where the subtle entities are still remaining in existence. Maha Pralaya is what we are talking about. This is where the Kalpa itself has ended. Time became non-existent. Pralaya stage is also there, where subatomic particles remain, and that is what you are referring to. You say that from that atom Creation has emerged once again. If we accept your theory, although Vedanta Sastra will not agree, an atom is inert and cannot produce movement, Chaitanya. At that time, there are no such things as Time and Space. There is no one to calculate Time, so Time does not exist.

It is only after the atoms gather together like a wall of space that Creation can occur. The person who asked the question has forgotten one detail. For atoms to exist, space is required. Otherwise, where would even the single atom exist? If it existed, that means, Maha Pralaya has not occurred.

Maha Pralaya is what we are talking about. In Dhyana, let everything merge into you, not leaving anything. In deep sleep also, nothing remains. That is why we gain awareness, feeling fresh and blissful. You may argue that we are all existing under one roof called the sky. But in deep sleep and Dhyana, we are not aware of the sky or any roof over us.

You must understand this as the situation. Only Consciousness remains. Veda has declared so. That is why we have to accept it. We are not more intelligent than the Vedas.

Why accept the Vedas as authority? Some people ask. It is not required that you merely accept the statements given in the Vedas. Once you experience for yourselves the truth of these statements, you will no longer question their veracity. The commentators state that. That is why great souls have explored to the deepest and have experienced that the statements given in the Vedas are in fact true. Documented authority is verified by practical experience. They come back and share their experiences with us. They authenticate the statements. Sadgurus tell us so. There is no other way. The sages have experienced all these.

Veda Mantras are not deliberate compositions. They exist in a subtle form. The sages had visions of them and had experienced them. They gave them utterance. These were not written down. Each sage who envisioned these and experienced them is remembered by us when we remember those mantras. We place our faith in their experience. We place our faith in the words of the Vedas.

Who in this world can say how Creation came about, Veda challenges. Only Veda, which existed prior to Creation, and forms the source of Creation, can speak about the process of Creation. No one else has the right, audacity, or the eligibility to describe the process of Creation.

Different processes of Creation have been mentioned in the various scriptures. This is not meant to confuse us. In some places, every single step was mentioned, and in certain contexts, a few steps were jumped. As we skip over a few steps when we climb stairs, they have skipped describing a few stages. There is no discrepancy.

We have learned about the creation of the physical world and also about the emergence of the individual. It is most important to know how I was born, and why. Every individual should learn this.

Man has the intellectual capacity to know about his origin, and his purpose in life. Human birth is very rare and must be appreciated and utilized.

Yesterday, Janakamma was saying that from listening to this, Satva Guna is increasing. Doing Guru Seva, social service, and doing Yoga Sadhana, and listening to discourse, all while following one’s own duties and responsibilities, as per Dharma gives fulfillment to our human birth. All this type of discussion and study is possible only in the human beings.

Being born as a human being is itself great. To have the desire for Liberation is even greater. To have the association of an enlightened soul is the greatest good fortune and these are most difficult to obtain. Once an individual has these, these gifts have to be well utilized.

The living beings re-emerging at the time of Creation is now studied. Svayambhu Utpatti Varnana is the name of this Sarga.

Hiranyagarbha is the foremost being. From that one being, like sparks of fire, we have all emanated. Is this the dream being dreamt by that one and only living soul? Both theories are accepted.
Now we begin studying the Svayambhu Utpatti Varnana.

We are all Brahmas. We must not think of ourselves as insignificant and helpless. Never say that you are a useless housewife, simply chopping vegetables at home. You do not need to sit on a throne. Just know your importance and significance.

Maya sabala brahma bhava is acquired by many souls.

Whoever is following in the paths of either devotion, service, or knowledge, will gain liberation step by step.
Those who are totally disinterested in spirituality and are only interested in eating and physical enjoyments, are steeped in Avidya, spiritual ignorance. They are in the lowest rung of the ladder. There are those who are totally selfish. Although ignorance is there, there are different degrees of ignorance or Avidya. One has done high school, one is a college graduate and one has done Ph.D. They all still have their levels of ignorance.

We have all applying different colors to ourselves. These colors of ignorance we apply and our perceptions become misled. Such persons are reborn. How long will Creation last? Once all the living creatures on earth are liberated, will Creation stop? We should not ask such irrelevant questions. We are only speaking of human beings here. There are 84 lakh species of living beings on earth. Do not ask when all living creatures on earth will become liberated. There are birds here, and flies, mosquitoes, and so many living entities.

What matters is that your ignorance must be eradicated. Do not worry about other creatures and when they all will get liberated.

Jeevanmuktas, voluntarily take birth to help us all, to give us spiritual instruction. If Sadguru’s guidance is lacking, we have no recourse to Liberation at all.

The individuals who are existing with a Brahma Bhava veiled under Maya or Avidya during Maha Pralaya, are all reborn.

Sage Vasishtha began, Sri Rama, space, radiance, darkness, have never been born. These are never created. These are appearing only with the support of Paramatma. What supports your dream world, while you are in a dream? You yourself are supporting and sustaining the dream world. They have no existence of their own.

Knowledge gets transformed into knowing. Once you have known, you do not become a knowledgeable person. It is wrong to think so. You become Knowledge itself. When you see a thing, you become that which you have seen. With things, it is difficult to explain or understand it. A person who has studied engineering becomes an engineer, he becomes a manifestation of the knowledge of Engineering. Similarly, one who has studied medicine, becomes a manifestation of the knowledge required to be a doctor. The signboard is not the doctor or the engineer.

At Maha Pralaya, a part of Knowledge moved away from itself and viewed Knowledge, as the knower. The two became split. Knowledge and knowing. Because of that a distance was created. This is where it all begins. The part that is split is there, it is said. But even that statement is incorrect, because there is actually no splitting. Only one exists. It is only a feeling. That feeling is ego. That is why it is said that we must give up the ego. Ego is not good. It is harmful to us. In spirituality it is not acceptable.

For those in the world also, ego creates many problems. They become arrogance and conceited. They insult elders. They get stuck in such situations and suffer a great deal.

Ego is the root cause of this creation. The source of Creation equals the source of sorrow. That is why ego must be eradicated. In spirituality that is the first step of training or Sadhana. If that is not successfully achieved, Liberation is not possible.

This kalpana, this feeling that I am great is ego.

I am insignificant, I am low, is Jeeva Bhava. One belittles himself. One must have the feeling of significance and must rise to reach that stature, instead of egotistically becoming arrogant. We leave the Maha Bhava and acquire Alpa Bhava. That is Jeeva Bhava. You build a fence around yourself. You impose limitations on yourself and who is to blame for that? You yourself are to be blamed. Your own ignorance, and ego, and arrogance are the cause of your birth.

The unlimited Paramatma, as a result, turns into the limited ‘I’. The moment the ‘I’ comes in, you become limited.
What should be an ocean becomes a small ditch. You have forgotten that you are really the ocean itself. The water in the ditch and the water in the ocean are one and the same. Sadguru reminds you of your stature of the Ocean.
Lord Hanuman crossed the Ocean itself, as if it were just a small ditch, simply by the grace of Guru.

“Goshpadeekrta vaaraasim …”

Sadguru takes you to the Ocean of Amrita. It can happen while you are still living. There is no need to wait till the body is given up. You must experience the feeling that you are unlimited. Because of the influence of Maya or illusion, the intellect blossoms. When the ‘I’ made the intellect blossom, where did the blossoming occur? From the ego, the intellect emerged. Where did it blossom? Mind is the cause of everything. Into the mind, the ego pervaded. It is the intellect that turns into the Mind. It associates with the five subtle perceptions and takes on the appearance of the world. This is the Jeeva Utpatti, followed by Buddhi Vikasa, and the creation of Mind, which is required for the gross body, and the five subtle perceptions, the five elements, and the world. That is the sequence of Creation. That Creation exists already, and that we are born into it, is the concept we use when we speak of this present birth and how it has occurred. But when we go to the beginning of Creation, this is what happened to the first individual, or in the case of the four-faced Brahma.

In the dream, you see things suddenly appearing. We cannot choose the content of our dreams. The dreams occur on their own, unrelated to our likes and dislikes or our desires. Consciousness, mingling with the mind, sees this illusory world. Mind is the basic reason for the existence of this world.

When the mind enters into the picture, it makes the entire world appear before us, like a painting. What was a white wall or canvas, on which even a small stain will show, assumes the picture of this world, because of the Mind.

There is nothing other than the mind, to offer to *** or Guru. The mind is everything. When you pray, offer you mind itself to ***. Pray that the mind should ever dwell on the conviction that *** alone exists. Pray that the mind should remain fixed on ***. In the path of devotion it is suggested as an easy method.

This visible world is born in the consciousness, which is like space, and keeps dissolving and re-emerging. It emerges from the mind and dissolves into the mind again. It happens in a never ending sequence. Dreams keep coming and going nonstop. When will this stop? When you quit sleeping, the dream sequences will stop. But we cannot live without sleep. Sleep is essential for us to stay healthy.

Everything in spirituality speaks of sleep, but we are asked to give up sleep. It means, we must cease to be lazy. We must get rid of Tamo Guna. Our ego must be thrown out. That is what giving up sleep means. As long as there is sleep, dreams of the world will keep occurring.

Onion is mentioned. What is the seed for an onion? The onion itself is the seed. If you plant one onion, lots of onions will be produced. Cabbage and onion teach us a science, Swamiji tells us. As you peel off one layer after another, what is left? Nothing. That which is left, after you remove all the layers that cover you, is you.
The onion needs to be planted.

But here, there is no need to plant anything. The onion requires soil, light, water, etc. This root for the world lies inside the mind. From the mind everything emerges, all on its own, without any need for soil, water, or light.
Consciousness creates all this, like the dream world. Just the same way we experience the dream, the individual soul experiences the world. We know that dreams are not real. Then why do we believe that the world is real? The individual falls into the delusion that the world is real, due to powerful past Samskaras. This illusory world also suddenly appears and disappears, just like a dream. Suddenly in a dream, a great kingdom appears. Suddenly it also vanishes.

In every one of us, there is an Asanga Svabhavam, the nature of non-attachment. Non-attachment is bliss. Attachment is sorrow.

A pet that we are much attached to, will also die after a while. What do we do then? We grieve for some time. We strengthen our heart and give it last rites. We do not continue to keep it at home. If we do, we will become sick. Our relatives will scold us.

By nature man is of the nature of non-attachment. Because non-attachment gives bliss. That is the natural state of the individual. Man’s original nature is that of Paramatma, who is ever unattached.
The seed of the five subtle perceptions is Pure Consciousness, which is eternal and unchanging. It is imperishable and inexhaustible.

Yatbeejam

This is a Maha Vakya. This must be constantly remembered. By dwelling on this statement, all hatred will be dispelled from us.

Because we have stopped remembering this line and listening to this line, wars are breaking out. The seed, the tree, and the fruit are all nothing but Pure Consciousness. Why do you sow a seed? You desire the fruit, whether it is in the form of shade, the cool breeze, the oxygen it gives, fruits, and flowers, or whatever else you derive from the tree. The five subtle perceptions, and the five great elements constitute this world. This entire world is nothing but Brahma. There is nothing but Brahma in this world. If this is experienced, then battles will not occur.
What is the seed, is itself the fruit. Therefore, there is absolutely no difference between the world and Brahma. If Brahma alone is Truth, then, what about the world? You must see the world also as Brahma. The seed and the fruit are of the same principle. Learn to view the world as Brahma. Develop the habit of doing so. This is called Advaita (non-dual) Jnana, Brahma Jnana, or Vedanta Jnana.

More significant topics will be discussed tomorrow.

You are listening to many wonderful concepts. You are understanding them. Please share your understanding with others. Tell others about Atma, Soul, and our deep philosophical understanding. Many have many misconceptions about our country. They think that we only engage in blind beliefs and rituals, making contractual deals with *** for receiving personal favors.

Our country is the priceless knowledge that it has given to us. You will be establishing peace in the world by spreading this knowledge of Truth. Once you share this knowledge, others will be convinced. Once you understand, you should also apply the teaching in your life. Peace comes only with knowledge. Convince others by logically explaining the truth. Do not force others to simply blindly follow our traditions and beliefs. Vedanta explains everything logically and convincingly.

Rituals must be performed. Dharma is our body. This Sastra is our Soul. We need both.

By Sadguru’s grace may all of you be granted enlightenment.

Jaya Guru Datta
Sri Guru Datta

Om Santissantissantihi