The Bearded Mystic Podcast

Vedanta Sara: Verses 1 - 2

• Rahul N Singh • Season 7 • Episode 37

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Diving into the profound teachings of the Vedanta Sara, we explore the fundamental nature of consciousness as the indivisible, eternal reality that forms the basis of all existence. 

• Understanding our highest desire is not temporary pleasures but jivan mukti - liberation while alive
• The Self is described as indivisible, eternal, conscious, and blissful
• Non-duality means there is no separation between "me" and Brahman
• Consciousness is beyond time - past, present, and future
• Our ability to contemplate existence comes from consciousness itself
• True bliss is permanent and beyond sensory gratification
• The ultimate truth is beyond the reach of speech and mind
• Awareness itself is the only direct path to realization
• The importance of a Guru who can show us our true nature
• This series provides the foundation for deeper exploration of formless awareness

Please like, comment, subscribe to our channel, and follow me on Discord where we can continue the conversation.

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Speaker 1:

Hello everyone, welcome to an episode of the Bearded Mystic Podcast, and I'm your host, Rahul N Singh. Thank you for joining today as we will be looking at the Vedanta Sara, as I was discussing yesterday that we will start this and, if you have not done already, please like and please leave a comment at the end of this video. Just give me your feedback and do subscribe to the channel and if you're listening to this on your favorite podcast streaming app, please rate and review and please follow the podcast to keep getting notified of new episodes, as I try to upload every day. So, as we begin the Vedanta Sara, it is very important for us to just do a quick recap on yesterday's episode, that it's all about having the basic understanding. With the basic understanding, we can move forward. We can understand the deeper aspects of the truth when it comes to the Upanishads, the Brahma Sutras and also the Bhagavad Gita and, as I mentioned, those in that list order, in the order of the list. That's the way we should study. So and it makes sense because if we have the basics correct, we can understand everything else very easily. Now, um, we'll start with the first verse, and that is, he says, for the fulfillment of my highest desire. I take refuge in the self, the basis of all existence, indivisible, eternal, conscious, blissful and beyond the reach of speech and mind. So if you think about it, the whole, the whole of spirituality is in that one verse itself. First he says for the fulfillment of my highest desire. Now, what would be our highest desire? Now, see, many of us, we desire a better car, a better home, a better job, a better college education, better grades. We're constantly wanting something that is temporary of this world. But the fulfillment of my highest desire would mean that it's about transcending those desires that have an end point, like their happiness has an end point. So what would be fulfilling as a desire now? That would be to understand one's true nature, or jivan mukti, to be liberated while alive, to be free from suffering, to be free from all notions of body and mind identification. So this is why he says I take refuge in the self.

Speaker 1:

Now, it's not some separate self that he's talking about, it's not about the true self, our true nature, this Atman, this Brahman, this formless awareness. That's what Sadananda Ji is talking about. And then he says it's the basis of all existence. See, for existence to arise, this formless awareness has to be. This Brahman has to be. It is the cause behind everything. So if there is creation, that power of Maya, it emanates from Brahman. So this whole world is nothing but an extension of Brahman. It's not Brahman itself, it doesn't stand by itself, because it's a projection, it's an appearance, but we can understand that its power, its cause, comes from the ultimate. Now, then it describes the ultimate. So you know when we may think.

Speaker 1:

Well, if you're saying it's the basis of all existence, well, is it in duality? No, first word indivisible. It cannot be divided. Therefore, it can be multiplied. Yeah, so it's all the play of the one that appears to be many. Yeah, that's the way to understand this pure consciousness, this formless awareness that we are Now.

Speaker 1:

See, the point is here that if anybody had to ask you Well, what is this truth, what is Shiva, what is Brahman, what is the Atman, what is Nirakar, what is Vaiguru, what is God, one should have the answer at the tip of their tongue, because it's your very nature. And if one hasn't got there, then we obviously have work to do in spirituality, and it's important for us to acknowledge that we have work to do in terms of spiritual practice and spiritual understanding. So that's one thing. So when we say indivisible, then that means that there is a oneness between the. There's only oneness here, yeah, there's no two. Yeah, there's no duality. There's not me and brumman, there's not me, the self and the. There's not me, the self and the higher self. There is only the higher self. There's an appearance of a limited self, but I only know it's limited because of that avidya, that ignorance being removed. Without that ignorance being removed, I will think there's a little me and there's a big God. Yeah, and I'll be in that little duality. So it's indivisible. So, even if one tries to separate themselves from this God, from this Brahman, it's impossible. That's why the non-dual truth is the most common sense kind of reality that one can acknowledge.

Speaker 1:

To say that it's, it can be divided, it's dualistic. That means we have not understood the nature of consciousness, the nature of our true self. That means that we see ourselves separate to other people, to other things, things even to consciousness itself. That there's a me and there's the awareness of me. No, there is only awareness, this me that we're talking about, this body and mind.

Speaker 1:

Will it, will the awareness remain in the body after physical death? No, it won't. So it only remains. It remains regardless of physical death no, it won't. So it only remains. It remains regardless of physical death or physical birth or non-physicality. And this is where we understand it's indivisible, then eternal. Likewise, it's beyond birth and beyond death. It's here, forever, forever. There's never been a time and this pure awareness, you know, there's never been a time where it hasn't been, and there never will be a time, and it won't be there. This pure consciousness will remain eternal. It will remain here because if it's indivisible, then it doesn't belong to time and space and therefore we can understand its true nature that is eternal. So again, we know that its nature is beyond time, so it's beyond the past, present and future. So, for example, the teaching of just being in the now is not complete, because we have to even transcend the now, because if you investigated the now, you wouldn't be able to keep up with it from a mental point of view, from a mind point of view. Whenever you say this is now, the now has escaped. So that's why it's better to say it's eternal and then in that everything is said yeah, past, present and future.

Speaker 1:

Conscious, aware. That's the direct way of us knowing. The direct realization is through awareness that I'm aware of ignorance, this ignorance that doesn't exist, this ignorance that is just an appearance, that's a projecting power and veils this Brahman. But once I address this avidya, once I address this ignorance, it goes away. And that only happens through the direct path of awareness that, once I realize, this awareness is formless, it's alive within me right now and it will remain even after this physical death. So its nature is conscious, its nature is awareness and that's how we directly experience it in this human frame. Now, that doesn't mean that the human frame is dependent on this awareness, or awareness is dependent on this human frame, shall I say. Actually, this human frame can function because of consciousness.

Speaker 1:

Think about it. If we weren't conscious beings, we weren't aware of ourselves, we will not be asking about the meaning of life, we will not be wondering about if there is life beyond the stars, we will not be thinking about if there is more when we die. That means there's a certain awareness of, even after death, that there must be something after death. What is speaking that? It is awareness. It's not the body that's saying it. The body knows it's going to be inert. The mind knows something, travels, and that's what we learn in Advaita Vedanta. We may get to this in Vedanta.

Speaker 1:

It's blissful, it's happiness. It has nothing more to give to us. It's got nothing less to give to us. It's happy, happy, as I always say.

Speaker 1:

What my guru used to say is that bliss is the is true happiness beyond the senses, see, sense. Gratification can only give us a certain amount of happiness, a certain amount of joy, a certain amount of peace. But to be in blissfulness is something that's available 24-7. And you experience it right here, right now. It's beyond time, it's not that you have to access bliss. Bliss is always here. It's inexhaustible, just like this consciousness, just like this Brahman, and it's permanent.

Speaker 1:

All these attributes that have been mentioned is permanence, indivisible permanence, eternal permanence, conscious awareness permanence, blissful permanence, awareness permanence, blissful permanence. And do we really want this happiness beyond the senses? Do we really want to experience it? Do we really want to be in that state where there's only peace, where there's not even a flicker of thought, a flicker of imagination, a flicker of even a vritti, a movement of a thought, not even the thought fully developed, even the movement in between the development of a thought even then? So bliss is beyond all this and that's why, in the final line he says, and beyond the reach of speech and mind. See, the speech can only reach you there. The mind can only take you so far. Even the speech can only take you so far.

Speaker 1:

What I say. There will be a limitation, because this truth is a paradox in itself. If I say it's far, it's also near. If I say it's fast, it's also slow. If I say it's fast, it's also slow. If I say it moves, it's also still so it's beyond the reach of speech and mind. The mind cannot reach it. A mind, the mind cannot reach it. It can try, it can get a hint, a fragrance, but it cannot get to the flower, the source of that fragrance. Only awareness can get to the source of that fragrance. So awareness is the only one that can take you there. You'll get the hint. The mind will be able to somewhat translate, but something always gets lost in translation. Funny enough, I'm reading a translation.

Speaker 1:

But this truth can be heard. Yes, it can be heard in the silence of meditation, when the mind is silent, when the surrounding is silent. It's experienced. We just have to be open to that. And this awareness itself carries the complete understanding, as long as we are not just physically listening, like you're just watching this. No, if we take it deeper into the mind and thought and then take it deeper into the contact with awareness, then slowly and slowly, awareness will erode away the ignorance of the notion that we're the body and mind.

Speaker 1:

So this is what happens when we go beyond speech, beyond mind, it cannot. We can again, like, for example, when I say indivisible, when we say eternal these are things that are experienced, but the word doesn't get close to what is being experienced. And that's something you have to intuitively grasp. And if you've, you know, stayed with the Brahmgyana, stayed with the knowledge of Brahma and the knowledge of truth, if you stayed with it, if you have immersed in it, then it will become very. You can grasp what I'm saying instantaneously. But if you haven't and your mind is still doubting it, that means it's good, that means there's some doubt, there's something working, there's recognition that this could be the truth. So there's doubts that arise, and then there may be that, oh, I'm just listening and therefore it just stays there. I hear it, and then I'm off to chasing the other desire that I have.

Speaker 1:

So initially we've got to understand that what he's describing here has to be our state too. So when we read this text, we've got to read it in that sense. So when I read it, I've got to understand that it's coming from the highest for the fulfillment of my highest desire. First Jiva Mukti that will be in my mind. Then I'm taking refuge in the self. So when I read this, I'm reading it as being in the shelter of the self, in the shelter of formless awareness, in the shelter of Brahman Nirakad, and then knowing that it's the basis of all existence. So one is not reading from ignorance, one is actually reading from knowledge, from true vidya. Yeah, then he says After worshipping the Guru who, both by name and by his state of being free from the illusion of duality or appearance of duality, embodies the essence of his name, adv of all.

Speaker 1:

He says after worshipping the Guru, where do you get the knowledge from? It's from the Guru. People think today that they can bypass the Guru, they don't need a Guru. They listen to one lecture of J Krishnamurti who says do not have a Guru. But then he himself is teaching. But what he's saying is don't give up your authority on the truth. That's all he's saying. That if the Guru has achieved good. But have you achieved. This is the important thing.

Speaker 1:

So, after worshipping the Guru, so what does the worship mean? It's a gratitude, A gratitude for the wisdom of this indivisible, eternal, conscious and blissful Brahman, self, atman, formless Awareness, god, whatever name we want to give, who, both by name and by his state of being free from the appearance of duality, he is both by name and by his state of being free from the appearance of duality. He is beyond duality. He knows that this appearance that we see, this Maya, it appears to be dualistic, but actually, remember, it's what the basis of all existence is Brahman. So, regardless of these names and states, it's all that, one indivisible Brahman. And he embodies the essence of his name, advaya Ananda, essence of his name Advaya Ananda. So the name of his Guru means that this reality is non-dual in nature. So he says I proceed to describe the essence of Vedanta, according to my understanding. So he would now describe Vedanta. So the main important thing is to understand that.

Speaker 1:

You know, there's a power in names too. You know, I remember, and there's a suggestion too, like, for example, I remember my uncle. He was my first role model. If you watch my video about my spiritual journey, I mentioned this, I mentioned about him and he said that he would tell me that, you know, rahul was the name of Mahatma Buddha's son, so Gautama Buddha, his son. And I used to think, oh wow, you know that's what my name means. You know, I'm the son of Buddha. Now, with that means that you have to live up to the name. And it's interesting, I don't know whether my uncle had that intention, but it became a journey for me to realize what spirituality is. So, you know, one has to embody the essence of the name too, if you have a meaning to your name.

Speaker 1:

But remember, and by his state of being free from the appearance of duality. So one thing we need to understand here is that we do not get stuck in the appearance of duality. We are free from it. We know it's dualistic, we know that it's not the complete truth. Its fragmentation means that it's not. It shows us a different, the senses are showing us something different. When we know that the truth is indivisible, then we understand that this duality is just an appearance and even the basis of this. Even for the duality to exist, it has to come from the indivisible one, because that is the basis of all existence. So, really, at the end of these two verses and then we'll obviously in the next episode on the Vedanta Sara, we will go into the other verses.

Speaker 1:

But what we need to understand is this truth is beyond speech and beyond the reach of the mind. So when you're reading this, when you're listening to this, do not think from those aspects. Use those aspects only if you don't want to have the direct understanding of the truth, aspects, only if you don't want to have the direct understanding of the truth. But in this first verse itself there is the direct truth there revealed, and then in the next one, just remember that only that person who understands the reality can the reality.

Speaker 1:

Many people may talk about God realization, being enlightened, but how many of them can take you to your true nature Directly?

Speaker 1:

How many of them can take you to formless awareness? How many of them have even given you a glimpse Forget about Anything else Just a glimpse of this formless awareness? Only those teachers are true who can show you this truth, who can show you this reality, who can highlight this reality for you, to show you that it's right here in front of you, it's not anywhere, far. We all have the strength to do that and if we follow the teacher's instructions, we can get there, and so take this Vedanta Sara series to be an important base for what we'll be doing in the course. If we have a good understanding of this, the course will be a lot easier for us. We will understand this a lot more straight away. But that's up to you. But this Resting in Formless Awareness course, again, it's for really hardcore, I would say, real seekers for truth, seekers for Truth, and this Vedanta Sāras series is just helping us to navigate the course a little easier.

Speaker 1:

Okay, so we'll carry on next time with verse 3 at least. And, uh, I hope that after this episode, if somebody asked you what is consciousness, what is brahman, what is the atman, what is god, you should have the answer. Okay, take care everyone, remember to like, comment and subscribe, and do follow me on Discord where we can continue the conversation. Take care, everyone, namaste.

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