TV Channel

Śaṅkarācārya wrote a great many works. He was the incarnation of Śiva. By the age of seven or eight, he knew everything in detail—all the Vedas and all the holy scriptures. Can you imagine what that means? If you study for a lifetime, you might memorize a quarter of one Veda. With a good memory and talent for learning, you might occasionally recall passages from all the Vedas. But Śaṅkarācārya knew everything. Thus, he is said to be the incarnation, the very light of knowledge. He is considered one of the greatest thinkers ever to have been incarnated as a human, possessing thought of the highest order. Śaṅkarācārya is the head of the Swami Order, the highest order in human society and within the system of initiation. He founded ten monasteries under different lineages: Giri, Purī, Bhāratī, Sarasvatī, and so on. We, or I, belong to them. All our spiritual lineages belong to Śaṅkarācārya. He is the highest authority. He wrote and spoke extensively, and there is a very small booklet of his teachings. It is not so difficult to read, only 28 pages. Yet in those 28 pages, he has perhaps given knowledge sufficient for 28 lifetimes. His teaching establishes non-dualism. There are teachings that profess dualism and those that profess non-dualism. Dualism concerns individual love and divine love, God and the individual self. Śaṅkarācārya says there is no difference. He gives many examples to make clear that there is no difference. Here is a small example: there are different types of shapes and jewelry—rings, bracelets, necklaces, earrings. But the metal from which they are made is gold. He says the differences lie in the shapes, not in the gold. Whether it is a ring or a necklace, it is only a difference in quantity and form, but gold is gold. And so it is: whether it is God Himself or the breath of a small mosquito, the differences are in properties and forms. That difference lies in consciousness, in knowledge and ignorance. The distinction is between ignorance and knowledge. The people in this world are seekers. They search in the direction of spirituality, toward the Supreme Self, toward God. For them, Śaṅkarācārya's teaching is a great help. We seek the absolute or supreme truth, we seek what is absolute, what God is, and who we are. We seek a unity where there is no dualism, no attributes like male or female, light or darkness—where you are in complete unity. There, the teacher Śaṅkarācārya says that all kinds of wishes are also an obstacle; they make you dependent, they bind you. Even the desire for mokṣa is a desire that binds you. In a song he says: "Na muktir na bandhaḥ, cidānandarūpaḥ, śivo'haṃ śivo'haṃ." There is no liberation, and there is no bondage. But this is for those who have realized this state of consciousness. For us, there is a difference between heaven and earth. Perhaps we are still below the earth, not above it. Yet the serious seeker understands what a master means and what the words of a master mean. Then he follows the Guruvākya, the teachings of the master. Other faults are doubts, mistrust, sadness, and uncertainty. Where there is uncertainty, mistrust, and doubt, there is fear, insecurity, psychological disorders, sleeplessness, nervousness, sadness, loneliness, and uncertainty. One feels abandoned or lost, helpless, miserable, and so on. Why? Because we have lost our wings. The wings on which we fly or hover above. And these wings are our trust. How did we lose them? Through our ignorance. What types of ignorance? There is crisis ignorance, where we have started to compare our basis of trust with something. When we start to compare, we limit things. We substitute and limit our knowledge, which is already a sign of small knowledge. What I believe should not be compared with anything. When you begin to assign values, you have already limited yourself; you have lost. Of course, one should not believe blindly either. It should be based on what you have found in your life. One does not change it like changing clothes. From my own experience, I see many people who come and say, "Oh, Swāmījī, you are the master." After a few years, they say, "Well, I think I was mistaken." I say, I do not know if you were mistaken or confused. Then someone else comes and says, "Are you looking for another master? I know a good master." So, Ismaprabhujī has said: "bhajjana-corka-hovena-tidina-lakha-cora-si-bhagat-virna." The one who does not understand the Guru's word, his promises do not count. He cannot cross the ocean. He must return to the cycle of rebirth and death through the circle of 8.4 million living beings. Human life is a miracle; it is very mysterious. It is a question, and very few people can answer this question, or solve this puzzle. Human life is very difficult for a human being to understand. People are very dependent, fearful. Human beings are very, very dependent. Humans are beings in this world who are not free. Other beings at least have some freedom, and they follow the laws of nature. But humans do not. We are dependent in every respect. We wish to have freedom from this, but we are afraid. We are dependent on emotions, on culture, on religion, on revenge, on country, on politics, on material things. No matter where you look, you find fear and dependency. It is a jungle—a dense, thorny forest with dangerous creatures. Now, without any protection, we must go through it. This is the state of a human being. Each of us, when we look inside, finds our thoughts are so intertwined. It is like the bat's steps. And where is the human being the highest or best living being? Looked at this way, the human is the poorest and most miserable living being ever. At the same time, the human being has the freedom and ability to free everything, to become free, and to realize unity, to realize perfection. Other living beings are bound by nature, but humans can realize supernatural forces and liberate themselves through their struggle in life, namely through knowledge. Everyone can achieve or realize this. This is the teaching of the holy one: "Know thyself, recognize thyself." This is the answer and the solution to all your problems, the liberation from all your difficulties. But know thyself in a healthy way. There are many people who are said to be holy. This is called—I do not know what this word means—but it is called nonsense. Spinning around like a spinning net. This is again a sick mind or sick thoughts. The one who has realized knowledge is independent, self-confident, clear, relaxed, and happy, without fear or anything. Thus, Śaṅkarācārya says: Know thyself. Do not identify yourself with your worries, with your illness, with your sadness, with your ignorance, and so on. You are the pure, divine Self. You are the Ātmā. And it is true, we are that. And not only we, but other living beings too. But they do not have this consciousness yet; they do not have this buddhi, this intellect, yet. It is missing. Humans have an intellect that can be trained, that can help in development. And so here, Śaṅkarācārya's book is called Aparokṣānubhūti—Self-Realization. The path to self-realization, the path to realization, the path to perfection, the path to oneself, and the path to God—that is it. The question always comes: How long does it take? How far is my path? Śaṅkarācārya laughs about it. You do not know how far you are from yourself. You are looking for yourself somewhere thousands of miles away. You are not there. So if we do not know who we are and how far we are from ourselves, if we know that, then we say there is no way to the self, because there is no way to the self. When one speaks of the way to the self, that is a lie. You stand here in the middle of the cross, and someone says, "What do you want? Where do you go?" You say, "I go to myself." So that is where you go to yourself. ...O my dear one, where do you search for me? I am with you. My heart is outside of the town, but my residence is in your breath. My dear one, where do you search for me? My residence is in your breath. You will search for me there within no time. So, we should concentrate on our indriyas, all our senses, all our searching, all our energies. Look to yourself. You have seen enough faces; you have laughed enough at how the other looks. But look at your own face, at least in the mirror. And the mirror, for us at the moment, is still the teaching of the holy one. The book is a mirror where you can see yourself very clearly. You stand here, five meters away from the mirror, and you see yourself very clearly. And if someone throws or hits the mirror with a stone, do you feel pain? No. You are there yourself; it is your self, but you are not afraid, you do not feel anything at all. You only see your reflection, the tiniest of you. But when someone touches your body, then you feel, because there you are yourself. Intellectual knowledge is only a reflection, but it is also something. Theoretically knowing about oneself is also significant, and then comes practice. Thus, the teaching of Śaṅkarācārya continues. In the very first mantra, the ācārya Śaṅkara gives his adoration to the highest Self, the master, the guru of the guru, Śrī Hari—God, all-present, everywhere, as your own ātmā, the self. "Śrī Harim Paramānandam" and His attributes. God, although He has no attributes, when you talk about attributes, then it is the highest bliss. Every living being, no matter which, is looking for happiness, looking for joy, looking for pleasure. And why? Consciously or unconsciously, through different things. In food, too. We like to eat what we like. Why do we not just eat what we are supposed to eat? Because there is a feeling. It is a satisfaction when you get what you want to eat. And this feeling of joy, this happy feeling, comes from your true divine Self, because it is joy; it is the highest bliss. Whoever has realized this is constantly in bliss. Unfortunately, we are only eating food. The next day, when we get to the bar, the joy is a little less. Then you promise yourself, "I have to take it off," and so on. But when it comes again, and the same joy is there, we forget again. So our joy, our happiness, is temporary. But constantly, the Self becomes aware of it again and looks for itself again. So the Self, the divine Self, is joy. And to realize joy, to have joy, we should, when possible, use the head and the heart together and enjoy. Sometimes there is something where joy is pleasure, but the result is negative—for example, drugs. I do not know how this pleasure can be. But the addict, when the effect is gone, is looking for something again. The same thing. So the addicts are seeking; the seeking is the addict. We are also addicted, but we are addicted to divine love, to merciful bliss. Because all who sit here, you have come to the spiritual path with the thought that you seek a higher, a better joy. And I have certainly found it. I have started it. We will lose again, but we will start again. Once you have tasted it, you will not forget this taste anymore. And it always leads back there. Param Ānand. Param is the highest, and Ānand is happiness. "Śrī Harim Paramanandam"—therefore God is the highest bliss. But God is not in a form; God in the whole world is Himself. We have given Him names according to our language and culture, but He is nothing else. When you say, "My God is better than your God," then it is about a teacher. And so, most religions started with a teacher; that is called man-made religions. But the Sanātana Dharma is eternal; it is bound to nature, with this creation, with God. And then when you say, "My God is better than your God," there is dualism. Then there are differences of opinion, and then arguments can begin. And the argument can become so great that what we say suddenly becomes a world war. A butterfly can cause a storm. When a butterfly flies and brings air movement through its wings, it can slowly become a hurricane. And so it is: it is a sleeping force in the subconscious somewhere. And suddenly it is in motion. Through what? Through mine and yours, ours and theirs. Then it develops with these forces, with ignorance. When we plant seeds in our garden, they grow with weeds. We only want to water and fertilize the beans we have planted. But when we water the beans, we automatically water the weeds as well. So the seeds or good harvest we have planted—the plants—are spirituality in religion. But the differences, the opinions, that is the weed. And if you do not take the weed out of the field at the same time, the weeds will overtake. The real seeds, the real beans, will remain small, and the weeds will grow like a jungle, like nettles. And this is how our hatred, jealousy, anger, suffering, ego, revenge, and so on grow. And that is a sign of ignorance, and that comes because dualism is there. In divine consciousness, in God, there is no dualism, there are no differences. Love is love, God is God, consciousness is consciousness, matter is matter. Everything is very beautifully shaped. Everyone has their place, everyone has their task and function. And so humans should develop further. "Śrī Harim Paramanandam Upadeṣṭhā Īśvaram"—who gives us Upadeśa. Upadeśa is a very beautiful word. When a swami, a sādhu, a master speaks, people say, "Please, can you give us some upadeśa?" "Upa" means nearer. So the disciple sits nearer to the master. Upadeśa is the first teaching. The word Upaniṣad comes up: upa means near and ṣad means to sit. The student sits near to his master and hears his wisdom or his knowledge. This is a dialogue between master and student—the Upaniṣad, not the teaching. The first master, God Himself, is the first master. And so the yoga teaching is the very first teaching. In this yoga teaching, the first master has given His instructions; He has given rules and regulations. These are spiritual: believe, pray, help, be spiritual, believe in God, and so on. Different teachers accepted this—be it Buddha, or Kṛṣṇa, or Rāma, or Jesus, or whoever. Everyone speaks of God, of love, of spirituality, of the self, of the negative, of evil, and so on. Where do they come from? All of them have the teachings of the first master, the God who created this world. He is omnipresent, in the whole world, in all lokas. Lokas means levels—all levels, all different levels, from heaven to hell and from hell to heaven. There are fourteen lower worlds and fourteen upper worlds—seven below and seven above. So all lower and upper worlds. Until now, there are 14 worlds and 21 solar systems that can be wandered in our consciousness or in our human consciousness. "Chaudalok ikiso brahmāṇḍ, 2100 lokas"—2100 systems. Where your soul has the freedom to wander around limitlessly and rest for a while, either in these fourteen worlds or in the eleven hundred systems, the solar systems. And this divine Self, the First Master, the God Self, is omnipresent in every atom. To understand Him is a masterpiece. You cannot understand Him. When you think of Him and try to see Him in every atom, you become totally confused. You try to understand, but then you do not understand anymore. For example, if He is in every atom, then how can He be in the bullet? If the bullet kills someone, how can He be in the atomic force? Everyone is afraid. Yes, in the Mahābhārata, especially in the Rāmāyaṇa, and also in the Vedas, it speaks about atomic force, Rākṣasa. In Kali Yuga, the Rākṣasas will come with such strong energies that no one can run against them and fight them. He is not allowed to be born. His birth does not have to take place. And when he is born, it becomes difficult, because he becomes the most powerful. This is the power of the atom. He is everywhere, in every corner. No matter where I look, He is God. Then, go in the direction of the lion or the tiger. What happens? He is omnipresent, everywhere, in every atom. And He is the cause of everything. The will, the will of heaven. How can this be the cause of the nuclear power plant? But He is. That is why He is Brahmā as creator, Viṣṇu as preserver, and then He is Śiva as destroyer. He has created, He has sustained, and He will destroy again. God says, "Watch out, the time is coming." At some point, the last drop will start to flow out. When we see what we humans have caused in this world, it is no wonder that so many diseases and so many negative things happen. And why does this disease happen? Who knows, maybe the chastiser, the Śiva power, has begun to work. Although Śiva means beauty, Śiva means liberation, Śiva means happiness, Śiva means joy, Śiva means unity, Śiva means the truth—Satyam Śivam Sundaram—as Rudra. And Rudra, when Śiva as Rudra, His consciousness, or He wakes up in the Rudra, dark, then everything happens. He is the cause of all. And therefore, when then? I bow down. When then? If then, I adore Him—who is the cause of everything, who is omniscient and omnipresent everywhere. He is the first master, He is the bliss, the highest bliss, and that is God.