Summary:

REVISION VERSE 15:

What is prayer? It is converting your helplessness into an action.

What does prayer involve? Prayer can involve:

1. Mānasa karma: Mental. EG: Gratitude or request.
2. Vācika karma: Oral recitations (chanting, singing). EG: Gāyatrī–mantra, asking Lord to point intellect in right direction. “May Lord brighten mind, to think properly. May Ishvara help me come out of confusion/subjectivity, so can make proper decisions”.
3. Kāyika karma: Physical. EG: Bowing.

Difference between prayer and yajna?

1. Yajna: elaborate fire rituals involving offerings. Produce more puṇya, due to greater effort (Adhikasya adhikam phalam). EG: Pilgrimage, group chanting.
2. Prayer: verbal recitation.

What is logic of prayer working?

1. No action goes without reaction. It’s a positive action.
2. Acknowledges presence of Ishvara.
3. Fosters devotion, helping come out of “stuck in head”.

BHAGAVAD GITA, CHAPTER 2, VERSE 16:

न असतः विद्यते भावः न अभावः विद्यते सतः ।
उभयोः अपि दृष्टः अन्तः तु अनयोः तत्त्व-दर्शिभिः ॥ २-१६॥
na asataḥ vidyate bhāvaḥ na abhāvaḥ vidyate sataḥ ।
ubhayoḥ api dṛṣṭaḥ antaḥ tu anayoḥ tattva-darśibhiḥ ॥ 2-16॥

For the unreal (mithyā), there is never any being. For the real, there is never any non-being. The ultimate truth of both (the real and the unreal) is seen by the knowers of the truth.

How does satyam-mithya help me in discovering my nature?  Continuing from previous session…

• Satya-Mithya As Far As Science Takes Us: (Journey to discover the final building block of universe)
  • STEP 1: BODY. Is Body satyam (independent) or mithya (dependent on other parts)? Let’s look at body: Is body satyam or mithya? Mithya, because it has dependent reality. Are you legs body? No. Brain? Hands? No. Then you take out head/brain/everything, what remains of the body? Nothing. So what’s the content of the body? “Body” is a name for many parts coming together. And you put all limbs together, and we give it a name “body”. Meaning body can’t exist without parts that constitutes it.
  • STEP 2: PART: Let’s look at one part. The hand. Is muscle, the hand? No. Blood, water, nerves? No. Meaning one part itself is a name for many parts that constitute it. EG: Take out blood, water, nerves, everything. What remains “hand”? Nothing. Thus hand too is mithya.
  • STEP 3: BLOOD: Suppose blood is more real then hand. How many things constitute “blood”? Hemoglobin, proteins, white/red blood cells.
  • STEP 4: CELLS: Perhaps cells are more real. No. Because cells too undergo change. > Atoms > Particles.
  • STEP 5: ANOTHER BODY: Analyze another body. Is it different story? No. Same story. Forms within forms.
  • STEP 6: ASK SCIENTIST, what is final building block on which all things depend on? Where does it all end? Science is unable to answer. But they’ll say it collapses into concepts/mathematics. EG: In Quantum World, particles can appear in two places at same time, while you see it in a single location. So even Quantum Physics is showing world isn’t as tangible/fixed as we see.
• Need Vedanta To See The Two Final Building Blocks Of Anything (Intelligence & Awareness):
  • Inquiry into any object in this world, and it’s made up for forms within forms. It’s mithya within mithya within mithya.
  • According to Krishna, final building block isn’t any form (such as quark), but Intelligence (Ishvara), which has it’s being or depends on sat-cit. So entire world of forms collapses ultimately into sat-cit (Existence-Awareness).
  • Take objects of past and future, does this satya–mithya relationship change? Thus whole variable world collapses into concept, which finally collapses into sat-cit, which never changes. EG: Can concept exist without awareness? No. And Awareness is independent of concept. Thus sat-cit become Ananta/Ananda (not limited by any form, thus is formless/limitless).
• In this vision of reality, how many things are there? Because variable world gets collapsed. And invariable always remains invariable. And where is invariable for you? It’s always with you as your intrinsic nature.
• Purpose of Satya–Mithya Analysis:
  • Do you need to remove through (mithya) to know atma satyam? No. Only to recognize mithya is never away from satyam. Where mithya, that's where satyam is. 
  • EG:
    • Where wave (mithya), that's where water (satyam) is.
    • To know self (satyam), do you need to remove a through? No. Because self/consciousness is the very reason why the thought is lit up. Just the fact a thought IS, implies presence of consciousness (which is the final building block of everything).
  • When one has no knowledge of satya–mithya, then mithya becomes satyam (the final thing), thus every mithya object or experience become a BIG DEAL. EG: Kundalini-awakening-satya, Spiritual-awakening-satya, etc. This is why we see spiritual seekers hopping from experience to experience, taking each experience as the final satyam.
• Ignorant vs Wise Person:
  • Ignorant Person: One is caught as variable as my true nature. Like small wave is caught up with it’s interactions with other waves.
  • Wise Person: There is one invariable in whose presence the variable is seen (made of forms within forms, reducing to concepts which depends on invariable consciousness). Reason wise person is fulfilled is because vision is taken from variable individuality, to invariable truth of everything. The wise wave understands it enjoys the irreducible reality which is the truth of all waves. Wave-water is a satya–mithya Wave depends on water for it’s existence, water is independent of the wave’s condition/form.
  • Who are you? The variable body-mind which is made of forms within forms, or the invariable in whose presence the variable conditions of body-mind are known?
• NEXT VERSE: Expands on satya–mithya…

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Course was based on Neema Majmudar's Bhagavad Gita & Swami Dayananda (Arsha Vidya) home study course.

Recorded 8 Sept, 2024