Hey, it's Swami Medhananda! From the vedanta Society of California. These are great folks. This circle is proponent of Sri Ramakrishna. They also sell books at a low cost, trying to get them in the hands of seekers. I purchased the 4 vol. set of the Upanishads, translated by Swami Nikhilananda from them.
Great and lowly are RELATIVE. 😉 THE TRUTH ABOUT "SWAMI" VIVEKANANDA & THE RAMAKRISHNA MISSION: Some of the following three points apply to practically any "religious" organization, not only to the Ramakrishna Mission/Vedanta Society. Nota bene: I refer to the founder of that pseudo-religious organization by his proper name, Mr. Narendranath Datta, and NOT the name by which he is addressed by the deluded fanatics who follow him, "Swami Vivekananda", for reasons that should become obvious when reading the following. 1. A spiritual master ought to be a member of the Holy Priesthood (that is, the "brāhmaṇa" class of society, usually wrongly transliterated as "Brahmin"). Mr. Datta was a member of the working-class ("śūdra", in Sanskrit), since he failed to exhibit key characteristics of a genuine brāhmaṇa. Firstly, he was a drug addict (he died at a young age, due to lung cancer caused by chain smoking tobacco). 🚬 Secondly, he was a carnist. A carnist is a person who considers animals unworthy of moral protection (he virtually suckled on the teats of cows, thus causing undue harm to both himself, to the cows from whom he stole their milk, and of course the poor, innocent calves, who were robbed of their food). 🍼 🐄 🥛 In order to learn of the prerequisites for being a TRUE BRĀHMAṆA, email me for a copy of the Holiest of All Holy Scriptures, "A Final Instruction Sheet for Humanity" ("FISH"). 2. The Ramakrishna Mission/Vedanta Society condones the two MOST PERNICIOUS institutions in the history of the planet - democracy and feminism. There is insufficient space in this comment section to properly explicate the reasons why democracy (or, for that matter, any system of non-monarchical governance) and feminism are so adharmic and evil, so, if you are one of the very few souls who is desirous of understanding my reason for stating the above, you should find my Email address in the "About" page of my TH-cam channel. 3. Because, as mentioned previously, Mr. Datta was an ultra-fundamentalist pseudo-religious fanatic, and an ignorant "śūdra", none of his disciples and grand-disciples, et cetera, can ever attain to self-realization, for as Lord Jesus Christ rightly stated two millennia ago, "A student can never be greater than his teacher". Therefore, if one has ambition to become even more "realized" than Mr. Datta, it is ABSOLUTELY IMPERATIVE that he seek training from a guru who is on a higher state of spiritual understanding and realization than Mr. Datta, or any of the current Ramakrishna Mission "sannyasins". Just to provide a couple of examples for the above accusation, the current head of the Advaita Society of New York, Mr. Vishvarupa (so-called "Swami" Sarvapriyānanda) is a self-confessed candāla (dog-eater), since he consumes the bloody carcasses of poor, innocent animals, and of course, as a member of that demonic organization, he promulgates the second-most pernicious institution in history (feminism). Furthermore, the British woman who hosts his TH-cam channel, Diane Crafford, according to her Facebook profile picture, condones not only unjustified animal slaughter, but she supports the murder of even poor, innocent, defenseless, unborn humans. 👿 In order to study dharma and yoga with the current World Teacher Himself, search for "Jagadguru Svami Vegananda" in Facebook. 😇 सत्यमेव जयते! 😇
I love the idea of enlightenment as the ability to throw a big old cosmic house party. Enough rooms for every version of hevean. With tunes and light snacks. Be the cosmic house party and also Be the light snacks. Your call.
Interesting interview, but if you're truly seeking the depths of Hindu philosophy and the essence of reality, I highly recommend interviewing Advaitic monks like Swamy Sarvapriyananda. Their insights into the nature of existence go beyond the surface and delve into the profound truths of consciousness and non-duality. That's where you'll find the real gems of Hinduism
The Swami interviewed here is associated with the same Vedantic tradition as Sarvapriyananda but I agree that his insights and clarity of communication is second to none.
Swami Sarvapriyananda is coming; he is terrific! (Swami Medhananda, in addition to being a leading Advaita Vedanta monk, has a PhD in German Idealism from Berkeley. Check his books.)
@@musicman9023 Mr. Vishvarupa (AKA Swami Sarvapriyānanda) is undoubtedly a VERY intelligent man, but the fact that he supports the two most pernicious institutions in the history of the earth, as well as him being an animal-abuser, says much about his true moral character: F.I.S.H. Paragraph 28. Feminism is the penultimate evil at present because feminism is based on the misguided assumption that women are equal to or even superior to men. Although a female can exhibit superior traits, skills, etcetera, to some men, a woman can never have AUTHORITY over a man. Truth be told, no true man would ever descend to the level of accepting counsel from any of his subordinates. A man should fully obey his appointed masters and never emasculate himself by submitting to the dictates of a female. Feminism and democracy are guaranteed to destroy society, as can be clearly seen at present. However, feminism will NEVER EVER be destroyed until the most pernicious institution is first destroyed: F.I.S.H Paragraph 26. Democracy is evil because the masses will invariably choose the murderous Barabbas over the good King Jesus. This planet is surely doomed unless the most pernicious institution ever known to man (democracy) is replaced by the only legitimate form of government (monarchy - preferably a good monarch, though even a bad king is preferable to being ruled by an elected official who can never be good). Most of the problems in human society are directly or indirectly attributable to this relatively modern phenomenon, since it is the government’s role and sacred duty to enforce the law. Just because good and bad are relative, does not imply that they do not exist. They do exist but are relative. A democrat can never be good, despite appearing so. One of the many sinister characteristics of democracy, communism and other evil forms of governance, is the desire for their so-called “leaders” to attempt to control or at least influence the personal lives of every single citizen. For example, in the wicked, decadent nation where this holy scripture was composed, The Southland (or Australia as it is known in the Latin tongue), the demonic government tries and largely succeeds in controlling the rights of parents to properly raise, discipline and punish their children according to their own morals, limiting legitimate powers an employer has over his servants, persecuting religious leaders (even to imprisonment and death, believe it or not) and even trying to influence what people eat and wear. Not that a government shouldn’t control what its citizens wear in public, but it should ensure that they are modestly dressed, which is hardly the case in Australia and similar nations. Basically, the worst of the democratic governments promote or at least permit all things contrary to God’s perfect and pure will such as adultery, fornication, prostitution, pornography, homosexuality, gambling (even running lotteries themselves), illegitimate abortion of poor innocent unborn children, irreligion, drug addiction, disrespect for authority and promoting materialism and ignorance via a powerful network of institutions of miseducation (so-called “schools, colleges and universities”). Let it be known however - democracy can not and will not endure. The truth shall triumph! Democracy is only acceptable within large business corporations, where the shareholders must vote on who will be the company bosses and other matters. To read the remaining chapters of “A Final Instruction Sheet for Humanity”, which are the most accurate spiritual precepts so far in human history, Email the address on my TH-cam homepage, with the acronym “FISH” in the subject field. 🐟 “The cure for nescience is unerring knowledge”.
Advaita-vāda is not an authentic interpretation of Vedānta. It's concocted by cherry-picking from a tiny portion of Vedic statements, which is not at all in keeping with the essential meaning of Vedānta.
Some things I think about in relation to the observer or soul is that ourselves as form has individual genetics, etc etc which is the tools to navigate. Therefore a soul in a different body or incarnation would have a different set of tools, so certainly wouldn’t recognise any of its previous incarnations . Let alone the memory itself is for the most part unreliable, when a person wakes up in the morning after sleeping has mostly amnesia from the most likely adventuresome, bizarre dreams.
According to Advaita Vedanta, it is not the Soul that has karma, nor the Soul who goes to celestial or hellish realms after death, that is the jivatma, who is composed of the Physical body, when alive on earth, of the subtle body and the causal body, or the 5 koshas. The real Soul or Atman is like the screen, in wich all of these appear, the real Soul, or better calling it the Atman, doesn't perform actions, doesn't move, it is Existence itself. It is the bundle of Subtle and Causal bodies who do all those things, and the goal of our births, according to Advaita Vedanta, is to realize our true nature, as pure Existence, pure Counsciones, and to realize we are not the body, nor the subtle or mental body. We neither come nor go, nor do, we Are.
KARMA? if birth is because of Karma - then what is the first birth from? HINDUISM? Hinduism is no religion. Hindu is the name of culture (that too a derogatory word given by Muslim invaders). The word Hindu doesn’t find a mention in any of Ved / Gita or religious texts. The name of religion in India is Ved / Truthful (non-material) knowledge.
Let me put it this way. These guys have done PHDs and they think we are kindergarden. It is like giving a monkey two bannanas instead of pointing it to where the Bannana farm is located.
It would be interesting to see how the Swami would respond to Jung's identification and description of the Collective Unconscious. It would also be interesting to hear a Buddhist master respond to the Collective Unconscious. Then compare all of this back to the work of C. Evens Wentz. And the Quantum founders. This all fits together, I think...
@@chester-chickfunt900 Subtle mind impressions” are known in psychology as the “collective unconscious”, in New Age spirituality as the “akashic records”, in Islam as the “Preserved Tablet”, and in contemporary biological science as “morphic resonance” (as postulated by Professor Dr. Alfred Rupert Sheldrake - see the Glossary). There is an abundance of evidence that humans are born with certain psycho-emotive links to previous persons, times and places. It is far beyond the purview of this document to list such evidences. As mentioned, in my case, I have an EXTREMELY strong association with all things Indian, despite not being of Indian origin, and in my view, the Jungian “collective unconscious” theory seems to be the best explanation for this bond currently available (although, the term “collective conscious” would, perhaps, be a more accurate phrase). For the common view of reincarnation to be plausible, there would need to be an entity or an OBJECT called a “soul” (“jīva” or “ātman”, in Sanskrit), which somehow finds a copulating couple, then enters the woman’s uterus, to inhabit a zygote. Assuming the existence of a discrete, individual soul/spirit is profoundly contradictory, because spirit is (by most definitions) the antithesis of finite matter. Therefore, how can an immaterial “soul” be confined to a single person’s body? If this was the case, this spirit/soul would not be (a) spirit but a finite, material object, even if it was intangible (see Chapter 05). Of course, those who believe in reincarnation, rarely discuss the topic in relation to non-human beings. Do animals have souls? What about plants? When a microbe perishes, does its soul magically float away and enter the cell of another single-celled organism, or does it progress to a higher-order living creature, as is supposed by the adherents of most of the metaphysical traditions of Bhārata (India)? Enlightened sages have realized that there is but one, all-pervasive universal SUBJECT, as explained in Chapter 06. Many of the terms used here are more fully explored in the Glossary, so it would be wise to consult the relevant Glossary entries at this point.
I don't get how can something which is the main source of conciousness and decided based on karma be eternal because as far as we know only conciousness beings are humans whereas based on you may or may not be reborn a human then there has to something external which takes and gives conciousness to the soul.
Dear, what made you think that only human beings are conscious. Even the little ant feels pain . Can you replicate it with AI ML.being In the IT Field for close to 3 decades i do not think I understand how I can make something conscious and feel pain.All the best
in all vedanta traditions , soul is consciousness . Sat-Chit-Ananda is the essence of soul . Existence and consciousness , that is . everything else appears in the soul , AS IF different and separate .. so the soul does not change it is the changeless essence of maya . like caly doesnot change if the shape of the pot changes . or
There cannot be a finite number of souls without concluding that manifestation drains God of His essential nature. Limiting the number of souls that can manifest is to limit the One, making it finite and divisible. The One is capable of an infinite plurality. Since the One is infinite, it circumscribes the infinite.
🐟 02. A BRIEF SYNOPSIS OF “LIFE”: Everything, both perceptible and imperceptible - that is, any gross or subtle OBJECT within the material universe which can possibly be perceived with the cognitive faculties, plus the SUBJECT (the observer of all phenomena) - is to what most persons generally refer when they use the term “God”, since they usually conceive of the Primeval Creator as being the Perfect Person, and “God” (capitalized) is a personal epithet of the Unconditioned Absolute. However, this anthropomorphized conception of The Absolute is a fictional character of divers mythologies. According to most every enlightened sage in the history of this planet, the Ultimate Reality is, far more logically, Absolutely NOTHING, or conversely, Absolutely EVERYTHING - otherwise called “The Tao”, “The Great Spirit”, “Brahman”, “Pure Consciousness”, “Eternal Awareness”, “Independent Existence”, “The Ground of All Being”, “Uncaused Nature”, “The Undifferentiated Substratum of Reality”, “The Unified Field”, et cetera - yet, as alluded to above, inaccurately referred to as a personal deity by the masses (e.g. “God”, “Allah”, “Yahweh”, “Bhagavan”, etc.). In other words, rather than the Supreme Truth being a separate, Blissful, Supra-Conscious Being (The Godhead Himself or The Goddess), Ultimate Reality is Eternal-Existence Limitless-Awareness Unconditional-Peace ITSELF. That which can be perceived, can not be perceiving! Because the Unmanifested Absolute is infinite creative potentiality, “it” actualizes as EVERYTHING, in the form of ephemeral, cyclical universes. In the case of our particular universe, we reside in a cosmos consisting of space-time, matter and energy, without, of course, neglecting the most fundamental dimension of existence (i.e. conscious awareness - although, “it” is, being the subject, by literal definition, non-existent). Just as a knife cannot cut itself, nor the mind comprehend itself, nor the eyes see themselves, The Absolute cannot know Itself (or at least objectively EXPERIENCE Itself), and so, has manifested this phenomenal universe within Itself for the purpose of experiencing Itself, particularly through the lives of self-aware beings, such as we sophisticated humans. Therefore, this world of duality is really just a play of consciousness within Consciousness, in the same way that a dream is a person's sleeping narrative set within the life-story of an “awakened” individual. APPARENTLY, this universe, composed of “mind and matter”, was created with the primal act (the so-called “Big Bang”), which started, supposedly, as a minute, slightly uneven ball of light, which in turn, was instigated, ultimately, by Extra-Temporal Supra-Consciousness. From that first deed, every motion or action that has ever occurred has been a direct (though, almost exclusively, an indirect) result of it. Just as all the extant energy in the universe was once contained within the inchoate singularity, Infinite Consciousness was NECESSARILY present at the beginning of the universe, and is in no way an epiphenomenon of a neural network. Discrete consciousness, on the other hand, is entirely dependent on the neurological faculty of individual animals (the more highly-evolved the species, the greater its cognitive abilities). “Sarvam khalvidam brahma” (a Sanskrit maxim from the “Chandogya Upanishad”, meaning “all this is indeed Brahman” or “everything is the Universal Self alone”). There is NAUGHT but Eternal Being, Conscious Awareness, Causeless Peace - and you are, quintessentially, that! This “Theory of Everything” can be more succinctly expressed by the mathematical equation: E=A͚ (Everything is Infinite Awareness). HUMANS are essentially this Eternally-Aware-Peace, acting through an extraordinarily-complex biological organism, comprised of the eight rudimentary elements - pseudo-ego (the assumed sense of self), intellect, mind, solids, liquids, gases, heat (fire), and ether (three-dimensional space). When one peers into a mirror, one doesn't normally mistake the reflected image to be one's real self, yet that is how we humans conventionally view our ever-mutating form. We are, rather, in a fundamental sense, that which witnesses all transitory appearances. Everything which can be presently perceived, both tangible and immaterial, including we human beings, is a culmination of that primary manifestation. That is the most accurate and rational explanation for “karma” - everything was preordained from the initial spark, and every action since has unfolded as it was predestined in ETERNITY, via an ever-forward-moving trajectory. The notion of retributive (“tit-for-tat”) karma is just that - an unverified notion. Likewise, the idea of a distinct, reincarnating “soul” or “spirit” is largely a fallacious belief. Whatever state in which we currently find ourselves, is the result of two factors - our genetic make-up at conception and our present-life conditioning (which may include mutating genetic code). Every choice ever made by every human and non-human animal was determined by those two factors ALONE. Therefore, free-will is purely illusory, despite what most believe. Chapter 11 insightfully demonstrates this truism. As a consequence of residing within this dualistic universe, we experience a lifelong series of fluctuating, transient pleasures and pains, which can take the form of physical, emotional, and/or financial pleasure or pain. Surprisingly to most, suffering and pain are NOT synonymous. Suffering is due to a false sense of personal agency - the belief that one is a separate, independent author of one’s thoughts, emotions, and deeds, and that, likewise, other persons are autonomous agents, with complete volition to act, think, and feel as they wish. Another way of stating the same concept is as follows: suffering is due to the intellect being unwilling to accept life as it manifests moment by moment. There are five SYMPTOMS of suffering, all of which are psychological in nature: 1. Guilt 2. Blame 3. Pride 4. Anxiety 5. Regrets about the past and expectations for the future These types of suffering are the result of not properly understanding what was explained above - that life is a series of happenings and NOT caused by the individual living beings. No living creature, including Homo sapiens, has personal free-will. There is only the Universal, Divine Will at play, acting through every body, to which William Shakespeare famously alluded when he scribed “All the world's a stage, and all the men and women merely players.” The human organism is essentially a biopsychological machine, comprised of the five gross material elements (which can be perceived with the five senses) and the three subtle material elements (the three levels of cognition, which consist of abstract thought objects), listed above. Cont...
I’m not sure I see the value in this beyond the cultural/anthropological curiosity of it. I suppose it’s fun to kick around bar room suppositions, but this certainly doesn’t get us closer to truth; it can only yank us farther from it. I’m not commenting this way because this man is a Hindu, I spare no special favor for the abrahamic gods or any other variety. It just seems like such a hollow pursuit. We all know he’s making this up as he goes along. We’re compelled to respect it because at some point someone deemed this set of traditions a “religion” but why is this necessary? At what point do we treat these folks with respect and address their positions as we would if it were labeled as merely ideological. What is the threshold beyond which we can no longer call out obvious nonsense? How does this serve us as we attempt to meaningfully interact with society? I just scratch my head at how the possession of compulsory vestments acts as some shield against more genuine responses. If this were some random guy at a bar prognosticating confidently on some future events which he claimed impacted all humanity he’d rightly be called a bs artist then and there, or at least presumed drunk. Throw on an orange smock? Well, now I must nod in tacit approval. We have to get past this at some point. Maintain ancestral culture and tradition by all means, but please don’t present it as some transcendental knowledge. It’s not.
My dear you are absolutely on the right track. You are a spiritual seeker in the true sense to be critical and yet question it in a respectful manner. I am sure you will get there, even though your approach will be different. By the way iam 50 plus and I always used to think religion is a big BS(Capital).
@@sujok-acupuncture9246Gödel proved mathematics is a religion if religion is defined as a system of ideas that contains unprovable statements. Anyone who thinks of himself or herself as not following a religion just lacks the self-awareness to understand how their beliefs are religious.
@@PaulHoward108 again ' belief ' means hallucination. Again ' belief ' means we don't know about it , but we believe it. We never say I believe in sun , water , air... , because we have experienced them.
sorry to say this, but i felt that the level of this discussion was very superficial. Both of them have tremendous knowledge, but that is not visible here. May be I will wait for part 2 before commenting further .
THE TRUTH ABOUT "SWAMI" VIVEKANANDA & THE RAMAKRISHNA MISSION: Some of the following three points apply to practically any "religious" organization, not only to the Ramakrishna Mission/Vedanta Society. Nota bene: I refer to the founder of that pseudo-religious organization by his proper name, Mr. Narendranath Datta, and NOT the name by which he is addressed by the deluded fanatics who follow him, "Swami Vivekananda", for reasons that should become obvious when reading the following. 1. A spiritual master ought to be a member of the Holy Priesthood (that is, the "brāhmaṇa" class of society, usually wrongly transliterated as "Brahmin"). Mr. Datta was a member of the working-class ("śūdra", in Sanskrit), since he failed to exhibit key characteristics of a genuine brāhmaṇa. Firstly, he was a drug addict (he died at a young age, due to lung cancer caused by chain smoking tobacco). 🚬 Secondly, he was a carnist. A carnist is a person who considers animals unworthy of moral protection (he virtually suckled on the teats of cows, thus causing undue harm to both himself, to the cows from whom he stole their milk, and of course the poor, innocent calves, who were robbed of their food). 🍼 🐄 🥛 In order to learn of the prerequisites for being a TRUE BRĀHMAṆA, email me for a copy of the Holiest of All Holy Scriptures, "A Final Instruction Sheet for Humanity" ("FISH"). 2. The Ramakrishna Mission/Vedanta Society condones the two MOST PERNICIOUS institutions in the history of the planet - democracy and feminism. There is insufficient space in this comment section to properly explicate the reasons why democracy (or, for that matter, any system of non-monarchical governance) and feminism are so adharmic and evil, so, if you are one of the very few souls who is desirous of understanding my reason for stating the above, you should find my Email address in the "About" page of my TH-cam channel. 3. Because, as mentioned previously, Mr. Datta was an ultra-fundamentalist pseudo-religious fanatic, and an ignorant "śūdra", none of his disciples and grand-disciples, et cetera, can ever attain to self-realization, for as Lord Jesus Christ rightly stated two millennia ago, "A student can never be greater than his teacher". Therefore, if one has ambition to become even more "realized" than Mr. Datta, it is ABSOLUTELY IMPERATIVE that he seek training from a guru who is on a higher state of spiritual understanding and realization than Mr. Datta, or any of the current Ramakrishna Mission "sannyasins". Just to provide a couple of examples for the above accusation, the current head of the Advaita Society of New York, Mr. Vishvarupa (so-called "Swami" Sarvapriyānanda) is a self-confessed candāla (dog-eater), since he consumes the bloody carcasses of poor, innocent animals, and of course, as a member of that demonic organization, he promulgates the second-most pernicious institution in history (feminism). Furthermore, the British woman who hosts his TH-cam channel, Diane Crafford, according to her Facebook profile picture, condones not only unjustified animal slaughter, but she supports the murder of even poor, innocent, defenseless, unborn humans. 👿 In order to study dharma and yoga with the current World Teacher Himself, search for "Jagadguru Svami Vegananda" in Facebook. 😇 सत्यमेव जयते! 😇
I am 100% sure that some other Swamis articulate more precisely in explaining Hindu philosophy. I will interview Swami Tadatmananda, who oversees the Arshaboda Center in NJ. It is not a mainstream Swami or Vedanta Center, but he is highly knowledgeable in Hindu Philosophy, especially Vedanta and Sanskrit.
Absolutely , Each tradition interprets it differently. In this context it is Advaitic Tradition. And as per that the ultimate reality is useless, in fact I think that is one of the terms used for it . I guess world would be quite boring, without multiple interpretations.
@@jayaram5127 thank you for your clarification... and yes, I agree with you that many traditions have their own interpretations for what I consider to be a single objective reality...
Witness consciousness. The detached observer is the I. Now, how to prove that me (the small I) need to merge with the Big I (God/The Source) to get liberated from the rebirth cycle? Buddhism leans towards merging the small I with nothingness. Budhism is hence a comfortable philosophy for aathiests and agnostics. Unfortunately for science, consciousness might be something unrelated to "method". It might be related to "purpose". . . Mathematician John Lennox's updated views about God might provide an interesting perspective for scientists grappling with the phenomena of consicousness.
I like the flexibility. I like that even if you have been good, you can not take your just rewards and choose to go to a place where there may be difficulty so you can still improve on yourself. I wonder if it works the other way and if you have made bad choices and your karma is not so good if you can go to a good place where things will be nice for you.
great interview , through Alan Watts audiobooks, i had the impression that Buddhism tended to explain the final stage as dissolution of the soul , so his interpretation was not that correct ... and that sounded odd to me, too materialistic
ALL IS ONE CONSCIOUSNESS AT HIGHER LEVEL WHLE AT LOVVER LEVELS, IT'S THE MATTER OF DISSECTION BY MIND, MIND IS THE LOVVER CONSCIOUSNESS OF THE UPPER CONSCIOUSNESS THE GOD, FIND THE CONNECTING LINK BETWEEN HIGHER & LOVVER CONCIOUNESS & YOU ARE WOKE IN REALITY
No. Awareness is eternal. It can split and incarnate into a physical body which develops a mind, and the mind develops an ego. The ego believes that it is a person and disconnected from its surroundings and other persons. But in "reality" there is only one real thing at all, that ist awareness (non dual means there is only one thing in eternal existence, that is awareness) You are not your body, your feelings or your thoughts. You are awareness recognizing all these things like a moviegoer watching a movie.
@@theotormon There is only one thing in existence, and that is awareness. Things, including yourself are not real. Think of a vivid dream someone has, and we are just imaginary people in someone elses dream.
"The Nature of the Human Person" Human Person in this context simply refers to the human "non-physical aware soul" that is NOT part of nature, so, the topic shows incoherence because there is nothing natural about a non-physical unnatural entity (soul) to be asking what is its nature... ..in other words, to be coherent, the topic should be "The Nature of Material Person" which is simply ANIMALISTIC because this refers to a physical body that is part of nature...
You’re conflating two distinct meanings of the word ‘nature’. ‘Nature’ in this context simply means ‘characteristics’ or ‘attributes’, not the ‘nature’ that is the root of the words ‘natural’ and ‘unnatural’. Consider, for example, that one could ask the question ‘What is the nature of something that is unnatural?’. There is no conflict between ‘nature’ and ‘unnatural’ here because they involve those two distinct meanings of ‘nature’. (‘What are the [characteristics] of something that [doesn’t belong to nature]?’)
@@mandelbot5318 the right word is not conflating but exposing the incoherence of trying to describe the attributes, or characteristics, or properties of a non-physical entity or soul that is beyond the reach of your limited physical senses... ... again, how can your IQ coherently describe the nature of what is UNKNOWN beyond the grasp of your physical senses, unless you are describing a natural physical existence within the reach of your physical senses..... or worse, some screws are loose inside..
Asking an impersonalist about the nature of the person "in Hinduism" is shockingly disrespectful to the personalist followers of the Vedas. I've watched hundreds of episodes of this lame show but have never seen a personalist (Vaiṣṇava) representative of the Vedic traditions interviewed here.
@@sumitdutta7043 Impersonalism is overwhelmingly false, and believing it is spiritual suicide, practically denying one's own reality and everyone else's.
Hindu i.e. Vedic faith is so shockingly ( for the followers of Abrahamic faith) tolerant that it encompasses the most rigid materialism of Charvak and the subtlest and most rarified nondualism of Advaita Vedant. Such extreme religious freedom found in a single emotionally attached Hindu family and society appears shockingly alien to those who are brought up in a particular opinionated and indoctornated way. The extreme religious freedom of Vedic faith is so scary for some people because it leaves you all alone and totally unprotected to seek the reality. It requires tremendous moral courage to be alone and seek our true nature. In the process you can not help but be tolerant. This tolerance derives from the strength of Self knowledge and is not a product of weakness arising out of mediocre religious superiority.
@@PaulHoward108 You are absolutely right. It is indeed a spiritual suicide - Suicide of the false ego. You must experience it yourself to know what it means. This suicide is not a conventional death of body i.e.cessation of physical movements that sustain bodily integrity and "survival" and also an entrance into ignorance( which in fact occurs every night during our NREM sleep(i.e. deep sleep but which remains unexamined) but a deliberate dissolution of our own mind through dedicated meditative practices that cause our rebirth as an immortal soul.This soul is at once immanent and transcendent. This contradictory language of the Advaita vedanta ( nondualism) prevents its adequate interpretation and leads to some ridiculous and preposterous conclusions. It requires proper study of this knowledge under proper guidance. There must be a rigorous eligibility i.e. a conducive state of mind to acquire this knowledge of the self. In absence of it, even listening to such discourse ,let alone experienceing its purport, is like serving the Caviar to the general public. it looks like serving caviar to the public.
It's actually the most simple thing. And to understand this simple truth we have so many hurdles to overcome so yeah it's not easy for most people but yes it's there.
It It confused me. Is Hinduism a religion or philosophy? If it is a religion, I think thing, matter must go back to or at least refer back to its original Scripture(s). Personal opinions, reasoning and rational can be diverse. Likes for example 8:06..>>>...you have many rooms...van be Allah or Jesus or Vishnu room! But of course many more....?
Your job is moving forward, not backwards. Going backwards is when you want to heal from suffering or have harmed someone. You have to make peace and go back to journey.
He shows his Religious definitions about souls imortal . Seriously his soul mortal is whoteless definitions when his keep out neurosience principles seriously. He faith in his Religious led him to believes in soul mortal left behind neurosience proceendings honestly .He Religious point is view is bluff show him as Monk robot.
Peace comes when duality disappears. While alive, all we can do is try to keep steady like an equlibrist. Carrying body and soul and embracing the one, Can you avoid separation? Attending fully and becoming supple, Can you be as a newborn babe? Washing and cleansing the primal vision, Can you be without stain? Loving all men and ruling the country, Can you be without cleverness? Opening and closing the gates of heaven, Can you play the role of woman? Understanding and being open to all things, Are you able to do nothing? Giving birth and nourishing, Bearing yet not possessing, Working yet not taking credit, Leading yet not dominating, This is the Primal Virtue. Lao Tse
@@halcyon2864 yes...even when people take opium they get back to senses in a day or two. But when they get intoxicated by religion it stays till the grave.
@@sujok-acupuncture9246 indeed science has invented many things and will continue to do so and we should progress on that. But please be clear about what we are trying to debate here, and it is about your own true nature. We are not debating about war, CO2 emissions etc even though they are important from a practical standpoint. So please define your question and then we can debate.
Well our entire hindu Philosophy has hundreds of interpretation of the same truth. And there are certain truths which if people misunderstand can lead to immense confusion. So he has to pick up the ones most suited to western people so they have a easy time to understand it. If you have any idea of the Philosophies you would understand, there is nothing mysterious per say but some are harder to grasp than the other due to ingrained superstitious beliefs regarding certain things from person to person.
My Dear, I too thought so till I turned 45. Trying to get closer to truth, read through many books and info on quantum physics till I found in the current level of infancy it could not get me closer to truth at least in my lifetime.. anyway a question for you, do you think our generation is the smartest in a thousand years, and the question your ultimate nature has not been already solved. Anyway all the best in your journey.
jayaram5 • Quantum BS is evidently a BS. String theory is also a BS. Einstein's stupidity called Relativity also a very erroneous theory as a true phenomenological explanation, so it is also a BS. The small mind of Heisenberg could not understood that his principle was just a temporary human capability limit in understanding and measuring small aggregated realms' change of positions. It is not a fundamental truth. The 'h', Planck constant, is not the last aggregated realm, otherwise 'h' would be made of nothing. If it's causally made of something, which is true, it means is not the ultimate aggregated realm. Therefore, how can a very small aggregated realm could be ultimate?😏 It can't! Everything at any level, micro and macro, is fundamentally made of something smaller and smaller and smaller...ad infinitum. You can't skip the true real causal and neverending link of true aggregated REALITY. Etc. / Intelligence? No. There's no method to measure the true intelligence. You can just compare different levels of it more or less arbitrarily. If you think you're a smart person, then be for you only, give to the human society the best of you, and simply revel in your time.
Time to bring a muslim scholar like Zakir Naik as well. Unfortunately Ahmad deedat is no more. Hear what Islam and Christianity say about life, soul, Rebirth and purpose of creating Humans .
Too bad we do not have control over the soul that we receive. When does an embryo, foetus, newborn, or person get their soul? And, is the soul already mature or a child soul? Isn't it amazing how different cultures and groups of people invent such outlandish and complex belief systems that have no substance of truth in the real world. The imagination can invent all sorts of things, and it does.
Outlandish yes, but remember these philosophies have evolved over thousands of years. So the questions asked were at kindergarden level, therefore you will get answers appropriate to that level. Pity both these intelligent people could have engaged better. Let's wait for part 2.
@@kitstamat9356 What does that mean? We change continually, so what we "are" doesn't make sense to me other than a physical body and brain, and the brain produces "mind" and "consciousness" and self-perception.
THE TRUTH ABOUT "SWAMI" VIVEKANANDA & THE RAMAKRISHNA MISSION: Some of the following three points apply to practically any "religious" organization, not only to the Ramakrishna Mission/Vedanta Society. Nota bene: I refer to the founder of that pseudo-religious organization by his proper name, Mr. Narendranath Datta, and NOT the name by which he is addressed by the deluded fanatics who follow him, "Swami Vivekananda", for reasons that should become obvious when reading the following. 1. A spiritual master ought to be a member of the Holy Priesthood (that is, the "brāhmaṇa" class of society, usually wrongly transliterated as "Brahmin"). Mr. Datta was a member of the working-class ("śūdra", in Sanskrit), since he failed to exhibit key characteristics of a genuine brāhmaṇa. Firstly, he was a drug addict (he died at a young age, due to lung cancer caused by chain smoking tobacco). 🚬 Secondly, he was a carnist. A carnist is a person who considers animals unworthy of moral protection (he virtually suckled on the teats of cows, thus causing undue harm to both himself, to the cows from whom he stole their milk, and of course the poor, innocent calves, who were robbed of their food). 🍼 🐄 🥛 In order to learn of the prerequisites for being a TRUE BRĀHMAṆA, email me for a copy of the Holiest of All Holy Scriptures, "A Final Instruction Sheet for Humanity" ("FISH"). 2. The Ramakrishna Mission/Vedanta Society condones the two MOST PERNICIOUS institutions in the history of the planet - democracy and feminism. There is insufficient space in this comment section to properly explicate the reasons why democracy (or, for that matter, any system of non-monarchical governance) and feminism are so adharmic and evil, so, if you are one of the very few souls who is desirous of understanding my reason for stating the above, you should find my Email address in the "About" page of my TH-cam channel. 3. Because, as mentioned previously, Mr. Datta was an ultra-fundamentalist pseudo-religious fanatic, and an ignorant "śūdra", none of his disciples and grand-disciples, et cetera, can ever attain to self-realization, for as Lord Jesus Christ rightly stated two millennia ago, "A student can never be greater than his teacher". Therefore, if one has ambition to become even more "realized" than Mr. Datta, it is ABSOLUTELY IMPERATIVE that he seek training from a guru who is on a higher state of spiritual understanding and realization than Mr. Datta, or any of the current Ramakrishna Mission "sannyasins". Just to provide a couple of examples for the above accusation, the current head of the Advaita Society of New York, Mr. Vishvarupa (so-called "Swami" Sarvapriyānanda) is a self-confessed candāla (dog-eater), since he consumes the bloody carcasses of poor, innocent animals, and of course, as a member of that demonic organization, he promulgates the second-most pernicious institution in history (feminism). Furthermore, the British woman who hosts his TH-cam channel, Diane Crafford, according to her Facebook profile picture, condones not only unjustified animal slaughter, but she supports the murder of even poor, innocent, defenseless, unborn humans. 👿 In order to study dharma and yoga with the current World Teacher Himself, search for "Jagadguru Svami Vegananda" in Facebook. 😇 सत्यमेव जयते! 😇
Hey, it's Swami Medhananda! From the vedanta Society of California. These are great folks. This circle is proponent of Sri Ramakrishna. They also sell books at a low cost, trying to get them in the hands of seekers. I purchased the 4 vol. set of the Upanishads, translated by Swami Nikhilananda from them.
Great and lowly are RELATIVE. 😉
THE TRUTH ABOUT "SWAMI" VIVEKANANDA & THE RAMAKRISHNA MISSION:
Some of the following three points apply to practically any "religious" organization, not only to the Ramakrishna Mission/Vedanta Society.
Nota bene: I refer to the founder of that pseudo-religious organization by his proper name, Mr. Narendranath Datta, and NOT the name by which he is addressed by the deluded fanatics who follow him, "Swami Vivekananda", for reasons that should become obvious when reading the following.
1. A spiritual master ought to be a member of the Holy Priesthood (that is, the "brāhmaṇa" class of society, usually wrongly transliterated as "Brahmin"). Mr. Datta was a member of the working-class ("śūdra", in Sanskrit), since he failed to exhibit key characteristics of a genuine brāhmaṇa.
Firstly, he was a drug addict (he died at a young age, due to lung cancer caused by chain smoking tobacco). 🚬
Secondly, he was a carnist. A carnist is a person who considers animals unworthy of moral protection (he virtually suckled on the teats of cows, thus causing undue harm to both himself, to the cows from whom he stole their milk, and of course the poor, innocent calves, who were robbed of their food). 🍼 🐄 🥛
In order to learn of the prerequisites for being a TRUE BRĀHMAṆA, email me for a copy of the Holiest of All Holy Scriptures, "A Final Instruction Sheet for Humanity" ("FISH").
2. The Ramakrishna Mission/Vedanta Society condones the two MOST PERNICIOUS institutions in the history of the planet - democracy and feminism. There is insufficient space in this comment section to properly explicate the reasons why democracy (or, for that matter, any system of non-monarchical governance) and feminism are so adharmic and evil, so, if you are one of the very few souls who is desirous of understanding my reason for stating the above, you should find my Email address in the "About" page of my TH-cam channel.
3. Because, as mentioned previously, Mr. Datta was an ultra-fundamentalist pseudo-religious fanatic, and an ignorant "śūdra", none of his disciples and grand-disciples, et cetera, can ever attain to self-realization, for as Lord Jesus Christ rightly stated two millennia ago, "A student can never be greater than his teacher".
Therefore, if one has ambition to become even more "realized" than Mr. Datta, it is ABSOLUTELY IMPERATIVE that he seek training from a guru who is on a higher state of spiritual understanding and realization than Mr. Datta, or any of the current Ramakrishna Mission "sannyasins".
Just to provide a couple of examples for the above accusation, the current head of the Advaita Society of New York, Mr. Vishvarupa (so-called "Swami" Sarvapriyānanda) is a self-confessed candāla (dog-eater), since he consumes the bloody carcasses of poor, innocent animals, and of course, as a member of that demonic organization, he promulgates the second-most pernicious institution in history (feminism). Furthermore, the British woman who hosts his TH-cam channel, Diane Crafford, according to her Facebook profile picture, condones not only unjustified animal slaughter, but she supports the murder of even poor, innocent, defenseless, unborn humans. 👿
In order to study dharma and yoga with the current World Teacher Himself, search for "Jagadguru Svami Vegananda" in Facebook.
😇 सत्यमेव जयते! 😇
@@halcyon2864, Good Girl! 👌
Incidentally, Slave, are you VEGAN? 🌱
Good Girl! 👌
Incidentally, Slave, are you VEGAN? 🌱
jai Ramakrishna Read Eight Upanishads by Swami gambhirananda. It is one of the best.
Pranam swamiji
I love the idea of enlightenment as the ability to throw a big old cosmic house party. Enough rooms for every version of hevean. With tunes and light snacks. Be the cosmic house party and also
Be the light snacks. Your call.
Kindly repeat that in ENGLISH, Miss.☝️
Incidentally, Slave, are you VEGAN? 🌱
Thank you.
Interesting interview, but if you're truly seeking the depths of Hindu philosophy and the essence of reality, I highly recommend interviewing Advaitic monks like Swamy Sarvapriyananda. Their insights into the nature of existence go beyond the surface and delve into the profound truths of consciousness and non-duality. That's where you'll find the real gems of Hinduism
The Swami interviewed here is associated with the same Vedantic tradition as Sarvapriyananda but I agree that his insights and clarity of communication is second to none.
adviata vedanta teachers would likely integrate well with the quantum and consciousness topics often explored
Swami Sarvapriyananda is coming; he is terrific! (Swami Medhananda, in addition to being a leading Advaita Vedanta monk, has a PhD in German Idealism from Berkeley. Check his books.)
@@musicman9023
Mr. Vishvarupa (AKA Swami Sarvapriyānanda) is undoubtedly a VERY intelligent man, but the fact that he supports the two most pernicious institutions in the history of the earth, as well as him being an animal-abuser, says much about his true moral character:
F.I.S.H. Paragraph 28. Feminism is the penultimate evil at present because feminism is based on the misguided assumption that women are equal to or even superior to men. Although a female can exhibit superior traits, skills, etcetera, to some men, a woman can never have AUTHORITY over a man. Truth be told, no true man would ever descend to the level of accepting counsel from any of his subordinates. A man should fully obey his appointed masters and never emasculate himself by submitting to the dictates of a female. Feminism and democracy are guaranteed to destroy society, as can be clearly seen at present.
However, feminism will NEVER EVER be destroyed until the most pernicious institution is first destroyed:
F.I.S.H Paragraph 26. Democracy is evil because the masses will invariably choose the murderous Barabbas over the good King Jesus. This planet is surely doomed unless the most pernicious institution ever known to man (democracy) is replaced by the only legitimate form of government (monarchy - preferably a good monarch, though even a bad king is preferable to being ruled by an elected official who can never be good). Most of the problems in human society are directly or indirectly attributable to this relatively modern phenomenon, since it is the government’s role and sacred duty to enforce the law. Just because good and bad are relative, does not imply that they do not exist. They do exist but are relative. A democrat can never be good, despite appearing so.
One of the many sinister characteristics of democracy, communism and other evil forms of governance, is the desire for their so-called “leaders” to attempt to control or at least influence the personal lives of every single citizen.
For example, in the wicked, decadent nation where this holy scripture was composed, The Southland (or Australia as it is known in the Latin tongue), the demonic government tries and largely succeeds in controlling the rights of parents to properly raise, discipline and punish their children according to their own morals, limiting legitimate powers an employer has over his servants, persecuting religious leaders (even to imprisonment and death, believe it or not) and even trying to influence what people eat and wear. Not that a government shouldn’t control what its citizens wear in public, but it should ensure that they are modestly dressed, which is hardly the case in Australia and similar nations. Basically, the worst of the democratic governments promote or at least permit all things contrary to God’s perfect and pure will such as adultery, fornication, prostitution, pornography, homosexuality, gambling (even running lotteries themselves), illegitimate abortion of poor innocent unborn children, irreligion, drug addiction, disrespect for authority and promoting materialism and ignorance via a powerful network of institutions of miseducation (so-called “schools, colleges and universities”).
Let it be known however - democracy can not and will not endure. The truth shall triumph!
Democracy is only acceptable within large business corporations, where the shareholders must vote on who will be the company bosses and other matters.
To read the remaining chapters of “A Final Instruction Sheet for Humanity”, which are the most accurate spiritual precepts so far in human history, Email the address on my TH-cam homepage, with the acronym “FISH” in the subject field.
🐟
“The cure for nescience is unerring knowledge”.
Advaita-vāda is not an authentic interpretation of Vedānta. It's concocted by cherry-picking from a tiny portion of Vedic statements, which is not at all in keeping with the essential meaning of Vedānta.
Looking forward to enlightenment. Makes it seem so attractive.
Everything is now. That is the universal truth you are looking for. Making use of now in a contributing way serving all
Some things I think about in relation to the observer or soul is that ourselves as form has individual genetics, etc etc which is the tools to navigate. Therefore a soul in a different body or incarnation would have a different set of tools, so certainly wouldn’t recognise any of its previous incarnations . Let alone the memory itself is for the most part unreliable, when a person wakes up in the morning after sleeping has mostly amnesia from the most likely adventuresome, bizarre dreams.
According to Advaita Vedanta, it is not the Soul that has karma, nor the Soul who goes to celestial or hellish realms after death, that is the jivatma, who is composed of the Physical body, when alive on earth, of the subtle body and the causal body, or the 5 koshas. The real Soul or Atman is like the screen, in wich all of these appear, the real Soul, or better calling it the Atman, doesn't perform actions, doesn't move, it is Existence itself. It is the bundle of Subtle and Causal bodies who do all those things, and the goal of our births, according to Advaita Vedanta, is to realize our true nature, as pure Existence, pure Counsciones, and to realize we are not the body, nor the subtle or mental body. We neither come nor go, nor do, we Are.
Beautifully described, thank you! 🙏🏽
Dear Swami, I know you are very scholarly. Are you familiar with C.S.Lewis' The Screwtape Letters? I find it both insightful and humorous!
KARMA? if birth is because of Karma - then what is the first birth from?
HINDUISM? Hinduism is no religion. Hindu is the name of culture (that too a derogatory word given by Muslim invaders). The word Hindu doesn’t find a mention in any of Ved / Gita or religious texts.
The name of religion in India is Ved / Truthful (non-material) knowledge.
Let me put it this way. These guys have done PHDs and they think we are kindergarden. It is like giving a monkey two bannanas instead of pointing it to where the Bannana farm is located.
Exactly that is what these noble souls are trying to do!
It would be interesting to see how the Swami would respond to Jung's identification and description of the Collective Unconscious. It would also be interesting to hear a Buddhist master respond to the Collective Unconscious. Then compare all of this back to the work of C. Evens Wentz. And the Quantum founders. This all fits together, I think...
@@halcyon2864 Here is the correct name of the person I referenced above. Walter Evans-Wentz. The past is prologue...
@@chester-chickfunt900
Subtle mind impressions” are known in psychology as the “collective unconscious”, in New Age spirituality as the “akashic records”, in Islam as the “Preserved Tablet”, and in contemporary biological science as “morphic resonance” (as postulated by Professor Dr. Alfred Rupert Sheldrake - see the Glossary). There is an abundance of evidence that humans are born with certain psycho-emotive links to previous persons, times and places. It is far beyond the purview of this document to list such evidences. As mentioned, in my case, I have an EXTREMELY strong association with all things Indian, despite not being of Indian origin, and in my view, the Jungian “collective unconscious” theory seems to be the best explanation for this bond currently available (although, the term “collective conscious” would, perhaps, be a more accurate phrase).
For the common view of reincarnation to be plausible, there would need to be an entity or an OBJECT called a “soul” (“jīva” or “ātman”, in Sanskrit), which somehow finds a copulating couple, then enters the woman’s uterus, to inhabit a zygote. Assuming the existence of a discrete, individual soul/spirit is profoundly contradictory, because spirit is (by most definitions) the antithesis of finite matter. Therefore, how can an immaterial “soul” be confined to a single person’s body? If this was the case, this spirit/soul would not be (a) spirit but a finite, material object, even if it was intangible (see Chapter 05). Of course, those who believe in reincarnation, rarely discuss the topic in relation to non-human beings. Do animals have souls? What about plants? When a microbe perishes, does its soul magically float away and enter the cell of another single-celled organism, or does it progress to a higher-order living creature, as is supposed by the adherents of most of the metaphysical traditions of Bhārata (India)? Enlightened sages have realized that there is but one, all-pervasive universal SUBJECT, as explained in Chapter 06.
Many of the terms used here are more fully explored in the Glossary, so it would be wise to consult the relevant Glossary entries at this point.
souls are infinite as per Veda or Hinduism.
Materialists might be surprised that they agree with so much about mind simply being a function of the brain and whatnot
I don't get how can something which is the main source of conciousness and decided based on karma be eternal because as far as we know only conciousness beings are humans whereas based on you may or may not be reborn a human then there has to something external which takes and gives conciousness to the soul.
Dear, what made you think that only human beings are conscious. Even the little ant feels pain . Can you replicate it with AI ML.being In the IT Field for close to 3 decades i do not think I understand how I can make something conscious and feel pain.All the best
Every form is the body of a person. Every stone, speck of dust, star, galaxy, etc., is someone's body. That's how karma and reincarnation works.
in all vedanta traditions , soul is consciousness . Sat-Chit-Ananda is the essence of soul . Existence and consciousness , that is . everything else appears in the soul , AS IF different and separate .. so the soul does not change it is the changeless essence of maya . like caly doesnot change if the shape of the pot changes . or
There cannot be a finite number of souls without concluding that manifestation drains God of His essential nature. Limiting the number of souls that can manifest is to limit the One, making it finite and divisible. The One is capable of an infinite plurality. Since the One is infinite, it circumscribes the infinite.
It would be nice if you guys bring more perspectives in Hinduism like theories of universe creation, thank you
🐟 02. A BRIEF SYNOPSIS OF “LIFE”:
Everything, both perceptible and imperceptible - that is, any gross or subtle OBJECT within the material universe which can possibly be perceived with the cognitive faculties, plus the SUBJECT (the observer of all phenomena) - is to what most persons generally refer when they use the term “God”, since they usually conceive of the Primeval Creator as being the Perfect Person, and “God” (capitalized) is a personal epithet of the Unconditioned Absolute. However, this anthropomorphized conception of The Absolute is a fictional character of divers mythologies.
According to most every enlightened sage in the history of this planet, the Ultimate Reality is, far more logically, Absolutely NOTHING, or conversely, Absolutely EVERYTHING - otherwise called “The Tao”, “The Great Spirit”, “Brahman”, “Pure Consciousness”, “Eternal Awareness”, “Independent Existence”, “The Ground of All Being”, “Uncaused Nature”, “The Undifferentiated Substratum of Reality”, “The Unified Field”, et cetera - yet, as alluded to above, inaccurately referred to as a personal deity by the masses (e.g. “God”, “Allah”, “Yahweh”, “Bhagavan”, etc.).
In other words, rather than the Supreme Truth being a separate, Blissful, Supra-Conscious Being (The Godhead Himself or The Goddess), Ultimate Reality is Eternal-Existence Limitless-Awareness Unconditional-Peace ITSELF. That which can be perceived, can not be perceiving!
Because the Unmanifested Absolute is infinite creative potentiality, “it” actualizes as EVERYTHING, in the form of ephemeral, cyclical universes. In the case of our particular universe, we reside in a cosmos consisting of space-time, matter and energy, without, of course, neglecting the most fundamental dimension of existence (i.e. conscious awareness - although, “it” is, being the subject, by literal definition, non-existent).
Just as a knife cannot cut itself, nor the mind comprehend itself, nor the eyes see themselves, The Absolute cannot know Itself (or at least objectively EXPERIENCE Itself), and so, has manifested this phenomenal universe within Itself for the purpose of experiencing Itself, particularly through the lives of self-aware beings, such as we sophisticated humans. Therefore, this world of duality is really just a play of consciousness within Consciousness, in the same way that a dream is a person's sleeping narrative set within the life-story of an “awakened” individual.
APPARENTLY, this universe, composed of “mind and matter”, was created with the primal act (the so-called “Big Bang”), which started, supposedly, as a minute, slightly uneven ball of light, which in turn, was instigated, ultimately, by Extra-Temporal Supra-Consciousness. From that first deed, every motion or action that has ever occurred has been a direct (though, almost exclusively, an indirect) result of it.
Just as all the extant energy in the universe was once contained within the inchoate singularity, Infinite Consciousness was NECESSARILY present at the beginning of the universe, and is in no way an epiphenomenon of a neural network. Discrete consciousness, on the other hand, is entirely dependent on the neurological faculty of individual animals (the more highly-evolved the species, the greater its cognitive abilities).
“Sarvam khalvidam brahma” (a Sanskrit maxim from the “Chandogya Upanishad”, meaning “all this is indeed Brahman” or “everything is the Universal Self alone”). There is NAUGHT but Eternal Being, Conscious Awareness, Causeless Peace - and you are, quintessentially, that!
This “Theory of Everything” can be more succinctly expressed by the mathematical equation: E=A͚ (Everything is Infinite Awareness).
HUMANS are essentially this Eternally-Aware-Peace, acting through an extraordinarily-complex biological organism, comprised of the eight rudimentary elements - pseudo-ego (the assumed sense of self), intellect, mind, solids, liquids, gases, heat (fire), and ether (three-dimensional space). When one peers into a mirror, one doesn't normally mistake the reflected image to be one's real self, yet that is how we humans conventionally view our ever-mutating form. We are, rather, in a fundamental sense, that which witnesses all transitory appearances.
Everything which can be presently perceived, both tangible and immaterial, including we human beings, is a culmination of that primary manifestation. That is the most accurate and rational explanation for “karma” - everything was preordained from the initial spark, and every action since has unfolded as it was predestined in ETERNITY, via an ever-forward-moving trajectory. The notion of retributive (“tit-for-tat”) karma is just that - an unverified notion. Likewise, the idea of a distinct, reincarnating “soul” or “spirit” is largely a fallacious belief.
Whatever state in which we currently find ourselves, is the result of two factors - our genetic make-up at conception and our present-life conditioning (which may include mutating genetic code). Every choice ever made by every human and non-human animal was determined by those two factors ALONE. Therefore, free-will is purely illusory, despite what most believe. Chapter 11 insightfully demonstrates this truism.
As a consequence of residing within this dualistic universe, we experience a lifelong series of fluctuating, transient pleasures and pains, which can take the form of physical, emotional, and/or financial pleasure or pain. Surprisingly to most, suffering and pain are NOT synonymous.
Suffering is due to a false sense of personal agency - the belief that one is a separate, independent author of one’s thoughts, emotions, and deeds, and that, likewise, other persons are autonomous agents, with complete volition to act, think, and feel as they wish. Another way of stating the same concept is as follows: suffering is due to the intellect being unwilling to accept life as it manifests moment by moment.
There are five SYMPTOMS of suffering, all of which are psychological in nature:
1. Guilt
2. Blame
3. Pride
4. Anxiety
5. Regrets about the past and expectations for the future
These types of suffering are the result of not properly understanding what was explained above - that life is a series of happenings and NOT caused by the individual living beings. No living creature, including Homo sapiens, has personal free-will. There is only the Universal, Divine Will at play, acting through every body, to which William Shakespeare famously alluded when he scribed “All the world's a stage, and all the men and women merely players.”
The human organism is essentially a biopsychological machine, comprised of the five gross material elements (which can be perceived with the five senses) and the three subtle material elements (the three levels of cognition, which consist of abstract thought objects), listed above.
Cont...
I’m not sure I see the value in this beyond the cultural/anthropological curiosity of it. I suppose it’s fun to kick around bar room suppositions, but this certainly doesn’t get us closer to truth; it can only yank us farther from it.
I’m not commenting this way because this man is a Hindu, I spare no special favor for the abrahamic gods or any other variety. It just seems like such a hollow pursuit. We all know he’s making this up as he goes along. We’re compelled to respect it because at some point someone deemed this set of traditions a “religion” but why is this necessary? At what point do we treat these folks with respect and address their positions as we would if it were labeled as merely ideological. What is the threshold beyond which we can no longer call out obvious nonsense? How does this serve us as we attempt to meaningfully interact with society?
I just scratch my head at how the possession of compulsory vestments acts as some shield against more genuine responses. If this were some random guy at a bar prognosticating confidently on some future events which he claimed impacted all humanity he’d rightly be called a bs artist then and there, or at least presumed drunk. Throw on an orange smock? Well, now I must nod in tacit approval. We have to get past this at some point.
Maintain ancestral culture and tradition by all means, but please don’t present it as some transcendental knowledge. It’s not.
Religion means hallucination .
My dear you are absolutely on the right track. You are a spiritual seeker in the true sense to be critical and yet question it in a respectful manner. I am sure you will get there, even though your approach will be different. By the way iam 50 plus and I always used to think religion is a big BS(Capital).
@@jayaram5127 please don’t condescend to me
@@sujok-acupuncture9246Gödel proved mathematics is a religion if religion is defined as a system of ideas that contains unprovable statements. Anyone who thinks of himself or herself as not following a religion just lacks the self-awareness to understand how their beliefs are religious.
@@PaulHoward108 again ' belief ' means hallucination. Again ' belief ' means we don't know about it , but we believe it. We never say I believe in sun , water , air... , because we have experienced them.
sorry to say this, but i felt that the level of this discussion was very superficial. Both of them have tremendous knowledge, but that is not visible here. May be I will wait for part 2 before commenting further .
THE TRUTH ABOUT "SWAMI" VIVEKANANDA & THE RAMAKRISHNA MISSION:
Some of the following three points apply to practically any "religious" organization, not only to the Ramakrishna Mission/Vedanta Society.
Nota bene: I refer to the founder of that pseudo-religious organization by his proper name, Mr. Narendranath Datta, and NOT the name by which he is addressed by the deluded fanatics who follow him, "Swami Vivekananda", for reasons that should become obvious when reading the following.
1. A spiritual master ought to be a member of the Holy Priesthood (that is, the "brāhmaṇa" class of society, usually wrongly transliterated as "Brahmin"). Mr. Datta was a member of the working-class ("śūdra", in Sanskrit), since he failed to exhibit key characteristics of a genuine brāhmaṇa.
Firstly, he was a drug addict (he died at a young age, due to lung cancer caused by chain smoking tobacco). 🚬
Secondly, he was a carnist. A carnist is a person who considers animals unworthy of moral protection (he virtually suckled on the teats of cows, thus causing undue harm to both himself, to the cows from whom he stole their milk, and of course the poor, innocent calves, who were robbed of their food). 🍼 🐄 🥛
In order to learn of the prerequisites for being a TRUE BRĀHMAṆA, email me for a copy of the Holiest of All Holy Scriptures, "A Final Instruction Sheet for Humanity" ("FISH").
2. The Ramakrishna Mission/Vedanta Society condones the two MOST PERNICIOUS institutions in the history of the planet - democracy and feminism. There is insufficient space in this comment section to properly explicate the reasons why democracy (or, for that matter, any system of non-monarchical governance) and feminism are so adharmic and evil, so, if you are one of the very few souls who is desirous of understanding my reason for stating the above, you should find my Email address in the "About" page of my TH-cam channel.
3. Because, as mentioned previously, Mr. Datta was an ultra-fundamentalist pseudo-religious fanatic, and an ignorant "śūdra", none of his disciples and grand-disciples, et cetera, can ever attain to self-realization, for as Lord Jesus Christ rightly stated two millennia ago, "A student can never be greater than his teacher".
Therefore, if one has ambition to become even more "realized" than Mr. Datta, it is ABSOLUTELY IMPERATIVE that he seek training from a guru who is on a higher state of spiritual understanding and realization than Mr. Datta, or any of the current Ramakrishna Mission "sannyasins".
Just to provide a couple of examples for the above accusation, the current head of the Advaita Society of New York, Mr. Vishvarupa (so-called "Swami" Sarvapriyānanda) is a self-confessed candāla (dog-eater), since he consumes the bloody carcasses of poor, innocent animals, and of course, as a member of that demonic organization, he promulgates the second-most pernicious institution in history (feminism). Furthermore, the British woman who hosts his TH-cam channel, Diane Crafford, according to her Facebook profile picture, condones not only unjustified animal slaughter, but she supports the murder of even poor, innocent, defenseless, unborn humans. 👿
In order to study dharma and yoga with the current World Teacher Himself, search for "Jagadguru Svami Vegananda" in Facebook.
😇 सत्यमेव जयते! 😇
I am 100% sure that some other Swamis articulate more precisely in explaining Hindu philosophy. I will interview Swami Tadatmananda, who oversees the Arshaboda Center in NJ. It is not a mainstream Swami or Vedanta Center, but he is highly knowledgeable in Hindu Philosophy, especially Vedanta and Sanskrit.
is there's a distinction between mind-body and soul-consciousness or are they all one...
The mind and body are dependent on the soul but the soul is not dependent on the mind nor the body.
@@njeyasreedharan thanks for the explanation...
@LifesInsight, yes you are absolutely right it is useless In a transactional sense. But that is the ground of all reality.
Absolutely , Each tradition interprets it differently. In this context it is Advaitic Tradition. And as per that the ultimate reality is useless, in fact I think that is one of the terms used for it . I guess world would be quite boring, without multiple interpretations.
@@jayaram5127 thank you for your clarification... and yes, I agree with you that many traditions have their own interpretations for what I consider to be a single objective reality...
Witness consciousness. The detached observer is the I. Now, how to prove that me (the small I) need to merge with the Big I (God/The Source) to get liberated from the rebirth cycle? Buddhism leans towards merging the small I with nothingness. Budhism is hence a comfortable philosophy for aathiests and agnostics. Unfortunately for science, consciousness might be something unrelated to "method". It might be related to "purpose". . . Mathematician John Lennox's updated views about God might provide an interesting perspective for scientists grappling with the phenomena of consicousness.
I like the flexibility. I like that even if you have been good, you can not take your just rewards and choose to go to a place where there may be difficulty so you can still improve on yourself. I wonder if it works the other way and if you have made bad choices and your karma is not so good if you can go to a good place where things will be nice for you.
great interview , through Alan Watts audiobooks, i had the impression that Buddhism tended to explain the final stage as dissolution of the soul , so his interpretation was not that correct ... and that sounded odd to me, too materialistic
Bring HD Goswami please 🙏
ALL IS ONE CONSCIOUSNESS AT HIGHER LEVEL
WHLE AT LOVVER LEVELS, IT'S THE MATTER OF DISSECTION BY MIND, MIND IS THE LOVVER CONSCIOUSNESS OF THE UPPER CONSCIOUSNESS THE GOD, FIND THE CONNECTING LINK BETWEEN HIGHER & LOVVER CONCIOUNESS & YOU ARE WOKE IN REALITY
person is awareness?
No. Awareness is eternal. It can split and incarnate into a physical body which develops a mind, and the mind develops an ego. The ego believes that it is a person and disconnected from its surroundings and other persons. But in "reality" there is only one real thing at all, that ist awareness (non dual means there is only one thing in eternal existence, that is awareness) You are not your body, your feelings or your thoughts. You are awareness recognizing all these things like a moviegoer watching a movie.
@@foghather How does it split? And does it also split into things like rocks and water, and if so, does it retain awareness in those forms?
A better word is Presence.
@@theotormon There is only one thing in existence, and that is awareness. Things, including yourself are not real. Think of a vivid dream someone has, and we are just imaginary people in someone elses dream.
"The Nature of the Human Person"
Human Person in this context simply refers to the human "non-physical aware soul" that is NOT part of nature, so, the topic shows incoherence because there is nothing natural about a non-physical unnatural entity (soul) to be asking what is its nature...
..in other words, to be coherent, the topic should be "The Nature of Material Person" which is simply ANIMALISTIC because this refers to a physical body that is part of nature...
You’re conflating two distinct meanings of the word ‘nature’. ‘Nature’ in this context simply means ‘characteristics’ or ‘attributes’, not the ‘nature’ that is the root of the words ‘natural’ and ‘unnatural’. Consider, for example, that one could ask the question ‘What is the nature of something that is unnatural?’. There is no conflict between ‘nature’ and ‘unnatural’ here because they involve those two distinct meanings of ‘nature’. (‘What are the [characteristics] of something that [doesn’t belong to nature]?’)
@@mandelbot5318 the right word is not conflating but exposing the incoherence of trying to describe the attributes, or characteristics, or properties of a non-physical entity or soul that is beyond the reach of your limited physical senses...
... again, how can your IQ coherently describe the nature of what is UNKNOWN beyond the grasp of your physical senses, unless you are describing a natural physical existence within the reach of your physical senses..... or worse, some screws are loose inside..
@LifesInsight being programable or being an "unaccountable slave of nature" is a choice when you stare at Darwin's IGUANA as your Original Mama...
@LifesInsight the nonesense you mentioned is not my choice.... pls learn how to read and comprehend so you can respond intelligently...
Where are my Hermeticists?
Asking an impersonalist about the nature of the person "in Hinduism" is shockingly disrespectful to the personalist followers of the Vedas. I've watched hundreds of episodes of this lame show but have never seen a personalist (Vaiṣṇava) representative of the Vedic traditions interviewed here.
Personalist lead to sects which lead to more problems
@@sumitdutta7043 Impersonalism is overwhelmingly false, and believing it is spiritual suicide, practically denying one's own reality and everyone else's.
Hindu i.e. Vedic faith is so shockingly ( for the followers of Abrahamic faith) tolerant that it encompasses the most rigid materialism of Charvak and the subtlest and most rarified nondualism of Advaita Vedant.
Such extreme religious freedom found in a single emotionally attached Hindu family and society appears shockingly alien to those who are brought up in a particular opinionated and indoctornated way.
The extreme religious freedom of Vedic faith is so scary for some people because it leaves you all alone and totally unprotected to seek the reality.
It requires tremendous moral courage to be alone and seek our true nature.
In the process you can not help but be tolerant.
This tolerance derives from the strength of Self knowledge and is not a product of weakness arising out of mediocre religious superiority.
@@PaulHoward108
You are absolutely right.
It is indeed a spiritual suicide -
Suicide of the false ego.
You must experience it yourself to know what it means.
This suicide is not a conventional death of body i.e.cessation of physical movements that sustain bodily integrity and "survival" and also an entrance into ignorance( which in fact occurs every night during our NREM sleep(i.e. deep sleep but which remains unexamined)
but a deliberate dissolution of our own mind through dedicated meditative practices that cause our rebirth as an immortal soul.This soul is at once immanent and transcendent.
This contradictory language of the Advaita vedanta ( nondualism) prevents its adequate interpretation and leads to some ridiculous and preposterous conclusions.
It requires proper study of this knowledge under proper guidance.
There must be a rigorous eligibility i.e. a conducive state of mind to acquire this knowledge of the self.
In absence of it, even listening to such discourse ,let alone experienceing its purport,
is like serving the Caviar to the general public.
it looks like
serving caviar to the public.
Religion is bonkers.
This is yoga.
And what is spirituality , same as religion or different .Define ?
It's actually the most simple thing. And to understand this simple truth we have so many hurdles to overcome so yeah it's not easy for most people but yes it's there.
It It confused me. Is Hinduism a religion or philosophy?
If it is a religion, I think thing, matter must go back to or at least refer back to its original Scripture(s).
Personal opinions, reasoning and rational can be diverse. Likes for example 8:06..>>>...you have many rooms...van be Allah or Jesus or Vishnu room! But of course many more....?
It's yoga.
@@halcyon2864
Are you saying that both are non-trscendental or man-created ?
philosophy is a Waste of time,
Science works
@@aiya5777i agree it does but does it answer how I have a first person experience.when it does let me know
Your job is moving forward, not backwards. Going backwards is when you want to heal from suffering or have harmed someone. You have to make peace and go back to journey.
All that he knows is someone elses ideas.
OBVIOUSLY. 😊
@@JagadguruSvamiVegananda Then he's never known truth. Only the image.
@@zurc_bot, in your own words, define “TRUTH”. ☝️🤔☝️
@@JagadguruSvamiVegananda something objective. What do you think truth is?
@@zurc_bot, so DREAMS are true, correct?
What is the Self? What a silly question.
He shows his Religious definitions about souls imortal . Seriously his soul mortal is whoteless definitions when his keep out neurosience principles seriously. He faith in his Religious led him to believes in soul mortal left behind neurosience proceendings honestly .He Religious point is view is bluff show him as Monk robot.
Kindly repeat that in ENGLISH, Miss.☝️
Incidentally, Slave, are you VEGAN? 🌱
What English is this. Quite incomprehensible.
@@jayaram5127 if your brains doesnt learn english inst good for you.
Peace comes when duality disappears. While alive, all we can do is try to keep steady like an equlibrist.
Carrying body and soul and embracing the one,
Can you avoid separation?
Attending fully and becoming supple,
Can you be as a newborn babe?
Washing and cleansing the primal vision,
Can you be without stain?
Loving all men and ruling the country,
Can you be without cleverness?
Opening and closing the gates of heaven,
Can you play the role of woman?
Understanding and being open to all things,
Are you able to do nothing?
Giving birth and nourishing,
Bearing yet not possessing,
Working yet not taking credit,
Leading yet not dominating,
This is the Primal Virtue.
Lao Tse
Religion means hallucination. 😮
@@halcyon2864 yes...even when people take opium they get back to senses in a day or two. But when they get intoxicated by religion it stays till the grave.
This is yoga. More so than religion
Has your science found a solution, assuming you have studied science.
@@jayaram5127 the cell phone you are using is the product of science. Do religion invented anything other than wars.
@@sujok-acupuncture9246 indeed science has invented many things and will continue to do so and we should progress on that. But please be clear about what we are trying to debate here, and it is about your own true nature. We are not debating about war, CO2 emissions etc even though they are important from a practical standpoint. So please define your question and then we can debate.
Seems like Mr Baldy is just making these answers up....
see he answering as per whole of hinduism not a particular so of course you will get that kind of answer only
Well our entire hindu Philosophy has hundreds of interpretation of the same truth. And there are certain truths which if people misunderstand can lead to immense confusion. So he has to pick up the ones most suited to western people so they have a easy time to understand it. If you have any idea of the Philosophies you would understand, there is nothing mysterious per say but some are harder to grasp than the other due to ingrained superstitious beliefs regarding certain things from person to person.
Хорошую религию придумали индусы (ц) 😅
A humongous BS.
Man , unfortunately the questions requested here warranted for a BS answer. Vedantic philosophy goes beyond this.
jaysram5 • Any kind of philosophy and religion is BS.
My Dear, I too thought so till I turned 45. Trying to get closer to truth, read through many books and info on quantum physics till I found in the current level of infancy it could not get me closer to truth at least in my lifetime.. anyway a question for you, do you think our generation is the smartest in a thousand years, and the question your ultimate nature has not been already solved. Anyway all the best in your journey.
jayaram5 • Quantum BS is evidently a BS. String theory is also a BS. Einstein's stupidity called Relativity also a very erroneous theory as a true phenomenological explanation, so it is also a BS.
The small mind of Heisenberg could not understood that his principle was just a temporary human capability limit in understanding and measuring small aggregated realms' change of positions. It is not a fundamental truth.
The 'h', Planck constant, is not the last aggregated realm, otherwise 'h' would be made of nothing. If it's causally made of something, which is true, it means is not the ultimate aggregated realm.
Therefore, how can a very small aggregated realm could be ultimate?😏
It can't!
Everything at any level, micro and macro, is fundamentally made of something smaller and smaller and smaller...ad infinitum.
You can't skip the true real causal and neverending link of true aggregated REALITY.
Etc. /
Intelligence?
No. There's no method to measure the true intelligence. You can just compare different levels of it more or less arbitrarily.
If you think you're a smart person, then be for you only, give to the human society the best of you, and simply revel in your time.
Time to bring a muslim scholar like Zakir Naik as well. Unfortunately Ahmad deedat is no more. Hear what Islam and Christianity say about life, soul, Rebirth and purpose of creating Humans .
Too bad we do not have control over the soul that we receive. When does an embryo, foetus, newborn, or person get their soul? And, is the soul already mature or a child soul?
Isn't it amazing how different cultures and groups of people invent such outlandish and complex belief systems that have no substance of truth in the real world. The imagination can invent all sorts of things, and it does.
What is this “SOUL” of which you speak? 🤔
Outlandish yes, but remember these philosophies have evolved over thousands of years. So the questions asked were at kindergarden level, therefore you will get answers appropriate to that level. Pity both these intelligent people could have engaged better. Let's wait for part 2.
@@JagadguruSvamiVegananda We do not have a soul. I was commenting on Swami's views.
You don't understand what the soul is. It is not something we recieve, it's not something we have or don't have, it's something we are.
@@kitstamat9356 What does that mean? We change continually, so what we "are" doesn't make sense to me other than a physical body and brain, and the brain produces "mind" and "consciousness" and self-perception.
THE TRUTH ABOUT "SWAMI" VIVEKANANDA & THE RAMAKRISHNA MISSION:
Some of the following three points apply to practically any "religious" organization, not only to the Ramakrishna Mission/Vedanta Society.
Nota bene: I refer to the founder of that pseudo-religious organization by his proper name, Mr. Narendranath Datta, and NOT the name by which he is addressed by the deluded fanatics who follow him, "Swami Vivekananda", for reasons that should become obvious when reading the following.
1. A spiritual master ought to be a member of the Holy Priesthood (that is, the "brāhmaṇa" class of society, usually wrongly transliterated as "Brahmin"). Mr. Datta was a member of the working-class ("śūdra", in Sanskrit), since he failed to exhibit key characteristics of a genuine brāhmaṇa.
Firstly, he was a drug addict (he died at a young age, due to lung cancer caused by chain smoking tobacco). 🚬
Secondly, he was a carnist. A carnist is a person who considers animals unworthy of moral protection (he virtually suckled on the teats of cows, thus causing undue harm to both himself, to the cows from whom he stole their milk, and of course the poor, innocent calves, who were robbed of their food). 🍼 🐄 🥛
In order to learn of the prerequisites for being a TRUE BRĀHMAṆA, email me for a copy of the Holiest of All Holy Scriptures, "A Final Instruction Sheet for Humanity" ("FISH").
2. The Ramakrishna Mission/Vedanta Society condones the two MOST PERNICIOUS institutions in the history of the planet - democracy and feminism. There is insufficient space in this comment section to properly explicate the reasons why democracy (or, for that matter, any system of non-monarchical governance) and feminism are so adharmic and evil, so, if you are one of the very few souls who is desirous of understanding my reason for stating the above, you should find my Email address in the "About" page of my TH-cam channel.
3. Because, as mentioned previously, Mr. Datta was an ultra-fundamentalist pseudo-religious fanatic, and an ignorant "śūdra", none of his disciples and grand-disciples, et cetera, can ever attain to self-realization, for as Lord Jesus Christ rightly stated two millennia ago, "A student can never be greater than his teacher".
Therefore, if one has ambition to become even more "realized" than Mr. Datta, it is ABSOLUTELY IMPERATIVE that he seek training from a guru who is on a higher state of spiritual understanding and realization than Mr. Datta, or any of the current Ramakrishna Mission "sannyasins".
Just to provide a couple of examples for the above accusation, the current head of the Advaita Society of New York, Mr. Vishvarupa (so-called "Swami" Sarvapriyānanda) is a self-confessed candāla (dog-eater), since he consumes the bloody carcasses of poor, innocent animals, and of course, as a member of that demonic organization, he promulgates the second-most pernicious institution in history (feminism). Furthermore, the British woman who hosts his TH-cam channel, Diane Crafford, according to her Facebook profile picture, condones not only unjustified animal slaughter, but she supports the murder of even poor, innocent, defenseless, unborn humans. 👿
In order to study dharma and yoga with the current World Teacher Himself, search for "Jagadguru Svami Vegananda" in Facebook.
😇 सत्यमेव जयते! 😇