Brahma Sutras : ( 10/04/2013. )

  ----------------------------------------------------------------- Monday, March 22, 2021. 08 : 53. AM. Chapter-2. The Critique of Erroneous Doctrines - 5. ----------------------------------------------------------------- There are various schools of Buddhist philosophy. There is the Ethical Idealism of Buddha, which emphasised the momentariness of things though he was a very highly ethical person. But the others went to extremes and there are four extreme types, offshoots of Buddhist psychology and philosophy. One of them is called yogachara or vijnanavada. This is totally refuted by the Brahma Sutras in the second chapter. All that you see outside is the creation of the mind. This is the basic principle of vijnana-vada. Vijnana is the consciousness in the mind or consciousness itself as the mind, which projects itself as an outside world of perception. The world actually does not exist. The Vedanta refutes this position. The Commentary of Acharya Sankara is long on this particul...

  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Friday, February 12, 2021. 12 : 06. PM. Chapter-2. The Critique of Erroneous Doctrines - 4. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Karma is the cause of rebirth. Karma is the repercussion produced by the action of someone. This someone does not exist, because existence is momentary. Momentariness is almost equivalent to saying that it is non-existent. So who will take rebirth? How will suffering be explained?, which Buddha emphasised very much – there is suffering, we have to overcome suffering. This peculiar difficulty in understanding the real point behind what Buddha said created a discussion by another set of Buddhists leading to nihilism. If everything is momentary, neither does samsara exist nor does karma exist. Non-existence is the final word of nihilistic philosophy. But the nihi...

  ------------------------------------------------------------ Monday, January 25, 2021. 07 : 16. AM. Chapter-2. The Critique of Erroneous Doctrines - 3. --------------------------------------------------------- Sankhya said something. The other day we discussed Sankhya. It is a very famous philosophy. Most people accept it. The presence of Purusha and Prakriti, consciousness and matter, is accepted and these words are used in such great texts like Mahabharata, Bhagavad Gita, Manu Smriti etc. Such noble textbooks of highest authority are using words like Prakriti and Purusha. So this will make us feel there is some truth in it. Why does the Bhagavad Gita go on using the word Prakriti and Purusha, when Sankhya is rejected by the Brahma Sutras? Now we shall not enter into the other subject as to why they are using these words. The main objection against Sankhya is the assertion of duality; One thing is different from another thing. But the Samkhya forgets it is not possible to know t...

  ------------------------------------------ Friday, November 13, 2020. 07 : 12. AM. Chapter-2. The Critique of Erroneous Doctrines - 2. ---------------------------------- Iha amutra vishaya tyaga is necessary. If you have no desire for anything outside; you have accepted that there is nothing outside Brahman and you are therefore wanting to know Brahman. You should not be dishonest to your own self, by saying 'I want something else', 'I have got a desire for something else'. When Brahman is the Only existent thing, how would you allow the mind to long for another thing? This is an erroneous attitude of the so-called seeker of Brahman. Already a warning is given. Unless the longings for the pleasures of this world as well as the other world are abolished and obliterated completely, one cannot become fit for the knowledge of Brahman. ------------------------------ What are the joys of this world? So many sense-enjoyments; beautiful things to see, beautiful things to hear...

---------------------------------------------------------- Saturday,October 24, 2020. 07 : 12. AM. Chapter-2. The Critique of Erroneous Doctrines - 1. -------------------------------------------------------------- Where one does not see anything outside, where one does not hear anything outside, where one does not understand or think anything outside – That Great Being, Plenum of Felicity is Brahma. But if there is someone to see, hear see, hear and understand and imagine that one is going to know Brahman, that Brahman would not be the real Brahman because the point to be remembered always is that Brahman is inclusiveness. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Brhmati iti brahma; Everything is inside It. Even the one aspiring to know It is included in It. So there is no such thing as aspiring to know Brahman! This is the problem of Jnana Marga. Nobody can touch Jnana. It will close all talk and people can go crazy because their mind cannot u...

  ------------------------------------------ Saturday, September 26, 2020.  Chapter 1: The Forest of the Brahma Sutra -7. --------------------------------------------- Consciousness cannot be divided into parts, something here, something there. Because even to imagine a sub-division in consciousness, consciousness has to be present in the division itself. So nobody can conceive a division of consciousness. That would be a self-contradiction. Then, in that case, when the infinite consciousness establishes itself in itself, as the crystal would remain pure and shining as it was, the question arises: 'where is the rose at that time'? As consciousness is infinite, it is omniscient, it knows everything, and there is no rose outside it! If this state of omniscience of consciousness is moksha as the Sankhya says, does that omniscient consciousness know that there is a rose flower outside it? The rose flower is only an example of matter, world, Prakriti. If due to the omniscience of c...

------------------------------------------- Thursday, August 06, 2020. 9:38. AM. Chapter 1: The Forest of the Brahma Sutra -6. --------------------------------------------- Suppose there is a pure crystal which is radiating light from all sides. You bring a red rose flower near this crystal. You will see the whole crystal is red because of the reflection of the rose flower in the crystal. You may say this is a form of contact of the rose flower with the crystal. Crystal may be compared to consciousness, rose flower to matter. Don't you agree that they have come in contact with each other? The fact that the crystal has not become the rose, but imagines that it is the rose, is the bondage of the crystal. That the matter of the world outside cannot touch you and you are pure consciousness, and yet it appears as if the objects have entered your mind and tempt you and repel you, is the tragedy of the whole of life. This is one explanation the Sankhya gives. Two things do not really meet...