The Source: Matter or Consciousness?

[00:00:18] Unfortunately, the followers of Kapila started moving out of Kapila. So, Vyasa has to give clarity. You need to know the background, only then you will understand why these Sutras, because this Sutra is directly hitting Sankhya philosophy. Then you may be surprised, what is this? And, Vyasa is attacking Kapila. Now what to do? Both of them are Incarnation of Vishnu.

[00:00:54] Very beautifully Krishna says in Gita, “Among the Munis, I am Kapila!” And in the Stotra, Padmapada sings about the Vyasa.

शङ्करं शङ्कराचार्यं केशवं बादरायणम् | सूत्रभाष्यकृतौ वन्दे भगवन्तौ पुनह् पुनः ||

śaṅkaraṃ śaṅkarācāryaṃ keśavaṃ bādarāyaṇam | sūtrabhāṣyakṛtau vande bhagavantau punah punaḥ ||

[00:01:29] Shankara who is Incarnation of Shankaracharya, sorry, Shankaracharya who is Incarnation of Shankara; both one and the same, okay. 😃 Shankaracharya who is Incarnation of Shankara, Vyasa who is Incarnation of Narayana, if both of you are fighting, who is going to win? There was a debate. Vyasa Himself comes down to test the strength of Shankara. Debate starts on Brahma Sutra. Author and commentator are fighting. Vyasa is author, Shankara is commentator; both of them are arguing. Of course, nobody can judge. But if I can take the liberty, I’ll vote for Shankara, because the guy has given a really meaning to the whole Sutras. All the 1 or 2 uncut parts which Vyasa left, I don’t know why? Shankara has polished it. Shankara has made by His commentary, Brahma Sutras as more valuable diamond. I can say, He made it as a pure gold. He made it more user friendly.

[00:03:06] So both of them are arguing. It goes on and on for 3 days. The poor disciples are sitting without food. So Padmapada suddenly realises what is going on And the old man who is arguing is Vyasa. But Vyasa did not reveal His identity, and this young guy who is not ready to give up is Shankara, who has a Lakshmi in His hand and Saraswati in the tongue, and Devi in His body language. How Shankara will lose? No way! Then Padmapada sings:

शङ्करं शङ्कराचार्यं केशवं बादरायणम् | śaṅkaraṃ śaṅkarācāryaṃ keśavaṃ bādarāyaṇam |

Shankara Himself, Shiva Himself has come down as Shankaracharya. Vishnu Himself, Keshava Himself has come down as Badarayana, Vyasa. You are a Sutrakara and He is a Bhashyakara. The origin, the man who wrote the Sutra and man who is writing the commentary, both of them are fighting. Where it is going to end? So, Padmapada falls at the feet of both and says, “I bow down to both of you.” Then immediately Shankara realises, the person who is sitting in front of him is Sutrakara himself - Vyasa, Badarayana himself, Vyasa himself. Then he withdraws from the debate. Vyasa blesses him and says, “My son, I have come to test you, your capacity to establish the truth. I see you are a qualified person. I give You 16 more years from my life.” See the beauty. When a honest teacher comes to test his successor, when he sees the strength, immediately he says, “From my life, I give you 16 more years. You live for 16 more years and establish the philosophy you are teaching.”

[00:05:40] This is the way actually our Hinduism was spreading. It was completely on a friendly, convincing debate. No fight. No sword. No bread, butter; killing through kindness - very cunning way of destroying, killing through kindness. Nothing was used. Simple, straightforward understanding, analysis.

So Kapila is also incarnation of Vishnu. As Krishna says, “Among the Munis, I am Kapila!” And Vyasa is also Vishnu’s Incarnation. So Krishna is Vishnu’s Incarnation, so Krishna says, “I am Kapila among the Munis.” And here, Vyasa is Krishna’s in... Vishnu’s incarnation. Naturally then, Vyasa is attacking Kapila! It’s almost like two Incarnations attacking each other. It cannot be. You need to understand… and especially our Sannyas Sampradaya belongs to Nirvani Akhada - Kapila’s tradition, and all our practices belongs to Vedanta Sampradaya - Shankara’s tradition. There cannot be any fight between these two. How can there be any fight between Kapila and Vyasa; because both of them are Incarnations of Vishnu. Surely Vyasa is not against Kapila, but Vyasa is against the misunderstanding of Kapila’s followers.

[00:08:00] So one of the important question: whether origin of the Existence is Consciousness or matter? Sankhya takes the stand. See Kapila took the stand: origin of the Universe is matter, because, once you are made to understand whatever you call as Universe is from matter, you will renounce that, you will not be attracted too much towards it and go towards Consciousness. That idea was given more as a technique than as a fact! See when Masters teach, you should be very careful whether those ideas are given to you as a fact or technique. When Buddha says, “Again and again you will be born till you are enlightened,” when Christ says, “There is only one birth” - both of them have their own reason; they are not lying. Please understand, neither Christ nor Buddha is lying. They are not liars. Both of them have their own reason. Buddha is talking the fact, truth! Jesus is giving a technique! When He says, “Only one life is there,” He is inspiring you, pushing you to achieve the ultimate in this one life! Don’t postpone! When Buddha says, “There is multiple lives,” He is talking about the truth, the inner science.

[00:10:16] So when Kapila says, “The origin of the Universe is matter,” He wants you to lose interest over the Universe. He does not want you to too much bother about it. But, when Vyasa says, “The origin of the Universe is Brahman, Existence, Consciousness,” He means there is no Universe, relax in Existence. Because out of Existence, nothing can come and become something else. If you are seeing something else, then relax from seeing. Final purpose of both: Vyasa and Kapila is - relax from being distracted. That’s it. Nothing else. So to serve that purpose, how to put the words? I can tell you from My experience, Universe is neither from matter nor from Consciousness because it does not come out. It has never come out. It does not exist. If you think you are seeing, something is wrong with your seeing. If you think something is going on in front of you now, something is wrong inside you. If you think something other than you exists, something is wrong inside you.

[00:12:22] Sankhya: Kapila says, “Universe comes out of matter, don’t bother about it - Pradhana. Forget about it.” Vyasa says, “Origin of the Universe is Existence, so the Universe cannot be as you think other than Existence. So stop seeing it as other than Existence. Come back.”

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