“In the 1st chapter, 1st part, 22nd sutra of Brahma Sutras”

Prayer. Welcome devotees, disciples, samajis sitting with us around the world at this moment in 113 places through eNtv, in 10 places through 2 way video conferencing having Nayana Deeksha, in 45 cities in 12 countries! The cities having Nayana Deeksha are London, UK, Singapore, Ohio, San Jose, LA, Seattle, Phoenix, Toronto Kailash and Malaysia. I welcome all of you with my love & blessings!

Let’s enter into the sutras.

In the 1st chapter, 1st part, 22nd sutra of Brahma Sutras

Aakaashaha Thath Lingaath!

A very simple 3 word. Using just this 3 words, Vyasa clarifies hundreds of philosophical doubts, gives us the personal understanding about the world, universe & God!

“Aakaashaha thath lingaath”

Swami Gambhirananda - Space aakaasha is Brahaman for Brahman‘s indicatory mark is an evidence

Swami Vireshwarananda – the word Aakaasha - Ether is Brahman on account of the characteristics- characteristic marks of that Brahman being mentioned

Swami Shivananda – The word Aakaasha in example ether here is Brahman on account of characteristic mark of that in example Brahman being mentioned.

Let us enter into the depths of the sutra. The purpose of this sutra is to establish few understandings and facts in you so that in the further coming sutras some of the great truths are revealed. So for the future revelation, Vyaasa, is laying a foundation stone for all of you to understand this sutras. Brahman is shown to be Aakaasa. I can say that when you use a close examples, usually one word, one idea gets overlapped into the other. So here Brahman is shown to be aakaasha in this sutra. There are many references - Appaiah Deekshistar gives - where Brahman is shown to be aakaasha. I will give some of those references and then give you the conclusion the sacred secret revealed in this sutra and the vaada prativaada you may need to do it on your own, the khandana mandana you may need to do it on your own. How much ever I try to sit relaxed, the moment the sutra comes automatically I am up ☺

Chandokya Upanishad 1st chapter 9th sloka very beautifully describes for the question what is the origin of the world? he replied - ether!

(quotes sutra in Sanskrit) asya lokasya kaa gather ..iti aakaasha iti ho vaacha heva himani bhoota aakaasha deva samupyatyante aakasham pratyastam….provcah …parayanam!

Because all these beings take their origin from the ether only and return into ether, ether is greater than this, ether is their ultimate resort. It’s a dialogue between Shila & Prabhahana.

The sruthi, Upanishad Chandokyo Upanishad clearly mentions aakaasa is something from which everything originates and goes back! There are some more references where the ether – aakaasa is used to refer the highest existence. Please understand, somehow I personally feel the ether word is too small and too poor to mention about aakaasa! Maybe I will use this word the subtle soul of ether is aakaasha! The subtlest part of ether is aakaasha.

Aakashovy naama naama roopayo nirvahitade yat antara tad Brahma tat amrutakamsa atma praja pate sabhaam veshma prapatye yashoham bhaavaami Brahmanami yasho raajnaam yasho vishaam yasho aham anu prapatsisa aahaam yashayam yashashyete mataarka mataatkam kshetam ..indumaabikaam –

This is from Chandokya Upanishad 8th chapter, 14th part, 1st sloka. The translation goes -

That which is called aakaasha is the revealer of all forms and names, that within which forms and names are that is Brahman!

One more reference from Chandokya Upanishad that aakaasha is referred as Brahman. The next reference –

esha maa atmaa antar hrudaya aneeyath breherva vyavaatvaa sarshaa paadva shyaama raatva shyamaata tandulaa vysha maa atmaanta hrudaya jaayaami prativyaa jayaantarikshaa jayaanebhyo lokebhyaha!

This is Chandokya Upanishad 3rd chapter, 14th part 3rd sloka -

Aakaasha is greater than these, aakaasha is their final resort because the scriptures ascribe to the supreme self only absolute superiority. He is greater than the earth, greater than the sky, greater than the heaven, greater than all these words! This is the reference from Chandokya Upanishad 3rd chapter, 14th part and 3rd sloka.

Understand, all these references from the Upanishads again & again say Aakaasha is higher than anything. Now let me define Aakaasha. What is the direct use of knowing Aakaasha is higher than anything? When you know Aakaasha is higher than anything, the 1st thing happens to you - please understand the first thing happens to you, or first thing expected to happen to you is the understanding the qualities of the aakaasha is more subtle, deeper, finer and closer to existence than anything else, than anything. Do not trust the forms you are experiencing. Do not trust the taste you are going through. Do not trust the sounds happening around you. Please understand, any sound, any form, any taste happening around you is something lower than Aakaasha, something less than aakaasha. The truth does not get revealed. Any medium which is lower than aakaasha. Truth gets revealed only in the medium which is equal or deeper than the aakaasha. There are some more references.

To mention about the qualities of aakaasha and Brahman. Let me enter into those references –

Jaatayevana jaayateno nevenaam janayet puna vijnana maanaantam Brahma raathir dhaathu paraayanam tishtamaanasya tadvidha itihi

Brigadaaranyaka Upanishad 3rd chapter, 9th canto, 28th sloka -

Brahman is knowledge and bliss. He is the ultimate goal of him who makes gifts.

The one more reference from Taitriya Upanishad 3rd canto, 6th sloka -

Saisha bhargavi vaaruni vidya parame vyoman pratishtitaaha!

In which the vedas are imperishable one, Brahman the highest, the ether vyoman!

Again, in Brigadaranyaka Upanishad -

Om kam tadeva kamithi praanamcha aasmai tathaakaasham sochuhu

Om kai is Brahman, ether kai is Brahman. Chandokya Upanishad 4th chapter 10th canto, 5th sloka -

And the old ether Brigadaranyaka Upanishad 5th chapter 1st sloka. In so many references again & again. Smrithi the scriptures say aakaasha is Brahman! First thing you need to understand if ether is ultimate. Sorry let me use the word – the soul of the ether. Even the ether looks very gross word. If the ether is ultimate - what Vyasa wants to teach all of us by explaining the ether is ultimate. First thing all the experiences you go through whether it’s a pain or bliss or the joy, anger, lust, fear, greed, any experience you go through because of forms and names, sounds, are not ultimate. They do not have base. Aakaasha the nameless, formless, space-less that is the ultimate, that is where everything rests. That’s a last resort. Knowledge, bliss, ultimate, whatever you call everything resides in aakaasha. A great vedanti like Ramana Maharshi adds his atma pramaana to this shaastra pramaana. He says by meditating on the aakaasha, ether, even what you want can be achieved. See he is not saying only enlightenment can be achieved. He goes to the step even your desires can be achieved! Looks very funny ☺ You meditate on some space where you go beyond your desires, but suddenly you realize even your desires are fulfilled! Vyaasa is trying very hard to push us from the name & form to the nameless & formless. Please understand this nameless & formless - this word you need to meditate and catch the truth. The moment I say nameless & formless devotees feel allergic - oh no, no, no, no! I want my Krishna, I want my Ganesha. It is not only you, even I want my Ganesha that’s why I am keeping him here, he is here (he looks at Ganesha Statue which is on the side beside him). As you all may be aware that today Ganesha Brahmotsava starts 10 days festival we will be celebrating till the Ganesha Chaturthi.

Everybody wants their form. When I say nameless & formless, first understand in the sense of the outer world. In the outer world all which has a name and form diverts your attention, takes you away from the truth, takes you away from the experience, takes you away from the knowledge, takes you away from the original pure inner space - the purest form of happening. Purest form of happening. Please understand maybe this is a right word I will use - purest form of happening! In all of us something is happening continuously which we call as life - soul our tool with which we are experiencing whatever we want to experience. If you divert your attention towards the cine field for next months you will experience cine field all around you. If you divert your attention towards the field of media, you will experience the media all around you, if you divert your attention towards the sports all around you, for the next 6 months you will experience sports all around you. If you divert your attention towards spirituality, you will experience spirituality all around you. I have seen people saying Swamiji only after knowing about you I know so much of stuff about spirituality, spiritual organizations and spiritual world to be known. I tell them because you divert your attention to me, you are opening yourself to my world. If you divert your attention to cricket, you will open your whole consciousness to that reality.

Understand, around each thought or idea a word revolves! Around each name or form a world revolves. Let me exactly reveal the sacred secret why Vyaasa is bent on making all of us understand about the ether because first thing at the times of Vyaasa people think, plan only based on the philosophical understanding. Understand, this is the only land where even king is expected to have all the philosophical understandings even while he makes a small decision how much tax a citizen has to pay. Even to make that decision, he need to have the back ground, he need to know about the cosmic reality. You may think what? Understanding of the cosmic reality in what way is it going to fix the taxes or to design the way city should exist or to study how an elephant should be trained. How it is going to help? I tell you when you have an understanding of cosmos, und of all philosophical problems, when all your phil probs and when all your philosophical questions..are answered, when you hae solved all internal conflicts any decision you make comes out of satisfied inner space. Decisions which comes out of satisfied inner space will make others work but will not torture others! The level you can go down, the level you can lower yourself will be the lowest level itself will be too high. You will not be like a Dritaraashtra. Please understand dritaraashtra is worst character than Duryodhana because Dritaraashtra gave practically moral support by not interfering with the thoughts and actions of Duryodhana. I tell you all Dritaraashtras will face worst last phase of life. You all know many Dritaraashtras. Having the worst last phase of their life just becos they kept quiet when the next generations are doing immoral illegal things and kept quiet.

I tell you if Dritarashtra was not there, if he was dead the whole Maha Bharatha problem would have got solved in a much better way long before without getting into this battle. The whole battle, the whole nonsense of violence and fight was taken as a sporty decision by Duryodhana just to prove his heroism to Dritaraashtra. You can see in your life if your child is jumping in front of you, you don’t need to control. You don’t need to support, just if you don’t control, it is enough he will be jumping more till he falls and breaks himself. When you don’t control, he feels you are enjoying him. When he thinks you are enjoying him, he wants to show little more. He wants to show he is a big guy, he wants to show he is a big hero. Exactly the same way Duryodhana wants to show he is big and challenge the Dritaraashtra.

Dritaraashtra neither has sight nor has insight. By keeping quiet he killed Duryodhana. I tell you Dritaraashtra killed Duryodhana, Dritaraashtra destroyed Kauravas. Now also there are some Dritarashtraas by keeping quiet, not interfering when the next generation is doing wrong things, he is destroying his own Kaurava army! Name and form with which you are caught in the outer world is not ultimate. Drill yourself again & again this ultimate understanding when it lands in you all your decisions will be with certain clarity. All your decisions will be with greater understanding. You will be successful even in your management. I tell you if you know the space where everything dissolves, you will be able to dissolve your depression and the losses and the low moods in to the same space whenever it happens. You will be able to create more and more simple innocent inner space. See when every understanding happens to us, we tend to think what way this can contribute to my life, what way this can add glory to my life, what way this can add peace and joy to my life. Just today, I was having discussion with some of my ashramites in the ashrams vision department. I was telling some of our Brahmacharis all you guys should learn Brahma Sutras because only if you have the depth of traditional knowledge, shaastric knowledge, only when you have strength of shaastric know, scriptural knowledge, spiritual knowledge, you will be able to experience, you will be able to understand, you will be able to catch, you will be able to grasp different teachings I am sharing. Not only that the many traditional pundits and sadhus will drag you guys for arguments. You will be able to answer not just from atma pramaana your own experience or aapta pramaana my experience, you will be able to answer from shaastra pramaana the experience from the scriptures. Then one Bramhacharini asked me what will they argue for Swamiji? Will they have any points? I said yes. Traditionally when you don’t work for money, when you don’t need money ..even in the spiritual field you create thoughts, ideas which ….nor any benefit to the world. Please understand being practical means the applied science department some time may take some attention and energy which would have gone to pure science. That is one drawback. But many time this applied science department stops unnecessarily too much of energy being spent in the pure science department. Not only that many hallucinations and fantasies and whims of people becoming justified as pure science also gets stopped! Otherwise if there is no AS dept anybody’s halluncinations, anybody’s whims and fancies can be attributed and and described as a PS. Applied science is sometime used as a scale to purify the pure science. Same way, the ability or the possibility of the practicality of the scriptural truths, spiritual truths is used as a scale sometime so that just the whims and fancies and hallucinations of people do not become spiritual philosophies! Especially in Vedic Tradition where we allow the possibility of updation, where we allow the possibility of expansion, where we allow the possibility of addition, where we allow, not only allow respect possibility of commenting on yoru own teachers teachings, you need lot of purification methods, self safe guarding methods where the whims and fancies of ppl do not mix and becomes a one more spiritual tradition. That is why we have 3 layers of purity test – atma pramaana – should be your own experience, aapta pramaana – should be the experience of the immediate link you have with the lineage of enlightened beings. Please understand I am saying immd link. I am not even using the word Guru becos sometime you would have had a connection but you would not have seen that person or spent around him. Kunjaji maharaj of MP never spent time with Bhagawan Ramana Maharshi physically. But I can vouch for his enlight..he is an enlight being..

Atma P – your personal exp, apta pramaana – the exp of the link to immd lineage of enloight beings and shaastra p – experiences of the enlightened beings who happened from the beginning where the seed of the philosophy is sown, where the thought trend originates. Only when an experience can be in tune with all these 3, only when a truth can be in tune with all these 3 - aatma, aapta, shaastra pramaanas it can be considered worthy of becoming a philosophical trend or a thought current. Here Vyasa is creating certain thought current in all of us – Aakasha thath lingaath!

He says aakaasha is ultimate! He is giving shaastra pramaanas means the scriptural references. Now I am adding my experience aapta pramaana for all of you. You churn out by doing the Vadaa Prativaada, Khandana Mandana and make it as, make your atma pramaana. Then this can become a living eternal thought trend, philosophical understanding in your being. By understanding ether aakaasha is ultimate so many things will start changing the way you think, the way you live, way you walk, way you eat, way you sleep. Understand when you fall asleep und aakaasha is ultimate. At least next few hours let everything be dissolved into the ultimate which is formless, nameless. After all when you sleep this form and name is not going to be useful for you. Learn to dissolve the form & name into the outer world into the space of formless and nameless at least when you fall asleep till you wake up. For example…

Till you wake up you do not need the word, name, form of the world. So tell yourself I dissolve this nameless, wordless, formless into the cosmos – space, ether, Brahman at least for next few hours. Try this every night you will see within a month you will be able to have dreamless sleep and sleepless waking! Dreamless sleep and sleepless waking will directly enlighten you, will directly liberate you, will directly awaken you. Now start the Vaada Prativaada, Khandana Mandana the today’s thought trend for Khandana Mandana, the Vaada Prativaada is what are the implications of our normal life when we understand ether is ultimate, space is ultimate? What are direct implications, direct understandings, direct experiences by understanding aakaasha thath lingaath - Ether or the space, I think I will use the word space much better than the word ether. Space is ultimate Brahman!

I initiate the Vaada Prativaada through this sutra, through this thought trend you can continue now to continue the eNdebate you can now log on to entv.nithyananda.org and participate in the eNdebate for the Vaada Prativaada. Today’s thought trend for Vaada Prativaada is if the space is ultimate, what it means for me in my life, in my understanding, in my way of experiencing me, world, God – Jeeva, Ishwara, Jagath.

I bless you all who are sitting with us at this moment in 219 places through eNtv, 10 places through 2 way video conferencing, in 67 cities, 13 countries!