Transcriptions
Dev Priyānanda Svāmī Bhagavān
Video Link: YouTube
So, let’s begin. Well, before I go on my retreat, I was inspired to make one last video, and this is about what I know—what I know for sure. In other words, it’s not theory; it’s not something I learned in a book; it’s not something I heard from somebody else, although I came into contact with these ideas in those ways first.
But what I talk about in these videos is only the things that I know, that I’ve realized, the states of being, the consciousness. It’s not just knowledge in the ordinary sense of book learning, or words, or logic, although that does enter into it, but directly seen by consciousness. That’s the kind of knowledge.
It’s called prakaśa, means directly seen, or darśanam, which means seeing and being seen. Because this knowledge is not simply objective—it’s subjective, and that means it’s transcendental, it’s in relation with God, and God is looking back. So when we see the truth, and the truth always involves the supreme God, transcendental consciousness, or whatever you want to call it, Brahman, that we are not only the seer, we are also the seen.
So anybody can say, ‘I am God,’ you know, or ‘We are all God,’ or like that. It’s very flip, you know, very glib to just say things like that. But have they actually realized it? Have they paid the price? Have they done the sādhana? Do they have a record, like this channel of going through so many different levels of understanding, and finally reaching and realizing the truth? Usually not. And also they’re confused. What do I mean by that? They are confusing the empirical self—the ego, the individual identity—with the supreme Self, with a capital S.
So this is a problem with things like The Secret. You’ve all probably seen that video, where they assume that the empirical self, or the ego, or the individual is equal in all respects with the supreme, or God. And of course, this is false. It’s not. We are a composite, a composite being of divine and the not-so-divine: the ordinary, the prosaic, the mundane, the gross, the physical. So each of our parts has its own specific functions and needs. That’s what the cakra system teaches us.
So it’s not that we can just glibly assert that ‘I am God’ unconditionally. No. But we can realize our identity or the identity of a certain part of ourselves with Śiva, Śakti and Brahman. And that’s what this is all about. That’s what we’re teaching here. This is called the tree of knowledge.
Take a look at this. This is the tree of knowledge. Now, how do we understand this? There’s a saying in Bhagavad-gītā.
“There is an eternal tree with its roots above and branches below. Its leaves are the Vedic hymns. The real form of this tree is not perceived in this world, neither its beginning, continued existence nor end. But one who knows the secret of this tree is the knower of the Vedas.
So what is the secret of the tree? It’s not described in Bhagavad-gītā. It’s described elsewhere. Specifically, it’s described in the commentary on Vedānta by Śaṅkarācārya. He gives his system of four views. And what is this? Just by itself, the tree of knowledge is very difficult to understand. But if we superimpose a framework over that, a framework of four darśanams, four views, and its accompanying yoga, then we can understand this tree of transcendental knowledge.
So the first one is dvaita-vāda. Dvaita means duality. Vāda means view or system of understanding. And the appropriate yoga for that is karma-yoga.
Then higher is viśiṣtādvaita-vāda. viśiṣtādvaita means qualified non-dualism. And its appropriate yoga is bhakti.
Then there’s vivartha-vāda. Vivartha means looking into, inquiring into, analysis, self-inquiry, vicāra. And that appropriate yoga is rāja, meditation.
Then finally, ajata-vāda. Ajata means unborn. And one who is in that state of consciousness sees the world as unborn, that it’s simply an appearance. And so the appropriate yoga for that stage is jñāna.
The whole system is actually quite rich and deep and complex. And it ties together the Vedic system and the Buddha’s teaching. So as you can see here, their level of being connected with the four darśanas, and the Noble Truth of the Buddha connected with them, and so on.
We’ve talked quite a bit about these four levels in our series of videos. And if you have any doubts about it, you should go back and review the earlier videos on this subject. So I’m going to put a marker here, a link to those videos.
And what you should do is try to understand where you are. Assess yourself honestly. Don’t falsely claim to be higher than you really are; but look at how you actually see the world and how it fits into this system of classification.
Because Śaṅkarācārya was the actual incarnation of Śiva. He had superhuman intelligence. It’s said that anything that he heard, anything that he read, he automatically remembered word-for-word and could repeat it back even years, even decades later. He had such a memory.
Well, the thing was, it wasn’t memory. But he was able to directly perceive what had happened, what he had heard, what he had read, because he was the incarnation of knowledge. And his Śārīraka-bhāṣya on the Vedānta-sūtra is really the authority for the modern age. So one should take shelter of these source materials.
Don’t just take what people say. Don’t even take what I say as being the truth, until you investigate for yourself and find out by your own experience what’s true.
Now in the future, in the 2020s, everybody this time of year is giving their prognostication, you know, what’s going to happen in the next decade. Well, I can tell you because I’ve done a bit of astrological research, not what’s going to happen in the world, what’s going to happen with me personally. Because really, who cares about the world? But as far as this body, this person, the human part of myself, there are certain events that are coming up.
Something’s going to happen in about two years. That’s pretty drastic, pretty intense. And it’s going to make me more famous.
Right now, our channel is very small, we haven’t advertised it, we haven’t promoted it. It’s totally on word of mouth. And we have now more than 1300 subscribers. And we have, when we release a video, we get more than 300 views a day. And then it gradually settles down again, if I don’t release one for a while, it still stays at about 150 a day.
It’s great. It’s like being able to talk to and share my realizations with 150 to 300 or more people every single day. I couldn’t do that, you know, IRL—in real life. But thanks to the power of the leverage of the internet, this is going on.
And by that time, by two years from now or so, we’ll probably have about 5000 subscribers. So I’m looking forward to building a course site that will put these 700 videos on this channel, in some kind of context. And the context will be along the lines of the system of four views, catur-darśanam, that we just described: the tree of knowledge.
So this system of courses will give a sequence and order to all these videos to help you comprehend this entire teaching; which all it is, is really a record of my experiences and realizations over the last seven years or so. So building on that, we’re also going to be starting an āśrama in Tiruvannamalai or outside of Tiruvannamalai in the villages. And that’s going to be very confidential by invitation only.
And the way that you qualify to join the āśrama is by completing the courses. So there will be a place where you can stay and practice these teachings in your everyday life without any distraction, without any interference, and with all support and help available. So that’s going to be coming.
And by 2023, through 2026, we’re going to have bigger and bigger festivals, bigger and bigger events, more and more people coming until it’s in the range of thousands or tens of thousands of people. So, of course, this is all going to be streamed online. So many, many people can watch even if they can’t come to India, which is too bad because the influence of a holy place like Tiruvannamalai can’t be overstated.
I think a great deal of the progress I’ve made in the last three years has been due to the influence, the association, and the power of this holy place and the saintly people who congregate here. You just can’t substitute anything for the energy of a pure holy place like this.
So start saving your pennies, huh? Get a piggy bank, start putting money in and get ready to come to India in the next four or five years, because things are really going to be happening here. And then in 2027, then I’m going to retire, I’m going to go into seclusion. And I’m going to get ready to leave this body and go to the next life.
And I will have a death, very easy death, beautiful death, just like my guru Jñānaśakti Svāmī. He had such a beautiful death, with no struggle, no resistance, just letting go and letting go. And finally he disappeared.
And so, of course, that only affects the human part, the gross part, the physical part. Everything else still lives, still exists, and unconstrained by the body, we can reach our real potential in our destination after the end of this body.
ĀŪṀ Tat Sat; ĀŪṀ Śakti ĀŪṀ.