Subtitles
I wonder I wonder what she would do if 00:00:00
I wonder I wonder what she would do if you had the power to dream at night any 00:00:04
dream you wanted to dream and you would 00:00:12
have cost be able to alter your time 00:00:14
sense and slip say 75 years of 00:00:19
subjective time into eight hours of 00:00:22
sleep you would I suppose start out by 00:00:29
fulfilling all your wishes you could 00:00:35
design for yourself what would be the 00:00:37
most ecstatic life love affairs banquets 00:00:43
dancing girls wonderful journeys Gardens 00:00:49
music beyond belief and then after a 00:00:56
couple of months of this sort of thing 00:00:59
at 75 years a night you would be getting 00:01:04
a little taste for something different 00:01:06
and you would move over to an 00:01:10
adventurous dimension where there was 00:01:14
sudden dangers involved in the thrill of 00:01:16
dealing with dangers and you could 00:01:19
rescue princesses from dragons and go on 00:01:24
dangerous journeys make wonderful 00:01:29
explosions and blow them up and 00:01:33
eventually get into contests with 00:01:35
enemies and after you've done that for 00:01:39
some time you'll think up a new wrinkle 00:01:42
to forget that you were dreaming so that 00:01:48
you would think it was all for real and 00:01:51
to be anxious about it and then because 00:01:58
to be so great when you woke up and then 00:02:02
you say well like children who dare each 00:02:06
other on things 00:02:07
how far out could you get 00:02:07
what could you take what dimension of being lost of abandonment of your power 00:02:13
what dimension of that could you stand 00:02:20
you could ask yourself this because you 00:02:22
know you would eventually wake up and 00:02:26
after you've gone on doing this you see 00:02:28
for some time you would suddenly find 00:02:29
yourselves sitting around in this room 00:02:33
with all your personal involvement 00:02:36
problems etc talking with me how do you 00:02:41
know that that's not what you're doing 00:02:44
it could be because after all what would 00:02:48
you do if you were God if you were what 00:02:54
there is the self in the Upanishads the 00:02:57
basic text of Hinduism one of them 00:03:00
starts out saying in the beginning was 00:03:02
the self and looking around it said I am 00:03:07
and thus it is that everyone to this day 00:03:10
when asked who is there says it is I and 00:03:14
thereafter gives whatever particular 00:03:16
name he may have for if you were God and 00:03:26
in this sense that you knew everything 00:03:28
and she were completely transparent to 00:03:31
yourself through and through you would 00:03:35
be bored because 00:03:35
if looking at it from another way we push technology to its furthest possible 00:03:47
development and we had instead of a dial 00:03:53
telephone on one's desk a more complex 00:03:57
system of buttons and OneTouch beep 00:04:02
would give you anything you wanted 00:04:05
Aladdin's lamp you would eventually have 00:04:10
to introduce a button labeled surprise 00:04:15
[Laughter] 00:04:17
because all perfectly known futures as I 00:04:20
pointed out are past they have happened 00:04:25
virtually it is only the true future is 00:04:31
a surprise so if you were God you would 00:04:35
say to yourself man get lost and it's 00:04:41
strange that this idea is obscurely 00:04:45
embedded in the Christian tradition when 00:04:48
in the Epistle to the Philippians st. 00:04:51
Paul speaks of God the Son the logos the 00:04:56
Word of God who was incarnate in Christ 00:04:58
and says let this mind be in you which 00:05:03
was also in Christ Jesus who being in 00:05:06
the form of God thought not equality 00:05:08
with God a thing to be clung to but made 00:05:13
himself of no reputation and humbled 00:05:17
himself and was found in fashion as a 00:05:19
man and became obedient to death same 00:05:24
idea same ideas the idea of the dream 00:05:28
and you get that very far-out dream of 00:05:33
getting as extreme as you can get 00:05:33
and so this then is the basis of the Hindu view of the universe and of man 00:05:42
the Hindu looks upon the universe as a drama the Westerner of course looks upon 00:05:50
the universe as a construct as something 00:05:58
made and it is not therefore 00:06:01
insignificant that Jesus was the son of 00:06:03
a carpenter 00:06:03
the Chinese looks upon the universe as an organism as we shall subsequently see 00:06:11
but the dramatic idea is basic to 00:06:17
Hinduism now you can speak about 00:06:22
Hinduism on two levels at least one I 00:06:26
will call the metaphysical level and the 00:06:29
other the mythological level if you 00:06:33
speak on the metaphysical level you can 00:06:36
speak only in negative language you can 00:06:41
say what the divine the ultimate reality 00:06:44
is not if you speak on the mythological 00:06:48
level you may speak of what the divine 00:06:51
is like because myth is not a falsehood 00:06:56
as one uses the word in a sophisticated 00:06:58
way a myth is an image a concrete image 00:07:02
in terms of which man makes sense of the 00:07:05
world and thus the idea of God the 00:07:08
Father or God the maker is a myth 00:07:11
because it's an image and Christian 00:07:15
theologians distinguish equally between 00:07:17
two kinds of theological language which 00:07:19
are respectively called catyph attic and 00:07:21
apophatic a prophetic language is 00:07:26
negative as when we say God is infinite 00:07:29
and eternal katha fatik language is 00:07:34
mythological as when we say God the 00:07:36
Father God is love and all the positive 00:07:40
designations we are not saying God is a 00:07:44
cosmic male parent but is analogous with 00:07:48
the father 00:07:50
so with Hinduism what I'm going to speak 00:07:53
to you in first of all is the 00:07:54
mythological language of Hinduism the 00:07:58
idea of the universe as the big act the 00:08:03
universe is God playing hide and seek 00:08:05
with himself 00:08:08
for God is thought of fundamentally to 00:08:10
the Hindu as the self v self the cosmic 00:08:15
I and it is a basic proposition for the 00:08:23
Hindu that only the self the Godhead is 00:08:28
real there is nothing other than the 00:08:32
Godhead so that the appearance the 00:08:36
feeling that there are other things than 00:08:39
the Godhead is called Maya Maya we 00:08:53
ordinarily translate that word illusion 00:08:56
but you must be careful about the word 00:08:59
illusion illusion is related to the 00:09:01
Latin ludora and that means play and 00:09:11
this is why the analogy of the world is 00:09:14
dramatic it's a play in the sense of a 00:09:19
stage play now when you go to the 00:09:28
theatre you know what you're going to 00:09:32
see is not for real because the 00:09:37
proscenium arch tells you that at 00:09:41
everything that happens on the far side 00:09:42
of that arch is only in play not serious 00:09:48
but the actor and you will hope that he 00:09:52
will be good at it is going to try and 00:09:54
persuade you that it's for real so that 00:09:57
he will so move you that you are crying 00:09:59
or sitting in anxiety upon the edge of 00:10:02
your chair 00:10:04
and so the audience is almost persuaded 00:10:08
to be taken in now what about if this 00:10:12
would happen with the very best actor of 00:10:14
all the great actor the audience would 00:10:18
have cost be completely taken in but in 00:10:21
this case of course the actor and the 00:10:23
audience are the same the self the self 00:10:28
has thus the capacity to abandon itself 00:10:31
to forget itself to hide from itself and 00:10:33
thus to make the most completely 00:10:36
convincing illusion but in play and so 00:10:40
the activity the creative activity of 00:10:42
the Godhead in Hinduism is called Leela 00:10:46
which means play our word lilt is 00:10:51
related to it I think but so also in the 00:10:55
book of Proverbs you will find a 00:10:59
discourse being given by the divine 00:11:02
wisdom the Lord possessed me in the 00:11:04
beginning of his ways before his works 00:11:05
of old I think it's the 22nd chapter of 00:11:09
Proverbs in the course of which the 00:11:12
wisdom says that its delight whilst to 00:11:18
rejoice the King James Bible says in the 00:11:20
presence of God and with the sons of men 00:11:24
but the Hebrew translated rejoice says 00:11:27
play rejoices are sort of dignified 00:11:32
Elizabethan but it says play and son 00:11:37
Thomas aware of this said that the 00:11:40
divine wisdom was above all to be 00:11:43
compared with games because games are 00:11:46
played for their own sake and not for 00:11:49
any sort of ulterior motive 00:11:53
so also music is a kind of non purposive 00:11:58
thing because you don't either play 00:12:01
music to reach a destination nor do you 00:12:06
dance to reach a particular place on the 00:12:08
floor it is the doing of it itself that 00:12:12
is important because after all if the 00:12:15
object of music were to gain a certain 00:12:17
test in 00:12:18
those orchestras that played fastest 00:12:20
would be considered the best so the the 00:12:25
idea is that the that dancing and music 00:12:30
more than other arts represent the 00:12:33
nature of this world that it is playful 00:12:37
that it is sport that is maybe sincere 00:12:40
that is definitely not serious and as G 00:12:44
K Chesterton well put it once the Angels 00:12:46
fly because they take themselves lightly 00:12:49
[Laughter] 00:12:49
how much more so the Lord of the Angels 00:12:54
so if a beautiful lady should say to me I love you and I were to reply are you 00:13:03
serious or are you just playing with me 00:13:12
that would be quite the wrong response 00:13:14
because I hope she's not serious and 00:13:17
that she will play with me I should say 00:13:21
are you sincere or are you just toying 00:13:23
with me because you see the word play 00:13:26
has many different senses a person who 00:13:30
is playing the organ in church is 00:13:33
certainly not doing something trivial 00:13:35
when you go to see a play called Hamlet 00:13:38
you are not seeing something trivial 00:13:41
when the concert artist plays Mozart he 00:13:45
is certainly entertaining you but it's 00:13:47
not a trivial entertainment but on the 00:13:51
other hand we would use play in a quite 00:13:53
a different sense when we mean just 00:13:55
fooling around doing it for kicks so it 00:14:02
is fundamental as a matter of fact to 00:14:04
both the Hindu and the Christian 00:14:05
traditions that the universe is the play 00:14:08
of God but the Christian thinks of it in 00:14:12
the terms of a construction play like 00:14:16
building with blocks and the Hindu 00:14:19
thinks of it as dramatic play of the 00:14:22
actual participation of the Godhead in 00:14:25
the creation so that every being 00:14:28
whatsoever is God in disguise 00:14:28
Hinduism speaks of the Godhead as you uses the word Brotman this is a neuter 00:14:37
form in Sanskrit from the root brief 00:14:50
which means to grow to expand to swell 00:14:55
the neuter form 00:15:00
grotmann does not have quite the 00:15:05
connotation then you see of kingship 00:15:08
that we will find attached to the 00:15:11
Western idea of God but is also referred 00:15:14
to as Atman and this word we translate 00:15:20
ordinarily the self so you can have the 00:15:24
para param you put the M in to connect 00:15:33
the particle Paramatma which means 00:15:36
Paradas supreme self or sometimes just 00:15:42
the Atman alone and that means the self 00:15:45
in you but the fundamental principle of 00:15:49
Indian philosophy is Atman is Brahman 00:15:54
yourself is the supreme self or it is 00:16:00
expressed in also in the formula tat 00:16:04
drum I see colloquially translated your 00:16:10
it or taught that to one Latin - um you 00:16:17
I see ah your you are that that thou art 00:16:17
taught of course is the first word I've heard by baby 00:16:27
ah and father's flatter themselves that 00:16:34
it's saying Dada it's not saying that 00:16:34
and so it's pointing to that nests in everything it's very important to see 00:16:45
this because everything is just that I 00:16:47
can say in a negative way which you won't appreciate at first perhaps 00:17:03
everything is meaningless only words 00:17:09
have meaning because they point to 00:17:13
something other than themselves the 00:17:15
sound water is undrinkable but it points 00:17:20
to the drinkable reality but you say 00:17:24
there what is that pointing at the water 00:17:26
and somebody says water is not being 00:17:29
correct because what you are pointing at 00:17:31
is not the noise water so it's not water 00:17:34
it's that duh and waters are kind of 00:17:39
jazz and it's just doing that and you 00:17:49
can get to see two people are a kind of 00:17:51
jazz they talk and communicate with each 00:17:55
other but what does that mean well they 00:17:57
get together and they make more people 00:17:59
and they do this and they do that and 00:18:00
they eat and they go on doing this jazz 00:18:02
but it's just jazz you begin to see as 00:18:07
you do that everything's like music you 00:18:09
see it's all is complicated vibrations 00:18:12
can catch you could you could you could 00:18:13
you could you could you could you could 00:18:14
you could you could you could you could 00:18:15
you or no all kinds of ways that's that 00:18:18
or that nurse ha ha ha also called in 00:18:22
Sanskrit so anyway this is the 00:18:26
fundamental notion that you are really 00:18:31
what there is the works only you're 00:18:36
playing hide and seek with yourself and 00:18:38
on a stupendous scale Hindus measure 00:18:44
time in units which in Sanskrit are 00:18:48
called Kalpa 00:18:51
and a calper is a period of four million 00:18:51
and a calper is a period of four million three hundred and twenty thousand years 00:18:56
and there are two kinds of calper one is 00:19:06
called manvantara and the other is 00:19:15
called pralaya manvantara is the calper 00:19:25
in which the universe is manifested in 00:19:27
other words in which god puts on his big 00:19:30
act and pralaya is the succeeding Kalpa 00:19:34
in which the universe is unmanifested 00:19:36
and the Godhead does not dream but is 00:19:40
awake to its own nature these are called 00:19:44
respectively the days and the nights of 00:19:47
the brahmand and this goes on forever 00:19:51
and ever and ever and ever the days and 00:19:54
nights adding up into years and 00:20:00
centuries and eons 00:20:00
they speak of crawe there's a sanskrit measure cross CRO re sort of a word that 00:20:11
really I think means umpteen crores of 00:20:19
CalPERS and this is the in breathing and 00:20:27
the out breathing there's the word hung 00:20:32
saw in this word in Sanskrit hung saw 00:20:36
means a swan or a big water bird like a 00:20:42
gander there's a myth that the there is 00:20:47
in the beginning the divine bird which 00:20:48
lays the egg of the world and the egg 00:20:51
splits and the upper is the heavens and 00:20:53
the lower is the earth so when the 00:21:00
worlds are manifested 00:21:01
the Lord breathing out says tongue and 00:21:07
when the wells are withdrawn the breath 00:21:09
comes back hmm 00:21:14
but if you say hyung Sarang Sarang 00:21:17
Sarang it becomes so hyung ha ha ah 00:21:23
hyung that means sir means that the 00:21:29
truth uh-huh I am I am that it's like 00:21:35
imagine when we get to the final moment 00:21:42
in which the world is blown up you know 00:21:46
imagine the countdown this is the end 00:21:49
somebody's push the button eight seven 00:21:52
six five four three two one 00:21:52
[Music] 00:22:21
what are you listening to sound of the waves 00:22:29
and you can sit and listen to the little waves on the seashore and you'll get 00:22:40
back here into this kind of thinking and 00:22:45
you are hearing the ocean of the 00:22:46
universe going and that's your breathing 00:22:50
- it's all one rhythm so it may be that 00:22:57
every star was once a planet populated 00:23:00
by intelligent people who found out 00:23:03
about the fundamental energy of the 00:23:05
universe and blew themselves up and as 00:23:08
they blew up they scattered all kinds of 00:23:10
stuff out which became little planets 00:23:13
which in a long time life started all 00:23:17
over again because the Hindu theory is 00:23:20
very odd every cow part in a manvantara 00:23:25
period whether the manifested world is 00:23:27
divided into four subdivisions of time 00:23:30
each one of which is called a Yuga that 00:23:37
means roughly an epoch or an era and 00:23:39
there are four yugas and they're named 00:23:42
after the different throws in the Indian 00:23:44
game of dice there are four such throws 00:23:49
and the first is called critter that 00:23:49
means Cree means to do as when we say something is done truly done it's the 00:23:58
perfect throw of four the second is 00:24:05
called threatre 00:24:06
which is the throw of three the next is 00:24:10
called dois para which is the throw of 00:24:12
two and the final one is called Kali 00:24:16
which means the worst throw which is the 00:24:19
throw of one now each of these periods 00:24:23
of the Cowper are of different lengths 00:24:27
Krita is the longest and kali is the 00:24:29
shortest and so ranged so that when the 00:24:34
world is first manifested as in those 00:24:36
dreams that i were mentioning to you the 00:24:38
world is in a golden age to begin with 00:24:41
it's perfect and that is the longest 00:24:44
period of time then when we get a little 00:24:47
bit more adventurous you see the treta 00:24:51
means that in 00:24:52
this era a kind of disharmony as' 00:24:54
element enters into things it's like a 00:24:57
three-legged chair isn't so secure as a 00:24:59
falling in chair it's just a bit 00:25:01
inclined to tip and as there was a fly 00:25:06
in the ointment the snake in the garden 00:25:10
then comes drop ara in which the forces 00:25:13
of good and evil are equally balanced 00:25:17
and finally Kali which is the shortest 00:25:21
period where the forces of evil are 00:25:23
triumphant and the world is destroyed at 00:25:26
the end of it for them the Godhead 00:25:28
appears in the form of Shiva who 00:25:32
represents the destructive aspect of the 00:25:35
divine energy and aware as Brahma is the 00:25:39
creator Vishnu the preserver Shiva the 00:25:42
destroyer but Shiva is always the 00:25:44
destroyer in the sense of the Liberator 00:25:46
the guy who breaks up the ruts and he 00:25:51
comes on with a blue body and ten arms 00:25:53
and a necklace of skulls Indian gods 00:25:58
have many arms because they are cosmic 00:26:01
centipedes they do all things without 00:26:05
having to think about it 00:26:06
like the centipede doesn't have to think 00:26:07
about how to manipulate its legs like 00:26:10
you don't have to think how to grow your 00:26:11
hair and as Shiva dance is what is 00:26:15
called the Tandava which is the dance of 00:26:17
destruction at the end of the cycle at 00:26:18
the end of the Kappa you will see that 00:26:22
his hands contain clubs and knives and 00:26:25
bells but one hand is like that and that 00:26:29
gesture means don't be afraid it's a big 00:26:32
act it is all as it were the outflowing 00:26:37
of your own consciousness of your own 00:26:40
mind now then 00:26:47
the Hindu life is related to this 00:26:51
cosmology and the objective of life is 00:27:04
of course in the end to wake up from the 00:27:07
dream when you've had enough 00:27:10
and so the Dreaming process is called 00:27:15
sometimes samsara some sorrow is the 00:27:26
round the rat race and samsara is 00:27:35
divided into six divisions up at a draw 00:27:45
a map I think this is common you see 00:27:48
cosmology to both the Hindus and the 00:27:50
Buddhists this is the world of the devar 00:27:56
and through this is the same route from 00:28:00
which we get both divine and devil the 00:28:03
Dave Amin's angel the highest and most 00:28:08
successful beings in the universe and so 00:28:11
opposite this is the world of nark 00:28:14
Naraka who are the most unsuccessful 00:28:19
these are the purgatorial worlds of 00:28:23
extreme suffering this is the world of 00:28:27
Ashura they are also angels but they're 00:28:31
angry angels representing the the wrath 00:28:35
potential of energy this is the world of 00:28:39
animals 00:28:39
this is the world of praetor for which we have no English equivalent hungry or 00:28:46
frustrated spirits who have enormous 00:28:52
stomachs but mouths only the size of 00:28:55
needles vast appetite and no means of 00:28:58
fulfillment and this is the Manu world 00:29:02
that is to say the world of man you 00:29:07
don't have to take this literally you 00:29:11
could say when you are extremely happy 00:29:13
or ecstatic you're here when you are 00:29:16
miserable you are here when you're dumb 00:29:18
you are here when you're mad you're here 00:29:21
when you're frustrated you're here but 00:29:23
when you're more or less your normal 00:29:24
rational self you're here now so all 00:29:32
life through the period of the CalPERS 00:29:35
goes grinding around this wheel and if 00:29:41
you go up and you succeed and you get to 00:29:43
the top you have to come down they don't 00:29:49
see success in other words in the world 00:29:51
as a method of liberation because it 00:29:54
implies failure so the idea of 00:29:59
liberation which is called moksha is the 00:30:08
ideal of Hindu life wake up it's a dream 00:30:08
and in time there is no hope in time everything is going to get worse in time 00:30:19
because as you know it does we all fall 00:30:23
apart in the end everything falls apart 00:30:26
institutions buildings Nations it all 00:30:30
crumbles and people say well that's an 00:30:34
awfully pessimistic philosophy well is 00:30:41
it 00:30:43
I would rather say that the people who 00:30:46
have hope in the future are the 00:30:48
miserable people because they are like 00:30:50
donkeys chasing carrots that are dangled 00:30:53
before their noses from sticks attached 00:30:55
to their colors and they pursue and they 00:30:59
pursue in vain always hoping that 00:31:02
tomorrow will be the great thing and 00:31:04
therefore incapable of enjoying 00:31:06
themselves today people who live for the 00:31:12
future never get there because when 00:31:15
their plans mature they are not there to 00:31:18
enjoy them they're the sort of people 00:31:22
who spend their lives saving for their 00:31:24
old age I'm trying to teach their 00:31:27
children to do the same thing so that 00:31:29
when they retire at 65 you know they 00:31:33
have false teeth and wrinkles and 00:31:35
prostate trouble and all that sort of 00:31:37
thing 00:31:38
where were you going what did you think 00:31:40
it was all about furthermore the fact 00:31:44
that life is transient is part of its 00:31:48
liveliness the poets in speaking of the 00:31:52
transience of the world always out of 00:31:54
their best poetry you know our revels 00:32:01
now are ended these are actors as I 00:32:03
foretold you are all spirits and are 00:32:05
melted into air into thin air and like 00:32:09
the baseless fabric of this vision the 00:32:12
cloud-capped towers the gorgeous palaces 00:32:14
the solemn temples the great earth 00:32:16
itself I all which it inherit shall 00:32:18
dissolve and like this insubstantial 00:32:21
pageant faded leave not a rack behind we 00:32:26
are such stuff as dreams are made of and 00:32:28
our little life is rounded with a sleep 00:32:31
and said so well it doesn't seem so bad 00:32:35
after all does it 00:32:36
[Laughter] 00:32:36
you see there's always in in the the poetry of Evanescence a kind of funny 00:32:47
nostalgia moralists will say those 00:32:58
lovely lips which you so delight to kiss 00:33:00
today will in a few years rot and 00:33:03
disclose the grinning teeth of a skull 00:33:05
so what the skull says lying in the 00:33:15
grass 00:33:16
chattering Finch and water fly are not 00:33:18
merrier than I here among the flowers I 00:33:21
lie laughing everlastingly though I may 00:33:26
not tell the best surely friends I could 00:33:28
have guessed death was but the good 00:33:30
Kings jest it was hid so carefully and 00:33:35
monks used to keep skulls on their desks 00:33:38
and people nowadays think that was very 00:33:41
morbid I went and visited a chapel in 00:33:45
the Via Veneto in Rome where there's a 00:33:50
crypt where all the altar furnishings 00:33:52
are made out of human bones the altars 00:33:56
of piles of skulls 00:33:57
there are rib bones arranged across the 00:34:01
ceiling like floral patterns with 00:34:03
vertebrae representing flowers and 00:34:07
they're all dead capuchin monks and 00:34:10
there's a funny little monk collecting 00:34:13
the admissions up at the top and he has 00:34:16
one of the funniest grins on his face I 00:34:18
see in a long time I said to him you 00:34:23
know how the day of resurrection there's 00:34:25
gonna be an awful lot of scuttling up 00:34:27
this narrow stack 00:34:27
people try to reassemble their bones hope your father isn't let my fifth 00:34:33
metatarsal so the whole idea you see is 00:34:46
that everything's falling apart so don't 00:34:51
try and stop it when you're falling off 00:34:53
a precipice it doesn't do you any good 00:34:55
to hang on hang on to a rock that's 00:34:56
falling with you see but everything is 00:34:59
doing that and so again this is another 00:35:01
case of our completely wasting our 00:35:03
energy in trying to prevent the world 00:35:05
from falling apart don't do it and then 00:35:10
you'll be able to do something 00:35:11
interesting with the free energy so 00:35:15
that's moksha because when the Hindu 00:35:19
says everything is unreal the Westerner 00:35:23
reacts and says no no you can't treat 00:35:25
life as a dream it's serious it's real 00:35:27
it's for real what do you mean by that 00:35:31
look I really wanted to be this is in 00:35:38
other words everything insofar as it's 00:35:41
falling apart everything is changing it 00:35:44
is like smoke and we all feel that smoke 00:35:47
has a lesser degree of reality than wood 00:35:50
it's an image of the evanescent of the 00:35:54
ghostly so this idea the whole world is 00:35:57
this Mirage that doesn't mean it's a bad 00:36:00
thing it's only bad if you cling to it 00:36:02
if you try to lean on it but if you 00:36:06
don't lean on it it's a grand illusion 00:36:07
so the word Maya and it means not only 00:36:10
illusion but it means art it means magic 00:36:15
and it means creative power so this is 00:36:20
the big act and it's perhaps easier to 00:36:27
feel the world in that way in a tropical 00:36:30
country 00:36:32
where death is very common and where you 00:36:37
just watch things dissolve before your 00:36:39
eyes 00:36:39
and yet burst out and grow again the 00:36:43
whole world is changing maybe easier to 00:36:47
think that way than in our environment 00:36:49
although when you're out in California 00:36:51
the human landscape changes so fast that 00:36:55
no town is the same for two years any 00:37:01
mailing list that you have changes 00:37:06
one-third addresses per annum nothing 00:37:13
stays put the hills are shadows and they 00:37:16
flow from form to form and nothing 00:37:17
stands now this you see is not a 00:37:22
pessimistic attitude therefore at all to 00:37:24
be able to realize that this world is 00:37:26
simply a dream 00:37:27
a dancing play of smoke fascinating yes 00:37:32
but don't lean on it life is a bridge 00:37:35
says one of the Hindu sayings pass over 00:37:38
it but build no house upon it and so 00:37:43
immediately you see that this is 00:37:45
responsible for the enormous gaiety of 00:37:48
certain Hindu sages this is a thing that 00:37:53
often puzzles Westerners the element of 00:37:57
they expected anybody who's an ascetic 00:38:00
or a sage or something to be rather 00:38:02
miserable with a glum face but on the 00:38:07
contrary you take this character who's 00:38:10
going around these days that mihashi 00:38:12
Mahesh he's always laughing because he 00:38:17
see through it he looks on every side 00:38:19
and there is the face of the beloved of 00:38:21
the divinity in everybody in every 00:38:23
direction in everything playing at being 00:38:25
you and you could look down into a 00:38:30
person's eyes way way in and you see the 00:38:34
self the eternal divine and what is so 00:38:38
funny when it puts on an expression 00:38:39
saying what me 00:38:41
[Laughter] 00:38:41
and the guru the teacher when people go to a guru they get all sorts of funny 00:38:51
ideas they think oh he's looking right 00:38:55
through me he sees me through and 00:38:58
through he knows how awful I am reads my 00:39:01
most secret thoughts cause he has a 00:39:03
funny look in his face he isn't even 00:39:08
interested in your secret thoughts he's 00:39:10
looking straight at the Godhead in you 00:39:12
with a funny expression on his face 00:39:14
which is saying why are you trying to 00:39:16
kid me 00:39:16
come off it Shiva I know who you are but and therefore you see his his role is to 00:39:27
gently humor you into waking up as to 00:39:39
your true nature now of course as I 00:39:43
intimated earlier if the Hindu is 00:39:47
therefore saying everybody is God and 00:39:50
this is why when a Hindu greets you he 00:39:54
does this that is the work the act of 00:39:58
puja or worship to the Godhead in you 00:40:02
and our theologians get rather worried 00:40:07
about that because you see the two 00:40:10
conceptions of God are different our 00:40:14
conception is of the boss man 00:40:16
the King theirs is of the cosmic 00:40:19
centipede with the many arms who does 00:40:23
not have to think how to make the world 00:40:26
or rather to act the world that would be 00:40:30
an insufferable nuisance you may think 00:40:34
it rather wonderful when San Thomas 00:40:37
tries to explain that God is fully aware 00:40:39
of everything that happens and in every 00:40:42
detail is willing each single vibration 00:40:44
of any mosquitos wing but when you 00:40:49
really begin to think about it that 00:40:52
approaches intellectual elephantiasis 00:40:52
God heard the embattled nation shout God Strava England and God saved the king 00:41:00
god this God that and God the other 00:41:04
thing good God said God I've got my work 00:41:06
cut out so therefore when somebody in 00:41:17
India suddenly announces that he's God 00:41:21
nobody accuses him of blasphemy or of 00:41:24
being insane they say simply 00:41:26
congratulations at last you found out 00:41:29
and they don't immediately request the 00:41:34
miracle as you see if we get across 00:41:38
someone who says I'm God or I'm Jesus 00:41:39
Christ they say what they said to Jesus 00:41:42
Christ in the first place 00:41:43
come on that this bread the stones be 00:41:45
made bread and you know he used to 00:41:51
wangle out of it by saying a wicked and 00:41:53
deceitful generation seeketh after a 00:41:55
sign and there shall no sign be given 00:41:58
the Hindu would say but there is no 00:42:04
point in changing it it's going the way 00:42:08
I want it to anyhow only really and 00:42:13
truly there is not this idea of God the 00:42:17
technician but rather the power or of 00:42:22
omnipotence is not to be able to do 00:42:25
anything but to be doing all things 00:42:28
whatever it is that's going on and 00:42:32
spontaneously without having to think 00:42:34
about it which is very clumsy now then I 00:42:43
must say something about how then this 00:42:48
relates to the life of the Hindu Hindu 00:42:55
divide life into certain stages what are 00:42:59
call the ash Rama's 00:42:59
the first is called brahmacarya ii gree hosta and the third vanaprastha 00:43:08
brahma chharia means the stage of the 00:43:17
student the apprenticeship gree hosta 00:43:20
the stage of the householder and 00:43:24
vanaprastha the stage of the forest 00:43:26
dweller this is related to cultural 00:43:34
history of early India before we have 00:43:39
agrarian communities we have a hunting 00:43:42
culture which is on the move in a 00:43:46
hunting culture every male knows the 00:43:50
whole culture there is no division of 00:43:52
labour and the holy man of the hunting 00:43:57
culture is of course called a shaman a 00:43:57
shaman is a a realized man a man who knows the inner secret he's seen through 00:44:14
the game and he finds it by going away 00:44:21
alone into the forest and cutting 00:44:27
himself off from the tribe that is to 00:44:30
say from social conditioning and he goes 00:44:34
maybe for a long period into the forest 00:44:35
and comes back he's found out who he is 00:44:38
and he sure isn't who he was told he was 00:44:42
but as hunting cultures settled into 00:44:45
agrarian patterns of life what do they 00:44:47
do they build a village and around the 00:44:50
village they set up a stockade which is 00:44:54
known as the pail and the village is 00:44:57
always of course standing at Crossroads 00:44:59
and there you get an agrarian society a 00:45:05
division of labor and the division of 00:45:08
labor comprises four 00:45:08
in medieval Europe we call them Lord spiritual Lords temporal Commons and 00:45:16
serfs in India they are Brahmins 00:45:21
Kshatriya that means fighters Vasia 00:45:30
merchants traders should row laborers so we've got the priests the warriors the 00:45:54
merchants and the laborers division of 00:46:01
labor the four sections of town and so 00:46:07
the four basic castes so when you are 00:46:11
born you are born into a caste and your 00:46:16
duty as a gree hosta or householder is 00:46:18
to fulfill your caste function and to 00:46:20
bring up a family when you've done that 00:46:23
you go back to the forest back to the 00:46:29
hunting culture and you drop your role 00:46:32
and you become nobody a shaman again so 00:46:39
Hindu calls one who does this a shramana 00:46:42
which is of course the same word as 00:46:45
shaman and the Chinese call him Asia 00:46:50
monk a shaman is an immortal why 00:46:59
immortal because it's only the role 00:47:01
that's model the big front the persona 00:47:04
the one who you really are 00:47:07
the common man that is to say the man 00:47:10
who is common to us all which you could 00:47:13
call the son of man that's the real self 00:47:16
that's the guy who's putting on the big 00:47:19
act 00:47:19
and of course he has no name nobody can put the finger on him because you can't 00:47:25
touch the tip of the finger with the tip 00:47:30
of the finger so that means in practice 00:47:38
then that when you hand over your 00:47:40
vocation in life which is called your 00:47:43
Dharma that means SWA that's the same as 00:47:46
the Latin suus one's own Dharma means 00:47:50
function your own function or we would 00:47:53
call your vocation when you've completed 00:47:56
it you drop out and become nobody 00:48:02
because you're going to find out now who 00:48:04
you really are you're no longer mr. mu 00:48:10
Kapadia who is a truss salesman you drop 00:48:17
that name and you take on one of the 00:48:20
names of God 00:48:20
Swami brahmananda Swami bliss of Brahman 00:48:24
and you're you may go quite naked like 00:48:30
the Shiite holy man no clothes and they 00:48:35
just go out and wander and don't make 00:48:38
any provision for anything they in 00:48:40
literally take no thought for the morrow 00:48:43
what you shall eat what you shall drink 00:48:45
or wherewithal they shall be clothed but 00:48:48
you see people respect them they say 00:48:52
yeah we got to have those people up 00:48:53
there because they are doing what human 00:48:56
being is ultimately supposed to do and 00:48:57
we shall do it in our turn and so give 00:49:00
them some food now naturally caste holy 00:49:08
men and all that kind of thing can be 00:49:10
exploited anything can be exploited and 00:49:14
abused and we can look at it all and say 00:49:19
what a mess why don't you do something 00:49:23
for yourselves why don't you kill the 00:49:25
sacred cows and eat them why don't you 00:49:28
clean up why do you permit all this 00:49:30
disease 00:49:30
just try and see something from another point of view for a change I'm not 00:49:39
saying that we should do what the Hindus 00:49:42
do but just look at it from another 00:49:44
point of view and they would smile at us 00:49:48
and say you really think it's as real as 00:49:51
all that 00:49:51
have you never experienced what's on the inside of this game see the trouble with 00:49:56
you Westerners is you've never 00:50:01
experienced bliss you've never got down 00:50:05
to the root of reality you don't know 00:50:06
that state of consciousness and so 00:50:10
you're frantically trying to patch 00:50:11
everything up and pin it all together 00:50:12
and screw the universe up so it's fixed 00:50:15
you can never do it all it is it got 00:50:18
wildly rushing around and creating 00:50:20
trouble of course Western educated 00:50:24
Hindus think the same way they are now 00:50:27
for rushing around and patching India up 00:50:30
and what's going to happen is they're 00:50:32
going to arm all the millions of people 00:50:34
in India and they're going to create a 00:50:36
lot of trouble in Asia one of these days 00:50:38
when they become powerful Society when 00:50:42
you read Milton's Paradise Lost 00:50:45
long before Lucifer decided to rebel the 00:50:49
whole of heaven was armed and he 00:50:52
describes the legions of angels with 00:50:54
their escutcheons and gone four lungs 00:50:55
and military department who was looking 00:50:59
for trouble you know Lucifer was a good 00:51:08
guy back there you see the bearer of 00:51:10
light so the Hindu looks at our 00:51:15
Christianity though and sort of thinks 00:51:19
my goodness here is the the the eternal 00:51:25
self but in the idea of Christianity the 00:51:29
the God the Godhead is having a real 00:51:32
far-out one because not only is he 00:51:36
incarnated himself say as some wretched 00:51:38
beggar but he's incarnated himself as a 00:51:41
Christian soul who believes that in this 00:51:45
one short life he will decide his 00:51:47
eternal death 00:51:48
and the possibilities of making a 00:51:51
mistake are far greater than of being a 00:51:54
lousy beggar the possibility involved in 00:51:58
the Christian gamble is to fry in hell 00:52:00
forever and ever and ever and ever 00:52:03
even the Avicii hell at the bottom of 00:52:05
the maracas only goes on for about one 00:52:08
Kalpa but the everlasting damnation what 00:52:12
an idea 00:52:13
so the Hindu says Bravo you know God has 00:52:17
really done it dare on himself this time 00:52:19
to be a Christian soul 00:52:19