Niloofer Giri, exponent of Vedanta, Vedic chanting and Sanskrit, speaks about ‘Know Thyself: Understanding the paradoxical obstacle’

Posted January 8, 2024

Om sahanaavavatu,
Saha nau bhunaktu,
Saha veeryam karavaavahai,
Tejasvi naavadheetamastu maa vidvishaavahai,
Om shanti shanti shanti.
When we study or we hear about the knowledge to do with
ourselves, there needs to be a shift in gears, so there’s always a prayer
to centre our thoughts and shelve everything else temporarily. So,
that was the prayer. The last three words were ‘Shanti.’

The first Shanti is for external disturbances or, rather, cosmic disturbances. May you be quiet, may there not be some earthquake or some terrible rain or anything disturbing us.
The second Shanti, medium voice. Disturbances like the clatter of plates like a mosquito biting me or the neighbour doing something that is distracting you.

And the third Shanti if you notice is silent to ourselves. May I shelve all my internal disturbances. May my stomach not bother me. May I not have a headache. May I not have jumping thoughts. May my mind stay with me for at least this short half an hour. Let it cooperate with me. Let it be here to have an appointment with myself. Know thyself is an appointment with myself.

In the Vedic culture, this root Veda comes from the Sanskrit Dhatu or the root called Vid. Vid means to know. What do we need to know? The Veda as a whole comprise So, let us start at the beginning. What a person strives for, what a person wants, is called Purushartha in Sanskrit. Purusha meaning man. Then arthya te, prapya te, what does he want, what is he pursuing, what is he looking for in life? So, the Veda categorises four groups of what a person could want all throughout his life. It’s called dharma, artha, kama, moksha.

The first is the easiest: Artha – wealth. Everyone works for wealth, longs for wealth, studies for wealth, does everything for wealth. Artha is a pursuit and that is why it’s one of the Purusharthas. We all pursue it for security, certain enjoyments, that’s called kama. So you gain wealth to keep yourself secure in life, to have certain enjoyments, kama.

Now you could pursue wealth and enjoy it in two possible ways, and only a human being can have that possibility. What’s the possibility? We alone can violate the universal laws. We alone have the freedom to violate universal laws. No other living being has that freedom. A cow will behave like a cow, a tiger would be like a tiger. A tiger won’t start eating grass, it doesn’t have a choice. But we have this choice to follow the universal laws. First of all, to understand, to know the universal laws – knowing comes in. So, when I say know thyself, I’m going to bring in these words of knowing, all these aspects of knowing.

So, first, know the universal laws and then you have a choice to follow or not. Knowing is not enough, please understand. A lot of us know a lot of things that are not good for us. We know it, still we are victims of not following it. Like overeating, for example. We know it. So, since we have this choice to follow universal laws or violate them, there is a third pursuit given by the Veda – Dharma.
Dharma is a beautiful word. Dharayate iti dharma: that which holds this world together and keeps everything together is dharma. How can we explain it in a very simple form?

When I go and buy a strip of medicine, I expect that whatever is written outside will be the stuff inside. I just expect. I expect that when I go into an elevator, the person who’s made that elevator has followed the safety norms. I just expect. I expect so much. I get into a cab. I expect the cab driver will take me where I want to go, not where he wants to go. I just expect. Please understand, all our life we live with this trust. Isn’t it? We just trust and trust. What do we trust in? We trust in the Dharma of that situation. I trust, correct? So, if we don’t trust, we would have a psychological problem. Please understand, because every moment we will doubt. So if I’m speaking in this mic, is this mic suddenly going to burst? We are in doubt, but we don’t, we trust.

Now, we trust every moment of our life in the choices we make. But when it comes to my turn, I have a choice. I can follow the universal laws, follow righteousness, follow what ought to be done, or I can cut corners. Do you see? Dharma is a choice. I can cut corners, I can get success quickly, I can get name and fame quickly. Cutting corners, not following the appropriate path. Do you see?

So, Dharma becomes an important pursuit given in the Veda. A pursuit means that which you pursue in order to gain your artha and kama, in order to gain your wealth and your pleasures. You can have all the wealth and pleasures. You see, the Veda never stops you from gaining wealth. In fact, they say the righteous people, the good people should be extremely wealthy so they can help so many people. Because if the wealth goes into the wrong hands, then there’s damage.

So, there is no taboo to wealth and enjoyment as long as you follow the universal laws, Dharma. Not easy at all because it’s a rough road and it’s a road that tests you. However, if you manage to follow those tests, only then the third pursuit even opens up to you. Till then the doors are closed. The fourth pursuit nobody knows, people are afraid, nobody cares, nobody is interested because those doors will remain closed. It’s the most important pursuit. It’s the pursuit we have been given this human embodiment for, but it is not accessible. That pursuit in Sanskrit is called moksha. The fourth purushartha, the fourth human pursuit. People are afraid of that word because they don’t know what it means in essence.
But having lived a life of righteousness, dharma and gaining your wealth and enjoyments, then those doors seem to open. How do those doors open? Emotional maturity grows when a person lives a life of Dharma to such an extent, that he or she begins asking questions: I have everything, I have the name, I have the fame, I have the wealth, I have all the possible enjoyments. But is this what I was born for? Is this all? Is there not something else? Is there something higher I can pursue? Is there something I can pursue that doesn’t end with my death? That’s the question. Is there something I can pursue which keeps my happiness steady? Because today my happiness is dependent on my health and my wealth and my family and so many paraphernalias. So, if you look at a person from a spiritual level, you know, physically we walk independently, we don’t have crutches. But if you look at a person from a spiritual dimension, everybody has not one, not two, not five, not 10, perhaps thousands of crutches. Because if I have this, then I’m going to be happy. If I have that, I’m going to be happy. You remove that crutch, that person is unhappy. Are you able to see?

A person who says, I don’t want these psychological crutches, can I be happy if my whole world falls apart tomorrow? Can I still be happy? Can I still be peaceful? Because life has no guarantees. So, am I going to be happy? This is the question that opens the door of the fourth pursuit. And then the journey starts. What is that knowing that I’m going to be peaceful and happy, irrespective? What is that thing? And who is going to tell me, who is going to teach me, where am I going to get answers? That becomes the journey. From yourself to yourself. So where do we start? We start with ourselves and then we go searching, we go shopping. Knowledge shopping, guru shopping, getting answers, book shopping. To get answers. Is anything permanent? And then you have access to a kind of knowledge which is in the Veda.
Now, why did I bring up the Veda? The Veda is so comprehensive. You see, I mentioned the four Purusharthas, the four pursuits. Suppose you want wealth and enjoyments and you’re not getting them easily? Or, you have certain health, family or kids’ problems or whatever it is. And your worldly means of getting solutions are not working. Then, the Veda tells you, we have the solutions. Intangible solutions for tangible results. I’ll give you an example. King Dasharatha, Lord Ram’s father, didn’t have offspring. The sages said, don’t worry, we’ll guarantee you an offspring. You do this Putra Kameshti Yajna, which comes in the first part of the Veda. We guarantee you will have offspring. Now, if Putra Kameshti Yagna was so simple, everyone who doesn’t have offspring will do that Yajna. It’s not so simple.

First of all, you have to be a king, which means you have to have that kind of enormous wealth. And secondly, the person performing that Yajna has to be extremely exalted and pure. You have to find that kind of a sage. Completely clean thoughts. That person performing this Yajna, the offspring is guaranteed. So, the Veda Purva Bhaga has these solutions for worldly problems. You want wealth, you want name, fame, you want to get rid of a disease, you want to get rid of a weakness, the Veda Purva Bhaga, Purva means the first portion of the Veda has the solutions. Dharma, Artha, Kama, first three pursuits, the first portion of the Veda has the solutions. Only when the doors of the third pursuit begin opening will you come to the end portion of the Vedas, which is called Veda-Anta.

Now, did you see where Veda Anta comes in? So, Veda Anta is when a person is seeking moksha. What is moksha? To be free from crutches, to be happy. That is moksha. I don’t need to depend on anything and anyone for my happiness. And even to study Vedanta, there is a huge list of qualifications. It’s not that anyone and everyone is going to be interested.

Veda-anta Bhaga will give you the true knowledge of knowing yourself. Vedanta tells you, you are not what you think you are. You are not what you see in the mirror. You are not your name, you are not your fame. That’s just your costume, that’s just your outer form. And your costume has so many allied connections, your family, your work. Your health, your wealth, allied connections. Vedanta first tells you that is your costume that’s not really you, you don’t know who you are, so we will tell you and that’s where Vedanta begins. They will tell you that you are infinite. And when they tell you you’re infinite, infinity is not conceivable by the human intellect. So, infinite everybody says, okay time to go to sleep, time to let the mind wander. I don’t understand infinity. The subject matter of Vedanta begins there you are not what you see, what happens to your costume, your outer costume is like what happens to your bag we have a bag. I carry a bag. My bag can have a tear, I can mend it, I can replace the bag like I can replace bodies, I’m not equal to this personality. The truth about me is I’m infinite. Now, how many infinities can be there? Infinite plus infinite? Infinite. Infinite multiplied by infinite? Infinite. Infinite minus infinite? Infinite, it doesn’t change, which means there’s only one infinite and that infinity I am.

That’s the whole pursuit of knowing. I am not my costume, but I use this costume to know what I’m worth and once I know what I am worth, when I know the spirit, then all that happens in matter is immaterial. Starting point of the Veda, Veda Anta Bhaga. Matter doesn’t matter, it’s immaterial.
It’s your costume. You have health problems. Don’t worry. Your death is facing you. Don’t worry. You’ll get another body. Do you have any other issues? Don’t worry. Your past karmas, your work, your good deeds will take care of it.

Your good deeds or not so good deeds, whatever it is, they will take care of it. You don’t have to worry at all. Just keep doing your work. So, in the subject matter of Vedanta, again there are two branches. Very interesting branches.

One is the preparation to know that you are infinite because the moment I started saying you are infinite, sometimes even here people will look here and there. Is this person understanding? Is he understanding? I don’t understand. So, to even access infinity, there is something called Yogashastra which is all about the subject matter of any and every religion, whatever religion you follow. Even if you don’t follow any particular religion, you lead a life of truth, righteousness. That in this technical Sanskrit language is called Yogashastra, which means it’s getting you ready to purify yourself.
Purify what? When we study Vedanta, the receptacle to hold knowledge is our thoughts. So, that which needs to be purified is our thoughts. Now very interesting, the moment we say pure thoughts, people will say, oh I’m very pure. I don’t hate anybody, I don’t think ill of anybody, I don’t disturb anybody. I’m a good person, I only think of others’ well-being, I bless others all the time. That alone is not purity, that’s only one tiny speck of the purity you can have. What is true purity of mind? A mind that cannot be disturbed, a mind that cannot waver irrespective. A mind that cannot be agitated easily. Or if it is agitated, it comes back to the centre. That is purity. A mind that doesn’t go through huge oscillations, fluctuations, mood swings, tantrums and then feeling miserable and low. These are all normal. But this is what comprises the impurity of the mind.

If a mind is too crowded with thoughts, it’s not going to understand what this infinity business is. It’s too busy, there’s no space. If a mind is now worried, what did I do, what do I have to do, what did I leave undone, some stress, some tension, there’s no space. Are you able to see this? This is what is deemed as purity. So, to the extent your mind is at your command. If you expect, if you request your mind, stay with me for 20 minutes. Don’t go on a world tour for at least 20 minutes. If your mind cooperates with you, that’s your level of mental purity. Remember, your mind is your instrument. It has to listen to you. It can’t dictate terms. Which means when I want to sleep at night, my mind quietly just relaxes and I fall off to sleep. Are you seeing this? My mind doesn’t take away my appetite, doesn’t take away my sleep. Do you see this? That’s a level of purity. And that’s what one portion of Vedanta teaches us.

And, actually, Vedanta is the cream of all religions put together because it’s teaching you how to achieve a balanced mind. So, whatever you may do in your religion, your prayers, pilgrimage, your chanting, your japa, whatever you may do, it’s only to get you ready to keep a mind that’s relatively stable. Relatively stable enough to cooperate with you for 20 minutes, 25 minutes without its own agenda. That mind approaches the truth. Once you have access to the truth, the truth tells you matter is immaterial. Don’t worry about it. Paropakaraya idam shariram, that’s one of the tenets. This body, idam shariram, idam means this. Shariram, this body, in other words this personality, is only meant for paropakaraya to help another. That will take care of you. It’s called karma yoga. Serve, give, reach out. Reach out without being business minded. What am I going to get out of it? Just give. That’s yoga shastra. And every religion will tell you that. Do some charity, help the needy, help the poor, help the elderly. Be patient, be kind, lend a ear to someone in distress. All that is helping you. And it helps not just you, it helps generations down.

When the mind is balanced, Vedanta will say, Atma va areshotravya mantavya, nidhidhyāsitvya. It means now. Atma means the real I, not this costume. Not Mr. Guptaji, Mr. Sharmaji or anybody. The real you behind the costume, Guptaji. That Atma, first shrotavya, first here, which means you need to study it. Veda is always a subject that needs to be taught under a guru, because the subject is so obscure, it’s so subtle. It needs to be taught and more importantly, it needs to be a space where you can clarify your doubts. This is one subject where, if you don’t know anything, it’s okay, but if you misunderstand, it will lead to a lot of difficulty. So you need to clear your doubts. Here, mantavya, think about it, clarify your doubts. Then nidhidhyāsitvya, you should now meditate on the truth of yourself, not on your costume.

From the time you wake up in the morning, what are you thinking of? Your thoughts are almost higher than the mind. 100% over what this personality is going to do, what it has done, what it must achieve, what deadlines it has, do you see? So, now, that conditioning changes. An appointment with yourself is to change that 100% conditioning, thinking about your costume to think 99% of your, on your costume, 1% on this real eye. You missed it. And the Upanishad, which is the core text of the Vedanta tells us, if you missed knowing yourself in this lifetime, they say, Mahati Vinashti. It’s not an ordinary loss. Mahati means it’s a grand loss. You’ve lost one lifetime. It doesn’t matter. You’ll get one more lifetime. But don’t lose it. You see this? Then you reduce the conditioning. You think of your real self. 10% of the time, 90% of the time, think of your life, think of your family, think of others. Then reduce it 80%, then 70%, then 60% till you stay with the real you, not your costume because it’s going to go anyway. It’s just for a lifetime, 50, 60, 70, 80, 90, 100 years, over 100 if you’re lucky.

So that forms truly an appointment with your real self. And the paradoxical obstacle is it is not known. The doors of that fourth pursuit, they don’t open for everyone. They open if you’re fortunate enough to have lived a life of Dharma, not for one, not for two, for many lifetimes. Then those doors begin to open, then those questions begin to come, then that interest begins to dawn upon us. It’s a privilege to know, it’s a privilege to live, and it’s the greatest privilege and a blessing to talk about it, to discuss it. So that is the topic, know thyself.

ROTARIANS ASK

One must develop equanimity of mind. But despite having such a great philosophy and culture and our scriptures, we see a mess all around us. So, obviously we have not imbibed that or something has been lost somewhere. Would you like to comment on that? Whereas, the West which was very warlike, has more discipline.

All the discipline, cleanliness and order is at the level of the costume, which is important. It’s crucial, it’s important. But the heart of this land always knew. The very word Bhārata, take for example the country, the name of the country is Bhārata. Then it became India later on, but it is Bhārata. Bhā means light, Rathaha means to revel. The people who revel in the light of knowledge; what knowledge? Knowledge of yourself. So, very interestingly for this land, the costume never mattered anyway. What mattered was to know yourself, know the real infinite I. But people misunderstood, tradition got disturbed, and people gave up even thinking of the real self. That is why a lot of great, learned men and women who are with that kind of detachment, they don’t really care about the clothes they wear, where they live. They don’t really care about the conditions. They don’t really care about the health problems if they have any. This is because of an aberration. It is not supposed to be that way. Whereas in the West, they are focused so much on the costume that everything is in order and if they want to learn about spirituality, you’ll find them coming to India. Then they’ll approach Vedanta and things. Or the spiritual essence of the spiritual heart of any place or country which talks about the infinity that you are not the costume.
Do we really experience life as it happens and events or do we view them through the prism of our emotions, insecurities, path and desires?

Beautiful question. We view life through our conditionings. We have been conditioned at a time we didn’t know any better. Most of us are conditioned in childhood. Isn’t it? We’ve learned so much just absorbing through osmosis. We see what our parents, grandparents, teachers do and we just absorb it. And most adults don’t question the conditioning. It’s very rare. In fact, this subject matter makes you question your conditioning. Till then, one views life through our conditionings, which is our emotions or mood swings or whatever it is or the background. Once you study the knowledge of your real self, that is the process of lessening the conditionings or to recondition ourselves the way we want to be. Don’t you see sometimes you realise, I spoke just like my grandfather, whether it was right or wrong, or I got angry just like him, whether it was valid or not. I behaved like him. That’s not me, that’s my grandfather speaking. I don’t want to be like that. My grandfather got angry when something dirty was put on his bed because, you know, the bag that we carry everywhere. Everything should be spotless and clean. But that’s not me. I don’t need to get angry about that. But unless we work on our conditionings, we look at life through our conditionings, not a clean lens. In fact, there’s a saying that when you cleanse the lens of your vision, you’ll see everything as if it is infinite. It’s a beautiful saying. And that other very famous saying, to see a world in a grain of sand and heaven in a wild flower, to see infinity in the palm of your hand and eternity in an hour. That’s when the conditioning goes away. You actually see the world as it should be infinite, with all these costumes dancing around, lots of costumes. Like Shakespeare says, we all have our entrances and exits, all the worlds are staged, and we all have these wonderful costumes. We play our parts well and then suddenly leave, without notice sometimes.

So, to answer the question, we see the world only through conditionings, unless we have cleansed our vision. That comprises 99.99% of the world. We don’t see things as they are. We don’t even see people as they are. We see people the way I believe you maybe. I don’t see you. So there are, you know, these first impressions, notions. How did he smile? What did she say? What did she do? Did she acknowledge? Then we form that kind of a picture. We relate to that picture of the person. We rarely relate to a person. If you truly relate to a person, then you will take fresh measurements every time you meet the person. Every time. Like you know, this George Bernard Shaw had this very funny way of putting things. He had great wit. He used to say, the most intelligent man in the world I’ve met is my tailor. Because every time he sees me, he takes fresh measurements. That’s intelligence. Not to have the old, stamped things and you know the thoughts of people. So that’s the cleansing.

One of the biggest challenges is to get a good guru to teach the Vedas. So, how does one overcome that? I’ve learned Sanskrit right from my sixth standard and still I’m struggling to find a good teacher to teach me Vedas.

Very interesting question. You don’t have to look for a teacher. Your guru will walk up to your doorstep. Whether… Now listen to this, whether that guru be a fraud, whether that guru is not well read or whether that guru is excellently well equipped to teach, that depends on our journey and our karma. So we never blame them. My karma or my karma means my past deeds will take me to the place I need to go through to exhaust some of those good deeds or bad deeds. So you don’t have to go guru shopping and you will know, somehow you will know intuitively there’s a very beautiful feeling that you get that I seem to connect, I seem to understand. And then you give the benefit of the doubt to the guru. Even if we don’t understand, we always say it’s my inadequacy, maybe I’ll grow out of it, I give the benefit of doubt and I begin. And your journey will take you to the appropriate channels.

it was valid or not. I behaved like him. That’s not me, that’s my grandfather speaking. I don’t want to be like that. My grandfather got angry when something dirty was put on his bed because, you know, the bag that we carry everywhere. Everything should be spotless and clean. But that’s not me. I don’t need to get angry about that. But unless we work on our conditionings, we look at life through our conditionings, not a clean lens. In fact, there’s a saying that when you cleanse the lens of your vision, you’ll see everything as if it is infinite. It’s a beautiful saying. And that other very famous saying, to see a world in a grain of sand and heaven in a wild flower, to see infinity in the palm of your hand and eternity in an hour. That’s when the conditioning goes away. You actually see the world as it should be infinite, with all these costumes dancing around, lots of costumes. Like Shakespeare says, we all have our entrances and exits, all the worlds are staged, and we all have these wonderful costumes. We play our parts well and then suddenly leave, without notice sometimes.

Till then, play your roles well, live a good life and your guru will walk up to your doorstep. And sometimes you know it’s also the time. Mhuratha na chahiye. Mhuratha has to come. Mhuratha means the appropriate auspicious time. Sometimes it takes time but it’ll come.

Growing up, we learned in the scriptures that this world is full of maya, an illusion. What does Vedanta say about this? Because my experience is all real. So what is the illusion and how do you explain that?
I don’t know if it’s an illusion. A deep question, there will be a deep answer but we’ll try to make it easy. Before we choose to take birth, which means before we enter an embryo in the mother’s womb, really speaking no one wants to be pushed into the earth plane because of this reason. Because things are maya. Maya means Ma means not, ya means that. Things are not what you see. So, nobody wants that. Because at that time it is said one knows one is infinite, but one is pushed to come to this earth to live out certain experiences. Now, if you have to live out certain experiences good, bad or otherwise, joyful, sorrowful or otherwise, the most important thing is you have to forget that you are infinite. You have to trust your costume. You have to believe I am no good, I am so good, I have superiority complex, I have inferiority complex, I have this problem. You have to get into that mode which means you have forgotten your worth. Only when you have forgotten your worth can your karma be played out, be exhausted. And that is the plight of most of the Jeevas, only those who know or are taught or are educated, that they are actually infinite. The costume will go through its karma. Everyone else is naturally held tightly by the claws of Maya. Maya is, what is Maya? Something that will change without notice, something that has no guarantees, something that is very beautiful like the rainbow. A rainbow is very beautiful, but it’s actually not there. The sky is very beautiful. The sun rises. We pray to the sun, isn’t it? We talk about, I’ll meet you at sunrise. The sunrise is very beautiful, but the sun does not rise, that’s Maya. The truth is the sun does not rise, the sun does not set, that is Maya. And we believe it, and we live by it, we set our timing by it. So, there’s a whole set of what Maya can do. In fact, Adi Shankaracharya has written a beautiful, you know, called Panchakam, five verses on Maya, Maya Panchakam. In the chorus line he says, Aghatita ghatana patiyasi maya, which means that which can make the impossible possible, that’s Maya.

However, don’t put down Maya. We don’t say Maya is useless and throw it away. No. Maya is extremely useful because we need her grace and her permission and her blessings to get past her and know the truth. So Maya is not to be put down. We keep, in fact, that is the prayer of a true seeker of knowledge. Please allow me to see beyond your veils, to see the truth. Can you please make your veils thinner so that they’re easier for my efforts to see past you? So Maya is not to be condoned. It’s an important part of our journey. We need it to live our our karmas.

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