What is Adhvaitha Vedanta or Non-Dualism, How does it explain Reality?

Speaker A [00:00:00]:

What is Advaita Vedanta? Advaita is the most fascinating philosophy which talks about the nature of reality and the nature of this universe. As I was searching for different teachings and different philosophies to find out the answers to the questions that I had, I came upon the ancient Upanishads, which talks about the nature of reality, and Advaita Vedanta is the most direct and the most clear interpretation of the Upanishads. Advaita literally translates to non dualism, and Advaita Vedanta simply tells us that the universe that we see all around us, the way we perceive it right now is an illusion. It is false. It is Maya, and it sees that there is no duality in this world. The duality that we experience is because of our minds, and it is because of a false identity that we have created for ourselves. But if we go beyond our mind And if we clearly see the reality for what it is, we cannot see duality, says Advaita. Now what does it mean, and how can we understand this? For someone who is new to this, it is very difficult, and it seems very complicated, and I get it.

Speaker A [00:01:21]:

But Advaita Vedanta is actually pretty simple, but it requires a lot of focus and an open mind to understand this knowledge. So in this episode, let us understand the true meaning of Advaita Vedanta. Now I will try to explain this through different examples so that it'll be easy to understand. Imagine this, a person is wearing his glasses, and these glasses are made of red colored lens. And because of the red lens, he is seeing this universe in a certain way. Wherever he goes, he is seeing the red sky. He's seeing the red cars, red trees, etcetera. Now this is not because the trees and sky all around him is actually red in color.

Speaker A [00:02:06]:

It is because of his lens, he is perceiving this reality in a certain way. Now what we need to understand as per Advaita is that The universe all around us is in a certain way. It is non dual. There is no duality. There is one pure consciousness everywhere, but your mind itself is a filter. It is a lens, just like in the example. Now because of The nature of your mind, you are perceiving this reality in a certain way, and you're perceiving this Body and mind to be you, and you are perceiving different objects outside of you as something apart from you, but all of this is because of your mind filter or because of your mind lens. Now if that person removes his lens, he will see the reality for what it is.

Speaker A [00:03:00]:

He will see a clear blue sky. He will see colorful birds, etcetera. Just like that, if we go beyond our minds, we will see reality for what it is as one pure consciousness. This is what we need to understand. Now our minds are a filter, and the parameters of this filter are time, space, and causation. Time, space, and causation are the boundaries of our minds, and our mind can never go beyond this boundary. And we see through the filter of time, space, and causation. So we can never understand something which is beyond time, which is beyond space, and which is beyond causation.

Speaker A [00:03:41]:

We cannot even think about something which was there before time, because even the word before will not make any sense in that context. And we can never think about an object which is beyond space that is impossible for our minds to understand. At the same time, we cannot understand and conceive something which is beyond causation. Causation is simply the concept of cause and effect. Within this universe, there is a cause for every effect, and there is an effect for every cause. For example, the day and night happens on earth because of the rotation of earth, different seasons happen because of the revolution of earth around the sun, etcetera. So like this, there are different effects for the cause, but we can never understand with our tiny little minds something coming into being without a cause. We cannot understand or fathom this universe coming into existence without a cause.

Speaker A [00:04:37]:

We cannot go beyond causation. These three aspects of time, space, and causation are the boundaries of human mind. And if we go beyond the mind, then we will See the reality for what it is. Such people are said to be enlightened or liberated. So the people who go beyond their minds can see this universe as it actually is. The way we are seeing right now is an absolute illusion which is created because of the nature of our minds. This is the essential teachings of Vedanta, and this is the core teaching of Advaita, which is nondualism. Now after this, you might be wondering how can all this Be non dual.

Speaker A [00:05:22]:

Of course, there is separation and duality in this world. I experience myself to be someone else. I see Different objects, which are outside of me. I see different animals. I play with different objects. All of these things are outside of me. How can all these things be 1, or how can there be no duality in this world? Because duality is what we see all around us. We see so many different things and so much of variety around us.

Speaker A [00:05:53]:

Our minds can never come to understand nondualism or Advaita. So for this, let us look at an example. This example will give you so much clarity on the subject of non dualism and Advaita, and this is one of my favorite examples to understand the nature of reality. Now imagine this. You have slept and you have gone into a dream. Now you have entered a dream world, And within your dream, you are your dream ego. You are someone else. Your height is different, and physically, the way you look may be different.

Speaker A [00:06:33]:

The way you are behaving there might be different, and along with that, you are having different experiences within your dream. Within your dream, you are walking around with your friends. You're talking to different people. You're, driving a car. You're looking at the Sky, you're singing, you're dancing, you're playing, and you're doing various different things within your dream. And within your dream are Also different people who come to you, who talk to you, who look like they're independent and who are apart from you, and you interact with them, and you interact with the world around you within your dream. And it will all seem like it is a reality to you. Let's say in the dream, you wander off to a forest and you saw a tiger there.

Speaker A [00:07:25]:

Immediately, you're scared because within the dream, you do not know that it is something which is unreal. You feel it to be real, and you're scared, and you try to run and you try to escape. Now it is only after You wake up from that dream that you realize that whatever you experienced within the dream was not real. The tiger and your friends and your family and the different experiences that you had within the dream We're not real, and when I say they were not real, I don't mean that they didn't happen. Of course, at that point of time within the dream, you Experienced all those things. In that sense, it was real to you. But then once you wake up, we call it unreal because Whatever happened in your dream has no effect on you whatsoever. It does not matter if you were a millionaire within the dream because once you wake up, whatever you had is not carried over to you.

Speaker A [00:08:25]:

And whatever pain or suffering that you had within your dream has no effect on you once you wake up. That is why you do not feel that whatever happened in your dream is real. This is the nature of Our dreams, we all experience dreams, and this is something that we can all understand. And also within the dream are different people and different objects in the environment around you. And when you are within the dream, it will feel that those different objects are all apart from you, and all of them have an independent existence. But once you wake up, you realize that they were not different people who had any independent existence, but they were all the projection within your mind. Your mind projected it, So you created them and you interacted with them and you experience them. And once you woke up, all of it was gone.

Speaker A [00:09:25]:

This is the nature of our dreams. Now to understand the nature of reality and to understand the nature of this waking world, we need to Understand the example of the dream very carefully. What the ancient Upanishads tell us is that just like a dream, Even this waking world is an illusion, and there is an absolute reality beyond this within which all of this is happening, and that absolute reality is you yourself. And when I say it is you yourself, I'm not referring to a personality or a mind, but the pure consciousness or awareness that is within you is within which all of these things are happening. That is what we need to understand. And once we wake up to that reality, this waking reality will seem like an illusion to us. And, of course, I'm not saying here that the dreams that we have and the waking experience that we have are both the same thing. Dream experience is totally different from the waking world.

Speaker A [00:10:32]:

And within the dreams, there are different parameters, and the dream world works totally differently when compared to the waking world. There are much more sophisticated laws that govern the waking world. And, you know, once we wake up, this life that we live in this waking world seems much more real compared to the dream world. That is absolutely true. But this does not mean that this waking world itself is the absolute reality. What we need to realize and what the ancient Upanishads tell us is that there is Another reality, call it God, call it absolute reality, call it consciousness or whatever you want, but this reality that you are Experiencing right now is a projection in that consciousness, and once you wake up and realize yourself As one with the existence, as one with this universe, as pure consciousness, then the world around you, the way you were Experiencing it before will seem like an illusion to you. This is the essential teaching of Advaita Vedanta. I hope you found some value in this episode.

Speaker A [00:11:42]:

Make sure to subscribe to the podcast and leave a review wherever you're listening to this. And also, if you are interested in these concepts, and if you want to get access to in-depth tutorials and systems and processes To understand the nature of reality and to create your life consciously the way you want it to be, you can visit advaita.com, and join the Advaita conscious society. Thank you, and I'll see you on the next episode.