The Realm of Reality

|| यतो वाचो निवर्तन्ते अप्राप्य मनसा सह ||

|| yato vaacho nivartante apraapya manasa sah ||

It was just WoW ! when I heard it. This line occurring in the taittariya upanishad contains a wealth of knowledge about what exists and gives a glimpse of what reality is... literally translated it means "where (yato) the mind and the speech (manasa vaachah sah) return (nivartante) disappointed (apraapya) "..

The realm of reality begins where speech and mind cannot enter and fail utterly.. isn't it amazing ? the reality.. this universe.. the infinity is beyond expression.. transcends the senses.. Isn't this what happens during deep meditations ?.. from the form to the formless, from sound to silence, from mind to no-mind.. in the silent corner of the heart, where nothing can enter, my dear one, meditate..

Words fail in deep meditation and also when in total love and they are synonymous.. meditation is being completely in utter love with one's own divine self.. in such love where is another thought ? words just fall away, thoughts dissolve... mind returns to its source and a supreme blissful silence dawns deep within.. there is one, the self and no other.. In sanskrit, the word for two also means fear .. भय is fear and also two. The succeeding line in the upanishad goes..

। आनन्दं ब्रह्मणो विद्वान् । न बिभेति कदाचिनेति ।

|anandam brahmano vidwaan na bibheti kathaachineti |

Once one realizes the supreme bliss, there is no fear of any kind

Beautiful isn't it ? In total bliss, there is no fear since there is no second, nothing to fear. The thought itself is so empowering.. is there anything remotely comparable to that deep sense of bliss ? absolutely nothing matters.. nothing in this world, no attachment or pleasure can come close to that joy.. as Adi shankara wonders in Bhaja Govindam .. कस्य सुखं न करोति विरागः ? kasya sukham na karoti viraagah.. How cannot one find dispassion joyful ?

yato vaacho nivartante.. what a statement.. and when I heard Gurudev His Holiness Sri Sri Ravi Shankar quote this statement.. and I went whoa ! what beautiful way to describe the transcendental.. or what a beautiful expression for the inexpressible.. :-) .. in the Ashtavakra commentary Gurudev says.. "all that we speak is a lie.. since the reality cannot be expressed in words.. so whatever we speak is a lie !. all thru the day we get drunk and intoxicated with meditations and in the evening satsang we sit together and speak lies ! ". such a playful humor filled with knowledge ! :-)

Reality.. what is it ? Reality, the truth.. the unchanging.. whatever one calls it.. what is it ? or Who is it ? What is the truth ? Is life the truth or death the truth? Is this the truth, this world, these people ? or the other world, the dreams, those people and situations ? How can I know I am not dreaming now and awake in my dreams? What is wakefulness and a dream ? I cannot take an object from one place to the other.. So what is the metric to compare ? What validates the truth ?

Its amazing, the unchanging aspect in wakefulness and dream, is neither the wakefulness nor the dream, but, me, the experiencer, the seer of both the worlds, the energy, that is me. Beautiful isn't it ? Another line from the same upanishad goes

। सत्यं ज्ञानमनन्तं ब्रह्म ।

| satyam gyaanam anantam brahma |

The consciousness, the self is the truth, the knowledge and bliss. The reality is the self, which experiences everything, this life and beyond. That is meditation, me being with myself, abiding in the nature of the seer, as Patanjali puts it in the Yoga Sutras

तथा द्रष्टुः स्वरूपे अवस्थानम्

tatha drashtuh svarupe avasthaanam.

Moving from the outer to the inner, From the dynamic outer to the silent inner, is the full knowledge.. is the word Rk.. like in Rk Veda. ऋक् वेद. say the word Rk ऋक् a few times... RrrKkkk RrrrrKkkkk... Rrrrr ऋ is the dynamism, the ever moving, vibrating, pulsating, energizing, ever changing universe, Rrrrr one can feel the vibration on the roof of the jaw, tongue and the face.. and क् Kk Kkkk is the end, the full stop, the silence.. the first and foremost Veda, the Rk veda, is the complete spectrum of knowledge.. and one reverses ऋक् it becomes कृ which means 'to do' .. amazing isnt it ?

This knowledge is so beautiful.

All glories to my Gurudev, the ever dynamic and the ever restful.