Knowing Brahman Is Not What You Think — Transcript

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1. 0:00The day Brahman is truly known,
2. 0:03that day,
3. 0:04the knower will not survive.
4. 0:07This is the strike of Ramakrishna Paramahamsa's salt doll.
5. 0:11A doll made of salt
6. 0:12set out to measure the depth of the ocean.
7. 0:15It had a form, it had boundaries,
8. 0:17boundaries,
9. 0:18the pride of a separate existence.
10. 0:21And before it stood the ocean.
11. 0:23Boundless.
12. 0:25Silent.
13. 0:26Complete — without any certificate.
14. 0:29The doll thought,
15. 0:31"I will measure it."
16. 0:33This is where the illusion began.
17. 0:36Because before measuring the ocean,
18. 0:38it needed to keep itself intact.
19. 0:41But salt —
20. 0:42how can it survive touching water?
21. 0:45The first step fell,
22. 0:47and the feet began to dissolve.
23. 0:48The second step fell,
24. 0:50and the form began to crumble.
25. 0:52The third step fell,
26. 0:54and the measurer and the measured,
27. 0:58were no longer two.
28. 0:59Now who would tell?
29. 1:01Who would bring the answer?
30. 1:03How deep the ocean was —
31. 1:05no one could say.
32. 1:08Because the one who could have spoken,
33. 1:10had itself
34. 1:11become the ocean.
35. 1:13This is the harshest paradox of knowing Brahman.
36. 1:17The mind wants to know Brahman,
37. 1:19but Brahman is no object to be seen.
38. 1:22It is that very light,
39. 1:24in which the mind
40. 1:25itself becomes visible.
41. 1:27The intellect wants to grasp it,
42. 1:30but the intellect too
43. 1:31is a wave risen within it.
44. 1:34The ego says,
45. 1:36"I want the experience."
46. 1:38But the experience of Brahman
47. 1:39is not the ego's achievement.
48. 1:41It is the ego's
49. 1:43dissolution.
50. 1:45This is why scriptures bring you to the shore.
51. 1:47The guru shows the direction.
52. 1:50Sadhana
53. 1:51places the doll before the ocean.
54. 1:54But the final step —
55. 1:55no thought can take it.
56. 1:58The final step
57. 1:59drowns thought itself.
58. 2:02You ask,
59. 2:04"What is Brahman like?"
60. 2:06But the one asking this question —
61. 2:08who is it?
62. 2:09It is the salt doll.
63. 2:11It is the measurer.
64. 2:13It is the boundary.
65. 2:15It is the fear.
66. 2:17You do not want to know the ocean.
67. 2:20Even after knowing the ocean,
68. 2:23you want to remain a salt doll.
69. 2:26And that
70. 2:27is impossible.
71. 2:29In knowing Brahman, nothing new is gained.
72. 2:32What stood falsely apart,
73. 2:34simply dissolves.
74. 2:36Then no doll remains.
75. 2:38No measurement remains.
76. 2:40No traveler returns to tell the tale.
77. 2:44Only the ocean.
78. 2:46And that same silence,
79. 2:48which the ignorant
80. 2:49mistake for emptiness,
81. 2:52the wise call
82. 2:54fullness.