Swami Sarvapriyananda
Swami Sarvapriyananda Quotes about Universe
Your real Self is the silence of the universe … That real Self is the ultimate reality. There is no such physical, subtle, or even causal universe apart from you.
I am not a bundle of flesh and thought. I am consciousness to which appears this entire universe … Now, the subtle question is what are these objects which appear to us? Are they distinct, are they exterior to consciousness, or are they in some sense interior to consciousness? … Both the world and the body are experienced in thought, and thoughts are experienced in consciousness. When you pursue this line of thought, then the initial distinction which we made to appreciate ourselves as beings of pure consciousness, we begin to see not only consciousness but whatever consciousness is aware of—the entire external universe, the entire internal universe of thoughts and emotions—all of that is also not distinct from consciousness. It’s true that consciousness is distinct from everything it experiences and illumines, but that which it experiences and illumines is not actually distinct from consciousness because it’s just an abstraction to say that something exists outside consciousness.
Consciousness alone is the reality and that which we take to be the non-conscious—matter, time, space, bodies, this world—these are appearances in consciousness, not apart from consciousness. Just like a dream when you go to sleep and dream—all the things that you see in the dream have no existence apart from your own mind. In the same way, this entire universe which we experience has no existence apart from consciousness … There is no reasonable, logical answer within the dream for a dream.
From this point of view, the universe is not produced, and it is not destroyed. It is nothing other than you. It appears in you, it shines in you, and it disappears within you.
Shankara’s commentary on the Brahma Sutra is the foundation of Advaita Vedanta, nondual Vedanta … ‘Nondual’ means apart from you—that real Self—there is no other thing. You are the only reality that exists. Apart from you, there is no second thing. If there is not two, a very interesting consequence is then everything that we see around you must be, in some sense, you only—not not apart from you … Consciousness is nondual meaning there is no second thing apart from consciousness … In you the consciousness, the entire universe is an appearance—not a second thing apart from you, hence you are that nondual consciousness … Oneness at the core expressed as the many—then what we have to practice is the harmony of the many.
This universe which you experience, you are experiencing it in your consciousness. In your consciousness, no universe is born—it appears. No universe is produced. No universe actually evolves. It appears, it is experienced, it disappears.
Advaita says the entire universe is an object, known and unknown, appearing in consciousness—not distinct from consciousness, not constituting a countable second to consciousness. It’s not actually a second entity apart from consciousness, just as waves are not a countable second apart from water … All the universe, known and unknown, is nothing but consciousness appearing to itself as its own objects, and therefore not two, non-dual.
There is no origin of this universe—no cessation, no creation, nor destruction of this universe. There is nobody who is in bondage. There is nobody who is a spiritual seeker who is doing spiritual practices. There is nobody who is seeking liberation, and indeed nobody who is liberated. This is the ultimate truth.
What is Vedanta? Swami Vivekananda would say two things: the divinity within us, and the oneness of existence … Vivekananda used Advaita Vedanta as a foundation for morality. What Swami Vivekananda said was, because it is one reality, if I hurt somebody else, if I cheat somebody else, if I lie to somebody else, I am hurting myself in the deepest sense … Swami Vivekananda has said that he who runs away from the world to meditate and die in a Himalayan cave searching for God has missed the way. He who plunges headlong into the vanities of the world—he too has missed the way. Then what is the way? The way is to spiritualize your everyday life … We should realize ourselves as pure consciousness—Turiya—and everyone and everything as none other than the same Turiya, and live life in peace and fullness and joy. Realize the divinity within yourself and the spiritual oneness of the whole universe. Manifest that divinity in daily life through peace, love, and service to all beings. That is the spiritualization of everyday life.
Vedanta is a vast, vast literature. It’s an ancient tradition, 5000 years back to the Upanishads. And, yet you can describe Advaita Vedanta in one sentence: Tat Tvam Asi (That Thou Art) … ‘That’ meaning that which is worshipped as God, the reality behind this universe. ‘Thou’ meaning you the individual. You and that are the same thing … We investigate these two polarities … The analysis into who am I or what am I, and an analysis into what is God. Then you come to a synthesis: seeing that what is the reality beyond God and beyond individual.