20 July 2013 - QA 1

Gurudev, what is Brahma Gyaan?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: This is Brahma Gyaan (Supreme Knowledge). All this that we are talking about is Brahma Gyaan.

Whatever you say has no existence, meaning it does not exist forever. Truth is that which transcends time - past, present, future. What is not truth? That which was yesterday, but is not there today, is not truth. What is today, what will not be there tomorrow, is not truth.
The definition of truth is that which is not affected by time.

Adi Shankaracharya was asked, ‘What is truth?’ He said, ‘yat…tat satyam’, which means, that which is not affected by time - by past, present, future, that is truth. Everything else that is being affected by time is maya, which means it has a relative existence.

What happens when you sit? All these unwanted things come in the mind, like a bubble. You are inside a bubble, where you are planning, you have thoughts for the future, you have some cravings, or you are regretting the past. Past experiences come to the mind as images.

How to handle this?
First, viveka (discrimination). Viveka is remembering that all this is not permanent; everything is temporary. When you are not going to be here, what about your boyfriend, girlfriend, prestige, honor, money, and all these things? We will die one day and leave all this. None of this is permanent; everything is temporary.
When this realization strikes a deep cord within, then the mind becomes a witness. Why am I worrying? It is stupid of me to just go around in the mind! That is viveka.

Second is vairagya (dispassion). Say ‘So what’, again and again, ‘So what. Okay this is like that, so what?’
Vairagya brings you freedom; it makes you subtle, it makes you free from within.
Viveka is that which makes you understand, makes you larger, makes you understand something bigger, and not get caught up in small mind games.