SWAMI DAYANANDA SARASWATI : (Interview with non duality magazine) -9.

How is he going to know himself as Brahman if that is true?            

            “All that is here is me. I am the cause of this entire thing, known and unknown.” That’s an entirely different vision. Sarvatma bhava [the sense that I am the self of all].            

            One fellow claims, “That is free from everything.” Therefore everything else is like a banana peel. The banana peel is not less real than the banana that has gone inside.            

            One fellow threw a banana peel outside and then ate the banana. He had his suit on with new shoes, went out and came back; he forgot about the banana peel he had thrown on the driveway. He stepped on it. (Laughter) He went down sprawling, and the banana he ate came out. Therefore, I always ask the question, “Which is more real, the peel or the banana?” (Laughter)

            Mere negation has the danger of dissociation. The modern Vedanta is like our dealing with garbage. (Laughs) So you have an underworld. We always just flush it out, but it is not totally out. It’s all in somewhere. It joins water, it joins air, it ends up in your salad. Nothing goes away in this world.

            You have to deal with garbage. Therefore it is called jagat garbage—the world garbage. This is, “I am not the stars. I am not the sky. I’m not time. I’m not space. I’m not this. I’m not that. I’m not…” Okay, what about all of them? This is called dissociation.            

            It only denies problems, and the problems will come back in great proportions and completely smother the person. But the truth is, “The subject and object are me.” That is Vedanta. You only get that by teaching.            

            The self is free from all this, and it is just consciousness – that is the reason why they all deny this, deny that, and all. But you have to account for this world, and it is complex. Is it something separate from me? Or if it is me, then what is this? You have to know. Then how do I remain myself at the same time I become all this? What accounts for it, the complexity of it?            

            Take your own body, how complex it is. And therefore, you require to account for all that, and so unless that is all resolved properly there is no question of Vedanta, advaita. Advaita is there is no second thing. There is no banana peel other than the banana and the eater of banana. (Laughter)

Swami Dayananda Saraswati      

To be continued  ...