A flower is so beautiful and clean. On seeing it, your eyes are filled with the beauty of the flower and your mind, with the sweet fragrance of the flower. This itself is the mystery! Just by looking at it, the mind becomes so beautiful. You do not have to do anything else. On the other hand, in place of a flower, if you instead see a heap of dust, the mind then becomes full of dust. Filling the mind with the beauty and fragrance of a flower itself, is Sadhana.

Why do we do Yoga or why do we go to listen to the words of the great people? The only reason is to make our mind clean; not to crowd it or get disturbed; but to make it calm, quiet, clean and clear. It is this kind of mind which gives us happiness in life. Happiness doesn’t always come from the external world only. You may have billions and billions of dollars or rupees with you, that doesn’t make you happy. Just one flower is enough to make you happy and make you live with a smile on your face. It is this kind of wonder that the nature is doing here in this world. Therefore, if you want to live happily in the world, with or without much wealth or prestige, then you have to live in the midst of nature. Open your eyes to the greenery in the nature, to the rising sun, and to the different shades of colours of the sky. Just look into the nature and your eyes become wide and open. It is filled with so much beauty. Now if the eyes are filled with beauty and if the mind is filled with fragrance, then happiness is certainly present. Therefore, if you want to be happy, only one thing is to be done – go to the nature, go into the nature and be one with the nature.

Lord Basaveshwara says, “To constantly remember Koodala Sangamadeva itself is like a mantra for me”. It is called mantra because, it changes the mind. If a word changes the mind, then, that word is a mantra for us. If the beauty changes the mind, i.e., if it beautifies the mind, then, that is a mantra for us. Therefore, Basaveshwara says “To constantly remember Koodala Sangamadeva itself is the Mantra”. Just think of Koodala Sangama and it becomes a mantra. Why is it called mantra? Because if you think of God, mind becomes vast, it becomes purified and it becomes very calm. Hence, he says take the name of God and think of God all the time and this will keep you happy always. Just see, how simple is this! He just says, “Remember Koodala Sangamadeva”, Koodala Sangama means the source of the world, the end of the world.

For example, here are the clouds which are sailing in the sky. Where do they come from? They come from the ocean. i.e., ocean is the source of all clouds. The water that comes down from the clouds flows towards the ocean and becomes one with it. From the ocean to the ocean, the ocean is source and the end of this whole cloudy world. Similarly, this world is here, all these living beings are here. How wonderful is this world! Full of variety. But it comes out of some spiritual ocean and that ocean, Basaveshwara called that Koodala Sangama. It is Sangama! Sangama means, it exists, everything exists in it, everything goes into it, and it has no boundaries. It is a boundless ocean. Sangama is a boundless ocean. Koodala means everything goes into it. Therefore, it is called Koodala Sangama. You, I and everybody else in this world is like a small drop that comes from the cloud. This drop of life flows and flows for about 100 years and then goes into the ocean divine. That’s why he called it Koodala Sangama. This phrase is so beautiful and pregnant with meaning. Once you go into the ocean, there is no separate name for you and no separate form for you.

So, keep the thought of God in your mind always and you will one day or the other become one with the divine ocean. How simple is this method! Then, there is no need to worry about any of the religions that are there in the world, no not to worry about all the great books that are written on this subject, just think of God! You may be literate or illiterate, educated or uneducated, civilized or uncivilized, cultured or uncultured, don’t worry about any of these things. People may be doing this Yoga or that Yoga, but you just take the name of God and keep the thought of God in mind and that will save you. ‘To constantly remember Koodala Sangamadeva itself is the Mantra for me’ – This was everything for Basaveshwar. Mantra means that which saves us from falling into the mire of samsara. ‘Manana ath trayate iti mantra’. Mantra means to remember the symbol or the syllable in your mind and then to keep repeating it mentally.

What does it do? Manana. Then what happens? Trayate – it doesn’t allow you to fall into the mire. Mire means mud! If you have to be safe, you should not fall into the mire, into the mire of samsara, just take the name of God. Just see how simple is this method. Basaveshwara suggests for the enlightenment, for clear and pure mind of ours, therefore take the name of God. That purifies and that cleanses the mind. Once the mind is clean, God is there, happiness is there, everything is there. You become the richest man in the world! Just have a clean mind.

“Ide antharanga shuddhi, Ide bahiranga shuddhi, Ide namma Koodalasangamana olisuva pari (This itself is cleansing of inner self, this itself is external cleansing, this itself is the manner in which we love our Koodala Sangama)” If God is to be with us, if God is to be in your mind, in my mind and if God is to be in your whole life, then what is to be done? Nothing, nothing! Just take the name of God. So simple! This is called Mantra. There is an Upanishad which is called Mandukya. That Upanishad is about Mantra. Mantra alone is enough it says. Mantra is everything according to that Upanishad. What is that Mantra? Om! Omityetadaksaram idam sarvam tasya uspavyakhyanam bhutam bhavad bhavisyaditi sarvam onkara eva|yaccanyat trikalatitam tadapyonkara eva

Just see how beautifully they have put it, over thousands of years ago. They say here is the Mantra. Here is the most perfect Mantra. Every other mantra comes out of it. There are hundreds and thousands of mantras, but this is the mantra of mantra. Om iti yetat aksharam. This Omkara is akshara, it is a mantra that is not invented, not built, not a construct, but it is natural. It is there everywhere. ‘Ye tad aksharam’, it is not born. Don’t think there was a time when the mantra was not there, don’t think that there will be a moment when there will be no mantra. Omkara is there everywhere and just think of it. Om, Om, Om! There is a continuity of the sound. It has no beginning and no end. It is always there, ever flowing. That is Omkara. It is a syllable, a beautiful syllable, a perfect syllable, and a perfect symbol of what is there in the world. Idam Sarvam Tasya Upavyakhyanam – this world is there and it is an expression of this mantra. Expression of Om! Just look at that Om! Nothing, there is nothing in it! Just a flow

of sound. There is no this God or that God. It is simply a flow of sound. This Omkara has two forms. The first one is, Omkara invisible; that which is beyond the universe and that is represented by Omkara. That which was, that which is and that which ever there is, That is Brahman.

Brahman is something really great; something is there, and it is simply great. Great means to have no boundaries and no limitations. The table here is not great. Neither am I great, nor are you great, because we all have our limitations. No object in this world is great; no man in this world is great because his mind is limited, his body is limited and every object in this world is limited. Therefore, he says Omkara is That which has no limitation. It is the symbol, a perfect symbol of Brahman, the great Truth. Then what about this world? It is also an expression of this Omkara! It is an exposition or a manifestation of Omkara which means this (world) is the visible Omkara and that (beyond the universe) is the invisible Omkara. But everything is Omkara. When we hear this word or when we utter this word or when we think of this word, what is to be in our mind? The mind must be filled with the whole world and THAT which is beyond the world too.

‘Tadapi Om iti yetat aksharam’. How is it? It is an Aksharam. You are not going to create it; you just say it. But, even if you don’t say it, there is only that Omkara. Maharishis did not construct this word and it is not a word. It is only a flow of Nada. They just kept their mind calm and, in that calmness, there appeared this great mantra, Omkara. This is the first Omkara mantra that they discovered. It was spread everywhere, present everywhere and present even beyond this world. Therefore, whatever is in the world, is Omkara. Silence is Omkara! If the mind vibrates very harmoniously, that is Omkara. The light is Omkara, the colours are Omkara, everything is Omkara in this world. Idam Sarvam Tasya Upavyakhyanam. All this is Upavyakhyana (Vyakhyanam means expression) and this whole world is manifestation or expression of Omkara. The whole world - Idam Sarvam, idam means this and that which is before me, before you, is present everywhere and spread in all directions. Everything is idam, idam sarvam. Sarvam means everything, all that there is in this world before you. What is it? He says Idam Sarva Tasya (of that Omkara), all this is the expression of that Omkara.

When Omkara expresses itself, it becomes the world, the visible world, perceivable, enjoyable, comprehensible and such a wonderful world it is! We are fortunate to be here in this world for years and years and the nature equips us with the sense organs to look at the world and enjoy the world.

This is the mantra. How is it? It is Aksharam, that which cannot be destroyed. Kshara means change, ksharate means it changes. Pushpam charate means flower changes. Aksharam means it doesn’t change. Omkara does not change. It simply flows and flows continuously from the silence to the silence and in that very silence, there is always the sound of Om, the wonderful Omkara! The great Rishis of India are to be admired for their discovery of this mantra. Rishis were Darshanikas (spiritual visionaries). They did not just create anything, they just discovered it in the very nature. Suppose you stop speaking and so do I, what is there? Omkara! Anahata Omkara, not produced. Ahata means produced and Anahata means not produced.

Silence can’t be produced i.e. Nishabda can’t be produced. Only that which comes out of the silence, that may be produced. But that silence itself cannot be produced. It is always there! Whether you know it or not, silence is always there. Close your eyes, close your mind, think of nothing and there you will feel the presence of Omkara, the silence! Experiencing the silence in our minds, in our hearts is the best of all Yogas. Experience that silence! We say just sit silently and then think of nothing and in that silence, you come to know Nishabda Brahman. That is Brahman. Therefore, he says, Om iti yetat aksharam. Aksharam! Nobody created it, nobody invented it and nobody constructed it. It is always there and he discovered it. Therefore, the most natural mantra there ever is in this world it is Omkara.

If there is any mantra which is perfect, then it is Omkara. It is not related to this God or that God. It is related to the existence of this world. Silence is a form of Omkara and then the flow of sound is a form of Omkara. These are the two aspects of Omkara. Keep silence and what happens then is that you begin to experience Omkara. Just listen to the sound that is present in the nature, that is Omkara, worldly or cosmic Omkara. You are not producing it; the nature is producing it.

Try to close your ears, your eyes and look into yourself and just try to hear something, you will hear some sound, that is called the unproduced (Anahata) Nada. In the same way, the whole world is filled with Nada and Nada is called Omkara in the form of the very sweet flowing sound. It is not of Indians nor of Americans, it belongs to the whole universe. It is not your discovery nor their discovery, it is everybody’s discovery, it is there before you. This is natural Omkara. What does it do? It opens our heart; it widens our mind, so wide that all the boundaries of the mind fall off. The mind becomes endless, boundless and in that state of mind, we experience the Omkara in silent form. That is Brahma Sakshatkara.

He then says Idam sarvam tasya upavyakhyanam, this is all Omkara expressed; this is manifestation of that great vibration. Even the great scientists say the same thing; in the beginning how did the world begin? Big bang! There was big bang and then the whole world came into existence, the whole universe came into existence, all the matter, time, space, energy and all that we see in this world came out of something. They say we don’t know what it was. There is nothing and that nothing itself is silence - Omkara! The background radiation is there in the world; it is Anahata. Go anywhere in this world and there is that radiation and that radiation is unproduced flow of sweet, silent, and soft sound. That is a wonderful experience.

‘Tasya upavyaakhyaanam yad bhutam bhavad bhaviṣyad iti sarvam omkara eva’. Yad bhutam – whatever existed in the past; Bhavad – what is there now, in the present time; bhavisyaditi – whatever is going to happen in the future; everything is Omkara. Just see how beautiful this is! The great Rishis enjoyed this. They just uttered this syllable and their minds became as wide as the world, in fact even wider than that. Just by the utterance of that syllable for a few moments. Yad bhutam bhavad bhaviṣyad iti sarvam omkara eva¬ – whatever happened not only in India but anywhere in the world or whatever happened in the past and what is existing now as the present world and whatever is going to come as the future anywhere; it does not matter; it is God Himself. Everything is Brahman, everything is Omkara! In the end he says - yat cha anyat tadapi omkara eva – suppose this world was not there or will not be there, what exists then we may not know, but that is not anything like this world. There is no form, no movement, nothing, motionless, formless, changeless, qualities-less, something remains and That is called Omkara, silent Omkara. Therefore, if you keep the silence, it is Omkara. If you being to speak, it is Omkara. Everything is Omkara.

‘Remembering Koodala Sangama always itself is mantra for me’ says Basaveshwara. But we are fighting for the kinds of mantras. Some people say my mantra is great, some people say their mantra is great, we are fighting because we don’t know really know what is mantra. It is a symbol of something that has no limitations. That is not confined to any period or time; to the past, present or future. It is always there. Don’t think that some mantra is great and some mantra is not great, or that mantra is great and this is mantra not great. The mantra of mantra, the supreme sovereign mantra, if there is anywhere in the world, it is not created by you. It is not taught by anybody. It is there in your heart, it is there in your mind, it is there in the world in which you are living and it is there even beyond all that. This is mantra.

Just feel it and your mind becomes purified and your mind becomes uncrowded. Just feel it and you experience wonderful happiness also. That’s why mantra is to be repeated; repeated means to keep the mind filled with this mantra, Omkara! Not to utter, it is there; just feel it. We go on counting the mantras, today I did 100 mantras, tomorrow I will be doing 1000 mantras and some people say they have done 1 crore mantras, but here he says don’t count. Just feel the mantra, don’t count it. Silence is to be felt, the flow of sound needs to be felt and that is mantra. How wonderful is it! Just feel the presence of mantra everywhere.

Therefore, he says ‘Tad api omkara eva, yaccha anyat (that also!)’; not only this world, but that which is not this world, which is there even before the world came into existence and will remain even after the world goes out of existence, that is Omkara! There it exists. Yaccha anyat – that which you think is different from God, different from the world, different from the visible world, separate from the world – whatever is there, that also is Omkara. You go to sleep, get into deep sleep, what is there? Silence.

That is Omkara. When you are sleeping soundly i.e. you are not dreaming, in a dreamless sleep; you are not there; you are neither rich or poor there; you are neither a man nor a woman; you are not husband or wife; you are nothing. When you enter into deep sleep (every day you enter into it!) and spend eight hours a day over there, you are not present there.

There, you are not this or that, but ‘you’ are there. But not ‘this you’ or ‘that you’. Is it not wonderful? There, you are neither beautiful nor ugly; you are not highly intelligent. There is no beauty, no intelligence, no colour and nothing when you enter into deep sleep. As soon as you wake up, everything arises in your mind - this is my house, these are my people, I am the head of the house and everybody has to obey me. Probably I’m the most intelligent man in this city. We think all these when we wake up. But when you are in deep sleep, you are nothing. What are you? You are nothing. Just think of it, but you are there and there is silence and that silence is called bliss and that bliss which you have when you are in deep profound sleep, you are enjoying it!

Now it is time to close the discourse, let us meet again next Sunday. If you have any questions, you may bring them with you. But know that, no answer is going to make you silent! It disturbs the mind; it goes on disturbing the mind. Therefore, the nature has done a great thing, you may be anybody, but irrespective of it you can all go and sleep. You will be nothing there and there is the bliss. Wonderful! There are no questions and there are no answers. There is nobody to answer and nobody to question. There is you and nothing else. That is experiencing the great silence! See you again on the next Sunday, Namaskaar!