Infinite Paths to Infinite Reality | Ayon Maharaj 

Link to Ayon Maharaj's talk at Princeton: www.kaltura.com/tiny/lzk31

A new wave from Thakurji is beginning. It is only the the start of the spread of the beauty that is Sri Ramakrishna, His life, and His teachings. Jai!

I am watching this talk third time and it is starting to make sense.

I think Swamiji is working /teaching through honorable Ayon Maharaj. This will continue till the awakening of all the human beings for their Mukti. Thanks and pronam to all the Brahmacharis and Sannyasins of Ramakrishna Order 🙏

I got relieved from many questions and doubts!!! What a vastness of sri Ramakrishna. And yes Thanks and pranam to Ayon maharaj. ❤❤🙏🙏🙏

Highest quality talks. Ramakrisha Mission is producing giants.

Two brilliant minds! Overwhelming!🙏🙏🙏

Why are the monks from RKM so cool? I could watch both Swami’s Sarvapriyananda and Medhananda all day. Their a completely different class.

Pure face - Ayon Maharaj , just like Swami Sarvapriyananda :)

It’s good that swami sarvapriyananda has brought someone with a different take on Advaita . It helps in questioning our stubborn unquestioned view points about Vedanta . I believe unless we are intellectually convinced no teaching can be of help. This talk gave (me personally)a freedom to have a different perspective on certain tenets of shankara’s Advaita which I’ve been struggling with for the past many months.

Swamiji has spoken so highly of Ayon Maharaj’s ideas that I’ve been very excited to hear him speak. What an exciting time and beginning of discussions that is sure to continue for quite a long time 🥰

Two spiritual geniuses. The Order is constantly producing such special monks. Jai Sri Ramakrishna!

Thakur pulls all these intellectual people for his work 🙏🏼🙏🏼🙏🏼😍😍😍

Swami Sarvapriyanandji’s synopsis at the end was really informative and IMO the sign of a matured (illumined) spiritual soul. Thanks to VCNY for bringing us such a rich treasure of knowledge.

Ayon Maharaj seems to be extraordinarily intelligent. Look at his memory, how much fluency in expressing the knowledge of scriptures. 🎩 🎩 🎩 off to him. Thank you very much to both of you for giving this world these 💎 JEWELS 💎 of our most ancient treasures

Great presentation. My intuitive feeling is that in our normal day to day existence Sri Ramakrishna's "Vigyan Vedanta" is very relevant in that Brahman pervades thru all the 3 states. But when one achieves the highest state of superconsciousness i.e nirvikalpa samadhi Advaita rules and all else falls off. But as Thakur states that one cannot stay on the roof all the times and descends down to the worldly existence Vigyan Vedanta rules. Pranams to Sarvapriyanandajiand Ayon Maharaj.

Ayon Maharaj's training in academic philosophy probably led him to label and give a name to Ramakrishna's Philosophy. So that the academicians especially the ones trained in western philosophy can grasp the teachings of Ramakrishna in an easier way. That could be one of the motivations behind his monumental and ground breaking work. The difference between "philosophy" as an academic discipline and experiential self-realization can be bridged with this work. 🙏

Pranams to Ayon maharajji and Swami Sarvapriyananda maharajji . After watching the entire video, I was left with the thought that- if maharajji calls these efforts only "scratching the surface", surely we will be taken into a splendid whirlwind of spiritual introspection never seen before. SPLENDID is a very small word but the only one occurring to me after listening to this. Thank you. I had waited for this talk by Ayon maharajji for a long time, I feel it was more than worth it. Looking forward to more such talks..... Jai Sri Ramakrishna Anusha Hegde

Aum Namah Shivaaya! Thank you maharaj Ayon! Honor and Blessing to hear your talks and learn from your vast knowledge. Hari Aum Thatsath!

maharaj thank you for a indepth explaination of the difference between advait vedanta and orther vedanta

wow, wonderful Swamiji.......... am very very happy for Ayon maharaj...........

Amazing talk. I like the fact that new work is shaping up. The praise which Ayon Maharaj got from Swami Sarvpriyananada speaks volume of greatness of this work.

The works of the revered Maharaj will be of immense value in near future I think.The world will find way from ignorance-violence-jealous-intolerance to jnan-bijnan-love-respect-harmony. Joy Thakur Sri Ramkrishna 🙏

प्रणाम महाराज जी🙏🙏🙏 जय श्री रामकृष्ण देव जी की🙏🙏🙏

"The greatness of our tradition is we are encouraged to think of god in different ways". Pranam swamiji

Everytime I look at and listen to Ayon Maharaj it seems like Swamiji Himself is delivering the lectures..It looks so similar as if swamiji have come again to finish his work, those were left.. I feel very proud to be an Indian..Proud to be an ex-student of Swamiji and Sister Nivedita's School..I think it was Swamiji's blessings that I have become a doctor, in the country where there is no respect for the women even today..I want to serve and treat people as much as I can.. I always feel the words of Swamiji, - Only one infinite energy is playing in the whole Universe- is very True.. That is the power of Yogamaya.. Unless Swamiji Himself come and took us to the God, we can't turndown the Worldly attachments.. It is HIS choice and also our dedication, devotion, self knowledge and work for poor people which can took us near HIM.. Ayon Maharaj have done so much work in his little age.. Maharaj is a great soul..Until and unless the blessings of Thakur, Maa and Swamiji one can't do their work.. I wish best of luck to this New monk.. What we can't see through our body eye (as it can detect only 3 Dimensions), Mind can see (as it can detect 16 Dimensions).. JAI MAA..🙏

Really the best amoung one I heare. Awesone. Pranam Swamiji............

Kudos to Ramakrishna Order for producing such brilliant monks! What an incredible lecture especially that Brahman and Shakti are inseparable! Only a crystalized consciousness like Ramakrishna could have experienced the Diversity and the Unity of the One Reality at the same time!!

May Thakur bring many more great souls to Ramakrishna order 🙏🙏🙏 Jai Shree Ramakrishna Deva 🙏

This may be the most important Spiritual speech I have ever heard... it is exactly my perspective on RK's gospel when I've read it.

thank you, wonderful talk

This is an excellent work on Vijnana Vedanta.

Such wonderful discussions of our wonderful religion

What I feel is, whenever we write about these things, we have to somehow interpret it properly in such a way that it connects to the interests and issues of the current or related aspects of the buyers without losing the main message. Im yet again absolutely thankful for this mix up of all sides and somehow blending them together. Well done

It was a true class of Dakshinamurthy... 🙏🙏🙏🙏

We R Very Lucky & also very Glad to be a Devotee of Sri Ramakrishna Mission Belurmath as we got our Monk Just like ( Ayon Maharaj & Vishwarup Maharaj ) those who R Our Pride !!!! Onek Onek Pranam Maharaj both of U !!!!

Breath taking and Heart throbbing.

Amazing!! Truly excellent and next level. Thank you

Second viewing. Even more profound than the first. Thank you both. 🙏🙏🙏

Whenever I come back to this, it blows my mind away

Bhagwan is having a great time playing these great spiritual characters!

Thank you.Forever grateful.

It gets very complicated. Thank you for trying to explain in simple terms. I look forward to hearing more about your work and scholarly research.

Pranam Maharaj Jee 🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏

Maharajji kindly request such an humanities expert like Ayon Maharaj to take up the project of Vivekananda Bhashyam, taking the particular texts of Vivekananda one by one and preparing commentaries on them as we have the Gita and the Upanishadic bhashyas. This is a task which has been neglected all these years and we have been surfeited with an unending series of compilations.

Pranam swamiji

It seems that the teachings of Param Karunamoy Sri Ramkrishna is spreading very fast across the whole world to show human kind the right path.

Incredibly important talk. Thank you. The attempt to understand Sri Ramakrishna is essential and yet bottomless, as with the attempts to understand Jesus.

Brilliant!!!

...have long been waiting for this moment, too-- but through years spent reading Kashmir Shaivist texts. We can hope many will agree that your response of "Splendid" here carries all that word's most beautiful and reverent resonances. Thank you. Here's a bit from the KS theologist-aesthetician, Abhinavagupta: "The wise one, in order to worship properly should offer back into the highest abode that essence (rasa) which flows and trickles from the mulitiude of existing things because they are heavy with their nondifference from Siva."

"jagat jure amar Ma achhe, tomra dekhte pachha na?" (my Mother is through and through the universe, can't you see? -Takhur Sri Ramakrishna "Bijnana Vedanta"- beginning of a new era.

Neti Neti -»«= Iti Iti. Dynamic steady state. I became your fan Ayan Sir. 😊

Wonderful indeed

Thank you for writing "Infinite Paths to Infinite Reality" (and subsequently "Swami Vivekananda’s Vedantic Cosmopolitanism"). I am so interested in what you are saying. Whenever I hear something like Swami Sarvapriyananda saying Sri Ramakrishna was closer to Kashmir Shaivism or someone saying Swami Vivekananda was closer to Vishishtadvaitism I go off looking for how, looking for something to philosophically grab on to, since I tend to get quite nihilistic when left alone with solely nirguna brahman (hopefully, my inaccurate language can be taken for humor vs ignorance [it's both]). What you are teaching us is far more nuanced than either of these and couldn't be more interesting. Any further elucidations you could put online for those of us locked down and unable to afford the books would be greatly appreciated by me and, I'm quite sure, many others. (I know-especially those who would seek to discredit your analysis-but I believe your audience is overwhelmingly made up of us students who value your expert interpretation.) Thank you for your studies and practice, and especially for not keeping them to yourself. 🙂

great speech

Genius Beautiful expression

Pranaam maharaj🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏

In the Q & A session, it is regrettable that the questioner is inaudible. Pl make arrangements to rectify this in future.

Very nice and near to thakur... Hope fully will listen more in future... More like young Naren ready to fight with the whole world... Thakur is definitely having a very very broad smile..

এ যুগের ভাগবত রামকৃষ্ণ কথামৃত 🙏🙏🙏🌹🌹🌹🙏🙏🙏

I love your work. I can't wait to read the book! 🙏

हरिःऊँ, प्रणाम. महाराज।

Wonderful

Highly educative

Rightly said... Ayon maharaj is introducing us to breath taking vastness and depth of thakurs teachings... We the kindergarten entries in to advaitha... Swami Sarvapriyanandjis... Teachings are more than enough to make us too busy... But of course maharajs class was a true giant wheel ride for us🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏

Pranaam Maharajs. Just saw Shri Shri Thakur in your beings. Jai Thakur.

Has explained the nonsectarian all inclusive view of vigyana vada...Sarvam khalvidam brahma, understandably.🙏🏽

Such brilliance

Respectfully I want raise some counterpoints to Ayon Maharaj's arguments. My arguments are purely based on this speech and not on book as I have to it yet read it. Hence apologies if I have jumped too much ahead. Secondly I am not qualified enough for razor sharp arguments. But answers to this will help to learn more. My arguments are purely due to criticism of Keval Advait philosophy and to correct my viewpoint if needed. 1)Ayon Maharaj is superimposing Vishist Advaits view on Keval Advait as if it is Advaits own. Similar criticism was done by Bhagwan Ramanuja in Sribhashya purvapaksha. To translate Mithya as unreal may not best way in logical arguments. It's alright in loose sense especially when you are emphasizing sublation of Universe in Brahman. Maya is sat asat anirvachaniya. It cannot be expressed as unreal (corner of a circle) or real as Brahman. That expression is coined as Mithya. 1000 years of arguments have not shattered Maya explanation of Advait. 2)Ayon Maharaj is challenging where in Upanishads world is called unreal. ( Unreal in is not meant by Advait as well. Mithya or vivarta is better word) Whole Upanishads is like that. What is then avastha traya Vivek in Mandukya? What is meant by light of light in Katha of that which is illuminated? What is meaning of Hiranmayena pAtreNa satyasya pihitma mukham in Isha? 3) much more clear answer on whom am I and relation to God or absolute or Brahman needed if Vijnana Vedant has to stand as separate philosophy. 4) Advait does say knowledge is means to overcome ignorance. Even that knowledge has to be taken aside like a thorn used to take of another one. Vidya Maya and Aviydya Maya. Advait philosophy is not discouragging Karma yoga or Bhakti Yoga or Raj Yoga. Even in path of knowledge final step of Brahmakar vritti or Akhandakarvritti due sheer is grace of God. Sticking to path of knowledge over other cannot be used as argument against Advait due to it's strong rational of reality. Being bhakta or Karma yogi even knowing Brahman I presume will not be difficult. 5) Ajatavada is at parmarthik level. Ayon Maharaj is superimposing different levels of realities in Advait. Can anyone deny there is nothing but experience by Self. Experienced need not be absolute real. Intact it can be unreal as in dream example. Finally it will take years of arguments to have waterproof philosophy around Bhagwan Ramakrishna's teachings. You need to consider views of Swami Vivekananda and entire lineage thereof for reaching that level. Bhagwan Shankara philosophy was refined by answers to critical objections by later philosophers. My argument is last thing to be touched be Advait. It will easier to refine Advait than to refute. Even the Divine Upanishads would have been empty without Bhasyas and Tikas by generations of Acharyas.

This type of scholarly work on Thakur is highly needed.

The phrase "spiritual gluttony" wonderful

LAHO PRONAM 🙏

Jai Sri Ramakrishna Jai Sri Ramakrishna Jai Sri Ramakrishna Jai Sri Ramakrishna Jai Sri Ramakrishna

Thank you, wonderful exposition. The idea resonates strongly with my own ( unlearned, but intuitive) sense this wonderful, vast, varied universe to have come out of an expression of joy. If it’s a dream, it sure is dreamt up by a vast intellect . One that correctly matched each thing to its opposite, lives in and above every thing and provides all with tailored survival skills.

Vijnana Vedanta must define swarupa of bhraman, jivaa and world clearly and its relationships and its origin

FIRST...I AM GRATEFUL TO SRI RAMKRISHNA FOR HIS CONTRIBUTION IN PROVIDING MIRACLES (LIKE RESPECTED LATU MAHARAJ) OF RAMKRISHNA ORDER THROUGHOUT THE WORLD

জয় গুরু মহারাজ 🙏🙏🙏

Another spiritual giant like Swami Sarvapriyananda ji Maharaj.

Hari Om. Really happy to see this fantastic talk by Sri Ayon Maharaj. I am thankful to Vedanta NY for bringing us this video via RU-vid.

❤❤❤❤❤❤❤ JOY RAMKRISHNA

We have to analyze the period off Sri . Shankara and the modern and scientific age. During Shankara’s period, materialism was spreading, ordinary people could not understand the upanishads which were in Sanskrit. As such sri Shankar, at the age of eight , became a wandering monk and after he wrote commentaries on aupanishads, Brahmaputra and Bhagavadgita and so many prakarana granthas and wandered all over India , set up advaita vedanta and laid the foundation of advaita vedanta.He walked nook and corner of India to do this hard work. He wrote so many hymns about all gods and goddesses. When he said Brahma Sathya jagath Mithya, jiva Brahmaiva an paraa, he meant that the universe is not completely false, but the universe has no independent existence, but it borrows existence from Brhman and individual Self is not he other than Brahman. Even Sri. Ramakrishna used to give an example that one can follow other paths but holding advaita in the background , as the ladies bind the bunch of keys to the palloo of their Saree. Swami Vivekanada , said, “ God only is,none else”. According to modern age ,modern philosophers harmonizing all views on different vedantic ideas. Had Sri. Shankara been living in this modern and scientific age, he might also have been following the same steps as the modern philosophers. My conclusion is that so many great and enlightened monks of Sri Ramakrishna Order like Swami Gambheerananda, Swami Ranganathananda, Swami Brahmananda, Swami Nikhilanada , Swami shivananda and so many such great monk have built beautiful mansion on the foundation laid by Sri.Shankara, the future monks continue to build the Vedanta mansion further rather than criticizing Sri.Shankara’s idea. We , ordinary people, are in thirst of enlightened talks of Swami Sarvapriyananda and such others , which make us gain what we have lost till now, our true nature. Sorry if I have hurt the feelings of any one.

জয় স্বামীজি মহারাজ 🙏🙏🙏

Ayon Maharaj kindly accept my pranams. How can I describe such wonderful wisdom of Sri Sri Ramakrishna Kathamrita. It appears that the book just started reading by the Humanity. I also convey my pranams to Revered Swami Sarvapriyanandaji Maharaj.

জয় মা 🙏🙏🙏

Hari Om,Pranam,Swamiji.

🙏🏼🙏🏼🙏🏼

55:52 Names and forms are real until you see everything in or as consciousness, existence, bliss, this is what Shankaracharya met I think

At 1:10:03 the example of destroying a table to display the impermanence leading to unreality can be challenged. We may as well say that the Advaitists might call the ‘table’ as names and forms which are subjected to destruction and hence impermanence are unreal.

Maybe it's that Shakti manifestations and mind and bodies keeps taking form until one form is so refined according to conditions that conditions usually correspond to other conditions that produce a shining of God through that person.

Tour around the US? Will he be talking in California anytime soon? Where can I find out more of his tour schedule and writing's?

Advatita : Jnana kaale nirguna drishti through Drk-drushya prakriya. Vyaavaharika kaale saguna Kaaran- karya prakriya. Sankara welcomed different Aastika prakriyas but argued and disagreed with their final conclusions. The crest jewel of his teaching is Jivo Brahmaiva na parah. To reach here, in spiritual journey, druda Mumukshutvam must be entrenched in the seeker. All schools are good but the best works are Sankara's. Thakur caters to both levels in different stages. And Sankara too.

Greetings sir i think every energy is true some might be bitter and many are bright like developing new technologies every vaccum quantum feilds does exist one needs to find out how they work.

How Karma Yoga leads to same final result of Jnana and other yogas is clearly explained by Swami Vivekananda in his Karma yoga lectures, to summarise, Karma yoga teaches complete self-abnegation, denying lower self in every action and forgetting ourselves (lower self) through complete absorption (immense concentration) in every work we do...and denying all thoughts related to our individual self and when one has only thoughts and actions for others and none for themselves then it's the same goal an aspirant achieves through Jnana yoga or Karma yoga...complete unselfishness..

Lucid explanation.......I am requesting everybody please go through the book for our better understanding......I think Indian edition for these book already available

An excellent talk by Ayon Maharaj...he brilliantly synthesize the various vedantic concepts in to a harmonious whole as Sri. Ramakrishna propounded. But there is a contradiction. If Shakti....saguna Brahman is a leela, a divine play...and Shakti is dependent and anithya, then Shakti is subject to decay and destruction and death. That can not be valid in advaita...a decaying Shakti that this universe and jivas are then objects and cannot be the absolute nirguna Brahman Sat chit Ananda that Sri.sankara propounded. The argument falls flat. Brahma satyam jagat mitya, jeevo brahmaivanaaparah is the ultimate truth. Vigyana vadanta is an avial ....a keralite dish made of different vegetables. The example of climbing to a rooftop is apt, but its only a metaphor....you don't need to come back using the same ladder....you can take a leap of gnana....from there that a brahmagnani can! Its possible that Sri. Ramakrishna was attached to the Shakti principle with a flavor of Kashmiri vignana bhairava tantra where this is beautifully illustrated.

A little hard to follow for the layperson, but still enlightening.

Yess!!! These world of names and forms is Brahman itself too!!! Shankara wants to say it's substratum that is real world is not.

Swami Sarvapriyananda is the best❤ no matter they are how much intelligent or scholar academically.

Then Shuddhadvaita and vijnana vedanta same?

swami ji thank you for this enlightening discussion, but if i may ask, can nirguna be translated as the word formless and saguna be translated as with form instead of words personal and impersonal?