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akshara
10 August 2009, 05:15 AM
Though attaining the Ultimate remains the bliss of all, why then attaining that bliss alone remains the toughest of all, or why is that man surrenders to worldly delights so easily and yet fails to even realize the presence of God?

Thanks to all the amazing inputs, grace and responsible lessons on God, being conveyed in the forum. I am a firm believer of the Hindu tradition and I perceive each one of you my companions in seeking God. I study your messages; nevertheless I am confounded as to the perfect philosophy to attain self-realization. As a beginner, I request you to please put across your honest responses on the above subject that remains to me incomprehensible.

clito
10 August 2009, 05:39 AM
namaste,i think the reason for that, is the fear of the unknown ,some of us ,we are not sure ,because of trouble maya and world of senses.we are part animals ,part divine ,we are so much involved on wordly affairs,in adition the daily life is slavery ,we have to work hard to survive, there is not much time to think about spirituality and hardly ever we have witnessed other kind of life.down in the city there are a lot of bad forces walking arround, in the mountains and nature is very different ,there you can feel spirituality much more accesible to your mind, there arent poluted atmospheres, noises ,emotional propaganda etc.human mind is attached to many things, social life parents ,food etc.society systematically eats our brain ,just put on the tv or read a newspaper and you can feel involved in that ****.thats why only the strongs, the wise or the favoured horosope people cross the jungle of nonsense daily living and find the sense of living ,that means surrender to god.

saidevo
10 August 2009, 06:06 AM
Namaste Akshara.

Perhaps the reason is our mind, which we easily (mis)take to be our Self?

Spiritualseeker
10 August 2009, 06:25 AM
Namaste,

Also not believing that its possible.

Eastern Mind
10 August 2009, 06:32 AM
akshara: Welcome to HDF! An excellent question! Reminds me of: If we are destined to be merging with God, then why all the fuss. Why not get it over with?

This is my take. Others may disagree.

Anava, karma, and maya, hold the individual soul back. To overcome anava, we need knowledge, and I'm not speaking of the intellect. We need mystical insight, knowledge of the inner workings, the interconnectedness of all things. To overcome karma, we need to act within dharma, until the balance is so far in our favour, we have no more 'negative' karma to hold us back. To overcome maya, we need to be able to see, and feel, and really get the true and only reality, Parasivam, within ourselves.

Why? I believe it is all within the nature of God himself. God's breathing in and out. We are at the stage of immaturity, and have the senses to keep us out, continually bombardment. That is why it is so fifficult to go within.

Aum namasivaya

devotee
10 August 2009, 08:10 AM
Though attaining the Ultimate remains the bliss of all, why then attaining that bliss alone remains the toughest of all, or why is that man surrenders to worldly delights so easily and yet fails to even realize the presence of God?

Namaste Akhshara,

Saidevo ji has already the best one-line answer : It is due the mind. This is the nature of mind which is the reason behind our forgetfulness of our True Nature, the relative perception of this world as different from our own SELF, the hunger, restlessness, morbid clinging to phenomena we know as "life" & all related activities due to that hunger and restlessness.

Here, we must be cautious. The mind is different from brain. So, even if the brain dies the mind doesn't. So, you can't escape its tentacles by switching off brain by intoxicationon or even by death. The mind survives even death. This is your "ego self" which has only apparent existence till we recognise that there is no individual self. The mind gets strength through our thought process ... behind all thoughts the first mother thought is of an "individual self" having a separate identity.

This mind is very powerful. This creates the trap-net of Sattva, Rajasa & Tamasa gunas. Discrimination, grace of God & right action are the ways which take us beyond the clutches of this Maya/ Samsara.

Why is it like so ? No one really knows. It is simply the nature of SELF in Waking & Dreaming States. May be God knows ... or perhaps He also doesn't !

OM

Ganeshprasad
10 August 2009, 08:49 AM
Pranam

These are self explanatory words of Lord Krishna in the Bhagvat Gita
I hope it helps

The Blessed Lord said: There is a banyan tree which has its roots upward and its branches down and whose leaves are the Vedic hymns. One who knows this tree is the knower of the Vedas.(15.01)

The branches (of this world tree of Maya) spread below and above (or all over the cosmos). The tree is nourished by the Gunas; sense pleasures are its sprouts; and its roots (of ego and desires) stretch below in the human world causing Karmic bondage. (15.02)

Neither its (real) form nor its beginning, neither its end nor its existence is perceptible here on the earth. Having cut these firm roots of the Ashvattha tree by the mighty ax of (Jnana and) Vairaagya or detachment; (15.03)

So doing, one must seek that place from which, having once gone, one never returns, and there surrender to that Supreme Person from whom everything has began and in whom everything is abiding since time immemorial.(15.04)

nirmana-moha jita-sanga-dosa
adhyatma-nitya vinivrtta-kamah
dvandvair vimuktah sukha-duhkha-samjnair
gacchanty amudhah padam avyayam tat
 
Those who are free from pride and delusion, who have conquered the evil of attachment, who are constantly dwelling in the Supreme Self with all Kaama completely stilled, who are free from the dualities known as pleasure and pain; such undeluded persons reach the eternal goal. (15.05)
 
 
 
 

Jai Shree Krishna

akshara
11 August 2009, 03:00 AM
Thanks to Clito, Sai devo, Spiritual Seeker, Eastern Mind, Devotee, Ganesh Prasad! All your inputs were valuable.

But listen, I’m only a beginner. I have read and listened to similar messages – on fear for the Lord, the working of our senses, the mind, intellect, the three gunas, and about who really reach the eternal goal. Maybe, enormous messages still can be collected from books or similar forums, which, but, will remain incomprehensible to me. At a confounded stage as stated in my original post, what I need is a reply to “Where do I stand?”, “What are my defects in the course of this eternal journey?” Why do I easily fall prey to the worldly pleasures?” Failure after failure each day, still I’m entangled in these pleasures. I have been acquainted with all sorts of pleasures- wealth, career, fame…But was I satisfied? I was discontented always. So, I need a unique, practical, understandable, workable philosophy to stabilize myself on the Ultimate.

Eastern Mind
11 August 2009, 06:02 AM
akshara: Another good question.

Lets say its like building a house. Do you just build a house like writing a single letter on a piece of paper? No. it comes in steps. A brick at a time, as the saying goes.

Advice from my gurus would go something like this:

Start with something simple, like 5 minutes a day of trying to sit still. Try to be regular. Then after 6 months or a year, make it 10. It is all a slow progression. In Hinduism, there is no big hurry. We are all at different stages. Each individual has to determine what it is they can handle. Don't worry about the rest of the time. That's just living life.

or: Make sure you do something ! It can be some karma yoga, some chanting, some restraint. Not all of us are cut out to be meditators. Not all of us are cut out to be parents. Just do what you can do, and do that well.

In the meantime, also try your best to avoid adharmic activities.

Aum namasivaya

clito
13 August 2009, 06:54 AM
[quote=akshara;31121]Thanks to Clito, Sai devo, Spiritual Seeker, Eastern Mind, Devotee, Ganesh Prasad! All your inputs were valuable.
boy, what you feel ,your daubts and failures, happens in a mayor o minor level to everyone, even a paramahansa have to face his ego.in the spiritual path ,one thing that sometimes is forgotten, is the body purification ,which is intrinsically united to the mind and the wealth of the soul.when you fast for 7 days, doing satkarmas like basti kunjal and neti kriyas ,pranayam and daily reading of stotras.at the end of the fast you have a blissfull experience and from that you have a glimpse of what spirituality trully means, spirituality is far from reciting stotras to get some shakti and then use it for mundane wordly affairs.spirituallity means to feel god inside you.there are millions of seekers that everyday recite mantra sadhana and stotras and perform pujas but very few that trully have god inside them.when you reach this experience then the way to maintain the connection with god is right dieta, right thoughts ,right yoga sadhana right actions .these kind of life you can only have it in an asharam or isolated in nature,unless you want to be like many spiritual citizens and have a normal life with an spiritual touch.the spiritual path is the most difficult of all.and you have to be a real hero and renounce to all what you have for thee.

brahman
13 August 2009, 07:44 AM
Akshara: Though attaining the Ultimate remains the bliss of all, why then attaining that bliss alone remains the toughest of all, or why is that man surrenders to worldly delights so easily and yet fails to even realize the presence of God?

Thanks to all the amazing inputs, grace and responsible lessons on God, being conveyed in the forum. I am a firm believer of the Hindu tradition and I perceive each one of you my companions in seeking God. I study your messages; nevertheless I am confounded as to the perfect philosophy to attain self-realization. As a beginner, I request you to please put across your honest responses on the above subject that remains to me incomprehensible.

My OWN reply(philosophy) enriched with the thoughts of the Holy Bhagavd Gita. Please find the exact meanings of the sanskrit words from dictionaries.


“OM – Purnamadah Purnamidam Purnat purnamudachyate.
Purnasya Purnamadaya Purnamevavashisyate.”

Knowledge, that God exists, is divine.
Knowledge, that God is of visible nature, is more divine.
Knowledge, that God that yet-not visible, is much more divine.
Knowledge, that God is not comprehended, is the greatest
knowledge one gets from this universe.
Whatever one gets to know further, is THAT, divine word.

Now listen. The “Tattvamasi” - the meaning of this saying is that the Self - in its original, pure, primordial state - is wholly or partially identifiable or identical with the Ultimate Reality. Being so, “I am God(wholly or partially identifiable or identical)”. Knowledge obtainable from God thus remains the knowledge obtainable from oneself.

Be informed that, in life, one spends his jivasakthi, the vital energy to attain the aims of life, the artha-kama-bala-moha-moksha. Or otherwise, kama-krotha-bhaya creates anxiety in one, the jiva or the “being” soon relates to the jivasakthi, to be in this world to attain artha-kama-bala-moha-moksha.

Let life be either spiritual or secular.

Explaining the noticeable differences between Secularism and spiritualism

Whichever be, in continuity to one’s muj-janma-karma-phala (reactions of previous life’s karma), his jivasakthi is always curbed by his desire in artha-kama-bala-moha-moksha.

For one enjoying a secular life, Jivasakthi appears mostly in myriad forms as dhanam, balam, kamam, and moham.
For one enjoying a spiritual life, Jivasakthi appears much beyond the forms of dhanam, balam, kamam and moham, to appear in the form of Atmabala.

In secular life, to fulfil artha-kama-bala-moha-moksha, one worship Gods in their sthula-sukshmarupa, and get along in continuous link with the endless cycle of suffering caused by birth, deathand rebirth (samsara prapanja).

Whereas, in spiritual life, one voluntarily discards the desires of artha-kama-bala-moha sugham. They wish for the attainment of atmabala. That leads them to dhyana and knowledge. This happens gradually, and while in process, the atmabala is contentedly spent on the needy, tortured, weary, oppressed, downtrodden and similar others, or for one’s own progress, and a fragment alone for just his survival.

Explaining the practical side of it

Understand well. To know you is to know God. This is self-sacrifice. One sacrifices one’s atman to know oneself.

Sacrifice one’s worldly pleasures artha-kama-bala-moha-moksha toward God. Subsequently, Sacrifice one’s prana too.

Making it possible in modern world

Walk in simplicity.

Explaining in detail;

Holding onto simplicity, let the desire for pomp and luxury leave you. Whereby, one is freed from spending money for such desires. Where less money is required, there less work is required. So, work your mind for lesser time on it , and work your intellect for a lesser time on it. You become apt to leave a secular world when you similarly grab and learn the sukshma nature of every worldly act, identify the sukshma nature of all its exceeding, and finally find the karya-karana of it.

The same way, one needs to learn the sukshma nature of kama-moha. See, if one thinks; “now I have my wife, or my lover, of whom I receive love. Let me now live for them. When they are beside me, why should I go after others or impress others? So, I need not find money for them, nor am I required to spend for them too. Thus, for such desires, I need to find only fewer amounts. I am not concerned if they feel pleasant or unpleasant.” So, work your mind for lesser time on it , and work your intellect for a lesser time on it. You become apt to leave a secular world when you similarly grab and learn the sukshma nature of every worldly act, identify the sukshma nature of all its exceeding, and finally find the karya-karana of it.

Next is one’s knowledge of his body. One needs to alertly learn and behold that one’s body is but an offering of God. Try to forget about it, till the moment you obtain prana to survive. Why to do so? Why because, body is only a means to acquire prana, inorder to sustain the jiva. According to one’s thoughts, the body by itself will acquire vigor. So, work your mind for lesser time on it , and work your intellect for a lesser time on it. You become apt to leave a secular world when you similarly grab and learn the sukshma nature of your body, identify the sukshma nature of all its exceeding, and finally find the karya-karana of it.

Ask oneself. How long has one enjoyed worldliness? Stayed in fear? Loved for and yearned for? Desired for? How many years have passed by?
How much have one desired for? Have one’s desires come to an end? One desire to desire more. But, what is it that one gains?
To attain all that one desire for, one need to perform karma, birth after birth. But, the moment you desist desiring, you need to toil less. So, work your mind for lesser time on it , and work your intellect for a lesser time on it. You become apt to leave a secular world when you similarly grab and learn the sukshma nature of your moha, identify the sukshma nature of all its exceeding, and finally find the karya-karana of it.

Valuable, surplus time is before you now. (Confirming that you have valuable time)

It is the time for spiritual thoughts or progress. But as for every man, one has to confront the society. What is this society? It is just a code of belief, a doctrine followed over generations and virtually the crux of worldly thoughts. If a man starts contemplating spiritually, what more will the society do than only harass him. If not, they blame him, tease him, or perhaps even dissuade him from the mission.

What does one feel profitable by pleasing the society? What gain anyway? For all that the society does, are not we paying taxes?

Look, none accomplishes spirituality in a day. The moment one entertains divine thoughts, one has to, by all means, find time too. If not, it just remains as mere thought. It will never transform into an experience, or a delight.

How to plan

Whereupon, take a vow. “I will render myself into spirituality this one month”.

Choose a time when you are not occupied, or when you get a holiday. Righteous are you to boldly announce the decision to all immediate relations and intimate friends. Grab their backing; initiate the exercises with their knowledge.
All the time that were once utilized for worldly delights can now fruitfully be spent at temples, ashrams, beside a guru, or beside someone who is spiritually elevated, or all by your self directing to the path of moksha. Let you learn the itihasa, the purana.
Be pious(bhakta).
Be elevated out of bakthi.
Where there is bhakthi, there is mukthi.

All understood well, but unless, the mind is applied in its entirety to these exercises, no notable change can be noticed. Through this way, one identifies the atmabala.

So, now what is this atmabala? How does it seen?
This is the power to suppress the chittavritti, the fluctuations of the mind.
Or
, it is the endurance to forbid chittavritti and stabilize one’s intellect on the atman.


Once identified, what use does atmabala offer?

Every action of body or mind which we do, every thought which we think, becomes fine, and is stored up in the form of a Samskâra and then it rises up in the form of a mental wave and produces new desires. These desires are Vâsanâs. When a man dies the individual ego or Jîva or atman, which means the germ of life or the living soul of man, is not destroyed, but it continues to exist in an invisible form and sometimes(after) expresses itself in gross forms of animal or human beings, according to the desires and tendencies that are ready to manifest.
In all beings, artha-kama-bala-moksha moha from the samskraa seen as driving forces of sakthi, on account of his muj janma karma phala. The perishables(other than one’s mind intellect and the atman) gained during his life won’t accompany him after death. Instead, abandoning them all, one embraces the samskra(buddhi vikasam) gained thru atmabala alone.

Such progress samskara is the purpose of all human birth. Having acquired atmabala so, the sadhaka will be reborn into the home of the spiritually glorified .With continuous strenuous efforts; he gradually attains the aim of all- the moksha.
Conclusion
Bhakti is a means to explore oneself. Be a bhakta. Be elevated. Understand oneself. Experience that highest reality. Experiencing that “awareness as you” is God.

Further be conscious that though one has renounced pomp and luxury, inorder to attain the highest reality, one need to surrender the expression of “aham” or “I”.
Surrender that too, prana in Brahman through the practice of yoga or related practices, and be one with the Brahman “as salt crystals born from the ocean go and merge in the ocean again”, in the same manner, born of Brahman, one should merge with the Brahman. The atman without aham is indeed the Paramatman. That alone is Brahman.

a warning
Pay utmost attention to this. Spiritual quest, an expedition undertaken to comprehend the Brahman, unification with the Ultimate, a pursuit of the never-ending bliss, rooted in determined, unwavering bakthi is destined only for the ones who have renounced worldly pleasures, out of realization of its fleeting and futile nature.

Without bhakti and ONE lakshya, advaita Vedanta is a total blunder and will remain as an unending philosophy.

Hence it’s reminded – Let not Advaita philosophy get to people, let people get to advaita. Or else, upon not fulfilling one’s worldly desires, and having attained atmabala with suppressed desires can harm the mankind.

“OM – Purnamadah Purnamidam Purnat purnamudachyate.
Purnasya Purnamadaya Purnamevavashisyate.”


Aum Tat Sat

Brahman

bhaktajan
13 August 2009, 10:16 AM
You are all posting what amounts to "POETRY".

Knowledge is the basis of renunciation ---these two bring shanti.

Santi is a result of "Lack of anxiety" ---for "illusion" (maya) is part and parcel of ego-constructs.

Real vedantic knowledge is the study of three catagories of Vedantic Subjects:
1-Karma . . . study of its ways & means and ones own personal code of conduct.

2-Sankya (aka, gyana, dhayana) . . . study of the 24 aggregate elements of the creation of the cosmos .

3-Bhakti . . . study of the ways & means of devotion to the speaker of the Vedas . . . {[I]and you know who that is, don't you?}

akshara
18 August 2009, 12:11 AM
My OWN reply(philosophy) enriched with the thoughts of the Holy Bhagavd Gita. Please find the exact meanings of the sanskrit words from dictionaries.


“OM – Purnamadah Purnamidam Purnat purnamudachyate.
Purnasya Purnamadaya Purnamevavashisyate.”

Knowledge, that God exists, is divine.
Knowledge, that God is of visible nature, is more divine.
Knowledge, that God that yet-not visible, is much more divine.
Knowledge, that God is not comprehended, is the greatest
knowledge one gets from this universe.
Whatever one gets to know further, is THAT, divine word.

Now listen. The “Tattvamasi” - the meaning of this saying is that the Self - in its original, pure, primordial state - is wholly or partially identifiable or identical with the Ultimate Reality. Being so, “I am God(wholly or partially identifiable or identical)”. Knowledge obtainable from God thus remains the knowledge obtainable from oneself.

Be informed that, in life, one spends his jivasakthi, the vital energy to attain the aims of life, the artha-kama-bala-moha-moksha. Or otherwise, kama-krotha-bhaya creates anxiety in one, the jiva or the “being” soon relates to the jivasakthi, to be in this world to attain artha-kama-bala-moha-moksha.

Let life be either spiritual or secular.

Explaining the noticeable differences between Secularism and spiritualism

Whichever be, in continuity to one’s muj-janma-karma-phala (reactions of previous life’s karma), his jivasakthi is always curbed by his desire in artha-kama-bala-moha-moksha.

For one enjoying a secular life, Jivasakthi appears mostly in myriad forms as dhanam, balam, kamam, and moham.
For one enjoying a spiritual life, Jivasakthi appears much beyond the forms of dhanam, balam, kamam and moham, to appear in the form of Atmabala.

In secular life, to fulfil artha-kama-bala-moha-moksha, one worship Gods in their sthula-sukshmarupa, and get along in continuous link with the endless cycle of suffering caused by birth, deathand rebirth (samsara prapanja).

Whereas, in spiritual life, one voluntarily discards the desires of artha-kama-bala-moha sugham. They wish for the attainment of atmabala. That leads them to dhyana and knowledge. This happens gradually, and while in process, the atmabala is contentedly spent on the needy, tortured, weary, oppressed, downtrodden and similar others, or for one’s own progress, and a fragment alone for just his survival.

Explaining the practical side of it

Understand well. To know you is to know God. This is self-sacrifice. One sacrifices one’s atman to know oneself.

Sacrifice one’s worldly pleasures artha-kama-bala-moha-moksha toward God. Subsequently, Sacrifice one’s prana too.

Making it possible in modern world

Walk in simplicity.

Explaining in detail;

Holding onto simplicity, let the desire for pomp and luxury leave you. Whereby, one is freed from spending money for such desires. Where less money is required, there less work is required. So, work your mind for lesser time on it , and work your intellect for a lesser time on it. You become apt to leave a secular world when you similarly grab and learn the sukshma nature of every worldly act, identify the sukshma nature of all its exceeding, and finally find the karya-karana of it.

The same way, one needs to learn the sukshma nature of kama-moha. See, if one thinks; “now I have my wife, or my lover, of whom I receive love. Let me now live for them. When they are beside me, why should I go after others or impress others? So, I need not find money for them, nor am I required to spend for them too. Thus, for such desires, I need to find only fewer amounts. I am not concerned if they feel pleasant or unpleasant.” So, work your mind for lesser time on it , and work your intellect for a lesser time on it. You become apt to leave a secular world when you similarly grab and learn the sukshma nature of every worldly act, identify the sukshma nature of all its exceeding, and finally find the karya-karana of it.

Next is one’s knowledge of his body. One needs to alertly learn and behold that one’s body is but an offering of God. Try to forget about it, till the moment you obtain prana to survive. Why to do so? Why because, body is only a means to acquire prana, inorder to sustain the jiva. According to one’s thoughts, the body by itself will acquire vigor. So, work your mind for lesser time on it , and work your intellect for a lesser time on it. You become apt to leave a secular world when you similarly grab and learn the sukshma nature of your body, identify the sukshma nature of all its exceeding, and finally find the karya-karana of it.

Ask oneself. How long has one enjoyed worldliness? Stayed in fear? Loved for and yearned for? Desired for? How many years have passed by?
How much have one desired for? Have one’s desires come to an end? One desire to desire more. But, what is it that one gains?
To attain all that one desire for, one need to perform karma, birth after birth. But, the moment you desist desiring, you need to toil less. So, work your mind for lesser time on it , and work your intellect for a lesser time on it. You become apt to leave a secular world when you similarly grab and learn the sukshma nature of your moha, identify the sukshma nature of all its exceeding, and finally find the karya-karana of it.

Valuable, surplus time is before you now. (Confirming that you have valuable time)

It is the time for spiritual thoughts or progress. But as for every man, one has to confront the society. What is this society? It is just a code of belief, a doctrine followed over generations and virtually the crux of worldly thoughts. If a man starts contemplating spiritually, what more will the society do than only harass him. If not, they blame him, tease him, or perhaps even dissuade him from the mission.

What does one feel profitable by pleasing the society? What gain anyway? For all that the society does, are not we paying taxes?

Look, none accomplishes spirituality in a day. The moment one entertains divine thoughts, one has to, by all means, find time too. If not, it just remains as mere thought. It will never transform into an experience, or a delight.

How to plan

Whereupon, take a vow. “I will render myself into spirituality this one month”.

Choose a time when you are not occupied, or when you get a holiday. Righteous are you to boldly announce the decision to all immediate relations and intimate friends. Grab their backing; initiate the exercises with their knowledge.
All the time that were once utilized for worldly delights can now fruitfully be spent at temples, ashrams, beside a guru, or beside someone who is spiritually elevated, or all by your self directing to the path of moksha. Let you learn the itihasa, the purana.
Be pious(bhakta).
Be elevated out of bakthi.
Where there is bhakthi, there is mukthi.

All understood well, but unless, the mind is applied in its entirety to these exercises, no notable change can be noticed. Through this way, one identifies the atmabala.

So, now what is this atmabala? How does it seen?
This is the power to suppress the chittavritti, the fluctuations of the mind.
Or
, it is the endurance to forbid chittavritti and stabilize one’s intellect on the atman.


Once identified, what use does atmabala offer?

Every action of body or mind which we do, every thought which we think, becomes fine, and is stored up in the form of a Samskâra and then it rises up in the form of a mental wave and produces new desires. These desires are Vâsanâs. When a man dies the individual ego or Jîva or atman, which means the germ of life or the living soul of man, is not destroyed, but it continues to exist in an invisible form and sometimes(after) expresses itself in gross forms of animal or human beings, according to the desires and tendencies that are ready to manifest.
In all beings, artha-kama-bala-moksha moha from the samskraa seen as driving forces of sakthi, on account of his muj janma karma phala. The perishables(other than one’s mind intellect and the atman) gained during his life won’t accompany him after death. Instead, abandoning them all, one embraces the samskra(buddhi vikasam) gained thru atmabala alone.

Such progress samskara is the purpose of all human birth. Having acquired atmabala so, the sadhaka will be reborn into the home of the spiritually glorified .With continuous strenuous efforts; he gradually attains the aim of all- the moksha.
Conclusion
Bhakti is a means to explore oneself. Be a bhakta. Be elevated. Understand oneself. Experience that highest reality. Experiencing that “awareness as you” is God.

Further be conscious that though one has renounced pomp and luxury, inorder to attain the highest reality, one need to surrender the expression of “aham” or “I”.
Surrender that too, prana in Brahman through the practice of yoga or related practices, and be one with the Brahman “as salt crystals born from the ocean go and merge in the ocean again”, in the same manner, born of Brahman, one should merge with the Brahman. The atman without aham is indeed the Paramatman. That alone is Brahman.

a warning
Pay utmost attention to this. Spiritual quest, an expedition undertaken to comprehend the Brahman, unification with the Ultimate, a pursuit of the never-ending bliss, rooted in determined, unwavering bakthi is destined only for the ones who have renounced worldly pleasures, out of realization of its fleeting and futile nature.

Without bhakti and ONE lakshya, advaita Vedanta is a total blunder and will remain as an unending philosophy.

Hence it’s reminded – Let not Advaita philosophy get to people, let people get to advaita. Or else, upon not fulfilling one’s worldly desires, and having attained atmabala with suppressed desires can harm the mankind.

“OM – Purnamadah Purnamidam Purnat purnamudachyate.
Purnasya Purnamadaya Purnamevavashisyate.”


Aum Tat Sat

Brahman
Eastern Mind and Brahman have refurbished the messages, with remarkable interpretations. The comprehensive philosophies, if conveyed in a manner as was preached to the gifted sages by Rishis almost 4000 years back, will hardly convey the message as it is intended , to someone like me, who is always subject to delights of this secular world, the “age of vice”.

I repeat, I’m only a beginner. Evidently, the discussions validate all your heightened views, thoughts and knowledge, but hardly anyone speak to me, to my question.

One’s essential identity has been explained by Brahman, an answer to my question” where do I stand?”. Brahman, you advocate simplicity, and your writings too display that.

Apart from reiterating the truth of self-realization, it has also unfolded to me, that its possible, but with sincere efforts by myself.

It has further cleansed me of the anxiety towards the society, money, tiring work, and have I known all of it to be just “Maya”. How simple is it now to renounce the worldly joys, and undertake meditation. Thanks, I need to hold on to it.

atanu
18 August 2009, 03:59 AM
Namaste All,

These questions are general to every sadhaka. It is at the crossroads where one is bewildered the most. On the crossroad, a sadhaka still differentiates the sadhana from the secular activities. It is my experience that the doubts diminish and vanish, once the secular life and the worship/tapas are seen as the same. Only an idea has to change.

For example, earlier I used to work for 15-18 hours a day for myself, for my fame etc., before I burned out. Then followed a period, which was full of conflict between meditation time and worldly duties. However, I found the key to the balance: giving up one's selfish own motives for work and still working as much as required as yagna. There is no division between secular activities and meditation really.

Om Namah Shivaya