Sadhana of a receptive non-clinging heart

Om Guru-Ganeshabhyam Namah

It is very beneficial to just withdraw for a while, one's active participation in life, and just be an impartial observor of all that is perceived - whether they be sounds, sensations, breath, taste, smell, thoughts feelings,memories, ego - the individuality. This means that one withdraws one's will, and  simply observes, whatever that is taking place. In the process, you become aware of yourself as a simple conscious being, in whose self-evident, impartial, ever-presence various perceptions take place. The nature of perception is to change moment to moment.One needs to make note of this fact. The one in whose presence, changing perceptions take place, does not change. One needs to note this fact too. Therefore, recognizing both these facts, towards the changing perceptions, one is open, receptive, yet non-clinging.

The Bhagavad-Gita points out that life will unfold itself, in keeping with our prarabdha, in the form of  the pairs of opposites like heat and cold, success and failure, love and neglect, respect and disrespect etc. If one receives them as an ego, a person who defines oneself through them, then one is doomed to suffer a mind that jumps up and down like a yo-yo, between elation and depression, restlessness and craving. And such a person, who defines the self, through what happens in life, can never never recognize the innate freedom of the self.

So towards whatever happens in life, pleasant or unpleasant, favourable or unfavourable, let there be a gracious acceptance, an openess of heart that does not cling. 

This is possible, only when there are well- assimilated attitudes towards life, which are based on :-
• understanding of oneself as a simple, changeless, limitless conscious being independent of the experiences of life, who is endowed with a body-mind complex,with which to experience life in it's diverse forms
• understanding of the ever-changing diverse experiences of life as  acceptable because they are unfolding according to the Divine order- the infallible laws of cause and effect, and they are in reality non-seperate from oneself.

This teaching of the innate freedom of the self is very subtle, so one grasps it in stages, in keeping with one's emotional development. The Bhagavad-Gita guides us gently through very many stages of emotional development. If we are willing to accept her teaching, the promise is, we will indeed discover the innate freedom of the self.

From this we come to understand how important it is to study the Bhagavad-Gita and other scriptures from a competent teacher, and assimilate what is being taught through it.

Om Tat Sat

The non-conceptual reality is real

I was listening to a contemporary mystic - a fine person indeed. However his interpretation of non-duality cannot be accepted.  He interprets non-duality to  mean that non-conceptual consciousness and manifest consciousness are one, in the sense that both are equally real. This kind of interpretation is not based on Sruti pramanam - rather it is based purely on an emotional investment in the sense of reality in the jagat. 

How can the reality, which is unchanging,a ever-existent and  free of all attributes, be changing as well?  

Sruti points out that the changing reality in the form of the universe is a projection of the unchanging ever-existent infinite chaitanyam, seemingly possible because of its indescribable creative power.  Within the projection, the universe is governed by the cosmic laws of cause and effect.  

The changing universe is dependent in a two-fold way.  Everything in the universe is dependent on n number of local factors to be what it is.  Additionally, to prove that it exists, everything depends on the presence of a conscious being.  Also nothing in the universe is permanent. Moment to moment the universe is never the same. It is an entirely different order of reality, (ontologically  called the mithya) from the independent changeless  consciousness on  which it is dependent, and of which it is a seeming manifestation. 

Non-duality  inspite of the perceived differences  in the universe is possible, because the universe is purely a projection on the changeless consciousness thru its indefinable creative power. What is the changeless, independent reality,  does not undergo any real change to become a real universe. 

This can best be understood through the example of dream. In the dream, you are there as a simple conscious being. There is nobody else. Yet you experience a diverse universe peopled with sentient beings and insentient things. You alone project yourself as all of these. One alone appears as many. 

So too, the one changeless reality, appears as many. The changeless, independent infinite reality is real (satyam). The changing reality is dependent (mithya)  on the changeless  order  of reality.  As effect, the universe is non-different  it's cause, the changing reality. 

Om Tat Sat

The truth of the sadhaka

Who is this sadhana-doing I? Where is this sadhana-doing I? The one who does sadhana is just a mental construct. The mental construct got formed by marrying the invariable independent conscious presence to the variable dependent existence of the body-mind.

When I really look for this sadhana-doing I, she/he/it can't be found, except as a mental construct that derives it's seeming permanance from the independent invariable infinite conscious presence, on whom this mental construct is superimposed.

Om Tat Sat

Cidananda-rupah Shivo'ham Shivo'ham

The present moment is just a self-evident infinite conscious presence -like an empty piece of paper - on whom the writing of life in the form of infinite perceptions of sounds, colours and forms, taste, touch, sensations, smell, breath, thoughts, feelings, memories takes place. The writing of life is written with a magical ink that  disappears even as it is written ...the paper is always empty, pure, pristine.

Cidananda-rupah Shivo'ham Shivo'ham.

I am lovable - Swamini Brahmaprajnananda

'Bhava' the Sanskrit word stands for both emotion and associated thoughts. How can one we be comfortable and welcome all emotions into our lives and harness their power, is the subject matter of this series. It also deals with how we can truly dance with emotion in the light of Vedanta and not be victimized by our or others emotional states.

Five capsules of Vedanta for nididhyasana- Swami Paramarthananda

1. I am of the nature of eternal and all pervading consciousness.
2. I am the only source of permanent peace, security and happiness.
3. By my presence, I give life to the material body and through the material body experience the material universe.
4. I am never affected by any event that happens in the material world or in the material body mind complex.
5. By forgetting my real nature, I convert life into a burden and by remembering my real nature, I convert life into a blessing.