The Vastness of Consciousness - Swami Tadatmananda of Arsha Bodha Centre

 

The podcast Hindu Dharma Basics and Beyond is a page on my Blog

 

The podcast page Hindu Dharma Basics and Beyond

You can find transcriptions of all the Spotify/Youtube episodes of the podcast as they are published, on the above link - which is a page on this blog. 

Episode 2 on podcast Hindu Dharma Basics and Beyond

Listen in to the second podcast episode which answers 3 questions. Who is a Hindu? Is Hinduism same as sanatana dharma? When did Hinduism begin and who founded Hinduism. Click the link below to listen in. 

https://anchor.fm/tattvavidyananda-saraswati/episodes/Who-is-a-Hindu-e1h8vsq

or

https://open.spotify.com/episode/0UilUogNTiuB1ZR8ufoLL8?si=U-WaycosQF-f45SeR5h9nQ

Meditation - I am a Sanyasi by Swami Viditatmananda at Rishikesh Camp 2022

 

Om Namah Shivaya chanting

In the Kaivalya Upanishad, while describing the preparation for meditation it says   अत्याश्रमस्थः  the meditator should be अत्याश्रमस्थः  - become अत्यश्रमी  the one who transcends all Ashramas, who transcends all the stages of life, meaning that one who meditates gives up identification with all stages of life. I am not a brahmachari or brahmacharini. Brahmacharya is a stage of life… I usually think of myself as a brahmachari or a brahmacharini …. Garhastya or householder is a stage of life. I think of myself as a Grhasta- householder. Or I may have passed on to the next stage a vanaprastha – I am retired, a vanaprastha. Or I may have moved to the next stage of life – I am a sanyasi.

These identifications are quite alright for performing my vyavahara, for conducting myself in the life . With every state of life is associated a kartavya or  the duty of what I should do and what I should not be. Vidhi and nisheda.

All of this goes into my notion or conclusion about myself. That I am a sadhaka, I am a seeker. I am a mumukshu, I am a seeker of moksha.

Whatever idea, a notion or conclusion I have, about  myself also carries with it the duties, the kartavya, the do's and don'ts, what I should do and what I should not do.

atyāśramasthaḥ - right now I do not belong to any stage of life. I am not a brahmachari or brahmacharini. I am not a grahasta, or a vanaprastha, nor even a sanyasi. I dropped all these identifications. I'm not accountable to anybody, meaning I do not have to fulfill anybody's demands on me….. and nobody is accountable to me meaning nobody has any duties towards me, because I make no demands upon anyone.

That someone should do this for me. Someone should behave in a given manner. Someone should not behave in a given manner. I let go all the demands and expectations from others as to what anyone else should be.

Let the people out there remain out there. A person who is out there comes in because of demands, expectations. I accept everyone as they all.

स्पर्शान्कृत्वा बहिर्बाह्यांन् – Let the people out there remain out there. A person who is out there comes in (my mind) because of demands, expecatations.  I let go all demands, all expectations of other persons. Other objects come in my mind because I want to possess them or I want to get rid of them. Nothing to possess, nothing to get rid of.

I just remain a simple person, non-demanding. One gives up all demands, all expectations from others and one gives up all demands unexpected from the self.

 I do not make any demands on others, meaning I give freedom to others to what they are. Let them be good or not good. Let them be helpful, not helpful. Let others be whatever they are, whatever they want to be. I'm comfortable with everyone, everything out there. Because that is how the people and objects are created by Ishvara - and I gracefully accept, respect, love the creation of Ishvara.

By accepting others, I'm not obliging them. I'm just releasing myself from the tension or anxiety that is created by expectation. I gracefully accept the world as it is, as Ishvara’s  creation. I make no demand on anyone because of the appreciation that everything is in order. Everything doesn't have to fulfill my expectation – what Is  is because of expectation of Ishvara and I let go my expectations. I let go my demands, in the graceful acceptance of what is, what people are, what things are, what circumstances are, what the world is. That makes me free.

By letting go the demands, by the graceful acceptance of what is, I become free from all anxieties, from all fears, from all uncertainties.

I discover that I am free, It is I who imposed upon myself these demands and expectations and I bound myself. I have the freedom to give up all demands, all expectations and thus I become free. 

I similarly give up expectations and demands of myself. Just as I lovingly accept the world as it is, I also gracefully accept myself as I am meaning that I gracefully accept all my limitations. Just as I gracefully accept the limitations of others and respect them, and  love them regardless so also I gracefully accept my limitations of the body, of the mind, of the intellect. It is my inability to accept my limitations. Just as I make demands on others as to what they should be I make demand on myself as to how I should be.

I approve of myself. I let go my expectations of myself. I gracefully accept all my limitations including my ragas and dveshas. I gracefully accept my all virtues and vices. Just as the world is in order as it is, I am also in order as I am. Because all virtues and vices reside in my upadhi. The strengths and weaknesses reside in the body, in the mind, in the intellect. I gracefully accept this upadhi, this personality of the mind, sense-organs, body.

I am comfortable with the world. I am comfortable with myself. It is expectation, demand that creates discomfort. Creates tensions, creates fears. I let go all expectations from others, and  from myself by gracefully accepting everything as Ishvara’s order.

माहं ब्रह्म निराकुर्याम् । May I not discard Brahman, because whatever is here is all Ishvara. May I not disrespect Ishvara. May I gracefully accept Ishvara, worship Ishvara, love Ishvara. Give Ishvara the freedom to be what He is. Ishvara is in the form of what is out there, and what is in here. Everything is Ishvara. May I not discard, reject, disrespect Ishvara.

May Ishvara not discard me. May I love Ishvara. May Ishvara love me. May I love Ishvara as what is out there and what is in here.

All limitations all virtue, all vices …. Its all Ishvara. The guna – virtues and dosha-vices….. that is the  costume of Ishvara. Ishvara in fact is present here in this costume also. I appreciate the costume as a costume and not get stuck with why the costume is in certain way. Afterall it’s a costume …. Name and form is costume. My name and form is also a costume. I am the one who possesses the costume. The costumes are different. All distinctions belong to the costume.  Male and female. Young and not so good.  Bright and not so bright -  all of these distinctions belong to the costume. I appreciate the costume as the costume. A loving acceptance of what IS, that is a loving acceptance of Ishvara.

In that acceptance, I am free.  It is the demand and expectations that bind me. I am  free from demands and expectations because I gracefully accept everything as it is. In fact I appreciate the glory of what is … and in that appreciation I am free.

I do not need to do anything to be free. I need this frame of mind to see that I am free. A frame of mind that is free from all expectations and demand. A  frame of mind that is free from all needs and wants. A frame of mind that is comfortable with what is. A mind that gracefully  accepts what is, what I am.

In this moment I see that I'm alright.

I am alright.

Various demands and expectations arose because I believed that I'm not alright.  When I see I am alright, then there's no room for demands and expectations and I am free.

न मे द्वेषरागौ न मे लोभमोहौ

मदो नैव मे नैव मात्सर्यभावः ।

Na me devsha ragau – aversion and attachment are not mine, na me lobha-mohau – greed and delusion are not mine,  madaH naiva me naiva maatsarya bhavaH - the pride and jealousy are also not mine. Wherever they are are, they are not in me and so I have nothing to accomplish.

न धर्मो न चार्थो न कामो न मोक्षः

There is no purusharthas, there is no end to be achieved, because what Is, Is complete. There is no dharma, or kaama or moksha in me.

चिदानन्दरूपः शिवोऽहम् शिवोऽहम् …. चिदानन्दरूपः शिवोऽहम् शिवोऽहम् …. शिवोऽहम् शिवोऽहम्

Om purnamadaH….

Om Shantih shantiH shantiH…..

 

 

Note: You can get this meditation at www.dayananda.org. 

Hindu Dharma Basics and Beyond - Podcast

 A podcast is a series of audios on a particular topic hosted by a podcast station. I created a weekly podcast called Hindu Dharma, Basics and Beyond based on the book by the same name by Pujya Swami Viditatmananda Saraswati.

The first episode was about what to expect from the podcast.

The second episode link is below. It answers three questions : Who is a Hindu, Is Hinduism same as Sanatana Dharma, When did Hinduism Begin and Who founded Hinduism?

Do listen in by pressing the link. And share the link with all. Thank You.

https://open.spotify.com/episode/0UilUogNTiuB1ZR8ufoLL8...

Meditation- I am simple loving kind person as everyone is by Swami Viditatmananda at Rishikesh Camp 2022

This is an appointment with myself … when I spend a quality time with myself,… when I have no other agenda……nothing is waiting for me and I am not waiting for anything.

To be with me,  who is a simple conscious being. Right now I have no duties to perform. This time is assigned just for myself…. when I have no duties to perform….meaning that nobody has any demand upon me. I have no obligation to fulfill anybody's demands…… because I am not so and so.

Right now I am a simple conscious person ….with no roles to play.

During the day I do play variety of roles ….…a I’m  father or mother, a spouse, a son or a daughter, a brother or a sister,  disciple or a guru… a householder or a brahmachari,… a vanaprasta or a sanyasi

During the day I play variety of roles…. because that is my duty. That is what is expected of me. There are certain norms… certain accepted rules …which I have to follow throughout the day when I am interacting with the world…..The world may be my family…. the world may be my friends…. the world may be my co students…. The world maybe my co campers….The world may be the Ganga, the Himalayas…..

I am a student….. a devotee…. A meditator….. a sevak….. I play a variety of roles during the day when I am interacting with the world. And it's quite proper.

Yet this is the time when I have dropped all the rules. When I'm free from the compulsion of having to do a given thing. No compulsion, no duty….. no demands to fulfil, no goals to achieve. Neither the world has any demands on me, nor do I have any demands upon the world.

I have no demands because I accept everyone as they are. I have no likes and dislikes. I have no preferences.

Everyone who is in my life is in order. Everyone, whether my family, my friends, my roommates, my co students, my co-campers, the visitors…whoever they are ….. I  gracefully accept them as they are.

I give the freedom to others to be what they are.

I do not judge other people. I understand that people are what they are because that is how Ishwara has made them.

In general, people do not have the freedom to be different from what they are.

When a dog barks at me, I don’t hate the dog, I don't feel insulted because I know that is the nature of a dog. When I take a  dip in the Ganges, it is very cold. I don't complain because I know that is the nature of the water of the Ganga. The sun is hot, I take precautions and develop a comfort with that. How I have learned to develop a comfort with what I cannot change… I cannot change the temperature of the Ganga water so I know how to relate to that. I cannot change the temperature of the sun. I have developed a way of relating to that….

There are countless things around me with which I have to relate and I'm comfortable when I accept them as they are, knowing that is the nature.

Earth is what it is. Water is what it is. Air is what it is. Fire is what it is. Space is what it is. That is how they are made.

 I climb down the stairs, I don't jump.

I respect everything as it is because I cannot change them. So I develop a comfort with what I cannot change.

Similarly, other people who are in my life, just as I give freedom to the nature to be what it is and I adjust, so also, I give freedom to other human beings as they are.

I make no demands upon anyone. I give them freedom to be what they are. I gracefully accept them as they are.

Even better, I lovingly accept other people as they are.

I remind myself that what I perceive is the outer costume. It is a costume…. the body, mind and sense organs. That is where the virtues are. That is where the vices are. Virtues are guna, vices are dosha …. The guna and dosha they are all the attributes of the costume. I recognize a costume as a costume.

Then I have the opportunity to recognize the person behind the costume.

Everyone is a union of the person and the personality. What I interact with is a personality. But when I give reality to the costume, when I give reality to a personality, I overlook the person. I overlook the actor. I overlook the fact that a person is a simple, loving, beautiful person. The personality, the costume does not affect the person.

The same thing applies to me.

I am a simple, conscious person.

I'm the possessor of the body.

I'm the possessor of the organs of perception.

I use my organs of perception for perceiving, for experiencing the world.

I use my organs of action for responding to the word, the organ of speech, the hands, the legs. I use them to perform actions and to respond.

I have a mind with which I know.

I have this beautiful personality, a wonderful costume that is given to me.

I am the possessor of the costume……..

The costumes are many. The personalities are many. Yet the person, the possessor of the costume, the ‘I’, is a simple conscious being.

I am a simple conscious being  as everyone else is. I have a personality, a costume as everyone else has.

The costumes are many. The personalities are many. The person is ONE.

There is no duality at level of the conscious being. There is no separateness in the person.

It is this simple, conscious person whom I love. It is this simple, conscious person with whom I'm happy. If I have a problem, the problem is with the costume.

I have no problem with myself… the person that I am. I have no problem with others… the persons they are and I have no problem with myself, the person that I am.

तरति शोकम् आत्मवित् - tarati śokam ātmavit

 The knower of the self …. I, who knows the self, is a simple, loving, beautiful, conscious person. I have no problem with myself.

I'm comfortable with myself…. a simple, beautiful, loving person …..and I'm happy to be what I am. When I recognize myself as a simple, conscious, loving person, I'm comfortable with myself. I'm happy with myself.

That is the freedom where there is no grief… where there is harmony… where there is comfort….. where there is contentment…..

The contented simple, free, loving person I am …. when all demands are given up…..when all expectations are given up …… when all the roles are dropped…. when I see myself as a simple, kind, loving, beautiful, conscious person.

Cidananda rupah shivoham shivoham

Cidananda rupah shivoham shivoham

Cidananda rupah shivoham shivoham

Shivoham shivoham

….

…..

……..

Om Shantih shantih shantiH

 

Note You can get this meditation from www.dayananda.org

Meditation - I am Boundless Awareness by Swami Viditatmananda (Rishikesh camp 2022)

 

Om Namah Shivaya chanting….

……. ………

An  appointment with myself meaning just to be myself. When I spend  a quality time with myself, when I have no agenda……my mind is free from all agenda….free from the need to be something…….free from the need to become something.

I do not need to become something… or become someone else. …I do not need to become someone else.

Usually I have an ideal ‘I’…. and I'm trying…. to change myself so that I become that ideal ‘I’.

The ideal maybe that I want to a learned person. ….I want to be a famous person…..I want to be a respected person…….I want to be a wise person….. and so forth.

It is quite all right that normally I'm seeking that ideal. Right now, I give up even the need and the attempt to become that ideal.

There is no need for me to become someone else…..There is no need for me to become something else…..There is no need to become…..

There is no need to achieve anything…… or accomplish anything…..

Even through this process of meditation…. I'm not seeking to accomplish anything. Through this process of meditation…… I'm not seeking to achieve anything.

योगी युञ्जीत सततमात्मानं रहसि स्थित: |

In the 6th chapter of the Bhagavad-Gita, Lord Krishna says ‘May the Yogi, the aspirant, the seeker  आत्मानं युञ्जीत  focus his or her mind upon the self निराशीः free from all expectations of accomplishing something even from this meditation. In the Bhagavad-Gita Lord Krishna emphasises the freedom from the attachment to karma-phalla,….. freedom from the attachment, expectation of any personal reward through performing an action. Lord Krishna says, perform your duty, do what is right….. without the agenda of a personal reward. In  true performance of action I become bigger and better person….more successful….Lord Krishna is saying do what is right but do not make your action a means of becoming something else.

Only when I give up the idea or agenda of becoming someone else…..of accomplishing something….of achieving something,…..then only I can appreciate what I am in the present.

When I'm aspiring to be something else…. somewhere else…. that is as though a denial of what I am.

When the tenth man is searching for the tenth man, there is a denial of the fact that he is the tenth man. The search for the tenth man presupposes the denial of the tenth man. The notion that I am not the tenth man perpetuates it. In every attempt to become something…. in every attempt to achieve something,…there is an unspoken denial… of who I am….because I have taken for granted that I'm not what I should be. I'm not the tenth man. I’m not the perfect self…. I'm not the complete self. This conclusion on my part…. that I am not perfect,…. that I'm not complete,…..that I'm not all right….. In every attempt to accomplish something,…..in every attempt to become something,….there is an assumption, a presumption that as I am not all right. As I am I am  not complete.

I am not complete,… I am limited in every way…. I'm limited in strength,…. limited in memory,…. limited in understanding,…… limited in inner purity….. I am limited in everyway.

How can you say that I am limitless as I am?

When I think of myself, …. only a limited being… becomes evident to me. I was born some years ago,….and I'm going to die. I studied this much ..I have to study so much more,….so much I have to do to be all right. That may be so from one standpoint,….but not so from the other standpoint.

That I'm limited in knowledge,.. in understanding,… in memory…. Limited in  purity is all right from one standpoint.

But there is someone who says I am limited,…. someone who says I am impure, Swamiji…. There are so many complexes in my mind….. There's someone who says that,…. someone who knows that.

And I say I'm not all right…. emotionally,…. spiritually,…. physically.There is someone who says that.

And we want to focus attention on the one who says, I'm incomplete.

When I say I'm incomplete,…. I'm imperfect,….I'm lacking and wanting…….I am no good….. I’m good …. The I who says that, the I who believes that, for that I, the limitation of being impure, being not good….  is all the object of knowledge, is it not so?

When I say ‘I'm impure’…. I'm aware of the impurity. Yes, there is impurity somewhere, …..but that is in the mind. There is a limitation of memory somewhere again,…. Again that is in the mind. There is limitation of strength somewhere ….that is in the body. From some standpoints, I'm limited in every way.

Yet from the standpoint of the one who says I am limited, I'm incomplete, I'm impure, I’m no good, I'm very good….because these conclusions keep changing….they are all conclusions or judgments in the mind, in the intellect.

I have the freedom to create a distance. In fact, there already is a distance, distance of the knower and the known. The incompleteness, the imperfection, the lack, the want, the need…..all these are there,…. but they are in this body mind sense complex. The limitations are there…. no doubt….. the imperfections are also there. And maybe there's work to do, and I will do that work.

Yet before I do anything, let me understand….. who is the one who wants to do things?.... Who is the one who has needs to do things?

I'm aware of the wants and needs ….. The one who is aware is necessarily different from what he or she's aware of.

Without any hesitation, I can say that I'm aware of the limitations….. I'm aware of the imperfections…..Aware of the needs….. I the one who is aware, I am not even the one who is aware. The awarer that I am is only with reference to the object of awareness. Maybe it's a reference to what I'm aware of.

In reality, the awarer that I am is nothing but awareness.

I am awareness. Effortlessly I'm aware.

Awareness is my nature.

Everything else, …..lack want, good, bad,….all that belongs elsewhere because I'm aware of them.

Regardless of what the object awareness is,…the fact remains that I am awareness.

Awareness that I am has no boundary…The awareness that I am has no form.

The formless… boundless…. self-shining… awareness I am. Self-shining…. Self-existent…. Self-sufficient.

I do not need anything to shine. I do not need anything to exist.

I do not need anything to be boundless,………

Boundless consciousness I am. Satyam-jnanam-anantam ……

Satyam I am…. Jnanam self-shining I am.  Anantam …. Boundless I am.

…..

……

……

Just to be what I am….. which means  to drop any attempt to become,….. any attempt to know,…… any attempt to experience…… All attempts are given up.

Freedom is the freedom from the need to attempt…. freedom from need to become.

…….

I am boundless shining self-sufficient, awareness….

….

Everything else is located elsewhere.

….

Any limitation, any problem is all located elsewhere…. in the mind…. in the body.

cidananda rupah shivoham shivoham

cidananda rupah shivoham shivoham

shivoham shivoham

Om

Note: You may buy these meditations from www.dayanada.org