Samanwayam and samyak drshti in Sanatana Dharma

“Behind the facade of Vedic orthodoxy and its
tendency to abstract symbolism, an extensive and deep-
rooted system of popular beliefs and cults and a decided
tendency to anthropomorphic presentation prevailed. The
Vedic religion, however, absorbed, embodied, and preserved
the types and rituals of older cults. Instead of destroying
them, it adapted them to its own requirements. It took so
much from the social life of the Dravidians and other native
inhabitants of India that it is very difficult to disentangle
the original Aryan elements from others. The interpenetra-
tion has been so complex, subtle, and continuous, with the
result that there has grown up a distinct Hindu civilization
which is neither Aryan nor Dravidian nor aboriginal. Ever
since the dawn of reflection the dream of unity has hovered
over the scene and haunted the imagination of the leaders. “

Eastern Religions and Western Thought – Dr. S. Radhakrishan,
https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.208994/page/n327

“The Indus civilization represents a very perfect adjustment of
human life to a specific environment, that can only have resulted
from years of patient eifort. And it has endured;
it is already specifically Indian and forms the basis of
modern Indian culture.”

NEW LIGHT ON THE MOST ANCIENT EAST – V. GORDON CHILDE
https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.280955/page/n197
https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.280955/page/n199

“…மாற்றுத்தரப்புகளை விவாதம் மூலம் உள்ளிழுத்துக்கொள்ளும் திறந்த இயல்புமூலமே இந்த நிலத்தில் மதமோதல்கள் வன்முறையையும் அழித்தொழிப்புத்தன்மையையும் தவிர்த்தன. இந்திய நிலப்பகுதியின் மூன்றாயிரம் வருடத்து வரலாற்றில் மேலைநாட்டில் நிகழ்ந்ததுபோன்ற பெரும் மதப்போர்களை நாம் பார்க்கமுடியாது. ஐந்துக்கும் மேற்பட்ட மதங்கள் உதயமான இம்மண்ணில் மத்தியக்கிழக்கு மண்ணில் நிகழ்ந்தது போல மதப்போர்கள் நிகழ்ந்திருந்தால் என்ன எஞ்சியிருக்கும்?…”

The use of dialogue to understand, assimilate and resolve the differences with other philosophies has helped us avoid the crusade kind of wars and destroying cultures. In the 3000+ year history of India, we cannot see cursade kind of wars seen in the west (I think the author means the middle east). If we had this kind of approach towards resolving philosophical differences nothing would be left, given the fact, that this is the birth place of 5+ major philosohpies.

“…மத்தியக்கிழக்கின் ஒற்றைத்தரிசன மதங்கள் பரவிய நிலங்களில் என்ன நடந்தது என்பதைப் பார்க்கும்போது இந்தியப்பெருநிலத்தின் வரலாறு பெரும் ஆச்சரியத்தையே அளிக்கிறது. இங்கே பண்பாட்டுக்கலப்பு நடந்துள்ளதே ஒழிய பண்பாட்டு அழிப்பு நிகழவில்லை. ஐந்தாயிரம் வருடங்களுக்கு முன்னர் சிந்துசமவெளி நாகரீகத்தில் இருந்த பண்பாட்டுக்கூறுகள் கூட இன்றும் அழியாமல் நீடிக்கின்றன. இந்தியப்பெருநிலத்தின் தொன்மையான பண்பாட்டுக்கூறுகள் எதுவுமே முற்றாக அழிந்ததில்லை.காரணம் இங்கே நடந்தது கொள்வதும் கொடுப்பதும் அடங்கிய ஒரு பண்பாட்டு உரையாடல்தான்.

ஸ்மன்வயம் என்ற சொல் இங்கே மிகக்கூர்ந்து நோக்கத்தக்கது. நாராயணகுரு அவரது நூல்களில் இந்தசொல்லை மிக விரிவாகப் பயன்படுத்தியிருக்கிறார். இதை ஒருங்கிணைப்பு அல்லது கலப்பு என்றுதான் சொல்லவேண்டும். ஆனால் ஒருங்கிணைக்கப்படும் கூறுகளுக்குள் உண்மையான முழுமையான ஒத்திசைவை உருவாக்குதலும் எந்த ஒரு கூறும் தன் இடத்தையும் தனித்தன்மையையும் இழக்காமலிருக்க கவனம் கொள்ளுதலும் இதன் இயல்பு. ‘தத்வ சமன்வயம்’ என்றே நாராயணகுரு தன் விவாதங்களைக் குறிப்பிடுகிறார். நம் சிந்தனையில் நெடுநாட்களாக நடந்தது இதுவே. பன்மைப்பண்பாடு கொண்ட ஒரு நிலப்பரப்புக்கு மிகச்சிறந்த வழிமுறை இதுமட்டுமே

இந்த பன்மைத்தன்மை, உரையாடல்தன்மை, பண்பாட்டுப் பரிமாற்றம்தான் இந்திய மரபின் வெற்றிக்கும் சிறப்புக்கும் காரணம். கோர்டன் சைல்ட் கூறுவதுபோல இன்றும் தொடரும் இந்தியப் பண்பாட்டின் அடித்தளம் இந்த இயல்பேயாகும்…”

Indian history is astonishing, when we look at the history of middle-east where mono-theistic philosophies (abrahamic faiths) have spread. Here we see curtural exchange and assimilation as opposed to destroying other cultures. Some aspects of the indus valley civilization that are 5000+ years old still survive and prosper. The oldest cultural aspects of India have not been completely destroyed. The reason is the the give and take as a result of healthy dialogue and assimilation of cultures.

The word ‘Samanwayam’ deserves our attention here. Narayana guru has used this word extensively. We can call it assimilation or exchange??. But, whatever is being assimilated, this culture makes sure that we do not lose the individuality of the other philosophy / culture and agreement with all the philosohpies has been the nature of sanatana dharama. Narayana guru calls his debates / dialogue ‘tattva samanwayam’. This has been our thought process. For a multi-faceted, diversified land such as ours this is the best approach.

This diversity of thought, readiness for dialogue, cultural exchange has been the reason for the survival of our sanatana dharma. As Gordon Childe says, this forms the basis of Indian culture.

– Excerpts from https://www.jeyamohan.in/1327#.XNuJvsgzaUk, Translated by yours truly

“…அவ்வுரையாடல் நிகழ்ந்தது துருக்கியப் படையெடுப்புகள் வழியாகந்தான். ஆக்ரமிப்பு வெறி கொண்ட அரசர்களுடன் லட்சக்கணக்கான சாதாரண மக்களும் வந்தார்கள். இங்குள்ள மக்களுடன் உரையாடினார்கள். அவர்களிடம் இஸ்லாமின் ஆன்மீக சாரம் வந்தது. அது இங்குள்ள ஆன்மீகத்தைக் கண்டடைந்தது. நம் ஸ¥·பிக்கள் அனைவருமே மிக எளிமையான மக்களில் இருந்து வந்தவர்கள். படைவீரர்கள் குதிரைக்காரர்கள்…மிக அபூர்வமாகவே மன்னர்குலத்தவர்கள்.

மேலும் பதினாறாம்நூற்றாண்டுக்குப் பின்னர் இங்கே கிறித்தவம் வந்தபோது அது சாம்ராஜ்யக் கனவுகொண்டிருந்த ஐரோப்பிய இனத்தின் மதமாக வந்தது. எந்த விதமான உரையாடல்களுக்கும் அது தயாராக இருக்கவில்லை…”

…that dialogue happened during the Turkish invasion. Lakhs of ordinary people also came with the power hungry emperors. They discussed and mingled with the people here. With them came the Islamic thought. That found the spirituality here. Our Sufis came from ordinary background, soldiers, horsemen…very rarely emperors.

When Christianity came here after 16th century, it came as the representative of European empire. It did not give rise to any dialogue.

“…அவர் அவர்களின் கோயிலில் புகுந்து சிலைகளை உடைத்தும் அவமரியாதைசெய்தும் அவர்களிடம் ஆவேசமாக பேசும்போது அவர்கள் நிதானமாக அவரிடம் உரையாடுகிறார்கள் என்கிறார் அவர். அச்சிலைகள் எங்கும் உள்ள பரப்பிரம்மத்தின் வடிவங்களே என்றும் சிலையில் உண்மையில் ஒன்றும் இல்லை என்றும் சொல்கிறார்கள். அவர் வழிபடும் தெய்வமும் தாங்கள் வழிபடும் தெய்வமும் ஒரே பரம்பொருளின் வடிவங்களே என்றும் ஆகவே அவர்கள் மதம் மாறவேண்டியதில்லை என்றும் சொல்கிறார்கள். ‘இந்தமக்கள் நம்மை மதிக்கிறார்கள். நம்மை பிரியமாக வரவேற்கிறார்கள் .நாம் சொல்வதை கவனமாகக் கேட்கிறார்கள். ஆனால் நம் கருத்தை மட்டும் ஏற்றுக்கொள்வதே இல்லை” என்று சாமுவேல் மெட்டீர் பதிவுசெய்கிறார். பெரும்பாலான கிறித்தவ மதப்பரப்பாளர்கள் இவ்வாறு எழுதியிருக்கிறார்கள். இதுதான் உரையாடல் நடந்த விதம்…”

He (Samuel Mateer) says, when we destroyed the statues in their temples and disrespected them, and spoke with them angrily, they spoke back with patience. They say those idols are just symbolic representations of para-brahman which is omni-present. The idols really do not have anything in them. What we worship and what they worship are the same para-brahman is their belief. So they do not have to change their belief. ‘These people respect us. They welcome us with love. They listen to us carefully. But they do not accept our belief’. Most of the Christian missionaries record similar experiences. This was the way dialogue happened.

– Excerpts from – https://www.jeyamohan.in/1337#.XNuJxMgzaUk, Translated by yours truly.

I encourage tamil readers to read the entire set here.

https://www.jeyamohan.in/1327#.XNuJvsgzaUk
https://www.jeyamohan.in/1333#.XNuJwMgzaUk
https://www.jeyamohan.in/1337#.XNuJxMgzaUk

This dialogue is being threatened today by multiple forces

1. Missionaries funded by Vatican
2. Wahabist moulas funded by Oil money
3. Our own right wing extremist movements
4. Our own pseudo secular party leaders with other ulterior motives, who consider and [1] and [2] to be right and find [3] wrong

 

These are not the common people, the common people need to be part of the dialogue and these elitists with ulterior motives should not influence the dialogue in any means.

 

சமானீ வ ஆஹ¤தி! ஸமானா ஹ்ருதயானீ வ
ஸமானம் அஸ்து வோ மனோ! யதா வா ஸ¤ஸஹாஸதி

[இணைந்து வழிபடுங்கள்! உங்கள் இதயங்கள் இணைக!
உங்கள் மனம் ஒன்றாகுக! ஒன்றாக நலம் பெறுங்கள்!]

समानी व आकूति: समाना हृदयानि व: |
समानमस्तु वो मनो यथा व: सुसहासति ||

यथा व: सुसहा असति ||

ऋग्वेद

This is the last ‘śloka’ in the Rigveda. It states – Let your conclusions be one (or be alike), Let your hearts be the same (or be alike) [So that “everyone” feels for the same particular bad/ill in the society in the same intensity. It may be the common experience that not all feel for the same problem in the ‘intensity’ that we as individual may feel for that. Due to this there may be lack of ‘collective’ efforts to solve that problem]. Let your minds think alike/similar. May all these factors make your organisational-power an impressive one. This ‘śloka’ can be called as an ‘saṅgaṭhan-sūkta’ i.e. guidelines for building an impressive organisation/nation.

Lokmanya Bal Gangadhar Tilak had ended his book ‘Geeta Rahasya’ by this ‘shloka’.

From – https://sa.wiktionary.org/wiki/%E0%A4%B8%E0%A4%82%E0%A4%B8%E0%A5%8D%E0%A4%95%E0%A5%83%E0%A4%A4_%E0%A4%B8%E0%A5%81%E0%A4%AD%E0%A4%BE%E0%A4%B7%E0%A4%BF%E0%A4%A4%E0%A4%BE%E0%A4%A8%E0%A4%BF_-_%E0%A5%A6%E0%A5%AB

Do not give up to the divisive tactics employed by the select few elitists with ulterior motive.

Broadening our identity beyond religion–An anecdote

This is a short story which I heard in a discourse by Suki Sivam on Bhagavad Gita.

A group of doves are living in a temple tower. The temple’s renovation works begin and many people start frequenting the temple tower. The doves leave the temple tower and move to a church tower. There are a few doves which were already staying in the church tower and they are happy to have new friends. The doves heartily welcome the new doves and they start living together happily.

After a few months it is Christmas time, they start painting the church and many people start frequenting the church tower. The doves leave the church tower and move to the tower of a mosque. There a few doves in the mosque tower and they too happily welcome the new doves and share their place with the new doves. All the doves are now living happily in the mosque tower.

One day a group of people below are fighting in front of the mosque, below the tower. A little dove gets curious and asks his mother to find out why they are fighting. The mother dove explains they are different groups of people and that’s why. Some of them go to the mosque and they are called Muslims, some of them go to the church and they are called Christians and some of them go to the temple and they are called Hindus. They are fighting amongst each other as to who is right, who is great.

The little dove really gets puzzled and asks the mother dove, we were living a temple, and then the church and then the now we live in the mosque. We are all still doves we did not change to something other than doves because we live in a different place, how can it be so different for humans. The mother thinks for a while, lets out a sigh and then responds: that’s why we get live in a place where God lives and humans cannot live here, they have to be visitors. And that’s why we live above the humans and they live below us. Once they realize that regardless of the church, mosque, temple they all are humans, they will join us as doves.

Patience or Anger – Purity of mind – An anecdote from Sant Eknath’s Life

Here is an anecdote from Sant Eknath Maharaj’s life.

One day a group of people were gambling. A small fight began within them and they started fighting within themselves. One of them tried to stop the fight and asked them not to get angry and fight among themselves.

One of them immediately replied that he was not Eknath to be calm and collected and never to get angry for anything. One of them listening to this asked if Eknath really will not get angry for anything. All others said that even the sun may rise in the west but Eknath will never get angry. He then said that if someone doesn’t get angry then he is not human. The others then said that he was not human and that he was god. The guy then betted the whole money they were gambling and said that he would make him angry.

The gambler who had betted, had a house near the banks of Godhavari. He went home and the next morning he was waiting for Eknath to come to Godhavari to have his bath. Eknath had his bath and was returning back. The gambler was chewing pan and spitted on his head from the terrace of his house on Eknath. Eknath dint even bother to look up to see him, nor did he shout at him and he went back to Godhavari to bath again. When he came back the gambler again spit the pawn on him. Eknath still dint say anything and went back to bath again.

Eknath would clean himself and come and the gambler would spit on him, this happened several times and by noon the gambler had finished his entire pan and was also tired standing in the terrace and spitting. Now the gambler came down and was waiting for Eknath to come. This time when Eknath was going back from the river the gambler blocked him and asked him how he had so much of patience and that why he did not get angry with him when he has been spitting on him since morning.

Eknath then replied to him that he came to Godhavari to clean his body before performing pooja to god. He also said that one should perform pooja with clean body and mind. When he spitted on him, he only dirtied his body and went back to clean it. He then said that if he had got angry and shouted at him, his mind would have become dirty and that it would be even more difficult to clean his mind than cleaning his body. The gambler was moved hearing this and said that he had read about this but never seen this in practice.

Source & Credits: http://indiansaints.wordpress.com/2009/09/19/sant-eknath/

Meditation

This post is again broadly based on notes from a discourse by Swami Paramarthananda.

What is meditation?

Meditation (dhyana) is a practice (sadhana) of conditioning the mind. Many of us are conscious of our physical health. We try to imbibe

• exercise,
• physical sports,
• workouts at the gym,
• (pathanjali) yoga asanas (postures)

into our daily routine – to keep ourselves physically fit.

Meditation likewise is one of the key practices to keep our mental faculty (mind) fit. Even though meditation is related to the mind, it also has some physical health benefits as well.

The Goal of meditation

Meditation is a means for different things to different people. We can use meditation to help us with

• either worldly / material goals such as physical and mental health, personality development and better performance etc. (upasanam)
• or spiritual advancement (upasana yoga)

Meditation as a spiritual practice

When meditation is used as a practice for spiritual advancement it can be

• either preparatory (dhyanam)
• or assimilatory (contemplation as per Swami Dayananda Saraswathi) (nidhidhyasanam)

Types of meditation

A spiritual seeker (sadhaka) can use Preparatory Meditation to condition his mind before studying Vedanta. Depending on what aspect of the mind

• Tranquillity / Peace (Shama)
• Focus / Sharpness
• Open-minded-ness
• Value system

is being developed the meditation can be classified into

• Relaxation meditation
• Concentration meditation
• Expansion meditation
• Value meditation

Relaxation meditation

In relaxation meditation you try to ‘relax’ your mind using a technique that works for you. It can be very simple mental self talk / imagination like

• while breathing out imagine breathing out all negative emotions, stress, tension etc.
• while breathing in imagine breathing in good health, wellness, peace etc.  

Concentration meditation

You can choose any task that requires you to focus. Swamiji used the example – a typist can use typing. But since we all do this, all of the time, It is better to use a practice that is spiritual.

You can choose from a spectrum of mental worship practices (manasa upasana) such as

• Mental worship (manasa pooja – scope is large) – You can imagine yourself or a priest performing an elaborate spiritual ceremony (pooja). For example you can choose Mantra Matruka Pushpa Mala Stava or Shiva Manasa Pooja Stotram by Adi Shankara Bhagavad Pada and visualize your self doing an elaborate pooja. If you are not used doing a pooja, next time you visit a temple, observe how it is done. You can use the same visualization.
• Mental chanting of spiritual verses (manasa stotra parayana – scope is as smaller than mental worship as there are only words now) – You can mentally chant verses from the scriptures / prayer songs etc.
• Mental chanting of lord’s name (manasa japa – scope is smaller than mental chanting of verses as there is only one name that you are chanting) – You can mentally chant the name of the lord repeatedly. Ex. chanting
  • Om Nama Shivaya, or
  • Om Namo Narayanaya, or
  • Om Maha Devyai Nama:, or
  • Shree Rama Jaya Rama Jaya Jaya Rama or
  • Hare Rama Rama Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare, Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare or
  • What ever be the name of your lord (ishta devata).

  The smaller the scope is the harder it is for the mind to keep the focus. Thus one can start with larger scoped practice and move towards the smaller scoped practices.

Expansion meditation

This is done to identify ourselves with the bigger universe. You can slowly start identifying yourselves with a bigger entity. Self –> Family –> Neighbourhood –> Street –> Locality –> City / Town / Village –> State –> Country –> Humanity –> World –> Universe –> Creator of the Universe. As the salinity of a water reduces with dilution (by adding more and more water) the selfishness / narrow minded-ness reduces as one starts identifying himself with bigger entities. This can almost eliminate our narrow notion of self.

Value meditation

The first step here is intellectually convincing ourselves that values are required and they should not be compromised even if the situation is adverse. Example

• Rama agreed to sacrifice the throne and to live in forest to honour his father’s word.
• Nachiketus agreed to goto to Yama to keep his father’s word.
• Raja Harishchandra was ready to die for truth.

Here we can imagine our self in adverse situations and imagine our response to them in accordance to desired values. Example we can imagine our self in a situation that makes us angry and imagine that our response to be patience instead of anger. Or we can imagine our self in a situation that can make us jealous of someone and instead of feeling jealous we can imagine our self congratulating the person with our whole heart.

Once we practice this enough, this becomes a habit in our real life as well.

Which one to practice

Just like we use different kinds of exercise to strengthen different parts of the physical body, different kinds of meditation, condition different aspects of the brain. So we need all of them.

An un relaxed mind, however sharp it can be, cannot study Vedic philosophy (Vedanta).

A relaxed mind, if lacks focus cannot do Shravana (listening) or Manana (memorizing, analyzing)

So every type of meditation is required.

 

Obstacles & tips to overcome  them

 

What if, I am unable to start?

• Start small and slowly increase the time (start with 2-3 minutes & slowly increase the time)

What do do with other thoughts during meditation?

• Just do not try to control the thoughts, in which case the thought might become more powerful. Everyone knows the story where a king is asked by the doctor to not to think of the monkey when taking the medicine and the king ends up thinking about the monkey every time he tries to take the medicine.
• At the same time try not to entertain it further and get back to your meditation / relaxation / concentration technique at hand (ex. breathing or relaxing or manasa pooja or manasa stotra parayana)
• Follow some sort of non co-operation movement with the thoughts, so that the thoughts do not overpower / control you.
• Generally it does not matter if the mind wanders from one thought to another, because such is the real nature of mind. But it might be a problem if a single thought pattern repeats. It might mean that you may need to fix something in your lifestyle as a whole.

I tried to get back to the meditation technique when I realized that my mind had wandered off, but it still keeps happening often, what can I do? Well if your mind is completely racing and you are not at all able to continue –

• Try guided meditation.

Why do some relationships fail? What can we do about them?

These are again notes from an old Guru Poornima discourse by Swami Paramarthananda.

To understand the topic “Why do some relationships fail?” we need to understand two kinds of people first and their characteristics.

Two kinds of people

 

1. Wise – Happy(read content) with himself
2. Ignorant – Not happy(read not content) with himself

This classification puts a vast majority of the people in the ignorant bucket.

When two ignorant try to strike a relationship (which is the most common case) these are the characteristics.

Characteristics of an ignorant-ignorant relationship

 

• Both are not happy with themselves, and they try to gain happiness from each other
• This is like Two unsteady people trying to hold each other in order to become steady (This is one of the best examples that one can attribute to such relationships).
• They both try to influence (sometimes even manipulate) each other (in order to gain happiness)
• Expectations keep mounting, No human can fulfill the expectation of other human – impractical
• More complaints than joy as a result of the relationship
• No question of progress / improvement – because maintenance itself is a struggle – Samsara

Lower your expectations

Well that kind of sets the expectations you can have from most of the relationships. So what kind of relationships you can trust on, the relationship with the content (wise) – Read – your Guru.

But, what about other relationships, which form a vast majority and which are most likely you run into. Well the only thing we can do is have lower expectations or better zero expectations when you get into such relationships.

You can read the notes (not transcript) that I made from the discourse here

http://www.evernote.com/shard/s2/sh/4da17541-1317-4ee6-b9d8-19c72db4b03d/03e3bb324c19e9149c4166211031a328

Let go and move on

 

So next time your friend, relative does something that you did not like, or does not do something when it is really needed (It is not one way, you may also do something that your friends / relatives may not like or refrain from doing what they were expecting from you) – remind yourself this example

Two unsteady people are trying to hold each other in order to become steady

Lesser disappointment as a result. Any favourable outcome is rather an exception (not the norm). This simple and profound thought enables us to move on peacefully by letting go.

Seeking help from the right source when the situation is unfavourable

The other day i listened to an excellent (all of Swami ji’s discourses are excellent, but you got to in the right mind-set to appreciate them) discourse from Swami Paramarthananda (a disciple of Swami Dayananda). It was a wonderful analysis of the problem “Seeking help when you need help from the right source”, Seeking help when the situation is unfavourable. I made a transcript of this discourse. These are snippets from the transcript. I encourage you to read the entire transcript. It is well worth your time.

The Problem

Every human being, being a samsaari subject to karma, goes through varieties of situations; both favourable and unfavourable. No human being can avoid difficult and challenging situations in life. To face the challenging situations the most important virtue we require is self confidence. But unfortunately every challenging situation knocks off the self confidence alone first.

Naturally when we don’t have confidence in ourselves because we have lost it the situation may be physical illness or any other situational problem. Naturally we look for help from outside.

I look for support from outside. I expect them to give me confidence and support. To our disappointment often what we get is not confidence and support. Most of the people, who come to (to help) me at the time of difficulty, give me a big discourse on the list of mistakes that I have done, because of which I am in this situation. A big lecture of wisdom is given. You should have done that, you shouldn’t have done that. They give a big advice. This is the most inopportune and wrong time to talk about my mistakes.

What I really seek is that somebody to come and tell me, ‘Don’t worry you have the resources to tide over the problem’. Or I want somebody to come and tell me, ‘I am with you, Don’t worry’. Or somebody to come and tell me, ‘We will together face the situation’. What I require is confidence building with the help of another, but instead of confidence, I get a big lecture on my mistakes. They will tell, I told you that day itself, you didn’t listen, That’s why. Swamiji says didn’t I tell you.

I don’t have confidence to face the situation and all other people are criticizing me for the past actions. Isn’t there anyone to help me or support me at all. There is an utter feeling of loneliness and an utter feeling of helplessness. This sense of loneliness and sense of helplessness is one of the powerful expressions of samsara. Samara can be defined in many ways. One of the powerful expressions of samsara is sense of loneliness that there is nobody even though many people of around. In spite of having people around me, I have a sense of loneliness and helplessness. This, every human being feels often in his life time. This feeling of loneliness and helplessness is prominent when the situations are not favourable.

 

The solutions

 

Solution 1

one method is that always remembering that the God is with me to support, to give me strength and to give me confidence. The very thought that I am not anatha: helpless, I have got anathanatha. Ananthanatha is the name of the Lord. I am not anatha:, but I have got the lord to help me.  The very thought that I have the help from lord, boosts my confidence. The beauty is what I require is not actual help from the Lord, really speaking what I require from the Lord is not actual help. The very thought that I have someone to help me, the very thought gives me confidence. So this is a psychological fact, What a human being actually requires is not help, but the very thought that I have someone to help me gives me enough confidence in myself. Once I have the confidence, I will discover the inner resources to handle the situation. Therefore, what I require is the offer of help, not help itself.

Dayananda Swamiji says ‘Seeking help when you need help from the right source is intelligence’.

An anecdote

The other day, one lady was telling me:

Swamiji I had to undergo cataract surgery. Only me and my husband are here, And I decided to undergo the surgery here (in my place) itself. My son who is away (in another place in India) offered to come and stay during that time. I told him that you need not unnecessarily give up your family work and all, we will somehow manage it no problem.

She told,

If he had not offered to help, I might have felt bad and helpless. The very offer of help was enough to give me the moral support that there is somebody to come and help.  The very offer of help gave me the confidence. I told him, you don’t come.  We two, even though we are old, who helps whom we don’t know, We managed and we are fine.

Root cause analysis

Samsara is not actually caused by the event itself. But samsara is caused by the event-centric thought pattern. Like that lady, what made her comfortable is not the help of the son, the son did not come, But it is the event-centric thought, Whenever I need I call my son. There is the offer of help from the son, it is the event-centric thought pattern that helped her, not the actual person. Therefore events are only the general cause of samsara. The specific cause of samsara is our thought pattern centred on the event. ‘Enakku aarume illainu aaspathirikki porache’ (when I go to the hospital thinking that I have no one to help) the suffering is more. ‘Enakku Paiyyan irukkan, venda podhu varuvaan gra thought oda aaspathirikku pora podhu’ (when I go to the hospital thinking that I have my son to help, he will come when I need) the suffering is less.

Therefore the external events are only samaanya karanam, the internal thought pattern is the vishesha karanam of samsara. Therefore what we do is, use the Vedantic teaching to change the thought pattern itself. Which is called Nidityasanam process. Instead of blindly and mechanically studying Vedanta,

Instead of blindly and mechanically writing notes, and the moment a situation comes all goes… In the class ‘Aham Bramhasmi’. Instead of blindly and mechanically preserving the cassettes, Why can’t you use this teaching to change your thought pattern.

Solution 2

Instead of saying the family members are there to help me and expecting help from them and they hesitating to offer, me feeling bad (I did so much, but they are not reciprocating, can’t they least offer?). Instead of feeling miserable, and instead of again shifting the dependence from family to God, which is another anathma (external source). Why can’t you learn to depend on your own resource by knowing your own true nature. Therefore gaining Self Knowledge, and changing the thought pattern is the method given by Vedanta. What is the Self Knowledge? The Self Knowledge is really speaking, I am the truth of the entire Universe. I don’t have to depend on the world. On the other hand the entire world of anathma is dependent on me the athma.

Therefore I am independent, Therefore I have all the strength in myself, Therefore I don’t need help and even if I seek help, the ‘Mithya World’ cannot give me help. Even if I seek help, the ‘Mithya World’ cannot me help, Therefore ‘Than Kaiye Thanakkutth Thunai’ Self Help is Best Help.

Read the notes from the entire discourse here

https://www.evernote.com/shard/s2/sh/7b43d63d-c4be-4f2c-9daa-9855e9c87214/db5e98a67237a3b05f5e42e5577b72bb

The choice – Like what you do or Do what you like

I happened to stumble upon Swami Dayananda Saraswathi’s Speech on ‘Choice’. No it is not meta physical / spiritual alone, It is practical advice to a well known problem. I transcribed the talk, so that impatient (I know a few good gentlemen) may skip read it and might listen to the whole talk if some part of the speech strikes a chord with them and pull them in. The talk is ~9 minutes and it is well worth your time in Gold.

We have this choice, Either

• You like what you do or
• You do what you like.

We all want to do what do we like. The problem is, it is not easy to do what we like. We find ourselves in situations where you have to do what if you have a choice, you wouldn’t like to do. Everybody’s life is fraught with situations where one is goaded to do (compelled to do) and one does not find a choice.

Even if I do what I like It doesn’t take time for me develop a dislike for it. And naturally so what I do becomes monotonous, what was once challenging is no more challenging because I do it with ease. I have done it so much again and again, it doesn’t give me any challenge, therefore I don’t feel alive when I do things. And much less it does not give me any kind of satisfaction, and therefore I have to give it up and choose something else which I like, and in an affluent society that it is easy perhaps.

But then, it becomes a kind of a so a (may be ‘you become a’ is what he meant to say) person very nomadic in your profession. So you do and you do not like and you move to another place, do something else and again to another place, to another place and another place do something else. So you become professionally also nomadic.

And one thing about a nomad is that a nomad never grows. A nomad cannot grow. And only thing a nomad sees is if anything is difficult he moves to another place. A nomad never grows. He never develops roots and a nomad is always a survivor, a survivor cannot make anything great.

So its very very enticive to think that I have to do what i like. But that’s not the truth in life. Therefore I have only now the other side is open.

If I have to be happy being what I am, only one thing I can do now. What (is that)? Learn to like whatever that you do. Whatever that you do. Whatever it is I should be able to like and that means I have discovered a certain freedom in myself.

You don’t need to grow if you have to do always what you like. But you need to grow you need to have a bigger picture. You have to be a different person if you got to like what you do. To like what I do is to like myself as person. If I like myself as a person, love myself as a person then anything I do I can like. It can be anything. Whatever be the job that I have to do I enjoy doing it because, I enjoy myself being what I am. That means I need to have a bigger picture. A bigger picture of my self,  bigger picture of what I am about do this in this life this world.

That bigger picture is what the Gita gives you. The 4th chapter especially talks about this big picture, which is what we call ‘gnanam’. There is a great praise of knowledge and the chapter itself is called ‘gnana karma sanyasa’. ~ means with knowledge you are free. You are not free from karma, you cannot be. But you can be free even while doing karma. You can be free while doing karma. If you think that you will become free from karma there is no chance. You can be free in doing exactly what you like, that is not possible either. Neither from activity you can be free, nor you are free enough to do only what you like. It is not there in anybody’s life. Even gods have to like what they do. If Indra has a job to do, he better likes it. Otherwise he will be miserable. If Vayu, Varuna and Agni have a job to do they better like what they do, otherwise they will be miserable like many of us.

Therefore one has to discover that that freedom centered on oneself that makes the person enjoy himself / herself and thereby enjoy whatever that one does. Do you have a choice in knowing this now, that you don’t have a choice. You don’t have a choice, you have to know and you will know.

Credits where they are due:

Source: http://www.geetham.net/forums/showthread.php?44603-Nochur-Venketraman-For-Intellectual-Opium-Eaters&p=670890#post670890

http://www.mediafire.com/?u9p6i8fzbhsg37b

Welcome to Karma Yoga!

The power of thoughts

काममय एवायं पुरुष इति।
स यथाकामो भवति तत्क्रतुर्भवति।
यत्क्रतुर्भवति तत्कर्म कुरुते।
यत्कर्म कुरुते तदभिसंपद्यते॥

kāmamaya evāyaṃ puruṣa iti |
sa yathākāmo bhavati tatkratur bhavati |
yatkratur bhavati tat karma kurute |
yat karma kurute tad abhisaṃpadyate ||

You are what your deep, driving desire is
As your desire is, so is your will
As your will is, so is your deed
As your deed is, so is your destiny

Brihadaranyakopanishat 4.4.5

Credits – The power of thoughts via – Secrets to Staying Positive with Vedic Tradition an ebook from Periva Forum via a Geetham post.

A quotable gem–Serenity Prayer

God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change,
Courage to change the things I can,
And wisdom to know the difference.

Memorize it, Frame it, Keep seeing it every hour of the day, Dream it when you sleep.

Credits:

Found via Swami Paramarthanandaji’s Introduction to Vedanta lectures, via geetham.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serenity_Prayer

Clean up your attitude

Have you ever wondered what makes you unhappy, discontented, dissatisfied and restless?

1. Jealousy: Resentment of others’ success and prosperity.
2. Persecution complex: The unhealthy belief that people are deliberately placing obstacles on our path to prevent us from achieving what we desire.
3. Obsessive desire for perfection: The inability to be content with what we are and what we do.
4. Needless regret over past decisions: It’s futile wishing to change the past, which cannot be changed.

To put it simply, we are unhappy because:

• We can’t get what we want.
• We are not satisfied with what we have.
• We live in the past or fantasise about the future, and cannot live in the present.
• We want to change conditions around us, or in some cases, we resist any change in our present conditions.

It is clear that unhappiness arises out of our unwillingness to accept life as it is.

I am sorry, I could not help but post the content from the article literally here. A great article, worth a read.

Read the entire article here. Found via a forum post in http://www.geetham.net/forums.