Sri Atmaswarupananda

A Simple But Powerful Spiritual Practice

It is common thinking throughout the world to make a division between the spiritual life and the secular life. But if all is one, if God alone is, then perhaps the purpose of our spiritual life is to recognize that there is no such thing as secular life, that all life is spiritual. 

We may not be able to find time during the day for longer periods of spiritual practice, but usually we can find times when we can just sit—in the kitchen, in the office, no matter where—for a few moments, and close our eyes and relax. That practice alone will help to steady our consciousness. 

If we add to it repetition of God’s name, our mind will become focused, our consciousness will be raised. And as we are repeating God’s name we can recognise that something is aware of that repetition. We don’t create a witness, because that’s just another thought, but whatever is in our mind, we recognize that something is knowing it.

That something can never be grasped, but it is never absent whether we are sitting quietly, whether we are active, whether we are dreaming or whether we are in deep sleep. The remembrance of that ungraspable witness raises our consciousness and puts us in another dimension. And all this can be done in a few moments.

The spiritual life is not, at its core, something dramatic. Except in very rare circumstances, it is a step by step journey that continues for years. Some time ago one of our senior devotees passed away. She was a housewife who for years and years had followed regular spiritual practices. She didn’t seem to be anything special, but when she was having her health crisis—even though she could have expected to have many more years to live—she was totally resigned to whether she lived or not. Swamiji (Swami Chidananda) marvelled. He said it is a result of her many years of consistent spiritual practice.

So we shouldn’t underestimate the inner spiritual power of something like simply—for a few moments as frequently as we can—sitting quietly, repeating God’s name and being aware that there is an unknowable witness who is always silently knowing everything.

Swami Venkatesananda

When Love Comes Into Being

I cannot love you. Impossible. 

We are two completely different beings. As long as I still cling to the consciousness that I am I and you are you, I cannot love you. I may temporarily pretend to love you, I may temporarily profess to love you, but it is only a passing fancy. As long as you scratch my back and I scratch yours, we will call ourselves lovers. 

But as soon as this ceases, it's all over and we begin to hate each other. This is not true love it all. Love can only come into being when the ‘I’ has seen itself out and ceased to interfere in the operation of the natural intelligence, this natural intelligence being cosmic and indivisible.

Swami Krishnananda

DELIGHT OF SELF

Swami Krishnananda

The delight of the Self is the delight of Being . It is the Bliss of Consciousness-Absolute. The Being of Consciousness is the Being of Bliss, Eternal .

It does not lie in achievement but realisation and experience, not invention but discovery.

This Pure Consciousness is the same as Pure Bliss , the source of Power and the height of Freedom. This is the supreme Silence of the splendid Plenitude of the Real, where the individual is drowned in the ocean of Being.

The delight of unfettered being is beyond all states of relational joy, however extreme that joy may be. 

The Bliss of unlimited Consciousness is the zenith of Existence, and everything other than this is condemned as untrue.

Sri Ramana Maharshi

“It is false to speak of realisation. What is there to realise? The real is as it is always. We are not creating anything new or achieving something which we did not have before. The illustration given in books is this. We dig a well and create a huge pit. The space in the pit or well has not been created by us. We have just removed the earth which was filling the space there. The space was there then and is also there now. Similarly we have simply to throw out all the age-long samskaras [innate tendencies] which are inside us. When all of them have been given up, the Self will shine alone.”

Swami Ashokananda

One proof that man is by nature immortal is that he cannot think of himself as a dead person. 

If he does so, he finds he is watching himself as a dead man. That’s all he can do. He can never consider the extinction of his own being. In considering that, he transcends that extinction, he lives beyond it.

There is something in man that refuses to be considered a mortal being, or a limited being. 

Endless, endless desires are the proof that his being is endless. Only he manifests it in a wrong way and an obscure way. That is what I would say. No, you cannot give up the idea that you are that eternal and infinite being. You cannot. It is haunting you. 

Only you are trying to realize it in a wrong way, and therefore you come to misery. You have taken a wrong path, and that path is full of difficulties and dangers. If you have taken the right path, you will at once realize that your true nature is divine. You will at once realize it. This is the idea.

Swami Chidananda

After generations of investigations and after having raised their consciousness to a very subtle level, the Vedic Rishis came to the Truth through direct experience. They declared that beneath this mortal body seen by the world of man is an immortal spirit unseen by the world of man. And that Eternal in the non-eternal body, that Imperishable in the perishable body is actually part of a vast, infinite, eternal, beginningless, endless, cosmic Spirit. 

Timeless, beginningless and endless. It exists. It does not exist as an inert piece. It is Consciousness. Very much aware that it exists. It knows—I exist. So it is conscious existence. Existence is Sat, Consciousness is Chit. So it is Sat Chit.

Self-realisation is the goal of life because in that state there are no sorrows. Once you discover that you are the infinite, imperishable, eternal reality—you are liberated from all sorrow. In that state, there is only pure and permanent bliss and joy. Isn’t that the goal of each and every one of us?

Swami Chinmayananda

Non-Injury

An important discipline, prescribed for the mental level, is non-injury (ahimsa). Ahimsa does not simply mean non-killing or non-injury at the physical level. It is to be understood as a mental attitude regarding our relationship with others. 

Non-injury is the spirit that should dominate the realm of our motives. Sometimes it is necessary that our actions be cruel although the underlying motive is totally loving and kind. Shakespeare beautifully expressed this idea in Hamlet, “I am cruel only to be kind.” 

Non-injury is not a passive ineffectual attitude. Restraining the wicked to protect the good is the very creed of every true Hindu.

Thus, non-injury as advised by the architects of the Hindu culture is a value of life to be applied at the level of our motives. Our motives should be blessed and pure without any cruelty or hatred. In the execution of a pure motive, we may have to weed out the thorny shrubs to make the garden beautiful again.

Swami Vivekananda

Suggestion for the next theme

Dear Readers,

We have completed the theme " Sandeha Nivarini" and  the author has to take up the next theme.

Author requests / invites suggestion for the next theme from you which you may send as a comment to this post or may communicate to him directly at his email ID - satyamurthyv@gmail.com or even message him  at  +96899239436.

He shall be waiting for your suggestion. 

It could be any theme related to Jnana ( any of the vedanta treatise)  or Bhakti (Any treatise on Bhakti or any aspect of Bhakti/Devotion)

Love

Swami Satchidananda

The aim of all spiritual practice is to know your real Self, to know the Knower. 

The Bible says, “Love your neighbor as yourself.” But without knowing what your Self is, how can you love your Self in your neighbor? Know your Self and then see your own Self in your neighbor’s Self. 

Then you can really love your neighbor as your Self. 

What if I ask you to love all fruits as you love an apple—to see the apple in all other fruits? If you don’t know what an apple is, you won’t be able to see other fruits as an apple. 

To love everybody or everything as the spirit, you should realize your spiritual truth; you should realize the divine in you.

Swami Venkatesananda

On Self effort (From Yoga Vasishta)

Sage Vasishta addresses Rama.

"Self-effort, Rama, is that mental, verbal and physical action which is in accordance with the instructions of a holy person well versed in the scriptures. 

It is only by such effort that Indra became king of heaven, that Brahma became the creator, and the other deities earned their place.

Self-effort is of two categories: that of past births and that of this birth. 

The latter effectively counteracts the former. 

Fate is none other than self-effort of a past incarnation. 

There is constant conflict between these two in this incarnation; and that which is more powerful triumphs.

Self-effort which is not in accord with the scriptures is motivated by delusion. 

When there is obstruction in the fruition of self-effort one should examine it to see if there is such deluded action, and if there is, it should be immediately corrected. 

There is no power greater than right action in the present. 

Hence, one should take recourse to self-effort, grinding one's teeth, and one should overcome evil by good and fate by present effort.

One should never yield to laziness but strive to attain liberation, seeing that life is ebbing away every moment. 

One who says "Fate is directing me to do this" is brainless and the goddess of fortune abandons him. 

Hence, by self-effort acquire wisdom and then realise that this self-effort is not without its own end, in the direct realisation of the truth.

If this dreadful source of evil named laziness is not found on earth, who will ever be illiterate and poor? 

It is because laziness is found on earth that people live the life of animals, miserable and poverty-stricken."

( Extract from "Yoga Vasishta" by Swami Venkatesananda)

Mata Amritanandamayi

ON WAIT FOR GOD

You may be waiting for God or God’s grace, but the thought of God occurs in you only once in a blue moon or on Sundays or at best two or three times a day. 

Furthermore, those few occasions on which you may think of God are very dull and lacking in intensity, because you are preoccupied with so many other supposedly important things. 

It is all right if you faithfully wait for Him to come, but be sure you are attentive in your waiting. If you are preoccupied with other things, how can God come? How can His grace flow? 

The Guru is there. His ever-flowing grace is there; it is always present. But you want Him to come uninvited, without any effort on your part. In the name of waiting you idle away your time. You do not consider it an intrinsic part of your life to wait faithfully. 

You do not take this period of waiting seriously and sincerely. You say, ‘I am waiting for God, for His grace to come. He is all-compassionate, so He will come. Until then, let me engage in other important matters.’ This is foolishness. You will neither receive grace nor will you have the power to overcome difficult situations with this kind of faith.”

Paramhansa Yogananda

GOD GOD GOD

Thou art the food and when I break my fast
Of nightly separation from Thee
I taste thee and mentally say

God, God, God!
No matter where I go, the spotlight of my mind
Ever keeps turning on Thee;
And in the battle dim of activity my silent war cry Is ever;
God, God, God!

When boisterous storms of trials shriek
And worries howl at me,
I drown their noises, loudly chanting
God, God, God!

When my mind weaves dreams
With treads of memories,
Then on that magic cloth I do emboss;
God, God, God!

Ever night, in time of deepest sleep,
My peace dreams and calls; Joy! Joy! Joy!
And my Joy comes singing evermore;
God, God, God!

In waking, eating, working, dreaming, sleeping,
Serving, meditating, chanting, divinely loving,
My soul constantly hums, unheard by any;
God, God, God! 

Sri Sathya Sai Baba

SWAMI ON AVATAR

When Narayana (Supreme God) takes the form of a man and wants to help humanity, He will act like a man. Just because God comes in human form, it is no excuse for man to be indifferent. He must realise that all the Poorna Avatars are incarnations of the same Formless, Eternal, Supreme Consciousness and the Cosmic, Omnipresent, Omnipotent, and Omniscient God. 

When the Avatar appears in human form, we find that He exhibits human consciousness along with Divine Consciousness. Ordinary people cannot grasp the Divine Consciousness of the Avatar. 

God appears to be an ordinary human being to the limited intelligence of lay people because of the co-existence of the Divine and the human aspects of the Consciousness exhibited by Him. Man's perception is limited to the level of human consciousness. 

Therefore, human comprehension is restricted by the limits of human consciousness. But the sages of yore were able to cognize the Formless God in the visible Form because they had imbued themselves with Divine Consciousness. Thus, according to their levels, different people regard an Avatar as a mere human being or the Cosmic Reality.

- Sri Sathya Sai Baba

Sandeha Nivarini - Post 56

Dear All,

Let us summarize the learning from the last chapter of this treatise.

Love.

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QUESTION

This delusion of the objective world (samsara) overpowers us, thick and strong, like the darkness of clouds in the rainy season.

What is this mighty force that drags us along?

SWAMI ANSWERS:-

That, which is attached to the body and feels as “I” is the individual soul (jiva). The soul is outward-faced; it believes all this mutable creation (jagath) and objective world; it is immersed in both. When the soul ignores and forgets its non-dual embodiment (a-dwaitha-swarupa), we call it ignorance (a-jnana)

Author’s note

• God has created human beings as divine, verily as God Himself.
• Once a human being gains conscience and starts sensing/ knowing this world, he ends up looking the world and the body with which he is born as real.
• In this way, Man forgets that he is created as divine by the God.
• This forgetting of man’s reality as DIVINE, is Absence of wisdom or Avidya or Ignorance.                                 

AVARNA

Veiling without appearance

Even when one’s divine identity is taught, it is denied / one fails to grasp it. Lack in faith and steadfastness to Imbibe the teaching.

Veiling with appearance

Even when someone believes by study of the  scriptures (sastras) and by the grace of providence that there is non-dual Atma, one can be carried away by cursory and superficial arguments and dismiss it as non-existent.

Though one has the consciousness (chit) that is aware of the very thing that one denies, the delusion (moha) makes one declare that it is non-existent. This is the sinister role of veiling with appearance.

Vikshepa

Though you are formless and changeless, and though your nature is bliss (ananda), one is  deluded into believing, feeling, and acting as if you are the body, which has form, which changes, and which is the seat of pain and grief.

One refers  to your self as the doer and enjoyer; you speak of I, you, they, this, that, etc., deluded into believing variety and multiplicity where there is only One. This illusion of projecting many on the one is called vikshepa-sakthi, or superimposition.

Devotee:. What is the real, and what is the unreal?

Swami: The one and only, non-dual, being-awareness-bliss (satchidananda) absolute Brahman (Parabrahman) is the Real. Just as the name and the form of the snake are superimposed on a rope, this cosmos (jagath) — inclusive of everything from Brahman to a blade of grass, all creatures, all inert objects like the earth — is super-imposed on that Absolute, Supreme Real. The cosmos is the unreal (a-vastu) — that is, the superimposed thing.

Devotee: This superimposition of the name-form cosmos on the non-dual Real, how is it caused?

Swami: By illusion (maya).

Devotee: Well how does that ignorance produce all this cosmos (jagath)?

Swami: The power of ignorance doesn’t allow you to see the rope; instead it imposes the snake upon it; it makes you see the cosmos where there is only Brahman.

What is the distinction between the waking stage and the dream stage?

Swami: Both are of the nature of illusion. The impressions operate in both. The cosmos (jagath) is the stable illusion; the dream is the unstable illusion. This is the distinction, there is no other.

Devotee: Swami, how can it be said that this cosmos is unreal, when it is concrete and capable of being experienced in a variety of ways?

Swami: It is a delusion that hides the reality from the understanding, the cosmos is as much a superimposition on Brahman as a series of pictures on the wall.

This concludes the theme - Sandeha Nivarini.

Love.