Sandeha Nivarini - Post 23

46 Maxims

Devotee: Swami, tell me how we should, generally, conduct ourselves. What qualities should we possess? Which type of subjects should we try to understand? To receive divine grace and attain Your Holy Presence, what acts should we perform? Please tell me the more important of these, the essential things, the chosen jewels.

Swami: Oh! It seems, Parvathi asked Iswara once, “It is difficult to retain in memory the thousand names of God; it takes a long time to learn them and repeat them; so, please tell me one single name that is the essence of all the thousand.” 

Similarly, you perhaps find it difficult to grasp all that I write and explain, so you are asking me to tell you about the most important, right? But you see, Names have their essence, and the subjects you ask about are different. Though their objective and final result are one, the practices, the paths of activity, cannot be one. They cannot all be summarised in one word! 

Still, I’ll give you now some selected jewels, maxims of conduct, that are very important. Collect and treasure them well. Experience them well, put them into practice, and derive joy therefrom. Wear these jewels and beautify yourself. 

Devotee: Exactly what I wanted! How lucky I am! 

Swami: Then listen carefully, I shall tell you.

1. Divine love (prema) should be considered as the very breath of life.

2. The love (prema) that is manifest in all things equally —believe that that love is Supreme Atma (Param- atma).

3.The one Supreme Atma is in everyone, in the form of divine love.

4.More than all other forms of love, one’s first effort should be to fix one’s love on the Lord. 

5.Such love directed toward God is devotion (bhakthi); the fundamental test is the acquisition of devotion. 

6.Those who seek the bliss of the Atma should not run after the joys of sense objects.

7.Truth (sathya) must be treated as life-giving as breathing itself. 

8.Just as a body that has no breath is useless and begins to rot and stink within a few minutes, so life without truth is useless and becomes the stinking abode of strife and grief. 

9.Believe that there is nothing greater than truth, nothing more precious, sweeter, more lasting. 

10. Truth is the all-protecting God. There is no mightier guardian than truth.

11. The Lord, who is the embodiment of truth (sathya), grants His sight (darshan) to those of truthful speech and loving heart.

12. Have undiminished kindness toward all beings and also the spirit of self-sacrifice.

13. You must possess control of the senses, an unruffled character, and non-attachment.

14. Be always on the alert against the four sins that the tongue is prone to commit: (1) speaking falsehood, (2) speaking ill of others, (3) back-biting, and (4) talking too much. It is best to attempt to control these tendencies.

15. Try to prevent the five sins that the body commits: killing, adultery, theft, drinking intoxicants, and the eating of flesh. It is a great help for the highest life if these are kept as far away as possible.

Continued.......

Swami Vivekananda

Sandeha Nivarini - Post 22

Dear All,

We have covered the topic Antah Karana- Four fold functions of Mind- Manas, Buddhi, Chitta, Ahankara elaborately with 20+ posts under the theme- MBCA.

The theme posts were summarized in the last post under the theme which is reproduced below. 

For those who may be interested to know all about this, they may go through all posts under the label / theme - MBCA (Manas, Buddhi, Chitta, Ahankara)

Dear All,

In about 20+ posts on the yoga sutra's topic - MANAS BUDDHI CHITTA AHANKARA, everything about these four functions of the mind has been explained through visual flow sheet, through detailed exposition, through various Master's sayings on this aspect.

We learnt the four functions and how they influence us to take up any actions and then we also learnt how the impact of actions performed by us is taken through our 5 cognitive senses to the memory bank - Chitta.

The diagram is reproduced below, which  explains the same.

Also, the  5 kinds of coloring / ego, how they impact our acts / decisions were learnt, which is given through a visual flow below. How our first act / karma in our first ever birth and then, how all subsequent karmas have shaped up is captured below.

The whole relevance of the study of MBCA is that we are clearly able to identify, through deliberation, the various kinds of Ego / coloring / kleshas within each one of us, how they make our mind a slave to them, how we keep on accumulating endless impressions of our actions within us, how those impressions shape up our samskara and then how we get caught up in the vicious cycle, which is given above.

NOW, WHAT FURTHER?

If you have read carefully, the  previous post covered meditation and the self enquiry as to "WHO AM I".

What was the relevance of the same? Why that post had to be put up at the end? Mediation and MBCA - How they are connected?

We will conclude this theme with the answer for the above question.

Through intellectual efforts, through discrimination, through use of BUDDHI and discarding AHAMKARA and CHITTA, we will be able to undertake proper actions flowing out of proper decisions, no doubt. 

But is there any end to this whole process? Or, for births together, we have to be using our discriminative intellect, take proper decisions, safeguard us against the onslaught of 5 colorings of ego, of our mental impressions?

It cannot go on like that obviously.

So, ultimately, we have to not only conquer our mind but we have to transcend the mind, we have to transcend the intellectual person in us who is vigorously using his discriminative intellect. We have to transcend the awareness that we are right, we are not egoistic, we are not slave to our impressions. We have to cross everything and settle in and as the beginningless, endless  state of TOTAL BLISS / TOTAL ANANDA. 

This ultimate settlement as boundless ocean of BLISS cannot happen until we enter into the last of the three stages in spiritual journey - Karma, Upasana and Jnana.

Yes, we have to enter the stage of meditation, of contemplation, of absorption. The inward journey must begin and that can happen only in total silence, silencing of our speech, silencing of our body and silencing of our mind. 

Only in the seat of meditation, after intense abhyasa / practice for several years can we get a glimpse of that inner awareness / subjective awareness / experience. Thus, each moment of such inner experience is the motivator for more intense meditation and at last, the meditator and the mediation must merge into the birth less, death less, motion less state of SAT-CHIT-ANANDA, BEING-AWARENESS-BLISS!

Hari Aum Tatsat.