The Quest for Truth can only be Spiritual
Science and scientific research have attained special glamour today. In modern times science has achieved great progress. Great facts of Nature have been discovered by earnest scientists. Inventions based on these discoveries have totally changed the outer life of man. Modern man is in the lap of numerous comforts and luxuries made possible by the giant leap taken by science. Such comforts and luxuries cannot be even imagined a few centuries ago. Due to this reason science has attained great glamour these days. The great progress attained in Modern medicine has increased the average life span of man. Thus science has altogether changed the face of this earth.
Bondage –a creation of the mind
The Self or the Atman and consciousness are synonymous. Both are the same. In that consciousness no thought, no ego has ever arisen. The pristine purity of ‘It’ is ever intact. It has never ever deviated (fallen) from its awareness. Consciousness is only and ever aware of ‘Itself’.
Then who complains – ‘I am bound, I suffer, I want salvation! etc.’ On careful analysis, we discover that it is the ego which complains so, which creates all such doubts and confusions.
The Man who never Thinks
We are prone to think, to perceive, to analyze, to reflect, to dream, to aspire during our waking hours. We jump from one thought to another, from one desire to another. Thus the waking hours of our whole life are spent in thoughts. Thoughts control us. We do
whatever our aspirations make us do. Thus we have become the slaves of our mind, dancing to its tunes, its whims and fancies. The genuine sweetness of life is spoilt by this addictive habit. Thoughts disturb our inherent peace, make us commit sins much against our wish and force us to do what not! We feel as though we are chasing a mirage. It seems that in this wild goose chase we will never reach contentment. The main question that arises in the mind of a discriminating man is how to free oneself from the octopic grip of the mind. How to find the much needed repose from the great strain caused by unceasing volley of thoughts? To answer these questions let us analyze our own experience carefully.
Self Knowledge – the way to contentment
All beings have an intrinsic awareness of being which is necessarily the most immediate experience. No one ever entertains any doubt regarding his existence at any point of time. It is self evident and absolutely clear to all. All other perceptions through the senses and mind, come and go. They change and are subject to mutations. Complete uncertainty reigns over them.They are never reliable. Belief in them only ends in dejection, frustration and misery. Faith in sense pleasures and craving for them result only in addiction and deep dissatifaction. It is the breeding ground of all deseases – mental and phyiscal- the veritable road to hell. But the sole experience of ours- which is independent of all sense and mind- born perceptions – never changes – is itself immutable awareness.
Advaita and Religious Bigotry
Every religion speaks of religious tolerance, yet there are extracts in the holy scriptures of most of the religions expressing fanatical and bigoted views. Mostly they declare “ our religion is the only path to Salvation or heaven. Our saint is the only worthy, reliable guide on spirituality. The faithful followers of our religion are sure to be rewarded with paradise while the transgressors and heretics are sure to suffer the tortures of hell”. Thus goes the assurances and promises. Every religion claims that it alone is right and the only way. All others are doomed.
Pratyabhijna- Instantaneous Self Recognition
Pratyabhijna (Instantaneous Self Recognition) is the very inherent nature of the Self or Atman. In fact, like the Sruti in classical concert, this awareness shines in all splendour every moment of our life. It is ever present as substratum – awareness, continuous without any break in life and death, in all states, in all circumstances and situations. There cannot be any moment in anybody’s life when that person is not aware of himself- that he exists.
The Divine Panacea for the Grief of Bereavement
Human life is full of warm and cordial relationships and associations. We are born into a family; we have parents, brothers, sisters, grand parents, aunts and uncles. Due to our close association with others we develop friends. We marry and thus have spouses. We beget children and thus raise progeny. All relationships and associations are characterized by genuine affection and inherent sweetness. Each relationship is predominant during a particular period of our life.
Profound Silence – The Most Eloquent Exposition
Profound Sublime Silence, the very nature of the blissful ‘being’.
Transcendental substratum of all the clamour of the world.
Our true nature, absolute freedom, bereft of all limiting adjuncts.
In which the seers of absolute truth ever abide and revel.
That which always enchants the fortunate saintly and faithful.
The Saving Glance
Am I not Thy child, Your own inseparable part?
Yet I am fighting for crumb of petty fleeting pleasures !
Competing with ferocious, avaricious men for trivialities.
Wasting my numbered days in the mire of delusion.
What a pity! Are you content with my sad plight?
O, Mother of the world, brimming with great, unparallel AFFECTION for Thy children.
When will Thy holy Sanctifying Glance, Saviour of the sadhaka, fall on me?
And redeem me, make me Thine own, reclaim me
Absorb me into Thyself, freeing me from all troubles and turmoil.
When will I bask in the soothing moonlight of Thy glance?
That cools the scorching heat of ‘I do” and ‘this is mine’.
That grants succour from vortex of desires and ego.
The glance which ever revolves around Parameshwara.
I adore, cherish, admire and am fascinated, enchanted
by That divine Glance – The ever redeemer
The Unmanifest and its secrets
We perceive the mundane world and live in it. We enjoy and suffer, get excited and dejected, live and die in it. The lives of most people pass away in their struggle to live in the mundane world. They never care to enquire about the other world or life after death. They give it a passing thought on encountering some failure or bereavement in their lives. But some discriminative people seriously think of death and the after life.
A Death Worth Pondering
I stand with my hand poised over the door handle of my car, not remembering exactly how I got here. The last thing I remember is grabbing my keys and sunglasses from the cluttered shelf above my desk. After that, everything is a blur. I don’t recall the last minute of my life.
