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BONDAGE AND LIBERATION

Mind is bondage, and the mind is liberation, an assertion by the scriptures—Amritabindu Upanishad (2), Srimad Bhagavad Gita (6.5), Shatyayaniya Upanishad (1-5), Ashtavakra Gita (8.1-4), Panchadasi (11.115), Yoga-Vasistha (Book III, Utpatti Prakaraṇa, Book V, Upaśama Prakaraṇa, Book VI, Nirvāṇa Prakaraṇa), and Vivekchudamani. The same mind, the scriptures contend, which creates the experience of being bound is also the only instrument that can reveal freedom. There is no other cause for bondage outside of the mind. The mind (Manas) works through ideation (Sankalpa) and latent impressions (Vasanas) . The mind engages in activities that create bondages driven by the sense organs. It projects a world of separate objects and takes that projection as independently real. It identifies with the body-mind complex with names and forms and creates the limited sense of “I am this person” (Jiva-bhava) . It then clings to what it likes and recoils from what it dislikes, generating joy and sorrow. ...
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MIND CREATES ITS OWN IMPRISONMENT

The mind is the best friend to enjoy the most of freedom, and simultaneously it is the worst enemy to raise an impregnable fortress for imprisonment. This is an aphoristic declaration by Srimad Bhagavad Gita (6.6). When one trains and disciplines one's mind, it guides one toward inner peace, wisdom, clarity, and Self-realisation. An unconquered mind is one's worst enemy. It is because, when the mind is unchecked, it chases endless desires and traps one in stress, anxiety, restlessness, and suffering. No one can keep telling someone what to do. Does it really bring out real inner transformation? If it ever does, maybe partially but not completely. Instead, one continues to burden one's own mind with distress, torment oneself, and remain troubled throughout life while trying to change others. The key to one's own lock is in one's own hands. One does not possess the key to everyone else's lock, contends Swami Sri Govindadevgiriji Maharaj ( Vivechan /learn geeta). Y...
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SAMADHI: AID TO SELF-KNOWLEDGE

Existence is One only. That existence is eternal, infinite, absolute, transcendent, immanent, omnipotent, omniscient, and Self-caused. That existence is Brahman , or Satyam Jnanam Anantam Brahma, or Truth-Knowledge-Infinity, a foundational Vedic declaration from Taittiriya Upanishad (2.1.1). It signifies  Brahman alone is real (Satyam) , the world is an appearance, or dependent reality (Mithyā) , and Jivatma , or the individual self, is not other than Brahman ( jīvo brahmaiva nāparaḥ ). Brahman is eternal, infinity, complete, full, absolute, and all inclusive. The  Ultimate Reality, or Brahman , is described by Adi Shankaracharya as Nirguna (devoid of Gunas or attributes), Nirākara (formless), and Nirvisesha (devoid of unique qualities). He is Sat-Chit-Ananda , or Existence-Consciousness-Bliss, an appropriate description by Tej Bindu Upanishad (3.11). Liberation (Moksha) is not the production of a new state but the removal of ignorance, or Avidya , through Self-knowled...
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UNIVERSE AND DIFFERENT DIMENSIONS OF SPACE: Beyond the Observable

The universe is a manifestation of Brahman , eternal, infinite, and Absolute Existence, which itself is prior to and beyond the limited adjuncts of space, time, and causation. The clearest statement is the famous Shanti Mantra  (peace invocation) in the major Upanishads (the opening invocation of Isha Upanishad and Brihadaraṇyaka Upanishad, 5.1.1) of Shukla Yajur Veda . It sets up the Uppanishad’s central theme: the absolute wholeness of reality. It functions as a crucial programmatic declaration for the text’s deep metaphysical explorations into Brahman .   Om pūrṇam adaḥ pūrṇam idam     pūrṇāt pūrṇam udacyate     pūrṇasya pūrṇam ādāya     pūrṇam evāvaśiṣyate That (Brahman) is full/infinite; this (universe) is full/infinite. From the Whole, the Whole comes forth (the universe manifests out of infinite consciousness without reducing it). When the Whole is removed from the Whole, only the Whole remains (infinity minus infinity still...
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THINKING MAKES IT SO

The phenomenal domain we experience is a dependent reality and does not have an independent existence, as it is a mind construction. Mind creates, recreates, modifies, and shapes into forms and names. Mind sustains and dissolves. It is mind in every direction and corner of the phenomenal dimensions. Thinking is the primary and fundamental aspect of the mind. But the mind does not have an independent existence, as it is attached either to the objective or the subjective domain. An unleashed mind tends to move outward to the objective phenomenal domain, but a controlled mind remains in the subjective domain in the deep cavity of the heart of Pure Consciousness. In the former case the "I" of the mind is confined to the psycho-physical structure, a manifestation of the ego of attachment, insatiable desires, pride, vanity, covetousness, and anger. In the latter case it is imbibed by virtues of compassion, humbleness, equanimity, detachment, dispassion, discipline, and forbearance....
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