Moment to Speak

‘You Alone Are Real,’ explains Sage Ashtavakra in an answer to the question, "Is this real or was that real?" raised by King Janaka, well versed in Vaisvanara Vidya , or the knowledge of the Universal Self, and father of Sita of the Ramayana , before his assembly of advisors. You are not the body, nor is the body yours, nor are you the doer of actions or the reaper of their consequences. You are eternally pure consciousness, the witness, in need of nothing—so live happily, an aphoristic proclamation by Sage Ashtavakra (Ashtavakra Gita,15.4., translation by John Richards, 2nd Edition, Stackpole Elidor, UK, 1996). Sage Ashtavakra emphatically says real is neither the waking state, Janaka as King, nor the dreaming state, Janaka as Beggar. It is untrue that King Janaka is an emperor or a beggar. You are the only real you. Because you are the truth. Furthermore, you are your true reality; you are the one who witnessed both of these states, the one who existed as pure consciou...

A humble prayer of repetition as a mantra (mystical or ritual worship), mentioned in the Srimad Bhagavad Gita , to aspire the Purusha (Self). It is an inward movement to become conscious of the inner self and realise the Supreme Self on the way to moksha (liberation) and nirvāna (salvation). na rūpam asyeha tathopalabhyate nānto na chādir na cha sampratiṣhṭhā aśhvattham enaṁ su-virūḍha-mūlam asaṅga-śhastreṇa dṛiḍhena chhittvā tataḥ padaṁ tat parimārgitavyaṁ yasmin gatā na nivartanti bhūyaḥ tam eva chādyaṁ puruṣhaṁ prapadye yataḥ pravṛittiḥ prasṛitā purāṇī This world does not comprehend this tree's true form, either in its inception, its demise, or its ongoing existence. But one must use a sharp axe of separation to bring down this deeply entrenched aśhvatth  (sacred fig) tree. The next step is to find the root of the tree, which is the Supreme Being, from whom the universe's activities originated eons ago. One will never return to this world after finding...

Jiva , a living substance of a living being, experiences multitudes of thoughts, events, activities, discernment, and so many others, consciously and non-consciously. During its life cycle, it may experience inward or outward movements. The inward propulsion is to realise its own nature, hitherto covered by sensual thoughts and desires. The outward movement is to appropriate the sensual desires, an outcome of the thought-making factory of the mind. Anything that is sentient, conscious, and cognitive is considered to be life. It takes on different forms at different phases of experiential development—thinking, feeding, reproducing, and multiplying—when energy is used. Samsāra , the state that comes after birth and death, is life. It has a birth, growth, degradation, and death trajectory. Some experiences are realised, adopted, acclimatised, moulded, and incorporated during the life flow processes, and others are remembered fully, half-heartedly, partially, and discarded to the require...

The human being, a form in space and time, is in an existential battle of succession. This battle of succession has been ongoing since time immemorial. Nobody knows how long this will continue. But it is there and will go on. The human being is encapsulated in a body-mind-intellect system. He is forgetful of his sentient nature, or inner self, and moves outward towards the insentient world to realise his psychophysical nature. It is because humans never feel secure in their existing state of nature. They feel insecure about the changing spectrum of the world that may manifest at any moment and in any time space before them. Latency and a sense of insecurity are the pervasive dimensions of death. The fear of death remains a subliminal level for every being and creature. It does not matter whether he is the weakest of the weak or the mightiest of the might. No amount of physical fortification can do away with the call or force of death. It is so; we are in a samsara of birth and death...

In Sanātana Dharma (eternal order or righteousness), the idea of birth and death is associated with the ātman's (inner self, inner spirit, or soul) transmigration or rebirth. Every being possesses an immortal inner self, also known as the ātman , which is beyond birth and death. Liberation, or moksha , is the fundamental right of every being. Birth and death are associated with the transmigration of the soul, or ātman , along with accumulated samskāras (sacred or sanctifying) through karmas (activities). In this context, life processes are to be discerned. There are stages in life, such as birth and death. The self, the ātman , is the essence of the life process. Every being's ātman , not the things outside, is his own self. Life is anything that is living, sentient, conscious, and cognitive. It manifests in various stages in terms of growth, cognition, sustenance, reproduction, and multiplication through the application of energy. Life is samsāra , or that which follows...

What is ego? Ego is an outward sense of perceptive feeling emanating from the body-mind-intellect conundrum in a phenomenal world. The conception of “I” is located in that conundrum. Ego is always inflated and a manifestation of the “I” conception emanating from that conundrum. Instead of locating “I” in the Self as a subject, the ātman (inner self or inner spirit) within every being, is viewed as a psychophysical conception in a bipolarity of subject and object; eternality is the former and ephemerality is the latter. Accordingly, the world is transitional, as is everyone within its confines. The human being regards this body-mind-intellect complex as the ultimate reality, and everything connected to it is equally real. Equally valid are sensual reception and perception. The apparatus of knowledge in this world comprises the senses, comprehension, and logical reasoning. These are the tools used to assess, evaluate, coordinate, and organise the underpinning paradigm of ethical, ...

The world of objects is relative. An object exists in relation to something else. Its very existence is relative, differentiated, transitory, conditional, and in juxtaposition to other entities. It is neither absolute nor undifferentiated. A relative being, or a living being, exists due to the presence of other factors such as air, water, food, and so on. In this case, there is a persistent gap in coordination, orientation, thinking, knowledge, goal, performance, action, and fulfilment. This persistent gap is one of the basic characteristics of a relative being. Its identification is tied to something else, which could be ancestral, anecdotal, social, cultural, political, economic, or any number of other particularities. The leverage of space and time is there for its identification, existence, structuring, functioning, orientation, and several other ways. But the Absolute does not have to be defined, identified, or characterised; He is complete in every respect. His existence and co...