Moment to Speak

The frailty of this world lies in its vanities . Vanities are phenomenological experiences understood by the mind through sensory perception, which may not correspond to the thing-in-itself; they cannot be proven or disproven, nor directly perceived or interpreted, but can be inferred from the nature of experience. The individual ego, perceived as the "I," serves as a facade of ignorance, excluding the consciousness of Ātman , or Self, from seeing its unity within the continuum of the universal-particular. Through its misadventures, "I-ness" associates itself with the Ahamkara , or ego. This erroneous identification of Ātman with the body, mind, and cognitive sensory systems obfuscates a sense of "I-ness." Swami Sivananda asserts that this misidentification encompasses three deficiencies: Avarana , or obscuration; Vikshepa , or distraction; and Mala , or contamination. Karma Yoga is a method that cleanses the mind of impurities via altruistic service....

The vanity of the mind is synonymous with the vanity of the world. The more the mind modifies itself, the more it projects itself outside, and the more it becomes aware of the outside world. Vanity revolves around the display and appearance of all things worldly and earthly. Māyā , or illusion, is a veil that gives illusionary reflections to our sensual perceptions. The more one externalises through sense-perceived perceptions, the deeper one sinks into the whirlpools of Māyā . It is a conceit that displays distorted proportions in order to conceal the material beneath the ephemeral glitteration. The awareness of the outside world, according to Swami Krishnananda , is primarily due to the presence of Vrittis , or psychoses of the mind. This is caused by the multitude of thoughts that the mind generates in a matter of seconds. The mind, if it remains uncontrolled, has a tendency to move outward to savour the sense perceptual enjoyments emanating from the objective dimensions of the t...

Existence is Absolute, eternal, plenum, imperishable, and infinity of the infinitude. Limited adjuncts of space-time encapsulate the rest, if any, and are transient, evanescent, illusionary, and finite in finitude. This also applies to perception, cognition, and consciousness. Sage Vasistha, in his discourses with Sri Rama in Yoga-Vasistha  (3.64.1-3.64.2), says the Supreme Being is the all-pervading Spirit and the Supreme and Absolute in every respect. He is infinity and is identical to Himself in the boundless happiness of His transparent introspection. The living soul and the active mind, or mens, which formed the world, have their origins in this ultimate felicity and essentially intellectual essence, which is what existed before the creation of the universe. This is Brahma , the eternal and inert happiness. This state of supreme bliss, which is always tranquil and full of the pure essence of God, is completely indescribable and unfathomable, even for the most knowledgeable i...