Moment to Speak

Brahma Satyam jagan-mithya , an assertion by Adi Shankaracharya to the declaration of "There are no others" by Sage Ramana Maharshi profoundly enunciates the non-duality of existence, reality, and truth. There are no second but only one. The subject and objects are one only. The entire cosmos is a projection or manifestation of Brahmān , the Absolute Existence or the Cosmic Self. Paramaguru Gaudapadacharya, Adi Shankaracharya, Sage Ramana Maharshi, Swami Vivekananda, and Swami Sivananda, among others, are the leading lights of non-duality. They advocate that Brahman is Real and the rest are illusions. The doctrine of Ajativada (no change), propounded by Gaudapadacharya (Parama Guru according to Adi Shankaracharya) in his Karika (commentary) states that this world does not exist in the past, present, or future. Brahmān ( Cosmic Self, or Absolute Existence) is not subject to being and becoming, nor to birth, change, and decay. This world is a mere collection of Samskaras cr...

In the Moksha Gita , Swami Sivananda eloquently provides deep insight into Māyā , the illusory power of Brahmān , the Supreme Being or the Cosmic Self. Of course nothing is in a state, whether latent or manifest, without the glance of Brahmān . It is an interplay of ephemeral, or temporal vs. everlasting, or eternal. The choice is before mankind, as Yoga-Vasistha proclaims through self-awakening based on self-effort. Sage Vasistha teaches Sri Rāma that liberation of the soul, whether of embodied or disembodied spirits, consists in their detachment from the objects of sense; hence, the soul, unattached to sensual gratification, is said to be liberated, having no idea of sensible objects. He goes on to say that though we see before us the living liberated Sage Vyasa as an embodied person, yet we have no doubt of the detachment of his inward soul from the mortal coil of his body. Liberation, whether with or without the body, is productive of unselfishness; we have lost our selfishnes...

Individuality is an idea related to the individual as a psycho-physical and mental construct bestowing certain identification attributes emanating from that construct but artificially validated by a group of people. It is afflicted by the ego, harboured in the body-mind complex, and benchmarked by the duality of the worldview. It is by nature, according to Brihadāranyaka Upanishad (4.2.1), manifest and unmanifest like the tree and the seed, and is made up of name, form, and action. It is in the mode of ignorance as it subjects itself to means-end relationships. According to the sage philosopher, Swami Krishnananda , there is an agreement among people that certain ideas should be accepted as logically valid. That is called temporal law. Man-made law is temporal law, and it is valid as long as people who are concerned with it agree that it is valid. However, that principle loses its validity if it is not agreed upon. Accordingly, ownership likewise ends when people's acceptance ...

Yoga-Vasistha , an ascribed work to Sage Valmiki, is based on discourses by Sage Vasistha to Sri Rāma, the main character of the Rāmāyana , on Utpatti (creation), Sthiti (preservation), Vairāgya (renunciation), Mumukshutva (aspiration for liberation), Nirvāna (salvation), and Upasama (dissolution). The book, according to Swami Sivananda , embodies in itself the science of ontology, the knowledge of the Self, the principles of psychology, the science of emotions, the tenets of ethics and practical morality, discourses on theology, etc.   Sage Vasistha in his teaching discourses to Sri Rāma highlights that the universe is nothing but a diversity of Māyā (illusion), being in its true state but Caitanya (consciousness) per se, which fact can be perceived through Divine Vision. Jīva (a living sentient   or soul), also known as the Self, creates distinct notions of "I," "we," and so on through its varied experiences with various objects, just like small pieces of...

Freedom is freedom in some way. Freedom is relative, to some extent. It is to some way, or some extent, as one conceives, identifies, and delineates it from the prism of ego-based self-respect. Such freedom is illusory, unreal, or transitory and subject to space, time, and causality . The limiting adjuncts—self-ego, attachment, bondage, insatiable desire, greed, anger, lust, deprivation, fulfilment, and denial—set a perimeter of limit in the search for and fulfilment of freedoms. Any amount of freedom is considered inadequate in the thirst for freedom to have more. There is a self-limiting circumvention in the quest for freedom to have more and more. In that quest, man faces a piquant situation in the samsāra chakra (wheel of birth and death) cycle of opposites of pain and pleasure, joy and sorrow, happiness and anguish, pleasure and pain, pacification and inflammation, satisfaction and thirst, rage and calm, happiness and distress, etc. It catalyses one to move outward to relish t...

I am inside; the world is outside. It is a piquant statement in the context of Supreme Consciousness, Ultimate Reality, and Existence. It pervades all dimensions, subtler of the subtlest and beyond time-space-causation. However, the statement needs to be ascertained in the context of the relationship between subject and object, a projection from all pervading Consciousness. One is real, sentient, conscious, unchanging, and eternal, and the other is unreal, insentient, unconscious, evanescent, and transitory.  According to Swami Krishnananda , in the case of the subject, or inner self, knowing and being are one. But the object, or outer self, is different from knowing. The relationship is dichotomous or continuous, but it nonetheless exists as a part of the cosmic order . The cosmic order is part of the Ultimate Reality. The Ultimate Reality is to be realised consciously through experiencing by way of the application of vivek to discriminate between real and unreal. Secondly, exp...

The concept of liberation, or Moksha, is the core of Indian philosophy. It is ingrained in the Vedas, Upanishads , and scriptures. It is an essentiality in the Sanātana Dharma (eternal order or righteousness) the eternal way or the eternal order. The Sanātana Dharma  is transcendental and beyond time, space, and situation. The word Dharma comes from the Sanskrit root " dhri " which means "to sustain" or "that which is integral to something. " This way it refers to truthfulness, virtue, honesty, asceticism, forbearance, humility, purity, chastity, and a steady demeanour. In otherways Swami Sivananda said "Serve, love, give, purify, meditate, realise; Be good, do good, be kind, be compassionate" i. Eternal Dharma , i.e., universal and fixed eternally ii. Swadharma : Duties performed according to one's condition and nature. In the Srimad Bhagavad Gita , Sri Krishna says one must rise above the dualities of happiness and distress and re...