Moment to Speak

Mind is the most dynamic in the body, mind, and intellect complex. It is pervasive and ubiquitous in terms of its subtlety, speed, thought, quickness, capacity for cognition and idea production, and multidimensionality.  Mind is a bundle of thoughts, says Swami Sivananda . He goes on to say that of all thoughts, the thought ' I ' is the foremost and root of all. It receives information from sense perceptions for storage, collation, and processing. It executes the process through the sense organs. However, the greatest weakness of the mind is its attachment, as it cannot stand on its own. Attachment is a fundamental component of the mind. It develops a bond with external objects thanks to sensory organs. Once that perception has dissipated, it returns to a state of grief and suffering. It always requires some or any attachment to perform its function of thought and desire in rapid succession and with lightening speed. In that way, it is notorious to carry the impressions of...

Self is  Ātman , and  Ātman  is Self. This Ātman is itself the light that is Pure Intelligence and reveals everything by its own intelligence, states the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad . The Upanishad goes on to say that the Ātman is self-effulgent, free from ignorance, desire, and work, for it is unattached to any object. This doctrinaire line is well established in the scriptures of Sanatana Dharma (eternal order and eternal righteousness). It is, as a subject, distinct from the gross, subtle, and causal bodies as objects. The Ātman (inner self or inner spirit) within every being is not subject to the laws of samsar (birth or death), and it is eternal. In the Srimad Bhagavad Gita , Sri Krishna declares the evanescent nature of the material world and the eternity of the  Ātman . Of the transient there is no endurance, and of the eternal there is no cessation. This has verily been observed and concluded by the seers of the Truth, after studying the nature of both. T...

The key concern that arises is: can we believe what we see? Or perhaps it works the other way around: we see what we believe. If seeing or believing can apprehend reality, it's well and good to believe or to see. The sense organs sense information for collection and processing by the mind for the generation of thought and action. The mind also conjures up various thoughts independent of any experience, directing the same into a certain action framework. Thought emanating from the mind has a tendency to generate centrifugal forces that drive a being more away from the centre, or the subject, the Self, towards the objects. The mind cannot stand independently, as it requires some sort of attachment to thrive and activate itself to generate thought and move further away from the centre. The centre of everything is the Self. A being is pulled more in the direction of the subject by the force coming from the Self. According to the Isavasya Upanishad , such mental musings cast a veil of...

In the Srimad Bhagavad Gita, Sri Krishna explains the nature of the divine Spirit in all its ramifications. The explanation starts from the premise of the finitude of the finite to the infinitude of infinity and explains the unknown from the known manifested objects of perception, emotion, and thought emanating from the body-mind-intellect complex. When compared to the Kshara , or perishable components of matter, the infinite is described as being Akshara , or imperishable. He describes how Brahman (the Supreme Being) is superior to both " Kshara " and " Akshara ," why He is termed the Purusottama, or the Supreme Person, what the significance of knowing Him as the Supreme Person is, and how He can be realised consciously. He does this by referring to the Kshara Purusha ( Kshetra or the field), the Akshara Purusha ( Kshetrajna or the knower of the field), and the Brahman . He is the Imperishable Reality, the spaceless, timeless, and Absolute Being. 1. Outline...

Bhakti Yoga , or devotional union, emanates from intense love, dedication, surrender, devotion, and longing for divine salvation, enlightenment, and liberation. Intensity is the hallmark of Bhakti Yoga . This is because the devotional path is built into the subsumption of the devotee’s self with the divine Self so as to realise the Supreme Consciousness. Swami Krishnananda says that God is the largest dimension of our own selves, which is called Brahman , or the Supreme Being. The miniature of that Brahman is the Atman (inner self or spirit).That itself, expanding to the widest dimension, is Brahman . Hence, there is no God outside of us. There is an immanence of that Universal Being in our own selves. Bhakti Yoga springs from transparency, purity, equanimity, steadfastness, and truthfulness. Bhakti is to purify the heart for the illumination of the Self and to become conscious of the Self. The life process is a continuum, and death is one of the several stages in that continuum....

The end objective of the life journey is enlightenment in the Sanātana Dharma (eternal righteousness and order). The goal of all the pathways of yoga is to become conscious of the Supreme Bliss, or Consciousness, in a conscious way. This has verily been mentioned in Karma Yoga (the path of selfless service), Bhakti Yoga (the path of exclusive devotion), Rājā Yoga (the path of self-restraint or self-surrender), and Jnāna Yoga (the path of wisdom). Swami Sivananda emphatically says these four pathways lead to the realisation of the Supreme Consciousness. These paths are well accepted by the Srimad Bhagavad Gita .     The Srimad Bhagavad Gita is aphoristic on this aspect, when Sri Krishna responds by answering Arjuna’s sixteen questions on various issues. 1. What is the disposition of one who is placed in divine consciousness? (Bhagavad Gita, BG 2.54) 2. Why do you ask me to fight in this terrible war if you think knowledge is superior to productive work? (BG 3.1...

Everybody, physically or mentally, is doing karma (action, duty, or work) every second, always, and all the time. Nobody can avoid karma for an instant. We all have a natural tendency to engage in some type of action, both mentally and physically. Our sensory systems are always engaged, whether we are awake or asleep, in movement or at rest, in manifestation or in latency. Even divine entities in the divine realms go about their daily lives. In the Srimad Bhagavad Gita , Sri Krishna declares, "There is no duty for Me to do in all three worlds, O Parth, nor do I have anything to gain or attain. Nonetheless, I am performing the assigned tasks." He states emphatically that no one can remain without action, even for a moment. Indeed, all beings are obliged to act according to their gunas, or material nature attributes ( sattva, rajas , and tamas ). na hi kaśhchit kṣhaṇam api jātu tiṣhṭhatyakarma-kṛit kāryate hyavaśhaḥ karma sarvaḥ prakṛiti-jair guṇaiḥ The goal of ma...