Moment to Speak

The heart, or Antaḥkaraṇa , is the internal organ of a being. It is the Self, or soul; the seat of thought and feeling, thinking faculty, mind, and conscience of a being. In Vedānta, the word Antaḥkaraṇa , meaning heart, describes the four parts of our inner mind. These parts are Buddhi , which is our intellect; Manas , which is the part of the mind that wavers; Ahaṃkāra , which is our sense of self or “I-ness”; and Chitta , which holds our thoughts and memories. Antaḥkaraṇa , or the soul in all its senses, external and internal, the inner and outer of a being. It is a Sanskrit compound consisting of the terms Antara , or within, and Karaṇa , or organ, that causes. It is the internal and spiritual part of a being, the seat of thought and feeling—the mind, the heart, the conscience, and the soul. The Sanskrit dictionary defines it as a conscience. It is a cognitive process that elicits emotion and rational associations based on an individual's moral philosophy or value system. Co...

Transmigration is Ātman's (Self, or inner spirit) migrational journey from its existing abode, upon its death, to another. The migrational journey begins from one form to another after its death, invalidation, or demise. According to the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad (3.2.1-3.2.9), death encompasses the Grahas (organs) and Atigrahas (objects), bound by physical and elemental things and attached to ignorance. We must achieve liberation from this relative existence of means and ends; hence, we are elucidating the nature of death, as it is the individual in bondage who requires emancipation. Although we have delineated the characteristics of an emancipated individual, their physical form and possessions remain bound by mortality. A liberated person remains subject to mortality through their physical organs and material possessions. Death manifested through organs and objects represents confinement, along with avenues for liberation from it. Bondage encompasses the entire spectrum of ...

Everything emanates from Self and dissolves into Self. It is because Self  is Brahmān , or the Cosmic Self, or the Absolute Existence, or the Absolute Reality. Sri Adi Shankaracharya bluntly proclaims,  " brahma satyam jaganmithyA jIvo brahmaiva nAparahanena vedyam sacchAstram iti vedAntaDiNDimah" ( Brahma Jnanavali Mala , 20). It signifies Brahmān is the true reality;  it is impossible to categorise the world of appearances as real or unreal; and the Jiva (individual self) and Brahmān (Cosmic Self) are non-different. The crucible of all our searches, reasoning, endeavours, and destinations is to realise the Self through Self knowledge. Self is self-same, self-luminous, self-existent, eternal, complete, full, and imperishable. The essence is to remain free forever from illusions, attachments, desires, lust, greed, ego, bondages, and all other limited adjuncts. Every being is born free and cherishes his freedom because it is his birthright. Reasoning is right when it e...

Contentment is steady and everlasting. It is to Ātman (inner self or spirit) as happiness is to mind. Contentment strives for "enough," while happiness strives for "more," ultimately leading to insatiation. It remains in a steady state of inward consciousness no matter the outward situation. The practitioner of contentment remains always in equilibrium irrespective of the situational opposites of distress and happiness, hot and cold, pleasure and pain, etc. The Srimad Bhagavad Gita (2.56) endorses this by stating that a sage of steady wisdom is someone whose mind remains calm in the face of adversity, who does not crave pleasure, and who is free of attachment, fear, and anger. Contentment is one of the highest achievements of human beings and what the scriptures have already scripted. It emphasises finding contentment in the present rather than striving for more.  Contentment basically means that "right here, right now, everything is perfect as it is, regardl...

The Cosmic Self, or Brahmān , of infinite manifestations, according to Yoga-Vasistha (2.10.11), exists by itself; it passes through and supports the whole in the form of vacuity and understanding, and as light to all living beings. Nevertheless, the Samsāra ,  or the world of birth and death, created by the creator becomes entangled in an incessant round of perpetual perceptual wheel of despair, miseries, birth and death. All the living beings are subjected to this cycle as they are ensnared to their own destiny. The term destiny, as stated in Yoga-Vasistha (2.9.2-2.9.4), highlights the advantageous or disadvantageous outcome resulting from the completed actions of effective endeavour. Yoga-Vasistha asserts that all the diverse goals individuals may have once harbored in their minds ultimately become their acts. In subsequent lives or generations of sentient creatures, we refer to the strong and unwavering determination of an action from a previous existence as destiny. Conseque...

The transient leads to the transient, the eternal leads to the eternal, and Self-knowledge to Self-realisation. That is the prophecy, and that is the Reality. Yes, the Katha Upanishad discusses the idea that the transient leads to the transient. Eternal is Brahmān, the Cosmic Self, or the Absolute Existence. The Katha Upanishad (1.3.15) states that aśabdamasparśamarūpamavyayaṃ tathā'rasannityamagandhavacca yat | anādyanantaṃ mahataḥ paraṃ dhruvaṃ nicāyya tanmṛtyumukhātpramucyate || 1.3.15 || It is soundless, touchless, formless, imperishable, devoid of taste, eternal, and scentless; it is beginningless, unending, beyond the Mahat (refers to a primordial principle of the nature of both Pr adhāna  and Puruṣ a) , and unchanging, through which man eludes the grasp of Death. Eternal is devoid of sound, touch, form, decay, taste, and aroma; consequently, Brahmān is described as imperishable, for whatever possesses sound and similar attributes is subject to deterioration. Howeve...

The drama of life is central to the unfolding processes of the Samsāra Chakra (wheel of birth and death). Samsāra , itself, is an expansion of Māyā , the illusory power of Brahmān , the Supreme Being, or the Cosmic Self. The drama of life is found in the encirclement of Māyā . Since it is a drama, and it is neither real nor unreal. The Jiva , the living substance of a living being, unfolds its journey from inward, or subject, to outward, or object, depending on its elevatory priority fixation. The Jiva is only relatively real. Its individuality lasts only so long as it is subject to unreal Upadhis or limiting conditions due to Avidya . When Avidya , or ignorance, deludes it, the Jiva identifies itself with the body, mind, and senses. Avidya causes the Jiva to think, act, and enjoy itself. In reality it is not different from Brahmān or the Absolute. The Upanishads declare emphatically, " Tat Tvam Asi ," or That Thou Art ( Chandogya Upanishad , 6.8.7). The finest and s...