Thoughts 35
35. Meditation is a process of churning the mind to filter out surfacing impressions till the mind goes empty.
The story of five Es
Today, during our Gita lecture, Swami Yogaswarupanandaji said that Swami Krishnanandaji had four Es for the four purushArthAs. By the way, the latter was one of the best intellectuals and scholars of his time. The Es go as follows:
--dharma: ethics
--artha: economy
--kAma: emotions
--moksha: emancipation
Then he went on to say that all the above goes well if a fifth E is given up: ego!
--dharma: ethics
--artha: economy
--kAma: emotions
--moksha: emancipation
Then he went on to say that all the above goes well if a fifth E is given up: ego!
Gita insight
(camp Rishikesh) Swami Yogaswarupananda gave some insight into the Bhagavad Gita from a different angle:
Significance of 18:
Significance of 18:
- 18 chapters
- 18 parvAs of mahAbhArat
- 18 days of war
- 18 divisions of army
- 18 aspects of the human being (5 karmendriyA-s, 5 jnAnendriyA-s, 3-guNA- s, 4 mind-divisions of manas, buddhi, ahankAra & chitta, and lastly jIvA)
Garibdas
(camp Rishikesh) Finally, last Sunday, we went and met Shri Garibdasji over here in Rishikesh. One Swamiji at the ashram insisted that we should take his darshan since he and many others consider him as a realized person. (Garibdasji himself doesn't claim so and didn't include his name in the list of people he mentioned were realized). Whether or not so, we're no one to judge, but all we know is how the meeting went and it went really well.
We reached there at 0715 and only one person was with him in his room. He left some 10m later, but we stuck on till 1015. In those 3 hrs, Garibdasji gave us a good discourse in his ever modest composure. His language was sweet, to say the least, and pure Hindi. He also narrated two of his poems, one of them being the entire crux of the spiritual journey. Garibdasji also answered as many questions as we could ask him.
I'll only mention two things that he talked of:
--Out of the many people that claim to be walking the so-called path since decades, only a small percentage has actually made it. He cited the reason for this to be clearly a show of ochre and not a wee bit of seriousness within. From his experience he dared a quote so: If a person seeks God, then not finding Him is just not possible! In fact, He's guaranteed!
--On someone's asking the best path, he threw a simile: if a person does not have a disease, there's no use asking for (the right) medicine. He added later that he'd be accessible if any true seeker needs guidance at the right time.
We reached there at 0715 and only one person was with him in his room. He left some 10m later, but we stuck on till 1015. In those 3 hrs, Garibdasji gave us a good discourse in his ever modest composure. His language was sweet, to say the least, and pure Hindi. He also narrated two of his poems, one of them being the entire crux of the spiritual journey. Garibdasji also answered as many questions as we could ask him.
I'll only mention two things that he talked of:
--Out of the many people that claim to be walking the so-called path since decades, only a small percentage has actually made it. He cited the reason for this to be clearly a show of ochre and not a wee bit of seriousness within. From his experience he dared a quote so: If a person seeks God, then not finding Him is just not possible! In fact, He's guaranteed!
--On someone's asking the best path, he threw a simile: if a person does not have a disease, there's no use asking for (the right) medicine. He added later that he'd be accessible if any true seeker needs guidance at the right time.
Infinity
(camp Rishikesh) I've written some about this amazing concept called infinity earlier, but recently, I'd another angle of thought for this. Prof. Chowdhari's (our Indian philosophy professor at YVFA) lecture made me wonder on this aspect. He questioned the difference between insentients or animals and human beings. While the discussion furthered into intellect and awareness, there's an interesting point that Chowdhariji made: animals have intelligence and so do we, but they just know things, while we know that we know! Mind the play of words here. So beautifully put!
That is, when you think you know something, you also know that you know it. To put in other words, when one starts analyzing the understanding, he becomes aware that he is understanding. This other entity that watches over the understanding is the Self. When you target your attention to the watching-over-entity aka drashTa aka seer aka subject aka knower aka Self, another such takes over and watches you as the intellect or the object! Hah! This goes on endlessly, driving even the meditative beings over the cliff into ad infinitum.
In another lecture of Religious Consciousness, said Swami Atmaswarupananda to my satisfaction, the Self is declared as unknowable in the scriptures. Still, the humans think as to say "I'll know the unknowable and I'll know it now". Finally, they've to arrive at the here-and-now after having gone a full circle. Shastras declare That/Self to be unknowable, as purNa. How else can It be declared if Shankara himself said its to be (un)known in the neti neti. If you know it, it'll not only remain unknowable, it'll also become an object; then a question would arise as "to whom was it an object?" Any answer to this question will have the answer become the knower and then Itself becoming unknowable!
The knower of knowledge cannot be known!!!
That is, when you think you know something, you also know that you know it. To put in other words, when one starts analyzing the understanding, he becomes aware that he is understanding. This other entity that watches over the understanding is the Self. When you target your attention to the watching-over-entity aka drashTa aka seer aka subject aka knower aka Self, another such takes over and watches you as the intellect or the object! Hah! This goes on endlessly, driving even the meditative beings over the cliff into ad infinitum.
In another lecture of Religious Consciousness, said Swami Atmaswarupananda to my satisfaction, the Self is declared as unknowable in the scriptures. Still, the humans think as to say "I'll know the unknowable and I'll know it now". Finally, they've to arrive at the here-and-now after having gone a full circle. Shastras declare That/Self to be unknowable, as purNa. How else can It be declared if Shankara himself said its to be (un)known in the neti neti. If you know it, it'll not only remain unknowable, it'll also become an object; then a question would arise as "to whom was it an object?" Any answer to this question will have the answer become the knower and then Itself becoming unknowable!
The knower of knowledge cannot be known!!!
Hypocritic world!
(camp Rishikesh) When it comes to spirituality, the world is full of loud hypocrites! On one hand, we see ourselves bowing down to the respected saints of yore, with associated praises, stories, rituals and all that there is to do. But on the other, we do not allow our near and dear ones to walk the path! Its one thing to talk about things and quite another to actually subscribe to such a view. Here at YVFA, we've a subject of Western Philosophy and a brilliant professor teaching us, Prof. Asopa. As Asopaji said, there's a view of life and a way of life; these may be two different things.
I myself feel that its okay if a person has a way different from his view of life, if he is *unable* to do so, while *wanting* to do so. But to just talk about it and say that "I do not want to walk the path" or "you should not walk the path" is not quite the right thing to do. Why preach it at all then?
As Swami Sivananda said "an ounce of practice is worth more than tons of theories".
I myself feel that its okay if a person has a way different from his view of life, if he is *unable* to do so, while *wanting* to do so. But to just talk about it and say that "I do not want to walk the path" or "you should not walk the path" is not quite the right thing to do. Why preach it at all then?
As Swami Sivananda said "an ounce of practice is worth more than tons of theories".
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