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vinayvlr-blog · 4 years

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Bhagavad Gita - The Beginning - Gratitude offered to the Guru and Ishwara

Post No.1 Preface: Before we begin our study of the sacred Bhagavad Gita, there are a few important things to be stated up front. Bhagavad Geeta or "The song of the Bhagawan - Sri Krishna," is one of the sacred and venerated scriptures of the ancient Indian Civilization. It is an epic poem that is a written depiction of the transmission of transcendental knowledge/experience of the Self that was presented to Arjuna by his brother in-law, best friend, advisor, mentor, charioteer of life, and spiritual master, Sri Krishna Bhagawan, in a brief moment before the most devastating war of the Dwapara Yuga broke out on the battlefield of Kurukshetra. It is said that to simply come to hear of the existence of Bhagavad Gita requires an enormous amount of punya that one has gathered in life. To be born in the Dharma Bhoomi where it is famous and then coming to hear/read even one shloka written in it takes multiple lifetimes of punya karma. We are living in truly blessed times to be able to read, interpret, try to understand, comment, and have the capacity to engage in conversations about the divine Bhagavad Gita. You must definitely offer gratitude for the time and space in which you exist that has made you educated enough and given you the blessing of time away from the survival process to be invested in spirituality. My first contact with the Gita was in my early teens after my initiation into Sandhyavandanam via upanayanam conducted by a representative of the Sringeri Shankar Mutt and then followed by classes at Chinmaya Mission. The effects of the Sadhana and Gita on my life after studying it are for all to see. If you really absorb the essence of the Gita, you will become a Jivanmukta. Otherwise too, it is a great introduction to Dharma and the path. As I begin my small effort in trying to popularize the Bhagavad Gita among my friends and followers on Social Media, I would like to first start by offering my deepest obeisance to my Ishta - Shiva Mahadeva of Kedarnath. A few years back while on the trip of my lifetime to Kedarnath, I was faced with many unexpected difficulties to reach him. Despite having everything thought out and planned, situations forced me to end up climbing all alone in the dark of night, during the peak of monsoon, drenched from head to toe, without food, money, warm clothing, raincoat, sleep, or health and fitness. I was able to have his darshan only because of the resolve, "I will either drop dead or I will have your Darshan. There are no two ways about this. I will either step forward or perish." Kedarnath for me is physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually Swargalokam. It is not only the abode of Shiva, it is also the place where Guru Adi Shankaracharya attained mahasamadhi. They say, when the Atman, Paramatman, and Guru meet at one place, they merge to become one. I cannot even imagine why I deserved a blessing such as being in a place where, for me, these 3 meet. One of the fondest memories of my life will be of being alone inside the Garba Griha with the Kedarnath Lingam at the break of dawn, drenched, holding on to a stick just to be able to remain standing, and then bowing as low as I could, bringing my head in direct physical contact with the lingam. I had said either darshan or death, but he gave both. I prostrate before the sandals of Guru Adi Shankaracharya by whom the wisdom of the Gita was revived like never before. A sishya like me is capable only of worship of his Padukam. I pray to him for true emptiness so that my attempt to bring forth the treasure of the Gita becomes only a channel for him to gain access to many more sincere Sadhakas to work his magic on. For what he and Babaji have given me, I have nothing left to ask. "Narayanam Padmabhavam Vashishtam, Shaktim cha tatputra Parasharam cha. Vyasam Shukam Gaudapadam Mahantam, Govinda Yogindra mathaasya sishyam. Sri Shankaracharya mathaasya padmapadam cha hastaamalakam cha sishyam. Tam Trotakam Vartikakaramanyan, asmatagurum santatamanatosmi. Shruthi Smruti Puranaanam, alayam karunalyam, Namaami Bhagavadpadam, Shankaram Loka Shankaram, Shankaram Shankaracharyam, Keshavam Baadarayanam, Sutrabhashya krutau vande, bhagavantau punahpunaha. Gurur Brahma, Gurur Vishnuhu, Gurur Devo Maheshwaraha, Gurur saakshat Parambrahma, Tasmai Sri Guruve Namaha." Vande Guru Paramparam. Tomorrow, we will be starting with an introduction to the scene followed by Chapter 1 - Arjuna Vishada Yoga. Picture of Kedarnath Dham taken from facebook group - The Himalayan Club.

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vinayvlr-blog · 4 years

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Nature has no free meals, you have to work for your survival.

Questioner: "I had read on your SM interactions where you mentioned you went through spiritual awakening before you could establish a stable source of income and survival. Could you help on how you can manage finances, work, expectations of productivity, etc., which are contradictory to everything on the spiritual path that preaches higher sensitivity and awareness. How to do this humungous task of integrating the two worlds and continue to remain equanimous?"

Answer: Yes, I was 17 when I was totally consumed by the spiritual quest and decided to make it my single-most important pursuit. As anybody, I made plenty of mistakes that caused disturbance to my routine life due to the desperation of my seeking. Academics took a terrible hit. Still, there wasn't a single day anybody had to sponsor me. I earned my free time. We all have to. Not everybody needs to go through all that I went through actually, and most don't have that kind of urge either. I am not proud of ignoring the opportunity of setting up my survival process and economic stability in my early 20s. Yet, by grace, I never did badly financially. Even if it did not mean the same stability as, let's say, achieving a govt job or an IIM seat. These were simply not on my list of priorities back then. I was rebellious and refused to bend down to a laid out materialistic path. Not that I did not want to study, because I spent most of my college years reading tons of material, just that it was not in my syllabus. However, luckily, I have always had a well-paid job for my standard of living and have been a high performer in my career. This eccentricity is not for everyone, you may not get lucky. It is only for those who can digest anything, ready to suffer poverty, and be alone.

I see a common basic misconception in the question. That is the presumption that survival and spirituality are contradictory. Not denying it is true to an extent because, yes, if you are totally driven by survival instincts then you are contradicting spiritual teachings. But which spiritual teaching has taught you not to survive? Every single cell on Earth needs to work to survive. If you mean that you wish you were a spiritual monk who had a lot of time for Life, then my answer will leave you disappointed. Living as a monk is a LOT of work.

Spirituality is not anti-work and a romantic world where you can simply be free. People on the spiritual path don't laze around, they work twice as hard as you to first come to self-realization and then thrice as hard to spread the message in society. Monks are usually under immense work pressure and are not even paid for the work they do. If you work in the corporate sector, you get weekends off and have fixed work schedules. I have never seen an ashram or a sangha where your work is not on 24x7x365. There is no holiday even if you fall sick. There is no respite even if you are sleepy. Your work is not only at a desk, but physically excruciating as well. A spiritual life was never devoid of work both within and in the world and never will be. Most spiritual seekers dream of an ashram life or one of agricultural self-sustainability. Both of these are filled with poverty and hard physical labour. In your corporate circus, you are literally on the easiest path. There is no escape from work, only options to do different kinds of work, with office work being the easiest and well-compensated.

If anything, spirituality must aid in improving your survival and quality of life rather than becoming a roadblock. Because spirituality makes you more resilient, emotionally self-sufficient, and capable of handling high levels of stress. If it is making you more resentful, hurtful, and emotional, it is not spiritual process. If you are truly spiritual, you are much more capable than an ordinary man. Equanimity is not achieved by becoming deviod of activity or hibernating. That's tamasic laziness, not aadhyatma. Aadhyatma is when even intense activity does not remove you from your bliss. The line between tamas and aadhyatmikta is very thin, but they are two extremes.

What you do need to keep a check on, here, is whether you are using spirituality as an excuse to avoid the duties that need to be performed to survive and thrive. Is this your laziness and fear of facing adversaries talking? Are you not bold enough to face people, compete, and win? Do not let small things at work bog you down. Do not cling to spirituality as an excuse or an escape. No need to complain about having to struggle to just live, because that is law of nature.

If you are talking about being forced in a mechanical way of life by the rest of society that has a one-pointed path, then you must wake up and realise that it is your own choice whether to follow it or not. What you need for bare survival is a meal a day, a roof, and clothes to wear. India is still a very, very affordable country and it doesn't take much effort at all for an educated person to earn this much. If working a full time job is becoming hard, then reduce expenses so much so that a part time gig is enough for you. You first increase your expenses and lifestyle and then worry that full-time work is hard and dirty, isn't that silly? What you want to own and maintain beyond bare necessities is your choosing, so there is no use complaining about that.

If you choose to get into the game of jobs, you have to deal with the majority consciousness. You have to deal with jealousy, pride, ego, competitiveness, politics, etc. It is unfortunate that we have to be that ugly, but it is reality and YOU are CHOOSING this reality. You have to be tough to survive, there is no alternative. Don't be mistaken that these things don't exist in a spiritual way of life or a rural way of life. They exist in all spiritual organizations, and are in fact much worse in intensity because the reward expected on the spiritual path is ultimate liberation, not mere salary or profit. About life in a village, I don't even have to start. It's hard where ever you go, and while corporate life may not be the healthiest, it is definitely the easiest. Choose what you want to do and get working, there are no free passes in nature.

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vinayvlr-blog · 4 years

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Spiritual perception or Survival oriented mind? What’s your pick?

There are largely 2 ways people look at the world. One is from the perspective of survival, and one is from the perspective of the spiritual.

When your primary concern is to survive, compete, achieve, and win; you cannot achieve it being a loving person. Loving, caring, and forgiving people cannot be competent. To survive and thrive you need to draw boundaries, you need to put up limitations, you need to fight and strive. You need to be aggressive, violent, impatient, restless, and full of desire. You need to always take from life more than what you need and ensure the other does not get what he can't achieve and simply dies away. This is not cruelty, this is simply how nature is. Cells compete against each other for domination, resources, and continuity. The ones who cannot win simply do not get to continue. When you function from here, you have to believe that the world is a bad place that's out there to get you and your job is to take advantage of and exploit everything and everyone.

There is a secondary perspective, that of the spiritual. Here, the primary concern is not survival, it is beauty and blissfulness. This perspective has a realisation that has arisen out of awareness of the primal nature, out of awareness of the limitations, the boundaries, and the fights and ugliness thereof. To the man of survival, the spiritual man will always look like an utter fool - The spiritual man is nice, he is welcoming, he is open, he gives, he feeds the animals, he forgives, he allows, he is patient, he is restful, he is meditative; what kind of an idiot is he anyway? Yes, he is an idiot of sorts because he is no more involved in Life. He has taken a step into the beyond. For him, what matters the most is the stillness of his mind and his appreciation of life. His happiness is no more important, he is happy when you are. His suffering is no more existent, his suffering is only seeing your helplessness. His desires are no more for himself, but for the greater good of all Life and to uphold natural balance and Dharma.

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vinayvlr-blog · 4 years

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The Teaching is more important than that Teacher.

Without action towards realisation, without actually, experientially, and existentially being liberated, one can always repeat words of wisdom to perfection. Usually the ones who are acting it out appear more genuine, more saintly, more gracious, and more pious. They have invested a lot in the act, it is their profession, their career. Their shop needs to run. They can't look like utter fools and convince you or be confident themselves, and it is perfectly alright. It actually does not even matter if they haven't got it themselves as long as they are showing you the possibility and bringing you into the fold of Dharma. It's about you, not them. It need not be your concern whether somebody is himself liberated within. If he is making sense to you and you are progressing towards dissolution and utilising your Sadhana in that direction, it doesn't matter. If he is talking bullshit, it will anyway fall apart soon.

What is essential is doubt in the teaching itself, not suspicion about the person imparting the teaching. If you have the right teaching, you don't even need the right teacher. That is why people who have trust issues have even dead men and inanimate texts as Gurus, and even get liberated through them. Do not take anything at face value, do not believe anything anybody says. The test of the knowledge is in its application. The problem is, you don't even contemplate on the teaching. You just want a perfect, magical, mystical being whom you can simply believe. If you want a prophet, you will get plenty.

The moment somebody says, "I am liberated," and ready to help others, you start sharpening your intellectual sword to test him out. What do you test him against? Your own delusional idea of what a liberated man should be, usually like a saintly prophet. There is no point in such testing. Most idiots are so busy testing other people's liberation, that their entire life goes away in this useless activity. The man who is liberated and choses to help other people is doing it out of his compassion for your suffering, not his, he is already free from suffering. Becoming cruel to him is the worst thing you can actually do for all of humanity. Yet, most liberated ones continue to tolerate and their compassion overshadows even your cruelty.

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vinayvlr-blog · 4 years

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Individual transformation before societal change, always.

What I've observed from the last decade of being on social media is that most people defending the Dharma are not interested in exploring the core of Dharma which is self-realisation or mukti.

Most spend all their time debating politics, religion, economics, and current affairs while dedicating no time at all for inner exploration. This is just waste of time and energy because without individual transformation there can hardly be any change in society. Just words, words, and arguments with people you don't even know. Though the help of social media, you follow a 100 others who write and debate extensively on these topics. You become an expert at vocabulary and argument. All that is well and good, you may think you are contributing to some great change, but it is only timepass if you are not contesting elections and making the law.

Then, there are those who come to spiritual process expecting magic tricks. This lot will never turn spiritual because their idea of spirituality itself is skewed. They come with a preset expectation that the process will give them "powers." Most of which is just imagination and dishonesty. If you are really at it, then perhaps even hallucination. This is actually pitiful.

The few remaining who seem somewhat interested in liberation or spiritual process too, are actually only interested in making their current lives better by finding a solution to their problems through Gurus. A Guru is not supposed to help solve your relationship issues, your financial issues, your insecurity about the future, or your regret about the past. His effort is only to show you how to ascend beyond these problems and realise the source of the mess you are in.

On an average, in a 1000 people, there are only 1 or 2 who actually have intensity of seeking and depth of thought power. It is sad to see how many choose a million other things over individual transformation because it is actual, real, difficult work. I hope this is only the situation online and in the real world the numbers are better, but that's just wishful thinking.

#dharma #spiritual #enlightenment #yoga #meditation #selfrealization #mukti #awareness #spirituality #awakening #spiritual awakening #sadhana #samadhi #bhakti #devotion #bliss #god

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vinayvlr-blog · 4 years

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Tippe Gowda’s Honeymoon

Tippe Gowda had returned to Mandya from his honeymoon in Europe. His wife and he were not on talking terms anymore. A friend asked her, "What is the problem? Why are you guys not talking anymore?" His wife said, "You know what? The guy has a drinking problem. I never knew this. He is an alcoholic." Her friend said, "How could you not know it? You were engaged for 6 months and went out many times, even met his friends." The wife replied, "I did not know till one day during the trip I noticed he was totally different. He was sober." 😂

When you are always drunk on Maya, you will not even have recollection of what reality is. One day when reality hits you and the world you assumed was permanent starts collapsing, you will be shocked. "How could this happen to me? This is not right! This is not fair." You go on building one delusion over the other every moment of life, you continuously live in unawareness, and when you have a reality check, you are shocked?

#spirituality #enlightenment #yoga #medidation #mindfullness #selfrealization #awareness #maya #dhyana #samadhi #story #life #philosophy

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vinayvlr-blog · 4 years

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Akshayakalpa - A revolution in organic milk.

Akshayakalpa Organic Milk - A switch all Bangalore residents need to make. Akshayakalpa is a non-profit business model where local farmers are given the knowledge and technology to produce organic milk.

Your milk production begins from what you feed the cows. They locally grow fertilizer and pesticide-free fodder. The crop grown is meant for the cows. Which means it is not the stale waste or left over of crops grown for human consumption. The cows are not allowed to leave the farm, so they do not eat just about anything from anywhere.

What is the living condition of the cows? They are not tied at any point in the day or night and have access to live freely on a 5-acre property. They are not supposed to be beaten. They are milked by machines that are pleasurable and easy on the udders while they are fed. These machines are kept clean and sanitized. The cows that are milked are antibiotic-free, steroid-free, hormone-free and chemical-supplement free. In case of any infection or illness, cows are treated with herbal/ayurvedic medicine. In a severe case where antibiotics or steroids are compulsory for the survival of the animal, it is taken off production for 3-4 months. The animal is stress-free and happy.

Once the milk is drawn by the machine, it is collected without human touch in a cold storage container and collected by the Akshayakalpa vehicle and taken to the packaging facility. At the packaging facility, automation ensures no human touch has occured till packaging is complete. The milk is not adulterated, homogenized, or pasteurized (Although a pasteurized variety is now available). Since it is free from human touch and has been in cold storage from the moment the cow is milked, it is also safe for consumption without boiling too.

The organisation electronically monitors the farms and every cow's movements are monitored. The health of cows too is tracked electronically. Random audits and checks are conducted to ensure no quality lapses are occuring. Veterinary services are compulsorily provided only by the organization at free of cost.

The farmers that partner with Akshayakalpa are given loans by co-operative society banks through the organisation and the repayments are made by the organization before transferring profits to the farmer. There are farmers who have made profits of up to 50,000 per month with this scheme. The organic milk only costs Rs. 20 more than the ordinary milk.

If you compare this process with the milk produced by KMF or any local diary, you will come across some shocking realities that are better left unexplained.

Download the Akshayakalpa app now and order Akshayakalpa Organic Milk and milk products and support this initiative. Support organic farming.

#organic #organicfarming #milk #production #permaculture #diary #dairyfarm #agriculture #india #cows #health #animals #love

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vinayvlr-blog · 4 years

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Annam Parabrahma Swaroopam.

Something you need to remember before eating your meal every single day. Not a lot of us in the modern day know why we have elevated just this blade of grass to divinity itself. We don't know hunger, we don't know the difficulty of hunter gatherers, we don't know what life without rice would have been like. We don't even know its origins and contribution to human society.

Rice is one crop that grows in India at Kuttanad in Kerala 7.2 ft below sea level and at 10,000 ft above sea level in Kashmir and Himachal. Rice is the most resilient crop that grows under the maximum range of conditions. It is harvested 3-4 times a year around the region and can be stored without any modern technology for a year or two. Today, rice can be stored for up to 10 years. It is the greatest food security you could have asked for.

Rice is almost single-handedly responsible for all notable ancient human civilization. Before rice was discovered, humans were only hunter gatherers or pastoral nomads. As hunter gatherers, humans spent most of their lives looking for food and defending against predators. There was no set time to sleep, no set time to eat a full meal. Every single day was a struggle to find food. The maximum capacity for storage of food was just a couple of days to a week, and maybe more only for some nuts. The humans that discovered milk became pastoral communities. They just had to safeguard their cows which gave them milk, curds, ghee, cheese, meat and much more. This gave them a little more time, but they never settled down, they kept moving looking for pastures and self preservation was still a big issue.

Rice was the reason for human settlement. Settlement, multiple harvests throughout the year, and great storage capacity meant that you literally had nothing else to do to survive. You worked a couple of hours here and there and basically had food for the whole year. You slept on time, you woke up on time, you ate on time. Settlement meant construction, irrigation systems, civic systems, trade and markets, population growth, security, dominance over predators, movement to the top of the food chain. Most importantly, reasonable physical well being. Settlement brought about everything that you call civilization. Civilization made man turn towards the skies wishing and hoping, worshipping the elements of nature which he later personified as dieties. Civilization presented humanity with time to spare. The moment you had that much time and didn't know what to do, asking questions are the next obvious step. Questions gave rise to philosophy, religion, and devotion. All of this eventually led to meditation and self-enquiry, which paved the path to yoga. Through yoga, man discovered his true Self and spent a whole life soaked in divine grace. Without rice, your sages, seers, and Gods probably wouldn't exist.

Annam Parabrahma Swaroopam.

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vinayvlr-blog · 4 years

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Overheard a popular answer to the question of a child as to why there is a bell placed at the entrance of the temple and why people ring it 3 times before walking in. The answer was, "You announce your presence to the deity before you enter, like how people ring a door bell to open the door of your house." This is a cute answer given to a child's mind to make it follow the procedure.

Why it is actually there is to quieten your mind and to dumb down all noise inside you before you enter. You ring the beeja mantra to cleanse your mind of its clutter. You are supposed to approach the temple slowly, becoming quiet the moment you cross the gate, and observe your breath. You stand under the bell and ring it 3 times slowly while listening to the vibration with eyes closed, allowing it to silence the mind, before you walk in and behold the space that has been energized within the garbha griha. It is not a play or an announcement, it is to create an ambience for yourself. Quietening the self to experience a meditative trance is embedded in our culture of approaching temples right from the moment you step into the gate till you come out and spend the rest of your day.

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vinayvlr-blog · 4 years

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Wealth, beauty, pleasure, delicious food, living in great ambience, sleeping on the best bed, traveling to the most exotic places, owning the most expensive modes of transport; all of this means nothing if your experience of life is not that of tranquility, equanimity, joy, and inner bliss. In your journey to accumulate the the former, if you forgo the latter, will it continue to make sense to you? When you see rich but unhappy people, doesn't it hit you that there is no point? At least in the west the point is being driven home. We do not have to be against the pursuit of a comfortable life, but the pursuit of a comfortable life must not make this moment uncomfortable for us. Life is lived moment to moment and in the end it is not about how much you achieved, but just about what an experience you had. Don't miss out on living life because achieving is mainstream.

"Shareeram, surupam, tatha va kalathram,

Yashas charu chirtram, dhanam meru tulyam,

Guroranghripadme, manaschena lagnam,

Tatah kim? Tatah kim? Tatah kim?"

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vinayvlr-blog · 4 years

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You cannot do meditation, you can only be meditative. It is not an action, it is a quality. It is a state of being where you are in a heightened awareness to the point where the existence of you as an individual person does not have any significance. This is exactly how you were when you were born. It is not done for any gain, it is not done for increased mind power, it is not done for personality development, it is not done for some "so-called" great experience. It is done for only one purpose - complete dissolution of aham, your identity. The rest of the "benefits" are side-effects and marketing strategy. Most people who share benefits and insane experiences of meditation are exaggerating their imagination or simply lying because they want the joy of having had something more than others. That arises from the very ego they are sitting down to dissolve. I have heard many times, "My meditation was special." Meditation is neither special nor yours.

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vinayvlr-blog · 4 years

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#spiritual #self enquiry #self contemplation #philosophy #awakening #wisdom #spirituality #meditation #yoga #enlightenment #bliss #silence #fun

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vinayvlr-blog · 4 years

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Boredom is a sign of intellect. It is an itch to find something to do to stay away from the mind's constant chatter which is not under your control. The more developed your intellect, the more bored you are when you are free. There are only 2 kinds of people who never feel bored, the idiot and the awakened.

At the outset, the idiot and the awakened are absolutely alike, but within, they are world's apart. The idiot can never be bored simply because his intellect has not developed to the point where a constant play of the mind even exists. Much like an animal at rest, he simply exists when he is quiet, not quite bothered. The awakened is on the other end of the spectrum, he is disconnected to a point where the minds constant chatter is an unnecessary waste of energy. Through the power of his meditation, he simply cuts it off and enjoys the blissfulness of simply existing as an individual life in a universe where individuality is an illusion. This is the result of his Sadhana.

The bored are people who can benefit from sadhana, people who are capable of rising beyond their limitations and conquering their mind. Many people are capable of the heights of intellectual gymnastics and logical permutations and combinations, even to convince oneself to downplay Sadhana. As long as you are a capable intellect, but an uncontrolled one, you cannot sail beyond boredom and enter the world of Samadhi, where life has achieved equilibrium.

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vinayvlr-blog · 4 years

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Taking the path of Sadhana is with the primary interest in dissolution of your delusions, not in creating a whole new world of delusions. It is understandable that for one caught in the Maya of Samsara, the solution to achieve a release from the grip of Samsara is seemingly to latch on to the Maya of the Aantarya. What's unfortunate is that once you are held in grip of the Aantarya, it takes longer for you to even start desiring release because this inner world is much more attractive, it has fewer laws and restrictions, fewer disappointments. You meet many people and read things written by people who are simply stuck in their inner worlds and delusionally claiming positions of spiritual authority in unawareness. People who have completely forgotten that Self-realisation is not just liberation from Samsara, but from the Aantarya as well. To come out of the latter, there must be complete sharanagati towards the self realised master and total desperation for Mukti. It is already established that to find a self-realized Guru is rare, but what is even more rare is for a self-realized Guru to find a disciple who has the right amount of desperation and sharanagati. The importance of continuous physical guidance at every single stage of spiritual awakening has gotten underrated in the modern day simply because of the amount of people teaching while themselves not living in Mukti.

#spiritual #life #enlightenment #yoga #mukti #selfrealization #liberation #seeker #sadhana #guru #selfenquiry #atman #meditation #spirituality #blissful

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