Author Archives: Peter

About Peter

I am a student of traditional Vedanta, in London, an interest that started in 1970s. Current Influences: In 2007 I attended a talk by Swamini Atmaprakasananda on Ganapati Atharvashirsha – and knew I had found my teacher. I am current Secretary of Arsha Vidya Centre UK, an organisation established to make available in the UK the teaching of traditional advaita as unfolded by Swaminiji and her own teacher, the illustrious HH Swami Dayananda Saraswatiji, the most respected teacher of traditional advaita. www.arshavidya.org.uk

A popular mantra unfolded

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Om sahanāvavatu sahanaubhunaktu sahavīryaṃ karavāvahai
Tejasvināvadhitamastu mā vidviśāvahai
Om śāntiḥ śāntiḥ śāntiḥ

This mantra, found in the Taittiriya Upanishad, is most propitious for recitation before study with the teacher.

Here is one translation:
May He protect us both together. May he nourish us both together. May we both acquire strength together. Let our study be brilliant. May we not cavil at each other. Om! Peace! Peace! Peace!
(Translated by Swami Gambhirananda).

Unfolded by a traditional teacher, these simple statements reveal their inner meaning. Continue reading →

Common misunderstandings related to Vedanta

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Below is the view of a bright young friend, Prashant Parikh, a keen, enthusiastic student of traditional Vedanta…

There are some errors in understanding I come across routinely, so I’m addressing a few of them briefly.

1) The Self can’t be experienced: The human mind is designed to go outwards (or even inwards) to gain experience. That is good, it allows us to innovate and progress in our worldly lives. However, when it comes to gaining AtmA jñAnam, the mind again looks for experience of an object called AtmA. This will fail miserable. AtmA is the very Self, the subject. Only an object endowed with attributes can be experienced. The consciousness, which is the Self, cannot be known as an object of experience. The Self can only be understood through the process of acquiring jñAnam through the timeless veda utterances. Tat tvam ask [Thou art That] is the teaching of the Guru, aham brahman asmi [I am Absolute Reality] is the understanding of the student 🙂 Continue reading →

Discovering the Gita

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The most succinct description of the Gita is in the first verse of the ‘Meditation on the Gita’ traditionally recited before Chapter 1. It is a salutations to Bhagavad Gita, addressed as ‘Bhagavati, Amba’ (goddess, mother). This is what it says about her:
> She is revealed to Arjuna by the Supreme Lord himself.
> She is presented by the ancient sage Vyasa in eighteen chapters in the middle of the Mahābhārata.
> She is a shower of the nectar of non-duality that frees one from the root cause of unhappiness in life.  Continue reading →

Interview with the Gita

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We are very fortunate to have access to Bhagavad Gita ­– described as Mother, Goddess, Shower of the Nectar of Advaita and the Release from the Endless Cycle of Rebirth – to answers the many questions that relate to our day to day living. The advice relates to every person who, like Arjuna, find that, when the minds alone is involved, it is clear what’s needed, but when feelings become engaged they are no longer convinced they know what’s the right thing to do. And, at the end of each chapter, Gita is described as Brahma vidya [Knowledge of Reality] and yoga shAstra [scripture that prepares the mind for Brahma vidya]. So the questions start from this point: Enlightenment is the unshakable knowledge ‘Aham BrahmAsi’ [I am Brahman]…

Q: What stops us from knowing this truth of oneself 24/7?
Gita: Mind has three basic defects:
1. it is impure (i.e. it is ruled by appetites and aversions)
2. it is unsteady (i.e. it is unable to hold one thought for any prolonged period of time, let alone forever – i.e. it is NOT capable of being ‘unshakable’)
3. what it holds to be true is erroneous.
Krishna describes this sort of mind of the irresolute as ‘bahu shAkAh anantAh’ – many branched and endless. Continue reading →

The vulnerability of ‘doership’

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We live in turbulent times. And, when there’s turbulence, insecurity increases, and with the increase of insecurity neediness and desperation follow. The needy and desperate are ripe for exploitation. A school teaching ‘practical philosophy’ in London observes that in economically buoyant times the numbers walking though their doors drops, but when the economy gets tougher the numbers joining their classes shoot up.

Recently I bumped into people from this school promoting silence and contemplation by inviting people to walk through a labyrinth (based on the one in Chartres Cathedral) chalked in the courtyard of a church in the heart of London’s West End. Adults were very serious about being calm in following the instruction, but looked clumsy when ‘disturbed’, especially when those on the inward journey encountered those returning on the narrow chalked pathway – who should give way? Should one smile or maintain composure? If one speaks would one be disturbing the other or breaking the spell? Kids, on the other hand, just ran through the labyrinth with squeals of delight as they encountered sharp bends and jumped around like gazelles to avoid obstacles. Continue reading →

In praise of the guru

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On April 26th 2012, the date of Adi Shankara’s birthday, the Shankaracharya of the Southern seat (Sringeri), Parama Pujya Bharati Tirtha Mahaswamiji, presented the first ever Adi Shankaracharya Award to Parama Pujya Sri Swami Dayananda Saraswati.

The Award states:

“His Holiness, Jagadguru Shankaracharya, Dakshinam Naya, Sri Shringeri Sharada Pitham, Sri Sri Bharati Tirtha Mahaswamiji is pleased to confer the Adi Shankaracharya Award on Sri Swami Dayananda Saraswati, Arsha Vidya Gurukulam, in recognition of the exemplary service rendered for the sustenance and propagation of Sanatana Dharma, Advaita philosophy, the Hindu cause and the welfare of mankind.”

—

I was struck by the speech from last year’s ceremony. It is a praise of Adi Shankara, but from my knowledge of Swami Dayananda Saraswati, it could be a description of his qualities:

” नानाम्नाय परिश्रमं कलयतां नास्त्येव शास्त्रेषु धीः
सत्योरप्यनयोर्न सुलभा सा हि क्षितौ साहिती
अप्येतासु सतीषु नास्ति विनयो नाचार-भक्ति-क्षमा-
चातुर्यः स च सा च सा च स च ताश्च आलम्ब्य खलेन्त्यमुम् || ”
from a text called “Vishwa Gunaadarsha Champu”

Rough translation (please excuse if there are errors):
“It is quite difficult to attain competence in learning and committing the Veda to memory, even more so discern their meaning with clarity. Among those who have these two abilities, it is still more difficult to find one who has the capability to compose prose and poetry with elegance. Still if a few such are to be found with these three abilities, the possibility that they are of good character, with devotion towards the Lord, and of a forgiving nature, is miniscule. However, all these four characteristics were expressed playfully in their full glory with Bhagavatpaada.”

Thanks for this are due to
Prasad Krishnan posted in Swami Paramarthananda Followers

Fundamentalism vs the eclectic

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In common with many people in the West who are pursuing a spiritual path, I went down a couple of blind alleys before finding my present teacher, Swamni Atmaprakāśānanda, who had been given the vision of the truth of the Self by her guru, Swami Dayānanda Saraswati.

Of course one doesn’t know that one is going down a blind alley at the time and some alleys are so long that it takes several years before you bang up against the wall beyond which there’s no understanding. This was the case for me. The first alley was long. In the mid 70s, I came across a Philosophy School in London that offered a tantalising and a balanced diet of Upanishad and Gita study, meditation and other practical exercises and disciplines, Sanskrit, fine music, fine food, opportunities for service, regular retreats and the guidance of a ‘realised master’ from India (whom we didn’t personally meet, but received transcripts of his ‘Conversations’ with the founder of he school. These had been translated from Hindi and edited before we got to hear them – and the original recordings erased so no authentication possible). It took several years before discovering that all the right ingredients without an experienced cook will serve up a meal that might satisfy the hungry for a while, but is eventually one that’s lacking in real nourishment. I eventually left to follow my own direction. Continue reading →

How to be really, really, really happy

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In the Taittiriya Upanishad we are told that 1 unit of human joy is that enjoyed by a young person described as being in the prime of life, fit and healthy, possessed of strong mental faculties, amazingly good looking and incredibly well read, spiritually disciplined and ethical, and in possession of untold wealth (not exactly the person next door). Try to imagine the effort that would be required to have untold wealth and untold wisdom. Imagine the effort required to live a highly ethical and spiritual life. It can take a whole lifetime – by which time we will have lost our youthful vigour. The other person, however, who enjoys the same level of joy is ‘a follower of the Vedas, unaffected by desire’ (which can be anyone who makes the effort).

100 times that unit of human joy is one unit of the joy of a being called a Man Gandharva in a higher loka [realm]. In this embodiment as a celestial musician there will only be the experience of subtle enjoyment and no pain. To attain this loka one needs to have accumulated a huge amount of punya [merit] from leading a value-driven and prayerful life. The other person, however, who enjoys 100 times the unit of human joy is the follower of the Vedas, unaffected by desire. Continue reading →

Who do you think I is? (3)

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PART III: THE ANTIDOTE
Go to Part 2 | Go to beginning

Many people set themselves up as self-help gurus and offer remedies for the children of democracy. They are sensitive to the characteristics of these children, whose governing sound is ‘freedom’ and have been described so well over 2500 years in Book VIII of Plato’s Republic. Here is how Democratic Man is spoken of:

“… He lives on, spending his money and labour and time on unnecessary pleasures as on necessary ones; but if he be fortunate, and is not too much disordered in his wits, when years have elapsed, and the heyday of passion is over… he balances his pleasures and lives in a sort of equilibrium, putting the government of himself into the hands of the one which comes first and wins the turn; and when he has had enough of that, then into the hands of another; he despises none of them but encourages them all equally…

“Neither does he receive or let pass into the fortress (of mind) any true word of advice; if anyone says that some pleasures are the satisfactions of good and noble desires, and others of evil desires, and that he ought to use and honour some and chastise and master the others – whenever this is repeated to him he shakes his head and says they are all alike, and that one is as good as another… Continue reading →

Who do you think ‘I’ is? (Part 2)

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PART 2/3: PREPARATORY STEPS
Go to beginning

Having established the principles involved in escaping from the torments of living a false identity, we can examine how traditional advaitins approach the journey.

Preparedness. Am I fit for the journey? Three essentials are needed:

1) Clarity of purpose. This is the conviction that self-knowledge is the over-riding goal of life. Of course other activities involved in day-to-day living do carry on, but the fruits of wealth and pleasures are not to be over-valued. They give a respite, no doubt, but they will never deliver peace. And, without peace, how is self-knowledge possible? We do the needful: pursue security and pleasure, in conformity with universal values, for the sake of self-knowledge. Continue reading →