Bhagavad Gita (Topic-wise) Pt 23

 

Part 22

6 Moksha
6-1 Preparation
6-2 Jnana, Jnani, and Jnana-Phala

6-2-15 Jnana-Phala 6(27 to 32), 13(27 to 35), 18(49,54,55)

6-2-15-1: 6(27 to 32)                                                                                                         A person who has realized Brahm and has transcended passions (born of rajas) by meditation claims the bliss of Brahm which is manifested in peace and serenity of mind. He does not forget his true nature of bliss in the face of adverse situations. He sees the non-dual Brahm in all beings. There is no duality, no fear. Differences are superficial and mithya. He cuts the veil of differences with the sword of knowledge. In his vision, God is in all beings and all beings are in God. Gold pervades all ornaments and all ornaments are in gold. A jnana-yogi is the highest devotee of God because he knows God fully, the God that is not different from him. He is not separate from God. His mind is so expanded that he does not see any difference between himself and other beings. ‘Other’ has disappeared from his vocabulary. He has the same response to others’ sorrow and joy as his own. Continue reading

Bhagavad Gita (Topic-wise) Pt18

Part 17

Part 19

6 Moksha
6-1 Preparation
6-2 Jnana, Jnani, and Jnana-Phala

6-2-3 Six definitions 8(1 to 4) The last two verses, 29 and 30 of the 7th chapter have introduced some terms without explaining them. 8th chapter begins with Arjuna’s question to know these terms, namely, Brahm, Adhyatam, Karma, Adhibhutam, Adhidaivam, and Adhiyagna. Brahm is the supreme imperishable entity. It is a pithy answer because, in the 7th chapter, Para- prakriti has been explained in detail as the imperishable entity, namely, consciousness. It pervades the creation. As such, it is within the body also. The embodied consciousness is Adhytama. Brahm is consciousness from a macro angle, Adhyatma is the same consciousness from a micro angle.

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Advaita Gurus and Critics – part 2

by Prof. Phillip Charles Lucas

<Read Part 1>

Modern Advaitins are the successors of a long line of Vedanta-inspired teachers and movements in North America that reaches back to 1830s New England Transcendentalists, the Theosophical Society (founded 1875), New Thought (originating in the late nineteenth century), Vedanta Societies (founded in the 1890s), Paramahansa Yogananda’s Self-Realization Fellowship (founded 1920), Transcendental Meditation (founded 1959 in Los Angeles as the Spiritual Regeneration Movement), the Integral Yoga Institute (founded 1966), Sivananda Yoga Vedanta Centers (founded 1959), and many other teachers and movements. [For a recent and comprehensive view of these teachers and movements see Philip Goldberg, American Veda: From Emerson and the Beatles to Yoga and Meditation (New York: Random House, 2010).]

TMA proponents have witnessed the profusion of NTMA (sometimes pejoratively called “Neo-Advaita”) satsangs and teachers in the past twenty-five years with a growing concern that the forms Advaita spirituality is taking in Western cultures may no longer be providing spiritual seekers with an effective methodology to achieve moksha, the ultimate liberation from the ocean of human suffering and rebirth (samsara). This article takes no position on the efficacy issue but seeks to examine various dimensions of tension between these two factions that might shed light on the larger phenomenon of orthodoxy versus innovation in transnational spiritual movements.

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Bhagavad Gita( Topic-wise)Pt15

Part 14

Part 16

6 Moksha 6-1 Preparation 6-1-2 Preparatory Action 6-1-2-13 Devotee of Cosmic-form 11(53 to 55), 10 (8 to 11)
6-1-2-13-1: 11(53 to 55) In chapter 11, Sri Krishna has shown His cosmic form to Arjuna for which he was temporarily given supernatural (wisdom) eyes by Sri Krishna. It means that ordinary eyes cannot appreciate the cosmic form of God. Rituals, austerities, and sacrifices themselves cannot earn the capacity to appreciate the cosmic form. Eyes of wisdom are required which can be acquired by sustained sadhana. Sri Krishna glorifies such sadhanas by belittling rituals, austerities, and sacrifices. It is a scriptural method to glorify a thing. It does not mean that belittled things are unimportant. They are important in their own rights. It is contextual. Bhakti is glorified as a sadhana of rejoicing cosmic form of God. Undivided devotion and a fervent desire to know God. Desire in a pure mind bereft of six enemies. With the sharpening of knowledge, a seeker merges with God. There is no separation between the devotee and the God. God is not a means, not an end. God is accomplished (Siddha) The removal of separation is the merger. It is a cognitive transformation with no physical change.

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Bhagavad Gita (Topic-wise) Pt 14

Part 13

Part 15

6 Moksha
Preparation 6-1
Preparatory Action 6-1-2
6-1-2-11 Dharma and Harmony 3(10 to 16)

Karma yoga is proper action with the proper attitude. Sri Krishna presents another facet of karma yoga. A human being is a product and part of nature. If any harm is caused to the whole, the part is also affected. A human being should live in harmony with nature. It is included in the proper attitude of karma yoga. Creation is not an accident. It follows cosmic rules. This cosmic rule may be viewed as a sacrifice or yajna of the creator. The human beings are born of the sacrifices.

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Bhagavad Gita (Topic-wise) Pt 12

Part11

6 Moksha
6-1 Preparation
6-1-1 Preparatory Knowledge
6-1-2 Preparatory Action
6-1-2-6 Rituals

6-1-2-7 Self-effort 3(33,34), 6 (5 to 7)
Inherent nature, i.e., nature one is born with, and self-effort are two important factors in human life. Nature is an aggregate of impressions of virtue, vice, etc. acquired in past lives and which become manifest in the current life. 3(33) says that all creatures behave according to their nature. If this is so, there would be doubt about the purpose of scriptural teaching in the absence of personal effort. To dispel it, it is said in 3(34) that a person engaged in scriptures should not come under the influence of love and hatred despite his nature impelling otherwise. When he controls love and hatred with the help of their opposites, then he is in sync with scriptural teachings, and he is not solely led by his nature.

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Bhagavad Gita (Topic-wise) Pt 11

Part10

Part 12

6 Moksha
6-1 Preparation
6-1-1 Preparatory Knowledge
6-1-2 Preparatory Action
6-1-2-5 Asuri Sampati 16(6 to 21,23)

Human birth is because of karmic balance at the end of the previous birth. Karmic balance is due to Self-ignorance. It continues in the current birth because a person is attracted to a materialistic life of desire and wealth and does not make efforts for spiritual growth. Scriptures are meant to guide people to lead a dharmic life on way to moksha. It is not a sin to pursue desire and wealth within the bounds of dharma. With maturity, it is necessary to make a shift to spirituality.

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Bhagavad Gita(Topic-wise)Part 10

Part 9

Part 11

6 Moksha

6-1 Preparation

6-1-1 Preparatory Knowledge

6-1-1-8: Yog-bhrasta                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            Chapter 6 has discussed dhyana yoga-Vedantic meditation called nidhidhyasana- the last stage of jnana yoga- for the benefit of a sincere seeker. His goal is moksha, and he is not interested in wealth or punyas. Arjuna wants to know the fate of a seeker who is sincere but has not completed jnana yoga and is not liberated. He has not earned sufficient punyas to go to Swarga. Arjuna apprehends that such a seeker is lost like scattered clouds. Continue reading

Free Will and Choice in the Dualistic World

S&T is a creature of S and T!
In the absence of S and T, S&T gets asphyxiated; S&T doesn’t survive.

Perhaps, you have already guessed S&T stands for Science and Technology; S and T are Space and Time.

Science and Scientists work where Space, Time and Substance (material) exist out there facilitating an observation. Their entire edifice is based on causal relatonships – a prior cause, p1, giving raise to an effect, p2, over a time interval. The mAdhyamika Buddhist philosophy also is based on this principle. A given effect in the present is said to result from summation of all the antecedent causes. The cause-effect relationship invokes “Mind space,” when there is no tangible physical space present,

But what happens if Space and Time are merely “unreal or imaginary”? Can causal relationships exist without a mind? Continue reading

Dharma and Ishvara

There are two notions that are intimately involved in this topic – ‘justice’ as seen from the Eastern perspective: 1) Dharma, and 2) Ishvara or the creating and controlling aspect of God or the absolute reality.

The notion of dharma is paramount in the Eastern philosophico-religious traditions and is used in many combinations of words. The main meaning is ‘law’ or ‘order’ as it exists in the universe. Rather than man-made, it is a divine ordinance or, alternately, a cosmological law that maintains all things in equilibrium. As such, it cannot be far distant from the Western idea of justice (‘law and order’ and all its derivations and conditionings). It is a universal law from which nothing can deviate (literally, ‘what holds together’), whether in the social, the individual, or the moral realms.

The four important divisions or goals of life in the Indian tradition are artha (re material possessions), kāma (pleasure and love), dharma (religious and moral duties), and mokṣa (spiritual release or delivery). Some of the Dharmaṣāstras – Books of the Law – are attributed to mythological personages, such as Manu, ‘forefather of man’, and are filled with religious, social, and ritual prescriptions.

An important treatise, encyclopedic in its coverage, is the ‘Kauṭiliya Arthaṣāstra’, from the 4th Cent. BC.

 As far as the individual is concerned, the particular application of the law (dharma) is called ‘sva-dharma’, for s/he cannot escape it – in this or in another life (‘reincarnation’). There are different ways to look at it: merits and demerits, intimately tied up with (the law of) karma; duties pertaining to one’s station in life: student, householder, retiree, and, finally, renunciant or liberated one (mukti) – released from all duties and tasks and dedicated exclusively to contemplation of the divine or ultimate reality (traditionally referred to as ‘forest-dweller’).

The Indian tradition is prodigious in its elaboration and codification of all the branches of the sciences and of the arts: music, dance, philosophy, linguistics, mathematics, geography, rituals, types of meditation, moral laws, etc.