The 'One God' Religions of Revelation

Thanks Ladduji! Quite a bit of reading and digesting to do!

Would it be a good idea to ahve a glossary of Sanskrit and Sanatan Dharma terms for newbie?

I think you can also develop a quiz to test ones understanding.

Our brother Muradbhai need to score more than 95% to be eligible to write an article on mythical manufactured at JNU Bramhinism and Sanatan Dharma.

Otherwise, any Tom, Dilwar and Hari will write because of his connections of old Doon boys network. We also need to have a way to reject guys like Pandher who might come here to write and post.

Rest you can read here

- http://vedantamission.tripod.com/Pub/1Read/TBodha-1.htm

Q : What is Shama ?

A : 'Mano nigrah' answers the teacher briefly. It means Control of the mind. Many a times this is wrongly translated as suppresion of mind, which is wrong. Control of mind is one thing and suppresion is another. While control implies that the mind willfully now works as per the direction of its master the intellect, while suppresion implies that the mind basically takes to channels other than directed & desired by the intellect, it has be be forcefully brought under reins. Such a mind will be waiting for a chance to again take to its fanciful flights and this certainly is not a quality worth talking about.

Our antahkaran - the entire capacities of inner equipments, can be divided into broadly divided into two category : the mind & intellect. Here the mind is like a receptionist, receiving all the stimuli, while the intellect is like the chief executive, which deliberates on the data or information received and then decides on the course of action to be taken. Many a times the mind which is not used to getting guidance from within starts reacting as per its own fancies. Such a condition is not a very ideal one for any spiritual unfoldment or even wordly progress. With a reacting mind all wisdom only becomes comparable to gold on a donkey, which is not of any use to him. Basically Shama implies that the mind now works as per the dictates of the intellect. Bgoth as though happily married. This is what personality integration is all about.

Q. What is dispassion ?

A. It is absence of desire for the enjoyment of pleasures of this perceptible world or even of some future state of experience hereafter.

Dispassion is a very important and also a very beautiful quality. Strangely enough it is only with dispassion that you can percieve the beauty & also the truth of something. A person who doesn’t have passion for some pleasures does not mean that the fellow doesn’t have a passion for anything. He is passionately in love with the truth of life. Anyone who doesn’t hanker after the pleasures got out of some extraneous conditions has some understanding because of which this outlook has been brought about. The perceptions of that individual include :

1. The awareness that all extraneous pleasures are momentary.
2. The input-output ratio of energy & the end result is extremely high and therefore the proposition is not worthwhile.
3. All self-centered activities result in making the mind more gross & inert.
4. With detachment there is possibility of love in relationships rather than dependence.
5. There is greater appreciation of beauty and truth of something because of detachment.
6. Detachment brings in freedom & fearlessness.
7. Detachment brings anand.
8. Dependence on extraneous pleasures amounts to affirming our sense of limitation.
9. Discrimination of Permanent & Impermanent automatically results in changed perceptions regarding that which is impermanent.
10. That which is permanent should be something which is already available and therefore something to be known and not to be got through by any action.

Whoever sees the above facts will be blessed with vairagyam. An important requisite for the student & aspirant for the knowledge of Truth.

I.

The first question of the student pertains to understanding the first quality, i.e. viveka. He asks :

What do you exactly mean by the discrimination between the eternal and the ephemeral ?

The teacher answers :

By the discrimination between the eternal and the ephemeral we imply, the conviction that 'Brahman (the eternal & omnipresent consciousness) alone is the one real entity, and everything else is transitory'.

The quality of in-depth discrimination (viveka) is the hallmark of human mind. It is his greatest asset. It is because of this ability alone that man has progressed to mind-boggling heights in various fields. Whether it is the field of science, business, defence, relationships or any thing whatsoever, the understanding of right or wrong pertaining to that field is what makes him a scholar of his field. By education also this ability to see through the truth & untruth of each field is strived to be manifested. Thus not only the power of discrimination is present in one & all, but is also unanimously understood as the greatest asset of human beings.

Discrimination is the ability of the intellect to see through a situation, so as to 'see' rice & chaff seperately without even physically doing so. A good investor can 'see' the profit or loss in a given situation, even when a layman can't comprehend a thing. This is his power of discrimination in the field of his investments. So also with the experts in all other fields. Thus in discrimination there is no need or question of physical separation of two entities or inter-mingled probabilities, one has to just see through the situation or object, and separate the two in our intellect itself.

When ever in course of ones life, a realisation dawns, that the genesis of all my problems is non-apprehension of the exact truth of life, that the real search starts. Not knowing that which really matters the mind subsequently apprehends that which is untruth as the truth. This further compounds & complicates the problem, and the result is eternal, never ending seeking, along with inevitable heart breaks and discontentment. This is called samsara. With this realisation starts the process of conscious endeavor to know that which is permanent and what is not. If a man really wants to know then he will know, because all he wants is understanding of that which is the truth of all that which is. He is not looking any where beyond, but right here in the present, outside as well as inside.

The process of identifying that which is eternal or permanent is basically a very easy job, because that which is the untruth keeps changing constantly and thus keeps declaring its ephemerality. This has just to be kept aside by affirming that 'this is not what I am looking for'. When thus the mind which has been crowded by so many mis-apprehensions is cleaned, then to identify and know that which is eternal is not a difficult job. The straight forward job of knowing the truth as truth does become extremely difficult for one who is yet to realise the untruth as the untruth. Our attention is alredy on untruth, and one should start from here alone. See the untruth deeply enough so as to appreciate this fact in its entirety that 'this is something ephemeral'. Don’t be in a hurry to know the truth, first let the cloud of various mis-apprehensions whither. Then & then alone the 'discrimination' of that which is eternal and that which is not dawns.

In the process of this appreciation, what is subsequently realised is that 'all that which is percieved is transitory', and that light, awareness or consciousness, because of which this realisations are possible alone apears steady. A person endowed with this understanding is said to possess the first pre-requisite of a student of vedanta. It should be noted here that this viveka is not the end but the beginning of the study of vedanta. A person who already has this much understnding is best poised to go deep into the secrets of mind & self.

The conviction that 'all that which is percieved is transitory' and 'that which illumines all this' appears relatively permanent, is by itself a great leap forward, but is not the entire truth. Thus inspite of this knowledge the person keeps suffering though relatively less. Such people have become 'introvert' in the real sense of the term. Their fascinations for extraneous things gets reduced drastically, they seem to have more time & energy at their disposal. There is quititude in their minds and thus the intellect becomes all the more sharp & subtle. They can now become sensitive to subtler & finer things of life, and overall stand apart from the rest. This viveka is by itself a great blessing, but there is still miles to go before he can sleep. The thrust of the knowledge of vedanta is to there after reveal that which is the very substratum of the knower, known and the process of knowing. That substratum is not really an object of our knowledge in the ordinary sense of the term, for the simple reason that to know the substratum of the knower, we have to transcend this knower. We are no more a knower. With the negation of the knowership that which remains is that which is revealed as the truth. While in a fragmented state we may have turned inwards because of some understanding about that which is transitory, but are far from truth. This fragmentation has to drop for the unfragmented to get revealed, and mind you our ability to discriminate doesn’t call for physical seperation of permanent and impermanent. Inspite of the apparent fragmentation, the person can 'see' that which is 'not fragmented'. Study of Vedanta makes this power of discrimination all the more sharp & clear.

As far as the requisite of the student is concerned, it refers only to his realisation that all that is dryshya, seen is impermanent, and that which is drg or the seer is permanent. Rest of the knowledge is the Guru prasad brought about by the study of vedanta.

This thus is the first quality of the student of Vedanta. The second obvious quality is vairagya, or dispassion towards that which is realised to be impermanent.

Ladduji,

Would you please tell what one has to do to develop those 4.

But , as I said earlier, mere reading the books would not help. In order to "understand" Advaita Vedanta the 4 pre-requisites are ABSOLUTELY NECESSARY.

That is why momeens have to reject desire for Jannah in order to attain the Brahman (Allah).

They can certainly find a lot of material on Advaita Vedanta including -

http://www.advaita.org.uk/

Thanks Ladduji!

How can we help our brother Muradbhai and Uncle Tahirji? Muradbhai thinks God speaks only in Doon Convent English and Uncleji thinks he speaks in Bedouin Arabic. Are there good trnsaltions of Shankara's work for them?

Re: # 889

"Ladduji, am I hopeless? I fall in love with any one from new born to hundred year old. They all look like bhagwati."

You are indeed fortunate that you can see divinity in every woman.

Re: # 888

tahir ji,

You did not understand what pappu's intention was- he was pointing out to that Arabic Imperialism that was imposed by Mohammad on the rest of the world in the name of Islam.

This imperialism aimed at elevating tribal Arabic Bedouin culture over every other culture.

It did so by imposing Arabic Quran (as if God speaks Arabic only) and Arabic Bedouin cultural icons ( purdah,beard, camels, dates, tents and slaves) on the rst of the world.

The day you can consider that Allah can also speak in Hindi - you would be out of cultural imperialism of Mohammad!!

1. Viveka : The capacity to discriminate between the permanent and the impermanant.
2. Vairagya : Dispassion to the enjoyments of the fruits of one's actions, here or hereafter.
3. Six qualities like Sama etc.
4. Yearning for liberation.

These are little more practical and easier. I got scard by the earlier ones.

Ladduji & Muradbhai,

Muradbhai you might be much better qualified compared to me in satisfying these requirements. So dont get disheartened!

I have a strong weakness. I fall in love with every woman I encounter. Nothing Lustful like Clinton but still serious for my financial health. My friends, wife and employees try to protect me from financial harm by screening the new females I might encounter and watching moves of the female around me. I just like the smell of their palloos, music in their voice. The spark in the eyes is really very captivating. I become a lamb in front of them. Ladduji, am I hopeless? I fall in love with any one from new born to hundred year old. They all look like bhagwati.

Hey Tahir Uncleji, your Allah can approach me in female form. I will be servant of her for life. Is that idalotory?

Re: # 879 Pappy Girl
"Please give me a Koran in Hindi"

Read it in English first although a Hindi translation is not difficult to find. Ask your folks back home to send you one. I hope you left some of them behind, just in case things got rough in Untidy Satans?

Re: # 867 Lady Laddu

"I also studied muslims and Quran very carefully and found that the real problem is not a muslim but Islam."

Lie! Damned lie! Admit you read Rushdie's book and came to this ruinous conclusion?

I said it earlier: get off the train. Go jump NOW!

Re: # 863 Zee To The Max

"you're not ignorant, but a deceitful and willful misleader of people"

We must fight now; I said THIS (well almost) to Pappy Girl before you did!

:)

Re: # 860 Pappy Girl

"I hope you did not get hurt. I do not have malice."

Lies, damn lies!

"I feel fortunate to be born in this land and culture."

You are in Untidy Satans now, and display not culture at all. Its all been McDonalised!