Journey Of Life

I can’t stop wondering how we are destined to travel in the journey of life. We get a free ticket through our birth to begin the journey to accomplish what we came here for. We are already given the tools we need in the form of body, mind and intellect that develops during our life based on our experiences. We have the free will and the freedom to act upon any of our thoughts without any restrictions. That is the starting point in life and where we go from there are provided to us as advisory and left to us to determine whether to follow those advisory or not. We are destined to do actions in life.

The scriptures advise us to follow the path of righteousness in all our endeavors. We should use our intellect to discriminate what is the right action in each circumstance. Experiences in life are lessons that we gain out of how we reacted on a given circumstances. If we didn’t quite make it into a right action, we have an option to review it through introspection and learn from the mistake. Only effort we need to make is to forgive ourselves and not to repeat the same mistake again. But under no circumstances, we should drop the effort to follow the path of righteousness even if we falter. It is like getting up and walking after every fall not bothering about the injuries caused by the fall.

When we make an effort to synchronize our thoughts, words and actions following the righteousness principle, we begin the process of building our own character. Three elements that are much talked about in life are Self-confidence, Self-Sacrifice and Self-Satisfaction. It is always misunderstood self-confidence is our confidence in the ability of our mind but unfortunately it is not. It is the confidence in Self, i.e. belief that we have divinity residing in us. Prayers and faith enhances that confidence in Self. Automatically, we derive the attitude of Self-Sacrifice and Self-Satisfaction. Consulting our discriminating mind and genuinely praying to our divinity to guide in life produces right actions and great character.

In the hierarchy of the human organization, the body is made from food sheath and vital-air sheath without these two, the body ceases to exist. Beyond this we have mental sheath that is full of emotions and our quick reactions to our interaction in the outside world. Sometimes, it gives a great sense of pleasure and other times, it gives a great sense of pain. At much subtler level, we have the discriminating mind that is staked closer to the Blissful state. This is perhaps, the closest to what we call as Consciousness or Self. Intuition to do the right thing emanates from this discriminating faculty. Even if our emotional mind does motivate us to do something silly, the discriminating mind let us review it in the form of introspection not to repeat the same mistake again. We must make every effort to gain knowledge about our own Self and its encryption to understand the world. This process helps us to get to the Bliss Sheath (Anandamaya Kosha). Imagine the eyes we possess, everything we have inside the eyes is just an instrument and only the light that comes in is real.

We see the wide world outside through the prism of retina and the image we have in the screen is the perception we have about the world. This image is considerably influenced by how we think and hence it is not real. If we really like to experience the light that comes from outside, we need to know about our inner qualities that distorts the real image. This knowledge helps us to refine ourselves to become a better being. When we improve this process, all our actions are performed in a meditative state i.e. performed skillfully, selflessly and lovingly with no expectations. It breaks the barrier of Maya and eliminate the duality that we experience. We become an observer distancing ourselves from everything that is unreal.

At this point, we are considered as performing Atma-Nivedhana or surrender our body, mind and intellect to the supreme Self and servient to our own divinity. Uparati (withdrawal), Dharana (concentration) and Dhyana (meditation) lead to eventual Samadhi (Self-realization). This blissful state (Anandamaya Kosha) is the real core of every being. As we all know, primordial sound Pranava Manthra includes all vibrations in the world. In the English letter “Aum”, A represents Satwa (waking state), U represents Rajasic (dreaming state) and M represents Tamosic (deep-sleep state). Sometimes, these are referred to as Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva as well. In the Sanskrit letter , the lower semi-circle is waking state, the upper semi-circle is deep-sleep state and the one that comes out of the middle is dreaming state and all three of them are the stage we experience as a human. The reason for that is the arc above that is called “Maya”. Our objective is see the dot above the arc which is our true Self.

 

Dear Vani,

Thank you for your first response. None of what I write is my own interpretations and they are all what the learned Gurus have taught over a period of time. I am just sharing what I came to know and as Smt. Jayasala said in her concluding remark, "Do rather than define" is important. It is practice of what I know that makes me perfect. This kind of snippets help me develop affirmations in my subconscious mind and learn from others who have done it before. What I know is very little and what I practice is even further little.

It is our thoughts, words and deeds that define our character. when they differ from one another, we create a complex maze inside of us conflicting ourselves. Mostly, the variation is to defend one of the tools i.e. body or mind or intellect. If we think we are not anyone of them, we neither feel elated about appreciation nor feel depressed about criticism. The prism of our mind develops the world for us and by altering that prism, we can change the world we perceive. Maya is like the ozone layer that allows the planet to function independently but at the same time allow the essential energy to penetrate itself for the life to exist. In order to experience the Universal Absolute, we need to lift the veil of Maya and eliminate the duality.

Viswa

 

Dear Smt. Jayasala:

I can't thank you enough for responding to this snippet sharing your invaluable opinions. First of all, I need to confess that I intended this as a sequel of the earlier snippet "Tip of the iceberg" but I didn't articulate it well. If there is confusion in understanding it is not limitation at your end but lack of clarity in what I expressed here. I have a speaking engagement about the Hinduism coming up next weekend and this snippet was kind of preparation to get feedback from learned members such as yourself.

As long as one develops good character, possess high moral values and intend to develop universal love for the fellow beings, it doesn't matter whether we call it as divine quality or virtue. Many even question the Treta and Dwapara Yuga and the existence of Rama and Krishna and to me, it doesn't matter as long as the essence of what was conveyed through the epics are picked up for right living. The Prasthana Traya known as Upanishads, Brahma Sutras and Bhagavad Gita are all expressing the way to conduct life but the first one is limited to observation, the second is limited to modeling and the third is to learn application.

There are only four ways to learn something new and they are Pratyaksa, Anumana, Upamana and Agama. If our mind is limited to what we perceive Anumana may not be the right way to experience something that is extraordinary. There is nothing comparable to the Energy that runs the entire universe and therefore, Upamana won't work. The two options are Agama (i.e. learning from the scriptures believing the experiences of the Rishis) or Pratyaksa (direct experience by expanding the knowledge beyond the realm of our limited mind). Either one requires belief that something that exists beyond our comprehension and in order to experience that we need to move above the duality and the Maya. Unfortunately, if we evaluate the human psychology under certain circumstances, we are restricting the study again only to the limits of the mind.

Every time, when someone appreciates or criticizes us or makes us feel low in esteem, we need to assess whether are they really criticizing who we really are or our body or mind or our intellectual capacity? Universal love is the essence of everything which includes loving oneself. If we have confusion about what is good character, how can we achieve our goal or measure it to improve upon? The benchmark has to be something and that is to pursue the Truth, do right action (the action closely associated with our discriminating power), have universal love, aim to remain and continue to be peaceful and not hurt any other being.

Fear, anger and depression are all associated with our lower mind (tools we use in our day to day life) and used to defend them. In Steven Covey's book, "7 habits of highly effective people", he narrates the plight of an outstanding Jew who was asked to stay naked in the presence of men, women and children. Initially, he was upset and went into a deep sense of low esteem. Later, he realized how to separate himself from his body and went on to write some very interesting books from the concentration camp.

In our day to day life, we are criticized at home, at work and in the outside world and if we learn to receive, react and respond right using our good character, we realize our true Self. As you said, it doesn't matter how we define self-confidence and it is more important to do it in everyday life.

I can't thank you enough for bringing me to the practical life and how to address them. I learn everyday something new and there is no end to learning and improving.

Viswa

 

Dear Smt. Srinivasan:

Thank you for your response to this snippet. Yes. It will be nice if we can develop selflessness and work towards the common good of all. Atma-nivedhana is eventually the solution for Self-realization. I myself learned about the significance of the letters in AUM recently.

Viswa

 

Dear Satchi,

The life consist of "Dharma, Artha, Kama and Moksha" and there is a reason why Dharma finds the first place. Whether one is a believer or not, if he/she is consistent with right action and discovering Truth, he/she is in constant meditative state of mind. No doubts we need economic security, desires, etc. in our day to day life but eventual goal is to liberate the tied-up soul. If Dharma is applied in every aspect of life, Moksha becomes a possible goal.

Even when we look at Prashthana Treya consist of Upanishad, Brahma Sutra and Bhagavad Gita, I consider Upanishad as mere observation of messages received from the God, Brahma Sutras (written by Veda Vyasa) as modeling and Bhagavad Gita (Veda Vyasa) as application.

Sanatana Dharma does not belong to any religion and the people in Sind Valley adopted this as right living. Most Prophets propagated the revelation that they had for the benefit of the entire universe. There is no hard and fast rule and everyone is free to explore and invent new methods to achieve the ultimate goal. Like science, religion also teaches us to investigate and not have blind faith. In the process, we are bound to make mistake and we need to learn to forgive ourselves. One who loves himself/herself only can love others. He/She needs to see the same energy residing in all. We are born in love, sustained in love and eventually merge in love. Once we tap into the universal love, pursue righteousness and achieve equanimity, we can achieve peace and bliss.

Viswa