A monkey on steroids

Dear Bhavna,

Thank you for your detailed response and I always enjoy reading your responses. Duty, Discipline and Devotion are the three Ds that are suggested by saints for us to monitor our mind. It is indeed a tough task and that is why every time I see Lord Krishna in the Chariot, I imagine the five horses as five senses, the reins as the mind, the Divine hands as the intellect and the Lord as Supreme Self. We call a person Sthithapragna only when he has become a divine being losing the body/mind consciousness, treating pleasure and pain equally, eliminated all the worldly desires and attachments, etc.

You are right. Daily introspection is the only way, we can keep refining our mind. Total surrender (Athma Nivedhanam) is one of the 9 forms of worship and one can achieve going through step by step or achieve total surrender by constant devotion. There is no question that it is hard work but it is not impossible achieve. If we make one step at a time, the Divinity makes several steps to help us achieve our objectives. After all every life has to someday merge with its origin. Meditation is one of the many ways, we can achieve monitoring the restlessness of our mind. Even saturating our daily work to the highest level of skill, doing with love and selflessness is a meditation in Karma Yoga.

I am a big believer that the Lord does not expect us to worship Him even thought it is one way to achieve Bliss. He really expects us to lead an ideal and purposeful life. He has given everything we need to do that with a right to choose our path. We can call that as free will or will to do the right thing at our discretion. Our decision decides our cycle of birth and death and our Karma.

Viswa

 

Dear AC,

Thank you very much for reading and responding to this post. It is always a pleasure to hear back from friends in IL that my posts make sense. I truly feel humbled and honored.

Viswa

 

Dear Satchi,

I have a very limited knowledge and I learn so much every day from others. To my limited knowledge, the bodies are divided into four categories: a) Sthula Deha (Gross Body), b) Shukshma Deha (Subtle Body), Kaarana Deha (The Causal Body) and d) Mahakarana Deha (The Super Causal Body).

The body consist of 25 constituents: a) five organs of action (karmendriyas), five sense organs (Jnanedriyas), five life breaths (Pancha pranas), five sensory faculties (pancha Tanmatras. In addition, there are four inner instruments, the mind (Manas), intellect (Buddhi), memory (Chitha) and ego (Ahamkara). The first one is our physical form. The second one called Shukshma Deha (Subtle Body)is made of 17 constituents known as a) 5 sensory faculities, 5 senses and 5 vital air together with the mind (manas) and intellect (buddhi). The third body called Kaarana Deha (Causal Body) consist of Memory (Chitha) and Prajna (Constant Integrated Awareness), together known as Chithaprajna. This is the closest to the Mahakaarana which is self-luminous and effulgent. The last constituent is know as Mahakaarana (the Over-Mind) or the 25th constituent and it is self-luminous and effulgent in its original form. It is also called Eruka (Awareness) or Uniki, a being that is self-knowing.

The physical, subtle and causal bodies belong to the state of forgetfulness and go through three states such as waking (Jaagrat), dreaming (Swapna) and deep sleep (Sushupti). Mahakarana is the true form of awareness and subtlest of all dehas. But in every deha, there is divinity present without which they would not function.

When disease like dementia affects a person, it will affect most likely the first three bodies that are in the state of forgetfulness but never affect the fourth constituent which is the person's true Self and is constantly in Awareness. In other words, our normal life is known as forgetful state as we are not aware of who we really are. Therefore, dementia is like forgetfulness within forgetfulness or dream within a dream.

Again, my apologies if this confuses you more. I am struggling hard to understand these aspects myself.

Viswa

 

Dear Kamalji,

I don't know how I missed responding to your wonderful response. Actually, I owe you an apology. I heard from one of my friends that when we get angry on something, the best thing to do is to be flat on the ground for good 10 minutes. One of my friends tried it in a Board meeting and everyone calmed down when they saw one of the board member flat on the ground.

You know exactly how to calm your monkey down. That is an art I should learn from you. My monkey wags its tail often and I need to keep it quiet.

Viswa