Knowing Vs Being

Thanks Viswa Sir.

Not yet reading many spiritual texts currently. However, nice to see everyone here quoting things and widening my knowledge. It is quite true whatever you had written. However only time will tell. Everything we do, have to be done with spiritual context acc to our religion. I am just a lay person so I do tend to do religious practices because that helps to focus on the short time to think about God. Apart from working and looking after the home it is quite difficult to think about God in all the aspects of life. That is part of the reason why I believe we have all the auspicious festivals and days so that atleast we think and be religious on those days as well going to temple on those days will somehow make us think likewise.
In India I like this aspect very much which I miss here. There I used to go to temple almost everyday. There are so many temples there and it is quite easy to go there and spend atleast few min a day and think spiritually, which is definitely missing abroad. I used to feel sometimes that what a sin I had done to be away from India a choice made by fate alone. But whenever I go to India and meet relatives there, they seem so materialistic than people abroad and want everyone of their kids to go abroad and settle.

Spirituality is more of a materialistic attitude as well. To some extent it is true. We become more pious and think about it when we are in distress. We do ask for our worldly desires to be fulfilled and do so as well. I think that when we have distress at home, our mind cannot focus on spirituality unless the issues are solved. Health issues, kids and survival etc divert our attention and spirituality becomes a way of relief when we can't find answer to our situation. We have so many unanswered questions in life and we seek spirituality for the answers. It takes time and patience and answers depend on our Karma. That is what I feel.

I did buy Deivathin Kural all volumes, many years ago and still have read only few chapters in them. I like it a lot and Periyava had dealt with all the aspects of life in very simple text. My dh read some of the chapters, years ago and used to urge me to read them as well. It is still a Pokkisham in my pooja room, God knows when I will have time to read them. Doing religious practices is somewhat helpful for me because that is the only time I can focus with some mental peace.

I am a long way from what you are thinking. Maybe or may not I will reach it. But just like any other ordinary person I will continue with the religious practices until that time dawns.

Keep writing like this, it is one more way I connect with spiritualism.

 

Dear Viswa,
An analysis you have taken for discussion is simply superb.You have clearly distinguished between world consciousness and Awareness.In the process you have cornered your favourite topic'Advaitha Siddhanta'.

When we were kids growing up, it was often and on dinned into our ears that "Knowledge is power " Even our college emblem read its motto" na hi gnaanena sadrusham'Nothing equals wisdom or knowledge'

Our culture emphasizes knowledge. Everywhere.

Schools are extremely mind oriented. For example, knowledge and information are taught to be more important than experience. By the time our children graduate from High School, they will have spent more time acquiring facts and abstract information they will never be able to apply.

" Information is not knowledge.The only source of knowledge is experience" --Einstein.

You learn a lot of this “great” information, but what kind of knowledge are you being taught that will help you apply towards your life, your relationships and your career? What kind of information are you learning that really helps you feed your body, your mind and your soul? Are these learning tools going undeveloped unless we seek them out later in life?

More often than not, we send our children out into the world chalked full of “knowledge,” yet with hardly any life experience. And yes, they do need to get out into the ‘real world’ for that kind of knowledge to be applied.

Our careers make up at least 25 percent of our lives, while the relationship we have with our partners, children, co-workers, friends and ourselves make up the remainder of our lives.

It would be great if we are taught and trained to listen to the inner wisdom.

There are many scholars who have read Ramana's works in entirety and Viveka Choodamani and vedantic works with commentaries of various scholars.

But when it comes to their family they insist too much on academics or particular about their children getting admission into class institutions.Now it is horrifying to see that in recent 7 or 8 years more than 2800 students of IIT( even brilliant post graduates)have committed suicides.

Evidently these world class institutes have offered only bookish knowledge and not wisdom.Parents stop with setting up unrealistic expectations. They have to train the children to face disppointments and failures, an inevitable part of life.
A top ranking student should be made to go down ,even wantonly, to make him realise what failure is.

Some pragmaticians advise ' Go sky-diving so you can not only imagine it, but so you can have the inherent knowledge of what it really feels like to go sky-diving.

Let yourself feel the pain of a breakup so you know what it feels like to experience heartbreak.

Take a career risk so you know what it feels like to have reached for your dreams.

Without experience, there will never be true knowledge. You may think you know, but only with experience will you have anything more than grasping at an idea.
That is why service camps offer a great experience than offering high donations.

For myself I feel that not much of vedantic knowledge is needed.A simple approach of being happy and make others happy will do.
One of my sisters had both thyroid and pituitory complications as a result of which she had very much low level of grasping the subjects. When all the children in the house excelled in studies, she was very much backward (As per teacher's remarks)She could not even pass 8th standard.)
She had one virtue'extreme patience'. Even from her 9th year she learnt the art of cooking all the dishes and doing all bhakshanams even in a larger scale.She was given in marriage to a low level Govt employee.She excellently managed her house notwithstanding her poor understanding and her poor financial conditions.She had 4 children.Evidently she could not teach them physics or maths. But she trained them to face and accept problems.When a big tragedy struck her, all the Ph.Ds in the house broke down, while she accepted the tragedy and became a source of strength to all others.
Knowledge either in acdemics or philosophy will be of no use, if it is not applicable in day to day life and if does not help manage critical situations.

Yes, knowledge and living are different.As Viswa said, there should be awareness to bridge the gap.
A great article Viswa --that gives room for various interpretations which cannot be elaborated in my respone.

Jayasala 42

 

Yes Viswa we are the reality. as is the world in which we are. Illusions are in our mind. As for knowing it is one of the many aspects of the complex thing called being.

 

Hello Viswa sir
Perfect timing. This morning me and my husband watched The shift by Dr Wayne Dyer. What a beautiful piece of work. The more I learn about spirituality the more I feel I need to know. I feel one can a have all sorts of knowledge about spirituality but whats the use if one doesn’t act upon. I feel spirituality is a joy, a way of life which one can only feel not sure about others but that’s true for me. You are so correct about discipline and spirituality. I feel blessed if I can follow the routine for a good week, when life and mind start to come in tune with spirituality my mothering duties get in the way. Because my daughter is only 4( a terrible sleeper) so she is fully dependent on me, she takes a priority. My husband jokingly says that I started following spirituality very early, I should have waited for another 10 years or so. Life is becoming beautiful. Ego is diminishing, everyday I am becoming more aware of myself. Spirituality has changed my life. It feels blissful most of the time. My shift started to happen around 6 years back, but now is the time when all the illusions have started to disappear and I have started to feel really awesome even though I am not fully disciplined yet. Things which I wanted to change in myself and my life, have started changing without much of an effort. Even though I have taken only half a sip from the ocean of spirituality life feels like a blessing already.

 

Thanks for posting detailed replies Sir.

Whatever you have written is very true and that is what is required as well. Yes when we work whichever field, we need to be fully compassionate to others. Some have been gifted to do service to others while at work as well.

For attaining that level of compassion and to reduce all the anger and to reduce all the negativities it is quite a difficult situation.
For eg as you have stated before you need to forgive and forget even all the atrocities one had endured in life as a consequence of the action of relatives or friends. It would be definitely easy to forgive what a friend does or a colleague does, because we know they are transient part of our lives. But when one suffers because of the relatives ( even though they too are transient part of our lives) it becomes a difficult situation bec they are close to heart, that is how the mind feels and that is how the body reacts by showing anger, grief etc. So both the mind and the body needs to be kept calm and that will be difficult to attain even by serving others. I find the solace only in God, surrender all the sorrow and cry to him. Pour the entire grief out.

We all know that everyone of us are travelling alone in this universe. Yet no one of us are able to let it go, I meant relationships. Be is parents, siblings, dh and kids, everyone is travelling alone, but like passengers in train. Yet, we know it but we can't get over it. When they are ill and suffering we suffer and we feel their grief. We are still not able to comprehend that we are fellow passengers. I am yet to go over that situation. Yes, when I am away from family I do feel for them bec I am unable to help them, but on the other hand feel, that is how everyone are destined to be. Always born alone and will leave alone. So the only person who is with me is Almighty. But still can't overcome and am bonded by this samsara saharam( if that is the appropriate word).

To get over all these aspects I pray as others advised, that is all. I felt a lot of solace whilst I studied in India and went to temples. I should thank my poorva puniyam for making me atleast think a bit religiously and get a spouse with the same feeling. They say whatever we learn inone janma follows us for generations. Hope I find time to pursue such interests.

Regarding Deivathin Kural, I had only read advise given for girls, how they have to behave and their duties as advised by Periyavaa. I do hear intermittently Varam Tharum Iraivaa which is made simple by Swaminathan Sir. I do not have any wide knowledge about spirituality like the ones you have quoted. But I do pray the way I can do as my time permits.

Life is too short to learn everything by ourselves, that is the reason they have given religious persons who are able to make us understand the spiritual aspects of life easily. Nowadays bec of all the tech advancement we are able to read all the Deivathin Kural wherever we go and also able to hear upanyasams.

I like to hear Variyar upanyasam ( thanks to dh) which are very easy to understand and also gives soothing sensation whenever we are distressed. Just need to lie down and listen. We all know that when we enter the temple we feel peace of mind, that is bec of the power entrenched in the shrine and that is the reason why all temples need to have Kumbabhishegam every ten years. In my place there is no Hindu temple at all, so I have to think my Pooja room as my temple. There goes a saying that people should never live in a place without temples. What to do here abroad? I would say Blessed are the people who are able to go to temples daily.

There are so many ways our religion preaches whatever you have written. It is just forgotten or thought that it is traditional. Neerilla netri Pazh, how many of us are able to do it and go to work place with that. We cannot go on questioning our cultures and think that it is traditional and become too westernised. I am to some extent following the traditions. Will not be able to give it up. But having said that I find that girls in India are giving up traditions far too easily than those overseas.

So atleast in the name of religious festivals we can teach kids what they will not be knowing. They are unaware of Indian culture and religious aspects, so they tend to learn from these things.

I was not familiar with sanskrit slokas and still don't understand their meaning, but it does not prevent me from telling them. As I stated our lives are too short and it does not matter whether I know the meaning or not, it is a matter of love to God and the devotion we have, that is all. I might not be able to answer the questions my kids ask who think scientifically and needs explanation for everything for eg my son was asking why so many Gods in our religion. I think Variyar swami told, I replied that is the same as going to specialist doctors, who will treat different ailments, even though they are all doctors in general ( I meant God is the doctor).

So whatever way we proceed the ultimate goal is to reach God either by deeds or thro religious practices. There is nothing called right or wrong way to reach him. The other day Variyar was talking abt Kannappa Nayanar, where anything offered with devotion is accepted by God.

Looks like I have written some of them out of context. Just went on with the wild thought flow, which needs control, hopefully by God.

 

duplicate post