Celebrate The Wit & Wisdom: Relax and Enjoy

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Abiding In The Self (Or Reality)

This expression can cause a certain confusion: how am I to live my daily life and yet abide in the Self?

What the expression really means is quite simple: with the total acceptance that THAT SELF is the only Reality and that there is really no such thing as an ‘ego’ or separate entity, one (the illusory ego) does whatever one has to do in any situation, as if one is the doer-entity, and thereafter accepts the result – pain or pleasure – without condemning anyone for anything – neither oneself nor the other.

This means, in daily living, remaining constantly connected to the Self or Reality while living one’s role as a character in this play of maya.

Ability

For success in life, ability is often seen as not the most important factor. Ability would not be of much use in almost any situation unless it is accompanied by sincerity, loyalty, enthusiasm, and, most importantly, cooperation of others.

It is often seen in life that in success of an institution, the man at the top has hardly played a particularly important part, but he has been very supportive to many below him.

Real ability is to be what-we-are and become what we are capable of becoming, with genuine humility.

Executive ability means ability to make a quick decision and to find the appropriate person to do the job, thus turning the decision into action.

Absurdity

What is absurdity? It is thinking about sin without thinking of God.

Acceptance

Intellectual acceptance breeds pride; heart-felt total acceptance breeds humility.

According to God’s Will / Cosmic Law, everyone is supposed to be precisely what he or she is, everything is supposed to be precisely what it is. Do not judge anything; do not condemn anyone for anything. In any situation, do precisely what you feel you should do, but remember that the result has never been in your control.

Achievement

Let actions happen; work without the expectation of results which have never been in your control; do not pursue favours, do not ignore the insignificant as unimportant; try to repay force with softness and bitterness with kindness;

Difficult things have become difficult because they were ignored when they were easy;

The wise man does not strive for great things to achieve, and thus a great deal is smoothly accomplished; when difficulty is faced, he faces it squarely, and sees things as they are.

Easy or difficult, the wise man knows that difficulties are overcome only by facing facts.

Advaita

When a superior man comes across Advaita, he at once begins to live it; when an average man does so, he is not sure what to believe; in the case of foolish man, he laughs at it; indeed, if he didn’t, it could hardly be what it is.

This is why it is said that the path towards the light seems dark, the direct path seems difficult, true power seems weak, what is pure seems tarnished, what is clear seems obscure, wisdom appears childish.

The greatest love seems indifferent because it has no preference; a good parent loves all his children equally, whether they are successful or unsuccessful.

Advaita - Pure Consciousness

Absence of thinking does not mean a blank: knowledge and ignorance are of the mind, born of duality. The SELF is beyond knowledge and ignorance. IT is light itself. There is no need of another self to see the SELF.

There are no two selves: what is not SELF is non-self. The non-self cannot see SELF. The SELF has no sight or hearing. It lies beyond these – all alone, as pure Consciousness.

- Ramana Maharshi

Advaita Philosophy

The basis of the Advaita Vedanta philosophy is the oneness of all existence. The laws of physics reveal the interconnectedness of all physical things, and the physicist has clearly demonstrated that the cosmos is not a chaos but a universe, combined into a ‘Whole’.

According to the Advaita philosophy, behind the phenomenal world of change and impermanence, and underlying the empirical ego, expressing itself as the individual ‘me’ in all living beings, is the One Reality, described in one of the Upanishads as under:

The one deity remains hidden in all beings. He is all-pervasive, the in-dwelling Self of all, the support of all beings, the witness, Consciousness, non-dual and without attributes.

It is to this Reality that the creation of the Universe is attributed as an act of thought: I shall create the worlds.

According to this Upanishad, the same unmanifest Reality has manifested as the living and the non-living, the formed and the formless – Brahman, by its very nature is free, all-pervasive, absolute and independent, without any attribute of bondage or liberation attached to It.

According to the Advaita philosophy, the individual ‘me’-ego is a derivative concept owing to the mistaken identification of the Self with the body-mind organism, and is, therefore, given no more status than a mere reflection of the supreme Self. All that is necessary to ‘attain’ liberation is to realize that the ego cannot be the individual doer of any action.

With the sense of autonomy as the individual doership uprooted, the ego-self realizes its unity with the Brahman, the one Reality. It realizes that it has to live its life as a separate ego, but that it is merely an instrument through which the Source functions and brings about whatever is to happen according to a Cosmic Law.

Adi Shankara explains the idea of liberation:

This is that unembodiedness called liberation where the idea of the three periods of time does not exist, and virtuous and vicious deeds cease along with their effects.

It is also important to note that Adi Shankara makes it clear that the empirical means of knowledge – mind and senses – and the world they apprehend are valid till the direct knowledge of the Self or Brahman happens. In other words, the world and all the activities therein are a valid appearance and not an illusion or hallucination.

Adversity

It needs adversity for a man to judge himself correctly. This is because it is adversity that has the power to bring out talents which would otherwise have lain dormant.

Advice

It is a fact of life that there is nothing which one receives with so much reluctance as advice. Therefore I have long decided not to give advice to anyone, even someone close to me unless it is asked for.

The finest advice for anyone to give and for anyone to receive: Be honest with yourself and stick to the truth.

Even when I give advice only when I am asked, it has been my curious experience that people take hints that I did not intend, and miss hints that I did intend.

My suggestion about the manner in which advice should be given is twofold:

1. It should appear as if you are reminding him of something he had forgotten, not of the light he was unable to see, and

2. Not forgetting that everyone has a destiny which cannot be changed.

It is a fact of life that when someone asks for my advice, it is more often the case that all he wants is a confirmation of what he has already decided to do. And then he is very grateful for the advice!

It is a fact of life that a bad cold would not be so annoying if it were not for the continuous advice you get from friends.

Aham Sphurana (‘The Light Of Self’)

The Self – I – is not known in sleep; on waking, I is perceived, associated with the body, the world, and non-self in general. Such associated I is Aham Vritti. When Aham represents the Self, it is Aham Sphurana. This is natural to the jnani and is itself called jnana by jnanis or bhakti by the bhaktas. Though ever present, including in sleep, it is not perceived. It cannot be known in sleep all at once; it must first be realized here and now. Then it is akhandkara vritti (unbroken experience, not interrupted by jagrat, swapna and sushupti). Vritti’ is used for lack of a better word (modification of mind).

Ambition

Ambition and the belly are the two worst counsellors.

- German proverb

There is nothing wrong with ambition so long as it is not disproportionate to the capacity; to have more ambition than capacity is to court frustration and disaster.

It is ambition which prevents most people from succeeding in smaller matters which they would otherwise have done.

Ancestors

One who always boasts about his ancestors proves that he comes from a family that is better dead than alive.

Anger

It would be fresh conditioning that would alter or amend the existing conditioning which brings about the anger, if we would but consider how much more one suffers from anger than from the very things which brought about the anger in the first place.

Flying into a rage is a biological reason over which the ego has no control: it is based on genes and conditioning. To be angry with the right person, to the right extent, at the right time, with the right object, in the right moment, is a very wise action by the ego.

To think of revenge is to keep one’s wounds fresh and bleeding. It is better to consider carefully what was said with a view to finding out if you can gain from what was said.

If it is deeply understood that anger hurts the one who is angry more than the one against whom it is directed – a fact of life – then this understanding could prevent anger arising the next time.

When anger arises, it would help enormously if one is able to think of the consequences.

We boil at different degrees, depending on our genes and conditioning, over which we have no control.

He is a fool who cannot be angry, but he is a wise man who is able to decide not to get angry.

If you do not wish to be prone to anger, do not feed the habit; give it nothing on which to feed. At first, keep quiet and count the days when you were not angry; I used to be angry every day, then, every other day, next, every two and then every three days.

- Epictetus

Anger is never without a reason, but seldom with a good one.

- Benjamin Franklin

Is there righteous indignation? Yes, when it is my wrath as opposed to the shocking bad temper of others!

When you are facing an angry man, it is always wise to see his anger as it naturally is: a happening over which he had no control. Your unusual reaction is likely to have an unexpectedly calming influence. The reason could well be the sudden realization that he could as well be angry with himself when reason returns.

Association

By association with the sincerely good people, attachment to material things becomes less, and involvements of the mind also becomes less; therefore, one is able to live his daily life with little stress of mind.

Listening to expositions of scriptural texts, performing good deeds etc., while they are certainly generally helpful, cannot compare with

the privilege of living in the company of a jivanmukta who knows the emptiness of daily living, and is connected to the Source; his very presence has the potency to direct the devotee to the path of wisdom, without the need of a set of rules-of-life.

Avataar

The dictionary defines the word as the descent to earth and incarnation of a deity. But I had not come across any clear, specific definition of who was an avataar. All kinds of descriptions prevailed – such as those who had extraordinary powers, who could come out of locked rooms, who could be in two or three places at the same time, those who had control over the five primal elements (pancha-mahabhootas).

Then there happened an extraordinary case of a supposed avataar daring to give a clear definition of one: "He is an avataar whose word never goes wrong." According to this clear definition, at least two of the supposed avataars turned out not to be so, in my experience.

The amazing fact is that the one who gave that clear definition, Swami Nityanand of Ganeshpuri (Bombay), the Guru of Swami Muktanand, turned out to be himself an avataar. He made a prediction of something that would happen thirty years later, which turned out to be true in spite of incredible odds against it.

This is not hearsay. I am personally concerned with the happening.

The mother of a close relative of mine happened to be personally known to Swami Nityanand since they were both in their twenties.

When her son joined the State Police Department, she went to Swami Nityanand for his blessings. Without the slightest hesitation, the Swami said, He will be the I.G.P. – Inspector General of Police – the topmost officer in the service. She was happy and mentioned the fact to the son, who, she thought, would be happy too.

She was shocked when the son burst out laughing. He said that his becoming the I.G.P. was an impossibility. He himself had joined the provincial police service whenever there were at least one hundred people, younger than himself, who had joined the I.P.S. (the Central Government Service) and were senior to him.

The young man