Upanishads : "The cream of Vedas"

  --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Friday,  April  30, 2021. 06:49. PM. Post-4. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- There is a tendency inherent in the human mind by which the pure subjectivity which is the consciousness of the Atman is pulled, as it were, in the direction of what it is not, and is compelled to be aware of what it is not in the form of sense-perception. Not only that, it cannot be conscious continuously of one particular object – now it is aware of this, now it is aware of another thing. It moves from object to object.  The tendency to move in the direction of what the Atman is not, the impulsion towards externality of objects, is the dirt or Mala as it is called. The impossibility of fixing the mind on anything continuously is the distraction or the Vikshepa. The reason why such an impulse has arisen at all is the...

  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Saturday, April 24, 2021. 10:24. AM. Chapter 5: Ananda Mimamsa-9. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The universal material is not the Ultimate Reality. This was what Bhrigu realised by deep meditation. He entered further inside into the substance behind the physical universe and came to experience that subtle vital energy permeating the whole cosmos as Reality. It is called prana. “Prano brahmeti vyajanat.” Earlier we studied the five sheaths in an individualistic fashion, which are experienced in a cosmical fashion by deep meditation. The individual is a cross section of the universal. Whatever is in the universal we will find in the individual, but in a minute, microscopic manner. The five sheaths are individual as well as cosmic. When we regard ourselves as this physical body alone, then we will have a notion only of the individual five sheaths. ...

  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Thursday,  April  22, 2021. 11:38. AM. Post-3. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Mala means dirt, something like a thick coating over a clean mirror, preventing reflection of light in it. Dirt is that which covers the essential nature of an object, like a thick coating of dust, etc. on a mirror. There is some such thing covering the mind of the human being also, on account of which correct knowledge is not reflected in the mind, as a mirror that is covered over with dust will not reflect sunlight. So some step has to be taken in order to see that this dirt of the mind is scrubbed off. The other defect of the mind is known as Vikshepa, that is fickleness, inability to concentrate on anything for a long time, instability is the basic nature of the mind. It will think twenty things in one minute and will not be able to fix its attention on o...

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Friday, April  16, 2021. 10:25. AM. 1.Introduction -2. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- In ancient times, masters and sages sat together in congregation, and discussed the problems of life of here and hereafter. What is life? What is this world? What is our duty? What are we expected to do, and in what way are we to behave, and so on. Is there a life beyond, or, is this life everything? Is this earth the evaluating principle of all, or is there something beyond? These questions were discussed in great detail, through centuries, right from the time of the Vedas. We have, in India particularly, a series of records available of such discussions of ancient masters, which are given to us today in the form of what we call the Veda-Rasi or the lore of sacred wisdom, usually known as the Vedas. It is a book of wisdom, or we may call it a group of books of w...

  ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Wednesday,    April  14, 2021. 04:48. PM. Post-2. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- It is the Atman not merely as a force that causes this impulse of self-identity in things, it is also a consciousness of their being such a self-identity. You are what you are, but not only that, you are also aware that you are what you are. So it is existing and it is also conscious that it exists. So the Atman is existence; it is also consciousness. Now, what sort of existence? The existence of the fact that it cannot be identified with anything other than itself. This is the characteristic of pure subjectivity. For no reason can you become somebody else. Rama cannot become Krishna, Krishna cannot become Jesus, Jesus cannot become Thomas, and so on and so forth. A particular thing is just that particular thin...

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Tuesday, April 13, 2021. 10:24. AM. Chapter 5: Ananda Mimamsa-8. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Absolute appears to be non-existent from the point of view of the senses, not from its own point of view. It is non-existent to the senses because the senses can perceive only what is in space and in time. But the Absolute Brahman is not in space and in time; it is the Self. Again we come to the point that we cannot see the Self, just as we cannot see our own eyes. The Self is the seeing consciousness. That is called the Atman; that is called Brahman or the Absolute. How can we see it? Who can see the Seer? We cannot see the Seer because the Seer is the seer of things. The Atman cannot be beheld in the way we behold a building outside or people in the world externally, because the beholding outside is done through the senses. But the senses function on a...

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Saturday, April  10, 2021. 10:09. AM. (Spoken on January 14th, 1973) Post-9. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The vairagya that is described by Sankaracharya in one of his works is pertinent. What is vairagya? What is the kind of vairagya that we require in order to study the Upanishads and meditate according to them? Sankaracharya says that we must be as indifferent even to the bliss of Brahmaloka as we are indifferent to a clod of dirt. But what is the bliss of Brahmaloka? We do not know what it is. We will become unconscious and swoon if we know what it is, such is the joy of it. We will swoon by the joy itself. We know the characterisation and the calculus given in the Taittiriya Upanishad, how the joys go on increasing in intensity as we go higher and higher. If our bliss is one, multiply it by a hundred, and then multiply it by a hundred eleven ...