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Sharing Teachings from Scriptures of Sanātanaḥ Dharmaḥ and Self Realised Masters. Owner - @Vasudevom #spiritual #sanatandharma #hinduism
A wise person learns from others mistakes.
A normal person learns from his mistakes.
A fool keeps repeating his own mistakes.
It's the wise one who gets the lessons of life quickly.
Others continue to suffer due to their poor understanding and lack of attention; while precious time flies by.
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"The eternal, unbroken, natural state of abiding in the Self is jnana.
To abide in the Self you must love the Self. Since God is verily the Self, love of the Self is love of God; and that is bhakti.
Jnana and bhakti are thus one and the same."
~Ramana Maharshi
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IGNORANCE
The nature of ignorance is indeterminable. Avidya or ignorance is beginningless. It is indefinable. You cannot say that ignorance exists, because it is annihilated through knowledge.
You cannot say it does not exist, because all experience it and therefore suffer pain. Individuality is created through ignorance.
When ignorance is destroyed you become one with the Absolute. When ignorance vanishes, then false ideas do not arise; and the objective world also ends.
Ignorance lasts as long as one has egoism. There can be no emancipation so long as there is egoism. Egoism is the great perversion.
Unless you destroy ignorance through Brahma Jnana you will ever remain in the grip of ignorance, desire and Buffering.
You will be driven about by the winds of Karma or the results of your previous actions. Your identification with the physical body is so strong that it is difficult to break away from the thraldom of birth and death.
The subtle body made up of desires, together with the organs of perception and action, the Prana, the intellect and the mind, constitutes the subtle adjunct of the Atman.
The flesh body is the gross adjunct or Upadhi of the Atman. The immediate cause of our misery, pain, sorrow and unhappiness is our self-identification with the body and the ultimate cause of this is ignorance of the Self or the immortal, all-blissful Atman.
~ Swami Shivananda Saraswati
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That which is Shyama is also Brahman.
That which has form, again, is without form.
That which has attributes, again, has no attributes.
Brahman is Shakti; Shakti is Brahman.
They are not two.
These are only two aspects, male and female, of the same Reality.
Existence-Knowledge-Bliss Absolute.
~Ramakrishna Paramahansa from The Gospel of Shri Ramakrishna
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DISCOVER HAPPINESS EVERYWHERE
There are hundreds of things that can fill you with happiness if you only have the eyes to see. When you get up in the morning, you can step out of your room and look at the dawn and be happy. When the sun rises, still more happiness. When you hear the birds warbling, even more happiness. When you feel the cool breeze blowing, again happiness. Well, there is no end to happiness.
Know the technique for deriving happiness from these simple things - from the dawn, the sunrise, the birds, the laughter of children, the beautiful blue sky, the white clouds slowly sailing like majestic ships, little dancing flowers. They can inspire you if you only know how to derive joy. If you discover this secret there will be no end to your happiness.
~ Swami Chidananda Saraswati
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Vedanta recognises no sin.
All the powers in the universe are already ours. It is we who have put our hands before our eyes and cry that it is dark.
Know that there is no darkness around us. Take the hands away and there is the light which was from the beginning.
Darkness never existed, weakness never existed. We who are fools cry that we are weak; we who are fools cry that we are impure.
Thus Vedanta not only insists that the ideal is practical, but that it has been so all the time; and this Ideal, this Reality, is our own nature.
Everything else that you see is false, untrue. As soon as you say, “I am a little mortal being,” you are saying something which is not true, you are giving the lie to yourselves, you are hypnotising yourselves into something vile and weak and wretched.
The Vedanta recognises no sin, it only recognises error. And the greatest error, says the Vedanta, is to say that you are weak, that you are a sinner, a miserable creature, and that you have no power and you cannot do this and that.
Every time you think in that way, you, as it were, rivet one more link in the chain that binds you down, you add one more layer of hypnotism on to your own soul.
Therefore, whosoever thinks he is weak is wrong, whosoever thinks he is impure is wrong, and is throwing a bad thought into the world.
This we must always bear in mind that in the Vedanta there is no attempt at reconciling the present life — the hypnotised life, this false life which we have assumed — with the ideal; but this false life must go, and the real life which is always existing must manifest itself, must shine out.
No man becomes purer and purer, it is a matter of greater manifestation. The veil drops away, and the native purity of the soul begins to manifest itself. Everything is ours already — infinite purity, freedom, love, and power.
~ Pratical Vedanta by Swami Vivekananda
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"If we poke our nose into matters that do not concern us, it is we who lose our precious time."
~ Jagadguru Sri Bharati Tirtha Mahaswamigal
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WHAT IS MAYA?
Maya is unreal. It hides Brahman and projects the world.
Ignorance, Avidya, Maya, Prakriti—all these are synonymous terms meaning the indefinable power of Brahman that becomes immediately responsible for the manifestation of the phenomenal world.
It is Maya that makes the one universal Spirit appear as many, as embodied in multiple forms and delighting in the sense-objects, the false ideas of ' I ' and ' mine.'
Through the power of Maya, Sat (truth) will appear as Asat (untruth) and vice versa.
It is due to Maya that the infinite Brahman appears as the finite Jiva or the individual soul.
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Man can raise himself to the highest Heaven or damn himself to the lowest hell.
It is all in his hands.
~ Swami Chidananda Saraswati
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True freedom belongs to the man who has controlled his passions, cravings, desires and impulses.
Overcome sleep by regulating your diet and taking only light, Sattvic food and by the practice of Asana, Pranayama.
Pure and light diet is a great help to the refinement of the human nature.
Aspirant should be ever watchful and cautious in the spiritual path. Purify your mind. Meditate. Realize your real divine nature.
You will enter a realm which is beyond life and death, beyond bondage and release, beyond light and darkness, beyond good and evil, beyond pleasure and pain.
People may laugh, people may sneer; people may say things unkind. Be bold. Be resolute; be determined. March on and reach the goal.
Self-conquest is heroism. He is really great who has conquered the mind and disciplined his senses.
Conquer craving. Conquer Moha (attachment). You will soon attain God-realization.
~ Swami Shivananda Saraswati
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The more we are humble, the better it is for us." It means that we should be humble because truly nothing belongs to us.
Everything is transient including our body and mind.
We do not own anything and the things we think we own are instantly left behind when we leave the body.
Once we realize this basic truth, we recognize that the ego which appears to be in a constant state of agitation, grabbing onto things and people to gain happiness, has no substance.
~ Ramana Maharshi
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Attachment is the first child of Maya. This whole Lila of the Lord is kept up by the force of attachment.
Selfishness causes attachment.
Attachment is the root-cause for all miseries and troubles of this world.
- Swami Shivananda Saraswati
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We trace our ancestry from Lord Narayana or Sadashiva. From Narayana was born Brahma.
From Brahma's mind was born Sage Vasishtha, the reputed embodiment of wisdom, the spiritual guru of the kings of Ayodhya. He gave us the Yuga-Vasishtha, the transcendental guide-light to humanity.
Vasishtha's son was Sakti. From Sakti was born sage Parasara. From Parasara was born Vyasa, the great Badarayana, or Krishna-Dvaipayana, who divided the Vedas, and wrote the Mahabharata. Vyasa's son was the ideal sage Suka-Deva, who gave the Bhagavata to Parikshit.
Sukadeva, was initiated into Sannyas by Lord Siva himself. Read the Suka-Rahasya Upanishad. You will find that Suka was initiated into the Mahavakyas by Sadasiva at the request of Sri Vyasa Maharshi.
The blood of SUKA-DEVA is said to run in the veins of Goudapada, the famous Advaitic metaphysician, the fattier of Advaita-Vedanta.
Goudapada initiated Govindapada into Sannyas, who, in turn, initiated into Sannyasa, SRI SANKARA, the wondrous giant of Indian philosophy and religion.
Sankara's name will be remembered as long as the divine names of Rama and Krishna wilt last in this world. But for the timely incarnation of Sankara, the Upanishadic Wisdom would have sunk into oblivion. Glory to the greatest sannyasin, Sankara, the 'Loka-Sankara', who showered the rain of peace all over the land!
The famous disciples of Sankara, Sureswaracharya, Padmapada, Hastamalaka and Trataka became the disseminators of Upanishadic and Vedantic knowledge all over the four quarters. Glory to all of them!
Among the later Sannyasins, sage Vidyaranya ranks the foremost. He kept up the light of Advaita even in the midst of political bloodshed and suffering in the country. Next to Sankara and his direct disciples, none is so famous in the history of Sannyas and Vedanta as Swami Vidyaranya, the disciple of Swami Sankarananda. The commentary on the Bhagavad Gita written by Sankarananda is meant for the sannyasins. It is purely a Sannyasic interpretation of the Gita.
There are innumerable sannyasins at present belonging to one or the other of the four centres established by the four disciples of Sankara - Sringeri, Dwaraka, Badrinath and Jagannath Puri. They are called Dasanami Sannyasins, i.e., sannyasins with ten names. The credit of vigorous insistence on the necessity for sannyas goes solely to the adorable Advaitic sannyasin, the glorious Sankara!
Glory, glory to the Sages, the Gurus, the Sannyasins, who have opened our eyes from sleep, who have widened our hearts, brightened our intellects and immersed us in Supreme Knowledge!
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Lead a Regulated Life
You are the real master or governor of the whole world. You are bound to none.
So abandon all anxiety, fear and worry. Rest in peace.
Perform worship of the Atman at all times.
Lead a regulated life. Mould your character.
Develop noble and virtuous qualities. Be righteous and work for the good of others.Be devoted to your guru.
Develop the power of concentration.
Remove lust, egoism, anger, selfishness and pride.
You will acquire purity of heart. You will experience sublime, divine feelings.
When the attraction and attachment for sensual objects vanish, knowledge of the Atman dawns.
You will enjoy the bliss of the Supreme.
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CAUSE OF SUFFERING
Desire is the cause for suffering. Suffering is removed by destroying desire. Desire is destroyed by knowledge of Atman. Desire is the cause of Samsara or birth and death.
Desire for objects is itself pain. Attachment and desires are obstructors that stand in the way of realizing the Infinite.
The attachment to sense-object is so strong that phantoms are mistaken for facts, the impure is mistaken for the pure, the painful for the pleasant, and the 'non-self' for the Self.
Out of craving attachment is born. Than come self-consciousness and fear of death.
Desires are the forms of perishable Maya. Extinction of Maya is Moksha.
The flame of desire will be extinguished just as a fire goes down when no fuel is added.
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The various classification of Samadhi's
1- Sahaja nirvikalpa samadhi: This is the state of the jnani who has finally and irrevocably eliminated his ego.
Sahaja means ‘natural’ and nirvikalpa means ‘no differences’.
A jnani in this state is able to function naturally in the world, just as any ordinary person does. Knowing that he is the Self, the sahaja jnani sees no difference between himself and others and no difference between himself and the world. For such a person, everything is a manifestation of the indivisible Self.
2- Kevala nirvikalpa samadhi: This is the stage below Self-realization. In this state there is a temporary but effortless Self-awareness, but the ego has not been finally eliminated. It is characterised by an absence of body-consciousness.
Although one has a temporary awareness of the Self in this state, one is not able to perceive sensory information or function in the world. When body-consciousness returns, the ego reappears.
3- Savikalpa samadhi: In this state Self-awareness is maintained by constant effort. The continuity of the samadhi is wholly dependent on the effort put in to maintain it. When Self-attention wavers, Self-awareness is obscured.
1- Holding on to reality is samadhi.
2- Holding on to reality with effort is savikalpa samadhi.
3- Merging in reality and remaining unaware of the world is nirvikalpa samadhi.
4- Merging in ignorance and remaining unaware of the world is sleep.
5- Remaining in the primal, pure, natural state without effort is sahaja nirvikalpa samadhi.
~ Ramana Maharshi, Be As You Are.
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Knowledge is acquired through continuous practice. Learning is fruitful only through practice.
The pride and fame of the family remains stable only because of good qualities and nature.
The best man is known by virtues. Anger is known by looking at the eyes of a man.
~ Chanakya Neeti 5.8
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Om.
I bow with folded hands to Lord Shiva, Who is the -
- Lord of the universe (Jagatpita)
- world's teacher (Jagad-Guru)
- Who is the destroyer of Tripuras (3 cities, egoism, lust and anger)
- Who is the Lord of Uma (Uma Shankar)
- Gauri (Gauri Shankar)
- Ganga (Ganga Shankar)
- who is full of light (Jyotirmaya)
- knowledge and bliss (Chidananda Maya)
- Who is the Lord of Yogins (Yogeeshvara)
- Who is the storehouse of knowledge
- Who is known by the various names as Mahadeva, Shankara, Hara, Shambhu, Sadashiva, Rudra, Shoolapani, Bhairava, Uma- Maheshvara, Neelakantha, Trilochana or Tryambaka (the three-eyed), Vishwanatha, Chandrashekhara, Ardhanareeshvara, Maheshvara, Neelalohita, Parama Shiva, Digambara, Dakshinamurti, etc.
How merciful He is! How loving and kind He is! He even wears the skulls of His devotees as a garland around His neck. He is an embodiment of renunciation, mercy, love and wisdom. It is a mistake to say that He is the destroyer.
Lord Shiva in reality is the regenerator. Whenever one's physical body becomes unfit for further evolution in this birth either by disease, old age or other causes, He at once removes this rotten physical sheath and gives a new, healthy, vigorous body for further quick evolution.
It is very easy to please Shiva. A little Love and devotion, a little chanting of His Panchakshara is quite sufficient to infuse delight in Shiva. He gives boons to His devotees quite readily. How large is His heart! He gave Pasupatashtra to Arjuna without any difficulty for his little penance. He gave a precious boon to Bhasmasura.
In Kalahasti near Tirupati He gave Darshan for Kannappa Nayanar, the devoted hunter who plucked his two eyes to replace the weeping eyes in the Murti.
He ran with tremendous speed to make Markandeya immortal when he was in the clutches of the God of Death-Yama. Ravana of Lanka pleased Shiva with his Sama chantings.
Look at his unbounded mercy for His devotees! How magnanimous and self-effulgent He is!
Why don't you all attempt this very second with sincerity to realise God?
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“If you want to escape the results of good and bad karma, then chant God’s name, repeat your mantra, worship the Lord, and read the scriptures.
Always discriminate between the real and the unreal. Good karma subdues bad karma, but cannot destroy it. The good and bad karmas of an individual soul are destroyed only by chanting God’s name, which also purifies the mind. Then one can know one’s true nature.”
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Man should not be degraded to worldly slavery, but should raise up to God.
~ Practical Vedanta by Swami Vivekananda
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Difference between Jiva and Atman:
Jiva refers to the individual soul, while Atman refers to the Supreme Being.
The Jiva is a limited, finite being, while the Atman is an infinite, eternal being.
The Jiva is subject to birth, death, and rebirth, while the Atman is not.
The Jiva is bound by karma, while the Atman is not.
The Jiva is the conscious entity that experiences the world through the senses and mind.
The Atman is the underlying essence of all beings, which is beyond the limitations of the body and mind.
The Jiva is often described as being trapped in the cycle of birth, death, and rebirth. This is because the Jiva is bound to the illusion of separateness from the Atman
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The jnani sticking to the path of knowledge, always reasons about the Reality, saying, 'Not this, not this.'
Brahman is neither 'this' nor 'that';
It is neither the universe nor its living beings. Reasoning in this
way, the mind becomes steady.
Then it disappears and the aspirant goes into samādhi.
This is the knowledge of Brahman.
It is the unwavering conviction of the jnani that Brahman alone is real and the world illusory.
All these names and forms are illusory, like a dream.
What Brahman is cannot be described. One cannot even
say that Brahman is a Person.
This is the opinion of the jnanis, the followers of Vedanta philosophy.
~ Sri Ramakrishna Paramahansa, Kathamrita
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THE WORLD IS AN APPEARANCE
This world is illusory. The world is a product of the mind. The world does not exist by itself.
It is not seen without the aid of the mind. Ignorance is the material cause of the world-appearance.
This world is nothing but the expansion of Sankalpa (thoughts).
The entire universe is a product of ignorance or Avidya. It vanishes on the dawn of true knowledge of Atma.
This world is like a dream in the waking state. There is no world apart from and independent of thought..
~ Swami Shivananda Saraswati
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If you live as a slave to the senses and their appetites and to the mind and its desires, then you may dance and laugh now, but you will weep later on.
~ Swami Chidananda Saraswati
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A true devotee cannot have a permanent fall. Even if he fails, he is bound to rise again through the grace of the Lord.
— Swami Turiyananda
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This life has been given to us only to be devoted to God, only to remember Him, only to glorify Him, only to realize him. There is no other purpose for life.
~ Swami Chidananda Saraswati
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To think of saints like Yajnavalkya, Dattatreya, Mirabai,Tukaram, Veda Vyasa, Shankara, Paramahamsa Ramakrishna, Ramana Maharshi, Swami Shivananda, Swami Vivekananda, to carefully study their lives and to live by their teachings is the only way of rising above suffering and sin, of going beyond pain and death, and attaining true peace and perennial joy in the Divine.
There is no other path to true welfare and blessedness than to follow the footsteps of the holy men and saints.
There is no greater blunder than to forget the saints and live an aimless life. It is a great loss to waste away your life in meaningless pursuits of fleeting sensations and perishable objects here.
There is no greater folly than to ignore and neglect the teachings of these great souls and destroy your own welfare and weep at the time of death.
~ Swami Chidananda Saraswati
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Just as an ornament worn round the neck is considered lost through forgetfulness and is gained when the mistake is realized, so also the Self is attained (when the delusion is removed) by the words of the Guru.
He is indeed an unfortunate person who not knowing his own Self, takes pleasure in sense-objects, like one who realizes too late that-the food eaten by him was poisonous.
That perverted man who even after knowing that worldly objects are deceptive, still thinks of them, is an ass, not a man.
~ Yoga Vashishta
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Virtue abides where there is truth.
Vice abides where there is greed and Lord abides where there is devotion.
Therefore cultivate virtue, destroy greed and develop devotion.
There is no religion higher than virtue.
Virtue brings peace. Virtue is greater than life and prosperity. Virtue is the gateway to bliss.
Therefore be virtuous always. Let virtue be your main stay.
~ Swami Shivananda Saraswati
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“Through breath energy, Consciousness pervades Matter.
Everything that is alive breathes.
When breath stops, you die.
Physical life depends on breath.
Through Prana, matter becomes alive. Desires and wandering mind make the breath impure.
Therefore, I advise the practice of concentration on breathing combined with taking any one of God’s Names.
If the breath and the mind become one-pointed and steady, then the mind expands to infinity, and all phenomena are included in that one all – inclusive point.
If you think of God with the breath it will purify the prana, the physical sheath and the mind. If you breathe while thinking of God’s Name, you will feel the call of His grace.”
~ Anandamayi Maa
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