Friday, October 29, 2010

The third is a bunch of six is starting with Sama.

So the immediate question is what are the six bunched together? They are as follows: sama, dama, renunciation, endurance, samadhana, and sradhdha.
Sama is -Tranquility (control of the mind), Dama is (control of the senses), Uparati (renunciation of activities that are not duties), Titiksha (endurance), Samadhana (perfect concentration), Shraddha (faith).

The first is sama. That means control of the mind. Actually it is the mind that is causing us a lot of problems.If you don't control it runs around. It goes back from 40 - 50 years and brings back the same undesirable emotions of things that happen long back. As a result we get angry sad and depressed. It might also make to think of what can happen in the future and make you anxious about it. The past is gone and the future is not yet here! if we can get some lesson out of the past it is worth remembering it. otherwise it is of no use! Similarly the future is something that is uncertain and so many other things might happen in a different manner. It is futile to plan in too much detail.

The mind keeps telling you the you need this and that. If you yield and provide it what it desired, it is not happy to leave you alone. It comes up with the next demand. It's near impossible to provide everything that it is asking for. Therefore we need to keep a check on this and tell the mind that it should keep quiet. This is what is called sama.

The next is dama. This is the control of the five senses. The five senses being the apparatus to seeing, hearing, tasting, touching, and smelling. All these must come under our control. I do not mean to say that these must be completely done away with. On the other hand, this must come under our control. Meaning, we should not be going where they drag us to, but they must be under the check half of intellect. You might ask whether they are really under our control. The are.
We might be seeing a movie in the cinema theater. There is an interesting scene going on. At that time somebody comes in and sits beside us. After some time, we realise that it is one dearest friend. We never realised that before because the attentions were elsewhere. We also did not realise that the person on the left had got up and gone away. It is not that we did not see this thing is. It's just that our mind was not in it.
Of course, we are all familiar about the classes that we attended. The teacher was trying to get something into our thick heads, but we're thinking about which movie theater was preferable. It is only when our neighbor give us a kick, we realise that the teacher was asking us a question. Again, it is not that we did not hear it but we were not attentive.
In a Hindu concept. The senses don't work one way. When we see, something from us as to reach the object and come back to us. And only that will be perceived. Similarly, something from us is to reach the source of song and come back to us. This only than we hear. Therefore the senses of certainly under our control, but we don't exercise that.

Thursday, October 28, 2010

how to get gnana...

You asked me how to get gnana ….
Our forefathers have shown us the way it is called sadhana chatushtayam.
Don't be flustered with the jargon. It only means that the process has four stepes . Sadhana is the effort.
Let us enumerate them.
The first is viveka which tells us what is it to ephemeral and what is not. It is called nitya and anitya.
The second is not to have any desire pertaining to this world on the next.
The third is a bunch of six is starting with Shama.
The fourth is the intense desire to attain salvation.
These of the four steps involved in attaining salvation.

Let us see them one by one.
•The concept of nitya and anitya.
This is to see whether the object is something permanent or destroyable. What is permanent is worth seeking after and attaining. What is the use of running of the something that is just destroyable? The Shastras say whatever  is conducive to salvation is something that can be classified as nitya. all the  rest are anitya.
Therefore whenever we seek something, we need to determine this thing  and decide how much effort to put into it. I buy something to eat. Once I eat it will get digested in about six hours. No doubt it gave me some energy but it is gone in a few hours. Seeing it in the proper perspective helps me to determine how much effort I should put into obtaining this. I can also decide whether I should eat to live or I should live to eat. Reading a blog like this is nitya as such enquiries can lead to finding your route to salvation. :-))
If we start looking at everything in this manner soon we'll find that we don't need several things essentially. Therefore we can stop clamouring after them. What we really need is food, clothing and a place to stay.That is all. If we seek more things, life may become more problematic.

• The second is not to have any craving, intense desire pertaining to this world on the next. Buddha said that desire is the root of all evil. If we crave for something we try hard to reach it. We get angry and frustrated is something stands in the way. For spiritual evolution this craving (kama) and anger (krodha) are counter-productive. Desire is not just something that pertains to this world. It can be something like "I want to go to swarga where I can be very happy." And therefore I want to do some pujas and havans. Though superficially this seems to be something good and desirable in reality it is not so. This is also something that can potentially create problems, just like the worldly desires.

Sunday, October 24, 2010

the gnana route 3

So the pot is ephemeral. The mountain over there that is this permanent? Is that right?
Well think about it. It's the mountain permanent? There's a quarry over there. Seven years down the line the monitor will disappear.
Oh! looks like nothing is permanent.
Yes that is quite true. Though it appears superficially that everything is permanent, nothing is so. Everything will get destroyed one day. Usually we see what our mind tells us. See the leaf here ? This looks green right?
Of course it is green.
But are you sure you're seeing what I am seeing?
What do you mean? Of course I do.
Well from the childhood you're being told that this is green. So you're saying this is green. That does not really need that you are seeing it the same way that I do. I may be seeing it as red but you are seeing it as green. But both of us call it Green.
Of course how can it see what you are seeing I can't enter in your mind.
Exactly! Therefore we believe whatever our mind tells us. That may not be true.
Suppose we show the pot to a geologist. He will say that the mud is pure and of high quality . show it your mother. She will say that it you'd be great to store water. Those who see the mud do not see the pot. Those who see the pot do not see the mud.
In the same way the Bremen has manifested as the universe. Those who see the universe do not see the brahman. Those who see the brahman may not see the universe. These are the people who are called gnanies.
Well, can I become a gnani?
One can, by doing vicara.
Can you explain the procedure?
That is basically the inquiry into who am I? and what is this universe? How did this come about? What is the relationship between me and this universe?
But to do this you had to purify your mind, cleanse your mind so that it can contemplate on higher things. For the present this will do. We can go into to details later.