Dilution of value of dharma

The value of dharma as a goal is under diminishment.

Under the influence of kali yuga, humanity is unclear as to where lies true happiness.
Fear, doubt, confusion, imputence, hastiness, anger, mutual suspicion, impatience and agressive posturing have become the norm of the day.

Every citizen is affected, including new children being born in such a society.

The balance of dharma in humanity was maintained in ancient india through a framework that emphasised on duties over rights.

In the hindu framework, dharma and moksha are the primary purpose of a human birth and kaama and artha ( luxuries and sustenance) are only considered supporting goals, that ultimately only provide a support to the primary goal of moksha and dharma.

The pursuit of artha and kaama are valid, but not at the expense of dharma. This was since unless a person leads a life of dharma, moksha will eternally remain out of his range.

Each human being seeks happiness alone through all goals. Moksha is defined to be the only lasting happiness and peace in the hindu meaning. Moksha implies permanent peace and happiness, and freedom while living. This is referred to as jivanmukti.

In the hindu lifestyle, jivanmukti is not a status whose aspiration is limited to only sanyaasis in himalayas. On the other hand, every human starting from a simple labourer in a farm to a most learned teacher is an aspirant.

Bhagavan Krishna makes this clear with the defining teaching of karma yoga.

Karma means action and yoga means the attitude with which each action is performed.

There are two definitions bhagavan gives for karma yoga.

1. yogaha karmasu koushalam

This means while the action is performed, it is to be performed appropriately. Which means at any given point, the response to a situation, or a goal or ambition is to be chosen and action is to be performed in accordance with dharma alone. Dharma means to do unto others, only that which oneself would expect. Dharma also means much more, it means to acknowledge the presence of a dharmic order in each action.
Every action produces a result. Bhagavan makes that clear, that even the rains are caused by the renunciate actions of wise men, And in a society devoid of wise men, there will be no rain.

Bhagavan is an order, an order that gives appropriate results for specific actions.
If a action is in accordance with this order of bhagavan called dharama, it produces a pleasurable result, while actions against dharma produces painful results.
In fact, the receiving of a painful result is in dharma, or in order, as per our past actions. This wholeful order is dharma.

All humans are aware of dharma as ethics, which means you should not do that which is inappropriate, This need not be taught. Any self respecting man will not insult or show anger unjustifiably since he himself wont expect that. This is nothing but self awareness of what is 'right' . This awareness is present by birth and need not be taught. We worship this sense of what is right, as the presence of ishvara.

Hence when an action is performed, we must not go against this sense of what is right, it is our service to the lord, as dharma.

Similarly when we procrastinate, we omit what must be done. We fail in dharma by ommission. By ommitting what must be done, we do something else, which autmatically at that moment becomes commission of adharma.

Hence each moment of life, is to be led in awareness of ishvara as this order of dharma, and our actions should confirm with what is to be done.

This is growth. A person grows from being a governed by ones own likes and dislikes, moods and fancies, into a greater human, someone who can contribute. the person grows from being a consumer to being a contributor.

Contribution here does not refer to money etc. rather refers to a person who can be trusted, to act in a manner that will be non detrimental to the happiness and well being of others.

2. samtvam yoga uchyate

The second definition of karma yoga bhagavan gives is 'samattvam'. How one responds to a situation.

Every action produces a result as per bhagavans order of dharma. hence any result comes from bhagavan alone. The action is performed by us, we perform with a goal in mind , expect certain result, and we give all our effort to the factors that can be controlled. But there are million factors that define a result. This is called 'adrushta' or unseen. The vedas tell us that this unseen results are governed by our own past actions, and bhagavan is the orderly giver of these results, based on whats most suitable to us at that time for our growth.

hence every result is to be accepted with 'sama buddhi' sameness of mind as ishvara prasada,
When we go to a temple we get prasaadam. Sometimes its sweet, sometimes we get a bitter tasting rice, sometimes tasty sometimes not so tasty.

But we eat with joy, since it is a prasaadam.

Simiarly we accept the results of our own actions, as ishvara prasaadam. Hence we are able to meet each situation in our life objectively and are not overcome by the situation, rather we learn and grow and sense the presence of ishvara in each result and situation, thereby getting closer to ishvara.

Not only acceptance of results but even performance of each action is possible with the aid of a body, mind, situations, support, instruments, and conditions which are all made available by ishvara.
This available situations in the form of ishvara, is simply reformatted by our will, to achieve a desire.

In fact bhagavan in geeta says , I am that desire in human heart which is not against dharma.

Bhagavans wish as a mother is for her children to use the free will in a responsible manner.
Also we develop a strong , stable, calm, peaceful mind, a mind that is ready for knowledge that leads to moksha.


So --
As we saw dharma is inseparable from karma yoga.

Without karma yoga, moksha is a distant dream.

And without moksha, there is no lasting happiness for the human being.

In fact in the very practice of karma yoga, a person achieves a great degree of peace, stability and happiness that is much greater than happiness from earning millions of dollars via unfair means.

It is inner happiness, which is the only lasting happiness.

Our hindu way of living imbibes this teaching in every pore of its skin. From morning to night, we believe in worshipful living. Ours is a great vedic heritage, that dreams of a society which is truly integrated, peaceful, healthy and fulfilling.

This dream is to be preserved, not for the sake of preserving, but for ones own sake, and for the sake of the future generations of the world.

The vedas are gods greatest fruit and the vedic culture its greatest garden.
This garden is to be preserved by those who inherit the garden. The duty and responsibility lies with its inheritors. To expect others to preserve this garden is to fail at ones duty and to put the burden on those who do not realise its value.

I urge every  indian and vaidika to consider ones main duty, over and above personal success, and strive to raise higher to achieve ones own true destiny.

Harih om.

Relationship with ishvara

As a human being you have many relationships. Which means you are related to your wife, to your parents and siblings, to your children, to your emplyers, to your country, to the flora and fauna and everything.

There is a certain relationship here.

This relationship is defined in a certain way, some are acknowledged and some are not acknowledged. For eg: while we are deeply involved in our personal and professional relationship, we are not so involved in our relationship with the flora fauna or planet.

Others such as environmental activists are probably more involved.

One also has a relationship with oneself, which is , a sense of self approval-disapproval ( it’s a range and spectrum and its dynamic) which is very much based on the other relationships.

Which means one is related to the parents and siblings and to the wife and children and to the employer , and the reactions in that relationship governs primarily ones own sense of self approval or disapproval. Although the relationship with onself is primarily governed by other relationships, at the same time, the one who deduces self approval or disapproval is ultimately oneself.

Now what Vedanta does, is brings into this relationship, ishvara.

What is ishvara here? We think in talking about the various relationships, we have already  talked about all possible relationships.

What is this new relationship, called ishvara relationship?

Let us spend some time to understand it.

It is very true that the effect of actions on relationships in our life is not understandable. It is not like operating a computer. We do not know if pressing enter, will really send the cursor to the next line ( in a human relationship, unpredictable relationships)

Yet everywhere in nature we are witness to order, we see there is order and intelligence everywhere starting from the human body , upto the planets and weather and animals and psychology and physiology and what not. There is an intelligent order.

This is given, but still we haven’t discussed about our relationship to this?

When we are engaged in our relationship with any human, or with nature, there is a law or order that governs the relationship.

When you talk to your parents there is a certain expectation or law, that governs it. When you run 5 miles each day, there is a certain intelligence or order you trust that will reduce your weight, when you  do your day job on a computer, there are certain physical laws that you trust in, when you are walking on this earth there is a law of gravity that you are trusting in , to make sure you don’t fly away.

As you live, you trust that you will be breathing, and your heart beats on its own.

As you cook and eat, you trust that you know what is good for your health and you trust in that order that if you eat this much you will feel happy.

This order is an intelligent orderly existence. And intelligence implies knowledge. Knowledge implies a conscious entity, which means a knowledgeable entity.

In fact there is continuous evolution, and nature responds to changes. We are still not sure about how and why or so many things, but we know there is some law or order that governs it, and as scientists we try to study it.

So each and every moment we are governed and are in relationship with this order.

This order is what hindus call as ishvara.

We go one step further, we talk about the order governing every action and its result through the law of karma. The order is present , the orderly being is present, ishvara is present in as the order of dharma. When our actions confirm to dharma we are in harmony with the order. When our actions are against dharma, the order responds with painful experiences.

This order is a wholesome order, it has  certain intelligence that pertains to this creation.

Hence ishvara becomes the srushti sththi and srshti laya.

Isn’t that true in our experience. Isnt an order governing our actions and its results every moment?

When I type, the words appear on screen, is it ‘me’ that makes this work? Or is it the order?

When my heart beats, who makes it breath.

When I hear a sound, who makes the sound to be heard?

So nobody can deny the permanent relationship with ishvara.

If ishvara were a person, then we can have a special relationship with him.

Some people believe that too. They say there is ‘my god’ and ‘your god’ is not the same.

Your god is false.

God is god, there is only one god. In fact there is only god.

You cant find something outside of god. If you find something outside god, then where is the outside, means god is inside space. Then who created space? God cant create space sitting inside space. So is he outside space? No he cant be, since concept of inside and outside arises due to space exists. So then only alternative is god IS space. Which means the spaceness  IS god, which means god IS AS space, god IS as time, god IS as gravity , god IS as air, fire, water, earth as all elements and all the different things.

Then what shall we conclude, are there possibly many gods? Which means space god, time is a god, air is a god and so on? Then where is the ruler of all these, what keeps them together as one whole universe?

We can say that is one biggest god, that god is formless god, and he rules the other gods with form, like a CEO.

Like an organization has a leader, one Parama order One ring that rules them all.

So we can say these are not the same god, but various gods.But there is one supreme god.

This is a valid hypothesis and is not against reason.

The supreme god created all other gods and humans as well.

This is the dvaita point of view.

Some look at this as pure dvaita, where the supreme lord does not include you and the devatas.Is that possible? , if supreme lord does not include all others, the where did intelligence and material come for all other gods and humans? That means there will be another supreme lord, which means we need another overarching supreme supreme, and this will go on to ad infinitum.

So obviously we have to now negate that assumption and get down to visishta advaita.

We say the smaller gods and humans are all a ‘part’ of the supreme lord. Which means I am a part of that lord.

Whoever if I am a part of that lord, how can I have free will, I can if supreme lord allows it.

Also let me consider I am part of that supreme lord, so when I die, does a part of supreme lord diminish?

No it can’t that’s not logical, how can supreme lord diminish, which now means this supreme lord remains supreme in my absence or presence.Even after I die, when I say I die, I refer to the body, the body is the five elements , so the supreme lord is who controls and has as his part all 5 elements, does not undergo any change. Then what changes? what changes is the laws that mix the different elements. Laws connect the elements, based on certain degree of knowledge. That is what creation is , full of knowledge, properties and laws and behavior.

Material is also subject to conversion.

When water is heated it becomes vapor or air, so the different parts of god are undergoing changes.

So what is the material of god, its not water, or air, or space alone, since these are subject to change since water becomes air, liquid changes to gas and gas particles disintegrate when heated.

So what is god now, we know the effects of god, we know his parts change in nature and we know he exists in the form of laws and we know he governs all, including our body and mind and psychological order, and he gives us free will, but what is this god?What is his essence, this we don’t know.

We are given a means of knowledge by god himself to know this.

It is called vedas.

Vedas tell us, ishavasyam sarvam idam, all that is here is ishvara.

And svarupa of ishvara is satchitananda.

Which means non negatable existence which is conscious.

What is existence? We know that, something is, is existence, but I don’t know god still, what is conscious, I know that, how? I know that since, I am conscious.

I know, I am a knower, I can know various things.

I am a conscious being.

I am aware of objects and my own body.

But I don’t know god still.

Now shastra says, this satchit svarupa god, became al this.

As we established earlier there is a conscious being, who is all knowing.

And he himself is the universe.

I am also a conscious being, not all knowing. I know and have limited powers.

But I know I have limited powers, I also know ishvara has unlimited powers.

But shastra doesn’t stop me here, it questions me, do you know who you are?

Do you know you are not this body mind?

This body mind is ishvara already, then who are you?

You are , it says, which means I am.

I am includes knowing that I am and the fact of my existence.

It is knowledge and existence. My satchit svarupa, which is I, I am satchit svarupa, alone.

I am svarupa alone.

I am svarupananda.

Ananda svarupa.

I am the truth.

This I am is the ishvara.there is no other ishvara.

Other than me.and that is what is advaitam.

One without a second.

Nature of avidya

Nature of avidya is it is beginingless and has an end. This is true for any avidya. Like if I dont know the route to a certain city by employing the right means of knowldge I can know the route to that city. 
Similarly by using vedas the means of knowledge which removes self ignorance through shravanam from a shrotriya brahma nishta guru invariably will lead to knowledge.
Many people feel that saying so is arrogance they feel to gain self knowledge is possible only for great sanyaasis and we are after all small people etc.
These thoughts are not rooted in reality. If we have the iccha shraddha and bhakti all are eligible to shravanam.
Shravanam leads to knowledge. Because its a means of knowlddge. Similar to looking at mount everest gives mount everest knowledge. You cant say only great people can see mount everrst i am small person so I should never be able to see it. Thats wrong. If you use eyes you will know mount everest is huge. 
Simiarly through shravanam self ignorance WILL go. If not wecontinue shravanam with shraddha . We can lead a karma yogi lifestyle to make our minds clearer and capable of receiving knowledge through shravanam. Unless you expose urself you will never be aware. So lets be karma yogis and continue to listen with shraddha.
Om.

Guru- The living miracle

Imagine a rat. Scurrying through holes, trying to find food in an empty desert. It sees what looks like a dead animal, it goes to examine the carcass, hoping the meal for the day is served, an easy find.
It jumps on top of this carcass and sniffs around. Whaaam! A huge mouth opens up and bites down the rats body. Two dart like teeth pierce down the rats flesh, and the rat is temporarily incapacitated, alive yet in pain, being swallowed by a snake it mistook for its meal. The rat has now become a meal for the snake.
The rats story doesnt end here. For a vaidika this is not the end of the story. The story proceeds. Since maybe this vaidika was a rat in one janma. His sukshma shareera continues its journey, through janma after janma , as a lion, a horse, a deer, a worm, a tortoise, a cow, a few human birth, lots of punya as well as paapa in each human birth, a journey into higher lokas, end of punya gained in the higher lokas, a descend back to bhuloka as a human, a few adharmic actions, up and down, up and down, anantakoti janmanaam bija bhoota avidya.

The previous janma by some unseen punya was a vaidika in the hinterlands of Kerala.Born to a brahmin family this kid learns the vedas from the great pandits. Finds himself in an oasis of knowledge and for the first instance in his journey , hears the word Moksha.
At that point in time, it does not strike unto him how significant a word it would be, but something deep within stirs his heart. A flurry of hope opens up, like a wearylost  traveller of many ages looks upon a little house with a small lantern, hoping for rest.
This vaidika lives his life in comfort , coming from a wealthy family, he brings up his own family. In his haughtiness he loses track of the magic word he had heard as a child in the gurukula. A steady job in the Kings court brings him respect , wealth and pleasure. Until old age and sickness dawns. The fickle ephemeral nature of life strikes him again, he remembers the words brahma satyam , jagath mithya, not quite aware of its meaning. He yearns again, for a chance to repent a chance to finally discover that which he has always been wanting and never been able to find. A deep yearning, perhaps of the deepest kind , deeper than any desire he has ever had or enjoyed, ever since he was a rat , maybe even earlier, since beginingless time.
As his family burns his body , with chants of Ram Nam Satya hai, the jiva is reborn, this time in modern day New Jersey, the son of a software entrepreneur,
Never in his life would he have had a chance to get back to the sound of the vedas, all his life is a futile search as a graduate student, as the owner of his dads business, as a philanthropist, a search that finally leads him to AIM for SEVA, a small organisation that serves schools and homes for tribal children in a corner of India. The elderly gentleman dresses himself up for a visit to the ashram, where he makes a decent sum of donation, completely unware what to expect, other than to enjoy the unique culture of india that he finds so fascinating.A bearded old man dressed in saffron robes, goes by the name of swami dayananda saraswati, he is the founder of AIM for SEVA. This unique swami , gives a speech, the speech is on the topic of bhagavath geeta an ancient indian text.

He listens to those sounds of the room full of students , chanting the shloka,

na jāyate mriyate vā kadācin, nāyam bhūtvā bhavitā vā na bhūyah
 ajo nityah śāśvato 'yam purāno, na hanyate hanyamāne śarīre

The swami goes on explaining this shloka for the next one hour, the gentleman is transfixed.
 All his life he has heard a lot of sweet words, bu none sweeter than what he has just heard in the most unlikeliest of places on earth.
He finds he has nowhere else to go, nowhere to turn to, the words seem to make compelte sense, there is something about these words, something he has always wanted to hear.
This is the rise of the sishya, he has finally witnessed the living miracle, the Guru. Remover of avidya.
Samsara beeja nivrutyartam.

This is why the guru is a living miracle, a vedantic guru he is.
A culmination of your own prarabdha.
The one desirer across ananta koti janma, is now witnessing the living miracle, who is the end of his desires.

Now who else deserves greater praise?

Brahman and maya

Maya is that which makes the chaitanyam, attributeless brahman, appear to have attributes.
Which means brahman appears as though time, space, akaasa, vayuh, tajaha, aapaha, pruthvi.

And through these we also have individual shariras and cosmic shariram as though.

There is something very important to understand. We can talk about atma only due to maaya shakti. This in fact means maya has to be non separate from brahman. This therefore has to be a power inherent and inseparable from brahman, though brahman svarupa is independent.
Brahman does not specify an attribute of the jagath. We should not use the word brahman very casually. There is no point in being casual about the usage of the word brahman.
The word brahman is a very holy word it is a ONE word that signifies the whole, the totality. Which means all that is here is brahman. Which means maya unmanifest is also brahman.
Brahman IS as manifest. Brahman IS ignorance, brahman IS knowledge, brahman IS removal of brahman ignorance.

This whole play IS brahman. But brahman IS svarupa wise independent.

Brahman IS as space. Hence Space wise brahman is not limited. Which means the space wise limitation is not there for me.
Which means I am not one who comes and goes, there is no where to go or come from. But I 'can' come and go, as a person within space as a jiva. This is maya. Brahman with maya shakti this is. So from I, we remove the limitation of space, we remove the limitation of time, we remove the attributes, we remove the doership, we remove karta which means we remove punya paapa, birth and rebirth, samsara itself we remove from I. depending on I , all IS ( brahmashraya sattva rajas tamogunatmica maaya) I is available AS though all these, but I is never undergoing change to become all these. That is the magic of satyam and mithya. I can become all these, but I remains I. This is the reason shastra is able to say, I am not bound by time, space, i am not the body, and so on. thus we can go on negating from the meaning of I, but at the zenith of all negations there is a very much non negatableness of I the negator himself. He is unable negate himself.

The kena upanisad says
tad eva brahma tvam viddhi, nedam yad idam upasathe.

By calling brahman as

 Yat vaacaa anabhyuditam yena vak abhyudyate ,
tad eva brahma tvam viddhi, nedam yadidam upasathe.

The dependant subject object relationship of mithya

In mithya jagat, brahman assumes various roles.
Apart from the role of lokAdhyakshA or rule ruler of the world as ishvara, brahman also assumes roles of individual parts from the standpoint of relationships.
If you analyse any relationship it is ishvara.
let us take mother and child.
The mother is ishvara.
Child is ishvara.
The love and care is ishvara.
The responses that govern mother and child is ishvara.
There is also dharma in relationship.
Due to free will in human interactions, a human by the force of avidya can fail to honour the dharma of a particular relationship.
This failure is met with a  particular response. That response is ishvara.
the chidAbhAsA is ishvara.
The evolution of chidAbhAsA is ishvara.
The deliverance of knowledge is ishvara.
Moksha is ishvara.

All through this the svarupa brahman is simply supporting this natakam this play of maya.
Brahman or ishvara is never itself undergoing any change, and itself is unaffected by anything that happens( appears). This unaffectedness is the nature of brahman , just as gold remains unaffected when changed to chain or ring.
Chain and ring can have a relationship. This is jagath, maya jagat.
This is the beauty of the jagath.

Importance of Pramana and Concept of Mithya – Borrowed reality.

All that is here is ishvara says the shruti.

There are two important things that are to be known for a mumukshu, a man who has made an entrance into the spiritual pursuit.

The first and foremost is the pramana nature of shruti vakhyas.

To live a life of a mumukshu is to live in dependence to the pramana.

Is to live life in accordance with shruti pramana.

What does one mean, when one makes the statement ‘living a life in accordance with shruti pramana’.

This is a very important and technical as well as the most important statement for a mumukshu.

Let me present the meaning of this statement in points, from the standpoint of a mumukshu who is trying to use shruti as a pramana

1.       I am a kartha bhokta, a seeker of happiness

2.       I have realized happiness is not available in action and result. In the world of karma, all I will get is limited.

3.       Hence I come to know that there is shruti pramana which will give me ultimate sukha or limitlessness

4.       And it makes the statement, you are brahman. Know that you are brahman, or brahman is to be known.

5.       As a seeker, I decide to seek brahman, through my sense organs . But shruti says you cant find brahman as an object, hence my sense organs and reasoning fall short when looking for brahman.

6.       Hence having shraddha in the guru as well as pramana, I decide to use the pramana to know brahman.

7.       Using the pramana means understanding the meaning of the words used in the pramana, as per the context unfolded by the guru.

8.       Now when I know the meaning of the words, I still have to ‘assimilate’ the meaning.

9.       I should not continue to lead my life seeking limited joys and pleasures.

10.   I have to reorient my life.

11.   I have to LIVE in the awareness of truth.

12.   This means to LIVE With the pramana.

13.   I live with pramana such as eyes, ears, nose, taste, touch, mind and reasoning.

14.   But now onwards I must live with another pramana, shruti.

15.   As I eat, drink, sleep etc. there should be another pramana attached to me, shruti pramana.

16.   Which means my problems will not have any reality, since shruti negates my problems having any reality on a paramarthik level, while at the same time recognizing ishvara, dharma and appropriate action on a vyavaharic level.

17.   Which means I cannot continue to live as a samsara , since living with shruti pramana means I am asamsari, I am brahman.

18.   This means with shruti pramana I should, as I live, see the world as it is , as ishvara.

Now for the mumukshu, living with the status of mumukshu, the pramana itself reveals that the status of mumukshu is a mithya status, emphasizing on the Nithya muktatvam.

Which means brahman alone is real. The status of an individual is a borrowed status. Hence this borrowed individual, due to ignorance, that the status being borrowed, considers the status as real and is seeking limitlessness. But brahman itself in the disguise of a small man, a doer, a receiver etc. a samsara , becomes a mumukshu, now realizes the fact that the moksha pursuit itself is based on a borrowed reality, a dependant reality, which is not ultimately real. So the problem is not ultimately real. Which means the moksha pursuit is not ‘really’ needed, if it is known that one is never bound.

Hence this ultimately unreal karta, bhotka, does not need to change in anywhich way, to be limitless, he can always claim brahman limitlessness, in terms of knowledge.

Moksha  is in the mithya order of reality. Hence in the mithya order of reality the doer, the thinker does not need to change a bit, since this order of reality is a borrowed reality, hence to even talk of moksha is like asking for water, when you are immersed in an ocean.

Since the moksha pursuit is born of an untruth, based on ignorance of the truth, the moksha pursuit has to be negated. It has to be negated as mithya, a borrowed reality, not having its basis on any actual reality.

Actual realityis satyam, gnanam anantham brahma. Muktoham, shivoham, shivoham.