Moment to Speak

The mind is the best friend to enjoy the most of freedom, and simultaneously it is the worst enemy to raise an impregnable fortress for imprisonment. This is an aphoristic declaration by Srimad Bhagavad Gita (6.6). When one trains and disciplines one's mind, it guides one toward inner peace, wisdom, clarity, and Self-realisation. An unconquered mind is one's worst enemy. It is because, when the mind is unchecked, it chases endless desires and traps one in stress, anxiety, restlessness, and suffering. No one can keep telling someone what to do. Does it really bring out real inner transformation? If it ever does, maybe partially but not completely. Instead, one continues to burden one's own mind with distress, torment oneself, and remain troubled throughout life while trying to change others. The key to one's own lock is in one's own hands. One does not possess the key to everyone else's lock, contends Swami Sri Govindadevgiriji Maharaj ( Vivechan /learn geeta). Y...

The universe is a manifestation of Brahman , eternal, infinite, and Absolute Existence, which itself is prior to and beyond the limited adjuncts of space, time, and causation. The clearest statement is the famous Shanti Mantra  (peace invocation) in the major Upanishads (the opening invocation of Isha Upanishad and Brihadaraṇyaka Upanishad, 5.1.1) of Shukla Yajur Veda . It sets up the Uppanishad’s central theme: the absolute wholeness of reality. It functions as a crucial programmatic declaration for the text’s deep metaphysical explorations into Brahman .   Om pūrṇam adaḥ pūrṇam idam     pūrṇāt pūrṇam udacyate     pūrṇasya pūrṇam ādāya     pūrṇam evāvaśiṣyate That (Brahman) is full/infinite; this (universe) is full/infinite. From the Whole, the Whole comes forth (the universe manifests out of infinite consciousness without reducing it). When the Whole is removed from the Whole, only the Whole remains (infinity minus infinity still...

The phenomenal domain we experience is a dependent reality and does not have an independent existence, as it is a mind construction. Mind creates, recreates, modifies, and shapes into forms and names. Mind sustains and dissolves. It is mind in every direction and corner of the phenomenal dimensions. Thinking is the primary and fundamental aspect of the mind. But the mind does not have an independent existence, as it is attached either to the objective or the subjective domain. An unleashed mind tends to move outward to the objective phenomenal domain, but a controlled mind remains in the subjective domain in the deep cavity of the heart of Pure Consciousness. In the former case the "I" of the mind is confined to the psycho-physical structure, a manifestation of the ego of attachment, insatiable desires, pride, vanity, covetousness, and anger. In the latter case it is imbibed by virtues of compassion, humbleness, equanimity, detachment, dispassion, discipline, and forbearance....

Certainty of uncertainty points out that one can be certain that the phenomenal world cannot be pinned down as either fully real or fully unreal. It remains an illusion, and it will remain so. Existence cannot be extracted from non-existence. Similarly, a mirage cannot be superimposed on water. It is dependent on an external entity for its manifestation: existence, birth, growth, decay, and absorption. Brahman , or Supreme Self, is certain in a way that cannot be perished, changed, or shaken; the world of objects, thoughts, and events is uncertain by nature. Brahman is uncaused, not subject to space and time. Its Reality is independent, ultimate, and absolute. It is Swayam-prakasa , or Self-luminous, and Swayam-jyoti , or Self-effulgent ( Brihadaranyaka Upanishad, 4.3.1-7;  Katha Upanishad, 2.2.15; Mundaka Upanishad, 2.2.10-11; and Shvetashvatara Upanishad, 6.14).  The Upanishads illuminate that Brahman needs no external light, mind, or instrument for its own recognition....