Moment to Speak

Living liberation (Jeevan mukti, or Sadyo-Moksha, or Videha mukti) is a state of experiencing awareness, knowledge, and realisation of Atman , or Self, in this very life process while still alive, bereft of desire, attachment, and affliction but in a steady state of solitude and quietude. It involves recognition of one's true self as Brahman , or Cosmic Self. It represents living liberation, where one embodies divine consciousness and continues to exist in society while being spiritually liberated. It represents a heightened state of awakening and enlightenment that embodies spiritual freedom, remaining unaffected by causation, duality , opposites, and their effects. It is a state of Self-controlled dispensation of mind able to discriminate between real and unreal, eternal and ephemeral, dual and non-dual, and knowledge and illusion. This state of life is conditioned by discrimination, dispassion, detachment, and discipline. That state is a state of liberation from the Samsara cha...

Bondage and release highlight the struggle between the entrapment of Atman , or Self, within material existence and its potential for liberation. This cycle reflects the impact of actions and desires, with bondage stemming from Avidya , or ignorance. Conversely, release is realised through self-knowledge and self-realisation . It elevates one to freedom from the repetitious Samsara chakra , or cycle of birth and rebirth and ultimately understanding one’s true nature. The mind alone is the cause of bondage, as well as liberation, asserts Amritabindu Upanishad (2). The mind is the entire set, explains Acharya Prashant , the whole universe of objects that the ‘I’ has a relationship with. It does not encompass everything that exists in the universe.One does not have a relationship with everything. However, anything with which one develops a relationship becomes part of the mind. The ego is just an object untouched by the self. But the moment the object is touched by ‘I’, it becomes vish...

Desire exists when there is a subject and an object, i.e., duality. When all is One Existence only, there is no desire. Desire is a conative tendency of mental processes of attempted action or change. It encompasses impulse, volition, and the effort to enjoy objects in the phenomenal world through sensory perceptions and organs. Desire, according to Swami Sivananda , is an earnest longing for attaining some object or goal. It is a wish or an urge to enjoy an object or attain something. He explains that the desire to see is of the eyes; to hear is of the ears; to taste is of the tongue; to smell is of the nose; to touch is of the skin; to work is of the hand; to speak has become of the organ of speech; to walk has become of the feet; and to copulate has become of the organ of reproduction. Desire, Swami Sivananda maintains, is the root cause for this mundane life in the Samsara chakra (wheel of birth and death). Desire, sage philosopher Swami Krishnananda explains, is a concentration...

The Ashtavakra Gita (10.8) pronounces "Now at last stop," or "Cease that now," specifically in the context of external thought projection of mind to relish in the world of objects. The inner spirit, or Atman , remains a mute witness to all these activities of mind. The Srimad Bhagavad Gita (3.38) aptly explains it in this way: dhūmenāvriyate vahnir yathādarśho malena cha yatholbenāvṛito garbhas tathā tenedam āvṛitam The Bhagavad Gita (3.38) says that just as a fire is covered by smoke, a mirror is masked by dust, and an embryo is concealed by the womb, similarly one’s knowledge is shrouded by desire. Insatiable desire clouds our perception of reality, i.e. One, indivisible, eternal, and infinite, and impedes our ability to realise reality unobscured. The Ashtavakra Gita equally teaches to imbibe the virtues of equanimity, endurance, detachment, dispassion, and dispossession in the transient phenomenal world ingrained with sensual desires, attachments, passion, ig...

The Yoga-Vasistha (Chapters XLII and CV ) uses the analogy of a dream to illustrate the evanescence and fallaciousness of the phenomenal world. Just as a dream world dissolves upon waking, the phenomenal world is seen as impermanent and ultimately dissolving into a vacuum upon the realisation of Atman , or Self. It presents a unique perspective on dreaming, equating it with two states of consciousness, dreaming and waking, that share similarities and can intertwine with one another. Both states are considered illusions or magical experiences, lacking true reality, while also revealing the thought projection of mind . This interplay illustrates the complexities and nuances of human consciousness. The Yoga-Vasistha ( Chapter XLII ) suggests that both are ultimately illusions created by the mind. It says (Yoga-Vasistha, Chapter CV ) that the intellect conceives the form of the world, of its own intrinsic nature, and fancies itself in that very form, as it were in a dream. The world we pe...

Brahman , or Cosmic Self, or Absolute Existence, or Ultimate Reality, or Truth, is Supreme Bliss. Brahman is transcendent as well as immanent. It is beyond human comprehension, eternal, infinite, self-effulgent, formless, attributeless, and not bound by the limitations of time, space, and causation. The quest of  Brahman is a spiritual journey aimed at realising one's unity with ultimate reality. It is a process of self-discovery and spiritual development, often involving practices like meditation, yoga, and the study of scriptures. It is a path of self-enquiry, where one seeks to understand one's true nature and overcome the limitations of self-ego emanating from the body-mind-intellect complex and attachment. The enquiry of Brahman , according to Swami Sivananda (Brahmasutras: Text, Word-to-Word Meaning and Commentary, Chapter-1, Section-1), does not depend on the performance of any act. One must know and realise eternal Brahman . Then only one will attain eternal bliss, f...

In the Yoga-Vasistha, the concepts of unity and duality are central to understanding Reality and the path to Moksha , or liberation. The text Yoga-Vasistha is attributed to Maharshi Valmiki, the author of Ramayana. Maharshi Valmiki, in the Yoga-Vasistha texts, presents conversations between Maharshi Vasistha and Bhagwan Sri Rama, discussing how the unchanging and limitless nature of Consciousness, known as Brahman or Cosmic Self, shows up as the separate world we experience. The Yoga-Vasistha asserts that this duality is ultimately an illusion, a mental construction, or projection of the mind, and that true understanding lies in realising the underlying unity. It postulates that our perception of a separate, dualistic world is a mental conditioning resulting from Avidya , or ignorance. This phrenic mode leads us to falsely perceive a separation between ourselves and the world, creating a sense of duality in our experience. It contends that Ultimate Reality is one, indivisible, imperis...