Ashtavakra part 4

Sometimes, even i wonder what i have written in the blogs! This was confirmed with this message!

The bouncer:

After reading the previous blog, Y sent a message.

"Nice text but somethings were bouncer for me"

My response

"Sometimes, even i don't understand, what i wrote that time! 😃"

As i replied, i realized that things get written in that state. If you ask me to write again, i will not be able to. It is not a problem we are solving in an exam, where similar problems are solved before in class. It is the exploration of a few dimension. Everytime different. Sometimes mundane. Sometimes exciting.

Continuing the learn from Ashtavakra Gita ...

Being in proximity of a guru:

Being powerful and potent, the words of an enlightened guru, make the disciple immersed in the sea of knowledge and bliss. The disciple can feel what it is to be enlightened. This however is the result of being in the company of the guru, not an inner awakening.

Awareness of this fact is the key. The difference in what comes from inside vs what comes from external influence. This is again, when deep reflection happens in silence.

Individual guidance by guru:

The role of the guru is to enforce a certain path, take tests, guide the disciple on the path of self realisation. This is the basis of various sampradayas in bharat. each with its own lineage of gurus and teachings, based on what their path was, and their gurus path and so on.

The guidance is specific to the person. Not general. For general things, teachers are enough. Guru is a personalised coach! Guru makes sure that this transformation is within the disciple. Not because of the satsang, or presence of a guru alone.

One wonders how is a guru able to manage such a large number of disciples? It is easily possible, as the guru is one with consciousness. There are no limitations like in the physical world.

Extending this further, as you meditate, you get the answers from your guru tattva or guru element. After a point, there is no need for a physical guru to answer your questions. The consciousness that generated the question is the same consciousness that gives the answer. You should be ready to transmit and recieve. That's all.

Questions between guru and disciples:

When a guru asks a question, he is asking for the upliftment of the disciple. The questions are very few, pointed and with a purpose. They could be simple or deep. Whatever they are, pay close attention!

This is unlike the question of a disciple, which is to clear a doubt. These questions arise from the doubts one has. And who better than a learned guru to answer them.

At a later stage, as you see the presence of guru in everything, form and formless, the questions and answers of both roles become internal.

Often after a deep meditation session, you realise the guidance and get answers too.

Again this centres on reflection within.

Gurus influence:

The mind of Many disciples gets influenced and feel they have reached closer to the state with their gurus blessings, following gurus insturctions and so on.

This is often done without application of common sense and relevance to current times. they just keep following the gurus insturctions, in the name of tradition.

Many times, the guru has told something which was relevant at that time, considering the society at that time. Most people don't see the principles behind the teaching. They just take the tradition literally. One sees this all the time.

Humans are so attached to doing something, seeking something, outsourcing their well being, its amazing!

To know the principles, one has to reflect within in silence, not in a group, not in noise, not while doing anything.

Understanding vs experiencing:

There is the difference in understanding it and getting it, as getting is an experience! most of the people are. intellectually aligned, but there is nothing in the heart. They know, but have never experienced. They were constantly seeking, not reflecting by sitting still, doing nothing.

One of the classic examples is understanding what jaddu krishnamoorti says. But to get it, is something else!

The problem of accumulation:

I see people accumulating many techniques. Reading many books. Doing so many things. Everyone goes through this journey. Even i am a part of this! However, i realised that this is like accumulating prescriptions and medicines. One has to take them to get better! Satisfaction that i have access to the medicines is not enough.

Unless there is a transformation, all the knowledge is futile. So the knowledge has to be applied, written about, thought of, experienced. This needs proper study, notes taking, helping others etc. Sometimes it results in blogs like these!

It is when in challenging times, in pain, in failure, in distress, that this awareness shows up, it is true awareness. When it does not, you need a guide like krishna, guiding arjuna in the battlefield. We are all in the battlefield with krisha within us.

The use of Knowledge:

Without knowledge, one can not progress. That is clear. However, Knowledge is like a ladder to climb ahead. It should not become a burden by carrying it. Knowledge helps, it is essential, but is never enough. At one point, one has to leave the knowledge too, as it's always about the past and keeps you from the present moment. When that moment comes, it's a state very close to self realisation. Again this is understood, but not experienced yet!!!

Role of kriya yoga:

The kriya yoga brings the mind and the heart together. This is the greatest distance ever travelled! This is the power of kriya. This is a powerful method to get it, not just know it.

Are desires left after enlightenment?

After enlightenment, is there any attraction left for money, power etc? Guru has to make sure, that there is no vasana left. This desire to fulfill the vaccum, is fulfilled by status, power, money etc. you can not blame then, as this is the only method they know for fulfillment. Once you get ram ratan in your life, what is left now to earn any more ratans (gems) ? This is like playing with toys, which as a child, were important. When one grows up, toys are not important at all. Similarly when one is enlightened, material possessions are not important. Ashtavakra has questioned janak, about this, when he declared, "i bow to myself". Enlightenment and desires do not go together. He is making sure that there is no material desire left. Even in giving up wealth, there is desire that giving up will get you somewhere! This again focuses on wealth. The absence of attraction and aversion, both is the key to bring an observer, being neutral. It simply does not matter.

Inner peace:

Sanyas is a state where, inner peace defines status. Not external material possessions, or not having them.

Peoples opinion:

The desire of appreciation from others, that you are a great saint, a great sanyasi, that itself is a trap. It's only a change of crowd, nothing actually has changed. Earlier you craved attention and appreciation from family and friends. Now you crave attention from your admirers! The craving remains the same. Only the crowd changed!

The day, what people say about you, Good or bad. Does not matter. The moment you are whole and complete, you are done.

Feeling the pain of others:

The feeling of pain of others is then felt, which aligns to the purpose of loka kalyanam, to reduce or eliminate suffering of others.

Just repeating holy verses, is repeating someone else's insights. Unless you transform from within, it is of no use.

There is a story of swami vivekananda, crying when we saw the great famine of Bengal. A group of visiting monks questioned why an enlightened person is in such pain, due to others? The answer lies in the question itself! They were intellectually understanding what is the final state. Vivekananda was the final state, hence he could sense, feel and cry with pain of others. There was no seperation.

A gyani remains like a patch of dry soil, unless the water of love does not fall on it. It is in that state, that the life force is truly felt.

Noise and silence:

Noise is in the many. There is silence in one. This realisation can come anytime. By observation.

Guru nanak realized this while counting when he reached the number 13 and said. Tera. And everything stopped, merged together.

Buddha realized this when all effort was given up, as to take effort, you need 2. With one, there is no effort.

A king realized this when we asked his queen who was applying a sandalwood paste on him with hands full of bangles, which were making noise. When one bangle remained, there was no noise.

A saint realised this when the pot of water he was carrying on his head fell and broke and the water spilled over.

It is not the incident that matters, but at that moment the person is ready to see beyond the ordinary. That is the moment. Hence there is a path to get ready for enlightenment.

But there is no path to be enlightened! Everyone's journey is different and it comes in moments when it's least expected!

This is similar to being woken up when alseep by any sound. It could be a bird, a milkman, an alarm, dog barking, car horn, or you falling down from the bed! Many ways, one outcome. Change of state from being asleep to being awake. Irony is that everyone does not wake up! Some keep sleeping. So don't expect to count from 1 to 13 like nanak and expect to be enlightened. Don't copy. Let things flow. A moment will come, when it will happen. So let it happen. In fact, when you stop chasing, it will happen! The reason is when you chase, you are not paying attention to being, you are focused on doing for having. This is the only thing in the world, that comes from inaction. Hence the importance of dhyan, followed by samadhi.

Material possessions:

Material possessions are left behind. So they have limited use in this world. They are passed on... What belonged to someone else, belongs to you today, which will be some else's tomorrow.

Once this inner clarity comes, outer material world does not tempt or attract you.

Controlling emotions:

Many believe wrongly that leaving the emotions of anger, lust, greed, jealousy, leads to enlightenment. In fact it is the opposite. When you are enlightened, you are out of mind games, so these emotions, though they may exist, have no impact on you.

You don't have to remove darkeness to get light. When light comes, darkeness goes away on its own!

Many people mimic the behaviour of enlightened beings. The enlightened do, what naturally happens after enlightenment. This creates more trouble in the progress for most people. You can observe this happening all around you.

Thoughts orginate from the deep memories of the subconscious mind. Hence the importance of tools to reach into subconscious mind and cleanse the seeds!

Reconfirmation of enlightenment:

Attraction and aversion are now gone. The seeds have vanished now. With no seeds, how will they manifest into desires and emotions? They will not.

The problem of the rich:

Have you seen the rich asking for more and more! I recently saw a video on social media, with one of the richest men in the world, praying with hands shaking! The more you are attached to wealth, the more is the fear losing and the greed of having! This does not make money bad. It has its own use in this world and largely things move with money power. It is the attachment to money which is the problem. Not money itself.

When money is seen as a outcome of value addition, a resource to help everyone, the attechment goes away. What was never yours, and will not be yours after this lifetime, what if the point of being attached to it. Respect it, utilise it, grow it, distribute it, keep it, whatever is to be done at that time, without attachment.

Hypnosis vs enlightenment:

The mind wants to hear nice things like you are Brahman. You are the one consciousness. This leads to a hypnotic state. This is not being enlightened. Most of the people are on this state. They have believed. But they are yet to know. Once they know, there is no question of believing! If you hear that you are a crook, Good for nothing, failure, and it has no effect on you, just as the declaration that you are honest, godly, helpful, has no effect either, is an indication that the biases of the mind are not driving the hypnotic state. The hypnotic state induces a different kind of ego. One only has to realise this to keep it away. That's all.

Embracing by fear:

Are you believing in the atma amar hai. Because you are afraid of death? Are you doing punya for getting apsaras in heaven. How many such beliefs have you developed, which are founded on greed and fear. These beliefs have now embraced you so tightly, that there is no escape from them. First you were tiedup with desires and material world. Now you are tiedup with these beliefs of life after death. There is no difference, as both are based on greed and fear! Only the method has changed. How will you ever be free like this?

All this comes from not experiencing, but from knowing!

Anger:

Knowing anger is not good is not enough. Being angry and then regretting is a cycle. Anger is not experienced, in its after effects, when one is angry.

If you contemplate on its after effects, you will get lesser and lesser angry each time. But we have no time for contemplation for reflection, for change. We just know, anger is not good! It has no change in your life!

Contemplating and reflection happens in moments of silence. This needs time alone, to connect within. The easiest way, being attentive about anhata naada...

Stale food:

Enjoying material world, is like eating stale food, as it has been accumulated over lifetimes. Similarly repeating someone's knowledge is like eating stale food, as it is old, made by someone centuries back.

When will you make fresh food? When will you get your own insights? When will you share these with the world? These blogs are an attempt in that direction. To make one think, to see a different perspective. To be in silence. To explore ones own path. To go beyond understanding to experiencing.

Attachment:

When one is not attached at home, one is attached to the temple.

When one is not atteched to the family, one is attached to the guru.

The guru is not attached to his family. But is attached to his disciples!

As long as the attachment of for ensuring moksha, it is ok. But it the attachment is to create a succession plan, to expand the number of disciples etc, it's a problem.

Hence it is best not to go anywhere near a guru who is not a realized person himself!!

It is only a fortunate few, who are ready, get a satguru. The rest keep searching, as they are driven by desires.

The attachment only changes its form. One has to be aware of this fundamental nature of mind.

Leaving attachments is a gradual process... It does not happen overnight. It has to come from within. It happens naturally. When there is no seeking. Even you seek, there are 2. It either results in attachment or aversion. When you don't seek. When you just realise, you can be free from attachment.

The journey from many to few to one to none to infinity is the journey.. if you call it a journey at all. At best, it is a change of state within.

Many means the mind is attracted to many things. This is how common people live.

With practise it is occupied in a few. This is upto pratyahar. This is by far the most difficult stage, after pranayama. Very few reach this stage. This is the stage of gyana.

Then it comes to one. That is dharna. This is the stage of bhakti.

Then in dhyan there is none. This is the stage of losing ones ego.

Finally in Samadhi there is a merger with infinity. This is the final leap, which one has to take himself. No one can help you here.

Eyes rolled up:

The shambhavi mudra is the practise of rolling up the eyes. However, there is a natural shambhavi that happens when

1. Musicians often go in shambhavi mudra, with eyes rolled up and in a trance, as they perform... This is the audio sense. I recently witnessed this

2. In intimate moments shambhavi pull happens. This is the touch sense

3. When you enjoy tasty food, you go in shambhavi. This is the taste sense.

4. When you wear a perfume, your eyes rolled upwards. This is the sense of smell.

5. As it involves sight, there is no visual sense input to induce this state. Sometimes, when you are absorbed in nature, you close your eyes and it may result in a pull upwards.

This is by sensory input. When the consciousness rises, you go in shambhavi by a pull, on its own! Here the eyes are pulled upwards... Initially when open... Later when they are closed, they remain pulled. After that, eyes physically are not pulled, it is the focus that shifts. Thus by focusing the vision inwards, you can easily meditate on the chakras. Hence the practise of shambhavi is before the kriya pranayama.

The pull is greatly helped by raising the eyebrows...

Habits:

Even though state changes, the vrittis from the chitta keep coming back. Hence in yoga sutras, the sutra, chitta vritti nirodha has significance. As habits come from subconscious mind. The practise of eft for painful memories, the extensive forgiving exercise, the yoga nidra, all help to slowly and steadily cleanse the memory bank.

If not cleansed, they keep coming back as thoughts, leading to desires, feelings and take the form of maya.

As habits create desires and habits come from old memories, which are usually painful, the desires originating from them are also leading us to nothing more than pain! As the desires will be something material and when material things are taken away, there is pain. Nothing but pain. This is a logical conclusion. Hence cleaning the old memories is the key. Hence all the effort!

As long as there is a thought, there is a mind. And mind does not give up so easily. The mind has never won Anything. It has always lost. And that has become a habit! What an irony!

So much so that desires prevade dhyan, at death, in temples, everywhere!

The freedom must be complete. Not partial. Leaving no chance of the desires of the mind coming back.

Pain attracts sympathy. Some crave sympathy, hence they are in pain. They can never be free from pain! It's not possible! Such people are invested deeply in pain.

Begin in pain has a large company of people, than of blissful people! That is a fact. We are in a sea of troubled souls.

Understanding in the conscious mind is not enough. Removing the seeds from the subconscious mind is the key!

I have realized that having no desires is not possible as we have many roles to play. Just being aware that any desire is linked to a role is enough. It is not me, it is my role. That's all. This is an easy way to overcome desires, rather than not have them at all, which is really tough.

Overcoming the feeling of detachement as one progress:

Often with spiritual progress, there is less interest in doing anything.

We may be disinterested in Material world, However, we live only for value addition to others lives.

Example shivaji maharaj, was deeply dis interested in being a king, only to be told by Ramdas Swami, his guru, to be a king to serve people. He followed his gurus orders. This is a very recent and powerful example.

Being enlightened and being within, after a point, looks very selfish. As the lamp is lit, it has to light other lamps, show the way to others. There is little use of the light of the lamp for itself!

How to decide if something has to be done. Or some role has to be taken.

1. If it adds value. This eliminates useless resources of time spent in social media scrolling, gossip, social interactions etc.

2. It is in your subject of expertise. This builds subject focus. Don't work on area, where you can not contribute.. Example free medical care in rural India is a big value addition protect. But i have no expertise in it. I have expertise in Turnkey consturction, which i have to focus on.

3. Identify a team. Don't build expertise yourself. Put together a team to do so.

4. If the value addition is big, go for it. Don't waste your time in small value addition. Big is guaged by number of people impacted x time period x level of koshas. Example bhagwat gita comes at the top!

5. If this is aligned to what you love to do, it's the best!

This will points towards the ikigai model to realise the purpose of life!

With this, one realises that the teachings across the world are similar. There explore different dimensions of the same truth, making things clearer and clearer.

Roles and the umbrella:

Let's take an example where sunlight is desires and you have to walk in the journey of life. Walking is inevitable, sunlight is also there. How does one protect from the sunlight.

One way is to make sunlight nil. This is not possible. As we are in the physical world, desires will be there. Where there is mind, there will be a desire! It is real and can not be made to go away.

Option 1:

Sit under the shade of a tree. In this case, the sunlight of desires does not hit you. You are stationary and blissful. However, there is no journey here. There is no experience of life. You are at one place. People come and meet you. This is restricted. This is like taking sanyas.

Option 2:

Instead of being in shade of a tree, a state of no desires, you can the take an umbrella to walk and still be in the shade!

What is an umbrella! Umbrella is the role you are playing! The desires (sunlight) are linked to the role (umbrella)! They are not hitting you directly. This keeps you isolated from desires, and yet allows you to be on the journey. Once in a while, you can close the umbrella and enjoy the desires.

The journey is now taken to make other people aware that they have umbrellas already. They just have to aware and open them. This is nothing but the first step towards loka kalyanam.

As everyone has roles, Many people walk with an umbrella. The only thing is that it is closed. They carry the roles with them without any awareness. In this case, the desires hit them directly and like hot sun, they feel the emotional roller coaster of feelings. This is nothing but being in maya. The total exposure to desires.

It is only when the roles are realised, the umbrella opens. The umbrella remains open as long as there is a realisation that i am consciousness and this is my role. The moment this realisation goes away, the umbrella closes.

The easiest way to have this awareness, out of the 112 methods of bhairav tantra is the one of listening to anahata naada. This is possible in both states of waking and sleeping (with some practise).

Blessing:

may you enjoy the cool journey of life, with colourful umbrellas of roles, while being shielded from the sunlight of desires!