Q.348 – Temporary Realization
Q: 2 or 3 years ago I had a profound realization of the truth of advaita which stayed with me for many months. I fear that I have lost it forever. Do you think that it can come back? A (Shuka): If you...
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What is Death – part 6 and final (metaphysics or spirituality – non- duality)
‘There is doubt concerning a man who has departed. Some say, “He is”, and others say, “He is not”. Taught by you [Yama, god of death], I would know this. This is the third of my boons’. ‘Do not, do...
View ArticleadhikArah – fitness
Verses 795 – 818, Chapter 39, in sarva vedAnta siddhAnta sAra sangrahah (The Essence of Entire Vedanta Theory in Brief) of Shankaracharya deal with adhikArah of the spiritual aspirant. Though the...
View ArticleVision Of Truth (sad darshanam) – Part 20
yadIshiturvIkshaNamIkshitAram avIkshya tanmAnasikekshaNam syAt na drashTuranyaH paramo hi tasya vIkshA svamUle pravilIya niShThA—22 yadIshituH vIkshaNam = that (which)vision of Ishvara as an object;...
View ArticleQ.384 – Dark night of the soul
Q: Please help me.I had a temporary glimpse of reality around 15 months ago by following 8 fold path. I tried to penetrate the question of suffering and learned that everything wants to come into...
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Tattvabodha – Part 24
Part 24 of the commentary by Dr. VIshnu Bapat on Shankara’s Tattvabodha.This is a key work which introduces all of the key concepts of Advaita in a systematic manner. The commentary is based upon...
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Tattvabodha – Part 25
Part 25 of the commentary by Dr. VIshnu Bapat on Shankara’s Tattvabodha.This is a key work which introduces all of the key concepts of Advaita in a systematic manner. The commentary is based upon...
View ArticleQ.412 Definition of ‘Enlightenment’
Q: In your writings you use quite often the word ‘Enlightenment’. In ‘Back to the truth: 5000 years of Advaita’ you give the following definition of “Enlightenment”: “Enlightenment is a sudden...
View ArticleQ. 418 – When enlightenment occurs
Q: “You cannot experience brahman. But everything you experience is brahman (since brahman is all there is).” 1. Are both assertions true? 2. My understanding (based on both being true) is that you...
View ArticleShankara and Mind
In his comments on the post ‘SamAdhi Again (Part 2)‘, Venkat said: “Dayananda has nothing useful to say about realisation. All of his statements are his mundane interpretations that don’t reconcile to...
View ArticleIgnorance goes, but mAyA remains?
Some Non-dual teachers maintain that on the collapse of the sense of a separate self, i.e. on the realization of the Supreme Self, only “ignorance” is lost. They hold that the sway of “mAyA” remains...
View ArticleIgnorance and the World
After the two long discussions on this fascinating topic, I would like to offer the following as my final word on the subject (hopefully!): The world is brahman – sarvam khalvidam brahma. So we can say...
View ArticleThe “I-am-realized” Delusion – 1:
Many people with a nodding acquaintance of Advaita often forget that the ‘ego’ is not totally non-existent. It is not ‘tuccha’ like ‘the hare’s horn’ or ‘the son of a barren woman.’ It has a relative...
View ArticleThe “I-am-realized” Delusion – 2:
Part – 1 Dennis raised a question on how one can conclude that the word “this” in the 3.14.1, chAndogya would mean “the ‘Universal’ substratum of the world and not the nAma-rUpa-vyAvahAra which are the...
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The “I-am-realized” Delusion – 3:
Part – 2 We come across very often in the Western Advaita circles, teachers and well-read writers who do not hesitate to say “I am realized.” Such a deluded belief in claiming Self-realization appears...
View ArticleThe “I-am-realized” Delusion – 4:
Part – 1 Part – 2 Part – 3 We have from Bhagavad-Gita: ब्रह्मार्पणं ब्रह्म हविर्ब्रह्माग्नौ ब्रह्मणा हुतम् । ब्रह्मैव तेन गन्तव्यं ब्रह्मकर्मसमाधिना ॥ — 4.24,...
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The “I-am-realized” Delusion – 5:
Part – 4 The Non-dual message of the Advaita doctrine is so deceptively simple that one feels tempted to say “I got It,” though in reality s/he has not. Fortunately for us, various scriptures and...
View ArticlePost-Enlightenment Perception
Swami Krishnananda Saraswati of The Divine Life left his mortal coil on this day in 2001. He tells us in his explication of the chAndogya Upanishad that “With the present state of (our) mind it is not...
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The Colossus
Historically (perhaps (?) since the days of Prof. Max Muller and Dr. George Thibet), the Sanskrit word ‘brahman‘ is rendered into English as Consciousness which is ‘caitanya.’ ‘brahman‘ is derived...
View ArticleRole of bhakti in jnAna mArga:
A highly respected Vedantin late Shri S. N. Sastri (see here) observed in his introduction to vivekacUDAmaNi that “There is a wrong impression among some persons, particularly Western scholars, that...
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