The Buddhi of Vedanta as Creative Faith-Reason

 

Quote from the True charm and power of Vedanta

The Buddhi of Vedanta as Creative Faith-Reason

 

Reason and intellect become creative when faith is immerged within. This is the budhi of Vedanta Buddhi combines the creativity of sraddha, with its sensitiveness to values, with the analytical power of the intellect with its grasp of facts and adds also the power of pure will to itself. This is buddhi as the integral unity of faith reason will evolved by man out of the neuro psychic energies given by nature within him and capable of leading him not only to discoveries in science, physical or spiritual but also to the creation of great art, and to life fulfillment itself individual and collective.

          
  It is thus obvious that the translation of buddhi as intellect severely limits it scope and meaning Vedanta reveals its true from, when it presents it as the faculty of luminous and creative and dynamic reason ., it is highly eulogized in the Upanishads and the Gita . The Gita tells man to put his or her life under its guidance ’-buddhas saranam anviccha . Buddhi restores to the world. And to human life, the poetry and charm and was taken away by the intellect for its limited and specific handling of both the katha Upanisad summons man to put the chariot of his life under the guidance not of the chariot i.e his body, not of the horses i.e, his sensory system nor the reins i.e,, his phsycic system, but of the charioteer, ie, his injannha I, e buddhi or ‘enlightened reason’

 

 

Chariot and golden deer as powerful metaphors

By K Vikram Simha Rao

 

Indic philosophy is rich in usage of metaphors and analogies to explain difficult concepts in a simple manner. Epics like the Ramayan and Mahabharat and scriptures like the Upanishads have resorted to such examples to illustrate ideas even through various human characters.

 

Let us take two examples of ‘chariot’ and ‘golden deer’. In the Katha Upanishad, there is an attempt to describe the human form as a chariot – the senses are its horses, mind is its reins, intellect is the charioteer and the passenger is the jivatman, individual soul. This metaphor, thus, shows that we are distinct from our physical body, senses, mind and the intellect, just as the passenger of the chariot is separate from the chariot, horses, rein and the charioteer. The path traversed by the chariot and its surroundings are the sense objects – the samsara. There is a natural tendency of the mind and senses to get attracted to or repelled by the sense objects, which has a serious bearing on the movement of the chariot and its passenger. The intellect finally decides to either overpower the demands of the fickle mind or yield to its temptations.

 

 

Katha Upanishad concludes that ‘He, who has the understanding of the driver of the chariot and controls the rein of his mind, reaches the end of the journey, that Supreme Abode of the All-pervading.’

 

The explanation of chariot is made more explicit in the Mahabharat. In the final war, Prince Arjun is seen sitting as a passenger in a chariot driven by Krishn. Arjun could have chosen anyone among the many skilful charioteers available at that time, but he chose Krishn as he had full faith in his ability and guidance, thus replacing his own limited intellect. Arjun represents the individual soul fully surrendering to Krishn, the Paramatman, the Universal Soul, to ensure his safe and successful journey.

 

The Ramcharitmanas deals with dangers that arise when an individual soul tries to distance itself from the universal soul. There is a description of the turning point wherein Sita is seen attracted to a ‘golden deer’ in the forest and she seeks to possess it. Ram goes in search of it in the forest, leaving her behind. When Sita is alone, devoid of the company of Ram, she is abducted by Demon King Ravan. We know that after marriage of the Divine Couple and their shifting to the forest, both Ram, representing universal soul, and Sita, representing us as individual soul, were living in a state of bliss in total communion with each other. The moment Sita is enchanted by the appearance of maya, the golden deer, thus downplaying the primacy of Ram, she gets possessed by Ravan representing dreadful ego and samsara. She then realises her mistake. Her suffering and pangs of separation come to an end only on reunion with Ram, thus bringing back the individual soul in full and blissful company of the universal soul.

 

Examples of the chariot and golden deer can, therefore, remind spiritual seekers time and again that God realisation is possible and maya can be kept at bay only by invoking the grace of the universal soul.

 

IF HE EXIST

 I drive joy there was a doctor in Benaras who spent 7 minutes in the morning and evening for mediation on God. Knowing this, his colleagues and friends laughed at him. One day they argued that he was wasting 7 precious minutes on something, which he had been misled into believing. The doctor replied, “Well, if God does not exist, I agree that I am wasting 7 minutes a day. But, if He exists? I am afraid you are wasting your entire lifetime. I prefer to waste 7 minutes rather than a lifetime. Why should you grudge me the 7minutes joy that I derive 4m.-

 

ILLUSTRATED REVIEW : 7th heaven moment of the week  India won first one day scoring 308/7                

Thought on Vedanta

 

Quote from the True charm and power of Vedanta

Thought on Vedanta

 

Man is like an infinite spring coiled up in a small box and that spring is trying to untold itself , and all the social phenomena that we see, the result of the trying ot unfold . all the competitions and struggles and evils that we see around us are neither the causes of these unfoldments nor the effects. As one of our great philosophers says- in the case of the irrigation of a field the tank is somewhere upon a higher level and the water is trying to rush into the field and is barred by a gate. But as soon as the gate is opened the water rushes in by its own nature: and if there is dust and dirt in the way, the water rolls over them. But dust and dirt are neither the result nor the cause of the unfolding of the divine nature of man. They are co-existent circumstances and therefore can be remedied.

 

Now this idea claims the Vedanta is to be found in all religions, whether in India or outside of it, only in some of them the idea is expressed through mythology and in other through symbology . the Vedanta claims that there has not been one religious inspiration, one manifestation of the divine man, however great but it has been the expression of that infinite oneness in human nature and all that we call ethics and morality and doing good to others is also but that manifestation of this oneness. There are moments when every man feels that he is one with the universe, and he rushes forth to express it, whether he knows it or not. This expression of oneness is what we call love and sympathy and it is the basis of all our ethics and morality. This summed up in the Vedanta philosophy by the celebrated aphorism Tat Tvam asi “Thou Art That”

 

Hinduism is a marvellously liberal philosophy

By Namita Devidayal

 

Imagine having an embarrassing uncle who shares your surname and does routinely awful things in public. No matter how hard you try to distance yourself, a part of your identity gradually gets compromised. This is how one feels, as a Hindu, these days. Certain ‘uncle-jis’ have literally hijacked and distorted what is a marvellously liberal and sophisticated philosophy in its essence, even if not always in practice.

 

Hinduism was once India’s biggest soft power, attracting hordes from across the world who were seeking respite from their own depressed and divisive cultures. The land of Karma Cola attracted some of the world’s greatest minds – from Aldous Huxley who prefaced The Gospel of Ramakrishna to Richard Alpert who became Ram Dass and catalysed a massive movement; from Ralph Waldo Emerson who wrote Brahma to Somerset Maugham, who sat transfixed in Ramana Maharshi’s ashram … People turned to India for answers.

 

The essence of Hindu philosophy can be found in the Upanishads, a series of dialogues which came at the end of the Vedas and are, therefore, called ‘Vedanta’. The Upanishads reflect the teachings in the Bhagwad Gita and both are filled with magic realism and wisdom. This edifying body of literature offers an approach to the self and one’s relationship with the universe that is radically different from what the modern world feeds us. Yet, these are astonishingly contemporary ideas that can be applied to environmentalism, psychology and quantum physics.

 

For instance, they align one to the idea of enlightened self-interest based on an understanding that nothing is outside the self, but the self is indeed the whole. ‘I am that’. Just as a wave is both an individual wave, with its particular shape or life span, it is not separate from the ocean. We live in an incredibly interconnected world. So, when you harm another – whether it is a human being or a river or a nation – you are essentially harming yourself. If not now, then for your great-grandchildren to forbear.

 

Modern physics clearly endorses that perceived objects are not what you think they are. They can be broken down into particles and, eventually, energy. So, our mindless obsession with the physical form – and with creating constant divisiveness and hierarchy – is fallible. Today, fixed ideas about identity are boring and dated, with even teenagers embracing gender fluidity.

 

But there may be an answer from within the very ‘Hindu’ ideology that its alleged followers claim to protect – the karmic law of cause and effect. Everything has a consequence. You plant a seed, it grows into a tree; you slay the tree, you lose oxygen. If you inflict pain, there will be consequences – if not immediately, then in the future. This holds true for individuals, for societies, for nations. Whether it is physics, biology or psychology, universal laws prevail. They have little to do with our God or anyone else’s God.

 

“If the red slayer think he slays/ Or if the slain think he is slain,/ They know not well the subtle ways/ I keep, and pass, and turn again.” – RW Emerson

 

IF HE EXIST

 I drive joy there was a doctor in Benaras who spent 7 minutes in the morning and evening for mediation on God. Knowing this, his colleagues and friends laughed at him. One day they argued that he was wasting 7 precious minutes on something, which he had been misled into believing. The doctor replied, “Well, if God does not exist, I agree that I am wasting 7 minutes a day. But, if He exists? I am afraid you are wasting your entire lifetime. I prefer to waste 7 minutes rather than a lifetime. Why should you grudge me the 7minutes joy that I derive 4m.-

 

ILLUSTRATED REVIEW : 7th heaven moment of the week  @hardikpandya7 (4 wk in 7 over 71 runs )won motm , mots,                

What is NIrvana

 

Quote from the True charm and power of Vedanta

 

What is NIrvana

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The individual life in this earth is like a ceaseless struggle for existence. From the minutes t animalcule up to the highest man wherever there si manifestation of life, is to be found this tremendous struggle for life, or the fight for existence ., in that constant battle of life thousands and thousands of living creatures are crushed out of existence, first to make room for the stronger and the stronger for the still stronger, and so on., the weak are born as it were to suffer or perish and to make room for the suffer or perish and to make room for the strong ., every moment there exists this strong fight or struggle for life . Each individual is threatened with defeat and destruction. We are pressed by some unknown power into this vast battle field of the world. We are first to fight against these obstacles, and then to continue that fight till the last breath leaves our bodies.

           
Such is the world in which we are living, but at the same time we expect to be happy by gaining a victory over the weaker ones. We expect that it will bring an end to that fight and bring peace to our souls, but in the next moment , when we encounter with new enemies stronger and better equipped our hearts tremble as they come from all side to attack, defy and destroy us. So, how can we expect to get rest under such conditions? Where is the hope of those who expect to gain peace and happiness amidst this struggle for existence along with its constant accompaniments of diseases and sufferings? These existed in the past, and will continue in the future. As far back as we can go by turning the pages of history in every page we read the accounts of the same fight, the same suffering the misery and the same disease and death.

 

Care for humans, god can protect himself

 

By Sumit Paul

 

“I had only a little time left and I didn’t want to waste it on god.” This famous quote of French existentialist Albert Camus assumes exponential significance in these turbulent times of relentless sparring over religion and god.

 

We seem to be wasting a lot of our time and energy on god and religion and killing each other. Christopher Hitchens was once asked by a leading American daily, whether he ever believed in miracles? The ever-witty Hitchens said that he fully believed in miracles because wasn’t it a huge miracle that humans had been killing their fellow humans and taking umbrage for a god they never saw and would never see?

 

That this is happening in the 21st century when the world is facing a legion of humongous issues like poverty, ecological imbalance, disparity, pandemic and global undernourishment is all the more strange.

 

 

It’s time for every individual to sit and mull over the uncertainties that abound our lives and find solutions to them, rather than take god and religion so damn seriously. The Buddha summed it up so nicely, “Care for the humans around. Your self-sufficient god will take care of himself.”

 

The second part of the Buddha’s quote is more fascinating: “Your self-sufficient god will take care of himself.” If the entire mankind understands the import of this statement that god can protect himself, all these differences and bloodshed will stop forthwith.

 

Once someone asked Jalaluddin Rumi, why didn’t he react or curse a Jew who constantly abused Allah? On the contrary, Rumi used to smile when that vindictive Jew abused the Almighty. Rumi again smiled and told that person that had he reacted, he would have provoked the Jew to abuse Allah with a greater degree of intensity and also given him the impression that his (Rumi’s) Allah was so helpless that he needed a mere mortal’s help and intervention to protect Him. That would have been ridiculous, nay juvenile. No reaction is the best action in the matters of faith and a sense of dignified silence is an ideal remedy in such volatile situations. This is what we call spiritual wisdom.

 

Now followers of all the man-made faiths have begun to react and react violently at that. Every follower seems to have become a self-styled custodian of his religion. What we all can do to avoid any kind of religious confrontations is follow Rumi’s recipe in toto: No reaction. The more we react, the more we flare up the situation.

 

We also need to have much more religious maturity. Aldous Huxley called humans, religious pygmies and spiritual dwarfs.

 

A spiritually enlightened individual is never impulsive. He’s, in the words of British Vedantic Christopher Isherwood, ‘an ocean of religio-spiritual placidity’.

 

Where’s that religio-spiritual placidity and calmness in today’s violent humans? It’s, therefore, time to introspect that religion is a private issue and every individual has a moral responsibility to follow his god and faith in a divinely dignified manner without resorting to hooliganism. To sum it up with an Urdu couplet of Raahil Shikarpuri, “Tanha chhod de Khuda ko, mazhab ko samajh/ Tashaddud ko aqeeda nahin kahte, mere dost” – Leave alone god, understand religion/ Don’t mistake violence for faith, my dear friend.

IF HE EXIST

 I drive joy there was a doctor in Benaras who spent 7 minutes in the morning and evening for mediation on God. Knowing this, his colleagues and friends laughed at him. One day they argued that he was wasting 7 precious minutes on something, which he had been misled into believing. The doctor replied, “Well, if God does not exist, I agree that I am wasting 7 minutes a day. But, if He exists? I am afraid you are wasting your entire lifetime. I prefer to waste 7 minutes rather than a lifetime. Why should you grudge me the 7minutes joy that I derive 4m.-

 

ILLUSTRATED REVIEW : 7th heaven moment of the week  novak won his 7^th Wimbledon title                

Vedanta in Daily Life

 

Quote from the True charm and power of Vedanta

 

Vedanta in Daily Life

  
This highest aspiration of the individual soul is fulfilled when it realizes its spiritual oneness with the divine Being, and that spiritual oneness is the central idea and ideal of Vedanta. Vedanta teaches that there si one existence one reality, one truth one God, one life, and one sprit. All these differentiations and distinctions which we perceive with our sense, are factitious and unreal. They are all on the surface. Go below the surface and there you will find the undercurrent of one spirit, and when that one spirit is properly realized we understand that we are inseparable parts of that one stupendous whole. We must love, we cannot help loving and through that Divine love we realize the highest ideal of our lives. A student of Vedanta who recognizes that spiritual oneness sees that one universal Spirit is manifesting through all-living creatures and all human beings, and therefore, he loves all human beings, and also he loves all animals. The most practical result of this love, or the recognition of oneness, is that a student of Vedanta never injurers or kills any living creature, because he knows that there is one life that the difference between and animalcule and a human beings is only in degree but not in kind. The same life force is expressed in so many ways. Wherever the humanitarian ideas of Vedanta are preached. There prevails compassion for everybody. There prevails compassion for poor animals there hospitals and built , not only for men, women and children but also for lower animals there is to be found the desire to take care of the poor suffering brothers ,. Therefore, student of Vedanta does not necessarily kill any animal for food because he says: “When I cannot give life to any living creature, what rights have I to take it? Let it stay on and live: it has its purpose to fulfill; I must not interfere” And having this ideal in his mind be does good to all and would rather give his own life then take the life of others. Such a should is great blessing to humanity, as also to all living creatures.

 

The practice of this ideal will bring the most wonderful result which are morally and spiritually perfect. Therefore we should teach our children to love all creatures for even the lower animals possess life and feelings. From our childhood, we have been taught that lower animals have been created for our food. Now, we must change that idea and teach out children that the lower animals are also fulfilling certain principles of life and are on certain grades of evolution and in course of time; they will rise to the plane of human beings and will reach perfection. Therefore, we must be kind to them. Thus in practical life we should learn compassion and that compassion, when properly carried out  will lead to Divine love and realization of the Supreme.

 

Mysticism can link finite with infinite

 

By Shri Shri Anandamurti

 

Since the dawn of civilisation, one often-asked question is about salvation of human beings. The supra-psychic existence that remains in close proximity to a corporeal framework, and uses that very corporeal framework as the only medium of its own emittances and emanations, can attain salvation. As per ancient scriptures, Shiv states that even having a corporeal structure one can attain salvation, if one changes the idea of microcosm into macrocosm.

 

Possibilities and potentialities of attaining salvation lie in the very existence of the supra-psychic being. What is infinite in macrocosm is finite in microcosm, but potentialities are the same. So, what is required is to develop one’s finite attributes into infinite ones through the process of mystic approach.

 

What is mysticism? Mysticism is a never-ending endeavour to find out the link between finite and infinite. And when that link is established, Shiv-vakya comes true, that is, Shiv-vakya materialises.

 

Para And Apara

 

In Brahmn Vandana, while ascribing so many attributes to Brahmn, it has been said that He is Paresha. What is Paresha? Para and apara are two counterparts of each and every existence.  Para and apara are two portions – two counterparts of the same entity.

 

The seen portion is called apara and the subjective portion is para. Now, what you see or do with the help of your sensory, motor organs or that external object, in the first phase, is apara and your sensory and motor organs are para – the para counterpart of that apara. And in the second phase, the next interior phase, those gates or organs are apara and the mind is para. Then in the next inner phase, your mind is apara and the unit spirit is para. And in the final phase your atman, your unit spirit, is apara and He is the Supreme Para. He is the Lord of all Paras. Hence, he is called Paresha.

 

Best Existence

 

So, when one withdraws one’s propensities from the objective world towards subjectivity, one attains that Paresha.  One becomes one with that Paresha, and therein lies the secret of sadhana. So, the Supreme Entity is Paresha and is also the Prabhu. ‘Pra’ means ‘Prakrsta’,  that is the ‘best’ and ‘bhu’ means ‘being’. Prabhu, therefore, means ‘the best existence’. It is said that He is Sarvendriyagamay – He cannot be achieved by any indriya. What are indriyas? There are five motor indriyas, five sensory indriyas and the 11th one is the mind. Mind is also an indriya; that is why the Vedas too say, ‘That is’, where all the expressions of indriyas, where all the inferences fail and where mind too fails, that is Supreme Subjectivity. When that mind along with indriyas is withdrawn and placed into Him, then it is param sthiti, supreme stance. In that stance, there is no fear. Sarvendriyagamay Satya – it is the Supreme Truth, that is, where ‘sat’ is fully established, it is called ‘satya’. And what is ‘sat’? Sat means ‘that which undergoes no metamorphosis’. So, in this universe of ours, that Paresha, that entity, is the only satya. He cannot be your mental object. While meditating on the Supreme, you cannot accept Him as your object, because everything is His object. He is the Supreme Subject. So, what is necessary – and herein lies the charm – is that while doing japa and dhyana, you should think that He is seeing you, you are His object.

 

IF HE EXIST

 I drive joy there was a doctor in Benaras who spent 7 minutes in the morning and evening for mediation on God. Knowing this, his colleagues and friends laughed at him. One day they argued that he was wasting 7 precious minutes on something, which he had been misled into believing. The doctor replied, “Well, if God does not exist, I agree that I am wasting 7 minutes a day. But, if He exists? I am afraid you are wasting your entire lifetime. I prefer to waste 7 minutes rather than a lifetime. Why should you grudge me the 7minutes joy that I derive 4m.-

 

ILLUSTRATED REVIEW : 7th heaven moment of the week India won second  t20 scoring 227/7