Dear All,
I am extremely sorry for not being able to keep pace with your questions. But as soon as I am getting some free time, I am trying to fulfill it as a part of my responsibility.
Raja- How much external pleasure in life is important?
My answer: As much as you like.
Snehal-How do I evaluate the concept of heaven and hell?
My answer:They do exist in our minds if we want. I don't attach any value as such.
Rita- What is ultimate satisfaction?
My answer: The end of desire to get that satisfaction.
Linda: Have you come across Sankhya philosophy?
My answer: Yes. And there are some good things there. Advaita generally negates the fundamental concept of Sankhya philosophy.
Aneesh: Can there ever be an end of duality?
My answer: It cant, till you as a perceiver exist. Stop being you, thats the end of it.
Well there are many more questions, and I am all at sea about how to answer them all. But I must take this opportunity to thank you all for showing such patience. I am myself not in the best frame of my mind, due to excessive work load. Still the common point which I could see in those questions was about how to live a really free life? Forgive me for some personal questions and requests. If possible I would answer them personally.
So let me address the topic which I think would answer many more questions.
What are the joys of this world? So many sense enjoyments; beautiful things to see, beautiful things to hear, beautiful things to taste, beautiful things to smell, beautiful things to touch--------these are the attractions of the world. Everybody runs after these attractions. Nobody is free from this longing for the objects of the world. If thats the case, you are unfit for knowing the ultimate truth(Brahman), you should not even talk about the word.
External things dont exist atall, really. That is the whole point. They are scintillating apparitions, shadows, deceiving colours and sounds----therefore they do not exist. Asking pleasure from a non existant things is the worst defects one can discover in one's own mind. Why not have the longing for the pleasures in heaven? God is enjoying there; I will like to go to heaven; wonderful, wonderful, wonderful joy! Gods in heaven dont eat; they have no hunger; they don't want anything; they are satisfied with themselves. Oh that joy is wonderful for me. Let me go!---this desire also should be abandoned. Because the joys of heaven are only rarefied forms of sense pleasures, that desire should also go. The joys of this world and the joys of other worlds also must be rejected completely, by discriminative understanding.
Once you have this understanding, you are ready for Brahman. But the mind gets harassed by hearing so many contrary things. This man is telling that, that man is telling this---what am I to make out of all these? You go to so many places, read so many scriptures and so many philosophies. They are upsetting the mind. More the bombardment of information, more confusion it is. So better follow the one single point of truth, rather try figuring out different ways to reach there.
We will go down further deep into these questions in subsequent posts.
With lots of love and respect for one and all.
Thanks one and all for the patience!!
Fearlessness!
Dear Amit,
So far no matter what I have tried, I have not been able to be absolutely free. You seem to be answering many questions on spirituality, God, personal problems. Can you make me fearless because I believe true freedom can only come once you are fearless.
Regards
Karl
Interesting observation Karl. I am man with no magic potion. I am neither free, nor fearless. But I know, what do you mean. Very recently when I was reading some of the Upanishads, I think I got some of the clues which I will put here. Lets hope it is of some help to you.
In enjoyment, there is fear of disease; in social position, there is fear of falling off; in
wealth, there is the fear of (hostile) kings; in honour, there is the fear of humiliation; in power,
there is the fear of foes; in beauty, there is the fear of old age; in scriptural erudition, there is the
fear of opponents; in virtue, there is the fear of traducers; in body, there is the fear of death;
everything in this world pertaining to men is attended with fear; renunciation alone leads to
fearlessness.
(Vairagya-Shatakam)
You are attached to a fountain-pen, walking stick, book, watch, towel, cloth. Fear slowly
creeps in. There is fear of losing them. Always entertain the thought “All objects are illusory,
perishable and pain-giving.” You will have no attachment. Even if there is attachment, it will be
mild. You can drive it away with slight thinking and discrimination.
Give up attachment to this body by identifying yourself with the bodiless, sexless, pure,
all-pervading immortal Atman or Brahman. All sorts of fears and attachments will totally
disappear.
And if you can, have these words as eternal secret of fearlessness.
“I am bodiless, immortal Soul or Brahman
I am sexless, all-pervading Atman
I am fearless Brahman
I am full of Vairagya now
There is no world at all
I alone exist
I am Deathless and Blissful
I am Absolute Brahman
Kind Regards.
How to realise God!
There have been many emails, which actually want to ask the same thing, may be in different ways. The quest for infinite joy, the supreme being, the ultimate peace etc..If I have to sum it up, the basic question is "How to realise God?"
There are many ways in which one can progress, but I guess for beginners I would not like to bring in the concepts of Advaita. The things which I will talk about, are almost reverse of Advaita. But you will be able to recognise it at later stage that this difference between the two approaches towards God, is very superficial. You have to progress step by step.
To Mr. Atkinson: I would like to say, yes the things are very contradictory as they appear from the sense of your logic, still they are not. I have already sent the response to you through mail.
So I will come back to topic; How to realise God?
The first step is to realise, God alone is real. Rest of the things which appear infront of you are His menifestation. Our brain is not good enough at times, to understand this logic. Thats why It is needed to be disciplined to appreciate this supreme truth.
Renounce the sensual pleasures, seeing the defects in them that these pleasures actually make you blind, and take you away from the ultimate reality.
Equip yourself with sixfold virtues of Serenity, control of senses, cessation from sensual enjoyments, endurance, faith in the existance of the supreme being.
Read books which create insights towards the the ultimate truth.
Feel that God does everything and that you are only his instrument; you will realise later that God was acting through you.
Give up attachments to actions and their fruits.
Sing his praises, worship him, meditate upon his beautiful forms, feel being the part of this creation, feel the process of creation, feel how he is keeping things moving around through you. Finally surrender to his will till you realise, it was Your will as well.
Do not identify with your body, which is inert, impure, perishable and which is only the combination of the five elements: earth, water, fire, air and ether. Always feel that you are the all-pervading, formless, pure Soul.
Take light food. Keep company with the wise. Observe Ahimsa (non-violence), Satyam(Truth) and Brahmcharya (Chestity).
Keep the body fit and energetic. Do light asanas, and yogas.
Combine all the love you cherish towards all worldy objects, wife, son, wealth, property, relatives, friends, and then apply this combined love towards God.
I think the effort should be first to discipline yourself. At later stages, once your body and mind is disciplined enough, you can move ahead without strictly following anything. But there are no shortcuts.
With lots of love and regards to everyone.
What is bliss?
Dear Amit,
I interected with you, while my trip to India last year.I hope you are doing good. Martha told me about this site where you are answering questions. I always got this feeling that you are hiding from all of us. Did you get the taste of the bliss which we talked about? Please write something about it.
Regards
Joey
Dear Joey, Thanks for the mail. Yes, I remember very well the things we talked about. My greetings to Martha. I hope you are doing well with your shoe-business. Yes, I was experimenting with life for a while, and I feel experienced and enriched. I don't intend to hide anymore. Atleast I learnt how to communicate through blogs.
As far as talking about bliss is concerned, It comes with the supreme realisation. I have yet to taste it, but atleast I know people, who have reached that level. As I have not tasted it yet, I will explain it you through their experiences, which I know is almost impossible. It begins with if you know the Brahman (the supreme being), the whole universe of bliss enters into you and simultaneously you enjoy the whole universe.
You can enjoy so many things in this world from good food to sex. You can go on tour, read books, watch movies, dance----there are so many varieties of enjoyment; the problem is when one enjoyment is taking place, another cannot come. They are all different things. So successively we are enjoying different things in the world, but not all the things at one stroke. Here is the difference.
The joys of all kinds of pleasurable encounters, whatever the number of these be, innumerable, infinite ways of the enjoyment of tings in the world, when they all get clubbed together into a melting pot of a single instantantenous expression of Oceanic bliss, that will be your experience when you will experience Brahman, perhaps.
You shudder even to think that such a bliss is possible. Even the thought of such an unthinkable bliss can cause terror and tremor in our body. We can be in a state of terror and tremor by seeing fearful things, but here we can have terror even by imaginging the superb Absolute Brahman where Bliss is a simultaneous completeness.
Regards
Are you buddhist?
Dear Amit, Very recently I have started on this path of spiritualism. I came across your blogsite while searching for peace. Which faith you follow? Are you buddhist? I want to know about eastern religions. And I want to realise God. I find you as an enlightened person. How can I also get englightened?
Thanks
Gustav
Thanks Gustav for you mail on amit.answers@gmail.com. I am hindu by birth, I have studied buddhism little bit. And recently I have come in touch with advaita (core of Hinduism) as well. No, I am not enlightened, I am as vulnerable as you. But yes, I am atleast aware of what I am doing. Sorry, I am not qulified enough to give you an overview of eastern religions. Enlightenment is not something which can be explained easily. In short, its end of opinions, judgements, duality.
Warm regards
Desire of Respect!
Amit,
Thanks a lot Aria for the mail..though I have replied you through your mail, I would again like to answer you here, may be it will help some more people:
Since your question is about, why you are not getting a favorable response from the world; I would like to remind you about how important that response is for you. The world you are living in works on its own principles. It has set rules. People will only be nice to you, if they feel that niceness will bring them some rewards. In fact niceness is a kind of favor, we offer towards each other. I call it "Illusion of being Nice" If you will analyse it deeply, you will see to win respect, you don't need to be nice on face, you should be nice at heart. And that niceness of heart can't be a temporary feeling, which breaks you down, if you don't get immediate responses. Its the persistence and conviction in niceness, which will bring the desired results.
But again, I will warn you for something, do you desire respect? I will only say you should stay nice as you are and dont worry about how others are responding to it. A perfect nice heart stays nice without being affected by what kind of responses it gets from the world.. So very best of luck..( You are doing really great)
With lots of love and regards.
How do we live in this unjustified world with compassion and love without feeling angry
Thanks Monalisa (Adriana)! for the question..before I begin answering your question..I must tell you, that in my life I have myself gone through many phases when I just lost my mind, I was very angry about why certain things happened to me.
I am in a much better position to answer it today, as somehow I have realised, Its about lowering our expectations in certain way. Its about accepting that we don't and we can't control things. Life keeps springing the surprises at you, some of those surprises are unpleasant purely because we are eternally unprepared to deal with anything which we are not comfortable with. A situation can look unjustified to you, because of your own selfishness, your own attachments, your own expectations. If you start living life as it comes without attaching any significance or value to a particular event or situation, you will see things are much easier.
Now the question of how can you stay compassionate about the world? My answer would be, by just considering the world as your very own. Consider it as your own extension, considering it as your own creation. Like a mother will deal with a child who has done some mistake. We all are connected in some sense, we all are bound to create frustrations for ourselves and others, but the ability to forgive, to ignore, to accept, to see things in entirety will save you from anxiety and anger.
With lots of love and regards..