Really there are only two methods, Enquiry and devotion. One leads to the other. A devotee concentrates on God.
A seeker, follower of the Jnana-marga seeks the Self. The practice is equally difficult for both.
Since God is verily the Self, love of the Self is love of the God and that is bhakti. Jnana and Bhakti are thus one and the same.
Service, like prayers, japa and even businesss done in God’s name, lead to the highest Goal; Self-realization.
Complete effacement of the ego is necessary to conquer destiny, whether you achieve this effacement through Self enquiry or through bhakti-marga.
Self-enquiry is possible for mature minds, not for immature ones.
For the immature ones, japa nama, worship of images, pranayama, visualizing a pillar of light and similar yogic and spiritual and religious practices have been prescribed.
The word ‘Satsanga’
is the combination of the two words ‘Sat’
and ‘Sanga.’
‘Sat’ means
existence absolute, which is Brahman (Truth).
‘Sat’ is
the essential nature of Brahman which is permanent in things that change, which
is the only reality that upholds the world of appearance.
The same ‘Sat,’
with the accidental attributes of omnipresence, omniscience and
omnipotence is called Isvara or Paramatman. In brief, ‘Sat’ refers to Isvara (God) as well as
Brahman, both ultimately being the one and the same reality.
‘Sanga’
literally means company or union.
Tobe always in
the company of the Lord, or to be established in Brahman, is the literal
meaning of the word ‘Satsanga.’
But, as long as
ignorance or Avidya remains, the direct realization of Brahman is impossible.
Because the company of the wise
leads to the realization of Brahman (with attributes or without attributes), it
is also termed as Satsanga.
When ignorance is destroyed by wisdom, the
real nature reveals itself. This is the highest Satsanga.
The highest goal of man is to enquire ‘Who
am I?’ and realize the Self. If a human being does not try to realize this, he
lives in vain.
Firm resolve to discover the truth for
oneself is important.
2.ACTIONS:
Whatever is done lovingly, with righteous
purity and with peace of mind is a good action.
Do not perform any good action through a
bad means.
3.AWARENESS:
Pure awareness is the Self which is
Sat-Chit-Ananda (Existence-Consciousness – Bliss)
Awareness which already exists within
everyone, everywhere, is imperishable & changeless.
Effortless and choiceless awareness is our
real nature.
4.BODY:
The body-consciousness
is the wrong ‘I’. Give up this body-consciousness.
‘I am the body’ idea
will become extinct only on Self realization.
The body is a mental projection.
The entire universe is
condensed in the body and the entire
body in the Heart.
Thus the Heart is the nucleus of the whole
universe.
Reality is not within the body. The body
is within the Reality.
5.BLISS:
One’s own reality, which shines within
everyone as the heart, is itself the ocean of unalloyed bliss.
Bliss is a state of unbroken happiness.
Bliss cannot be complete tillthe nerger in
the Self is complete.The bliss of the Self is always with you and you will find
it for yourself if you would seek it earnestly.
6.BHAKTI:
Since God is verily the Self, love of the
Self is love of the God and that is bhakti. Jnana and Bhakti are thus one and
the same.
Bhakti is the same as vichara.
Service, like prayers, japa, and even
businesss done in God’s name, lead to the highest Goal- Selfrealization.
7.CONSCIOUSNESS:
The Self, which is consciousness, is alone
real. Nothing else is.
You cannot deny your own existence. That
existence is consciousness, the Self.
8.DESTINY:
Everything happens
according to each individual’s karma
Freewill and destiny
are ever existent. Destiny is the result of past action; it concerns the body.
Complete effacement of
the ego is necessary to conquer destiny, whether you achieve this effacement
through Self enquiry or through bhakti-marga.2
Freewill and destiny
last as long as the body lasts. But jnana transcends both.
9.DESIRES:
To resolve all inherent desires into one’s
own Self is real surrender.
Desires are the food for the mind. Giving
them up is the real fasting.
10.EGO:
Ego, if looked for, disappears. If not,
it continues to give trouble.
The enquiry into the source of ahamvrtti
(‘I’ thought) touch the very existence of the Ego.
The Ego falls, crestfallen, when one
enquires ‘Who am I? and enters the heart.
The Ego is the source of all thought. It
creates the body and the world.
On the rising of the Ego everything rises.
With its subsidence all subside. The Ego is therefore all.
It is only after the feeling ‘Aham;
(Ego) comes that the other feelings follow
The Ego must, die,
must vanish along with th inherent vasanas..
That which comes and goes, rises and sets,
is born and dies is the ego. That which always abides, never changes and is
devoid of qualities is the Self.
To destroy the ego and be as the Self is
the supreme method of attainment.
11.ENQUIRY:
The very purpose of self-enquiry is to
focus the entire mind at its source.
If you do not make Atma vichara, then loka
vichara will creep in.
The enquiry ‘Who am I?’ is the beginning
and the end of the teaching of Vedanta.
Self-enquiry is possible for mature minds,
not for immature ones.
For the immature ones, japa nama, worship
of images, pranayama, visualizing a pillar of light and similar yogic and
spiritual and religious practices have been prescribed.
12.EFFORT:
Effort is needed so long as there is mind.
There must be untiring effort to go inward
all the time until the self is realized.
No one success without effort and the
successful few own their victory to perseverance.
There is a state beyond effort and
effortlessness. Until it is realized effort is necessary.
13.FAILURES- OBSTACLES:
There is a steady determination that gets
you on your feet again after a fail or break.
One who seeks his real Self will not be
afraid on any obstacle
14.GRACE:
Divine Grace is essential for realization.
It leads one to God-realization. It is only given to those who striven hard and
ceaselessly on the path towards freedom.
The Grace of God is obtaind, practically
by Self Surrender..
How could God be expected to be favorable
towards you without your striving for it?
God, Grace and guru are the one innermost
essence of awareness, which is revealed or experienced when attachment to all
forms is broken.
15.GOD:
God is immanent and formless. He is pure
being and pure consciousness.
Knowing the Self, God is known. In fact,
God is no one other than the Self.
To see God, is to be God.
16.GURU:
The externally visible Guru pushes the
mind inward. He is also in the hearts of the seekers and so he draws the
inwardly turned mind into the Heart.
The Guru’s Grace works automatically and
spontaneously. The disciple gets precisely the help he requires.
17.HEART:
What is called the Heart is not other than
the Absolute.
The whole cosmos is contained in one
pinhole in the Heart.
The Heart is pure consciousness, is beyond
space and time.
The point to be grasped is this, the Heart
means the core of one’s Being, the center without which there is nothing
whatever.
18.HAPPINESS:
What happiness can you get from things
extraneous to yourself? When you get it, how long will last?
Happiness is our real nature. That
happiness does not depend on our possessions or achievements.
Happiness is the nature of the Self. Self
is not other than perfect happiness.
19.IGNORANCE:
The thought ‘I am the
body’ is ignorance. That the body is
not apart from the
Self is knowledge.
Ignorance draws a veil over the pure bliss. Direct your attends only
towards removing the ignorance
The wrong lies in the false identification
of the Self with the body and mind. This false identity must go by enquiring
into the Self.
20.JNANI:
It is impossible to express
the greatness of a Jnani.
He alone knows the nature
[or beauty] of His existence.
He is vaster than the space;
He is firmer than a
mountain.
The Jnani, who has saved himself, alone
can do good to others.
A
jnani has attained liberation even while alive, here and now.
The power of a Jnani’s Self-Realization
is more powerful than all occult powers.
It
is as difficult for a Jnani to engage in thoughts, as it is for an ajnani
to be free from thought.
To the jnani it is immaterial whether
the world appears or not. Whether it appears or not, his attention is always on
the Self.
21.LIBERATION FREEDOM:
Know that the pure and changeless
Self-awareness in the heart is the knowledge which, through the destruction of
the ego, bestows liberation.
Liberation is our very nature.
22.LOVE:
Love itself is God.
The experience of Self is only love, which
is seeing only love, hearing only love, feeling only love, tasting only love
and smelling only love, which is bliss.
23.MIND:
It is the mind that stands between and veils
our happiness.
The mind is only a bundle of thoughts.
They are dependent in the ‘I’ thought. Know ‘I’ thoughtto be the mind.
The mind turned inwards is the Self.
Turned outwards , it becomes the Ego and the world.
Mind alone is the cause of bondage and
realize.
Success in turning the mind inward is
achieved by practice and dispassion and it succeeds only gradually.
This world is not other than the mind,
the mind is
not other than the Heart; that is the
whole truth.
24.MIND CONTROL:
The mind becomes quiescent by regulation
of breath.
If the mind is watched thoughts cease,
peace results.
Breath control is meant for one who cannot
directly control his thoughts.
The mind also gets controlled by
repetition of sacred syllables (mantra)
It is necessary to be aware while
controlling thoughts.
25.MISERY:
The cause of your misery is not in the
life outside you, it is in you as the ‘Ego’.
26.MEDITATION:
For the bigginer meditation on a form is
more easy and agreeable.
Dhyana is holding on to a single thought
and putting off all other thoughts.
What is dhyana (meditation)?
It is abiding as one’s Self without
swerving in any way from
one’s real nature and without feeling that
one is meditating.
The mind must be alive and meditation pursued, unremittingly,
even when it is at peace. Then the mind
will sink into the heart.
27.THE NOW:
Engage yourself in the living present. The
future will take care of itself.
28.NON-ATTACMENT:
Attachment is bondage. Attachment
disappears with the elimination of the ego.
Non-attachment is the sign of a realized
Soul.
Only a man with non-attachment can know
the power of non-attachment.
29.OTHER TYPES OF YOGA:
Bhakti, vichara and japa are only
different forms of our efforts to keep out the unreality.
30.PRACTICE:
Solitude cannot efface one’s thoughts.
Practice does it.
31.PURITY:
The purified mind alone is capable of
grasping a method and sticking to its practice.
32.PRANAYAMA:
If breath is controlled and kept within
for a while it helps in practicing self-enquiry.
33.PATHS:
One must go by one path.
Really there are only two methods, Enquiry
and devotion. One leads to the other.
A devotee concentrates on God. A seeker,
follower of the Jnana-marga seeks the Self. The practice is equally difficult
for both.
34.PEACE:
That which results in peace is the highest
perfection (siddhi).
Perfect peace is of the Self. Peace is
your natural state
When the mind itself is absent, there is
perfect peace. Unless a person has annihilated the mind, he cannot gain peace
and be happy.
If one’s mind had peace, the whole world
will appear peaceful.,
35.RENUNCIATION:
Renunciation and realization are the same.
They are different aspects of the same state.
lf you renounce and give up everything,
what remains is only ‘Moksha’ (Iiberation).
Renunciation is the giving up of the Ego.
It is not only the giving up the possessions but the possessor too.
Internal renunciation means that all
vasanas should be subdued.
36.REALITY:
Reality can only be experienced, it cannot
be explained.
Reality is at once Being and Consciousness.
To know That, is to Be That in the heart transcending thought.
Reality is only one and that is the Self.
All the rest is mere phenomena in it, of it, and by it.
Existence or Consciousness is the only
reality. That alone is real which exists by itself, which reveals itself by
itself and is eternal and unchanging.
Reality alone exists as a perfect
undivided whole, and you experience it here and now, whether you think you are
aware of it or not.
37.REALIZATION:
Abiding in it and being it , not seeing it
, is Self-realization.
‘I am’ is realization. To pursue the clue
till realization is vichara.
Merging into the source of ego, which is
the fullness of consciousness, and abiding there, is realization. It is the
natural state.
38.SEEKER :
One must be ready to sacrifice everything
for the truth.
If you seek God with your whole heart you
may be asured that the grace of God also seeking you.
39.SAMADHI:
To be one’s own Self is Samadhi.
The state, in which awareness is firm,
even when the objects are sensed, is called the natural state.
When through practice we are constantly in
that state (free from thought-nirvikalpa Samadhi) not going into Samadhi and
coming out again, that is sahaja state (the natural state).
The state in which the unbroken experience
of existence-consciousness is attained by the still mind alone is Samadhi.
40.SADHANA:
All sadhanas are for getting rid the
delusion that you are the body.
41.SELF:
Know that you are really the infinite
being, the Self.
What are the obstacles which hinder
realization of the Self? A: they are habits (vasanas) of mind.
Pure awareness alone is the Self. Self is
the only reality. The Self is ever present.
The Self is the world, the Self itself is
‘I’, the Self itself is God all is the Self.
42.SILENCE:
Only silence is the eternal speech. The
only words, the heart to heart talk.
Silence is Truth.
Silence is bliss.
Silence is peace.
And hence silence is the Self.
Mouna (Silence) is the speech of Self.
The Self is that where there is
absolutely no ‘I’ thought. That is called ‘silence’.
That which is, is Silence
43.SURRENDER”:
Complete surrender does require that you
hjave no desire of your own. You must be satisfied with whatever God gives you.
Complete surrender to God means giving up
thoughts and concentrating the mind to Him.
If you have surrendered but still doubt
God’s grace, where does the fault lie?
If surrender is complete all sense of
individuality is lost and there is no cause for misery.
44.SOLITUDE:
Abiding in the Self is solitude, because
there is nothing alien to the Self
The state of being free from mental concepts
is called ‘dwelling on solitude’
45.STILLNESS:
The bible says, ‘be still and know that I
am God.’ Stillness is the sole requisite for the realization of the Self as
God.
Your duty is to be , and not to be this or
that. The method is summarized in ‘BE STILL’
What does stillness mean? It means ‘Destroy yourself’ because every name
and form is the cause of trouble.
The Self is always realized. Look within
and be still.
46.SATSANG:
Sat-sang really means association with the
unmanifest Sat, or Absolute existence. But as very few can do that, they have
to do the second best which is association with the manifest Sat, that is the
Guru.
By remaining in contact with realized
sages the man gradually loses the ignorance until its removal is complete.
It is necessary both, for you to strive
and for the Guru to help.
47.SAMSARA REBIRTH:
Rebirth is due to vasanas which are
binding. But they are destroyed in the one of Self-realization.
There are births and deaths, but they are
of the Ego, not of you (the Self).
Unless one realize this state one will
have to be born and die again and again
Forgetfulness of the real nature is the real death. Remembrance of it,
it is the true birth. It puts an end to successive births.
48.SIDDHIS:
Self- abidance alone is a miracle. The
other miracles are like dreams which last till waking.
‘Siddhi’ is to know and realize that which
is ever Real(Self). Other ‘siddhis’ are mere dream siddhis’.
Occult powers (Siddhis) will not bring
happiness to anyone, but will make him all the more miserable.
49.THOUGHTS:
The state free from thoughts is the only
real state.
No thought will go in vain. Every thought
will produce its effect sometime or other.
Each person will get results according to
his thoughts.
50.TIME SPACE:
There is neither past nor future. There is
only present. Yes, even the present is mere imagination, for the sense of time
is purely mental.
There is no time for the Self. You exist
even in the absence of time and space.
51.UNITY:
Brotherhood based on equality is the
supreme goal of human society.
Through Brotherhood peace will prevail
among mankind.
Self-reform automatically results in
social reform.
52.VICHARA:
Vichara is the process and the goal also.
‘I am’ is the goal and the final reality. To hold on to it with effort is
Vichara. When spontaneous it is realization.
53.VASANAS:
Effort must be made to eradicate the
vasanas. Jnana can only remain unshaken after all the vasanas are rooted out.
Self remains veild by vasanas and reveals
it self when are no vasanas.
Vasanas themselves are the mind. If there
are no vasanas there is no mind.
54.WORLD:
The world is as we see it. If we see it as
material, it is material. If we see it as Brahman, it is Brahman.
There is in reality no change , no
creation.
All the crores of worlds is built upon the
weak (or no) foundation of the ego. They all topple down when the atomic bomb
of Jnana comes down upon them.
55.WISDOM:
The eternal unbroken natural state of
abiding in the Self is wisdom.
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