Hari
Om
'Freedays' are the 'gather our thoughts' days;
Q&As; a general review of the week so far…
What
is the logic of saying that our True Nature is that of
Existence-Consciousness-Bliss? The essential word which sums this up for us in
our present, limited state, is 'happiness'. Happiness is our natural state. How
can this be said, when every day appears to contain so much which falls short
of happiness? Do we even truly understand what happiness is? Is it to be
rolling about the aisles in hysterical laughter? Is it to be pushing our body
to its limits through participation in extreme activities? Is it chocolate?
Even
in asking these questions we come to have an inkling that it is none of these
things. For those moments have no lasting power. All that happens is that, in
our low times, we think back to those moments and wish to recreate them or to
have yet more, bigger and better, happy experiences.
If
those moments of pure joy elude us how can we say that happiness is our True
Nature?
Think on water. It gets teased and transformed
into a other forms such as ice or steam and all the stages between. No matter
how much this happens to it, it always finds its way back to its natural form,
which is liquid water. Water is water no matter its intervening states and it
will always return to that state when all enforced conditionings are removed.
Satchitananda
is our 'water state'! All our minor experiences of 'happiness' are merely our
expression of the desire to reach that natural state and everything we do in
life is an attempt to return 'home' to happiness.
The
kind of happiness which remains always. Ultimate contentment. Peace
personified. Unconditioned Love; for universal Love (with the capital 'ell')
can only enter us when we start to strip away our conditionings of body, mind
and intellect; working through and reducing our vaasanas; pay our debts through
living out our prarabdha (destiny) and seeking not to add further to our karma
account. All small joys in life are provided by that prarabdha to show us a
desirable state for which we must strive, but at a much higher and subtler
level. All the sorrows of life are provided by that prarabdha to help us burn
our vaasanas (debts).
Work
on getting to know Your Self. How? Through sravanam, mananam, niddidhyaasana.
Upon having heard of it, listen further and seek out those who write or teach
about the Self. Having listened in an engaged way, take the learning inside and
reflect deeply upon it, bringing out doubts and questions. When intellectually
satisfied upon any point, meditate profoundly upon it and make the intellectual
understanding into a personal experience.
All
of Vedanta is given not for intellectual gymnastics, but for direct experience,
so that we may return to our Natural State. For as long as we are investigating
and digesting, we come to 'know' and talk about Self, but it is not yet a part
of our being. This is called as परोक्ष ज्ञान /paroksha jnaana - knowledge about an experience. Through our yoga, be
it karma, bhakti, raja or jnaana, we seek to purify our antaH karana (mind,
intellect, ego and connecting consciousness), we must work to have our
Knowledge become Real, where the mind firmly roots in Self and is a direct
and personal experience - अपरोक्षानुà¤ूति /aparokshaanubhuuti.
Move from the abstract to the
integrative Self. This is happiness.
