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No matter how many examples are given, no matter in how many different ways this Truth is repeated over and over again by different Masters from times immemorial, we still can't accept that we are one -WE ALL ARE ONE, encompassing the entire universe. Even after exhaustive inquiry into the nature of things, we may come to intellectually understand that we are one, but since we lack experiential understanding, we struggle to accept this. Listed below are some thoughts on this struggle. What are the practical difficulties that we face in bringing about this acceptance? The God and the Devil: Most of us are convinced that there is only one God. However, our religions talk about the eternal struggle between good and evil and how God, who is all good, fights and conquers the demons / rakshasa / satan etc, who is evil incarnate. So automatically, there comes this mental image (at least I had this for a long time, thanks to all the pauranic movies and serials that I sa...

We all intuitively know about this oneness . However, our identification with our own body, mind and intellect creates a strong and distinct feeling of “me and everything else that is not me” . And this me is so so so small and tiny that it extends only upto the boundary of our own body. So we identify with this small part of Our whole and struggle through this life, being tossed up and down in the waves of joys and sorrows. However, when we slowly expand our sense of identification with All That Is, then our individual ego disappears and we become our True Self –the glorious infinite and absolute. All this is fine, but it seems very wild to even begin to imagine us as something other than this body. The attachment to the body is so strong that even though we can intellectually and to some extent intuitively understand that we all are one, we cannot but shake off the feeling of I ness and my ness that is associated with the body. The Masters, in all their kindne...

The most difficult thing as a student of Vedanta is that, it asks the us to walk the talk...and the talk itself is so lofty and high that sometimes, it almost makes me whish that I didn't have this knowledge, so that I could have continued living as I was. The one thing that kind of blew my mind when I finally understood and comprehended is the vision of oneness. It is so simple and evident that it made me smack my forehead for missing something so obvious that was right in front of my eyes. Before I write about what is the difficulty in this, let me quickly run through what this oneness is all about. I, with my limited understanding, come to completely believe and live with the conviction that I am this body. I + body gives raise to the feelings of me and mine -My house, my clothes, my father, my children, my husband, my money and so on. Life, as we know it revolves around this "I". It is this "I" that makes us believe that we are separate entitie...

This new year, I have a confession to make. A freak injury has me sitting out of any forms of exercise for 3 weeks. The doctor's advice of not sitting down cross legged and not exercising for three whole weeks was a complete shocker. I have never gone without exercising for three whole weeks ever since 2008! While it is only day 5 of 21, this no exercise rule has left me with more than one and half hours of extra time every day and has also got me thinking about my lifestyle in general and my weight in particular.  I have never been a skinny person. Broad shoulders, long limbs and wide hips, I have a frame that will make me look like a skinny buffalo even if I lose weight. While in the final year of my UG, it finally dawned on me that maybe I have to lose some weight, as I started sporting a nice round small paunch that slightly stuck out of my dress. I started walking in my terrace for one hour every day and cut down on curd and viola, within 4 to 5 months, I ...

In the last post , we saw what is the meaning of Karma (Karma means action) and what prompts us to act. Now, let us look at the word Yoga. Yoga: Beside the done to death definition of yoga coming from the root word "yuj" and it means union, the term yoga here means the state of complete awareness and mindfulness. The state in which our mind is completely focused on the task at hand, in exclusion to all other thoughts. If we observe our mind, we often find that the thoughts are either from the past memories or about future expectations. Yoga is the state of "being" fully in the present moment. So, if we now look at the term Karma Yoga, it means mindful action. KARMA YOGA = MINDFUL ACTION The role of desire: In the previous post, we saw how desire for a better state of being is the driving force behind all our actions. The key to transforming all our karmas into karma yoga lies in channelizing this desire.  In the case of spiritua...

For the longest time, I was under the impression that the term Karma yoga only means doing social service -maybe sweating it out in a beach clean up, sweeping the temples, cleaning the animals in a shelter and doing physical work for charities and NGOs. And needless to say, I felt that Karma Yoga makes no sense because I didn't have enough time to walk around with a broom stick. Looking back, it kind of feels funny that I have always associated Karma Yoga with sweeping and mopping.  Then came my initial Vedanta classes. When our Acharya used to talk about unselfish action, not working for fruits of action, work for work's sake, working without attachment and so on, I was still left scratching my head -not because of what she was telling, but because of my limited understanding and evolvement. At that time, I was still working in corporate and I often used to wonder, what it meant to work unselfishly? It is not that I was a selfish person anyways, so where am I...

It is kind of sadly funny or rather, funnily sad, when we come to understand that to know the absolute, relative is the key. Absolute by itself is beyond comprehension. How can one define absolute? The dictionary definitions are rather interesting. These are some of the definitions given. absolute ˈabsəluːt / adjective 1 . not qualified or diminished in any way; total. "absolute secrecy" synonyms: complete ,   total ,   utter ,   out-and-out,   outright ,   entire ,   perfect ,   pure ,   decided ;   More 2 . viewed or existing independently and not in relation to other things; not relative or comparative. "absolute moral standards" synonyms: universal ,   fixed ,   independent ,   non-relative ,   non-variable ,   absolutist ;   More ...