Human  Being  IS  Divine  Being

Sometime ago I attended a spiritual retreat with discourse by Swami Yogatamananada ji of Ramakrishna Mission. The following thoughts are based on my understanding from this discourse. On purpose, I am not presenting these statements as a treatise, but as lights, दिया, as SUTRAS,  so we may enjoy them as food for  चिंतन। Depending on the readers' interest and feedback, I will certainly expand on them.

I will translate these  SUTRAS  in to Hindi as well. If some readers can help in translation, I will not only really appreciate.... in fact, I will be indebted to them.

Try to see what is permanent, and what is not permanent,

what is right and what is not right, what is Truth and what is not Truth.

Then discard what is NOT. This is Jnana Yoga.

The world is running on the myth that “I am” and the “world is,” and

this myth is the source of our bondage. Sri Ramakrishna used to tell a story that it is like a king holding a pillar, saying  “release me, release me, from this pillar ”, but the king himself is not giving up the pillar. Similarly, we are holding on to the pillar. We have to let it go... we have to let go !

Intellectual understanding has to percolate and become our practical living. This is possible  only  by being constantly vigilant of our thoughts and our CONDUCT. This requires a very acute, very subtle perception of our inner being.

In Vedanta, everything is intensely practical, but we must define

practical.

What is most impractical, we call practical, but that is like seeing a mirage.

Vedanta shows us the practical way to transform our lives: it takes away

all the illusions. Vedanta tells us to renounce, to give up. Give up what?

Give up illusions. But, what is ILLUSION ? Illusion is that we look at everything temporary as Permanant. There is only ONE permanant, i.e. Brahman. Notice that I said, ONE, not one thing, for Brahman is not a thing, Brahman is The All Knowing, All pervading, the only TRUTH.

No object has the capacity to give us happiness. All happiness comes from within, then it is projected outside of us and reflected back to us.

We carry the burden of knowledge with us, but we do not have peace.

We need a sense of self surrender before we go to the teacher.

Our real desire was "satisfaction", which never came from what is material and sensual. We need to identify our real desire, which is desire for Self, which means “to love God” in spiritual language. All along, we have been really desiring our " Self ", for this will give us

true satisfaction.

Why do we not realize this Self when we are the Self?

It is because of ego-identification with the body and the mind, which must be transcended. Let us remove it, even if slowly. "No ego" means all knowledge; ... less ego means more real knowledge. If we have eye trouble, we go to an eye specialist. But if we have “I” trouble, then we have to “drop I” !... i.e drop our ego.

Bhakti Yoga says that we cannot satisfy any desire by fulfilling it. If we check our desires, we will find that none of our desires, except desire for God (desire for the TRUTH), was our real desire.

Every question really contains the answer in it, like a banana. If we peel the question – we get the answer ! ..... but sometime we need help in peeling it, like from a  qualified TEACHER, or from a  sincere learned FRIEND.

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