FESTIVALS
THIS MONTH:
JULY 10: GURU PURNIMA ORLANDO
AREA SHRI LAXMINARAYAN MANDIR: 8:30 a.m. to 11 a.m. Sunday; 269 N. Klondike Ave., Pine Hills, FL 32811; (407) 877-7916.
SHRI SWAMINARAYAN MANDIR (BAPS):
1325 W. Oak Ridge Road, Orlando, FL 32809; (407) 857-0091.
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www.khaasbaat.com/faith
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In
this article, we are taking a slight detour from the main text of the
Yoga Vasistha to include some practical considerations that are in different
portions of the scripture but gathering them so their import can be taken
in together. CORRECT
UNDERSTANDING Proper
understanding of what it is that we call the world before us, our own
self with our strengths and weaknesses, and the objective of spiritual
life is important. Clarity builds understanding, and inner conviction
rises on the shoulders of proper understanding. This is the dawn of the
eye of wisdom, as it has been called, or the constant insistence on the
truth of things based a conviction that externality is an appearance.
Externality consciousness is the root of all our problems as then we are
prompted to take a certain position in regards to what we erroneously
regard as external. This object, person or condition that is regarded
as external is not affected by the position that we begin adopting. Another
person who also beholds the same object, person or condition may not have
the same attitude that we begin adopting. The adoption of an attitude
is peculiar to our mind only and gains momentum by the amount we insist
on its separation with us and the force with which we take a positive,
negative or even an indifferent view towards it. Here, indifference is
a denial of its existence and diversion of the mind. The
mind is inert since it does not function in deep sleep when consciousness
disentangles itself from the mind. Sleep seems to come naturally when
we are more inclusive in our understanding and sleep appears difficult
when there is an insistence on this ‘outsideness,’ which requires
an attitude toward something as the strength to maintain this condition
is consciousness. When consciousness is kept engaged in its own segmentation
and then to entertain a certain attitude, it is tightly woven with the
mind and poured onto the condition to which we feel justified somehow
to have a peculiar attitude. EMPOWERING
NEW MECHANISMS The
insistence on externality is the cause sorrow to the individual and stands
as an obstacle in any spiritual progress since a portion of your self
is needed to power another operation taking place, be it in the background
or foreground. Unfortunately, we are force-fed ‘awareness of externality’
because of many factors and the onslaught continues throughout our life.
Vigilance is necessary to prevent the continual insistence of this state
of affairs. The
lamp of wisdom becomes a state of vigilance throughout the waking condition
and also is known as Viveka. This Viveka is a heightened state of inner
vigilance and an insistence of fresh evaluation as things circumstances
unfold. Viveka is not something that you do, and is not triggered by circumstances.
It is ‘being awake and intelligently observant’ as an ongoing
condition so that the reports of the senses and mind are not allowed to
impose themselves and insist on a peculiar attitude because of their limitations.
Viveka is the non-acceptance of the limitations of perception and self-recovery
in stages by empowerment of a faculty that capable of functioning on reason
till experience dawns. If you can somehow see the vital connection with
everything and all, erroneous attitudes also will start dropping as you
cannot have these attitudes to your own self. Under
the arising vigilance of Viveka, or insistence on the ‘truth of
things’, two processes take place simultaneously: rejection of the
untruth, which is Vairagya, and effort toward the truth, which is called
Abhyasa. Vairagya is not a renouncing of things, persons or conditions
as these will continue to be right there with or without our refusing
to have anything to do with them. Vairagya is the renouncing the unreality
of the state of externality of things, persons and conditions, which compels
us to invest consciousness to maintain that condition of unreality. It
is therefore important that this rejection of externality as a reality
be under the lamp of Viveka or inner vigilance does not become another
attitude that goes to an extreme. Simultaneously, there is an insistence
on the connectivity of things and a resulting expansion from the absorption
in a positive direction and this is called Abhyasa. Gurudev Sri Swami
Sivanandaji Maharaj said all of this in two powerful words: “Detach.
Attach.” Spiritual
life is simple life, not merely externally but in the spirit in which
life is lived. Complication requires our energy for its sustenance, and
so it is that an increase in simplicity is an expansion of being! Joy
is the feeling that arises from completeness of being, and it is this
quest for completeness that is ultimately behind all our efforts. Swami
Suryadevananda is with The Divine Life Society, Sivananda Ashram, Rishikesh,
India. He can be reached at [email protected]
by email.
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