442 – Our eternal question to Gurus

Can enlightenment come at any time?

Swami Satyananda Saraswati’s answer.

“Enlightenment can come at any time. It may at first seem like a flash from time to time, until it finally stabilizes itself. It is not predestined. It is not one’s will. It is not an outcome of one’s sadhana, which means purity, tapasya or vairagya. It comes unannounced, it can come to a person on the street and bypass a saint who has been meditating for a long time. Continue reading

386 – Five habits

  1. Personal purity. Cleanliness of one’s body, promotes health and well-being. Observe your mind. Practice self-observation. What are you taking in, how are you influenced by what you are perceiving. Go to satsang which means be with genuine people and also listen to chants. Be non-judgmental and do not be influenced by uncharitable and hostile thoughts. Do not focus on their faults because then you will have a negative view. Look holistically at people.
  2. Be content. Do not hanker for baubles, which disrupt your inner calm. Greed and cravings can lead you on a profligate path.
  3. Be simple in your deeds and actions. We tend to make our lives unnecessarily complicated, and the bunch of hankering thoughts lead us to a waste of our time. We gain clarity when we are uninfluenced by our motley thoughts.
  4. Engage in self-study. Observing your interactions with yourself and the world.
  5. Practice devotion, which is to hear, reflect and meditate.

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James Swartz – Karma Yoga and Dharma – Talk 7

Recap of the last session. Freedom as the number one priority
in life. Nondual bhakti is exclusive love of the self. To progress
spiritually you have to commit yourself to the vedic tradition:
work through all stages. Skipping of the purification by karma
yoga is not useful. Understand the progression. Take care of
all instruments. Dual love is there to qualify for nondual love.
Nondual relationship. Samsara is a zero-sum-reality. You can’t
win and you can’t loose. Karma yoga is suitable to get out of
samsara: prepares you for jnana yoga, jnana yoga gives you
knowledge and knowledge sets you free. You need a noble
idea for your life. All beings are a set of rules by Isvara that
form their nature. Svabhava and svadharma of a human
being. Nature of animals. Karma yoga dharma. Example of
Arjuna. Karma yogis honor samanya dharma or universal
values. Vishesha dharma or situational ethics have no simple
formula. Dharma yoga. React appropriately in relation to
dharma in every situation to avoid bad karma. Krishna: I am
the desire that is not opposed to dharma. Adharma: Going
against your nature or to go against universal values.
Adharmic action creates mental and emotional agitation.
Pollute the environment and living in it is adharmic.
Svadharma of someone commited to Vedanta: be a karma
yogi, develop discipline. Karma yoga is build into the indian
society, that is a dharmic society. Svadharma and profession.
Karma yoga makes less stressful. You start thinking: who is
this Isvara? 4. Upasana. Listening, reasoning (reflecting and
getting rid of opinions that are not in harmony with the
teaching), actualize the knowledge “I am the self”. Getting rid
of obstacles to perfect satisfaction: by continuing the sadhana.
Total sense of confidence.

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James Swartz – Love, Existence and Scripture – Talk 2

Meditation on the silence. It is impossible not to love. You are
Love: Sat Chid Ananda. Every action is motivated by love of
the self. What is existence? Scripture as the appropriate
means of knowledge. You are not a person. The person is an
object known to you. Three states. Experience of the self?
Everything you see reflects you. What are you doing to be
aware or to exist?

More: Vedanta Seminars.

More on: Vedanta.

Learn more about: Yoga Vidya.

You can sign up for: our online seminars.
You can also support us by: donating.

 

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