How to deal with thoughts

Whenever you have thoughts in your mind, take a moment to look into your thought and find out what are these thoughts regarding.

Every thought is about a role that you are playing. A mother will have thoughts about her child. A wife will have thoughts regarding her husband. As an employer, you will have thoughts pertaining to your job.

Once you identify that a given thought or a chain of thoughts is pertaining to  a particular role, surrender that role to Divine. Gradually , all thoughts will dissolve and you will be established in yourself.

There are two stages in spirituality. The first stage is to be nobody and the second stage is to become everybody from nobody. We can only work towards the first stage; we can surrender all the roles to Divine and empty our mind from all the thoughts. Once we are firmly established in that stage of being nobody, Divine takes us to the next step of being everybody ...where we become one with the entire universe. Effort is needed to get to  first stage and Divine grace takes us to second stage.
It is only when we give up all the different roles that we have taken up in life that we become nobody and as they say (only) nobody can be happy.


Surrendering the role does not mean not fulfilling your responsibilities associated with that role. On the contrary, it means fulfilling all your responsibilities depending only on Divine without expecting anything from anybody.

What does it mean to be Spiritual

• Spirituality begins when dharma ends. Dharma is about doing the right thing: being kind to others, helping others and doing good to society in general. 
• Spirituality starts after we understand that we are not the body. If we understand that we are not the body, than we give up worldly possessions and worldly relationships. 
• Spirituality is about being in the present moment. Being in the present moment is not about making a choice between being in present moment or oscillating in past or future; being in the present moment is about being in reality. We are in reality only when we are established in present moment. 
• If we learn from mistakes, than we do not create an impression of craving or aversion in mind. For example, during childhood , we probably got burned with fire. With that experience we learn that it is the nature of fire to burn. So, then we use that nature of fire to serve us ; rather than complaining that fire is bad...it burned my finger (or potentially could have burnt me if I had not protected myself.)

PanchKoshas

The panch kosha are as under:

• Annamaya kosha

Related to food we eat

• Pranmaya kosha

Related to vital air.  Pranayam is about working on this kosha.

• Manomaya kosha

The dualities of life including sorrow and happiness, likes and dislikes are about this kosha/layer of life

• Vgyanmaya kosha

Spirituality starts from this kosha. One who has overcome annamaya kosha, pranmaya kosha and manomaya kosha starts this journey about spirituality.

• Anandmaya kosha

Each kosha/layer is subtler than the previous one. Pranmaya kosha is subtler to annamaya kosha, which is suttler to manoomaya kosha....

Being subtler means three things
subtle means nearer, subler means support suttler means more pervasive

it is support
Each kosha is superior to the former one. Pranamaya kosha is superior to annamaya kosha. Manomaya kosha is superior to pranamaya kosha.

We understand that mind is inside the body ...but in reality body is in air and both body and air is in mind and body , air and mind are in I.

Lessons from Bhagavad Gita

Lessons from each of the 18 chapters of Bhagavad Gita.

1. Wrong thinking is the only problem in life
2. Right knowledge is the ultimate solution to all our problems
3. Selflessness is the only way to progress and prosperity
4. Every act can be an act of prayer
5. Renounce the ego of individuality and rejoice in the bliss of Infinity
6. Connect to the higher consciousness daily
7. Live what you learn
8. Never give you on yourself
9. Value your blessings
10. See Divinity all around
11. Have enough surrender to see the truth as it is 
12. Absorb your mind and heart in the Supreme Lord
13. Detach from Maya and attach to Divine
14. Live your lifestyle that matches your vision
15. Give priority to Divinity
16. Being good is a reward in itself
17. Choosing the right over the pleasant is a sign of power
18. Let go. Let's move to union with God

Check this out: https://www.curejoy.com/content/18-simple-lessons-bhagavad-gita-need-know-life/

2/28: Drg Drsya Viveka

Drg Drsya Viveka is a Advaita Vedanta scripture written by Shri Vidyaranana. It is a short book of 46 verses where the author urges everyone to develop the discrimination (viveka) to distinguish between the scene(drsya) and the seer, the one who sees the scene (drg). When we learn to separate the seer from the scenery, we recognize that we are the seer who is untouched by all the positive and negative scenarios that we witness in our lives.

An English translation of this scripture is available online. This translation is provided by Swami Nikilananda. It can be found here:

http://vivekananda.net/PDFBooks/Others/DrgDrsyaViveka1931.pdf

Over the next few weeks, we shall go over the 46 shoklas of this scriptures and try to understand each one of them.

I have found two excellent commentaries on this scriptures on YouTube. The first one is by Swami Sarvapriyanada from Swami Vivekananda mission and second one is by Swami Anubhavananda. Enclosed please find the URL for ready reference.

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jx7O2zDqi6I&list=PLBh-iYJ1Q_hRn-1WgwiBj7CfasK6TOqG5
• Add Swami jee playlist here (TBD)

Shokla 1:

The form is perceived and the eye is its perceiver. It (eye) is percevied and the mind is its perceiver. The mind with its modulations are perceived and the Witness(the Self) is its perceiver. But It(the Witness) is not perceived (by anything else).

Shokla 2:

The forms (object of perception) appears as various on account of such distinction as blue, yellow, gross, subtle, short, long etc. The eye , on the other hand, sees them itself remaining one and the same.

Shokla 3:
Such characteristics of the eye such as blindness,sharpness or dullness,the mind is able to cognize because it is a unity.This also applies to (whatever is perceived by) ear, skin etc

2/27/2017

I have been listening to Swami Anubhavananda jee a lot these days on youtube.  Some important points explained by him are as under:

• The first step in spirituality is to not think of yourself as a body (or not identify yourself with your body). Once we stop identifying ourselves as a body, the outside world stops to bother us. The world mainly constitutes of objects  and relations. We have an inherit desire to accumulate objects and have good relationship. When we reach a point in life where we do not feel the need to accumulate more stuff in our life and when we stop thinking that someone external is responsible for our state of mind, then we are ready to begin our spiritual journey.

• Some tasks needs effort and some task happen themselves. When a task happens by itself, it does not make you tired. However, when you are doing a task, it makes you tired. For example, you do not get tired of breathing;but you do get tired of pranayam. The goal is to move from owning a task to letting the task happen through you.

• The biggest sadhana is to live in the present moment. Every moment observe your mind to ensure it is not thinking about the past or anxious about the future. 

• Also, stop talking to yourself. 

List of books

I have been reading a few spiritual books on Vedanta recently. I thought of creating this blog as a way to save my notes on these books.

The books that I have been reading are as under:

Bhagavad Gita
Astavakra Gita
Vasistha Yoga
Drg Drgesha Viveka
Aparokshanubhooti


In addition to writing notes on the above mentioned books, I also plan on writing  random notes on stuff that I have read besides these five books