s1va

What you stated and the way you stated it is beautiful. Thanks. The question from the post, still remains. Why use words when they cannot convey. Why bother to even mention, they are enlightened? Why talk about suffering and coming out of it, freedom, acceptance, liberation, etc.? Those words or the subsequent one's are clearly not going to help. Why not just talk about what is for lunch and dinner, and leave the enlightenment topic alone. It can't be described.

That is quite honest and sounds reasonable. Unfortunately, most of the enlightened masters may not agree with it.

Can't help but laugh, but so ironic. ( "run to psychologist because they have Problems with their wife or daughter" )

This post is not about one particular set of masters. The key word is "All" agree on any one particular thing. It can't be abstract. We can't pick from the list certain people, such as, Lao Tzu, Buddha, Shankara, Ramana Maharishi. Yes, I agree these teacher's had something in common, though a very valid argument can be made, each one of their teaching is entirely different. Right here in the forums, some (or many) may not agree that Lao Tzu, Buddha, Shankara and Ramana Maharishi's teaching had much in common. (Buddha and Shankara -- I don't even want to get into that...) Let's take Jiddu Krishnamurti, he is recognized as enlightened by even those, who don't agree with anything he stated. Can we say his commentaries tally with that of others in anyway? In a way, it looked like, he ridiculed many of the other teachings (His intent clearly was not to ridicule, he just made it amply clear that he doesn't agree with any of those views) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Can't believe, I forgot to add myself to that list. FYI: I am Enlightened! (I just don't know it yet....)

The above verses from bhagavad gita, one from chapter 3 and the other from chapter 18, look the same to me. Anyway, the message conveyed it seems to be is to perform activities (all in the world in accordance with one's one inherent nature. It says, better die, than doing something that is not natural to you. This is interpreted in n number of ways. Some traditional religious say, we get the swadharma by birth. Other's say, it's not by ones birth, but based on one's gunas or vasanas (impressions) carried from the past (lives?). Swami Chinmayananda explains these verses beautifully in his Gita talks. I have also heard some analogies. The essential nature (swadharma) of poisonous snake is poison. The swadharma (essential nature) of bitter gourd is it's own unique flavor of bitterness. Similarly, everything and every one in the universe seems to have their own essential nature or swadharma. This is the way, I understand it. I read an interesting article about winners of huge lotteries. A study was conducted to see, how they were after a decade or two. The results were nothing but disturbing. While a minority seemed to have taken the sudden shift in life well, adjusted and carried on with their lifes, turning lottery winnings to their advantage. It was described that majority of these huge lottery winners were not living a happy life after a decade or more. That may be an understatement. Many expressed that they wish they never won the lottery. Some said, they were isolated from their family and friends. Some it seems got addicted to drugs or whatever and died within the decade. Money as a goal by itself does not seem to be the goal with just this lottery example. In the context of this, looking at the words from gita, the strong words does seem to make sense. It is better to die doing what is aligned with ones own nature; or the essence of one, rather doing something that is unnatural though it could be profitable. Here is the confusions that I have. Sometimes, it is not clear as to what one's swadharma or essential nature is. At least, I get confused. Some work that I do, feels like, it is not my swadharma at all. There is an expressing, working for the paycheck. People want early retirement. On the other hand, I see some working passionately in their late 70s or 80s. Even though their body is giving up, they don't want to stop their work. Many of these people have money to retire, and it doesn't seem that they are working for money. Sometimes we feel that we know what our swadharma is. Other times it is not clear. Not knowing what swadharma is, one engages in worldly activities including work. Working to make money, work that is not in alignment with the person's nature. There is suffering and misery. There is a longing for the weekend. Monday morning anxiety or anxiety or whatever. Some people watch the clock (nothing wrong in this). At 5 PM, they get up and leave. It seems that they were tied to that seat til 5 PM. At 5:01, it feels like release, freedom, get up and leave. Is this the right way to live the life. On the other side, a grihasta or house holder has duties to perform. Take care of one's family, provide for them the life style they are used to. Strive to provide at least. Therefore invariably, many end up doing what they do not enjoy to make the life style demanded by their circumstances. Many a times it does feel like the camel walking slow with heavy burden that he has described. He hits the nail (swadharma) with the words "his dharma-be". Clearly stating that when one performs against his "dharma-be" as he calls it, results in lethargy, despair, etc. Seems in-line with the words from gita. The solution presented on the book, is prayer. Yes, prayer does help. So does meditation, yoga, etc. But, even after performing these (may be more time and patience is needed), one is struggling to find what his swadharma is. Trying to get the balance of performaing according to one's nature (if it is known) and balancing the needs (duties) that one has to perform towards his family & society. What is the way to find one's swadharma? What is the right duty for each person? How does one conclude some work is his swadharma or not? How to balance it with the duties of a house holder? The answers to my questions may already be there on gita itself, may be I can't grasp it. Would love to hear the views (answers?), from others on this topic...

Whoever wrote the article clearly seems to be in a confused state. This has nothing to do with Buddhism or Advaita. The contradiction or confusion is simply on the mind of the person that wrote the article. The author needs to find the answers. If the author has already found the answers, and that is this article, great! But, I really doubt it. There is discontent bordering near anger with the use of the words, "ridiculous schism". , and expectations born out of author's own mind such as statements below, Really? Advaita doesn't have to address a thing, let alone Madhyamaka Buddhism! What needs to be addressed is this author's own expectations that advaita has to address something and it failed. I suggest that the author work on that first -- in the mean time, leave alone advaita, buddhism, etc. to do their own things.

Thanks for sharing that link. That was very insightful. How come the main stream media never talks about such topics? They don't even mention it in the passing.

Just goes on to show, the so called education or literacy doesn't have much to do with a person's ability to make informed decisions. If we have to go purely by statistics, they will say this is one of the most illiterate states in the country. Educated or not, literate or not, people were able to see the "politics of separation & fear" that you talked about. There was so much propaganda by media & others about how people suffered immensely from that currency demonetization. They were talking (criticizing) day and night about it without a break, for several weeks. They said poor people were the ones mostly affected, they were all angry against the government because of their suffering. This projected immense suffering seems to be an illusion. Once again, going by statistics on poverty ratio, this state is somewhere on top of the list. If these poor people truly suffered as described, they would not have voted for the party that made them go through such immense suffering. The surprise factor was from the margin of win under the given circumstances, a record in last 40 years or so. (I guess the one's that truly suffered were holding tons of illegal currency in those demonetized notes. In their abject misery, bitterness, shock and anger on suddenly losing what they had, they projected it as poor people's suffering.)

Not want to deviate from the topic. But, I was wondering if someone was following the midterm elections 2017 in India. I was not and just looked at the news yesterday. Really surprising results!

Yes, I forgot Swami Sivananda's commentary. It is good. I haven't read Easwaran's translation. Can you please mention if it is released as a book or do you have a link for it?

Jnaneshwar's Gita is one of the best things I ever came across.

I can understand that. When I tried that method initially, it did not go so well. After reading commentaries, now, I am able to read and appreciate directly. Still, these commentaries are so helpful, when there is a conflict and I interpret some verses in certain way. For instance, when there are questions on certain verses that I thought I understood pretty well, I check Jnaneshwar's Gita, I get a totally new perspective. The words take a totally different meaning.

I am not a great fan J. Krishnamurti these days. But, to put away all these misconceptions about death his books or talks give such clarity. Jiddu Krishnamurti talks on Death: https://youtu.be/RK4UoJpkv_M ​(PS: Not able to embed youtube video, not sure what is wrong)

I wrote right there on the bottom about transitioning from dream to the waking state. I think death is a similar transition. We all die everyday. So, there is nothing new in this. No, vivid replay of all previous nightmares put together. We have all lived, slept, dreamt, woke up, died, reincarnated in cycles before. It's just a process. We have done it so many times. In some experiences I know what I was in some previous births. I can state with confidence, there is no such thing as the process you described in detail. This is completely different from one person to another. It is different for the same person from one night to the night, one death to the next...

Every single dream and nightmare will get replayed vividly, no escape. Really? what would be the purpose or reason for something like this? To repeat the nightmares a person already went through, one more time in detail, vividly without instinctual support??? (Does it happen in IMAX 3D? Will the dead person get googles? If so, do you know what kind of goggles also? Does the sound play on Dolby or DTS? I personally prefer DTS, can I book ahead) I am curious. where are these things that you describe, stated? in what scripture or books? Whatever be the source, it sounds like crap to me. Creator or no creator, no one would want to put some one through a process like that. there should be a reason and rhyme for things, or there should be none. I am sorry to state this, whichever way I look, whatever you have written sounds nonsense. There may be some minor truths in it. Edited to add: Death is just a transition in the state of consciousness. Just like from the dream state to the waking state. Yes, this worldly life is a much more complicated and intricate dream. When we wake up (die) from this dream, the transition can possibly be hard and shocking. There could even be flashes like flashes of dream. Still, it is nothing but getting out of one dream to another state. But, playing "all nightmares back vividly" once again??? What is this, some kind of rewind back and play all the nightmare with added effects and no reprieve. Sounds like a pre-planned torture scheme. If this were to be true, whoever or whatever designed this playback of all vivid nightmares should be cruel with no heart.

To me the diet changes from time to time. There are times when I had to eat small meals spread through the day. This changed in time, without any force or intention to change. These days, eating 2 moderate meals and one healthy snack seem to work. I do cheat and indulge in unhealthy snacks from time to time. (contrary to what I believed, eating strictly healthy food, in moderation, or once in a while, eating things like a chocolate or ice cream causes no harm, may even help) Sometimes, one small meal seems to be enough. These things may not work for growing kids, they need certain diet when they grow. So, this changes from person to person, even for the same person from time to time. I have gone back and forth before. In some ways, the body knows what is needed and when. I couldn't listen to the body for a long time. Luckily, I can listen these days. If we pay attention, we can certainly listen to the body, this helps a lot., some discipline is also certainly needed.

Can you please elaborate on smoothies? what kind, how to make, etc. I stayed away from smoothies, because they mix multiple fruits. I read in ayurvedic texts that mixing fruits is generally not conducive for the body. For instance, I saw banana on many smoothie recipes. Per ayurveda, banana should not be mixed with other fruits or even foods, better to eat by itself, give gap of one hour before and after eating banana. This did work well for me, more or less. You have also mentioned refrigeration, is it okay to drink them cold? This is another thing I avoid these days, I used to love drinking even water cold, from refrigerator (adding some ice). I always wanted to take smoothies, if there is a good way to make them, I will go for it.

Here is another resource for Saivism. Himalayan academy based out of Hawaii. http://www.himalayanacademy.com/site/search/tags/Saivism The following series of 3 great books are called 'The Master Trilogy'. These and some 100+ other books and resources are generously shared free online on the site. The topics of books include, numerous subjects on saivism, yoga, alchemy (Tirumandiram), etc. I bought the actual hard cover books of the trilogy mentioned below, few years back. They are simply beautiful. The illustration, the pictures, the art work. Immense effort has been put on to make these books. More importantly the content is priceless. These hard cover books are some of best quality books I every bought. Thanks to their generosity, anyone can download the eBook version of the Trilogy below (free) or read online. Dancing with Siva: Link to read online or download eBook Living with Siva: Link to read online or download eBook Merging with Siva: Link to read online or download eBook

I see multiple scenarios, happening. 1) If the plane crashes, then I have landed, right? So, that flying ride is over, like other flights, it just ended in different way. 2) The plane crashes, so what? I may not have crashed. It will only matter when I crash. 3) Assuming, it is a collision on air, I would still fly, as per physics, the law of inertia Finally and most importantly, I am still here. None of the planes in which, I flew, ever crashed. We are speculating on an unknown scenario. If and when that happens, you will be the first person, I will report, as to what happened. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ There is an interesting bit of news story just 4 days back on headlines in BBC. This skyscraper window cleaning worker fell from some 47th floor and lived. He literally flew to the ground, with the gravity, their estimate is 120 miles per hour when he crashed. One article talks about the odds or survival in a scenario like this. Odds of surviving 3 story fall: 50%. Ten story fall: NONE (0%) Yet, the guy lived, still breathing, giving interviews. The doctors were just dumbfounded, they have called it a miracle. One doctor has said something like, this must be the work of some higher power. I have seen another youtube video where a small plane crashes. This was caught on camera. One would have thought the pilot was dead or injured severely. He opens the door and calmly steps out, as if nothing has happened. So, who knows? Here is the news story that just happened 4 days back: http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-39114931 https://www.theweeklyobserver.com/story-glass-cleaner-fell-47th-floor-survived/12475/ Edited to add: This was on BBC headlines 4 days back. And on some other news sources. I thought it just happened then. Seems like, it was before.

I was browsing kindle and on suggested reading, found this book "Kundalini - An Untold Story" by Om Swami. I had some pressing questions on Kundalini based on experiences I was going through. The book was given free with Kindle Unlimited. I thought, why not check this book out real quick? I started reading and surprisingly I could not put the book down. I put down after completing the book. I haven't done such reading from cover to cover (single sitting) in a long time. The narration is simply brilliant, capturing the attention of the reader. My initial thought, this must be another book on Kundalini with pictures on chakras that talk about raising this sleeping snake. The stars on chakras, their colors, the visions, the siddhis, the whole nine yards.... To my surprise the book was completely different. The title is apt, it is an 'Untold Story'. Not only is Swami's experience enthralling. Swami explains the entire process of Kundalini in a new light, starting with the story of Daksha Prajapati, the great yajna he conducted. How, he chose to insult Shiva. How Sati choses to leave her body. The metaphorical meaning of the entire story explained is simply beautiful. This story seems to happen in all of us. Due to the ignorance of Daksha in all of us, the shakti goes dormant in muladhara in each one of us. Then she takes the birth as Himavati (Parvati). From a human body, she had to raise up, transcend the human body, climb up with bhakti and dedication, to reach and become one with Shiva again. This story seems to play out in all of us. Those who had read parts of Shiva Purana or Skanda Purana must be familiar with the story of Daksha. One can be familiar with the story from reading comics also The book starts with this story of Daksha, continues narrating, how this knowledge of tantra, was first taught by Lord Shiva to sage Agasthya. How by a series of steps, it comes to Sri Veda Vyasa. Then it tells the story of how Lalitha Sahasranama was revealed by Sri Hayagriva. Those who have chanted Lalitha Sahasranama will know, that it talks about all the Chakras. It talks about Brahma Granthi, Vishnu Granthi and Rudra Granthi. All of these are the names of divine mother. The book goes on to expound Kundalini purely from the perspective of Lalitha Sahasranama. It is a very interesting read. Here is the link for the book, "Kundalini — An Untold Story: A Himalayan Mystic's Insight into the Power of Kundalini and Chakra Sadhana"

The way the Swami narrates his struggles, how he persisted, this story can bring forth great inspiration. Anyone that thinks that they are facing huge challenges, odds are against them, they are down, they can't succeed. Just read some of these passages. This could bring the inspiration needed at times of desperation. After meditating for thousands of hours and performing austerities, in seclusion, in Himalayas, in conditions that most people can't imagine staying for a single day, Swami sees no results. None at all! Read some of it in his own words.... How he persisted and overcame.... I want to mention that the Swami's experiences are only few pages on the entire book. The book is not about that. It is about Kundalini as explained above. The extraordinary struggles and hardships that Swami undergoes without any results: Unwavering dedication and persistence while facing such huge obstacles & challenges: Until, Finally he starts seeing results: It would be unfair, if I describe his resulting experiences here. It is for the interested readers to find out from the book. There has to be some suspense Truly inspiring story. The Swami says, we all can do it, the way he did it, if we chose to. Read the book and enjoy!

I am now reading another title by the same author. This one is also available free as part of Kindle Unlimited. The Wellness Sense: A practical guide to your physical and emotional health based on Ayurvedic and yogic wisdom I have read many books on Ayurveda. Here the author writes it from his experiential knowledge on the subject. Once again, the narration, the structure of the book, are brilliant. A common man with no knowledge of Ayurveda, can read the book and get a very good understanding on the subject. More than knowing Ayurveda, this book is about "wellness", as the title states. To get away from physical, mental and emotional diseases, just by following some simple and practical steps. Steps, anyone living anywhere, can easily integrate into their lives. I would strongly suggest this book to anyone suffering from physical or mental health issues. Also, to those with interest in Ayurveda. Understand the process of disease, prevent them before they manifest.

Lately there is lot of sensitivity to sounds. Not sure what to do about this. Sudden sounds annoy or trigger a minor shock. I felt like hammering my cell phone some times. I couldn't, it will be very expensive to replace it.

I do sit in silence. Actually lie down on savasana and rest the entire body and mind. No matter what, sometimes a bit of excesses happen. I am trying to focus on other activities like trying to be close to the nature. This is something that helps a lot, something I really miss, at a loss to be able to do with the current living conditions. I recently read about the Trees on the forums here. The city life has pretty much moved me away from nature in many ways. I have to connect back. This is challenging in the environment I live now. Densely populated major city, close to one of the largest international airports. The constant sound of the planes, the blinding lights from the city and airport, that make it hard to see any stars in the night sky. Trees can hardly be seen, I have to put an effort, spend time driving to some place to be with some trees and a relatively quiet environment. To prepare, go and spend some time and get back, it takes 2 to 3 hours. This is not possible on every day life. May be on weekends. To see night sky with stars, I have to drive 2 hours (one way) from the city. Ideally, I would like to live in a quieter place. This is not possible at the moment. I am unable to find a viable workaround that is practical and bring a balance right now -- while I work to change the place. I would welcome any suggestions from others, who live in similar conditions in large cities. How they connect with the nature consistently, the ways they found that worked for them.

I am not quite sure if it is stress, could be. But, I am not grounding enough afterwards. Thanks. There has been some powerful energetic experiences lately. I should be mindful of this and do more grounding activities.