What is the necessary prerequisite for taking to spiritual path / pursuit?

[3bob]

Prasanna,  You said the "individual" realizes the Self?   I'd say it is more correct to state that only the Self has the full capacity to realize the Self while all other aspects are derivatives of Brahman - thus the "individual" is relinquished for such a realization to take place...  I'd also say that "God" is not separate, disconnected or "alone" from the tattva's and or Shakti although there is the simultaneous-transcendent.

Edited August 30, 2016 by 3bob

[Prasanna]

Prasanna,  You said the "individual" realizes the Self?   I'd say it is more correct to state that only the Self has the full capacity to realize the Self while all other aspects are derivatives of Brahman - thus the "individual" is relinquished for such a realization to take place...  I'd also say that "God" is not separate, disconnected or "alone" from the tattva's and or Shakti although there is the simultaneous-transcendent.

There are very many ways to Self Realization. I am talking about consciously taking to the spiritual pursuit and spiritual path for achieving Self Realization. There are very many instances where the worldly people have achieved Self realization by doing their duties in life. That is somewhat different from pitching up the ideal of Self Realization by taking to spiritual pursuit. 

[Spotless]

There are very many ways to Self Realization. I am talking about consciously taking to the spiritual pursuit and spiritual path for achieving Self Realization. There are very many instances where the worldly people have achieved Self realization by doing their duties in life. That is somewhat different from pitching up the ideal of Self Realization by taking to spiritual pursuit.

 

Their is certainly merit in the general thread of your statements - it is something to think about when one says "consciously taking to the spiritual pursuit and spiritual path for achieving Self Realization".

It suggests a "conscious" "doer" both of which in a sense are an illusion.

[3bob]

There are very many ways to Self Realization. I am talking about consciously taking to the spiritual pursuit and spiritual path for achieving Self Realization. There are very many instances where the worldly people have achieved Self realization by doing their duties in life. That is somewhat different from pitching up the ideal of Self Realization by taking to spiritual pursuit. 

 

I'd agree that there are many types of "yoga" (or ways) that help to prepare a being for Grace and Self Realization... but again the term and idea of "spiritual pursuit" is a loaded one and I think it needs further definition.  For instance many are pursuing relative heavens or hell's through various means, neither of which are the freedom of the Self.  

[Bindi]

Prasanna,  You said the "individual" realizes the Self?   I'd say it is more correct to state that only the Self has the full capacity to realize the Self while all other aspects are derivatives of Brahman - thus the "individual" is relinquished for such a realization to take place...  I'd also say that "God" is not separate, disconnected or "alone" from the tattva's and or Shakti although there is the simultaneous-transcendent.

If I see my my embodied consciousness as being refined and spiritualised and heading towards my Self, does this ultimately refined consciousness at some point exist alongside the Self, or merge with the Self, or is it extinguished leaving only the Self, or is my refined consciousness merely able to perceive the Self, or what?

Edited August 31, 2016 by Bindi

[Prasanna]

If I see my my embodied consciousness as being refined and spiritualised and heading towards my Self, does this ultimately refined consciousness at some point exist alongside the Self, or merge with the Self, or is it extinguished leaving only the Self, or is my refined consciousness merely able to perceive the Self, or what?

Actually, the same question raised to my spiritual master will get a reply that "Avoid result orientation". Nobody can define the state of Self realization since it is not an experience that can be defined, but a transcendence to a different state of consciousness beyond the normal three states of Waking, Dream and deep sleep that the individual Jeeva goes through. In Self Realization, Jeeva recognizes its unity with the Paramathma and merges one with Paramathma, leaving its identity with the material aspects of body, mind, intellect and ego fully.

Edited August 31, 2016 by Prasanna

[3bob]

Bindi, Different schools of Hinduism (and of course ways other than Hinduism) have variations of interpretation in relation to trying to address the questions you've brought up...along with the caution shared by Prasanna about being result orientated one might also wrestle with, "what is the point and reason for all the trouble in the first place", "to be or not to be", - and btw. if God is all knowing, powerful and present and also our Father then why isn't He here with us on the Earth where there is so much suffering that needs to be relieved?  Etc., etc..  Well we've all heard a thousand explanations that attempt to address such questions many of which sound like automatically given and repeated platitudes that leave us desperately hanging out in the wind...

 

I don't know much but I do know that Grace is real and that it reaches right through the troubled mind and heart to the core of Joy that has no accompanying sadness.  Faith like a tiny "mustard seed" can grow, what else is there to do, surely not to fall down and be further bound... 

Edited August 31, 2016 by 3bob

[Prasanna]

Bindi, Different schools of Hinduism (and of course ways other than Hinduism) have variations of interpretation in relation to trying to address the questions you've brought up...along with the caution shared by Prasanna about being result orientated one might also wrestle with, "what is the point and reason for all the trouble in the first place", "to be or not to be", - and btw. if God is all knowing, powerful and present and also our Father then why isn't He here with us on the Earth where there is so much suffering that needs to be relieved?  Etc., etc..  Well we've all heard a thousand explanations that attempt to address such questions many of which sound like automatically given and repeated platitudes that leave us desperately hanging out in the wind...

 

I don't know much but I do know that Grace is real and that it reaches right through the troubled mind and heart to the core of Joy that has no accompanying sadness.  Faith like a tiny "mustard seed" can grow, what else is there to do, surely not to fall down and be further bound... 

Vedanta says that we all beings are essentially the Divine God in the core of our personality. God's grace is always there. It is we humans who due to our egoism, selfishness, desires, likes and dislikes, attachments, neutralization, indiscriminate indulgence or over licentiousness, etc, fail to recognize the Constant grace of God. If not for the God, which is the very subtlest enlivening that is the source, cause and support of life and our life experiences like perceptions, actions, feelings and emotions, thinking and imaginations, can there be this beautiful creation and the experiences thereof. We lost our recognition of Divinity due to neutralization effect. The Divinity is splashed everywhere that we are not able to recognize it differently. Imagine a condition wherein you have hands, feet, brain, eyes, mouth, ears, skin, internal systems, tongue, etc. but there is no enlivening principle to support their existence and functioning, we will all be as good as being Dead or being in Coma. the fact that all these faculties and organs function meticulously for us to survive is forgotten since we use these taking them for granted. We realize their importance only when we fall ill, sick or lose one of those vital organs. Instead, we keep blindly chasing the infinite desires that the mind pitches selfishly and lose all the connection with our True Divine personality or original Divine identity within ourselves. This is the most pathetic condition of human life due to our conditioning that we are our Body, Mind, Intellect, and Ego and due to our constant involvement in the desire ridden and ego boosting Extroverted pursuits of sensuality and Materialism as an end in themselves.

[3bob]

It sounds like you dislike the veils related to the schools of hard knocks?  Does Siva dislike such veils and schools and if so why has he not destroyed them; could it be they also have a place and purpose in the divine dance?

[Orion]

It seems that everyone is walking a spiritual path, whether or not they know it. Seekers just want better definition and self-awareness of what is happening. At least that's my take.

[silent thunder]

I haven't encountered any thing, or non-thing that lacked spirit...