Vedantham : ( 07/11/2012. )

We think that life means the period spent by us between our birth and our death, and what we see and experience around during this interval is life. Supposing there hangs a picture painted on a canvas. In order to see the entire picture painted on it, we have to step back to some distance, and only then can we see the entire view, the rhythm of colours, the beauty of curves, etc. Similarly, when life is viewed in its nearer perspective, we find that it is illogical, nonrhythmic, etc. In detachment we will have to move away from our present life to view the whole Life and understand it as such. [to be cont   d].   

CAUSES AND EFFECTS:- Let us suppose that we have just 'fallen'from Truth or Reality into this momentous and calamitous  misunderstanding, then we should not have such a dissimilar scheme, of each Ego living its own life of special joy and woes. When we enquire, with the causes of great differences  among human beings, we are driven to the conclusion that, having risen from different 'causes', each one of us should manifest as a different 'effect'. Effects depend upon their causes. This life in which we are living is only one of our incarnations. We have had many incarnations in the past, and probably, many more shall come to our lot. From birth to death and from death to birth, the whirl goes on, but we do not appreciate it or understand it because we are viewing life from a very circumscribed point of view.[ to be cont---d]    

1.MISUNDERSTANDINGS:- ----------------------------------------------------- The law of karma has been often misunderstood as the law of Destiny. There is indeed a lot of difference between law of karma and law of destiny. Had our Law of Karma been equal to the Law of Destiny, the Hindu civilization would have been long ago ended like the Roman or the Egyptian civilizations. The Law of Destiny has a corroding effect upon the human heart and in short time it renders its followers to be mere ineffectual lotus-eaters. If a nation depends entirely upon the Law of Destiny to guide it,  it shall fall and become a country of narrow-minded,inactive animals. On the other hand, a people believing in the Law of Karma and who live up to it become a generation of spiritual giants and dynamic citizens. The Law of Karma is based upon the final conclusion that this life is not an end in itself but is just one of the little incidents in the Eternal Existence of each one of us. Amongst us...

VEDANTA:-5. So then, this ego, is in fact a myth, a non-entity, a dream, an insubstantial nothing, a phantom, ma mere false shadow of our own Reality. And in our own thoughtlessness, we have surrendered ourselves to the endless tyranny of this shadow of ours lurking within ourselves. "Detach yourself from this shadow. Know your Real self. Kill the tyrant within us. It will bring the real Ramarajya [The kingdom of Perfection] in our bosoms."  This is the clarion call of Vedanta. The methods of eliminating this ghost within us are the processes advocated by all religions. Every spiritual practice is an attempt at the total elimination of this shadow-nothingness within us. All Sastras serve only to teach us the unreality of the non-existent.[to be cont----d] By Swami chinmayananda.   

VEDANTA:-4. If the ego in us  is the Samsarin, if ego is the tormentor, if ego is the enemy, let us spy on him more closely and come to know who he is. Once we know our enemy, we can plan our war against him. Each of you now please ask this question to yourself: "Who is this? Or what constitutes this ego-sense in me?"Is not the 'I'-personality in each of us nothing but the memories of certain facts of life lived in the past such as, I am the son of so and so, educated, lived, loved, hated, taught, etc..? In short, I am the sum -total of all the retained memories of all vivid experiences I have had in the past. The 'I'-concept includes, also, my hopes for the future. Pursuing our enquiry further, we shall. on analysis of the memory bits and hope-flakes, discover that they have only a reality with reference either to the dead past or the unborn future. That means the ego in me has no existence in the present moment; it thrives in the burial-ground ...

VEDANTA-3. There are in us two distinct personalities : the God and the Man. The birthright of manhood is the experiences of limitations and death. In its very nature Godhood is unlimited and immortal. Our attachment to the false negatives  in us - the manhood - is the cause of all the saline tastes. Detach yourself from the manhood, you regain Godhood. This is the theory of Vedanta, and Upanisads. Jnana Yajna  is an attempt to convince ourselves that by ending the man in us we gain the God within. If there be an enemy concealed  in us, who is the cause of our imbecilities and sorrows, the sooner we unearth and destroy him the earlier we shall come to realise our aim. Who is then this enemy? Unanimously all the sastras and scriptures cry: "It is the ego". "Kill this little  'Í' TO LIVE. "END THE EGO AND END THE WOE" [to be cont---------d] by swami chinmayananda.     

It is in this sense that we consider, and our Sastras declare, that the great Saints, Incarnations and prophets are immortal. They are immortal in the sense that they understood the meaning of life and lived that meaning of life. Their physical bodies have perished yet they live! How is this possible? The explanation is this:-We are all in life acting and suffering as true as our heart is not pure and life is saline to all of us, where as when the heart is pure we feel on the sweetness of life.End all your fears, limitations,  disappointments and come to enjoy the joyous, unlimited, hopeful existence. THIS IS CALL OF THE VEDANTA, the religion of detachment. Detach yourselves from the saline and you shall come to taste the sweetness. (to be cont--------d) BY Swami chinmayananda.