Vedantham : ( 07/11/2012. )

26/01/2017. Chapter-8 : Control of the Instruments of Knowledge.23. 1. Why do desires arise? Here is a moot question before us. Why do we ask for that which is really not there, finally? Why do we ask for a satisfaction which is really not a satisfaction? How is it possible for us to get deceived so profoundly and so intensely, so miserably, from birth to death? This is a deep philosophical question, and the life spiritual is at the same time the life philosophical. 2. We are now trying to discover what it is that the yoga is finally telling us. It tells us that we have to meditate, and we have to attain communion with the Ultimate Being. It may be possible for some of us to feel a discomfiture even when these things are told to us. 3. “Why should I commune with that Ultimate Being? What is wrong with me now? What is the harm if I am just what I am now? I have a fat salary, I am a rich man, I have a huge bungalow, I am well-off. What is the use of this communion with tha...

19/01/2017. Chapter-8 : Control of the Instruments of Knowledge.22. 1. This is precisely what yoga attempts. Sublimation is the melting down of the desire into the cause from where it arises. 2. The effect is not merely driven back to the cause, but melted down to the cause, so that it is no more there except as the cause. 3. It is not there as something outside the cause or the source from where it arises. It is no longer there. 4. The ice has become water, and the ice is not there at all. It is not that we push a lump of ice into the water and allow it to maintain an individuality of its own in spite of its being immersed there. 5. In the sublimation of a desire, the individuality or the impulse of the desire is not allowed to remain outside the cause or the source from where it arises. Swami Krishnananda   To be continued ....

12/01/2017. Chapter-8 : Control of the Instruments of Knowledge.21. There are supposed to be three ways by which we try to deal with our longings or our desires. We fulfil them; whatever is asked for is given. This is the indulgent attitude. But often, for manifold reasons, we suppress the desire because we are in an atmosphere where it cannot be manifest with impunity. It is also possible to give it a substitute, which is another method that we can adopt. A good psychologist will tell us that even substitution is not a real success in the restraint of the impulses. Sublimation is supposed to be the only way. But what is sublimation? Literally, it means melting down. We melt down the desire until it becomes liquid, as it were, and it is no more the solid, hard thing that was confronting us. But what is this melting down of the desire? How can we melt it? “I want this,” says the mind, the consciousness feels, and the senses argue – and it is said that sublimation is the way. What is ...

05/01/2017. Chapter-8 : Control of the Instruments of Knowledge.20. 20.1.1 What does yoga tell us? It has many things to tell us. The process of pratyahara is, again, a graduated endeavour on our part. It may take years for us to succeed, as is the case with anything that is educative. In the beginning, as the Yoga Vasishtha sometimes tells us, we have to accept what the senses tell us, and should not oppose them abruptly. 20.1.2 There are people who rebut anything that is said to them: “I don’t agree.” This is not a healthy way of refuting an argument, because logic is not a sudden rebuttal; it is also a gradual educational process. 20.2.1 When the child cries for something undesirable, we say, “Yes, you will get it.” This is a satisfaction to the crying child, though we are not going to give it. The child may be crying for a sharp knife, and we know that we are not going to give it. But if we say “I am not going to give it to you”, it will cry still more. So what do we say? “You a...