Illusion

D: What is Maya? Illusion?

B: Seeing ice without seeing that it is water is illusion, Maya. Therefore saying things like killing the mind or anything like that also has no meaning, for after all mind also is part and parcel of the Self. 

Resting in the Self or inhering in the Self is mukti, getting rid of Maya. Maya is not a separate entity. Absence of light is called darkness, so also absence of Knowledge, Illumination etc., is called ignorance, illusion or Maya.

D: What is samadhi?

B: When the mind is in communion with the Self in darkness, it is called nidra (sleep), i.e., the involution of the mind in ignorance. 

Involution in a conscious or wakeful state is called samadhi. 

Samadhi is continuous inherence in the Self in a waking state. Nidra or sleep is also inherence in the Self but in an unconscious state. In sahaja samadhi the communion is continuous.

- CrumbsfromHisTable

Brahman

TEACHINGS OF BRAHMAJNA MA

A disciple wrote to Her that he had been passing his days in a monotonous domestic life, having neither the courage to renounce these duties nor to take them up in right earnest and forget Her teaching. To him She replied:

"See and judge for yourself what you are doing in this wilderness of samsara, finding no pleasure in it: 

Day by day the end is drawing near, what have you done to prepare for it? 

You have read the Vedas and the Shastras and have heard about the Truth,

But your mind, illusioned by maya, is not yet awake and you have forgotten your own Self.

By your own mistake you are playing the role of jiva and courting birth and death times without number.

Know for certain that you will surely die if you are born,
No one lives eternally.

So when there is yet time, be acquainted with your own Self and put an end to fear and death. 

Day is ending, give up play, and by disclosing your own nature destroy the darkness. 

There is no pleasure in desiring sense-objects; fame, position and wealth are all sapless. 

Touch the real source of happiness and thereby destroying the monotony; drink the nectar of contentment, which is your Self. 
There is an abode of Shanthi where you can have rest. 
March on and on—Now is the time.”

In reply to a devotee who sayed that the "I" is always eluding his grasp, Mother dictated the following song: 

“Ascertain who you are –
Always you are speaking of yourseIf as ’I’, ’I’, ’I’.
Are you the five elements, including the akasha, or mind, intellect, body or the vital force ? 
What is your name, what is your form and where do you reside?
Tell me whether you are desire, anger, avarice or illusion;
Give me your acquaintance - are you purusha or prakriti, who is playing on the dramatic stage of maya? 

It is yourself who is playing and creating other players, father, mother and relations. 

Always the insatiable fire of desire is burning, hope is not quenched by sprinkling on it the water of enjoyment, the fire of tritap is always ablaze.

You are pure, conscious, free and always exist; body, intellect and ego are your illusory imaginations.

You are yourself Brahman by nature – see it by opening the eye of knowledge.

Master

B: Who is the Master? You think there is the Master here. You see the body of the Master, but how does the Master conceive of himself? 

He is the Self or Atma. He sees everybody as himself. Only if there is a world apart from him could he see a world. If the Self is identified with the world then where would be the world? There has been no creation, no destruction, no preservation. 

That which is, is ever the Self, the Atma. These appear according to each one’s standpoint, according to the maturity of the mind, and as you progress further and further these doubts will not arise.

That which exists is consciousness. Consciousness and existence are not different. Existence is the same as Consciousness, pure Consciousness, Absolute Consciousness. 

You say I am conscious of the body and so on, but pure Consciousness is beyond all this. It is Absolute Consciousness. 

There is no question of transition from unconsciousness to supreme pure Consciousness. Giving up these two, self- consciousness and unconsciousness, you inhere in the natural consciousness, that is pure Consciousness.

D: It is stated that the existence of the world is false, an illusion, Maya, but we see the world day after day. How can it be false?

B: By false it is meant that the conception of the world is a superimposition on reality, as the idea of a snake is superimposed on the reality of a rope, in darkness (in ignorance). That is Maya, illusion.

- Crumbs from His Table

Self

Yogi Ananda Saraswathi

You are not pizza to satiate every tongue in your neighborhood or make everyone happy. Neither are you facebook status for everyone to like. You don’t need to lose your dignity just to be super-nice, you are then playing into market-games. Just be yourself, be humble and live your truth. It is the other fellow’s problem if he or she cannot find you acceptable. Jai Maa Kali.

Self

SELF-REALIZATION

D: Can I get knowledge of the “Self,” that is can I experience direct realization of the “Self ”?

B: Why? Who is there without a knowledge of the “Self ”? Everyone has experience of the “Self ”.

D: But I do not realize it.

B: The fact is that all the while you know the “Self ”. How can the self not know the Self. Only you, the self, have got into the habit of thinking that you are this, you are that and you are the other. It is the wrong notion that produces or constitutes viparita bhavana of the Self at present, and that is why you say you do not know the Self. What is to be done is to get rid of that wrong notion of the Self. That then clears up the Self-knowledge or Self-realization.

D: How can I get rid of that viparita bhavana? Can any ordinary man get rid of it? If so, how?

B: Yes. That is possible and is being done. There are many ways — Bhakti, Jnana, Karma, Yoga, etc., are being adopted — all for the removal of this viparita bhavana. But the main way is simple.

D: But I am ignorant of the method and of the ‘Self ’.

B: Who is ignorant of what? Ask the question and pursue the enquiry as to who it is that is said to be ignorant. Once you put the question, trying to probe into the ‘I’, the ‘I’ disappears. Then what survives is Self-knowledge or Self-realization.

- CrumbsfromHisTable

Mind

When a thought moves, simply recognize the thinker. 
The thinking then dissolves. 

No matter what the thought is about, the thinking and the thinker are empty. A thought in itself is not made of any concrete substance; it is simply an empty thought movement. By recognizing the empty essence in a thought, it vanishes like a bubble in water. 

That is how to deal with any particular present thought at hand. Once you know how to let the present thought dissolve, any subsequent thought can be dealt with in exactly the same way, as simply another present thought. 

But if we get involved in the thought, thinking of what is being thought of, and continue it, then there is no end.

It is only our thinking that propels us or forces us into further samsaric existence. As long as we get caught up in our own thinking, samsara doesn’t stop.

- Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche

Ved

क्यों कम उम्र में ही कुछ लोग छोड़ देते हैं दुनिया? विदुर नीति में है इसका उत्तर...........saffron

वेदों में वर्णित है कि मनुष्य की आयु 100 वर्षों की है. फिर भी कई लोग इस आयु सीमा के इर्द-गिर्द भी नहीं पहुँच पाते. महाभारत में इस रहस्य को जानने की उत्सुकता धृतराष्ट्र को हुई. उन्होंने अपने मन की बात विदुर को बतायी. अपनी उत्सुकता जाहिर करते हुए धृतराष्ट्र ने पूछा-

शतायुरुक्त: पुरुष: सर्ववेदेषु वै यदा।
नाप्नोत्यथ च तत् सर्वमायु: केनेह हेतुना।।

अर्थात

जब सभी वेदों में पुरुष को 100 वर्ष की आयु वाला बताया गया है तो किस कारण से कोई अपनी पूर्ण आयु नहीं जी पाता?

धृतराष्ट्र के जवाब में विदुर कहते हैं-

अतिमानोअतिवादश्च तथात्यागो नराधिप।
क्रोधश्चात्मविधित्सा च मित्रद्रोहश्च तानि षट्।।
एत एवासयस्तीक्ष्णा: कृन्तन्यायूंषि देहिनाम्।
एतानि मानवान् घ्नन्ति न मृत्युर्भद्रमस्तु ते।।

अर्थात

अत्यधिक अभिमान, अत्यधिक बोलना, त्याग की कमी, क्रोध, स्वार्थ, मित्र द्रोह ये छह चीजें किसी मनुष्य की आयु को कम करती हैं.

महाभारत काल में इस तरह विदुर ने मनुष्यों के छह दोषों को उनके आयुु के कम होने का कारण माना. ये कारण निम्नवत हैं-

अभिमान-
अपनी प्रशंसा सुनने वाले, सबसे बलवान समझने का वहम रखने वाले अभिमान का शिकार हो जाते हैं. किसी व्यक्ति में इन दोषों के आ जाने के कारण वह स्वयं को सर्वोपरि मानने लगता है. यह अभिमान ही उसकी अल्पावधि में मृत्यु का कारण बनती हैं.

वाचाल-
अत्यधिक और व्यर्थ बोलने वाले ऐसी बातें बोल जाते हैं जिसके नकारात्मक परिणाम सामने आ सकते हैं. दूसरे बुद्धिमान प्राणियों पर उनका कोई प्रमाण नहीं होता. असंयमित वाणी का नकारात्मक असर मनुष्य के जीवन पर पड़ता है.

क्रोध-
क्रोध को मनुष्य का सबसे बड़ा शत्रु माना गया है. इस अवस्था में वह भावी परिणामों को भूल जाता है जो यदा-कदा उसके पतन का कारण बनते हैं.

त्याग की कमी-
त्याग की कमी मनुष्यों की आयु को कम करती है. सामाजिक मनुष्य होने के नाते भी मनुष्य के अंदर त्याग रूपी गुण का समावेश होना चाहिये.

स्वार्थ-
पाप के मूल में स्वार्थ लोलुप प्रवृत्तियाँ हैं. ये कुत्सित प्रवृतियाँ अनीति को बढ़ावा देकर सामाजिक असमानता को चौड़ा करने का कार्य करती हैं. इस पर यथाशीघ्र नियंत्रण जीवन को संयमित करता है.

मित्र को धोखा-
शास्त्रों के अनुसार मित्रों को धोखा देने वालों को अधम मनुष्यों की श्रेणी में रखा गया है. मित्रों से छल करने वालों का पतन निश्चित माना गया है. इस अवगुण से बचकर ही उल्लासपूर्ण जीवन की कल्पना की जा सकती है.

विदुर के इस उत्तर को सुन धृतराष्ट्र की सारी जिज्ञासा शांत हो गयी. आज के जीवन में भी विदुर की कही ये बातें प्रासंगिक है.
............................................saffron...

I am

CONSERVATIONS WIT ANNAMALAI SWAMI

Q: When I keep the mind on this feeling of 'I am', must I be relaxed and quiet? Should I see what is happening, without interfering, or should I be observing, scrutinizing, comparing, etc. ? 

AS: It is enough if you can simply relax in this 'I am’. Whatever happens in this 'I am’, this consciousness, just be indifferent to it. 

You are the consciousness itself, not the thoughts and ideas that appear in it. Many things both good and bad are going on in this world. We don't bother about most of them because we think, ‘these things are happening to somebody else and not to me’. 

In the same way, be the consciousness 'I am' and be indifferent to the various things that come and go in your mind. If you identify with thoughts, judge them, compare them, worry about them, try to suppress them, or get involved with them in any way, they will cause you trouble. Instead, be utterly indifferent to them. If you don't pay them any attention, they can never adversely affect you. 

Living by the Words of Bhagavan