by Swami Satchidananda | May 7, 2020 | Society, What is freedom
“I think we don’t understand freedom. True freedom consists of doing what is best for us as individuals and what is good for the society in which we live. Today, freedom is understood as doing whatever we want. If everyone were to do that, no society could exist. Our freedom is subject to the needs of society. We talk of free press – If the press is free to say whatever it wants, it wants society to be in a mess, as it is today. But they have a responsibility to search for the facts before they present it to the public. If it was based on opinions only, then everyone will be confused as they are now. The citizens will act on that opinion that is presented as fact. We don’t need a free press like that. You can go on with many aspects of society and you will see the same thing. Gandhiji said business should be run as a trust for society. It seems foolish but it’s not. Only then will they act responsibly.
We don’t understand personal freedom at all. Vedanta says that only a person free of dependencies of all kinds is truly free. All others will act in a distorted way. Parents don’t teach this. Schools and colleges don’t teach this. Thus, the new generation comes with a distorted idea on which they live their lives. As individuals, the more and more you drop dependencies, the freer you will become. Keep this ideal as a goal and you will find both freedom and peace.”
by Swami Satchidananda | May 7, 2020 | Sapiens, What is happiness
“Permanent happiness cannot come from holding on to something that is not permanent. The fallacy is that all of us live by searching for and expecting permanent happiness from holding on to impermanent things. That is the reason why we have this huge need for security and control, living all the time in insecurity and fear that it may be lost. This does not require much intelligence. Your experience itself makes you a philosopher….
You should look back on this logic from your experience to see if this logic is faulty. Let us look at our impending death, towards which we travel on each birthday. We keep the body close to us, always hoping to live forever, but the facts tell us that the reality is we will end up either in the fire or under the ground to be eaten by insects. Yet, we ignore this reality and live hoping to forever be happy. For most of the time, this fear of life dictates the quality of our life. We also come to believe that by more control, we can extend the span of happiness. Of course, this works in an opposite direction.
Maybe you find out from your experience and reflect on our pains. Look at all relationships and all the things that made you happy – what happened when you lost them? Extending this to the universe, the moon is impermanent, so too is the sun. Astronomers see the birth and death of stars and galaxies coming to life and dying almost every day. Impermanence.
So we live in a catch twenty two situation that we call samsara. If everything and every relationship is impermanent, then permanent happiness is not possible in this life, we are doomed to live in pain with little doses of pleasure or happiness.
But here is a suggestion – while you are free to enjoy things and people, do so with the knowledge that they can go anytime. Be prepared to let them go. Holding on will only cause pain. This is slightly better than assuming that it will be permanent. This knowledge can help us to live life a little better.
From an Advaitic point of view, permanent happiness can come only by holding on to something that IS permanent. Atman / Brahman is the only permanent thing in the whole universe.”
by Swami Satchidananda | May 7, 2020 | Sapiens, Who / what are we
“In Vedanta we use the word Atma for individual consciousness, which is the real me. Think of this. We use the word ‘I’ the most number of times a day referring to oneself. Only a conscious entity can use this word in the first place. That is why we call the human birth a rare one. So what are we referring to when we say I? Core to Hindu philosophy is the phrase ‘Tat tvam asi’, or ‘thou art that’. It means that our true nature, our deepest Self, is all-encompassing; beyond space, time and causation.
In order to realize this, we have been provided with three states of consciousness – The waking, the dream and the deep sleep. In waking, we are aware of all the interactions we are having with the world outside. In dream, we have an internal world created by our own mind and are witness to it. In sleep there is no interaction of the mind and body with anything, yet we are conscious of this fact that there is nothing. The only common factor is Consciousness. So what is this that seems to be a witness of everything?
The job of consciousness is to be an illuminator. Let’s take the Sun. It illuminates but does not participate in anything. Its light helps us to Know. It has no bias, likes or dislikes. If anything comes in its path, it will illuminate that thing. This is the inherent quality of the sun’s light. Similarly, the Atman or your consciousness illuminates your knowing. Without this, the data will remain unknown. it is in you and outside of you all the time. Therefore, the mind and body, which is just a bundle of matter, becomes sentient and aware. This principle is called Atma. This is the basis of all you are and what you know. This you refer to as ‘I’ . Next time you use ‘I’, just ask yourself: What ‘I’?.
The whole journey of self discovery is to move away from the body-mind complex as ‘I’, to the Atman as ‘I’. Since Atman is without parts and has no limitation of space, time or causation, everything outside of you is also essentially the Atman or consciousness. So you envelop the whole world as ‘I’. This is Brahman or universal consciousness. The vedanta says, knowing this, all else is known. Naturally the fear of death disappears and you can claim freedom. THINK.”
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