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Additional Comments on Geeta: Sthitaprajna - Ch:2: Verses 65 to 68
Sandeep Writes:
: Considering the truths attributed to Stithpragnya:
: It seems that only the externally visible can be perceived by us.
: And only that which is perceived, is alone what can be addressed,
: by those who perceive it. So does it become the responsibility
: of the trustee of a fact to put out an exterior consistent with
: only the purest motive ? For otherwise, the purest motive may be
: shrouded, and consider it to be the most important since it is
: the purest. Yet, isn't total purity of motive, total freedom,
: the state of just being, often, not yet ours ? Then, isn't the
: above mentioned expedient, a hypocritical facade, or is it the
: preliminary step, that is, cognisance, before actually
: understanding a conflict. Or, the conflict. Am I missing
: something ? Can we look back enough to see which one solved
: things faster ? Or is the answer in simply being alert to the
: facade, if one decides on it ? Perhaps this may hint to the
: urgency of taking responsibility of perceiving one's own world.
Comments on Sandeep's Questions
Sandeep has raised some legitimate questions and the answers are
buried within! Sthitaprajna is the realized person (Brahman) sees
the world without conflicts and sorrows! For perfect persons the
world is always perfect where as the unrealized persons see the
same world full of likes, dislikes, joys and sorrows! The
"attitude" of the perceiver matters and not the objects! The
objects are just illusions of one's past memory! There is a Tamil
proverb which says "What you see and what you hear are illusions:
Truth will become clear only by negation." The perceivers' have
the responsibility to change their attitude and not the WORLD!
Conflicts are created by the illusory mind through illusory
perceptions! Good and bad are judgements coming from illusory
images! If there are no images (no mind) there will be no good,
bad, joy, grief, likes and dislikes!
Verses 55 to 72 in Chapter 2, the executive summary of Vedanta
raises questions and more questions. Vedanta only raises questions
and the answers are expected within!. Truth can be realized only
when all lies are negated! The Truth is "SELF" and everything else
is an illusion! Vedanta assures that answers are accessible
"within" through inquiry.
We have two options: The first is to live in a world of illusions
with perceived images and the second is a world of total freedom in
the purity of the world. Body, mind and intellect are the means
creating this illusory world. This life will not end until we free
ourselves from the perceptions of body, mind and intellect!
Our discussions while trying to explain Sandeep's questions only
ended with new questions. In Geeta, Arjun's enquiry started with
one question and followed by more questions on: "Who Am I?," "Where
Am I?," and "What Am I?" Geeta is a manual and not a road map. The
path to self-realization can't be shown but can be experienced.
Gita contains a variety of puzzles for different levels of maturity
and we can choose according to our capacity! But we have to solve
the puzzle and no one is going to help us!
The following excerpts from J. Krishnamurti is a beautiful summary of
Vedantic philosophy in a nutshell. There are implicit answers to
some of the points raised by Sandeep. Answers to fundamental
questions about "Truth" can be found only "within" and not "outside."
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
" 'Truth is a pathless land'. Man cannot come to it through any
organization, through any creed, through any dogma, priest or
ritual, not through any philosophic knowledge or psychological
technique. He has to find it through the mirror of relationship,
through the understanding of the contents of his own mind, through
observation and not through intellectual analysis or introspective
dissection. Man has built in himself images as a fence of security
- religious, political, personal. These manifest as symbols,
ideas, beliefs. The burden of these images dominates man's
thinking, his relationships and his daily life. These images are
the causes of our problems for they divide man from man. His
perception of life is shaped by the concepts already established in
his mind. The content of his consciousness is his entire
existence. This content is common to all humanity. The
individuality is the name, the form and superficial culture he
acquires from tradition and environment. The uniqueness of man
does not lie in the superficial but in complete freedom from the
content of his consciousness, which is common to all mankind. So
he is not an individual.
Freedom is not a reaction; freedom is not a choice. It is man's
pretence that because he has choice he is free. Freedom is pure
observation without direction, without fear of punishment and
reward. Freedom is without motive; freedom is not at the end of
the evolution of man but lies in the first step of his existence.
In observation one begins to discover the lack of freedom. Freedom
is found in the choice-less awareness of our daily existence and
activity. Thought is time. Thought is born of experience and
knowledge which are inseparable from time and the past. Time is
the psychological enemy of man. Our action is based on knowledge
and therefore time, so man is always a slave to the past. Thought
is ever-limited and so we live in constant conflict and struggle.
There is no psychological evolution.
When man becomes aware of the movement of his own thoughts he will
see the division between the thinker and thought, the observer and
the observed, the experiencer and the experience. He will discover
that this division is an illusion. Then only is there pure
observation which is insight without any shadow of the past or of
time. This timeless insight brings about a deep radical mutation
in the mind.
Total negation is the essence of the positive. When there is
negation of all those things that thought has brought about
psychologically, only then is there love, which is compassion and
intelligence." J. Krishnamurti.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
" Have a Good Day "
"Truth is a pathless land, and you cannot approach it by any path
whatsoever, by any religion, by any sect. Truth, being limitless,
unconditioned, unapproachable by any path whatsoever, cannot be
organized; nor should any organisation be formed to lead or to
coerce people along any particular path." J. Krishnamoorthy
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