Marco: Hello, Sundari.
Thanks very much! I’m glad to hear that, just like Vedanta in a sense, painful for the ego, but so worth it!
Sundari: Everything that happens does so due to the inevitable forces inherent in Maya. Isvara is unavoidable. Nothing is what it appears to be. The only protection possible is Self-knowledge and Self-reliance. There is no other way to freedom, no fine print, no place to hide. To be the Self is uncompromising. It is all or nothing.
Freedom is a razor’s edge because it requires the understanding and stripping away of all trace of the jiva’s story. There is no room for emotionality. It can seem brutal, though it is the exact opposite. It is love in its fiercest, purest form. Not many are cut out for it.
This is who we are and what we teach. The teachings are like the sun, the fire of knowledge. Fly too close and be prepared to burn. Surrender to the flames and allow them to devour all ignorance, bear the pain for through it comes freedom from all pain.
Nothing about Vedanta is easy, yet it is the eternal, lived truth; isn’t that amazing? No wonder it attracts so few people. It is so powerful and yet unglamorous and ordinary. It’s not great for narcissists and ego-maniacs to be told there is only one Self! Yet this truth burns everything in its path, making no apologies and taking no prisoners.
That’ where the “rubber meets the road.” What matters most to you? Isvara is impassive and impersonal and does not care one way or the other about our guna-fuelled misery. The jiva is the Self and beyond Isvara, but to live that as the jiva, free of the jiva, is very hard, and few get it right. If there is a school, that is it. Vedanta is the hardest “school” because it is completely uncompromising. There are no degrees to freedom. You either are or you are not. And for that, one needs a qualified teacher and qualifications, and you need to do the work, no fine print. Love does always prevail if you know what it is – standing in the truth of who you are as the Self, free of need and dependence on anything or anyone, full and always happy with whatever Isvara brings your way. You can fake this, but you are only fooling yourself.
Marco: Yes, the love-whore vasana, it’s been negated so far, to the bewilderment of my girlfriend, no doubt. I am confident, it has been well rooted out, but will stay on top of it. It’s like a dandelion, that one. ☺ Yes, the application may prove a little more difficult than the reading.
Thanks again for your wise and prompt words. The emotions got in control the night out with my brother, although I knew it was mithya, I was somewhat moved by it, and those deeply felt words like, “I am pure unconditional love. There is only one relationship, a relationless relationship with myself. I am the nature of eternal an all-pervading consciousness. I am the only source of permanent peace and joy. I am not affected by any object that appears in the field of awareness,” were not so easily available. The whole question of infidelity came up for me. My heart was racing for hours, and I dreamt of striking my brother. The Self-thought came intermittently to remind me how bizarre the whole thing was. I realized how much of a vasana fidelity is for me, due to my conditioning. Later I realized how it was relating infidelity to my personal values.
