Ramji,
I tried to share your satsang “What’s good for the goose” with one of our mutual friends but as you know, he’s a conspiritualist and got defensive. It is such a great satssang and it really solved all these modern day issues for me. not that I ever really had them, but you know what I mean. Thank you for carefully taking the time to address all the little details. I know you must be shit sick of it! Who isn’t! But it is so important to tackle the everyday gripe with a dose of Vedanta. I think you’re the only teacher who is really capable of doing so, and being a westerner, not afraid to demonstrate the jiva qualities too.
Ram: The whole vaccine is a red herring. It’s about one’s relationship to one’s self, not one’s relationship with the world. I never cease to be amazed at the power of ignorance. It really is hard-wired. It’s all a matter of qualifications. John is a wonderful guy and he knows intellectually who he is but the real dispassion that comes from Self knowledge eludes him. He stops listening when he comes on a teaching that threatens to expose a deeply-felt belief. I’m not surprised that he became defensive. He has a bit of a persecution complex. It’s a sattvic vanity. There is a deep samskara behind it that goes back to his childhood, issues with his parents. He picked up the rebel vasana. It usually starts about age two or three. The parent wants something the child doesn’t and the child says no and gets angry with the parent. John’s got it, although he doesn’t think of himself as a rebel.
Unconsciously, it’s a lack of devotion to God, although he is devoted in a limited way. He can’t understand why he is being “attacked” by the vaxxers when he is so giving, so healthy and does everything right. But the vaxxers aren’t attacking. They are just expressing views incubated in the crucible of trust and common sense. Nothing is 100% in this world. The vaccines are imperfect but they tend to prevent death and serious illness. But when you lack trust in God, you get everything backward. Although it’s not true with John it’s mostly true with anti-vaxxers; they think that vaxers are the problem when they are the problem. If everyone got the vaccine, the situation would improve. I’m not saying that vaccines will eliminate the virus completely so we can go back to pre-pandanemic “normal” or some romantic version of the past. Or that there are rare situations where a vaccine might be dangerous. Not at all.
The point, as you well know, is that knowledge of Isvara, the creative aspect of Awaeness, is knowledge of the basic principles that operate in the apparent reality, the tattvas, the foremost of which is that Isvara is omnipotent with reference to individuals. And It’s will manifests as a simple fact. The needs of the total come first. It has always been that way. It will always be that way and it is that way now. If you fight it, you will feel wronged, persecuted. But Isvara doesn’t care because Isvara is not a person who sets out to torment us. We torment ourselves when we cling to unexamined beliefs and opinions, when we refuse to look at the past and rectify it.
it’s understandable that a person who was neglected or abused by his parents should want to put as much distance between himself or herself and them, but one needs to go back and clear up the lingering uncomfortable feelings. That’s why the second karma yoga ritual is worship of one’s parents. But we can leave the whole childhood thing out of it if you take Vedanta seriously. If you have dispassion and burning desire you will listen properly you will gain the discrimination that compels you to accept Isvara’s Will.
He is such a good person and so close to freedom, yet this one qualification is missing. His mind switches off when reality presents a situation that challenges an unexamined belief. God bless him.
Love,
Ramji
