My gratitude for your presence and generous sharing of this Knowledge in Bali is beyond words. Going to this retreat was one of the most profound things I’ve ever done in my life. Vedanta crossing my path has been one of the greatest gifts from Isvara that I could imagine. Talk about being rich! I feel so rich receiving the gift of Vedanta and having the mental capacity to slowly qualify my mind over the past three years.

I wish I had the words to represent my gratitude for your teachings. I hope you can feel it from my heart. I found myself welling up with tears several times especially in our last morning session with sensations of bliss and fortune.

May your travels home be safe and with ease.

Thank you, thank you, thank you 

Pure love,
Natalie

Yes, I could feel it in Bali and I feel it now.  Love you, Natalie!

of sinners,

the broken,

the lost,

abusers and abused,

O Lord 

Rip them free

and

kiss 

the 

wounds

Billy Childish

First of all, as I know you know, the issue of “being connected” to God, or to your own Self, is, of course, a misnomer right from the start. It’s impossible to NOT be connected to our own Self. Even if you take yourself to be a jiva, an individual body/mind/ego, the logic nevertheless stands that an effect cannot exist independently of or in insolation to its cause.

We can never not be the Self because it is, according to the scriptures, without limit and boundary; it is, to borrow the title of a recent movie, Everything Everywhere All At Once. 

Whew! We’re off the hook! The freedom is actually ALREADY ATTAINED; we just never realised it.

Therefore, if a feeling of being “disconnected” arises, it must be based upon ignorance of the true nature of ourselves and Reality. Vedanta, or the yoga of Self-Knowledge, is the tool that removes this ignorance. 

As most discover, however, it’s not enough just to have a rudimentary intellectual understanding of what the teaching is pointing to. It really has to be truly and fully integrated at every level of our being.

In practical terms, “connection” means where we’re placing our mind; what we’re connecting our thoughts and attention to.

God is a tremendous respecter of free will, so we have the choice to keep our attention upon worldly things, as virtually all human beings do, and when we do this we’ll be subject to the joys and sorrows of samsara. All along, we’re connected to God, of course, but we won’t experience that sense of unity and oneness if the mind is not sufficiently upraised.

The challenge for spiritual seekers is to continually raise our minds above the immersive pull of samsara and worldly karma. We have the choice to consciously connect to God in any moment by connecting our mind TO God. Again, God won’t do that for us; We have to be the one that reaches out with our mind. Each time we do that, it represents a transcendence and transmutation of our worldly karma and an opening to divine grace. That’s basically the crux of Vedanta, too; continuously redirecting our mind from ignorance and appearance to the ultimate Truth of Sat-Chit-Ananda (Existence, Consciousness and the Bliss of being free of limitation).

The more we consciously do this; the more we connect our mind to God in thought, word and deed, the more we cultivate and strengthen our spiritual vasanas. This is one of the few things we “take with us” after the cessation of the physical form, because what we’re doing is literally shaping our subtle body; enabling it to be open to the light, to Truth, to divine Love and Knowledge.

Again, this is not a bridge that builds itself. It requires continuous practice and commitment. 

Over time, you reach a tipping point where the new neuropathways are cemented and there’s no longer any effort required. You simply, effortlessly, see with the eyes of God and behold divinity wherever you look. All that’s necessary is to keep reorienting the mind in that manner and, to do that, one must live as a yogi. The very word “yoga” literally means “to yoke”; to bind or bring together; in this case, the jiva’s small sense of self with the expansive and eternal Selfhood that is Brahman, or the Absolute Reality.

The Vedantin should, in most cases, be a yogi to begin with, unless they happen to have the dharma and temperament of a sanyasi (and, truth be told, that is exceptionally uncommon). The primary yoga prescribed is, of course, karma yoga. Karma yoga is magical in that it immediately converts all action, however tedious or mundane, into spiritual practise. 

The karma yogi sees him or herself as a devotee; as a servant of the Lord. They seek to serve the Lord with every single action, from brushing their teeth first thing in the morning to going to bed last thing at night. The body is, after all, the temple of God. Everything becomes an opportunity to serve; to give something back to the field of creation.

This karma yoga seeks to primarily neutralise the psyche’s binding likes and dislikes or attachments and aversions. While it’s natural for all beings to have preferences, when these are too deeply rooted and entrenched, it creates agitation for the mind. Such an agitated mind will not be fit for the study and contemplation of scriptural Self-Knowledge. It’ll be too busy trying to get what it wants and avoid what it doesn’t want. 

That’s the way virtually every human life is spent—and, that’s fine, but it simply doesn’t work for a seeker of liberation. The mind has to be neutralised by seeing all karma as an opportunity to serve.

Obviously, we still have a specific intention and desire in doing any action, otherwise we wouldn’t be motivated to do it. The key is that we are no longer doing it merely to get a specific result. Our intention, as a karma yogi, in doing ALL things is to get and retain a peaceful mind. That’s why we have to accept whatever results come as being legitimate and right, even if they weren’t what we intended. It’s not easy for most people to do this, but it really is essential for the spiritual enquirer. We’re no longer playing the game of life to “WIN” at it (which is to say, to get what we want). Rather, we’re playing the game in order to be free of the game. 

The karma yogi does this by following dharma in all situations and offering up their actions as service to God and then accepting the results whatever they may be. In many ways, this is simply a common sense, pragmatic way of living life in a stress-free way. When you’ve cultivated a sufficiently calm and balanced mind through this yoga, and add Vedanta to the mix, that’s when the true alchemy happens and the sense of being a limited self dissolves in the knowledge that YOU ARE THAT Eternal Light in which the entire universe arises and subsides.

In many ways, karma yoga is not separate from bhakti, or devotional, yoga. The key is living as a devotee and seeing God as the only Reality and taking refuge from the world of appearances in that fundamental and unchanging Truth. Keep the mind there, no matter what’s going on outwardly, and just watch as things miraculously take care of themselves. The right actions spontaneously unfold, connections are made, and life just sees to its own business of—life! 

Connect your mind constantly to God and you will never feel apart from God. Vedanta is, in fact, the science of meditating upon God and the nature of our non-separation from God. Whereas most of that focus is on the Nirguna, or formless, Absolute nature of God, it also heartily recommends meditation upon Saguna Brahman, or God with form.

The form you choose should be one that feels natural and comfortable to you. Once you have a chosen form of God, or one presents itself to you, as it did with me (Shiva literally showed up in a dream of mine many years ago), it’s up to you to nurture that relationship as you would any other close relationship. 

Create a little shrine in your favourite room. Every day, offer candles and incense and fruit, chant the name or names of God as a mantra, envision them surrounding and enfolding you with light, lifting all your worldly problems away and merging into you as the very innermost essence of your true, Eternal Being.

Pray without ceasing. Vent your frustrations if necessary. Listen to devotional music. 

Keep your mind fixed upon the Eternal and you will naturally open your mind to the experience of that holy, divine Light and Love which is, in final analysis, the very core of what you are.

It can never be separate or disconnected from you. The only thing that will ever make it seem that way is thought in the mind and its corresponding emotional accompaniment.

Practise the presence of God, as Joel S Goldsmith put it. Be very vigilant with your mind and time; carefully guard the gates of the senses and redirect your attention as much as you can to the Divine. Recognise the Divinity existent in all beings and all forms; even the challenging ones! Awareness of this deeper aspect of Being is the key to transmuting so many of the stresses and conundrums of earthly life.

In short, live as a yogi; keep your mind and thoughts upon God as much as you possibly can and you will, without question, experience the joy of connectedness and bliss. This is all that’s ultimately here; all that’s ultimately Real!

Om Tat Sat.

The juxtaposition of two opposites is variously silly, stupid, contradictory, amusing, foolish, ironic, humourous, absurd, unreasonable, and ludicrous.  The more you want something the more you are afraid of losing it.  If that isn’t funny, I don’t know what is.  A person loves another person for years and then inexplicably hates him or her.  If that isn’t funny, I don’t know what is. 

I received a “serious” email full of censorious outrage from an old “spiritual” friend who took umbrage at a recent satsang entitled “The Glitter of an Exotic Tradition” without actually thinking about it clearly because of a disagreement we had a few years ago.  The article cautioned people to maintain their dispassion because appearances can be deceiving.  It was occasioned by a person displaying a picture of himself prostrate on the floor in front of an Indian sanyassi juxtaposed with a request for money for a proposed ashram in a European country. 

Most of the people who read my blog are unfamiliar with the history of the Western world’s interaction with the spiritual traditions of the Orient.  On the other hand I am well-informed, in this case about the dismal track record of “export” swamis who are self-tasked with the mission of enlightening the Western mind in the last 50 years.  Keeping in mind the childlike gullibility of Western spiritual seekers in general, I feel this warning is a thoughtful heads up.  One wishes the young man well.  Whether his project succeeds or fails is obviously in God’s capable hands.   

My policy with reference to good intentions is always to trust and wait for verification.  What occasioned the satsang was the absurd juxtaposition of a Western person lying face-down in front of an Indian swami clad in orange robes and an appeal for money for said person to start an ashram.

How should an eager Western spiritual seeker view it?  Of course, we are all eager to save the world, but the fact that the world always needs saving despite the best intentions of thousands of saviors known and unknown, should make any curious person, not to mention prospective donors, long for more details.  One wishes the devotee the best but isn’t it wise to wait and see how his experiment works out?  The length of the list of fallen yogis exported from India and their exploited, disappointed followers, suggests that discretion is the better part of blind faith.      

My friend is a case in point.  For a long time—perhaps 8 years— he had nothing but praise for me, now he is a contemptuous angry troll.  Now that’s funny.

James

Sundari: I took a while to reply to these two very long emails as much of your writing seems to be more ruminations than actual questions.  I don’t know that you actually have any questions, though there are a few subtle points that come up. As usual, your writing and understanding are excellent, you know how to apply the teachings and do. There is nothing much more I can teach you beyond this. 

C: I see this mind. It is like a tool. I cannot say that I am it – it thinks, produces imagery, turns, and churns and it used to feel as if tied up in a knot. The knot is gone, ever since I understood what is and what is not – nothing is not, doesn’t exist, and what is, is no-thing – me, as being, only as I am. ‘I’ can say I about that, but the word ‘I’, its meaning, doesn’t have a name per se, ‘because’ it has no form in the final round. Satya / Mitya, the two orders of the same reality. 

Sundari: The I always refers to the Self, I Am is not a name. Any name for the Self will do as it is nameless. The two orders of reality are for teaching purposes because in truth there are no orders to a nondual reality. Mithya ‘becomes’ Satya when non-dual vision is permanent. 

C: The mind was like a string tied up and for decades I tried to untie it, cut it, and so on; until one good day both ends were pulled and the whole issue disappeared. By expression it says, what is, is and what is not is not. Perhaps a very compacted thought, abstract to many – but I know what I mean with this. 

Sundari: Self-knowledge is the ultimate Houdini. Nothing can bind the Self when Self-knowledge obtains, all the threads that tie the mind to mithya must unravel. The whole idea of ‘is and is not is’ is complicated and abstract to samsaris, but it is logical to the Self for whom the ever-changing show of mithya is but a dream appearing in you. You are right about non-existence not existing, but what do we mean by that, actually? If we look at the manifest world, we know that objects seem real but are not real because they are not always present and always changing. Only the knower of the objects, the Self, is always present and unchanging.

But the world of form clearly exists because we can experience it. Therein lies all the confusion. What to make of something that is and is not?? Because we know that the existence of objects is borrowed from Consciousness, me, the Self. We cannot in truth say nothing exists, the world does not exist. It is not possible because for something to not exist you would have to be there to prove it does not exist, which leaves you with only Existence, the knower of existence and non-existence, of is and is not.

C: Thank God – and thank jiva perhaps, for not giving up. It couldn’t give up, even if it wanted to do so. And you really helped to make clear the difference between a self-reflective mind and mind as a reflector of/for self. Purification is still in process – without making a religion out of this, stirring the horses of thought away from an ‘old’ meta-physical warfare, a kind of nihilistic sense, that still lingers. I think, relatively speaking, that this is a leftover from such a long ‘stand-off’ between jiva and ignorance. Not knowing was terrible. I couldn’t stand it. To be thrown into the world, having to go through the most painful and absurd situations, seeing the mess and being powerless about it; discouragement grew, even though this jiva has little fear, quite a double pack of juice, energy and happy, free and loving nature, unconcerned. Strange mixture of karma 🙂 

Sundari: I can totally relate, as can any true seeker who has become a finder could relate. It seems amazing when one thinks about how complex, convincing, and cruel mithya can be, how relentless and misleading ignorance is, that anyone survives it at all. When you think about it, anyone deluded by duality has mental health problems, walking the tightrope between sanity and insanity, between dharma and adharma. We are indeed blessed to have the punya karma to have found Vedanta and the means to end the madness once and for all.

C: I still think – at times – that Isvara came very late with James’ book. The existential question riddled me so much that many normal and sensible choices never were made, with the result that I ended up with nothing. No normal house, no wife, no kids – and I don’t care about that. So that is fine – I have a workaholic in me and am no longer bothered by all kinds of relations that I believed were supposed to work but didn’t. Nothing to blame or cry over.

This is harder to say about sustaining my bank account, so the idea that Isvara dishes out results and takes care of ones getting and keeping – it does, in strange ways often – for example, my car broke some weeks ago and somehow, I managed to pay for that. It is always edgy which is tiring. So, I go through loopholes just to pay the rent, feed the dog and me, etc. Not much wiggle room, but, on the other hand, I hardly have the problems many have in comparison. I need virtually nothing; just some tools to work, a car and some clothes. 

Sundari: We get the karma due to us, as tough as that may be to understand at times.  Isvara has always provided for your needs and always will. The thing is to choose a simple life, and you have that, good for you.  It is not easy to drop all the usual expectations that society places on us, even though they don’t work for most people. I think most Vedantins have had the issue of being out of step with the tribe to some degree, of bucking the system; James and I certainly did growing up. We march to the tune of a different drummer, and nothing could deter us.

C: Not making a living, a life by means of sculpture doesn’t seem fair because it is the only thing I seem to understand well; to my jiva experience, that is. All other stuff – less so…

Sundari: Who knows why things work the way they do? And what does ‘not fair’ mean? The thing to realize is that only in surrendering to Isvara does life work for us, even when we are not getting what we like or want. If we can worship our fate, amor fati is the beautiful Latin term for it, we live like God because we are God, regardless of whether the jiva gets what it wants or not. On the other hand, if we don’t take the appropriate actions and the risks associated with achieving a desire, then we are not very likely to get what we want. There is nothing wrong with desires that are not contrary to dharma. If it is your svadharma to be an artist and make a living from it, then do what it takes. I did that, I stuck with my svadharma as an artist until it paid off, but it was not easy. There was much risk involved, and financial insecurity, it goes with the territory of being an artist.

C: I take care of my words and speech because I noticed that I scare people if I don’t and help them if I remain a bit diffused. My mind translated a lot of ideas, meanings, symbolism to logic and vice versa, internally and culturally, and now has quite a good grasp of the western mind and mind in general – my mind just did that, whatever circumstance I was in physically – on the move, mostly, living or going here and there, over 25 years, like a nomad but studying, inquiring – thinking through, slow long thoughts and quick apprehensions; whatever was useful – and halted the bombardment of too much insight. 

Sundari: Cultivating sama and dama (control of mind and the sense organs, including speech) are not only important qualifications for self-inquiry, but they are also vital to a peaceful life. Egos are incredibly sensitive and need to be handled with care. Self-knowledge is the ultimate education for the mind, it expands it beyond any borders it once believed in, dropping all beliefs and making it fluid and malleable to whatever is playing out in the guna field. Subjective worldly knowledge while still important for the jiva, pales in significance to Self-knowledge.

C: What to make of all that? ‘Seems’ must be the operator here; it is fair, probably. I simply believe this because I cannot see why it has to be this way and I couldn’t simply dismiss it as a mere dislike or FyFy it out. Neither did I want to become an academic scholar. Unless as a leading error – as everything can be a leading error in maya. The oddity of not doing what I do best and doing what I do less best, is not a cool life experience. It requires action different from instinct or first impulse. But then again, to paint and build as a ‘normal’ working person is just fine, nothing wrong with that inherently. At the end of the day, I find the money issues the most irritating – fumbling at some existential feelings. Tiring.

Sundari: Everything in mithya is a leading error until Self-knowledge is firm. Then it does not matter much what the jiva does. Again, what does ‘fair’ mean? Isvara is not a pervert whimsically denying or rewarding us. Perhaps you need more faith in your ability as an artist? If you want to make your living as an artist, just do it. With karma yoga. On the other hand, there is nothing wrong with a simple life of building and painting houses. What’s the difference? James fixed and painted houses for years to support himself financially while teaching Vedanta. He did so knowing that he had the mind and the talents to go far in business or academia, as well as being a natural artist.

It was only when that kind of physical labour got to be too much that he stopped. His whole life has pretty much always been dedicated to serving Isvara in the best way possible, and he was quite willing to forego the trappings of bourgeois life to do so. Many inquirers are not prepared to sacrifice their likes and dislikes when it comes right down to it, though they want the rewards of a ‘spiritual’ or alternative life. See whatever you do as worshipping Isvara and make peace with it.

C: Which – if I don’t take care, ends up in negative tamas, because it is such a stupid issue. Tamas in itself is not a problem, neutral, useful for certain things – like you said, rajas/tamas dynamic. There the doubt lingers – a jiva, with a limited prisonlike sense of never getting it right; I aimed for a sattvic life, of which much failed, however trivial it is also. I have a very devoted jiva here and I also experienced a very draining discouragement; and stepped out of the psychology of it. 

Sundari: What does it mean to fail? I disagree that you failed at a sattvic life because life happens in the mind, not in action.  Your life circumstances may not be as sattvic as you would like, but as you know who you are, sattva is your nature by default, as well as an object known to you. You are the Self regardless of what guna is playing out for the jiva. If the jiva is in a prison of never ‘getting it right’, perhaps you need to address who it is that feels nothing is right, the one who feels its karma is unfair? Maybe you were just really tired and tamasic writing this because I know you don’t believe it.

Perhaps a recap on karma yoga would be helpful here, as it may be your only problem is a (temporary) attitude problem, not a knowledge problem. The right attitude is not a path.  It is a commitment.  Karma yoga is not a path.  It is a life committed 100% to performing action as yoga, and to loving whatever Isvara dishes out to us.  It takes skill to perform action with the right attitude, which is doing what is to be done, whether you like it or not, thus likes and dislikes, how I feel about the situation, do not come into play.

I know you know that likes and dislikes often prompt one to think thoughts or perform actions that are not conducive to peace of mind. A karma yogi negates negative/agitating thoughts and refrains from performing adharmic actions because not only is not proper for them to do so as a dedicated inquirer, but they also understand there is nothing to gain from it, and much precious peace of mind to lose. Performing actions in harmony with the natural order (dharmic actions) and avoiding actions that disturb the order (adharmic actions) is karma yoga.  Sometimes the natural order is to our liking, and sometimes, it’s not. It’s not a problem either way, for the Self.

Sameness of mind towards good or bad karma or success and failure with respect to karma/action is another definition of yoga. When karma or a result is looked upon as a success, attachment arises, and when it is looked upon as failure aversion arises. In fact, there is no such thing as success and failure. Every karma/result is in accordance with the laws of action. These laws are not made by anybody; they are made by the dharma field or Isvara, so they can never go wrong.

Action never really fails; it only produces results. There are no bad results, just results. A given expectation may be said to have failed (such as ‘why can’t I make my living from what I love doing as an artist’), but the one with the expectation has not failed. That I have failed or that the action has failed is the wrong conclusion – only the expectation is the problem.  Even when we make a mistake, make a bad judgment call, fail to take appropriate action, or break dharma, who is that made a mistake, failed to act, or broke dharma? It’s not the Self and it’s not the jiva either; it’s just ignorance.  Blame Isvara if it helps!

So, nobody fails, even if you think that you are a person. It is only a matter of wrong judgment because we are not omniscient, and we cannot have the knowledge of all the factors that shape our karma, or the results of our actions. Everything boils down to Isvara, the gunas. Self-knowledge gives us the tools to deal with every situation as it arises and to live a happy, independent, life, free of the jiva program. A life lived in this way means that every result is the right result. The more you appreciate the laws, the more you are in harmony with the things around and you can find your place in the scheme of things.

Another definition of karma yoga is an attitude of gratitude, a loving consecration of one’s actions based on the understanding that life is a great gift that requires reciprocation. Never forget gratitude, especially when you are tempted to think that life is unfair! Failure to appreciate this fact results in low self-esteem, the feeling that “I am a failure.” You are familiar with this. Of course, you would prefer to make money from doing what you love, your art. But if it does not sell, or you don’t want to do what it takes to go down that path, then do what is in front of you with gratitude.

C: I have a plan of action – so far so good – and it seems part and parcel of sadhana. Knowledge and action do go hand in hand; it’s not a real difference.

Sundari: It’s good to have a plan of action for the jiva, as long as that plan and the doer are surrendered to Isvara. Knowledge and action do go together of course, but it depends on what you are after, what you mean by knowledge, and who is taking action. No action taken by a limited entity, a doer, can produce a limitless result. The difference is that Self-knowledge is limitless, it is unlike any other knowledge, being that which is always present, free of action, and always good.

C: I am not sure what to think about life, sometimes I feel like death is a release – and at the same time, death/life; what’s the difference? Only the earthly experience, it seems. I have no clue what I am doing here, per se, so I stopped thinking about that. Or what I am doing here is Vedanta and paint, some carpentry, and keep the peace – I don’t care where I live or what I do – as long as it is simple and straightforward. 

Sundari: Who are you referring to when you say you have no clue what you are doing here? You, the Self, are not here, there, or anywhere yet there is nowhere that you are not. What is ‘here’ but an idea appearing in you, Awareness? You are not born, so how can you die? You are not here to ‘do’ Vedanta or keep the peace because you are Vedanta, and you are peace. What the jiva does is irrelevant, really, except that to have a good and satisfying life it needs to follow dharma, both personal and universal.

C: I watched some of a yogi called Sadhguru (you know him?) and he created a dhyanalinga. This is going to sound strange, I do not mean to generate import here, but a year ago, or so, I woke up and heard ‘ hello Jagatta ‘ – (I have a weird name, my father’s idea, and never felt much attachment to it), so I said ‘hello’ back and smiled – feeling like I have no name, to begin with, so it was just very funny 🙂 But the name, or word, sounded familiar, and looked it up; and Jagad means cosmos. Then, much later someone mentioned this yogi and so saw what temple he had built. I don’t understand it, and I am not a yogi in that sense – but I thought of making something like that, it inspired me to make a mini dhyanalinga, so to use the form aspect that is so present in my brain.

In fact, I will make a mini temple and follow your advice on this, more seriously than I did so far. A place of worship, consecration. It is good to be devoted and I want to restore, let’s say, that sense or rather give it a clearer direction, a place, a small cosmos. For some reason, all this hangs together by association, but I enjoy the idea and so I will slowly make a mini temple. It gives my doer something outside of doing worldly stuff – it simply likes doing anyway – simply because too much thought can also become a mental trip ending in a trap. 

Sundari: Great idea. Whatever inspires is good, especially if it helps your devotional practice. Jiva Jagad Isvara makes up the phenomenal world of experience, the dharmafield, and their common identity is you, Awareness. Anything that symbolizes this for you is good because everything refers back to the Self.

I know about Sadguru, not much apart from the fact that he offers inspirational spiritual statements, no teaching, really.  He is big in India, is very wealthy, an environmentalist currently riding a motorbike from London to India to raise awareness about soil quality. A good guy basically.

C: The self-platform and jiva-platform switches, sometimes from one moment to the next – for ‘reasons’ I don’t understand precisely, but ok, I do know what to do/not do, and the difference makes me clear that the subject/object hasn’t dissolved completely. It isn’t me nor jiva but the knowledge at work, it seems, because I can’t say that I do it, neither of the me’s 🙂

Sundari: There are not two ‘me’s’ because this is a non-dual reality. The whole point of Self-knowledge is the understanding that all is you, the Self, even the apparently real conceptual jiva, small self jiva. When you know you are the Self, but the knowledge is not firm, ignorance can still stand in the way of the appreciation of this fact. The jiva program, ignorance, can temporarily obscure Self-knowledge. So yes, ‘switching’ perspectives from Self to jiva still occurs.  But it is usually short-lived because once you know who you are you cannot forget. Though it is possible to slide back into ignorance if binding vasanas are not cleaned up and jnana yoga and karma yoga are not constant practices.

C: But ‘something is doing’; that must be Isvara then, as a reminder almost – which in some sense is me too. I tend to think about objects, qualities, but also see that they are not precisely ‘objects’. Perhaps jiva is self and without binding vasanas is am as am, clear. 

Sundari: Jiva is the Self, I Am. Can only be. There is only one ‘doer’ and that is Isvara, though Isvara is only a doer with reference to the jiva. We have been through this. Of course, doing ‘happens; by virtue of the Self, though Self is not a doer either.  Doing happens or seems to happen thanks to Maya.

C: No fine print… I thought about that some time ago and realized; if there is no fine print then this must be good, actually, for it isn’t necessary – in fact that would be impossible. Or, from another angle, the fine print, the grindyness, is not real. A bit of surplus and less trouble will make life easier, nonetheless, so … well, a thought is that it is already non-existent and only jiva had enough of the movie – but has to go through until that’s done, kind of but not really. Here then, I see no objects, there is only the subject, or non-material-ness, etc. On a clear day, it is Me, on a less clear day it is jiva – and all the combinations happen. Internal drizzle – I could recognize much from a recent satsang with Jason on this. Serious inquiry is good – to be worried not so; the worry I cancel, there fyfy works very well. 

Sundari: Good, glad you got that. How does worry help? It’s just a product of rajas and tamas, worry is the most useless emotion and a sure sign that the jiva program is operational. Keep negating it whenever it pops up. Most of the things the jiva worries about never happen anyway. The Self is NEVER worried about anything.

C: The troubling circumstances aren’t over – it will take a lot of time and effort, so that keeps me busy. Besides, who knows what Isvara has in store; inflation, another stupid war, people are still hungry, oppressed, suffer from this and that – and I have my shit. It isn’t easy to understand, accept, that Isvara is both dharma and adharma – although it is easy, it is a movie and that is easy to see. 

Sundari: Who has the shit? The mithya world will always have problems, it is the nature of ignorance, there is absolutely nothing new here. A beginningless story as old as time that only ends with Self-knowledge. Mithya is a polarity, so there must be dharma and adharma to keep the show on the road, so to speak.  The only solution is to see none of it as real and not make more problems out of the jiva’s problems.

C: There is always something to dislike, I think. It is like that – although I don’t feel much desire, except for peace of mind, clear and forever. For this I do wish to have a life less ‘material’ let’s say, less survival – I can imagine this jiva sitting on the banks of the Ganges. But I also know that any form may be and doesn’t change a damn thing; Vedanta shows, and so the river here, literally behind a dyke where I live, is my Ganges, just the same.

Sundari: Nowhere you are not, nowhere to go, it’s all good. The Ganges is just a symbol for you, the Self, and any symbol will do.

C: I believe that in a few months, maybe weeks even, my mind will clear up some more – it did so the last few weeks in ways hard to describe, for the better and in spite of the seeming harshness of empirical/psychological waking state stuff, karma’s. My jiva can hate Isvara as much as he ‘wants’; quite twisted but love anyway – and not that deep, just an oddly wired temperament 🙂 It is good to see the zero-sum and also; milk does become butter, there is a transformation of sorts – an irreversible-ness, the hook of sattva, fishing out the fish. Faith makes sense in that way. 

Sundari: Isvara does not mind being hated, it’s not a person; it’s just you the Self appearing as an apparent creator. And hate is love in a negative form anyway. Milk does become butter, true. This process cannot be reversed in mithya, it is permanent.  If you buy into the creation, you are stuck with the zero-sum nature of duality, and faith in something may help you deal with that. To understand how this reality functions, it is important to assimilate the difference between permanent change and vivarta parinama, apparent change, where Consciousness seems to appear as the material creation, the world of name and form, but never enters it. Consciousness, being non-dual and therefore incapable of change, never actually becomes the creation because if it did, its nature as Consciousness would no longer be non-dual and there would thus be no way out of duality. So, for the Self, there is no zero-sum, only the one indivisible, inseparable, whole, and complete Consciousness. And you are it.

C: On one level no guna defines experience, it never did/does, and at another, it conjures up nothing but experiences. Mostly I refrain from having an opinion – it’s endless. I thought/felt, in spite of hardship, existence cannot actually be a ‘problem’. I didn’t agree with life being ‘dukka’ – so fuck it, God or no God … So, that is some aggressive rajasic ‘demon’ inside that wants to be cleansed, free, etc., or something like that, at any rate, it aimed for sattva – thank God for the humour of this! 

Sundari: Life is one long experience, from womb to tomb, for the experiencing entity. The point is, are you the experiencing entity or the non-experiencing knower of said entity? You can’t be both. It’s ok to have opinions if you hold them lightly and with a lot of humour! Be prepared to let them go at the drop of a hat, always. The ‘demon inside’ is just beginningless ignorance, all jivas share it, and it is only a problem when you do not know what it is.  When you do and discrimination is automatic and permanent, you can enjoy the demon or its opposite, the angel, for what it has to offer, even the so-called ‘bad stuff’. It all resolves in you anyway.

C: Here I have a question, but I can’t formulate it, yet – something to do with pleasure. I don’t chase it, or not consciously, but without joy, life doesn’t work either. 

Sundari: Pleasure and pain are woven fine in mithya, neither can be avoided without consequences. There is nothing wrong with pleasure if you know you do not need to chase it. As Buddha said: treat pleasure like licking honey off a blade, with great care. The only real, permanent, and true pleasure is the perfect satisfaction of the Self.

C: Ok, life is a movie, I can tell, testify to that- but in honesty, I should say ‘almost’. Nonetheless, my eyes do not bring information or evidence that it is real. Seeing itself is not real – or any sense perception. You say something here in a way I don’t seem to understand well. Do you mean, here, non-creation? – I spent a lot of time on ‘what is (this) creation?’ and thought through/experienced ‘creative-ness’. Yet it isn’t – that I do get. 

Mithya ‘not being a place’ … that really does it, very much like the non-creation teaching. That always works and makes me happy too 🙂 Free (from personal projection).

Sundari: Creation is a non-creation; it exists because you can experience it, but it is not real as in always present and never changing. It is as good as non-existent, the placeless place.

C: The very fact that Isvara is also adharma is sometimes hard to accept – it seems to bring back jiva all too easily, I don’t know why, and I don’t allow it; it creeps up, ignorance, I mean.  Yet not that hard, strangely enough; as if I have no adharma within, just the same. Perhaps I mix up Isvara and jiva, giving me a hard time, beyond comprehension.

Sundari: Isvara and jiva are the same apart from their capacity to create, neither are real with reference to Awareness. Isvara in the role of the creator must be both dharma and adharma because if it were not there would be no dharmafield for the jiva to work out its karma. That is the nature of duality.

C: Yes, I tried to understand Mithya, ha ! … an endless go – well, I ended up ‘in’ space – one element, out of five not a bad score for a jiva 🙂 After that Vedanta came. I have had mysterious/mystical experiences, they counted for something, in terms of meaning, maybe, but yes, I see also people who love the mystics to escape the asphalt, taxes and all that worldly stuff and so believe ‘in the light’ with a notion that reasoning doesn’t work. In part, that is because good reasoning isn’t appreciated in this culture and can be difficult. I see smart people thinking that they are stupid… and vice versa. 

Sundari: Maya is a great wonder indeed! So true, most spiritual types are looking for an escape from the grinding nature of Maya, by whatever means. They tend to see reasoning, thinking,  as the antitheses of ‘getting it’, which is supposed to happen by some mysterious ‘heart opening’ induced by proscribed actions such as meditation or some such ‘spiritual’ activity. Good luck with that. For Self-knowledge to work, it needs a valid independent means, and stupid/smart people without qualifications for self-inquiry just won’t get it even if they stumble upon it.

C: No wonder jiva cannot understand itself either. Sometimes I dream and know that I dream. To say that about the waking state is much harder until it isn’t. Taking the experience of life as action, karma, and churning, from milk to butter as inevitable, I trust that I still have to purify some more, and it doesn’t seem to be a matter of knowing more. ‘More’ is not the right word … It is not about time/ kalpa. Or if, then about ending it. 

Sundari: The jiva can only ever have a relative understanding of itself without Self-knowledge. Purification of identification with the jiva program continues until it is no longer necessary because the jiva is as good as non-existent. What’s to purify if you are the Self?

C: It must be that self cannot ever be confused, but is, temporarily; seemingly. etc. the moment mithya comes along; making oneself believe it is a jiva among many – well, I’ve been working hard, and am a bit tired. I better finish these thoughts later on.

Sundari: The Self under the spell of ignorance can seemingly be confused if the jiva program is operational. But of course, the Self never is confused and never really under the spell of ignorance. It’s all a big con!

C: It’s like one foot is out of samsara, finally, with the knowledge that it, I, was never in samsara in the first place. The other foot still drags in samsara – no longer stuck, but neither out. I don’t know how to earn grace, but I feel it anyway. 

Thank you Sundari, a million times – it isn’t easy, but it is great. 

Sundari: You can’t earn grace unless you think you are a jiva doing actions. You are grace. Though inquiry can be tough until both feet are planted firmly on the Self and samsara is over for you, what else is there to do that is truly worthwhile?  You are on your way, and you are the journey and the destination. Keep going, you are doing great, and you are most welcome.

Much love

Sundari

James: I’m glad you’re still with us, sweetheart.  Pat yourself on the back for sticking with Vedanta.  I’m guessing that you were late to work and in a hurry.  Most yoga people are very rajasic and don’t manage time very well.  The tend to run late because they are trying to cram one more thing into their schedule before the next event.  “Time is money,” they think.  I hope you learned that you should enjoy yourself on life’s  journey.  Take your time.  The drive to work is as much the Self as working.  Anyway Isvara saved you and the dog so that is excellent.    

But even if you didn’t learn that the way you get to where you are going is as important as getting there, you learned the most important lesson, gratitude!  It makes me really happy to hear this story. It make me happy that you are a true devotee.  That is all I want for everyone. 

Much love,

Ramji

Thank you so much for the great satsangs and all your generosity and being such a supportive amazing guide in my life.  I truly am happy, content and care-free! I owe it all to you (and that means Me and Isvara too) 

Thank you so much for the great satsangs, welcoming me into your life, all your generosity and being such a supportive amazing guide in my life.  I truly am happy, content and care-free! I owe it all to you (and that means Me and Isvara too) 

I know it may sometimes seem I’m over-confident, cocky or egotistical but I hope not!  But if it does, it’s only because I really am so happy and elated to know you and be in your presence and I am so confident in knowing who I am! I have such an amazing life.

Ram:  It doesn’t.  Others may misunderstand because you are young but this knowledge/experience, which has been going on for several years is just the certainty of well-assimilated Self knowledge.  Your incredible devotion lights up my life.  Thank you for sharing with me  I will share it with the world because people should know that freedom and non-dual love are possible.   I’d say pat yourself on the back but there isn’t any back or front, up or down, this way or that way for you.  You are always in my presence because we are one. 

I continuously count my blessings and offer gratitude for this supreme existence, exceptional circumstances and bounty. I often wonder how long it can really continue in being so damn wonderful, but then I read Krishna’s words over and over again “Surrender to me alone with your whole heart. By my grace you will gain absolute peace, the eternal abode.” “Being one whose mind is offered to me, one whose devotion is to me, one whose worship is to me; do salutations to me. You will reach me alone. I truly promise you. (Because) you are dear to me.”

Ram:  It can’t continue because it was never born.  It is just you.  As the Bhakti Sutras say, “Non-dual love grows and grows.”  Of course it doesn’t grow but it does!  It is endless.  Only you, who were qualified and properly taught would understand. 

And worry I do not. I face the daily karma, sometimes a grind, with the words of the scripture as the rudder of my ship. I can take it or leave it. It’s all a zero sum.  Thank God it’s a dream!! I sometimes feel like I’m the only one for miles who is enjoying such marvelous thoughts and basking in true freedom, and it’s true to some degree but then again there’s just the one principal operating at any moment, so it doesn’t matter that I can’t share a knowing laugh or joke with myself in another body! But I still do.  I love my family and friends and everyone I meet equally.   

I love you man.

Thanks to you and Sundari for leading the light into the darkness. Thanks for being such great friends and caretakers. I like being me, thanks to you, I’ll continue to like being me for eternity.

Your friend, student, self

It’s important to realise, however, that such turbulent times present not just challenge, but also opportunity. While we ultimately have little control over outer events, we do have control over how we choose to respond to them. For it’s not our circumstances that make or break our lives, but the way we choose to view and respond to them. 

Whereas, on the one hand, we might allow life to beat us down and become bitter, disconnected and delusional, if we’re wise, we will take life’s inevitably difficulties and use them as an opportunity to turn inward, to strengthen our foundations, develop endurance and align with our highest values. In short, instead of complaining we can focus our energy on becoming a purer and more authentic expression of who we truly are.

This articles offers 7 Vedantic tips for making the best of challenging times, using them as a springboard for enlightenment and navigating life with greater ease and grace. While it’s probably nothing you don’t already know, sometimes a gentle reminder is useful, and it’s my hope you find these tips of help and inspiration.

1. Respond Out of Love, Not Fear

It pays to be honest about how you respond in times of stress. Do you habitually turn crises into catastrophes? Or are you able to practice the Vedic art of tapas, which means transmuting difficulty and hardship into a capacity for endurance, dispassion and physical, mental and emotional flexibility?

I write this in early February 2021, when much of the world remains in lockdown and reeling from a year of devastating pandemic. A great many people have reacted out of fear and despair. They’ve closed down and become depressed, anxious and angry shells of who they were. I know people who have fallen down the rabbit hole of conspiracy theories, which are essentially fear-based attempts at restoring a sense of control and certainty in the face of seeming chaos and uncertainty.

When people begin creating their own narratives of reality, they become increasingly divorced from actual reality. They get lost in pratibhasika satyam, the subjective reality created in their minds out of thoughts and interpretations, losing touch with vyavaharika satyam, the objective reality of empirical facts. If we lose the capacity to discriminate, we can no longer tell truth from falsehood and right from wrong, and our lives are as good as destroyed. 

Fear and anger incapacitate the mind, robbing us of our ability to think clearly, and this leads to psychological and spiritual disintegration. We become prone to committing adharmic actions, and we must then suffer the inevitable consequences. Karma doesn’t care what our self-proclaimed motive was. It works on the basis of action rather than intention, which is a good thing too, because the mind is capable of warping reality and finding justification for all manner of harmful acts. We find ourselves on what the Gita calls the lower path, whereby our entire psyche becomes warped and negatively conditioned by harmful emotions, poor judgement and bad karma.

We don’t have to react out of fear and anger, however. We have a choice. We can choose to respond out of love. Love elevates us to the higher path, conditioning the mind to what the Gita calls the “divine disposition”. Whereas fear is constrictive, love is expansive. Fear seeks to grasp and control, whereas love seeks to give; to expand and encompass, to understand and to heal. 

People with a higher proportion of sattva guna find it much easier to see things with clarity and to respond accordingly. They’re less likely to be driven by rajasic and tamasictendencies and are generally more dispassionate yet loving by nature. They understand that actions have consequences and they have a high value for dharma and discrimination. This is the state of mind we should seek to cultivate, as it allows for a much truer and less distorted reflection of our nature as pure Consciousness.

The choice is ours. Most people react blindly out of their conditioning, coloured by the distorting qualities of rajas and tamas. They don’t stop to question their state of mind and their ability to exercise healthy discrimination. They’re driven emotionally rather than intellectually, which leads to impulsive behaviour with sometimes dire consequences.

Certainly, we all have blind spots because the human mind can only ever have limited knowledge and capacity. However, it’s imperative that we choose how best to respond to life, and that we commit to acting out of love and knowledge rather than fear and anger. That choice is always ours to make, and, in times of challenge, it’s especially important that we behave consciously and judiciously rather than out of blind reactivity.

2. Accept and Adapt

One of the things distinguishing wise people from the not so wise is that wise people know what is within the scope of their power and what isn’t. They’re then able to use their power to change what they’re capable of changing and accept what they cannot.

As little children, we learn to rail against the things we don’t like or want. If something isn’t to our liking, we’re liable to shout and scream in the hope our parents will remove it, change or, and give us what we do want. The problem is that many people continue reacting to life in such a manner well into adulthood. When things don’t go our way, we get upset and vent our frustration and rage, as though we’re expecting life to take heed and duly conform to our likes and dislikes. 

Of course, life doesn’t work like that. Our little desires and aversions are rarely, if ever, factored into the equation. Things are as they are, whether we like it or not. We all face choice-less situations everyday; things don’t always go our way, and we’re frequently landed with results we don’t want. That’s an unavoidable part of life in duality and cannot be changed. Reacting by throwing childlike tantrums is generally the worst way to affect change in the world and only causes more suffering for ourselves and those unfortunate enough to be around us.

That’s why it’s vital that we cultivate a dispassionate, stoic state of mind. Life will inevitably bring problematic situations our way, but if we learn to increase our psychological resilience and flexibility, we’re less likely to snap when it happens. The Tao Te Ching uses the metaphor of being like trees. Trees know how to bend in the wind. If trees didn’t have the ability to be flexible and yielding, the wind would snap them into bits. Similarly, we have to learn to bend with life; to know when to yield and to respond with as much ease and grace as possible. A regular practice of karma yoga will help with this immensely, as we’ll explore below.

Adaptability is a prime quality that we can all cultivate. It’s one that makes life much easier, relieving a great burden of unnecessary stress and suffering. When faced with situations that we have no immediate power to change, we have no option but to accept them. During the coronavirus pandemic, we’ve all been affected by a situation over which we have no direct control. The only sane response is to accept this for what it is and to adapt accordingly: to look for any possible upsides and find opportunities to do something positive and constructive as we face weeks and months of lockdown. 

That is the true alchemy of living: the ability to take difficult circumstances and make something good out of them; to transform the lead of worldly disadvantage into the gold of spiritual and psychological growth and advancement.

3. Use Your Time Wisely

The following words, by the Buddhist sage Dogen, are of relevance to every one of us: 

“Life and death are of supreme importance. Time swiftly passes by and opportunity is lost. Each of us should strive to awaken. Awaken! Take heed, and do not squander your life.”

If nothing else, the coronavirus pandemic ought to have demonstrated just how fragile life can be. No matter how healthy you are and how prosperous your circumstances, the one certainty of life is its finitude. Death inevitably comes to us all—only none of us know when. That’s why each and every moment must be cherished as important; as a gift and precious opportunity for us to fulfil our highest dharma and to actualise our life’s purpose.

It’s important to be very clear about our values in life, because our values inform our priorities and our priorities, in turn, determine our actions. Lack of clarity with regard to our values can leave us meandering down dead-end paths and wasting our finite days chasing improper goals and pursuits that likely aren’t aligned with our true dharma. This is always disastrous. As Krishna says in the Gita, it is better to do an imperfect job of following our own dharma than a perfect job following someone else’s. Try though we might, we can never find fulfilment by pursuing things that aren’t appropriate for us, which is why we must always remain true to ourselves.

A genuine seeker of enlightenment will never find satisfaction chasing worldly things alone, whether it be security, wealth or pleasure. Instead, you must commit to using your time wisely and never take a second of it for granted. 

If enlightenment is your true objective, you must ensure that your mind and body are an appropriately pure and fertile ground for the seeds to Self-knowledge to take root, grow and blossom. Vedanta calls for a significant investment of time, whereby you expose your mind to the teaching day after day, working through any doubts that arise, and committing yourself to the actualisation and integration of the Knowledge until you find your sense of identity duly transformed by it. This requires not only a consuming desire for freedom, but the capacity to devote yourself to this higher Knowledge and to keep your mind on course and free from distractions.

Whatever you do, don’t allow yourself to come to the end of your days only to find you barely made an effort toward your highest goal; that instead of pursuing liberation with relentless resolve, you watched too much television, read distracting nonsense online and spending your time in any number of other vain and useless pursuits. 

Life is short and time is precious. Never squander it and never assume you’ll have enough time “later in life” to work on your enlightenment. The only time in life guaranteed to you is the present moment, and that must be seized and used wisely. By all means, take as much time as you need to stop and smell roses. Enjoy and appreciate all the beauty and wonder of life. But make this moment matter and use it to pursue your highest goal as if your life depended upon it—because it does.

4. Less Media, More Sadhana

An old quote, usually attributed to Mark Twain, muses that if you don’t follow the news “you are uninformed” and if you do “you are misinformed.” The problem with media, then, is not a new one. Alas, it is a problem that has only exacerbated over time. In times past, people maybe had access to newspapers and to radio and television news at certain times of the day. Nowadays, however, news is on tap 24/7 courtesy of devices we carry around in our pockets.

While our age of connectivity and on-tap information has many upsides, it also comes with some significant downsides. Experts warn that the constant stimulus is far from good for the brain, particularly in the age of the “attention economy”, with software and hardware developers deliberately designing devices and apps to be as addictive as possible. I wrote an article on the subject a few years back. We’re now in a position where, across the world, people are suffering from digital addiction on a scale never before seen in human history. It’s well documented that mental health problems such as anxiety and depression have skyrocketed in the past decade or so, when social media has taken the world by storm and considerably transformed our lives, not to mention the way we relate to ourselves and others.

I believe that everyone should be aware of the cost we pay for constantly being online and endlessly checking social media and news feeds. While some of the stimulus is sure to be beneficial if we properly curate our feeds, it’s essential to factor as much downtime into our day. You really have to ask yourself: what is more beneficial to me; an hour of scrolling through my phone, or an hour of meditation and spiritual study? This all comes down to knowing our highest values, and being willing to alter our priorities and actions accordingly. And, again, it relates to the knowing that since our time on Earth is finite, we must use it wisely rather than squander it.

The mind is, by nature, formless and amorphous. It takes shape according to the stimulus we feed into it. This, in turn, conditions the mind and either strengthens or weakens the vasanas ( tendencies of the unconscious) depending on how we use it. By our every action, our every thought and word, not to mention all the stimulus we input into the mind, we are literally shaping our future karma and moulding the very structure of our mind. If we’re doing little but feeding negativity into the mind—whether in the form of endlessly negative news reports, echo chamber political discussions and violent, sensationalist films and television—we’re doing ourselves a great disservice by creating papa (negative) karma. After all, we have to then live with that mind for the rest of our life, and, indeed, future lives if you subscribe to the reincarnation theory.

It’s much wiser to restrict and carefully filter what we expose our minds to. A far better use of our time is to engage in sadhana; our spiritual practice. Vedanta teachers don’t generally talk a lot about sadhana, because in Vedanta it’s presumed that the student already has a mind a pure and tranquil as a mountain lake! Only such a mind is capable of reflecting the light of Truth. 

So, if your mind is more of a choppy, muddy puddle than a clear mountain lake, it’s imperative to do your sadhana in order to tame the mind and let the ripples of discontent and desire settle. Instead of compulsively consuming media, whether social media, news websites or television, why not make a commitment to meditate more, learn to chant and take advantage of the tremendous power of mantra, or perhaps pray and develop your devotional muscle, as we’ll explore below. The senses are open doors—so be sure to guard them, be ever discriminating and only let in those things that strengthen, purify and heal your mind. In a tumultuous media-addicted world such as ours, you’ll be surprised at how much of a challenge that is! It is, however, a commitment well worth undertaking.

5. Follow Dharma Impeccably

One of the most important things a person can ever have is a firm understanding of and commitment to following dharma. 

What is dharma? Dharma is the hidden law underlying the entire creation; the natural right order inherent in all things. In the dance of creation, all things naturally follow their nature: the stars shine, planets spin, rivers flow, clouds offer rain, and oxygen sustains living beings, which then return carbon dioxide to nourish the trees and flowers. You can see this underlying pattern of Intelligence governing everything from the vastest of things to the most microscopic of subatomic forms. Everything in creation has its own inbuilt right order and human beings are no exception.

There are three basic types of dharma. Universal dharma means those eternal values that are shared by all living beings. The primary universal dharma is non-injury, for no living being wants to be hurt. Even tiny bacteria cells will do their best to escape anything that might threaten their survival. Life loves life, and all things want to survive and thrive. Because we don’t want anyone to harm, injure or endanger us, we, in turn, should adopt this value and make sure that we don’t harm others, whether physically, mentally or emotionally. A host of other universal values spring from this, including honesty (after all, nobody wants to be deceived), cleanliness, kindness, straightforwardness, and many others. The more we live by these values, the more we are appreciated by others and, generally, the more we make this world a better place by virtue of our being in it.

There is a situational component to dharma as well. Different situations often call for different values and actions. Whereas non-injury is the highest of all values, there may be times where we must, for a greater good, inflict injury, as in the case of a surgeon who must cut into a patient in order to save their life. Different things are expected of us at different times, for we all have a number of roles to play in life, such as parent, child, sibling, teacher, student, employer or employee. Each situation brings with it a specific code of conduct that must be adhered to in order to ensure smooth and successful transactions.

Finally, we each have a personal dharma based upon our innate God-given personality, psychological make-up, constitution and our natural interests and proclivities. As Shakespeare famously wrote, above all else, we must always be true to ourselves. The notion that we can all be, have and do whatever we want is a damaging lie. We were each made to be a certain way, and it is imperative that we be true to our nature and honour ourselves by playing the role that we were born to play. Each of us has a unique contribution to make to the world, and the way to find it is to honour our nature and allow that to guide us. Artists must paint or sculpt, builders must build, leaders must lead, doctors heal, thinkers must think and soldiers must be willing to fight for a noble cause.

We live in confusing times; times devoid of spiritual knowledge, with rampant individualism leading us to widespread narcissism and breakdown of dharma. Contrary to what we’re told, life isn’t about getting what we want, it’s about giving all that we can. In a desire-based culture, where personal want is weaponised by consumer forces, it’s all too easy to lose sight of that and to fall into the trap of perpetually seeking rather than seeking to give. That’s why, in order to hold true to dharma, it’s vital that we develop our powers of discrimination and discernment and not be pulled off track by adharmic mores masquerading as socially ingrained truths. In short, keep life simple, stick to the basics and always follow dharma impeccably.

6. Be a Karma Yogi

The only way to live a sane life in times such as these is to live as a karma yogi. The Bhagavad Gita explores karma yoga extensively in its early chapters and is essential reading for all spiritual seekers. The first step is to have a clear understanding of dharma, so your actions are determined not by what you want and desire, but by what is right in any given situation. Action is unavoidable in life; our days consisting of a succession of actions right from the moment we get up and clean our teeth to the moment we climb into bed at night. Dharma takes the burden out of doership because we no longer act solely to gratify our likes and dislikes. Rather, we do what is right in any given situation, and serve the creation out of gratitude for all we have been given in life.

Karma yoga helps neutralise our binding desires and aversion because everything that we do, we do not to achieve a specific end, but as service to God. We can sanctify all our actions, however mundane, by offering them as a gift to the divine Intelligence that created and sustained the universe, and to which we, as jivas, owe everything that we have and are. 

Karma yoga converts our entire life to a field of service, and this purifies the mind like nothing else. We no longer exist solely to scratch the itch of our wants, desires and addictions, but to contribute back to life out of love, gratitude and the desire to serve.

One of the things that most disturbs the human mind is uncertainty over the results of our actions. Because we live in a dualistic, transactional reality—with countless unseen factors at work in any given situation—there’s never any certainty that we will get what we want. In fact, it’s often likely that we may not get what we want, and at times we get precisely what we don’t want. Karma yoga removes this burden because we come to accept all the results of our actions as coming from Isvara, from God, and whether we view them as ‘good’ or ‘bad’, we nevertheless accept them as proper. When you cultivate the ability to accept both the desired and the undesired in life by seeing everything as God, your mind matures and becomes dispassionate, steady and flexible. Only with such a mind will your pursuit of enlightenment bear any fruit, because liberation is liberation from the tyranny of our thoughts, projections, compulsions and emotional reactivity.

In life, a lot of people fall apart when the going gets tough. Those lacking the psychological and emotional resilience to cope with stress and uncertainty tend to adopt unhealthy coping mechanisms. As Krishna states in the Gita, the mind can be our best friend or our greatest enemy. It therefore behooves us to make a friend of our mind, and we do this by cultivating mental evenness, steadiness and flexibility, and by neutralising the binding desires and aversions that otherwise cause so much unrest.

Karma yoga is the ideal practice for taming the mind. First, we allow all our actions and decisions to be determined by dharma. We do what is right and appropriate in every situation according to universal and situational values and by acting according to our own innermost nature. We then perform all action as a service to Isvara and accept whatever results come as being from God, and thus legitimate and proper, regardless of whether they conform to our wishes. 

Please note, the latter is not an attitude of defeatism. If you don’t get the results you intended, that doesn’t mean that you give up. Depending on the dharma of the situation, you may need to continue doing what you’re doing until you get the result you seek. But you do so with a mindset of nonresistance and acceptance. You don’t let yourself be pulled into attachment and emotional reactivity; you simply accept the reality of the situation and keep doing what you must. This inner nonresistance to life brings us into alignment with Isvara—which is to say, into alignment with what is.

7. Be a Devotee

A while back a friend asked me what devotion means. Devotion lies at the heart of all our lives; as that to which we devote our time, energy and efforts of pursuit. Everything that we do in life hinges upon what, in our heart of hearts, we’re truly devoted to. 

Given that we’re born and raised in a hyper-consumer capitalist society, many people grow up predominantly devoted to material ends and all that might entail. They may be devoted to the accumulation of money and possessions, the attainment of power and status, acclaim or esteem in the eyes of others, personal pleasure and enjoyment, or the sense of being a good and worthy person. The object of a person’s devotion varies according to the underlying factors motivating it. But ultimately, everyone does what they do for one reason only—to feel good, which is to say, to feel God. We all want to feel whole and complete and happy. That’s the hidden wish behind every single desire we have and every action we undertake.

Vedanta cuts to the heart of the matter. There’s nothing actually wrong with seeking worldly success, pleasure and virtue. In fact, those are all legitimate endeavours according the Vedic teaching. What is wrong is seeking lasting happiness and fulfilment in the world of finite forms. When we tie our happiness to limited, time-bound forms over which we ultimately have little control, it’s a most precarious happiness indeed—a happiness forever beset by anxiety because we know it will eventually end and lead us to misery. 

Vedanta teaches that what we’re ultimately seeking is a more Infinite happiness and fulfilment, and the Infinite can never be found in the world of the finite. The scriptures make it clear that what we’re really seeking is ourselves—and, fortunately, that’s the one thing that is always present and can never be lost.

The attainment of objects doesn’t in itself bring us happiness, although it might seem that way. What it does is remove the subtle pain of desire and enable us to experience the bliss of our own nature in a calm, steady mind unruffled by the agitation of desire-waves. Our very nature, the sages declare, is sat chit ananda—existence, consciousness and bliss. Why seek this indirectly through the world of objects—which, being a duality in which happiness is forever offset by sorrow, and gain by loss—when we can find it directly by turning our mind inward and merging it in its very source: the pure Existence/Consciousness/Awareness underlying and illumining our every thought, emotion, experience and sensation. This is the “direct path” and ultimately the only way to find a joy, wholeness and contentment that is never eclipsed by lack and limitation.

We ‘attain’ this liberation by keeping the mind fixed upon the beginningless, endless and ever untarnished Consciousness/Awareness that we truly are. We devote ourselves to Truth and Self-knowledge, which is symbolised as light; the only thing capable of vanquishing the darkness of self-ignorance, the source of our bondage. 

As already noted, this requires a pure and disciplined mind. It’s not easy keeping the mind fixed upon what might seem intangible and abstract. Consciousness is subtler than the mind and, being so, cannot be grasped by the mind or objectified in any way. It takes a subtle and refined mind to effectively and consistently contemplate the Self. 

That’s why Vedanta urges us to cultivate the mindset of a devotee. In this day and age, when religious devotees are widely viewed as simpletons and even many spiritual seekers are quasi-atheistic, it can be hard for people to embrace the devotional mindset. We live in a culture where most people’s primary devotion is to the ego and its desires and aversions rather than a God figure. But Vedanta urges us to purify the mind and weaken the bonds of ego by embracing a symbol or symbols of the Self in the form of Gods or Goddesses. 

By adopting an Ishta devata, or personal deity—a form of God that appeals to us—we create a powerful symbol by which we can focus the mind on our own highest nature and the ultimate Reality that is the Self. This has a powerfully purifying and nourishing effect on the mind and heart. Whether we practise this devotion through daily rituals of worship (puja), the recitation of mantra and prayer or visualisation, we begin cultivating a blazing love and appreciation in our hearts for the ultimate Reality that is the One, Eternal Self. Instead of deriving our emotional support from the external world (a precarious proposition given how finite and unstable all objects ultimately are), we begin experiencing it from within through realisation of our innate oneness with the Divine.

So, when the world around you seems unsettled and uncertain, take the opportunity to turn within and fortify your own spiritual power. While, ultimately, we are pure Consciousness and beyond even Gods and Goddesses, the jiva, the apparent person, must still inhabit the world of duality. That’s why becoming a devotee of God is a tremendously healing and strengthening way to cope with life and to free yourself from the tyranny of the ego and its ingrained likes and dislikes. You learn to derive your joy and fulfilment from within, and the more you are able to purify and train the mind to stay focused on the form/s of God (Saguna Brahman) the easier it becomes to realise your essential oneness with the ultimate formless Self pervading and appearing as all forms (Nirguna Brahman).

In conclusion, these seven steps are ways to practice the true alchemy of life. You do this by embracing times of challenge as opportunities to turn within, to clarify your highest values and commit to using your time wisely and well. By always being clear as to your highest goal in life, you’ll find yourself willing to do whatever it takes to actualise that goal. You’ll find yourself making leaps and bounds in terms of spiritual growth and the attainment of liberation becomes not some distant fancy, but an actualised, living reality.

The body is getting older.  Because of your teaching–revealing Vedanta‑‑I know I’m not this.  Because of work I got tired for a while listening to Vedanta and took a break.  Man, I have begun again to listen to you expound Vedanta and I really begin to understand more and more. 

I’m new to Vedanta.  So listening is of paramount importance.  Forget about trying to become a teacher.  Most people want to become teachers right away.  This is due to the feeling of getting self-importance.  Maybe this will happen in a future life?

James:  People want to be teachers for two reasons, one selfish and one altruistic.  There is virtually nothing more uncomfortable than ignorance.  It makes you feel small and inadequate.  When Vedanta says you are limitless you feel great and you see people who don’t know it and you want to share this knowledge, which is good.  On the other hand if you actually knew what it meant to be the Self you wouldn’t feel the need to teach.  So you set out to remove your sense of inadequacy and desire for recognition by teaching because people respect knowledge.  And you get attached to being a teacher because it makes you feel valuable.

But this is the exact opposite of the teaching’s intention.  You are valuable, the only valuable thing there is.  But not because you know something and teach it.  You are valuable because you are.  Period.  When you understand that the Self is just your “I am,” existence shining as consciousness, you go silent.  The words stop because you are too full to speak.  If they come, they come because someone else wants to know something.  And a real teacher knows that Isvara is the teacher so there is no pride in it.  He or she just conveys Isvara’s knowledge in such a way that it is understandable.     

Jose:  I spend my days offering gratitude and doing acts of kindness by feeding the homeless when I can–karma yoga. There are lots of homeless everywhere now.  Karma yoga all day long makes meditation way easier.

James:  Yes, indeed.  That’s why Krishna doesn’t teach Arjuna meditation until he has understood karma yoga.  And yes, karma yoga all day long.

Jose:  I speak to others about Vedanta and because I’m a Christian I understand the religion from the stand point of Vedanta.  So in this culture we must use the religion that is available and point to Iswara, who lives in the heart of all beings by using both.  

James:  Yes, let people worship according to their, just point them to the heart using their own words. 

Jose:  What I bought from the website is timeless and my teacher is timeless too.  Along with daily meditation, before going to work, I listen 1/2 hour a day.  

James:  That’s perfect.  That’s all that is required to get you in the right frame of mind to do karma yoga all day. 

Jose:  I’m a little afraid of retiring right now due the economic decline world decline.  But the body is getting older and because of arthritis I may have to.  I have it in the right left hip and the right knee. God, Bhagavan will show me what to do.  So there is some fear, of course.  But God will provide no matter what.  If we love God with all our heart, mind, and might, Bhakti aspect of Karma yoga, everything will be added to you.  This is the Christian way of saying what Lord Krishna states in the Gita.  It may happen that due to a market crash, the whole USA retirement system may perish?   

James:  Yes, indeed.  Bhagavan is merciful indeed.  God always has our backs.  Krishna says, “A little karma yoga removes a lot of anxiety.” Don’t worry about the retirement system.  I have it on good authority from Bhagavan that it will not crash. Even the heartless Republicans have given up their attacks on Social Security.  Most of their voters are very attached to it, particularly now that there are more working class Republicans. 

I love you, man!  You are the most honest, humble man I know.

Ramji/James

I am so grateful for your teaching and Vedanta. It really starts working. I am much more sattvic, and all addictions started to relax and fade away – it’s just not so important anymore to smoke weed or have sex. I don’t care about being a yogic social outlaw, if my job is good or bad. I don’t care if I have a place to stay or if there is a better place, and on and on.

Isvara takes all the weight of my shoulders. I do my best, offer everything and try to give back, make a difference. It’s really crazy, I cannot describe it. I meditate again and train my body to handle Isvara’s stuff which he has loaned me for a time. I instantly recognize when the selfish power comes up. It is always when I am unhappy because I fall back into grabbing and forget to offer my actions, thoughts and feelings to Isvara.

I can clearly see that my natural discrimination power was right at Ganga Mira’s place. Most of the people had self-esteem and were locked onto the no-mind teaching. If the intellect gets a true knowledge it is satisfied and doesn’t ask anymore and this one question is gone forever. The mind cries, “Oh, Father, why have you left me?” Mind is just feelings bossing the intellect around, but it should be the intellect bossing the feelings, right? If good thoughts, good feelings, not bad feelings, bad thoughts, just karma swirling around in the subtle body somehow, making a mess there.

Ganga Mira says, “Don’t listen.” WTF? What an ignorant teaching. First of all, how did that mind become such a tyrant? Maybe one should teach that tyrant something about happiness. Isn’t this mind like a child? When he has a short break I tell him, “I know you want to be happy. I HEAR YOU. Let’s see what’s going wrong here.” The mind will be quiet and listen and will relax a bit. Those people don’t know anything but they think they are very cool. I was like them once.

My body is hurting, life is hard, job is ugly, I work for handicapped people and its pretty psychy – but – I am happy. I am already free and can do whatever I want, and I can also be happy with a job I don’t like, serving Isvara the best I can. And there is also no fear to quit and move on. Isvara will tell me when the time comes.

I quit my job two months ago, and started a new one, no money and risky, but I didn’t care at all and for the first time in my life I have no fear to just quit again; it’s crazy. If I want a job I love, I have to show Isvara with my actions that I am ready, and He will bring me to place where I can be happy. But for now I have to take care of this slowly dying woman, help her shit and piss, washing her, feeding her and all what there is to do. And even if she is shouting at me and giving me a hard time, Isvara put me there, and I do what has to be done. My happiness is not dependent on a nice job anymore.

Vedanta will be with me until my last breath, for sure. As you can see, I am overwhelmed by rajasic happiness today. I thank you so much for opening the door for me, such a blessing! I really hope to see you again, maybe Isvara will put coronavirus to the side, and we meet each other again.

I really love you, I listen to you every day, I only read Vedanta, hear Vedanta – anything else is just waste of time. I get emotional; this mail is already much too long. I am so overwhelmed by my Self these days. There is really nothing to get in samsara. I understand now that I am already free, was always free. I just have to do the work to actualize it more and more. Freedom has absolutely nothing to do with the world or circumstances. Slowly, but steady, every day a bit more freedom The sun comes out in the morning, and birds are singing, and the wind strives through the trees. Silent, ordinary peace. For the first time in life I really appreciate the fullness of just being myself, enjoying myself. And all that just because Isvara took me to a Montana redneck, named James Swartz, who is teaching that exotic Vedanta. ☺

Thank you. ♡