Practical Vedanta

nanda chandran vpcnk at HOTMAIL.COM
Wed May 12 12:25:51 CDT 1999


M M Sudan writes :
>Whatever postings I am sending maybe full of Ignorance in the eyes of
>learned members but there is
>no lack of seriousness on my part. why should my learned friend have that
>impression.

I don't think anybody on this list is here just for the fun of it. Of course
all are earnest and I never questioned your seriousness.

>From your posting it appeared to me that you placed more importance on
service to the society than Self-realization. It's quite a common phenomenon
that people think that since we've many births, we could gradually perfect
ourselves over a span of births! This results in neglecting the urgency of
the moral task at hand. Great effort must be spent at achieving realization
even in this birth. Again, this is a general statement and not directed
towards you.

All spiritual practice is empty if there's no love and compassion in one's
heart. But if I don't have any natural love for my neighbor in my heart, am
I supposed to pretend otherwise? Development of compassion towards the weak
and suffering, helps. But true love and compassion are born from clear
comprehension of the cause of the misery in the world, which one would get
by realizing the Self.

Consciousness by nature flows outward. You always want to do something,
always want to be engaged in some activity - karma. True realization - jnAna
- is the cessation of karma - to abide in oneself. But does that mean one
should forcibly control oneself from acting? This would be truly difficult
and may be even counter-productive. So instead of suppression, diversion is
suggested. Channel all your energies to do good, to help others - and in the
process purify yourself, develop control and gradually abide in yourself.


_______________________________________________________________
Get Free Email and Do More On The Web. Visit http://www.msn.com



More information about the Advaita-l mailing list