Desire validated in vedanta

DESIRE to entertain or not.

Desire is a privilege given to the human being by god.Bhagavat Gita says that Desire not opposed to Dharma is an expression of God. Chamakam in Rudram and Chamakam validates several desires. Desire opposed to Dharma is the root cause of evil.
There is a wrong understanding in the modern world that all desires are to be eschewed.
This is against the tenets of Vedanta. The one who advocates that all desires are to be rooted out, has a desire to talk and advise. All transactions are born out of desire only. Desire is harmless as long as it conforms to Dharma. The traditional teacher also has a desire to teach. All desire to live. All desire health, wealth , fame, prosperity and peace. They are valid. Desires erupt in the mind. Dharma based desires are valid and get manifested in actions. Kama -desire -is mental and Dharma manifests only at the level of actions.Veda talks about Dharma. Taittreya upanishad talks of Dharma in the seeksha Valli. All should read and assimilate them .

JAGAT - The world of manifestation.

The indescribable power of Iswara is called Maya. Iswara with his power called Maya manifests thia world. Maya is otherwise called Prakriti. Tigunatmika Maya- maya is made up of three gunas ( modes, preponderences, modalities). They are Satwa, rajas and tamas. Satwa mode makes one seek knowledge. Such a one seeks purity. illumination, clarity. He persues pleasures. Such a one is bound by knowledge and pleasure. A person in the rajas mode is a workaholic. He has a passioon for work. He develops deep attachments and goes to extremes in love, hatred, envy, jealousy etc. By these modes he is bound . A person of tamas mode is lethargic, is given to procrastination, becomes indifferent to priorities in life,is stubborn, refractor yand adament. His mind is always confused.

These modes alternate in the mind and create a pall of thicknes preventing one from recognising the atma, the awareness that he is. These modes find expression in yajna(sacrificial acts) dana (charitable acts), tapas- austerities and in acts that need decisions. Gunas also act in the field of sraddha -faith-beleif systems.

The whole world of transactions come under the sway of these gunas.

The unique power of Maya is reversal. Reversal is to make a noun an adjective and adjective a noun.Maya hides the real and projects the unreal. It makes as it were the anatma as atma and atma as anatma, the attribute of the concrete as concrete and concrete as its adjective. viz: gold chain. Here the concrete is gold and attribute is chain But in the word, chain is the noun and gold is the adjective. this is the reversal.In Sanskrit this reversal is called 'vyatyayaha' . maya gives substantiality to things that don't have substantiality. Maya makes adjectives pull down the noun and make adjectives occupy the throne of the noun. Sat- existence is noun and objects in jagat are adjectives. Maya's pravritti does the reversal.Maya brings out the 'anyonya mithuni karanam ' intermixture. Tne projective power (vikshepa) of Maya is wonderful, this power is the one that manifested the surge called creation. This projective power uses the modes satwa,rajas and tamas and projects the plurality and the variegated variety.

Vedanta a pragmatic approach (continued.....)

With regard to the 'I' , the transactor there is a confusion. In transaction there is a subject part and an object part. The subject part is the Objectless awareness (The Atma). The object part is Atma becoming a transactor.The transactor is attributeless I along with the object transacted. "Aham vritti -the akhandaakara vritii- + buddhi vritti. eg. I see a pot. This is I the observer and the pot that is seen by me. Aham vritti+ Ghata (pot) vritti formed inthe buddhi.In the recognition of this there is the kshetrajna and the Kshetra. The awarer( Pure consciousnes ) and the awared the rocogniser with the recognition of the object -the pot. Here the seer is awareness affected by the object ,pot.To distinctively recognise the awareness and the awarer of the object is called viveka (discrimination- this word does not convey the full content of viveka. So a teacher is necessary to make us understand what exactly Viveka is.In normal transaction we recognise the awarer of thew object but not the subject, the awarer-pure consciousness.Let us look at the mix upwe have made.I am lean. What you mean here is your body is lean and you are trustee of the body. Your are not the body .You are the user of the body.So How can I be thin? We have to say my body is lean.I am not allright. This really means I am the one with a mind or a body that is not allright.To stay as the consciousness unaffected by the recognition ia jnana, liberation from limitations.

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The road taken and not taken - 3

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z_ENywYuC2c

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The road taken and not taken - 2

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PIMCZZEpOEY

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The road taken and not taken - 1

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S4XfE0OuyUM

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Prapatti - Surrender

Surrender to God has a catch. What are you going to surrender? Will it be of any use to God? Does God need the things that you surrender to Him? If he needs these , then He is a needy person like any of us. Further to surrender everything you must meet God, who then is a personalised entity like you , occupying a place in space and so becomes limited .So then there must be a depth meaning to this word surrender which is free from all these confusions.God here is Iswara who is present in this creation as several orders called Dharma. To conform to the Dharma and to perform our allotted tasks is Surrender. To accept the results of these tasks as a prasada (grace) from Iswara is what is suggested.