Where Do You Stand?

Swami Sri Atmananda Posted on by

Question 1

As per my definition:

1. God is Knowledge.
2. God is Love.
3. God is Truth.

Out of the above three definitions of God, which one is your first target? What percentage have you completed in your sadhana to realize God?

Question 2

At this stage of your journey, where do you think you are? Select one of the following answers that correctly depicts your present state:

A. Now I am proceeding to realization.
B. My journey to realization has ended and now I am on the track of manifestation.

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To hear Swamiji’s recorded Interaction regarding the above, send your answers via the Contact page.

“What to do?” (Part 2)

Swami Sri Atmananda Posted on by

Message from Seeker “T”

Om Namo Bhagavate Vasudevaya! Namaste Bhagavan. I applied for the retreat some time back, and just got an approval mail. In my heart, I do not feel the need to attend. But, I will do whatever you say.

Love, Regards and Gratitude,

T.

Message from Seeker “R”

After coming back from Tiruvannamalai, I had written to them about wanting to withdraw my application for the retreat. I wrote to you asking you for guidance because I strongly felt that from now on, to inform you, ask you and do as per your guidance. Thank you so very much Gurudev, I promise you to commit wholeheartedly to your guidance on this path 🙏🙏🙏 R.

Response from Swamiji

My Blessed Mother,

Just before 10 minutes, T has sent me a similar message and asking my guidance. My answer to her will also be same. Will it be possible for you to send the gist of my reply to you to her also?

I am asking this because my reply was meant for you since I am quite clearly seeing where you are heading.

T is also a very evolved seeker and she came to me with you. What you feel about her going for the retreat?

I will write to her almost a similar reply without telling her do or don’t because Gita teaches us to take our own decisions.

In Gita, the Guru is only a facilitator. A Sadguru never imposes nor commands nor also creates confusion in the mind of a seeker by giving contradictory advice.

Because T is also a householder she should first get the opinion of her husband whether she should go for the retreat. In our yoga we are not supposed to create any disharmony in our family, group and social life for doing yoga. Harmony not conflict, clarity not confusion are the unique benefits of Gita yoga.

Please let me know whether you would like to talk to T on this issue or not. I am asking you because in Gita yoga the Guru always guides the disciple by creating opportunities for the seeker to guide fellow seekers in the role of a Guru. This is how Gita has taught me that Seers are made but not born.

Blessings and Love

Gurudev.

Replies from “R”

I personally feel that both of us must exclusively follow your guidance and not deviate from it! T’s husband is not happy about her going to the retreat; he doesn’t say yes or no. But when she asked for permission to come to Tiruvannamalai this time, he immediately gave permission! We both are indebted to him for his permission, otherwise we might have not come now. It’s the Lord clearing the path for us, this we strongly feel! I will immediately send your reply to her and share with her. 🙏🙏🙏 R.

Thank you so much Gurudev for your guidance, from my first visit to the ashram, where I came to know that there is a correspondence course, I felt The Lord is showing me how to use the time preciously after retirement. Then I got the foundation course on the Gita and started doing individual study, but felt the need to share and discuss the study, because was not interested in talking about anything else. So I joined the Gita study groups. Today I feel that was the Lord’s way   of connecting me to T, nothing more than that. After coming back from the ashram, what I felt was, do my individual study daily and do combined with T, once she gets her Foundation course shortly, on an app where we see each other and talk. This is what I want to do Gurudev with your blessings 🙏🙏🙏 R.

Reply from Swamiji

Many have come to me during the last 23 years for getting guidance to be a Gita yogi but 99.9% have gone back after getting some intellectual insights and some have become great teachers.

I am patiently waiting for at least that one yogi who will come and receive all that I have realized and manifest what he/she received from me.  Only through such a Seer the world will know me and the mission for which I came to earth in this turbulent era.

Blessings and Love.

Gurudev

 

 

A Seeker Asks, “What to do?” (Part 1)

Swami Sri Atmananda Posted on by

Question from Seeker “R”

Been wanting to take your guidance from the time I came back, Gurudev. I had applied for a six-week retreat in Jan and Feb 2019. My nephew with whom I came to your ashram last October was the one who introduced me to this teacher. Now he is sponsoring this retreat. Should I go or not is my confusion! Next is I started attending three different Gita study classes, and monthly one Mother book study class. Can I continue attending these classes? In one of the Gita study class is where I got connected to T. Please guide me Gurudev! I don’t why I was hesitant to ask you when I was in the ashram itself. It’s mainly because being initiated by you is yet to sink in deeply. 🙏🙏🙏 R.

Swamiji’s reply

My Blessings and Love to you, The Most Blessed Mother!

Now it is immaterial how many Gita classes you will attend or to whom you will listen. You are grounded on your path and you can make sustained progress wherever you go.

It is better to keep contact with any one Gita group because it will not create confusion in your mind and intellect. Gita is a scripture as Upanishad. It is also a scripture of Brahma Vidya. But I have reached my state by using Gita as a yoga shastra.

In my interpretation of Gita as yogashastra, the procedure of yoga is different from others. I don’t give much importance to silent retreats because this carries the risk of static Samadhi state where the yogi may become stuck at the state of the being when Sattwa will rise in the system.

That static Samadhi state is not the highest attainment in Gita yoga. Arjuna was pulled for that state also, but Lord Krishna advised him to discharge the duty that was standing in front of him. Unfortunately, the duty for Arjuna was not going to office or earning money or taking care of family but a horrible battle where he needs to kill his dearest people.

Why did Krishna advise Arjuna like that?

Because Arjuna’s path was not silent contemplation or unbroken meditation but dynamic action.   Arjuna neither wanted war nor initiated war. He was simply driven to war.  And think deeply, who drove him to the battlefield? It was someone who was truly God in a human form. Was God foolish?  ……

By requesting God to be his charioteer, Arjuna unwittingly did surrender his fate, destiny, future and Dharma at the feet of Krishna, to whom he subsequently surrendered as a disciple. The first advice Krishna gave to Arjuna as Gurudev is to get rid of the weakness of the heart, that is , attachment to kith and kin and to discard the outdated mental, ethical and idealistic interpretation of the scriptures as taught by the half-baked yogis and perverted Achryas. The first point He emphasized is the concept of non-doership. By telling to Arjuna that actions are done by Prakriti, and Purusha is always a non-doer, Lord wanted Arjuna to first get rid of the wrong notion that he is the doer. Because one cannot get rid of this feeling of doership, Lord Krishna taught Arjuna to first give up the desire for results.

Here comes the most important secret lesson of Gita. That is the issue of attachment. One cannot be free from attachment unless one is free from result motive. This result motive is not only confined only to material gain but also social, mental, vital and even psychic gain.

My Blessed Mother!

You have to deeply contemplate on many aspects of sadhana and take a decision on what you should do when faced with such dilemmas.

Krishna only explains but never imposes his decision because He has no need to take any decision on any issue. Did he not say it very clearly in verse 176 of Gita?

If you will read Krishna’s life story with the mind of an awakened Seer you will see that Krishna has never initiated any action nor was he trapped by any results that came out of his actions.

He was, is and shall always be a non-doer.

My advice to you is to be a non-doer but perform all actions if the action signal is actually coming to you. And also discriminate before you plunge in to action.

My path is Gita, my teaching is Gita, my goal is Gita, my Guru is Gita and my God is Gita.

Blessings and Love

Gurudev.

 

Guru Purnima 2018

Swami Sri Atmananda Posted on by

 

Swamiji’s message recorded on 27 July 2018, at Satyachetana Ashram in Tiruvannamalai, Tamil Nadu, India.

Click below on the triangle “play” icon to hear the audio recording.

10 minutes.

Sadhana question: Verse 372

Swami Sri Atmananda Posted on by

The last verse of the ninth chapter says, “manmanaa bhava madbhakto madyaaji maam namaskuru…” (“…think only of Me, become My devotee, perform sacrifices for Me, have reverence for Me…”)

Out of the four, which one should come first, if someone is sincerely practicing the yoga of Gita? In other words, for one who is seriously doing yoga to reach the goal, which state comes first in the life of such a yogi, and what’s the natural sequence, the natural order?

Every verse, every concept of gita is an expression of the realization process. So which attainment will come first—madyaaji, manmanaa bhava, madbhakto, or maam namaskuru? And which will come second, third and fourth?

Those who send their answers will get my answer to this question.

 

Questions for the Seeker: Verse 63

Swami Sri Atmananda Posted on by

 

Om Namo Bhagavate Vasudevaya

Today 21st June 2018 is the International Yoga Day, and the third day of my 68th year.

I would like to inquire to all the yogis and seekers of the world who are pursuing yoga to reach the goal. I’m not going to mention anything about the goal. I leave it to each yogi to decide what is the goal for which he is striving.

This is my first question to the seekers in this year. Anyone who will send their answer to me through this website will receive my recorded audio commentary on this verse, if they send the answer by 28th June.

 

 

 

Verse 63

naasato vidyate bhaavo naabhaavo vidyate satah

ubhayor api drishtontas tvanayos tattva-darshibhih

The simple translation is, “Untruth never exists. Truth never ceases to exist. One who has realized both these truths is a true seer.” Many commentators write this differently, that untruth has no beginning and truth has no end. These are different interpretations depending on the understanding level, experiential depth and realizational height of the translator.

What have you realized? I would like to know the seeker’s view, and to help the seeker get the correct meaning through his own experience and from his own realization, and maybe from his understanding, I have these questions.

“Untruth never exists.” If this is true, then why is one perturbed when one sees untruth? Is untruth something to be seen, or is untruth something to be experienced? We are perceiving that untruth is being manifested everywhere by almost everybody, so what is referred to here by untruth? If Gita says untruth never exists, how then can we say that someone is not truthful? If we really recognize the untruth, it means we are saying that Lord Krishna is not correct, and Gita is not correct, because untruth is seen everywhere, but Gita can never be wrong and God can never be wrong.

Question 1: Do you agree with this statement that untruth never exists? If you don’t agree, then there is no need to give an answer. That means, if your view is that untruth exists, you are not agreeing with Gita and Lord Krishna, so why should you waste your time? If you do agree with Gita, give two examples from your own life and two examples from the life in the outer world that you observe.

“Truth never ceases to exist.” That means truth is always present, and if so, why are we not able to see it? Why are we saying that we should manifest truth? It always exists. It should be visible. It should be experienced. Why then is there a struggle to manifest truth? Does it mean truth is everywhere but is not visible? If it is not visible, does it mean not visible to our eyes, not visible to our mind, not visible to our intellect?

Question 2: If you agree with Gita that truth never ceases to exist, give two examples from your own life and two examples from the outer life that show how you agree.

Please contemplate and send the answer to me.