Veronika decides to die

Veronika decides to die

(8/2015)

Depressingly excellent read, Paulo has created yet other wonder which I say is to describe the various yogic methods for spiritual advancement and by advancement we mean fast spiritual advancement by raising the demons within us and then satisfying or suppressing them in order to calm the mind and enjoy that alluring everlasting joy.

The book starts with ghastly humor wherein Veronika has already swallowed four packets of sleeping pills and writes a suicide note in a funny mood that she intended to die because the people didn’t know where on earth Slovenia was. Deathly fun isn’t it

During her life, Veronika had noticed that a lot of people she knew would talk about the horrors in other people’s lives as if they were genuinely concerned to help them, but the truth was that they took pleasure in the suffering of others, because that made them believe they were happy and that life had been generous with them. 

This syringe contains a dose of insulin, ‘he said, speaking in a grave, technical tone of voice. “Its used by diabetics to combat high blood glucose. However, when the dose is much larger than normal, the consequent drop in blood glucose provokes a state of coma.’ That’s awful, inhuman. People struggle to get out of a coma not to go into one’.

From where she was, Zedka could see the ward and the beds, all empty except for one, to which her body was strapped, and beside which a girl was standing, staring in horror. The girl didn’t know that the person in the bed was till alive with all her biological functions working perfectly but that her soul was flying, almost touching the ceiling, and experiencing a sense of profound peace.

The end as always is in the Paulo style wherein he lets his readers soar high in the sky like a kite and we all know that in the end every kite comes back to the flyer similarly in this book also he pulls the string down in the positive domains and lets Veronica live but the book is so beautifully written that it doesn’t matter whether Veronica lives or dies. What mattered is already given in the story; and that is it is easier to die but more difficult to live a free life of own desires.

 

Ascent to Spiritual Illumination by Swami Ashokananda

Ascent to Spiritual Illumination by Swami Ashokananda

 (7/2015)

This book is a collection of ten lectures given by Swami Ashokananda on Spiritual Practice.

The soul is without beginning and without end, that it has never been created – not by God or by anybody else. As long as the souls are overwhelmed by maya, or ignorance, they seem to be under the control of God. But the moment they become free of this ignorance, they are not under anyone; the soul becomes its own master. Its very nature is freedom; therefore neither the divine will nor any other will can have anything to do with its true status.

Always remember that Consciousness is not an abstraction, nor is it third person; consciousness is always the first person, always self-consciousness. And self-consciousness is the essence of personality.

The scattered mind is our so-called normal state of mind; ksipta it has been called in Sanskrit, which literally means scattered. Every moment it changes. Not for any two moments does the condition of the mind remain the same: it is now on this object, now on that; continually it is moving.

Now, look, sin in the mind is no sin at all. Sri Ramakrishna You see, all kinds of things rise in the mind, but when you don’t carry them into action, there is no sin.

If we have no desire to possess anything, then perception is just a matter of knowledge. That is called the state of a saskin – a witness, spectator: In that state you are safe.

Find fault with every sense object. Lord Buddha

When your mind has greatly withdrawn from the things of the senses, you will become aware of another mind – not this present mind which is a slave of the senses, but another mind which you might call the slave of God, the mind that is hungry for God.

Just as on a thread all the jewels are strung, all the things in this universe are strung on one divine Being. Bhagvad Gita, 7.7

Actually, there is no world; the world is a product or an accident of the scattered state of mind.

By dwelling upon sense objects a person becomes attached to them; when he becomes attached to a thing he conceives a desire for it. From desire arises anger, and from anger comes confusion of the mind. And from that comes the loss of memory, and from the loss of memory comes the destruction of intelligence, or judgement; and from the destruction of intelligence comes real destruction - destruction of the person. Bhagavad Gita, 2. 62-63.

Do whatever it is your duty to do, and then offer the whole thing to the Lord. Sri Krishna

Svayambhuh means the self-created One. He has so made the senses that they look outside; He made them outward-looking; therefore the senses perceive only external things and not the inner self. But there are some wise persons who saw this inmost Self. How? by having turned their eyes inward, seeking immortality, seeking something that is forever existent. Katha Upnishad

Avrttacaksuh is the important thing – turning your eyes in the opposite direction; your eyes looked out; now you are not allowing them to look out; you turn them back.

Concentration, as the very word implies, is holding the mind at one point. We don’t allow the mind to think of many things simultaneously or in quick succession.

Karma is that thing, good or bad, which ties you down to your relative self.

Vedanta = Veda (Knowledge) + anta (final) means “The final knowledge”. That state of wisdom there is no destruction. Once you gain it, the joy of it will never leave you; it will be forever yours.

Ecstasy is a condition where one transcends one’s normal self.

Morality is the very core of character and is absolutely necessary for spiritual growth.

Sri Krishna did not believe in too much self-discipline, that he would rather people grow naturally, and that he did not believe in formal renunciation. Swami Vivekananda

The Theory of Circle

The Theory of Circle

Life travels in circle everything you take or give returns to you and its starting point and end points are the same.

The size of the circle we create depends on many things like our courage, effort, valor, time, situations, conditions, people involved etc factors. We also always think in circles. That does not mean we are limited by single circle actually we always carry multiple circles within us some interconnected some totally separate, some touching and some just brushing each other. All these circles interconnect in some or other ways. Some may connect instantly while some take time to show any signs of connection. But the thing is that they all connect because they have at least a single point which is common between then and that point is us the person who has created these circle within himself. Knowingly we think that we are the creator of these circles but unknowingly we are also the part of the circle we have created. When we ask; Why are we the part of the circle we should remember that it’s a circle whose end point and the starting points are the same and we being the creator can’t escape the circle.

We have often heard in the ad; Have I made it large? Now we can understand it means Have I made the circle large enough to make it challenging? Some circles we have made in past were so small that we could go round them very fast so we realized that our capacity was greater than the circle we had created. Some circles that we created in past are still growing so sometimes we feel that we have over-estimated our capacity and surely some of the circles made us expand our capacities to meet their requirement. Sadly we have made some circles which are consuming us and we are fully aware of it still we can’t do anything about it, coz that’s life.