10.9: TIT-BITS FROM THE TRADITION OF SANATANA DHARMA
1. When the Guru refers to the Atman as a ‘nitya-vastu’, we do not understand it because we have not seen anything that is nityam. Whatever we see is only anityam. That is why Guru says: The Atman is something which is different from everything that you have seen or known.
2. Ishvara is JnAnam + MayA. But Guru is JnAnam only.
3. Guru has three facets’ He gives the JnAna-janma; He protects jnAnam; and he destroys our ajnAnam. So Guru does the three fundamental duties of Creation, Protection and Destruction.
4. Ramana’s selection from Shivanandalahari: Shloka nos. 61,76, 83, 6, 65, 10, 12, 9, 11, 91.
5. Shankara & Ramana taught the same advaita vedanta. Only their personalities were of two different types. Shankara was dynamic Ramana. Ramana was static Shankara!
6. At the end of Kenopanishad, there is a concluding statement that tapah, damaH, karma are the three pillars that support the entire brahma-vidyA. Swami Chinmayananda’s remark (made in a lecture) on this is remarkable: tapaH is controlling the mind from sense wandering. damaH is controlling the sense organs from sense objects. These two conserve the mental vitality. They must be spent in the karma, - service of the people!
7. Daksha and Sishupala are the only two people who criticised the Lord right in His face.
8. Sannyasa is the stage where you have to make every one happy; because you have to rise above all likes and dislikes.
9. ‘Sorrows are unavoidable in life; but sufferings are optional’ –the Buddha.
10. Sorrows are of two kinds: Sympathy (anukampana) and Self-pity (kRRipaNatA or klaibyaM). The latter is wrong. To overcome self-pity (which is nothing but a weakness of the heart), three challenges have to be met: Accept uncertainties of life; Dissolve desires; Have a detached purpose of action.
11. Face uncertainties of life. The only thing that is certain is the fact that nothing is certain.
12. The root of all desires is fanciful thinking, known in Sanskrit as Sankalpa. Ignorance gives rise to sankalpa. Sankalpa gives rise to desire. And Desire gives rise to sorrow. Sankalpa-prabhavAn kAmAn, says the Gita 6 – 24.
13. Mind-oriented desires are to be overcome by Intellect. Intellect itself has to be then overcome by a change in the goal of life.