Niyamas - Are we really clean?

So far, in our discussion of the Astanga Sadhana, I have focused on the "Yamas". To recapitulate,Yama, deals with one's ethical standards and sense of integrity, focusing on our behavior and how we conduct ourselves in life. We talked about the following items:

• Truthfulness
• Non-Violence
• Brahmacharya
• Non-stealing
• Non-possessiveness

Whereas the yamas present guidelines for how we should treat others, the niyamas tell us how to treat ourselves, moving us ever so slightly deeper along the path towards enlightenment. I will start my discussion of the second limb which is Niyama. Niyama, the second limb, has to do with self-discipline and spiritual observances. 

Niyama consists of the following items:

• Shaucha: Cleanliness/Purity
• Santosha: Contentment
• Tapas: Discipline
• Svadhyaya: Study of the self
• Ishvara Pranidhana: Devotion to God

Today I will discuss the first one, Shaucha or cleanliness. When I say cleanliness, I can almost hear everybody saying, not an issue at all, we are all clean. Please follow my flow of thoughts and make your own judgement.

I would like to look at cleanliness from 3 perspectives, that of the gross body, second the subtle body and finally the causal body. When we talk of gross body and its cleanliness, I mean the physical aspect of cleanliness. Here again, there are three layers of cleanliness. The first layer is personal cleanliness.  Most of my readers i am sure maintain personal cleanliness. The next layer is cleanliness of surroundings, in my room, in my closet, my house, my office desk etc. I am sure many of us maintaining personal cleanliness show some slack when it comes to cleanliness of the surroundings. The next layer of gross body cleanliness is the environmental cleanliness. Are we polluting the environment ? Are we keeping picnic spots clean? Are we cleaning up our beer bottles from the beach? I am pretty sure at this layer, many of us tend to further slack off in cleanliness. Let us take a wild guess. If we randomly select hundred people and rate them on the three aspects of gross body cleanliness, what percentage would pass all three levels? I bet it will not be more than fifty percent.

The next layer of cleanliness, that of the subtle body includes cleanliness of the mind and the intellect. What is the dirt in the mind? Obviously, jealousy, anger, greed, hatred are the components of dirt in the mind. The intellect has its own dirt consisting of a sense of superiority by color, country, position etc; Dirt consisting of over blown ego of one's own importance etc. As readers are aware, this dirt is more subtle, more difficult to remove and actually more harmful than physical dirt in the pursuit of spiritual growth.So assuming we continue the above exercise, of the fifty who maybe physically clean, not more than twenty may be clean at the subtle body level. So, almost eighty percent of our sample is eliminated from the path of cleanliness which is one of the requirements of Astanga sadhana. 

Coming to the third layer, that of the causal body. This has vasanas or unfulfilled desires from several births as the dirt to be cleaned. Readers of my blogs are aware that the only reason for our taking births and deaths in a never ending cycle is because of our vasanas. Whereas cleaning the earlier two - gross body and subtle body were relatively easier, how do we clean the causal body? For one thing, we do not even know what all we have accumulated in our causal body. The only way we can remove the "dirt" in our causal body is by exhausting the dirt and by not adding additional dirt. Let me give a simple illustration. Assume we have fifty units of vasanas or desires in my causal body and in each birth , ten desires are fulfilled. So, I need a minimum of five births to exhaust and clean out my vasanas. But wait a minute, it is not so simple. In each birth that I take, most of us typically add new desires and when they are not fulfilled, they go back to the causal body and keep on putting us on a cycle of birth and death. So, the key step in cleaning the causal body is to not add new desires. Of course, this is easier said than done. However the first step is knowing the impact of desires and once we know it, making a conscious effort to refrain from new desires. This will hopefully reduce the causal body dirt to nil over a period of time. 

What do we get when all the three layers or bodies are cleaned? Beyond the three bodies is the Supreme Soul which is timeless, the very embodiment of Awareness, Truth and in essence the same as the Universal Brahman. If we plot the cleanliness on the X axis, starting with the gross body cleanliness, followed by subtle body and finally the causal body, and level of spiritual growth on the Y axis, I suspect we will get a hyperbolic curves. As we improve in cleanliness at the gross body level, there is an improvement in spiritual growth level, but at a very low rate. As we improve cleanliness at the subtle body layer, the spiritual growth shows an increased rate of growth and finally as we progress over multiple births on the cleanliness of the causal layer, the spiritual growth shows a sharp uptrend and we are finally on the cusp of achieving Divinity. When that final vasana is exhausted, we merge with the Supreme and then it is only Bliss.

Let us take the step to understand the dimensions of cleanliness and walk towards achieving our spiritual growth.

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My Humble Understanding Of Spirituality

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The Spirit of Spirituality

Emotion's Arguments Against Battling Negative Forces

kiḿ no rājyena govinda kiḿ bhogair jīvitena vā
yeṣām arthe kāńkṣitaḿ no rājyaḿ bhogāḥ sukhāni ca

ta ime ‘vasthitā yuddhe prāṇāḿs tyaktvā dhanāni ca
ācāryāḥ pitaraḥ putrās tathaiva ca pitāmahāḥ

mātulāḥ śvaśurāḥ pautrāḥ śyālāḥ sambandhinas tathā
etān na hantum icchāmi ghnato ‘pi madhusūdana

api trailokya-rājyasya hetoḥ kiḿ nu mahī-kṛte
nihatya dhārtarāṣṭrān naḥ kā prītiḥ syāj janārdana

pāpam evāśrayed asmān hatvaitān ātatāyinaḥ
tasmān nārhā vayaḿ hantuḿ dhārtarāṣṭrān sa-bāndhavān

sva-janaḿ hi kathaḿ hatvā sukhinaḥ syāma mādhava

O Govinda, of what avail to us are a kingdom, happiness or even life itself when all those for whom we may desire them are now arrayed on this battlefield? O Madhusudana, when teachers, fathers, sons, grandfathers, maternal uncles, fathers-in-law, grandsons, brothers-in-law and other relatives are ready to give up their lives and properties and are standing before me, why should I wish to kill them, even though they might otherwise kill me? O maintainer of all living entities, I am not prepared to fight with them even in exchange for the three worlds, let alone this earth. What pleasure will we derive from killing the sons of Dhritarashtra?

Sin will overcome us if we slay such aggressors. Therefore it is not proper for us to kill the sons of Dhritarashtra and our friends. What should we gain, O Krishna, husband of the goddess of fortune, and how could we be happy by killing our own kinsmen?

Commentary

We have seen earlier that Arjuna has requested his charioteer Krishna to take him to the middle of the battleground so that he can see the armies ready to fight each other. We have also seen that Arjuna on seeing his cousins, teacher, great grand father etc. arraigned against him has become totally confused, overcome by emotion. In these set of verses, he argues why it is futile for him to wage a war.Let us try to analyse his outburst using different sets of analysis.

If someone read only these verses without understanding the context of the war, the arguments seem cogent. It appears that Arjuna is a pacifist, who does not want to fight an internecine war. He seems to be taking a high moral ground and is willing to renounce the kingdom in favour of his cousins. Now, let us understand the context. The war was not being fought for personal reasons of Arjuna. The Pandavas had been cheated out of their empire by the crookedness of their cousins, the Kauravas. The cousins had also tried to disrobe Draupadi, the wife of Arjuna. So, the fight was not against cousins. It was a fight against evil. Evil had to be punished and Arjuna was to fight this war. Secondly, Arjuna always knew that he had to fight his cousins. During the thirteen years in exile, he had collected the best of weapons and had prepared mentally for the war. None of the current thoughts had ever arisen in him. The only issue now was to actually face his cousins. His emotions were aroused. He thought of the tender care given to him by his great great grandfather, Bhishma whom he had to battle now. He saw with reverence his teacher, Drona, who was now against him. Against the emotional memories of these people and the fact that when they are killed he would be deprived of their love and affection, he became a coward and decided not to fight. 

Let us look at this now symbolically. Arjuna represents each of us. When faced with a situation of giving up negative tendencies, we feel threatened and come up with seemingly powerful  arguments in favour of continuing. How often have we not heard people who drink quoting some literature that drinking is good? I do not deny that red wine or a small peg is good for health. But the boozers use it to justify an addiction which they cannot get over. Again, the tendency is to use a line of argument, which by itself makes sense, but in the context, is totally illogical. I am reminded of a story in this context. A chick and its mother hen were taking a walk. The chick saw a duck swimming in the pond and wanted to swim too. Mother hen admonished it and said it cannot and forbade it to ever swim. That night, the chick thought to itself. The duck has wings and I have wings. If it can swim, why cant I? It slowly slipped out of the house and jumped into the pond. Obviously it drowned. Similarly, we have heard of apocryphal stories regarding men trying to fly. They attached something like wings to their hands and thought that by flapping it like a bird, they can fly. In all these cases, we see a selective use of arguments to justify something that has been decided. A drunkard has already decided that he will not give up drinking and convinces himself and others using selective data. So also with the chick which decided to swim and used selective argument to convince itself.

Let us now look at this from another angle. Each of us is a composition of body, mind and intellect. The mind is that which gets signals from the sense organs and directs the action organs accordingly. For routine activities, the mind does not need advise from the intellect. However, when faced with tough situations, the mind seeks the advise of the intellect. I may see a very nice watch and feel like owning it. The mind has the emotion of like, but the intellect says that it is not within budget and hence the mind tells the legs to walk away. However, in many situations, the emotion fully clouds the intellect. It is like the clouds covering the sun fully. The sun is there, but not available. Similarly the intellect is there, but not available to use.  In a situation as above, the mind may use emotion to justify why the watch is a must. It may say, it enhances prestige, standing in society or whatever reasons. I may go in and buy the highly unaffordable watch swiping his credit card and become indebted for life.

Arjuna represents self control. When faced with a situation confronting negative tendencies, self control argues that without these tendencies like desire, habits, etc. life is worthless. It is hard to give up the known sense pleasures of the present for the unknown pleasures that may arrive in the future. The warning given by  these verses is that when we are fighting with our internal enemies such as bad habits and temptations, we often find our own self-control sympathizing with these emotions.


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3 of my books

As readers may be aware, 3 of my books on spirituality are available on Amazon.com.

I invite readers of my blog to try any of the books and give me feedback so that I can make changes in the next edition.


1. My Humble Understanding  Of Spirituality


My Humble Understanding Of Spirituality

2. Attain Infinite Bliss

Attain Infinite Bliss - A Spiritual Guide

3. The Spirit Of Spirituality

The Spirit Of Spirituality

 

 

Shloka 1 - Bhagwad Gita

Dhritaraashtra Uvaacha:

Dharmakshetre kurukshetre samavetaa yuyutsavah;

Maamakaah paandavaashchaiva kimakurvata sanjaya.

Dhritarashtra said:

What did the sons of Pandu and also my people do when they had assembled together, eager for battle on the holy plain of Kurukshetra, O Sanjaya? This is the first shloka of the Gita and sets the stage for the Divine teachings.

Historically the great Mahabharatha war is just about to begin and the blind King Dritarashtra asks his charioteer Sanjaya to tell him what is happening on the battlefield where his sons are fighting against the sons of his brother Pandu. The battle is between Dritarashtra's sons, the Kauravas who have usurped the throne of Hastinapura from the Pandavas who are the sons of Dritarashtra's brother. So it is historically speaking a battle between the righteous forces led by the Pandavas and the wicked forces led by the Kauravas. If we see the Mahabharatha war as just a story which is entertaining, we are losing the benefit of the phenomenal symbolism behind each character and sequences in the story.

The war really symbolizes a daily war within ourselves along multiple planes. At the grossest level, it is a fight between what is right and what is wrong as defined by morality. When I see a beautiful woman and desire her, the first barrier is the moral barrier. Though morality is dictated by society's norms and cannot be an accurate guide to right behavior, it is still a vital barrier. Whereas marrying several women was acceptable in the earlier times, in current times it would be seen as immoral. So every action that we perform where there is a potential for conflict, the morality driven intellect fights against the potential immoral activities of the desire driven mind.

The next battle is at a higher level. There is no question of morality here. The fight is based on pure logic and understanding of the source of happiness. All of us desire happiness and keep searching for it without realizing that the source of our happiness is within. Owing to primordial ignorance we are distanced from the Truth of ourselves and just as we feel a void when we leave our home and go elsewhere, there is an inner void because of separation from Truth and we look to fill this void by getting sense objects from the material world. So it is a daily battle between the sense driven inclination to look outside for happiness versus the True knowledge that happiness is within.

In symbolism, Dritarashtra stands for the mind which is blind. The mind can never make decisions and depends on the intellect for guidance. Dritarashtra was married to Gandhari who to respect the fact that her husband was blind, blindfolded herself. Though it may seem an act of sacrifice, symbolically, Gandhari who had eyes is the one who could have guided the blind king. She was the intellect. Now the mind(Dritarashtra) was wedded to Gandhari(blind or intellect covered). With them were born the 100 sons who were known as Kauravas. Symbolically, the union of the mind and a blind intellect creates the 10 off springs each of the 5 action organs and the 5 sense organs. These 100 off springs include jealousy, anger, hatred, cunningness etc. So on one side of the historical battle, we have the 100 kauravas. Within each of us since we have a mind which is rarely guided by the intellect and have 100 vices waiting to surface at any time and lead us to destruction.

On the other side, Dritarashtra's brother was Pandu a noble and brave king who had 5 children who were known as the Pandavas. Symbolically Pandu represents pure intellect. His 5 sons stand for (a)what is the righteous thing to be done, (b)what are the unjust things to be avoided, (c)self control over senses, (d)the life principle which connects the inner consciousness to the mind/body/intellect complex and (e) Calmness. Within each of us we have the 5 good qualities that will lead us on path to a fulfilled life.

So the verse symbolizes the daily battle between our mind filled with emotions and our pure intellect which is a guiding light based on principles and right thoughts. We as individuals were born free and have a right to be free and happy. That is our true self, a very embodiment of happiness. This happiness resides in us when we are guided by our intellect. The intellect is what enables us to see things as they actually are. The mind based on its impressions of events in the past always colors the current events based on the impressions.

Dritarashtra is asking this question to his charioteer Sanjaya who in the mythology is credited with having divine eyesight with ability to see far and wide. Keeping aside the mythology, to whom can we turn to during a period of conflict within ourselves? How do we innately know what is right or wrong? How do we know that in a particular situation we are acting out of emotion and not out of logic? We know we can sense it. We burst out in anger and then realize we should not have done it. We do something wrong and soon feel that prick about it. That ability is the intuition or our own conscience which resides in us and to whom we can go for guidance. What then of serial criminals. Don t they have a conscience or intuition? They surely have it, but it is totally clouded by emotions. In such a situation, they cannot fall back on conscience or intuition for guidance. In such situations where intuition is clouded, the way to be guided on the right path is through a mentor or teacher who has sharpened his intellect with regular practice and can see any situation bereft of emotional baggage.

This then is the historical, symbolical and spiritual background to the opening verse of the Bhagwad Gita.

As readers may be aware, 3 of my books on spirituality are available on Amazon.com.

I invite readers of my blog to try any of the books and give me feedback so that I can make changes in the next edition.


1. My Humble Understanding  Of Spirituality


My Humble Understanding Of Spirituality

2. Attain Infinite Bliss

Attain Infinite Bliss - A Spiritual Guide

3. The Spirit Of Spirituality

The Spirit Of Spirituality

The Masking Of The Intellect

When I ask anyone, what do you want in life, the answer is happiness. When I ask, happiness for how long, the answer is infinite happiness for ever. What is this state of infinite happiness? When we try to define happiness, one way could be a state where the mind is absolutely peaceful without any worries for an extended period of time. During our waking state, we enjoy the world, but at the same time are worried over something or other. Even as I enjoy the lovely Switzerland, there is a worry in my mind about the work I have to do when I get back. How about in my dream state? Sure, I am happy when I dream of dating the lovely Miss Universe. But how long is the happiness? As soon as her well built 220 lb boyfriend comes, my joy is gone! Now, let us look at deep sleep. Do I care what happens when I am in deep sleep? Someone may call me a donkey and I wont even know. Do I have worries of work? Absolutely not! So, here is a state where I am peaceful and without any worries. What if the same state of peace and lack of worries exists in waking state? Would that not be bliss?

All of us who have been students of spirituality are aware that this state of bliss is not somewhere far off. We ourselves are that Infinite state of happiness referred to as Brahman. If we are Brahman or that infinite happiness, why do we experience worries or distress? It is the innate Ignorance that is a characteristic of Brahman that creates the illusion of being separate from Brahman and creates all these worries and distress. Now, how can we remove this ignorance? Can we go to the market and buy some ignoricide to kill ignorance? Obviously not!.  The only way to remove ignorance is by using our intellect. I can almost sense most people telling themselves, this is something we have and patting their back! Well, intellect is not same as intelligence acquired by reading a book or going to college. Intellect is that ability to discriminate between what is real which is the Brahman or state of bliss and the unreal world full of illusory happiness and worries. This sounds rather woolly. Let me give an illustration.

A man parachuted from an airplane and landed in a dense forest. As he tried to figure out the terrain, wild animals started chasing him. He started running fast and to his dismay saw a witch with wide open mouth waiting for him. Dismayed at this, he ran in another direction, stepped over some leaves which unfortunately were covering a pit and fell down. head downwards and legs up. As he was falling, his legs got entangled in some creepers and he did not fall. As his eyes adjusted to the pit, he looked down and saw a huge cobra at the bottom of the pit. As he looked up, he saw two rats gnawing away at the creepers holding his legs and preventing his fall to the cobra. As he was falling, he had disturbed a beehive and now the bees were stinging his body. However, there was a smile on the man's face. From the beehive, honey was dripping and falling on his lips. As he savored the sweetness of the honey, he was smiling.

You may wonder at the absolute foolishness of the man. But let us ask ourselves. Are we not like that man? We get parachuted into the jungle of life when we are born. As we try to make our way in this world, we are pursued by various diseases. As we continue in life, the evil witch of old age is waiting for us. The cobra of death is waiting for us and we are held on to life. The 2 rats of day and night rapidly eat into our lives and with each passing day, we are nearer to death. We are stung every moment of our lives by desires, worries, failures etc. But we forget all this and smilingly enjoy that honey of some happiness. Is this not absolute lack of intellect?

In most of our cases, unfortunately the intellect is clouded which is sad because that is the only instrument we have in our search for bliss. It is like being given a knife to cut a fruit, but unfortunately the knife has lost all its sharpness. What is it that clouds our intellect and makes it practically useless? It is the various desires that we have that clouds the intellect. The degree of masking of the intellect depends on the level or type of desires.

The following are the broad categories of desires and related masking of the intellect:

1. Tamasic desires: These are the hardest set of desires which are difficult to give up, almost impossible. These consist of addictions like drinking, gambling to name  a few. For those inflicted with tamasic desires, the search for infinite bliss through the intellect is almost impossible. Their belief is that their addiction itself is their source of bliss. It is not just a belief, but a firm conviction that they are right in pursuing their desires to get happiness. Several lifetimes may have to be spent before these desires are exhausted and the individual even has a chance to realize that an instrument called the intellect exists and it can be used to pursue true bliss.

2. Rajasic desires : These are also intense desires, but not an addiction like in the earlier case. There is an intense desire to acquire wealth, power. For individuals with these intense desires, there is a glimmer of hope. It is like seeing smoke. You know fire is somewhere around and once the smoke settles, one can see the fire. Similarly in these individuals, with the right type of practice, the intellect can be awakened and sharpened to search for the infinite bliss.

3. Satvic desires : These are the desires to serve humanity, do good etc. For such individuals, the intellect is almost available to pursue the infinite bliss. It is like dust covering a mirror. It is easy to wipe the dust off the mirror  and be able to see oneself in the mirror. Similarly satvic desires clouding the intellect can be wiped out relatively easily and enable the intellect to pursue the shining Self.

In conclusion, all of us are basically immortal and blissful. It is only the intellect that has the capability to pursue the path to realize this immense bliss. The clouding of the intellect can be removed through sustained practice. The paths are many to cleanse the intellect. One can pursue the path of selfless action also called as Karma yoga or follow the path of absolute devotion with an attitude of gratitude, called as Bhakti yoga or pursue the path of understanding the difference between the real and unreal through the path of Jnana yoga. There is no single guaranteed path for success. Each individual has to find a correct mix of the above three in their individual exercise of cleansing the intellect and acquiring the state of infinite bliss.



As readers may be aware, 3 of my books on spirituality are available on Amazon.com.

I invite readers of my blog to try any of the books and give me feedback so that I can make changes in the next edition.


1. My Humble Understanding  Of Spirituality


My Humble Understanding Of Spirituality

2. Attain Infinite Bliss

Attain Infinite Bliss - A Spiritual Guide

3. The Spirit Of Spirituality

The Spirit Of Spirituality

Revival Of The Intellect

I have written about spirituality in several articles and have tried to explain that the prime purpose of our existence is to realize the wholeness of existence. One wonders whether there is any instrument which could help us in our search for that elusive wholeness. Unfortunately, no such instrument exists because the concept of universality or wholeness is beyond the realm of worldly instruments. I have indicated earlier how it is impossible for a character in a dream to know that he is nothing but the person sleeping on a bed. Before we get disappointed regarding lack of an instrument, let me introduce you to something that will partially serve as an instrument and that is the Intellect.

When we think of the plant kingdom, the animal kingdom and the humans, the thing in common is that all have a physical body. Whereas the plant kingdom may have some rudimentary emotions, the animal kingdom has more emotions and the humans have the best ability to express and feel emotions through the instrument called the mind. Now, what is it that we as humans possess that animals or plants do not have. What is it that enables us to differentiate between right and wrong? Whereas a hungry tiger will not have any qualms about killing a baby deer, what is it that prevents us from doing some such act? At the same time, whereas a pet dog being taken in a bullock cart will not feel any jealousy seeing another dog being taken in a BMW, what is it that makes us jealous the moment we are in a Corolla and see our colleague driving a BMW? Whereas a rose plant that grows in USA or in UK or in India will not even know it is an American, a Britisher or an Indian, what is it that makes us feel that we are Americans, British or Indian?  This unique capability that only we as humans have is through an instrument called the Intellect. This is not the same as intelligence. A person with phenomenal intelligence can have zero intellect and vice-verse. 

When we try and analyze who we are, we are basically composed of three bodies:

a. Gross body which comprises the physical outer layer and the critical inner functions like breathing, digestion etc.
b. A subtle body which comprises the mind which has emotions and an intellect which conceptualizes
c. A causal body which consists of the various desires we accumulate and are the reasons for our cycle of birth and death.

To understand the role of the intellect, let us try to understand the cycle of action. Will I suddenly get up one fine morning and rush to see a friend? Never! Behind the action of rushing out, there must be a desire to see the friend. Desire is an emotion in the mind which directs the body to do the action of rushing out. But what creates the desire? Desire is always preceded by a thought. The thought that I have could be of some pleasant moment with the friend followed by a thought of loneliness. Please note that the concept of a friend, concept of loneliness arise or are created in the intellect. What creates the thought in the intellect. It is that storehouse of desires or the vasanas. To summarize,

Vasanas>Thoughts in intellect>Emotions in mind>Action of the body.

Now every action causes a reaction and the reaction is what is stored in the vasana. So to complete the above cycle, we have the following perpetual cycle.

Vasanas>Thoughts in intellect>Emotions in mind>Action of the body>Vasana

We are what is called as Jiva or an entity which has forgotten that we are whole or Brahman and this is caused by the intellect which causes me , the ever supreme Brahman to think I am separate. Notice the use of the word, think. When we wake up in the morning the first thought is that I exist and then all other thoughts arise. When we were in deep sleep, we were one with Brahman without even knowing it. But the moment we wake up, the intellect creates our separate identity. It is as though the "evil" ego has usurped the "Brahman" in our identity. If we reflect on what I have said so far, it is the intellect that causes us to identify with our ego and it is the tool we have to disengage ourselves from the ego. Once we are free of ego, we are the Brahman. I hope people remember the famous equation:
Man -Ego = God.

The intellect is the only instrument in the human entity that is capable of conceptualizing and reasoning. The intellect has the option to guide the ego that it is nothing but the true Brahman. Take the example of a man in a chariot driven by horses and managed by a charioteer. The horses are like our senses and unless the horses are held by a reign they will go wherever they see grass. Similarly, without the leash of a mind, we will be drawn wherever the senses pull us. But then someone should hold the leash and prevent the horses from straying and derailing the cart. That is the charioteer. Similarly, the intellect plays the role of the charioteer which holds the mind and controls the senses so that the cart is on track. The charioteer has the option of letting the leash loose and let the cart go wherever the horses go and be destroyed or he can control the horses through the leash and guide the cart to its destination. In exactly same way, the intellect has the ability to either be totally influenced by the mind and senses and let us go astray or it can control the mind and senses and lead us to our destination, which is Brahman.

But for above to happen, the intellect has to be sharpened. Barring the rare spiritual master in whom the intellect is strong by itself, for most of us, the intellect needs to be trained and sharpened. The intellect needs to be able to help us identify the real which is Brahman and the unreal, which is this material world. It should help us be on the right path which is to attain Brahman and guide us away from the seemingly nice path of worldly objects which just cause us to be in this endless cycle of births and deaths. To strengthen the intellect, there is a recommended process:

1. Learn : Study the scriptures to understand the fundamentals of what the supreme truth is.
2. Reinforce : Reinforce the fundamentals by discussing with like minded people.
3. Reflect : Reflect upon what is being learnt and ask questions to one self and get answers by step 1 and step 2.
4. Internalize: Internalize the concepts so that they become part of oneself

As the discerning intellect grows, slowly our concept of ourselves around the material world of objects, emotions and concepts slowly starts ebbing and a sense of internal peace keeps growing. IF through regular practice, a student continues on the path, slowly attachment to the world of objects and emotions drop off and there is only that final boundary of attachment to the intellect that has to be broken. It seems strange here that the very instrument that brought a seeker so close can also cause him to lose everything and descend back to the depths from where he had risen. But giving up the intellect early can also cause the seeker to slip. There is that precise moment when a seeker has to give up the final attachment with the intellect and take that leap into the realm of Brahman. Just as a pole vaulter at a precise moment has to discard the pole that brought him high up, a seeker has to discard that intellectual pole to reach the heights of Brahman.


As readers may be aware, 3 of my books on spirituality are available on Amazon.com.

I invite readers of my blog to try any of the books and give me feedback so that I can make changes in the next edition.


1. My Humble Understanding  Of Spirituality


My Humble Understanding Of Spirituality

2. Attain Infinite Bliss

Attain Infinite Bliss - A Spiritual Guide

3. The Spirit Of Spirituality

The Spirit Of Spirituality

Significance Of Ganesh

Now is the time in India when the festival of Ganesh is being celebrated. Lord Ganesh is among the most loved and revered Gods in India. Almost all major religious functions start with a prayer to Lord Ganesh. Ganesh is among the more modern Gods in the history of Hinduism, which has the unique trait of ascribing divinity to almost anything and everyone. There, apparently is no mention of Ganesh in ancient vedic literature. Some researchers say that Agni used to be the primordial God or symbol to whom all prayers were first offered, since Agni, the God of fire was presumed to be the route to take messages to other Gods. Agni gradually evolved into Lord Ganesh who took an equivalent important position of getting the first prayer according to some researchers.

Lord Ganesh for those who are not aware of Indian Gods is a combination of a human body and an elephant's head. There is a story behind why Ganesh got an elephant's head, which however is not the focus of this article. This article will try and explore some of the symbolism of Lord Ganesh. Again there are numerous explanations of symbolism and readers should feel free to explore any other symbolism.

The wide head and large ears symbolize the need for openness of the individual to receive and assimilate the higher knowledge of the Self. It is ignorance alone which prevents us from realizing our full potential of Divinity. If we can open ourselves to "listening" to the powerful messages contained in the scriptures, which enable us to lift ourselves out of our depths of ignorance, we are on the path to self enlightenment and a divine personality with infinite happiness. However most of us are so deep rooted in ignorance and are not even aware that we are ignorant. Like in a dream, when a lion comes and we wake up, we need some event in our life to shock us and hopefully look for the ray of light through which we will get out of the ignorance.

The trunk of an elephant is a very unique organ. It knows the type of gentleness to apply when accepting and eating a banana. At the same time it knows the strength to apply when holding the trunk of a tree and pulling it off the ground. It symbolizes the human intellect with an unique capability to discriminate. As I have covered earlier, it is the phenomenal capability of the human intellect to discriminate, which separates us from animals which do not have this capability. What should we use the intellect to discriminate? Not just bad and good, which are worldly concepts. But the intellect should be used to discriminate between what is real and what is unreal. It may come as a shock to most people, to know that this world with all its glossy and bright objects is unreal. It is like an illusion. In a dream, I can be with the most beautiful lady. But that is not reality. Similarly this world is like a dream and the reality is elsewhere. The reality is our true nature, which is absolute bliss.

As a person dreaming, and being a character in the dream, what is the reality? For the character in the dream, the dream world appears to be the reality, whereas the absolute reality is me who is fast asleep in my bed room, which the dream character will never know. In the same way, being in this glittering world, we will never know our reality unless we employ the strong discriminating capability of the intellect to understand that this world is unreal and we are dream characters and the reality is divine bliss or Brahman.

Ganesha has only one tusk and the other is broken. It symbolizes the breaking of the concept of duality. My life is not different from any other life as a life principle. The same life principle that exists in me exists in another human being, animal, bird, fish, insect or a plant. There is no duality. The same principal of electricity runs in a small bulb, a floodlight or any giant equipment. There is absolutely no duality. The only reality for electrical devices is electricity. Rest all are names and shapes of objects using the same core reality. In exactly the same way, Brahman or the Life principle is our only reality. Each of us has different names and shapes, but the underlying reality is one only and that is Brahman.

Another interesting aspect of Ganesh is the mouse. The mouse is seen as the vehicle of Ganesh. Looking closely at the image, we see the mouse right in front of a bowl of delicacies eagerly looking at Ganesh only. The mouse symbolizes our mind. Just like a mouse, our mind moves around from place to place. Whereas the mouse scurries around looking for edibles, our mind flirts around with objects of desire. Our mind is never constant. in that numerous thoughts arise and through the thoughts, we are driven towards objects of desire. But in the symbol of Ganesh, we do not see the mouse going after delicacies. This symbolizes that when the mind is under the control of a discriminating intellect, we will not be running after worldly objects. The mind is like a  leash of a carriage driven by the five horses, representing the five senses. Unless the leash is held tight under the guidance of a good rider, the horses will run in whatever direction they wish and derail the chariot. In exactly the same way, if our mind is not under the guidance of a well developed intellect, the sense organs will drive us towards various objects of desire, ultimately ending in disaster for us. This concept is also superbly symbolized in the image of Arjuna and Krishna is the Mahabharatha war. Arjuna is like us, a living entity, a jiva. He is in a chariot and traveling, just as we travel on our life's journey. The horses driving the chariot are the sense organs which go towards their favorite sense objects. The mind is the leash holding the horses or the sense organs. In Arjuna's case, the leash was held by none other than Krishna, the divine incarnate and this led him to success in the war. The war we fight daily is not against others, but against our own ego. In this fight, if our mind is controlled by a powerful intellect, we will win the war and subdue our ego and merge with the eternal Brahman.

Though the worship of Lord Ganesh may itself be the end objective of people, an understanding of what the lord symbolizes may bring more more meaning to the worship.

As readers may be aware, 3 of my books on spirituality are available on Amazon.com.

I invite readers of my blog to try any of the books and give me feedback so that I can make changes in the next edition.


1. My Humble Understanding  Of Spirituality


My Humble Understanding Of Spirituality

2. Attain Infinite Bliss

Attain Infinite Bliss - A Spiritual Guide

3. The Spirit Of Spirituality

The Spirit Of Spirituality