SOME INSIGHTS

Dear Satyajit-ji,

After all, how many people take up the study of Vedanta and pursue it? Only a
microscopic minority. The traditional view is that interest in the study of
Vedanta arises only to those who have acquired considerable merit (puNya) in
past births. They take up the study because they are predisposed towards the
kind of mental attitude to life which Vedanta advocates. If a person takes up
the study of Vedanta out of sheer curiosity alone, he will not continue it for
long.
Vedanta is not a mere intellectual pursuit. My experience is that the study of
Vedanta does gradually bring about a change in our attitude to life, and in our
interaction with others. What is most stressed by Vedanta is the acquisition of
detachment and equanimity. These develop gradually as one pursues the study.
When adversities arise, one is not as affected as one would otherwise be.
Best wishes,
S.N.Sastri


Bological theories are based on the experiences of the one constructing the theory. If the Vedantic Self becomes a differentiated component of one's experience, then it will naturally weave its way into one's psychological model of the mind.... New knowledge affects the old. Such has always been the case. As we go on learning and differentiating our experience, our theories change to accomodate our growth. In this case, if the existence of the Vedantic Self is differentiated from the psyche, then new knowledge is produced in that act of differentiation which then must be accounted for in the formulation of the psychological theories that inform our work.... According to Vedanta, it is the lack of differentiation of the Self from the psyche and world that is responsible for our pain and suffering, and so the solution to our problems lies ultimately in Self-knowledge. Psychological health in Vedanta depends on this differentiation. To the degree that a person identifies the Self with that which it is not, through either projection or superimposition, to that degree, the person suffers.....


On meditation

When the mind stays on some one object, it means the mind is fully occupied with that object. No other object can have then a place in the mind. Even to keep the mind still like that is certainly a difficult process. This is actually the penultimate step to `dispose off' the mind. When a wild animal is jumping and running all around, how do you shoot it? It is difficult. But when it is made to stay at one place, we can easily shoot it. Similarly the mind that is running in all directions should be made to stay at one place in one thought. It does not mean the mind has disappeared then. No, the mind is still there. Only instead of dwelling on various things it is now full of one and only one thought. This is the prerequisite to what I call the `disposal' of the mind. After this the mind has to be vanquished totally. That is when Realisation takes place -- Realisation of the Atman. In other words the being as a JIva goes and the being as Brahman sprouts. This process of stopping the mind at one single thought and then vanquishing even that thought in order to dispose off the mind along with its roots is a Himalayan achievement. Our scriptures very often refer to "anAdyavidyA-vAsanayA", meaning "because of vAsanAs of ignorance going back to beginningless antiquity". This is the reason for the dirt of the mind being so thick and dense. Removal of that dirt is no doubt a most difficult job. However, if we persist with our efforts, by the Grace of God, if not in this life, maybe in a later life, that
noble of goal of Brahman-realisation, that is, the realisation that we ourselves are Brahman and being–in-Brahman happens."