Question:
Can we speak on psychosomatic diseases like anxiety etc.? It’s genesis and preventions.
Why do we have the habit of liking of happiness? Why aren’t we contended? Why do we feel we lack something?
Is there any co-relation of following rituals of Ekadashi to reduce the ill effects of Purnima and Amavasya?
Is there something like over-motivation and what its effects are though I’m enjoying it.
Feeling of zero-ness; when you’re neither happy nor sad. Being in neutral state; neither negative nor positive. Is this good or bad? Is this state imaginary or real?
Have we been conditioned to be over achiever or be over-motivated?
Discussion:
The lines of the equator, longitudes and latitudes are all imaginary but they give structure to orient space which is used in aviation. So, imagination does not mean it is wrong. In spirituality imagination is equal to truth. Imagination is one truth and experience is the other truth. There are levels of truths. We believe that the dreams, imagination, fiction, myths etc are not truths but they could be right. All our inventions started with imagination. This was subsequently either proved or validated.
The person asking if the zero state is good or bad shows that the person is not in zero state or neutral state. One who has reached the zero state will not evaluate the state. So should we be talking about the zero state when we are not in the zero state? ‘hosh ki baaten karenge hosh mein aane ke baad’…zero ki baatein karenge zero mai aane ke baad. Otherwise, it will all be an imagination. Some things can’t be understood by discussions, you have to experience it.
Next question on following Ekadashi niyams for Purnima and Amavasya:
Our scriptures describe the rituals from Ekadashi to shivratri. Our annamaya kosh is made of pruthvi and jal tatva and mann is made up of agni tatva. So, the questions are what affect does the movements of the moon have on our mann and how does our sadhana, upasana and food eating counter those affects?
Agni tatva and moon both are the karak of mann and the phases of the moon can affect the mann. To calm the agni or mann tatva more jal tatva helps. More pruthvi tatva will make it burn more. Fasting helps to reduce the pruthvi tatva of the body and increase the jal tatva. If the jal tatva is adequate or balanced in our body then the turmoils caused by the moon on jal tatva will be reduced. Just like moon’s effect on the movement of the waves of the sea (jal), similarly it affects the jal tatva of our body too. So the fasting on ekadashi helps negate the ill effects of the moon on the body during Purnima and Amavasya. Tapioca (sabudana is consumed during fast as it is neither vegetation (Vanaspati) nor grain (dhaanya). But eating a lot during fasts nullifies the benefits of fasting. Consuming more fluids like juices and fruits (water content is high) are recommended during fasts to balance the jal and pruthvi tatva of the body. Upvaas also comes from the word upaasana. Upvaas=upa+vaas; upa means next to or sub(under) , vaas=vastavya or that which we live with. The process of fasting tells us that our chetana (consciousness) gets impure more because of the mann than because of the body. The damages caused by the disturbed mind can be balanced by sadhana, upasana (worship), upvaas (fast), jap (chant), seva (service), daan (donation). Salt consumption is not recommended because then we can cook different things and eat, which negates the purpose of fasts. Upasana (worship) is the nutrition for the chetana which needs to be focused on. Purnima and Amavasya are times for sadhana because the necessary attributes for the body; saiyam (self–restraint) and niyantran (control) are tested.
Next question on why we don’t feel contended or don’t feel we have enough and we want more and more endlessly. Are we conditioned to keep wanting more?
This want for more and not being contended even when we are comfortable is a phenomenon of the current times. It is an acquired attitude in the last hundred years. In earlier times we were easily contended and took/used only what was essential. The Mughals enslaved us physically but the British enslaved us mentally. Mentally enslaved person cannot have self-beneficial behavior. The mentally enslaved person sees the conservative orthodox ways as the benchmark and cannot be progressive.
Our gurukuls were functioning even in the Mughal empire. These learning centers were rejuvenated in every era by someone. Ramdas Swamiji built Hanuman mandirs and created vyaayaam shaala (exercise centers) because he realized that these were essential for spiritual growth. Mandir (temples) were learning centers for spirituality. Pravachan (sermons), kirtan (devotional singing), Prabodhan (enlightenment), nama smaran (chant) were practiced to imbibe ‘samskaar’ on the mann. When mann evolves it leads to the development of the buddhi (intellect). Buddhi is more like a slave of mann. When we give more importance to the development of buddhi and don’t expand the mann then, the mann becomes notorious and doesn’t let the buddhi (intellect) be calm. What we call moments of happiness and moments of achievements is an evaluation of the situation. As soon as the buddhi evaluates the situation, mann instigates the buddhi for more. Targets are set by the buddhi and mann say it is apoora (incomplete). The target setting buddhi is our compass which shows us the right direction. [The directions of the compass: Uttar means resolution, purva means prior, Paschim means pashchaat or behind, and Dakshin means be daksh or be careful.]
When buddhi develops it becomes ahankar (ego) and mann develops it reduces ahankara. One who has developed emotionally will seem less egoistic. Buddhi, mann and ahankara are all in your manomaya kosha, (chitta is in karanmaya kosha). When the buddhi from the manomaya kosha says that I have achieved, it feels it is great with ahankara, at that moment, immediately mann flips it and shows something bigger or better to achieve.
Millionaires and wealthy businessmen also feel they are not rich enough. They feel insecure about losing money and the fluctuating share market. They are afraid of losing their position in the listing. These figures are transient and the position is as imaginary as the equator and the grid of the world. Their measures of success are also not permanent. Similarly, buddhi is in the fear of losing what it has and ahankara refuses to lose; mann doesn’t let you live in peace. Mann keeps showing more distractions and aspirations. Like the Sensex, our mann too keeps fluctuating. This dil-hai-ki-maanta-nahi is like the changing figures of the Sensex. An intelligent investor sells when the price is high which leads to the price to drop and when the price is low, he buys again. Someone who can alert to these ups and downs will survive in the market else he is better off with holding on to mutual funds. Similarly, mann causes the buddhi to decline and buddhi tries to rise again. Ahankara helps maintain this process. This fluctuation of ups and downs keep continuing and we realize we never attain the zero-state; we are either in profit or in loss. People don’t invest in shares to lose. But when they lose, they don’t quit and wait to gain again whereas, chances are that a winner might exit the market.
Analogy: when a difficult question is asked to a meritorious student and a dumb student to which both don’t know the answer, not knowing the answer is a matter of insult to the meritorious student and he is afraid of losing face because of it but the other one has nothing to lose so is not affected by not knowing the answer.
The buddhi feels insulted and goes in search of the answers and it is a wild goose hunt. Buddhi tries its best to help you achieve your best or find your answers or fulfil your ambitions whereas mann tries to put you down. Ahankar takes benefit of both and says I have everything. When we get caught-up in this triangle of buddhi, mann and ahankara, you are never going to be satisfied. In other words, your jeevatma never lets you remain happy. Our mann is already fluctuating, on top of that we have become ambitious and we live in a competitive environment where we will always find someone better than us.
Story of Bill Gates and Warren Buffet: Biil Gates being wealthy, unknowingly made Warren Buffet who had come to make a donation to Gate’s foundation. Buffet waited and then handed a huge cheque to Gates who was surprised and asked why doesn’t Buffet start his own foundation. Buffet was humble and said he didn’t need to as Gates already had one and he could just donate to it,.One who understands humility will not get caught up in the ego tussle of making a mark in the world. We nurture our aham and buddhi is never satisfied as mann is instigating it for more.
Earlier, say hundred years back, the one who gave to the needy more was considered wealthy. After the British came, the one who acquired and accumulated more was considered wealthy. This was followed by oppressing others to acquire more and more. The British realized that to break the Indian spirit it was necessary to work from ground zero; our gurukuls and education system were destroyed by them.
Buddhi works according to the situation. Education started to lack wisdom and the line between needs and wants was forgotten. The personal view of Prabodh sir is that wisdom means to balance his income and expenses in such a way that on his deathbed his bank balance is zero. Buddhi thinks accumulation of riches is being wealthy and supports parigraha (amassing more than one needs). We are cursed when we don’t follow the yam-niyam. So how much ever we get, we feel it is less, be it love, prestige, money etc. This makes us feel less grateful and we stop being in the attitude of gratitude. We tend to complain more and focus more on what is lacking. We don’t acknowledge what we already have and take it for granted. We stop using what we have and try to acquire what we don’t have. We should rather enjoy and distribute what we have first and then try to get more. We don’t stop and enjoy what we have. For eg. Student strives for one exam and immediately starts to prepare for the next. All this is because of the competitive environment which teaches us to keep striving for more without pausing for contentment and happiness. People don’t stop competing with the one ahead of them. They don’t realize that they don’t have to compete and can be happy where they are. Whatever I try to acquire to feel great will not give me happiness. We will be happier when we can do something for others and distribute for the benefit of others. We have to develop the attitude of giving rather than receiving.
Next topic of striving to do more without the thought of retiring:
The concept of retirement came from the Britishers for the service/servant class. People should ideally be retired on the basis of their inability to contribute rather than basis of age. Service means job and can have an end date but service also means seva or social service which has no retirement age. This concept of job creates mental slavery as they are dependent on the employment. British created our mindset to be employment seekers. Real education enables you to become an employment giver. Education institutes that boast of good campus placements are creating efficient servants. The attitude of having a good job can only create servants who cannot become wealthy. Being wealthy is an attitude not a state of being. A well-paid employee might be less happy than an independent business person who doesn’t earn as much but then the comparison is created on the amount of earning. Your needs will always remain basic despite what you earn, rest accumulated riches are spent on exhibitionism or accumulating in the bank for the next generation. The next generation, knowing there is enough accumulated, will turn lazy. So, earn only as much as you need and you’re wealthy as you don’t have to ask or beg or steal or be dependent on others for fulfilling your needs. This way your self-esteem is maintained. In olden days, multi-taskers were called ‘ashtaavadhaan’, ‘shatavadhaan’ where avadhaan meant awareness. People who multi-task keep becoming skilled in what they do and their capacity or awareness to do more increases and they excel at that too tirelessly. This is the journey towards ‘sadhana’ or ‘siddhi’. Others who can’t manage this will belittle and criticize and try to ‘normalize’ the one who can do it. They try to bring down the super-normal abilities to base level of normal. Turn a deaf ear towards such people. The ones who can do it are either ‘sadhana-siddha’ or ‘krupa-siddha’. The ones who are sub-normal will be condemned and super-normal will also be criticized. This was the state of all the saints as they were super-normal and were either feared/condemned or revered. Society is normal or average and is driven by normality. They don’t understand super-normality and so believe it cannot exist, e.g. Can’t see God so can’t believe in it. Similarly, they don’t believe you have the capacity or potential to do so many things. They will ask you to cut down work on the basis of their limitations, e.g a lazy person will ask you to do less work.
Next question on zero state:
People who can work in areas requiring both right brain and left brain are blessed with an activated mid-brain. Mid-brain activity is the seat of extra sensory perception and intuition. Left brain is analytical, right brain is abstract and philosophical and mid-brain connects to higher realms of existence. Till you don’t use both the sides of the brain the mid-brain doesn’t get activated. This activation is easier for children than adults as adults will have to unlearn a lot. Mid-brain was activated in gurukuls where they were taught both brain activities. Worldliness (prapanch) is left brain activity and spirituality is right brain and mid brain is being in a continues state of awareness. Science has been a focus in the last few decades and that is a left-brain activity. These people condemned right-brain people saying that they lack the understanding of left-brain activities like math and science. Right brain activity like literature wasn’t considered intelligent enough.
Talk on math and abstract:
6,5,4,3,2,1 if add these we get 21. The sum of cubes of all these numbers is 441. Square root of 441 is 21. These numbers are also there in spirituality; trigunn, shatt vikaar, pancha praan, etc.
Cube of 7 added to cube of 3 will also give 441. 7 represents sapta dhatu and 3 represents trigunn. The cube is the trikaal; past, present and future. Maths and spirituality are very close to each other. When the left brain of maths and right brain of spirituality connect it causes aadhyatmik samikaran (spiritual realization/ making sense).
Next topic on psychosomatic illnesses.
All the diseases …..
We get a stomach upset after eating something but others who ate the same thing too were not affected; we got infected with something where others remained unaffected in the same circumstances. This shows that the entry point of our illness is our mann being weak at that moment of eating or being bit. Immunity was compromised that is why we fell ill. The entry point of our physical illness is our weak mental frame at that moment. Off guard immunity is because of the soma (body) getting affected by the weak psycho (mind).
Earlier we spoke about the Ekadashi fast, that was working on the soma so that the psycho could be balanced. Soma is the annamaya kosha, psycho is the mannomaya kosha. In this we have the pranamaya kosha. Both are inter-dependent and taking care of one will positively affect the other. Bless and trust the food you eat that it will nourish you. Eating poison in this way might reduce its poisonous effect too.
Conclusion:
Poot sapoot toh kyu dhan sanchay, poot kapoot toh kyu dhan sanchay. (don’t earn for the next generation)
Only very busy people find time to do more.
Buddhi is a slave to help us live in the prapancha. It should not be given too much importance.
Emotional development will reduce ahankara.
Wealthiness is in giving not accumulating. The one who can more to others to help them is wealthier.
Mid-brain is the fulcrum between right and left brain and we should be able to balance it.
When the mid-brain is active it helps you be in a state of calm and equilibrium and enjoy your work. Sound sleep is an indication of active mid-brain.
