jai saimaster!

Uttam garu, I'm a bit lost on how to move forward. I like starting afresh whenever I'm lost. I hope I can do that here too..

I request everyone to break the shackles here a little. I'm doing that, so I feel I can suggest it to others too. Please speak out your mind. I will try and make sure that I don't unintentionally, by habit, try to sound holy or sincere or a good person. I request you to do the same.

Can any holybook or a mahatma help us if we don't have any interest in what they are saying? If we read the subject books for the sake of marks then we may get the marks but we don't get the gist of that subject. Hence, we do not actually know the subject. It is my feeling that we are only trying for marks infront of mahatmas. I feel that unless we have a strong reason to find out from mahatmas, we do not actually know anything from them. Whatever we do with them, we only make it sound holy. But it isn't. When we are asked why TV/movies are bad, what is our intensity behind our answer that it is bad? Do we search for the answers from the previous discussions or do we talk from sadness of the downfall of entire humanity? I'm not saying that we should watch tv or movies but that we have not found out the extent of damage done by the entertainment.

Is satyanveshana the reason that we approach mahatmas? We read that the one who is satyanveshi is the one closest to master. But did that change us? Soon we will complete reading the books. But will we change after that? May be a little. But I feel it will not take much time before we go back to normal. So why does one want to do satyanveshana? Is it done voluntarily? Like from april 1st to april 30th, I will do satyanveshana? [If the guru is physically instructing us, then it is a different case. (even in that case, one does not know that he is doing satyanveshana and hence it happens involuntarily). But for most of us, there is no guru physically available]. Satyanveshana, as I feel, is triggered in the mind from the surroundings. But we have become so much adjusted to the surroundings that it does not cause much problem for us. What we are trying to do here is to relook at the society, relook at our own life, relook all those things which we have taken for granted. And hence, I'm asking, what is it that we want out of life?

What is it that we want out of life?
We want food and shelter. We want house. We want means of transport. May be a car, mostly a good one. And may be little decoration to the house. Having a garden is not that bad. We may be doing some good to the nature that way. Infact I'm thinking about a gated community so that there is security also. And ofcourse you know this is all not possible without a nice job. And you cannot take it lightly about the schools and colleges that are near by and are good for the children. Ok, enough of it. If we have to strip ourselves off this, then there is something else which we need to strip ourselves from. That is god. I'm not asking to not to believe (or whatever that means) god any more. I'm asking if we can, for a moment, have the mind of a 'nobody' to start looking into what that 'nobody' wants?

Who am I to say all this, you ask? I took the wrong journey. That too little deeper. And I see now how difficult is stop from continuing the wrong journey. And I see many of us going in the same journey. I want to point it out to you and to myself too that this is the wrong journey.

jai saimaster!

jai saimaster!


Yes uttam garu. I'm asking if we really feel this as a deep problem. If we don't feel this as an urgent problem to be resolved, we cannot go forward and ask what we want in life. Because, without seeing the depth of the problem, we do not have a very good reason to find out what we actually want. Yes sir, we understood from VV that we are not satyanveshi. But is that a problem not to be a satyanvesi? If we feel so, then we will go ahead and find out what we want actually in life. Else, we do not have a very good reason to find out what we actually in life.

Ok, lets wait. But not sure if babu garu would join before few more days as he said earlier. And I'm not sure if others are free enough to find time for this discussion. Anyway, Lets wait.

jai saimaster!

Jai Sai Master.

Raghuram garu.  The question of "What do we want in our life" should be a very easy one for anyone to answer. But we are talking about the question keeping the Spirituality is in our minds. I just shared about the request of breaking shackles. You are doing that as we can see very clearly. That is great. You have already contemplated about the question of what do we want. We also should do that. Then only we can move further in positive inquiry. I explained about it as any given topic brings us back to the beginner stage where we dont have much to express or share. There is nothing to go beyond what is expressed till we get positive thoughts. Presence in Satsang place helps to get such positive thoughts from fellow Guru Bandhus.

As of now I am thinking more about coming to the neutral state of mind with the support of reading 'Vignana Veechikalu' and if time permits 'Edi nijam'. It gives me scope to come back into this thread and participate in the future discussions.

We are also referring few good sources to understand the current question.

One source: http://www.belurmath.org/gospel/chapter05.htm

Reassurance to householders
Malady of worldly people and its cure
Disagreements necessary for enriching life
Doing good to others (This is where Sri Ramakrishna talks about What do we have to do with our wants to certain extent.

Jai Sai Master.

Jai Sai Master.

Raghuram garu,

This is the right attitude I should develop. I am working on my thought process especially with focus on few of my inhibitions and communication which are big hurdles for Swadhyaya.


Thanks for sharing.

Jai Sai Master.

Jai Sai Master.

Raghuram garu,

I am going through the references Babu garu gave earlier. It is taking long time as I am continuing with my regular Paarayana. One way I am happy with the correlation I am able to find and other way I am not able to think myself. I am looking for at least couple of days of quiet time to think what I read.

We are all students here Raghuram garu. Why sir between us? 

Jai Sai Master.

Jai Sai Master

Raghuram garu,

That should be fine. Usually we dont address each other with sir. It was only a request from my side.

Jai Sai Master.

Jai Sai Master.

Dear Guru Bandhus,

As there are no further contributions in this thread, I am trying to take another approach to continue the thread till the discussion picks up. Please let me know if this is the right approach.

Right now I started reading initial chapters of Vignana Veechikalu, Matam Enduku and Buddha Dhyana Hurdayam at the same time. In Buddha Dhyana Hrudayam I am reading first two chapters as per Babu garu suggestion, in Matam  Enduku  chapter "Manakemi Kaavali?" and Second chapter in Vignana Veechikalu "Indryanubhavamu-daani vastavikata" as a part of combined study.

What I find interesting is all three Books especially these chapters are discussing about closely related aspects of Human life.

Something like this

Matam Enduku chapter talks about What exactly we need?
Buddha Dhyana Hrudayam explains about the nature of mind.
Vignana Veechikalu elaborates about much more finer details about our perceptions.

I am not yet sure about the question "What do we want" because I am still thinking about my role, my role's boundaries and my dharmam. My mind is too far from understanding why Babu garu advised me to read Buddha dhyana Hrudayam. This is quiet natural for a lazy man like me as I just want to do my regular daily tasks without much thinking.

With that laziness in my mind and confidence in Babu gari suggestions, I am trying to read very slowly. At the same time I would like to present my understanding about these chapters  in this thread( I will share slowly about Vignana Veechikalu chapter in Combined study thread). Initially all I can do is share with loose translation to encourage every one to contribute their thoughts and questions. Is this a good idea? Please let me know.

Here I try to share my loose translation from the initial pages of Buddha Dhyana Hrudayam. This may not take us to the current topic immediately but I believe it will bring us back by the end of these chapters.

There are three principles of Buddha's teachings:

1.Know the nature of mind which is close to one's self but complex to understand.

2.Transforming the mind (which appears very easy to change but very difficult to do so) in a proper way.

3.In spite of the mind caught in many attachments, preparing it to reach a stage where it can be ready for salvation.

These fundamental principles of Buddha is put into one single sentence "Shraddha kaligi vundu ("Be in a state of attention" or "Have a attentive mind").

But where should I be attentive? And how I can be attentive all the time?

Entire Buddha's teachings answer these questions. Having proper remembrance or understanding (referred the Telugu dictionary for the meaning of "Smriti") is the only way.

We need not think Smriti as something very advanced state of Spirituality. This is something we all common people experience it every day. Anything that has effect on us wakes us to recognize that object. This is the fundamental form of attentiveness. Our awareness(eruka) starts due to this.

Slowly with this basic recognition or attentiveness,our remembrance expands to not only the properties of the object but also the relationship with that object. Then the present experiences will bring and coordinate with the remembrance of the past feelings about that object. This is called "Associated Psychology". Our memory power and recognition participate in this process.

And the second stage is Abstract thinking where we just think about the established property(Dharma) of the object. For example when we see any white objects, we think about the basic common property called white. In this second stage, there are four factors:

1. Recognizing the details of the object.
2. Our feelings(Bhavam)/our likes and dislikes about that particular object
3. Group of remembrances(Smriti sanchayam) that wake up due to our likes and dislikes
4. Finally thinking about the basic properties of the objects in these remembrances.

This is the stage where common people always live in.

In all these, influential and important aspect is (I can not translate the below sentence, I request anyone to translate ..)

ఆ వస్తువులకాధారంగా  ఒక శాశ్వతమైన  పదార్థం ఉన్నదని, ప్రాణులలో వ్యక్తిత్వమున్నదని తలచటమే.

People who do not enlighten their minds further by following Buddha Dharma will stay in the second stage only.

Here I stop. Master garu proceeds by explaining about the third stage i.e. Samyak Drusti(Right understanding). I am eager to read that part very soon. I am also referring threads Babu garu has already explained about Samyak Drusti.

I believe this will give me some clarity to think about the current topic. Please feel free to advice anything that will put us in the right direction.

Jai Sai Master.