Vedanta Rocks -21 > Play with the innocence of dreams

Part 21 of 46

The dreaming self, is like a helpless child.

It doesn’t pass judgement or have the power to discriminate or apply any kind of critical analysis “Guarding his vital self with his breath… the luminous immortal one glides out. He goes wherever he pleases, this golden luminous one, flying like a lonely swan on the expanse of dreams.”
Brihadaranyaka Upanishad 43-12

The dreaming mind is a beautiful state of being. It holds a great reservoir of unused potential. It can delight your senses, take you on fantastic voyages, regale you with incredible experiences, and lead you into the light of your inner self. Vedanta has great respect and regard for the dreaming mind. It does not dismiss it as an irrational phase of sleep, where strange visions are seen and heard. A student of Vedanta is urged to nurture, protect and revere his dreaming self and use it as a vehicle to glide into domains beyond the ken of human imagination.

Your waking mind is smart and competent, but your dreaming mind is innocent as a child. In fact your residual innocence, if at all it exists at your age, is mostly in your dreaming mind. The dreaming mind does not pass judgment or have the power to discriminate or apply any kind of critical analysis. All those faculties are with your waking mind.

The dreaming self, in many ways is helpless as a child.

How would you look after an innocent child? Would you expose it to a violent street fight, for example? If you do, won’t you expect the child to have fantasies and fears over what has happened? The same happens to your dreaming self.

Your first task is to keep the dreaming mind pure and detoxed. If you allow the dreaming self to become locked with your street level ego, if you keep it stressed with your fears and hopes, it will distort itself willingly for your sake, but when you sleep, it will release the accumulated stress in the form of weird dreams. Keep a constant watch on your self, especially when your ego collides with reality around you. Dissolve the emotional nicks and cuts before they bleed. That’s the way to protect your dreaming self.

Don’t pollute it with your local — this day’s, this minute’s ego problems — which in all likelihood will not exist the next day or the next minute. Your waking mind will forget and move on, your dreaming mind will hold on to them like a child.

The secret of keeping your dreaming mind pure and detoxed is by remembering that a little child walks with you wherever you go. You are old enough to protect yourself, but then you have to protect the child also. To keep the child happy and laughing you have to live pure, think pure. You can’t remain locked in viciousness and hope the child won’t notice. You have to gradually become more relaxed, more forgiving, more accepting. In time your dreaming mind will become relaxed and carefree.

You will experience this happiness when you sleep. Waves of peace will carry you away and gently drop you on the shores of tomorrow. A day will come when you can actually harness the beauty and power of your dreaming state, and move with that innocence into the radiant source of your being.

The sad truth is that we live such overloaded lives during our waking hours, the dreaming self has been crowded out of existence. We punish our bodies and minds to the limit, overdosing it with food, caffeine, alcohol or too much TV.

It is little wonder that after a certain age, many people need little blue and pink pills to sleep in the first place. The delicate balance of the twin selves, the waking and dreaming minds, is irreparably damaged.

Our mind and body slips out of harmony, leaving the field wide open for disease to set in.

Sometimes I wonder if any one of us can experience what Yajnavalkya taught Prince Janaka 35 centuries ago. Those were different times indeed.

People kept to the circadian rhythms of day and night. The world was probably a lot simpler and less confusing than it is for us today.

Yajnavalkya first taught the prince how to protect his dreaming self until it was pure and detoxed. Then he taught him a special breathing technique, and urged the prince to go into sleep using the breathing technique.

“Guarding his vital self with his breath…” Janaka would have touched his dreaming self, and with all the delight of a child on a giant wheel for the first time, actually sailed off into realms vast and wonderful. “…the luminous immortal one glides out.” What fun. To all who think Vedanta is some serious philosophy stuff… think again! Vedanta just helps you find the keys to your locked up mind, just as Yajnavalkya helped the prince to discover himself.

“…he goes wherever he pleases, this golden luminous one, flying like a lonely swan on the expanse of dreams.”

Janaka is soaring, gliding into realms beyond the ken of human imagination. I can imagine a lone white Himalayan swan, flying across a lake in the moonlight that Yajnavalkya would have seen during his wanderings. The allegory of the lonely swan is beautiful, poetic and mystical. But then that’s how our dreams should be. Beautiful. Poetic. Mystical.

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( Source: Mani Shankar/ Deccan Chronicle, Hyderabad 31st May 2009 )

Vedanta Rocks -20 > Wake up to the secret of harnessing dreams

Part 20 of 46

Svapna sthano antah pragnyah…
Mandukya Upanishad 1-4
“In the dreaming state, the pure intelligence lights up the world within…”
Svapnena sariram

abhiprahatya suptah suptan abhicakasiti
Sukramadaya punaraiti sthanam, hiranmaya purusha, eka hamsa
Brihadaranyaka Upanishad 4-3-11

“The enlightened one leaves behind the dreaming body… rises and glides away into the golden light like a lonely swan glides in the moonlight, alone, majestic and serene.”

The dreaming state is present all the time, even in the waking state, but isn’t visible to the waking mind. It is just like stars are present in the sky during the day but the intense light of the sun blanks them out. At night, when the sun sets, as when we sleep, the stars pop out on the surface of the sky the way dreams pop out on the surface of the mind. The stars were always there… and so are dreams.

If you develop a cool observant nature, if you slow down your mental processes and learn to watch your mind, you can easily observe how dreams flow right below your consciousness all the time. Remember the déjà vu?

Where suddenly you feel ‘this has happened before’? Well, that’s a rare moment when the dreaming state collides with the waking state, resulting in a reality-meets-fantasy situation. To most people, dreams just churn up the debris and frustration of the day. During sleep these debris come floating up and dance on the surface of our minds in the form of weird dreams. We seem to have absolutely no control over them. We cannot stop them from coming, cannot shape their outcome, cannot stop ourselves from believing them to be true as long as it lasts. Our powerlessness and helplessness is painfully visible in the dreaming state. We may be the president of a nation, but in dreams we cannot stop ourselves from becoming a beggar on a street, rolling and crying in agony.

How do you stop this from happening? The Sanskrit term samskara clarifies this subtle process. A samskara is a tiny impression, a little nick, a drop of emotional blood. You gather it by the hundreds each day. Each time your ego collides with reality, it causes a tiny fear, or a hope, or an agony, or a tinge of jealousy, or a pang of guilt, or any of a dozen negative emotions, and a little drop of emotional blood congeals below the surface of your mind.

These nicks, distorted and amplified, are absorbed by the dreaming state which is active all the time. If you have collected many of them during the day, a manic crazy person takes over as you collapse in sleep. This manic person has gorged on these drops of emotional blood, and now rises with wild visions while you cringe and watch like a helpless frightened child.

Is this it? Is this all? Not if you flow with Vedanta. Vedanta expects you to not only control the content of your dreams but master them as well. In fact it expects you to use the power of the dreaming state to touch the source, to become enlightened, to feel the grace of the pure intelligence, and even go beyond, to plunge into deep silence.

How? Well to start with you need to purify the content of your dreams. You need to stop gathering those nicks, those drops of emotional blood. The only way to do this is to keep a watch over your mind all the time. The samskara can happen anytime, anywhere. Remember the old ad for a washing powder where one lady looks at the other and asks herself how the other lady’s dress is whiter? Well for the mind, that is also a samskara.

Someone upstaged you, and you have felt hurt, felt put down for an instant. If at that moment you are alert, you can detect the formation of the samskara and dissolve it before it forms. This is the only way. In fact great masters have repeatedly said that merely observing the samskara is enough to dissolve it.

If you practice this mindfulness, this state of alert observation, you can prevent these nicks and cuts on the mind. You can flow through the day without emotionally bleeding. Then your dreams no longer torment you, no longer throw up weird visions. You sleep peacefully, dreamlessly. Or, better, you take control of your dreaming state, command it to take you into realms beyond the ken of your imagination.

Yajnavalkya teaches the secret of harnessing dreams to Prince Janaka in the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad. It’s a great secret, and an extremely powerful one. It has the power to alter your world. This is something we shall explore next week.

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( Source: Mani Shankar/ Deccan Chronicle, Hyderabad 24th May 2009 )

Vedanta Rocks -19 > Enjoy your world regardless of how good or bad the day is

Part 19 of 46

Jagrita sthano bahis pragna… Sthula bhug vaishvanara prathama padah
‘Gain a mastery over your waking state. Enjoy your world. This is the first step.’
Mandukya Upanishad 1-3

Lots of people take to spirituality as an escape from the rigors of life. But in truth there isn’t any escape possible. After a few soothing moments of temporary (and doubtful) tranquillity, they are back to where they started. The harsh world they tried to run away from comes staring back at them.

Take a long cool look at this business of spirituality. You will realise that whatever you do, wherever you go, you will always remain within your waking state. You will never go beyond to understanding the dreaming state, and are always very far from touching the pure intelligence that runs you. The final state of deep silence, of Infinity remains firmly out of bounds, a virtual impossibility. Vedanta does not allow the luxury of illusion. It doesn’t always tell you what you want to hear. It advocates a path of practical common sense, and tells us never to run away from reality. It urges us to live, enjoy, and eventually master our reality until a time comes when that mastery automatically opens doors to self discovery. What does mastering reality mean? Is it an attempt to gain absolute power and control over our world, where we become the lord and master of all we survey? Not at all.

That never happens in anyone’s life, even the richest and most powerful. The world is always in a fluid state.

Power, wealth and fame comes and goes with a will of its own.

Those who spend a lifetime gaining control become deluded obsessed people. Mastering reality does not mean that at all. Rather it means exactly the reverse. That we do not allow the world to have a control over us.

Whatever be our situation, we retain a sense of independence and freedom that enables us to cherish the depths of our being.

The Sanskrit phrase sthula bhug vaishvanara explains this beautifully. It means ‘enjoy this world and all the happiness it can give you’. When can you enjoy the world? When all other negative emotions are absent. Joy comes only when hate, guilt, anger, jealousy, possessiveness and ego are wiped out. When you develop the right balance of attachment and detachment, of alertness and relaxation, of give and take. When you give up the impulse to dominate and manipulate. When you can learn to let go in the worst of moments and best of moments. When you always have time for laughter and merriment.

When you don’t take life too seriously, or too non seriously. When a state of dynamic equilibrium is reached, where regardless of what happens or does not happen, you can admire a sunrise or a flower or the smile of a child. Yes. If you can truly enjoy your world, regardless of how well or badly the day went, then one fine morning, every fibre of your waking self will spontaneously say yes to the inner self. On that day a door will open, magically. That day the AUM chant will sweetly take you into realms you never knew existed.

Vedanta Rocks- The background story>>

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( Source: Mani Shankar/ Deccan Chronicle, Hyderabad 17th May 2009 )

Vedanta Rocks -18 > Master the waking state to begin the 1,000-mile journey

Part 18 of 46

‘Your waking state — master it first’
Mandukya Upanishad-1-1-9

The simplest, smallest mantra — the AUM, is also the toughest to hold on to. It’s most inaccessible to turbulent minds and near impossible to master. People will experience an irritation when they try the AUM as a silent chant.

It seems as if the surface mind does not need or want this imposition upon itself, and views the chant as a challenge to its freedom. Very soon the mind pulls a trick on the AUM and slips away into other thoughts, leaving the mantra in some irrelevant corner. After a while the individual will either stop chanting, or simply forget it altogether.

This is how the surface mind is. Stubborn, undisciplined and very resistant to any attempts to gain control over itself. In fact the more you try, the more stubborn it gets and the more devious its tricks become. People spend decades sitting in silence yet nothing happens. They just become more miserable, more frustrated than before.

How can we break the firewalls inside the mind and penetrate to the pure Intelligence within? This is the essential challenge before all of us. The ancient Vedantic practice of mastering the waking state — the jagritha sthan provides the key. This is the mindfulness approach. It’s straightforward and effective. If you are not able to meditate on the AUM, observe what else the mind is doing. Just follow the mind like a dog follows its master. Go where it goes. Never leave it out of sight. The mindfulness technique can be very valuable. As you keep following the mind, you also gain a sense of camaraderie with it — a sort of empathy as to why it is unable to stay in one place. This empathy can bring you to contact with your mind. This might sound weird but it is a fact that the mind always controls us. We never question this so we never actually come to contact with our own minds. With the mindfulness technique we detach ourselves from our minds and slowly, eventually achieve a mastery over it.

Behold the awesome power of your waking state — the surface mind. Most people, in a hurry to delve within, ignore this most potent part of their being and suffer as a result. The waking state is where your life happens. This mind is always under great strain. It has to keep worrying about a zillion things all the time.

It has to help you win the battle called your life. If you don’t respect its efforts and just keep saying AUM, it will horsewhip you out of irritation. This is why most so called meditators have strained and pulled down faces. They are trying to meditate blindly and are being punished by their minds as a result. Unless your surface mind wants it you will never be able to open the door to deeper domains. Lao Tze said a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step — well this is that single step. Master your waking state first. Figure out a way to open that door.

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( Source: Mani Shankar/ Deccan Chronicle, Hyderabad 10th May 2009 )

Vedanta Rocks -16/17 > Discover the four layers of your personal universe/ A divine sound that transcends space, time

Vedanta Rocks -16 > Discover the four layers of your personal universe
Part 16 of 46

Akara, ukara makara iti…amatras chaturtho…aumkara
Mandukya Upanishad 1-1-8, and 12
The syllable ‘aa’ the syllable ‘uu’ the syllable ‘ma’…and the syllable without a sound, these are the four syllables
of the sacred mantra Aum
Eka eva tridha smritaha
Gaudapada ‘Karika’

The three states, (the waking, dreaming and pure intelligence) are controlled by the one which is beyond the three.

You are a beautiful creative expression of the deep silence of infinity. You may not be aware of this in your waking or dreaming states, but the pure intelligence that runs your being knows this very well, for its roots are nourished by infinity all the time. At this very moment, if you can somehow touch that pure intelligence, you can reach out into the silence. Touching the deep silence is what is called being enlightened. It is a simple everlasting moment of great joy and a life altering experience. It will release you into a freedom beyond imagination. Deliver a bliss beyond expression. Reveal a truth beyond articulation.This is the essential wisdom of the great Mandukya Upanishad, a wisdom that has been accepted unquestioningly by all eastern religions as the core truth of existence.

The big question is how to make that connection. The other realm seems to be out of bounds for us. All our lives are spent in the waking or dreaming states. We never touch the state of pure intelligence, so reaching the deep silence appears out of question. There isn’t any mechanism that directs our energies inward. The waking state allows us to interact with the world and fulfill our ambitions, but all its energies are expressed into the world outside. The dreaming state seems to be totally useless since it takes us to a weird irrational domain, which vanishes into thin air the moment we wake up.

The Mandukya reveals the connection technique. It is meditation on the syllable Aum. The Aum is the core mantra of Hinduism. It is a most powerful and sacred word. The Aum has the power to take you from the waking state into the deep silence and deliver you into the arms of the infinite.

The Aum has four syllables, each syllable corresponds to each state of being. The ‘aa’ relates to the waking state, the ‘uu’ to the dreaming state, the ‘mm’ to the state of pure intelligence, and the fourth syllable of Aum is the syllable without a sound, the ‘amatras’ (literally ‘that which is beyond a matra or syllable’) that corresponds to the deep silence of infinity. When the Aum is chanted in the mind, it has to be expressed as a combination of the four syllables. Start with the ‘aa’ sound, then slowly morph it to the ‘uu’ sound, then flow into the ‘mm’ sound and then slowly taper the ‘mm’ into silence but keep flowing, for you are now uttering the fourth syllable which is pure silence. Keep flowing into the silence for a long moment before resuming the chant. This is the technique. Let’s discuss its secrets in detail next week.

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( Source: Mani Shankar/ Deccan Chronicle, Hyderabad 19th April 2009 )

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Vedanta Rocks -17 > A divine sound that transcends space, time
Part 17 of 46

Yach chaanyat trikalateetam, tad api aumkara eva
“If there is any state beyond Time, that too is the AUM.”
Mandukya Upanishad 1-1
Advaita evam aumkara eva, samvishaty atmana atmaanam…ya evam veda
“The Source of your self can be felt as AUM, and he who knows this becomes enlightened…this is the truth of the Veda.”
Mandukya Upanishad 1-12

The primordial AUM has remained an enduring mystery even for mystics. Since thirty five centuries no one,including the great masters, has been able to say why AUM works. All they can say is that it does work - it takes the individual into another realm of experience - and reveals visions and truths he will never be able to articulate when he surfaces. The AUM is considered as the Pranava, the primordial resonance of creation, and the Maha Bijakshari, the great seed sound, the first and original expression of the formed universe. The AUM is not of this age or this place. It transcends Time and Space. It can represent the past, the present and the future - or even an unimaginable state where time does not exist.

All this sounds close to a description of the Quantum Domain as described by bewildered physicists who have reached the edge of knowledge - and reason. Indeed, Vedanta has had a profound impact on the minds of the greatest nuclear and particle physicists - like Frank Oppenheimer, Erwin Schrodinger and many others.Its almost as if they took refuge in Vedanta after coming up with bizarre and nexplicable observations. Frank Oppenheimer was the creator of the atomic bomb, and was intrigued to no end by the famous verse of Katha Upanishad, ‘Anor Aniyan, Mahator Mahiyan’- “I am hidden in the atom- but I am unimaginably mighty and powerful.” He could never shake of the notion that Vedanta contained coded secrets that scientists would keep unraveling for generations to come.

Indeed the mystery of AUM may be unraveled someday by a Quantum physicist, applying as yet undiscovered theories about matter and the universe. Meanwhile, lets master the technique without worrying over how and why it works. The AUM is a sweet and beautiful sound, but saying it in the mind isn’t so easy.In fact it’s almost impossible for people who have lived on the surface all their lives. It needs a pre-requisite of silence and inner calm. If you don’t have the calm you can’t chant it. The reverse is also true - if you can repeat it inside your head effortlessly, you are already an evolved person.

For those who cannot intone the AUM easily, there are other techniques - which we shall see next week. To those who can chant the AUM, here are a few tips. Treat the AUM with respect and reverence. Remember to flow with the fourth syllable - which is pure silence. So in effect, with each chant, you must be able to feel the pure silence. As you get better, extend the duration of that silence.

A time will come when you don’t need to chant the AUM anymore. The pure and beautiful silence will ever remain with you at all times.

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( Source: Mani Shankar/ Deccan Chronicle, Hyderabad 3rd May 2009 )

Vedanta Rocks -15> Discover the four layers of your personal universe

Part 15 of 46

“Of the Upanishads, the Mandukya, by itself, is sufficient to enlighten.”
Adi Shankara
“Behold the chatushpat…the four layers of your being”
Mandukya Upanishad 1—1-4

Of all the great works of wisdom which collectively comprise the Vedanta, the Mandukya Upanishad is the smallest. With only 12 short verses, this phenomenal treatise fills up less than a quarter of an A4 page. Yet it ranks among the most potent.

Adi Shankara wrote a comprehensive treatise on it 21 centuries ago. His guru’s guru, Gaudapada also wrote a famous commentary. Every Indian mystic has commented on it, discussed it, been awed by it.

At the heart of the Mandukya is a vibrant model of your personal universe — the Chatushpat. The Sanskrit is easy enough to understand Chatur — four, Pat — way, layer, or quarter. The universe within, called ‘you’, has four layers. Grasp this scientifically, intuitively, emotionally and you are through to the first stage.

You are an entire universe, the roots of which go all the way to infinity. Since you live only on the surface, the waking state, you are unable to figure out the true quality of your being. Below the waking is your dreaming self,where you are vaguely aware of an internal being as images, feelings. Further below is the state of pure intelligence, which manages the 100 trillion cells of your body and knows everything that is happening to you at all times. This intelligence isn’t the brain or your IQ. It’s the stuff that designed your brain and manufactured it from the rice and dal your mom ate when she carried you.

From your waking state you cannot even begin to understand how powerful and complex it must be. The task it performs is truly mind boggling. If somehow you could touch this state of pure intelligence, you would intuitively grasp the extent of your real capability. But this is not all.

Behind this pure intelligence is the deep silence. The infinite. There is an intimate relationship between the two. The first is the deepest part of your finite being. The second is an indefinable part of infinity. It cannot be spoken of or described, but it is the ultimate source of your being. It is also the source of everything else in this universe. In that beautiful way everything and everybody is connected. This, in essence, is the model of your personal universe. Hold it as an abstraction in your mind for a while and let it grow on you.

To most of us the abstraction is as far as we can ever get. Acknowledging the intelligence and the silence is one thing while connecting with it is something else. Even though the intelligence is roaming everywhere, it is accessible nowhere. You cannot measure it, grasp it, or quantify it in any way. It remains till date, among the most elusive mysteries of science.

In fact some believe it is theoretically impossible to connect with because the mind is too small and insignificant to come to terms with an giant intelligence that created the mind in the first place.

The Mandukya Upanishad lays out a connection. A slender but strong lifeline to the deepest most hidden part of you. This is something we shall discuss next week.

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( Source: Mani Shankar/ Deccan Chronicle, Hyderabad 19th April 2009 )

Vedanta Rocks -14 > Compassion opens up path to endlessness

Part 14 of 46

Hrt Ayam iti…tasmad Hrdayam…ahar ahar va evam vit svargam lokam eti
“He is in the heart… and so the heart is full of compassion, anyone who knows this evolves day by day and finds the kingdom within.”
Chandogya Upanishad 8-3-3

The Sanskrit word for the heart is Hridaya, which is a beautiful blend of two words — Hrt and Daya. Hrt means heart. Daya means compassion. Heart and compassion together make the true heart. The implication here is that unless compassion sits in your heart, it isn’t much of a heart. It is just a pump that moves blood around. It’s a physical organ with no great significance.

Why compassion, of all emotions? Why not courage, determination or love? Because of all the feelings that we express, compassion is the only one which is altruistic and unselfish. Compassion gives. All other emotions take. Even love doesn’t come close to it. Love celebrates itself, yes, love energizes the heart, but at the end of the day, plain everyday love is still a selfish emotion.

Unselfish love is compassion. It gives with no regard to getting anything in return. This isn’t an easy emotion to have. All our systems are geared to looking after just ourselves, our families and no one else. It’s the basic principle of life. In a hostile world compassion doesn’t have much place by design. Yet a time should come in our lives when we find place for a little bit of compassion. When we break the manic hold of life’s preprogrammed design to always think of I-me-mine and no one else.

Vedanta says a life full of compassion is a life truly worth living. Compassion opens the heart to its hidden potential. It spreads warmth and energy all around. A healing quality emerges. Such a person acquires a natural aura of being. Surprisingly another principle of life opens up, and we tend to get back whatever we give. It usually comes through another route, in most unexpected ways. Nature seems to be giving back a return gift for every act of kindness. As your heart opens up, everything about you, around you undergoes a magical change and you discern the hidden presence of your true self. Hrt Ayam iti.

Note the elegant play of words. Hrdayam is now expressed as a combination of Hrt and Ayam. Ayam means “He, or this one”. So Hridayam now means “He is in the heart.” When your heart brims with compassion, you begin to discern a truth, beauty and joy beyond description. You go on giving, go on emptying your heart, and find to your surprise that more and more is coming your way. You discover an endlessness — an ecstasy no words can express.

This is the way of the heart. 1500 BC or 2009 AD — hearts and humans have remained the same. It was the way of Jesus, the way of Ramana Maharshi, and the way of thousands of Indian masters — ancient and contemporary. It’s the easiest most accessible way — and wide open to you — right now !

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( Source: Mani Shankar/ Deccan Chronicle, Hyderabad 12th April 2009 )

Vedanta Rocks -13 > Switch off the outside world to find your undisturbed core

Part 13 of 46

Tam akratuh pashyati…
Katha Upanishad 1-2-20
“The undisturbed one arrives at a state of grace effortlessly.”

If you can wake up one fine morning and be naturally silent and still, with no itch, no thought, no frustration, no disturbance, no panic -where you naturally think nothing, do nothing -you have become the akratuh, the undisturbed one. It means you have really truly arrived in this life. In terms of spirit you can count yourself among
a handful of life’s lucky billionaires. You have found an unshakable peace within. Outside you will sense a storm brewing in everyone else’s mind but your own. They will resent your calm, your placid poise. Let them. You have spent a lifetime in sympathetic vibration where you reduced your poise to street-level noise just to be one with the world. It is time to say goodbye.

Five minutes of renunciation is all you need to kick start an irreversible chain reaction that will eventually liberate you. Let the world go jump for five minutes. Take no calls, either on your cellphone or in your head. The latter isn’t easy. The calls in your head will keep ringing, and you will have to struggle to find the switch that turns it off. You will have to pull out the sticky strings that bind you to the world. It’s a tricky gluey web, and all of us are stuck on it. Don’t pull too hard, or a mental spider will bind you some more. That’s the way the mind works. It deceived you into the web, and now you need to deceive it to get out.

Your warped self image was the primary deception. The mind pulled your image into the marketplace to draw you into the web. It gave the world power to alter your image, and the moment you accepted that, you became stuck to it. At first it gave you an illusion of happiness and mirth, for what could be better than to be wanted and respected?

But deep inside all the laughter you could sense a residue of pain. It was the stress of constantly striving to keep up that silly image of yourself to the rest of the world.

So now you deceive the mind to try and get out. Just five minutes, you plead. I will return to the web in five minutes and bind myself in. Keep at it and one day the mind will show you where the off button is located. You will spend perhaps one minute in serenity before the web snakes out and pulls you inside.

Once you taste this freedom you will wrestle with your own mind and negotiate terms. A stiff price will eventually be paid. You will have to renounce your self image before you walk free to a new world of unlimited freedom and creativity. You will become the akratuh, the undisturbed one. It is a price worth paying.

It is your life after all -you’ve been seeing the same old boring you -now see someone totally different.

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( Source: Mani Shankar/ Deccan Chronicle, Hyderabad 5th April 2009 )

Vedanta Rocks -12 > Wisdom is a connection with deepest part of self

Part 12 of 46

Prince Janaka: Sage Yajnavalkya, Have you come to my court to earn gold or to spread wisdom?
Yajnavalkya: I came for both, your majesty.
Brihadaranyaka Upanishad Ch 4.1-1

Most of Vedanta is expressed in a terse ultra compact sutra form with rivers of meaning running in between lines. One needs to unravel it and I have attempted my own creative interpretation using a dramatic tool of dialogue and punch lines. Yajnavalkya’s "unspoken words" have the power to shake the world with their truth, beauty and utter fearlessness.

The prince: Do not speak to me of wisdom yet. Speak to me of the world instead. Speak of so-called wise men, who claim access to gods.
Yajnavalkya: Anyone who claims access to a god is a clever hollow man.

The prince: Why is that?
Yajnavalkya: Because gods are figments of human imagination. The real power, the true source of the universe is beyond mind or words.

The prince: Well said. Tell me, is it not true that most of the so-called pious men are in truth pretenders?
Yajnavalkya: Yes it is true.

The prince: How can I know if I am really pious and not a pretender?
Yajnavalkya: Watch over your dreams prince. If by day you feel virtuous and by night you frolic in wild fantasies, you are surely a pretender, for a man may control his desires, not his dreams.

The prince: There are frauds among holy men who can sense a devotee’s fears and hopes. These people can hook a victim the way a fish is hooked with a bright insect of desire. What do you say of them?
Yajnavalkya: If you are willing to be a fish, then you deserve the hook, your majesty. It is not the fisherman’s fault, but your own. He was merely hungry. You were greedy.

The prince: Yajnavalkya, you say you came for gold…isn’t that contrary to wisdom?
Yajnavalkya: Even wise men need a bit of gold to get by in life. We don’t live on air, as some would like you to believe.

The prince: Tell me, how shall I address you? As divine master, great teacher...
Yajnavalkya: Call me directly by my first name. I want no titles.

The prince: Why?
Yajnavalkya: Spare me from my vanity, prince. Men like me get giant size egos easily.

The prince: What about women? Are you celibate?
Yajnavalkya: Why should anyone be celibate? I love the company of women.

The prince: If you are so worldly, how can you be wise?
Yajnavalkya: A man of wisdom delights in the world without drowning in it. All wisdom is essentially an attitude — a connection with the deepest part of your own self. The world will always remain the same, whatever happens. It is your attitude to it that will change.

Silence.

Yajnavalkya: Sir, if you have finished with the interrogation, ask me a real question.

The prince: What?
Yajnavalkya: Ask to be taught to live, to love, to rejoice, to become innocent again, to discover a deep happiness within, to connect with this endless universe, to arrive at a beautiful state of being where you accept each moment with grace and joy.

I came to teach you that and take away the gold of course.

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( Source: Mani Shankar/ Deccan Chronicle, Hyderabad 29th March 2009 )

Vedanta Rocks -11 > Depths of your true self hide in your heart

Part 11 of 46

‘Abhayam hi vai Brahma
bhavati… ya evam veda’
"When fear evaporates completely, you touch the source of your self. This is the wisdom of the Veda".
Yagnavalkyas teaching to the young prince Janaka,
Brihadaranyaka Upanishad

I will not separate you from your precious ambitions. I know that ambition is the fuel that flows in your veins. It ignites the fire that keeps you alive. You would rather die than part with them."

"I will not separate you from your fears either. It will rip your heart out if I do. I know how much you have entwined yourself into them. Your fears prod you when you slacken, keep you disciplined when you go weak. It is your chief weapon in the battle of life."

"I wont touch your fantasies too, for they power your dreams and even though you suspect they might never come true, it’s magical to be drunk in their heady fragrance."

"But give me your anger, give me your jealousy, give me the blood lust, hand over the hatred, shed the venom that sits in your throat, drop it this moment."

"I will take away the hatred, clean the bile of frustration that pours out everyday. I will cure your addictions, the craving for toxins that have burnt your brain, your opiates, your fortified wines, and the even deadlier poisons your body creates, the burn in the gut, the wild thumping in your chest, venoms that will wither you like a twig well before your time."

"I will heal you. I will repair those deep wounds in your heart. I will sharpen your sword and straighten the shield and when you are ready I will send you into the arena again."

"Not to get torn apart but to fight with a clean mind, fight with a song in your lips without a care in this world. You will laugh at a moment of defeat, shrug in a moment of victory with eyes full of compassion, heart quivering with joy, you will rise into each day as if it’s your last."

"Yet even in this exalted state you will still be blind. You will not know who you are, where you came from or where you will go when this life ends."

"Now I will return and ask for your fears. I will coax it out of every nerve ending. I will defeat your every logic, knock out every argument and make you see the futility of being afraid. With anger and hatred gone, jealousy stamped out, the wild fires have been extinguished. My task is easier. You will resist at first, then slowly you will shed them one by one till there isn’t a shred of fear left in you at all."

"I don’t need your ambitions. You may keep them. With your fears vanished, they are just cherished goals. You won’t waste a moment’s sleep if they don’t happen."

"What else? Oh the philosophies...where you came from and all that..."

"Behold the depths of your true self hiding in your heart. All is already here. It was always here, you didn’t have the peace to see it. You are already that. No more words are needed. The silence will be your teacher and the song your life. This beautiful silence and that heady song...it’s All."

"Ya evam veda. This is the wisdom of the Veda, prince Janaka. Rise into it."

Previous Posts >>

( Source: Mani Shankar/ Deccan Chronicle, Hyderabad 22nd March 2009 )

Vedanta Rocks -10 > Deep silence dwells in the womb of noise

Part 10 of 46
Creative ideas flow out of the deep silent mind within and if we want to be creative, we need to discover the silence from which all thoughts are born.

‘Discover the silence within the noise’ Yagnavalkya’s teachings to Janaka, Brihadaranyaka Upanishad

SILENCE and noise seem like two opposites. You can’t have one when the other is present, right? If there is clamour all around, how can there be silence? And if it is quiet, how can there be noise? Yet these opposites always coexist. This is one of the paradoxes of life.

Firstly, all noise is internal. It’s a mental creation and has nothing to do with the decibel level outside. The source of your noise is the everyday mind. It’s the mind we wake up to, the mind we dream with.

This mind is always drowned in the clamour. Even if there is feather drop silence outside, the mind can create its own deafening and noisy thoughts. Likewise, when a battle rages outside and a soldier is hit and falls to his death, he probably discovers a silence so profound, all the howitzers and gunfire cannot disturb him anymore.

All silence is also internal. It has nothing to do with the decibel levels outside. You could be in a market or a rave party or a board room, your ability to discover silence amidst noise is what will separate you from the crowd.

Your level of silence is a personal statement. It is an expression of your creative appreciation of this moment. It defines your state of evolution in this life.

Silence comes from a deeper mind, just as thoughts come from a surface mind. This has to be understood intuitively. If you allow yourself to feel silence now, you will automatically touch that mind from which nothing emanates but pure silence. You will discern it as profound and beautiful. You will also figure out that all thoughts emerge from this deep quiet, play for a while on the surface, and merge back into it, much like waves rise from the waters and merge with it again.

If you flow into this silence, you will also touch the fountain of creativity.

Notice how creative people behave. A music director, before creating a new tune, will always fall into a deep silence, then gently rise with a tune. A poet before getting into a writing frenzy will always reflect and move about for a while in silence.

Ask yourself, where are their original ideas coming from? From existing thoughts? No chance. If it was known already it wouldn’t be original. Our creative ideas always flow out of the deep silent mind within and if we want to be more creative, we need to discover that silence from which all thoughts are born.

This doesn’t mean we reject noise. Noise is life. It is the marketplace where we live our emotions, where we toil and sweat, rejoice and weep, hate and love.

Life without the noise would be unbearable. The secret as always is to strike a balance, to flow in and out of both silence as well as the noise.

Vedanta rocks. Discover the silence within the noise and use it to express yourself creatively in the world outside.

Previous Posts >>

( Source: Mani Shankar/ Deccan Chronicle, Hyderabad 8th March 2009 )

Vedanta Rocks -9 > Open your eyes to life's sameness in differences

Part 9 of 46

'Ritam Vadishyami’…I will speak the truth contained in all rhythms.

Invocation of Taithiriya Upanishad Each sweep of the broom brings with it a hundred tiny differences. The sound of the sweeping is a rhythm, yet it never sounds the same.

LIFE REPEATS itself endlessly yet nothing is ever the same. Every night turns into day, yet no sunrise is the same. A day has 86,400 seconds, yet no two moments are the same. Our lives are full of endless routine, yet no act, however many times you have done it before, is ever the same.

There is a mindset that seeks out the differences in sameness and there is a set mind that seeks sameness in different things. The first is unique, it is the creative mind. The second is the jaded everyday mind going about its chores, complaining that life is boring.

Which mindset is yours? Do you seek differences in sameness? If you do so, you walk the path of existential truth. You are not only creative, you live the ‘truth contained in all rhythms’.

What is that truth? It is an awareness of the richness, the uniqueness of life and every moment contained in it. You can’t put it into so many words, but you can celebrate it by living it up. A sweeper in a courtyard can feel its joy just as much as a president of a country. Let us celebrate with the sweeper for a moment. Each sweep of the broom brings with it a hundred tiny differences.

The sound of the sweeping is a rhythm, yet it never sounds the same. The moving leaves form a pattern so unique they will never be repeated.

There is an essential uniqueness in each sweep of the broom that can be enjoyed, celebrated.

Sounds like too much hype on a Sunday morning? Then give the broom to a seven-year-old child. Watch the child enjoy each sweep as if it is something fantastic — something out of this world. The child can enjoy the sweeping because it can appreciate the uniqueness of each sweep. It lives out the existential truth contained in rhythms while we struggle to grasp it. The child was you once upon a time. A time when you noticed the
differences in sameness. When you could live, simply, joyously, with no need of any philosophies.http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif

You can start afresh today. Try it out and see how life changes. Notice the rhythms, the endlessly repeating patterns in your home or workplace, then notice the differences in the sameness.

Start by feeling and doing any one rhythm differently. Whether it’s a hello to your colleague, or the way you start your motorbike or the way you comb your hair or the way you think about a person. Once you get into this groove of seeing and doing the difference, you will start enjoying the uniqueness of each repetitive act and life will open itself again. You will jump out of the jaded mindset and live in a creative joy.

Vedanta rocks. It’s a fountain of natural born wisdom and the next best thing to being a happy child.

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( Source: Mani Shankar/ Deccan Chronicle, Hyderabad 1st March 2009 )

Vedanta Rocks -8 > Eyes reveal Inner Chaos and calmness

Part 8 of 46
Our eyes don’t rest even in sleep. Dreams are full of rapid eye movements, where we are searching and seeking.

‘Those who have felt the eye of the eye have touched the immortal spirit.’ Kena Upanishad 1-1-2

It is not what your eyes see — but with what eyes you see — that really counts. Eyes betray the chaos of the soul. Eyes reveal the state of inner being.

Chances are, you have so far played the game of life with restless eyes — your victories have been equally restless — and your losses quite devastating. The more the turbulence, the more life passes by in a daze.

Influences around you are designed to keep you in that daze. Mark this, the state of your eyes is of strategic importance to society. The global economy runs on it. God forbid if everyone developed calm and peaceful eyes. You wouldn’t be a sucker for a million marketing tactics that ‘grab eyeballs’ and morph minds. The advertising industry’s job is to keep your eyes and mind destabilized. That’s how raging desire is created for products you don’t need or want.

Our eyes don’t rest even in sleep. Dreams are full of rapid eye movements, where we are searching, seeking, and never relaxing. Daytime brings on the sleeping chaos awake and the cycle never ends, except in death, when we finally close our eyes fully, irrevocably, forever.

All religions are thankfully friends of your eyes. The reverential gazing at the altar of the Christian church or Jewish synagogue, the darshan of Hindu temples, the half closed eyes of Buddhist meditation, the steady gaze towards Mecca in the mosque, all these have a deep meaning and purpose. They help soothe your turmoil.
Their ancient healing chants assure you that the search has ended.

In minutes you calm down. A deep feeling of peace follows as the eyes relax from the pain of endless seeking.

Whatever your religion or ritual, if you practice giving relief to your eyes, they will become aware of something that was always there — something you missed noticing in the chaos. They will naturally feel out the eye of the one who is watching you as you watch the world. That is the ‘eye of the eye’.

Normally the question as to who is watching you seems irrelevant. Not any more — as you discern the witness— just observing… not passing judgment, not saying anything. Its presence, even when unfamiliar, is always assuring, comforting, healing and a mystery. It is in you, yes, but it is also not you.

Vedanta calls it the immortal spirit, but that understanding is personal to its unknown author. One fine day, in a flash of understanding, you may appreciate it for what it is. But know this — whatever it is — it is beyond words.

You cannot spin around quickly and catch sight of it, because it can move faster than the fastest thought you are capable of. Such is the ancient teaching of the Upanishad. It always guides you up to a point and asks you to discover the rest as direct intuition.

Vedanta Rocks. Go ahead take the plunge.

( Source: Mani Shankar/ Deccan Chronicle, Hyderabad 1st Feb 2009 )

Vedanta Rocks -7 > Moment to Moment and the Fractions in between

( part 7 of 46 )


In one millionth of a second, a million things have already happened... another million things are happening and the DNA molecule waits.

‘Know it as that which moves when time stands still’ Katha Upanishad 2-1-13

Half a second — that’s how quickly lovers can embrace. One fifth of a second... that’s all it takes to blink. One tenth of a second... that’s how soon your eyelashes kissed each other as you just blinked. One sixteenth of a second... that’s the time interval between a new pinch and the pain. One twentieth of a second... that’s the crack of a whip from curl to curl. One fiftieth of a second... the flutter of bees wings, so fast you can’t see it happen. One hundredth of a second... that’s all it takes for a Ferrari to zip across a shoulders width. One thousandth of a second… it’s a nice freeze strobe for a falling droplet. Watch as it bounces slowly and breaks into a hundred tiny spheres. One ten thousandth of a second — a sniper’s bullet penetrates a body from the chest and leaves from the back. One millionth of a second — now you are in a different time zone. The only happening place is inside a living cell. In one millionth of a second, a million things have already happened... another million things are happening and the DNA molecule waits impatient. One billionth of a second... you are at the cutting edge of time for life’s workings. If you acquire such eyes you can see the long twirling molecule lazily dancing, grabbing, stitching, weaving an image of itself... telling long funny stories to its twin as they separate, each on a mission of their own.

One trillionth of a second... you are beyond the molecule now... nothing moves, even the super busy DNA looks dead and motionless... The scene is like nothing we can imagine, but regard it if you wish as an idyllic picture. Photons are sauntering lazily by in an otherwise dark universe. The world is stiff like a photograph, the bee hangs frozen in flight, the Ferrari remains motionless, the sniper’s bullet peeps out of the barrel but never leaves, lovers stretch out arms that never meet, and you are at last reaching the known edge of time. One quadrillionth of a second and time no longer exists for life or matter. Yet something mysterious is at work. Some force that choreographs the dance of life, of atoms, of subatomic particles, some force that keeps iron laws that hold a jumping, jiving universe in its place. Enter the Field at last. When everything is frozen, the Field is all that moves.

What is the Field anyway? It is ‘that which moves when time stands still’. It is everywhere all at once and for all time. On its silent command the bee flaps its frozen wing, the Ferrari zips past at breakneck speed, lovers inch closer in embrace, the bullet smokes its way out of the barrel. From the stillness, time wakes up and yawns, chaos suddenly erupts. You check your watch. It is already too late. You are heading for the fast track. No time for Vedanta and its subtleties.

Got to go. Honk-honk. That’s life.

( Source: Mani Shankar/ Deccan Chronicle, Hyderabad 22nd Feb 2009 )

Vedanta Rocks -6 > Myths can direct your spiritual awakening

( part 6 of 46 )


There is a time to embrace the myth and a time to rise above it. When you need to merge with your religious group, do it. Rise above myths and re-discover yourself… all gods are nothing before the Source of your Self. - Essence of chapter 3 Kena Upanishad

Never mess with myths people believe in. They can never be proved as true which explains the anger if others ridicule them. Religious tolerance essentially means you go ahead and believe in your incredible myths and I’ll believe in mine.

Myths have an awesome power over us. They were cleverly designed for the unconscious, designed to take deep twisted roots inside the unquestioning mind of dreams. Once they possess the dreaming mind, it is impossible to shake off. Try and discard one, the myth will return as nightmares, portents, signs from the heavens that a deep wrong is being committed.

All religions have embraced myths unto their selves. Hinduism has probably more than the rest put together. Hindu myths are known by the euphemism puraan. Every major God has a puraan. Many popular god men have also wisely acquired puraans for themselves. If you plan to become a god man in the near future, better set a committee right now to churn up an exciting new puraan for your forthcoming avatar. Sure, myths have been a great unifier of nations and cultures. The legend of Lord Ram helped unite India from north to south, kept up its spirit in the worst of medieval times. The legend of Jesus spread across the ends of earth into the largest most powerful religion the world has known. Myths add magic to our lives, take us back to giddy childhood days, unite us through a shared belief.

They are also double-edged swords. The second edge is hidden in the handle, and it slashes the wrists of those who wield it. Whatever the culture race or religion, the message embedded in all myths is the same. He is great, you are insignificant. He is a hero, you are a zero. He made water into wine, He made a bridge of floating stones, you did not. Eventually myths bleed your strength and weaken you into submission. It puts another person, idea or entity way above you and reduces you to a kneeling bowing groveling person.

Vedanta says there is a time to embrace the myth and a time to rise above it. When you need to merge with your religious group, go ahead and cuddle up with all the myths you want. When you want to touch the silence within, it is time to go beyond and look at yourself and nothing else.

You don’t need to discard your faith. Just rise above it, rise above all the gods and demons the human mind has created. Rise above all the god men and prophets who have held sway over the ages.

( Source: Mani Shankar/ Deccan Chronicle, Hyderabad 15th Feb 2009 )

Vedanta Rocks -5 > Attempt to Solve the Mystery of Existence

Part 5 of 46


The notion of ‘I’ is like an image on a screen — a hologram created by mil- lions of neurons firing together. So long as we live, the neurons keep firing, the hologram keeps forming, ‘you’ exist. You-are That Chandogya Upanishad 6-8-2

Who are you? This is the unanswered riddle of ages. We all seem to know who we are. We feel securely rooted to ourselves, yet when we dream we are not rooted at all. In dreams we could be anyone, anywhere. In deep sleep we lose even that notion of ‘I’. It is as if we didn’t exist for that duration.

Who are you? Neuroscience is getting there. The notion of ‘I’ is like an image on a screen — a hologram created by hundreds of millions of neurons firing together. So long as we live, the neurons keep firing, the hologram keeps forming and ‘you’ exist. When we die the neurons stop firing, the screen turns blank, and ‘you’ will cease to exist. This is deep. But there is something deeper. ‘You’ are continuously dying and being reborn. ‘You’ are not the same person who started reading this article. In the space of a few seconds, ‘you’ died and were reborn many thousand times.

Neurons create an ever changing ever refreshing field. Think of it as a projector beaming a movie. Movie frames refresh themselves 24 times a second. Each of those frames are a different ‘you’ recreated quickly in smooth continuity.

It is happening so fast you can’t tell the difference. Who are you then? Are you the flickering image on the screen or the projector beaming the images? If you think ‘you’ are the image on the screen, who is the projector? Isn’t that also you? If it is not you who else could it be?

The ‘projectors’ are neuronal cells creating an electrical field. What’s making them create the field? You are already wading in deep waters filled with contradictions. Neuronal cells are made of billions of living molecules. Each atom is intrinsically ‘dead matter’.

The molecule is somehow magically alive. Inside the ‘dead’ atoms there is surprisingly perpetual motion, eternal life. If you dare go deeper, laws of physics will disappear in the quantum domain.

What a strange mind bending zone you pierced searching for yourself — a domain full of extreme puzzles, more mysterious than ‘science can ever imagine’. Back off. You won’t find that answer here.

So what is creating the images? Who are you? No one through the ages has ever had the faintest clue. Vedanta doesn’t even try for an answer. It just calls this mystery as ‘That’. Whatever it is, it is beyond the grasp of mind, but know this, the mind is completely in its grasp. You are That and even if you will never know what ‘That’ is, you can still feel its presence as truth, bliss, consciousness. Its truth is your life, its bliss your joy, its consciousness the music of your existence. You can never ‘know’ it, but you can merge with its mystery… and emerge rejuvenated into your every day self. It is the deepest most luminous layer of your being after all.

Vedanta Rocks. Feel that luminous self now. It is right here looking at you.

( Source: Mani Shankar/ Deccan Chronicle, Hyderabad 8th Feb 2009 )

Vedanta Rocks -4 > Vedanta Reformats the Template of Fear

Part 4 of 46

A guy like Bhagat Singh sang and laughed his way to the gallows. In our case a flat tire is enough to bring on a sense of approaching doom.

‘…Shantih, Shantih, Shantih’ Concluding words of the invocation in the Taithiriya Upanishad

The pot is always boiling. It was bubbling away in your sleep last night. When you woke up it just smoothly shifted gears from dream to reality — it never stopped bubbling. The weird unreal things that happened to you in slumber just disappeared and got replaced by a thousand tiny pin pricks called thoughts. Instead of being based on imaginary fears of dreams, these thoughts are now based on waking sources of worry. It’s the same mind at work. We accept thoughts as inevitable simply because we have accepted fear as inevitable. Your job is at stake in the global meltdown, you have a right to fear. You tell yourself you would be stupid not to be afraid. Once you get used to worrying over all that is wrong with your life, you move to an irreversible stage. This is a reason why teenagers find their parents out of sync with life. The attitude of the parent isn’t naturally unafraid and innocent anymore. Life has gifted you material things and seems to have taken away that free happy smile as a return gift. It takes a long time to understand that the fear is just a preferred attitude to a problem and not the problem itself. A guy like Bhagat Singh sang and laughed his way to the gallows. In our case a flat tire is enough to bring on a sense of approaching doom.

That’s the way it has been since millennia. Vedanta came up as a response to human misery and confusion 35 centuries ago. Humans have been busy destroying their cheerfulness for centuries.

How does anyone kick up a decades old bad habit? It always starts with resolve. Say this out loud and slow, breathing out gently, allowing your lungs to empty gradually and release as much apprehension as possible. Shantih… I embrace a peace beyond words… let the fears that have found roots in my waking mind dissolve and disappear.

Breathe deeply again, and say it loud, releasing the vowels slowly.
Shantih. I embrace a peace beyond words… let fears that power my dreams uproot themselves and disappear.

Shantih. I am beyond fear. Beyond death. The world has lost its authority over me. I have the power to choose the way I want to feel.

Let me see the reflection of my true self now in the still waters of my placid mind.

( Source: Mani Shankar/ Deccan Chronicle, Hyderabad – 1st Feb 2009 )

Vedanta Rocks -3 > Random thoughts and musings

Part 3 of 46

Vedanta tells you to take charge of your mind. Shut out those zillion self-destructive pin pricks. Close down the factories of needless emotion that pollute your inner space.

Where is this endless torrent of thought coming from? Learn to be free from it. Some brave person saw the Source of thought and touched the Absolute. Kena Upanishad 1-1-2

Every single second of our lives, tiny thoughts are flowing fast down the caverns of our minds in an unending torrent. Most of them flow so fast that we can’t even identify them. Try holding one and it will vaporise like ghostly mist.

Where do they come from? Propelled from deep inside, thoughts bubble up and pop on the surface all the time. If you silence your mind even a little bit, you will be able to see it happening like it happens in a glass of soda. Pop, fizzle, pop…non stop. It’s a wonderful, helpless feeling because the bubbles will pop whether you want it or not. These thoughts are coming from some other part of you over which you have no control. You are just a witness watching it happen.

The torrent can easily turn into an unending torment. Open and read the morning paper — usually it’s enough to feel stabs, twinges, rush of fluids. Events of yesterday have still not receded. Whatever was unfulfilled will return and shove its tiny needle down your spine. Every minute something happens. The mind registers a slight, an inadequacy, a tiny threat and responds by a minuscule injection of an unnecessary destructive neurochemical.

This is the stuff that makes you grow old before your time. This is what they call silent stress. Eventually, however brave and strong you are, it will leave its burn marks on you.

At the root of all this is your passive self. You consider thoughts as ‘inevitable’. You let them in the way villagers let a raiding army in, unable to do anything else but run, hide and watch.

You make no moves to shut them out. Who’s in charge here? Not you, for sure. Vedanta tells you to take charge of your mind. Shut out those zillion self destructive pin pricks. Close down the factories of needless emotion that pollute your inner space.

This isn’t an act of a saint. It’s the act of a smart person. When we let go of a burning desire for wealth, for instance, it doesn’t mean we will stop making money. It usually means we will earn more of it, because we have a cooler head that isn’t going to worry over how much we made or lost today. Life begins when the torment ends. And with it comes fresh creative ideas.

So how do you let go? There isn’t any magic pill. Vedanta reveals hundreds of techniques… find one that’s right for you and work at it. In the weeks ahead we shall explore a few. Remember, the ultimate slavery is not to a system or a tyrant, but to our own minds.

“Some brave person saw the source of thought…” You could be that person.

Vedanta Rocks. Use its power to break free !

( Source: Mani Shankar/ Deccan Chronicle, Hyderabad - 25th Jan 2009 )

Vedanta Rocks -2 > That all feeling heart

Normally ‘you’ means your mind. The heart is just a thumping organ. When you stay with the stillness, ‘you’ will become your heart. You will become heart-centered. This is a singular heart and a special ‘you’ altogether.

The sage said, “It roams the skies yet rests in your heart… find your stillness to feel it.” “What is stillness?” asked the king. “Just the heart, your majesty… when you find complete stillness, you will know the heart as the source of all things.” Brihadaranyaka Upanishad Ch. 4.1.7

Sit comfortably, alone in an undisturbed place. Be silent and unmoving. If unsettling thoughts come, let them. Become like a rock. Absolutely motionless. The only outer movement you’ll feel now is the undulation of your ribs as you gently breathe. Remain like this. In a few moments you will discern the inner movement. You will feel the quietly thumping heart.

Stay with this feeling. The thumping heart is a wonderfully sweet sensation. The lub-dub has a magic to it. Vedanta says your heart has another function and purpose beyond pumping blood and churning emotions. It can plunge you into the field and reveal the ‘source of all things’.

Enter your inner physical world. The world you have largely ignored all these years. Here your heart is the engine of your body and emotional being. No sensation however small escapes its attention.

As you keep still and listen, you will silently understand how you might have abused it all these years. Every day of your life you experienced over 90,000 thoughts, big and small. Each thought was powered by a tiny emotional bullet triggered by your heart, and aimed at itself. You would have felt pricks of sorrow, anguish, anger, or stab wounds of jealousy, rage, hatred, or healing waves of laughter, compassion or love.

On the command of your half-aware mind, the heart created emotions and willingly inflicted them upon itself. Depending on the thoughts that hit your mind now, you realize you could be holding deep scars within.

If you realize your heart is scarred, you will need to heal before you can rise any higher. Five minutes of stillness will do a world of good. It will also gently stay your hand from stabbing yourself further. Take life easy and live longer. The Bible says, ‘Gladness of heart... gives length of days’. Ask any cardiologist. He will certify it.

If you have been joyful and compassionate all along - as you allow the stillness to take over completely, you will discern a shift of your center. Normally ‘you’ means your mind. The heart is just a thumping organ. When you stay with the stillness, ‘you’ will become your heart. You will become heart-centered. This is a singular heart and a special ‘you’ altogether.

This may sound incredible. But that’s exactly what happens to us at rare moments in our lives. When we behold intense joy or sorrow, whenever we ride the wave of any pure emotion, we crash from head to heart. It is a momentary and uncontrolled sensation way beyond words.

Instead of crashing uncontrollably, Vedanta guides you to slip effortlessly into that pool of deep feeling. As you learn the art of stillness, you will in time realize that the pool has an endless depth and range. It’s infinite, really, and so are you.

Vedanta rocks to the magical lub-dub. Swing with it in the stillness of your being.

( Source: Mani Shankar/ Deccan Chronicle, Hyderabad - 18th Jan 2009 )

Vedanta Rocks -1 > A Journey That Leads You to Happiness

( Part 1 of 46 )


Vedanta is an adventure into the unknown frontier of your inner self. If you did feel the connection — way beyond words or explanations — till everyday life with its grime again smears you recognizably.

The people who wrote the verses of Vedanta over 3,000 years ago weren’t religious in the sense we currently understand. They were not conjuring dry theories of God and the universe. They were doing something far more beautiful. They were powering up their minds by the engines of intuitive truth. They were soaring. They were rocking. They were touching eternity.

Would you care to soar like they did? It isn’t that easy. It’s not so difficult either.

That which is woven into space, earth, the universe, into your mind and life know that alone as your soul. Silence your mind. Focus. Discern the bridge and cross over. It goes all the way to the deepest part of you… to your real self, which was never born, will never die. Mundaka Upanishad (Ch 2-2-5)

Walk into any open place where you can see a bit of sky. Even a window is good enough. Out there is the endless universe. Look at it.

Try and feel the connection. If you can’t, try and summon enough innocence to open your childlike mind. Your system is hard wired not to feel anything even remotely mind blowing. It is programmed mostly for worrying and tension. You figured that out. Flow with your breathing. Billions of atoms are leaving and entering your body from the universe each second. Isn’t that something? Can you trigger a connection on that? Maybe.

Cosmic rays are conversing with atoms in your body continuously. These messengers travelled 14 billion years non-stop just to reach you. Can you open the mind’s eye to subtle ideas? Yes, you can. You suddenly feel the universe humming like a giant Internet that is connected everywhere — on a bandwidth so vast it defies imagination. ‘That which is woven into space into your mind and life…’. You seem to be heading there… If you are really focused, you will suddenly unexpectedly arrive.

Click. One timeless instant and you are connected. Something awesome instantly happens… you are actually downloading a fragment of the infinite into your tiny self. You need to focus on it. Remember what those ancient guys said. ‘Silence your mind’. http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif

You begin to ‘cross the bridge’. You have touched the field, the deepest part of yourself ‘that was never born, will never die’. You have touched eternity.

In case, you didn’t feel any connection — take heart. You walked up to the window. You saw the vast universe. You powered the engines of your mind, but it wasn’t enough. It wasn’t sufficient to soar. Or, just as you would have taken off something disturbed you, a thought, a worry, a distraction. In a split second you landed back at the window even before you started.

> to be continued next Sunday...through 46 weeks :-)

( Source : Mani Shankar/ Deccan Chronicle, Hyderabad - 18th Jan, 2009 )

( Vedanta Rocks - The background story )

Vedanta Rocks - The background story

Vedanta Rocks – An old defunct newspaper column springs back to life

The background story :

Two years back I stumbled on a weekly column in the Sunday edition of Deccan Chronicle, Hyderabad. It was a column called "Vedanta Rocks" by the movie maker Mani Shankar. The very first column itself was quite indicative of what was to follow and it only got better and better. Sunday mornings once again became a celebration that set the course for the next week's adventure/ pilgrimage within.

What struck me the most right from the very first column I read of ‘ Vedanta Rocks ‘ was the unconventional nature in dealing with ancient wisdom without losing sight of the current predicaments, yet with a touch of playfulness and iconoclasm as well. I just love it !

The joy of discovering it soon became an unstoppable urge to share it across and the first step towards it was to compile the entire series in an organized manner and convert it into a single printable PDF file and was mailed to few friends.

The initial set of mailing list soon grew. There was such an overwhelming response from many in the initial list and some went on to send aggregates of email ids to be added to the weekly mailing list...it was quite a humbling experience when some sent their parents' email ids too. Each weekly mail in turn had to carry the text of the previous emails to give the new recipients some background information and the text also got elongated in the process. I presume that many would just like to go directly to the "Vedanta Rocks" content than the mail text.

But still, for all the recent pilgrims in the Vedanta Rocks fraternity here is the background story of how it all started.

so, Here is the story behind “Vedanta Rocks” …

The first mailing list had a small set of people and now it has grown. I could never even imagine that this compilation of newspaper column called “Vedanta Rocks” would appeal to so many. In fact I compiled the first mailing list with much self doubt wondering if this act of seeing one's name included in a mass mailing list would irk many. But I was wrong I guess ( at least so far) … many wrote back sending a list of e-mail ids of their friends and parents as well. That was encouraging enough to give a real try at expanding the mailing list.

Recollecting some telephonic conversations, digging up old emails ...chat fragments from the inbox of remembrance spanning a period of nearly 12 years was quite a pilgrimage in itself that often moved me to the verge of tears. A phase when so many strangers became acquaintances, and then friends... some stayed in touch..Others got estranged ( am sure only from the chronological perspective of communication) … but the finest essence of every interaction never got erased off. I remember them all, cherish each interaction with a deep sense of gratitude and benediction. I have benefited immensely from all and this act of reaching out thus is a modest expression of thankfulness, to bridge and bring together a bunch of pilgrims who could be of solace and guide posts to each other, personally it is another way of saying 'you all mean a lot to me'.

There were moments when a bunch of names would gush forth … mostly during the early waking hours...and that's also how the mailing list grew. I just felt it to be soul calls/ cries from so long and far way... but connected entities in the collective unconscious.

This is a collection of articles i compiled from The Deccan Chronicle – an English daily based in Hyderabad....it used to come as a column every sunday under the title "Vedanta Rocks" . I have never found such a lucid and powerful revivification of Vedanta than these sweet little articles. Here's a bouquet of it all , it will reappear in this space every week. The column abruptly disappeared from Deccan Chronicle… and now I do feel the inner urge to get it across to as many as possible . These precious writings of the film maker Mani Iyer must not be lost for ever, it surely deserves to be resurrected from the pile of stashed away old newspaper heaps ! I have heard people giving big talks on Vedanta... to the point of utter self deception. This collection of articles could achieve what showy-scholarly-¬shallow-slavish-snobbish sermons fail to - to stir us deep within and set us on our course – to recover and rediscover that facet of ours which is lost in the quagmire of survival instincts.

I never quite thought that I will be able to get across this collection of writings in this form. Few days back my machine crashed in a terrible way, I lost huge pile of personal data as well including a half finished ( half page :-) ) CV of mine as well. That loss was bearable any way. But when I realized that I lost this collection of articles that I had just begun to compile got wiped out , I slipped into gloom...it took me quite some time to recover. The arduous task of searching back issues of the newspaper on the web arranging it the way I did before ( with one image for each article) weighed heavy on me... I just could not even think of it, even the very idea of googling it all appeared nauseating enough. [ 10th April 2009 - begin ]

But then getting to read these articles was one of the best things that happened to me after I left Amrita University and moved to Hyderabad. Confining that joy to myself soon turned out to be unbearable. I had the conviction that there will be many out there who will find this collection luminous enough to see deeper meaning in their lives. So I set upon to do it all over again , often retyping it all from the newspaper clips. I am just reminded of this beautiful quote from Paulo Coelho's book 'Manual of warrior of Light' > “When the warrior is forced to perform the same task over and over again, he turns his work into prayer “. So that set me on course. It was also an attempt to relive my VIDYA days at Amrita – finding information, work on organizing it and make it http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifavailable to all in the campus was real fun and I miss it all . Thanks to my computer crash down – I got to re experience it at least in a minor way and thanks to you all for being there.

Few days ago I got to watch an incredible movie called “My Dinner with Andre” - and that helped me find another strand in the pattern that connects... more so when work becomes monotonous with uncertain outcomes. Here's the protagonist Andre speaking to his friend , something which I consider to be a soulful way of working :
“... Oh, well here's a view of life! I mean, he talks about the belief of the Hasidic Jews that there are spirits chained in everything. There are spirits chained in you, there are spirits chained in me. Well! There are spirits chained in this table! And that prayer is the action of liberating these enchained embryo-like spirits, and that every action of ours in life, whether it's doing business or making love, or having dinner together, whatever, that every action of ours should be a prayer, a sacrament in the world.”. http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif

I love the word sacrament... does it not go well with Khalil Gibran's saying “ Your work is your love made visible”. ( From The Prophet )

...any way it is good if chained spirits could be freed by our work. Sounds a bit too esoteric though. But stretch it a bit further...it surely helps us release our spirits from the soul cages of all that we slavishly remain enslaved to... hey, that reminds me of another dialogue from that movie - originally what Ingrid Bergman had said, "I could always live in my art, but never in my life."


So, here's a bunch of it... one column every Sunday.

I just added one image for each article and there is a reason for why that image is chosen – thanks to the insights from Carl Jung's book “ Man and His Symbols”. I just made an amateur attempt to apply what I understood. Please let me know if you have suggestions on the images and send me images that you think will be more appropriate. With a little more time I think I could have done a better job...but I couldn't wait further,just wanted this to reach you all ….and more than everything wanted to let the rest of the world know again that there is this incredible person called Mani Shankar – a movie maker-philosopher who is the author of this column called “Vedanta Rocks” – some one whom I consider to be one of the finest exponents and revivifiers of Vedanta. [ 10th April 2009 - end ]


- hawk of a pilgrim kind -
With that introduction here comes the first column: