Talks on spiritual and philosophical topics, mostly related to the path of knowledge and Advaita Vedanta or Non-dualism. Subjects such as the consciousness, mind, reality, metaphysics and various ways to study these are discussed.
What is Self remembrance and how to do it? What are material objects, how are they created? Is the ancient knowledge valid? How can we get the lost knowledge back?
How to manage the disturbances and distractions of worldly kind? Is escape a plausible solution? Who's fault is it if my life is a mess? What is astrology? Is it real? What is the connection of mind to astrology and planets etc? Is it a dead art now? Let us explore together.
What happens after death? Does everyone experience similar things after death? Is there any experience at all? How to know how death looks like? Let us venture into the unknown world of death and speculate. This is part 2 of 2 of the recording.
What is the practice of witnessing? How to do it and who does it? What happens when there is uninterrupted witnessing? How is deep sleep like? Lets see deeper into the mind and its witness. This is part-1 of 2 of the recording.
Why is my life still miserable after awakening? Where is the promised bliss? How come there is depression, lack of motivation, a vacuum in me? I know the meaninglessness and purposelessness of this existence, yet I cannot accept it as it is. These are the symptoms of post awakening syndrome. Lets try to find a cure in today's session of The Sunday Q&A.
Universal mind is not all cuddly and cosy place. Inter-connectivity ensures that everything affects everything else, and some of these influences can be harmful. What are the causes of these negative influences? How to shield oneself from them? Let us see the reverse side of spirituality.
Many of our actions produce a residue on the universal memory. These manifest as bonds or debts, wherein we are trapped. A seeker realises this quickly and endeavours to break these bonds, tries to pay them off. What are these bonds? How to break free from them? Let us see.
We are having a dual experience. We experience the opposites. If there is perfection, there is also imperfection. Yet, I the existence is absolutely perfect. How is that possible? How can we call this existence perfect when all we see is imperfection? Isn't our struggle against this imperfection that we find around us? Let us explore our own experience, and find out if it is really perfect.
Is purification of mind really necessary? How should we approach it, especially on the path of knowledge? Why is spirituality so topsy turvy and not straight? Why do people worship idols and what are temples for?
Suppression is a time bomb. Desires control the mind. Mind is nothing but unceasing activity of desires. How to take back the control? What is the final cure for the anarchy of desires? In the concluding part of this series, we reveal it all.
Desires find a way. There can be supernatural ways. We explore them in this part. We find that it can be either a trap or a path to liberation.
After realizing that there is no doer, a question is often asked - what should I do now? How to live this life? What is an ideal action? etc. It is paradoxical, how can you act when you are not the actor? The answer is surprisingly simple. That is what we discuss here.
The world is an illusion. Not a plain boring illusion, it is a mad mad world. A mutually agreed upon insanity. Why do we insist that it is real? If not this which one is the real? Is there any experience which is more sane, more rational, less miserable?
Human life is about balance. Imbalance is seen as suffering and dissatisfaction. But balance of what? Of the activity of various layers of the mind. These intricate, interdependent and dynamic parts of the whole human being, when functioning optimally in perfect balance, produce a perfect experience of this life. This is manifested as total happiness and freedom. Now, what causes imbalance and how to fix it?
Logic is about true and false. A powerful and well developed ability of logic is a must for any truth seeker. A spiritual seeker is seeking the truth, and therefore, it is a logical necessity that he must sharpen this tool of the mind. How to do that? Is this only an intellectual exercise? What is the utility of logic?
Why are there no individual minds? What are the, so called, demonic forces? How to protect ourselves from them? How to put spiritual knowledge into practice? What if I fail? Lets discuss these, and some more topics.
The individual mind, although it appears to be segregated, resides in a sea of minds, all present right here and right now. It is always influencing other minds and is being influenced by them. Supernatural influences are the ones, where the source is nonphysical. Its always our own tendencies that allow, other minds to influence us. Since a mind cannot remain unaffected by influences, it is useful to know which influences are beneficial for us, and which ones are not.
Beliefs are assumptions, ideas not founded on the evidence gained via direct experience or logic. Beliefs lead to suffering, for they are just ignorance. They can be difficult to get rid of, they are parasitic. A gyani must always keep his guard up against blind beliefs. Not knowing is of more value than knowing.
The individual mind is merely a concept, an idea, an assumption. There is no individual, except in the form of a temporary ignorance of the whole. Any mind, is always a group mind. An interconnected whole of potentially many.This realization turns our view of individual minds or a person, upside down.
What are the applications of occult techniques? What can go wrong when they are indiscriminately practiced? Why were they suppressed? Will they remain hidden forever? In spite of their power and effectiveness, such practices remain a double edged sword. However, there are some milder versions, which a seeker can learn and benefit from.
