–
That Y In The Road
As a student (indirect) of Swami Chinmayananda, his teachings have had a profound impact on how I live my daily life in a personal capacity as a mother, wife and friend. I also try to imbibe Guruji’s teachings in how I interact with my coworkers. This year, I have had the privilege of being part of a weekly satsang that discusses the book The Kindle Life.
Kindle life is a beginner-level guide for a seeker of the essence of Vedanta. Its organized into a few short essays on how to have the right contact with the world. It discusses how to interact with people and the objects of our desire and interpret the experiences we have through our sense organs. The book’s tagline is “The Joy of Living”.
Recently it was my turn to summarize the chapter called “The dual lives”. Below is how I did it for the workshop.
To make ourselves whole, all our lives, we keep acquiring things. We seek fame, wealth, luxuries, companionship and other things hoping that they would complete the void we sometimes feel within us. But we don’t realize that self-restraint and discipline can help us understand that we were always whole / complete just the way we are.
The reason why we’re not content in the first place is two-fold.
a. If we’re not chasing some ambition, we worry that society will label us lazy.
b. We truly don’t take the time to appreciate our scriptures for what they are: a practical code of healthy living.
The text challenges us to optimize our living by leveraging the teachings of our scriptures. It asks us to understand the laws that govern our inner world. But, how do we know we’re learning and growing?
Here’s how. When you’re are truly expanding your inner world,
a. You don’t feel the need to suppress your desires, and
b. You naturally will start becoming free from desires.
Choices In Action
How does the duality of our choices look like in action. At any given point of time, there are two paths to choose from for us.
a. The path of pleasant (Preya)
b. The path of good (Shreya)
The path of Preya or pleasures is one of immediate gratification. And because we’re chasing the impermanent, in the long term, we’re left with sorrow or disappointment that our happiness didn’t last.
The path of Shreya, or good is one that’s hard at the beginning, but that guarantees bliss and fulfillment at the end. We’re focused on our work for the greater good of the world, and so satisfaction is guaranteed.
When staying this path gets tough, our tools of discipline and discrimination can help stay on it. Telling ourselves that our difficulties too shall pass and being other centered than self centered will also help. Try incorporating small activities of self restraint like intermittent fasting to develop the discipline muscle. And keeping in our line of sight, why we chose this path in the first place, to be able to contribute, and live a good quality life will also help us stay on the path.
And what’s more? Just imagine the spiritual energy your aura carries when you’re smiling, serving and caring for others more than you do for yourselves sometimes?
What are you waiting for, the path of good – Shreyas is beckoning. Will you pivot?
– 0 –
About The Article Author:
Hi, I’m Rachana. Its been my dream for years to do something to consciously create a better future where every one of us is excited about our own potential. My challenge to everyone is that they aspire for their personal best and leave a legacy of their work through their contributions to mankind.
One more thing. In December of 2044, I hope to win the Nobel.
Will you join me on this journey of growth and transformation?
Namasté.
CLARITY - A Pillar of FutureSTRONG Academy
Our children will one day face the real world without our support. Academic development is not the only skill they will need in the real world where people skills like taking the lead, emotional intelligence and a strong moral compass will determine who will shine. So, as parents who want to raise well rounded adults, we want to give them the right tools for their personal development.
Here is CLARITY as described as the 6 C’s of Future STRONG.
Find Below Better Strategies On CLARITY
Carl Sagan: The Universe, Humanity, and the Pale Blue Dot
https://youtu.be/9LStIaPBU8w - Want To Listen To The Article Instead? - What Is Takes To Be Human Every time I come across Carl Sagan’s quotes on my social media feeds, I pause. I take time to reflect on what he was trying to say. When I...
Where the Mind Is Free: My Tribute To The Power Of Silence – Read by Rachana
- Want To Listen To The Article Instead? - Solidarity to Solitude When I read Sylvia Plath's poetry, I often think of the manner in which she died. Putting her head in an open oven and killing herself, while her little children slept in the...
The Human Arc in the Attention Economy: How Algorithms Are Changing Love
The Human In Digital Debris I'm deeply interested in our anthropological evolution as humans and love studying how our lives have changed since we started living both online and offline. And here are some current dating trends that worry me about how our...
Can a Child’s Life Be a True Adventure? Teaching Kids Agency, Discipline & Independence
These days, adventure for a child can be lounging on the couch while managing to navigate between screens to play their favorite games. And that's because we're uncomfortable with the idea of allowing our children to get familiar with boredom. And also, because we...
Vita Brevis: Life’s Too Short — Stop Drifting, Start Living
Long Days, Short Life I once read somewhere that people who don’t know what to do on a lazy Sunday afternoon want to live forever. So true. That’s the lure of immortality. All throughout our lives, we strive for wealth, fame, knowledge, and happiness — longing...
Vedanta, Mukti, and the Art of Turning Toward the Self – Reflections on Spirituality in Absolute Terms
Vedanta teaches us two kinds of liberation: Krama Mukti (Gradual Liberation) and Sadyo Mukti (Immediate Liberation). Krama Mukti is a step-by-step approach to liberation. In this path, a devotee who has cultivated deep meditation and devotion toward the Divine may...
Growing Up Isn’t One Big Moment – It’s A Thousand Small Ones.
NOTE ON THE AUTHOR: Believe it or not, this little golden nugget of wisdom about the art of growing up comes from 15-year-old Sriansh Indaram, who lives in the United States. Sometimes, the people who remind us of what growing up really means are the ones who are...
Name the Switch: The Simple Brain Hack That Cuts Your Focus Tax Every Day
It's been almost 20 years since I landed my hands on an iPhone and life has been different ever since. My life, like everyone else's, has become two pronged since the smart phone revolution. There's an offline life of the real world, and then the online one where...
Ask Yourself These 5 Questions Every Day to Live with More Purpose and Leave a Lasting Legacy
Getting Ready For A Life Audit The questions we ask ourselves shape the lives we end up living. For me, these five questions have become a daily reset. These act like a break in my thoughts, so I don't continue on patterns that haven't served me in the past....
Modern Times, Ancient Wisdom: What Chanakya and Dr. Radhakrishnan Pillai Teach Us About Leadership Today
Modern Times, Ancient Wisdom When I started my blog 17 years ago, I mostly wrote personal musings as a new mother of two boys. But, over the years, I wanted to write about the different aspects of Vedic wisdom and modern psychology. I was learning how to...
When AI Becomes Your Therapist: The Hidden Risk of Chatbots Replacing Reality – Part II
When Validation Becomes Distortion In the first article, we talked about what AI psychosis is. Here, we continue the conversation by exploring how AI chatbots may contribute to distorted thinking or delusions, especially in vulnerable users. We’re going to look...
Why the World Is Finally Slowing Down: The Rise of the Slow Thought Revolution
I've been noticing an interesting phenomenon lately. The desire for slowing down and adopting an intentional way of consuming information. For nearly two decades the internet trained us to read faster, scroll faster, react faster. But lately something unexpected is...