June 2022 - The Joy of Being Free
The Joy of Being Free; Poetry; Quotes; Spiritual Text - verse of the month; Announcements; Podcast Episodes of May 2022;
The Joy of Being Free
Recent discussion with close friends during my short trip to the UK this month, highlighted one specific pointer - being free is the best way towards joy.
Now what do I mean by being free. This can be understood in a number of ways. Being free is expressed in Vedanta as ‘moksha’ or ‘mukti’. This is liberation but from what? What are we free from? Or do we let go of the world? Do we let go of all our relationships and abandon them for spirituality. Not necessarily.
This liberation simply is the re-identification with our True Self - this Formless Awareness. We understand that we have a body and with the body there are attachments that it has to our loved ones through the mind too. But we no longer identify the True Self as being the body. This is what we are free from. This is spirituality at its core. Anything that deviates from this, in my humble opinion, is away from the essence of Reality - this Formless Awareness.
Now, this doesn’t mean that we let go of the world but in fact, I feel that we embrace it even more despite knowing and understanding that we are not this body. What happens is that we see the world for what it is. We see the pros and cons, the beauty and the ugly and realize that this is a wonderful diversity but this is all appearance of that One Formless Awareness. So we don’t let of the world but fully live it. If you want a cup of coffee, a glass of wine, a burger or a new car or a Chanel handbag then go ahead and get that. You can still be established in the core spiritual teaching and live in the world. Just remind yourself nothing is yours but is simply you appear to possess or enjoy certain things.
We do not let go of our relationships in the world at all but we become detached, yet we are more intimate in our family life, our friendships, our work culture, student life etc. We understand the finite reality of such relationships but within that we sense the eternal oneness within everyone as we see them all as the Infinite Being - this Formless Awareness.
Therefore, we can establish here that spiritual freedom can be had whilst fully being present in the world. This brings us joy because we are always in a state of equipoise, of balance and we understand that each moment we have contains eternity itself. We understand that we are all this Formless Awareness, so why should we condemn the world? Wherever we look, whatever we hear, whatever we taste, whatever we smell, whatever we touch has the Formless Awareness completely present.
The freedom to act as one wishes as long as it is based in an ethical life and we do our very best to avoid hurt and pain to others. We can never guarantee the results or outcomes of our actions. Inevitably, they are never black or white. But there is importance in being free in everything you do. Not so much as acting upon impulse all the time, but through calculating the impulse to do something or to say something and see whether it is the right thing to do.
Whenever I have chatted to people who live a life on their own terms state one important thing that you must always think things through when you are going to do something or say something that you feel is absolutely right in this moment. You have to analyze it. See the pros and cons and weigh them up. Then when you have done all your analysis - you either do whatever you want or you don’t but it is still your choice, you chose either way as an option.
Why is this joyful? It’s because you avoid regret. Being in regret will lead to sadness, the feeling of being trapped in a prison that is self-created. Yet, when we act based on our impulse but established in Formless Awareness, every action brings us joy because we see the whole picture. Not the finite aspects through the body and mind but we see it’s infinite glory through Formless Awareness - our True Self.
So whenever you feel like saying something or getting something you want, go through your internal checklist and either go ahead and say or get something or don’t. But atleast both ways will lead to joy because you know you are being ethical and yet expressing life as your own painting with no strings attached.
The Bearded Mystic Poetry
The flash of happiness rides into my day, The immaculate path shows me the way, I understand what my True Self is, Through the joy of Being's apparent abyss, I find myself living life with wings wide-open, Connection with the One unbroken and unspoken, Whenever there is injustice then I'll speak up, I'll catch my ego when it desires to flare-up. When I desire to give a smile to another, When I wish to help all as my brothers and sisters, When I vocalize what I find to be right or wrong, And thinking for keeping my friendships all life long, It is because I act freely with absolute neutrality, And this is the way of the Sage that is forever free.
Tell me what you were reading last month
Shiva’s forms, attributes, decorations, weapons, attendants, and activities are given in great detail so that he becomes a living reality. As Rudra he is full of wrath and destruction, but as Shiva he is filled with all auspiciousness. He has two natures—one wild and fierce, the other calm and peaceful. Of all the deities, he is the one most easily propitiated. Moreover, in compassion there is none to compare with him. He is the friend of the unfortunates—the blind and the lame, the goblins and the ghouls. Those who are despised by others find a place in his entourage. Demons, vampires, ghosts, and goblins who are feared by all are his close attendants. Snakes, which usually people dread and run from in horror, wind themselves lovingly round his neck. His companions are the deformed and the ugly; he is averse to none. He does not belong exclusively to the gods or the sages. His greatest devotees are Kubera, king of the yakshas (demigods who guard the treasures of the netherworld); Ravana, king of the rakshasas (demons); and Shukra, guru of the asuras. Wizards, sorcerers, witches, and magicians also worship him. Every spirit, malefic or compassionate, seeks Shiva’s grace. His attendants are the ganas, a wild bunch of hooligans and social misfits. They are ugly, deformed, and misshapen. They drink intoxicating liquor and take drugs such as bhang (a cannabis preparation). They are a totally lawless set of beings that only Shiva can control. Instead of curbing their eccentricities, Shiva joins in their wild revelries and sings and dances with gusto to the accompaniment of their cacophonous music. But he also keeps them in check. Because of him they are forced to desist from doing too much damage in the world. He is the supreme yogi, uncaring of material wants, ever immersed in the immensity of his divine bliss. Death stands in dread of him and the word inauspicious does not exist in his dictionary. Bedecked with skulls and bones, Shiva wanders in cremation grounds dancing to the light of funeral pyres, smearing his body with the ashes of the dead. Dangerous forests infested with cannibals and wild beasts, as well as the icy, inaccessible peaks of the Himalayas, are his favorite haunts. In the forests he is adored by the wild tribes as Kirata, the hunter. Shiva means the auspicious one, yet everything about him seems inauspicious. He dwells in dark and gloomy caves and jungles and dances in cemeteries lit by the fire of burning pyres, rattling skulls, and drums. He smears himself with ash from these pyres, drinks poison and smokes narcotics, and enjoys the company of ghosts, ghouls, and goblins. The unorthodox and the casteless, outside the traditional fold, saw in him the nonconformist who sought ultimate truth beyond ritual, beyond society, beyond matter. He was the first tantric (follower of Tantra), as well as the first siddha (one with supernormal powers). The casteless ones sought his blessings before dabbling in their magic rites, their sorcery, and their alchemy. The Brahmins, who were the orthodox priest caste, thus found it difficult to accept this wild and fearsome god. As the priest-king Daksha did, they held him in contempt. They refused to offer him any portion of their yajnas, or sacrifices, given to the other gods. The story of the Daksha yaga (yajna) shows how by the sheer power of his truth, which is the truth of all creation, Shiva came to be accepted as the Great God. He transcends the duality of good and evil, right and wrong, auspicious and inauspicious. The Sanatana Dharma, which is the actual name of Hinduism, forces the human mind, time and time again, to accept the fact that the Divine is all that exists, both clean and unclean, pure and impure, auspicious and inauspicious. The same code that gave us the caste system also gave us the image of Shiva, the nonconformist, who challenged all social codes and sought a truth that lay beyond all apparent dualities. There is nothing and no person who can be said to be unacceptable to society. The Divine accepts every creature, however ugly or malformed. All the rites and rituals that are employed by the human being groping a path to godhead have to be accepted by the Divine, for that also comes from him alone. Shiva is a symbol of this all-inclusive universality of the Hindu view of the deity, thus the Brahmins were forced to accept him into the fold of their conservative beliefs. By the time the Upanishads were written, Shiva had become a most important deity. Although initially considered to be inauspicious and impure, he eventually came to be known as Shiva, the auspicious one. He became the inspiration for theatre, dance, and drama and was a favorite figure for painters and sculptors.
Vanamali. Shiva: Stories and Teachings from the Shiva Mahapurana (pp. 14-16). Inner Traditions/Bear & Company. Kindle Edition.
Spiritual Text - Verse of the Month with commentary
What is the intention to liberate?
It is the desire that let liberation be mine. 13
[Only those, who are inclined to be free, make effort in this regard. The results in any endeavour depend on the intensity with which we try to achieve them. This intense desire to liberate makes us actively seek liberation and finally achieve it.]
Chaturvedi, Shraddhesh. Tattva Bodha By Shankaracharya: Knowledge of Reality (p. 16). Kindle Edition.
Tattva Bodha is a very important introductory text into Vedanta by Adi Shankara ji.
Liberation is the true aspect of freedom. Having an intense desire to be free is the key to spirituality and really is the recurring theme in this month’s newsletter. Even Shiva’s way of living is the one of freedom as we can see from above.
Liberation takes you away from the usual social constructs and just adhering to them blindly. A realized Sage understands and challenges whatever social constructs do not make ethical sense or lacks that deep sense of humanity.
In order to get this, one needs to really want liberation. It has to be our everything. That doesn’t mean we do not have other desires, we can look to achieving them. But we always use our viveka, our discernment to see whether any other desire apart from liberation, is it going to be a hindrance to our attainment of liberation or not. No matter what, whatever may stop us from achieving enlightenment or liberation, that desire will not be followed through. It will be dropped.
This is a basic requirement in spirituality. Only those that are liberated an understand the full extent of that freedom. They understand the consequences from every thought and every action. We must remember that they function completely from that Formless Awareness, which is challenging for us to understand sometimes.
Keeping this simple - liberation is about understanding that we are no longer identifying as the body and mind as that is unreal. The only Real is the Formless Awareness. Once liberated, we remain in absolute bliss.
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Aum Shantih Shantih Shantih. Aum Peace Peace Peace
Lots of love
Rahul