The Tree of Life : 2-7 & 3-1. Swami Krishnananda.

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Chinmaya Mission

Swami Swaroopananda was warmly welcomed by young, children and adults of Chinmaya Mission Dubai during his recent visit to Dubai in the first week of November. Swamiji expounded on the how the potent prayer Maha Mrutyunjana Mantra confers many corporeal benefits, including good health and long life. To the ardent seeker of Truth, the Mantra can give liberation from self-ignorance, verify a deathly state unto itself... for Mritunjaya, the Victor over Death (moha delusion), is none other than Lord Shiva Himself. Seekers were entralled to discover new meaning and found a lasting appreciation of the Mantra's efficacy on both the gross and subtle levels.

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Friday, November 11, 2022. 19:00.

Discourse 2: The Search For Wholeness-7.

Discourse 3: Severing the Root of this Tree of Life-1.

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Chapter 15 – Purushothama yogam :

The Yogam of the Supreme Divine Personality : 

Lessons from the Analogy of a Banyan tree :

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Now, this wholeness or hundred percent of being is a state of mind. It is an awareness, it is a thought, it is a consciousness. We must be convinced in our consciousness that we have obtained a hundred percent of all the values of life. A leaf in a tree should be aware that it is a part of the whole tree, and the whole tree is in it. A finger of the body is healthy and seems to be contented because the whole of the body is associated with it and it has a subtle experience within itself of its being sustained by the whole body and of its being a vital, inseparable part of the whole body. The health of a personality and the happiness of a person depend upon this consciousness of wholeness which is what we are seeking in life, and we are not seeking anything else—and ‘not anything else' is to be underlined again and again.

So when we are told that we have to be aware of the whole tree of life in order to be perfect in our lives, we are asked to go into the nature of the higher knowledge in which the tree of life is rooted. In the Upanishad especially, we are told that we should have the knowledge of the whole tree. The knowledge of this tree is liberation. But the Bhagavadgita says something quite different. 

Our salvation lies in our ability to cut at the very root of this tree by the axe of detachment: asaṅgaśastreṇa dṛḍhena chittvā (B.G. 15.3). Both these terms of advice have a meaning in themselves.

As I endeavoured to point out, this tree of life has a twofold feature, namely, rootedness in the Absolute and manifestation in space and time. The aspect of its rootedness in God is what requires us to know the whole of this tree, and the aspect of its expression in space and time is that which is to be cut by the axe of detachment. The knowledge of this tree is our source attachment to God, and our detachment from the externalised form of this tree consists in our withdrawal of our external consciousness and the centring of it in our universality of being.

Discourse 2: The Search For Wholeness Ends.

Next-

Discourse 3: Severing the Root of this Tree of Life-1.

Many a seeker on the spiritual path is often unintelligently enthusiastic with a misapprehension of the nature of spiritual life and the way to the attainment of the goal. Sincere seekers often imagine that yoga is a practice, and they want nothing but practice, with an added notion that it will bring about an immediate experience of a supernormal reality. This is immature thinking, a child's behaviour towards the realities of life. There is no such thing as a sudden jumping into the practice of yoga, yet they imagine that it is doing something immediately and that it will be followed up by a sudden outburst of supernal light. This is a thorough misunderstanding of the situation.

There is a scientific system of the methodology of working laid out in one's own mind and, as the science of economics tells us, there are stages of the fulfilment of the program. There is a necessity for a location for the business, there is a need for some capital to start it, there is a necessity to find the requisite labour, there is also a need for scientific systematic management, and there is a necessity for enterprise. All these are the theoretical side of the practical system of business called buying and selling. We do not suddenly start purchasing things imagining that we are starting a business, nor do we start selling immediately. To build a house we have a program of making a plan, maybe a master plan. The location, the structure, the nature of the material, the persons who will be entrusted with building, the idea of the work of construction, and the final structure will depend upon the purpose for which it is raised.

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To be continued

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