There is saying in the ancient tradition- wisdom of the Vedanta…..

that the measure of your

enlightenment is that the degree to which you are comfortable with paradox, the contradictions, with
ambiguity and with the shift in perspective.

The deepest part of your consciousness recognizes the paradox and laughs.

Birth and death are space time event in the continuum of life…so …opposite of life is not death ….the
opposite of death is birth and the opposite of birth is death.

Religion is a cultural mythology…......it is the cultural

imagination of people living in a certain time of history
or certain culture and under certain geographical
condition…...Depak Chopra.

Be fully committed
A disciple of Lord Buddha expressed a keen desire to
preach His message to the masses. Buddha said, "Son!
This task is not easy. There will be many who will abuse
you verbally." The disciple replied, "Master, I will feel
grateful that they are not throwing stones." "They may
throw stones also," said Buddha. The disciple said, "I will
be grateful that they didn't kill me." Buddha said, "They
may even kill you." The disciple answered, "I will be
grateful to die for my Master." Buddha replied, "Now you
are ready to go out and preach."
So many people claim to desire something intensely, but
not all of them succeed. The ones who do have one
thing in common: they are fully committed to the cause.
I once read a book many years ago called "Think and
grow rich." The author interviewed many very wealthy
and successful businessmen who had risen from abject
poverty to become millionaires and billionaires. He
asked all of them what made them successful. They all
said the same thing, which was that 'one must have a
burning desire to succeed.'

Millions of people around the globe try to lose weight.

Not all of them do. The ones who succeed are
completely committed to losing weight and becoming
fit. Many dream of being in the Olympics. The ones who
make it all the way are the ones who are committed
enough to put in long hours of daily practice.

You cannot have wild success if you have only a mild

level of commitment.

What I seems to be is just a certain quality of my attention to my self…..in fact the whole mechanics of
creation is changing quality of attention of the self to the self.

Being manifest by becoming…………. Everything is the play of being and becoming ……….the play of this
veda (pure knowledge) becoming vishva (the universe) the eternal dance of creation….my essential
being itself.
The true guru is the man who can unconditioned you and will not recondition you again, who will leave
you in absolute freedom to be yourself.

The meaning of spirituality is the manifestation of the divinity already in a person. “Religion is
realization – not talk or doctrines or theories, however beautiful they may be. It is being and
becoming – not hearing or acknowledging. It is the whole soul’s becoming changed into what
it believes.” Direct perception of this innate divinity is the core of spirituality. Doctrines,
dogmas, theologies, and philosophies are secondary details.

The ultimate reality of the universe is nondual, designated by various traditions by various
names. Believers in time call it time; believers in God call it God; believers in consciousness call
it consciousness. We attribute names and epithets to this reality for our convenience, and they are
symbolic.

Divinity of the soul is the most vital aspect of our lives. Ceremonies and rituals only heighten our faith in
this divinity. The difference between a saint and a sinner is that the saint has faith in his saintliness and
the sinner has faith in his sins.

God is not only absolute reality but also the sum total of all souls. When this ultimate reality is ignored
or forgotten by us, we confront it in our everyday life in the form of sorrow and suffering. When it is
recognized, realized, and adored by us, we overcome all laws of material relative existence.

Vivekananda’s teachings are based on four fundamental principles: nonduality of ultimate reality,
divinity of the soul, unity of existence, and harmony of religions.

Yamunaithuraivan has started ranting about which path is correct and which part is wrong which is
absolutely similar to the mentality of extremists. This mentality is against Sanatana Dharma. One path is
not meant for all. This is obvious to somebody who understands the Bhagavad Gita.

ALSO, THERE IS NOTHING ABSOLUTELY RIGHT OR WRONG. Nothing is absolute in the Universe,
everything is relative.

EDIT: First of all, understanding Advaita requires you to let go of all that you know or believe to be
true...Just let go and make your mind blank. (Don't worry, you won't forget what you already know or
change it, but will help you understand Advaita.)*****

Also Dvaita and Advaita DO NOT CONTRADICT EACH OTHER, but are complementary.
I am not at all learned, but this is how I understand Advaita philosophy in my own child-like manner. I
hope learned folks don't laugh.
My gross description of God is the sum of all matter-energy and intelligence. The only thing that exists
(seen, unseen, matter, energy, space) is together God. Suppose we consider God to be an ocean of
water molecules, then we are just the water molecules.

At the beginning, the only thing that existed was God. So the raw material for creation is also small
packets of matter-energy-intelligence existing in one form or another i.e. God. So we are all part of the
Universal being or intelligence.

To understand Maya, I would really recommend you to watch the English movie trilogy Matrix: Most of
the storylines are based on Advaita and the Matrix computer program (in the movie) is exactly what
Advaita teaches about Maya.

If you close your eyes, all you see is darkness. You open it and you see your computer etc... You have
absolutely no guarantee that when your eyes are closed there is a room around you, except that that is
what your senses tell you. But even people having hallucinations experience it with their senses. Their
visions, sounds and pain are as real as how we see the world around us. But we don't see it.

So as long as you "see" the world is there. When you don't, it might be there, or it might not be. (Search
for Schrodinger's Cat on wikipedia to understand this scientific concept better.)

So our senses perceive the world and we believe it exists. But actually none of it is actually there if we
stop believing it.

Awareness of our true nature melts away each layer of Maya.

There is nothing you can be certain about. Even at the basic atomic level, it's not possible to determine
the position and movement of an electron simultaneously, it's presence at one point does not mean that
it will be at a definite place at another time...It can be anywhere....Comparatively, if a nucleus is
considered to be a football, the electron can be at any point within a 5-mile radius!! ( See Heisenberg's
Uncertainty Principle...)

So everything we see around us is in fact God because it all has matter-intelligence-energy. All worship
we do is to draw energy from the Whole (ocean) for ourselves (water molecules).

I don't know whether I have done a good job of explaining it, but it is definitely interesting and I'll think
some more about it and post some more. I might also have to rephrase some of what I've already
written.

WHAT I'M WRITING NOW COMES FROM VARIOUS BOOKS BY DEEPAK CHOPRA. This takes us into the
realm of advanced physics, which is required to understand Advaita.
HOW MODERN PHYSICS MAKES THE MATERIAL WORLD DISAPPEARS INTO NOTHINGNESS

1. Rocks, trees etc. disappeared from sight when science realized that they are made of atoms invisible
to naked eye.

2. Atoms disappeared when it was discovered that they are made of energy, mere vibrations in the void.

3. Energy disappeared when it was discovered that vibrations are temporary excitations in a field and
that the field itself doesn't vibrate but maintains a flat, constant "zero-point".

Nothing is real until it is observed. So reality depends on the observer. The observer is not perfect. So
there is no way to determine whether anything is actually happening or it is just an illusion.

I really recommend reading Deepak Chopra's Life After Death. It really helps you understand this
ideology.

EDIT: That's a fantastic question you've asked...I'll think about it and get back to you...

Yamunaithuraivan has started ranting about which path is correct and which part is wrong which is
absolutely similar to the mentality of extremists. This mentality is against Sanatana Dharma. One path is
not meant for all. This is obvious to somebody who understands the Bhagavad Gita.

ALSO, THERE IS NOTHING ABSOLUTELY RIGHT OR WRONG. Nothing is absolute in the Universe,
everything is relative.

EDIT: First of all, understanding Advaita requires you to let go of all that you know or believe to be
true...Just let go and make your mind blank. (Don't worry, you won't forget what you already know or
change it, but will help you understand Advaita.)*****

Also Dvaita and Advaita DO NOT CONTRADICT EACH OTHER, but are complementary.
I am not at all learned, but this is how I understand Advaita philosophy in my own child-like manner. I
hope learned folks don't laugh.

My gross description of God is the sum of all matter-energy and intelligence. The only thing that exists
(seen, unseen, matter, energy, space) is together God. Suppose we consider God to be an ocean of
water molecules, then we are just the water molecules.

At the beginning, the only thing that existed was God. So the raw material for creation is also small
packets of matter-energy-intelligence existing in one form or another i.e. God. So we are all part of the
Universal being or intelligence.
To understand Maya, I would really recommend you to watch the English movie trilogy Matrix: Most of
the storylines are based on Advaita and the Matrix computer program (in the movie) is exactly what
Advaita teaches about Maya.

If you close your eyes, all you see is darkness. You open it and you see your computer etc... You have
absolutely no guarantee that when your eyes are closed there is a room around you, except that that is
what your senses tell you. But even people having hallucinations experience it with their senses. Their
visions, sounds and pain are as real as how we see the world around us. But we don't see it.

So as long as you "see" the world is there. When you don't, it might be there, or it might not be. (Search
for Schrodinger's Cat on wikipedia to understand this scientific concept better.)

So our senses perceive the world and we believe it exists. But actually none of it is actually there if we
stop believing it.

Awareness of our true nature melts away each layer of Maya.

There is nothing you can be certain about. Even at the basic atomic level, it's not possible to determine
the position and movement of an electron simultaneously, it's presence at one point does not mean that
it will be at a definite place at another time...It can be anywhere....Comparatively, if a nucleus is
considered to be a football, the electron can be at any point within a 5-mile radius!! ( See Heisenberg's
Uncertainty Principle...)

So everything we see around us is in fact God because it all has matter-intelligence-energy. All worship
we do is to draw energy from the Whole (ocean) for ourselves (water molecules).

I don't know whether I have done a good job of explaining it, but it is definitely interesting and I'll think
some more about it and post some more. I might also have to rephrase some of what I've already
written.

According to the Sankara school of advaita, the Supreme Being is one undifferentiated 'consciousness'.
that cannot be object of perception.
Sankara denied reality to anyhing that can be characterized, described or perceived in a subject-object
dichotomy.

Sankara would use the word 'mithyA' (unreal) to refer to anything we see, hear, touch or talk about.

Sankara referred to Brahman as 'nir-viSesha-cit-mAtram-brahma' ie undefinable, immutable awareness.

Obviously SankarAdvaita is a naive, pseudo-intellectual simple-minded view of Reality.

Its mithyA / anir-vacanIyam doctrine denies reality to Individual Beings and the Universe, is simply naive
and beats all common sense.
and Sankara says the Pure Consciousness that's the Brahman somehow injected 'avidyA' (ignorance) to
Itself and believes It roams in misery in transmigration.
and someday it somehow wakes up and realizes Its own true self.

The mithyA-vAda is plain inconsistent and out-of-touch with Common Sense/ Ground Reality / vEdAnta/
bhagavad-gItA/ vedAntA-sUtras.

Advaita Vedanta Basics

Once Swami Tadrupanand said during the discourse of Gita "Now-a-days it has become a trend to read, listen or learn
Gita, without having the knowledge of the Prakaran Granthas". These Prakaran Granthas are the stepping stones of
advaita vedanta. Gita is the essence, i.e. in prescie or concise form. So it contains everything, but not in the elaborate
form but in brief. These granthas were created by Sri Adi Shankaracharya and familiarize us with the technical
terminology and concepts of spirituality, specially in the advaita vedanta. So before reading Gita, one must read and
understand these preliminary texts.

As Gita is a concise form, it does not explain the meaning of the words like Mana (mind), five Indriyas (five senses),
Shraddha, (faith), Sharnagati (surrender), etc. We use these words in our day to day life and take it for granted their raw
meaning. But moksha shastras (texts for salvation) have different meaning. For example the word mind is explained by Sri
Adi ShankaracharyaSri Ramana Maharshi as "mind is mothing but continous flow of thought".

These words are explained in the prakaran granths. These granths (texts) were written by a great saint of advaita
vedanta Sri Adi Shankaracharya, who is considered as a divine incarnication. The some of the names of these texts are:

The will to live -Through Pi Yann Martel demonstrates the power of the human mind
and body when faced with death.

" The lower you are, the higher the mind will soar"(283)

The album features the track "Pi's Lullaby," which was co-written by Danna and Bombay Jayashri, who
performs the song in the Tamil language.[30] The nomination marks the first ever Tamil language song to
be nominated for a Best Original Song Oscar.
Vishwaroop (Devnagari: वववववववव) is a form of God, technically Lord Brahma, in which one can see the entire universe in the God
Himself.

The word is made of Vishv (ववववव) which means the world and Roop (ववव) which means form.

Vishwaroopam (Tamil: வவவவவவவவவவ) would be the same word in Tamil, or Sanskrit.