In the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad we get a most illumining description of the immortal Self and its primordial state of complete union with the all-pervading Divine consciousness.

In the Unitive state there is no suffering and pleasure, there is no birth and death; there is only a state of being.

At times the Self may incarnate in a certain body and have a dream like experience in and through this particular body. However whatever may befall this particular body, it is like a mere passing experience which leaves no lasting mark on the state of being.

Thus, when we feel I am hungry or I am in pain, what we really mean is that this particular body is hungry, this body has taken on the experience of pain. In ordinary life we perceive ourselves to be in a body, with a thinking mind and human emotion. But, this is not the real Self. At this point, the immortal words of the Bhagavad Gita throw light on the difference between the material world of impermanence and the Self’s reality of absolute permanence

"Even as man discards old clothes for the new ones, so the dweller in the body, the soul, leaving aside the worn-out bodies, enters into new bodies. The soul migrates from body to body. Weapons cannot cleave it, nor fire consume it, nor water drench it, nor wind dry it." [1]

Furthermore, the Upanishads reveal that the nature of the Unitive state is beyond sex; it is neither male nor female, but contains the essence of both polarities in perfect harmony. Within the Self there is no concept of man made morality, good and evil do no exist. The Unitive state is in all; everything is but a dream of God, the all-pervading consciousness. To an un-illumined seeker, these concepts may be hard to grasp, for if we live in the world of duality, it is not possible to avoid such concepts. Yet, the Upanishads do not shrink from unveiling the supreme mystery of life, which is: what is the nature of God, my real Self?

"In that Unitive state one sees without seeing, for there is nothing separate from him; smells without smelling, for there is nothing separate from him; speaks without speaking, for there is nothing separate from him; knows without knowing for there is nothing separate from him." [2]

In the Unitive state negative emotions of anger, hate, jealousy and anxieties cannot occur. How can we be jealous of our own Self? How is it possible to hate the Self which offers only unconditional love. How is it possible to be anxious when nothing can affect the intense delight of being?

Furthermore other Upanishads tell us that the essence of this unitive state is infinite and unalloyed bliss.

"From Delight we came into existence.

In Delight we grow.

At the end of our journey’s close,

Into Delight we retire.

[3]

The intense inner ecstasy of this state of being can never be described in words. But, when we gain a glimpse of this consciousness we will never feel desire for the pleasures of this world.

[1] Sri Chinmoy on Death

[2] Brihadaranyaka Upanishad

[3] Upanishads

Brahman of the Upanishads

Sometimes it can be hard to find purely uplifting blog entries in the middle of the introspective maelstrom that is the blogosphere, but here are a couple of gems that have shone out recently:

• Freedom: a moment of clarity through running a marathon. Posted on Spirit Flower’s blog at Zaadz.
• The most exotic animal: Serial Guiness-record-breaker Ashrita Furman describes his recent record-breaking exploits in Mongolia! Ashrita’s records often have a very playful aspect to them, and this blog entry is great fun to read!
• Jellyfish concentration: A mother tries to teach her son how to concentrate, but ends up getting a lesson herself. A post from the Sri Chinmoy Inspiration Group.
• The world’s oldest sub-3 marathoner: A short blog article about Ed Whitlock, who ran a 2:54 marathon at age 73

By: Sri Chinmoy

• Poems on Anger at Poetseers.org

Photo by Unmesh Sri Chinmoy Centre Galleries

Related post:

• Losing Face – Gaining Wisdom – Ashrita gives an honest insight into his experience of anger and transcendence.

Many people who are on a journey of self-discovery were introduced to the possibility through reading a book which opened their eyes and made them realise there was something deeper to life than what we see on the surface.

For many people, reading these books marked the starting of their inner quest in earnest, and set off a chain of events which might even have led to them pursuing an altogether different path than the one suggested in the book; nevertheless reading the book was a crucial stepping-stone that helped them to become aware that there was more to life than what just lay on the surface.

The term ‘life-changing book’ is all to often little more than publisher’s blurb nowadays, but there are a few books for whom this claim has held true over the years:

• The Little Prince – Antoine de Saint-Exupery
• The Alchemist – Paolo Coelho

These two books have a very childlike feel to them, but this childlike form lends itself for use as an allegory for bigger and deeper questions. Most memorable quote from the Little Prince: "It is only with the hear that one can see properly. What is essential is invisible to the eye."

• Autobiography of A Yogi: Paramhansa Yogananda

This book is one of the most widely-read accounts of Eastern philosophy available. In this book, the author describes his childhood spiritual experiences and remerkable spiritual figures that he has met. In particular, the chapters where he describes the guidance he recieved from his teacher, Sri Yukteshwar, is one of the best accounts of the meditation teacher-student relationship available.

• Siddhartha – Herman Hesse

A reworking of the tale of how the young prince Siddhartha Gautama became the Buddha, or the enlightened one. After embracing the extremes of austerity and luxury, the prince attains enlightenment throuth the middle path. Multiple Guinness record holder and long-time meditator Ashrita Furman first became interested in Eastern philosophy after reading this book, beginning a journey which was soon to lead him to his teacher, Sri Chinmoy .

Each good thought

Is the birth of

A new hope.

Sri Chinmoy

From 77,000 Thousand Service Trees vol 42

Photo by: Richard

Thomas Jefferson, the principal author of the United States Declaration of Independence, wrote some tremendously inspiring speeches which shaped the course of history. Jefferson was not a good public speaker and he preferred communicating through writing instead, but in this field he was probably one of the most eloquent correspondents ever.

The preamble to the Declaration of Independence is possibly the most famous of Jefferson’s writings, and to this day it evokes the original spirit of the American nation:

‘We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed, by their Creator, with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness….’

The Declaration of Independence then goes on to cite a list of grievances against the British crown. among them, Jefferson wanted to include the following denunciation of slavery:

‘He has waged cruel war against human nature itself, violating its most sacred rights of life & liberty in the persons of a distant people who never offended him, captivating & carrying them into slavery in another hemisphere, or to incur miserable death in their transportation thither…’

In the end, this clause had to be dropped to ensure the acceptance of the declaration by some of the Southern states.

After the war, Jefferson served in the legislature of his home state of Virginia. He sponsored many pieces of legislation, the most famous of which was the Statute of Religious Freedom, which was passed in 1785. Up until then, people holding different religious views from the majority could be stripped of public office and imprisoned. Jefferson’s bill begins with a passionate argument against compulsory religion:

‘Whereas Almighty God hath created the mind free; that all attempts to influence it by temporal punishments or burthens, or by civil incapacitations, tend only to beget habits of hypocrisy and meanness, and are a departure from the plan of the Holy author of our religion, who being Lord both of body and mind, yet chose not to propagate it by coercions on either, as it was in his Almighty power to do….our civil rights have no dependence on our religious opinions, any more than our opinions in physics or geometry…..’

Jefferson considered this bill one of his three finest achievements, along with the Declaration of Independence and the founding of the University of Virginia. It became the inspiration for the first amendment to the United States Constitution, which guaranteed freedom of speech and religion for all.

In 1800, Jefferson became president after an extremely close election. The election deepened a great rift between federalists, who wanted stronger power for the fledgling United States government, and republicans like Jefferson, who viewed centralised government as a necessary evil that must be contained and not allowed to overshadow states’ rights. Despite his views, he used his inaugural address to reach out to his defeated opponents and call for unity:

‘Let us restore to social intercourse that harmony and affection without which liberty and even life itself are but dreary things. And let us reflect that, having banished from our land that religious intolerance under which mankind so long bled and suffered, we have yet gained little if we countenance a political intolerance as despotic, as wicked, and capable of as bitter and bloody persecutions….’

• Read more about Thomas Jefferson on writespirit.net…