Ravi S. Iyer: Spiritual

Readers may want to see my recent blog post on another blog of mine: Updated Roadmap and Extensive and Well Organized Notes for Learning Full Stack (MERN) Web Development Beginner Level through Free Online Tutorials,  https://raviswdev.blogspot.com/2024/03/updated-roadmap-and-extensive-and-well.html . 

Last updated on 9 Sep. 2024 IMHO, a great spiritual challenge is understanding and handling the mystery and challenge of grave illness/injury coming to a person, and sometimes leading to his/her passing away. After the event, doctors may analyze an illness and say why it happened at physical-body level but it is very difficult for them to accurately predict when somebody is going to fall ill and how severe the illness will be. Hindu scripture talks of Rishis having knowledge about such matters from a spiritual perspective (e.g. karmic result) not only about their life but also about other people's lives, and many Rishis had the power to rise above body consciousness at will.  In our times though, such spiritual masters seem to be very rare.  Most of us devotees/spiritual aspirants (NOT masters), me certainly included, have no such (clear and precise) spiritual perspective knowledge about why grave illness/injury comes to a person (which could be us). We may loosely speculate a...

Readers may want to have a look at my recent post in another blog of mine: Upskilling to MERN web developer: Finished 2nd round of Roadmap to Learning Full Stack Web Development,  https://raviswdev.blogspot.com/2024/03/upskilling-to-mern-web-developer.html  . 

Transcending the Mind, Abiding in Pure Awareness – The Psychology of Samadhi: 4, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bSQrlf4AKVs , 25 min. 32 secs., published on Aug. 17, 2023 by ArshaBodha - Swami Tadatmananda. The Swami bases his talk in this video which is part of a series, on Patanjali Maharshi's Ashtanga Yoga writings and his own experiences. I get the impression that the Swami is being very truthful about his experience of Samadhi. From the description of the video (and the Swami says something similar/same in the video): "In samadhi, as Patanjali himself says, tada drashtuh svarupe avasthanam, you then abide in your true nature as pure consciousness. That is the state of kaivalya, onlyness, when your true nature alone remains." He does not talk about experiencing himself in all and all in himself, knowing about past and future etc. The key points of his experience of Samadhi seem to be: the karta (doer) and bhokta (enjoyer) disappearing and only awareness/pure conscio...

Thought of sharing some recent thoughts/insights in my ongoing and regular meditation practice... In my life/living experience, (my) Awareness-I is the only 'thing' or rather experience that is unchanging and ever-present. Everything else including my mind-body is changing, and thus is a "passing show". I give some importance even to the "passing show" as I cannot switch off the passing show and am bound to it (or trapped in it). But I give, or try to give, far more importance to experiencing the Awareness-I as that is my ultimate reality and I believe it to be eternal and a part of God. Related posts:  Viewing Awareness-I as essence or part of God in my meditation and trying to dissolve or merge into God (experience oneness with God), https://ravisiyer.blogspot.com/2023/06/viewing-awareness-i-as-essence-or-part.html Blending of experience of 'Om Sai Ram' Namasmarana and Awareness-I japa-dhyaana, https://ravisiyer.blogspot.com/2023/06/blending-of-exp...

Recently a devotee shared with me that Bhagavan Sri Sathya Sai Baba (in physical form) had said to him in Telugu: Kashtam aina nashtam aina naa bhaktuluni kaapaadu. My English translation of it (hopefully there are no errors) is: Whether (you are) in difficulty or at a (monetary) loss, help/protect my devotees. I was very moved to hear these words of Bhagavan. I thought it will be a small but nice contribution to Sathya Sai devotee community, if he permitted me to post this publicly. The devotee sir kindly provided the permission.  

I find these words of Ramana Maharshi from below post to be striking: "A Jnani always looks forward to the time when he will be free from the bondage of the body and be able to throw it away." BHAGAVAN’S VIEW ON DEATH, https://www.facebook.com/RamanaHridayam/posts/pfbid02rCP2oJ5AN9q5UDHDhjoUSdFFXzsL2SsRMyxpYQcRPxnpBW3J9GbaxSEWLebhcHnBl . The post provides the reference for quote shared above, as: ‘Letters’, p 87, Bhagavan’s remarks to the death of Madhava Swami My humble view is that Jnanis may not always look forward to freedom from bondage of body, as at times they may want to use the body in regular world to help or teach others. But quite surely, Jnanis would eventually (perhaps after they feel their work in the world is done) look forward to being free of the body bondage (and be able to throw it away).