"The very first step in understanding what this is all about is giving up the concept of an active, volitional 'I' as a separate entity and accepting the passive role of perceiving and functioning as a process." - Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj

Sunday, September 7, 2014

Perfection Needs Practice

Sri Tandavaraya Swami

The Sages say that there are four prerequisites for realization of the Truth: 
1. Viveka: discrimination between the temporary (therefore unreal phenomena) and the permanent (therefore the Reality i.e., the noumenal)
2. Indifference to the enjoyment of pleasures here or hereafter
3. The group of six qualities (sama - control of mind, dama - control of senses, uparati - cessation of activities (relating to caste, creed, family etc.), titiksha - control of passions, samadhana - settling down of the mind to reflect on the Truth, shraddha - faith in the Master and the scriptures)
4. The longing for Liberation.

No one can achieve anything in the world without being properly equipped for the task. For the same reason, only those who are equipped with these four categories of prerequisites can gain illumination. A novice cannot get it so readily. If so gained, it follows that the person has been successively purified in countless incarnations in the past.

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सर्वभूताधिवासं यद्भूतेषु च वसत्यपि।
सर्वानुग्राहकत्वेन तद्स्म्यहं वासुदेवः॥

That in whom reside all beings and who resides in all beings,
who is the giver of grace to all, the Supreme Soul of the universe, the limitless being:
I AM THAT. -- Amritabindu Upanishad