TRANSCRIPTION:
What is spirituality?
Spirituality is a quest, a deep quest for every human being to find out where everything has come from, and where’s it going. And what is my role in that? Why am I created? What is the purpose of my existence? This deep quest is called spirituality. Spirituality is a search for yourself, your environment, and a role you have to play in that environment.
How money and spirituality work together?
Money is only one part of the game. There's so many other things, relationships, and things. So I think the deepest question is to find out who you are. That’s where you should start from. Let me start with this a little bit of understanding of how creation had come to be. We know, we feel, we see that there's creation and so there's no question whether the creation exists or not. It is there. It is an experiential fact. But how did this come to be? If there's a creation, there must be a Creator, and who is the Creator, and how did he create this whole thing that we see [or experience], if the Creator is there then who created the Creator? I know it's an infinite series of questions that come up. Who created, why did he create? So there are many answers to the question. But I think the most satisfying and deepest answer to this question is that the Creator is in your own image. You know and I know that you exist, and I exist. That's an irrefutable fact. So the creation start with I, whatever that “I” is. And that “I” is seeing something and knowing something other than me. So knowing yourself as other than you is God’s creation. The ability to see, the ability to know, ability to think, the ability to act, all the parts of your awareness, modes of your awareness and it's all projecting what is you to yourself. The source of everything it seems to be you. If I do not exist, then nothing that I see can exist.
How does Sri Vidya help spiritual transformation in the society?
Sri Vidya describes how everything could come out of nothing. It's a solution to your puzzle, how nothing can produce something and absolutely mean nothing. That's one part of the Sri Vidya. It talks about pre-creation, before the creation happened, what must have happened. It talks about that and then gives examples. What is the cause this to answer this question of infinite cycles of regression. If there's a Creator, who created the Creator and same set of questions can be asked. So it answers that by analyzing the cause and effect, what causes what. So, it starts with an example, let’s say an ocean. An ocean is a source of life, and the source of an ocean, it has no life, you go back to the atom. There's no apparent life. But it has movement. If you keep going back to the source from which you came. You go to life; life came from oceans; oceans came from an assembly of particles and particles came from where? Where they exist. It's a physical quest on the outside. And then if we consider the very simple example. If you take an ocean, on surface there are waves. You can't do away with the waves and put them somewhere else and say this is an ocean and the ocean is the cause of the waves. The inability to separate the cause from the effect. When you are saying this ocean must be the cause, when you are saying that, you are giving the importance to ocean and not equal importance to the waves. Why should you do that? They are of equal importance to this and that. Why are we giving importance to the cause and not to the effect? From where is the relative importance within the cause and effect coming from? What is cause and effect? What precedes in time, comes before in time - is the cause or comes after in time - is effect. Why is there a preference for the past, or the present, or the future? The questioning goes back to the time itself. But who created time and space? So the creation process is understood in the spiritual sense by having a timeless nature. It says spirituality answers this question by saying the cause and effect are the same, there is a properties of one entity and that's called [8.27 sasanta tattva??] [????] means independence. It does not depend on anything else for its creation. If it depends on something else, then this or that, that dependence is not there. So in one sense, it terminates the question of time and its movement, and removes the distinction between cause and effect and thus eliminates the boundary of a past, present and future in time. It was back to the source. A sources is independent. It has got conscience, which says I can know and it can know. And knowing is creation. And it doesn't need any outside thing to create, and that is its independence.
How to understand mystery due to poverty?
If you think that there is misery, poverty and all these things and you say that they should not be there, then you want to remove the misery. If you do not recognize that there’s no misery, there’s no need to remove the misery. If you think that there’s happiness, then the lack of it has to be eliminated. You see, all these human condition questions relate to creating a distinction between things, that are not distinct, and being able to take things as they are without giving a priority - this should be like this and it should not be like this. And that questioning is a cause of the trouble. Remove the questioning. Just observe and be. Do not be yourself, because when you say yourself, then others are coming. Just be.
How to understand violence against women in society?
It has to do with the learning, detachment. How to be detached when you're attached. How to be independent when you are dependent. How not to feel misery when misery is there. How not to feel pain, when pain is there. It’s pretty obvious if you think deeply about this. Inside yourself there's a duality, the sense of “I”. I am experiencing the pain. There’s something else also, which is watching this “I” experiencing this pain. If you identify with the “I,” that is experiencing the pain, then the pain is there. If you do not identify with either the experiencer or the pain, but with the “I,” which is watching the “I,” which is experiencing pain, then there's no pain there. It’s like, if it is hurting here and it's not hurting here. Then why do you keep your focus on this and not here, and here and not here. So the way to remove the pain is to shift your focus away from the pain. Focus is the attention and it magnifies this thing. Current relationships for example, when a partnership starts failing for whatever reason then you keep on focusing on - you have done this, you're done this, and I’ve done this because you haven't done this, and so on. It is a never-ending argument, they are focusing on the differences between the two of them. Because you are focusing on the differences, differences are growing and they will always grow, because focus is like a magnifying glass. You are putting your attention on the differences. You do not put your attention on the differences but on the places where you agree, where you can be together and remember the happy times, memories which are happy. Then that grows for you. So the way to do is to shift your focus, attention away from the person who is experiencing the pain, to the person who is seeing the person experiencing the pain. These two are different. So you have to shift your focus away from this to that. That is a universal solution. Now you got to draw any particular instance of how we deduce the necessary things for each particular situation.
What is Sri Vidya?
Sri Vidya found me. I had no choice. To me Sri Vidya means, seeing beauty everywhere, seeing abundance everywhere, whether there’s mystery or happiness, whether beauty or ugliness. Having equanimity and being [priceless?] and experiencing whatever is given to you as the ultimate bliss. That is the thing that is taught by Sri Vidya. At the human level, you got lust, greed, jealousy and all these negative things and we have to accept them as also normal and not try to get away from them. We need to be involved with them. At the same time, see the beauty in not experiencing lust when you are in lust, not experiencing anger, when you are angry. So see, the connection is made to who you are really and that is the essence of Sri Vidya. The essence of Sri Vidya is to realize that the deepest part of you is embedded in the not so deep part of you. The waves are embedded in the ocean, oceans are deep, waves are on the surface, but these two are together. You cannot say this is important and that's not important, that is important and this is not important. To be able to see the beauty in this and that. And that is taught by Sri Vidya. It says all the chakras you have, the base chakra, second or third chakra, every chakra is important and [16:55 enjoyable as one of them].
How Sri Vidya helps in healing our body?
Fears, anxieties, neuroses all spring forth from your base chakra. If you keep your attention there, then the subconscious is brought up to the surface and catharsis happens and that is cleared. So accessing the base chakra clears these roots. And second chakra, the Svādhiṣṭhāna chakra, it removes the inhibitions of your own growth; it overcomes that. So that it is easier to say yes to your own body [17:48 then each of the body] like eating good food, eating healthy, having good sex, and so on. And inhibitions are the causes of the problems there, so it’s the removal of inhibitions. And then when you come to the third chakra when you are keeping your attention on the third chakra in your body, you're accessing the regions of power. What is the source of power? I’m helpless. I’m angry because and I am unable to change the environment around me. So by accessing that you are able to clear this. So these chakras are mapped into Sri Chakra. The Sri Chakra is your own body. It looks as a geometrical object, but it’s an object which is a mapping of your own body, your own emotions, your own growth process. In going through different chakras without laying undue emphasis on one and not other, giving equal emphasis to all these things. That is the beauty of Sri Vidya. Every other thing tries to focus on one particular chakra and say here is where everything is, but that's not so. You have to understand, you need to give attention to every part of yourself then to get rid of the hold that any particular chakra has on you. Then you see the beauty, the glory of this world. You start enjoying the bullet going through the heart.
How to understand Sri Chakra?
Sri Chakra is a mapping of your body, the universe, the pre-universe and the source of the pre-universe. The source is called the Mother. The Sri Chakra is the appreciation of the beauty of a Mother in all her various manifestations. It also talks about not having a need for another to create. You are the Creator, you are creating your destiny. And you better watch out what you are thinking, because you are creating a universe by the way of your thinking process. So [20:28 ????] keep your thinking straight and you go back to the source as the Mother and the Mother takes you into her womb and makes you her child. She nourishes you with knowledge, fine arts and music at her breasts and she gives knowledge that allows you to become God or Goddess. That’s the blessing that Sri Vidya has to offer and I wish all of you to take part in this great spiritual quest. Spirituality is a quest. Your questions are right and your answers will be right if you follow them with the right attitude of humility, service, love, sympathy, empathy and so on.
Namaskaram
