Question 105: Destiny and the Great Goals of Life (Purusharthas)

heart-key
What is the difference between destiny and the goals of life? It matters much to what purpose the mind is put. The key is in the heart; turn it towards the world, the world and maya will cause loss. Turn the key in the heart towards the Divine, and everything is gained; that which is known, by which all things in this world are known. That is the goal, the difference between daiva and purushartha.

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Question 104: How does the realised one experience the body, the universe?

inelastic motion
The Young Rama sits, asking questions to Sage Vasistha. He is asking how the jnani – the one who has achieved the quiscient state – experience the body, the self, the Universe. Sage Vasishtha says for the ignorant, it is all about name and form, nama-rupa. For the realised, everything is Brahmam.

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Question 103: The Seen World: what is its reality?

spirial galaxy
The Young Rama sits, asking questions to Sage Vashishtha. He is asking how the world is manifest without any cause; how do you, I or the young Rama – and the Sage – experience this manifestation, encompassed, surrounded by the phenomenal world? There is a base, as the Sage explains.

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Question 101: The World, the Universe: Is it Real, is it Unreal?

mistThe mind is the screen upon which it plays out its own dramas – for the dramas, the ideations, the vasanas or sankalpas (ideas, tendencies and willpower) are brought across with the soul into the new body. Rama asks what is real, unreal and why. Vashishtha explains that bad actions can be countenanced by good action, and that firm will, strong will always triumphs. We include a dialogue about name and form, mind and screen.

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Question 98: Death and the Mind

portrait of sri ramana Consciousnes continues after death. It is a form of consciousness that does not receive input from the body. This is what Ramana Maharshi experienced as a young man when he lay down and entered into his death. Death had no power overhim, nor fear. Everyone’s mind is different. So the experience of death is different for everyone, as Sage Vasishtha explains herein.

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Question 97: Death and the Experience thereafter

physical deathNearly every human has curiosity and questions about what happens after death. As far as we know, and what Sage Vaishtha illustrates in this Question-and-Answer, is that the experience is different for everyone, for the mind is different for everyone – for each and every mind is unique in its tendencies, desires and thoughts generated by same.

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Question 93-94: The Dream and waking states:

Dreamland There is the waking life and the dream state. In the dream state, we can experience objects as absolutely real, and have emotions, our bodies respond and hearts beat fast during this REM stage of sleep. Yet, it all seems real, just as in the waking state, everything is real. We can feel softness, hardness, things that bend and things that do not bend. Our senses tell us this. What then, is the Atma, and are things real and distinct in the Atma?

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Question 90: on desire and reincarnation

Saraswati deviThis long story is about Queen Leela and King Padma, with a twist on the ending. They lead an idyllic life, but as they age Leela fears he might die first, in which case her own life would be intolerable. So she does tapas to Goddess Saraswati and obtains the boon to have her husband’s spirit always with her. She and the goddess astral travel and time travel to see the couple’s prior life as simple brahmins, and the origin of her husband’s desire to possess the wealth of an empire. That desire manifests after King Padma dies and the queen and goddess see another reality in the deceased king’s mind. He is now King Viduratha ruling a vast empire with a second Leela as his wife, then battling his enemy King Sindhu. In the end, King Sindhu wins, King Viduratha is killed, King Padma is brought back to life in front of the two Leelas, and both Padma and the first Leela attain nirvana.

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Question 86-88: What remains after the Universe?

evolution - involutionThere is evolution, there is sustenance afforded by the Paramatma, there is involution, the withdrawal of all things back to the Cosmic Egg, the Hiranyagarbha, which is verily the form of Brahman. The youthful Rama is beset with questions about what remains after the dissolution of the Universe.

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