Screening Room

From time immemorial human beings have sought the truth of our origin, purpose, existence. A name was given to this unknown mystery - God. Thus the unknown was replaced with another unknown and humanity is no clearer. True education must proceed from the known to the unknown. Vedanta's approach to the unknown and God is to analyse and proceed from what you know: the World and the Human Being. 

The nature of the world is change. There is heat and cold, joy and sorrow, honour and dishonour. The mind gets attached to objects and beings in the world not realising they must change and pass leaving us disappointed or heartbroken. The session covers how you can develop the intellect to adapt and thrive in the changing world. However to find lasting peace, you need to go within to the changeless Self. Make the paradigm shift from correcting the world to gaining knowledge of your Self. 

The 3 temperaments are tamas, rajas and sattva. Human evolution is to reduce tamas and rajas and promote sattva. Sattva is a temperament of serenity in and through the thick of work and every phase life presents you with. Based on an individual's proportion of the 3 temperaments, particular work would be suitable for one's evolution. This was the basis of India's caste system. Its improper application created division rather than being a support for individuals to evolve towards peace and prosperity.     

The session is based on Chapter 4 of the book Vedanta Treatise: The Eternities by A. Parthasarathy. 

A perfect action is when your mind is at rest while your body is engaged in dynamic action. To remove stress and boredom from an action one needs to reduce the involvement of egocentric desire. The session details how to use higher desire to displace lower ones and minimise desire's influence by acting on the intellect's duties not the mind's likes and dislikes.        

The session is based on Chapter 5 of the book Vedanta Treatise: The Eternities by A. Parthasarathy. We continue next session to discuss the emotions of kindness, Pity and Charity.

After love, a few other emotions are discussed in this session and their facets. Kindness is a feeling of gentleness, compassion which renders a human being divine, spiritual. One must differentiate between acts of kindness and thoughts of kindness to never be victimised. Similarly pity is a feeling of sympathy for another's misfortune but requires the intellect's participation to truly assist and not a fall prey to the endless pleasing of their emotions. Finally charity, the feeling of giving is highlighted. True charity elevates both donor and donee and is not indiscriminate. 

Humanity gropes in the darkness of stress, sorrow and suffering. The cause is the ignorance of our true nature, the Self within. Only the Knowledge of the Self as the light of wisdom can remove this dark veil of ignorance. The session details the nature of the Self as absolute existence, knowledge and bliss. And suggests a deeper inquiry into the question - Who am I. True human progress and civilisation should be marked by the level of self-unfoldment rather than material or monetary aggrandisement.       

The session is based on Chapter 7 of the book Vedanta Treatise: The Eternities by A. Parthasarathy.