One of the longest of longtime commenters here, LB, reminded me the other day of the Sanskrit word mumukshutva. It means intense desire for liberation. In Advaita Vedanta it’s considered to be one of the four necessary factors for attaining Self-realization.
For example, here’s Ganga Maa describing herself as a child in the introduction to Silent Presence edited by David Godman:
From a very young age my natural inclination was only towards the truth and God-realisation.
Whenever anyone asked me what my goal in life was, I always replied, ‘Atma sakshatkaram,’ Self-realisation. I would innocently and with total fervour call out within to all the Masters I knew, ‘I am ready! Are you all ready to give me sakshatkaram [realisation]?’
There was a great sense of urgency to get realisation. Intensely and with deep longing I used to shed tears every day for sakshatkaram. Even at that early age nothing else in life interested me. Academic studies became secondary. Instead, I used to sit and recite mantras from the Upanishads and try to understand their meaning. Or I would fill the pages of my school notebooks with two of the mahavakyas: ‘Tat Tvam Asi’ [‘That you are’] and ‘Aham Brahmasmi’ [‘I am Brahman’]. Then I would contemplate on them and try to go deeper into their true meaning.
Links
Hridaya Kshetram
Ganga Maa’s website.
Ganga Maa speaking in videos
It may be more beneficial to listen to her voice than think about her words.
Silent Presence Vol. 1
Ebook of Ganga Maa’s satsangs edited by David Godman. Sold at low cost on linked page.
Yes and Amen! What more can be said?
Hi Freddie.
I think it’s a really important point and even Bhagavan in his early years was devoted to that to some degree. People fed him and bugs bit him is what I’ve heard.
I do think people spend too much time entertaining themselves, watching Netflix, reading books etc. and should focus more on self realization if that is their real goal in life.
Michael James often talks about Prarabdha and that you will be made to do what you must do according to your Prarabdha. It’s very hard to understand, this is a very deep subject and I find it hard to just focus on self realization and to let go of career needs, self actualization etc. I have kids, a mortgage. Is it because I don’t want self realization enough or is it just part of my Prarabdha?
Anyways, I keep working to increase my desire to be self realized, to be self attentive at all times, to pray without ceasing in Christianity terms.
Thanks for the post.
Murilo
Hi Murilo,
I think for most of us, a lot of effort is necessary to realize the Self. We make that effort only if we want realization badly.
It’s a peculiar kind of effort because the action — abiding in ourself — is almost effortless. The effort consists of resisting an opposite desire to get lost in thought.
Maybe this effort isn’t so peculiar because sticking to a diet or stopping an addiction is a similar kind of effort.
How do you do that?
Best wishes,
Freddie
P.S. About prarabdha — regardless of what people say about it, we have to make an effort to realize. Ramana always told people to make the effort. I’ll stick with that. Believing “I can’t summon up the willpower to make the effort, but I guess that’s my prarabdha, so I won’t try harder,” is not a helpful belief. 🙂
By the way, in case you don’t know, prarabdha is usually translated “fate” or “destiny” in English books but that’s not what it means in Advaita Vedanta. It actually means the portion of karma left over from previous lives that causes and sustains our current life. It’s a sort of spiritual genome built on Lamarckian principles.
Thanks for your reply Freddie and explanations.
I agree. I think a lot of effort is required for most if not all people.
I personally think that part of the lack of effort could be in fact related to the lack of belief. Sometimes I wonder, is that, “on that level” even possible??
Wanting to be free from suffering, from the tyranny and identification with thoughts and body. I think that’s how we increase the desire.
I’ve been making that effort to be self attentive here and there like you said, even for 10 seconds when I am at work, or watching a movie with my wife, driving, in a meeting etc, but it’s so brief…and then quickly lost in thoughts again.
Lost in thoughts is still my main state.
Glad to hear that those brief moments are not futile and has an effect. 🙂
Namaste.
I agree. In fact I think this is obviously true. Why would anyone bother to make the effort unless he or she is certain there’s a good chance it will work? I think the only way to develop this certainty is to get to know, or observe in videos, somebody who we recognize is in Ramana’s state and hear them explain how they did it and hear them reassure us that anybody can do it by making the effort. I had the good luck (I won’t say prarabdha because I don’t believe in the karma theory) to spend a month with somebody like that fairly soon after I started to follow Ramana’s method, and as a result, I’ve never doubted that Self-realization is possible because I got to know a living example.
Yep.
I think it’s the main state for almost everyone until Self-realization is very close.
One of the reasons this is true, I think, is that even a little bit of time being a little bit not lost in thought, makes not being lost in thought more familiar to us. The more familiar it gets, the easier it becomes to pay attention to it, to allow ourselves to be aware of it to the exclusion of thoughts. Familiarity helps lead to ease of being fully aware of it.
Thanks Freddie. I have no doubts in my mind that with practise we get better but to the level of Ramana?
How can you compare a life of any yogi living in a cave with someone who has a job, kids and wife?
I’ve watched a pod cast with Sam Harris and someone else I can’t remember when they mentioned this: “I think it’s very easy to romanticize certain people like Nisargadatta. And if Nisargadatta were here, he’d be smoking his bidis and yelling at us or something.”
Morihei Yeshiba founded the Aikido. One of his students once said, “Sensei you never lose your center. It’s amazing the way you move, you never lose your center. He smiled and said ” I lose my center all the time but I recover it very very quickly”
When asked if he ever got impatient, Nisargadatta joyfully explained, “I see, hear and taste as you do, feel hunger and thirst; if lunch is not served on time, even impatience will arise. All this I perceive quite clearly, but somehow I am not in it. There is awareness of it all and a sense of immense distance. Impatience arises; hunger arises. Even when illness and death of this body arise, they have nothing to do with who I am.” This is enlightenment as a shift in identity.
I think I misunderstand self-realization. It is not that you never get angry or sad. It is more like you quickly regain your balance. You are not carried by your thoughts and emotions for too long. Something more like that.
This is Eckhart Tolle. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mv9HamBHqkE&list=PLmxv01KnPPBSCcdqakcPI2fwnVYONXkCq&index=11&t=230s
One point I forgot to mention, and I think it is really, really important. How to increase the desire for self-realization? To also remember that is the best way to help others.
Namaste
P.P.S.
It seems very hard in the beginning but it gets easier with practice. Even what seems like a feeble effort has an effect. Even a minute here and there, trying to quiet the mind or be aware of ourself, even if the attempt seems half-assed and futile, has an effect.
Hello again Freddie
Just yesterday I found a book here, the confessions of St. Augustine. Had a quick look and found this:
“Make me chaste and continent, but not yet”. He was afraid that god might hear him and cure him of his lust too soon..
So relatable..Just now I thought that if i wanted self realization bad enough (hit that 100% mark like Maa), then it could be so much quicker and easier (as it’s already familiar). If only ..I could stop binge watching ‘Monk’ on Makedonia tv, stop indulging mysef in Greek pastries, if those cicadas stop making so much noise..and the list goes on..
Many years ago in a meditation retreat the teacher asked us why are we here. Unhesitatingly I said to get enlightenment. I was the only one. Most came to get stress free or meet someone (spiritual!…). It’s not the norm in society and it might be rubbing off.
Group effort is stronger, they say.
Maybe it’s up to us and like minded people, like Murilo had mentioned, to make an effort, so we can help others. Get me/them enthused through creative means. (Im actually on it).
I’ve heard of Sam Harris but there’s also Terrence Stephens, a non duality Australian teacher, who has very good videos on youtube. I see there lots of gen zers, that’s cool. (Gen xer here).
Apropos..
https://selfdefinition.org/awareness/most-rapid/chapter-05.htm
P.s Ramana said that just few minutes everyday day is enough for the head to be put in the tiger’s mouth. I believe him. (Do I?)
And then came Maa…
https://hridayakshetram.org/satsang-summary-text/?chapter=20251021
Thanx for the link to Maa, Freddie.
This satsang summary just blew my mind