Day 3 Reflection Questions

1- The best antidote to physical attraction is to see the reality of everything and watching self in everyone. As Guru Shankaracharya said that “एतन्मान्सवसादिविकारम्।
मनसि विचिन्तय वारं वारम्।।३।।
And this is the ultimate solution for physical attraction, as when we see reality of everything we’ll have vairagya.
Being a medical student when I’ve dissected human bodies I can assure you that yeah human body is a great tool for knowledge it’s also a Karan/Saadhan for achieving the moksha but it’s not a thing of attachment, it’s not worth it.
It’s just a composition of tridoshas, sapt dhatus and trimalas.
Something worth of being attached to is non attachment itself.

Now the question arise , where does the true beauty lies.
The true beauty lies in watching self in everyone and stay Nisprah.
It gives us a unique feeling of oneness, fearlessness and a zeal to achieve the state of freedom from bondage when we think like the person standing in front of me is no one but me.

The situation is same like a hand in a glove.
Each finger watches other fingers and think that finger is different , also in size too.
But the reality is that the fingers are of same human, they’re not different, they’re one inside.
So the true beauty lies in the Advaitvaad of Vedant darshana, where we know that dualism is nothing but an illusion, this difference is only due to the difference of Avastha/ Paristhiti (States).
Let’s see it with an example,
What is hot and cold?
Arey they something different?
No, they’re one thing , just having a difference of state due to varying degrees
Like a hot cup on cooling down remains the same cup , the main difference is of the state.
It’s the same seen in humans. Humans are all one but have difference of states or conditions like one human is rich , other is poor, one is healthy other is diseased, one is happy , other is sad.
These all are humans , but what makes a difference in them is just the state or condition.
We know Atma has no gender but it behaves like whichever body it is in. Again the difference of conditions.
So the main difference is the difference is conditions or states and nothing else.

And to elaborate it I’ll also add desha and kaala with this paristhiti.
The same rule applies here too.
The man is same in it’s childhood, adulthood and old age.
What just changed is desh , kaala and paristhiti.
Kaal is one but for the ease it’s types are taken.

So if you wanna see the true beauty of this whole world , just see one in all.

2 – The Atma is kriyaheen but chetnayukta, while the prakriti is kriyayukya but chetnaheen, when both purusha and prakriti meets the universe emerges.
This is what I was taught when I was studying padartha vigyana , and I found this right in this case too.
The Purusha / Atma is Always conscious and prakriti is non conscious.
So both will have to for a mutual relationship to do karma, kriya and bhoga .
This relation is between atma and sharira for a clear understanding.
Sharir/body can be any body, like sthula sharir, sukshma sharir or Manushya sharir , pashu sharir… Any body.
When this relation comes into existence between eternally conscious Purusha and Non conscious prakriti, the life comes into existence.
This is the life, no matter whose it is, be it of your , mine or of any animal each life is the same mutual relationship.

I’ll just move to answer next question due to lack of time.

3 – The life is impermanencive as told bu Baudh Darshana in Kshanabhangurvaad and it fits perfectly here.
As the Time is encroaching everyone and everything and pulling it by force in one direction.
We don’t know what comes ahead due to our prabdha karma in this life , and if with the grace of guru or a good astrologer, it’s very hard to avoid the phala of karma, because the karma phala sidhanta is very strong and no one can avoid it.
The average age according to me (as I’m not giving an exact data) in India is somewhat nearby like 80 years varying to some degrees.
These 80 years seems a very long time to someone and very short to someone, depends on your perspective but in reality this is not a good enough time.
It’s like we’ll only witness 80 deepawalis?
And many of em we’ve witnessed.
And did we achived what we should?
I think no, we’ve achieved all materialistic things but not that thing , on achieving what, nothing remains to be achieved.

So , the impermanency of life is a dilemma in itself and the time is short , knowledge is unlimited.
So consume the extract of each shashtra and achieve what should be achieved.

Namaste ( Namah Te)

Yuvraj Sharma
sharmayuvraj148@gmail.com

1. Sharing my idea on physical attraction towards opposite gender.For eg: If a woman is attracted to 30 yr old man.Keep on subtracting 10 yrs,Imagine how they looked at 20, then as 10 yr old boy,then as foetus inside mother’s womb.Or by adding 10 yrs upto 90 then after death body is burnt to ashes.Attraction is totally destroyed.The body is just disappearing & age is an illusion.We say only living body is beautiful not dead body.So true beauty is in life.

2. Consciousness is everywhere , when it is manifested through mind which can reflect the consciousness , we say life exists.Stone has consciousness but no mind so no life.We have consciousness + life (because we have mind).

3. Impermanency of life:There is no guarantee that we live next day.Even if we live upto 80 that also ends.Some of us may have felt on new year we have 1 full year, but in December we feel how this year has ended so soon.Therefore we should win over death. Only way is to realize our true nature that I am not body, mind.

ANSWERS to Reflections day 3.

ANSWER 1.ANTIDOTE to Physical attraction. An ANTIDOTE is a substance administered to counteract the effects of a poison or harmful agent.
I, a FEMALE, believe that PHYSICAL attraction to a person ONLY COMES, AFTER one knows the person well. I am not sure if this is true for the male.
The person who is attracted, has noticed the “spark of life” in him/her.(person attracted to)
Has seen that there are COMMON INTERESTS shared by him/her.
SIMILARITY OF GOALS IN LIFE, shared by him/her.
Similar EMPATHY to situations in life shared by him/her.
PHYSICAL attraction is only the END-RESULT of all such qualities that are already attractive in him/her. Therefore I don’t see the need for an antidote, if PROCREATING is what is being planned BY THE TWO.
However I do see the need for an antidote for the ‘seekers’ who are sworn into Brahmacharyam. SANKARA is trying to avoid getting his students DISTRACTED.
SO the ANTIDOTE is to remember that the so-called beautiful body, is only a MASS OF FLESH and FAT and to keep repeating this over and over again. I hope it works for his students.

ANSWER 2. CONSCIOUSNESS and LIFE. Consciousness is the SELF, ALL PERVASIVE and OMNIPOTENT and BLISSFULL. CONSCIOUSNESS exists in SENTIENT beings and NON-SENTIENT objects too. But SENTIENCE needs the presence of the MIND,so that CONSCIOUSNESS using the MIND as a MEDIUM, reflects ITSELF ON the MIND and enlivens it, giving it LIFE. So an inanimate object has Consciousness, but NO LIFE, because it does NOT have a MIND and so there is NO AWARENESS IN AN INANIMATE OBJECT. In a human being and in all living creatures,CONSIOUSNESS ENLIVENS the MIND and AWARENESS is produced and this is LIFE.

ANSWER 3. IMPERMANENCY OF LIFE. SANKARA is a great poet and I love the alliteration in this bit of poetry. We can almost see and hear the water droplet on the lotus leaf dancing away and about to drop any minute !! Such is the unpredictableness of LIFE. DEATH may come any minute.As it is, LIFE is riddled with DISEASES, not to mention, problems caused by the EGO. hence we should give up this feeling of incompleteness which causes DESIRES. Shed DESIRES and be CONTENT, for LIFE is EPHEMERAL !!

Swamiji, Can you please send me the Biography of Sankara in four lines(DEVANAGARI SCRIPT) that you mentioned ? I could not find it on the internet, whichever way I tried !! Please help.MY PRANAMS. Prema amma.