{"id":3002,"date":"2016-09-25T13:06:30","date_gmt":"2016-09-25T18:06:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.navamsa.com\/?p=3002"},"modified":"2016-10-07T07:40:19","modified_gmt":"2016-10-07T12:40:19","slug":"vedanta-in-rishikesh-day-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.navamsa.com\/?p=3002","title":{"rendered":"Vedanta in Rishikesh, day 2"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"swami-brahmavidyananda\"<\/a>23 September 2005<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Swamiji talked about looking at a colored piece of cloth and being able to clearly determine whether it\u00e2\u0080\u0099s red or yellow or green. But with ourselves, self-recognition isn\u00e2\u0080\u0099t so easy. There\u00e2\u0080\u0099s a gap between who we are and who we want to be. To apprehend the difference, we have to think about it a lot.<\/span><\/p>\n

Imagine that you intend to travel but you don’t know where you want to go. Chances are, you won\u00e2\u0080\u0099t have a satisfactory travel experience. Therefore, you need to have a destination in mind. Once that\u00e2\u0080\u0099s determined, the means will become more obvious.<\/span><\/p>\n

The clarity of the goal sets the stage for the most appropriate means to reach that goal. Sadhyam<\/em> = the goal. Sadhana<\/em> = the means.<\/span><\/p>\n

Ultimately, we want to be someone who is totally acceptable to ourselves. This acceptance is only facilitated when ignorance is absent.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Imagine you have a sore back that bugs you all the time. But every now and again, someone tells a joke and you have a good laugh and in that moment you forget the back pain. But then the moment is gone and the pain is back.<\/span><\/p>\n

We can exercise to stay fit, but even after a while the body gets tired. The vitality is eventually lost. The peculiarity of human nature is often that the mind controls us instead of us controlling the mind.<\/span><\/p>\n

Imagine that someone loves ice cream. Give them one bowl of their favorite and they\u00e2\u0080\u0099re happy, give them a second and they\u00e2\u0080\u0099re happier, and still happier with a third… But after seven or eight, there\u00e2\u0080\u0099s no more happiness. It\u00e2\u0080\u0099s the law of diminishing returns.<\/span><\/p>\n

Life is cyclic and therefore repetitive. From clerk to doctor, people do the same thing again and again. After a while, they need change, to feel some sense of satisfaction in doing something different.<\/span><\/p>\n

A person who has a lot of possessions is comfortably unhappy. A person who has no possessions is uncomfortably unhappy.<\/span><\/p>\n

It\u00e2\u0080\u0099s legitimate and proper to want to be happy. To desire unhappiness is improper. In our pursuit of happiness, it\u00e2\u0080\u0099s a bit like jumping very high to ring a bell. Every now and again we do it, but most of the time the bell doesn\u00e2\u0080\u0099t ring.<\/span><\/p>\n

In our pursuit of happiness, we\u00e2\u0080\u0099re pursuing a long-term solution, but we generally have to settle for a quick fix that doesn’t last.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Conceptually, we can believe that we\u00e2\u0080\u0099ll be happy elsewhere. The problem is, we haven\u00e2\u0080\u0099t been elsewhere in order to know what it looks like.<\/span><\/p>\n

Even elsewhere, where happiness resides, there\u00e2\u0080\u0099ll be gradations of happiness. Furthermore, an unhappy person will be unhappy everywhere, just as a complainer will find fault even in a 5-star restaurant or hotel.<\/span><\/p>\n

Pinning our hopes on something that isn\u00e2\u0080\u0099t adequate or appropriate will only perpetuate unhappiness. Inadequate effort won\u00e2\u0080\u0099t produce results. Inappropriate effort won\u00e2\u0080\u0099t give good results either. The right effort is both appropriate and adequate.<\/span><\/p>\n

~~~<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Pageflex<\/a>Alan Annand<\/strong>\u00c2\u00a0is\u00c2\u00a0a graduate of the American College of Vedic Astrology\u00c2\u00a0and a former tutor for the British Faculty of Astrological Studies.\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

His\u00c2\u00a0New Age Noir<\/em>\u00c2\u00a0crime novels (Scorpio Rising<\/em>,\u00c2\u00a0Felonious Monk<\/em>,\u00c2\u00a0Soma County<\/em>) feature astrologer and palmist Axel Crowe, whom one reviewer has dubbed \u00e2\u0080\u009cSherlock Holmes with a horoscope.\u00e2\u0080\u009d<\/span><\/p>\n

He’s also the author of several non-fiction books.\u00c2\u00a0Stellar Astrology<\/em>\u00c2\u00a0offers a compilation of Vedic astrology techniques,\u00c2\u00a0in-depth celebrity profiles, and analysis of world\u00c2\u00a0events.\u00c2\u00a0Parivartana Yoga<\/em> is a reference text for one of the most common yet powerful planetary combinations in jyotish.\u00c2\u00a0Mutual Reception<\/em> is an expanded companion volume for western practitioners, covering the same subject of planetary exchange through the lens of traditional astrology.<\/span><\/p>\n

Websites: www.navamsa.com, www.sextile.com<\/span><\/p>\n

You can find his books on Amazon<\/a>, Apple<\/a>, Barnes&Noble<\/a>, Kobo<\/a> and Smashwords<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

23 September 2005 Swamiji talked about looking at a colored piece of cloth and being able to clearly determine whether it\u00e2\u0080\u0099s red or yellow or green. But with ourselves, self-recognition isn\u00e2\u0080\u0099t so easy. There\u00e2\u0080\u0099s a gap between who we are and who we want to be. To apprehend the difference, we have to think about […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[100,26],"tags":[65,157,102,356,355,101],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.navamsa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3002"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.navamsa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.navamsa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.navamsa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.navamsa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3002"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.navamsa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3002\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3053,"href":"https:\/\/www.navamsa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3002\/revisions\/3053"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.navamsa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3002"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.navamsa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3002"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.navamsa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3002"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}