All that has happened

[Guest guest]

Namaskar,

Swami Vivekananda says in one of his speeches that he's been there before and

the same audience has listened to the speech before. He says that everything

that is happening has happened earlier and it's just repeating.

In a buddhist work also, I read that life is like a infinite circle until one

begins to go on the path of knowledge. After that it becomes a spiral and ends.

what does this mean? If Swami Vivekananda attained Moksha earlier, why is he

born again ? Isn't this contradicting the statement that there is no more birth

in this world after Moksha for a person ?

 

Om Tat Sat

Guru Venkat

 

 

 

 

 

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[Guest guest]

Namaste Guru Venkat-Ji.

 

Wonderful questions indeed. Thanks for the same.

 

I don't honestly know what Swamiji had in mind. Nevertheless, I can

venture a logical, advaitic explanation.

 

This space-time continuum in which we experience the world is, in

fact, an error. We all accept that. The key to your conundrum lies in

seeing Consciousness as unravelling (to the deluded one, of course)

whereby space and time are projected. It is, in fact, very naive on

our part to assume that Consciousness can unfold only in a sequential

manner. The feeling of sequence itself is the very essence of the

error. Everything being at the same source all the time (Sorry, if I

am temporal due to limitations of language and expression), the

contents of a particular point of space-time, say in 1990, can follow

those of a point, say in 2003. In other words, at my present age of

56, I can regress back to my primary school classroom having

harrowing moments with my maths teacher whom I used to hate the

most. However, I would not then know that I had reached age 56! In

the same manner, I can also be on my death-bed (if at all my body-

awareness is to end on a bed!) at a space-time point I am not aware

of right now.

 

I would now digress to Carlos Castaneda. (Dennis-Ji, kindly forgive

this reference, if you are reading this. I know you don't accept

him.). In his "A Separate Reality" or another work that followed

(Perhaps, "Journey to Ixtlan" -I am not quite sure.), he narrates an

incident where his teacher, Don Juan, a Mexican man of knowledge

(sorcerer), calls his attention to a leaf falling from a tree. Then

again, after a few moments, the teacher asks Castaneda to look up at

the tree. Castaneda sees the same leaf falling again. I believe

there is a point for us there whether Castaneda was honest or not.

 

The experienced world is topsy-turvy as it is sequential. However,

from an advaitin's point of view, it is an error to see it either as

topsy-turvy or sequential. He needs to know only the truth and

nature of it.

 

Now to come to moksha - loosely translated as liberation. Moksha is

realizing the error mentioned above. We have a puzzle and we try

hard to solve it. When the solution is in hand and the puzzle is

solved, the puzzle is no more a puzzle. Like when the magician's

trick is known, there is no more any magic in it. So, moksha need

not necessarily mean a cessation of all experiencing. It is

realizing the trick of experiencing. Then experiencing ceases to be

the type of experiencing we all go through. Realization is knowing

that there is actually no birth or death. One who knows that cannot

be born or dead! Swamiji is very much here with us if we realize

that his birth and death (as also his moksha!) are our own delusion!

He is one of the legends experienced by us, i.e. in our awareness.

He can't therefore be apart from us. You can be listening to his

Chicago address right now if that is what Consciousness wills for

you! It is in Consciousness with all the rest of the events and

objects of this experiential world of the past, present and the so-

called unknown future! Consciousness is a big PRESENT.

 

Language has severe limitations. I may not have succeeded in putting

my point across effectively. However, I am sure the essence of it

all can be appreciated through contemplation.

 

Pranams.

 

Madathil Nair

[Guest guest]

advaitin, Guru Venkat <v_vedanti> wrote:

>

 

Namaste,

 

I see life and creation as a wagon wheel with spokes. We sit at the

hub and each spoke is a life. We concentrate on that particular

spoke, hence a life. But at the hub all is one, no time, all lived at

once. Sometimes there are bleedthroughs from our future and past

lives depending on the need in this particular

concentration/life....ONS....Tony.