Excerpt From Awaken Children IX

[Guest guest]

Excerpted from Awaken Children IX, Chapter One

 

"There are many rituals prescribed in the Vedas. People have a tendency to become too

attached to those rituals, rather than understanding their inner significance and thereby

transcending them. The Vedic rituals, and the mantras which form a part of them, purify

the atmosphere and benefit mankind. Of course they do much good-but they can't be

compared to the immeasurable benefit humanity receives from a person who has attained

realization."

 

"No matter how important and valuable the rituals are, the practitioner should strive to go

beyond them and to experience the ultimate Truth within himself. That is the very purpose

of religion: to realize that there is no God or Goddess existing separately from our own

innermost Self. This supreme experience of oneness with the Truth is the foundation of all

religious teachings."

 

"It's inadvisable to give too much importance to rituals, and to become too attached to

them, forgetting their real purpose, which is to lead the aspirant to the inner experience of

the Truth. This is probably what Sri Krishna meant. Amma doesn't claim to know anything

about the Bhagavad Gita, but She believes this is the reason for the Lord's criticism of the

section on the Karma Kanda in the Vedas. In those days people were probably too attached

to the ritualistic aspect of the Vedas, while the section on jnana was ignored.

 

"If Krishna were to be born in this age, He would undoubtedly criticize the so-called jnanis

who simply talk about Vedanta without experiencing or practicing even a bit of it. He

would, however, praise the Vedic rituals. Do you know why? Because we have forgotten

those rituals that could be of such great benefit to the world.

 

"Not only Vedic rituals, but any karma (action) that we do, is meant to help us attain a

certain amount of mental purification. But this is only possible if we have the right

attitude. Once the mind and the senses have been purified, we are meant to renounce all

action and turn inward in search of the Truth. Having attained that purity, the quest to

know the truth of existence will intensify and we will automatically turn within. That

longing will eventually help us to experience the Supreme Truth. In the state of oneness

there are no Vedas, and no gods or goddesses other than our own Self. Everything is

experienced as one and the same Self.

 

"The scriptures say that for a person who has attained Supreme Knowledge-the state of

Jivan Mukti, the realization that everything is the Atman-the Vedas cease to be the Vedas,

and the gods cease to be gods. "The experience of oneness with the inner Truth is the

goal of all religions. Why would there be any religions at all if that realization couldn't be

attained?

 

"Today the situation is different. People boast of being jnanis without knowing, that is,

without directly experiencing, jnana itself. They are of the opinion that a jnani is someone

who carries a lot of intellectual concepts in his head. They don't realize that they are

simply carrying around a big burden without getting anywhere.

 

"Karma and jnana are interdependent. You cannot say you are a jnani without first having

acquired the necessary mental purification, through the performance of certain actions

mentioned in the scriptures (Vedas). It isn't possible to simply take a big leap to the state

of jnana; it is a question of slow and steady evolution. It is like the development of a child.

You can't expect a child to grow up in just a day or two. The child has to go through

several stages in order to grow up; it doesn't happen in a moment.

[Guest guest]

Namah shivaya

 

Thank you

 

we look forward to such messages

 

With Warm wishes

Nandinikumaran