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#enlightenedliving #globalsatsang #bhoomananda
Day 01 of a three-day lecture series by Poojya Swamiji based on Ashtavakra Gita, during Malaysia Jnana Yajna 2023, at Society of Inner Resources Development, Malaysia.
12 September 2023

Swamiji begins this Global Satsang, based on Ashtavakra Samhita, by urging seekers to assess whether they are natural. Unless one has spiritual wisdom, one can never be natural. A child is natural in childhood but slowly as he develops greed, anger, desires etc. he loses the natural way of being.

Sage Ashtavakra instructs King Janaka to do whatever that needs to be done with a full heart and mind, in a straight-forward manner. One must do and accept everything joyfully like a child, whether it is auspicious or inauspicious, without any preference or prejudice.

A seeker must overcome the limited, constricted love and fondness for the family and guide his own mind towards expansion. Bhagavad Gita says that one who transcends the limited familial love, and does not unduly compliment or resent anything happening around him, his intelligence and understanding become stable.

A sadhaka must develop the practice of introspection. It is a mento-intellectual practice meant to benefit the mind and intelligence alone. There must be a deep introspection on whatever is read or heard, by which the knowledge is absorbed and becomes one’s own. The Bhagavatam instruction was heard, grasped, introspected on and absorbed by King Pareekshit and finally he led his own mind to stillness.

Sage Ashtavakra urges seekers to distinguish between the object world (including the body-mind personality) which are inert and the Singular Subject, the ‘I’. ‘I’ is the expression of the sentience within. Swamiji exhorts listeners to introspect on the ‘I’, which is the Witness of the infinite creation. Knowing or realizing the ‘I’ is liberation.