72 - The Ultimate Goal of Spiritual Life | Swami Tattwamayananda

-7th chapter: verses 16, 17, 18, 19-The lecture was given by Swami Tattwamayananda on February 26, 2020.-16th verse: “People endowed with sattva-guna are of four types. (1) Those who take to spiritual life due to distress (2) those who are aspirants of knowledge (3) Those who want wealth (4) Those who are Jnani (wise). “-17th verse: “Of all these four groups, the highest one is the Jnani. He combines in his life Yoga, Bhakti and Jnanam. I am supremely dear to him, and he is supremely dear to Me.”-We are all spiritual seekers. We may initially start with prayers for material benefits. When these prayers are answered, our conviction becomes deeper and takes us to higher levels of spiritual experience.-Of all spiritual seekers, the highest is the one who has come closest to the realization that everything is an expression of the Divine Reality.-Swami Vivekananda said: “We are not traveling from error to truth. Rather, we are traveling from truth that is lower, to truth that is higher.” We travel from dualism to qualified non-dualism to non-dualism.-Non-dualism was preached by Shankaracharya in 8th century AD. Ramanuja came around 250 years later and preached qualified non-dualism. Madhvacharya came later and preached dualism.-Under non-dualism, there is one transcendental reality that is immanent, attribute-less, formless and eternal. Everything else is relative.-Under qualified non-dualism, God is the totality of all noble qualities that we can conceive of. He is present in everything, but everything is distinct from God.-Under dualism, God, Jagat (world) and living beings are all different and distinct from each other.-Shankaracharya says that at the highest experience level – highest knowledge and highest devotion are the same. As means, they are different. As a goal, they are the same.-Only the most compassionate and broad-minded people, who are free from fanaticism, who look upon everyone as God’s children – are dear to God.-18th verse: “All of them are noble. But the Jnani is the one who looks upon himself as non-distinct from Me.”-Swami Vivekananda pointed out the benefits of looking upon ourselves as non-different from God. Then we consider it as our duty to manifest the divinity within, which expresses itself as compassion and joy. It provides a remedy from fanaticism.-Everyone who has begun his spiritual journey will one day reach the top of the hill and become a Jnani.-19th verse: “The highest stage in spiritual evolution is to see everything as an expression of Vasudeva.”-At the highest stage, we feel God’s presence in all our interactions - even when we are not in the temple or not reading a holy book. For the Jnani, every thought, word and deed becomes divine.-To reach this highest stage, we may have to take many births. We have to accumulate enough positive samskaras through spiritual practices. One day, we will reach this destination.-Reading of scriptures and association with holy people remove obstacles towards the highest realization. They drive away undesirable thought currents and make positive samskaras more dominant in our mind.