Ask Swami 6/2/2019

Question and Answer session lead by Swami Sarvapriyananda as part of a spiritual retreat at the Vedanta Society of New York on June 2, 2019 List of Questions with Timestamps: 0:33 - Is consciousness present in non-living things? Are they also Brahman? 12:18 - What is the nature of bliss? Is it dependent on the mind? Does a pure being experience bliss all the time? 26:15 - Does your liberation depend upon your karma? 31:50 - Does the presence of Maya imply duality? 36:25 - Does suffering bring us closer to spirituality? Can people who are mentally week resort to spirituality as an escape route? 46:45 - Is it difficult to stay in the non-dual path when the path of knowledge is considered difficult to follow in the current age? 59:25 - Advice for somebody who has experienced a flash of spiritual bliss and is trying to understand and sustain it. 1:02:56 - Explain the verse from the Taittiriya Upanishad: "He who is here in man and he who is in yonder sun—both are one."