This is the first posting on this blog and I want to start it with what, in my opinion, is the most sacred sound (ॐ) and the most ignored truth: God alone is real. The Sanskrit, tat ("that") here refers to the Supreme Being or God, and sat means "real". Compared to the reality of God, everything else is at least "less" real, the way our dreams are less real than our waking experience. There will be enough opportunities in future postings to reflect on this in a philosophically more rigorous way.
ॐ Tat Sat is probably the best reminder we can send ourselves from time to time that God alone is the ultimate reality and, other than the divine, nothing really matters. Everything can be sacrificed for that highest ideal. My favorite quote from Swami Vivekananda is this: “Live for an ideal, and that one ideal alone. Let it be so great, so strong, that there may be nothing else left in the mind; no place for anything else, no time for anything else” (CW 5:251-2).
ॐ Tat Sat.
Thoughts and insights that emerge from the discussions, study, reflection, and practice of Vedanta in the spiritual community of the Ramakrishna Vedanta Society in Boston, USA, which is a branch of the Ramakrishna Order.
3 comments:
Swamiji please accept my deep and sincere Pranam. It brings so much joy to read your post.
Thank you.
No mind, No place, and No time. Can one even call that life? Is one then supposed to sacrifice their unreal life to obtain the real one? And if one's unreal life ends, how does one know it has ended without mind, place or time to refer the real life to?
What is really "real" and what is really "unreal"--these are deep questions which a sincere spiritual seeker has to wrestle with. Swami Vivekananda's insights on this can be found in his Jnana Yoga lectures. ... ST
Post a Comment