Science of Knowledge & Wisdom

How can we overcome Guilt?  Swami Vivekananda: Natural self-expression, not guilt, is a natural tendency within a human being. Guilt is something that we learn from the authority figures around us when we are young. They use it as a way to manipulate us, to make us do as we are told. At a certain point in our lives, we reach a stage where we can do the right thing without having to be told. We can then do away with that voice in our head that is telling us how terrible we are for doing what we think we shouldn't be doing. In my experience yoga is very effective for people with a lot of guilt. It just takes a simple level of yoga nidra for people to look inside and find out where the guilt is coming from. On the visual screen, they will get pictures of the ways in which they were manipulated by people in the early years of life. Then, having come to that realization, whenever the pang of guilt occurs, they can say to themselves, “Huh Dad, I'm not paying any attention to...

From The Mahabharata Santi Parva, Section CLX Yudhishthira said : O grandsire, O thou of virtuous soul, what, indeed, is said to be productive of great merit for a person attentively engaged in the study of the Vedas and desirous of acquiring virtue? [Note: ‘productive of great merit’: The Sanskrit word Sreyas has a peculiar meaning. It implies, literally, the best of all things; hence, ordinarily, in such passages, it means beatitude or the highest happiness that one may acquire in heaven. It means also those acts of virtue by which that happiness may be acquired. It should never be understood as applicable to anything connected with earthly happiness, unless, of course, the context would imply it.] (Yudhishthira continued): That which is regarded in this world as productive of high merit is of diverse kinds as set forth in the scriptures. Tell me, O grandsire, about that which is regarded as such both here and hereafter. The path of duty is long and has innumerable bran...

If the mind dwells continually upon one line of thought a groove is formed into which the thought-force runs automatically. Such a habit of thought survives death and, since it belongs to the ego, it is carried over to a subsequent earth-life as a thought-tendency and capacity. Just as a new physical body is formed in every birth, so also a new mind and a new intellect are formed in every birth. To explain the detailed workings of thought and destiny is not a simple matter. Each thought is a link in an endless chain of causes and effects, each effect becoming a cause and each cause having been an effect. Each link in the endless chain is made up of three components - desire, thought and activity. A desire stimulates a thought; a thought embodies itself in an act; the act constitutes the web of destiny. Do not yield to fatalism. It will induce inertia and laziness. Recognise the great power of thought. Exert. By right thinking you can forge a great destiny. The Karma...

The subject of karma, destiny & Exertion is a very difficult one to talk about and understand, because to experience karma and destiny is a lifelong process beyond human comprehension. Many attempts have been made in the past to describe the process of karma and destiny which governs human life, nature and personality. However, rather than taking a philosophical approach, we should try to see how our personality integrates with karma, destiny & Exertion to see its relevance in normal human life. The Rushi's of the past have defined human interactions as taking place in five different dimensions simultaneously, whether consciously, subconsciously or unconsciously. These five dimensions represent the progression of life from the manifest to the subtle to the transcendental plane, and each level of interaction is a state of higher awareness. We do not live only on the material plane, but at a deeper level also interact with the subtle levels of life, and have t...