Blessed Night, Family Of Light 😊

I Pray All Is Well With Everyone, Tonight…And Your Hearts And Minds Are Full Of Love, Joy, And Compassion…For All God’s Children…And All God’s Creation. And Indeed…The Whole World Is In Need Of Love, Joy, And Compassion – Even When Many Don’t Seem To Comprehend The Importance Of That Higher Energy Being Released Into The Atmosphere. But Those Higher Energies Of Love, Joy, And Compassion Matters In Life…In Ways Many Of Us Cannot Fathom! But For The Many Who Acknowledge That The Highest Energy Of Life Dwells Within Each And Every One…Let Us Radiate Those Higher Qualities Of Our “Mighty I AM Presence” – In All That We Do – For The Benefit Of This Country And The World! After All, Y’all…We Made It Through The Turn Of The Century And The Millenia; Twenty-Two Years In…And Here We Exist! And Utilizing More Often Those Higher Qualities In Our Daily Lives – Personal And Professional – To Recondition The Collective Consciousness To Higher Vibratory Thoughts And Living…Over Those Dark Thoughts Of Hate, Discord, And Destruction That Plagued The World In The Past And Presently – Will Not Only Expand Our Individual Light And The Light Of The Collective Consciousness – But That Higher Energy Will Raise The Vibration Of Mother Earth…And Elevate Mankind To Those Higher Dimensions. And It Is This Generation…Those Of Us Present On Earth At This Time…Whose Purpose It Is To Accomplish! Amen…

Give Thanks And Praises For Love And Life…

And Y’all Be Love…

First Steps on the Path.

“For beings a human birth is hard to win, then manhood and holiness, then excellence in the path of wise law; hardest of all to win is wisdom. Discernment between Self and not-Self, true judgment, nearness to the Self of the Eternal and Freedom are not gained without a myriad of right acts in a hundred births. This triad that is won by the bright one’s favor is hard to gain – humanity, aspiration, and rest in the great spirit.

After gaining at last a human birth, hard to win, then manhood and knowledge of the teaching, if one strives not after Freedom, he is a fool. He, suicidal, destroys himself by grasping after the unreal. Who is more self-deluded than he who is careless of his own welfare after gaining a hard-won human birth and manhood, too? Let them declare the laws, let them offer to the gods, let them perform all rites, let them love the gods. Without knowing the oneness with the Self, Freedom is not won even in a hundred years of the Evolver. “There is no hope of immortality through riches,” says the scripture. It is clear from this that rites cannot lead to Freedom.

Therefore, let the wise one strive after Freedom, giving up all longing for sensual self-indulgence, approaching the good, great Teacher, (the Higher Self), with soul intent on the object of the teaching. Let him by the Self raise the Self, sunk in the ocean of the world, following the path of union through complete recognition of oneness.

Setting all rites aside, let the wise, learned ones who approach the study of the Self strive for Freedom from the bondage of the world. Rites are to purify the thoughts, but not to gain the reality. The real is gained by Wisdom, not by a myriad of rites. When one steadily examines and clearly sees a rope, the fear that it is a serpent is destroyed.

Knowledge is gained by discernment, by examining, by instruction, but not by bathing, nor gifts, nor a hundred holdings of the breath. Success demands first ripeness; questions of time and place are subsidiary. Let the seeker after self-knowledge find the Teacher, (the Higher Self), full of kindness and knowledge of the Eternal.

The Pupil Asks:

“Hear with selfless kindness, Master. I ask this question, receiving the answer from thy lips I shall gain my end. What is, then, a bond? And how has this bond come? What cause has it? And how can one be free? What is not-Self and what the Higher Self? And how can one discern between them?”

The Master Answers:

“Happy art thou. Thou shalt attain thy end. Thy kin is blest in thee. For thou seekest to become the Eternal by freeing thyself from the bond of unwisdom. Sons and kin can pay a father’s debts, but none but a man’s self can set him free. If a heavy burden presses on the head others can remove it, but none but a man’s self can quench his hunger and thirst.

Health is gained by the sick who follow the path of healing; health does not come through the acts of others. The knowledge of the real by the eye of clear insight is to be gained by one’s own sight, and not by the teacher’s. The moon’s form must be seen by one’s own eyes; it can never be known through the eyes of another.

None but a man’s self is able to untie the knots of unwisdom, desire, and former acts, even in a myriad of ages. Freedom is won by a perception of the Self’s oneness with the Eternal, and not by the doctrines of Union or of Numbers, nor by rites and sciences. The form and beauty of the lyre and excellent skill upon its strings may give delight to the people but will never found an empire. An eloquent voice, a stream of words, skill in explaining the teaching, and the learning of the learned; these bring enjoyment, but not freedom.

When the Great Reality is not known the study of the scriptures is fruitless; when the Great Reality is known, the study of the scriptures is also fruitless. A net of words is a great forest where the fancy wanders; therefore, the reality of the Self is to be strenuously learned from the knower of that reality.

How can the hymns, (Vedas), and the scriptures profit him who is bitten by the serpent of unwisdom? How can charms or medicine help him without the medicine of the knowledge of the Eternal? Sickness is not cured by saying ‘Medicine,’ but by drinking it. So, a man is not set free by the name of the Eternal, without discerning the Eternal.

Without piercing through the visible, without knowing the reality of the Self, how can men gain Freedom by mere outward words that end with utterances? Can a man be king by saying, ‘I am king,’ without destroying his enemies, without gaining power over the whole land? Through information, digging, and casting aside the stones, a treasure may be found, but not by calling it to come forth. So, by steady effort is gained the knowledge of those who know the Eternal, the lonely, stainless reality above all illusion, but not by desultory study. Hence with all earnest effort to be free from the bondage of the world, the wise must strive themselves, as they would to be free from sickness.

And this question put by thee today must be solved by those who seek Freedom; this question that breathes the spirit of the teaching, that is like a clue with hidden meaning. Hear, then, earnestly, thou wise one, the answer given by me; for understanding it, thou shalt be free from the bondage of the world.””

The Crest-Jewel of Wisdom and other writings of Śankarâchârya, translation by Charles Johnston, 1946