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JAMES ALLEN: BYWAYS OF BLESSEDNESS CONTD: ABIDING JOY

2018 0225 08  James Allen: Byways of Blessedness Contd: Abiding Joy

Abiding joy! Is there such a thing? Where is it? Who possesses it? Yea; there is such a thing. It is where there is no sin. It is possessed by the pure hearted. As darkness is a passing shadow, and light is substance that remains, so sorrow is fleeting, but joy abides forever. 

No true thing can pass away and become lost; no false thing can remain and be preserved. Sorrow is false, and it cannot live; joy is true, and it cannot die. Joy may become hidden for a time, but it can be always be recovered; sorrow may remain for a period, but it can be transcended and dispersed. 

Awake! arise! Be holy and Joyful! You are the creator of your own shadows; you desire and then you grieve; renounce and then you all rejoice. When sin and self are abandoned, when the clinging to things for personal pleasure is put away, then the shadows of grief disappear, and the heart is restored to its Imperishable Joy. 

Joy comes and fills the self-emptied heart; it abides with the peaceful; its reign is with the pure. Joy flees from the selfish; it deserts the quarrelsome; it is hidden from the impure. 

Joy is as an angel so beautiful and delicate and chaste that she can only dwell with holiness. She cannot remain with selfishness; she is wedded to Love. Every man is truly happy in so far as he is unselfish; he is miserable in so far as he is selfish. All truly good men, and by good men I mean those who have fought victoriously the battle against self, are men of joy. 

Joy is the companion of righteousness. In the divine life tender compassion fills the place where weeping sorrow sat. During the process of becoming unselfish there are periods of deep sorrow. Purification is necessarily severe. 

All the saints and prophets and saviours of the race have proclaimed with rejoicing the “Gospel” or the “Good News”.  What is the “Good News” of the saintly ones? 

This: that there is peace for the troubled, healing for the afflicted, gladness for the grief-stricken, victory for the sinful, a homecoming for the wanderer, and joy for the sorrowing and broken-hearted. Not that these beautiful realities shall be in some future world, but they are here and now, that they are known and realized and enjoyed; and are, therefore, proclaimed that all may accept them who will break the galling bonds of self and rise into the glorious liberty of unselfish love. 

Seek the highest Good, and as you find it, as you practice it and realize it, you will taste the deepest, sweetest joy. As you succeed in forgetting your own selfish desires in your thoughtfulness for others, in your care for others, in your service for others, just so far and no further will you find and realize the abiding joy in life. 

Knowing this—that selfishness leads to misery, unselfishness to joy, not merely for one’s self alone, but for the whole world and because all with whom we live and come in contact will be the happier and truer for our unselfishness; because Humanity is one, and the joy of one is the joy of all—knowing this, let us scatter flowers and not thorns in the common ways of life—yea, even in the highway of our enemies let us scatter the blossoms of unselfish love—so shall the pressure in their footprints fill the air with the perfume of holiness and gladden the world with the aroma of joy.

                                     

For the Complete Works of James Allen: [Click Here]
http://www.bahaistudies.net/asma/James_Allen.pdf

   

 

JAMES ALLEN: BYWAYS OF BLESSEDNESS CONTD: HIDDEN SACRIFICES

2018 0218 07  James Allen: Byways of Blessedness Contd: Hidden Sacrifices

Hidden Sacrifices

A man must be willing to humbly sacrifice his selfish habits and practices because they are untrue and unworthy, and for the happiness of those about him, without expecting any reward or looking for any good to accrue to himself; nay, he must be prepared to lose for himself, to forfeit pleasure and happiness, even life itself, if by so doing he can make the world more beautiful and happy. 

All true sacrifice is within; it is spiritual and hidden, and is prompted by deep humility of heart. Nothing but the sacrifice of self can avail, and to this must all men come sooner or later during their spiritual evolution. But in what does this selfabnegation consist? How is it practised? Where is it sought and found? It consists in overcoming the daily proneness to selfish thoughts and acts; it is practised in our common intercourse with others; and it is found in the hour of tumult and temptation.

There are hidden sacrifices of the heart which are infinitely blessed both to him that makes them and those for whom they are made, albeit their making costs much effort and some pain. Men are anxious to do some great thing, to perform some great sacrifice which lies beyond the necessities of their experience, while all the time, perhaps, they are neglecting the one thing needful, are blind to that sacrifice which by its very nearness is rendered imperative. 

If you are given to anger or unkindness offer it up. These hard, cruel, and wrong conditions of mind never brought you any good; they can never bring you anything but unrest, misery, and spiritual blindness. Nor can they ever bring to others anything but unhappiness. 

Offer up all unkindness, all anger. “It takes two to make a quarrel;” don’t be the “other one.” If one is angry or unkind to you try to find out where you have acted wrongly; and, whether you have acted wrongly or not, do not throw back the angry word or unkind act. Remain silent, self-contained, and kindly disposed; and learn, by continual effort in right-doing, to have compassion upon the wrongdoer.

Give up your impatience. Overcome it there where it is wont to assert itself. Resolve that you will yield no longer to its tyrannical sway but will conquer it and cast it out. It is not worth keeping a single hour, nor would it dominate you for another moment if you were not labouring under the delusion that the follies and perversities of others render impatience on your part necessary. 

There is no blessedness anywhere until impatience is sacrificed; and its sacrifice means the development of endurance, the practice of forbearance, and the creation of a new and gentler habit of mind. When impatience and irritability are entirely put away, are finally offered up on the altar of unselfishness, then is realised and enjoyed the blessedness of a strong, quiet, and peaceful mind.

Then there are little selfish indulgences, some of which appear harmless, and are commonly fostered; but no selfish indulgence can be harmless, and men and women do not know what they lose by repeatedly and habitually succumbing to effeminate and selfish gratifications. If the God in man is to rise strong and triumphant, the beast in man must perish. 

Sacrifice your cherished and coveted indulgence; fix your mind on something higher, nobler, and more enduring than ephemeral pleasure; live superior to the craving for sense-excitement, and you will live neither vainly nor uncertainly.

Then there is the sacrifice of greed and all greedy thoughts. The willingness that others should possess rather than we; the not-coveting of things for ourselves but rejoicing that they are possessed and enjoyed by others, that they bring happiness to others; the ceasing to claim one’s “own”, and the giving up to others, unselfishly and without malice, that which they exact. 

Another hidden sacrifice, one of great spiritual beauty and of powerful efficacy in the healing of human sorrows, is the sacrifice of hatred - the giving up of all bitter thoughts against others, of all malice, dislike, and resentment. Bitter thoughts and blessedness cannot dwell together. Hatred is a fierce fire that scorches up, in the heart of him who harbours it, all the sweet flowers of peace and happiness, and makes a hell of every place where it comes.

Sacrifice all hatred, slay it upon the holy altar of of devotion - devotion to others. Think no more of any injury to your own petty self, but see to it that henceforth you injure and wound no other. Open the flood gates of your heart for the inpouring of that sweet, great, beautiful love which embraces all with strong yet tender thoughts of protection and peace, leaving not one, nay, not even he who hates or despises or slanders you, out in the cold.

Then there is the hidden sacrifice of impure desires, of weak self-pity and degrading self-praise, of vanity and pride, for these are unblest attitudes of mind, deformities of heart. He who makes them, one by one, gradually subduing and overcoming them, will, according to the measure of his success, rise above weakness and suffering and sorrow, and will comprehend and enjoy the perfect and imperishable blessedness. 

He who each day accomplishes some victory over himself, who subdues and puts behind him some unkind thought, some impure desire, some tendency to sin, is everyday growing stronger, purer, and wiser, and every dawn finds him nearer to that final glory of Truth which each self-sacrificing act reveals in part.

Look not outside thee nor beyond thee for the light and blessedness of Truth, but look within; thou wilt find it within the narrow sphere of thy duty, even in the humble and hidden sacrifices of thine own heart.

                                     

For the Full text of 'Byways of Blessedness' by James Allen: [Click Here]

                                    

JAMES ALLEN: BYWAYS OF BLESSEDNESS CONTD: RIGHT BEGINNINGS

2018  0211 06  James Allen: Byways of Blessedness Contd: Right Beginnings

Life is full of beginnings. They are presented every day and every hour to every person. Most beginnings are small, and appear trivial and insignificant, but in reality they are the most important things in life.

In aiming at the life of Blessedness one of the simplest beginnings to be considered and rightly made is that which we all make everyday - namely, the beginning of each day's life. How do you begin each day? At what hour do you rise? How do you commence your duties? In what frame of mind do you enter upon the sacred life of a new day? 

What answer can you give your heart to these important questions? You will find that much happiness or unhappiness follows upon the right or wrong beginning of the day, and that, when every day is wisely begun, happy and harmonious sequences will mark its course, and life in its totality will not fall far short of the ideal blessedness.

Begin the day, then, by rising early. If you have no object in doing so, never mind; get up, and go out for a gentle walk among the beauties of nature, and you will experience a buoyancy, a freshness, and a delight, not to say a peace of mind, which will amply reward you for your effort. 

One good effort is followed by another; and when a man begins the day by rising early, even though with no other purpose in view, he will find that the silent early hour is conducive to clearness of mind and calmness of thought, and that his early morning walk is enabling him to become a consecutive thinker, and so to see life and its problems, as well as himself and his affairs, in a clearer light; and so in time he will rise early with the express purpose of preparing and harmonising his mind to meet any and every difficulty with wisdom and calm strength.

The right beginning of the day will be followed by cheerfulness at the morning meal, permeating the house-hold with a sunny influence; and the tasks and duties of the day will be undertaken in a strong and confident spirit, and the whole day will be well lived.

Another beginning which is of great importance is the beginning of any particular and responsible undertaking. How does a man begin the building of a house? He first secures a plan of the proposed edifice and then proceeds to build according to the plan, scrupulously following it in every detail, beginning with the foundation. 

A seed put into the ground is the beginning of a plant or tree; the seed germinates, the plant or tree comes forth into the light and evolves. A thought put into the mind is the beginning of a line of conduct: the thought first sends down its roots into the mind, and then pushes forth into the light in the forms of actions or conduct, which evolve into character and destiny.

Hateful, angry, envious, covetous, and impure thoughts are wrong beginnings, which lead to painful results. Loving, gentle, kind, unselfish and pure thoughts are right beginnings, which lead to blissful results. This is so simple, so plain, so absolutely true! and yet how neglected, how evaded, and how little understood!

None but right acts can follow right thoughts; none but a right life can follow right acts - and by living a right life all blessedness is achieved.

Many are the right beginnings which a man must discover and adopt on his way to wisdom; but that which is first and last, most important and all embracing, which is the source and fountain of all abiding happiness, is the right beginning of the mental operations - this implies the steady development of self-control, will-power, steadfastness, strength, purity, gentleness, insight, and comprehension. It leads to the perfecting of life, for he who thinks perfectly has abolished all unhappiness, his every moment is peaceful, his years are rounded with bliss - he has attained to the complete and perfect blessedness.

                                         

For the Full text of 'Byways of Blessedness' by James Allen: [Click Here]

   

 

JAMES ALLEN: BYWAYS OF BLESSEDNESS: REST-HOUSES OF PEACE

2018 0204 05  James Allen: Byways of Blessedness: Rest-Houses of Peace

James Allen [1864-1912]

James Allen (1864–1912) was a British philosophical writer known for his inspirational books and poetry and as a pioneer of the self-help movement. 

Allen was forced to leave school at the age of fifteen and worked as a private secretary and stationer in several British manufacturing firms. In 1893 Allen moved to London and started earning his living by journalism and reporting. 

Allen entered a creative period and published his first of his nineteen books, From Poverty to Power (1901). 

In 1903 Allen published As a Man Thinketh loosely based on the Biblical passage, "As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he," [Proverbs 23:7] which brought him world-wide fame. 

Byways of Blessedness

Along the highways of Burma there is placed, at regular distances away from the dust of the road, and under the cool shade of a group of trees, a small wooden building called a "rest-house", where the weary traveller may rest a while, and allay his thirst and assuage his hunger and fatigue by partaking of the food and water which the kindly inhabitants place there as a religious duty.

Along the great highway of life there are such resting places; away from the heat of passion and the dust of disappointment, under the cool and refreshing shade of lowly Wisdom, are the humble, unimposing "rest-houses" of peace, and the little, almost unnoticed, byways of blessedness, where alone the weary and footsore can find strength and healing.

Nor can these byways be ignored without suffering. Along the great road of life, hurrying, and eager to reach some illusive goal, presses the multitude, despising the apparently insignificant "rest-houses" of true thought, not heeding the narrow little byways of blessed action, which they regard as unimportant; and hour by hour men are fainting and falling, and numbers that cannot be counted perish of heart-hunger, heart-thirst, and heart-fatigue.

But he who will step aside from the passionate press, and will deign to notice and to enter the byways which are here presented, his dusty feet shall press the incomparable flowers of blessedness, his eyes be gladdened with their beauty, and his mind refreshed with their sweet perfume. Rested and sustained, he will escape the fever and the delirium of life, and, strong and happy, he will not fall fainting in the dust, nor perish by the way, but will successfully accomplish his journey.

                                   

YouTube Audio: Full Audio Book: Byways of Blessedness: [Click Here]

   

 

NATURE: RALPH WALDO EMERSON

2017 0813 33  Nature: Ralph Waldo Emerson

NATURE

The stars awaken a certain reverence, because though always present, they are inaccessible; but all natural objects make a kindred impression, when the mind is open to their influence. Nature never wears a mean appearance. Neither does the wisest man extort her secret, and lose his curiosity by finding out all her perfection. Nature never became a toy to a wise spirit. 

The flowers, the animals, the mountains, reflected the wisdom of his best hour, as much as they had delighted the simplicity of his childhood. When we speak of nature in this manner, we have a distinct but most poetical sense in the mind. We mean the integrity of impression made by manifold natural objects. It is this which distinguishes the stick of timber of the wood-cutter, from the tree of the poet. There is a property in the horizon which no man has but he whose eye can integrate all the parts, that is, the poet. 

To speak truly, few adult persons can see nature. Most persons do not see the sun. At least they have a very superficial seeing. The sun illuminates only the eye of the man, but shines into the eye and the heart of the child. The lover of nature is he whose inward and outward senses are still truly adjusted to each other; who has retained the spirit of infancy even into the era of manhood. His intercourse with heaven and earth, becomes part of his daily food.

In the presence of nature, a wild delight runs through the man, in spite of real sorrows. Nature says, — he is my creature, he shall be glad with me. In the woods, is perpetual youth. Within these plantations of God, a decorum and sanctity reign, a perennial festival is dressed, and the guest sees not how he should tire of them in a thousand years. In the woods, we return to reason and faith. There I feel that nothing can befall me in life, — no disgrace, no calamity, (leaving me my eyes,) which nature cannot repair. 

Standing on the bare ground, — my head bathed by the blithe air, and uplifted into infinite space, — all mean egotism vanishes. I become a transparent eye-ball; I am nothing; I see all; the currents of the Universal Being circulate through me; I am part or particle of God. The name of the nearest friend sounds then foreign and accidental: to be brothers, to be acquaintances, — master or servant, is then a trifle and a disturbance. 

In the tranquil landscape, and especially in the distant line of the horizon, man beholds somewhat as beautiful as his own nature. The greatest delight which the fields and woods minister, is the suggestion of an occult relation between man and the vegetable. I am not alone and unacknowledged. They nod to me, and I to them. 

The waving of the boughs in the storm, is new to me and old. It takes me by surprise, and yet is not unknown. Its effect is like that of a higher thought or a better emotion coming over me, when I deemed I was thinking justly or doing right. Yet it is certain that the power to produce this delight, does not reside in nature, but in man, or in a harmony of both. It is necessary to use these pleasures with great temperance. 

Previous Post on NATURE by Emerson: Sunday, 11 September 2016

YouTube Video: Nature by Ralph Wado Emerson Video Book: [Click Here]

NATURE: IMPORTANCE OF NATURE IN OUR LIFE

2017 0806 32  Nature: Importance of Nature in Our Life

Nature is our best friend which provides us all the resources to live here. It gives us water to drink, pure air to breathe, food to eat, land to stay, animals, plants for our other uses, etc. for our betterment. 

We should fully enjoy the nature without disturbing its ecological balance. Nature includes everything around us like plants, animals, rivers, forests, rain, lakes, birds, sea, thunder, sun, moon, atmosphere, mountains, deserts, etc. 

If we want to be happy and healthy always we should try our best to save our planet and its beautiful nature by stopping our foolish and selfish activities. In order to keep ecosystem in balance we should not cut trees, forests, practice energy and water conservation and the like. 

Yet we have so disconnected ourselves from the natural world that it is easy—and often convenient—to forget that nature remains as giving as ever, even as it vanishes bit-by-bit.

The rise of technology and industry may have distanced us superficially from nature, but it has not changed our reliance on the natural world: most of what we use and consume on a daily basis remains the product of multitudes of interactions within nature, and many of those interactions are imperiled.

Beyond such physical goods, the natural world provides less tangible, but just as important, gifts in terms of beauty, art, and spirituality.

We depend entirely on a healthy natural environment for our wealth and wellbeing. It is fundamental to our economy and social structures, our homes and neighbourhoods, our ability to create and construct things, and to our health and happiness. Human beings are part of the natural world; we are one species amongst millions and have evolved to be part of nature, not apart from it.

We know that the natural environment provides us with a wide range of ‘ecosystem services’: all the things that people need and want that come from the natural world of which human beings are a part.

We receive provisioning services (food, fibre, energy, drinking water, building materials, natural medicine). We get regulating services (pollination, waste breakdown, regulation of flood, drought and local climate, control of pests, disease and pollution). And we get cultural services (meaningful places, access and recreation, tourism, creative inspiration and spiritual enrichment). 

At its foundations, there are several ‘supporting services’ that underpin and enable all the others: water and mineral cycling, energy flow, and ecological interactions such as food webs, species distribution, vegetation structure, soil and water. Not to mention other services that we are yet to discover.

The living part of the natural world – the wild plants, animals and fungi with which human beings share the Earth; the wildlife – is a vital part of the whole. All the other services depend on it.

Different people recognise the value of the many things that the natural world provides to us in different ways:

Some recognise that nature and wildlife have intrinsic value... They are valuable in their own right and we have a moral responsibility to look after them, irrespective of any benefit humans might get from them.

Many draw emotional value from nature and wildlife. Seeing it, or even just knowing it is there, makes us feel good. We enjoy it.

Unquestionably, nature provides goods and services to us that are of practical value to us and to the rest of society. Food production, flood control and improved physical and mental health and wellbeing all have practical, societal value.

Nature matters because it is priceless... It is great; we love it... It is useful; our wellbeing depends on it... And it is productive; it creates monetary wealth. And these basic messages lie behind what we are trying to communicate.

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YouTube Video: Importance of Nature in Our Life: [Click Here]

BHAGAVAD GITA 13.7: ACCOMODATION [ क्षान्ति KSHANTI] THE GREATEST VIRTUE

2017 0730 31  Bhagavad Gita 13.7: Accomodation [ क्षान्ति kshanti] the Greatest Virtue

Here is an uncommon definition and explanation for क्षान्ति kshanti, in BG Ch13 Sloka7, by Pujyashri Swami Dayananda Saraswati Swamiji, from one of his Satsang Talks at Coimbatore, worth studying deeply and assimilating.

Pujyashri Swami Dayananda Saraswati [1930-2015]

अमानित्वं अदंभित्वं अहिंसा क्षान्ति आर्जवं  |
आचार्य उपासनं शौचं स्थैर्यं  आत्म विनिग्रहः  ||   BG 13.7*

Amaanitvam adambhitvam ahimsaa kshaanti aarjavam |
aachaarya upaasanam shaucham sthairyam aatma vinigrahaha || 

The Attitude of Kshānti [क्षान्ति] by Pujyashri Swami Dayananda Saraswati Swamiji [taken from the 8th Anniversary Souvenir of the Arsha Vidya Gurukulam 1994].

Kshānti is generally translated as forbearance or forgiveness.  Such a definition, however, connotes arrogance. Who are you to forgive someone else? Forgiveness implies a “holier than thou” attitude which only stems from pride.  And so, to forgive someone is not what is meant by kshānti. A more meaningful translation is letting people live as they do, and letting situations be as they are without wanting them to be different.  

The value of kshānti is accommodation – a very beautiful human embellishment which takes a certain inner richness.  Unless you are big enough inside, it is not possible to accommodate another person or a situation.  In the list of values to be cultivated, I would say that kshānti is the most important attitude for the seeker who really wants to understand Vedanta. One must enjoy a relative degree of accommodation in order to discover the ātmā, the self, which accommodates the entire world.  

Ātmā accommodates ignorance, it accommodates error, it accommodates jealousy, it accommodates passion, it accommodates anger, it accommodates the world with all its limitations.  The self accommodates all the pairs of opposites. Thus, to know the ātmā, my mind should enjoy the capacity to accommodate.  To the extent that one has the capacity to accommodate, to that extent one is objective. 

Accommodation is an inner disposition which has nothing to do with suffering or enduring the wrongdoing of other people.  One does not accommodate a person’s wrongdoing.  One simply chooses not to internalize whatever the person has said or done and instead allows the person to be as he or she is.   

A person’s behavior cannot be different from what that person is.  And each person is exactly as he or she is because of his or her background. You may ask what is the difference between accommodation and compassion, sympathy?  Compassion is a trait born of accommodation.  Daya, compassion, does not happen immediately.  What happens first is accommodation which allows you to understand another person and let him or her be as he or she is. 

If you want to help a person, you can do so only by first accommodating him.  It is something like being a good doctor.  When the patient comes to see the doctor, the doctor cannot complain that every day people come to him complaining about one thing or another. 

Patients go to see a doctor because they have problems. A doctor can deal with a patient only when he first has accommodation.  First he accepts the person with his illness, and then afterwards, he does what he must.   This is true in life too: people are people.  You take them as they are.  In fact, your freedom lies only in this.  The more you allow people to be what they are, the more you are free inside.  

Many of our problems like anger, jealously, and so on arise due to lack of accommodation. We do experience accommodation with reference to certain things in the world.  You do not want to change the stars or the mountains or the trees.  You let them as they are.  You accommodate them.  The same is possible with human beings.  They all come from different backgrounds which condition their behavior.  You cannot expect them to behave as you want. If I consult those people whom I want to change, they say that I have to change.  

We try to change each other and tensions develop because each one wants to control the other.  This controlling behavior is due to a sense of insecurity. Kshānti frees you from reactions and allows you to act.  Action is possible only when there is kshānti.  Reaction is intolerance or incapacity to accept a fact.  A situation is a fact, but it is only a fact when I perceive it without a reaction.  

When I react, I do not see the fact.  If I allow the fact to sink into me without the interference of reaction, then I will be able to act.  But if I react to a situation, due to a lack of accommodation, I will not be able to respond appropriately.  A reaction is the incapacity to accept a fact.  

Only if you understand people and let people be as they are can you help them.  In other words, you have to be free.  I allow people to be what they are, situations to be what they are and try to improve them if I find them unpleasant.  To do this, I act, not react.  From mistakes we can learn but not from reaction.   

Thus kshānti is an amazing virtue.  It just accommodates everything.  It has no designs or manipulations.  All these things have no place in one’s heart if one can accommodate. Accommodation does not involve an “I am holier than thou” attitude. It is a simple acceptance of facts as they are and doing what one can.   That is healthy living, intelligent living.  And therefore, kshānti is not a value, but an attitude.  

* For the Full Text of Jnanam BG 13.7-11: [Click Here]

BHAGAVAD GITA 13.7: TOP 9 VIRTUES FOR WISDOM [ज्ञानं]

2017 0923 30  Bhagavad Gita 13.7: Top 9 Virtues for Wisdom [ ज्ञानं ]

Bhagavad Gita

[Twenty virtues are listed as Jnanam, in the Bhagavad Gita, Chapter 13 verses 7 to 11. We consider here the first nine virtues from verse 13.7]

अमानित्वं अदंभित्वं अहिंसा क्षान्ति आर्जवं  |
आचार्य उपासनं शौचं स्थैर्यं  आत्म विनिग्रहः ||   BG 13.7

Amaanitvam adambhitvam ahimsaa kshaantir aarjavam |

aachaarya upaasanam shaucham sthairyam aatmavinigrahaha || BG 13.7 

 
Humility or absence of pride, unpretentiousness, non-injury, forgiveness, straightforwardness, service of the teacher, purity, steadfastness, self control.

 
अमानित्वं  amaanitvam : humility or absence of pride
अदंभित्वं  adambhitvam : unpretentiousness or absence of hypocrisy
अहिंसा  ahimsaa : non-injury
क्षान्ति  kshaantihi : forgiveness
आर्जवं  aarjavam : straightforwardness
आचार्य उपासनं  aachaarya upaasanam : service of the teacher
शौचं  shaucham : purity
स्थैर्यं   sthairyam : steadfastness
आत्म विनिग्रहः  aatma vinigrahah : self control

1] अमानित्वं  amaanitvam: “Maana” means overestimation of one’s own self-worth. This self-worth can be derived from health, wealth, power, beauty, control, position, any of these characteristics. When pride or “abhimaan” derived from these characteristics makes us crave extra attention or put down someone else, it is to be avoided. “Amaanitvam” is an absence of pride about any of the above-mentioned characteristics.

2] अदंभित्वं  adambhitvam: “Dambha” means pretentiousness or falsehood. In the case of abhimaana, we had some characteristic in us that made us puff up with pride. In dambha, we derive a false sense of pride where there is no positive trait to speak of whatsoever. It is completely hollow pride. It is easy to see through people who have dambha. So then, “adambhitvam” is utter absence of pretentiousness.

 
3] अहिंसा  ahimsaa:  “Himsaa” means injury in a very broad sense of the word. There are five afflictions that are mentioned in the Yoga school of philosophy: ignorance, arrogance, desire, hatred and fear of death. Whenever we cause any of these afflictions or kleshas in any other person, we are injuring that person. When we do not cause any of these afflications, we demonstrate ahimsaa or non-injury.

4] क्षान्ति  kshaanti:  “Kshaanti” is an attitude of forgiveness that comes out of extreme titkshaa which is forbearance and tolerance. If we do not have this quality, we will get angry, flare up and lose our equanimity at every little jab or insult that anyone throws at us. Forbearance is a means to achieve equanimity as well.

5] आर्जवं aarjavam: “Aarjavam” refers to straightforwardness, an absence of crookedness in dealing with the world. This quality is reflected in us when our thoughts are aligned with our actions. Even children can see through someone who says one thing and does something else.

6] आचार्य उपासनं  aachaarya upaasanam: “Aacharya” refers to someone who collects the essence of the scriptures, like a honeybee collects nectar from flowers. Giving respect to such a learned master is called “aacharya upaasanam”. By doing so, we acknowledge that we do not know everything, and that we are ready to follow the path laid out by the teacher. 

7] शौचं  shaucham: “Shaucham” is purity of the body and the mind. The ritual of pooja is emphasized in Indian children because in that short period of time, we learn to maintain a high degree of external purity. If we reflect on this as we get older, that notion of external purity slowly seeps into our mind, and encourages us to develop purity in thought as well.

8] स्थैर्यं sthairyam: “Sthairyam” is the strength to remain firm in one’s convictions, to remain steadfast in what we do. If we decide to meditate for ten minutes daily but cannot even do so for a couple of days, we will not be able to tackle much more challenging aspects of our material and spiritual journeys.

9] आत्म विनिग्रहः  aatma vinigrahah:  “Aatma vinigrahah” is our ability to control our mind from its natural tendency to run after sense objects. The sense organs, which are under the control of the mind, have a natural tendency to go outwards. Through self control, we learn to turn them inward. 

YouTube Video: Bhagavad Gita: Ch 13 Verses 7:Jnanam: 

Swami Guruparananda in Tamil[Click Here]

Study Guide on Virtues to Wisdom BG 13.7-13.11: [Click Here]
https://www.sathyasai.org/studyaids/wisdom

Twenty Virtues for Essential Wisdom: Satya Sai Baba: [Click Here]
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