Live Satsang (Q&A) with Swami Tadatmananda (19 May 2024)

Last week's satsang canceled due to minor illness.
Weekly satsang at Arsha Bodha Center for local and online students. Send your questions to [e-mail] Please include your name, location and indicate "Satsang Question" in the subject line. Past satsangs available here: • Satsang with Swami Tad...
0:00:00 Intro
0:02:55 What is the relationship between mithya and maya?
0:07:40 What exactly is akhandakara vritti?
0:13:10 Where should we begin our study of Vedanta?
0:15:00 Is the gap between Advaita Vedanta and modern Buddhism narrowing?
0:22:05 Why does the Uddhava Gita present Sri Krishna as superior to Lord Brahma?
0:25:30 Why is Atma described as ananda svarupa when Atma cannot feel ananda?
0:29:50 Where do thoughts and decisions originate from?
0:32:05 How can I be sure that I am not the one who produces the contents of my mind?
0:35:30 How could our finite mind reach the infinite?
0:41:51 What is iccha shakti and who possesses it?
0:55:15 How is it possible for an individual born as a snake to be reborn as a human?
0:56:48 If the earth underwent an extinction event what would happen to the reincarnation cycle?
0:58:48 How can an enlightened mind be impatient when there is perfect peace and contentment?
1:00:38 Can’t the teachings on karma yoga in the Bhagavad Gita be misused by unscrupulous persons?
1:08:35 Outro

[@SethRamesh]

Swamiji is in a jovial mood during the sastang. Delighted to watch. 🙏 Thank you

[@SB-vj5sn]

Good God, these questions are incredibly tough, yet, Swamiji addresses them with such ease and clarity. Pranaam, Swamiji, from CA. 🙏 Wishing you good health and good cheer. 🙏🙏

[@swamivedantanandapuri1322]

Sastanga pranaam🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏. Swami Vedantananda Puri

[@dangem5022]

Thank you for a wonderful Q&A! Great questions from the students and very thorough answers from Swamiji! Also, thank you to the one who made the glossary! That will be very helpful moving forward 🙏

[@karthikeyannair3876]

Namaskar swamiji🎉🎉🎉

[@hiranmukherjee3358]

Pranam Gurudev, your clarity is extraordinary. Hearing you is a bless.

[@vaidyabalakrishnan1015]

Swamiji’s response to the question on modern interpretation of Buddhism as being close to Advaita is a good one. I have heard Swami Sarvapriananda take a more liberal view in equating Nagarajuna’s teachings to Advaita. Shri Sankara completely rejected Buddhism’s Shunya Vada. It is therefore refreshing to hear Swamiji’s approach and his politically correct characterization of the modern interpretation of Nagarjuna’s teachings.

[@luismiguel69able]

Aamzing he understood that Q with so much TMI!

[@SS-hp9tg]

I love to listen both Swamijis teachings and swami sarvapriyananda's talks, and learn a lot from both of them. It certainly made me laugh to hear this question and swamiji addressing it head on!!

[@TheSoman3]

thank you

[@koochithatha7486]

Salutations, Guruji! Thank you for a splendid satsang. I pray that many of today’s wannabe Hitlers have NOT picked up on the idea of not being an agent of action to justify their evil deeds.🤔Om Shanti, Shanti, Shanti 🙏🏼

[@aarjukr]

प्रणाम स्वामि जी 🙏🙂 Thank you for sharing the reason for no satsang QA last sunday, I have been wondering and was praying for your well being … with utmost respect, अभी तो आपको healthy रहना है and मेरे जैसे कइ मुमुक्षुओं की नैया पार लगवानी है … may Krishna keep you healthy always… १०००s नमस्कार 🙏

[@rajaiaf]

Sir, Pranams. Thank you. What a wonderful satsang. Curiously, the question that I asked before the cancelled session has been addressed comprehensively. I am very grateful to you.

[@alukuhito]

🙏

[@7truthseeker7]

Wonderful session! Very grateful to be able to partecipate in these discussion from the comfort of my home. I would not have had the chance to study Advaita Vedanta in such depth without the help of this channel! It is a fact that Hitler used to indulge in drugs like many people that commit atrocities. In his case drugs were prescribed by doctors who were perfectly aware that those substances induce addiction. It is a widely used strategy to bring people under control. Sorry for the digression....

[@rajukunjukrishnan472]

Pranam Guruji 🙏

[@satyajitroy8723]

Thank you Swamiji 🙏🙏🙏❤This knowledge is profound . Again it clear my perspective of Brahman and Ishvara . The last answer of the question, regarding justification of our wrong action with the reasoning of non doership as mentioned in Gita , is awesome. I am following your lectures. Thank you from the core of my heart 🙏 Accept my Pranam !! Dr Satyajit, Durgapur, India 21 May

[@kanishkajoshi563]

🙏 Thank you Swami ji.

[@chrisaav100]

Shanti, shanti, shanti 🙏🏼

[@deanyanko3326]

Pranam Swamiji A pure full glass is better than an empty one. (i) understand the sun analogy Isha Upanishad Shanti Mantra OM

[@gridcoregilry666]

thank you for uploading!!!

[@luismiguel69able]

These are getting Really good!

[@axismundi8]

Thank you Swamiji. These satsangs are a lovely weekly engagement. I am following your videos on Tattva Bodha. Om shanti. 🌸🌟🌸

[@axismundi8]

Oops. Atma Bodha. 🌹

[@Pallasathena-hv4kp]

35:00 I would have answered by saying Isvara, as controller of the cosmic mind and distributor of karma, would control our thoughts. Does that make sense, too? Satsang Question, please! 🙏 45:30 helped expand/answer my question. I wrote my question too soon while watching the video! Haha I’m coming from reading scripture through the light of Sri Ramakrishna. He says Brahman and Shakti are one. All I can say is that it’s both real and unreal and neither etc. It IS Beyond Words! Just gotta chuckle at the conundrum 😂 🙏 When I was first learning about Advaita Vedanta, I was struck with how SIMILAR Maya and Brahman are…… almost as if they are the same. Who knows? Now I gotta go study Aurobindo (sp?) 😂

[@nancyswanson1362]

Are these random thoughts that bubble up while absorbed in a deep samadhi produced from the subconscious mind? Namaste, Swami T 🙏🙏🙏

[@nancyswanson1362]

I wonder if the dreams we dream are thoughts and fragments of info received by the subconscious mind and these bubble up while we sleep to produce a dream.

[@dangem5022]

@@nancyswanson1362 In my experience, they feel very similar but I have no way to prove it as subconscious is very subtle. It's like when I watch a movie and I meditate afterward, remnants of the movie will bubble up. The same when I watch a movie but just sleep afterward, fragments of that movie end up in my dreams. I really can't truly know if these are linked together but I like its usability. If I can treat dreams without seriousness after I wake up then I can treat my thoughts without seriousness as well when I notice them. Be it good or vile, it's just a thought the same way a dream is just a dream 🙂I like the peace it gives me 🙏

[@nancyswanson1362]

@@dangem5022 fascinating, I also have experienced having parts of a movie I had watched prior to sleep come up in a dream. Dreams can't be taken seriously, as they are random bits and pieces of info received Good to read you can witness thoughts as they arise and not take them seriously. If a thought arises while I'm meditating I don't engage with it. Thought does not linger it ceases. Meditation calms the mind and brings peace, balance and transformation. ♥🙏

[@EliAbramzon]

Can you please place these on Spotify

[@rsr9200]

If the Sanskrit term Nirguna is translated into English as “devoid of attributes/qualities/gunas” then reason dictates that what is Nirguna cannot have the quality/attribute of being available for expression through thoughts, written words, or speech. Therefore, logically, that which is Nirguna cannot be thought about, written about, or talked about. However, despite this, Nirguna Brahman is written about in the Upanishads and talked about extensively by teachers of Advaita Vedanta. Therefore, I posit that a better translation of the term Nirguna is “free of (or transcending) qualities/attributes/gunas”. This means that Brahman is neither without qualities/attributes nor with them but is free to appear with or without qualities/attributes. Obviously, Brahman’s appearance without qualities cannot be talked about. However, it need not be talked about since its existence is self-evident in our “I am” cognition. Brahman’s appearance with qualities includes all the objects that may be superimposed on the “I am” cognition to produce the seeming subject-object duality we experience. As I see it, the Upanishads are telling us that we are neither the subject experiencing the “I am” cognition nor the objects presented to the subject. Rather, we are the reality of both, i.e., the “am-ness” of the subject, which is identical to the “is-ness” of the objects. Further, with reference to the subject, we are called Sat-Chit-Ananda Atma (am-ness) by the Upanishads while, with reference to objects, we are called abhinna-nimitta-upadana-karana Ishvara (is-ness).

[@Prasannakumar-jl8pi]

Prarabdha karma lead to snake life. Once that karma finishes, subtle body may take another life according to remaining karma

[@deadlyninja8391]

Swamiji so direct to rejects Nagarjuna? Plz elaborate

[@rsr9200]

As to the question around 52:30 about the possibility of a bipolar or bimodal Brahman, i.e., Brahman that is static and dynamic, unmanifest and manifest, etc., I submit that this is not possible without contradicting reasoned logic. Logically, static and dynamic are terms with respect to time and time is a mental construct which requires a mind. However, a mind cannot exist without is-ness aka Brahman. Similarly, unmanifest and manifest are terms with respect to the mind whose existence depends on Brahman. Per the Upanishads, Brahman transcends the mind while the mind does not transcend Brahman, i.e., if the mind exists then Brahman exists and if the mind ceases to exist Brahman continues to exist. This implies that Brahman transcends all polarities/modalities. Perhaps, those who claim that the notion of a polarized Brahman can be understood through a “super mind” mean a mind that is unfathomably irrational!🤪

[@americasleastwanted]

Does anyone know the sanskrit scholars that Swami T referenced @ around 54:00

[@deadlyninja8391]

he doesn't mention any name