Ancient Indians – Satya Samhita

First of all people maybe classified into theists, who believe that God exist, atheists who believe that God does not exist and agnostics, who prefer not to discuss the issue.

Charvaka was a famous Ancient Indian Atheist Rishi. It is also said by some that Gautham Buddha was a famous Ancient Indian Agnostic Rishi.. but there is no consensus on this matter since both Hindus and Buddhists consider him to be God.

Most of the other Ancient Indian Rishis were theists.

Once you believe that God exists, then you want to know :

• What is God like?
• Can I see/hear/experience God in any way?
• What do I have to do attain this experience of God?

All cultures on the whole believe that God exists and that God is benign and that God cares about individual people.

All cultures on the whole believe that by “prayer” or doing “priya karyas” God can be pleased enough to alter our affairs and consequently the affairs of the world in our favour. (see how close the words pray and priy are in sound?)

Many people believe that God can be pleased by offering nice food, nice places, nice smells, nice sounds, nice words, pleasant things as well as austerity and discipline of varying degrees. ie “Offer God, Deny yourself”.. is a rough summary of that school of thought.

Many others believe that cleanliness, austerity and nice food, music etc offered to God are really to delight our own mind (manas), and to attract our manas towards God.

Many believe that the way to God is to withdraw the manas from all the things that it usually chases after.. sounds, smells, sights, touch and taste.

I think that the Hindu way is to attract the child-like manas to holy places with bells, agarbattis, beautiful vigrahas, flowers, prasadam, breath-taking views, adventurous piligrimages and all the lovely and healthy customs like panchanga/sashtanga namaskaras and so on. And slowly through pravachanas/books etc preaching the withdrawal of the manas from these things.

As a child, I wanted to “really meet” Rama, Krishna, Hanuman, Ganesha, and all the others. And do what? No idea!

I was always praying, talking to God, asking for stuff and so on. God was very, very real to me. I guess my mode of relationship is Sakha or friend. When I saw Krishna vigraha in a temple, I would smile like I suddenly saw an old friend.. worship was for all the other forms of God, including tribal Gods, middle-eastern Gods, Oriental Gods.. all Devas., whatever their name.

It was my experience that prayers were answered whether the wish was explicit or implicit. But then I never asked for stuff like flying through the air or walking on water. The things I asked for, were more mundane or everyday things related to my daily life on the planet. I also made every effort I could on my part towards achieving those things. It was like God and I were on a team and there was nothing we could not achieve together.

I initially started meditation under a system, to escape the pain that accompanied a personal decision..  there I was also trained to let go of the habit of seeing God everywhere else and to start seeing God in my heart.

At the end of ten years, I had a God-Realisation experience :

That day, the experience was in dropping all that I was told that God was not.. the mind, the body and so on. When I succeeded in doing that what was left was a “field” ie a sort of karmic-field to compare with say an electro-magnetic field, as an example. Science students know that a magnetic field is some space where a magnet can be influenced by the presence and movement of another magnet. So a karmic-field is a field to do with action and work.

I was very happy and excited and told my folks, who were pleased for my sake and a bit curious to know what I had experienced but that was it. I was back to my normal existence by evening. I was brought down/back by the pain shared by someone very close to me. And it was life as usual, except that the one message I received in my “God-state” was “Work”.

Another experience was one I had in Siva temple, in a tiny cave across a small stream in a remote place off Parvathipuram, in Andhra.. there my inner mind was so quiet that calves came up and licked my hand.. which had not happened to me before.

And I have already shared with the readers on this blog about my experience in Melkote and in the Narmada trip.

Light shed on this matter by my veda guru :

My Veda guru, Kunda Miss has a spent a life time not only mastering the Vedas and Yoga, but also going and visiting every known realised-soul that she has ever heard about in the country.

So I tentatively told her about my experiences very hesitantly expecting to be laughed off or to be told that I had “got-it-all-wrong”.

Instead she told me that, every human being has experiences of Brahmi Sthiti and Brahmananda throughout life. Most of us touch it for short intervals from a few seconds to many minutes. She also said that many yogis who actually touch that state after many years are terrified and let go of it. She said that some people even end up damaging their minds.

She said that regular sadhana or spiritual practice helps us reach the brahmi sthiti and stay there at will for as long as we need to. Some people remain in that state all the time.

Summary and Conclusion :

Among Hindus, the manas is first attracted to temples through pleasant experiences and then attracted to God, by cultivating in them a desire to know the God in the form of their choice. Then the manas willingly trains itself through sadhana to experience God-as-That-is and lets go of its childish perceptions. That Brahmagnyana comes through letting go of the very perceptions that attracted the manas to God in the first place. That results in Brahmanandam, or the greatest joy. And the manas practices reaching that state and staying in that state for as long possible.

Nearly all the spiritual sadhanas work.. it is the sraddha with which they are practiced that matters. (eg of spiritual sadhanas, chanting vedas etc, singing devotional music, meditation, piligrimages, karma yoga, japa, tapas, yoga … any or all of them..)

This is my understanding as of today, and if it helps anyone, that will be so delightful. I am also hoping that it will be of use to some of my descendants that I might not get to meet and help personally.

Would you also like to read?

• Travel : Omkareshwar, Mamaleshwar (Mandhata), Barah Dwar (Pandavas)
• Dhanushkoti at Melkote : Where Sri Rama and Sita Devi rested.

• Extending your senses.
• Meditation as a way to God
• God Gene
• Tat Tvam Asi : VakyaVritti of Sri Adi Sankaracharya
• Bhagavad Gita (Complete) – Satya Bhashyam
• Voice/Video Online Classes on Ancient Indian Studies : Flexi-Timings

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