Satsang is a compound Sanskrit word that means “keeping the company of the Self.” The Self, Awareness, is the true nature of everyone and one keeps company with it by continually meditating on it in many ways. One of the most effective methods involves discussing non-dual teachings with someone who has realized his or her identity as the Self, to get clarity with reference to Self inquiry. The satsangs posted here are the questions of many people around the world who are interested in enlightenment and find that Vedanta is their preferred means of Self knowledge. Since I am a teacher of Vedanta, a time tested means of self inquiry, I am qualified to reply to these questions.Search & Read
ShiningWorld Reader
Who Wants a Romantic Relationship?
Felicity: Not me… as awareness. What would me/awareness do with a relationship? It would be like thinking the sun wants a girlfriend, LOL. Does Felicity want a romantic relationship? No… Felicity is just a puppet, hence she is incapable of wanting a relationship. Felicity can have a relationship if Bubalon* makes one happen for her. I don’t think Felicity even thinks.
Does the ego want a relationship? Yes, yes, yes… But being the ego is just a bunch of thoughts, feeling and conditioning; what would it do with a romantic relationship if it was given one, LOL? The wanting of a romantic relationship seems to be the Holy Grail of humans but when you investigate it, it really seems quite ludicrous.
Sundari: (*What is “Bubalon”?) When you know that you are awareness everyone is your boyfriend or your girlfriend.
And when you are free of the other – you are free to be with or without a partner. If you are with someone, you worship them as you do the self, without fear of loss or need for gain.
There is no otherness, just the self loving itself. The ego, Felicity, does not think; she appears to think because the light of awareness shines on her. Thinking takes place in the mind through the play of the gunas which govern Felicity’s vasanas, her likes and dislikes. This is the conditioning given to her by Isvara. Identification with Felicity and with her thoughts and feelings is ignorance.
The ego is just an idea, a thought based in the illusion of separation, or duality, samsara. Freedom, or moksa, is freedom from the notion that you are Felicity. You are whole and complete, non-dual, unchanging, ever-present and unlimited awareness.
Egos bonding with egos create the drama they do because it is a bonding of vasanas – and unless some objectivity develops there is no opportunity for self-knowledge to take place – which is why so many relationships end up being so unsatisfying and destructive. Seeking a relationship is simply the ego caught in ignorance looking for what it believes will make it whole – and it looks in all the wrong places because it is what it is seeking. Until such time as you know that you are whole, seeking a relationship will stand in the way of moksa because by definition moksa is freedom from dependence on objects.
~ Namaste, Sundari