(This is a follow-up satsang for Those Pesky Vasanas published recently)

Good Morning!

Let me start by saying I feel incredibly humbled and honored you took the time to respond to my impromptu e-mail personally and in a timely manner. That truly brightened my day!

What an amazing creator we serve! Knock and the door shall be opened lol!

Secondly, I should clarify. I used the term “opinionated” for lack of a better word. On initial impression your work has a sort of “opinionated” feel to it but a better term would be “pointed,” which is necessary as you pointed out. Having said that, I am in complete agreement with every point you make. Most people like their spiritual life in a separate compartment because of their conditioning, their consumer-orientation and lack the mental depth and fortitude to even begin to grasp the inner and underlying implications of this — this the world’s finest and most highly-developed wisdom tradition and spiritual science, a time-tested and true spiritual path that offers a soul the entire universe.

James: Amen.

You clearly have a very firm mental grasp on and it would be an honor to work with you and your organization to take my spiritual practice to the next level. The prospects of doing so, to be quite candid, are exciting! Because there’s no logical explanation for why I am still alive, I sincerely feel I owe my life in the form of servitude to the One Infinite Creator, who endowed me with certain abilities I can use for the greater good of all. How that looks remains to be seen.

My question would be how should I proceed?

I am reading through the first book again. I’ve literally highlighted half of it. It’s been my traveling companion for weeks. And I just now ordered “Mystic By Default.”

These past few years my life has been a process of purification of the body and mind and I still have work to do. Fortunately for me and my Christian upbringing I live a very modest lifestyle. I work in digital marketing and write advertising copy all day which is very tedious but I am grateful nonetheless as it affords me the opportunity to continue my studies during my breaks and before and after work and use my writing abilities in some way. I don’t watch television. I rarely, rarely, use social media. I eat sensibly and work out and practice various forms of yoga and meditation. 

What would be the next step?

Once the flames die down like you said I expect to transition into writing for myself full time, but I’m in no rush. For this period of my life, I need the structure in my life of having to report to a job daily because as you point out — idle hands are the devil’s workshop. Furthermore, I am acutely aware of the pitfalls of success and have experienced the ego’s devastation firsthand and will do whatever it takes to remain humble and maintain the spirit of humility and gratitude.

In any case, thank you for your time and consideration. 

Looking forward to hearing back!

James:   The next step is to gain clarity about the steps.  Once you understand the sadhana from A-Z you can more or less guru yourself assuming you stay humble.  The steps are karma yoga, upasana yoga, sravanna, manana and nididyasana.  I suggest you go to the start here link on the home page (upper left corner) and follow the links.  It’s not perfectly organized on the website but you can ferret it out.  One of our Vedanta guys is building a more straightforward site as we speak.  It will make the progression very clear.  Intellectuals tend to think they are more qualified than they are and tend to skip the basics, which always comes back to haunt them.  We will help if you have questions.

The first text is Tattva Bodh.  It introduces the terminology on which the teaching is based.  Please read the satsangs on the website regularly.  Sundari or I post almost every day.  You can use the search function.  I copied in a recent one below.  Here’s a link to another https://www.shiningworld.com/the-stages-of-god-knowledge/   You probably should get The Yoga of Love from the shop, which delineates the stages from the devotional point of view.   You’ll do fine. You’ve got the right attitude.

Much Love,

James

No Skipping! Karma Yoga is Required

February 10, 2021 

Dear Ramji

Thank you so much for the wonderful teachings on Dharma over the past few weeks on Zoom. They have helped me to crystallize and understand more deeply teachings which I’m familiar with but still haven’t fully assimilated. It seems like there are levels of understanding to Dharma. I find daily repetition of the teachings somewhat analogous to flares exploding in the night sky suddenly revealing the landscape very vividly for a brief period of time. Those piercing flashes of truth are a constant source of inspiration as ignorance falls away (even if only temporarily). The persistent dwelling on the teachings every day is transforming my life, shifting my identity more and more from a historical person with history and karma to the ever free Self. 

The teachings on karma yoga have also had a big impact. I’ve been going back to the beginning and contemplating the systematic nature of the teaching and how you can’t skip the steps! It’s embarrassing that it can take years of listening to the same teaching before there is willingness to put it into practice or perhaps like my earlier point about the levels of Dharma, what was once seen to be truth and understanding is later revealed to be only partial truth or even ignorance. 

I hope what I’m saying makes sense even if it does sound like it’s all from the perspective of an individual jiva! Anyway I think the point I’m trying to make is that the recognition of the fact of my ever free nature is steadily growing day by day and I feel so much gratitude and love for finding Vedanta and your brilliant exposition of it.

James:  Give your jiva a nice pat on the back for sticking to it, Jack.  No doubt about it; Vedanta works!

Much love,

Ramji