Author: Anurag Jain

Writer and Teacher of Non-Dual Self Inquiry/Advaita Vedanta

For more details please see the 'About Me' page of the website or follow this link https://neevselfinquiry.in/about-me/

To learn Advaita from me, please visit the 'Learn Advaita' page of this website or follow the link https://neevselfinquiry.in/contact/

Categories
Psycho-Philosophical Inquiries

How Maps Of Mind Condition Us to Live and Act

We are born into a given world, a world mapped out for us in the form of ideas. We imbibe this map unconditionally in childhood. Very few know about the existence of this map in our minds, let alone question it. All that we think, and do in our life is because of this map. Even acts of doing good for society are born from this map. In this article I examine what these maps are, how they are formed, the difficulty of knowing them and the urgent need to examining their limitations rather than acting mindlessly from them.

Categories
Psycho-Philosophical Inquiries

Have we got a complete map of life?

Do we ever think that we have been conditioned to view life in a particular way: most of us don’t. However, we all agree with the fact that we face conflicts. Why do these conflicts arise? Some of us would like to go deeply into this question, while the majority responds by getting more entrenched in their conditioning. This article is meant for those who would like to go into the root of all conflict, which is, we all have maps of reality embedded in us. In this article, I explore how these maps are formed, how they govern our lives, and how we may not be having complete maps of reality with us.

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Advaitic Inquiry

Stages : From Self Inquiry to Self Realization

Self Inquiry/Jnana Yoga is said to be the ultimate path to enlightenment. But before one enters Jnana Yoga, it is said that one has to purify one’s mind through years of Karma Yoga. However, if one has the prerequisites, one can enter Jnana Yoga directly: without doing Karma Yoga or renouncing the world, as is usually required for Jnana Yoga. This is a unique path I followed and teach. It combines the teachings of J Krishnamurti and Advaita Vedanta. In this article I give a brief description of the stages involved in this journey for interested seekers.

Categories
Meditative Inquiries

Turning Within : Taking the Plunge to Find One’s True Self

Most people are lost in the outer events and turmoil of their life. For the rare few, however, at some point of their life, they cannot help noticing the fact that all their outer pursuits, no matter how deep they are, have failed to provide them lasting happiness. This is the point they turn within; in search of something that can give them something lasting and permanent, that no outer objects can provide. In this article, I share the journey of a meditator who is poised on the point of turning within; addressing his doubts, fear and hopes, as he plunges into this unknown journey.

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Advaitic Inquiry Witness Stage

The Liberated Being : Beyond all Acts – Good & Bad

History, culture, mythology all go into creating a prototype of an enlightened being or a Liberated Person. These prototypes inform the common man about the kind of greatness of person, or personality, that a liberated person has. The personalites of enlightened beings are worshipped as Gods or saviours, or beings with superhuman powers. However, the highest truth, which only Advaita Vedanta elucidates through the Vedas, is much more simple, but most difficult to penetrate. The liberated being, who in Advaita is called a Jnani, has gone beyond all names and forms, and acquired a non-dual vision. What is that vision and who is a Jnani? How does he act? I explore these questions in this article.

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Psycho-Philosophical Inquiries

Arjuna – Krishna and the Corona Virus Crisis

Nobody expected that a small invisible virus would arrive one day and hold the whole world captive for months. Life is capricious. We can make hay till the sun shines. But then there is always a crisis lurking somehwere in the womb of time. We can either fear it or at best prepare for it. But it comes. Crisis is unpleasant but it also has a light, and an opening to a wisdom that is timeless. In this article I make an attempt to show how we can use this crisis to reflect and perhaps make a movement to acquire a wisdom that permanently takes us beyond all suffering: which no crisis can affect.

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Advaitic Inquiry Witness Stage

Tat Tvam Asi – You are Brahman

Most people think about spirituality as some form of action – yoga, meditation, chanting etc. While this is true for some schools, in Advaita, where the highest truth of Non-Duality is taught, truth has nothing to do with action. This is because in your essence, YOU ARE TRUTH. There is no difference between you and truth ultimately. This is Non-Duality and Path of Knowledge of Advaita. This article shows the uniqueness and difficulty of this path as compared to other dualistic paths of Yoga.

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Advaitic Inquiry Witness Stage

Turiya : The Fourth State of Consciousness & End of Suffering

As normal human beings going about our daily lives, chasing dreams, getting happy, or grieving over life’s inscrutable experiences, we are all aware of three states of consciousness – waking, dream sleep and deep sleep. They are so much taken for granted, we can hardly imagine a treasure concealed by these three states. However, for a person who has devoted himself to solving life’s paradoxes, the study of these states holds the key to liberation from suffering.

Categories
Advaitic Inquiry

How to read the site?

Dear Reader, in case you are new to this site, I request you to read this post first as it guides you through how to navigate the site meaningfully.

Categories
Advaitic Inquiry Pre-Witness Stage

Self Inquiry and Issues Related to Teachers

Self inquiry is a long and complex journey to liberation. Spiritual teachers and paths are proliferating the world and internet. To a beginner of self inquiry, the variety seems daunting. In this article I try to summarize all issues which arise when one is deciding, or decides on a particular teacher. While very few are truly interested in going the whole distance, in the end, I give my advice on how to choose a teacher, if one’s aim is nothing short of ending of ego-sense/individuality.

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Advaitic Inquiry Pre-Witness Stage

Self inquiry and insight into one’s true nature/Self in Advaita

In this article, I have given an account of how one reaches the Advaitic insight of “I am Self/Witness”, following the traditional self-inquiry or Jnana Yoga of Advaita. This was an insight that gave me a kind of permanent home of peace that no outer crisis can touch. I wrote this to help others on the path of traditional Advaita.

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Psycho-Philosophical Inquiries

The evolution of self : really evolution, or perpetual conflict?

Advancement of man is seen as evolution of self. In this article I show that since self is actually a fragment – a bundle of knowledge which is limited, no amount of evolution – of accumulation of knowledge – can make the limited go beyond limitations. And being limted and fragmentary, the self shall always divide man against man and man against nature.

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Psycho-Philosophical Inquiries

What is psychological becoming and how it causes suffering?

Psychological becoming is an umbrella term for all our desires: material, emotional, intellectual and spiritual. In this article, I trace out the roots of this movement, which governs our personal and social lives powerfully and unconsciously. Thereafter I show how it constitutes suffering at all realms – material, emotional, intellectual and spiritual, even though our current society actively encourages and rewards it.

Categories
Psycho-Philosophical Inquiries

How to live a life free of effort?

Our society makes a virtue out of struggle and psychological effort. But is not psychological effort a result of conflict? Is it possible to live life without the conflict of psychological effort. In this response to a question I look at the root of psychological effort in our work life, and how one can do work without effort; when one does work for the sake of love.

Categories
Psycho-Philosophical Inquiries

Is psychological learning about correcting mistakes?

In society we are often chided for doing mistakes psychologically, by various forms of authority. These voices of authority go very very deep, forming and erecting codes of ethics within us. Do we ever question these voices of authority? Can we be free to learn about ourselves if we judge and label our thoughts and acts as mistakes in accordance with these voices? In a response to a question I look into the whole notion of what we call mistakes, and if psychological learning and freedom has anything to do with correcting mistakes.