Category: Indian Philosophy

Walking the Middle Path: A Daily Guiding Note for Peace


At 75+, with a fulfilled life behind me and a peaceful present, I was advised by my relative Sam, a student of Advaita, to forget the world, ignore mind and heart, and simply live in awareness. Instead of renouncing life entirely, I now follow a middle path. Each day I care for my body, enjoy family and friends lightly, and watch desires without clinging. Morning quietude, small acts of kindness, and evening reflection keep me steady. Life’s forms may rise and fall like pots of clay, but peace rests in the awareness that is never broken.

The Simple Truth of Advaita


Advaita Vedānta insists that Truth is not complex but startlingly simple. It is not an achievement to be won, but the ever-present awareness in which body, mind, and world appear. Yet we miss it: the weak intellect assumes it is too difficult and looks away; the strong intellect insists it cannot be so simple and keeps objectifying it. Like mistaking a rope for a snake, our confusion persists until the obvious shines forth—I am that awareness itself. The simplicity is disarming only because it was never hidden.

Beyond Meditation: Ashtavakra and Advaita’s Deeper Call


In the Ashtavakra Gītā, two seemingly opposite statements puzzle many: “The practice of meditation keeps one in bondage” (1.15) and “When a weak man gives up meditation he falls prey to whims and desires” (18.75). Advaita Vedānta resolves this by distinguishing between dhyāna (technique-based meditation) and nididhyāsana (natural abidance in Self). For the immature seeker, meditation steadies the mind. For the mature knower, clinging to meditation sustains duality. Liberation is not attained by practice but by knowledge, effortlessly lived.

A Journey from Worldly Noise to the Quiet of Consciousness


I no longer seek guidance from heart or mind, for both belong to the restless play of duality. Instead, I turn inward, where Advaita Vedanta reveals the true relief of emptiness: the Self as pure awareness, untouched by sorrow or delight. Solitude is not misanthropy but clarity—a freedom from humoring the world’s illusions. To abide in stillness is to realize that the knower of light and darkness is itself eternal.

“Responsibility” Towards This World: Is the “awakened one” accountable to the world, or is it all God’s play?


When awakening strikes, the question often arises: does greater consciousness demand greater responsibility? A friend suggested that finding God is not freedom but a burden—an obligation to guide others. My response, echoing Ramana Maharshi and Nisargadatta Maharaj, is that the world itself is God’s doing, and the roles of both Jnani and Ajnani are part of that play. No “integration” is needed between ego and the Absolute—they were never separate. What remains is simple: God alone acts, through every form.