A Summary of the Srimad Bhagavatham : Ch-8. Part-5.

Concluding Message: The Stages of Ascent to Moksham


8: The Stages of Ascent to Moksham:


Part-5.


The next stage of sadhana is an effort to find out what is good.

It is not enough if we merely want the good; we must know where the good lies, and strive for it.

This is self-analysis.

Satsanga, study, attending discourses of mahatmas, worship, japa sadhana, are all helpful in investigating into the nature of the problem and then deciphering the nature of the ultimate truth.

These first two stages, subheccha and vicharana, are mostly the preliminary stages of spiritual practice, and yet they are difficult enough for a person who is not acquainted with this way of thinking, just as a person who does not know cycling cannot sit on a bicycle even for a moment until he learns it.



By such kind of continuous, assiduous investigation into one’s own bondage and what is good for oneself, the mind which is fattened by being fed through sensory life becomes thinner and thinner, and that which was once opaque due to the desire for enjoyment of the objects of the world—due to which, the light of the Self within could not be reflected, as sunlight cannot pass through a brick and can pass only through a clean glass—becomes thinned.

In the earlier stages, due to the thickened form of the mental process, the very idea of there being something called the Atman within may not be possible, but after assiduous practice in this manner, the mind becomes thin.

That condition is called tanumanasi, a threadlike condition of the mind where it is transparent and reflects the true nature of everything.


Swami Krishnananda

To be continued  ....