Daily Readings from the Works of Swami Venkatesananda


Insights and Inspirations — Venkatesa Daily Readings Vol 2 — Enlightened Living (2)

December 12, 2023

     Perhaps there are methods, but it is only after trying out some techniques that one realizes that no method or technique is really necessary or that the discovery of Truth is not the end-product of every practice. But one should not go to sleep saying "There is no method, since the Truth alone exists," then you will be a fool all your life. The other attitude that most people adopt is also risky - that of merely adopting a technique. You are caught in the technique: you are so busy doing, that there is no time, energy or inclination to wonder "Why am I doing all this?"

     Mere blind action is labor. According to the Bhagavatam, if you go on doing the most wonderful, glorious, religious or social action without devotion to God, your life is a real waste. But, on the other hand, one also has to realize that that Truth has to be discovered and the discovery means some kind of movement. I have to discover it and that discovery itself may be seen as an action. Why? Because life involves action. Is it possible while living to discover the Truth and to keep it in sharp focus? If you see it very clearly and cleverly, then you see that action and knowledge are coexistent.

     Does action lead you to knowledge or enlightenment, or does knowledge guide your action? Action being life and the very meaning of life being the discovery of that meaning of life, enlightened living suggests some kind of a base for the other: 'I must have enlightenment in order to guide me in my life, or I must live in such a way that I may reach enlightenment'. How to see the two as one without necessarily denying the existence of one in favor of the other? That's the important thing.

     In Sanskrit, 'sannyasa' means 'placing very well', not necessarily 'becoming a swami'. How to place this knowledge in such a way that every action is enlightened action? If this Truth is discovered, you are never again subject to delusion. You are ignorant now: that ignorance will go, but the actions will remain exactly as they were before. When the misunderstanding is removed, Truth remains Truth. Don't try to guess what Truth is before you remove the misunderstanding, because that is the misunderstanding.

Discover the Truth. If for this discovery you have to adopt some technique, do so. Life being action, the life dedicated to the discovery of Truth will necessarily be flavored by that dedication; and such a life will follow a certain course of action which will suggest a method.

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