Sep 30th 2025
In 1973, a girl named Phyllis was given a brand new orange shirt, which she happily wore to go to school. This was a residential school (in Canada where indigenous kids were taken from their homes and converted from being indigenous and forced to Christianity). When the girl got to school, the administrators made her change into a different shirt, and this made her feel worthless because something that her grandmother had given her was taken away and she was forced to be in a different way! She is a residential school survivor unlike many that were killed/died and in 2013 she shared her story. Since 2013, on Sep 30th of every year, people celebrate Orange Shirt day in Canada (truth and reconciliation day), and it is a Federal holiday in Canada. People wear orange shirts with the slogan ‘Every child matters’. Vivekji shared this as an example to show how consciously we have to live to actualize oneness. If our intentions are not right, there are ramifications for us and the generations to come. Being conscious about our actions and intentions will train us to eventually feel oneness. What we aspire in our course is for our mind to be soaked in such conscious living. The more we soak our mind in that which is right and that which is saathvik, the trajectory will be oneness.
In our Manah Shodanam course, we have had 3 discussions so far.
Why do we forget that we are our own source of joy?
Reflection: We have not tried hard enough to experience we are our own source of joy, since we don’t have that experience we forget!
How can we invest more in the fundamental?
Reflection: We should remember how many entities in this multiverse have loved us and do love us! When we feel how much love has flowed into our lives, it becomes very difficult not to reciprocate this, meaning not living in the functional so much but living in the fundamental.
Prove you are joy.
Reflection: Full proof and fool proof !
Proof 5: Quality of objects – No object is intrinsically of the nature of joy.
Proof 4: Quantity of objects – We all know about the law of diminishing returns. Finite does not equal infinite.
Proof 3: Absence of objects – When we sleep there is no space, time or matter but we love to sleep.
Proof 2: Escaping the unnatural – When we feel negativity such as jealousy or frustration, we do something to change it and escape it.
Proof 1: Embracing the natural – When we feel calm, saathvik, compassionate and focused , then we do nothing and just experience it, because that is what our nature is!
In Bhagavad Gita’s chapter 2, after Prince Arjuna has experienced dejection, he asks Bhagavan Krishna how a person who is joy thinks, talks , sits and walks. Foremost description of a person who is living by verse 1 of Manah Shodanam is ‘Atmani eva atmana tushta’ – the one who is content is the one who feels their nature.
The theme for the class for Verse 2 of Manah Shodanam was ‘contradiction’ (My nature is joy but i don’t feel it).
Verse 2 line 1: jnānena tu tad ajnāne, nashte bhāti svayam hi saha
‘However, when ignorance is dispelled by knowledge, the supreme Self shines by itself’.
The implication of this first line is – joy (infinity, awareness) cannot be created. Since they cannot be created, we have to change our strategy of how to be more joyous/aware/infinite. Most of our day to day is about ‘doing’, but for one who is more reflective and realizes you cannot create joy, they shift from being the ‘doer’ to the ‘observer’. They start to watch more and stop getting involved with everything. Finally they are the ‘be’-er of joy/awareness/infinity.
This Class:
Verse 2 line 2: satyam etat tathā api iha, kashtam-ekam cha vartate
The theme of this class is ‘disintegration’ (adharma).
Etat-satyam – Whatever has been taught so far is the truth.
Tatha api -although/however.
Some personality traits of one who ‘knows it but does not feel it’ are: they are defensive, and their deeper trait is that they are deflective. They have heard it, read it and learned it but they keep it far from them. If we find ourselves to be defensive, then that is because we are deflective. In contrast, those who are responsive have a deeper trait of being reflective. What they hear, read and learn, they will bring it close to them. We should analyse ourselves to see how deflective or responsive we have been. One tip to be less deflective and more responsive – when it comes to communication, there is no need to communicate immediately. We should be less reactive and learn to slow down.
Kashtam-ekam vartate – there is one hardship that exists. The hardship that blocks these truths is our minds. Our intellect is the supervisor (with ideals), but our mind, which is the manager, has not learned how to follow the supervisor. The hindrance is the ‘extroversion’. An extrovert is one whose strategy is to find completion outside of themselves and what they do is nurture more and more insecurity. An introvert is one who is inward looking. That person is also longing to be complete and do this within themselves. So they become more and more secure. The mind interprets, the intellect instructs and the ego identifies. The ego does not have an actual function and it simply identifies with the intellect and mind. When the mind is not prepared we become worldly. When the mind is prepared, the mind blocks the ego from becoming an extrovert. The trained mind blocks the ego from pursuing extroversion and it becomes inward looking.
We feel articles, circumstances and beings bring us joy. What we desire is not these articles, beings or circumstances, but it is the joy, but we pursue it in such indirect ways! The mind that is trained by a guide and map is also longing/desiring/working for joy but in a direct way!