Mananam

 vidyate na khalu kascid upAya˛ sarvalokaparitosakaro yah | sarvathA svahitAm Acaraneeyam¸ kim¸ karisyati jano bahujalpa || One can find (or knows) no way of completely satisfying the whole world. By all means one should manage one's own welfare. What can criticizing people do to you? Jivan Mukti Viveka – 2.4.48 The context for this - is the section on _suddhAsuddhavAsanA_  in Jivan Mukti Viveka. Here while contemplating on how to safeguard knowledge (or one's sraddha in Brahma Vidya), I came across this sloka. The motivation for my investigation is - if one has done Sravanam, Mananam for few years - there arises this clarity that this Atma Bhavam has its basis on the Atman - which is Pure Chaithanyam. Yet due to Vasana Dosham (i.e. tendency to persist with Superimposition and consider the superimposition as real), we are subject to mental vacillation, mood swings etc.... so how to protect the Sraddha on Brahma Vidya ? While thinking thus - I saw this beautiful slo

  (On the occassion of  Gītā Jayanti festival) Acronyms – Mbh – Mahābhārata (Critical Edition); BG – Bhagavad Gītā Introduction Tradition of vedānta maintains that cultivating the śāstra pramānika buddhi (i.e. conviction to treat śāstra as the means of knowledge, like one’s eye is a means of knowledge), allows us to achieve permanent relief from suffering – not just a temporary relief. This śāstra pramānika buddhi, which is synonymous with the word śraddha, helps one to gain knowledge [BG 4.34] with which one overcomes all notions of finitude of self, in this very life itself. One such precious śāstra is the Bhagavad Gītā, which Śri Śaṃkara extolls as samasta-vedārtha-sāra-saṅgraha-bhūtaṃ (quintessence of all Vedas). The great epic Mahābhārata is itself treated as the very extension of Vedas (See Mbh 1.57.74).   We shall herewith examine few aspects pertaining to the spiritual significance of Gītā. 1.         Gītā’s influence encompasses all of life Spirituality ought to encompass all