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He is a saint of extra ordinary caliber and wisdom. I have written about him elsewhere

His name – Is a combination of two things. Vivek and Ananda.

Ananda means joy

Vivek – generally people think means well behaved / polite In original Sanskrit it means wisdom.

So what kind of wisdom does he refer to ? He referred to discriminatory wisdom. What does that mean? It means accepting God and rejecting anything else that is not God. Of course I have given an explanation that is fit for the public. Those who are more advanced know the deeper meaning

Wisdom or Gyan refers to knowledge or experience of God. You so not have to read a single book or attend any lecture or read anything. That experience appears with deep mediation

Once again as far as I am concerned mediation is the art of getting rid of mind and emotions. Anything else is mere imagination

Vivekananda name was Originally Narendranath Dutta. In his previous birth he was a nearly perfected saint and came to help others He was enlightened by 20

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Most people live life like a leaf. A leaf in the wind. Blown in one direction to another. Hither and tither

The debate some people have is there a free will or is it just all predetermined.

Does the leaf have a free will?

Now a leaf that blows towards favorable direction feels happy and when it blows in an awkward direction, it begins to ponder and gets depressed. Looses interest in life.

So what does this have to do with spirituality?

Lets take another question? Why do things occur in three? Life events, is that I am referring to

Why do I see multiple patients with the same disease and a different disease the next day? It should be random.

Many of Yogananda disciples were depressed during world war 2. When they asked why? Yogananda said they are catching on to the vibrations of the cries of the people in anguish from Europe during world war 2

In the past I have talked about the yugas. Hinduism has recognized a pattern about different time spans in human history. Sat yuga where everyone has the tendency to be pios, Treta yuga where the desire for the world has increased but they maintain spirituality as much as possible, Dwapar yuga where people become crafty in achieving worldly desires and Kali yuga where they will do anything possible and being wicked is the norm

Guess where we are right now?

So what is happening?

The leaf is the individual. The cosmic influences is the wind here. And the leaf not being pure, not anchored to the tree of purity blows in every direction. The goal is to remain anchored to the tree of purity so you are not blown everywhere

For example, lets say there is a cosmic influence of hatred. What happens is that the wind of hatred spreads around everywhere. Immediately everyone has the thoughts of anger and hatred. Each one will respond differently though. Some will resort to gun violence and killing others. Others will just bear resentment and some will actively engage in speeches of hatred (politicians). The same cosmic wave goes around everywhere. Now the leaf anchored on the tree will not be influenced and be so strong that even the cosmic wave around him disappears and there is no hatred with him….or around him ! And that is the sign of reaching purity

So back to the question, is there free choice? And the answer is yes…but only some can see it. Like the leaf. What happens in life? There is an outside vibration in the cosmos. Aurobindo called it by different names. That outside vibration stimulates something in us. Depending on the level of purity and past experience, we immediately respond to it. And then act on it. If there is stability then you can reject the outside influence and remain anchored in the divine. So are we aware of the outside cosmos vibration? Yes but that initial stimulation occurs very deep within. We only realize it when it comes on the surface. Suddenly you get hungry…or need sex….or have a thought of an old friend. You only know it when it comes to the surface. Someone who is stable knows it before it comes to the surface and even sees it in the cosmos. And that is stability. That is known as Stith Pragna, meaning the innermost self is stable and cannot be unsettled by the outside cosomos

So these outside cosmic influences can also make us suddenly depressed. Often we can attribute it to a reason, but we dont know that it was an influence of the cosmos. In order to progress, we have to learn to reject the cosmic vibration first on the surface and then realize the deeper layers and then we realize the deeper layers were nothing but a puppet to the cosmos because it was not anchored in God.

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Mime means to copy. So mimetic desire, is a copied desire. Something that psychologists and scientists believe is that the desire for something is not within us but comes from outside influence and we copy it….or emulate it

Well, I do like the superman show…and I would love to punch my wall. I tried it…but my hand did not like it. The orthopedic surgeon loved it. In fact while I was in his office, he called his wife and said, remember that expensive trip to Paris we wanted, we can now afford it !

Just kidding. The idea is…often times we get very easily influenced by outside desires and we want to copy it. You go visit someone, see a beautiful fireplace and we desire it. You go and visit a family and find that they have good a china set…or furniture…or spouse….ok! I will stop there.

What does this have to do with spirituality? A lot. A man is known by the company he keeps. (It should read a person, not man). If you want to make spiritual progress, you want to be surrounded and immersed with spiritual people. Those who are truly interested in God and display all tendencies of the same. And they are nice, calm, collected, forgiving etc. In time your mind will want to be the same way and you will make progress

This is very true. Krishna Bhagwan, said, whatever you see or think at the time of your death, you will go there or become that. So if you see an animal, your pet, your next birth will be as a pet. If you see a human you will want a human body. If you lapse into unconscousness, whatever dream or nightmare you have you will become that.

So in yoga, it is said, a yogi generally passes away fully awake and conscious. He thinks of God and merges in God. Good deeds help us. An advanced yogi is always conscious. Lahiri Mahasay, Prahladbhai, Yukteshwar, Vivekananda, Yogananda, were all fully conscious, sitting in the proper posture. So, we know…whatever they said was true and we should follow them. If there are things you dont agree, that is because you are not developed in the Yoga way yet.

This is a deep secret, the mind has the unique property, getting attracted to whatever it sees. So why not see the divine within you? Thats where you will go. But it takes time. A lot of practice. Practice to behold the light of God at will, both within and outside. To that person, that great Yogi, God is never lost and he can leave the body anyway he chooses

These are statements from the Gita.

The Bhagwad Gita is a great book giving many subtle secrets. Every sentence is a description of Yoga

So, you have to train your mind, to remain immersed in God. Good deeds makes it easier to do it. Meditation, burns and destroys the negativity. Eventually the light of God becomes visible and it is easier to see the light of God – in a dark room, bright room, eyes open or eyes closed. Such divinity is rare.

Oh, in my passion for spirituality, I totally forgot the purpose of the article. The mimetic desire. Copied desire. Copied from seeing things on the outside or seeing other people.

This is what I found on the one of the whats app group. I found it interesting. Enjoy it. Your thoughts?

Have you ever seen children at a party playing with balloons. One child suddenly grabs a red balloon and yells: “This balloon is mine!” Inadvertently, all the children drop their balloons and fight over this red balloon. A very dumbed down example of what René Girard (a French historian and polymath) calls “mimetic desire.”

A lot of our desires don’t emerge from within, but from ‘outside’. We import our most powerful desires from imitating the desires of other people.

In fact, the entire advertising industry is founded on the exploitation of borrowed desire. Human desire is not a linear process, where a person autonomously desires an inherently desirable object. Rather, we desire according to the desire of others. If we are not aware, others influence us on what to desire. And this is amplified on social media platforms such as Facebook and Instagram which are excellent conduits of mimetic desire.

French thinker Montesquieu, explained it beautifully “If we only wanted to be happy it would be easy; but we want to be happier than other people, which is almost always difficult, since we think them happier than they are.”