Almost all teaching age made by guru who lived in temple, monk, where they’re don’t need to « think » about eating, sleeping. As they gave up on capitalism life etc. So how do you guys council both ?
Or do you even.
Are we coping not getting out of this way of living, when we could just go meditate all day. What you guys think
I have tried all kinds of methods of meditation. Nothing seems to work for me. And it leaves me frustrated. The biggest obstacle is that I don't know if what I am doing is the right way or not.
What does 'observing your breath' mean? What does 'feel if there's any tension in your feet' mean? I want to know which part of the feet do you want me to feel for tension- the top, the mid or the bottom?- I get caught in these things and can never do how that 'observing', 'feeling', 'noticing' is to be done. Pranayama is still doable because you are breathing in and out in different patterns. But then, that is not meditation. That is preparation towards meditation.
What is meditation then? Can anyone really meditate? I highly doubt!
This is so frustrating. And I have been experiencing this up and down relationship with meditation for almost 2 years now.
Can anyone help?
I don't want advice on instructions on how to do or not to do. I need to learn from experiences if any. Because clearly, getting instructions (like those in guided meditations) do not work for me.
Sigh.
I’m completely new to the AdvaitaVedanta. Can someone please guide me on where to begin? Book recommendations would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!
I grew up in the Hare Krsna movement, and was a believer up until my late 20s. But in recent years, I began having many general doubts and I can't say I believe in or identify as a HK follower any longer.
Long story short, I now believe in Advaita after my own research. However, I find it hard to believe some things, I dare say even the Bhagavad Gita as an example, I doubt it was an actual physical event but was rather written by man, Arjuna represents, us the lost Jiva and Krsna our true nature Brahman, well that's just how I see it. This does not mean for me however, that it's any less potent in its teachings and so on. I do believe in Isvara but now favour Nrsimha above any other form. But I can't honestly say I believe in Krsna in the literal sense any longer. Is this an issue in my pursuits?
I hope this is okay to post here! I am planning to go to the Vedanta Society of Toronto retreat in September by myself. Before this it would be nice to meet / chat with some friendly people in the community. I see the centre is closed for the summer so I thought i would see if there are any locals here. I am 48 / male / gay (if that matters). I grew up as a fundamentalist Christian but left that scene in my 20s. Since then my spiritual journey and seeking has continued. I've been interested in mysticism and practiced Buddhism and meditation. In the past year I've come across Advaita Vedanta, and from the little I know I believe it points to profound truths and reality and has something to offer in my own journey and formation. Thank you.
I have been working on MAMSTHIR and have finally released it publicly.
MAMSTHIR is built around Advaita Vedānta and self-inquiry techniques focusing on non-duality, the Self, awareness, and experience.
A quiet space to slow down, reflect, and explore without distraction.
What’s inside?
- Reflections on Self, consciousness, and non-duality
- Short contemplative readings
- Self-inquiry prompts
- Simple breathwork practices
- Minimal, distraction-free design
- Open, self-paced exploration
Works in your browser, it's free, no install needed.
I am also building an Android app for the Play Store.
This is early, and I would appreciate feedback from anyone about anything in the app.
If you try it, I would love to know if you find it useful.
In Rigveda 10.129 sukt has 7 richas (shlok) which i found most brave as for as i knew across religion, if any one studied this in depth then can we start brainstorm these, it challenges lot of oue beleif system about existence and reality.
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I came across an interesting passage from a Bengali spiritual text discussing a devotee of Shakti.
A young man says that he is practicing spiritual discipline with his whole heart.
The response is fascinating.
It essentially says that if you seek God, you shouldn't approach spirituality merely as an attempt to escape life or become passive and powerless.
The devotee of Shakti loves Shaktiman—the source of power itself.
So what does the Divine give him?
Strength. Energy. Courage. Endurance. Vitality. The ability to act.
The passage even compares giving strength to someone who is already strong to “carrying coal to Newcastle.”
But then comes the deeper idea:
Even if the Divine is willing to give strength to a weak person, perhaps the weak person doesn't yet have the capacity to receive it.
This reminded me of the Upanishadic statement:
«“Nāyam ātmā balahīnena labhyaḥ” — The Self is not attained by the weak.»
I don't think “strength” here necessarily means physical strength.
It could mean the strength to sit alone without running from yourself.
The strength to face fear.
The strength to tolerate uncertainty.
The strength to control impulses.
The strength to continue a practice when there is no immediate reward.
The strength to see something unpleasant about yourself without immediately defending your ego.
And this creates a paradox that I find extremely interesting:
Do we need strength before spiritual realization, or does spiritual realization give us strength?
Maybe the relationship works in both directions.
We develop enough strength to genuinely seek the truth—and then the process of seeking the truth develops an even deeper kind of strength within us.
Perhaps spirituality isn't about becoming weaker and detached from life.
Perhaps it is about becoming so inwardly strong that we no longer need to run away from life, pleasure, pain, fear, success or failure.
What do you think?
Is inner strength a prerequisite for spiritual realization, or is spiritual realization itself the source of true strength?
Hello we face enormous struggles in our day to day life ,instead of just naming them simply as maya transcend it i wish advaita could offer more solutions
I’ve recently started learning more about Hinduism, especially shlokas, stories, and their meanings.
One thing I’ve noticed is that whenever I learn something, I often come across two or more different perspectives or interpretations. Sometimes they can even seem contradictory.
For example, one person may explain a story from a devotional perspective, while another explains the same story philosophically or symbolically.
I find this interesting, but at the same time I feel overwhelmed and confused because I don’t know which perspective to accept as my own.
How do you approach this when studying Hinduism?
Do you choose the interpretation that resonates with you most, try to understand all perspectives without choosing one, or is there a particular way Hindu philosophy suggests dealing with this kind of uncertainty?
Especially for Brihadranyak upanishad and chhandogya upanishad because their hindi commentary is not available anywhere.
How is the translation and commentary of swami Krishnanda of Divine life society ? Is it easy to read and understand ?
Do let me know in the comment section. I would be very greatful to you 🙏
Probably you have come across this question dozens of times, but I am still curious about it.
I have been on a spiritual path for the last 12 years, and for the past five years I have been listening to Swami's online teachings. I have even attended some of his retreats. I love his knowledge of the Upanishads and how clearly he explains them. I admire him and have great respect for him.
But recently I found out that he eats fish. This disturbed me because I wonder: how can someone teach ahimsa and eat animals? If there were some medical condition, I could understand it. But eating fish simply because you like it seems to contradict the teaching of ahimsa.
So I contacted another Swami from the Ramakrishna Order, and he told me that consuming meat and fish is allowed within the Ramakrishna Order. The argument was that if someone is dedicating their life to God, why should there be a problem? He also said that there is no explicit prohibition against eating meat in the scriptures.
I am struggling to understand this. Which aspect of ahimsa am I missing?
I'm very new to all of this so please forgive me if this sounds stupid. What exactly do people mean when they say "awareness"? Apparently it's different from consciousness because it has nothing to do with the mind or sense organs but I don't quite get it. I've read a lot of people mentioning it being like in a deep sleep because your brain is essentially turned off but you don't remember being asleep because you're brain can't remember it. So essentially my question is this: after the body is gone you have no brain to process/remember anything, no sense organs, and nothing to perceive even if you had all of that since none of what we can perceive now is real anyway so what is the difference between existence and non-existence at that point?
Hello, I was wondering if anyone has the same "problem" as me, i.e. when someone asks me how I meditate, I try to explain atmavichara to them: but maybe I am a terrible explainer or something, because in my experience people don't seem to get it. These are also very intelligent people with interest in spiritual practices, for example there was this person who translated an entire book about spiritual conditions to my primary language so I would suspect they will get it. One friend said it is sort of "university"-level spirituality which I should not force to people who are still in "high school" or "basic school" level (figuratively, of course), which is strange since this technique seems so simple to me. But maybe it seems simple to me only because it occured to me spontaneously when I was 3 years old, so I acquired it independently from Ramana Maharishi (I had no exposure to Indian philosophy at that time and both my parents were atheists). I was also that desperate that I asked AI for atmavichara explanations, hoping they will suit the people better than mine. Also, I am not a teacher and certainly not a guru, so maybe I am not supposed to explain this in the first place. Any thoughts? Do any of you have the same problem, that it's so familiar you struggle to explain it?
I know good people who are poor and go through tremendous bad luck while there are billionaires out there who screw countless people over and still live the high life, and good fortune just seems to rain down on them.
This makes me doubt if karma is even real. Why do people with the greatest material fortune act so dishonorably and receive no karmic repercussions while poor people are afflicted with all kinds of psychological and material problems?
Krishna is Ishvara whereas Arjuna is Jiva because Arjuna does not know that the unexamined assumption of Jiva-hood being his identity is not the truth.
If this misunderstanding of jiva-hood being the identity is removed, then identity of Ishvara-hood is revealed.
One idea from Advaita has stayed with me more than almost any other: reality is not made of separate objects, but of one indivisible consciousness appearing as many forms.
Years ago, while reading Healing Codes for the Biological Apocalypse by Dr. Leonard Horowitz and Dr. Joseph Puleo, I stumbled into a completely different tradition that strangely echoed that intuition. Their work combines biblical numerology, medieval musicology, Pythagorean mathematics, and speculative biophysics around something called the Solfeggio frequencies.
As a musician, I was particularly intrigued by the claim that an older six-note frequency system was hidden for centuries and that these tones correspond to fundamental vibratory patterns capable of facilitating biological healing and spiritual awakening. Whether one accepts these claims literally or symbolically, the framework itself is fascinating.
The six central Solfeggio frequencies are traditionally described as follows:
396 Hz (Do / C), associated with releasing guilt, fear, grief, and negative emotional patterns.
417 Hz (Re / D), associated with facilitating change and dissolving entrenched emotional patterns.
528 Hz (Mi / E), often called the "miracle tone," linked to transformation and DNA repair.
639 Hz (Fa / F), associated with relationships, harmony, and interconnectedness.
741 Hz (Sol / G), linked to intuition, self-expression, cleansing, and problem-solving.
852 Hz (La / A), associated with spiritual order, unconditional love, and seeing beyond illusion.
Horowitz and Puleo interpret disease as a form of energetic dissonance. Their view proposes that specific frequencies help "retrain" cells and DNA toward their original harmonic state. Underlying this idea is the broader concept that reality itself is fundamentally vibratory and that matter is condensed energy emerging from primordial sound.
What caught my attention, however, was how closely some of these ideas resemble concepts already present within Indian philosophy.
In many Vedic traditions, we encounter Nāda Brahma (नाद ब्रह्म), often translated as "the universe is sound." Reality is understood not as a collection of isolated objects but as a continuum of vibration arising from Spanda, the primordial pulse of consciousness.
Within this framework:
Om is regarded as the primordial vibration of creation.
Matter is viewed as condensed energy emerging through Vāc, the sacred word.
Every form possesses its own resonance or "natural name" (Nāma).
Disease can be interpreted as a disruption in the rhythmic flow of Prāṇa.
Harmony is restored through alignment with Śabda Brahman, the Absolute as sound.
I'm not suggesting that Advaita endorses modern Solfeggio theory. Rather, I find it interesting that these contemporary interpretations often borrow from much older intuitions about vibration, consciousness, and manifestation.
The historical evolution of the scale itself is also fascinating.
In the 11th century, Guido d'Arezzo, often called the father of Western musical notation, developed a method that allowed monks to memorize pitches using the hymn Ut Queant Laxis:
Ut queant laxis
Resonare fibris
Mira gestorum
Famuli tuorum
Solve polluti
Labii reatum
Sancte Ioannes
From this hymn emerged:
Ut (later Do)
Re
Mi
Fa
Sol
La
The note Si was added approximately six centuries later from the initials of Sancte Ioannes, and in the 16th century Giovanni Battista Doni replaced Ut with Do, producing the familiar Do-Re-Mi-Fa-Sol-La-Si system.
The numerological side becomes even more unusual.
According to Puleo, the original Solfeggio frequencies were rediscovered through analysis of the Biblical Book of Numbers (Chapter 7, verses 12–83). Using Pythagorean digital reduction, large numbers are reduced repeatedly until a single digit remains.
He claimed that a repeating pattern involving the numbers 3, 6, and 9 emerges throughout the text and corresponds to the six central frequencies:
396, 417, 528, 639, 741, and 852 Hz.
Horowitz incorporates Tesla's philosophy into his interpretation, proposing that these numbers reflect fundamental energetic principles underlying creation.
Later, the system was expanded into what Horowitz called the Perfect Circle of Sound, adding:
174 Hz, grounding, stability, and relief from physical or energetic discomfort.
285 Hz, regeneration and restoration.
963 Hz, unity consciousness, spiritual awakening, and return to perfection.
Whether one interprets these claims scientifically, symbolically, psychologically, or spiritually, the model itself is undeniably intriguing.
The recommended method of use is equally interesting:
Listen at relatively low volume.
Focus on a clear and loving intention.
Identify the emotional or energetic state you wish to work with.
Since many of these ideas draw inspiration from Vedic and Gregorian chanting traditions, vocalizing the tones yourself is considered especially powerful because the body becomes the resonating chamber.
More broadly, this entire field raises questions about the future of bioacoustics.
Between cymatics, mitochondrial biophysics, ancient contemplative traditions, sacred music, and numerological systems, there seems to be a growing interest in the possibility that sound possesses a structuring influence over biological and psychological experience that we are only beginning to explore.
What I appreciated most while assembling them was the audio engineering itself:
The files are provided in lossless WAV format rather than compressed streaming formats.
Each frequency is available individually for extended meditation sessions and personal experimentation.
I'm not posting this as proof of any metaphysical claim. I simply thought some members here who are interested in Nāda, mantra, vibration, consciousness, and the phenomenology of sound might enjoy exploring them and forming their own conclusions!
We’re conducting a short survey for a university Human–Computer Interaction (HCI) research project exploring how people from different religious and spiritual traditions perceive and interact with AI in these contexts. We’re interested in both positive and negative experiences, as well as skepticism—whether you see AI as merely a tool, a conversation partner, a source of spiritual guidance, or something that should have no role in religious life at all.
https://forms.gle/PgK86Fv3T7aUZGbE7
The survey is anonymous, takes only a few minutes, and you do not need to have used AI for religious purposes to participate. We would really appreciate hearing perspectives from this community. Thank you! 🙏