Some BIG Questions

Question

Respected Experts,

1. Can you please tell how to take consciousness away from the surface of the body?

2. How should we exactly live in an environment amidst both the sexes ?

3. How exactly should we live to attain communion with the beloved?

—Vijay Balaji.K, India

Answer

Dear Vijay,

My goodness, those are such big questions that I could not possibly attempt full answers to even one of them in this online format. You are talking about almost the entire spiritual path!

I will offer just a few thoughts, however. Think of them as ideas, merely, not as exhaustive treatments of the subjects you asked about.

1. Withdrawing from your periphery:

  • Don’t indulge the senses. Enjoy them, not in themselves, but with the joy of God. They merely remind you of that inner joy. Don’t ever let yourself imagine that pleasure comes from outside you.
  • Practice Ananda Yoga, which offers many tools to withdraw energy and awareness from your periphery. Visit an Ananda center in India or an Ananda center in the USA for firsthand training.
  • Practice meditation. It will give you a taste of higher pleasures than the senses ever could give you.
  • Spend time with people who have a healthy attitude toward the senses, not with sense-slaves, nor with people who abhor the senses.

2. Living in an environment with both sexes. I assume you are talking about yourself, a man, living around women.

  • See women as manifestations of the Divine Mother – and treat them that way: with respect.
  • Don’t stare at women.
  • Don’t be too personal with women. Be kind, but keep a respectful distance.
  • Practice meditation, pulling back from your own personality and male-identification. You are not a man; you are a soul living in a man’s body.
  • Spend time with men and women who have a healthy spiritual attitude toward the opposite sex. Draw upon their magnetism.

3. Communion with the beloved

  • Practice meditation as much as possible
  • Chant and practice japa
  • Keep up a continuous inner conversation with God.
  • Spend time with others who want to commune with God.

Are you detecting a pattern in these answers? Meditate, meditate, meditate, and spend time with people who have what you want. Meditation and satsang.

You have asked very big questions, but I have space only for small answers. I hope some of it is helpful.

Blessings,

Gyandev