I think my early years were more about pursuit of knowledge for the sake of it (I guess a combination of sattva and tamas – don’t know how it gets categorised into brahmin vs. shudra), and at a defining moment of my life, I really began to look for purpose – to channelise the gifts that I was born with for “deva karya”… I guess my base-resting state is still what I started with – knowledge for the sake of it… but now having put all the years I have into a certain purpose, it has actually become unconscionable to stay in my base state, and so now I guess I am pursuing more of Kshatriya dharma… I don’t know whether I am in the box or outside of it.

Overall, the gunas do make sense to me, but the varnashramas not as much… when we say that everyone is a mix of gunas in different proportions, why don’t we also say that we are a mix of varnashramas… it does seem improbable to me for someone to be an “absolute” brahmin/ kshatriya/ vaishya/ shudra. Perhaps one should not intellectualise this too much, but I am purely approaching it from the perspective of trying to understand. Perhaps more so, because it is the one aspect that was so badly interpreted and destroyed in its application causing a multitude of social problems.

So people who are in pain/suffering or with illness, and who are restless sleeper and possibly don’t achieve deep sleep states…

What happens to them, where is Devi residing in them??

Is it because there is lack of faith/devotion/awareness, and more of attachment to body/apara that they can’t access Devi ?

1. Is this part of her game too? Understand the gross nature of prakriti and for us to make changes to food/prana etc.
2. Will doing more jap/sadhna have any effect on dosha ?

There are multiple paths to reach that outcome of yoga, however, some paths have better probability of success purely because of the characteristics, abilities and tendencies that one possesses in the current life.

The varna system is closely related to this choice of optimal path because instead of analyzing each individual’s nature to prescribe a spiritual path, our sages analyzed four general categories and offered the four paths based on the general categories you belong to.

In fact, since there are infinite permutations and combinations of human nature, there are infinitely many paths – one for each individual but it is not feasible to do so, hence, the varna system gives four general strategies to life.

Technically, you, I or someone else could sit down and identify a fresh set of N categories and analyze the optimal spiritual path for each of the N categories and that would be our category-based prescriptive way of life (varna system).

To understand how this connects with destiny, consider a computer game where the game creator has many different characters that you can play (each with a specific appearance, nature and possible storylines)

– the game is already designed with its rules as per the creator’s choices

– ⁠we choose the character we wish to play before the game begins (which represents our destiny)

– ⁠we can play the game in many different ways however some ways help us finish the game successfully and efficiently (which represents swadharma)

– ⁠some rules of the game cannot be violated even if we want (which represents natural laws of physics)

– ⁠some rules of the game can be violated but doing so incurs penalty on our score (which are like the laws of society, morality, ethics, and represents dharma)

– ⁠to achieve yoga, one needs to achieve moksha

– ⁠in pursuit of moksha while following dharma, one still has basic needs that need to be satisfied (hence, artha) and basic wants that should be satisfied to ensure that our unconscious mind stays aligned with our intent (hence, kama)

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• Meerabai’s Sadhana was one of total surrender (Nishkam Sadhana), which ultimately led to her dissolution into Paramatma (the Supreme Soul).
• Swami Vivekananda, on the other hand, followed Sakam Sadhana, as his work was driven by a purpose. Because of this, he created karmic seeds, meaning there is a possibility that he has either reincarnated or will return to balance out that karma.

Now, I have a few questions:

1. What about mothers who never ask for anything for themselves but do sadhana for their children’s well-being or family’s peace?

• Would that still be considered Sakam Sadhana?
• Even though their intent is selfless, are they still creating karmic seeds that would bring them back into the cycle of birth and rebirth?

2. What about empaths, healers, or yogis who do sadhana for world peace?

• If their practice is for the collective and not for themselves, does it still count as Sakam Sadhana?
• If so, does that mean they are also making a free-will choice to accumulate karma?
• What if many of them cannot bear to see the world suffer, and surrendering completely feels like ignoring the other’s pain. So, they engage in Sakam Sadhana instead.
• But if their intention is purely for the well-being of others, why wouldn’t Shakti spare them from accumulating karma?
• Or is this Shakti’s way of teaching them the ultimate lesson of total surrender with awareness & bliss?

If that’s the case, does it mean we will continue to be tested by Shakti until we learn to surrender completely, with total bliss?  If surrender in pain she will still continue to test?

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The energy or Parmatman in a female body/male body/ intersex body would have a different flavour to it, right?

How does the energy affect the different anatomies and how does the energy make use of the different anatomies for its expression?

Please share your views and perspective on this. Thank you💗🙏🏽