From: dkarma@pro-nbs.acme.fred.org (Druta Karma)
Newsgroups: soc.religion.eastern
Subject: Re: Enlightened Beings
Date: 27 Sep 1992 00:43:34 -0700
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>>In article <1992Sep21.174725.1182@sandman.uucp> farris@ruhets.rutgers.edu (Lorenzo Farris) writes:
>>>. . .My own angst comes in when I don't see a uniform circle of
>>>enlightened beings, each recognizing the others.  I see instead this
>>>mishmash, where the supposed enlightened ones don't all agree on who
>>>is enlightened, saying the other is mistaken in this or that way, and
>>>so I can't trust any of them to be telling the whole truth. 
>

In Bhagavad-gita, Arjuna says: "O Krishna, what are the symptoms of one whose
consicousness is thus merged in transcendence? How does he speak, and what is
his language? How does he sit, and how does he walk?"

The Supreme Personality of Godhead said: "O Partha [Arjuna], when a man gives
up all varieties of desire for sense gratification, which arise from mental
concoction, and when his mind, thus purified, finds satisfaction in the self
alone, then he is said to be in pure transcendental consciousness. One who is
not disturbed in mind even amidst the three fold miseries or elated when there
is happiness, and who is free from attachment, fear, and anger, is called a
sage of steady mind. In the material world, one who is unaffected by whatever
good or evil he may obtain, neither praising it nor despising it, is firmly
fixed in perfect knowledge. One who is able to withdraw his senses from sense
objects, as the tortoise draws its limbs within the shell, is firmly fixed in
perfect consciousness. The embodied soul may be restricted from sense
enjoyment, though the taste for sense objects remains. But, ceasing such
engagements by experiencing a higher taste, he is fixed in consciousness.

"The senses are so strong and impetuous, O 
Arjuna, that they forcibly carry away the mind even of a man of discrimination
who is endeavoring to control them. One who restrains his senses, keeping them
under full control, and fixes his intelligence upon Me, is known as a man of
steady intelligence. While contemplating the objects of the senses, a person
develops attachment for them, and from such attachment lust develops, and from
lust anger arises. From anger, complete delusion arises, and from delusion
bewilderment of memory. When memory is bewildered, intelligence is lost, and
when intelligence is lost one falls down again into the material pool. But a
person free from all attachment and aversion and able to control his senses
through regulative principles of freedom can obtain the complete mercy of the
Lord. For one thus satisfied, the threefold miseries of material existence
exist no longer; in such satisfied consciousness, one's intelligence is soon
well established.

"One who is not connected with the Supreme can have neither transcendental
intelligence nor a steady mind, without which there is no possibility of
peace. And how can there be any happiness without peace? 

"As a boat on the water is swept away by a strong wind, even one of the
roaming senses on which the mind focuses can carry away a man's intelligence.
Therefore, O mighty-armed, one whose senses are restrained from their objects
is certainly of steady intelligence. What is night for all beings is the time
of awakening for the self-controlled; and the time of awakening for all beings
is night for the introspective sage. 

"A person who is not disturbed by the incessant flow of desires--that enter
like rivers into the ocean, which is ever being filled but is always
still--can alone achieve peace, and not the man who strives to satisfy such
desires. A person who has given up all desires for sense gratification, who
lives free from desires, who has given up all sense of proprietorship and is
devoid of false ego--he alone can attain real peace.

"That is the way of the spiritual and godly life, after attaining which a man
is not bewildered. If one is thus situated even at the hour of death, one can
enter into the kingdom of God."

Hopefully, this description of an enlightened person (man or woman) may prove
useful.

Druta Karma
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