{"id":64,"date":"2014-05-19T11:07:25","date_gmt":"2014-05-19T11:07:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vishnushivamandir.org.au\/new\/?p=64"},"modified":"2014-05-19T11:07:25","modified_gmt":"2014-05-19T11:07:25","slug":"atman-or-divinity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vishnushivamandir.org.au\/new\/atman-or-divinity\/","title":{"rendered":"Atman or Divinity"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Yaavadvitto parjana saktaha Taavannija parivaro raktaha<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Paschaat Jeevati\u00a0 jarjara dehe, Vaartam kopina prachhati gehe<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><strong>Translation<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>As long as\u00a0 we are able to acquire wealth, our retinue will follow us. Afterwards, when our body is worn out, nobody will so much as speak to us in our own home.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><strong>Interpretation<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Shankara, in this verse, speaks about the transitory nature of wealth, name and fame. We command respect in our corresponding circles of influence as long as we are of use to those around. When our \u201cutility factor\u201d wanes, so does the respect we command.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Many of us acquire great wealth, name, fame, reputation and respect. We become CEOs, superlative athletes, great singers and seem to know all the \u201cright\u201d people. But when the titles are taken away from us or the process of time diminishes our abilities, fewer people seem to remember us anymore. But that is the nature of the world isn\u2019t it? One moment you will be hailed as a great leader of men, put on a pedestal, decorated and in the very same breath people will make you the villain of the piece.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>This is why Shankara asks us to temper the value we place on these frills of life. This is not to say that we must shun wealth and fame. In fact we must enjoy it while it we have it. But we must derive our sense of value and self-worth from something deeper and more permanent. We must find our worth from pursuing our goal of self-development and self-purification. Because the only thing that remains with us is are our spiritual assets which are gained through introspection, reflection and contemplation on the higher values of life.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>In the final analysis, wealth and fame are toys to be enjoyed. But there must always be the vision of that something beyond, of something more permanent, of the one thing that never leaves us. That Atman or Divinity within.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Yaavadvitto parjana saktaha Taavannija parivaro raktaha Paschaat Jeevati\u00a0 jarjara dehe, Vaartam kopina prachhati gehe \u00a0 Translation As long as\u00a0 we are able to acquire wealth, our retinue will follow us. Afterwards, when our body is worn out, nobody will so much as speak to us in our own home. \u00a0 Interpretation Shankara, in this verse, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-64","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-discourse"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vishnushivamandir.org.au\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vishnushivamandir.org.au\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vishnushivamandir.org.au\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vishnushivamandir.org.au\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vishnushivamandir.org.au\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=64"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/vishnushivamandir.org.au\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vishnushivamandir.org.au\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=64"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vishnushivamandir.org.au\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=64"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vishnushivamandir.org.au\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=64"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}