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Vedantic View on the Law of Attraction by Chitra Sukhu

Posted by Chitra Sukhu on February 25, 2009 at 12:05am
You are what your deep driving desire is.As your desire is, so your will. As your will is,So your deed. As your deed is, so is your destiny.(Brihadaranyaka Upanishad IV.5)Most of us are familiar with the law of attraction. It has been debated around the world and put into practice by many. There have even been whole workshops devoted to just this law and we’ve found that it works for some, but not others. Why is this so?A law is absolute. If it is a law, it should work for everyone. Right? There is more to this law than meets the physical eye of course. The debate has only touched upon the law, focusing more on the objects of desire and how to attain these objects than the subject who perceives and makes life happen. To fully understand the law of attraction, we need to understand its origin. That origin begins and ends with you. The world lives in us and is perceived by a body -mind system we have created.We have always been creators, and we continue to create every day of our lives. Our mind is the tool we use to paint the world, but most of us don’t have full control of our brushes. Most of us live at the level of the body- mind system, believing that is who we are. We allow this system to run the show. We lose sight of the fact that the body - mind body system is our tool, a tool of our own making; a tool that allows us to create and live in this world as we travel through life having the experiences we so want to have.We’ve become lost along the way, the human mind regularly moves from one desire to another, trying to find fulfillment, trying to regain our original state of bliss. We forget that is who we are. We are bliss itself. We are Sat Chit Ananda, existence, knowledge, and bliss absolute. This is our true nature, for we are powerful beings living in a world we have created and surrounded by other parts of ourselves that do reflect ourselves back to us.At any moment, we can take the reins and run the show. We are all sleeping, but we don’t know we are until we wake up. So, as we take on the body- mind system, we forget our true nature. We become what our deep driving desire is. Desire is the cause, and birth is the effect. This world of duality is sustained by the law of cause and effect, the law of karma.Once we accept our birth, countless desires are born, as we move away from the true self and into the world. These desires will be fulfilled in this lifetime or a future lifetime… that is the law. This process of birth continues until all desires are exhausted. These desires become exhausted, as we try on different roles, achieve our goals, and attain the objects we seek, bringing us to the realization after each desire is met, we are still no closer to the state of eternal bliss.It is a state we catch glimpses of as we achieve a goal, but it is a temporary bliss, it never lasts. We then look in a different direction, inward. We start to ask ourselves the bigger questions of life, like who am I? What is the purpose of this life? Where do I fit into the scheme of things? We start to desire to know the Self and awaken to our original state, as we know all desires are fulfilled in this lifetime or future lifetimes.The universe conspires to teach you about the self. It draws you into life situations that will satisfy your desires. A friend might bring you along to a yoga class. You might meet someone who is involved in an ashram and visit later that month. A guru might be there who speaks to you. Indeed, out- of- nowhere situations will present itself to you, so you may learn more about the Self, because your desire to know the Self has been awakened, and the universe is answering that call.The universe always answers. However, our mind often becomes scattered, running in different directions, which is why our life reflects chaos. When all desires cease, even the basic desire to know the Self, we are able to merge with the supreme Self. Desire is what veils the Self and sustains the illusion, allowing the Self to experience its creation.What is your deep driving desire? We seem only to know the immediate desires that surface when we are in constant contact with the world. Most of these desires are material ones... I desire to be rich, I want a huge mansion, a fancy sports car and more… but what is the underlying goal of all these desires? We think that when we have many material objects, we will be happy, but when we get them, we realize they bring only a temporary happiness that does not last. True happiness is spiritual in nature, not material.You will never find permanent happiness in the objects of the world; the only place to find happiness is within yourself. Schopenhauer says “It is difficult to find happiness within oneself, but it is impossible to find it anywhere else.” You need to look within to the subject that perceives the object; this is where your focus needs to be. The subject is the perceiver, the part of us that is eternally happy and satisfied; it cares not about material gain or the lack of it.When the perceiver becomes our internal reference point, our anchor, we are always happy and satisfied. The mind becomes calm, yet able to move within the world as a productive creator of life. Spiritual evolution is marked not by your knowledge of the scriptures or how much you are able to renounce, but by stability of the mind. When the mind becomes stable, it allows you to move in the world as a conscious creator, not a victim of circumstance. We start to use the mind as a tool to create the world around us. We use our intellect to make evolutionary choices, and we keep the body healthy, so we can use this birth to realize the “Self”, the ultimate goal of life.At the core of our being, we are actually whole, the Supreme Self, the Atman which is cloaked in the body- mind system. The Atman is what animates the body and allows it to perceive and act. It animates the mind and lets it feel and allows the intellect to think and contemplate. Yet, the type of perception, action, feeling, and thought that comes from the body- mind and intellect will depend on one’s inherent nature or vasanas. Your present vasanas set the pattern of your life, and only self-effort can modify or change that pattern. It is a choice only human beings have.Vasanas are unmanifested seeds of action that lie dormant as your potential nature. These seeds wait for the right environment before they will grow, and when that right environment presents, they take root and grow into the proper manifestation. Your vasanas come from and are a result of the past. Your past actions produce your present vasanas, and your present vasanas produce further actions. This cycle continues until all desires are exhausted. When all desires cease, we merge with the Supreme Self. Here we exist in eternal bliss. It is the state we are actively searching for in the world. It is the ultimate goal of human life. That state is here within us; there is no need to search outside, for we carry it everywhere we go.But how do we find this bliss? With all the desires that keep bubbling up to the surface of the mind, how is it possible not to have desires? But let’s not go down that path of thinking yet, for most of us are not ready for the ultimate goal. We still desire many objects of the world, which is why the law of attraction is so attractive... Many of us still like the play. So let’s play with the world as a conscious creator.The whole universe that springs forth from the Supreme Self also resides in you, for you are a creator. When you created this world, you spoke its language and told it what you wanted it to do and be for you. You received just what you asked for, but to fully experience the creation, you had to lose yourself in it, forget how powerful you were. You are now asking to become a full participant in your life story, and the universe is listening.We can all speak the language of the universe. We do so every day; its language is vibration. When you raise your vibration, the universe matches it and sends it back with an experience that matches the vibration. When you lower your vibration, the universe does the same; it does not discriminate. So how do you raise and lower your vibration? With your thoughts… where do your thoughts come from? Your mind.Here it gets tricky because the mind is a product of your vasanas, and your vasanas are the primary cause or source of desire, thought, and action. This is why when you hold a thought about what you think you want, other thoughts combat that thought because it might not be in line with your inherent nature. That’s not to say that the law of attraction does not work. What I am saying here is that we have to master a lot more than your thoughts because those thoughts won’t stay in line with your desire if the desire is not in harmony with your inherent nature.A person who is an environmental activist will not wake up one day and wish for more of anything that might ruin our earth. He has awakened to his purpose, now anything he desires from this place will manifest easily as he is in harmony with his higher calling. It would then be against his inherent nature to wish for a gas guzzling car etc... The same is true of us. If what we wish for is something that is not in line with our inherent nature that something will not manifest. Our inner dialogue will be at war with what we wish for. You see our desire has to be believable to ourselves before the universe, our source of material abundance, can believe it and provide you with it.Most of us are not sure what our inherent nature is because we don’t really reflect or contemplate the Self. We really need to look at who we are, or more accurately we need to look at who this person is that we’ve created. We need to look at our ego or created self and analyze it to see what desires we can safely absorb and play with in our lives. Then we can move forward and manifest our life to be in line with our inherent nature. We can play in this world where we exist and be a conscious creator of life. We are powerful beings enveloped in this body – mind system, live from your true self and the world becomes your playground.
Tags: attraction, chitra, law, of, sukhu, vedanta
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Comments

  • Claudia March 23, 2009 at 3:31am
    Thanks for sharing Chitra, and Jacob, great reading and remembering!
  • Jacob February 26, 2009 at 2:48pm
    Clap clap clap!!!! Bravo!!!!! Just the kind of answer I should have expected from you,"I am happy to see that you were able to get through this long article and still have the energy to write such an astute observation". Hehehe in fact the reading is not thorough enough Ive got to come back and read again and again. I am astounded at the wisdom of one as young as you. Truly the selfless desire is one with that of the universe or of its creator if you will. As God would surely say "Lokah samastah sukhino bhavantu" May all beings be well. BTW thanks for being my friend.
  • Chitra Sukhu February 25, 2009 at 11:35pm
    Hello Jacob thank you for your input, I enjoy and encourage dialogue. I am happy to see that you were able to get through this long article and still have the energy to write such an astute observation.

    Yes, desire and action have a dual effect because we live in a world based on duality. This world sprung forth through Purusha and Prakriti the male and female energies, the opposites. So the creation of this world is based in duality. So if we want to play in this world we have to accept the laws of this world, one of those laws I speak about here is the law of attraction. Most people use this law selfishly, wanting and desiring objects, and those were the people I was speaking to here; People that ask the question “how come the law of attraction doesn’t work for me? If it is a law it should not discriminate”. Of course as we evolve, we realize that everything in this world and of this world eventually brings pain, but that can only be understood through experience. When I speak about becoming a conscious creator that is the first step in becoming aware of your power, when you are aware you start to wake up a little you start to observe your intentions your desires and you also observe the outcome. In the outcome you sense the dissatisfaction that still remains which propels you to wake up a little more forcing you to look in a different direction inward. In this place of stillness and silence we realize that nothing in the material world will bring us eternal happiness or peace. We then wake up fully and in this place of stillness and silence there is joy, and we realize this is where we wish to reside. Then the desire is awakened in us to ascend to become enlightened beings then there is no choice… we have to become enlightened beings… this desire consumes us and we then place our desire on the supreme self the atman… that becomes our goal. We now think and act from the place of the atman, not the ego self… and our actions and intentions become selfless. We are now acting for the good of mankind not for selfish reasons. The karma now is not yours; you don't have to live with the result of your actions. You become an instrument through which the universe flows through; you doing its will for the higher good of the universe. We live the rest of our life this way exhausting the Prarabdha karma but not accruing anymore karma… So in this way we use desire to help us get out of this cycle of birth and death. Desire is what brought us in and it is what will take us out.

    So taking it back to the here and now… if we make choices for selfish reasons we are subject to the immediate effect as well as the equal and opposite effect. If we make choices that are pure and coming from a place of selflessness we are not subject to the dualistic nature of the world. We transcend the opposites by placing our intention and desire on doing whatever is for the highest good and not being attached to the outcome, thereby taking our ego self out of the equation.

    Sorry for what seems to be a long answer but there is a lot more that could be said about this I am trying to make it brief.
  • Jacob February 25, 2009 at 6:33pm
    "it allows you to move in the world as a conscious creator, not a victim of circumstance. We start to use the mind as a tool to create the world around us. We use our intellect to make evolutionary choices, and we keep the body healthy, so we can use this birth to realize the “Self”, the ultimate goal of life"
    Many pranams to you Chitraji, I hold you in very high respect, you speak and write like a master. I agree wholeheartedly to what you have written, however I have a doubt. My observation is that the mind moves in a wave pattern. Thoughts have peaks and valleys, so have desires, in sanskrit i think they are called sankalpa and vikalpa. Every thought desire and action has a dual effect, that of positive and negative, dividing itself into the pair of opposites that the so called reality is made up of. Any action that we do intending good, will have a bad effect attached somewhere, and vice versa. So the balance between the two in the totality of so called creation. Creation with thoughts and desires of a good nature will have a good effect, but also an equal and opposite one. When we use the mind as a tool to create isnt this what we do? create both sides of the coin? On a personal note, I used to practice asanas regularly from 1990 to 2000. I used to think that I would never be affected by any ailment of the spine cos thats what we work on. In 2000 I had a fall from my wall while gardening and injured my spine badly. It was an eyeopener for me as I was lying in total pain and disability for a few months. By 2004 I was and am back at asanas, but I would never predict any outcome for any of my actions based on my narrow perception. In the upanishad it is said that the wise never choose good or evil cos they know that if they choose one they will have to take the other. I have presented my observation, this is in no way in disharmony with what you have written but only an opinion.
  • Gregg Hill Gopal February 25, 2009 at 9:05am
    Chitra, Very Good. I look forward to more writings. Thanks for taking the time to sit down and give us your wisdom. Swami Vishnu said, if you have one desire hidden in the deepest part of your subconscious you must come back to Earth. He prayed everyday please God have mercy on me and don't let me come back. He hated being here but realized He had to work everyday as it was His Karma. He said, "The world for Him was a "Ball of Fire."
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