*Vedanta teaches:

1. Who are you - as the whole personality?

*Each human personality is composed of four aspects:

a. The spirit b. The body c. the mind d. the intellect

a. The spirit is Consciousness (God – Omniscient, Omnipotent, Omnipresent). I will share a metaphoric example later to make sense.

b. The body is most solid matter – made up of five base elements (earth, water, fire, air, space – in ascending order of subtlety).

c. The mind is a subtle equipment (a continuous flow of thoughts with volitions (due to pairs of opposites in all creation).

d. The intellect is a subtler equipment than the mind – serves as the ‘discerner’ – towards the decision making process.

Note: The body, the mind and the intellect have variable quotients of three basic natural qualities of SATTVA, RAJAS, TAMAS (see chart attached).

So, generally when asked, ‘Who are you’, one describes:

The body – I am tall/short; I am slim/fat/fit/unfit; ugly/beautiful…(height, weight, appearance, etc.),

The mind – I am happy, pleased, sad, mad, upset, well, unwell, etc.(emotional state. E-motion = energy in motion) when one feels a situation through any of the five organs of perception – (1. Eyes, 2. Ears 3. Nose 4. Mouth 5. Skin)

The intellect – I am brilliant/smart; clever/dumb; educated/highly intellectual or scholarly, ignorant, etc. (abilities and proficiencies or inabilities and deficiencies).

The soul – It is within this personality as jeeva, etc.

*Vedanta teaches that though seemingly encased within each living being we are Alpervasive Consciousness – Atman – the enlivening flame of life enabling the Body-Mind-Intellect equipment of the personality to remain animated and functional. **MORE TO FOLLOW.

2. Describe God (in any manner you believe in - if you do; if you do not, please explain the creation of self, the world and the creator of both.

*God by any name is simply the al-pervasive, omniscient, omnipotent Consciousness – the enlivening light that animates all beings within all creation – in all innumerable cosmoses.

(Sat, Chit, Ananda swaroopa, nitya, shuddha, Buddha, mukta swaroopa = of the nature of existence, consciousness, bliss – perpetual, (indescribable/indiscernible/imperceptible) pure, intelligence, expansive). ** MORE TO FOLLOW.

3a.What is life, what death?

*Life is as described above – unalloyed presence of Consciousness within and without all creation – not the earthlings’ limited existence on the Earth plane.

*Death of the body aspect of personality is comparable as follows:

An electronic equipment’s one time charged battery runs out and must be discarded as unusable. For eco-friendly ones, the battery must be recycled. Similarly, the body is one time charged battery that has its life-span. When it runs out of power, it must be destroyed.

The rest of the personality (mind-intellect-bliss sheaths) carried forward per the cosmic immaculate laws. * MORE TO FOLLOW.

3b. What is the mind-intellect equipment?

The mind-intellect is dual function subtle equipment.

The mind is a continuous flow of thoughts accompanied with volitions (do/not do, go/not go, etc.)…

The thoughts simply run – like the ‘screen saver’; is to be monitored and managed by the intellect. The intellect is to function as the supervisor, keeping the mind constructively occupied with positive, wholesome activities or else the mind will be like a wild monkey, causing mischief – hence the adage: AN IDLE MIND IS A DEVIL’S WORKSHOP.

A spiritual seeker’s daily life pre-occupation should be to keep the mind (thoughts) positive and pure and the intellect ever alert, sharp and vigilant knowing that all perceptive experiences of the worldly life are a series of ‘power point presentation’ or at

times interwoven series within series of movies and dramas played out by us playing multiple roles! *MORE TO FOLLOW.

4. What is happiness?

*To all living beings fulfillments of the hunger, thirst, sex, etc. is happiness. Most human beings consider momentary pleasure and joy as happiness. Vedanta teaches that our inherent nature as Consciousness is bliss – unalloyed joy. Since that is so, we crave to be in bliss always. Not knowing how to, we seek that through the application of the body, the mind and the intellect either while living in the past or by being extroverted, using the external sources within the individual, familial, communal, societal and global realms. *MORE TO FOLLOW

5. What is the unique difference between human and other living beings?

*All living beings on this earth function through pre-programmed, instincts. Due to collective and shared intellect these beings simply exist, grow, survive and die – per the Creator’s pre-program therein. Human beings are distinct. They are the most evolved species among the earthlings and have ‘earned’ individuated intellect. That is how a keen learner observes that animals function with herd mentality, birds too fly in flocks, ants function collectively lead by a leading queen, etc. Obviously even among the human species are those with base animal instincts and hence the ‘herd’ mentality! *MORE TO FOLLOW

6a. What are common aspects in all beings? * The common aspects among all earthlings:

Made up of varied quotients of the base five elements (earth, water, fire, air, space).

Enlivened due to presence of Consciousness.

Survival instinct.

Five base need fulfillments: Eat, sleep, pro-create, excrete, mobility (locomotion).

Temporariness. *MORE TO FOLLOW

6b. What are common aspects among all human beings?

*The common aspects among all human beings – in general:

Five organs of action (arms, legs, mouth, organ procreation, organ excretion).

Fiver organs of perception (eyes, ears, nose, mouth, skin).

Mind, and intellect.

Desire for survival and happiness. *MORE TO FOLLOW