[Jyotir]

Hi starnight1,

Giving up, despair is not the answer, nor is it some mysteriously efficacious formula for success.
In the physical universe work is unavoidable, so giving up is a debilitating and ultimately impossible avoidance of responsibility.
Rather, yoga in the true sense deals with the mastery of life energy toward the fulfillment of divine purpose for each individual.

Suggest that you read about Karma Yoga.
Swami Vivekananda or Sri Aurobindo are good resources for that subject.

The reason that suggestion is given is because Karma Yoga deals with the divine Will in the dynamic physical aspect of existence, and in that regard, Aurobindo’s Integral Yoga (see 'The Synthesis of Yoga') may be more helpful for the following reasons.

Oneness is easier to imagine as static and undifferentiated, and that is the traditional preference for non-duality. However, Oneness is also extant in-and-of the differentiated multiplicity of Nature just the same. But in that form it is more difficult to reckon with, especially in the current era, and thus can become confusing, even stultifying to some aspirants so focused.

It is within that field of differentiation - the physical interactive interdependent unity - where Karma Yoga can be a significant and useful augmentation to the far-flung abstractions of Advaita - which can easily become confusing to aspirants who cannot in this age afford the luxury of living in isolation on a rural mountain-side in a loincloth - but must live and work in densely populated urban environments and deal daily and momentarily with pressing practical issues of life.

In this era, the emerging spiritual aspiration can be fulfilled more completely (and less conflicted or confusingly) by the mutual augmentation of the integral approach.



~ J