Ramakrishna said...I want to taste sugar, not be sugar..

[Shivani Devi]

Originally Posted by Miss Hepburn

''I want to taste sugar not be sugar.''

I really relate to this.

I want to feel God, not "be" God.

Any comments?

Even Adi Shankarachyara suffered from this affliction, the greatest Advaitin who ever lived...and who also wrote some of the most beautiful and loving hymns to Lord Shiva and Divine Mother ever!

I wondered how that could even be possible....

Until I realised it was possible to 'taste sugar' and 'be sugar' simultaneously and one didn't necessarily preclude or 'cancel out' the other.

'Feeling' and 'being' are the same thing.

Gone are the times when I felt my love for Shiva without beginning nor end...it was everywhere...it was everything.

Sometimes it just alternated briefly between the experience of 'believing' and the experience of 'knowing'.

It has been many years since I have felt anything like that, though. Material demands and problems over the past 10 years or so has meant I haven't had the time to do as much sadhana, and Lord Shiva only gets a very brief 'look-in' every Monday.

I really miss the connection I once had...which I probably disconnected myself...I'd really like to find that again, because I miss Lord Shiva and those feelings I once had...but I also understand this means that I still love Him.

Aum Namah Shivaya

[jimrich]

Originally Posted by Miss Hepburn

''I want to taste sugar not be sugar.''

I really relate to this.

I want to feel God, not "be" God.

Any comments?

From what i've read, all is god so being or tasting all happens in, by and of god or Supreme Intelligence (to use just two possible labels for the Infinite Being).
IMO, it really doesn't matter how I experience life since I believe there is only god or the Absolute who is doing and being the experience. I could not prove any of this so, its mostly a concept of mine, for now.

[kris]

Originally Posted by Miss Hepburn

''I want to taste sugar not be sugar.''

I really relate to this.

I want to feel God, not "be" God.

Any comments?

What you are is what matters. What you want not important.

[hariTheWinner]

To taste means to experience, to experience an experiencer is needed right? When there is an experiencer there is duality? Why did Jesus said me and my father are one? Do you want to taste sugar? like you experience any other mundane everyday sensual experience? There is only one way, find out you are the sugar else like any other experience you will taste it, fades out and suffer for rest of the life to have it again. Forget Ramakrishna NOW only YOU is EVERYTHING, give attention to it.

This bloody expression is just an yearning to be with him? nothing else. Love, Mad Love.

[Miss Hepburn]

Originally Posted by hariTheWinner

Forget Ramakrishna NOW only YOU are EVERYTHING,
give attention to it.

Ramakrishna seemed to love loving. It's part of the play,
the Cosmic Dance. I certainly have no issue with it.

Meher Baba said it well...To attain union is so impossibly difficult
because it is impossible to become what you already are.
Union is nothing other than knowledge of oneself as the Only One.

Thank you for your comment...that is what the thread is for.

I guess I missed some comments last month, sorry...thank you all....great posts.

[Shivani Devi]

Namaste.

No matter where I go on Spiritual Forums, I always find myself back here, in the Hindu section commenting on a thread about Advaita Vedanta. Funny that. =)

As you all may/not be aware, through some kind of mishap or misadventure, I have been granted the 'siddhi' of being able to commune with a 'higher intelligence' (well, higher than my own, anyway) that resides in an astral world beyond my own sphere of worldly consciousness or conscious thought.

I can't prove it to another person, when I can't even prove it to myself, but somehow that means nothing whatsoever.

Is it Shiva Bhagawan? That would be me dreaming (and a very beautiful one, it would be, too and if I say anything more than that, you can forget about me typing for a while) but that's not it. I know it's a positive and loving energy, despite it being 'evil' in some way and that sorta sounds familiar to a certain deity I know.

Anyway, all that I need to remember about 'tasting sugar' and 'being sugar' is that it's just as sweet, either way because, I'm starting to feel what it's like to say 'neti neti' to those long-held and stubborn beliefs I refuse to let go of while I realise that total nihilism of the ego is also in no way 'selective' here and if one experience, no matter how nice it is, has to give way to a greater one, then they all must.

It's a very painful lesson to learn, but a necessary one for me.

Aum Namah Shivaya

[Vinayaka]

If you taste enough sugar, you will become sugar. Still, you pretty much have to start at tasting.

[Shivani Devi]

I could explore that 'Upanishadic' side of me which sorta goes; "sugar? just who is talking about sugar?" OR

I could switch over to my 'Tantric' side and go "The 'tasting' is all in the 'being" OR

I could incorporate my 'Bhakti' side and say "the 'being' is all in the tasting" OR

I could incorporate all three and go "Forget the sugar, I've got an unlimited supply of honey, want some"?

Jai Kali Ma!!!

[Miss Hepburn]

Originally Posted by Vinayaka

If you taste enough sugar, you will become sugar.
Still, you pretty much have to start at tasting.

Oh, that is an astute take.
Good one.

Reminds of:
If you spend time with trash you start to smell like trash.
If you spend time with roses you begin to smell like roses...
Regarding spending time with holy company.

[Shivani Devi]

Namaste.

Now I am wondering if this was before or after his guru gave him an 'imaginary sword' to kill Mother Kali with.

The state of divine rapture is totally indescribable...the body writhes in exquisite torment, heart is lodged firmly in the throat...body trembles uncontrollably..one feels like they're going to drown in a sea of tears...and that's only the start of it.

It's hard to even conceptualise how any state can beat it...there's no conceptualising involved anyway...no thinking...pure feels man!

However, after spending a couple of days chatting with our Buddhist cousins, I'd rather taste sugar than be sugar any day as well.

Aum Namah Shivaya