Tirtha Urban Om ~ Liberated True Nature and Anubhava Yoga

Advaita Vedanta is one of the most studied and most influential schools of classical Indian thought.

Traditional Advaita Vedanta centres on the study of the sruti especially the Principal Upanishads.
Advaita Vedanta believes that the knowledge of one’s true self or Atman is liberating.

The process of acquiring this knowledge entails realising that one’s True Self, the Atman, is essentially the same as Brahman.

This is achieved through what Sankara refers to as anubhava, immediate intuition.

Sankara contends that this direct awareness is construction-free, and not construction-filled.

A swami's name has a dual significance, representing the attainment of supreme bliss through a divine quality (i.e. love, wisdom, service, yoga), and through a deeply connected harmony with the infinite vastness of nature, expressed in one of the ten subdivision names:

Giri (mountain)

Puri (tract)

Bhāratī (land)

Vana (forest)

Āraṇya (forest)

Sagara (sea)

Āśrama (spiritual exertion)

Sarasvatī (wisdom of nature)

Tīrtha (place of pilgrimage)

Parvata (mountain).

A swami is not necessarily a yogi, although many swamis can and do practice yoga as a means of spiritual liberation; experienced swamis may also take disciples.

Love implies great freedom - not to do what you like.

But love comes only when the mind is very quiet, disinterested, not self-centred.

These are not ideals.

If you have no love, do what you will - go after all the gods on earth, do all the social activities, try to reform the poor, the politics, write books, write poems - you are a dead human being.

And without love your problems will increase, multiply endlessly. And with love, do what you will, there is no risk; there is no conflict.

Then love is the essence of virtue.

And a mind that is not in a state of love, is not a still mind at all.

And it is only the still mind that is freed from problems, and that knows the beauty of love and truth.⁠