Viveka – The Super Power of Objective Thinking

The theme for my blogs from November has been about making the coming days (2023) beautiful. We saw why we need to Become Deep, set steps towards INTENTional Living, Get ourselves a Headstart and Be like a Bug & move towards the light. Or in other words, let these be part of your theme for the year 2023.

These are all the tools and weapons you’ll require to live a life that you’re happy about in both the present and in the long run.

Another very crucial tool is Viveka. It is so crucial that, without it, you cannot use the other tools I’ve mentioned. Even if you use it, it’d be a waste of effort, or worse, you may get into a vicious cycle of trauma that originated from ignorance. Vaguely translated, Viveka means discrimination. It is the power of our minds to dissect anything and gain knowledge from it. It is the power of objective thinking.

All I’m doing when I’m writing these blogs, or my books, is engaging that superpower Viveka. I’ve already talked about thinking and how not thinking has become the Biggest Problem for Humanity.

Viveka is one of the tools, that is more accessible to us that can even give us spiritual progress. Especially in this modern era, youngsters are finding it hard to practice the path of Bhakthi. And Karma, Kriya, or Raja yoga path – most youngsters haven’t even got the freedom from their family, the institution they belong to, or the system in general, to practice that.

Jnana is way more accessible if and only if they can understand and learn to use their Viveka – objective thinking. However, I’m not saying it comes easily to everyone. In fact, since that is the opposite, we have this world dominated by ignorant minds, like you & me:)

Objective thinking is not easy because we all tend to think subjective to our emotions & personalities. Now, I’m not saying emotion is bad. In fact, emotions can be great indicators or pointers of where we need to look with the eyes of Viveka, to explore and grow in the awareness timeline.

But when we think, strongly influenced & held by our assumptions, & emotions, we’ll get trapped in a MAYA – delusion. Many times, such powerful delusions make you feel as though you have practiced objective thinking and are still trapped in a specific problem. Or even worse, it may make you feel like, the cause of your suffering itself is that you know something.

That can never be the case. There can be suffering & pain only when there’s ignorance. Knowing the truth can never lead to suffering & pain. It is knowing half-truths, i.e when there is an adulteration of ignorance in it.

I’ve seen myself and many people, struggle so much because of such half-truths and truths they think they’ve realized but their actions and lifestyle in general convey the opposite.

There’s a difference between the acknowledgment of truth and actual realization. And confusion between those two can cause a lot of suffering and pain. What one gets through practicing Viveka, is pure realization.

You actually move in the awareness timeline, when you practice Viveka.

How to practice Viveka? These pointers may help you in practicing Viveka:

1. Observe. Everything from what you hear from & see in the world to what you hear & see within. Talk less, see & listen more. If you’re someone who travels at least once a year to various houses in your village, you can notice that the people who listen more and ask questions about your lifestyle, than bragging about themselves, are living a more fulfilled and progressing life.
2. Pre-requisite data. How can we learn anything without having a database that can relate to the new information you feed in? This is why consumption is very much essential. Shravana (consumption of Knowledge), Manana (Contemplation), and Nidhidhyasana (Meditating upon the truth realized) are the processes that lead to awareness/realization.  To understand and analyze anything we are observing, we need pre-requisite data.
3. All thoughts are assumptions. I mean, do not affix any thought or an idea, the permanent state of being true. And hence,
4. Question Everything. Repeatedly. To ensure you are not in a delusion. Question even the assumptions you’ve already assumed to be true.
5. Planes of Reality. You must know that there can exist planes of reality. That means you must understand that there can be truth on both sides of viewpoints, and you must realize the plane at which each truth is originating.
6. Tharka vs Debate. Both are probably the same. But what I wanted to convey is to discuss or debate for the sake of finding the truth, not for the sake of debating. I see most amateur seekers fall into this trap of debating for the sake of proving their point. Even though there isn’t even anything contradictory to debate on.

Well, to be honest, I cannot teach you the art of practicing Viveka, through these one-way connected blogs, it can be taught well, in real-time, specific to your lifestyle and problems. Practicing Viveka is a very practical skill and art that cannot be taught entirely through one-way communications like blogs, podcasts, or books. One can only be pointed towards and some key pointers suggested. I hope through this blog I could do that for you.

Thank You

Sanath Kumar Naibhi