Being in the World, Part One: the Story of Everybody's Life. Ontology, the science of Beingness, reveals deep insights about the nature of human life and experience. An ontological analysis of the human condition—our way of being—shows that our everyday social relations give us a particular kind of preoccupation with the world. This 'care about the world' involves us in a network of conditions and actions we do not choose, leading us away from our authentic self. 

Look up 'ontology'—not just in the dictionary, or not only in the dictionary, but also on Wikipedia and on some philosophy sites. Get some background. Ontology is not well understood, and there's a reason for that. It is omitted from the curriculum of all government-sponsored schools. Don't believe me? Look up John Taylor Gatto, and he'll give you the background on that, how the school system was designed, and why it was designed to be the way it is. They're trying to train up compliant factory workers. That's the program. So you get trained to be a factory slave for over twelve years of your life—and you never looked into the design philosophy of the institution that you spent your childhood in?

You need to remedy that.

Most of us are overwhelmed by the world in which we live. We find ourselves thrust—unasked, naked—into a context we do not understand; surrounded by people, societies, conditions and situations that we do not create or choose. Nevertheless, we must act to survive in a competitive environment that is all too often opaque and baffling, and we will be held accountable for our actions.

In other words, it's the Catch-22 of material existence. Here we are born into a world that is beyond us, yet we have to choose. And we find ourselves in so many situations that we don't agree with, we don't like, and we maybe don't even understand. Yet we have to choose and act on our choices. And we will be held accountable; we will be held responsible.

We find ourselves vacillating between mute acceptance and blind rebellion. Just when we think we understand the game, someone changes the rules. Stricken by uncertainty, we chase admiration, love and sense enjoyment. Sometimes we succeed, but far more often it inexplicably disappears, or we find ourselves betrayed.

Now, isn't this the story of everybody's life? Certainly the story of mine and of everyone I know. But there's something beyond this. There's something higher than this, and you can find it within yourself, if you know where to look.

That's what this series is about: a way of looking at life that allows you to make it meaningful—just the way it is, without changing anything except your point of view.

What is wrong? Why do we suffer? Is there an exit? A relief? A cure? What is wrong is that we are caught in a trap of our own manufacture, like a caterpillar in a pupa. Unfortunately, we do not recall how we wove ourselves into this confining karmic matrix. If we do not learn the structure of the trap, we cannot release ourselves, and we die. If we can understand how we are caught, we can unravel the threads and break free—a butterfly.

Download the Śrīmad Devī Bhāgavatam Part 1, Skandhas 1-5: https://archive.org/details/srimaddevibhagavatampart1/page/n365 The Vedas said: ’Obeisance to the Devī! to Mahā-māyā, the Auspicious One, the Creatrix of the Universe! We bow down to Thee who is beyond the guṇas, the Ruler of all Beings! O Mother! Thou givest to Śaṅkara even His desires. Thou art the receptacle of all things; Thou art the prāṇa of all the living beings; Thou art buddhi (intelligence), Lakṣmī (wealth), śobhā (beauty), kśamā (forgiveness), śānti (peace), śraddhā (faith), medhā (intellect), dhṛti (fortitude), and smṛti (recollection). 55. Thou art the bindu (the dot signifying the nasal termination ṁ) over the prāṇava (āūṁ) and thou art of the nature of the crescent moon; Thou art Gāyatrī, Thou art vyāhṛti (the invocations of the names of the seven planetary systems: bhūḥ, bhuvaḥ, svaḥ, mahaḥ, janaḥ, tapaḥ and satya); Thou art Jayā and Vijayā (guards of the gates of Vaikuṇṭhaloka), dhātri (the support), lajjā (modesty), kīrti (fame), icchā (will) and dayā (mercy) in all beings. 56-57. O Mother! Thou art the merciful Mother of the three worlds; Thou art the adorable auspicious vidyā (knowledge) benefitting all the lokas; Thou destroyest the Universe and Thou skilfully residest hidden in the bīja-mantras. Therefore we are praising Thee. O Mother! Brahmā, Viṣṇu, Maheśvara, Indra, Sūrya, Fire, Sarasvatī and other Regents of the Universe are all Thy creation; so none of them is superior to Thee. Thou art the Mother of all the things, moving and non-moving.

Download the Śrīmad Devī Bhāgavatam Part 1, Skandhas 1-5: https://archive.org/details/srimaddevibhagavatampart1/page/n365 At this juncture, seeing Śiva and the other Devas crying, Bṛhaspati, supremely versed in the Vedas, consoled them thus: ’O highly fortunate one! what use there will be in thus crying and repenting? You ought now to consider the means that you should adopt to redress your calamities. O Lord of the Devas! Fate and one’s own exertion and intelligence are equal; if the success comes not through Fate (Luck or chance) one is certainly to show one’s prowess and merit.’ 42-46. Indra said: ’Fie to your exertion when before our eyes, the head of Bhagavān Viṣṇu Himself has been carried off! Fie, Fie to your prowess and intelligence! Fate is, in my opinion, supreme.’ Brahmā said: ’Whatever auspicious or inauspicious is ordained by Daiva (Fate), everyone must bear that; no one can go beyond the Daiva. When one has taken up a body, one must experience pleasure and pain; there is no manner of doubt in this. See, in long-past days, by the irony of Fate, Śambhu severed my head; His generative organ, too, dropped down through curse. Similarly Hari’s head has, today, fallen into the salt ocean. By the influence of time, Indra, the Lord of Saci, had thousand genital marks over his body, was expelled from Heaven and had to live in the Mānasarovar in the lotuses and had to suffer many other miseries. 47-50. O Glorious ones! When such personages have suffered pains, then who else is there in the world that dues not suffer! So you all cease sorrows and meditate on the Eternal Mahā-māyā; who is the Mother of all, who is supporter of all, who is of the nature of brahmavidyā (the Supreme Knowledge) and who is beyond the guṇas, who is the Prime Prākriti, and who pervades the three lokas, the whole universe, moving and unmoving; She will dispense our welfare.’

Download the Śrīmad Devī Bhāgavatam Part 1, Skandhas 1-5: https://archive.org/details/srimaddevibhagavatampart1/page/n365 1-4. The Ṛṣis said: “O Sūta! Our minds are merged in the sea of doubt, hearing this your most wonderful saying, surpising to the whole world. The head of Janārdan Mādhava, the Lord of all, was severed from His body! And He was afterwards known as Hayagrīva, the horse-faced! Oh! what more wonder can there be than this? Whom the Vedas even praise, Whom all the Devas rest on, Who is the Cause of all causes, the ādi-deva Jagannāth (the Lord of the universe), Oh! how is it that His head came to be severed! O highly intelligent one! Describe all this to us in detail.” 5-9. Sūta said: “O Munis! Hear all attentively the glorious deeds of the supremely energetic Viṣṇu, the Deva of the Devas. Once on a time the eternal Deva Janārdana became tired after the terrible continuous battle for ten thousand years. After this the Lord Nārāyaṇa seated Himself in padmāsana in some lovely place on a level plot of ground; and placing his head on the front of his bow with the bow strung and placed erect on the ground, fell fast asleep. Viṣṇu, the Lord of Ramā, was exceedingly tired and thus he fell soon into deep sleep. At this time Indra and the other Devas, with Brahmā and Maheṣa, began a sacrifice. 10-13. Then they, for the sake of success, went to the region of Vaikuṇṭha to meet with the Deva Janārdana, the Lord of sacrifices. There the Devas, not finding Viṣṇu, came to know by dhyāna (meditation) where Bhagavān Viṣṇu was staying, and thither they went. They saw that the Lord Viṣṇu, the Deva of the Devas was lying unconscious, being under the arms of yoga-nidrā. Therefore they took their seats there. Seeing the Lord of the universe asleep, Brahmā, Rudra and the other Devas became anxious. 14-18. Indra then addressed the Devas: ’O best of the Suras! Now what is to be done? How shall we rouse Bhagavān from His sleep? Now think of the means by which this can be effected.’ Hearing Indra’s words Śambhu said: ’O good Devas! Now we must finish our sacrificial work. But if the sleep of Bhagavān be disturbed, He would get angry.’ Hearing Śaṅkara’s words, Paramesthī Brahmā created vamrī insects (a sort of white ants) so that they might eat up the forepart of the bow that was lying on the ground causing the other end to rise up and thus break His sleep. Thus the Devas’ purpose would, no doubt, be fulfilled. Thus settling his mind, the eternal Deva Brahmā ordered the vamrīs to cut the bow string. 19-22. Hearing this order of Brahmā, the vamrī spoke to Brahmā, thus: ’O Brahmā! How can I disturb the sleep of the Devadeva, Lord of Lakṣmī, the World-guru? To rouse one from one’s deep sleep, to interrupt one in one’s speech, to sever the love between a couple husband wife, to separate a child from his mother—all these are equivalent to brahmāhatyā (murdering a Brahmāṇa). Therefore, O Deva! how can I interrupt the happiness of sleep of the Devadeva? And what benefit shall I derive by eating the bowstring, so that I may incur this vicious act? But a man can commit a sin if there be any interest of his; I am ready to eat this, if I get a personal interest.’

Download the Śrīmad Devī Bhāgavatam Part 1, Skandhas 1-5: https://archive.org/details/srimaddevibhagavatampart1/page/n365 31-37. Sūta said: “Thus questioned by Kṛṣṇa Dvaipāyana Vedavyāsa, the high-souled Nārada Muni, well versed in the Vedas, became very glad and spoke thus: ‘O highly fortunate Parāśarā’s son, the question that you have asked me today was formerly asked by my father to Nārāyaṇa. At this, Nārāyaṇa Vāsudeva, the Deva of the Devas, the Creator, Preserver and Destroyer of the Universe, the husband of Lakṣmī, the four-armed, wearing yellow garment, holding conchshell, discus, club and with the mark Śrīvatsa (a mark or curl of hair on the heart of Viṣṇu) adorning His breast and decorated with Kaustuva gem, the Divinity Himself, became merged in great yoga; at this my Father became greatly surprised and said: ‘O Janārdana! Thou art the Deva of the Devas; the Lord of the Present, the Past and the Future, the Lord of this Universe; why art thou meditating in yoga? And what is it that Thou art meditating? O best of the Devas! Thou art the Lord of the entire Universe and yet Thou art now merged in deep meditation. At this I am greatly surprised. What more wonderful than this can happen? 38-43. O Lord of Ramā! I am sprung from the lotus from thy navel and have become the Lord of this whole universe; who is there in this universe that is superior to Thee; kindly reveal this to me. O Lord of the world? Thou art the Origin of all, the Cause of all causes, the Creator, Preserver and Destroyer and the capable Doer of all actions. O Mahārāja! at Thy will, I create this whole universe and Rudra destroys this world in due time. He is always under Thy command. O Lord! By Thy command the Sun roams in the sky; the wind blows in various auspicious or inauspicious ways and the fire is giving heat and the cloud showers rain. I don’t see in the three lokas anyone superior to Thee. Then whom art Thou meditating on? This is my main point of doubt. O One of good vows! I am Thy devotee; be merciful to me and speak this to me. There is almost nothing that is secret to Mahāpuruṣas; this is a well-known fact.’ 44-50. Thus hearing Brahmā’s words, Bhagavān Nārāyaṇa replied: ’O Brahmā! I now speak out my mind to you; listen carefully. Though the Devas, Dānavas and men and all the lokas know that You are the Creator, I am the Preserver and Rudra is the Destroyer, yet it is to be known that the saints, versed in the Vedas, have come to this conclusion by inference from the Vedas that the creation, preservation, and destruction are performed by the creative force, preservative force and destructive force respectively. The rājasik creative force residing in you, the sāttvik preservative force residing in me, and the tāmasik destructive force residing in Rudra are the all-in-all. When these Śaktis become absent, you become inert and incapable to create, I to preserve and Rudra to destroy. O intelligent Suvrata! We all are always under that Force directly or indirectly; hear instances that you can see and infer. At the time of pralaya, I lie down on the bed of Ananta, subservient to that Force; again I wake up in the time of creation duly under the influence of Time.

Vedavyāsa Becomes despondent over not having a son. He approaches Narada for advice, who narrates an ancient lesson by Viṣṇu. (To be continued)

SDB 1.2 Comments: the Manblunder * Manblunder: the incorrect, ignorant cultural assumption and religious bias that the Creator or ultimate support of the universe must be male in gender. * Especially prominent in the Abrahamic religions: Judaism, Christianity and Islam. * But also seen in Hinduism, especially the Vaiṣṇava cult. * Māyā is constructed in layers like an onion. * Each layer seems self-consistent, but only because it is based on a false assumption. * Confirmation bias makes each layer of māyā seem logical. * “Confirmation bias is the tendency to search for, interpret, favor, and recall information in a way that affirms one's prior beliefs or hypotheses. It is a type of cognitive bias and a systematic error of inductive reasoning. People display this bias when they gather or remember information selectively, or when they interpret it in a biased way. The effect is stronger for desired outcomes, for emotionally charged issues, and for deeply-entrenched beliefs. People also tend to interpret ambiguous evidence as supporting their existing position.” — Wikipedia * Spiritual truth cannot be known by inductive reasoning (aroha-vāda) only by deductive reasoning (avaroha-vāda) from scriptural revelation recorded by the Self-realized Sages. * oṁ ajñāna-timirāndhasya jñānāñjana-śalākayā
cakṣur unmīlitaṁ yena tasmai śrī-gurave namaḥ
”I was born in the darkness of ignorance, and my enlightened spiritual master opened my eyes with the torchlight of his realization. Therefore I offer my respectful obeisances unto him." Video & blog post: https://srimaddevibhagavatam.wordpress.com/2019/10/19/devi-bhagavatam-1-2-commentary-2-the-manblunder/(opens in a new tab)

• āgamas: a traditional doctrine or precept, collection of such doctrines, sacred work, anything handed down and fixed by tradition (as the reading of a text) • munīndra: chief of the Munis, a great sage or ascetic • transcendental sentiments (rasas): ecstatic emotional flavors of relationship with the Supreme in any form—neutrality, servitorship, friendship, parenthood and conjugal love. See Bhakti-rasāmrta-sindhu, Part 2:http://www.mediafire.com/file/94owo1ouwj8ls3i/Bhakti-rasamrta-sindhu-Part2.pdf/file • Naimiṣ: Name of a forest (āranya) and a sacred tīrtha where the son of Suta related the Mahābhārata, and so called because in it an army of asuras was destroyed in a twinkling. Nimi = the closing or winking of the eyes, twinkling • vidyā: knowledge, science, learning, scholarship, philosophy etc. Vedic knowledge has many divisions: the four Vedas, the six Vedangas, the Puranas, the Mimāmsas, Nyāya or logic and dharma or law; the four Upavedas, and the 64 arts and sciences. Knowledge is also personified and identified as Goddess Durgā—She has composed many powerful prayers and mantras. • yoga-nidrā: "meditative-sleep" a state of half-meditation, half-sleep which admits of the full exercise of the mental powers; it is peculiar to devotees, Such as Rāmana Maharshi, who called it ‘waking sleep’. Refers especially the sleep of Viṣṇu at the end of a yuga. Viṣṇu's sleep is personified as a form of Goddess Durgā. • ekārṇava: ‘one ocean’—the cosmic ocean at the time of dissolution • Śivā: the original form of Śakti-Devī which is equivalent to Lord Śiva; or, the form of Śiva created by Śakti • prākṛti: ‘making or placing before or at first’, the original or natural form or condition of anything, original or primary substance; natural; derived from Nature, the original substance or consciousness • turīya-caitanya: the fourth state of consciousness, pure unconditioned objectless awareness • manomaya-cakra: the wheel of the mind • tattva-jñāṇa: knowledge of the categories of truth, insight into the true principles of philosophy, thorough knowledge derived from Self-realization

After hearing the questions of the Sages, Sūta Gosvāmī responds. The Sanskrit verse in the beginning is the ṣoḍaśī mantra, the most powerful and beneficial Vedic prayer. It invokes the śakti of Goddess Lalithā, also known as Tripurasundarī, Mahā-Māyā, Durgā, and many other names. Who is Goddess Lalithā? This Śrīmad Devī Bhāgavatam is Her story. Listen, and you will gain immense spiritual benefit. The full text of this episode is here: https://srimaddevibhagavatam.wordpress.com/2019/10/18/chapter-ii-sri-sutas-response/

• What the Śrīmad Bhāgavatam is to the Vaiṣṇavas, the Śrīmad Devī Bhāgavatam is to the Śāktas. • Though classified as an upa-purāṇa it is the only Purāṇa Vedavyāsa called Mahā-Purāṇa, meaning great Purāṇa • The choice of words by the great ṛṣi obviously indicates its importance, as Divine Mother is described in all major śāstras as the One Supreme beyond and above the trinities and all Gods. • Śaunaka ṛṣi: senior president of the assembly of sages at Naimiṣāraṇya • viśvasan-kṣetra: trusted or reliable place • Naimiṣāraṇya-vāna: sacred forest free from influence of Kaliyuga • Sūta Gosvāmī: disciple of Vedavyāsa, son of Romaharṣana-Sūta, who was killed with a blade of grass for offending Balarāma • Saumya: moonlike (Soma), placid, gentle, mild: "O gentle Sir!" "O good Sir!" "O excellent man!" as the proper mode of addressing a Brāhmaṇa • three guṇas: sāttvik, rājasik and tāmasik, described in detail in Bhagavad-gita chapters 13, 14, 17 & 18 • transcendental sentiments (rasas): ecstatic emotional flavors of relationship with the Supreme in any form—neutrality, servitorship, friendship, parenthood and conjugal love. See Bhakti-rasamrta-sindhu, Part 2: http://www.mediafire.com/file/94owo1ouwj8ls3i/Bhakti-rasamrta-sindhu-Part2.pdf/file