Self and The Supreme

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All scriptures declare that the Lord is omnipresent. Scripture says 'tvam eva mataa...', you are the mother, you are the father... ultimately, you are everything. Seeing the Lord involves recognizing the Lord in the form of the mother, father, teacher, and then in every form. This book evolves with that vision, with salutations to mother, father, teacher, and with the vision of the Lord in and through the whole creation. This understanding culminates with the Self and the Supreme becoming one through the Advaitic Teaching. The evolution of the Self to become one with the Supreme forms the essence of this book.

Dr. K. Sadananda

is a Material Scientist by profession, and worked at the United States Naval Research Laboratory as Head of Deformation and Fracture, published extensively in Science, and received many awards. He retired in 2005 and now works as a private consultant in the United States for six months of the year. He was also a visiting professor at the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras.

He is a disciple of Swami Chinmayanandaji and was a founding trustee of the Chinmaya Mission’s Washington Regional Center as well as Shree Siva Vishnu Temple, Maryland, USA. He teaches Vedanta on behalf of Chinmaya Mission and splits his time between the USA and India. Advaita Academy has been sponsoring many of his talks on Vedanta and has made them available on You-tube under Acharya Sadaji. He is also author books, Introduction to Vedanta, three volumes of Journey Beyond: A Non-Dual Approach, and Transcending Science, all available on Amazon, USA, UK, and India. He is married to Mrinalini Sadananda, who is a well-known Kuchipudi dancer and Choreographer.

I grow up in a large family. Both my father and mother were involved in spiritual activities. My father used to give daily talks to many devotees gathered at a temple or a place of worship, taking some text or the other. My mother used to have ladies - group that meets at home every day after lunch, where she used to read Ramayana or Bhagavatam and explain the meaning. When I left the house to attend college at Kakinada, I stayed with my maternal uncle. He was a member of the Theosophical Society. He had many J. Krishnamurthy's (JK) books. I started reading them one by one and started appreciating the logic that says our minds are conditioned to think in a particular way because of our upbringing, culture, tradition, etc. The truth is beyond any conditioning. To discover the truth, JK says, one has to 'uncondition' the mind by observing the mind. I struggled hard trying to observe my mind and found it very difficult as it keeps running all over the world, while I am at the seat of meditation. I started questioning, 'who is the observer of the mind, for the mind to get unconditioned."

Out of frustration, I gave up that pursuit, concluding that it is an impossible task. I started concentrating more on my Science studies. After many years, I got exposed to the Vedantic teaching when I attended Swami Chinmayanadaji's talks at the America University, in Washington, DC.

The logic of the Spirituality that Swamiji presented appealed to my rational intellect. Later I learned that it is the mind only that has to observe itself, as we do not have any other instrument to do so. It is like a thief trying to catch himself. Conditioning is nothing but our own vasanaas or likes and dislikes accumulated life after life.

Dr. K. Sadananda of Chinmaya Mission has already published a few books on Vedanta earlier. His next book 'Self & Supreme' is a collection of his writings on varied topics of Spiritual Science.

His reading, reflections, contemplation and ideas are evident in the book. Also, it is a result of his sincere efforts and enthusiasm to present different topics in one book for the benefit of readers.

None coming in contact with Dr. Kuntimaddi Sadananda, either in person or online, can miss noticing his exemplary politeness and inimitable sense of humor even when discussing the profound topics like Vedanta. He is a true friend who can always be relied upon. I am one of those fortunate to be within the vast circle of his online friends. Dr. Sadananda hails from an educated and highly principled Telugu family of humble means but possessing a large heart. He grew up in a healthy and happy environment to make him justifiably proud of his family values, culture, and tradition, yet not losing his freedom to question and inquire.

The current book by Sada, as his friends call him affectionately, is the third being published by the Indic Academy. It maps the route that a sincere aspirant of Spirituality takes as he goes on to discover the Ultimate Reality hidden behind thick layers of the mundane everyday world. It also provides recognizable milestones as one progresses on the path and describes the various stages in development. And all this is achieved through a clever sequential arrangement of various articles and blogs that Dr. Sadananda published over a time. The book opens with benedictory essays devoted to the mother, father, teacher, and finally salutations to the Supreme Lord. However, the accent on Devotion stands out as the background theme in the rest of the essays too.

We get to see Sada's poetic talents in the shlokas in Sanskrit composed by him in the memory of his mother. While a few personal anecdotes are shared by him in the context of his father and a listing of his father's literary accomplishments, Dr. Sadananda demonstrates his complete and unquestioning surrender to his Guru, Shri Chinmayananda, in the various stories he recalled as his experiences with his teacher. After the prayers to the elders, come seven essays on Ramayana, Sundara kanda in particular. Dr. Sadananda says that the Sundara kanda narrates "the journey of Seeta- how Seeta progresses and reaches her goal. It is an adhyaatmic journey the journey of Self-realization...... The river as it flows and encounters small obstacles joyfully goes over them, making a gurgling noise. If it encounters big obstacles like mountains, she gracefully goes around it, and even bending backward to surmount the obstacles. It never forgets its goal that is to merge and become one with the ocean. That should be the attitude of the mind of a sincere seeker."

**Contents and Sample Pages**