There are some encounters in life whose significance we understand only much later.
Looking back, I feel that my journey with Vedanta has been one such unfolding.
Recently, I returned from a ten-day "Advaita Awakening Retreat" in Coimbatore conducted by Swamini Vimalananda, from September 16th to 25th. There were around fifty participants, and the experience was deeply enriching.
This was not my first encounter with Swaminiji. I met her in 2016, and I was immediately impressed by the depth of her knowledge and, more importantly, by the extraordinary clarity with which she communicated Vedanta. In 2024, I attended a weekend retreat with her in Bangalore, and that experience was deeply empowering.
But as I sat through this recent course and absorbed the teachings, I found myself travelling much further back in time—to 1980.
A one-week lecture that changed the direction of our lives
In 1980, I had the good fortune of attending a one-week lecture series by a Swamiji from Chinmaya Mission Ashram.
At that time, I could not have imagined how deeply those teachings would influence the course of my life.
The teachings gradually became more than something to listen to or study. They influenced the way my husband and I looked at life, our responsibilities, our choices and the way we wanted to bring up our family.
When our children were born, we naturally brought them into this path from the very beginning.
Today, when I look back after all these years, I realise that perhaps the seeds that were planted during that one week in 1980 have continued to grow throughout our lives.
And that thought fills me with immense gratitude.
Dharma and Brahma
One of the teachings that particularly stayed with me during the recent retreat was the understanding that the Vedas essentially point us towards two fundamental aspects: Dharma and Brahma.
Dharma is concerned with how we live our lives—with right living, right action, responsibility and harmony. Through Dharma Acharan, or living according to dharma, we learn to live a life that is meaningful and beneficial, both in this life and beyond.
Brahma, on the other hand, points towards that which ultimately frees us from the cycle of worldly existence.
Dharma is something we do.
Brahma is something we know.
We practise Dharma Acharan.
We seek Brahma Jnana.
And yet, there is a profound connection between the two.
Knowing it in the head is not enough
Most of us have heard the great Vedantic statement that our true nature is Brahman.
We may have read it in books.
We may have listened to spiritual teachers explaining it.
We may even be able to repeat and intellectually understand the teaching.
But intellectual understanding is not the same as realisation.
There is a difference between something remaining as information in the head and that knowledge descending into the heart and becoming our lived experience.
When knowledge truly becomes internalised, something begins to change.
Our way of looking at ourselves changes.
Our relationship with others changes.
Our understanding of pleasure and pain changes.
Our fears and attachments begin to loosen.
Life itself begins to be seen differently.
This raised a very important question for me:
Can everyone receive and benefit from this knowledge in the same way?
And this is where the importance of Dharma Acharan becomes so clear.
The golden vessel
There is a beautiful traditional analogy that I heard in connection with this teaching.
It is said that the milk of a lioness can be contained only in a golden vessel. If it is poured into an ordinary vessel, the vessel cannot hold it.
Whether we look at this literally or as a traditional metaphor, the spiritual message is profound.
The precious knowledge of Brahman needs a prepared vessel.
The vessel is the mind.
And the preparation of that vessel happens through living a dharmic life.
Dharma Acharan gradually purifies and prepares the mind so that it becomes capable of receiving and assimilating Brahma Jnana.
We may have access to the greatest spiritual teachings in the world. We may sit in front of an extraordinary teacher. We may listen to the words of the Upanishads again and again.
But are we prepared to receive what is being given?
That is perhaps the deeper question.
Preparing the vessel
A golden vessel does not become golden in a moment.
In the same way, preparing the mind is not a one-day process.
It happens through the way we live every day.
Through our choices.
Through our responsibilities.
Through our relationships.
Through how honestly we look at ourselves.
Through how we respond to difficult situations.
Through learning to perform our duties without constantly demanding a particular result.
Through gradually reducing selfishness, attachment and agitation.
Dharma is therefore not merely a set of rules about what we should and should not do.
It is a way of preparing ourselves.
It prepares the mind to become quieter, clearer and more receptive.
And perhaps this is why spiritual growth cannot be separated from the way we live our ordinary lives.
Our daily life itself becomes the field of our spiritual practice.
Knowledge and grace
At the same time, Brahma Jnana is not simply the result of intellectual effort.
We can study.
We can listen to teachers.
We can read the scriptures.
We can contemplate their meaning.
We can practise living according to dharma.
But when that knowledge truly becomes an inner reality, there is also an element of Grace.
And this is something I have come to appreciate deeply.
Looking back at my own life, I sometimes wonder how many things that appeared to be coincidences were actually opportunities placed before me at exactly the right time.
Meeting Swamiji from Chinmaya Mission Ashram in 1980.
Later encountering teachers who deepened my understanding.
Meeting Swamini Vimalanandaji in 2016.
Attending her retreat in 2024.
And now, being able to spend ten days immersed in Vedanta in Coimbatore.
Each experience seems to have become another step in the journey.
A journey of gratitude
The older I become, the more I realise that spiritual life is not about reaching a particular destination and declaring, “I have arrived.”
It is about continuing to prepare the vessel.
Continuing to live consciously.
Continuing to learn.
Continuing to examine ourselves.
And remaining open to grace.
Today, I feel immense gratitude when I look back at the journey that began, for me, with that one week of teachings in 1980.
At that time, I did not know where it would lead.
I certainly could not have imagined that decades later I would still be studying, reflecting upon and trying to live these teachings.
Nor could I have imagined how deeply they would influence our family and the way we chose to live.
Perhaps this is how a spiritual journey unfolds.
We receive a seed.
We nurture it through our lives.
We sometimes forget about it.
And then, many years later, we suddenly recognise the tree that has grown from that tiny seed.
Are we preparing our vessel?
The teaching of the golden vessel leaves me with a question that I feel is worth asking ourselves:
Am I merely collecting spiritual knowledge, or am I preparing myself to receive it?
How much of what I have heard has remained in my head?
And how much has actually entered my heart?
Has the knowledge changed the way I live?
Has it changed the way I respond to difficulties?
Has it changed the way I relate to people?
Has it reduced my fear, anger, attachment and expectations?
Has it brought greater acceptance, clarity and compassion into my life?
Perhaps these are the real signs of whether the knowledge is beginning to descend from the head into the heart.
The scriptures can give us the knowledge.
The teacher can point us towards the truth.
But we have to prepare the vessel.
And perhaps that preparation itself is a form of Grace.
With deep gratitude
As I return from this beautiful course, my heart is filled with gratitude.
Gratitude for the teachers who have appeared at different stages of my life.
Gratitude for the teachings that have quietly shaped the way my family and I have lived.
Gratitude for all the opportunities to learn, contemplate and practise.
And above all, gratitude to that Universal Presence—to that Divine Energy that we call God—which has guided this journey in ways I could never have planned myself.
I do not know where the journey will lead next.
But I know that I want to continue preparing the vessel.
To live as dharmically as I can.
To remain a sincere student.
To listen.
To contemplate.
And to remain open to Grace.
Because perhaps the greatest blessing is not merely to receive the knowledge of Brahman.
It is to become a vessel capable of receiving it, assimilating it and allowing it to transform our lives.
I hope this leaves you (the reader) with a question you can personally contemplate: “Am I preparing my vessel?”
