Year 2020 brought unprecedented times, when the COVID -19 pandemic brought the whole world to a grinding halt. Nations and governments struggled to decide upon the future course at the onset of the pandemic. People, locked down inside their homes away from their professional and personal lives, panicked as they stared at an unknown future. There was however a silver lining to the dark gloomy clouds of uncertainty and anxiety that loomed large over the world. Here was the opportunity to go within when one could not go out! And that precisely was the way at Sathya Sai Grama, a spiritual hamlet in Muddenahalli, Southern India. The residents of the ashram enjoyed a spiritual feast termed Master the Mind − a series of 30 discourses delivered by Sadguru Sri Madhusudan Sai. These talks were spread across four weeks, starting on the occasion of Adi Shankara Jayanthi on April 28, 2020 and continuing through the entire month of May. This was his way of bringing positivity, hope and spiritual wellbeing to the people of the world, especially in the trying times of the pandemic. The talks reveal a method of mastering one’s mind, at the end of which the sincere seeker positively stands to gain much. Spanning across the various concepts of yoga, bhakti, and advaita, they uniquely blend all possible ancient Indian thoughts on spirituality in the simplest possible way. Thereby, they put both, the beginners and the proficient following this path, equally at ease.
Kathopanishad is one of the 10 principal upanishads which present the essence and culmination of all knowledge found within India’s most ancient and sacred texts; the vedas. A little boy, Nachiketa – the son of Sage Vajasravas, seeks the highest wisdom from Yama (the god of death). Nachiketa who is resolute to know the Truth about the Self, does not leave until he gets answers from Yama whom he knows is the right teacher who can help him clear his doubts. Their conversation evolves to a discussion of the nature of man, knowledge, the ātman (Soul, Self) and मोक्ष mokṣa (liberation).