The world abounds with philosophies on who we are and what we are supposed to be doing here. Every year billions of dollars are spent trying to unravel the confusion that goes on in our minds. Because what thinking person has not asked at some stage who am l what is this world, this universe? Every being has to deal with fear, and fear, when closely scrutinized is largely lust fear of death. Imagine living with a clear understanding of these issues; understanding that there is no death, only a transformation of the physical body; understanding that sickness and health, happiness and sorrow are simply two ends of the same spectrum, and you are the watcher of these pairs of opposites; you can be as involved or detached as you please. Vedanta is a composite body of knowledge gleaned from the Vedic texts - the blueprints from which mankind Is supposed to live. Vedanta comes with a teaching tradition handed down from teacher to student in an unbroken line from a time when the edges of human understanding begin to blur. Today, more than ever the message of this tradition can bring sanity and sense into the wild and unstable existence in which we all now live.

This book is an insight into this teaching tradition. And more importantly it shows there is a way to live a meaningful life, unaffected by the gathering Storm around.

Swamini Nityananda Saraswati (Jeanette O’Shea) was born in New Zealand. She was educated at Sacred Heart Convent and Wellington Girls College. She worked as a reporter for the Auckland Star daily newspaper covering such international events as the America’s Cup In Australia and the United States. In 1989 she joined the Honking Standard in Hong Kong reporting legal matters and covered some of the more spectacular fraud and corruption trials of the day. In 2005 she was initiated into a teaching order of Vedic Sannyasi monks. She has three sons and divides her time between New Zealand, and studying Vedanta writing and teaching in India.

JUST AS A TORTOISE WITHDRAWS its' limbs, you withdraw the senses and you suspend all external operations. Then you find yourself inside yourself, in a place where nothing can touch you. And only then do you come to understand that infinite power and know that you are that. And when you understand that the enormous power of the creation is in your awareness alone, you no longer have to prove anything to anyone; you don't have to look big, or knowledgeable or important. There is no need to compete because you realise that you are the competitor and the competition too. Then there is no longer anything to fear. And when fear goes it takes along with it anger, hatred, sorrow and insecurity. You understand that Shakti power and that Shiva silence are both ends ofthe cosmic spectrum. And they are you. So everything in between is within you.

And those who understand this, who are secure in this knowledge stand apart from the creation - beacons of light and energy reaching out in a thousand directions. You can identify them from their eyes. There is a certain grace in the way they move, a certain soft tone in the way they speak. There is always a faint smile around their eyes. It is a smile which shows no favour. And so you come to realise you are in the orbit of very special human beings. Everything feels different in their orbit. There is a stillness; a silence. You sense the grace. And you observe how their eyes shine with the wisdom of having seen with the eye of theeye, that lord of all things, that one consciousness that is the tc lifeforce, and having seen, they know who and what they are.

They are few in number, the Vedic monks (sannyasis) v are quietly working towards this goal. But those who are h the vision. They know what there is to gain and they wait for grace to payout. Because grace has to be there. It comes fr Ishvara - the Lord. Without it even the study itself can not be; No teacher will come. The knowledge will not manifest. And that grace to come one must live, have lived in a dharmic waj not in this life, at least in some lifetime before. From the teachings of an unknown sage