HARE RAMA HARE KRISHNA

Few Deepak Chopra Quotes

2011-12-29T21:23:00.000-08:00

The world is sensations in the body, the body is sensations in the mind, the mind is thoughts in consciousness.

Mind, body & universe are projections of consciousness, personal, collective & universal. They are qualia.

When you see the world in yourself, there are no more outward obstacles to happiness. The inner and outer worlds are mirrors of each other

When consciousness splits into subject & object, it measures its distance from itself as space & time.

We are all a single consciousness with unique ways of experiencing the world. Wholeness is a state of profound peace and happiness

Important Points From The BOOK of SECRETS Unlocking the Hidden Dimensions of Your Life

2011-11-25T12:40:00.000-08:00

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Point 1:

The body’s wisdom is a good entry point into the hidden dimensions of life, because although completely invisible, the body’s wisdom is undeniably real—a fact that medical researchers began to accept in the mid-1980s. The former view was that the brain’s capacity for intelligence was unique. But then signs of intelligence began to be discovered in the immune system, and then in the digestive system. In both these
systems, special messenger molecules could be observed circulating through every organ, bringing information to and from the brain, but also functioning on their own. A white cell that can distinguish between invading enemy bacteria and harmless pollen is making an intelligent decision, even though it floats in the bloodstream apart from the brain.
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Point 2:

Ten years ago, it would have seemed absurd to speak of intestines being intelligent. The lining of the digestive tract was known to possess thousands of nerve endings, but these were just remote outposts of the nervous system—a way for it to keep in touch with the lowly business of extracting nutrition from food. Now it turns out that the intestines are not so lowly after all. Their scattered nerve cells form a finely tuned system for reacting to outside events—an upsetting remark at work, the threat of danger, a death in the family. The stomach’s reactions are just as reliable as the brain’s thoughts, and just as intricate. Your colon, your liver, and your stomach cells alsothink, only not in the brain’s verbal language. What people
had been calling a “gut reaction” turned out to be a mere hint of the complex intelligence at work in a hundred thousand billion cells.
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Point 3:

Although every cell has a set of unique functions (liver cells, for example, can perform fifty separate tasks), these combine in creative ways. A person can digest food never eaten before, think thoughts never thought before, dance in a way never seen before. Clinging to old behavior is not an option.
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Point 4:

Why we need to sleep remains a medical mystery, yet complete dysfunction
develops if we don’t enjoy its benefits. In the silence of inactivity, the future of the body is incubating.
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Point 5:

The fifty functions that a liver cell performs are totally unique, not overlapping with the tasks of muscle,kidney, heart, or brain cells—yet it would be catastrophic if even one function were compromised.
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Point 6:

Any neurologist will assure you that the brain offers no proof that the outside world really exists and many hints that it doesn’t.

All the brain does, in fact, is to receive continuous signals about the body’s state of chemical balance,temperature, and oxygen consumption, along with a crackling stream of nerve impulses. This mass of raw data starts out as chemical bursts with attached electrical charges. These blips run up and down a tangled web of spidery nerve cells, and once a signal reaches the brain, like a runner from the edge of the Empire bringing a message to Rome, the cortex assembles the raw data into even more complex arrangements of electrical and chemical blips.

The cortex doesn’t inform us about this never-ending data processing, which is all that is happening inside gray matter. Instead, the cortex tells us about the world—it allows us to perceive sights, sounds,tastes, smells, and textures—the whole array of creation. The brain has pulled an enormous trick on us, a remarkable sleight of hand, because there is no direct connection between the body’s raw data and our
subjective sense of an outside world.

For all anyone knows, the entire outside world could be a dream. When I’m in bed having a dream, I see a world of events just as vivid as the waking world (for most of us, the other four senses are scattered unevenly throughout our dreams, but some dreamers can touch, taste, hear, and smell as accurately as they can while awake). But when I open my eyes in the morning, I know that these vivid events were all produced inside my head. I’d never make the mistake of falling for this trick because I already assume that dreams aren’t real.

So does my brain dedicate one apparatus to making the dream world and another to the waking world? No, it doesn’t. In terms of cerebral function, the dream mechanism doesn’t flick off when I wake up. The same visual cortex in the rear of my skull allows me to see an object—a tree, a face, the sky—whether I am seeing it in memory, in a dream, in a photo, or standing before me. The locations of brain cell activity
shift slightly from one to the other, which is why I can distinguish among a dream, a photo, and the real thing, yet the same fundamental process is constantly taking place. I am manufacturing a tree, a face, or the sky from what is actually a random tangle of spidery nerves shooting bursts of chemicals and electrical charges in my brain and all around my body. No matter how hard I try, I will never find a single
pattern of chemicals and charges in the shape of a tree, a face, or any other shape. There is just a fire-storm of electrochemical activity.

This embarrassing problem—that there is no way to prove the existence of an outside
world—undermines the entire basis of materialism. Thus we arrive at the second spiritual secret:You are not in the world; the world is in you.

The only reason that rocks are solid is that the brain registers a flurry of electrical signals as touch; the only reason the sun shines is that the brain registers another flurry of electrical signals as sight. There is no sunlight in my brain, whose interior remains as dark as a limestone cavern no matter how bright it is outside.

Having said that the whole world is created in me, I immediately realize that you could say the same thing. Are you in my dream or am I in yours—or are we all trapped in some bizarre combination of each other’s personal version of events? To me, this isn’t a problem but the very heart of spirituality. Everyone is a creator. The mystery of how all these individual viewpoints somehow mesh, so that your world and
mine can harmonize, is the very thing that makes people seek spiritual answers. For there is no doubt that reality is full of conflict but also full of harmony. It is very liberating to realize that as creators we generate every aspect, good or bad, of our experience. In this way, each of us is the center of creation.
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Point 7:

Few Unexplained Facts

Desert birds living by the Grand Canyon bury thousands of pine nuts in widely scattered locations along the canyon rim. They retrieve this stored food during the winter, returning precisely to the nuts each one buried and finding them under a deep layer of snow.

Salmon born in a small stream that feeds the Columbia River in the Pacific Northwest swim out to sea. After several years spent roaming vast distances of ocean, they return to spawn at the precise place where they were born, never winding up in the wrong stream.

Little children from several countries were read to in Japanese; afterward they were asked to pick whether they had just heard some nonsense words or a lovely Japanese poem. The children from Japan all got the answer right, but so did significantly more than half the children from other countries who had never listened to a word of Japanese in their lives.

Identical twins hundreds or thousands of miles apart have immediately sensed the moment when their sibling died in an accident.

Fireflies in Indonesia numbering in the millions are able to synchronize their flashes over an area of several square miles.

In Africa, certain trees that are being overforaged can signal other trees miles away to increase the tannin in their leaves, a chemical that makes them inedible to foraging animals. The distant trees receive the message and alter their chemistry accordingly.

Twins separated at birth have met for the first time years later, only to find that they’ve each married a woman with the same first name in the same year and now have the same number of children.

Mother albatrosses returning to a nesting site with food in their beaks immediately locate their chicks among hundreds of thousands of identical offspring on a crowded beach.

Once a year at the full moon several million horseshoe crabs emerge together on one beach to mate. They have answered the same call, from depths of the ocean where no light ever penetrates.

When air molecules cause your eardrum to quiver no differently from a cymbal being hit with a stick, you hear a voice that you recognize speaking words you understand.

On their own, sodium and chlorine are deadly poisons. When they combine as salt, they form the most basic chemical in support of life.

To read this sentence, several million neurons in your cerebral cortex had to form an
instantaneous pattern that is completely original and never appeared before in your life.

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Point 8:

Deepak Chopra Explains that there is concept of one reality

Example 1 : caterpillar turning into butterfly

what goes on invisibly inside the chrysalis remains deeply mysterious. The caterpillar’s organs and tissues dissolve into an amorphous, souplike state, only to reconstitute into the structure of a butterfly’s body that bears no resemblance to a caterpillar at all.

Science has no idea why metamorphosis evolved. It is almost impossible to imagine that insects hit on it by chance-the chemical complexity of turning into a butterfly is incredible; thousands of steps are all minutely interconnected. (It’s as if you dropped off a bicycle at the shop to be repaired, and when you came back the parts had become a Gulfstream jet.)

But we do have some idea about how this delicate chain of events is linked. Two hormones, one called juvenile hormone, the otherecdysone, regulate the process, which looks to the naked eye like a caterpillar dissolving into soup. These two hormones make sure that the cells moving from larva to butterfly know where they are going and how they are to change. Some cells are told to die; others digest themselves, while still others turn into eyes, antennae, and wings. This implies a fragile (and miraculous) rhythm that must remain in precise balance between creation and destruction. That rhythm, it turns out,depends on day length, which in turn depends on the earth’s rotation around the sun. Therefore, a cosmic rhythm has been intimately connected to the birth of butterflies for millions of years.

Science concentrates on the molecules, but this is a striking example of intelligence at work, using molecules as a vehicle for its own intent. The intent in this case was to create a new creature without wasting old ingredients. (And if there is only one reality, we can’t say, as science does, that day length causes the pupa’s hormones to begin the metamorphosis into a butterfly. Day length and hormones come from the same creative source, weaving one reality. That source uses cosmic rhythms or molecules as it sees fit. Day length doesn’t cause hormones to change any more than hormones cause the day to change—both are tied to a hidden intelligence that creates both at once. In a dream or a painting, a boy may hit a baseball, but his bat doesn’t cause the ball to fly through the air. The whole dream or painting fits together seamlessly.)

Example 2: How insects learned to fly

Two chemicals called actin andmyosin evolved eons ago to allow the muscles
in insect wings to contract and relax. Thus, insects learned to fly. When one of these paired molecules is absent, wings will grow but they cannot flap and are therefore useless. Today, the same two proteins are responsible for the beating of the human heart, and when one is absent, the person’s heartbeat is inefficient and weak, ultimately leading to heart failure.

Again, science marvels at the way molecules adapt over millions of years, but isn’t there a deeper intent? In our hearts, we feel the impulse to fly, to break free of boundaries. Isn’t that the same impulse nature expressed when insects began to take flight? The prolactin that generates milk in a mother’s breast is unchanged from the prolactin that sends salmon upstream to breed, enabling them to cross from saltwater
to fresh. The insulin in a cow is exactly the same as the insulin in an amoeba; both serve to metabolize carbohydrates, even though a cow is millions of times more complex than an amoeba.

To believe in one reality that is totally interconnected isn’t mystical at all, it turns out.
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Point 9:

One of the most spiritual figures in the twentieth century was asked how England should handle the threat of Nazism.

He replied:

I want you to fight Nazism without arms. I would like you to lay down the arms you have as being useless for saving you or humanity. You will invite Herr Hitler and Signor Mussolini to take what they want of the countries you call your possessions. Let them take possession of your beautiful island, with your many beautiful buildings. You will give all these but neither your souls, nor your minds.

The author of this passage was Mahatma Gandhi, and needless to say his “open letter” to the British was greeted with shock and outrage. Yet Gandhi was being true to the principle ofAhimsa, or nonviolence.He successfully used passive nonviolence to persuade the British to grant freedom to India, so by refusing to go to war against Hitler—a stand he took throughout World War II—Gandhi was consistent in his
spiritual beliefs. Would Ahimsa really have worked to persuade Hitler, a man who declared that “war is the father of all things”? We will never know. Certainly passivity itself has a dark aspect. The Catholic Church marks as one of its darkest eras the years when it permitted millions of Jews to be killed under
Nazism, to the extent that Italian Jews were rounded up within sight of the Vatican windows.

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Point 10:

In 1971, students at Stanford University were asked to volunteer for an unusual experiment in role playing. One group of students was to pretend that they were prison guards in charge of another group who pretended to be prisoners. Although it was understood that this was make-believe, a jail setting was provided, and the two groups lived together for the duration of the experiment. According to plan,
everyone would play their roles for two weeks, but after only six days the prison experiment had to be terminated. The reason? The boys chosen for their mental health and moral values turned into sadistic,out-of-control guards on the one hand and depressed victims of exorbitant stress on the other.The professors conducting the experiment were shocked but couldn’t deny what had occurred.

The lead researcher, Philip Zimbardo, wrote: “My guards repeatedly stripped their prisoners naked, hooded them,chained them, denied them food or bedding privileges, put them into solitary confinement, and made them clean toilet bowls with their bare hands.” Those who didn’t descend to such atrocious behavior did nothing to stop the ones who did. (The parallel with infamous acts by American prison guards in Iraq in
2004 prompted Zimbardo to bring the Stanford experiment back to light after more than thirty years.) There was no extreme to which the student guards would not resort short of outright physical torture.Zimbardo mournfully recalls, “As the boredom of their job increased, they began using the prisoners as their playthings, devising ever more humiliating and degrading games for them to play. Over time, these
amusements took a sexual turn, such as having the prisoners simulate sodomy on each other. Once aware of such deviant behavior, I closed down the Stanford prison.”
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Deepak Chopra says Science is God explaining God through a human nervous system

Point 11:

When people argue that there is no scientific proof that the universe is conscious, my immediate response is, “I am conscious, and am I not an activity of the universe?” The brain, which operates on electromagnetic impulses, is as much an activity of the universe as are the electromagnetic storms in the atmosphere or on a distant star. Therefore, science is one form of electromagnetism that spends its time
studying another form. I like the remark that a physicist once made to me: “Science should never be considered the enemy of spirituality because science is its greatest ally. Science is God explaining God through a human nervous system. Isn’t spirituality the same thing?”
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Point 12:

Deepak Chopra says after seeing Apoptosis At Work No one can really remain a materialist

Phenomenon called apoptosis says “For every cell there is a time to live and a time to die.”

Apoptosis is programmed cell death, and although we don’t realize it, each of us has been dying every day, right on schedule, in order to remain alive. Cells die because they want to. The cell carefully reverses the birth process: It shrinks, it destroys its basic proteins, and then it goes on to dismantle its own DNA.Bubbles appear on the surface membrane as the cell opens its portals to the outside world and expels
every vital chemical, to finally be swallowed up by the body’s white cells exactly as they would devour an invading microbe. When the process is complete, the cell has dissolved and leaves no trace behind.

When we read this graphic account of a cell sacrificing itself so methodically, you can’t help being touched. Yet the mystical part is still to come. Apoptosis isn’t a way to get rid of sick or old cells, as you might suppose. The process gave us birth. As embryos in the womb, each of us passed through primitive stages of development when we had tadpole tails, fishlike gills, webbing between our fingers, and most
surprisingly, too many brain cells. Apoptosis took care of these unwanted vestiges—in the case of the brain, a newborn baby forms proper neural connections by removing the excess brain tissue that we were all born with. (It came as a surprise when neurologists discovered that our brains contain the most cells at
birth, a number which gets whittled down by the millions so that higher intelligence can forge its delicate web of connections. It was long thought that killing off brain cells was a pathological process associated with aging. Now the whole issue must be reconsidered.)

Apoptosis doesn’t end in the womb, however. Our bodies continue to thrive on death. The immune cells that engulf and consume invading bacteria would turn on the body’s own tissues if they didn’t induce death in each other and then turn on themselves with the same poisons used against invaders. Whenever any cell detects that its DNA is damaged or defective, it knows that the body will suffer if this defect is
passed on. Fortunately, every cell carries a poison gene known as p53 that can be activated to make itself die.

These few facts barely scratch the surface. Anatomists long ago knew that skin cells die every few days;that retinal cells, red blood cells, and stomach cells also are programmed with specific short life spans so that their tissues can be quickly replenished. Each dies for its own unique reason. Skin cells have to be
sloughed off so that our skin remains supple, while stomach cells die as part of the potent chemical combustion that digests food.

Death cannot be our enemy if we have depended upon it from the womb. Consider the following irony.As it turns out, the body is capable of taking a vacation from death by producing cells that decide to live forever. These cells don’t trigger p53 when they detect defects in their own DNA. And by refusing to issue their own death warrants, these cells divide relentlessly and invasively. Cancer, the most feared of
diseases, is the body’s vacation from death, while programmed death is its ticket to life. This is the paradox of life and death confronted head on. The mystical notion of dying every day turns out to be the body’s most concrete fact.

What this means is that we are exquisitely sensitive to the balance of positive and negative forces, and when the balance is tipped, death is the natural response. Nietzsche once remarked that humans are the only creatures who must be encouraged to stay alive. He couldn’t have known that this is literally true.Cells receive positive signals that tell them to stay alive—chemicals called growth factors. If these positive signals are withdrawn, the cell loses its will to live. Like the Mafia’s kiss of death, the cell can also be sent messengers that bind to its outer receptors to signal that death has arrived—these chemical messengers are actually known as “death activators.”

A Harvard Medical School professor had discovered an amazing fact. There is a substance that causes cancer cells to activate new blood vessels so that they
can get food. Medical research has focused on finding out how to block this unknown substance so that malignant growths can be deprived of nutrients and thus killed. The professor discovered that the exact opposite substance causes toxemia in pregnant women, a potentially fatal disorder in which the blood vessels are “unhappy” that they are undergoing normal programmed cell death. “You realize what this
means?” he said with deep awe. “The body can trigger chemicals in a balancing act between life and death, and yet science has totally ignored who is doing the balancing. Doesn’t the whole secret of health lie in that part of ourselves, not in the chemicals being used?” The fact that consciousness could be the missing ingredient, theX factor behind the scenes, came to him as a revelation.

Apoptosis rescues us from fear, I think. The death of a single cell makes no difference to the body.What counts is not the act but the plan—an overarching design that brings the balance of positive and negative signals that every cell responds to. The plan is beyond time because it dates to the very construction of time. The plan is beyond space because it is everywhere in the body and yet nowhere—every cell as it dies takes the plan with it, and yet the plan survives.

So after seeing Apoptosis At Work No one can really remain a materialist.
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Point 13:

When Mahatma Gandhi was assassinated by a religious fanatic on January 30, 1948, the killer claimed another victim. A thread. The traditional costume of the Brahmin caste included a double thread worn over the shoulder. There were many evils in the caste system, but in my mind the double thread symbolized a deep truth—that enlightenment was possible. Until modern times, everyone in India knew that the double thread was the promise of a second birth. It stood for a legacy going back before memory began. Today, enlightenment is no longer the goal of life, not even in India. The most that any teacher can do is to open the door again; he can answer three questions in the age-old way:

• Who am I?You are the totality of the universe acting through a human nervous system.
• Where did I come from?You came from a source that was never born and will never die.
• Why am I here?To create the world in every moment.
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Deepak Chopra says after seeing Apoptosis At Work No one can really remain a materialist

2011-11-25T12:37:00.000-08:00

Phenomenon called apoptosis says “For every cell there is a time to live and a time to die.”

Apoptosis is programmed cell death, and although we don’t realize it, each of us has been dying every day, right on schedule, in order to remain alive. Cells die because they want to. The cell carefully reverses the birth process: It shrinks, it destroys its basic proteins, and then it goes on to dismantle its own DNA.Bubbles appear on the surface membrane as the cell opens its portals to the outside world and expels
every vital chemical, to finally be swallowed up by the body’s white cells exactly as they would devour an invading microbe. When the process is complete, the cell has dissolved and leaves no trace behind.

When we read this graphic account of a cell sacrificing itself so methodically, you can’t help being touched. Yet the mystical part is still to come. Apoptosis isn’t a way to get rid of sick or old cells, as you might suppose. The process gave us birth. As embryos in the womb, each of us passed through primitive stages of development when we had tadpole tails, fishlike gills, webbing between our fingers, and most
surprisingly, too many brain cells. Apoptosis took care of these unwanted vestiges—in the case of the brain, a newborn baby forms proper neural connections by removing the excess brain tissue that we were all born with. (It came as a surprise when neurologists discovered that our brains contain the most cells at birth, a number which gets whittled down by the millions so that higher intelligence can forge its delicate web of connections. It was long thought that killing off brain cells was a pathological process associated with aging. Now the whole issue must be reconsidered.)

Apoptosis doesn’t end in the womb, however. Our bodies continue to thrive on death. The immune cells that engulf and consume invading bacteria would turn on the body’s own tissues if they didn’t induce death in each other and then turn on themselves with the same poisons used against invaders. Whenever any cell detects that its DNA is damaged or defective, it knows that the body will suffer if this defect is
passed on. Fortunately, every cell carries a poison gene known as p53 that can be activated to make itself die.

These few facts barely scratch the surface. Anatomists long ago knew that skin cells die every few days;that retinal cells, red blood cells, and stomach cells also are programmed with specific short life spans so that their tissues can be quickly replenished. Each dies for its own unique reason. Skin cells have to be sloughed off so that our skin remains supple, while stomach cells die as part of the potent chemical combustion that digests food.

Death cannot be our enemy if we have depended upon it from the womb. Consider the following irony.As it turns out, the body is capable of taking a vacation from death by producing cells that decide to live forever. These cells don’t trigger p53 when they detect defects in their own DNA. And by refusing to issue their own death warrants, these cells divide relentlessly and invasively. Cancer, the most feared of
diseases, is the body’s vacation from death, while programmed death is its ticket to life. This is the paradox of life and death confronted head on. The mystical notion of dying every day turns out to be the body’s most concrete fact.

What this means is that we are exquisitely sensitive to the balance of positive and negative forces, and when the balance is tipped, death is the natural response. Nietzsche once remarked that humans are the only creatures who must be encouraged to stay alive. He couldn’t have known that this is literally true.Cells receive positive signals that tell them to stay alive—chemicals called growth factors. If these positive signals are withdrawn, the cell loses its will to live. Like the Mafia’s kiss of death, the cell can also be sent messengers that bind to its outer receptors to signal that death has arrived—these chemical messengers are actually known as “death activators.”

A Harvard Medical School professor had discovered an amazing fact. There is a substance that causes cancer cells to activate new blood vessels so that they
can get food. Medical research has focused on finding out how to block this unknown substance so that malignant growths can be deprived of nutrients and thus killed. The professor discovered that the exact opposite substance causes toxemia in pregnant women, a potentially fatal disorder in which the blood vessels are “unhappy” that they are undergoing normal programmed cell death. “You realize what this means?” he said with deep awe. “The body can trigger chemicals in a balancing act between life and death, and yet science has totally ignored who is doing the balancing. Doesn’t the whole secret of health lie in that part of ourselves, not in the chemicals being used?” The fact that consciousness could be the missing ingredient, theX factor behind the scenes, came to him as a revelation.

Apoptosis rescues us from fear, I think. The death of a single cell makes no difference to the body.What counts is not the act but the plan—an overarching design that brings the balance of positive and negative signals that every cell responds to. The plan is beyond time because it dates to the very construction of time. The plan is beyond space because it is everywhere in the body and yet nowhere—every cell as it dies takes the plan with it, and yet the plan survives.

So after seeing Apoptosis At Work No one can really remain a materialist.

Source: The BOOK of SECRETS Unlocking the Hidden Dimensions of Your Life

Deepak Chopra says Science is God explaining God through a human nervous system

2011-11-24T11:09:00.000-08:00

When people argue that there is no scientific proof that the universe is conscious, my immediate response is, “I am conscious, and am I not an activity of the universe?” The brain, which operates on electromagnetic impulses, is as much an activity of the universe as are the electromagnetic storms in the atmosphere or on a distant star.

Therefore, science is one form of electromagnetism that spends its time
studying another form. I like the remark that a physicist once made to me: “Science should never be considered the enemy of spirituality because science is its greatest ally. Science is God explaining God through a human nervous system. Isn’t spirituality the same thing?”

Source: Book Of Secrets Unlocking the Hidden Dimensions of Your Life

Deepak Chopra Explains that there is concept of one reality

2011-11-23T11:32:00.000-08:00

Example 1 : caterpillar turning into butterfly

what goes on invisibly inside the chrysalis remains deeply mysterious. The caterpillar’s organs and tissues dissolve into an amorphous, souplike
state, only to reconstitute into the structure of a butterfly’s body that bears no resemblance to a caterpillar at all.

Science has no idea why metamorphosis evolved. It is almost impossible to imagine that insects hit on it by chance-the chemical complexity of turning into a butterfly is incredible; thousands of steps are all minutely interconnected. (It’s as if you dropped off a bicycle at the shop to be repaired, and when you came back the parts had become a Gulfstream jet.)

But we do have some idea about how this delicate chain of events is linked. Two hormones, one called juvenile hormone, the otherecdysone, regulate the process, which looks to the naked eye like a caterpillar dissolving into soup. These two hormones make sure that the cells moving from larva to butterfly know where they are going and how they are to change. Some cells are told to die; others digest
themselves, while still others turn into eyes, antennae, and wings. This implies a fragile (and miraculous) rhythm that must remain in precise balance between creation and destruction. That rhythm, it turns out,depends on day length, which in turn depends on the earth’s rotation around the sun. Therefore, a cosmic
rhythm has been intimately connected to the birth of butterflies for millions of years.

Science concentrates on the molecules, but this is a striking example of intelligence at work, using molecules as a vehicle for its own intent. The intent in this case was to create a new creature without wasting old ingredients. (And if there is only one reality, we can’t say, as science does, that day length
causes the pupa’s hormones to begin the metamorphosis into a butterfly. Day length and hormones come from the same creative source, weaving one reality. That source uses cosmic rhythms or molecules as it sees fit. Day length doesn’t cause hormones to change any more than hormones cause the day to change—both are tied to a hidden intelligence that creates both at once. In a dream or a painting, a boy may hit a baseball, but his bat doesn’t cause the ball to fly through the air. The whole dream or painting fits together seamlessly.)

Example 2: How insects learned to fly

Two chemicals called actin andmyosin evolved eons ago to allow the muscles
in insect wings to contract and relax. Thus, insects learned to fly. When one of these paired molecules is absent, wings will grow but they cannot flap and are therefore useless. Today, the same two proteins are responsible for the beating of the human heart, and when one is absent, the person’s heartbeat is inefficient and weak, ultimately leading to heart failure.

Again, science marvels at the way molecules adapt over millions of years, but isn’t there a deeper intent? In our hearts, we feel the impulse to fly, to break free of boundaries. Isn’t that the same impulse nature expressed when insects began to take flight? The prolactin that generates milk in a mother’s breast is unchanged from the prolactin that sends salmon upstream to breed, enabling them to cross from saltwater
to fresh. The insulin in a cow is exactly the same as the insulin in an amoeba; both serve to metabolize carbohydrates, even though a cow is millions of times more complex than an amoeba.

To believe in one reality that is totally interconnected isn’t mystical at all, it turns out.

Source: The Book Of Secrets

Deepak Chopra Says there there is no way to prove existence of an outside world

2011-11-22T11:32:00.000-08:00

Any neurologist will assure you that the brain offers no proof that the outside world really exists and many hints that it doesn’t.

All the brain does, in fact, is to receive continuous signals about the body’s state of chemical balance,temperature, and oxygen consumption, along with a crackling stream of nerve impulses. This mass of raw data starts out as chemical bursts with attached electrical charges. These blips run up and down a tangled web of spidery nerve cells, and once a signal reaches the brain, like a runner from the edge of the Empire bringing a message to Rome, the cortex assembles the raw data into even more complex arrangements of electrical and chemical blips.

The cortex doesn’t inform us about this never-ending data processing, which is all that is happening inside gray matter. Instead, the cortex tells us about the world—it allows us to perceive sights, sounds,tastes, smells, and textures—the whole array of creation. The brain has pulled an enormous trick on us, a remarkable sleight of hand, because there is no direct connection between the body’s raw data and our
subjective sense of an outside world.

For all anyone knows, the entire outside world could be a dream. When I’m in bed having a dream, I see a world of events just as vivid as the waking world (for most of us, the other four senses are scattered unevenly throughout our dreams, but some dreamers can touch, taste, hear, and smell as accurately as they can while awake). But when I open my eyes in the morning, I know that these vivid events were all produced inside my head. I’d never make the mistake of falling for this trick because I already assume that dreams aren’t real.

So does my brain dedicate one apparatus to making the dream world and another to the waking world? No, it doesn’t. In terms of cerebral function, the dream mechanism doesn’t flick off when I wake up. The same visual cortex in the rear of my skull allows me to see an object—a tree, a face, the sky—whether I am seeing it in memory, in a dream, in a photo, or standing before me. The locations of brain cell activity
shift slightly from one to the other, which is why I can distinguish among a dream, a photo, and the real thing, yet the same fundamental process is constantly taking place. I am manufacturing a tree, a face, or the sky from what is actually a random tangle of spidery nerves shooting bursts of chemicals and electrical charges in my brain and all around my body. No matter how hard I try, I will never find a single
pattern of chemicals and charges in the shape of a tree, a face, or any other shape. There is just a fire-storm of electrochemical activity.

This embarrassing problem—that there is no way to prove the existence of an outside world—undermines the entire basis of materialism. Thus we arrive at the second spiritual secret:You are not in the world; the world is in you.

The only reason that rocks are solid is that the brain registers a flurry of electrical signals as touch; the only reason the sun shines is that the brain registers another flurry of electrical signals as sight. There is no sunlight in my brain, whose interior remains as dark as a limestone cavern no matter how bright it is outside.

Having said that the whole world is created in me, I immediately realize that you could say the same thing. Are you in my dream or am I in yours—or are we all trapped in some bizarre combination of each other’s personal version of events? To me, this isn’t a problem but the very heart of spirituality. Everyone is a creator. The mystery of how all these individual viewpoints somehow mesh, so that your world and
mine can harmonize, is the very thing that makes people seek spiritual answers. For there is no doubt that reality is full of conflict but also full of harmony. It is very liberating to realize that as creators we generate every aspect, good or bad, of our experience. In this way, each of us is the center of creation.

Source: Book Of Secrets

Deepak Chopra Reveals Few Unexplained Facts

2011-11-22T11:24:00.000-08:00

Desert birds living by the Grand Canyon bury thousands of pine nuts in widely scattered locations along the canyon rim. They retrieve this stored food during the winter, returning precisely to the nuts each one buried and finding them under a deep layer of snow.

Salmon born in a small stream that feeds the Columbia River in the Pacific Northwest swim out to sea. After several years spent roaming vast distances of ocean, they return to spawn at the precise place where they were born, never winding up in the wrong stream.

Little children from several countries were read to in Japanese; afterward they were asked to pick whether they had just heard some nonsense words or a lovely Japanese poem. The children from Japan all got the answer right, but so did significantly more than half the children from other countries who had never listened to a word of Japanese in their lives.

Identical twins hundreds or thousands of miles apart have immediately sensed the moment when their sibling died in an accident.

Fireflies in Indonesia numbering in the millions are able to synchronize their flashes over an area of several square miles.

In Africa, certain trees that are being overforaged can signal other trees miles away to increase the tannin in their leaves, a chemical that makes them inedible to foraging animals. The distant trees receive the message and alter their chemistry accordingly.

Twins separated at birth have met for the first time years later, only to find that they’ve each married a woman with the same first name in the same year and now have the same number of children.

Mother albatrosses returning to a nesting site with food in their beaks immediately locate their chicks among hundreds of thousands of identical offspring on a crowded beach.

Once a year at the full moon several million horseshoe crabs emerge together on one beach to mate. They have answered the same call, from depths of the ocean where no light ever penetrates.

When air molecules cause your eardrum to quiver no differently from a cymbal being hit with a stick, you hear a voice that you recognize speaking words you understand.

On their own, sodium and chlorine are deadly poisons. When they combine as salt, they form the most basic chemical in support of life.

To read this sentence, several million neurons in your cerebral cortex had to form an instantaneous pattern that is completely original and never appeared before in your life.

Why we need to sleep remains a medical mystery, yet complete dysfunction develops if we don’t enjoy its benefits. In the silence of inactivity, the future of the body is incubating.

Source: Book Of Secrets

Important Points From Deepak Chopra "Life After Death" Book

2011-11-15T10:53:00.000-08:00

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=> Twenty four transformations of Prakriti are:
5 basic elements earth water fire air Ether
5 sense objects smell taste sight touch sound
5 sense organs nose tongue eye skin ear
5 organs of action mouth hand leg anus urethra
4 subtle organs mind intellect chitta ahankaar

Our physical body, without life force, is made up of these twenty four elements.

1 Purush or spirit Chetnaa, life force

So Total = 25

Atma or Brahm is the source of both Purush (spirit) and Prakriti(matter)

The Guna Theory of Sankhya Doctrine

Three Gunas goodness action ignorance
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=> Near Death Experiences
http://www.near-death.com/experiences/reincarnation04.html
www.mellen-thomas.com

Lingza Chokyi's Near-Death Experience and Dawa Drolma in Tibet
http://www.near-death.com/experiences/buddhism02.html
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=> God's Definition According to Deepak Chopra
Infinite Counscionesss Is God Which Is Outside Time/Space. In Vedanta Infinite Counscionesss Is Called Brahman.
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=> Dr. Pim van Lommel, M.D.: Continuity of Consciousness Article
http://iands.org/research/important-research-articles/43-dr-pim-van-lommel-md-continuity-of-consciousness.html
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=> Several Reincarnation Proofs

Scientific Proof of Reincarnation proved by Dr. Ian Stevenson's Life Work
http://reluctant-messenger.com/reincarnation-proof.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ian_Stevenson

F Holmes Atwater
http://www.monroeinstitute.org/research/exploring-consciousness-through-the-hemi-sync-process/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Luria
He had one patient who called 100% past life

More information from below link
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Reincarnation_research
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Reincarnation In Christinity

Matthew 17:9-13

http://www.bartleby.com/108/40/17.html

9 And as they came down from the mountain, Jesus charged them, saying, Tell the vision to no man, until the Son of man be risen again from the dead.
10 And his disciples asked him, saying, Why then say the scribes that Eli'jah must first come Mal. 4.5 ?
11 And Jesus answered and said unto them, Eli'jah truly shall first come, and restore all things.
12 But I say unto you, That Eli'jah is come already, Mt. 11.14 and they knew him not, but have done unto him whatsoever they listed. Likewise shall also the Son of man suffer of them.
13 Then the disciples understood that he spake unto them of John the Baptist.

------
followers of John the Bapist bestowed that he was either the Messaih or the return of the prophet elijah called Elias in new testament

Later it seems it has been removed from bible in AD 533.

Gnostics are a set of early christians espoused reincarnation before being wiped out as HERETICS.

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=> God doesn't speak in works or in a language like eng or spanish.communication takes place on astral planes by telepathy.
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=> Dogs That Know When Their Owners Are Coming Home Book is written by Rupert Sheldrake which means cats and dogs read owner's brains
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rupert_Sheldrake
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=> Below 3 people believe "mind is controller of brain" and conducted various experiments

Henry Stapp & Mario Beauregard & Jeffrey Schwartz

We cannot measure directly the human mind or consciousness, and it is not at all clear whether consciousness is inside or outside of 3-D space, as acknowledged by your co-author Henry Stapp [Ref. 2].

http://www.god-does-not-play-dice.net/Beauregard.html
http://www.newdualism.org/papers/H.Stapp/Stapp-PTB6.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Stapp
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeffrey_M._Schwartz
http://www.harpercollins.com/authors/30251/Mario_Beauregard/index.aspx
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=> Regarding Brain Counscioness and Thoughts

How did counscioness creep in somewhere between oxygen atoms and cerebral cortex?

Answer: answer does not lie in brain. brain is an inert object formed of organic checmials.

organic chemicals are made up of molecules and atoms.

atoms are made up of subatomic particles which in turn can be divied into energy waves.

These energy waves have their source in an invisible field.

So Eventually brain is nothing but energy.
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=> Sometimes ordinary thought can affect the world.

There is a SQUID experiment conducted at stanford to prove this.
http://news.stanford.edu/news/2010/october/squids-for-kids-102210.html
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=> Interesting to know about this person and his zero-point field theories.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harold_E._Puthoff
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Part 1 - Ramana Maharshi Devotee V. Ganapati Sthapati (1927|2011)

2011-11-07T11:33:00.000-08:00

Born in 1927, V.Ganapati was the son of Sri Vaidyanatha Sthapati and Smt.Velammal. His father was the builder of the Mathrubhuteswar Temple at Sri Ramanasramam. In the following article the late V.Ganapati Sthapati writes about the two Maharshis to whom he attributes his enormous success in restoring and elevating the status of traditional Hindu architecture in modern Indian society and throughout the world.

During my boyhood, from 1939 to 1949, my father Sri Vaidyanatha Sthapati, was working as the architect and builder of the Sri Mathrubhuteswara Temple at Sri Ramanasramam in Thiruvannamalai. This was the temple built over the samadhi of the holy mother who gave birth to Bhagavan Ramana. I was around 13 when my father started building the temple and also sculpting the holy image of Bhagavan Ramana in stone.

For the sake of my education, my father had to shift to Salem for the construction of a temple there. I did my SSLC and intermediate in the local college. Still my father and I used to visit the Maharishi on work. During such visits I closely watched the face of the Maharishi which was always lustrous whenever the talk turned to our family affairs and on me. He never enquired about my studies, but he used to look at me with a kind smile which I interpreted as a flow of grace.

On one fine morning the results of the Intermediate Examination appeared in the newspapers. To our surprise, there was a call from the Maharishi to which my father and I responded at once. All the time there was a large gathering of devotees in what is called Bhagavan’s Hall. There was a newspaper in the hands of the Maharishi. Both of us standing near his Yogasana, he spoke to the devotees with inestimable joy, saying,Sthapati’s son has passed the examination with distinction. His future is going to be very bright.

The other Maharishi under whose influence I came next was His Holiness Paramacharyal of Kanchi. I had to leave the position of a Sthapati that I was enjoying under the Palaniandavar Devasthanam, Palani in 1961 to assume the principalship of the School of Sculpture and Architecture, a position my father had held from 1957 to 1960. My father had to retire as he fell seriously ill. He had a severe stroke, followed by a paralytic attack and was unable to speak. Even expert medical treatment was of no use. Finally, on the advice of Sri S. Ganesan "Kamban Adippodi", I took him to Pillaiyarpatti (near Karaikudi) for Ayurvedic treatment. Sri S. Ganesan was my godfather since my early days. Even this Ayurvedic treatment produced no results.

It was around this time in 1963 that I met Paramacharyal when he was camping at Ilayattankudi, a village about 10 miles from Pillaiyarpatti where I was born. I had never met him before, though my father had known him intimately for many years. The intimacy between Paramacharyal and my father was at its all-time high when he was commissioned to build a stone mandapam in the premises of the Kanchi Mutt. This is the mandapam where pujas are performed today.

Source: http://www.arunachala.org/newsletters/2011/?pg=nov-dec

2011-11-06T21:25:00.002-08:00

2011-11-06T21:25:00.001-08:00

Ramana Maharshi Qut in this hemisphere then in the2foner. Knowledge implies ignorance of what is known and what lies beyond, and is always limited. Q: Is solitude necessary for vichara (Self-Inquiry)? M: Solitude is everywhere. The individual is always solitary. Our business is to find it within, not to seek it outside ourselves. Solitude is (to be attained) in the mind. A person might be in the midst of the world and yet maintain serenity; such a one is in solitude. Another may stay in a remote forest and still be unable to control the mind; he cannot be said to be in solitude. Those attached to desire are unable to attain solitude wherever they are, whereas those who are detached are always in solitude, even if thereas t 3 ! P P J D * - = P P P P P 0 P ' BC^ b2/ z L3 L4 C This is discrimination. The initial viveka (discrimination) must persist to the end, and its fruit is moksha (liberation). Q: What is the best way of living? M: It depends on whether one is a jnani (realized) or not. A jnani does not find anything different or separate from the Self. Everything is in the Self. The universe and what is beyond are to be found in the Self. The outlook differs according to the sight of the person, based on whether he is realized or not. Q: How is mouna (silence) possible when we are engaged in worldly transactions? M: When women walk with water pots on their heads, they are able to talk with their companions while all the time remaining intent on the water above. Similarly, when a sage engages in activities, they do not disturb him because his mind abides in Brahman. The difficulty is that people think they are the doer; it is a mistake. It is the higher power which does everything and people are only a tool. If they accept that position, they will be free from troubles; otherwise they court them. Do your work without anticipating its fruits. That is all that you should do. Q: What kind of teaching is suitable for young people -- they would not understand the naked truth? M: Their attention might be drawn to the truth from time to time in an appropriate way. Q: Why is the world in ignorance? M: Let the world take care of itself. If you are the body, then there the gross world appears. If you are the spirit, everything is just spirit. Look for the ego, and it vanishes. If you inquire, ignorance will be found to be non-existent. It is the mind which feels misery and darkness. See the Self. Q: If one always remembers the Self, will one's actions always be right? M: They ought to be, but such a person is not concerned with the right or wrong of actions. His actions are God's and therefore right. Q: Is it useful to bring the East and the West closer? M: Such events will take place automatically. There is a power guiding the destinies of nations. These questions arise only when you have lost touch with reality. Q: Is it harder for Westerners to withdraw inwards? M: Yes, they are rajasic (more active mentally) -tempt to realizeoes outwards. We must be inwardlt to go to Kailash (the reputed home of Lord Siva, the Hindu god). M: One can see these places only if it is destined, not otherwise. But even after seeing everything, there will still be more places to visit, if not in this hemisphere then in the other. Knowledge implies ignorance of what is known and what lies beyond, and is always limited. Q: Is solitude necessary for vichara (Self-Inquiry)? M: Solitude is everywhere. The individual is always solitary. Our business is to find it within, not to seek it outside ourselves. Solitude is (to be attained) in the mind. A person might be in the midst of the world and yet maintain serenity; such a one is in solitude. Another may stay in a remote forest and still be unable to control the mind; he cannot be said to be in solitude. Those attached to desire are unable to attain solitude wherever they are, whereas those who are detached are always in solitude, even if t so? It is very good if you can just keep quiet without engaging in any other activities. If that cant be done, what is the use of being quiet? Even if you are obliged to be active, do not give up your attempt to realize the Self. Q: I want to go to Kailash (the reputed home of Lord Siva, the Hindu god). M: One can see these places only if it is destined, not otherwise. But even after seeing everything, there will still be more places to visit, if not in this hemisphere then in the other. Knowledge implies ignorance of what is known and what lies beyond, and is always limited. Q: Is solitude necessary for vichara (Self-Inquiry)? M: Solitude is everywhere. The individual is always solitary. Our business is to find it within, not to seek it outside ourselves. Solitude is (to be attained) in the mind. A person might be in the midst of the world and yet maintain serenity; such a one is in solitude. Another may stay in a remote forest and still be unable to control the mind; he cannot be said to be in solitude. Those attached to desire are unable to attain solitude wherever they are, whereas those who are detached are always in solitude, even if they are engaged in work. When work is performed with attachment it is a shackle. Solitude is not only to be found in forests, it can also be had in the midst of worldly occupations. Helping others Cast all alms, aspirations, desires to serve humanity and schemes to reform the world upon the Universal Power which sustains this universe. He is not a fool. He will do what is required. Lose the sense, "I am doing this." Get rid of egoism. Do not think that you are the one to bring about some reform. Leave these aims alone and let God attend to them. Then, by getting rid of egoism, God may use you as an instrument to effect them, but the difference is that you will not be conscious of doing them; the Infinite will be working through you and there will be no (ego or) self worship to spoil the work. Otherwise there is desire for name or fame and one will be serving the personal self rather than humanity. What people call Satan, the Devil, or black forces, are simply ignorance of the true Self. Nearly all human beings are more or less unhappy because they do not know the true Self. Real happiness abides in Self-knowledge alone. All else is fleeting. To know one's Self is to be always blissful. Q: My friend is keen to do social service work, even at the expense of his own interests. M: His selfless work is helpful; its utility cannot be denied. See how he has continued to work there (where he is) and how you sent him the extract from these conversations. There is a link between the two. The work purified his mind so that he gained an insight into the wisdomway of living? M: It depends on whether one is a jnani (realized) or not. A jnani does not find anything different or separate from the Self. Everything is in the Self. The universe and what is beyond are to be found in the Self. The outlook differs according to the sight of the person, based on whether he is realized or not. Q: How is mouna (silence) possible when we are engaged in worldly transactions? M: When women walk with water pots on their heads, they are able to talk with their companions while all the time remaining intent on the water above. Similarly, when a sage engages in activities, they do not disturb him because his mind abides in Brahman. The difficulty is that people think they are the doer; it is a mied action? M: Let activities go on. They do n = P P P P P 0 the higher power which does eve z L3 L4 t that position they will be free from troubles, otherwise they court them. The sculptured figure on the temple tower shows great strain, but really, the tower rests on the ground, an ask for divine powers to be utilized for human welfare. This is like the lame man who said he would overpower the enemy if only he were helped to his feet! The intention is good but there is no sense of proportion. Q: How can I help others? M: What other is there for you to help? Who is the "I" that is going to help others? First clear up that point and then everything will settle itself. Q: In the West people cannot see how sages in solitude can be helpful. M: Never mind Europe and America. Where are they except in your mind? If you wake up from a dream, do you try to ascertain if the people of your dream creation are also awake? Have compassionatevironment. It is the mind that matters. The fact is that the mind has been trained to think certain 0AQ: I am a doctor. How can I best heal people? M: The permanent cure is jnana (knowledge of Self); the patients must realize it for themselves, and that depends on their maturity. Otherwise, when one disease goes another will come. A young man came and demanded to be given powers to stamp out the world's materialism. M: People who are incapable themselves, ask for divine powers to be utilized for human welfare. This is like the lame man who said he would overpower the enemy if only he were helped to his feet! The intention is good but there is no sense of proportion. Q: How can I help others? M: What other is there for you to help? Who is the "I" that is going to help others? First clear up that point and then everything will settle itself. Q: In the West people cannot see how sages in solitude can be helpful. M: Never mind Europe and America. Where are they except in your mind? If you wake up from a dream, do you try to ascertain if the people of your dream creation are also awake? Have compassionatevironment. It is the mind that matters. The fact is that the mind has been trained to think certain res are fulfilled, do not be elated; and if you are frustrated do not be disappointed. The elation may be deceptive; it should be checked, for initial joy may end in final grief. After all, whatever happens, you remain unaffected, just as you are. Q: But how can I help another with his problems? M: What is this talk of another? There is only the One. Try to realize there is no I, no you, no he, only the one Self which is all. If you believe in the problem of another, you are believing in something outside the Self. You will help him best by realizing the oneness of everything, rather than by outward activity. Q: Has the body any value to the Self? M: Yes, it is through the body's help that the Self is realized Q: What about diet? M: Food affects the mind. The right food makes it more sattvic (harmonious, clear). For the practice of any kind of (spiritual) yoga, vegetarianism is absolutely necessary Q: What about those not accustomed to a vegetarian diet? M: Habit is only adjustment to the environment. It is the mind that matters. The fact is that the mind has been trained to think certain foods tasty. Nourishment may be obtained from vegetarian food no less than from flesh. But the realized person's mind is not influenced by the food eaten. However, get accustomed to vegetarianism gradually. Q: Do you recommend that meat and alcohol be given up? M: Yes. It is a useful aid in the beginning. The difficulty in surrendering them is not that they are really necessary, but that we have become habituated to them. Until the mind is firm in realization, it must have some picture or idea to dwell on, or else the meditation will quickly give way to sleep or (wandering) thoughts. There is a subtle essence in all food; it is this which affects the mind. So, for those who are practicing meditation to find the Self, dietetic rules have been laid down, which it is advisable to follow. Sattvic (pure, bland) foods promote meditation, whereas rajasic (spicy hot) food and tamasic (aged, stale, heavy) food like meat hinder it. Q: Could one receive spiritual illumination while eating meat? M: Yes, but abandon it gradually and accustom yourself to sattvic (pure) food. Once you have attained illumination, what you eat will make less difference, just as on a great fire it is immaterial what fuel is added. A devotee had been following a strict regime, eating only one very light meal a day. The Maharshi remarked at breakfast, "Why don't you also give up coffee" His implication was to rebuke the over-importance placed on diet regulation. Q: But if it is a matter of non-killing, then even plants have life. M: And so do the tiles which you are sitting on! Q: Why do you take milk but not eggs? M: Domesticated cows yield more milk than their calves require and they find it a pleasure to be relieved. Eggs contain potential lives. Q: I take food three or four times a day and attend to bodily wants so much that I am oppressed by the body. Is there a state when I shall be disembodied so that I might be free from the scourge of bodily wants? M: It is the attachments that are harmful: the actions are not bad in themselves. There is no harm in eating three or four times a day, but just do not say, "I want this kind of food and not that kind," and so on. Not only that, but you take these meals in twelve hours of the waking state, whereas you are not eating in the twelve hours of sleep. Does sleep lead you to mukti (liberation)? It is wrong to suppose that simple inactivity (in itself) leads one to mukti. Q: Is it harmless to continue smoking? M: No, tobacco is a poison. It is better to do without it. Tobacco gives only a temporary stimulation to which there must be a reaction with craving for more. Also, it is not good for meditation practice. Q: Is there any drug to promote meditation? M: No, because afterwards the user would be unable to meditate without taking it habitually. Those who take opium or alcohol are unconsciously seeking the blind sexuality Q: What are the passions? M: They are the same force that is used in meditation, but diverted into other channels The news of a devotees marriage was conveyed to the Maharshi. Q: Why has he done this? Surely it is a step back? M: (Laughing.) Why should marriage interfere with his spiritual progress? Unless bodily wants such as hunger, thirst, and evacuation are satisfied, meditation cannot progress. The results of vichara (Self-Inquiry) meditation, are will-power, dreturn to remind me of its existence. Animals can think like human beings. We must not imagine they are senseless creatures. Some who have been in contact wfor the higher life then sexual desire will drop away. When the mind is destroyed the other desires are also destroyed. Q: How can we root out the sex idea? M: By rooting out the false idea of the body being the Self. There is no sex in the Self. Be the real Self, then there will be no trouble with sex Q: Do you approve of sexual continence? M:. A true brahmachari is one who dwells in Brahman. In that case there will be no question of desires any more. Q: At Sri Aurobindo's Ashram there is a strict rule that married couples can live there on condition that they abstain from sexual intercourse. M: What use is that? If it exists in the mind, what use is there in forcing people to abstain? Q: Does the use of birth-control lead to immorality? M: You must go to the root of things. Find out the true cause of birth and then stifle that. Let that which is born control itself. For whom is this birth? There is an ancient verse which says, "Desires go on increasing and burn more fiercely as they are fed," so the only effective control is to check the causes within, to restrain the desires and thus become moral. Q: Is continence the only method to control the size of a family? M: Yes. The other methods only give temporary relief and treat just the symptoms.

2011-11-06T21:25:00.000-08:00

SRI ANNAPURNA-STOTRAM

2011-11-06T10:25:00.000-08:00

Sri Sundara Chaitanya Swami gari pravachanam in telugu 6 Volumes where each volume contains approx 9 videos each.

http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=AnnapoornaStotram+Volume6&aq=f

Note: Sri Sundara Chaitanya Swami says he pity for people who says my aim is to act in movies always or my aim is to dance always or my aim is to sing.

Reason he pity because they cannot get happiness when they are not doing those habits.

nityánandakarè varábhayakarè saundaryarathákarè
nirdhütákhila doúpávanákari pratyaqkúamáheùvarè
práleyácalavamùapávanakarè káùèpurádhèùvarè
bhikùám dehi krpávalambanakarè mátánnapürïùvari(1)

Oh! Mother Annapurna! renderer of the support of compassion, the bestower of eternal happiness, the donor of gifts and protection, the ocean of beauty, the destroyer of all sins and purifier, the great goddess, the purifier of the family of Himavan, and the great deity of Kasi, (thou) grant us alms.

nánáratnavicitrabhüúaïkarè hemámbaráãambari
muktáháravilambamánavilasadvakúojakumbhántarè
káùmèrágaruvásitá rucikari káùèpurádhèùvarè
bhikùám dehi krpávalambanakarè mátánnapürïùvari(2)

Oh! Mother Annapurna! renderer of the support of compassion, one who is adorned with ornaments made up of different kinds of gems, wearer of golden-laced dress, the space, in between whose breasts shines with the pendant garland of pearls, the beautiful - bodied, rendered and the presiding deity of Kasi, (thou) grant us alms.

yogánandakarèvalambanakarè mátánnapürïùvari(7)

Oh! Mother Annapurna! the renderer of the support of compassion, the form of the earth, the governess of all men, the cause of victory, the mother, the ocean of compassion, the possessor of beautiful and dark braid of hari resembling the flower of the indigo plant, the giver of food daily, the direct bestower of emancipation and eternal welfare, and the presiding deity of Kasi, (thou) grant us alms.

devè sarvavicitraratnaracitá dákúáyaïè sundarè
vámá svádupayodhará priyakari# saubhágyamáheùvarè
bhaktábhèùûakarè sadá ùubhakarè káùèpurádhèùvarè
bhikùám dehi krpávalambanakarè mátánnapürïùvari(8)

Oh! Mother Annapurna! the renderer of the support of compassion, Oh! Goddess! adorned with different kinds of gems, the daughter of Daksha, theanakarè mátánnapürïùvari(4)

Oh! Mother Annapurna! the renderer of the support of compassion, the resident of the caves of the Kailasa mountains, golden-complexioned, Oh! Uma! the consort of Sankara, endowed always with maidenhood, the cause of our comprehension of the purport of the Vedas, whose basic syllable is the syllable `Om', the opener of the doors of emancipation and the presiding deity of Kasi, (thou) grant us alms.

døyádøùyavibhütèvá hanakarè brahmáïãabháïã odarè
lèlánáûakasütrakhelanakarè vijòánádèpáñkurè
ùrèviùveùamanaç prasádanakarè káùèpurádhèùvari
bhikùám dehi krpávalambanakarè mátánnapürïùvari(5)

Oh! Mother Annapurna! the renderer of the support of compassion, the conveyor of the visible and invisible prosperity, the container of the primordial egg, the directress of the sportive drama (of the world), the flame of the lamp of true knowledge, the source of the mental happiness of Sri Visvanatha, and the presiding deity of Kasi, (thou) grant us alms.

ádikúántasamastavarïankari ùambhostribhávákari
káùmirá tripureùvri trinayani viùveùvari ùarvaè
svargadvárakaváûanakarè káùèpurádhèùvarè
bhikùám dehi krpávalambanakarè mátánnapürïùvari(6)

Oh! Mother Annapurna! the renderer of the support of compassion, the maker of the letters 'a' (‚) to 'ksha' (®¸), he cause of the three acts of Sambhu, namely, the creation, protection and destruction, the wearer of saffron, the consort of the destroyer of the three cities, the consort of the three-eyed lord, the governess of universe, the form of the goddess of night, the opener of the gates of heavens, and the presiding deity of Kasi, (thou) grant us alms.

urvi sarvajaneùvarè jayakarè mátá køpáságarè
veïinilasamána kuntaladharè nètyánnadáneùvarè
sákúánmokúakarè sadá ùubhakarè káúèpurádhèùvarè
bhikùám dehi krpávalambanakarè mátánnapürïùvari(7)

Oh! Mother Annapurna! the renderer of the support of compassion, the form of the earth, the governess of all men, the cause of victory, the mother, the ocean of compassion, the possessor of beautiful and dark braid of hari resembling the flower of the indigo plant, the giver of food daily, the direct bestower of emancipation and eternal welfare, and the presiding deity of Kasi, (thou) grant us alms.

devè sarvavicitraratnaracitá dákúáyaïè sundarè
vámá svádupayodhará priyakari# saubhágyamáheùvarè
bhaktábhèùûakarè sadá ùubhakarè káùèpurádhèùvarè
bhikùám dehi krpávalambanakarè mátánnapürïùvari(8)

Oh! Mother Annapurna! the renderer of the support of compassion, Oh! Goddess! adorned with different kinds of gems, the daughter of Daksha, the most beautiful, bearer of benign breasts, doer of good to all, endowed with good fortune, fulfiller of the desires of the devotees, doer of auspicious acts, and the presiding deity of Kasi, (thou) grant us alms.

candarárkánalakoûikoûisadøùi candrámùubimbádharè
candrákágnidamánakuïãaladharè candrárkavarïeùvarè
málápustakapáùasáñkuùadhari káù�ne who makes us free from diseases, and the presiding deity of Kasi, (thou) grant us alms.

annapürïe sadápürïe
ùañkarapráïavallabhe
jòánavarágyasiddyartham
bhikúám dehi ca párvati(11)

Oh! Parvati! Annapurna! always full, the dear consort of Sankara, grant us alms for the sake of securing knowledge and detachment.

mátáf ca párvatè devè pitá devo maheùvaraç
bándhavaáç sivabhaktáùca swadeùo bhuvanatrayam

Goddess Parvati is my Mother, Lord Maùivakarè viùeùvari ùridhari
dakúakrandakari nirámaykari káùipuradhèùvarè
bhikùám dehi krpávalambanakarè mátánnapürïùvari(10)

Oh! Mother Annapurna! the renderer of the support of compassion, the protector of the dominion remover of great fear, the mother, the ocean of compassion, the cause of the happiness of all, the eternal doer of good, the consort of Visvesvara, the form of Lakshmi, the destroyer of the sacrifice of Daksha, one who makes us free from diseases, and the presiding deity of Kasi, (thou) grant us alms.

annapürïe sadápürïe
ùañkarapráïavallabhe
jòánavarágyasiddyartham
bhikúám dehi ca párvati(11)

Oh! Parvati! Annapurna! always full, the dear consort of Sankara, grant us alms for the sake of securing knowledge and detachment.

mátáf ca párvatè devè pitá devo maheùvaraç
bándhavaáç sivabhaktáùca swadeùo bhuvanatrayam

Goddess Parvati is my Mother, Lord Mahesvara is my Father, the devotees of Lord Siva are my relatives; and the three worlds are my own country.

Source: http://www.kamakoti.org/shlokas/kshlok13.htm

Part 1 - Ramana Maharshi Devotee Maurice Frydman

2011-11-03T12:41:00.000-07:00

Born a Polish Jew in Warsaw in 1901, Frydman learned Russian, German, Polish and Hebrew in school until he migrated to Paris to take up study at the Sorbonne,
where he learned French and English in order to complete his degree in electrical engineering. After graduation he took up a position as a research engineer
in a large Paris manufacturing firm. It was during this period that a fateful encounter took place between Frydman and Sir Mirza Ismail, the Dewan of Mysore.
When Frydman began enthusiastically questioning the Dewan about India, Sir Mirza proposed that Frydman come to live in India to organise and manage the State
Government Electrical Factory in Bangalore. Frydman accepted this offer immediately and soon was in India as head the Mysore Electrical Industries, Ltd.

It was during this period of the early thirties that he met Gandhi-ji and began to visit Wardha. Frydman made use of his engineering genius to help the Mahatma create several new types of charkha (spinning wheel), in hopes of finding the most efficient and economical spinning wheel for India. It was Gandhi who gave Frydman the name Bharatananda (after Frydman took sannyas), the name by which he was known in Gandhian circles.

In September 1935, Frydman came to Tiruvannamalai to meet Bhagavan for the first time. Immediately taken with Bhagavan, he became a regular visitor and even took up residence in the Ashram for three years. Many of the questions published in Maharshi’s Gospel (some of which also appear in Talks with Sri Ramana Maharshi) were posed by Frydman directly, and Bhagavan seems to have delighted in Frydman’s queries born of a penetrating insight into the teaching.

It was also during this period that a number of the younger Ashram inmates such as T. K. Sundaresa Iyer’s son, joined Frydman to work in his firm at Bangalore.On Saturdays Frydman would come to the Ashram and go back to Bangalore the following day in his jeep along with the Ashram youngsters who were working with him. When once asked why he spent so much money on weekly (instead of monthly) visits, he replied: “What
to do? My battery can only last a week, then it dries up. I have to come to Bhagavan to get it recharged!

Source: http://www.sriramanamaharshi.org/pdf/Saranagathi_eNewsletter_November_2011.pdf

Lingza Chokyi's Near-Death Experience In Tibet

2011-11-01T12:37:00.000-07:00

http://www.near-death.com/experiences/buddhism02.html

A curious phenomenon, little known in the West, but familiar to Tibetans, is the delok. In Tibet, delok means returned from death, and traditionally deloks are people who seemingly "die" as a result of an illness, and find themselves traveling in the bardo - one of many Tibetan Buddhist afterlife states. They visit the hell realms, where they witness the judgment of the dead and the suffering of hell, and sometimes they go to paradises and Buddha realms. They can be accompanied by a deity, who protects them and explains what is happening. After a week the delok is sent back to the body with a message from the Lord of Death for the living, urging them toward spiritual practice and a beneficial way of life. Often the deloks have great difficulty making people believe their story, and they spend the rest of their lives recounting their experiences to others in order to draw them toward the path of wisdom.

The biographies of some of the more famous deloks, such as Dawa Drolma, one of the great lamas of the century. At the age of 16 she fell ill and died, but returned to her body after five days. For the benefit of others she recorded every detail of her experiences in the bardo and pure realms. The experiences of deloks were often sung all over Tibet by traveling minstrels. A number of aspects of the delok correspond not only with, as you would expect, the bardo teachings, such as the Tibetan Book of the Dead, but also with the near-death experience. Dawa Drolma is the author of the book, Delog: Journey to Realms Beyond Death, the source for the information on this web page.

Lingza Chokyi was a famous delok who lived in the sixteenth century.In her biography she tells how she failed to realize she was dead, how she found herself out of her body, and saw a pig's corpse lying on her bed, wearing her clothes. Frantically she tried in vain to communicate with her family as they set about the business of the practices for her death. She grew furious with them when they took no notice of her and did not give her a plate of food. When her children wept, she felt a "hail of pus and blood" fall, which caused her intense pain.

She tells us she felt joy each time the practices were done, and immeasurable happiness when finally she came before the master who was practicing for her and who was resting in the nature of mind, and her mind and his became one. After a while she heard someone whom she thought was her father calling to her, and she followed him. She arrived in the bardo realm, which appeared to her like a country. From there, she tells us, there was a bridge that led to the hell realms, and to where the Lord of Death was counting the good or evil actions of the dead. In this realm she met various people who recounted their stories, and she saw a great yogin who had come into the hell realms in order to liberate beings.

Finally Lingza Chokyi was sent back to the world, as there had been an error concerning her name and family, and it was not yet her time to die. With the message from the Lord of Death to the living, she returned to her body and recovered, and spent the rest of her life telling of what she had learned. The phenomenon of the delok was not simply a historical one; it continued up until very recently in Tibet.

There are many similarities to the teachings of the afterlife as revealed by the Tibetan Book of the Dead and NDE.

In the NDE, the mind is momentarily released from the body, and goes through a number of experiences akin to those of the mental body in the "bardo of becoming."

NDEs very often begins with an out-of-body experience: people can see their own body, as well as the environment around them. This coincides with what the Tibetan Book of the Dead describes. In the bardo of becoming, the dead are able to see and hear their living relatives, but are unable, sometimes frustratingly, to communicate with them.The mental body in the bardo of becoming is described in the Tibetan Book of the Dead as being "like a body of the golden age," and as having almost supernatural mobility and clairvoyance. NDErs also find that the form they have is complete and in the prime of life.They find also that they can travel instantaneously, simply by the power of thought.

In the Tibetan teachings, the mental body in the bardo of becoming meets other beings in the bardo. Similarly, NDErs are often able to converse with others who have died.

In the bardo of becoming, as well as many other kinds of visions, the mental body will see visions and signs of different realms. A small percentage of those who have survived a NDE describe visions of inner worlds, paradises, and cities of light with transcendental music.

Of course, the most astounding similarity is the encounter with the Being of Light, or the "Clear Light" as described in the Tibetan Book of the Dead. According to the Tibetan teachings, at the moment of death, the Clear Light dawns in all its splendor before the dying person. It says: "Oh son/daughter of an enlightened family ... your Rigpa is inseparable luminosity and emptiness and dwells as a great expanse of light; beyond birth or death, it is, in fact, the Buddha of Unchanging Light." Tibetan teachings stress that by recognizing yourself as this Clear Light, you will attain liberation from the cycle of reincarnation. Many NDErs are convinced the Being of Light is their Higher Self.This is certainly in agreement with the Tibetan teachings.

The life review appears again and again in NDE reports, and demonstrates so clearly the inevitability of karma and the far-reaching and powerful effects of all our actions, words, and thoughts.

The central message that NDErs bring back from their encounter with death, or the presence of the Being of Light, is exactly the same as that of Buddha and of the bardo teachings: that the essential and most important qualities in life are love and knowledge, compassion and wisdom.

The bardo teachings tell us that life and death are in the mind itself. The confidence which many NDErs seem to have after this experience reflects this deeper understanding of mind.

Not all NDE reports today, however, are positive, and this corresponds to the Tibetan teachings as well. Some people report terrifying experiences of fear, panic, loneliness, desolation, and gloom, all vividly reminiscent of the descriptions of the bardo of becoming.

In many NDE reports, a border or limit is occasionally perceived; a point of no return is reached. At this border the person then chooses (or is instructed) to return to life, sometimes by the presence of light.Of course in the Tibetan bardo teachings there is no parallel to this, because they describe what happens to a person who actually dies.It has been said the NDE can be viewed as an evolutionary device to bring about a transformation in humanity as a whole, over a period of years, in millions of persons (Ring, 1985).

Whether this is true or not depends on all of us: on whether we really have the courage to face the implications of the NDE and the bardo teachings, and by transforming ourselves we transform the world around us, and so, by stages, the whole future of humanity.

"One in all, All in one, If only this is realized, No more worry about not being perfect!" - the Third Patriarch of Zen

Source: Delog: Journey to Realms Beyond Death By Dawa Drolma

How I Came to Bhagavan By Hamsa Ramiah

2011-09-04T06:44:00.000-07:00

My grandfather, Manavasi Ramaswami lyer, was a strict man and when we were children, we were afraid of him. Bhagavan would be talking with us in the hall and upon seeing my grandfather enter the hall, in a jesting spirit, Bhagavan would have us all himself included keep very quiet and still and sit upright as good children should do.

We also used to cut vegetables in the kitchen with Bhagavan who would join us in singing Aksharamanamalai. He was very meticulous in cutting vegetables and particular that nothing be wasted.

When I was 13 yrs old, Echammal proposed a marriage alliance to my mother and my grandfather.Gowri Ammal and Rajagopala Iyer, the relations of the boy in question, were present.Bhagavan gave his nod of approval for which Ramaswami lyer immediately assented saying he was prepared to receive it as Bhagavan’s gift.The marriage took place two years later and it seems that it was Bhagavan who fixed the wedding date. Only on the day of the wedding did we come to fully understand that this had all been the intervention of the Lord.

Immediately following the ceremony, I and my husband, still in our wedding clothes, came to pay our respects to Bhagavan. It so happened that as we entered the hall to do our namaskars, Bhagavan was just narrating an incident from the Purana about the holy wedding of Lord Siva and Goddess Meenakshi.

On seeing us, Bhagavan singled us out and announced to the gathering,See, here comes Meenakshi Sundareswarar. On hearing this from Bhagavan’s lips, feelings of joy surged up within us; it came as if a blessing from the Lord of Lords.

Source: http://www.sriramanamaharshi.org/pdf/Saranagathi_eNewsletter_September_2011.pdf

Few Quotes Of Ramana Maharshi

2011-08-06T03:51:00.000-07:00

The Self - 1

In the Transcendent state, identity with Brahman places the man in harmony with everything, and there is nothing apart from the Self.

The Self - 2

The conclusion is that happiness is inherent in man and is not due to external causes. One must realize his Self in order to open the store of unalloyed happiness.

The Self - 3

You see the objects on forgetting your own Self. If you keep hold of your Self you will not see the objective world.

The Self - 4

The Self is ever there, there is nothing without it. Be the Self and the desires and doubts will disappear.

The Self - 5

The thought is projected out from your Self. Find out wherefrom it rises. Thoughts will cease to rise and the Self alone will remain.

The Self - 6

If you see the Self, the same will be found to be all, everywhere and always. Nothing but the Self exists.

The Self - 7

The One Reality is the Self from whom has sprung the ego which contains within itself the seeds of predispositions acquired in previous births.

The Self - 8

Qs: Loss of lives is wrong. Are wars justified?
As: For a realized man, the one who remains ever in the Self, the loss of one or several or all lives either in this world or in all the three worlds makes no difference.

The Self - 9

Realization of the Self is the greatest help that can be rendered to humanity.

The Self - 10

Maharshi: A saint helps the whole of humanity, unknown to the latter.
Devotee: Would it not be better if he mixed with others?
Maharshi: There are no others to mix with. The Self is the one and only reality.

The Self - 11

Who is a Master? He is the Self after all. According to the stages of the development of the mind the Self manifests as the Master externally.

The Self - 12

The `I' has no location. Everything is the Self. There is nothing but that. So the Heart must be said to be entire body of ourselves and of the entire universe.

The Self - 13

Investigate and the thoughts cease. What is, namely the Self, will be revealed as the inescapable residue.

The Self - 14

The sea is not aware of its wave. Similarly the Self is not aware of its ego.

The Self - 15

Let the man find out his undying Self and die and be immortal and happy.

The Self - 16

Everyone is aware of the eternal Self. He sees so many dying but still believes himself eternal because it is the Truth.

The Self - 17

Let activities go on. They do not affect the pure Self.

The Self - 18

Self remains veiled by vasanas and reveals itself when there are no vasanas. Owing to the fluctuation of the vasanas, jnana takes time to steady itself. Unsteady jnana is not enough to check rebirths.

The Self - 19

Wandering higher and higher you must return to the Self only. Then, why not abide in the Self even here and now.

The Self - 20

Those who have discovered great Truths have done so in the still depths of the Self.

The Self - 21

The Self is only one. If limited it is the ego. If unlimited it is Infinite.

The Self - 22

Hold the Self and the world will not appear

The Self - 23

Devotee: A man on realizing the Self, can help the world more effectively. Is it not so?

Maharshi: If the world be apart from the Self.

The Self – 24

Those unfit for investigation must practice meditation. In this practice the aspirant forgetting himself meditates `I am Brahman' or `I am Siva'; thus he continues to hold to Brahman or Siva; this will ultimately end on the residual Being as Brahman or Siva which he will realize to be Pure Being i.e., the Self.

The Self – 25

Those unfit for investigation must practice meditation. In this practice the aspirant forgetting himself meditates `I am Brahman' or `I am Siva'; thus he continues to hold to Brahman or Siva; this will ultimately end on the residual Being as Brahman or Siva which he will realize to be Pure Being i.e., the Self.

The Self - 26

Sahaja jnani remains unawares of his bodily activities because his mind is dead- having been resolved in the ecstasy of `Chid-Ananda' or Self.

THE SELF - 27

One has only to remove the transitory happenings in order to realize the ever present Self.

THE SELF - 28

When the mind is examined, its activities cease automatically. This is the method of Jnana. The pure mind is the Self.

The Self – 29

Contemplation helps one to overcome that the Self must be visual. In truth, there is nothing visual. How do you feel the `I' now? Do you hold a mirror before you to know your own being? The awareness is the `I'.

The Self – 30

The Self is that to which we surrender our ego and let the Supreme Power, i.e., the Self, do what it pleases. The ego is already the Self's. We have no right over the ego, even as it is. However, supposing we had, we must surrender them.

Ramana Maharshi Devotee "Veterinarian" Dr Narayana Reddy

2011-08-03T11:32:00.001-07:00

Reddivari Narayana Reddy’s contact with the Ashram began when Cow Lakshmi fell sick in the year 1948 and his teacher, Prof. Ananathanarayana Rao,advised Chinnaswami to invite his former student to treat her.

At the time Dr. Reddy was the Government Touring Veterinary Assistant Surgeon working in the veterinary hospital at Tiruvannamalai. He came to see Lakshmi several times and determined that she was suffering from indigestion.

Despite his treatment, however, she eventually succumbed,much to the dismay of devotees. Dr. Reddy says Lakshmi’s digestive condition may have been caused in part, or at least complicated by, devotee’s indiscriminate, though nevertheless well-intended,feeding of Lakshmi with all sorts of delicacies.

Bhagavan acknowledged Dr. Reddy’s efforts and it seems, one day enquired of Chinnaswami whether the doctor had been paid for his visits.

Though Chinnaswami had offered payment for his services,the veterinarian had refused to accept it.When Dr.Reddy met Bhagavan in the old hall, declining once again to accept any form of payment, Bhagavan graciously instructed the attendant to gift him copies of all the Ashram publications in English and Telugu.

Born in 1908 Dr. Reddy ultimately came to Bhagavan through Cow Lakshmi after a long series of bends and turns. He had been attracted to the Theosophical Society and participated in the Salt Satyagraha as part of the Civil Disobedience movement of Gandhiji.

He then came into contact with Sri Ramakrishna Math,Visakapatnam, and was initiated into the order by Swami Yatiswaranandaji. By virtue of his position as the Veterinary Assistant Surgeon at Tiruvannamalai he was blessed to come in contact with the Ashram
and finally to meet Bhagavan Sri Ramana which altered the course of his life forever.

With his spiritual leanings since childhood,and as a gifted orator, Dr. Reddy became and remained an active speaker. To his credit he wrote and published a book (in Telugu) on Bhagavan’s teachings entitled,Atmavicharamu: Sri Ramana Maharshi.

Dr.Reddy is now 103 years old.Healthy and managing on his own, he lives with his son in their native Tanapalli, near Tirupati. —

Source: http://www.sriramanamaharshi.org/pdf/Saranagathi_eNewsletter_August_2011.pdf

Few Ramana Maharshi Talks

2011-07-21T11:41:00.000-07:00

Happiness is born of Peace and can reign only when there is no disturbance. Disturbance is due to thoughts, which arise in the mind. When the mind is absent, there will be perfect Peace.

Even the present is mere imagination, for the sense of time is purely mental.

"You and I are the same. What I have done is surely possible for all. You are the Self now and can never be anything else. Throw your worries to the wind, turn within and find Peace." ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi

The ultimate truth is so simple; it is nothing more than being in one’s natural, original state.

The Self is always there. It is you. There is nothing but you.

Everyday life is not divorced from the Eternal State. So long as the daily life is imagined to be different from the spiritual life these difficulties arise. If the spiritual life is rightly understood, the active life will be found to be not different from it (Talk 375).

When a pot is broken, the space within it is not, and similarly, when the body dies the Self in it remains eternal.

All that is required to realize the Self is to be still.

By day I praised you, and never knew it. By night I stayed with you, and never knew it. I always thought that I was me--but no, I was you and never knew it

The realized person weeps with the weeping, laughs with the laughing, plays with the playful, sings with those who sing, keeping time to the song.

By whatever path you go, you will have to lose yourself in the One.

Since the one aim is to realize the Self by destroying the ego, to engage oneself in verbal wrangling about the nature of the world is but vain. ~ Truth Revealed (Sadvidya)

We are always the Self. Only, we don’t realise it.

There are no stages in Realization or degrees in Liberation.

You speak as if you are here, and the Self is somewhere else and you had to go and reach it, but in fact the Self is here and now, and you are always It.

Your business is simply to surrender and leave everything to me.

Engage yourself in the living present. The future will take care of itself.

The body itself is a thought. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi

You imagine it is something somewhere high in the sky, far away, and has to descend. It is really inside you, in your Heart, and the moment you effect subsidence or merger of the mind into its Source, grace rushes forth, sprouting as from a spring within you.

Your duty is to Be, and not to be this or that.

Since you shine as ''I'' in the Heart, your name itself is Heart. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi

It does not matter how many thoughts arise. As each thought arises, one should inquire with diligence, "To whom has this thought arisen?"

The mind is commonly said to be strong if it can think furiously. But here the mind is strong if it is free from thoughts.

I would like to take a moment to thank each and everyOne of you who support this page with your wonderful insights. May you rediscover your true nature and live as That. Lॐve blessings from the Heart

Apart from thoughts, there is no such thing as mind.

The mind cannot seek the mind.

Grace is not something to be acquired from others. If it is external, it is useless. All that is necessary is to know its existence in you.

You know that you know nothing.

Without consciousness, time and space do not exist; they appear within Consciousness but have no reality of their own.

When will the realization of the Self be gained? When the world which is what-is-seen has been removed, there will be realization of the Self which is the seer. ~ from Who Am I? (Nan Yar?)

Be yourself and nothing more.

You and I are the same. What I have done is surely possible for all. You are the Self now and can never be anything else.Throw your worries to the wind, turn within and find Peace.

True humanity lies not in returning violence for violence, but in forgiveness.

"Only those who need not engage in action, are happy; they are perfectly content, and self-contained, and they experience happiness which extends to all the pores of the body." ~ Tripura Rahasya

When there is no "I" there is no karma.

Questioner: What is the state beyond bliss? Maharshi: It is the state of unceasing peace of mind which is found in the state of absolute quiescence.

The existence of this existence-consciousness can be inferred by the objects illuminated by it. It does not become the object of consciousness.

Guru is none other than the Self. If there is a external guru he will only point to the self

Q: How long does it take a man to be reborn after death? Is it immediately after death or some time later?   Maharshi: You do not know what you were before birth, yet you want to know what you will be after death. Do you know what you are now?

Existence or Consciousness is the only reality. Consciousness plus waking we call waking. Consciousness plus sleep we call sleep. Consciousness plus dream, we call dream. Consciousness is the screen on which all the pictures come and go. The screen is real, the pictures are mere shadows on it.

"Only the knowledge of direct experience can be true and useful; the Self is to be realized and not to be talked about." ~ The Lamp of Non-Dual Knowledge

To the ignorant and the wise alike the world exists. To the former, the world observed alone is real. To the wise, the formless source of the visible is the one world, Real and Perfect." ~ Sat-Darshana Bhashya

You know that you are.

"The Self is one and is identical with the Lord. In order to see the Self or to see the Lord, the ego must get consumed and lost, having surrendered itself to the Supreme Being." Truth Revealed (Sadvidya)

The seat of Realization is within and the seeker cannot find it as an object outside him. That seat is bliss and is the core of all beings. Hence it is called the Heart.

The realized being does not see the world as different from himself.

Married or unmarried, a man can realise the Self, because that is here and now. If it were not so, but attainable by some efforts at some other time, and if it were new and something to be acquired, it would not be worthy of pursuit. Because what is not natural cannot be permanent either. But what I say is that the Self is here and now and alone.

Be what you are. That which is, is ever present. Even now you are It, and not apart from It. The expectation to see and the desire to get something are all the working of the ego. Be yourself and nothing more.

"The changeless infinite Self transcends time and space, which are relative to the body and the mind." ~ Truth Revealed (Sadvidya)

All will come right in the end.

A Self-realised being cannot help benefiting the world. His very existence is the highest good.

If the mind is turned inward God manifests as inner consciousness.

The Heart is not physical; it is spiritual. Hridayam = hrit + ayam - This is the centre. It is that from which thoughts arise, on which they subsist and where they are resolved.

Satisfaction can be only when you reach the Source. Otherwise restlessness remains.

The conception that there is a goal and a path to it, is wrong. We are the goal or peace always.

The thing to do is to concentrate on the seer and not on the seen, not on the objects, but on the Light which reveals them.

Grace is ever present. All that is necessary is that you surrender to It.

The body itself is a thought. Be as you really are.

Forgetfulness of your real nature is true death; remembrance of it is rebirth.

When you speak of a path, where are you now?

Guru is not the physical form. So the contact will remain even after the physical form of the Guru vanishes.

If the light of the sun is invisible to the owl, it is onlyquiry realize that the mind which remains at the end of the inquiry is Brahman." ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi

There is no difference between the dream and the waking states except that the dream is short and the waking long. Both are the result of the mind. Our real state, called turiya (fourth), is beyond the waking, dream and sleep states.

Regulation of life, such as getting up at a fixed hour, bathing, doing mantra, japa, observing ritual, all this is for people who do not feel drawn to self-enquiry or are not capable of it. But for those who can practise this method all rules and discipline are unnecessary.

Reality lies beyond the mind. So long as the mind functions, there is duality. Once it is transcended, Reality shines forth.

Birth and death pertain only to the body…they are superimposed on the Swe are free.

The fact of your existence is also your realization.

'I exist' is the only permanent self-evident experience of everyone.

Eventually, all that one has learnt will have to be forgotten.

Doesn't one find some kind of peace while in meditation? That is a sign of progress. That peace will become deeper and more prolonged with continued practice. It will also lead to the goal.

OAM NAMO BHAGAVATE SRI RAMANAYA

"Those who follow the path of inquiry realize that the mind which remains at theby this intense activity which is called 'silence' (mauna).

There is no help in changing your environment.The obstacle is the mind, which must be overcome, whether at home or in the forest. If you can do it in the forest, why not in the home? Therefore, why change the environment?

Mind and breath have the same source. Hence breath is controlled when mind is controlled and mind when breath is controlled. Breath is the gross form of the mind. Pranayama (breath control) is only an aid to subdue the mind and will not serve to kill it. Like pranayama, worship of a deity, japa (repetition) with a mantra, strict regulation of diet are all aids for mind control.

There is no greater mystery than this: Being Reality ourselves, we seek to gain Reality.

.lf, giving rise to the delusion that birth and death relate to the Self. Discover the undying Self and be immortal and happy.

The highest form of grace is silence. It is also the highest spiritual instruction. .. All other modes of instruction are derived from silence and are therefore secondary. Silence is the primary form. If the Guru is silent the seeker's mind gets purified by itself. Talks with Sri Ramana Maharshi, 518.

Maya (delusion or ignorance) which cannot be desYour duty is to Be, and not to be this or that.

To him who is one with the formless Self, everything is formless.

They say I am dying, but I am not going away. Where could I go? I am here.

Be as you already are.

"If mind-consciousness subsides into the source from which it arose, the experience of Being, absolute perfection, will unite with you here and now." ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi

Christ is the ego. The Cross is the body.When the ego is crucified, and it perishes, what survives is the Absolute Being, and this glorious survival is called Resurrection. - Talks, November 6, 1935

All spiritual teachings are only meant to make us retrace our steps to our Original Source...We need not acquire anything new, only give up false ideas and useless accretions...Instead of doing this, we tr2That which is, is only Sat. That is called Brahman. The luster of Sat is chit and its nature is ananda. These are not different from Sat. And the three together are known as Sat-chit-ananda."

The mind is only a bundle of thoughts. The thoughts arise because there is the thinker. The thinker is the ego. The ego, if sought, will vanish automatically. The ego and the mind are the same. The ego is the root-thought from which all other thoughts arise.

What exists in truth is the Self alone.

Your duty is to Be, and not to be this or that.

To him who is one with the formless Self, everything is formless.

Thit must be ddying, but I athe truth is gained. This is clearly ridiculous. A day will dawn when you will laugh at your past efforts. What you realize on the day you laugh is also here and now.

The world is nothing more than an embodiment of the objects perceived by the five sense-organs. Since, through these five sense-organs, a single mind perceives the world, the world is nothing but the mind. Apart from the mind can there be a world? ~ Forty Verses on Reality,verse 6

f one has form oneself, the world and God also will appear to have form, but if one is formless, who is it that sees those forms, and how? Without the eye can any object be seen? The seeing Self is the Eye, and that Eye is y to grasp something strange and mysterious because we believe happiness lies elsewhere. This is the mistake.

Do not think too much of psychical phenomena and such things. Their number is legion; and once faith in the psychical thing is established in the heart of a seeker, such phenomena have done their work. Clairvoyance, clairaudience, and such things are not worth having, when so much far greater illumination and peace are possible without them than with them." ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi

There is no greater mystery than this: Being Reality ourselves, we seek to gain Reality. We think that there is something hiding Reality and that it must be destroyed before the truth is gained. This is clearly ridiculous. A day will dawn when you will laugh at your past efforts. What you realize on the day you laugh is also here and now.

The world is nothing more than an embodiment of the objects perceived by the five sense-organs. Since, through these five sense-organs, a single mind perceives the world, the world is nothing but the mind. Apart from the mind can there be a world? ~ Forty Verses on Reality,verse 6

f one has form oneself, the world and God also will appear to have form, but if one is formless, who is it that sees those forms, and how? Without the eye can any object be seen? The seeing Self is the Eye, and that Eye is the Eye of Infinity. ~ Forty Verses on Reality,verse 4

Abide as That in which there is no beginning or end, no top or bottom or middle, no holy place or god, no gifts or pious acts, no time or space, no objects of perception - and be always happy, free from all traces of thought. ~ The Heart of the Ribhu Gita

Reality is simply loss of the ego. Destroy the ego by seeking its identity.Because the ego has no real existence, it will automatically vanish, and Reality will shine forth by itself in all its glory. This is the direct method. All other methods retain the ego.

Without consciousness, time and space do not exist; they appear within Consciousness but have no reality of their own.

You speak as if you are here, and the Self is somewhere else and you had to go and reach it… …But in fact the Self is here and now, and you are always It. It is like being here and asking people the way to the ashram, then complaining that each one shows a different path and asking which to follow

Happiness is born of Peace and can reign only when there is no disturbance. Disturbance is due to thoughts, which arise in the mind. When the mind is absent there will be perfect Peace.

The world does not exist in sleep and forms a projection of your mind in the waking state. It is therefore an idea and nothing else.

"If you seek God with your whole Heart, then you may be assured that the Grace of God is also seeking you." ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi

Place your burden at the feet of the Lord of the Universe who accomplishes everything. Remain all the time steadfast in the heart, in the Transcendental Absolute. God knows the past, present and future. He will determine the future for you and accomplish the work. What is to be done will be done at the proper time. Don’t worry. Abide in the heart and surrender your acts to the divine.

Your duty is to Be, and not be this or that.Let the world bother about its reality or falsehood. Find out first about your own reality. Then all things will become clear.

Ramana Maharshi's 100 frequently asked question answers

2011-07-21T11:38:00.001-07:00

52. Question: How to meditate?

Bhagavan: Being aware of the Self is the real meditation. When the mind gives up its habit of choosing and deciding, it then turns towards its own real nature. At that time, it gets into the fundamental state. When the ego gets or stays more powerful, entry into this state does not take place.

53. Question: What must I do to avoid sleep during my meditation?

Bhagavan: Meditators must not work too much, nor should they fill their stomachs with excessive food. The more one fills the stomach, the lower one's mental state becomes. If the stomach is mostly empty, one will go higher spiritually. One should not tighten the strings of the veena (stringed musical instrument) either too much or too little. The body must be kept like that.

Likewise with sleep. One third of the night has been allotted for sleep. That is, one must go to bed at 10 p.m. and wake up at 2 a.m. One should not sleep during the daytime. There is anbody? How could I feel this in the body?

Bhagavan: You can feel yourself as one with the One that exists: the whole body becomes a mere power, a force-current; your life becomes a needle drawn to a huge mass of magnet; and, as you go deeper and deeper, you become a mere center, and then not even that for you become mere consciousness.

71. Question: Then when you say, "Know thyself" you want me to know this ego-self?

Bhagavan: The moment the ego-self tries to know itself, it changes its character; it begins to partake less and less of the Jada (inert nature) in which it is absorbed, and more and more of the Consciousness of the Self, the Atman.

72. Question: Now be pleased to tell me where it (the Real Self) is in the body.

Bhagavan: You cannot know it with your mind. You cannot realize it by imagination, when I tell you here is the center (pointing to the right side of the chest). The only direct way to realize it is to cease to fancy, and (simply) try to be yourself. Then you realize, automatically feel, that the center is there. This is the center, the Heart spoken of in the scriptures as Hridayaguha (Cavity of the Hearin order to prevent it from running everywhere. Inquiring, "Who Am I?" is a much easier method of controlling the mind.

56. Question: I am often tempted to try other centers (of concentration), such as the base of the mind, the tip of the nose, and the space between the eyebrows. What does Bhagavan think about it?

Bhagavan: When the Heart center is there (is present), why not go directly to it instead of going through other centers? To come to Tiruvannamalai from Madras (in South India), why should you go to Banaras (in North India) first and come down all the way, or why go to Rameswaram (another city further south in India) and come up here. Why not come straight?

57. Question: Some people advise that one should concentrate on the center of the eyebrows. Is this correct?

Bhagavan: What is important is (ones) determination. The source of everython. Accept your true identity with the Real. Be the water and not the froth. That is done by diving in.

65.Question: Sri Bhagavan speaks of the Heart as the seat of Consciousness, and as identical with the Self. What does the Heart signify exactly?

Bhagavan: The question about the Heart arises because you are interested in seeking the source of Consciousness. To all deep thinking minds, the inquiry about the "I" and ? How can the mind be made to over cy toward diffus ' BC^ b2/ ^ b2/ imal state of freedom from thought?

Bhagavan: It is the mind's attachment to objects, constituting the non-self, which makes the mind wander about during meditation. Therefore, the mind should be withdrawn from the non-self, and 63. Question: How can meditation become steady?

ng imagination. Accept your true identity with the Real. Be the water and not the froth. That is done by diving in.

65.Question: Sri Bhagavan speaks of the Heart as the seat of Consciousness, and as identical with the Self. What does the Heart signify exactly?

64. Question: Am I the froth?

Bhagavan: Cease that identification with the unreal and know your real identity. Then you will be firm and no doubts can arise. Because you think that way there is worry. It is a wrong imagination. Accept your true identity with the Real. Be the water and not the froth. That is done by diving in.

65.Question: Sri Bhagavan speaks of the Heart as the seat of Consciousness, and as identical with the Self. What does the Heart signify exactly?

Bhagavan: The question about the Heart arises because you are interested in seeking the source of Consciousness. To all deep thinking minds, the inquiry about the "I" and 0A
62. Question: What books should I read for swadhyaya (introspection, or self study)?

Bhagavan: The Self is the real book. You can glance anywhere in that "book"; nobody can take it away from you. Whenever (or since) you are free, turn towards the Sed know your realou may read whateverwill be firm and no doubts can arise. Because you think that way there is worry. It is a wrong imagination. Accept your true identity with the Real. Be the water and not the froth. That is done by diving in.

65.Question: Sri Bhagavan speaks of the Heart as the seat of Consciousness, and as identical with the Self. What does the Heart signify exactly?

64. Question: Am I the froth?

Bhagavan: Cease that identification with tonsciousness. To all deep thinking minds, the inquiry about the "I" and its nature has an irresistible fascination.

Call it by any name: God, Self, the Heart, or the seat of Consciousness, it is all the same. The point to be grasped is this, that Heart means the very core of one's being, the center without which there is nothing whatever.

66. Question: But Sri Bhagavan has spec
Bhagavan: The question about the Heart arises because you are interested in seeking the source of Consciousness. To all deep thinking minds, the inquiry about the "I" and its nature has an irresistible fascination.

Call it by any name: God, Self, the Heart, or the seat of Consciousness, it is all the same. The point to be grasped is this, that Heart means the very core of one's being, the center without which there is nothing whatever.

66. Question: But Sri Bhagavan has specified a particular place for the Heart within, i.e., a physical place of the Heart within the physical body, which is in the chest two digits to the right from the median.

Bhagavan: Yes, that is the center of spiritual experience according to the testimony of Sages. This spiritual Heart-center is quite different from the blood-propelling, muscular organ known by the same name. The spiritual Heart-center is not an organ of the body. All that you can say of this Heart is that it is the very core of your being. That with which you are really identical (as the word in Sanskrit literally means), whether you are awake, asleep, or dreaming, whether you are engaged in work or immersed in samadhi (absorbed in Self).

67. Question: How can it (the Heart-center) be localized in any part of the body? Fixing a place for the Heart (within the body) would imply setting physiological limitations to that which is beyond space and tf Consciousness. To all deep thinking minds, the inquiry about the "I" astion about the position of the Heart, considers himself as existing within the body. While putting the question now, would you say that your body alone is here but that you are speaking from somewhere else? No, you accept your bodily existence. It is from this point of view that any reference to a physical body is made.

68. Question: You often say that there is the real meaning of "I" in the Heart. What does it mean?

Bhagavan: Yes, when you go deeper within, you lose yourself as it were in the abysmal depths; then the Reality, which is the Self that was behind you all the while, takes hold of you. It is an incessant flash (or current) of I-consciousness, you can be aware of it, feel it, hear it, sense it, so to say; this is what I call the throb (or current) of the "I"-"I."

69. Question: You said that the Atman (the Self) is immutable, self-effulgent, etc. But, if you speak at the same time of the incessant flash (or current) of I-consciousness, does that not imply movement, which cannot be complete realization in which there is no movement?

Bhagavan: What do you mean by complete realization? Does it mean becoming a stone, an inert mass? The thought "I," is different from that which says "I." The former is the activity of the ego, and is bound to lose itself and Aurl (Ullam).

73. Question: Then what is Samadhi?

Bhagavan: In yoga the samadhi term refers to some kind of trance, and there are various kinds of samadhi. However, the samadhi I speak of is different. It is Sahaja Samadhi (state of permanent Realization). For, here you have Samadhana (see all things as the same), you remain calm and composed even while you are active; you realize that you are moved by the deeper Real Self within. You have no worries, no anxieties, no cares.

For, here you come to realize that there is nothing belonging to you. And everything is done by Something with which you get into conscious union.

74. Question: If this is Sahaja Samadhi (the natural state) and the most desirable condition, there is no need for Nirvikalpa Samadhi (highest state of Yoga that sees no differences).

Bhagavan: The Nirvikalpa Samadhi (no differences perceived) of Raja (Royal) Yoga may have its use. But, in Jnana (pure Knowledge), this Sahaja Sthiti (abidance in the natural state) itself is the Nirvikalpa (no concepts) state. For, in this state the mind is free from doubts (and modifications). It has no need to swing between alternatives of possibilities and probabilities. It has noity without any thought is Nirvikalpa Samadhi. Permanently abiding in the Selft), Aurl (Ullam).

73. Question: Then what is Samadhi?

Bhagavan: In yoga the samadhi term refers to some kind of trance, and there are various kinds of samadhi. However, the samadhi I speak of is different. It is Sahaja Samadhi (state of permanent Realization). For, here you have Samadhana (see all things as the same), you remain calm and composed even while you are active; you realize that you are moved by the deeper Real Self within. You have no worries, no anxieties, no cares.

For, here you come to realize that there is nothing belonging to you. And everything is done by Something with which you get into conscious union.

74. Question: If this is Sahaja Samadhi (the natural state) and the most desirable condition, there is no need for Nirvikalpa Samadhi (highest state of Yoga that sees no differences).

Bhagavan: The Nirvikalpa Samadhi (no differences perceived) of Raja (Royal) Yoga may have its use. But, in Jnana (pure Knowledge), this Sahaja Sthiti (abidance in the natural state) itself is the Nirvikalpa (no concepts) state. For, in this state the mind is free from doubts (and modifications). It has no need to swing between alternatives of possibilities and probabilities. It has noity without any thought is Nirvikalpa Samadhi. Permanently abiding in the Selfadhi (the state of oneness where one experiences the Self) mean that one is unaware of everything?

Bhagavan: No. Meditation will go on without our effort. That is samadhi.

76. Question: Then what is Sahaja Samadhi?

Bhagavan: In that state, meditation will always be going on. In that state the thought, "I am meditating" or "I am not meditating" will not occur.

NOTE: Sahaja Samadhi is the permanent state of Self-Realization in which one functions normally in the world without thought, with no sense of oneness or separateness.

77. Question: In my meditation I am only aware of an all-pervasive blankness. Is that good?

Bhagavan: It is good if meditators meditate with Self-awareness.

78. Question: Can one practice Sahaja Samadhi (the permanent state of Self-Realization in which one functions normally in the world without thought, with no sense of oneness or separateness) right from the beginning?

Bhagavan: Yes.

79. Question: How does one practice Nirvikalpa Samadhi (the state with no perceived differences)? How many different kinds of samadhi are there?

Bhagavan: There is only one kind of samadhi, not many kinds. To remain temporarily subsided in the Reality without any thought is Nirvikalpa Samadhi. Permanently abiding in the Self, without forgetting it, is Sahaja Samadhi.

80. Question: God is omnipresent. Why should He become an avatara (one born Enlightened in a physical body) age after age? Couldn't He perform His function just by being present everywhere?

Bhagavan: By the order of Iswara (the Supreme Power, or personal God), authorized, eligible, or qualified beings (adhikarika purushas) along with their devotees are sent to take birth on earth. These beings become avataras in order to give their grace to those who have done nishkamya punya (meritorious acts without any desire), accomplish the mission for which they came, then go back to their own earlier positions. Though different bodies come to the avatara purushas (incarnate divine beings), their experience of the unity of the Self never changes. A man, after being born, undergoes the various stages of life -- childhood, youth, manhood, and old age -- but in all these stages, the thought that he is the same person who was born remains unchanged. Likewise, the avatara purushas knowingly remain as the one Self even though they go through many births. For them, it is rather like seeing ten different dreams in one night.

All these questions will not occur when you know yourself. Without knowing the truth about oneself, it is a waste of time trying to understand the differing teachings of other people.

81. Question: What is the difference between Iswara (personal God) and the liberated one?

Bhagavan: Iswara and the Jnani (liberated being) are one and the same, except that the liberated person was at first forgetful of the Self. Later, by strength of his practice, he eventually came to know the Self. For Iswara, it was not like that. Being the eternally liberated One, God is performing the five-fold functions of creation, preservation and destruction, veiling and grace. The activities, or functioning of Iswara and the Jnani, are one and the same.

82. Question: You have said that the jnani (realized being) can be as active, and deal with men and things. I have no doubt about it now. You say at the same time that he has no differences; to him all is one, he is always in the Consciousness... if so, how does he deal with differences --with men, with things, which are surely different?

Bhagavan: He sees these differences as but appearances. He sees them as not separate from the True, the Real, with which he is one.

83. Question: The jnani (realized being) seems to be more accurate in his expressions; he appreciates the differences better than the ordinary man. If sugar is sweet and wormwood is bitter to me, he too seems to realize it is so. In fact, all forms, all sounds, all tastes, etc., are the same to him as they are to others. If so, how can it be said that these are mere appearances? Do they not form part of his life experience?

Bhagavan: I have said that equality implies the existence of differences. It is a unity that the jnani perceives in all differences, which I call equality. Equality does not mean ignorance of distinctions. When you have the Realization you can see that these differences are very nominal, they are not at all substantial or permanent, and what is essential in all these appearances is the one Truth, and Real. That I call unity... You referred to sound, taste, form, smell, etc. True, the jnani appreciates the distinctions, but he always perceives and experiences the one Real in all of them. That is why he has no preferences. Whether he moves about or talks or acts, it is all the One Real in which he acts or moves or talks. He has nothing apart from the one supreme Truth.

84. Question: Sri Bhagavan has written that one should not show advaita (non-duality) in one's activities. Why so? All are one. Why differences?

Bhagavan: If you saw someone molesting a woman would you just let him go, thinking "All is one?" There is a scriptural story about this. Some people once gathered together to test whether it is true, as said in the Bhagavad Gita, that a jnani (realized being) sees everything as one. They took a Brahmin, (a member of the highest Hindu caste system), a cow, an elephant, and a dog to the court of King Janaka, who was a jnani. When all had arrived, King Janaka sent the Brahmin to the place of Brahmins, the cow to its shed, the elephant to the place allotted to elephants, the dog to its kennel. He then ordered his servants to take care of his guests and feed them all appropriate food. The people asked, "Why did you separate them individually? Is not everything one and the same for you?"

"Yes, all are one," replied Janaka, "but self-satisfaction varies according to the nature of the individual. Will a man eat the straw eaten by the cow? Will the cow enjoy the food that a man eats? One should only give what satisfies each individual person or animal. Although the same man may play the role of all the characters in a play, his actions will be determined by the role that he is playing at each moment. In the role of a king, he will sit on a throne and rule. If the same person takes on the role of a servant, he will carry the sandals of his master and follow him. His real Self is neither increased nor decreased while he plays these roles. The Jnani never forgets that he himself has played all these roles in the past."

85. Question: What is the difference between the bound man and the one liberated?

Bhagavan: From the Heart, the Self-center, there is a subtle passage leading to the mind's center. The ordinary man lives in the brain unaware of himself in the Heart. The enlightened one lives in the Heart. When he moves about and deals with men and things, he knows that what he sees is not separate from the one Supreme Reality, the Brahman, (the impersonal Absolute Reality) which he realized in the Heart as his own Self, the Real.

Question: What about the ordinary man?

Bhagavan: I have just said that he sees things outside himself. He is separate from the world, from his own deeper truth, from the truth that supports him and what he sees. The man who has realized the Supreme Truth of his own existence realizes that it is the one Supreme Reality that is there behind him, behind the world. In fact, he is aware of the One, as the Real, the Self in all selves, in all things, Eternal and Immutable, in all that is impermanent and mutable.

86. Question: Some say that to make an effort for one's liberation is selfish, and that instead of that, one should do good to others by selfless service.

Bhagavan: Those people believe that jnanis (realized beings) are selfish and that they themselves are selfless, but this is not a true belief. The jnani lives in the experience of Brahman (the impersonal Absolute Reality) and the effect of this experience spreads all over the world. A radio transmission is done from one point but its effect can be felt all over the world. Those who would like to benefit from it can do so. Similarly, the Self-realization of the jnani spreads everywhere and whosoever wants can tune into it. This is not a lesser service.

87. Question: How to maintain the thought that all is Brahman (the impersonal Absolute Reality) in the midst of worldly activities?

Bhagavan: When the harmonium is being played there is a constant note that is called the sruti. Along with that, other notes also come out. If the ear is fixed on this note that is constant, then, while listening to the other notes, that original note cannot be forgotten. Actually, that first note gives strength to all the other notes. So, the principle to understand is that the first note is the adhistana (substratum) while the other notes represent worldly activities. During worldly activities, if (awareness of) the note of the adhistana is continuous, whatever is spoken is then done with authority of this adhistana note. But an ordinary man does not keep his attention on the first note, the adhistana. He merely listens to the subsequent notes. Sukhdev (a sage of ancient India) used to keep such attention and maintain his awareness of Brahman. When the attention is fixed properly on the first note, the effect of the other notes will not be felt.

88. Question: How much sleep does a Jnani (realized being) require?

Bhagavan: Sleep is necessary to one who thinks, "I have risen from sleep." But, to those who are ever in changeless Sleep, what need is there for some other sleep? When the eyelids feel strained, it will do to close the eyes for a while. The three states of waking, dreaming, and deep sleep are for the mind and not for the body.

89. Bhagavan: Now I put a question to you. When a man with luggage gets into a railway carriage, where does he keep it?

Devotee: He keeps it in his compartment or in the luggage car.

90. Bhagavan: So he does not carry his luggage upon his head or in his lap?

Devotee: None but a fool would do so.

Bhagavan: If you call him a fool who keeps it on his head, a thousand times more foolish is it to bear your burden when you get into spiritual life, whether it is vichara-marga (the path of knowledge), or bhaki-marga (the path of devotion)?

91. Question: But can I throw off all my responsibilities, all my commitments?

Bhagavan: Now, look at the temple tower (Gopuram). There are many statues in it, and there is a big statue, one in each corner. Have you seen them? Well, do you think the statues support the temples entrance?

92. Devotee: When you speak like that, it would be as foolish as to think those statues also support the tall towers as well.

Bhagavan: Yes. Likewise, the Lord of the Universe carries the entire burden of this world. You imagine you do. You can hand all your burdens over to His care. Whatever you have to do, you will be made an instrument for doing it at the right time. Do not think you cannot do it unless you have the desire to do it. Desire does not give you the strength for doing. The entire strength is the Lord's.

93. Question: Am I to understand that you are giving me the essence of Karma Yoga (the way of action)?

Bhagavan: It is the essence of Karma Yoga (the path of action), of Bhakti Yoga (the way of devotion), even of Jnana Yoga (the path of knowledge or wisdom); for even though the paths may differ in the beginning, they all eventually lead to this same position.

94. Question: How is sadbuddhi (Pure Intellect) to be steadily kept up?

Bhagavan: All living beings are aware of their surroundings; and, therefore, intellect must be surmised in all of them. At the same time, there is a difference between the intellect of man and that of other animals because man not only sees the world as it is and acts accordingly, but also seeks fulfillment of desires. He extends his vision far and wide, and yet he turns away dissatisfied. He then begins to think and reason out. The desire for permanency of happiness and for peace bespeaks such permanency of his own nature. Therefore, he seeks to find and regain his own nature, i.e., his Self. That found, all is found.

Such inward seeking is the path to be gained by man's intellect. The intellect itself realizes after continuous practice that it is enabled by some Higher Power to function. It cannot itself reach that Power. So it ceases to function after a certain stage. When it thus ceases to function, the Supreme Power is still left there all alone. That is Realization; that is the finality; and that is the goal. It is thus plain that the purpose of the intellect is to realize its own dependence on the Higher Power and its inability to reach the same.

95. Question: What is Sat Sanga (Keeping Conscious Company or Association)

Bhagavan: Sat Sanga means only Self Sanga (association with the Self). Only those who cannot practice that, are to practice being in the company of Realized Beings, or sadhus (holy men)

96. Question: When does one get the company of a Satguru? (Spiritual Master living in Reality)

Bhagavan: The opportunity to be in the company of a Satguru comes effortlessly to those who have performed worship of God, japa (repetition of a name of God), tapas (burning off one's impurities by intense spiritual practice), pilgrimages, etc., for long periods in their previous births. There is a verse by Tayumanavar (a great Indian saint) which points out the same thing; "O Lord of the first and last, those who properly start the worship of idols, holy places, and sacred waters will meet the Satguru who will tell them the words of Truth."

Only he who has done plenty of nishkamya karmas (actions performed without any thought of a reward or consequence) in previous births will get abundant faith in the Guru. Having faith in the Guru's words, such a man will follow the path and reach the goal of liberation.

97. Question: In the supplement to Ulladu Narpadu (a poem of forty-two verses, composed by Bhagavan in Tamil, which explains the nature of Reality and the means of discovering it), it is said that the look of a "Mahatma (great soul) is far more effective than any number of pilgrimages, worship, and other devotional practices." I have already stayed here for some months but I do not feel any change in myself. Why?

Bhagavan: The purification by the look of a Mahatma is not visible. Coal takes time to ignite, but charcoal is proportionately quicker, while gunpowder ignites immediately. So it is with men under the powerful influence of a jnani (a realized being).

98. Question: How can one have a vision of God?

Bhagavan: Seeing God implies that he is not there now but will come later, is it not? That which appears and disappears is not permanent. Can one place faith in that which is impermanent? Is it not better to abide in God, instead of merely seeing Him? Self-abidance is what one should seek, not visions. It is only when the ego is merged in its source, the Heart, that true knowledge of one's identity with God will dawn.

99. Question: The fact is that God guides us. Then what is the use of these instructions to people?

Bhagavan: They are for those who seek instructions. If you are firm in your belief in the guidance of God, stick to it, and do not concern yourself with what happens around you. Furthermore, there may be happiness or misery. Be equally indifferent to both and abide in the faith of God. That will be so only when one's faith is strong that God looks after all of us.

100. Question: Does not God work His Will through some chosen person?

Bhagavan: God is in all and works through all. But His presence is better recognized in purified minds. The pure ones reflect God's actions more clearly than the impure minds. Therefore, people say that they are the chosen ones. However, the "chosen" man does not himself say so. If he thinks that he is the intermediary, then it is clear that he retains his individuality and that there is not complete surrender.

101. Question: How is "I-I" consciousness felt?

Bhagavan: As an unbroken awareness of "I." It is simply consciousness. You are that even now. There will be no mistaking it, when pure.

Jiddu Krishnamurti On Loneliness

2011-07-11T11:47:00.000-07:00

Question: I am beginning to realize that I am very lonely. What am I to do?

Krishnamurti:

Let us approach this problem again to see what is actually taking place, to see what you do when you feel lonely. You try to escape from your feeling of loneliness, you try to get on with a book, you follow some leader, or you go to a cinema, or you become socially very, very active, or you go and worship and pray, or you paint, or you write a poem about loneliness.

That is what is actually taking place. Becoming aware of loneliness, the pain of it, the extraordinary and fathomless fear of it, you seek an escape and that escape becomes more important and therefore your activities, your knowledge, your gods, your radios all become important, don't they? When you give importance to secondary values, they lead you to misery and chaos; the secondary values are inevitably the sensate values; and modern civilization based on these gives you this escape - escape through your job, your family, your name, your studies, through painting etc; all our culture is based on that escape. Our civilization is founded on it and that is a fact.

Can this emptiness, this void, be filled? If not, can we run away from it, escape from it? If we have experienced and found one escape to be of no value, are not all other escapes therefore of no value? It does not matter whether you fill the emptiness with this or with that. So-called meditation is also an escape. It does not matter much that you change your way of escape.

Because we have so many hindrances that are preventing us from seeing, we do not understand what is and therefore we are getting away from reality; all these hindrances have been created by the mind in order not to see what is.To see what is not only requires a great deal of capacity and awareness of action but it also means turning your back on everything that you have built up, your bank account, your name and everything that we call civilization. When you see what is, you will find how loneliness is transformed.

Source: http://www.jiddu-krishnamurti.net/en/the-first-and-last-freedom/1953-00-00-jiddu-krishnamurti-the-first-and-last-freedom-on-loneliness

Experience of Sri Ramana Devotee Experiences

2011-07-09T13:06:00.000-07:00

God is beyond words. No words would ever be able to describe Him. He can only be felt. How? The test is simple. One would feel total peace – an indescribable peace, by being with Him. In His presence, no questions, doubts and thoughts would distract one's mind. Further, the peace secured is beyond words and makes one fulfilled and consumed. In that situation one feels kritkritya – there being no need for any thing more to be achieved in life. About the Godhood of Sri Ramana, those who had the good fortune of being in His presence have expressed themselves according to their capacity to find words to record their experiences, as given below. (Page nos. indicate the source: Face to Face with Sri Ramana Maharshi, a publication of Sri Ramana Kendram, Hyderabad)

Paul Brunton: The Maharshi emanates [to send forth] the perfume of spiritual peace as the flower emanates fragrance from its petals…The peace overwhelms me. I know that there is nothing further that I shall ask from life…In the extraordinary peace, I find a sense of exaltation and lightness. Time seems to stand still. My heart is released from the burden of care. (pp. 13-23)

Justice Sundaram Chettiar: His very presence generates an atmosphere of peace. (pp. 27-8)

Grant Duff: The moment he looked at me, I felt he was the Truth and the Light. I was in direct contact with one who has passed beyond the boundaries of senses and was merged in the Absolute. (pp. 29-30)

Justice Chandrasekhar Aiyar: The Maharshi was the veritable [genuine] storehouse of spiritual energy. He radiates shanti or peace. To be in his presence is by itself stirring experience in the elevation of soul. (pp. 34-5)

Eleanor Pauline Noye: When He smiled it was as though the gets of Heaven were thrown open…At His feet happiness garlanded me. (pp. 35-6)
Ella Maillart: He implants a lasting peace in the centre of every heart…He is a link between the unknowable ultimate and man. (p. 40)

Duncan Greenlees: My mind was caught and held in that peace in a blissfulness it had never known before. He is greatness incarnate. (pp. 52-6)

Balarama Reddy: Just to think of him or sit in his presence used to rouse us to higher levels of blessedness…The Divine power of his presence was something remarkable, entirely outstanding. (pp. 69-72)

S.S. Cohen: Joy and peace suffused [gradually spread through] my being. Never before had I such a delightful feeling of purity and well-being at the mere proximity of a man. He was a beacon light in an impenetrable darkness. (pp. 78-84)

K.K.Nambiar: I felt an indescribable sense of calmness settling over me…He was a mighty spiritual magnet, Divinity in human form. (pp.84-8)

Arthur Osborne: The Maharshi was Divine Grace in human form. For the first time in my life I understood what the grace and blessings of a guru could mean. (pp. 94-102)

Prof. G.V. Subbaramayya: As our eyes met, there was a miraculous effect on my mind and I felt as if I had plunged into a pool of peace. I sat in a state of ecstasy [overwhelming feeling of great happiness] for nearly an hour. (pp. 102-9)

Major Chadwick: It is impossible to describe or even believe what the Maharshi was, unless you have seen it yourself. (pp. 110-16)
\Prof. K. Swaminathan: The pure happiness I enjoyed was that of a child when it sits securely in its mother's lap. (pp. 117-22)

Akilandamma: The gracious power that prevailed in that holy place numbed the mind so effectively that the visitors to Bhagavan's room were automatically silenced. (pp.127-9)

Swami Madhavatirtha: While in the presence of the Maharshi, my breath seemed to stop for a while and my mind was elevated into some spiritual realm of unutterable peace and happiness. (pp.146-50)

Kunju Swami: As Bhagavan's gracious look was fixed on me, all my confusions ceased and I experienced a peace and bliss [perfect happiness], I had never experienced before. (pp. 150-54)

Chhaganlal V. Yogi: The light of the Maharshi's eyes was suffusing my consciousness. Even without being aware of it, his silent gaze brought about a subtle but definite transformation in me. (pp. 161-6)

Viswanatha Swami: In the Maharshi's presence the unique bliss of peace was directly experienced. (pp. 171-3)

Wolter Keers: The light radiating from the Maharshi filled my being, sweeping away all my darkness in one stroke. His presence alone was enough to evaporate the usual mental flow of thoughts, ideas and problems. (pp. 196-201)

Mouni Sadhu: Being near the Maharshi one feels the presence of God as a matter of course – no arguments or proofs are necessary. (pp.205-9)

Pascaline Mallet: To look into his eyes was to be caught up into bliss that is beyond understanding. (pp. 212-3)

M.A. Piggot: When he smiled I felt as if all the flowers in the world had poured their fragrance into our midst. (pp. 218-20)

Ramanadasa Sadananda: Contagious [spread by direct or indirect contact] was his bliss! He sends forth beams of light of jnana by his mere proximity and fills even the unhappy with joy and peace by his very presence. (pp.230-2)

F.H. Humphreys: The Maharshi's body was not of man; it was an instrument of God from which God was radiating terrifically. (pp.245-7)

Dr. P.V. Karamchandani: The vibrations which emanated from the Maharshi were heavenly. His spirituality completely enveloped us and our minds attained a state of blissful meditation. (pp.253-6)
V.Kameshwar Rao: When I sat before the Maharshi, I felt that I was in the presence of God. (pp. 267-9)

T.K.Sundaresa Iyer: A life-giving current flowed from the Maharshi, charging all those nearby. (pp. 285-9)

N.O.Mehta: In the presence of the Maharshi, we were in a world totally different from the one we had left behind. (pp. 295-6)

Santha Rangachary: There was an irresistible and indefinable spiritual power about the Maharshi, which completely overwhelmed me. (pp. 317-20)

Srimat Puragara Parampanthi: The Maharshi's spiritual presence was dynamic and clearly perceptible. It touched me and I felt suddenly the presence of a spiritual power taking me to a higher plane. (pp.326-7)

N. Ponniah: Nothing seemed more enjoyable in this world than to sit in silence in the holy presence of the Maharshi. I felt a sort of electric charge – an unusual vibrating sensation. (pp. 337-8)

Morarji Desai: One gets transformed by his very presence. (pp.352-3)

T.S. Anantha Murthy: Sri Ramana was Brahman in human form. Spiritual illumination was enshrined in him. (pp. 376-7)

Suzanne Alexandra: The Maharshi is a king of yogis. The splendour of his Realisation radiates like a sun. He lifts you far above the world. (pp. 377-9)

K. Vithoba Kamath: The Maharshi radiated spiritual splendour through sublime [unparalleled] silence. (pp. 390-1)

Atmakuri Govindacharyulu: The Maharshi is an ocean of peace. He rules all through silence. (pp. 393-4)

Shanti: In the Maharshi's presence, the mind becomes calm and tranquil of its own accord. Doubts and questions become few and finally vanished. (pp. 408-9)

The above provides a brief glimpse of how the divinity of the Maharshi impacted the devotees. Words would fail to grasp the greatness of Sri Ramana – the Supreme incarnate in human form, who always kept an appearance of a humble and run-of-the-mill person. Grant Duff, a British scholar, noted in 1935: Never in world history was the Supreme Truth placed within such easy reach of so vast a multitude. We bow to Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi.

The Four Gatekeepers to Moksha

2011-07-09T08:00:00.000-07:00

Rama, there are four gatekeepers at the entrance to the Realm of Freedom (Moksha). They are selfcontrol,spirit of enquiry, contentment and good company.The wise seeker should diligently cultivate the friendship of these, or of at least one of them.

VASISTHA continued:

With a pure heart and a receptive mind,and without the veil of doubt and the restlessness of the mind, listen to the exposition of the nature and the means of liberation,O Rama. For, not until the Supreme Being is realised will the dreadful miseries of birth and death come to an end.

If this deadly serpent known as ignorant life is not overcome here and now, it will give rise to interminable suffering not only in this but in countless lifetimes to come. One cannot ignore this suffering, but one should overcome it by means of the wisdom that I shall impart to you.

Self-control

Self-control, O Rama, is the best remedy for all physical and mental ills. When there is self-control, even the food you eat tastes better, else it tastes bitter. He who wears the armour of self-control is not harmed by sorrow.

He who even while hearing, touching, seeing, smelling and tasting what is regarded as pleasant and unpleasant,is neither elated nor depressed-he is self-controlled. He
who looks upon all beings with equal vision, having brought under control the sensations of pleasure and pain, is selfcontrolled.He who, though living amongst all is unaffected by them, neither feels elated nor hates even as one is during sleep-he is self-controlled.

Enquiry

Enquiry (the second gatekeeper to liberation) should be undertaken by an intelligence that has been purified by a close study of the scripture, and this enquiry should be unbroken. By such enquiry the intelligence becomes keen and is able to realise the supreme; hence, enquiry alone is the best remedy for the long-lasting illness known as samsara.

The eye of spiritual enquiry does not lose its sight even in the midst of all activities; he who does not have this eye is indeed to be pitied. It is better to be born as a frog in the mud, a worm in dung, a snake in a hole, than to be without this eye. What is enquiry? To enquire thus: "Who am I? How has this evil of samsara (repetitive history) come into being?" is true enquiry. Knowledge of truth arises from such enquiry; from such knowledge there follows tranquility in oneself; and then there arises the supreme peace that passeth understanding and the end of all sorrow.

(Vichara or enquiry is not reasoning or analysis: it is directly looking into oneself.)

Contentment

Contentment is another gatekeeper of liberation. He who has quaffed the nectar of contentment does not relish craving for sense pleasures; no delight in this world is as sweet as contentment which destroys all sins.

Satsanga

Satsanga (company of the wise, holy and enlightened persons) is yet another gatekeeper of liberation. Satsanga enlarges one’s intelligence, destroys one’s ignorance and one’s psychological distress. Whatever be the cost how-ever difficult it may be, whaterver obstacles may stand in its way, satsanga should never be neglected. For,satsanga alone is one’s light on the path of life. Satsanga is indeed superior to all other forms of religious practices,like charity, austerity, pilgrimage and the performance of religious rites.

These four-contentment, satsanga (company of wise men), the spirit of enquiry, and self-control-are the four surest means by which they who are drowning in this ocean
of samsara can be saved. Contentment is the supreme gain. Satsanga is the best companion to the destination.

The spirit of enquiry itself is the greatest wisdom. And,self-control is supreme happiness. If you are unable to resort to all these four, then practice one: by the diligent practice of one of these, the others will also be found in you. The highest wisdom will seek you of its own accord.Until you tame the wild elephant of your mind with the help of these noble qualities, you cannot have progress towards the supreme even if you become a god, demigod or a tree. Therefore, O Rama, strive by all means to cultivate these noble qualities.

Source: From Vasistha’s Yoga, by Swami Venkatesananda

Ramana Maharshi Devotee Sri M. S. Madhava Rau Shares His Experiences

2011-07-06T12:21:00.000-07:00

Sri M. S. Madhava Rau, Mangalore

My first visit was in the company of Maurice Frydman from Bangalore. Suddenly one morning, early in 1934, he said that he was going to Tiruvannamalai that night. He asked us if we would like to accompany him. He had been there many times before but never invited us. Nor had we ever thought to ask if we could accompany him. This time, though, the question and our own wishes were beating in unison.

At the ashram Maurice introduced us to the Maharshi. He welcomed us with a gracious smile and made enquiries about where we were from. When we replied ‘Mangalore’, the Maharshi said that M. S. Kamath (of the ‘Sunday Times’) was a frequent visitor to the ashram. He then told the other people in the hall a few interesting tidbits about the languages, customs and so on of that part of the country. When he learnt from us that for some years we had lived and worked in the Theosophical Society, Adyar, he smiled again and said that we would then easily make ourselves at home in the ashram. And we did, very happily too.

The Maharshi’s serene and busy life reminded us of Dr Annie Besant in several respects. In the evening a visitor arrived, a big and prosperous-looking Punjabi Sikh gentleman, dressed completely in European clothes. Noting his discomfort while he was attempting to perform the full pranam that Indian etiquette requires, the Maharshi immediately set him at rest, saying it was unnecessary. He also arranged for a chair for him to sit in. The gentleman said plaintively that he was pining for peace of mind. The Maharshi asked who it was that was pining. The visitor was puzzled. In humble and anxious tones he pleaded that he was too ignorant and busy for such deep introspection. However, he added that he would be grateful for some japa, prescribed in the Maharshi’s own words, and conveyed with his blessings. He promised to do the japa in whatever spare time he had.

The Maharshi told him that devoting the same amount of time he had to spare for his japa to enquiry instead would be more beneficial, and that, with practice, it would amply repay his efforts and could even be done at the times when he was busy at work. This was not what the Sikh visitor wanted to hear. After he had failed in his repeated attempts to persuade the Maharshi to give him some japa, he asked, sadly, whether, having come with such high hopes, the Maharshi was now going to send him away empty handed. The Maharshi assured him in a compassionate way that he should not think in this way.

The following morning the Maharshi cited some verses to the Sikh visitor that came from an edition of Yoga Vasishta that had been printed by Maurice Frydman. This appeared to revive his spirits and he left for his train in a good mood.

On one afternoon there was discussion among a small group over an ignorant questioning of the Maharshi’s teaching in some British or American philosophical journal. The Maharshi joined in with a few brief remarks, and resolved the doubts of those who had raised questions about the contents of the article. He ended the discussion in a humorous way, speaking partly in English and partly in Tamil, by saying, ‘Indian philosophy begins where western philosophy ends’.

One experience impressed itself on me indelibly. Before beginning meditation in his presence, I decided that at some point during that day I should ask the Maharshi about a personal problem I had been agonising over for some time. As I sat there meditating, the answer flashed before me, and along with it I was filled with an indescribable flow of happiness. Without needing to vocalise the problem to him, I had received both an answer and the experience of his power and grace. This experience in his presence was sufficient for me to sense the truth of both his message and his silent teaching.

Source: http://sri-ramana-maharshi.blogspot.com/2011/05/bhagavan-sri-ramana-as-i-knew-him.html

Ramana Maharshi Devotee Prof. V. B. Athavale Shares His Experiences

2011-07-06T12:16:00.000-07:00

Prof. V. B. Athavale, M.Sc., F.R.G.S., Kirloskarwadi

I had the good fortune of meeting Sri Ramana Maharshi in April 1944 and observed for one week his state of supreme consciousness in which worldly knowledge appears insignificant and produces no worries.

When Paul Brunton asked, ‘Will the world soon enter a new era of friendliness and mutual help, or will it go down into chaos and war ?’ Maharshi replied, ‘There is one who governs the world. He knows how to look after it. He bears the burden of the world and not you.’

Maharshi’s reactions to my unspoken intentions were, however, very tender and marvellous. I reached his Tiruvannamalai ashram with my wife on 16th April. To investigate the relation between Gita and the Vedic literature with regard to the Vedic quotations explicitly referred to by Maharshi Krishna Dvaipayana Vyasa, (the author of the Gita) I had prepared a genealogical chart of some 350 persons mentioned in the Rigveda. I intended to show this chart to Sri Ramana Maharshi and talk to him about my Gita study. But when I found that no one talked in the hall, I dropped the idea and decided not to talk about it unless the Maharshi showed some interest himself.

Maharshi eventually saw my genealogical chart and asked me, via the pandit, what I had to say about ‘tenaiva rupena chaturbhujena’, the reference to the four hands of Krishna in the 11th chapter. I explained to him that Arjuna has addressed Krishna twice as ‘Vishno’ in the 11th chapter. In the 10th chapter we are told that Krishna was Vishnu out of Adityas. Though this expression is usually interpreted to mean the sun in the twelve signs of the zodiac, it cannot be correct. Because, the next words say ‘I am the sun among the stars’. The Rigvedic expression ‘Astau putraso Aditeh’ tells that Aditi had eight sons and Adhvaryu Brahmana tells that Vishnu was one of the eight sons of Aditi. Yajurveda states, ‘Narayanaya vidmahe Vasudevaya dhimahi tanno Vishnuh prachodayat’. It means that Vishnu was called Vasudeva patronymically. Thus Krishna and Vishnu had the identical name Vasudeva patronymically.

According to old traditions Vishnu holds in his four hands (1) Shankha, (2) Chakra, (3) Gada, (4) Padma. Krishna had in his normal two hands the famous Panchajanya conch and the reins of the four horses. Arjuna first saw the four-handed form of Vishnu. Hence the 17th verse mentions only ‘Gada’ and ‘Chakra’ to be the two weapons, which were not in the hands of Krishna. The Mahabharata states that Krishna had decided not to wield any weapon in the war. In verse 44 Arjuna says, ‘I am terrified by this thousand-fold form. Please show me your original form with four hands. Verse 45 again mentions the same two weapons ‘Gada’ and ‘Chakra’. Verse 51 refers to the normal human form of Krishna.

Maharshi was pleased when he heard the explanation. He gave me his blessings for the study and suggested that I should write a commentary on the Gita. On 23rd April I was sitting as usual in the hall. One gentleman, who was sitting near me, was reading some English passage from a book in a loud whisper. I heard the sentence, ‘A siddha is inferior to a conjuror’. I thought that the author of the sentence had committed a mistake, but didn’t intervene. On 24th April I went into the hall in the morning and informed Maharshi that I was leaving in the evening and requested him to give his autograph. The secretary told me that Maharshi never signed his name. I expressed regret for my ignorance of the rule and said that I merely wanted the handwriting of Maharshi and not his signature. The gentleman, whose sentence I had heard the previous day, was sitting near me. I was thinking of asking him the name of the author who had written that a siddha was inferior to a conjuror. I wanted to point out the mistake and demand its rectification.

Source: http://sri-ramana-maharshi.blogspot.com/2011/05/bhagavan-sri-ramana-as-i-knew-him.html

Ramana Maharshi Devotee Yogi Shuddhananda Bharati Shares His Experiences

2011-07-06T11:54:00.001-07:00

November 20th: Krithikai Day. The ashram is busy with the pouring crowds. Bhagavan is sitting outside his cottage. The ashram was then just a cottage of thatched leaves. I was sitting inside. I did not stir from my perch from 6 a.m. to 7 p.m. Even the call for food did not shake me. My friends had come that day to take me to Pondicherry.

I was rather unwilling to leave the presence of this dynamic force. I could not even open my lips for permission. For my mission and its fulfilment were clear before me. I was hanging and swinging between ‘this’ or ‘that’, ‘here’ or ‘there’. My friends sat before me putting questions to me. Silence was my answer. They went to Maharshi and rolled out their conundrums. Silence was the answer. We were in silent heart-to-heart communion as my friends pestered him.

What is the good of remaining mum like this? What is the goal of man? What is God? What is ‘I’? Why are we born? How to get swaraj [self-rule] for the country? Violence or non-violence? What is Vedanta? What is Siddhanta? What is the meaning of the Vedas? A series of serried questions and a cascade of thrilling silence followed. One self-sufficient man lost his patience; he was a follower of modern education. His brain was full with Kant and Descartes. He had very poor opinion about our Sankaras and Gaudapadas. He had more regard for hatted and booted western armchair philosophers than for realised bald heads.

He hurried up to me and remarked, ‘Swamiji, you, as a well-educated man, must not be like this. You must be more like Bergson, Berkeley, Jung, Huxley. You must go to America and London and acquire name and fame.' My reply: silence.

Maharshi spoke out in a calm, mellow, silvery voice: ‘Bharathi, take refuge in silence. You can be here or there or anywhere. Fixed in silence, established in the inner I, you can be as you are. The world will never perturb you if you are well founded upon the tranquility within. You have a sankalpa – to write out your inspirations, to bring out the Bharata shakti [power of India]. It is better to finish off sankalpas here and now and keep a clear sky within. But do it in silence. Gather your thoughts within. Find out the thought centre and discover your Self-equipoise. In storm and turmoil be calm and silent. Watch the events around as a witness. The world is a drama of gold, women, desire and envy. Be a witness, inturned and introspective.’

Source: http://sri-ramana-maharshi.blogspot.com/2011/05/bhagavan-sri-ramana-as-i-knew-him.html

My Spriritual friend Subramanian garu wants to add below points as well

Suddhanda Bharati was an ardent Gandhian. He was also an expert raja yoga. However, after a political meeting, he decided to have darshan of Sri Bhagavan and came to
Tiruvannamalai. He remained there for quite a number of years leaving all political ambitions. He is the author of Tamizh biography Sri Ramana Vijayam. He is also well
read in Tamizh scriptures like Tayumanavar, Tevaram and Tiruvachakam.

Swami Vivekananda's Quotes Final Part

2011-06-30T09:53:00.000-07:00

The Self when it appears behind the universe is called God. The same Self when it appears behind this little universe - the body -is the soul.

The weak have no place here, in this life or any other life. Weakness leads to slavery. Weakness leads to all kinds of misery, physical and mental. Weakness is death.

Think always, "I am ever-pure, ever-knowing, and ever-free. How I can do anything evil? Can I ever be fooled like ordinary people with the insignificant charms of lust and wealth?" Strengthen the mind with such thoughts. This will surely bring real good.

This is the secret of spiritual life: to think that I am the Atman and not the body, and that the whole of this universe with all its relations, with all its good and all its evil, is but as a series of paintings-scenes on a canvas-of which I am the witness.

Wait with patience and love and strength. If helpers are not ready now, they will come in time.

We cannot see outside what we are not inside. The universe is to us what the huge engine is to the miniature engine; and indication of any error in the tiny engine leads us to imagine trouble in the huge one.

We reap what we sow. We are the makers of our own fate. None else has the blame, none has the praise.

Nature grinds all of us. Keep count of the ounce of pleasure you get. In the long run,nature did her work through you, and when you die your body will make other plants grow. Yet we think all the time that we are getting pleasure ourselves. Thus the wheel goes round.

Why are people so afraid? The answer is that they have made themselves helpless and dependent on others. We are so lazy, we do not want to do anything ourselves. We want a Personal God, a Savior or a Prophet to do everything for us.

Holy Mother -- Continue to pray without losing heart. Everything will happen in time.

Swami Vivekananda's Quotes Part - 1

2011-06-09T09:36:00.001-07:00

All power is within you. You can do anything and everything. Believe in that. Do not believe that you are weak; do not believe that you are half-crazy lunatics, as most of us do nowadays. Stand up and express the divinity within you.

"I am the thread that runs through all these pearls," and each pearl is a religion or even a sect thereof. Such are the different pearls, and God is the thread that runs through all of them; most people, however, are entirely unconscious of it.

“Comfort” is no test of truth; on the contrary, truth is often far from being “comfortable.”

All knowledge that the world has ever received comes from the mind; the infinite library of the universe is in our own mind.

Are great things ever done smoothly? Time, patience, and indomitable will must show.

As body, mind, or soul, you are a dream; you really are Being, Consciousness, Bliss (satchidananda). You are the God of this universe.

As soon as I think that I am a little body, I want to preserve it, to protect it, to keep it nice, at the expense of other bodies; then you and I become separate.

Astrology and all these mystical things are generally signs of a weak mind; therefore as soon as they are becoming prominent in our minds, we should see a physician, take good food, and rest.

Desires must bring misery. The great secret of true success, of true happiness (sh), is this: the person who asks for no return, the perfectly unselfish person, is the most successful.

Do not hate anybody, because that hatred which comes out from you must, in the long run, come back to you. If you love, that love will come back to you,completing the circle.

Give up all desire for enjoyment in (eh) earth or heaven. Control (osm) the organs of the senses and control the mind. Bear every misery without even knowing that you are miserable. Think of nothing but spiritual freedom.

Go on saying, “I am free.” Never mind if the next moment delusion comes and says, “I am bound.” Dehypnotize the whole thing.

Hold to the idea, “I am not the mind, I see that I am thinking, I am watching my mind act,” and each day the identification of yourself with thoughts and feelings will grow less, until at last you can entirely separate yourself from the mind and actually know it to be apart from yourself.

I hate this world, this dream, this horrible nightmare, with its churches and chicaneries, its books and blackguardisms, its fair faces and false hearts, its howling righteousness on the surface and utter hollowness beneath, and, above all, its sanctified shopkeeping.

I, for one, thoroughly believe that no power in the universe can withhold from anyone anything they really deserve.

If a piece of burning charcoal be placed on a man’s head, see how he struggles to throw it off. Similar will be the struggle for freedom of those who really understand that they are slaves of nature.

If superstition enters, the brain is gone.

If there is no strength in body and mind, the Atman cannot be realized. First you have to build the body by good nutritious food—then only will the mind be strong.

If you want to be a Yogi, you must be free, and place yourself in circumstances where you are alone and free from all anxiety. One who desires a comfortable and nice life and, at the same time, wants to realize the Atman is like the fool who, wanting to cross the river, caught hold of a crocodile mistaking it for a log of wood.

In real meditation you forget the body. You may be cut to pieces and not feel it at all. You feel such pleasure in it. You become so light. This perfect rest we will get in meditation.

Meditation means the mind is turned back upon itself. The mind stops all the thought-waves and the world stops. Your consciousness expands. Every time you meditate you will keep your growth.

Work for the idea, not the person.

Nature, body, mind go to death, not we. We neither go nor come. The man Vivekananda is in nature, is born and dies; but the Self we see as Vivekananda is never born and never dies. It is the eternal and unchangeable Reality.

Perfection does not come from belief or faith. Talk does not count for anything. Parrots can do that. Perfection comes through selfless work.

Tell the truth boldly, whether it hurts or not. Never pander to weakness. If truth is too much for intelligent people and sweeps them away, let them go; the sooner the better.

The correct meaning of the statement "The Vedas are beginningless and eternal" is that the law or truth revealed by them is permanent and changeless.

The greatest religion is to be true to your own nature. Have faith in yourselves! If you do not exist, how can God exist, or anybody else?

The greatest sin is to think that you are weak. No one is greater: realize that you are Brahman.

How I Came to Bhagavan by V. Ramachandran

2011-06-02T11:35:00.000-07:00

--The Mountain Path, July 1982

I had the great privilege of being born in a family which was deeply devoted to Bhagavan Ramana.My grandparents, Sri M. Ramu Setty and Smt.Muniammal, would take me for Sri Bhagavan’s darshan.

Thus I started visiting the Maharshi right from my childhood. Being a native of Tiruvannamaiai,it was my great good fortune that I was able to have Bhagavan’s darshan till His Mahasamadhi in 1950.

When Bhagavan was staying at Virupaksha Cave, devotees would come to town singing
Aksharamanamalai. We would eagerly wait for their arrival to offer them cooked food. Only after such offering would we eat. This continued without a day’s break till Bhagavan’s mother started cooking at Skandashram. Our house was open to devotees
of Bhagavan at all times.

Even while Bhagavan was at Virupaksha Cave, occasionally we used to go there and offer biksha. On one such occasion the leaf-plates we had brought were just enough for the devotees present and there was none for me. Being young, I started crying. Bhagavan called me and coming to know the reason, consoled me by providing me with a leaf. Bhagavan understood a child’s feelings, and He has been gracious to me throughout my life!

It was Bhagavan who introduced me into religious texts. Once Bhagavan wrote the first verse of Dakshinamurti Stotra on a slip of paper and told me to learn it by heart and repeat it on my next visit.Thus I learnt the Dakshinamurti Stotra. I would often forget the first word of a verse and Bhagavan would help me. Then writing down the first word of each verse of Dakshinamurti Stotra, Bhagavan gave me the slip of paper to help remember the sequence.

On the first of each Tamil month I would go round the Hill along with my mother, and on the way we would walk into the Ashram to pay homage to Bhagavan who would receive us with a smile and sometimes ask us to take breakfast. Once, when as usual two iddlies were served on my plate, I asked for one more.

Bhagavan turned to me and said that I could have one more after eating the two. When I had finished eating them, Bhagavan asked whether I would like to have more, and I replied No. Bhagavan, said with a smile: Why did you ask for more even before starting to eat? Thus Bhagavan taught the lesson that one should not be greedy.

When my mother passed away, I went to the Ashram to convey the news to Bhagavan. Bhagavan graciously looked at me and relieved me of my intense grief.Bhagavan smilingly told me that my mother was as old as his stay at Arunachala. With folded hands I prayed to Bhagavan to protect our family, and He graciously nodded His head by way of approval.

Bhagavan was not merely a spiritual Master of the highest order, but our mother, our father and our all!

Source: http://www.sriramanamaharshi.org/pdf/Saranagathi_eNewsletter_June_2011.pdf

How to get rid of False 'I'

2011-05-20T04:39:00.000-07:00

My Spiritual Friend Udai garu has given below explanation regarding the False 'I'

When you say "I feel" or even the "I feeling", whose language is it?
Suppose there is a sound, it has a source. if there is a cry, it has a source. if you want to find out who is crying, what would you do ? see the source of the cry.

similarly, these feelings "i feel sad", "I feel good", "i like this", "I do not like this" ... all these feelings, who is saying it. look within. This is not the language of the body. The body simply passes a sensation. This is not the language of consciousness which is sheer witness. So who is saying this? Just a thought.

So the thought has come and is gone, who is holding onto it ? Thus, Just Remain,coz its the thought that is saying it is uncomfortable... or it has a certain feeling ... you are obviously not the thought. so just remain unidentified with mind and mental feelings. including the feeling "i am quiet"

that is to just remain.

A thought arises "this happened". its a simple report of what happened.
Then next thought "i do not like it"
next thought "this is really bad"
next "i think my fate is bad"
i have to go to an astrologer"

This is how the thought stream flows. The first thought is a simple report of happening as is. The other thoughts are all "I" thoughts. They are all centered upon an illusory "I". The other thoughts have no link between them. The first thought came, gone. Second came, gone. third came, gone. A series of static thoughts. They create an illusion of a continuous "I"... really there are just a series of frames ... a series of thoughts creating an illusion of a continuous "I". like a series of still pictures creating the illusion of motion.

Really no one is there who is sad, bad, unhappy etc. These are coz we get into a flow and imagine a continuous "I" spanning all these thoughts. When we inquire who is this "I" there is none ... mere stream of thoughts ... and there being none ... who is sad, who is happy ? who is there in the first place? A vacant house !

TimeLines Of World Religions

2011-05-17T21:42:00.000-07:00

Source: http://www.amazon.co.uk/New-Lion-Handbook-Worlds-Religions/dp/0745951287

Sri Rudram Chamakam

2011-05-13T13:18:00.000-07:00

Sri Sundara Chaitanya Swami gari pravachanam in telugu 15 videos.

http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=SriRudram+Volume15+Part&aq=f

Introduction

Sri Rudram is found in the Krishna Yajurveda, Taittariya Samhita in the fourth chapter. Its companion test, Chamakam is found in the seventh chapter.

So Sri Rudram is both recognition and praise for the vital place Rudra holds in creation.

“Om namah Shivaya”

Also found is the great mrytunjaya mantra;

“Tryambakam yajamahe
Sugandhim pushtivardhanam
Urvarurkamiva bhandhanam
Mrityor mukshiya mamirtate.”

“He who has divine fragrance, who makes men powerful and full of plenty; Him we worship, the three-eyed Rudra. As easily as a ripe berry falls from its stalk, release me from death, and let me not turn away from immortality and enlightenment.”

The mantra most often used for aarti; the pujas that offers light to the deity;

“Namaste astu bhavagan vishvesvaraya mahadevaya triyambakaya triupurantakaya trikal Agni kalaya kalagni Rudraya nilakanthaya mrutyuñjaya sarveshvaraya sadashivaya sriman mahadevaya Namah”

“Let my salutations be to that great God who is the Lord of the universe; the great God who has three eyes and who destroys Tripura, the three Asura cities.To that God who is the Dandhya time when the three sacred fires are lit; who is Rudra the fire that consumes the universe; whose throat is blue; who has conquered death; the Lord of all; the ever auspicious one; salutations to that glorious and great God.”

Note: Sri Sundara Chaitanya Swami says if an atheist does charity then he will get karma phalam i.e he/she go to svargam but it is temporary as he will return back to this world once his karma phalam is completed. So if we want moksha then we need to undergo sadhana as perscribed in scriptures.

Note: Sri Sundara Chaitanya Swami says some times this is called "RudroUpanishad".

Summary

Rudram is divided into 11 sections called Anuvakas. In the first Anuvaka, Rudra is asked to turn away his Ghora rupa (fierce appearance) and to please keep his and his followers’ weapons at bay. Having been pacified, Rudra is requested to destroy the sins of those for whom it is being chanted.

This first Anuvaka is chanted to destroy all sins, obtain leadership and divine benevolence, protection from famine, freedom from fear, obtain food, and protect cows, for absence from untimely fear of death, of tigers, thieves, from monsters, devils, demons. It is also chanted as a shield (kavaca) for virulent fever, to cure diseases, fetal disorders, absolution from evils stars and bad karma, for the fulfillment of ones desires, sumptuous rainfall, family protection, blessings with good children, fulfillment of all material desires and the destruction of enemies.

In the second Anuvaka, Rudra is prayed to as one who pervades the earth and as the green foliage and heritage of medicinal herbs. He is asked to loosen the bonds of samsara (illusion). This Anuvaka is chanted for the destruction of enemies, possession of wealth, getting kingdom (getting Job) and possession of intelligence.

In the third Anuvaka Rudra is described as the Lord of thieves who exists in everything. He is Sarvatma; the self of all. In this context, we who are unenlightened have stolen the immortal status of the Self and replaced it with our own limited conception of ego. And in turn it is Rudra who will come and steal our ignorance from us, restoring us to our natural status of enlightenment. This Anuvaka is also chanted for the cure of diseases.

In the fourth Anuvaka, Rudra is described as the creator and worker of all kinds. He is the cause of both the significant and minor.This Anuvaka is chanted for the cure of tuberculosis, diabetics and leprosy.

In the fifth Anuvaka Rudra’s existence in running waters is praisedand his five activities are described (creation of the universe, preservation of it, destruction at the time of Pralaya, bondage in ignorance and the release of moksha).

In the sixth Anuvaka Rudra is identified with time (Kalarupa). He is described as the source of the different worlds, Shrutis (Vedas) and its essence in Vedanta. The fifth and sixth Anuvakas are chanted for the expansion of one’s own assets, victory against enemies, blessings for a son with the stature of Rudra, avoidance of a miscarriage and easy childbirth, averting difficult astrology and protection of one’s own son.

In the seventh Anuvaka his all pervading presence in waters, rains, clouds, storms and its various forms are described. This Anuvaka is chanted for the increase of intelligence, improvement of health, wealth, progeny, clothes, cows, sons, education, lands, longevity and obtaining liberation.

In the eighth Anuvaka Rudra is described as He who illumines other Gods and confers powers on them. He is seen as ever present in holy rivers and He who can absolve all sins. This Anuvaka is chanted for the destruction of enemies and possession of ones own kingdom (lands).

In the ninth Anuvaka the strength and power his attendants is celebrated because they illumine the gods and the world and control the forces of the universe. This Anuvaka is chanted for obtaining gold, a good wife, a job, and the blessings of a son who will be devoted to Lord Shiva.

In the tenth Anuvaka Rudra is again asked to shed his fury and shower benevolence by his displaying his Pinaka bow without arrows and to gracefully appear with his tiger skin on his body with pleasing countenance ready to shower boons upon his devotees. This Anuvaka is chanted for possession of wealth, cure of diseases, removal of fear, getting rid of the enmity of powerful people, absence of fear from all living beings, having the vision of Bhairava (Shiva in his most fearful aspect), absence from dangers and fears, blessings and the absolution of sins.

In the eleventh Anuvaka Rudra’s accomplishments are profusely praised and his benevolence is invoked with unconditional salutations. This Anuvaka is chanted for blessings of one’s progeny, the enhancement of longevity, visiting of sacred places, and acquiring knowledge of past, present and future.

Note: Sri Sundara Chaitanya Swami says of all knowledge learning Vedas is ultimate.

Note: Sri Sundara Chaitanya swami says humans cannot create blood.

In Vedas Yajur Vedam is better and in Yajur Vedam Sri Rudram is ultimate.

In chamakam devotee requests 300 times his desires/korikalu to god and in namakam there are totally 11 anuvakalu and again 300 times god's namam is repeated which means devotee comes to know that his desires are temporary and now he knows repeating god's name is sufficient.

1st ANUVAKA (RUDRAM)

OM Namo Bhagavate Rudraya.
Namaste Rudra manyava utota ishave Namah |
Namaste astu dhanvane bahubhya muta te Namah ||

Oh! Rudra Deva! My salutations to your anger and also to your arrows. My salutations to your bow and to your two hands.

Ya ta Ishu shivatama shivam babhuva te dhanuh |
Shiva sharavya ya tava taya no Rudra mrudaya||

Oh! Rudra! By favor of your arrow, bow, and quiver, which have shed their anger and turned auspicious, please render us happy.

Ya te Rudra Shiva tanura ghora papakashini taya nastanuva shantamaya girisamta bhichakashihi ||

Lord Rudra, you who dwell on Mount Kailas and who confer happiness, by that form of yours which is not terrible, which will not injure us, and which is highly auspicious, behold and illuminate us.

Yamishum giri shamta haste bibharsya stave, shivam giritra tam Kuru ma himsih purusham jagate ||

My Lord who dwells on Mount Kailas and confers gladness to all! You, who fulfills your vow of protecting all who serve you and take refuge in you; that arrow of yours which you hold ready to let fly, withhold it and make it tranquil and auspicious.

Shivena vachasa tva giri schacchavadamasi,
Yatha nah sarvam ijjaga dayakshmam sumana asate ||

Lord of Mount Kailas of of the Vedas! We pray to attain you by our auspicious words. We ask that for all our days, this entire world will be free from ills and discord, and that we may live in amity and concord.

Adyavocha dadhivakta prathamo daivyo bhisak,
Ahimscha sarvan jam bhyayant sarvascha yatudhanyah ||

Let Him intercede on my behalf and speak in my favor, even Rudra, that foremost one, held high in honor by the gods, the physician. Let him annihilate the enemies of mine like scorpions, snakes, and tigers, and the unseen enemies like the Rakshasas, spirits and demons.

Asau yastamro aruna uta babhru sumangalah |
You chemam Rudra abhito dikshu shritaha
Sahasra sho vaisam heda imahe ||

This Sun who is copper-red when he arises, then golden-youllow, this highly auspicious and beneficent one is truly Rudra. These other Rudras who are quartered round about in all directions of this earth, may I ward off their anger by my praise.

Asau yo vasarpati nilagrivo vilohitah,
utainam gopa adrushanna drushannu daharyah,
Utainam vishva bhutani sa drusto mridayati nah

The black-throated Rudra who has assumed the form of the sun that glows red when rising. Him the cowherds, the women carrying water, and all the creatures behold. He, who is seen by all, let Him send happiness to us.

Namo astu nilagrivaya sahasrakshaya midhushe|
Atho you asya sattvano ham tebhyo karan namah||

Let my salutations be to the blue-throated one, who has a thousand eyes. I also bow to his followers.

Pramuñcha dhanvanastva mubhayorartni yorjyam |
yascha te hasta isavah para ta bhagavo vapa ||

Bhagavan Rudra, loosen the string from both ends of your bow. Remove out of sight the arrows from your hands.

Avatatya dhanustvam sahasraksha shatesudhe||
Nishirya shalyanam mukha shivo nah sumana bhava ||

You having a thousand eyes, and bearing a hundred quivers, after loosening your bow, kindly blunt the edges of your shafts. Assume your peaceful and auspicious Siva form and become well-intentioned towards us.

Vijyam dhanuh kapardino vishalyo banavam uta |
Ane shanna syoushava abhurasya nisañgathih ||

Let the bow of Kapardin, Rudra of the matted locks, be without its string. Let there be no arrows in His quiver. Let His arrows lose their capacity to strike and pierce. Let His scabbard contain little power.

Ya te hetirmidhu stama haste babhuva te dhanuh |
Taya sman visvatastva mayakshmaya paribbhuja||

You, Oh showerer of blessings, with your weapons and the bow in Your hand, completely protect us.

Namaste astvayudhayana tataya dhrusnave ||
Ubhabhyam muta te namo bahubhyam tava dhanvane ||

Let there be salutations to your sturdy and potent weapons, and also to both your hands and your bow.

Pari te dhanvano hetir asman vrunaktu visvatah |
Atho ya ishudhis tavare asmannidhehi tam ||

Let the arrow of Your bow spare us in all ways. And place your quiver of arrows far away from us.

Namaste astu bhavagan vishvesvaraya mahadevaya triyambakaya triupurantakaya
trikal Agni kalaya kala Agni Rudraya nilakanthaya mrutyuñyaya sarveshvaraya sadashivaya sriman mahadevaya Namah

Let my salutations be to that great God who is the Lord of the universe; the great God who has three eyes and who destroys Tripura, the three Asura cities.
To that God who is the Dandhya time when the three sacred fires are lit; who is Rudra the fire that consumes the universe; whose throat is blue; who has conquered death; the Lord of all; the ever auspicious one; salutations to that glorious and great God.

2nd ANUVAKA

Namo Hiranya bahave senanyou disham ca patayou namo|

Salutations to Lord Rudra with the golden arms, the leader of hosts, to the Lord of the four direction, salutations.

Namo vrukshebhyo harikeshebhyah pashunam patayou namo Namah||

Salutations to the trees tufted with green leaves; salutations to the Lord of the cattle.

sa spijñaraya tvis imate pathinam patayou namo |

Salutations to Him who is light youllow-red tinged and radiant; to the Lord of the pathways, salutations.

Namo babhlu shaya vivyadhinen nanam Patayou namo ||

Salutations to Him who rides on the bull, to him who has the power to pierce all things, to the Lord of food, salutations.

Namo harike shayopavitine pustanam patayou namo ||

Salutations to Him who is always black-haired, who wears the yajnopavita (sacred thread); to him the Lord of the sleek, salutations.

Namo bhavasya hetyai jagatam patayou namo |

Salutations to Him the instrument that destroys Samsara (Ignorance); to the Lord of all the worlds, salutations.

Namo Rudrayata ta vine kshetranam patayou namo namah |

Salutations to Him who protects the world by the might of His drawn bow, to Rudra the destroyour of all miseries; to the Lord of the fields and sacred places, salutations.

Suta yahantyaya vananam patayou namo |

Salutations to the charioteer, He who cannot be overcome and slain. Salutations to the Lord of the forests.

Namo rohitaya stha patayou vrikshanam patayou namah |

Salutations to the red One, the Lord; to the Lord of trees, salutations.

Namo mantrine vanijaya kakshanam patayou namah||

Salutations to the counselor of assemblies, the chief of traders, to the Lord of dense impenetrable clumps and clusters of thickets, salutations.

Namo bhuvantayou varivaskrutayau shadhinam patayou namo ||

Salutations to Him who has created the world and spread it broad, the creator of riches and lover of those who are devoted to Him; to the Lord of all vegetation, salutations.

Nama ucchair ghoshaya krandayate pattinam patayou namo |

Salutations to Him of the fearsome war cry, who causes His enemies to weep. To the leader of the foot-soldiers, salutations.

Namah krutsnavitaya dhanvate satvanam patayou namah ||

Salutations to Him who surrounds His enemies completely, and cuts off their retreat by running swiftly after the retreating stragglers; to the protector of the good who have taken refuge under Him, salutations.

3rd ANUVAKA

Namah sahamanaya nivyadhina avyadhin inam patayou namah |

Salutations to Him who can not only withstand the shock of the onset of His enemies, but overpower them. He who can effortlessly pierce His enemies; the Lord of those who can fight on all sides, salutations to Him.

Namah kakubhaya nishañgine stenanam patayou namo |

Salutations to Him who stands prominent, the wielder of the sword; to the prince of thieves, salutations.

Namo nisañgina ishudhimate taskaranam patayou namo |

Salutations to Him who holds a dart in His hand to fit in His bow, who has a quiver in His back; to the Lord of those who thieve openly, salutations.

Namo vañchante pari vañchate stayunam patayou namo |

Salutations to Him who worming himself into the confidence of others cheats them occasionally, and He who cheats them systematically; to Him pretending to be an acquaintance steals and misappropriates articles, salutations.

Namo nicherave paricharayaranyanam patayou namo |

Salutations to Him who moves about guardedly ever with intention to steal; to Him who moves amidst crowds and thronged places for pick-pocketing; to the Lord of forest thieves, salutations.

Namah shrukavibhyo jigham sadbhyo mushnatam patayou namo |

Salutations to Him who is in the form of those who protect themselves in armor, who want to kill others; to the Lord of those who want to steal crops and wealth, salutations.

Namo simadbhyo naktam charadbhyah prakruntanam patayou namo ||

Salutations to Him who is in the form of swordsmen who wander about at night; to the Lord of those who kill and seize others’ possessions, salutations.

Nama ushnishine giricharaya kuluñcha nam patayou namo |

Salutations to Him who wears a turban, who wanders about the mountains; to the leader of the landlords, salutations.

Nama ishumadbhyo dhanvavibhyascha vo namo |

Salutations to you who bear darts, who carry bows; to you salutations.

Nama atanvanebhyah pratida dhane bhyascha vo namo|

Salutations to you who string your bows and you who fit arrows in them; to them my salutations.

Nama ayacchadbhya visrujad bhyascha vo namo |

Salutations to you who pull the bowstrings and let fly the shafts; to you salutations.

Namo syadbhyo vidhyad bhyascha vo namo ||

Salutations to you who loosen the arrows and pierce the persons you aim at; to you salutations.

Nama ashinebhyash shayane bhyascha vo namo |

Salutations to you Rudras who are seated
and who are reclining, salutations.

Namah svapadbhyo jagrad bhyascha vo namo |

To you Rudras who are in the form of those who are asleep and awake, salutations.

Nama stishthadbhyo dhavad bhyascha vo namo |

To you Rudras who are in the form of those who stand and those who run, salutations.

Namah sabhabhya sabhapati bhyascha vo namo|

To you Rudras who are in the form of those who sit as members of assemblies and those who preside over them, salutations.

Namo ashvebhyo svapati bhyascha vo namah ||

To you Rudras who are in the form of horses and those who command them, salutations.

4th ANUVAKA

Nama avyadhinibhyo vividhyanti bhyascha vo namo |

Salutations to you who can hit and pierce from all sides, and you who can pierce in diverse and manifold ways.

Nama uganabhya strumhati bhyascha vo namo |

Salutations to you who are in the form of the superior female Gods and the fierce vengeful and powerful Goddesses.

Namo grutsebhyo gratsapati bhyascha vo namo |

Salutations to you the covetous and greedy, and the leaders of such men.

Namo vratebhyo vrata pati bhyascha vo namo |

Salutations to you of diverse crowds and races, and the leaders of them.

Namo ganebhyo Ganapati bhyascha vo namo |

Salutations to you Ganas and their lords.

Namo virupebhyo vishvarupe bhyascha vo namo

Salutations to you who assume grotesque and monstrous forms and other diverse shapes.

Namo mahadbhyah kshullake bhyascha vo namo

Salutations to you the great ones and the small ones.

Namo rathibhyo rathe bhyascha vo namah

Salutations to you who ride in chariots and you who ride on no conveyance, but walk on foot.

Namah senabhya senani bhyascha vo namah

Salutations to you who are in the form of chariots and those who own them.

Namah kshattrubhya sangrahitru bhyascha vo namah

Salutations to you in the form of armies and the leaders of such armies.

Nama stakshabhyo ratha kar bhyascha vo namah

Salutations to you who are in the form of those who teach the chariot driving to others, and those who drive the vehicles themselves.

Namah kulalebhyah karmare bhyascha vo namah

Salutations to you who are in the form of carpenters and fashioners of chariots.

Namah puñjishtebhyo nishade bhyascha vo namah

Salutations to you who are in the form of those who mold clay and make mud vessels, and artisans working in the metals.

Nama ishukrudbhyo dhanva krud bhyascha vo namah

Salutations to you who are in the form of fowlers who net flocks of birds and fishermen who net shoals of fish.

Namo mrugayubhyah sva ni bhyascha vo namo

Salutations to you who are in the form of makers of arrows and bows.

Namah svabhyah svapati bhyascha vo namah

Salutations to you who are in the form of hunters and that of the leaders of the hounds.

5th ANUVAKA

Namo bhavaya cha Rudraya cha

Salutations to Him who is the source of all things and to Him who is the destroyer of all ills.

Namah sharvaya cha pashupatayou cha

Salutations to the destroyer and to the protector of all beings in bondage.

Namo nilagrivaya cha shiti kanthaya cha

Salutations to Him whose throat is black and whose throat is also white.

Namah kapardine cha vyuptake shaya cha

Salutations to Him of the matted locks, and to Him who is clean-shaven.

Namah sahasrakshaya cha shatadhanvane cha

Salutations to Him who has a Thousand eyes and a hundred bows.

Namo giri shaya cha sipivishtaya cha

Salutations to Him who dwells on the mount and who is in the form of Vishnu.

Namo middhushta maya ceshumate cha

Salutations to Him who showers blessings very much and who bears arrows.

Namo hrasvaya cha vamanaya cha

Salutations to Him who assumes a small size, and Him who is in the form of a dwarf.

Namo bruhate cha varshiyase cha

Salutations to the great and majestic one, to Him who is full of all excellence.

Namo vruddhaya cha samvrudhvane cha

Salutations to the Ancient One who is loudly praised by the scriptures.

Namo Agriyaya cha prathamaya cha

Salutations to Him who was before all things and who is foremost.

Nama Ashave chajiraya cha

Salutations to Him who pervades all and moves swiftly.

Namah shrighriyaya cha shibhyaya cha

Salutations to Him who is in fast moving things and in headlong cascades.

Nama urmyaya chavas vanyaya cha

Salutations to Him who is in great waves and in the still waters.

Namah srotasyaya cha dvipyaya cha

Salutations to Him who is in the floods and in the islands.

Sixth Anuvaka

Namo jyoushthaya cha kanishthaya cha

Salutations to Him who is senior and who is junior.

Namah purvajaya chaparajaya cha

Salutations to Him who was born before all and who will be born after all.

Namo Madhya maya chapagalbhaya cha

Salutations to Him who appears in the middle, and who appears undeveloped.

Namo jaghanyaya cha, budhniyaya cha

Salutations to Him who is born from the back side and from the under side.

Namah shobhyaya cha, prati saryaya cha

Salutations to Him who is born in the mixed world of good and bad and in things that move.

Namo yamyaya cha, kshemyaya cha

Salutations to Him who is in the worlds of Yama and in the worlds of safety.

Nama urvaryaya cha khalyaya cha

Salutations to Him who is in the form of the bountiful fields and the threshing floors.

Nama shlokyaya chavasanyaya cha

Salutations to Him who is praised by the Vedic Mantras and who is expounded in the Vedantic Upanishads.

Namo vanyaya cha, kakshyaya cha

Salutations to Him who is in the form of trees in the forests and of creepers in the shaded areas.

Namah shravaya cha pratisravaya cha

Salutations to Him who is sound and the echo of the sound.

Nama asu shenaya chashurathaya cha

Salutations to Him whose armies move swiftly and who rides on a swift chariot.
Nama shuraya cha, chavabhindate cha

Salutations to the warrior, He who pierces his enemies.

Namo varmine cha, varuyour cha

Salutations to Him who is clad in armor Himself, and who has provided for the safety of His charioteer.

Namo bilmine cha kavacine cha

Salutations to Him who wears a helmet and breast-plate.

Namah shrutaya cha shrutasenaya cha.

Salutations to Him who is praised in the Vedas and whose army is also praised.

Seventh Anuvaka

Namo dundubhyaya chahananyaya cha

Salutations to Him who is the kettle drum and who is also the drum stick.

Namo dhrusnave cha pramrushaya cha

Salutations to Him who never turns his back in fight, but is at the same time prudent.

Namo dutaya cha, prahitaya cha

Salutations to Him who is in the form of the messenger and the representative sent for special purposes.

Namo nisangine cheshudhi mate cha

Salutations to Him who has a sword and a quiver of arrows.

Nama stikshneshave chayudhine cha

Salutations to Him having keen shafts and all weapons.

Namah svayu dhaya cha sudhanvane cha

Salutations to Him bearing a beautiful and powerful weapon and bow.

Namah srutyaya cha payouraya cha

Salutations to Him who is in the narrow footpaths and the broad highways.

Namah katyaya cha nipyaya cha

Salutations to Him who is in the narrow flow of waters and in their descent from higher to lower levels.

Namah sudyaya cha, sarasyaya cha

Salutations to Him who is in the marshy and muddy places and in the lakes.

Namo nadyaya cha, vaishantaya cha

Salutations to Him who is in the flowing waters of rivers and in the still waters of mountain tarns.

Namah kupyaya chavatyaya cha

Salutations to Him who is in the wells and in the pits.

Namo varshyaya cha chavarshyaya cha

Salutations to Him who is born in the rivers as river water and in the absence of rains.

Namo meghyaya cha, vidyutyaya cha

Salutations to Him who is in the clouds and in the lightning.

Nama idhriyaya chatapyaya cha

Salutations to Him who is in the glittering white autumn clouds and who is in the rains and mixed with sunshine.

Namo vatyaya cha, reshmiyaya cha

Salutations to Him who is in the rains accompanied by winds and in the rains accompanied by hail.

Namo vastavyaya cha vastupaya cha.

Salutations to Him who is household wealth and the guardian deity of the household.

Eighth Anuvaka

Namah somaya cha Rudraya cha

Salutations to Him who is with His consort Uma.

Namastamraya charunaya cha

Salutations to Him who is red and rosy-red also.

Nama shangaya cha pashupatayou cha

Salutations to Him who brings happiness and who is the Lord of all creatures.

Nama ugraya cha bhimaya cha

Salutations to Him who is fierce and striks terror at sight into His enemies.

Namo Agrevadhaya cha dure vadhaya cha

Salutations to Him who kills in front and from afar.

Namo hantre cha haniyase cha

Salutations to Him who is in the form of everyone who slays, and who kills all at the time of Pralaya.

Namo vrukshebhyo harikeshebhyo

Salutations to the stately trees with green tufts of leaves.

Nama staraya

Salutations to Him who is the Pravana mantra; Om.

Namash shambhave cha mayo bhave cha

Salutations to Him who is the source of happiness here and hereafter.

Namah shankaraya cha mayaskaraya cha

Salutations to Him who is inherently of the nature of conferring happiness directly in this world and the world hereafter.

Namah Shivaya cha shivataraya cha

Salutations to Him the auspicious one, who is more auspicious than all others.

Nama stiryouraya cha kulyaya cha

Salutations to Him who is ever present in holy places and on the banks of the rivers.

Namah paryaya chavaryaya cha

Salutations to Him who stands in the further shore and on this shore.

Namah prataranaya chottaranaya cha

Salutations to Him who ferries men over the sins and evils of Samsara (the Illusions of the world), and who by the grant of knowledge ferries them over Samsara altogether.

Nama ataryaya chaladyaya cha

Salutations to Him who is born again and again in Samsara and who tastes the fruits of Karmas in the form of Jiva.

Namah shaspyaya cha, phenyaya cha

Salutations to Him who is in the form of tender grass and foam.

Namah sikatya ya cha pravahyaya cha.
Salutations to Him who is in the form of the sands and flowing water.

Ninth Anuvaka

Nama irinyaya cha prapayouraya cha,

Salutations to Him who abides in saline tracts and in trodden pathways.

Namah kigim shilya cha kshayanaya cha

Salutations to Him who is in the rocky uninhabitable and rugged tracts and in habitable places.

Namah kapardine cha pulastayou cha,

Salutations to Him who binds His matted locks and wears them majestically like a crown and Him who ever stands before His devotees.

Namo goshyouraya cha, grihyaya cha,

Salutations to Him who is in the cow pens and in the homesteads.

Nama stalpyaya cha, gehyaya cha,

Salutations to Him who reclines on couches and who takes his ease in stately store yard buildings.

Namah katyaya cha, gahvareshthaya cha,

Salutations to Him who is in the thorny impenetrable forest places and in accessible mountain caves.

Namo hradayyaya cha niveshpya ya cha

Salutations to Him who is in deep waters and in the dew drops.

Namah pam savyaya cha rajasyaya cha

Salutations to Him who is in the visible and invisible dust.

Nama shuskyaya cha Harityaya cha,

Salutations to Him who is in dry things and green things.

Namo lopyaya cholapya cha,

Salutations to Him who exists in hard places which do not sustain even grass and in coarse and other grasses.

Nama urvyaya cha surmyaya cha,

Salutations to Him who is in the earth and in the fair waves.

Namah parnyaya cha parnashadyaya cha

Salutations to Him who is in the green leaves and the dried ones.

Namo paguramanaya chabhighnate cha,

Salutations to the Rudraganas (soldiers of Rudra)who have their weapons uplifted and who strike from the front.

Nama akkhyidate cha, prakkhi date cha,

Salutations to them (Rudraganas) who afflict slightly and also grievously.

Namo vah kirikebhyo devanam hrudayou bhyo,

Salutations to you who shower wealth and who dwell in the hearts of the Gods.

Namo vikshina kebhyo,

Salutations to you who are not liable to decay (and who abides in the hearts of the Gods).

Namo vichinvakte bhyo,

Salutations to you who search and examine the good and bad that each one does (and who abides in the hearts of the Gods).

Nama anir hatebhyo

Salutation to them who have rooted out sin utterly (and who abides in the hearts of the Gods).

Nama amivaktebhyaha ||

Salutation to them who have assumed a gross form and stand in the material shape of the universe (and who abides in the hearts of the Gods).

Tenth Anuvaka

Drape Andha saspate daridran nilalohita, esham purushanam
esham pushunam ma bhermaro mo esham kim chanamamat

You who makes sinners lead contemptible lives, Lord and dispenser of food. You who chooses to remain poor amidst your riches. You dark in the neck and red elsewhere. Frighten not these our near and dear persons or these our cattle. Let not even one among them perish or get ill.

Ya te Rudra Shiva tanu Shiva vishvaha bheshaji, Shiva Rudrasya
Bhesaji tasya no mruda jivase ||

Oh Lord Rudra! By that form if your which is peaceful and auspicious, more highly auspicious since it is a panacea for human ills for all days, most highly auspicious since by the grant of knowledge and illumination, it utterly uproots ignorance and the entire misery of samsara, by that gracious form of your make us lead a full and happy life.

Imam Rudraya tavase kapardane kshayadviraya
Prabhara mahe matim,
Yatha na sha masa dvipade chatushpade vishvam pushtam
Grame asminnana turam |

May we foster and cherish this attitude of mind towards Rudra even, the strong one with the matted locks, opposing whom his enemy warriors are defeated and meet their doom. May we adopt a mental inclination which results in Rudra maintaining friendship with our human relations and our wealth of cattle; sleek and content.

Mruda no Rudrota no maya skrudhi kshayadviraya
Namasa vidhema te, yacchamcha yoscha manurayaje pita
Tadshyama tava Rudra pranitau ||

Lord Rudra! Confer on us happiness in this world, and in the next. You who has destroyed our sins, we shall serve and worship you by our salutations. That freedom from sorrow which Manu, our progenitor, sought for and the happiness which he obtained, we shall taste it, if You are inclined and gracious to us.

Ma no mahanta muta ma no arbhakam ma na ukshanta
Muta ma na ukshitam, ma no vadhih pitaram mota
Mataram priya ma nastanuvo Rudra ririshaha ||

Lord Rudra! Afflict not the elders in our midst, nor the tender babe, nor the procreating youth, nor the child in the womb, nor the father or mother, nor our bodies dear to us.

Ma nastoke tanayou ma na ayusi ma no goshu ma no
Ashveshu ririsaha | Viranma no Rudra bhamito vadhirhavi -
shmanto namasa vidhema te ||

Lord Rudra! Getting angry at our transgressions hurts not only our children, our sons in particular, but also our cattle and horses, and our warriors. Making offerings into the sacred fire, we shall serve and calm you by our Namaskars (salutations).

Aratte goghna uta puru – shaghne kshayadviraya sumna masme
Te astu, Raksha cha no adhi cha deva bruhyatha cha nah
Sharma yacchavi barhah ||

Oh Deva! Let that terrible form of yours be far away from us -- that which afflicts our cattle, our sons and grandsons, and wastes your enemy warriors. Let that form which confers happiness be near to us. Protect us. Recommend us to the other Gods and bespeak in our favor. You who increases the happiness of both worlds. Please confer happiness upon us.

Stuhi shrutam garta sadam yuvanam mruganna –
Bhima mupahat numugram, mruda jaritre Rudra
Satvano anyante asmanniva pantu senaha ||

I praise you the famous one, seated in the heart, the ever-youthful, terrible like the lion, fierce for the purpose of destruction. Lord Rudra, having been praised by us, let your armies strike at others than us.

Parino Rudrasya hetir vrunaktu pari tve shasya durmati raghayoho |
Ava sthira maghavad bhyastanushva midhvasttokaya tanayaya mridaya

Let the weapon of Rudra give us wide berth. Let the fixed displeasure of Rudra blazing with just anger based on our sins, and keen to punish us, depart from us. Showerer of Blessings! Your purpose and your shaft are ever unerring; loosen them in regard to us; we who approached you with sacrifices and prayers. Make our sons and their sons happy.

Midhushthama shivatama shivo nah sumana bhava
Parame vriksha Ayudhan nidhaya krittim vasana
Achara pinakam bibhradagahi |

Supreme showerer of blessings. Supreme auspicious One! Be auspicious and beneficent, and bear goodwill to us. Place your threatening and hurtful weapons on some tall and distant tree. Approach us wearing your elephant hide garment. Come bearing your Pinaka bow.

Vikirida vilohita Namaste astu bhagavaha,
Yaste sahasragam hetayo nyamasmanniva pantu tah ||

Showerer of wealth! You white One! Lord Bhagavan! Salutations to you. Let your thousands of weapons not destroy us, but rather destroy our enemies.

Sahasrani sahasradha bahuvostava hetayah |
Tasamishano bhagavah parachina mukha krudhi ||

In your arms exist thousands of kinds of weapons in thousands of numbers. But Bhagavan, You art Lord and master of them. Turn their hurtful faces away from us.

Eleventh Anuvaka

Sahasrani sahasrasho you Rudra Adhi bhumyam, teshagam
Sahasra yojane vadhanvani tanmasi ||

Those Rudras who live on the face of the earth in thousands of varieties, we shall cause the strings of their bows to be loosened, and the bows themselves to be deposited thousands of yojanas far away from us.

Asmin mahatyarnaven tarikshe bhava adhi

Those Rudras who dwell in the sublime ocean and the space between sky and earth, we shall cause the strings of their bows to be loosened and the bows themselves to be deposited thousands of yojanas far away from us.

Nila griva shiti kantha sharva adhah kshama charah

The Rudra Ganas, blue throated, where the Kalakuta poison rested; and white throated in other portions; those Rudras who dwell in the nether regions; we shall cause the strings of their bows to be loosened, and the bows themselves to be deposited thousands of yojanas far away from us.

Nila griva shiti kantha divam Rudra upashritaha||

Bluethroated where the poison rested and elsewhere white throated Rudras who dwell in the heaven, we shall cause the strings of their bows to be loosened, and the bows themselves to be deposited thousands of yojanas far away from us.

You vrikshesu sapiñjara nilagriva vilohitaha,
You bhutana madhi patayo vishikhasah
kapardanah,

Those Rudras of the color of tender grass who are black throated, those who are red in color, who live in trees, we shall cause the strings of their bows to be loosened, and the bows themselves to be deposited thousands of yojanas far away from us.

You annesu vividhyanti patresu pibato janan

Those Rudras who stand in the food and in the liquids, and pierce the persons who eat the food and drink the liquids, we shall cause the strings of their bows to be loosened, and the bows themselves to be deposited thousands of yojanas far away from us.

You patham pathi rakshaya ailabruda yavyudhah,

Those Rudras who are the protectors of the pathways, the givers of food, who fight with one’s enemies, we shall cause the strings of their bows to be loosened, and the bows themselves to be deposited thousands of yojanas far away from us.

You tirthani pracharanti srukavanto nisanginah
Those Rudras who haunt the sacred places wearing short daggers and long swords, we shall cause the strings of their bows to be loosened, and the bows themselves to be deposited thousands of yojanas far away from us.

You etavanta scha bhuyam sascha disho Rudra vitasthire,

Those Rudras so far mentioned, and over and above them, who have entered the quarters and occupied them, we shall cause the strings of their bows to be loosened, and the bows themselves to be deposited thousands of yojanas far away from us.

Tesagam sahasra yojane vadhanvani tanmasi.

Those Rudras who are on this earth, to whom food turns into shafts, I bow to them with my speech. With my ten fingers joined, I bow to them with my body facing the east, the south, the west, the north, and upwards, I bow to them with my mind. May they render me happy. Oh Rudras, to whom we bow! I consign him whom we hate and he who hates us, into your yawning mouths.

Namo Rudrebhyo you pruthivyam you ntarikshe, You divi yousa mannam vato varsamisa vastebhyo Dasha cirdasha dakshina dasha prati cirda shodicirda shor Dhvastebhyo Namaste no mridayantu te yam dvismo Yascha no dvestim tam vo jambhe dadhami.

Those Rudras who dwell in the middle region between the heaven and the earth, for whom the wind furnishes the shaft, salutations to them. With the ten fingers joined, I bow to them in the east, the south, the west, the north and upwards. Salutations to them. May then render me happy. They whom we hate, and they who hate us, I consign them into their yawning mouths. Those Rudras who dwell in heaven, to whom rain serves as a shaft, salutations to them. With the ten fingers joined, I bow to them in the east, the south, the west, the north and upwards. Salutations to them. May then render me happy. He whom we hate, and he who hates us, I consign them into your yawning mouths.

Tryambakam yajamahe sugandhim pushtivardhanam urvarurkamiva bhamdhanam mrityor mukshiya mamritate.

He who has divine fragrance, He who makes men powerful and full of plenty, Him even we worship, the three-eyed Rudra. Like a ripe berry from its stalk, release me from death, and let me not turn away from immortality and enlightenment.

Yo Rudro agnau yo apsu ya oshadhishu yo Rudro vishva bhuvana vivesha tasmai Rudraya namo astu

That Rudra who has even entered into and pervaded fire, the waters, vegetation, and all the worlds, let my salutations be to that Rudra.

Tamu shthuti yah svishuh sudhanva yo vishvasya shyati bheshajasya Yakshvamahe saumanasaya Rudram namo bhrdevamasuram duvasya

He who holds a beautiful and powerful shaft and a strong bow, He who is the source and repository of all medicines, praise Him alone. To gain the favor and goodwill of that supreme and effulgent God Rudra, let us worship Him, honor and adore Him by salutations.

Ayam me vishvabhesajo yam shivabhimarshanaha

Due to its contact with the Linga image, this right hand of mine is fortunate. Indeed this hand of mine is a panacea for all human beings for all ills.

You te sahasramayutam pasha mrityo martyaya hantave
Tanyajñasya mayaya sarvanava yajamahe

Oh Death in the form of Rudra. Those countless nooses of yours by which You destroy all mortal creatures, we shall loosen them by the efficiency of our worship of you.

Mrityave Svaha Mrityave Svaha

I offer this sacred food offering in sacrifice to Rudra the Destroyer.

OM Namo Bhagavate Rudraya
Vishnave mrityume pahi

Om.Salutation to the omnipresent Bhagavan Rudra. Protect me from death.

Prananam granthirasi rudro ma vishantakaha. Tenan nenapyayasva. OM Namo Bhagavate Rudraya.Vishnave mrityume pahi Prananam granthirasi rudro ma vishantakaha. Tenan nenapyayasva.

Kamadhenu, the divine cow discovered the hymns by which the gods are invoked. Manu was the sacrificer. Brihaspathi repeated the Sasthra Mantras which gladden. May the Visva Devas praised in the hymns and Mother Earth not cause me any suffering. Let me think sweet thoughts; let me perform sweet actions which bear sweet fruits; let me bear sweet offerings, let my speech and praise be sweet; let me utter words which sound sweet to the Gods; let me utter sweet words to men who would lend their ears. Let the Gods illumine me and render my speech sweet. Let the Prithis, the forefathers feel glad and approve of me.

CHAMAKAM

First Anuvaka

Agna Visnu sajosasema vardhantu vamgirah |
Dyumnairvajebhi ragatam |
Vaja schame prasava scha me
Pratiyati scha prasatischa me dhiti scha me| kratu scha me
Svara scha me sloka schame srava scha me sruti scha me
Jyoti scha me suva scha me prana scha me panah ||
Cha me vyana scha me suscha me cittam cha ma Adhitam
Cha me Vakscha me mana scha me cakshu scha me srotam
Cha me daksha scha me balam cha oja scha me saha scha ma
Ayu scha me jaracha ma Atma cha me tanuscha me
Sharma cha me varma cha me gani cha me sthani cha me
Parugansi cha me sharirani cha me ||

Second Anuvaka

Jyesttayam cha ma Adhipatyamcha me manyu scha me
Bhama scha me mascha me mbhascha me jemacha
Me mahima cha me, varimacha me prathima chame
Varsma cha me draghuya cha me Vridhamcha me
Vridhi scha me satyam cha me, sradha cha me jagacca ||
Me dhanam cha me vasha scha me tvisi scha me krida
Cha me moda scha me jatam cha me janisya manam
Chame suktam cha me sukrutam cha me vittam cha me
Vedyam cha me bhutam cha me bhavisyaccha me sugam
Cha me supatham cha ma Rudhancha ma Ruddhi scha me
Klaptam cha me klipti scha me mati scha me sumati scha me ||

Third Anuvaka

Shancha me maya scha me priyam cha me nu
Kama scha me kama scha me soumana scha me
Bhadrancha me shreya scha me vasya scha me
Ya shascha me bhaga scha me dravinam cha me
Yanta cha me dharta cha me kshema scha me
Dhruti scha me visvam cha me maha scha me
Samvicca me jnatram cha me suscha me prasuscha
Me siram cha me laya scha me Rtam cha me
Mritam cha me yakshmam cha me nama yaccha me
Jivatu scha me dirdhayutvam cha me namitram cha me
Bhayam cha me sugam cha me shayanam cha me
Susa cha me sudinam cha me ||

Fourth Anuvaka

Urkcha me sunrta cha me payascha me rasa scha me
Ghrutam cha me madhu cha me sagdhi scha me
Sapita scha me kusi scha me Vristi scha me
Tirupathi Jaitram cha ma oudbhidyam cha me rayi scha
Raya scha me pustam cha me pusti scha me
forvibhu cha me Prabhu cha me bahu cha me bhuya scha purnam cha me
Purna tarancha me kshiti scha me Kuyava me nam
Cha me kshuccha me vrihayaccha me vaya scha me masa
Scha me tila scha me mudga scha me khalva
scha me godhuma Vishnusahasranamam
Scha me masura scha me priyam gava scha me nava scha
Me shyamaka scha me Nivara scha me

Fifth Anuvaka

Ashma cha me mrittikacha me giraya scha me parvata scha
Me sikata scha me vanaspataya scha me hiranyam cha
Me yascha me susam cha metra puscha me shyamam
Cha me loham cha me gnichma Apascha me virudha
Scha ma osadha ya scha me Krista pacyam cha me
Krista pacyancha me grama scha me pashava Aranyaya scha
Yajnena kalpantam vittam cha me vittischa me bhutam
Cha me bhuti scha me vasu cha me vasati scha me karma
Cha em Shakti scha me rdha scha ma Ema scha ma
Iti scha me gati scha me ||

Sixth Anuvaka

Agni scha ma Indra scha me soma scha ma Indra scha me
Savita scha ma Indra scha me Sarasvati cha ma Indra scha me
Pusa cha ma Indra scha me bruhaspati scha ma Indra scha me
Mitra scha ma Indra scha me varuna scha me tvasta cha ma
Indra scha me dhata cha ma Indra scha me Visnu scha ma
Indra scha me svi nou cha ma Indra scha me maruta scha ma
Indra scha me pruthivi cha ma Indra scha me ntariksham
Cha ma Indra scha me dyou scha ma Indra scha me murdha
Cha ma Indra scha me praja pati scha ma Indra scha me ||

Seventh Anuvaka

Agum suscha me rashmiccha me dabhya scha me
Dhipati scha ma upagum suscha me ntarya mascha ma
Indravaya vascha me maitra varuna scha ma Ashvina scha
Me prati prastha nascha me shukra scha me manthicha
Me Agrayana scha me vaishva deva scha me dhru
Vascha me vaisva nara scha ma Rutugra ha scha ||
Me tigra yascha ma Indra gna scha me vaisva
Deva scha me marutvati yascha me mahendra scha ma
Aditya scha me Savitra scha me sarasvaa scha me
Pousna scha me patni vata scha me hariyojana scha me ||

Eighth Anuvaka

Edhma scha me bahir scha me vedi scha me
Dhisniya scha me srucha schame chamasa scha me
Gravana scha me svarava scha me uparava scha me
Dhisavane cha me dronakala sha scha me vayavyani
Cha me putabhru scha me Adhavaniya scha ma
Agnidhram cha me havirdhanam cha me Gruha scha me
Sada scha me puroda sha scha me pacuta scha me
Vabhruthaya scha me svagakara scha me ||

Nineth Anuvaka

Agni scha me gharma scha me rka scha me
Surya scha me prana scha me svamedha scha me
Pruthivicha me diti scha me, diti scha me dhyou scha me
Shakvari rangulayo disha scha me yajnena kalpanta
mrikya me samacha me stoma scha me yaju scha me
Diksha cha me tapa scha ma Tru scha me vratam cha
Me horatrayor vristayo bruha drathantare cha me
Yajnena kalpetam ||

Tenth Anuvaka

Garbhascha me vatsa scha me travim scha me
Trayavicha me dityavat cha me dityou hi chame panchavi scha
Me panchavi cha me trivatsa scha me trivatsa cha me
Turya vatcha me turya hi cha me sasta vat cha me
Sastouhi cha ma uksha cha me vasha cha ma Rsabha scha
Me vehacca me nadvancha me dhenuscha ma Ayur
Yajnena kalpatam prano yajnena kalpatamapano
Yajnena kalpatam vyano yajnena kalpatam cakshur
Yajnena kalpatam srotram yajnena kalpatam mano
Yajnena kalpatam vagyajnena kalpata matma
Yajnena kalpatam yajno yajnena kalpatam ||

Eleventh Anuvaka

Eka cha me tisra scha me panca cha me sapta cha me
Nava cha ma Ekadasa cha me trayo dasa cha me
Panchada sha me sapta sha me nava dasha cha ma Eka
Vigum shati scha me trayo vigum shati scha me pancha vigum
Shatischa me Sapta vigum shati scha me Navavigum
Sati scha ma Ekutrigum shacha me trastrim sha scha me
Catatra scha me stou cha me dvadasha cha me
Soda shacha me vigum shati scha me caturrvigum shati scha
Me soda sha cha me vigum shati scha me caturvigum
Shati scha me stavigum shati scha me dvatrigum shaccame
Satragum shaccame catvarigum shacca me catu
Schatvarigum shaccame - stacatvarigum shacca me
Vaja scha prasava scha pija scha kratu scha suva scha
Murdhacha vyasni scha yaschan tyaya naschantya scha
Bhou vana scha bhuvana schadhi patischa ||

End of Chamaka Mantras

CHAMAKAM (Shanti Pattah)

Ida devahurmanurajna Nicru haspati rukthama
dani shagam sisadvi sve devan sukta vacah
Prithiva matarmahigam sirmadhu manisye madhu
janesye madhu vakshyami madhu matim Devebhyo
vaca mudyo mudya sagam
Shusrusebhyam manusye bhyastam ma Deva
Avantu Soubhayai pitaro nu madantu ||

Shiva Ashtotra Namavali

1. Om Shivaaya Namah
2. Om Maheshvaraaya Namah
3. Om Shambhave Namah
4. Om Pinaakine Namah
5. Om Shashishekharaaya Namah
6. Om Vaamadevaaya Namah
7. Om Viruupaaxaaya Namah
8. Om Kapardine Namah
9. Om Niilalohitaaya Namah
10. Om Sha.Nkaraaya Namah
11. Om Shuulapaanaye Namah
12. Om Khatvaa.Ngine Namah
13. Om Vishnuvallabhaaya Namah
14. Om Shipivishtaaya Namah
15. Om Ambikaanaathaaya Namah
16. Om Shriikanthaaya Namah
17. Om Bhaktavatsalaaya Namah
18. Om Bhavaaya Namah
19. Om Sharvaaya Namah
20. Om Trilokeshaaya Namah
21. Om Shitikanthaaya Namah
22. Om Shivaa Priyaaya Namah
23. Om Ugraaya Namah
24. Om Kapaaline Namah
25. Om Kaamaaraye Namah
26. Om Andhakaasurasuudanaaya Namah
27. Om Ga.Ngaadharaaya Namah
28. Om Lalaataaxaaya Namah
29. Om Kaalakaalaaya Namah
30. Om Kripaanidhaye Namah
31. Om Bhiimaaya Namah
32. Om Parashuhastaaya Namah
33. Om Mrigapaanaye Namah
34. Om Jataadharaaya Namah
35. Om Kailaasavaasine Namah
36. Om Kavachine Namah
37. Om Kathoraaya Namah
38. Om Tripuraantakaaya Namah
39. Om Vrishaa.Nkaaya Namah
40. Om Vrishabhaaruudhaaya Namah
41. Om Bhasmoddhuulita Vigrahaaya Namah
42. Om Saamapriyaaya Namah
43. Om Svaramayaaya Namah
44. Om Trayiimuurtaye Namah
45. Om Aniishvaraaya Namah
46. Om Sarvagyaaya Namah
47. Om Paramaatmane Namah
48. Om Somasuuryaagnilochanaaya Namah
49. Om Havishe Namah
50. Om Yagyamayaaya Namah
51. Om Somaaya Namah
52. Om Pa.Nchavaktraaya Namah
53. Om Sadaashivaaya Namah
54. Om Vishveshvaraaya Namah
55. Om Viirabhadraaya Namah
56. Om Gananaathaaya Namah
57. Om Prajaapataye Namah
58. Om Hiranyaretase Namah
59. Om Durdharshaaya Namah
60. Om Giriishaaya Namah
61. Om Girishaaya Namah
62. Om Anaghaaya Namah
63. Om Bhuja.Ngabhuushanaaya Namah
64. Om Bhargaaya Namah
65. Om Giridhanvane Namah
66. Om Giripriyaaya Namah
67. Om Krittivaasase Namah
68. Om Puraaraataye Namah
69. Om Bhagavate Namah
70. Om Pramathaadhipaaya Namah
71. Om Mrityu.Njayaaya Namah
72. Om Suuxmatanave Namah
73. Om Jagad.Hvyaapine Namah
74. Om Jagad.Hguruve Namah
75. Om Vyomakeshaaya Namah
76. Om Mahaasenajanakaaya Namah
77. Om Chaaruvikramaaya Namah
78. Om Rudraaya Namah
79. Om Bhuutapataye Namah
80. Om Sthaanave Namah
81. Om Ahayebudhnyaaya Namah
82. Om Digambaraaya Namah
83. Om Ashtamuurtaye Namah
84. Om Anekaatmane Namah
85. Om Saatvikaaya Namah
86. Om Shuddhavigrahaaya Namah
87. Om Shaashvataaya Namah
88. Om Khandaparashave Namah
89. Om Agyaaya Namah
90. Om Paashavimochakaaya Namah
91. Om Mridaaya Namah
92. Om Pashupataye Namah
93. Om Devaaya Namah
94. Om Mahaadevaaya Namah
95. Om Avyayaaya Namah
96. Om Haraye Namah
97. Om Bhaganetrabhide Namah
98. Om Avyaktaaya Namah
99. Om Daxaadhvaraharaaya Namah
100. Om Haraaya Namah
101. Om Puushadantabhide Namah
102. Om Avyagraaya Namah
103. Om Sahasraaxaaya Namah
104. Om Sahasrapade Namah
105. Om Apavargapradaaya Namah
106. Om Anantaaya Namah
107. Om Taarakaaya Namah
108. Om Parameshvaraaya Namah

Source:
http://www.puja.net/Pages/Yagyas/Journal/05Events/Feb_Mar05/05ShivaratriPage/rudra_translation.htm

The Mind of J. Krishnamurti Edited by S. R. Vas (1989)

2011-05-06T02:37:00.000-07:00

Of what importance is that to which you cling, if doubt can destroy it ? Of what value are your traditions, your beliefs, and your accumulations, if doubt is capable of sweeping them away ? A man who is afraid of doubt will never find the truth. Doubt is a precious ointment; it heals though it burns greatly. If you are afraid of little burns, you will never destroy the impurities you have accumulated throughout your lives. In avoiding life, in fearing life, you shelter yourself in decaying things, and in that shelter there is sorrow, but in inviting doubt you will create that which will be eternal, and bear the stamp of happiness. (p.22);

We all know that human consciousness can be disturbed with stimulants. An alcoholic drink will do that much for you. But then you are back next morning where you were before, when the effect of the drink is gone, feeling worse and miserable for your experience. Truly great experiences are those which happen on their own, without any effort on the part of the individual to manipulate them for himself or for others. (p.50)

Man’s discovery of God ceases to be a discovery if he begins this search with a foregone conclusion in his mind. Most religions impose a certain image of the type of God they would want their followers to worship. Whereas to mind, in the search for truth, which to me is the search for God, the choice does not rest with us as to what to reject or accept. Truth, God, call it what you will, is an awareness of the totality of existence, of our hopes and desires, our ambitions, our greed, our loves and thousands of other emotions which constitute what passes for the living individual. I believe organized religions stand in the way of this awareness of the totality of existence.

Mind has its own place, a unique place in our lives. Without the use of your mind you won’t be able to find your way back home, and I won’t be able to conduct this conversation without its help. But mind can only move in the sphere of the known, in the sphere of time. Whereas we refer to God as the unknown the timeless, is it not ? Till a certain stage, in the three dimensions world, our mind can serve us to our advantage. But to reach the fourth dimension of existence, the mind instead of moving along the horizontal plane, must learn to shoot up vertically as it were and explode for the timeless, for the unknown to be. (p.52)

[How do you see this worked our in practice, in the routine life of the millions who seek God ?]

In their sensitivity, in their ability to remain open for the new. I do not like the word God: it smacks of anthropomorphism. But in a man’s sensitivity to, in his choiceless awareness of the totality of existence, in this alone I find whatever meaning the word God conveys.

Sensitivity demands the ability to have serene mind, a mind which is not preoccupied with itself, a mind which is receptive, which is an open mind, a mind which is not always getting hurt at what it sees or perceives. (p.53)

Sensitivity is my equivalent of meditation, which brings you its own rewards.

The actual death of the body one day, as you know, is unavoidable.

Most of these schools, whether it is Buddhism or Vedanta or any other, suggest a path the middle path, the negative path and the like, I suggest no path at all. For a path implies effort or practice, and the immeasurable can only be faced by a person in keeping himself free of effort, in a state of alert readiness for the new, in a state without fear or hope.

We can see that to talk of so-and-so obtaining liberation is a misuse of terms. That which is liberated is always life, not the individual. Indeed it is at the expense of the individual that such liberation is achieved. Life alone benefits by the transaction. It is true that the individual uniqueness, which persists on both sides of the liberating process, finds that, instead of belonging to the Ego, it has really all along belonged to the life universal. But that discovery is made at, or after, liberation. The process towards liberation must always seem like the killing out of individuality hence its painfulness. (p.61)

Liberation is a matter of life and not of forms. (p.64)

It’s important to think rightly in order to release something creative. To think rightly you must know yourself. To know yourself you must be detached, absolutely honest, free from judgement. It means continual awareness of one’s thoughts and feelings during the day without acceptance or rejection, like watching a movie of oneself.

Isn’t it like a child who says: teach me higher mathematics! My reply would be: it would be useless to teach you higher mathematics unless you have first learnt algebra. If we understand this particular thing, the divinity of that life which lies before us, it is not important to discuss what lies beyond, because we are discussing a thing which is unconditioned with a conditioned mind. (p.83)

Teach the child from the very beginning that its goal is happiness and freedom, and that the manner of attainment is through the harmony of all the bodies mind, emotion and the physical body.

We are all convinced that the more experiences we have, the more we are alive. But we do not live reality; we live symbols, concepts, ideals and words. We feed on words, our spiritual life has become a perpetual conflict, because we live by concepts like the hungry man who eats bits of paper with ‘bread’ written on it. We live by words, not facts. In all walks of life, whether spiritual or sexual, in our work or leisure, we are stimulated by words. Words organise themselves into thoughts and ideas; they excite us and the greater the gap between reality (what we are) and the ideal (which we are not), the more intensely we imagine ourselves to live. And thus we destroy all possibility of mutation. (p.91-92)

It is a fact, that nowadays religion, the true communion between man and what lies beyond him, has no place whatsoever in human affairs. Religious organisations, on the contrary, have become instruments of politics and economics. (p.95-96)

A truly religious man is free of all fear, for he is free of the patterns created by the many civilisations over thousands of years. He is also free from the past, personal and collective and his future is not distorted by the pressure of his own actions. (p.96)

Silence is important, which is a measureless state, knowable as beyond experience, beyond words, beyond thought, an un-created energy. Without this creative silence there can be no brotherhood and peace and no true religion.

The repetition of sacred formulas calms the agitations of the mind and puts it to sleep. Prayer is a sedative which enables us to continuity in our psychological prison without feeling the need of bursting it open and destroying it. The mechanism of prayer, like all mechanisms, gives a mechanical result. There is no prayer capable to pierce through the ignorance of oneself. All prayer addressed to the unlimited pre-supposes that the limited knows the unlimited and how to contact it. It has all kinds of ideas, concepts and beliefs about the unlimited and is enclosed in a system of explanations, locked up in a mental prison. Prayer binds, it does not liberate. And freedom is the very heart of true religion. Religious organisations deny man this essential freedom, inspite of their assertions to the contrary. Self-knowledge is not prayer, it is the door to meditation. Freedom is not based on a set of psychological theories nor is it a state of surrender in the expectation of grace. It destroys the constraints imposed by religion or society. It is a state of total attention, and not of concentration on the particular. (p.96)

The evolution we know, from bullock cart to spaceship, is only a limited part of the brain. Even if this part develops a million times, this will not answer the fundamental question which man puts to himself about himself. The evolution of science and technology will go on it is necessary, inevitable and irreversible. But the remainder of the brain is there un-awakened and we can put ourselves from now to the task of bringing it to life.

You can only find everything by abandoning everything. (p.167)

When you are really happy, deeply in love, the ‘I’ is not. There is only happiness, the immensity of love. This alone is real, everything else is false. (p.191)

As the animals in the circus are trained to act for the amusement of crowds, so the individual, through fear, looks for these spiritual performers, the so called priests and swamis, the dispensers of spurious spirituality and of all the inanities of religion. Their main function is to entertain; they invent rituals, disciplines and worship, which may look beautiful but soon degenerate into superstition and knavery under the cloak of service. (p.250)

I have no belief and I belong to no tradition. I have always had this attitude towards life. It being a fact that life varies from day to day, not only are beliefs and traditions useless to me, but, if I were to let myself be enchained by them, they would prevent me from understanding life.

You may attain liberation, no matter where you are or what the circumstances surrounding you, but this means that you must have the strength of genius. For genius, is, after all, the ability to deliver oneself from the circumstances in which one is enmeshed, the ability to free oneself from the vicious circle.

For what is ordinarily called meditation is merely, in Krishnamurti’s words, the cultivation of resistance of exclusive concentration on an idea of our choice. Yoga is the process of building a wall of resistance against every thought except that which you have chosen. But what makes you choose? Obviously the choice is based on pleasure, reward or achievement; or it is merely a reaction to one’s conditioning or tradition. Then why choose?

Organisations cannot make you free. No man from outside can make you free; nor can organised worship, nor the immolation of yourselves for a cause, make you free; nor can forming yourselves into an organisation, nor throwing yourselves into works, make you free. You use a typewriter to write letters, but you do not put it on an altar and worship it. But that is what you are doing when organisations become your chief concern.How many members are there in It? That is the first question I am asked by all newspaper reporters. How many followers have you? By their number we shall judge whether what you say is true or false.I do not know how many there are. I am not concerned with that. As I said, if there were even one man who had been set free, that were enough.

Again, you have the idea that only certain people hold the key to the Kingdom of Happiness. No one holds it. No one has the authority to hold that key. That key is your own self, and in the development and the purification and in the incorruptibility of that self alone is the Kingdom of Eternity.

When the mind is completely unconditioned then only can you experience or discover if there is something real or not. But before you uncondition your mind, to say that you are religious, that you are a Hindu, Muslim, a Buddhist or a Christian has no meaning whatsoever. That is pure romanticism which is exploited by the priest, by the organized group politically, religiously because they have their vested interest in it. These are all facts, whether you like them or not. I am merely describing the fact. And these divisions into religious groups, believing this and that, believing this dogma and denying that dogma, going from prison to prison, from temple to temple, doing endless puja all that is not a religious mind at all, it is merely a traditional mind bound by fear. And surely a mind that is afraid can never find out if there is, or if there is not, something beyond the word, beyond the measure of the mind.

So, to find out if there is, or if there is not, something which is beyond the thought, which is not measurable by the mind, the mind must be first free. Surely that is logic.

when you follow somebody, you have destroyed your own thoughts, you have lost your own independence, you have lost your freedom not only politically but much more psychologically, not only outwardly but much more inwardly. So, where there is a following and where there is a leader in matters that are really spiritual, really psychological, there is bound to be confusion because in that there is a contradiction between what your own deep down urges, compulsions are, and the imposition placed upon them by the leader, by what you think you should do. So, there is a contradiction psychologically and that contradiction leads to conflict and where there is a conflict there is effort and where there is effort there is distortion.

So, a religious mind has no conflict. The religious mind does not follow anyone. It has no authority because authority implies imitation; authority implies conformity; and there is conformity because you want success, you want to achieve; and, therefore, there is fear. Without dissolving fear completely, how can you proceed to enquire, how can you proceed to find out? These are no rhetorical questions. If I am frightened, I am bound to seek comfort, shelter, security in whatever that comes along because fear dictates, not sanity, not clarity. So, fear dictates conformity that I must imitate, follow somebody in the hope that I shall find comfort. So, the religious mind has no authority of any kind, and that is very difficult for people to accept because we have been bred in authority the Gita, the Upanishads, the Bible, the Koran They have taken the place of our own thinking, of our own suffering.

The scientist is concerned with the fact. He is investigating matter, investigating life in his laboratory. He is investigating it under the microscope. He has no fear; he moves from fact to fact and he builds up knowledge, and that knowledge helps him to investigate further only along a particular narrow, restricted line which is science. But we are concerned with the totality of life, not with science only; not only with brick-building but with anger, with ambition, with quarrels, what you are, how limited our minds are the totality of life.

Science does not include the totality of life but a religious mind does. When the economists or the sociologists try to solve human problems, they are dealing with them only partially and therefore bringing about more chaos, more misery. But the religious mind is not concerned with the partial; it is concerned with the total entity of man. That is, outward movement of life is the same as the inward movement. The outward movement is like the ebb, the tide that goes out and then comes in. If the two are divorced, if the two are separated, the outer and the inner, then you have conflict, you have misery and the so-called religious people have divided this life into the outer and the inner. They do not regard it as one unitary process. They avoid the outer by retreating to a monastery or putting on a sanyasi’s robe. They deny the outer world but they do not deny the world of tradition, of their knowledge, of their conditioning. So they separate the two and therefore there is a contradiction.

So, self-knowledge or learning about oneself every day brings about psychologically, inwardly, a new mind because you have denied the old mind. Through self-knowledge you have denied it, you have denied your conditioning totally, and that can be denied totally only when the mind is aware of its own operations, how it works, what it thinks, what it says, what are the motives.

There are laws in some countries, I believe, which prohibit anyone from following you in the street and if someone does he can be arrested and put into prison. So, spiritually, I wish there were a police system which would put people into a spiritual prison for following others. In fact it does happen automatically.

Self-satisfaction, self-contentment, lack of determined effort and above all lack of ecstasy in any pursuit, is the essence of mediocrity.

What matters is to observe your own mind without judgement just to look at it, to watch it, to be conscious of the fact that your mind is a slave, and no more; because that very perception release energy, and it is this energy that is going to destroy the slavishness of the mind.

The state of the mind that questions is much more important than the question itself. Any question may be asked by a slavish mind, and the answer it receives will still be within the limitations of its own slavery.

to restrain oneself from violence by practising non-violence, is no change at all, though in this country (India) it is glibly talked about every day. Non-violence with a motive is still violence.

Cultivated virtue is a horror, because the moment you cultivate a virtue it ceases to be a virtue. Virtue is spontaneous timeless, it is ever active in the present.

Freedom from the desire for an answer is essential to the understanding of a problem.

The craving for experience is the beginning of illusion.

To seek fulfilment is to invite frustration.

Wisdom and truth come to a man who truly says, I am ignorant, I do not know.

Addiction to knowledge is like any other addiction; it offers an escape from the fear of emptiness, of loneliness, of frustration the fear of being nothing.

Thoughtful people can't deny the existence of God

2011-04-21T12:16:00.000-07:00

Since the beginning of the industrial revolution, industrialists and scientists have fantasized about a symbiotic factory setup. Consider two hypothetical factories A & B. Suppose the two factories could be arranged such that the waste product of factory A would serve as a raw material for factory B and the waste product of factory B would serve as a raw material for factory A. Then the factory setup would able to run perpetually with zero expenditure and unlimited profit! However this has always been nothing more than a fantasy. The raw materials in every factory are quite expensive to obtain and the waste products are quite useless and expensive to even dispose off.

Amazingly enough, such a symbiotic factory setup already exists in nature: human respiration & plant photosynthesis. At every moment we human beings breathe in O2 & give out CO2.

O2 is life-sustaining & CO2 is life-destroying, if present in excessive quantity. Therefore the human respiration by itself would diminish the supply of O2 & increase CO2 in the atmosphere soon making the atmosphere & the planet inhabitable for human beings and indeed all O2-breathing creatures.

But there is a magnificent balance system in nature which exactly takes in the waste product of the human respiration CO2 & gives out the raw material for respiration O2 - plant photosynthesis.

Isn’t it remarkable that what the best scientists on the planet could nothing more dream about has already realized by nature? Albert Einstein has remarked, "There are two ways to live life. One is to see nothing as a miracle & other is to see everything as a miracle."

Some people say that nature certainly works remarkably, but its working is automatic & more or less governed by chance. They argue that seeing any divinity or God controlling nature is just a sentimental longing coming from an unscientific mentality.

However the word ‘automatically’ used in this context is somewhat misleading because it doesn’t indicate the absence of a controller, but rather the absence of the knowledge of the controller.

When we say that a machine works automatically, what it means is that the machine doesn’t require continuous interaction with the operator. But still there is an operator who activates the machine and monitors its working. Is that the case with nature?

E.g. If you want to have fun with a child, then you might get an automatic toy i.e. either a mechanically or in some other way programmed toy. By staying out of view of the child, you release the toy & it comes moving into the view of the child.

Seeing the toy moving automatically, the child becomes astounded and thinks that the toy is working by itself. But you a wise person will never be misled into the conclusion of an inexperienced child. You know that even if the toy is moving automatically, it is programmed by you.

Similarly the magnificent phenomena in nature are not just occurring automatically; they are working under the expert but remote and therefore invisible programming of God.

Uninformed people, like the naive child, may think that nature is working automatically, but wise people throughout history – religious and scientific – have always understood that there is a super-intelligent designer behind nature. Thus it is that the famous physicist Lord Kelvin has remarked, "If you think deeply enough you will be forced by science to believe in God."
_______________________________________________
This material nature is working under My direction, O son of Kunti, and it is producing all moving and unmoving beings. By its rule this manifestation is created and annihilated again and again ~ Lord Krsna [Bg 9.10]

My Spiritual Friend Subramanian R wants to add few more points

God's ways are inscrutable.How does the tough coconut consist inside the delicious coconut water? Who kept a hundred seeds inside the pomegranade? Who taught the new born baby to look for its mother's breast for food? If you think of these things, you will realize that there is a great designer for all these. But no one can find the source code for these designs.

Sri Bhagavan says in Sri Arunachala Akshara Mana Maalai, Verse 80:

Mudi adi kaaNa mudi viduthu anai ner
Mudi vida kadanilai arunachala!

[anai = Annai, Mother.]

Our ego is a knot for which there is no beginning and no end.

You have undone the knot which shows no beginning and no end.
And now should yo not like a mother complete the task, O Arunachala!

To those who say that they don’t believe in any religion

2011-04-17T09:22:00.000-07:00

Many people say that they don't believe in any religion. However, on taking a closer look, we can see that there is no one in this world who does not believe in religion.

To those who say that they don't believe in any religion, I would like to ask, don't they believe in the body's religion of eating, drinking, sleeping and evacuating? Don't they believe in the religion of the mind? They may say that they don't believe in the religion of the soul.

How can they believe in it? They don't even know what it is. However, don't they want to live forever? Do they want to remain fools? Don't they want knowledge? Don't they want happiness?

This is called sat, cit and ananda in the language of the scriptures. To desire sat-cit-ananda and to serve Him is the religion of the soul. Living beings, parts of the marginal potency of the all-powerful Supreme Lord, are also atomic sat-cit-ananda while the Supreme Lord is infinite sat-cit-ananda.

So, whether directly or indirectly, everyone desires the sat-cit-ananda Supreme Lord. Those who call themselves atheists do not know that they also desire to attain sat-cit-ananda. However, it will be impossible to attain sat, cit and complete ananda on the path that they are following.

-- His Divine Grace Srila Bhakti Ballabh Tirtha Goswami Maharaj

Silence Liberates

2011-04-15T12:02:00.000-07:00

There lived a pious man in Bengal, India. Every day a Sanskrit scholar would come to his house and read aloud a few soul-stirring spiritual teachings from the Gita, the Upanishads and the Vedas. The master of the house was an aspirant.He would listen most devotedly to these discourses.

The family had a bird called Krishna. Krishna was kept in a cage in the room where the discourses were given. It also listened to these talks.

One day the bird spoke to its master, "Could you please tell me what benefit you actually derive from these spiritual talks?"

The master answered, "O Krishna, you don't seem to understand that these spiritual talks will liberate me, free me from bondage!

The bird said: "You have been listening to these discourses for the last few years, but I don't see any change in you. Would you kindly ask your teacher what will actually happen to you?" On the following day the master of the house said to his teacher, "Guru, I have been listening to your spiritual talks for the last ten years. Is it not true that I will get liberation and freedom?"

The teacher kept quiet. He scratched his head, pondered over the question, but found no reply. He just remained unhappily silent for about an hour and then left the house.

The master of the house was stunned. His guru could not give an answer to the bird's question, but the bird found an answer. The Answer.

From that day on, the bird stopped eating. It stopped even its usual chirping.It became absolutely silent. The master and his family placed food inside the cage every day, but the bird would not touch anything.

One day the master looked at the bird, and seeing no sign of life in it, took it
gently out of the cage. With a tearful heart, he placed his Krishna on the floor. In a twinkling, the bird flew away into the infinite freedom of the sky!

The bird taught. Its master and his guru learned:

Silence is the Nature of the Muni

2011-04-13T12:43:00.000-07:00

Muni is one who has controlled his mind. That which is the quality of a Muni is silence. That is the meaning of the word 'Mounam'. Since the general view is that the greatest of the qualities of a Muni is not talking, mounam has come to mean 'not talking'.

Even if it is the quality of one who has controlled his mind, that helps people like us too who have not controlled our mind to reach that stage.

The Upanishad says that the Muni who is also a Brahmajnani, gives up both the
states of remaining silent and not remaining silent. First, he learns, becomes a
pundit (scholar), debates a lot and gets to know the truth. Then he gives up
talk and his scholarship and goes into 'Nishta'.

Then when he becomes a Brahmajnani, he gives up mounam and absence of mounam also, says the Upanishad.If it is said like this, how is it possible? Either one should give up mounam and speak or should give up talking and observe mounam. How is it possible to give up both? We will know it only when we reach that jnani's state. He will not have something like the mind at all.

Therefore, he will have no thought or desire that either he should talk or should not talk. Even if he happens to talk by way of upadesam, he will not think he has spoken.

Even if Parasakti makes him sit in a more silent state like Dakshinamurti, he will not think he is observing mouna vratham. This is the state which is said to be one in which mounam (silence) and amounam (non-silence) have been given up.

That is a goal which is far distant for us. In practice, we should observe mouna
Upavasam for sometime.

Final Part -- J. KRISHNAMURTI - A Biography by Pupul Jayakar

2011-03-16T13:26:00.000-07:00

It is strange how we want freedom and we do everything to enslave ourselves. We lose all our initiative. We look to others to guide us, to help us, to be generous, to be peaceful; we look to the gurus, masters, saviours, meditators.

Someone writes great music, someone plays it, interpreting it in his own way and we listen to it, enjoying it or criticising it. We are the audience watching the actors, football players, or watching the cine-screen. Others write poems and we read; others paint and we gape at them.

We have nothing, so we turn to others to entertain us, to inspire us, to guide or save us. More and more, modern civilisation is destroying us, emptying us of all creativeness. We ourselves are empty inwardly and we look to others to be enriched and so our neighbour takes advantage of this to exploit, or we take advantage of him. (p.271-272)

It is odd how most people want to impress others, by their achievements, by their cleverness, by their books – by any means to assert themselves. (p.272)

What is important is to have the right kind of exercise, good sleep, and a day that has significance. But one slips so easily into a routine, and then one functions in the easy pattern of self-satisfaction, or in the pattern of self-imposed righteousness. All their patterns invariably lead to death – a slow withering away. But to have a rich day, in which there is no compulsion, no fear, no comparison, no conflict, but to be simply aware, is to be creative.

Don’t try to be simple. This trying only breeds complexity and misery. The trying is becoming and the becoming is always desire, with its frustrations.

It is so fatally easy to get used to anything, to any discomfort, to any frustration, to any continued satisfaction. One can adjust oneself to any circumstances, to lunacy or to asceticism. The mind likes to function in grooves, in habits, and this activity is called living.

A quiet mind, but very alert, watchful, is a blessing; it is like the earth, rich with immense possibilities. When there is such a mind, not comparing, not
condemning, then only is it possible for the immeasurable richness to be.

Have done a great deal of meditation and has been good. I hope you are doing it too – begin by being aware of every thought – feeling – all day, the nerves and the brain – then become quiet, still – this is what cannot be done through control – then really begins meditation. Do it with thoroughness.

He said that he had been speaking in India for thirty years and nothing had happened. “There is not one person who is living the teaching”. (p.284)

It is necessary to ask questions. Questions to which there are no answers. So that the question throws man back of himself and the way the structure of thought operates. The hand that seeks to throw away or reject is the same hand that itself holds.

He spoke of the tenacity of the Hindu mind, which despite conquest and repression had kept alive the ancient teachings.

Without understanding the structure and nature of thought you will not come upon this silence naturally. (p.305-306)

Do you see that doubt in religious enquiry is one of the most extraordinary things that existed in India ? Christianity was based on faith; doubt,scepticism, questioning were denied. They were regarded as heresy. In India and in the Asiatic world doubt was one of the principles of religious investigation. (p.399-400)

Because it is only through doubt that you come to the Brahman, not through acceptance of authority. (p.400)

I want to find out if in India the mind is being caught and carried away by the materialistic wave. That wave is threatening the Western world, expressing itself through technology, materialism, nationalism. The Western mind is moving in the direction of the outer, and it dominates the world.

India moved from a center and that center spread all over the Asiatic world through inner search, dance, music, and cultural expression. The Western world was centered in belief, which is so superficial. That superficiality , that materialism, is that conquering this ?

Can one see the outer manifestation of this in India, through its bureaucracy, technology, science, nuclear energy; following the ways of the West; and so is
the pristine, original core of this country gradually withering away ? India was centered on one thing. And therefore she had a fire which spread throughout
the world. Now what is happening to the Indian core ?

I want India to be that. So I say I hope she is not going to lose it. If it is lost, it is lost. I don’t want her to lose it, because then it is the end of everything. (p.401)

I am talking about the Indian mind that has produced the Upanishads, the Buddha. India has been the storehouse of something very very great. The West, with its emphasis on faith and its materialism, is destroying that greatness.

The whole world believes in God. In Ceylon they were very upset when I said the word God is put together by thought.

The whole world believes in God. Unfortunately, I don’t know what God is. Probably I can never find out.

And I am not interested in finding out. But what I am concerned with is whether the mind, the brain, can be totally free from all accumulated knowledge,experience ? Because if it is not, it will function always within its field, expanding – contracting – vertically, horizontally – but always within that area. It does not matter how much one accumulates, it will still be within that area. And if the mind moves from that area and says, ‘I must find out’, then it is still carrying the movement, the mind, with it. (p.420)

A cup holds water. A pond is a receptacle that holds water, a holding without any wave, without any motive or movement, without any sense of trying to find
an answer. (p.422)

A meditation in which there is no state of achievement, there is nothing. That may be the ground, the origin of all things, a state in which the meditator is not. (p.423)

In India the concern with religion has been deep. Indian tradition has maintained that the understanding of the Self, of the Universe, of the Highest Principle, is the most significant pursuit. (p.444)

Are we aware that we are prisoners of our own fantasies ?

If we are aware – they are burnt out. (p.451)

Just be aware, not hold it. It is like a perfume – it is there. You don’t hold it. That is why I think one has to understand the whole conditioning of our consciousness. I think that is the real enquiry. The real exploration is into consciousness, which is the common ground of all humanity. And we never enquire into it. We never say, ‘I am going to study this consciousness that is “me”.’

Time and thought have divided the world. (p.456)

We offer a hundred commentaries, but the actual fact is, we are ‘nothing’ except a lot of words. Can one grasp that the zero contains all the numbers ? So in
‘nothing’ all the world exists. (p.459)

If you want to end sorrow there has to be an ending of the ‘me’. (p.460)

Do you see that you are a human being related to all human beings ? the body does not divide. It never says, ‘I am’. It is thought that separates.

Look what religions have done: concentrated on the teacher and forgotten the teaching. Why do we give such importance to the person of the teacher ? The teacher may be necessary to manifest the teaching, but beyond that, what ? The vase contains water: you have to drink the water, not worship the vase.Humanity worships the vase, forgets the water. (p.488)

The human tendency is to center everything around the person of the teacher – not on the essence of what he says, but the person. That is the great corruption. Look at the great teachers of the world – Mohammed, Christ, and the Buddha too. Look what their followers have made of it ? Buddhists monks are violent, they kill. Contrary to all that the Buddha had said. (p.488-489)

Source: http://www.celextel.org/jkbooks/biographyofjk.html

Part 1 -- J. KRISHNAMURTI - A Biography by Pupul Jayakar

2011-03-16T13:11:00.000-07:00

Krishnaji refused to move from “what is”, the actual. He refused to discuss abstracts like God or eternity while the mind was a whirlpool of lust, hatred,and jealousy.

Thought can only come to an end when the thinker understands himself, when he sees that the thinker and the thought are not two separate processes.

To be free from aggression is not to become weak or humble. (p.11)

“If religion perish here, it will perish everywhere and in India’s hand is laid the sacred charge of keeping alight the torch of spirit amid the fogs and storms of increasing materialism. If that torch drops from her hands, its flame will be trampled out by the feet of hurrying multitudes, eager for worldly goods; and India, bereft of spirituality, will have no future, but will pass on into the darkness, as Greece and Rome have passed.” (Annie Besant) (P.23)

You have the idea that only certain people hold the key to the Kingdom of Happiness. No one holds it. No one has the authority to hold that key. That key is your own self, and in the development and the purification and in the incorruptibility of that self alone is the Kingdom of Eternity.

Right action is only possible when the mind is silent and there is a seeing of ‘what is’. Action that arises from this seeing is free of motive, of the past,free of thought and cause. (p.128)

To love is to be chaste, pure, incorruptible. (p.142)

We feel that the ‘I’ is permanent, because all other thoughts come and go. If the thinker is permanent, then thought can be changed, controlled, transformed
by the thinker. But is not the ‘I’ the result of thought ? Your mind separates the ‘I’ from thought because it cannot bear impermanency. Thought cannot move from the known to the unknown. To free the mind from the known is all the mind can do. To find out what lies beyond words, words must cease. I can only use words to get to the door. (p.146-147)

Anandamai Ma, the most famous of the then-living deified “Mothers”, with a very large following in North India, came to meet Krishnaji. They met in the garden, as the Mother never entered the home of a householder. She did not speak English, and spoke through a translator. She had a radiant, smiling presence. She said that she had seen a photograph of Krishnaji many years before and knew that he was very great. She asked him, “Why do you deny gurus ? You who are the Guru of Gurus”.

He (Krishnaji) replied, “People use the guru as a crutch”.

The mind is cause and effect, it is caught in time, it has a beginning and an end. Mind can never experience that which is without cause, the timeless, that which has no beginning and no end.

Religion comes when the mind has understood the working of itself. When the mind is quiet, very still - the stillness is not the peace of death; this stillness is very active, very alert, watchful. To find out what God - Truth is, one has to understand sorrow, and the struggle of human existence. To go beyond the mind there must be a cessation of the self, the ‘me’. It is only then, that which we all worship, seek, comes into being.

The straight line being the ‘I’ and the horizontal bar, the negation of the ‘I’. (regarding the sign of the cross) (p.214)

God is a phrase. To realize God, you must have a free mind, a good mind that does not follow anybody. A mind that has no guru, no system.

I think in one way, you think in another. We mislead a whole generation. One has to be free, man has to be free to speak of God. The Communists say there is no God, you say God is. You are both conditioned. You are both saying the same thing. That is the calamity. There is no your or my way of meditation. There is only meditation.

People take politics very seriously in India. Politics is most destructive. When people say they are working for peace, for reform, it is always the ‘I’ that
is important. People who touch politics cannot have a fresh mind. The world needs fresh minds, clear minds, not minds that are conditioned by being Hindus or Muslims.

The mind has become so mechanical. It needs and seeks a goal in life. We follow paths to a goal. We never question. We are too respectable. But one must have a free mind, not a mind burdened with tradition, with the past. Extreme freedom is needed. But the moment you think you are free, you are not free. One has to unearth oneself, unravel oneself, delve into the corners of one’s mind - ignite the mind. (p.222-225 -- talks with Vinobaji)

Can the mind, without motive, let go ? That is real renunciation. Keep the mind clean, alert, watchful, observe every thought, see its significance without motive, urge, or compulsion, then there comes an energy that is not your own, which descends upon you. There is a limitless being, and in that energy is reality. (p.236)

Life is short and there is so much to discover not outwardly but within. There are vast unexplored regions within and don’t let a day go by without discovering something. Be explosive inwardly and then the outer things will take care of themselves.

Fear really destroys and perverts all seeing. It breeds illusion; it dulls the mind, it destroys dignity. Search it out - be open to it. Don’t find excuses for it. Go into it ruthlessly. Be aware of every form of fear and wash it away. Don’t let it remain with you for a single minute. There is no innocency where there is fear, jealousy, attachment. Be burningly aware of it. (p.247)

When you see fear, enquire into it, face it, then it goes away.

There are two kinds of death. Bodily death and death of thought. We are not afraid of that (bodily death). We are afraid that thought as the ‘me’, which has lived, acquired money, family, the ‘me’ that wants to become important, will end. (p.250)

You have finished looking at things outside, and now with your eyes closed, look at what is happening inside. Watch what is happening inside you. Do not think, but just watch. Do not move your eyeballs, just keep them very very quiet. There is nothing to see now, you have seen all the things around you, now you are seeing what is happening inside your mind. And to see what is happening inside your mind, you have to be very quiet inside. And when you are quiet,do you know what happens to you ? You become very sensitive, you become very alert to things outside and inside. Then you find that the outside is the inside. Then you find out that the observer is the observed.

Love is a dangerous thing, it brings the only revolution that gives complete happiness. So few of us are capable of love, so few want love. We love on our
own terms, making of love a marketable thing. We have the market mentality and love is not marketable, a give-and-take affair. It is a state of being in which all man’s problems are resolved. We go to the well with a thimble and so life becomes a tawdry affair, puny and small.

Be alert to all your thoughts and feelings, don’t let one feeling or thought slip by without being aware of it and absorbing all its content. Absorbing is not the word, but seeing the whole content of the thought-feeling. It is like entering a room and seeing the whole content of the room at once, its atmosphere and its spaces. To see and be aware of one’s thoughts makes one intensively sensitive, pliable, and alert. Don’t condemn or judge, but be very alert.

Experiences are inevitable, perhaps necessary; life is a series of experiences, but the mind need not be burdened with its own accumulative demands. It can wipe off each experience and keep itself innocent - unburdened. This is important, otherwise the mind can never be fresh, alert and pliable.

To bring up children without comparison is true education. (p.259)

Thoughts may not be easy but the more one asks of life, the more fearful and painful it becomes. To live simply, uninfluenced, though everything and everyone is trying to influence, to be without varying moods and demands is not easy, but without a deep quiet life, all things are futile.

The opposite of pride is not humility - it is still pride, only it is called humility; the consciousness of being humble is a form of pride.

What is important is not to prove or disprove a point, but to find out the truth.

The ‘what is’ is not different from the thinker. The thinker is that ‘what is’, the thinker is not separate from that ‘which is’. (p.263)

To allow the free flow of life, without any residue being left, is real awareness.

Not to retain, but to have the freedom of life to flow without restraint, without choice, is complete awareness.

Money does spoil people. There is a peculiar arrogance of the rich. With very few exceptions, in every country, the rich have that peculiar atmosphere of being able to twist anything, even the Gods, and they can buy their Gods.

Happy is the man who is nothing. (p.267)

Choice is conflict and the mind is back again to its own entanglements.The stillness of the mind is the freedom from duality.

There is a life without will, without choice. This life comes into being when the life of will comes to an end. (p.271)

Source: http://www.celextel.org/jkbooks/biographyofjk.html

Ramana Maharshi About Mind Control

2011-03-10T22:51:00.000-08:00

D.: How can the rebellious mind be brought under control?

M.: Either seek its source so that it may disappear or surrender that it may be struck down.

D.: But the mind slips away from our control.

M.: Be it so. Do not think of it. When you recollect yourself bring it back and turn it inward. That is enough.

No one succeeds without effort. Mind control is not one's birthright. The successful few owe their success to their perseverance.

Source : Talks with Sri Ramana Maharshis, Talk No. 398

Source 2: http://www.arunachala.org/newsletters/2011/?pg=mar-apr#article.2

Prof. Grimes Shares His Experiences Of "Who Am I"

2011-03-04T22:37:00.000-08:00

From chapter "Who am I?" (Page 139) from the book “Ganapati” by Prof. Grimes:

Once many years ago, I had a "chance" meeting with an Indian saint. He asked, in broken English, "Been India?" Since I had been in India for a number of years, the best, most easily demonstrable answer was to wobble my head in the characteristic side to side manner known to most Indians. The moment he saw that "wobble", he got a big grin on his face, entered the room, and closed the door behind him.

He asked me, "Who you?" Having lived in India and being used to this type of English and being young and polite I began to answer him, "I am John Grimes," but just as I reached the G of Grimes, he said "Bas, family name, who you?" (Bas is Hindi for "stop, enough.")

Again, since I have lived in India and studied Indian thought, I very confidently and boldly began to reply, "I am the immortal Atman," but just as I reached the A of Atman, again he stopped me with another "Bas, book name, who you?" With the first "stop", he wiped out my physical body. With the second "stop", he wiped out my entire mental universe.

What was left? With two small words, he had succeded in conveying to me that I was neither my physical body nor my mental knowledge. How to answer him? So I said, "I do not know." Quick as a wink, he responded, "Find out."

I replied, "How?" He responded, "Not how, find out." Again I asked, "How?" He was holding a handkerchief in his hand and he opened his fingers and let the handkerchief drop to the ground and as it fell he said, "Let go." Again I asked, "How [to let go]?" He responded, "Not how, let go." And then he turned and left the room.

Almost twenty years passed before I learned that this monk supposedly did not speak English. How interesting! A person who did not speak English magnificently managed to teach the Vedantic truth that one is neither one's body not one's thoughts, all in two words, As if that was not enough, he proceeded to teach me how to "find out who I really am" with another two words ("let go").

We all know how to let go, we do it every night when we go to sleep. We never ask our mother, "Mom, how do I go to sleep?" We just "let go" and sleep came. However, we become confused, disturbed, when someone asks us to "let go" of out preconceived notions as to who we are. Like this, we look for a technique in order to meditate or to find an answer to the question, Who am I?

Gayatri and Sandhyavandana

2011-03-04T22:19:00.000-08:00

Source: http://www.kamakoti.org/hindudharma/part17/chap12.htm

If the Gayatri has not been chanted for three generations in the family of a Brahmin, its members lose caste (they cease to be Brahmins). The quarter where such Brahmins live cannot be called an "agrahara". It is perhaps not yet three generations since Brahmins gave up the Gayatri. So they still may be called Brahmins.

In the same way if the Brahmin family has not performed sacrifices for three generations its members will be called "Durbrahmanas", degenerate Brahmins. Even though degenerate the label "Brahmin" sticks to them. There are prayascittas (expiatory rites) by means of which the corrupted Brahmins will be remade true Brahmins. But there is no such hope for a Brahmin in whose family Gayatri has not been chanted for three generations. A member of such a family ceases altogether to be a Brahmin and cannot be made one again. He is just a "Brahmana- bandhu", a kin or a friend of Brahmins. The same rule applies to Ksatriyas and Vaisyas with regard to the Gayatri mantra; they become "ksatriya-bandhus" and "Vaisya-bandhus" respectively.

The spark I mentioned earlier must be built into a fire. The spark by itself does not serve any purpose. But it has in it the potential to grow into a bright flame or a radiant fire.

At least on Sundays, all those who wear the sacred thread must do Gayatri japa a thousand times. They must not eat unclean food, goto unclean places and must atone for lapses in ritual observances and in maintaining ritual purity. Henceforth they must take every care to see that their body is kept chaste and fit for it to absorb mantric power.

Even in times of misfortune the Gayatri must be muttered at least ten times at dawn, midday and dusk. These are hours of tranquility. At dawn all creatures including human beings rise and the mind is serene now. At dusk all must be restful after a day's hard work: that is also a time of calm. At noon the sun is at its height and people are at home and relaxed and their mind is calm. During these hours we must meditate on Gayatri, Savitri and Sarasvati. In the morning the dominant presence is that of Visnu, at noon that of Brahma and at sundown of Siva. So we must meditate on Gayatri in the morning as Visnu personified, at noon as Brahma personified and at dusk as Siva personified.

Gayatri contains in itself the spirit and energy of all Vedic mantras. Indeed it imparts power to other mantras. Without Gayatri-japa, the chanting of all other mantras would be futile. We find hypnotism useful in many ways and we talk of "hypnotic power". Gayatri is the hypnotic means of liberating ourselves from worldly existence as well as of controlling desire and realising the goal of birth. We must keep blowing on the spark that is the Gayatri and must take up the Gayatri-japa as vrata. The spark will not be extinguished if we do not take to unsastric ways of life and if we do not make our body unchaste.

Gayatri-japa and "arghya" (offering libation) are the most important rites of sandhyavandana. The other parts of this rites are "angas" (limbs). The least a sick or weak person must do us to offer arghya and mutter the Gayatri ten times. "Oh only these two are important aren't they? So that's all we do, offer arghya and mutter the Gayatri ten times a day. " If this be our attitude in due course we are likely to give up even these that are vital to sandhyavandyana. A learned man remarked in jest about the people who perform arghya and mutter Gayatri only ten times thus applying to themselves the rule meant for the weak and the unfortunate: "They will always remain weak and be victims of some calamity or other". Sandhyavandana must be performed properly during right hours. During the Mahabharata war, when water was not readily available, the warriors give arghya at the right time with dust as substitute.

Arghya must be offered before sunrise at noon and at sunset. Once there was a man called Idaikattu Siddha who grazed cattle. He said: "Kanamar konamar kandu kodu adugan pohutu par. " "Kanamal/r" means before you see the sun rise and "konamal/r" means when the sun is overhead and "kandu" is when you see the sun before sunset. These are the three times when you ought to offer arghya. "adu" means "niradu", bathe in the Ganga. "kan" here means "visit Setu" or have " have darsana of Setu". "Pohutu par"- by bathing in the Ganga and by visiting Setu your sins will be washed away. Here is mentioned the custom of going to Kasi, collecting Ganga water there and going to (Setu) Ramesvaram to perform the abhiseka of Ramanathasvamin there.

Only by the intense repetition of Gayatri shall we be able to master all the Vedic mantras. This japa of Gayatri and arghya must be performed everyday without fail. At least once in our lifetime we must bathe in Ganga and go on pilgrimage to Setu.

If a man has a high fever, people looking after him must pour into his mouth the water with which sandhyavandana has been performed. Today it seems all of us are suffering all the time from high fever! When you run a high temperature you have to take medicine; similarly Gayatri is essential to the self and its japa must not be given up at any time. It is more essential to your inner being than medicine is to your body. Sandyavandana must be performed without fail everyday. Gayatri-japa can be practised by all of us without much effort and without spending any money. All that you require is water. Sandyavandana is indeed an easy means to ensure your well being. So long as there is life in you, you must perform it.

Gayatri must be worshiped as a mother. The Lord appers in many forms to bestow his grace and compassion on his devotees Mother loves us more than anybody else. We know no fear before her and talk to her freely. Of all the forms in which Bhagavan manifests himself that form in which he is revealed as mother is most liked by us. The Vedas proclaim Gayatri to be such a mother.

This mantra is to be repeated only by men. Women benefit from the men performing the japa. Similarly when the three varnas practise gayatri-japa all other jatis enjoy the benefit flowing from it. We may cease to perform a rite if the fruits yielded by them are enjoyed exclusively by us. But we cannot do so if others also share in them. Those entitled to Gayatri mantra are to regard themselves as trustees who have to mutter it on behalf of others like women and the fourth varna who are not entitled to it. If they fail in their duty of trustees, it means they are committing an irremediable offence.

The mantras are numerous. Before we start chanting any of them, we say why we are doing so, mention the "fruit" that will yield. The benefit we derive from the Gayatri mantra is the cleansing of the mind (cittasuddhi). Even other mantras have this ultimate purpose, but cittasuuddhi is the direct result of Gayatri-japa.

Even in these days it is not difficult to perform sandhyavandana both at dawn and dusk. Office goers and other workers may not be at home during midday. They may perform the madhyahnika (the midday vandana) 2 hours 24 minutes after sunrise that is called "sangava kala".

We must never miss the daily sandhyavadana unless we find it absolutely impossible to perform. When we fall ill, in our helplessness we ask others for water or kanji in the same way, we must ask our relative or friend to perform sandhyavandana on our behalf.

Let us all pray to God that he will have mercy upon us so that the fire of mantras is never extinguished in us and that it will keep burning brighter and brighter.

Swami Sivananda About Fear

2011-01-19T04:12:00.000-08:00

Man creates trouble and misery for himself. Give up all sorts of fears. Stand up like a lion. Draw courage from within. There are many people who are so timid that they will not move around at night. Even when they see a cat at night, they tremble. What a shame.

They are embodiments of timidity. They are `moustache ladies'. There are some sanyasins (monks) who repeat: "SHIVOHAM SHIVOHAM" ("I am Siva") - but they tremble with fear when they are put to a little test. They perspire and quiver when there is any impending danger!

They are poor, miserable specimens. I always say that a dacoit can become a good Vedantin if his energy is turned in a spiritual direction, because he is absolutely fearless and has no deha adhyasa, (feeling "I am the body"); but not a timid man.

Fearlessness is the greatest qualification for a spiritual aspirant. All fears are imaginary. They have no real basis. When you think seriously they will melt away like snow before the sun. Think a tiger or a lion has come in front of you, and you will have to face it. Think that you are placed in front of a machine gun, and that you will be blown up right now. Draw courage now. Think of the verses of the second chapter of the Bhagavad Gita. They deal with the immortality of the soul. Again and again think of the divine verses of the Avadhut Gita. You will become courageous - though perhaps not all at once. Gradually you will find that you are gaining courage.

Constantly think that you are the Atman, the Self. You will gradually develop great courage. Worry and fear are fearful forces within us. They poison the sources of life; they destroy all harmony, vitality and vigour. Thoughts of cheerfulness, joy, and courage are healing and soothing. Always be cheerful. Always laugh and smile.

Just as darkness cannot exist in the presence of light, so also fear cannot exist in the presence of self-denial or self-realisation or courage. Exhibit undaunted spirit, intrepidity and manliness. Make a strong resolve: "I will die or realise the Self". Give up the idea that you are the body. Fearlessness is one important sign of a liberated being.

Swami Sivananda About Mouna

2011-01-17T05:01:00.000-08:00

Use measured words in talking. Do not talk much. Try to finish a conversation within a few minutes. Understand the nature of the man rightly. When he enters your office or house for an interview, speak politely and with great respect for the man. Then send him away immediately and conserve your energy.

Do not indulge in long unnecessary talks and discussions. Man is a social animal. He is prone to much talking. He is very garrulous. This talkative habit is ingrained in him and he is much troubled when he cannot get any company. He does not want to go in for seclusion.

The observance of mauna (silence) is death and capital punishment for him. Ladies are still more garrulous. They always create some kind of unnecessary quarrels in the house.

I always prescribe the practice of mauna for one and all, as this helps in the preservation of energy, development of will and enjoyment of peace. All sorts of quarrels, misunderstandings, anger, etc., can be easily avoided by mauna for two hours daily and for six hours on Sundays, and for a full week on long holidays.

Even during other periods talk very few words. When you speak, speak gently and sweetly. During mauna you must live alone. Do not mix with other people. Do not even express your ideas with gestures.

The other channel by which energy is wasted, is the mind. This wastage is due to loose thinking, worrying, anger and fear. Just as energy is wasted in too much talk, so also energy is wasted in loose thinking.

If this mental energy is conserved, you will have at your disposal a tremendous store of energy. This you can utilise for various other purposes and sadhana (spiritual practice). If this energy is conserved you will feel that you are very powerful. You will feel no exhaustion even if you turn out tremendous work.

To do this you have to watch your thoughts very carefully, by introspection and meditation. You will have to divert the mental energy to useful thinking. There will be some struggle in the beginning. But after some time the mind will naturally think of auspicious and useful items.

Ramana Maharshi About Devotion (Bhakti)

2011-01-17T01:51:00.000-08:00

As the Ankola seed is attracted to its stem,the iron to the magnet, the wife to her lord, the creeper to its tree, the river to the ocean, so the soul attracted stands ever at the feet of the Lord. This attraction is termed devotion, Bhakti.
— Sivanandalahari, verse 61

Kavyakantha: Will Maharshi please enlighten us on the subject of Devotion (Bhakti)?

Maharshi: To everyone the dearest object is himself. He loves himself always, and with the greatest love possible. Such an unbroken current of love, frequently compared in sacred books to a flowing stream of oil, is styled devotion, if it is directed towards God.

“Bhakti is the unshakeable attachment to the Supreme God.” — Shandilya Bhakti Sutras, verse 2

Ordinarily people regard God as existing outside of themselves and as having a personality like their own. The Jnani (enlightened sage) however regards the personal God (also) as none other than himself; and Self-love, in this case, is or becomes the love of God (personal).

In his case, devotion is defined as Self-realisation. Others, who treat the personal God as something outside themselves develop deep devotion to such a God and finally sink their personality in Him.

The love-smitten chord of Self, trembles and passes in music out of sight. In fact, worship, nay, all intense concentrated thought or feeling, is the merging of the mind in the object worshipped or concentrated on. Intense faith in the personal God, however, carries the devotee easily and naturally to faith in and devotion to the impersonal Absolute (Swarupa Brahman).

Mostly, the beginnings of devotion to (personal) God are traceable to a desire to avoid sorrows and attain happiness. So, with great keenness and zest people approach their God, investing Him with name and form, and attain the objects they desire. Even after such attainment, the habit of devotion continues and the mind trained to worship God with form and name develops the power to dwell on the Formless and Nameless.

The evanescent objects achieved by the first flow of devotion to a personal God do not fully satisfy the aspiring soul who thirsts after enduring happiness. With this ever new impetus to seek something more than relative happiness, the progressing soul ultimately drops name and form as its object of contemplation and thus attempts to conceive of or realise the Absolute (Brahman). Thus devotion to a personal God gets transformed or ripened gradually into devotion to the Impersonal, which is the same as Vichara (enquiry) and Realisation.

Investigation into the Self is nothing other than devotion.
— Vivekachudamani, verse 32

Devotion may at the outset be by fits and starts. That need not depress the aspirant, for it will develop and become steadier and flow finally in an unbroken current. When devotion (personal) is ripe, a moment's instruction (Sravana) suffices for the next step in Jnana. Faith helps in the development of one's intuition and the attainment of complete illumination – Cosmic Consciousness.

Thus, the weak aspirant's first efforts at devotion, through name and form at broken intervals, and for attaining finite or lower ends, ultimately carry him beyond all name and form, into an unbroken current of love to the Absolute. This is Salvation (Mukti).

Sources:

1) http://www.arunachala.org/newsletters/2011/?pg=jan-feb#article.1
2) CHAPTER XVI Bhakti (Devotion) Of The Sri Ramana Gita of B. V. Narasimha Swami

Dhanurmasa (Margazhi) Puja In Ramanasramam

2011-01-01T22:55:00.000-08:00

Source: http://www.sriramanamaharshi.org/pdf/Saranagathi_eNewsletter_January_2011.pdf

Ramana Maharshi About Guru and His Grace

2011-01-01T22:46:00.000-08:00

D: Cannot Grace hasten ripeness in the seeker?

M: Leave it all to the Master. Surrender to Him without reserve. One of two things must be done: either surrender yourself, because you realize your inability and need a higher power to help you; or investigate into the cause of misery, go into the Source and so merge in the Self. Either way, you will be free from misery. God or Guru never forsakes the devotee who has surrendered himself.

Source: http://www.sriramanamaharshi.org/pdf/Saranagathi_eNewsletter_January_2011.pdf

Important Couplets From Patanjali Yoga Sutras

2010-12-07T00:35:00.000-08:00

Translation by BonGiovanni

1.2. Union is restraining the thought-streams natural to the mind.

1.3. Then the seer dwells in his own nature.

1.12. These thought-streams are controlled by practice and non-attachment.

1.15. Desirelessness towards the seen and the unseen gives the consciousness of mastery.

1.27. God's voice is Om.

1.28. The repetition of Om should be made with an understanding of its meaning.

1.30. Disease, inertia, doubt, lack of enthusiasm, laziness, sensuality, mind-wandering, missing the point, instability- these distractions of the mind are the obstacles.

Part Two on Spiritual Disciplines

2.7 Attachment is that magnetic pattern which clusters in pleasure and pulls one towards such experience.

2.20 The indweller is pure consciousness only, which though pure, sees through the mind and is identified by ego as being only the mind.

2.26 The continuous practice of discrimination is the means of attaining liberation.

2.30 Self-restraint in actions includes abstention from violence, from falsehoods, from stealing, from sexual engagements, and from acceptance of gifts.

2.32 The fixed observances are cleanliness, contentment, austerity, study and persevering devotion to God.

2.34 Improper thoughts and emotions such as those of violence- whether done, caused to be done, or even approved of- indeed, any thought originating in desire, anger or delusion, whether mild medium or intense- do all result in endless pain and misery. Overcome such distractions by pondering on the opposites.

2.37 All jewels approach him who is confirmed in honesty.

2.38 When one is confirmed in celibacy, spiritual vigor is gained.

2.39 When one is confirmed in non-possessiveness, the knowledge of the why and how of existence is attained.

2.40 From purity follows a withdrawal from enchantment over one's own body as well as a cessation of desire for physical contact with others.

2.41 As a result of contentment there is purity of mind, one-pointedness, control of the senses, and fitness for the vision of the self.

2.42 Supreme happiness is gained via contentment.

2.54 When the mind maintains awareness, yet does not mingle with the senses, nor the senses with sense impressions, then self-awareness blossoms.

2.55 In this way comes mastery over the senses.

Part Three on Divine Powers

3.1 One-pointedness is steadfastness of the mind.

3.2 Unbroken continuation of that mental ability is meditation.

3.3 That same meditation when there is only consciousness of the object of meditation and not of the mind is realization.

Part Four on Realizations

4.4 Created minds arise from egoism alone.

4.27 Distractions arise from habitual thought patterns when practice is intermittent.

4.34 When the attributes cease mutative association with awarenessness, they resolve into dormancy in Nature, and the indweller shines forth as pure consciousness. This is absolute freedom.

Source: http://www.celextel.org/othervedantabooks/patanjaliyogasutras.html

COMMENTARIES ON LIVING Second Series by J. Krishnamurti

2010-12-03T04:06:00.000-08:00

Creative happiness is for all and not for the few alone. You may express it in one way and I in another, but it is for all. Creative happiness has no value on the market; it is not a commodity to be sold to the highest bidder, but it is the one thing that can be for all. (p.2)

After all, to be open to the source of all happiness is the highest religion; but to realize this happiness, you must give right attention to it, as you do to business. The teacher’s profession is not a mere routine job, but the expression of beauty and joy, which cannot be measured in terms of achievement and success.

Conflict exists when there is no integration between challenge and response. This conflict is the result of our conditioning. Conditioning is attachment: attachment to work, to tradition, to property, to people, to ideas, and so on. If there were no attachment, would there be conditioning? Of course not. So why are we attached? I am attached to my country because through identification with it I become somebody. I identify myself with my work, and the work becomes important. I am my family, my property; I am attached to them. The object of attachment offers me the means of escape from my own emptiness. Attachment is escape, and it is escape that strengthens conditioning. If I am attached to you, it is because you have become the means of escape from myself; therefore you are very important to me and I must possess you, hold on to you. You become the conditioning factor, and escape is the conditioning. If we can be aware of our escapes, we can then perceive the factors, the influences that make for conditioning. (p.5)

There are escapes at all the levels of our being. You escape through work, another through drink, another through religious ceremonies, another through knowledge, another through God, and still another is addicted to amusement. All escapes are the same, there is no superior or inferior escape. God and drink are on the same level as long as they are escapes from what we are. When we are aware of our escapes, only then can we know of our conditioning. (p.5-6)

To cultivate detachment is another form of escape, of isolation; it is attachment to an abstraction, to an ideal called detachment.

Thinking about the problem is escape from the problem; for thinking is the problem, and the only problem. The mind, unwilling to be what it is, fearful of what it is, seeks these various escapes, and the way of escape is thought. As long as there is thinking, there must be escapes, attachments, which only strengthen conditioning. (p.6-7)

Freedom from conditioning comes with the freedom from thinking. When the mind is utterly still, only then is there freedom for the real to be.

Love is a strange thing; as long as thought is woven through it, it is not love. When you think of someone you love, that person becomes the symbol of pleasant sensations, memories, images; but that is not love. Thought is sensation, and sensation is not love. The very process of thinking is the denial of love. Love is the flame without the smoke of thought, of jealousy, of antagonism, of usage, which are things of the mind.

We move from one substitution to another, but essentially, all substitutions are the same, though verbally they may appear to be dissimilar. So you are caught in the net of your own thought.

Revolution based an idea, however logical and in accordance with historical evidence, cannot bring about equality. The very function of idea is to separate people. Belief, religious or political, sets man against man. So-called religions have divided people, and still do. Organized belief, which is called religion, is, like any other ideology, a thing of the mind and therefore separative. (p.16-17)

Actually, there is inequality at all the levels of existence. One has capacity, and another has not; one leads, and another follows; one is dull, and another is sensitive, alert , adaptable; one paints or writes, and another digs; one is a scientist, and another a sweeper. Inequality is a fact, and no revolution can do away with it. (p.17)

How necessary it is for the mind to purge itself of all thought, to be constantly empty, not made empty, but simply empty; to die to all thought, to all of yesterday’s memories, and to the coming hour! It is simple to die, and it is hard to continue; for continuity is effort to be or not to be. Effort is desire, and desire can die only when the mind ceases to acquire. How simple it is just to live! But it is not stagnation. There is great happiness in not wanting, in not being something, in not going somewhere. When the mind purges itself of all thought, only then is there the silence of creation.

You have tried to gain satisfaction from everything you have come in contact with; and when you have thoroughly used it, naturally you get bored with it. Every acquisition is a form of boredom, weariness. We want a change of toys; as soon as we lose interest in one, we turn to another, and there is always a new toy to turn to. We turn to something in order to acquire; there is acquisition in pleasure, in knowledge, in fame, in power, in efficiency, in having a family, and so on. When there is nothing further to acquire in one religion, in one saviour, we lose interest and turn to another. Some go to sleep in an organization and never wake up, and those who do wake up put themselves to sleep again by joining another. This acquisitive movement is called expansion of thought, progress!

The nature of the mind is to acquire, to absorb, is it not? Or rather, the pattern it has created for itself is one of gathering in; and in that very activity the mind is preparing its own weariness, boredom. Interest, curiosity, is the beginning of acquisition, which soon becomes boredom; and the urge to be free from boredom is another form of possession. So the mind goes from boredom to interest to boredom again, till it is utterly weary; and these successive waves of interest and weariness are regarded as existence. (p.22)

To find God, you try to subdue the mind. But is calmness of mind a way to God? Is calmness the coin which will open the gates of heaven? You want to buy your way to God, to truth, or what name you will. Can you buy the eternal through virtue, through renunciation, through mortification? We think that if we do certain things, practise virtue, pursue chastity, withdraw from the world, we shall be able to measure the measureless; so it’s just a bargain, isn’t it? Your ‘virtue’ is a means to an end. (p.24)

Understanding comes with the ending of the thought-process, in the interval between two thoughts. You say the mind must be still, and yet you desire it to function. If we can be simple in watchfulness, we shall understand; but our approach is so complex that it prevents understanding. Surely we are not concerned with discipline, control, suppression, resistance, but with the process and the ending of thought itself. What do we mean when we say that the mind wanders? Simply that thought is everlastingly enticed from one attraction to another, from one association to another, and is in constant agitation. Is it possible for thought to come to an end? (p.25-26)

The mind is not quiet when it is disciplined, controlled and checked; such a mind is a dead mind, it is isolating itself through various forms of resistance, and so it inevitably creates misery for itself and for others. (p.31-32)

Our acquisitions are a means of covering up our own emptiness; our minds are like hollow drums, beaten upon by every passing hand and making a lot of noise. This is our life, the conflict of never-satisfying escapes and mounting misery. It is strange how we are never alone, never strictly alone. We are always with something, with a problem, with a book, with a person; and when we are alone, our thoughts are with us. To be alone, naked, is essential. All escapes, all gatherings, all effort to be or not to be, must cease; and then only is there the aloneness that can receive the alone, the measureless.

Is devotion the worship of an image, of a person, of a symbol? Has reality any symbol? Can a symbol ever represent truth? Is not the symbol static, and can a static thing ever represent that which is living? Is your picture you?

Let us see what we mean by devotion. You spend several hours a day in what you call the love, the contemplation of God. Is that devotion? The man who gives his life to social betterment is devoted to his work; and the general, whose job is to plan destruction, is also devoted to his work. Is that devotion? If I may say so, you spend your time being intoxicated by the image or idea of God, and others do the same thing in a different way. Is there a fundamental distinction between the two? Is it devotion that has an object?

The worshipper is the worshipped. To worship another is to worship oneself; the images, the symbol, is a projection of oneself. After all, your idol, your book, your prayer, is the reflection of your background; it is your creation, though it be made by another. You choose according to your gratification; your choice is your prejudice. Your image is your intoxicant, and it is carved out of your own memory; you are worshipping yourself through the image created by your own thought. Your devotion is the love of yourself, it is the reflection of your mind. Such devotion is a form of self-deception that only leads to sorrow and to isolation, which is death.

The understanding of ‘what is’ does not depend upon thought, for thought itself is an escape. To think about the problem is not to understand it. It is only when the mind is silent that the truth of ‘what is’ unfolds.

Awareness of the ways of desire is self-knowledge. Self-knowledge is the beginning of meditation. (p.66-67)

Every individual and group is after power: power for oneself, for the party, or the ideology. The party and the ideology are an extension of oneself. The ascetic seeks power through abnegation, and so does the mother through her child. There is the power of efficiency with its ruthlessness, and the power of the machine in the hands of a few; there is the domination of one individual by another, the exploitation of the stupid by the clever, the power of money, the power of name and word, and the power of mind over matter. We all want some kind of power, whether over ourselves or over others. This urge to power brings a kind of happiness, a gratification that is not too transient. The power of renunciation is as the power of wealth. It is the craving for gratification, for happiness, that drives us to seek power. And how easily we are satisfied! The ease of achieving some form of satisfaction blinds us. All gratification is blinding. (p.68)

The world is the projection of yourself. The world cannot be transformed till you are. Happiness is in transformation and not in acquisition.

Only a happy man can bring about a new social order; but he is not happy who is identified with an ideology or a belief, or who is lost in any social or individual activity. Happiness is not an end in itself. It comes with the understanding of ‘what is’. Only when the mind is free from its own projections can there be happiness. Happiness that is bought is merely gratification; happiness through action, through power, is only sensation; and as sensation soon withers, there is craving for more and more. As long as the more is a means to happiness, the end is always dissatisfaction, conflict and misery. Happiness is not a remembrance; it is that state which comes into being with truth, ever new, never continuous. (p.71)

Even in complete isolation you are in contact with your thoughts, with yourself. (p.75)

Silence comes with the absence of desire. Desire is swift, cunning and deep. Remembrance shuts off the sweep of silence, and a mind that is caught in experience cannot be silent. Time, the movement of yesterday flowing into to-day and to-morrow, is not silence. With the cessation of this movement there is silence, and only then can that which is unnamable come into being. (p.77)

Stillness of the mind cannot be induced, it cannot be brought about through any practice or discipline. If the mind is made still, then whatever comes into it is only a self-projection, the response of memory. With the understanding of its conditioning, with the choiceless awareness of its own responses as thought and feeling, tranquillity comes to the mind. This breaking of the chain of karma is not a matter of time; for through time, the timeless is not. (p.80-81)

To understand the mind is to be aware of desire and fear. (p.84)

Without understanding yourself, whatever you do will inevitably bring about confusion and sorrow.

Only by understanding the false as the false is there freedom from it. Be passively watchful of your habitual responses; simply be aware of them without resistance; passively watch them as you would watch a child, without the pleasure or distance of identification. Passive watchfulness itself is freedom from defence, from closing the door. To be vulnerable is to live, and to withdraw is to die. (p.90)

Source: http://www.celextel.org/jkbooks/commentariesonliving.html

Swami Sivananda About Perfect Renunciation

2010-11-30T04:00:00.000-08:00

Vedanta does not want you to renounce the world. It wants you to change your mental attitude and give up this false, illusory `I-ness' and `mine-ness'. The snake charmer removes only the two poisonous fangs of the cobra. The snake remains the same. It hisses, raises its hood and shows its fangs. In fact, it does everything as before.

The snake charmer has changed his mental attitude towards the snake. He has a feeling now that it has no poisonous fangs. Even so, you must remove the two poisonous fangs of the mind, namely, `I-ness' and `mine-ness' only. Then you can allow the mind to go wherever it likes. Then you will always have the feeling of the presence of God.

You must also renounce the attachment to renunciation, which is very deep-rooted. You must renounce the idea: "I have renounced everything; I am a great renunciate". This attachment of aspirants is a greater evil than that of the householders: "I am a landlord; I am a brahmana, etc."

Not by shaving the head, not by dress, not by egoistic action is liberation to be attained. He who possesses wisdom is a real sanyasin (monk). Wisdom is the sign of a sanyasin. The wooden staff does not make a sanyasin. He is the real sanyasin of wisdom who is conscious of his absolute nature even in his dreams just as he is during the waking period. He is the greatest knower of Brahman. He is the greatest of sanyasins.

Perfect renunciation is born of discrimination. Dispassion should not be mild and half-hearted. It should be a burning flame of disgust for everything that is seen and that is not seen. Nothing but the state of final liberation is to be the ideal for attainment. There should be no desire for wife, husband, children and worldly activity. The aspirant must be encircled by the fence of dispassion on all sides.

Action is for the man of the world, the wisdom is for the sanyasin who has risen above worldliness. Only the man of renunciation with knowledge attains Brahman, and none else. Without perfect renunciation, it is impossible to pursue the path of the knowledge of Brahman.

Important Couplets From Maitreya Upanishad

2010-11-30T00:56:00.000-08:00

Translated by Prof. A. A. Ramanathan
Published by The Theosophical Publishing House, Chennai

I-8. When the mind is calmed down into its source and goes in the true path, the results dependent on activities are unreal as the objects of the senses are confounded (i.e. actions performed do not affect him as he is without attachment).

I-9. It is the mind that constitutes worldly life; this should be purified. As the mind, so the things appear coloured by it; this is the eternal secret.

I-10. By the purity of the mind one destroys (the effect of) good and bad actions. When with a pure mind one remains in the Self one enjoys inexhaustible bliss.

I-11. If a person’s mind, which is well attached to the region of the sense-objects, were turned towards Brahman, who will not be released from bondage ?

I-12-14. One should feel the supreme Lord to be present in the midst of the lotus of one’s heart as the spectator of the dance of the intellect, as the abode of supreme love, as beyond the range of mind and speech, as he rescue ship scattering all worry (of those sinking in the sea of worldly life), as of the nature of effulgent Existence alone, as beyond thought, as the indispensable, as incapable of being grasped by the (active) mind, possessing uncommon attributes, the immobile, steady and deep, neither light nor darkness, free from all doubts and semblance, and is consciousness consisting of the final beatitude.

I-17. Those ignorant people who stick to castes and orders of life obtain the (worthless) fruit of their respective actions. Those who discard the ways of caste, etc., and are happy with the bliss of the Self become merged in Brahman (lit. Purushas).

I-18. The body consisting of various limbs and observing the (rules of) castes and orders has a beginning and an end and is only a great trouble. Free of attachment to one’s children, etc., and the body, one should live in the endless supreme happiness.

II-3. True knowledge consists of seeing non-different (in all); deep meditation consists of the mind freed from thinking on sensory objects; bathing is the removal of impurity in the mind and cleansing consists of controlling the senses.

II-4. He should imbibe the nectar, Brahman, go about for alms to preserve the body, and becoming devoted to the one (Brahman) live in the solitary place of oneness free from duality.Thus should a wise man spend his life; he alone will attain liberation.

II-5. This body is born and it has death; it has originated from the impure secretions of the mother and father; it is the abode of joy and sorrow and it is impure. Bathing in the form of discarding attachment to it is ordained when one touches it with the idea that it belongs to one.

II-9. Viewing the body as ‘I’ and mine is smearing oneself with faeces and urine in the place of cosmetics. Thus pure cleansing has been spoken of (in the verses above). Cleansing (the body) with mud and water is (the external one) practised in the world.

II-10. Cleansing which purifies the mind consists of the destruction of the three inborn tendencies (loka-vasana, shastra-vasana and deha-vasana); (real) cleansing is said to be by washing with mud and water in the form of (true) knowledge and dispassion (Jnana and Vairagya).

II-12. After embracing renunciation of his own accord the wise man shall move away from his native place and live far away, like a thief who has been released from prison.

II-13. No sooner has (the ascetic) moved away from the son of ego, the brother of wealth, the home of delusion and the wife of desires than he is liberated (from worldly bondage); there is no doubt about it.

II-14-15. How shall I perform the twilight worship (Sandhya, i.e., there is no need for it) when the mother of delusion is (just) dead and the son of true awakening is born, causing two-fold impurity ? How can I perform twilight worship when the bright sun of consciousness ever shines in the sky of the heart and it never sets or rises ? (i.e. there is no twilight at all and hence there is no scope for worship).

II-17. There is liberation for those who are free from doubts; there is no emancipation even at the end of repeated births for those whose minds are invaded by doubts (about the non-duality of the Atman). Hence one should have faith.

II-19. One, to whom all primary desires, etc., (such as for wife, wealth and progeny) appear like vomit and who has discarded pride in his body, is entitled to renunciation.

II-21. He who renounces worldly life for amassing wealth (contributed by rich disciples) or for the sake of (assured) boarding and clothing or for a stable position (as the head of a monastery) is doubly fallen (i.e. he has neither the full pleasures of worldly life nor liberation); he does not deserve final beatitude.

II-23. A fool in vain takes (theoretical) delight in Brahman without practically experiencing it (as I am Brahman), like the joy of tasting fruits found in the branch of a tree reflected (in a lake).

II-26. Even learned people have their minds deluded by the illusion created by me and without realizing me, the Atman, who am omnipresent, they but wander like cows to fill the wretched belly !

III-14. I am not the world, I witness all and I am devoid of eyes, etc., I am immense, I am awake, I am serene and I am Hara (Shiva).

Source: http://www.celextel.org/108upanishads/maitreya.html

Important Couplets From Garbha Upanishad

2010-11-30T00:50:00.000-08:00

Translated by Dr. A. G. Krishna Warrier
Published by The Theosophical Publishing House, Chennai

The body is fivefold in nature (the five elements), existing in the five, depending on the six (tastes of food), connected with the six qualities (kama etc.,), seven Dhatus, three impurities, three Yonis (of excretion) and four kinds of food.

Why say ‘Fivefold in nature ?’ The five elements Earth, Water, Fire, Wind and Ether. In this body, whatever is hard is of Earth, liquid is water, warm is fire, whatever moves about is air and space-enclosed is ether. The function of the Earth is to support, water is to consolidate (digestion etc.,). Fire is to see, wind is for moving, Ether is to give space (for vital functions).

The eyes are used in seeing form, ears for sound, tongue for taste, the skin and nose for touch and smell respectively; genital for pleasure, Apana is for evacuation (of bowels). The person cognises through the intellect, wills with the mind and speaks with the tongue.

The six-fold support is the six tastes (of food): sweet, acid, salty, pungent, bitter and astringent.

8. The embryo lying (in the womb) for (a day) and night is a confused mass; after seven days it becomes a bubble; after a fortnight, a mass and in a month, it hardens. In two months develops the region of the head; in three months, the feet; in the fourth, belly and hip; in the fifth, the backbone; in the sixth, nose, eyes and ears; in the seventh the embryo quickens with life and in the eighth month, it becomes complete.

9. By the dominance of the father’s semen, the child becomes male; the mother’s – female. When equal, a eunuch. If, at the time of impregnation, the parents are agitated, the child will be blind, crippled, hunch-backed or stunted in growth. If the couple have vital-air-trouble, the semen enters in two parts resulting in twins.

10. In the eighth month, in conjunction with the five vital airs the Jiva gets the capacity to know its past affairs (of past births), conceives of the imperishable Atman as Om, through perfect knowledge and meditation. Having known Om he sees in the body the eight Prakritis derived from it the five elements, mind, intellect and ego and the sixteen changes [see Prasnopanishad].

11. The body becomes complete in the ninth month and remembers the past birth. Actions done and not done flash to him and he recognises the good and bad nature of Karma.

19. Why is the body so called ? It has three fires: the Kosthagni ripens all that is eaten; the Darsanagni helps one see colour etc., the Jnanagni is the mind which helps perform good and bad deeds.

Source: http://www.celextel.org/108upanishads/garbha.html

Important Couplets From Akshi Upanishad

2010-11-26T04:30:00.000-08:00

Translated by Dr. A. G. Krishna Warrier

Published by The Theosophical Publishing House, Chennai

5-6. Always one hesitates as regards the instinctive actions of the unregenerate; one never refers to what may compromise others, but attends to their righteous deeds. One does gentle deeds that pain none; always dreads sin and avoids all forms of sense-gratification.

7. Such a one’s speech is informed by affection and love; it is lovely and fit, with due regard to time and place.

8. With proper thought, act and speech, one waits upon the virtuous. Getting them from all conceivable sources, one studies the Shastras.

9-10(a). Then one attains the first stage of Yoga. Whoever entertains such thoughts as regards the crossing of transmigratory life is said to have attained a state of Yoga. The rest are said to be just ‘noble’ (arya).

10(b)-11. Coming to the next stage of Yoga, called ‘Analysis’ (vichara), the sadhaka resorts to the foremost scholars, well-known for their serious interpretations of Sruti and Smriti, good conduct, fixed attention, contemplation and activities.

18. As a result of his meritorious actions, the righteous (sadhaka) passes his time in the delights of detachment, repeatedly studying the positive Shastras.

23. ‘Enjoyments and non-enjoyments are dread diseases; possessions are great disasters. All contacts just promote separation. Sufferings are diseases of thoughts’.

27. The first stage that occurs is sweet on account of the satisfaction and joy (that attend it). The sadhaka (puman) has just stepped into the sequence of states. The first is an ambrosial sprout.

28. The first stage is the internal, cleansed, birth-place of the other stages. Thence one attains the second and third stages.

29. Among these, the all-pervading third (stage) is superior. Here the sadhaka has outgrown all proneness to imagine (and get ensnared).

30. Those who reach the fourth (stage) after the dwindling of nescience through the exercises of the three stages look on all things with the same eye.

31. When non-duality is established and duality dissolved, those who have reached the fourth stage look upon the phenomenal world as a dream.

32. The first three states are said to be the waking state; the fourth is called the dream state. And the mind dissolves like the fragments of an autumnal cloud.

34. Reaching the fifth stage called ‘deep sleep’, the sadhaka remains as pure non-dual being, all particulars having completely vanished.

35. Having reached the fifth stage, one stays consolidated in deep sleep, joyful, inwardly awake, all dual appearances gone.

36. Looking inwards, even when attending to outer things, he appears always indrawn, being extremely exhausted.

37. Practising in this fifth stage, free from all innate impulses, one reaches, as a matter of course, the sixth stage named ‘the Fourth’.

38. Where there is neither the non-existent nor the existent, neither the ‘I’ nor the non-‘I’, with all analytic thinking gone, one stays alone, totally fearless, in non-duality.

40. Having dwelt in the sixth stage, he shall reach the seventh. The state of disembodied liberation is called the seventh stage of Yoga.

47-48. Therefore, thou sinless one, renouncing everything, be devoted to Truth. Think: I am Brahman, solid Intelligence and Bliss, free from impurity, holy, lifted above mind and words, beyond the darkness of ignorance, beyond all appearances. This is the secret doctrine.

Source: http://www.celextel.org/108upanishads/akshi.html

Important Couplets From Aitareya Upanishad

2010-11-25T22:49:00.000-08:00

Translated by Swami Gambhirananda
Published by Advaita Ashram, Kolkatta

I-i-1: In the beginning this was but the absolute Self alone. There was nothing else whatsoever that winked. He thought, “Let Me create the worlds.”

I-i-2: He created these world, viz. ambhas, marici, mara, apah. That which is beyond heaven is ambhas. Heaven is its support. The sky is marici. The earth is mara. The worlds that are below are the apah.

I-i-3: He thought, “These then are the worlds. Let Me create the protectors of the worlds.” Having gathered up a (lump of the) human form from the water itself, He gave shape to it.

I-i-4: He deliberated with regard to Him (i.e. Virat of the human form). As He (i.e. Virat) was being deliberated on, His (i.e. Virat'’) mouth parted, just as an egg does. From the mouth emerged speech; from speech came Fire. The nostrils parted; from the nostrils came out the sense of smell; from the sense of smell came Vayu (Air). The two eyes parted; from the eyes emerged the sense of sight; from the sense of sight came the Sun. The two ears parted; from the ears came the sense of hearing; from the sense of hearing came the Directions. The skin emerged; from the skin came out hair (i.e. the sense of touch associated with hair); from the sense of touch came the Herbs and Trees. The heart took shape; from the heart issued the internal organ (mind); from the internal organ came the Moon. The navel parted; from the navel came out the organ of ejection; from the organ of ejection issued Death. The seat of the procreative organ parted; from that came the procreative organ; from the procreative organ came out Water.

I-ii-1: These deities, that had been created, fell into this vast ocean. He subjected Him (i.e. Virat) to hunger and thirst. They said to Him (i.e. to the Creator), “Provide an abode for us, staying where we can eat food.”

I-ii-2: For them He (i.e. God) brought a cow. They said, “This one is not certainly adequate for us.” For them He brought a horse. They said, “This one is not certainly adequate for us.”

I-ii-3: For them He brought a man. They said “This one is well formed; man indeed is a creation of God Himself”. To them He said, “Enter into your respective abodes”.

I-ii-4: Fire entered into the mouth taking the form of the organ of speech; Air entered into the nostrils assuming the form of the sense of smell; the Sun entered into the eyes as the sense of sight; the Directions entered into the ears by becoming the sense of hearing; the Herbs and Trees entered into the skin in the form of hair (i.e. the sense of touch); the Moon entered into the heart in the shape of the mind; Death entered into the navel in the form of Apana (i.e. the vital energy that presses down); Water entered into the limb of generation in the form of semen (i.e. the organ of procreation).

I-iii-1: He thought, “This, then, are the senses and the deities of the senses. Let Me create food for them.

I-iii-2: He deliberated with regard to the water. From the water, thus brooded over, evolved a form. The form that emerged was verily food.

I-iii-3: This food, that was created, turned back and attempted to run away. He tried to take it up with speech. He did not succeed in taking it up through speech. If He had succeeded in taking it up with the speech, then one would have become contented merely by talking of food.

I-iii-4: He tied to grasp that food with the sense of smell. He did not succeed in grasping it by smelling. If He had succeeded in grasping it by smelling, then everyone should have become contented merely by smelling food.

I-iii-5: He wanted to take up the food with the eye. He did not succeed in taking it up with the eye. If He had taken it up with the eye, then one would have become satisfied by merely seeing food.

I-iii-6: He wanted to take up the food with the ear. He did not succeed in taking it up with the ear. If He had taken it up with the ear, then one would have become satisfied by merely by hearing of food.

I-iii-7: He wanted to take it up with the sense of touch. He did not succeed in taking it up with the sense of touch. If He had taken it up with touch, then one would have become been satisfied merely by touching food.

I-iii-8: He wanted to take it up with the mind. He did not succeed in taking it up with the mind. If He had taken it up with the mind, then one would have become satisfied by merely thinking of food.

I-iii-9: He wanted to take it up with the procreative organ. He did not succeed in taking it up with the procreative organ. If He had taken it up with the procreative organ, then one would have become satisfied by merely ejecting food.

I-iii-10: He wanted to take it up with Apana. He caught it. This is the devourer of food. That vital energy which is well known as dependent of food for its subsistence is this vital energy (called Apana).

I-iii-11: He thought, “How indeed can it be there without Me ?” He thought, “Through which of the two ways should I enter ?” He thought, “If utterance is done by the organ of speech, smelling by the sense of smell, seeing by the eye, hearing by the ear, feeling by the sense of touch, thinking by the mind, the act of drawing in (or pressing down) by Apana, ejecting by the procreative organ, then who (or what) am I ?”

II-i-1: In man indeed is the soul first conceived. That which is the semen is extracted from all the limbs as their vigour. He holds that self of his in his own self. When he sheds it into his wife, then he procreates it. That is its first birth.

II-i-3: She, the nourisher, becomes fit to be nourished. The wife bears that embryo (before the birth). He (the father) protects the son at the very start, soon after his birth. That he protects the son at the very beginning, just after birth, thereby he protects his own self for the sake of the continuance of these worlds. For thus is the continuance of these worlds ensured. That is his second birth.

Source: http://www.celextel.org/108upanishads/aitareya.html

Swami Sivananda About Glory Of The Self

2010-11-25T01:47:00.000-08:00

Believe in the self. Draw power from within. Dive deep into the source and come back quite refreshed and invigorated. Have unshakable faith that nothing can ever overpower these. Chant Om Om Om when gloom tries to overpower these. Rejoice in thy own self. Have contentment in thy own self. Never seek happiness from outside.

A timid man is unfit for the attainment of Self-realisation. Have no attachment for this mortal body of flesh and bone. Cast if off like slough, just as the snake throws away its skin. Be prepared to give up the body at any moment. Make a strong resolve: I will die or realise the self.

Do not lose heart when you are in adverse circumstances. Become a real hero and fight your enemies within - the mind, indriyas (senses), vasanas (tendencies), samskaras (mental impressions) and trisnas (cravings) which have robbed you of your atmic jewel. The spiritual battlefield demands great valour, patience, perseverance, strength, courage and skill. Temptations will manifest without a moment's notice - you will be bewildered. There may be no time to detect them, so always be on the alert.

You came alone, naked and weeping. You will go alone, naked and weeping. Then why are you proud of your false wealth and false knowledge? Become humble, meek. You will conquer the world with humility. Become pure in thought, word and deed. This is the secret of spiritual life.

Birth and death, bondage and freedom, pleasure and pain, gain and loss - all are mental creations. Transcend the pairs of opposites. You were never born; you will never die. Thou art the immortal Self always. Thou art ever free in the three periods of time. It is the physical body that comes and goes. The Self is all-full, all-pervading, infinite and part-less.

Recognise that you are the living truth, that you are inseparable from that one essence, the substratum of all these illusory names and forms, these false, shadowy appearances. Get firmly established in Brahman. Now you are invulnerable.

Rely on your own self, your inner spiritual strength. Do not depend on money, friends or anyone. Friends, when put to the test, will desert you. Lord Buddha never even trusted his own disciples. Become absolutely free.

Source: Sivananda Daily Reading for 26 November

Important Couplets From Adhyatma Upanishad

2010-11-25T01:43:00.000-08:00

Translated by Dr. A. G. Krishna Warrier
Published by The Theosophical Publishing House, Chennai

1. Superimposition is the thought, 'I' am and mine are the body, the senses, etc., which are all other than the Self. Through devotion to Brahman, the wise man should repudiate it.

2. Knowing oneself to be the subject, the witness of intellect and its operations, reject the idea of the Self being other than the subject, identifying the 'I' with that (the subject).

9. Locating the body-bound I-sense in the ever-blissful spiritual Self, renounce the subtle body; eternally be the Absolute.

10. Knowing 'I am that Brahman' in which this world appearance (exists) like a city reflected in a mirror, find fulfilment, O sinless one!

11. Liberated from the grip of egoism, like the moon (after the eclipse), full, ever blissful, self-luminous, one attains one's essence.

19. All things from Brahma down to clumps of grass are nothing but unreal adjuncts. Distinct from the, see one's Self existing as the immutable plenum.

20. One's Self is Brahma, Vishnu, Indra and Shiva; this entire world is one's Self; other than this Self, there is nothing.

25. In this uniform and supreme Reality, how can the agent of differences dwell? In deep sleep that is nothing but bliss who has perceived difference?

26. This perception of difference is rooted in the mind (of the percipient); there is none of it in the absence of the mind. Therefore, concentrate the mind on the supreme Self as the subject.

45. Who has no conceit of 'I' in regard to body and senses; nor the conceit of objects in regard to things other than them - who is free from these two conceits in regard to anything whatsoever is liberated-in-life;

Source: http://www.celextel.org/108upanishads/adhyatma.html