Blissful Nirvana

From ‘Day by Day with Bhagavan’ from the diary of A. Devaraja Mudaliar

2012-01-20T21:45:00.000+05:30

……..the seen regarded as an independent entity, independent of the Self, is unreal. The seen is not different from the seer. What exists is the one Self, not a seer and a seen. The seen regarded as the Self is real.

“We have to contend against age long samskaras. They will all go. Only, they go comparatively soon in the case of those who have already made sadhana in the past, and late in the case of the others.”

……he [Bhagavan] told me he feels that pain …….i.e. it was a passing and faint experience like that in a dream. These are clues to the sort of life Bhagavan leads in our midst, seeming to act and move and feel as we do, but really living in a world of his own where the things we experience don’t exist.

Desai: How to churn up the nadis, so that the kundalini may go up the sushumna?

Bhagavan: Though the yogi may have his methods of breath control, pranayama, mudras etc.…….the jnani’s method is only that of enquiry. When by this method the mind is merged in the Self, the Self, it's sakti or kundalini, rises automatically.

As for sadhana, there are many methods. You may do vichara, asking yourself ‘Who am I?’ or, if that does not appeal to you, you may do dhyana ‘I am Brahman’ or otherwise, or you may concentrate on a mantra or name in japa. The object is to make the mind one-pointed, to concentrate it on one thought and thus exclude our many thoughts, and if we do this, eventually even the one thought will go and the mind will get extinguished in it's source.

Bhagavan: The thing is to kill the mind somehow. Those who have not the strength to follow the enquiry method are advised pranayama as a help to control the mind. And pranayama is of two kinds, one of controlling and regulating the breath and the other of simply watching the breath.

Mr. Prasad ….asked whether, for controlling breath, the regular pranayama is not better in which 1:4:2 proportion for breathing in, retaining, and breathing out is prescribed. Bhagavan replied, “All those proportions, sometimes regulated not by counting but by uttering mantras, etc. are aids for controlling the mind. That is all. Watching the breath is also one form of pranayama. Retaining breath, etc. is more violent and may be harmful in some cases e.g. when there is no proper Guru to guide the sadhak at every step and stage. But merely watching the breath is easy and involves no risk.”

……To enquire ‘Who am I?’ really means trying to find out the source of the ego or the ‘I’ thought. You are not to think of other thoughts, such as ‘I am not this body, etc.’ Seeking the source of ‘I’ serves as a means of getting rid of all other thoughts…….keep the attention fixed on finding out the source of the ‘I’ thought, by asking (as each thought arises) to whom the thought arises and if the answer is ‘I get the thought’ by asking further who is this ‘I’ and whence it's source?

…….what are the steps by which I could achieve surrender.

Bhagavan: There are two ways; one is looking into the source of ‘I’ and merging into that source. The other is feeling “I am helpless by myself, God alone is all-powerful and except throwing myself completely on him, there is no other means of safety for me,” and thus gradually developing the conviction that God alone exists and the ego does not count. Both methods lead to the same goal.

Bhagavan also says, ‘Contact with great men, exalted souls, is one efficacious means of realizing one’s true being.’

Visitor: …… What am I to do when the mind strays in various directions during dhyana?

Bhagavan: Simply draw the mind back each time it strays and fix it in dhyana. There is no other way.

……..as each thought arises, ask yourself: “To whom is this thought?” The answer will be, “to me”; then hold on to that “me”.

………about Tennyson ………..in a letter to B. P. Blood …… “…….a kind of waking trance I have frequently had, quite up from boyhood, when I have been all alone. This has generally come upon me through repeating my own name two or three times to myself, silently, till all at once, as it were out of the intensity of consciousness of individuality, the individuality itself seemed to dissolve and fade away into boundless being: and this not a confused state but the clearest of the clearest, the surest of the surest, the weirdest of the weirdest, utterly beyond words, where death was an almost laughable impossibility, the loss of personality (if so it were) seeming no extinction but the only true life.”

Bhagavan said, “That state is called abidance in the Self.”

Bhagavan: No learning or knowledge of scriptures is necessary to know the Self, as no man requires a mirror to see himself. All knowledge is required only to be given up eventually as not-Self. Nor is household work or cares with children necessarily an obstacle. If you can do nothing more, at least continue saying ‘I, I’ to yourself mentally all the time, as advises in Who am I?, whatever work you may be doing and whether you are sitting, standing or walking. ‘I’ is the name of God. It is the first and greatest of all mantras. Even OM is second to it.

Bhagavan: The more you get fixed in the Self, the more other thoughts will drop off by themselves. The mind is nothing but a bundle of thoughts, and the I-thought is the root of all of them. When you see who this ‘I’ is and whence it proceeds all thoughts get merged in the Self.

Bhagavan: Visions are not a necessary stage. To some they come and to others they don’t, but whether they come or not you always exist and you must stick to that.

Bhagavan …… : All you have to do is to give up being aware of other things, that is of the not-Self. If one gives up being aware of them then pure awareness alone remains, and that is the Self.”

Bhagavan said, “It is not true that birth as a man is necessarily the highest, and that one must attain realization only from being a man. Even an animal can attain Self-realisation.”

The Self is not attained by doing anything, but remaining still and being as we are.”

A visitor ……asked Bhagavan whether by doing annual ceremonies, etc. to the dead, we can confer any benefit on them. To this Bhagavan replied, “Yes. It all depends on one’s belief. ………They will receive benefit thought they are reborn several times and there is an agency to look after all this. Of course, Jnana marga does not say all this.”

From ‘Notes from a Small room’ by Ruskin Bond

2012-01-14T21:07:00.000+05:30

Happiness is as elusive as a butterfly, and you must never pursue it. If you stay very still, it might come and settle on your hand. But only briefly. Savour those precious moments, for they will not come your way very often.

Contentment is easier to attain. The best example is the small ginger cat who arrives on the balcony every afternoon, to curl up in the sun and slumber peacefully for a couple of hours. There’s nothing like an afternoon siesta to help mind and body recuperate from the stress and toil of a busy morning.

From ‘Sri Ramana Leela. A biography of Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi’ by ‘Telugu original: Sri Krishna Bhikshu. Edited and translated by Pingali Surya Sundaram’

2012-01-14T21:05:00.000+05:30

‘The Ordainer controls the fate of souls in accordance with their past deeds – their prarabdhakarma. Whatever is destined not to happen will not happen – try how hard you may. Whatever is destined to happen will happen, do what you may to stop it. This is certain. The best course, therefore, is for one to be silent.’

“Rama! This enquiry into the Self or ‘Who am I?’ is the fire which burns up the seeds of the evil tree which is the mind.”

- Yoga Vasishta

“If you enquire and observe where this I-thought arises from, the mind gets absorbed in it. This is tapas. While performing mantra japa if you enquire and observe where the sound of the mantra arises from, the mind gets absorbed in it. This is tapas.”

A devotee once asked Bhagavan whether it was possible for a human being to be re-born as an animal. Bhagavan’s reply was “Why not? Do we not have Lakshmi? (the cow)”

May 19, 1922 ….. was her (Bhagavan’s mother’s) last day; everyone could sense the impending end that day ………. After the violent gasps (urdhva-swasa) began, Bhagavan placed his right hand on her heaving heart and the left one on her head. He looked at her intently. The day passed that way. Subsequently Bhagavan himself narrated what had happened thus:

The latent tendencies and thoughts which are the cause of future births flared up. She had just then lost consciousness of the external world. Hence in the subtle world her subtle body was witnessing scene after scene of what was to happen. By this sequence of experiences, the soul went through the future births and travelled towards the highest.

Bhagavan pointed out that according to chapter 13 of Ramana Gita the body of one who attained mukti was to be buried and not cremated.

Bhagavan also said that the grace of the guru operates only at the final stages of sadhana. Though the world is not beheld by the sadhaka in the last stages, due to the persistence of vasanas the Self is not experienced and it is at this stage that the grace of the guru, which really is the grace of the atma, works and bestows the Ultimate. It is the same thing that is mentioned in the Kathopanishad.

Bhagavan himself said that several celestial bodies (devatas) surrounded siddha-purushas and that whatever was to be accomplished was done by those devatas.

Sundaresa Iyer once wrote a lyric where he said “Grace flows from Bhagavan.” Bhagavan corrected it saying, “It is not so. It should read – “Grace is made to flow.”

……. asked him if chanting the Gayatri mechanically had any use. Bhagavan told him, “Chanting mechanically also is useful. …….”

In the case of worship of the One with form Bhagavan also, like acharyas of the past, approved of bhakti and said that uninterrupted meditation was better than meditation in spells.

Another doubt expressed was how could one who had transcended the three states experience deep sleep. The reply was, “It is the body that sleeps and wakes up. The I is always there as a witness.”

Bhagavan pointed out ….. that he lived “simultaneously in twenty lokas in twenty bodies. The bodies keep coming and going. Who is to keep track of which body is coming or which is going? The important thing is to abide in the Self and not to observe the changes in the bodies.”

Even if they are in their respective lokas, devatas possess all powers and depending on the intensity of a bhakta’s prayers can appear anytime. At Sivasakti kshetras, which are places of deliverance, it is easy to invoke them and feel their presence. ……. It is therefore easy to invoke him at Arunachala – that is not to say that this cannot be done at other places but this depends almost entirely on the strength of the prayers of devotees. On the other hand, at Arunachala, owing to the favourableness of the kshetra it becomes easier. This is especially true of the spot of Ramanasramam where Ramana spent over two decades.

Once Bhagavan revealed that Arunagiri had a vast interior in which even an army battalion could stay and that several yogis performed tapas there.

Several people who perform japa of the Skanda mantra while thinking of Bhagavan obtain very beneficial results.

From ‘Powen Pen and Patronage. Media, Culture and the Marathi Society’ by Aroon Tikekar

2012-01-09T18:19:00.000+05:30

The concept of intellectualization refers to the inculcation, assimilation and adherence to reason, rationality and progressive ideas including the scientific development. For any intellectualized society varied and enriched social and cultural activity is an essential condition. This, in other words, means not only giving preference to the societal intellectual attainment, but also denoting an acceptance and admittance of plurality of ideas. Intellectualizing a society means the willing participation in various debates and discussions in an attempt to assess and evaluate the veracity and efficacy of traditionally held opinions and beliefs. This still further means the evaluation and revaluation of a living tradition from time to time. Intellectualizing a society also means the acceptance of the belief that social change is desired and that such a change is possible to achieve through human endeavour. It means increasing socio-cultural and political awareness by creating a public space for everyone in the society with a view to making one ultimately a responsible and concerned citizen of the society. Even philanthropy for the public cause is part of that intellectualizing process. Such awareness in the end results in creating and strengthening a civil society through previously established as well as newly created associations and organizations and thus, leading the society into becoming a civil society with a civic culture. A civil society with a civic culture generally results in the blossoming of public life in all it's aspects.

From ‘Heart is they Name, Oh Lord. Moments of Silence with Ramana Maharshi’. Published by Sri Ramanasramam, Tiruvannamalai

2012-01-09T18:15:00.000+05:30

The thought ‘Who am I?’ will destroy all other thoughts,
and like a stick used for stirring the burning pyre,
it will itself in the end get destroyed.
Then
there will arise
Self-realization

The Self is that where there
is absolutely no ‘I-thought’.
That is called Silence.
The Self itself is the world;
the Self itself is ‘I’;
the Self itself is God;
all is Siva, the Self.

All that is required
to realize the Self
is
to be still.
What can be easier than that?

There is a state beyond our efforts or effortlessness.
Until it is realized effort is necessary.
After tasting such Bliss even once
one will repeatedly try to regain it

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.

Be what you are.
There is nothing to come down or become manifest
All that is needed is to lose the ego.
What do you wait for?
The thought ‘I have not seen’, the expectation to see and
the desire to get something, are all the working of the ego.
To think is not your real nature.

In darkness a man imagines
there is something by his side.
If he looks closely the ghost is not to be seen
but some dark object, a tree or post, etc.;
if he does not look closely
the ghost strikes terror in the person
So also with the ego.
It is an intangible link between the body and Pure Consciousness.
It is not real.
So long as one does not look closely
it continues to give trouble.
But when one looks for it,
it is found not to exist.

“How is the ego to be destroyed?”
This question is a sure way to cherish the ego and not to kill it.
Can the ego ever agree to kill itself?
If you seek the ego
you will find it does not exist.
That is the way to destroy it

The whole of Vedanta is contained
in the two biblical statements
‘I am that I am’
and
‘Be still and know that I am God’.

From ‘The Lamp is Lit. Leaves from a Journal’ by Ruskin Bond

2012-01-09T18:09:00.000+05:30

Even today, surrounded by loved ones, I am often conscious of being alone. Every man is an island, no matter how hard he tries to paddle away. A woman may often have the comfort of a child feeding at her breast; men grow up insecure.

Punjabis like their tea with lots of milk and sugar – so much so that I often wonder why they bother to add any tea.

Blessed is the house upon whose walls
The shade of an old tree softly falls …
I remember those lines of Granny’s

… Granny wasn’t really alone. All the same, she was glad to have me. She didn’t enjoy cooking for herself, she said; she had to cook for someone. And although the cat and the dog and sometimes Uncle Ken appreciated her efforts, a good cook likes to have a boy to feed, because boys are adventurous and ready to try the most unusual dishes.

Mexican proverb: ‘Oh to do nothing, and then to rest.’

If mice could roar
And elephants soar
And trees grow up in the sky;
If tigers could dine
On biscuits and wine,
And the fattest of men could fly!
If pebbles could sing
and bells never ring
And teachers were lost in the post;
If a tortoise could run,
And losses be won,
And bullies be buttered on toast;
If a song brought a shower,
And a gun grew a flower,
This world would be nicer than most!

‘I enjoy life,’ said Seneca, ‘because I am ready to leave it.’

From ‘Scenes from a writer's life. A Memoir’ by Ruskin Bond

2012-01-09T18:07:00.000+05:30

Shakespeare …

This above all, to thine own self be true,
And it must follow, as the night the day,
Thou can’st not then be false to any man.

The pure, the bright, the beautiful,
That stirred our hearts in youth,
The impulse to a wordless prayer,
The dreams of love and truth;
The longings after something lost,
The spirit’s yearning cry,
The striving after better hopes …
These things can never die!
- Sarah Doudney

‘No Somi, I’m too lazy to get dressed now. Sit and talk.’

I am becoming too lazy for anything.

Perhaps I am rotting here, perhaps the West will do me good. I have achieved nothing. I have achieved nothing but happiness.

But I must not give way to ambition, else I shall lose that happiness. One day there will come a time of rush and work and worry, and then I shall long for this peace, this idleness, this present.

I must not forget how to be lazy. Dear Reader, nearly fifty years on I’m still very lazy

From ‘Awakening into Oneness. The power of blessing I the evolution of consciousness’ by Arjuna Ardagh

2011-12-16T21:30:00.000+05:30

Anandagiri …….. says

For a relationship to improve, you must be free of hurt, and you must be free of guilt. Either you have been deeply hurt yourself, or you have hurt someone and you feel bad about it. If you are hurt, the best way to become free of it is to experience the pain completely. And if you have caused pain to someone else, you did so because you could not feel. You did not know what it was to feel that psychological or physical pain. Everything changes when you feel what that person is going through, when you can become that person.

………. Karmically the relationship is only complete when you feel love and gratitude ……… When you feel gratitude, you are free – you can move on …….. The only way to come to gratitude is to feel the hurt completely so you can forgive and be forgiven. Then the relationship is set right, and you are unburdened. Your whole life changes.

Years ago, Albert Einstein reflected that you cannot solve any problem in the same state of consciousness in which it was created.

From ‘Walking the Path’ by Frederique Lebelley

2011-12-16T21:27:00.000+05:30

In Sanskrit, ‘initiation’ is called diksha. Di meaning ‘intellect’ and ksha, ‘the horizon of the end’. Diksha means: to go to the end of the intellect, to transcend the intellect.

Education is called shiksha, ‘the horizon of discipline’ – total discipline.

A teacher brings shiksha, ‘education’. A spiritual master – a guru – brings diksha …….. it is a journey from head to heart.

“Drop the past; don’t even try to analyse it. It is as if you knocked over the dustbin and sorted through the contents: this is from yesterday, and that is from the day before yesterday ….”

In the realm of science, first you acquire the knowledge, then comes the faith. In the realm of spirituality, faith comes first and knowledge follows.

Suffering is created by our own mind. Pain is inevitable; suffering is optional. A smile that cannot be removed by any event is a real smile. Suffering is remembering the events, chewing them again and again.

….. when this feeling of helplessness overcomes you, prayer can really be authentic. This authentic prayer can bring a power in us capable of transforming life.

Why this Kolaveri Di?

2011-11-28T22:36:00.001+05:30

The song thats the rage in india currently ....

Terrific tune, nice voice, quirkly and slightly nonsensical lyrics, the mixture of Tamil and English (who speaks in pure tongue nowadays), nice video, wow .......

Enjoy ...........

Lyrics taken from http://aahsome.com/blog/why-this-kolaveri-lyrics-english-translation/

Yo boys, I am singing song…

Soup song, flop song.

Why this killer rage, killer rage, killer rage, girl?
Why this killer rage, killer rage, killer rage, girl?

Rhythm correct.

Why this killer rage, killer rage, killer rage, girl?
Why this killer rage, killer rage, killer rage, girl?

Maintain please.

Why this killer rage, …, …, girl?
The moon is in the distance, the moon.
Moon’s colour is white.
Night’s background is white, the night,
Night’s colour is black.

Why this killer rage, killer rage, killer rage, girl?
Why this killer rage, killer rage, killer rage, girl?

She’s a fair-skinned girl, girl,
Girl’s heart is black,
Her eyes and my eyes met,
My future is now dark.

Why this killer rage, killer rage, killer rage, girl?
Why this killer rage, killer rage, killer rage, girl?

Buddy, take notes,
and take the saxophone in your hand.
Our new friend Puppy Manohar thinks that the “snacks” in the original subtitles is a typo which should be “sax”. The saxophone solo that immediately follows these lines is proof enough of his hypothesis.
“pa pa paan pa pa paan pa pa paa pa pa paan”
Play it right.

Super, buddy! Ready?
Ready? 1… 2… 3… 4…

Whoa, what a difference buddy!
Alright buddy, now tune changes…
“Kaila” glass…
Only English, eh!

Glass in hand,
Scotch in glass,
Tears in eyes,
Life’s empty,
Girl shows up,
Life’s going downhill.

Love, love, oh my love,
You stood me up.
Cow, cow, holy cow,
I want you here now!
God, I’m dying now,
But she’s happy, how?

This song is for the soup boys,
We don’t have a choice.

Why this killer rage, killer rage, killer rage, girl?
Why this killer rage, killer rage, killer rage, girl?
Why this killer rage, killer rage, killer rage, girl?
Why this killer rage, killer rage, killer rage, girl?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Why_This_Kolaveri_Di

From ‘Remember. Be Here Now’ by Dr. Richard Alpert, Ph.d into Baba Ram Dass

2011-11-28T21:41:00.000+05:30

If your vibrations are paranoid
That’s what’s being received
And when you’re around pets
(birds or cats particularly)
Or very young children
Or very flipped out psychotics
They will know you immediately.

You can come and say
“Hello dear, how are you?”
And the dog will growl …

You cant come on because they’re listening
To the vibrations that hand is reaching
Out and sending.
And you realize that every moment you are
A full statement of your being.
And you’re sending out vibrations that are
Affecting everything around you,
Which in turn is affecting
Everything that comes back
and
when you meet somebody who is
caught in the world of
We and Them and you are Him
To that person
And you get caught in his mind net
You are both
just
intensifying
one another’s
paranoia.

Had ye but faith, you could
Move mountains, said Jesus
And that is literally true
The bible is not a metaphor

The way Bhakti works

You just love

Until

You

And the

beloved

become

one

“The journey of a thousand miles begins with one step.” – Lao Tzu

“WARNING: if you don’t have room in your livingroom for an elephant – don’t make friends with the elephant trainer ….” – Sufi mystic

“To everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven.” – Ecclesiastes

“Dislodging a green nut from a shell is almost impossible, but let it dry and the lightest tap will do it.” – Ramakrishna

“I found that the chief difficulty for most people was to realize that they had really heard ‘new things’: that is, things that they had never heard before. They kept translating what they heard into their habitual language. They had ceased to hope and believe there might be anything new.” – Ouspensky

“I wish I could join the Solitaires instead of being Superior and having to write books. But I don’t wish to have what I wish, of course.” – Abbott John Chapman

“It can be said that there is one general rule for everybody. In order to approach this system seriously, people must be disappointed, first of al in themselves, that is to say, in their powers, and secondly in all the old ways …….. A man ……. If he is a scientist should be disappointed in his science. If he is a religious man, should be disappointed in his religion …….. And so on.” – Gurdjieff, by Ouspensky

“Except ye be converted and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven.” – Jesus

“But I had seen myself, that is, I had seen things in myself that I had never seen before. There could be no doubt about it and although I afterwards became the same as I had been before, I could not help knowing that this had been and I could forget nothing.” – Ouspensky

“Ask, and it shall be given to you; seek, and ye shall find; knock and it shall be opened unto you: For everyone that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened.” – Jesus

“The influence of the Guru is obstructed by mental activity, by reliance on one’s own exertions and by every kind of self-consciousness and self-exertion.” – Sathya Sai Baba

“Rain water falling upon the roof of a house flows down to the ground through spouts shaped grotesquely like a tiger’s head. One gets the impression that the water comes from the tiger’s mouth, but in reality it descends from the sky. In the same way the holy teachings that come from the mouths of godly men seem to be uttered by those men themselves, while in reality they proceed from God.” – Ramakrishna

A sadhak (someone doing sadhana) sees clearly that his craving is creating his own veil of illusion. At this point desires start to fall away of themselves. This process is called the onset of vairag (the falling away of worldly desires). As each one falls away, more subtle forms of desire arise. These too must be given up. Eventually the only desire is for bliss. Then that one must be thrown away ………… you cant do away with desire or give it up or try to get rid of it. However, with increased wisdom and preoccupation with your sadhana, desires will just fall away.

“You can’t rip the skin from the snake. It will shed it's skin when it is ready.” – Hari Dass Baba

And as you extricate yourself from your attachments and become quiet, you will be able to know more and more clearly how it all is … The Way. And the more clearly you hear, the more your actions will be in harmony with the Way … with His Will. Then you will truly understand.

Not my but Thy will, O Lord.

“If a pickpocked meets a Holy Man, he will only see His pockets.” – Hari Dass Baba

“On the hat of poverty three renouncements are inscribed: Quit this world, quit the next world, quit quitting.” – Sufi poet

“The essence of civilization consists not in the multiplication of wants but in their deliberate and voluntary renunciation.” - Gandhi

Buddha and other high beings have noted that the best time of day to work on oneself is between 4 and 7.

“ ….. STOP TALKING. STOP THINKING, AND THERE IS NOTHING YOU WILL NOT UNDERSTAND.” – Seng-ts’an

“Those who know do not talk
And talkers do not know.” – Tao Te Ching

As you get further on the path you will need less and less sleep. ……. Go to bed early and get up early ……… It is good to sleep on your back or upon your side (The left side is often recommended for reasons concerning which nostril it is most useful to breathe through during the night.)

Don’t eat too much. The traditional way of saying this is that at the conclusion of a meal, a yogi’s stomach should be half full of food, one-quarter full of water and one-quarter full of air.

“When the mind perceives an object it is transformed into the shape of that object. So the mind which thinks of the Divinity which it worships (Ista-devata) is at length, through continued devotion, transformed into the likeness of that Devata. By allowing the Devata thus to occupy the mind for long it becomes as pure as the Devata. This is the fundamental principle of Tantric Sadhana or religious practice.” – Woodroffe

“By passion for the ‘pairs of opposites.’
By those twin snares of Like and Dislike, Prince,
All creatures live bewildered, save some few
Who, quit of sins, holy in act, informed,
Freed from the ‘opposites’ and fixed in faith
Cleave unto Me.” – Bhagavad Gita

“If you can serve a cup of tea right, you can do anything.” – Gurdjieff

The simplest instructions for mediation are given by Tilopa in the Song of Mahamudra:
“Do nought with the body but relax
Shut firm the mouth and silent remain
Empty your mind and think of nought
Like a hollow bamboo
Rest at ease your body
Giving not nor taking
Put your mind at rest
The great way is a mind that clings to nought
Thus practicing, in time you will reach Buddhahood.”

“A Zen student must learn to waste time conscientiously.” – Suzuki Roshi.

For some well advanced upon the path, the cave – the traditional haunt of yogis – is sought, for here the rock is insulation against many of the subtle vibrations which are distracting for those who have become sensitive.

“Where there is fire, or in water or on ground which is strewn with dry leaves, where there are many ant-hills, where there are wild animals, or danger, where four streets meet, where there is too much noise, where there are many wicked persons, Yoga must not be practiced.” – Vivekananda

Printed cakes do not satisfy hunger.

From ‘Listening to the Silence. True stories of a healing love from the spiritual realms’ by Nan Umrigar

2011-11-28T21:21:00.003+05:30

“When the tongue is silent, the mind speaks;
When the mind is silent, the heart sings;
When the heart stops singing,
The Soul begins to experience it's original Self.”

Some say that we all choose our challenges before birth.

“There are more things in heaven and earth,
Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy.”
- William Shakespeare

On the 31st of January 1969 at 12.15 pm, in His room at Meherabad, Baba breathed His last to ‘live eternally in the hearts of those who love Him’, As per His wish, a record of His favourite song ‘Begin the Beguine’ was played seven times near His body.

[video from youtube]

[lyrics from http://www.stlyrics.com/songs/c/coleporter5950/beginthebeguine235309.html]

Cole Porter - Begin The Beguine Lyrics

Album: Great American Composer Series

When they begin

the beguine

it brings back the sound

of music so tender

it brings back a night

of tropical splendor

it brings back a memory of green

I'm with you once more

under the stars

and down by the shore

an orchestras playing

and even the palms

seem to be swaying

when they begin

the beguine

to live it again

is past all endeavor
except when that tune

clutches my heart

and there we are swearing to love forever

and promising never

never to part

a moments divine

what rapture serene

to clouds came along

to disperse the joys we had tasted

and now when I hear people curse the chance that was wasted

I know but too well what they mean

so dont let them begin the beguine

let the love that was once a fire

remain an ember

let it sleep like the dead desire I only remember

when they begin the beguine

oh yes let them begin the beguine

make them play

til the stars that were there before

return above you

till you whisper to me

once more darling I love you

and we suddenly know what heaven we're in

when they begin

the beguine

Baba had indicated that of all the places on earth, Asia, more particularly India, is closest to the ‘creation point’.

Life would be infinitely more complicated if one who is not spiritually advanced were burdened by the conscious memory of numberless past lives …

It is said that prayer is when we talk to God, and meditation is when we listen.

From ‘Bhagawan Nityananda of Ganeshpuri’ by Swami Muktananda Paramahamsa

2011-11-26T19:52:00.000+05:30

Bhagawan uttered three phrases that continue to have profound meaning for me. He said, “Nirmala mana; nischala mana; vishala mana.” (Purified mind; unwavering mind; immutable mind that is vast, that is eternal.)

The sages have spoken about three types of siddhis. There are impure powers acquired through unclean vows and incantations. After the practitioner bathes and becomes clean, he can no longer perform them. This kind of power has only evil effects …….

Then there are mantra siddhis, acquired by saying a mantra to a particular deity under certain circumstances. This kind of power allows you to manifest a piece of fruit or an ornament in your hand, or move an object from one place to another. Such miracles impress and attract people for a time, but this kind of magic does not last long.

Then there are true siddhis, those described in the scriptures. These powers are acquired by practicing with rigorous discipline the eight steps of ashtanga yoga. These steps require virtuous behavior, physical discipline, the ability to restrain the senses from their outward pull, concentration, and deep meditation that reaches the state of unity-consciousness.

Far beyond these three siddhis, however, is a supreme power, the mahasiddhi. This is not acquired by one’s own efforts. It is a gift from God, and it always brings His presence.

According to the scriptures, there are four kinds of beings one should never approach empty-handed: gods, Gurus, kings and children.

…. describes the shambhavi mudra as “Attention turned inward, gaze outward, without any blinking of the eyes.” Gurudev was often in this state.

The deity worshipped through the image does not reside in the wood or stone or clay of which the image is made, but in the feeling of the worshipper. For this reason the feeling of devotion must never be given up.

When Kundalini is awakened, a new vitality spreads through every pore of the body and a process of inner purification begins. In the beginning there may be overwhelming drowsiness, tremors, perspiration, sensations like electric shocks, tremendous heat, feelings of intense joy, spontaneous physical postures, and then a state of deep meditation like Samadhi. The seeker may have the inner Darshan of gods and goddesses, or of Siddhas. He may experience heaven or the realm of ancestors. He may see lights and hear inner music during meditation, or even during the waking state.

……. the purification of these chakras begins. All the fluids of the body are rejuvenated. The incoming and outgoing breaths are equalized ……… the power of one’s karmas weakens and disappears, and liberation in this very life is attained.

The Bhagavad Gita says
shraddhavanl labhate jnanam [4.39]
One who possesses faith attains knowledge.

He had a big belly because of long, inner retention of the breath, called kumbhaka.

The great saint Brahmananda said, “Become ashes at the Guru’s feet and then you will meet God.” We have to allow the Guru to work on us, we have to dissolve our ego and pride at his feet.

In India, there were many yogis who were able to manifest the power of levitation. They had to spend a lifetime learning how to do it, but it's not so extraordinary. They awaken the Kundalini energy through pranayama, and then they practice three yogic locks or bandhas. They stay in these positions for a very long time. The fire of yoga eventually burns up the water and the earth elements in the body. These are the two elements that make the body heavy, so when they are burned up, the person can levitate instantly. It's a strenuous practice. My Babaji was able to do it.

…… he called me ….. and said, “……. Whats that you’re carrying …..”

“It's an Upanishad,” I said.

“Dust!” he said ……. He went on, “Do you know how this book was written? Books are created by someone’s mind. ….. Instead of reading someone else’s mind, meditate and then read your own mind …… Meditate a lot. When you meditate a lot, true knowledge will spring forth from you. You won't have to read books. Inner knowledge is far superior. Write your own book with your own mind……”

A little health, wealth, learning and power seem to make a person so bold that he begins to advise and teach even God Himself.

A seeker once asked a sage, “Who is God? Who is the supreme Principle? Who is Consciousness?”

The sage answered, “The witness of your mind is God.”

If a person cannot sit still, it is very difficult for the mind to become still. ……To move the mind inward, a still posture is necessary. …… Just by remaining still in this posture that I am sitting in now, all the seventy-two million nadis of the body are purified.

He would say, “Just as abusive terms pierce you, in the same way, my speech should enter you, it should pierce you. Then you’ll attain That immediately.”

My Baba never liked to criticize any religion, sect, or person. If anyone found fault with someone else, he would say, “Hey! You have faulty vision. Ram is in all.” This is the sign of a supreme Siddha.

Once a devotee of my Baba came to him and complained about another devotee. “That man drinks liquor and eats fish,” he told Baba.

“So what?” Baba said. “No matter what he eats or drinks, he shits it out the next day. He doesn’t hang on to it, so why should you?” No matter what you may have done in the past, you should let go of it. If the thought “I am a sinner” arises, then have another thought: “I am not a sinner. I am meritorious.”

……. a faultfinder can never become a good seeker ……

My Baba always said it is not the Guru’s grace toward the disciple that matters; it is the disciple’s grace toward the Guru that is of much greater importance. The moment a disciple surrenders himself completely to the Guru, the Guru’s grace will be bestowed automatically and in full measure.

The inner Shakti flows particularly through the feet. In our culture when a saint arrives in someone’s house, the host offers to wash the saint’s feet.

A photograph has great power. What kind of power depends upon whose picture it is. ……… I fully believe in the power of my Baba’s photographs.

If you want to establish a connection with Nityananda Baba, just look at his eyes in the photograph and repeat your mantra. In this way the Shakti will enter you. Then automatically the relationship will be established.

We worship the Guru in a personal form so that we may receive Shakti and meditate effectively …… The image of the Guru is not form; it is pure Consciousness …… The mind and the senses have their pressing demands, they must have their corresponding objects. The eyes must see. That is why it is good to worship the statue or the personal form of the Guru. When the mind rises to a high state it converts the form into the formless.

From ‘The New Path. My life with Paramahansa Yogananda’ by Swami Kriyananda

2011-11-26T19:47:00.000+05:30

Years later, on learning that the cow, in India, commands special affection, an amusing comparison occurred to me. The Indian is, himself, in some ways cow-like: slowly ruminative, reflectively chewing the cud of his ideas. By contrast, Americans, who love dogs, seem actually to have a certain affinity with them, as they dash about in mad pursuit of endless and quite unnecessary goals, eagerly wagging their tails in an effort to be liked.

Civilized man prides himself on how far advanced his present state is from that of the primitive savage. We look condescendingly on his tribal way of endowing trees, wind, rain, and heavenly bodies with human personalities. Now that science has explained everything in prosaic terms, modern man considers himself wiser for having lost his sense of awe. But I’m not so sure that he deserves congratulations ……. Too pragmatic, now, to worship, he has forgotten how to commune. Instead of relating sensitively to Nature around him, he shuts it out of his life with concrete “jungles,” air conditioning, and “muzak”; with self-promotion and noisy entertainments. He is obsessed with problems that are real to him only because he gives them reality. ……

Modern technology alienates us from the universe and from one another. Worst of all, it alienates us from ourselves. It directs all our energies toward the mere manipulation of things, until we ourselves assume qualities that are almost thing-like. ….. We are taught to behave in this world like uncivilized guests, rudely consuming our host’s plenty without offering him a single word of thanks in return. Such is our approach to nature, to God, to life itself. We make ourselves petty, then imagine that the universe is petty also. ….. And when, in “civilized” smugness, we approach the question of religion, we address God Himself as though He had better watch His manners if He wants a place in our hearts.

The Hindu scriptures state ….. that what is otherwise a duty ceases to be such when it conflicts with a higher duty. Man’s highest duty is to seek God. It is understood in India that one’s spouse can and should be supportive in one’s search. Only if the desire for God is intense, and one’s spouse poses an obstacle to that search by his or her worldliness, is it permissible to break the marital bond without mutual consent.

…. a guest ….. asked him, “Which do you consider the most spiritual place in America?” “I have always considered Los Angeles the Benaras of America,” the Master replied.

He taught me an ancient yoga technique of concentration, and added some general counsel.

“When you aren’t practicing this concentration technique, try to keep your mind focused at the point between the eyebrows. This is called the Christ center, because when Christ consciousness is attained one’s awareness becomes centered here.”

“Would it help,” I asked, “to keep my mind focused there all day long as well?”

“Very much! …….”

“And another thing,” Bernard added, “this is also the seat of the spiritual eye. The more deeply you concentrate your gaze at this point, the more you’ll become aware of a round light forming there: a blue field with a bright, golden ring around it and a silvery white five-pointed star in the center.”

“Never say that you are a sinner,” he went on to advise us. “You are a child of God! Gold, though covered for centuries with mud, remains gold. Even so, the pure gold of the soul, though covered for eons of time with the mud of delusion, remains pure ‘gold’ forever. To call yourself a sinner is to identify yourself with your sins instead of trying to rid yourself of them. It is to affirm sinfulness. To call yourself a sinner is the greatest sin before God!”

“Visualize the Guru,” he said, “at the point between the eyebrows, the Christ center. This is the ‘broadcasting station’ in the body. Call to him deeply at this point. Then try to feel his response in your heart, which is the body’s ‘receiving set.’ When that response comes, it will be here that you feel it intuitively. When it comes, pray deeply, ‘Introduce me to God.’”

As buildings and place develop vibrations according to the consciousness of the people who frequent them, so music also develops vibrations beyond those of the actual sound.

Renunciation is no abject self-deprivation, but a glorious affirmation of the universe of joy that is our birthright.

As St.John of the Cross put it:
In order to arrive at having pleasure in everything,
Desire pleasure in nothing.
In order to arrive at possessing everything,
Desire to possess nothing.
In order to arrive at being everything,
Desire to be nothing.
In order to arrive at the knowledge of everything,
Desire to know nothing.

“When this ‘I’ shall die,” Master once wrote…… “then shall I know who am I.”

Sometimes he intrigued us with references, always casual, to the past lives of certain well-known public figures. “Winston Churchill,” he told us, “was Napoleon. Napoleon wanted to conquer England. Churchill, as England’s Prime Minister, has fulfilled that ambition. Napoleon wanted to destroy England. As Churchill he has had to preside over the disintegration of the British Empire. …….” “Hitler …… was Alexander the Great.”……… Mussolini, Master said, was Mark Antony. Kaiser Wilhelm was Julius Caeser. Stalin was Genghis Khan…….Abraham Lincoln…… had been a yogi in the Himalayas ……. He [Abraham Lincoln] has come again in this century …… as Charles Lindbergh …….. Therese Neumann, the Catholic stigmatist …… was Mary Magdalene ……… Lahiri Mahasaya …. in a previous life was King Janaka …….. According to another disciple, Master told someone that Lahiri Mahasaya had also been the great medieval mystic Kabir. …. “Babaji…… is an incarnation of India’s greatest prophet, Krishna.”

Master then revealed to us that he himself had been Krishna’s closest friend and disciple, Arjuna.

And as Paramahansa Yogananda often said - …….. “A saint is a sinner who never gave up.”

I was intrigued to learn ….. that advanced yogis sometimes incarnate in several bodies at once, in order the more quickly to work out their past karmas.

…… The body is immobile in this trance state; one’s absorption in God, at this point, is called sabikalpa samadhi, or qualified absorption, a condition still subject to change, for on one’s return from this lower samadhi one assumes once again the limitations of ego. …… the supreme state: nirbikalpa samadhi, or unqualified absorption – a condition changeless and eternal. If from this state one returns to body-consciousness, he does so no longer with the consciousness of being separate or different from the ocean of Spirit. John Smith no longer exists. It is the eternal Spirit, now, which animates his body …….. This outward direction of energy on the part of one who has attained nirbikalpa samadhi is sometimes known also as sahaja, or effortless, samadhi.

Divine freedom comes only with the attainment of nirbikalpa samadhi. Until that stage, the ego can still – and alas, sometimes does – draw the mind back down into delusion again. Only with nirbikalpa samadhi does one become what is known as a jivan mukta, free even though living in a physical body.

A jivan mukta, however, unimaginably high though his sate is, is not yet fully emancipated. The thought, “I am John Smith,” has been destroyed. He can acquire no new karma, since the post of ego to which his karma was tied has been destroyed forever. There remains even no, however, the memory of all those prior existences …… All those old selves must be made over, their karma spiritualized and released into the Infinite.

“Very few saints on earth have achieved final liberation, becoming siddhas, or perfected beings,” Master told me one day.

“It is only the thought that we are not free that keeps us from actually being free. Merely to break that thought would suffice to put us into samadhi! Samadhi is not something we have to acquire. We have it already!”

When the soul attains final liberation, it becomes a siddha (“perfected being”), or param mukta (“supremely free soul”). Even in this state, individuality is not lost, but is retained in the memory of omniscience. The karma of John Smith’s many incarnations has been released into the Infinite, but the memory of all those lifetimes, now spiritualized, remains an eternal reality in divine memory. The soul, however, once it attains this state of supreme liberation, rarely reactivates it's remembered individuality, and never does so except at the command of the Divine Will.’ When such a supremely free soul returns to this world it comes only for the sake of humanity. Such an incarnation is called an avatar, or “divine incarnation.”

Such, Master told us, was Babaji, the first of our direct line of gurus. Such also were Lahiri Mahasaya …….. and Swami Sri Yukteswar ……..

“Sir,” I asked Master one day …… “are you an avatar?”

With quiet simplicity he replied, “A work of this importance would have to have been started by such a one.”

An avatar, he told us, descends to worldly birth with a divine mission, often for the general upliftment of mankind as well as the particular salvation of a few disciples. ……. To avatars He gives the power to bring vast numbers of souls to freedom in God. Siddhas as given power only to liberate themselves and a few others.

“If you want God,” Master used to say, “go after Him. It takes great determination and steadfast, deep effort. And remember, the minutes are more important than the years.”

A great aid on the path, however, is the constant thought, “I am free already!”

Oliver Wendell Holmes said, “To have doubted one’s own first principles is the mark of a civilized man.”

Jesus’ own words, “Whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it”

We need not so much destroy our desires as rechannel their energies Godward.

Until a desire has been either fulfilled in action or dissipated by wisdom, it may remain dormant in the subconscious, like a seed, for incarnations.

Likes, dislikes, and their resultant attractions and aversions, all of which induce desires and repulsions, are the root cause of our bondage. The progressive stages of involvement with maya may be traced through the progressive functions of human consciousness: mon, buddhi, ahankara, and chitta: mind, intellect, ego, and feeling

Paramahansa Yogananda illustrated these basic functions by a horse, seen in a mirror. The mirror is the mind (mon), which shows us the image as it appears to us through the senses; the mind alone, however, cannot qualify or define that image.

Buddhi (intellect) then defines what is seen, informing our consciousness, “That is a horse.”

Ahankara (ego) then appears, declaring, “This is my horse.” Up to this point we are not necessarily yet bound by the thought of ownership, the identification, though personal, may still remain more or less abstract.

If, then, chitta (feeling) comes onto the scene, saying, “How happy I am to see my horse!” true ego-bondage begins. Chitta is our emotional reaction, including likes and dislikes, desires and aversions. It is the true source of ego-bondage, and the essence of all delusion.

Thus, the ancient classical exponent of the yoga science, Patanjali, defined yoga itself as “the neutralization of the vortices (vrittis) of chitta.” ……. Yogas chitta vritti nirodh. ….. “Vritti,” moreover, doesn’t mean “fluctuation,” or “waves,” as is often translated, but “whirlpool,” which more graphically describes drawing feelings inward to a center in the ego.

When travelling ……. Generally he [Yogananda] ate in the car, to avoid what he termed the “heterogeneous vibrations” of restaurants.

“I know every thought you think,” he once assured me calmly.

He [Yogananda] told us more than once that in a former life he had been William the Conqueror ……… Master said he had also been a leader in Spain, whose mission had been to drive the Moors out of that country ……. He didn’t tell us who that person was, however.

“Will power,” Master told us, “is more important to success than knowledge, training, or even native ability.”

Master was talking to us ……. “One evening I had just returned to Mt. Washington when a sudden, violent wind struck the main building. It was an effect from the evil karma of the World War II. People little realize how greatly the very elements are affected by mass consciousness.”

“Do souls that have been born on this earth keep reincarnating here?” Master’s reply, ……. was, “No, there are innumerable planets to go to.”

His next life on earth, Master told us, would be spent in the Himalayas. Having devoted so much of his present life to public service, he planned to remain for many years of that incarnation in deep seclusion. …… Two hundred years would elapse, he told us, before his next incarnation.

“Don’t sleep a great deal. Sleep is the unconscious way of contacting God. Meditation is a state beyond sleep – superconsciousness, as opposed to subconsciousness. ….

“ ……If you read one hour, then write two hours, think three hours, and meditate all the time.’

From ‘Ramana Smrti. A Birth centenary offering - 1980’ - Sri Ramanasramam, Tiruvannamalai

2011-11-26T19:40:00.000+05:30

The method is simply this: you ask yourself, “Who am I?” and try to keep your whole mind concentrated on getting an answer to that question. True, various thoughts will arise unbidden within you and assault you and try to divert your attention. For all these thoughts, however, the ‘I’ thought is the source and sustenance. So, as each thought arises, without allowing it to go on developing itself, ask who gets this thought. The answer will be ‘I’. Then ask yourself: “Who is this ‘I’ and whence?” The Maharshi says, “….. Follow the above method with faith and hope and you will surely succeed.” …… A keen effort of the mind, complete introversion of all the faculties, total absorption in the quest wherefrom the ‘I’ springs – all this is needed for success.

The Bible (Verse 2 of Chapter 10, Ecclesiastics) says, “A wise man’s heart is at his right hand, but a fool’s heart is at his left.” The Maharshi also quotes the Yoga Vasishta which says that the heart on the right side is the one to take note of, that this heart is……… the basis and source of all.

…… his main teaching, “Either know who you are or surrender.”

…… in the Gita: The knowers of the Self look with an equal eye on a Brahmana endowed with learning and humility, a cow, an elephant, a dog and an outcast.

….his words…… “All religions and spiritual practices have no other purpose than getting the mind under control…. In devotion, your mind is merged in the God you love and ceases to exist as separate from Him. He guides your mind step by step and no control is needed ……. Meditate on God or on some mental or material image of Him. This will slow down your mind and it will get controlled on it's own accord”

He also believed that fine grinding and careful cooking would make any food easily digestible. So we used to spend hours on grinding and stewing.

…….. Bhagavan told me that the deer had died. I said: “Some great soul came to you as a deer to gain liberation from your hands.” Bhagavan said: “Yes, it must be so. When I was on the hill, a crow used to keep me company. He was a rishi in a crow’s body…… ” Once a garuda, a white breasted eagle, which is considered holy in India, flew into the hall and sat on the top of a cupboard near Bhagavan. ……. “He is a siddha (a saint endowed with supernatural powers) who came to pay me a visit,” said Bhagavan most seriously.

The respect he showed to animals and birds was most striking. He really treated them as equals. They were served food first like some respected visitors, and if they happened to die in the Ashram, they would be given a decent burial and a memorial stone.

“…… You need not torture the body. ……just keep the body going so that it does not become a hindrance. For this, pure and fresh food, simply prepared and taken in moderation, is a great help.

…….Arunachala. Bhagavan declared it to be the spiritual axis of the earth and requested that it's other pole be sought on a map. This appeared to be in the sea off Peru, the west coast of South America. However, modern plate tectonics suggest that India was originally much further south, in the presumed location of Lemuria, which would place the opposite pole in California, a recognized spiritual center.

“It is not by action but by renunciation of action that one attains Liberation.”

Sri Bhagavan showed reverence for life …… “You may call a tree a standing man, and a man a walking tree.”

From ‘Sri Ramana Reminiscences’ by G. V. Subbaramayya

2011-11-22T21:46:00.000+05:30

Sri Bhagavan explained how we have a glimpse of the real Self every day. Between sleep and waking there is a momentary twilight. The waking-consciousness begins with the I-thought. Just before the upsurge of the I-thought, there is a split second of undifferentiated, pure consciousness, then the I-thought with which the world-consciousness floods in, this is the order. The middle state is Self-awareness. We can sense it if we are sufficiently alert and watchful.

Sri Bhagavan ……. Said, “Ten times’ attentive reading is writing. Hundred times’ writing is translating.”

“Bhagavan, people scoff at me, calling me a ‘superstitious idolator.’” Sri Bhagavan told him, “Why don’t you retort by calling them worse idolators? For do they not wash, dress, embellish, feed and thus ‘worship’ their body so many times every day. Is not the body the biggest idol? Then who is not an idol worshipper?”

Sri Bhagavan quoted ….. : “Where psychology ends, philosophy begins” and added His own remark, “Where philosophy ends spirituality begins.”

Sri Bhagavan …….. His replies ……… Even with the limited knowledge of our present life, we are so much oppressed as to be unable to shake off the ego. If we should get to know of our past lives also, the difficulty would be all the greater because the ego would then be much more strengthened. So it is better not to worry about knowing the past, the future or even the present.

Sri Bhagavan also remarked that there might be exceptional cases of even animals and plants attaining Self-Realization

Referring to Mouna (Silence), Sri Bhagavan said, “Silence is of four kids: Silence of speech, Silence of the eye, Silence of the ear, and Silence of the mind. Only the last is pure Silence and is the most important.”

Sri Bhagavan remarked: ‘That which is not real (the body) you take as real and anguish is the only result.’

Sri Bhagavan …… explaining a verse in Upadesa Saram said:

“Breath-control can only produce Manolayam, i.e. temporary suspension of the mind. One-pointed meditation and concentration alone can lead to Manonasam, i.e. destruction of the mind.”

Sri Bhagavan cited a sloka ……. “In indigestion water acts as medicine; when there is no indigestion, water serves as tonic. Water at the end of the meal serves as Nectar; but water at the beginning of a meal acts as poison.” ……. Sri Bhagavan recollected a sloka ……. “Buttermilk mixed with cardamom, ginger, lemon-juice and a little salt is of rare relish …..” Sri Bhagavan Himself liked thin buttermilk prepared in the above way.

From ‘the humble administrator's garden’ by Vikram Seth

2011-11-02T22:52:00.000+05:30

From the Babur-Nama: Memoirs of Babur, First Moghul Emperor of India

………
Hindustan is a land of meager pleasures.
The people are not handsome, nor have they
The least conception of the charms of friendship.
They have not spirit, no comprehension, kindness
Or fellow-feeling – no inventiveness
In handicraft or skill in design – no method,
Order, principle, rule in work or thought;
No good flesh or bread in their bazaars,
No ice, cold water, musk-melons, grapes; no horses;
No aqueducts or canals in palace or garden,
Not a single bath or college in the whole land,
No candles, no torches; not even a candlestick.

Love and Work

The fact is, this work is as dreary as shit.
I do not like it a bit.
While at it I wander off into a dream
When I return, I scream.

If I had a lover
I’d bear it all, because when day is over
I could go home and find peace in bed.
Instead

The boredom pulps my brain
And there is nothing at day’s end to help assuage the pain.
I am alone, as I have usually been.
The lawn is green.

The robin hops into the sprinkler’s spray.
Day after day
I fill the feeder with bird-seed,
My one good deed.

Night after night
I turn off the porch light, the kitchen light.
The weight lodged in my spirit will not go
For years, I know.

There is so much to do
There isn’t any time for feeling blue.
There isn’t any point in feeling sad.
Things could be worse. Right now they’re only bad.

From ‘As It Is. Dialogues on the open Secret’ by Tony Parsons

2011-11-02T22:50:00.000+05:30

Consciousness simply is. It is energy manifesting without any interest in any of the concepts that our minds have about good or bad, purpose or meaning. It is absolutely impersonal and has no particular direction. It is playing the game of creation and destruction.

But if there’s nowhere to go, there is no purpose, it seems, in anything?

And this realization is the beginning of liberation. We are so locked into the belief that our lives have some sort of purpose we have to fulfil. We go on struggling to fulfil some idea we have of something we need to do, or somewhere that we need to get to, in order to be worthy.

The ego tends to diminish in effect as the gaze of presence evaporates it's illusory identity. Usually the ego demands full attention, like a child, and when it's simply gazed upon without any interest, it tends to dry up and die.

Simply give up your attachment and fascination with the story and let life happen. Something else of immense significance will take the place of all your worries and you will be overrun by a new sense of wonder. Everything will reflect a quality of benevolence. This is the natural way for life to be.

Begin to allow the watcher to emerge. See that the mind is always trying to run the show, to strut the stage. Just see this without judgement, and that seeing emanates from silence.

……My first really deep understanding, which came from reading, was an interpretation of Christ’s words in the book ‘The New Man’ by Maurice Nicholl. He explained that the word “repent” did not mean “to show sorrow for your sins and vow never to sin again”. The word in Christ’s native local tongue meant “to turn 180 degrees and see anew”. This was for me a revelation that went deeper than just intellectual understanding.

Give up the search for something to happen and fall in love, fall intimately in love with the gift of presence in what is. Here, right here, is the seat of all that you will ever long for. It is simple and ordinary, and magnificent. You see, you are already home.

From ‘Moments Remembered. Reminiscences of Bhagavan Ramana’ by V. Ganesan

2011-11-02T22:48:00.000+05:30

In the course of tracing ourselves back to our source, when all thoughts have vanished, there arises a throb from the Hridaya on the right, manifesting as ‘Aham’ ‘Aham’ ‘I-I’. This is the sign that Pure Consciousness is beginning to reveal itself. But that is not the end in itself. Watch wherefrom this sphurana (throbbing) arises and wait attentively and continually for the revelation of the Self. Then comes the awareness, oneness of existence.
When we steady our breath we feel the steadying of our thoughts. Then the thoughts turn inward and melt away at a point. Watching this point, where the thoughts vanish, will also help us to merge ourselves in the Hridaya.

Bhagavan on Arunachala …… “…… Is it just a hill of rocks? ….. Arunachala is the Self Itself ….. Of al the saints who adored Arunachala in many hymns, the child-saint Jnanasambandar’s songs are remarkable ……. He saw the Holy Hill as …… the ‘manifestation of Knowledge (Jnana) inundation’. It is the best and exact description of this Wisdom Mountain!”

Bhagavan observed a small child eating lots of sugar …… “Give a few teaspoons of ghee to the child. Ghee is the antidote for too much sugar!”

Professor Aiyar said: ………. “ …….. One noticed in Bhagavan’s daily life, personal cleanliness, tidiness of dress, habitual wearing of vibhuti and kumkum on the forehead; equal sharing of all enjoyments with those around one; strict adherence to a time schedule; doing useful work however ‘low’ it be; never leaving a work unfinished; the pursuit of perfection in every action; incessant activity except while sleeping or resting after a spell of hard work; never considering oneself superior to others; speaking the truth always, or strict silence if the expression of a truth would hurt or lower the reputation of others; perfect self-help, never asking another to do a piece of work which can be done by oneself; taking full responsibility for failure; if any, without shifting the blame on others; accepting success and failure with equanimity; never disturbing the peace of another; leaving the leaf or plate clean after eating; complete non-interference in the affairs of others; never worrying about the future.

….. some bee-wax ……. mixed it with cotton and made ear-plug …… totally sound-proof …….such ear-plugs …… a boon for undisturbed meditation.

Some of Bhagavan’s personal instructions to me:

(i) If you observe the breathing one-pointedly such attention will lead you spontaneously into kumbhaka (retention) – this is jnana pranayama.

(ii) The more you humble yourself, the better it is for you, in all ways. ………..

(vii) Both likes and dislikes should be equally discarded and eschewed.

(viii) With attention focused on the first person and on the heart within, one should relentlessly practice Who am I? When this is done one-pointedly, one’s breathing will subside of itself. During such controlled practice, the mind might suddenly spring up; so you have to vigilantly pursue the vichara, Who am I?

From ‘The Guiding Presence of Sri Ramana’ by K. K. Nambiar

2011-10-29T15:17:00.000+05:30

This knowledge of the Truth makes an eloquent wise and active person mute, inert, and inactive. Therefore, it is shunned by those who want to enjoy the world.

- Ashtavakra Gita, XV.6

Sri Bhagavan said, “There is nothing better than giripradakshina. That alone is enough. If you do japa or meditation sitting in one place, the mind may wander. But during giripradakshina, the limbs move but the mind will be still. Doing japa or meditation without any thought while walking is called samadhi in movement. That is why in those days walking was considered so important. Giripradakshina is particularly important. As there are several medicinal herbs on the hill, their breeze will be good for health. There are several siddhas and sages on the hill even now, though we cannot see them. They also go round the hill unseen by us. When we go round the hill, we should walk on the left side of the road, otherwise we shall be obstructing their movement. …….”

Sri Bhagavan has said in Atma Vidya:
When you haven’t understood yourself,
What’s the point of understanding other things?
When you have understood yourself,
What else is there to understand?

From ‘Living with the Master. Reminiscences’ by Kunjuswami

2011-10-29T15:05:00.003+05:30

Sri Bhagavan said there were three kinds of japa. Uccha japa, Upamsa japa and Manasika japa. Uccha japa is that which you do by moving your lips. Upamsa japa is japa that is done without movement of lips. The best is Manasika japa which is mental japa

From ‘Sri Ramana Maharshi. The Supreme Guru’ by Alan Jacobs

2011-10-29T15:02:00.002+05:30

“Arunachala is the place, that which of all places deserves to be called the holy place! Of all places it is the greatest! Know that it is the Heart Centre of the Earth. It is Shiva Himself. It is a secret place representing the Spiritual Heart. Lord Shiva always abides there as a glorious hill called Arunachala”
- V, 1, Sri Arunachala Mahatmya

Sri Bhagavan recommended that his devotees should practice Giripradakshina (take a slow walk around the Hill), like a pregnant woman, with reverence and attention. This practice would be of spiritual and physical benefit as the natural herbs growing in the vicinity filled the air with a healing fragrance.

From ‘Devotions. Wisdom from the Cradle of Civilization’ collected by Danielle and Olivier Follmi

2011-10-29T15:01:00.000+05:30

Be melting snow
Wash yourself or yourself

- Rumi (13th Century)

If we become aware that each one of us is an aspect of the face of
God – like the facet of a diamond -
then we can adore God in brotherhood and mutual love.

- Khaled Bentounès (20th – 21st Century)

Talk of tomorrow is not one of the conditions of the path.

- Rumi (13th Century)

That which sings and contemplates in you is still dwelling within the
bounds of that first moment which scattered the stars into space

- Kahlil Gibran (20th Century)

Set your eyes on life’s ephemera and you will see eternity

- Faouzi Skali (20th – 21st Century)

There are many ways to search but the object of the search is always
the same. Don’t you see that the roads to Mecca are all different, one
coming from Byzantium, the other from Syria, others running through
land or sea? The roads are diverse, the goal, one …

- Rumi (13th Century)

My friend, you lost yourself along this path because it is not your own.
You followed the alleyways and avenues that others travelled because
they were bustling and you thought you knew them

- Faouzi Skali (20th – 21st Century)

Elevate yourself above time and space:
leave the world and be a world unto yourself

- Mahmud Shabistari (13th – 14th Century)

My heart can take on any form:
a meadow for gazelles, a cloister for monks,
A temple for idols, the Ka’ba for pilgrims,
the tablets of the Torah, the leaves of the Qur’an.
I believe in the religion of love whichever way it's caravan turns;
love is my religion and my faith.

- Ibn ‘Arabi (12th – 13th Century)

Never ask directions from someone who knows the way,
or you will never be able to get lost.

- Rabbi Nachman of Breslov (18th – 19th Century)

Set your eyes on your death and
you will receive each breath of life as a gift.

- Faouzi Skali (20th – 21st Century)

Look for the answer in the same place that you found the question.

- Rumi (13th Century)

Live every day as if you were
going to live one hundred years.
Live as if you were living the
last day of your life.

- Proverb attributed to Ibn ‘Arabi (12th – 13th Century)

Verily all things move within your being in constant half embrace
the desired and the dreaded, the repugnant and the cherished,
the pursued and that which you would escape.

- Kahlil Gibran (20th Century)

Wisdom is a view from on high, from the narrow path
between two precipices, two extreme ideas.

- Amin Maalouf (20th – 21st Century)

Lack of sincerity, my friend, turns you into a shadow. You
live only for the image of yourself. What a strange spectacle to
see a man driven by his shadow! Come, life your eyes to the
sun of Being and understand the source of truth and illusion.
Do not remain a prisoner of the eyes of this world

- Faouzi Skali (20th – 21st Century)

The deeper that sorrow carves into your being,
the more joy you can contain

- Kahlil Gibran (20th Century)

Where is God? Any place you let him in.

- Rabbi Menachem Mendel of Kotsk (19th Century)

Should you sit upon a cloud you would not see the boundary lines
between one country and another,
not the boundary stone between a farm and a farm.
It is a pity you cannot sit upon a cloud.

- Kahlil Gibran (20th Century)

When you are joyous, look deep into your heart, and you shall find it is
only that which has given you sorrow that is giving you joy.

- Kahlil Gibran (20th Century)

The chains of the world exist nowhere but within you.
Protect yourself from your own tricks, and the demon itself will give up
the battle for lack of allies

- Faouzi Skali (20th – 21st Century)

You often say, “I would give, but only to the deserving.”
The trees in your orchard say not so, nor the flocks in your pasture.
They give that they may live, for to withhold is to perish.

- Kahlil Gibran (20th Century)

One good word is enough warmth for a whole winter

- Arab proverb

He who wears his morality as his best garment were better naked

- Kahlil Gibran (20th Century)

A being capable of a destiny other than his own is a fertile soul.

- Rabbi Elisha ben Abuyah (1st Century C.E.)

If you feel more important than many human beings, think of only one
thing your entire life: releasing your soul from this malady

- Faouzi Skali (20th – 21st Century)

Close
the language-door and open the love-window.
The moon won't use the door,
only the window.

- Rumi (13th Century)

For thought is a bird of space, that in a cage of words may indeed
unfold it's wings but cannot fly.

- Kahlil Gibran (20th Century)

To know yourself is to live one hundred lives.

- Attar (12th – 13th Century)

If you respect someone and respect his history
it's because you believe he belongs to the same human race as you do,
not to some inferior version

- Amin Maalouf (20th – 21st Century)

The Truth you are seeking, my friend, is always beyond yourself.

- Faouzi Skali (20th – 21st Century)

You are the way and the wayfarers.
And when one of you falls down he falls for those behind him,
a caution against the stumbling stone.
Ay, and he falls for those ahead of him,
who though faster and surer of foot,
yet removed not the stumbling stone.

- Kahlil Gibran (20th Century)

That which is hateful to you, do not do to your neighbor.
This is the entire Torah; the rest is commentary. Go and learn

- Hillel the Elder (1st Century B.C.E – 1st Century C.E)

Neither on a world scale nor within any society
should anybody feel so scorned, depreciated, mocked, or demonized
that in order to be able to live among his fellow-citizens
he is forced to conceal or be ashamed of his religion, color, language,
name, or any other ingredient of his identity

- Amin Maalouf (20th – 21st Century)

As a single leaf turns yellow
but with the knowledge of the whole tree,
So the wrong-doer cannot do wrong without the hidden will of you all.

- Kahlil Gibran (20th Century)

Come, come, whoever you are,
Wanderer, idolater, worshipper of fire, come
Even though you have broken your vows a thousand times,
come, and come yet again,
Ours is not a caravan of despair

- Rumi (13th Century)

My friend, stop searching
For the why and the how
Stop spinning the wheel of you soul.
Right where you stand
At this moment
Everything is given you
In the utmost perfection.
Accept this gift
Squeeze the juice of the passing moment.

- Faouzi Skali (20th – 21st Century)

Listen to the words of the passing moment:
“At this very moment of this long journey, where are you?”

- Faouzi Skali (20th – 21st Century)

A society that neglects its youth looks like an old-age home. When it
abandons it's elderly, it looks like an orphanage. Blessed are the young
who are inspired by the wisdom of the ancients! Blessed are the old
who take heart in the enthusiasm of the young!

- Jewish saying

Truth is a mirror that fell
from the hand of God and was
broken. Everybody picked up a
fragment and announced that
he had found the whole truth

- Arab proverb

Sometimes you have to keep quiet to be heard

- Stanislas Jerzy Lec (20th Century)

Set your eyes on your limits and you will perceive the Unlimited.

- Faouzi Skali (20th – 21st Century)

Thanks to the repentance of a single person,
the entire world is forgiven.

- Rabbi Meir (2nd Century C.E.)

When you pray you rise to meet in the air those who are praying at
that very hour, and whom, save in prayer, you may not meet.

- Kahlil Gibran (20th Century)

It would be disastrous if the current globalization were to be a
one-way process, with “universal transmitters” on one side and
“receivers” on the other, with the “norm” set against the “exceptions”;
with on the one hand those who think they have nothing to learn
from the rest of the world, and on the other those who believe that
the rest of the world will never listen to them.

- Amin Maalouf (20th – 21st Century)

The vision of his essence does not take place except when what has
never been disappears, and what has never ceased to be remains.

- Ibn ‘Arabi (12th – 13th Century)

When I want to understand what is happening today or try to decide
what will happen tomorrow, I look back.

- Omar Khayyam (11th – 12th Century)

Love calls:
Everything, at every moment.
We are leaving for the heavens.
Will you accompany us?

- Rumi (13th Century)

From ‘The Four Seasons. Japanese Haiku Second Series’ Translation by Peter Beilenson

2011-10-24T00:38:00.000+05:30

Spring
A CHILDLESS HOUSEWIFE …
HOW TENDERLY
SHE TOUCHES
LITTLE DOLLS FOR SALE

- RANSETSU

OH YOU BAWDY BREEZE …
THATCHER BENDING
ON THE ROOF
I SEE THE BOTTOM

- ISSA

SPRING MORNING MARVEL …
LOVELY NAMELESS
LITTLE HILL
ON A SEA OF MIST

- BASHO

PAPER-WEIGHTS PROTECT
GAY PICTURE-BOOKS
IN THE SHOP …
INQUISITIVE BREEZE

- KITO

GOOD MORNING, SPARROW …
WRITING ON MY
CLEAN VERANDA
WITH YOUR DEWY FEET

- SHIKI

Summer
HANDS UPON THE GROUND
OLD ARISTOCRATIC FROG
RECITES HIS POEM

- SOKAN

SOFTLY FOLDED FAWN
SHIVERS, SHAKING OFF
THE BUTTERFLY …
AND SLEEPS AGAIN

- ISSA

RAINY AFTERNOON …
LITTLE DAUGHTER
YOU WILL NEVER
TEACH THAT CAT TO DANCE

- ISSA

EXPERIMENTING …
I HUNG THE MOON
ON VARIOUS
BRANCHES OF THE PINE

- HOKUSHI

THE DEVOTED CLERK …
NOT TO WASTE
A JOT OF BREEZE
NAPS ON A LEDGER PILLOW

- ISSA

I SCOOPED UP THE MOON
IN MY WATER
BUCKET … AND
SPILLED IT ON THE GRASS

- RYUHO

Autumn

NIGHTS ARE GETTING COLD …
NOT A SINGLE INSECT
NOW
ATTACKS THE CANDLE

- SHIKI

Winter

THE OLDDOG LIES INTENT
LISTENING …
DOES HE OVERHEAR
THE BURROWING MOLES?

- ISSA

From ‘Cherry Blossoms. Japanese Haiku Series III’ Published by the Peter Pauper Press

2011-10-24T00:34:00.000+05:30

Spring

IT IS SPRING AGAIN …
GAY IN THE GARDEN
GATHER
SUN-BATHING SPARROWS

- ONITSURA

Summer

A BABY SPARROW …
HOPPING
WITH CURIOSITY
TO WATCH MY BRUSHWORK

- SHOHA

ON THE GIDDY SWING …
TINY GIRL-CHILD
CLUTCHING TIGHT
HER SPRAY OF BLOSSOMS

- ISSA

THAT FAT OLD BULL-FROG
SAT THERE STARING
BACK AT ME
WITH A SOUR FACE

- ISSA

BOUNCING THE BALL …
SHE BENDS TO MAKE
A FACE AT HER
MEOWING KITTEN

- ISSA

Autumn

MY SACRED SWALLOW …
TWITTERING OUT
FROM YOUR NEST IN
GREAT BUDDHA’S NOSTRIL

- ISSA

Winter
FEEBLE FEEBLE SUN …
IT CAN SCARCELY
STRETCH ACROSS
WINTER-WASTED FIELDS

- BAKUSUI

From ‘Japanese Haiku’ Translated by Peter Beilenson.

2011-10-24T00:31:00.000+05:30

MY TWO PLUM TREES ARE
SO GRACIOUS …
SEE, THEY FLOWER
ONE NOW, ONE LATER

- BUSON

ONE FALLEN FLOWER
RETURNING TO THE
BRANCH? … OH NO!
A WHITE BUTTERFLY

- MORITAKE

ARISE FROM SLEEP, OLD CAT,
AND WITH GREAT YAWNS
AND STRETCHING …
AMBLE OUT FOR LOVE

- ISSA

DIM THE GREY COW COMES
MOOING MOOING
AND MOOING
OUT OF THE MORNING MIST

- ISSA

ON HER DEAD SON
IN WHAT WINDY LAND
WANDERS NOW
MY LITTLE DEAR
DRAGONFLY HUNTER?

- CHIYO-NI

OLD DARK SLEEPY POOL …
QUICK UNEXPECTED
FROG
GOES PLOP! WATERSPLASH

- BASHO

GOOD FRIEND GRASSHIPPER
WILL YOU PLAY
THE CARETAKER
FOR MY LITTLE GRACE?

- ISSA

NOW BE A GOOD BOY
TAKE GOOD CARE OF
OUR HOUSE …
CRICKET MY CHILD

- ISSA

NOW MY LONELINESS
FOLLOWING
THE FIREWORKS …
LOOK! A FALLING STAR!

- SHIKI

CAN’T IT GET AWAY
FROM THE STICKY
PINE-BRANCHES …
CICADA SINGING?

- GIJOENS

VOICES OF TWO BELLS
THAT SPEAK FROM
TWILIGHT TEMPLES …
AH! COOL DIALOGUE

- BUSON

CAMELLIA-PETAL
FELL IN SILENT DAWN …
SPILLING
A WATER-JEWEL

- BASHO

FRIEND, THAT OPEN MOUTH
REVEALS YOUR
WHOLE INTERIOR …
SILLY HOLLOW FROG!

- ANON.

BUTTERFLY ASLEP
FOLDED SOFT ON
TEMPLE BELL …
THEN BRONZE GONG RANG!

- BUSON

GOD EVENING BREEZE!
CROOKED AND
MEANDERING
YOUR HOMEWARD JOURNEY

- ISSA

SEE THE MORNING BREEZE
RUFFLING HIS SO
SILKY HAIR …
COOL CATERPILLAR

- BUSON

THE TURNIP FARMER ROSE
AND WITH A FRESH-
PULLED TURNIP …
POINTED TO MY ROAD

- ISSA

FLOWER IN THE STREAM
THUS TOO MY LOVELY LIFE
MUST END, ANOTHER
FLOWER …
TO FALL AND FLOAT AWAY

- ONITSURA

I AM GOING OUT …
BE GOOD AND PLAY
TOGETHER
MY CRICKET CHILDREN

- ISSA

ANGRY I STRODE HOME …
BUT STOOPING IN
MY GARDEN
CALM OLD WILLOW-TREE

- RYOTA

OH DO NOT SWAT THEM …
UNHAPPY FLIES
FOREVER
WRINGING THEIR THIN HANDS

- ISSA

SEE … THE HEAVY LEAF
ON THE SILENT
WINDLESS DAY …
FALLS OF ITS OWN WILL

- BONCHO

I MUST TURN OVER …
BEWARE OF LOCAL
EARTHQUAKES
BEDFELLOW CRICKET!

- ISSA

VISITING THE GRAVES …
TROTTING ON TO SHOW
THE WAY …
OLD FAMILY DOG

- ISSA

NO OIL TO READ BY …
I AM OFF TO BED
BUT AH! …
MY MOONLIGHT PILLOW

- BASHO

WINDY WINTER RAIN …
MY SILLY BIG
UMBRELLA
TRIES WALKING BACKWARD

- SHISEI-JO

BUDDHA ON THE HILL …
FROM YOUR HOLY
NOSE INDEED
HANGS AN ICICLE

- ISSA

From ‘Be Love Now. The Path of the heart’ by Ram Dass with Rameshwar Das

2011-10-23T22:50:00.000+05:30

Imagine a mountain of solid rock six miles long, six miles wide, and six miles high. Once every hundred years a crow flies by with a silk scarf in it's beak, just barely caressing the top of the mountain with it. The length of time it would take to wear away that mountain is how Buddha described the journey to enlightenment.

A perfected being lives in harmony with the universe with no clinging whatsoever. In Buddhism that state may be called “nothing special,” “crazy wisdom,” or the arahat. Taoists call it wei wu wei. Hindus may refer to such beings as avadhoot, without body consciousness, or siddha purusha, merged in the cosmos, or, again, as sat guru, gurus who bestow ultimate truth.

Perfected beings rest in emptiness, in presence, in nonconceptual, nondiffrentiated awareness of every moment. Out of them comes the optimal response to any life situation.

You have to let go of your self-pity, feelings of unworthiness, feelings of inadequacy, and the desires that increase your separateness and push the universe away.

Although the Guru and disciple appear to be two,
It is the Guru alone who masquerades as both.
When you look in a mirror and see your own face,
You know that both are only yourself.

If one could see his own eye without a mirror,
There would be no need of this sport of the Guru.
Therefore he nourishes this ultimate relationship
Without causing duality or disturbing the Unity.

- Jnaneshwar

As the karma lightens, your faith gets stronger and you become more attuned to the feeling of that presence or guidance, even though you can’t know it through your senses or your thinking mind. That faith allows you to come into a deeper intimacy with your guru.

The guru is constantly showing you where you’re not, your most secret places where you’re holding on to your stash of attachments.

When asked how to get enlightenment, Maharaj-ji sad, “Bring your mind to one point, and wait for grace.” ……. The end of karma is a quiet mind completely concentrated on God, and what take you beyond that is truly grace.

O servant, where dost thou seek Me?
Lo! I am beside thee,
I am neither in temple nor in mosque; I am neither in Kaaba nor
in Kailash;
Neither am I in rites and ceremonies, nor in Yoga and renunciation.
If thou are a true seeker, thou shalt at once see Me: thou shalt meet
Me in a moment of time.
Kabir says, “O Sadhu! God is the breath of all breath.”

- Kabir

………. saint standing in the river who saw a scorpion floating by. He thought to save it's life and picked it up from the water, but it stung him with it's tail, causing immense pain, which he could not bear, so the scorpion fell back in the water as his hand recoiled. Again, the saint picked it up, and the same story repeated itself. Someone asked the saint why he kept doing this, when the creature was causing him so much pain. The saint said, “It is following it's nature. When such a creature does not leave it's nature, why should I leave mine?”

Shirdi Sai Baba …….. His statement, “I give people what they want in the hope that they will begin to want what I want to give them,”

Ramana Maharshi …… He said, “Each one thinks of God according to his own degree of advancement,” and told people to “Worship God with or without form until you know who you are.” ……….
Q: What are the hindrances to the realization of the true Self?
R: Memory chiefly, habits of thoughts, accumulated tendencies.
Q: How does one get rid of these hindrances?
R: Seek for the Self through meditation in this manner, trace every thought back to it's origin which is only the mind. Never allow thought to run on. If you do, it will be unending. Take it back to it's starting place – the mind – again and again, and it and the mind will both die of inaction. The mind exists only by reason of thought. Stop thought and there is no mind. As each doubt and depression arises, ask yourself, “Who is it that doubts? What is it that is depressed?” Go back constantly until there is nothing but the source of all left. And then, live always in the present and only in it. There is no past or future, save in the mind.

Dwell, O mind, within yourself;
Enter no other’s home.
If you but seek there, you will find
All you are searching for.
- Sri Ramakrishna

From ‘Touched by Fire. The Ongoing Journey of a Spiritual Seeker’ by Pandit Rajmani Tigunait PHD

2011-10-19T21:47:00.000+05:30

…. he met a great saint ……. who told him, “Your job is to continue walking. When you really get exhausted, then simply stop and wait, and remember that He will pick you up.”

Rituals are a valid path of spirituality, provided they are performed with full purity and precision. Ritual worship, in it's own right, is a complete science, but today much of the science has been replaced by custom, dogma, and superstition.

Swami Sadananda …… “Intense austerity, intense meditation, recitation of mantra, grace of God, selfless service, and living in the company of saints create a powerful, positive karma in a short period of time. …….. purification is what enables you to become a conduit through which grace can flow.”

“Human beings have a hard time going beyond the realm of their minds. On one hand, they know the Supreme Being is too big to fit in their small little heads, and yet they wish it would fit. To reconcile fact with wish, they project human characteristics onto God, and thus they create gods in their own image. Then using the power of faith, they breathe life into the gods they have created. Thereafter they pray to these gods to help them overcome their problems. These are lower-grade gods born from our own minds. We empower them to help us overcome our self-created misery. Once empowered, they become our masters. And if we have confused minds, then we definitely become their slaves and live at their mercy.” …….. In order to bring the concept of God closer to our daily experience, we superimpose characteristics onto God that are compatible with our personal tastes, interests, preferences, and choices…….. once these gods and goddesses have seeped into the collective unconscious of a particular group of humanity, they exert their powers regardless of whether or not the members of that group believe in them at a conscious level.

From ‘Haiku Harvest. Series IV’ Translation by Peter Beilenson and Harry Behn

2011-10-19T21:43:00.001+05:30

OH THAT SUMMER MOON!
IT MADE ME GO
WANDERING
ROUND THE POND ALL NIGHT

- BASHO

IF I COULD BUNDLE
FUJI’S BREEZES
BACK TO TOWN …
WHAT A SOUVENIR!

- BASHO

SOME POOR VILLAGES
LACK FRESH FISH
OR FLOWERS …
ALL CAN SHARE THIS MOON

- SAIKAKU

POPPY PETALS FALL
SOFTLY QUIETLY
CALMLY
WHEN THEY ARE READY

- ETSUJIN

NEW YEAR DAWNING CLEAR …
CHEERFUL SPARROWS
CHATTER
ALL DAY LIKE PEOPLE

- RANSETSU

PINE TREE SILHOUETTE
PAINTED BY THE
HARVEST MOON
ON A SHINING SKY

- RANSETSU

GAZING AT FALLING
PETALS
A BABY ALMOST
LOOKS LIKE A BUDDHA

- KUBUTSU

HIGH ON A MOUNTAIN
WE HEARD A SKYLARK
SINGING FAINTLY
FAR BELOW …

- BASHO

IT IS NICE TO READ
NEWS THAT OUR
SPRING RAIN ALSO
VISITED YOUR TOWN

- ONITSURA

TIDES OF THE SPRING SEA,
TIDE AFTER INDOLENT TIDE
DRIFTING
ON AND ON …

- BUSON

THE LEAVES NEVER KNOW
WHICH LEAF
WILL BE FIRST TO FALL …
DOES THE WIND KNOW?

- SOSEKI

THE BEST I HAVE
TO OFFER YOU
IS THE SMALL SIZE
OF THE MOSQUITOES

- BASHO

ON THE TEMPLE’S GREAT
BRONZE BELL,
A BUTTERFLY SLEEPS
IN THE NOON SUN

- BUSON

SINCE MY HOUSE
BURNED DOWN, I NOW OWN
A BETTER VIEW
OF THE RISING MOON

- MASAHIDE

BROKEN AND BROKEN
AGAIN ON THE SEA,
THE MOON
SO EASILY MENDS

- CHOSU

O MOON,
WHY MUST YOU INSPIRE
MY NEIGHBOUR TO CHIRP
ALL NIGHT ON A FLUTE!

- KOYO

WHAT A SPLENDID DAY!
NO ONE IN ALL
THE VILLAGE
DOING ANYTHING!

- SHIKI

THE ROOSTER, FIGHTING,
SPREADING
HIS RUFF OF FEATHERS,
THINKS HE’S A LION

- KIKAKU

HE IS UNKNOWN,
THE POET WHO SINGS
THIS GREATEST
OF ALL SONGS – SPRING

- SHIKI

From ‘Travelling Light. Walking the path of letting go. A compilation of columns from Life Positive magazine’ by Suma Varughese

2011-10-19T21:38:00.003+05:30

Even a pin cannot drop to the ground, they say, without the whole universe conspiring.

Krishnamurti never managed to clear a single exam in his life. He sat for his matriculation three times but failed. Mary Lutyens, his biographer and childhood friend, whose mother, Emily, was virtually a surrogate mother to him, describes him in his university years as “vague, gentle, fallible, shy, simple-simpled, compliant, affectionate, delighting to laugh at the silliest jokes.” He also, she said, had a terrible memory and could remember nothing of an event after it had passed.

From ‘In Search of the Mahabharata. Notes of travels in India with Peter Brook 1982-1985’ by Jean-Claude Carriere. Translated from the French original by Aruna Vasudev

2011-10-10T23:50:00.000+05:30

India …… a place where everything seems to have been foreseen, from one extreme to the other. Anything that one can do with this or with that. Complete. The least boring in the world, that is certain. A meticulous exploration of reality. Continuity of ancient kingdoms, the only one left. A gigantic anomaly: unless all the other countries are shadows of India.

Vyasa, the legendary author of the poem, says that the aim of the Mahabharata is “to inscribe the Dharma in the heart of man”. ……. There is an individual dharma which each one must know and follow, and also a collective, universal, cosmic dharma which one could call the world order. And one depends on the other. If a great number of people respect their individual dharmas, the cosmic dharma will be maintained. ……. Lavastine says that for him the most important sentence of the book is: “The dharma when it is protected, protects. When it is destroyed, it destroys”.

…… Cioran: “Man is a deceitful animal. History is his punishment.”

The African actors who are part of the journey ……….. They all find themselves in India for the first time and their reactions are similar: everything reminds them of Africa. They keep saying: this is like at home, it is like in Africa. Direct and profound links, even with the landscapes. But most of all in the way of thinking, the rituals, the rhythms.

A sentence of Henri Michaux which could be applied to the Mahabharata: “You tell this story to an old stick: it will sprout leaves and take root.”

What has India given us? Impossible to say. A secret dimension that will probably remain forever secret – beyond wonder, charm, irritation, repulsion. The pulsating energy, above all else, and the mixture of things.

As Krishna said to Vyasa, the god to the man: “Which one of us invented the other?”

From ‘Quotes of Jalaluddin Rumi’ by The Wisdom Tree. Compiled by Harish Dhillon

2011-10-10T23:47:00.000+05:30

If you could untie your wings

and free your soul of jealousy

you and everyone around you

would fly like doves.

If you love love look for yourself.

How is it with this love?

I see your world but not you.

Lovers don’t finally meet somewhere.

They’re in each other all along.

This being human is a guest house.

Every morning a new arrival.

A polished mirror cannot help reflecting.

What matters is how quickly you do

what your soul directs.

All religions, all this singing one song.

The differences are just illusion and vanity.

Sunlight looks slightly different on this wall

than it does on that wall and a lot different

on this other one, but it is still one light.

Lovers feel a truth inside themselves

that rational people keep denying.

Every object and being in the universe

is a jar overfilled with wisdom and beauty.

Don’t do daily prayers like a bird pecking,

moving it's head up and down,

Prayer is an egg -

hatch out the total helplessness inside.

Watch the man beating the rug.

He is not mad at it.

He wants to loosen the layers of dirt.

Ego accumulations are not

loosened with one swat.

Continued work is necessary.

Do not keep talking about the garden.

Eat the grapes

Not Christian or Jew or Muslim,

not Hindu, Budhist, Sufi, Zen,

not any religion or cultural system,

I belong to the beloved

and know the first, last, outer, inner

only that breath breathing human being.

If it is true that rules rise from love

it is also true that

lovers pay not attention to rules.

No matter how hard

you stare into muddy water,

you will not

see the moon or the sun.

Hold on to your particular pain.

That too can take you to God.

Why should I seek? I am the same as He,

His essence speaks through me

I have been looking for myself.

Open your hands, if you want to be held.

When I was apart from you

this world did not exist,

whatever I was looking for was always you,

Why did I ever learn to count till three?

I used to want buyers for my words.

Now I wish someone would

buy me away from words

Spiritual arrogance is the ugliest of all things,

It's like a day that’s cold and snowy,

and your clothes are wet too.

Let the lover be

Disgraceful crazy absentminded

Someone sober will worry

about things going badly.

Let the lover be.

How long will you complain about money

and our prospect for money?

Don’t worry about transient things.

Think how the animals live.

The dove on the branch giving thanks,

the glorious singing of the nightingale

Every living thing trusts in God

for it's nourishment

The mystery does not get clearer

by repeating the questions,

nor is it bought with going to amazing places,

Until you’ve kept your eyes

and your wanting

still for fifty years,

You don’t begin to cross over

from confusion.

When I am with you, we stay awake all night

when you are not here, I can’t go to sleep.

Praise God for these two insomniacs

and the difference between them.

I honour those who try to rid themselves

of any lying, who empty the self

and have one clear being then.

Your loving doesn’t know it's majesty

until it knows it's helplessness.

A little while alone in your room

will prove more valuable than anything else

that could ever be given to you.

I swear by the one who never says tomorrow

as the circle of the moon refuses to sell

instalments of light.

It gives all it has.

The rose does not care

if someone calls it thorn or jasmine

Ordinary eyes categorize human beings,

that one is Zoroastrian, this one Muslim,

Bow to the essence in a human being.

Curing a hide, the tanner rubs in acid

and all manner of filth.

This makes a beautiful soft leather.

Every hard thing that happens

Works on you like this.

Humble living does not diminish,

It fills.

Going back to a simpler self gives wisdom.

From ‘Strength in the Storm. Creating Calm in difficult times’ by Eknath Easwaran

2011-10-10T23:43:00.000+05:30

I Weave a Silence

I weave a silence onto my lips.
I weave a silence onto my mind.
I weave a silence within my heart.
I close my ears to distractions.
I close my eyes to attractions.
I close my heart to temptations.
Calm me, O Lord, as you stilled the storm.
Still me, O Lord; keep me from harm.
Let all tumult within me cease.
Enfold me, Lord, in your peace.

- A Gaelic prayer

Even if you do nothing in prayer but bring your mind back whenever it wanders, one Catholic mystic says, your time is very well spent.

The Mirror of this World

Every particle of the world is a mirror,
In each atom lies the blazing light
of a thousand suns
Cleave the heart of a rain-drop,
a hundred pure oceans will flow forth.
Look closely at a grain of sand,
The seed of a thousand beings can be seen
The foot of an ant is larger than an elephant;
In essence, a drop of water
is no different than the Nile.
In the heart of a barley-corn
lies the fruit of a hundred harvests;
Within the pulp of a millet seed
an entire universe can be found.
In the wing of a fly, an ocean of wonder;
In the pupil of the eye, an endless heaven.
Though the inner chamber of the heart is small,
the Lord of both worlds
gladly makes his home there.

- Mahmud Shabestari

…….. inspired words such as these, from Saint Augustine:
Imagine if all the tumult of the body were to quiet down, along with all our busy thoughts about earth, sea and air;
if the very world should stop, and the mind cease thinking about itself, go beyond itself, and be quite still;
if all the fantasies that appear in dreams and imagination should cease, and there be no speech, no sign:
And imagine if that moment were to go on and on, leaving behind all other sights and sounds but this one vision which ravishes and absorbs and fixes the beholder in joy:
Would this not be what is bidden in scripture,
Enter into the joy of thy Lord?

I once went with a friend to see what we thought was a harmless comedy. It turned out to be savage and violent, with attempts at humor that I found degrading. When we leave the theater after an experience like this, I think most of us feel a little worse inside. Shows like this are at the expense of the mind …… In most of us …… incessant exposure to violence in the media doesn’t build up until we erupt in mayhem. Instead, there is a gradual shift in character. Over time, we find we have developed a more belligerent attitude, aggressive language, abusive behavior, increasingly frequent urges to strike back at someone ………we should remind ourselves every time we go out for entertainment or switch on the TV, “This experience is going to become part of me. Will I be the better for it? Will it leave me calmer, or will it agitate me? Will it make me more compassionate, or will it stir up anger or leave me depressed?”

From ‘Walking with a Himalayan master’ by Justin O'Brien

2011-10-08T22:25:00.002+05:30

“The key to meditative posture is the spinal column. Keep it erect,” he instructed. “In this way, the lungs are free to breathe and the energy of the body can travel uninterruptedly.”

Mantra, “that which removes the disturbances of the mind.” ……. Mantra is a sacred sound – a vibration – that affects reality …… the vibration of the mantra affects the energy levels composing one’s nature, manifesting the qualities specified by the particular vibrations of the mantra.

Progress in life only comes when we understand ourselves ……. We are never truly satisfied with just belief. Christians especially hold themselves back …… Faith can never make an intelligent person secure. Borrowed beliefs are not very helpful since they are not tested by experience …….

Swamiji told us that when the body undergoes a profound expansion of conscious energy, it needs preparation. Otherwise an imbalance will occur when the power opens. Some teachers of yoga allow their students to have a taste of the pure universal force, guiding them through the experience, but usually a student is asked to prepare the body and mind through regular practice

When yogis reach a certain level of pacification within, the natural sensory powers, such as hearing, are expanded enormously. The range of their acuity far exceeds normal hearing distances. In fact, the yogi can focus his hearing awareness to any location.

Apparently, continuous meditation on the space between the two eyebrows stimulates the pineal gland to deposit a sandy secretion that forms a circular pattern beneath the skin resembling the shape of the eye. When the biological secretion has reached a certain consolidation, the power of sight can be manifested there without the customary physical eyes. When this third eye or divya chaksu is used, a wide range of energy levels can be perceived.

…… Ramana Maharshi ….. was the reincarnation of Shankara, the great eighth century philosopher-yogi

“Sir,” the young man ….. “it has been said that you are an incarnation of the apostle Peter.”

Swamiji looked at the young man, saw his sincerity, and answered softly, “If I say yes, I will be bragging; if I say no, I will be lying.”

“People have habits of irregular breathing due to demands and stresses of life. Unless these habits are corrected, you will be held back from going to tranquility. In inspecting the flow of your breath, first note if the exchange is jerky, or shallow, or noisy, or interrupted by long pauses during the flow. Then make the flow smooth, deep, silent, and close down the gaps between the exchange. …. note how gentle and fine the breathing becomes. Both mind and breath will become subtle. Those moments lead to peace.”

“…. to seriously study breath behavior you need to have both nostrils open simultaneously. Then you can study the conditions of the mind and even the realms of intuition and pre-cognition.”

Mantras are sounds …… vibrations …. The more you remember the sound quietly, silently, without moving the tongue, even without using breath, the more the sounds vibrate and transform the whole personality … When you remember your mantra continuously, your practice is called japa. When you continue assimilating it and make it a predominate part of your nature, it is then called ajapa-japa.

Someone says you look pretty, and you feel good about yourself; someone says the opposite, and you brood. Who is controlling whom? …… You have to decide whether you want to direct your life or just be a conglomeration of sense impressions with an endless parade of thoughts

He talked about the importance of resting for a few minutes after each meal, making sure that the right nostril flowed freely, for this assisted in digestion

From ‘Hindoo Holiday. An Indian Journal’ by J R Ackerley

2011-09-24T19:53:00.000+05:30

- Published in 1932

Hindoos believe in one impersonal God, Brahma, the Universal Spirit or Energy, pervading, constituting everything. ……. it is forever evolving itself out of itself. Brahma is neuter; but it has developed a triple personality, three masculine deities called Brahma, the Creator; Vishnu, the Preserver; and Siva, the Dissolver and Reproducer. These three principal personalities are sometimes considered as co-equal and their functions interchangeable; they are constantly manifested and finally reabsorbed into the one eternal, impersonal Essence, Brahma.

Mrs Montgomery gave me final advice.

‘You’ll never understand the dark and tortuous minds of the natives,’ she said: ‘and if you do I shan’t like you – you won't be healthy.’

I asked why the touch of a Mohammedan and a European was so contaminating, and the Dewan said it was due to their meat-eating habits and to their lack of scrupulosity in washing. If his wife left the kitchen for a moment, he said, to fetch him something, for instance, she would wash her hands carefully before returning; but Mohammedans and European had dirty habits: they used paper instead of water in their lavatories, they did not take off their leather shoes in the kitchen, they smoked in the kitchen and ate BEEF, and when they did wash they washed with soap which is made of animal fat.

Europeans touched their lips or the wet ends of their cigarettes, and cooked their foodor shook hands with other people afterwards without having washed. Smoking was a filthy habit, he considered ….. their disgusting custom of afternoon tea! The strainer they used! On account of it, though he had sometimes consented to drink tea with Europeans, he had never once accepted a second cup. What happened? When the cups were refilled, frequently without having been emptied of their dregs and rinsed with clean water, the mixture composed of new tea, dregs and sputum would rise and touch the strainer, which would then be transferred to the next person’s cup, and so on! Ice too! This was often put into a glass from which a man had already drunk, and so carelessly that the spoon was permitted to touch the polluted liquid and then the same spoon was used again for somebody else’s glass! …….. Disgusting ….

…….. cried the Dewan …… Europeans did not seem to attach much importance to a kiss; they kissed the mouth passionately or dispassionately according to their feelings. ‘But in India,’ he said, ‘a kiss on the mouth is a very big things; it is a completed sexual act.’

The European dresses, but the Hindoo undresses, for dinner. When a Hindoo feeds he wears nothing but his nether garment, his dhoti, his shirt being under various disqualifications. It is not washed as frequently as the dhoti, which one bathes in every day, and for other reasons, too, it cannot be considered so clean an article of clothing.

For one thing, being only an adopted garment, it is seldom of Indian manufacture and is usually sewn, and Heaven knows what fingers have sewn it; whereas the dhoti is a single piece of cloth, and is not sewn anywhere ………

Indians are great expectorators. Hawked-up phlegm, streams of red betel-juice saliva are shot about incessantly as they walk.

Hindoos require no furniture; even the bed (the charpai) is only a luxury for the well-to-do, and can be dispensed with, and it's place supplied with straw and a blanket. But chairs, and therefore tables, are rarely used in Chhokrapur, and then uneasily. When a man is tired of standing up he squats on his heels …… In this position he can remain for hours, and take his food or write his letters on the floor. It is very economic, and it seems a pity that Europeans have lost this simple use of their legs and burdened themselves instead with property and the class distinctions of property – special seats for special bottoms.

From ‘One Hundred and Twenty Five Years of Grace. Sri Ramana Maharshi Jayanti 2004’ published by Sri Ramanasramam, Tiruvannamalai

2011-09-24T19:11:00.000+05:30

“You must cover your vegetables when you cook them. Then only will they keep their flavor and be fit for food.”

A movement of the ego clouds pure perception. Jean Klein observed, “Perceive, do not conceive.” Perception is direct while conception is through the medium of our personal desires.

Language

samarender reddy

My ordinary purposes

It serves so well -

To reason, haggle or emote.

It served Plato’s purpose, too,

To give us Socrates.

But, alas! What to tell

It's path does not wind

To where Truth does dwell.

Bhagavan’s mother, Alagammal …… On May 19th, the end appeared to be nearing and Bhagavan stayed constantly at her side. His left hand on her forehead and right hand on her chest, he was with her until till 8 p.m. at night when in perfect peace she attained Mahasamadhi. ……. Explaining what had happened during those 10 or 12 hours he had sat by her side with his hands his mother’s head and heart, Maharshi said: “Innate tendencies, vasanas (or subtle memories of past experiences leading to future possibilities) become very active. Scene after scene rolled before her in subtle consciousness as the outer senses had already gone, the soul went through a series of experiences that might possibly have required many births of her, but the quickening process worked by the special touch given on the occasion means the soul was at last disrobed of it's subtle sheaths before it reached the final destination, the Supreme Peace ……” ….During the last day ……. Maharshi and others who were with him did not eat. In the evening a meal was prepared for Maharshi but he declined to it. After his mother had attained Mahasamadhi in his hands, he rose up and said, “Hereafter we can eat. Come on. There is no pollution”, ………

From ‘Guru Ramana. Memories and Notes’ by S. S. Cohen

2011-09-24T19:09:00.000+05:30

…….. my eyes fell on a pleasant-looking middle-aged man inside the room, wearing nothing but a kaupin, with eyes as cool as moonbeams, sitting on the floor before a leaf-plate nearly emptied, and beckoning me with the gentlest of nods and the sweetest smile imaginable.

Life is miserable because it consists of nothing but thoughts

Bh. Killing the innocent body is certainly wrong. Suicide must be committed on the mind, where the suffering is deposited, and not on the body, which is insentient and feels nothing. The mind is the real culprit, being the creator of the anguish which tempts to suicide, but by an error of judgement, the innocent, insentient body is punished for it.

….. “Be still and know that I am God.” What does that stillness mean? Cessation of thinking, which is the universe of forms, colours, qualities, time, space, all concepts and precepts whatever.

…. Preoccupying the mind with a single theme to the exclusion of others, if doggedly practiced, will not fail to produce beneficial results. It will tend to reduce the oscillations of the thinking process, and thus render the mind amenable to concentration on the supremely important work which is to follow …… Stability and fixity of the restless, mercurial mind is the first aim, and this can be achieved by constant practice and by frequently pulling oneself back to the subject of the meditation whenever the mind strays …..

When the mind has attained an appreciable degree of concentration, which means of depth, it will be time to think of the answer. Some sadhakas are fortunate enough to begin with a mind already accustomed to concentration, either “naturally”, or by training, or through intense fervor, so that they are able to go straight to the application of the vichara, and thus make a more or less rapid progress, ……. The Master tells us that mental calmness, that is, controlled mind, is essential for a successful meditation

Bh. Nirvana is that state wherein the sense of separateness does not exist and where the ego has sunk in it's source, the Heart.

The consciousness which fills the body as life, being pure existence (sat) by nature, instinctively knows itself as ‘I’, but seeing nothing with the senses (through which it is accustomed to know the world) on which it can confer the title of ‘I’ but the body, it fails to apprehend itself as the unperceivable consciousness and falls victim to the primal illusion that the body is itself. Having thus lost sight of it's true nature by false identification, it gets entangled deeper and deeper in the tamasic and rajasic needs and craving of the material body and thus sets turning for itself the grinding wheel of life and death, birth and rebirth, pleasure and pain, knowledge and ignorance, etc., till the bitter end, when the longing for home and rest stirs it to carry out a search for them through tapas and sadhana and the guiding grace of the Divine Master.

Sri Bhagavan shows the way Home in the simplest words: “Enquire into the nature of that consciousness which knows itself as ‘I’ and it will inevitably lead you to it's source …… ”

Bh. All pains, even physical, are in the mind. Everybody feels the pain of a cut or a sting, but the Jnani, whose mind is sunk in bliss, feels it as in a dream.

Bh. Yes, siddhis are acquired by prarabdha karma and are not a hindrance in Mukti. They are a hindrance on the way to Mukti.

Mr. C. asks if the Jnani dreams.

Bh. Yes, he does dream, but he knows it to be a dream, in the same way as he knows the waking state to be a dream.

V. The Puranas say that Jnanis warred against Jnanis. How is that?

Bh. Yes, Sri Krishna fought against Bhishma. The Jnanis view all as Brahman, yet they fight.

The tumour has rapidly increased in size and the pain in severity …… But with all this Sri Bhagavan’s face remains bright, calm and serene. Not a sigh, not a grimace of suffering not a shadow of fear or restlessness mars the repose of his countenance or the luster of his eyes. He remains in his usual splendor, poise and grace. Even the peace which has all along radiated from him, continues to be powerfully felt.

From ‘Frangrant Petals. A Representative Anthology on Sri Bhagavan’ - Devotees' Reminiscences on Sri Bhagavan

2011-09-19T22:44:00.000+05:30

Arthur Osborne wrote in The Incredible Sai Baba that Baba used to say:
“I give people what they want in the hope that they will begin to want what I want to give them.”

There is a familiar Sanskrit stanza which says, “Tell me not about the sacred rivers or the idols of gods in famous temples; they may cleanse our minds and hearts after many visits in this or future births, but the look of a realized saint purifies at sight.”

I have also heard Bhagavan say: “… I have at this moment twenty different bodies working in twenty different lokas, so if one of them suffers am I to grieve? ….. ”. On a different occasion we put the same question to Bhagavan, asking how he could exist in a number of lokas at the same time and he said that one could have as many bodies as one wished if one had the necessary power of yoga, adding: “Have you not read that at the time of ras leela Sri Krishna assumed 16,000 bodies at the same time?”

Such statements by Bhagavan affirm the existence of a number of lokas or planes of existence of which he was aware but we are not.

……. a group of disciples ……. asked him whether Siva and the other Gods and their heavens really existed. “Do you exist?” he retorted. They replied that they did, and he said, “Then in the same way they do too.”

…… Major Chadwick …..asked Bhagavan once whether eating onions was not an impediment to spiritual progress, and Bhagavan agreed that it was.

“Ah, for shaving you use a mirror, don’t you? …….. you don’t save the image in the mirror. Similarly all the scriptures are meant only to show you the way to Realization. They are meant for practice and attainment. Mere book learning and discussions are comparable to a man shaving the image in the mirror.”

….. he told me later that doubting, self-distrust and self-depreciation are some of the greatest hindrances to the realization of Reality.

[Ramana Maharshi said] Food affects the mind. Certain kinds make it more sattvic – alive, vibrant. For the practice of any kind of yoga, vegetarianism is absolutely necessary. But on my asking if one could experience spiritual illumination whilst normally eating flesh foods, the answer was ‘yes’, qualified by the injunction to leave them off and gradually accustom the body to the purer types of food. “But in any case,” went on the Maharshi, “once you have attained Illumination, it will make little difference what you eat. It is the early stages that are important. On a great fire it is immaterial what fuel is heaped.”

“What are the hindrances to the realization of the true Self?”

“Memory chiefly, habits of thought, accumulated tendencies.”

“How does one get rid of these hindrances?”

“Seek for the Self through meditation in this manner: Trace every thought back to it's origin, which is only the mind. Never allow thought to run on. If you do, it will be unending. Take it back to it's starting place – the mind – again and again, and it and the mind will both die of inaction. The mind only exists by reason of thought. Stop that and there is no mind. As each doubt and depression arises, ask yourself, ‘Who is it that doubts? What is it that is depressed? Go back constantly to the question, “Who is the ‘I’? Where is it?” Tear everything away until there is nothing but the Source of all left. And then – live always in the present and only in it. There is no past or future, save in the mind’.”

The Maharshi did not heal, in the accepted term of the word. …….. I asked him if one could use spiritual power for healing. He remarked, “Yes, if you think it worthwhile,” but added that it required a great deal of force, which might be used more profitably in other directions.

From ‘The Maharshi and his Message’ by Paul Brunton

2011-09-19T22:03:00.000+05:30

“How do you know that no progress has been made? It is not easy to perceive one’s progress in the spiritual realm.”

“Why should you trouble yourself about the future?” demands the Sage. “You do not even properly know about the present! Take care of the present; the future will then take care of itself.”

“As you are, so is the world. Without understanding yourself, what is the use of trying to understand the world? This is a question that seekers after truth need not consider. People waste their energies over all such questions. First, find out the truth behind yourself; then you will be in a better position to understand the truth behind the world, of which yourself is a part.”

The face of the pagoda is lined with profuse carvings and quaint little statues. The subjects have been drawn from sacred myth and legend. They represent a queer jumble. One perceives the solitary forms of Hindu divinities entranced into devout meditation, or observes their intertwined shapes engaged in amorous embraces, and one wonders. It reminds one that there is something in Hinduism for all tastes, such is the all-inclusive nature of this creed.

“The first and foremost of all thoughts, the primeval thought in the mind of every man, is the thought ‘I’. It is only after the birth of this thought that any other thoughts can arise at all. It is only after the first personal pronoun ‘I’ has arisen in the mind that the personal pronoun ‘you’ can make it's appearance. If you could mentally follow the ‘I’ thread until it leads you back to it's source, you would discover that, just as it is the first thought to appear, so is it the last to disappear. This is a matter which can be experienced.”

Cremation is the usual custom of the Hindus in disposing of their dead, but it is prohibited in the case of a yogi who is believed to have made the highest attainment, because it is also believed that the vital breath or unseen life-current remains in his body for thousands of years and renders the flesh exempt from corruption. In such a case the yogi’s body is bathed and anointed and then placed in a tomb in a sitting posture with crossed legs, as though he was still plunged in meditation. The entrance to the tomb is sealed with a heavy stone and then cemented over.

From ‘My Recollections of Bhagavan Sri Ramana’ by A Devaraja Mudaliar

2011-09-19T21:27:00.000+05:30

I said to Bhagavan on one occasion: “You know, Bhagavan, this is not unusual with our people whenever they are in doubt about any course of action, to cast lots before their Gods and get guidance. Will this sort of thing work?”

Bhagavan was pleased to say, “Yes. It will work if they have faith”.

Bhagavan used sometimes to refer to Thevarams also ……. He had reverence for all the three Thevaram saints and admiration for their songs …… Bhagavan considered Thirujnana Sambandar the most powerful manifestation of God’s grace, amongst these three famous saints.

“For everybody it is good to make circuit of the hill [Arunachala]. It does not even matter whether one has faith in this Pradakshina or not, just as fire will burn all who touch it whether they believe it will or not, so the hill will do good to all those who go round it.”

On one occasion when Bhagavan was going round the hill, he saw some luminous bodies moving round with him at about a man’s height from the ground. On another occasion he went into the temple at Adi Annamalai on the way round the hill and heard the Sama Veda being chanted near the inner shrine. I asked Bhagavan whether those who accompanied him on those two occasions saw the lights or heard the sounds, and he said, “No”. It is widely believed that Siddha Purushas (sages with supernatural powers) live on Arunachala and sometimes go round the hill …..

When I consulted Bhagavan, he was pleased to tell me that the Jnani was the highest manifestation of Brahman, that even Avatars would come only after Jnanis, and that after Avatars would come famous idols such as those at Tirupathi, Benaras, Rameshwaram and other holy shrines. In this connection also Bhagavan quoted to me the stanza …. “Not even Brahma, Vishnu or Siva can be regarded as a Jnani’s equal. Who then can be spoken of as his equal?”

I know beyond doubt, from various small things I observed in Bhagavan’s speech and conduct during my long and intimate contact with him, that he was definitely of opinion that, except for those who, like himself, have transcended all limitations or for those who have given up their Varnashrama dharma (social status) and become Sannyasis, it was good to observe caste rules and restrictions. …….. he would not be drawn into discussions on such subjects but would remain silent if people (especially journalists or social reformers or people who might wish to use his name in any political or social activity) came to interview him and pressed him for his views. He was interested only to instruct those who would follow his guidance, and would not get involved in general discussions.

It is also true that Bhagavan did not approve of non-Brahmins reciting the Vedas. …… At the same time, it is also true that all devotees, including non-Brahmins and non-Hindus, used to sit in the hall during the daily recitation of the Vedas and listen to them, and Bhagavan certainly approved of this, although this also is contrary to strict orthodoxy.

From ‘My Life and Quest’ by Arthur Osborne

2011-08-31T14:48:00.000+05:30

When a devotee complained to the Maharshi that other thoughts arose more forcibly when he tried to meditate, he replied: “Yes, all kinds of thoughts arise in meditation. That is only right, for what is hidden in you is brought out. Unless it rises, how can it be destroyed? Thoughts rise up spontaneously, but only to be extinguished in due course, thus strengthening the mind”……. When a person first understands and sets forth on the spiritual quest one may see a new radiance overspread him, a sort of foreshadowing of his perfected state, making him altogether delightful. However, this will not last. It will be followed by a stage when all his lowest possibilities come to the surface and he seems to be worse than before. At this time patience is needed.

When his body’s death seemed imminent and some devotees asked how they could pursue their sadhana without his continued guidance, he replied with the cryptic rebuke: “You attach too much importance to the body.”

Sometimes Bhagavan would say: “Your duty is simply to be; not to be this or that.” ……. He also often quoted the sentence from the Psalms: ‘Be still and know that I am God.’ Keep the mind still, free from thoughts, and know that the ‘I am’, the pure Being, is God.

Poem

…………

When Life moves on with unperturbed stride,
As though you had not been. Even while you are,
Nothing is there secure, little for pride.
Health is on loan from time; frustrations mar
Ambition and achievement; friendships end
In death or forgetting. From afar
Old age creeps on, filching the zest you lend
To work and pleasure, chilling the vital power,
Still narrowing the circle you defend
Of life’s attachments, till the final hour
When thoughts, drawn in from schemes for which you fought,
From work you lived for, office held or power,
From wife and friend, from child, things sold and bought,
Converge on one point only, your next breath;
Stripped of attachment, to naked being brought,
To be squeezed out through the narrow womb of death.

To Whom?

Why fumble about blindfold
In the box of things
The future may hold?
They will take to their wings
In whatever form time brings,
Never as told.
Give them no chance
To lodge in your mind,
Or soon you will find
A true devil’s dance
Going on without cease,
No respite, no peace.

Let the mind be still,
Like a clear lake
Where no waves break.
Then, come what will,
The thoughts that fly over
Have no cause to hover,
No place to nest
In a mind at rest.

If still they come,
Never follow them home;
Ask only to whom
The thoughts come.

Arundhati Roy – I Disagree

2011-08-27T23:18:00.002+05:30

This is Arundhati Roy’s take on the Anna Hazare phenomenon (the dictionary meaning being “any remarkable occurrence or person”)
http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-opinion/article2380789.ece

I have previously praised Arundhati in this blog for her frank and fearless opinions. But this latest article has saddened me somewhat. The article is reproduced below with the offending parts in yellow and my comments in embedded thus “**........ **”

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I'd rather not be Anna

Arundhati Roy

While his means maybe Gandhian, his demands are certainly not.

If what we're watching on TV is indeed a revolution, then it has to be one of the more embarrassing and unintelligible ones of recent times. For now, whatever questions you may have about the Jan Lokpal Bill, here are the answers you're likely to get: tick the box — (a) Vande Mataram (b) Bharat Mata ki Jai (c) India is Anna, Anna is India (d) Jai Hind.

** Oh, please do your 4 choices make any sense? Would you rather ignore the popular sentiment expressed on the streets. Would you rather ignore the extensive research and work done by the IAC team. Haven’t you heard any of Kejriwal’s elucidations on the proposed bill? Do you purposely choose to simplify a complex phenomenon into smart alecky one-liner? **

For completely different reasons, and in completely different ways, you could say that the Maoists and the Jan Lokpal Bill have one thing in common — they both seek the overthrow of the Indian State. One working from the bottom up, by means of an armed struggle, waged by a largely adivasi army, made up of the poorest of the poor. The other, from the top down, by means of a bloodless Gandhian coup, led by a freshly minted saint, and an army of largely urban, and certainly better off people. (In this one, the Government collaborates by doing everything it possibly can to overthrow itself.)

**overthrow the state? Isn’t that rather extreme? What about a sense of the outrage that the common man feels. Don’t you think it's your duty to document it? And the ‘largely urban’ and ‘better off’ people, are they the new untouchables then? Or are they supposed to have no voice. I am quite surprised by your tone and tenor here**

In April 2011, a few days into Anna Hazare's first “fast unto death,” searching for some way of distracting attention from the massive corruption scams which had battered its credibility, the Government invited Team Anna, the brand name chosen by this “civil society” group, to be part of a joint drafting committee for a new anti-corruption law. A few months down the line it abandoned that effort and tabled its own bill in Parliament, a bill so flawed that it was impossible to take seriously.

Then, on August 16th, the morning of his second “fast unto death,” before he had begun his fast or committed any legal offence, Anna Hazare was arrested and jailed. The struggle for the implementation of the Jan Lokpal Bill now coalesced into a struggle for the right to protest, the struggle for democracy itself. Within hours of this ‘Second Freedom Struggle,' Anna was released. Cannily, he refused to leave prison, but remained in Tihar jail as an honoured guest, where he began a fast, demanding the right to fast in a public place. For three days, while crowds and television vans gathered outside, members of Team Anna whizzed in and out of the high security prison, carrying out his video messages, to be broadcast on national TV on all channels. (Which other person would be granted this luxury?) Meanwhile 250 employees of the Municipal Commission of Delhi, 15 trucks, and six earth movers worked around the clock to ready the slushy Ramlila grounds for the grand weekend spectacle. Now, waited upon hand and foot, watched over by chanting crowds and crane-mounted cameras, attended to by India's most expensive doctors, the third phase of Anna's fast to the death has begun. “From Kashmir to Kanyakumari, India is One,” the TV anchors tell us.

While his means may be Gandhian, Anna Hazare's demands are certainly not. Contrary to Gandhiji's ideas about the decentralisation of power, the Jan Lokpal Bill is a draconian, anti-corruption law, in which a panel of carefully chosen people will administer a giant bureaucracy, with thousands of employees, with the power to police everybody from the Prime Minister, the judiciary, members of Parliament, and all of the bureaucracy, down to the lowest government official. The Lokpal will have the powers of investigation, surveillance, and prosecution. Except for the fact that it won't have its own prisons, it will function as an independent administration, meant to counter the bloated, unaccountable, corrupt one that we already have. Two oligarchies, instead of just one.

**How about a detailed analysis here about the ‘draconian anti-corruption law’? How about comparing it with similar laws and institutions in Singapore, Hong Kong and elsewhere? Or are you above all such kind of research? And we do have such similar institutions in India, the CVC, the Election Commission, the CAG? Are they draconian too?**

Whether it works or not depends on how we view corruption. Is corruption just a matter of legality, of financial irregularity and bribery, or is it the currency of a social transaction in an egregiously unequal society, in which power continues to be concentrated in the hands of a smaller and smaller minority? Imagine, for example, a city of shopping malls, on whose streets hawking has been banned. A hawker pays the local beat cop and the man from the municipality a small bribe to break the law and sell her wares to those who cannot afford the prices in the malls. Is that such a terrible thing? In future will she have to pay the Lokpal representative too? Does the solution to the problems faced by ordinary people lie in addressing the structural inequality, or in creating yet another power structure that people will have to defer to?

**Ok, so you want a broader definition of corruption here. But then, do we get anything perfect the first time around? How can every single person be ever happy with a single bill? That’s impossible, isn’t it? Can’t you acknowledge the need here of a strong redressal mechanism that we have been missing for so long? Why this immense cynicism? Is everything so dark as you imagine it to be? **

Meanwhile the props and the choreography, the aggressive nationalism and flag waving of Anna's Revolution are all borrowed, from the anti-reservation protests, the world-cup victory parade, and the celebration of the nuclear tests. They signal to us that if we do not support The Fast, we are not ‘true Indians.' The 24-hour channels have decided that there is no other news in the country worth reporting.

**’choreography’? so the words planning, coordination, disciplined approach are to be addressed thus? Yes, there are elements in this movement that I am most uncomfortable with, the aggressive nationalism, the shrill language of some, the unleashing of some baser instincts? But at the end of it? Is this your summary of what has been happening for the last few days? This is not exactly a Hitler we are talking about here, are we?**

‘The Fast' of course doesn't mean Irom Sharmila's fast that has lasted for more than ten years (she's being force fed now) against the AFSPA, which allows soldiers in Manipur to kill merely on suspicion. It does not mean the relay hunger fast that is going on right now by ten thousand villagers in Koodankulam protesting against the nuclear power plant. ‘The People' does not mean the Manipuris who support Irom Sharmila's fast. Nor does it mean the thousands who are facing down armed policemen and mining mafias in Jagatsinghpur, or Kalinganagar, or Niyamgiri, or Bastar, or Jaitapur. Nor do we mean the victims of the Bhopal gas leak, or the people displaced by dams in the Narmada Valley. Nor do we mean the farmers in NOIDA, or Pune or Haryana or elsewhere in the country, resisting the takeover of the land.

**So now we are rating fasts here, are we? So you somehow think that by denigrating Anna’s fast you are showing loyalty to the other fasts. Yes, agreed that this is also a media driven movement to some extent. Agreed, that it has got more publicity than the other fasts. Agreed that we as a people are guilty of ignoring some other very just causes. But your anger against our apathy to some other very well-deserved causes translates somehow into shrill rhetoric against Anna. That’s not fair is it?**

‘The People' only means the audience that has gathered to watch the spectacle of a 74-year-old man threatening to starve himself to death if his Jan Lokpal Bill is not tabled and passed by Parliament. ‘The People' are the tens of thousands who have been miraculously multiplied into millions by our TV channels, like Christ multiplied the fishes and loaves to feed the hungry. “A billion voices have spoken,” we're told. “India is Anna.”

**One person said ‘India is Anna’. Are you going to go on and on about it? Aren’t you insulting thousands of people, sincere people who have walked the streets to show their support to the cause? Or in your vision, of the ideal world, are only the poor, dispossessed entitled to a voice and not us the more well-to-do, as if somehow we should feel terribly guilty about it……**

Who is he really, this new saint, this Voice of the People? Oddly enough we've heard him say nothing about things of urgent concern. Nothing about the farmer's suicides in his neighbourhood, or about Operation Green Hunt further away. Nothing about Singur, Nandigram, Lalgarh, nothing about Posco, about farmer's agitations or the blight of SEZs. He doesn't seem to have a view about the Government's plans to deploy the Indian Army in the forests of Central India.

He does however support Raj Thackeray's Marathi Manoos xenophobia and has praised the ‘development model' of Gujarat's Chief Minister who oversaw the 2002 pogrom against Muslims. (Anna withdrew that statement after a public outcry, but presumably not his admiration.)

**Ok, so according to you, Anna should be giving a comment about each and every issue in India. And if he doesn’t, he is judged guilty by you. There are many elements of Raj Thackeray’s tirades that have my sympathy. But hell!! Would I vote for him? No. Would I like to see him in power in his current avatar? No. And you are reducing the complex phenomenon to a simple black-and-white statement ‘He does however support Raj Thackeray's Marathi Manoos xenophobia’. Has something gone to your head? Did you really write this article when you were in your senses?**

Despite the din, sober journalists have gone about doing what journalists do. We now have the back-story about Anna's old relationship with the RSS. We have heard from Mukul Sharma who has studied Anna's village community in Ralegan Siddhi, where there have been no Gram Panchayat or Co-operative society elections in the last 25 years. We know about Anna's attitude to ‘harijans': “It was Mahatma Gandhi's vision that every village should have one chamar, one sunar, one kumhar and so on. They should all do their work according to their role and occupation, and in this way, a village will be self-dependant. This is what we are practicing in Ralegan Siddhi.” Is it surprising that members of Team Anna have also been associated with Youth for Equality, the anti-reservation (pro-“merit”) movement? The campaign is being handled by people who run a clutch of generously funded NGOs whose donors include Coca-Cola and the Lehman Brothers. Kabir, run by Arvind Kejriwal and Manish Sisodia, key figures in Team Anna, has received $400,000 from the Ford Foundation in the last three years. Among contributors to the India Against Corruption campaign there are Indian companies and foundations that own aluminum plants, build ports and SEZs, and run Real Estate businesses and are closely connected to politicians who run financial empires that run into thousands of crores of rupees. Some of them are currently being investigated for corruption and other crimes. Why are they all so enthusiastic?

**Ok, so RSS is completely evil and so are all the people in it? We are after all talking of a legal organization over here. With a long history, with peaks and troughs, with highly committed, sincere and people with integrity in it, as well as all kinds of madcaps. Hell, I am not even an RSS-supported, generally speaking. But, Madame Roy, can we have a more nuanced viewpoint here? And what exactly do you have against the Ford Foundation? Or would you rather that only people born of virgins donate money here? Perhaps you woud care to add some proof to your shrill hectoring or perhaps we should just take your word for it. All your statements are so superficial, how does one take it seriously, please tell us.**

Remember the campaign for the Jan Lokpal Bill gathered steam around the same time as embarrassing revelations by Wikileaks and a series of scams, including the 2G spectrum scam, broke, in which major corporations, senior journalists, and government ministers and politicians from the Congress as well as the BJP seem to have colluded in various ways as hundreds of thousands of crores of rupees were being siphoned off from the public exchequer. For the first time in years, journalist-lobbyists were disgraced and it seemed as if some major Captains of Corporate India could actually end up in prison. Perfect timing for a people's anti-corruption agitation. Or was it?

**So you are pointing to something without any proof whatsoever and that’s the foundation upon which your whole stance is based-on. And you hope we will jump on to your bandwagon? But seriously …….**

At a time when the State is withdrawing from its traditional duties and Corporations and NGOs are taking over government functions (water supply, electricity, transport, telecommunication, mining, health, education); at a time when the terrifying power and reach of the corporate owned media is trying to control the public imagination, one would think that these institutions — the corporations, the media, and NGOs — would be included in the jurisdiction of a Lokpal bill. Instead, the proposed bill leaves them out completely.

**Ok, we get your point. But in your eagerness to point out the dangers of corruption with NGOs and media, you are dumping the baby that we have here. Is that of no value at all? Is this agitation just hot air according to you? **

Now, by shouting louder than everyone else, by pushing a campaign that is hammering away at the theme of evil politicians and government corruption, they have very cleverly let themselves off the hook. Worse, by demonising only the Government they have built themselves a pulpit from which to call for the further withdrawal of the State from the public sphere and for a second round of reforms — more privatisation, more access to public infrastructure and India's natural resources. It may not be long before Corporate Corruption is made legal and renamed a Lobbying Fee.

Will the 830 million people living on Rs.20 a day really benefit from the strengthening of a set of policies that is impoverishing them and driving this country to civil war?

This awful crisis has been forged out of the utter failure of India's representative democracy, in which the legislatures are made up of criminals and millionaire politicians who have ceased to represent its people. In which not a single democratic institution is accessible to ordinary people. Do not be fooled by the flag waving. We're watching India being carved up in war for suzerainty that is as deadly as any battle being waged by the warlords of Afghanistan, only with much, much more at stake.

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Arundhati Roy, you have disappointed with this article. Hopefully you will get back to your old form soon. For now you seem to be painting yourself into a corner.

Jana Gana Mana – Complete National Anthem of India

2011-08-27T22:08:00.001+05:30

The complete national anthem brought to screen with well-known vocal and instrumental talent of India

To start with is Kavita Krishnamurthy, I think the honour should have been given to an older and more senior figure

Seniors like Ustad Ghulam Mustafa Khan and Girija Devi are rushed past while Hariharan and Alka Yagnik hog more time …… even Sunidhi Chauhan, Kailash Kher, Shankar Mahadevan etc.. That’s not fair, is it?

But an interesting concept overall, ‘Mile Sur Mera Tumhara’ really set the ball rolling. The series continues ……..

More details at

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jana_Gana_Mana_(the_complete_song)

Thoughts … … …

2011-08-27T21:46:00.000+05:30

Every beetle is a gazelle in the eyes of it's mother – Moorish proverb

All the world is going to die, perhaps even I too – Italian proverb

A man dies and meets his friend in heaven. They talk and he says, ‘If I am dead why do I feel so awful?’

Tolkein: “not all who wander are lost”.

In my own training, I’ve been taught to look for the gaps: the gap at the end of each out-breath; the space between thoughts; the naturally occurring, nonconceptual pause after a sudden shock, unexpected noise, or moment of awe. Trungpa Rinpoche advised intentionally creating these gaps by pausing to look at the sky or stopping to listen intently. He called this “poking holes in the clouds.”
- Pema Chödrön

The reality of the society that we are in is that there are thousands and thousands of people out there leading lives of quiet, screaming desperation where they work long hard hours at jobs they hate, to enable them to buy things they don’t need to impress people they don’t like and it's my contention that going to work on a Friday in jeans and T-shirt isn’t really getting to the nub of the issue
- Nigel Marsh

Happiness is not about having what you want. Instead it's about wanting what you have.

- Rabbi Hyman Schachtel

It can be so humbling once you see the bigger picture !

2011-08-27T21:20:00.004+05:30

How Big is the Universe

Where do we really figure in the whole scheme of things !!!!

Pale Blue Dot

Carl Sagan sets the perspective

The text

From this distant vantage point, the Earth might not seem of particular interest. But for us, it's different. Consider again that dot. That’s here. That’s home. That’s us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every “superstar,” every “supreme leader,” every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there — on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam.

The Earth is a very small stage in a vast cosmic arena. Think of the rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors, so that, in glory and triumph, they could become the momentary masters of a fraction of a dot. Think of the endless cruelties visited by the inhabitants of one corner of this pixel on the scarcely distinguishable inhabitants of some other corner, how frequent their misunderstandings, how eager they are to kill one another, how fervent their hatreds. Our posturings, our imagined self-importance, the delusion that we have some privileged position in the Universe, are challenged by this point of pale light.

Our planet is a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic dark. In our obscurity, in all this vastness, there is no hint that help will come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves. The Earth is the only world known so far to harbor life. There is nowhere else, at least in the near future, to which our species could migrate. Visit, yes. Settle, not yet. Like it or not, for the moment the Earth is where we make our stand. It has been said that astronomy is a humbling and character building experience. There is perhaps no better demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this distant image of our tiny world. To me, it underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly with one another, and to preserve and cherish the pale blue dot, the only home we’ve ever known.

From ‘Sadhguru. More than a life’ by Arundhathi Subramaniam

2011-08-27T15:17:00.000+05:30

……. I recalled Sister Nivedita’s line about her early encounter with Swami Vivekananda: ‘…. I saw that although he had a system of thought to offer, nothing in that system would claim him for a moment, if he found that truth led elsewhere.’

A body ‘from which God was radiating terrifically,’ was how Frank Humphreys, a Western disciple, once described Ramana Maharshi.

….. linga …….. is a symbol associated with phallus worship …….. But it is also much more than that, he tells you. The ellipsoid is actually a fundamental form. Modern science holds that the core of every galaxy is an ellipsoid. Spiritual seers from various traditions have always known that it is the first form to emerge from formlessness (or the void, or whatever you choose to call that primordial state.) It is also the last form before dissolution.

….. if one could just learn to dream dreams of which one doesn’t feel compelled to be the protagonist. ‘If you have the necessary stability to remove yourself from the activity you are doing, if you can completely eliminate your person from whatever you do, suddenly you can raise the pitch of your activity to a completely different dimension. ’

The traditional veneration of snakes and cows in India, he often explains, is not a mere matter of superstition. ……. the snake is a significant step in the evolutionary process of the being. So is the cow. That’s why in this culture, you are not supposed to kill either. ….. A snake always gets a proper burial, because in terms of it's being, it is very close to a human being. Killing a snake has always been seen as murder.’

If mothers do die …… it's not the end of the world. Most of the people suffer from an excess of guilt rather than grief anyway. That’s why the Hindu way of giving the bereaved lots of activity to engage in immediately after the death has always seemed to me to be a clever way of handling things.’

….. Jaggi …….. ‘ … I had nothing to do, so I went to Chamundi Hill.’

. ……. He sums up what happened next simply: ‘I went up and didn’t come down.’ When he eventually did return, it was five hours later……. He had gone up, a young happy-go-lucky motorcyclist. He returned, a mystic.

‘I was just sitting on this particular rock,’ he was to say years later. ‘I had my eyes open, not even closed. I thought it was about ten minutes, but something began to happen to me. All my life I had thought, this is me [pointing to himself]. Suddently, I did not know which was me and which was not me. The air that I was breathing, the rock on which I was sitting, the atmosphere around me, everything had become me. ……. What was me had become so enormous, it was everywhere. I thought this lasted a few minutes, but when I came back to my normal senses, it was about seven thirty in the evening ………..’

…….

A week later, the experience recurred. He was at the dining table with his family when it happened. ……. He thought it was for a couple of minutes. Seven hours had elapsed. On another occasion, thirteen days passed. ‘I just sat down for thirteen full days,’ he says. ‘I neither ate nor slept nor used the toilet for these thirteen days. I simply sat down.’

……. ‘My voice changed; my eyes were bigger, brighter,’ ……

People usually become heavy and serious with knowledge. But when knowledge is transmitted in the form of energy, not as memory, the burden of knowledge is not on you.

… Jaggi took a group on a trek up the Kumara Parvat in Karnataka. …. And ….. informed the group that Lord Kartikeya or Muruga …… had left his body up on this very hill.

….. a line by the Buddha. ‘Gautama said it is better to walk alone than in bad company. If you are alone, you could walk slow r fast, but at least you are walking in a certain direction. It's better than being dragged backwards.’ ……….

He once recounted a story about the Sufi mystic, Jalal-ud-din-Rumi:

‘When Rumi went to the house of his beloved and knocked on the door, his lover asked, “Who is it?” ’

‘Rumi replied, “It is I, Rumi.”

‘The door did not open. Rumi was so much in love that he wept for days together. Again and again he went to the door. Each time, the voice asked, “Who is it?”

‘Rumi said, “I, Rumi, and I am willing to die for you.”

‘The door stayed shut. One day, after all this turmoil and suffering, he arrived at a different state within himself. He went to the door once again.

‘The voice asked, “Who is it?”

‘Rumi replied, “It is you.” And the door opened.

‘One aspect of Samadhi is your contact with the body becomes minimal. It can be brought down to a one-pointed contact. We call that nirvikalpa samadhi. It means that your contact with your body is minimal, like a thread. If you break that thread, then it is mahasamadhi …….. Normally when people are like that we keep them in certain levels of inactivity and safety. We keep them in protected atmospheres. We don’t expose them to outside situations, because with the smallest disturbance, they may leave the body.’

Sadhguru’s description of the Dhyanlinga consecration has to be the most lucid account in recorded history of an incredibly arcane yogic process.

The aim, he says, was to create an energy form with seven chakras operating at their optimal condition. In the human being, the chakras are held in place by karmic substance. For the Dhyanalinga, however, he was clear that no karmic substance was to be used. …… The challenge, therefore, was to lock the chakras with pranic substance from all three participants, although this lacked the tenacity of it's karmic counterpart.

…….. Since one person was missing, creating three threads of prana without karmic substance from three different bodies, taking and weaving it and tying it up in a certain way, was difficult ….. The three threads were actual nadis or channels, one from Bharathi, one of mine, and another also from me created in Vijji’s flavor.

………. Bharathi …….. ‘I remember the lingarandhram – the copper tube containing mercury, energized with qualities of the seven chakras – which was to be inserted into the lingam and sealed before the completion of the consecration. This was a major step’

…… perhaps the most intriguing was the locking of the throat chakra or vishuddhi (known as the seat of power). Vishuddhi meditation, Sadhguru explained, is rarely encouraged, since it can create needlessly powerful people who lack the responsibility and balance to handle that power. …… Sadhguru eventually decided to use a one-time yogi for the process. ‘He was a disembodied being, looking for dissolution,’ he said later. ‘It was late night on an amavasya ……. We used a coconut in a certain way to trap this being and do what we had to do. He was being willingly trapped ……. Once he realized how he was going to be used, he was more than willing …… So we actually trapped this yogi, made him into pure energy and put him in the vishuddhi chakra. He became a part of the Dhyanalinga.’

A brahmachari recalls that once the coconut was set in a certain place, a little snake crawled up to it right away. Sadhguru explained later that snakes are invariably attracted to a certain kind of energy.

The most distinctive feature of the entire consecration process was the fact that it entailed no rituals or mantras. This, Sadhguru has often pointed out, is a characteristic of the south Indian tradition of yoga, associated with the sage, Agastya. ‘Everything here is done with pure energy. We don’t care to use mantras. We simply use energy’

The Dhyanalinga consecration was completed on 23 June 1999. ….. Sadhguru has often said that it will take a couple of generations for the world to fully appreciate just what the Dhyanalinga signifies for humanity at large. ……. What every viewer sees is the imposing black stone ellipsoid. ….. the only reason for it's existence is that most people need a visual focus for their meditation. The actual linga is essentially a fully functional subtle body, entirely invisible, with all the seven chakras operating optimally. It's function is essentially meditative. While the well-known Jyotirlingas in various parts of the country address specific issues of health and material wellbeing, the Dhyanalinga is the only linga that addresses all the seven chakras simultaneously. Sitting in it's precincts is equivalent to sitting in the presence of a live master – one who showers his grace unceasingly, freely, impartially, silently.

Is the linga a phallic symbol? ….. Sadhguru explains that the linga is a combination of the feminine and the masculine – one of the most unique and audacious ideas conceived by Eastern spiritual culture. ‘When the masculine and feminine meet at the lowest level, it is known as sex. When the same masculine and feminine meet at the highest level, it signifies the union of Shiva and Shakti. In this conjunction, Shiva is rupa or form; Shakti is shoonya, or nothingness.’

….. why are there no rituals in the Dhyanalinga? ……. Sadhguru explains that rituals are traditionally a means to renew the energy of a sacred space. But the Dhyanalinga has been consecrated through pure energy work and requires no maintenance or revival.

…… ‘engineering marvel’. ‘The elliptical dome that we built to house the Dhyanalinga is seventy-six feet in diameter and thirty-three feet high. No steel, no cement and no concrete have been used; just brick and mud mortar, stabilized with lime, sand, alum and herbal additives …… The nature of the design ensures a life of at least five thousand years for the dome’

As he once remarked, ‘I utter every word consciously, not habitually. That gives the words power. Spirituality is about not allowing anything to happen to you unconsciously.’

…… This life energy in you created your whole body. These bones, this flesh, this heart, this kidney and everything, can’t it create a piece of cartilage? If your energies are kept in full flow and proper balance, they are definitely capable of recreating the physical.

…… Kailash ……. he has often termed ‘the greatest mystical library in the planet’.

‘You don’t look for your guru,’ says Sadhguru firmly. ‘You just deepen the longing in you. When you know the true pain of ignorance, a guru will happen. You don’t have to look. If you sit with him, everything in you should feel threatened. You want to run away, but there is something in you which keeps on pulling you towards him – you can assume then that he is your guru. …. A guru’s intention is to awaken you, not to put you to sleep. He is somebody who disturbs all kinds of conclusions that you have drawn. ……’

Once during a car ride, I asked him if there was anything he immediately ‘knew’ about his surroundings. ‘If I am passing a place that is consecrated in a certain way, I would know right away,’ he answered. ‘And if someone is recently dead around here, I would know that as well.’

Any deep identification – with scripture, ideology, opinion, philosophy, prejudice or belief –becomes the hurdle on this journey. …. If you don’t mess with the human mind, it's very natural for human beings to seek. Unlike a believer who thinks he knows, a seeker starts from the position, “I don’t know”. As soon as you become an “I don’t know”, life begins to happen to you in a huge way.’

……. Schoolteachers, followed by parents, have, with all their good intentions, probably perpetrated more collective evil on humanity than Hitler.

….. truth is necessarily beyond belief and unbelief; that the spiritual journey needs seekers, not believers.

‘In yoga we don’t believe in sudden enlightenment. We make enlightenment into a process. In Zen, they wait for enlightenment to happen like a blossoming flower: a sudden enlightenment. But in yoga, we let it happen gradually, because, if it happens suddenly, you could leave the body. We don’t want that to happen. ’

‘ ….. Sex in the body is fine; money in the pocket is fine. It's only a problem when they enter the mind.’ …… ‘Brahmacharya’ he says simply, ‘is just a way of organizing your energies in such a way that your peace and your joy are all your own. …. If you do it willingly, it is wonderful…….’

‘ ….. If you have sufficient mastery, if you’re able to leave your body consciously, you should leave when everything is well. ….. the way I will die will be visibly spectacular – like a signature.’

Reference:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dhyanalinga
http://dhyanalinga.org/

From ‘Simplify your Life’ by Elaine St James

2011-08-15T20:23:00.002+05:30

Let your boat of life be light, packed with only what you need – a homely home and simple pleasures, one or two friends worth the name, someone to love and someone to love you, a cat, a dog, and a pipe or two, enough to eat and enough to wear, and a little more than enough to drink, for thirst is a dangerous thing

- Jerome Klapka Jerome

Wise men and women in every major culture throughout history have found that the secret to happiness is not in getting more but in wanting less.

How has it happened that the size of the average American home has gone from the roughly 900-square-foot, two-bedroom, one-bath home of the 1950s to a roughly 2000-square-foot home with three bedrooms, three and a half baths, an eat-in kitchen, a dining room, a library, an exercise room, a “great” room, a TV room, at least a two-but often a three-car garage, and an entry hall that rivals the size of the Sistine Chapel? It certainly did not happen because of the need to house larger families; in the past fifty years the average family size has gone from 4 to 2.5.

Studies have shown that in the typical American household the TV is on approximately seven hours per day. ………

Think about whether the lives portrayed on your favorite sitcom contribute anything positive to your life, or whether repeated exposure to crime and violence contributes to your peace of mind. Think about whether the “thirty-second sound bite” format of most television news gives you any real information. Think about whether the addictive habit of watching television contributes to your aliveness, spontaneity, and sense of freedom.

From ‘What should I do with my life? The true story of people who answered the ultimate question.’ By Po Bronson

2011-08-15T20:22:00.000+05:30

It surprised me how often we hold ourselves back until we have no choice

“No eloquent words of a man can replace the pathless forest or the quietness of a rock.”

“He was a CPA, and miserable doing it. A few years ago he sent me a poem he had written, way back in 1977. It was about how his pinstripes were his jail bars, holding in all this sexual energy, urging himself to come out. ‘Come on out, motherfucker, I know you’re in there.’ It was called ‘Who’s in There?’”

From ‘Beyond the Mind’ by Dada Gavand

2011-07-24T16:37:00.000+05:30

Freedom From Time

Life has gathered Dust on the Way

During Her Centuries of Travelling Time.

Particles of the Dust

Have Developed into a Mountain

Which calls Itself ‘I’ – The Mind.

This Dusty Mold

Of Millions of Yesterdays Past

Is an Imposition and

Burden upon Life Energy.

Freedom from this

Dusty Mountain of Past

Is the Purification and

Liberation of Life.

Life Fulfills Itself

Through It's Own

Liberation.

- Dada

- Pacific Palisades - 1976

NANCY: (Pleadingly) Tell me ….. How can I start to discover the spirit
DADA: ………
You start when you begin to see within yourself the constant pursuits of various desires, fears and hopes.
You start when you become conscious of these subtle desires working all the time without stopping.
You start when you see how your actions are the reactions of a biased and wishful mind, and that there is never a fresh action from life within.
You start when you realize how you spend your entire life energy trying to fulfill the unending ambitions of the mind in all directions.
You start when you recognize that you are never reaching a point where you remain fulfilled.
You start when you see that you never attain these imaginary goals created by the mind.
You start when you discover that your do not really know what you want in life beyond food, shelter and a few necessities.
You start when you see that the mind is not interested in peace, but only in it's own pursuits.
You start when your perceive and recognize that this mind is nothing but the burden of bygone memories.
You start when you see and understand clearly how this so-called mind is an imposition of unfulfilled experiences of the past.
You make a real clean start when you begin to watch every incoming thought and understand how the past is trying to continue at the cost of the present, calling itself “I”.
Discovery of the deceptions of I the mind, is the beginning of a journey toward the spirit.

DADA: First you have to see your constant false activity and understand these mad movements. Understanding quietens all of that. Look into yourself calmly, with sharp attention. To see what is happening in oneself is important. Watch every idea and desire that comes into the mind. Such observation is the beginning of quieting down this activity. Then you discover that you can look at yourself without any motive or expectation. Usually the mind immediately starts to name, describe, moralize and compare whatever it sees. But through unmotivated and unbiased looking within, you can step out of the field of thought. Just keep watching, and you will discover a new quality of sensitivity which is not a thought activity because there are no desires, motives, hopes or fears involved in that watchfulness.

….. Be conscious of the thoughts coming again and again. Se that it is so, that is all. This attention becomes a new vital point, an impersonal flow of energy. The mind is a personalized and conditioned energy. You have to discover unbiased and unconditioned energy.

Proceed quietly, and then you will discover what meditation is. Attention without thought is meditation. Slowly through watchful attention you step out of the field of mind without any struggle. As your sensitivity increases, you will be able to act without the promptings of thought and desire. As you discover freedom from thought you will be in the present – in the now – to act. This is not an intellectual process; it is something that you have to sense and experience.

….. As you move along, this watchfulness will broaden and intensify, gathering all the energy that the mind is now using. The more energy you will have for this watchfulness, the less there will be for thought activity. See the beauty of gathering his energy in watchfulness and attention without a thought. Then that energy will move on it's own.

Can we look at a rose with our whole energy, our whole attention, and without any expectation, desire or description? Can we see a sunset without thought? Can we be sensitive without any movement of thought or desire? With this sensitivity, any experience is full and complete. When one is totally accepting, there is no mind left to create a disturbance in the energy. Right action will come instantaneously. Such action does not come through desire or negation but through acceptance. In total acceptance there is no mind trying to change anything. Action which comes out of such acceptance is creative, and often you are not aware of it. But still, the energy acts in the right direction. Then it is not a partial activity of thought but a total action of whole energy.

From ‘The Flute Calls Still’ by Dilip Kumar Roy

2011-07-24T14:30:00.000+05:30

… Raman Maharshi ….to a western seeker: …… ‘…… why this frantic desire to help others when you can’t help even your helpless self? I would rather solve my own problems first if I were you, for then we would stand a far better chance of solving the intricate problems of the world and helping humanity with our nostrums’

…. What Sri Ramdas said to a devotee:

“The signs of a man who has realized the Truth are six: (1) He is conscious that he is immortal, not subject to birth, growth, decay and death. This knowledge abides with him at all times. (2) He has no fears. Fear comes only when we think we are the body. When we know we are the Immortal Spirit, then fear leaves us automatically. (3) The sense of sin is absent in him … (4) He feels he is reborn in the Spirit and a new life has dawned in which there is only Peace, Bliss and Immortality ….. (5) He has no reason to be unhappy on any account … Bliss will be pouring out of him. (6) He attracts everybody towards him. He is ever gentle, cheerful, loving and smiling.”

And he went on to qualify his statement thus: “This is only the external sign. The other five signs are known to him only.”

From ‘Intuitive Intelligence. A Play: Within and Without’ by Dada Gavand

2011-07-23T20:38:00.000+05:30

Like an autumn tree

That sheds all it's leaves.

When the mind

Stands denuded and empty

Of all it's fluttering leaves

Of desires and dreams,

It becomes ready

To receive the heavenly showers

When the consciousness is tranquil, serene, and clear as a placid lake or fresh as a sparkling dew drop, it reflects the intrinsic truth and the beauty of life spontaneously. There remains no barrier, no qualitative difference between consciousness and the creation. Thus, the feeling of separation between oneself and reality is eliminated and the experience of unity with life is established.

Such transformation of the consciousness into a crystal clear and immaculate energy, gives an experience of the timeless and the mind force dissolves to become a part of the reality itself.

When the primordial energy drive is watched,

Impersonally perceived and understood,

Witnessed in it's entire manifestation

Without any involvement,

It begins to move inwards

And rise upwards

He who tames and channelizes

This wild primordial energy,

Becomes the intuitive wise one.

Man’s only challenge is to rise to the level of alert, attentive inwardness so that the benediction from the cosmic energy field will be able to strike like lightning:

Feeling without thought
A longing without desire
Experiencing without an idea

Such a unique state without the thought-mind, like the evening cloud that remains just sensitive, attentive and receptive, is a hope for mankind. He, who is aware, inward and humble will absorb and reflect the cosmic wisdom which will transform him and uplift him unto his own glory.

To catch a rabbit one has to travel faster than the rabbit to overtake it. To capture the mind, one has to be dynamically aware of it, intensely vigilant over it, and attentive and alert in the present moment. This sensitive attentiveness unfolds Intuitive Intelligence. Such dynamicity of the intuitive faculty can take one beyond oneself and give the touch of that benevolent unknown.

The mind begins to grow old and rigid and the mortal body has a limited number of years in which it lives in a healthy state. Therefore one has to travel faster to fulfil the objective of life-energy before it becomes too late.

From ‘Journey to Unknown India’ by Walther Eidlitz

2011-07-23T20:31:00.000+05:30

Thoughtfully Shri looked up at the ants and the colorful birds. “Nothing but atmas.”

….. a citation from Buddha I never forgot:

‘He scorned me, he beat me,
he conquered me by force
If you make room for this thought
you cannot be free of hate.
For through this hate,
there will be no peace upon earth
Only by not hating can hatred find peace.

“ ……… You know that I value the social endeavor of the West very highly. Yes, welfare institutions for the old and the sick, the right of all to have work and education – it is excellent, all of it. Protection for children and those who are ill, weak, or persecuted, this must exist. In our days it is, in fact, almost the only thing that distinguished humans from animals. But when I think of all these efforts at making the corruptible, changeable world pleasant for humans, it often seems to me to be as if somebody had fallen in the water and was in danger or drowning. Then another comes running to help him and manages to rescue his clothes, his hat, and his spectacles. The drowning man himself, the Atman, is allowed to go under.”

His eager, forced speech often hurried far ahead of his thoughts. It sometimes seemed as if he wanted to seize the divine secrets with a crowbar.

Sadananda wrote on the blackboard the syllable ma. “The word maya comes from the Sanskrit root ma ….. Ma means to measure. As long as we egotistically measure the things about us, value them according to the measure of joy or pain they give us, we are in the power of Maya, who hides God from us.

From ‘The Golden String. An Autobiography’ by Bede Griffiths

2011-07-12T21:10:00.000+05:30

The most radical change which has taken place has been in the understanding of the temporal and historical character of the Bible and the Church. The Bible, instead of being regarded as a fixed and final revelation of God to man, is seen as a historic process in which the Word of God is being revealed under changing historical conditions, shaped by the historical, psychological and cultural circumstances of a particular people

Shakespeare’s despairing cry in King Lear

As flies to wanton boys are we to the gods,
They kill us for their sport

….. three other books ……. The Bhagavad Gita, the Buddha’s Way of Virtue (a version of the Dhammapada) and the Sayings of Lao Tzu (a version of the Tao Te Ching) …… the influence of these books upon my life was later to be immense, and I still look on them as the three greatest books of spiritual wisdom outside the New Testament …….. their doctrine seemed to me practically identical with that of Christianity as I understood it. From this time the Buddha and Lao Tzu took their place in my mind with Socrates, Spinoza and Marcus Aurelius, along with Christ of the Sermon on the Mount, among the great spiritual leaders of mankind.

The constant aim of Greek culture, as of the Chinese and the Indian, had been to keep the power in the hands of the “wise man”, the philosopher, the Brahmin or the Mandarin, and after him with the nobleman or aristocrat, and by this means the character of their culture has been preserved. In Greece as in Rome and in modern England, the rise of a plutocracy had transferred the power to the merchant, and the decline of culture into material civilization had followed.

……. Now I was made to renounce my own will, to surrender, the inmost centre of my being. Each renunciation had been dragged out of me painfully against my own will. I had struggled against it and felt it as an invasion of my being by an alien power. There was indeed something terrifying in this power which had entered into my life and which would not be refused. It had revealed itself to me as love, but I knew now that it was a love which demanded everything, and which was a torment if it was resisted. Once the surrender had been made, that power took over the direction of my life. I had been striving to come to terms with it, to allot it a certain place in my life but it had shown me that it would accept no compromise. I had wanted to keep my own will and to direct my own life; but now I had been forced to surrender. I had placed my life in the hands of a power which had been infinitely beyond me and I knew from this time that the sole purpose of my life must be to leave myself in those hands and to allow my soul to be governed by that will.

I could never doubt after this that behind all the accidents of this life, behind all the pain and the conflict, there was a definite power at work which was shaping human destiny. The pain and the conflict arose from the resistance of the human will to this power, and this resistance in turn was due to our blindness. We were held captive by the material world, the world of reason and common sense; only when we had broken with the illusion of this world and faced the reality which was hidden in the depths of our being could we find peace.

… from a Christian point of view the importance of Indian philosophy can hardly be over-estimated. It marks the supreme achievement of the human mind in the natural order in it's quest of a true conception of God.

The idea of God which is found in Sankara, the great doctor of the Vedanta, is almost identical with that of St Thomas. According to him God is sacchidananda, that is, absolute Being (sat), absolute knowledge (chit), and absolute bliss (ananda). He is eternal, infinite, unchanging, incomprehensible, the One “without a second”. ……. Before this inexpressible mystery we can only say, “Neti, Neti”, “Not this, Not that”. And yet, and this is the very starting point of all Indian thought, this absolute, incomprehensible mystery of Brahma is one with the mystery which lies at the heart of our human life. Brahma is the Atma. He is the true Self of every man; each of us can find his true being only in God.

And so the whole movement of Hindu philosophy culminates in the practice of Yoga, the search for “union” with God. It is not like Greek philosophy primarily a speculative theory; it is, …… a way of salvation. It's purpose is not merely to know about God, but to know God as God knows himself, to participate in the divine nature.

…… the Indian concept of the Atma is the Chinese idea of the Tao. The word Tao simply means the “way” …….. it came to be used absolutely for the Principle which governs the universe. It is the beginning and end of all things, at once transcendent and immanent, sustaining and directing all things by it's inherent power and yet so utterly beyond them that it cannot even properly be named.

If we are ever to find peace either in ourselves or in the world we shall have to learn again that ancient wisdom which alone can give man peace with nature and with God, and which was summed up by Dostoevsky in the words of the Prior of the monastery in which the Brothers Karamazov met: “Brothers, have no fear of men’s sin. Love a man even in his sin, for that is the semblance of divine love, and is the highest love on earth. Love all God’s creation, the whole and every grain of sand in it. Love every leaf and every ray of God’s light. Love the animals, love the plants, love everything. If you love everything you will perceive the divine mystery in things. Once you perceive it, you will begin to comprehend it better every day. And you will come at last to love the whole world with an all-embracing love.”

From ‘The Last Talks’ by J.Krishnamurti

2011-07-01T00:11:00.002+05:30

When you do not know what is the cause of suffering, how it can be ended – you don’t know, right? So remain in that state and find out. …… don’t try to find an answer, but find out if you have understood the question – the depth of the question or the superficiality of the question or the meaninglessness of the question. ……. Then you will find that the question itself has a tremendous energy.

What is life? What is the origin of all this – the marvelous earth, the lovely evening and the early morning sun, the rivers, the valleys, the mountains and the glory of the land which is being despoiled? If you say the origin of all this is ‘God’, then it's finished; then You can trot along quite happily because you’ve solved the problem. But if you begin to question, doubt, as one should, all gods, all gurus – I don’t belong to that tribe – if you begin to question all that man has put together through a long evolution down the corridors of history, you find this question asked: What is the beginning? What is the origin? How has all this come about?

P.G.Wodehouse - 10

2011-06-25T23:33:00.000+05:30

From ‘My Man Jeeves’

…… what I’ve observed, the American captain of industry doesn’t do anything out of business hours. When he has put the cat out and locked up the office for the night, he just relapses into a state of coma from which he emerges only to start being the captain of industry again. But Mr. Worple in his spare time was what is known as an ornithologist. He had written a book called American Birds, and was writing another, to be called More American Birds. When he had finished that, the presumption was that he would begin a third, and keep on till the supply of American birds gave out.

“Sir?” said Jeeves, kind of manifesting himself. One of the rummy things about Jeeves is that, unless you watch like a hawk, you very seldom see him come into a room. He’s like one of those weird chappies in India who dissolve themselves into thin air and nip through space in a sort of disembodied way and assemble the parts again just where they want them. I’ve got a cousin who’s what they call a Theosophist, and he says he’s often nearly worked the thing himself, but couldn’t quite bring it off, probably owing to having fed in his boyhood on the flesh of animals slain in anger and pie.

Jeeves smiled paternally. Or rather, he had a kind of paternal muscular spasm about the mouth, which is the nearest he ever gets to smiling.

She fitted into my biggest arm-chair as if it had been built round her by someone who knew they were wearing arm-chairs tight about the hips that season…….. She made me feel as if I were ten years old and had been brought into the drawing-room in my Sunday clothes to say how-do’you-do. Altogether by no means the sort of thing a chappie would wish to find in his sitting-room before breakfast.

……. I’m all for rational enjoyment and so forth, but I think a chappie makes himself conspicuous when he throws soft-boiled eggs at the electric fan. And decent mirth and all that sort of thing are all right, but I do bar dancing on tables and having to dash all over the place dodging waiters, managers, and chuckers-out, just when you want to sit still and digest.

There was something sort of bleak about her tone, rather as if she had swallowed an east wind. This I took to be due to the fact that she probably hadn’t breakfasted ……….
“Won't you have an egg or something? Or a sausage or something? Or something?”
“No, thank you.”
She spoke as if she belonged to an anti-sausage society or a league for the suppression of eggs.

“Father,” said Clarence, “did you meet a mewing cat outside? I feel positive I heard a cat mewing.”
“No,” said the father, shaking his head; “No mewing cat.”
“I can’t bear mewing cats,” said Clarence. “A mewing cat gets on my nerves!”
“A mewing cat is so trying,” said Elizabeth.
“I dislike mewing cats,” said old Mr. Yeardsley.
That was all about mewing cats for the moment. They seemed to think they had covered the ground satisfactorily …….

“We’ll fling the door open and make a rush,” said Bill.
“Supposing they shoot, old scout?”
“Burglars never shoot,” said Bill.
Which was comforting provided the burglars knew it.

She looked at me in rather a rummy way. It was a nasty look. It made me feel as if I were something the dog had brought in and intended to bury later on, when he had time.

Somehow it was brought home to me that she didn’t like Englishmen, and that if she had had to meet an Englishman, I was the one she’d have chosen last.

He said that the tango and the fox-trot were devices of the devil to drag people down into the Bottomless Pit. He said that there was more sin in ten minutes with a negro banjo orchestra than in all the ancient revels of Nineveh and Babylon.

From ‘The Crime Wave at Blandings’

….. he wanted solitude. In the course of the afternoon he had had so much female society thrust upon him that if Helen of Troy had appeared in the doorway of the writing-room and yoo-hooed him, he would merely have accelerated his pace.

From ‘Ukridge’

‘E’ wants to see the murders,’ explained Flossie’s mother.

She spoke as if it were the most reasonable of boyish desires, but it seemed to me impracticable. Homicides do not publish formal programs of their intended activities. I had no notion what murders were scheduled for today.

‘E always reads up all the murders in the Sunday paper,’ went on the parent, throwing light on the matter.

‘It’s the places ’e wants to see,’ said Flossie’s mother, amiably tolerant of my density.

…. His looks! She didn’t want his looks spoiled. Why, damme, he hasn’t got any looks. There isn’t any possible manner in which you could treat the man’s face without improving it.

‘ …… Alf Todd,’ said Ukridge, soaring to an impressive burst of imagery, ‘has about as much chance as a one-armed blind man in a dark room trying to shove a pound of melted butter into a wild cat’s left ear with a red-hot needle.’

Around the room on those gilt chairs which are only seen in subscription-dance halls weird beings were talking in undertones, probably about the trend of Scandinavian literature.

….. a youth in my house at school named Coote. J. G. Coote. And he was popularly known as Looney on account of the vain and foolish superstitions which seemed to rule his every action. Boys are hard-headed, practical persons, and they have small tolerance for the viewpoint of one who declines to join in a quiet smoke behind the gymnasium not through any moral scruples – which, to do him justice, he would have scorned – but purely on the ground that he had seen a magpie that morning. This was what J. G. Coote did, and it was the first occasion on which I remember him being addressed as Looney.

But, once given, the nickname stuck; and this in spite of the fact – seeing that we were caught half-way through the first cigarette and forcefully dealt with by a muscular head-master – that the magpie of his would appear to have known a thing or two.

There is something about a Welsh voice when raised in song that no other voice seems to possess – a creepy, heart-searching quality that gets right into a man’s inner consciousness and stirs it up with a pole.

Her whole appearance was that of a woman designed by Nature to instill law and order into the bosoms of boisterous cannibal kings.

From ‘iGuruji. Informal talks with Guruji. Vol 3’ by Seema Almel and Vishwanath M N

2011-06-15T21:38:00.002+05:30

……. middle of Ashadha, the beginning of monsoons ….. is the most auspicious period of the year when the greatest energies flood our earth from Parabrahma Loka. “Our elders …. would keep aside all material pursuits and do Sadhana throughout this month. Gradually the Sadhana part was forgotten and people held on to the belief that no ventures should be taken up in this month.”

“There is nothing like an inanimate thing” replied Guruji. “Everything is full f consciousness and intelligence; it can respond …. It depends on how much love we send …….. Plants do not have mind and intellect, the way we have ….. It could transmit it's intention and then it gets converted to Energy. This energy enters us, gets converted to concepts or thoughts in our intellect and then becomes words in our brain”

There will be major changes within the next three years …….. those who do not want to change will perish …. This process will begin in 2012 and continue till 2018, by when there should be complete transformation. The Rishis say that our earth will stand still in 2012, for three days and three nights ….. we cannot imagine the chaos and commotion when that occurs

It was Kabir who said, “There is room within only for one; it is either ‘I’ or ‘Him’.”

……. the writings of Kahlil Gibran

The Deeper that sorrow carves into your being,

the more joy you can contain

‘Is not the cup that holds your wine the very cup

that was burned in the potter’s oven?

‘And is not the flute that soothes your spirit,

the very wood that was hollowed with knives?

‘Your joy is your sorrow unmasked.’

From ‘Across many mountains. Three daughters of Tibet’ by Yangzom Brauen

2011-06-11T00:27:00.000+05:30

Many times my grandmother has told me how dead people spend three days reliving their lives down to the tiniest detail. At sunrise on the third day the consciousness returns to the body, not realizing what has happened. Then the dead wander among the living but no one acknowledges them, no one talks to them, looks at them or touches them. They want to be with the living and they do not understand why we ignore them – until a terrible suspicion dawns upon them. To test their fears, they walk across sand, seeing to their horror that they do not leave footprints. They lower themselves into water and see that they make no waves ……… until they realize they are no longer among the living ….. After these three days, the consciousness of the dead comes across forty-two peaceful and fifty-eight wrathful deities. Anyone who has seen pictures of these terrifying divinities can imagine how disturbing and frightening such encounters must be. Therefore it is important that the dead are accompanied by the monks’ prayers, which prepare their souls for these meetings.

On the day of His Holiness’ [Dalai Lama] long-awaited arrival, Kunsang was churned up with anticipation and excitement …… Kunsang wore he best white apron ……. Suddenly His Holiness himself was standing right before her. She still remembers every moment of the encounter. ‘He looked exactly like his portrait on the thousands of amulets and pendants printed with his face, but there was a presence about him that no picture in the world could capture. I felt a sense of warmth, love and intimacy emanating from him ….. He … asked … “Are you a cook?”’

‘It was a small eternity before I could answer, for I had not been prepared for such a personal greeting. All eyes were on me, yet this bodhisattva, this enlightened existence in human form, expressed no impatience; he did not seem in any rush for me to answer. It was as if His Holiness had all the time in this world just to stand in front of me and look at me and smile and wait for me to answer his question.’

“Yes,” I finally murmured. My body was bent low, my hands were folded at my chest, and I did not dare lift my head to look the Dalai Lama in the eyes. It would not have been respectful for a nun such as I to do that.

“Show me your hands,” the Dalai Lama said to me, and when I hesitated, His Holiness simply reached for them with an incredibly gentle gesture and pulled them towards him. Still smiling, he looked at my dry, chapped hands. They were rough from my work in the kitchen …… But the Dalai Lama held my hands for a long time, turning them over in his own soft, flawless ones. Then he patted them and said simply, ‘They’re so hard.’ His words were almost lost in a chuckle of laughter. ‘You’ve worked too much.’

‘I was filled with happiness. Smiling, he released my hard hands, gave me a laugh and a nod and went on to talk to the woman standing next to me. Now I won’t have to work so hard, I thought to myself, because he was here, because he touched me.’

From ‘A Heart as wide as the world. Stories on the path of lovingkindness’ by Sharon Salzberg

2011-05-28T22:20:00.000+05:30

A Tibetan text puts it like this: “Beneath the pauper’s house there are inexhaustible treasures, but the pauper never realizes this, and the treasures never say, ‘I am here.’ Likewise, the treasure of our original nature, which is naturally pure, is trapped in ordinary mind, and beings suffer in poverty.”

The first meditation instruction I was ever given was to be aware of my breath. The simplicity was shocking. …. The breath is natural and uncontrived. When I first began practicing, I would become anxious about the next breath, as though I had to create it. …. Being aware of the natural breath, we bring forth ease of mind and body.

Sometimes in learning meditation the instruction is, “Sit like a mountain. Sit with a sense of strength and dignity. Be steadfast, be majestic, be natural and at ease in awareness. No matter how many winds are blowing, no matter how many clouds are swirling, no matter how many lions are prowling, be intimate with everything and sit like a mountain.”

……… meditative vision ……. as the Sufis say, with “eyes unclouded by longing.”

An interesting distinction is made in Buddhist psychology between the state of remorse and the state of guilt. Remorse is considered a wholesome or skillful state of mind. We recognize that we have said something or done something that has created harm in some way, and we experience the pain of that. But because we essentially forgive ourselves, we can let go, and thus we have the energy, the inspiration, not to go on repeating the same mistakes. Guilt, on the other hand, is considered unwholesome or unskillful because of the component of self-hatred in it. We go over and over the harmful thing we have done, continually blaming ourselves, until we are drained. The result is that we are not left with the energy to transform our actions. Our minds then remain restless.

….. one of the principle teachings of the Buddha. Dukkha means suffering, discontent, unsatisfactoriness, hollowness, change.

The Buddha said, “I teach one thing and one thing only: suffering and the end of suffering.”

As classically defined in Pali, our compassion is “the trembling or the quivering of the heart.”

As the haiku poet Issa wrote,

The world of dew
is only the world of dew -
and yet

Someone once asked Munindra why he practiced meditation. His students gathered around, expecting to hear an exalted, lofty answer. Munindra replied, “I practice meditation to notice the small purple flowers growing by the roadside, which I otherwise might miss.”

The dancer Isadora Duncan once said: “If I could tell you what it meant, there would be no point in dancing it.”

From ‘Think on These things. Inspiration from Edgar Cayce readings’ by Edgar Cayce

2011-05-28T21:54:00.002+05:30

The more and more each is impelled by that which is intuitive, or the relying upon the soul force within, the greater, the farther, the deeper, the broader, the more constructive may be the result

…… there is no urge in the astrological, in the vocational, in the hereditary or the environmental – which surpasses the will or determination of an entity

But if ye are attempting to have they physical body doing just as it pleases, they mental body controlled by, “What will other people say?” and thy spiritual body and mind shelved only for good occasions for the good impression that you may make occasionally, there cannot be other than confusion.

Thus ye may find in thy mental and spiritual self, ye can make thyself just as happy or just as miserable as ye like. How miserable do ye want to be?

This is the first lesson ye should learn: There is so much good in the worst of us, and so much bad in the best of us, it doesn’t behoove any of us to speak evil [of] the rest of us. This is a universal law, and until one begins to make application of same, one may not go very far in spiritual or soul development.

Perfection is not possible in a material body until you have entered at least some thirty times.

For all prayer is answered. Don’t tell God how to answer it.

From ‘A book of Memory. Confessions and Reflections’ by Sudhir Kakar

2011-05-28T21:41:00.000+05:30

We do not know the true value of our moments until they have undergone the test of memory

- Georges Duhamel

For brief periods of time, immersion in the rituals, pilgrimages and other baroque practices of traditional Hinduism lets us transcend what Yeats called ‘the desolation of reality’ in a way the dry Arya Samaj Protestantism of my grandfather’s more ‘modern’ religious faith could never have done

It was not only musicians but all performing artists who were spurned by ‘respectable society’ as entertainers. This disparaging attitude was an old one. For instance, ancient Hindu law books such as the Manusmriti have strict injunctions against adultery. One of the few exceptions, though, where ‘criminal conversations with another man’s wife’ is condoned is with ‘the wives of actors and singers’ ……. Dance in the 1940s and 1950s was associated with ‘nautch girls’, a skill needed by prostitutes of some refinement.

….. my father’s family home ……. my memories of that period ……. The images stamped enduringly on my psyche have an impress of swirling movement and excitement combined within secure boundaries of loyalty and protection with which the family surrounded each individual member, no matter how small. Moving from one part of the house to another, I could, within a few minutes, be witness to loud quarrels, heart-rending sobs, tender consolations, flirtatious exchanges, uproarious laughter and sober business conversations. The kitchen on the second floor, as much the heart of the house as it's stomach, was always full of women – daughters of the house, female relatives and visitors. Presided over by my strong-willed grandmother, it was busy from early in the morning, and except for a couple of hours’ break in the afternoon, closed late in the night. One ate whatever one liked and whenever one liked and there was always a steaming hot snack that had just come out of a deep-bottomed, cast-iron frying pan. At all times, there were more than a dozen cousins and visiting children from the neighbourhood and we played everywhere: on the roof terrace, in all the rooms of the house, outside in the alley. There were no private spaces and all these sites were without boundaries, blending seamlessly into one another. Whenever I was tired, I’d find an empty bed, generally a mattress on the floor, and some woman would eventually drift over and put me to sleep. As the eldest son of the eldest son, I had the privilege of demanding that my favorite aunt, Darshana, my father’s youngest sister, put aside her kitchen or other household duties and tell me stories while I tried to fight the encroachment of sleep. Many of the stories were from the epics Ramayana and Mahabharata but what I loved most was when she read out of Chandrakanta, a six-volume romance that was her favourite and soon became my obsession.

I now wonder how much of the warmth and excitement of the memories of my recurrent immersion in the life of my father’s extended family can be attributed to the majesty of Eros. The promiscuous sharing of beds and the contact with many different bodies in sleep are highly eroticizing for a child. Even otherwise, the extended family, given the constraints of space in which most Indians live, creates an erotic field that is inconceivable for those who have grown up in modern, nuclear families. Living in close quarters with many couples and with at least a pre-conscious awareness of their sexual lives by registering in half-sleep at night those special whispers, giggles and stifled cries of pleasure against a background score of snores in many different pitches, and witnessing the signs of passion on the faces and bodies in the morning as mattresses are rolled-up, is a constant source of sexual excitement. The large Indian family is not only a system of duties and obligations but also a highly charged field of eroticism. Occasions such as a marriage, where an imminent sexual union is the raison d’etre of the whole family coming together, crackle with erotic excitement. Dozens of cousins, male and female, are thrown together in close proximity for a succession of celebratory evenings of music and dance, without the prohibitions and injunctions that normally govern the contact between the sexes.

Urdu was not only the language in which most of the government work was carried out in north India but it was also the language of literature, indeed, of civilization. ….. It is a tragedy that after the independence of the country and the partition riots that accompanied it, Urdu came to be identified solely as the language of Muslims and condemned to lead a ghetto existence as religious identities began to harden. The loss of a specific Indian sensibility associated with the language, which I would identify as a yearning that is simultaneously of the body, heart and spirit, constitutes a loss of patrimony for all Indians.

The Indian preference for an arranged marriage is partly based on the young person’s acceptance of the cultural definition of marriage as a family, rather than individual, affair, where harmony and shared values that come from a common background are more important than individual fascinations. The greatest attraction of an arranged marriage, though, is the fact that it takes away the young person’s anxiety about finding a mate. Whether you are plain or good-looking, fat or thin, you can be reasonably sure that a suitable mate will be found for you.

I cannot remember my mother,
only sometimes in the midst of my play
a tune seems to hover over my playthings,
the tune of some song that she used to hum while
rocking my cradle.
I cannot remember my mother,
but when in the early autumn morning
the smell of the siuli flowers floats in the air
the scent of the morning service in the temple comes
to me as the scent of my mother.

I cannot remember my mother,
only when from my bedroom window
I send my eyes into the blue of the distant sky
I feel that the stillness of my mother’s gazing on my
face has spread all over the sky
- Rabindranath Tagore

In 1969, Ahmedabad was the site of one of the worst outbreaks of Hindu-Muslim violence since the country’s independence. The city, as a commission enquiring into another riot pointed out, had witnessed recurring bouts of violence between the two communities that go back in history to 1714. The 1969 riot, though, was the bloodiest. It's official toll of 560 dead and 561 injured was matched only by the Gujarat violence of 2002; in both carnages, the majority of lives lost were Muslim.

For there is no greater pain, as Dante observed, than to remember in present grief, past happiness.

…… Greek or Roman sculptures which have greatly influenced Western gender representations. Here, male gods are represented by hard, muscled bodies and chests without any fat. One only needs to compare Greek and Roman statuary with sculpted representations of Hindu gods, or the Buddha, where the bodies are softer, suppler and in their hint of breasts, nearer to the female form.

….. the wise Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius who held that ‘those who do not observe the movements of their own minds must of necessity be unhappy’. No mental problem can be finally overcome, Krishnamurti says again and again. It can be understood but not conquered. Freud, too, has observed that a man should not strive to eliminate his complexes but get into accord with them, for they are legitimately what direct his conduct in the world. To understand deeply (Freud’s ‘get into accord’) required one to observe by paying full attention, which is not to be confused with concentration. When the conscious mind is attentive, he said, it has not thought, it is empty but aware, then it can observe. Here Krishnamurti, the intellectual-mystic, was at one with the mystical-psychoanalyst Wilfred Bion who advised analysts that to really understand the patient in an analytic hour, the therapist needs to come to the session with an empty mind, a mind ‘without memory or desire’.

The role of a community’s women in it's men taking up arms, or in the making of a terrorist, has not been appreciated enough …… there is no stronger goad to arousing a man’s fighting spirit than that of a woman mocking and challenging his masculinity. Militancy starts losing it's vigour once the women turn away from demanding masculinity from their men and begin to think more of the survival and well-being of their children. Unfortunately, anti-terror efforts are rarely directed towards influencing a community’s women.

…… Samuel Goldwyn’s observation, ‘I don’t think anyone should write their autobiography until after they’re dead.’

One of those Sanskrit love poems goes:
She let him in
She did not turn away from him
There was no anger in her words
She simply looked straight at him
As though there had never been
Anything between them.

……… a fifth-century Sanskrit poem

By rising to greet him from afar
she circumvents their sitting on one seat;
by the pretext of fixing betel
she prevents his quick embrace.
She makes no conversation with him;
instead, gives orders to the servants;
her skill is such that by politeness
she satisfies her wrath.

…….Samuel Goldwyn’s school of leadership: ‘I don’t want any yes-men around me. I want everybody to tell me the truth even if it costs them their jobs,’ or ‘If I want your opinions, I’ll give it to you.’

It is hard not to start believing in your own ‘greatness’ when those who surround you are constantly testifying to your perspicacity and wisdom. The Romans had the right idea when at the back of the chariot in which Caeser rode through Rome after his triumphs in foreign lands, acclaimed by cheering throngs, there stood a man repeating, ‘Remember, Caeser, you are human. You are human, Caeser.’

Schopenhauer once said that at the end of life, no man, if he were sincere and in possession of his faculties, would ever wish to go through it again.

From ‘My Guru in Disguise’ by Priya Mookerjee

2011-05-09T23:31:00.000+05:30

…………. Vrindavan …….. a spot held sacred by all devout believers. ….. “Every particle, every grain of dust in this place is sacred. So many great souls have stepped on this soil, spending years, seeking Krishna within their hearts. The spiritual energy they emitted has made Vrindavan so special,” she explained, rubbing a fistful of dirt on her face and arms, and putting a little into her mouth.
“Don’t think this is just ordinary dirt. This earth is charged with spiritual energies that can have a transforming effect. Wherever you are, you should scatter this dust and sanctify that place; then, no matter where you live, that place will become as sacred as Vrindavan.”

The Upanishads …… ‘He alone sees who sees all beings as himself.’

“….. Spiritual growth usually begins with a sense of discontentment with the present condition of your life ….. no matter what your external condition is, you have to find your inner happiness – that point which connects you to God,” she said

“How does that happen?” I asked.

“By inquiring and questioning all the time,” she replied.

…. “Why are we here is the first question. Feel this in your heart; not just in your head” ……. “The answer is irrelevant because everyone has a different point of view. ….. Simply becoming aware of such a question will have a transforming effect upon you,” she explained.

“Ma ….. what do you see and feel when you go into one of your trance states?” …….

“Words can never adequately describe what that is. Sometimes I feel a gentle rocking motion at the base of the spine. That sensation gradually travels upward, remaining at the heart centre before moving to the point in-between the brows. The energy then shoots through the fontanel on top of the head. When that happens I hear a loud sound like that of a gushing waterfall or a clap of thunder, after which a stream of liquid light pours into every part of my being. ….. My whole being gets engulfed by this energy, filling every pore with a new, intelligent, life force ……… This force moves through my body with a will of it's own that is beyond my control. I become helpless like a child. Suddenly, everything becomes abundantly clear; I am not the one who is in control. There is a higher, super-intelligent, life-sustaining energy, which is responsible for my very existence. ……. Sometimes these experiences are so potent that I cannot contain the force within the limitations of my body. During those times, I feel I am fluctuating between life and death, between sanity and madness …… This is certainly not a mental affliction, but a state that takes you beyond the mind, beyond the level of thought patterns, into a state of being fully conscious through every cell, every pore of your being. At times this energy becomes so overpowering, I feel the boundaries of my physical form starting to dissolve, and when that happens, I cannot adequately describe the breathtaking beauty I perceive … when I experience a total absence of separation, where everything becomes a part of me and I am part of everything.”

From ‘Question your thinking, Change the world’ by Byron Katie

2011-05-08T14:36:00.000+05:30

How do you react when you think you need people’s love? Do you become a slave for their approval? Do you live an inauthentic life because you cant bear the thought that they might disapprove of you? Do you try to figure out how they would like you to be, and then try to become that, like a chameleon?

In fact, you never really get their love. You turn into someone you aren’t, and then when they say “I love you,” you cant believe it, because they’re loving a façade. They’re loving someone who doesn’t even exist, the person you’re pretending to be. It’s difficult to seek other people’s love. It's deadly. In seeking it, you lose what is genuine. This is the prison we create for ourselves as we seek what we already have.

There’s no decision in death. People who know that there’s no hope are free. The decision is out of their hands. It has always been that way, but some people have to die bodily to find out. No wonder they smile on their deathbeds. Dying is everything hey were looking for in life. Their delusion of being in charge is over. When there’s no choice, there’s no fear. And in that, there is peace. They realize that they’re home and that they’ve never left.

Reality – the way that it is, exactly as it is, in every moment – is always kind. It's our story about reality that blurs our vision, obscures what’s true, and leads us to believe that there is injustice in the world. I sometimes say that you move totally away from reality when you believe that there is a legitimate reason to suffer. When you believe that any suffering is legitimate, you become the champion of suffering, the perpetuator of it in yourself. It’s insane to believe that suffering is cause by anything outside the mind. A clear mind doesn’t suffer. That’s not possible.

It’s our beliefs about death that scare us to death.

God is another name for reality, and I am a lover of what is. If I lose my grandchild or my daughter, I lose what wasn’t mine in the first place. It's a good thing. Either that or God is a sadist, and that’s not my experience. I don’t order God around. I don’t presume to know whether life or death is better for me or for anyone I love. How can I know that? All I know is that God is everything and God is good. That’s my story, and I’m sticking to it.

Ultimately you don’t have any control over your children. You don’t have any control over anything. When you think you should and you see that you don’t, the effect is depression.

Just follow your passion. Do what you love, inquire, and have a happy life while you’re doing it.

You’re the interpreter of everything, and if you’re chaotic, what you hear and see has to be chaos. Even if Jesus, even if the Buddha, were standing in front of you and speaking, you’d only hear confused words, because confusion would be the listener. You’d only hear what you thought he was saying, and you’d start arguing with him the first time your story was threatened.

It's not your job to like me – it's mine

The miracle of love comes to you in the presence of the uninterpreted moment. If you are mentally somewhere else, you miss real life.

From ‘Swami. Encounters with modern mystics’ by Doug Boyd

2011-04-21T22:11:00.000+05:30

The Hindu idea is that all of us are responsible for our own actions and their results. That’s what karma is.

…… ultimately one can really master nothing other than one’s own self

“ …….. After three hours and thirty-six minutes one achieves perfect stillness of posture. If one is trained to sit in a particular posture without any movement, after three hours and thirty-six minutes one achieves that stillness. And that is one of the signs of samadhi”
- Swami Rama

Swami believed it the habit of all good yogis and aspirants to spring from their beds immediately upon awakening. He also believed that all sensible people are up and about when the sun comes up in order to benefit from some special ethereal quality of the sun’s first rays.

…… the proper execution of the lotus posture ……. “You see where my feet are? The heels should press in against the abdomen like this. In this manner you maintain the locks – the solar plexus and anal locks – and you achieve the best balance and stability, which is the purpose of this posture and the reason why it is superior to all the others ….. Any posture will suit for meditation so long as the head, neck and trunk are always straight ……… do the lotus asana …… properly ….. see my toes? The backs of the toes rest flatly against the outside of the legs. ……. Once you master it, it takes the least effort. You will see how easily you keep the proper alignment of the spine. In any other posture the back will bow, and you must attend to it again and again. But here you will see the backbone remains unbending without the constant effort of the muscles. ………First you will feel uneasy …… then the body adjusts …….. The body numbs, and all the sensations are forgotten. This body consciousness is gone and the body is transcended. ……… your left knee is resting on the floor, but your right knee must do the same.”
- Swami Rama

“…… you should have and keep a spiritual diary. You can develop yourself by writing in bold words what you have done each day. Your spiritual self will tell you what work is to be done that you have not done and what work is not to be done that you have done. In this way you will be disciplined. You will understand your major thoughts, and you will understand where you have committed mistakes”
- Swami Rama

“Your work starts with the lungs ……. By controlling the motion of the lungs, mind’s movements come under control …… by increasing the capacity of your lungs, by making the lungs strong, you make the respiratory system very regular …… you bring the vagus nerve under control ……. You gain control of the sympathetic and parasympathetic systems …….. breath is the first link between the conscious and the unconscious …… if you control your breath … your attention develops and you are on your way toward gaining control of the unconscious processes or movements of your mind”
- Swami Rama

“When the balance between the flow of the right and the left nostril is upset, the “pranic” energy is affected by it and the result is some sort of physical ailment …. If we want to cure ourselves of disease and restore the balance of life, we should try to restore the balance between the flow of breath ……… breathing ….. stores up “pranic” energy”
- Swami Rama

‘Empty thyself and I shall fill thee.’ Discipline is a kind of emptying. The moment you have emptied yourself the real self is revealed in you – the master in you is able to come forward.

From ‘The Four Agreements. A Toltec Wisdom book’ by Don Miguel Ruiz

2011-04-09T20:31:00.000+05:30

We try to please Mom and Dad, we try to please the teachers at school, we try to please the church, and so we start acting. We pretend to be what we are not because we are afraid of being rejected. The fear of being rejected becomes the fear of not being good enough. Eventually we become someone that we are not.

The human being is the only animal on earth that pays a thousand times for the same mistake. The rest of the animals pay once for every mistake they make. But not us. We have a powerful memory. We make a mistake, we judge ourselves, we find ourselves guilty, and we punish ourselves. ……. If we have a wife or husband he or she also reminds us of the mistake, so we can judge ourselves again, punish ourselves again, and find ourselves guilty again. Is this fair?

Your whole mind is a fog which the Toltecs called a mitote (pronounced MIH-TOE’-TAY). Your mind is a dream where a thousand people talk at the same time, and nobody understands each other. This is the condition of the human mind – a big mitote, and with that big mitote you cannot see what you really are. In India they call the mitote, maya, which means illusion. It is the personality’s notion of “I am”. Everything you believe about yourself and the world, all the concepts and programming you have in your mind, all are the mitote. We cannot see who we truly are; we cannot see that we are not free.

That is why humans resist life. To be alive is the biggest fear humans have ……… Just being ourselves is the biggest fear of humans. We have learned to live by other people’s points of view because of the fear of not being accepted and of not being good enough for someone else. ……. Trying to be good enough for them, we create an image of perfection, but we don’t fit this image ….. Not being perfect we reject ourselves ……. We try to hide ourselves, and we pretend to be what we are not. The result is that we feel unauthentic and wear social masks to keep others from noticing this. We are so afraid that somebody else will notice that we are not what we pretend to be.

In your whole life nobody has ever abused you more than you have abused yourself.

You need a very strong will in order to adopt The Four Agreements – but if you begin to live your life with these agreements, the transformation in your life will be amazing.

The First Agreement – Be Impeccable With Your Word

…… your intent manifests through the word. …… Impeccability means “without sin”. Impeccable comes from the Latin pecatus, which means “sin”. The im in impeccable means “without,” so impeccable means “without sin.” ……… Mostly we use the word to spread our personal poison – to express anger, jealousy, envy, and hate. ……. Gossiping has become the main form of communication in human society. …… Use the word in the correct way. Use the word to share your love.

The Second Agreement – Don’t Take Anything Personally

When you take things personally, then you feel offended, and your reaction is to defend your beliefs and create conflicts ……. You also try hard to be right by giving them your own opinions. ……. by taking things personally you set yourself up to suffer for nothing. …… The whole world can gossip about you, and if you don’t take it personally you are immune.

The Third Agreement – Don’t Make Assumptions
The problem with making assumptions is that we believe they are the truth. ……. we believe we are right about the assumptions; then we defend our assumptions and try to make someone else wrong. ……. We only see what we want to see, and hear what we want to hear ……. We literally dream things up in our imaginations.

The Fourth Agreement – Always Do Your Best

From ‘The Essential Swami Ramdas’

2011-04-08T23:13:00.000+05:30

…….. whether an avatar and a God-realized soul possess the same power and vision and carry out the same mission ……. Surely, as far as the knowledge of God is concerned, both are on the same plane, but in the field of action the avatar brings down the light and power of the supreme Truth to a greater mass of humanity than a God-realized person does …. there is a clear assertion made by the avatar that he has descended on the earth with the special mission of liberating mankind from ignorance and bondage.

In the Bhagavad Gita there is a sloka which says:

Alike in pleasure and pain, who dwells in the self, to whom a clod of earth, stone, and gold are alike, to whom the dear and the undear are alike, who is firm, the same in censure and praise – (he is said to have crossed beyond the gunas)

This is the state which is held out as the highest in the Bhagavad Gita. You have to transcend the pairs of opposites. Otherwise you are like a scared animal at the sacrificial altar.

The Hindu religion is a universal religion. It accepts all the great Teachers and spiritual Masters of the world as equally great, because they are all representations or manifestations of the Divine. The Hindus offer equal reverence to Jesus, Mohammed, Zoroaster, Buddha, Krishna, or Rama …….. Hinduism …. It says: “All religions are true. You may follow any religion you like but be sincere and true. You may follow any religion you like but be sincere and look upon the Master, the supreme personality of your religion, as the very expression of Divinity, even as the Masters of other religions are. By having complete faith in your Master you will be saved……..” This is the thing you find peculiar in Hinduism.

If you want to take a leap into the Infinite and realize your oneness with It, you have to stop reasoning. Reason must give place to intuition. Intuition is born of a purified heart and an illumined intelligence. It is a spontaneous outflow of Divine Light. This can come only after elimination of the ego-sense.

Japa ………. Take the Name of Brahman Himself and using it as a ladder ascend the summit, the supreme Godhead with whom you are eternally one. ……. Fixing the mind on the sound of His Name is the easiest way for concentration ….. By gradual practice, the external repetition will lead to an automatic functioning of the Name in the mind. ….. By the sadhana the restless nature of the mind is curbed.

Japa ………. The easiest means to make the mind dwell in the idea of God is to constantly reiterate mentally or vocally in the Name of God. Such a recitation of the Name should of course be accompanied by implicit faith in the efficacy of the Name and intense love for the immortal ideal which the Name represents, viz. the supreme Reality who is absolute existence, consciousness, and bliss and who is seated in the hearts of us all. When thus the mind is completely absorbed in the Divine idea, a stage is reached when the mere individual or physical consciousness is transmuted into the universal and ever blissful consciousness.

Meditation at stated times and remembrance of God at all times is necessary in the case of all sadhakas.

What we have to do is to aspire for God. When this aspiration becomes intense, God helps in our progress and by His grace lifts us up and absorbs us into His all-inclusive, all transcendant Supreme Being.

… if they want to concentrate their mind on God, vegetarian food will be helpful. It is sattvic food. If one uses onions, garlic, or chillies, he will find great disturnance in the mind and it will become restless. Meat also should be totally eschewed as it is rajasic in nature and irritates the mind and proves a hindrance on the spiritual path.

From ‘The Big Book Shelf’ - Sunil Sethi in conversation with 30 famous writers

2011-04-03T22:41:00.001+05:30

‘The trouble with opportunities is not that they don’t come,’ the English writer E.M. Forster once observed. ‘It is that they are not punctual’

….. the poet Faiz Ahmed Faiz: ‘Lambi hai gham ki raat magar raat hi toh hai (Long is the sorrowful night, but a night is all it is).’

This is an English translation of Milosz, who says to a ruler:

You who wronged a simple man
Bursting into laughter at the crime,
And kept a pack of fools around you
To mix good and evil, to blur the line,

Though everyone bowed down before you,
Saying virtue and wisdom lit your way,
Striking gold medals in your honour,
Glad to have survived another day,

Do not feel safe. The poet remembers.
You can kill one, but another is born.
The words are written down, the deed, the date

Salman Rushdie: There is a very beautiful passage in a novel of Saul Bellow’s that I have always taken as a kind of text. It is in The Dean’s December …… it is winter …… and he hears ………. In the distance: a dog barking. Bellow wonderfully has his character imagine that what the dog is doing is protesting about the limits of dog experience; he imagines that the dog is saying, ‘For God’s sake, open the universe a little more.’ A beautiful phrase, I have always thought that it is the artist’s job to open the universe a little more and that is what I tried to do.

Khushwant Singh: Ghalib is my favourite, and my favourite lines are about himself, Asadullah Khan, ageing and he joy of life ebbing from him. ……..

Woh badah-e-shabana ki sarmastiyan kahan
Uthiye, ke bas ab ki lazzat-e-khwab-e-sehar gayi
Maara zamaane ne Asadullah Khan tumhe
Woh walwale kahan, woh jawaani kidhar gayi?

(What happened to those nights of intoxicated ecstasy?
Arise, for the sweet dream of morning has gone.
Time and age have beaten you, Asadullah Khan,
Where has the effervescence of youth gone?)

From ‘The Road Less Travelled’ by M. Scott Peck

2011-03-26T20:36:00.000+05:30

…… Carl Jung, ‘Neurosis is always a substitute for legitimate suffering.’

…….. children who are truly loved ……… unconsciously know themselves to be valued. This knowledge is worth more than any gold. For when children know that they are valued, when they truly feel valued in the deepest parts of themselves, then they feel valuable.

The feeling of being valuable – ‘I am a valuable person’ – is essential to mental health and is a cornerstone of self-discipline. It is a direct product of parental love. Such a conviction must be gained in childhood; it is extremely difficult to acquire it during adulthood …… when children have learned through the love of their parents to feel valuable, it is almost impossible for the vicissitudes of adulthood to destroy their spirit.

Most people who come to see a psychiatrist are suffering from what is called either a neurosis or a character disorder ……. they are opposite styles of relating to the world and it's problems. The neurotic assumes too much responsibility; the person with a character disorder not enough. When neurotics are in conflict with the world they automatically assume that they are at fault. When those with character disorders are in conflict with the world they automatically assume that the world is at fault.

….. character-disordered parents almost invariably produce character-disordered or neurotic children. It is the parents themselves who visit their sins upon their children.

.. with experience the child begins to experience itself – namely, as an entity separate from the rest of the world. When it is hungry, mother doesn’t always appear to feed it. When it is playful, mother doesn’t always want to play. The child then has the experience of it's wishes not being it's mothers command. It's will is experienced as something separate from it's mother’s behavior. A sense of the ‘me’ begins to develop. This interaction between the infant and the mother is believed to be the ground out of which the child’s sense of identity begins to grow. It has been observed that when the interaction between the infant and it's mother is grossly disturbed – for example, when there is no mother, no satisfactory mother substitute or when because of her own mental illness the mother is totally uncaring or uninterested – then the infant grows into a child or adult whose sense of identity is grossly defective in the most basic ways.

For instance, the age between two and three is typically a time when the child comes to terms with the limits of it's power. While before this time the child has learned that it's wish is not necessarily it's mothers command, it still clings to the possibility that it's wish might be it's mothers command and the feeling that it's wish should be her command. It is because of this hope and feeling that the two-year-old usually attempts to act like the tyrant and autocrat ……. Parents speak of this age as the ‘terrible twos’

…… most of us feel our loneliness to be painful and yearn to escape from behind the walls of our individual identities to a condition in which we can be more unified with the world outside of ourselves. The experience of falling in love allows us this escape – temporarily. The essence of the phenomenon of falling in love is a sudden collapse of a section of an individual’s ego boundaries, permitting one to merge his or her identity with that of another person. The sudden release of oneself from oneself, the explosive pouring out of oneself into the beloved, and the dramatic surcease of loneliness accompanying this collapse of ego boundaries is experienced by most of us as ecstatic. ……. Sooner or later, in response to the problems of daily living, individual will reasserts itself. He wants to have sex; she doesn’t. She wants to go to the movies; he doesn’t ….. both of them , in the privacy of their hearts, begin to come to the sickening realization that they are not one with the beloved ….. One by one, gradually or suddenly, the ego boundaries snap back into place; gradually or suddenly, they fall out of love ………. At this point they begin either to dissolve the ties of their relationship or to initiate the work of real loving.

The inner feeling of emptiness from which passive dependent people suffer is the direct result of their parents failure to fulfill their needs for affection, attention and care during childhood ……… Children growing up in an atmosphere in which love and care are lacking or given with gross inconsistency enter adulthood with no such sense of inner security. Rather, they have an inner sense of insecurity, a feeling of ‘I don’t have enough’ and a sense that the world is unpredictable and ungiving, as well as a sense of themselves as being questionably lovable and valuable. It is no wonder, then, that they feel the need to scramble for love, care and attention wherever they can find it, and once having found it, cling to it with a desperation that leads them to unloving, manipulative, Machiavellian behavior that destroys the very relationships they seek to preserve.

There are, then, two ways to confront or criticize another human being: with instinctive and spontaneous certainty that one is right, or with a belief that one is probably right arrived at through scrupulous self-doubting and self-examination. The first is the way of arrogance; it is the most common way of parents, spouses, teachers and people generally in their day-to-day affairs; it is usually unsuccessful, producing more resentment than growth and other effects that were not intended. The second is the way of humility; it is not common, requiring as it does a genuine extension of oneself; it is more likely to be successful, and it is never, in my experience, destructive.

It is clear that exercising power with love requires a great deal of work, but what is this about the risk involved? The problem is that the more loving one is, the more humble one is: yet the more humble one is, the more one is awed by the potential for arrogance in exercising power. Who am I to influence the course of human events? By what authority am I entitled to decide what is best for my child, my spouse, my country or the human race? Who gives me the right to dare to believe in my own understanding and then to presume to exert my will upon the world? Who am I to play God? That is the risk. For whenever we exercise power we are attempting to influence the course of the world, of humanity, and we are thereby playing God ……… those who truly love, and therefore work for the wisdom that love requires, know that to act is to play God. Yet they also know that there is no alternative except inaction and impotence. Love compels us to play God with full consciousness of the enormity of the fact that that is just what we are doing. With this consciousness the loving person assumes the responsibility of attempting to be God and not to carelessly play God, to fulfill God’s will without mistake. We arrive, then, at yet another paradox: only out of the humility of love can humans dare to be God.

….. Kahlil Gibran addresses himself in what are perhaps the finest words ever written about child rasing:
Your children are not your children.
They are the sons and daughters of Life’s longing for itself.
They come through you but not from you,
And though they are with you yet they belong not to you.

You may give them your love but not your thoughts,
For they have their own thoughts.
You may house their bodies but not their souls,
For their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow, which you
cannot visit, not even in your dreams.
You may strive to be like them, but seek not to make them
like you.
For life goes not backward nor tarries with yesterday.
You are the bows from which your children as living arrows
are sent forth.
The archer sees the mark upon the path of the infinite, and
He bends you with His might that His arrows may go
swift and far.
Let your bending in the archer’s hand be for gladness;
For even as He loves the arrow that flies, so He loves also the bow that is stable.

……. Kahlil Gibran speaks to us concerning marriage:

Love one another, but make not a bond of love;
Let it rather be a moving sea between the shores of your souls.
Fill each other’s cup but drink not from one cup.
Give one another of your bread but eat not from the same loaf
Sing and dance together and be joyous, but let each one of
you be alone,
Even as the strings of a lute are alone though they quiver
with the same music.

Give your hearts, but not into each other’s keeping.
For only the hand of Live can contain your hearts.
And stand together yet not too near together:
For the pillars of the temple stand apart,
And the oak tree and the cypress grow not in each other’s
shadow.

For the most part, mental illness is caused by an absence of or defect in the love that a particular child required from it's particular parents for successful maturation and spiritual growth. It is obvious, then, that in order to be healed through psychotherapy the patient must receive from the psychotherapist at least a portion of the genuine love of which the patient was deprived. If the psychotherapist cannot genuinely love a patient, genuine healing will not occur.

Self-realization is born and matures in a distinctive kind of awareness, an awareness that has been described in many different ways by many different people. The mystics, for example, have spoken of it as the perception of the divinity and perfection of the world. Richard Bucke referred to it as cosmic consciousness; Buber described it in terms of the I-Thou relationship; and Maslow gave it the label ‘Being-cognition.’ We shall use Ouspensky’s term and call it the perception of the miraculous. ‘Miraculous’ here refers not only to extraordinary phenomena but also to the commonplace, for absolutely anything can evoke this special awareness provided that close enough attention is paid to it. Once perception is disengaged from the domination of preconception and personal interest, it is free to experience the world as it is in itself and to behold it's inherent magnificence….. Perception of the miraculous requires no faith or assumptions. It is simply a matter of paying full and close attention to the givens of life, i.e., to what is so ever-present that it is usually taken for granted. The true wonder of the world is available everywhere, in the minutest parts of our bodies, in the vast expanses of the cosmos, and in the intimate interconnectedness of these and all things….. We are part of a finely balanced ecosystem in which interdependency goes hand-in-hand with individuation. We are all individuals, but we are also parts of a greater whole, united in something vast and beautiful beyond description. Perception of the miraculous is the subjective essence of self-realization, the root from which man’s highest features and experiences grow

- Michael Stark and Michael Washburn, ‘Beyond the Norm: A Speculative Model of Self-Realization’

From ‘Pilgrims of the Stars. Autobiography of two yogis’ – Dilip Kumar Roy and Indira Devi

2011-03-24T23:27:00.000+05:30

Yoga is a junction, a meeting with the Lord, with the Universal Consciousness, with the Supreme Self or one’s own highest self. Any effort or method that brings about this union, this inner harmony, knowledge, love or understanding is yoga.

Sri Ramakrishna had said over and over again that one should always meditate alone, stressing that the less other people know about one’s prayers, the better it is for one.

The musicologist Professor Fox Strongways writes in his well-known book on Indian music that the euphonious Bengali language is so appropriate for music that it could well claim kinship with the Italian language in Europe

“I do maintain that asceticism is the greatest of all arts. For what is art but beauty in simplicity, and what is asceticism but the loftiest manifestation of simple beauty in daily life?” – Mahatma Gandhi

…. A famous yogavashista couplet which said:

Rely on thine own strength and, grinding thy teeth,
Defy with heroic deeds the Tyrant, Fate.

As to permanence, you cannot expect permanence of the initial spiritual experiences from the beginning – only a few have that and even for them the high intensity is not always there; for most the experience comes and then draws back behind the veil waiting for the human part to be prepared and made ready to bear and hold fast to it's increase and then it's permanence …………… This weak limited normality finds it difficult at first even to get any touch of that greater and intenser supernormal experience or it gets it diluted into it's own duller stuff of mental or vital experience, and when the spiritual experience does come in it's own overwhelming power, our normal consciousness very often cannot bear it or, if it bears, cannot hold and keep it. Still once a decisive breach has been made in the walls built by the mind against the Infinite, the breach widens sometimes slowly, sometimes swiftly, until there is no wall any longer, and there is the permanence. ………. If the consciousness is always busy with small mental movements – especially accompanied, as they usually are, by a host of vital movements, desires, prepossessions and all else that vitiates human thinking – even apart from the native insufficiency of reason – what room can there be for a new order of knowledge, for fundamental experiences or for those deep and tremendous upsurgings or descents of the Spirit? It is, indeed, possible for the mind in the midst of it's activities to be suddenly taken by surprise, overwhelmed, swept aside, while all is flooded with the sudden inrush of spiritual experience. But if afterwards it begins questioning, doubting, theorizing, surmising what this might be and whether it is true or not, what else can the spiritual Power do but retire and wait for the bubbles of the Mind to cease?

- Sri Aurobindo

True to our great Indian tradition, the [Ramana] Maharshi did not relish answering merely intellectual questions, or the queries of the curious who were content with mere wordy answers. Again and again he would stress that information was not knowledge and that all true knowledge stemmed first and last from self-knowledge. So sometimes, when he was asked about the worlds beyond of the life hereafter, he would simply evade the question. “Why this itch to know about the other worlds? Do you know even the crucial and basic things about this one? If not, why not wait till you do before you start delving into the next? Why do you want to know what happens after death? Do you really know what is happening before your very nose? ………. Do you know – truly know – what you are today – this moment?”

“ ……. It is the ineradicable ego, the I-ness in each of us, which is responsible for the perpetuation of this maya with all it's attendant sufferings and disenchantments.”

“What, then, is the remedy?” I asked.

“Just be,” he [Ramana Maharshi] answered. “Delve down into That which only is, for then you will find – you are That – there is and can be nothing else but That. When you see this, all the trappings of maya and make-believe fall off, even as the worn-out slough of the snake. So all that you have to do is to get to this I, the real I behind your seeming I, for then only are you rid forever of the illusive I-ness and all is attained, since you stay thenceforward at one with That which is the immutable you. That’s all.”

“We shall have to do nothing then?”

“Why? You shall have done the greatest thing – the only thing that is worth doing – after which you may rest assured that all that has to be done will be done through you. The thing is,” he added, “not to bother your head about doing things: just be and you will have done all that is expected of you.”

“ ……….. the I-ness, which is the root of all evil. Rend this illusion and you land pat into the lap of the One Eternal Reality ……….”

“But why, then, don’t you come out to preach this great message?” I asked. “For most people, you will agree, do not even know that there is this I-ness to be got rid of.”

He gave me again that cryptic smile tinctured with this characteristic irony and asked: “Have you heard of the saying of Vivekananda, that if one but thinks a noble, selfless thought even in a cave, it sets up vibrations throughout the world and does what has to be done – what can be done?”

Indira ……… she saw that pain was necessary, because it purified and one could never know oneself unless one went through the fire of suffering. She would never have been conscious of her attachment if she had not suffered so much.

Meditation is a contact with the Beloved, your real self. It is the completeness of being alone with oneself, a state of Grace in which one spontaneously opens one’s heart to the Light. See how the sunflower opens it's petals to the sun – effortlessly, yet so definitely.

One should think of the Lord as often as one can. In this way the mind eventually becomes accustomed to the heights and meditation is made possible. Indira always advises new people, regardless of the work they are engaged in, to think of Him for one minute every half-hour. Even this much will keep up the contact.

What is necessary for each of us is to give what we can. Don’t calculate, don’t plan. Whatever little you have to give to the Lord – give it today.

Just as insects, lying still in a dark corner, suddenly come to life under a torchlight, so the hidden imperfection lying latent in human beings become restive when dazzled by the light of Grace. The pressure of this light is very difficult for the disciple to bear, and those who are unwilling to change sooner or later pack up and leave.

“ …… The guru can but stimulate this but the flame of your aspiration has to be fanned sleeplessly by your own effort and vigilance. But the paradox is that however you may try you cannot make much headway if you believe you will attain by your own effort. That effort leads duly to helplessness – the zero hour – when His help comes. But nonetheless the effort has to be made in order to realize the futility of effort unblessed by His Grace. And this is a very valuable realization in that it leads you straight into the heart of humility and submission without which one can never go far.” – Swami Ramdas

…… in his [Swami Ramdas’s] book, At the Feet of God, ………..

Answer: When the human will is given up for the Divine will, all responsibility of the instrument, the devotee, ceases and the consciousness of the individual ego is merged in the Divine Consciousness. Then all his actions, thoughts and words emanate from the Divine Source, leaving him free from all doubt, desire and bondage.

Abnormal, otherwise supra-physical experiences, and powers, occult or yogic, have always seemed to me something perfectly natural and credible. Consciousness in it's very nature could not be limited by the ordinary physical human-animal consciousness; it must have other ranges. Yogis or occult powers are no more supernatural or incredible than is supernatural or incredible the power to write a great poem or compose great music; few people can do it ………… to write or to compose true and great things one has to have the passage clear between the outer mind and something in the inner being.
– Sri Aurobindo

P. G. Wodehouse - 9

2011-02-27T15:23:00.002+05:30

From ‘The Man Upstairs and other Stories’

The right sort of people do not want apologies, and the wrong sort take a mean advantage of them.

Sellers’ habitual attitude now was that of the kindly celebrity who has arrived and wishes to give the youngsters a chance.

The youths of Melbourne were sturdy and honest. They were the backbone of England. England, in her hour or need, could have called upon them with the comfortable certainty that, unless they happened to be otherwise engaged, they would leap to her aid.

But they did not shine at small-talk. Conversationally they were a spent force after they had asked Mr Williams how his rheumatism was.

There are moments in a man’s life when, however enthusiastic a gardener he may be, his soul soars above vegetables. Tom’s shot with a jerk into the animal kingdom. The first present he gave Sally in his capacity of fiancé was a dog.
It was a half-grown puppy with long legs and a long tail, belonging to no one species, but generously distributing itself among about six.

He broke off. Stirring things had begun to occur in the neighbourhood of his ankles, where Bill, the fox-terrier, had encountered an acquaintance, and, to the accompaniment of a loud, gargling noise, was endeavouring to bite his head off. The acquaintance, a gentleman of uncertain breed, equally willing, was chewing Bill’s paw with the gusto of a gourmet. An Irish terrier, with no personal bias towards either side, was dancing round and attacking each in turn as he came uppermost. And two poodles leaped madly in and out of the melee, barking encouragement.

They are white men who will be charmed to do a little thing like that for a sport like Archie.

What is it that makes men do perilous deeds? Why does a man go over Niagara Falls in a barrel? Not for his health. Half an hour with a skipping-rope would be equally beneficial to his liver. No; in nine cases out of ten he does it to prove to his friends and relations that he is not the mild, steady-going person they have always thought him. Observe the music-hall acrobat as he prepares to swing from the roof by his eyelids. His gaze sweeps the house. ‘It isn’t true,’ it seems to say. ‘I’m not a jelly-fish.’

Everyone liked Rollo – the great majority on sight, the rest as soon as they heard that he would be a millionaire on the death of his Uncle Andrew.

You’re the only real white man that’s ever happened to me……..George.

From ‘Sam the Sudden’

Willoughby Braddock was one of those unfortunate bachelors who are doomed to live under the thrall of either a housekeeper or a valet. His particular cross in life was his housekeeper, his servitude being rendered all the more unescapable by the fact that Mrs Lippett had been his nurse in the days of his childhood. There are men who can defy a woman. There are men who can cope with a faithful old retainer. But f there are men who can tackle a faithful old female retainer who has frequently smacked them with the back of a hairbrush, Willoughby Braddock was not one of them.

…….. he gazed about him from under the brim of a soft hat which could have been worn without exciting comment by any scarecrow.

‘ …….. I did not break into this charming little house. My presence, Mrs Braddock, strange as it may seem, is easily explained.’
‘Who are you calling Mrs Braddock?’
‘Aren’t you Mrs Braddock?’
‘No.’
‘You aren’t married to Mr Braddock?’
‘No, I’m not.’
Sam was a broad-minded young man.
‘Ah, well,’ he said, ‘in the sight of God, no doubt - ’
‘I’m the cook.’
‘Oh,’ said Sam, relieved, ‘that explains it.’

……… he went downstairs again, and so out on the broad trail that led to the premises of Messrs Matters & Cornelius, House Agents, of Ogilvy Street.

What Mr Matters would have thought of Sam as he charged breezily into the office a few minutes later we shall never know, for Mr Matters died in the year 1910. Mr Cornelius thought him perfectly foul.

‘I’ll get a dog,’ said Hash solemnly, ‘that’ll feed on nails and bite his own mother.’

He caught the Rev. Aubrey’s eye. He was looking as Sherlock Holmes might have looked had he discovered Doctor Watson stealing his watch.

From ‘Eggs, Beans and Crumpets’

Bingo, you see, is not a man who finds it easy to float a really substantial loan. People know too much about his financial outlook. He will have it in sackfuls some day, of course, but until he realizes on his Uncle Wilberforce – who is eighty-six and may quite easily go to par – the wolf, so far as he is concerned, will always be in or about the vestibule. The public is aware of this, and it makes the market sluggish.

‘The more human lives that aren’t saved, the better I shall like it. I loathe the human race. Any time it wants to go over Niagara Falls in a barrel, it will be all right with me.’

His whole aspect was that of a man who has unexpectedly been struck by lightening

‘Could you please lend me a tenner, Oofy, old man?’
‘No, I couldn’t.’
‘It would save my life.’
‘There,’ said Oofy, ‘you have put your finger on the insuperable objection to the scheme. I see no percentage in your being alive. I wish you were a corpse, preferably a mangled one. I should like to dance on your remains.’
Bingo was surprised.
‘Dance on my remains?’
‘All over them.’
Bingo drew himself up. He had his pride.
‘Oh?’ he said. ‘Well, in that case, tinkerty-tonk.’

‘………millionaire philatelist.’
‘Millionaire what?’ asked a Small Bass
‘Sir Leopold,’ explained Mr. Mulliner, ‘collected stamps.’
The Small Bass said that he always thought that a philatelist was a man who was kind to animals.
‘No,’ said Mr. Mulliner, ‘a stamp collector. Though many philatelists are, I believe, also kind to animals.’

He found Sir Aylmer in his study. Annabel was sitting by his side reading aloud to him from a recently published monograph on certain obscure ailments of the medulla oblongata. For the old man, though a mere gout patient, had pathetic aspirations towards higher things.

‘A cat ranch?’
‘That’s it. You collect a hundred thousand cats. Each cat has twelve kittens a year. The skins range from ten cents each for the white ones to seventy-five for the pure black. That gives you twelve million skins per year to sell at an average price of thirty cents per skin, making your annual revenue at a conservative estimate three hundred and sixty thousand dollars. But, you will say, what about overhead expenses?’
‘Will I?’
‘That has all been allowed for. To feed the cats you start a rat ranch next door. The rats multiply four times as fast as cats, so if you begin with a million rats it gives you four rats per cat, which is plenty. You feed the rats on what is left over of the cats after removing the skins, allowing one-fourth of a cat per rat, the business thus becoming automatically self-supporting. The cats will eat the rats, the rats will eat the cats -’
There was a loud knock upon the door.
‘Come in,’ bellowed Ukridge irritably. These captains of industry hate to be interrupted when in conference.

Tuppy [works in the Foreign Office], sterling fellow though he is, has his bad mornings. He comes down to the office and finds a sharp note from the President of Uruguay or someone on his desk, and it curdles the milk of human kindness within him. On these occasions he becomes so tight that he could carry an armful of eels up five flights of stairs and not drop one.

She came so close once that I could have hit her with an apple. Not that I did, of course.

He said that, though he wasn’t any too keen on matrimony as an institution, he was broad-minded enough to realize that there might quite possibly be women in the world unlike his late wife. Concerning whom, he added that the rabbit was not, as had been generally stated, Australia’s worst pest.

This new addition to our little party was a long, lean, Anglo Indian-looking individual. You know the type. Beige as to general colour-scheme and rather like a vulture with a white moustache.

From ‘A Wodehouse Miscellany and William Tell Told again’

In the good old days poets were for the most part confined to garrets, which they left only for the purpose of being ejected from the offices of magazines and papers to which they attempted to sell their wares. Nobody ever thought of reading a book of poems unless accompanied by a guarantee from the publisher that the author had been dead at least a hundred years. Poetry, like wine, certain brands of cheese, and public buildings, was rightly considered to improve with age; and no connoisseur could have dreamed of filling himself with raw, indigestible verse, warm from the maker.

…. One, Reginald Dallas, whom it had struck at an early period of their acquaintance that he and Miss Sylvia Reynolds were made for one another. On communicating this discovery to Sylvia herself he had found that her views upon the subject were identical with his own ………

……….. country cricket ………. And there is the village match, where cows are apt to stroll on to the pitch before the innings and cover-point stands up to his neck in a furze-bush.

…… I was trying to read a book Florence Craye had given me ……..we had got engaged ……… she was particularly keen on boosting me up a bit nearer her own plane of intellect. She was a girl with a wonderful profile, but steeped to her gills in serious purpose. I can’t give you a better idea of the way things stood than by telling you that the book she’d given me to read was called “Types of Ethical Theory,” and that when I opened it at random I struck a page beginning:-
The postulate or common understanding involved in speech is
certainly co-extensive, in the obligation it carries, with the
social organism of which language is the instrument, and the
ends of which it is an effort to subserve

All perfectly true, no doubt; but not the sort of thing to spring on a lad with a morning head.

I met Jeeves in the passage just outside ……….
“I felt I should tell you, sir, that somebody has been putting black polish on our brown walking shoes.”
“What! Who? Why?”
“I could not say, sir.”
“Can anything be done with them?”
“Nothing, sir.”
“Damn!”
“Very good, sir.”

It was one of those still evenings you get in the summer, when you can hear a snail clear it's throat a mile away.

“Oh, Jeeves,” I said; “about that check suit.”
“Yes, sir?”
“Is it really a frost?”
“A trifle too bizarre, sir, in my opinion.”
“But lots of fellows have asked me who my tailor is.”
“Doubtless in order to avoid him, sir.”
“He’s supposed to be one of the best men in London.”
“I am saying nothing against his moral character, sir.”
………………
“All right, Jeeves,” I said. “You know! Give the bally thing away to somebody!”
He looked down at me like a father gazing tenderly at the wayward child.
“Thank you, sir. I gave it to the under-gardener last night. A little more tea, sir?”

There was no sign of the aunt when I called – she had probably climbed a tree and pulled it up after her …………..

“Reginald,” she said, “I think I shall go raving mad.”
This struck me as a mighty happy solution of everybody’s troubles, but I felt it was too good to be true.

I knew just what would happen. Parbury and Stevens, the lawyers, simply looked at me as if I had been caught snatching bags. At least, Stevens did. And Parbury would have done it, too, only he had been dead a good time. Finally, after drinking me in for about a quarter of an hour, Stevens said that if I desired to address a communication to his client, care of this office, it would be duly forwarded. Good morning. Good morning. Anything further? No, thanks. Good morning. Good morning.

He was extraordinarily like Florence. He had just the same eyes. I felt boneless from the start.

……… the old man was making a noise like distant thunder, which I supposed was his way of chuckling.

The Swiss, against their Austrian foes,
Had ne’er a soul to lead ‘em,
Till Tell, as you’ve heard tell, arose
And guided them to freedom.
Tell’s tale we tell again – an act
For which pray no one scold us -
This tale of Tell we tell, in fact,
As this Tell tale was told us.

Ghazal # 1 – Patta Patta Boota Boota – Mir Taqi Mir (1723-1810)

2011-01-28T00:32:00.001+05:30

Patta Patta Boota Boota is a famous ghazal, made most famous by the singing voice of Mehdi Hassan. I trawled the web in search of a good English translation but alas, success was not mine, to be. Anyway for the time being, here’s what some of those verses mean, bit by bit, in Hindi/English.

Update on 12-Mar-11. Am inserting below an English translation of some of the verses. Courtesy: 'Masterpieces of Urdu Ghazals' by K C Kanda

****
पत्ता-पत्ता बूटा-बूटा हाल हमारा जाने है
जाने न जाने गुल ही न जाने बाघ तो सारा जाने है

pattaa-pattaa buuTaa-buuTaa haal hamaaraa jaane hai
jaane na jaane gul hii na jaane, baaG to saaraa jaane hai

Each and every leaf and plant my plight doth know

The rose alone does not know what all the garden knows

पत्ता, Patta: Leaf
बूटा, Buutaa: Undershrub
गुल, Gul: Rose
बाघ, Baagh: Garden

****

चारागरी बीमारी-इ-दिल की रस्म-इ-शहर-इ-हुस्न नहीं
वरना दिलभर-इ-नादाँ भी इस दर्द का चारा जाने है

Nursing the ailing heat is alien to the Beauty’s creed,

Else, even my witless love knows the remedy for this ache

chaaraagarii biimaarii-e-dil kii rasm-e-shehar-e-husn nahii.n
varnaa dilbhar-e-naadaa.N bhii is dard kaa chaaraa jaane hai
चारागरी, Chaaraagarri: Healing Of Wounds and Pain, treatment
biimaarii-e-dil: Love
रस्म, Rasm: Custom, Established Usage, Law, Marking, Model, Rule, Tradition, Writing
शहर-इ-हुस्न, Shehar-e-Husn: Beautiful city/surroundings
rasm-e-shehar-e-husn: custom of the city of beauties
dilbhar-e-naadaa.N: naïve beloved
चारा, Chaaraa: Aid, Cure, Help, Means, Redress, Resource, Remedy
****

mehar-o-vafaa-o-lutf-o-inaayat ek se vaaqif in me.n nahii.n
aur to sab kuchh tanz-o-kinaayaa ramz-o-ishaaraa jaane hai

Love, largesse, care, compassion, never has she known such things,

Taunting, gesturing, coquettish ogling – all else she knows.

मेहर, Mehar: Kindness, Mercy
वफा, Vafaa: Fulfilling A Promise, Fulfillment, Fidelity, Faithful, Sincerity, Sufficiency
लुत्फ़, Lutf: Benignity, Enjoyment, Favor, Grace, Joy, Kindness, Pleasure, Taste, Wit
इनायत, Inaayat: Blessing, Favour, Kindness, Acceptance Of Love, Reciprocation Of Love
mehar-o-vafaa-o-lutf-o-inaayat: mercy, trust, joys, favours
वाकिफ, Vaaqif: Acquainted, Aware, Knowing, Learned, Familiar, To Kow, To Get Familiar With
तंज़, Tanz: Jest, Irony, Laugh, Quirk, Sarcasm Satire, Wisecrack, Witticism
किनाया, Kinaaya: Allusion; metaphor, trope, figure, metonymy; a nickname; an ironical expression; innuendo; sarcasm, taunt, jeer, banter; a wink, nod, hint, sign
तंज़-ओ-किनाया, Tanz-o-Kinaayaa: Taunting, teasing
रम्ज़, Ramz: Allegory, Secret, Mysterious
इशारा, Ishaaraa: Allusion, Gesture, Mention, Sign, Symbol, Quote, Wink, Wrinkle
रम्ज़-ओ-इशारा, Ramz-o-ishaara: Hinting at
****

क्या क्या फ़ितने सर पर उसके लाता है माशूक अपना
जिस बेदिल बेताब-ओ-तवां को इश्क का मारा जाने है

kyaa kyaa fitane sar par usake laataa hai maashuuq apnaa
jis bedil betaab-o-tavaa.N ko ishq kaa maaraa jaane hai

फितना, Fitanaa: Sedition, Mischief, Mutiny, Quarrel, Revolt, Temptation, Wickedness, ordeals, trials
माशूक, Maashuuq: Beloved, Sweatheart
Bedil: heartless
बेताब, Betaab: Anxious, Restless, Powerless, Impatient
तवां, TavaaN: Thy, thine

The above courtesy of http://ekfankaar.wordpress.com/2007/12/11/patta-patta-boota-boota/ and http://mama.indstate.edu/users/shakil/meer.html where you can find additional verses too.

And here it is firstly in the mellifluous voice of Mehdi Hassan, the ghazal king of modern times. Almost everybody who is anybody I guess speaks with reverence of him as the grand old man of ghazal singing.
This rendition has a slow pace and an old-worldly charm to it. A lulling, unhurrying quality. A wise voice?!

And this one too

Followed by Ghulam Ali’s take on it. Perhaps with a little more meanderings (taans) in the Ghulam Ali style, a bit more instrumentation maybe but again with clear pronunciations (as with Mehdi Sahab) and very tuneful too. And oh, yes, ignore the accompanying visuals to the voice

And this one from the Gulzar serial on ‘Mirza Ghalib’, set to tune by Jagjit Singh but sung by Vinod Sehgal. The voice, without doubt several notches below that of MH and GA. But then, it's a fakir on the streets who is singing it.

And so here comes the rendition from Jagjit Singh himself, who was born ……. to sing ghazals. The accompanying music a bit more pronounced and with an identity of it's own, seamlessly weaving it's way around the vocals. The voice may not be as classically pure as that of MH or GA but holds it's own anyway.

And lastly Hariharan, with his pyrotechnics. A smart-alecky version. Is it a ‘I am going to beat the others at their game’ version? Does it miss the soul of the song in all it's gyrations. Or am I being harsh? Does it take it's attention away from the verse to the voice. Seems to me to be so. A cat on a hot tin roof version, sorry, couldn’t resist. The Marathi crowd seemed to like it, (they are unlikely to have understood it's meaning at all). The maestro, Hridaynath Mangeshkar too seemed to lap it up. So who am I to complain? Here, you judge……….

And finally a version by Lata Mangeshkar and Mohammed Rafi which uses the first verse only and then takes off with it's own identify and separate lyrics and poet. But yes, it's nice. And there is the Lata factor to add to it's USP ….. And I have my own take on whether Lata and Rafi really gel well in this song. The pitches are quite different and take some getting used to.

P.S. Is it ‘kanaaya’ or ‘kinaaya’. The jury seems to be split

Resources

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mir_Taqi_Mir
http://mama.indstate.edu/users/shakil/meer.html

From ‘Think on These Things’ by J. Krishnamurti

2011-01-23T23:12:00.000+05:30

And should not education help you to find out what you really love to do, so that from the beginning to the end of your life you are working at something which you feel is worthwhile and which for you has deep significance? Otherwise, for the rest of your days, you will be miserable. Not knowing what you really want to do, your mind falls into a routine in which there is only boredom, decay and death. That is why it is very important to find out while you are young what it is you really love to do, and this is the only way to create a new society

Do you know what it means to be considerate? When you see a sharp stone on a path trodden by many bare feet, you remove it, not because you have been asked, but because you feel for another – it does not matter who he is, and you may never meet him. To plant a tree and cherish it, to look at the river and enjoy the fullness of the earth, to observe a bird on the wing and see the beauty of it's flight, to have sensitivity and be open to this extraordinary movement called life ………….

But when the mind is no longer comparing, judging, evaluating, and is therefore capable of seeing what is from moment to moment without wanting to change it – in that very perception is the eternal

……. And this is an essential part of education: to learn to stand alone so that you are not caught either in the will of the many or in the will of one, and are therefore capable of discovering for yourself what is true.
Don’t depend on anybody ………

If you don’t begin to understand life while you are young, you will grow up inwardly hideous; you will be dull, empty inside, though outwardly you may have money, ride in expensive cars, put on airs.

Wherever one goes in the world, it does not matter where, one finds that society is in a perpetual state of conflict. There are always the powerful, the rich, the well-to-do on the one hand, and the labourers on the other; and each one is enviously competing, each one wants a higher position, a bigger salary, more power, more prestige. That is the state of the world, and so there is always war going on both within and without.

Now, if you and I want to bring about a complete revolution in the social order, the first thing we have to understand is this instinct for the acquisition of power.

Society is the relationship between you and me, and if our relationship is based on ambition, each one of us wanting to be more powerful than the other, then obviously we shall always be in conflict………

Have you noticed how few of us have deep feeling about anything? Do you ever rebel against your teachers….. parents…… because you have a deep, ardent feeling that you don’t want to do certain things? If you feel deeply and ardently about something, you will find that this very feeling in a curious way brings a new order into your life.………

That is why you should have strong feelings – feelings of passion, anger – and watch them, play with them, find out the truth of them. For if you merely suppress them ……. you will find that your mind is gradually being encased in an idea and thereby becomes very shallow.

You cannot learn to love, but what you can do is to observe hate and put it gently aside.

If you have no prejudice, no bias, if you are open, then everything around you becomes extraordinarily interesting, tremendously alive.
That is why it is very important, while you are young, to notice all these things. Be aware of the boat on the river, watch the train go by, see the peasant carrying a heavy burden, observe the insolence of the rich, the pride of the ministers, of the big people, of those who think they know a lot – just watch them, don’t criticize.

…. to have this inward beauty, there must be complete abandonment, the sense of not being held, of no restraint, no defence, no resistance, but abandonment becomes chaotic if there is no austerity with it …… what it means to be austere, to be satisfied with little and not to think in terms of ‘the more’?
……….. There is austerity when the mind is capable of infinite experience – when it has experience and yet remains very simple

……… whereas if you observe your mind very quietly without giving explanations, if you just let the mind be aware of it's own struggle, you will soon find that there comes a state in which there is no struggle at all, but an astonishing watchfulness. In that state of watchfulness there is no sense of the superior and the inferior, there is no big man or little man, there is no guru. All those absurdities are gone because the mind is fully awake, and the mind that is fully awake is joyous.

Why is there this everlasting craving to be loved? Listen carefully. You want to be loved because you do not love, but the moment you love, it is finished, you are no longer inquiring whether or not somebody loves you.

One of our main difficulties is that modern education all over the world is chiefly concerned with making us mere technicians ………. Our lives are very empty now, are they not? You may have a college degree, you may get married and be well off, you may be clever, have a great deal of information ……… But as long as you fill your heart with the things of the mind, your life is bound to be empty, ugly, and it will have very little meaning. There is beauty and meaning in life only when the heart is cleansed of the things of the mind.

You will never find God at sixty, for at that age most people are worn out, finished. You must begin when you are very young ……..

To break out of the prison of belief requires a mature mind, a thoughtful mind, a mind that perceives the nature of the prison itself and does not compare one prison with another. …….. If you examine the nature of organized religion, you will see that all religions are essentially alike, whether Hinduism, Buddhism, Mohammedanism, Christianity – or communism, which is another form of religion, the very latest ……… only the man who is free of belief can discover that which lies beyond all belief, that which is immeasurable.

The mind can discover only when it is young, fresh, innocent, but innocence is not a matter of age …….. the mind that is capable of experiencing without accumulating the residue of experience. The mind ….. must respond to everything – to the river, to the diseased animal, to the dead body being carried away to be burnt, to the poor villagers carrying their burdens along the road, to the tortures and miseries of life – otherwise it is already dead, but it must be capable of responding without being held by the experience. It is tradition, the accumulation of experience, the ashes of memory, that make the mind old. The mind that dies every day to the memories of yesterday, to all the joys and sorrows of the past – such a mind is fresh, innocent, it has no age; and without that innocence, whether you are ten or sixty, you will not find God.

From ‘The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna. Volume I’ – by Mahendranath Gupta ('M') - Original in Bengali. Translation by Swami Nikhilananda

2011-01-15T22:50:00.001+05:30

Sri Ramakrishna ………. Said………… “You see, you have certain good signs. I know them by looking at a person’s forehead, his eyes and so on. ”

“Suppose there is an error in worshipping the clay image; doesn’t God know that through it He alone is being invoked? He will be pleased with that very worship. Why should you get a headache over it?

“Repeat God’s name and sing His glories, and keep holy company; and now and then visit God’s devotees and holy men. Then mind cannot dwell on God if it is immersed day and night in worldliness, in worldly duties and responsibilities; it is most necessary to go into solitude now and then and think of God. To fix the mind on God is very difficult, in the beginning, unless one practices meditation in solitude. When a tree is young it should be fenced all around; otherwise it may be destroyed by cattle.”

MASTER: “Cry to the Lord with an intensely yearning heart and you will certainly see Him. People shed a whole jug of tears for wife and children. They swim in tears for money. But who weeps for God? Cry to Him with a real cry.”

“It is necessary to pray to Him with a longing heart. The kitten knows only how to call it's mother, crying, ‘Mew, mew!’ It remains satisfied wherever it's mother puts it. And the mother cat puts the kitten sometimes in the kitchen, sometimes on the floor, and sometimes on the bed. When it suffers it cries only, ‘Mew, mew!’ That’s all it knows. But as soon as the mother hears this cry, wherever she may be, she comes to the kitten.”

“You may say that there are many errors and superstitions in another religion. I should reply: Suppose there are. Every religion has errors. Everyone thinks that his watch alone gives the correct time.”

MASTER (to M): “The mind of the yogi is always fixed on God, always absorbed in the Self. You can recognize such a man by merely looking at him. His eyes are wide open, with an aimless look, like the eyes of the mother bird hatching her eggs……..”

MASTER: “There are two classes of yogis: the vahudakas and the kutichakas. The vahudakas roam about visiting holy places and have not yet found peace of mind. But the kutichakas, having visited all the sacred places, have quieted their minds. Feeling serene and peaceful, they settle down in one place …….. they are happy …….If one of them ever visits a place of pilgrimage, it is only for the purpose of new inspiration.
I had to practise each religion for a time – Hinduism, Islam, Christianity. Furthermore I followed the paths of the Saktas, Vaishnavas and Vedantists. I realized that there is only one God toward whom all are travelling; but the paths are different.”

“Once someone gave me a book of the Christians. I asked him to read it to me. It talked about nothing but sin……….. The wretch who constantly says, ‘I am bound, I am bound’ only succeeds in being bound. He who says day and night, ‘I am a sinner, I am a sinner’ verily becomes a sinner.
“One should have such burning faith in God that one can say: ‘What? I have repeated the name of God, and can sin still cling to me? How can I be a sinner any more? ………’
“If a man repeats the name of God, his body, mind and everything becomes pure. Why should one talk only about sin and hell, and such things? ………”

MASTER: “No one can say with finality that God is only ‘this’ and nothing else. He is formless, and again He has forms. For the bhakta he assumes forms. But he is formless for the jnani……….”

“Kabir used to say, ‘The formless Absolute is my Father, and God with form is my Mother’

“…….. in the light of Vedantic reasoning Brahman has no attributes. The real nature of Brahman cannot be described. But so long as your individuality is real, he world also is real, and equally real are the different forms of God and the feeling that God is a Person.”

…… Sri Ramakrishna said: “The caste system can be removed by one means only, and that is the love of God. Lovers of God do not belong to any caste. …………”

……There are certain characteristics of God-vision. One sees light, feels joy, and experiences the upsurge of a great current in one’s chest, like the bursting of a rocket.”

One cannot realize God without prema-bhakti. Another name for prema-bhakti is raga-bhakti. ……There is another kind of bhakti, known as vaidhi-bhakti, according to which one must repeat the name of God a fixed number of times, fast, make pilgrimages, worship God with prescribed offerings, make so many sacrifices, and so forth and so on. By continuing such practices a long time one gradually acquires raga-bhakti. God cannot be realized until one has raga-bhakti.

“There is another class of devotees, known as kripasiddha ……… those on whom the grace of God descends all of a sudden and who at once attain His vision and Knowledge ……… Those who lead a householder’s life should practice spiritual discipline; they should pray eagerly to God in solitude.

“One should not reason too much; it is enough if one loves the Lotus Feet of the Mother. Too much reasoning throws the mind into confusion ……… pray to God with devotion.

“With sincerity and earnestness one can realize God through all religions.

…….Intense cold freezes the water into ice, which floats on the ocean in blocks of various forms. Likewise, through the cooling influence of bhakti, one sees forms of God in the Ocean of the Absolute. …….. But when the Sun of Knowledge rises, the ice melts; it becomes the same water it was before. …… Therefore a prayer in the Bhagavata says: ‘O Lord, Thou has form, and Thou art also formless’

………. Bony people, the hollow-eyed, the cross-eyed – people with physical traits like those cannot easily acquire faith ……….

When the mind is quiet the prana stops functioning. Then one gets kumbhaka. One may have the same kumbhaka through bhaktiyoga as well ………

…….. There are certain signs of a jnani. Narendra has big protruding eyes ………..

MASTER: “Too much study of the scriptures does more harm than good. The important thing is to know the essence of the scriptures. After that, what is the need of books? ……..”

“It is good to meditate in the small hours of the morning and at dawn. One should also meditate daily after dusk.

“ …….. A man who has seen God sometimes behaves like a madman: he laughs, weeps, dances and sings. Sometimes he behaves like a child, a child five years old – guileless, generous, without vanity, unattached to anything, not under the control of any of the gunas, always blissful. Sometimes he behaves like a ghoul: he doesn’t differentiate between things pure and things impure; he sees no difference between things clean and things unclean. And sometimes he is like an inert thing, staring vacantly: he cannot do any work, he cannot strive for anything.”

Have faith in the name of God. Then you won't need even to go to holy places.

“First of all one acquires bhakti. Bhakti is single-minded devotion to God …… through such devotion one’s mind and soul merge in Him.
“Then comes bhava, intense love. Through bhava a man becomes speechless. His nerve currents are stilled. Kumbhaka comes by itself.

……. Another characteristic of God-vision is that a great spiritual current rushes up along the spine and goes toward the brain. If then the devotee goes into Samadhi, he sees God.”

……. Householder’s life …………
MASTER: …… Whenever you have leisure, go into solitude for a day or two. At that time don’t have any relations with the outside world and don’t hold conversation with worldly people on worldly affairs. You must live either in solitude or in the company of holy men.

“One must have childlike faith – and the intense yearning that a child feels to see it's mother

MASTER: “Mad! ……… One must become mad with love in order to realize God. But that love is not possible if the mind dwells on ‘woman and gold’. Sex-life with a woman! What happiness is there in that? The realization of God gives ten million times more happiness ……. When a man attains ecstatic love of God all the pores of his skin, even the roots of his hair, become like so many sexual organs, and in every pore the aspirant enjoys the happiness of communion with the Atman.

The Kundalini is speedily awakened if one follows the path of bhakti.

MASTER (to M): “One should fast on the eleventh day of the lunar fortnight. This purifies the mind and helps one to develop love of God.

MASTER: “It is said in the scriptures that only those who have been charitable in their former births get money in this life. But to tell you the truth, this world is God’s maya. And there are many confusing things in this realm of maya. One cannot comprehend them.

“There is another form of meditation known as the ‘Vishnu yoga’. The eyes are fixed on the top of the nose. Half the look is directed inward and the other half outward.

“To be able to realize God, one must practice absolute continence. Sages like Sukadeva are examples ……….. Their chastity was absolutely unbroken. ……… A man controlling the seminal fluid for twelve years develops a special power. He grows a new inner nerve called the nerve of memory. Through that nerve he remembers all, he understands all.

“Loss of semen impairs the strength. But it does not injure one if one loses it in a dream. That semen one gets from food. What remains after nocturnal discharge is enough.

“I see people who talk about religion constantly quarrelling with one another. Hindus, Mussalmans, Brahmos, Saktas, Vaishnavas, Saivas, all quarelling with one another. They haven’t the intelligence to understand that He who is called Krishna is also Siva and the Primal Sakti, and that it is He again, who is called Jesus and Allah. ……… Truth is one; only It is called by different names. All people are seeking the same Truth; the variance is due to climate, temperament, and name,

MASTER (to M): “Do you cook your own meals?”

M: “No, sir”
MASTER: “You may try it. With your meals take a little clarified butter made from cows milk. That will purify your body and mind.”

MASTER: “One should keep pictures of holy men in one’s room. That constantly quickens divine ideas.”

“The thing is somehow to unite the mind with God. You must not forget Him, not even once. …….. If you worship with love even a brick or stone as God, then through His grace you can see Him.

“ ………. One should perform such worship as Siva Puja. Once the mind has become mature, one doesn’t have to continue formal worship for long. The mind then always remains united with God; meditation and contemplation become a constant habit of mind.”

……… bhaktiyoga …….is to keep the mind on God by chanting His name and glories. For the Kaliyuga the path of devotion is easiest

“Better than reading is hearing, and better than hearing is seeing. One understands the scriptures better by hearing them from the lips of the guru or of a holy man. Then one doesn’t have to think about the non-essential part. ……….

It is true that many things are recorded in the scriptures; but all these are useless without the direct realization of God, without devotion to His Lotus Feet, without purity of heart. The almanac forecasts the rainfall of the year. But not a drop of water will you get by sqeezing the almanac ………..

How long should one reason about the texts of the scriptures? So long as one does not have direct realization of God………….

“Some souls realize God without practicing any spiritual discipline. They are called nityasiddha, eternally perfect. Those who have realized God through austerity, japa, and the like, are called sadhanasiddha, perfect through spiritual discipline. Again, there are those called kripasiddha, perfect through divine grace. These last may be compared to a room kept dark a thousand years, which becomes light the moment a lamp is brought in.

“There is also a class of devotees, the hathatsiddha …… those who have suddenly attained God-vision. Their case is like that of a poor boy who has suddenly found favour with a rich man. The rich man marries his daughter to the boy and along with her gives him land, house, carriage, servants, and so forth.
“There is still another class of devotees, the svapnasiddha, who have had the vision of God in a dream.”

MASTER (smiling): “What good is there in reading a whole lot of scriptures? What good is there in the study of philosophy? What is the use of talking big? In order to learn archery one should first aim at a banana tree, then at a reed, then at a wick, and last at a flying bird. At the beginning one should concentrate on God with form.

MASTER: “………. The mind of a worldly man generally moves among the three lower centres: those at the navel, at the sexual organ, and at the organ of evacuation. After great effort and spiritual practice the Kundalini is awakened. According to the yogis there are three nerves in the spinal column: Ida, Pingala, and Sushumna. Along the Sushumna are six lotuses, or centres, the lowest being known as the Muladhara. Then come successively Svadhisthana, Manipura, Anahata, Visuddha, and Ajna …….. The Kundalini, when awakened, passes through the lower centres and comes to the Anahata, which is at the heart. It stays there. At that time the mind of the aspirant is withdrawn from the three lower centres. He feels the awakening of Divine Consciousness and sees Light. ……

“After passing through the six centres, the Kundalini reaches the thousand petalled lotus known as the Sahasrara, and the aspirant goes into Samadhi.

Ted Talks: Shashi Tharoor: Why nations should pursue "soft" power

2011-01-04T23:50:00.002+05:30

Good speaking style and nice content

Thought

2011-01-03T18:56:00.000+05:30

I know you think you understand what you thought I said but I am not sure you realize that what you heard is not what I meant.
- Alan Greenspan

Wajahat Khan interviews Omar Abdullah

2011-01-03T18:42:00.000+05:30

I was quite surprised (pleasantly) by Omar Abdullah’s sense of clarity in this interview. He seems sincere, honest. But he needs to smile more to establish an audience/viewer connect
Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

Part 5

Part 6

From ‘Across the Wagah. An Indian's sojourn in Pakistan’ by Maneesha Tikekar

2011-01-03T18:32:00.001+05:30

Borders are scratched across the hearts of men

By stranges with a calm, judicial pen,

And when the borders bleed we watch with dread

The lines of ink across the map turn red

- Marya Mannes

Muslims claimed to be a separate nation …….. the demand for a separate Muslim state ……..came primarily from the United Province, Bihar and Hyderabad for fear of being submerged in the Hindu majority. Ironically the Muslim majority provinces of India except Bengal joined the movement almost at it's fag end.

Mohammed Ali Jinnah ………. His oft-quoted Presidential address in the Constituent Assembly ………

You are free; you are free to go to your temples, you are free to go to your mosques or to any other place of worship in this state of Pakistan. You may belong to any religion or caste or creed – that has nothing to do with the business of the state … in the course of time Hindus would cease to be Hindus and Muslims would cease to be Muslims, not in the religious sense … but in the political sense as citizens of the state.

Pakistani Army ………….its almost mono-ethnic composition …. Is predominantly Punjabi with …… 65 to 70 per cent and Pakhtuns constituting 25 per cent of it's strength

……. At least 69 spoken and living languages in Pakistan out of which 16 could be said to be major. …….. of the 97 per cent Muslim population Sunnis constitute 70 per cent and Shias 20.

I was told that there are also some Hindu and Sikh tribes in Balochistan and most interestingly even a ‘Marhatti’ tribe. ……….. they could be the Maratha soldiers taken as slaves by Ahmad Shah Abdali in the third battle of Panipat in 1761, when he defeated the Maratha forces. Baloch sardars who had assisted Abdali in the battle got most of the slaves as the bounty of war

[Resource http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Descendants_of_Maratha_prisoners_of_war_(1761)]

Urdu is the national language of Pakistan, spoken by eight per cent of the country’s population as mother tongue today. But none of the linguistic groups from the region that became Pakistan ever spoke Urdu. It was spoken by the U.P. and Bihari Muslims who were at the forefront in the Pakistan Movement and who came to dominate Pakistani Government and administration after their migration to the new country. The language of barely three per cent of the people in 1947 became the national language overnight and was instantly converted into a symbol of Pakistani patriotism …….. Over the years Urdu had come to be erroneously identified as the language of the Indian Muslims

………. 3.72 per cent of the population ……. Includes Christians and Hindus ………… Christians and Hindus are mostly confined to menial jobs……… there are hardly any prominent Hindus in Pakistan …….. Immediately after partition, Pakistan had nearly 20 per cent Hindus.

From ‘Strands of Eternity’ by Vasant Lad

2010-12-22T21:55:00.001+05:30

Fear

…………….

Pay attention as you walk,
as you listen, as you speak.
Each time the fear comes as a rushing automatic act,
let it move slower.

See the gap between two fears,
then fear yields into awareness itself.

Emotional Purification

According to Ayurveda,
the ancient science of self-knowledge,
the emotional body can be purified
by the same methods
which purify the physical body.

Srotomukha vishodhanam is cleansing the passages
through which emotions flow.
If there is fear, anxiety, anger – surrender to it.
That letting go opens the channels of circulation.
Then the emotion can move freely.

Vrudhi means to increase the impurity.
On the psychological level,
the emotions must be provoked
before they can be released.
Encourage crying, see a sad movie,
do anger release work.
This gets the emotion moving,
but doesn’t end it for good.

Abhisyandhan is de-crystalization
or liquefaction of emotion.
It makes the emotion as a fluid
just as salt or sugar melts in the sun.

This can be done with deep tissue work,
vigorous massage
or by reclining the body in a gentle easy posture -
this will help your emotions become liquid.

………………….

To ripen your emotions, bring your total awareness
to your feelings.
The memory of an insult is lodged in your mind -
bring complete awareness to it
and you will no longer be attached to it.
Stay with your grief with total awareness

The flame of awareness will cook your grief
and like a dry leaf it drops to the ground.
Stay near your feelings. Stay near God.

Fast from food. Fast from talking.
Allow the emotion to ripen.
Allow your grief and anger to flower and they will die
their own natural death.
Suppress them and they will fight for their existence.

Deepan means to enkindle the flame of awareness.
Stay in the stops between your breath.
Stay in the gap between your thoughts.
Meditation is the medium through which
the flame of awareness in enkindled.

Mind

……………….

Your mind is caught in a traffic jam,
bumper to bumper with thoughts

………….

Mind makes you sad.
Mind makes you fearful.
Mind makes you happy.
The servant has become the master.

Meditation

Just as there is a space between
the clouds in the sky,
there is a space between your thoughts.
This space is the doorway to the divine.

…………………….

Breathe consciously with total awareness.
Slow down your breathing
until you can see a little space -
a gap.

That gap is most important.
Remain in that gap. It will get wider.
Dive into that space. Dive into the inner abyss.

…………………

You are simply watching the breath.
It goes in and comes out.
And there is a stop behind the belly button.
Stay in that stop for a fraction of a second.

…………….

Like a breeze meditation comes to you.
The sunlight is always there,
you only need to open the door.

Do not expect anything from meditation.
Just sit casually and watch your breath,
stay in the stop.
Soon that stop will stay with you.
When you walk, God walks with you.
And you are walking in God.

The End of Knowledge

……………..

Perception which is learned phenomenon
is knowledge.
Perception which is pure phenomenon
is intelligence.
Unless you renounce knowledge
you cannot attain intelligence.

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Simply observe through
intuition and inner awareness.
This is samadhi in action.
Apply your whole awareness to an object
and gain direct knowledge of that object
This is samyama.
Let your daily operating awareness be your bible.