Tuesday, November 27, 2012
Sunday, November 4, 2012
World Is A Transit Lounge says Sri RaviShankar
Q: In the fifteenth chapter of the Gita, there is a description of a tree which is upside down. The branches are in the ground and the roots are in the sky. What could be the significance of this?
A: This is a symbol to signify that your origin is the Divinity; the consciousness. That is your root. The mind and all its paraphernalia are like the branches. And all the different types of rhythms in life, all the different emotions, are like the leaves. They don’t stay permanently, they wither away. If you are focusing on the leaves, and you forget to water the roots, then the tree will not remain.
So, it says, ‘Asvattham enam su-virudha-mulam asanga-sastrena drdhena chittva’ (BG 15:3). Notice that you are not these different emotions, these different aspects of life. Feel the distance from all these branches and retrieve back. That is what it is saying.
Otherwise we get so immersed in the outer, that we forget the main root. You need to prune the tree otherwise it goes here and there. So prune all that, and know that your origin is somewhere up. Adi Shankaracharya has said this beautifully, - ‘My original place is in heaven, I have come here just for few days; just to have fun. Today I have just come for the purpose of relaxing, but this is not my original place, it is somewhere else.’
The thought itself - My home is somewhere else, I have just come to visit - creates a distance inside you. This world is a transit lounge.
You know, in airports and railway stations there are lounges, and in a lounge what do you do? You keep your luggage and start eating. You use the bathroom and everything, but you don’t open your suitcase and hang your clothes all over the place. You don’t do that in a transit lounge. You keep your things packed.
So this world is just a transit lounge. Don’t mistake it to be your home.
Q: The Ashtavakra Gita says, ‘You can go on reading scriptures, but you will get liberation only when you forget the scriptures.’ So then what is the purpose of reading the scriptures?
A: See, you get into a bus, but then you also need to get out of the bus. Now if you argue with me that, ‘If I have to get out of the bus then why should I get into the bus?’ What can I say? You get into the bus from somewhere else and you get out from somewhere else. If you have to get out of the bus, why should you get into the bus in the first place - this argument doesn’t hold.
So, the scriptures are to make you understand your nature, the nature of the universe, the nature of this mind which is stuck in small things, and to give it a bigger vision.
Knowledge is like detergent. See, you put soap on your body but at some point you wash it off as well, isn’t it? Similarly, you have this desire, ’I want to be liberated’, and that desire takes you away from all other small desires. But if you keep holding on to that thought, then it will also become a problem at some point. You have to wash that off as well and become free. A point comes when you say, ‘If I have to get liberation let it be, otherwise let thy will be done.’ In that moment you are already free.
Sunday, August 5, 2012
Attachment And Detachment
Have you observed a balloon seller?. He inflates a few balloons, ties a thread around each one and wraps those threads around his fingers. When someone comes to buy a balloon, he removes one from one of his fingers and gives it away. Then he inflates another balloon and ties it to his finger again.
Our mind is like the balloon seller. Myriad different objects in the world entice us like balloons and our desires are like the threads that keep our mind attached to the objects. The moment one desired object is acquired, it gets detached from our mind. But our mind immediately inflates another one and promptly gets attached to it!
Now, when does the balloon seller stop this repeated activity of detaching and reattaching balloons to his fingers? Possibly, at the end of his work day when he thinks he must go home now. Then he disposes off his last balloon and does not inflate any more balloons. So, now he becomes detached from the balloons, but only temporarily. Again, the next morning, he is out to repeat the cycle of inflating, attaching and detaching balloons. Likewise, we also take a temporary respite when our life ends, but only to restart the repetitive cycle of desires all over again in the next life.
Is there a final end to this cycle? When the balloon seller becomes old, he may finally decide that he can no longer continue going out and selling balloons. So, he will then hang up his boots and be free from the repetitive inflate-attach-detach cycle. Similarly, we have to develop a lasting vairagya bhav – cultivate a strong determination -- that makes us lose all interest in worldly pursuits driven otherwise by unending desires. That is when we will be released from the repetitive cycle of birth and death.
It is said that a sincere spiritual seeker should cultivate true detachment. So then, he would tell himself that he should reduce his attachment, for example, to smoking. He may manage it with considerable effort after some time. But that is only one attachment gone and we tend to have so many of them! We can imagine the plight of someone trying to detach himself from good food, sports, entertainment, hobbies, spouse, children, grand children, friends and so on. It is like the balloon seller having too many balloons tied around his fingers and their threads getting entangled with each other, complicating the process of detachment.
How does one manage to get detached from the whole of samsara without having to go on trying infinitely to painfully detach from many objects one by one? As we can see, there are so many different objects at the far end of our attachments. Trying to get rid of those objects one by one is indeed extremely difficult. However, at the near end, there is just a single entity involved in all these attachments. That single entity is your limited bodily identity or ego. That is the driver behind the various attachments forming. So, if this single entity is removed, all the many objects at the far end will be instantly detached. Thus, it should be relatively easier to detach yourself from samsara if you can manage to get rid of your ego.
It is by our Sadguru’s grace that we can manage to rid ourselves of our ego and develop a durable vairagya bhav that alone can lead us to moksha or liberation.
Wednesday, March 21, 2012
The Ramayana, Mahabharata and the Bhagavada cannot be studied in isolation, says Devdutt Pattanaik
The Ramayana, Mahabharata and the Bhagavada cannot be studied in isolation, says Devdutt Pattanaik.
In the Ramayana is the story of a bear called Jambavan who served Rama with devotion, helping him along with the army of monkeys to attack Lanka and defeat the demon-king Ravana. It is said that he is a form of Brahma who wanted to walk the earth along with Vishnu when the latter took the form of Rama. But during that time, he had a thought, "How I wish to fight with Rama! But I cannot as I am his great devotee and admirer."
Rama divined Jambavan's thoughts and said, "In my next life, when I descend as Krishna, you will get the opportunity to fight me." And so it came to pass that when Krishna was searching for the missing Syamantaka gem, he found it with a bear cub who turned out to be Jambavan's son. When Krishna tried to claim it, Jambavan challenged him to a fight. And so they wrestled, and as they wrestled, Jambavan realised that he was fighting the man who was once Rama. His wish had been granted.
Another celestial deity who accompanied Vishnu on earth was Adi Sesha, the serpent on whose coils sleeps Vishnu. When Vishnu was Rama, Adi Sesha was Lakshmana and when Vishnu was Krishna, Adi Sesha was Balarama. Once Lakshmana complained to Rama, "I am tired of agreeing with you because you are my elder brother." So Rama said, "In our next life, you will be the elder brother and I will be the younger brother. You will still agree with me because you will realise that you do so not because I am elder or older but because I always uphold dharma."
Stories linking the Indic epics, the Ramayana, the Bhagavada and the Mahabharata, are very common in mythology. Another story states that when Ravana kidnapped Sita, Rama was inconsolable in his grief. All the trees and the animals and the men and women of the forest tried to hug him. But he rejected their embrace. "Only Sita can touch me with such affection," he said. Then he saw the disappointed faces of everyone around who was reaching out to comfort him and said, "In my next life, when I am Krishna, all of you shall be gopis and we shall dance together in Madhuvan."
Perhaps the most interesting link is the story connecting Vishnu's relationship with the sun god Surya and the rain god Indra. In the Ramayana, Vishnu is Rama and he supports Sugriva, the son of Surya, in his fight against Vali, the son of Indra. To balance the relationship in the Mahabharata, Vishnu as Krishna supports Indra's son, Arjuna, in his fight against Surya's son, Karna. So what looks like unfairness in one life becomes fair when one considers the previous life.
Thus, the events of Mahabharata and Bhagavada cannot be explained without understanding events in the Ramayana. One is the consequence while the other is the cause. Why was this weaving of epics done, one wonders. This weaving turns every epic and every episode in the epic into pieces of a vast jigsaw puzzle. To understand the entire puzzle you have to interlock all the stories, characters and events.
Nothing stands in isolation. Everything is dependent on something else. Thus to know something about Indian mythology, you need to study all. And so it is in life. To understand your today, you have to understand yesterday. We are all products of the past. Today's Krishna was yesterday's Rama and today's Kansa was yesterday's Ravana.
The author is chief belief officer of Future Group. devdutt.com
Saturday, March 10, 2012
Part 2 - Ramana Maharshi Devotee Lokamma
I happened to meet Thenamma who had been coming to Ramanasramam for some time and who helped in the kitchen when there. Her accounts of Sri Bhagavan’s life and teachings sparked in me a deep longing to visit him. But my family members were dead against my going and, in time, this began to affect my health.
At last, the long-denied consent was given and I went to the Ashram with a group of pilgrims who were going to Tirupati. By a mere look, Bhagavan transmitted his power. I could feel it coursing through my veins.Forgetting to offer him the fruits I had brought with me, eyes brimming with tears of happiness, I kept looking at Bhagavan, who asked Muruganar,Is she the one about whom Thenamma was talking?
After this first visit I started coming to the Ashram regularly to stay for a month or two each time. One morning I was singing a Tevaram song in front of Bhagavan and sang a verse incorrectly.
Bhagavan noticed it and asked, “Is it written like that? You better read it again”. I read it wrong several times. Finally Bhagavan said sternly, “Find out where you made the mistake. I will not help you. If I do, you will not learn to see where you are wrong and will simply go on repeating the same mistake over and again”.
I went on reading the passage trying to find out where the mistake was, but lunch time was approaching. As I was supposed to serve, I started to get up to go to the
kitchen. But Bhagavan said, “No, you cannot go. Find your mistake first. You can’t just run away.” The bell rang for lunch and Bhagavan got up from his sofa and
went to the dining hall.
After lunch I went to Somasundaram Pillai who helped me. Then I went to Bhagavan and recited it correctly. “Who pointed it out to you”? he asked.“Only when you yourself have found out where you were wrong, will it remain fixed in your mind and you will have the knowledge and the capacity not to go wrong again.” I took this as his upadesa.
One day I was to cook some dhal and curry. I came early in thentil the man had been decently fed.
At first she would not yield but would weep and even go without food. But I was adamant; and she had to reconcile to my standpoint. What is the difference between man and man? Am I a Brahmin and he a pariah? Is it not correct to see God in all?”
Source: http://www.sriramanamaharshi.org/pdf/Saranagathi_eNewsletter_March_2012.pdf
Tuesday, February 28, 2012
The ways of karma By Sri Sri RaviSankar
There are three types of karma: Prarabha, sanchita and agami. The first is latent karma, an impression or seed of action. The second is karma as action, and the third is karma as result. Prarabha means 'begun'; the action that is already manifesting and that is yielding its effect right now. You cannot avoid it or change it, as it is already happening. Sanchita is accumulated karma. It is latent or manifested in the form of a tendency or impression in the mind.
Sanchita karma can be burned off by spiritual practices before it manifests. Agami karma is the future karma of action; that which has not yet come and which will take effect in the future. If you commit a crime, you may not get caught today, but will live with the possibility that one day you may get caught.
Karma is also always bound by time, because every action has a limited reaction. If you do something good to people they will come to thank you and be grateful to you as long as they are experiencing the effect of your action. So, karma has only a limited sphere of its effect, be it good or bad.
It is often asked, "Why are good people made to suffer while those who commit injustice go unpunished?" Such questions arise when we see an event in its limited framework. No good action will yield a bad result and no bad action will bring a good result. This is the law of karma. As you sow, so shall you reap. If you sow a mango tree, some thorny bushes may come up because of the seeds present in the manure brought from somewhere else. It is not the mango seed that brings up the thorny bush. Your mango seed will bring mango fruit, in due course.
Karma is that which propels reincarnation. The stronger the impression, the greater the possibility of the next life being according to that. So, often you reincarnate like the person you hate or love. The mind which is full of different impressions leaves this body but the impressions await suitable situations to come back. So the last thought is very important. Whatever you do throughout your life, in the last moment your mind should be free and happy.
Our perception of suffering, of good and bad, is always relative. God is absolute reality; a witness of all. See God as movie director, rather than as a judge. He has no ill feeling for the villain and no special favour for the hero. Each one is playing her role.
An awareness of dharma helps in comprehending the strange ways of karma. Whenever you see bad karma or someone suffering, you need to help. That is your dharma. If you do not do your dharma, then you incur bad karma for not having done your dharma. Take recourse in your dharma to transcend the bondage of karma and avoid getting stuck with events or personalities. Live with karma; don't be attached to it. 'See action in inaction and inaction in action' says the Gita. Awareness, alertness, knowledge and meditation will help erase past impressions. It has the strength to dissolve and destroy any karma and free you.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/life-style/spirituality/vintage-wisdom/The-ways-of-karma/articleshow/8603911.cms
Saturday, February 4, 2012
Part 1 - Ramana Maharshi Devotee Lokamma
help. An uncle noted for his tapas initiated her into panchakshara japa. She would practice the japa day and night thousands of times and often had burning
sensations in her body from the sheer power of the mantra.
Later, at a time when her life was in chaos, she and her family made a pilgrimage to Rameswaram. She felt that her life as a widow was no longer tolerable and decided to put an end to it by jumping into the sea. Just when she had made up her mind to carry out this plan, she heard that she was to go to Tiruvannamalai in the company of some pilgrims en route to Tirupati. Her dream would at last be realised.
Soon enough she found herself at the feet of Bhagavan.He fixed his gaze on her with unwavering attention for about ten minutes. There was such splendour in his gaze that she was repeatedly compelled to close her eyes.“I was only looking and looking at Bhagavan with my eyes full of tears”.2 But what she had for so long yearned for was evidently given to her in those few moments, for her life was forever changed.
Once Lokamma sent large quantities of the best quality parboiled rice from her village, Pattakurichi (near Tenkasi).Santhamma, not knowing how to utilise the half-boiled rice (only raw rice was cooked at the Ashram), in consultation with Bhagavan prepared idlies that day for breakfast. They
were very much liked by everyone. Thenceforth idlies became the staple breakfast at the Ashram. Even today,Ashram idlies are acclaimed for their size, softness and taste. Full credit should go to Lokamma.
Source: http://www.sriramanamaharshi.org/pdf/Saranagathi_eNewsletter_February_2012.pdf
