January 28, 2006

Growth of consciousness is more important than growth of intelligence.

Intelligence or what we call brain is essentially stupid. It limis us in seeing things based on logic and processing of the impulses from the gross senses.

Growth of consciousness is a more direct way of knowing things. It sees or understands or hears things in a more direct fashion. eg. It can receive or hear things from miles away or understand emotions without even seeing or hearing the person or looking at the face or can see things happening at a distance.

Aspire for growth of consciousness and abandon all attempts to understand the how and why! (This step of understanding how and why is essential initially. But after a certain level of progress it is a hindrance).

When can I see God

He is the nearest of the near, the dearest of the dear. Love Him as miser loves money,as an ardent man loves his sweetheart,as a drowning person loves breath. When you yearn for God with interest,He will come to you…
Sri Sri Paramahansa Yogananda.
Where There Is Light… Page-183.

Ramkrishna described it the same way but he said, the desperate need for God should be more than the love of the miser, ardent man and drowning person desire for breath added together

Truly that kind of desire is rare. You may get a Guru. You may get many wonderful experiences. But who in the world can give you that kind of passion for God?

It comes slowly, sooner in the presence of the infective, presence of a divine

Ignorance and stupidity

The Indian word for ignorance is agyana. And stupidity is murkh

To read books , memorize shloka, and listening to lectures etc can really never get rid of ignorance.
You can accumulate information that way.
You read my blog. You accumulate information.
If you smart, you ponder on it. And say oh this is what I need to do

But it cannot dispel ignorance.

Ignorance is not having the experience of the divine self
To get rid of ignorance you have to experience divine self
That’s all

we constantly forget our divine self. Every second Who is to blame.

Stay in tune with your pure consciousness. At all times.

Difficult

By force of habit we go back to our animal like ritual of eating drinking mating and debating

What is the difference between happiness and joy?

Well it is kind of individual isn’t it?

I like to reserve Joy as something divine

So here goes my viewpoint

Joy – divine How do you know it is divine? What is the sign? It is something that you will not tire of. You can remain immersed in samadhi for tens of thousands of years and never get tired of it.

Happiness – you get tired of it after a while. At least for a short time. For example food – you will get tired of the same food after a while. Same thing with sex. Same with company. After a while you just want to be by yourself for a while.

But you will never get tired of God. If you get tired of mediation, tired of prayer, tired of God – you have not reached the real thing!

Imagine you die and go to heaven. Think you can be in heaven for eternity say playing a harp and floating on a cloud? Or something like that?

Something is missing. That something is an actual connection with God

This is what Yogananda said

DECEMBER – 26 SRF DIARY – CHRISTMAS

And so, dear ones, my Christmas will go on forever, in

ever increasing joy everlasting, If this joy were limited, as worldly

happiness is, a time would come when all would be finished. But

no saint will ever be able to exhaust the ever-new bliss of God.

—Paramahansa Yogananda, “ Man’s Eternal Quest “

Nirvana or perfection!

Everyone knows what perfection is – maybe to a degree

And the easiest is to find imperfections in the other including imperfections in even enlightened saints

A Hindu will easily see imperfections in Jesus and a Christian in Buddhism and ram / Krishna etc

Books, a variety of them, including Gita, Bible, Torah will discuss perfection. But a rare book will describe the thousands of steps to perfection

They may say not to get jealous or greedy. Yet, we easily get jealous when someone has success, money, when best friend pays more attention to someone else etc. How do we change that aspect of the mind. No book has written how to change it except command you not to do it! Is that simple to change mind? Of course not. There is an elaborate process

A guru knows the steps but cannot tell anyone who has not walked the path of meditation!

Steps to getting rid of worry

Seems easy
But is difficult

Each time a swarm of worries invades your mind, refuse to be affected; wait calmly, while seeking the remedy. Spray the worries with the powerful chemical of your peace.

Paramahansa Yogananda-in a Para-gram

Your peace – your self realization as Atman or pure consciousness

Refuse to be affected – stand back. Don’t go back to the habit of worrying. It is a habit of the mind, emotions and intellect. Ego makes you believe that if you don’t worry the out come will be bad. We are afraid not to worry. And we don’t want to forget either.

While seeking the remedy. It is foolish to ignore the worry. You must work hard to correct the situation. But not worry. While working on situation do your job well. When your done with it you must forget it and go about your other responsibility instantly.

Maha Shiv Ratri part 1

In Gujarat the current lunar Month is Maha
Today is the 14 Th waning moon.
Tomorrow will be new moon.
The night before the new moon , in the month of Maha is called Maha ( month) Shiv ( lord Shankar ) ratri ( night )

The story goes of a hunter. He was looking for a prey and climbed up a bili patra tree. While staying on the tree all night he threw leaves at the bottom of the tree. He did not know there was a shiv ling at the bottom but nevertheless Shiv was very pleased with him and appeared in person.

It is said Lord shiv is very fond of bili patra

This is a very auspicious day and perfect for mediation

The meaning is ( source http://hindubhakti.blogspot.com/2011/09/bilvashtakam.html?m=1 )

Meaning :

  1. I offer Bilva Patra (A Bilva Patra is so called leaf having three small leaves.) to God Shiva. This Bilva Patra is a form of the three human qualities. Good Virtue (Satva), Passion (Raja quality) and Irascible (Tama quality). This Bilva Patra is like three eyes, Sun, Moon and Fire. It is like three weapons. It is destroyer of sins committed in earlier three births. I perform pooja of God Shiva with such Bilva Patra.
  2. I offer Bilva Patra to God Shiva. This Bilva Patra is very pious, soft and there are no holes on it. As such it is complete in it self. It is like three branches. I perform pooja of God Shiva with this Bilva Patra.
  3. I offer Bilva Patra to God Shiva. After performing pooja of Nandikeshwar (God Shiva) by offering complete Bilva Patra (as described in 2 above) to him, we become free from our sins.
  4. i) Soma Yadnya (Sacrifices and such like things) is performed to receive blessings from God, to accomplish good things in our life and to destroy our sins. ii) People who perform religious duties even for others offer Shaligram (God in the form of a very pious Stone) to God Shiva. These (i) and (ii) are very pious and good things however to offer Bilva Patra to God Shiva is much more pious thing of all. Hence I offer Bilva Patra to God Shiva.
  5. i) Long time back Kings and rich people in India were donating elephants. ii) Ashwamedha Yadnya (Sacrifices and such like things) were performed. iii) At time of marriage, father of bride is donating his daughter to bridegroom, and this is considered as a very pious thing performed by him. Above i), ii) and iii) are no doubt very pious things performed however offering Bilva Patra to God Shiva is much more pious thing than all. Hence I offer Bilva Patra to God Shiva.
  6. Bilva Tree is created By Godess Laxmi who is wife of God Vishnu. God Shiva Likes Bilva Tree (Bilva Patra) very much. I perform pooja of God Shiva with Bilva Patra.
  7. When we see Bilva Tree and touch it, it simply destroys our sins. Even our very bad and biggest sins are removed and we become free from our sins. Hence I perform pooja of God Shiva with Bilva Patra.
  8. Lower part of Bilva Patra is God Brahma, Middle part of Bilva Patra is God Vishnu and Upper part is God Shiva himself hence I perform pooja of God Shiva with Bilva Patra.
  9. Whosoever recites this Bilvashtakam by sitting in front of God Shiva temple will become free from all his sins and rest in Shiva Loka along with God Shiva after his death.

This was composed by Adi Guru Shankaracharya. Hence there is a deep mediation guide in it.

That meditative guide – is time permits I will write it in part two

One of my favorite song is Shiv Tandav Stotra
Even if you don’t understand Sanskrit it is worth listening – it is melodious

Julia Roberts

During the shooting of eat love and pray, Julia was in Nainital. At that time she converted to Hinduism.  Very little information is available on the details

I suspect she was strongly influenced by the divine presence of Neem Karoli Baba and Siddhi Ma.  There was a miracle of sort and many of her questions were answered.

Conversion of faith is not as helpful as conversion of personality and attitude 

Even more helpful is change of consciousness 

There are hurdles after change in faith.  Some close friends are supportive while spouses may use it as a reason for animosity or rejection.  During these times – your faith in God is being tested.   Faith in neem karoli baba or the divine presence is tested 

It is very difficult to get through those tests without help from a very advanced spiritual person.   Her quest at that time should have been to find a person who can explain it – rather than relying on the opinion of “famous” so called intellectual spiritual people who leave and create more doubts instead of generating faith, further miracles and progress.  Miracles from God should occur daily or more than that. 
There is no doubt in my mind – the depth of the spirituality in the Hindu literature is unrivaled.  It is extremely detailed but left as one of the most ignorant thought process by intention.  All the books written MUST have a guru who can explain the subtleties.  

My blogs explain a few.  That too very superficially.  

If someone explained all of it – then all war and conflicts with all religion, all science would stop. Morgan Freeman, PBS, etc went about the wrong way. 

The world is not ready it.  An individual isolated soul may be ready here and there but who is going to direct them here ? 

Buddha

Nowadays there is much talk on mindfulness

They often try to climb to glory by quoting Buddha

“There is nothing more dreadful than the habit of doubt. Doubt separates people. It is a poison that disintegrates friendships and breaks up pleasant relations. It is a thorn that irritates and hurts; it is a sword that kills.”

Then Buddha says

Doubt everything. Find your own light.”

Then he says

“Whatever a monk keeps pursuing with his thinking and pondering, that becomes the inclination of his awareness.”

Generally people grasp these statements in the wrong way.  Both statements about doubt refer to the exact same thing.  In one instance he says doubt everything and then says doubt is your enemy  

And whatever aspect of doubt you believe becomes your awareness !

True awareness is when you begin to understand that all three statements are identical

I will end by a quote from Buddha – if the scriptures agree with me then they may be worth something ! 

Yoga

If the siddhis of yoga are true, then the ability to move a platform like gyaneshwar is no where to be found.

Or like Kabir where the body was converted into flowers

Jesus Christ in his previous birth as Elijah merged his body in Air into air

Such things are rare. People who know them while alive – are very few. Even Arjun could not recognize Krishna. Except a few Gopis Arjun most others were maybe bhakta but not disciple

Such high things, if true are very rare. Most people , since they are rare , take it as an allegory. Or they say , let’s use logic

All I ask is people to re consider. Not jump to hasty conclusions of supremacy when the first step has not even started

No one knew how great gyaneshwar or his guru were. It is much later after the story was exposed that people visited him. At that point gyaneshwar took samadhi.

Yogananda used to say Shakti will not permit greatness to be revealed to the public for long. She shrouds them in a veil. This is necessary

Previous Next

Aug 02

Sohum

Link to Original Document

This is a word meant for yogi. I will not fully explain what it refers to – only because a Guru should do that

Basically it means that I am. That refers to God

Yogananda referred it to hungso technique. A peculiar sound produced by the breath with breathing out and in.

They are very powerful techniques. Having said that, there is a little more to it

Recently someone asked me where or which upanishad talks about sohum.

Yoga Sikha upanishad does. Here is a link to it – the translation

Vedanta Shastras Library

However without a Guru the full understanding and experience cannot be found

The full experience of sohum is similar to tattva Masi of veda. Which means that are though

A full description is in one other shastra. It can be found at 7 FB. I don’t understand much of it so can only leave it at that. That’s why I said best to hear from a Guru

Best wishes

Aug 01

The stupid circulation on what’s app

Link to Original Document

There are multiple stupid things that circulate on what’s app. I see it often. Most of the time I am unperturbed. This time since a friend I know who is intelligent circulated it , I thought I Would write about it. IT is unlikely he will read my blog

First about Jatayu

This character is from Ramayan. Ram ( God) upheld the words of his father and went to live in the Jungles. Shuparnakha saw Ram and fell in love with him. She was Ravana sister. Ram said he he already married but his brother Laxman could be interested. She went to see Laxman. He was enraged and cut her ears and nose. Her brother Ravana was upset. Knowing what was to come, Ram told his wife Sita to merge back to god but her shadow could remain. Ravana then went to kidnap the shadow Sita. He arranged a plot. He had his cohorts appear in the form of a Golden deer. Shadow Sita was enamored by the golden deer and insisted on getting it. Ram went to hunt the deer. He shot the deer but the deer being magical, shouted out in Ram voice “Laxman”. Sita insisted that Laxman go and investigate. Reluctantly Laxman left but protested the cottage with a magical line – a line that no demon could pass over. Ravana appeared as a Saint, begged for Alms. He insisted Sita pass over the line. Ravana immediately captured her and flew away with her

On the way he encounters Jatayu – an eagle. Yes he was an eagle. Jatayu tries to fight Ravana but he parishes

About Bhisma

Bhisma was the son of Ganga. He took a vow to protect Hastinapur. The ruler was Shantanu. When he married a second time – to Matsyagandha, she wanted her son to rule Hastinapur. So he took a vow , he will never marry or have sex. At that time he was renamed from Devdatta to Bhisma. ( meaning terrible or difficult vow to follow)

His mother was very pleased and gave him two boons – he will remain undefeated in all wars and he will only die when he wishes

For a while he ruled on behalf of the young child rulers and won many battles. Finally the grand son are old enough to rule. However there were two contending grand sons. Kauravas and Pandavas. They always taught with each other. Once the pandava while were ruling, lost a game of dice with the kauravas and Shakuni. The dice were doctored. As a result of the gamble, the pandavas lost their kingdom and their wife Draupadi. The kauravas ordered Drauadi to remove all her Royal garments in the court, she refused and Dushasana forced her to undress. He kept on pulling her garments but Lord Krishna made sure that she had enough layers of garments. Dushasana collapses. Anyway when this happened Bhisma was in the court and he did not help Draupadi.

Anyway after the war, Bhisma is mortally wounded by Arjun arrows. However he decides not to leave his body till January 14 and stays wound lying in a bed made by arrows finally before he departs he gives many pearls about being a ruler to Yudhisthir

Anyway, this is what is circulating on what’s app

One of the best, perhaps the best read, of late… Don’t miss to read, every perception is indeed wonderfully conceived.

THE BHISHMA WAY or

THE JATAYU WAY

No two people respond to the same situation in a similar way.

Here are examples of two legendary personalities who were faced with a very similar situation, but thier responses were poles apart.

This is a comparitive study between Bhisma and Jatayu.

Both of them, were confronted with character defining asssault situation on womanhood.

One chose to die protecting the victim while the other chose to be a mute spectator of the crime.

  1. POWERFUL or POWERLESS

Bhisma was a powerful warrior and if he wanted, he could have stopped the disrobing of Draupadi – the Queen but he chose to be a silent witness of this act

Whereas,

Jatayu was old and invalid and knew that in all probability, Ravana would kill him but still, he chose to try his best to protect Sita – the Queen.

Bhisma was powerful yet acted powerless whereas, Jatayu was powerless yet acted powerful.

_

“Real power is not about physical strength but about the deep desire to help.”_

2) ALIVE or DEAD

Bhisma lived on, but died everyday to his conscience

Whereas,

Jatayu died once but lived eternally true to his conscience. _

” Our only constant companion is our concience – better to be true to it.”_

  1. FAME or INFAMY

Bhisma’s name and fame went down in the history because of this one act of not stopping the disrobing of Draupadi but Jatayu’s name and fame went high in history because of his act of trying to save Sita. _

” We are all going to be mere names in the history, sooner or later. Will we be equated with the bad or the good – is our choice.”_

  1. CULTURE or VULTURE

Bhisma was supposed to be a highly cultured human but acted highly insensitive & stooped low in values like a vulture

Whereas,

Jatayu was supposed to be a lowly uncultured vulture but acted highly sensitive and soared the skies, in values, like an evolved human. Who would you call as a human – Bhisma or Jatayu? _

“One doesn’t become a human being by being born as a human – one becomes a human being by being a humane.”_

  1. SPOKEN or UNSPOKEN WORDS

Draupadi begged and pleaded protection from Bhisma because she knew, if someone could protect her, it was only him but still Bhisma didn’t protect her

Whereas,

Sita didn’t even ask Jatayu for protection – she just wanted him to inform Rama about her kidnapping by Ravana because she knew Jatayu was not powerful but still…Jatayu tried to protect Sita.

Bhisma, even being a human couldn’t understand the spoken words of Draupadi what to speak of understanding her unspoken words,

Whereas,

Jatayu, even though being a mere bird, understood not only the spoken words of Sita but also her unspoken words.

_

“The language of heart is more powerful than the language of words.”__

  1. CLARITY or CONFUSION

Bhisma was so much confused about his Royal duty that he forgot his higher duty, a moral duty

Whereas,

Jatayu was so clear about his moral duty that no other duty was in consideration for him. _

” When caught up in dilemmas, best is to follow the higher principles – to follow our heart because it always knows the truth.”

_

  1. GOOD or BAD EXAMPLE

Bhisma set a very bad precedent for generations to come

Whereas,

Jatayu set the most ideal precedent for generations to come. _

“If we can’t be a great example atleast let us not be a bad one.”_

  1. RELATIVE or STRANGER

Another interesting point is that Bhisma was an elderly relative of Draupadi but acted as a total stranger in this episode.

Whereas,

Jatayu was not at all related to Sita, he was a stranger but acted more than a dearest relative. _

“True relationships is based on heartly connections not just bodily connections.”_

  1. THE SAINTLY or THE WICKED

Both, Bhisma and Jatayu had a few moments to decide what to do. Life, sometimes puts in situations where in a few moments, we need to take crucial decisions.

What we decide very much depends on the kind of inner integrity, we have cultivated by the association we keep.

Bhisma’s intelligence was clouded and it failed the test of life because he was associated with the wicked minded, selfish Kauravas,

Whereas,

Jatayu’s intelligence was crystal clear and it passed the test of life because he associated himself with the saintly selfless Lakshman and the all-pure Lord Rama and dignity of women.

“After all, who we are solely depends on whom we associate with.”

  1. EMBRACE or NEGLECT

The Supreme Lord as Sri Krishna was not at all happy with the attitude of Bhisma so much so that when He came as a peace messenger to Hastinapur, He didn’t even bother to look at Bhisma, what to speak of respecting him.

Whereas,

The Supreme Lord as Ramachandra was so happy & moved with the attitude of Jatayu that he embraced him and personally did his final rites – an honour that even Dasharath – His own father didn’t receive. _

_

The scriptures explain that the ultimate test of any activity is, if the Supreme Lord is pleased with us.__ .It is very clear, Bhisma displeased God whereas, Jatayu pleased Him.

This recount is not meant to criticize Bhisma– he is undoubtedly a great warrior and an amazing personality who sacrificed his personal desires for Hastinapur, but we do impartially critique his inaction.

The end here is to learn from the choices made, so that we are conscious that history follows us. _

When we see some injustice, some problem, we have only two options – either close your eyes to it or do something about it – follow “the Bhisma way” or “the Jatayu way”

And, whichever way we choose, remember there will be consequences of our choices…

~”the Bhisma result” or “the Jatayu result”._

Brilliant analysis !!

I could easily vote for this post as the Best One in the recent times, & fowarding it for all to introspect, review and keep sharing ahead….

Now the stupidity

  1. Jatayu was an eagle. Not a vulture
  2. Both stories are an allegory. Don’t pretend to be intelligent when you can’t see this and take the stories literally
  3. Jatayu – means jad aayu. Jad means inert and aayu means life. Thus it refers to the life of the body. The soul remains intact. Sita being abducted refers to Sita as peace is abducted or lost by Ravana – abhas chaitanya or the foolishness of assuming reality in this world and looking for happiness here. The human body and intelligence is incapable of fighting it. But surrender to God / Guru can help fight it !
  4. Bhishma here is abhas chaitanya. The power that makes us forget our divine self and get trapped in this world. That illusion can’t end unless we truly want it to end ( hence Bhisma can’t die unless he chooses it). Dushasana refers to anger. Du means difficult. And shasana means control. When anger takes control there is significant damage. Bhisma – there illusion that makes you forget your divine self remains indifferent to good and bad. It is bit affected nor is it destroyed unless it is mortally wounded by Arjuna. Arjuna is the power of meditation. ( the story of hitting the birds eye and not seeing anything else )

To compare the two and come up with pseudo intelligence like on what’s app should not be followed

Aug 01

Those who think they know it

Link to Original Document

They know nothing

Ram Gopal Mazmudar even after 40 years of meditation, knowing all about Yoganabda6, the light of God constantly present in his room and could heal Yogananda illness in a fraction of a second said, “he is still starting”

There is much to experience. Don’t be satisfied with your shallow experience

A few people have left questions on the chat. I have tried to incorporate an answer in my blogs.

This is what mother ( Aurobindo) said

Essentially there is but one single true reason for living: it is to know oneself. We are here to learn — to learn what we are, why we are here, and what we have to do. And if we don’t know that, our life is altogether empty — for ourselves and for others.

And so, generally, it is better to begin early, for there is much to learn. If one wants to learn about life as it is, the world as it is, and then really know the why and the how of life, one can begin when very young, from the time one is very, very tiny — before the age of five. And then, when one is a hundred, one will still be able to learn. So it is interesting. And all the time one can have surprises, always learn something one didn’t know, meet with an experience one did not have before, find something one was ignorant of. It is surely very interesting. And the more one knows, the more aware does one become that one has everything to learn. Truly, I could say that only fools believe they know. That indeed is a sure sign, someone coming and telling you, “Oh! I know all that; oh! I know all that”; he is immediately sized up!

Another way of saying, the moment you thing you know it, you are stagnant. You are stuck

So not knowing is a sign you can progress

However, you may question, is there a point where you know it? Absolutely. But even at that you know you can go within deeper. But as a mere starting point, you will have proof of knowing. This is by understanding any scripture very easily. No part of any religion is complex. They are the masters who can bring unity but the world is not easy. Sad