The Divine charioteer

Monday, 22 July 2019

Quote from the true charm and power of Vedanta

The Divine charioteer

Thus far, we have studied the significance of the chariot with the help of the teaching of the Gita the allegory used in the Kathaopanisahd. However  the presence of Lord Krishna on the charioteer seat , towards which Swami Vivekandna has specifically drawn our attention , adds special significance to the whole picture. He is guiding the soul in bondage represented by the confused and depressed Arjun . according to Rama Charita Manas, anyone who have devotion to the Lord need not have any fear. We to speak then of the good fortune of one who has the Lord Himself as the charioteer?

Having the Lord as charioteer has another significance. Sri Krishna is not just a man of steady wisdom who will reach the Vishnu –pada, the Supreme Abode of the Lord . He is Lord Vishnu Himself. So, the allegory of the chariot represents a concept higher than the sthita-prajna idea. Having attained the Brhami state a sage should help and guide other souls who are still in bondage, towards that goal. This is exactly what Sri Ramakrishna exhorted Swami Vivekandna to do when the latter expressed the desire to remain constantly merged in the bliss of Nirvikala Samadhi, . He wanted the Swami to accept the higher ideal-to be like a large banyan tree which would provide peace and shelter to thousand of weary souls-rather than care for his own salvation. This has been aptly summarised in the following verse;

May the wicked become virtues. May the virtuous attain tranquillity; may the tranquil be free from bonds. May the liberated make others fee.

Arjuna in the portrait represents the virtuous, and Sir Krishna the free who is leading him to freedom. Courtesy the secret of Happiness

To Feel Safe and Secure

The Speaking Tree  India | ET

By CHAITANYA CHARAN DAS

Have you seen how peacefully a child sleeps in the lap of his parent, even in a noisy, crowded local train? The hustle-bustle disturbs everyone, but not the child, due to his implicit faith in the protection of his parent.

All of us strive diligently to overcome our many fears: financial, familial, social, academic and physical. However, the necessary security measures like insurance, helmet, buzzer alarm and health check-up fail to free us from a disconcerting sense of insecurity within us. Why? All fear originates in an unbalanced, unrealistic material conception of life.

The material aspect of our life has its importance; we need to feed, clothe, house and provide for us and our loved ones. Krishna says in the Bhagwad Gita that when we seek our sense of identity, self-worth, security and pleasure exclusively from our material positions and possessions, we open ourselves to fear.

How should we overcome fear? The more things change, the more we need to embrace the things that don’t change, “Of the material, there is no endurance, and of the spiritual, there is no cessation.” When we make our life’s work a devotional offering for His service, we focus more on the object of our service.

This shift of focus releases large reserves of mental energy, which are choked by our worry about the future. Chanting the names of God gives us the calmness to see that almost all fears are more perceived than experienced.

The more we become free from fear of the future, the more we can fully absorb ourselves in our present duties.

DISCLAIMER : Views expressed above are the author's own.

But, if He exists?

I drive joy There was a doctor in Benaras who spent 7 minutes in the morning and evening for mediation on God. Knowing this, his colleagues and friends laughed at him. One day they argued that he was wasting ten precious minutes on something, which he had been misled into believing. The doctor replied, “Well, if God does not exist, I agree that I am wasting ten minutes a day. But, if He exists? I am afraid you are wasting your entire lifetime. I prefer to waste ten minutes rather than a lifetime. Why should you grudge me the 10 minutes joy that I derive 4m.

ILLUSTRATED REVIEW : 7^th Heaven moment of the week  in Wimbledon djokovic won 777 , Healp no 7 won, in football Tajakistan no 7 scored a goal

Law of our Destiny

Monday, 15 July 2019

Quote from the True Charm and Power of Vedanta

Law of our Destiny

It is useless to expect to have a life of perfect happiness and attain the highest heavenly region after we pass out of this life, unless we have something to show that we deserve these things. If we do not deserve Heaven and are given a place there, we shall not be able to keep it. This is something which often we do not remember. If today our life is moulded by our ordinary vision, if our association is vulgar and unclean then certainly we shall not be able to appreciate anything heavenly, pure and full of the fragrance of holiness. If our mind our heart our conduct and associations are of a lower nature and we are forced to go up, we shall find ourselves out of place and unhappy  Heaven is Heaven only when our heart feels in tunes with it; otherwise it become unbearable. We can never keep or enjoy anything which we do not deserve.

There are certain happening in this world which may seem accidental or unjust – an innocent person suffering, a criminal enjoying great prosperity; but they can always be explained as the working of some law. How long des a criminal prosper? Is his happiness lasting or only temporary? We cannot explain our life by looking upon this little span only. We have to connect it with all that has gone before. This existence had another existence prior to it, and that one still another and so on. Only when we connect these broken links of the chain of life, and we explain what seems inexplicable to-day. The light of wisdom reveals to us that in the cosmic universe there is no injustice. Ours is to abide by the law and to make our life rich with wisdom and with power doing. Thus we can enlarge the whole human harvest field. Other people seeing how fruitful we have made our life will profit by us noble suggestions from our life will help others. Thus it is that we help each other by helping ourselves in the right way. Courtesy reincarnation and immortality

Keep fear at bay

The Speaking Tree  | ET

BY- Janina Gomes

God is perpetually mowing His lawns,” says FB Meyer. The musical tinkle of the whetstone on the scythe portends the cutting down of myriads of green blades and flowers. Beautiful as they were in the morning, within an hour or two they lie, faded and spent.

There is no method of obtaining a velvety lawn but by repeated mowing; and there is no way of developing tenderness, evenness, sympathy, but by the passing of God’s scythe.

When grass is mown and all the tender shoots are bleeding, when desolation reigns where flowers were bursting, the time is ripe for showers of rain to fall soft and warm.

When circumstances circumscribe us and we feel we are in captivity, for instance, rebelling against the situation does not help. If we have to turn it to the best account possible, we have to make the best of the situation.

God is often compared to the refiner and purifier of silver. It is with the most precious metals that the assayer takes the most pains and subjects them to the hot fire, because such fires melt the metal, and only the molten mass releases its alloy to take perfectly its new form in the mould. We see this process repeated in life.

God chastises those He wants to purify. The heat of opposition and misunderstanding, of being reviled and forsaken, purifies us of all the dross in our lives so that we can reflect more perfectly the divine image within us.

DISCLAIMER : Views expressed above are the author's own.

But, if He exists?

I drive joy There was a doctor in Benaras who spent 7 minutes in the morning and evening for mediation on God. Knowing this, his colleagues and friends laughed at him. One day they argued that he was wasting ten precious minutes on something, which he had been misled into believing. The doctor replied, “Well, if God does not exist, I agree that I am wasting ten minutes a day. But, if He exists? I am afraid you are wasting your entire lifetime. I prefer to waste ten minutes rather than a lifetime. Why should you grudge me the 10 minutes joy that I derive 4m.

ILLUSTRATED REVIEW : 7^th Heaven moment of the week  in Wimbledon djokovic won 777 , Healp no 7 won, in football Tajakistan no 7 scored a goal

Positive Thinking

Monday, 08 July 2019

Positive Thinking

The Speaking Tree , India | ET

By R SHIVA KUMAR

We create our entire world by the way we think. Thoughts are the causes and conditions are the effects. Our circumstances and conditions are not dictated by the world outside; it is the world inside us that creates the outside.

Self-awareness comes from the mind, which means soul. Mind is the sum total of the states of consciousness grouped under thought, will and feeling. Besides self-consciousness, we have the power to choose and think.

Krishna says, “No man resteth a moment inactive.” Even when inactive on the bodily plane, we are all the time acting on the thought plane. Therefore, if we observe ourselves, we can easily mould our thoughts. If our thoughts are pure and noble, naturally, actions follow the same. If our thoughts are filled with jealousy, hatred and greed, our actions will be the same.

Karmically, however, thought or intent is more responsible and dynamic than an act. One may perform a charitable act, but if he does not think charitably and is doing the act just for the sake of gain and glory, it is his thoughts that will determine the result.

Theosophy teaches us that every thought, no matter how fleeting, leaves a seed in the mind of the thinker. These small seeds together go to make up a large thought seed and determine one’s general character.

Our thoughts affect the whole body. Each thought once generated and sent out becomes independent of the brain and mind and will live upon its own energy depending upon its intensity.

DISCLAIMER : Views expressed above are the author's own.

Quote from the true charm and power of Vedanta

Let us se how what the Gita says about the characteristics of an illumined person.

The illumined sages , like all of us, use their sense organs in order to work, but unlike us, they never forget the goal. They are always aware that the senses are there servants and they the masters . it is this fact that we forget; we are pulled wherever the senses drag us. One of the Upanishads says that the Self is the maser riding a chariot. The body is the chariot; the senses are its horses and the mind their reins. The intellect, with the reins in hand, is the charioteer who is guiding the horses on the path full of sense objects. The destination is knowledge and peace, if the charioteer remains level-headed because of good training , he or she can manoeuvre these mad horses properly even on a dangerous road . Otherwise the horses disregard the reins and go by any path they like, at times even toppling the chariot upside down. The pure intellect directs the horses properly to the destination. But the impure intellect, bound by desire and greed, surrenders to the horses and advances on the path to total destruction?

Another characteristic of the illumined is that they remain serene in both joy and sorrow. In contrast , we are selfish and mad for our own personal pleasures. Even a little sorrow throws us off the balance. Taking the trouble to help strangers is out of the question-we remain carefree even if our neighbour is afflicted by the plague. Look at the numerous famines we have in India. What are we doing about it? If this were to happen anywhere in the West, the whole country would have been agitated . People would have said, “Why should there be such famines? Why should millions dies in our country for want of food?” they would have dedicated their lives to eliminate the problem. In these matters we Indians are inactive. We are full of inertia(tamas) In practical life we are utterly lazy, Someone wrote recently that the number of Indians who have died because of famines in the last nineteen years is four times those who have died in wars throughout the world in the last 107 years . how awful

But, if He exists?

I drive joy There was a doctor in Benaras who spent 7 minutes in the morning and evening for mediation on God. Knowing this, his colleagues and friends laughed at him. One day they argued that he was wasting ten precious minutes on something, which he had been misled into believing. The doctor replied, “Well, if God does not exist, I agree that I am wasting ten minutes a day. But, if He exists? I am afraid you are wasting your entire lifetime. I prefer to waste ten minutes rather than a lifetime. Why should you grudge me the 10 minutes joy that I derive 4m.

ILLUSTRATED REVIEW : 7^th Heaven moment of the week  in cwc India   beat sl by 7 wk    ,

But, if He exists?

I drive joy There was a doctor in Benaras who spent 7 minutes in the morning and evening for mediation on God. Knowing this, his colleagues and friends laughed at him. One day they argued that he was wasting ten precious minutes on something, which he had been misled into believing. The doctor replied, “Well, if God does not exist, I agree that I am wasting ten minutes a day. But, if He exists? I am afraid you are wasting your entire lifetime. I prefer to waste ten minutes rather than a lifetime. Why should you grudge me the 10 minutes joy that I derive 4m.

ILLUSTRATED REVIEW : 7^th Heaven moment of the week  in cwc India   beat sl by 7 wk    ,