Pearls of Wise

30/01/2018 The Concept of God in Bharatham ( Sanatana Dharmam or otherwise Hinduism ) - 6. Swami Krishnananda All the Vaishnava saints worship Him as either Rama or Krishna, Narayana or Vishnu. The Saiva saints worship Him as Paramasiva. The Saktas worship Him as Adi-sakti. The philosopher-saints worship Him as Brahman, the Absolute, as Isvara, Hiranyagarbha, and Virat or the Cosmic Being. The Virat-Saivas worship God as Siva, especially manifest as the Linga(symbolised in the rounded sacred stone which they wear round their necks). The symbol of Vishnu is the Saligrama, the symbol of Siva is the Linga, and the symbol of Devi is the Yantra(sometimes, a Mantra). According to the Nyaya and Vaiseshika schools, God is the instrumental cause of creation, like a potter fashioning a pot of clay, but not the material cause of creation. The Samkhya school holds that there are only two Primary Principles, Purusha and Prakriti, and creation is only a manifestation or evolutio...

30/01/2017 Message to Newly Wed Couple - 10. - Swami Sivananda 10. Divine Life : To practise non-violence, truth and celibacy is DIVINE LIFE. To be kind, generous, humble, tolerant is DIVINE LIFE. To practise virtues and be righteous is DIVINE LIFE. To serve the poor in selfless, dedicated way is DIVINE LIFE. To serve the sick with all-is-God attitude is DIVINE LIFE. To be merciful, courageous and devotional is DIVINE LIFE. To sing the name of God and pray is DIVINE LIFE. To do Japa and meditation is DIVINE LIFE. To be an instrument in the hands of God is DIVINE LIFE. To act rightly and live in God is DIVINE LIFE. To do unconditional self-surrender to God is DIVINE LIFE. To restrain the senses to have God-communion is DIVINE LIFE. To be on with the Divine Will is DIVINE LIFE. To be a silent witness of the three states (waking, dreaming and deep sleep) is DIVINE LIFE. To be continued ..

30/01/2018 THE FIRST STEP TOWARDS JNANAM -6. - Swami Vivekananda In olden times the churches had prestige, but today science has got it. And just as in olden times people never inquired for themselves — never studied the Bible, and so the priests had a very good opportunity to teach whatever they liked — so even now the majority of people do not study for themselves and, at the same time, have a tremendous awe and fear before anything called scientific.  You ought to remember that there is a worse popery coming than ever existed in the church — the so-called scientific popery, which has become so successful that it dictates to us with more authority than religious popery. These popes of modern science are great popes indeed, but sometimes they ask us to believe more wonderful things than any priest or any religion ever did. And one of those wonderful things is that transmission theory, which I could never understand. If I ask, "What do you mean by transmission?" th...

30/01/2018 First Stage of Self-Surrender and Self-Mastery Through Active Nature : Sri Aurobindo Attaining self-mastery and self-surrender in the terms outlined by Sri Aurobindo is usually undertaken through emphasis on the silent witness consciousness and unity with the Divine through what may be considered the “passive” route. It is also possible to achieve this status through the active nature, or prakriti. Sri Aurobindo has outlined three stages in this progressive process of unification with the Divine in manifestation. This is a progression from the original status of the ego-personality believing it is the actor and in charge of its own decisions, to the eventual result of recognising that the individual action is an expression of the Divine manifestation through the action of the divine Shakti. The intervening transitional stages are different psychological standpoints that represent the move from the one viewpoint to the other. “In the first the Jiva is aware of ...

30/01/2018 Think Big, Act Wisely, Show Results : 3. Swami Tejomayananda ( Chinmaya Mission ) 3.ACT WISELY : After ‘thinking big’ through proper vision, one should then strive to ACT WISELY! As Pujya Gurudev said, ‘Plan out your work and work out your plan’. To act wisely is to act with proper understanding and good attitude. This is presented very beautifully in the following famous prayer by Reinhold Niebuhr: ‘God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change. Courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.’ For example, Shri Ram knew which situation to accept as it was and which to take action against. Without complaint or mental agitation he accepted his exile in the forest for fourteen years as the call of Dharma, but when Sitaji; his wife, was kidnapped by the wicked king, Ravana, Ram put forth efforts to collect an army and attack Ravana in order to get her back. To be continued ..

30/01/2018 ALL ABOUT NAVARATHRI FROM DAY ONE : Swami Udit Chaithanya Day 2. In today’s day and age people especially youngsters crave to be wealthy. Wealth is often understood as money and people get intoxicated about accumulating and hoarding wealth. When we read our scriptures we are surprised to know what true wealth is. In Bhagavad Gita Krishna says true wealth is your own skill. Meaning, being creative at work, soft and humorous in words and positive in reactions. The person who embodies these skills is an asset to the society and hence loved and respected by others. Any other kind of wealth is transient and the attraction it brings diminishes as it disappears. However, the qualitative wealth of inner transformation brings care and respect. Everyone should use their opportunities to develop this Lakshmi of inner wealth who sits on a lotus implying that such a skillful person never fails in life. Now, how do we develop this wealth? How long does one hav...

23/01/2018 ALL ABOUT NAVARATHRI FROM DAY ONE : Swami Udit Chaithanya Day 1. The word Navarathri has been interpreted differently. On a superficial level people say nine nights and then a tenth day, Dasami. However, our Gurus have hidden a greater meaning in these Sanskrit usages for us to discover. The word “Navam” means ever new, and Rathri denotes “peacefulness”. Together, it directs us to make our life peaceful and ever new, fresh and relaxed. The idea sounds great, BUT HOW? Living new everyday, is possible only if we employ Enthusiasm. This is the meaning of Durga sakthi or Kriya sakthi. Durga is not a “female God” but the embodiment of the enthusiasm, motivation and inspiration in us. Unless we always focus on a higher goal it is difficult to sustain the enthusiasm. We all want to achieve wealth in our life. But what is the highest wealth or prosperity one could possibly achieve? To do that we need to overcome the Demon of inertia or laziness in us called “Mahishasu...

23/01/2018 Think Big, Act Wisely, Show Results : 2. Swami Tejomayananda ( Chinmaya Mission ) 2. THINK BIG That which is needed foremost from the modern youth is right thinking, leading to a clear vision of life. We should remove all barriers of pettiness and THINK BIG. Big things are achieved in the world, first, by daring to conceive them in our mind. Man dared to think that he could fly like a bird – and the first flying machine was invented ! He dared to think that he could reach the moon, and lo ! Man landed on the far away moon ! Nothing is impossible for the one who thinks. Our thoughts alone bind us and make us small, and thoughts alone can free us. Break this bondage of narrow limiting thoughts and THINK BIG. To think big means not only to think as an individual but as a nation as well. Think what will be beneficial to the nation, what will bring about national good. When Swami Chinmayananda learned the scriptures from His Teacher, He thought as to how He could pass...

23/01/2018 Self-Surrender to the Divine and Spiritual Self-Mastery of the Individual Nature - Sri Aurobindo In the Yoga of knowledge, one of the steps is to identify with the self-aware internal witness consciousness, and thereby to observe the working of the nature of mind-life-body from a separate, uninvolved standpoint. This stage is important to liberate the consciousness from total submission to the desires and limitations of the outer nature. For the seeker of self-perfection, this obviously is not the final goal but a transitional stage. When the witness awareness is established firmly, it becomes necessary to begin to exercise the power of sanction over the actions of the outer nature, and from there, the power of mastery. Sri Aurobindo explores the relation between the need for self-surrender to the Divine with the development of spiritual self-mastery: “At first it may not be apparent how this ideal of active self-mastery can be reconciled with the apparently opposit...

23/01/2018 THE FIRST STEP TOWARDS JNANAM -5. -Swami Vivekananda A simply hereditary transmission theory will only touch the physical man and would be perfectly insufficient for the internal soul of man. Even when looking upon the matter from the purest materialistic standpoint — viz. that there is no such thing as a soul in man, and man is nothing but a bundle of atoms acted upon by certain physical forces and works like an automaton — even taking that for granted, the mere transmission theory would be quite insufficient. The greatest difficulties regarding the simple hypothesis of mere physical transmission will be here: If there be no such thing as a soul in man, if he be nothing more than a bundle of atoms acted upon by certain forces, then, in the case of transmission, the soul of the father would decrease in ratio to the number of his children; and the man who has five, six or eight children must, in the end, become an idiot. The question is, What do we mean by the word...

23/01/2017 Message to Newly Wed Couple - 9. - Swami Sivananda 9. A Spiritual Daily Routine For The Householder Each householder should have an ideal daily routine. The home life should not be left to itself, but taken care of. In addition to those unexpected things that come up every day—a visit of someone, a telephone call, an invitation to go out with someone—every one of you should have an accepted basic programme, a basic schedule for your daily life, which should include an hour of prayer in the morning and an hour of prayer in the evening. The prayer hour might include the reading of scriptural texts, the reading of sacred and inspiring spiritual books, a few minutes of quiet, indrawn meditation, a few minutes of actually articulated prayer, inspiring prayer. The prayer can be spontaneous; it does not necessarily have to come out of some book. Or it can be both, as there are some very inspiring short prayers in the Gospel and also in some other books. The children shou...

23/01/2018 The Concept of God in Bharatham ( Sanatana Dharmam or otherwise Hinduism ) - 5. Swami Krishnananda He is the sacrifice, He is the oblation, He is the performer thereof, He is the recitation or the chant, He is the sacred fire, He is what is offered into it. He is the father, the mother, the grandfather, the support, the One knowable Thing, He is the three Vedas, the Goal of all beings, the Protector, the Reality, the Witness, the Repository, the Refuge, the Friend, the beginning, the middle and the end of all things. He is immortality and death, existence as well as non-existence. He is the Visvarupa, the Cosmic Form, blazing like fire and consuming all things. According to the Bhagavata and the Mahabharata, God especially manifested Himself as Bhagavan Sri Krishna, who is regarded as the foremost of the divine Incarnations, in whose personality the Supreme Being is fully focussed and manifest. Srimad Bhagavata says: He is Brahman(the Absolute), Paramatman(God),...

07/01/2018 The Concept of God in Bharatham ( Sanatana Dharmam or otherwise Hinduism ) - 4. Swami Krishnananda He is the Great Being who shines effulgent like the Sun, beyond all darkness. Knowing Him alone one crosses beyond death. There is no other way of going over there. The One God, Creator of the heaven and earth, is possessed of all eyes, all faces, all hands, and all feet in this Universe. It is He who inspires all to do their respective functions, as if fanning their fire into flames of movement. Manu says in his Smriti: In the beginning, all this existence was one Undifferentiated Mass of Unmanifestedness, unknown, indefinable, unarguable and unknown in every way. From this Supreme Condition arose the Universe of name and form, through the medium of the Self-existent Creator, Swayambhu. The Mahabharata says that Narayana alone was in the beginning, who was the prius of the creative, preservative, and destructive principles, the Trinity known as Brahma, Vishnu and ...

16/01/2017 Message to Newly Wed Couple.8.2.4 - Swami Sivananda 8.Domestic Ethics :- 2.4 2. The Sanctity of Marriage-4. And, as the children are to be brought up to respect the law of celibacy, of continence, until they are actually married, so the husband and the wife should adhere to the law of continence and celibacy; and for them, this law should operate in the form of a strict moderation of marital life. Marital life should be based upon self-control, not upon indulgence. Then, the wife should regard the husband as the only partner and vice versa. The wife should not have any other male and she should not think of any other man, but should be devoted to her husband; no thought of any other man should ever cross her mind. All the rest of humanity should be to her like children—she is the great Mother. The husband must have the vow which Rama had—the vow of the single spouse. That means that the thought of another woman will never enter his mind. To him, the only woman is ...

07/01/2018 THE FIRST STEP TOWARDS JNANAM -4.Swami Vivekananda 4. Now this is one step in advance of that old theory of "instinct", that is fit only for babies and idiots. This "instinct" theory is a mere pun upon words and has no meaning whatsoever. A man with the least thinking power and the least insight into the logical precision of words would never dare to explain innate tendencies by "instinct", a term which is equivalent to saying that something came out of nothing. But the modern theory of transmission through experience — though, no doubt, a step in advance of the old one — is not sufficient at all. Why not? We can understand a physical transmission, but a mental transmission is impossible to understand. What causes me — who am a soul — to be born with a father who has transmitted certain qualities? What makes me come back? The father, having certain qualities, may be one binding cause. Taking for granted that I am a distinct soul that w...

16/01/2018 The Divine Shakti As the Active Presence of the Divine : Sri Aurobindo As can be expected in a wholesale transformation of the standpoint of consciousness and action, there are intermediate stages between the full immersion in the ego-consciousness and the complete sense of Oneness with the Divine and the action of the Divine in the manifestation. Up to this point, even as the individual begins to sense the Divine Shakti acting and thereby reduces the sense of ego as the owner and driver of the action, there remains still at least a subtle sense of difference that continues to reinforce the ego-sense. Sri Aurobindo notes: “The sattwic, rajasic and tamasic ego is diminished but not eliminated; or if it seems to disappear, it has only sunk in our parts of action into the universal operation of the gunas, remains involved in them and is still working in a covert, subconscient fashion and may force itself to the front at any time.” The poise of the seeker in the yogic...

16/01/2018 Think Big, Act Wisely, Show Results :- 1. Introduction:- We are all faced with various problems in life. At the individual level, there may be problems related to health, emotions, relationships, marriage, children, career, coping with death, and so on. At the national level, there are problems of poverty, unemployment, social unrest, illiteracy, corruption, etc. These problems often bring us sorrow and pain. Yet, if we analyse them honestly we will find that their root cause is almost entirely a lack of proper thinking and acting. When not handled properly, our wrong thoughts lead to a defective vision of the world and a very chaotic relatioship with it. As a result we have false expectations and disappointments at every step. If we can only improve our thinking, we can mend our homes and make the world a better place to live in. But alas! Many choose to suffer rather than to think. They get caught up in the mesh of wrong thinking, often coloured by prejudices an...

16/01/2018  Chapter : 2 of Srimad Bhagavatha Mahatmyam. Chapter- 2.2  2. The Importance of Bhakti in Kali Yuga : The story says that from Satya Yuga to Dvapara Yuga, Bhakti happily stayed in this earth along with Mukti, Jnanam and Vairagyam. But when Kali Yuga started, Mukti was in danger at the hands of the invading faiths. So she obeyed Bhakti’s orders and immediately went back to Vaikuntha Lokam. Mukti now comes to this Earth only for short visits whenever Bhakti wanted her and would return to Vaikuntha soon after. Bhakti could not leave her sons Jnanam and Vairagyam and remained with them always, protecting them. Her sons were old and weak because nobody wanted or cared for them in Kali Yuga. Narada pacified Bhakti saying that her sons would recover soon. He would definitely find a way to make them young again. Narada told Bhakti that not every thing was bad about Kali Yuga. Unlike other Yugas, it is much easier to get the blessings of the Lord in Kali Y...

07/01/2018  Chapter : 2 of Srimad Bhagavatha Mahatmyam. Chapter- 2.1 1. Narada Tries to Comfort Bhakti : Now, Sage Narada requests Bhakthi to become calm and assured her that there was no need to be so sad. She could be free from all anxiety and sorrow just by meditating on the lotus feet of Lord Krishna. Bhakti is the dearest to the Lord, Narada asked her to remember how Lord Krishna protected Draupadi, his dear devotee from the cruel acts of the Kauravas. While Jnanam and Vairagyam were the means of attaining liberation in the Satya, Treta and Dvapara Yugas, Bhakti alone could help one attain that in Kali Yuga. The Lord removes all fear and anxiety and wipes the tears of his true Bhaktas, who surrender completely to the Lord. Narada reminded Bhakti that Lord Hari had created her for supporting his devotees. Once when she went to Lord Vishnu with folded hands to ask Him what her mission is, the Lord asked her to go and nurture and support His devotees. Bhakti imme...

07/01/2018 2. Also, we find it difficult to live with people because we have too many expectations of them. If i expect something of another, that person may also expect something of me. Furthermore, i am unable to fulfil my own expectations of myself. I want to do so many things, but i am unable to do them. Thus, we feel disappointed and frustrated with ourselves, and aggrieved or upset with others when they fail to satisfy our expectations. I saw a sticker that said, “Don’t try to change me. Accept me as i am” . It is important to understand the message clearly and completely. The message is that one should accept the fact as it is. Then if a change is necessary, try to make that change, but do not insist on it. Every parent wants the child to perform well and excel whether in sports or in studies. There is nothing wrong with that. But, to expect something that may not be possible for the child to do, and unnecessarily apply pressure and force, will cause frustration to all....

07/01/2018 The ego-conception has its value in terms of a specific type of organization and action in the mental-vital-physical world. For those who are immersed in the ego-personality, there is a sense of complete individuality and separation from other forms and beings, and a consequent sense of opposition and competition. In an ultimate sense, however, there is no separate reality of each ego-personality–we are all constituted by and our actions carried out by the universal divine Power of the Supreme, the Divine Shakti. Sri Aurobindo observes: “This is the nature of the divine Shakti that it is the timeless power of the Divine which manifests itself in time as a universal force creating, constituting, maintaining and directing all the movements and workings of the universe. This universal Power is apparent to us first on the lower levels of existence as a mental, vital and material cosmic energy of which all our mental, vital and physical activities are the operations.” T...

07/01/2018 3 It would be the same [logic] as when a man asks me why light comes through a glass, and I answer him, "Because it is transparent". That would be really no answer at all because I am simply translating his word into a bigger one. The word "transparent" means "that through which light comes" — and that was the question. The question was why light comes through the glass, and I answered him, "Because it comes through the glass". In the same way, the question was why these tendencies are in the child. Why should it have fear of death if it never saw death? If this is the first time it was ever born, how did it know to suck the mother's milk? If the answer is "Oh, it was instinct", that is simply returning the question. If a man stands up and says, "I do not know", he is in a better position than the man who says, "It is instinct" and all such nonsense. There is no such thing as instinct; th...

07/01/2017 8.Domestic Ethics :- 2.3 3. The Sanctity of Marriage 3.1 Householders should not forget even for a moment that marriage is a sacred thing. The sanctity of married life has to be realised in all its fullness and in all its seriousness. Marriage is a sacrament. It is not just the union of two bodies. That is the least important part of it. The husband and the wife should not think there is absolutely no love above their physical life. There is a love. Marriage is the bringing together by God (through some mysterious law which operates in this universe) of two souls in this vast, vast phenomenon called life in this vast stream of existence where countless millions of souls are moving in their individual planes of spiritual evolution towards the Divine. Through the Grace of God, through the Divine Will, and through the operation of certain laws that govern this universal life, two souls are brought together. That is the meaning of marriage. 3.2 Through the co...

07/01/2018 The Taittiriya Upanishad regards the Reality as the Atman, or the Self, beyond the physical, vital, mental, intellectual and causal aspects(sheaths) of the personality. It also identifies this Atman with the Supreme Absolute, or Brahman. The Aitareya Upanishad states that the Supreme Atman has manifested itself as the objective Universe from the one side and the subjective individuals on the other side, in which process, factors which are effects of God's creation become causes of individual's perception, by a reversal of the process. The Chhandogya Upanishad says that all this Universe is Brahman Manifest in all its states of manifestation. It regards objects as really aspects of the one Subject known as the Vaishvanara-Atman. It also holds that the Supreme Being is the Infinite, or Bhuma, in which one sees nothing else, hears nothing else, and understands nothing else except the Self as the only, existence. In the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad we are told th...

07/01/2018 2.1 For this great opportunity, O Supreme Almighty, light of lights beyond all darkness, our hearts’ grateful adorations. May your divine grace shower upon all those who are gathered together here; grant them all the awareness that in You we find our ultimate oneness of spirit. Apparently different by names and forms and external factors of religion, caste, creed, nationality, race, etc., deep within us there abides a part of You, the breath of the Spirit within,  in Aadmi (man) that of God within us, the Amsa. In that depth of our essential eternal unchanging identity, we all find our absolute union and oneness in You who are our common source and origin, our sustainer and ultimate fulfilment. May we all be given this continuous awareness of this unity in diversity, of this oneness in spite of outer appearance, divergences and differences. 2.2 Unified thus in the spirit, may we work together for the common welfare of all of us. May we work together in the...