Pearls of Wise

21/04/2018 Bhagavad Gita for the modern life Today we will look at MADA(pride), a very subtle but powerful vice. It is not wrong to say we all live in some amount of pride…..at it is necessary in a transactional world. MADA is only an identification with “what you have”, instead of “what you are”. If someone asks you who you are, you define yourself using your family name, degree, job, titles,spouses, children, property or a skill you have. Because you are proud to have it all. And it is fine to a limited extend. The problem happens when you think of these possessions as your absolute existence. We all know the story of Sankaracharya’s pride smashed by Shiva who came as Chandala and asked “am I the body or soul to move out of your way” or Bhattathiri’s pride smashed by Guruvayoorappan to defend Poothanam. Todays’s lesson:  There is nothing wrong in acquiring wealth, fame and skills or being happy about your achievements. But it is important to live with the realization ...

21/04/2018 Insisting upon this total giving up of any covetousness, any avarice, any stupidity, any greed, refusing to allow the mind to look upon things that do not belong to you, that are unnecessary, reducing lifestyle to simplicity; and adhering to the path of virtuous conduct, purity of thought, word and deed, and strictly abiding by truthfulness, making yourself a centre of kindness and compassion, never hurting, never harming, never giving pain to any living creature, already there comes about a transformation in your entire character and conduct. By cultivation of these five positive qualities, there comes about a gradual eradication of the main handicaps of human nature in the form of impure conduct and untruth. All these things contradict a certain universal ethical norm and criteria of right conduct. There is a code of conduct. It is called Dharma. In every religion, in various ways, they speak of a moral law. They speak of a certain ethical norm for human conduct....

20/04/2018 5. Which person can say that he is really happy in spite of material possessions that he may have, the social status which he may occupy? Why is it that we are always kept on tenterhooks and we always go on hoping for a better future even when not knowing what that future would be like? How is it that we are always impelled by an urge whose nature is not clear even to our own minds? Is it not true that we are perhaps beckoned by some transcendental meaning in our own selves? Transcendental, because we seem to have no access to that realm. Well, it comes to this, that we do not know our own selves, a very uncomfortable conclusion though. If that is the case, how can I understand anybody else? If the very instrument of action, which is my own personality, is beyond my own self, how could I use this instrument as a tool in the understanding of the world-structure outside? We are unhappy today, as intensely, as people were two thousand years ago. It is a futile pattin...

20/04/2018 The Geeta: Her Special Charm-1. The culture of a people must continuously serve them, nourishing their inspirations, guiding their actions and providing consolation and comfort, balance and equanimity in both their joys and sorrows. A culture when sustained through its religious practices, if it has no elasticity, will come to choke the growth of the community and the people will then outgrow that culture. If an unyielding iron ring is put around a growing tree, in time, as the tree grows, the ring will be swallowed up into the very dimension and growth of the vigorous tree. Our Bharatiya culture, as expressed through Hinduism, never died through all these millenniums, only because our culture had the required elasticity to embrace all the new dimensions into which our society grew during the march of time. The ideas enshrined in the Upanishads, couched as discussions held by the Rishis and their disciples in the forest vastnesses along the Ganges banks, the w...

20/04/2018 2. Student Life-1. Sri Krishna received his instructions from Sandipani, a sage of Avantipura. He lived with his teacher like an ordinary student. He was meek, humble and obedient. He led a laborious life. He gathered fuel from the woods for his preceptor’s household. He inspired his classmates with love. Sudama was Sri Krishna’s classmate. Sudama was later on known by the name of Kuchela. Sri Krishna had wonderful retentive memory. If he heard anything once, he would retain it in memory, however difficult it might be. He mastered the sixty-four arts in sixty-four days. He was matchless in physical strength. He learnt the art of archery and military science under his teacher. When his school career was over, at the request of his teacher, he rescued his teacher’s son from Panchajanya, a sea-monster, by whom the boy had been carried away. Krishna slew Panchajanya and took away his conch ‘Panchajanya’, rescued the boy from Yama, and handed him over to his teache...

19/04/2018 Brahman and Divine Incarnations :- "The jnanis think of God without form.  They don't accept the Divine Incarnation.  Praising Sri Krishna, Arjuna said, 'Thou art Brahman Absolute.' Sri Krishna replied, 'Follow Me, and you will know whether or not I am Brahman Absolute.' So saying, Sri Krishna led Arjuna to a certain place and asked him what he saw there.  'I see a huge tree,' said Arjuna, 'and on it I notice fruits hanging like clusters of blackberries.' Then Krishna said to Arjuna, 'Come nearer and you will find that these are not clusters of blackberries, but clusters of innumerable Krishnas like Me, hanging from the tree.' In other words, Divine Incarnations without number appear and disappear on the tree of the Absolute Brahman. "Kavirdas was strongly inclined to the formless God.  At the mention of Krishna's name he would say: 'Why should I worship Him? The gopis would clap their hands while He per...

19/04/2018 I once met a lady who was very fond of her children and her money and her everything. When I began to preach to her that the only way to God is by giving up everything, she stopped coming the next day. One day she came and told me that the reason for her staying away was because the religion I preached was very uncomfortable. "What sort of religion would be comfortable to you?" I asked in order to test her. She said: "I want to see God in my children, in my money, in my diamonds". "Very good, madam", I replied. "You have now got all these things. And you will have to see these things millions of years yet. Then you will be bumped somewhere and come to reason. Until that time comes, you will never come to God. In the meantime, go on seeing God in your children and in your money and your diamonds and your dances." It is difficult, almost impossible, for such people to give up sense enjoyment. It has grown upon them from birth t...

19/04/2018 In the course of our daily lives, we meet many people who feel broken down or victimized, and who focus themselves on their inherent weakness and the failures they experience in their lives. As a matter of course, every human being has times and moments when he is assailed by doubt and loses faith in his own destiny, capacities or eventual success in his endeavors. Great Rishis and Yogis have all experienced the “dark night of the soul” when all spiritual support is seemingly withdrawn and one is left with the overwhelming weaknesses and limitations of the unenlightened parts of the being. Ultimately, there must come a realisation and recognition that it is the Divine carrying out His manifestation through the action of the Shakti which guides, influences and transforms the individual, who is a nexus of the activity rather than the originator of it. In the interim, however, there must be the ability to sustain the faith in the Divine and His Shakti even when the awar...

03/04/2018 Narendra's many virtues :- MASTER: "Haven't you observed his many virtues? He is not only well versed in music, vocal and instrumental, but he is also very learned.  Besides, he has controlled his passions and declares he will lead a celibate life.  He has been devoted to God since his very boyhood. Meditation on God with form :- "How are you getting along with your meditation nowadays? What aspect of God appeals to your mind - with form or without form?" M: "Sir, now I can't fix my mind on God with form.  On the other hand, I can't concentrate steadily on God without form." MASTER: "Now you see that the mind cannot be fixed, all of a sudden, on the formless aspect of God.  It is wise to think of God with form during the primary stages." M: "Do you mean to suggest that one should meditate on clay images?" MASTER: "Why clay? These images are the embodiments of Consciousness." M: ...

03/04/2018 12 It is very hard to believe in reason and follow truth. This whole world is full either of the superstitious or of half-hearted hypocrites. I would rather side with superstition and ignorance than stand with these half-hearted hypocrites. They are no good. They stand on both sides of the river. Take anything up, fix your ideal and follow it out boldly unto death. That is the way to salvation. Half-heartedness never led to anything. Be superstitious, be a fanatic if you please, but be something. Be something, show that you have something; but be not like these shilly-shallyers with truth — these jacks-of-all-trades who just want to get a sort of nervous titillation, a dose of opium, until this desire after the sensational becomes a habit. The world is getting too full of such people. Contrary to the apostles who, according to Christ, were the salt of the earth, these fellows are the ashes, the dirt of the earth. So let us first clear the ground and understand what...

02/04/2018 I. Over the last several days, we saw many faults of an ego identified personality. Today we will see the most common and most crude of them all, called MATSARYA or competition. The world itself is called “competitive” and children from young age are taught to compete and win. Competition leads the winner to become proud and the loser to be jealous, bitter and disheartened. Competition is always associated with comparison. We see something someone has, that we lack, and it gives us an inferiority complex. This complex forces us to associate with the wrong people and do or say things which we would not otherwise say or do. We create fights between others to make our world secure because we feel threatened by our inadequacy. II.Today’s lesson : - How do we avoid jealousy and competition? Instead of looking at what others have, focus on your strengths. When you see someone more beautiful, more powerful, more skilled, learn from their qualities,...

02/04/2018 1. Introduction : 1.5. 1. Lord Krishna—The Supreme Lord -5.  5.Krishna in the Puranas - 1 5. Agni, Brahma, Padma, Brahma-Vaivarta, Vishnu and Bhagavata Puranas treat of the life of Krishna. The Brahma and Padma Puranas have devoted several chapters to this subject. Brahma-Vaivarta, Vishnu, and Bhagavata Puranas have devoted whole sections and books to the description of Krishna-Charita. Radha plays an important part in the growth of later Vaishnavism. No mention of Radha is made in the Vishnu and the Bhagavata Puranas. It is in the Padma as well as in the Brahma-Vaivarta that a detailed account of the Radha cult, the real nature of Radha and Her companions, their names, their mystical significance, their relation with Sri Krishna in the Rasa Lila is given. In the Brahma-Vaivarta Purana great importance to the Radha element in the Krishna worship is given. In the Vishnu and the Bhagavata Puranas the philosophical aspects of Sri Krishna and His worship are deal...

02/04/2018 4. We cannot, therefore, understand what is happening to us by the exercise of the phenomenal reason. We are conditioned by the factors which are at the back of the operation of the reason itself. I had occasion, sometimes back, when I had visited this Academy in this very context, to speak on the other aspects of the subject: how the mind is conditioned by the structure of the universe itself. The universe that is perceived by the mind, the reason and the senses, seems to be weighing heavy upon the mind and the reason in such a manner that the mind cannot think independently of the way in which the world is made. The phenomenal character of the world impinges upon the mind in such a manner that the mind can think only phenomenally. The so-called noumenal implications behind the phenomenal perceptions remain untouched by the exercise of the phenomenal reason. We think in terms of the laws that operate in the physical universe so that we are compelled to be satisf...