Pearls of Wise

28/06/2019 Grief over any matter is born of ignorance. There is a difference between concern and grief. A person weeps because of the loving relationship with or personal attachment to the departed or simply because of the social expectation to cry. If the deceased lived an unrighteous life, there could be concern about his fate. For just this reason, rituals for a better situation in the after-life of the departed soul are prescribed. Even if a good person dies, there can be cause for grief, because in the absence of their wise counsel we fear for ourselves. There could be various reasons to grieve for one who has passed away, but why mourn for the living? Those who are alive can cause anxiety in many ways; sometimes we cry out of love or attachment.  Many a time, people grieve over fear of events that have not taken place. It is interesting that at twenty, a man neither cares nor worries about what the world thinks of him. At thirty, he wonders what they think of him an...

28/06/2019 3. Mind you, your body is only an instrument for activity. What wills the body is the mind and what directs the mind is the intelligence. And the mind and intelligence receive their strength as well as inspiration from something still subtler called the Soul, which carries enormous, infinite potential. Our mind and intelligence together should form an effective tool in recognizing and drawing upon the infinitely resourceful Soul. So, sit in a place and be with your mantra. This is a process, an absolute means, whereby you can commune with your Soul of infinite dimension. Let that indwelling Supreme Presence illumine and inspire your mind and your intelligence during the wakeful state, the sleep state and also the dream state. With regard to the memories of the past, the concerns of the present and the plans for the future, have a proper evaluation. Be therefore, righteously instilled and motivated. Let there be no unnecessary brooding, worries or haste. On the oth...

27/06/2019 "Swami Chinmayananda answers the questions of devotees put forward to Him regarding exposing children to spirituality from childhood." 1. Q : We have two children, both under three years of age. How do we actively begin our· children's spiritual education beyond what they passively learn by observing, their parents, so that their spiritual progress may be constant, subtle, and consistent? A : Do not ever misunderstand that children of that age are merely passive observers. In fact, only after we have grown up do we learn that art of passive, dull, sleepy, and sloppy observation. If children of that age are passive observers, how then are they able to learn a language? Is not everything new, fresh, mysterious to them? In fact, child psychologists have concluded that children in that age group need more rest as well as more frequent feedings because during those few years of early childhood they have to be alert and learn much more than in their lat...

27/06/2019 Some times back we saw Kama, the lowest level of a person’s character evolution. Today we will see KRODHA or ANGER, the worst quality of an ego identified consciousness. Anger in life ranges from irritability, impatience, jealousy, resentment to even violence. But the angry person always feels he is expressing “ righteous anger” and “is angry because……..” In Chapter 2:62-63, Bhagavan clearly said 5000 years ago that anger leads to delusions, loss of discrimination on how to behave, a confused intelligence and destruction of qualities.  Today, Modern Medicine has proven that every time you become angry you throw toxic chemicals into your system. You make it unpleasant for the person you get angry at, but you make it 1000 times more unpleasant for yourself both at a physical and mental level. A lot of people think it is a credit to be rough, tough, irritated, hot tempered and dominating. But these qualities are just expressions of a weak mind that is not able t...

26/06/2019 3. There are desires of a different type, like sexual desire. It is neither good nor bad, like fire. Do you consider fire as a good thing or a bad thing? You cannot say anything about it. It can destroy or it can cook your food. So, likewise, sexual desire is a conservative process of maintaining a balance in the system, it is not capable of definition in a cut-and-dried manner. It is, as any desire is, relative to circumstance. But if it is a passion, you may distinguish between desire and passion. Passion is voluptuous, tumult-like, and makes one sick afterwards. Great discrimination has to be exercised here. There is a famous passage called Kama Gita in the Mahabharata. The desire says, "People try to conquer me, but they do not know that even the desire to conquer me is a desire, they don’t understand that, so I am behind all their attempts." Desire for God sublimates all other mortal desires. The higher absorbs the lower, the lower should be transmut...

26/06/2019 4. Real religion is not divorced from philosophical wisdom or alien to the spiritual science of the Self. If the self is an established fact, and the knowledge of it is true, the way to it also is true and established. This established way is religion. Many religions appear on the surface when they are not strictly based on the general reality of all. When religions are founded on non-essentials, i.e., classes, climes, sentiments, idiosyncrasies and the practical needs of a particular society or a limited part of humanity, they are bound to be cut off from each other. But, when it is known that man is not merely a body, that one's ultimate demands are not peculiar to one's personality alone, that the essential calls of the inner reality are similar to those in others too, it will be found that the views of life cannot finally diverge and that, if all aim at a common experience of reality and perfection, their conduct in life can only be a preparation for that...

25/06/2019 5. First, to sit in the posture In which you can sit still for a long time. All the nerve currents which are working pass along the spine. The spine is not intended to support the weight of the body. Therefore the posture must be such that the weight of the body is not on the spine. Let it be free from all pressure. There are some other preliminary things. There is the great question of food and exercise…. The food must be simple and taken several times [a day] instead of once or twice. Never get very hungry. “He who eats too much cannot be a Yogi. He who fasts too much cannot be a Yogi. He who sleeps too much cannot be a Yogi, nor he who keeps awake too much.” (Gita, VI. 16.) He who does not do any work and he who works too hard cannot succeed. Proper food, proper exercise, proper sleep, proper wakefulness — these are necessary for any success. What the proper food is, what kind, we have to determine ourselves. Nobody can determine that [for us]. As a general p...

25/06/2019 Sri Aurobindo witnessed first-hand the situation in India under strict British control, as well as participated in the period of awakening of the Indian people to the need to throw off the British yoke and regain their independence.  He saw the effect of British control over the language of commerce and governance, as well as the imposition of British customs, rules and systems over the people and cultural history of India.  He was thus in a unique position to evaluate the role of language in the development of the natural innate spirit and expression of a nation of people.  India had at the time a number of states with various languages.  In most part of India, English became the language used for management of the society and the economy, while the native languages obviously continued within the daily lives of the populace.  Yet in the state of Bengal, the preeminence of the Bengali language was something unique at the time. Sri Aurobindo ...

04/06/2019 Is Spiritual Knowledge a must for Right Living? :  Swami Chinmayananda, Founder Chinmaya Mission Somebody once donated a radio and said, “Swamiji, this is yours!” He told me how to switch it on when I admitted that I know little about the radio. Every morning when I would switch it on, cheap cinema songs would be heard and I would switch it off. Further I received only Colombo station. So next day in the satsaṅga I told them that the radio is useless as I was not getting Delhi station at all. In the satsanga was present the general manager of Philips. When he heard me saying that the Philips radio was useless, he came to me and said, “Swamiji, I am from Philips. Were you complaining about the Philips radio?” I said, “This radio is Philips and whenever I switch it on, no other station except Colombo is heard.” The general manager smiled and told me, “Swamiji, there are four more knobs. If you turn the first one, it receives various stations. The second knob ...

04/06/2019 2 Any form of desire is wrong. We cannot work on desires. We can only work on needs and necessities. There is a famous proverb that says, "Necessity is the mother of invention". So, is invention following desire or following necessity? Whatever necessity or need you have, if you act upon it, it is perfectly alright. In addition to that, any kind of a desire, which grows into greed and possessiveness, any kind of expectation, which goes on becoming unreal, will only constrict the mind. It will make the mind narrow. Tell me now: Is a narrow mind more effective or a mind that is broad and full-fold? So, if you want to have a healthy mind, a full-fold mind, a mind that can apply itself, what should you do? Should you keep on desiring? Expectation is not the way. Desire is not the way. Always have an assessment of what is to be done. Try to also arrive at the best means of attainment. And once you are decided on the means, start it, proceed with it and end with ...

03/06/2019 2. #You do need to keep a few things in mind while giving : Krishna says in the Bhagavad Gita that the daan that’s given at the right place, to the right person, in the right way is considered good; that which is given grudgingly, with the expectation of getting something in return, is not good; and a daan which is given at the wrong time, with wrong attitude, to the wrong person is bad. #Welfare Vs Empowerment : There are various types of daan — anna or food daan, gau or cow daan, gyan or knowledge daan, for instance. Also there is a hierarchy of sorts among things that you can give. Take, for instance, anna daan. Giving food to someone to eat is good. Even better is gyan daan or sharing knowledge. A hungry man first needs to be fed. Only then will he be receptive to knowledge. Daan in the form of food or money helps in the welfare of people. But it may not last, and as a result recipients could come back for more and eventually get used to char...

03/06/2019 There is another poem in which the poet says, "One touch of nature makes all life kin." The poet here refers to the original nature in which all forms of life are related to the One. Vedanta proclaims the oneness of all existence. Vedanta declares that there is one divine principle present in all things. The first Sloka of the first Upanishad says, "Whatever exists is pervaded by the one great Cosmic Being. That Being permeates, saturates and pervades all things in the universe." Even modern science is now confirming this great truth. At the back of all this diversity, the back of all this multifariousness, there is something common to all life. If you touch it, you experience cosmic consciousness. The Vedantic method is deductive; the scientific method is inductive. The Vedantic method starts with the one and proceeds to the many. The scientific method starts with the many and proceeds to the one. Now it seems almost as though modern science...

02/06/2019 3. There are desires of a different type, like *sexual desire. #It is neither good nor bad, like fire .  Do you consider fire as a good thing or a bad thing?  #You cannot say anything about it. "It can destroy or it can cook your food."  So, likewise, sexual desire is a conservative process of maintaining a balance in the system, it is not capable of definition in a cut-and-dried manner.  *It is, as any desire is, relative to circumstance.  *But if it is a passion, you may distinguish between desire and passion.  #Passion is voluptuous, tumult-like, and makes one sick afterwards. Great discrimination has to be exercised here. #There is a famous passage called Kama Gita in the Mahabharatam. The desire says, "People try to conquer me, but they do not know that even the desire to conquer me is a desire, they don’t understand that, so I am behind all their attempts." #Desire for 'PARAMATMA' sublimates all other mortal desires...

02/06/2019 3. *The divine play of manifestation, through its scenes of appearing and disappearing in the variegated colours of life and death, drives home to mankind the lesson that this life is only an act in the stage of becoming, where many parts are played and no part in itself is complete enough to give the character of wholeness to the play. Every actor on the stage behaves in such a way that he does not portray himself as an unrelated independent personality, but endeavours to be an integral part of the entire play. *This behaviour of the actor fitted to the wholeness of the play is his dramatic peculiarity or the Dharma which unites all actors to the whole, which is the ultimate purpose. The Dharma of man is his religion which binds him to the Whole, which shows that he is a part of the Whole, trying to abide by the Law of the Whole and aiming at fulfilling the purpose of the Whole. For, the Whole is the truth and the good of all is included in it as its constituents w...