Pearls of Wise

 ========================================================================  ========================================================================  27/08/2019. Srimad Bhagavad Gita : 1. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Dear Devotees, Bhagavad Gita is considered to be a Bharatiya text, given by Lord Krishna to Arjuna, in the battle field of Kurukshetram. But this has been totally misunderstood because Gita never talks about any religion or any God, or any kind of rituals and customs, which one should follow strictly. Gita is one of the best texts of human psychology where Krishna, the world spiritual Master (Jagat Guru) teaches the real purpose of human mind. Today, we have many religions, but unfortunately no one ever talks about the human mind, from where it came, how it came and where it will go, how you should get away from your worries, tensions, fear, and sorrows ...

 ======================================================================= ======================================================================== 26/08/2019. VEDHANTHAM : SRI RAMAKRISHNA. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Brahmani was the enthusiastic teacher and astonished beholder of Sri Ramakrishna in his spiritual progress. She became proud of the achievements of her unique pupil. But the pupil himself was not permitted to rest; his destiny beckoned him forward. His Divine Mother would allow him no respite till he had left behind the entire realm of duality with its visions, experiences, and ecstatic dreams. But for the new ascent the old tender guides would not suffice. The Brahmani, on whom he had depended for, three years, saw her son escape from her to follow the command of a teacher with masculine strength, a sterner mien, a gnarled physique, and a virile voice. The n...

======================================================================= -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 25/08/2019 How to conquer destiny? ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- A well-to-do lady told Ramana Maharshi, ‘I am blessed with everything that a human being would like to have’.  Her voice choked. Controlling herself she continued slowly, ‘I have all that I want, a human being may want… but… but… I do not have peace of mind. Something prevents it. Probably my destiny’. There was silence for a while. Then he spoke in his usual sweet manner: ‘All right, you have said what you wished to say. Well, what is destiny? There is no destiny. Surrender, and all will be well. Throw all responsibility on God and do not bear the burden yourself. What can destiny do to you then?’ D: Surrende...

 =======================================================================  ======================================================================== 24/08/2019. (New Discoveries, Vol. 6, pp. 175-76.) [Mr. Frank Rhodehamel's notes of a Bhagavad-Gita class delivered Thursday, May 24, 1900, in San Francisco, California] ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Gita is the gist of the Vedas. It is not our Bible; the Upanishads are our Bible. It [the Gita] is the gist of the Upanishads and harmonizes the many contradictory parts of the Upanishads. The Vedas are divided into two portions — the work portion and the knowledge portion. The work portion contains ceremonials, rules as to eating, living, doing charitable work, etc. The knowledge came afterwards and was enunciated by kings. The work portion was exclusively in the hands of the priests and pertained entirely to the sense life....

======================================================================= ======================================================================== 23/08/2019 Everything Is Yogam :  Swami Chidananda ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  Worshipful homage to that supreme, eternal, universal Being who revealed Himself in a glorious personal form comprising total Divinity as the world teacher, Lord Krishna, and who revealed Himself in and through the Gita wisdom teachings that He imparted for all mankind, for all times, through His beloved devotee and disciple, the warrior prince Arjuna. He not only revealed His divine nature through His Bhagavad Gita teachings, He also revealed how man can realise Him fully, can experience Him, and, ultimately, how man can merge himself in Him to become one with Him. All this He taught within the compass of 700 brief verses contained in 18 chapters. And wh...

======================================================================== ======================================================================== 23/08/2019. PURITY : SRI SWAMI KRISHNANANDA (Dictated on October 18th, 1998) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Purity is achieved by freedom from desire, and desire should be distinguished from necessity. When one is hungry, one should eat, when one is thirsty one should drink, when one is fatigued, one should sleep. These absolute necessities cannot be called desires because without these necessities one cannot even survive. Desire is a destructive form of longing which innervates the whole system, longing for things which are not necessary for the maintenance of the body. Every kind of luxury should be considered as desire. One has to judge for oneself whether this particular thing is absolutely necessary, or one can be comfortable even without t...

 =======================================================================  ====================================================================== 22/08/2019 Mundaka Upanishad, Chapter One: Section I, Verses 1 and 2:  “Brahma first of the Gods was born, the creator of all, the world’s protector; he to Atharvan, his eldest son, declared the God-knowledge in which all sciences have their foundation.  The God-knowledge by Brahma declared to Atharvan, Atharvan of old declared to Angir; he to Satyavaha the Bharadwaja told it, the Bharadwaja to Angiras, both the higher and the lower knowledge.” The creation of the universe is described in the Rig Veda, X.129.1-5:  “Then existence was not nor non-existence, the mid-world was not nor the Ether nor what is beyond. … That One lived without breath by his self-law, there was nothing else nor aught beyond it.  In the beginning Darkness was hidden by darkness, all this was an ocean of inconscience.  When universa...

 ========================================================================  ====================================================================== 22/08/2019 The body is composed of the five elements and is unintelligent. It is made up of skin, flesh, blood and bones. It is produced by time, action and the attributes of Sattva, Rajas and Tamas. The Atman is neither born, nor does it die, nor does it stop or go anywhere. It is neither male nor female nor neuter. It is all-pervading and everlasting. It is one without a second, unblemished like ether, eternal, pure and perfect Knowledge itself. Sorrow has the body as its cause. The body has Karma for its cause. Action of Karma proceeds from man having the notion of 'I' in the body. The notion of 'I' which is unintelligent is beginningless, having Avidya for its root cause. Egoism is always associating with the reflection of Chit like a piece of iron heated in fire. Thus the body becomes independent with the Ahamk...

========================================================================= ======================================================================== 21/08/2019 “Swamiji, I don’t believe in God”. ========================================================================= It was a young man, modern, tight pants, tobacco pipe stuck at waist, trim thin moustache. He spoke English with an Americanized drawl, and was evidently one of our university products, with higher education abroad. Sophisticated, to the points of his pointed toes. Swamiji beamed. “Excellent!” With a broad welcoming smile, nodding his head slowly, Swamiji continued: “That’s fine. I like you. You are the man I have been wanting to meet. I like your outspokenness. You are intelligent and you think independently. You have the courage to speak out your conviction, straight from the shoulder, as they say. Now come, WHAT KIND of GOD is it, that you don’t believe in?” The young man, who had made his statement about his ...

02/08/2019 A few days after the installation of Pujya Gurudev Swami Chinmayananda's statue at Sandeepany, Mumbai, one of his ardent #devotees was sitting near it and thinking: “I know that you never left us, since you were not just a body or a mind or an intellect. I also know that, as all pervading Consciousness, you are present right here now. #Devotion can invoke your attention in this statue or anywhere else. Yet, I feel the need of seeing your living form walking down this pathway from your kutiya [residence], walking stick in hand, laughing or cracking a joke, vibrant with dynamism and making everyone around you feel happy to be alive. But now I can see only a motionless statue that can never match your living #brilliance. . . .’ Feeling thus a little dejected, she went back to the work of sorting out old photographs for compiling the life history of Gurudev in pictures. Within about five minutes she came across a photograph of a handwritten message of Gurudev’s that cou...