06/24
Qk.ly: http://bit.ly/bsx0624
One of my favorite days of the year (the other is 03/18, the birthday of Edgar Cayce). I am just going to blog the entire day in some detail, so excusez-moi if it bores you :-) The morning routine started off nice. Tears set the ground for a great day. Quickly checked the email on the SGTab. This one got my attention:
NARMADE HARR ! Mr.Shastri, i was really touched by your love and the way Narmada Maiya arouses intense emotions within your heart. Do watch the following video i made on our Maiya, i am sure you would love it - Narmada - A Visual Meditation and also this one - The Beauty of Garudeshwar & Nareshwar NARMADE HARR !!
Thanks, rajanikant219 (if that's your b'day, it's very close to that of my guru; just a day off). That made my day, the rest is a bonus. There was an amusing quote from Swami:
Dhyana Vahini, Chap 8: 'Onepointedness is Essential for Meditation' Do not entertain in your mind the idea of purity or impurity while undertaking a spiritual practice. There is nothing impure in the world. When the Lord is immanent everywhere and in everything, how can anything be impure? Even if something appears to the eyes as impure, the moment it contacts the Name of the Lord, it becomes purified. Purity and impurity are the result of the mental reactions at a particular moment. When one is giving money to someone, one talks of choosing an auspicious time. But when one gets a chance to take money, every moment becomes auspicious! The mind is the reason for both the attitudes. Remember that everything is pure, everything is Divine!
Made a quick call to my in-laws, who're celebrating their wedding anniversary today. They got married just a few days after i was born, which means that they have been married as long as i have been around. Gosh! Another intriguing thing:
Super Sunday (08.FEB.2009) … In the night, WiFi wished her mother on her b'day. It was also the wedding anniversary of my elder sis. Very unusually, my MiL's wedding anniversary falls on the b'day of my elder sis. What's the probability of that happening? 7.5 in a million [(1/365)*(1/365)]!
Baddy On that note, hit the baddy courts. Only Ram and the two ladies were there. So we had a couple of games, long rallies to the back. I was totally in the zone, it just happens. Having that extra half-second to play the shot. Why does that happen? Who knows, but milk it while it lasts. Played a couple of singles with Ram as well. Here's a small equivalence that we dreamed up: Squash : Baddy : Tennis = 100m : 200m : 800m And the reason tennis matches last longer. Anyway, due to the zoom compression issues while recording matches, baddy games are hardly fun to watch, but great to play (take it from me). Newspaper I was checking out the ToI in the PM Club, when i saw this:
Som Mittal, president, Nasscom, Nandan Nilekani, chairman, UIDAI, Rajendra S Pawar, co-founder NIIT and chairman Nasscom, in Bangalore on Thursday
TwInspirations: Nice to see Nandan and RSP in the same frame; they inspired me the most at Infosys and NIIT. Bath As usual, i was listening to the bhajans, album 4 for today (24 mod 10). #8 Tripura Sundari Maa reminded me of the connection between Bala Tripura Sundari Devi and Lord V:
Bala…gee … In Tirupati Maharaj (Swami Brahmananda) saw the Divine Mother in the image of Lord Venkateshwara. His body shivered in ecstasy. Later he said to Sharvananda: "I have distinctly seen the form of the Divine Mother. Please inquire about it." After inquiry and close examination of the image and sanctuary, it was found to have been originally a Shakti temple, later converted into a Vishnu temple, probably under the influence of Ramanuja.
Puja Started one more parayana of Shri Sai Satcharita on 6/6. Thanks to the Kindle, haven't been missing the daily read; today was chapters 18-19. This is without a doubt one of the best and has a whole lot of ideas that has changed the way i look at Life:
- Unless there is some relationship or connection, nobody goes anywhere. If any men or creatures come to you, do not discourteously drive them away, but receive them well and treat them, with due respect. Shri Hari (God) will be certainly pleased, if you give water to the thirsty, bread to the hungry, clothes to the naked, and your verandah to strangers for sitting and resting.
- The worker should be paid, his dues promptly and liberally.
The Ganesh Mantra helped me focus on my favorite Ganesha: Swananda, IcchanAri Ganesha, and Varasiddhi Vinayaka in Jayanagar.
Sri Brahmachaithanya Pravachan for the day had:
Knowledge is a Two-edged Sword … A prapanchi person is one who knows only the tangible world, while a philosopher is one who understands the true nature of the world, the mystery of it. Happiness comes only from the knowledge of the subtle. The Cosmic Soul is like an ocean, whereas an individual is in every way no more than a drop in it. True philosophy is to realize the identity between the two. The importance, the greatness, the limitlessness, the prowess of nama cannot be understood by dint of study, but only through the grace of a saint. It is the greatest good fortune to have complete faith in nama. We should beware of this faith being shaken. True, firm contentment can only be achieved by ceaseless repetition of the divine name with full, unshakable faith in the word of a saint.
In the Gospel, M. discusses about the reality of the world with the Master:
With the Devotees at Dakshineswar (II) … M: "Is the world unreal?" MASTER: "Why should it be unreal? What you are asking is a matter for philosophical discussion. "In the beginning, when a man reasons following the Vedantic method of 'Not this, not this', he realizes that Brahman is not the living beings, not the universe, not the twenty-four cosmic principles. All these things become like dreams to him. Then comes the affirmation of what has been denied, and he feels that God Himself has become the universe and all living beings. "Suppose you are climbing to the roof by the stairs. As long as you are aware of the roof, you are also aware of the stairs. He who is aware of the high is also aware of the low. But after reaching the roof you realize that the stairs are made of the same materials-brick, lime, and brick-dust-as the roof. "Further, I have given the illustration of the bel-fruit. Both changeability and unchangeability belong to one and the same Reality. "The ego cannot be done away with. As long as 'I-consciousness' exists, living beings and the universe must also exist. After realizing God, one sees that, it is He Himself who has become the universe and the living beings. But one cannot realize this by mere reasoning. … MASTER (to M.): "Why should the universe be unreal? That is a speculation of the philosophers. After realizing God, one sees that it is God Himself who has become the universe and all living beings. "The Divine Mother revealed to me in the Kāli temple that it was She who had become everything. She showed me that everything was full of Consciousness. The Image was Consciousness, the altar was Consciousness, the water-vessels were Consciousness, the door-sill was Consciousness, the marble floor was Consciousness-all was Consciousness. "I found everything inside the room soaked, as it were, in Bliss-the Bliss of Satchidananda. I saw a wicked man in front of the Kāli temple; but in him also I saw the Power of the Divine Mother vibrating. … "After realizing God, one sees all this aright-that it is He who has become the universe, living beings, and the twenty-four cosmic principles. But what remains when God completely effaces the ego cannot be described in words. As Ramprasad said in one of his songs, 'Then alone will you know whether you are good or I am good!' I get into even that state now and then. "A man sees a thing in one way through reasoning and in an altogether different way when God Himself shows it to him."
We find much the same thing from Ramana Maharshi:
Is the world real? … Bhagavan summarised this position in the following reply: | Shankara [a ninth century sage and philosopher who was the principal populariser of advaita Vedanta] was criticised for his views on maya without understanding him. He said that (1) Brahman is real, (2) The universe is unreal, and (3) Brahman is the universe. He did not stop at the second, because the third explains the other two. It signifies that the universe is real if perceived as the Self, and unreal if perceived apart from the Self. Hence maya and reality are one and the same. (Guru Ramana, p. 65)
As Ramana Himself put it pithily:
The Self does not move, the Universe moves within It.
Read The Gospel of the Holy Mother in my favorite place in the backyard, where She talks of compassion. Surfing The Spiritual Thought for the day was just great:
Throw your heart over the fence and rest will follow.
My Google Alert for the Master gave me a very touching article:
Bangalore students' murder case: Even in grief mother is gentle on the killers Bangalore: She has lost her only child to the nefarious designs of a few anti-social elements. Still, Jyothi did not curse those who had kidnapped and murdered Sudhindra. Instead, she was praying to God to guide them better in future. "I pray to God that they (the accused persons) do not repeat such a grave mistake", she said.
Man, this is one great example of what the Master says in the Gospel:
Visit to Vidyasagar … Compassion, love of God, and renunciation are the glories of true knowledge.
Recently, Michelle had sent me a very informative article on the life of Carl Jung, with the following snippet:
Likewise, in China, the character Kuan Yin began as a male saint (the bodhisattva Avalokiteshwara), but was portrayed in such a feminine manner that he is more often thought of as the female goddess of compassion!
I feel that it's a good thing to pray to this deity:
Then i went into a tizzy blogging this post. Google Calendar and Docs With the school year starting for both the kids in the last one month, had to get down to updating their calendars. I took images of the relevant pages, cleaned them up in Picnik, uploaded them to Google Docs, and shared them. Since all of us are on the Android, the kids can view them easily by installing Google Docs for the Android. For good measure (and more fine-grained access), i am planning to add the items to our common familial Google Calendar. Talk of redundancy!