Shiva, Hari, God - all one and the same

My late father (1911-1993), Prof. S. S. Raghavachar of Mysore University, was a delegate and speaker at the World Conference of Religions conducted in 1963 by Prof. T.M.P. Mahadevan of Madras University. With hundreds of delegates from around the world, the conference was commemorating the birth centenary of Swami Vivekananda, who took the message to the World Parliament of Religions in Chicago in 1893 that all religions basically lead to the one truth or God.

The delegates were taken for an audience with Kanchi Paramacharya at the end of the conference. While giving his benediction, Paramcharya asked the audience, "is the there any textual mention or inscription in Hinduism predating Swami Vivekananda and Ramakrishna  which stated that the worship of different conceptions of God all lead to the same Reality?" My father Prof. Raghavachar rose and quoted an inscription from the Belur temple in Karnataka built by Vishnuvardhana, a disciple of Sri Ramanujacharya in the 11/12th C CE, which states:

 yam shaivah samupasate shiva iti brahmeti vedantinah

bauddhah buddha iti pramanapatavah karteti naiyayikah

arhan ityatha jaina-shasana-ratah karmeti mimansakah

so yam vo vidhadhatu vanchita phalam trailokyanatho harih

It seems that Paramacharya was immensely pleased with this answer and felicitated my father.

Recently, to find out more, I dug a little into the available textual references to this shloka. I give you three excellent references:
1. Dr. S. Radhakrishnan, 1926
2. H. Nakamura, 1983
3. C.P. Bhatta, 1994

Come, let us celebrate the essence of Hindu Dharma, of universality of God!

BLEXIT - time one leaves Bangalore

Unknown to the world,  a silent referendum has begun about the unlivability of Bangalore. It is called BLEXIT.

Not many know that a city which had dozens of lakes, tree-lined avenues, hardly any houses with ceiling fans, and a population nudging 30 lakhs even 25 years ago, has now become a concrete monstrosity of 150 lakh people, struggling for air, water, and movement even at a snail's pace within the city. People with seven figure salaries are struggling for hours in fancy cars as they are stuck in traffic. Some rich techies have created a parallel universe in Whitefield after replicating all the city woes there. People are zipping around for several kilometers on fancy circular NICE roads and living in god-forsaken suburbs bravely anticipating a new afterlife away from the urban snarl and sprawl. Meanwhile BLEXIT offers some hope.

Home to Godmen, Godly megabillionaires, modern badshahs of e-commerce, Bangalore can afford for these people a world suspended in the sky and offering every kind of luxury and comfort. But these super-rich still crave for Vidyarthi Bhavan Dosa and MTR Rava idli. They want to shop in malls and eat a lot of popcorn noisily watching some loud movie. That means back to the snarled-up sprawl! Schools, colleges and offices also feature in their lives and that is a problem.

So BLEXIT has a menu of five suggestions:
1. All vehicles with 2000 cc+ engines should be banned from plying on Bangalore roads.
2. All super rich should go and live 50 km outside Bangalore and manage their business.
3. All bodyshop software companies should relocate to North Karnataka.
4. All even-number private vehicles should ply only in even-numbered Christian calendar years like 2016,2018 etc. All odd number vehicles can ply only in 2017,2019 etc.
5. All those who have moved into Bangalore after 1991 from outside the state will be given a lump sum (multiple of their declared income) under BLEXIT Bhagya with an upper cap of ₹1 crore for immediately leaving the city. They should register their Aadhaar particulars at a specific website to begin the process. Time frame 31 October 2016.

If you're in favour of BLEXIT, dial this number 1-800-BLEXIT and affix the respective numbers of the options listed which you agree with.

To pee or not to pee -that's the question.

The Goethe Institut or Max Mueller Bhavan on CMH Road, Indiranagar, is an interesting place for youngsters to go and dabble in Deutsch. The place has a nice cafe and its outer walls are painted with interesting artwork with one mural prominently urging the general populace, especially men, "Do Not Pass Urine Here".

Germans are well known for their discipline and decorum in public. They address each other as Herr even when abusing each other. But this open instruction in our motherland to curb a universal habit of peeing in public calls into question a fundamental, existential freedom. Every Indian man believes that the Indian constitution guarantees the right to pee in any place and at any time in an act of total freedom. I do not know if this faith in the Indian constitution also extends to one's sense of freedom when it comes to domestic violence, but definitely, no Indian man feels compelled to curtail himself in expressing this primeval instinct of passing water.

Now, one of the reasons why malls have taken India by storm is that they feature clean toilets on most floors for that much-needed release after drinking lots of coffee, carbonated drinks and other stuff in gregarious ways,  These malls feature in general better toilets than cinemas. But elsewhere, at bus stations, street corner toilets, and inside schools and colleges, most toilets are quite dirty. The Swacch Bharat campaigns are having their due impact in many ways, but the Indian male is far from curbing his existential instinct to pee on the roadside. I have heard that even metro stations do not have toilets.

So I ask you, what is the remedy? How do we solve this issue? It is well and good that there are artistic twists at the German institute and such places in communicating the undesirability of peeing on their compound walls. But I feel we need a cultural revolution and we should make it a kind of anthem taught in schools that one should not indiscriminately pee anywhere and everywhere.

Do you have any ideas?

Gurudev introduces Chapter Seven: Knowledge and Wisdom

CHAPTER VII
Knowledge and Wisdom

The Eighteen Chapters of the Geeta, in the arrangement of their ideas, fall into three sets of six chapters each. This is the conclusion arrived at by many Geeta-students. According to them, the Geeta, being a book which re-interprets the very essence of the Vedic Law in the entire scheme of its discussions, the Divine Song expresses the Truth of the Mahavakya: "THAT THOU ART."
The Mahavakyas are four in number --- one taken from each of the four Vedas, and they form four definite pointers, all indicating the one and the same sacred Truth, which the Vedas unanimously declare. Of these "THAT THOU ART" (Tat Twam Asi) is called the "instructional message" (Upadesha Vakya). This crisp sentence summarises the entire Vedic lore and its philosophy, and therefore, voluminous commentaries are necessary to elucidate the true significance of each of these three short words.

According to some reviewers of the Geeta, the first section of the Divine Song, comprising the opening six chapters, explains the significance of the term "Thou" (Twam), in this Mahavakya. The second section, opening with the seventh chapter and concluding with the twelfth, explains the term "That" in the same declaration. From this chapter onwards, therefore, we will be gaining a true glimpse of the "goal of the spiritual science," as indicated in the Hindu cultural tradition. The last six chapters naturally express the meaning of the term "Art" (Asi) and explain the identity between That --- essence and Thou --- significance.

The previous chapter not only gave us the technique of Self-realisation through the methods of concentration and meditation, but also concluded with Krishna's own personal opinion upon who exactly was the noblest among the different seekers pursuing the different "path." According to the Lord of Vrindavana, a meditator who tries to concentrate his mind upon the Self is superior to those who strive to deny all sense enjoyment to this body (Tapaswins), or to those who make deep and learned investigations into the scriptural literature (Jnanis), or to those who have dedicated themselves to selfless service of the society (Karmis). The Flute-bearer has again tried to express his opinion as to who, among the meditators, is the most noble. It was declared in the concluding stanza of the previous chapter that of all the meditators, the one who has successfully merged his mind in the nature of the Pure Consciousness, through the path of single-pointed meditation, is the highest seeker, and the dearest to the Lord.

Naturally, there would be a possible doubt, in the mind of Arjuna, as to how a limited and mortal mind-and-intellect of a finite creature could ever embrace and comprehend the entire limitless Infinite. In order to remove this doubt, Krishna opens this particular chapter, with a promise that he would explain to Arjuna the entire science, both in its theoretical and speculative aspects, and clear all his possible doubts on the subject. Indeed, for exhaustiveness in treatment and thoroughness in exposition there is, perhaps, no other religious textbook that can stand a favourable comparison with the Geeta. In this sense of the term, we should appreciate the Geeta, not only as a textbook of our philosophy, but also as a literary masterpiece of beauty and erudition in the world's literature.

|| Chapter-7 ||

Sources: The Holy Geeta

June 21, 2016 Happy International Yoga Day!

Bg 6.46

tapasvibhyo ’dhiko yogī jñānibhyo ’pi mato ’dhikaḥ
karmibhyaś cādhiko yogī tasmād yogī bhavārjuna

Bg 6.47

yoginām api sarveṣāṁ mad-gatenāntar-ātmanā
śraddhāvān bhajate yo māṁ sa me yukta-tamo mataḥ

Om tat sat iti śrīmadbhagavadgītāsu upaniśadsu brahmavidyāyām yogaśāstre śrīkṛṣṇārjunasamvāde dhyānayogo nāma shaashTodhyāyaha

Translation

46. The YOGI is thought to be superior to the ascetics, and even superior to men-of-knowledge (mere scholars); he is also superior to men-of-action; therefore (you strive to) be a YOGI, O Arjuna.

47. And among all YOGIS, he who, full of faith, with his inner-self merged in Me, worships Me, is, according to Me, the most devout.

Commentary

In order to bring out the importance of meditation among the various practices in the Science of Spiritual development, Lord Krishna is providing here a tabulated list of the various types of seekers, indicating the greatest of the whole lot. Compared with those who practise thoughtless and dull-witted physical self-denial (Tapaswins), the meditator is certainly nobler.

Nobler than those who vigorously read the scriptures and try to learn and remember their declarations (Jnanis), is the Yogi (Meditator).

There are others who strive towards the same Bright Peak of Perfection, treading along the path of selfless work (Karmis), undertaken in the world outside in a spirit of Yajna, (IV-24 to 30.) and who perform worship (Upasana) in a spirit of divine dedication. These ritualists, both in the secular and in the sacred fields of activities, believe that they can reach the Infinite Bliss through these very activities.

Krishna concludes here that a silent and quiet meditator, who struggles hard to withdraw himself from his own false identifications with his body, mind and intellect, through constant and consistent contemplation upon the nature of the Self, is ever the best.

Thus, comparing a meditator with: (a) a man of utter self-denial, (b) deep students of the scriptures, and (c) ritualists, Krishna concludes his observations that a meditator alone is the best among the whole lot, standing nearest to Truth and "THEREFORE, YOU BE A YOGI (MEDITATOR), O ARJUNA."

THERE ARE DIFFERENT TYPES OF MEDITATORS, EACH MEDITATING UPON A DIFFERENT POINT OF CONTEMPLATION. WHO AMONG THEM IS THEN THE BEST AND THE GREATEST MEDITATOR? LISTEN:

Whereas the previous stanza gives us a relative estimate of the different paths in spirituality, and finally declares that meditation is the best among the lot, the stanza now under review explains who exactly is the best among all the meditators. Meditation is, in the beginning at least, a deliberate act by which the seeker strives to keep his thoughts channelised into one pre-determined divine line of thinking; and this is maintained by disallowing the mind to run into dissimilar thought-channels. Meditation, therefore, must of necessity start with an effort on the part of the meditator to fix his mind upon some object of contemplation. The Art of Meditation can be classified under different types, according to the nature of the object of contemplation chosen and according to the nature of the persuasions adopted in curtailing the mind from its mad roamings.

Thus we have, in the tradition of our practices, meditations prescribed upon a symbol, on the God-principle with a form, on the teacher, on the Kundalini, on any of the great elements, or on a chosen scriptural text. Accordingly, the practitioners may be considered as followers of different kinds of meditation. The Singer of the Geeta is trying to indicate here, who exactly is to be considered as the best and the most successful meditator among the types mentioned above.

In this concluding stanza of the chapter, the Lord insists that of all the meditators, he who "WITH HIS INNER-SELF (MIND-AND-INTELLECT) MERGED IN THE SELF, AND WITH 'SHRADDHA' DEVOTES HIMSELF TO THE SELF, IS THE MOST FIRM AND STEADFAST MEDITATOR." The pregnant suggestions contained in this stanza can fill volumes, inasmuch as it is a summary of the entire Yoga Shastra. Naturally therefore, Lord Krishna dedicates the entire length of the next chapter as an annotation to this mantra-like stanza.

For the purpose of our understanding this chapter, it is sufficient for the time-being if we gather from this stanza that the essence of meditation is not so much in our attempt at integrating the mind as in the ultimate merging of the inner equipment (Antahkarana), and getting it completely sublimated in the final experience of the Self. That, this can be done only by one who does proper Bhajana upon the Self with all Shraddha, is the truth-declaration made here with a loving insistence by the Eternal Lover of the gopis.

The term Bhajana has come to gather to itself such a lot of adventitious superstitions that, as it is understood today, it means elaborate rituals, which, almost always, mean nothing to the priest, nor to the devotees who are mere onlookers of the priestly performances. Sometimes it means a lot of loud singing with noisy accompaniments, and an entire crowd roaring away on their march towards an emotional ecstasy, and often, each session ending in hysteria and exhaustion. Very rarely do they gain even a vague experience of the spiritual thrill. In the Vedantic text-books, Bhajana is "the attempt of the ego to pour itself out" in an act of devoted dedication towards the Principle of Reality, whereby the devoted personality successfully invokes the experience that lies beyond the noisy shores of the mind-intellect equipment. One who does this invocation (Bhajana) of the Self, and naturally gets himself merged in that awakening, is declared here by the teacher of the Geeta, as belonging to the highest type of meditation.

It is quite evident to every student of Vedanta that such a meditator comes to transcend all his identifications with the false matter-envelopments, and becomes, through the experience of his Real Nature, the very Self. Yet, the mouth-piece of renascent Hinduism, Lord Krishna, in his modesty and reverence for the tradition in our culture, attributes this statement in the stanza to his own personal opinion.

Thus, in the UPANISHADS of the glorious Bhagawad-Geeta, in the Science of the Eternal, in the scripture of YOGA, in the dialogue between Sri Krishna and Arjuna, the sixth discourse ends entitled:
THE YOGA OF MEDITATION

Nowhere else in the entire extent of the voluminous spiritual literature that we have in the Upanishads, the Brahmasutra and the Geeta (Prasthana Traya), can we find such a wealth of details, explaining not only the technique of meditation but also the possible pitfalls and how to avoid them successfully, as we have them so clearly and vividly explained here. No scripture fails to hint at the Path of Meditation, as the way to reach the highest possibilities in life, and yet, nowhere have we, among our reported and compiled heritage of sacred books, such a vivid discussion of the entire path. To a true seeker, indeed, a thorough study of the Sixth Chapter is ample direction and guidance to reach the highest through Meditation. It is therefore but proper that this chapter is put under the title: "The Yoga of Meditation."

Om Om Om Om Om

Sources: Vedabase.com; The Holy Geeta

Godhi Banna Sadharana Maikattu - Review

Saw this movie this evening with better half.
Anant Nag as 66 year old Venkoba Rao is an Alzheimer's patient left at a Nursing Home (Nightingale!) by his very busy careerist son. Left unattended, he wanders away. The duty doctor Sahana (Sruthi Hariharan) has developed affection for this very interesting old man full of stories and memories of how he met and wooed his late wife Pushpa in the College library. He taught his son how to sketch and have fun. But now the young man is busy chasing his dreams and has no patience with his boring Alzheimer's liability of a father.
Son Shiva and Sahana search desperately here and there for the missing dad. But Venkoba Rao has managed meanwhile to get muddled up with a gang of hired murderers while they were trying to get rid of a BBMP engineer's body after murdering him on a highway.

The rest of the story is a bit long, as several threads have to come together rather slowly until Shiva and Sahana have developed a closeness through her sharing of all the stories she has heard from Venkoba Rao, with Shiva.
Finally all the baddies kill off each other. Venkoba has gone through everything without the least understanding their violent world. He is equally nonchalant when restored to his son. All ends happily for Shiva and Sahana. But not before one is rather bored by the meandering thugs story. Maybe the movie could have catered less to the whims of the producer who always wanted to make a murder mystery but landed up with a director keen on directing Anant Nag as an Alzheimer's patient.

Anant Nag has done brilliantly in his few parts. His humour and pitiful debility are portrayed memorably.

He tells the murderer at one point of the story, feeling pity for him as he is plotting his own escape. "They say there are two dogs in each of us. The black one, who stands for hate, violence, jealousy and revenge. The white dog stands for love, giving, peace and harmony. Who wins in their battle? Ha ha. It is simple. The one whom you give more biscuits!"

Sruthi is very good in her role. Rakshit Shetty as Siva has also done well. Sruthi's somewhat gaunt face needs getting used to, but she acts well. Best wishes to her!

And let me not forget the music. There are a few songs in Raghu Dixit style, pregnant with words of life philosophy sung to some strident guitar and drums. The songs are thrown in whenever the producer felt the movie's tempo was flagging. It seems to be a constant toss up between showing murderers or throwing in songs. Ok, that's a bit uncharitable. Anyways you get my drift I hope.