End of Chapter 9: August 31, 2016

Bg 9.32

māṁ hi pārtha vyapāśritya ye ’pi syuḥ pāpa-yonayaḥ
striyo vaiśyās tathā śūdrās te ’pi yānti parāṁ gatim

Bg 9.33

kiṁ punar brāhmaṇāḥ puṇyā bhaktā rājarṣayas tathā
anityam asukhaṁ lokam imaṁ prāpya bhajasva mām

Bg 9.34

man-manā bhava mad-bhakto mad-yājī māṁ namaskuru
mām evaiṣyasi yuktvaivam ātmānaṁ mat-parāyaṇaḥ

Om tat sat iti śrīmadbhagavadgītāsu upaniśadsu 
brahmavidyāyām yogaśāstre śrīkṛṣṇārjunasamvāde 
rājavidyā-rājaguha yogo nāma navamodhyāyaha

Translation

32. For, taking refuge in Me, they also, who O Partha, may be of a "sinful birth" --- WOMEN, VAISHYAS as well as SHUDRAS --- even they attain the Supreme Goal.

33. How much more (easily) then the holy BRAHMINS, and devoted Royal saints (attain the goal) . Having reached (obtained) this impermanent and joyless world, do worship Me devoutly.

34. Fix your mind on Me; be devoted to Me, sacrifice to Me, bow down to Me; having thus united your (whole) Self with Me, taking me as the Supreme Goal, you shall come to Me.

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 ninth discourse ends entitled:
THE YOGA OF ROYAL KNOWLEDGE AND ROYAL SECRET

Commentary

As an annotation and an explanatory appendix to the immediately preceding pair of stanzas, it is added that it is not only those who are placed under wrong influences and unfavourable external conditions who are redeemed by the constant remembrance of the Divine. Those who are victims of congenital maladjustments, both in their mental make-up and in their intellectual constitution, also can get their equipments readjusted and tuned up properly by the same process of constant remembrance of the Truth Eternal.

No doubt, there are expressions in the Vedas, in the Puranas, and in the Smritis, which seemingly fall in line with the language of this stanza. To condemn women, traders (Vaishyas) and workers (Shudras) as individuals of inferior births is equivalent to accepting that religion has an effective influence ONLY upon a mere handful of members of our society. This would be a denial of what Krishna had been hammering upon from the opening stanza onward. Therefore, we have to understand the true implications of His words as He uses them here.

Religion is not a technique for developing the physical body, nor is it an art to be fulfilled through the play of the physical body. The condition and status of the physical body have nothing to do with the evolutionary progress which religion aims at through all its preachings. The spiritual practices contribute to the integration of the mind and intellect and to their progressive unfoldment, until, in their ripeness, they shed themselves, leaving the Spirit naked in all its divine glory. Thus, these terms, as used in this stanza, are to be understood as indicating some special qualities of the human mind-and-intellect, manifested in varying degrees in different individuals, at different times.

The "feminine-minds" (Striyah) are those that have a larger share of deep affections and binding attachments. So too, there are people, who have a "commercial attitude" in all their thoughts and actions and who live in their mental life as traders (Vaishyas), ever calculating the profits that would accrue from all their psychological investments. Such a calculating mind, ever looking to the profits that could be raised, is not fit for easily evolving through the "Path-of-Meditation." To surrender all fruits of actions is the secret of holding the mind still, and of making it live vitally, the Infinite, that is the content of a single present-moment. Thus, when the Science of Spirit-development condemns the traders, it is only a denunciation of the particular commercial tendency of the mind. Those who fall under the group of 'traders' PSYCHOLOGICALLY cannot hope to progress on the Path Divine.

Lastly, mental attitudes of "slumber and slothfulness" are indicated by the term "Shudra" here.

When we have understood that these terms, familiar in that age, are borrowed by Krishna to indicate special types of mind-intellect-equipments, we have understood the stanza rightly, without pulling down the entire Geeta from its well-merited pedestal of dignity as a Scripture of Man.

The verse promises that, through constant remembrance of the Lord, not are only all men of evil ways redeemed, but even those who are not able to walk the "Path Divine," because of some psychological and intellectual debilities in them, will be cured and steadily strengthened to walk the "Path" efficiently, if they too, with single-pointed mind and sincere devotion, learn to remember continuously, and meditate daily upon the Divine Self.

BORN OUT OF THE WOMB OF SIN --- Sin, according to Vedanta, is a wrong tendency in the mind created out of the past unhealthy thought and negative living. These wrong channels of thought (vasanas), irresistibly drive man to live false values and bring about confusion and chaos into his life, as well as into the lives of others. It is these wrong tendencies, ploughed on the mental fields, that are the sources of the feminine nature of the mind (Stritvam), or the commercial attitude of the intellect (Vaishyatwam), or the general dullness and somnolent morbidity in one's inner life (Shudratwam). A dull-witted pundita alone will have the audacity to commit the folly of interpreting this stanza, adhering faithfully to the literal meaning, conveniently forgetting Sri Krishna's own definition of Varnashrama Dharma given previously in his discourses.

In short, when these wrong tendencies are in the mind, the Rishis have declared, in sheer kindness, that it is useless for that mind to undertake a study of the Vedas. Therefore, such minds were debarred from doing so. To attain the necessary qualification for a successful study of the sacred lore, the prescription is Sadhana. Of all the spiritual practices (Sadhana), the most efficient is the constant remembrance of the Lord with a heart overflowing with love and devotion (Upasana). It is the Vedantic declaration that through Upasana the mind gets purified --- purified of its debilities which are classified and indicated by the terms, "WOMEN, TRADERS AND WORKERS."

When once these negative qualities have been removed from a mind, it gains in its powers of achieving concentration, single-pointedness and balance for its flight to the very horizons of thought. When once the equipment is ready and rigged for the pilgrimage, the destination will soon be reached; and therefore, Krishna promises "EVEN THEY ATTAIN THE SUPREME GOAL."

KRISHNA GOADS ARJUNA TO WALK THE PATH OF SELF-REALISATION.

If the above-mentioned mental types are highly handicapped in the race for the divine, Krishna, by a self-answering question, very emphatically points out here, how easy and almost natural Self-realisation and godly life must be to those who have the mental purity of a brahmin, or the large heart and the clear head of a Rajarshi. A king who, having enjoyed intelligently his power and wealth, in his complete satiation arising out of his growing inner discrimination, comes to experience the inward peace of true contemplation upon the Self, is called a Rajarshi.

After describing all possible types of "heads-and-hearts" and after prescribing treatment for all of them to rediscover their own Divine Nature, the Lord, concluding the section, makes a general statement in the second line. "HAVING ATTAINED THIS TRANSIENT AND JOYLESS WORLD, WORSHIP ME DEVOUTLY." This instruction to Arjuna is an instruction for all, since, in the Geeta if Lord Krishna represents the Self, Arjuna represents the confused man standing impotent against the challenges of life.

Life is lived in a field always constituted of objects, instruments, and mental moods. These three are ever in a state of change. Naturally, the flickering joys that come to us in life prove to be transient. And the intervals between any two experiences of joy are only FULL OF PAIN.

In tune with the positive and energising philosophy of optimism which the Geeta preaches, here Krishna declares the world to be a mere pit of sorrows, or a ditch of despair, or a mire of disappointments, or a field of joylessness (Asukham).

HAVING REACHED THIS WORLD, IMPERMANENT AND JOYLESS, Krishna advises Arjuna, that he must occupy himself in the worship of the Self. In this spiritual activity, Arjuna has been well encouraged by the Lord with his statements that to a heart that has not the weakness natural to the lower evolute but has a wealth of poise and understanding which are the hall-marks of a higher evolute (brahmins and Rajarshis), success is easy and sure. Therefore "WORSHIP ME DEVOUTLY."

HOW THEN AM I TO WORSHIP YOU, MY LORD, WHEN I AM TO FACE MY ENEMIES AND FIGHT MY BATTLE?

This stanza is a beautiful summary of the entire chapter for it throws a flood of light upon many of the other stanzas. We may say that this stanza especially serves as a commentary to more than one verse in the chapter (Verses 14 and 27).

In all text-books of Vedanta (Brahma-Vidya), the technique of self-development and self-perfection through the "Paths of right-Knowledge and Meditation," has been defined as, "Contemplation on That, talks on That, mutual discussion on That --- and thus, to live ever mentally drowned in the Bliss-concept of the spiritual Reality, is called by the knowers of It, as the pursuit of Brahman." Keeping this classical definition in mind, Vyasa steadily delineates his aesthetic "Path of Devotion" in this stanza. The same idea has already been brought out earlier in the chapter on more than one occasion.

With "THE MIND EVER FILLED WITH ME, MY DEVOTEE MAKES ALL SACRIFICES, ALL SALUTATIONS TO ME," at all times, whatever be the type of work that engages him. In brief, the evolution of the mind is the very essence of all spiritual reformation in life. Neither the conditions in which we are, our circumstances and habits, nor the available ways of life, nor our past, nor our present --- none of these is a bar for evolving spiritually.

Constant awareness, maintained diligently, is the secret of success.

When thus "YOU TAKE ME AS THE SUPREME GOAL" Krishna promises Arjuna, "YOU SHALL COME TO ME." We are what we are because of our thoughts. If the thoughts are noble and divine, we become noble and divine.

This chapter has been rightly entitled as the chapter discussing the Royal Knowledge and the Royal Secret. These two terms have been already discussed at length. Earlier in the chapter (Verse 2) we find that, since Pure Consciousness is the Knowledge, in whose light all conditioned-knowledges are made possible, this Science, dealing with the Absolute, has been rightly called as the Royal-Knowledge. Elsewhere in the Upanishads, it has been termed as the "Knowledge of all Knowledges" because, "having known which there is nothing more to be known," declares Mundakopanishad.

Om Om Om Om Om

Sources: vedabase.com; The Holy Geeta

My Post in Faking News- Indiranagar Dog-Owners want Garbage Clearance!

Faking News Society
Indiranagar dog-lovers want garbage clearance
22, Jul 2016 By rsachi
     
Bangalore. The dog-owners of upmarket locality Indiranagar in the eastern part of Bangalore are up in arms, demanding that the BBMP remove mounds of garbage lying around, for the better health and mental peace of their beloved canines.

This protest is from not only the affluent dog-owners who cuddle, groom and medicate their expensive breeds but also those several residents who casually throw food to street dogs and demand that in turn the canines guard their houses and belongings round the clock. When last estimated, the number of canines- strays and domestics, in Indiranagar, was over 3000.

Readers need to know that garbage management in Indiranagar is a multipronged attempt of BBMP. They have noisy and over-laden garbage carts going around streets and being parked at street corners advertising the business of garbage collection. Then BBMP have alllowed local residents (mostly irresponsible newcomers and diehard locals) to throw mounds of garbage at strategic points in street corners and near major residential complexes. This is supposed to encourage a dialogue between aggrieved residents and enterprising BBMP staff for mutual “consideration”. There are also several mounds of sledge and garbage taken out by BWSSB from blocked drains and then dumped everywhere on the street in the hope that some godly act will make them disappear, at least back into the drains again during rains. Residents don’t seem to mind this menace, there being ample proof of the food carts parked near such dumps attracting young and old to their tasty fare.

Then there are innumerable pubs and restaurants rampant in the area round the clock creating vast amounts of garbage which finds its way to street corners and carts in an unpredictable manner.

The present protest of dog-owners is that their dogs, often used to roaming and sniffing at garbage, apart from dropping their own excreta a few times every day on any and every street, are distressed by the unpredictability and unsortability of the highly smelly garbage at street corners. The dogs dare not go and rummage in the rubbish as deadly diseases lurk there. The dogs are even afraid to chase intruders and bark at strangers because who knows, everyone looks like a potential garbage thrower or a garbage collector. Normally, expensive cars provide vantage points for dogs to mark their territory by raising a leg. But even these cars are now being parked randomly by valets from restaurants and bars and this causes a huge spatial disorientation for dogs.

Dog-lovers have traditionally not bothered about garbage on streets, being too busy with getting and spending when they aren’t attending to their dogs. But the disturbed biology and psychology of their canines has triggered this act of socially responsible protest. BBMP has stated that their hands are already too full of garbage and even more important issues and they may not attend to this problem till 2018.

Topics:#Dog-owners #garbage #Indiranagar
     

The central Shloka of the Gita: August 3, 2016

Bg 9.22

ananyāś cintayanto māṁ ye janāḥ paryupāsate
teṣāṁ nityābhiyuktānāṁ yoga-kṣemaṁ vahāmy aham

Translation

22. To those men who worship Me alone, thinking of no other, to those ever self-controlled, I secure for them that which is not already possessed (YOGA) by them, and preserve for them what they already possess (KSHEMA) .

Commentary

Here is a stanza which, with equal emphasis, discloses a secret by which glorious success can be assured for the spiritual as well as the material seekers. It is significant that this stanza is almost in the centre of the Geeta. We shall try to follow the implications, both spiritual as well as secular, of this stanza, one by one.

Those who, with a single-pointed mind, thus meditate upon Him as the One and the Only Reality behind the entire universe, Krishna promises here that "TO THEM EVER SELF-CONTROLLED, I BRING YOGA AND KSHEMA," meaning more and more spiritual vigour (Yoga) and the final experience of Beatitude (Kshema) which is liberation resulting from the fulfilled Yoga.

Now, considering it as a tip for the men in the market-place, sweating and toiling in the world, the very same stanza yields a code of secret instructions by which they can assure for themselves complete success in their worldly life. In any undertaking, if a man is capable of pouring out his self-willed thought (sankalpa) constantly and with a singleness-of-purpose, he is sure to succeed. But unfortunately, the ordinary man is not capable of successfully keeping his thoughts in one channel of thinking. Therefore, his goal seems to be ever receding and flickering. His determination to achieve a particular goal ever changes, since his goal itself seems to be ever-changing. To such a man of haphazard determination, no progress is ever possible in any line of undertaking.

The greatest tragedy of the age seems to be that we ignore the obvious fact that thoughts alone create. Activities gain a potency from the thought-power that feeds them. When the feeder behind is choked and dissipated, the execution-power in the external activities becomes feeble in strength and efficiency. Thoughts, from a single-pointed mind, must flow steadily in full inspiration, enthusiasm and vigour towards the determined goal which the individual has chosen for himself in life.

Mere thinking, in itself, is not sufficient. No doubt, actions are necessary. Many of the present-day youths, though capable of consistently maintaining a goal-of-life in their intellect, are not ready to get into the field and act as best as they can for its achievement. The term 'Upasana' means "worship." Through worship we invoke the deity, meaning "the profit potential in any given field" and the prefix Pari to this familiar term 'Upasana,' indicates a total-effort in which no stone is left unturned for carving out one's victories in one's field of endeavour.

So far, two main secret factors without which success in life will not be assured are revealed --- (a) CONSISTENCY OF WILLING AND THINKING, and (b) POURING OUT OURSELVES WITH A SINGLENESS OF PURPOSE in meeting the situation in its entirety. The third main factor that is essential in the constitution of one who is marked out for spectacular success and brilliant gains in life is (c) SELF-CONTROL.

As an aspiring individual, consistently maintaining his ambition in mind, walks out into his fields of activity to battle with the immediate problems, he will meet with many a tempting channel of more fascinating plans, through which he can dissipate himself and get exhausted, rendering himself incapable of conquering the highest success in his own field. To keep oneself SELF-CONTROLLED, so that one may not thus get derailed as one shoots forward to reach the temple of success, is the third great factor that is to be kept in mind and lived fully, in order that success in life be assured.

The terms 'Yoga' and 'Kshema' defined as "the power to gain (Yoga), and the power to guard (Kshema)" respectively, by Shankara in his commentary, are quite applicable in the context of our discussion. In life, all conflict and contests, all struggles and sorrows, whatever be the form in which they may appear, are always different from individual to individual, from place to place, and from time to time, and all of them distinctly fall into two groups, as (a) the struggles to gain, and (b) the efforts to guard what might have been gained. These two tensions tear into bits the joy and tranquillity of life. He who is without these two preoccupations is the luckiest, in the sense that he has gained all that is to be gained; and when these two factors are totally blotted out from one's life, one is dead to the world of sorrows --- and one awakens to the world of joy imperishable.

It is promised here by the Lord that to the one who is capable of maintaining the three factors described above, and pursuing them diligently, there need be NO ANXIETY TO GAIN, NOR WORRY TO GUARD, because these two responsibilities will be voluntarily undertaken by the 'Lord Himself.' Here the term Lord may be understood as the "Law" behind the world-of-plurality and all the happening therein. When water is let out from a height for purposes of irrigating the lower planes, we have only to allow it to flow in the right direction, to reach the required area --- and nature itself will carry it down, for, it is the 'law of nature' that water always flows from a higher to a lower level. Similarly here, to one who is working, fulfilling the three great laws pertaining to the physical, mental and intellectual disciplines, success SHALL dog the heels of such a careful ruler of circumstances.

Sources: vedabase.com; The Holy Geeta

Gurudev introduces the Royal Secret - 9th Chapter

CHAPTER IX
The Royal Secret

Srimad-Bhagawad-Geeta, as a text-book of Hindu renaissance, has necessarily to carry within it the seeds of a complete reformation, almost revolutionary in its dynamic onslaught. The fundamental principles remaining the same, a religion that keeps pace with life has to readjust itself to accommodate current social problems and political conditions. Religion was not extinct in the era of the Mahabharata. But the Vedic principles needed a re-adjustment and a re-affirmation in the context of the life available in that era.

When the fundamentals forming the foundation are to be kept sacredly the same, the only adjustment that is possible for the expansion of Science of Life, is to discover a more liberal means for its application, and to annotate the same in the language of the conflict and struggle available in that period. Blind faith can have a compelling charm only in the early history of a people, and, when they grow and become stalwart in their reason and muscular in their movements, the impetuosity of the generation can no more be tamed and kept within bounds by the sandy beaches of barren faith. It demands and expects walls of unshakable logic and reason to support the stream of assertions in the philosophy of the thinkers. To a large extent, an interpreter of a philosophy --- not the philosopher himself --- will have to dance to the rhythm of the inundations and the direction of the current of thought and life in his age.

This new interpretation, at once intelligent and meaningful, has, no doubt, injected a new vigour and brought fresh blood into the senile values of life and their ineffectual application in society. Such repeated transfusions of youthfulness and vitality into the dilapidated body of religion has sustained the ageless tradition of the Hindus through its chequered career down the aisles of Time. One of the most powerful rejuvenation treatments that the immortal lore received in recent times was from the hands of Vyasa, and the Bhagawad-Geeta reports that operation divine.

In Chapter Seven, we find how the Champion of the Revolt throws His gloves down, in a challenge, when He says: "I shall tell you about KNOWLEDGE, both speculative and practical." Thereafter, Krishna has been pursuing the theme of spiritual practices, like a mathematician solving his problem, stage by stage, for the benefit of his students. Nowhere has He insisted upon any blind faith in what He said. On the other hand, at every stage, He has been scrupulously careful to supply the necessary data and the rational arguments for the why and the wherefore of the Vedantic beliefs and the ways of self-perfection advocated by Vedanta.

The same tempo of ruthless intellectual estimation is being continued in Chapter Nine also and its very opening stanza promises that the Lord will be giving, during His discourse, not only the theory of self-perfection but also the logic behind it all. It is very clear, if sympathetically considered, that the kind teacher in Krishna is carefully avoiding the usage of vague and mystic technical terms then in use in the Vedantic literature, except for the most elementary ones.

Ideas have been simplified here, so that they can be easily grasped by Arjuna, the representative of the ordinary, educated men of his time. However, the same principles will be found to have been explained again in a later chapter (XIII) under the orthodox terminology of Vedanta as Kshetra, Kshetrajna, Jnana, Jneya, Purusha, Prakriti, etc.

"Dividing the subject of enquiry into its main divisions; analytical explanation of the divisions; categorical treatment of the subject under each division; discussion of the relation between the various parts and setting down the conclusions drawn therefrom" --- these would in our days be considered as the proper scientific method for the treatment of a subject. In this sense of the term, the Geeta is not at all scientific. But, at the same time, the conversational style of the Geeta has its own characteristic clarity and Shastraic precision. Krishna Himself calls it "the most Secret (profound) Science." To every careful student of the Geeta, it will be clear that in its scientific outlook and systematic explanations the discourses leave nothing to be desired.

|| Chapter-9 ||

Source: The Holy Geeta

End of Chapter Eight: July 21, 2016

Bg 8.26

śukla-kṛṣṇe gatī hy ete jagataḥ śāśvate mate
ekayā yāty anāvṛttim anyayāvartate punaḥ

Bg 8.27

naite sṛtī pārtha jānan yogī muhyati kaścana
tasmāt sarveṣu kāleṣu yoga-yukto bhavārjuna

Bg 8.28

vedeṣu yajñeṣu tapaḥsu caivadāneṣu yat puṇya-phalaṁ pradiṣṭam
atyeti tat sarvam idaṁ viditvā yogī paraṁ sthānam upaiti cādyam

Om tat sat iti śrīmadbhagavadgītāsu upaniśadsu 
brahmavidyāyām yogaśāstre śrīkṛṣṇārjunasamvāde 

aksharabrahma yogo nāma ashtamodhyāyaha

Translation

26. The Path of Light and the Path of Darkness available for the world are verily thought to be both eternal; by the one, the "Path of Light, " a man goes to return not; by the other, the "Path of Darkness," he returns again.

27. Knowing these paths, O Partha, no YOGIN is deluded; therefore, at all times be steadfast in YOGA , O Arjuna.

28. Whether fruit of merit is declared (in the scriptures) as springing up from study of the VEDAS, from performance of sacrifices, from practice of austerities, and from charity --- beyond all these goes the YOGIN, who having known this (the two 'paths' ) attains to the Supreme, Primeval (Essence) .

Commentary

The two paths so vividly described above, are renamed here as the 'Path-of-Light' and the 'Path-of-Darkness,' according to the goal to which each "path" leads the pilgrims. One takes the travellers to the brilliant heights of evolutionary success; the other into the dark abyss of devolutionary sorrow. These two "paths" described here, in their general implications, can be considered as showing the 'Path-of-Moksha' and the 'Path-of-Samsara.'

The ways of life in any given generation always fall under two categories --- the secular and the sacred. The former, the secular, is pursued by those who feel that food, clothing, and shelter are the absolutes and the fulfillment of life lies in the satisfaction of the largest number of physical and emotional sense-ticklers, and whose intellects are cold and satisfied, feeling no urge to seek anything nobler and diviner. The latter, the sacred, however, is pursued by those who can feel no encouragement in their bosom, when the sense-objects giggle and dance in front of their sense-organs, and whose intellects are ever on fire with a great seeking of something beyond, something deeper than the mere surface existence in life.

These two 'paths' --- which mean not only the two impulses of the sacred and the secular, but also all those who follow these two paths --- the seekers of materialism and the seekers of spirituality --- "ARE TO BE CONSIDERED AS TRULY ETERNAL." In the largest sense of the term, these two impulses together constitute the entire Samsara, and since the world of finitude and change is eternal, these two contrary impulses are also eternal. But it is the Vedantic theory, approved and upheld by the lived experiences of the Seers and Sages, that Samsara for the individual can be ended.

Subjectively considered, this stanza may perhaps have a secret suggestion to make to true Yogis --- meaning, the sincere meditators. Even in an elderly Sadhaka, who has been on the 'path' for years, the existing vasanas in him may now and then come up to insist upon his extroversion. At such moments of inner revolt in us, we, as seekers and meditators, need not at all get flabbergasted because, as the Lord explains, the aspirations for the higher-life and the temptations for the lower-existence are the two opposing forces that are eternally at tug-of-war with each other.

WHAT EXACTLY IS THE GAIN IN KNOWING THESE TWO PATHS, AND THEIR ETERNAL NATURE?

After knowing that the "Path of Light" and the "Path of Darkness" are the two opposing forces that function in our mental life eternally, a true seeker will not fall into any sense of despair, when he watches a revolt rising in his bosom. "NO 'YOGI' IS DELUDED, KNOWING THESE PATHS."

The entire line of argument pursued by Krishna, is to reveal slowly and steadily the "Path of Return" and the "Path of No-Return" and now, in this, the penultimate stanza of this chapter, the Lord summarises the thesis and purpose, and says, "THEREFORE, ARJUNA, YOU BE A 'YOGI' AT ALL TIMES." Here, he who has withdrawn himself from his false identifications and has come to fix his single-pointed mind in the contemplation of the Self, is a Yogi.

In short, the entire chapter is a divinely powerful plea recommending that Arjuna should, even while acting in the world, continuously strive to be one living in the awareness of the Divine, through a process of selfless identification with the Eternal, Imperishable Purusha.

BY MERE MEDITATION HOW WILL WE GAIN THE SPECIFIC MERITS THAT ARE PROMISED BY THE SHRUTI AND THE SMRITI WHEN WE FOLLOW CERTAIN NOBLE ACTIONS IN LIFE?

Here Krishna is emphasizing that meditation can be undertaken by anyone who is even slightly capable of it, because, the Lord explains, "WHATEVER MERITORIOUS RESULTS ARE PROMISED IN THE SCRIPTURES TO ACCRUE FROM THE STUDY OF THE VEDAS, PERFORMANCE OF YAJNAS, PRACTICE OF AUSTERITIES, AND SELFLESS CHARITY," a true Yogi, meaning, a sincere meditator, gains them all. Besides, the Lord is emphatic when He says, "THE YOGI EVER RISES OVER ALL THESE." Attempts at meditation can integrate the personality a million times more easily and quickly than by the slower processes described above --- it being understood that the devoted meditator has developed in himself the necessary amount of dispassion, and discriminative thinking. Even these can grow when meditation is pursued regularly and sincerely.

When thus, a meditator who has, through meditation, gained the results of selfless Karma and Upasanas, continued his practices, he learns to soar higher and higher, until at last he comes to realise "THIS," the Imperishable Purusha, and ATTAINS TO THE PRIMEVAL, SUPREME ABODE --- having attained which, MY HIGHEST STATE, there is no return.

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 eightth discourse ends entitled:  THE YOGA OF IMPERISHABLE BRAHMAN.

Here the term "YOGA OF THE IMPERISHABLE BRAHMAN" is to be understood as "THE WAY TO THE IMPERISHABLE BRAHMAN." After answering in this chapter the questions raised by Arjuna, the Lord was borne away on the high tides of His Divine inspiration, to explain how those who can remember the Infinite at the time of their departure from the body will reach the Infinite. Therefore, He advised Arjuna to remember the Infinite always and face his life diligently.

Naturally, Krishna has to explain what is the nature of that Infinite upon which the seeker is to fix his single-pointed mind. We had thus, in stanzas 9 and 10, a set of brilliant phrases, which, in their suggestiveness, explain the Inexplicable. Having described the Imperishable BRAHMAN, Krishna explains the "Path-of-Light" and the "Path-of-Darkness," the former leading to the Imperishable, and the latter abducting the ego away from its divine ]home into the 'house of pain and finitude.' Rightly, indeed, has the chapter been captioned as "THE WAY TO THE IMPERISHABLE BRAHMAN."


Om Om Om Om Om

Sources: vedabase.com; The Holy Geeta

ಕಸದೈವ ಕುಟುಂಬಕಮ್ - Kasadaiva Kutumbakam

Our beloved PM is very fond of uttering these words, "Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam".

"The World is one large family"- Mahopanishad, VI.71-73

I feel we should slightly modify this statement to make more sense to us Bengaluru residents.

ಕಸದೈವ ಕುಟುಂಬಕಮ್ - Kasadaiva Kutumbakam, means that the family lives solely for all aspects of garbage. Kasa in Kannada means garbage. It is a generic word. Namma Bengaluru should contribute it to the world vocabulary.

Don't screw up your face or grimace in disgust. One drive through any locality of Bengaluru (except where the stinkingly rich or ministers live) will convince you that namma Bengaluru has a HUGE garbage problem.

Hold your breath, (you need to, the stink is unbearable!), Bengaluru generates about 5000 tonnes of waste a day. 

If you take the population as 15 million, this is a small 333 gm per person per day. (=5000000000/15000000).

Just recollect all the stuff you bought, used, and threw away yesterday, didn't you generate more garbage than 330g per person?

Now BBMP used to take the garbage, as and when collected whimsically or sporadically, outside the city in large trucks and dump them on agricultural land unfit for cultivation or owned by people unfit for cultivating the land. This has resulted in large areas of land near neighbouring villages which present a horrendous and desolate picture of ugliness and disease.

Nowadays, the BBMP has a fancy, audio-blaring open dumper type of 3 wheeler truck that comes by at unpredictable times every morning (8 am - 11 am) in front of our house in Indiranagar. There are songs, and cameos. Someone with a PhD in Kannada has scripted the words spoken by a loving couple, which describes the programme for garbage collection, your role in this programme, as well as your garbage itself, as "ಅಮೂಲ್ಯ" or priceless!
I do not know, or even care to know, how my priceless garbage is sorted, reprocessed, sold and marketed later. I am sure good people are working on this 24/7 in some BPO soon to have its IPO.

I assiduously collect our garbage in several different containers (wet and dry separately) and rush out as soon as I hear the ear-piercing announcement. I go and wait outside as the procession of the van ambles down like a juggernaut, with each maxi-clad housewife or unshaven hero going up to it and depositing her or his priceless contribution with a sense of triumph and a day full of purpose. I do the same. The vehicle drives past, with that sense of well-being and happiness and my priceless joy engulfing me in a nice, rosy pink, cosy feeling.

India should also patent the "International Garbage Day" and call it "ಕಸದೈವ ಕುಟುಂಬಕಮ್ - Kasadaiva Kutumbakam".

What do you think?

Gurudev introduces Chapter 8 : July 8, 2016

CHAPTER VIII
Imperishable Brahman

To discriminate between the higher and the lower nature of the Eternal Self, and identifying with the Higher, to play at will with all freedom and joy in the fields of its lower manifestations, is to be the perfect Man-of-Wisdom--a God upon the earth, ever-liberated from the threats and sorrows of the finite. The aim of Vedanta is to carve out of ordinary folk such blissful Men-of-Wisdom. In the earlier chapter, therefore, a vivid description of both Knowledge and Wisdom was elaborately given.
Continuing the idea contained in the previous chapter, Krishna starts with the glorification of the Man-of-Wisdom and declares that he is perfect not only because of his special knowledge and experience of the Self, but also because he becomes thereby a well-integrated personality at all levels of his existence and contacts with the world. He easily proves himself to be a man of godly efficiency and balance, in all situations and conditions, at all places and times.

In the preceding chapter, a mere mention was made that there is a practical aspect of Vedanta, apart from its theoretical literature, but no definite technique for carving out the Vedantic ideals in practice was given there. Here, however, the technique has been completely and fully explained, and the relationship between the Eternal Spirit and the delusory realm of names and forms, the lower prakriti, has been clearly indicated. Exemplary definitions indicating the Inexpressible, the Absolute Truth, are found in this chapter. Only a dull simpleton, vainly labouring to follow the path of pure reason and discrimination, cannot feel thrilled or uplifted to a divine height of inspiration by this chapter.

The last chapter concluded with a statement that the Man-of-Wisdom not only realises the Absolute Essence that sustains the world, but that he also, at once, comes to master the world-of-objects, the organs of perception-and-action, and the instruments-of-comprehension, so that he proves himself to be a dynamic "doer," ever carving out enduring successes all along, everywhere. Herein, this idea has been made more and more clear by Lord Krishna, with His explanations; when once we know the ocean, the waves, wavelets, the foam, and the lather are all known by us. Similarly, the Self is the Reality upon which all actions, the instruments-of-action, and the world-of-perceptions are super-imposed, and therefore, by knowing the Self everything is known.

|| Chapter-8 ||

Sources: The Holy Geeta

End of Seventh Chapter: July 5, 2016

Bg 7.30

sādhibhūtādhidaivaṁ māṁ sādhiyajñaṁ ca ye viduḥ
prayāṇa-kāle ’pi ca māṁ te vidur yukta-cetasaḥ

Om tat sat iti śrīmadbhagavadgītāsu upaniśadsu 
brahmavidyāyām yogaśāstre śrīkṛṣṇārjunasamvāde 
 jñānavijñānayogo nāma saptamodhyāyaḥ

Translation

30. Those who know Me with the ADHIBHUTA (pertaining to elements; the world-of-objects) , ADHIDAIVA (pertaining to the gods; the sense-organs) and the ADHIYAJNA (pertaining to the sacrifice; all perceptions) , even at the time of death, steadfast in mind, know Me.

Commentary

Not only that the man of realisation understands all the vagaries of the mind and the nature of all activities, but he also gains a perfect knowledge of the world-of-objects (Adhibhuta), the secrets behind the workings of the sense-organs, mind, and intellect (Adhidaiva), and the conditions under which all perceptions --- physical, mental and intellectual (Adhiyajna) can best take place.

The common idea that a man-of-God is an impractical man, inefficient to live a successful life in the world, may be true as far as a dedicated devotee of a particular god-form, or a prophet, is concerned. The Upasaka is one who is so fully engrossed with his emotions and thoughts, dedicated to the Lord of his heart, that he has neither the interest nor the capacity to know the ways of the world. But the man-of-Perfection, as conceived by the Science of Vedanta, is not only a man of experience in the realm of Spirit, but he is also, at all times, on all occasions, under all situations, a master of himself, and a dynamic force to be reckoned with.

He essentially becomes the leader of the world, as he is a master of his own mind, as well as the minds of the entire living kingdom. To him, thereafter, everything becomes clear, and such a Man-of-Perfection lives in the world as God in his Knowledge of the worlds, both within and without.

In short, the chapter closes with a total assertion that "HE WHO KNOWS ME KNOWS EVERYTHING"; he is the man who will guide the destinies of the world, not only in his own times, but in the days to come, as Lord Krishna Himself did.

These two closing stanzas of this chapter do not of themselves explain all the terms used in them. They represent a summary of the following chapter. In a Shastra this is one of the traditional methods in the art of connecting two consecutive chapters together. In the form of mantras, these two stanzas indicate the contents and the theme of the following chapter.

Thus, in the UPANISHADS of the glorious Bhagawad Geeta, in the Science of the Eternal, in the Scripture of YOGA, in the dialogue between Shri Krishna and Arjuna, the seventh discourse ends entitled:
THE YOGA OF KNOWLEDGE AND WISDOM

Vedantic ideologies, preached in the Upanishads had become, by the time of Vyasa, mere speculative narrations of poetic perfection, divorced from the actualities of life. The Hindus, thus estranged from the essential glory and strength of their culture, were to be resurrected by showing them the particular beauty and fire that lie concealed in the philosophical speculations. In this chapter, Krishna has emphasized and indicated beyond all doubt, how Vedantic perfection can be achieved and lived to the glory of the successful seeker and to the blessing of the generation in which he lives. It is most appropriate, therefore, that the chapter is entitled "THE YOGA OF KNOWLEDGE AND WISDOM."

Mere knowledge is of no particular use. Wisdom is the glow that knowledge imparts to the individual. The fulfilment of knowledge in an individual is possible only when he becomes a Man-of-Wisdom. Knowledge can be imparted, but Wisdom cannot be given. The philosophical portion of all religions provides the knowledge, the instructional section of all religions provides techniques by which knowledge can be assimilated and digested into the very texture of the devotees' inner lives, and thereby every religion seeks to create Men-of-Wisdom, who have fulfilled their lives, justified their religion, and blessed their generation.

Om Om Om Om Om

Who's really a Guru?- Vivekachudamani

Tonight, in the wonderful weekend programme called Satya Darshana (running for 12 years!) on DD Chandana, Prof. Pavagada Prakasha Rao was answering a query as to how one can repay one's guru or kulaguru.

He began by stating that we often mistake teachers for gurus. All those who teach for a living or as a profession, or those who take fees from students to impart some textual knowledge and training, are not to be confused as Gurus.

The word Guru has a deep meaning in Hindu Dharma. He quoted a verse from Vivekachudamani of Adi Shankara. It was so wonderful that I felt compelled to research and share it tonight itself.

Here is the verse, from the translation by Swami Madhavananda (Advaita Ashrama, 1921):

As explained by Sri Prakasha Rao:

The real guru is at peace, equanimous in all circumstances. He is indeed great, and inspires reverence instantly, at first sight. He doesn't stay in one place, but moves about like the spring breeze. And inspires a welcome from everyone wherever he moves. That is because of his transformative impact, and appealing, pleasing, personality. He has himself crossed the ocean of Samsara, the dreadful ocean of suffering and bondage called life. And he freely, ungrudgingly, aids one and all, with no partiality or discrimination, to cross this ocean, too, WITHOUT any expectation of any return favour, reward or gratitude. Such a person is a true guru.

When I am touched by such a guru, how can I ever repay him? Sri Prakasha Rao said he will take up the answer to this part next weekend!

What a great shloka, what great expression in poetry by the one and only Jagadguru Adi Shankara!

Amen! Hari Om Tat Sat!!

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.

My piece in Faking News!

Hi! I got published in faking News! http://my.fakingnews.firstpost.com/2016/05/25/jayalalithaa-ends-freebies-announces-path-breaking-new-tn-scheme/

Balika Vadhu 2028

The Indian TV industry is all abuzz with excitement waiting for the new Balika Vadhu 2028,remade as a 20 year celebration of India's biggest soap that happened  a long time ago and went on with pretty much immortal characters for 3000 episodes. Set in rural Rajastan it showed gutsy women who took bullets as easily as men took bribes. The child bride syndrome was a nominal thing as stories were all about evil adults.

Now,  after 20 years, a lot has changed. Under Modi, India has become a superpower not only in software apps, but solar power and much else. And everything is once again made in India. Mud Ganeshas are no longer imported.from China. People are no longer ashamed to buy for their children pencils and pens made in India. In other words,  Made in India is as famous as Bollywood.

ISRO has invented new technologies to regenerate ground water. BARC has met India's power shortages with hybrid atomic solar power.

India's demographic dividend has given jobs  to teenagers who pass out of Medicine and Engineering as early as at 14 years. It is due to some huge innovations pioneered by HRD Ministry. Every child learns Sanskrit, Yoga and cooking to be proficient by the time they are ten.

What will be the storyline of the Balika Vadhu 2028?The director has tears of nostalgia as he answers: it will go back to the most glorious traditions of the first one. The heroine is a child bride,  married off at 8 to a doctor who is 15. The family  khaandaan is all about organic agriculture, but goons are smuggling Monsanto/Bayer GI food at one tenth the price. Thanks to India's liberal intellectuals,  everyone has full freedom to burn the Indian Flag,  shout for Kashmir's freedom, and carry India-made guns for freedom of political expression. The police are masters of investigation, but there is a lot of  criminals out there hacking bank accounts, robbing people of their gold through dubious schemes, and destroying peace.

The 15 year old doctor finds a more attractive girl of 12 online and ditches his bride. She is undaunted and sets up a women's group for the greenification of Rajasthan. Camel smugglers constantly trouble her but she has mastered martial arts and defends herself.

The script writer, like the one in 2008, is a nervous wreck. He has to produce a new kind of mayhem every week. Anandi is dead by the 2000th episode. Dadima has benefited from Baba Ramdev's rejuvenation therapy and at 120, she rides a 500 HP solar hybrid bullet motorcycle and singleghandedly defeats the camel smugglers and saves the greenification project of Rajasthan. She is nominated to  be the first woman to travel and unveil a new township on Mars in the Mangalyaan reusable space vehicle. She is asked,  as she dons her spacesuit,  what's her message for the planet back home. She says, "Everything may change, but we remain the same back home."

Gurudev introduces Chapter Six: Meditation

CHAPTER VI
Meditation

With this chapter we are coming to the close of a definite section in the scheme of thought in the Geeta. This is the opinion of some of the well-known critics and students of the Lord's Song. According to them, the eighteen chapters of the Geeta fall into three definite sections, each of six chapters, and they group themselves to expound the implications and significances of the sacred Vedic mantra "Tat Twam Asi" --- THAT THOU ART. The first six chapters together constitute an explanation of the philosophical significance indicated by the word "Thou" (Twam). In the general scheme of thought developed in that section, the contents of the sixth chapter constitute a fitting conclusion.
In Chapter II, in a language almost foreign to Arjuna, in quick strokes, Lord Krishna painted the philosophical perfection which is the theme of all the Upanishads. He concluded that chapter with a vivid and expressive picture of a Saint of perfection and mental equipoise. Naturally, the interest of a seeker is excited and he seeks to find means and methods by which he too can grow within himself and reach those diviner heights of self-control and equipoise.

The Geeta is personally and specifically addressed to Arjuna, a confused average man, at a moment when he felt completely confounded by the problem that was facing him. Naturally, the highest methods of subtle meditation, the mental drill by which one can renounce all one's preoccupations, etc., are not easy methods that can be practised with confidence. At the same time, it will not be true to say that Vedantic methods are meant only for a few; if they are immediately useful only to a few, there must be, in Vedanta, preliminary techniques by which everyone can steadily grow to become fit to enter the Hall of Perfection.

That there are graded lessons for one's spiritual unfoldment is not really understood by the modern lip-Vedantins. It is this general ignorance that has brought about the misconception in Hinduism that the study of the Vedas is the guarded preserve of some rare ones. But, Vedanta would have been an incomplete science if it did not contain Upasana methods for purifying the students' inner equipments.

Krishna, as a true teacher, understood Arjuna's mental debilities and intellectual incompetency at that particular moment to start right away upon the arduous lines of pure meditation and clear detached thinking. In order to bring him to the level of perfection, various lower methods of self-integration had to be prescribed. Thus in Chapter III we found an exhaustively scientific treatment of the "Karma Yoga" --- the Path of Action.

Activities in the outer world, however noble they may be in their motive, cannot but leave deep ulcerations and painful restlessness in the bosom of the worker. To mitigate the "reactions" of action (Karma-Phala) and as a balm to soothe the bleeding mental wounds, new methods of maintaining the mind in quietude and ease have been expounded in Chapter IV under the title "RENUNCIATION OF ACTION IN KNOWLEDGE." It is the theory of Krishna that, constantly maintaining in the mind the awareness of the Greater Principle that presides over all human endeavours, the worker can, even in the thick of activities, maintain a healthy and well-ventilated inner life.

Naturally, the limited intellect of Arjuna got extremely confused, since the teacher argued in the beginning for "action," and in the conclusion, for "the renunciation of action." In Chapter V, therefore, the "Way of Renunciation" is explained and the technique of guaranteeing to our mind immunity from reactions, even while it is engaged in activity, is explained. The "Yajna spirit" --- the spirit of dedicated activity for the benefit of the larger majority and not for any self-arrogating profit --- is the antiseptic that Krishna prescribes for a mind and intellect that are to work in the world. In Chapter IV is prescribed an unavoidable treatment for curing the mind of its own pox of painful "impressions of the past" (vasanas).

In Chapter V, the "WAY OF RENUNCIATION" is explained under two different categories, which show the two methods of achieving the same goal: renunciation of (a) our sense of agency in activities; and (b) our unintelligent anxieties arising out of our thoughtless preoccupations with the fruits-of-our-action. The chapter exhausts these two techniques and explains how, by the renunciation of agency or by the renunciation of our attachment to the fruits-of-actions, we can come to gain a release from the vasana bondages which generally shackle our personality during our activities.

One who could faithfully follow the technique so far unravelled by the Lord, should have thereby come to a condition wherein the insentient and inert mind has been stirred into a field of intense activity. A mind developed through this training, is taught to come under the intelligent will of its determined trainer, the seeker himself. The mind thus gathered and trained, is certainly a better-equipped instrument for the higher purposes of Self-contemplation and Self-unfoldment.

How this is done through the famous technique of meditation is, in a nutshell, the theme of the sixth chapter. During our discussions, we shall not stand in sheer surprise and wonderment and swallow down the ideas in the verses without dissecting, discovering, analysing and understanding every facet of each of those ideas. This chapter promises to give us all the means by which we can give up our known weaknesses and grow positively into a healthier and more potent life of virtue and strength. This technique is called meditation, which in one form or another, is the common method advocated and advised in all religions, by all prophets, at all times, in the history of man.

|| Chapter-6 ||


Source: The Holy Geeta

End of Fifth Chapter

Om tat sat iti śrīmadbhagavadgītāsu upaniśadsu brahmavidyāyām yogaśāstre śrīkṛṣṇārjunasamvāde karmasanyāsayogo nāma pancamodhyāyaha

Translation

Thus in the UPANISHAD 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 fifth discourse ends entitled: 
YOGA OF TRUE RENUNCIATION. 

Om Om Om Om Om


Commentary

Chapters III and IV have described the 'Yajna' and Chapter VI will explain the Path of Meditation. Therefore, this, the fifth chapter, has been rightly named "the Yoga of Renunciation of Action." What is the spirit of renunciation, how the "Yoga of Renunciation of Action" can be practised, what would be the result of practising this way of activity in this special mental attitude, and how far that could contribute to the inward development and growth of the human personality --- all these are discussed in this chapter. In fact, Chapter V stands as a bridge between Karma Yoga and Pure Meditation. In the Vedas this subtle point in the chain of discussions is almost missing. Chapter V of the Geeta rediscovers for us this 'missing link' in the Vedic thought. I have said 'rediscovers,' and not 'deliberately created' or 'originally supplied.'


As Shankara puts it, in many places the Lord has spoken of the renunciation of all actions and at the close of the chapter, Krishna has advised Arjuna to engage in Yoga in the "performance of actions." When thus viewed, there is, in the last chapter, a perceptible inconsistency according to Arjuna. Hence the doubt with which he opens his discussion with Lord Krishna in this chapter.

Sources: vedabase.com; The Holy Geeta

A few favourite things

A Few Favourites

Waking up to a cool morning, fragrant
After an overnight cool shower,

Not to rabid mosquito bites
Aided by a cruel power cut.

Taking a walk on my favourite path,
Untroubled by potholes and smoke.

Listening to my favourite music or radio,
Unfazed by stupid ads and interruptions.

Browsing on my beautiful phone,
Untrammelled by the much-touted 4G.

Watching some beautiful videos,
Unencumbered by ads.

Applauding some great cricket,
Unworried by match fixing.

Eating my favourite dosa,
Unconcerned about transfat and stuff.

Putting up my feet and saying, "Thank You
Oh Lord, these are a few
Of my favourite things."
And being heard.

Hail the Guru! Unto Him our Best

Today is the Birth Centenary of Pujya Gurudev Swami Chinmayananda. I resolve that I will study and follow his Geeta teachings! May He guide me and give me strength.

Bg 5.18

vidyā-vinaya-sampanne brāhmaṇe gavi hastini
śuni caiva śva-pāke ca paṇḍitāḥ sama-darśinaḥ

Bg 5.19

ihaiva tair jitaḥ sargo yeṣāṁ sāmye sthitaṁ manaḥ
nirdoṣaṁ hi samaṁ brahma tasmād brahmaṇi te sthitāḥ

Translation

18. Sages look with an equal eye upon a BRAHMANA endowed with learning and humility, on a cow, on an elephant, and even on a dog and an outcaste.

19. Even here (in this world) , birth (everything) is overcome by those whose minds rest in equality; BRAHMAN is spotless indeed and equal; therefore they are established in BRAHMAN.

Commentary

The wise cannot but see and recognise the same presence of Divinity everywhere. The ocean has no difference in feeling for different waves. Gold cannot recognise itself as different in different pieces of ornaments. From the stand-point of mud, all mud pots are the same. Similarly, an egoless man, having recognised himself to be God, can find in no way, any distinction in the outer world of names and forms. The distinctions generally recognised, are all the distinctions of the containers. Man to man, there may be differences in form, shape and colour of the body, or the nature of the mind or the subtlety of the intellect. But as far as Life is concerned, It is the same everywhere, at all times.

Therefore, it is said in this stanza, that the Self-realised cast an equal eye on a Brahmana endowed with scholarship coupled with humility, on a cow, on an elephant, on a dog or on a pariah. Everywhere he realises the presence of the same Truth, whatever be the container.

Equal vision is the hall-mark of Realisation. The perfected cannot make distinctions based upon likes and dislikes. In and through all forms and situations, he sees the expressions of the same dynamic Truth which he experiences as his own Self.

In stanza no.19, almost a whole Scripture is indicated. In the context of the development of the theme, Lord Krishna had to show, first of all, that the Perfection, described in the previous few stanzas, is not a Godly idealism to be experienced after death, in a specialised world beyond the clouds, called the Heavens. Pauranic Hinduism and all Semitic religions promise a Heaven as the glorious goal of existence and spiritual effort. However, to an intelligent man; this promise is nothing more than a charming hallucination, and not a positive gain. Such a vague goal cannot be sufficiently encouraging to coax out of an intelligent man all his enthusiasm and sincerity.

Contrary to this vague hope, here in Vedanta, the naked truth is declared when Krishna repeats what the Rishis had earlier asserted a thousand times. It is expressly mentioned that the relative existence as a limited ego-centre can be ended, and the imperfect individual can realize himself to be the Infinite Godhead. This goal can be reached not only at a post-mortem stage, but in this very same life, here in this very body, among these very same worldly objects, and one can live in the Consciousness of God, evolving oneself from the immaturities of the deluded ego-sense.

Who is capable of gaining this ascendency in himself? What is the secret method by which this consummate self-redemption can be effectively fulfilled? The assertion that man can reach this goal in this very life is made in the first line by a detailed description of how it can be executed and practically lived. It is said that the one, "WHOSE MIND RESTS IN EVENNESS," gains the Divine tranquillity of a God-man.

Patanjali Yoga-Sutra also explains the same fact in different words. Where the thought-flow, which creates unequal and spasmodic mental fluctuations, is arrested, there the mind ends. Where the mind ends, it being the equipment through which Life expresses as a limited ego, this sense of separative existence also ends. When the ego has ended, the egocentric thraldom of samsara also ends. The ego, thus undressed of its samsaric sorrows, rediscovers itself to be nothing other than the Self Itself. Unless one comes to this mental equipoise, one is not capable of experiencing the Samattwam of the Sama-darshin described in the above stanza.

An individual who has discovered for himself a sufficient amount of tranquillity in which nothing dares disturb him any more, is certainly one who has plumbed the depths and touched the bottom. A reed on the waves will be tossed up and down by the waves, but a light-house built upon firm rocks always remains upright and changeless, allowing even the stormy waves to exhaust their anger at its feet. Krishna's argument is thus logically sound when he declares that a mortal among us, who can maintain his equanimity under all conditions as explained in the foregoing stanzas, is indeed one who has contacted the Divine and the Eternal in Himself, "HE INDEED RESTS IN Brahman."


Sources: Vedabase.com; The Holy Geeta

Sanskrit Bashing

(Bhagavadgita manuscript in Kangra Fort Museum)

Sanskrit bashing has become very fashionable, especially after Modi took over. Why?

1. Modi roots for all things good in our country including Sanskrit, Dharma, and Yoga.
2. A number of vocal "Hindutva" voices have become active, expressing many sensible and nonsensical ideas. 
3. Many scholars who make their living bashing Sanskrit and sporting PhDs, sense a great branding opportunity. 

People like Wendy Doniger who says Ramakrishna was a homosexual and Pollock who says Sanskrit is responsible for the Jewish Holocaust, are winning large grants and buying up mainstream media space in The Hindu, Economic Times and so on.

I thought I should place some basic facts as I know them:

1. The threat level of Sanskrit terrorism has been and will always be low, although some fellows say it is as bad as from Daesh. 
2. Sanskrit accounts for over 70% of all our vocabulary riches in most Indian languages. 
3. Reading Bhagavadgita, Adi Shankara, Kalidasa, Ramayana and Bhagavata, in my own rudimentary way, gives me wonderful insight into life and mysticism which thrills me no end. No wonder every great thinker around the world has marvelled at the wisdom of the Orient. It is ALL handed down in Sanskrit from thousands of years ago. 
4. Learning Sanskrit is a wonderful intellectual effort. It is aided by a teaching methodology which is so scientific! 
5. Those who believe in Sanskrit classics and our ancient texts should separate science fiction from science; and symbolism from history. Of course people of those ages had marvellous powers of concentration and contemplation, which could have conferred extra-sensory awareness and power on them. Even their literature would have been impossible without those insights. But it does not mean one could buy a flying machine off the shelf. You should be as savvy buying these ideas as you're while shopping on Flipkart. 

Sanskrit bashing is ugly and shows how vulnerable we are, when we swing from total ignorance of our cultural roots to some jingoistic pseudoscience claims. We better study our classics, practise Dharma, and fight when necessary all this cow-dung throwers called Sanskrit bashers.
Just as ridiculous is the idea that somebody flew around the world in 80 days in a Pushpaka
Vimana, it is crazy to say the Holocaust was caused by Sanskrit. And funding such blatant slogan mongers is truly shameful for anybody.