Thursday, August 17, 2017

Essence of Vedanta - Part 38

Dear All,


For all the questions posed from various theme posts on WHAT IS GOD REALISATION, the author leaves you with the Existence of God which he covered once in the creation of universe post, answering to the question- HOW GOD CREATED UNIVERSE and then again He covered in this current theme.

This was also explained in one of the Tuesday talks on a samarpan bhajan, 3 years before.

Author would leave those very few sincere readers with atleast 2 days to contemplate on the expressions that follow in this post. 


Questions

What is the God existence to be realized by a Jiva as culmination of Sadhana?

Does God exist in universe after creating universe??

What is God consciousness or Brahman actually???

An answer, an expression, A secret

"The Isavasya Upanishad says that the whole Universe is pervaded by Isvara or God, who is both within and without it. He is the moving and the unmoving, He is far and near, He is within all these and without all these."

Now, let us devote time in reading and then absorbing the same in early morning hours, in total silence, with pure mind, on one portion of the above expression "WITHIN"!!


Author is recapitulating the following part from a post under the theme "Creation of Universe".


"Suppose there is a big boulder, a stone. You see the stone; it is very hard and heavy, and you can touch it as a solid object. 

Bring a sufficiently powerful microscope and look at this stone. You will find that the stone is a heap of very minute, fly-like, insect-like entities called molecules. It is a heap of certain things, and not one solid object.

Bring another, more powerful microscope, more powerful than the earlier one. Even the molecules will not be seen there. There will be still finer elements looking like almost non-cognisable particles which are called atoms.

Bring a still more powerful microscope. You will find that even these little particles melt into a continuum of energy, or force, which impinges on the energy centres which are other atoms. It looks as if there is one sea of force everywhere, an indistinguishable continuum.

What has happened to the stone?

Can you say that this sea of force, these atoms, one day thought: “Let us become a stone”? 

If the atoms have really become the stone, they will not be there for you to see through the microscope. 

You will conclude that they have never become the stone. It is only your vision that presents the perception of a solid object.

These so-called ‘things’ – molecules, atoms, energy centres, etc. – never became the stone. They were never transformed into the stone. They did not create the stone. They exist and have always existed in the same condition as they were when you perceived them through a powerful perception.

The stone has not been created, though it is solidly perceivable. In the same way, the world has not been created, though it is visible to the eyes.

CONCLUSION FOR TODAY


Similar to the stone which was never created, which is actually only a continuum of energy if one reaches to its subtlest existence, we the Jivas , exist  with our body at gross level, just as the stone is also visible at a gross level, but exactly like the continuum of energy explained in the case of stone, we the jivas are also actually not the physical form that we are, but we are actually THE SPIRIT / THE SOURCE / THE PURE CONSCIOUSNESS !!!!


Hari Aum Tatsat


And, God realization is actually to realize that we are THAT PURE AWARENESS / SPIRIT which WE ALWAYS ARE, WHICH IS NEVER BORN AND HENCE, WHICH NEVER DIES!!!!




Wednesday, August 16, 2017

Essence of Vedanta - Part 37

Dear All,

We will now sum up with the recap of questions posed in a post in the current theme on WHAT IS THAT WHICH IS REALIZED at the end/ culmination of spiritual sadhana and also, we will reproduce the answer to the same given in a current theme post itself, though, if the author refers to all the posts from December 2016 onwards, the answer would be found in more than 50 posts.


The questions posed were as follows:-


Theme
Questions
Purpose of Human Birth
How and what is the divine experience that we attain??  
How do we experience God without a name, form and without attributes??


Karma
How is the divine experience/ the state of existence with no karmas left as balance and we have transcended all actions/ all thoughts/ all karmas?


Surrender
What is our state of existence in that absolute self surrender?? 
How do we experience God/Divinity within and without, with no thoughts, when we have merged into the ocean of Love that God's essence is!!!


MBCA
In the flow shown, the final culmination is shown as “Purpose of life, God realization, is fulfilled”. 
That is the final culmination of the all the efforts taken up in one's spiritual sadhana, with unshakable conviction (mumukshatva). 
However, when it is said, God realization, what is it exactly all about?? Which God is realized?? Where??? And what is the experience, if there is any experience at all, upon realizing the God??
How any realized Master, upon God realization, can possibly explain THE GOD that has been realized by the Master???


Creation
“Upon retracing from the gross body and mind and senses as per sankhya flow and reaching up to the state of Purusha” or “Upon retracing from the drawings (our gross existence with body mind and intellect) and reaching up to the state of Purusha which is explained as unmanifest Iswara in the panchadasi learning”, What would be the actual experience of the PURUSHA or the UNMANIFEST ISWARA or the PURUSHOTTAMA explained in Bhagwad Gita???
How and what is this God realization??? 
What is that God who is realized as Purusha/ Purushottama/ Unmanifest Iswara?? 
Can that God, who is otherwise inexplicable, be explained somehow???


Three Bodies
Is there anything, any existence which activates the three bodies, which sustains the three bodies but still, it is beyond the description off the three bodies????


Three States of Consciousness
In all the three states, on introspecting, we can observe one common thing. 
In the waking state, there is one factor which is fetching us all the experience through our senses and intellect but that one factor is above our senses and intellect. This can be said so because, that factor is only using the senses and intellect to fetch your experience. A king who uses the service of his ministers has to be obviously above the state of his ministers. Thus, the single factor which is using the ministers of its senses and intellect has to be above the senses / intellect!!
In the dream state, again, that same single factor exists, which retrieves our impressions and bananas and then through our intellect, is fetching us the experience of what happened in the dream. Again, here also, the same explanation applies. The king, that single factor, using the vasanas / impressions and then the intellect, has to be above all of them!!!
In the deep sleep, when neither senses are working, nor our impressions or vasanas are working, still, That single factor is definitely present, otherwise, without body, mind and intellect working, who was present while the King had deep sleep, who fetches the experience that “I had a deep sleep without any experience” when the king wakes up on the next day??


Panchakoshas
“If the 5 koshas are like the 5 lampshades or the 5 layers, then what is that which is the real Light which shines forth in and through all the 5 lampshades or all the 5 koshas?
Is Ananda Maya kosha the ultimate or there is any other subtler source which actually makes one feel that “I AM IN BLISS”, like an imaginary concluding scene explained in an earlier post when King Janaka wakes up and experiences that he had a very deep sleep the previous night.
If his body, mind, intellect were not active  while he was sleeping, then what was THAT which was witnessing his deep sleep which prompts him on the next day and makes him say that he had deep sleep??


Introduction to Veda and vedanta (Posts on sadhana chatushthaya) 
If Mumuksatva is all about intense craving for God realization, WHAT is understood by the fired up mumukshu sadhaka as GOD?? 
What is the God realization he is turning to??
What is the experience that the sadhaka aspires to attain upon the fructification of his mumukshatva??


We will perhaps end this theme tomorrow or day after tomorrow with the answer. 

Love






Tuesday, August 15, 2017

Sri Krishna Janmashtami

Krishna Janmashtami

By 

Sri Swami Sivananda

Om Namo Bhagavate Vasudevaya
This is the birthday of Lord Krishna, the eighth Divine Incarnation. It falls on the 8th day of the dark half of the month of Bhadrapada (August-September). This is one of the greatest of all Hindu festivals. Lord Krishna was born at midnight. A twenty-four hour fast is observed on this day, which is broken at midnight.

Temples are decorated for the occasion. Kirtans are sung, bells are rung, the conch is blown, and Sanskrit hymns are recited in praise of Lord Krishna. At Mathura, the birthplace of Lord Krishna, special spiritual gatherings are organised at this time. Pilgrims from all over India attend these festive gatherings.

The Lord appeared when the moon entered the house of Vrishabha at the constellation of the star Rohini, on Wednesday, the 8th day of the second fortnight of the month of Sravana, which corresponds to the month of Bhadrapada Krishnapaksha according to the Barhaspatyamana, in the year of Visvavasu, 5,172 years ago (from 1945), which means 3227 B.C.



Sri Krishna is the ocean of bliss. His soul-stirring Lilas, which are the wonder of wonders, are its waves. The honeyed music of His flute attracts the minds of His devotees from all three regions. His unequalled and unsurpassed wealth of beauty amazes the animate and the inanimate beings. He adorns His friends with His incomparable love.

His palms bear the signs of a lotus and discus, the right sole of His feet of a flag, lotus, thunderbolt, an iron goad, barley seed, and the Swastika. His left sole has the rainbow, triangle, water-pot, crescent, sky, fish, and a cow's footprint. His Form is composed of condensed universal consciousness and bliss. His Body pervades the entire cosmos.

Devotion is the only means of attaining Lord Krishna. Bhakti kindles love for the Lord. When love is directed towards Krishna, man is freed from the bondage of the world.

Though Lord Krishna appeared in a human body, He had a divine body not composed of the five elements. He did not take any birth here in the usual sense of the term. He did not die. He appeared and disappeared through His Yoga Maya as He has declared in the Gita. This is a secret, known only to His devotees, Yogis and sages.

His enchanting form with flute in hand is worshipped in myriads of homes in India. It is a form to which is poured out devotion and supreme love from the hearts of countless devotees not only in India but also in the West. Millions of spiritual seekers worship Him and repeat His Mantra, Om Namo Bhagavate Vasudevaya.


An Incarnation is the descent of God for the ascent of man. A ray from the Cosmic Being in His potential state of manifestation descends on earth with mighty powers to keep up the harmony of the universe. The work done by the Incarnation of God and His teachings produce a benign influence on human beings and help them in their upward divine unfoldment and Self-realisation.

If you cannot read the whole of the Srimad Bhagavatam during these days, at least you should recite the following four most important verses from the book. The leading two verses and the closing verse are the prologue and the epilogue respectively:

"Hear from Me the most secret knowledge coupled with the essential experience and its component parts.

"May you realise by My Grace, the knowledge of Myself and what form, qualities and actions I am endowed with.

1. "Before creation I alone existed. There was nothing, neither existence nor non-existence. I am that which remains after dissolution.
2. "Understand that to be Maya or illusion which is devoid of any purpose, which is not to be found in the Self and which is unreal like light and darkness.
3. "As the primary elements are amalgamated, with one another and also separate from one another at the same time, so I pervade the whole universe and am also separate from it.
4. "The aspirant should, by the method of positive and negative, know that thing which exists always and everywhere.

"Experience this truth through the highest superconscious state so that you will not be disturbed even by illusory objects".

May the blessings of Lord Krishna and Sri Radha be upon you all!