Sharing Life and resources

When we are living here, eating here, healthy here, there should be some purpose behind allowing us to be in this arena by Lord God. What may be that objective? without objective how the clever God allows us to waste away the valuable resources on this earth? Ofcourse it is not easy to define the purpose of life in simple terms, but we can simplify the purpose of life into few lines.
Loka samastha sukhino bhavanthu is the sanskrit dictum which means "all the world should be happy ". We live in such harmonious way that we do not disturb the peace of the world with our living and behaviour. More than this, the second step is we should help fellow living beings to be happy, to the extent possible.
By sharing the resources you have, when needed , with others to the extent possible, it gives meaning to your life. My Guru told a wonderful small story. Once a traveller is sleeping on the outside verandah of a hut,after setting dark. The place was just sufficient to lay him there. Meanwhile rain started and two more travellers came running to that shaded place, for protection from rain. So, this good samaritan invited them to his small place and he sat up and offered the remaining place to others. Thus he shared his place with them. The rain increased and three more passengers also came there, drenching and requested place. Then he got up, stood on the floor and invited them in telling to them " please come, we share this place" . Thus he shared the little place he got with fellow human beings, in case of need and this is sharing of life , resources with others. This pleases Lord God.

Arabindo ahsram , savithri book

God and Devil are not two separate entities:





Recently i visited the sacred place pondicherry aurobindo ashram. I find the place is quiete interesting to live peacefully with philosophical thinking and practice. Lots lots of foreigners settled there and move in that french colony on bicycles and foot. The samadhi is very peaceful and good meditation place. I just got a chance to quickly go through a translated version to savithri . But some points in that book perplexed me and made me stop reading that. The translator was discussing about spirits, devils and accepting that they are there as really as God is there. He also confirmed that Shri aurobindo (aurobindo), Matha ji also spoke , commanded those spirits or devils. Aurobindo observed that his wall clocks were stopped by some devils, spirits and he commanded them to go away. This has thrown me into confusion. Because my gurus never mentioned about devils, spirits. Even if they are there, they can not venture to come to the vicinity of such learned , sacred person and they never play with them. Second point where i got confused is... the author was mentioning some worlds he visited. He wrote that there is a world where he could not find Satyam (truth) there. This statement confirmed that some thing wrong with the writer. Because Truth alone prevails at all times and at all places by definition. So, i closed the book and came away from further research in this cult. Sundara chaithanya was a great preacher cum philosopher that he strongly established from Adwaitha vada (non dualism theory) that the super atman, or God only prevails every where at all times and nothing second entity exists. Even if you agree that devils are there, they are the other form of God. If God is different from devil, the supremacy of God is lost and he would be afraid of the second entity which is ridiculous.

Ignorance Heights

Of all the human beings , some , about 1% get the wise thought of working towards knowing themselves. They get up, start attending some cermons , lectures and read five dozens of books on relegion and philosophy.Then they get the greatest thought that they learnt a lot and their mind start commenting on the scriptures, gurus and entire relegion. Out of those above 1%, 90 percent people go this way and start spreading their own message, commentary. I met similar " great philosophers". Recently i am working with some founder of my company who spends quite a lot of time in so called service to mankind like medical camps etc. He claimed that he studied a lot and did " Ph.D" in relegion and philosophy. Initially i was very happy to have his company as the company of learned people elevates you to higher planes of living and thinking.
Alas! When i discussed with him for few days, i got fainted many times. He declared that Lord krishna attained only 3 chakras enlightenment in his body while adi shankara got 6 chakras. In his count, a man has 12 chakras in his body. Lord krishna's Power is only one third of real vishnu. All yogis spending time in penace, tapas are wasting their time..We should not construct hospitals but educate people to purify themselves. This way goes his preachings.
Now, in my strong opinion, when you do not have patience to accept that there are lots and lots of great learned men in this world, you are still in ignorance . When we are ready to judge some guru, saint and declare he is fraud, then definitely we can say the first fraud is you. Because the end of learning is that we know nothing and any thing can happen here at any moment for the pleasure of God.

Mind is a Mad Monkey!

Our mind, they say, is a mad monkey. further they say it is drunk ,accidentally walked on fire and it was caught by an evil spirit. Then think how it acts. How well said by our gurus.

 

Whenever i see some body achieved , attained some thing good, i wish i too should do it in that way or better way. when i hear some one flew abroad , my mind wishes to go abroad.I am thinking about the root of this thought. what ,finally, this mind wants? does it know the actual purpose of our life and existence ? I am a bit better , i watch the dances of the mind in weak minded persons. my god, it jumps like a baby monkey..it wants all, it rejects many.

we have to reject all these flow of wishes, thoughts and slow down the thought process. that is a milestone in our journey. let any thing happen, i am what i am.

i have many dreams to grow rich, to attain fame. to control industries. but one second, i rethink and now, at this stage i understand it is not possible to do all these things, as they require lot of time to achieve these. why cant i be happy with what i got. really , absolutely i am happy with my small, petty problems. if i have big arena to dance, i have big problems to worry. i feel and thank God for his blessing.

Researching the methods shown by preachers

yesterday i watched a video about a lecture given by Sri acharya rajaneesh (aka osho). my brother sent it for me on my request. i want to know more about his method of teaching and his philosophy.Many many good teachers are and were available in india to explain about our indian philosophy or universal truth. I treat them like this. Many gurus are very good in explaining the available subject in different ways. They tell how we should understand . But very few , really very few are available who teach us what we should understand. they can teach how also. But the subject to contemplate would be given only by these avatars, maharshis who have actually travelled in the path. some times i find it interesting to listen to the ordinary preachers, or semi gurus who are good at explaining and diverting us to goal, some how by inspiring us in some way. But i am not sure if they reached the goal. The real avatars or enlightened gurus travelled the path, and avatars them selves are the goals too. so my tentative plans are to study rajaneesh, Jkrishnamurthy,ramana maharshi, arabindo to know how they showed the way. Out of the above some are really enlightened gurus like ramana maharshi. The problem is , i am incompetent enough to decide who is real guru or enlightened. Since i am searching for me, i am compelled to use my yardsticks which are purely subjective. Yet , i hope i get some benefit out of my search. My first impression with acharya rajaneesh is not very impressive. Yet i will continue to know more.

 

Meher baba continued:

When i recollect about the great avatar meher baba's story in many books, i appreciated the great event of collecting about 30 Masts from in and around India and keep them in one place. A mast is a person who is in the path of self realization, and stuck in the 4th or 5 level. He looks like a mad man for outside world. He never cares the world and drives it away. A great saint or avatar only can help them to go ahead into next plane in their journey. I also read in those books, that once one deciple opened the door of meher baba in midnight and fainted, as he saw peculiar demons or spirits taking orders from him . Actually all are forbidden to enter the room at those hours. It is quite interesting if you select some books and read from him, as it gives lot of worthy information about this world, creation, saints, avatars, God. You may search in the amazon box provided in this blog to search with " meher baba" keyword. I recommend the discourses book from the collections.
 

The book that shook me!

The book 'an autobiography of a yogi' really shook me and impressed me. I was searching seriously to know about the mystic powers, yogis,God, miracles etc at one time, few years ago, ; Then , i have taken this, accidentally and started reading. Though i have seen this book many times in stalls, i never knew about it. It is really a wonderful book for the person who want to know the saints, mystics, the ancient wisdom in India and real magical powers. you can read this book on line at Here. It was the autobiography of Sri paramahamsa Yogananda, who was with us till few years. Who lived for some time in USA too. Through him all the world knew the ancient indian mysitcs. It spell binds you while reading. It has changed the course of my life. I was and am very seriously impressed and affected by it. I strongly recommend to read this book
 

Bhagawan Sri Satya Sai Baba- An Avatar!

Saibaba is the walking God, avatar on the earth and has influenced millions of people to change their life styles and helping to take the correct path to travel in the path of self realization. I am also very much influenced and my total life style ,thinking pattern changed by the association i have with Puttaparthi, sai voluntary service,books and sai bhajan mandals.We all know that the miracles by the avatar are innumerable. Now, it is plannned to run a web site,catering fully to knowing more about Sri satya sai Baba , the aspects which are not currently available in the net.These may be review of publications on sri satya sai baba,devotee experiences,quotes from old sanathana sarathi books(if some one is collecting all the issues),personal review of recent events at Prasanthi nilayam,Assocition details with Avatar sri satya sai baba,and any thing which would help devotees and others who want to know about Bhagawan. A section of the site can be offered to those who are interested to run that section by frequent contribution by writing to this section. The site will have the name of Satyam Sivam Sundaram.

Hellelujah! Jesus era.

Jesus Christ is one of the few tallest buildings standing high in the history of mankind, where other buildings are all saints, gurus,avatars
and so on.It is not a must to be tall for a building, as some rich homes, hospitals, inns may not be tall but would be serving their purpose with required height of their own. Yet, taller building attracts many. Similarly, Jesus Christ , within his span of 33 years of life, made a remarkable history in the entire world.
As a proof, millions of people followed by, and are following and still follow. His teachings showed the way to the disturbed mankind what to do and what not .Everyone knows about Jesus and i need not repeat the same details here again. What i would do is to present some important aspects, from his teachings, life vis-a-vis ancient knowledge, vedic knowledge or the absolute truth.(to be contd)

 

Jesus is an Avatar

Jesus is an avatar, if you look from the explanation angle of Ancient Indian Philosophy. God takes birth whenever it is required to control or destroy the disorder and to bring solace to the Good people. Avatars vary in their component structure of the God Power. For example, Rama has about 15/16 parts (component) of the entire God entity where as Lord Krishna is 16/16 parts with him as poorna(complete) avatar. Other avatars like varaha, narasimha will take potency from 1/16 to 12/16 or so, depending on their purpose of coming. Jesus is also the manifestation of the Same omni present God and the potency may be about 10/16 (though i can not decide). It is not belittling His avatar, but some guess on the words spoken by the ancient knowledge.

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Posted by gvs gopalarao to know Thyself at 3/17/2006 08:53:00 PM

Ramana Maharshi-Self Inquiry

Fortunately, we all have a wonderful set of gurus, maharshis in the past 100 years, and they are really par excellent. They all manifested on this earth to provide the absolute knowledge in different forms to suit to the taste of the seekers. One of these gurus is Bhagavan Ramana Maharshi.
He was born to a middle class family,in Dec 30 1879, studied in missionary school till 16th year , in Madhurai, Tamilnadu, India. He renounced his interest in the mundane life, reached Tiruvannamalai and conducted penance for many years silently.All the years he was inquiring who really he is. It is not the body, mind, but some thing else. He has no guru but enlightened by his inquiry.
The Inquiry is " who is that knowing every thing, who is that answering to the call, who is this I :"
He was very simple lived saint, or guru. He has lots of disciples. I felt a bit difficult to understand the philosophy or method he suggested because it is very abstract and direct method for self realization. But his method is sure way to reach the destination.

Ramana maharshi left his body in 1950. Though he has not encouraged to show any type of miracles, but many are associated with him. He lived in Tiruavnnamalai, and that place has a pious hill called Arunachala. At the age of 16, when he heard the word arunachala first time, he fell unconscious and further reached this place.
What Saint sundarachaithanya says is though there is no guru to him in this life, his past life completed all the needed education through guru, and this life completed the last remaining small karma to attain his siddhi or Moksha.(nirvana).
He is surely the guru whose teachings must be read. He throws light on the areas which were not touched by any body in that way. Many followers, disciples compiled his history, teachings in the form of books
 

Drink Plenty of clean water!

Drinking plenty of water is a good habit and it helps to improve our body condition as well as mental condition. When you drink litres of clean water, your body is full of fluids, and that body influences your mind to have good thoughts and avoids frustation and vexing up easily. Robin shaw also recommends very much that drinking plenty of water  is a healthy sign and he stated that he drinks a lot by keeping a bottle always with him, even if he is flying in a plane to distant countries. He strongly recommended to drink more and more water to advance in spiritual  journey for better results.
  Some believe that drinking pure water enough will reduce weight also, when some one is suffering from over weight.Water has life energy in it. Thats why we sprinkle water on the face of a fainted person. When you are tired, take a glass of drinking cool water, it brings back your energy. Take a bath in river or bath room, you will be fresh. Even vegetables would be fresh when you sprinkle water on them

Sun worship-Aditya Hridayam

know thyself is ok but how?

know what? who is this self? if we know these thiings, it can be declared that we knew ourself.First question is can any body know himself? answer: Yes. Are there people who knew themselves now and here? answer: Yes, i have seen some people and they are living here. They know about them selves and about every self.
When you know yourself, you will automatically know every self in the universe. That is the secret.
Then why one person can not know himself so easily?
Because, he is unaware of what he is seeking. second thing is we are covered with lots of sheaths of ignorance which prevents us to know ourselves. When you remove these sheaths you will know your self.
How to remove?
Mantra is a first prescription. As discussed earlier, the gayatri mantra makes you pure to slowly grasp what you are doing, which side you have to go to reach your goal. Moreover, you will get devine help or gods grace to attain your goal.
second thing is , if you have a guru, or master or guide to monitor your progress , to cut short un necessary time consuming processes , your journey to goal will be quicker. The guru should have already travelled in the path successfully and reached the goal. These are called masters, gurus, saints .They know your past and they know exactly what is to be done by you to remove the sheaths of ignorance.
One more important thing is, if you go on reciting or remembering the name of God (be it what ever may be), you will surely get the eligibility to get a suitable master. so , start reciting or remembering the name of God right from now.
This knowing thyself is a big process for many people, because of their past life impressions. It may take few years to few generations to know your self.But we should not loose heart. when we start in this direction, we find lot of change in our life, our attitude, our personal powers even after two months of effort or sadhana.
Mantra for Health and controlling power:
sun god (Appollo) is very powerful and good to influence our day to day activities. He is easily pleased with salutations. One mantra or stotram is available about surya (sun god) in indian life from millineums back. This is called Aditya Hridayam. (Heart of Sun).
It takes 10 minutes to read it. If you read it daily, it helps you in many ways. It helps you to get good health related to eyes, and body.
It helps to gain control over the public, customers or collegues in your day to day life. It also helps to win over battles what ever battle it may be . be it legal battle, real battle or any other.
If you can see sun daily in the morning and offer salutation in your own language, he would definitely get pleased. Dont think he is a planet. It is illusion. You can try for an experiment even!

Lakshmi, the Godess of Riches

Hindu mythology, vedic philosophy has an interesting concept or entity of Lakshmi, the godess of Riches . This concept of godess worship is rare in other spiritualism in other parts of the world. The concept has very deep meaning. Though many subtle forms of Lakshmi are available, mainly eight forms are very important. They are called Asta lakshmis (eight forms of lakshmi). These are symobolising very important sections of riches. Richness comes from different areas and will be in different forms. Rich ness should never be identified just with money.

Every thing which are important to make you really rich and Happy are identified as forms of Lakshmi. The forms are Adi lakshmi ( The basic virtue),Dhanya Lakshmi (riches from paddy, crops), Dhana Lakshmi( money from gold, dollars,silver,gems), Dhairya Lakshmi( Valour),Santana Lakshmi (offsprings), soubhagya Lakshmi ( favour, destiny,good luck),Gaja Lakshmi(horses,carts,cattle,vehicles), vidya lakshmi (knowledge,wisdom). To become a man really rich and to be happy, one should achieve all these stages. Then only one can be really happy and useful to others for helping them in need. If you just achieve only dollars,as is the case now a days, without caring for other forms, you will not be happy in your mind and always feel something lacking .

How to achieve these? First we have to understand the eight forms and their importance and grow longing for these , with reverence to the godess who controls these powers or who herself is the entity of these powers. Why we meditate in the form of a female ? Because these riches are not permanent and change hands. One rich man today can be a poor man tomorrow.This is identified as a female characteristic , which is comparatively fickle. It doesnot mean women are fickle, but a symbolic notation for fickle, fast changing are noted as femenine. When you worship a Godess and become rich, dont stop there. Proceed for final self realization. These riches are materialistic so, all the mundane things and belonging to this world only are symbolically shown as female godess. But one secret truth is, a Godess can be pleased in a easy way .

In the same way, she can be upset also easily. How people please the Godess of riches is by loving her, by worshipping her with relevant mantras, by never disgracing her by any means. For example, never belittle money or never show signs of neglecting the money.In other words you have to worship every form of richness as godess. Another point is your house and all your habits should be very clean. If your house is not clean or your appearance is not clean, the godess would not like to stay with you. Important mantras used to please Godess Lakshmi are: Sri suktam, Lakshmi Sahasra namavali (1000 name worship of Lakshmi), very useful books on mantras can be had Here some interesting aspects of mother godess worship has been written by one american writer"Linda Johnsen". some information can be had at http://www.meaus.com/living_goddess.htm

socrates philosophy

 Socrates is one of the greatest philosophers,who laid foundations for greek philosophy, from greece and he is treated as guru to all the later greek and western philosophers. He lived for his principles and he drank poision to accept the punishment for spreading the truth and philosophy fearlessly. His death with hamlock, increased his value and he lived forever in the pages of philosophy. His methodology is unique and particular,and is part of socrates philosophy. To deduce any truth, he used to question. When his desciples asked a questin to know some thing, he replied the question with another question. His philosophy is that one can obtaine true answers only through questions. When you question, your basic foundations of conditionism will shake and a new anwer comes out throwing light on unknown areas.He used to give more lectures on the topics like morale, beauty, mind and body. His wife name was xinthippa who was notorious for her hot tempers. Once she broke a pot (full of water) on his head and socrates commented "only this much water for that big roaring?". This shows his forbearance and patience which are the qualities of great teachers. Plato and aristotle are one way desciples to him. He lived arond 300 b.c.He always used to stress on the fact "know thyself" to know about every thing. 

 

Shirdi sai baba-new spiritualism

Shirdi sai baba is the most influencing relegious guru in this world, for the past century. He is also known as shirdi wale sai baba, sai maharaj, sadguru sai baba. He lived in Shirid, maharashtra, India from 1820 to 1905 approximately. No one exactly knows who were his parents and what was his age.There is another great sai baba from Puttaparthi, andhra pradesh who is also influencing the relegious, spiritual movement of this Bharat, India for the past 50 years or so. In fact, sai baba from puttaparthi (known as sri satya sai baba) declared tht he is the reincarnation of shirdi sai baba. He also declared that he would take birth as prema sai baba , in karnataka state, india after another 20 years.This is part of His devine cosmic plan to establish the righteousness, to protect the degrading human values and to show the mankind the goal and the path to realize themselves.
Shirdi sai baba, satya sai baba and prema sai baba or various combinations of siva and sakthi. shirdi sai baba is complete incarnation of sakthi (parvathi,kali), satya sai baba is the combination of siva and sakthi and prema sai baba would be pure siva form.It is  true to the extent possible.It is noticed the feet of satya sai baba glow with golden shine even at the age of 70, which is impossible to any human being.Shirdi saibaba incarnation changed the course and path of the indian spirtitualism. It has shown a different path and made the practices simpler to the modern man. Shirdi sai baba started his cosmic drama as a phakir (muslim renouncer who live on alms) and spent his entire life in a deprecated mosque in shirdi. From there, through his teachings and life, he created a new method of worship, gave new dimensions to self realization. Now his followers are spread across the globe and the desciples, believers are increasing day by day. Entire india might be having thousands of temples for him and millions of followers to Him. He stressed on simple living, reaslizing oneself through good deeds and mind control. He stressed the importance of belief in Guru and just following the guru to cross the ocean of life which is full of whales and sharks. He never prescribed any mantra or puja specially. Just remembering Him always and offering every thing to Him before consuming are the paths he has shown to purify us. His teachings are very lucid and easy to practice but His personality was difficult to understand as he was getting anger suddenly, peculiar behaviour at times. He is also believed as the incarnation of Dattatreya. He used to have dhuni (a sacred fire always burning). His entire story is well recorded in "sai satcharitra" and followers read this great book daily and they get good results because of this.

Know thyself from Bill gates

The billionaires like Bill gates, Warren Buffet, NR Narayana Moorthy(infosys) renounced recently their interest in the Corporate world. Bill Gates and Warrent Buffet also donated large part of their wealth for the welfare of mankind. This offers some thing to learn which helps to know thyself.

BILL GATES and Warren Buffett have grabbed headlines lately not for the usual reason of the record fortunes they've amassed, but because of the record sums they plan to give away to charity.
Bill Gates--cofounder of Microsoft and the world's wealthiest man for 12 years running, announced that he would retire from business to concentrate on managing the philanthropic foundation he runs with his wife. Almost simultaneously, Buffett--the world's second-richest man--declared that he would donate more than 80 percent of his fortune, mostly to the Gates foundation, which promises to devote its efforts to combating AIDS, especially in Africa.Buffett donated about $31 billions or 45 lakhs crores rupees of money .
Bill Gates created history in earning and changing the world with his hard work and contribution to Windows platform and other Microsoft products. Buffet also raised to riches through his meticulous hard work in stock broking.You may find 100 more similar rich people in forbes list, but these two distinguised them selves by detaching to wealth , voluntarily. It is very difficult to supress the desire to earn more and more money.
Similarly, Mr Narayana Moorthy, of Infosys, is renouncing his attachment to his prestigious company on his 60th birth day.He already is involved in philonthropic activities.His thinking is also very philonthropic. He is a special man with vision, values and most respected CEO in the world.
Let us know what Eesaa vasyopanishad (A very famous useful upanishad). It starts with "Eesaa vasyam midagam sarvam yat kinchit jagatam..". What it says is , The entire world is filled , occupied by the God and you can enjoy evertything in this world with a mind of renounciation (detachment). Translation of Isa upanishad and also here

According to the above upanishad teaching, the above people earned with , definietely, a good heart , worked hard and amassed wealth. Since detachment wisdom is in their heart, they have taken a decision to renounce this Lobha (greed , one of the notorious enemies) and spent most of their later life in human service.This has two effects. One , their individual contribution because ot their decisions. Second one is they became role model for future millionaires, showing the path what is to be done after amassing wealth.
As per the upanishad, you should be in a position to quit all your belongings when you have to. For example, a head master of a school has been transfered to another school. He will leave all the benches, chairs in the school and go to another place, without taking them with him. He knows that he can use them as long as he is the head master in that school. When the time comes to leave for another place, he should not cry over leaving these articles in the previous school. Similarly, as long as you are in this world, you can enjoy everty thing that is provided to you by God, with a clear mind and intention that they are not yours and you have to leave them at one time. And , simultaneously, never have an eye on others belongings or properties.

ways to know thyself

There are many methods which help to know thyself.
Thogh they are innumerable, these can be classified into the following
They are:
know thyself from nature
know thyself from the scriptures
know thyself from your heart
know thyself from others
know thyself from books
know thyself from lectures,
know thyself from sacred associations
know thyself from inquiry
know thyself practice

magick know thyself

Know thyself

magick know thyself
know thyself plaque
know thyself, free thyself
love thy neighbor as thyself
physician heal thyself
cleanse and purify thyself
magick know thyself
patient heal thyself
better to keep laughing gently at thyself
study to show thyself approved
purify thyself
heal thyself
humble thyself in the sight of lord.

Ramakrishna ParamaHamsa- A great Yogi

 One of the great saint of India, who has given a jolt, to the bhakti cult in India in 19th century . In a word we can say that he is the seed of banyan tree, he grew and he expanded himself very tall and wide with innumerable roots. He was born just an ordinary poor boy in West bengal, in 1836 and his name was gadadhar chatterjee. He struggled a lot in his childhood. But he was born with lot of great samskaras and 90%completed effort to become a parama hamsa( highest order saint). He became , fortunately, the priest of Kali(godess kali) temple in calcutta. He treated the idol as real mother godess and worshipped . He used to see her and talk to her. He practiced lot of tantras too, to complete his spiritual journey. When he was worshipping jesus, he got the symtoms of jesus, his face shape resembled jesus. When he was worshipping Hanuman,(the monkey god), he got a tail to him and he could jump very long distances like a monkey. While doing some spiritual, kundalini type mystic practices, he got burnings , heat in his body. Then a sage totapuri came to rescue and helped him in those practices. Godess Kali advised him to have a guru for all these practices, and thus She proved that without a Guru you can not achieve perfection. He suggested a girl whom he is destined to marry, and he married her . She is Sarada devi. Ramakrishna treated her as his mother. Sarada devi was also a great saint.One more great thing he could accomplish in his life time is , gathering excellent deciples and carving Vivekananda who changed the bhakti cult like a whirl wind in his short span of life . Entire world and India has seen at him with lot of astonishment and reverence. Later, vivekananda preached all over america and europe and started Ramakrishna missions in india and abroad. Now these missions are serving the mankind just like red cross societies.
The first dialogue between vivekananda and Ramakrishna was very famous and useful.
Vivekananda( then Naren) asked " Have you seen God sir?" ( to this question, all people previously replied NO)
Ramakrishna: "Yes, I see God as clearly as i See You".
This reply converted vivekananda into his desciple. Vivekananda biography gives innumerable number of interesting accounts about his difficulties he faced as a monk, how he tested God, how God helped him directly and indirectly. Vivekananda spoke in the pariament of world relegions , in chicago, and his speech made all the audience, delegates spell bound. Swami vivekananda was a great , interesting personality. He could read a book of 1000 pages in a day and could remember any point from that book. He could shoot with rifle , long distance objects without fail, though he had no experience or training in rifle shooting. He swam across the turbulent ocean near kanya kumari and reach an island and spent three days in yoga samadhi. His lectures, his writings are a must to read, because they throw light on ancient philosophy reviewd entirely from modern outlook. 
 

Know That You

know that u is a very important hint or command in the process of know thyself. From observing that line, we notice there are three keywords and they are Know, that, u (you). Entire world is the mix of that and you. That is the great brahman from which entire universe has evolved.If you feel hard to believe, sun came from some galaxy, earth from sun, all the things on earth coming just from the earth. So, the only existing thing is that. And you is a manifestation from That and you will again join That after your life period here on earth. So, To * know thyself* , you should know what is that what is You or this. This is told as know that u. All scriptures reiterate that you are nothing other than that but you are in a miniature form. For example, the froath, bubbles in the sea is not different from sea or ocean but part of it. At the same time, we can not say the bubble and the sea are exactly equal. We have to know that we are bubble in the ocean. The bubble has same properties as the sea has but the magnitude differs. A man can not become God with full potency, though he him self is god.Evenafter knowing thyself, and doing lot of purifications for your past karmas, you may be similar to God in appearance and rank. But the creation and destroying powers will never be given to you, even if you reach and live in the palace of God. This is expalined by the words saameepya, saaroopya and saayujya. * Saameepya* means, you are given a rank to live in the vicinity of God, like living in his world, in his palace.If you are still great and earned more grace, you get *saaroopya,* which means you like Him and you dress exactly like Him in his palace. But you can not do the things which he can do, like creation, destroying. * Saayujya *menas merging in Him, there is no difference from Him and you are part of Him. This is from vedic knowledge and based on vaishnavite theory.

Are Psychic Real?

 I heard that Americans spend more than $200 million annually consulting astrologers
and atleast 90% of all Americans under age 30 know their sun-sign and trying for some type of astrological help. When all countries considered , the figures will rise enormously. All people want some type of help in their struggle to acheive some thing or to get rid of some problems. In this one, an interesting thing is Psychic reading. People take psychic help for solving their problems or to get a suggestion, hint about what they have to do in a dilemma.
Psychics will be available on chat or on telephone. They listen to the discussion and advise accordingly. The question is, is it true that psychic reading exists?
From time immemorial, some people have some psychic powers to answer the questions asked. This psychic reader can be any rural , village person. Some times, we find some people dedicated to this profession and they will be worshipping some special godess like kali or some other demi gods. Normal spiritual people never worship these demi gods, as it is highly risky to worship them. These tantrics (who worship these demi gods, spirits ) get some extra powers to drive off evil spirits, to find out lost articles , lost persons etc. All the village would be respecting him and utilizing his services, offering some money, articles in return to him. These are psychics spread across the country. They act as doctors too, in tribal areas, to heal the patient who is suffering from unknown disease or sickness .(Mostly these disorders would be psychological disorders). These village psychics heal these patients, using some psychic media. Psychic media would be innocent, children who are about 6 to 8 years old. They act as medium for psychic and they spell out the answers without really knowing the meaning of the words what they spoke. The sorrounded persons understand these words. Even in shirdi sai baba story, a village psychic (khandoba priest or so) was asked to tell about the details of the sai baba who was a young lad at that time. Then that pyschic asked all the people to dig at a place. Upon digging they found so many lamps burning under ground and the psychic informed that the boy (baba) was performing penance there for many years.
The psychics , to maintain their powers or to get more powers, they perform forbidden tantric rituals in burial grounds on corpse. They get such powers too. There is a book written by some prince from england who came to india to meet mystics, saints and godly men. He narrated many such incidents. Once he met a person , who can read what you write in a piece of paper, without looking into it. Further he would answer to it also. The author later met him separately and learnt that a genie helps him to tell what is written in that paper and tells the answer too. It took few years for him to achieve this siddhi(power). Autobiography of a yogi also narrates similar experiences.
But, now in this commercial world, the demand for quick psychic advice, psychic reading and psychic problems increased very fast and psychics are just picked and trained by the astrology agencies. These trained , part time psychics may not provide any answer but some thing they speak what they feel at that time, convincingly.
Finally, the bottom line is real psychics are there but difficult to find them. But they have enough power to help you and change your destiny too. But their percentage may be so small like .2% among these induced, trained psychics. 

 

Ganesh chaturthi

 Ganesh is an important lord, god in indian (hindu) relegion. He is very very important diety and every body is afraid of him and worships him.He has many names out of which the following names are well known, ganesh, ganesha, vignesh, vinayaka, ganapathi, vigneswara. He has lot of significance in mysticism and self realization. He is the lord of all types of vighnas that means he is the controller of all hurdles, upsets, problems for every effort. He has to be prayed for pacifying all types of hurdles, troubles for any work. By default, every proposal of a man meets a failure, trouble. Thats why we hear man proposes God disposes. So, for every work, for every auspicious work people used to pray for Vinayaka, lord of all troubles. All relegious activities would start only after praying to Lord Ganesha. Ganesh is son of Lord Siva and Parvathi. He is not born to any body, his idol was made by parvathi and life was given to him by Lord Shiva. Ganesha will have an elephant face. Because his original human face was chopped off, beheaded by Lord shiva with his trident but later he brought an elephant head and joined back and gave back lives. He passed a test put by His parents and won the supremacy over the troubles, ganas, hudles. In yoga sastra, it is mentioned that he is the lord of muladhara chakra, the first starting chakra for yoga meditation and kundalini practice. When you cross all the six chakras, only a person gets self realization and devine powers.

 

This practice is called kundalini. A person can do any thing when his kundalini energy awakes. kundalini is a sleeping serpent in the vertebrate, down most point. It is written by some people who got this kundalini awakened, that a person who got this power can make an iron into gold just by touching. So, Ganesh , vinayaka is the Lord of the first gate for this awakening point. If we arise this chakra itself, we get lot of powers. Such important diety is Lord Ganesh aka vinayaka. This month on 27th is the birth day of Ganesha and all hindus perform this festival and seek his blessings. Whenever your efforts are failing , or many hurdles are coming one after another for your efforts in business, employment, education know that Ganesh has to be pleased or His blessings would be useful.Though vaishnavites, who worship Lord vishnu,never worship siva or his family, they definitely pray Lord Ganesha. The simple mantra for worshipping Lord Ganesha is: ome gam ganeshaya namaha. 

 

Dress and address Significance

There is a famous movie actor and during an interview , he told that he received a message from his father that "Dress and address are very important for any man to become great in his life". The meaning of this is that if a person cares for his dress, apparel and also how he addresses others , then his journey would be fine. He can reach his goal. Though the message is given by an ordinary father, this has a very good sense in this. Normally, a person would be decided by his dress. What color of dress he is wearing, what combination of colors of apparel he is having, will be looked by the other person, and automatically an impression would be formed on him. Further his talk would be evaluated based on this first impression. This is testified by the Management books also. So, in normal world, when we want to impress some body in our day to day business, it is better to wear a good combination of dress, which gives pleasant appearance to others. It is not advisable to wear striking , gaudy color shirts or pants, though we personally like it. Let us keep those gaudy colors for our night robes. Full white color dress conveys a good , peaceful message to others while, a red color will help for providing confidence to the wearer . Some studies by psychologists indicate that red color shirt people will win normally. They also found out that some type of talisman , if wore , would some how increase the winning chances . Though they could not find the exact reason for this, this is a finding.
The second point is, the addressing method. When we want to convey some message, it should be very polite. courtesy begets courtesy. When you address even a new person, whom you may not further meet in your life, courteseously, the other person remembers you. A good addressing would avoid lot of conflicts and mis understandings. Even a harsh message can be conveyed with good , courteous addressing.Many saints, great people talk very slowly, gently and address courteously.
 

Life is a Path

Life is a path but not the goal: After getting this life, we spend the initial ten years crying for some thing and playing with some thing. As a child our interests never crossed beyond toys, games, sweets, eatables and may be books and pictures. We spend away that first child hood without even trying to understand .

 

Later period with some other interests like money and partners.When we reach old age, we have all worries about our life, our family. The great saint, Adi sankaracharya explained the same pitiable condition of a man, in his verses of Bhaja govindam (or Bhajagovindam, which means, praise the Lord). He says " During childhood interest in playing, during adolescence full interest in women and in old age full of worries, and where is the time to think about the God and the purpose of life?" He and his desciples wrote wonderful 12 verses to exhort about our wasting away our valuable time in life with trivial interests which will not save us. His every verse ends with " Bhaja govindam , Bhaja Govindam, Bhaja Govindam Moodha mathe" That means, Oh fool, praise the Lord, Praise the lord, and praise the lord . When the end time of life approaches any of your skills, your grammar, your talents ,money will not save you. Govinda is the name of Lord God. Another great unknown sanskrit poet compares the pitiable condition of a man's life with a butterfly.

 

Once a butter fly was enjoying the honey in a lotus flower. It forgot itself with the sweetness of the honey in the flower and spent lot of time drinking honey. Meanwhile, time is up, darkness fell and the lotus closed itself . Then butterfly ( or honey bee) worried and finally complacent that the lotus blooms early morning and it planned to escape at that time. But unfortunately, before early morning, an elephant plucked the lotus flower and the fate of the honey bee ended like that. Similarly, the man would be fully engrossed in the pursuit of earthly love, money , fame and loose his opportunity to fulfill the objective of his life. We are all in the same condition.

 

We plan that one fine day we start knowing ourself but none knows if that fine day comes or not. So, this life what we got is just a road that leads to our goal of self realization or evolution to God state. We should not think that this life itself is a goal and we are settling here with our money, houses and beautiful wife. This beautiful wife will be scared to touch the corpse of the man, when he dies. So, we should not believe this body as permanent. Great Guru says, this body is a bubble of water. None knows when it bursts. May be in the city, may be in a jungle or in the midst of water. Bursting is a must. Another great old poet of sankrit compares this life as a sojourn at a old inn or tavern. When sur rises, we have to start our journey. We should never think that the inn itself is our Home.

 

Living with avathars

Avatars act as if they are ordinary men and without any special powers . But they are not bound by the maya or illusion. They know the worldly affirs and also the complete knowledge. They themselves are the awareness. The people around these avatars will be fooled by the simple appearance and life style of the avatars and we think that the avatars are also simple human beings like us. These avatars know past , present and future. They can immidiately sense the feelings, thoughts which take birth in us.By following his teachings, his guidelines, we can get his grace. When you accumulate His grace, He himself will reveal to you.

 

Freedom in life from fate

Very important question we get when we think of horoscopes,destiny,fate etc is:Are we free to lead a life here on this earth,or we are fully destined to live in a predetermined wayMany people think that we are just nothing other than puppets in the hands of destiny, what ever should happen in our life has already been determined and the same can be read through horoscopes and palmistry like sciences. This may not be true. Because, if our life exclusively depends on our past karmas and our prarabda, what for we are here? what is the value for our intellegence, hardwork,and guru's blessings?

 

These three are very valuable in this cosmic drama.Then, we can infer that the horoscope foretells approximately what type of things may happen at what age for a given person or entity based on the birth time. This is true. Now , if a person has a very bad period and destined to be poor, his hard work may make him self sufficient or a bit rich. But he has to put extra efforts to go against the odds. If his stars forecast a happy, rich life at an age, with even lesser amount of hardwork also he can get the riches or happiness. (ofcourse, happiness is a relative term). Here what ever shortage of work he put, was compensated by his past karma which was the result of his extra work (balance carried forward) from previous lives. Now the ;guru; aspect.Guru is very powerful and he knows the destiny or fate of his desiple. He cleverly amends that hardships like this. once one guru suddenly asked his desciple to go to a hospital and distribute fruits to the patients there and spend some time.

 

After few days, the Guru explained him that hospitalization was written for him in those days. Guru, amended it by keeping his desciple in hospital environment voluntarily and nullified the fate by itself. One great rule is no ordinary astrologist or palmist can do anything to cutshort or enhance the life of a person. The life span is not in the hands of a normal person , except sadgurus or masters. But these masters , saints will never play or use this life extending things, unless there are compelling reasons for the benefit of mankind.

 

Horoscope Predictions, myth or truth?

India is the birth place for Astrology,and further to other derivative sciences like horoscopes, predictions,palmistry, numerology. Vedas have the root for all these sciences and clearly discussed. I wonder how the ancient rishis predicted exactly the movement of sun and other planets and prepared the calendars which informs about the sun set , sun raise and eclipses. Now any educated person can not calculate these things without the aid of any computer or calculator. Families in India maintained the secrets of this palmistry, astrology sciences. Gurus handed over the knowledge and experience to their desciples from generations to generations.

 

 All predictions used to be exactly clear and certain.For example, Gautham Buddha was predicted that he may be a king or mostly become a sanyasi at the time of his birth. Later history proved how he became the monk , inspite of the precautions taken to divert his mind , became sanyasi(monk) and started great Buddhism , which gave solution for salvation, self realization to lots of countries like srilanka,japan,china,and asia pacific countries. Truth: As per newton's law of gravity, any two masses would attract each other. so, any celestial body would influence your body, and also your mind . The nine important planets moving around will have influence on your life.

 

As the sun and moon has influence on sea tides , you see. The lunatics get high influence on full moon and no moon days. Then karma theory comes. Hindu philosophy propagates the karma, cause and effect theory,and re birth. So, when a person takes birth, he brings some portion of his karma to be spent away inthis birth. So, he takes birth at such a time that the planetary constellation indicates his broad future, favourable to his prarabda karma (karma brought for this birth). So, the nine planets will be monitoring his life and providing all good and bad as per the program fed before his birth, and results would be provided in time.

 

This planetary system acts as computer memory where you embed some program to run. Now the important question comes: Are we free to do or improve our lives or bound by our past karma? The answer is you can utilize this life to achieve what you want. you can also smash entire karma through your great spiritual advances, self realization and through the grace of Guru