Thursday 29 September 2011

Lakhi ras.....



Lakhi ras-barasano barsano kotina brahmananda lajay.

“After seeing the divine abode, Barasana, where prem-ananda is constantly being showered, even millions of brahm-anandas appear insignificant in comparison.”

Temporary worldly happiness is of 3 kinds: sattvic, rajas, tamas. These relate to the three qualities of Maya. Rajas happiness is much better than tamas happiness, and satvik happiness is much better than rajas happiness. Satvik happiness relates to happiness of swarga, the celestial abodes.

You all think about swarga with great respect. A Hindu will say when his father dies, that his father has received swargavas, in other words he is now residing in swarga (heaven). The happiness of the celestial abodes is millions of times greater than the happiness of this earth, but it is still destructible, temporary, material, limited and mixed with sorrow. But, as the saying goes, something is better than nothing. Despite these flaws, it is considered that the greatest material happiness is in swarga.

The second best form of material happiness is experienced by human beings on this earth. The third best is the happiness experienced by animals, birds, and insects. A person may wonder, “Do animals experience happiness?” Definitely. A cow finds a little green grass to eat today. As a result, she feels happy and thinks she is having a wonderful meal. Similarly, a poor man eats dry bread every day. Today he went to a feast and there he found fried breads, vegetable dishes, and sweets. He said, “Oh, I really enjoyed myself!” A rich man eats this kind of food every day, so it’s not special for him.

Everyone experiences happiness. For example, a queen hugs her son, the royal prince, and experiences happiness. In the same way, a sow licks her dirty little piglets and also feels happy. When a animal gives birth, it doesn’t go to a hospital to be taken care of. As soon as an animal gives birth, she cleans her baby herself with her own tongue, and she feels happy seeing and touching it. But all animals also suffer greatly. They have no idea where they will find shelter in at night. They don’t know where they will find water to drink. Some days they have enough to eat, some days they only find half of what they need, and some days they find nothing. But a human being has the greatest capacity because his foremost quality is knowledge. When he earns one million, he desires to have two million, and then four million. What will he do with all that wealth? He only has one child. He thinks, “That person has more than me. I have to get more than him.”

“Aahar-nidra-bhayamaythunan cha samanyametat pashubhir naranam.”

There is no difference in the quality of happiness experienced by all living beings. Just as we get great happiness from the things we consider best, so all other life forms experience the most happiness from what they consider best.

When celestial beings see what makes us happy they think, “How dirty!” The human form is such that it excretes waste from every pore, and waste is constantly excreted from its nine orifices. On the other hand, a celestial body is constantly exuding a fragrance and it doesn’t excrete waste of any kind. So when the celestial gods look towards us, they make a face and say, “How dirty!” But we make a similar face when we see pigs reveling in filth and say “What disgusting creatures!” But what is our actual condition? Whenever we see ourselves in a mirror we feel joy. But what is stored inside your body? If you were able to take out everything in your intestinal track you would run away.

So all life forms experience their own kinds of happiness and suffering. Similarly, the indescribable, unlimited divine happiness or ananda of the divine world is also of three kinds. These are brahm-ananda, paramatma-ananda, and prem-ananda. The lowest of these is brahm-ananda. This relates to the impersonal, formless aspect of God which manifests only as a divine existence. It doesn’t have any form, name or qualities and it performs no actions or leelas. Naturally, if it has no form then what actions could it perform? This aspect of God is worshiped by gyanis or followers of the path of gyan. They refer to God as brahm. Still, this experience of bliss is absolutely unlimited. The one who attains brahm is forever free from Maya.

“Na sa punaravartatey, na sa punaravartatey.” (Brahm Sutra)

A greater experience of bliss is paramatma-ananda. Here God has a form, name, and qualities, but He does not perform leelas or divine actions. Beyond this is the bliss of prem or divine love. This aspect of God is referred to as Bhagavan. This is Shri Krishna. He has a name, form, qualities, abode, leelas and eternal associates. He performs unlimited blissful leelas. This is the bliss of divine Barsana referred to in this pad kirtan.

“Brahmanando bhavedesha chetparardh gunikritah.

Naiti bhakti sukhambhodheh paramanu tulamapi.” (Bhakti Rasamrit Sindhu)

This is why it is said that if uncountable blisses of brahm were gathered together, collectively they still would not equal even one drop of divine love bliss. Even so, it’s important to remember that brahm-ananda is still related to Shri Krishna and that it is absolutely unlimited.

Understand this through a simple example. After a long time, a married woman becomes pregnant. She and her husband had prayed for a child, and had gone to many doctors to find out why she wasn’t conceiving. Even though her child is still in her womb, she feels very happy. Her husband is also very happy. She experiences the child’s body growing month by month and all his activity in her womb. She feels excited, “Oh, he’s moving! He’s kicking!” Men don’t understand what this feels like. Only mothers know. She feels great anticipation, “When will that day come that I will see my child? Will he be attractive or ordinary? Fair or dark?” Finally the child is born and the mother sees, touches and hugs her baby. If you were to now ask the mother what the difference is between the happiness she felt when the child was still in her womb and the happiness she feels now when she sees her baby crawling on his little knees and making baby talk and performing endearing naughty acts, she will say, “What a foolish question! When I was pregnant, I had so much difficulty even moving around with my heavy body, and then, too, I had morning sickness. And now I am seeing my baby, kissing him, hugging him and listening to his innocent talk. There is an enormous difference in my happiness!”

Similarly, there is an enormous difference between the bliss of impersonal brahm and the bliss of Shri Krishna (divine love), although they actually are not two. Impersonal brahm does not manifest attributes such as a name, form, or any qualities, yet they are all present.

For example, a piece of grain has been kept in someone’s house for years. A visitor picks it up and says, “In this seed there is bread.” The homeowner may think his visitor is crazy for saying this. To prove it, he puts the piece of grain in the ground and waters it. It receives sunlight and fresh air, and a little fertilizer. It will almost immediately begin to sprout and grow. From one grain, a hundred other grains are formed, which can all be ground to make bread. All these things are inside a seed, but in a subtle, unmanifest form, just as the baby in the mother’s womb was not yet manifest externally.

Similarly, all of God’s powers are present in impersonal brahm, but in a seed-like unmanifest form. The bliss of impersonal brahm could be compared to the happiness that the mother felt for her unborn child. This is why this line of the kirtan says that uncountable blisses of brahm feel insignificant before divine love bliss.

Tuesday 27 September 2011

Tajjapastadarth...


Tajjapastadarth bhavanam

This Sootra from Yog Darshan instructs us to develop the appropriate sentiments while
speaking words in front of God. We must meditate using the mind. You have taken out
five minutes of your time for the daily prayer and for arti. But use that time properly.
The prayer you recite is one of utmost humility, and I have filled it with the essence of
Vedas and Shastras. Have you ever reflected on even one line of this prayer? Every
line is filled with such depth but you recite it so carelessly. Without any feeling you are
reciting, “Ab to bahut ho chuka. Ab to tumhare prem ke bina…” You utter dry, hollow
words. How must God feel as He listens to you? I feel so badly; I can’t imagine how
badly God must feel. God must be thinking, “He is trying to make a fool out of me.”
You people perform Guru-arti, but there is no concern with the mind.

You speak exactly like a parrot. You sing pads like, ‘Deenanath mohi kaahe bisare.’ (O
Lord of destitute souls! Why have You forsaken me?) And yet you don’t shed a single
tear. You have no feeling within as you say to God, “I am a sinner of great
proportions.” You don’t ever scold your mind. ‘O mind! You think yourself to be so
capable. What are you saying, and what are you thinking?’ And you do this on a daily
basis. It’s not as if you are careless once or twice. So, this is not good. You are
harming yourselves greatly. You have been blessed with God’s Grace, you have
attained the human birth; someone has come into your life to explain Godly knowledge.
You have attained the scriptural knowledge that you would not have attained even
after reading scriptures for millions of years. And it’s not as if you have memorized the
knowledge; you have accepted the knowledge from your heart. You have now
understood what has to be done. Moreover, you see very clearly that tomorrow may
not belong to you. What if your heart stops beating? What if you die? What explanation
will you give to God? “You bestowed tremendous grace on me; You brought a saint
into my life, I understood what the saint explained to me, but I still did what my mind
wanted to do. I remained a slave of the mind, doing exactly what it wanted me to do.

The significance of 'fact' and 'faith'..



Fact and Faith. Most of the people believe that if they are sincere in their deeds and are faithfully following a path, it may lead them to God, but it is not true. Faith has its own quality and fact has its own status. You cannot change ferrum into gold by faithfully worshipping it. One thing you must know is that the depth of your faith opens up a channel to receive the innate quality of that religion or person you are following or worshipping. If it is a worldly religion where worship to god/God is meant for only worldly benefits, you receive only materiality through it because your faithfulness has opened up a link between your subtle mind and the underlying material qualities of the minds of the promoters of that religion. So, slowly and continuously your subconscious mind is being fed with such mayic qualities but your conscious mind, in the ardor of your faithfulness, fails to comprehend it, until it is too late. For similar reasons if a person faithfully follows a religious teacher or a narrator of the stories of Ram and Krishn etc., his mind will absorb the mental qualities of the teacher or the narrator, whatever it may be, hypocritical, malicious, evil, worldly, sensuous, pious, Divine or devotional; because the speech contains the inner personality of the speaker. So, give it a thought, and follow the true path of Divine worship.

What are the intuitions?

Some people, out of ignorance, call their intuitions as a suggestion of God. But you should know that intuitions are also of three kinds, tamas, rajas and sattvic which are related to the three kinds of people, evil, normal and pious. They are only the vivid reflections of your own subconscious mind which are induced by the conditioned reflexes of your own past lives’ actions called the sanskars. That’s how sometimes a person feels that his intuitions have guided him, but, in fact, they are just the stronger subconscious thoughts that emerge into your conscious mind.

Wednesday 21 September 2011

Universal Society of Bhakti Mediation..



Universal Society of Bhakti Mediation

Every human being in this world desires and happiness but inspite of the fact he or she is constantly working towords this goal, the consequence is quite opposite. There are various theories prevalent with regard to this peace and happiness. All of them can be briefly summarised into two:

1. Materialism

2. Spiritualism

Although both materialism and spiritualism condemn each other yet they do so wrongly, for each individual is a combination of both body and soul. Materialism is necessary for the external body, and Spiritualism on the other hand is obsolutely necessary for the inner mind which is related to the soul.

In truth, peace and happiness is something that relates to the inner mind; materialism however is necessary to keep the body healthy.

Every one knows how to keep the body healthy through materialism with the helf of modern science. But most people are unaware of the inner science that relates to purification of the mind. Thus Spiritualism is indispensable. All religion refer to devotion (Bhakti) to God as the only means of purifying the mind. In order to attain this goal, spiritual discipline (Sadhana) through karmayaga (detached action) is absolutely necessary.

"Tasmat Sarveshu Kaleshu Mamanusmara Yudya Cha"

(Bagavad Gita)

When the mind is with God, and the body is the world, know that to be devotional action. when the body is with God an the mind in the world, know that to be the greatest ignorance.

Detached action means constant concentration of the mind on God whilst working in the material world. This peace and happiness can only be attained through devotion to lord Krishna..

Wednesday 14 September 2011

God and His path....


God and His path of attainment are both eternal.

Material beings are eternally under the bondage of maya and are ignorant. So the Divine matters are beyond the reach of human mind. It is thus quite obvious that a material mind can never find a way to approach the Divine. It cannot even know the nature of the Divine power on its own. It is thus only God Who Himself reveals His knowledge to the human beings. It is seen in the world that nature produces milk in the bosom of a woman before the birth of a child as the child may need it immediately on birth. So, even before the birth of human beings on this earth planet, God produces the knowledge of His attainment through the Upnishads, and the Puranas.

These scriptures reveal the form of God, personality of God, nature of God, greatness of God, Graciousness of God, path to God and also the procedure of the path. This path is called bhakti or divine-love-consciousness. Everything that relates to God is eternal because God is eternal. Thus, all the knowledges of the Upnishads and the Puranas along with the path of bhakti are eternal. Bhakti and the Grace of God are very closely related to each other.

The definition of bhakti (devotion).

Bhakti is the submission of the deep loving feelings of a devotee’s heart for his beloved God where all of his personal requisites are merged into his Divine beloved’s overwhelming Grace which He imparts for His loving devotee. This loving submission has been described in the scriptures and in the writings of the acharyas and Saints in many ways.

The Gita uses the terms surrender and single-mindedness.

These are the famous verses of the Gita that tell about surrendering all the social and religious (apar dharm) commitments at the lotus feet of Krishn and then wholeheartedly and single-mindedly worshipping Him with faith and confidence.

The Bhagwatam stresses on the selflessness of a devotee (bhakt) of Krishn and tells that the leela Bliss of Krishn is so deep, profound and limitlessly charming that even God Shiv’s heart was entangled in its fascination and He always wandered in Braj absorbed in the love of Krishn. So the Bhagwatam advises the souls, to drink the nectar of the leela Bliss of Krishn and selflessly desire for His vision and the Divine love.

The Ramayan emphasizes on the sincere humbleness of a devotee. Goswami Tulsidas says,

O my supreme beloved Bhagwan Ram, the crown jewel of the dynasty of King Raghu! I am the most fallen and humble soul of this world, and You are the most kind friend of all such souls. Your Graciousness has no compare. So, please lift me up from this unlimited cosmic ocean and make me Your own forever.” Selfless devotion to God with such feelings of devotional humbleness are constantly expressed in the Ramayan and also in the Vinay Patrika.

Jagadguru Nimbarkacharya introduced a method of devotional remembrance and meditation called ashtyam seva, which means that a selfless devotee should remember the leelas of Radha Krishn, whatever They normally do since the early morning when They get up from the bed and till the night when They go to sleep. In this way, meditating upon Their leelas, the devotee should feed and decorate Radha Krishn accordingly. (Ashtyam literally means the 24 hours.) This is just a procedure of meditation where a devotee develops his longing to see the Divine leelas of Radha Krishn and to be in Their Divine service forever in Vrindaban or Golok.

Jagadguru Ramanujacharya used a word prapatti to express the feelings of a devotee who very humbly surrenders his heart, mind and soul at the lotus feet of his loving God and earnestly desires for His Divine vision.

Vallabhacharya defined his path of devotion as the pushti marg. Pushti means the loving Graciousness of Krishn which fosters the devotional feelings of a selfless devotee, and marg means the path. So pushti marg means the path of devotion to Krishn where a devotee, depending upon the Graciousness of Krishn, humbly surrenders and dedicates his whole being for the service of Krishn.

Chaitanya Mahaprabhuji simplified the procedure of sadhana (devotional) bhakti for the devotees and said that the remembrance of Krishn is easily and most effectively done through the chanting of His name and the leelas, and the desire of His meeting is quickly deepened when you develop the feeling of longing for Him in your heart. He says in the Shikchashtak:

It means that a devotee should be humble, forgiving, forbearing, respecting to the devotional feelings of others but not desiring for any personal compliments for himself. With such a humble heart, which is yearning for the love and the vision of his beloved Krishn, the devotee should sing and chant the leelas and the names of Krishn.

These are all the descriptions and the definitions of the devotional bhakti (sadhana bhakti) as to how it should be observed in the practical life.

The eternal significance of bhakti.

As mentioned above, bhakti is eternal. It means that it is the eternally existing path to attain God. God is one, so the path of His attainment is also one, and thus, the same path of bhakti ensures the attainment of any of the forms of God. The path of bhakti is prevalent in every brahmand of this entire universe and it is for all the souls of this universe. It remains the same in all the four yugas (satyug, treta, dwapar and kaliyug) and, as it is directly related to soul and God, it is above caste, creed, sect and nationality. It can be adopted by any person of any nation of this world, because it is gifted by the supreme God Himself for the benefit of the humankind; and again, there are no physical requirements in doing bhakti. There are no meditation postures to adopt, no concentration techniques to follow and no rituals to observe. So it can be done by anyone, young, old or sick, and at any time in twenty-four hours, because bhakti is the pure love of your heart that longs to meet the Divine beloved of your soul in this very lifetime. The philosophy of bhakti is also described in Narad Bhakti Sutra and Shandilya Bhakti Sutra.

Karm-yog and gyan-yog.

Sattvic good karmas on their own only purify the heart to some extent; but if the doer of good karmas starts doing bhakti, his actions are classified as karm yog, and then, on the perfection of bhakti, he receives God realization. Literally the word yog means ‘the unity.’ Thus, the (Divine) uniting factor, bhakti, when it is predominantly added to the sattvic good karmas, it is then called “karm yog.” Similarly, when bhakti is predominantly added to the practice of gyan (or yog), it is called gyan yog. So, now we know that all kinds of good karmas and all kinds of yog and gyan-related practices are only sattvic, but when they are predominated with bhakti, they become the means of God realization, because bhakti unfolds the field of God’s Grace.

Tuesday 13 September 2011

O Radha Rani...




The name of Radha Rani is my real wealth. Due to the glory of Radha Rani's name shyamsunder became the crest jewel of 'Rasiks' with the grace of Radha Rani's name lord krishna attracted all the gopies in Braj by playing the flute. It was due to the glory of Radha's name that in the age of Dvapar shyamsunder performed the Maharas Dance in Braj. The supreme lord runs anxiously towords the place where he hears the sweet name of Radha. If it were not for the 'R' in the name 'Radhey' (in Radhey-shyam) shyam would be incomplete (Adhey shyam, i.e. half shyam). says shri 'Kripalu' "chant the most glorious name of Radha twenty-four hours a day to taste the sweetest nector of love."
O Radha Rani! Do not delay your arrival. standing at your doorstep. I am begging for alms of your grace. from the Rasik saints I have heard that destitute souls are always treated with respect in your court of mercy. I am holding on strongly to the faith that your delay does not mean that you will never come to me. your delay will not cause me to renounce faith for I am extremely foolish and stubborn. says shri 'Kripalu' "O kishori ji! come quietly and reval your divine form to me. I promise not to tell anyone."

Monday 12 September 2011

Are Man....


ARE MAN, AVSAR BITYO JAT

you are asleep in a illusions trance created by our own mind. you are approaching death everyday and yet you cheerfully celebrate your Birthday. you do not realize that each day which is passing by is not a joyful moment, but a matter of regret, that so much time has passed away and very little remains. so without further delay and realising that this body is temporary, you should start doing sadhana from this moment..