LIVINGSPARK

Blessing and Prayer Redefined

2010-03-10T15:00:00.001+05:30

I am a great admirer of Gregg Braden, a contemporary New York Times best selling author who had varied and rich background. His books include ‘The Isaiah Effect’, ‘The God Code’, ‘The Divine Matrix’, ‘Fractal Time’ and recently ‘Secrets of the Lost Mode of Prayer: The Hidden Power of Beauty, Blessing, Wisdom, and Hurt’. In the opening chapter of this book he recounts an experience he had when visiting and interviewing a Tibetan monk. He writes:

“I focused my attention directly into the eyes of the beautiful and timeless-looking man seated lotus-style in front of me: the abbot of the monastery. Through our translator, I’d just asked him the same question that I’d asked each monk and nun that we’d met throughout our pilgrimage: “When we see your prayers,” I began, “what are you doing? When we see you tone and chant for 14 and 16 hours a day, when we see the bells, the bowls, the gongs, the chimes, the mudras, and the mantras on the outside, what is happening to you on the inside?”
As the translator shared the abbot’s reply, a powerful sensation rippled through my body, and I knew that this was the reason we’d come to this place. “You have never seen our prayers,” he answered, “because a prayer cannot be seen.” Adjusting the heavy wool robes beneath his feet, the abbot continued. “What you have seen is what we do to create the feeling in our bodies. Feeling is the prayer!” The clarity of the abbot’s answer sent me reeling”

In page 100 of this book he redefines blessing; “Blessing may be defined as a quality of thought / feeling / emotion that allows us to redefine our feelings about something that's hurting us now or has hurt us in the past.”

I had earlier done a post on the silent mode of prayer. This concept takes it even further. Your whole being becomes a participant in the process of being blessed. In this context we can look at the insight provided by St. Catherine of Siena. She said “The force that created the unimaginable splendours and the unimaginable horrors has taken refuge in us, and it will follow our commands.”
Our consciousness reflects the universal consciousness which has the polar opposites as its constituent parts. If there were only forces of attraction then there would be a completely collapsed singularity and if there were only forces of repulsion then there would be no sustainable structure and we would be left with a void. We require the two types of opposing qualities to be present to maintain balance. Our consciousness is powerful enough to deploy whatever force that we want. To tune into receiving divine blessing through our prayers we need to move away from mere mental, rational and ego dominated perception of our intention of prayer but use intuitive tools such as feelings, emotion and highest quality of thought, as these more purely reflect our individual consciousness.

All our acts of love, faith, hope, gratitude and forgiveness must be based on whole-body feelings. The whole-body feeling is generated through a process of a series of positive affirmations. For example if a close friend has cheated you by not returning a loan at a time when you needed it, you forgive him by feeling his utter desperation and his inability to muster the amount in time, though this may not be the case. You also feel that you can manage without the return of the loan and feel for your friend that he may need to hold on to the cash more than you do. A snowballing effect, of good things for you and your friend from this situation, and a final act of letting go as a donation well made.

It is a tough act but we can get there.

Blessings to you.

Feminine Element of Creation

2010-03-07T10:00:00.002+05:30

We are celebrating the ‘International Women’s Day’ tomorrow and as usual there would be loud declarations and pronouncements and we will go back to our usual ways in a society where women are marginalized and treated in the most unacceptable manner. Education towards evolving a new paradigm of perceiving the station and stature of women should begin not as mass enculturation or a conversion process but as a process creating awareness in individuals as to why the misconception has occurred and how one should really see the different dimensions of the female aspect of creation, especially, the women.

I do not want to get into the historical background that led to this cultural aberration but briefly mention that infant mortality and the life style of the Homo sapiens as hunter gatherers, wherein the loss of male species was predominant, necessitated practice of polygamy and the domesticated role of women as child bearer and caretaker. This archaic and magical structure of consciousness got deeply embedded and was further strengthened during the mythical era, up to the time of first few centuries in the Christian era, through religious channels. This was not challenged during the Cartesian, rational and temporal construct of human consciousness, as dogma prevailed over all other forms of thinking or perceiving. The Abrahamic religions which adopted modified mythos from the Egyptian and Greek traditions portrayed women in a very negative role in spirituality.

Classical Rabbinical literature is highly derogatory to women. The Talmud states that the women of their time and culture spoke more than they should “Ten measures of speech descended to the world; women took nine” (Kiddushin 49b) and that women are “light-minded” (Shabbat 33b). “The sages say that four traits apply to women: They are greedy, eavesdroppers, lazy and jealous...” Rabbi Yehoshua bar Nahmani adds: “they are querulous and garrulous”. Rabbi Levy adds: “they are thieves and gadabouts” (Bereshit Rabbah 45:5).
The fall of human race was attributed to Eve and thus women were relegated to a negative role in the human psyche, as vehicle of evil. Though the figure of Mother Mary as the mother of the second Adam, the Christ, was seen as a co-redemptress, she was assigned a divine attribute due to her immaculate conception and elevated to a stature as some one who is a Holy Virgin and beyond the ordinary created female.
In Islam, though the role of the tempter was solely attributed to Iblis (Satan), a negative connotation sets in with respect to women due to the fact that in the ‘Jannah’ (garden or paradise) though she is spiritualized, she is assigned purely an objective role as an instrument of love. Through this positioning women became an ‘object of love’ and no room was given to a participatory subjective experience in relationship or society.

Wisdom was always assigned a feminine attribute in many traditions. Shakthi, Kali and most of the pantheon of Hindu female deities as well as puranic figures such as Sita, Radha have all been the indispensable wisdom and sustaining element in the portrayal of the action of Cosmic consciousness. The word ‘Shekhinah’, which is feminine, was used to denote ‘divine presence’ in the Hebraic scriptures and the same word is used to describe the ‘Holy Spirit’ in the Christian New Testament Bible. In Islam, this word in its Arabic form is used six times in the Quran. ‘Sukaina’ is the Spirit of Tranquillity, or Peace of Reassurance it's also the shorter version for the original word 'Sakina' which is mentioned in the Quran as having descended upon Muhammad and the believers as they made an unarmed pilgrimage to Mecca, and were faced with an opposing military force of the Quraysh, with whom Muhammad struck the Treaty of Hudaybiyah. “He it is Who sent down the sakina into the hearts of the believers that they might add faith unto their faith” …. Surah 48:4

Let us see humanity as a homogeneous whole with the male representing the actualization principle of the female divine wisdom principle, male representing the structure and the female its sustaining essence, both being the highest form of evolved consciousness.

Love to you all

Blazing Fire of Truth

2010-03-03T16:00:00.000+05:30

Today we will study the tenth saying of Jesus in the Gospel of Thomas.

“Jesus said, I have cast fire upon the world, and look, I'm guarding it until it blazes.” ….Logion 10

The fire that Jesus talks about is the cleansing fire of Divine consciousness. How does one cast this fire into the world? The role of a guru or teacher is specifically to remove the ignorance of the disciples and impart spirit empowering knowledge through which the disciple is able to elevate his or her consciousness to a higher level. Purely talking and preaching can not accomplish this task. The teacher has to demonstrate the effectiveness of teaching and encourage his disciples to follow his example by learning, thinking, acting and living in an ordained manner. The inseparable bond that existed between Jesus and the Father, which is the word which Jesus uses throughout his teachings for Divine consciousness, is the same bond that he desires for his disciples.
In his beautiful prayer before his passions Jesus says:

“Righteous Father, though the world does not know you, I know you, and they know that you have sent me. I have made you known to them, and will continue to make you known in order that the love you have for me may be in them and that I myself may be in them.” …….John 17:25,26

This fusing together of the individual human consciousness and the Divine consciousness is possible only through the knowledge that is revealed in Christ’s teaching. In His mind he had no doubt that all his disciples are capable of transcending to this level of existence and can even exceed Him. Jesus comforting His disciples before his parting and replying to Thomas says:

“I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing. He will do even greater things than these,” …. John 14:12

The messianic mission of Christ has to be properly understood. Every human being on this earth has the potentiality to become the Son of the Father, just as He was. This is possible only through the fire of Divine consciousness which has been set ablaze in this world through the teachings, thinking, actions and life of this great incarnation, namely Jesus the Christ.
What is the nature of this fire? Only if we know the nature of this fire can one keep it blazing through the art of stoking and tending. Here again Jesus gives the recipe to His disciples. He says
“the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you” ………John 14:17.

Divine consciousness is something that is inseparable from each and every creation but this truth is not grasped or understood when we are rooted in this world but persons who have been ignited with this amalgamating fiery knowledge through the Christ, know this truth. This knowledge is the one that fuses together all creation to the Divine Godhead.
The true meaning of redemption is this. This ‘all cleansing fire’ is the tool of redemption through which the false coverings acquired through our ego-consciousness are burned away so that the prodigal son returns to the arms of the Divine Father to whom he really belongs.

It is therefore important that we understand the mission of the Christ as one that was intended to remove the veil of ignorance and reveal the knowledge of our true being ,in this blazing act of purification.

Love to you all

Sabotaging Inner Happiness

2010-02-28T10:00:00.001+05:30

Lama Marut, a friend of mine on the Facebook wrote “Real evil is that part of you that sabotages your own true happiness.”

I wrote back to him on the process of how this subtlety takes root in one’s psyche. This is mainly due to two reasons. The first is clinging to the past and the second is our own ignorance of our life’s purpose. These mental states which exhibit themselves as thoughts are so deceptive that many times they are seen in the guise of a benefactor, with all their attributes of providing comfort. While there is a feeling of a false euphoria your inner happiness is robbed without you being aware. These mental states mostly evolve from the past and are highly fragmented without linkages to the ultimate experience which is invariably negative. In my counseling, I have come across many who go through self victimization because of this process.

In Bhagavad-Gita, the reason for Arjuna’s sadness is that his own ignorance of life purpose that leads him to think that he is the slayer. He does not see his true role as a Kshatriya who has to fight for justice and root out evil. The evil that he is facing is his own kith and kin symbolizing an inherent part of one’s existence. Arjuna’s unhappiness is due to his own ignorance.

The verse 14 of the first chapter of Bhagavad-Gita captures the essence of how the power that is bestowed in our soul can lead us to true inner happiness. I specifically quote the Sanskrit transliteration to bring out the deep symbolism.

“tatah svetair hayair yukte
mahati syandane sthitau
madhavah pandavas caiva
divyau sankhau pradadhmatuh”

“On the other side, both Lord Krishna and Arjuna, stationed on a great chariot drawn by white horses, sounded their transcendental conch shells.”

The names given to each of the words in this verse are highly metaphoric. Here, the chariot represents the vehicle of primal wisdom or the original logos, the Origin of all the Vedas and the whole of the Universe itself. The chariot was thus referred with the word ‘syandana’ which means ‘that leads towards the ultimate destination of the souls’ journey’. This is the true ‘vidya’ or wisdom.
And the word ‘mahathi’ means ‘all conquering’ and is only attribute or nature of the original logos or wisdom. The word for horses used here is 'hayaihi' which also means ‘something that gives knowledge’, In Sanskrit ‘harit’ means horse, but also bright and shining. Horses were reared by Druids in Europe, especially white ones (therefore bright and pure) and that they believed them capable of knowing the plans of the heavens. Hence the white horses drawing the chariot symbolize the concept of wisdom being deployed in the right direction towards the ultimate attainment of the Godhead. Thus the word assigned in the verse to the soul is 'pandava'. ‘Panda’ means ‘knowledge’. One who possesses that knowledge is called ‘panduhu’. The one belongs to that lineage is called 'pandavaha'.
Blowing on the ‘divyau sankhau’ or the divine conch shells represents emanation of the pure wisdom or logos for annihilation of all ignorance through both the individual atma as the seeking soul and Paramatma as the harbinger of this wisdom.

Every moment of our life let us pray for divine wisdom to take root in our consciousness so that we may be led from ignorance to wisdom.

Love to you all

Obligations, Rewards and Detachment

2010-02-24T16:00:00.001+05:30

Basically continuing from last post on the importance of virtue, I would like to take the first verse of the sixth chapter of Bhagavad-Gita and go in depth as to the possibility of achieving the seemingly impossible task of performing our worldly duties. In the first verse Lord Krishna tells Arjuna:

“One who is unattached to the fruits of his work and who works as he is obligated is in the renounced order of life, and he is the true mystic, not he who lights no fire and performs no duty.”.......Bhagavad-Gita 6:1

There are a number of elements in this saying. They are:
- fruits of one’s work
- non-attachment and finally
- Obligatory work to be performed
It is better to start from the understanding of obligatory work and then move on to what is to be seen as the fruits of such work and finally the detachment or renunciation of all that is derived from such fruits of labour.

Creation has a purpose and the main purpose as I see it is one of phenomenal transcendence. The transcendence must be towards higher level of consciousness. The creative purpose is not self centred but involves the entire milieu of our existence. Hence there are two distinct aspects of our creation namely; being and acting. While being is self driven, acting involves agencies such as to act upon or to act with. The objective world becomes the stage of our existence and acting. This is the reason that the concluding part of the first verse says “………he is the true mystic, not he who lights no fire and performs no duty”.

Any object oriented ontology must address this primary parameter. In the act of functioning every human being has to interact with a variety of objects. If you were a teacher then you had students and content of what you taught, if you were a king you had your kingdom and the subjects and the ethical and empowering conduct of governance, if you were a trader you had your customers and goods and its quality and if you were a person providing services then again you had the recipient of services and the quality of services themselves which had set objectives. The reason I elaborate on the nature of work is because obligation is not exterior to existence or a choice of free will but, if properly understood, is the karmic resultant in every new creation. This is the first renunciation. Though through the mind and intellect one may assume that he has a choice of work, accepting a current position or state in life and performing duties arising there of, qualifies one to be called as one “who works as he is obligated”.

The fruits of such a work would be rewarding in two distinct planes. The first and most visible or comprehensible level is a reward at the intellectual and materialistic level. The second is at the spiritual level where there is no visible or perceivable self gratification. There is always a strong tendency to get stuck in the intellectual or materialistic level especially in this Kali Yuga, where the spiritual consciousness lies under very heavy smog of materialistic and sensory existence. This is the reason that a strong advice is given towards non-attachment. This advice is seen in the Bible “But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing”…….Matthew 6:3

To be in the renounced order of life does not mean that one has to stop doing things and go away to a forest. But as Lord Krishna says it is those who perform obligated duty with intent on spiritual elevation through their own transcendence and those who understand this great truth that all actions are part of the great interplay of the supreme consciousness can be called true mystic or renunciate.

Love to you all

Virtue – The Perennial Wealth

2010-02-21T10:00:00.002+05:30

Plutarch wrote in 75 CE about the legendary wisdom of Solon who lived during the fifth century before Christ. It is understood that Solon was a moral philosopher and advised the King of Lydia, Croesus, who believed that his wealth was the primary source of his happiness.

Plutarch echoes the thoughts of Solon in the following lines.

“Some wicked men are rich, some good are poor,
We will not change our virtue for their store:
Virtue's a thing that none can take away;
But money changes owners all the day.”

Let us first examine the attributes of material wealth.

The first attribute of wealth is its acquisitive character. Wealth is either inherited or earned. The earning could be either by fair means or by unscrupulous and devious means. I will then say that the three categories of riches a man can have fall into IW (inherited wealth), FW (wealth obtained through fair means) and DW (wealth acquired through devious means). While the first two categories fall under arth moderated by dharma or wealth through fair means, the last category is definitely not to be entertained. Any wealth that is acquired through speculation or chance also falls under the last category.

The second attribute is its usage. If wealth is used in a purely self aggregation mode, whatever is the mode of its acquisition then it degenerates into morally degrading appendix to one’s life. Wealth must be employed in life empowering activities. These activities include knowledge acquisition and dissemination, balanced nourishment and proactive sharing. This should encompass the self, family, society and the ecosystem.
Regarding unattached acts of empowerment Bhagavad-Gita chapter 3 verse 25 says: “As the ignorant perform their duties with attachment to results, the learned may similarly act, but without attachment, for the sake of leading people on the right path.”

The third attribute is its ego drive. What I mean by this is that wealth tends to boost one’s ego through a false sense of security and inflation of manipulative power.

The fourth attribute is its impermanence. Worldly wealth is a pure by-product of human activity and has no place in the spiritual life. As the Spirit is immortal and all creations are transient so also wealth is highly fickle in nature. Holding onto this impermanence leads to suffering.

Given these, all holy men and men who valued their inner peace and true happiness either put to empowering use their wealth or gave away their wealth for a life of poverty. We have a long list of Christian saints who gave up their luxurious lives to embrace an ascetic life. Outstanding examples are St. Augustine of Hippo, St. Ignatius of Loyola and St. Francis Xavier.
In the Vedic tradition, even the householder, was admonished that during his days of life as Brahmacharya (celibate), Grihastha (family) his Kama (desire) and Arth (wealth) should be controlled by dharma.
It is the dharma which one upholds which ultimately controls his destiny or the imprints that one’s consciousness or Atma carries into its next manifestation.
This is the reason that Solon admonishes that any day he would prefer perennial virtue over impermanent riches.

Love to you all

Preparation for Transcendence

2010-02-17T16:00:00.003+05:30

Today the Christian calendar celebrates ‘Ash Wednesday’. What is the significance of this start day and why we have a forty day period of the season of Lent as a precursor to the event of resurrection of Jesus from death? I have earlier pointed out that we make the mistake of treating the Biblical events as purely historical rather then symbolic narration in a historical context.

The significance of the start day is that forty days before the day of crucifixion always falls on Wednesday, as usually a lunar calendar is used for fixing the day of Easter.
It is also important to note that Wednesday, in Hebrew chronology was fourth day of the week as the Sabbath was on the Saturday. The fourth day was the day on which light and darkness were separated in the creation story of Genesis. It is a day of new consciousness.

The Hebrew letter ‘mem’ is the thirteenth letter and corresponds to the same position in a full expression of twenty two letters of the Hebrew alphabets as the fourth day in a week of seven days. The number value of ‘mem’ is forty. As I had written in my earlier blog titled “Discernment for Spiritual Elevation” ‘mem’, the letter of "water" (mayim) symbolizes the fountain of the Divine Wisdom of Torah. Just as the waters of a physical fountain (spring) ascend from their unknown subterranean source (the secret of the abyss in the account of Creation) to reveal themselves on earth, so does the fountain of wisdom express the power of flow from the super conscious source. In the terminology of Kabbalah, this flow is from keter ("crown") to chochmah ("wisdom"). The stream is symbolized in Proverbs as "the flowing stream, the source of wisdom.

As Vivekmani Lakra, writes in the Times of India ‘Speaking Tree’ column; “The reasons as to why the Lenten season is observed for a period of forty days are many. There is an important relation of the number 'forty' with the Holy Bible. We can find in the book of Exodus of the Old Testament that Moses prayed to God while staying on Mount Sinai for forty days. After getting freedom from the Pharaoh of Egypt, the Israelites travelled for forty long years to reach their native land, Israel. During Noah’s time, it rained continuously for forty days and the whole earth was flooded (Genesis 7:17). And before beginning His ministry Jesus fasted and prayed for forty days in the desert (Luke 44:2-13), he was laid in the tomb for forty hours after his death and before He was taken up into Heaven, He stayed with His people for forty days (John 21). Hence the number 'forty' has been included by different churches in the Lent as a numeral of great significance.”

Hence 'forty' symbolizes a period of fullness usually associated with transcending from a lower level of consciousness to a higher level. The Lenten period, which starts with smearing of Ash on the forehead of the faithful on Ash Wednesday, represents an intense period of realization that we are the creation in God’s image and the body that has been given to us is only a vehicle of the supernal energy which is our true nature. This journey culminates on Calvary where the merging of the horizontal dimension of human creation and the vertical dimension of divine transcendence takes place on the cross which is the great symbol of Christian faith. A true Christian is an integrated and fully realized being of his humanity and divinity.

While fasting and other acts of external rituals aid us in this process of deeper realization, it is the inner purification that is more important. This is reflected in Prophet Joel’s saying; “Now therefore”, says the Lord, “turn to me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning. So rend your heart, and not your garments” (Joel 2:12-13).

Love to you all

Vehicle of Shakthi

2010-02-14T10:00:00.003+05:30

On Friday night we celebrated Mahashivaratri and what does this festival mean to us today as individuals seeking spiritual growth.

The universe presents a picture of continuous energy flow. There is constant interchange of energy from the smallest organism to the Galaxies. There are always the polar opposites which form the actors in this play of creation. Darkness is the absence of light; silence the absence of sound. Duality in nature, the coexistence of the positive and the negative, lends meaning to the whole of existence.

Today science is struggling to understand the composition of reality. The observable universe is only 4%. Millions of ‘Black Holes’ inhabit the universe and they are all pure energy centres. There are both manifestations available to the human mind as well as reality beyond comprehension. The only thing fitting such a description is the formless, the Nirakaar or Para Brahman. This is the swaroop or essence of Shiva. In the words of Shankaracharya: “Na punyam na paapam na saukhyam na dukham, chidananda rupa Shivoham Shivoham” – Neither good nor bad, there is no joy or sorrow, only the Universal Presence.

When Creation began, there existed one Supreme Consciousness manifested as Adi Shakti, the Primordial feminine energy. From her emerged Shiva, who symbolizes the essence of transformation of creative energy. All forms of Shiva, as Bhairava, Mahāyogin, Nataraja, Ardhanarishvara are but mythological representations of the manifestations of the primordial energy of creation with various attributes. Perhaps the apt symbolism of Shiva portraying the undifferentiated form of primary energy is Tripurantaka where he is shown destroying the triple nature of Sthula sharira—the external embodiment, Sukshma sharira—the intellectual corpus, and Karana sharira—the consciousness or the soul. The Tripurantaka manifestation of the Lord destroys and extinguishes the tri-partite compartmentalisation of the being and merges all three essential components of man into the supreme consciousness. The lord as Tripurantaka destroys the veil of Maya, agyaan (ignorance), and affects the unision of the individual soul with the supreme consciousness.

Adi Shakti then chose to be the consort of Shiva as Parvati. While Creation (including Shiva) draws energy from Shakti, Shakti without Shiva is just pure energy that needs a vehicle to channelise itself. Complete evolution becomes a union of opposing forces. This evolution is seen as the awakening of the Kundalini or seat of energy in us. The process involves rising through the chakras, what rises up being Kundalini or Shakti. This is a semi-dormant force residing at the base chakra. Shiva seated at the highest chakra has to come down and unite with Shakti at every subsequent chakra. Samudra Manthan or churning of the celestial ocean where nectar and poison were both produced is the Kundalini’s awakening. This is a process that takes place in every human at the five chakras between Mūlādhāra and Sahasrara.

The union of Shakthi and Shiva, representing the inseparable union of supreme consciousness and its vehicle or embodiment and symbolized by the union of Parvathi and Shiva, is celebrated as Mahashivaratri.
Let us reflect on this deep symbolism and understand the greatness of human creation.

Love to you all

Sower and the Seeds

2010-02-10T16:00:00.003+05:30

“Jesus said, Look, the sower went out, took a handful (of seeds), and scattered (them). Some fell on the road, and the birds came and gathered them. Others fell on rock, and they didn't take root in the soil and didn't produce heads of grain. Others fell on thorns, and they choked the seeds and worms ate them. And others fell on good soil, and it produced a good crop: it yielded sixty per measure and one hundred twenty per measure.” ……… Saying 9 Gospel of Thomas

The light of wisdom that emanates from the teachings of Jesus has to be spread. The disciples are the evangelizers of this wisdom and Jesus in this saying forewarns of the need for caution in the methodology to be employed. There are four situations that Jesus illustrates as possible scenarios.

He uses the powerful example of a sower sowing seeds.
Seeds that fall on the road are gathered by birds. There is a powerful symbolism in this example. A road is a predetermined path and refers to an inflexible and dogmatic mindset and any seed of wisdom that is sown will be hijacked immediately towards an interpretation to an existing perception herein beautifully described as being gathered by birds.

Some seeds fall on the rock. Jesus indicated that you need to address and impart wisdom only to those who have an open mind. The rock symbolizes an impenetrable consciousness. This may result from a total lack of desire to know anything spiritually empowering due to a consciousness rooted in ego dominated materialistic living. To such individuals the words of wisdom just bounce off and do not take root.

Some seeds fell on thorns and they were chocked and the worms ate them. Thorns in plants are ordained as self preservative devices against predators. A consciousness indulging in physical and material self preservation will resist all exterior approaches as immanent danger, it will only intake all its sustenance from its root which is in the terrestrial realm and superficial aggregations. This is explained by Jesus in Gospel of Matthew, Chapter 13 verse 22: “The one who received the seed that fell among the thorns is the man who hears the word, but the worries of this life and the deceitfulness of wealth choke it, making it unfruitful.”
In Proverb 24 verses 30, 31 the state of a person who is not vigilant and does not prioritize his actions towards spiritually bearing fruit, is compared to a field that has been overrun by weeds and thorns. “I went past the field of the sluggard, past the vineyard of the man who lacks judgment; thorns had come up everywhere, the ground was covered with weeds, and the stone wall was in ruins”

Finally the seeds that fell on good soil produce a bountiful crop. There are two important meanings in this part of the saying. The first is that when wisdom finds a receptive consciousness it fructifies and thrives. For wisdom to find a resting place you need two agents namely; a sincerely seeking soul (good soil) as the primary agent and the divine act of sowing the seeds of wisdom as the secondary agent. The second is the significance of “sixty per measure and one hundred twenty per measure”.
Value sixty is assigned to the Hebrew letter Samech (ס) and relates to the Ouroboros, which is that serpent biting its own tail. In Kabbalah, Samech, the Ouroboros, relates to that Ray that we call Okidanokh, the Ray of Creation that emerges from the Unknowable Divine. This is the integrative aspect of individual consciousness with the divine. This is the ultimate harvest.

Love to you all

Rhythms of the Universe

2010-02-07T10:00:00.005+05:30

“O son of Kunti, I am the taste of water, the light of the sun and the moon, the syllable Om in the Vedic mantras; I am the sound in ether and ability in man.”……..Bhagavad-Gita 7:8

“Rhythms of the Universe”, a musical project to "sonify" the universe by renowned contemporary percussionist and Grammy award-winning artist Mickey Hart caught the attention of Nobel Prize-winning astrophysicist George Smoot of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.
Hart presented his composition using supernova (an exploding star from which all the heavier elements of our body and the earth are made) and other astrophysics data during the Cosmology at the Beach Conference held Jan. 11-15, 2010 in Playa del Carmen, Mexico. The conference is cosponsored by Smoot after he received the Nobel Prize for Physics in 2006.
When a star goes out with a bang as a supernova, scientists on earth gather the electromagnetic waves from these stellar explosions to learn more about the universe, from understanding its birth 13 billion years ago, to determining what the universe is of made of, to predicting how it may eventually end. Light and Gamma ray from the exploding star are electromagnetic data, but with a very high frequency. What the project did is turn it into sound by slowing down the frequency and 'stretching' it into an audio form. Both light and sound are all wave forms -- just at different frequencies. Our goal was to turn the electromagnetic data into audio data while still preserving the correlation to the original data. The sound that was produced was a deep vibrational rumble, punctuated with deeper, louder sounds -- almost what one would think an earthquake sounds like.

When I read this news in ScienceDaily my thoughts immediately went to Rig Veda, where the worship of Agni, the primordial energy, is the main theme. In Rig Veda Book X chapter 71 verse 4 it says:

“Yet certain ones, though seeing, may not see her,
and other ones, though hearing, may not hear her.
But to some the Word reveals herself quite freely,
like fair-robed bride surrendering to her husband.”

The word is the manifestation of the divine in the created universe and to scientist though they might see an occurrence such as the death of a star for them it is nothing but a bright star which has suddenly lost all its mass and even they can not fathom the true nature of its current energy state. To common men who hear of this event we do not comprehend the meaning of this occurrence both at the macro as well as at the micro level. But to a true seeker the permanence of the Divine consciousness, as Agni, which inhabits every atom in the universe and which reveals itself in the innermost depth of one’s consciousness there is a glorious revelation of unchanging permanence.

In Atharva Veda Book IV Hymn 1, dealing with Cosmological and mystico-theological doctrine, the saying is:

Abiding by Cosmic Order, he fixed as his seat
the mighty firmaments of Heaven and Earth. ………………..
Just as the luminous day is born from light,
so may the radiant singers shine far and wide!

These words very aptly capture the essence of what Cosmologists, Musicians and ancient seers understand; namely the revelation of cosmic order in the cosmos and its manifestation through light and sound. Every object in the cosmos shines and sings the glory of the innate Divine energy that sustains them.

Love to you all!

Bridge to the Divine

2010-02-03T14:00:00.002+05:30

When we try to comprehend a deep mystery or a genuine doubt that arises in our heart, we tend to use our rational thinking as the tool for finding an answer. While the rational mind is a useful tool, its zone of operation is mostly limited to our own comprehension and experience in the space-time domain we inhabit. With all modern scholarship pointing to the availability of past knowledge in our evolved consciousness, we find that there are ever increasing questions the rational mind poses as we probe further.

Yet the beauty of human creation is such that we have the innate capacity to comprehend deep mysteries as we are capable of transcending the limitations we have discussed earlier through an inner journey of elevating our consciousness to a higher level. This exercise has to be one of a personal endeavour and even the most enlightened teacher or Guru can not help us. This is the reason that when Arjuna wanted to reach out to perceive the universal form of Krishna, a unique process is set in motion.

First of all there is a realization that there is a higher potentiality hidden in the human incarnation of Krishna. Then, there is a belief that he has the capacity to transcend his current limitations to perceive the higher reality. Finally there is an earnest desire to reach the state of elevated consciousness.
The following text from Bhagavad-Gita comprehensively articulates the process of attaining a higher state of consciousness and its non-temporality and non-locality.

“O Arjuna, whatever you wish to see, behold at once in this body of Mine! This universal form can show you whatever you now desire to see and whatever you may want to see in the future. Everything—moving and non-moving—is here completely, in one place.” …..BG 11:7

The undifferentiated and omnipresence nature of the Divine and its location in the being of the observer, though there are limitations, is beautifully brought out in the following verse.

“Your form is difficult to see because of its glaring effulgence, spreading on all sides, like blazing fire or the immeasurable radiance of the sun. Yet I see this glowing form everywhere, adorned with various crowns, clubs and discs.” …………..BG 11:17

As long as Arjuna is in the mode of an observer there is a subject-object duality. This duality is purposely ordained for without it there is no subjective experience to tell. Therefore this intricate experience in trying to reach the ground of Divine essence can well be explained by what the great German Christian mystic, Meister Eckhart said in one of his sermons:

“… The union of the soul with God is far more inward than that of the soul and body…. Now, I might ask, how stands it with the soul that is merged in God? Does the soul find herself or not? To this I will answer as it appears to me, that the soul finds in the point where every rational being understands itself with itself. Although it sinks in the eternity of Divine essence, yet it can never reach the ground. Therefore God has left a little point wherein the soul turns back upon itself to be a creature ….”

These are the two levels at which higher Self-awareness operates as the manifest and the Divine but ultimately you are the bridge to the Divine.

Love to you all

Blazing Fire of Material Existence

2010-01-31T10:00:00.000+05:30

“The spiritual master is receiving benediction from the ocean of mercy. Just as the cloud pours water on the forest fire to extinguish it, so the spiritual master extinguishes the blazing fire of material existence. I offer my respectful obeisance unto the lotus feet of my spiritual master.” ……… (Śrī Gurvaṣṭakam, Verse 1)

The invocation was composed by Srila Vishvanatha Chakravarti Thakura, who appeared in the middle of the seventeenth century, is a great spiritual master in the Krishna consciousness chain of gurus and disciples. He says, “One who, with great care and alteration, loudly recites this beautiful prayer to the spiritual master during the Brahma-muhurta obtains direct service to Krishna, the Lord of Brindavan, at the time of his death.”

What is the meaning of this saying? As many of you may know the ‘Brahma-muhurta’ is the auspicious time, about two hours before sun rise, when there is a harmonious balance of energies both in the biosphere and in the hormonal energies in the body and it is deemed to be the best time for meditation and pranayama (controlled breathing).
The spiritual master does not refer to any third person but to our own true inner nature, beyond all the Viritis (modifications) that alter our Divine nature. We may be taught by the best of Gurus but if there is no self involvement all external knowledge would be a waste.
As Meister Eckhart, the great German Christian mystic says “A human being has so many skins inside, covering the depths of the heart. We know so many things, but we don't know ourselves! Why, thirty or forty skins or hides, as thick and hard as an ox's or bear's, cover the soul. Go into your own ground and learn to know yourself there.”
The invocation is the eradication of these coverings. This is the benediction that we receive from the very same Divine consciousness with which we are trying to merge. We can call it by any name Divine consciousness, Krishna consciousness or Christ consciousness etc,.

In Matsya Purana, it states that Vishnu disappeared, and for a hundred years there was a terrible drought on earth. These hundred years signifies the life of a person in this world and Vishnu being the symbolism of the Divine Consciousness, his disappearance denotes the material nature in which we live with total absence of spiritual aspiration. The drought led to famine and people died of starvation, symbolizing spiritual death. Meanwhile, the sun blazed in fury and burnt up the entire world. This is the true representation of how we experience the blazing heat of ever present vacuum in happiness when we live to derive happiness form creatures and created material entities. The Purana then goes on to explain the gathering of seven clouds which extinguishes through rain the total material nature. (in this paragraph, the words in italics are from the Purana)
The rain that extinguishes the forest fire is the Vidya or knowledge of our true nature by which we are saved.

This is the reason Krishna says “After many births and deaths, he who is actually in knowledge surrenders unto Me, knowing Me to be the cause of all causes, and all that is. Such a great soul is very rare.” …………… (Bhagavad-Gita 7:19)

As the sun starts it journey every dawn, this prayer contemplated for its deep meaning and recited within our heart, may begin our day’s journey with a desire to move closer to the higher consciousness to which we are always called.

Love to you all

Grounding Yourself

2010-01-28T11:00:00.000+05:30

Kris Cahill, a psychic healer in an article written by her says “Did you know that there is a tool you can use to make yourself safe and relaxed, release anxiety, depression, stress, pain and fatigue, let go of the past, make your body happy and calm, and allow you to manifest what it is you want to create? Plus, it won’t cost you a dime, and doesn’t have any unpleasant side effects!

This tool is known as ‘grounding’, and has been around for eons. It’s safe, free, and available to anyone, anywhere, at any time. Having grounding for yourself can create stability and safety for your body. This makes it easier for you to feel well in your body, which then makes it possible for you to have enough energy to create your life.
Grounding is taught in many beginning meditation classes. Being able to have grounding first makes it possible for other techniques and information to be safely taught. Grounding makes things real, makes your body real, and makes it possible for you to manifest what it is you want in your life.
Grounding makes it possible to release energies that get caught in you that are not yours. This makes it easier to heal yourself, by letting go of harmful energies that can have a negative effect on your body. Having a tool that allows you to let go is nothing short of miraculous. Grounding itself is a miracle.”

Well it is easy to articulate this process of grounding but practicing it requires a broader understanding why we get into all the tangle and twists that blocks our energy flow. It is important that we realize that the energy within us is a given potential which is designed for a natural evolution to higher order and complexity as we grow and live our lives. This evolution of our internal energy domain is purely in the spiritual realm. But we make the fist mistake of thinking that this internal energy is physical. If we realize that the spiritual manifests itself as the physical then we would not have the problem of over indulgence. If we are totally rooted in nature as a new species, with no ego-mind dominated emotions or thoughts, then this type of maturing is possible. But due to evolutionary, socio-cultural and peer pressures, a continuous modification happens within our energy fields. These pressures are all encompassing in whatever we take in as resources for our enrichment, like education, parental grooming, our relationships and the bodily nourishments that we intake. This understanding is the starting point or grounding in our healing through realization and contemplation."

Grounding is something that one can never be taught but a state one can be guided into realizing. The biggest scars we carry in our energy fields are the imprints from the past and the fears of the future. If we are able to surrender ourselves to the Divine plan, in the realization that we are an integral and inseparable part of the cosmic energy field or as I prefer to call it the Cosmic Consciousness, then we can rest easy with all that happens to us. It is this positive attitude that there is a predestined plan for each one of us and nothing on earth can change this and that we must flow like a river for our own well being. This attitude is not fatalistic in nature but one in which we must consciously engage in active contribution, through thought and action, in abiding with the action of the Spirit, through enriching the self, humanity and the ecosystem. This is the true meaning of the Genesis verse “And to every beast of the earth, and to every bird of the air, and to everything that creeps on the earth, everything that has the breath of life, I have given every green plant for food. And it was so.”……Genesis 2:30

Here the true meaning for ‘food’ is ‘sustenance’. Not a selfish motive of sustenance of one’s body but a holistic perspective. Man, because of his superior consciousness, has been assigned the role of a sustainer or co-creator.

Love to you all

Real and Successful Prayer

2010-01-20T11:00:00.000+05:30

The ecstatic prayer of a mystic is no way superior to the agonized stumbling of a sinner weighed down with guilt and deformed by a lifetime of estrangement from God.
Both attempts represent the upward striving of created nature to find rest in God; both are real, both are "successful." ………… Michael Casey

What a beautiful saying! First of all what is success? Normal definition is the capacity to achieve what one wants. It is not a final aim that is determined from outside of one self. It is an internal desire of achievement. Hence to evaluate prayer as being successful is to evaluate the intention which is generated from within. All intentions are derived from ones mind and hence from ones conscious action through thought. Or stated in another way the origination is human consciousness. This is the reason Casey says that the only perfect prayer is the realization that the very state of our being is a perfect outcome of God’s action which represents our total surrender to God.

Jonathan Edwards, a great American preacher and theologian, says “The true spirit of prayer is no other than God's own Spirit dwelling in the hearts of the saints. And as this spirit comes from God, so doth it naturally tend to God in holy breathings and pantings. It naturally leads to God, to converse with him by prayer.” This is the point that Casey makes when he compares the prayer of a mystic and that of a sinner. Both are lead by the spirit to move towards the same Godhead.

Prayer must then be seen as tuning into the very ‘will of the Father’. As true sons it is only through unflinching faith and an understanding that our being, in whatever condition in a temporal and terrestrial dimension we may be, is the divine intent. True success of prayer is the aspiration to be in tune with the divine will. This is the reason that the great mystic Julian of Norwich says “This is our Lord's will... that our prayer and our trust be, alike, large.”

The Indian Tantric mystic Osho says “Remember, if you pray to ask for something, it is not prayer. When you pray to thank him for something, only then it is prayer. Prayer is always a thanksgiving. If you ask for something then the prayer is still corrupted by desire. Then it is not prayer yet — it is still poisoned by dreaming. Real prayer happens only when you have attained to yourself, when you have known what God has given to you already without your asking for it. When you realise what you have been given, what infinite sources have been given to you, a prayer arises you would like to say to God, ‘Thank you.’ There is nothing else in it but a pure thank you.” Though this is a very strong statement, it captures the essence of real prayer.

I have earlier done a post on the emptiness of words in our prayer (see ‘Prayer of Silence’). Through inwardly focused contemplation, let us aim to listen to the voice of the divine. This voice is the muted vibration that produces a state of perennial gratitude in our being.

Love to you all

Communion and Confirmation

2010-01-17T10:00:00.001+05:30

Today I have been invited for the first communion of my cousin’s son. This is not the first time I attend such a festivity. The significance of celebration of first communion and the meaning behind the Christian sacrament of Communion is buried in the ritualistic rigmarole and has become for many pious Christians an event when the devotee believes that God comes through the miracle of the Eucharist into their very heart from somewhere out there.

Carl Jung, the famous Swiss depth psychologist and son of a Lutheran pastor, wrote two essays on the significance of the Holy Mass which every Catholic must read. He says in these essays that the sequence of the Holy Mass is beautifully organized to evoke a deep mystical participation in the heart of the worshipper. Now I can understand this better than any other time in my life.

When we were young children (50 years ago) we had to fast for twelve hours before the Holy Mass and abstain even from drinking water during the last one hour. This was the physical preparation and cleansing. When we entered the church the light of the candle, the smell of the incense offered and the sounding of bells prepared one’s senses for the holy presence. As soon as the Mass started the act of contrition was said and forgiveness was sought for all the sins of commission and omission. This was to cleanse our human and ego-centred consciousness, a process of emptying one self of the worldly or human attachments. The scriptures are then read and a small message given by the celebrant to prepare the mind and the intellect for the impending union. In the offertory the human nature, symbolized by the bread and wine, is offered and the priest offers these with the invocation for the divine to accept these offerings. The sacrament of the Eucharist is the symbol of the divine accepting the human offering through an act of transubstantiation. Before we approach the divine for its presence to take residence in our nature, peace is invoked among all present. This peace is to signify the absence of conflict in our perception of all humanity as an equal creation of the divine. The communion symbolizes the act of the divine transforming the human through a process of inner transformation; a reminder that our true nature is divine. Then the mass comes to an end with the message to ‘go forth’ in our divine nature.

This is the beauty of this ritual and the casual way in which it is approached today on a daily or weekly basis is appalling. If there is no inner transformation then the whole ritual is a farce and devoid of any significance.

I have addressed children who have received first communion and I tell them that when they receive first communion it is like someone who has built a new house and has opened the windows for the first time to let in the life giving sun’s rays to enter the house. You not only open one window but you also open a window in the opposite direction so that there is cross ventilation and the air freely moves to energise the inner chambers of the house. The sun’s rays and the refreshing air symbolize the presence of the life giving element of Christ and the sustaining Spirit of the Holy Spirit. In the olden times first Communion and the sacrament of confirmation were given on the same day. This has a deep significance as the divine transformation of the human can not be complete without the sustaining wisdom to comprehend this reality through the Holy Spirit. It is the responsibility of the parents and god-parents, who are supposed to be the wisdom parents, to educate the children of this great mystical participation.

This is my message to all who approach their first communion and confirmation and to all who participate in the Holy Mass.

Love to you all

Discernment for Spiritual Elevation

2010-01-13T10:00:00.000+05:30

“And he said, the person is like a wise fisherman who cast his net into the sea and drew it up from the sea full of little fish. Among them the wise fisherman discovered a fine large fish. He threw all the little fish back into the sea, and easily chose the large fish. Anyone here with two good ears had better listen!”……Logion 8 Gospel of Thomas

Though this saying of Jesus appears simple, there are three major elements that need to be understood.

First, Jesus defines what is to be truly human. The purpose of human creation when understood from an inner perspective is one of discernment. The capacity given to us, just as the whole wide open sea is available to the wise fisherman, is one of infinite potential. In our lives we constantly haul in a rich harvest of knowledge but the purpose of this knowledge must be to propel us towards our higher potentialities and not to drag us down with unwanted baggage of trivial acquisitions. This is the point that Jesus brings out in the choice that a wise fisherman is always faced with.

The second point that Jesus brings out is that as a creature we are limited, just as the fisherman and his boat in the vast ocean. If we start collecting the unwanted neither will we be nourished properly nor will be assured of our safety as an overloaded boat can easily capsize in a turbulent sea.

The third and deeper meaning of the saying is that just as the discarded little fish have the potential to survive and grow through this act of ecological responsibility the individual act of discernment and needed choice will ensure the nurturing of the cosmos and its consciousness to fully develop and evolve. Jesus says; “For many are invited, but few are chosen.”….Matthew 22:14.

This clearly means that esoteric teaching is not for all to digest. Only those who have the right type of spiritual maturity (the fine big fish) can be selected for receiving the teaching

This imprint that one makes through his act of discernment will cascade down to other souls in their nourishment.

There is another mystical aspect of the saying when studied from a linguistic and kabbalastic perspective. In Aramaic, nun means ‘fish’. The mem, the waters of the sea, is the natural medium of the nun, fish. The nun ‘swims’ in the mem, covered by the waters of the ‘hidden world’. Creatures of the ‘hidden world’ symbolize lack of higher consciousness or Avidya (ignorance) as declared in Vedic philosophy. Unlike fish, land animals, revealed on the face of the earth, symbolize possession of higher-consciousness.

‘A person is like a wise fisherman’ constantly drawing the nun out of the mem symbolizes the elevation of one’s consciousness from a state of ignorance of one’s true nature into a higher level realizing our divine nature.

So it is not surprising that this saying comes immediately after Jesus talks of the dual nature of bestial and human and the need for us to annihilate the bestial nature rooted in ignorance.

Love to you all

Intention or Intonation

2010-01-10T00:00:00.001+05:30

Commenting on texts of Veda dharma Chandrasekharendra Saraswathi Swamigal brings out the fact that you must not go wrong in the enunciation or intonation of a mantra. If you do, not only will you not reap the benefit but might draw upon yourself a result contrary to the intention. So the mantra must be chanted with utmost care. He sites the story told in the Taittiriya Samhita (2.4.12) to demonstrate this important facet of mantra recitation. The story goes as follows:

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Tvasta wanted to take revenge on Indra for some reason and conducted a sacrifice to beget a son who would slay Indra. When he chanted his mantra, "Indrasatrur varddhasva. . ", he went wrong in the intonation. He should have voiced "Indra" without raising or lowering the syllables in it and he should have raised the syllables "tru" and "rddha"(that is the two syllables are "udata"). Had he done so the mantra would have meant, "May Tvasta's son grow to be the slayer of Indra". He raised the "dra" in Indra, intoned "satru" as a falling svara and lowered the "rddha" in "varddhasva". So the mantra meant now: "May Indra grow to be the killer of this son (of mine)". The words of the mantra were not changed but, because of the erratic intonation, the result produced was the opposite of what was desired. The father himself thus became the cause of his son's death at the hands of Indra.

The gist of this story is contained in this verse which cautions us against erroneous intonation.

If the mantra differs by intonation, letter or another way while chanting, that mantra will become VajrAyudham(thunderbolt) and torment the YajamAnan(performer of sacrifice) who chants the mantra, just as the wrong recital of the 'indrashatru' phrase did.

What was the weapon with which Tvasta 's son was killed? Not Indra's thunderbolt but the father's wrongly chanted mantra.

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I am not an authority to go into an etymological or philosophical discussion on the above story or the terrifying end result when operating outside a specific scholarship under the tutelage of a renowned guru. But what I feel that needs to be addressed is that the intention of a mantra recital is totally excluded from the above position. I feel that the Samhita (collection of texts) was intended to communicate a greater dharma of 'intention'. When individual consciousness acts in its ego state which is in contradiction with the cosmic principle, which here is represented by Indra, the annihilation of the action of the self (ego consciousness) becomes inevitable.

This is strongly demonstrated in how the cosmic principle overrides through the same agency of the individual consciousness, the final outcome of reciting the mantra.

The word Dharma is derived from the root Dhr - to hold - and its etymological meaning is - that which holds - this world, or the people of the world, or the whole creation from the microcosm to the macrocosm. It is the eternal Divine Law of the cosmic order. The entire creation is held together and sustained by the All-powerful Law of God. Practice of Dharma, therefore, means recognition of this Law and abidance by it.

I am not repudiating the fact that the purpose of the mantras are primarily in the domain of the vibration in the energy levels both in the cosmic as well as in the chanter’s domain. But the intentions are primary if not even though you may succeed through energy alteration in establishing a desired result, there may result a negative karmic imprint in the individual consciousness.

As per the genealogy expressed in Shrimad Bhagavatam chapter 6.6.38-39 Tvasta was the son of Aditi of Suriya dynasty or the supreme Godhead from whom Lord Narayana descended and Tvasta was one of the twelve sons of Aditi representing the twelve astrological principles or the manifest aspect of cosmic consciousness. It is impossible for a manifestation to override its own substratum.

This I think is the primary dharma teaching in this story.

Love to you all

Immensity of Silence

2010-01-06T16:00:00.002+05:30

A man once asked Rumi “why is it you talk so much about silence” and he replied “The radiant one inside me has never said a word”. This is reflected in Rumi’s poem “The Taste”

"A walnut kernel shaken against its shell makes a delicate sound, but
The walnut taste and the sweet oil inside makes unstruck music,
Mystics call the shell rattling talk; the other, the taste of silence."

The value of silence was well understood by sages and mystical poets.
In this post I would like to bring to the readers the value of silence as perceived by some renowned spiritual leaders.

Once when Colman Barks (who had done a major work in translating Rumi) had a dream about Shams Tabriz (the great evangelist of Rumi's works), he was shown a cave which had internal pathways which led to an inner chamber and was called Rasa Shamsi (a Sanskrit word that was presented to him in this dream meaning ‘essence of Shams’). He was shown a central chamber and along the wall, in niches, many illustrious beings were seated and in the centre there was a chair like a throne. As he sits on the floor a man rises and admonishes that as an appropriate opening they sing in a strong voice. But Barks stood up and said “No silence is better” and the dream ended. To Barks it was the bedrock of silence which dominated the mysterious conversations (sobbet) between Rumi and Shams.

Carl Jung, the great Swiss depth psychologist and Gnostic initiate, was most creative in Bollinger tower. He associated this place with healing power of being quiet. He says “Solitude is the fount of healing which makes my life worth living. Talking is often a torment for me and I need many days of silence to recover from the futility of words”. From 1923 till his death in 1961, Jung spent his time in this tower and was guided by an inner Gnostic called by him Philomon. In a stone plaque he renamed his home as ‘Philomon’s shrine’.

The cave or tower of silence symbolism has been reflected in the Upanishads. To illustrate this deeply understood concept of the true inner self Katha Upanishad says: “Atman, smaller than the small, greater than the great, is hidden in the cave (hearts) of all living creatures. A man who is free from desires beholds the majesty of the Self through (silence) tranquillity of the senses and the mind and becomes free from grief.”…KU 2:20

Jiddu Krishnamurthy says "Silence and spaciousness go together. The immensity of silence is the immensity of the mind in which a centre does not exist. Always to seek for wider, deeper, transcendental experience is a form of escape from the actual reality of “what is,” which is our self, our own conditioned mind. A mind that is awaking, intelligent and free, why should it need, why should it have, any “experience” at all? Light is light; it does not ask for more light.
Meditation is not a means of an end; there is no end, no arrival; it is a movement in time and out of time. Every system, method, binds thought to time, but choice-less awareness of every thought and feeling, understanding of their motives, their mechanism, allowing them to blossom, is the beginning of meditation. When thoughts and feelings flourish and die, meditation is the movement beyond time. In this movement there is ecstasy. In complete emptiness there is love, and with love there is destruction and creation."

Love to you all

Immortality – the Immanent Nature

2010-01-03T10:00:00.003+05:30

“Having thus spoken, Isis first pours out for Horus the sweet draught of immortality which souls receive from the Gods, and thus begins the most holy discourse. Heaven, crowned with stars, is placed above universal nature, O my son Horos, and nothing is wanting to it of that which constitutes the whole world. It is necessary, then, that all nature should be adorned and completed by that which is above her, for this Order could not proceed from below to above. The supremacy of the greater mysteries over the lesser is imperative. Celestial order reigns over terrestrial order, as being absolutely determined, and inaccessible to the idea of death. Wherefore, the things below lament, being filled with fear before the marvellous beauty and eternal permanence of the heavenly world. For, indeed, a spectacle worthy of contemplation and desire were these magnificence of heaven, revelations of the God as yet unknown, and this sumptuous majesty of night illumined with a penetrating radiance, albeit less than that of the sun, and all these other mysteries which move above in harmonious cadence, ruling and maintaining the things below by secret influences.”

The above writing is from the book of Hermes Trismegistus known as “The Virgin of the World”.
The Sacred Books of Hermes is an admirable compendium containing the laws, science, and theology of Egypt and were declared by the priests to have been composed during the reign of the Gods, preceding that of their first king, Menes.

I chose to write on this passage, in the very first post for the year 2010, for its insight and great wisdom regarding a relevant proto-Christian Cosmo-theology.

Isis is the Virgin-Mother of Horus. She is "the woman clothed with the sun" of the land of Chem. In the litany apostrophizing her, she is the "Immaculate Lady," "Queen of Heaven," "Illustrious Isis, most powerful, merciful and just," titles transferred entire or with slight change to the Virgin-Mary. (See Madame Blavatsky's Isis Unveiled, II, 209, for comparison of litanies). And not only was the adoration of Isis restored under a new name, but even her image standing on the crescent moon was adopted by the Christians, while her well-known effigy with Horus in arms has descended to our time in the many pictures of the Madonna and child.

Horus was the last in the line of divine sovereigns in Egypt. A tablet describes him as the "substance of his father," of whom he is an incarnation and identical with him. This is amplified by Hermes Trismegistus as Horus being fed with the ‘sweet draught of immortality’.

What follows this saying is the great truth of how order has descended form above into lower creation or order. When one looks up into the cosmos he perceives, what appears to be a, chaos. But this perception is due to the limited consciousness of the lower created order which is subjected to idea of death and impermanence. In reality the higher order, which is now being discovered through science, is possible only through a permanency and unchanging singularity. In his wisdom Hermes Trismegistus says that this deep insight is the revelation of the "God yet unknown".
The interconnectedness between the higher order or the cosmic consciousness and the lower order observer consciousness is beautifully brought out in the last portion of the quoted passage. The majesty of the heavens and all the associated mysteries resulting from our observations, such as the existence of dark matter and energy as 96% constituent of the universe, are the root cause for our existence. It is the secret yet very permanent influence of the cosmos that drives our individual existence upon this earth.

This realization is that which has driven many leading scientists and cosmologists to become ardent supporters of a universal or cosmic consciousness as the fundamental substrate of created order.

With this thought let us begin the New Year and grow in love (attraction) for all creation.

Love to you all

Manifestation as God’s Thought

2009-12-30T15:00:00.000+05:30

“We are interdependently co-arising collapsed possibility waves transiently manifesting as space-time events in God's mind. Agree? Or in Simpler non quantum version - We are on/off thoughts in God's mind manifesting as people, things and events. There is only God.”…………….. Deepak Chopra

The higher aspect of meditation in achieving enlightenment is the principle of Vaishvanara Vidya.
Isolated meditations on different conceptual entities were considered by the great teacher, Ashvapati, the king, mentioned in the Chandogya Upanishad, as defective. If you meditate on any specific thing, you are excluding something thereby. You cannot think one thing without excluding something else. The thought that something is excluded from the thought ‘that something is being concentrated upon’ is also a thought. Exclusion of the thought of some object from the thought on which the concentration is carried on is not possible because the thought that something is excluded persists, while the intention is not to think of the excluded object. It is like a story: someone told ‘When you drink milk, do not think of a monkey’; then every time the milk was taken, monkey only came to the mind. A strong will to impose exclusion results in an equally strong attraction towards that which is excluded. This is the dynamics of the mental process. All thoughts result from certain frame of reference combined with accretion of memories or impressions.

There is no such thing in the history of the cosmos that one thing can be excluded entirely from the other. We can not study the solar system in isolation without the effect the Milky Way Galaxy has on its orbit around the Galaxy. The idea of exclusion is futile, because to exclude another thing from one thing, the mind that excludes should be present in that object also which is excluded. This is a trick that is played by the mind.

This is why the great teacher Ashvapati mentions to the six great sages who went to him for learning the art of meditation on the Atman that they are all defective. He asked questions, ‘O Great Sages!’ On what do you all meditate?’ They gave different answers. Various, different, totally
isolated concepts were the objects of their meditation. The king said, ‘you are all making two mistakes: one thing is that the thing that you are meditating upon is outside you; this is one mistake; the other mistake is that the thing on which you are meditating is in one place only’.

If we try to contemplate on an entity in one place only then a natural corollary is that there is some other entity in some other place. Hence Vaishvanara Vidya teaches the totally inclusive meditation.
As Swami Krishnananda says in his commentary on ‘Brahma Sutra’; “If this meditation through the Vaishvanara Vidya process becomes intense, you will no more be there as a meditator of the Vaishvanara because of the Inclusiveness of the same. It is an All-Consuming Fire and you will not be there to behold It. You will be reduced to the Fire Itself.
Then what remains? A big blaze of Self-Identity, Universal in its nature. We cannot speak much thereafter about this, but if this Universal Conflagration of the Fire of Vaishvanara can engulf us, thrice blessed we would be and it will lead us to Sadyo Mukti; you become liberated at once.”

This is what Deepak Chopra says in both scientific and metaphysical terms.

Love to you all

Conquering our Animal Nature

2009-12-27T22:00:00.000+05:30

Jesus said, “Lucky is the lion that the human will eat, so that the lion becomes human. And foul is the human that the lion will eat, and the lion still will become human.”……….. Logion 7

The Logion 7 of the Gospel of Thomas is a tough saying to understand as there is a very deep Gnostic and esoteric content that is being delivered by Jesus.
In every human soul there is a constant struggle between the, human consciousness induced, free will and the divine destiny for which we are born in this world. The struggle is heightened by the Ego dominated decisions that we take in our spiritual progress. The action of the self can very well be explained by the action of the three Gunas as propounded in Vedic philosophy. These three Gunas are Rajas, Tamas and Sattva. While Sattva is the Guna of spiritual evolution, Tamas (inertia) and Rajas (passion) are the prime cause of spiritual degradation. Rajas and Tamas are needed in one’s life but they have to be balanced in right proportion to propel one towards attaining the Sattvic Guna. Animal nature is predominated by the Rajasic and Tamasic Gunas.

An animal is rooted in whole of its life in a gross body-bound existence; its life is confined to the satisfaction of hunger, thirst, sex and sleep. That is animal life. Sex is there, because the law of biological evolution requires that the species should not become extinct. Therefore, for the continuity of the species, reproduction is indispensable, and for the process of reproduction, sex activity becomes an inevitable part of the biological, physical animal. Thanks to the reproductive process in the biological, evolutionary scheme of things that life on earth, ordained by some mysterious superconscious being, continues. So, these characteristics of sex, hunger, thirst and sleep form the root nature of life on earth. The whole life is nothing but a constant effort to satisfy hunger, thirst, sex and sleep and this is present in the animal man. So far, it is all right. Its presence is no dire calamity or disaster. But, if it becomes the more dominant part of your life-style, then it becomes a dangerous predicament, because you have reached a level where the biological evolution has brought you to the peak point, where quite another aspect of evolution is supposed to commence. This is the evolution of consciousness towards a higher self.

Hence for a man to eat a lion means that he partakes of the animal nature in his existence but transforms it into his own higher nature. This is similar to the vegetable or fruit one eats and the vegetable or fruit has now become human flesh and bone. Jesus says that the Rajasic quality that has been now assimilated in the metabolic act is indeed lucky as it has now been elevated to a higher nature.

In contrast, if we allow our animal nature to dominate our life, then we are reduced to a lower nature of existence. Tau Malachi, writing his comment on this saying says that there is a constant struggle between Nefesh Behamit (the bestial soul) and Nefesh Elokit (the Godly soul). This is a concept adopted from Gnostic Kabbalah.
In Gnosticism, Yaldabaoth, the lion headed demiurge, is the symbol of fallen Gnosis or wisdom as opposed to Sophia which symbolizes divine wisdom.

Hence this saying clearly instructs us to aspire towards conquering our animal nature, of being rooted in an act of sense gratification, and elevate our consciousness towards a higher plane of existence.

Love to you all

Peace of Christ

2009-12-23T15:00:00.000+05:30

The day after tomorrow we celebrate the feast of Christmas. Christ messages had strong undertones about peace. It is interesting to study the background of the word peace from a linguistic, historical and wisdom tradition perspective.
The Aramaic word that was used by Jesus was ‘Salaam’ which then took the form of ‘Shalom’ in Hebrew. The word ‘Salaam’ continues even today in the Islamic and Sufi traditions. The city of Jerusalem was named thus because it was intended to be the ‘city of peace’. ‘Ur’ is the word in Aramaic for city and ‘salaam’ for peace.

Shalom, in the liturgy and in the transcendent message of the Christian scriptures, means more than a state of mind, of being or of affairs. Derived from the Hebrew root ‘shalam’ – it means to be safe or complete, and by implication, to be friendly or to reciprocate. Shalom, as term and message, seems to encapsulate a reality and hope of wholeness for the individual, within societal relations, and for the whole world. ‘Shalom Aleichem’ in Hebrew and the Arabic ‘Assalamu Alaikum’ means ‘may you be well’. Here the word ‘well’ is an all encompassing state of well being. It covers the four areas of physical, mental, emotional and spiritual potentialities of any individual being greeted.

The Gospel of John is perhaps the only canonical text which tries to evoke the deeper elements of Christ ministry. In this Gospel there are five times the word peace is mentioned as spoken by Jesus, twice before his death and thrice after his resurrection. I will quote these passages for reference:

“Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.” …….. John 14:27
“I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”……. John 16:33
……. Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you!”………. John 20:19
Again Jesus said, "Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you."…. John 20:21
………. Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you!”……… John 20:26

The importance of peace as a gift to a spiritual seeker, that is for anyone aspiring to become the Son of the Father, is vividly brought out as peace is chosen over the gifts of this world and all the teachings of Christ is for the ultimate purpose of attaining the inner peace which is so essential for realizing our true identity as being one with the Father. The Spirit manifestation of Jesus after resurrection always invoked the ‘peace greetings’.

Given this context it is important that we understand the meaning of peace. Peace is the state of harmony and balance of both the body and spirit. This is the reason that today Chakra healing always addresses the balancing and free harmonious flow of energy through the Sushmana, Pingala and Ida nadis. In all his teaching Jesus insists on a balanced way of life irrespective of whether it be eating, drinking, fasting or physical purification in the physical arena or in the purification of the spirit through forgiving, sharing, praying and worshiping. We are answerable only to inner spirit that dwells in us. “What you have said in the dark will be heard in the daylight, and what you have whispered in the ear in the inner rooms will be proclaimed from the roofs.”….. Luke 12:3

Jesus was the prime mover of individual consciousness from a moral domain to an ethical sphere.
Moral was imposed through laws of the old covenant and this was what Jesus witnessed in his lifetime and his teachings and through a new covenant, He targeted at invoking the ethical behaviour dictated from the pure consciousness of the indwelling Father to achieve inner harmony and completeness. Let us in this Christmas season make a beginning towards a purely inner cleansing so that we may attain a true vision of the Father through Christ consciousness.

May the Peace of Christ be with you!

Attaining Inner Tranquillity

2009-12-20T10:00:00.000+05:30

We are in the festive season of Christmas and the overwhelming message this season brings is that of peace. Peace is not an isolated attribute that stands outside of one’s personal ambit. The Buddhist concept of peace has three dimensions. These are: inner peace; peace in the community of humankind; and ecological peace or peace with the Earth.

Once the Buddha standing on top of a hill with his disciples exclaimed; “Indeed, this world is burning with many and various fires. There are fires of greed, fires of hatred, fires of foolishness, fires of infatuation and egoism, fires of decrepitude, sickness and death, fires of sorrow, lamentation, suffering and agony.”

The three areas which give rise to suffering or lack of peace are; greed, hatred and ignorance.
Here, the myopic impulse of "greed" indicates uncontrolled desire for, and attachment to, material comforts, for wealth, power or fame. Desires of this kind aggregate and multiply without cease, and since their fulfilment, cannot bring true and permanent happiness; a person in their grip is condemned to continual torment and aggravation.

The deluded impulse of "hatred" describes such emotions as resentment, rage and envy which are triggered when our egocentric desires are not fulfilled. Unless controlled, this escalates into various forms of annihilation and aggression. Simply put, the misleading drive of hatred is the violence that grows from an egocentric view of life.

"Ignorance" refers to wilful ignorance of reality, or the true nature of life and the cosmos. Thus it is the deluded impulse that generates disharmony and revolt against the principles that govern the true nature of the cosmos. The wisdom which illuminates and reveals the true nature of the cosmos is referred to as "enlightenment," while this kind of wilful ignorance is referred to as "fundamental darkness" because it clouds and obscures the light by which we might see things in their true nature. Of all the deluded impulses, Buddhism considers ignorance the most fundamental.

Jesus came to remove this ignorance in the world. Judaic spirituality had lost its fundamental grounding due to influence of the ritualistic worship, pagan influence due to captivity and slavery under the Babylonians and Egyptians and the intellectual onslaught of Greek thought. The Buddha came to remove the ignorance introduced due the caste dominated Vedic knowledge dissemination. The fundamental richness of Vedic spirituality was lost in the rigmarole of rituals and caste domination. This is the reason the true spiritual Vedic tradition considers Buddha as an incarnation of the cosmic principle, Vishnu.

To have peace on earth every individual needs to have inner tranquillity. Tranquillity of mind comes from having successfully transcended greed, hatred and ignorance."

For those of us who follow Christ as our spiritual guide, his life and his words, deeply interpreted through the scriptures, are the tools for bringing inner peace.

Love to you all

On 23rd December there will be a more in depth post on “Peace of Christ”

Prayer of Silence

2009-12-16T16:00:00.000+05:30

So high above all things that be
Is God uplifted, man can dare
No utterance: he prayeth best
When Silence is his sum of prayer.
…Thinkest thou, foolish man,
that with thy clapping tongue
Praise of the silent Godhead fitly can be sung? …… Angelus Silesius

The great Polish Christian mystic, physician and poet writes these beautiful words in his book “The Cherubinic Wanderer”. Man has a very limited view of the divine especially when he feels the need for a communion to convey his innermost feelings. The ability to use language, while it has enhanced the development of knowledge of the manifest creation, both in understanding its nature as well as in the act of controlling it, woefully falls short in communicating one’s inner state of emotions and feelings to a perceived power that has the ability to respond in a positive way towards alleviating a current state of need to one of fulfilment. Language is an evolutionary tool in the development of the human brain and hence the human mind. But mind itself is the field of action of consciousness in evoking thoughts for which language gives expression. The etymology of the word ‘evoke’ clearly points to the direction of action. Evoke comes from the Latin word ‘evocare’ which means ‘to call out’. When we need the attention of an external sentient being, we call out but when we need the attention of something of inner nature we need to ‘invoke’ and invoke comes from the Latin word ‘invocare’ which means ‘to call in’. This is the reason that the great mystic says that only foolish men resort to clapping tongues to call the divine.

Carmelite spirituality is based on Lectio Divina. It is the most traditional way to grow in an intimate relationship with God and it is by means of this relationship that we are transformed and rendered capable of living the Divine word in all its fullness. A monk in the 12th century described the fundamental elements of Lectio Divina: - read the Word of God (lectio); reflect on the Word (meditatio), respond to the Word from the heart (oratio); rest in the Word (contemplatio).

The process of contemplation changes the human ways of thinking, loving and acting into divine ways. Our human ways are very limited and so when we read the Word of God, we are limited by our experience of life and by many other factors. It is said that one can find in the Bible reasons to support any position. It is therefore not sufficient just to read the Bible; our way of looking at things must be purified. When we meditate on the Word of God, we try to understand its meaning and what message it may have for our lives but when we do this, we are still limited. Our little world must be enlarged and our minds reformed according to the mind of Christ. When we pray from the heart, we are still using human words. Our words and thoughts, no matter how beautiful, are still human words and thoughts and it is therefore necessary that they too be purified by the Word of God. This is a divine dialogue and not a one way communication.

St. John of the Cross wrote that God spoke one word and that word was His Son; this Word God repeats in an eternal silence and in silence must it ever be heard by the soul. Lectio Divina moves towards silence. When our words and our beautiful thoughts are no longer sufficient, only silence can give an adequate response to the Word of God.

Love to you all

Karmic Consequences

2009-12-13T10:00:00.000+05:30

His disciples asked him and said to him, “Do you want us to fast? How should we pray? Should we give to charity? What diet should we observe?” Jesus said, “Don't lie, and don't do what you hate, because all things are disclosed before heaven. After all, there is nothing hidden that will not be revealed, and there is nothing covered up that will remain undisclosed.”………. Logion 6

Continuing in the series of commentaries on the sayings of Jesus in the Gospel of Thomas, in this short note let me bring out a fundamental facet of truth that needs to be appreciated. The disciples question is primarily in the mode of living but restricted to the sensory disciplines, which is no doubt important for any spiritual aspirant. This signifies the current preoccupation of mankind. We are always under the influence of our material world both exterior and interior. This is the reason that we assume that controlling the senses and disciplining the body would be sufficient to advance in spiritual living. The radical shift needed from the Mosaic Law-oriented-ritualistic spirituality (which was primarily installed to bring together the twelve tribes of Israel who had been under the slavery of Egypt, into a coherent society in a new land), into a spirituality that was focused on the individual to be liberated from their own ignorance of authentic Godhead, was the messianic mission of Christ. It is not that we have to belittle the mission of Moses and his law keepers, the Pharisees and Sadducees. They inherited the disciplining ways and the ritualistic rules as authentic spirituality from a social perspective. This we see in all organized religions even today. But Christ was on a different mission. This is the reason that he goes beyond the question of his disciples. His answer reveals an entirely new dimension of action, one that is oriented beyond the senses and in the realm of one’s consciousness.

The advice he gives his disciples reflects the advice of the Buddha in which the primary threefold classifications of right path are in the area of wisdom, ethical conduct and right concentration. In these three domains can be fitted every action (by way of body, speech, and mind) that will have karmic results (a.k.a. reaction). Wholesome and unwholesome actions will produce results and effects that correspond with the nature of that action. It is the right view about the moral process of the world and one’s existence as an integral element in it that is important. Apart from disciplining the body, about which the disciples ask him. The right speech and the right intension are of paramount importance.

The last part of Jesus saying here is very powerful and reveals a great ontology. The belief in an external God sitting in judgement over man was not the message of Christ. He already defined the location of the kingdom of heaven as something at the very core of one’s existence. “Neither shall they say, Lo here! or, lo there! for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you.” …… Luke 17:21 The individual consciousness, being an integral part of the Cosmic consciousness, is a transparent domain wherein there is no place for concealment. All our conscious actions as living, acting and thinking individuals leave a karmic imprint and it is regarding this revelation that Jesus talks to his disciples. The reason that we have a limited view of the role of individual consciousness is because we isolate it through ego-centric perception as “I am the doer, I am the thinker etc.,” Gnostic Christianity did not believe in eternal damnation but in reincarnation, which to say the journey of the soul or individual consciousness through diverse levels in many existences towards an ultimate evolution to merge with the undifferentiated and unsullied Universal consciousness which is true definition of Godhead.

Love to you all