This is part two of the adventures in Advaita Vedanta... will you travel with me a while?


Whispering Wednesday

Hari Om

Today the word that is making itself known to me is ऋतु/Rtu - "season." We enter September and there is a definite sense of the planet shifting gears from the middle months to those which start to shut down the year. 

In these northern climes, it is traditional to call the seasons four - spring, summer, autumn and winter. Yet there are also periods between them which are neither one nor the other - particularly in this second half of the year. One wonders if the Indian system might not apply more widely? (Climate change notwithstanding.) 

India has six seasons defined. In Sanskrit, these are vasanta/spring, griishma/summer, varshaa/monsoon, sharad/autumn, hemant/cool season, and shishira/winter. The transition from the heat of summer into autumn brings much rain in the north too. These days, some of them are quite monsoonal in nature, as the preceding summers get hotter. It is also the case that autumn seems rather a long season here and, actually, there is a time in November that seems to be neither autumn nor winter. It absolutely fits into the concept of hemant. 

There is something about the changing of seasons at any time which seems to trigger a sense of urgency to certain tasks... spring cleaning, harvesting, food preserving... and so many festivals in India celebrate these tasks as much as they offer up praise to the Higher. There are a plethora of utsavas during these few months - we've had Janmashtami, Onam, soon Chaturthi and Navratri and Diwali... It is good to acknowledge that everything we have is but a gift to us. Even time...



Textual Tuesday

Hari OM

One of my favourite songs of praise today. It highlights the singular nature of Consciousness and how, in attempting to reach an understanding of the Higher Essence of being-ness, mankind applies all sorts of identity.

sveRñrvNdnm! 

Ya< vEidka mÙ†z> pura[a>

#NÔ< ym< matirñanmahu>,

vedaiNtnae=invRcnIymek<

y< äü zBden ivinidRziNt.1.

zEvaymIz< izv #Tyvaecn!

Ya< vE:[va iv:[uirit StuviNt,

vuÏStwahRn! #it vaEÏ jEna>

st! ïI Akaleit c isKosNt>.2.

zaSteit keict! kitict! kumar>

SvamIit mateit ipteit _aÄya,

y< àawRyNte jgdIiztarm!

s @k @v à_auriÖtIy>.3.

 

SARVESHVARAVANDANAM 

yam vaidikaa mantradRshH puraaNaaH

indram yamam maatarishvaanmaahuH,

vedantino-nirvachaniiyamekam

yam brahma shabdena vinidirshanti. (1)

 

shaivaayamiisham shiva ityavochan

yam vaishNvaa vishNuriti stuvanti,

buddahstThaarhan iti bauddha jainaaH

sat shrii akaaleti ch sikkhasantaH. (2)

 

shaSteti kechit katichit kumaaraH

svaamiiti maateti piteti bhattayaa,

yam praarThyaNte jagadiishitaaram

sa eka eva prabhurdvitiiyaH. (3)


HE IS THE ONE AND ONLY 

The ancient Rsis of the mantras of Vedas call Him as

Indra, Yama, Matarishvara, theSupreme.

Vedantins say That cannot be explained,

but we gave a name as Brahman. (1)

 

Shaivites call Him Shiva,

Vaishnavas say Vishnu,

The Buddha said ‘no God’, the Jains say Mahavira

And the Sikhs say Sat (existence) Shri (sacred) Akaal (timeless). (2)

 

Some call as Kartikeya or Great Master

Others say Great Mother, or Father of All –

If any name is called it must be done devotedly

For only The One will hear. (3)



Meditative Monday

Hari OM


It is not necessary to reach transcendence to benefit from the practice of meditation. The control of thoughts, the strengthening of intellect and the discipline of ego that it engenders can only serve us well as we then carry on with our daily, transactional lives.

Sunday Statements

Hari Om

Blessed Krishna Janmashtami to you all.




Saturday Satsang

Hari OM


A life organised for the discovery of the potentialities already within ourselves, and the ordering of our behaviour so as to nurture and nourish them, is a life well spent. Herein our success depends upon the amount of transformation we can successfully bring about in our personality and character.

The vital question is not how many talents each one of us has, but how much of our existing talents are we capable of exploring, developing and exploiting. An individual may have many talents, and yet, he can be a miserable failure in life. That person is successful who makes a practical use of at least one talent that he possesses.



Thursday Thoughts

Hari OM

I was reminded yesterday of the old Greek word for 'hatred,' which is "misia." It is generally appended to subject/noun words, such as in something I read yesterday when it was put together with the term Hindu. Hindumisia. I am not going to point to the article that generated it, for that itself was a disturbing piece. It was just another little tile in a mosaic building in the deep recesses of thought.

There are tears, throat-grabbing heartache when I spend too much time within those recesses. It seems that the entire world is determined now to find reasons to Hate and not Love. 

The very word misia looks and sounds like misery, does it not? For that is what Hatred engenders. Hatred, and its concomitant feeling of anger, do not only bring down pain upon those subjected to it. The effects upon the psyche of the perpetrator are equally damaging - perhaps more so. The twisting of the personality must draw towards it the very thing it is attempting to project. It is a given law of being-ness that, in the casting of Love, one finds it is reflected back. This is equally true of Hatred. Indeed, by the very incendiary nature of it, Hatred flares readily, while Love has to be built. Hatred is for the lazy. Love is for those willing to put effort into being a human being. 

Far too many folk these days are in love with the immediacy of feeling, wanting that quick fix of adrenaline or endorphins, and Hatred offers a quicker fix than Loving does.

There are many and complex factors for the state of the world... but consider this. You are in a family. That family expands. You are all forced, by whatever circumstance, to share the one building as your home. The family, by the nature of these things, continues to expand. The home that once seemed like a palace becomes a mansion-house. With each successive generation, the home feels ever more constrictive. Each part of the family seeks to mark a given room as theirs and theirs alone. There is trouble when a cousin or uncle tries to enter without appropriate permission. Not only are the boundaries challenged, but within each 'territory,' the family members are starting to grumble and argue and build up grudges as they each struggle for a bit of space within the room to call their own. 

Arguments break out. Fights result. There starts to be hitting and kicking. Violence escalates...

Overcrowding has brought about family discord and factionalism. Particularly where any one part of the family thinks it has rights to greater amounts of the territory of that home. 

How many of us correctly understand that this planet is that very home..?

Fortunate are the families who have elders to balance the battles and barter a truce. Where are the elders of this earth? Who will rise to brave the anger and temper tantrums bursting out everywhere?

One thing I know - because history is constantly writing it - every time the pot boils, without someone to adjust the pressure, the lid will blow. This... this is what sits in the dark recesses and causes the tears and the throat-grabbing heartache. It would be so easy just to wallow in misery, spitting out at the world, "what are you doing?!!" This would not serve my own psyche well - neither would it satisfy the spiritual imperative nor saadhana. 

For that, in my own small corner of our home, I choose to emanate the aforementioned Love. I call upon all that rests in my Higher Self to manifest that Love. I seek to radiate the light of that Love. May this lamp light other lamps, and they, in their turn, light still more. In meeting that spiritual imperative, for saadhana to manifest it, I will keep writing of this Love. I pray that all my deeds meet the words and become the example that is wished for. 

What each of us alone can do is a tiny drop, but oceans are created from billions of tiny drops! Will you join with me... start a tsunami of Love?


I am blogging this over at Wild YAM as well today. Not from laziness but because I feel strongly enough to have owned up to this deep ache, and it deserves to reach widely... if you read both blogs, forgive this reproduction.

Whispering Wednesday

Hari OM

Watching the opening ceremony of the Paralympics yesterday, I was struck by one word that kept arising in the commentary... ABILITY. Not, you note, DISability. 

In English, we tend to have only those two terms to define an aspect of life that is actually very complex. You will not be surprised to learn that there are over thirty offerings available in Sanskrit! Some have a fine line of difference, but all have a purpose and are specific to distinct factors in one's capability (ah, there's a third word in English!) The word I would most apply to the parathletes, perhaps, is शक्तितस्/shaktitas. Many of you will be familiar with shakti as meaning power. Tas is an adaptation of tat - meaning 'that.' When used in conjunction, it is not simply 'that power' but the potential for that power - it could read more as 'resulting from that power' or 'as a consequence of that power.' 

Yes, other words in the shabdkosha would apply also, but this is perhaps the most encompassing. Every one of those athletes has used everything in their power to overcome their obvious obstacles and the wider ones of society, bureaucracy, financial, and logistical. The very same things their full-bodied contemporaries have to face...on top of their immediate personal obstacles. 

The determination, will, and power they have to have within themselves to represent their nations leave most of us looking anything but powerful! If one had but a fraction of that power in one's sadhana, imagine the possibilities...

So let the games commence and may all, every single one, of those competing revel in their opportunities and take home the pride (if not a medal) of having achieved at such a high level.

More power to them!!!

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