It was a mournful morning, as Srinivasan watched a family cremating their loved one at the Harishchandra Ghat. The Ganges flowed by in all her zest, the waters reflecting the sunlight as tiny droplets of fire on her watery veil, dotting her various ripples with glowing lights while the fire on the banks raged on consuming another man as his soul departed.Srinivasan looked around, observing the sad faces of people who could not think or perceive life beyond the burning dead man who lay in front, reminding everyone that if they got lucky, they would get a chance to be cremated here too. Then Srinivasan turned and stared into the Ganges, through the clouded air wondering whether he could ever have set eyes on the silent presence of Lord Shiva whispering the Taraka Mantra into the ears of the dead, leading them to heaven and washing their karmas of this janma away into the pure chilling waters of the Ganges.
He stood and watched this world, distant to their emotions of sorrow, but aware completely of the reality of death that knocks at every door when the time comes. He heard the echo in the background.
Rama Nama Satya Hai Rama Nama Satya Hai
Low voices of men reverberated to the rhythm of the Ganges as the rising pyre ate into the dead. Srinivasan was at peace with himself, quite emotionless to the morose event taking place in front of him. Did these people even know why they were uttering those sacred words?
Srinivasan watched on as the words Ra Ma Na Ma began to echo in his mind. Rama Nama is the mantra that is called the Taraka Mantra. Taraka denotes 'tari' or the boat that takes the soul and crosses over the waters of samsara. Samsara, which means "flowing together" denotes the cycle of birth, death and rebirth, a constant cycle in time.
The Taraka Mantra is the name of Lord Rama himself. As the great Tamil poet Thyagaraja sings, 'Ra' is a syllable taken from the Ashtaksharam of Lord Vishnu - Om Na Mo Na Ra Ya Na Ya, and 'Ma' is taken from the Panchaksharam of Lord Shiva - Na Ma Shi Va Ya. The result is 'Rama', the beeja mantra of Lord Rama as named by Sage Vashishta.
The essence of the mantra is such. Sage Vishwamitra had done constant upasana and attained Sakshatkara over all the devatas of all the mantras. He gifted the outcome of these mantras to Rama be initiating him into it. With the utterance of this mantra Lord Rama attained Sakshatkara of all the devatas much sooner than the time sage Vishwamitra had taken. As the devatas appeared in front of Lord Rama while he did his upasana, Lord Rama did "avahanam", imbibing them into his being, and absorbed them into his heart. In this way, Lord Rama imbibed all the devas into himself. The Taraka mantra is the Rama mantra which is equivalent to worshiping all the devatas within him.
Ra in Rama is found in the ashtakshari (8 syllables) mantra of Om Namo Narayanaya. Ra is also the beeja mantra for Agni or fire, and could also be pronounced as Rum, Rm. Ra and Ma are jeeva-aksharas, or life giving syllables.
Interestingly, in Buddhist cosmology, Ma Ra (Mara) signifies ignorance and evil. Siddhartha conquered Mara and the world of illusions and seduction into materialism (samsara) to be finally enlightened as Gautama Buddha. Srinivasan thought on furiously, Ma Ra was the opposite of Ra Ma.
Srinivasan woke out of the echoing thoughts in his mind as the sun glowed through the engulfing flames at the Ghat. The air was cloudy and he almost imagined Lord Shiva whispering the sacred words through the flames of Agni, releasing the soul embarked with the Taraka mantra, in His divine voice, beyond all human awareness, and helping the boat sail into the other world.
Srinivasan got up to leave, watching the landscape as he walked back up the Ghats. Up ahead near the Ghat, glowing in bright sunlight and draped with flowers, the coppery hue of Lord Shiva glistened in the day light promising enlightenment to all who consciously seek the Taraka mantra upasana.
Also visit my new blog on The Life and Works of Artist Silpi.
35 comments:
‘Vedantic thought’, of Formless Creator - Nadbindu or a dot-like source of concentrated infinite or unlimited energy expressed as the beej mantra of the entire physical universe, ‘OM’, and His believable innumerable images that also in reality are different dots in energy form, is apparently very complicated to comprehend by the ‘present day’ humans - believably intentionally designed to behave as instruments that have the lowest efficiency range in Kaliyuga compared to their evolved forms that bekievably have efficiency range in Satyuga, 75% to 100%, relatively therefore the best yuga.
All dots are believably projected from the one and only point source of infinite energy, (that is located at the centre of the apparently expandng universe, indicated as the centre of our earth), into the dark empty void of space in all directions.
However, as per a grand design by the ‘Perfect Being’, the dots appear to the eyes of any beholder anywhere in space, (who also apparently has some animal form), as other living or non-living forms.
In simple words, Life & Death of any individual animal could perhaps be understood similar to ‘imperfect’ men, related with the make-believe world of cinema, projecting the apparently walking and talking images of a particular character on a ‘silver screen’ till one’s role as per the script lasts! However, in real life, the projectionist believably is ‘perfect’…unborn and unending supreme soul!
Uncle joshi, you have simply grasped the essence of god's qualities. God is like water, having no form by itself, but taking the form of the vessel it is poured in.
You have described the wheel of times in terms of Yugas: Satya, Treta, Dwapara, and Kali.
As my dad used to tell me, the yugas used to denote the amount of truth and good qualities man used to possess. In Satya yuga, mankind was filled with people who were, kind, generous and spiritual. Bargains, promises, etc were made by word and no one dared to go back on their promises. As thousands of years passed by, the sense of dharma went on the decline and here we are, in the Kaliyuga, an age where honest and straightforward people are as rare as dinosaurs. We now tend to believe more in technology rather than in spirituality and hence we live like machines.
Truly, life and death are two inseparable wonders because life, by itself, is a form of misery, but we enjoy it; while death, is considered a tragedy, but spiritually, it helps us to reach god.
So in a way, we celebrate misery and are apprehensive of the ultimate happiness. What a contradiction?
Hi Aswin, ‘I’ imagine it in a different way based on many mythological stories and conclusions, such as “Satyam Shivam Sunderam” read with ‘Maya’ that is illusion. And thus ‘mithya jagat’ or believably non existent earth’s description appears to match with the description of Shiva, believably in human form, for instance.
And, also Krishna tells Arjuna that he is merely a medium, an instrument and then convinced him with an apparent vision of the Unmanifest Vishnu, indirectly hinting it to be the planet earth itelf as the Destroyer, which Shiva is more popularly known to be – and also the belief in this regard that Vishnu is Shiva, and Shiva is Vishnu! And on top of it, “Hari ananta, Hari katha ananta”, hiints at various descriptions of the same events possible…from different view-points…
Right and wrong, light and shadow, life and death, and so on, the opposites were believed like two illusory sides of a ‘golden coin’, (the metal that has been fooling man since time immemorial), believably being seen by the Formless creator who himself/ itself is in reality the ‘blank side’ of the coin (that renders thickness to the coin, that is, makes possible the appearance of physical forms, but itself called ‘Nirguna’ like the tastless and colourless distilled water, which apparently attains taste because of presence of impurities.
And, images of Shiva too are believed capable of tolerating poison but to a limited extent only for they act as transient forms and are, therefore, designed to disappear, just as one provides cut-outs or fuse wire that melts when current and thus temperature exceeds a certain accepted limit.
Shiva as Bhootnath or Nirguna is believably enjoying the vision of the gunas or properties of the ‘imperfect beings’ in different Yugas that have some definite script or story that serves its purpose, which we the inferior souls are unable to comprehend because of ‘Time’!
Talking of time, In terms of hour, minutes and seconds, the three hands in a clock/ watch are required to be read before one can tell the time according to the particular instrument. However, all watches might not show the same time at a particular given instant, even in India say, which has a standard related with Longitude passing almost through Kashi even today!
Similarly, all men also do not behave uniformly (like Rama and Ravana were in Treta, but behaved differently) even in the ‘present’, although all appear to have a similar structure, like say TVs, but you go in for a particular brand manufactured by a particular Company depending on the generally believed good performance of its products, or its reputation, although you might know that it would be foolhardiness to believe it to act perfectly for all the time to come – ‘confidence tricksters’ also do exist at all times, and natural deterioration is posible.
Thus ultimately it is apparently a matter of luck for an average man, or in reality of design that one can perhaps appreciate only if one could acquire ‘perfection’, perhaps possible with his blessings only - at all times, although generally at the end of Satyuga only!
With the background knowledge as in the ‘present’, ‘I’ can perhaps visualize eight dot-like images of the Nirguna Nadbindu within me at different levels from mooladhar to shasrara bandhas.
They believably project thoughts into my brain in energy form, which my brain as a super computer - with relevant softwares duly activated depending upon ‘my past’ - converts these into images and related sounds while the dots remain coiled up like films in reels or spools at different levels, conveyed through the snake originally coiled up at ‘mooladhar bandha’ and rising through other intermediate bandhas also, all energy points acting like an integrated system of computers linked up together!
Thus the behaviour of my system would depend on whether it is properly integrated, or properly tuned or not.
And, perhaps unfortunately ‘I’ myself am all characters rolled into one to set it right and reach the unuttered or mute ‘O’ or ‘0’ the Absolute Truth, starting with my basic note ‘SA’, (or ‘DO’, pronounced as in ‘doe’, the female form of ‘buck’ the male deer, for diversion projected as money'!), the ‘root’ of the musical octave as close to ‘Om’ the believable root or beej mantra responsible for all different appearing transient physical forms!
The ‘wise’ ancients’, however, indicate the truth conveyed through Krishna in the Gita that anyone can reach Him provided one ‘surrenders in Him’, irrespective of one’s caste, creed, sex, etc!
And, in the ‘recent past’ also there is a popular line in a poem, Madhushala, written by Harivansh Rai Bachchan, “…Raha pakard tu ek chala-chal/ Pa jayega madhushala,” that is to the effect, ‘take any road (with the goal in mind) and you will reach the source’!
RA is in Rama as well as Ravana both, but Rama has MA also (that soinds close to OM), and Ravana also has VA of Vayu and NA of Narayana too! And, both believably reached 'moksha'!
‘I’ am told by 'west' that my brain is not a digital ‘iron computer’ that we are obliged to use in day-to-day life, it is an analogical ‘muscle computer’ that is unmatchable materially!
In a digital computer the example of the digit 2, in an anlogical computer could appear to represent symbolically a ‘hansa’, that is, a ‘swan’.
Now, however for a better picture to include its image also, when ‘I’ add to it its image, ‘I’ now get to view a symbol which appears close to ‘3-’ that my digital computer isn’t able to show properly. However, if ‘I’ write it on paper with a pen, ‘I’ get a better picture. It now appears as numeral 3 with a line in place of the dot at their contact level, which a ‘born Hindu’ even knows as nearly the symbol one is ritually used to understand as OM (when alphabetic letters in English are used).
But, as in the beginning we had started with 2 appearing as ‘hansa’, reading it with its image in water, say, ‘I’ am able to see ‘paramhansa’ the title one generally uses ritually with ‘elevated souls’, such as ‘Ramakrishna’, or ‘Yogananda’ the Yogi who wrote his autobiography while he had settled in the USA in order to teach Yoga to the ‘west’ and thus act as a Fusion Master of eastern and western thoughts for all to be able to reach the ‘Truth’!
Hi Aswin, Now you can try the same exercise with the letter N for Narayana/ Narah/ Nadbindu the source of ‘Big Bang’ the loud sound, that is, both for man as well as god!
Maybe, like ‘me’, you too will also be able to see the symbolic representation of a ‘loud speaker’ attached to a pole (during Election Time when the ‘ruling party’ is generally changed by the ‘unhappy masses’ in a 'democracy' with the hope of a better ‘future’ for the ‘ignorant masses’, more so believably in Kaliyuga)!
Maybe you would have also noticed how with the approaching elections in ‘India’, Lalu, (literally related with Red), when he presented the ‘Rail Budget’, had all coolies in red, dancing and shouting (Shiva's bhootas-like?), that is producing ‘nad’, like the popularly known ‘Brahmanad’ to ‘Hindus’ who, as per the ‘wise ancient Hindus’ are related with ‘Indu’ the Moon, whose essence believably rules the animal head!
Characters in human forms ‘not realizing’ that they appear to evolve ever remain ‘imperfect’ and are therefore apparently easily fooled by the Supreme Being the one and only who is Supreme Knowledge also.
However, fortunately, ‘wise’ Hindus’ conveyed on His behalf that the fooling is apparent because of ‘Maya that is illusion’, as part of a grand design whereby the Supreme Being is apparently the lone witness of the ‘drama’, and He is apparently considering various possible view points to perhaps convince Himself that He is ‘perfect’, although He might exist alone! This phenomenon apparently gets reflected through trained Yogis who apparently are able to perform ‘miracles’, which the other average characters can’t at the given instant of apparent time!
Kavitha has indicated mantras using ‘akshar’ or letter, such as ‘panchakshram’, or ‘ashtaksharam’ related with different gods, as also ‘Tarak’ mantra, which needs to be read with the ‘Hindu belief’ of man as an inverted tree that has its roots in the sky, where obviously ‘stars’, or ‘Tara’, are seen, the remarkable one being Dhruva Tara’ that is the ‘Pole Star’. And Dhruva is also indicated in the mythological stories as the child born of a rakshasha father, but an ardent devotee of Vishnu who received ‘moksha’ and is seen unmoved or ‘stithapragya’ in the sky at one location like a typical Yogi is advised ever to remain ‘through thick and thin’ (by Krishna in the Gita)!
Regarding any doubts about languages, that is ‘English’ the universal language in the present that is Kaliyuga end, and ‘Devnagari lipi’ of the believable ‘selfless’ (DL), maybe one could write Na in DL, which in appearance looks like a horizontal tap at a suitable height (‘nal’, in Hindi) attached to a vertical water pipe. And now attach to it the other-side-of-the-coin-like image of ‘na’. And, one would now notice it to appear like Christ’s Cross – perhaps it can be realized as yoga or fusion of East & West!
And, from another point of view, it could also represent graphically sources of lights for illumination that is dispelling darkness - placed on the central verge of two road that serves the purpose of dividing the traffic moving in two opposite directions...
Hi Joshi uncle and Kavitha,
why don't you discuss matters that interlink science with spirituality such as:
1) The mountain Thiruvannamalai is said to be lord Shiva himself, meaning mountain of fire. Scientists, who observed Thiruvannamalai, have said that the mountain indeed was once a great volcano. It has great magnetic power and hence when devotees walk around the mountain, the strong magnetic field around the mountain has a positive effect on their health.
2) The practice of "kuttu" while saying the mantra "Suklam Bharataram Vishnum", which is said to increase memory power.
3) The practice of having Thulasi thirtha after every pooja. The herb Thulasi is said to have great healing properties.
4) The practice of applying Vibudhi.
I am asking you both because when you provide more information, people would know that our practices are not just myths afterall.
Hope i make sense
Hi Joshi Uncle, Anilji
As we had last spoken, I had told you about an artist called Silpi who hailed from the south of India in the Kumbhakonam district.
I have started posting on his paintings. Please do go through the blog when you get the time. The link is http://artistshilpi.blogspot.com
Warm regards
Kavitha
Kavitha, Thanks! I have visited the blod and posted the following comment...
Nice painting, Kavitha!
‘I’ recalled the story by Yogananda about a shishya and his Guru. The shishya one day had a thought that he didn’t have any picture of his old Guru, who he thought might not last for many years. So he made him agree to pose for him in the lawns of the ashram. He made the Guru sit in a chair in front of a flowering plant and clicked the camera. However, when the picture was developed it didn’t have the Guru in the picture. He thought the roll was defective. He bought a new roll and again took a picture. Still there was no Guru! He therefore knew it was some trick of the Guru and so asked him the reason.
The Guru told him that he wanted the picture, as souvenir, of ‘his Guru’. And, as it is the soul within the body that is his Guru, he had got it already! However, he then agreed to pose again and allow him the picture of his exterior body too! According to Yogananda that was the only picture available to his shishyas after the Guru took Samadhi!
Hi Aswin, The Yogis believed human structure formed of energies, represented by colours as essences of selected ‘8’ numbers ‘grahas’, that is, members of the solar system.
White sunlight, as essence of ‘Surya Devta’ or Sun god ‘Ra’ was believed to lie in the middle of the belly, that is, the ‘solar plexus’ or ‘Manipuraka Bandha’, while essence of inert Green Earth (original Shiva) is believed to lie at the location of the dormant ‘Third Eye’, called ‘Ajna Bandha’ in every human form, that Yogis believed needed to be activated.
The mythological stories indicate Shiva to have His body smeared with ‘Bhabhoot’, or ‘Bhasma’, that is ‘ash’ (of dead bodies) found in crematoriums…Therefore, the believable practice of applying ash or ‘bhabhoot’, or ‘vibhooti’, (perhaps a misnomer, for it means luxury or affluence), at the believable location of the ‘Third Eye’ on the forehead.
Many animals, viz. horses, elephants, pigs, buffaloes, and so on, love to apply dust or mud on their bodies! Perhaps thus indicating presence of Shiva within all animals including their leader, man!
The central idea, however, was to seek the Formless God the Omnipotent and Omnipresent within one’s form, instead of wandering from one place or another in its search!
Yogis or ancient seekers of ‘Truth’ apparently received thus miraculous powers. Even in the ‘west’ Jesus Christ apparently achieved miraculous powers by virtue of which he believably could cure the blinds and the lepers merely with physical touch.
However, sages in ‘India’ believably practiced ‘tele-thereapy’ utilizing ‘mantras’ that is sound energy and cured patients even from great distances, depending upon how ‘elevated’ their souls were!
But, just as presence of light results in shadows, like Head and tail the two opposite sides of a coin, opposites are seen to go together during human life too. Therefore, the task of remaining unmoved by the believably ‘mithya’ or illusory world is like that of ‘N’ for ‘Nat’ the dancer, whose king believably is Natraja Shiva! The word ‘nat’ is thus used for the ‘tight rope walker’ also, who as a reflection of human life, while walking from one end to the other of the rope must remain balanced (as advised in the Gita also)!
And as one, who is about to drown believably clutches at the straw, the tight rope walker symbolically holds a horizontal bar in both hands to save him/ her from falling down upon the ground due to earth’s ‘natural’ gravitational pull!
The whole ‘Nature’ apparently thus, as part of a grand design, reflecting through different characters, ‘living’ or ‘non-living’, speaks on behalf of the mute but not dead Creator, for He is related with the real time that is ‘zero’ (‘0’ or ‘o’) and therefore immortal…
However, ‘Apsmara Purush’ believably is deaf; because of the external ‘nad’; and also blind, due to the glitter of gold, therefore, he is unable to understand the sign language that he perhaps naturally knew only in the childhood and forgot as he grew older!
It is said by the ‘wise ancients’ that man spends childhood in playing, youth in foolish acts and old age in repentence! And thus he believably is unable to recall his ‘near perfect past’, but is made to remain intuitively conscious of it, and therefore swinging between the varius apparent ‘Truths’. And hence he is shown symbolically by ‘wise ancient Hindus’ lying dormant under the foot of Natraja Shiva to remind one to wake up from the ‘Kumbhakarna-like’ deep slumber, with the belief that it is never too late!
Long ago ‘I’ read a reportedly grammatically correct sentence in Ripley’s Believe it or not, which was stated to be not possible to use by any person. The sentence was, “I am not here.” It had sounded absolute true then!
However, one who comes to realize oneself in reality as an apparition or a ghost that is ‘bhoota’ – as one of the innumerable parts of the believable supreme soul - as conveyed by the ‘wise ancient Hindus’, the sentence would become the ‘Truth’!
‘Hindu Belief’ in essence conveys that ‘non-living members’ of the universe or earth and their believable inhabitants, understood by the ‘wise ancients’ as different ‘life forms’ that in reality all are illusory in the ‘present’, although those might have existed in the physical forms in the ‘long lost past’ – they are like 3-D projections of fictitious characters on the ‘silver screen’ which result in human physical senses to virtually accept as the ‘Truth’ in the ‘present’ characters such as Shivaji Ganeshan or Raj Kapoor, and many such actors who played the role even that of God and were treated thus in their ‘real life’ too!
Those who take interest in the game of Cricket, say for example, could have easily seen what the mytholigical stories conveyed as message through the role of Vishwamitra, say, who was a king who however turned into a sage only when he fulfilled certain conditions for achieving that. Or, Lord Rama, believably the ‘purushottam’ or the ‘best human being’ during Tretayuga, was also apparently tested before he could bring Sita back home from the clutches of demons!
There can be cited many such examples, however, in the ‘present’ that was ‘past’, the best example perhaps is that of ‘H’ for Harbhajan (Hara + devotional song in His praise!) and Hayden (Hay + Den, that is dry grass or ‘weed’ + ‘dark cave’!), both thus like mythological pairs, Rama-Ravana, Krishna-Kansa, and letter ‘H’ itself appears like part of a ladder to reach ‘Hari’!
And, earlier elsewhere, ‘I’ had described in deail how ‘Cricket’ is a model of our own Milky Way Galaxy’, that is, Yogiraja Krishna the representative of Lord Vishnu of the Mythology who lies in super conscious state in the middle of the Miljy Ocean, whose true image is Yogeshwar Shiva – our planet earth that is however ‘mithya’ or illusory!
It is the apparent hierarchy between individuals that made an average person, called ‘common man’, generally to look up to the rulers as ‘materially’ more ‘powerful souls’ and therefore feared, while comparatively speaking, sages as ‘elevated souls’ were looked up with reverence.
However, ‘wise ancient Hindus’ after apparent in-depth study in various fields studied the characteristic property of time in terms of Yugas also. They therefore cautioned ‘aam aadmi’ to avoid ‘blind belief’ in all humans, in Kaliyuga particularly, to avoid ‘cheating’ or ‘fooling’, and depend more on ‘self’, for they realized every human being itself as an image or ‘bhoota’ that is the reflection of its ‘past’ of the same God the Formless energy or Bhootnath!
“God helps those, who help themselves,” therefore, was understood as the essence of human life...
One more reaction to an article in my newspaper...
SECOND OPINION article, Jodhaa Akbar and the ownership of the past, by ‘Jug Suraiaya’ (like a jug full of wonderful words!) raises in essence the relevant question: Who owns the past?
Of course, it is from a ‘western point of view’, for a ‘Hindu by thought’ obviously wouldn’t ask such an apparently foolish question, as seen through the eyes of the ‘wise ancients’, for he would have already known that the past belongs to the only Supreme Being, 'Perfect' Bhootnath Shiva and His Own 'imperfect' Images – an illusion created in ‘apparent time’, while real time and space is zero!
Perhaps, in keeping with the requirement of apparent time, the media joins hands with Neelamber Krishna the ‘mischievous’ or 'natkhat' Nandlal who rules the ‘west’ during Kaliyuga the ‘dark age’…while Peetamber Krishna the 'Perfect' evolved only at the end of Satyuga.
‘Tamaso ma jyotirgamaya’ or ‘lead the kindly light’ isn’t applicable today to all of us ‘ignorant masses’ or WE THE PEOPLE representing 'demon Mahishasur' of the Hindu mythology who must await Durga that is Parvati the daughter of Himalayas to enlighten us en masse - or switch off the light, as conveyed by the 'wise ancients'!
In the solar system, our planet Earth & its satellite Moon - acting apparently as a single unit - play an important role in the life of humans, who apparently head the food-chain in the animal world…
And, in the drama of life, the ancient ‘wise Hindus’ believed their essences to be housed as the ‘Third Eye’ at ‘Ajna Bandha’ and in the head at ‘Sahasrara Bandha’, that is, the source of ‘thousand channels’ that in fact conveyed ‘innumerable channels’ - of energy that is connected with ‘Mooladhar Bandha’ at the base with an eight-runged ladder made of various images of ‘H’ for Hari (Formless Vishnu) and Hara (Shiva as Vishnu’s True Image), the base and the top, where Hari is replaced by Ganesha (Orange) and Hara by his mother Parvati (Golden Yellow) respectively!
On the globe as a model of the infinite universe, imagine a Big Circle that passes through the South Pole the base, and also through North Pole the Head, while also passing through Amarkantak, Kashi and Kailash all of which lie near Longitude 82.5 degrees East and are all related with Shiva, the one and only Supreme Being!
Dr. Anil, Regarding in-depth study made by the 'wise ancients', ‘I’ think what one needs in the present’ is to imagine with the apparent background realization of the ‘wise ancients’ carried forth through time immemorial by the ‘wise’ as it is said about 'Sanatan Dharma'. That is, the fundamental thought of ‘Hindu Mythology’ is based on ‘Indu’ the moon as the most evolved Heavenly Body at the end of Satyuga (duratin 4 times that of Kaliyuga) that had originally started from a single invisible dot, although itself having infinite energy concentrated in it or locked within it.
And, that Moon has golden yellow colour as its essence, called the superior most or ‘Guru’ among all other colours in the visible spectrum of white light that has our Sun as its source. It is this heavenly body/ essence that believably hold the Supreme Knowledge related with immortal Supreme Being, the Nadbindu that in terms of colour, that is, closest to ‘zero’ or minimum energy in the visible spectrum, is Red. And, that its essence in human body is housed below the navel and linked to the Mooladhar the base, which is associated with orange colour as essence of planet Mars.
The Guru or Moon’s essence in human body is believably housed in the head as the controller of the integrated system called man the superior most creation of God for utilization by Him for His Own purpose – and not ours!
And, believably He is getting to see different times in the ‘past’ and related events being presented through different media also so far referred with the events related with the’present’, say Kaliyuga being highlighted. Thus, one can perhaps visualize as the reflection of the ‘Truth’, say, a page open before any reader whose eyes are presently seeing, say, the last para, while he/ she has already apparently read the previous paras related with the preceding three yugas, but doesn’t obviously remember all that he/ she read during last lives, and even in the earlier days in this very life because of the forgetful nature, and brain apparently naturally collecting only the butter or essence of long paras!
As a poet alone believably can reach where even sunlight can’t, poeticaly speaking also, the one ‘I’ call myself, a layman even is getting to see - in the sky in the night - holes in the sky on a black sheet’, through each one of which yellow light appears to pour into the black infinite void, like water manages to seep through hard dams/ rocks even, and most of it from what ‘we’ all call Moon today! And ‘Hindu Mythology’ thus reminds ‘me’ of Shiva/ Ganesha who apparently have the moon on their foreheads!
It appears to ‘me’ the layman as if ‘I’ am getting to see a change in the setting of the stage, for in the daytime the sheet appeared blue and the light behind it was bright and hot white-flame-like that had poured out only through one hole that remained of the same size all through the day!
And the blue sheet appears daily to get worn out like tired humans by evening and by night to develop innumerable tiny holes too!
‘Nature’ to ‘you’, but Krishna/ Durga to ‘me’ thus appears to do a wonderful job of providing black and blue sheets of infinite spread daily – knitting it perhaps like a spider, the eight-handed animal! And, perhaps thus he could provide a Sari of unending length to Draupadi too when Dushashan, literally the mal-administrator, on behalf of Duryodhan, literally the bad soldier, attempted to disrobe her in public – but failed! Just as man fails to remove the veil in front of one’s eyes and see GOD!
Maybe, 'scientists' the present day seekers of 'Truth' have understood it right that human brain is an analogous computer and hence the apparent mysery!
Please read 'mystery' for the typing error - 'mysery'. Perhaps because 'I' am a tea addict, 'I' drank the symbolic 't'!
Krishna believably is mysterious as well as mischievous!
Namaste ~
This is a very nice blog I just discovered and am looking forward to reading the past archives also.
Aum Namah Shivaya
Anbe Sivamayam Satyame Parasivam
Have a wonderful Shiva Ratri!!!
Namaste! And, thanks!
The word reminds me of a novel by an English author in ‘my’ youth that for the first time informed me that when a ‘Hindu’ utters this word, with folded palms to another individual, he/ she is in fact praying to the God within!
And, in my school days for quite some time ‘I’ used to think ‘Anon’ must have been a great poet! For, ‘I’ used to find many poems credited to him!
And, when ‘I’ exchanged this particular thought on the internet a few years ago with a young American girl, one of the members of a small selected group of people belonging to different nationalities, she expressed pleasure and wonder that in her school also she didn’t know ‘Anon’ stood for Anonymous!
Happy Shivaratri to all!
May Bhootnath bless us all, His bhootas!
‘M’ is for ‘Maya’ the believable illusion - as ‘my’ own image in a mirror/ water. ‘M’ is also for ‘Man’, while its ‘mirror image’, ‘W’, is for ‘Woman’ - considered as ‘Maya’ by ‘Wise ancients’!
Yogiraja Krishna in physical form, who eventually evolved to Yogeshwr Shiva, thus appears to play cat and mouse game with Man and his illusory images that appear and disappear, while apparently serving some purpose of the Formless Creator not made known to man ever.
‘M’ (more popular in the ‘present day India’ as in ‘McDonald’ and its burgers!) and ‘W’ as its image seen together to form the complete picture was expressed by the ‘wisest of the wise ancient Hindus’, or ‘Vedantis’, to represent ‘Ardhanarishwar Shiva’ the androgynous, or two-in one God originally, to begin with till they separated to apparently fool Man eternally as ‘Trimurty’ the three-in-one God by withholding His real purpose from him!
It is interesting to see that although the image of ‘W’ too is ‘M’, but seeing them together with the ‘Third Eye’ for the complete picture one notices that they meet at two different points, (like Kartikeya & Ganesha also being introduced into the drama!), now instead of one when Shiva was alone – in deep ‘samadhi’!
Kavitha didi,
You have done a marvelous job with this blog! I would love to meet you someday!
I skimmed your archives back as far as May 2005. Here are a few answers to some questions [rhetorical?] that you had:
__ Q: Happy fat Buddha in China and Japan iconography?
A: That is Ganesha. If had an elephant head it would have been just too bizarre for the indigenous peoples to accept and easily integrate into Shinto [Japan] and Taoism [China] when it was first introduced from India.
But if you think of: both have the corpulent fat stomach then is same, hmmm? Source: "Loving Ganesh" by Sivaya Subhramuniya Swami [book is available online]
__ Q: Ravana: bad?
A: Ravana was in former life either Jaya or Vijaya, doorkeeper to Vaikuntha of Visnu [sorry I forget which one]. Visnu wished to sport with someone, to do WWF with someone.
WWF = World Federation of Wrestling TV sport like we have in the West, with icons like Hulk Hogan, Classy Freddie Blassie, and so on.
But instead of HH or CFB is called Ravana in one incarnation fighting Rama and was called Hiranyakasipu fighting Narasimha in another incarnation.
Because Visnu has to fight people in his same sumo wrestling league, if you use the analogy of the stylistic conventions of sumo wrestling of Japan. One yokozuna can only fight another yokozuna. Same concept.
Or like in police terminology has Good Cop/ Bad Cop. Like TV show NYPD Blue. But whether one is actor Dennis Franz [bad cop] or other one is cute good looking Latino actor [good cop] both are in NYPD [New York Police Deapartment] and are police officers in same union and only pretending to not like each other.
Or like two lawyers they both went to law school together and both were on the law review together and they pretend they do not like each other when one is representing The Donald i.e. the husband Donald Trump and the other lawyer is representing his first wife Ivana Trump.
But actually after each day in court, they go have a drink and they are friends. But they just pretend they hate each other and are fighting. They just laugh all the way to the bank that is all.
__ Q: Rahu and Ketu?
A: In humanistic astrology is not that bad, Rahu is North Node of the Moon and Ketu is South Node of the moon.
There's a good site you can learn more and even ask questions about your chart for free:
www.astro.com
The forums section you can post your chart and ask questions. They have a section about Vedic and Western astrology.
James Braha wrote a good book for beginners about Vedic astrology also: "Ancient Hindu Astrology for the Modern Western Astrologer".
Basically we all are grappling with the same issues that you are: how to live in this world as post-modern person, given that we have the past life punya and sukritya to be attracted to Hinduism.
Basically the Divine loves to learn about Him/Herself through your eyes, "The Vedas are eternally being revealed".
Since you are unique individual it gives the Divine pleasure to hear about Him/Herself in the unique ways that you are expressing your points of view.
Is like when you are dating a guy, he just wants to hear you talk about himself and how great he is. But you have to be sincere and really want to be all into him, otherwise after a while he will know you "aren't really that into him".
So each jeeva has a new and fresh viewpoint that steals the heart of the Divine. Such as Uncle Joshi here has his own viewpoint that is charming to the Divine also.
The Divine enjoys to hear him express his one million ways of saying "I am so into you", like how the late Louis J. Rukeyser [bless his soul] of Wall Street Week TV show was so into 24.7.365 analyzing the stock market, and having alot of fun doing it.
Anyway is fun for the Divine to enjoy the unique stylings of each bhaktar. "How do I love Thee? Let me count the ways!" Is very cute for the Divine all the things you get outraged about, like a high school girlfriend.
I mean is certainly important all the things you are outraged about: make no mistake about that. But at the end of the day, to the Divine I suppose is like a test, I guess, to see if you really do care or not. And I see that you do, so that's really super sweet! [insert Shriek!!! Giggle!!! Omigod!!! Grab hands and jump up and down! here]
Overall I think you are doing an excellent job and look forward to reading more of your posts.
Namaste!
Aum Namah Shivaya
Anbe Sivamayam Satyame Parasivam
Dear Anonymous,
Having said all that you did and having expressed your interest to meet me, :) thank you for your wishes and i also just wish you had left behind your real name. Hope to hear more from you and know you as a real person on my blog, like everyone else.
Thanks again.
Regds
Kavitha
Namaste Shri Anon!
A character that popularized Rama in the 16th century, Sant Tulsidas, conveyed to the effect, as the essence of the drama, that everyone perceives God in a particular form according to the inclination of his/ her mind.
In so far as ‘I’ am concerned, with the background information that man is a model of the infinite appearing universe, or an image of God, ‘I’ agree with the views of the so-called ‘Vedantis’ that ‘I’ represent Shiva the ‘perfect’ formless one who is represented symbolically by Shivalingam and in the physical form of the planet Earth that has moon on its head, that is, above it in the sky as the true image of the universe - but when it was still evolving or was ‘imperfect’…as seen by the Divine Person Himself!
Maybe, as you say, the Divine Person, who believably is detached, is glad to see ‘me’ behaving or acting like as if the character that ‘I’ call myself - having immortal soul housed within me - is sitting in a roller-coaster and feeling scared due to lack of overall knowledge and therefore lack of Faith in Him and, therefore, deserve to be rejected or condemned by the Judge of the judges!
Kavitha didi,
Namaskaram!
Otsukare sama deshita!
[Japanese for
"Thanks for all your hard work!"] in producing this nice blog.
I will try to sign off the same way each time, so you will know it is me.
I'm very shy and also I recently read this advice from Ars Poetica, an ancient Roman text:
"You, I am sure, will not say or do anything counter to the will of Minerva; you have judgement and sense enough for that.
"But if at any time you do write anything, submit it to the critic Maecins, and your father's and mine as well; then put the papers away and keep them for nine years
[!]
"You can destroy what you have not published, but once you have let your words go they cannot be taken back."
Somehow I was able to relate to it.
Anyways, gradually like you say.
***
Also I am not sure what my name really is!!! Well metaphysically speaking, that is. "What was your name before you were born?" [--Thich Nhat Hanh, Vietnamese Buddhist teacher].
***
Some of the things I like about your writing is you have a sense of bhava. I also like the art history orientation.
It's also nice how you describe going to the temples and what it is like inside of them. I also appreciate your honest critique and appraisal of what pilgrims need to be aware of once they get there.
Is often very difficult in the religious milieu to find anything other than hagiography. So I like very much how you have the post-modern approach of the educated person who is also embued with bhava.
Well so many things but just to start there. I studied art history in college so it's always exciting for me to meet another art major.
And even more exciting to meet another art major who is into the same iconography of Hinduism.
And even more fun the person has the same Istha Devata. And even more cool has a sense of mysticism and the whole bhava thing of the spiritual emotions...
...yet is a post-modern person and college-educated person! So rare.
Also I like the brahminical orientation. Like the story of the clothes cannot touch the floor and have to use a stick. And the descriptions of the bathroom door is rotting as you speak. And the descriptions of the drumsticks and the brahmin meal and fun at the brahmin house. Is so fun I can relate to all of it.
I guess not that many people I know can describe as well as you and also laugh your head off about it yet still be respectful and even have the mystical emotions.
Well anyways that's why I enjoy it alot. In college I remember thinking that all the art majors part of a tribe or sampradaya that Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci belonged to. Just that aspect alone is unique. I guess in the Indian would be related to the silpin sastras and the architect of the demigods Visvakarma is like a guardian angel or something.
Also another thing I like in your work is you are an excellent writer. And I like you have someone who can think so many mystical connections at the drop of a hat like JC Joshi Prabhuji.
Another thing that is so fun is I love how you do stuff like just drive your car to whereever and somehow the devas allow you to go "where no bhaktin has gone before!" Like a Hindu Goddess version of Star Trek. I would love to see your astrological chart to learn how that kind of stuff happens to you! At least the Vimsottari Dasha period would be interesting to know.
It's so cute I would love to see an entire TV show about it! Like an Indian "That Girl!": a sincere girl who because she is sincere then all the doors open for her.
Well anyways thanks again and I may ask you a question in another comment box.
Tomodachi,
[a Japanese word meaning "friends"]
Aum Namah Sivaya
Anbe Sivamayam Satyame Parasivam
JC Prabhuji,
Namaskaram!
I like Kavitha's idea that both the Dwaita and Adwaita view is important and valid.
It is same idea that Sivaya Subramuniya Swami espouses: that one viewpoint we are at the bottom of the mountain looking up and the other viewpoint on top of the mountain looking down.
Kavithaji express it in her unique way and according to her own realization.
Also Sivaya Subramuniya Swami has expressed this: "Shiva is love and nothing else but love. He fills the whole universe with love. He fills you with love."
Anyways whether right or wrong I cannot say. But I like the idea. Therefore I think just focus on there is love everywhere and we are surrounded by love.
Like the Hawaiians say, "Aloha".
Because scientists in the Human Genome Project have isolated that there is a "God" gene. So some people more readily are perceiving the Dwaita, Adwaita, or both.
Also I am sure it must be in the astrological chart as to which Istha Devata we gravitate towards the most.
Anyways I like the idea it is a natural thing. Is so natural whatever is the way we perceive the Divine. And Hinduism so beautiful and broad has a place for everyone in it, even atheism.
Because [respectfully submitted] why beat ourselves up and despair that a judge of all judges will get on our case?
In education now has the idea of multiple intelligences. Dr Howard Gardner of Harvard University has the theory that there are eight kinds of intelligence:
Math
Language Arts
Music/ Aural
Art/ Visual
Kinesthetic/ Movement
Science/ Nature
Intrapersonal [within the self]
Interpersonal [gift of gab]
So however our brain is hard-wired is basically just a package of software. And what kind of computer programmer get all upset and "judge" the software for it can only run a certain type of program?
Anyways be kind to yourself [if I may respectfully submit such an idea!]. If we can only perceive what we can only perceive then what can be done? That is how our minds have been pre-programmed.
Mind [manas tattva] is only one of 36 tattvas and beyond all tattvas is saccidananda. Therefore the ultimate reality is beyond even the mind and how our internal software has been programmed.
So just relax, kick back, and enjoy The View! And hopefully less and less screaming from roller coaster [smile] as we get older.
All the best ~
Aum Namah Shivaya!
Anbe Sivamayam Satyame Parasivam
Namaste Shri Anon!
‘Me’ for ‘me’ is the eye in ‘me’, the lone perceiver (at Ajna Bandha or lock the dark, cinema-hall-like, space withn ‘me’), or the ‘researcher’ who is trying to reach the self or its own origin – its Mother, through various view-points of typical characters among ‘we the people of the globe’!
‘I’ cannot therefore relax! As the mischievous and mysterious ‘Krishna the Yogiraja’, the ‘I’ in ‘me’ says He is working every moment, although nothing remains for Him to achieve in the three worlds (Atmosphere, surface of earth, underground – representing the essence of panchbhootas of Bhootnath Shiva), and that He is indirectly within all (for all are within Him in reality)…thus how can ‘we’, His instruments, relax?
Even in the apparent state of sleep ‘we’ continue to ‘see’ dreams, speaking in mundance terms, like as if the inner eye is acting as a projector as well as a ‘silver screen’!
When it can apparently do so in sleep, why can’t it in the apparent ‘conscious’ state – as ‘we’ day dream too?
‘I’ as an individual, therefore, just as ‘Hindus’ as a group (like that of art historians, engineers, painters, and so on) understood ‘M’ for ‘Moon’ as the illusory Mother of all mothers in animal forms (Sita, as a typical model of moon in Tretayuga, was called ‘Vaidehi’ that is formless!)
Thus ‘I’ (Third Eye) is the Formless Judge, the real Being while all other eyes, (‘i)s or external eyes, are confused by the glare of the apparently white sunlight outside dark ‘Ajna Bandha’, and therefore ‘Hindus’ apparently stopped worship of Brahma the typical model of our sun, and Vishnu also sent ‘selfless characters’ or devtas, as well as ‘selfish characters’ or rakshashas that is demons to 'Vishadhar Shiva' who alone can apparently consume poison!
‘Any numbers of woards are insufficient to express a realization,’ said the ‘wise’, however!
Still continuing, ‘O’ in ‘Om’ is used by mortals, (but because of limited breath closing the lip to pronounce ‘m’), in the apparent form of human characters, to be pronounced loud and clear or even mutely, needs the lips to be formed in the shape of letter ‘o’, or numeral ‘0’ that in fact represents symbolically the ‘Nadbindu’ or the unseen dot as the source of ‘Big Bang’, the centre of the apparent physical universe. It is possible for the immortal alone to do so and perhaps believably also heard as the universal ‘hum’ by the group called ‘scientists’ (the word mischievously understood as ‘we’ in Hindi!)…they have now recorded the sounds emanating form Sun as well as Saturn (the son of Sun for a ‘Hindu’)!
With the background information that our infinite universe is expanding like, say, a spherical balloon and, therefore, has only one central point as the cause of the ‘Big Bang’. And, therefore, all other points inside it can be said to be ‘eccentric’, but a person at any location inside the balloon would, therefore, see the centre as ‘eccentric’, because they believe they are central!
With the above thought in mind, to the ‘eccesntric me’, in ‘Namah Shivaya’: ‘Na’ indicates ‘Nabha’ the ‘sky’; ‘Maha (the great!) or Ma:’ indicates ‘Mahi’ the ‘earth’ or Gangadhar Shiva that is the one who holds Ganga (the central or neutral river in the group of Yamuna, Ganga and Brahmapautra, or ‘Triveni’, the believable Saraswati, representing the holistic knowledge in Satyuga in humans, disappearing from Sangam in Prayag and reappearing as the ‘mighty Brahmaputra’ in the north east; ‘Shi’ indicates ‘Shikhi’ or ‘fire; ‘Va’ indicates ‘Vayu’ or ‘air’; ‘Ya’ indicates ‘Yamuna’ the ‘poisonous river’, associated by ‘Hindus’ with Krishna as the representative of Vishnu, literally the ‘Poisonous Atom!
The mischievous 'I' in 'me' made me see even a flag behave like 'me' - but after decades of watching it and not realizing it!
Thanks to ‘my’ newspaper that ‘I’ now refer - after ‘I’ had already posted the above thought - has in essence almost the same thought in its smaller ‘sacred space’, (thus indicating the rest of the news items in the newspaper as trash!)…
‘I’ copy it below for Shri Anon’s and others' benefit too.
“Search me, O God, and know my heart; Try me, and know my anxieties; And see if there is any wicked in me, And lead me in the way everlasting (– Psalm 139:23)”
And, (for us ‘imperfect beings’ in Shiva’s past), it has in the space for ‘Speaking Tree’ an article by Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, which is titled, ‘Act Without Expectation: It Relaxes & Rewards’!
A reaction to some views expressed by a reder, ‘I’ sent the essence to the newspaper, as given below…
'India', having crossed the retirement age and thus apparently entered into 'sanyasharam', MTMV, 'India should have been a dictatorship' (3/3), reminded me of the ancient essential belief: The childhood is spent in games, the youth in foolish acts and the old age in repentence!
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