Newsletter Archive

From Karma to Dhyana : Meditation According to the Gita

"Meditation is often interpreted as a translation of the Sanskrit word ‘dhyana’.... In particular, it is the sixth chapter of the Bhagavad Gita which dedicates itself exclusively to answer all our queries regarding mediation.....not indulging in what we think is right, but doing what God knows is right, by unquestionably obeying His commands like a dutiful servant....This verse is not speaking of two different people.... The phrase ‘look at the tip of the nose’ is not to be taken literally to mean that one should direct one’s eyeballs towards the tip of one’s nose.... Next the Gita speaks of how a meditator should eat.... Meditation is not done to calm the mind."

Published in May 2013

Navadha Bhakti – The Nine Ways of Connecting with God

"How does this love towards the divine manifest itself?.... Kirtana consists of chanting aloud God’s divine name and glories of His form.... Smarana means the constant remembrance of God.... The obvious example of this kind of Bhakti is our mother goddess Lakshmi.... Consists of the physical worship of God in the form of an idol etc, using the correct rituals.... He was overcome with emotion and the consequent surge of affection for Krishna made his hair stand on its end and the overflowing eyes began to shed tears....No wonder that Shri Rama embraced him.... Stories about the friendship of Krishna and Arjuna abound in the Mahabharata.... One whose each and every action can be deemed as Bhakti."

Published in Apr 2013

The Non Dual state : Is It in Our Experience?

"Their activities include not only performing karma, but also experiencing its fruits.... In the waking and dream states, we do not know anything about what another person is experiencing.... . In dreams however, the sense organs are inactive and only the mind functions....An Ananda in which grief is totally destroyed.... One who had lost kingship becomes king again.... We have always been accustomed to obtaining sukha only through an effort.... Why should happiness terminate when still in contact with the object? It is known that the first thing he would seek would be sleep, then food and then the pleasures from outside objects....The all compassionate God is everyday giving us an experience to understand our oneness with Him."

Published in Mar 2013

Moksha : What the Vedas Say About Liberation

"There are different opinions regarding the nature of Moksha.... Arjuna could not avoid grief in the battlefield.... what exactly is meant by ‘without a body’?.... When we say that “He is singing standing”, there is no interval between his standing and singing.... This goes on till one is satisfied with what one has heard.... Needs listening, logic and experience.... There is no other way to generate the fruit of a Karma.... Moksha is not produced because it is eternal."

Published in Feb 2013

From Helpless to Wise : The Evolution of a Devotee

"At some juncture in his life, he undergoes a tremendous amount of suffering....As this happens, his suffering too loses momentum and starts decreasing.....Observing that God is doing him well, he is emboldened to ask for more....Now that he has all he wanted, there seems to be no need for God, and he forgets Him..... This happens again and again, and he continues to oscillate....Once he is at this level, there is no going back or falling down for the Bhakta....God, who is seated inside his heart, draws him back, inspiring him to reflect....Like the small child, whose exclusive devotion to her compels his mother to forever keep him under her protective arms."

Published in Jan 2013

Inactive or Active : Karma According to the Bhagavad Gita

"The Gita says that the subject of Karma is extremely mysterious....We need to first understand the three types of Karma....However, it is exactly the opposite for a householder....This defines most of what goes on in the name of meditation today....Just like the sky, which remains unaffected by the coming and going of clouds....him to remain a mere detached spectator....believing himself to be happy because he is free from Karma....However, a true and intelligent man can discover in himself that even in physical inaction there can be intense mental and intellectual activity."

Published in Dec 2012

Shri Rama: What Constitutes His True Worship

"Can a flower said to be the creation of human hands?...It is at this stage, when we delve into what the ancient scriptures like Valmiki Ramayana say about Him....This is in fact the crucial difference between Shri Rama and Lord Krishna....His tongue could never utter those terrible and tragic words....During His childhood, while playing with His brothers, Rama never attempted to defeat them....At times we see someone ready to share their wealth with others, but not his own brother....Shri Rama unfailingly used to get up before dawn....Towards the end of the Ramayana, when Shri Rama had killed Ravana....Thus it constituted Dharma."

Published in Nov 2012

Navaratri: A Festival of Austerities

"Rigorous fasts, temples thronged by crowds of devotees....assimilates two widely different facets, though both, positive and creative: one, purely spiritual in which reflects man’s desire for achieving ends beyond this birth, and the other, a desire to seek in this birth itself world’s all colours, freedom from ills and good for all....The Mahabharata, the great epic, is considered as the earliest to allude to the Devi with absolute specificity....Revered as the ultimate divine power capable of destroying every evil and every wrong, nurturing good and sustaining life in whichever form it exists....The Divine Female, and perhaps she alone, has the power to choose any form as her vehicle and conduct her powers through it....The major role of the Devi consists in leading to light out of darkness; the festival is hence Nava-Ratri: nine nights, not days."

Published in Oct 2012

Uma Sutam Ganesha: His Mother's Son

"No epithet, even any contextual to his father Shiva, defines him so completely as does ‘the son of Parvati’....Ganesha himself is the manifest cosmos, duality diluting into his very form – an entirety, a presence beyond act.... Ganesha only assures that ‘Shri’ or Lakshmi, the goddess of riches, shall precede him when his presence is invoked....The innocent looking Ganesha ever remains, essentially and exclusively, the mother-born, the product of an innocent playful mind filled with positive energy desiring creation and effecting it.....Brahma was ordained to create a world of numbers, measurable, subject to rule and that which decayed and had an end....Full of zeal, energy, sportiveness, mischievousness in eyes, carefree disposition, cool, soft, simple, benign, child-like innocent looking Ganesha is essentially the mother’s son – Uma-sutam."

Published in Sep 2012

I am Yours: A Love Letter to God

"Like a loving mother, she guides us to the supreme and purest form of love....The only sister of five brothers, she was obviously much loved and the center of attraction at home....She would send a message to Krishna, professing her single-minded affection for him....Having once heard of Lord Krishna, one starts losing his heart to him....If so happened this would be in clear violation of the promise made by God himself in the Ramayana....How do we know that we are following our Dharma properly?....She then proceeds to ask him a question, answering it herself...."

Published in Aug 2012

Dreams : Glimpsing the All Illuminating Illumination

"A baby dreams for about nine hours....Vedanta analyzes the dream state to bring out the nature of the light illuminating our dreams....That is why a sleeping body does not appear like inauspicious....However, they are only visible to the dreamer, not to others....Dreams are only a recall of the memory of what has happened in the waking world....The three texts give three different versions as to who is the creator of dreams....Suppose one eats too much and gets a stomach ache....The Vedas adopt the style of direct teaching from the Guru to disciple....In the waking state it is our eyes which serve as instruments to view the world....It is the one who is witnessing the absence of everything....It is through the dream state that we get introduced to the soul’s self-illuminating nature."

Published in Jul 2012

King, Deer and Brahmin : Tracing a Yogi’s Journey

Having performed his Dharma as a king for many years, and observing the graying of his hair....When he continued to perform this worship daily without fail, his heart melted with a surging, ever increasing love for God....Suddenly a lion roared, and the poor creature, frightened out of her wits, panicked....Even during the course of performing his religious duties, which required single minded devotion, he would rise up again and again to check on the young one....He had become so terrified of any attachment to anybody that he stayed all alone....The pious Brahmin was much worried about his son....Whenever somebody wanted him to do something, Bharata would ungrudgingly do whatever was asked of him..... Observing his excellent physique, they chose him to share the load....It seems as though a man is walking on it, but the foot of the man who walks on the earth is also made of the same earth.

Published in Jun 2012

Varnas : The Four Pillars of Dharma

All of man’s activity is directed towards attaining that what is pleasant to him and preventing that which makes him suffer....Even then the Vedic Karma could not be performed....This is how and why Dharma was created, the four Varnas being in a sense its four pillars....Consider the amount of virtues expected of a Brahmin performing sacrifices for others....The king, who, even though he takes taxes from his people, remains oblivious to their protection, is considered a great sinner....He is fully entitled to the knowledge of Vedanta....Karmas like Vedic sacrifices etc. destroy the negative residue of sins accumulated by us over our many births....This is called working like a servant under God.

Published in May 2012

Hyperbole in the Vedas : A Study in Arthavada

"Difficult to reconcile to some seemingly exaggerated statements, which cannot be substantiated by any means of knowledge....Any sentence can convey its meaning in either of two ways....During a Vedic sacrifice, a particular space is marked out for its performance....Hence an outlet for the smoke should be constructed....Taken by itself this Arthavada statement holds no meaning....When it is said ‘feed all Brahmins’, it does not mean that we feed all Brahmins in the world....Vedic Karma leads to fruits only if it has been fully completed....One should collect water holding a piece of gold in one’s hand....Enlightening in its method and inspirational in its impact."

Published in Apr 2012

Sannyasa the Highest Ashrama: Classification and Content

"It is the Vedas themselves which give us scope to leave Karma in a prescribed manner....If there is no reason for continuing with Karma he does leave it....The answer to this is that calling a house one’s own inevitably leads to affection and attachment....Continues to perform Karma for setting an example or even to hive of criticism....Karma has been delineated by the Vedas themselves, which we know are infallible....This is the Nishkama Karma done with a feeling of offering to God....However this does not lead to a consequent purification of the mind....Whatever is enjoined for one is his or her Dharma.....A householder cannot become celibate."

Published in Mar 2012

Way to Die: The Central Message of the Shrimad Bhagavatam

"Ramayana teaches us how to live, the Shrimad Bhagavatam instructs us on how to die....At that very moment there arrived a large number of saints, along with their disciples....What should a person do when confronted with death?....The search for the Guru is not a physical one....If the wife wants to stay with her children she can continue to live with them....The resulting surge of devotion totally cleansed their minds....After completing one’s education one has to get married and enjoy the material things in life....While the first two are stages where we acquire material things, the next two represent stages where we are taught how to leave things...."

Published in Feb 2012

The Four-Fold Spiritual Wealth : A Prerequisite for Vedanta

"Only a very few people are interested in Moksha, because the majority of us live under the illusion that happiness is the result of fulfilling worldly desires....How can a permanent state of happiness be derived from a non-permanent object?....Therefore, an aspirant should invoke the grace of God....Therefore, the seeker of Moksha should not strive for more than what is sufficient to sustain his life....The Vedas can be understood only with the help of a Guru....It is permanent, and should be obtained by discriminating between the permanent and the transient."

Published in Jan 2012

Upasana : The Vedic Path of Lifelong Meditation

"To help a aspirant, the Upanishads prescribe certain focused meditations known as Upasanas....This does not mean that there should be no movement in the mind at all and it should be fixed only on a given shape or sound....There are also Upasanas using a symbol, which are less difficult....There is gain in this thinking, just as the subordinate is treated as the chief....When one is standing or walking, the mind will have to pay attention to the body....For how many days should the Upasana be done?....It causes the mental form corresponding to the Upasana to emerge at the moment of death."

Published in Dec 2011

Understanding Dharma : The Four Authentic Sources

"The sources of Dharma have been systematically divided into four simple categories....This desisting from the prohibition is what constitutes the karma, leading to Dharma.....There are many Vedic Karmas which do not find mention directly in the Vedas but are found only in the Smritis....The Agnihotra mentioned above can be performed at any one of the three times....Lord Shiva drank the deadliest poison easily. However, if anybody else did the same, he would be reduced to ashes....However, this is the weakest source of Dharma out of the four."

Published in Oct 2011

Understanding the Vedas: Methodology of Interpretation

"The Vedas unfold their mysteries....While this mantra speaks metaphorically, the very next mantra spells this out clearly....How can a sane person address a plant, or call out to a piece of stone to hear what he is saying?....It is mentioned in the Mahabharata that a yogi, who has acquired supernatural powers....It is this unknown fact which the Vedas acquaint us with....Such a method seeks to reconcile apparently conflicting statements, not discarding even a single Vedic sentence."

Published in Sep 2011

Even Before Birth : The Purifying World of Hindu Samskaras

"All the scriptures, whether it be the Gita or the Upanishads, are there to give us Samskara....Samskaras begin even before the birth of the individual, since it is believed that the state of the parent’s mind during conception affects the well-being and ‘quality’ of the offspring....To gain this ascendance we need to rein our base instincts through Samskaras....In comparing the married couple to the earth and the sky, the Vedas recognize the inherent nature and necessity of this union....A husband should always keep his wife happy, giving her whatever she wants....This Samskara strengthens the bond between husband and wife....It is definitely geared to keep the woman in good cheer, and to show her that she is special."

Published in Aug 2011

Is There a Rebirth? The Vedological Approach

"What was the need for this immense universe of unimaginable complexity? You need practice for even simple activities like cycling, singing or swimming.....A lizard can dexterously catch the flying flies the moment it comes out of the egg.....Judged solely on the basis of the mere action only, charity leads to a loss of money....In the view of such people, accepting heaven and hell is sufficient enough to explain our present Karma, and there is no need for rebirth in this world....Can we not say that these activities are just instinctive? You can certainly notice a monkey’s instinct in man also…"

Published in Jul 2011

Is There a Rebirth? The Vedological Approach

"What was the need for this immense universe of unimaginable complexity? You need practice for even simple activities like cycling, singing or swimming.....A lizard can dexterously catch the flying flies the moment it comes out of the egg.....Judged solely on the basis of the mere action only, charity leads to a loss of money....In the view of such people, accepting heaven and hell is sufficient enough to explain our present Karma, and there is no need for rebirth in this world....Can we not say that these activities are just instinctive? You can certainly notice a monkey’s instinct in man also…"

Published in Jul 2011

Altering Fate : The Transforming Power of Karma

"Can we alter the fruits of a particular karma through another karma?....If one cannot sit on the floor, he or she can sit on the chair; and if even that is not possible one may lie down....This amounts to undergoing pain voluntarily for a higher cause....One should grow a new forest and stay in it for the rest of one’s life....All the mental thoughts which we get can be classified into two groups.....Baked in the fire of this grief, he recognizes its connection with mundane things....The cause of anything, which cannot be traced to an act done wantonly in this life should be deemed as destiny...."

Published in Jun 2011