Thursday, September 30, 2021

v1

 Dharma Kirtan: Greatest Verses from Yoga Vasistha

The Story of Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers (1995) - Review & Retrospective - YouTube

Random quotes from Yoga Vasishta

 Just as the trees on the bank of a lake are reflected

in the water, so also all these varied objects are reflected in
the vast mirror of our consciousness.

— YOGA VASISHTA

Even though bondage does not really exist, it
becomes strong through desire for worldly enjoyments;
when this desire subsides bondage becomes weak.

— YOGA VASISHTA

Like waves rising up from the ocean the unstable
mind rises out of the vast and stable expanse of the Supreme Self.

— YOGA VASISHTA

This world, though unreal, appears to exist
and is the cause of life-long suffering to an ignorant person, just as a (non-existent) ghost (is the cause of
fear) to a boy.

— YOGA VASISHTA

One who has no idea of gold sees only the bracelet.
He does not at all have the idea that it is merely gold.

— YOGA VASISHTA

The world is full of misery to an ignorant man
and full of bliss to a wise man. The world is dark to a
blind man and bright to one who has eyes.

— YOGA VASISHTA

The bliss of a man of discrimination, who has
rejected samsara and discarded all mental concepts,
constantly increases.

— YOGA VASISHTA

Like clouds which suddenly appear in a clear
sky and as suddenly dissolve, the entire universe (appears)
in the Self and (dissolves in it).

— YOGA VASISHTA

Just as the cloth, when investigated, is seen to
be nothing but thread, so also this world, when enquired
into, is (seen to be) merely the Self.

— YOGA VASISHTA

Just as the foam, the waves, the dew and the bubbles are not different from water, even so this world which has come out of the Self is not different from the Self

                                                                          


.

Hell: intermediate state vs eterrnal

  No more is it the Egyptian Amenthes, the region of judgment and purification; nor the Onderah – the abyss of darkness of the Hindus; for even the fallen angels hurled into it by Shiva, are allowed by Parabrahma to consider it as an intermediate state, in which an opportunity is afforded them to prepare for higher degrees of purification and redemption from their wretched condition. 

Hell, Jesus used it but as an ordinary metaphor. Whence then came the dreary dogma of Archimedean lever of Christian theology, with which they have succeeded to hold in subjection the numberless millions of Christians for nineteen centuries?


                                               


#7. ATMA – The Divine Part

 

THE SPIRITUAL TRIAD

#7. ATMA – The Divine Part

Atma (also written “Atman”) is the highermost and supreme part of man’s spiritual being. It is pure eternal Spirit. It is the Higher Self, the Divine Self, the Real Self of the human being and it is literally one and the same in essence and identity as the Infinite Supreme Self. This is in accordance with the fundamental teaching of Hinduism; that our Self (the Atman) IS the Supreme Self (Brahman). Atman literally means Self. It is the only one of our Principles to which the unqualified term “the Self” may be applied.

It is not an individual thing. There is no such thing as “my Atman” or “your Atman.” The Eternal Spirit is neither yours nor mine and is not the separate individual possession of anyone. There is neither “my Atman” nor “your Atman” but only THE Atman, the ONE Universal Self of all. It is here that all is truly one. The golden key to understanding universal oneness, divine allness, and non-duality (and thus the key to world peace!) is contained in this teaching about the Atman. I am the Atman. You are the Atman. Atman is Who and What we really are. It is our essential nature, it is our true self, it is the All IN All. In fact, It is the one and only Reality. As the Upanishads say, “This Atman IS Brahman.”

Since the Atman is literally Divinity Itself, we should always remember that it never incarnates or reincarnates, nor is it ever affected by our Karma or even by anything whatsoever. It just simply IS.

    ATHHOR UNKNOWN                                                    


H.H. SRI SWAMI SIVANANDAJI MAHARAJ 1963

 Jagadguru Sri Sankaracharya, who was an Avatara of Lord Siva, delved into the precious wisdom of the Upanishads and brought out the most rare gem in the form of the unparalleled Advaita philosophy or the Monistic idealism which gives you, in a nutshell, the glorious truth that you are in essence Divine beings, ever perfect, free, full and blissful. This idea is contained in his famous memorable Sloka: ‘Slokardhena pravakshyami yaduktam granthakotibhih, Brahma satyam jaganmithya, jivo brahmaiva naparah.’ This gives the very essence of all spiritual wisdom, and it is the last word in the transcendental realisation expressed in the form of this famous Sloka. Bliss is to be found in the spiritual Reality which is within you. Realise this and be free.


                                                        


Wednesday, September 29, 2021

Vivekananada

 


The path according to Jainism

 According to Jain Philosophy Moksha is an ecstatic state of existence of a soul, completely free from the karmic bondage, free from samsara, the cycle of birth and death. A released soul believed to have attained its true and pristine nature of infinite bliss, infinite knowledge and infinite perception. Such a soul is called siddha or paramatman and conceived as supreme soul or God. In Jainism, it is the highest and the noblest objective that a soul should endeavour to achieve. It fact, it is the only objective that a person should have; other objectives are adverse to the true nature of soul. With right faith, knowledge and efforts all souls can achieve this state.


                                                               










     




Sri Rama Ramarishi

 


Aitareya Upanishad

 “The Universe is founded in Consciousness and guided by it. Just as the Soul is the reality underlying the conscious powers of an individual, so is the Supreme Soul (God), the eternal quiet underneath the drive and activity of the Universe.”

                                                                               

“This Universe is a meeting point of that which is eternal and that which is manifested in time.” — Svetasvatara Upanishad


Tat twam asi – “You are That”. That immanent one (God), is the same that is in the human soul.

The Supreme Soul (who is one), resides within all his creations (as many). Herein lies the true source of morality; the unifying principle that connects us all; that we are all children of one Supreme God, and by hurting another, we are in reality hurting not only God but ourselves.

– A famous spiritual saying from the Chandogya Upanishad.

                                                            

                                                        

Just as a Lotus unfurls its petals to the Sun, may our minds open to the Divine Light of Spiritual Wisdom.

 


Tuesday, September 28, 2021

Tagore

 

I believe in a spiritual world – not as anything separate from this world – but as its innermost truth. With the breath we draw we must always feel this truth that we are living in God.

Born in this great world, full of the mystery of the infinite, we cannot accept our existence as a momentary outburst of chance drifting on the current of matter toward an eternal nowhere. We cannot look upon our lives as dreams of a dreamer who has no awakening in all time.

We have a personality whose nature we have discovered in some measure, in human love, in the greatness of the good, in the martyrdom of heroic souls, in the ineffable beauty of nature, which can never be a mere physical fact nor anything but an expression of the “Supreme” personality.


                                                                              

Swami Vivekananda’s quotes and comments on Tat Tvam Asi

 


  • Always repeat the great Mantras –“thou art That”, “I am That”, “all this is verily Brahman”– and have the courage of a lion in the heart.[Source]
  • Here is one of the profoundest passages in Vedanta: “He that is the Essence of your soul, He is the Truth, He is the Self, thou art That.[Source]
  • I know what God is—I cannot speak Him to you. I know not what God is—how can I speak Him to you? But seest thou not, my brother, that thou art He, thou art; He? Why go seeking God here and there? Seek not, and that is God. Be your own Self.[Source]
  • It is the Reality in me, in thee, and in everything—therefore, “That thou art”—Tattvamasi.[Source]
  • Know that thou art He; thou art the God of this universe, “Tat Tvam Asi” (That thou art). All these various ideas that I am a man or a woman, or sick or healthy, or strong or weak, or that I hate or I love, or have a little power, are but hallucinations.[Source]
  • “Mind is not God” (Shankara). “Tat tvam asi” “Aham Brahmâsmi” (“That thou art”, “I am Brahman”). When a man realises this, all the knots of his heart are cut asunder, all his doubts vanish”.
  • तत्त्वमसि श्वेतकेतो — “Shvetaketu, That thou art.” That Immanent One is at last declared to be the same that is in the human soul.[Source]
  • The Vedanta claims that there has not been one religious inspiration, one manifestation of the divine man, however great, but it has been the expression of that infinite oneness in human nature; and all that we call ethics and morality and doing good to others is also but the manifestation of this oneness. There are moments when every man feels that he is one with the universe, and he rushes forth to express it, whether he knows it or not. This expression of oneness is what we call love and sympathy, and it is the basis of all our ethics and morality. This is summed up in the Vedanta philosophy by the celebrated aphorism, Tat Tvam Asi, “Thou art That”.[Source]
  • The whole universe is you. Whom are you going to hate or to fight? Know, then, that thou art He, and model your whole life accordingly; and he who knows this and models his life accordingly will no more grovel in darkness.[Source]
  • This human soul goes after sense-enjoyments, vanities of the world; like animals it lives only in the senses, lives only in momentary titillations of the nerves. When there comes a blow, for a moment the head reels, and everything begins to vanish, and it finds that the world was not what it thought it to be, that life was not so smooth. It looks upward and sees the infinite Lord a moment, catches a glimpse of the majestic One, comes a little nearer, but is dragged away by its past actions. Another blow comes, and sends it back again. It catches another glimpse of the infinite Presence, comes nearer, and as it approaches nearer and nearer, it begins to find out that its individuality—its low, vulgar, intensely selfish individuality—is melting away; the desire to sacrifice the whole world to make that little thing happy is melting away; and as it gets gradually nearer and nearer, nature begins to melt away. When it has come sufficiently near, the whole vision changes, and it finds that it was the other bird, that this infinity which it had viewed as from a distance was its own Self, this wonderful glimpse that it had got of the glory and majesty was its own Self, and it indeed was that reality. The soul then finds That which is true in everything. That which is in every atom, everywhere present, the essence of all things, the God of this universe— know that thou art He, know that thou art free.[Source]
  • This is my attempt, my mission in life, to show that the Vedantic schools are not contradictory, that they all necessitate each other, all fulfill each other, and one, as it were, is the stepping-stone to the other, until the goal, the Advaita, the Tat Tvam Asi, is reached.[Source]
  • Thou art That. Thou art the Reality. How long does it take to know this? If we are God and always have been so, not to know this is most astonishing. To know this is the only natural thing. It should not take ages to find out what we have always been and what we now are.[Source]
  • Why weepest thou, brother? There is neither death nor disease for thee. Why weepest thou, brother? There is neither misery nor misfortune for thee. Why weepest thou, brother? Neither change nor death was predicated of thee. Thou art Existence Absolute.[Source]
  • यदुक्तं “तत्त्वनिकषग्रावा विपदिति” उच्येत तदापि शतशः “तत्त्वमसि” तत्त्वाधिकारे।. . . It has been said that adversity is the touchstone of true knowledge, and this may be said a hundred times with regard to the truth: “Thou art That.”[Source]
                                                                   


I Am That: Talks with Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj

“I am’ itself is God. The seeking itself is God. In seeking you discover that you are neither the body nor mind, and the love of the self in you is for the self in all. The two are one. The consciousness in you and the consciousness in me, apparently two, really one, seek unity and that is love.”



                                                         

                                       

Banani Ray, Glory of OM: A Journey to Self-Realization

 “You do not need any preacher or prophet to learn about God. The teaching is spread on the trees and the mountains, on the stars and the river, on the Sun and the moon. The ultimate teaching is written in your heart. You just need to wake up and see.”

                                                               
                                                                                      

Amit Ray, Om Chanting and Meditation

 


“Om is not just a sound or vibration. It is not just a symbol. It is the entire cosmos, whatever we can see, touch, hear and feel. Moreover, it is all that is within our perception and all that is beyond our perception. It is the core of our very existence. If you think of Om only as a sound, a technique or a symbol of the Divine, you will miss it altogether. Om is the mysterious cosmic energy that is the substratum of all the things and all the beings of the entire universe. It is an eternal song of the Divine. It is continuously resounding in silence on the background of everything that exists.”


                                                                                     

THE BIRTH OF HEAVEN ON EARTH by SWAMI KRISHNANANDA

. All great men think alike, and all great masters taught the same religion and the same gospel. Whether it is Christ or Krishna or Buddha, it makes no difference because they are only tongues of the same fire of THE birth of Heaven on Earth 11 religion, rays of the same sun of the Eternal. When this concept of religion rises in our hearts, we can be said to be celebrating the true Christmas because if at all there was anything worthwhile in the life of Christ, it was spirituality; it was God-awareness. His life was saturated with God-being; and our adoration of the Christ, or the incarnation of God, is nothing but an attempt of our own soul to participate in that process of the divine incarnation. It is the soul’s interpretation of the birth of the Divine Eternal through the religious consciousness which is true Christianity, different from the religion of the church, but the religion of the Christ; different from the religion of the temple, but the religion of God and Krishna.


                                                  


                                          


                                              

Rumi

 “I choose to love you in silence… For in silence I find no rejection,

I choose to love you in loneliness… For in loneliness no one owns you but me,
I choose to adore you from a distance… For distance will shield me from pain,
I choose to kiss you in the wind… For the wind is gentler than my lips,
**I choose to hold you in my dreams… For in my dreams, you have no end.” 

                                                       

PARAMAHANSA YOGANANDA

 


“Beneath the temporary mental masks of those whose behavior I dislike, I see the perfect love of my great Beloved, even as I see it in those worthy souls that I love. To stop loving is to stem the purifying flow of love. I shall loyally love every being, every thing, until I find all races, all creatures, all animate and inanimate objects embraced by my love. I will love until every soul, every star, every forsaken creature, every atom, is lodged in my heart; for in the infinite love of God, my breast of eternity is large enough to hold everything in me.”

                                                  

TANTRA THE GOSPEL OF RAMAKRISHNA

 


According to the Tantra, the Ultimate Reality is Chit, or Consciousness, which is identical with Sat, or Being, and with Ānanda, or Bliss. This Ultimate Reality, Satchidānanda, Existence-Knowledge-Bliss Absolute, is identical with the Reality preached in the Vedas. And man is identical with this Reality; but under the influence of Māyā, or illusion, he has forgotten his true nature. He takes to be real a merely apparent world of subject and object, and this error is the cause of his bondage and suffering. The goal of spiritual discipline is the rediscovery of his true identity with the divine Reality.

                                                                      

                                                              
                                                                 

Monday, September 27, 2021

Brhadaranyaka Upanishad 3.7

 11. ‘He who dwells in the moon and the stars, yet is within the moon and the stars, whom the moon and the stars do not know, whose body the moon and the stars are, who controls the moon and the stars from within, he is your self, the inner controller, the immortal.’

12. ‘He who dwells in the ether, yet is within the ether, whom the ether does not know, whose body the ether is, who controls the ether from within, he is your self, the inner con­troller, the immortal.’

13. ‘He who dwells in the darkness, yet is within the darkness, whom the darkness does not know, whose body the darkness is, who controls the darkness from within, he is your self, the inner controller, the immortal.’               

                                                             




Brhadaranyaka Upanishad

 

Brhadaranyaka Upanishad 1.4 

1. In the beginning this (world) was only the self, in the shape of a person. Looking around he saw nothing else than the self. He first said, ‘I am.’ Therefore arose the name of I. Therefore, even to this day when one is addressed he says first ‘This is I’ and then speaks whatever other name he may have. Because before all this, he burnt all evils, therefore he is a person. He who knows this, verily, burns up him who wishes to be before him.

2. He was afraid. Therefore one who is alone is afraid. This one then thought to himself, ‘since there is nothing else than myself, of what am I afraid?’ Thereupon his fear, verily, passed away, for, of what should he have been afraid? Assuredly it is from a second that fear arises.

3. He, verily, had no delight. Therefore he who is alone has no delight. He desired a second. He became as large as a woman and a man in close embrace. He caused that self to fall into two parts. From that arose husband and wife. Therefore, as Yajnavalkya used to say, this (body) is one half of oneself, like one of the two halves of a split pea. Therefore this space is filled by a wife. He became united with her. From that human beings were produced.                                            

                                                            


Fritjof Capra, 1972

 In Indian philosophy, the main terms used by Hindus and Buddhists have dynamic connotations. The word Brahman is derived from the Sanskrit root brih - to grow- and thus suggests a reality which is dynamic and alive. The Upanishads refer to Brahman as 'this unformed, immortal, moving', thus associating it with motion even though it transcends all forms.' The Rig Veda uses another term to express the dynamic character of the universe, the term Rita. This word comes from the root ri- to move. In its phenomenal aspect, the cosmic One is thus intrinsically dynamic, and the apprehension of its dynamic nature is basic to all schools of Eastern mysticism.

They all emphasize that the universe has to be grasped dynamically, as it moves, vibrates and dances. ..The Eastern mystics see the universe as an inseparable web, whose interconnections are dynamic and not static. The cosmic web is alive; it moves and grows and changes continually. 

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Sudhakar S.D, 1988

 Hindu cosmology is non-dualistic. Everything that is is Brahman. Brahman is the eternal Now, and in eternity there is no before or after, for everything is everywhere, always. To use the words of Pascal 'it is a circle the center of which is everywhere and the circumference nowhere.' 


OM Asato ma sadgamaya, tamaso ma jyotirgamaya, mrityor mamritam gamaya
" OM Lead me from falsehood to truth, from darkness to light, from death to immortality."

Though One, Brahman is the cause of the many.
Brahman is the unborn (aja) in whom all existing things abide. The One manifests as the many, the formless putting on forms. (Rig Veda)

Behold but One in all things; it is the second that leads you astray. (Kabir)

 


Lama Anagarika Govinda, 1969

 The fundamental element of the cosmos is Space. Space is the all-embracing principle of higher unity. Nothing can exist without Space. .. According to ancient Indian tradition the Universe reveals itself in two fundamental properties: as Motion and as that in which motion takes place, namely Space. This Space is called Akasa .. derived from the root kas, 'to radiate, to shine', and has therefore the meaning of ether which is conceived as the medium of movement. The principle of movement, however, is Prana, the breath of life, the all-powerful, all-pervading rhythm of the universe. 


                                   


Joel Goldsmith

 “Illumination dissolves all material ties and binds men together with the golden chains of spiritual understanding: it acknowledges only the leadership of the Christ: it has no ritual or rule but the divine, impersonal universal Love: no other worship than the inner Flame that is ever lit at the shrine of Spirit. This union is the free state of spiritual brotherhood. The only restraint is the discipline of Soul: therefore, we know liberty without license: we are a united universe without physical limits, a divine service to God without ceremony or creed. The illumined walk without fear — by Grace.”


                                         


Joel Goldsmith

 “Immortality is attained in proportion as personal sense is overcome, whether here or hereafter. As we put off the personal ego and attain the consciousness of our real Self – the Reality of us, divine Consciousness – we attain immortality. And that can be achieved here and now.”


                                                   


Sunday, September 26, 2021

By Sri Ramana Maharshi Who am I?

 

                                                                  


                                               

Ralph Waldo Trine

 God, then, is this Infinite Spirit which fills all the universe with Himself alone, so that all is from Him and in Him, and there is nothing that is outside. Indeed and in truth, then, in Him we live and move and have our being. He is the life of our life, our very life itself. We have received, we are continually receiving our life from Him. We are partakers of the life of God; and though we differ from Him in that we are individualized spirits, while He is the Spirit including us as well as all else beside, yet in essence the life of God and the life of man are identically the same, and so are one. They differ not in essence, in quality; they differ in degree.


                                          


Sivananda

 Blessed aspirants, ‘Moksha’ is freedom from births and deaths and the attainment of supreme Immortal Bliss. Moksha is the goal of life. Moksha Gita is the essence of Vedanta and all Upanishads. It is the “Song of Salvation”. It will throw much light on the spiritual path and help you all in the attainment of freedom and Immortality. 

May the Lord bless you

                                          



                                               

~SUDHAKAR S.D, 1988. P108


All that is, is one, the one reality, and plurality does not exist anywhere, except in man’s mind. The esoteric science postulates that there is ultimately One power, One life, One substance. This power is omnipresent, eternal and immutable.