Musings 20 Jan 2020

Tapa, Brahmacharya, Unselfishness, Purity and Grace of God, not the words contribute to the impact of the message.

It benefits to fast twice a month during Ekadashi and also do Ram Nam Sankirtan

Merry Christmas and Greetings on Guru Gobind Singh Jayanti

Today, India is celebrating the birth of the messenger of love and a spiritual giant who preached the path strength to salvation.

Let's make ourselves strong - physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually; and make love our true strength. This is the need of the hour.

Swami Vivekananda: The Reward of Perseverance

There was a great god-sage called Nârada. Just as there are sages among mankind, great Yogis, so there are great Yogis among the gods. Narada was a good Yogi, and very great. He travelled everywhere. 

One day he was passing through a forest, and saw a man who had been meditating until the white ants had built a huge mound round his body — so long had he been sitting in that position. He said to Narada, "Where are you going?" Narada replied, "I am going to heaven." "Then ask God when He will be merciful to me; when I shall attain freedom." 

Further on Narada saw another man. He was jumping about, singing, dancing, and said, "Oh, Narada, where are you going?" His voice and his gestures were wild. Narada said, "I am going to heaven." "Then, ask when I shall be free." Narada went on. In the course of time, he came again by the same road, and there was the man who had been meditating with the ant-hill round him. 

He said, "Oh, Narada, did you ask the Lord about me?" "Oh, yes." "What did He say?" "The Lord told me that you would attain freedom in four more births." Then the man began to weep and wail, and said, "I have meditated until an ant-hill has grown around me, and I have four more births yet!" Narada went to the other man. "Did you ask my question?" "Oh, yes. Do you see this tamarind tree? I have to tell you that as many leaves as there are on that tree, so many times, you shall be born, and then you shall attain freedom." 

The man began to dance for joy, and said, "I shall have freedom after such a short time!" A voice came, "My child, you will have freedom this minute." That was the reward for his perseverance. He was ready to work through all those births, nothing discouraged him. But the first man felt that even four more births were too long. Only perseverance, like that of the man who was willing to wait for aeons, brings about the highest result.

The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda, Volume 1, Raja-Yoga

Barack Obama Quotes Swami Vivekananda

Instead of resisting the global economy, you became one of its engines 

--reforming the licensing raj and unleashing an economic marvel that has lifted tens of millions of people from poverty and created one of the world’s largest middle classes. Instead of succumbing to division, you have shown that the strength of India -the very idea of India - is its embrace of all colors, all castes, all creeds. (Applause.) It's the diversity represented in this chamber today. It’s the richness of faiths celebrated by a visitor to my hometown of Chicago more than a century ago, the renowned Swami Vivekananda said that, "holiness, purity, and charity are not the exclusive possessions of any church in the world, and that every system has produced men and women of the most exalted character."

Swamiji at Parliament of Religions

(Excerpted from a speech by Barack Obama, the 44th President of the United States addressed to the parliament of India during his official visit to India in November 2010.)

Swami Vivekananda: Go to God Directly

If there is this truth, if there is God, it must be within us. I must be able to say, "I have seen Him with my eyes," Otherwise I have no religion. Beliefs, doctrines, sermons do not make religion.

It is realisation, perception of God [which alone is religion]. What is the glory of all these men whom the world worships? God was no more a doctrine for them. Did they believe because their grandfather believed it? No. It was the realisation of the Infinite, higher than their own bodies, minds, and everything.

This world is real inasmuch as it contains a little bit of the reflection of that God. We love the good man because in his face shines the reflection a little more. We must catch it ourselves. There is no other way.

That is the goal. Struggle for it! Have your own Bible. Have your own Christ. Otherwise you are not religious. Do not talk religion. Men talk and talk. "Some of them, steeped in darkness, in the pride of their hearts think that they have the light. And not only [that], they offer to take others upon their shoulders and both fall into the pit." (Katha, I. ii. 5.) . . .

No church ever saved by itself. It is good to be born in a temple, but woe unto the person who dies in a temple or church. Out of it! . . . It was a good beginning, but leave it! It was the childhood place . . . but let it be!

Go to God directly. No theories, no doctrines. Then alone will all doubts vanish. Then alone will all crookedness be made straight. . .

In the midst of the manifold, he who sees that One; in the midst of this infinite death, he who sees that one life; in the midst of the manifold, he who sees that which never changes in his own soul — unto him belongs eternal peace.
(Complete Works, Vol. 2, Practical Vedanta and other lectures)

Happy New Year: The Spiritual Significance of Kalpataru Day

On the night of December 31, at the stroke of midnight, the world will be awake to ring in yet another New Year — 2017 while for the monks and members of the Ramakrishna Mission, January 1 holds a special significance. They celebrate this day as `Kalpataru Day', to commemorate an awe-inspiring moment in the life of Ramakrishna Paramahamsa. On this day, in 1886, the Master entered into divine ecstasy and touching several disciples, pronounced the words, `Ye be illumined'! Instantly, those he blessed experienced profound bliss. And one of Master's disciples, Ramachandra Dutta named January 1 as `Kalpataru Day'.

Swami Akhandananda writes, "It is an auspicious day for all of us. Our Master became the Kalpataru to bless his disciples at Cossipore (a Calcutta suburb). Kalpataru is one of the five trees of Heaven or Indra's Paradise that is supposed to fulfil desires. The other four are Mandaram, Santanam, Harichandanam and Parijatam.

It is interesting to note that Ramakrishna Paramahamsa shed his mortal coils in August, 1886, in the same house at Cossipore, where he attained divinity. He suffered his bad health (throat cancer) silently. After his mahasamadhi, his disciples took shelter with his holy `asthi' in a dilapidated house at Baranagar. This is the sacred place where Narendra (Swami Vivekananda) and a few others took up sanyasa and spent more than five years performing unprecedented spiritual austerities.

Later Swami Vivekananda realised that service to humanity was more important than spiritual penance. He advised his followers to spend some time in the morning and evening in japa and dhyana, but to occupy oneself during the rest of the day in spiritual study and to work for the good of the world.

This seed sown by the Swamiji bore fruit in the form of the worldwide organisation, Ramakrishna Mission, which is engaged in service to the poor and the needy. (The Hindu)

Sw. Vivekananda: Devote yourselves to develop the truth with

Be like the pearl oyster. There is a pretty Indian fable to the effect that if it rains when the star Svâti is in the ascendant, and a drop of rain falls into an oyster, that drop becomes a pearl. The oysters know this, so they come to the surface when that star shines, and wait to catch the precious raindrop. When a drop falls into them, quickly the oysters close their shells and dive down to the bottom of the sea, there to patiently develop the drop into the pearl. We should be like that. First hear, then understand, and then, leaving all distractions, shut your minds to outside influences, and devote yourselves to developing the truth within you. There is the danger of frittering away your energies by taking up an idea only for its novelty, and then giving it up for another that is newer. Take one thing up and do it, and see the end of it, and before you have seen the end, do not give it up. He who can become mad with an idea, he alone sees light. Those that only take a nibble here and a nibble there will never attain anything. They may titillate their nerves for a moment, but there it will end. They will be slaves in the hands of nature, and will never get beyond the senses.
-The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda, Volume 1, Raja Yoga

Sri Sarada Devi: Do not hurt others

One should not hurt others even by words. One must not speak even an unpleasant truth unnecessarily. By indulging in rude words one’s nature becomes rude. One’s sensitivity is lost if one has no control over one’s speech. Sri Ramakrishna used to say, “One should not ask a lame person how he became lame.”

Let me tell you one thing. If you want peace of mind, do not find fault with others. Rather see your own faults. Learn to make the whole world your own. No one is a stranger, my child; the whole world is your own.

One must be patient like the earth. What inequities are being perpetrated on her! Yet she quietly endures them all. People, too, should be like that.

Sri Ramakrishna: Dwell, O mind within yourself!

 A beautiful devotional song which used to be sung by Sri Ramakrishna in his moments of divine ecstasy. The Master reminds us of the facts God resides deep within us, and there is no other place to find God but within our own heart.

Dwell, O mind, within yourself;
Enter no other’s home.
If you but seek there, you will find
All you are searching for.
God, the true Philosopher’s Stone,
Who answers every prayer,
Lies hidden deep within your heart,
The richest gem of all.
How many pearls and precious stones
Are scattered all about
The outer court that lies before
The chamber of your heart!

                 -Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna