Meditations on Transcendence

Disappointment all around……sometimes life is like that. The events surrounding us send us into a topsy turvy ride of alternating happiness and distress. Bhagavan Sri Krishna says in Gita ‘Matra sparsas tu Kaunteya…Sukha Dukha sitosna daha, aagamapayino anityah, tams titikshasva bharatha’…….Lord compares this topsy turvy ride into the scheduled change of seasons. There is lot of difference between the regular change of seasons and the topsy turvy ride. One is random but the appearance and disappearance of seasons in predictable, follows a fixed pattern. By giving more credence to the statement of the Lord, we need to delve deeply whether ‘Sukha’ ‘Dukha’ follows a regular pattern and not random as understood generally. The seasons has to be tolerated. Right now it is very Cold in North India and we use various protective blankets against the cold. Most take resort to heating their houses using ACs but that comes with its own baggage of side effects. Brittle hair, dry skin are some of...

Sourcing happiness…..The nature of human beings is to source happiness from many source points. Some have a diversified portfolio of sourcing happiness, some have a narrow portfolio. Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu in his sikshashtaka classifies 4 prominent sources of happiness common to most people in this world – Dhanam ‘wealth’ Janam ‘popularity, fame, following’ Sundarim ‘beautiful women/Handsome wealthy men’ Kavitam ‘Fame as scholar’. Some acaryas summarise as Wine, Woman and Wealth as the most common source points of happiness. But the Vedas give a clue about another inexhaustible source of pure sweet happiness and they recommend all living beings to strive for contact with this inexhaustible source of infinite happiness. This is the ‘real Self’ or ‘Soul’ which is repository of Pure existence (Sat), Accurate knowledge(Cit) and unbridled ecstacy (Ananda). Spending time on fallible sources of happiness leaves us with no time and energy to access the inexhaustible source ‘The Soul’. Sri P...

The aatma ‘real self’ is blocked from experiencing itself. The material energy ‘maya’ has two functions – one is called aavaranatmika sakti and the other is called ‘Praksepatmika’ sakti. The aavarantmika sakti covers the real self, its pure identity and also its nature of anandamaya. Intoxication is a result of covering of the always ever blissful self. Our true nature is to taste bliss every moment ‘Prati Padam Purnamrta svadanam’. When this nature is covered by ‘avaranatmika’ sakti, we start hankering because the experience of anandam is stopped. And then due to ignorance without clue to what is happening, the self covered by the apparent self tries to achieve constant bliss thru material means which leads to various forms……..intoxication of various types is the result – paan, Jarda, smoke, alcohol etc…..Some people gratify the subtle body to sustain constant bliss….but this becomes very strenuous and also causes pain in the long run, health issues etc….You see animals like cow alw...

Origins……..means seeking out the roots. It can be the family roots………sometimes Indian expatriates come out in search of their roots….ancestral lineage, native place where the family tree all started. This inquisitiveness to search out our roots is inborn in every human being. This is part of the DNA psyche. Nothing exists without a reason. Similarly this nature of every life to seek out its origin is a very important trait to attain salvation. At a macro level, humanity led its search which has led to many unconvincing theories ….one of them being the Darwin’s ‘Origin of Species’ essay. Having knowledge about the origin makes us feel secure and grounded……..without the clarity one feels incomplete. All of our actions are motivated by this incompleteness……to fill the void, to feel complete …..’om purnam idam’ claims the Upanishad. ‘Purnasya Purnam aadaya, Purnam evavasisyate’………that the absolute is Poorna who feels always complete and is not motivated to act out of solving incomplete...