Meditations on Transcendence

Sound is one of the most important aspect of life. Imagine a world without sound. One cannot chit chat with friends, no melodious music, no great conversations. One would be bored to death without sound. It is such an integral part of life itself. According to vedic creation, sound is one of the fundamental element created along with taste, form, touch, and smell. We deal with varieties of sounds in our day-to-day life. They are vocal language sounds, instrumentals, singing of various genres etc. Sounds can generate emotions influencing our subtle conscious body. Music therapy is prevalent in many cultures of the world where diseases related to depression are cured using vocal and instrumental sound. Sounds from leaders like Martin Luther King, Hitler, Gandhi have triggered contrasting revolutions moving millions of hearts to action. Why do sounds from some people propel their followers to action and some do not? What is the extra flavor in the sounds emanated from these powerful pe...

Happy new year 2011. The greetings were all around in the air as i arrived for the first day in office for 2011. Innumerable handshakes, SMS, emails!!! I joined in it part of group think, which makes one do a ritual just because everyone is doing. Inside me i was thinking ‘what is happy about arrival of a new year?’. I have wished for the past 30 years but nothing better has happened. Corruption levels have increased, crime rates are on rising trend in all major cities and around us. We are constantly at fear of an imminent terrorist attack. So why we are all part of this ritual of wishing when the First of January arrives every year? Have we become very mechanical in life? Have we stopped questioning the intent of anything due to the ever increasing busy life. By the time my first day in office had ended, i had got heavily cynical of these new year wishes. As i was overhearing numerous wishes over the phone across my cubicle i was feeling how empty these wishes are. How many times do ...

Every Hindu is aware of the word Dharma. People in India use it with different interpretations, in different context. The words 'Guru' and 'karma' have already gotten into the English dictionary being part of the vocabulary. It will not be much longer before the word 'Dharma' makes its way. What is the real meaning of the word Dharma? People usually associate with the english word 'duty'. Going deeper into sanskrit grammar, the word Dharma means 'spontaneous property of any object/entity'. Every object exhibits some natural property which cannot be disassociated from it. Like the property of sweetness is tightly coupled with entity sugar, flowing property is associated with water, heat with fire etc... one can go on. Dharma is an idea in people's mind on how a object generally behaves. Its a perception of reality unchangeable with time. Environmental influences can temporarily modify the property - like low temperature can modify the property...

Dharma is that which sustains ones existance - So according to Gaudiya Vaisnava school of thought Krishna prema is the dharma of every living being. Why do you think advanced devotees can sustain without food water etc? Becasue having achieved Krishna prema and saturated with it, Prem sustains them - Prem is the thing which really sustains us - others are artificial sustenence. During sadhaka stage it is important to nourish the body with food etc.....So our sadhana to attain prem maintains us Death is absence of sustenence - an identity which is illusory and artificial has to die and decay - only the real identity will be sustained by the universe - One can sustain for eternity and become timless by achieving Krishna prema

Last week we saw lots of bombs and bomb scares across Indian cities. Enviousness or misplaced religious ideologies are the heart of such destructive actions. Religious identity has lead to perpetration of violence. How do religion and spirituality differ? Are these the same things? Spirituality is the essence, the core and religion the vehicle. The inherent essence of spirituality is same across all religions - only the body, the vehicle carrying this essence varies. Its like using a Tata safari or Scorpio to come to office. The essence is traveling and one need not get fanatic about belonging to a safari or a Scorpio club. Today's civilization has totally forgotten the essence and carrying on a specific set of meaningless rituals, customs in the name of religion. We all sometime or the other have taken pleasure in thinking ourselves superior to others. Religious identity is used as a tool to enjoy the kick of feeling superior to others. But spirituality teaches us to be humbl...

The kalyana mandapa was overflowing with festive atmosphere. It was Muhurtha time, one half hour before noon. After participating in the 'kaashi Yatra' ceremony, I came back to take a seat to observe the further rituals of the wedding of one of my far cousins. I was surprised to see a bunch of Europeans next to my seat. They were observing the proceedings with wide open curious eyes. My cousin works in a European multinational and she had invited her Business partners. I exchanged introductions, talked little bit about the global IT business scenario. Once the fire sacrifice (homa) started, Svetlana who was more curious and vocal among the group eagerly questioned about the significance of all these rituals. Svetlana questioned me "Two people love each other madly and they have decided to go together in life, Why bring divinity and all these complex rituals.Its just pure attraction and why spend huge amounts of time on rituals.Cant you just party and celebrate this pure at...