Meditations on Transcendence

Want to understand Importance of keeping good company - go and see Spiderman 3 - Its Aunt May's affection, religiosity, his pure innocent love for MJ and his faith in divinity which makes Spidey get free from the Green thing. Are we all overcome by the green thing similar to Spidey? Yes says Sri Krishna in the Gita. The Green thing in our life is association with mode of passion (Rajo guna). We develop lust in contact with mode of passion and lust is the all devouring enemy in this world. Chapter 3, Verse 36. Arjuna said: O descendant of Vrsni, by what is one impelled to sinful acts, even unwillingly, as if engaged by force? Chapter 3, Verse 37. The Blessed Lord said: It is lust only, Arjuna, which is born of contact with the material modes of passion and later transformed into wrath, and which is the all-devouring, sinful enemy of this world. Chapter 3, Verse 38. As fire is covered by smoke, as a mirror is covered by dust, or as the embryo is covered by the womb, similarly, th...

Arjuna was local and family conscious. Due to illusion his systems and cosmic thinking was covered. Confusion is a result of lack of systems thinking. Sri Krishna thru his friendly discussion elevates Arjuna from a local thinking to cosmic thinking which brings clarity to him on his purpose, duty seeing himself as a component in the cosmic setup. Armed with Cosmic thinking, illusion shattered he gets energised to fight .................... Quite often when we are confused and in a decision junction like Arjuna, systems/cosmic thinking can help us to choose the right path. its true for individuals, relationships, corporations, business decisions etc........ Being Stitha Prajna is a result of training the mind to always live in Cosmic thinking and acting as a component contributing to the cosmic goal. Following are some of the conversation snippets from The Gita: 2.17 -> Arjuna said Now I am confused about my duty and have lost all composure because of weakness. In this condition I am...

Chintane Club members were on a fun cum philosophical trip to Kodachadri Hills. "Folks, lets do something iam getting bored" Vidya got restless that evening in the resort. Uddhav, Kesav got together with Vidya to plan out some games. At the corner, outside one of the huts, Madhav was just absorbed in himself experiencing joy. Syama inquisitve about Madhav's behaviour said "lets get Madhav also in the discussion" "Hey Madhav, What are you upto, seems like for the moment you are cut off from the group" Madhav replied "Team, Last week i attended a discourse on Gita, where there was an explanation on the theory behind "Is existance itself joy?" There were detailed philosophical discussions about pursuing happiness as independent and intrinsic phenomenon. Mostly in this world we pursue happiness by doing something -> what i mean to say is that happiness is the goal of some activity -> like acquiring wealth, or fame or some trendy elctro...

Uddhav was more serious in spiritual life compared to the other members in Chintane club. He had taken Guru asraya - shelter of a spiritual master to seriously advance in Spiritual techniques. It was Monday and Uddhav had to attend Gita discourse that evening. During the afternoon training in his work place he got quite excited about learning the pareto princple. In everything he learnt that 20% of the things are more important than 80%. Quite often we get lost when there is a huge body of information but almost everytime in any subject if one struggles to get hold of the Pivotal 20% core of the subject matter, he becomes an expert in the field. He extended the similar thought to spirituality, what is the pivotal 20% of the vedas knowing which one can know everything? In the evening, after the discourse he put the question to his Guru - " You said that vedas is very huge body of knowledge and one life is insufficient to know the entirety of the vedas, is there simplied way of know...

Outlook reminder flashed - "Chintane club chill out". Vidya hurried to finish her timesheet entryto head towards cafetaria. She was eagerly waiting whole week after getting a taste theprevious Friday. As she entered cafe, she felt comfortable seeing most of the chintane membersin the coffee queue.Uddhav said "folks i have exciting plan this weekend - iam on to explore a old Lord Kurma templeon the outskirts of Mysore, its really a much needed break i need from the hectic week i had"Madhav said " I would like to join too, have you done backgorund research of the diety and theshtala purana, I enjoy sight seeing backed up by prior research"Uddhav said " Ya man!, I will send across the blog site" Vidya, being a new entrant to the club questioned "Team i have some fundadmental questions on this spiritual stuff and correlation to science etc""is being spiritual scientific, logical andsupported by reason?"Syama said "Vidya thank...

[ Friday musings is a new venture as part of innervoice. Basically a fictional work involving 5 techies Uddhav, Madhav, Kesav, Syama, Vidya - These five are passionate about Vedic culture, heritage and have formed club called 'Chintane'. They meet Friday evenings to share their insights and synergise in Spiritual realisation. The innervoice series will capture the conversation snippets of the Chintane club's Friday musings] Vidya exclaimed -"Whats so great about Mungaru male lyrics? Lots of indirect nature comparisons etc, I like this cool rap kind of music, keep It simple is my mantra" " I disagree here, one has to be living beyond gross to have these ehtereal music touch ones inner self" uttered the philosophical bespectacled Uddhav It was Friday evening. FM Radio music was blaring in the background, The conversation was happening at the corner of the cafetaria in one of the top multinational IT Companies. The group of 5 techies never missed to meet on...

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...