Meditations on Transcendence

Back from Vrindavan trip.....a trip to the spiritual capital of the universe. The concentration of spirituality is not uniformly spread over matter universe, but it is topsy turvy curve. Certain places on earth you can recharge your spiritual battery more because of intensification. India assumes importance on this earth for it is home to places of intense spiritual energy. South india has its share from Tirupati, Udupi, Srirangam, rameswaram to name some of the major ones. Bu there are innumerable of you start to really count. The SriVaisnava sampradaya calls it as Divya desams or spiritual abodes. It is the target of every follower of Sri Ramanuja to cover all of the Divya Desams atleast once in a life time. There are innumerable places in North India starting with the Char Dham, Mathura, Vrindavan , Kurukshetra, Ayodhya to name some of the prominent ones. West and East inida have their own share. Infact if you do a relative comparison every inch of india has higher spiritual energy...

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...

Sabda Brahma is vibrated by Sri Guru. This baton of vibrating sabda Brahman is transferred from guru to disciple in the parampara. Real seeker of spiritual perfection will always try to find out where this sabda brahma is vibrated and try to drink it by one’s ears. The tongue followed by ears are the initiators of transcendence. As Srila Rupa Goswami has pointed out ‘Sevon muke hi Jihva adau’ – Understanding Sri Krishna begins by engaging the tongue in service of the Lord by vibrating his Nama. The refinement of chanting occurs by the increased hearing of sabda Brahman by the chanter. It is not possible to reach the stage of Suddha Nama or pure chanting without sufficiently hearing sabda Brahman. Nama and Nami are non different in the case of Suddha Nama. Similarly Pure Harikatha is non different from the incident(Lila) itself. Any Harikatha incident has Bhagavan, Bhakta and Bhakti which is emanating from the hearts of the Bhakta. Hence the sincere hearer associates with the heart of ...

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...