Meditations on Transcendence

Presently due to the Corona pandemic, Whole country is lockdown. Lakshman rekha at the house door. All kinds of travel is banned even going outside the house. Flights, train, buses are off. Just stay at home is called a lock down. It is enforced but also voluntary lockdown. Is there lockdown concept in Gita?         The premise is that every concept will have its presence directly or indirectly in the Gita. Whats the difference between lockdown and lockup? One can lock oneself and go down or one can lock and move up. Evolve up. In Gita, the recommendation is to lock the senses. It is basically selective locking. In general societal terms lockup is used for the place, the prisonhouse. Whereas lockdown is more of a voluntary action to stay put with minimal external interaction. Any kind of meditation needs some form of selective lockdown. Our senses are bombarded with flow of data from all directions. Everything should not be allowed inside into the consciousness. Th...

Global corona virus is creating Vishada means a poison like misery sad feeling in the mind of people. It is very similar to what Arjuna faced at the start of the kurukshetra world war when he was face to face with ones own family members. Many are questioning why the nature of this world is like this? Waves of issues, challenges come in one after the other. It may be personal misery, misery wave due to behavior of other people, or due to natural upheaval like floods, virus, forest fire, etc....Its the nature of the world. One cannot stop no matter the advancement in science and technology. The worldly challenges continuously evolve releasing newer version and we are always in a catchup game. What to do? Gita thru its 18 yoga techniques have the answer.  The vishada or questions that arise when in misery or frustrated unable to handle the constant barrage of challenges the world throws up. But during Vishada one has to find a very spiritually competent person linked to Krishna if ...

Life is a combination of beauty and the beast All are born beasts to different extent Inner beauty has to be churned to shine Churning of Consciousness Divine Sound a churning rod of consciousness Churning time is limited, falling like the petals of rose Curses have a long term vision to take towards ultimate bliss Enbrace curse; tat te anukampam Pure consciousness - a consciousness of love Belle the Guru, Gaston the kali chela Belles father - the vartma pradarsakah Guru at the doorstep, the castle of the beast Transformation of the beast thru association of Belle When love matures, the external beastly coverings are melted and beauty of siddha deha is manifested; The maturity of love is thru books - the books of guru is close to the heart - appreciating and discussing and adopting in life - Love strikes - Gurus mercy flows As the mercy wave touches, the beastly covering melts away - a loving self evolves, joy becomes an assset, service and care the external World is ...

Travel to Finland was cold. It was via Dubai to Helsinki. Business travel and all that stuff but anyway everything is a learning opportunity. Every moment in this world affords a inner growth opportunity. All is anyway a covering over brahman. Travel over flights are also deep meditation opportunities. Just close eyes chant mantras and meditate. Meditation at one level is just to close eyes and observe what thought patterns arise in mind. As you observe they stop and a ray of light from soul can touch if fortunate. So anyway it's good to not look into inflight entertainment but get entertained by observing one's own thoughts. It's therapeutic, believe me. Isn't a great time to introspect, self reflect? The flight connections, long wait sometime, poorly managed low quality flights all are part of the game. The in-flight announcement, the turbulence, the cramped cattle class experience. Anyway traverse the contours of your inner being folks. Kirtan is an amazing techniqu...

Travel to Finland was cold. It was via Dubai to Helsinki. Business travel and all that stuff but anyway everything is a learning opportunity. Every moment in this world affords a inner growth opportunity. All is anyway a covering over brahman. Travel over flights are also deep meditation opportunities. Just close eyes chant mantras and meditate. Meditation at one level is just to close eyes and observe what thought patterns arise in mind. As you observe they stop and a ray of light from soul can touch if fortunate. So anyway it's good to not look into inflight entertainment but get entertained by observing one's own thoughts. It's therapeutic, believe me. Isntit a great time to introspect, selfreflect? The flight connections, long wait sometime, poorly managed low quality flights all are part of the game. The inflight announcement, the turbulence, the cramped cattle class experience. 

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...