Kailash-1

Dear Friends 

Those of you who wonder what is Sankalp Pooja, this is a little precursor. 

When we set out to do some action(s), personal, professional or social, we always prepare with the right attitude of the mind with the hope that the action yields the results that we anticipate. This creation of the right attitude of the mind, is called Sankalp. Those of us who are familiar with the rituals in Hinduism will know this from the performance of the priests at various religious and social functions. 

Therefore, now that we are beginning our preparations for the yatra to Kailash, we pray to Shiva, [these two letters, "shi" "va" means the auspicious one; one who helps us keep the "shree" {pure}" in our "vash" {control}, that He gives us the right attitude of the mind in enabling the preparations and remains with us till we reach His Abode and forever thereafter. This Sankalp will be taken by everyone who is going for this auspicious yatra. It is indeed a rare privilege that He has bestowed the thought upon us to undertake this great pilgrimage. {Some of you may not relate to the use of the word "pilgrimage". Pilgrimage is a journey or search for great moral or spiritual significance; at least this is what wikipedia says!!} Then what is this great moral or spiritual significance?

Human beings are constituted of three components; body, mind and intellect. The purpose of the human life is to reach nearer to our origin, which is nothing but peace and happiness. This is easier said than done, because we are living in a world of constant disturbance and a constant expectation of happiness; from things outside of us. Little do we realise that, what we search for and expect is deep within us, in our own bosom. The efforts at undertaking pilgrimage or attending satsang (which is what we will do on Sunday at the Sankalp Pooja) is to make our minds and intellect more and more pure with the aid of our body (thus all our three components work in tandem) and to reach that peace and happiness within us, which is our birthright. 

I hope to share more of such thoughts with you all, again and again, over the next few months. Please feel free to fill this space with your own as well.

I look forward to each one of you participating in the Sankalp Pooja on Sunday 18th (those of you who are in Mumbai) and benefit from this auspicious beginning for reaching the auspicious one!!

With Prem & Om

Kailash-4

Dear Friends

I’d promised myself that every Monday I will put in a new post, but certain personal events over the weekend prevented me from acting upon that promise. I pray that I should be able to keep it up in the next 12-13 weeks.

One of the names of Shiva is Dakshinamurthy. He is called “Aadi Guru” i.e. the first teacher. Of course that form of the Lord is only seen by us in photos or in temples. There was however, one teacher who descended upon our great nation centuries ago, his name was Aadi Sankara”. He was the Lord’s own incarnation who brought His teachings to us through many spiritual literary works.

When we buy any appliance or machine, we get what is called an “instruction manual” sometimes in different languages, to advise us how to use that appliance or machine. The human body, mind, intellect equipment, when it is born; doesn’t come with any “instruction manual”. We learn to use it by default rather than by design. Adi Sankara wrote a few such instruction manuals for different kinds of people with different inclinations; like the Bhaja Govindam for the melodious devotion inclined; Shiva Aparadha Kshamapana Stotram for the prayer inclined; Vivekachoodamani for the learning inclined etc. These instruction manuals teach us about what this triple personality layer, i.e. Body, Mind, Intellect equipment (called BMI) is. I had said in my last post that I will write on this BMI in my next post; here I am.

At the core of our being is the Life Spark in us, our Godhood. This principle is the one which makes our BMI apparatus function in us. With our Body we perform various actions in our daily transactions with various experiences. These actions are determined by how we react to situations and people around us. These reactions are governed by our Mind, which is the seat of our emotions and feelings. While doing so, many a times our actions are determined by our likes or dislikes; i.e. different pairs of opposites. On occasions these actions are wonderful and excellent and at other times very disappointing or disturbing. The difference in the quality of actions is determined by our discriminative Intellect. The Mind is like the water in a flowing river; ever changing course, constantly moving; whereas the discriminative Intellect is like the river’s banks, firm, guiding and channelizing it in the right path. In spiritual literature, “heart” means the Mind & Intellect equipment (M&I) in us and not the anatomical heart that is behind our lungs. When the Life Spark with us is no more, it is the sum total of the residual qualities that we have developed in our heart that determines our journey into our next embodiment, the after-life.

The Kailash Yatra is not a journey out there in the yonder; it is a journey inwards; into our hearts. Let us use the various exercises prescribed for our different personality layers to make this pilgrimage a really Holy one. In doing so, to the extent possible, let us learn a few of the literary gems of the Great Teacher, Adi Sankara, depending upon our own convictions in our hearts, in each one of us.

With Prem & Om
Suresh

Kailash-3

Dear Friends

Those of us who were fortunate enough to make ourselves available for the “Sankalpa Pooja” last afternoon were witness to and experienced the benefits of preparing the “right attitude of the mind” for undertaking the Kailash Yatra. Those among us who missed it due to pre-occupations can be sure that their sankalpa was performed by their other fellow-yatris who prayed for their absent friends.

We understood that the worship of the Lord that we did yesterday was a combination of our actions with our body, mind and intellect. We intellectually understood that the sankalpa was an aid at our self-purification for undertaking the pilgrimage in the right attitude of the mind. We mentally felt one with our fellow-yatris and cultivated the emotion of devotion for the Lord in our actions. We bodily performed actions with our five Indriyas; viz: eyes, ears, nose, tongue and hands. With the eyes we beheld the “linga” form of the Lord and saw his altar decked with floral decorations, with our ears we heard the sacred chantings of the Lord’s glory and His names, with our nose we smelt the fragrance of the flowers and dhoopa that were offered to Him, with our tongue we repeated His names as was instructed to us and our hands were sublimated in our prayers at His holy feet. Thus with “manasa” (mind), “vaacha” (word) and “karmana” (action) we prostrated before Him and sought His blessings in undertaking this great pilgrimage that we have embarked upon.

While we are on the subject of worship, I will now narrate the way Kannappa Nayanar worshipped Lord Shiva. Kannappan, a hunter in a forest, used to worship a shivalinga in the forest. As a hunter the only known food to him was meat of the animals that he killed. So he used to carry meat of these animals in one hand and in the other hand he used to carry flowers. Now he had a dilemma; how could he carry water to do abhishek of the linga? So he filled his mouth with water and used to wash the linga by spraying that water from his mouth, decorate the linga with the flowers and offer the meat at the altar. After he finished his “pooja” and after he left, the priest of the temple used to come and find the linga in such disarray. The priest would then curse the hunter who did this, and perform the pooja in the “prescribed traditional manner”. The priest would mutter to himself that he was such a pure devotee of the Lord whereas the hunter who desecrated the linga was a blasphemous idiot. One day when Kannappan came for his “pooja” he found that Shiva was bleeding from one eye. He was aghast at the Lord’s agony. He therefore took out his hunting knife and plucked out one of his own eyes, affixed it on the linga, and stuck it to the linga with the “vilva” leaves. He suddenly found that the Lord’s other eye was also bleeding; now he was in a fix. Although he wanted to offer his other eye also to the Lord, how could he see the linga while fixing the second eye, because he would have become blind by then? So he put his foot at that point in the linga where the Lord’s second eye was bleeding, for identifying the location, and plucked out his second eye and likewise affixed it at the point where his foot was placed. Pleased with his devotion, Shiva presented himself before Kannappan, restored his eyesight and declared that Kannappan would be known as one of his most ardent devotees. Even today, in Tamil Nadu Shiva temples, Kannappan is worshipped as one of the 64 principal devotees of the Lord.

The principle we learn from this story and from what we experienced yesterday is that no matter whatever rituals or offerings we make and no matter what is the manner and method of our prayer, if our devotion to the Lord is pure, He is sure to bless us with infinite happiness and peace.

Continuing from the knowledge we gained about involving our three personality layers; body, mind and intellect, in the process of realizing our spiritual personality layer; I will take up these three personality layers in my next post. Till then; Om Nama Shivayah!!, With Prem & Om

Kailash-11

Dear Friends

Probably the most common posture in which we find the Lord, is the posture of meditation. With eyes closed and palm extended in blessing, he is the epitome of peace and calmness. When we stand in prayer before Him, there is an inner silence that swells in our hearts. The noisy roar of thoughts that attack our minds constantly because of our incessant thinking, stops for a magical moment and we are peaceful in our within. This silence, which is always there within us; but which we fail to recognize in us because of our compulsive thinking habits; helps us in opening the eye of our minds, which is the Third Eye of knowledge within all of us. Viewed in that perspective, each of us is none other than Him, the Trinetradhari !!

Last week I mentioned about the birth anniversary of Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore. Last week also marked Chinmaya Jayanti. So, instead of writing myself, this week, I am sharing one of his many teachings; this one is about Changing our Vision about ourselves. Over to my Gurudev: -

Kailash-10

"Thayumanvan" is the name of the Lord at a temple in Tiruchirapalli (Trichy) in Tamil Nadu. Translated, this means, He who also became mother. The story goes that one of His devotee ladies was in her labour pain at which time her own mother was not available for help in her delivery. The Lord came to the devotee's help, as her mother, and performed midwifery. The name of the Lord is thus derived. "Ardhanariswarar" is another name for the Lord; it means Lord who is half female. Of course there are many different stories attributed to this form of the Lord. The reason why I am drawing attention to these names is obvious; is the Lord male or female? If you read my earlier posts also, I have referred to the Supreme Reality as "He" not "She". Does it mean that there gender bias for God as well ?!!

In spirituality or philosophy, gender is only an anatomical difference. We are born into a specific gender in the present embodiment, as a result of the predominant gunas or tendencies coupled with the residual desires subsisting in us (or our parents) from our previous embodiment. Scientifically of course, we will be told that, it is the result of X+X or X+Y chromosomes, but let us leave that part to the scientists for the time being. Essentially we are all divine. Our gender reality at birth, in no way, takes us away from our essential divinity. If you recollect one of my earlier posts, I had highlighted about names and forms. Driven by our anatomical conditioning, we have got a form and therefore a name suitable to that form was given by our parents. It is a different matter altogether that there are some effeminate men and some masculine women !! That is probably the result of their gunas or tendencies !!.  Essentially, divinity is gender free. We are one with the Supreme Reality without any gender bias. Obviously therefore the Supreme must also be free of such bias. Parameshwara cannot be complete without Parameshwari. Where He is Appan (Father); She is Amma (Mother). One cannot be thought of in another breath different from the Other. In legal languages, we often say that, wherever in the context, He appears, it must also be read as She. When we use such uniformity in our own transactional world, there cannot be any differentiation in spirituality either. The Supreme Reality blesses one and all without any distinction of color, creed, caste, gender. The form and name that appeals to our conditioned thinking, determines the name, form and gender of that Reality, but THAT itself is one without a second. 

Mr Krishnan mentioned in his response last week that spirituality is such that we will find it difficult to get answers for all our questions that haunt us during a lifetime. But how can we find answers unless we ask questions in the first place. The moot question being "Who am I?". Every other question that comes to our mind would be an extension of this query. Our quest to find ourselves, takes us in different directions; each one only in search of Happiness and Peace. Our presence here in this embodiment is but a small dot in an otherwise long journey of coming and going, and in the process gradually diminishing our identifications with "raaga" and "dvesha"; i.e. attachment and repulsion. Our engagement with this pair of opposites keeps our mind and intellect engaged in this constant journey back and forth. Once this engagement has ended; once we have found the answer to "Who am I", there is no more any need to undertake this journey. All our acts on the physical plane should be meant only for a gradual expurgation of this engagement. 

Today is the 150th Birth Anniversary of Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore; a spiritual, literary and poetical giant. One of his famous quotes reads like this."faith is the bird that feels the light and sings when the dawn is still dark". If we reflect on this carefully and understand from our daily routine, it becomes clear. Most of us are used to alarm clocks to wake us up. Our knowledge of science tells us that around 5 am to 530 am is the time when the day dawns. Assuming we have woken up to the alarm clock, at say 4.30, after seeing the clock we know that in another hour, it will be dawn. Our faith is conditioned by our knowledge about the clock and science. However, the bird that is sitting on the branch, has no clock and no science. It has got perception that in a short while it will surely be dawn, so it starts chirping outside our window. At that time, hearing the bird chirping, we too know that it will be dawn shortly. The bird has full faith about the dawn whereas we have got derived faith. Let us reinforce our faith in Him (or Her!!) like that bird and grow into our inner peace. Parameshwara is always there, it is our perception which will help us reach Him.

Kailash-9

I have received a few sporadic responses to my posts. Some of you have also mentioned during conversations that you have 'archived' the posts for future reading or understanding. The inspiration for me to start writing to you came from the first post when I wrote about the Sankalpa Pooja. Thoughts about the purpose of our undertaking this wonderful yatra motivated me to share them with you. Of course, the process has also enabled me to grow through this sharing experience. I am sure they have triggered similar thoughts in many of your minds but there is probably some reticence in sharing those or probably issues of articulating them. Please do share your views. As time went on the mailing list has increased with a few of my other spiritually inclined friends, not joining the yatra with us.

Over the last few days I have seen a couple of cremation grounds / 'smashaan bhoomis' with the signage reading 'Shiv Dham' or abode of Shiva. Now, this is a classic dichotomy, we are saying Kailash is the abode of Shiva and here we have cremation places with similar names! There is a popular belief in Hinduism that the Holy Trinity, i.e Brahma, Vishnu and Mahesh have divided their tasks as Creator, Sustainer and Destroyer, respectively. The common use explanation will be that, the things that we perceive, the beings that we come in contact with and the events that we experience are created, sustained and destroyed, respectively by these Supreme Beings. From that standpoint, probably the destroyer does live in the cremation places, isn't it?!! But that explanation is far from being correct. 

If we see the consorts, of this Trinity, they are Saraswati, Mahalakshmi and Parvati. Collectively these trinity and their consorts tell us that through the blessings of the first pair, we gain our education and knowledge of the truth of life and its purpose, our material gains on the physical plane are determined by the blessings of the second pair and through blessings of the third pair we gain our ability for reflecting on the nature of the One Reality which is nothing but Him. Thus the roles of the Trinity is that, one creates the eagerness and desire for gaining right knowledge in our minds, one sustains our mind and intellect steadfast on the path as we progress and one destroys all wrong tendencies and ungainly thoughts that impede in this progress; so that we may gain our vision of the Trimurti, Trinethdradhari and Trishuladhari, who is none other than Kailashnath.

But when we speak of knowledge, what is there to know that we don't know already? Actually we are born with infinite knowledge. Our inner nature is that of silence and bliss. But the layers of 'education' that we have created over the years have actually veiled this knowledge, with the result we are now shrouded in ignorance. We assume to 'know' everything about ourselves but really don't. The means of knowing ourselves is called 'contemplation' and for preparing the mind for this contemplation, we undertake all practices of religion including the pilgrimage that we are due to go in a couple of months. Once having gained this knowledge, to remain steadfast and unaffected by various trials and tribulations in our life, the means is called ‘prayer’. Through the prayer founded in right knowledge, the means of reaching the inner calm, tranquility and total bliss, is called ‘meditation’, which is the ultimate objective of the human embodiment that nature has blessed upon us.

Let us use the experiences that we come across in life as a springboard to redirect our energies and attention to gaining the right knowledge, in a prayerful attitude and become one with happiness which is our true nature.

Kailash-8

I turn 50 this week. A simple arithmetic reveals that it is about 26 million minutes!! Naturally, I had no role to play in this passage of time; I just was there, when it passed me by. Which brings us to the question, what is time? Is it the 24 x 7 phrase that we familiarly use nowadays? Actually no; what we have done with our scientific knowledge is to compartmentalize time. Time by itself, like its sister Space, is eternal. So the infinite moments that we let pass by in our finite time on this physical plane, should be purposeful and with a motive to grow to the Higher. Life should be large; not long. There is an advertisement of a popular liquor brand with a byline, “It’s your life, make it large”. Of course the large there has a different connotation, but the phrase by itself is very relevant !! I, of course, thank my parents for providing me with the platform to help me trying to make my life large. I also thank my Guru for his inspiring teaching.

I had shared in one of my earlier posts about a text written by Adi Sankara, titled “Shiva Aparadha Kshapana Stotram”. The import of this text is that, in one part, we seek forgiveness from Shiva for mistakes / sins that we have committed in not remembering Him at all times and in the other part we seek His help in remembering Him and growing larger and better every moment. I will briefly explain this here, in as few words as possible.

In our previous embodiment, we clung on to the fear of passing away from this world without remembering Him at the time of our exit from the world stage. We are propelled into this world into a new embodiment, with unfulfilled desires and passions, as determined by the urges we entertained at the end of the previous embodiment. Thus without remembering the Lord and His glories, we are ordained to come again into this world. Here, from our childhood to youth to old age, at every moment, we are crying for more and more satisfaction from the objects, emotions and thoughts that we come into contact with, without remembering Him and His infinite glory. We constantly live our day-to-day moments of wants fulfillment, from birth to youth to old age to death, always assuming that we are permanently to remain here. We forget that we are merely enacting a role provided to us by Him as determined by our past. The effort that is required to uplift us from this mortal plane to a Higher Consciousness, we refuse to take, with the result we continue to remain in this web created by our own desires and fancies. We seek His forgiveness for our unintelligent acts that we perform in this physical plane. We have forgotten that the Lord is the Ultimate Truth and dwelling on His Glory, making our mind and intellect, pure and calm, if meditate upon Him, our entanglements with objects, emotions and thoughts in this physical plane will cease, and we will climb to the pinnacles of happiness which is His Abode, Kailash. Unfortunately our limited knowledge about the purpose of coming into this world; creates a massive sense of attachment to things and beings, due to which we forget to remember Him in our day-to-day transactions in Life. So in the second part we seek His Grace and support for surrendering unto Him all our ego driven fancies and attachments, and grow into pure and unsullied bliss, through selfless, unattached and dedicated actions in every station of our life.

Our life is divided into different time compartments, birth, childhood, youth, middle age, old age, decay and death. The benchmark of our growth through these various stages / compartments is determined by how we have adjusted to these various automatic time determined events in our life and “lived” rather than “existed”. May the Lord shower one and all with right knowledge and right thinking!