Navaratri

The process of creation is not linear but it is cyclic. The matter has to go back in its original form to create something new.

The power and energy of Prakriti i.e. Mother Nature is the utmost ingredient for any creation. Navaratri the nine days of mother divine falls twice a year, during this period the laws of nature become livelier. it gives you an opportunity to recreate/ rejuvenate yourself. Out of nine days the first three days are predominant by Tamogun, the next three days by Rajogun and the last three days by Satogun; signifying knowing your dark side for first three days then refining it with positivism and action during the next three days and finally consolidating the nature of good living during the last three days.

Thus passing through the process of rejuvenation one finally emerges with the Satoguni Chetana i.e. the pure consciousness. Practically speaking, it is the realization of your own divinity.  

Raam - The Maryada Purushottam

                                                     

As we are closing to another celebration of “Vijaya Dashmi” the day of victory of Raam the absolute custodian and a true representative of all positive values in life over Ravan the leader of all negative values in the universe.   

As a man Raam personifies the characteristics of an ideal person (Purushottam) who is to be emulated. He has all the desirable virtues within himself that any individual would seek to aspire and he fulfils all his moral obligations. Purity and piety in his intentions and actions inspires affection and devotion for Raam. To keep the words of his father he gave up his rightful claim to the throne and accepted to go into exile for fourteen years. This is in spite of the fact that Kaikeyi's son, Bharat, begged him to return back to Ayodhya and said that he did not want to rule in place of Raam. But Raam considered his dharma as a son above all. For such supreme sacrifices and many other qualities, Raam is considered as Maryada purushottam or the best of upholders of Dharma, a basically human but exemplary figure.

At the time when it was normal for a king to have more than one wife, Raam gave ideal of having a single wife. After Seeta was banished, he did penance with a gold statue of Seeta.

Raam always kept his promises at any cost; he went to forest to make his father's promise to Kaikeyi true. He had promised the Spirit of Time that during their conversation, if anyone was to intrude, Raam would have pronounced an instant death sentence upon the individual. They were intruded upon by his beloved younger brother Lakshaman, and to keep his promise he pronounced the death sentence for Lakshaman. There are so many examples of Raam’s promises which he kept. Most important are the promises to sages to save their lives from Rakshasas, getting back Sugreeva’s kingdom, making Vibhishana the king of Lanka.

 Raam had very touching relations with his friends irrespective of their status. Some of his friends are Nishada-raja Guha, Sugreeva the monkey king and Vibhishan a Rakshas.

Even towards his enemies, Raam showed great nobility and virtue. To gather information about the enemy army's strengths and weaknesses, Ravana sent two of his spies, Suka and Sarana, to the camps of Vanara sena the monkey Army. Disguised as monkeys they blended into the enemy camp, but Vibhishana recognize them and presented the two spies to Raam. Raam then asked them what their mission was and whether they fulfilled it. After listening to them, he sent a Vanara with them to give a proper tour of all the Vanara camps and give them all the information they desired about the major soldiers and their strengths. He then told the spies to give this message to Ravana. "Tomorrow morning, I will destroy all of Lanka. Keep all sides of your palace well defended and be ready with all of your men by sunrise." The spies were greatly astonished with Raam's charisma, courage, and adherence to the codes of war. After Raam gave them leave, they knew that their king was bound to lose against this virtuous and courageous man. When Ravana first fought with Raam, Raam defeated him to such an extent that Ravana lost his charioteer, horses, chariot, flag, weapons and armor. Though the situation was at his advantage, Raam instead praised Ravana for a great fight that day, and asked him to retire and take rest, as he must be quite tired. Ravana was greatly embarrassed at this, but he was also gratified that Raam saved his life, and this led him to consider for a moment whether to retreat and give Seeta back.

Thus as a son, as a brother, as husband, as a friend as an opponent as a citizen and as ruler Raam sets the highest benchmark within the limit of a human being and revered as Maryada Purushottam. He has inspired the mankind since ever regardless of time periods, geographical limits, race, class, faith and civilizations.

The historical record of the rule of Raam through out the world is evidenced in the thousands of names of Raam attributed to kings, kingdom, countries, cities, rivers and mountain etc. The tradition of rulers of the world throughout the ages held the authority of rulership in the Sun. this tradition shows the intimate connection that they had with natural law. The word that embodies this ideal rulership is Raam. In many cases of ancient North America, in the emperors of Japan, in the pharaohs of Egypt- it is found that Kings aligned themselves with the solar dynasty of the Ruler Raam. The ancient civilization of Phoenicians (Lebanon) called their ruler AhiRaam or HiRaam. It is during the rule of these kings that that Phoenicia flourished as the major power of Mediterranean. Rome the great western empire, took its name from its legendry first king Rom-ulus, whose name was also derived from the name Raam.

The ancient grandsire of Israel, Abraham was first Ab-Raam and also a letter king of the Israelites was called Jehoram. The pharaohs of Egypt derived their divine authority from the God Raa, the Sun God who established the Sun Dynasty which was also the dynasty of lord Raam. One of the most famous dynasties of the ancient Egypt was that of Raam-eses, twelve great kings of Egypt named after Raam. In more modern times the kings of Thailand, in an unbroken line from 1782, have the name Raam- nine generations of them. In Turkey, in Spain, in Germany, in France, in Great Britain, in Indonesia, in Iraq, in India, in Honduras, in Kenya, in Japan, in Italy, in the Philippines, in ancient and modern Greece, in Chile, in Cuba, in former Czechoslovakia, in Afghanistan, in the ancient kingdom of Antiarc in the middle east, in ancient Arabia, in Argentina, in ancient Babylonia, in Canada, in Tanzania and many other countries there were rulers, presidents and heads of state whose names contained the name Raam. 

 Raam a Sanskrit word of two syllables accommodates the whole universe in between it. Raam the embodiment of all the laws of nature and the supreme ruler of this universe has a life giving quality. The family of rulers in the world maintained the name of Raam so that the life giving quality of Raam would always remain lively in their physiology, their intelligence and in the people of their country.

                                                           “Raam Raam”

              

Yogasth Kuru KArmani

                                                

Coordination of mind and body is necessary for the desired success in life for every individual. It’s a well established fact that every action has a reaction. Each and every particle in this universe is affected by each other; every big or small action leaves an effect in the universe. Bhagavad Geeta describes the doctrine of performing action without bothering about the consequences. Then the question arises how is it possible to act if you don’t have an aim to achieve something. Further to this, is it possible even to think of an action if there is no goal to achieve? Actually there is a very systematic process of having any thing accomplished in our life. In this system there is a Rishi, there is a Devata and there is Chhandas. The whole system is comprises of Rishi-Devata-Chhandas where Rishi is the one who perform action, Devata is the process of doing and Chhandas is the object, the out come of the action. It is also described in the terms of Knower, the process of knowing and known where known is the object of process of knowing and knower is the performer of action and it knows the process as well as the known i.e. the object. The process doesn’t complete in the absence of any one of it. So what is the truth behind the doctrine of acting without bothering about the outcome? Actually it is all about the matter of bothering, confusion and anxiety etc which emerges as the result of lack of orderliness in the consciousness and the lack of coordination between the mind and body. When we talk about the action we talk about the physical action that is performed by the body but is it the whole truth? Absolutely not, there is a thought behind every action so we need to go to the source of the thought. Actually thought is the product of energy and impulse; when an impulse combines with the energy it give rise to a thought and a thought will be as much powerful as much energy combined with the impulse. So if a thought is powerful the action will be profound and result will be as per the desire and there will be no scope for worry, anxiety and confusion etc. So what we need is to bring orderliness in the consciousness and establish a perfect coordination between mind and body.       

    

                                Yogastha kuru karmani sangang tyaktva Dhananjaya 

Sidhyasidhyoh samo bhutva samatvang yoga uchyatein
2/48 Bhagwad Gita

Arjun! Establish yourself in yoga, and perform the action what you must do;

 Get detached, be indifferent to failure and success, and this stability is yoga.

Lord Krishna says to Arjun “Yogastha Kuru Karmani” means establish yourself in Yoga and perform action as per your Dharma (Yogastha: = establisf in yoga, Kuru = perform, karmaani = duties or action).

Focused on action means focused on the present. Establishing in Yoga means establishing in present thus you cannot be in the past or in the future, and the past regrets and future anxieties cannot make you suffer. Once you are settled down in the present moment, all your decisions will be based on pure consciousness.

Lord Krishna describes “do your best and leave the rest”. One should be focused on actions while being indifferent to its results.  He compared this to the lotus leaves where a drop of water gives the impression of a pearl but once the drop falls off, the leaf is completely dry as if nothing was there.

The so called de-attached attachment is the philosophy, and the mantra to do it is “Yogastha Kuru Karmani”. Yoga is defined as the union of mind and body, means the perfect coordination between mind and body. Practice of Yogasana is like massaging every cell in our body and making it free from all possible impurity and practicing of meditation is like bringing up the absolute orderliness in the mind and taking it to the state of pure consciousness. Once this state of being Yogastha is attained by you “Brahma Bhavati Sarathi” (Brahma becomes your Charioteer) and therefore nothing remain unachievable. So instead of bothering about the out come it is better to establish yourself in Yoga.

Sunil Sinha

The Being: The Being

The Being: The Being: Our life starts with breathing and thinking. The being manifests itself first in the form of Prana and mind. Thinking is the basic element ...

The Being

Our life starts with breathing and thinking. The being manifests itself first in the form of Prana and mind. Thinking is the basic element of all kind of activities. Though we all understand that we must think first before doing anything but we rarely try to understand that what is our thinking depends upon. To think at least one has to be, without being there would be no thinking and no doing. So it is found that being is the basis of all activities, behavior and the different ways and forms of living. So by taking care of being all areas of life can be glorified.

Being is the ultimate realty of all that exist and it is absolute in nature. The glory of being can be experienced directly and recognized as ultimate realty. It is imperishable and eternal; water cannot wet it nor can fire burn it. Wind cannot dry it weapons cannot slay it. It is in front, it is behind, it is above and below. It is to the right and the left. It is all- pervading omnipresent, divine being.

Vedic philosophy describes the relative and absolute as two aspects of the one realty. Life is nothing but being in all its phases of absolute and relative existence. Oneness of being is nothing but the diversity of life, imperishable being is the ever-changing, perishable universe. The words abstract and concrete are relative and neither expresses the nature of being in its true sense. But for the sake of understanding if we have to use a word to define its nature we can say it is abstract and not concrete however the experience of it is far more concrete than any thing in relative life.

The knowledge of being has been shrouded in mysticism because of its abstract nature, as the result the common man has been deprived of the great advantages of experiencing being. The Bhagavad Geeta describes very clearly the path of enlightenment, meditation and claims a little practice can relieve a man of great fears and there will be no obstacle to have a direct experience of it. This practical message of the direct experience of being as the ultimate realty glorifies all aspects of life.

Our experience in the field of perception shows that we experience gross and subtle things. We use our eyes to see, our ears to hear and so on but there is limit to what the eyes can see, the ears hear and the tongue taste. This marks the limit of the experience of grass creation. This is the case with all the senses of perception. They are only able to experience grass objects.

The subtle field is beyond our ordinary range of experience. There exist the subtle strata of creation with which we are not familiar because our ordinary capacity for experience is limited to the grass.

Since being is by nature transcendental, it does not belong to the range of any of the senses of perception. Only when the sensory perception has come to an end can the transcendental field of being be reached. In the practice of meditation a suitable thought is selected and the technique for experiencing it in its initial stages of development enables the conscious mind to arrive systematically at the source of thought, the field of being. The transcendental state of being lies beyond the all seeing, hearing, touching, smelling and tasting, beyond all thinking and beyond all feeling. This state of the unmanifested, absolute, pure consciousness of being is the ultimate state of life which can be easily experienced through the systematic process of meditation.  

         

Presented by

Sunil Sinha                                                                                                                                     

(Honored in USA, Europe, Australia, New Zee land

and Japan as an associate of Maharishi Organization.)