vijaya daSami SubhaakaaMxalu

May the divine mother, the shakti who manifests Herself in all beings as icchha-shakti, j~nAna-shakti and kriya-shakti bless us in all our endeavours.


Watch this following vedio to see how Kalidasa was blessed by the divine mother.



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om shri gaNeshaaya namaH

Bow to Ganesha who removes all the obstacles in our progress. Bow to Shankara who could write such beautiful poems about the clearest form of absolute.

The essence of Ganesha story is the son of paarvathi and parameshvara stopping their meeting. Shiva removes the head and reattaches it on the request of paarvathi. Ganesha becomes a symbol of brahman.

The symbolism is very easy to see. The jIva, which thinks that Ishvara is different from prakRiti and makes an effort to stop them (and falsely siding with prakRiti), has to be removed of his ego. This is the meaning of the beheading. The jIva without ego is not interesting to prakRiti. She wants an ego, not necessarily the small i, which seemingly sides with her. But some I. But when Ishvara as guru gives an ego, it has to be the universal ego, the I, and never ever the i. That is symbolic of the size of the new head. Also, Ishvara only has to give jIva the parA-vidya. This alone makes the i turn into I. This makes the jIva as brahman. Ganesha becomes Ishvara.

Notes

1: prakRiti did not instruct the jIva to stop the Ishvara. She only instructed the jIva to be at the door (meaning at the boundary of jagat). The prakRiti obviously knows that she a part of Ishvara, symbolic of the artha-naarIshvara form.

2. It is the jIva that erroneously created a barrier between both of prakRiti and Ishvara. (dvaitins come under this category!!!). It is the jIva that falsely thought that prakRiti and Ishvara are different and tried to separate them. From when did this superimposition start? Refer Shankara's exclamation at the beginning of His BSB commentary when he rhetorically asks the reason why jIva had to think so, and concludes that the cause is the beginningless avidya.


Very simple right!



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A shloka from Madhusudana Saraswathi's gUDArtha diipika

Introducing Chapter of 13 Gita, Madhusudana, in His gUDArtha-dIpika says

dhyanaabhyaasanavashiikR^itena manasaa tannirguNaM nishhkriyaM jyotiH kiMchanaM yogino yadi paraM pashyanti pashyantu te | asmaakaM tu tadeva locanachamatkaaraaya bhuuyaachchiraM kaalindiipulinodare kimapi yanniilaM maho dhaavati ||

ध्यनाभ्यासनवशीकृतेन मनसा तन्निर्गुणं निष्क्रियं ज्योतिः किंचनं योगिनो यदि परं पश्यन्ति पश्यन्तु ते | अस्माकं तु तदेव लोचनचमत्काराय भूयाच्चिरं कालिन्दीपुलिनोदरे किमपि यन्नीलं महो धावति ||


If the yogis, with their minds which have been brought under control through the practise of meditation, see some such transcendental light that is without qualities and action, let them see!

But, for filling our eyes with astonishment, let there be forever that indescribable Blue (Light) alone which runs about hither and thither on the sands of the kaaLindi (Yamuna)!




The following was posted on advaitin list:

Concluding His commentary on 15th chapter of Gita, here is what Madhusudana Sarawathi has to say:

vaMshiivibhUshhitakaraannavaniiradaabhaatpiitaambaraadaruNabimbaphalaadharoshhTh
at.h
|
pUrNedusundaramukhaadaravindanetraatkR^iShNaatparaM kimapi tattvamahaM na jaane
||

I do not know any reality other than krishna whose hands are adorned with a flute, whose lustre is like that of a rain-cloud, who wears a yellow cloth, whose lips are reddish like the Bimba-fruit, whose face is beautiful like the full moon, and whose eyes are like lotuses.

sadaa sadaanandapade nimagnaM mano manobhaavamapaakaroti |
gataagataayaasamapaasya sadhaH paraaparaatiitamupaiti tatvam.h ||

The mind that is ever merged in the state of constant Bliss removes (all) mentations, (and) by eradicating the sorrows consequent on (repeated) births and deaths it attains at once the Reality transcending cause and effect.

shaivaH saurashcha gaaNeshaa vaishhNavaaH shaktipUjakaaH |
bhavanti yanmayaaH sarve sohamasmi paraH shivaH ||

I am that supreme Auspicious One in whom get identified all the followers of Shiva, of the Sun, of Ganesha, of Vishnu, and the worshippers of Shakti.

Shri S.N.Sastri says:

Madhusudana Sarasvati, who was a great devotee of Krishna and also a great advaitin, has, in the above shloka, first described Krishna and then identified him with the supreme brahman.

Another great devotee-poet, Narayana Bhattatiri, has, in the first shloka of his great work nArAyaNIyam, done the opposite. He has first described the supreme brahman and then identified it with Krishna, the Lord of GuruvAyUr. The shloka is given below:

sAndrAnandAvabodhAtmakam anupamitam kAladeshAvadhibhyAm
nirmuktam nityamuktam nigamashatasahasreNa nirbhAsyamAnam |
aspaShTam dRiShTamAtre punarurupuruSharthAtmakam brahma tattvam
tat tAvat bhAti sAkShAt gurupavanapure hanta bhAgyam janAnAm ||

Translation:--
Brahman, which is pure Existence-Consciousness-Bliss, which is without parallel, which is absolutely free from the limitations of time and space, which is always free from the control of mAyA, which is very well explained by innumerable statements in the upaniShads, but is yet not clearly grasped (by a mere study of the upaniShads), but the realization of whose identity with one's own self is what constitutes the highest puruShArtha, namely, liberation from the cycle of birth and death; that very Brahman is present in concrete form in the temple of GuruvAyUr (in the form of Lord Krishna). This is indeed a great good fortune for the people.

The above shloka contains the essence of all the upaniShads.

Postscript: Also see this old post of mine.



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Vyasa ashtottarshata-namavalii

Vyasa ashtottarshata-namavalii, thanks to Shri Sunder-ji (who is a moderator of Advaitin group and respected member of online Sanskrit community) is available at the following links:

ITX file
PDF file. Read the rest of this entry >>

Happy Vijaya Dashami!

Lots of pictures are here .

May the divine mother destroy the vile forces attacking our dharma-kshetra.



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Happy Krishna Ashtami

May the Lord who is beyond manifestation, who manifested as the son of Devaki-Vasudeva and Yasoda-Nanda, who later in His infinite compassion milked the ocean of wisdom in the Upanishads and taught to Arjuna, so that seekers for all future times may not miss it, manifest himself in our hearts so that we can see Him. In particular are relevant BG. 10.10, 10.11 and 18.62.


==
This is what Shri Sastri-ji says:
nishiithe tama udbhUte jAyamAne janArdane |
devakyAm devarUpiNyAm viShNuH sarvaguhAshayaH||
AvirAsiid yathA prAcyAm dishiinduriva puShkalaH ||

Then, at the hour of midnight, which ushered in the advent of the Lord janArdana, when the darkness was at its most intense, viShNu, who dwells in the cave of the hearts of all creatures, revealed Himself as He verily is, in divinely beautiful devakii, even as the full-orbed moon rises in the eastern sky.

The Lord, who is eternal, manifested Himself, just as the moon, which is ever present, becomes visible in the eastern sky when it rises. He is compared to the full moon to indicate His fullness (pUrNatvam). Read the rest of this entry >>

vandEmAtaram

The only song of its Kind!

Happy Birthday to Shri Aurobindo too! Read the rest of this entry >>

Shri Gurubhyo Namah

Today Guru Poornima.

I quote from the following page of Prof VK., in which he lists the achievements of Vyasa, whose Birthday is celebrated as Guru Purnima.

If any single person in the entire long history of the Hindu religion has to be credited (or blamed!) for its multifarious facets that extend over a wide spectrum from extreme superstition on the one side to a ruthless intellectual dialectics on the other, it is the

‘faultless sage Vyasa, son of Sage Parasara,
grandson of Sage Shakti,
great grandson of Sage Vasishta
and father of the boy-sage Shuka’.

Vyasa has six achievements to his credit, each one of which alone could have conferred on him the stature of a Vyasa to such an extent that on one day in the year, called Vyasa Purnima day (this year 2005, on July 21), all religious and vedantic organisations and individuals in India, irrespective of the school of thought to which they belong, pay reverential tribute to him in all possible ways. The six achievements of Vyasa are:

· At the beginning of the Kali-yuga Vyasa codified the Vedas and Upanishads into 1180 branches (shAkhas) and thus preserved for the weak and satanic Kali age the age-old tradition.
· He codified the philosophical excursions of the Upanishads into a single treatise called Brahma-sutra of 555 terse statements or aphorisms – for the comprehension of which several high-level commentaries have been written till today.
· He produced the greatest book on Earth, the Mahabharata, an epic one hundred thousand verses long, the dimensions of which for the cultural panorama of the country are still being explored.
· He wrote the seventeen purANas (together equivalent to more than a Mahabharata) which constitute an encyclopaedia of all the mythological stories, legends and history of Hinduism.
· The eighteenth purANa, the Shrimad Bhagavatam, is his fifth achievement – because it is the monumental work of Bhakti without which, inspite of the other Puranas, it is doubtful, whether the Bhakti tradition would have attained to such a supreme status in Hinduism.
· Last but not least, he must be given special credit for the 700-verse-long discourse of Bhagavadgita, – even assuming he just heard it straight from the Lord’s mouth -- a single compendium covering the entire spectrum of Hindu religion and philosophy, almost replacing the Vedas; even though it is a part of the Mahabharata, it has a separate status for itself and Vyasa has to be given extra credit for recognising its strategical place and context in the great epic; the two fit each other so perfectly that it is not clear whether the Mahabharata was made for the Bhagavad-Gita or the Bhagavad-Gita for the Mahabharata.

From this site.

Of course, the eternal Guru is Shri Dakshinamurthy, who enlightens the first lamp of awakening in any person.

May the ever eternal Guru save us from the darkening world of ignorance. May He who has saved countless people, beginning with the Sanaka etc. including warriors like Arjuna make us see the Light behind the clouds.

May we always feel that Light, that is ever effulgent, the invocation of which spreads fear in the heart of fear.

It is the Narayana, in his form of Lord Krishna that removed the ignorance of Arjuna.
and it is the same Shankara who incarnated as Shri Adi Shankara to drive away the ignorance of everyone.

We Bow to all the above, as well as all our Gurus.

Here are some links:
Dakshinamurthy Stotram.
Totaka Ashtakam
Guru Paduka Stotram Read the rest of this entry >>

Happy Gita Jayanthi!

Wish everyone a Happy Gita Jayanthi. May Lord Krishna show us the way through right action, right meditation, right devotion
and right knowledge and discimination. As it is said in the famous shloka,

The Upanishads are as a herd of cows; Krishna the Son of a cowherd, is their Milker. Arjuna is the calf, the supreme ambrosia of the Gita the milk, and the wise man the drinker.

As Shri Shankara says in the introduction to his Gita Bhashya,

The Lord, the eternal Possessor of Knowledge, Soveignty, Power, Strength, Energy, and Vigour, brings under His control maya -- belonging to Him as Vishnu -- the primordial Nature, characterized by the three gunas. And then, through the maya, He is seen as though born, as though endowded with a body, and as though showing compassion for men; for He is, in reality, unborn, unchanging, the Lord of all created beings, and by nature eternal, pure, illuminated, and free.

Though the Lord had nor purpose of His own to serve, yet, with the sole desire of bestowing favour on men, He taught this twofold Vedic dharma to Arjuna, who was deeply sunk in the ocean of grief and delusion; for a dharma spreads and grows when accepted by high-minded persons.

It is this dharma taught by the Lord that the omniscient and venerable Vyasa, the compiler of Vedas, embodied in seven hundred verses under the name of the Gita.

The previous 12 postings were excerpts from Shri Ranade's Dhyana Gita. It is a short book which contains the translation of 366 verses from Bhagavad Gita, which were specifically translated by the Philosopher-Mystic Shri (Prof) R.D. Ranade.

Let us lead a Gita way of life.


Om Tat Sat! Read the rest of this entry >>

Vijaya Dashami Shubhakaanshalu

praNo devi sarasvathi vaajEBHirvAjinIvatI | DHinAmavitriyavathu ||






May the Maya sakti who manifests herself as the Goddess of desire, Goddess of Knowledge and Goddess of action inspire the creative desire so that we realize the truth of self-knowledge. May the Goddess Kali remove our demonaic tendencies. May the Goddess Lakshmi increase our desire for Knowledge. May the Goddess Saraswathi increase our Knowledge and Wisdom so that we realize both the immanent as well as transcedental Knowledge. May the Lalitha, who is none other than the eternal Guru Dakshinamurthy grace us with the essence of Apara and Para Vidya. May the Raajareshwari, who directed the victories of Raama and Arjuna (the Vijaya) bless us with the same.

aanoBhadra kratavo yanthu adaBDhaso uparitaaso udBhidah
deeano yaTHa sadamid vrudhe asannapryuvo rakshitaaro divedive
(My good thoughts come to us from all sides, in an uninterrupted fashion, in their purest form.) Read the rest of this entry >>

Happy Ganesh caturthi!

May the Ganesh, who is the lord of all Ganas dance to stomp away your obstacles and make you see the light that you truly are beyond the senses, truly beyond the emotional mind and truly beyond the perception of intellectual discrimination of the mind.

May give you the right knowledge and the wisdom beyond it. May the one who is beyond the four layers of speech make you understand all of them.

rtam vacmi satyam vacmi! (from Ganesh Atharvasirsha Upanishad)! Read the rest of this entry >>