Saturday, September 12, 2015

Para prakriti and Apara prakriti

I've been listening to Sri Prem Siddhartha's expositions on the Bhagavad Gita and I am at the place Sri Bhagavan talks about Para and Apara Prakriti.

Just like Brahman, everyone has attributes of Para and Apara Prakriti.

The joy you get from watching the sunset is an excellent manifestation of Apara Prakriti. It is a causeless, reasonless bliss.

I hope to bring Apara Prakriti more actively into my life such that it manifests itself in everything I do. The way I work, the way I interact with people and the way I watch Turiya grow.

Friday, March 05, 2010

Conscious Breathing

I have been reading "Many Voices" by Elieen J. Garrett. Elineen was a really developed and accurate "sensitive". The most remarkable thing about her however was that she wanted to scientifically study her ability and was ever looking forward to ways her psychic abilities could be tested and measured. Below I quote some interesting parts from the book.

"When we breathe deeply, for the sake of breathing into our inner self, we will become assured of the self as an individual form moving in freedom within an ocean of observation. It is the simple unification of the self with this external ocean of life which frees one to receive and perceive.
I am often asked from whence comes my energy. It comes on the breath - the conscious use of breath. "

One pushes away the burned-out experience of every breath with the next one. In this way, the past does not crowd upon us. We have shaped and ordered it as a temporary screen than cannot mask us from the route we have to travel when sleep overtakes us.

Thus no matter how abstract an idea maybe, if we take it in our conscious breath and relate it to ourselves it will be accepted and broken into symbol and imagery, to be "arranged" and coordinated through our senses "

Conscious breath seems to be the key here ...

Thursday, February 25, 2010

Aakashat patitam toyam sagaram pratigachchati

Recently I watched the Adi Shankaracharya movie in Samskritam after a long long time .. The last time I watched it was on a Sunday afternoon when DD used to broadcast a national movie on Sunday afternoon's. They probably still do it .. but I haven't seen one in more than 10 years.
As a funny aside, Naren was watching Mackenna's Gold at the same time. So for a while there it was Old turkey buzzard meets Purnamadah purnamidam before I got my pizza and went to the other room :)
There is a one line verse that keeps coming throughout the entire movie - "Aakashat patitam toyam sagaram pratigachchati ( Having fallen from the sky water makes it way toward the ocean ) "
At all the critical junctures of his life, Shankara pauses and we hear this in the background, when his dad passes away , when he sees and injured man being killed by superstitious tribal people, when he sees a sick man being thrown out of the village ..
The beauty of cinematography ( and of course philosophy ) is such that this simple line is so profound, so moving .. it's impossible to capture in words all the emotions it evokes ( well maybe if you are Hemingway it's a different matter ... )
At this time, to me, it symbolized the inevitability of things .. something not to be too happy or too sad about .. something that hints at deep Vairagya .. Perhaps what it means to us will also be partly influenced by where we are in life at that time ...
All in all an excellent movie to watch once every few years and like a true classic, always fresh, always inspiring and always holding the secret to eternity.

Friday, November 06, 2009

Kasya tvam. Kah kuta aayat

A verse from Bhajagovindam by Adi Sankara that I loved as soon as I saw it

Kaa te kaanta kaste putrah
Samsaro'yam ativa vicitrah
Kasya tvam kah kuta ayat
Tattvam cintaya tadiha bhratah

Translates to

Who is your wife ? Who is your son ?
In this world these are extremely wonderful
Of whom are you ? Whence have you come from
Think of this my brother

I don't have a keyboard with phonetics to transliterate properly but I hope it's not too hard to read. The only word in the traslation I put that I am not really happy with is wonderful for "vicitrah".
We could look up a dictionary to see what it really means, but I suspect that it has several meanings ... In this context I feel it means more like extremely intriguing, something more like - these are really good questions to ask.
But the verse itself is so wonderful. Simple, easy to ready and with enough in it to ponder for hours - typical Adi Sankara style ...
So the though for the day is
"Kasya tvam ? Kah kuta aayat ? " Who are you ? Where from you have come ?!?

Saturday, November 01, 2008

Nagula Chaviti ....

I stopped blogging since a while ago ... No deep philosophical thoughts moved me in the last so many months. I guess New York is a better environment or perhaps it is the university life ... So instead of letting my blog die I though perhaps I could write about simple things .. things that I did not think were important before. Like Naren says "when you are out of form, just stay in the context. At least."
Today is Nagula Chaviti. I thought it was not a big festival but when I called Saroja atta, she decided to fast and not cut any food today. So I thought atleast let me pray for a while. So for 10 minutes or so I was just chanting "Subramanyam subramanyam, kartikeya subramanyam" from an old yoga camp.
The power of chanting is unbelievable. I could feel a perceptive difference. A surge of energy and some real nice peace. No wonder the ISCON people do it so much ...
Also the power of Pranayama. Prasad mama made us all do pranayama daily for atleast 3 minutes daily. The minute spent of Kapalabhati was wonderful. Current of energy flowing, vitalizing and the kind of urging to go into meditation ...
Simple things, beautiful things, things that get you back in form !

Tuesday, February 12, 2008

Tell me about your mystics ....

A wise man once said, "Tell me about your mystics and I will tell you how wise your people are ... "

Well, this is the same wise (wo)man writing the rest of the post ! But really, of all the achievements of a people it's not the technological, architectural, social, or cultural achievements that sing true praise of them but how many mystics lived among them and how well they treated them.

For all other achievements are of no real significance if their relationship with God is not intimate ... Which is why we all should be proud to be Indian !

I am interested these days in the religion of Judaism. I would love to know what their mystics were like ...

Monday, February 11, 2008

Selfish vs selfless ??

Since childhood we are taught that selfless activities - like helping people in need, are better than selfish activities - buying tons of candy for yourself !

But are these so called selfless activities really selfless ?

Some of them are obviously selfish ones - like when rich people give to charity and get extensive coverage for it and some of them are not so obviously selfish - like say in the case of anonymous donors who do not feel comfortable being recognized ....
But they remain selfish as long as they derive something out of it - recognition, fame or even a quiet warm feeling deep in your own heart.
Is a truly selfless act possible at all ?
What about the person whose concept of is self is so all-encompassing that he treats the whole universe as him-self. But wait a minute in that case it becomes a truly selfish act !

So I guess there is nothing that is truly selfless ....