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Bhagavadgita Pages, Chapters 1 to 18

BG01 BG02 BG03 BG04 BG05 BG06 BG07 BG08  BG09 BG10 BG11 BG12 BG13 BG14 BG15 BG16 BG17 BG18

V.Krishnaraj

09/01/2014

                        Supplement,  Short Stories, & Commentaries 

Go on, enjoy the short Hindu stories with a twist of humor that will keep your humors flowing and balanced. 

1: The very first hijacking of an airliner 

2:  How to Id a Raksasa 

3: Talking Bull   

4: Children Eat free 

5: Lord Ganesa and his mouse 

6: Chitra Radha's curse 

7: The pious cat and hairy scat 

Are you a serious reader of Hindu Philosophy and psychology?  You are in the right place.

1: The Stem Substance   

2: The vedantic Truth 

5: Brahman according to Ramanuja  

6:  Monism  

You want to know what the Gurus think of God?

1: Alvars and their God  

2: Bhakti  

3: Why so many Gods?

Comparative religion and psychology:

1:  Gunas and Hitler  

2:  Altered consciousness  

What is Vedantic Truth / ABSOLUTE -200 PROOF
Brahman  according to Ramanujacharya	Bhakti, Prapatti, and Saranagatti
Monism---Sankaracharya	Talking Bull A cow boy becomes a jnaani
Lord Ganesa, His mouse  and His mouse pad	Chitra Radha's curse and the first Xenograft
The pious cat and his hairy scat	The Lion and the Cub
Two Birds in One	The Muni, the gods and the wind
The Mind and its thoughts	Why Hindus have so many Gods?

How to ID a Raksasa or a Demon and How to Protect Yourself

The Aryan, Dravidian and Tribal origins and interactions

Myths and piths

Raksasas are demons also known as ogres. They are nocturnal and metamorphose to any form, mostly animals.  They can assume human forms too.  They are dangerous  mostly to newborns and women. They go for the most vulnerable amongst us.   Naturally one has to assume that the Raksasas are the bane of the maternity wards all over the world!  Their strength wanes during the day- light hours, and at dusk, it returns and in the dark of night they are at peak performance.  If you happen to see any one of them, pay attention to his (long) tongue, and (fiery) eyes.  If you see a dog or an ape wandering around aimlessly and looking suspicious, think Raksasa.    Don't take any action.  And don't call the police.  It doesn't help.  By the time they come to the scene, they already metamorphosed into an owl, and an eagle.  If you happen to see an eagle or an owl, try not to injure them.  They belong to the endangered species.  You can get into trouble with the law.  The best thing you can do under those circumstances, is to carry a wad of mustard.  They are scared stiff at the sniff of mustard.  They can be pinned down and blinded in  midair by random throw of staves. This is esp necessary to protect the women during weddings.  Since they can be scared off  with mustard and fire, they never hang around hot dog stands.  They are very adept at messing up the sacrifices and  evade the pursuers.   Ravana, the abductor of Sita of Ramayana is a Raksasa. Just don't worry. Have Mustard, will travel.  Don't leave home without it.  You have been foretold and forewarned.  I can't overstate this.  The Raksasas will smell your mustard a mile away and stay out of your ambit.  Don't venture out on a moonless night.   The female of the species is called Raksasi or ogress.  When you see what apparently looks like a husband and wife pair, don't  believe what you see.  Seeing is not believing here.  One or the other may be a Raksasa or a Raksasi. They are known for impersonation, and imitation of anybody's voice. Neither the husband nor the wife of a 50-year marriage can say the fake spouse from the real.  Just a piece of advice to the newly-weds and the long-weds. Just look at the eyes and the tongue of your presumed  spouse very carefully.    If you are going on a date with your presumed husband, look at his eyes and ask him to flip out his tongue.  If the eyes  look red,  and the tongue rolls out like that of a frog,  stay out  of his face. For goodness sake keep the distance until you can be sure it is safe.   But don't go overboard with this Raksasa thing.  Just a wad of mustard will keep you out of trouble.

The Adivasi View of History:   The Advasis of India claim to be the original inhabitants before the  India's Indus Valley Civilization.  They are the Bhils, Gonds, Hos, Irulas, Korukus, Mundas, Oraons and Santals.  They claim that the invading foreigners like the Aryans branded them as Raksasas for no good reason. They were driven to the hills  and forests by the the Aryans and the Brahmanical Vedic societies.  They were known as the Nishadas and Nagas and were lumped together as Raksasas at the time of the Great Epics.

 The Adivasis believe that they are also the Dalits of the present day India and that they got the raw deal ever since the Aryans came to India.  They blame the Brahmanical society,  for their plight from denial of  equal opportunity.  They don't worship Hindu gods. There is no moksa in their thinking.  It is here and now and they pay homage to their ancestors.   They blame the British for labeling them as Criminal Tribes. Presently they are denotified.  

There are studies to indicate that the whole Indian sub-continental people, including the tribals  are of the same stock derived from common maternal genes.  The Aryan and Dravidian divide happened some 15 to 20 thousand years ago.  It is the current belief that there is no such thing as Aryan invasion.  Whew! that lightens the load.  Now that we know that we all came out of Africa, let us try to get the African and the Northern European, two ends of the phenotypic spectrum, together.  If that happens, all the rest in-between will fall in place.

The Very First Hijacking of an Airplane in the world

Kubera / Kuvera  (Croesus of heavens) is the half-brother of the Raksasa, by name Ravana, who is the infamous abductor of Sita, wife of Lord Rama of Mahabharata.   Bill Gates is rumored to be the incarnation of  Kubera.   Read supplement section piece titled " Children Eat Free" to find out how Lord Ganesa gave him the fright of his life.   He is the richest being on this universe and can divine the exact location of precious gems without a divining rod or gouging the earth.  He is environmentally conscious and friendly.  He rolls in gems, gold  and anything that is considered precious.  Hence he is called the Lord of riches  -  Dhanapathi, and is the celestial keeper of wealth of gods.  Grapevine has it that his father, Pulastya, was a non-Aryan Rishi and his mother, Idavidaa, was the daughter of Rishi Bharadvaaja.  But according to Mahabharata lore, his mother was a non-Aryan.   His half-brother, Ravana is a ten headed, twenty-handed and fiery-eyed bad dude and an ogre.  He went on a rampage defeating the fiercest of all celestial fighters like yakshas and Gandharvas.  He had an eye on the celestial chariot owned and operated by his half-brother, Kubera.. This chariot is a flying city. Forget about Boeing.  Boeing is no match to Pushpaka Vimanam - literally means Pushpaka plane.  The beauty about  Pushpaka Vimanam is that you don't need any fuel.  It runs on thought.  Eat your heart out, Boeing.   Look here, we in India are no slouchs. We had planes in vedic times.  Consider this: this plane has  ponds that you can swim in.  It is an epitome and the ultimate in luxury. It has carved artifacts like lions, tigers with inlaid precious stones.  It has live music. It has artificial trees and silk flowers.  Expect to be greeted with a lei as you enter the plane.   Ravana hijacks the plane.  This is the first hijacking known in the world.  To add insult to injury, Ravana steals Kubera's throne too.

The Gunas, Hitler and Why Thunderclaps go Da - Da - Da.

Read BG Chapter 14 for more details.

The following is within the purview of Upanishads.  Gunas: Modes or behavior patterns, Sattva: knowledge, intellect, light and balanced emotion. Rajas: Motion, Passion and Excitement. Rajas is the motor behind Sattva and Tamas. Without Rajas, Sattva and Tamas are inert. Dominance of Rajas naturally means revved-up emotions. Tamas: darkness, passivity or negativity. Sattva, Rajas and Tamas are Prakaasa, Pravrtti, and Apravrtti - Radiance, Motion and Stagnation. respectively. Sattva, Rajas and Tamas are white, red and black. A mixture of Sattva and Rajas goes with yellow color. Pravrtti is forward movement and Apravrtti is stagnation. Tamas is also Pramaada - heedlessness.

Rajas and Ahankaara work like hand and glove. Ahankaara believes it is the doer. Rajas is motion in the doer and powers the doer. All the wars, and wranglings show dominance of Rajas. Rajas and Tamas with very little Sattva are the basis for criminal and antisocial behavior. To paraphrase, borrow and incorporate Gandhi's ideas : Rajas is wealth without work, and politics without principles. Rajas and Tamas are pleasure without conscience, knowledge without character, commerce without morality, science without humanity, and worship without sacrifice. Work, principles, conscience, character, morality, humanity and sacrifice are the seven supporting pillars of Sattva.

These gunas binds the jiva down to the matter. In order to rise above these gunas, the yogins perform Jnaana, and Raja yogas, tapas and austerity and  use the gunas as the steps on the ladder. He uses pure Sattva to attain Brahman, the pure light. The Raja Yogi directs his energy to unlock the kundalini power in him. Tamas is sublimated into Kaivalya, samadhi, silence and shanti - peace, tranquility and rest. Hitler is a very pure, double-distilled, unadulterated, and certified lunatic of  dominant Tamasic qualities with very little sattva in him. His Rajas and Tamas showed in his dark Tamasic plan of final solution and the Rajasic quality of mobilizing a military machine to achieve that end. He rejoiced in the execution of his master plan and death of jews based on Tamas and Rajas, while he cried over a dead bird out of his vestigial sattva.  Hitler's physician at the University of Berlin, Dr. Ferdinand Sauerbruch seemed to have observed before the war that Hitler was a "border case between genius and insanity" and that he "could become the craziest criminal the world ever knew".

God knew a Demon by name Hitler, and he did not heed.

Why Thunderclaps go Da - Da - Da-The talking Thunder

When  Praja-pati, the Progenitor of all living beings, assembled the gods, the men and the demons and gave them course studies in the sacred knowledge.  At the end of the course, he uttered the syllable "Da",  and queried "do you understand what Da means". Each group repeated the syllable and said that they understood the syllable "Da".  For the gods it meant self-control which they lacked, for the men it meant charity which they did not have and for the demons compassion which they never showed.  Daamyata for "self-control",  Datta for "give" , Dayadvam for "be compassionate".  When heavens thunder, it goes Da - Da - Da telling the gods, men and demons to practice self-control, charity and compassion.  Men are also divided into three types according to their behavior patterns as said earlier.  Just remember that the uncontrolled, the greedy and the cruel will be struck by lightning if they don't listen to the peals of thunder and thunder claps -Da - Da - Da, the message from heaven.   Brhad Upanishad 5.2.1 through 3.

Altered consciousness,  and visions

Altered consciousness

People with altered consciousness from meditation. They withdraw from the world of activities, and prefer silence and solitude. They are highly focused. As they withdraw themselves from the world around , they are drawn nearer and nearer to the subconscious, & unconscious mind and possibly the Id. There are no pathological ideation, no fears, and no aggressive impulses. There is no confrontation between himself and the world. It is simply an internalization, meditation, and concentration with no chaos, no agitation, no confusion, but with tranquility, clarity of thought, speech, and normality of acts, and equanimity. There is no depression, mania, agitation , irrationality and the like. In religious terms it is called realization, kailvalya, samadhi or  Turiya. All these terms and experiences are explained elsewhere. . There is peace. There is stillness. There is silence. There is Bliss. There is oneness with Brahman. 

These realized souls are capable of and do experience visions. Some psychologists call this integrated, expanded altered consciousness by an imperfect term "Essential Schizophrenia", as opposed to the pathological state "Paranoid Schizophrenia". These realized souls are in peace with the world around them. Their visions are most often limited to their own religious background. When they return to their waking consciousness, they behave like everybody else. Their altered consciousness – kaivalya, Samadhi and Turiya – are not drug-induced or pathological. These yogis bring  these altered states upon themselves intentionally and undergo complete remission upon resurfacing. These yogis receive wisdom  or visions or hear voices during their altered conscious states. Ramana MahaRishi, who never had formal religious instructions or  teaching of Vedas and Upanishads , received all that wisdom during  his altered consciousness and bliss during Turiya state. It is said that instinct matures into reason and reason matures into Superconsciousness in the yogi. It is also known as Samadhi. It is said that some acquired imperfect superconsciousness, experienced hallucinations without a full preparation for the state of an yogi and received revealed wisdom with superstitions.

Ramakrishna Pramahamsa was a devotee of Kali.  He used to address Her as Mother.  He was appointed the priest of the Dakshineswar temple. He meditated long and hard to get vision of Mother Goddess Kali.    After a while he was so absorbed in meditation, chanting, and unusual behavior in the presence of  MahaKali, he  was not following the prescribed puja procedures and decorum of an officiating priest. He persisted in behaviors such as feeding the Goddess, talking to Her and touching her chin,  feet, and begging her to give him vision of Her.   Kali gave him visions  of Her feet, and sweet smiling face.  Once he put his palm under her nose to make sure that the Mother was actually breathing.   He received many visions like this,  of Her. This was in the 1850s.  

This reminds me of Alvars. They wrote and sang poems in glory of Narayana. To an Alvar, God is everything.  God  is water for his thirst, food for his hunger, and  pan for his pleasure. Pan is a post-prandial chewing delight consisting of an aromatic mix of  betel leaf, betel nut,  lime and other ingredients to tickle the taste buds. To paraphrase the urge to merge with God: I am in You and You are in me. It is a one-track mind, always focused on Narayana. My eyes see not anything but You. My ears hear not anything but Your name.  You are on top of my mind.  You are my Love; You are my everything.  Here this love is the kind of love one shows to someone  who is above him and that is God.  That is ParaBhakti - Supreme Bhakti..  Then there is the yearning to see God in His physical form.  He begs, he pleads, he meditates and his wish is fulfilled.    He sees God momentarily. It was only a glimpse. He wants more and he wants it longer.  That is ParamaBhakti, when he is in constant communion with God.  

In relation to God, Alvars assume the role of  the consort, foster-mother, bride (Andal), father,  maiden, and the like.  This is spiritual love and not the ordinary, mundane or carnal love.  This spiritual love depicts the intensity, as we know and experience in the physical world. There is nobody other than God worthy of  the intensity seen in these roles. Alvars in the love for God, use creative devices to plead with God.  They send  love messages to God via the clouds,  the ocean, the wind, the birds, the bees and the like.  An  Alvar sends a parrot to Tirumal (Lord Venakateswara / Narayana / Krishna with a chiding message saying that what wrong did she do  to deserve this lack of His mercy.  

Another Alvar  sends a heron to the Lord with the message that he may be a sinner, but deserves not to be thrown out.  He sends a buzzing bee, making loops and hoops to tell the Lord that He should one day fly over on his Vahana Garuda before he dies, so that he could catch a glimpse of Him.  He sends a gentle swan to tell the Lord that he, being a sinner,  has gone crazy from not seeing Him.  He sends a stork with fine plumes with a message as to how long he, being a sinner, should languish in this present forlorn condition and that He is the only refuge he got.   When no response comes forth from God, and the alvars are down and out in depression, they seek help from friends, relatives and companions and send them out as messengers. Still there is no response from the Lord.  The Alvars are depressed.  What can they do?  They see unhappiness and grief  in anything and everything they see.  It is the chill in the cold wind, it is the darkness in the clouds, it is the grief in the roaring  sea, it is the depression of the waning  moon,  it is the darkness in the moonless night,  it is the cry of pain in the bird, it is the tears  in the rain, it is the fever in the flame at the separation from the Lord.  

The alvar takes on the role of a witness and a mother whose daughter went berserk. O my God, she is berserk, she is dejected, she rambles, she babbles, she is wasting like a melting wax, she is throwing her hands up, she is looking for God all over the place, she is mumbling the names of Gods, she mutters, she splutters, she explodes with bursts of glory of God. Now the mother pleads with God.  She knows not sunrise from sunset. O Lord, you hold the discus (of time) in your hands. What do you propose to do with this girl? 

 In another instance the mother pleads with the Lord on behalf of her daughter. " This girl knows not sleep.  She is all tears.  she mutters O Discus, O Conch, O Lotus eyes. What do you propose to do?  The Lord at last responds and the Alvar gets vision of God. The Alvar says: Your eyes glow like red lotus flowers.  Your body is brilliant like gold.  Your teeth are sparkling white. You wear your shining crown, garland, discus, conch, sacred thread, necklace,  bow, sword, and mace. You stand in me, your humble servant. your feet are golden.    

Nammalvar went into a six-month trance, because he couldn't bear the thought of  Krishna, the Lord of the universe being tied down  to a mortar by His foster-mother Yasoda for stealing butter.  Nammalvar couldn't reconcile with the fact that the Lord of the universe let Himself be tied down to a mortar by a human / jivatman.   

In another instance, the sages were so enchanted with Rama that they were born as milkmaids / gopikas  in relation to Lord Krishna.  These milkmaids are re-born sages wanting to be  around Krishna and merge with Him.   Krishna represents the Greater Soul and the gopikas are the lesser souls or jivatmas. The jivatmas want to merge with Paramatma, the Supreme soul, the original source.  

What is Vedantic Truth Dec/17/2000

The Absolute is 200 Proof, No kidding

 The thoughts expressed here are within the purview of Monism, though interspersed with humor.  You heard about telling "the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, so help me God.".  The court Truth  is close but not close enough. Vedantic Truth is  knowing that this world is a superimposition on the Absolute. And that Absolute is Brahman. Everything came from Brahman and everything dissolves in Brahman. From Sea to Sea. From Brahman to Brahman.  The rivers go from sea to sea, but they know not that fact.  The water from the sea is picked up by nimbus (rain cloud), rains down on land, forms rivers and ends up in the sea. It is the same with Jivatmas.   Brahman is you, that is  sentient. Brahman is the stone ("Brahman sleeps in the stone"), that is insentient. Matter is Consciousness with overwhelming dense ignorance. Matter is present in all its forms in all objects along with the mind, though the latter is incarcerated in Matter in its most vestigial form. This view is advanced by Saktas, who believe in Siva Sakti.

There was nothing before, and there is  nothing here and hereafter that is not God. When we say God , we mean Atman. Atman is God residing in the temple of your body.  Every time you recognize that there  is an Atman or God in the person you are facing, the bondages are broken, freedom rings, and realization sets in.  The God in heaven is no more of a God than the Atman in you.  The worship in temple, mosque or church is not any better than worshiping  God / Atman / Brahman in you in the privacy of your house or anywhere at anytime. Since we are transient superimpositions on the Absolute, time, space and causation are responsible for our transience.  Neti, Neti, meaning Not This, Not This tells us that we have to deny this universe and believe in Atman.  Our rebirth is conditioned upon karma.   When the karmic inflows stop and  a zero sum end point reaches with regard to karma, we are realized and we are merged with Brahman.   A loaded karma like a loaded gun is trouble.  Always don't let karmic inflows into your subtle body happen.  The inflow unsettles the subtle body and puts it on the path for rebirth. For the person with no karmic load, there is neither  heaven nor hell.   It is immaterial, because he is one with One, that is Brahman.  That is Bliss. What is better, heaven or Bliss?  Bliss wins hands down. God in heaven, going to heaven or hell, belief in one God and not in another are all partial truths.  We are infinite, because Atman is infinite. It is the karma that gives that finite existence in a body.  You heard the expression "You got a friend in PA".  Now you got a friend in your Atman.  Go no further. He is inside you. He is the guiding light. Tantrik Sadhakas are of the view that Brahman takes many forms for the benefit of his devotees.  We have been looking for God all over, never realizing that He is deep within you.  It is the Atman in you. It is the light in you. It is the voice in you.  As  Jesus Christ said" honour thy father and mother, and, thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.' Mt 19:19) Jesus said that because He knew that thy neighbor has the same Atman that you have.  If you can't see God in thy neighbor or parents, how is it possible that you can see God in the sky or the clouds?  The father, the mother and the neighbor are reflections of the Atman in you. If you don't love them, you don't love yourself.  Joseph Campbell relates a story which exemplifies this metaphysical unity.  A man was seen getting ready to jump off a cliff by two policemen in the patrol car.   The cop on the passenger side rushed out and caught the victim in the act and  found himself hanging precariously off the cliff. The second cop rushed and rescued both of them.  The first cop, upon questioning as to why he risked his life for the victim, he replied that he would not have been able to live with himself, if he had not done that.  Schopenhauer says that the crisis represents the emergence of metaphysical realization that you and the other are one and the same separated by time and space.

Truth has many sides, many depths  and many views.  It is not all wrong. It is not  all right. It is a journey from one truth to another truth. It is from a lower to higher truth.  The proof of the highest Truth is absorption into the Absolute or Brahman.   When you go to a liquor store, you look at  the bottle and want to know what proof it is.  If it is 200 proof, it is Absolute alcohol.  You want to get drunk on meditating on the 200 proof Absolute, the Brahman.  Got it.  The Truth is the hub and the spokes of the wheel are the paths leading to the Truth. How far you are from the hub tells you as to how far you are from the Supreme Truth - Para tattva.

Brahman and the universe according to Ramanuja 

Brahman says that this universe is my babe Dec,22/2000

                            God according to Ramanujachârya

Ramanujacharya (R) propounded Vishistadvaita (qualified Monism) as discussed below. He traveled from South to North India spreading his vision of God and Bhakti movement. He visited many temples. One such visit is noteworthy. At Jagannath temple in Puri, Orissa, there prevailed a tumult of cults (Saivites, Tantric Buddhists, and Saktas) which claimed Jagannath as Siva-Bhairava, Buddha, and Sakti. It is a special honor that everyone claimed Jagannatha as deity of his sect. But it led to confusion. Ramanuja reinstalled and re-consecrated Jagannatha as the Vishnu deity but at the same time recognized the all-encompassing nature of Jagannatha.  The disparate sectarian worship and the proper Vaishnava worship were allowed to exist side by side, thus asserting the special nature of the deity. This syncretic worship and rituals fit the stature of Jagannatha as the benign and loving god.

Ramanuja's views are as follows: The triad consists of Isvara,  prakara (cit and acit).   Isvara is the antaryaamin meaning the inner controller of cit and acit.  Cit is  life, the sentient world of  organisms from ameba to man,  and plants. Acit is the world of matter and insentient.  Ref to BG C9V10:  " Under My supervision, prakrti  gives birth to both  moving and unmoving (things)". Cit is individual soul. With Brahman / Isvara as the Supreme controller, creation comes into effect by His sheer will..  Brahman wills the contact of his intelligent principle to Prakrti, the non-intelligent matter.  From this contact, Gods to insentient  objects come forth.  They are cit and acit as said before. Hiranyagarba is the source material for prakara and provided the genetic code for Cit and the structure for Acit.   Therefore Ramanuja's Brahman is a heterogeneous entity of  souls, and plurality of the universe.  Tantra Sastras mention five entities in One and One in five entities: Nara Narayana, Jagadamba, Sri Krishna, Mahadeva, and the Universe.  Another view is that Panchadevatas save the universe as their play activity; they are One Brahman in the name and form of Siva, Vishnu, Sakti, Ganesa and Surya. The Upanishads address Brahman as Param-Jyotis, the Supreme Light. He is all-pervasive -Vibhu - and remains invisible. Ramanuja calls Atman  / Jiva as Brahman also. When the jiva has shed its ignorance, the original karma and realized its own awareness and becomes cognizant of awareness of other Jivas and Isvara, the Jiva is no other than Brahman. Ramanuja equates Isvara as  the knower of the Field ( Ksetranjana) and the field as the teeming Jivas and the insentient universe (Ksetra). Remember Isvara, Cit and Acit. In the microcosmic Jiva, the Jiva is the knower of the Field and the body is the field.

The jivatman (anu, life-monad) and Paramatman, the Supreme Atman, are not affected by the maladies of the body.    The individual soul / jivatman - life-monad - is  different from Paramatman - the Supreme Soul -, and they are not equal. The jiva has two qualities: 1: Self-awareness 2: Awareness of other jivas and Isvara. Once jiva is overlaid with ignorance, it is not better than prakriti - acit.  It is said that the original Karma from time without beginning is the hindrance in the way of its awareness.  The Jiva and the Supreme Lord have mutually satisfying relationship with each other in that the Jivas need the Lord and The lord needs Jivas.  This is called Sesi-Sesa  - the master and the servant relationship. Jivas need the Lord for obvious reasons.  The Lord needs devotees for He can not simply be Himself without devotees.  The relationship is compared to that of a  Cow towards its newborn calf. The cow doesn't mind licking the newborn calf clean.  Such is the love He has for his devotees.

R interprets Tat Tvam Asi in the following manner:  Tat is Isvara, who resides in the Universe.  Tvam is the same Isvara who is immanent in Jiva and so He resides in all the Jivas who are His body too.  As you notice R doesn't deviate from his stand.  R's Isvara permeates the universe and the Jivas. And they are His body. This is the central theme-  Sarira- Sariri, Body-Soul. The relation between  the prakara and Isvara.  Isvara never suffers from karma.  It is the Jivas who suffer from Karma.  Karma originates from Prakriti. And yet Isvara is free from it.  It is like the heat from the sun.  Heat originates from the sun, but yet the sun doesn't enjoy or suffer from the heat.   So all so Isvara doesn't  suffer from karma.

Vallabha says that the world originates from the very nature ( svarûpa) of Brahman and not from Maaya of Sankara's Brahman or the Brahman's body as Ramanujah suggests or sakti as Nimbarka says. Vallabha adds that to say that avidya-bondage  transforms Brahman into this world is to diminish  and contaminate Brahman.  

 Ramanuja's Brahman is compared to pomegranate fruit with seeds as the individual souls.  But Paramatma controls all, since He is all pervasive. The supreme Soul is the Atman and the whole universe of individual souls and the material is Atman's body.   In the same way the individual body is the body of the individual soul. The Atman is the controller and owner of all individual souls and the material world.  The Supreme Soul ( Atman) and the individual souls are identical in substance, but not in  their qualities.  Supreme soul is the Supreme controller, all-pervasive and  Bliss.  The individual soul is only a spark, a scintilla, an anu, or a monad.  The Supreme soul and the individual souls are magnetic to each other,  but ignorance and karma are impediments for the proximity.  Saranagati - self surrender, Prapatti - resignation, and bhakti on the part of the individual, and God's compassion,  love and grace  for the devotees get the individual soul in close proximity to God.  This magnetic resonance between God and man is the goal.

There are several kinds of devotees: 1:  Relief seeker  2:  Atman Seeker 3: Wealth Seeker  4:  Knowledge Seeker. All are loved by the Lord.  But He likes the Jnani, the knowledge seeker, the best.  Next comes the Atman Seeker.  Both of them are not after material wealth or relief from wants or suffering.  

Nirguna Brahman:  R doesn't believe in Sankara's Nirguna Brahman. That is because Nirguna Brahman is without attributes, not even Bliss and Consciousness.   R's Narayana has all the kalyana gunas.  According to Subala Upanishad, Lord Narayana is all gods  rolled into One and He is One without a second.  (SU VI - 1) SU further elaborates that He moves through all natural elements like earth, water, light, air, ether, mind,  thought, self-sense, the unmanifest, the imperishable, and death without these entities knowing  his movement through them.  The individual self gets absorbed in the immortal, fearless, sorrowless, endless, seedless Brahman - Absolute Reality.  

Let me introduce another prevailing belief in Tantra. Tantric believes in Sakti in its two aspects: Vacya Sakti and Vacaka Sakti; the former is without attributes and the latter is with attributes corresponding to Brahman and Isvara. You can drink water, but you cannot drink the rain clouds; in like manner the Great Mother Goddess manifests, out of grace and love, to her devotees. The nimbus cloud corresponds to Vacya Sakti and the rain to Vacaka Sakti in our analogy. Go to Mantra --Om Namasivaya for more details.  It is worthwhile to remember that Brahman is neuter; It can assume any form, gender, or power, when It transforms.

Moksa, Kaivalya, Sammadhi:  The aim of the various kinds of yogas is to destroy the ego and find your true identity, that is Atman and in that process experience kaivalya  and or Bliss and liberation.  Kaivalya is the state of  absolute freedom and  independence, and splendid isolation. Jiva is alone by itself, separate from all other jivas, detached from prakriti and self-absorbed in its own self.  With the light from Isvara, the self becomes Sat Chit Ananda. This Kaivalya is no match to the highest attainment by Prapatti and Sarnagatti, explained elsewhere.  Remember also that Jivankukti is unattainable  as per R.  Moksa comes to the deserving after death. 

 He created Brahma and Rudra, later called Siva.  With Himself as Vishnu, the Hindu holy trinity of Vishnu, Brahma and Siva is formed.  Vishnu created  Brahma and  Brahma created Rudra ( Siva)   He (Vishnu) is the Lord of them too.  Since they were created by Him, they were given equal status with his consort Sri / Lakshmi. They were given residence on His  body as follows.  Sri took up residence on the right front chest, Rudra / Siva on the left front chest and Brahma in his navel.  ( Just remember Vishnu keeps what is important close to his chest and body!)  It is said that Vishnu himself controls sustenance, and creation and dissolution through His Divine Surrogates, Brahma and Siva.  (As it is well known, Brahma was given the portfolio of creation, Siva the portfolio of dissolution and Vishnu kept the portfolio of sustenance.) Vishnu / Narayana controls other lesser gods as the inner controller or inner Soul, antaratman.

Coming back to Sri, equal status with Lord Vishnu is discussed in Vishnu Purana, chapter eight. He is meaning and she is speech; she is understanding and she is intellect; he is the creator and she is the creation; he is the sun and she is the radiance; he is the moon and she is the light; he is the ocean and she is the shore; he is the lamp and she is the light; he is the tree and she is the vine; and he is the Male and she is the Female.

 The Worships, prayers and sacrifices to the lesser gods are channeled to  Lord Vishnu Himself and he doles out  boons through his surrogates.   The lesser gods aren't qualified to grant moksa or liberation which has to come from Vishnu Himself.  So the Alvars recommend prayers offered directly to Vishnu Himself.   Krishna categorically states that the worshipping  of deities like the sun, the moon, the earth, Indra and such  are of limited value. Worshippers of Indra and other lesser deities do get to enjoy worldly benefits and go to svarga.  Svarga is a lower heaven compared to Krishna's (higher) heaven - Vaikuntha. Even higher than Vaikuntha is Goloka, where Krishna, Radha, Sridama (Krishna's friend) reside.   Those who go to Indra's heaven are not permanent residents there and they enter the Samsara or the cycle of birth and rebirth after their term ends in the lower heaven.  The reason is that Krishna is the soul and the inner controller  of Indra and other lesser gods. The sacrifices offered to lesser gods actually go to Krishna, but the lesser gods do not have the authority to offer moksa or the highest liberation.  The lesser gods do not have that mandate, which is  innate, and  integral to Krishna.  The Alvars go to the extent of upbraiding the devotees for having wasted their time by offering prayers to lesser gods and going through several births and rebirths without getting the moksa, because they were praying  to gods other than Vishnu.   ( Boy, these Alvars are something; they go  right to the top and they know what to get where!.) Nammalvar says that Sri, Lord's consort,  removes the karma and facilitates attainment of moksa at the feet of Vishnu / Narayana.   The Tenkalais believe that Sri is very high up in the ontological status, but separate and unequal to Vishnu, simply because she is a finite soul. But Vadakalais believe that Sri is an integral part of Vishnu and infinite and therefore enjoys equal status.  All the alvars and the followers agree that  Vishnu has become tender, understanding, loving, auspicious, creative, life-sustaining and  is in a constant state of bliss because of Sri.  Sri is regarded as a facilitator and mediator between man and God, Vishnu.

 There are three kinds of souls: 1: Eternal souls 2: Free souls 3: Bound souls.  Let me tell you right off  the back that we are all Bound souls with a BIG B.   The Eternal souls are the ones who have never known life in this universe and live their lives in Vaikuntha - Narayana's Heavenly Abode.   The free souls are the ones who attained salvation and now live with God after an arduous journey in the ocean of samsara during many transmigratory lives.   Jivan mukti - liberation while living  - is not attainable.  The Freed soul lives in the company of God, but never becomes merged with God. The liberated souls enjoy a status equal to that of Brahman Himself,  perform nitya-kainkarya, meaning eternal divine service, and enjoy Bliss.  The free souls living in Vaikuntha do not possess bodies or Indreyas (organs of sense).  Nammalvar uses the following epithets: Vaikuntha, the heaven, as Nadu - place.  Vaikuntha as Samankol Vidu, as (heavenly) place (where everyone is) equal.  Samya is equal,  vidu is abode, house.

 Ramanuja calls this creative force as intelligent principle, also known as super consciousness.  During dissolution, the events of creation  go in the reverse direction, and the prakrit  merges with the Brahman. The series of intermediate substances between  Prakrti and the manifested world at each end are  reversible and reproducible. Ramanuja feels that  the manifested world evolved from out of Brahman as the spider issues forth the web from its body.  That is the creative part.  According to Brahmasamhita Text 13, the universe and the beings exude out of the porous body of the Lord.  When the spider reabsorbs the thread it is  involution or dissolution.  Thus Brahman is the efficient (instrumental) and material cause of this universe.  This universe and the life-monads are like the leaves on the tree.  It is like saying that the tree of an  universe is firmly anchored in Brahman by its roots.  The leaves do not have a separate existence.   It is like hair growing out of the body.  It is like saying that the insentient hair of an  insentient universe is projecting from a living super consciousness, that is Brahman. Author's note: To use a common idiom, Brahman says" That is my baby"  meaning the universe and the life-monads are His baby.  The only difference is that this baby is ever connected to Brahman by the umbilical cord  until dissolution, when the baby is reabsorbed.  The Puranas substantiate this story as follows with some modification. During the Great Deluge, Vishnu was floating in the water, he willed  and sprouted a lotus stalk from his navel  and created Brahma.. Brahma was asked to create the gods, sages, the universe and all living beings. It is not like the potter who  takes the clay and makes the pot.  Clay is not part of himself, but external to the potter.  (Author's note: To elaborate and illustrate, just imagine that  Brahman (through His Divine Surrogate Brahma)  is the potter, the clay, the potter's wheel, necessary  paraphernalia  and the pot.)  He is all in One and Omnipotent.  

Ramanuja elucidates  the motive, the action and the result of Brahman's  creation of this universe. He reasons as follows.  Motive could benefit the doer Himself or others. Since the world is full of such evils like birth, death, old age, sickness and misery, why would he not create something new devoid of all these maladies?  (Author: When you get a rose, you get a rose with thorny stem.)   Ramanuja feels that this is all mere play activity - Lila / leela of Brahman.  This universe is his playground.  The motive is to amuse Himself.  His action is willing the evolution  and dissolution of prakrti.  The result is that this universe is here  for Brahman to play in, between evolution and dissolution. Vedas assert that the Lord’s will and desire rise resulting in creation. He willed that he becomes many. He wanted to create beings. This will of God is called Māya. Māya power is personified as a female and is called as Māya. In this world of tears, there is a serious business of soul making. Eventually these souls go to Brahman and attain bliss.  Bhagavatam says that this female principle, Māya, is coeval with the Lord. The Lord is the three-fold cause of this universe: Trividha-kārana, material (upādāna), instrumental or efficient (nimitta) and inductive (sahakāri = Saha+kāri =powerful, stimulating, inductive + doer)

 Nârâyana  has six attributes: Jnaana,  Sakti,  Bala,  Tejas,  Virya, and  Aisvarya - Supreme knowledge, Supreme  (creative)  power, Supreme strength,  Supreme luster / luminescence / splendor,  Supreme valor, Sovereignty (and opulence).    Nârâyana is all those and more: 1:  Supreme  2: Material and efficient cause of the universe  3:  He is present  both inside and outside in the sentient and the insentient, and   4:  The supreme controller of all  5:  He offers refuge  6:  He is omnipotent  7:  He is all compassion  8:  He is the Friend in need; He never lets down His devotees  9:  He is endowed with kalyana gunas - auspicious attributes 10:  He is the Ultimate who can meet the devotee's ardent  desire to attain liberation.  

There is no God, in the view of Alvars, greater than Nârâyana.  Now let me show you why:  1:  Removes all obstacles for those seeking refuge  2:  He is easily accessible -Saulabhya - Sulabha. 3:  Paternal tenderness - Vatsalya 4: Good disposition towards devotees. 5: Favoritism towards devotees 6: Special ties with devotees.  Note: Vatsalya  is  a two-way relationship with God.  God can act as the tender loving cow (parent) towards its newborn by licking the calf clean - forgiveness of sins. Or the devotee can be the mother as in the case of  Yasoda to Baby Krishna. Vatsalya, in a way, implies protection given by the Lord to those who are either too young, too weak or too poor, too indigent or subhuman to understand or acknowledge  His grace.  The point that is made is the protection Lord Krishna offered to both humans and animals by lifting the Govardhana hill and letting them take shelter under it.   The animals, the infants, and some people belong to that category who can not reciprocate his grace even by acknowledgement.  His grace is endless and knows no limits. He loves to help those, who do not know or incapable of knowing where the help is coming from.

Just remember that the individual sole is atomic (anu) and never merges with Brahman upon attaining moksa or liberation. The anu or individual life monad is happy to be in the company of Lord  Narayana, upon attaining moksa or liberation.   The individual soul should be happy about it, because even Sri, His consort, Brahma and Rudra (Siva) are not organic, but appendages on the body of  Narayana.   Read elsewhere on Brahman's abode. 

R considers Jnana as the firm understanding and belief of  the Jiva that Isvara is the master  and the Jiva is the servant.  The servant's ever increasing and abiding flow of consciousness towards the Lord is the basis for Bhakti.   Ramanuja takes refuge at the feet of Lord Nârâyana associated with Sri.  *Saranâgati -Self-Surrender -is the only upâya - means - he knows to attain moksa. He seeks forgiveness for all the apacâras - offences -and  Lord's grace. Nârâyana is the lord of all gods, including Brahmâ, Rudra and the the rest.  Sri, his primary and principal consort Lakshmi, ever inseparably situated on His chest, is a mediator on behalf of devotees, between Vishnu /  Nârâyana and the devotees.  She is equal to the Lord, in all His  attributes,  in erasing the sins and confers moksa.  They are One.  In ontological hierarchy,  the  Vishnu's  other two divine consorts, Bhû and Nîlâ are secondary to Sri.  Alvârs have noted Vishnu's  infatuation with divinely beautiful  and enchanting  Nîlâ  for anubhava-sukham - enjoyment.  That being known, the Lord takes a lenient  forgiving attitude towards  the sins of  His  devotees.  ( It simply means that the Lord is forgiving and has the grace to overlook one's sins.   Bhû is forgiveness in a deity form and so persuades the Lord to forgive the sins of the devotees. All these physical and earthly attributes of the Lord are just  metaphors and illustrations as follows: Sri represents the supreme glory of the Lord.    Bhû represents the unselfish bounty of the earth and Nîlâ  portrays the enjoyer of the the supreme glory of the Lord. *Saranagati and Prapatti: Self surrender and resignation have generated a bit of controversy.  How could one ask for unmerited or undeserved divine grace?  Could that not be a talking point?

More on Saranagati

Saranagata Raksa is not something every god can give to a devotee. The god must have two qualities to offer Saranagata Raksa (Surrender-protection, protection of the surrendered): power and compassion. Krishna has both. Examples where one is present and the other absent are: Parasurama has the power but not the compassion and Indra has the compassion but not the power. Let me cite the example of Indra.

Addendum:  Isvara, the individual souls and nature are contained in Brahman.  Isvara is the soul of  nature and the Soul of souls.  When the universe ceases to exist, Isvara subsides in Brahman and so also the individual souls and the universe.  It appears that Isvara, the individual souls and the universe are clinical manifestations of Brahman.  

Vishnu is immanent in creation, chaos, cosmos and cosmic dissolution. From Brahma to a blade of grass, nothing moves without his consent or knowledge.  The objects in the universe are the beads which are held together  by the thread of God. Gita7.7:   (There isn't anything higher than me, O Arjuna.  Al that is here (universe)  is strung on me, as rows of gems on a thread).  All seen and unseen objects in this universe or elsewhere either formed or formless constitute the body of Lord Vishnu.   

The puranas have given 24 names to Lord Vishnu according to the configuration and placement of  the Discus, the Conch, the Mace and the Lotus in relation to His hands. The following table gives you an idea as to the emanations of the Lord and the respective configurations.

Rgveda  contains descriptions of Vishnu holding  a conch, a disc and a mace. Puranas added the lotus to the list.  

Bhakti, Prapatti and Saranagatti

The following passage represents the  accepted views on bhakti.  Man loves money and more than money, he loves his family. Then comes his house, his vahana (car) and the rest. He holds onto them fast. His love for the above are intense.  And so is the love of God for Bhakta.  Bhakti is true love.  We have such strong attachment for  things lower, like sense objects.  The idea that this love for the lower objects can be transformed and transferred to a higher object  namely God is called bhakti.   The first object of bhakti  in Rg Veda was varuna and the next one is none other than  Lord Vishnu.  Later Bhakti is stressed in Bhagavad Gita. 

The thoughts expressed here come under the purview of Bhakti  Yoga.  Bhakti is an extremely emotional attachment to God. Either you got it  or  you don't have it. A better bhakta is the one who has  personal qualities like truth, honesty, compassion, ahimsa,  charity, cheerfulness. A bhakta has to change his ways here and there to fit the bill.  See What R and S have to say here. 1: It is said by Ramanuja and Sankara that certain foods depromote love for God. Avoid meats, and  all smelly foods.  2: Vimoka  Desires. One can't have multiple desires and still call himself a bhakta. One can't share  love for God with someone  else. God is the sole recipient of your undivided love.   3: Abhyaasa:  Practice.  Keep the mind focused on God all the time. Think God, Talk God, Hear God, Sing God, or Hear music in praise of God. 4: Kriyaa: Work for the fellow man.  In order for bhakti to sprout, grow and bloom, bhakti needs sustenance. That sustenance comes from five-fold  sacrifice: Study holy books, Worship Gods, Duty to forefathers, Service to people , Compassion to animals.  This five-fold  sacrifice covers service to gods, man and animals.  

Love in this phenomenal world waxes, wanes and dies, blooms, withers and falls, because you are in love with the finite, a human, an object or an idea.  That is not love. That is animal passion. True love has no ups and downs. Love always goes to something or somebody, who is more magnetic. Love's pull varies according to the magnetism of the object.  There is nobody more magnetic and infinite than God Himself.  God is the most magnetic centripetal force on earth.  If you step into that circular ambit of God's magnetism, you are for ever free.   The magnetism and luminescence of God is that of the sun,  and  those of other objects, are those of a candle. The following passage in Saantipura is pertinent.  As two wooden sticks, jostled in the ocean (of Samsaara - phenomenal world) , come into contact with each other  for a fleeting  moment and get separated thereafter, even so is the relationship between kith and kin.  One should not feel any particular, and  any undue passion towards  them, for separation is a certainty.  In an allegory from everyday life,  sons, daughters, kith and kin are like the  passengers in  the bus.  Some get on the bus and some get off the bus. The contact guarantees  separation .  Any passion developed for a person during the bus trip is a grief at his or her departure. 

According to Sankaracharya, this phenomenal world is a superimposition. They are like ocean waves, which rise and fall.  The Real is Brahman or God. Sankara says that the REAL is changeless and changing world is only relatively real. Agamas take a different view. Sakta Sastras are of the view that the reality of the world ceases with the death of the experiencer; thus, they seem to be more practical.  On the other hand, Supreme Siva Sakti, when experienced, is Real, complete (Poorna) and irrevocable.

Love is the Real and not the unreal or the superimposition. The primary means of communication  with God is Love in Bhakti yoga and so the intellect, the station in life,  and the book  knowledge do not help.  One may have the receptive mind for Bhakti Yoga, but he needs a guru whose Weltanschauung is mature and who could give that impulse, vibrations, the push, or the nudge.  When one has sufficiently prepared himself with qualities for Bhakti Yoga, the impulse will  find its way to the Bhakta.  How are we to find a real  Guru?  It is said that a Guru, when he appears in person or by any other means, is  like the rising sun.  There is no way you can miss that.  Until one gets that feeling  from a prospective Guru, one has to wait and make sure that his mind and soul are receptive.  The prospective student of Bhakti yoga may have to wait one day, one year, one life time or one hundred life times. The best thing is to make your soul ready for that encounter.  Ramana Maharishi says: "He who draws creatures towards the Self and grants transcendent Self-experience, Cling to him as the Guru Supreme, praised by the wise as God himself, another form of the one Self.".  According to Vivekananda, a  real guru is not a wonk - a leaf  / bean counter, with encyclopedic knowledge of Vedas, and facts and figures at his finger tips -, but a guide, and sinless.  A physics professor is judged as to how much he knows about physics. A guru is judged on how pure he is.  In a physics professor what he says is more important than what he is. In a guru, what he is, is  more important and then alone we know what he says comes from heart and soul.  There is transference of  not only knowledge but also certain vibrations from the guru to the student.  The motive of the guru is also important. If the motive is not true love for the student, he is not a true guru.  Money, fame, and  name are disqualifications.  Bhakti has two phases: 1: ceremonial 2: Supreme.  Bhakti is a progressive experience. We have to start at the kindergarten class first. A learning experience.  The ceremonial phase consists of many ways of showing bhakti.  It may be a prayer to a form and name of God.  There is no name without a form and thought.   This will firm up the image of God in the devotee.  Here one shouldn't engage in bartering with God.  Pray to and love God for His own sake. He may give what you need on His own volition, but bartering is not bhakti.  

 Bhakti is of two kinds: Maryaada-Bhakti and Pusti-Bhakti.  Maryaada is delimited, self-directed and merit-based, while Pusti is  bestowed and abundant, unlimited and effortless receipt of grace from God.  Vallabha favors the Pusti-bhakti.  It is left entirely to God whether one attains pusti-bhakti, whether qualified or not.  Vallabha feels that this entails complete surrender to God.  He does not recommend renunciation or Sanyasa.  He opines that renunciation naturally  follows bhakti or devotion.  Jana-yoga involves many births to attain perfection.  Bhakti is the preferred choice.

Bhagavatam 3.29.7 through 19 discusses Bhakti in its four aspects in four kinds of devotees.  This classification is based on the basic dominant guna  / mode of the individual.  There are three gunas namely Tamas, Rajas and Sattva and so also three kinds of devotees, namely Tamasic, Rajasic and Sattvic devotees of Lord Krishna.  The fourth kind of devotee is the pure devotee who transcends all gunas.  

1)  The Tamasic devotee, aka the ignorant one is given to "himsam, dambham, matsaryam and samrambhi" - violence, pride and pretension, greed and selfishness, deceit and anger.

2)  The Rajasic devotee, the passion-driven devotee is the one who who worships a god in the form of a deity, seeking fame, name, dominance and power (Aisvaryam)

3)  The Sattvic devotee, the good devotee worships the Lord giving all his actions as sacrifice to the Lord and thus frees himself from karma.

4)  The transcendent devotee is the pure devotee who rises above all the devotees, knowing the auspicious qualities and the all-pervasiveness of the Lord, enters the Lord in an uninterrupted manner just like River Ganga enters the ocean and exhibits causeless and no-strings-attached devotion to the Supreme Lord.  Here the bhakti is described as "Bhaktiyogasya nirgunasya", meaning "Bhakti yogam with no strings attached". Nirgunasya in this context means "unqualified or with no strings attached"

These devotees do not seek or accept  Sâlokya, Sârsti, Sâmîpya, Sârûpya,  Sâyuja and  ekatvam from the Lord, meaning that these devotees will not accept upon offer  from the Lord any of  beatitudes such as residence in the same world as the Lord, equal status, nearness or proximity, similar form or appearance,  intimate union / absorption or Oneness with the Lord.

When you pray to God, use the syllable OM. OM is the first sound, first thought, Brahman and God. OM consists of three letters:  A  U  M, the beginning, the middle and the end. AUM includes / contains  the past, the present and the future and also is beyond time itself.  When Prajapathi  was meditating on the three worlds,  three vedas originated, Earth, atmosphere and sky came into existence, and the syllable AUM came about..  "Just like the leaves are held together by its stalk, so is the speech held together by AUM".  - Chandyogya Upanishad.  AUM also represents the Hindu Holy Trinity,  A: Brahma, U: Vishnu, and M: Siva.     AUM knows neither fear nor death.  Men, gods and asuras take refuge in AUM.  Sing it sotto voce and have no fear of anything. In Sanskrit  A and U combine to form O sound and M gives that resonance.  OM is the syllable, the utterance of which helps a soul to penetrate Brahman proportionate to the degree of belief in it, detachment, abrogation of desires and contact with sense objects, and  awareness.  Its power is diluted by exegesis - critical evaluations.

Upanishads mention that OM is the bow, the jivatman is the arrow  and the Brahman is the target.  A bow must be strong and tensile in that the faith is strong,  one has  depth and breadth in  vedic wisdom  and life is lived  by sattva  Sharpen the arrow with devotion.  The mind is the tip of the arrow. Silence and stillness are the goals.

The Yogi does it the hard way to attain Brahman. Try Bhakti, Prapatti, Saranagati

Yogi goes from sound to silence. He rides on the sound waves and his goal is silence. Sabda-Brahman and Param-Brahman

There are two kinds of knowledge: 1: that of  Sabda-Brahman 2: Param-Brahman.  Param-Brahman is superior and Sabda-Brahman is only a means to Param-Brahman.  Sabda-Brahman or Brahman of Sounds consists of all bookish knowledge including rituals, sacrifices and  vedas.  Soundless Brahman is superior to Sound Brahman.  But the latter is the preliminary step before attainment of Soundless Brahman.   Once Soundless Brahman or preliminary knowledge or wisdom  is attained,  the names, forms, books, rituals, sacrifices, prayers, hymns and so forth should be abandoned.  It is like saying that the raft should be abandoned once you reach the shore.  It is like saying that the chaff should be abandoned or thrown away, and that one should try to get to the rice. Ramana Maharishi says it as follows: You remove the thorn from the sole of the foot by another thorn and when done, throw away both thorns.   At this stage of development, rituals, vedas, sacrifices have to abandoned at the dawn of higher realization of param-Brahman or Soundless Brahman. There is stillness. There is silence. That is the goal, that is absorption, that is Bliss.  It is like the spider climbing on its own thread to reach the higher space;  so also the yogin goes up on the  sound thread of OM and reaches his destination, silence.   He rides on the sound waves of OM and his goal is silence.  He goes from sound to silence.  He attained Vijnana.  He shed names and forms. Speech is nothing for him.  Books are for the birds. There are no hymns and no prayers.  Where he is, there is no fear, there is no sorrow, there is tranquility, there is silence,  there is bliss.

Vallabha's views

Let me give you a few more details on param-Brahman.  Param-Brahman is Existence (Being), Knowledge (Awareness), Bliss and Grace.  Grace is a spontaneous and causeless on the part of God, and effortless on the part of the devotee.

In the very beginning the Lord was alone.  It is said that his thought to sport was the cause of sparks as souls coming out of the fire in Aksara Brahman. Aksara itself is imperishable and appears as souls endowed with Sat and Chit, but not Ananda. This Aksara-soul is equated with the CIT, the variable-sentient, while Aksara-Prakrti is equated with the insentient world. 

From top down, there is a gradation starting from Param-Braman to Aksara-Prakrti.  Param-Braman is also Reality,  Pûrna Purusottma (Complete, auspicious and Supreme Person - Vishnu) and Supreme Person . Param-Brahman, Purusottama and Krishna are one and the same entities. Antaryâmin is the divine dwelling in the finite souls and its inner controller.  Aksara-Brahman  the imperishable and the immutable is the abode of Lord Krishna and aksara is the cause of everything.  

Nitya-lila: Eternal Sport.  the highest state an individual can attain. The liberated soul enjoys the pleasures of His company on a continuous basis. This exalted soul is incapable of creation, sustenance and sublation which are the sole and inalienable functions of the Lord. Aksara-souls = living / animate beings. Aksara-prakriti = Inanimate objects.  latent / Absent / potential.

Bhakti, Prapatti, Saranagatti

Bhakti, Prapatti, Saranagatti, the cat and the monkey.  Is there a  separate, but equal access to God?: The simians -Republicans - and the felines - Democrats -hold different views..  Devotion and complete resignation / Prapatti to God is like God seeing the helplessness and extreme devotion of the devotee, tugs him by the collar or the elbow and takes him to moksa.  This is a passive act on the part of the truly  helpless, and vulnerable devotee. This is allegorized by the cat picking up the kitten by the nape of  its neck and taking it to where ever it needs to be taken.  This is tenkalai. Vadakalai people call the tenkalais as freeloaders and antinomians. They blame the tenkalais for wanting something for nothing.  Vadakalais believe that the devotee has to put in an effort in liberating himself.   Self-effort with total Surrender to God and devotion to God can be allegorized to a baby monkey clinging on to its mother. Here the clinging is devotional  activity on the  part of the devotee, actively seeking moksa by his bakhti, prapatti, and saranagatti. This is vadakalai view.  Work for food of liberation is poo-pooed by the tenkalais. The latter claim that morality, merit, demerit, righteousness or unrighteousness are of  no value in the eyes of almighty God, and divine grace is unpredictable.  Vallabha is of the view that pusti-bhakti is endowed and abundant, unlimited and effortless receipt of grace from God.   To make matters more complicated, for people who are not twice-born, Parapatti and saranagatti are the only means to attain moksa.  

Here one doesn't have to be  a jnana or bhakti yogi.  Krishna utters that those taking refuge in Him - Prapatti - , be they women, vaisyas, sudras, and  even the low born, will attain moksa.  This concept of Prapatti and Saranagatti was developed by alvars,  some of them were woman, sudras and the low-born.  This separate but equal access to God was a new concept and didn't come under the authority of Jnana and karma yoga as the means of  attaining God.  Krishna expressed His love of man, be that person a woman, a sudra, a lowborn, by implanting the germ and the gem of an idea of  Prapatti into the fertile, ingenious, devoted  and God-drunk minds of alvars.. It also shows that if there is a will, there is a way even for the low-born to attain moksa under the aegis of Prapatti.  It sounds like a revolutionary idea in those days of varna, Karma, and Jnana yoga, as a means of attaining liberation, esp when the low-born were barred from the yoga practices.

Addendum:  The Supreme soul and the individual souls are magnetic to each other,  but ignorance and karma are impediments for the proximity.  Saranagati - self surrender, Prapatti - resignation, and bhakti on the part of the individual, and God's compassion, love  and grace for the devotees get the individual soul in close proximity to God.  This magnetic resonance between God and man is the goal of  the individual soul of man.  

Monism, Atman / Absolute,  Time Space and Causation, Superimposition Dec 14, 2000

What is that force that moves the body or animates it?. Body is not self-created. This force must be a common denominator for all sentient beings. (According to Advaita philosophy even insentient objects have a force in them.) This force must be beyond the mind, body and matter, because it is still the mover / a force / a bright light even after the mind and body are gone. Since it is there in the sentient and the insentient and even after the physical body is gone, it must be all-pervasive. This all–pervasive force is called Atman. It is infinitesimal to be all pervasive. It is  that which binds and keeps all living beings high and low together.  It is the common thread running through all living entities.  It is like a garland strung on a thread.   It is what you get after you chop a fig seed to its ultimate infinite. You can’t see it but you know it is there and that is the subtle essence of the fig seed.  It has no shape or no form and therefore no name. The ultimate infinite or the essence , the one without a form or  a name, if it is conceivable, is within the fig seed. It (Brahman) is neither Sura (god) nor Asura (Demon), nor man, nor woman, nor eunuch, nor animal, nor insect, nor an attribute, nor action, nor existence, nor non-existence; What remains after all negation is THAT.

    It is like the salt in the water. You know it is there. But you can’t see it. It is all-pervasive like the all-pervasive salt in the salt water.. You have an Atman and I have an Atman. How could that be  possible, if there is only one Atman?  We are all like pots holding our individual space inside. When the pots are  gone, the space is still there. The Real (space) is Atman and the apparent (space) is limitation of the Real as in the pots. The space is bound and unbound at the same time. The apparent (and the transient)  is bound.  The Real is unbound.  That is the difference between the Real and the apparent (man).  It is said in Paingala Upanishad that the omniscient  God, upon entering the bodies underwent a delusive transformational change into the individual souls by virtue of the power of maya.  This deluded individual soul  identifies itself with the gross, subtle and causal bodies and having been sheathed and ensconced by these bodies thinks it is the doer, the dreamer, the sleeper and the actor.  See what maya does.  Sankara says that our home is Sat.  We are blindfolded by worldly pleasures.  We need a teacher who can remove the blindfolds and point the way to Brahman, having himself  a clear vision of the Self.  

Let me give you an example of what illusion is.  Everyday you see the sunrise and sundown. Isn't that an illusion.  There is no such thing as sun rising or falling on the horizon.  But in our phenomenal world both occurrences are real.  In the real sense , the sun is one, neither rising or falling.  In the same way this universe is a phenomenon which is real, because it is experienced,  and not real because it is a projection from Brahman. And Brahman is the only Reality.  The rise and fall / birth and death and other transformations  are only phenomenal and unreal.  

The phenomenal world is an apparent product of the Absolute by intermediation of time, space and causation. Since Atman has no form and beyond mind, it could not be under the control of time, space and causation. Since it is infinite, there can be only one infinite and that infinite can not have a beginning ,  a middle, an end , birth or death. That infinite is Atman. Since the infinite is only one and all-pervasive, Atman pervades the sentient and the insentient, the whole universe. The phenomenal world and superimposition: This phenomenal world rises and falls like the waves in the ocean***. The wave has the time, space and causation elements incorporated or expressed in them for the duration of the wave. And there are many waves and therefore there are many forms and many names. Since all the waves rise and fall into the ocean, the waves have a finite existence . How can there be finite elements in the Infinite or the Absolute? Just like the waves are superimposed on the ocean, transient elements are superimposed on the Absolute. That is what is called an illusion. Now it is there and now it is not there, as the waves rise and fall. It is Maya. The Time, Space and causation elements are interposed between the Upper Absolute and the lower universe. The lower universe is a superimposition on the Absolute seen through time, space and causation.   This is compared to the snake and the rope. In the dark, the rope is mistaken for a snake. The rope is real and the snake is a superimposition on the rope and unreal. When ignorance is dispelled and on closer inspection, the real is seen. In the same spirit or line of thought, the phenomenal world – the snake – is seen as a superposition on the absolute – the rope. Once ignorance is removed, the Real - The Absolute - is seen and realization  sets in  and  is attained. The snake is known for what it is worth. That is why the phenomenal world is called maya.  It is a mind thing and the creation of the three elements.   Since there is only one Absolute pervading the whole world, there is no second. The Absolute or the Atman and the manifested universe is one giant organism. There is no individuality. Individuality is apparent only because of the mind. If there is no mind, there is no perception. If you look beyond  or eliminate time, space and causation , the Absolute is the only Real, immutable and all-pervasive. That is Advaitism or Monism of Sankara. Vivekananda said: I am in everything, in everybody. I am in all lives and I am the universe."

How could you say that Atman pervades everything in the universe, both sentient and insentient?  You can not compare a tree or an animal to a man. Yes, you can. It is to what extent that the sentience is manifested or expressed. It is the same sentience that is shared by all. Sentience is manifested or expressed the most in the human and the least in the insentient or the inanimate, and somewhere in between from the plant to animals. Since there is only a difference in the degree of expression of sentience between animals and man, how could one kill animals for whatever purpose? That is the basis of Ahimsa or non injury.

The Brahman was unborn. He had no name  and no form.  He had no mouth and no speech, he had nothing on Him by way of human body parts or functions.  This Brahman can be attained by  truthfulness, charity, austerity, fasting, chastity of mind and body, and complete non-attachment to worldly objects.  Charity,  self-control, and compassion  also help to attain Him.

Jivan -mukti  or release or liberation before the physical death is accepted by Sankara.  Embodiment is not the criterion here but the knowledge of Brahman.  Concomitant to the attainment of  knowledge of Brahman,  ignorance and karma vanish.  That released soul becomes one with Isvara, the creative and the controlling aspect of Brahman.  That being so, the released or liberated soul can take on a body one after another and serve until dissolution, if that were the wish.   It is part humorously said that the Jivan-mukta wears  the body like the light summer clothes.  Their mission in life is save other souls.  That mission is called Sarva-mukti - liberation of all.

***Sankara believes in bakthi.  He prays to Lord Vishnu as follows:  O Lord.  I realize that there is no difference between the individual soul and Brahman.  I hasten to say that I am yours and  that you are not mine.  The wave belongs to ocean and not the other way round.  You are the ocean and I am the wave.

                                               Short Stories, & Commentaries 

The talking  wise Bull and Birds

A Cow Boy becomes a Jnaani

A story from Khaandayoga Upanishad, fourth Khanda  is in order here: Once upon a time there was a boy, by name Satyakaama.  He was interested in the study of vedas. Those days an aspiring student had to know his lineage before he was accepted for studies under a Guru by name Gautama.. His mother Gabaalaa said that she was not sure about his lineage, since she was pregnant with him, while she was waiting on the guests in her father's house.  The boy went to the  Guru  Gautama Haaridrumata and gave him the details of his parental and birth history.   The Guru, very much impressed  by his honesty, accepted him as a student saying that only a brahmin boy would speak such truth.  The following interpretation is offered here.  The one who speaks the truth is a  brahmin.   It is said that Vidura, a man born of Vyasadeva himself and a palace maid,  was a recipient of Brahma-knowledge.  Strictly speaking he is a sudra as per definition.  Ramanuja argues that any one, including a sudra  is entitled to and  can  attain the knowledge of  the true nature of Reality and therefore no one is exempt from the studies of Brahma-knowledge.  

He was initiated  with offerings in a fire ceremony and was sent out to tend four hundred lean, emaciated, and weak cows. (note humility, unquestioned acceptance,  and reverence, What is the connection between tending cows and learning about Brahman / the Absolute?   you think the cow boy had a lot time on his hand to think on the Absolute / Brahman or tend the cows.  Wait and see) The boy said to himself that he would return to the Guru with one thousand cows.  When the herd became  one thousand, a bull alerted him - no kidding - and over a few days period during the fire ceremony in the evenings  he was taught by the  bull,  Fire,  Hamsa - swan / flamingo, and diver bird  about Brahman as follows:  All said: He should meditate on the four  feet of the Brahman.  The Bull said: Brahman is there in every which way he  sees - the cardinal directions.  As he worshipped Fire, a voice from the fire said : Brahman is the earth, the ocean ,the sky, and the  heavens.  Hamsa bird flying by  next evening said: The fire you worship is Brahman.  The sun, the moon and the lightning are Brahman.  Next evening,  the diver-bird said: The breath,  the eye, the ear and the mind are Brahman.  

When  Satyakaama reached the teacher, the teacher noticed a glow on his face and glint in his eyes and enquired as to who taught him. He replied that he was taught not by men and that only an Acharya's teaching would lead him to the  Real (goodness) - the Supreme.  The Acharya / Guru  sat him down by his side  and  said the same thing that he heard from the bull, the birds and the elements. In this instance the student met all the qualifications. He sought wise men.  He was humble, reverent, enquiring but unquestioning, and was of service to his Guru. That glow on his face, and  that light / that glint  in his eyes are external signs  of  inner glow of the Soul in his heart.  The voice he heard were his own coming from inside -his Atman - and he attained jnaana and vijnaana. *** See below for definitions. Scroll down.  Boy, this is something . If this is so, all the cow boys must be janaanis and vijnaanis.  

           

                          

Did you ever say that you can feed a child to his heart's content? Don't you ever say it or believe it! Kubera found that out the hard way. Kubera the Treasurer of Heavens invited Siva and his family for a dinner. Siva said that He was too busy to accept the invitation but that He could gladly  send His son, Ganesa. Siva warned Kubera that Ganesa had a humongous and voracious appetite. Kubera said that he could afford to feed Him as much as He wanted, considering that Ganesa was only a child and that he (Kubera) was sitting on pots of gold, silver and gems. Kubera's celestial chefs prepared lavish, exotic and mouth-watering  meals and a steady stream of servants, parading down the aisle kept on replenishing Ganesa's plate. Ganesa kept on eating faster than He was served. The servants and the celestial chef could not keep up with Ganesa.  He took food off the serving plates, even before it was served. Since service was not faster than His feeding frenzy, He ran to the kitchen and ate all the cooked and uncooked food, until there was no more. Still not satiated, He started eating the utensils, the furniture, the trees and anything and everything in sight. Kubera obsequiously pleaded with Lord Ganesa to spare his life, when Ganesa announced that He would eat him alive if no more food was coming forth. Kubera was frightened and flew  down to Kailasa to see Siva himself and get relief. Siva reminded Kubera of his warning earlier of Ganesa's bottomless appetite. Siva, taking pity, gave him a fistful of puffed rice and asked him to give it to Ganesa to satiate His appetite. Kubera fell at the feet of Lord Siva, thanking Him profusely, and took leave of Him.  Upon his return to his city, Kubera found that the city was mostly eaten up. With humility, Kubera gave the rice to Ganesa and satiated His appetite.

Kubera overwhelmed by Lord Ganesa's all-devouring appetite, humbled by the experience and nursing his bruised and battered ego, took Ganesa back to Siva.  The puffed rice represents fried karmic seeds and karmic expunction.  Next time you see a sign "Children eat free" in a restaurant, you will smile and remember the all-devouring Ganesa, whose stomach is a bottomless pit and a black hole and whose munificence to His devotees is endless.

                                                                                       
               Lord Ganesa The Scribe, His Mouse and His Mouse pad

                                      Lord Ganesa " Where is my computer."                                                                                                                                                                            
                                   "Hey Mouse, get on with it; I’m in a hurry"

                                         OM SRI GANESAYA NAMAH

           Vyasa talks a mile a minute and Ganesa scribes equally fast. No Writer's Cramp

                   Vyasa's motor mouth and Lord Ganesha scribes at lightning speed

                   Lord Ganesa writes 1Gig in 1 nano second

Vyasa wanted a scribe to write Mahabharata. On the recommendation of Brahma, Vyasa prayed to Lord Ganesa. Ganesa agreed to be his scribe. But Ganesa laid a condition, saying that once he began narrating the verses, he should get cracking because His writing would not stop even for a moment until the story is completed. Vyasa countered that Ganesa could not write anything down without understanding the meaning of what he dictated. . Ganesa readily accepted the conditions / the challenge. Every time Ganesa wrote as fast as he narrated, Vyasa would compose songs / verses with deep and intricate meanings just to slow Ganesa down. That enabled him to think and construct his poems. Lately Lord Ganesa was seen using a mouse, a mouse pad and a computer. He doesn’t mouse around. He can type faster than you can think. Don’t try to get too cute with Him. You know that he is the obstacle creator and remover. He can crash your computer in a jiffy if you don’t pray to Him before you log on to your web site. OM SRI GANESAYA NAMAH

                                               ChitraRadha's Curse 

                    From Brahmavaivarta Purana: OM Sri Ganesaya Namah Nov/30/2000
                              Parvathy's Penance and Krishna in the form of Ganesha
"Heaven has no rage like love to hatred turned, / Nor hell a fury like a woman scorned" 

                       sole cause of Lord Ganesa's physiognomy

One day Parvathy told Lord Siva that she wanted a noble son. Siva agreed and suggested that she had to observe the punyaka vrata - a form of religious rite -for one full year. Parvathy a devotee of Lord Krishna would have Krishna himself as her Son as a result / reward of this vrata. The gods, goddesses, Vishnu and the celestial priest, Sanatkumara came to Kailas offering congratulations and blessings. The viratam was to be concluded on offering a reward -Dakshina - to the priest. 
 The priest demanded lord Siva Himself as dakshina. Parvathi was shocked and flabbergasted. She offered to give him any and many articles of great value. But Sanatkumara was adamant and said that She could complete the ceremony without dakshina, which meant that it had no value or merit. Lord Vishnu advised her to offer Siva first as dakshina, and after the completion of the ceremony to get Siva back for one lakh cows. The priest won’t return Lord Siva to parvathi not for one lakh cows and not for a million cows. No deal. Parvathy had to give up Her lord as
dakshina to Santakumara. She was heart-broken, was ready to give up her own life, and prayed to Lord Krishna fervently. Remember that Lord Krishna was Her God. Lord Krishna himself would become her son. Lord Krishna , so much impressed by her viratam, revealed Himself in the heavens. Parvathy’s problem evaporated just like a dew on a blade of grass at sunrise. The assembled gods had a blessed darshan of Lord Krishna. The gods, invoking the name of Krishna, persuaded the priest to give Siva back to parvathi.  Parvathy and Siva were very pleased that everything turned out mighty real dandy. An old and withered man from nowhere appeared in front of Parvathy, and demanded that he wanted to be fed like there was no tomorrow and until his abdomen became a pot belly , clothed with the finest silks and seated on a golden throne. Having said that, the old man with wizened and prune-like face disappeared. And then a voice came from heavens, commanding Parvathy to go to her bed. Lo and behold, there was a baby cooing and moving the hands and feet . Every body was joyous. The gods and goddesses gathered around the baby, and got too mushy, uttering appreciative syllables like Ah, OOH, Hey, Ga Ga GooGoo . The baby gurgled back acknowledging their appreciation and well wishes. It must be hunky dory from now on. Not by any means.  Now the Bad news. There was saturn among the assembled scintillating bevy of  gods and goddesses. Saturn, the sour puss, won’t look at the baby; he had his back to the baby. He explained that one day he didn’t pay any carnal attention to his wife's come-hither looks, and sinuous dance, since he was meditating on Lord Krishna. His wife ChitraRadha, daughter of the King of Angels, fully jeweled and decked with flowers, laid a curse on him saying that if he laid his eyes on anybody , that person’s head would be cut off. (As an aside, we will go back to the future. How does that go? "Heaven has no rage like love to hatred turned, / Nor hell a fury like a woman scorned." Boy, that is frightening!) Parvathi encouraged him to see the baby saying that what ever was the will of the Lord , that would come to pass. He saw the baby and - let god be the witness - the Baby's head got cut off. Parvathi fainted. All gods and goddesses assembled to express shock. Lord Hari / Vishnu came on his vahana, the celestial Eagle / Garuda*, assessed the gravity of the situation and went straight to a herd of elephants on the banks of the Pushpa-bhadra river . Lord Hari brought the head of a baby elephant lying with its head pointing to the north. The head was joined and the baby was back to life in the arms of a happy - Divine - Mom. Parvathy didn’t want this to happen to anybody else and so disembodied Saturn in order that he would not see anybody with his physical eyes. Ganesa was given eight names: Vighnesa, Ganesa, Heramba, Gajanana, Labodara, Ekadanta, Soorpakarna, and Vinayaka. Lord Hari said that Ganesa would be the first God to be worshipped before any ceremonies.

*Remember that each god or goddess has his / her own air / land  / sea transportation  The list is as follows: Bull for Shiva, Eagle for Vishnu, Lion for Durga, Peacock for Karttikeya, brother of  Ganesa, Rat for Ganesa, Swan for Goddess of learning Saraswathi, Owl for Goddess of wealth Lakshmi.

This is the first case of Xenograft that I know of.  The surgeon was Lord Hari / Vishnu Himself.  Operation was a success.  The Patient  was Lord Ganesha himself.


                                      The pious Cat and Hairy Scat:

A scatological mystery
What Is the Cat’s Scat Doing On my Mouse Pad?
A story from Mahabharata: as told by Narada Rishi

Once upon a time , there was a cat, who was so pious that he ate only fruits, nuts, vegetables and roots. (Hey, What about milk? O yes, this cat was a strict vegetarian. No milk.) The birds and the mice took refuge in the cat, because of his austerity and pious practices. The cat became the protector of the birds and mice. Is this for real?  The pious cat told the mice that he had become very weak from austerities and that he wanted to be carried to the river for ritual ablution. Everyday the mice carried the cat to the riverbank at the appointed hour and everyday the cat grew stronger and fatter, while one day one wise mouse noticed that they are getting diminished in numbers and the CAT's SCAT was hairy on a supposed diet of fruits, nuts, vegetables, and roots. The mouse concluded that the Cat on fruits, nuts, vegetables, and roots could no way have hairs in its scat. The wise mouse said that the Cat only made a show of devotion and but his real business was eating mice.
                                                 The Lion and the Cub
Bg Chapter Three, Verse 14 : Jnaana and Vijnaana

Swami Vivekananda told a story on the divine nature of humanity and Jnaana / knowledge
A lady lion in the family way- pregnant lioness - was on a hunt. A flock of sheep was grazing. Yes, the lioness had to eat for two!  The lioness jumped on a sheep, developed labor pains , delivered a cub and died in the throes of cub birth ( it could have been post-partum hemorrhage!). The lion cub was brought up by the sheep. The cub bleated like a sheep, and ate grass. It never dawned on him that he was a lion cub. One day a lion on the prowl saw the lion cub eating grass and bleating away like a sheep in the company of a flock of sheep. The
sheep and the sheep-lion took to the heels at the sight of the lion. The lion one day waited and waited until the sheep-lion went to sleep. Gingerly, the lion woke up the sheep-lion and asked him as to what on earth he was doing with a flock of sheep. He admonished the cub " Look here, you are a lion". The cub meekly bleated and said " No, I am not a lion; I am a sheep". The lion took the sheepish lion cub to a lake and asked him to look at his face in the water. The startled sheep-lion bleated out that he looked like the visiting lion. The visiting lion gave a
thundering roar and asked the sheep-lion to roar. The sheep-lion tried to roar, but out came the bleat.  The sheep-lion bleated once or twice and at last let out a big roar. He was not a sheep any longer. He was a lion all along and it took him so long to find that out. He is awakened. He knows his true self. And that self is divine. That awakening that you are the soul is jnaana / knowledge. That knowledge that you are a soul and not the body is jnaana.  Vijnaana is intuitive divine wisdom.  

                                                Two Birds in One 

There are two companion birds on a tree, One on a higher perch and another at a lower perch. The Higher Upper Bird is silent, watching, contented, care-free, and self-effulgent. The lower bird is jumping from one branch to another, eating sweet and sour / bitter fruits. The lower bird is happy one time and unhappy another time depending upon the kind of fruit he eats. He looks at the Upper Bird and finds him calm, not eating any fruit, neither sweet nor sour, neither happy nor unhappy, Self-absorbed and seeing nothing beyond His own Self. The lower bird, being
rajasic and tamasic (active and ignorant), soon forgets and goes about eating the sweet and sour fruits. The lower bird keeps on inching closer and closer to the Higher Upper Bird as he goes through this eating process, because of his innate nature to know more about the Higher Bird. At last he gets to perch in the nest of the upper Bird and finds to his surprise that his plumage is reflecting the light from the Upper Bird. He gets closer and closer and behold, he disappears into the Upper Bird. Now he realizes that he was a mere shadow of the Upper Bird and his shadow disappeared at the high noon of realization, when he became one with One. The Upper Bird is the Lord, the Lord of the Universe and the lower bird is the human soul going through samsara  (the phenomenal world, transmigratory existence) *eating sweet and sour fruits - life experiences. When the human being is down and out, he realizes the ephemeral nature of the worldly experiences and his soul gets the short-lived flashes of light from the Higher Self. This recurs time and again until the self gets very close to the Self, so close that it becomes one with One. That art thou. He has gone from jnaana to vijnaana. The lower (self) is absorbed into the
Higher (Self) He has become one with Brahman.

*Here eating means that  the jiva  (life-monad) is anchored to the body,  identifying itself with the body-mind-senses complex experiencing  pleasure, pain, and other life experiences.  It is implied that it should identify itself with Brahman.    Your are not the body, mind and the senses but the soul.  This jivaatman is the one that is susceptible to transmigration, while paramatman  (Absolute, Brahman) is all pervasive. This transmigration is conditioned by karma.

The tree, the nest and the two birds represent the body, the spiritual heart  the higher parmatman (Supreme Atman / Soul)  and the lower individual soul.

Jnaana and Vijnaana:  Self-knowledge, and realized knowledge / divine intuitive knowledge.. Jnaana can be equated with Sabda-Brahman and Vijnaana can be equated with  Param-Brahman.  Another way of putting  is to say that Jnaana is the narrow and straight path to God without any detours or diversions, and Vijnaana is the destination itself.  Here jnaana is an acquired knowledge of the self  from all sources, but  vijnaana  is  direct experience of God.    Jnaana is to come under the magnetic influence of God and Vijnaana is getting magnetically attached to God.    jnaana  is to know that God exists by one's inner experience.  vijnaana  is to communicate and relate to God as a slave, a  servant, a child, a friend, a spouse, and a devotee   There were  a  few who attained that status. Eg:  Ramakrishna Paramahamsa, Ramana Maha Rishi.  Read Supplement section  on Jnaana and Vijnaana and Sabda-Brahman and Param-Brahman

THE MUNI, THE GODS AND THE WIND   Dec 23, 2000

The silent one, with  his  long hair  flying and the saffron cloth billowing, follows the wind and  goes where Gods have gone before.  His  munihood is his calling card and passport  to regions, where mortal men can  never take their bodies.  Every time a god needs an associate, there you see a muni in attendance.   There he is the very same moment he is wished by a god.  Such is the glory of  a muni.  God wishes.  And a muni is there; a muni here, a muni there  and munis everywhere, where gods assemble. He flies faster than the wind, leaving us poor embodied souls sitting still.  Such is his speed and agility.   When could I drop my sloth, and slumber?   Please tell me when?  Could I ever be a muni? Is it in my cards?  Could I go where muni goes?  Please tell me.   Vayu -the  wind god -is the best friend of a muni.    Vayu's  steed stands in waiting to take the muni to the oceans  east and west.  The steed knows the  sylvan beasts, Gandharvas and Apasaras, but unafraid gallops along with muni at the reins.  The wind caresses his locks and his flowing beard. What tenderness. What  sweetness. What friendship.  Vayu, riding along, churns and bends to aid muni's passage. He is the muni who drinketh the poison - Soma Rasa / liquor - from a cup with Rudra.    Note:  Brahma and Vayu are the two sons of  Narayana or Vishnu.

The Mind and its Thoughts

The mind is fuzzy and woozy. It is  wild and woolly. It is an agitated mind. It is an avaricious mind. It is narrow and avuncular. It has no breadth and depth in its love.  Mundane thoughts come easy.  Pleasure principle:  Is it only an illusion?  And the mind knows not what it thinks it knows.   It blinks and flickers. Thoughts rush in and out.  They are erotic and erratic.  The thoughts are light and fluffy. There is no substance.  Thoughts impinge on the mind like waves after waves.  There is no end to this onslaught..  The mind wanders near and  far. Mind jumps between unrelated thoughts. 

Lord Krishna says that one should bring the mind under the control of the self / atman. Consider the phrase: Life, Liberty and Pursuit of Happiness. Upanishads advance a sentiment more comprehensive in its meaning and import. Their phrase is: Atman, Moksa and Bliss. Soul-life is Atman; liberty is moksa and Pursuit of happiness is Satchitananda, or simply Bliss.  Atman has to be in the driver's seat in order to attain moksa and bliss.  Hindus consider this earthly life as passage of the soul through many bodies - plant, animal and man – before liberation / moksa is attained. How is that Jefferson used that phrase which Upanishads have been advocating for millennia? I very much doubt that he read Upanishads. What was he thinking when he wrote that phrase?  Bliss is an advanced form of happiness saturated with spirit.    Is it a life of health, wealth and spirit?  Is that liberty  physical or spiritual or both?  Does that  pursuit of happiness lead to true Bliss – Sat, Chit and Ananda (Being, Consciousness and Bliss)?  Are they mere words?  Are they mere thoughts?  It could not have been just an idea.  It appears that Jefferson and the  signers of the Declaration had an inkling about Atman, Moksa and Bliss.  In the context of belief in rebirth, could it be possible that Jefferson was a Rishi in his past life and a sage in later life ? 

The lower thoughts rest on animal needs and come easy. Higher thoughts are hard to come by.  Vulgar  and mundane thoughts come easy on good days.  Only on bad days and during hard times, spiritual thoughts come fleetingly. Why is that so? Are hard times a reminder that we think of God and the Self?  Is mind a monkey? Is it confused and confounded?  Has it lost its anchor in the self?   Can you tie it down?  Can you curb it? Can you train it?  Can you corral this wandering mind?  Practice and practice until you get it right  - under the control of the self.  Self is light. Self is luminous.  Self is Bliss. Self is Reality.   Everything else is  just maya.

Why Hindus have so many Gods?

It is all about choice and freedom

A common question encountered by Hindus is that why the Hindus worship so many gods and goddesses. I suppose they mean that one  generic god should be good enough. Very reasonable question. Yes, Hindus do have a generic God, namely Nirguna Brahman, a nameless, formless God or Entity without attributes.   Here attributes do not connote a moral dimension. It means that the human mind is so limited to fathom the breadth, depth and configuration of  a God that God is considered to be without attributes.  Generics are as good as patents. But who is listening?   A car with four wheels, a roof , an engine and a steering wheel takes you where you want to go. But why do people go shopping and test-driving different makes and models of cars.  You like one car and not the other.  This is called liking.  Hindus call that "Ishta".  Hindus go shopping for their Ishta-devata, meaning a god of their liking.  We have more gods to choose from than you can ever imagine. True democratic values.  It is all about choices.   Hindus also know that just like a car, God takes a person from this material world to a spiritual world or heaven, if you like.  Hindus would rather have a  reliable, patented, certified, tested and true God loaded with options of one's own choice. These brand-name Gods come in different colors, shapes, power, warranties and options. Periodic maintenance includes festivals, fasts, yogas,  prayers and pilgrimages. We believe in one God and, but  have given Him many names, forms, and  attributes. Hindus  were / are known to worship gods ranging from wind, earth, fire, to Nirguna Brahman.  Would you like to explain the intricacies of Advaita philosophy to a snake worshipper?  Don't think so. Why should he worry about superimposition, sublation,  time, space and causation?  One sees  the all-powerful  God in the snake and the other sees God in Brahman. Their love for God is equal. And the Love that God has for both are equal.  It is the love and devotion that matter. And not the object one worships.  If one wants to worship an egg as God, one should have that freedom.