Podcasts about ramanuja

This episode dives into the reign of Vishnuvardhana—the most significant of the Hoysala rulers. His conversion from Jainism to Vaishnavism under the influence of the legendary scholar Ramanuja reshaped the course of Deccan history. Join Ramjee Chandran as he unravels the tales of Vishnuvardhana's angst, his how he found faith, his military campaigns, his political strategies, and the cultural transformation that followed his religious shift. From territorial conquests to theological debates, discover how one king's faith altered the landscape of the region. This episode explores the intriguing interplay of religion, politics, and power in the early 12th century Deccan. We gratefully acknowledge the support of the Prestige Group, that makes this podcast possible. Follow The History Of Bangalore on social, here: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/historyofbangalore/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/HistoryOfBangalore Twitter: https://twitter.com/HistoryOfBLR YouTube: https://youtube.com/@HistoryOfBangalore?si=mnH3BsYfI4BUU234 iHeartRadio: https://www.iheart.com/podcast/1323-the-history-of-bangalore-163453722/ Follow Ramjee Chandran on Instagram and Twitter: @ramjeechandran The theme music for the show was composed by German-Indian Koln based percussionist, Ramesh Shotham. Ramjee Chandran's photos by Asha Thadani. RESEARCH AND SOURCES: All our episodes are based on published research and archive records. To know about sources for any specific information, we encourage you to correspond with Ramjee Chandran here: editor@explocity.com. We will pass it on. We do our best to reply expeditiously to every mail we receive.

63rd verse: “You have listened to the great spiritual truth and My instructions. Now, you do whatever you want. Act according to your own conviction and understanding.”There is no compulsion from the teacher, Lord Krishna. He encourages the student to use his own intellect and conviction. This is because everyone in the world is at a different level of spiritual evolution. The goal is to experience the truth, not blindly believe.Swami Vivekananda expounded in the parliament of religions that spiritual life is like climbing the top of a hill. Once we are at the top, we see many trails leading to the top. When we are on the trail, we may think that is the only path. Similarly, when someone is early in their spiritual life, at the level of belief and rituals, they think only their path is right.66th verse: “When you feel that all your efforts are in vain, you should very sincerely and mentally give the entire responsibility to God. Then you do not have to worry about anything.”There are two interpretations of this verse. Ramanuja interprets it as sincerely taking refuge in God and becoming a tool in God's hands. Shankaracharya's interpretation is that all problems have a solution at the spiritual level. Psychological problems can only have a permanent solution at a higher, spiritual level. Shankaracharya says that the real reason behind Arjuna's delusion and inactivity is his wrong perception of his true nature – lack of atma-jnanam. Once Arjuna understood his true nature, his delusions vanished, as he states in the 73rd verse.67th verse: “I have taught you this spiritual truth. You should not teach this to a person who does not have the following qualities: (1) a sense of devotion, sanctity and sacredness (2) willing to practice it with spiritual humility, service and discipline (3) has great respect and appreciation for the teacher.”St. Matthew has a similar statement. The effectiveness of spiritual teachings depends on the readiness of the listener's mind. A sense of sanctity and sacredness from the disciple towards the teacher and heritage (Parampara) is important.There is a story of Durvasa rishi and Indra. Indra came on an elephant and had a spiritual conversation with the sage. Pleased, the sage gave him a sacred flower garland. Indra was on the elephant and without paying attention, put the garland on the elephant's neck, who dropped it and crushed it under his feet. Since Indra did not show respect towards the sacred garland, the sage cursed him.68th verse: “Those who teach this to people who are ready to listen and understand its true meaning with a sense of sanctity and sacredness, they will attain supreme liberation.”69th verse: “Anyone who tries to preach this spiritual truth, he is dear to Me and he will be spiritually elevated.”Teaching these spiritual truths itself is a spiritual practice and becomes a road for spiritual progress – even if it does not lead to spiritual growth of the listener.Our mind constantly accumulates ideas. Instead of getting toxic food, even mechanical listening to spiritual ideas has benefits. For complete effectiveness, the mind should be ready.

The 59th and 60th verses take us back to the original narrative of Gita, where Arjuna was facing conflicts as he did not want to do an unpleasant duty. Lord Krishna says: “If instead of practicing karma yoga, you think you can run away from your duty, that is your fantasy. Your own swabhava will compel you to do the duty.”Swabhava is our inherent nature that determines our outlook to life and our actions. It is shaped by tendencies that we gather over many life cycles.Each jiva is a solitary traveler. He meets his parents and relatives as travelers meet in a train and then separate at the end of each life.Bhagavata Purana has the story of a king who crowned his young son as the heir apparent. Unfortunately, the son died and everyone was in grief. Narada and some sages visit him to console him. brings the son back to life, but the son was not able to recognize his parents. He said that he had many parents over many life cycles. This helped the king understand the wisdom of the sages.The story of Jada Bharata explains that life is not just one chance. We are not tools in the hands of destiny. We have enough freedom to build our destiny. King Bharata retired to a hermitage for spiritual practices but developed strong attachment towards a baby deer and forgot his spiritual practices. He was born as a deer in his next life, but under the effect of his samskaras, he stayed near a hermitage. In his next life, he was born as a great saint - Jada Bharata - always established in his identity with Atman. He did not lose his spiritual wealth, but his realization was delayed.We are imprisoned by our samskaras. At the same time, we can use our mind, our five senses of perception and five senses of action to accumulate good samskaras and control our destiny.61st verse: “God is present as the divine spark in everything and everyone. Sitting within everyone as the in-dweller, he regulates and operates this world just like an engineer operates a machine.”Vedanta does not emphasize a creator God. Rather it emphasizes the idea of God as the divinity within. We can manifest this divinity through spiritual practices and by being a good human being. Buddha is a good example of this, as he did not believe in a creator God.When we do noble actions for the good of others or as an offering to God, with a sense of sanctity and sacredness, we become spiritually elevated and the divinity within us begins to manifest.Swami Vivekananda said: “Live life in such a way that Good will accept you even if you do not accept Him.” Swami Vivekananda also said: “Religion is the manifestation of divinity already in man.” Spirituality transcends religion but does not reject religion.62nd verse: “Take refuge in the ultimate divine reality for your own spiritual good.”63rd verse: “You have listened to the great spiritual truth and My instructions. Now, you do whatever you want. Act according to your own conviction and understanding.”There is no compulsion from the teacher, Lord Krishna. He encourages the student to use his own intellect and conviction.64th verse: “I have taught you this great spiritual truth because I consider you as My dear disciple.”65th verse: “If you try to follow this path and be a steadfast devotee, you will attain the highest spiritual enlightenment.”66th verse: “When you feel that all your efforts are in vain, you should very sincerely and mentally give the entire responsibility to God. Then you do not have to worry about anything.”This verse describes the concept of Prapati or Sharanagati. According to Ramanuja, Prapati is the highest state of a devotee of God. Prapati means complete surrender and is composed of the following characteristics. (1) Always having a positive outlook in life, full of sattvic qualities such as serenity, wisdom, compassion, and broad mindedness. (2) Rejecting all the opposing qualities such as skepticism and self-doubt. (3) Strong faith that God will protect me. (4) Strong faith that God is the only protector. (5) A feeling of total helplessness and dependence on God (6) Total self-surrender (atmanikshepa). When the first five characteristics are fulfilled, atmanikshepa is the result. He then becomes an instrument in the hands of God and God operates through him.When we link ourselves to a higher ideal, we can develop the ability to remain unaffected from the outcome of our actions. For example, if we did something good to others but they are still ungrateful, we will not be affected.

Title: Bhakti and Self-Surrender18th Chapter: verses 54, 55, 5654th verse: “The one who does his work with sanctity and sacredness, he ultimately become a Prasanna-atma. He becomes identified with Brahman. He has no desires and no reason to worry. He sees everyone as the same. Such a person attains the highest devotion.”A true devotee of God has equanimity of mind and serenity. He is not shattered by what happens outside. He experiences identity with Brahman and is established in a state of perfect contentment.Great spiritual personalities, such as Jesus Christ, were able to withstand obstacles because of the serenity within.The 13th verse of the 12th chapter lists the characteristics of a devotee. He is contented and derives joy from the fact that he is a devotee of God. He has strong determination to pursue his spiritual goals.God is not mentioned in the 54th verse. Spirituality is about being a good human being, which should express in our thoughts, words and actions. Swami Vivekananda said: “Live life in such a way that Good will accept you even if you do not accept Him.”What is the idea of God in the Gita? It is the God of everyone, present as the divine principle within everyone. He is the God of even those who do not believe in Him.55th verse: “Such a person understands Me through Bhakti (devotion). His devotion is mixed with the understanding that God is present everywhere and within everyone. With such devotion that is combined with the understanding of the spiritual unity of creation, he understands God or the supreme reality in a comprehensive manner.”There are two levels of Bhakti: Sadhana bhakti and sadhya bhakti. Sadhana bhakti is the means and sadhya bhakti is the goal. Bhakti is the means towards Advaitic realization, when we see God as the transcendental principle that is immanent and present everywhere.During the early stages of Sadhana Bhakti, one should have strong determination. All great spiritual men and women has strong determination. With this determination, they promoted their ego to a spiritual ego. The ego: “I am a devotee” ultimately takes us out of ego. Sri Ramakrishna said: “You cannot root out ego. Therefore, you should give the ego a good job to do.”56th verse: “Surrender all your actions and results to Me. Then My grace will take you to the highest spiritual destination.”When we hit a dead wall with our own self-effort, we should surrender ourselves and give him the entire responsibility to a higher power. Then we become a tool in the hands of the higher power. All doubts vanish and karmic blocks are dismantled.A beginner's mind may not cooperate when he starts spiritual practices. This is due to accumulated samskaras which make him act in a certain manner. He may want to read a spiritual book, but the mind presents karmic blocks. At that time, he should surrender to a higher power.According to Ramanuja, Prapati is the highest state of a devotee of God. Prapati means complete surrender and is composed of the following characteristics. (1) Always having a positive outlook in life, full of sattvic qualities such as serenity, wisdom, compassion, and broad mindedness. (2) Rejecting all the opposing qualities such as skepticism and self-doubt. (3) Strong faith that God will protect me. (4) Strong faith that God is the only protector. (5) A feeling of total helplessness and dependence on God (6) Total self-surrender (atmanikshepa). When the first five characteristics are fulfilled, atmanikshepa is the result. He then becomes an instrument in the hands of God and God operates through him.In the 66th verse of 18th chapter, Lord Krishna describes the spiritual psychology of self-surrender. He says to Arjuna: “Give up all duties and take refuge in Me. Then you don't have to worry about anything.”Actions done expectation of results bind us. If we do the same actions without selfish desires, then the actions do not bind us. Every action can be done in a spiritual manner.Gita has a lot of repetitions because it is a dialog between Lord Krishna and Arjuna, and Arjuna did not fully understand Lord Krishna's teachings in earlier chapters.According to Patanjali Yoga Sutras, a spiritual seeker should practice friendliness (Maitri) towards fellow spiritual seekers, practice compassion (Karuna) towards those who are less evolved, practice happiness (Mudita) towards those who are more evolved and practice a filtering attitude (Upeksha) towards those who may shake his faith.

18th Chapter: verse 45, 54, 55. 12th chapter: verse 8, 9, 10, 11. 13th chapter: verse 1045th verse: “By engaging in one's own swadharma, man attains perfection and the highest inner fulfillment.”If we dedicate our resources to our appointed duty, and if we do it with a sense of sanctity and sacredness, and with total unselfishness, then that attitude becomes our instrument for our own spiritual enlightenment. It means that we can practice spirituality in whatever activity we are engaged in.This discussion continues until the 53rd verse.54th verse: “The one who does his work with sanctity and sacredness, he ultimately become a Prasanna-atma. He becomes identified with Brahman. He has no desires and no reason to worry. He sees everyone as the same. Such a person attains the highest devotion.”Prasanna-atma means he is in very good terms with our mind and he feels serenity within. He has zero conflict within and with others. His mind is free from all negativities. Prasanna means serene, at peace, with inner contentment and without desires for anything.Even-mindedness is a natural state of a Prasanna-atma. He resonates spiritual blessedness within and with everyone.God is not mentioned in the 45th or 54th verse. Spirituality is about being a good human being, which should express in our thoughts, words and actions.Human beings create God in their own image. They attribute their own likes, dislikes and prejudices on their idea of God.What is the idea of God in the Gita? It is the God of everyone, present as the divine principle within everyone. He is the God of even those who do not believe in Him.Swami Vivekananda said: “Live life in such a way that Good will accept you even if you do not accept Him.”55th verse: “Such a person understands Me through Bhakti (devotion). His devotion is mixed with the understanding that God is present everywhere and within everyone. With such devotion that is combined with the understanding of the spiritual unity of creation, he understands God or the supreme reality in a comprehensive manner.”Our scriptures give a roadmap of how to reach the level of devotion described in the 55th verse. In the 8th through 11th verses of the 12th chapter of Gita, Lord Krishna gives four options for devotion, in descending order of evolution.8th verse: “You fix your mind and intellect on Me. There upon, you will always live in Me.” This is the highest state of a devotee that is also described in the 55th verse of the 18th chapter, where he keeps his mind and intellect fixed on God. He then lives in God and God lives in him.For seekers who have not reached this highest state, Lord Krishna provides alternative options in the 9th-11th verses.9th verse: “If you cannot fix your mind and intellect on Me, then you can reach the higher goal through Abhyasa-Yoga (uniting with God through repeated spiritual practices).”Abhyasa-Yoga is described by Prahlada in the Bhagavata Purana. It is called Navadha Bhakti - Sravanam (Hearing about God), Kirtanam (Chanting His Name and Glory), Vishnu smaranam (Remembering Him), Pada sevanam (Serving His Lotus Feet), Archanam (Worshipping Him), Vandanam (Prostrating before Him), Dasyam (Being His Servant), Sakhyam (Befriending Him), and Atma Nivedanam (Surrendering to Him).10th verse: “If you are incapable of doing Abhyasa-Yoga, then do all your work as My work.” Every such work connects the mind with God and helps the devotee evolve.11th verse: “If you are unable to do your work as My work, then offer the fruits of all your actions to Me (sarva-karma-phala-tyāgam)”.These represent the four levels of spiritual evolution. Through Bhakti, we reach the highest state where Prapati or self-surrender (describes at the ninth discipline in Navadha Bhakti) becomes natural.According to Ramanuja, Prapati is the highest state of a devotee of God. Prapati means complete surrender and is composed of the following characteristics. (1) Always having a positive outlook in life, full of sattvic qualities such as serenity, wisdom, compassion, and broad mindedness. (2) Rejecting all the opposing qualities such as skepticism and self-doubt. (3) Strong faith that God will protect me. (4) Strong faith that God is the only protector. (5) A feeling of total helplessness and dependence on God (6) Total self-surrender (atmanikshepa).When the first five characteristics are fulfilled, atmanikshepa is the result. He then becomes an instrument in the hands of God and God operates through him.The devotee needs to blend his own effort with God's grace. Self-effort helps him reach a level of spiritual fitness to become graceworthy and recognize God's grace as God's grace, not an accident.The 10th verse of the 13th chapter expounds the idea that the highest devotion, unwavering dedication to one spiritual ideal, is the same as highest knowledge, where we realize the infinite oneness of existence, when we realize that the same truth is all-pervading, transcendent, and immanent in all beings. The devotee realizes that the God he worships in the temple is in the hearts of everyone.There are a few billion people in the world, each at a different level of evolution. Their understanding of God depends on their own evolution. Hinduism gives the flexibility to use a symbol that pleases the devotee based on his level of evolution.All deities worshipped by Hindus are different symbols of the same divine reality. The purpose of the image is to help the devotee in his meditation. The devotee withdraws his mind from external objects, he conceives of the presence of the divine principle in that image, he then worships and meditates on the divine principle in that image chanting his mantra, and ultimately, he meditates on the divine principle present within him and everywhere.Every religion has a symbol. A book is a symbol. A building is a symbol. When someone prays in a direction, that direction is a symbol. 

Welcome back to “God and Sex” book club part 3. Mark and Rosalind argue about themes of the book around relationship, love and intimacy.    Mark goes to the root of things as usual, connecting up the separate self to how relationship chaos plays out, and how yoga intervenes.   We discuss the longing for a “soulmate” and whether this idea is useful, reflect on the China teacher training, and a few more controversial subjects relating to intimacy.    Be aware some of these subjects may be connected with painful emotions in ourselves & feel free to reach out any time if you need to.    Key Topics Covered   - The presumption of being a separate self as the root of human suffering - How religions tend to devalue the body and sexuality   - Ramanuja's teaching that we need yoga to actualise oneness - Participating in the union of opposites through yoga  - Merging with your experience to understand yourself and life   - Letting go of ideas like "soulmate" that create impossible expectations - How vulgarity and abuse can also be expressions of denying sex - Sharing yoga as a way to increase intimacy and improve relationships   Key quotes:   - "The hostility and disturbance in the world arises because people are not loving their life." - "If the man could learn to love bodily, sexually, then there would be peace."  - "Consciousness perceiving an object is a single movement — there is no separation." - "Once you've tasted actual intimacy, the common patterns of sex finish." - "There must be yoga, and there must be the polarity of opposites within and without." - "The presumption of being a separate self with problems is an illusion." - "You can't use anybody to make you happy."     Resources - God and Sex: Now We Get Both by Mark Whitwell   - Yoga of Heart by Mark Whitwell    Timestamps   [00:00:00] Introduction   [00:01:00] The problem of separation as the root of suffering   [00:06:00] Ramanuja's teaching about needing yoga    [00:11:00] How religion devalues the body and sex [00:16:00] Krishnamacharya's example of yoga and family life   [00:21:00] How modern society still denies sex  [00:26:00] Merging with your experience through yoga [00:31:00] Letting go of the myth of "soulmates"    [00:36:00] The misery caused by unrealistic expectations   [00:41:00] The problem with techniques and sacred sexuality  [00:46:00] The motivation to share these teachings   [00:51:00] Being cautious about rushing into relationships  

Ramanuja Das was born in Australia, 01/01/1957. He met devotees in 1979. Ramanuja Prabhu is Temple president of ChirstChurch.Watch the Audio Only podcast on YouTube at https://youtu.be/T9vH0MFwGus

As Buddha had a message for the East, so too did Swami Vivekananda have a message for the West, if not for the whole world. What was that message? While it is of course a very multifaceted, variegated and nuanced message, three core principles stand out; we explore them in the course of this lecture, as part of our Vivekananda Jayanti celebrations earlier this month. These principles are:1. Religion is a matter of Direct Experience, not dogma. Inspired by his teacher Ramakrishna who daily experienced God for himself in all of Her aspects, the central thrust of Swami Vivekananda's teaching is that spirituality is a matter of verification. Placing an emphasis on yoga (the means for acquiring experience) and on an individual's own perception of God here and now, Swami Vivekananda transforms religion which was even then at his time becoming an antiquated, useless bundle of beliefs from a hoary past into a living, viable method that is strikingly in keeping with the most modern notions of the scientific inquiry, rationalism and verificationism. 2. You are innately divine. Inspired by Ramakrishna who felt that "the wretch who considers himself a sinner verily becomes one; as you think so you become", Swami Vivekananda took the Christian West to task for its fixation on original sin. Most religions begin with a disempowering view of the human condition, i.e "you are broken in need of fixing, lacking in need of growing, sick in need of healing" etc. But the vision of Non-Dual Hinduism is: "you are already free, you are already pure, you are infinitely strong as you are for your very nature is divine!" This is the truth and Americans at once recognized it as it was spoken, thus breaking their centuries long dream of being weak. Anyway, it is only the person who has this latter attitude who will have the self-confidence to really progress with their spiritual practices!3. All existence is One. Swami Vivekananda stressed above all Non-Duality. But his was a far more radical and inclusive non-duality than Shankara's Advaita Vedanta or Ramanuja's Qualified non-duality. His view, in my opinion, comes closer to the Shaiva Non-Dual view of masters like Abhinava Gupta: everything is God. Matter is non-dual, thought is non-dual, spirit is non-dual, all are just various reading of the one indivisible Consciousness-Bliss-Absolute that is both Formless and with Form, that is both Impersonal and Personal. And that One Existence is your very own Self! It is from this non-duality that we derive the 2nd principle sketched out above and also the notion of "harmony of all religions," which is the idea he is perhaps most famous for but which, as you can see, is just the natural consequence of the must more fundamental and far deeper principle of absolute, uncompromising non-duality! Lectures happen live on zoom every Monday at 7pm PST and Friday 10am PST and Friday at 6pm PST.  There's Q&A right after the lectures. It is free and open to the public. All are welcome!Use this link and I will see you there:https://www.zoom.us/j/7028380815For more videos, guided meditations and instruction and for access to our lecture library, visit me at:https://www.patreon.com/yogawithnishTo get in on the discussion and access various spiritual materials, join our Discord here: https://discord.gg/U8zKP8yMrMSupport the show

17th verse: “Extremely conceited, haughty, filled with pride and intoxication of wealth, they perform all sacrifices with great ostentation disregarding all ordinances.” This is the literal translation. The meaning of the verse is that such people do things in an improper manner without any consideration for propriety.Kama refers to desire – the mind wants to go after worldly desire all the time. Dambha refers to religious or spiritual pride and superiority. Māna means they think they deserve more honor than others. Mada means delusion, an over estimation of one's abilities. These are characteristics of people who become conceited and indulge in showmanship.Sri Ramakrishna refers to three types of devotees – Sattvic, who are serene and contemplative. Rajasic who are externally expressive. And Tamasic who worship in a careless manner.18th verse: “Filled with egotism, power, insolence, lust and anger, such people hate Me. They do not recognize the presence of the divine spark in themselves and in others.”There are two types of strengths. In the first type, one has wealth, power, status but he is self-restraint. He does not have aversion towards anyone. In the second type, the power is accompanied by extreme likes and dislikes.It is important to combine any kind of power with humility and self-restraint. If a wealthy or powerful person is humble, it is a blessing to society.Ramanuja says in his commentary on the 18th verse: “The very idea of Viveka (discrimination) and Vairagya (renunciation) never comes to them because they have no genuine devotion to God. Their mind remains impure, and they always criticize. They think of someone who exercises self-restraint as weak. They think of knowledge without showmanship as ignorance.”19th verse: The literal meaning is: “These people – who are proud, malicious, cruel and born of evil qualities – I hurl them perpetually in the wombs of the demons.” The interpretation is: “Those who deliberately do sinful deeds, they fall into perpetual demonic state.”There is no eternal damnation in Hinduism. Only Madhvacharya talked about it. The majority do not accept this view. God is not the arbitrator.Gita says that we should build our own spiritual destiny. We reap according to the types of seeds we sow. According to our own actions, we create heaven or hell like conditions in our life.If we take refuge in God's grace, our destiny will change. But we have to make ourselves graceworthy with our own self effort. Such refuge requires complete self-surrender. If we do so, it will be difficult for us to do anything wrong.Prapati is the highest state of a devotee of God. Prapati means complete surrender and is composed of the following characteristics. (1) Always having a positive outlook in life, full of sattvic qualities such as serenity, wisdom, compassion, and broad mindedness. (2) Rejecting all the opposing qualities such as skepticism and self-doubt. (3) Strong faith that God will protect me. (4) Total self-surrender.One of the Brahma Sutras says: “God is taking care of everything. Everything happens according to our previous deeds.”Though everything comes from God, God is not responsible for what we do. We act according to our own samskaras. Just professing a belief in God will not change our life. Prapati or complete self-surrender will have an immediate effect.20th verse: “Those who hate others and reinforce their own evil character, they continue to rotate in this cycle of samsara.”21st verse: “There are three gates to a hellish life – hellish conditions created from our own actions. These three gates are lust, anger and greed (kamah, krodhah, lobhah). These three should be abandoned.”Every wrong action has desire or lust as its source. Once we have a desire, we direct our senses and energy to fulfill that desire. Not all desires are fulfilled. When the desire remains unfulfilled, we become angry. And then there is endless greed.Patanjali prescribes five yamas (important) and five niyamas (auxiliary) in Yoga Sutras. When we practice yamas and niyamas, these three gates are closed.The five yamas are: ahimsa (non-violence, satya (truthfulness), asteya (non-stealing), brahmacharya (right use of energy) and aparigraha (non-hoarding). The five niyamas are: saucha (cleanliness), santosha (contentment), tapas (austerity), svadhyaya (study of scriptures) and Isvara Pranidhana (surrender to God).In terms of inquiry, there are two types of seekers. (1) Those who are humble, straightforward and inquisitive. Once they are convinced of the truth, they become champions of that truth. Swami Vivekananda was such as seeker. (2) Those who ask questions without any seriousness. They pretend to be convinced, but they keep asking the same questions again.A spiritual seeker should practice friendliness (Maitri) towards fellow spiritual seekers, practice compassion (Karuna) towards those who are less evolved, practice happiness (Mudita) towards those who are more evolved, and practice a filtering attitude (Upeksha) towards those who may shake his faith.

A story from History about the philosopher and guru Ramanuja - showing how politics in 11th century academia was cutthroat - quite literally! Transcript and show notes: https://sfipodcast.com/history-ramanuja-ep-222-stories-from-india-podcast/ Music: https://www.purple-planet.com#sfipodcast #Ramanuja #Ramanujacharya #History #IndianHistory #HistoryOfIndia #Vishnu #Vaishnavism

In this lecture, we are going to discuss the Abhāsa-Vada (Reflection Model) of Kaula Trika Tantra: how is it that the one Unchanging Absolute, śiva, manifests playfully as this dazzling display of phenomena called the world without (a) losing pristine transcendent nature (b) while actually literally and really manifesting as everyone and everything?This sounds like a flat out contradiction. What's more, tonight I'm going to show how Kaula Trika Śaivism gives us a worldview that is neither Realism nor Idealism (as we carefully introduced last week), but something that is better and more satisfying than both! Naturally, to demonstrate this, we'll compare Trika to Ramanuja's parinama-vada (real transformation model) and Shankara's vivārta-vada (illusory appearance model).Then, at the very end of the lecture, I'm going to offer the mantra OM Namah Shivāyah and Mā willing, explain its esoteric significance in light of what was discussed. This understanding is intended to empower your practice and allow you to experience everyone and everything as nothing but God! Now, this discussion is extremely philosophically subtle. As Abinava Gupta himself says in Tantrāloka II.28:Durvijñeyā hi sāvasthā kimapyetad anuttaram"It is very difficult to understand this state and hence it is called the Absolute (anuttara)" Nevertheless, let me offer one reason why it is very important to understand this idea:In Indian philosophy, to know is to become (brahma veda brahmaiva bhavati). A darśana, or philosophical view, is about realization and experience. The words that describe that realization are secondary and yet because the words carry with them the power of the realization, they can act as a doorway through which one realizes for themselves the state to which they point. That's probably why Abinava Gupta uses the term āvastha here in the quote, to mean "state". So ideally, by the end of tonight's lecture, you won't leave with merely understanding but with realization.Lectures happen live on zoom every Monday at 7pm PST and Friday 10am PST and Friday at 6pm PST.  There's Q&A right after the lectures. It is free and open to the public. All are welcome!Use this link and I will see you there:https://www.zoom.us/j/7028380815For more videos, guided meditations and instruction and for access to our lecture library, visit me at:https://www.patreon.com/yogawithnishTo get in on the discussion and access various spiritual materials, join our Discord here: https://discord.gg/U8zKP8yMrMSupport the show

Sri Ramanuja And Srila Prabhupada. Lecture delivered by His Holiness on philosophy, principles, and practices of Krishna consciousness based on revealed Vedic scriptures as received in parampara.

In this last part in the trilogy about Vedanta, we explore the life and teachings of Madhvacharya - the founder of the school of Dvaita (dualistic) Vedanta.Sources/Suggested Reading:Bartley, C.J. (2002). "The Theology of Ramanuja - Realism and Religion". Routledge.Deutsch, Eliot (1973). “Advaita Vedanta: A Philosophical Reconstruction”. University of Hawai'i Press.Deutsch, Eliot & Rohit Dalvi (2005). “Essential Vedanta: A New Source Book of Advaita Vedanta”. World Wisdoms Books.Flood, Gavin (ed.) (2003). "The Blackwell Companion to Hinduism". Blackwell publishing.Sarma, Deepak (2003). "An Introduction to Madhva Vedanta". Ashgate World Philosophy Series. Routledge.Sarma, Deepak (2018). "Epistemologies and the Limitations of Philosophical Inquiry: Doctrine in Madhva Vedanta". Routledge.Thibaut, George (translated by) (2006). "The Vedanta-Sutras with the Commentary by Ramanuja". The Echo Library.#Madhva #Vedanta #Hinduism Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

 On the auspicious occasion of Navaratri, we launch into an exploration of Shakti, the Divine Goddess of the Tantras. By Her grace I hope to share with you some deep insights from Ramprasad, Ramakrishna and Vivekananda regarding the worship of Ma and its important in spiritual life. I am going to take an approach that is entirely like Ramanuja in that I will attempt to show, by Her grace, how we can use Jnana, Raja and Karma Yoga to attain to Bhakti Yoga, the highest. Faith and devotion. These alone are everything. But do they come easily and naturally? Hardly! We'll discuss Bhakti for those to whom Bhakti does not come naturally. It does not come naturally to anyone and those who say they they have it might only be making pretences! Who can truly Love the way a devotee loves?! May tonight's lecture address that directly! We'll discuss how the Motherhood of God offers a unique opportunity to deepen Bhakti. All this is Her play."Mother! Mother! My boat is sinking, here in the ocean of this world;Fiercely the hurricane of delusion rages on every side!Clumsy is my helmsman, the mind;Stubborn my six oarsmen, the passions;Into a pitiless wind I sailed my boat and nowIt is sinking!Split is the rudder of devotion;Tattered is the sail of faith;Into my boat the waters are pouring in!Tell me, what shall I do?For with my failing eyes, alas! Nothing but darkness do I see.Here in the waves I will swim, O MotherAnd cling to the raft of thy name!"- Swami Nikhilananda's translation of Ramprasad.This is the follow up discussion: How To Connect to Ma Kalihttps://www.patreon.com/posts/how-to-connect-q-72564494?utm_medium=clipboard_copy&utm_source=copyLink&utm_campaign=postshare_creator00:00:00 The Most Fascinating Icon of India00:03:00 What Today's Lecture Is About00:05:58 Swami Vivekananda's Early Experiences of Ma Kali00:22:25 Swami Vivekananda's Endorsement of Mother Worship00:34:13 Introducing Prakriti: The 24 Cosmic Principles00:47:49 Purusha: The Pure Spirit00:50:20 Shiva-Shakti 00:52:24 Why Does Prakriti Create?00:55:12 Moksha and the Movies: The Aesthetic Theory of Shaivism00:59:18 The Two Gifts of Ma Prakriti: Bhoga and Yoga01:08:21 Prakriti as Maha Mayi as Mother01:15:25 How Do I Get Bhakti: Love for God?01:19:44 Why Does Ma Kali Look So Terrifying? 01:21:22 Sri Ramakrishna on How To Realise God (Hint: Worship Mother!)01:28:27 Ramprasad's Poems on Kali01:37:46 Closing PoemSupport the show

There are a few places in India which are reported to be quiet ancient, some of them to Billion years! And these have been dated scientifically. For example Thiruvannamalai 3.94 billion years, Thirupati 2100 million years. Please read my posts on these places and more places similar to them. And now there is an addition to this list.The Temple for Vishnu at Srirangam ,is reported to be built by Rama,though many state that it was built earlier. This period belongs to Treta Yuga, some 4,32,000 ago according to Indian Texts. Historical dating of Lord Rama is around 5114 BC. We may safely state that Srirangam belongs to 5114 BC, if not earlier. References are found in Indian Texts that there is another temple which was built earlier by Lord Rama's ancestor, King Sibi. The same Sibi is mentioned as the one who parted with his Flesh to feed a Dove. This has been mentioned in Tamil Sangam Literature, which is dated around 3000 BC. But  the date of Sangam literature is pushed back by at least by 20,000 subsequent finding of the ruins of Poompuhar,Tamil Nadu. Poompuhar's period was much later than Sangam period! The Tamil Cholas are referred to as the descendants of Ikshvaku Clan,to which Lord Rama belonged. So the refernce to a temple earlier to that of Srirangam gains credibility. The Temple of Pundarikaksha(Vishnu) is mentioned in Sangam Classics and also referred to in King Rajaraja's inscriptions. Thiruvellarai is about 19 km from Srirangam and bus facilities are available. Nearest Airport.  Thiruchirapalli. Railway Station. Thiruchirapalli/Srirangam. It is recorded in Srimad Bhagavadham that Rakshsas of the South,Rakshasa being a powerful race mostly settled in now sunk Lemuria, were inciting rebellion in the south of King Sibi's Kingdom. Sibi proceeded with his army to annihilate the Rakshasas but was thwarted by a wild Boar(Swetha Varaha, an Avatar of Lord Vishnu). Sage Markandeya who was in meditation there advised Sibi that Sibi's descendent (Rama)would take care of the Rakshasas and Sibi should build  temple for Vishnu and have His darshan. This Sibi did and this is the Thiruvellarai temple. Temple timings. 6 to 12 noon. 4 pm to 8 pm. Contact. SRI Kannan +91 8760732566 As the Bhattars in charge of pooja perform duties by turn I have provided the permanent staff  number at the temple The Main Deity is Pundaikakshan( Lotus eyed Vishnu). ‘ Goddess: Shenbagavalli, also called as Periya Piraattiyaar Lakshmi Devi. Seperate sannadhi for Thaayar. Utsavar thaayar is named as Pangajavalli. Mangalasasanam: Periyalwar – 11, Thirumangai Alwar – 13, a total of 14 Paasurams. Perialwar – 71, 192 – 201, Thirumangaialwar – 1368-77, 1851, 2673, 2674 Prathyaksham for Periya Thiruvadi Garudan, Sibi chakravarthy, Bhoodevi (Bhoomi Piratti), Maarkandeya Maharishi, Lord Brahma, Rudhran (Lord Shiva). Sri Pundarikakshan, Bhoomi Piratti, Periya piratti, Suriya and Chandiran and Aadisheshan are in human forms in the Moolavar Place. Other shrines: Krishna, Vishwaksenar, Nammazhwar, Chakarathazhwar, Nadhamunigal, Kulasekara Azhwar, Thondarippodi Azhwar, Andal, Ramanuja and Manavala Mamunigal. At the very entrance are the 18 steps reminding one of the 18 chapters of Bhagvat Gita given to us byPundareekakshan. After this, one comes across 4 steps that are considered equal to the 4 Vedas to reach the Bali Peetam. Here there are 2 gates Dakshinaayana Gate and Utharaayana Gate which are alternately used during the Dakshinayana/ Utharayana 6 month periods. One climbs further 8 steps remind one of Ashtaaksharam Thereafter one comes to the 24 steps reminding one of Gayathri Mantram to arrive at the sanctum sanctorum,where Senthaamarai Kannan (Pundareekaakshan) stands with His consort Pankayacchelvi Naacchiyaar......https://ramanisblog.in/2016/06/03/become-invicible-pond-thiruvellarai-oldest-vishnu-temple/ --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/ramanispodcast/message

We follow up the last episode on Shankara & Advaita Vedanta by talking about the most influential response to that school.Sources/Suggested Reading:Bartley, C.J. (2002). "The Theology of Ramanuja - Realism and Religion". Routledge.Flood, Gavin (ed.) (2003). "The Blackwell Companion to Hinduism". Blackwell Publishing. "Sri Ramanuja Gita Bhashya - with text in Devangari & English rendering". Translated by Swami Adidevananda. Chennai: Sri Ramakrishna Math.Thibaut, George (translated by) (2006). "The Vedanta-Sutras with the Commentary by Ramanuja". The Echo Library.#Vedanta #Ramanuja #Hinduism Our GDPR privacy policy was updated on August 8, 2022. Visit acast.com/privacy for more information.

Sudarshana Chakra was given the status of God by Saint Ramanujacharya's followers. He is also called Chakrathazhwar (sage of the wheel) and is worshipped by Vaishnavas. This powerful Stotra is addressed to Lord Sudarshana. When Thiruvaranga Perumal Arayar, one of the 5 Gurus of Ramanuja, fell sick, Kura Narayana jeeyar, a devotee of Lord Sudarshana, composed this hymn at the request of Kurathazhvan. Chanting this Stotra regularly brings relief from diseases. It also removes suffering and all our sins. If you would like to find out more about your chart or have a question about astrology you would love the answer to, please do connect with us at www.astroved.com Follow AstroVed on IG, Twitter, and FB @AstroVed 

Sri Vaishnava Sampradaya recommends us to take darshan of Perumal's Archaa thirumeni and savor the moment with the Lord. However, as we approach closer to the moolasthAnam, we forget everything and voluntarily close our eyes. Penpillai speaks in a longing voice to Ramanuja, that she failed to take darshan of Vaithamaanidhi Perumal just as done by Idaiyaattroor Nambi. Let's listen to the story of this ardent devotee and get the blessings of Namperumal.

Perumal's beautiful thirumeni entices us and make us fall in love with him in a trancelike state. An acharya will direct us through the path of conscious and disciplined bhakthi. In any Vaishnava Sampradaya, acharya bhakthi or bhaagavatha bhakthi is highly valued than Perumal bhakthi. Knowing all the secrets, Madhurakavi azhwar had his devotion exclusive to Nammazhwar and avoided having even a glimpse of Adhipiran. Penpillai tells another story of same kind where Ramanuja's sishya Vaduganambigal was uninterested about Namperumal's arrival and was more concerned with acharya kainkaryam.

Ein Podcast über Ramanuja. Ein Vorreiter der modernen Menschenrechte vor über 1.000 Jahren. Audio Transkript Facebookgruppe mit Video über die Statue der Egalität Unterstützung: https://www.patreon.com/joachim_nusch joachim-nusch.de meditierstduschon.de

Spiritual series that is rich in Indian ethos along with mythological, historical stories that helps to know more about authentic Indian history

Join Mukunda as he speaks to Prerna Thiruvaipati a Dalits and Hindu activist who has been spending the past few years working on addressing the concerns of Dalit communities in India focusing on the Andhra and Telangana region. She has been working on providing economic, emotional, and legal support to these communities in addition to dealing with the issues of Christian and Islamic conversions along with returning to Hinduism. We discuss these and other topics.

Namaste in this podcast I'm glad to share about the precious remedy advised by bhagavath Ramanuja Swamy to sishyas.Thank you

Entrevistamos a Santiago Margot, un argentino iniciado en India en la Tradición Vaisnava y en sus rituales. Santiago sigue profundizando sus estudios con nosotros en Yoga Baires y con él les compartimos la historia de la Tradición Vaisnava, una de las principales tradiciones espirituales de India. Les contaremos de sus principales referentes así como explicaremos la importancia del Parampara, esa conexión fuerte entre alumno y discípulos que conforman esa larga línea de conexión entre los orígenes del Yoga y el Conocimiento de la India hasta hoy dia. Este episodio consta de 2 capítulos, no te lo pierdas. Tenemos muy lindas historias clásicas de la India dentro de él. Enseñanzas antiguas para el mundo moderno. Oí esta interesante enseñanza presentada de una manera lúdica y con ejemplos cotidianos que te llevaran a verlo reflejado en tu vida. Gonzalo Rico Peña es Director del Centro Yoga Baires y cada semana nos presenta una enseñanza nueva con tips muy sencillos y prácticos para aplicar en tu vida ya sea que hagas yoga o no. www.yogabaires.com.ar

Entrevistamos a Santiago Margot, un argentino iniciado en India en la Tradición Vaisnava y en sus rituales. Santiago sigue profundizando sus estudios con nosotros en Yoga Baires y con él les compartimos la historia de la Tradición Vaisnava, una de las principales tradiciones espirituales de India. Les contaremos de sus principales referentes así como explicaremos la importancia del Parampara, esa conexión fuerte entre alumno y discípulos que conforman esa larga línea de conexión entre los orígenes del Yoga y el Conocimiento de la India hasta hoy dia. Este episodio consta de 2 capítulos, no te lo pierdas. Tenemos muy lindas historias clásicas de la India dentro de él. Enseñanzas antiguas para el mundo moderno. Oí esta interesante enseñanza presentada de una manera lúdica y con ejemplos cotidianos que te llevaran a verlo reflejado en tu vida. Gonzalo Rico Peña es Director del Centro Yoga Baires y cada semana nos presenta una enseñanza nueva con tips muy sencillos y prácticos para aplicar en tu vida ya sea que hagas yoga o no. En este episodio www.yogabaires.com.ar

Summary:9th chapter: verses 17, 19, 20, 21, 22. 18th chapter: verse 66 17th verse: “I am the father of this world, the mother, the upholder, the origin, and the purifier. I am the one thing to be known. I am omkara and I am the vedas.”“I” here refers to the all-pervading divine reality, which acts as the protecting, nourishing, upholding principle. It is this divine reality that is to be realized.Omkara, as a sound-symbol, represents the totality and oneness of existence, and the essence of the Vedas. It represents the unified universe consisting of the three worlds of existence: below the earth, upon the earth, and celestial level. In monotheistic religions, it corresponds to the unity of all divine personifications – Brahma, Vishnu, and Maheshvara. It is the beginning, middle, and end of all human speech. In Patanjali Yoga Sutra, it is described as the name of the Lord.Gayatri mantra has 24 letters and is a very sublime mantra. Om is an integral part of Gayatri mantra. It invokes the effulgent divine reality, that is present everywhere, and it takes one beyond the three levels of existence - towards the transcendental.The 17th verse puts a very high philosophical ideal – oneness and unity of human family – in the language of everyday human relations.19th verse: “As the sun, I am the heat. I withhold and send forth rain. I am immortal and also dead. I am also the being and the non-being.”The 19th verse uses the sublime technique of using language that seems contradictory to point to its transcendental meaning. A poet in Vedantic tradition is one who is able to see far into things and bring out the grandeur of the subject he is writing on.Ramanuja in his commentary on this verse says: “I provide both heat and rain. I am the source of energy that sustains human life. I am the sequence in the seasons. I am the supreme principle behind the harmonious existence of life in this world. I am the immortal principle behind that which is immortal. I am the finite principle behind that which is finite.”One cannot transcend death at the physical level. When we realize our true nature and its immortal dimension, we transcend death. Brihadaranyaka Upanishad has a profound dialog between Yajnavalkya and Maitreyi on the topic of immortality.Both existence and non-existence are non-distinct from the divine reality. Nothing can be excluded from that reality, not even the concept of evil. Vedanta does not define God as the totality of all positive virtues. It replaces the doctrine of evil with the doctrine of ignorance. As we evolve, so called evil is understood to be a stage where we experience something due to our lack of the highest spiritual enlightenment. At the highest level, all secular activities become spiritualized.Swami Vivekananda said: “Worshipping the terrible is a sign of sannyasa (mendicant).” A Mendicant is a person who accepts everything. For him, the totality alone exists – it includes good and bad. But, at a spiritually evolved stage, he automatically accepts only the good – he cannot harm others, as described in the 18th chapter of Bhagavad Gita.In the 66th verse of the 18th chapter, Lord Krishna describes the spiritual psychology of self-surrender. He says to Arjuna: “Give up all distinctions between dharma and adharma. Attach your will to God's will. Attach your mind and emotions to the divine. Then you will naturally choose the right dharma.”20th and 21st verse: There are those who perform rituals for material prosperity and long life. They are also worshipping the same divine Lord, but not in its most sublime sense. They are at the beginning of spiritual life. They go to heaven, and once their spiritual merits are exhausted, they return to the world. For them, the cycle of birth and death continues.22nd verse: “People who meditate on God as not separate, who worship Him in all beings, who are always engaged in that divine pursuit – for such people, I carry what they lack, and preserve what they already have.”Yoga in this verse means helping you attain what you have not already attained. Kshema in this verse means preserving what you have already attained.Lord Krishna makes a big promise in this verse. “If you do God's work, God will work for you.” We experience this in our lives. When we do good, noble deeds without selfish motives, then some of our problems are automatically solved. A noble act done for the good of others is an act of worship and generates spiritual energy.The story of Lord Krishna and Sudama illustrates this promise. When Sudama gave parched rice to Lord Krishna, it returned to him as prosperity in an invisible way.”

“Swami, why do I deserve to remain in this Divya Desam? I do not possess the faith of Akroora, innocence of Vidhura, the love of Rishi's wife, determination of Sita Piratti, the divine friendship of King Thondaiman, simple devotion of Ghantakarna, motherly love of Anusuyai, steadfastness of Dhruva, ability to change like Kshatrabandu, patience of Ahalya, nor do I have the maturity of Andal! Also, did I call the Lord my own like Pattarbhiran?”, lamented the sweet child of Thirukolur. “Dear child, tell me about Bhattarpiran”, coaxed Ramanuja.

#srishtitales #thirukolurpenpillairagasiyam #vedapaatisonnakadhai Having heard the story of the pure-hearted devotee, Vidhura of Hastinapur, “Where will I be teleported to this time”, wondered Ethirajar Ramanuja. “Go on, my child. I want to hear more!”, he coaxed the little girl of Thirukolur. “Oh Swami, did I sacrifice my body like the wives of the sages when Krishna asked for food?” bemoaned Pen Pillai. With this, Ramanuja got transported to the scene of the everyday life of little Krishna and his cowherd friends! Let us travel along with him!

This week, The Musafir Stories speaks to Ayush Kumar as he takes us to the holy town of Puri!Today's destination: Puri, Odisha!Nearest Airport: Biju Patnaik International Airport (BBI)Nearest Railway Station: Puri Railway station (PURI)Prerequisites - NA Packing - Pack according to the weather, dress code might apply at certain places Time of the year - November - January Length of the itinerary: 3-5 days Itinerary Highlights: Ayush shares his experience visiting the holy town of Puri, situated in the state of OdishaWe discuss the origins and history of the most prominent place in Puri, the Jagannath Temple, and its connection to King Indradyumna. The temple is believed to have been rebuilt in the 10th century AD by the Ganga Dynasty. The deities of the temple include Lord Jagannath, and his siblings Subhadra and Balabhadra.The unique feature of the deities is that they are all made of neem wood, unlike other deities found in prominent temples. Ayush explains the key features of the Jagannath Temple, the connection to the Odissi art forms, and the temple kitchen which is believed to be the biggest in the world. The temple kitchen is believed to have over 500 chefs and serves Chappan Bhog or 56 types of meals every day. We also discuss in detail about the iconic Rath Yatra of the temple. The Yatra happens over a period of 10-12 days and is attended by lakhs of devotees The Rath Yatra starts from the Puri temple and chariots of the 3 deities, Jagannath, Subhadra and Balabhadra travel to the Gundicha Temple situated 3 kms away. There are several other rituals and ceremonies carried out prior to the yatra, including creating new chariots, bathing of the deities, quarantine for 14 days and many other interesting titbits. We also discuss some very interesting mysteries around the temple as well as the important ceremony of Nabakalebara, or replacing the deities with new idols. We cap off the conversation by including other places of interest, including the Puri beach, sand art by Sudarshan Patnaik, important Matthas in the vicinity, Chilika Lake, the artisan village of Raghurajpur among others. Links:Episode 81 exploring on Bhubaneshwar: https://themusafirstories.com/podcasts/explore-bhubaneswar-with-ayush/Link to Ayush's social media:Instagram: @soul.traveller.kumar (https://www.instagram.com/soul.traveller.kumar/)Follow the Musafir stories on:Twitter: https://twitter.com/musafirstories?lang=enFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/themusafirstories/Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/musafirstoriespodcast/?hl=enwebsite: www.themusafirstories.comemail: themusafirstories@gmail.comYou can listen to this show and other awesome shows on the IVM Podcasts app on Android: https://ivm.today/android or iOS: https://ivm.today/ios, or any other podcast app.You can check out our website at http://www.ivmpodcasts.com/

Talk : Dr. RAJEEV IRINJALAKUDA

BHAKTHIPRASTHANAM TALKS: SRI. RAJEEV IRINJALAKUDA SPECIAL SONG WITH 100 NAMES OF SRI KRISHNA SUNG BY MOHOMMED RAFIS GRAND DAUGHTER PARVESH MUSTHAFA

-8th chapter: verses 7, 8, 9-This lecture was given by Swami Tattwamayananda on April 23, 2021.-7th verse: “Constantly remember Me and fight. Then you shall attain Me.”-Fight here refers to the battle with our own lower self. Lord Krishna says that we should combine contemplation and action, and do our everyday secular duties with a higher ideal in mind. By doing so, we spiritualize the secular.-Lord Krishna chose Arjuna over Yudhishthira and other Pandavas because Arjuna was a man of action, who was eager to learn, and who would put into practice what he learnt.-Lord Krishna asks Arjuna to always think and contemplate on a higher ideal – all the time, in every thought, word and deed. By doing so, he would have peace of mind and be a source of harmony to those around him.-8th verse: “With constant practice and continued effort, one who thinks of the Supreme Being, attains Him.”-In spiritual life, we may encounter two types of problems. First – when we follow an ideal and do not succeed, we may get disappointed. Second – we may develop a liking for the negative, like a camel who enjoys eating thorny bushes despite bleeding in the process.-Continued effort is necessary. As we continue our effort, the resistance slowly disappears, and we are able to follow the higher ideal.-Shankaracharya says in his commentary that we should read spiritual books, understand the teachings of the great sages, contemplate on them, and bring this contemplation to every action in daily life.-Ramanuja says in his commentary that we should do our duty in a way that it does not violate ethical principles, and at the same time contemplate on a higher ideal.-Once a person succeeds in spiritualizing the secular, by combining action and contemplation, his character begins to reflect a sense of contentment. He is able to face difficulties of life with a smile.-9th verse: “The one who meditates on this Supreme Reality – who is omniscient (Kavi), ancient, the ruler, smaller than the atom, the sustainer, self-luminous and beyond the darkness of Maya.”-The word “kavi” is used to imply omniscient. A great poet is able to see far into things and bring out the grandeur of the subject he is writing on. This ability to see beyond the surface of things is an expression of the divine.-One great example is from the life of Valmiki, who was a sage and a poet. Once he was watching two birds playing on a tree. Suddenly, one of the birds fell after being short by a hunter’s arrow. At that moment, Valmiki’s heart was filled with the charm of the innocent bird, the cruelty of the hunter and the agony of the surviving bird. He uttered a profound verse: “O’ hunter – you will not get respect; you will not get existence. You also will perish. For you have killed this innocent, unsuspecting bird.”-We cannot play diplomacy with our own mind at the time of death. The dominant thought at the time of death is linked to what ideas dominated one’s life. If one practices spiritual disciplines during their life, then at the time of death, then can think of something higher, transcendental.-There are two ways of looking upon God. One is through the lens of the world – in this scenario, we won’t have peace of mind. Another way is to see the world through the eyes of God – then we see the world as a fleeting phenomenon belonging to time and subject to change; then we can practice equilibrium of mind, and the world won’t disturb us.

Qué Adoptaron los Gaudiyas de Ramanuja Reconociendo nuestra Posición Actual Intuición en Bhakti Haciendo del Sastra nuestra Propiedad ¿Es Necesario Conocer todas las Escrituras? Samskaras Temporales y Eternos

Join Mukunda as he speaks with Sri Rama Ramanuja Achari, also known as Rami Sivan,

-7th chapter: verses 16, 17, 18, 19-16th verse: “People endowed with sattva-guna are of four types. (1) Those who take to spiritual life due to distress (2) those who are aspirants of knowledge (3) Those who want wealth (4) Those who are Jnani (wise). “-17th verse: “Of all these four groups, the highest one is the Jnani. He combines in his life Yoga, Bhakti and Jnanam. I am supremely dear to him, and he is supremely dear to Me.”-We are all spiritual seekers. We may initially start with prayers for material benefits. When these prayers are answered, our conviction becomes deeper and takes us to higher levels of spiritual experience.-Of all spiritual seekers, the highest is the one who has come closest to the realization that everything is an expression of the Divine Reality.-Swami Vivekananda said: “We are not traveling from error to truth. Rather, we are traveling from truth that is lower, to truth that is higher.” We travel from dualism to qualified non-dualism to non-dualism.-Non-dualism was preached by Shankaracharya in 8th century AD. Ramanuja came around 250 years later and preached qualified non-dualism. Madhvacharya came later and preached dualism.-Under non-dualism, there is one transcendental reality that is immanent, attribute-less, formless and eternal. Everything else is relative.-Under qualified non-dualism, God is the totality of all noble qualities that we can conceive of. He is present in everything, but everything is distinct from God.-Under dualism, God, Jagat (world) and living beings are all different and distinct from each other.-Shankaracharya says that at the highest experience level – highest knowledge and highest devotion are the same. As means, they are different. As a goal, they are the same.-Only the most compassionate and broad-minded people, who are free from fanaticism, who look upon everyone as God’s children – are dear to God.-18th verse: “All of them are noble. But the Jnani is the one who looks upon himself as non-distinct from Me.”-Swami Vivekananda pointed out the benefits of looking upon ourselves as non-different from God. Then we consider it as our duty to manifest the divinity within, which expresses itself as compassion and joy. It provides a remedy from fanaticism.-Everyone who has begun his spiritual journey will one day reach the top of the hill and become a Jnani.-19th verse: “The highest stage in spiritual evolution is to see everything as an expression of Vasudeva.”-At the highest stage, we feel God’s presence in all our interactions - even when we are not in the temple or not reading a holy book. For the Jnani, every thought, word and deed becomes divine.-To reach this highest stage, we may have to take many births. We have to accumulate enough positive samskaras through spiritual practices. One day, we will reach this destination.-Reading of scriptures and association with holy people remove obstacles towards the highest realization. They drive away undesirable thought currents and make positive samskaras more dominant in our mind.

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Pujya Sir K.C.Narayana ( KCN ) Messages  (Meditation, Raja Yoga, Training, Spirituality, PAM - Pranahuti Aided Meditation, Divinity, Divine Service & Research, Babuji Disciple) Pujya Sri Ramchandraji's Disciple & Founder of  “Institute of Sri RamChandra Consciousness”  *Messages delivered by Pujya Sir K.C.Narayana ( KCN ), Hyderabad, India.  Dedicated his life for the Spiritual service of Pujya Sri Ramchandraji's Pranahuti Aided Meditation, Research, Meditation Trainings, Audio Messages, Books & SatSangh   For Meditation Info Contact: www.sriramchandra.in  Biography: kcnarayana.org Episode Notes: AN EXPOSITION OF THE MASTER'S ARTICLE ON GITA   There are quite a few occasions when we had discussed about the importance of Lord Krishna in our system and tried to dispel the notion that we have nothing to do with the tradition and we are some sort of independent people. This is a system which assimilated everything good of the past and we have come to a system which can be considered as unique and which integrates everything of the past throwing out of course in the language of Babuji Maharaj -refuse. The refuse of rituals, rites, keeping only to the barest minimum of what is required for our sadhana.   Before I go to the topic of Bhagavad Gita, I would read out what the Master has to say regarding The Avatars, "I do believe in the theory of Avatars and Lord Ram Chandra was one of them. He was of immense help during his own regime. But with the advent of Lord Krishna the regime of Lord Rama was over". It may appear that this is something new but it is not so this is the tradition. When the new avatar comes the old avatar ceases to have relevance. For historical reasons the worship of Lord Rama was restored sometime in the 12th Century and our first temples of Lord Rama were constructed only then. Many people may not be aware of these facts because we tend to accept what is generally believable. Goebbels theory applies that a lie told several times becomes a truth.   "It is now the regime of Lord Krishna who is to continue till the next avatar comes to the world. This is the phenomenon of Nature which I bring to light for your understanding". The position of The Special personality with reference to the position of Avatar was explained in the earlier occasions and I can only say that this is some ushering of a great personality to better the quality of human life. I think this distinction must always be kept in mind. Yesterday I told that there cannot be any difference between Lord Krishna and Babuji Maharaj. Yes! I hold that opinion even now and perhaps forever because that is the truth. Lord Krishna is working through the agency of Sri Ramchandra of Shahjahanpur. There is something like an agency in work and training is only one of the many things that He does. That is on record elsewhere. So He is not just confined to being our Master in the sense of a trainer. He has got many things to do and it is for us to follow what ever He has said.   Now coming to the Bhagavad Gita, this is a very very critical article which must be understood in its proper perspective. The same approach was taken earlier while going through the message "Solution to the Problem of Life" I adopt now also. Before that because most of us think that we know something about surrender. Surrender for me would mean in the language of Dr. Varadachari when we wait on God with our words and seek Him only in silence, that is surrender. Then He takes hold of our hands so to speak. Surrender means being naked before God. Gopikas were taught the lesson. Most of us like to hide many things and then place it ourselves before placing with the Master saying He ought to know. So let us yield to Master with all our naked eyes and hear without any further notions, preconceived notions about Bhagavad Gita because then only you will understand its own logic. There are very many preconceived notions that we have got in our head not due to our mistake but that is what environment has provided us.   The Master starts not with Bhagavad Gita proper but with the nature of mind. "The simple unassuming character of mind has changed with the march of time and has assumed a colourful disposition, and begun to shed its effect on everything in us, both outer and inner". It seems to be quite a philosophical sentence, not all philosophical, but it only means that over a period of time we have developed so many ideas, so many notions. What was a pure state of mind because mind is basically pure, it is just like child, new born child. We went on imbibing all impulses by putting in our head and assimilating it and that we started accepting some and rejecting some. That is what He means by colourful or colouring it. By itself none of them have got any colour, we grant it a colour. We accept some and we reject some.   What ever therefore we take into our thought or action exhibits colourfulness in all its phases. So our thinking gets vitiated because of the colours we have accepted. Certain things appear to be correct and certain things appear to be wrong not because they are right or wrong or good or bad but, because we think so.   Our excessive attachments to the environment and other the surroundings of a similar nature create heaviness and grossness. Excessive attachment - please note the word. Attachment, we can't help because we are attached, existence means attachment. We have got to live together, we can't help there - environment.   Subtleness is lost and everything that comes to our view is interpreted in the same light. We don't accept the thing as it is and then try to give our interpretation, our view of things.   This not only veils our understanding but the heart and brain also get affected by it. Not only we don't understand properly in proper perspective because we have a pair of blue glasses but it also affects the future understanding. It affects our brain, it becomes the part of our future samskaras in our head. We read some story of Krishna and then it gets into our head and we think that that is what it is from our angle.   It was the same of tendency of mind which displayed itself through all the writings of men of knowledge and learning. Now here it is a revelation to all that whoever is trying to write and we are also writing and, they give their opinions the way in which one has understood the subject, it sometimes helps and sometimes spoils. But simplicity is our approach, behind everything there is a nakedness of silence and that is the Ultimate God. Moments of such silence is what we experience everyday, the nakedness of our being we understand everyday maybe for a few seconds or for some minutes. Ripples are there and so long as we don't have waves it is all right. And when we talk about the Ocean of Bliss I don't know how many of you have really understood what exactly we are striving at. If it is a wave we definitely, but, to keep you calm it has to be some sort of a ripple. Perhaps for the want of words we use several words and then each word we use has got its connotation in your head, your own understanding of that and then it vitiates your understanding further. It colors it.   For thorough understanding of things one must have practically attained the state of mind required before one can go out to explain it to others. If we don't experience during our sadhana the states of calmness, any amount of our talking about the books of Babuji Maharaj is not going to make us wiser or the person people who hear wiser. Academic approach of the subject is of no use. Experiential approach is what is required. Our academics is based on our understanding, the concepts that we have developed and the inputs that we have got, the language that we have developed and all this are going to affect our explanation or understanding. But experience is simple, direct. Anubhava is direct awareness. The same was the case with our sacred Gita and that is the statement that must be understood well and perhaps it must be taken with a pinch of salt by many, because it affects the commentaries that have been given by great people on this subject. I may say here that Bhagavad Gita bhashyas given by the great acharyas are attempts to substantiate the relative points of view of the acharyas whether it is Advaita, Visistadvaita, or Dvaita or the Bheda-Bheda. Each one of the commentaries that they have given is only trying to substantiate their point of view and not to tell what exactly is the truth. That is the misfortune. We inherited it. Some get attached to Ramanuja, somebody will get attached to Sankara and third person to Nimbarka and what shall we do? We fight, we go on arguing saying that, this is correct and that is correct. We don't try to understand what Lord Krishna has said.   There are numerous commentaries and more are still being added. That is true but I must tell you both my self and brother Parthasarathy had an intention of writing a GitaCommentary, we wanted to write the Natural Path commentary for the Bhagavad Gita. Then we went through this article and both of us came to a realized position that better we keep off it. The exercise was something that both of us thought very seriously about it. In this article you will see some points which made us think that perhaps, we should do some research on this. But then we left it there. It doesn't prevent anyone of you to try.   Almost everyone attempted it from his level of learning and reason. Please note that learning and reason, for the people to understand it from the same level of thinking. You come to a level and according to that you expect, other men to understand.   But though their physical labor in this respect may be appreciable to some extent, the actual purpose is not served at all. Because Gita commentaries are very voluminous, they run to many pages. Quite a lot of physical effort has to be gone through. Those days poor people, who without any computers to type with, without any light, they must have put lot of physical labor, in relative darkness without light, without the medium of ink, writing on some leaves. It must have been quiet an effort. And he says he is not very charitable here. He says to some extent physical labor is appreciable. I would have been happy had he left it there. My mental tendency is such, that he could have atleast left it there. But he added to some extent. Almost denouncing their approach, because what is it that they have done to merit this type of statement. If you put that question, you know they tried to misinterpret Gods version, and that is something that nobody can accept, and it requires to be denounced. So the denunciation is not because we accept the learning or reasoning, but because there is a total preservation of what the Great Master and the Gitacharya were telling.   The actual purpose is not served at all; and to be more frank, the commentaries have made the original text all the more complicated by putting the bare truth under Coverings or misconceptions. This is the mistake that warns us to take a very critical view.   In other words we increase our own limitations by adding more and more complexities to it. I can in this connection tell you a very good feeling that was expressed by one of the abhyasis, accustomed to sing stotras or hear some songs - all Divine. He said, those things are affecting my meditation and therefore I am leaving that. Very few people have got that much of wisdom to arrive at. Because we try to continue to recite those slokas or poems, songs etc all in the Divine name. During meditations you can surely do it otherwise. But his objection was not that of doing it otherwise. He says because I do that and that is grossness and that has come and is affecting my meditation. Because during meditation it affects me. Here it is a very practical experience most of the abhyasis must have had it. But they have not got that wisdom, the tinge of wisdom to leave it, because grossness clings. It gets itself attached. It may be Hare Rama - Hare Krishna or something else. It does not matter much. I don't want to go into the details nor mention the name of any person. But the dairy was something which made me feel, here is a viveka of different order, which is generally passed on as sattvic nature. Yes it is passed on. Nothing wrong about it. We generally take it. Who said it? My tradition said it, that is the colouring that I have got. That is the notion that I have got from somebody else. Over a period of time I developed this.   Similar is the case for the worship of God, who is represented as physically similar to man, with the only difference that he is a superior Being and has a bigger sphere in proportion in his bigness. This perhaps is a very indirect reference to what we call the visvarupa darsana, that was given where you have got the portrayals today made of visvarupa darsana, saying that He is a very mighty Being with the head touching the heavens and the feet touching the patala all sorts of things. All these are our notions. So many Gods and all put together as heads. Sahasra Sirusha Purusha as been told. Reality has been distorted to such an extent, that we are lost in the unreality.   The Great Acharya gives a message. It is not for realising the Ultimate that he gave but there was a need there. Somebody was suffering from dharmasankata. The problem had to be solved. So let us understand the context in which it is given.   It was in accordance with the need of the time that Lord Krishna revealed the truth depicted in the Gita to Arjuna. Need of time. We must be highly indebted to Him, for all that he put forth for our benefit. Which in course of time has become the guiding light for us all. So here is a positive assertion that what tradition has been saying that the Bhagavad Gita is a source of which we can draw inspiration. He never said no. If you read the earlier paragraphs only you will come to the conclusion, that he has objected, what he has objected to was the commentaries. Not the Gita proper. Please understand the difference because that is what exactly is our difficulty.   It was not merely an ideal discourse. But the actual revelation of the very thing needed for a true pursuit of the Divine path. Not for realisation. The Divine path is to be in tune with the Divine. Here live with Divine. Express the Divine. Show his greatness. Nothing to do with realisation as such. The Divine path ultimately leads you there. Here the point is the thing needed for a true pursuit of the Divine path. Kindly note the words.   They relate directly to the various conditions which an abhyasi passes through, during the course of his march. We will have an occasion to talk about it. It related to the practical realisation of those conditions which can be attained through proper sadhana. We must in this context remember that Arjuna was always having the company of Lord Krishna, in his life. He was one of those fortunate persons. His exposure to Krishna is something that was continuous and constant and it made him a devotee. There was sadhana going on simultaneously which the Mahabaratha may not talk to us. But if you apply your head and then start thinking, if a person has been living with the Master all the time he could not help at least certain amount of effect of fomentation. There was sadhana going on. At least he had the wisdom to seek guidance at the appropriate time, and this he has been doing all the time, that viveka is there, that I do not know. He knows more. God knows more. Let us seek his guidance. Babuji said if you are in difficulty why do you think of difficulties, think about me. The difficulty will be over and I will also be there with you. But most of us keep worrying about difficulties during meditation and other times also. At the other time I can understand but why in meditation also. This is what we do. We do not want the company of God though he is very much available. But Arjuna had the wisdom. He was doing his sadhana.   There may however be elevated souls present in the world today, who may be able to give you a glimpse of it, or create instantly the same state in you by the application of their own inner powers. My own approach is to think that it refers to Him, and to certain other members of his clan. The conditions that are infused by the trainers on to abhyasi is something that I have experienced, with my own revered father, and with certain others also. They used to put us into certain conditions and say do you feel this now. I have been dealing with all my colleagues in this aspect. Please own up the conditions so that you can foment others. That will give them the awareness of the various conditions and will motivate them better. It is not that it is not being done because there is another prefix here earlier which went namely the sadhana. He says which can be attained through proper sadhana. You must have proper orientation. You cannot have reservations. And there are few people who have expressed such awareness, when conditions were infused into them. They expressed their awareness. Here even amongst us here. But I would like that number to swell and you should have the whole community of people who believe in Sri Ramchandraji to say yes this is what it is. I only pray that, this prayer of ours is granted. I proceed further.   Let us here consider how much time Lord Krishna could have possibly required for speaking out the total text of the Gita as we find it today. The armies were standing face to face on the battlefield, and the war trumpets were sounding loud announcing the Zero hour for action. How much time was there at the disposal of Lord Krishna to bring Arjuna round to the proper course of preaching a sermon to him? The recitation requires atleast a few hours. Here I can say people have been reciting generally taken of as one and half hour. I have come across one great gentlemen who was able to do around 45 minutes, very sincerely, because he knew it thoroughly up. But it used to take 11/2 hours for majority of the people.   How could that be possible at that critical moment? Evidently he could have taken more than a few minutes for it. This is of course one of the commonest criticisms against Gita. I don't have to say that this is something new. But then he comes down with a different answer. He doesn't say all these things to prove that Gita was a false thing like Christian missionaries who will ask me to believe, or some Sanskrit scholars who will say, that this has been interpolated later into the Bharata, into the parva. This is how these are all the various view points taking into consideration this point, that it will take a long time. That approach is different, the answer is different here.   The fact is that Lord Krishna actually transmitted to Arjuna within a few minutes all those mental states necessary for the purpose at the time. Here again, for the purpose at the time is the transmission. Not the Ultimate, as the bashyakaras would ask me to believe.   Really they were the very conditions which an abhyasi passes through during the course of his march. We will have occasion to talk about it now. The process brought Arjuna instantly to a higher state of spiritual consciousness and purged out the feeling of undue attachment from his heart. So far the only purpose Gita has served on that day for Krishna was to get some vairagya. He was having undue attachment to so many people, brothers, sisters, uncles, grandfathers and fathers, gurus, children and all these problems were there in his head. And he had to have certain amount of vairagya to act. That is what he has done, he says and purged out the feeling of undue attachment from his heart.   This can as well be possible today if a personality of that calibre is there. I would ask you to note the condition of Arjuna is something that is a must. If you want to have such a condition given to you. Do we feel the need so much, is there a dharma sankata problem for us, to that extent that Arjuna was having. Don't compare yourself to anybody who is an Arjuna. Have you not compromised yourself earlier on all such dharma sankata issues. You have found your own answer. You did not feel the dharma sankata then, where is the question of getting help. Where is the question of getting the vairagya who is to grant whom? Do you ask that? "UCHAMI TWAM DHARMA SAMMUDATHE TWAHA". But is that what your condition is. You have compromised. Your dharma says that you should. There is a basic dharma. There is a duty. But then circumstances do not permit. But at that time did you ask this question of dharma sankata to God and then say please tell me what am I to do? No you took a solution on your own. You took a decision on your own. And we say that you sit in a particular place for meditation, have a separate seat for that. But one prefers otherwise. All your dharma sankata problems are being solved. You have got your own solutions. Your viveka is such. But then that Great Man because he was an abhyasi, he was a sadhaka himself, Arjuna asked Him, What is it I am supposed to do. I seem to be facing a big problem. Was that an incompetent warrior, who was asking, pleading for mercy from God, saying that please support me so that I can fight the war. He was not asking for help for fighting the war, that was not his request. He was not saying please give me the confidence to fight the battle. No he did not ask for that, because most of our misunderstandings are like this.   But as it is too commonly witnessed, people hear and recite Gita for the whole life without taking the least effect thereof. I don't have to say anything more on that. None has so far ever turned round like Arjuna, inspite of hearing the Gita for years together, nor attending the Gita yagnas that have been very ritualistically being conducted now and then by our brothers. They do it. Yagnas, Gita Yagnas. I really don't know what it means. But then they do.   The reason is that those who recite to others are not capable of transmitting its truth in their hearts, on account of which no effect is produced upon the hearers. Please note this is the point that I have been trying to drive through whatever modern gadgets we have got. We are fortunate to have the messages of the master recorded in some CD's. When you hear it you feel the transmission is coming to your entire being, you get affected. You get into the state that is being expressed there. When you listen to Dr. Varadachari you get into that state. Perhaps we do not get into that state with others. Have that wisdom at least to listen. One did not have these facilities earlier, fortunately somebody recorded and it is available. I have been pleading with all of you to hear, read if can, but hear, at least those who can afford to, I don't think it is too expensive now a days. Please kindly hear Master everyday. Some message at least. It helps a lot. This is the point that I am stressing. The reason is that those who recite to others are not capable of transmitting its truth into the hearts on account of which no effect is produced on those hearing. But if you hear the Master the effect is felt. Why do you want to lose that opportunity? It is a positive aspect of it that I would like to present.   For that purpose it is necessary that the reciter must have a practical approach up to the conditions related therein, and should possess a strong will and a spiritual force necessary for making his own voice vibrant so as to carry the effect of the sound right into the hearts of the hearers through the process of transmission. I know majority of you do not heed to my appeals and requests but as I told you I am a condemned optimist. I go on repeating. I have enormous patience and I thank Lord for it. Sometimes it is not to your liking also. It is not want of something that makes us not hear. It is the want of our desire, our will. The will to improve ourselves. Our will to hear our Master, because our noise is too loud. The inner noise is too loud, more than the outer noise. Then alone can the recitation be useful to the hearers. Lord save us. If you are capable of reciting, recite.   As for the teachings of the Gita we are ever being told by teachers and preachers of high rank and repetition that man should never consider himself to be the actual doer of things. This is true. But at the same time it a quite evident, that mere reading or hearing of it is of no avail unless we take up means to achieve it practically. Take up means to achieve it practically.   But we are always in the dark about those means which are necessary for the purpose. Nowhere can the slightest hint be traced out in all other discourses. The result is that the hearers are wrongly led to the conclusion that only the frequent repetition of the words, 'I am not the doer', is all and enough for them. Of course this is again a hard hitting on the mahakavyas. Go on repeating the mahakavya you get the knowledge. I don't know how? Truth is buried in the name of courtesy, etiquette. In the name of trying to be kind to others, one is causing more harm because he is doing more offence not only to me but to the truth in that matter and one need not be kind to such people. But then that leads to civic, would that be a civil age, that we are responding, is that social manners to say so? I don't know. Maybe I am not a social being. If frankness is something that makes me not a social being, I would prefer to be that. Why should I give up frankness? Why should anybody give up frankness? Any way that makes you think.   It is in fact an inner state of mind in which an abhyasi does not create impressions upon the heart. This sentence almost seems to have been lifted from REALITY AT DAWN. There he says, you develop, that is a first step in our system. You develop this attitude. I am then to support you. Think that the effect of Pranahuti makes you feel the presence of the Divine. Think that every action of yours, every word of yours, everything that you do is the Master's and you stop forming the impressions and this is what is supposed to come to us. This is the basic thing that is required. This is the first step in spirituality. Impressions upon the heart don't get created. What exactly does it mean? He said the future is abolished, which is demolished, we don't form the future at all. We don't have any karma to take us further. What ever is our bank balance let us clear it off, and afterwards nothing else. So that is the first step. Sane step. Consequently, a feeling of being a doer does not arise in him because of the spiritual condition that is infused namely of diverting the flow of consciousness from the lower portion to the upper portion and then further diversion to the atma chakra. If it is done along with the support from the abhyasi in the proper way there is no reason why we should form impressions. If we are forming impressions it is by choice not because of the system.   When the impressions are not caused, the sanskaras are not formed and consequently chances for bhoga do not arise. The formation of sanskaras is thus stopped. This is quiet essential for those on the spiritual path. This was in fact the actual state which was transmitted into Arjuna and by the effect of which he at once rose to the level of higher consciousness. Higher consciousness not of the Ultimate Brahman here, it is from 'L' to the 'U'. Please note it. The great work done by the Great Master on that day to Arjuna is what is being done to every one of us here by our Great Master here. Please be aware. At least have that much wisdom of the stupid Arjuna now. Why I call him stupid is he forgot about it later. Only during the war he maintained that. Later he thought that he is the doer and then he has his own story of not capable of saving the family of Krishna. Those who know a bit of Bharatam may kindly interact on yourself. We are constantly taken to the level of Arjuna, but instead of holding it we leave it. We don't hold.   The oral expression given at that time constituted only 7 slokas, to offer brief hints to illustrate the condition acquired by Arjuna through transmission. This sentence is what made me and Parthasarathy think, we should locate this first 7 slokas and then try to write a commentary on that accordingly then we thought the best thing is to leave it there. We think that we have located but we do not want to say so. We don't know. He has not mentioned therefore we don't mention. I would not like to be better than my Master. As I told you these types of pit falls are there in sadhana. We think that we can do something. We go a long way in that direction, but then some wisdom comes, because is it necessary at all. The point is taken. What does it matter which sloka refers to what. The point is well taken here, the problem is over and these are all what I consider deliberate attempts on the Master just to make you go through the bhog. We have to go through the bhog. Some trap is required for that. We should enjoy that trap for some time so that we can move further. But from where will we get this strength? As Dr. K.C. Varadachari would put in his introduction towards the book TOWARDS INFINITY, each knot if you get the condition from that it is almost like a rocket, you will get the power from that to move on to the next, Shoot up to the next. So from where do you get this in higher conditions? We have to think about it, then the power is generated, then wisdom dawns, then we move on, then we get to know. Almost it is similar to TOWARDS INFINITY.   The next paragraph starts with the state of Atman. Viveka and Vairagya are over. The state of atman described in the Gita is a further clarification of the same point. When one has practically attained that state, he begins to feel the same all through. This is in fact the actual state of realization. Not the Ultimate realization. Great stress is laid on the Gita upon nishkama karma or desire less action. One may go on saying like that forever, still it may never crop up within him unless he adopts the means and practices it for its achievement. This is in fact a kind of layavasta (state of merging) without which the vision of the Virat as displayed to Arjuna, could never be possible though proper capacity and advanced insight on the part of the abhyasi are also essential for the purpose. Now why I said that realization is not the Ultimate is based on this sentence. This is in fact a kind of layavasta. It is not the ultimate Brahma laya. The mistake is that of the typist to put the capital R instead of small r. We realize certain things at several levels. Each one is realization which takes us to the next step. Each layavasta is a preceding thing or disturbing condition for the higher state. This layavasta here is the base from which we have got to move on to the next. Nishkama karma-when we know atma jnana that we are dependent upon Divine, then only it is possible for us to do nishkama karma. To think that everything is being done by the Master is the first step. It is not directly nishkama. We perform a yajna, we perform a yaga or we wage a war or have a debate, one can always think that it is Master in us who is performing. For what? For achieving that goal. The war was not fought for nishkama. It was for kama. To destroy everything that is bad. The war was not for nishkama karma. The kama was there. Nishkama is something that comes next that is an awareness that we are entirely dependent on the Divine and the Divine himself is doing it. The first thing is we think that the divine is doing it. The next thing is the Divine himself is doing it. That is the firm conviction. That is a state of feeling that is the slight shade of difference between these two and once that is established and the dependency is established in our mind then the nishkama karma develops. Otherwise it is only kamitartha. That is the reason why majority of the receivers got stuck up here. They use those words. They don't have the feeling. They say so but they do not believe in its implementation, they don't want to yield further. The kamitartha is still there, kamitartha pradayani. We can't help it. They are the bonds of the religion.   On witnessing the scene of Virat, even Arjuna cried out that he could not bear to see that dreadful sight. The reason was that the Layavastha which had been transmitted into him related only to the conditions of the Virat desh, while the scene witnessed by him was the display of the full force of the Bramhanda Mandal, which is far beyond the region of Virat. Of course this refers to the Parabrahmanda condition but that the main point I would like to thrust here is the vision that he had was one of seeing the results of the war already and what is going to happen there. It is a purposeful thing. He was trying a message there. You are not the person to do anything. It has been done. I had a fortune of seeing a similar thing when a dharma sankata came and then my vision granted me a relief which I alone understood but for 10 months I could not come out of that feeling. It was a continuous flow of water from my eyes. Those of you who know me and at that time moved with me know, that the moment you uttered the word Babuji I used to get into tears. Heart is not capable of holding that vision. But it is not one that is described in the cinemas. I am again telling you, you don't see every thing relevant or irrelevant there. You see only that which is relevant to you. That itself is a ghastly picture. That itself is something which we cannot swallow. We don't see everything. What is relevant alone will be told and will be useful and the irrelevant things nobody will be interested. Neither is God interested in wasting our time. He would ask you rather to think about Him rather than know irrelevant details. Here these are some of the notions people have got namely Virat means you must know everything. It is true, that everything was there. But they are all at the backdrop. But the main thing message was there. The message is more important for us. Anyway I can only wish that you people develop that much of insight and that much of yielding to the Master and the vision should not be an impossibility. If there is necessity for it, it there is a dharmasankata. As you feel it, dharmasankata may not be felt by others. It is in the whole war Arjuna alone felt that dharmasankata. His brothers were there. They did not feel it. The other side also there were people, they did not feel it. It is not a universal problem. It is the problem of one person and to whom alone it will be given.   The plan of action is given at the Parabrahmanda. More concrete plans emerges at the Brahmanda. So when you are passing through your march to Ultimate you get to know your own fate. The ripples are of a different idea. Why exactly do we get this thought. If we apply our mind then, we get to know what is the base for it. That leads us to further details of it if necessary, otherwise it gets washed out. By the grace of the Master it gets washed out. Sometimes certain ideas keep on coming to us repeatedly, then we understand what is the base. Go deeper into the meditation not at the heart, because that is the place of confusion. Try to go up, try to yield to the Master. Try to think about Him. Then we definitely understand what is the base. What exactly is the crux. We are told the problem, we also get the wisdom to solve. But whether we follow the wisdom or not is a separate subject. Because majority of us know what to do but we will not do. There I think, will is required, that is what is the part of sadhana. Gird up your loins, as he puts it. The common complaint is that we are not able to do. That means we are lazy and don't want to better ourselves.   It was in fact this sphere where from everything comes to the material plane. The entire plan of battle of Mahabaratha was there in astral form. It comes out in details. It is not something that we have seen in some books. It is a plan of Mahabaratha itself as revealed to him. Then he knows what is going to happen. Nimittamatram then he could become.   It was the vision that Lord Krishna brought to Arjuna's view after pulling him up to that level. That is he had to be taken up to the level of the Brahmanda. Make him understand what it is, and this is not something that you read to him. We have this condition. Because we have learnt the habit of hearing, most of us are not responding to the request. That is again one of the blemishes. But people try to hear rather than participate. I don't know why because I think the prasangas have been there, and then made everybody an adhika-prasangi. Instead there can be a bodhayanthi parasparam all the time. Today's transmission, if you have noted, it is something coming from one of the highest regions, giving us a taste of the silence. Some of us might have felt it and some of us might not have felt it. Those who have not felt it would be for them to ponder over why it is so or is such a disturbance which they think is a disturbance was something really so or is their reaction to a situation. It is for each one to understand. I think that type of dialogue has to start, if you want to proceed further in the path. Even Gita is a dialogue. It is not one way. It is a dialogue. But why dialogue is lost? Why gurus are asked to go on talking all the time. Why is it we are prepared to be just mum like goats and sheep. I don't know. I have no answers for some of those questions.   Some people may not however be induced to believe it as it is and they might have their own reasons for it, surely to do business they will not accept this, which painter will be happy to say that I can't paint. Which singer would be happy to say that I can't sing this and it is those songs and those paintings that has brought us to this level.   But I may assure you that though normally wanting in practical proof it is quiet possible and practicable even today, provided there be a personality of such caliber, and provided the sadhaka too be capable of being lifted upto that level. If you take my word for it, I am a living proof here. I know what it is, and my aspiration is that every one of us here should be having that and it is not an impossibility provided you have a dharma sankata of that nature. Do you respond to your problem with such seriousness? I do not know. I was blessed. I was trained like that. I can't accept things unethical, that is why I am being accused of being very rough. Honesty is always wrong. Nijam nishturam. You won't accept it. But then when the system itself was getting into the difficulty and with the co-operation of all of you we are now trying to present the system in its purity. I had to face this question. I had to go and ask my Master, am I to continue or am I to leave. Are you a hoax? That is the question that was in hand on that day. That was the question. That was the question I had to ask Him first. Are you a hoax? If A & B are the points that need not be meditated upon, why did you write the Efficacy of Rajyoga? Why don't you withdraw, You know the agony of the soul. I am a very good disciple of my Master. I love Him. Who would like to go and ask an inconvenient question to a Master? Who would like to hurt Him? Determination had to be made. And you know what is the dharma sankata when you put a question to a Master. Most of us are not having that much of courage to tell this during our silent prayers. We dare not. Please come out of this. Have the courage to ask the Masters. They are too happy to answer. Master said immediately that he will meditate on his Master and tell the answer. It took about a minute or a fraction of a minute and then he said what INarayana say's is right, go and announce. I say this before you today, and you know what I got as a reward for the service to this, next day I was given the darshan.   Social relationships have got their own limitations. Please note and let this not interfere with sadhana, put down your feet firmly and then say my sadhana is more important. It is for you to come out of your own social obligations.   We now come to the next stage. The Gita also emphasizes the importance of duty which constitutes the very basis of the social order of the world. So duty we have to do. It falls within the scope of Rajayoga and it is immensely helpful in bringing out the cessation of samskaras. The state commences when all senses are silenced, the indriya nigraha is talked about. When does indriya nigraha become possible? Only when we do it as a matter of service to the Divine. If all the indriyas are dedicated only to the service of the Divine even while discharging our duty to our family members and to the society, then that person is considered an indriya nigraha. Not a person who sits on the top of a tree and then says all my indriyas are under control. Or a person who simply floats himself up in the sky and then says I have got indriya nigraha. All sorts of ideas are there. But that is not indriyanigraha, actually they are people enjoying the indriyas.   Mere saying or hearing is of no avail in this respect. It is only to be practiced and for it a broader heart is required. It is not so easily attainable in a brief span of time. Please note it here, majority of us have got the problem of controlling the indriyas and we say, please meditate on point A and B. Immediately next day the person says it is not controlled. Please note here, it is not easily assignable in a brief span of time. Persistent effort is required.   Persistent labour with a proper means is essential for it. The means are given by the Master and persistent effort is our job. It is likely that people may not like to pay heed to what I say herein but soon the reality which has due to the effect of time, got covered with complexities, shall be unmasked, made naked and the people shall begin to realize its true significance. So however much we try to misinterpret our Master, please note that he is definitely going to unmask it. So don't make any such effort. Best thing is to be in tune with Him. Don't say this is not important. People who think they have surrendered have surrendered to their wish and would like their Master also to surrender to their wishes, by saying please grant me this wish. Master is being asked saying in the name of surrender he should grant this wish. So not only you surrender to your wish but also ask Him to surrender to your wish. That is prayer.   May the time come soon and that he has got to save us. Amen! He is also not sure. He has to pray there. The great Master is in troubles here. That is the amount of grossness we have picked up, that he says Amen!. So see the sarcasm, see the plight, see the disgust, see everything behind that word.   Blind faith has both its advantages and disadvantages. It may be of immense value where the guide selected happens to be really one of the greatest calibre and one who has attained highest approach, like Lord Krishna. Surely Arjuna was saved. Blind faith surely, blind faith, there was nothing else. He had enormous faith in Lord Krishna and then he accepted it. If you pardon me, If you also share with me the same feeling you will agree that I have also the same faith and the same Master. I have blind faith in what ever he has written. Even when it is intellectually contradictory to me, I don't question Him. I question myself. Perhaps I am wrong. My input is wrong. Better rethink about the whole thing, have faith in what he said. As he Himself said that in the beginning of this article, He says, enough rubbish we have collected. We try to see with those colorings. We try to understand the Master from our angle. Not from the angle from which he is talking, but from our angle, without laya you don't understand from his angle.   But if unfortunately you get yourself attached with one who is not up to the mark but has caught you by his learned discourses or displays of miracles. Your blind faith in him will lead you quite the other way to mere delusions and deception. I don't have to comment on that. You understand there are enough number of gitacharyas going around. We can go to any one of them. All in the interest of trying to, let me hear what he has got to say. These are the most humblest ways of fooling ourselves. The oft repeated claim is that there is nothing wrong in reading other literature so that one may apply his wisdom. That means we don't have faith here. If we have faith we will not go and care to see other books.   The fomentation alone can make you yield to Master and then expect that the itch of the mind will go. Mental itch is a very bad problem with majority of intellectuals. I have gone through it myself. I have been warned by my Master, once he said you first give up your intellect and then talk to me. I said very good. That seems to be hard to obey and I have been deliberately avoiding reading other books. Not that I don't come across them, I avoid. But still the itch is there. I should accept that also. I do read now and then, only thing is awareness comes immediately that is all rubbish. So I don't continue with that book. In that case shortcomings too will remain out of your view. This is what is happening. People are becoming blind to the blemishes of their Master, since you have undertaken to follow him blindly. The result will be that you will not be able to attain the goal. The goal - you will not attain. You will attain something surely. It is therefore necessary for every one to think twice and over again before reposing his faith in anyone. In my opinion, when we come across one whom we think to be capable of guiding us on the path, we must have sufficient association with Him to judge how far the tendencies of our mind are being effected by it, i.e, whether they are gradually silenced or maintain their usual trend. I have got a clarification to you. People have accepted this, most of us have accepted that, we accept a person before whom when we sit supposing that there is a calmness of mind that is coming to us from a superior, but it is not a one time process. Maybe you don't feel it first time. This is the reason why Master says we must have sufficient association with Him. Arjuna had a long association. You should have association with a person whoever it may be and then come to a judgment. Don't say I have sat before him for a day, and then I did not get calmness of mind, therefore there is nothing in Him. It is a very bad remark. It is unjust and uncharitable because the amount of sensitiveness you had on that day is not known. The mistake may not be the other side, it may be yours. So give a fair trail. See what it is, then come to a conclusion. That is the clarification we get for one of the sentences of Reality at Dawn. There he says if you are going to sit by His side you should feel calmness. Lalaji says if you sit by the fire will you not feel the heat? If you sit by the ice don't you feel the cold? Similarly if you sit with a good man don't you feel and then immediately we think we have judged the fire and the ice. They are purely physical things. Comparisons they have nothing to do with spiritual things and spiritual things take their own time by the time they throw the effect on you. But one positive factor that we have got is the very first sitting in the introduction provided, if it has been properly done, one definitely will have the taste of silence, even if it is short. Even if you don't have it immediately as Revered Babuji puts it within a matter of six months you are going to feel it, if you practice it.   We must try to understand whether his association is causing the same effect upon our heart as it finally must. In the present age of degradation such guides or masters may be rare no doubt, and those having a command over it still rarer. Now majority of the people who are following the system who are the disciples of Ramchandraji, are spreading His message are surely Masters who have the condition but do not have the command. That is a relative possession of the command. Some people have it more. Some people have it less. My appeal to all abhyasis here because you are also following the same thing because you are Masters in your own way, you are definitely trying to be Masters of your own self and there is nothing wrong about it is "don't be slaves. Aspire to be Masters. Love as Masters". Pass on this message to others. Say that yes this is what I know, when somebody gives you a degree in a university, says that you are an M.A or M.Sc or a Ph.D, you think you are a master of the subject. Here you have been accepted by somebody as a fit person for spiritual progress and that is your Master's role. Already that much of wisdom has come to you. It is not without wisdom you have come. Why do you want to say that you don't have wisdom? Express it in your own way. Foment it to the capacity that you have got. Try to improve your capacity. Try to have your command over the subject more and more. The very presence of you should inspire others, as Babuji puts it in another occasion, namely be infectious. Your spirituality should be infectious. The other people should not be capable of saying no. We should be infectious.   Unrest and disturbance are the predominant features of time. The modern civilization is responsible to a great extent for this and we have had an occasion to talk about it and we know that it is so. It now requires a good deal of time and labor to over come this disorder. Good deal of time and labor. Please note. It is not a miracle that you are going to get. It can be removed only through sincere love and devotion to the Divine Master, This is in the last charma sloka of gita.   "SARVA DHARMAN PARITYAJYA MAMEKAM SHARANAM VRAJA AHAM TWAM SARVA PAPEBHYO MOKSHAYAMI MA SUCHAHA" Love and devotion to the Master and yielding to Him totally that is the state of surrender that we have got. He has been talking about surrender. To whom do we surrender. To a competent person we should surrender and we have a competent Master before us. With whom should we move. We should move with the people who share the same thought. "Bodhayanthi Parasparam ", you and I should move together, developing our confidence in the Master everyday. Aspiring all the time to become Masters. If Radha is a Master with Master, Krishna, Yes, her soul has become a Master and if somebody is worshipping her, I have no objection for it. I don't want that everyone of us should become aspirants for such worship, but we should be aspirants of company of that God. You should aspire for it. All the time be in His company which is there, and this in all respects is only unfailing instrument for us, and the surest path of success.

In this episode, we look into the life and teachings of Ramanujar. Ramanuja or Ramanujacharya is an Indian theologian, philosopher, social reformer, and one of the most important exponents of the Sri Vaishnavism tradition within Hinduism. Please listen to it fully and share it with all your friends.

In this episode, we look into the life and teachings of Ramanujar. Ramanuja or Ramanujacharya is an Indian theologian, philosopher, social reformer, and one of the most important exponents of the Sri Vaishnavism tradition within Hinduism. Please listen to it fully and share it with all your friends.

In this episode, we follow the tale of Vaduga Nambi - who is a very close disciple of Swami Ramanuja. Vaduga Nambi, likewise, was known for his Acharya Ramanuja bhakti,. He worshipped the Tiruvadi of Ramanuja daily. There are many instances where he was concerned about his Acharya more than the LORD himself. Listen and share it with all your friends.

Pujya Sir K.C.Narayana ( KCN ) Messages  (Meditation, Raja Yoga, Training, Spirituality, PAM - Pranahuti Aided Meditation, Divinity, Divine Service & Research, Babuji Disciple)   Pujya Sri Ramchandraji's Disciple & Founder of  “Institute of Sri RamChandra Consciousness”    Details:   Messages delivered by Pujya Sir K.C.Narayana ( KCN ), Hyderabad, India.  Dedicated his life for the Spiritual service of Pujya Sri Ramchandraji's Pranahuti Aided Meditation, Research, Meditation Trainings, Audio Messages, Books & SatSangh   Meditation Info Contact: www.sriramchandra.in  Biography: kcnarayana.org Episode Notes:   EFFICACY OF RAJAYOGA    Dear friends, Happy to meet you all. Happy also to note your concern for progress in the spiritual aspect of our life. There is the mundane aspect, which is overwhelmingly becoming important for us, so much so we tend to neglect the spiritual side. It is necessary that we should proceed on both the fronts equally well. Nobody flies with one wing, no bird can do that nor can we totally succeed with only materialistic approach. So, I should congratulate you for this much of viveka that you have got, namely that there is another side of our life, namely the spiritual aspect of our life. People tend to use yoga even today in many places for material benefit only. They will ask me whether it gives you breath control, blood pressure control, sugar control or many other diseases with which we suffer. These questions are better presented to doctors rather than to a spiritual person, though it has been a habit for some reason or the other, people tend to ask such questions. They belong to the physiological plane and better attended to by the doctors who know more about it. Incidentally many things can happen, when you control the mind, the body also gets some amount of control. Yoga also has been confused with lot of exercises, physical exercises. They do good, they are supposedly doing good to so many people about which I am personally not aware of, nor had I at any point of time any inclination to practice any one of them. So I will be the least competent person to talk about that, though at the schools, I was taught certain exercises and a good sports man myself and there the matter ends. I never took it to be a way of controlling diseases. This is enough as an introduction about other aspects of yoga. We are talking today about the efficacy of Rajayoga. By now you have been introduced to the subject of Rajayoga as a means of utilizing the thought force in us for union with the Ultimate. Ultimate here means the cosmos, the entire life force, the entire energy. Some people prefer to call it Divinity, some people prefer to call it God, I don't mind any definition you give for it but there is a force above, we are not independent, we are interdependent - this is one fundamental truth that we have to learn in life. No person, however big he may be and however small he may be, can claim to be independent. We are dependent upon others, we are dependent upon the environment, and we are dependent upon the society. There are various relationships and the matrix is really very very complicated so if any person says that he is independent, we don't agree to it. The life force is there in all and in each one of us whether it is a plant or an animal or a friend or a foe, it doesn't matter much, the same life force is there. There is a fundamental unity amongst all of us. Saints called it God; some other people may call it by some other name, it does not matter much. God has neither a form nor a name, so call Him by whatever way you like. It is what He is. He is just what He is. THAT. That is That. That's all. Om Tat Sat. That's all. There is nothing more. All other things are our relationships which we feel, as we feel to so many people so many relationships, again go on changing our relationships with them, again re-changing them. Attitudes do change towards every person. A person who was a friend yesterday becomes all of a sudden somebody neutral tomorrow and day after tomorrow perhaps enimical to your interests. These things do happen, relationships vary, but the essence is always there. The essence of communication that is there between you and me is irrevocable. We always move in the same wavelength of Divinity, there is one thing, superficially there are differences. Rajayoga aims at arriving at that thought, which is there at the base. This thought which is there which is not coloured with anything else. It is we who colour the thought, the thought by itself has no colour. Consciousness is always pure and simple, it is not tainted, it is not vitiated, it is in no way affected by anyone of our relations or emotions. So what happens during our meditations is, we try to meditate on the Divine light without luminosity, as the method is. Divine light without luminosity is an impossible idea. We can understand light with some luminosity. We can think about some intensity of the light, we can think of so many things, color of the light, we can see the smallness of it or the bigness of it but light by itself without luminosity if we can think of, you would have reached the highest stage of consciousness but it is an impossibility. Mind is not capable of comprehending that idea. The very purpose of this system of yoga is to make you understand that Ultimate is something that you will never know. It is beyond your mind, your mind cannot reach that. That is what the Vedas have said 'Na tatra vak gacchati na mano na vijno na vijanimo'- you cannot go there,you cannot reach that. It is far beyond. Whatever you think it is something other than that. NETI NETI. Whatever you say it is not that. Something beyond, something beyond. So this beyond-ness of the Divinity is what we are trying to have access to, because you have that in your heart. The mysterious thing is, that which is far far beyond our comprehension, is so near to us in our heart. It is beyond our comprehension but it is easily comprehendible by our feeling. You can feel it but you can never know it. If you try to know through logic, you will never know. Nahi nahi rakshati dukrun karane. No vyakarana can help you, no grammar can help you, no logic can help you, you have to understand only through your feeling. God's language is feeling, God's language is in silence, not in words. So long as it's a word it is already distorted. Whether it is our Vedas or whether it is our Bible, it does not matter much, they are distorted. The original thing is the feeling, the feeling you have. That is why the call of God is Nistraygunyo Bhavarjuna; Vedha trigunya vishayaaha nistraigunyo bhavarjuna. You have got to go beyond, the point is God is beyond the Vedas - the word. The essence is something that defies any structure. Any structure you try to give for God is something that is limiting God and chaining God in bondage. That which is free can never be bound, God by definition is free, energy by definition is free. We can bind it in the form of electricity, in the form of magnetism, in the form of light, in any form that we like, but energy as such is something far beyond this. So this is the feeling that we have got to have. So when you start meditation in this system, the first thing that happens to you is that you become aware of the vibrations of the Ultimate Consciousness. When you have your sitting, some of you will feel vibrations, some of you will feel calmness, some of you as usual feel enormous noise outside and inside. Noise outside you cannot help it because it is there in the road. Noise inside, it is your complication. You have got so many feelings, you have got so many attitudes, you have got so many thoughts, you have got so many responsibilities. All of them will come to you one after the other. You try to sit down in calmness you will find all these things coming together. You engage yourself in some task, all of them seem to disappear almost because you are task oriented. Since you are task oriented, your mind is only on that. When you try to empty yourself and then sit somewhere, all the thoughts will come to you, bombard you and that is the nature of vacuum, please note it. Vacuum is such when you try to have vacuum in some place, all the air around you tries to enter that. You must be knowing the famous experiment of trying to heat up a tin and then as it throws out the hot air goes out, put a cork and then the shape of the tin is lost for the only reason air wants to enter, it has no chance of entering into it and then the can becomes totally twisted and wrinkled totally out of shape. Similar is our mind when we try to keep your mind calm, what happens is all thoughts will come to you. It is not thoughts which come to you, they are thoughts which are there in you which are trying to go out, which want expression, which want attention. So many things which you forcibily put down and were attending to certain other things, they kept quiet. When you are calm, all of them will come to you and then they want precedence to be established 'Now I will try to come, no no I am more important'. So many thoughts, some exams may be there, some promotions may be there, some responsibilities of going to the shop may be there, may be you have got to get certain things for your children, may be you have to attend to your parents, may be you have got something connected with your house, so many things. Everything with which you are connected comes there at that time, you really get confused and then prefer it is much better to have one word by which I can go on reciting, that seems to be much more easier because then your mind is given an attention, an object - you have got some toy to play with. It can be Om Namahsivaya or Namo Narayanaya, it does not matter much. Or O' Ram or hey Ram, whatever you choose. Your mind is going to a word and then it is definitely absorbed in that because it is given a toy. In the other case of meditation where you are asked not to think of anything and think about a Divine light which you cannot think of and then you get confused, because the mind gets filled up with all thoughts, it just rushes in. Now we say to you at that time, try to be as indifferent to it as possible, don't give attention to it, treat them as uninvited guests. Easily spoken, easily said, it is very difficult when actually you practice. I won't say it is too easy, I won't say it is too complex but first you have to learn this, learn to ignore, learn to ignore many things because you know that is not what you are seeking for. For that you have to learn two attitudes -one is you have got to be attentive and secondly you have got to be alert. Alert to the moments of silence that comes to you, attentive to the moments of silence that comes to you. It is just like a person who waits in a bus stand for a particular friend. He is to pass by that place and so many people go in the road, so many cars go, so many buses go, so many taxis go, and you are not going to attend to any one of them. You are waiting only for your friend and your mind is only for him. It is attentive towards him and it is alert for his presence. You just don't bother about anybody else. Similarly here, when you are in meditation please develop this attitude. If you develop this attitude you will be in a better position to meditate for long. Now I am asked to talk about the efficacy of this system. The efficacy of this system is, first two things have to be taken into consideration. One is your own effort and other is the help of the Master in your meditation. I can say with enormous confidence and practical knowledge about it, that this is the only system where we give the assistance of the Master throughout your progress. This does not start with a course and end with giving a mantra after some time nor by prescribing a method at a particular time but it is a continuous life long association that we seek with you, because you are seeking life long association with the Divine and the Divine must help you throughout. We ensure that you feel the presence of the Divine till the end. This is felt by the Pranahuti, which is an experience that you will go through and you will know the nearness of God. Everybody has told that God is in the heart, everybody has told that there is no exception to this but to make you feel that calmness even momentarily was something that was not there in the earlier periods. Here, because of the influx of Pranahuti, you do feel that and it is for you to feel and practice. So that aspect of it is to be taken into consideration while we discuss the efficacy of Rajayoga in this system. If you take your heart into consideration, this is where most of our feelings are. Thoughts of course may be even at the buddhi level but at the manasic level all our feelings are there. Manas is at heart, buddhi is connected with the intellect. Actually we have got the intellect - the buddhi, manas - I think I will try and keep this feeling aspect, ahankar - ego feeling, ego I would replace it by 'I', I feeling, and chitta ­because there is no equivalent word in English for this so far as I know. These are all the four components of our mind. This buddhi is connected with our school subject such as (A+B)2- all such knowledge you can put it straight into that because there is no consequence, there is no feeling connected with it. It is something, some mathematics, 1234 - whatever it is you know that, you don't know that. People perhaps now a days recognize people only with this capacity ignoring other three. The self-respect aspect of it, this has come here actually self (ego). Then the manas is predominant feelings of yours that you have. This is what is guiding us. It is only for satisfying the parents' interest that we go for some course. My father wants me to become an engineer therefore I become an engineer. My father wants me to go to a doctor so I go to a doctor. Why do you do this? My wife wants me to do this. Why do you do this? My husband would like that. Most of our actions are governed by these. If you see these, our feelings are directed towards the lower portion. Lower portion means actually physiological drives of food, water, shelter. Our thoughts, our feelings are invariably connected with all these things, either one of these things. If you just can check up your present state of mind, your thoughts will be connected only with this. For getting food you do a job, you have to do. Everything is connected with these four. As on date majority of us are governed by these and perhaps will ever be governed by it. There is no way out of these things because so long as life is there, principle of life is that of urges, there is no chance of getting out of these things. Animals are condemned once and all for that position. There is no way by which they can change their cycles. When it becomes hungry, it just finds its prey. It has to go and finds its food there is no alternative for it. When it is thirsty, it will go to the nearest possible source of water. When it is on season, it is on heat, it will definitely find its mate. There is no way out of these things. There is no chance for an animal to come out of it. Human beings are the only persons, only animals where we are given an option to control them. We know how to control hunger. You feel hungry but then you wait for the dinner, you wait for the lunch. Your mother says it takes some more time for your food please wait. We wait, we don't grab it. If you then note whether that is so in your case and if you are very honest about it, I am sure there must have been occasions when you must have pinched at something out of the kitchen - may be a fruit, may be something else, something edible stuff, if nothing else the pulses going straight into your mouth - the animal has not left us, please note this. It is that state of mind which you are trying to control, it is that impulsive state, impulsive nature. Animals are propelled, impelled, compelled - there is no alternative they have to behave like that. We need not behave like that, God has given us that much of liberty, that much of freedom, but we do not exercise that. Culture, education, social development, all these things you can see are the parameters by which we judge whether a person is advanced or not advanced. We apply these meters, what is his behavior? A tribal fellow how he behaves? A cannibal, how he behaves? A socially developed person, how he behaves? i.e. man has been persistently making efforts to control these urges and then arrived at certain ways of living, which he calls cultured ways. Don't behave like that they say, you are animal don't try to be like that. While that is so, in majority of the cases people have followed, now present day civilization seems to be moving in another direction of trying to have as much as what we want to satisfy these urges. I don't want to go into value systems because that is not the topic. The topic is how are we going to control these things? However much we try, there are occasions when you fall for these and of course these you just can't help it. Water is something that you will be forced to take and perhaps there is no difficulty in taking it and this one also, kama and krodha, you know you become slaves to it. That is why extraordinary attention has been given to it in tradition and they say you must know how to control these. Consequential feeling that you get is, when you are asking for some drive satisfaction, you find others also are striving towards the same thing and there is a conflict and it leads to rage, anger, confrontation. When more than one person tries for the same object then naturally confrontation and that is what we generally express as krodh. One is the kam, another is krodh So these two things are the essential factors we have got to control and they seem to be inbuilt in our animal nature. All my previous discussion is only to point out that we seem to be conditioned by these two things almost. Animals are conditioned we know that, we also seem to be having no option over this. Other systems of yoga have tried to totally abolish these things by whatever means it is ­suppression, oppression, by way of privation or deprivation, you can use any method by which they try to see that you get away from the family, go away to forest, go and stay in some mountains, get far off from the man, don't get into the situations, try to be away as far away as possible but this system is meant for a grihastha, for a man living here, a family life and these two things are the most important drives that you have got to attend to and you will not be in a position to suppress it, you are not supposed to also. So we always ask here try to learn moderation. Let the impulsiveness go and let some sanity be there. The institutions of marriage were established only for this. Social solutions like the institutions of justice were maintained only for this, so that we won't come out. What are the individual solutions for this? To conform to the social institutions. You know better what our reaction to social institutions is today. We are trying to question every one of them. We don't want to stand by the judgment of some judge who says you are at fault, even when he says that it has been established this fellow has murdered Rajiv Gandhi, he would like still an appeal to the President. Nobody is prepared to accept it. Principles of justice is being questioned. I am not going to the minor details. I am talking about a major details of only one incident, you can add hundreds. Our individual positions are such that in our own house, for no reason we fight with our brother, for no reason we fight with our sisters, for the sake of some object, for the sake of something which you think you deserve more than he or she, all our fights are coming from this. Principles of education unfortunately are founded on this. We have got somebody who is first in the class and then somebody who is last in the class. Whoever has given us that right to distinguish them I do not know but that is what education is. Every one of us learn at our own pace. Incidentally that is the reason why we have got a school, which says that is the school for slow learners. We would like everybody to be treated on par. The grace of God is equal on all and there is no question of superiority or inferiority. The problem is connected with basic instincts. How best can I over take the other man in killing him is what we are trying to justify by saying 'yes he is the first man, he is the last man'. That is the reason why you have got the word in the marketing today 'he had a kill today'. What is that word? What disgraceful words we are using to say that we are cultured. So these two things are the fundamental points. On this there is no solution in the tradition as to how to do it. They told so many things. They said be in good company, be in good thoughts, trying to be with only good people, try to do only good things, try to learn some moral stories, try to live according to those expectations. All these things we have heard but then man has been more intelligent than those words which express some sanity. We have found every way by which we can deceive everyone one of the Panchatantras. All our Ithihasas have lost their value, all our Puranas have lost their value, nobody wants to follow anyone of them. We have become intelligent, our buddhi has gone far beyond. Agreed, there is no doubt about it but what is the solution, still the problem is there. The problem is sought to be solved by the principle of moderation and for that we have got to lift this mind which goes to the lower mind, the thought force which flows down generally goes steep, some effort has to be made to go up. Tradition has made so many efforts of education and other things. In this system through Pranahuti, the first effort that is made is the flow of consciousness to the lower mind is sought to be diverted to the upper portion. This is the work of the Master which he does, which he does, you can be rest assured but you are given two things to do. You are asked to meditate on points A and B about which more details will be given by our brothers. They are two points located in the chest. There are two points A and B on which you are asked to meditate and if you meditate on these things as prescribed, it is our experience that our impulsive tendencies come down. This is the positive assurance that we give in the system namely that if you meditate on these two as prescribed with the help of the Pranahuti that is already done, in this system you get the advantage of control over the impulsive tendencies of your basal stuff, the drives. Once you control the drives or once you can put it under some reasonable control and get rid of the impulsive tendencies, you know you have won three-fourths the war, the war of control over ourselves because that is what exactly is our problem. If you look to yourself and see what type of thoughts that come, to you they are invariably connected to those four as I have already said but it is also true that you have thoughts of aspiration. Fortunately God has given us a mind which aspires, aspiration is a word that is applicable only to the human level. No animal can aspire for anything, it has no capacity to think. Even in certain forms of thinking that is there in some animals like chimpanzee or a dog, they don't aspire for anything. We aspire, what is the first aspiration we have got? First aspiration we have got is sharing. This as an instinct is already available in the case of lions and similar prides. They don't eat the food alone, they share. There are animals which share food, there are animals which will not share food. Sharing is not a principle that we accepted as aspiration just like that, there are animals at the lower level but instinctively they will feel it. I am not talking about the mother's love which is common, mother's instinct is entirely different but this instinct of trying to share food with others is what we have learned from some animals. That is the reason lion is a king of animals, there are many more powerful animals than the lion which can kill the lion also but this is the reason. Here the first principle is sharing and this we have developed as an aspiration and what is it driving at? It drives at trying to view what you think you should have, the physiological drive of hunger is sought to be moderated. You first give your children then you take, then you give elders then you take. You don't take directly. A civilized society is one where the food is shared first with children then with elders then with oneself. So the principle of sharing which we have learned from animal instinctual level, we got it as an aspiration and we said in this land when somebody comes to you, you treat that person as an athithi and give him food first and then only you take later. A value which we seem to have almost forgotten today for whatever reason it may be, that is what it is. Even relatives are not welcomed and thanks to certain amount of westernization, do not go to a house without information and we say if anybody comes to you without information treat him as a God. You can see the difference in value points of the two societies. One society does not want a person to come without intimation. Another society says if anybody comes to you without intimation treat him as a God. This is another important thing that you should be very very careful in meditation. In meditation what happens is you get certain thoughts totally uninvited, you have got all sorts of thoughts coming to you and all of a sudden some thought comes to you. That thought is God and Godly but we are the first persons to miss it, we always miss the athithi, uninvited guest is God always. It is from the adhyathmika point of view, our people have brought in the tradition to the mundane level day to day life they brought in the concept of athithi because the athithi comes to you more in meditation than elsewhere. There are more sparks of the Divine during meditation than you can think of or you can dream of because God loves us so much that he is always yawning towards you. He would like to enter into you and the moment you create a vacuum He is prepared to fill it but then we are so attentive to the other things like our going to the market which takes precedence over our attentiveness to this. That is the reason why we say please be attentive and alert, athithi can be recognized only when you are attentive. There are umpteen number of stories of people when God has personally visited them and this man has said 'no no I have got something else to do' and he forgot, he never attended to them and it happened to be the wives of some saints. A lady received a guest, the God Himself who comes, she does not recognize Him as such because he came uninvited uninformed, he came and then it was left to the saint to recognize later and poor man he said 'you are more lucky than me you have seen the God and I have not'. The stories go, these are all common knowledge you should be knowing. My point is the sharing as a principle develops. Unless this sharing develops, you will not be in a position to develop tolerance. This is another great virtue of this country which we are maintaining and we shall forever maintain, because this is consequent to that and this comes to you only when you learn to share and not behave impulsively towards certain things. This becomes natural once impulsive nature is reduced. A brother of mine was asking, some of us are prepared to share, some of us are not sir why is it so. I said yes, control has not come. Impulsive nature makes you hold it, you don't want to share, and you would like to save it. Impulsive nature alone is the principle for saving, you would like to have it tomorrow. Saving is a very very obnoxious idea in spirituality that is why Prophet Mohammed said please do not bother about the next day, God is there, He will give. He was wise, and that's why I think he also said don't try to lend money, he said give it if you got money, give it, don't lend. Lending was not permitted by him because who are you to lend. Whose is it? It is His. It belongs to the cosmos, nothing belongs to you. Everything belongs to the universe, nobody has got a right to say this is mine, because your existence itself is transient. Now, that we will come to later and naturally along with it comes service. So these two principles of spirituality will develop the moment you try to be attentive to the upper portion of your self, the aspiration portion of your self. This is the first thing that comes to you in this system. Now when you sit in meditation thinking that there is Divine light in the heart, as I told you, you will get lot of thoughts, but then, when you learn to be attentive only to the Divine light and nothing else, everything else fades out into nothingness. They don't have any impelling nature to attract your attention. That leads us to understand what exactly I am, who am I. This who am I question is one of the toughest questions to answer. If any one of you can help me with the definition of what you are as you understand, I will be very happy. You can at best tell me your name, you can give your physical description, your status - financial, official, relationships as wife, husband, son, father, so on and so forth. Kindly exclude these adjectives for yourself and then tell me what you are. You are none of these things, right? I have at least three names, one name is Narayana, but the other two names are also given to me. Most of us among Hindus we get more than one name. Physical descriptions - I am not the same physical body from childhood. You can't give that, your weights vary, complexion varies. If you see all these things, can you think of yourself other than these? And all these things are transient, all these things are temporary. You are a son one day you are a father today, grandfather day after. What are you? What are you? In relation to somebody you are somebody. What are you? This is the first and the foremost question that a man faces in spiritual life. Who am I? And if by God's Grace you have already got into the principle of sharing and service then you will know that I am a person to share, that I am a person to serve. Other than these two things there is nothing else that is permanent with you. These two things are permanent with you from your childhood. You are somebody to share and you are somebody to serve. Who that somebody is, you can call yourself by Narayan or Adinarayan, or you can call purushotham, you can call Govinda, it does not matter much by what name you call yourself but your essential nature is one of sharing and serving and that leads us to a metaphysical concept about which I will not be in a position to talk much. God in essence and God in manifestation. God in essence talked briefly earlier saying that there is no way of knowing Him, He is beyond all understanding. What is God in essence? We said we don't know, Divine light without luminosity we said we just don't know. Na Tatra Vak Gacchati Na Mano Na Vijno Na Vijanimo. This is what He is. God in manifestation it is you and me, it is this stream, it is this mountain, it is this river - we are the manifestation and we are Gods in expression. And what did God do first? He did first Purushamedha as we call it. The Purushasuktha of the Vedas is the most important one, the first one that is stated namely, God has sacrificed Himself to come into manifestation. It is God who sacrificed Himself to come into manifestation. He ceases to be His essence and He wanted to be His manifestation and we are all He and the principle here is He wanted to share, He wanted to serve. Sacrifice is another aspiration we have got. We have got to sacrifice. Mother sacrifices, instinctively you know that mother sacrifices lot of her interests for the sake of the children. Imitating the mother the father also sacrifices, he learns the value from her. It is the mother who tells, you have got to attend to the child more, it is time to educate, it is time to give him food, it is time that you should go and do something for him. It is the mother who teaches the principles of sacrifice, which is reason why the Vedas always used the word Mathrudevo Bhava, please note it. For no other reason we use that word. This is the reason why she gets a precedence over the father. She participates in the Divine function of sacrifice first, and then she teaches that lesson to the husband. Now, here God in essence, God in manifestation having the principles of sharing, serving and the third principle we have got, sacrifice. If we learn these three things in life we have learnt almost everything of spirituality. If we can behave like this it's enough but then what stands in the way? What stands in the way of our doing it? Why is it we are not prepared to part with money, a few rupees that we have earned today with others? It is because we have not learned to serve, we have not learned to sacrifice, we have not learned to share. We think it is ours. The possessiveness is one of the things that we have learned unnecessarily and that is the nature of a tiger and not a lion. Lion kills its prey and then throws it off and then goes after eating it while the tigers save it for the next day. Please note this fear of not getting food tomorrow is there more with the tigers than with the lions. I am comparing both the wild animals, there are few more satvic animals which I can bring into the picture but then I want you to understand even the noble animals are those which share, the ignoble animals are those which try to save it and then after all it may die then it goes waste. These values we have forgotten but they are spiritual values, they are not social values, they are entirely different. Social values, I have told you already marriage institutions, they are different, spiritual values are different. So now what stands in your way is your self and once you know there is no such thing like self and you are only a relationship, a bundle of relationships, you will not try to own anything. The sat-asat viveka automatically dawns on you. This is the nature of the first knot. There are 13 knots in our system as depicted by SriRamchandraji Maharaj. The nature of the First knot is trying to distinguish between what is sat and what is asat, what is permanent what is not permanent. I try to come to this point through a non vedantic method, because vedantic methods are there to teach this but I don't believe in that because for practical people we want to know what exactly the problem is. Everybody knows we are not going to live tomorrow, thereby we don't grant ourselves non-existence, we don't. Once you know your relationship, sit in meditation and then see what you are then you know there is only one friend for you and that is God. He is with you, the only friend. All other friendships, all other relationships are transient. He is the one with whom we are born, He is the one who will continue to be there even after our death, because energy doesn't go anywhere. There is only change in the form of energy but then nothing happens, the energy itself is there, you are going to continue. In what levels you will continue is a separate issue, but then we continue, because matter can never be destroyed, energy cannot be got rid off. You are energy, so you will continue to be there. So those people, present day, present morality which is governed by the thought that after our death nothing is going to be there and doesn't matter much whether I exploit the other person or kill him or do whatever I want with him; is wrong, because he is going to continue. You cannot help it; it is in the nature of energy to continue. Matter can never be destroyed, energy can never be destroyed, it is there, it is bound to be there, it will have its own effects. What it will be? On that there can be various ways of looking at things but it will be there is a fact; to this extent you cannot deny scientific approach. So what I am trying to say is, this person, this energy which has been there with me will continue to be there with me forever and this is the governing principle of sharing. If I don't develop the sharing principle I am not going to be in tune with it and why I am not able to share is because of my selfishness, self-centeredness, thinking that I am more real than the essence, the essence is more real than me. Once this satasat viveka comes, the first knot dawns and then your yatra starts. You start moving further; you start moving further as to what exactly it is. All right I am not permanent, there is something that is going to be permanent, what exactly it is. Then you start tending to develop, once this sat-asat viveka comes then certain amount of detachment starts, till the time no detachment is possible. Detachment for us really means attachment to the Divine, you tend to know more and more the sat and you tend to know less and less this asat i.e. detachment. Detachment with the asat and attachment to the sat is the basic way of movement in spiritual life. We move towards what is true, what is permanent, what is impermanent we try to give as little importance as possible. In the language of SriRamchandraji Maharaj we do not develop undue attachment, due attachment is what we develop. Treat everything on its merits, not with any extra relationships. Relationships are what make your self as I told you. Because of those relationships, you have got this undue attachment. You forget your relationships and treat yourself as the one who is connected only with God and nobody else, the truth alone will stay and then you have due attachment. Many abhyasis have been asking me, Sir, please tell us what is due attachment and what is undue attachment. Any attachment that you have got with reference to any relationship that you have got is only undue attachment. The only due attachment that we have can have is with reference to sat, the truth, the principle of Divinity in us. This is a condition and no amount of my explaining this system will make you understand what it is. So this leads us to the first knot, first is sat-asat viveka and then you also understand that you have got to have only due attachment. You know the transience of your self and various colors, various expansions are felt, in all these things you will find again certain things, you feel that you seem to be nearing it with that condition of sat-asat viveka, nearing it, you seem to know that there is something like sat and asat, nearness. This is the word in sanskrit we generally use the word samipyatha. We seem to be moving towards that feeling, it is not as though we have established there. We seem to know yes there seems to be something like this. Then we enter into that, we enter into that state, you are more established here. You definitely know that this is permanent, that is not permanent. Then that comes under salokyatha, then we live in that world, start moving. We become similar to that, that condition itself is yourself, you feel that you are that, nobody is attached to you, you are attached only to the Divine, you are entirely one. Then you have got the laya, mergence. In every feeling you have got these four states; If you are attentive to your sadhana, you will find in every state that is going to be this and later. You will be feeling nearness to it, you will be feeling and then you will be feeling you are entering into that; you start feeling the breeze of that, you start experiencing that, that is perhaps while you are that's the world. If you want to put the grossest of analogy; if you are getting into an A/C room, as you enter it, you know you are getting into a cool place, when you settle there, you really become cool, as you enter it you feel it the nearness to it - this is salokyatha and then you have got the sarupyatha where you become similar to that, your nature itself becomes that and then the mergence. This mergence is a mergence not to be lost here forever, but to move on, we should move on to the next condition. Each laya takes us to the next stage and that is the one of the toughest problems we have got here and that is why so many people who are viraktas, who have become sanyasis, who have gone to forests, who have taken to so many avadoot conditions are stuck up in laya. Laya is really interesting, you feel one with it, you don't like to leave it. Laya is the condition that we would like to hold but layas are at different levels. Different levels of laya and each one would like to hold on forever there. You are comfortable there but then here in this system through Pranahuti you are pushed out. This is one of the experience of majority of abhyasis who will say, Sir, yesterday I had a most absorbing condition, today I am again disturbed. Yes, you are bound to be disturbed, you are not allowed to have laya there. If you have got laya that means you got stuck up. If you get feeling of mergence and stay permanently in that state that means you got stuck up. Journey is infinite, the yatra shall go on, it is ananth, therefore Master pushes you out of that state. So after the first two states of viveka and vairagya, the next thing is as I have told you, the problem of self gets solved. You now know it doesn't exist, you also know that none of it is yours then what happens next is you start knowing your interdependency, with which I started the talk. Interdependence with Divine, the essence cannot exist without the manifestation and manifestation cannot exist without the essence, is the knowledge that you get. You are Divine, because you are a part of manifestation and once this awareness develops inside, that is, swa­swaroopa gnana develops, the amount of purity that you would like to have will get established more and more, not that you did not earlier. You should have purity earlier, but then here you will not allow yourself to become impure under any circumstances, because you are afraid that you are making God impure. Your impurity is His impurity, your defect is His defect, your lapse is His lapse. Therefore there cannot be any such things with us. Perfection becomes our way, whether it is in office or in house whether it is in the street or in your prayer, perfection is yours. You feel the interdependency with the Divine. That is the reason why many people got stuck up when they went to the second knot because it is purity, simple purity and when you maintain it according to the tradition, this gives a reflection of the 5th knot. 5th knot itself is the reflection of something else above, so what happens is Aham Brahmasmi feeling becomes more and more predominant. This thought becomes very very predominant here. You feel that you are the Brahman, you are, but then you are not because that stage is far off. Because of the reflected thing, the purity here is such, the reflection also is such, the absolute reflection if you can maintain that. The swa-swaroopa gnana which means the interdependence with the Divine becomes established in your heart and you become more and more responsible to the manifestation than what you were earlier, because of detachment, because of the principle of knowing what is self and what is not self was there involved in the first knot, you were not all that careful about many minor details. You used to neglect certain things. You used to say that these things are bound to happen like this, now you will not allow such things, purity will not allow such things, it will tell you everything is to be perfect. That is why people who are established, even like Ramana Maharshi and others were able to say that everything is good. First he left the house, took the renunciation very early in life and then finally said when somebody asked is it necessary to renounce he said not necessary. He had to come to this conclusion because he knows that his condition compelled him to say something against what he himself practiced. What I am trying to tell you is the nature is such, the nature of the knot is such. Secondly the self comes to know that though the eternal or the energy in itself is dependent upon it for expression, still it is secondary in nature and that is primary in nature. Energy is primary in nature than the places where it is expressed. The fan where the electricity is getting expressed is inferior in status to the very nature of electricity itself, it is very obvious. Similarly, we as individuals are fans, we are giving the breeze to others, we are capable of giving this because of that electricity. Electricity by itself cannot give breeze to anybody in this world, it cannot. Energy by itself cannot give anything, only when it is expressed it can give and it is expressed like this and this has no business to say that I will give breeze only selectively and that is what we do when we say when we are expressing the Divine and when we say 'we, our people and other things' we want to give breeze only to those people and nobody else and that is the extraordinary selfishness of this fan. It somehow develops an identity, somehow, maya, it is ignorance. Once you know that you are dependent upon That, interdependency develops into a feeling of dependency, from our point of view. God naturally feels dependent about us, otherwise He will not ask us to assemble here and talk. It is He who is talking amongst ourselves, He is asking us to know what he is trying to do because He cannot do anything, but dependency from our part is learnt only when we come to the second knot and this leads us to the straight path or rather a steep path towards devotion. Without knowing your dependency there can be no devotion. Your lowliness must be understood before you can think of getting devoted to somebody. I am devoted to my father, I am devoted to my wife, there is enormous difference between these two words. One is definitely far superior, another is only an equal, equal coparcener actually. I don't know why English got into that dirty position of saying that I am devoted to wife. You are devoted to parents, you are dependent upon the wife. So the dependency can give you two concepts whether devotion or coparcenership. can be equal to God or I am dependent upon God, these are the two feelings that you get. When you use the word Aham Brahmasmi, it is the coparcenership that we are talking about, I am equal to Him. My wife, dependent upon me. I am dependent upon him, he is dependent upon me. She is dependent upon me, I am dependent upon her. In devotion I am dependent only on Him, He is not dependent upon me, I am not even aware of that. To move into the realm of bhakthi, you must understand that you are low, lowliness of your being must be understood. Without knowing your lowliness, you will never be devoted. We would like to have barter with Him, equal. I pay this, you pay me, I will do this, you do that. Whole of Mimamsa suffers from this. Mimamsa, which is nothing but Vedas, yagnas, yagas, suffer from this. I do this, I offer this you better give me this. I do this aswamedha, you better give this, I will give this purushamedha, you give this, barter, business, that is the level at which Vedas ended. That is the reason why Krishna said Nistraigunyo Bhavaarjuna because these things are connected with a barter level, God is compelled to obey what you pray for, He has to grant. That's what the tradition says, I am not here to question it, I am only questioning the attitude towards God. So long as you have got that attitude, it is only an equal position. In equal positions, you will end up only with Aham Brahmasmi. Aham Brahmasmi is a state of mind where you would like to say I am equal to God. You are, none of us is less than that. It is God in expression alone who is here. There is nothing here which is not Divine, there is nothing here which is less than Divine. Yet, this divinity that is in expression that is in manifestation is dependent upon that divinity which is there above, far above, which is the essence. When I say above, I do not mean that you have to go to spatial level, above means something far beyond, far beyond. I am not looking at the sky, far beyond us. So once this dependency is understood then only your devotion starts. This devotion starts here first, first is I would like to have some wishes granted. You feel the dependency for granting of certain wishes. I would like somebody to get promoted therefore I pray for that, he is my son or he is my grandson doesn't matter much who he is or even for ourselves. I have undertaken this business, I would like to have profit of this, so I pray, pray to God. So dependency can be confused with a barter. Majority of our stotras, what our religion has given us are only prayers seeking some relief or the other from the Divine saying that we are dependent upon you. "O God you have got to grant me". As against it, you would have noted already, our prayer says, "we are yet but slaves of wishes putting bar to our advancement; thou art the only God and power to bring us up to that stage". We would like to go beyond the stage of wishes, we would not like to be confined to wishes. We know that our wishes are due to our relationships, we know that our wishes are due to our own actions, we know that, we come to know that and that is the reason why from knot 2 to knot 3 it is a steep position. Second knot to third knot you have to understand these things. You will understand that whatever you are going through, you are going through because of your own action because whatever you deserve that alone you get. You will not get more than what you deserve, you will not get less than what you deserve. God as a samavarthi comes to be understood. God as an omniscient, omnipresent, omnipotent being, everybody knows, there have been talks about it. God as justice, samavarthi, the person who gives balance, maintains the balance of this existence has to be understood to understand devotion. Till that time our prayers are only petitions asking for petty things. Real prayer is one which is like the one we have given namely Master has given that - we are yet but slaves of wishes putting bar to our advancement. We are not asking God here to satisfy those wishes. We are only saying that you are the goal of human life, we would like to come to that stage. We want oneness with God, laya, to be in tune with the energy, to be in tune with nature, that's what we are asking for. We are not asking for anything less than that. We are not asking for some petty things because those things are due to our own. The fifth commandment 'Be Truthful. Take miseries as Divine blessings for your own good and be thankful to God'. You read this commandment, the interpretation given by SriRamchandraji Maharaj, you will then understand your true nature is to be dependent upon the Divine and then whatever He gives you, you accept it and whatever He gives is according to our own actions. It is not an arbitrary God who gives us 'you take this, you are my man I give you more, he is not my man therefore I am going to deprive him'. God is not like that, God is justice; there is no partiality in the kingdom of God. No person is going to be treated with lenience simply because he says SriRamchandraji Maharaj is his Master. It will not happen, it shall not happen, if it happens that is not the truth. It is our sentiment, which makes us feel now and then because we are dependent upon him, several things that happen to us are good. It is our sentiment, it is not reality, it's not the truth. We will get what we should get, we will not get what we are not supposed to get. Karmaphala is total and this system totally believes in the unquestionable principle of karma, theory of karma as properly understood. It is not the karma, that it is God has given me this punishment. That karma is not what we are talking about, that karma is prerogative of other religions. In this land we believe that God will give what is just. If you have done something you will get accordingly, praptham, whatever we have done, equally we get. So this principle has to be understood, that will be understood only when you know that God is a samavarthi. So our petition-mongering mind is accustomed to asking all sorts of things from our bosses for nothing, the same thing will not apply here though we will try to apply it here. That we try to apply is a fact, every one of us tries to apply this. It's a pit fall in sadhana, we will ask for some relief. We will have some problem, some physical problem, you would like to go and then say 'Narayana you say that you are a person who have been practicing this, why is it you have got so many ailments?', because I must have deserved. When this question was put to Lalaji Maharaj, founder of our system, when he was suffering from enormous pain in stomach and his own disciple was working on him massaging him and he shed tears seeing the suffering of the Master and Lalaji Maharaj said 'if I want to I can get rid of it now but I will not because God knows what is best'. That is the state of dependency, that is the state of devotion, that we are supposed to maintain always. This is the one of the highest states that we will be moving towards. So bhakthi is not to be understood with praises and flattery. Flattery neither does good for the flatterer nor the flattered, it doesn't help anybody but we think so and we are happy with flattery because it is so musical to sing those lines. Several saints have sung, I have nothing against anyone of them, I like them also. Their songs are very popular today and it is the song that is popular and not the devotion, please note it. What is more popular is what is appealing to your ears, the music is more important to us, the raga, the tala, those are much more important than the content, leave alone the God. Thought content which refers to God is the third factor. What is engrossing us is this. 'He sang very well sir, a beautiful bhakthi song', but it is not bhakthi song, it's a song, it is a good song, put it that way it is fine. So this devotion comes very very difficult unless you know this principle you will never be devoted. Next state to which we move on in our state of mind is total dependency on Divine. Somebody accuses you in the street for nothing, you do not know how to react to it; he accuses you for no fault of yours. What will you do? We will say something in return or you will say this is will of God. Would you say that it is what you deserve therefore you got it? See the difference in what I am asking. I may just ignore this. Put it the other way, you are going in the street somebody in the bus spits on you; as usual in Hyderabad now a days still old city that problem is there, you got to be more attentive to the fellow in the bus than yourself. What is your reaction? Would you take it to be something that God has given you? I will give a small story of a person who has lived up to that expectation. A great saint Ramanuja was there, he had a disciple who is far more intelligent than Ramanuja, who is much more well versed in scriptures than Ramanuja. Fact, agreed facts, there are no differences, both of them went to present saraswathi peetam which is there in Pakistan and then they permitted him to see one of the commentaries on Veda Vyasa's SriBhashyam. They gave and allowed him to see Vedanta sutras and then the commentary given by dravidas there and the king said 'I will not give a copy of this to you, you cannot obtain a copy, you have to go, you can read once no second time', that is the condition and Ramanuja was not ekasanthagrahi, his disciple was. So he said 'I will make good your defect so I will read this let us go'. So he was dependent upon his disciple to tell what is there in that commentary so that he can write his commentary. The concept of interdependency that we are taking about just now was the matter of issue. Is the self, dependent or independent, the issue is whether the self is dependent or independent. If you say it is independent it borders on Advaitha. If you say it is dependent it borders on Dvaitha. It is mutually interdependent is the philosophy of Ramanuja. The interpretation had to be given. He made it appear, Ramanuja interpreted, according to the anecdote, made it appear as if the self is independent and his disciple refused to write because he was under instructions earlier saying that if what I say is not in tune with my philosophy, you need not write. So he simply obeyed his Master, he said I will not write, and Ramanuja got wild and then kicked him, literally kicked him with the foot and this fellow fell and Ramanuja walked away and after about some time he comes back to find this gentleman still lying down and his disciples come and other disciples come and tell 'we told this fellow to get up saying that you are dependent upon him for the entire information, about the subject and you are more dependent upon him than anybody else and you kicked him out and we told him we will follow him rather than you' and he said 'who am I to say anything about it, my master knows what is best for me' and when Ramanuja says 'why you did not get up' he said 'you have thrown me down and it is for you to lift me up who am I to get up where is my existence'. This is the narration given in tradition you may accept it or you may disown it, but what I am trying to tell is the psychological aspect of it. What is the state of mind? come what may, the decision of the Divine is final, I will not make any effort absolutely saying that I have nothing to do with anything else, it is He who does everything. This is the state of surrender about which every alternative person talks now a days. State of surrender is one of the toughest we can ever think of, because that is the state of total negation of yourself. Now coming back to our subject of meditation what is the state of mind there. This is philosophy, fine, I have explained the philosophical aspect of it. What is the state of mind? thoughts are bound to be there, thoughts of sat-asat viveka were there; thoughts of vairagya were there, thoughts of interdependency were there, thoughts of devotion were there. Now what is the type of thought here? What is the type of thought you are going to have? A state of mind when there will be no thoughts. A surrendered person has no thoughts. How is it possible? Is it not contradictory to my system of Sri Ramchandraji, who says that thoughts are bound to be there till the end? He says that thoughts are bound to be there till the end and I say that this is no thought condition, the reason for that is you must understand what is the nature of thought. When any idea, any concept, is not in tune with the Divine, it gets thrown out, that is the origin of thoughts, origin is when it is not in tune with Divine. When a thought is not in tune with Divine, you become aware of that. It can be disturbing, it can be enjoying but then you become aware of that. When the thought is something that is totally in tune with the Divine then you become totally unaware of the existence of the thought, not that the thought is not there, thought is there but you are not aware of its existence. The existence is the essence itself and when it is in tune with the essence then it merges into it and this is an experience that you will be having on first day onwards. You will be writing as no thought, it is not no thought that you have got, the thought that is there with you becomes in tune with the Divinity and therefore you are not aware of its existence. Non-awareness of the thought is entirely different from non-existence of thoughts; please appreciate the difference between non-awareness and non-existence. Thoughts do exist but then it becomes in tune with the Divine and therefore you are not aware of it and such moments are moments of silence. When you are meditating you will find that there are moments, some seconds, fractions of seconds or minutes while your mind goes almost blank which we generally tend to call absorbency. Absorbed, the thought got absorbed into the essence. The thought is there but it got absorbed that is why we use the word absorbency, we don't use the word concentration. So this thought, our thought which was devotion, when it matures, what happens is that God alone or the essence alone becomes most predominant and then you become one with it and when you become one with it that is the state of saranagati or state of surrender. That is how it is experienced in meditation, in action it has to be shown and that is possible only through manana. All these conditions, you must note you will not have it permanently and you will have it only during meditation unless you remember the nature of those thoughts during the other times during the day. That is the reason why people who have got high states of consciousness during meditation tend to lapse to the lowest levels perceivable and this lapse is unpardonable. What is granted you should own, you cannot squander. What is given to you during mediation is what is granted to you and we squander it and without any compunction and that is the worst part of it. As I told you, if you are established in second knot in purity, and through devotion you move on to the higher plane and always be dependent upon Him, you cannot help remembering constantly the Divine and when you remember the Divine constantly, purity you cannot avoid. Purity in body and mind and in every action of course. Purity and Divinity go together, they are alternative words. The questions of people who say that 'I sit and do prayer without taking a bath' or when 'I come without cleaning my feet I would like to sit', all these ideas will not work because they are all sloth, they all are matter, they are laziness, which will not be permitted, which is not permissible. If you remember the Divine constantly, you cannot have sleep, people who complain to me of sleep are people who are not aware of Divinity I would say, because how can you sleep before God, you cannot but then this great country has given us the notion that in sleep God is going to be with you because He is the essence. It is He, You are He; therefore He is there in your place. In one of the Upanishads they say what happens to you during sleep and then God as a watchman guards us. Who keeps you going?, who keeps you going during night when you are asleep? not you, not your wife, not your children, not your parents, who is keeping you? He is the one watchman who is there. If you note that, would you come to the level of a Banasura try to have a watchman of a Siva? You will not, you will not sleep. These are the conditions that you develop as you move on to the stages of surrender. So from surrender you move on to the plane of ether where balance is there. Equality is maintained, you are balanced. The whole approach of Rajayoga sadhana is towards this balance. A balanced approach we can come only when we know that everything that happens to us happens because of our actions, we are protected by the Divine day in and day out, we are aware of it and we live according to that and these are all made possible by the constant pushes. Instead of getting lost, you require a push and then that push is given through Pranahuti by the Master, because surrender is another place where laya is capable of keeping you in state of surrender always, you will not go towards equality. Surrender by itself cannot be considered as the final state because we have to move towards equality, balance, samatva, then only you can say that you are representing the Divine, you are a manifestation of the Divine, the samavarthi. You have to become a samavarthi, balance in our approach, these are the two wings with which you are going to fly. These are two wings you have got, one is materialism, one is spirituality, both the wings you are going to go together, each according to our capacity, each according to our karma but according to our destiny, namely to satisfy the Divine crying for human transformation. Such is the human transformation that is possible in this system. These are all the positions of the Pind desh here (ref. Path of Grace). This system talks about points which are above. Upto this even in tradition we have got. This is Atma sarira, then this is brahma sarira and beyond that nobody talks. In this system we talk about the conditions of sahasrar and beyond also. The sahasrar is reflected here ( top of the head). There are 5 points in between; there are 3 more behind which takes us to central region. Regions which are behind the sahasrara were not mentioned in tradition earlier. Nobody has mentioned it. The details with which the transition happens during this Pind desh was mentioned by Jnanadev in his own way in his commentary on the Gita. Jnanadev has written Jnaneswari, a very very popular book in the Maharastrian life. Jnaneswari mentions that. One or two saints of south have mentioned certain points up to sahasrara, the paths are a bit different but the conditions are same. Why they have chosen that I have no idea because I learn them only through literature, I have not practiced any one of them. This one I hav

Pujya Sir K.C.Narayana ( KCN ) Messages  (Meditation, Raja Yoga, Training, Spirituality, PAM - Pranahuti Aided Meditation, Divinity, Divine Service & Research, Babuji Disciple)   Pujya Sri Ramchandraji's Disciple & Founder of  “Institute of Sri RamChandra Consciousness”    Details:   Messages delivered by Pujya Sir K.C.Narayana ( KCN ), Hyderabad, India.  Dedicated his life for the Spiritual service of Pujya Sri Ramchandraji's Pranahuti Aided Meditation, Research, Meditation Trainings, Audio Messages, Books & SatSangh   Meditation Info Contact: www.sriramchandra.in  Biography: kcnarayana.org Episode Notes:   EFFICACY OF RAJAYOGA    Dear friends, Happy to meet you all. Happy also to note your concern for progress in the spiritual aspect of our life. There is the mundane aspect, which is overwhelmingly becoming important for us, so much so we tend to neglect the spiritual side. It is necessary that we should proceed on both the fronts equally well. Nobody flies with one wing, no bird can do that nor can we totally succeed with only materialistic approach. So, I should congratulate you for this much of viveka that you have got, namely that there is another side of our life, namely the spiritual aspect of our life. People tend to use yoga even today in many places for material benefit only. They will ask me whether it gives you breath control, blood pressure control, sugar control or many other diseases with which we suffer. These questions are better presented to doctors rather than to a spiritual person, though it has been a habit for some reason or the other, people tend to ask such questions. They belong to the physiological plane and better attended to by the doctors who know more about it. Incidentally many things can happen, when you control the mind, the body also gets some amount of control. Yoga also has been confused with lot of exercises, physical exercises. They do good, they are supposedly doing good to so many people about which I am personally not aware of, nor had I at any point of time any inclination to practice any one of them. So I will be the least competent person to talk about that, though at the schools, I was taught certain exercises and a good sports man myself and there the matter ends. I never took it to be a way of controlling diseases. This is enough as an introduction about other aspects of yoga. We are talking today about the efficacy of Rajayoga. By now you have been introduced to the subject of Rajayoga as a means of utilizing the thought force in us for union with the Ultimate. Ultimate here means the cosmos, the entire life force, the entire energy. Some people prefer to call it Divinity, some people prefer to call it God, I don't mind any definition you give for it but there is a force above, we are not independent, we are interdependent - this is one fundamental truth that we have to learn in life. No person, however big he may be and however small he may be, can claim to be independent. We are dependent upon others, we are dependent upon the environment, and we are dependent upon the society. There are various relationships and the matrix is really very very complicated so if any person says that he is independent, we don't agree to it. The life force is there in all and in each one of us whether it is a plant or an animal or a friend or a foe, it doesn't matter much, the same life force is there. There is a fundamental unity amongst all of us. Saints called it God; some other people may call it by some other name, it does not matter much. God has neither a form nor a name, so call Him by whatever way you like. It is what He is. He is just what He is. THAT. That is That. That's all. Om Tat Sat. That's all. There is nothing more. All other things are our relationships which we feel, as we feel to so many people so many relationships, again go on changing our relationships with them, again re-changing them. Attitudes do change towards every person. A person who was a friend yesterday becomes all of a sudden somebody neutral tomorrow and day after tomorrow perhaps enimical to your interests. These things do happen, relationships vary, but the essence is always there. The essence of communication that is there between you and me is irrevocable. We always move in the same wavelength of Divinity, there is one thing, superficially there are differences. Rajayoga aims at arriving at that thought, which is there at the base. This thought which is there which is not coloured with anything else. It is we who colour the thought, the thought by itself has no colour. Consciousness is always pure and simple, it is not tainted, it is not vitiated, it is in no way affected by anyone of our relations or emotions. So what happens during our meditations is, we try to meditate on the Divine light without luminosity, as the method is. Divine light without luminosity is an impossible idea. We can understand light with some luminosity. We can think about some intensity of the light, we can think of so many things, color of the light, we can see the smallness of it or the bigness of it but light by itself without luminosity if we can think of, you would have reached the highest stage of consciousness but it is an impossibility. Mind is not capable of comprehending that idea. The very purpose of this system of yoga is to make you understand that Ultimate is something that you will never know. It is beyond your mind, your mind cannot reach that. That is what the Vedas have said 'Na tatra vak gacchati na mano na vijno na vijanimo'- you cannot go there,you cannot reach that. It is far beyond. Whatever you think it is something other than that. NETI NETI. Whatever you say it is not that. Something beyond, something beyond. So this beyond-ness of the Divinity is what we are trying to have access to, because you have that in your heart. The mysterious thing is, that which is far far beyond our comprehension, is so near to us in our heart. It is beyond our comprehension but it is easily comprehendible by our feeling. You can feel it but you can never know it. If you try to know through logic, you will never know. Nahi nahi rakshati dukrun karane. No vyakarana can help you, no grammar can help you, no logic can help you, you have to understand only through your feeling. God's language is feeling, God's language is in silence, not in words. So long as it's a word it is already distorted. Whether it is our Vedas or whether it is our Bible, it does not matter much, they are distorted. The original thing is the feeling, the feeling you have. That is why the call of God is Nistraygunyo Bhavarjuna; Vedha trigunya vishayaaha nistraigunyo bhavarjuna. You have got to go beyond, the point is God is beyond the Vedas - the word. The essence is something that defies any structure. Any structure you try to give for God is something that is limiting God and chaining God in bondage. That which is free can never be bound, God by definition is free, energy by definition is free. We can bind it in the form of electricity, in the form of magnetism, in the form of light, in any form that we like, but energy as such is something far beyond this. So this is the feeling that we have got to have. So when you start meditation in this system, the first thing that happens to you is that you become aware of the vibrations of the Ultimate Consciousness. When you have your sitting, some of you will feel vibrations, some of you will feel calmness, some of you as usual feel enormous noise outside and inside. Noise outside you cannot help it because it is there in the road. Noise inside, it is your complication. You have got so many feelings, you have got so many attitudes, you have got so many thoughts, you have got so many responsibilities. All of them will come to you one after the other. You try to sit down in calmness you will find all these things coming together. You engage yourself in some task, all of them seem to disappear almost because you are task oriented. Since you are task oriented, your mind is only on that. When you try to empty yourself and then sit somewhere, all the thoughts will come to you, bombard you and that is the nature of vacuum, please note it. Vacuum is such when you try to have vacuum in some place, all the air around you tries to enter that. You must be knowing the famous experiment of trying to heat up a tin and then as it throws out the hot air goes out, put a cork and then the shape of the tin is lost for the only reason air wants to enter, it has no chance of entering into it and then the can becomes totally twisted and wrinkled totally out of shape. Similar is our mind when we try to keep your mind calm, what happens is all thoughts will come to you. It is not thoughts which come to you, they are thoughts which are there in you which are trying to go out, which want expression, which want attention. So many things which you forcibily put down and were attending to certain other things, they kept quiet. When you are calm, all of them will come to you and then they want precedence to be established 'Now I will try to come, no no I am more important'. So many thoughts, some exams may be there, some promotions may be there, some responsibilities of going to the shop may be there, may be you have got to get certain things for your children, may be you have to attend to your parents, may be you have got something connected with your house, so many things. Everything with which you are connected comes there at that time, you really get confused and then prefer it is much better to have one word by which I can go on reciting, that seems to be much more easier because then your mind is given an attention, an object - you have got some toy to play with. It can be Om Namahsivaya or Namo Narayanaya, it does not matter much. Or O' Ram or hey Ram, whatever you choose. Your mind is going to a word and then it is definitely absorbed in that because it is given a toy. In the other case of meditation where you are asked not to think of anything and think about a Divine light which you cannot think of and then you get confused, because the mind gets filled up with all thoughts, it just rushes in. Now we say to you at that time, try to be as indifferent to it as possible, don't give attention to it, treat them as uninvited guests. Easily spoken, easily said, it is very difficult when actually you practice. I won't say it is too easy, I won't say it is too complex but first you have to learn this, learn to ignore, learn to ignore many things because you know that is not what you are seeking for. For that you have to learn two attitudes -one is you have got to be attentive and secondly you have got to be alert. Alert to the moments of silence that comes to you, attentive to the moments of silence that comes to you. It is just like a person who waits in a bus stand for a particular friend. He is to pass by that place and so many people go in the road, so many cars go, so many buses go, so many taxis go, and you are not going to attend to any one of them. You are waiting only for your friend and your mind is only for him. It is attentive towards him and it is alert for his presence. You just don't bother about anybody else. Similarly here, when you are in meditation please develop this attitude. If you develop this attitude you will be in a better position to meditate for long. Now I am asked to talk about the efficacy of this system. The efficacy of this system is, first two things have to be taken into consideration. One is your own effort and other is the help of the Master in your meditation. I can say with enormous confidence and practical knowledge about it, that this is the only system where we give the assistance of the Master throughout your progress. This does not start with a course and end with giving a mantra after some time nor by prescribing a method at a particular time but it is a continuous life long association that we seek with you, because you are seeking life long association with the Divine and the Divine must help you throughout. We ensure that you feel the presence of the Divine till the end. This is felt by the Pranahuti, which is an experience that you will go through and you will know the nearness of God. Everybody has told that God is in the heart, everybody has told that there is no exception to this but to make you feel that calmness even momentarily was something that was not there in the earlier periods. Here, because of the influx of Pranahuti, you do feel that and it is for you to feel and practice. So that aspect of it is to be taken into consideration while we discuss the efficacy of Rajayoga in this system. If you take your heart into consideration, this is where most of our feelings are. Thoughts of course may be even at the buddhi level but at the manasic level all our feelings are there. Manas is at heart, buddhi is connected with the intellect. Actually we have got the intellect - the buddhi, manas - I think I will try and keep this feeling aspect, ahankar - ego feeling, ego I would replace it by 'I', I feeling, and chitta ­because there is no equivalent word in English for this so far as I know. These are all the four components of our mind. This buddhi is connected with our school subject such as (A+B)2- all such knowledge you can put it straight into that because there is no consequence, there is no feeling connected with it. It is something, some mathematics, 1234 - whatever it is you know that, you don't know that. People perhaps now a days recognize people only with this capacity ignoring other three. The self-respect aspect of it, this has come here actually self (ego). Then the manas is predominant feelings of yours that you have. This is what is guiding us. It is only for satisfying the parents' interest that we go for some course. My father wants me to become an engineer therefore I become an engineer. My father wants me to go to a doctor so I go to a doctor. Why do you do this? My wife wants me to do this. Why do you do this? My husband would like that. Most of our actions are governed by these. If you see these, our feelings are directed towards the lower portion. Lower portion means actually physiological drives of food, water, shelter. Our thoughts, our feelings are invariably connected with all these things, either one of these things. If you just can check up your present state of mind, your thoughts will be connected only with this. For getting food you do a job, you have to do. Everything is connected with these four. As on date majority of us are governed by these and perhaps will ever be governed by it. There is no way out of these things because so long as life is there, principle of life is that of urges, there is no chance of getting out of these things. Animals are condemned once and all for that position. There is no way by which they can change their cycles. When it becomes hungry, it just finds its prey. It has to go and finds its food there is no alternative for it. When it is thirsty, it will go to the nearest possible source of water. When it is on season, it is on heat, it will definitely find its mate. There is no way out of these things. There is no chance for an animal to come out of it. Human beings are the only persons, only animals where we are given an option to control them. We know how to control hunger. You feel hungry but then you wait for the dinner, you wait for the lunch. Your mother says it takes some more time for your food please wait. We wait, we don't grab it. If you then note whether that is so in your case and if you are very honest about it, I am sure there must have been occasions when you must have pinched at something out of the kitchen - may be a fruit, may be something else, something edible stuff, if nothing else the pulses going straight into your mouth - the animal has not left us, please note this. It is that state of mind which you are trying to control, it is that impulsive state, impulsive nature. Animals are propelled, impelled, compelled - there is no alternative they have to behave like that. We need not behave like that, God has given us that much of liberty, that much of freedom, but we do not exercise that. Culture, education, social development, all these things you can see are the parameters by which we judge whether a person is advanced or not advanced. We apply these meters, what is his behavior? A tribal fellow how he behaves? A cannibal, how he behaves? A socially developed person, how he behaves? i.e. man has been persistently making efforts to control these urges and then arrived at certain ways of living, which he calls cultured ways. Don't behave like that they say, you are animal don't try to be like that. While that is so, in majority of the cases people have followed, now present day civilization seems to be moving in another direction of trying to have as much as what we want to satisfy these urges. I don't want to go into value systems because that is not the topic. The topic is how are we going to control these things? However much we try, there are occasions when you fall for these and of course these you just can't help it. Water is something that you will be forced to take and perhaps there is no difficulty in taking it and this one also, kama and krodha, you know you become slaves to it. That is why extraordinary attention has been given to it in tradition and they say you must know how to control these. Consequential feeling that you get is, when you are asking for some drive satisfaction, you find others also are striving towards the same thing and there is a conflict and it leads to rage, anger, confrontation. When more than one person tries for the same object then naturally confrontation and that is what we generally express as krodh. One is the kam, another is krodh So these two things are the essential factors we have got to control and they seem to be inbuilt in our animal nature. All my previous discussion is only to point out that we seem to be conditioned by these two things almost. Animals are conditioned we know that, we also seem to be having no option over this. Other systems of yoga have tried to totally abolish these things by whatever means it is ­suppression, oppression, by way of privation or deprivation, you can use any method by which they try to see that you get away from the family, go away to forest, go and stay in some mountains, get far off from the man, don't get into the situations, try to be away as far away as possible but this system is meant for a grihastha, for a man living here, a family life and these two things are the most important drives that you have got to attend to and you will not be in a position to suppress it, you are not supposed to also. So we always ask here try to learn moderation. Let the impulsiveness go and let some sanity be there. The institutions of marriage were established only for this. Social solutions like the institutions of justice were maintained only for this, so that we won't come out. What are the individual solutions for this? To conform to the social institutions. You know better what our reaction to social institutions is today. We are trying to question every one of them. We don't want to stand by the judgment of some judge who says you are at fault, even when he says that it has been established this fellow has murdered Rajiv Gandhi, he would like still an appeal to the President. Nobody is prepared to accept it. Principles of justice is being questioned. I am not going to the minor details. I am talking about a major details of only one incident, you can add hundreds. Our individual positions are such that in our own house, for no reason we fight with our brother, for no reason we fight with our sisters, for the sake of some object, for the sake of something which you think you deserve more than he or she, all our fights are coming from this. Principles of education unfortunately are founded on this. We have got somebody who is first in the class and then somebody who is last in the class. Whoever has given us that right to distinguish them I do not know but that is what education is. Every one of us learn at our own pace. Incidentally that is the reason why we have got a school, which says that is the school for slow learners. We would like everybody to be treated on par. The grace of God is equal on all and there is no question of superiority or inferiority. The problem is connected with basic instincts. How best can I over take the other man in killing him is what we are trying to justify by saying 'yes he is the first man, he is the last man'. That is the reason why you have got the word in the marketing today 'he had a kill today'. What is that word? What disgraceful words we are using to say that we are cultured. So these two things are the fundamental points. On this there is no solution in the tradition as to how to do it. They told so many things. They said be in good company, be in good thoughts, trying to be with only good people, try to do only good things, try to learn some moral stories, try to live according to those expectations. All these things we have heard but then man has been more intelligent than those words which express some sanity. We have found every way by which we can deceive everyone one of the Panchatantras. All our Ithihasas have lost their value, all our Puranas have lost their value, nobody wants to follow anyone of them. We have become intelligent, our buddhi has gone far beyond. Agreed, there is no doubt about it but what is the solution, still the problem is there. The problem is sought to be solved by the principle of moderation and for that we have got to lift this mind which goes to the lower mind, the thought force which flows down generally goes steep, some effort has to be made to go up. Tradition has made so many efforts of education and other things. In this system through Pranahuti, the first effort that is made is the flow of consciousness to the lower mind is sought to be diverted to the upper portion. This is the work of the Master which he does, which he does, you can be rest assured but you are given two things to do. You are asked to meditate on points A and B about which more details will be given by our brothers. They are two points located in the chest. There are two points A and B on which you are asked to meditate and if you meditate on these things as prescribed, it is our experience that our impulsive tendencies come down. This is the positive assurance that we give in the system namely that if you meditate on these two as prescribed with the help of the Pranahuti that is already done, in this system you get the advantage of control over the impulsive tendencies of your basal stuff, the drives. Once you control the drives or once you can put it under some reasonable control and get rid of the impulsive tendencies, you know you have won three-fourths the war, the war of control over ourselves because that is what exactly is our problem. If you look to yourself and see what type of thoughts that come, to you they are invariably connected to those four as I have already said but it is also true that you have thoughts of aspiration. Fortunately God has given us a mind which aspires, aspiration is a word that is applicable only to the human level. No animal can aspire for anything, it has no capacity to think. Even in certain forms of thinking that is there in some animals like chimpanzee or a dog, they don't aspire for anything. We aspire, what is the first aspiration we have got? First aspiration we have got is sharing. This as an instinct is already available in the case of lions and similar prides. They don't eat the food alone, they share. There are animals which share food, there are animals which will not share food. Sharing is not a principle that we accepted as aspiration just like that, there are animals at the lower level but instinctively they will feel it. I am not talking about the mother's love which is common, mother's instinct is entirely different but this instinct of trying to share food with others is what we have learned from some animals. That is the reason lion is a king of animals, there are many more powerful animals than the lion which can kill the lion also but this is the reason. Here the first principle is sharing and this we have developed as an aspiration and what is it driving at? It drives at trying to view what you think you should have, the physiological drive of hunger is sought to be moderated. You first give your children then you take, then you give elders then you take. You don't take directly. A civilized society is one where the food is shared first with children then with elders then with oneself. So the principle of sharing which we have learned from animal instinctual level, we got it as an aspiration and we said in this land when somebody comes to you, you treat that person as an athithi and give him food first and then only you take later. A value which we seem to have almost forgotten today for whatever reason it may be, that is what it is. Even relatives are not welcomed and thanks to certain amount of westernization, do not go to a house without information and we say if anybody comes to you without information treat him as a God. You can see the difference in value points of the two societies. One society does not want a person to come without intimation. Another society says if anybody comes to you without intimation treat him as a God. This is another important thing that you should be very very careful in meditation. In meditation what happens is you get certain thoughts totally uninvited, you have got all sorts of thoughts coming to you and all of a sudden some thought comes to you. That thought is God and Godly but we are the first persons to miss it, we always miss the athithi, uninvited guest is God always. It is from the adhyathmika point of view, our people have brought in the tradition to the mundane level day to day life they brought in the concept of athithi because the athithi comes to you more in meditation than elsewhere. There are more sparks of the Divine during meditation than you can think of or you can dream of because God loves us so much that he is always yawning towards you. He would like to enter into you and the moment you create a vacuum He is prepared to fill it but then we are so attentive to the other things like our going to the market which takes precedence over our attentiveness to this. That is the reason why we say please be attentive and alert, athithi can be recognized only when you are attentive. There are umpteen number of stories of people when God has personally visited them and this man has said 'no no I have got something else to do' and he forgot, he never attended to them and it happened to be the wives of some saints. A lady received a guest, the God Himself who comes, she does not recognize Him as such because he came uninvited uninformed, he came and then it was left to the saint to recognize later and poor man he said 'you are more lucky than me you have seen the God and I have not'. The stories go, these are all common knowledge you should be knowing. My point is the sharing as a principle develops. Unless this sharing develops, you will not be in a position to develop tolerance. This is another great virtue of this country which we are maintaining and we shall forever maintain, because this is consequent to that and this comes to you only when you learn to share and not behave impulsively towards certain things. This becomes natural once impulsive nature is reduced. A brother of mine was asking, some of us are prepared to share, some of us are not sir why is it so. I said yes, control has not come. Impulsive nature makes you hold it, you don't want to share, and you would like to save it. Impulsive nature alone is the principle for saving, you would like to have it tomorrow. Saving is a very very obnoxious idea in spirituality that is why Prophet Mohammed said please do not bother about the next day, God is there, He will give. He was wise, and that's why I think he also said don't try to lend money, he said give it if you got money, give it, don't lend. Lending was not permitted by him because who are you to lend. Whose is it? It is His. It belongs to the cosmos, nothing belongs to you. Everything belongs to the universe, nobody has got a right to say this is mine, because your existence itself is transient. Now, that we will come to later and naturally along with it comes service. So these two principles of spirituality will develop the moment you try to be attentive to the upper portion of your self, the aspiration portion of your self. This is the first thing that comes to you in this system. Now when you sit in meditation thinking that there is Divine light in the heart, as I told you, you will get lot of thoughts, but then, when you learn to be attentive only to the Divine light and nothing else, everything else fades out into nothingness. They don't have any impelling nature to attract your attention. That leads us to understand what exactly I am, who am I. This who am I question is one of the toughest questions to answer. If any one of you can help me with the definition of what you are as you understand, I will be very happy. You can at best tell me your name, you can give your physical description, your status - financial, official, relationships as wife, husband, son, father, so on and so forth. Kindly exclude these adjectives for yourself and then tell me what you are. You are none of these things, right? I have at least three names, one name is Narayana, but the other two names are also given to me. Most of us among Hindus we get more than one name. Physical descriptions - I am not the same physical body from childhood. You can't give that, your weights vary, complexion varies. If you see all these things, can you think of yourself other than these? And all these things are transient, all these things are temporary. You are a son one day you are a father today, grandfather day after. What are you? What are you? In relation to somebody you are somebody. What are you? This is the first and the foremost question that a man faces in spiritual life. Who am I? And if by God's Grace you have already got into the principle of sharing and service then you will know that I am a person to share, that I am a person to serve. Other than these two things there is nothing else that is permanent with you. These two things are permanent with you from your childhood. You are somebody to share and you are somebody to serve. Who that somebody is, you can call yourself by Narayan or Adinarayan, or you can call purushotham, you can call Govinda, it does not matter much by what name you call yourself but your essential nature is one of sharing and serving and that leads us to a metaphysical concept about which I will not be in a position to talk much. God in essence and God in manifestation. God in essence talked briefly earlier saying that there is no way of knowing Him, He is beyond all understanding. What is God in essence? We said we don't know, Divine light without luminosity we said we just don't know. Na Tatra Vak Gacchati Na Mano Na Vijno Na Vijanimo. This is what He is. God in manifestation it is you and me, it is this stream, it is this mountain, it is this river - we are the manifestation and we are Gods in expression. And what did God do first? He did first Purushamedha as we call it. The Purushasuktha of the Vedas is the most important one, the first one that is stated namely, God has sacrificed Himself to come into manifestation. It is God who sacrificed Himself to come into manifestation. He ceases to be His essence and He wanted to be His manifestation and we are all He and the principle here is He wanted to share, He wanted to serve. Sacrifice is another aspiration we have got. We have got to sacrifice. Mother sacrifices, instinctively you know that mother sacrifices lot of her interests for the sake of the children. Imitating the mother the father also sacrifices, he learns the value from her. It is the mother who tells, you have got to attend to the child more, it is time to educate, it is time to give him food, it is time that you should go and do something for him. It is the mother who teaches the principles of sacrifice, which is reason why the Vedas always used the word Mathrudevo Bhava, please note it. For no other reason we use that word. This is the reason why she gets a precedence over the father. She participates in the Divine function of sacrifice first, and then she teaches that lesson to the husband. Now, here God in essence, God in manifestation having the principles of sharing, serving and the third principle we have got, sacrifice. If we learn these three things in life we have learnt almost everything of spirituality. If we can behave like this it's enough but then what stands in the way? What stands in the way of our doing it? Why is it we are not prepared to part with money, a few rupees that we have earned today with others? It is because we have not learned to serve, we have not learned to sacrifice, we have not learned to share. We think it is ours. The possessiveness is one of the things that we have learned unnecessarily and that is the nature of a tiger and not a lion. Lion kills its prey and then throws it off and then goes after eating it while the tigers save it for the next day. Please note this fear of not getting food tomorrow is there more with the tigers than with the lions. I am comparing both the wild animals, there are few more satvic animals which I can bring into the picture but then I want you to understand even the noble animals are those which share, the ignoble animals are those which try to save it and then after all it may die then it goes waste. These values we have forgotten but they are spiritual values, they are not social values, they are entirely different. Social values, I have told you already marriage institutions, they are different, spiritual values are different. So now what stands in your way is your self and once you know there is no such thing like self and you are only a relationship, a bundle of relationships, you will not try to own anything. The sat-asat viveka automatically dawns on you. This is the nature of the first knot. There are 13 knots in our system as depicted by SriRamchandraji Maharaj. The nature of the First knot is trying to distinguish between what is sat and what is asat, what is permanent what is not permanent. I try to come to this point through a non vedantic method, because vedantic methods are there to teach this but I don't believe in that because for practical people we want to know what exactly the problem is. Everybody knows we are not going to live tomorrow, thereby we don't grant ourselves non-existence, we don't. Once you know your relationship, sit in meditation and then see what you are then you know there is only one friend for you and that is God. He is with you, the only friend. All other friendships, all other relationships are transient. He is the one with whom we are born, He is the one who will continue to be there even after our death, because energy doesn't go anywhere. There is only change in the form of energy but then nothing happens, the energy itself is there, you are going to continue. In what levels you will continue is a separate issue, but then we continue, because matter can never be destroyed, energy cannot be got rid off. You are energy, so you will continue to be there. So those people, present day, present morality which is governed by the thought that after our death nothing is going to be there and doesn't matter much whether I exploit the other person or kill him or do whatever I want with him; is wrong, because he is going to continue. You cannot help it; it is in the nature of energy to continue. Matter can never be destroyed, energy can never be destroyed, it is there, it is bound to be there, it will have its own effects. What it will be? On that there can be various ways of looking at things but it will be there is a fact; to this extent you cannot deny scientific approach. So what I am trying to say is, this person, this energy which has been there with me will continue to be there with me forever and this is the governing principle of sharing. If I don't develop the sharing principle I am not going to be in tune with it and why I am not able to share is because of my selfishness, self-centeredness, thinking that I am more real than the essence, the essence is more real than me. Once this satasat viveka comes, the first knot dawns and then your yatra starts. You start moving further; you start moving further as to what exactly it is. All right I am not permanent, there is something that is going to be permanent, what exactly it is. Then you start tending to develop, once this sat-asat viveka comes then certain amount of detachment starts, till the time no detachment is possible. Detachment for us really means attachment to the Divine, you tend to know more and more the sat and you tend to know less and less this asat i.e. detachment. Detachment with the asat and attachment to the sat is the basic way of movement in spiritual life. We move towards what is true, what is permanent, what is impermanent we try to give as little importance as possible. In the language of SriRamchandraji Maharaj we do not develop undue attachment, due attachment is what we develop. Treat everything on its merits, not with any extra relationships. Relationships are what make your self as I told you. Because of those relationships, you have got this undue attachment. You forget your relationships and treat yourself as the one who is connected only with God and nobody else, the truth alone will stay and then you have due attachment. Many abhyasis have been asking me, Sir, please tell us what is due attachment and what is undue attachment. Any attachment that you have got with reference to any relationship that you have got is only undue attachment. The only due attachment that we have can have is with reference to sat, the truth, the principle of Divinity in us. This is a condition and no amount of my explaining this system will make you understand what it is. So this leads us to the first knot, first is sat-asat viveka and then you also understand that you have got to have only due attachment. You know the transience of your self and various colors, various expansions are felt, in all these things you will find again certain things, you feel that you seem to be nearing it with that condition of sat-asat viveka, nearing it, you seem to know that there is something like sat and asat, nearness. This is the word in sanskrit we generally use the word samipyatha. We seem to be moving towards that feeling, it is not as though we have established there. We seem to know yes there seems to be something like this. Then we enter into that, we enter into that state, you are more established here. You definitely know that this is permanent, that is not permanent. Then that comes under salokyatha, then we live in that world, start moving. We become similar to that, that condition itself is yourself, you feel that you are that, nobody is attached to you, you are attached only to the Divine, you are entirely one. Then you have got the laya, mergence. In every feeling you have got these four states; If you are attentive to your sadhana, you will find in every state that is going to be this and later. You will be feeling nearness to it, you will be feeling and then you will be feeling you are entering into that; you start feeling the breeze of that, you start experiencing that, that is perhaps while you are that's the world. If you want to put the grossest of analogy; if you are getting into an A/C room, as you enter it, you know you are getting into a cool place, when you settle there, you really become cool, as you enter it you feel it the nearness to it - this is salokyatha and then you have got the sarupyatha where you become similar to that, your nature itself becomes that and then the mergence. This mergence is a mergence not to be lost here forever, but to move on, we should move on to the next condition. Each laya takes us to the next stage and that is the one of the toughest problems we have got here and that is why so many people who are viraktas, who have become sanyasis, who have gone to forests, who have taken to so many avadoot conditions are stuck up in laya. Laya is really interesting, you feel one with it, you don't like to leave it. Laya is the condition that we would like to hold but layas are at different levels. Different levels of laya and each one would like to hold on forever there. You are comfortable there but then here in this system through Pranahuti you are pushed out. This is one of the experience of majority of abhyasis who will say, Sir, yesterday I had a most absorbing condition, today I am again disturbed. Yes, you are bound to be disturbed, you are not allowed to have laya there. If you have got laya that means you got stuck up. If you get feeling of mergence and stay permanently in that state that means you got stuck up. Journey is infinite, the yatra shall go on, it is ananth, therefore Master pushes you out of that state. So after the first two states of viveka and vairagya, the next thing is as I have told you, the problem of self gets solved. You now know it doesn't exist, you also know that none of it is yours then what happens next is you start knowing your interdependency, with which I started the talk. Interdependence with Divine, the essence cannot exist without the manifestation and manifestation cannot exist without the essence, is the knowledge that you get. You are Divine, because you are a part of manifestation and once this awareness develops inside, that is, swa­swaroopa gnana develops, the amount of purity that you would like to have will get established more and more, not that you did not earlier. You should have purity earlier, but then here you will not allow yourself to become impure under any circumstances, because you are afraid that you are making God impure. Your impurity is His impurity, your defect is His defect, your lapse is His lapse. Therefore there cannot be any such things with us. Perfection becomes our way, whether it is in office or in house whether it is in the street or in your prayer, perfection is yours. You feel the interdependency with the Divine. That is the reason why many people got stuck up when they went to the second knot because it is purity, simple purity and when you maintain it according to the tradition, this gives a reflection of the 5th knot. 5th knot itself is the reflection of something else above, so what happens is Aham Brahmasmi feeling becomes more and more predominant. This thought becomes very very predominant here. You feel that you are the Brahman, you are, but then you are not because that stage is far off. Because of the reflected thing, the purity here is such, the reflection also is such, the absolute reflection if you can maintain that. The swa-swaroopa gnana which means the interdependence with the Divine becomes established in your heart and you become more and more responsible to the manifestation than what you were earlier, because of detachment, because of the principle of knowing what is self and what is not self was there involved in the first knot, you were not all that careful about many minor details. You used to neglect certain things. You used to say that these things are bound to happen like this, now you will not allow such things, purity will not allow such things, it will tell you everything is to be perfect. That is why people who are established, even like Ramana Maharshi and others were able to say that everything is good. First he left the house, took the renunciation very early in life and then finally said when somebody asked is it necessary to renounce he said not necessary. He had to come to this conclusion because he knows that his condition compelled him to say something against what he himself practiced. What I am trying to tell you is the nature is such, the nature of the knot is such. Secondly the self comes to know that though the eternal or the energy in itself is dependent upon it for expression, still it is secondary in nature and that is primary in nature. Energy is primary in nature than the places where it is expressed. The fan where the electricity is getting expressed is inferior in status to the very nature of electricity itself, it is very obvious. Similarly, we as individuals are fans, we are giving the breeze to others, we are capable of giving this because of that electricity. Electricity by itself cannot give breeze to anybody in this world, it cannot. Energy by itself cannot give anything, only when it is expressed it can give and it is expressed like this and this has no business to say that I will give breeze only selectively and that is what we do when we say when we are expressing the Divine and when we say 'we, our people and other things' we want to give breeze only to those people and nobody else and that is the extraordinary selfishness of this fan. It somehow develops an identity, somehow, maya, it is ignorance. Once you know that you are dependent upon That, interdependency develops into a feeling of dependency, from our point of view. God naturally feels dependent about us, otherwise He will not ask us to assemble here and talk. It is He who is talking amongst ourselves, He is asking us to know what he is trying to do because He cannot do anything, but dependency from our part is learnt only when we come to the second knot and this leads us to the straight path or rather a steep path towards devotion. Without knowing your dependency there can be no devotion. Your lowliness must be understood before you can think of getting devoted to somebody. I am devoted to my father, I am devoted to my wife, there is enormous difference between these two words. One is definitely far superior, another is only an equal, equal coparcener actually. I don't know why English got into that dirty position of saying that I am devoted to wife. You are devoted to parents, you are dependent upon the wife. So the dependency can give you two concepts whether devotion or coparcenership. can be equal to God or I am dependent upon God, these are the two feelings that you get. When you use the word Aham Brahmasmi, it is the coparcenership that we are talking about, I am equal to Him. My wife, dependent upon me. I am dependent upon him, he is dependent upon me. She is dependent upon me, I am dependent upon her. In devotion I am dependent only on Him, He is not dependent upon me, I am not even aware of that. To move into the realm of bhakthi, you must understand that you are low, lowliness of your being must be understood. Without knowing your lowliness, you will never be devoted. We would like to have barter with Him, equal. I pay this, you pay me, I will do this, you do that. Whole of Mimamsa suffers from this. Mimamsa, which is nothing but Vedas, yagnas, yagas, suffer from this. I do this, I offer this you better give me this. I do this aswamedha, you better give this, I will give this purushamedha, you give this, barter, business, that is the level at which Vedas ended. That is the reason why Krishna said Nistraigunyo Bhavaarjuna because these things are connected with a barter level, God is compelled to obey what you pray for, He has to grant. That's what the tradition says, I am not here to question it, I am only questioning the attitude towards God. So long as you have got that attitude, it is only an equal position. In equal positions, you will end up only with Aham Brahmasmi. Aham Brahmasmi is a state of mind where you would like to say I am equal to God. You are, none of us is less than that. It is God in expression alone who is here. There is nothing here which is not Divine, there is nothing here which is less than Divine. Yet, this divinity that is in expression that is in manifestation is dependent upon that divinity which is there above, far above, which is the essence. When I say above, I do not mean that you have to go to spatial level, above means something far beyond, far beyond. I am not looking at the sky, far beyond us. So once this dependency is understood then only your devotion starts. This devotion starts here first, first is I would like to have some wishes granted. You feel the dependency for granting of certain wishes. I would like somebody to get promoted therefore I pray for that, he is my son or he is my grandson doesn't matter much who he is or even for ourselves. I have undertaken this business, I would like to have profit of this, so I pray, pray to God. So dependency can be confused with a barter. Majority of our stotras, what our religion has given us are only prayers seeking some relief or the other from the Divine saying that we are dependent upon you. "O God you have got to grant me". As against it, you would have noted already, our prayer says, "we are yet but slaves of wishes putting bar to our advancement; thou art the only God and power to bring us up to that stage". We would like to go beyond the stage of wishes, we would not like to be confined to wishes. We know that our wishes are due to our relationships, we know that our wishes are due to our own actions, we know that, we come to know that and that is the reason why from knot 2 to knot 3 it is a steep position. Second knot to third knot you have to understand these things. You will understand that whatever you are going through, you are going through because of your own action because whatever you deserve that alone you get. You will not get more than what you deserve, you will not get less than what you deserve. God as a samavarthi comes to be understood. God as an omniscient, omnipresent, omnipotent being, everybody knows, there have been talks about it. God as justice, samavarthi, the person who gives balance, maintains the balance of this existence has to be understood to understand devotion. Till that time our prayers are only petitions asking for petty things. Real prayer is one which is like the one we have given namely Master has given that - we are yet but slaves of wishes putting bar to our advancement. We are not asking God here to satisfy those wishes. We are only saying that you are the goal of human life, we would like to come to that stage. We want oneness with God, laya, to be in tune with the energy, to be in tune with nature, that's what we are asking for. We are not asking for anything less than that. We are not asking for some petty things because those things are due to our own. The fifth commandment 'Be Truthful. Take miseries as Divine blessings for your own good and be thankful to God'. You read this commandment, the interpretation given by SriRamchandraji Maharaj, you will then understand your true nature is to be dependent upon the Divine and then whatever He gives you, you accept it and whatever He gives is according to our own actions. It is not an arbitrary God who gives us 'you take this, you are my man I give you more, he is not my man therefore I am going to deprive him'. God is not like that, God is justice; there is no partiality in the kingdom of God. No person is going to be treated with lenience simply because he says SriRamchandraji Maharaj is his Master. It will not happen, it shall not happen, if it happens that is not the truth. It is our sentiment, which makes us feel now and then because we are dependent upon him, several things that happen to us are good. It is our sentiment, it is not reality, it's not the truth. We will get what we should get, we will not get what we are not supposed to get. Karmaphala is total and this system totally believes in the unquestionable principle of karma, theory of karma as properly understood. It is not the karma, that it is God has given me this punishment. That karma is not what we are talking about, that karma is prerogative of other religions. In this land we believe that God will give what is just. If you have done something you will get accordingly, praptham, whatever we have done, equally we get. So this principle has to be understood, that will be understood only when you know that God is a samavarthi. So our petition-mongering mind is accustomed to asking all sorts of things from our bosses for nothing, the same thing will not apply here though we will try to apply it here. That we try to apply is a fact, every one of us tries to apply this. It's a pit fall in sadhana, we will ask for some relief. We will have some problem, some physical problem, you would like to go and then say 'Narayana you say that you are a person who have been practicing this, why is it you have got so many ailments?', because I must have deserved. When this question was put to Lalaji Maharaj, founder of our system, when he was suffering from enormous pain in stomach and his own disciple was working on him massaging him and he shed tears seeing the suffering of the Master and Lalaji Maharaj said 'if I want to I can get rid of it now but I will not because God knows what is best'. That is the state of dependency, that is the state of devotion, that we are supposed to maintain always. This is the one of the highest states that we will be moving towards. So bhakthi is not to be understood with praises and flattery. Flattery neither does good for the flatterer nor the flattered, it doesn't help anybody but we think so and we are happy with flattery because it is so musical to sing those lines. Several saints have sung, I have nothing against anyone of them, I like them also. Their songs are very popular today and it is the song that is popular and not the devotion, please note it. What is more popular is what is appealing to your ears, the music is more important to us, the raga, the tala, those are much more important than the content, leave alone the God. Thought content which refers to God is the third factor. What is engrossing us is this. 'He sang very well sir, a beautiful bhakthi song', but it is not bhakthi song, it's a song, it is a good song, put it that way it is fine. So this devotion comes very very difficult unless you know this principle you will never be devoted. Next state to which we move on in our state of mind is total dependency on Divine. Somebody accuses you in the street for nothing, you do not know how to react to it; he accuses you for no fault of yours. What will you do? We will say something in return or you will say this is will of God. Would you say that it is what you deserve therefore you got it? See the difference in what I am asking. I may just ignore this. Put it the other way, you are going in the street somebody in the bus spits on you; as usual in Hyderabad now a days still old city that problem is there, you got to be more attentive to the fellow in the bus than yourself. What is your reaction? Would you take it to be something that God has given you? I will give a small story of a person who has lived up to that expectation. A great saint Ramanuja was there, he had a disciple who is far more intelligent than Ramanuja, who is much more well versed in scriptures than Ramanuja. Fact, agreed facts, there are no differences, both of them went to present saraswathi peetam which is there in Pakistan and then they permitted him to see one of the commentaries on Veda Vyasa's SriBhashyam. They gave and allowed him to see Vedanta sutras and then the commentary given by dravidas there and the king said 'I will not give a copy of this to you, you cannot obtain a copy, you have to go, you can read once no second time', that is the condition and Ramanuja was not ekasanthagrahi, his disciple was. So he said 'I will make good your defect so I will read this let us go'. So he was dependent upon his disciple to tell what is there in that commentary so that he can write his commentary. The concept of interdependency that we are taking about just now was the matter of issue. Is the self, dependent or independent, the issue is whether the self is dependent or independent. If you say it is independent it borders on Advaitha. If you say it is dependent it borders on Dvaitha. It is mutually interdependent is the philosophy of Ramanuja. The interpretation had to be given. He made it appear, Ramanuja interpreted, according to the anecdote, made it appear as if the self is independent and his disciple refused to write because he was under instructions earlier saying that if what I say is not in tune with my philosophy, you need not write. So he simply obeyed his Master, he said I will not write, and Ramanuja got wild and then kicked him, literally kicked him with the foot and this fellow fell and Ramanuja walked away and after about some time he comes back to find this gentleman still lying down and his disciples come and other disciples come and tell 'we told this fellow to get up saying that you are dependent upon him for the entire information, about the subject and you are more dependent upon him than anybody else and you kicked him out and we told him we will follow him rather than you' and he said 'who am I to say anything about it, my master knows what is best for me' and when Ramanuja says 'why you did not get up' he said 'you have thrown me down and it is for you to lift me up who am I to get up where is my existence'. This is the narration given in tradition you may accept it or you may disown it, but what I am trying to tell is the psychological aspect of it. What is the state of mind? come what may, the decision of the Divine is final, I will not make any effort absolutely saying that I have nothing to do with anything else, it is He who does everything. This is the state of surrender about which every alternative person talks now a days. State of surrender is one of the toughest we can ever think of, because that is the state of total negation of yourself. Now coming back to our subject of meditation what is the state of mind there. This is philosophy, fine, I have explained the philosophical aspect of it. What is the state of mind? thoughts are bound to be there, thoughts of sat-asat viveka were there; thoughts of vairagya were there, thoughts of interdependency were there, thoughts of devotion were there. Now what is the type of thought here? What is the type of thought you are going to have? A state of mind when there will be no thoughts. A surrendered person has no thoughts. How is it possible? Is it not contradictory to my system of Sri Ramchandraji, who says that thoughts are bound to be there till the end? He says that thoughts are bound to be there till the end and I say that this is no thought condition, the reason for that is you must understand what is the nature of thought. When any idea, any concept, is not in tune with the Divine, it gets thrown out, that is the origin of thoughts, origin is when it is not in tune with Divine. When a thought is not in tune with Divine, you become aware of that. It can be disturbing, it can be enjoying but then you become aware of that. When the thought is something that is totally in tune with the Divine then you become totally unaware of the existence of the thought, not that the thought is not there, thought is there but you are not aware of its existence. The existence is the essence itself and when it is in tune with the essence then it merges into it and this is an experience that you will be having on first day onwards. You will be writing as no thought, it is not no thought that you have got, the thought that is there with you becomes in tune with the Divinity and therefore you are not aware of its existence. Non-awareness of the thought is entirely different from non-existence of thoughts; please appreciate the difference between non-awareness and non-existence. Thoughts do exist but then it becomes in tune with the Divine and therefore you are not aware of it and such moments are moments of silence. When you are meditating you will find that there are moments, some seconds, fractions of seconds or minutes while your mind goes almost blank which we generally tend to call absorbency. Absorbed, the thought got absorbed into the essence. The thought is there but it got absorbed that is why we use the word absorbency, we don't use the word concentration. So this thought, our thought which was devotion, when it matures, what happens is that God alone or the essence alone becomes most predominant and then you become one with it and when you become one with it that is the state of saranagati or state of surrender. That is how it is experienced in meditation, in action it has to be shown and that is possible only through manana. All these conditions, you must note you will not have it permanently and you will have it only during meditation unless you remember the nature of those thoughts during the other times during the day. That is the reason why people who have got high states of consciousness during meditation tend to lapse to the lowest levels perceivable and this lapse is unpardonable. What is granted you should own, you cannot squander. What is given to you during mediation is what is granted to you and we squander it and without any compunction and that is the worst part of it. As I told you, if you are established in second knot in purity, and through devotion you move on to the higher plane and always be dependent upon Him, you cannot help remembering constantly the Divine and when you remember the Divine constantly, purity you cannot avoid. Purity in body and mind and in every action of course. Purity and Divinity go together, they are alternative words. The questions of people who say that 'I sit and do prayer without taking a bath' or when 'I come without cleaning my feet I would like to sit', all these ideas will not work because they are all sloth, they all are matter, they are laziness, which will not be permitted, which is not permissible. If you remember the Divine constantly, you cannot have sleep, people who complain to me of sleep are people who are not aware of Divinity I would say, because how can you sleep before God, you cannot but then this great country has given us the notion that in sleep God is going to be with you because He is the essence. It is He, You are He; therefore He is there in your place. In one of the Upanishads they say what happens to you during sleep and then God as a watchman guards us. Who keeps you going?, who keeps you going during night when you are asleep? not you, not your wife, not your children, not your parents, who is keeping you? He is the one watchman who is there. If you note that, would you come to the level of a Banasura try to have a watchman of a Siva? You will not, you will not sleep. These are the conditions that you develop as you move on to the stages of surrender. So from surrender you move on to the plane of ether where balance is there. Equality is maintained, you are balanced. The whole approach of Rajayoga sadhana is towards this balance. A balanced approach we can come only when we know that everything that happens to us happens because of our actions, we are protected by the Divine day in and day out, we are aware of it and we live according to that and these are all made possible by the constant pushes. Instead of getting lost, you require a push and then that push is given through Pranahuti by the Master, because surrender is another place where laya is capable of keeping you in state of surrender always, you will not go towards equality. Surrender by itself cannot be considered as the final state because we have to move towards equality, balance, samatva, then only you can say that you are representing the Divine, you are a manifestation of the Divine, the samavarthi. You have to become a samavarthi, balance in our approach, these are the two wings with which you are going to fly. These are two wings you have got, one is materialism, one is spirituality, both the wings you are going to go together, each according to our capacity, each according to our karma but according to our destiny, namely to satisfy the Divine crying for human transformation. Such is the human transformation that is possible in this system. These are all the positions of the Pind desh here (ref. Path of Grace). This system talks about points which are above. Upto this even in tradition we have got. This is Atma sarira, then this is brahma sarira and beyond that nobody talks. In this system we talk about the conditions of sahasrar and beyond also. The sahasrar is reflected here ( top of the head). There are 5 points in between; there are 3 more behind which takes us to central region. Regions which are behind the sahasrara were not mentioned in tradition earlier. Nobody has mentioned it. The details with which the transition happens during this Pind desh was mentioned by Jnanadev in his own way in his commentary on the Gita. Jnanadev has written Jnaneswari, a very very popular book in the Maharastrian life. Jnaneswari mentions that. One or two saints of south have mentioned certain points up to sahasrara, the paths are a bit different but the conditions are same. Why they have chosen that I have no idea because I learn them only through literature, I have not practiced any one of them. This one I hav

Koorathazhwan, also known as Kuresa and Srivatsanka Mishra, was the chief disciple of the great Vaishnavite Acharya Ramanuja. He assisted Ramanuja in all his endeavors. Koorathazhwan was born as Kuresan in a small hamlet 'Kooram' near Kanchi, in the year of 1010 A.D (Thai month, Hastham star) in an affluent family as the son of Sri Kurattazhwar. He belonged to the clan of 'Haritha', who were popular landlords.

Yamunacharya also is known as Alavandar and Periya Mudaliar was a Vishistadvaita philosopher in Srirangam, Tamil Nadu, India. Ramanuja, one of the leaders of the Sri Vaishnava school sought to be his disciple. He was born in the early 10th century CE and was the grandson of a Brahmin, Nathamuni. Nathamuni was a famed yogi who collected the works of Tamil alvars. Alavandar, like Ramanuja, focused both on philosophical debates like dvaita vs. advaita and bhakti prayers and the works attributed to him are in Sanskrit although he codified the heritage of the Tamil Alvars.

El poeta Kabir es una de las figuras más interesantes del misticismo hindú. Se cree que nació en Benares hacia 1440, fue desde muy joven discípulo del célebre asceta Ramananda. Este predicaba en la India del Norte el mismo despertar religioso que Ramanuja, el gran reformador del brahmanismo en el siglo XII, había predicado en la India del Sur. Era, a la vez, una reacción contra el formalismo excesivo del culto ortodoxo y una reivindicación de los derechos del corazón frente al intelectualismo exagerado de la filosofía vedantista. Toda la gama de las emociones místicas está en esos poemas, desde las abstracciones más sublimes, desde la pasión más trascendente para el Infinito, hasta el sentimiento más personal y más íntimo de la presencia divina, expresado en metáforas familiares y en símbolos religiosos, que lo mismo proceden de las creencias hindúes que de las mahometanas. El autor de estos poemas, ¿era brahmán o sufí, vedantista o vishnuita? imposible decirlo. Kabir es, ante todo y como él mismo dice, el hijo de Alá y de Ram. No es posible dar fe al cúmulo de leyendas contradictorias que envuelven la historia de Kabir. Se dice que en 1518 murió en Maghar, cerca de Gorakpur. #DANZADELALMAPODCAST

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JAPA TALK

06 - இராமாநுஜ திக் விஜயம் - அரங்கன் ஏறிய அந்தரங்கம் Author: Sri APN Swami Narrated by : Sri Srinivasa Published by SARAN Music interlude : Pradeep Swaminathan, Sraavya Audios email feedback : tamilaudiobooks@gmail.com Website: tamilaudiobooks.com https://www.youtube.com/c/TamilAudioBooks?sub_confirmation=1

3rd chapter: verses 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 25-Chakra is discussed in various traditions such as Buddhism and Hinduism. It refers to the cycle of being born, doing actions, dying and being born again. Life is not one chance – rather, based on impressions and unfulfilled desires of past life, one is born again.-Within the same family, different children have different characteristics. Only a tiny fraction of the characteristics can be traced to genealogy. Their unique characteristics come from past life. Despite each one having unique characteristics, there is a consistent Ritam of harmony that one should follow, both with other human beings and with nature.-16th verse: He who follows this cosmic wheel of Ritam, principle of inter-relatedness and lives in harmony with nature – he lives in contentment. Others, who disturb cosmic life live in sin. Sin means something that we do to harm others and which, ultimately, harms us.-17th verse: Such a person, who follows harmony with nature and living beings, is aware of his identity with nature, and sees the Atman manifesting as this harmony. He sees that the same Atman is inherent and immanent in all of us. As such, he cannot do anything that disturbs this harmony.-Bhagavad Gita has ~700 verses and achieved prominence because of the commentaries written by Shankaracharya. It transcends religion and speaks about the quest for higher spiritual values that go beyond the physical.-Ramanuja’s illustration of cause-effect Chakra is discussed. Food comes from clouds/rain, rain from water absorbed by sunlight, rivers empty their water into oceans, ocean water is absorbed by clouds, clouds come down as rain, rains give us food grains, food grains make human life possible and then there is prosperity/happiness.-Shankaracharya says that the entire universe is a cycle of cause-effect link. This link may not be obvious like physics, but is intensely felt. When we do something wrong, we feel inner conflict. When we do dis-interested actions as Yajna, we feel contentment.-Yajna has two meanings: (1) Vedic rituals for harmony and peace of the world, material prosperity, well-being of relatives, etc. Vedas discuss 14 types of such Yajnas. (2) Any noble activity done with a sense of sanctity and sacredness, for the good of others. Gita discusses Yajna in its broader sense of noble activity, which becomes a royal highway for spiritual prosperity.-18th verse: Such a person, who performs all actions as Yajna, he doesn’t have anything to gain or lose. He feels permanent contentment, yet he doesn’t sit quiet but is fully active.-Vedantic interpretation of richness is discussed. If a person has a lot of money but is not satisfied, he is poor. On the other hand, if a person has no money but is contented, he is rich.-19th verse: Therefore, perform your actions, which are your obligations, without any attachment. By performing actions as such, one can reach the highest.-To lead a spiritual life, one need not get rid of what he has and there is no need to achieve what he doesn’t already have. Whatever we do, we can start doing with a new perspective.-When we do our duties with attachment, it creates mental anguish, which does not improve the performance of that duty. The same duty done without attachment leads to higher efficiency. Gandhiji’s example is discussed.-20th verse: This verse refers to men with great spiritual merit. By Karma-Yoga alone, King Janaka attained perfection. Therefore, perform your actions without selfish motive.-Philosopher King: Only the highest philosopher can be the most effective administrator, as he is aware of the limitations of his power, money and authority. Only a person who can think beyond money/power, should be allowed to handle money/power. Janaka was a philosopher king.-Kalidasa’s Kumarasambhava: “Youth, money, power – each individually can lead to one’s downfall, if one has no spiritual common sense. What to speak of all them combined together”.-Story of Janaka: Once Janaka was sitting in his court, when he got news of fire around the city. He stayed calm and made arrangements to put out the fire. When asked how he could stay calm, he replied: “Nothing is mine that will be destroyed. I am the Atman”. He then proceeded to give a discourse on Atman.-25th verse: 25th verse should be studied in combination with 20th verse. There are two types of people. (1) Those who work hard with motive and are ignorant of the higher philosophy of Karma-Yoga. For them, every small problem becomes a big headache (2) Those who work equally hard, but who are grounded in Karma-Yoga. They are not worried and are called Vidwan.-We cannot change our duties and obligations. We can change the way we interpret our actions. Karma-Yogis are able to work with greater efficiency because they have a different perspective on their actions.-Soul has a natural way of connecting with next life. The general background for this is prepared in past life. If we die with a strong desire left, we will be born in circumstances where that desire can be fulfilled. Metaphor of an insect is provided, who fixes its front leg on next step before moving forward. Lord Krishna says that our spiritual practices from this life is deposited in our spiritual bank balance for our next life.

A Synopsis Of Sankara, Ramanuja, And Madhvaand#8217;s Philosophies. Lecture delivered by His Holiness on philosophy, principles, and practices of Krishna consciousness based on revealed Vedic scriptures as received in parampara.

Story written by Dr Sri APN Swami Narrated by Sri Srinivasa Tamilaudiobooks.com ஆழ்வார்களின் மங்களாசாசனம் பெற்ற தலங்கள், அபிமான திருத்தலங்கள், ஏனைய புண்ய ஷேத்ரங்கள் என ஸ்ரீ ராமனுஜரின் திக்விஜயம் நீள்கிறது. ராமானுஜருக்கும், திவ்ய தேசங்களுக்குமுள்ள தொடர்பை விளக்குவதே இன்நூலின் நோக்கம் for books written by Sri APN Swami visit http://apnswami.wordpress.com Email feedback on this audio tamilaudiobooks@gmail.com for details on tamil audio books narrated by Sri Srinivasa visit http://www.tamilaudiobooks.com - iTunes, spotify, google play, apple music etc.,

Verses: 31-35, 49-53This lecture was given by Swami Tattwamayananda at Stanford University on June 2, 2019. The lecture was hosted by the Stanford Hindu Students Association. -The highest bhakti ( is a natural effortless flow of the mind towards God. The six factors of surrender (शरणागति or प्रपत्ति) to God as described by Ramanuja are explained. For an advaitin, this bhakti is a means to the purification of the mind where Self-realization becomes inevitable.-As we evolve, the divine qualities that we meditate upon enter into our own character and we begin to see unity everywhere. We are no longer able to do harm to anybody.-The spiritual teacher, Guru, is the one who destroys our ignorance. Our spiritual nature is self-revealed. The analogy is that when a canal is cut, the water flows of itself.-Some of the qualities of a perfect spiritual teacher are enumerated: 1)well-versed in the scriptures 2)sinless 3)teacher with no desire 4)a knower of Brahman 5) peaceful 6)with all desires burnt out 7)in possession of completely motiveless compassion 8)a friend who naturally and effortlessly helps those who seek refuge-Real humility (प्रह्व) when approaching a teacher is not a slavish attitude but rather a polite dignified ability to stay one step below in order for wisdom to flow to the student. -An aspirant will feel an inner discontentment because they have realized the reality of their bondage and the possibility of realizing something much higher. It is actually a positive attitude (मुमुक्षुत्व), not a wretched attitude. -A strong warning is given that trying to practice sadhanas without respecting the teacher-disciple tradition (परम्परा) can lead to possible deviations or difficulties in spiritual life. The royal highway of following the teacher-disciple lineages is recommended.-The seven great questions about reality are asked. The guru congratulates the student for becoming a genuine Vedantic aspirant and achieved their life’s purpose (कृतकृत्य). Their whole lineage has become spiritually uplifted, blessed, and purified by the aspirant. This displays the sacred dimension of family ties.-The aspirant must make self-effort to remove their own spiritual bondage.

https://apnswami.wordpress.com/ Vachaspathy Dr. Sri. U. Ve Mukundagiri Vankeepuram Ananntha PadmaNabhachariar, fondly called as Sri APN Swami is a famous Upanyasakar & writer of our ancient Sanathana Dharma. He is also the editor of the renowned Sri Nrisimhapriya(Tamil edition) magazine. With a Siromani, M.A., M.Phil., and PH.D in Sanskrit from University of Madras, he has been playing a pivotal role in spreading Sanathana Dharma and helping millions of people understand the nuances and intricacies of the Hindu way of life.

https://apnswami.wordpress.com/ Vachaspathy Dr. Sri. U. Ve Mukundagiri Vankeepuram Ananntha PadmaNabhachariar, fondly called as Sri APN Swami is a famous Upanyasakar & writer of our ancient Sanathana Dharma. He is also the editor of the renowned Sri Nrisimhapriya(Tamil edition) magazine. With a Siromani, M.A., M.Phil., and PH.D in Sanskrit from University of Madras, he has been playing a pivotal role in spreading Sanathana Dharma and helping millions of people understand the nuances and intricacies of the Hindu way of life.

Chapter 2 Verses 46-48.The lecture was given by Swami Tattwamayananda on May 10, 2019. -'Brahmana' ideal: its universality -Ethical and spiritual implications (verse 46). -Shankara, Ramanuja and Madhwa on the 'Brahmana ideal'.-Buddha on the ideal 'Brahmana' -Our actions and their results: their unpredictability (verse 47).-We cannot predict how our mind will work, the way we can predict how a machine will work.-The psychological implications of the 'Karma-yoga' ideal. (Verses 47, 48).-The 'spiritually enlightened': the goal and the means.

Spiritual Talk given on August 20, 2017 by Swami Sarvadevananda at the Santa Barbara Vedanta Temple. "Ramanuja and his Philosophy" is the title of this very educational talk, which introduces us to the important Vedanta philosopher, Ramanuja, whose birth was one thousand years ago in 1017. Ramanuja opened a new path for spiritual seekers in the Vedanta tradition. Swami gives an excellent explanation of how it enhanced Vedanta thought.

Bhaktivaibhava Swami, ein aus Deutschland stammender Schüler Srila Prabhupadas und ein spiritueller Meister in der ISKCON, erzählt lebendig die Geschichten der Alvars, der südindischen Heiligen. Dem Zuhörer öffnet sich eine geheimnisvolle Welt voller Ethik, Abentheuer und Gottesbewusstsein. Episode 5 - Ramanuja tritt in den Lebensstand des Sannyasa [Entsagung] # Yadava Prakash wird Ramanujas Schüler # Ramanujacarya erhält den geheimen Sampradaya-Mantra von Gosthipurna

Bhaktivaibhava Swami, ein aus Deutschland stammender Schüler Srila Prabhupadas und ein spiritueller Meister in der ISKCON, erzählt lebendig die Geschichten der Alvars, der südindischen Heiligen. Dem Zuhörer öffnet sich eine geheimnisvolle Welt voller Ethik, Abentheuer und Gottesbewusstsein. Episode 7 - Ramanuja bekommt Mahaprabhus darshan # Sri Venkatesvara # Dhanur das Sieg über 10.000 Buddhisten # Kuresa erlangt sein Augenlicht wieder # Ramanujas Verscheiden

Lecture by Swami Tyagananda on  December 1st, 2013 at the Ramakrishna Vedanta Society, Boston, MA

Festival Lecture by Swami B.V. Tripurari on February 2nd, 2012 - Sri Ramanuja Acharya's Disappearance Day.

Festival Lecture by Swami B.V. Tripurari on February 2nd, 2012 - Sri Ramanuja Acharya's Disappearance Day.