this is why we celebrate charda pandige.

sribatsa chinta.

patam

Amazing!!! Time to revive cultural heritage!
The 13th century poet saint Gyandev created a children's game called Moksha Patam. The British (intentionally to break our rich culture & education system)  later named it Snakes and Ladders instead of the original Moksha Patam.
In the original one hundred square game board, the 12th square was faith, the 51st square was reliability, the 57th square was generosity, the 76th square was knowledge, and the 78th square was asceticism.

These were the squares where the ladders were found and one could move ahead faster. The 41st square was for disobedience, the 44th square for arrogance, the 49th square for vulgarity, the 52nd square for theft, the 58th square for lying, the 62nd square for drunkenness, the 69th square for debt, the 84th square for anger, the 92nd square for greed, the 95th square for pride, the 73rd square for murder and the 99th square for lust. These were the squares where the snake waited with its mouth open.

The 100th square represented Nirvana or Moksha.The tops of each ladder depict a God, or one of the various heavens (kailasa, vaikuntha, brahmaloka) and so on. As the game progressed various actions were supposed to take you up and down the board as in life...

life's blueprint

Prabha Narasimha <prabhasimha@gmail.com>	9:23 PM (33 minutes ago)
to me

Rarely seen footage of Martin Luther King, Jr., speaking to students at Barratt Junior High School in Philadelphia on October 26, 1967, where he delivered his speech “What Is Your Life’s Blueprint?”

“Thank you very kindly. Principal, Mr. Williams, Members of the faculty and members of the student body of Barratt Junior High School, Ladies and Gentlemen. I need not pause to say how very delighted I am to be here today, and to have the opportunity of taking a very brief break in a pretty busy schedule in the city of Philadelphia, to share with you the students of Barrat Junior High School. And I want to express my personal appreciation to the Principal and the administration for inviting me and giving me the opportunity to see this very fine and enthusiastic group of students here at Barrat.”

I want to ask you a question, and that is: What is in your life’s blueprint?

This is the most important and crucial period of your lives. For what you do now and what you decide now at this age may well determine which way your life shall go.

Whenever a building is constructed, you usually have an architect who draws a blueprint, and that blueprint serves as the pattern, as the guide, and a building is not well erected without a good, sound and solid blueprint.

Now each of you is in the process of building the structure of your lives, and the question is, whether you have a proper, a solid, and a sound blueprint.

And I want to suggest some of the things that should be in your life’s blueprint.

Number one in your life’s blueprint should be, a deep belief in your own dignity, your own worth and your own somebodiness. Don’t allow anybody to make you feel that you are nobody. Always feel that you count. Always feel that you have worth, and always feel that your life has ultimate significance.

Now that means you should not be ashamed of your color. You know, it’s very unfortunate that in so many instances, our society has placed a stigma on the Negro’s color. You know there are some Negro’s who are ashamed of themselves? Don’t be ashamed of your color. Don’t be ashamed of your biological features. Somehow you must be able to say in your own lives, and really believe it, “I Am Black But Beautiful!” And therefore you need not be lulled into purchasing cosmetics advertised to make you lighter, neither do you need to process your hair to make it appear straight. I have good hair and it is as good as anybody else’s in the world…And we gotta believe that. Now in your life’s blueprint Be Sure that you have a principle of Somebodiness.

Secondly, in your life’s blueprint you must have as the basic principle the determination to achieve excellence in your various fields of endeavor. You’re going to be deciding as the days, as the years unfold, what you will do in life — what your life’s work will be. Once you discover what it will be, set out to do it, and to do it well.

And I say to you, my young friends, that doors are opening to you–doors of opportunityare opening to you that were not open to your mothers and your fathers — and the great challenge facing you is to be ready to enter these doors as they open.

Ralph Waldo Emerson, the great essayist, said in a lecture in 1871, “If a man can write a better book or preach a better sermon or make a better mousetrap than his neighbor, even if he builds his house in the woods, the world will make a beaten path to his door.”

This hasn’t always been true — but it will become increasingly true, and so I would urge you to study hard, to burn the midnight oil; I would say to you, don’t drop out of school. I understand all of the sociological reasons why we drop out of school, but I urge you that in spite of your economic plight, in spite of the situation that you’re forced to live so often, with intolerable conditions — stay in school.

And when you discover what you are gonna be in life, set out to do it as if God Almighty called you at this particular moment in history to do it. And just don’t set out to do a good Negro job, but do a good job that anybody could do. Don’t set out to be a good Negro doctor, or a good Negro lawyer or a good Negro school teacher or a good Negro preacher or a good Negro barber or a beautician or a good Negro skilled laborer. For if you set out to do that, you have already flunked your matriculation exam into the University of Integration. Set out to do a good job and Do That Job So Well that the LIVING, the DEAD, or the UNBORN couldn’t do it any better.

If it falls your lot to be a street sweeper, sweep streets like Michelangelo painted pictures, sweep streets like Beethoven composed music, sweep streets like Leontyne Price sings before the Metropolitan Opera. Sweep streets like Shakespeare wrote poetry. Sweep streets so well that all the hosts of Heaven and Earth will have to pause and say: Here lived a great street sweeper who swept his job well. If you can’t be a pine at the top of the hill, be a shrub in the valley. Be the best little shrub on the side of the hill.

Be a bush if you can’t be a tree.
If you can’t be a highway, just be a trail.
If you can’t be a sun, be a star.
For it isn’t by size that you win or you fail.
Be the BEST of whatever you are.”

***
“Finally, in your life’s blueprint, must be a commitment to the eternal principles of beauty, love, and justice. Well life, for none of us, has been a crystal stair, but we must keep moving, we must keep going!

If you can’t fly, run.
If you can’t run, walk.
If you can’t walk, crawl,
but by all means, keep moving!”
***
— From the estate of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

ReplyForward

The song of the adorable.

 

 

L approval.

Maraneri Nambi was a disciple of Alavandar. But Maraneri Nambi’s family members were not devout Sri Vaishnavas, and Maraneri Nambi did not want them to perform his last rights after his death. So Periya nambi another disciple of Alavandar performed the last rites for Maraneri nambi. Periya nambi was a brahmin and Mananeri nambi was not. People started saying Periya nambi being a brahmin should not have performed the last rites of Maraneri nambi.

When people complained to Ramanuja about Periya nambi, Ramanuja wanted to show the greatness of Maraneri nambi, so he met Periya nambi and asked him why he had performed the last rites of  Maraneri nambi. Periya nambis reply pleased Ramanuja very much for thatis what he had expected to hear, Periya nambi said, "Lord Rama granted moksha to bird Jatayu. Maraneri Nambi is not lower in status than a bird, nor am I greater than the Lord Rama".

Lord Ranganatha of Srirangam also gave his approval for Periya nambi's act. Periya nambis family had been ostracized and none of the inhabitants of Srirangam would talk to any one in  his family. Periya nambi who had not missed a single participation in Lord Ranganathas festivals stayed at home, sad because he could not witness the Lords procession in his chariot. Lord Ranganatha who was out on his chariot (IT is said that Lord Ranganatha is always out on his chariot almost everyday on his rounds there are so many festivities and it seems any small reason he wants to get out of the temple to meet his people in their places of stay work) wanted to show the world that he was in full support of what Periya nambi had done. Even as people walked along the chariot the chariot suddenly stopped outside Periya nambis house and no matter what it would not move even an inch until Periya nambi had had darshan of the Lord. Showing the world his acceptance of what Periya nambi had done and their attitude was disapproved. 

There are many such stories connected to temple and its town people both small and large temples. certain being followed to this day.

GP

An Account of the Law for Liberation.

1-4. Garuḍa said: I have heard from you, O Ocean of compassion, about the

transmigrating of the individual, through ignorance, in the worlds of change. I now wish

to hear about the means for eternal liberation.

O Lord, O Ruler of the Shining Ones, compassionate to those who seek refuge,--in this

terrible world of change, in the unsubstantial, in all deep miseries,

The endless multitudes of individuals, placed in various kinds of bodies, are born and die-

-of them no end is known.

Always miserable in this world, no one is ever known to be happy. O Lord of Liberation,

tell me by what means they may obtain release, O Lord.

5-7. The Blessed Lord said: Listen, O Târkṣya, and I will explain to you what you have

asked, even by the hearing of which a man is released from the world of change.

There is a Shining One, Śiva, who has the nature of Supreme Brâhmaṇ, who is partless,

all-knowing, all-doing, Lord of all, stainless and secondless,

Self-illumined, beginningless and endless, beyond the Beyond, without attributes, Being

and Knowing and Bliss. That which is considered the individual is from a part of Him.

8-10 These, like sparks of a fire, with beginningless ignorance, separated and encased in

bodies by beginningless karma,

Are fettered by forms of good and evil, giving happiness and misery,--with nationality of

body, length of life, and fortune born of karma.

In every life obtained. They have also, O Bird, a higher and more subtle body, the liṅga,

lasting until liberation.

11-13. The unmoving things, worms, goats, birds, animals, men, the righteous, the thirty-

three deities, and also the liberated, according to their order,

Having worn and cast aside the four sorts of bodies thousands of times, one becomes a

man by good deeds, and if he becomes a knower 1 he attains liberation.

The embodied, in the eighty-four hundred thousands of bodies before attaining human

birth, can obtain no knowledge of the truth.

14-16. Through millions of myriads of thousands of births some time a being obtains

human birth, through the accumulation of merit.

He who, having obtained a human body, difficult to get, and a step to liberation, does not

help himself over,--who in this world is more sinful than he?

The man who, having obtained this highest birth and superior senses, does not understand

what benefits the soul is a slayer of Brâhmaṇ.

17-19. Without a body, nobody obtains the object of human life; therefore should he

guard his body as wealth and perform meritorious deeds.

He should always guard his body, which is the means to everything. Living, he should

make every effort to protect it, in view of welfare.

A village again, a field again, wealth again, a house again, good and evil actions again--

the body never again. 1

20-21. The wise always adopt means for the preservation of the body; even those

afflicted with diseases such as leprosy do not wish to give it up.

It should be guarded for the sake of duty; duty for the sake of knowledge; knowledge for

the sake of Yoga-meditation,--then he is soon released.

22-23. If he does not guard himself against harm who else will? Therefore should he look

after his own benefit.

He who does not take precautions against the diseases of hell while here; afflicted with

disease and having gone to a country where there is no medicine, what will he do?

24-25. Old age comes on like a tigress; life goes like water from a broken pot; diseases

attack like foes. Therefore should he strive for the best.

So long as misery does not come, so long as calamity does not befall, so long as the

senses are not decayed, so long should he strive for the best.

26-32. So long as the body lasts, so long should truth be pursued,--the stupid man digs his

well when the corner of his house is already afire.

The time of death is not known by those who are variously embodied in the world of

change. Alas! a man, between happiness and misery, does not know his own benefit.

Though seeing those just born, the afflicted, the dead, those whom calamity has befallen,

and the miserable, people are never afraid, having drunk the liquor of delusion.

Riches are like unto a dream; youth is like a flower, life is fickle as lightning,--where is

there a discerning one who is at ease?

Even a hundred years of life is very little, and half of it is sleep and idleness, and even

that little is unfruitful owing to the miseries of childhood, disease and old age.

He does not do what ought to be done; when he should be awake he sleeps; where he

should fear he confides. Alas! what man is not stricken.

How shall the individual who has taken a body, which is like foam on water and is

attached to passing objects, be free from fear?

33-35. He who does not know what is good for him thinks the harmful beneficial, the

impermanent permanent, and the evil good;

Though seeing, he falters; though hearing, he does not understand; though reading, he

does not know; bewildered by the divine magic.

This universe is immersed in the boundless ocean of death,--though grasped by the

crocodiles of death, disease and old age, he does not understand.

36-38. Time, though wearing away with every moment, is unnoticed, just as an unbaked

pot placed in water disappears imperceptibly.

Air may be enclosed, ether may be split; waves may be bound,--life cannot be made

permanent.

Earth is burnt away by time; even Meru is reduced to powder; the water of the ocean is

dried away--what shall be said of the body?

39-41. The wolf of death forcibly slays the lamb of a mortal, who prates of "my

offspring; my wife; my wealth; my relatives."

"This has been done; this is to be done; this other is done or not done." Him who is thus

prating death overpowers.

"It must be done to-morrow; it must be done to-day; in the morning or in the afternoon,"-

-death does not consider whether it leas been done or not done.

42. Thou shalt encounter the enemy, death, whose, coming is shown by age, who has an

army of dreadful diseases--wilt thou not see the saviour?

43-44. Death preys upon the man afflicted with the needles of thirst, bitten by the serpent

of sense-objects, and baked in the fire of desire and repulsion.

Death attacks children, young men, the old, those in the embryo condition,--such is this

world of creatures.

45-48. This individual, leaving his own body, goes to the abode of Yama. What is the

good of association with wife, mother, father, son and others?

The world of change is verily the root of misery. He who is in it is afflicted with misery.

He who abandons it becomes happy,--otherwise never.

This world of change, which is the source of all misery, the seat of all calamities, and the

refuge of all sins, should be abandoned at once.

A man bound in fetters of iron or wood may be released, but from the fetters of son and

wife can never be freed.

49-51. So long as the being makes attachments pleasant to the mind, so long shall the

dagger of sorrow pierce his heart.

People are destroyed every day by the desire for great wealth. Alas! Fie upon the foods of

the senses, which steal away the senses of the body.

Just as the fish, covetous of flesh, does not see the iron hook, so the embodied, covetous

of pleasure, does not see the torments of Yama.

52-55. Those men who do not understand what is good and what is not good for them,

who constantly pursue evil courses, and are intent on the filling of the belly, are destined

for hell, O Bird.

Sleep, sexual pleasure, and eating are common to all creatures. Who possesses

knowledge is called a man, who is devoid of it is called a beast.

Foolish men are tormented at break of day by nature's calls; when the sun is in the

meridian by hunger and thirst; in the night by passion and sleep.

All those beings who are attached to their bodies, wealth, wife and other things, are born

and die deluded by ignorance, alas!

56-57. Therefore should attachment be shunned always, It is not possible to give up

everything. therefore should friendship with the great be cultivated, as a remedy for

attachment.

Attachment to the good, discrimination, and purity of the eyes--the man who has not

these is blind. How shall he not tread evil ways?

58. All those deluded men who turn away from the duties of their respective castes and

orders, and do not understand the highest righteousness, perish fruitlessly.

59-60. Some are intent upon ceremonies, attached to the practice of vows; with self

enveloped in ignorance the imposters go about.

The men who are attached to the ceremonial alone are satisfied with mere names, deluded

by the repetitions of mantras, oblations and other things, and by elaborate rituals.

61-62. The fools, bewildered by My magic, desire to obtain the invisible by single meals,

fasts and other restraints, and by the emaciation of the body.

Of those who have no discrimination, what liberation can there be by bodily tortures

alone? What great serpent is killed by beating the anthill alone? 1

63. The hypocrites, putting on appearances, and wearing quantities of matted hair, and

using antelope skins, wander about like knowers, and even delude people.

64. He who is attached to the pleasures of the worlds of change, saying "I am a knower of

Brâhmaṇ," and is devoid of both rites and Brâhmaṇ should be shunned like a low

outcaste.

65-69. Donkeys walk about among people, in forests and among houses, quite naked and

unashamed. Are these free from attachment?

If men are to be liberated by earth, ashes and dust, does the dog which always live among

earth and ashes become liberated?

The jackals, rats, deer and others, which feed upon grass, leaves and water, and always

live in forests,--do these become ascetics?

The crocodiles, fishes and others, which from birth to death, dwell in the waters of

Ganges,--do these become Yogins?

Pigeons at times eat stones, and Châtaka birds do not drink water from the earth,--are

these observers of vows?

70. Therefore this class of practices is a thing which makes pleasure for people, O Lord

of Birds,--direct knowledge of the Truth is the cause of liberation.

71-73. Fallen into the great well of the six philosophies, 1 O Bird, the brutes do not

understand the chief good; bound in the snare of animalism.

They are tossed hither and thither in the dreadful ocean of Vedas and Śâstras; caught in

the six waves they remain sophists.

He who knows the Vedas, the Śâstras and the Purâṇas, but does not know the chief

good,--of that imitator all this is as the speech of a crow.

71-76. "This is known; this must be known,"--thus bewildered by anxiety they read the

scriptures day and night, turning away from the highest truth.

The fools, decorated with garlands of poetry constructed of forms of speech, miserable

with anxiety, remain with senses bewildered.

76-77. Men trouble themselves variously, but the highest truth is otherwise; they explain

in different ways but the best purport of the Śâstras is otherwise.

They talk of the highest experiences, not realising them themselves. Some have ceased

preaching, being engrossed in egotism.

78-82. They repeat the Vedas and the Śâstras, and argue with one another, but they do not

understand the highest truth,--like the spoon the flavour of the food.

The head bears flowers, the nostril knows the smell. They read the Vedas and the Śâstras,

but find impossible the understanding of the truth.

The fool, not knowing that the truth is seated in himself, is bewildered by the Śâstras,--a

foolish goatherd, with the young goat under his arm, peers into the well.

Verbal knowledge cannot destroy the illusions of the world of change,--darkness never

disappears by talking of a lamp.

Reading, to a man devoid of wisdom, is like a mirror to the blind; hence, for those who

have understanding, Śâstras are only a potter to the knowledge of the truth.

83-84. "'This is known; this must be known,"--he wishes to hear everything. If one lives

for a thousand celestial years he cannot reach the end of the Śâstras.

The Śâstras are numerous; life is brief; and there are tens of millions of obstacles;

therefore the essence should be understood,--like the swan taking the milk in the water.

85-86. Haring practised the Vedas and the Śâstras, and having known the Truth, the wise

man should abandon all the scriptures; just as one rich in grains abandons the straw.

Just as there is no use for food to one who is satisfied with nectar, so is there not use for

the scriptures, O Târkṣya, to the knower of the Truth.

87-88. There is no liberation by the study of the Vedas, nor by the reading of the Śâstras.

Emancipation is by knowledge alone, not otherwise, O son of Vinatâ.

The stages of life are not the cause of liberation, nor are the philosophies, nor are

actions,---knowledge only is the cause.

89-90. The word from the Teacher gives liberation; all learning is masquerade. Among

thousands of woods the Sañjîvana 1 is best.

The non-dual, verily declared auspicious, is beyond efforts of action, and to be obtained

by the word of the Teacher, not by the study of tens of millions of texts.

91. Knowledge is said to be of two kinds: study and discrimination. The study is of Śabda

Brâhmaṇ; Para Brahmaṇ is reached by discrimination.

92. Some prefer the Non-dual 2; other prefer the Dual 3 but they do not understand the

One Reality, beyond the Dual and Non-dual.

93-94. Two phrases make for bondage and liberation: "Mine" and "Not-mine." The being

saying "Mine" is bound; saying "Not-mine" is released.

That is the karma that does not bind, that the knowledge that gives release; other karma is

worrying, other knowledge is skilful chiselling.

95-97. So long as actions are performed; so long as the impressions of the world of

change remain, so long as the senses are fickle; so long how can there be realisation of

Truth?

So long as there is pride of body; so long as there is the sense of "mineness," so long as

there is excited striving; so long as there is imagination of plans;

So long as there is not stability of mind; so long as there is no meditation upon the

Śâstras, so long as there is no love for the Teacher; so long how can there be realisation

of Truth?

98-99. So long as one does not reach Truth, so long should he do austerities, vows,

pilgrimage to sacred waters, recitations, oblations, worship and reading of the prescribed

texts of the Vedas and Śâstras.

Therefore, if one desires liberation for himself, O Târkṣya, he should every effort,

always, and under all circumstances he attached to Truth.

100. One who is tormented by the three miseries and the rest, should resort to the shade

of the tree of Liberation, whose flowers are righteousness and knowledge, and fruits are

heaven and liberation.

101. Therefore from the mouth of the Blessed Teacher the Truth of the self should be

known. By knowledge the being is easily released from the awful bondage of the worlds

of change.

102. Listen! I will tell you now about the final actions of the knower of the Truth, by

which he obtains liberation, which is called the Nirvâṇa of Brâhmaṇ.

103-107. His last days approaching, the man, rid of fear, should cut off, with the sword of

unattachment, the desires connected with the body.

Courageously wandering from home, performing ablutions in the water of the holy

bathing places, sitting alone on a pure seat prepared as prescribed,

He should practise mentally upon the supreme three-fold pure Word of Brahmâ. He

should, with breath controlled, restrain his mind, not forgetting the Brahma Bîja. 1

With reason for charioteer he should withdraw the senses from the sense-objects by the

mind, and should fix his mind, drawn away by karmas, with understanding, upon the

pure.

"1 am Brâhmaṇ, the Supreme Abode; I am Brâhmaṇ, the Highest Goal,"--having realised

this and placed the self in the self he should meditate.

108. He who, when leaving the body, utters the one-syllabled Brâhmaṇ, "Oṁ,"

remembering me, goes to the Highest Goal.

109-110. The hypocrites, devoid of knowledge and unattachment, do not go there. I will

tell you about the wise, who go to that goal.

Free from pride and delusion, with the evils of attachment conquered, always dwelling in

the Higher Self, with desires overcome, released from the contracts known as pleasure

and pain, they go, undeluded, on that eternal path.

111-114. He who bathes in the water of the Mânasa, 1 which removes the impurities of

attraction and repulsion, in the lake of knowledge, in the waters of Truth,--he verily

attains liberation.

He who, firm in non-attachment, worships me, thinking of no other, full-visioned, with

tranquil self,--he verily attains liberation.

He who, expecting to die, leaning his home, dwells at a sacred bathing-place, or dies in a

place of liberation, he verily attains liberation.

Ayodhyâ, 2 Mathurâ, 3 Gayâ, 4 Kaśî, 5 Kañchi, 6 Avantikâ, 7 Dwârâvatî, 8--these seven

cities should be known as the givers of liberation.

115. This eternal way of liberal in al has been described to you, O Târkṣya,--hearing it

with knowledge and dispassion one attains liberation.

116. Knowers of Truth attain liberation; righteous men go to heaven; sinners go to an evil

condition; birds and others transmigrate.

117. Thus in sixteen chapters I have related to you the extracted essence of all the

scriptures. What else do you wish to hear?

118-120. Sûta said: Having thus heard, O King, these words from the mouth of the Lord,

Garuḍa, repeatedly prostrating himself, said this, with hands folded together:--

"O Lord, O God of Gods, having heard these words of nectar I have been helped over the

ocean of existence, O Lord, O. Protector!

"I stand freed from doubts. My desires have been completely fulfilled." Having said this,

Garuḍa became silent and lost in meditation.

121. May Hari, the remembrance of whom removes evil, who gives the condition of

happiness for the sacrifice of worship, and who gives liberation for supreme devotion to

Him,--protect us.