Nerelge

Shri lakshmi Chinakeshava swamy

 As we experienced the most modern facilities of Boston for a period of two months July 1st to sept 2nd and there after landed in the remotest town rather a village in Karnataka we felt grounded. this small village which hardly had a handful of brahmin families living on the temple street fighting their right for survival in their ancestral property and keeping alive the age old tradition. my FIL belonged to this tiny village once a prosperous area. He was the first to get an engineers degree from this village. In those days it was considered a great achievement . Though he only spent his formative years in the village. And studied school and college outside. There is a marked character to the people from this village. All generous and simple. He had five children and he nursed and schooled 5 other boys all through school and college till they finished their education.  He worked for the Indian airlines. I never got to meet him. All his children too studied well and lived prosperously Although we had imbibed the name of this village as our company name we knew nothing of this place except for a story or two narrated by my MIL she always complained that at 15 she was married and had to cook and fend for five students all through her initial years of marriage. But the Lord blessed her that her own 5 were successful in their studies and later life. Probably they kept away since she was keen to inherit the lands that belonged to them and the children were not interested. after her passing away in 2016 my husband  took interest to visit this place annually and revive this temple town. yesterday it was nice to see the gathering for the annual celebration grown nearly five times from what it used to be a few years ago. this is no divya desham but the Lord is Lord only the alwars have not visited or rather not sung his praise in the temple there is a beautiful idol of the Lord.lakshmi Chennakesava swamy temple  also housing a beautiful idol of swamyRamanuja . but the people are so drawn to the deity and the affection they show to the lord is so infectious. a satisfaction that all is still in good hands where the purpose of life and life style love for God and his devotees is abundant. A feeling life well spent. 

N S Rv

  नासदीय सूक्त (ऋग्वेद ) 

नास॑दासी॒न्नो सदा॑सीत्त॒दानीं॒ नासी॒द्रजो॒ नो व्यो॑मा प॒रो यत् ।

किमाव॑रीवः॒ कुह॒ कस्य॒ शर्म॒न्नम्भः॒ किमा॑सी॒द्गह॑नं गभी॒रम् ॥ १॥ 

 Then even nothingness was not, nor existence,

 There was no air then, nor the heavens beyond it.

 What covered it? Where was it? In whose keeping

 Was there then cosmic water, in depths unfathomed?

न मृ॒त्युरा॑सीद॒मृतं॒ न तर्हि॒ न रात्र्या॒ अह्न॑ आसीत्प्रके॒तः ।

आनी॑दवा॒तं स्व॒धया॒ तदेकं॒ तस्मा॑द्धा॒न्यन्न प॒रः किं च॒नास॑ ॥ २॥

  Then there was neither death nor immortality

  nor was there then the torch of night and day.

  The One breathed windlessly and self-sustaining.

  There was that One then, and there was no other.

तम॑ आसी॒त्तम॑सा गू॒ळ्हमग्रे॑ऽप्रके॒तं स॑लि॒लं सर्व॑मा इ॒दम् ।

तु॒च्छ्येना॒भ्वपि॑हितं॒ यदासी॒त्तप॑स॒स्तन्म॑हि॒नाजा॑य॒तैक॑म् ॥ ३॥

  At first there was only darkness wrapped in darkness.

  All this was only unillumined water.

  That One which came to be, enclosed in nothing,

  arose at last, born of the power of heat.

काम॒स्तदग्रे॒ सम॑वर्त॒ताधि॒ मन॑सो॒ रेतः॑ प्रथ॒मं यदासी॑त् ।

स॒तो बन्धु॒मस॑ति॒ निर॑विन्दन्हृ॒दि प्र॒तीष्या॑ क॒वयो॑ मनी॒षा ॥ ४॥

  In the beginning desire descended on it -

 that was the primal seed, born of the mind.

  The sages who have searched their hearts with wisdom

  know that which is is kin to that which is not.

ति॒र॒श्चीनो॒ वित॑तो र॒श्मिरे॑षाम॒धः स्वि॑दा॒सी३दु॒परि॑ स्विदासी३त् ।

रे॒तो॒धा आ॑सन्महि॒मान॑ आसन्स्व॒धा अ॒वस्ता॒त्प्रय॑तिः प॒रस्ता॑त् ॥ ५॥

  And they have stretched their cord across the void,

  and know what was above, and what  below.

  Seminal powers made fertile mighty forces.

  Below was strength, and over it was impulse.

को अ॒द्धा वे॑द॒ क इ॒ह प्र वो॑च॒त्कुत॒ आजा॑ता॒ कुत॑ इ॒यं विसृ॑ष्टिः ।

अ॒र्वाग्दे॒वा अ॒स्य वि॒सर्ज॑ने॒नाथा॒ को वे॑द॒ यत॑ आब॒भूव॑ ॥ ६॥

  But,  after all, who knows, and who can say

  Whence it all came, and how creation happened?

  the gods themselves are later than creation,

  so who knows truly whence it has arisen?

इ॒यं विसृ॑ष्टि॒र्यत॑ आब॒भूव॒ यदि॑ वा द॒धे यदि॑ वा॒ न ।

यो अ॒स्याध्य॑क्षः पर॒मे व्यो॑म॒न्सो अ॒ङ्ग वे॑द॒ यदि॑ वा॒ न वेद॑ ॥ ७॥

  Whence all creation had its origin,

  he, whether he fashioned it or whether he did not,

  he, who surveys it all from highest heaven,

  he knows - or maybe even he does not know.

This is the famous नासदीय सूक्त  the 129-th sUkta of

the 10-th mandala of the Rigveda . It has been translated and

discussed by many scholars and there have been volumes dedicated

to just this one sUkta . The current translation is by A . L.

Basham, from his book entitled ``The Wonder that was India''.

Super moon at boston.

Super moon with

saturn shot at boston by me on the night of 30th August 3 a.m. of 31st Aug. From a phone camera. 

 

Stepping stones

 Scriptures great saints works, Epics,  prayers in temples, services to the idol annual  .......... are all stepping stones. They are  all guiding lights to realisazion.one has to imbibe them into one's life that every breath and every thought every thing one sees is full of the wonders of the lords creations . One should acustom themselves so much that one lives like the lords puppets. Doing the lords work only to please him. Everything is lost the individuality too must go to merge with the lord in every step of the way. This is no mean task. Why this post why this page why this me. A long way to go.....

Chand. Pratham prabha.

 Wo Chand kila do tArE hase yeh raat ajab matavali hai.

Samaja ne wale samaj gaye. Jo na samaje wo aanadi hai.

Amrita Kal khi pratham prabha me safaltha ki amrit varsha hui hai.

Courage and conviction.

 Suppose we have the courage of conviction — that is, we are convinced about the greatness of a cause and ready to endure difficulties for that cause. But should our courage of conviction always end in our conviction .

Therefore, to best serve a cause bigger than ourselves, we need to balance courage with a service attitude. The Bhagavad-gita provides a philosophical foundation for such a service attitude by revealing that we all are parts of a divine reality far greater than ourselves (15.07); that divinity is the supreme benefactor of everyone (05.29); and we can do the best service by acting in harmony with the divine will (18.73). That’s why the Gita commends courage as not just a virtue, but as a virtue reflective of a divine nature (16.01). Simultaneously, Gita wisdom reproaches impulsiveness and recklessness, even if driven by a noble sentiment — it asserts that action in the mode of ignorance involves distress and destruction (18.25) without affecting much transformation in the situation. 

The more we learn to balance courage with a service attitude, the greater will be our impact.

R W.

(An edited version of this article was published in June 2020 issue of Vedanta Kesari, a monthly magazine of Sri Ramakrishna Math, published from Chennai.)

We have two faculties which influence our decisions. In any given situation, we will have various options for action. We will have to choose one. One faculty, called manas, evaluates the various options based on likes and dislikes. Another faculty, called buddhi (intellect), evaluates the options based on right and wrong. Animals also make decisions. However, they always make decisions based on likes and dislikes. Only humans have the buddhi, which works through the mirror neurons in the pre-frontal cortex. Using this faculty, we are able to mentally run various simulations of what will be the consequence of the action to us and others, in the near-term and long-term. By this, we can make better decisions. This buddhi is the one that distinguishes between animals and human beings.

Katha Upanishad calls decision based on manas as preyas, and decision based on buddhi as shreyas. It says that following shreyas will lead us towards becoming better people. Following preyas will lead to downfall. A noble human being is one who ignores preyas and acts based on shreyas. (Katha Upanishad, 1.2.1,2) The person would do what is right, even if it is inconvenient or gives pain, and would avoid doing what is wrong, even if it is convenient or gives pleasure. This faculty or capacity to choose shreyas over preyas is called will power. Exercising the will power is the only way to increase it.

What is right and what is wrong? How do we decide in confusing situations? Can we depend on our gut-feel or conscience? Is there guidance from our scriptures on this? This is a question that is asked very often.

In most of the situations in our life, what is right and what is wrong is quite unambiguous. Only in some situations, things are gray. In the situations where it is clear, if we do not do what is right and refrain from what is wrong, we will be violating our own judgement. The intellect is uncomfortable with this. The intellect starts looking for a justification for the wrong action. This results in indecisiveness in a similar future situation. Over a period of time, this becomes a habit. So, every time we violate our intellectual conviction, we are pushing more situations into gray areas, thus weakening our intellect. We are also weakening our will power. So, where we know what is right and what is wrong, following our intellectual conviction is very important. Without this, mere knowing is of no use.

Now, the next question is, how to strengthen our buddhi to be able to make better decisions and how to reduce the gray areas. Here the Hindu scriptures, especially the Bhagavad Gita give a lot of guidelines.

One guideline that Gita gives is to depend on the scriptures regarding what is to be done and what is not to be done. (16.24) There are several series of verses like prerequisites for knowledge (13.7-11),  divine treasures (16.1,2,3) and three types of tapas (17.14,15,16), which enumerate right action and attitude. In general, the lists include truthfulness, non-violence, self-control, absence of arrogance, forbearance, cheerfulness, cleanliness, silence, respect to elders, helping others, etc.

Another guideline that Gita gives is to depend on the words of people of good character. (13.25) The conduct of wise people can be referred to as the standard of righteousness. In fact, Gita says that it is the duty of leaders to set an example to others by their actions. (3.21,25,26) It is helpful to be familiar with the life of saints. Then, when we need to decide something, we can think, “What would the saintly person do in this situation?” Taittriya Upanishad also mentions this in verse 1.11.4. Gita has several lists of the qualities that saintly people possess like qualities of a wise person (2.55-71), qualities of a transcendent person (14.22-25) and qualities of a devotee (12.13-20).

Gita mentions the Golden Rule: “Do to others what you would like others to do to you.” Gita says, “Keeping yourself as the yardstick, seeing others as equal to you, consider what is pleasurable and painful to them.” (6.32) This is often a great way to discern right from wrong.

Another hint that Gita gives is this. After doing the action, would you be comfortable in the presence of God or would you avoid Him? The Lord is the giver of the fruits of all action. He is impartial. So, if you do the right thing, you will not fear His presence. You will feel protected. When Arjuna saw the Lord in the form of Time, he saw that good people were bowing to Him and bad people were trying to run away from Him. (11.36) So this is one means to decide. A variation of this is to think if you can tell, with dignity, to your mother (or anyone whom you revere) about what you did. If you can, then it is right. Otherwise, it is wrong.

The merit of an action can be evaluated from the attitude of mind (to you and to others) that it would create or enable. If the action would pull down the mind to make the person identify with the body, it is bad. If it would make the person identify with the mind, it is better. If it would make the person identify with pure Consciousness, it is best. (18.20,21,22) For example, hunger and disease pulls down the mind to the body. So alleviating these of people is a noble activity. Giving secular education pulls towards identifying with the mind. Giving spiritual knowledge pulls towards identifying with the Self. These define the relative merits of these activities.

Another way is to seek the “greatest welfare to most number of people”. Gita says, an action that is done as a duty (for the welfare of others) without seeking personal benefit is greatest. An action done for only personal benefit is not so good. Action that brings loss to oneself and others is bad. (18.23,24,25)

Every person does any action only if it gives benefit in the short-term or in the long-term. Gita says, an action that gives benefit in the short-term but harms in the long-term is wrong. An action which appears inconvenient in the short-term but gives benefit in the long-term is right. (18.37,38) This analysis can be used in many situations to decide.

Thus, Bhagavad Gita gives several ideas to decide between right and wrong. One or more of these can be used in any situation. When we have decided, it is important that we follow what is right and refrain from what is wrong. Even after all these, we are not able to decide, we can discuss with people. If there is no opportunity for that, or we are not able to decide even after that, we can do whatever we thing is the best out of the various options and pray to God to show more light next time. Following our intellectual conviction will strengthen our intellect and increase our will power.