The Concept Devi Devata

  It is customary to worship devi devatas with elaborate procedures of Kalasha puja, murti puja, yajnya, yaga, havana, homa like the Chandi Homa, Gana homa, Gayatri homa Rudra homa, etc. with a purpose. Sankalpa comes first in all these. It is the desire that prompts making sankalpa and taking appropriate steps later. The Agama Shastras lay down elaborate rituals, the procedures. But, the crux of the problem is why sankalpa (resolve to) and what desires prompt us undertaking the worship of devi devatas. There is no cause for action unless there is desire? So, it is said, "desire is brahman". 
 The desires are a thousand and obviously the devatas are a few thousands? Each devata for a desire? The human desires know no bounds and so also the list of devi devatas to fulfil them. Saraswati for knolwedge/vidya, Lakshmi for wealth, Annapurneshwari for food, Hanuman, Ganapati and the like.for different purposes. Srividya for everything! Shree Mahalakshmi says that She only manifests in a thousand names and forms.
Thus, now it is clear, "no desire, no life". If there is no desire there no one to appease and beg for fulfilment?
 Now, we are caught in a mesh. All the Great sages are of the opinion that "embodiment of the soul in an earthen shell (physical body that depends on food and water, fire and air) is the cause of misery." And, the remedy lies in redemption of the soul from further embodiment, at least, when the it casts off the body. The Srividya comes here with a novel idea of Chakra Dhyana (meditation) and mantra japa with the focused attention on the Divine Mothe (Bhu Devi). When  devi smiles on us, the job is done! This she will do even without our asking!! If we utter a single syllable mAA, Ambaa, it is enough. She is happy with Her child.! Once the blessings or grace falls on us, what more do we want.
   Now it is advocated to have a Guru to approach the Devi or to get a mantra. It is definitely a sure way when we do not know the way and some body can show us the way. But, when all are sailing in  the same leaky boat in a stormy sea, who should save whom? There is no single attained person, who has attained siddhi, crossed the limitations or transcended time, space and causation in this world. All are greedy souls to enrich themselves in the name of rituals, but not adhyatmic practices. It does not require two for spiritual practice since it is a business with oneself, one's own inner self for which he should close his/her eyes and chant with devotion the sacred syllable, Om, or Ka e i la hrim, ha sa ka ha la hrim, sakala hrim, that means everything starting from parabrahma, paramatma, bhagavati (Shree devi/Bhu devi), bhagavatan (say, Krishna/ Consiousness/chit shakti). He, the Brahman, is also the Guru, and "Guru may be anything like a paduka, a stone, wood, or metal replica/icon or even a human. It is something where we can shed/unload all our blemishes like ego, desires, anger, jealous, etc. Any body who shows us light a sat nyas, right path, is a Guru. We should respect every other soul as the supreme Lord only.
 Now coming to Ganapathy as an iconic model of God, it is very simple. What Parvati Devi created in a handful of mud/clay and breather life into it is none else but me only. Except me where s anybody here? Devi breathed life into me and i am moving here because of that! Who else is there besides me, the soul, the energy/prana that breathes life in me? We should be very clear as to the nature of our existence.
 Bye for now. More about Ganapti in the next blog....  

Srividya- The Multifaceted Devi- The Devi as Yantra, Mantra and Tantra,

   The most secret knowledge ever heard of is "Srividya". It is the compendium esoteric sciences- yantra, mantra and tantra, that may be as well considered the theoretical and practical aspects of the ancient as well as modern physical, biological and chemical sciences and their technologies and machinations, put together. This esoteric science is full of symbols, images,icons and signs and syllables and as such makes it very difficult for even experts to decipher what it speaks of. A number of scholars have given their own commentaries on the available scripts and they do not in any way help us to know what it is all about. For example, the attained upaskas of Srividya talk about chakra dhyana and srividya upasana and call themselves samayins. Some others kall it a shakti cult and prescribe elaborate rituals. There are koulas, aghoris and natha panth followers who are great devotees of Devi Kaali Maa and Durga Devi. There are others who worship a hundred devi devatas each one with a different type of Shakti/power and adore Her with dress and arms and ammunitions such as shankha, chakra, trishula, rope and sugarcane, etc. and several hands in different styles and postures (mudras). A common man is bound to get confused when he sees the rituals performed for different devi devatas and mantras in a hundred variations and rituals each according a school of thought if its own! Thus weare bewidered. and try to forget all these and be quiet or show some curiosity and run to some teachers/preachers/or occult scientists. What do we gain from all these? we will present these step by step in the subsequent post of the blogs.

Progress of Evolution

   "Existence, consciousness and the significance of our conscious being, -a triple enigma confronts us when we look at them to discover their origin, foundations, nature, their innermost secret "Existence itself is the first riddle. ...

      "Consciousness of existence is a second insoluble miracle. It is a premier fact and without it being would not know of its own existence. Things might exist, but only as a useless encumbrance of a meaningless space, - consciousness makes being self-aware, gives it a significance. But what then is consciousness? Is it something in the very grain of being or an unstable result or fortuitous accident? To whom does it belong? Is it to the world as a whole? Or is it peculiar to individual being? Or has it come from elsewhere into this inanimate and inconscient universe? To what end this entry?

    "The significance of our conscious being in an inconscient material world is the last and worst enigma "The problem of consciousness is the central problem; for it links the other two together and creates their riddle.   [Sri Aurobindo: Essays Divine and Human pp 285-86].

     “The human mind in its progress marches from knowledge to knowledge, or it reviews, renews, and enlarges previous Knowledge that has been obscured and overlaid, or it seizes on old imperfect clues and is led by them to new discoveries.”

-  Maharishi Sri Aurobindo, Pondicherry

Religious Faiths and Belief Systems

Religious Faiths and Belief Systems
  We are now in a scientific era and have come a long ways since the days of Ramayana and Mahabharata. We d do not know much about nara and narayana of the Kruta yuga who accomplished  Narayana state after performing yajnya for 5 nights (pancharatra) before Rama's Treta yuga. As we understand the Consciousness of people have declined to the lowest tody. It was pure and were saints in the Kruta yuga. They became Kshatriyas like King Dasharatha and his sons Rama, Lakshmana, etc. It further declined to vaishya yadava and cowherds during Krishna's days. Infact, Uddhava meets Krishna before his departure to heaven thus, "Well, My Lord, now that you are leaving what is our fate?" Krishna says, you too come with me along with all your kith and kin, Uddhava says, "No.I stay back. I want to see these jivas get your protection after you leave here".
  Krishna says, once the Sudarshan leaves His hand and starts moving Kaala will unfold itself and whatever hidden in it will manifest with times. In Kaliyuga, the last phase before maha pralaya, everything will be destroyed. Kaliyuga will end disastrously. Before that, drunkards will rule the kingdoms and nobody will be able to stop atrocities on the roads of capital cities, much worse elsewhere. I cannot stop dharma of Kaliyug and convert abruptly kali into krutayug.. Only those who worship me, think of Me, chant my name, shall be protected.
   Thus people take to worship of Gods and Goddesses of their choice as their family deities, village goddesses and gods like Hanuman, their community gods, and the like. There is nothing wrong in worship of paduka (of Dattatreya), the photos of Gods, or icons of their choice. Madhvacharya dances in the streets of Udupi carrying Krishna's idol that is supposed to have arrived by ship from Dwarka. What is important is the faith and belief of these devotees and it has nothing to do with others as long as they wish to remain aloof. All the fishermen joined Madhvacharya's procession chanting 'Krishna', 'Krishna', and became staunch Krishna Bhaktas, (later given holy thread and became Brahmins?).
  When it comes to jiva struggling for survival with hunger thirst diseases old age and death in this mrutyu lok it is advised here to look within to know 'how come you came here and where were you before arriving here'? Definitely we arrived here as a stellar dust particle entered the earth's atmosphere via sun rays and reached earth via clouds, raindrops, and became food. This food eaten by men and women created the jiva of their like. I enetered my would-be father's food became his blood, bone marrow, virya or semen and desire. Later i entered my would-be mother due to 'desire' as a sperm of my father and she gave me shelter and food. I was a part of her body for nine months and came out as the child. I had no knowledge of the homeland, customs traditions, caste or creed or anything like male or female and all these are the acquired traits from the family. I could have taken birth anywhere as anything- a fish or a frog, reptile, monkey or man! i could have taken birth anywhere- in Africa, America or China or Australia? Who am I. I am still that stellar dust particle that created/ wove itself into an earthern shell! What matters whether my father cries Alla ho Akbar or Jaya Jya Ram or Holy christ? I am what i Am I am nobody; i am pure energy bibrant particle of energy, prana. If it leaves me ia am dead. I amused by this higher power called Deva or God as a Taxi and left on the roadside when He leaves me. Who am I? I am that; I am that tyat, brahmn, the immortal. I am that omnipotent, omniscient and self egffulgent. Unfortuntely, i amcivered by ajnyan since I forget who i am. The moment i realize i am that eternal sat chit ananda, my journey here is over.

Samsara

Samsara
  Consciousness is a continuous flow of chitshakti, energy and its all pervading nature. It moves in all directions and pervades everything and activates every thing. It is free and vast and expansive; it is also bounded and limited as individualized consciousness in us, the jivas. Since it is subject to expansion and/or contraction it can occupy the entire space, the whole universe as also the micron of space in the sub-atomic pales.  the problem lies with the individuals who find themselves with the limitations (of time, space and causality and the mind, senses, and the buddhi). The jiva work between two boundaries- one of facts (of the world) and the idea, image, imagination, dream and desires (of the mind). struggling as such between these two bounds the jiva gets tired, bored, frustrated and seeks new boundaries. This tiresome movement within limitations is samsara. No body is bound by the samsara unless he thinks he is bound. a person sitting alone may think he is bound by samsara- his nagging wife, troubling children, and taunting friends. But nobody is sitting on his shoulders! He thinks he is bound! Once he realizes the fact that it is his own mindset, thoughts and ideas, that he thinks he is bound he will be free instantly. Thus, it is the mind the mischief-monger not the  people or the world at large, the Samsara.
   "The facts of the world stimulate, and the individual's response is guided by the sense-impressions and the mind. The individual has little control over the sense-functions or over the mind, and much less over the facts outside him. His actions is non-deliberate, involuntary and inescapable. This is Samsara- the transitory, transitional, 'ma' 'ya' or 'niyati' that which has come under limitations. This is the characteristic of the phenomena involving the individual consciousness that goes round and round the self-same fads and never gets beyond them; it gets stuck at the level of ideas and feelings, and never goes deeper than that. Boredom, misery, frustration, anxiety, tension and stress mark the individual who is thus bound inextricably to the facts over which he has no control."(SKR: Tantra, Mantra, Yantra pp.73-74)
  The only solution lies in yoga and tantra. The tantra are techniques, methodology to overcome the limitations- through mantra japa, dhyana and antaryaga. The yoga helps to transcend the limitations imposed by our own vibrant mind, the chittavrutti. Calming the mind and establishing one self in a state of equilibrium will help overcome the illusory life.
   Pancharatra has clearly stated that a jiva is bound by illusion. Telling lies, cheating, running after that which is not there (like the golden deer, gagan kusuma) and finally disillusionment are the essential nature of the jiva.
  We are thus destined to be disillusioned! The embodied soul is covered by five koshas- anna, prana, manas, jnyana and ananda and the thre gunas- tamas, rajas and sattva. As such, we feel we have reached ananda but forget the fact the three gunas are yet to be transcended! nistraigunyobhavaarjunaa, says Krishna. We are fooling ourselves that we know everything and we have reached "the point of no return", the end of the road. But still there is a long long road to travel. Brahm is not that easy to reach since the eembodied soul has to discard what all it has accumulated by way of desire, attachment, etc. Enlightenment (En 'lighten' ment) will not come unless the jiva attains purity to the core- Hydrogen!

Consciousness

Consciousness (contd.)
"Consciousness is Everything". Everything manifest from consciousness. Unless a person is consciously aware of he/she will not cognize anything. An unconscious person cannot know anything! We are all unconscious and we do not know anything (about our own existence?). 'To know' is 'to cognize' and 'to cognize' is to be conscious. However cognition depends on focused attention. we can focus attention on only one thing at a time; so, we are deprived of the totality- the totality of our existence. We are deprived of our totality of experience. We live piece by piece everyday! We are bound by limitations, limitations of time (kaala), space (desha) and causation (karya-karana). This limitation is ma ya (that can be measured), What was once immeasurable, mahat has no become limited, individualized consciousness. Thus our consciousness is limited and our senses, mind, intellect are all limited. However, nothing prevents us from reverting to our state of mahat, vast, unlimited,  If we drop what all we have acquired from the day one we entered the earth as a Hydrogen particle, a stellar dust particle, we can become that pure consciousness and overcome all limitations.  This is called "Shiva only becoming jiva and jagat" as creation and  in return journey- "jiva becoming Shiva" as dissolution. Rather, Shiva takes a tour of the Planet Earth using different forms of jiva as vehicles of journey and experiences His creation. Once His job is over He takes to Meditation (Being aware of himself) and reverts to His true nature SHIVA. Thus the jiva is used as a Taxi for His journey on this earth as a jiva-NARA YANA.

CONTEMPLATION ON UNDERSTANDING

Happy New Year 2015 to all my dgf Blog visitors.
  Let's welcome 2015, January 1st, with a solemn declaration that I shall make an untiring effort, steady and undeterred effort to "Realize my Self"- to know "Who am I" (naan yaar?). This needs a clear understanding about my ability to understand and also what understanding is since not all have the same ability to understand. A primary school child, a Higher Secondary school student and a College student have different capacities (developed over the years?) to grasp and truly realize what comes within its hold. A Post-Doctoral Research student's capacity is also limited in this sense of the terms! Sama Veda gives us an idea about understanding as follows:

   “Understanding is, verily, greater than meditation. Understanding makes one understand the Rks, the Rk Veda, the Yajur Veda, the Sama Veda, the Atharva Veda, the epics and the ancient lores as the fifth- the Upanishads- Veda of the Vedas, the rules of sacrifices by which the Manes are gratified, the science of numbers, the science of portents, the science of time, logic, ethics, etymology, Brahma-vidya, the science of elemental spirits, the science of weapons, astronomy, the science of serpents and the fine arts; heaven, earth, air, water, fire, gods, men, cattle, birds, herbs, trees; animals, together with worms, flies and ants; and also righteousness and unrighteousness, the true and the false, the good and the bad, the pleasant and the unpleasant, food and taste, this world and yonder world.

   Meditate on understanding.

    Narada said: Venerable Sir, is there anything greater than understanding?

   Of course there is something greater than understanding.

Please tell that to me, venerable Sir.”  

   “He who meditates on understanding as Brahman attains the worlds of understanding and knowledge and can, of his own free will, reach as far as understanding reaches- he who meditates on understanding as Brahman.”     [Sama Veda, Chandogya Upanishad VII, VII – Understanding as Brahman 1-2]

       Om || BrahmAdEvAnAm prathamah sambhabhuva |

      vishvasyakartA bhuvanasya goptA sa brahmavidyAm |

      sarvavidyApratishtAm AtharvAya jyEshtaputrAya prAha ||

      (Gopatha Brahmana of Atharva Veda, Mundakopanishad 1.1)

  Now, the verse quoted above from Atharva Veda, Mundaka Upanishad says there is only one Veda. But, everybody repeats like a parrot there are 4 vedas?

Second, This verse says, Brahma imparted Veda to his First son Atharvan. Is it ever possible Brahma to have a son and can there be a Saraswati/Vak Devi to him as wife when there are no physical entities at such a primordial beginning when not even the Stars and Planets were born? Why don't we understand that these are simple  stories told to children by Teachers in Gurukula?

  Then what is the truth? The Truth is very simple that everything is mental images, thoughts or creation; it is the Mind as a very powerful tool of creation that presents a world we wish to us in our self, on our own mind screen and nothing ever exists outside of it? Think it over....

  What ever see or visualize is due to our focused attention and the Mind like a mirror reflects what ever that comes in from of it. Nothing smears to it. However, the mind has a nasty habit of remembering everything? This is the problem. We carry lots of trash, unwanted memories, instructions, dictates and suffer.   Forget all you have learnt as memory, dead, trash and have clean mind and see!