On Yoga

   “May the sun, at the commencement of yoga, join our minds and other organs to the Supreme Self so that we may attain the Self (‘Knowledge of True Nature of Existential Reality’)? May He, also, support the body, the highest material entity, through the powers of the deities who control the senses. Having received the blessings of the divine Sun and with minds joined to the Supreme Self, we exert ourselves, to the best of our power, toward meditation, by which we shall attain Heaven (Brahman).” [Yajur Veda, Shvet. Upa, Part I, Chapter II, 1-2].

  “The wise man should hold his body steady, with the three upper parts erect, turn his senses, with the help of the mind, toward the heart and by means of the raft of Brahman cross the fearful torrents of the world. The yogi of well- regulated endeavors should control the pranas; when they are quieted he should breathe out through the nostrils. Then let him undistractedly restrain his mind, as a charioteer restrains his vicious horses. Let yoga be practiced within a cave protected from the high wind, or in a place which is level, pure and free from pebbles, gravel and fire, undisturbed by the noise of water or of market-booths and which is delightful to the mind and not offensive to the eye. When yoga is practiced, the forms which appear first and which gradually manifest Brahman are those or snow-flakes, smoke, sun, wind, fire, fire-flies, lightning, crystal and the moon.” [Yajur Veda, Shvet. Upa, Part I, Chapter II, 8-11].

  “And when the yogi beholds the real nature of Brahman, through the Knowledge of the Self, radiant as a lamp, then, having known the unborn and immutable Lord, who is untouched by ignorance and its effects, he is freed from all fetters. He indeed, the Lord, who pervades all regions, was the first to be born and it is He who dwells in the womb of the universe. It is He, again, who is born as a child and He will be born in the future, He stands behind all persons and His face is everywhere. The Self-luminous Lord, who is fire, who is in water, who has entered into the whole world, who is in plants, who is in trees-to that Lord let there be adoration! Yea, let there be adoration!” [Yajur Veda, Shvet. Upa., Part I, Chapter II, 15-17].

Some Vedic Verses

Vedic Prayer:

 Give us a share in the Sun by your wisdom and favor. Make us perfect. [Rk Veda IX, 4, 5].

Vedic Doctrines:

   “The Seer, our father, once offered all these worlds in oblation, assuming a priestly role, and sought to gain riches by the power of prayer; he himself entered later creations, while shrouding in mystery the first creative moment.

    What was the primal matter, what the substance? How could it be discerned, how was it made? From which the Designer of all things, beholding all, fashioned the Earth and shaped the glory of the Heavens?

   A myriad eyes are his, a myriad faces, a myriad arms and feet, turning each way! When he, sole God, creates the Earth and Heavens, he welds them together with whirring of arms and wings.

     What was the timber and what the tree from which the Heavens and also the Earth were chiseled forth? Ponder, O wise Men. Question in your hearts. On what did he rely when he formed these worlds? “The haunts where you dwell, O Designer ever true to your laws, on high, in the depths, and in every region between, disclose to your friends at the hour of oblation. Willingly offer your body in sacrifice, thus enhancing its vigour.” [Rk Veda X, 81, 1-5].

  “With all the pleasing skill we may; the birth of Gods we now proclaim in chanted hymns, that Men to come may know the truth of what befell. The Lord of the Holy Word, like a smith, blasted and smelted them together. In erstwhile ages of the Gods from nonexistence existence came.” [Rk Veda X, 72, 1-2].

 “The visible form of fire, while it lies latent in its source, the fire-wood, is not perceived; yet there is no destruction of its subtle form. That very fire can be brought out again by means of persistent rubbing of the wood, its source. In like manner, Atman, which exists in two states, like fire, can be grasped in this very body by means of ‘Om’. By making the body the lower piece of wood and Om the upper piece and through the practice of the friction of meditation, one perceives the luminous Self, hidden like the fire in the wood. As oil exists in sesame seeds, butter in milk, water in riverbeds and fire in wood, so the Self is realized as existing within the self, when a man looks for It by means of truthfulness and austerity-when he looks for the Self, which pervades all things as butter pervades milk and whose roots are Self-Knowledge and austerity. That is the Brahman taught by the Upanishad; yea, that is the Brahman taught by the Upanishads.” [Yajur Veda, Shvet. Upa., Part I, Chapter 1, 13-16]

'Unity'

    The ultimate goal here for jiva is to attain to the state of ‘oneness’, realize the ‘Truth’ that ‘I am not this body, Mind, intellect, or the ego’; but, it is not easy to drop the curtain of avidya and to realize the ‘truth’- that “I Am That”, the Unborn, Eternal, Immortal Self. One must ultimately realize the principle of So’ham asmi |

   The human brain is a wonder-machine that is closely associated with the Mind and has immense capacity to think, imagine, dream, create and destroy, discover and discern, dissect, disseminate, organize and reorganize, produce and reproduce, edit and re-edit what all that has been understood, assimilated, and then present that in a holistic synchronized picture! It all starts as a desire (ichha), thought-waves, imagination, and create images and, gradually work out for the attainment with resolve or sankalpa, dhriti (determination), consolidate, and finally create a world (by itself)! Different parts of the brain have trillions of cells, each cell performing almost sixty thousand jobs at a time, instantly, and many of them do specialized functions, too! Along with the ageing process of the jiva these cells develop their ability to perform more and more specialized functions and they too die out! In fact, the very ageing process is attributed to the cells. Cells constantly divide and multiply, retrieve the information stored in the DNA and RNA, transfer all memory intact to new cells before they burnout. In fact, it is so mysterious that we grow from childhood to ripe old age and perform specialized functions as per the genes and memories of the past lives. 

   The subtler aspects of the waves and vibrations that influence the brain cells, such as, the alpha,  beta, gamma, are very important and we do not know much about them!Different spheres of the brain work under different powerful waves!

Two Eyes are the Problem?

    The two eyes we possess poses the problem? Unless there is a focused attention and unity there shall not develop a clear idea of what we see. The objects that are  outside focus will be hazy! This is exactly the problem in life. We fail to get a clear idea  of what this world is and what this life is unless there is a focused attention, contemplation, meditation. The ultimate result is this 'unity' of the perceiver and the perceived. There is a third eye, the inner eye, the intuitional eye, that makes the world appear in its true form. This is the eye of contemplation, meditation, that brings the perceiver in contact with the perceived and unites them in yogic trance. in reality, what one perceives is something 'other' or 'an other' and what is perceived is the image impressed on the mind screen and finally becomes an impression or memory, at the most. ultimately these also tend to get erased and nothing remains!

   The fundamental principle enunciated in the ancient scriptures is thus very clear. It is “Unity Consciousness”- samyak-prajnya, where all aberrations, multiplicity, or even the dualities of the multifarious phenomenal objective world disappear! ‘Duality’ is the reality one experiences as an earthling bound to the gross material objective world where everything is inter-related. The Mind, the senses and the intellect are closely connected with the objective world and the senses act and interact as dictated by the mind and the intellect. Objects that we perceive disappear the moment the mind is disconnected from the objects! Even if the eyes are engaged and the mind is not interested the objects do not matter, however interesting they may be! The mind and moods thus dictate the interaction of the jiva with the world. No interest, no life?

   This duality of the jiva and world is the outward movement of the jiva to experience the quality of the diverse paraphernalia of the material objects. This is the product of ignorance. The moment the jiva realizes its true nature it discard the external world as one of no consequence. Then it turns inwards towards the Self. This is the function of Consciousness that operates either outward or inward! When consciousness is conscious of itself it becomes self-centered within itself and attains to Shiva. When it is working in an outward material world it is jiva. Shiva only becomes jiva and the jagat.

    In fact, “Everything has manifested from the ‘One’, single without any other as the second, unimaginable, unthinkable, unknowable, and the invisible most powerful all-knowing, self-effulgent, perfect ‘that’ (‘tyat’) for which there is no name (nama), form (roopa), or function (kriya). Everything manifests out of ‘that’ as the divine will”. All that we can ever imagine, think of, aspire, or dream about, exist in it and manifest as per the ‘desire’, the divine will! This entire universe is the gross product of the subtler-most ‘chit’ (consciousness), the divine will, desire that is ‘brahman’. Since the living beings are not in any way different or separate from this ‘chit’, Consciousness, it is possible for the jiva to realize the whole ’truth’ (‘sat’), the true nature of its existence. Only a keen sense of awareness of one’s self will reveal the true self. This search for the true nature of the self (Atma shodha) continues till the jiva realizes the pure state. This is pure consciousness (shuddha prajnya) unblemished or adulterated by desires, attachment, anger, selfishness, jealousy, greed, etc. It is also necessary that the out-going nature of the five senses and the vibrant mind, perverted intelligence and such other aspects that make the jiva indulge in the external phenomenal objective world are withdrawn. When one is busy with the affairs of the world, working outward without any idea of the true nature of the self, it is avidya. When the person becomes aware of the limitations, turns inward and looks for the self, avidya disappears! Consciousness becomes aware of its Self and reveals itself!

    . 

Names, Forms, and Functions

    The universe is a complex system of 'Energy' and 'Vibration'. This has been the center of the inquiry of the great sages and saints and they have placed before us (now written as the scriptures)  handed down to us by words of mouth rather than writings! Even today, the children are taught to learn these by loud chants. As per these, we have voluminous literature on the creation of the universe, the planets and life-forms. The first thing that strikes us here is that of the names, forms and functions. But, behind these names and forms are the whole lots of invisible forces that are to be explained. How to explain the invisible forces is the problem. Hence the learned sages have used similies, metaphors, signs and symbols, just as the mathematicians use the equations and formulae. Now, the problem before us that of decoding these!
   It is significant that these learned sages have warned us about the fallacy of the worldly appearances. The external world is the transient world of ever-changing, shifting, names forms and functions as in a movie! Nothing that we see, hear, taste, or feel are true! These are the attributes that are subject to conditions like time and space. These are transitional in nature. But, it is true that none can escape the magical powers of the objects that attract our senses. We are easily carried away by the sound, appearances or forms, fragrance and other ingredients of nature. There is no sense of discrimination in us and we go after everything! We do not know whether the problem lies with the objects or our indiscriminate indulgences? We are easily carried away by names of persons, places, objects, and we foolishly run after them.

   It is advocated in the Gita that one should develop sense of discrimination, withdraw from the worldly life since nothing is satisfying in the long run! The knowledgeable person should know all are transitional in this world governed by time, space and causality. One should desist from external world of objects (vastu), persons (vyakti), and subjects (vishaya). It is essential to know the reality and  futility of our worldly existence and to withdraw oneself from this deceitful, rather, the transient, world.
   "Whoever rests peacefully with himself is very dear to Me", says Bhagavan Shree Krishna. "sarvarambha parityagi, the one who has no desire, gives up fruits of action, does not hanker after worldly things, is dear to Me", says the Lord. Those who are really contented with oneself are happy forever!
   What is the use of all these worldly acquisitions, asks a jnyani. An unknown person exclaimed and remarked, "Lo, there goes the world-famous person whom even the small children know since they have seen the photo and read about the achievements! But, alas, that person does not know who himself or herself is!" This is the tragedy of mankind. Many of us revel in our achievements little knowing that "One day, all unto dust!" The most important thing is to drop all these prefixes and affixes, drop the name,form and function that somebody has thrust on us! Knowledge of the Self (Atmajnyan) is of utmost importance. A knowledgeable person gets rid of all these assumptions and presumptions, ID and Adhaar and PAN cards, and runs to a pot of fire called 'Guru', surrenders his ego, acquired knowledge, wealth, and all that he possesses and rest in peace, at the feet of his/her master!
   Alternately, a realized person knows that his Atman (Self) is his guru and rests in peace and with joy with himself with his/her Self !

Shree Ram

    The great epics Ramayana, Mahabharata and the Bhagavatam are vaishnava scriptures that depicts the incarnation (avatar) of Vishnu. The depiction of Shree Ram and Shree Krishna in these epics are to be taken as partly mystic and partly ancient history. Mythology is partly philosophy and partly spiritual. The common man is given instruction in morals, ethics and dharma through these epics. It was customary to read these epics, give talks and enact drama and even now it is practiced in Indonesia and other parts of Asia. It is of great educative value.
    The author of the epics, Vyasadeva, is of great significance since Bhagavan Shree Krishna says that Vyasadeva is none other than Himself! (Gita, Ch. X Vibhuti Yoga).  There are many commentaries on these epics and very rarely one comes across the spiritual text revealing the etymology and esoteric aspects of the scripts!
   We are asked to chant the name of Ram, Ram naam japo. Normally, Ram is the name of the King of Ayodhya. But this name of 'Ram' or Ramachandra was given to the 'first born' (son?) of the King. As the epic Ramayana goes, the King of Ayodhya had no issues and he was blessed by a sage with a 'fruit with mantra' asking him to share with his wives. The children born, thus are mantrasya putrah. The firs one is Ramachandra, the name given to the child after the God Shree Ram, the king was worshiping! The sage had also warned that the first-born was not actually a human being, but an avatar purusha, divine being. Actually, Ram was not at the bedside of the King Dasharatha when he died and he was busy cremating the Bird Jatayu! These are highly symbolic and we cannot understand them easily. The idol of Shree Ramachandra now with the Uttaradi math or the Shree Raghavendra Math are also quite mysterious. one of these idols is Digvijaya Rama, one after the conquest of King of Sri Lanka, Ravana. The second is the Mula Ramadevaru supposed to be the one that was with the King of Kalinga. This King of Kalinga had a child whose tutor-cum-guardian Narahari, the disciple of Shree Madhwacharya of Udupi. Incidentally, the idol was given by an old man from Puri, Odisha. The old man gave this idol of mula Ramadevaru to the king since he was too old to conduct the daily rituals of puja and naivedya before taking his food. The King had kept this idol in the Treasury of the Temple of Puri Jagannatha. It is stated that the ardent disciple Narahari gave this as his guru dakshina to to Shree Madhwacharya at Udupi, that later came to Najangud (Mysore) and then to Mantralaya! Thus the Idols of Shree Ram in these Mathas are quite interesting.

But, the question remains- "Who is Shree Ram?

   Etymologically, the root words of Shree Ram are: 'Ra' and 'Ma'. These are significant in that 'Ra' stands for the Sun (Light) and 'Ma' for the Earth. As the epic Ramayana goes, the idol of Devi Ma Sita was found in a box in a field near Allahabad. Devi Ma Sita is the Mother of all the jivarashi. Incidentally, the jivarashi are supported by Anjaneya as Prana Deva. Anjaneya is said to be the son of of vayu and agni devas. In a way, this is nothing but the Oxygen we breath that is in the air. Now, Ram, Sita, and Anjaneya, also known as Hanumantha (the all-knowing!), are the central figures of epic Ramayana. Lakshmana, who constantly accompanies Ram and Sita, is symbolically the inseparable part of the story. It is nothing but the nerves and neurons of the jivarashi. Ra is the soul, Ma is the gross body supported by 'ya' food derived from soil (earth), Hanuma is the life-breath and Lakshman is the nervous system. Thus, the central theme of these epics is to reveal the knowledge of the Self, one's self!

    

Shree Krishna

Who is Krishna?

   Krishna is stated to be the supreme Lord, paramatman. He the Lord, Paramatman only manifests as the Atman (Soul or the Self of all! This is explicitly stated in the Gita. Both Paramatman and the jivatman are of no form and cannot be detected by anybody. Since Atman is the Self of all, there is no second (advitiyam) besides it! Hence, there is no way of knowing it since the knower and the known are the same. Then Who is Krishna?

    The sources available to us are the Veda,the Upanishads, the eighteen epics and the History of Ancient India. The history is a narrative and much depends on its authenticity. Ancient Indian History is very complicated due to too many Kings, their wranglings and fights and kingdoms! The epics stand between mythology and fiction and there is no specific answer as to the real authors of these. Now, we are left to fend ourselves with our intellectual capacity to arrive at any conclusion. 

   There is no mention of the name of Shree Krishna in the Veda, says Prof. SN Dasgupta (A History of Indian Philosophy, vols.5. M L B D). Moreover, there are 1. the Mahabharata, 2. Srimad Bhagavatam, and the Bhagavad-Gita that present different roles of Krishna. Shree Krishna is from the Vrushni dynasty, depicted as a King in Mahabharata and offers his army to Duryodhana in the Mahabharata war. In the Bhagavatam, Krishna's childhood pranks, are narrated and the story of Krishna is told vividly.  But all these come to naught when it comes to the Gita where the Lord explains 'Who He is' and the most intriguing part is that of Ch. X- Vibhuti yoga. Bhagavan Shree Krishna says that he never spent his time in anybody's womb as a child, nor has he ever appeared as so and so with a name, form and function. The Bhagavad-Gita is a spiritual scripture, apourusheya- never written since these are the spoken words of the Lord to Vivasvan, the sun-god and the first manu. 
    Etymologically, the tern 'Krishna' has 'kr' as the root syllable followed by 's' and 'h'- the sounds of in-breath and out-breath, respectively and 'na', meaning not. This leads us to a person who does not have any action of breathing, rather, "He who breathes unto us the life-force without Himself breathing!"  'Krishna' is the 'one who does not reduce! . Krishna is the 'all-pervasive Consciousness', Vishnu. Thus, The pure consciousness that pervades all existence is termed here as Krishna consciousness. Krishna is also known as ananta, govinda, devesha, etc. Krishna is the Light, Chit-shakti, Jnyan shakti, Eternal, Immortal, Unborn, etc. There are no limitations to his power of manifestations! He is One and All! He alone exists and nothing besides It(Consciousness).

   The best guide is the Gita since the Lord speaks here. The spoken words of the Lord emanate from our own soul!