Summary
Maintain honesty, renouncing deception and wrongdoing. Act honorably even in hard times. Obey the laws of your nation and locale. Pay your taxes. Be straightforward in business. Do an honest day’s work. Do not bribe or accept bribes. Do not cheat, deceive or circumvent to achieve an end. Be frank with yourself. Face and accept your faults without blaming them on others.
Explanation
Honesty, Årjava , is the eighth yama. The most important rule of honesty is to be honest to oneself, to be able to face up to our problems and admit that we have been the creator of them. To be able to then reason them through, make soulfully honest decisions toward their solutions, is a boon, a gift from the Gods. To be honest with oneself brings peace of mind. Those who are frustrated, discontent, are now and have been dishonest with themselves. They blame others for their own faults and predicaments. They are always looking for a scapegoat, someone to blame
something on. To deceive oneself is truly the ultimate of wrongdoing. To deceive oneself is truly ignorance in its truest form. Honesty begins within one’s own heart and soul and works its way out from there into dealing with other people. Polonius wisely said in Shakespeare’s Hamlet, “This above all: to your own self be true, and it must follow, as the night the day, you cannot then be false to any man.”
The adage, “Say what you mean, and mean what you say” should be heard again and again by the youth, middleaged and elderly alike. Sir Walter Scott once said, “Oh what a tangled web we weave when first we practice to deceive.” Mark Twain observed, “The advantage of telling the truth is that you don’t have to remember what you said.” Another philosopher, wise in human nature,noted, “You can watch a thief, but you cannot watch a liar.” To be deceptive and not straightforward is thieving time from those you are deceiving. They are giving you their heart and mind, and you are twisting their thoughts to your own selfish ends, endeavoring to play them out, to take what they have, in favors or in kind, for your personal gain.
Deception is the cruelest of acts. A deceptive person is an insidious disease to society. Many parents, we are told, teach their children to be deceptive and cunning in order to get on in the world. They are not building good citizens. They are creating potential criminals who will eventually, if they perfect the art, ravage humankind. To be straightforward is the solution, no matter how difficult it is. To show remorse, be modest and show shame for misdeeds is the way to win back the faith, though maybe not the total trust, and a smidgen of respect from those who have discovered and exposed your deception. Årjava is straightness with neighbours, family and with your government. You pay your taxes. You observe the laws. You don’t fudge, bribe, cheat, steal or participate in fraud and other forms of manipulation.
Bribery corrupts the giver, the taker and the nation. It would be better not to have, not to do, and to live the simple life, if bribery were the alternative. To participate in bribery is to go into a deceptive, illegal partnership between the briber and the bribed. If and when discovered, embarrassment no end would fall on both parties involved in the crime, and even if not discovered, someone knows, someone is watching, your own conscience is watching. There is no law in any legal code of any government that says bribery is acceptable.
There are those who feel it is sufficient to be honest and straightforward with their friends and family, but feel justified to be dishonest with business associates, corporations, governments and strangers. These are the most despicable people. Obviously they have no knowledge of the laws of karma and no desire to obtain a better, or even a similar, birth. They may experience several abortions before obtaining a new physical body and then be an unwanted child. They may suffer child abuse, neglect, beatings, perhaps even be killed at a young age. These two-faced persons—honest to immediate friends and relatives, but dishonest and deceptive
and involved in wrongdoings with business associates and in public life—deserve the punishment that only the lords of karma are able to deal out. These persons are training their sons and daughters to be like themselves and pull down humanity rather than uplift mankind.
Honesty in Monastic Life
We can say that sâdhakas, yogîs and swâmîs upholding their vows are the prism of honesty. The rays of their auras radiate out through all areas of life. They are the protectors, the stabilizers, the uplifters, the consolers, the sympathizers. They have the solution to all human problems and all human ills, or they know where to find those solutions, to whom to go or what scripture to read. To be a sâdhaka, yogî or swâmî, honesty is the primal qualification, yes, primal qualification— honesty, ârjava. No satguru would accept a monastic candidate who persists in patterns of deception, wrongdoing and outright lies and who shows no shame for misdeeds.
Human relations, especially the guru-disciple relationship, derive their strength from trust, which each shares and expresses. The breaking of the yama of ârjava is the severing of that trust, which thereby provokes the destruction or demise of the relationship. When the relationship falls into distrust, suspicion, anger, hate, confusion and retaliation, this gives birth to argument.
Countries that have weak leadership and unstable governments that allow wrongdoing to become a way of life, deception to be the way of thinking, are participating in dividing the masses in this very way. People begin to distrust one another. Because they are involved in wrongdoing, they suspect others of being involved in wrongdoings. People become angry because they are involved in wrongdoing. And finally the country fails and goes into war or succumbs to innumerable internal problems. We see this happening all over the world. A strong democratic country is constantly showing up politicians who take bribes and presidents who are involved in deception and wrongdoing, who set a poor example for the masses as to how things should be. Higher-consciousness governments are able to maintain their economy and feed their people. Lower-consciousness governments are not.
Even large, successful corporate monopolies deem honesty as the first necessary qualification for an employee. When his deception and wrongdoing are discovered, he is irrevocably terminated. There are many religious organizations today that have deceptive, dishonest people within them who connive wrongdoings, and these religious groups are failing and reaping the rewards of failing through loss and confusion. It is up to the heads of those organizations to weed out the deceptive, corruptive, virus-like persons to maintain the spirituality and fulfill the original intent of the founders.
Årjava could well be interpreted as simplicity, as many commentators have done. It is easier to remember the truth than remember lies—white lies, gray lies or black lies. It is easier to be straightforward than conniving and deceptive, dishonest. A simple life is an honest life. An honest life is a simple life. When our wants which produce our needs are simple, there is no need to be deceptive or participate in wrongdoing. It’s as simple as that. Årjava means not complicating things, not ramifying concerns and anxieties. This is to say, when a situation occurs, handle the situation within the situation itself. Don’t use the emotion involved in the situation to motivate or manipulate for personal gain in another situation. Don’t owe people favors, and don’t allow people to owe you favors. Don’t promise what you can’t deliver, and do deliver what you promise. This is the Sanâtana Dharma way. If the neo-Indian religion is teaching differently, pay no attention. It is all political, and it has no kinship to dharma.
Bless and Love. Om Shanti.
Thursday, December 29, 2011
Wednesday, December 21, 2011
How to Lead a Spiritual Life ? Seventh Principle of Yamas : Compassion - Dayâ
Summary
Practice compassion, conquering callous, cruel and insensitive feelings toward all beings. See God everywhere. Be kind to people, animals, plants and the Earth itself. Forgive those who apologize and show true remorse. Foster sympathy for others’ needs and suffering. Honor and assist those who are weak, impoverished, aged or in pain. Oppose family abuse and other cruelties.
Explanation
Daya, compassion, is the seventh yama. Sometimes it is ki nd to be cruel, and at other times it is cruel to be ki nd. This statement has come forward from religion to religion, generation to generation. Compassion tempers all decisions, gives clemency, absolution, forgiveness as a boon even for the most heinous misdeeds. This is a quality built on steadfastness. Dayâ comes from deep sâdhana, prolonged santosha, contentment, scriptural study and listening to the wise. It is the outgrowth of the unfolded soul, the maturing of higher consciousness. A compassionate person transcends even forgiveness by caring for the suffering of the person he has forgiven. The compassionate person is like a God. He is the boon-giver. Boons, which are gifts from the Gods, come unexpectedly, unasked-for. And so it is with the grace of a compassionate person.
A devotee asked, “What should we think about those who are cruel toward creatures, who casually kill flies and step on cockroaches?” Compassion is defined as conquering callous, cruel and insensitive feelings toward all beings. A compassionate person would tell a plant verbally if he was going to pick from it, intuiting that the plant has feelings of its own. A compassionate person would seek to keep pests away rather than killing them. A callous person would tear the plant up by its roots. A cruel person would, as a child, pull one wing off a fly and, unless corrected, mature this cruelty on through life until he maimed a fellow human. Compassion is just the opposite to all this.
When we find callous, cruel and insensitive people in our midst, we should not take them into our inner circles,but make them feel they must improve before admittance onto the spiritual path. Compassion is the outgrowth of being forgiving. It is the outgrowth of truthfulness, and of noninjury. It is a product of asteya, of brahmacharya and of kshamâ. It is, in fact, higher consciousness, based in the visuddha chakra of divine love.
One can’t command compassion. Before compassion comes love. Compassion is the outgrowth of love. Love is the outgrowth of understanding. Understanding is the outgrowth of reason. One must have sufficient memory to remember the various points of reason and enough willpower to follow them through to be able to psychically look into the core of existence to gain the reverence for all life, all living organisms, animate or inanimate.Compassion is a very advanced spiritual quality. When you see it exhibited in someone, you know he is very advanced spiritually—probably an old soul. It really can’t be taught. Dayâ goes with ânanda. Compassion and bliss are a one big package.
What is the difference between ahiμsâ and dayâ, compassion, one might ask? There is a distinct difference. Not harming others by thought, word or deed is a cardinal law of Hinduism and cannot be avoided, discarded, ignored or replaced by the more subtle concept of compassion. Ahimsâ, among the yamas and niyamas, could be considered the only explicit commandment Hinduism gives. Compassion comes from the heart, comes spontaneously. It is a total flow of spiritual, material, intellectual giving, coming unbidden to the receiver.
Compassion by no means is foolishness or pretense. It is an overflowing of soulfulness. It is an outpouring of spiritual energy that comes through the person despite his thoughts or his personal feelings or his reason or good judgment. The person experiencing compassion is often turned around emotionally and mentally as he is giving this clemency, this boon of absolution, despite his own instinctive or intellectual inclinations. This is a spiritual outpouring through a person. Rishi Tirumular used the word arul for this yama. Arul means grace in the ancient Tamil language.
A devotee once e-mailed me, saying, “Recently I was going through some suffering and had bad thoughts and bad feelings for those who caused that suffering. Now that I’m feeling better, can I erase those bad thoughts and feelings?” Thoughts and bad feelings you have sent into the future are bound to come back to you. But, yes, you can mitigate and change that karma by being extra-special nice to those who abused you, hurt you or caused you to have bad thoughts and feelings against them. Being extra-special nice means accepting them for who they are. Don’t have critical thoughts or try to change them. Have compassion. They are who they are, and only they can change themselves. Be extra-special nice. Go out of your way to say good words, give a gift and have good feelings toward them.
Bless Love and Peace. Om Shanti.
Practice compassion, conquering callous, cruel and insensitive feelings toward all beings. See God everywhere. Be kind to people, animals, plants and the Earth itself. Forgive those who apologize and show true remorse. Foster sympathy for others’ needs and suffering. Honor and assist those who are weak, impoverished, aged or in pain. Oppose family abuse and other cruelties.
Explanation
Daya, compassion, is the seventh yama. Sometimes it is ki nd to be cruel, and at other times it is cruel to be ki nd. This statement has come forward from religion to religion, generation to generation. Compassion tempers all decisions, gives clemency, absolution, forgiveness as a boon even for the most heinous misdeeds. This is a quality built on steadfastness. Dayâ comes from deep sâdhana, prolonged santosha, contentment, scriptural study and listening to the wise. It is the outgrowth of the unfolded soul, the maturing of higher consciousness. A compassionate person transcends even forgiveness by caring for the suffering of the person he has forgiven. The compassionate person is like a God. He is the boon-giver. Boons, which are gifts from the Gods, come unexpectedly, unasked-for. And so it is with the grace of a compassionate person.
A devotee asked, “What should we think about those who are cruel toward creatures, who casually kill flies and step on cockroaches?” Compassion is defined as conquering callous, cruel and insensitive feelings toward all beings. A compassionate person would tell a plant verbally if he was going to pick from it, intuiting that the plant has feelings of its own. A compassionate person would seek to keep pests away rather than killing them. A callous person would tear the plant up by its roots. A cruel person would, as a child, pull one wing off a fly and, unless corrected, mature this cruelty on through life until he maimed a fellow human. Compassion is just the opposite to all this.
When we find callous, cruel and insensitive people in our midst, we should not take them into our inner circles,but make them feel they must improve before admittance onto the spiritual path. Compassion is the outgrowth of being forgiving. It is the outgrowth of truthfulness, and of noninjury. It is a product of asteya, of brahmacharya and of kshamâ. It is, in fact, higher consciousness, based in the visuddha chakra of divine love.
One can’t command compassion. Before compassion comes love. Compassion is the outgrowth of love. Love is the outgrowth of understanding. Understanding is the outgrowth of reason. One must have sufficient memory to remember the various points of reason and enough willpower to follow them through to be able to psychically look into the core of existence to gain the reverence for all life, all living organisms, animate or inanimate.Compassion is a very advanced spiritual quality. When you see it exhibited in someone, you know he is very advanced spiritually—probably an old soul. It really can’t be taught. Dayâ goes with ânanda. Compassion and bliss are a one big package.
What is the difference between ahiμsâ and dayâ, compassion, one might ask? There is a distinct difference. Not harming others by thought, word or deed is a cardinal law of Hinduism and cannot be avoided, discarded, ignored or replaced by the more subtle concept of compassion. Ahimsâ, among the yamas and niyamas, could be considered the only explicit commandment Hinduism gives. Compassion comes from the heart, comes spontaneously. It is a total flow of spiritual, material, intellectual giving, coming unbidden to the receiver.
Compassion by no means is foolishness or pretense. It is an overflowing of soulfulness. It is an outpouring of spiritual energy that comes through the person despite his thoughts or his personal feelings or his reason or good judgment. The person experiencing compassion is often turned around emotionally and mentally as he is giving this clemency, this boon of absolution, despite his own instinctive or intellectual inclinations. This is a spiritual outpouring through a person. Rishi Tirumular used the word arul for this yama. Arul means grace in the ancient Tamil language.
A devotee once e-mailed me, saying, “Recently I was going through some suffering and had bad thoughts and bad feelings for those who caused that suffering. Now that I’m feeling better, can I erase those bad thoughts and feelings?” Thoughts and bad feelings you have sent into the future are bound to come back to you. But, yes, you can mitigate and change that karma by being extra-special nice to those who abused you, hurt you or caused you to have bad thoughts and feelings against them. Being extra-special nice means accepting them for who they are. Don’t have critical thoughts or try to change them. Have compassion. They are who they are, and only they can change themselves. Be extra-special nice. Go out of your way to say good words, give a gift and have good feelings toward them.
Bless Love and Peace. Om Shanti.
Thursday, December 15, 2011
How to Lead a Spiritual Life ? Sixth Principle of Yamas : Steadfastness - Dhriti
Summary
Foster steadfastness, overcoming non perseverance, fear, indecision and changeableness. Achieve your goals with a prayer, purpose, plan, persistence and push. Be firm in your decisions. Avoid sloth and procrastination. Develop willpower, courage and industriousness. Overcome obstacles. Never carp or complain. Do not let opposition or fear of failure result in changing strategies.
Explanation
Steadfastness , dhriti , is the sixth yama . To be steadfast, you have to use your willpower. Willpower is developed easily in a person who has an adequate memory and good reasoning faculties. To be steadfast as we go through life, we must have a purpose, a plan, persistence and push. Then nothing is impossible within the circumference of our prârabdha karmas.
It is impossible to be steadfast if we are not obeying the other restraints that the ®ishis of the Himalayas laid down for us as the fruits of their wisdom. All of these restraints build character, and dh®iti, steadfastness, rests on the foundation of good character. Character—the ability to “act with care”—is built slowly, over time, with the help of relatives, preceptors and good-hearted friends. Observe those who are steadfast. You will learn from them. Observe those who are not, and they, too, will teach you. They will teach what you should not do. To be indecisive and changeable is not how we should be on the path to enlightenment, nor to be
successful in any other pursuit. Nonperseverance and fear must be overcome, and much effort is required to accomplish this. Daily sâdhana, preferably under a guru’s guidance, is suggested here to develop a spiritual will and intellect.
In the Íândilya Upanishad, dh®iti has been described as preserving firmness of mind during the period of gain or loss of relatives. This implies that during times of sorrow, difficult karmas, loss and temptation, when in mental pain and anguish, feeling alone and neglected, we can persevere, be decisive and bring forth the dh®iti strength within us and thus prevail. One translator of the Varuha Upanishad used the word courage to translate dh®iti. Courageous and
fearless people who are just and honest prevail over all karmas— benevolent, terrible and confused. This virtue is much like the monk’s vow of humility, part of which is enduring
hardship with equanimity, ease of mind, which means not panicking. The Tirukural reminds us, “It is the nature of asceticism to patiently endure hardship and to not harm living creatures” (261). And we can say that dh®iti itself is a “hardship”—a ship that can endure and persevere on its course even when tossed about on the waves of a turbulent sea.
Some might wonder why it is good to passively endure hardship. To persevere through hardship one must understand, as all Hindus do, that any hardship coming to us we ourselves participated in setting into motion in the past. To endure hardship and rise above it in consciousness is to overcome that karma forever. To resent hardship, to fight it, is to have it return later at a most inconvenient time.
An essential part of steadfastness is overcoming changeableness. Changeableness means indecision, not being decisive, changing one’s mind after making a deliberate, positive decision. Changing one’s mind can be a positive thing, but making a firm, well-considered decision and not following it through would gain one the reputation of not being dependable, even of being weak-minded. No one wants a reputation like this.
How can we discriminate between this and the strength of a person who changes his or her mind in wisdom because of changes of circumstance? A person who is changeable is fickle and unsure of himself, changing without purpose or reason. Dh®iti, steadfastness, describes the mind that is willing to change for mature reasons based on new information but holds steady to its determinations through thick and thin in the absence of such good reasons. Its decisions are based on wise discrimination. A person who is patient and truthful, who would not harm others by thought, word or deed and who is compassionate and honest has the strong nature of one who is firm in dh®iti, steadfastness. He is the prevailer over obstacles. One firm in dh®iti can be leaned upon by others, depended upon. He is charitable, has faith in God, Gods and guru, worships daily and manifests in his life a spiritual will and intellect. In relaxed moments he experiences santosha, contentment, not being preoccupied by feelings of responsibility, duty or things left undone.
The spiritual path is a long, enduring process. It does not reach fruition in a year or two years. The spiritual path brings lots of ups and downs, and the greatest challenges will come to the greatest souls. With this in mind, it becomes clear that steadiness and perseverance are absolutely essential on the spiritual path.
Bless and Love. Om Shanti.
Foster steadfastness, overcoming non perseverance, fear, indecision and changeableness. Achieve your goals with a prayer, purpose, plan, persistence and push. Be firm in your decisions. Avoid sloth and procrastination. Develop willpower, courage and industriousness. Overcome obstacles. Never carp or complain. Do not let opposition or fear of failure result in changing strategies.
Explanation
Steadfastness , dhriti , is the sixth yama . To be steadfast, you have to use your willpower. Willpower is developed easily in a person who has an adequate memory and good reasoning faculties. To be steadfast as we go through life, we must have a purpose, a plan, persistence and push. Then nothing is impossible within the circumference of our prârabdha karmas.
It is impossible to be steadfast if we are not obeying the other restraints that the ®ishis of the Himalayas laid down for us as the fruits of their wisdom. All of these restraints build character, and dh®iti, steadfastness, rests on the foundation of good character. Character—the ability to “act with care”—is built slowly, over time, with the help of relatives, preceptors and good-hearted friends. Observe those who are steadfast. You will learn from them. Observe those who are not, and they, too, will teach you. They will teach what you should not do. To be indecisive and changeable is not how we should be on the path to enlightenment, nor to be
successful in any other pursuit. Nonperseverance and fear must be overcome, and much effort is required to accomplish this. Daily sâdhana, preferably under a guru’s guidance, is suggested here to develop a spiritual will and intellect.
In the Íândilya Upanishad, dh®iti has been described as preserving firmness of mind during the period of gain or loss of relatives. This implies that during times of sorrow, difficult karmas, loss and temptation, when in mental pain and anguish, feeling alone and neglected, we can persevere, be decisive and bring forth the dh®iti strength within us and thus prevail. One translator of the Varuha Upanishad used the word courage to translate dh®iti. Courageous and
fearless people who are just and honest prevail over all karmas— benevolent, terrible and confused. This virtue is much like the monk’s vow of humility, part of which is enduring
hardship with equanimity, ease of mind, which means not panicking. The Tirukural reminds us, “It is the nature of asceticism to patiently endure hardship and to not harm living creatures” (261). And we can say that dh®iti itself is a “hardship”—a ship that can endure and persevere on its course even when tossed about on the waves of a turbulent sea.
Some might wonder why it is good to passively endure hardship. To persevere through hardship one must understand, as all Hindus do, that any hardship coming to us we ourselves participated in setting into motion in the past. To endure hardship and rise above it in consciousness is to overcome that karma forever. To resent hardship, to fight it, is to have it return later at a most inconvenient time.
An essential part of steadfastness is overcoming changeableness. Changeableness means indecision, not being decisive, changing one’s mind after making a deliberate, positive decision. Changing one’s mind can be a positive thing, but making a firm, well-considered decision and not following it through would gain one the reputation of not being dependable, even of being weak-minded. No one wants a reputation like this.
How can we discriminate between this and the strength of a person who changes his or her mind in wisdom because of changes of circumstance? A person who is changeable is fickle and unsure of himself, changing without purpose or reason. Dh®iti, steadfastness, describes the mind that is willing to change for mature reasons based on new information but holds steady to its determinations through thick and thin in the absence of such good reasons. Its decisions are based on wise discrimination. A person who is patient and truthful, who would not harm others by thought, word or deed and who is compassionate and honest has the strong nature of one who is firm in dh®iti, steadfastness. He is the prevailer over obstacles. One firm in dh®iti can be leaned upon by others, depended upon. He is charitable, has faith in God, Gods and guru, worships daily and manifests in his life a spiritual will and intellect. In relaxed moments he experiences santosha, contentment, not being preoccupied by feelings of responsibility, duty or things left undone.
The spiritual path is a long, enduring process. It does not reach fruition in a year or two years. The spiritual path brings lots of ups and downs, and the greatest challenges will come to the greatest souls. With this in mind, it becomes clear that steadiness and perseverance are absolutely essential on the spiritual path.
Bless and Love. Om Shanti.
Wednesday, December 14, 2011
How to Lead a Spiritual Life ? Fifth Principle of Yamas : Kshama - Patience
Summary
Exercise patience, restraining intolerance with people and impatience with circumstances. Be agreeable. Let others behave according to their nature, without adjusting to you. Don’t argue, dominate conversations or interrupt others. Don’t be in a hurry. Be patient with children and the elderly. Minimize stress by keeping worries at bay. Remain poised in good times and bad.
Explanation
Patience, or kshama, the fifth yama , is as essential to the spiritual path as the spiritual path is to itself. Impatience is a si gn of desi rous ness to fulfill unfulfilled desires, having no time for any interruptions or delays from anything that seems irrelevant to what one really wants to accomplish.
We must restrain our desires by regulating our life with daily worship and meditation. Daily worship and meditation are difficult to accomplish without a break in continuity. However, impatience and frustration come automatically in continuity, day after day, often at the same time—being impatient before breakfast because it is not served on time, feeling intolerant and abusive with children because they are not behaving as adults, and on and on. Everything has its timing and its regularity in life. Focusing on living in the eternity of the moment overcomes impatience. It produces the feeling that one has nothing to do, no future to work toward and no past to rely on. This excellent spiritual practice can be performed now and again during the day
by anyone.
Patience is having the power of acceptance, accepting people, accepting events as they are happening. One of the great spiritual powers that people can have is to accept things as they are. That forestalls impatience and intolerance. Acceptance is developed in a person by understanding the law of karma and in seeing God Íiva and His work everywhere, accepting the perfection of the timing of the creation, preservation and absorption of the entire, universe.Acceptance does not mean being resigned to one’s situation and avoiding challenges. We know that we ourselves created our own situation, our own challenges, in a former time by sending forth our energies, thoughts, words and deeds. As these energies, on their cycle-back, manifest through people, happenings and circumstances, we must patiently deal with the situation, not fight it or try to avoid it or be discouraged because of it. This is kshamâ in the raw. This is pure kshamâ. Patience cannot be acquired in depth in any other way. This is why meditation upon the truths of the Sanâtana Dharma is so important.
It is also extremely important to maintain patience with oneself—especially with oneself. Many people are masters of the façade of being patient with others but take their frustrations out on themselves. This can be corrected and must be corrected for spiritual unfoldment to continue through an unbroken routine of daily worship and meditation and a yearly routine of attending festivals and of pilgrimage, tîrthayatra.
Most people today are intolerant with one another and impatient with their circumstances. This breeds an irreverent attitude. Nothing is sacred to them, nothing holy. But through daily exercising anger, malice and the other lower emotions, they do, without knowing, invoke the demonic forces of the Narakaloka. Then they must suffer the backlash: have nightmares, confusions, separations and even perform heinous acts. Let all people of the world restrain themselves and be patient through the practice of daily worship and meditation, which retroactively invokes the divine forces from the Devaloka. May a great peace pervade the planet as the well-earned result of these practices.
The next time you find yourself becoming impatient, just stop for a moment and remember that you are on the upward path, now facing a rare opportunity to take one more step upward by overcoming these feelings, putting all that you have previously learned into practice. One does not progress on the spiritual path by words, ideas or unused knowledge. Memorized precepts, slokas, all the shoulds and should-nots, are good, but unless used they will not propel you one inch further than you already are. It is putting what you have learned into practice in these moments of experiencing impatience and controlling it through command of your spiritual will, that moves you forward. These steps forward can never be retracted. When a test comes, prevail.
Sâdhakas and sannyâsins must be perfect in kshamâ, forbearing with people and patient under all circumstances, as they have harnessed their karmas of this life and the lives before, compressed them to be experienced in this one lifetime. There is no cause for them, if they are to succeed, to harbor intolerance or experience any kind of impatience with people or circumstances. Their instinctive, intellectual nature should be caught up in daily devotion, unreserved worship, meditation and deep self-inquiry. Therefore, the practice, niyama, that mitigates intolerance is devotion, Isvarapûjana, cultivating devotion through daily worship and meditation.
Bless and Love. Om Shanti.
Exercise patience, restraining intolerance with people and impatience with circumstances. Be agreeable. Let others behave according to their nature, without adjusting to you. Don’t argue, dominate conversations or interrupt others. Don’t be in a hurry. Be patient with children and the elderly. Minimize stress by keeping worries at bay. Remain poised in good times and bad.
Explanation
Patience, or kshama, the fifth yama , is as essential to the spiritual path as the spiritual path is to itself. Impatience is a si gn of desi rous ness to fulfill unfulfilled desires, having no time for any interruptions or delays from anything that seems irrelevant to what one really wants to accomplish.
We must restrain our desires by regulating our life with daily worship and meditation. Daily worship and meditation are difficult to accomplish without a break in continuity. However, impatience and frustration come automatically in continuity, day after day, often at the same time—being impatient before breakfast because it is not served on time, feeling intolerant and abusive with children because they are not behaving as adults, and on and on. Everything has its timing and its regularity in life. Focusing on living in the eternity of the moment overcomes impatience. It produces the feeling that one has nothing to do, no future to work toward and no past to rely on. This excellent spiritual practice can be performed now and again during the day
by anyone.
Patience is having the power of acceptance, accepting people, accepting events as they are happening. One of the great spiritual powers that people can have is to accept things as they are. That forestalls impatience and intolerance. Acceptance is developed in a person by understanding the law of karma and in seeing God Íiva and His work everywhere, accepting the perfection of the timing of the creation, preservation and absorption of the entire, universe.Acceptance does not mean being resigned to one’s situation and avoiding challenges. We know that we ourselves created our own situation, our own challenges, in a former time by sending forth our energies, thoughts, words and deeds. As these energies, on their cycle-back, manifest through people, happenings and circumstances, we must patiently deal with the situation, not fight it or try to avoid it or be discouraged because of it. This is kshamâ in the raw. This is pure kshamâ. Patience cannot be acquired in depth in any other way. This is why meditation upon the truths of the Sanâtana Dharma is so important.
It is also extremely important to maintain patience with oneself—especially with oneself. Many people are masters of the façade of being patient with others but take their frustrations out on themselves. This can be corrected and must be corrected for spiritual unfoldment to continue through an unbroken routine of daily worship and meditation and a yearly routine of attending festivals and of pilgrimage, tîrthayatra.
Most people today are intolerant with one another and impatient with their circumstances. This breeds an irreverent attitude. Nothing is sacred to them, nothing holy. But through daily exercising anger, malice and the other lower emotions, they do, without knowing, invoke the demonic forces of the Narakaloka. Then they must suffer the backlash: have nightmares, confusions, separations and even perform heinous acts. Let all people of the world restrain themselves and be patient through the practice of daily worship and meditation, which retroactively invokes the divine forces from the Devaloka. May a great peace pervade the planet as the well-earned result of these practices.
The next time you find yourself becoming impatient, just stop for a moment and remember that you are on the upward path, now facing a rare opportunity to take one more step upward by overcoming these feelings, putting all that you have previously learned into practice. One does not progress on the spiritual path by words, ideas or unused knowledge. Memorized precepts, slokas, all the shoulds and should-nots, are good, but unless used they will not propel you one inch further than you already are. It is putting what you have learned into practice in these moments of experiencing impatience and controlling it through command of your spiritual will, that moves you forward. These steps forward can never be retracted. When a test comes, prevail.
Sâdhakas and sannyâsins must be perfect in kshamâ, forbearing with people and patient under all circumstances, as they have harnessed their karmas of this life and the lives before, compressed them to be experienced in this one lifetime. There is no cause for them, if they are to succeed, to harbor intolerance or experience any kind of impatience with people or circumstances. Their instinctive, intellectual nature should be caught up in daily devotion, unreserved worship, meditation and deep self-inquiry. Therefore, the practice, niyama, that mitigates intolerance is devotion, Isvarapûjana, cultivating devotion through daily worship and meditation.
Bless and Love. Om Shanti.
Tuesday, December 13, 2011
Tirumurai Maanadu 16 to 18 December 2011.
THIRUMURAI CONFERENCE 2011 & THIRUMANTIRAM BOOK LAUNCH
BY SRI MAHA MARIAMMAN TEMPLE DEVASTHANAM KUALA LUMPUR with Thava Thiru Kumaraswami Thambiraan Swamigal ( Dharmapura Aathenam, India ) Thava Thiru Balayogi Swamigal ( Thirumurugan Thiruvaaku Thirupeedam, P.J ) Special Guest : Honorable Datuk G. Palanivel, Minister at Prime Minister’s Department
Religious Speech by World class speakers from India
Thirumurai Katcheri by World class Othuvars(singers) from India
DONT MISS!!!!!
DATE: 16th December 2011@ 4pm to 9pm
17th & 18th December 2011@ 9am to 9pm
VENUE: BANGUNAN MARIAMMAN
JALAN TUN H.S.LEE, KUALA LUMPUR.
Thirumurais, the compilation of hymns by Saiva saints. They are valuable sacred treasures to the Tamilians in the world of Saivism that praises Lord Siva and the meanings of Saiva Siddhanta in a melodious language.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
THIRUMANTIRAM BOOK LAUNCH
Recipient of the First Book Tan Sri Dato G. Harinarayanan .Thirumantiram by Thirumular is the 10th Thirumurai, considered as the Tamil agama; book of Tantra, Mantra, Yantra and Yoga, of prayer and philosophy at once. It is the only authentic work in Tamil on Yoga-Kundalini. It expounds the teachings of Agamas as old as the Vedas. It proclaims the oneness of Godhead and the means by man - Jiva merging in Siva, the Soul in the Oversoul, all in Nine Tantras with 3000 verses in this work...excellent masterpiece.
DON’T MISS THIS HISTORIC EVENT...!!!
COME WITH FAMILY AND FRIENDS.
FREE ENTRANCE.
Bless and Love. Om Shanti
Monday, December 12, 2011
How to Lead a Spiritual Life ? Forth Principle of Yamas : Divine Conduct - Brahmacharya:
Controlling lust by remaining celibate when single, leading to faithfulness in marriage.
Summary
Practice divine conduct, controlling lust by remaining celibate when single and faithful in marriage.Before marriage, use vital energies in study, and after marriage in creating family success.Don’t waste the sacred force by promiscuity in thought, word or deed. Be restrained with the opposite sex. Seek holy company.Dress and speak modestly. Shun pornography, sexual humor and violence.
Explanation
Brahmacharya, sexual purity, is a very important restraint among the ancient Saivite ethical principles known as yamas and niyamas, because it sets the pattern for one’s entire life. Following this principle, the vital energies are used before marriage in study rather than in sexual fantasy, e-pornography, masturbation, necking, petting or sexual intercourse. After marriage, the vital energies are concentrated on business, livelihood, fulfilling one’s duties, serving the community, improving oneself and one’s family, and performing sâdhana. For those who do not believe in God, Gods, guru or the path to enlightenment,this is a difficult restraint to fulfill, and such people tend to be promiscuous when single and therefore unfaithful in marriage.
The rewards for maintaining this restraint are many. Those who practice brahmacharya before marriage and apply its principles throughout married life are free from encumbrances—mentally, emotionally and physically. They get a good start on life, have long-lasting, mature family relationships, and their children are emotionally sound, mentally firm and physically strong.
Those who are promiscuous and unreligious are susceptible to impulses of anger, have undefined fears, experience jealousy and the other instinctive emotions. The doors of the higher world are open to them, but the doors of the lower world are also open. Even the virgin brahmachârî who believes firmly in God, Gods, guru and the path to enlightenment and has a strict family must be watched and carefully guided to maintain his brahmacharya. Without this careful attention, the virginity may easily be lost.Brahmacharya for the monastic means complete sexual abstinence and is, of course, an understood requirement to maintain this position in life. This applies as well to any single individual who has taken the celibacy vow, known as brahmacharya vrata. If brahmacharya is compromised by the brahmachârî, he must face the consequences and reaffirm his original intent.Having lost faith in himself because of breaking his vrata, his self-confidence must be rebuilt. It should be perfectly clear that it is totally unacceptable for men or women who have taken up the celibate monastic life to live a double standard and surround themselves with those of the opposite sex—be they fellow âßramites, personal aides, secretaries or close devotees—or with their former family. Nowadays there are pseudo-sannyâsins who are married and call themselves swâmîs, but, if pressed, they might admit that they are simply yoga teachers dressed in orange robes, bearing the title “swâmî” to attract the attention of the uninformed public for commercial reasons.
There is great power in the practice of brahmacharya, literally “Godly conduct.” Containing the sacred fluids within the body builds up a bank account through the years that makes the realization of God on the path to enlightenment a reality within the life of the individual who is single. When brahmacharya is broken through sexual intercourse, this power goes away. It just goes away.
Brahmacharya in Family Life
The observance of brahmacharya is perhaps the most essential aspect of a sound, spiritual culture. This is why in Saivism boys and girls are taught the importance of remaining celibate until they are married. This creates healthy individuals, physically, emotionally and spiritually, generation after generation. There is a mystical reason. In virgin boys and girls, the psychic nâ∂îs, the astral nerve currents that extend out into and through their aura, have small hooks at the end. When a boy and girl marry, the hooks straighten out and the nâ∂îs are tied one to another, and they actually grow together. If the first sexual experience is premarital and virginity is broken, the hooks at the end of the nadis also straighten out, but there is nothing to grow onto if the partners do not marry. Then, when either partner marries someone else, the relationship is never as close as when a virgin boy and girl marry, because their nadis don’t grow together in the same way. In cases such as this, they feel the need for intellectual stimuli and emotional stimuli to keep the marriage going.
Youth ask, “How should we regard members of the opposite sex?” Do not look at members of the opposite sex with any idea of sex or lust in mind. Do not indulge in admiring those of the opposite sex, or seeing one as more beautiful than another. Boys must foster the inner attitude that all young women are their sisters and all older women are their mother. Girls must foster the inner attitude that all young men are their brothers and all older men are their father. Do not attend movies that depict the base instincts of humans, nor read books or magazines of this nature. Above all, avoid pornography on the Internet, on TV and in any other media.
To be successful in brahmacharya, one naturally wants to avoid arousing the sex instincts. This is done by understanding and avoiding the eight successive phases: fantasy, glorification, flirtation, lustful glances, secret love talk, amorous longing, rendezvous and finally intercourse. Be very careful to mix only with good company—those who think and speak in a cultured way—so that the mind and emotions are not led astray and vital energies needed for study used up. Get plenty of physical exercise. This is very important, because exercise sublimates your instinctive drives and directs excess energy and the flow of blood into all parts of the body. Brahmacharya means sexual continence, as was observed by Mahatma Gandhi in his later years and by other great souls throughout life. There is another form of sexual purity, though not truly brahmacharya, followed by faithful family people who have a normal sex life while raising a family. They are working toward the stage when they will take their
brahmacharya vrata after sixty years of age. Thereafter they would live together as brother and sister, sleeping in separate bedrooms. During their married life, they control the forces of lust and regulate instinctive energies and thus prepare to take that vrata. But if they are unfaithful, flirtatious and loose in their thinking through life, they will not be inclined to take the vrata in later life.
Faithfulness in marriage means fidelity and much more. It includes mental faithfulness, non-flirtatiousness and modesty toward the opposite sex. A married man, for instance, should not hire a secretary who is more magnetic or more beautiful than his wife. Metaphysically, in the perfect family relationship, man and wife are, in a sense, creating a one nervous system for their joint spiritual progress, and all of their nadis are growing together over the years. If they break that faithfulness, they break the psychic, soul connections that are developing for their personal inner achievements. If one or the other of the partners does have an affair, this creates a psychic tug and pull on the nerve system of both spouses that will continue until the affair ends and long afterwards. Therefore, the principle of the containment of the sexual force and mental and emotional impulses is the spirit of brahmacharya, both for the single and married person
Rules for Serious People
For virtuous individuals who marry, their experiences with their partner are, again, free from lustful fantasies; and emotional involvement is only with their spouse. Yes, a normal sex life should be had between husband and wife, and no one else should be included in either one’s mind or emotions. Never hugging, touching another’s spouse or exciting the emotions; always dressing modestly, not in a sexually arousing way; not viewing sexually oriented or pornographic videos; not telling dirty jokes—all of these simple customs are traditional ways of upholding sexual purity. The yama of brahmacharya works in concert with asteya, nonstealing. Stealing or coveting another’s spouse, even mentally, creates a force that, once generated, is difficult to stop. In this day and age, when promiscuity is a way of life, there is great strength in married couples’ understanding and applying the principles of sexual purity. If they obey these principles and are on the path of enlightenment, they will again become celibate later in life, as they were when they were young. These principles persist through life, and when their children are raised and the forces naturally become quiet, around age sixty, husband and wife take the brahmacharya vrata, live in separate rooms and prepare themselves for greater spiritual experiences. Married persons uphold sexual purity by observing the eightfold celibacy toward everyone but their spouse. These are ideals for serious, spiritual people. For those who have nothing to do with spirituality, these laws are meaningless. We are assuming a situation of a couple where everything they do and all that happens in their life is oriented toward spiritual life and spiritual goals and, therefore, these principles do apply. For sexual purity, individuals must believe firmly in the path to enlightenment. They must have faith in higher powers than themselves. Without this, sexual purity is nearly impossible.
One of the fastest ways to destroy the stability of families and societies is through promiscuity, mental and/or physical, and the best way to maintain stability is through self-control. The world today has become increasingly unstable because of the mental, physical, emotional license that people have given to themselves. The generation that follows an era of promiscuity has a dearth of examples to follow and are even more unstable than their parents were when they began their promiscuous living. Stability for human society is based on morality, and morality is based on harnessing and controlling sexuality. The principles of brahmacharya should be learned well before puberty, so that the sexual feelings the young person then begins to experience are free of mental fantasies and emotional involvement. Once established in a young person, this control is expected to be carried out all through life. When a virgin boy and girl marry, they transfer the love they have for their parents to one another. The boy’s attachment to his mother is transferred to his wife, and the girl’s attachment to her father is transferred to her husband. She now becomes the mother. He now becomes the father. This does not mean they love their parents any less. This is why the parents have to be in good shape, to create the next generation of stable families. This is their dharmic duty. If they don’t do it, they create all kinds of uncomely karmas for themselves to be faced at a later time.
Om Shanti. Bless and Love.
Summary
Practice divine conduct, controlling lust by remaining celibate when single and faithful in marriage.Before marriage, use vital energies in study, and after marriage in creating family success.Don’t waste the sacred force by promiscuity in thought, word or deed. Be restrained with the opposite sex. Seek holy company.Dress and speak modestly. Shun pornography, sexual humor and violence.
Explanation
Brahmacharya, sexual purity, is a very important restraint among the ancient Saivite ethical principles known as yamas and niyamas, because it sets the pattern for one’s entire life. Following this principle, the vital energies are used before marriage in study rather than in sexual fantasy, e-pornography, masturbation, necking, petting or sexual intercourse. After marriage, the vital energies are concentrated on business, livelihood, fulfilling one’s duties, serving the community, improving oneself and one’s family, and performing sâdhana. For those who do not believe in God, Gods, guru or the path to enlightenment,this is a difficult restraint to fulfill, and such people tend to be promiscuous when single and therefore unfaithful in marriage.
The rewards for maintaining this restraint are many. Those who practice brahmacharya before marriage and apply its principles throughout married life are free from encumbrances—mentally, emotionally and physically. They get a good start on life, have long-lasting, mature family relationships, and their children are emotionally sound, mentally firm and physically strong.
Those who are promiscuous and unreligious are susceptible to impulses of anger, have undefined fears, experience jealousy and the other instinctive emotions. The doors of the higher world are open to them, but the doors of the lower world are also open. Even the virgin brahmachârî who believes firmly in God, Gods, guru and the path to enlightenment and has a strict family must be watched and carefully guided to maintain his brahmacharya. Without this careful attention, the virginity may easily be lost.Brahmacharya for the monastic means complete sexual abstinence and is, of course, an understood requirement to maintain this position in life. This applies as well to any single individual who has taken the celibacy vow, known as brahmacharya vrata. If brahmacharya is compromised by the brahmachârî, he must face the consequences and reaffirm his original intent.Having lost faith in himself because of breaking his vrata, his self-confidence must be rebuilt. It should be perfectly clear that it is totally unacceptable for men or women who have taken up the celibate monastic life to live a double standard and surround themselves with those of the opposite sex—be they fellow âßramites, personal aides, secretaries or close devotees—or with their former family. Nowadays there are pseudo-sannyâsins who are married and call themselves swâmîs, but, if pressed, they might admit that they are simply yoga teachers dressed in orange robes, bearing the title “swâmî” to attract the attention of the uninformed public for commercial reasons.
There is great power in the practice of brahmacharya, literally “Godly conduct.” Containing the sacred fluids within the body builds up a bank account through the years that makes the realization of God on the path to enlightenment a reality within the life of the individual who is single. When brahmacharya is broken through sexual intercourse, this power goes away. It just goes away.
Brahmacharya in Family Life
The observance of brahmacharya is perhaps the most essential aspect of a sound, spiritual culture. This is why in Saivism boys and girls are taught the importance of remaining celibate until they are married. This creates healthy individuals, physically, emotionally and spiritually, generation after generation. There is a mystical reason. In virgin boys and girls, the psychic nâ∂îs, the astral nerve currents that extend out into and through their aura, have small hooks at the end. When a boy and girl marry, the hooks straighten out and the nâ∂îs are tied one to another, and they actually grow together. If the first sexual experience is premarital and virginity is broken, the hooks at the end of the nadis also straighten out, but there is nothing to grow onto if the partners do not marry. Then, when either partner marries someone else, the relationship is never as close as when a virgin boy and girl marry, because their nadis don’t grow together in the same way. In cases such as this, they feel the need for intellectual stimuli and emotional stimuli to keep the marriage going.
Youth ask, “How should we regard members of the opposite sex?” Do not look at members of the opposite sex with any idea of sex or lust in mind. Do not indulge in admiring those of the opposite sex, or seeing one as more beautiful than another. Boys must foster the inner attitude that all young women are their sisters and all older women are their mother. Girls must foster the inner attitude that all young men are their brothers and all older men are their father. Do not attend movies that depict the base instincts of humans, nor read books or magazines of this nature. Above all, avoid pornography on the Internet, on TV and in any other media.
To be successful in brahmacharya, one naturally wants to avoid arousing the sex instincts. This is done by understanding and avoiding the eight successive phases: fantasy, glorification, flirtation, lustful glances, secret love talk, amorous longing, rendezvous and finally intercourse. Be very careful to mix only with good company—those who think and speak in a cultured way—so that the mind and emotions are not led astray and vital energies needed for study used up. Get plenty of physical exercise. This is very important, because exercise sublimates your instinctive drives and directs excess energy and the flow of blood into all parts of the body. Brahmacharya means sexual continence, as was observed by Mahatma Gandhi in his later years and by other great souls throughout life. There is another form of sexual purity, though not truly brahmacharya, followed by faithful family people who have a normal sex life while raising a family. They are working toward the stage when they will take their
brahmacharya vrata after sixty years of age. Thereafter they would live together as brother and sister, sleeping in separate bedrooms. During their married life, they control the forces of lust and regulate instinctive energies and thus prepare to take that vrata. But if they are unfaithful, flirtatious and loose in their thinking through life, they will not be inclined to take the vrata in later life.
Faithfulness in marriage means fidelity and much more. It includes mental faithfulness, non-flirtatiousness and modesty toward the opposite sex. A married man, for instance, should not hire a secretary who is more magnetic or more beautiful than his wife. Metaphysically, in the perfect family relationship, man and wife are, in a sense, creating a one nervous system for their joint spiritual progress, and all of their nadis are growing together over the years. If they break that faithfulness, they break the psychic, soul connections that are developing for their personal inner achievements. If one or the other of the partners does have an affair, this creates a psychic tug and pull on the nerve system of both spouses that will continue until the affair ends and long afterwards. Therefore, the principle of the containment of the sexual force and mental and emotional impulses is the spirit of brahmacharya, both for the single and married person
Rules for Serious People
For virtuous individuals who marry, their experiences with their partner are, again, free from lustful fantasies; and emotional involvement is only with their spouse. Yes, a normal sex life should be had between husband and wife, and no one else should be included in either one’s mind or emotions. Never hugging, touching another’s spouse or exciting the emotions; always dressing modestly, not in a sexually arousing way; not viewing sexually oriented or pornographic videos; not telling dirty jokes—all of these simple customs are traditional ways of upholding sexual purity. The yama of brahmacharya works in concert with asteya, nonstealing. Stealing or coveting another’s spouse, even mentally, creates a force that, once generated, is difficult to stop. In this day and age, when promiscuity is a way of life, there is great strength in married couples’ understanding and applying the principles of sexual purity. If they obey these principles and are on the path of enlightenment, they will again become celibate later in life, as they were when they were young. These principles persist through life, and when their children are raised and the forces naturally become quiet, around age sixty, husband and wife take the brahmacharya vrata, live in separate rooms and prepare themselves for greater spiritual experiences. Married persons uphold sexual purity by observing the eightfold celibacy toward everyone but their spouse. These are ideals for serious, spiritual people. For those who have nothing to do with spirituality, these laws are meaningless. We are assuming a situation of a couple where everything they do and all that happens in their life is oriented toward spiritual life and spiritual goals and, therefore, these principles do apply. For sexual purity, individuals must believe firmly in the path to enlightenment. They must have faith in higher powers than themselves. Without this, sexual purity is nearly impossible.
One of the fastest ways to destroy the stability of families and societies is through promiscuity, mental and/or physical, and the best way to maintain stability is through self-control. The world today has become increasingly unstable because of the mental, physical, emotional license that people have given to themselves. The generation that follows an era of promiscuity has a dearth of examples to follow and are even more unstable than their parents were when they began their promiscuous living. Stability for human society is based on morality, and morality is based on harnessing and controlling sexuality. The principles of brahmacharya should be learned well before puberty, so that the sexual feelings the young person then begins to experience are free of mental fantasies and emotional involvement. Once established in a young person, this control is expected to be carried out all through life. When a virgin boy and girl marry, they transfer the love they have for their parents to one another. The boy’s attachment to his mother is transferred to his wife, and the girl’s attachment to her father is transferred to her husband. She now becomes the mother. He now becomes the father. This does not mean they love their parents any less. This is why the parents have to be in good shape, to create the next generation of stable families. This is their dharmic duty. If they don’t do it, they create all kinds of uncomely karmas for themselves to be faced at a later time.
Om Shanti. Bless and Love.
Sunday, December 11, 2011
SURASAMHARAM FESTIVAL IN BATU CAVE TEMPLE 11 December. 2011
HISTORICAL EVENT IN BATU CAVES, SRI SUBRAMANIAR SWAMY TEMPLE.
ALL DEVOTEES ARE CORDIALLY INVITED TO WITNESS THE 1ST SURASAMHARAM EVENT IN THIS TEMPLE.
DATE : 11-12-2011-SUNDAY
TIME : 5.OO ONWARDS
The festival takes place at the foot of 140 ft. Lord Murugan Statue.
The battle depicted with huge images of demons appear before Lord Muruga on their chariot and Lord Muruga encounter them and destroy one by one by using HIS VEL.
The festival ends with divine marriage (THIRUKALYANAM) between Lord Muruga and Valli, Theivanai on the same day .
All devotees, are requested to be present with your family and friends to celebrate this festival and get the blessings of Lord Muruga.
Note: Holy Prasatham and light refreshment will be served at the end of the Holy Wedding.
ALL DEVOTEES ARE CORDIALLY INVITED TO WITNESS THE 1ST SURASAMHARAM EVENT IN THIS TEMPLE.
DATE : 11-12-2011-SUNDAY
TIME : 5.OO ONWARDS
The festival takes place at the foot of 140 ft. Lord Murugan Statue.
The battle depicted with huge images of demons appear before Lord Muruga on their chariot and Lord Muruga encounter them and destroy one by one by using HIS VEL.
The festival ends with divine marriage (THIRUKALYANAM) between Lord Muruga and Valli, Theivanai on the same day .
All devotees, are requested to be present with your family and friends to celebrate this festival and get the blessings of Lord Muruga.
Note: Holy Prasatham and light refreshment will be served at the end of the Holy Wedding.
Friday, December 9, 2011
How to Lead a Spiritual Life ? Third Principle of Yamas : Asteya - Nonstealing
Summary:
Uphold the virtue of nonstealing, neither thieving, coveting nor failing to repay debt.
Control your desires and live within your means.Do not use borrowed resources for unintended purposes or keep them past due.Do not gamble or defraud others. Do not renege on promises.Do not use others’ names, words, resources or rights without permission and acknowledgement.
Explanation:
Asteya is the third yama, neither stealing,nor coveting nor entering into debt.We all know what stealing is .But now let’s define covetousness .It could well be defined as owning something mentally and emotionally but not actually owning it physically.This is not good. It puts a hidden psychological strain on all parties concerned and brings up the lower emotions from the tala chakras. It must be avoided at all cost.Coveting is desiring things that are not your own. Coveting leads to jealousy, and it leads to stealing. The first impulse toward stealing is coveting, wanting.If you can control the impulse to covet, then you will not steal.Coveting is mental stealing.
Of course, stealing must never ever happen. Even a penny, a peso, a rupee, a lira or a yen should not be misappropriated or stolen. Defaulting on debts is also a form of stealing. But avoiding debt in principle does not mean that one cannot buy things on credit or through other contractual arrangements. It does mean that payments must be made at the expected time, that credit be given in trust and be eliminated when the time has expired,that contracts be honored to the satisfaction of all parties concerned. Running one’s affairs on other peoples’ money must be restrained. To control this is the sâdhana of asteya. Brahmachârîs and sannyâsins, of course, must scrupulously obey these restraints relating to debt, stealing and covetousness. These are certainly not in their code of living.
To perfect asteya, we must practice dâna, charity, the third niyama; we must take the dâsama bhâga vrata, promising to tithe, pay dasamamsha, to our favorite religious organization and, on top of that, give creatively, without thought of reward. Stealing is selfishness. Giving is unselfishness. Any lapse of asteya is corrected by dâna.
It is important to realize that one cannot simply obey the yamas without actively practicing the niyamas. To restrain one’s current tendencies successfully, each must be replaced by a positive observance. For each of the yamas, there is a positive replacement of doing something else. The niyamas must totally overshadow the qualities controlled by the yamas for the perfect person to emerge. It is also important to remember that doing what should not be done—and not doing what should be done—does have its consequences. These can be many, depending upon the evolution of the soul of each individual; but all such acts bring about the lowering of consciousness into the instinctive nature, and inevitable suffering is the result. Each Hindu guru has his own ways of mitigating the negative karmas that result as a consequence of not living up to the high ideals of these precepts. But the world is also a guru, in a sense, and its devotees learn by their own mistakes, often repeating the same lessons many, many times.
Debt, Gambling and Grief
I was asked,“Is borrowing money to finance one’s business in accord with the yama of nonstealing? When can you use other peoples’ money and when should you not?” When the creditors start calling you for their money back, sending demand notices indicating that they only extended you thirty days’, sixty days’ or ninety days’ credit, then if you fail to pay, or pay only a quarter or half of it just to keep them at arm’s length because you still need their money to keep doing what you are doing, this is a violation of this yama.
There are several kinds of debt that are disallowed by this yama. One is spending beyond your means and accumulating bills you can’t pay. We are reminded of Tirukural verse 478 which says that the way to avoid poverty is to spend within your means: “A small income is no cause for failure, provided expenditures do not exceed it.” We can see that false wealth, or the mere appearance of wealth, is using other peoples’ money, either against their will or by paying a premium price for it.Many people justify stealing by saying that life is unfair and therefore it’s OK to take from the rich. They feel it’s ok to steal from a rich corporation, for example: “They will never miss it, and we need it more.” Financial speculation can easily slide into unfair maneuvering, where a person is actually stealing from a small or large company, thereby making it fail. The credibility of the person will go down, and businesses will beware of this speculative investor who would bring a company to ruin to fatten his own pockets. Entering into debt is a modern convenience and a modern temptation. But this convenience must be honored within the time allotted. If you are paying a higher interest rate because of late or partial payments, you have abused your credit and your creditors.
At the Global Forum for Human Survival in 1990 in Moscow, the participants began worrying about the kids, the next generation. “What are they going to think of us?” they asked. Is it fair to fulfill a need now, spoil the environment and hand the bill over to the next generation? No, it is not. This is another form of stealing. We can’t say, “We have to have chlorofluorocarbons now, and the next generation has to face the consequences.” The yamas and niyamas are thus not just a personal matter but also a national, communal and global matter. Yes, this takes asteya and all the restraints and observances to another dimension.
Om Shanti. Bless and Love.
Uphold the virtue of nonstealing, neither thieving, coveting nor failing to repay debt.
Control your desires and live within your means.Do not use borrowed resources for unintended purposes or keep them past due.Do not gamble or defraud others. Do not renege on promises.Do not use others’ names, words, resources or rights without permission and acknowledgement.
Explanation:
Asteya is the third yama, neither stealing,nor coveting nor entering into debt.We all know what stealing is .But now let’s define covetousness .It could well be defined as owning something mentally and emotionally but not actually owning it physically.This is not good. It puts a hidden psychological strain on all parties concerned and brings up the lower emotions from the tala chakras. It must be avoided at all cost.Coveting is desiring things that are not your own. Coveting leads to jealousy, and it leads to stealing. The first impulse toward stealing is coveting, wanting.If you can control the impulse to covet, then you will not steal.Coveting is mental stealing.
Of course, stealing must never ever happen. Even a penny, a peso, a rupee, a lira or a yen should not be misappropriated or stolen. Defaulting on debts is also a form of stealing. But avoiding debt in principle does not mean that one cannot buy things on credit or through other contractual arrangements. It does mean that payments must be made at the expected time, that credit be given in trust and be eliminated when the time has expired,that contracts be honored to the satisfaction of all parties concerned. Running one’s affairs on other peoples’ money must be restrained. To control this is the sâdhana of asteya. Brahmachârîs and sannyâsins, of course, must scrupulously obey these restraints relating to debt, stealing and covetousness. These are certainly not in their code of living.
To perfect asteya, we must practice dâna, charity, the third niyama; we must take the dâsama bhâga vrata, promising to tithe, pay dasamamsha, to our favorite religious organization and, on top of that, give creatively, without thought of reward. Stealing is selfishness. Giving is unselfishness. Any lapse of asteya is corrected by dâna.
It is important to realize that one cannot simply obey the yamas without actively practicing the niyamas. To restrain one’s current tendencies successfully, each must be replaced by a positive observance. For each of the yamas, there is a positive replacement of doing something else. The niyamas must totally overshadow the qualities controlled by the yamas for the perfect person to emerge. It is also important to remember that doing what should not be done—and not doing what should be done—does have its consequences. These can be many, depending upon the evolution of the soul of each individual; but all such acts bring about the lowering of consciousness into the instinctive nature, and inevitable suffering is the result. Each Hindu guru has his own ways of mitigating the negative karmas that result as a consequence of not living up to the high ideals of these precepts. But the world is also a guru, in a sense, and its devotees learn by their own mistakes, often repeating the same lessons many, many times.
Debt, Gambling and Grief
I was asked,“Is borrowing money to finance one’s business in accord with the yama of nonstealing? When can you use other peoples’ money and when should you not?” When the creditors start calling you for their money back, sending demand notices indicating that they only extended you thirty days’, sixty days’ or ninety days’ credit, then if you fail to pay, or pay only a quarter or half of it just to keep them at arm’s length because you still need their money to keep doing what you are doing, this is a violation of this yama.
There are several kinds of debt that are disallowed by this yama. One is spending beyond your means and accumulating bills you can’t pay. We are reminded of Tirukural verse 478 which says that the way to avoid poverty is to spend within your means: “A small income is no cause for failure, provided expenditures do not exceed it.” We can see that false wealth, or the mere appearance of wealth, is using other peoples’ money, either against their will or by paying a premium price for it.Many people justify stealing by saying that life is unfair and therefore it’s OK to take from the rich. They feel it’s ok to steal from a rich corporation, for example: “They will never miss it, and we need it more.” Financial speculation can easily slide into unfair maneuvering, where a person is actually stealing from a small or large company, thereby making it fail. The credibility of the person will go down, and businesses will beware of this speculative investor who would bring a company to ruin to fatten his own pockets. Entering into debt is a modern convenience and a modern temptation. But this convenience must be honored within the time allotted. If you are paying a higher interest rate because of late or partial payments, you have abused your credit and your creditors.
At the Global Forum for Human Survival in 1990 in Moscow, the participants began worrying about the kids, the next generation. “What are they going to think of us?” they asked. Is it fair to fulfill a need now, spoil the environment and hand the bill over to the next generation? No, it is not. This is another form of stealing. We can’t say, “We have to have chlorofluorocarbons now, and the next generation has to face the consequences.” The yamas and niyamas are thus not just a personal matter but also a national, communal and global matter. Yes, this takes asteya and all the restraints and observances to another dimension.
Om Shanti. Bless and Love.
Thursday, December 8, 2011
Second Principle of Yamas : Satya - Truthfulness
Summary :
Adhere to truthfulness, refraining from lying and betraying promises. Speak only that which is true, kind, helpful and necessary. Knowing that deception creates distance, don’t keep secrets from family or loved ones. Be fair, accurate and frank in discussions, a stranger to deceit. Admit your failings. Do not engage in slander, gossip or backbiting. Do not bear false witness against another.
Explanation :
Satya, truthfulness , is the second yama.It seems that little children are naturally truthful, open and honest. Their lives are uncomplicated, and they have no secrets. National studies show that children, even at an early age, learn to lie from their parents. They are taught to keep family secrets, whom to like, whom to dislike, whom to hate and whom to love, right within the home itself. Their minds become complicated and their judgments of what to say and what not to say are often influenced by the possibility of a punishment, perhaps a beating. Therefore, to fully encompass satya and incorporate it in one’s life as a teenager or an adult, it is quite necessary to dredge the subconscious mind and in some cases reject much of what mother or father, relatives and elders had placed into it at an early age. Only by rejecting the apparent opposites, likes and dislikes, hates and loves, can true truthfulness, which is a quality
of the soul, burst forth again and be there in full force as it is within an innocent child. A child practices truthfulness without wisdom. Wisdom, which is the timely application of knowledge, guides truthfulness for the adult. To attain wisdom, the adult must be conversant with the soul nature.
What is it that keeps us from practicing truthfulness? Fear, mainly. Fear of discovery, fear of punishment or loss of status. This is the most honest untruthfulness. The next layer of untruthfulness would be the mischievous person willing to take a chance of not being caught and deliberately inventing stories about another, deliberately lying when the truth would do just as well. The third and worst layer is calculated deception and breaking of promises.
Satya is a restraint, and as one of the ten restraints it ranks in importance as number two. When we restrain our tendencies to deceive, to lie and break promises, our external life is uncomplicated, as is our subconscious mind. Honesty is the foundation of truth. It is ecologically, psychologically purifying. However, many people are not truthful with themselves, to themselves, let alone to others. And the calculated, subconscious built-in program of these clever, cunning, two faced individuals keeps them in the inner worlds of darkness. To emerge from those worlds, the practice of truthfulness, satya, is in itself a healing and purifying sâdhana.
What is breaking a promise? Breaking a promise is, for example, when someone confides in you, asks you to keep it to yourself and not to tell anyone, and then you tell. You have betrayed your promise. Confidences must be kept at all costs in the practice of satya.
There are certainly times when withholding the truth is permitted. The Tirukural, Weaver’s Wisdom, explains that “Even falsehood is of the nature of truth if it renders good results, free from fault” (292). An astrologer, for instance, while reviewing a chart would refrain from telling of a heartbreak that might come to a person at a certain time in his life.
This is wisdom. In fact, astrologers are admonished by their gurus to hold back information that might be harmful or deeply discouraging. A doctor might not tell his patient that he will die in three days when he sees the vital signs weakening. Instead, he may encourage positive thinking, give hope, knowing that life is eternal and that to invoke fear might create depression and hopelessness in the mind of the ill person.
When pure truthfulness would injure or cause harm, then the first yama, ahimsâ, would come into effect. You would not want to harm that person, even with the truth. But we must not look at this verse from the Tirukural as giving permission for deception. The spirit of the verse is wisdom, good judgment, not the subterfuge of telling someone you are going to Mumbai when your actual destination is Kalikot. That is not truthful. It would be much better to avoid answering the question at all in some way if one wanted to conceal the destination of his journey. This would be wisdom. You would not complicate your own subconscious mind by telling an untruth, nor be labeled deceptive in the mind of the informed person when he eventually discovers the actual truth.
Honesty with Your Guru
Some people use the excuse of truthfulness to nag their spouse about what they don’t like about him or her, or to gossip about other people’s flaws. This is not the spirit of satya. We do not want to expose others’ faults. Such confrontations could become argumentative and combative.
No one knows one’s faults better than oneself. But fear and weakness often prevail, while motivation and a clear plan to correct the situation are absent. Therefore, to give a clear
plan, a positive outlook, a new way of thinking, diverts the attention of the individual and allows internal healing to take place. This is wisdom. This is ahimsâ, noninjury. This
is satya, truthfulness. The wise devotee is careful to never insult or humiliate others, even under the pretext of telling the truth, which is an excuse that people sometimes use to
tell others what they don’t like about them. Wise devotees realize that there is good and bad in everyone. There are emotional ups and downs, mental elations and depressions, encouragements and discouragements. Let’s focus on the positive. This is ahiμsâ and satya working together.
The brahmachârî and the sannyâsin must be absolutely truthful with their satguru. They must be absolutely diplomatic, wise and always accentuate the good qualities within the sannyâsin and brahmachârî communities. The guru has the right to discuss, rebuke or discipline the uncomely
qualities in raising up the brahmachârî and sannyâsin. Only he has this right, because it was given to him by the brahmachârîs and sannyâsins when they took him as their satguru. This means that brahmachârîs and sannyâsins cannot discipline one another, psychoanalyze and correct in the
name of truthfulness, without violation of the number one yama—ahiμsâ, noninjury.
Mothers and fathers have rights with their own children, as do gurus with their ßishyas. These rights are limited according to wisdom. They are not all-inclusive and should not inhibit free will and well-rounded growth within an individual. This is why a guru is looked upon as the mother and father by the mother and father and by the disciple who is sent to the guru’s âßrama to study and learn. It is the guru’s responsibility to mold the aspirant into a solid member
of the monastic community, just as it is the mother’s and father’s duty to mold the youth to be a responsible, looked up- to member of the family community. This is how society progresses.
The practice, niyama, to strengthen one’s satya qualities is tapas, austerity—performing sâdhana, penance, tapas and sacrifice. If you find you have not been truthful, if you
have betrayed promises, then put yourself under the tapas sâdhana. Perform a lengthy penance. Atone, repent, perform austerities. You will soon find that being truthful is much easier than what tapas and austerities will make you go through if you fail to restrain yourself.
Truthfulness is the fullness of truth. Truth itself is fullness. May fullness prevail, truth prevail, and the spirit of satya and ahiμsâ permeate humanity.
Om Shanti
Adhere to truthfulness, refraining from lying and betraying promises. Speak only that which is true, kind, helpful and necessary. Knowing that deception creates distance, don’t keep secrets from family or loved ones. Be fair, accurate and frank in discussions, a stranger to deceit. Admit your failings. Do not engage in slander, gossip or backbiting. Do not bear false witness against another.
Explanation :
Satya, truthfulness , is the second yama.It seems that little children are naturally truthful, open and honest. Their lives are uncomplicated, and they have no secrets. National studies show that children, even at an early age, learn to lie from their parents. They are taught to keep family secrets, whom to like, whom to dislike, whom to hate and whom to love, right within the home itself. Their minds become complicated and their judgments of what to say and what not to say are often influenced by the possibility of a punishment, perhaps a beating. Therefore, to fully encompass satya and incorporate it in one’s life as a teenager or an adult, it is quite necessary to dredge the subconscious mind and in some cases reject much of what mother or father, relatives and elders had placed into it at an early age. Only by rejecting the apparent opposites, likes and dislikes, hates and loves, can true truthfulness, which is a quality
of the soul, burst forth again and be there in full force as it is within an innocent child. A child practices truthfulness without wisdom. Wisdom, which is the timely application of knowledge, guides truthfulness for the adult. To attain wisdom, the adult must be conversant with the soul nature.
What is it that keeps us from practicing truthfulness? Fear, mainly. Fear of discovery, fear of punishment or loss of status. This is the most honest untruthfulness. The next layer of untruthfulness would be the mischievous person willing to take a chance of not being caught and deliberately inventing stories about another, deliberately lying when the truth would do just as well. The third and worst layer is calculated deception and breaking of promises.
Satya is a restraint, and as one of the ten restraints it ranks in importance as number two. When we restrain our tendencies to deceive, to lie and break promises, our external life is uncomplicated, as is our subconscious mind. Honesty is the foundation of truth. It is ecologically, psychologically purifying. However, many people are not truthful with themselves, to themselves, let alone to others. And the calculated, subconscious built-in program of these clever, cunning, two faced individuals keeps them in the inner worlds of darkness. To emerge from those worlds, the practice of truthfulness, satya, is in itself a healing and purifying sâdhana.
What is breaking a promise? Breaking a promise is, for example, when someone confides in you, asks you to keep it to yourself and not to tell anyone, and then you tell. You have betrayed your promise. Confidences must be kept at all costs in the practice of satya.
There are certainly times when withholding the truth is permitted. The Tirukural, Weaver’s Wisdom, explains that “Even falsehood is of the nature of truth if it renders good results, free from fault” (292). An astrologer, for instance, while reviewing a chart would refrain from telling of a heartbreak that might come to a person at a certain time in his life.
This is wisdom. In fact, astrologers are admonished by their gurus to hold back information that might be harmful or deeply discouraging. A doctor might not tell his patient that he will die in three days when he sees the vital signs weakening. Instead, he may encourage positive thinking, give hope, knowing that life is eternal and that to invoke fear might create depression and hopelessness in the mind of the ill person.
When pure truthfulness would injure or cause harm, then the first yama, ahimsâ, would come into effect. You would not want to harm that person, even with the truth. But we must not look at this verse from the Tirukural as giving permission for deception. The spirit of the verse is wisdom, good judgment, not the subterfuge of telling someone you are going to Mumbai when your actual destination is Kalikot. That is not truthful. It would be much better to avoid answering the question at all in some way if one wanted to conceal the destination of his journey. This would be wisdom. You would not complicate your own subconscious mind by telling an untruth, nor be labeled deceptive in the mind of the informed person when he eventually discovers the actual truth.
Honesty with Your Guru
Some people use the excuse of truthfulness to nag their spouse about what they don’t like about him or her, or to gossip about other people’s flaws. This is not the spirit of satya. We do not want to expose others’ faults. Such confrontations could become argumentative and combative.
No one knows one’s faults better than oneself. But fear and weakness often prevail, while motivation and a clear plan to correct the situation are absent. Therefore, to give a clear
plan, a positive outlook, a new way of thinking, diverts the attention of the individual and allows internal healing to take place. This is wisdom. This is ahimsâ, noninjury. This
is satya, truthfulness. The wise devotee is careful to never insult or humiliate others, even under the pretext of telling the truth, which is an excuse that people sometimes use to
tell others what they don’t like about them. Wise devotees realize that there is good and bad in everyone. There are emotional ups and downs, mental elations and depressions, encouragements and discouragements. Let’s focus on the positive. This is ahiμsâ and satya working together.
The brahmachârî and the sannyâsin must be absolutely truthful with their satguru. They must be absolutely diplomatic, wise and always accentuate the good qualities within the sannyâsin and brahmachârî communities. The guru has the right to discuss, rebuke or discipline the uncomely
qualities in raising up the brahmachârî and sannyâsin. Only he has this right, because it was given to him by the brahmachârîs and sannyâsins when they took him as their satguru. This means that brahmachârîs and sannyâsins cannot discipline one another, psychoanalyze and correct in the
name of truthfulness, without violation of the number one yama—ahiμsâ, noninjury.
Mothers and fathers have rights with their own children, as do gurus with their ßishyas. These rights are limited according to wisdom. They are not all-inclusive and should not inhibit free will and well-rounded growth within an individual. This is why a guru is looked upon as the mother and father by the mother and father and by the disciple who is sent to the guru’s âßrama to study and learn. It is the guru’s responsibility to mold the aspirant into a solid member
of the monastic community, just as it is the mother’s and father’s duty to mold the youth to be a responsible, looked up- to member of the family community. This is how society progresses.
The practice, niyama, to strengthen one’s satya qualities is tapas, austerity—performing sâdhana, penance, tapas and sacrifice. If you find you have not been truthful, if you
have betrayed promises, then put yourself under the tapas sâdhana. Perform a lengthy penance. Atone, repent, perform austerities. You will soon find that being truthful is much easier than what tapas and austerities will make you go through if you fail to restrain yourself.
Truthfulness is the fullness of truth. Truth itself is fullness. May fullness prevail, truth prevail, and the spirit of satya and ahiμsâ permeate humanity.
Om Shanti
Wednesday, December 7, 2011
First Principle of Yamas : Ahimsa - Noninjury
By Satguru Bodhinatha Veylanswami:Yoga's Forgotten Foundation
Summary :
Practice noninjury, not harming others by thought, word or deed, even in your dreams. Live a kindly life, revering all beings as expressions of the One Divine energy. Let go of fear and insecurity, the sources of abuse. Knowing that harm caused to others unfailingly returns to oneself, live peacefully with God’s creation. Never be a source of dread, pain or injury.
Follow a vegetarian diet.
Explanation :
To practice ahimsa ,one has to practice santosha,contentment.The sadhana is to seek joy and serenity in life, remaining content with what one has, knows, is doing and those with whom he associates. Bear your karma cheerfully. Live within your situation contentedly. Ahimsa , or injury, and the desire to harm, comes from discontent. The Rishis who revealed the principles of dharma or divine law in Hindu scripture knew full well the potential for human suffering and the path which could avert it. To them a one spiritual power flowed in and through all things in this universe, animate and inanimate, conferring existence by its presence. To them life was a coherent process leading all souls without exception to enlightenment, and no violence could be carried to the higher reaches of that ascent. These Rishis were mystics whose revelation disclosed a cosmos in which all beings exist in interlaced dependence. The whole is contained in the part, and the part in the whole. Based on this cognition, they taught a philosophy of nondifference of self and other, asserting that in the final analysis we are not separate from the world and its manifest forms, nor from the Divine which shines forth in all things, all beings, all peoples. From this understanding of oneness arose the philosophical basis for the practice of noninjury and Hinduism’s ancient commitment to it. We all know that Hindus, who are one-sixth of the human race today, believe in the existence of God everywhere, as an all pervasive, self-effulgent energy and consciousness. This basic belief creates the attitude of sublime tolerance and acceptance toward others. Even tolerance is insufficient to describe the compassion and reverence the Hindu holds for the intrinsic sacredness within all things. Therefore, the actions of all Hindus are rendered benign, or ahimsa . One would not want to hurt something which one revered. On the other hand, when the fundamentalists of any religion teach an unrelenting duality based on good and evil, man and nature or God and Devil, this creates friends and enemies. This belief is a sacrilege to Hindus, because they know that the attitudes which are the by-product are totally dualistic, and for good to triumph over that which is alien or evil, it must kill out that which is considered to be evil. The Hindu looks at nothing as intrinsically evil. To him the ground is sacred. The sky is sacred. The sun is sacred. His wife is a Goddess. Her husband is a God. Their children are devas. Their home is a shrine. Life is a pilgrimage to mukti, or liberation from rebirth, which once attained is the end to reincarnation in a physical body. When on a holy pilgrimage, one would not want to hurt anyone along the way, knowing full well the experiences on this path are of one’s own creation, though maybe acted out through others.
Noninjury for Renunciates
Ahimsa is the first and foremost virtue, presiding over truthfulness, nonstealing, sexual purity, patience, steadfastness, compassion, honesty and moderate appetite. The brahmachârî and sannyâsin must take ahiμsâ, noninjury, one step further. He has mutated himself, escalated himself, by stopping the abilities of being able to harm another by thought, word or deed, physically, mentally or emotionally. The one step further is that he must not harm his own self
with his own thoughts, his own feelings, his own actions toward his own body, toward his own emotions, toward his own mind. This is very important to remember. And here, at this juncture, ahiμsâ has a tie with satya, truthfulness. The sannyâsin must be totally truthful to himself, to his guru, to the Gods and to Lord Íiva, who resides within him every minute of every hour of every day. But for him to truly know this and express it through his life and be a living religious example of the Sanâtana Dharma, all tendencies toward himsa, injuriousness, must always be definitely harnessed in chains of steel. The mystical reason is this. Because of the brahmachârî’s or sannyâsin’s spiritual power, he really has more ability to hurt someone than he or that person may know, and therefore his observance of noninjury is even more vital. Yes, this is true. A brahmachârî or sannyâsin who does not live the highest level of ahiμsâ is not
a brahmachârî. Words are expressions of thoughts, thoughts created from prâ∫a. Words coupled with thoughts backed up by the transmuted prânas, or the accumulated bank account of energies held back within the brahmachârî and the sannyâsin, become powerful thoughts, and when expressed
through words go deep into the mind, creating impressions, samskaras, that last a long time, maybe forever. It is truly unfortunate if a brahmachârî or sannyâsin loses control of himself and betrays ahimsâ by becoming himsâ, an injurious person—unfortunate for those involved, but more unfortunate for himself. When we hurt another, we scar the inside of ourself; we clone the image. The scar would never leave the sannyâsin until it left the person that he hurt. This is because the prâ∫as, the transmuted energies, give so much force to the thought. Thus the words penetrate to the very core of the being. Therefore, angry people should get married and should not practice brahmacharya.
Om Shanti.
Summary :
Practice noninjury, not harming others by thought, word or deed, even in your dreams. Live a kindly life, revering all beings as expressions of the One Divine energy. Let go of fear and insecurity, the sources of abuse. Knowing that harm caused to others unfailingly returns to oneself, live peacefully with God’s creation. Never be a source of dread, pain or injury.
Follow a vegetarian diet.
Explanation :
To practice ahimsa ,one has to practice santosha,contentment.The sadhana is to seek joy and serenity in life, remaining content with what one has, knows, is doing and those with whom he associates. Bear your karma cheerfully. Live within your situation contentedly. Ahimsa , or injury, and the desire to harm, comes from discontent. The Rishis who revealed the principles of dharma or divine law in Hindu scripture knew full well the potential for human suffering and the path which could avert it. To them a one spiritual power flowed in and through all things in this universe, animate and inanimate, conferring existence by its presence. To them life was a coherent process leading all souls without exception to enlightenment, and no violence could be carried to the higher reaches of that ascent. These Rishis were mystics whose revelation disclosed a cosmos in which all beings exist in interlaced dependence. The whole is contained in the part, and the part in the whole. Based on this cognition, they taught a philosophy of nondifference of self and other, asserting that in the final analysis we are not separate from the world and its manifest forms, nor from the Divine which shines forth in all things, all beings, all peoples. From this understanding of oneness arose the philosophical basis for the practice of noninjury and Hinduism’s ancient commitment to it. We all know that Hindus, who are one-sixth of the human race today, believe in the existence of God everywhere, as an all pervasive, self-effulgent energy and consciousness. This basic belief creates the attitude of sublime tolerance and acceptance toward others. Even tolerance is insufficient to describe the compassion and reverence the Hindu holds for the intrinsic sacredness within all things. Therefore, the actions of all Hindus are rendered benign, or ahimsa . One would not want to hurt something which one revered. On the other hand, when the fundamentalists of any religion teach an unrelenting duality based on good and evil, man and nature or God and Devil, this creates friends and enemies. This belief is a sacrilege to Hindus, because they know that the attitudes which are the by-product are totally dualistic, and for good to triumph over that which is alien or evil, it must kill out that which is considered to be evil. The Hindu looks at nothing as intrinsically evil. To him the ground is sacred. The sky is sacred. The sun is sacred. His wife is a Goddess. Her husband is a God. Their children are devas. Their home is a shrine. Life is a pilgrimage to mukti, or liberation from rebirth, which once attained is the end to reincarnation in a physical body. When on a holy pilgrimage, one would not want to hurt anyone along the way, knowing full well the experiences on this path are of one’s own creation, though maybe acted out through others.
Noninjury for Renunciates
Ahimsa is the first and foremost virtue, presiding over truthfulness, nonstealing, sexual purity, patience, steadfastness, compassion, honesty and moderate appetite. The brahmachârî and sannyâsin must take ahiμsâ, noninjury, one step further. He has mutated himself, escalated himself, by stopping the abilities of being able to harm another by thought, word or deed, physically, mentally or emotionally. The one step further is that he must not harm his own self
with his own thoughts, his own feelings, his own actions toward his own body, toward his own emotions, toward his own mind. This is very important to remember. And here, at this juncture, ahiμsâ has a tie with satya, truthfulness. The sannyâsin must be totally truthful to himself, to his guru, to the Gods and to Lord Íiva, who resides within him every minute of every hour of every day. But for him to truly know this and express it through his life and be a living religious example of the Sanâtana Dharma, all tendencies toward himsa, injuriousness, must always be definitely harnessed in chains of steel. The mystical reason is this. Because of the brahmachârî’s or sannyâsin’s spiritual power, he really has more ability to hurt someone than he or that person may know, and therefore his observance of noninjury is even more vital. Yes, this is true. A brahmachârî or sannyâsin who does not live the highest level of ahiμsâ is not
a brahmachârî. Words are expressions of thoughts, thoughts created from prâ∫a. Words coupled with thoughts backed up by the transmuted prânas, or the accumulated bank account of energies held back within the brahmachârî and the sannyâsin, become powerful thoughts, and when expressed
through words go deep into the mind, creating impressions, samskaras, that last a long time, maybe forever. It is truly unfortunate if a brahmachârî or sannyâsin loses control of himself and betrays ahimsâ by becoming himsâ, an injurious person—unfortunate for those involved, but more unfortunate for himself. When we hurt another, we scar the inside of ourself; we clone the image. The scar would never leave the sannyâsin until it left the person that he hurt. This is because the prâ∫as, the transmuted energies, give so much force to the thought. Thus the words penetrate to the very core of the being. Therefore, angry people should get married and should not practice brahmacharya.
Om Shanti.
Monday, December 5, 2011
Free Math Magic Workshop - December 6, 2011 . 7 pm to 10.30 pm
A SPECIAL INTERVIEW WITH
PROF DOSS ON 'MAGIC MATHS' WILL BE ON AIR IN
RADIO MINNAL FM ON 5th DEC 2011 @ 10.15 PM
AND
ASTRO VIZHUTHUGAL ON 2ND DEC 2011 @ 9.30AM
AND A REPEAT AT 10.30PM.
You and your family are cordially invited to attend this FREE PROGRAM, to be conducted by Proff. Doss
Note: Please bring along a notebook, pen or pencil. You will be required to do some practical works.
DONT MISS!!!!!!
OUR CHILDREN MUST BE MADE TO LOVE MATHEMATICS,
SO THAT THEY CAN BECOME MORE INTELLIGENT,
CREATIVE AND PRODUCTIVE.
Magic Maths Workshop in Kuala Lumpur
December 6, 2011
Venue : Kala Mandabam , Scott Road , KL
Time : 7 pm to 10.30 pm.
Magic Maths Workshop in Ipoh
17th & 18th Dec
(Mr Sivaraj; HP#: 019-5778369 Mrs Thilaga; HP#: 019-5737100)
email: thila7609@gmail.com
Organised by
BELL CLUB -KUALA LUMPUR
ARTHA NYANA CONCEPT BUILDERS,
AKSHAYA SRI SAI DHYANA SABAI
(SHIRDI SAI CENTRE),
KELAB BELL BELIA TAMIL, KUALA LUMPUR,
LEMBAH PANTAI HYO AND
PUSAT TUISYEN SERI ILHAM.
More info please contact
Mr. Aravinthan 016-6120587 or 012-3915643 Mr.Sornam 016-6590709
Mr. L.Ganesh 016-2230905 Mr. Murthi 016-6837696
OUR EMAIL: naalvar_team@yahoo.com
PROF DOSS ON 'MAGIC MATHS' WILL BE ON AIR IN
RADIO MINNAL FM ON 5th DEC 2011 @ 10.15 PM
AND
ASTRO VIZHUTHUGAL ON 2ND DEC 2011 @ 9.30AM
AND A REPEAT AT 10.30PM.
You and your family are cordially invited to attend this FREE PROGRAM, to be conducted by Proff. Doss
Note: Please bring along a notebook, pen or pencil. You will be required to do some practical works.
DONT MISS!!!!!!
OUR CHILDREN MUST BE MADE TO LOVE MATHEMATICS,
SO THAT THEY CAN BECOME MORE INTELLIGENT,
CREATIVE AND PRODUCTIVE.
Magic Maths Workshop in Kuala Lumpur
December 6, 2011
Venue : Kala Mandabam , Scott Road , KL
Time : 7 pm to 10.30 pm.
Magic Maths Workshop in Ipoh
17th & 18th Dec
(Mr Sivaraj; HP#: 019-5778369 Mrs Thilaga; HP#: 019-5737100)
email: thila7609@gmail.com
Organised by
BELL CLUB -KUALA LUMPUR
ARTHA NYANA CONCEPT BUILDERS,
AKSHAYA SRI SAI DHYANA SABAI
(SHIRDI SAI CENTRE),
KELAB BELL BELIA TAMIL, KUALA LUMPUR,
LEMBAH PANTAI HYO AND
PUSAT TUISYEN SERI ILHAM.
More info please contact
Mr. Aravinthan 016-6120587 or 012-3915643 Mr.Sornam 016-6590709
Mr. L.Ganesh 016-2230905 Mr. Murthi 016-6837696
OUR EMAIL: naalvar_team@yahoo.com
Friday, December 2, 2011
KL Tamil Toastmaster Meeting- December 4, 2011. 3.30pm.
Vanakam and Namaste to all Great Atma,
Count on your blessings.
Be thankful on your blessings.
Your presence in this world is itself a great blessings.
Have a blessed day to all of You.
Remember You are a blessing to this world.
Bless bless bless All and the World.
Om Shanti.
Join us and together we can make Tamil a powerful communication tool.
Date : December 4, 2011
Time : 3.30 pm
Venue : 25-1 Citras Hall, Jalan Thamby Abdullah 1 , off Jalan Tun Sambanthan, Brickfields KL
Contact : Please call or sms to book a place .
Contact persons : 0162325664
Email : artha.dharma@gmail.com
http://www.toastmasters.org/
Please forward to all your friends.
Nandri . Nandri. Nandri.
--
Anbe Sivam
Om Shanti
Artha Dharma Concept Builders
Life Long Learning Center
Taman Damai Utama
Puchong 47180
Selangor
Email : artha.dharma@gmail.com
Website: http://groups.google.com/group/arthadharma
Face book : www.facebook.com/artha.dharma
Blog : www.arthadharma.blogspot.com
Religious Education : www.gurudeva.org
Hinduism Today Magazine : www.hinduismtoday.com
Free Healing : www.prana-violet-healing.com
Count on your blessings.
Be thankful on your blessings.
Your presence in this world is itself a great blessings.
Have a blessed day to all of You.
Remember You are a blessing to this world.
Bless bless bless All and the World.
Om Shanti.
Join us and together we can make Tamil a powerful communication tool.
Date : December 4, 2011
Time : 3.30 pm
Venue : 25-1 Citras Hall, Jalan Thamby Abdullah 1 , off Jalan Tun Sambanthan, Brickfields KL
Contact : Please call or sms to book a place .
Contact persons : 0162325664
Email : artha.dharma@gmail.com
http://www.toastmasters.org/
Please forward to all your friends.
Nandri . Nandri. Nandri.
--
Anbe Sivam
Om Shanti
Artha Dharma Concept Builders
Life Long Learning Center
Taman Damai Utama
Puchong 47180
Selangor
Email : artha.dharma@gmail.com
Website: http://groups.google.com/group/arthadharma
Face book : www.facebook.com/artha.dharma
Blog : www.arthadharma.blogspot.com
Religious Education : www.gurudeva.org
Hinduism Today Magazine : www.hinduismtoday.com
Free Healing : www.prana-violet-healing.com
10 Tips for Public Speaking.
Feeling some nervousness before giving a speech is natural and even beneficial, but too much nervousness can be detrimental. Here are some
proven tips on how to control your butterflies and give better presentations:
1.Know your material. Pick a topic you are interested in. Know more
about it than you include in your speech. Use humor, personal stories and conversational language – that way you won’t easily forget what to say.
2.Practice. Practice. Practice! Rehearse out loud with all equipment you plan on using. Revise as necessary. Work to control filler words; Practice, pause and breathe. Practice with a timer and allow time for the unexpected.
3.Know the audience. Greet some of the audience members as they arrive. It’s easier to speak to a group of friends than to strangers.
4.Know the room. Arrive early, walk around the speaking area and practice using the microphone and any visual aids.
5.Relax. Begin by addressing the audience. It buys you time and calms your nerves. Pause, smile and count to three before saying anything. ("One one-thousand, two one-thousand, three one-thousand. Pause. Begin.) Transform nervous energy into enthusiasm.
6.Visualize yourself giving your speech. Imagine yourself speaking, your voice loud, clear and confident. Visualize the audience clapping – it will boost your confidence.
7.Realize that people want you to succeed. Audiences want you to be interesting, stimulating, informative and entertaining. They’re rooting for you.
8.Don’t apologize for any nervousness or problem – the audience probably never noticed it.
9.Concentrate on the message – not the medium. Focus your attention away from your own anxieties and concentrate on your message and your audience.
10.Gain experience. Mainly, your speech should represent you — as an authority and as a person. Experience builds confidence, which is the key to effective speaking. A Toastmasters club can provide the experience you need in a safe and friendly environment.
proven tips on how to control your butterflies and give better presentations:
1.Know your material. Pick a topic you are interested in. Know more
about it than you include in your speech. Use humor, personal stories and conversational language – that way you won’t easily forget what to say.
2.Practice. Practice. Practice! Rehearse out loud with all equipment you plan on using. Revise as necessary. Work to control filler words; Practice, pause and breathe. Practice with a timer and allow time for the unexpected.
3.Know the audience. Greet some of the audience members as they arrive. It’s easier to speak to a group of friends than to strangers.
4.Know the room. Arrive early, walk around the speaking area and practice using the microphone and any visual aids.
5.Relax. Begin by addressing the audience. It buys you time and calms your nerves. Pause, smile and count to three before saying anything. ("One one-thousand, two one-thousand, three one-thousand. Pause. Begin.) Transform nervous energy into enthusiasm.
6.Visualize yourself giving your speech. Imagine yourself speaking, your voice loud, clear and confident. Visualize the audience clapping – it will boost your confidence.
7.Realize that people want you to succeed. Audiences want you to be interesting, stimulating, informative and entertaining. They’re rooting for you.
8.Don’t apologize for any nervousness or problem – the audience probably never noticed it.
9.Concentrate on the message – not the medium. Focus your attention away from your own anxieties and concentrate on your message and your audience.
10.Gain experience. Mainly, your speech should represent you — as an authority and as a person. Experience builds confidence, which is the key to effective speaking. A Toastmasters club can provide the experience you need in a safe and friendly environment.
Tuesday, November 29, 2011
Subconscious Mind Maintenance- Vasana Daha Tantra
Satguru Sivaya Subramuniyaswami
Mac 29, 1999 in Kauai Aadheenam , USA.
Here is a simple sadhana to perform. Many of you know this. It is called the Vasana Daha Tantra. If you have something on your mind that was not settled before sleep, between you and another person, then it goes into the subconscious mind as a vasana. Or, a thought form that contains the emotions you went through when the happening happened. To get rid of that emotion out of the memory, write it down on a piece of paper, crumple up that paper and burn it up in a garbage can because that is something you do not want to carry around with you.
Many people carry a lot of vasanas and the older they get, the heavier they get; mentally and emotionally heavy. They can lighten up the past by taking the emotion out of the experience and then they are left with only the memory. Then we are left with the lesson out of the experience, so we can help others not to go through the same experiences. It is a wonderful circle. This is called the Vasana Daha Tantra. If you look in 'Dancing With Siva', in the lexicon in the back of the book, you will find it explained very nicely. You can read it under V, vasana. Many people have done 500 hundred pages, and these are 8 1/2 by 11 pages. A lot of writing! Others have done 1,000. Most people manage with 100 or 200 pages to clean up their past, if they are around 35 or 40. Twenty-year olds can do with forty pages, or fifty pages, to get rid of the emotion out of the memory pattern, which is locked in the subconscious mind and influences everything that you do through the day and it even influences your dreams at night.
So, for the next three days, perform the Vasana Daha Tantra. Write down everything that is in your mind. All the negative things that have happened, re- experience the emotion, crumple up that paper, burn it up in an inauspicious fire like a garbage can, and you will see a great difference in yourself by the time we meet again, in our Cyberspace Ashram.
Aum Namah Sivaya.
Mac 29, 1999 in Kauai Aadheenam , USA.
Here is a simple sadhana to perform. Many of you know this. It is called the Vasana Daha Tantra. If you have something on your mind that was not settled before sleep, between you and another person, then it goes into the subconscious mind as a vasana. Or, a thought form that contains the emotions you went through when the happening happened. To get rid of that emotion out of the memory, write it down on a piece of paper, crumple up that paper and burn it up in a garbage can because that is something you do not want to carry around with you.
Many people carry a lot of vasanas and the older they get, the heavier they get; mentally and emotionally heavy. They can lighten up the past by taking the emotion out of the experience and then they are left with only the memory. Then we are left with the lesson out of the experience, so we can help others not to go through the same experiences. It is a wonderful circle. This is called the Vasana Daha Tantra. If you look in 'Dancing With Siva', in the lexicon in the back of the book, you will find it explained very nicely. You can read it under V, vasana. Many people have done 500 hundred pages, and these are 8 1/2 by 11 pages. A lot of writing! Others have done 1,000. Most people manage with 100 or 200 pages to clean up their past, if they are around 35 or 40. Twenty-year olds can do with forty pages, or fifty pages, to get rid of the emotion out of the memory pattern, which is locked in the subconscious mind and influences everything that you do through the day and it even influences your dreams at night.
So, for the next three days, perform the Vasana Daha Tantra. Write down everything that is in your mind. All the negative things that have happened, re- experience the emotion, crumple up that paper, burn it up in an inauspicious fire like a garbage can, and you will see a great difference in yourself by the time we meet again, in our Cyberspace Ashram.
Aum Namah Sivaya.
Sunday, November 20, 2011
What is Dharma ? What Are Its Forms ?
What Is Dharma? What Are Its Forms?
SLOKA
Dharma is the law of being, the orderly fulfillment of an inherent nature and destiny. Dharma is of four main divisions, which are God's law at work on four levels of our existence: universal, human, social and personal. Aum.
A king's dharma--his destiny and proper path--is to rule wisely, conscientiously and with honor, as does this noble monarch, served by knowing ministers. Should he lack the strength to rule, or should he govern unrighteously, dharma would suffer.
BHASHYA
When God created the universe, He endowed it with order, with the laws to govern creation. Dharma is God's divine law prevailing on every level of existence, from the sustaining cosmic order to religious and moral laws which bind us in harmony with that order. We are maintained by dharma, held in our most perfect relationship within a complex universe. Every form of life, every group of men, has its dharma, the law of its being. When we follow dharma, we are in conformity with the Truth that inheres and instructs the universe, and we naturally abide in closeness to God. Adharma is opposition to divine law. Dharma prevails in the laws of nature and is expressed in our culture and heritage. It is piety and ethical practice, duty and obligation. It is the path which leads us to liberation. Universal dharma is known as rita. Social dharma is varna dharma. Human dharma is known as ashrama dharma. Our personal dharma is svadharma. Hinduism, the purest expression of these four timeless dharmas, is called Sanatana Dharma. The Vedas proclaim, "There is nothing higher than dharma. Verily, that which is dharma is Truth." Aum Namah Sivaya.
What Is Signified by Universal Dharma?
SLOKA 57
Universal law, known in the Vedas as rita, is cosmic order, God's rule at work throughout the physical province. It is the infinite intelligence or consciousness in nature, the sustaining cosmic design and organizing force. Aum.
Here the Sun and the Moon move through space together on a fanciful single-wheeled ferry. Even the great celestial bodies--the planets, stars and billions of galaxies and their atomic constituents--follow dharma, called rita dharma, or universal law.
BHASHYA
Rita is the underlying divine principle and universal law regulating nature, from the voyage of stars in vast galactic orbits to the flux of infinitesimal subatomic energies. Rita is the Tao. It is destiny and the road to destiny. When we are in tune with universal dharma, and realize that man is an integral part of nature and not above it or dominating it, then we are in tune with God. All Hindus feel they are guests on the planet with responsibilities to nature, which when fulfilled balance its responsibilities to them. The physical body was gathered from nature and returns to it. Nature is exquisitely complex and orderly. The coconut always yields a coconut tree, a lotus a lotus, a rose a rose, not another species. How constant nature is, and yet how diverse, for in mass producing its creations, no two ever look exactly alike. Yes, the Hindu knows himself to be a part of nature and seeks to bring his life into harmony with the universal path, the sustaining cosmic force. The Vedas proclaim, "Earth is upheld by Truth. Heaven is upheld by the sun. The solar regions are supported by eternal laws, rita. The elixir of divine love is supreme in heaven." Aum Namah Sivaya.
What Is the Nature of Social Dharma?
SLOKA
Social law, or varna dharma, consists of the occupation, duties and responsibilities we must fulfill as a member of our nation, community and family. An important aspect of this dharma is religious and moral law. Aum.
Social dharma entails our national, societal and occupational responsibilities. Here the loyal subjects of a kindly king bring a portion of their grains, goods and wealth to the palace. The monarch will use it to benefit his people and defend the realm.
BHASHYA
Every human society defines a complex stratification of community interaction. Scholarly, pious souls of exceptional learning are the wise brahmins. Lawmakers and law-enforcers are the guardian kshatriyas. Bankers and businessmen are merchant vaishyas. Laborers, workers and artisans are shudras. In addition to these four classes, or varnas, are hundreds of castes, or jatis. In Hindu societies, class and caste, which dictates one's occupation and community, is largely hereditary. However, these birth-imposed categories can be transcended by the ambitious who enter new careers through education, skill and persistence. Social dharma is fulfilled in adherence to the laws of our nation, to our community responsibilities and to our obligations among family and friends. A comprehensive system of duties, morals and religious observances make up God's law at work in our daily life. Rightly followed, varna dharma enhances individual and family progress and ensures the continuity of culture. The Vedas say, "When a man is born, whoever he may be, there is born simultaneously a debt to the Gods, to the sages, to the ancestors and to men." Aum Namah Sivaya.
What Is the Nature of Human Dharma?
SLOKA
Human law, or ashrama dharma, is the natural expression and maturing of the body, mind and emotions through four progressive stages of earthly life: student, householder, elder advisor and religious solitaire. Aum.
Two daughters, in the brahmacharya ashrama, are learning to weave, grind flour and make baskets for the family. Mother and father are in the grihastha ashrama, raising children and supporting society. They are preparing soma, the Vedic elixir.
BHASHYA
The four ashramas are "stages of striving," in pursuit of the purusharthas: righteousness, wealth, pleasure and liberation. Our first 24 years of life are a time of intense learning. Around age 12, we enter formally the brahmacharya ashrama and undertake the study and skills that will serve us in later life. From 24 to 48, in the grihastha ashrama, we work together as husband and wife to raise the family, increasing wealth and knowledge through our profession, serving the community and sustaining the members of the other three ashramas. In the vanaprastha ashrama, from 48 to 72, slowly retiring from public life, we share our experience by advising and guiding younger generations. After age 72, as the physical forces wane, we turn fully to scripture, worship and yoga. This is the sannyasa ashrama, which differs from the formal life of ochre-robed monks. Thus, our human dharma is a natural awakening, expression, maturing and withdrawal from worldly involvement. The Vedas say, "Pursuit of the duties of the stage of life to which each one belongs--that, verily, is the rule! Others are like branches of a stem. With this, one tends upwards; otherwise, downwards." Aum Namah Sivaya.
What Is the Nature of Personal Dharma?
SLOKA
Personal law, or svadharma, is our own perfect individual pattern in life. It is the sum of our accumulated seed karmas as they relate to the collective effect on us of rita, ashrama and varna dharma. Aum Namah Sivaya.
A man is carried on an elaborate temple chariot with massive wooden wheels, a Siva-Sakti murti and two guardian lions. Similarly, each human's personal dharma conveys him through life. Listening to the voice of his soul, he follows his truest path.
BHASHYA
Each human being has an individual, personal dharma. This dharma is determined by two things: the karmas, both good and bad, from past lives; and the three dharmas of this life--universal, human and social. Svadharma, "one's own law," is molded by our background and experiences, tendencies and desires--indicated by astrology--all of which determine our personality, profession and associations. The key to discovering and understanding personal dharma is the worship of Lord Ganesha, the God of memory, time and wisdom, who knows our past lives and can clarify our most perfect pattern, our right path in life. When we follow this unique pattern--guided by guru, wise elders and the knowing voice of our soul--we are content and at peace with ourselves and the world. Dharma is to the individual what its normal development is to a seed--the orderly fulfillment of an inherent nature and destiny. A Vedic prayer implores, "That splendor that resides in an elephant, in a king, among men, or within the waters, with which the Gods in the beginning came to Godhood, with that same splendor make me splendid, O Lord." Aum Namah Sivaya.
SLOKA
Dharma is the law of being, the orderly fulfillment of an inherent nature and destiny. Dharma is of four main divisions, which are God's law at work on four levels of our existence: universal, human, social and personal. Aum.
A king's dharma--his destiny and proper path--is to rule wisely, conscientiously and with honor, as does this noble monarch, served by knowing ministers. Should he lack the strength to rule, or should he govern unrighteously, dharma would suffer.
BHASHYA
When God created the universe, He endowed it with order, with the laws to govern creation. Dharma is God's divine law prevailing on every level of existence, from the sustaining cosmic order to religious and moral laws which bind us in harmony with that order. We are maintained by dharma, held in our most perfect relationship within a complex universe. Every form of life, every group of men, has its dharma, the law of its being. When we follow dharma, we are in conformity with the Truth that inheres and instructs the universe, and we naturally abide in closeness to God. Adharma is opposition to divine law. Dharma prevails in the laws of nature and is expressed in our culture and heritage. It is piety and ethical practice, duty and obligation. It is the path which leads us to liberation. Universal dharma is known as rita. Social dharma is varna dharma. Human dharma is known as ashrama dharma. Our personal dharma is svadharma. Hinduism, the purest expression of these four timeless dharmas, is called Sanatana Dharma. The Vedas proclaim, "There is nothing higher than dharma. Verily, that which is dharma is Truth." Aum Namah Sivaya.
What Is Signified by Universal Dharma?
SLOKA 57
Universal law, known in the Vedas as rita, is cosmic order, God's rule at work throughout the physical province. It is the infinite intelligence or consciousness in nature, the sustaining cosmic design and organizing force. Aum.
Here the Sun and the Moon move through space together on a fanciful single-wheeled ferry. Even the great celestial bodies--the planets, stars and billions of galaxies and their atomic constituents--follow dharma, called rita dharma, or universal law.
BHASHYA
Rita is the underlying divine principle and universal law regulating nature, from the voyage of stars in vast galactic orbits to the flux of infinitesimal subatomic energies. Rita is the Tao. It is destiny and the road to destiny. When we are in tune with universal dharma, and realize that man is an integral part of nature and not above it or dominating it, then we are in tune with God. All Hindus feel they are guests on the planet with responsibilities to nature, which when fulfilled balance its responsibilities to them. The physical body was gathered from nature and returns to it. Nature is exquisitely complex and orderly. The coconut always yields a coconut tree, a lotus a lotus, a rose a rose, not another species. How constant nature is, and yet how diverse, for in mass producing its creations, no two ever look exactly alike. Yes, the Hindu knows himself to be a part of nature and seeks to bring his life into harmony with the universal path, the sustaining cosmic force. The Vedas proclaim, "Earth is upheld by Truth. Heaven is upheld by the sun. The solar regions are supported by eternal laws, rita. The elixir of divine love is supreme in heaven." Aum Namah Sivaya.
What Is the Nature of Social Dharma?
SLOKA
Social law, or varna dharma, consists of the occupation, duties and responsibilities we must fulfill as a member of our nation, community and family. An important aspect of this dharma is religious and moral law. Aum.
Social dharma entails our national, societal and occupational responsibilities. Here the loyal subjects of a kindly king bring a portion of their grains, goods and wealth to the palace. The monarch will use it to benefit his people and defend the realm.
BHASHYA
Every human society defines a complex stratification of community interaction. Scholarly, pious souls of exceptional learning are the wise brahmins. Lawmakers and law-enforcers are the guardian kshatriyas. Bankers and businessmen are merchant vaishyas. Laborers, workers and artisans are shudras. In addition to these four classes, or varnas, are hundreds of castes, or jatis. In Hindu societies, class and caste, which dictates one's occupation and community, is largely hereditary. However, these birth-imposed categories can be transcended by the ambitious who enter new careers through education, skill and persistence. Social dharma is fulfilled in adherence to the laws of our nation, to our community responsibilities and to our obligations among family and friends. A comprehensive system of duties, morals and religious observances make up God's law at work in our daily life. Rightly followed, varna dharma enhances individual and family progress and ensures the continuity of culture. The Vedas say, "When a man is born, whoever he may be, there is born simultaneously a debt to the Gods, to the sages, to the ancestors and to men." Aum Namah Sivaya.
What Is the Nature of Human Dharma?
SLOKA
Human law, or ashrama dharma, is the natural expression and maturing of the body, mind and emotions through four progressive stages of earthly life: student, householder, elder advisor and religious solitaire. Aum.
Two daughters, in the brahmacharya ashrama, are learning to weave, grind flour and make baskets for the family. Mother and father are in the grihastha ashrama, raising children and supporting society. They are preparing soma, the Vedic elixir.
BHASHYA
The four ashramas are "stages of striving," in pursuit of the purusharthas: righteousness, wealth, pleasure and liberation. Our first 24 years of life are a time of intense learning. Around age 12, we enter formally the brahmacharya ashrama and undertake the study and skills that will serve us in later life. From 24 to 48, in the grihastha ashrama, we work together as husband and wife to raise the family, increasing wealth and knowledge through our profession, serving the community and sustaining the members of the other three ashramas. In the vanaprastha ashrama, from 48 to 72, slowly retiring from public life, we share our experience by advising and guiding younger generations. After age 72, as the physical forces wane, we turn fully to scripture, worship and yoga. This is the sannyasa ashrama, which differs from the formal life of ochre-robed monks. Thus, our human dharma is a natural awakening, expression, maturing and withdrawal from worldly involvement. The Vedas say, "Pursuit of the duties of the stage of life to which each one belongs--that, verily, is the rule! Others are like branches of a stem. With this, one tends upwards; otherwise, downwards." Aum Namah Sivaya.
What Is the Nature of Personal Dharma?
SLOKA
Personal law, or svadharma, is our own perfect individual pattern in life. It is the sum of our accumulated seed karmas as they relate to the collective effect on us of rita, ashrama and varna dharma. Aum Namah Sivaya.
A man is carried on an elaborate temple chariot with massive wooden wheels, a Siva-Sakti murti and two guardian lions. Similarly, each human's personal dharma conveys him through life. Listening to the voice of his soul, he follows his truest path.
BHASHYA
Each human being has an individual, personal dharma. This dharma is determined by two things: the karmas, both good and bad, from past lives; and the three dharmas of this life--universal, human and social. Svadharma, "one's own law," is molded by our background and experiences, tendencies and desires--indicated by astrology--all of which determine our personality, profession and associations. The key to discovering and understanding personal dharma is the worship of Lord Ganesha, the God of memory, time and wisdom, who knows our past lives and can clarify our most perfect pattern, our right path in life. When we follow this unique pattern--guided by guru, wise elders and the knowing voice of our soul--we are content and at peace with ourselves and the world. Dharma is to the individual what its normal development is to a seed--the orderly fulfillment of an inherent nature and destiny. A Vedic prayer implores, "That splendor that resides in an elephant, in a king, among men, or within the waters, with which the Gods in the beginning came to Godhood, with that same splendor make me splendid, O Lord." Aum Namah Sivaya.
Saturday, November 19, 2011
Free Talk and Free Youth Workshop with Swami Mitrananda
Vanakam and Blessed to All Divine Atma,
Your presence in this world is very significant.
Cherish every moment that you have.
You are not guaranteed about your life.
Take opportunity to love and serve others for that act is to serve and love God.
Om Shanti.
Wonderful program , organized by Chinmaya Mission.
Please forward to all your friends.
Chinmaya Mission
Presents
Upadesa Saara
The Yoga Of Devotion
A series of talks by
BRAHMACHARINI NISHITA CHAITANYA
Acharya, Chinmaya Seva Ashram, Hong Kong
29th Nov (Tue), 30th Nov (Wed), 1st Dec (Thurs)
8 pm SHARP
at
Laxmi Narayan Temple, Lorong Kasipillay, Off Jalan Ipoh
AND
LOL with SMS
(LIVE OUT LOUD WITH SWAMI MITRANANDA)
A Youth Workshop with
SWAMI MITRANANDA SARASWATI
Acharya. Chinmaya Mission, Chennai
and Director, All India Chinmaya Yuva Kendra (AICHYK)
3RD DEC (SAT)
11 AM – 3 PM
AT
NO.38, LORONG MAAROF
BANGSAR PARK, KL
FOR INFO : 012-5580228 OR EMAIL CHINMAYAKL@GMAIL.COM
Your presence in this world is very significant.
Cherish every moment that you have.
You are not guaranteed about your life.
Take opportunity to love and serve others for that act is to serve and love God.
Om Shanti.
Wonderful program , organized by Chinmaya Mission.
Please forward to all your friends.
Chinmaya Mission
Presents
Upadesa Saara
The Yoga Of Devotion
A series of talks by
BRAHMACHARINI NISHITA CHAITANYA
Acharya, Chinmaya Seva Ashram, Hong Kong
29th Nov (Tue), 30th Nov (Wed), 1st Dec (Thurs)
8 pm SHARP
at
Laxmi Narayan Temple, Lorong Kasipillay, Off Jalan Ipoh
AND
LOL with SMS
(LIVE OUT LOUD WITH SWAMI MITRANANDA)
A Youth Workshop with
SWAMI MITRANANDA SARASWATI
Acharya. Chinmaya Mission, Chennai
and Director, All India Chinmaya Yuva Kendra (AICHYK)
3RD DEC (SAT)
11 AM – 3 PM
AT
NO.38, LORONG MAAROF
BANGSAR PARK, KL
FOR INFO : 012-5580228 OR EMAIL CHINMAYAKL@GMAIL.COM
Tuesday, November 15, 2011
Free Health Talk :Holistic Approach on Health Challenges
Dear Friends,
To those who have registered for the talk, thank you. This is a gentle reminder for inform you about the free 2-hour talk by G. Suresh on :-
DATE : 19 November 2011 (Saturday)
TIME : 4.00 pm - 6.00 pm
TOPIC : Holistic Approach on Health Challenges
VENUE : Malaysian Association For The Blind (MAB) Jalan Tebing, Off Jalan Tun Sambathan 4, 50470, Kuala Lumpur
NOTE : Enclosed brochure
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED FOR
People challenged with cancer and their family members, alternative practitioners, medical professionals and anyone who wants to have a greater awareness of health issues.
Since admission is free and seats are limited, kindly reserve your seat(s) by :-
1. SMS your name and email address to 017 – 881 2287.
2. Send an email to ucansurvive@gmail.com with your name and handphone number.
We would greatly appreciate if you could help to forward this mail to your friends or those who will benefit from this talk.
Thanks.
Looking forward to seeing you there.
Regards
Cansurvive Malaysia Centre Berhad
Tel : 017 - 881 2287
Website : www.cansurvive.org.my
To those who have registered for the talk, thank you. This is a gentle reminder for inform you about the free 2-hour talk by G. Suresh on :-
DATE : 19 November 2011 (Saturday)
TIME : 4.00 pm - 6.00 pm
TOPIC : Holistic Approach on Health Challenges
VENUE : Malaysian Association For The Blind (MAB) Jalan Tebing, Off Jalan Tun Sambathan 4, 50470, Kuala Lumpur
NOTE : Enclosed brochure
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED FOR
People challenged with cancer and their family members, alternative practitioners, medical professionals and anyone who wants to have a greater awareness of health issues.
Since admission is free and seats are limited, kindly reserve your seat(s) by :-
1. SMS your name and email address to 017 – 881 2287.
2. Send an email to ucansurvive@gmail.com with your name and handphone number.
We would greatly appreciate if you could help to forward this mail to your friends or those who will benefit from this talk.
Thanks.
Looking forward to seeing you there.
Regards
Cansurvive Malaysia Centre Berhad
Tel : 017 - 881 2287
Website : www.cansurvive.org.my
Saturday, November 12, 2011
Where am I Going ? What Is My Path ?
Sloka
We are all growing toward God, and experience is the path. Through experience we mature out of fear into fearlessness, out of anger into love, out of conflict into peace, out of darkness into light and union in God. Aum.
An aspirant climbs the highest peak of all, the summit of consciousness. Though the higher reaches of this path are arduous, solitary, even severe, he remains undaunted, impervious to distraction, his eyes fixed firmly on the goal -- Self Realization.
BHASHYA
We have taken birth in a physical body to grow and evolve into our divine potential. We are inwardly already one with God. Our religion contains the knowledge of how to realize this oneness and not create unwanted experiences along the way. The peerless path is following the way of our spiritual forefathers, discovering the mystical meaning of the scriptures. The peerless path is commitment, study, discipline, practice and the maturing of yoga into wisdom. In the beginning stages, we suffer until we learn. Learning leads us to service; and selfless service is the beginning of spiritual striving. Service leads us to understanding. Understanding leads us to meditate deeply and without distractions. Finally, meditation leads us to surrender in God. This is the straight and certain path, the San Marga, leading to Self Realization -- the inmost purpose of life -- and subsequently to moksha, freedom from rebirth. The Vedas wisely affirm, "By austerity, goodness is obtain- ed. From goodness, understanding is reached. From understanding, the Self is obtained, and he who obtains the Self is freed from the cycle of birth and death." Aum Namah Sivaya.
We are all growing toward God, and experience is the path. Through experience we mature out of fear into fearlessness, out of anger into love, out of conflict into peace, out of darkness into light and union in God. Aum.
An aspirant climbs the highest peak of all, the summit of consciousness. Though the higher reaches of this path are arduous, solitary, even severe, he remains undaunted, impervious to distraction, his eyes fixed firmly on the goal -- Self Realization.
BHASHYA
We have taken birth in a physical body to grow and evolve into our divine potential. We are inwardly already one with God. Our religion contains the knowledge of how to realize this oneness and not create unwanted experiences along the way. The peerless path is following the way of our spiritual forefathers, discovering the mystical meaning of the scriptures. The peerless path is commitment, study, discipline, practice and the maturing of yoga into wisdom. In the beginning stages, we suffer until we learn. Learning leads us to service; and selfless service is the beginning of spiritual striving. Service leads us to understanding. Understanding leads us to meditate deeply and without distractions. Finally, meditation leads us to surrender in God. This is the straight and certain path, the San Marga, leading to Self Realization -- the inmost purpose of life -- and subsequently to moksha, freedom from rebirth. The Vedas wisely affirm, "By austerity, goodness is obtain- ed. From goodness, understanding is reached. From understanding, the Self is obtained, and he who obtains the Self is freed from the cycle of birth and death." Aum Namah Sivaya.
Thursday, November 10, 2011
Who am I ? Where did I come from ?
Who Am I? Where Did I Come From?
SLOKA 1
Rishis proclaim that we are not our body, mind or emotions. We are divine souls on a wondrous journey. We came from God, live in God and are evolving into oneness with God. We are, in truth, the Truth we seek. Aum.
Seated by a lotus pond, symbol of his quieted mind, a seeker intones "Aum Namah Sivaya" on his mala and contemplates his destiny, which blooms as naturally as the flower he holds. Behind are depicted the past lives that brought him to his maturity.
BHASHYA
We are immortal souls living and growing in the great school of earthly experience in which we have lived many lives. Vedic rishis have given us courage by uttering the simple truth, "God is the Life of our life." A great sage carried it further by saying there is one thing God cannot do: God cannot separate Himself from us. This is because God is our life. God is the life in the birds. God is the life in the fish. God is the life in the animals. Becoming aware of this Life energy in all that lives is becoming aware of God's loving presence within us. We are the undying consciousness and energy flowing through all things. Deep inside we are perfect this very moment, and we have only to discover and live up to this perfection to be whole. Our energy and God's energy are the same, ever coming out of the void. We are all beautiful children of God. Each day we should try to see the life energy in trees, birds, animals and people. When we do, we are seeing God Siva in action. The Vedas affirm, "He who knows God as the Life of life, the Eye of the eye, the Ear of the ear, the Mind of the mind -- he indeed com- prehends fully the Cause of all causes." Aum Namah Sivaya.
SLOKA 1
Rishis proclaim that we are not our body, mind or emotions. We are divine souls on a wondrous journey. We came from God, live in God and are evolving into oneness with God. We are, in truth, the Truth we seek. Aum.
Seated by a lotus pond, symbol of his quieted mind, a seeker intones "Aum Namah Sivaya" on his mala and contemplates his destiny, which blooms as naturally as the flower he holds. Behind are depicted the past lives that brought him to his maturity.
BHASHYA
We are immortal souls living and growing in the great school of earthly experience in which we have lived many lives. Vedic rishis have given us courage by uttering the simple truth, "God is the Life of our life." A great sage carried it further by saying there is one thing God cannot do: God cannot separate Himself from us. This is because God is our life. God is the life in the birds. God is the life in the fish. God is the life in the animals. Becoming aware of this Life energy in all that lives is becoming aware of God's loving presence within us. We are the undying consciousness and energy flowing through all things. Deep inside we are perfect this very moment, and we have only to discover and live up to this perfection to be whole. Our energy and God's energy are the same, ever coming out of the void. We are all beautiful children of God. Each day we should try to see the life energy in trees, birds, animals and people. When we do, we are seeing God Siva in action. The Vedas affirm, "He who knows God as the Life of life, the Eye of the eye, the Ear of the ear, the Mind of the mind -- he indeed com- prehends fully the Cause of all causes." Aum Namah Sivaya.
Sunday, November 6, 2011
Conversation between Siva Yogaswami and a devotee
"One day I traveled to Jaffna and went to the Ashram at Columbuthurai to see Swami. Swami was seated amidst a few devotees. That day even without my knowledge, I fell spontaneously at His feet and worshipped Him. From that day onwards until He attained Samadhi, whenever I went to see Swami I worshipped Him despite His saying these words, 'It is not necessary to worship in front of people,' and 'It is not necessary to fall on the ground,' and 'It is sufficient if you worship mentally.' (But he was a Guru Bhaktar right? You couldn't stop him from prostrating.) From that day I could not be without falling prostrate and worshipping Him. One day He called me by name and said, 'What is the one thing God cannot do?' I heard this question and remained shocked. When it is said that God is all powerful, (Which is how we started right? God is all powerful, omnipotent.) is there something He cannot do? Swami quietly said, 'You need not answer now; you can give the reply when you come in two days time.'
When I came home that question kept resounding itself. I could think of nothing else. While I was musing over that question, a section I had studied in the Mahabharatha came to my mind. When Krishna asked, 'What can be done to prevent the war?' Sahadevan's reply was the section I recalled. Sahadevan's reply was, 'If I bind you straightway, the war can be prevented.' Then Krishna asked him, 'How will you bind me?' and Sahadevan responded that he would bind Him with a restraining rope of love; this seemed a satisfactory answer to Swami's question. I decided to tell Swami that when God is captured by the love of the devotee, He cannot free Himself. (Think that'll work [...??])
Two days later when I went to see Swami I gave this reply. When He heard my reply Swami said, 'How can that be? You can bind God by love only if love is different from Him. You cannot separate God from love. God is love.' He continued, 'The one act God cannot do is to separate Himself from us even for a moment.' By this device Swami impressed on my heart that God does not separate from us even for a split second and is always with us as the soul of our souls."
When I came home that question kept resounding itself. I could think of nothing else. While I was musing over that question, a section I had studied in the Mahabharatha came to my mind. When Krishna asked, 'What can be done to prevent the war?' Sahadevan's reply was the section I recalled. Sahadevan's reply was, 'If I bind you straightway, the war can be prevented.' Then Krishna asked him, 'How will you bind me?' and Sahadevan responded that he would bind Him with a restraining rope of love; this seemed a satisfactory answer to Swami's question. I decided to tell Swami that when God is captured by the love of the devotee, He cannot free Himself. (Think that'll work [...??])
Two days later when I went to see Swami I gave this reply. When He heard my reply Swami said, 'How can that be? You can bind God by love only if love is different from Him. You cannot separate God from love. God is love.' He continued, 'The one act God cannot do is to separate Himself from us even for a moment.' By this device Swami impressed on my heart that God does not separate from us even for a split second and is always with us as the soul of our souls."
Friday, October 21, 2011
2 Free Talk
Vanakam and Namaskaram to All Great Atma,
Bless You, Love you, Serve You and Forgive You.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2 Free talks on Saturday 22 Oct and Sunday 23 Oct
1. Health Talk
There will be a 2 hours joint talk by Dr. Saunthari Somasundaram & Dr. Peter Nai on :-
DATE : 22nd October 2011 (Saturday)
TIME : 4.00 pm - 6.00 pm
TOPIC : Breast Cancer - Preventive Aspects & Alternative Non Toxic Treatment for Cancer
VENUE : Uptrend Network Sdn. Bhd., Jaya One.
NOTE : Enclosed brochure & Location Map
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED FOR
People challenged with cancer and their family members, alternative
practitioners, medical professionals and anyone who wants to have a
greater awareness of health issues.
Since admission is free and seats are limited, kindly reserve your seat(s) by :-
1. SMS your name and email address to 017 – 881 2287.
2. Send an email to ucansurvive@gmail.com with your name and handphone number.
We would greatly appreciate if you could help to forward this mail to
your friends or those who will benefit from this talk. Thanks.
Looking forward to seeing you there.....
--
Regards
Agkillah Maniam
Events Committee
Cansurvive Malaysia Centre Berhad
Tel : 017 - 881 2287
Website : www.cansurvive.org.my
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2, Spiritual Talk
We Are kindly inviting you and your family for Spritual Discourse By Jegathguru Mahan Maharishi Paranjothiar about "Way to Win". Hope you guys will attend this free talk and get blessed by Gurumahan.
Time : 9.30am to 1pm
Date : 23/10/2011
Venue : Mines 2 Shopping Centre,Mines Resort City,Seri Kembangan,Selangor.
Contact: M.A.Raman (016 625 5884).
Vasu (012 252 3649).
Raj (012 297 5138).
Santhosam!!
Thevan
Universal Peace Sanctuary Seremban.
Bless You, Love you, Serve You and Forgive You.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2 Free talks on Saturday 22 Oct and Sunday 23 Oct
1. Health Talk
There will be a 2 hours joint talk by Dr. Saunthari Somasundaram & Dr. Peter Nai on :-
DATE : 22nd October 2011 (Saturday)
TIME : 4.00 pm - 6.00 pm
TOPIC : Breast Cancer - Preventive Aspects & Alternative Non Toxic Treatment for Cancer
VENUE : Uptrend Network Sdn. Bhd., Jaya One.
NOTE : Enclosed brochure & Location Map
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED FOR
People challenged with cancer and their family members, alternative
practitioners, medical professionals and anyone who wants to have a
greater awareness of health issues.
Since admission is free and seats are limited, kindly reserve your seat(s) by :-
1. SMS your name and email address to 017 – 881 2287.
2. Send an email to ucansurvive@gmail.com with your name and handphone number.
We would greatly appreciate if you could help to forward this mail to
your friends or those who will benefit from this talk. Thanks.
Looking forward to seeing you there.....
--
Regards
Agkillah Maniam
Events Committee
Cansurvive Malaysia Centre Berhad
Tel : 017 - 881 2287
Website : www.cansurvive.org.my
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2, Spiritual Talk
We Are kindly inviting you and your family for Spritual Discourse By Jegathguru Mahan Maharishi Paranjothiar about "Way to Win". Hope you guys will attend this free talk and get blessed by Gurumahan.
Time : 9.30am to 1pm
Date : 23/10/2011
Venue : Mines 2 Shopping Centre,Mines Resort City,Seri Kembangan,Selangor.
Contact: M.A.Raman (016 625 5884).
Vasu (012 252 3649).
Raj (012 297 5138).
Santhosam!!
Thevan
Universal Peace Sanctuary Seremban.
Friday, October 14, 2011
How to Speak like a Leader
The 10 Commandments of Communication
How to speak like a leader.
By Michael Landrum, ATMB
Listen generously. Emerson said: “First seek to understand, then to be understood.” How do you listen to an audience? Do your research. Find out who they are, what they need and want, and what they expect from you. When you step to the lectern, pause and listen. Are they ready to hear you? During your speech, keep listening. Pay attention to them. Are they leaning forward, backward or on each other? Be willing to depart from your prepared remarks to recover your rapport with them. Ask questions. Even something as simple as “Is that clear?” can reestablish contact.
Say what you mean and mean what you say. Aren’t these two phrases the same? No indeed: “Say what you mean” is about telling the truth, “Mean what you say” is about making a commitment, keeping your promise, honoring your word. Have something meaningful to say. Step to the lectern with the intention of making a difference to your audience.
Use the fewest words with the fewest syllables. I run afoul of this one all the time. It’s the main reason I rewrite so often, looking for big, two-dollar words I can swap for a single 10-cent syllable. Delete therefore, insert so. That’s real economy in writing. Remember that the basic unit of communication is not the word but the idea.
Align with your audience. We may consider it our task to speak to the audience, but it is sometimes more important to speak for them. Express those thoughts and feelings that you share with them. Even if you think they are wrong and you are the advocate of sweeping change, you must first understand and articulate their feelings. Great leaders know that leadership begins with the pronoun we.
Be specific. Use stories, anecdotes, parables and examples rather than generalities and abstractions. This is a tough one for some people. They love to wander through a topic in the abstract, scattering generalities as they go. The great teachers and speakers pepper their talks with vivid, detailed examples. “He seemed upset as he left” is general. “He blew his nose, kicked the dog and slammed the door” is specific.
Suit the action to the word, the word to the action. Don’t say “I’m glad to be here” while looking at your wristwatch. Be aware of your non-verbal communication. Your gestures, posture, facial expressions, energy, tone of voice, and a thousand other tiny, unuttered elements actually carry the true and specific meaning of your communication. We can understand the words “I love you” well enough. But their true importance, their actual meaning, is all wrapped up in how they are spoken, and by whom.
Structure your speech. One valuable way to make your talk memorable is to speak to a structure and make your listeners aware of it. Share with them the form of your thoughts as well as the content and they will be able to follow more complex ideas. It will be easier for you to remember, too. People appreciate the scenery more with a glance at the road map every now and then.
Speak to be understood. Have the courtesy to develop your voice so that all may hear you. You groom your appearance, so why not cultivate your voice? With a little effort it can be strong, crisp, clear and various in texture, color and range. It’s sad when speakers expend their energy to create a vivid, well-constructed talk and then whisper, mutter or mumble.
Speak for the benefit of others. Serve your audience well by keeping their interests foremost in your mind. This is the golden rule of speaking. As an audience member you can easily tell when a speaker is self-serving. Nothing communicates more clearly than intention.
Speak from your highest self. The highest self is where hope resides. To lead effectively requires a courageous, positive, optimistic view. As any astronaut will tell you, if you get high enough you will be in perpetual sunshine. There must be a caveat attached to this rule, however: Beware of elevating yourself with a high horse. Be humble. Having an opinion is a meager accomplishment. On most occasions a modest demeanor improves communication.
Michael Landrum, ATMB, is a speaker, coach and writer in New York.
Reference : www.toastmasters.org
How to speak like a leader.
By Michael Landrum, ATMB
Listen generously. Emerson said: “First seek to understand, then to be understood.” How do you listen to an audience? Do your research. Find out who they are, what they need and want, and what they expect from you. When you step to the lectern, pause and listen. Are they ready to hear you? During your speech, keep listening. Pay attention to them. Are they leaning forward, backward or on each other? Be willing to depart from your prepared remarks to recover your rapport with them. Ask questions. Even something as simple as “Is that clear?” can reestablish contact.
Say what you mean and mean what you say. Aren’t these two phrases the same? No indeed: “Say what you mean” is about telling the truth, “Mean what you say” is about making a commitment, keeping your promise, honoring your word. Have something meaningful to say. Step to the lectern with the intention of making a difference to your audience.
Use the fewest words with the fewest syllables. I run afoul of this one all the time. It’s the main reason I rewrite so often, looking for big, two-dollar words I can swap for a single 10-cent syllable. Delete therefore, insert so. That’s real economy in writing. Remember that the basic unit of communication is not the word but the idea.
Align with your audience. We may consider it our task to speak to the audience, but it is sometimes more important to speak for them. Express those thoughts and feelings that you share with them. Even if you think they are wrong and you are the advocate of sweeping change, you must first understand and articulate their feelings. Great leaders know that leadership begins with the pronoun we.
Be specific. Use stories, anecdotes, parables and examples rather than generalities and abstractions. This is a tough one for some people. They love to wander through a topic in the abstract, scattering generalities as they go. The great teachers and speakers pepper their talks with vivid, detailed examples. “He seemed upset as he left” is general. “He blew his nose, kicked the dog and slammed the door” is specific.
Suit the action to the word, the word to the action. Don’t say “I’m glad to be here” while looking at your wristwatch. Be aware of your non-verbal communication. Your gestures, posture, facial expressions, energy, tone of voice, and a thousand other tiny, unuttered elements actually carry the true and specific meaning of your communication. We can understand the words “I love you” well enough. But their true importance, their actual meaning, is all wrapped up in how they are spoken, and by whom.
Structure your speech. One valuable way to make your talk memorable is to speak to a structure and make your listeners aware of it. Share with them the form of your thoughts as well as the content and they will be able to follow more complex ideas. It will be easier for you to remember, too. People appreciate the scenery more with a glance at the road map every now and then.
Speak to be understood. Have the courtesy to develop your voice so that all may hear you. You groom your appearance, so why not cultivate your voice? With a little effort it can be strong, crisp, clear and various in texture, color and range. It’s sad when speakers expend their energy to create a vivid, well-constructed talk and then whisper, mutter or mumble.
Speak for the benefit of others. Serve your audience well by keeping their interests foremost in your mind. This is the golden rule of speaking. As an audience member you can easily tell when a speaker is self-serving. Nothing communicates more clearly than intention.
Speak from your highest self. The highest self is where hope resides. To lead effectively requires a courageous, positive, optimistic view. As any astronaut will tell you, if you get high enough you will be in perpetual sunshine. There must be a caveat attached to this rule, however: Beware of elevating yourself with a high horse. Be humble. Having an opinion is a meager accomplishment. On most occasions a modest demeanor improves communication.
Michael Landrum, ATMB, is a speaker, coach and writer in New York.
Reference : www.toastmasters.org
Tuesday, October 11, 2011
Thevaram Book Launch in Singapore on 28 October,2011
Vanakam and Namaskaram to all Divine and Pure Atma,
Billions of blessings and Love to all of you.
A program in Singapore , not to miss. All are encourage to attend especially those who are in Singapore and Johor.
The Book Thevaram”
Dear friends,
It is with great pleasure that I inform you that the book "Thevaram" will be officially launched this Friday, 28 October 2011 at the Sri Senpaga Vinayagar Temple Kalamandapam.
This book produced by the Sri Senpaga Vinayagar Temple, was written under the careful supervision of Maravanpulavu, K Sachithananthan and has been carefully tailored to the needs of the Singapore Tamil Youth, bearing in mind that most of our students study Tamil as a Second Language.
It is a bilingual book with word for word meaning in both Tamil and English as well as the meaning of each individual Thevaram.
Ambassador, K Kesavapany, Director Institute of South East Asian Studies is the Guest of Honour for the occasion.
Sri Senpaga Vinayagar Temple, (SSVT) is committed to propagate the Thirumurais, as such this book is being sold at a nominal fee of S$10/- per copy.
Please treat this as a personal invitation and attend the function.
Please disseminate this information to all your friends and encourage them to participate in this very special event.
Billions of blessings and Love to all of you.
A program in Singapore , not to miss. All are encourage to attend especially those who are in Singapore and Johor.
The Book Thevaram”
Dear friends,
It is with great pleasure that I inform you that the book "Thevaram" will be officially launched this Friday, 28 October 2011 at the Sri Senpaga Vinayagar Temple Kalamandapam.
This book produced by the Sri Senpaga Vinayagar Temple, was written under the careful supervision of Maravanpulavu, K Sachithananthan and has been carefully tailored to the needs of the Singapore Tamil Youth, bearing in mind that most of our students study Tamil as a Second Language.
It is a bilingual book with word for word meaning in both Tamil and English as well as the meaning of each individual Thevaram.
Ambassador, K Kesavapany, Director Institute of South East Asian Studies is the Guest of Honour for the occasion.
Sri Senpaga Vinayagar Temple, (SSVT) is committed to propagate the Thirumurais, as such this book is being sold at a nominal fee of S$10/- per copy.
Please treat this as a personal invitation and attend the function.
Please disseminate this information to all your friends and encourage them to participate in this very special event.
Sunday, October 9, 2011
Iraivan Temple , Kauai Aadheenam , Kapaa , USA
The only temple in this century build with 100% pure white granite.
www.iraivan.org.
Om Shanti.
www.iraivan.org.
Om Shanti.
Sunday, October 2, 2011
Power of Forgiveness
March_04_1999
Given By: Gurudeva
One of the most difficult accomplishments for most humans is to forgive. It is so easy to hold resentment. It is so easy to take offense. It is almost habitual, it is almost a habit.
When we take offense, when we hold against other people things that we think that they didn't have the heart to do but they did do, all we are doing is burdening ourselves. When we breathe and lift our energies into our heart chakra, we begin to feel more mellowed and more understanding about what happened, why it happened. We don't even have to know why because it is our own karma. Whatever is done to us, we did to somebody else.
Forgiveness takes humility. Humility is not a weakness. Humility is a power. It takes great strength to be humble and even greater strength to remain humble because by being humble, we go within ourselves. By being proud, arrogant and self-centered, we go inside other people. That is where we get into trouble.
So, forgiveness is an art. It is a yoga. Better still , it is samayama. It is a Raja yoga, a lifting up of instinctive energies into the heart chakra until we become mellow and humble. Then we can say in our heart, "I forgive" and by doing so release the burden of remembering everything we hate and everything we dislike, all of our resentments and all of our criticisms to those around us, especially our loved ones. Many people are closer to people they are working with in offices and hospitals than they are to their own family.
Forgiveness softens the heart, I've heard that. But, reverse that. Soften your heart, then we are able to forgive.
Given By: Gurudeva
One of the most difficult accomplishments for most humans is to forgive. It is so easy to hold resentment. It is so easy to take offense. It is almost habitual, it is almost a habit.
When we take offense, when we hold against other people things that we think that they didn't have the heart to do but they did do, all we are doing is burdening ourselves. When we breathe and lift our energies into our heart chakra, we begin to feel more mellowed and more understanding about what happened, why it happened. We don't even have to know why because it is our own karma. Whatever is done to us, we did to somebody else.
Forgiveness takes humility. Humility is not a weakness. Humility is a power. It takes great strength to be humble and even greater strength to remain humble because by being humble, we go within ourselves. By being proud, arrogant and self-centered, we go inside other people. That is where we get into trouble.
So, forgiveness is an art. It is a yoga. Better still , it is samayama. It is a Raja yoga, a lifting up of instinctive energies into the heart chakra until we become mellow and humble. Then we can say in our heart, "I forgive" and by doing so release the burden of remembering everything we hate and everything we dislike, all of our resentments and all of our criticisms to those around us, especially our loved ones. Many people are closer to people they are working with in offices and hospitals than they are to their own family.
Forgiveness softens the heart, I've heard that. But, reverse that. Soften your heart, then we are able to forgive.
Tuesday, September 27, 2011
Navarathri Significant
Navaratri
In the festival of "Nine Nights," Hindus across the globe worship the feminine form of the Supreme
No other major religion of the world acknowledges God as part female, or is willing to fully depict Her as the Goddess. But for Hindus, the Goddess, called Shakti, is the emanating power, the essence and the creative manifestation of the Supreme Being, who is beyond opposites. This unique broadness of Hinduism makes Navaratri the world's greatest festival dedicated to the Goddess. This yearly festival is celebrated for nine or ten days in the lunar month of Ashvina (September-October). Hindus observe this festival in a wide variety of ways, depending on their region, local history and family influences.
Millions of Hindu women consider Navaratri each year's primary festival, the one they can most deeply connect to. Many see it as a way to commune with their own feminine divinity. A widespread practice honors the Goddess in every woman by inviting young girls to the family's home, feeding them and offering new clothes. Soumya Sitaraman, a specialist in Hindu festivals and author of Follow the Hindu Moon, teaches how this should be done. "To make Navaratri an affirmation of femininity, invite and honor girls between the ages of two and twelve. A respected married woman can be chosen, too. Begin by honoring the youngest one on the first day as if she was the Goddess. She is addressed only by the Goddess' name, eats prasadam first and is given an aromatic bath and a new dress. On the second day, the second youngest should be honored, and so on. Some families might alternatively choose to venerate all girls at the same time, on the last night."
During the festival, women are ready to exercise their share of restraint to get closer to the Divine by performing tapas and selfless acts. Author Madhur Jaffrey explains, "Navaratri is a time to present to the Goddess our silent requests. This is not done crudely, but properly. We pray morning and evening, the women fast, and the poor in our neighborhood are given food and cooking pots. We offer magnificent food to Goddess Parvati and only after She eats we discreetly whisper our requests."
Navaratri's common practices
Sprouting seeds: In a ritual performed throughout India, Hindus begin the observances with the sprouting of seeds. This is called pratipada in the South and ghatasthapana in the North. In this ceremony, an earthen or silver pitcher, or kumbha, is filled with water and barley seeds. The vessel is placed in the shrine room or some other honored place in the home, where the seeds will sprout over the next nine days. It is a green exuberance that displays the fertility power of the Goddess and brings blessings for a bountiful crop. A traditional Deity kumbha is also prepared. This is an ornate brass pot filled with water, herbs and metals, with mango leaves and a coconut on top. The kumbha is set up to invoke the Goddess and all the devas during the festival period. Pandit Ramesh Chandra Kaushik, chief priest of the Durga Temple in Moti Nagar, Delhi, explains, "The kumbha is established while invoking the blessings of all the 330 million devas (angels). This kumbha is supposed to symbolically have all of these devas in it." With these preparations in place, the celebration of Navarati then officially begins, with puja to Lord Ganesha and offerings to the kumbha.
Tool blessing: Another ceremony associated with the festival across most of India is the ayudha puja, the blessing of the tools of one's trade. At dawn on the ninth day (usually) of Navaratri, selected tools, instruments, utensils and devices used by a worker or artist are ceremoniously placed at the feet of the Goddess and quietly worshiped with prayers and flowers. The items remain at the Goddess' feet until a puja is performed. Until that happens and the items are returned with blessings, no studies, work or performances should happen.
The ayudha puja can be simple, an offering of cooked rice, fruits, flowers and an arati that is silent except for the ringing of a bell. A more elaborate form is to draw a kolam and place a Sarasvati murti in the center, with all the tools touching the kolam's lines.
No kind of instrument or tool is excluded from the blessings of the Goddess. A tailor will bless his sewing machine and a driver his vehicle. Shopkeepers usually decorate and bless their whole store, including the cash register.
Vaishnavites have also adopted the ayudha puja. On the same date, they ritually place tools and weapons at the feet of Lord Rama for His blessings. Author Madhur Jaffrey recounts in her book on the traditional stories of India, Seasons of Splendor, "At this festival, every family worships the 'weapons of its trade.' My mother would first set up a statue of the good King Ram in our prayer room, properly garlanded with a fresh marigold necklace. Under the statue, where some people arranged guns and swords, my mother arranged pens, pencils, ink and paper. Those were the weapons of our family. As far back as 1,500 years, my ancestors made their living writing, not fighting."
The Indian army takes the day, which they call shastra puja, to bless real weapons. Retired Lieutenant Colonial N. C. Guha of Delhi reported in an article in the Ramakrishna Mission magazine, Vedanta Kesari: "Within the Garhwal Rifles, Vijay Dashami or Dussehra is the religious event of the year. The 25,000 soldiers of Garhwal Rifles fully observe the festival for ten days, beginning with the ghatastahpana ceremony at the unit temple. On the ninth day is shastra puja, during which all the weapons of the unit armory are decorated with flowers and displayed in a square fashion in the center of the parade ground."
Beginning of learning: A key samskara, or rite of passage, for children ages three to five is performed on this day across India. It is the vidyarambha, literally "beginning of knowledge," which marks the start of a child's formal education. The worship begins with an elder or priest taking the child's index finger and writing "Om Sri Ganapataye Namah" in sand or uncooked rice. If the child is old enough, he or she writes the letter "A" on the rice as well. Then, using a gold ring dipped in honey, he gently touches the child's tongue with a motion in the shape of the letter "A". Beautiful marks of auspiciousness made with sacred substances are placed on the books, and usually a priest will perform the ceremony in the presence of the whole family. Preceptors, wise men and gurus are also revered on this day as embodiments of Sarasvati's knowledge. They receive many visitors and dakshina, monetary offerings.
It is a widely held belief, especially in South India, that a proper blessing on this day will ensure lifelong success in a child's study and career. Parents, therefore, make sure that the Goddess' goodwill is properly invoked. Some pilgrimage to distant temples with their sons and daughters to beseech Her grace.
Vijayadashami: On the tenth day, Vijayadashami ("tenth day victory") the festival culminates in the triumph of the Goddesses over the demon Mahishasura. For this day, the place to be is Karnataka, specifically Mysore, for that is where the victory is said to have occurred. The city takes its very name after Mahishasura and has a temple dedicated to him. Recently a gigantic statue of the demon was built near the temple of Durga on the city's Chamundi Hill. Mysore is noted for its magnificent elephant processions during Navaratri.
There is a specific explanation of Vijayadashami associated with Karnataka. It is attributed to the story in the Mahabharata of the Pandavas' 14-year exile in disguise--which is also likely related to the military tradition of shastra puja. Discretion in exile was indispensable, so the Pandavas stored their many divine and distinctive weapons under a shami tree in Karnataka during the tenth day of Navaratri. They prayed to Durga, asking Her to protect their weapons, and returned at the end of one year to find them intact. On that same day, they went forth to defeat their enemies, adding their success to the celebrations of the Goddess' victory. Today people exchange shami (Mimosa suma) leaves and on this auspicious date to wish each other a victorious life.
Navaratri's regional flavors
The seed-sprouting ceremony, tool blessing, beginning of learning and Vijayadashami are observed over most of India. Regional variations abound, from South India to Nepal.
South India: Here the Goddess is worshipped in three forms. During the first three nights, Durga is revered, then Lakshmi on the fourth, fifth and sixth nights, and finally Sarasvati until the ninth night.
Durga (meaning "invincible" in Sanskrit) is the epitome of strength, courage and ferocity. Her devotees approach Her--sometimes with difficult penances--for those qualities and for the protection She bestows.
A more gentle worship is observed for Lakshmi. Also called also Annapurna, "Giver of food," Lakshmi is the Goddess of abundance, wealth and comfort. She is the ever-giving mother, worshiped for well being and prosperity. A traditional way of invoking Her is chanting the Samputita Sri Suktam. In Her honor, food is prepared and offered to neighbors and all who visit, thus strengthening community ties. On the full-moon night following Navaratri, it is believed Lakshmi Herself visits each home and replenishes family wealth. In Saivite areas, Parvati is worshiped on these days instead of Lakshmi, with an emphasis on the motherly aspect of the Goddess. Otherwise, the devotional practices are similar.
The last three days of Navaratri exalt Sarasvati, the form of Shakti personifying wisdom, arts and beauty. Her name literally means "flowing one," a reference to thoughts, words, music and the Sarasvati River. The evenings of Her worship are marked with melodic bhajans. The musicians select challenging pieces and play their best in order to earn the Goddess' blessings for the coming year.
Mystically, Sarasvati is believed to be the keeper of the powerful Gayatri Mantra, which is chanted during the festival to invoke Her supreme blessings. Devotees meditate for days on this mantra alone, as it is considered the door to divine wisdom.
Kerala's Ma Amritanandamayi explains, "At one level, Navaratri signifies the progress of the spiritual aspirant. During this spiritual journey, the aspirant has to pass three stages personified by instinctive Durga, motherly Lakshmi and finally wise Sarasvati. Then, he or she enters into the realm of the infinite, wherein one realizes one's Self."
Families in Tamil Nadu traditionally prepare in their homes a kolu, an exhibition of small dolls and figurines on a stepped, decorated shelf (see photo on page 28). At least one murti of Shakti must be present, as well as wooden figurines of a boy and a girl together, called marapachi, to invoke auspicious marriages. Almost any small item may be included on the kolu, so almost all the small artifacts from around the house find their way there.
Author Soumya Sitaraman writes, "A kolu is a well-planned occasion. People will often print and send cards inviting family and friends to come see their kolu. This results in new friendships and stronger relationships. Navaratri evenings are a bustle of rustling silk, twinkling jewelry and laughter. Women are very particular about their attire and go visiting, hopping in a logical sequence, every house they are invited to." Daughters of marrying age accompany their mothers on the visits, as this is an auspicious opportunity for match making. The kolu is also celebrated in Andhra Pradesh and the parts of Kerala bordering Tamil Nadu.
North India: In the North, Navaratri is commonly called Durga Puja. While the South celebrates three Goddesses as different aspects of the Supreme Mother, in the North, Durga is regarded as the Mother Herself, and all other Goddesses are Her manifestations.
The practices and the ways of worshiping are almost identical. However, the names and stories underlying the festival's rites differ, often incorporating strong Shakta influences or elements of the Ramayana. The worship of Durga is the year's largest Hindu festival in many northern states, as it is in Nepal and Bhutan.
Durga is worshiped as Navadurga, the one with nine manifestations, one for each day of the festival. They vary in attributes and appearance, but usually include: Shailputri, daughter of the mountain; Brahmacharini, the chaste one; Chandraghanteti, the fighter; Kushmanda, of many lights; Skanda Mata, mother to Lord Skanda; Katyayani, the divine daughter; Kalratri, the black one; young-looking Maha Gauri, who seems no older than eight years; and Siddhidatri Ardhanarishvara, the all-powerful Siva-Shakti. Each is invoked with a special mantra and, frequently, with complicated tantras.
During the nightime rites, the Goddess is invoked with precise repetitions of the Durga Sapta Shasti, followed by recitations of the Devi Bhagawat Purana and the Devi Mahatmya. The most dedicated chant a mantra or shloka thousands of times during the nine nights.
Asking for fertility and blessings, priests and women devotees intone Her words into the night, chanting, "When for hundreds of years there will be no rain and the Earth will be without water, the great contemplative rishis shall sing praises of Me, seeking Me. I will come down without human parentage; and with hundreds of eyes, I shall look kindly upon those profound sages. Then I shall cover the entire Earth with greens born of my own being. I shall nourish them all with these greens, sustaining the prana of all beings, and thereby I shall be known as Shakambhari, 'the Bearer of Greens'" (Durga Sapta Shasti xi 42-45).
In West Bengal, Durga Puja is everywhere. In playgrounds, traffic circles, ponds and wherever space is available, elaborate structures called pandals are set up, many with a year's planning behind them. Usually made of bamboo and cloth, they serve as temporary temples. Each houses a highly decorated murti of the Goddess worshiped throughout the festival. While some pandals are simple, others are extravagant works of art with themes that range from the traditional to the wildly modern, often based on current affairs, famous movies or pure imagination. Representing the Universal Mother's transcendence of cultural boundaries, in West Bengal one can find Her in an Inca or an Egyptian setting, or even aboard the famous Titanic.
Most people celebrate buying new clothes and jewelry, which are worn on the evenings when the family goes out to see the pandals. Ritual drummers, called dhakis, carrying large leather-strung instruments, enliven the surroundings with their performances during the many ritual dances that happen in every pandal. The festivities are so pervasive that it is common to see people from all backgrounds and religions participating.
At the end of the celebration, in all Her glory, the exquisitely crafted Durga murti, with countless adornments, is taken to a river, where it is immersed. The procession leading to the waters is accompanied by loud chants of "Bolo Durga mai-ki jai" ("Glory be to Mother Durga") and "Aashchhe bochhor abar hobe" ("It will happen again next year"). Intense drumbeats mark Her release into the waters. It is said that this final ritual returns the Goddess to Her eternal home in the Himalayas--until next year's Durga Puja.
In Bangladesh, which shares a common Hindu heritage with West Bengal, numerous pandals also crowd the cities. The Bangladesh Puja Udjapon Parishad, a Hindu organization, counted more than 20,000 pandals nationwide in 2007. Here, Durga Puja is an national holiday. The president of Bangladesh, Iajuddin Ahmed, recently stated, "Though it is a festival of the Hindu religion, Durga Puja is an indivisible part of our Bengali culture." Bangladeshi Rabindranath Trivedi, former press secretary to the government, puts it more poetically: "Devi Durga represents the eternal victory over ugliness and terror, and out of it the lotus of beauty arises." Unfortunately, attacks on these celebrations by Muslim radicals are not uncommon.
In Orissa, the celebrations have grown more similar to those in neighboring West Bengal, due to an influx of migrants from the neighboring state. Historically, the Goddess is profoundly revered by native Oriyas. The capital, Cuttack, has a very old temple in the heart of the city, the Ma Katak Chandi temple. Most devotees make a point of visiting this temple during the festival. Recently, Bengal-style pandals have become popular in Orissa, too, and in grand style. One, a silver-ornamented pandal known as chandi merha (silver home), has dazzled countless devotees. It has been improved and gold plated, changing its name to suna merha (golden home).
In Punjab, Navaratri's disciplines are strictly followed by most of the population. Although few Punjabis are vegetarian, alcohol, meat and some forms of entertainment are completely avoided at this time. Following the fast, on the last day, devotees feed beggars and follow the tradition of worshiping a young girl representing Shakti.
Hindus in Jammu and Kashmir used to celebrate in more pomp, but the region's insurgency has forced the festival indoors, where it has become quiet and focused on the family. Adult members of the household are expected to fast on water and take fruits in the evenings. As elsewhere, Kashmiris grow barley in an earthen pot and watch expectantly, as an augur for the coming year's crops. The most important ritual for those near Srinagar is to visit the temple of guardian Goddess Kheer Bhawani on all nine days.
In Gujarat, dance in adoration of the Goddess takes a whole different form. Temples have a constant stream of visitors into the night. But after leaving the temple, devotees will gather in public squares, open grounds and streets to dance garba, Gujarat's popular folk-dance, late into the nights. Garba dance takes a circular motion, the dancers' circles closing, opening and touching according to the rhythm. Dancers move around the center while clapping rhythmically. At every step they bend sideways and wave their arms, each movement ending in clap. A variation is the dandiya-ras, where sticks are used as part of the choreography.
Garba began as a dance around a suspended earthen pot with many holes, called the garbo. A lamp inside the garbo shines through the holes, creating an array of twinkling, swirling dots of light around the room. Garba may be one of the most ancient forms of dance: its special pots have been found in the 5,000-year-old Harrapan excavation site.
Nepal: In the Himalayan nation of Nepal, Durga Puja is the grandest national festival. Over 21 million Hindus celebrate it here--not just for nine nights, but fifteen, reports Hinduism Today correspondent, Dr. Hari Bansh Jha. In addition to the various forms of the Goddess, Siva, Ganesha and Kartikkeya are worshiped. Even with the former Maoist rebels in charge of the government, now secular Nepal still declares national holidays from the seventh day of the Navaratri until the next full moon night.
As is the case with most of India, Dr. Jha reports, Navaratri in Nepal begins with the ghatasthapana--creating holy temporary vessels for the Deities and planting seeds. In Nepal, barley is planted on sand. Each day water is sprinkled on the sprouts, which begin to germinate from the fourth or fifth day and by the ninth day can be six inches tall.
The last days of celebration are the most intense. On these bustling national holidays, the whole country is engaged in Durga worship. On the sixth day, devotees rejoice in parading from Durga temples to a bilva tree, playing conches, bells and drums. The tree roots are washed with cow dung and the best fruits are adorned with red cloth. On the seventh day, the same fruits are wrapped in red and offered at the feet of the Goddess.
But in Nepal, a country where Shakta beliefs have a large following and vegetarians are rare, another form of red adorns the Goddess' feet. From the seventh until the last day of Navaratri, goats, cows, chickens and other animals are sacrificed in large numbers. In Kathmandu, at the Courtyard of the Hanumandhoka Palace, the military sacrifices 54 water buffaloes and 54 goats in honor of Shakti. Modernity and Maoists aside, the demand for sacrifices has noticeably increased in the last years. Reformers, such as Sita Karn from Janakpur, one of Nepal's most progressive cities, demand, "This tradition of violence and cruelty must come to an end. Killing animals is killing oneself." Some Durga temples have adopted the breaking of grain-filled clay pots or coconuts instead.
By the tenth and most auspicious day, the nation is completely taken up by the festival. On Vijayadashami, the sacred yellow grass called jayanti (meaning "victory") is harvested. Sanskrit pandits recite mantras while placing jayanti on the head of the devotees for blessings. Elders also offer jayanti to the young. In reverence, devotees carry it on their heads and walk to the local temples or to a river, where they offer it to the Goddess. In temples the jayanti with rice and grass can be knotted up and tied to a devotee's arm. This amulet is called bali, and some keep it for one year as a protective amulet.
In Nepal's pahad region (the plains), the young go to the elders to receive tika, rice mixed with red vermilion, applied to their forehead. Until recently, it was a tradition for ministers, high-ranking officials and all citizens who could attend to line up in front of the royal palace and receive tika from the King of Nepal himself--a custom likely to be ended with the monarchy's abolishment.
Jai Ma!
Hinduism Today's Delhi correspondent, Rajiv Malik, paints a word picture of Navaratri: "With the coming of Navarartri, Delhi assumes a festive air. It signifies the coming of fall and departure of the sultry months of summer. Here in Delhi, we see the confluence of cultures within the Hindu community, as Bengalis, north Indians, Gujaratis and South Indians all celebrate according to their own customs. The overall enthusiasm for the Goddess is summed up by M. K. Sethi, an official of Delhi's Jhandewalan Temple, who told me during an interview, 'Ma Durga is the incarnation of power. All evil is destroyed by Her. Whatever I have asked of Her, I have received.'" PIpi
with Rajiv Malik, New Delhi; Harish Bansh Jha, Nepal; Lakshmi Sridharan, Chennai
Ram Vanquishes a Demon
Joining the festive season, Vaishnavites hold Ram Lila during the same days Navaratri is observed. Ram Lila is a dramatic re-enactment of the battle between Lord Rama and the demon Ravana, as told in the Ramayana. The play, which is often staged over ten or more successive nights, culminates in Dusshera, Rama's defeat of Ravana in faraway Sri Lanka.
In most of India and especially in the North, Ram Lila and Navaratri celebrations are not entirely separate. Many homes will find it difficult to explain the differences, and some will describe Navaratri as an event honoring Rama alone. In the Ramayana, Rama invokes the help of Durga in his battle against Ravana, so many understand that the Goddess is being honored in gratitude during this celebration of the incarnation of Vishnu. It is not uncommon for home shrines to honor the Goddess along with Rama or even Krishna during Navaratri. Where the lines of theology get blurred, regional tradition or the family ways prevail.
During Dusshera, giant effigies of nine-headed Ravana and his fellow demons are stuffed with firecrackers and set alight. The fireworks are often spectacular. The festival, described as a celebration of the victory of good over evil, is considered auspicious for spiritual practices. In Gujarat, a common saying goes, "If your horse (representing dharma) cannot stand on the other days of the year, at least today it should."
From the Puranas
The story behind Navaratri is one extolling the power of the Goddess. According to the most common version, from the Markandeya Purana, a vastly powerful demon called Mahishasura had the cunning to be dedicated and patient in his tapas. He performed austerities for countless years, excelling in self-control and cold astuteness. Eventually, he gained a boon from God Siva, that no man or God would ever defeat him.
Satisfied at last, the presumptuous demon saw no more reason for moderation. Greedy, devilish, insatiable, he began to wreak havoc in all three worlds. Mahishasura had always been a formidable opponent, but that boon made him unstoppable.
Alarmed by the disturbance in the cosmos, the Mahadevas convened. Siva's word was that no God could stop Mahishasura. But the edict said nothing about Goddesses; and the three greatest, Lakshimi, Sarasvati and Parvati, held hands and meditated together, balanced on a space no bigger than the head of a needle. They combined their strength in one fierce aspect of Shakti, and terrible Durga came into existence. Durga received the best weapons from the celestial lords, and flaming with rightful might, She set out to protect Her children in all planes of the universe.
For nine nights, Durga and Mahishasura battled. Their struggle ripped the skies apart, and there was no place that did not tremble with the power of Shakti. Feeling he had met his match, the demon tried to trick Durga by changing into a lion, then a man, then a buffalo. But the Goddess senses were keen, and on the tenth day, She pierced the holy trishul though Mahishasura, vanquishing his dangerous ignorance into nonexistence.
In the Skanda Purana, another story is told. Mahishasura, roaming about Earth, one day arrived at Arunachala. Parvati, piously sitting in lotus and doing japa, caught the demon's lustful eyes. Insidious, sly, he spoke to the Goddess with a melodious voice until he caught Her attention. "Why are you performing tapas, O beauty?" He asked. With her eyes half-open, absorbed in the bliss of Her meditations, She answered, "To please the Supreme God and to achieve Him." The demon lost all manners and returned to his arrogant, frightful self. "Nonsense! I am more powerful than Him. Come and marry me," he boasted in a harsh, demonic voice. The Goddess replied calmly. "I myself am more than you, wretched creature. And I will show you your place." In this less common version of the festival's origins, She became a fierce warrior, and for nine nights battled ignorance and evil until fully vanquishing it on the tenth day.
In the festival of "Nine Nights," Hindus across the globe worship the feminine form of the Supreme
No other major religion of the world acknowledges God as part female, or is willing to fully depict Her as the Goddess. But for Hindus, the Goddess, called Shakti, is the emanating power, the essence and the creative manifestation of the Supreme Being, who is beyond opposites. This unique broadness of Hinduism makes Navaratri the world's greatest festival dedicated to the Goddess. This yearly festival is celebrated for nine or ten days in the lunar month of Ashvina (September-October). Hindus observe this festival in a wide variety of ways, depending on their region, local history and family influences.
Millions of Hindu women consider Navaratri each year's primary festival, the one they can most deeply connect to. Many see it as a way to commune with their own feminine divinity. A widespread practice honors the Goddess in every woman by inviting young girls to the family's home, feeding them and offering new clothes. Soumya Sitaraman, a specialist in Hindu festivals and author of Follow the Hindu Moon, teaches how this should be done. "To make Navaratri an affirmation of femininity, invite and honor girls between the ages of two and twelve. A respected married woman can be chosen, too. Begin by honoring the youngest one on the first day as if she was the Goddess. She is addressed only by the Goddess' name, eats prasadam first and is given an aromatic bath and a new dress. On the second day, the second youngest should be honored, and so on. Some families might alternatively choose to venerate all girls at the same time, on the last night."
During the festival, women are ready to exercise their share of restraint to get closer to the Divine by performing tapas and selfless acts. Author Madhur Jaffrey explains, "Navaratri is a time to present to the Goddess our silent requests. This is not done crudely, but properly. We pray morning and evening, the women fast, and the poor in our neighborhood are given food and cooking pots. We offer magnificent food to Goddess Parvati and only after She eats we discreetly whisper our requests."
Navaratri's common practices
Sprouting seeds: In a ritual performed throughout India, Hindus begin the observances with the sprouting of seeds. This is called pratipada in the South and ghatasthapana in the North. In this ceremony, an earthen or silver pitcher, or kumbha, is filled with water and barley seeds. The vessel is placed in the shrine room or some other honored place in the home, where the seeds will sprout over the next nine days. It is a green exuberance that displays the fertility power of the Goddess and brings blessings for a bountiful crop. A traditional Deity kumbha is also prepared. This is an ornate brass pot filled with water, herbs and metals, with mango leaves and a coconut on top. The kumbha is set up to invoke the Goddess and all the devas during the festival period. Pandit Ramesh Chandra Kaushik, chief priest of the Durga Temple in Moti Nagar, Delhi, explains, "The kumbha is established while invoking the blessings of all the 330 million devas (angels). This kumbha is supposed to symbolically have all of these devas in it." With these preparations in place, the celebration of Navarati then officially begins, with puja to Lord Ganesha and offerings to the kumbha.
Tool blessing: Another ceremony associated with the festival across most of India is the ayudha puja, the blessing of the tools of one's trade. At dawn on the ninth day (usually) of Navaratri, selected tools, instruments, utensils and devices used by a worker or artist are ceremoniously placed at the feet of the Goddess and quietly worshiped with prayers and flowers. The items remain at the Goddess' feet until a puja is performed. Until that happens and the items are returned with blessings, no studies, work or performances should happen.
The ayudha puja can be simple, an offering of cooked rice, fruits, flowers and an arati that is silent except for the ringing of a bell. A more elaborate form is to draw a kolam and place a Sarasvati murti in the center, with all the tools touching the kolam's lines.
No kind of instrument or tool is excluded from the blessings of the Goddess. A tailor will bless his sewing machine and a driver his vehicle. Shopkeepers usually decorate and bless their whole store, including the cash register.
Vaishnavites have also adopted the ayudha puja. On the same date, they ritually place tools and weapons at the feet of Lord Rama for His blessings. Author Madhur Jaffrey recounts in her book on the traditional stories of India, Seasons of Splendor, "At this festival, every family worships the 'weapons of its trade.' My mother would first set up a statue of the good King Ram in our prayer room, properly garlanded with a fresh marigold necklace. Under the statue, where some people arranged guns and swords, my mother arranged pens, pencils, ink and paper. Those were the weapons of our family. As far back as 1,500 years, my ancestors made their living writing, not fighting."
The Indian army takes the day, which they call shastra puja, to bless real weapons. Retired Lieutenant Colonial N. C. Guha of Delhi reported in an article in the Ramakrishna Mission magazine, Vedanta Kesari: "Within the Garhwal Rifles, Vijay Dashami or Dussehra is the religious event of the year. The 25,000 soldiers of Garhwal Rifles fully observe the festival for ten days, beginning with the ghatastahpana ceremony at the unit temple. On the ninth day is shastra puja, during which all the weapons of the unit armory are decorated with flowers and displayed in a square fashion in the center of the parade ground."
Beginning of learning: A key samskara, or rite of passage, for children ages three to five is performed on this day across India. It is the vidyarambha, literally "beginning of knowledge," which marks the start of a child's formal education. The worship begins with an elder or priest taking the child's index finger and writing "Om Sri Ganapataye Namah" in sand or uncooked rice. If the child is old enough, he or she writes the letter "A" on the rice as well. Then, using a gold ring dipped in honey, he gently touches the child's tongue with a motion in the shape of the letter "A". Beautiful marks of auspiciousness made with sacred substances are placed on the books, and usually a priest will perform the ceremony in the presence of the whole family. Preceptors, wise men and gurus are also revered on this day as embodiments of Sarasvati's knowledge. They receive many visitors and dakshina, monetary offerings.
It is a widely held belief, especially in South India, that a proper blessing on this day will ensure lifelong success in a child's study and career. Parents, therefore, make sure that the Goddess' goodwill is properly invoked. Some pilgrimage to distant temples with their sons and daughters to beseech Her grace.
Vijayadashami: On the tenth day, Vijayadashami ("tenth day victory") the festival culminates in the triumph of the Goddesses over the demon Mahishasura. For this day, the place to be is Karnataka, specifically Mysore, for that is where the victory is said to have occurred. The city takes its very name after Mahishasura and has a temple dedicated to him. Recently a gigantic statue of the demon was built near the temple of Durga on the city's Chamundi Hill. Mysore is noted for its magnificent elephant processions during Navaratri.
There is a specific explanation of Vijayadashami associated with Karnataka. It is attributed to the story in the Mahabharata of the Pandavas' 14-year exile in disguise--which is also likely related to the military tradition of shastra puja. Discretion in exile was indispensable, so the Pandavas stored their many divine and distinctive weapons under a shami tree in Karnataka during the tenth day of Navaratri. They prayed to Durga, asking Her to protect their weapons, and returned at the end of one year to find them intact. On that same day, they went forth to defeat their enemies, adding their success to the celebrations of the Goddess' victory. Today people exchange shami (Mimosa suma) leaves and on this auspicious date to wish each other a victorious life.
Navaratri's regional flavors
The seed-sprouting ceremony, tool blessing, beginning of learning and Vijayadashami are observed over most of India. Regional variations abound, from South India to Nepal.
South India: Here the Goddess is worshipped in three forms. During the first three nights, Durga is revered, then Lakshmi on the fourth, fifth and sixth nights, and finally Sarasvati until the ninth night.
Durga (meaning "invincible" in Sanskrit) is the epitome of strength, courage and ferocity. Her devotees approach Her--sometimes with difficult penances--for those qualities and for the protection She bestows.
A more gentle worship is observed for Lakshmi. Also called also Annapurna, "Giver of food," Lakshmi is the Goddess of abundance, wealth and comfort. She is the ever-giving mother, worshiped for well being and prosperity. A traditional way of invoking Her is chanting the Samputita Sri Suktam. In Her honor, food is prepared and offered to neighbors and all who visit, thus strengthening community ties. On the full-moon night following Navaratri, it is believed Lakshmi Herself visits each home and replenishes family wealth. In Saivite areas, Parvati is worshiped on these days instead of Lakshmi, with an emphasis on the motherly aspect of the Goddess. Otherwise, the devotional practices are similar.
The last three days of Navaratri exalt Sarasvati, the form of Shakti personifying wisdom, arts and beauty. Her name literally means "flowing one," a reference to thoughts, words, music and the Sarasvati River. The evenings of Her worship are marked with melodic bhajans. The musicians select challenging pieces and play their best in order to earn the Goddess' blessings for the coming year.
Mystically, Sarasvati is believed to be the keeper of the powerful Gayatri Mantra, which is chanted during the festival to invoke Her supreme blessings. Devotees meditate for days on this mantra alone, as it is considered the door to divine wisdom.
Kerala's Ma Amritanandamayi explains, "At one level, Navaratri signifies the progress of the spiritual aspirant. During this spiritual journey, the aspirant has to pass three stages personified by instinctive Durga, motherly Lakshmi and finally wise Sarasvati. Then, he or she enters into the realm of the infinite, wherein one realizes one's Self."
Families in Tamil Nadu traditionally prepare in their homes a kolu, an exhibition of small dolls and figurines on a stepped, decorated shelf (see photo on page 28). At least one murti of Shakti must be present, as well as wooden figurines of a boy and a girl together, called marapachi, to invoke auspicious marriages. Almost any small item may be included on the kolu, so almost all the small artifacts from around the house find their way there.
Author Soumya Sitaraman writes, "A kolu is a well-planned occasion. People will often print and send cards inviting family and friends to come see their kolu. This results in new friendships and stronger relationships. Navaratri evenings are a bustle of rustling silk, twinkling jewelry and laughter. Women are very particular about their attire and go visiting, hopping in a logical sequence, every house they are invited to." Daughters of marrying age accompany their mothers on the visits, as this is an auspicious opportunity for match making. The kolu is also celebrated in Andhra Pradesh and the parts of Kerala bordering Tamil Nadu.
North India: In the North, Navaratri is commonly called Durga Puja. While the South celebrates three Goddesses as different aspects of the Supreme Mother, in the North, Durga is regarded as the Mother Herself, and all other Goddesses are Her manifestations.
The practices and the ways of worshiping are almost identical. However, the names and stories underlying the festival's rites differ, often incorporating strong Shakta influences or elements of the Ramayana. The worship of Durga is the year's largest Hindu festival in many northern states, as it is in Nepal and Bhutan.
Durga is worshiped as Navadurga, the one with nine manifestations, one for each day of the festival. They vary in attributes and appearance, but usually include: Shailputri, daughter of the mountain; Brahmacharini, the chaste one; Chandraghanteti, the fighter; Kushmanda, of many lights; Skanda Mata, mother to Lord Skanda; Katyayani, the divine daughter; Kalratri, the black one; young-looking Maha Gauri, who seems no older than eight years; and Siddhidatri Ardhanarishvara, the all-powerful Siva-Shakti. Each is invoked with a special mantra and, frequently, with complicated tantras.
During the nightime rites, the Goddess is invoked with precise repetitions of the Durga Sapta Shasti, followed by recitations of the Devi Bhagawat Purana and the Devi Mahatmya. The most dedicated chant a mantra or shloka thousands of times during the nine nights.
Asking for fertility and blessings, priests and women devotees intone Her words into the night, chanting, "When for hundreds of years there will be no rain and the Earth will be without water, the great contemplative rishis shall sing praises of Me, seeking Me. I will come down without human parentage; and with hundreds of eyes, I shall look kindly upon those profound sages. Then I shall cover the entire Earth with greens born of my own being. I shall nourish them all with these greens, sustaining the prana of all beings, and thereby I shall be known as Shakambhari, 'the Bearer of Greens'" (Durga Sapta Shasti xi 42-45).
In West Bengal, Durga Puja is everywhere. In playgrounds, traffic circles, ponds and wherever space is available, elaborate structures called pandals are set up, many with a year's planning behind them. Usually made of bamboo and cloth, they serve as temporary temples. Each houses a highly decorated murti of the Goddess worshiped throughout the festival. While some pandals are simple, others are extravagant works of art with themes that range from the traditional to the wildly modern, often based on current affairs, famous movies or pure imagination. Representing the Universal Mother's transcendence of cultural boundaries, in West Bengal one can find Her in an Inca or an Egyptian setting, or even aboard the famous Titanic.
Most people celebrate buying new clothes and jewelry, which are worn on the evenings when the family goes out to see the pandals. Ritual drummers, called dhakis, carrying large leather-strung instruments, enliven the surroundings with their performances during the many ritual dances that happen in every pandal. The festivities are so pervasive that it is common to see people from all backgrounds and religions participating.
At the end of the celebration, in all Her glory, the exquisitely crafted Durga murti, with countless adornments, is taken to a river, where it is immersed. The procession leading to the waters is accompanied by loud chants of "Bolo Durga mai-ki jai" ("Glory be to Mother Durga") and "Aashchhe bochhor abar hobe" ("It will happen again next year"). Intense drumbeats mark Her release into the waters. It is said that this final ritual returns the Goddess to Her eternal home in the Himalayas--until next year's Durga Puja.
In Bangladesh, which shares a common Hindu heritage with West Bengal, numerous pandals also crowd the cities. The Bangladesh Puja Udjapon Parishad, a Hindu organization, counted more than 20,000 pandals nationwide in 2007. Here, Durga Puja is an national holiday. The president of Bangladesh, Iajuddin Ahmed, recently stated, "Though it is a festival of the Hindu religion, Durga Puja is an indivisible part of our Bengali culture." Bangladeshi Rabindranath Trivedi, former press secretary to the government, puts it more poetically: "Devi Durga represents the eternal victory over ugliness and terror, and out of it the lotus of beauty arises." Unfortunately, attacks on these celebrations by Muslim radicals are not uncommon.
In Orissa, the celebrations have grown more similar to those in neighboring West Bengal, due to an influx of migrants from the neighboring state. Historically, the Goddess is profoundly revered by native Oriyas. The capital, Cuttack, has a very old temple in the heart of the city, the Ma Katak Chandi temple. Most devotees make a point of visiting this temple during the festival. Recently, Bengal-style pandals have become popular in Orissa, too, and in grand style. One, a silver-ornamented pandal known as chandi merha (silver home), has dazzled countless devotees. It has been improved and gold plated, changing its name to suna merha (golden home).
In Punjab, Navaratri's disciplines are strictly followed by most of the population. Although few Punjabis are vegetarian, alcohol, meat and some forms of entertainment are completely avoided at this time. Following the fast, on the last day, devotees feed beggars and follow the tradition of worshiping a young girl representing Shakti.
Hindus in Jammu and Kashmir used to celebrate in more pomp, but the region's insurgency has forced the festival indoors, where it has become quiet and focused on the family. Adult members of the household are expected to fast on water and take fruits in the evenings. As elsewhere, Kashmiris grow barley in an earthen pot and watch expectantly, as an augur for the coming year's crops. The most important ritual for those near Srinagar is to visit the temple of guardian Goddess Kheer Bhawani on all nine days.
In Gujarat, dance in adoration of the Goddess takes a whole different form. Temples have a constant stream of visitors into the night. But after leaving the temple, devotees will gather in public squares, open grounds and streets to dance garba, Gujarat's popular folk-dance, late into the nights. Garba dance takes a circular motion, the dancers' circles closing, opening and touching according to the rhythm. Dancers move around the center while clapping rhythmically. At every step they bend sideways and wave their arms, each movement ending in clap. A variation is the dandiya-ras, where sticks are used as part of the choreography.
Garba began as a dance around a suspended earthen pot with many holes, called the garbo. A lamp inside the garbo shines through the holes, creating an array of twinkling, swirling dots of light around the room. Garba may be one of the most ancient forms of dance: its special pots have been found in the 5,000-year-old Harrapan excavation site.
Nepal: In the Himalayan nation of Nepal, Durga Puja is the grandest national festival. Over 21 million Hindus celebrate it here--not just for nine nights, but fifteen, reports Hinduism Today correspondent, Dr. Hari Bansh Jha. In addition to the various forms of the Goddess, Siva, Ganesha and Kartikkeya are worshiped. Even with the former Maoist rebels in charge of the government, now secular Nepal still declares national holidays from the seventh day of the Navaratri until the next full moon night.
As is the case with most of India, Dr. Jha reports, Navaratri in Nepal begins with the ghatasthapana--creating holy temporary vessels for the Deities and planting seeds. In Nepal, barley is planted on sand. Each day water is sprinkled on the sprouts, which begin to germinate from the fourth or fifth day and by the ninth day can be six inches tall.
The last days of celebration are the most intense. On these bustling national holidays, the whole country is engaged in Durga worship. On the sixth day, devotees rejoice in parading from Durga temples to a bilva tree, playing conches, bells and drums. The tree roots are washed with cow dung and the best fruits are adorned with red cloth. On the seventh day, the same fruits are wrapped in red and offered at the feet of the Goddess.
But in Nepal, a country where Shakta beliefs have a large following and vegetarians are rare, another form of red adorns the Goddess' feet. From the seventh until the last day of Navaratri, goats, cows, chickens and other animals are sacrificed in large numbers. In Kathmandu, at the Courtyard of the Hanumandhoka Palace, the military sacrifices 54 water buffaloes and 54 goats in honor of Shakti. Modernity and Maoists aside, the demand for sacrifices has noticeably increased in the last years. Reformers, such as Sita Karn from Janakpur, one of Nepal's most progressive cities, demand, "This tradition of violence and cruelty must come to an end. Killing animals is killing oneself." Some Durga temples have adopted the breaking of grain-filled clay pots or coconuts instead.
By the tenth and most auspicious day, the nation is completely taken up by the festival. On Vijayadashami, the sacred yellow grass called jayanti (meaning "victory") is harvested. Sanskrit pandits recite mantras while placing jayanti on the head of the devotees for blessings. Elders also offer jayanti to the young. In reverence, devotees carry it on their heads and walk to the local temples or to a river, where they offer it to the Goddess. In temples the jayanti with rice and grass can be knotted up and tied to a devotee's arm. This amulet is called bali, and some keep it for one year as a protective amulet.
In Nepal's pahad region (the plains), the young go to the elders to receive tika, rice mixed with red vermilion, applied to their forehead. Until recently, it was a tradition for ministers, high-ranking officials and all citizens who could attend to line up in front of the royal palace and receive tika from the King of Nepal himself--a custom likely to be ended with the monarchy's abolishment.
Jai Ma!
Hinduism Today's Delhi correspondent, Rajiv Malik, paints a word picture of Navaratri: "With the coming of Navarartri, Delhi assumes a festive air. It signifies the coming of fall and departure of the sultry months of summer. Here in Delhi, we see the confluence of cultures within the Hindu community, as Bengalis, north Indians, Gujaratis and South Indians all celebrate according to their own customs. The overall enthusiasm for the Goddess is summed up by M. K. Sethi, an official of Delhi's Jhandewalan Temple, who told me during an interview, 'Ma Durga is the incarnation of power. All evil is destroyed by Her. Whatever I have asked of Her, I have received.'" PIpi
with Rajiv Malik, New Delhi; Harish Bansh Jha, Nepal; Lakshmi Sridharan, Chennai
Ram Vanquishes a Demon
Joining the festive season, Vaishnavites hold Ram Lila during the same days Navaratri is observed. Ram Lila is a dramatic re-enactment of the battle between Lord Rama and the demon Ravana, as told in the Ramayana. The play, which is often staged over ten or more successive nights, culminates in Dusshera, Rama's defeat of Ravana in faraway Sri Lanka.
In most of India and especially in the North, Ram Lila and Navaratri celebrations are not entirely separate. Many homes will find it difficult to explain the differences, and some will describe Navaratri as an event honoring Rama alone. In the Ramayana, Rama invokes the help of Durga in his battle against Ravana, so many understand that the Goddess is being honored in gratitude during this celebration of the incarnation of Vishnu. It is not uncommon for home shrines to honor the Goddess along with Rama or even Krishna during Navaratri. Where the lines of theology get blurred, regional tradition or the family ways prevail.
During Dusshera, giant effigies of nine-headed Ravana and his fellow demons are stuffed with firecrackers and set alight. The fireworks are often spectacular. The festival, described as a celebration of the victory of good over evil, is considered auspicious for spiritual practices. In Gujarat, a common saying goes, "If your horse (representing dharma) cannot stand on the other days of the year, at least today it should."
From the Puranas
The story behind Navaratri is one extolling the power of the Goddess. According to the most common version, from the Markandeya Purana, a vastly powerful demon called Mahishasura had the cunning to be dedicated and patient in his tapas. He performed austerities for countless years, excelling in self-control and cold astuteness. Eventually, he gained a boon from God Siva, that no man or God would ever defeat him.
Satisfied at last, the presumptuous demon saw no more reason for moderation. Greedy, devilish, insatiable, he began to wreak havoc in all three worlds. Mahishasura had always been a formidable opponent, but that boon made him unstoppable.
Alarmed by the disturbance in the cosmos, the Mahadevas convened. Siva's word was that no God could stop Mahishasura. But the edict said nothing about Goddesses; and the three greatest, Lakshimi, Sarasvati and Parvati, held hands and meditated together, balanced on a space no bigger than the head of a needle. They combined their strength in one fierce aspect of Shakti, and terrible Durga came into existence. Durga received the best weapons from the celestial lords, and flaming with rightful might, She set out to protect Her children in all planes of the universe.
For nine nights, Durga and Mahishasura battled. Their struggle ripped the skies apart, and there was no place that did not tremble with the power of Shakti. Feeling he had met his match, the demon tried to trick Durga by changing into a lion, then a man, then a buffalo. But the Goddess senses were keen, and on the tenth day, She pierced the holy trishul though Mahishasura, vanquishing his dangerous ignorance into nonexistence.
In the Skanda Purana, another story is told. Mahishasura, roaming about Earth, one day arrived at Arunachala. Parvati, piously sitting in lotus and doing japa, caught the demon's lustful eyes. Insidious, sly, he spoke to the Goddess with a melodious voice until he caught Her attention. "Why are you performing tapas, O beauty?" He asked. With her eyes half-open, absorbed in the bliss of Her meditations, She answered, "To please the Supreme God and to achieve Him." The demon lost all manners and returned to his arrogant, frightful self. "Nonsense! I am more powerful than Him. Come and marry me," he boasted in a harsh, demonic voice. The Goddess replied calmly. "I myself am more than you, wretched creature. And I will show you your place." In this less common version of the festival's origins, She became a fierce warrior, and for nine nights battled ignorance and evil until fully vanquishing it on the tenth day.
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