Chetana Yoga

13/07/2022

Is there any story without struggles, trials and tribulations? If yes then it would be a rather dull and uninspiring one.

When we watch a movie, do we really hate the villian in the movie? We know he is play acting. We know that it's just a story for entertainment. So we enjoy the movie without bias. Awards are given to actors playing a negative role the same way as awards are given to other characters in the movie.

This world is also a theatre and all the characters around are playing their roles good or bad based on what is needed for the next stage of realisation and evolution of the protagonist, you.

The world around becomes apparent as the stage and in all projected images one can see the face of the beloved.

Forgiving becomes easier (yes even the villian, the thief, the liar, the killer, the unethical businessman, officer, minister or king) are to be forgiven.

The Vinoda in the play, kreeda of Lalita becomes a source of entertainment and every incident, and circumstance; (happy or unhappy) is known to be another episode in the story of reuniting with the beloved self. Filling the observer with joy and Ananda.

09/07/2022

Have been unable to write or take regular notes for a long while. Mind keeps slipping into states where little seems to matter.

I am all that exists, then what is the need of speech or text? Who is speaking to whom, writing for whom, explaining to whom?

The parts of me that are quiet, are listening anyway, receiving anyway, right? The same way this mind is receiving, when it is calm.

Maybe I should write for the forms of me that are not paying attention? The images that are swinging to and fro, unable to find the centre? Maybe one day these hands will be the instruments for writing something, creating something; maybe not.
At this moment I am eternal. I am flowing. I am still. And happily getting drenched in the Goan monsoons.
Here's a (slightly edited) narrative, I had written more than four years ago, Mon, 19 Feb, 2018. ♥️

The Thread
---------------

I know the finely drawn thread on which all Creatures are woven I know the thread of that very thread. Therefore, I know the Great Brahman, said the little boy to the flower.

You know I am quoting from the Atharva Veda 10.8.38. I understand the Vedas. To me vedas are not alien, to me they come easily, Granny says this is because I am pure. You are my friend I think it is because you are pure too. You look really beautiful, do you understand why? It's because you decided to be beautiful. You smell very nice as well. All things that are pure smell of flowers.

Last Amavasya Pooja I prayed with all my heart. I asked Kali I want to taste nectar. That day the water in the Kalash, you know the copper Kalash in the pooja room, tasted sweet, it smelled of Sandalwood, Roses, Kevara and Kesar or a combination of all. I thought I was dreaming. I could not stop drinking it. I filled it up again and drank it after sometime, again it was uniquely sweet and fragrant. After five, mm maybe six days the water started tasting normal again. I was a little sad but then I decided to be happy instead because I had tasted something ambrosial for so many days. I wish I had brought you some but you were not here then. There were very few flowers
in the garden then, it was cold last month. Everything is so bright and colourful now.

Let me give you a suggestion. Look at how fast you are moving with the breeze. Don't move so fast, your time threads will break and then you shall fall to the ground. Stay with me for a few more days, I will tell you many secrets. Secrets that I have not told my mumma, mmm probably she already knows them, you think? Maybe she has forgotten, for she has to remember so many other things. Maybe you know them too already, that is why you are so happy.

Shh, stop moving so fast. Ah now I know, the breeze is blowing hard, and you must not resist. Maybe it wants to hear my secrets too. OK I will whisper softly, let me bring my lips close to you two.

Today at sunset the Sun god removed the cover. Yes! yes, I am telling you the truth. I can jump for joy.

Every morning and every evening I pray to the Sun. Sometimes a few more times on some days - Hiranmayena patrena satyasya pihitam Mukham
Tatvam pusana pawarenu satya dharmaye drashtaye.

I request the dear Sun, I wish to know the truth. I beseech you to remove the cover so the truth and dharma may be revealed to me.

The Sun is benevolent and answers my prayers. I talk to the Sun, like a friend, like you and I talk quietly without actually speaking.

Ah the wonders I get to see aren't easy to describe. The Sun reveals a little at a time and then little more and today it revealed so muchhh more. I think he likes me. Do you think he is he or is the Sun a she? I have a feeling that both are true. Do you think I am being preposterous? After praying I always want to sit quietly, it also helps the mind to remember, to understand what the eyes see. You know when you ask lovingly the secrets explain themselves!

Our feelings are very intelligent, much, much more than our minds. I don't talk a lot to people. I like to share with you instead. I don't have to speak to talk to you. I just have to think thoughts and you hear me. It's so much easier than speech, finding the right words and putting them in context and sequence of their occurence is so complicated, because often they come in disjointed bits, sometimes simultaneously. They even repeat themselves if we need them to.
Even when I can't think, when I cant remember the words for my thoughts or move my lips to talk, you still understand me. Isn't that a miracle? We must all really be connected. How else is it possible?

Someday I shall tell you many secrets about our minds. I must go inside now it's almost time for dinner. Bye dear flower. I hope no one plucks you and we get to talk again tomorrow. Bye dear breeze, please stay gentle and come again tomorrow.

Images from Boloji.com

15/06/2022

Purpose of Life -

Is a world where only pure love and the sharing of pure love and joy, influence all the human thoughts and actions possible? No, not influence, where they are the only reason for all actions and activities. Is it possible?

Infact, love is all there is. This manifestation is a miracle borne of the purity of Love. A reflection of the inner joy spilling out and projecting all around in infinite hues and concentrations.

It is all that realy is, it exists at all 'Samay' and in every 'Desha' that the mind can travel to. Everything that we see or experience, emerges from it and returns to it. In a way quite similar to how the thoughts rest and emerge in the thinker.

Human beings experience a restlessness most of their lives. A nagging feeling that is perpetually gnawing. But we continue to ignore it. Always thinking of the next thing to do to 'improve' things; planning the next step for increasing the pleasure and comforts; Instead of humans just 'being' , 'doing' takes over. Constantly busy with the business of earning a livelihood, raising a family. We forget to rejoice in the simple joys. We become so lost in the complications of our fearful minds and infinite thoughts that the 'Karishma', the pristine projections of the pure heart start to seem like a complicated web difficult to break out of.

To step back, stop and delve into the source of the gnawing takes tremendous effort. One has to be a braveheart to not give up and continue the arduous backward journey against the flow of mind and matter.

It's rare but a day dawns when one or more of the factors; failures, dissatisfaction, dis-illusionments, the pain and the suffering in one's life experiences overwhelm one sufficiently enough that one is propelled to give up all else and focus completely and determinedly only on the inner exploration. Like the call of the Fog-horn, the yearning for the divine, for true love become so compelling that nothing, no experience and no individual is able to fulfill the void.

Till this stage is reached, the ego(s) meander in separation from the Virata, in the self-created, self enjoyed and also self suffered web through the countless mental meandrings; experienced and described as many life times in myriad form and space combinations.

The knowledge that this is not why and how we started the journey is persistent in our depths. Yet one is unable to identify the reason, the source of the pain and the cause of it.

When thy yearning for the truth becomes unbearable. It becomes so strong and overwhelming that everything else seems inconsequential is when the journey back to ourselves really begins.

One might reach out to friends and family initially, to psychologists and doctors, (the inner turmoil always reflects in form of ailments at the physical, mental, emotional and pranic levels), to books and teachers and to preachers and pilgrimages in search of the answers to the primary and maybe the only question worthy of one's efforts.

Is there a purpose to life? Why are ‘we’ ‘here’?

The questions form the crux of our journeys from Vi-Smriti (forgetfulness) to Smriti (remembrance).

Deep inside lies the rememberance that we are more than this body. We all simply know that we are much more than the hair and the face and the limbs, we know that we are bigger than our troubles. We actually always know that all this is unreal. Yet, we do not know it logically, for how can this be so? How is that what we are perceiving, sensing and experiencing is actually unreal. We want to understand and 'remember' again but we don’t know the way ‘in’ where the answers may be found.

The mirage is too real to ignore. And the road back strange, dark and scary.

Purpose - A world where love and sharing the love and joy influence all actions. No not influence, they are the cause of all actions and activities. Is it possible? Yes it is, if we truly want it. It shall...

04/09/2021

परित्राणाय साधूनां विनाशाय च दुष्कृताम् |
धर्मसंस्थापनार्थाय सम्भवामि युगे युगे || 8||

07/09/2020

22/07/2020

🏵️ THE PATH OF VEDANTIC DISCIPLINE 🏵️

The path of the Vedantic discipline is the path of negation, "Neti", in which,by stern determination, all that is unreal is both negated and renounced. It is the path of jnana, knowledge, the direct method of realizing the Absolute.

दृश्यं प्रतीतं प्रविलापयन्सन्
सन्मात्रमानन्दघनं विभावयन् ।
समाहितः सन्बहिरन्तरं वा
कालं नयेथाः सति कर्मबन्धे ॥
dṛśyaṃ pratītaṃ pravilāpayansan
sanmātramānandaghanaṃ vibhāvayan |
samāhitaḥ sanbahirantaraṃ vā
kālaṃ nayethāḥ sati karmabandhe ||

🌼Causing the external and internal universe, which are now perceived, to vanish, and meditating on the Reality, the Bliss Embodied, one should pass one’s time watchfully, if there be any residue of Prārabdha work left.🌼

(VIVEKCHUDAMANI Verse 320)


After the negation of everything relative, including the discriminating ego itself, the aspirant merges in the One without a Second, in the bliss of nirvikalpa Samadhi, where subject and object are alike dissolved.

The soul goes beyond the realm of thought. The domain of duality is transcended. Maya is left behind with all its changes and modifications. The Real Man towers above the delusions of creation, preservation, and destruction.

An avalanche of indescribable Bliss sweeps away all relative ideas of pain and pleasure, good and evil.

There shines in the heart the glory of the Eternal Brahman, Existence-Knowledge-Bliss Absolute.

Knower, knowledge, and known are dissolved in the Ocean of one eternal Consciousness; love, lover, and beloved merge in the unbounded Sea of supreme Felicity; birth, growth, and death vanish in infinite Existence.

All doubts and misgivings are quelled for ever; the oscillations of the mind are stopped; the momentum of past actions is exhausted.

Breaking down the ridge-pole of the tabernacle in which the soul has made its abode for untold ages, stilling the body, calming the mind, drowning the ego, the sweet joy of Brahman wells up in that superconscious state.

Space disappears into nothingness, time is swallowed in eternity, and causation becomes a dream of the past. Only Existence is. Ah! Who can describe what the soul then feels in its communion with the Self?

Even when man descends from this dizzy height, he is devoid of ideas of "I" and "mine"; he looks on the body as a mere shadow, an outer sheath encasing the soul.

He does not dwell on the past, takes no thought for the future, and looks with indifference on the present.

He surveys everything in the world with an eye of equality; he is no longer touched by the infinite variety of phenomena; he no longer reacts to pleasure and pain.

He remains unmoved whether he - that is to say, his body - is worshipped by the good or tormented by the wicked; for he realizes that it is the one Brahman that manifests Itself through everything.

The impact of such an experience devastates the body and mind. Consciousness becomes blasted, as it were, with an excess of Light.

In the Vedanta books it is said that after the experience of nirvikalpa Samadhi the body drops off like a dry leaf. Only those who are born with a special mission for the world can return from this height to the valleys of normal life.

They live and move in the world for the welfare of mankind. They are invested with a supreme spiritual power. A divine glory shines through them.

Ref.-
"Gospel of Shri Ramakrishna"

05/07/2020

I pray and call out to Gurudeva, who is Vasudeva, the illumination in the heart cave and the beacon of liberation. 'My oblation of self, sacrifice of ego, surrender of ignorance'; my offerings to you. Svaha!

Guru Purnima Message from Swami Ritavan Bharati

25/06/2020

Namaste, loose the fears and anxieties and use the period of repose for recognising the blessings. Blessings that might come in the form of cleaner air, chirping birds, familial bonding, physical healing, healthier choices, occupational changes, appreciation of the labour of the service providers and domestic help, self introspection, contemplation and evolved God consciousness. Absorbed in this pause, know the blessings and also the pain of Sri Bhu Devi, Mother Earth groaning under the weight of human heartless-ness, pettiness, greed and mindless consumerism. Pause to empathize with the sufferings of fellow humans, trees and all creatures. Know that this phase of outer and inner transformation takes us closer to revival every moment. Know that our prayers and the raised vibration of the collective human consciousness are heralding a new world.
Spread the love.
Spread the hope.

Om
Chetana